Snapshots: Islanders, Benning
Despite their starting goalie’s concerns on the situation, the New York Islanders look to be once again carrying three goaltenders to start this season. Last July, the Islanders signed Thomas Greiss to a two-year contact to back-up Jaroslav Halak. They followed that up by claiming promising young netminder J-F Berube off waivers from the Los Angeles Kings in early October. Because a player claimed on waivers must stay in the NHL or be put through waivers again, the Islanders kept him up. Berube played just seven games in 2015-16. Halak was hurt for extended time and only played 36 games. Backup-in-name-only Greiss made 41 appearances and lead the team through the playoffs, including their first round series win against Florida.
This summer, the Islanders extended Berube for another season. In an interview with NHL.com’s Brian Compton, head coach Jack Capuano said “whether you have eight defensemen or three goalies or 15 forwards … they’re all good players back there, all three of them can help us. We’ll see how it pans out… they’re all quality goaltenders.”
Related: Islanders’ depth chart
Here are some other snapshots from around the NHL:
- Staying with the Islanders, Compton lists finding Frans Nielsen‘s replacement as one of big questions surrounding the team in training camp. There’s a handful of in-house options, including Ryan Strome. The fifth overall pick in 2011 had a successful rookie campaign in 2014-15, posting 50 points, before taking a major step backward last season with 28 points and an eight game stint in the AHL. Capuano said Strome will get a shot in the middle and that he’ll be looking “for big things from Ryan”. Strome is currently a restricted free agent.
- Despite the biggest name college free agents being signed already, there remains at least one more player who’s attracting some attention from around the NHL, according to Bob Stauffer from the Oilers Radio Network. Matthew Benning was the Bruins’ sixth round pick in 2012. He was playing in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) at the time, then went on to play one year in the USHL and then three seasons with Northeastern University. The 22-year-old right-handed defenseman posted 56 points in 110 games with Northeaster. Stauffer believes the Oilers, Kings, and Canucks all make sense as destinations for Benning: all three teams are looking to add right-handed defensemen, he’s an Edmonton-native who was drafted by current Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli, and his uncle is Canucks’ GM Jim Benning.
Snapshots: Vesey Projections, David Jones, Dallas Goalies
NHL.com’s Rob Vollman looked at previous players in Jimmy Vesey‘s position and made some predictions as to how his rookie season and NHL career will play out. The results were somewhat underwhelming, and Rangers fans may want to temper their expectations. Based on the fact that Vesey played in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) while at Harvard, rather than in a more talented conference such as Hockey East, Vollman warns that the numbers will likely not translate as well and there should be early struggles against much stronger competition. For this reason, he believes that 30 points is a reasonable estimation for Vesey in 2016-17. As for his career path, Volmann believes that Vesey has a ceiling of past ECAC scoring forwards like Harvard’s Alex Killorn and Dartmouth’s David Jones. While neither player garnered as much attention as Vesey, and both spent time in the AHL in their first pro season, as opposed to Vesey’s guaranteed NHL play time, Vollman still believes that the college numbers and playing styles make Killorn and Jones accurate comparisons. For those (Rangers fans) who disagree with those comparisons, they could be much worse. Even the most prolific ECAC scorers don’t generally end up as NHL regulars. Killorn has 138 points in 272 NHL games thus far in his four-year career, and Jones had 126 points in 272 games with the Colorado Avalanche in his first six seasons. Both had multiple seasons of around 40 points at their peak. However, Jones peak has since passed and Killorn’s is yet to be determined, but at 23 already and with a lot of tread on the tires, it doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility that Vesey could be done with his 40 point seasons and on his way down the other side of the production peak in just five or six short years.
- Speaking of David Jones… no one is really speaking of David Jones. It’s been all quiet on the free agency front for the 32-year-old winger this summer. After being linked to the New York Islanders early on in July, there has since been little news. 2015-16 was a forgettable season for the power forward, as he put up only 18 points while splitting the season between the Calgary Flames and Minnesota Wild. Vesey may project to have a similar career arc to him, but Jones is not the player he was just a few years ago. However, just one year before had scored 30 points for the Flames, and at his best with the Colorado Avalanche was a force in the crease and a consistent 20-goal scorer. Jones seems likely to be a PTO candidate or perhaps even get a late one-year deal for the upcoming season, as his size and strength still remain, but he has simply lost his scoring touch and needs to get back on track. If the NHL free agent market heats up, Jones name may resurface.
