NHL, Stakeholders Discuss Possible Change To Draft Age
Could the NHL change the draft age from 18 to 19?
TSN’s Bob McKenzie spoke about the possibility on Tuesday night’s edition of Insider Trading. Former third-overall-pick Pat LaFontaine is leading a group of stakeholders that includes the NHL, NHLPA, CHL, USHL, Hockey Canada, USA Hockey, and NCAA to discuss a “whole new development model.”
According to McKenzie, the model would go from age five to age 20, and would include changing the NHL Draft-eligible age to 19, with “some obvious exceptions for exceptional players.”
The system would likely feature an expanded version of the CHL’s Exceptional Player Status. Normally, players aren’t eligible to play in the WHL, OHL, or QMJHL (the CHL’s three leagues) until they’re 16. However, there is a process (outlined extensively by McKenzie here) where players deemed exceptional can begin to play Major Junior at age 15. Players and their families apply to the CHL and Hockey Canada, and the player is examined on and off the ice to determine if he truly is exceptional. So far, only six players have ever applied, with John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad, Connor McDavid, Sean Day, and 2018-eligible Joseph Veleno being successful candidates. The first thee on that list went first overall in their OHL and NHL draft years, while Day went fourth in the OHL draft was a third-round pick of the New York Rangers in 2016. While it’s still early in his career, McKenzie noted that “some were questioning whether he was as blatantly exceptional as Tavares, Ekblad or McDavid.”
Changing the NHL Draft age would drastically change the way the draft is conducted. Looking back over the past two drafts, top selections like McDavid, Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews, and Patrik Laine would likely have been able to still be drafted at age 18. All four of them have been successful in their rookie seasons, and were clearly NHL-ready at age 18/19. While McDavid was a CHL exceptional-status player, the other three played NCAA, Swiss National League, and Liiga in their draft years. The NHL and other stakeholders would need to find a way to coordinate with all leagues to determine which players are truly exceptional and deserve to be drafted at age 18.
While the above mentioned players would still have been drafted at 18, elite prospects like Dylan Strome, Mitch Marner, Noah Hanifin, Jesse Puljujärvi, and Pierre-Luc Dubois may have been forced to wait an extra year, depending on the rules set out. As it stands now, several teams have issues with how the NHL-CHL agreement is laid out, as it forces 19-year-old draft+1 players to either play in the NHL or CHL when the AHL may be the best for their development. Strome is a current example: he’s posted 129 and 111 points in his last two years in the OHL and has nothing to gain from returning to junior, where he will dominate and potentially learn bad habits because of how dominant he is at that level. Strome has just one assist in six NHL games this year, and would be well-served by 40 games in the AHL to learn the pro game. That’s currently prevented by the NHL-CHL agreement. On one hand, it’s easy to see that CHL teams don’t want to lose their brightest stars before they absolutely have to, but at the same time it may not be in the player’s best interests to go back to junior. Changing the draft age to 19 could alleviate this issue, with drafted players only playing one more year of junior, at most, before turning pro.
LaFontaine and the stakeholders will meet again on Wednesday. On Insider Trading, McKenzie said they’ll “need to get some traction soon if it’s going to happen.”
The NHLPA would also need to agree to the change in collective bargaining when the current CBA expires in 2022 (both sides can opt out two years early). Convincing the Players Association that players will have to wait an extra year before making an NHL salary could be a tough argument, but it will be interesting to see how the discussion goes over the next little while.
Vancouver Interested In Evander Kane
TSN’s Bob McKenzie reported earlier on “Insider Trading” that the Vancouver Canucks are revisiting the idea of trading for Buffalo Sabres winger Evander Kane. McKenzie says that the two teams had discussions this summer, and with both off to a tough start in 2016-17, a shakeup may be in order.
The Vancouver native, who also played his junior hockey with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants, might seem like a natural fit, but the efforts to acquire him raise many questions. The biggest of these questions – which still appears to be a question for the team itself – is the direction of the Vancouver Canucks. While team president Trevor Linden, GM Jim Benning and the rest of the Canucks brass are trying to build a contender, the opinion of most, including many of their own fans, is that Vancouver should instead be looking toward a rebuild. The team was predicted by many to be one of the worst in the league in 2016-17, and at 6-9-1, they have not done much to prove those pundits wrong. With a core that is already made up of 36-year-old twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin, 31-year-old free agent acquisition Loui Eriksson, and 36-year-old goalie Ryan Miller, the Canucks should really be trying to move veteran pieces to get younger players and prospects. The Buffalo Sabres (5-6-4) are also hoping to get younger, as they are committed to a rebuild. Would trading youth for Kane be a wise decision for Vancouver?
