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Archives for December 2016

Snapshots: Pronger, Liljegren, Leafs Alumni

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The St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks will play in the Winter Classic this Monday, meaning the weekend is designed around events like the Alumni game. With so many greats (including Wayne Gretzky and Martin Brodeur) suiting up for the Blues, former captain Chris Pronger took over their Twitter page to answer some fan questions.

On best and worst players to play against:

Worst player to play against was always the short ones. Favorite was Keith Tkachuk – I always owned him.

Who had the hardest check in the league:

Pound-for-pound, Dallas Drake probably hit the hardest. Scott Stevens in open ice. Rob Blake with his butt checks.

There are a dozen other amusing answers, as Pronger signed off each tweet with #loveforluca, a campaign that will donate $200 for every goal the Blues score towards a 7-year old’s battle with leukemia. It also has a GoFundMe page that is looking to raise $100,000 for the child’s medical expenses.

  • According to Swedish newspaper Kvallsposten, Timothy Liljegren, the expected #2 overall pick in this summer’s draft, may soon be on the move to a new team. After missing time with an illness recently, the paper reports that he didn’t play at all yesterday against Karlskrona. The rumored landing spot is Timra, a team in the lower level Allsvenskan. Basically, this would be like a youngster on a bad NHL team going to the AHL to try and win a Calder Cup. Liljegren would get more icetime and responsibility for Timra.
  • In Toronto, the Maple Leafs took to the ice to practice at BMO Field today in preparation for their Centennial Classic tomorrow against the Red Wings. When they got back into the dressing room, they were shocked to find out that they’d be sharing it with the alumni roster for today’s game. With Mitch Marner seated beside Doug Gilmour, Auston Matthews beside Wendel Clark and Morgan Rielly sidled up beside Borje Salming, it was a symbolic passing of the torch from the old legends to the new. Marner, a Toronto native, couldn’t contain his excitement, and took a stick around the room for an autograph session. The alumni game starts at 11am.

Columbus Blue Jackets Recall Markus Hannikainen

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Amid a 14-game win streak and prior to taking on another streaking team in the Minnesota Wild, the Columbus Blue Jackets have decided to bring a rookie back up. Markus Hannikainen has been recalled by the team Saturday morning ahead of their New Year’s Eve faceoff with the Wild. The two teams have combined to win 26 games in a row, a streak that will end for one of them tonight.

Hannikainen has been up with the team earlier this season, suiting up for five games at the end of November. Undrafted, the Finnish winger burst onto the professional hockey scene in 2014-15 as a 21-year old in Finland’s highest league. After bouncing between the junior and senior circuits in years prior, he played 60 games for JyP Jyvaskyla and recorded 46 points.

The Blue Jackets signed him to a two-year entry level contract that summer, and he spent most of last season with the Lake Erie Monsters, eventually winning a Calder Cup. His 20-point regular season showed some growing pains with the North American game, but he put it all together in the playoffs, tallying 10 points in 16 games.

It’s not clear where exactly he fits into this lineup as they continue to roll, but is a solid depth option for coach John Tortorella.

Snapshots: Bickell, Alumni, Finland

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Bryan Bickell opened up to Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun Times and other reporters tonight for the first time since his announcement that he has multiple sclerosis, a disease that attacks the nervous system and can cause a wide array of debilitating symptoms. For anyone, the diagnosis would be life-shattering, but for Bickell it came at least as an explanation.

Before I was, like, frustrated in my game and things. But you’re relieved, knowing how I was feeling. Something wasn’t right. … The circumstances kind of suck, but to have it known — knowing you can move on is the biggest thing.

Bickell is determined to get back to the NHL, despite having to undergo intravenous drug treatments monthly. He’s obviously no where near returning, but is taking it one step at a time.

It’s going to take steps. It’s not a sprint, it’s going to be a marathon, and it’s going to take some time to get things right, ideally, to get me back on the ice. That’s what I’m hoping for. … It could be a month, it could be a couple months to get back on the ice.

We wish Bickell well on his recovery, and hope he makes it back to the NHL sooner than later. Here are some other notes from around the league:

  • Outdoor games are becoming something of a regularity in the hockey world, with the Maple Leafs and Red Wings set to square off this Sunday in Toronto, and the World Juniors announcing that Canada and the USA will play outside at next year’s tournament in Buffalo. The AHL is getting in on the action, as the Ontario Reign (the Kings’ affiliate) and the Bakersfield Condors (Oilers) will play an outdoor game on January 7th. The teams will have an alumni game the day before, featuring a long list of NHL greats. Wayne Gretzky, Kevin Lowe, Luc Robitaille, Rob Blake and even Bernie Nicholls will play in the event, making it one not to miss if you live in the San Joaquin Valley.
  • Amazingly, Team Finland will have to play in the relegation round at this year’s World Junior Championships, despite winning the tournament last year. It’s the first time in the history of the even that a defending champion will have to fight to stay in the event. With the Swiss team beating Denmark today in a shootout, Finland was guaranteed a last place finish in their group. In a surprising move, the team has fired head coach  Jukka Rautakorpi and his three assistants mid-tournament. Jussi Ahokas has taken over the coaching duties.

