Oilers Notes: McLellan, Lander, Russell, Caggiula, Hendricks
Thursday night’s 4 – 2 loss to Los Angeles represented Todd McLellan’s 100th game behind the Edmonton bench. Bruce McCurdy of the Edmonton Journal felt that’s enough of a sample to determine whether McLellan has delivered on the promise of guiding the talented team back to the playoffs for the first time in a decade.
McCurdy compares McLellan’s performance to this point to the five other men who have guided the club since the 2009-10 campaign; a list that includes accomplished NHL coaches in Pat Quin and Tom Renney in addition to first-time NHL bench bosses like Ralph Krueger and Dallas Eakins.
It’s a relatively in-depth analysis using a number of categories including; the Oilers win rate, their share of goals and shots for and the team’s performance in the special teams department. A full read of the post is highly recommended but ultimately McCurdy concludes that the Oilers have improved only marginally under McLellan and despite a ton of high end talent – including Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Jordan Eberle – there is still much work to be done to turn Edmonton into a perennial playoff team.
Other items from Edmonton:
- The club announced via their official Twitter account today that they have activated forwards Matt Hendricks and rookie Drake Caggiula, along with blue liner Kris Russell from IR. Also, Anton Lander who cleared waivers, has been assigned to the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL. Hendricks and Caggiula have yet to appear in a game for Edmonton this season while Russell, a late offseason free agent signing, has suited up for 11 contests and has three assists so far. Caggiula was a coveted college free agent last spring who capped off an impressive four-year career at the University of North Dakota with a 25-goal, 51-point senior season. He made the Oilers in training camp but a hip injury delayed his much anticipated debut. Now it appears as if he will get his chance in relatively short order.
- Lastly, Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal took note of the rumored availability of Arizona Coyotes blue liner Michael Stone and wonders if the Edmonton Oilers would have an interest, assuming those rumors are in fact accurate. Stone has just three points in seven games this season but turned in a productive 2015-16 campaign with six goals and 30 helpers. Stone has had a positive affect on puck possession over the last three years while playing for a team that ranks 24th in Corsi For % during that time. It’s unclear what Edmonton would have to give up to pry Stone away from Arizona but Pierre Lebrun speculates that when and if the team elects to move center Martin Hanzal, the Coyotes would want a young roster player who can contribute right now as opposed to prospects and/or picks. It’s fair to guess then that Arizona would request the same in any hypothetical trade of Stone.
Metro Division Snapshots: Oshie, Eller, Jones, Flyers
Washington lost three players last night to injury in the team’s gutsy 1 – 0 win over Detroit, forcing the Capitals to play with just nine forwards for the last two periods of the contest. T.J. Oshie exited in the first frame with what is being called an upper-body-injury after absorbing a heavy hit from Riley Sheahan, writes Isabelle Kurshudyan of The Washington Post. He is being listed as week-to-week, suggesting he could miss at least the next few games for Washington.
Kurshudyan adds that Lars Eller, also suffering from an upper-body-injury, is currently day-to-day though head coach Barry Trotz says he is doubtful for tomorrow night’s game after not practicing today.
Andre Burakovsky was also hurt during the game and sat out the final two periods but was a full participant in practice this morning and should be ready to go tomorrow. Trotz says the 21-year-old winger is “trending in the right direction,” in terms of his chances of playing tomorrow. Burakovsky is confident, saying, “I feel good” and “I feel ready,” when discussing his availability for the game.
The loss of Oshie for any length of time hurts Washington as the veteran winger plays in all situations and logs big minutes for the team. He has eight goals and 12 points in 17 games this season for the Capitals.
Eller, acquired from Montreal in the offseason in exchange for two, second-round draft choices, has just two goals on the season. Washington pulled the trigger on the deal with the idea the Danish pivot would address the team’s longstanding hole for a third line center who can contribute in all phases.
Kurshudyan also reports that Trotz indicated the team will recall a forward from Hershey of the AHL, with the expectation that Oshie and Eller will be out of the lineup tomorrow. Though Trotz didn’t offer any insight into who might get the call, Paul Carey, Chris Bourque and Christian Thomas are all having good seasons for the Bears and each has at least some NHL experience.
