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Archives for April 2018

Washington Capitals Will Not Bring Back AHL Coaching Staff

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The Washington Capitals were expected to make sweeping changes if they didn’t perform well in another playoff run, with Barry Trotz’ coaching staff feeling the heat of perennial postseason disappointment. Those changes have begun in the AHL, as the organization announced it would not renew the contract for Hershey Bears head coach Troy Mann or assistant coach Ryan Murphy.

The Bears failed to reach the postseason this year, finishing last in the Atlantic Division with a 30-37-9 record. Interestingly, that was the team’s first playoff miss under Mann, who assumed head coaching duties in 2014 after previously serving as an assistant with the club. In his previous three seasons the team had progressed to the second round each year, including reaching the Calder Cup Finals in his second year as head coach.

Mann likely won’t be out of work for long, but it will be interesting to see how long it takes the Capitals to replace him. The AHL replacement should be one that can work well with his NHL counterpart, using similar systems and player development. If the team is still entertaining thoughts of removing Trotz from his position behind the bench, his replacement should likely be in place before an AHL coach is hired.

Snapshots: Penguins, Wild, Candella

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The Pittsburgh Penguins will face the Washington Capitals in round two once again, but will open the series without two key forwards. Evgeni Malkin and Carl Hagelin have both already been ruled out for game 1, with the latter not even making the trip to Washington with the team.

This is the exact reason that the Penguins went out and added players like Derick Brassard and Riley Sheahan during the year, strengthening their squad down the middle for inevitable playoff injuries. Malkin’s absence is especially lucky for the Capitals, who he has dominated throughout his career. In 40 regular season games against Washington Malkin has 18 goals and 57 points, and has registered 19 points in 20 career playoff games between the two.

  • The Minnesota Wild are looking for a new GM, but it’s not one to start a rebuild. With that in mind, Chad Graff of The Athletic (subscription required) examined the potential candidates for the job, even naming a favorite in Paul Fenton. The Nashville Predators assistant GM has been linked to several head jobs over the last few years, and according to Graff even interviewed for the Minnesota job before Fletcher was originally hired.
  • The Vancouver Canucks will likely not sign Cole Candella to an entry-level contract according to Rick Dhaliwal of News 1130. The 20-year old defenseman was selected in the fifth round two years ago, but could end up re-entering the draft should he go unsigned by June 1st. Though he led the Sudbury Wolves blue line in scoring this season with 33 points, he’ll have to look for his next opportunity elsewhere.

Pittsburgh Penguins Sign Linus Olund To Entry-Level Contract

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have added another prospect to the organization, signing Linus Olund to a three-year entry-level contract. Olund will report to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on an amateur tryout, and start his ELC next season.

Olund went undrafted in his first two years of eligibility—despite being ranked the 70th best international skater in 2015—before being selected in the fifth round last June. In 51 games this season in the SHL he recorded 23 points, but is known for his solid two-way ability. A penalty killer with some offensive upside, he’s another late round pick who could make an impact in the Pittsburgh system.

Though he’ll join the AHL Penguins right away, his first taste of professional hockey in North America may have to wait until next season. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is on the brink of elimination in their first round matchup again the Charlotte Checkers, down two games to none. The third game of the series is tomorrow, and it would be surprising to see Olund inserted into the lineup right away. Instead, he’ll likely have to make an impact in training camp in the fall.

Patrick Roy To Return To Quebec Remparts

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Patrick Roy’s exit from the Colorado Avalanche was anything but smooth, resigning his post as head coach less than two months before the 2016-17 season began. The club moved on to Jared Bednar, who eventually turned them around in year two and took them to the playoffs.

Now, Roy will return to coaching in an old stomping ground. Mikael Lalancette of TVA Sports is reporting that the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL will announced Roy’s return as head coach tomorrow. The Remparts recently lost their head coach when Philippe Boucher resigned after five seasons with the team. Roy had coached the team for parts of eight seasons previous to his time in Colorado.

Roy had a 349-159-37 record during his first stint with the team, taking them to the QMJHL playoffs every season. They didn’t take home a league championship during that time, but will try again with the legendary goaltender at the helm.