Garth Snow Explains Why Jaroslav Halak Was Waived

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Earlier today the New York Islanders finally did what many have expected for a few weeks now. The struggling Jaroslav Halak, who has been in a three-way goalie battle for more than a year, was placed on waivers and will likely be sent to the AHL.

General Manager Garth Snow explained why:

We want to give Thomas [Greiss] and JF [Berube] an opportunity to play, get ice time. Obviously get a chance to get some wins that we desperately need.

You’re looking for ways to help the team any way that you can, that may be to get a boost of confidence, build some momentum and ultimately win hockey games.

Halak, who is still only 31 years old, has played outstanding at times throughout his career. Getting Vezina trophy votes in two different seasons before coming to New York, the netminder set a franchise record with 38 wins in his first season with the team.

If Halak does clear and is sent to the minors, Snow expects big things:

Coming to the rink and being the hardest worker, having a great attitude, that’s something that doesn’t matter who you are and what position you play and what role you have in the organization, that’s what we expect out of everyone in this organization. We expect nothing less form Jaro in that regard.

Obviously Halak isn’t done at his relatively young age, and should make his way back to the NHL at some point – perhaps even this year. He’s also an intriguing candidate for some teams around the league who lack stability in net. Calgary, Los Angeles and Dallas among others have uncertainty in goal, and though Halak wouldn’t be a clear upgrade on paper the way he’s played this season, perhaps just a change of scenery would be enough to spark him.

The problem, is that Halak carries a $4.5MM cap hit this year and next, while being owed even more actual salary due to the back-loaded nature of his deal. Even though the Islanders are clearly willing to move on, they’d likely have to eat some of that money or kick in a prospect. Not an easy pill to swallow for a team looking to work it’s way back into playoff picture next year, if not sooner.

For Berube in particular, the move to waive Halak means more time in net. After playing just four games so far this season, Snow made it clear he’ll play more.

[After the break] it becomes a condensed schedule again and you need more than one goalie to carry the mail. It’s not the NHL of old when a goalie could play 70, 75 games, there are just too many games in a short span of time.

Edmonton Oilers Recall Jordan Oesterle, Assign Mark Fayne To AHL

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After the Edmonton Oilers beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-1 last night to improve their record to 4-1 in their last five games, the team has recalled Jordan Oesterle from the AHL Bakersfield Condors. In addition, the team has activated Mark Fayne from injured reserve and assigned him to the minor league team.

According to Mark Spector of Sportsnet, the team is claiming that Andrej Sekera is sick and may not be available for Saturday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks. Sekera took a shot off his foot in his final shift on December 23rd and apparently hasn’t been seen around the team since – including missing the Kings game last night.

If Sekera is out for any length of time the Oilers defense will take a big hit, as the veteran blueliner has been logging close to 22 minutes a night for the club. He was also anointed as the team’s No. 1 defender just a few days ago by head coach Todd McLellan.

Oesterle hasn’t played with the NHL club this year but has gotten into 23 games over the past two years. An undrafted free agent out of Western Michigan University, the 24-year old has turned into an excellent puck moving defenseman in the minors. With eight points in fourteen games this season, he’s continued his strong play and deserves another chance in the NHL.

Fayne on the other hand has fought injury all season, playing in just four games thus far. Gone are the days of him logging big minutes for this team now that they’ve improved the right side immensely. He’ll head down to Bakersfield to try to get back into game shape and be ready for the next injury. A veteran of almost 400 career games and owner of a $3.625MM cap hit this season (and next), it’s surely not the last we’ve seen of him in the NHL.

Nashville Notes: Subban, Boucher, Neal

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Although he is set to miss his seventh straight game tonight against St. Louis due to an upper body injury, Predators defenseman P.K. Subban could be available for Nashville’s next contest which happens to be against his former team, the Montreal Canadiens, notes Adam Vingan of The Tennessean.

General Manager David Poile provided an update on Subban’s status:

“We’re still on a day-to-day situation. … Where I sit today, I’m hoping that P.K. in the next couple of days will be in a position where he’ll want to be getting on the ice.  Hopefully after these two games, he actually could be playing Tuesday against Montreal. If that’s not the case, then we’ll have another update at that time.”

Subban remains on the active roster despite being out of the lineup for the last two weeks.  If the team needs to bring someone up to take his place, he can be retroactively placed on injured reserve which would allow them to activate him as soon as he’s ready to return.