- Don’t expect any free agent fireworks from the Dallas Stars. The Stars are happy with their depth and talent at all positions, except for goalie, and NBC Sports’ Jason Brough writes that the goalie tandem is not about to change. Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi struggled last season, and never was that more apparent than in the postseason, when the duo almost single-handedly eliminated Dallas from the playoffs. At a combined cap hit of $10.4MM and a league-low .904 save percentage, many thought that something had to change for the Star’s net-minding situation this off-season. However, neither goalie was bought out or to this point traded. It looks as if the tandem will both be donning their green sweaters to start the season after all. Brough says that this close to the season, GM Jim Nill has little that he can do. There is no market for a goalie upgrade and no one is out looking to acquire either of the goalies he already has either. It appears as if Lehtonen and Niemi will be given a second chance in 2016-17, at least until they force Nill’s hand into making a move.
The Post-Vesey Free Agent Market
Technically, the free agent market has only changed by one player, with college free agent and the summer’s most talked about player, Jimmy Vesey, signing with the New York Rangers on Friday. However, the demand for players on the market has now taken a big swing, with seven teams leaving the Vesey sweepstakes disappointed. That could finally mean new homes for many long-standing free agent forwards, as well as some more attention given to a few college free agents.
No available free agent is more of a surprise than former 30-goal scorer Jiri Hudler, and almost immediately after the Vesey signing, Hudler’s name began to garner a bit more attention than it had in the last couple of weeks. The Chicago Blackhawks in particular have been mentioned as a possible fit for Hudler, and the New Jersey Devils had previously looked into Hudler this off-season. Both teams missed out on Vesey, but still are in need of a top six scorer before the season starts. Chicago has also been mentioned in connection with Tomas Fleischmann, and New Jersey may need to take a harder look at the practicality of bringing back lifelong Devil Patrik Elias.
For teams that were looking at Vesey as just a depth player for 2016-17, veterans like Alex Tanguay, Brad Boyes, and David Legwand remain available, and all three have enough in the tank to contribute next season. However, missing out on a young player may not inspire teams to begin looking at alternatives on the wrong side of 30. This could pay off for another free agent surprise, Brandon Pirri, and potentially for the likes of Jiri Tlusty or Cody Hodgson as well.
Vesey’s brethren from the college ranks will be get a little more focus now that he’s off the market, along with Notre Dame forward Thomas DiPauli (Penguins) and Providence defenseman John Gilmour (Rangers). Quentin Shore, a two-way center with sticking ability as an NHL bottom six forward, leads the way. He’s proved to be very reliable during his time in Denver, and would be a nice depth addition for some team. Winger Hunter Fejes of Colorado College is also going to get his fair share of looks, as he has an uncanny ability to find the back of the net when cleaning up rebounds.
Luckily for teams like the Bruins and Maple Leafs, missing out on Jimmy Vesey isn’t the end of the world when you consider the young talent they already have in the system. As for teams like the Blackhawks and Islanders, they were playoff-bound with or without Vesey. However, all of these teams and even those not in the Vesey conversation have some holes in their depth, and the last couple weeks of August could see the NHL free agent market come back to life to fill a few needs across the league.
Myth or Reality: Boston Boys Don’t Want To Play For Bruins
You hear it every summer: some free agent with roots in Boston is surely going to sign with the Bruins. On the surface, it makes complete sense. Boston is one of the greatest sports cities in the world and seems to field contenders in every sport year after year. The Bruins are an Original Six franchise with names like Orr, Esposito, Bourque, and Neely hanging in the rafters. They won the Stanley Cup in 2011 and nearly won another in 2013. Their current roster features titans of the game like Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron and is led by a highly respected head coach in Claude Julien. Boston has the best hockey TV ratings of any city in the United States that also houses an NBA team, and trails only Pittsburgh and St. Louis for first overall. Outside of the pro game, Boston is even more vital to the hockey world. It is unquestionably the hub of college hockey and the epicenter of the Hockey East conference. Boston College and Boston University are storied NCAA programs, joined within the city limits by Northeastern and Harvard and surrounded by numerous top-end college teams throughout New England. It is also a grassroots hockey heaven, with youth teams, junior teams, and elite high school and prep school teams littered throughout the city, the suburbs, and the rest of the New England states.