Brian Elliott, Michal Neuvirth Both Likely Require Surgery

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The Philadelphia Flyers threw everything they could at the Pittsburgh Penguins in their first round series, but still came up short against the defending champions. Among the reasons why was goaltending, which performed poorly no matter who the Flyers turned to.

Brian Elliott started four games, registering an .856 save percentage and 4.74 goals against average, while Michal Neuvirth started the other two and couldn’t even match that level. Neuvirth posted an .847 save percentage, well below his career mark of .912. Some of their struggles could have been caused by injury, as today they told Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer that they would both need minor surgical procedures. Neuvirth will have procedures on both hips, while Elliott may need another surgery on the abdominal injury that kept him out for part of the season. Carchidi tweets that the Flyers “obviously rushed him back too soon.”

Carchidi also added that Petr Mrazek, acquired at the trade deadline to help solidify the Flyers goaltending situation, didn’t “sound optimistic” for a return next season. Though Mrazek is a restricted free agent this summer, his hefty salary would force an equally expensive qualifying offer in order to retain his rights. Since he performed poorly down the stretch for the team, it seems unlikely that they would extend such an offer.

Unfortunately for the Flyers, both Elliott and Neuvirth are under contract for next season. If they return with the same duo, it’s hard to imagine a different outcome in a year’s time regardless of the team they put in front of them.

Minnesota Wild Owner Writes Letter To Fans, Explains New Direction

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Though they’ve been to the playoffs for six consecutive seasons, the Minnesota Wild are headed in a new direction. The team recently announced that they would not bring back GM Chuck Fletcher, instead looking for a new voice to try and lead them deeper into the postseason and to a Stanley Cup final for the first time in their history.

Today, Wild owner Craig Leipold penned a letter to Minnesota fans explaining his decision to let Fletcher go and where the team will be headed from here (via Michael Russo of The Athletic).

On Monday, I made the difficult decision that Chuck Fletcher would not return as General Manager of our hockey club. In thinking about this significant change, it was very important to me that you, as a member of our Season Ticket Community and someone who is invested in our success, hear directly from me about the future of the Wild.

I’m confident about this: you and I share a passion to bring the Stanley Cup to the State of Hockey. And the responsibility for getting us there starts with me.

Chuck built our club into a perennial playoff contender. And that is no easy task in itself. Only two other clubs in the League have matched our six straight years in the post season. But it became apparent to me that while we were close, our “good” wasn’t good enough anymore. And I feel that it is going to take a new set of eyes, and some new thinking about our roster, to assess things and take the steps necessary to get us to the next level.

I’m not looking for a rebuild. I’m not patient enough for that and you should not be either. And our situation does not require tearing things down and starting over. We’re not far from being the team we all believe can deliver a Stanley Cup. As I have in the past, I’ll continue to give the necessary resources to our new GM, resources intended to remake the Wild from a “good” playoff contender to a “great” Stanley Cup championship contender. That’s why I’m in this…nothing less.

The Wild have been knocked out of the playoffs in the first round for three consecutive years, which lends credence to the idea that the team is just “good.” What is difficult for any GM, new or old, is pushing the team past that level and into real contention. Leipold obviously believes it is possible without sweeping changes to the roster, but one should expect at least some adjustments to come this summer.

Whoever is installed in the Minnesota front office have some tough decisions to make, and two huge contracts to negotiate. Jason Zucker and Matt Dumba are both restricted free agents, and are coming off their best seasons as professionals.

KHL Announces Alignment, Schedule Changes For 2018-19

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We had already heard that the KHL will contract to 25 teams in 2018-19, losing Ugra Khanty-Mansiysk and Lada Togliatti. Now, the league has announced realignment moving several teams around. For next season, three divisions—Bobrov, Tarasov and Khalamov—will have just six teams competing, while the Chernyshev division stays untouched. The full divisions are as follows:

WESTERN CONFERENCE:

Bobrov Division:

Dinamo Riga
Dynamo Moscow
Jokerit Helsinki
Severstal Cherepovets
SKA Saint Petersburg
Spartak Moscow

Tarasov Division:

CSKA Moscow
Dinamo Minsk
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl
Slovan Bratislava
HC Sochi
Vityaz Moscow Region

EASTERN CONFERENCE:

Kharlamov Division:

Ak Bars Kazan
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg
Metallurg Magnitogorsk
Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod
Traktor Chelyabinsk
Sibir Novosibirsk

Chernyshev Division:

Admiral Vladivostok
Amur Khabarovsk
Avangard Omsk
Barys Astana
Kunlun Red Star
Salavat Yulaev Ufa

The league will also be expanding their schedule to 62 games, up from the 56 games played in 2017-18. Though the league has been notorious for the lack of parity between their richest and poorest clubs, contraction and a longer schedule could work to reduce that performance gap. Just this week, Ak Bars Kazan upset CSKA in the Gagarin Cup Finals to win the KHL championship, a very unexpected outcome given the powerhouse teams CSKA and SKA St. Petersburg iced this year.

The KHL season begins on September 1st.

Offseason Keys: Ottawa Senators

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While the playoffs are ongoing, many teams have already started their offseason planning.  What storylines lie ahead around the league?  Our Offseason Keys series continues with a look at the Ottawa Senators.

Fresh off an appearance in the Eastern Conference Final, expectations were high in Ottawa heading into the season.  However, a slow start led to a blockbuster trade with the acquisition of Matt Duchene but that didn’t change their fortunes.  Their struggles continued throughout the year and after narrowing missing the Stanley Cup Final, they found themselves finishing 30th overall.  Here are the keys to their offseason.

Karlsson’s Future

As the trade deadline got closer and closer, speculation increased regarding the future of defenseman Erik Karlsson.  It got to the point where it was looking more and more like he would be dealt with Vegas emerging as a potential landing spot.  The deal wound up being scuttled but as the draft gets closer, the discussions will only intensify.

Adding to the intrigue here is Karlsson’s contract status as he is set to become an unrestricted free agent in 2018-19.  GM Pierre Dorion confirmed last month that he will make an offer to Karlsson’s camp on July 1st but for a team that isn’t typically among the top spenders in the NHL, can they afford to give him the contract he’s expected to command?

Whether it’s a trade or a contract extension, Dorion has a big decision to make.  This is something that conceivably can’t drag out into next season; this is one of those situations that won’t be helped by the media attention it would be bound to get if there wasn’t a resolution by October.

Decide On Buyouts

In his end-of-season press conference, Dorion suggested that the Sens may be willing to buy out players this summer and even acknowledged that he had discussed the possibility with some players during their exit interviews.  Doing so would free up some cap space to work with but as they’re not a team that typically spends to the Upper Limit, paying more players not to play for them (they’re already retaining on Dion Phaneuf) may not be the greatest move either.

In terms of who they could be looking at, winger Marian Gaborik comes to mind.  He was acquired in the Phaneuf trade but his presence was more about of balancing salary than filling a need.  While he played better in Ottawa, he still has three years left (with nearly $11MM in total salary) on his contract and is injury-prone.  Alexandre Burrows, another winger, cleared waivers at the trade deadline and with one year and $2.5MM left on his deal, he would be a more affordable buyout.  Winger Bobby Ryan has been tied to the Karlsson trade speculation but if they can’t unload his contract in a trade, it’s hard to imagine they would buy him out with four years and $30MM remaining on it; that’s just too rich for a smaller-market team.

Contract For Stone

All the discussion surrounding Karlsson has drawn most of the headlines which has allowed Mark Stone’s contract situation to go under the radar somewhat.  He’s set to become a restricted free agent in July (with a qualifying offer of $4.5MM which he’ll undoubtedly receive).  He’s also arbitration-eligible and most importantly, is only a year away from UFA eligibility.

His performance in 2017-18 gives him a lot of leverage to work with.  Despite missing 24 games, he still posted 62 points, surpassing the point-per-game mark for the first time in his career.  That stat is going to look awfully good in an arbitration filing if it gets that far.