Benning has made it known that he would like to add a big, rugged, scoring winger to his current squad, and the 25-year-old Kane fits the bill. But at what cost? The 6’2″, 211 lb. forward has yet to record a point this season and has not scored more than 20 goals in a season since 2011-2012. While a change of scenery may boost those numbers and investing in a project player with raw talent like Kane could be worth it, he is not a solution to any of Vancouver’s immediate problems. McKenzie believes that the Sabres would like to bolster their blue line if they were to trade Kane. Losing a player like Alex Edler in a deal for Kane would not help the “contender Canucks” and losing a player such as Troy Stecher would not help the “rebuild Canucks”.
The other issue to take into account is the ongoing legal and behavioral problems that Kane has. While he may be less prone to problems back in his hometown, Kane’s off-the-ice issues are well-documented. Even if Vancouver can find the perfect deal, one that doesn’t cost them too much youth or an impact defenseman, a distraction is the last thing that this team needs.
At this point, the trade chatter surrounding Kane has gone on for so long that it seems inevitable that he’s dealt out of Buffalo in the near future. McKenzie believes that Vancouver is the most likely destination, but that doesn’t mean that they are the right one. The ongoing issues with the NHL’s most intriguing franchise will continue to be something to watch for in the 2016-17 season.
Steven Stamkos Leaves Game With Injury
Update 11/16 (5:30): While the timeline for a return is unclear, Steven Stamkos has officially been diagnosed with a later meniscus tear, the team reports. As of now, the injury will keep the Lightning captain out “indefinitely”. This injury usually occurs when the knee twists in an unusual way, much like Stamkos’ awkward fall, damaging the cartilage in the joint. While a torn meniscus is a common injury, it does take some recovery time to return to full strength. A conservative estimate of when Tampa fans can see Stamkos back on the ice would be two to three months maximum. Some return earlier than that with surgery (rarely before four to six weeks), while others (see Rick DiPietro) never truly recover.
In tonight’s game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Detroit Red Wings, Bolts captains Steven Stamkos picked up his 20th point of the season with a first period goal to put Tampa Bay up 2-0. However, that will not be what most think when recalling this game. Minutes later, Stamkos fell awkwardly along the boards. His right leg appeared to be hyper-extended and stiff as he went down, and he came up clutching the back of his knee. Stamkos skated to the bench, unable to put weight on the leg, and went down the tunnel. The team announced he would not return to the game after suffering a lower body injury.
Stamkos has had bad luck with injury to that right leg already, having broken it about three years ago. Recovery from the injury limited Stamkos to just 37 games in 2013-14 and caused him to miss the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. He also missed five regular season games and nearly the entire postseason last year with a blood clot disorder.
While a talented Tampa Bay Lightning team is capable of winning without Stamkos, a generational talent like his certainly causes a team to suffer in his absence. Stamkos has already contributed nine goals and eleven assists in 2016-17 and has put up 72 and 64 points in the past two seasons. While Stamkos status as a free agent was expected to be one of the biggest story lines of the summer, the two sides agreed to an eight-year, $68MM extension on June 29th, putting to rest any thoughts of Stamkos playing elsewhere any time soon.
The Lightning and their fans certainly hope for the best, but as of now the optics do not look good. Should the captain miss an extended period of time, it will have a massive impact on Tampa Bay’s Stanley Cup chances this season.
Lindros On Concussions
Newly-inducted NHL Hall of Famer Eric Lindros and the league’s concussion issues sadly go hand-in-hand. The star forward lost much of the prime of his career due to head injuries and his absence from the game for long periods of time was the first step toward the recognition of concussion problems in the NHL. Lindros reportedly suffered six concussions between 1998 and 2000 and sat out the entire 2000-01 season. Having retired in 2007 and taken a step back from the game, Lindros has had time to reflect on his career and on safety in pro hockey.
