2017 has been quite a busy year in the hockey world. There have been several big trades, the first expansion team in over 15 years, and much more. Over the coming days, PHR will take a look back at the top stories from around the game on a month-by-month basis. Next up is a look at April.
Coaching Firings: As is often the case following the end of the season, quite a few teams decided it was time for a change behind the bench. Those teams were: Los Angeles (Darryl Sutter as well as GM Dean Lombardi), Vancouver (Willie Desjardins), Florida (Tom Rowe – reassigned to advisor while Dale Tallon retook his GM duties), Buffalo (Dan Bylsma plus GM Tim Murray), and Dallas (Lindy Ruff). As much as there were plenty of changes after the season, the same can’t be said for the early going this year. This is the first time since 1998 that no head coach was let go between the start of the season and the holiday break.
Coaching Hirings: Not surprisingly, several of the teams who relieved the coaches of their duties hired replacements throughout the month. Those included John Stevens being promoted to the top job with the Kings, the Canucks bringing up Travis Green from their AHL affiliate, and Ken Hitchcock returning for another go-around with Dallas. In addition to those, a pair of interim head coaches got their jobs on a full-time basis with Bruce Cassidy in Boston plus Doug Weight with the Islanders. Plus, the Golden Knights hired their inaugural bench boss in Gerard Gallant, a decision that is certainly paying early dividends.
Draft Lottery Yields Big Changes: There are some years where the Draft Lottery results in very little changes to the draft order for June. This was not one of those years. The Devils jumped up four spots to pick first overall, the Flyers vaulted up 11 spots to select second, while Dallas got to pick five picks earlier than they anticipated with the third overall selection. This was certainly frustrating for Colorado who went from first to fourth while the Canucks (second to fifth) and Golden Knights (third to sixth) also dropped three places. The Devils selected center Nico Hischier with the top selection and he is certainly off to a nice start to his rookie campaign with 21 points (5-16-21) through his first 35 games.
Darling To Carolina: After the tandem of Cam Ward and Eddie Lack struggled last season, the Hurricanes made a move to try to shore up their goalie duo with the acquisition of Scott Darling from Chicago. The early returns haven’t been particularly promising, however. He has posted a 2.89 GAA with a .896 SV% through 24 appearances, numbers that are below the league average. As a result, he has started to cede playing time to Ward in recent weeks which basically has Carolina back where they were a year ago.
NHL Won’t Participate In The Olympics: Although this had been speculated on for a while already, the NHL made it official that they would not be stopping their schedule in order to allow players to participate in the upcoming Olympics. This will be the first time that NHL players won’t be suiting up for their respective countries since the 1994 Games in Lillehammer, Norway. Unsurprisingly, many players voiced their displeasure about the decision and it’s bound to come up in the next round of CBA talks. In the meantime, each federation is awaiting a final call from the KHL to see if their players will be allowed to participate as planned on the heels of Russia being barred from the Olympics for doping violations or if they will be rejigging their schedule to eliminate (or reduce) the month-long break that is currently in place.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.