Elsewhere in the Metro Division:
- According to Tom Reed of the Columbus Dispatch, Seth Jones, out the last couple of weeks with a hairline fracture of his foot, was back at practice this morning. Jones was originally expected to miss three weeks with the injury so a return to practice lines up well with that time frame. In his first full season with the Blue Jackets, Jones has three goals and six points in 10 games. Fortunately for Columbus, the absence of Jones hasn’t hurt the team as the Blue Jackets have won four of the five games he has missed.
- On one hand, the influx of talented youngsters into the Philadelphia Flyers lineup has been a welcome one. But, on the other, there is generally a learning process each must go through and several of the team’s young players are finding that out, as Dave Isaac of the Courier-Post writes. Head coach Dave Hakstol recently made second year defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere a healthy scratch and benched rookie winger Travis Konecny for much of the third period in Thursday’s 5 – 2 win over Winnipeg. Hakstol reminds his charges that a healthy scratch or a benching is simply a part of the process as young players learn what it takes to be a successful NHL player, and not to necessarily take it as a bad thing: “It’s easy to take some of the moves that we make in a negative way, but that’s not the case,” Hakstol said. “For young players, it’s a learning process. I used the word (Thursday) ‘accountability.’ There is that element within a team and most importantly just taking positive steps forward as you become a more consistent player at this level and that’s not an easy step for young players to make and Ghost is still a young player.” Gostisbehere, who finished second in Calder Trophy voting a year ago, and Konecny, a 19-year-old rookie, have both been productive this season with the “Ghost” posting 10 points in 17 games while Konecny has 11 points in 18.
Bobby Ryan Out With Broken Finger
The Senators will be without the services of Bobby Ryan, one of their top offensive threats at least for tonight’s game against Florida due to a broken finger, according to the team’s official Twitter account. The team also described the likelihood of Mike Hoffman suiting up tonight as “less than likely,” suggesting it’s probable that two of the Sens best forwards will be out of the lineup tonight.
Curtis Lazar, who was recalled from Binghamton of the AHL this morning, will be in the lineup.
Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun adds that this is the third broken finger over the last three years for Ryan.
Ryan has struggled at the outset of the 2016-17 campaign, scoring just three goals and recording six points in 17 games to date. The native of Cherry Hill, New Jersey and former second overall draft choice in 2005 – selected only after Sidney Crosby – tallied four straight 30-goal campaigns from 2008-09 through 2011-12 while a member of the Anaheim Ducks. Since being acquired by the Senators in a blockbuster deal which saw Jakob Silfverberg, Stefan Noesen and a first-round pick going to Anaheim, Ryan has failed to to reach the 30-goal mark. His best season came last year with a scoring line of 22G – 34A – 56Pts.
One of the reasons the Senators traded for Derick Brassard was to give Ryan a skilled, left-handed pivot who could more easily get the puck to the right-handed right wing on the rush. The two have failed to click as hoped and were recently moved to different lines in an attempt to jump start the offense.
Hoffman, like Ryan, is off to a slow start with just three goals and seven points in 16 games. He is considered day-to-day with a lower-body-injury. Hoffman inked a massive four-year contract extension worth a total of $20.75MM this summer on the heels of a 29-goal, 59-point performance in 2015-16.
The Senators currently rank 27th in the NHL in goals scored and losing Ryan for what could be a lengthy period won’t help matters. Lazar has been considered one of Ottawa’s better prospects and the hope is he is ready to contribute some offense.
San Jose Sharks Snapshots: Burns, Labanc
Brent Burns and his potential free agency next summer is already a hot topic and will only continue to grow more popular as the season progresses with no contract extension between the blue liner and the San Jose Sharks. There is no doubt Burns is set to cash in whether he re-signs with the Sharks or heads to the open market and as Adam Gretz of FanRag Sports Network argues, Burns will be well worth every penny on his next contract.