Yet, for the second time in three years, Bruins fans are left scratching their heads as one of Boston’s native sons signs elsewhere. Harvard’s Jimmy Vesey, whose father played for the Bruins, followed in the footsteps of friend and former BC Eagle Kevin Hayes, and chose New York, Boston’s arch rival city, and the Rangers over his childhood favorite Bruins. Is the pressure of playing in their hometown which has such a storied hockey history too much? When it came to Vesey, CSN New England’s Joe Haggerty seemed to think so. He says that the pressure of playing in front of his friends and family every game and the fear of the negative effects that underperformance may have on everyone involved were key considerations in Vesey’s final decision. This played out last season when “the pride of Dorchester”, Jimmy Hayes, was acquired by the Bruins and was heralded as a local boy who was going to be a difference-maker in Boston. As Hayes struggled throughout the season, he was met with even more criticism, disappointment, and anger than the typical player. Perhaps Vesey feared that this scenario could play out for him as well. WEEI’s DJ Bean doesn’t think that “not being tough enough to play in Boston” was the main reason why Vesey chose to leave home, but wonders why the Bruins weren’t chosen, especially over the Rangers. The Bruins offered Vesey a chance to live somewhere he was comfortable with and play for a team with a strong, up-and-coming prospect system, and reportedly was set to start the season playing with star center David Krejci and young scorer David Pastrnak. However, he spurned the Bruins for a Rangers team who many believe has seen their Stanley Cup window come and go, and who additionally have plenty of depth on the left side, including the younger Hayes, Rick Nash, (Boston native) Chris Kreider, and JT Miller.
Other than Vesey and the Hayes brothers, examples of Boston players who have chosen not to sign with the Bruins or struggled under the pressure of playing for their hometown squad are hard to come by. Haggerty points to Chris Bourque and Hal Gill as examples, but Bourque was (and is) a career AHLer who was given a great chance to be a contributor for his favorite team, much to the delight of fans of his legendary father, but there were never any grand expectations for him to fall short of, and Gill was a fan-favorite for years in Boston. Bill Guerin, Ted Donato (who recently spoke about how it was an honor to play in Boston), Steve Heinze, Bobby Carpenter, Andy Brickley, Jim Craig and more are all examples of Massachusetts natives that were happy to end up as Bruins and did not perform any less under the spotlight, and guys like Shawn McEachern, Tom Fitzgerald, and Jay Pandolfo went out of their way to play for the Bruins at the end of their careers. Robbie Ftorek even agreed to coach the Bruins, and there’s no more of a high-pressure position for a local guy than that.
However, there may be something to be said about the fact that the three highest scoring Boston natives in NHL history – Jeremy Roenick, Keith Tkachuk, and Tony Amonte – never donned the black and gold sweater. Could it be that locals who are role players do well in Boston, but the more talented players with high expectations, like Vesey or the Hayes brothers feel the pressure of the media, the fan base, and their own friends and family? This might also explain why another talented Bostonian, Keith Yandle, chose a long-term deal with the Florida Panthers this off-season despite the Bruins likely being interested.
What’s curious is that Boston’s own may be wary of playing for the Bruins, but it still remains a top destination for hockey players around the globe. Just last offseason, Windsor, Ontario’s Matt Beleskey took less money to come to Boston, stating that he had dreamed of playing for the Bruins and that they were always his top choice. Beleskey was also quick to blast Vesey about his decision, showing his passion for the team and the city. Players who attend college in Boston, but didn’t grow up there, are also often eager to return, like Brian Leetch. The Bruins have a worldwide fan base, and Europeans, Canadians, and Americans alike are drawn to the hockey city. However, their homegrown talent in recent years doesn’t seem to feel that same magnetism.
