Minnesota Recalls Joel Eriksson Ek; Assigns Mike Reilly To Iowa
The Minnesota Wild have recalled Joel Eriksson Ek prior to tonight’s game against New Jersey. To make room, the team sent Mike Reilly to Iowa. Reilly was just recalled on Thursday after bouncing up and down over the first few days of the season. The young defender looks to be ticketed for a season full of flights between the two clubs.
Eriksson Ek was the Wild’s first round pick (20th overall) just two years ago, and is set to make his NHL debut after just a single professional game in North America. The forward has spent the last two seasons in the Swedish Elite League, playing for Farjestad.
Though he hasn’t turned in eye-popping numbers thus far in his career, the 19-year old center possesses a laser fast shot and is expected to develop into a solid offensive contributor. With the Wild already 3-1-0 in four games, the injection of youth should keep the train rolling along.
Jeff Zatkoff Suffers Injury; Jack Campbell Recalled
According to Lisa Dillman of the Los Angeles Times (via Helene Elliott), goaltender Jeff Zatkoff has suffered a lower-body injury at practice, and will be unable to play against the Vancouver Canucks tonight. The team has recalled Jack Campbell to take his place on the roster for the game.
With Jonathan Quick already on the shelf for months, any injury in the Kings’ crease weakens their cause even further. Peter Budaj will likely be in net tonight against the Canucks, but the 34-year old hasn’t been an effective NHL starter in years now. For a team who is still in win-now mode, the defense will need to tighten up even further for the next few days at least. As Jon Rosen of FOX Sports reports, Zatkoff’s groin ‘tightened up’ after stopping a shot in practice. While it may not be a major injury yet, groin injuries often linger longer than initially expected.
Campbell, a former 11th overall pick by the Dallas Stars, has never been able to establish himself in the NHL. The 24-year old split the last two seasons between the AHL and ECHL, where he found mixed results. If Zatkoff stays on the shelf for very long, the Kings will need a combination of Budaj and Campbell to keep them competitive. The team sits at 1-3-0 through four games, and sixth in the Pacific Division.
Poll: 2005 NHL Draft Take Two: Fourteenth 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)
Now we move forward to the 14th pick, which was held by the Washington Capitals.
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, Washington selected hulking blueliner Sasha Pokulok. It’s safe to say they’d love a do-over with this one. Pokulok was drafted out of Cornell and turned pro early one year later. He spent the bulk of his entry level contract in the ECHL and was let go shortly thereafter without getting into an NHL game. He then went overseas for a few years, spending time in Germany, Austria, Croatia, and Kazakhstan. He currently is playing in the LNAH in his fourth season there, a minor pro league in Quebec with any hopes of making the NHL completely gone.
With the 14th pick of the 2005 NHL Redraft, who should the Washington Capitals select? Cast your vote below!
Mobile users, click here to vote.
Trevor Van Riemsdyk Out Five To Six Weeks
Chicago defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk is expected to miss the next five to six weeks with an upper body injury according to a report from Scott Powers of The Athletic. TSN’s Mark Masters adds (Twitter link) that the blueliner had his right arm in a sling. The injury was sustained in Friday’s 3-2 loss to Columbus.
Injuries have not been kind to the 25 year old in recent years. Since January of 2014, he has suffered a broken ankle, a fractured patella, and a wrist injury, the latter two requiring surgeries. Powers adds that this particular injury is not expected to require surgery.
It has been a tough start to the season for van Riemsdyk. After playing all 82 games last season, he has seen time in just two of four games this year and last night’s game saw the team dress seven defenders instead of the usual six, reducing his ice time. He has been held off the scoresheet so far this season but had three goals and 11 assists last year.
In the short-term, this will alleviate the logjam on Chicago’s back end as the team has been carrying eight blueliners since the start of the season. This certainly won’t help van Riemdsyk’s trade value though as the team continues to shop him around the league.
[Related: Blackhawks Depth Chart]
Islanders Waive Eric Boulton
The New York Islanders announced (via Twitter) that they have placed left winger Eric Boulton on waivers. Teams will have until 11am tomorrow to claim him.
As the league shifts away from having the prototypical enforcers, players like Boulton have seen their role decrease more and more although the 40 year old has still done well to keep securing one year contracts. He’s currently on a two-way deal with the Isles worth the league minimum $575K in the NHL and $150K at the minor league level.
Boulton has been with the Islanders since 2012-13 but has played a sparing role in that time. Despite this being his fifth season with the team, he has only suited up 52 times with them (and has yet to play this season). Over that stretch, he has four goals and two assists but 156 penalty minutes.
He has played in 654 career NHL contests spanning the last 15 years with the Sabres, Thrashers, Devils, and Islanders. He has a total of 79 points (31-48-79) over that span with 1,421 penalty minutes, ranking him fifth among active players.
If Boulton clears, he likely will be signed to their AHL affiliate in Bridgeport.