Gretz speculates that given what similar defenseman have received, Burns should have no trouble finding a deal worth anywhere between $7MM and $8MM annually. That would place him easily among the highest paid blue liners in the game as only P.K. Subban has a contract with an AAV in excess of $8MM. But as Gretz points out, since becoming a full-time blue liner in 2014-15, Burns has more goals than anyone else at the position with 50.
Further, Burns ranks behind only Erik Karlsson in points with 149 and has more shots on goal than any other defender with 673.
Of course it’s easy to rationalize paying Burns or any other defenseman $8MM-a-year based on his current production level; the real question is how he is going to fare the longer his contract runs.
At 31, Burns is likely to get the seven-year max contract – eight if he re-signs with San Jose – which will take him well into his late 30’s. Naturally, Burns’ performance will decline as he ages and whoever signs the 6-foot-5, 230-pound defenseman will have to hope it’s a slow decline rather than a sudden one.
Assuming Burns finishes the current campaign strong he has a strong chance to join an accomplished group of defenders who have averaged 0.80-points-per-game or better between their age 29 and 31 seasons. According to Gretz, just 16 others have done that and many of those played during the 1980’s when scoring was significantly higher than it was in any other era. Gretz takes it further, noting that those blue liners saw on average a 19% decrease in point production over the four years following that stretch between 29 and 31. If Burns follows that same trend he would still be a 50-point scorer in year four of his next contract.
Granted, Gretz’s analysis does leave open the likelihood that Burns’ performance will decline further in years five through seven. In fact, he may well not be worth what he will be paid during those seasons but that’s a risk every team that signs a big money, long-term deal accepts. The hope is to get enough surplus value in the first half of the pact to offset the losses likely to be seen in the back half.
In other San Jose Sharks news:
- An unlikely top prospect, Brooklyn-born Kevin Labanc, who was selected by the Sharks in the sixth round of the 2014 entry draft, made his NHL debut last week. In five contests since joining San Jose, Labanc only has one point. But the rookie winger had his best game so far, as Kevin Kurz of CSN Bay Area reports, playing on a line with Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski in Thursday’s loss to St. Louis. Labanc notched his first NHL goal and nearly had another later in the game. The Sharks are going to need more games like that from the youngster as they may be without the services of Tomas Hertl for a while.
Hurricanes Up For Sale; Relocation Possible?
(7:50pm): Hurricanes team president Don Waddell called an in-game press conference tonight to deny the rumors of relocation, tweets Luke DeCock of The Raleigh News & Observer. In a second tweet, DeCock reports that Waddell also indicated that there had been nothing on the sales front in “four to five months.”
(6:45pm): Rumors of a potential sale of the Carolina Hurricanes franchise have been percolating for a while now. Attendance is one problem as the team has finished 30th and 29th respectively over each of the last two full campaigns and currently reside in last place again averaging just 11,189 fans per home game.
A second issue complicating the situation is a lawsuit filed against team owner Peter Karmanos by his three sons. Details of the suit can be found here. The suit has evidently been settled though it’s unknown whether that might mean a sale of the club is more or less likely.
Now, according to 98.5 Sports in Montreal (link in French), Karmanos is still actively pursuing a sale of the team and is willing to sell to a buyer looking to move the ‘Canes out of North Carolina. Naturally, with an NHL-caliber arena and no tenant, Quebec City immediately comes to mind as a potential landing spot should relocation become an option.
Earlier this year when talking about a sale and potential relocation, Karmanos flat out said the team would not be moving from North Carolina.
“I promise, this team isn’t going to Quebec. I’m not saying that cause I have something against Quebec, but because we have ties to this market. We have an excellent lease, I love this arena and I’m really attached to this market.”
Perhaps Carolina’s current ownership has softened on its stance but even so the league would need to approve such a move and in the past they’ve been resistant to relocating franchises.
Of course relocating the Hurricanes to Quebec would not solve the league’s geographical imbalance but it also doesn’t hurt the situation either. However, a possible future expansion to Seattle, as has often been rumored as well, would bring that desired balance. That would allow the league to use Quebec as a fall back in the event relocation of an Eastern Conference franchise, like Carolina, becomes necessary.