In a piece by ESPN’s Chuck Gormley, Lindros spoke out on some of his thoughts on the current state of the game and it’s concussion protocols. “It’s not about the number,” Lindros says, “It’s about the degree of each one and the makeup of each individual person. Everyone is completely different.” He added that “That’s the hard part of (the NHL’s new concussion protocol). Some guys will take a big hit and feel fine and not want to come out of a game. No one is ever going to question how tough these guys are. That’s why they had to take it out of the players’ hands.”
Starting this season, the NHL has added concussion spotters to every game. These trained professionals watch for head contact and have the authority to remove players from games at the sign of concussion symptoms. While it seems like a great additional layer to help assist with player safety, it is not a fool-proof plan. Concerns over when, and if, goalies should be pulled, as well as how strictly the concussion protocols will be followed in the postseason lead the many questions that players and teams have about the new system.
However, Lindros says that he is happy to see that the league is taking a hard stance against concussions and taking the decisions away from the individuals or teams. As a former physical player himself, his game likely would have been impacted by these rules, but his health may have benefited. Other suggestions that Lindros has for further enhancing the safety of the game include adding the red-line back in, to reduce open-ice hits, and to make rinks wider, increasing space and lessening the occurrence of more physical encounters.
While such extreme changes to the game seem unlikely as of now, Lindros is content with how the NHL has handled it’s concussion problem recently. As the face of the issue back in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, Lindros has more experience than he would have liked with head trauma and simply hopes to see a safer game for all players. For now, the Hall of Famer is just happy to have his own health back. “I feel lucky,” Lindros stated. “I feel good.”
Justin Faulk Activated From Injured Reserve
The Carolina Hurricanes have their best player back in the lineup and not a minute too soon. Fresh off of the team’s best win of the season, a 5-1 clobbering of the Washington Capitals on Saturday night, the Eastern Conference’s last ranked team may finally be righting the ship. They face a tough test tonight against the San Jose Sharks, but they’ll do so with the services of franchise defenseman Justin Faulk back in the lineup. The big-time blue liner missed the past three games with an upper body injury.
Originally described as a “week-to-week” injury, Faulk was placed on the injured reserve last week, only to miss just a few contests before making his return. The original diagnosis was not overly certain, and it appears as if the Hurricanes have gotten lucky with a quick return for their alternate captain.
Carolina’s second-round pick in 2010, Faulk has exceeded expectations and developed into the centerpiece for a rebuilding Hurricanes team. After becoming a regular player at just 19, the 24-year-old now sits in a leadership position and is know around the league as one of the best puck-moving defenseman in the game. Faulk has 161 points in 337 career games, all while logging top pair minutes. Thus far in 2016-17 he has only three points, but with the team hopefully turning the corner on a disappointing start, look for Faulk’s return to jump start the offense and help the Hurricanes build on their recent success.
East Notes: Snow, Senators Power Play, Merrill, Hall
While Islanders head coach Jack Capuano has come under fire for their slow start to the season (they sit 15th in the Eastern Conference with a 5-8-3 record), not enough criticism has been directed towards general manager Garth Snow, suggests Peter Botte of the New York Daily News.
Snow has been at the helm of the Isles since 2006, retiring from his playing career to take the position. At the time, he stated that the goal was to take them from being a team looking to sneak into a playoff spot to one that would be a consistent contender but that has yet to be the case; two of their last three appearances came as a wild card or eighth seed.
While previous owner Charles Wang had placed significant restrictions on spending for the most, that isn’t the case with new owners Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin as the team sits with just over $600K in cap space according to CapFriendly. Snow’s offseason spending has yet to work out as left wingers Andrew Ladd and Jason Chimera have underachieved while P.A. Parenteau is off to a good start…for New Jersey after the Islanders waived him in training camp.
Wang had a reputation for being very loyal to his employees but neither Capuano nor Snow have that type of history with the new ownership. In their first year owning the team, it’s hard to imagine them cleaning house so quickly but if the team continues to struggle, that could change. It’s not often that in-season GM changes are made given the lack of available candidates from other organizations which could play a role should ownership feel a change is necessary at some point.