[Related: Islanders Depth Chart]
The Islanders also placed defenseman Ryan Pulock on injured reserve with a lower body. He’s expected to miss the next four to six weeks.
Snapshots: Boucher, Islanders, Kalinin, Predators
Ottawa head coach Guy Boucher will face his former team in Tampa Bay for the first time since they fired him back in 2013 but Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun notes that Boucher doesn’t bear any ill will towards his former organization.
Part of the reason for that is the amount of time that has passed since he was let go but a main reason is that very few players remain from Boucher’s tenure – just center Steven Stamkos and defenseman Victor Hedman. In other words, GM Steve Yzerman has practically turned over the entire team over in the last three and a half years which Boucher believes makes this basically just another game for him:
“It’s been awhile. We’re talking almost four years and just so much has changed. It would be a lot harder (if) it was all the guys I coached and those guys are coming in. Then I guess there would be emotion there.”
Despite all of the turnover, it’s hard to say that the changes haven’t worked as under Jon Cooper, the team has made three straight postseason appearances and has reached the third round of the playoffs in each of the last two seasons.
Other notes from around the league:
- Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock made his season debut last night but will have to wait a while to play his second game. He left the game yesterday after just four shifts after suffering a lower body injury and Newsday’s Arthur Staple reports (via Twitter) that he will be out for the next four to six weeks. Pulock was taking the place of Nick Leddy who missed last night’s game with an upper body issue but Staple adds that Leddy is taking part in practice today.
- The Devils are expected to activate center Sergei Kalinin (illness) off of injured reserve prior to tonight’s game against Minnesota, notes Fire and Ice’s Andrew Gross. To make room for him on the active roster, the team announced that they have sent left winger Miles Wood, their lone waiver exempt forward among their depth players, to their AHL affiliate in Albany.
- Over the years, there haven’t been many Swiss-born NHL players but as Adam Vingan of The Tennessean writes, the Predators have had success finding players from there recently. There are currently eight Swiss players in the league and Nashville has three of them – defensemen Roman Josi and Yannick Weber as well as left winger Kevin Fiala. They’re only the second team in NHL history to have three Swiss players on their roster.
Rangers Notes: Kreider, Hayes, Injuries
After an early playoff exit last year, the Rangers have put an extra emphasis on speed this season, writes Allan Kreda of the New York Times. Not only did they add fast skating forwards in Michael Grabner, Brandon Pirri, and Mika Zibanejad, they’ve also encouraged their blueline to play a faster game as well. While their speed up front has been noticeable, head coach Alain Vigneault has been pleased with its effects on their back end:
“What I like is that we’re using it well defensively. We haven’t given up as many shots and scoring chances. That has permitted us to retrieve the puck quicker and put the speed on display and counterattack to where hopefully it’s more fun: the other team’s end.”
One player who has benefitted from the focus on playing faster is Chris Kreider, who is off to the best start of his career with three goals and four assists in the first four games of the season. Kreider attributes his fast start to being eliminated so quickly in the postseason last year as that gave him more time to train over the summer and his combination of speed and size has been evident in the early going this season. So far, he’s giving the Rangers a strong early return on a four year, $18.5MM deal signed late in July.
[Related: Rangers Depth Chart]
Other Rangers news and notes:
- Center Kevin Hayes is also benefitting from playing quicker as a result of dropping “a pretty good amount of weight” over the summer, notes Peter Botte of the New York Daily News. After taking a step back during his sophomore campaign last year, Vigneault has boosted Hayes’ ice time by over two minutes per game early on while trusting him to take some key faceoffs. Hayes has responded by winning 50% of his draws so far; by comparison, he won only 36% last season.
- Rookie winger Pavel Buchnevich is expected to miss at least the next two games due to back spasms, reports Newsday’s Steve Zipay. As for defenseman Dan Girardi, there’s a chance he plays in one of New York’s games this weekend but won’t suit up in both contests. He has missed the last two games with a groin issue.
Blackhawks Notes: Penalty Kill, Motte
Through just nearly two periods in Friday night’s game against Columbus, the Chicago Blackhawks surrendered their second power play goal, in as many attempts, driving their penalty kill percentage down to an anemic 42%. The statistics revealing just how bad it’s been aren’t encouraging. The Hawks have given up 11 power play goals in just five games, while last season they only let in 46 powerplay goals through 82 games. Dimitri Filipovic tweets a statistical breakdown of Corey Crawford‘s significant dip in save percentage when the team is on the kill. His point isn’t to blame Crawford, but instead, highlight the deficiencies of his teammates on the kill.
Strategically speaking, CSN’s Tracey Myers tweets that teams are using a net-front presence to score on the man advantage, and the Hawks seem more than willing to oblige. The Daily Herald’s Jon Dietz reports that the Hawks 5-on-3 marathon against St. Louis started the slide and is a culprit in the Hawks’ early tumble:
One reason the kill rate looks so bad — it was the second-worst in the league going into Monday’s games — is because of how St. Louis took advantage of 3 penalties in 94 seconds in the opener. That led to a 5-on-3 goal late in the second period and another tally early in the third. Being short-handed for that long is not an easy task, and once a team scores it only breeds more confidence for the next opportunity — especially when that opportunity comes right away.