Los Angeles Kings Assign Campbell To AHL; Zatkoff To Return
The net has been a tough spot to be for Los Angeles Kings goaltenders this year, as both Jonathan Quick and Jeff Zatkoff have battled injuries all year. That might be coming to an end though, as according to Helene Elliott of the LA Times, the team has sent down Jack Campbell to the AHL following the news that Zatkoff will return this weekend.
Originally injured on October 22nd at practice, Zatkoff had been out of the lineup for almost a month. The Kings had to turn to Peter Budaj and Campbell, their planned AHL tandem, to fill in for the first month. Budaj received all fourteen starts however, Campbell only seeing the net in relief on November 1st. Obviously, he wasn’t trusted as well as the long-time NHL veteran. Budaj put up a strong-enough .914 save percentage over that stretch.
Zatkoff returning doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll take the starting job away from Budaj, though I imagine he would be in line for more work than Campbell. The former Pittsburgh Penguins netminder carries a career .912 save percentage and 2.72 GAA, but has never started more than 18 games in a single NHL season. Budaj, on the other hand is just two shy of 200 career starts, though has been relegated to the AHL in recent seasons.
Either way, the Kings have to figure out a way to start winning hockey games, as they are 8-9-1 and fourth in the Pacific Division.
Buffalo Sabres Send Baptiste, Rodrigues To Rochester
Amid rumors that they may be talking to the Vancouver Canucks about Evander Kane, the Buffalo Sabres have made another, less impactful roster move. The team has sent Nick Baptiste and Evan Rodrigues down to the AHL today. The team will likely need to make two corresponding moves to fill out their roster, as their injured forwards are not expected to make a return this weekend.
Baptiste, the younger of the two, has played in twelve games with the Sabres this season, and has two goals despite playing under 10 minutes each night. The 21-year old has scored seven points in the six games he’s spent down in the AHL this season between call-ups, continuing on his strong rookie campaign last year. In 2013-14, Baptiste showed off his scoring ability in junior, potting 45 goals in 65 games. He hasn’t been able to replicate it since, though is still expected to be a part of the Sabres future.
An undrafted rookie, Rodrigues made his NHL debut last season with the Sabres and got into just two games this year before being sent back down. A standout at Boston University, the 23-year old is also off to a strong start with Rochester, scoring eight points in 13 games. An undersized winger, Rodrigues scored 61 points in his final season at BU (41 games) before bing signed to a two-year, entry-level deal in 2015.
Senators Notes: Claesson, Anderson, Injuries
After being called up two weeks ago, Fredrik Claesson will be sent back to Binghamton of the AHL according to Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun. The team, facing a handful of nagging injuries up front, needs the roster spot to bring up another forward for tomorrow’s game. Claesson got into six games with the big club this year, barely playing much at all as Erik Karlsson continues to log huge minutes (27 per game).
A fifth-round pick, Claesson has progressed nicely into a solid depth defenseman for the club. Recently, GM Pierre Dorion specifically mentioned him as impressive in his development, saying he doesn’t really need to go out and get another blueliner now.
- Craig Anderson will again be in net tomorrow night after returning to the club. His season-long battle continues as he pops in and out of the dressing room whenever he can. Two nights ago marked Hockey Fights Cancer night in the NHL, where players and teams around the league donned lavender sweaters and the names of loved ones for warm up. Multiple players wore the name of Anderson’s wife Nicholle, honoring their peer in the only way they could. Today, the Anderson’s announced through a Sens press release that Nicholle has been diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
- The team is fighting a number of small injuries, as Garrioch reports. Bobby Ryan, Mike Hoffman and Chris Neil are all day-to-day and will be game-time decisions for tomorrow night’s matchup. The team will have to call up replacements for each of them if they miss, as they’re currently only carrying one extra forward.
McKenzie’s Latest: Olympics, Escrow, And Star Treatment
In a pair of radio appearances in Montreal and Edmonton on Friday morning, TSN Insider Bob McKenzie spoke about two big issues in the NHL.