Other notes from the Eastern Conference:
- The Senators are last in the NHL on the power play with a success rate of just 9.3% (a surprise given that Guy Boucher’s teams have a reputation for being strong in that regard). Don Brennan of the Ottawa Sun wonders if sticking defenseman Dion Phaneuf up front in the crease to work as a more effective screener is the way to go. Boucher calls a move like that a last resort and is more inclined to try different forwards – including tough guy Chris Neil – in different spots on the man advantage for the time being.
- The Devils announced via Twitter that they have activated defenseman Jon Merrill off of injured reserve. Merrill broke his index finger in the preseason and has yet to suit up for New Jersey since the regular season got underway. He had five points in 47 games last season while averaging nearly 17 minutes per game of ice time. Still with the Devils, left winger Taylor Hall will not play tonight due to a lower body injury. Andrew Gross of Fire and Ice adds that Hall is being evaluated by team doctors and more should be known about his situation later today.
Snapshots: Vegas, Eriksson Ek, Shootouts
Las Vegas owner Bill Foley is hoping to accelerate the final expansion payment to the league by the beginning of March, reports Sports Illustrated’s Alex Prewitt (Twitter link). Until the payment is made in full, the pending expansion team (whose named will be officially revealed one week from today), the team is not permitted to be represented at any league events such as the Board of Governors meetings or GM meetings, including the one taking place today in Toronto.
The reason for the March 1st deadline is to allow the team to get approval from the league to pursue undrafted college free agents. Many of their seasons end towards the end of March but they want to ensure they’re all set well before then so that they can get into the bidding process. As they have to essentially build an entire farm system in the span of a few months between the expansion draft, free agency, and trades, it’s likely that Las Vegas will be extremely active in the college UFA market this year.
Other news from around the league:
- Although the Wild can assign 19 year old center Joel Eriksson Ek to either the AHL or the SHL if they decide to not burn the first year of his entry-level deal, GM Chuck Fletcher tells Michael Russo of the Star-Tribune that their preference would be to have him play in Sweden and at the World Juniors next month. Eriksson Ek has played nine games so far which means that the next game will officially begin his entry level contract. The team will hold him out of the lineup tonight for the second straight game to further ponder the route they’ll take.
- One topic that was discussed during the GM meetings that will be carried over to their meeting in March is potentially changing to international shootout rules, reports Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston (Twitter link). In international shootout rules, players can shoot as many times as a team likes after the first set of three shooters make their attempts. The thought process behind this might be to better showcase the elite shootout players while hoping to avoid some of the longer shootouts that see players further down the roster forced to take shots.
Pacific Notes: Hamilton, Arizona Injuries, Virtanen
While the suggestion over the weekend that Calgary defenseman Dougie Hamilton caught many by surprise, TSN’s Darren Dreger suggested to a Montreal ‘s TSN690 that his name has been out there for a little while now (transcription from FanRag’s Chris Nichols):
That rumor has been fairly consistent. It really has. I can think back to the draft in Buffalo, where Dougie Hamilton’s name had surfaced at that point. He’s one of those guys, right or wrong, that always seems to have that lure about him or carry the possibility that a trade could be in the future again.”
While Hamilton has played fairly well with Calgary – he set a career high in points last season and leads all Flames blueliners in scoring this year – he carries a cap hit of $5.75MM for five more years. While that’s a fair market price for a top four defender, the Flames are spending nearly $27MM on their back end currently (and that doesn’t include $3.5MM for Ladislav Smid who’s on long-term injured reserve). In theory, moving an area of positional strength to fill a hole or two makes sense.
If Calgary were to move Hamilton, they should have no shortage of suitors as most teams are always on the lookout for a top four defenseman. Dreger feels they should have no issue moving him if they do decide to go that route:
“And there’s a premium market right now for defense. That seems to be the case on an annual basis. So if Calgary gets to a stage where they want to make that move, I don’t think it’s going to be a huge issue finding Hamilton another address.”
In the meantime, as we learned yesterday, the Flames are shopping a couple of veterans in defenseman Deryk Engelland and forward Lance Bouma but haven’t had much interest in either player just yet.
Elsewhere in the Pacific Division:
- The Coyotes are close to getting a pair of key veterans back as goaltender Mike Smith and center Martin Hanzal both skated on Monday, notes Sarah McLellan of The Arizona Republic. Head coach Dave Tippett is optimistic that both players should be back in the lineup this week. Smith has been out since October 18th with a lower body issue while Hanzal has missed five straight games, also due to a lower body injury.