The 27 year old sits second in team scoring from the blueline with seven goals and ten assists in 29 games, two points behind Roman Josi.

More from Nashville:

  • After being claimed off waivers from the Devils in early December, left winger Reid Boucher is starting to settle in with the team, writes Brooks Bratten on the Predators’ team website. Boucher played the day after joining the Preds but was later sent on a conditioning assignment after being scratched for several games.  He fared quite well in that stint with four goals and an assist in five games and has been in Nashville’s lineup in each of the past two games.  A natural scorer in junior, Boucher will need to continue to work on his all-around game if he wants to stay in the lineup as he has yet to produce consistently at the NHL level.
  • Left winger James Neal left yesterday’s game with an upper body injury and is questionable to play tonight against St. Louis, Bratten notes in a separate column. If he’s unable to return, winger Colton Sissons will likely draw back into the lineup.  Neal leads the Predators in goals this season with 14 in 31 games.

Snapshots: Benson, Connauton, Burrows, Flyers, Olympics

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The Edmonton Oilers have put pen to paper with one of their 2016 draft picks as they announced that they have inked left winger Tyler Benson to a three year, entry level contract.  Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Benson was Edmonton’s second round pick (32nd overall) back in June.  The Edmonton native had long been touted as a first rounder but an injury-plagued 2015-16 season (he played in just 30 games) certainly didn’t help his draft stock.

This season, Benson leads his junior team, the WHL’s Vancouver Giants, in scoring with 40 points (10-30-40) in 31 games.  As has been the case with several young prospects who have signed recently, unless Benson plays in ten or more games with the Oilers this season, his contract will actually ‘slide’ a year with the team receiving a small reduction in his salary cap charge.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Per a team release, the Arizona Coyotes have assigned defenseman Kevin Connauton to their AHL affiliate in Tucson on a conditioning assignment. Connauton has played just twice this month and only nine times this season as he has predominantly been the seventh defenseman for Arizona.
  • Canucks left winger Alex Burrows will play in his 800th game tonight against Anaheim. All of those games have come in a Vancouver uniform and once he suits up, he’ll be only the sixth player in franchise history to play in 800 games for the Canucks.  The 35 year old has been an effective bottom six player this season with 14 points (6-8-14) in 32 games and has 378 points (190-188-378) through his first 799 contests.
  • The Flyers will make rookie winger Travis Konecny a healthy scratch tonight, notes Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The timing is a little strange as Konecny is coming off a two assist game but head coach Dave Hakstol wants to see his play improve without the puck on his stick.  Left winger Michael Raffl will return to the lineup after missing Wednesday’s game with a lower body injury and slot in on the top line while defenseman Radko Gudas is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury.
  • The NHL has drafted two versions of the 2017-18 schedule with the uncertainty surrounding their participation in the 2018 Winter Olympics, notes Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston (Twitter links).  As a result, the league is no longer imposing any deadline on the decision regarding whether they will or won’t be participating.  However, the IOC is still hoping for a decision by January 15th.

Chicago’s Pending Cap Crunch

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There is one offseason event that quickly becoming an annual rite of passage, the Chicago Blackhawks and their efforts to stay under the salary cap.  For the last few offseasons, Chicago has been forced to trade several quality players in order to keep the core of their Stanley Cup contending (or winning, depending on the year) team together.

Some recent cap casualties include forwards Michael Frolik and Dave Bolland (2013), defenseman Nick Leddy (2014), wingers Patrick Sharp, Brandon Saad, and Kris Versteeg (2015), and, most recently, winger Teuvo Teravainen being included as a sweetener to get rid of winger Bryan Bickell’s contract this past summer while Andrew Shaw was dealt to Montreal.

"DecWe’re still in December but it’s safe to say that GM Stan Bowman will be doing the ‘cap dance’ again this offseason if not sooner.

The re-signing of left winger Artemi Panarin to a two year, $12MM contract will allow the Blackhawks to keep one of the top scorers in the league in the fold but in doing so, have increased their payroll commitments for next season to quite a high amount with still a lot of roster spots to be filled.  Here’s a look at their committed contracts for next year, according to CapFriendly:

Forwards (9):
Patrick Kane – $10.5MM
Jonathan Toews – $10.5MM
Artemi Panarin – $6MM
Marian Hossa – $5.275MM
Artem Anisimov – $4.55MM
Marcus Kruger: $3.083MM
Tyler Motte: $925K
Ryan Hartman: $863K
Vinnie Hinostroza: $718K

Defensemen (5):
Brent Seabrook – $6.875MM
Duncan Keith – $5.54MM
Niklas Hjalmarsson – $4.1MM
Gustav Forsling – $873K
Trevor van Riemsdyk – $825K

Goaltenders (1):
Corey Crawford – $6MM

Combined, they have over $66MM committed for only 15 players.  That amount also doesn’t include what could a considerably high bonus overage (over $3MM if Panarin joins Brian Campbell in hitting his bonuses while other rookies could hit some as well).  Add to that the fact that the minimum salary is jumping up by $75K to $650K next year and it’s clear that Bowman has some work to do.