Ryan’s contract carries a $7.5MM cap hit and there’s a strong case to be made that Stone’s next deal should surpass his as the 25-year-old has out-produced Ryan in each of the last four years while emerging as a legitimate top-line player.  If Ottawa deems that too rich of an ask, then all of a sudden he becomes a prime trade candidate at some point throughout the year.  If they do reach an agreement, will that have an impact on Karlsson; can they afford to keep both long-term?  The safe bet here is that Stone and the Senators come to terms on a long-term deal but it’s going to be a very big one when they do put pen to paper.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

West Notes: Koskinen, Wild, Gulutzan

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With the Oilers believed to be the frontrunners to sign goaltender Mikko Koskinen, Postmedia’s Jim Matheson speculates that the deal could be one of the richer ones for a backup, suggesting that it could be in the range of $2MM per season.  While on the surface, that may seem pricey for someone with next to no track record in the NHL (just four underwhelming appearances with the Islanders in 2010-11), it’s still somewhat understandable as he has been one of the top KHL netminders in recent years and would undoubtedly command a sizable contract if he were to remain there.  However, if the final deal winds up being around that cap hit, that will further whittle away at Edmonton’s somewhat limited cap room heading into 2018-19.

More from the West:

  • Zach Parise wasn’t the only notable Wild player dealing with an injury. Sarah McLellan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune notes that center Joel Eriksson Ek played through the postseason with an injury that prevented him from taking many faceoffs while head coach Bruce Boudreau acknowledged that center Charlie Coyle was playing through a couple of injuries as well.  Neither of those players, nor Zach Parise (sternum) and Ryan Suter (ankle), will require surgery.
  • Given his track record of working with younger players, Postmedia’s Ben Kuzma suggests that recently-fired coach Glen Gulutzan could be a fit once again in Vancouver. He had worked with the Canucks for three years as an assistant before taking the head coaching job with Calgary.  GM Jim Benning stated that the team is still figuring out the plan for their assistants heading into 2018-19 but if they want to bring Gulutzan back in his old role, they may have to move quickly as Kuzma reports that two other rebuilding teams have already reached out to him to gauge his interest in a similar spot to work with their young players.

Snapshots: Round Two And World Championships

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The NHL is expected to wait on the result of Game Seven tomorrow night between the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs before announcing a full schedule for the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. However, they have at least put an end to the wait on the dates and times of the series openers. No one is more relieved than the Vegas Golden Knights, who have already been inactive for a week after sweeping the Los Angeles Kings. The Knights will host the San Jose Sharks, also fresh off a sweep of the Anaheim Ducks, at 10 PM ET on Thursday, April 26th. The second round will kick off earlier that evening with the third-straight postseason collision between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals. With their Metropolitan Division rivals out of the way, that series will get underway in Washington at 7 PM ET on Thursday. Friday night, the 27th, will feature the much-anticipated match-up between the Nashville Predators and Winnipeg Jets, the top two teams in the NHL in the regular season. That series starts in Nashville at 8 PM ET on Friday. Finally, the Tampa Bay Lightning await the winner of Bruins-Maple Leafs and the decision also affects when their second round begins on Saturday, the 28th. If the Bruins win on Wednesday night, they’ll travel to Tampa for a 3 PM ET puck drop, but if the Leafs pull off the comeback and take the series, they’ll take the ice against the Lightning later in the day at 8 PM ET. Stay tuned for more Round Two schedule updates in the next 36 hours or so.

  • Meanwhile, the “consolation playoffs”, the IIHF World Championships, will begin in Denmark on May 4th and teams continue to add talent from those NHL teams who have been eliminated from the postseason. Insider Juha Hiitela adds another name to the list, confirming that Minnesota Wild forward Mikael Granlund will suit up for Finland at the tournament. Granlund scored at the highest clip of his career in 2017-18, recording 67 points in 77 games, including a career-high 46 assists. He added another three points in Minnesota’s first round playoff series versus Winnipeg, but the Wild were outmatched by the Jets and fell in five games. Now, Granlund will have a chance to return to the World Championships, where last he scored 12 points in 10 games to lead Finland to a second-place finish.
  • However, Hiitela adds that New Jersey Devils top defenseman Sami Vatanen will not be joining Granlund in Denmark. Per Hiitela, Vatanen suffered a concussion in the Devils opening series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. This adds some clarity to the recent situation in which Vatanen missed most of Game Four and all of the deciding Game Five with an undisclosed upper-body injury. Just as he was missed by New Jersey, he’ll be missed by Finland at the World Championships. This would have been the first appearance at the tournament for the five-year NHL veteran.

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