McKenzie spoke in Montreal about the brewing fight between the NHL and NHLPA over Olympic participation and CBA (transcribed by Chris Nichols from FanRag). The current perception is that the owners don’t want to go to the Olympics and are “holding the players hostage” over the issue. The owners are offering Olympic participation at the price of extending the CBA.
The Fourth Period’s Dave Pagnotta reports that it doesn’t seem likely that the NHLPA will accept the offer.
This is because the players’ biggest problem is with escrow. As Nichols puts it, “there may not be a more mind-numbingly awful subject to discuss for hockey fans than escrow.”
McKenzie says he empathizes with the players, because no one would want to lose an additional 15 percent off the top of their take-home salary. The players using the five percent salary cap escalator each season helps raise the salaries of free agents, but ends up hurting players by increasing escrow. While the players say they want a cap on escrow, the issue, according to McKenzie is that “you can’t put a cap on escrow in a hard cap system. I think some players – I’m not saying all players – some players don’t understand escrow.”
This is where McKenzie says the negotiations could get ugly now and when the CBA expires: “if the players actually think that the NHL is going to negotiate a cap on escrow, which would mean that the owners are getting less than 50 percent of the revenue – that’s going to be a motherhood issue on both sides of the fence.”
How will they come to an agreement? “Outside of shutting down the league and going back and fighting the battle over the salary cap and the share, I don’t know how you solve that… There’ll be blood on the tracks for escrow to come down in any meaningful way, other than by not putting the inflator in or the Canadian dollar getting stronger.”
Hopefully for hockey fans, the two sides can figure it out without costing fans the chance to see NHLers at the Olympics in 2018 and beyond, and avoid another season-long lockout.
Another hot button issue in the hockey world is the treatment of superstars. The Calgary Flames’ Johnny Gaudreau will miss six weeks with a broken finger after being slashed 21 times by the Minnesota Wild. Flames coach Glen Gulutzan spoke to the referees about Gaudreau’s treatment earlier in the game, but there was no change in the standard of calls. GM Brad Treliving said “it wasn’t a unicorn” that broke Gaudreau’s finger. Meanwhile, the Flames rivals in Edmonton also have an issue with the officiating: the Oilers super sophomore Connor McDavid has also been hooked and held with few or no calls.
Neither McDavid nor coach Todd McLellan have been vocal about McDavid’s treatment. McKenzie believes that is the right choice, telling TSN 1260‘s morning show that complaining to the media won’t lead to the results they want. The TSN Insider suggested the Oilers organization will gather video of the missed calls and “lobby behind the scenes and if [Stephen Walkom’s office] thinks you have a valid point then they’ll send out a memo.”
McKenzie said, “one of the things I used to love about the NHL was it was really hard on the star players” but when that happened, “mayhem was going to follow” and that “often leads to serious injuries or criminal behaviour.”
With most enforcers out of the league, NHL teams don’t have the means they used to police the game themselves. If anyone got in Wayne Gretzky‘s face, they could count on a visit from Oilers tough guy Dave Semenko. But now, McKenzie says “it’s up to the referees to make sure that Brandon Dubinsky doesn’t get away with murder on Sidney Crosby.”
Even if there are changes implemented, McKenzie wisely points out that “at the end of the day it’s officiating and no one is ever going to be happy about it.”
Montreal Canadiens Call Up Charles Hudon From AHL
Some more French-Canadian blood will be skating for the Montreal Canadiens soon enough, as the team has brought up Charles Hudon from the St. John’s IceCaps of the AHL. Hudon made his NHL debut last season for the Habs when he dressed for three games throughout the year.
Hudon was originally drafted by the Canadiens in the fifth round, but has done nothing but improve his stock since then. With two straight 50+ point seasons in the AHL and a point-per-game start this season, he’s proven that he can score at the minor league level. In his three games last season he chipped in two assists, and is an offensive force when he keeps his feet moving in the zone.
Using his speed and relentless forechecking skills he already has nine goals, and now will join a team that already has no trouble scoring. While it’s unclear where he’ll slot in, he also has incredible power play vision, and may see time on special teams as well.