- After recalling Jake Virtanen from his two game ‘conditioning stint’, the Canucks don’t plan to have him in the lineup right away, writes Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province. The team is looking for him to play with more intensity and consistency after a slow start this season that has seen him record just one assist through ten games. Vancouver also provided a couple of injury updates. Defenseman Chris Tanev will miss another ten days with a foot injury while right winger Jannik Hansen will be out for another three weeks with a fractured rib.
Poll: 2005 NHL Draft Take Two: Twentieth Overall Pick
Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.” Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.
We’re looking back at the 2005 NHL Draft, which kicked off the salary cap era and ushered in many of the current NHL superstars. The question we’re looking to answer is knowing now what we didn’t know then, how different would this draft look now with the benefit of hindsight?
Here are the results of our redraft so far:
1st Overall: Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins)
2nd Overall: Carey Price (Mighty Ducks of Anaheim)
3rd Overall: Anze Kopitar (Carolina Hurricanes)
4th Overall: Jonathan Quick (Minnesota Wild)
5th Overall: Kris Letang (Montreal Canadiens)
6th Overall: Tuukka Rask (Columbus Blue Jackets)
7th Overall: Bobby Ryan (Chicago Blackhawks)
8th Overall: Marc-Edouard Vlasic (San Jose Sharks)
9th Overall: Ben Bishop (Ottawa Senators)
10th Overall: James Neal (Vancouver Canucks)
11th Overall: T.J. Oshie (Los Angeles Kings)
12th Overall: Keith Yandle (New York Rangers)
13th Overall: Paul Stastny (Buffalo Sabres)
14th Overall: Marc Staal (Washington Capitals)
15th Overall: Patric Hornqvist (New York Islanders)
16th Overall: Niklas Hjalmarsson (Atlanta Thrashers)
17th Overall: Anton Stralman (Phoenix Coyotes)
18th Overall: Jack Johnson (Nashville Predators)
19th Overall: Matt Niskanen (Detroit Red Wings)
Now we move forward to the 20th pick, which was held by the Florida Panthers.
To recap how this works:
- We will go through the 2005 NHL Draft and have our readers select, through a voting process, who they think should have been taken with the selection.
- The entire first round will be redrafted, spanning picks one through thirty. The new selection is chosen by the majority of votes.
Back in 2005, Florida selected left winger Kenndal McArdle, an undersized power forward out of Moose Jaw of the WHL. In his draft season plus the one after that, he was better than a point per game player, providing some hope that he could fill a top six role before too long. That never really happened though as McArdle was a bottom six forward at the AHL level and failed to impress in a few stints with Florida. Six years after drafting him, the Panthers moved McArdle to Winnipeg in exchange for center Angelo Esposito, who was one of the biggest first round busts from the 2007 draft. McArdle, meanwhile, last played in the Swedish second division in 2013-14 and retired that summer.
With the 20th pick of the 2005 NHL Redraft, who should the Panthers select? Cast your vote below!
Mobile users, click here to vote.
Chris Wagner Clears Waivers
Nov. 15: Wagner has cleared waivers, reports Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register (Twitter link).
Nov. 14: The Anaheim Ducks have placed center Chris Wagner on waivers, reports ESPN and TSN’s Pierre LeBrun (Twitter link). This marks the third time in less than two years that Wagner has been on waivers. Last November, the Ducks waived him and lost him to Colorado but Anaheim brought him back in late February after the Avalanche re-waived him.
This season, Wagner has played in all but one of Anaheim’s 16 games, tallying two goals, a -4 rating, six penalty minutes, and 15 shots on goal while averaging 10:43 of ice time per game. However, he has struggled at the faceoff dot, winning just 29 of 72 faceoffs for a success rate of just 40.3%.
In his career, the 25 year old has played in 67 NHL games between the Ducks and Avalanche, picking up eight points (6-2-8). He is in the first season of a two year, one-way deal he signed back in April shortly after rejoining Anaheim, carrying a cap hit of just under $640K. If he clears, it’s likely that he will be assigned to Anaheim’s AHL affiliate in San Diego.
[Related: Ducks Depth Chart]