This trend of Boston natives supposedly struggling with the pressure of playing for the Bruins or fearing a return to the city will really be put to the test over the next few years, as local prospects (with Bruins bloodlines) Ryan Fitzgerald and Ryan Donato get their chances to shine in front of a hometown crowd and a D-needy Bruins team likely try to woo Natick, MA native and 2018 free agent John Carlson back home. Whether it be Carlson, a different NHL free agent, or another Hayes/Vesey college free agent scenario, it won’t be long before we hear “he’s from Boston, he’ll want to sign with the Bruins” and the myth of that statement no longer being true will be put to the test yet again.
West Notes: Hamhuis, Colorado’s Coaching Search, Getzlaf
This offseason, the Dallas Stars let go of three veteran blueliners in Jason Demers, Alex Goligoski, and Kris Russell to make room on their back end for some of their promising youngsters including Esa Lindell and Patrik Nemeth. However, the team did add one veteran to the mix when they signed Dan Hamhuis to a two year, $7.5MM deal early in free agency. While at first glance, it may seem a bit odd to let veterans go to make room for younger players and then sign another veteran, GM Jim Nill told Mike Heika of the Dallas News that this was the plan all along.
“It’s going to be different, because we’re getting younger, we’re getting bigger and we’re getting faster on the backend. We’ve talked about how we’ve got this young defense coming. Now’s their time. But things didn’t just get thrown against the wall. This has been the plan, and we’ve still got a veteran presence there.”
Hamhuis spent last season in a top four role with Vancouver, collecting three goals and ten assists in 58 games while logging 21:25 of ice time per game. He’s likely to reprise that same role in Dallas, either in a top pairing role with John Klingberg or in a second pairing spot with one of their young defenders.
[Related: Stars’ Depth Chart]
Elsewhere from the Western Conference:
- One key attribute that Colorado GM Joe Sakic will be looking for in their next coach is the ability to teach, writes Terry Frei of the Denver Post. The Avs will be counting on several young players to play key roles next season beyond so finding the right fit that can continue to help those players develop will be critical. They’re down to a shortlist of four coaches, all of which have recent experience dealing with and developing young players.
- Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf has accelerated his normal offseason training in preparation for the upcoming World Cup of Hockey, he told NHL.com’s Abbey Mastracco. He also has made a change in his training plan, opting to focus less on bulk and more on endurance and durability which will be that much more important this year given the preseason tournament and Anaheim’s hopes for a long postseason run.
- A pair of Western Conference junior prospects have seen their OHL rights traded for each other. Los Angeles fifth round pick Matt Schmalz has been dealt from Sudbury to Owen Sound in exchange for St. Louis sixth rounder Liam Dunda. Both prospects will need to be signed by June 1st, 2017 or their teams will lose their rights.
Comparing Pittsburgh’s Player Retention To Recent Stanley Cup Winners
With the re-signing of Matt Cullen earlier this week, the Penguins have locked up the last notable unrestricted free agent from the team that won the Stanley Cup back in June. In doing so, GM Jim Rutherford has managed to keep the majority of the team intact from last season, something that hasn’t always been the case with the champions in recent years.
This summer, Pittsburgh has lost three players of some note. Defenseman Ben Lovejoy logged nearly 18 minutes per game in the postseason and signed a three year, $8MM deal with New Jersey in free agency. Winger Beau Bennett, who played in 33 games during the regular season, was dealt to the Devils at the draft while goalie Jeff Zatkoff, who actually opened the playoffs as Pittsburgh’s starter, signed with Los Angeles.
Of those, Lovejoy’s loss is the most significant and Rutherford was able to offset that by re-signing Justin Schultz, who was acquired before the trade deadline as an expected rental player. Bennett’s hold on a regular roster spot was tenuous, especially after playing in just one postseason contest (he did miss some time with injury too) while the emergence of Matt Murray between the pipes made Zatkoff expendable.
In a salary cap era where contenders often try to load up at the trade deadline, being able to retain all of the core players from a Stanley Cup winning team is far from a guarantee. For comparison, here is a look at the summer roster turnover from the past three champions.