Many are speculating that Kruger is a near-lock to be moved at some point, either via trade or the expansion draft in June.  His contract isn’t particularly onerous given what he brings to the table but considering Chicago has been cutting out the mid-tier players to keep their pricey ones, he’s the first logical domino to fall.

If the salary cap doesn’t increase much from the current $73MM as is expected to be the case, moving out his salary may not be enough though which would make it much more likely that Bowman would have to tinker with his core.  There are plenty of opinions on who would be the best fit to go in that situation but none of them are particularly ideal.

There’s no immediate rush for this to be dealt with as Chicago has until the start of next season to be in cap compliance, giving them more than nine months to work with.  But it will undoubtedly be in the back of Bowman’s mind as he starts to map out his plan for next year as well as the remainder of this season as the conference-leading Blackhawks look to make another long playoff push.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Injury Updates: Dano, Sharp, Faulk, Letang, Maatta

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The Winnipeg Jets have placed left winger Marko Dano on injured reserve with a lower body injury, the team announced.  Taking his place on the roster will be center Andrew Copp, who has been recalled from their AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose.

Dano suffered the injury in Thursday’s loss to Columbus and following the game, head coach Paul Maurice wasn’t too optimistic about the situation, notes Jason Bell of the Winnipeg Free Press:

“I’ll be surprised if we come back on a short term injury here. We’re talking about weeks, easily.”

Dano, who was acquired by Winnipeg back in February as part of the Andrew Ladd trade, has played in 28 games with the Jets this season after being cut in training camp.  He has three goals and seven assists in that span.

As for Copp, he has been up with Winnipeg for the majority of this season but had been sent back to Manitoba when the roster freeze lifted on Wednesday.  In 25 games with the Jets this year, he has three goals and four assists.

More injury updates from around the league:

  • Stars left winger Patrick Sharp has been given the green light to return to game action, Mark Stepneski of Stars Inside Edge reports (Twitter link). He’s expected to be in the lineup tomorrow night as they host Florida. Sharp has been out of the lineup since December 1st and has played in just 11 games this year due to multiple concussions, picking up just a goal and an assist in that span.
  • The Hurricanes are quite pleased with how defenseman Justin Faulk is progressing in his rehab from a lower body injury, writes Chip Alexander of the News & Observer. While he could be back earlier than expected, it’s unlikely that he will be back before Tuesday against the Devils and even being available for that game may be a stretch.  Faulk has 16 points (7-9-16) in 30 games to lead all Carolina blueliners in scoring this season.
  • The Penguins could have defensemen Kris Letang and Olli Maatta back in the lineup tomorrow when they host Montreal, reports Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Letang, who has two goals and 17 assists in 25 games this year, has been out since December 14th with a lower body injury while Maatta has missed the last two games with an illness.

World Junior Notes: Thurkauf, Stephens, Raddysh, Finland

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It’s a light day at the World Juniors today with only a pair of games on the schedule before a full slate of games on New Year’s Eve.  Here’s the latest from the tournament:

  • Switzerland center Calvin Thurkauf, a seventh round pick (185th overall) of the Blue Jackets back in June, has been suspended for today’s game against Denmark for a slew-footing incident against Sweden, the IIHF announced. Thurkauf is tied for second in team scoring with two goals and an assist through the first two games.  Columbus announced that they inked the 19 year old to a three year, entry level contract this afternoon.  Financial terms were not disclosed.
  • Canada forward Mitchell Stephens, one of Tampa Bay’s five prospects on the team, missed yesterday’s game against Latvia with a lower body injury. However, the injury isn’t believed to be serious as head coach Dominique Ducharme noted to TSN’s Mark Masters (Twitter link) that had it been a medal round game, Stephens could have been in the lineup.
  • In their game against Latvia yesterday, Canada winger Taylor Raddysh (another of Tampa’s prospects) tied a Canadian record with four goals in a single game. He joins Philadelphia’s Brayden Schenn as well as former NHL forwards Mario Lemieux and Simon Gagne to hold that mark.  The all-time record is held by Sweden’s Ola Rosander back in 1987.
  • As a result of Denmark’s overtime win against the Czech Republic and Finland’s loss to Sweden yesterday, the Finns find themselves in real danger of being sent to the relegation round, a best-of-three series to determine who gets to stay in the tournament next year. As Masters notes (Twitter link), no defending champion has ever found themselves in the relegation round the following year.  If Switzerland beats Denmark today, Finland will be guaranteed to finish last in Group A.

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