Dietz adds that the Hawks have done a poor job of clearing the zone, allowing teams more time to setup and prolong shifts, which leads to tired penalty killers. He also mirrors Myers’ thoughts of allowing players to camp out in front of Crawford without impediment.
Then again, should the struggles come as a surprise? Last March, CSN Chicago had a lengthy article centering on the Hawks’ problems shorthanded when they were ranked (at the time) 24th in the league. Though they were missing both Marian Hossa and Marcus Kruger at the time, maybe it’s a trend that was forewarned months earlier.
In other Blackhawks news:
- Tyler Motte scored his first NHL goal against Columbus Friday night. After Jonathan Toews rushed the net and generated a juicy rebound, Motte banged in the opportunity for his first goal as a Chicago Blackhawk.
Injury Updates: Coyotes, Winnik, Rask, Wild
Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith has been sent back to Arizona to be evaluated by team doctors, notes Sarah McLellan of AZ Central. He left Tuesday’s game in Ottawa with what is believed to be a knee injury. Head coach Dave Tippett stated that no firm diagnosis has been given and accordingly, there’s no word yet on how long he might miss although the team has placed him on injured reserve. Craig Morgan of AZ Central adds (via Twitter) that the placement was made retroactive to October 18th.
Also from McLellan, winger Jamie McGinn is expected to rejoin the team on Saturday although he’s not expected to play right away as the team wants to get him into some practices before putting him in the lineup.
In the meantime, the team will run with backup Louis Domingue (who is between the pipes again tonight against the Islanders despite being pulled early last night in Montreal) and third stringer Justin Peters.
Other injury news from around the league:
- While Washington left winger Daniel Winnik was able to return to the game on Thursday despite taking a puck to the head, he didn’t come away completely injury free, writes Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post. After the game, head coach Barry Trotz told reporters that Winnik lost a small piece of his ear on the play.
- Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask did not skate with the team on Friday as he once again is dealing with ‘general soreness’, reports CSN NE’s Joe Haggerty. Rask was dealing with this issue when he sat out last Saturday against Toronto although he returned to the lineup this week and made 28 of 29 saves in a win against New Jersey on Thursday. As a result, he is now listed as questionable to play on Saturday night against Montreal.
- Minnesota blueliner Jared Spurgeon suffered an upper body injury in the third period against Toronto, notes Michael Russo of the Minnesota Star-Tribune. Meanwhile, left winger Erik Haula looked to further aggravate an existing lower body issue on Thursday night and Russo adds that he is not walking particularly well off the ice. Both players did not practice. Defenseman Marco Scandella, who didn’t play due to an illness versus the Leafs, did skate and potentially could slide into Spurgeon’s spot in the lineup if he is unable to play Saturday against New Jersey.
Jets Receiving Calls On Ondrej Pavelec
The Winnipeg Jets have received some calls regarding goaltender Ondrej Pavelec, ESPN’s Craig Custance reports (Insider required). However, those calls have been more of the tire-kicking variety than concrete trade negotiations.
Pavelec is currently suiting up for the Manitoba Moose of the AHL where he has a 1-0-1 record with a 2.89 GAA and a .919 SV% in two games so far. It’s his first season in the minors since 2008-09 in just the second year of his pro career.
The 29 year old cleared waivers back in the preseason, in large part due to his contract. Pavelec is earning a salary of $4.75MM with a cap hit of $3.9MM in the final season of a five year deal signed back in June of 2012. The Jets also wanted youngster Connor Hellebuyck to start the season with the deal and because of Pavelec’s deal, he was the logical candidate to be waived, particularly after posting just a .904 save percentage in 2015-16.
For a trade to happen, it’s highly likely that Winnipeg will have to eat a sizable amount of salary (they’re allowed to retain up to 50%). Even so, that may be a more palatable solution for them compared to carrying a ‘buried’ cap hit of $2.95MM for Pavelec while he is in the minor leagues. Accordingly, the asking price would likely not be particularly high and may very well depend on how much other teams would want the Jets to retain.
On the surface, it would seem logical to think that Los Angeles is one of the teams that has been or will be kicking the tires on Pavelec. The Kings will be without Jonathan Quick for the next three months and currently have a tandem of Jeff Zatkoff and Peter Budaj who have both been in the minors themselves in recent seasons. Pavelec would at least give them someone who has been a starter at times in recent years and is more suited to handle a starting workload.
Of course, Winnipeg may be inclined to wait on moving Pavelec for now to see if other injuries arise to create more trade demand down the road. In the meantime, he’ll continue to suit up in Manitoba as the highest paid goaltender in the minors.