2015 – Chicago
Trades
Brandon Saad to Columbus
Patrick Sharp to Dallas
Kris Versteeg to Carolina
Lost In Free Agency
Johnny Oduya to Dallas
Antoine Vermette to Arizona
Brad Richards to Detroit
2014 – Los Angeles
Lost In Free Agency
Willie Mitchell to Florida
(The Kings’ major roster turnover came the following year as goalie Martin Jones, defensemen Slava Voynov and Robyn Regehr, plus forwards Justin Williams, Mike Richards, and Jarret Stoll all left by July of the next summer.)
2013 – Chicago
Trades
Daniel Carcillo to Los Angeles
Michael Frolik to Winnipeg
Lost In Free Agency
Dave Bolland to Toronto
Viktor Stalberg to Nashville
Ray Emery to Philadelphia
Snapshots: Vesey, Rangers, Sabres
The New York Post’s Brett Cyrgalis and Ryan Lazo write that if other teams or fans are waiting for an apology from the Rangers regarding their signing Jimmy Vesey, they’ll be waiting for awhile. Cyrgalis and Lazo detail the chase of Vesey as well as the reaction of Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton once he saw Vesey’s number on his caller ID. Said Gorton via the Post:
I was glad to see the caller ID and the Boston number, so I hurried to answer it. When he said, ‘Hi, it’s Jimmy Vesey. I made my decision and I’d like to come to New York,’ I can’t remember exactly what I did, but I probably had a pretty exciting comeback for him. Probably can’t say it in public.”
Meanwhile the duo writes that it can’t be predicted what impact Vesey will have immediately, but his friendships with Kevin Hayes and Chris Kreider will ease his transition to the NHL game. The more interesting part of the article is noting how players like Hayes and Vesey, spurning the teams that drafted them, could give future teams caution in drafting up and coming college players. Of all the people involved, Lazo and Cyrgalis write that Nashville general manager David Poile has every right to feel burned, but that could be more the norm, than the exception with college players. At least Poile was able to salvage a third round pick for Vesey.
A little about that team who traded the third round pick for Vesey’s rights:
- Sabres fans angry about the Jimmy Vesey outcome are certainly justified, but WKBW’s Matt Bove writes that Buffalo will be just fine without the Hobey Baker Trophy winner. Between Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhardt, and Ryan O’Reilly just to name a few, Bove reports that Sabres fans have an awful lot to be excited for in the 2016-17 season. Despite being in a rebuild, Bove notes that the team will continue to grow together and that fans should definitely be ready to tune in for playoff games, perhaps as early as this upcoming season.
Blackhawks Notes: Hudler, Early Season Predictions
Though Chicago general manager Stan Bowman said the roster will remain relatively unchanged, that shouldn’t stop him from still looking to add depth writes CSN’s Charlie Roumeliotis. Though they missed out on Jimmy Vesey and Bowman said in July that the roster would be unchanged heading into camp in a month, Roumeliotis reports that the Hawks have approximately $2.39MM in cap space and could possibly squeeze a goal scorer onto the ledger. One such name is Jiri Hudler, who despite having a productive 2015-16 season, finds himself unemployed. Roumeliotis writes that there is still some hockey “left in the tank” as Hudler is only a season removed from a 76 point campaign. If Hudler doesn’t work out, Roumeliotis throws out Tomas Fleischmann as another backup option. Brandon Pirri, the Hawks former second round pick, is another choice, but Roumeliotis figures Pirri wouldn’t want another go around in Chicago. Despite offering names, Roumeliotis believes Chicago will indeed stand pat, but that some other options–at the right price–are available.
- CSN Atlantic’s Tarik El-Bashir takes a look at what the Hawks have done, and what should be expected for the season. El-Bashir writes that while the Blackhawks lost sparkplug Andrew Shaw via a trade, they added a critical defensive piece in Brian Campbell, who should work well in a system he’s already familiar with. Teuvo Teravainen being moved weakened the Hawks on the wing, and El-Bashir chalks this up to one of the many difficult decisions a championship caliber team makes to keep a core together. Despite those losses, El-Bashir sees Chicago as a formidable threat again in the West, boasting top talent in their Top 6, a rock solid top four on the blue line, and a stellar netminder in Corey Crawford. For all the cap issues the Hawks had, and will have in the future, El-Bashir believes Bowman has navigated the tricky waters well, and expects the Hawks to be dominant again.
Vesey Talks About His Decision To Sign With New York
Now that the Jimmy Vesey sweepstakes have concluded, he took some time to talk about why he chose New York over the other teams interested in his services.
Nick Cotsonika tweeted many of the quotes from the media teleconference that Vesey held following the announcement Friday evening. From Twitter Cotsonika reported that:
- Why the Rangers? Vesey said it was a tough decision, but he was impressed with the Rangers and New York was somewhere he could play.
- Vesey said the thing that jumped out was that the Rangers seemed to really want him.
- Vesey confirmed he met with seven teams, plus Buffalo prior to this week.
- Asked about celebrity tweets, Vesey said they were “pretty funny” and “pretty cool.” He confirmed a couple celebrities were in a NYR video.
- When asked about the entire process, Costonika tweets that Vesey replied: “It definitely took on a life of it’s own. I’m not sure me or anyone else expected that.”
Out of all these quotes, the one that might raise eyebrows is the one about the Rangers “really wanting him” as opposed to the six other teams vying for his attention. In a salary cap world where every team is on an even playing field, and in this case, where said teams were restricted to offering the same amount of money, how could New York possibly stand out from other teams? Pittsburgh sent Crosby. The Blackhawks included Patrick Kane and a slew of recent championships to boast of. What else could it have been?
For one, Vesey added that the Rangers were a fit where he could “plug in right away” according to another tweet from Cotsonika. Stephen Whyno tweets that Vesey called the Madison Square Garden the “greatest arena in the world.” Joe McDonald adds that Chris Drury made “a big impression” when pitching him on playing in the Big Apple. Newsday’s Steve Zipay confirms this tweeting that Alain Vigneault also had a hand in making his mind up. Whyno tweets that Vesey’s lifelong friendship with Kevin Hayes and help throughout the process certainly contributed. Finally, Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton confirmed that Vesey shores up a big hole at forward.
Much like the free agent chase of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, a coveted free agent appears to be signed for two main reasons: need and friendship. Before the Cap, it would have been a handful of teams–maybe three powerhouses of the time like Detroit, New Jersey, Colorado, that would have had the upper hand to gain the services of Vesey. The change shows that parity does rule and it certainly takes more than star power and Stanley Cup rings to secure the services of a coveted free agent.
On Vesey’s comment regarding the process, McDonald tweets that Vesey is glad it’s over. It seems there are many who share that sentiment.
Make sure you check out the updated New York Rangers depth chart.
Potential 2016-17 Impact Rookies: Aho, Bjorkstrand, Werenski, Buchnevich
It seems we’ve spent most of the offseason talking about Jimmy Vesey and pondering which of his many suitors would ultimately be fortunate enough to add him to their ranks. That chase is finally over with the New York Rangers coming out on top in their efforts to land the prized UFA forward from Harvard. Whether or not Vesey performs up to the high expectations all of the summer hype would suggest remains to be seen, of course, but this saga serves as a reminder of just how much teams value young talent on entry-level deals.
With the salary cap – or in some cases, internal budgets – forcing teams to allow quality veteran pieces to depart each summer in search of a bigger pay day, teams need young players to step in and fill roles vacated by experienced players. The CBA limits how much a player can earn on their ELC thus allowing clubs more freedom to spend lavishly on star players as long as they have enough young talent to balance out their budgets. By virtue of his status as an UFA limited to signing an ELC, Vesey has understandably garnered an unusually high level of attention for a soon-to-be first year player but he won’t be the only rookie expected to make a near immediate impact with his team in 2016-17.
In a series of posts, Pro Hockey Rumors will profile first-year players who will have an opportunity to step in right away and fill a potentially critical role for their team. Today we start in the Metro Division. (Note: In an effort to keep these posts relatively short, some divisions may be covered in multiple posts).
Sebastian Aho (Carolina) – Aho was the Hurricanes second-round choice in the 2015 draft out of Finland and signed his ELC with the club in June. He led his Liiga team (Finland’s top professional league), Karpat, in scoring in 2015-16 tallying 20 goals and 45 points in 45 games. Aho also has achieved remarkable success representing his home country at both the 2016 IIHF World Championships and the 2016 World Juniors. He recorded seven points for the silver medal winning Finns at the World Championships while averaging two points per game – 14 in seven contests – in helping Finland win gold at the Juniors tournament.
It would seem given his performances on some of the biggest stages in the sport that Aho should be ready for the NHL game. Count Hurricanes GM Ron Francis among those who believe Aho can contribute in Carolina immediately.
“Sebastian is regarded as one of the top prospects in hockey and is ready to begin his North American career. He had a tremendous season as an 18-year-old playing against men in Finland’s top league, and was outstanding in international competitions including the recent World Championship. He will play an important role for the Hurricanes moving forward.”
Carolina’s depth chart on Roster Resource lists Aho as the team’s third right wing and given Francis’ quotes, it seems probable he will be given every opportunity to become a key contributor right out of the gate. The Hurricanes have an excellent young blue line but need help up front if they wish to challenge for the playoffs. Aho’s skills and playmaking abilities would be a welcome addition to Carolina’s forward ranks.
Oliver Bjorkstrand (Columbus) – Danish forward Oliver Bjorkstrand proved he was ready for a prime time role with the Blue Jackets during an impressive playoff run as a member of the Lake Erie Monsters, Columbus’ AHL affiliate. The Monsters lost just one game en route to winning a Calder Cup and Bjorkstrand helped pave the way tallying 10 postseason goals. He was even more prolific in the Calder Cup Finals scoring five times, with three proving to be of the game-winning variety.
His head coach with the Monsters, Jared Bednar, had this to say about Bjorkstrand:
“He has a will to win that’s unparalleled, and that’s why he has always been successful, no matter where he’s been.”
The Blue Jackets have several quality young players that will soon be ready to challenge for NHL roles but Bjorkstrand’s determination and recent postseason success should give him an advantage over his peers at cracking the Columbus lineup. Columbus could theoretically compete for a playoff spot, assuming a return to health and form from goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, along with an improved defense corps. Bjorkstrand should add more skilled depth to the forward group and he could enjoy a productive season if he finds chemistry with the right players.
Zach Werenski (Columbus) – Possibly joining Bjorkstrand in Columbus in time for the 2016-17 season is D Zach Werenski. Werenski, the team’s first round pick in 2015, eighth overall, played two seasons at the University of Michigan prior to signing his ELC last spring. He would see action in seven AHL regular season games, scoring one goal, before embarking on an excellent playoff run. In 17 postseason contests, Werenski tallied five goals and 14 points in helping the Monsters to the Calder Cup.
Werenski already boasts NHL size at 6-foot-2 and 209 pounds and adds tremendous skating ability as well as poise under pressure. Even after the addition of rising star Seth Jones via a mid-season trade with Nashville and the presence of Ryan Murray, Werenski has an excellent shot to break training camp with the big club. If Werenski develops as expected, the Blue Jackets could quickly transform their blue line from one of the league’s worst to one of the best in relatively short order.
Pavel Buchnevich (New York Rangers) – Vesey isn’t the only rookie the Rangers will likely be welcoming to the lineup for the 2016-17 season. Pavel Buchnevich, the team’s top prospect and a 2013 third round choice, elected to make the jump to North America and signed his ELC this past spring. While skating in the KHL, widely considered the second best league in the word behind the NHL, Buchnevich tallied a respectable 37 points in 58 regular season games.
To put those numbers in a bit of perspective, Rob Vollman in the Hockey Abstract has constructed a predictive chart to convert offensive numbers from one league to another based primarily on historical data involving players appearing in both leagues and how they’ve fared moving from one to the other. Buchnevich’s points-per-game ratio in the KHL projects to be roughly the equivalent of a 40-point campaign in the NHL based on Vollman’s chart. That’s pretty solid for a 20-year-old player.
The Rangers wouldn’t seem to need much of an offensive boost after finishing seventh in the NHL in goal scoring and returning much of their top-six forward talent – excepting of course the swap of Derick Brassard for Mika Zibanejad – but Alain Vigneault tends to use his third line as much or more than most NHL head coaches. That should allow for a rookie with the skill and ability of Buchnevich to earn quality ice time while also shielding him from the tougher match-ups.