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College Hockey Round-Up: 02/03/22

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The NCAA has now been back in full swing for a few weeks following the holiday break and the action is ramping up as teams jockey for position in their respective conferences and the national rankings with conference tournaments taking place and the NCAA Tournament opening next month. Yet, there has actually been little movement amongst the top teams in the rankings in recent weeks. This past week actually saw no team shift more than three spots in the top 20, with No. 9 Ohio State and No. 15 Michigan Tech moving up and No. 11 Cornell moving back. Will it take a wild winning streak or a mighty fall to shake up the current makeup of the tournament field?

Recent Results

All hail, No. 1 Minnesota State. The Mavericks continue to excel from the top spot in the nation, winning consistently and brushing off skeptics with a superior strength of schedule this year. Minnesota State did lose to Northern Michigan earlier this month, their first loss since November 26, but have now won three straight since to bring their reason record to 25-5-0. The CCHA still presents a lighter schedule and Mankato’s six remaining games all look winnable. Barring a collapse in the conference tournament, it is hard to see the team losing their top spot.

No. 2 Quinnipiac seems to be in a more delicate position, yet continue to hold on to their ranking. The Bobcats are having an all-time season, there is no question. They are 21-2-3 and lost their first game since mid-October earlier this month to No. 11 Cornell. Of course, that brings up the fine print on Quinnipiac’s current record. Though a stunning mark overall, the Bobcats are just 2-2-1 against teams currently ranked and play only ECAC competition the rest of the way. Could the selection committee dock them for a weak strength of schedule? Would a regular season win and tournament championship over inconsistent Cornell really make much of a statement?

Preseason favorite No. 3 Michigan was 7-1-0 in January, including a sweep of the defending champions, No. 10 UMass. The star-studded squad will continue to be a top pick for the championship. However, Big Ten competition is closing in and proving more difficult than anticipated. The Wolverines’ one loss in the last month came to No. 8 Minnesota, while No. 9 Ohio State is flying up the rankings with a 10-1-2 record since knocking off Michigan themselves in December.

Hockey East seems to be trending in the opposite direction, as no team has been able to assert their dominance this season. The scattered results within conference play and some lacking non-conference results has left the historic New England group without many top contenders. UMass leads the pack in the national rankings, but they hold just a narrow lead in the conference standings over No. 14 UMass Lowell despite already beating them three times. Lowell has had no luck against their flagship rival, but did pick up a win against No. 16 Northeastern last weekend. The Huskies are now 1-4-0 in their last five games, including two losses against UMass, a disappointing loss versus Arizona State, and their one win coming against Vermont, the team with the lowest RPI in college hockey. Yet, Northeastern still sits above No. 17 Providence, who managed to beat UMass and take three of four points from Boston College in the last month, but also dropped two games to Merrimack and lost last weekend against No. 19 Boston University. There’s no clear contender in Hockey East this year and the conference may stunningly only end up with one or two tournament teams.

Still the strongest conference in NCAA Hockey, the NCHC is having another phenomenal year – even if it doesn’t always seem that way on paper. With teams ranked No. 4-No. 7 (a potential problem for national tournament design), No. 12 North Dakota, and perhaps even No. 18 Omaha, the NCHC looks primed to send the most teams to the big dance. No. 4 Denver has quietly taken over the top ranking and conference lead behind a 14-1-1 run, though only two of their past seven wins have come against ranked teams. The Pioneers face a make-or-break stretch run, with their next six games coming against the three teams directly behind them in the rankings. First up is No. 7 St. Cloud State, who has suffered from an infrequent schedule – eight games since December 1 – and tough luck against North Dakota of late, who took five of eight points in half of those games. Next is No. 5 Western Michigan, who slid a bit in the rankings this week following a split with No. 6 Minnesota-Duluth. As for the Bulldogs, Duluth has missed out on points they should have had in some of their recent match-ups and are only 4-7-1 in their last dozen games. While all of these teams seem to be cold, they are in fact suffering losses at the hands of one another, keeping them afloat in the national rankings.

Scholarships For All

Competitive balance at the Division I level of NCAA hockey received a major boost earlier this month when RIT and Union finally gained the ability to award athletic scholarships, ensuring that all hockey schools are on an even playing field in that regard. As Division III schools, RIT and Union previously had not been able to award scholarships, which is prohibited at that level, even though they sponsored hockey at a Division I level. The Division III membership voted last week to allow teams with Division I programs to abide by Division I rules for those teams, allowing RIT and Union to award athletic aid to its hockey athletes. While other Division I programs are also Division III overall – Clarkson, Colorado College, RPI, St. Lawrence – they had been grandfathered in. Union and RIT had been fighting for equal treatment for years, although both have not only survived, but thrived at times without scholarships. Union won the 2014 National Championship, following three consecutive ECAC titles, while RIT made the Frozen Four in 2010 and has three Atlantic titles. However, they will be even better equipped to compete with these changes. The timing is great for Union in particular, who will now have more of a draw as they seek to fill their head coach vacancy.

Student-Athletes At The Olympics

For the next few weeks, not every college team will be at full strength. 18 NCAA stars will be suiting up at the Olympics and all of them will play for one of the two North American powerhouses, Canada and the United States. In fact, the entire American squad is made up of college players, past and present. The NCAA teams hit the hardest will be Michigan, unsurprisingly, but also Minnesota and unranked Boston College.

Here is the list of college athletes to watch on the biggest international stage:

Canada:
G Devon Levi, Northeastern
F Jack McBain, Boston College
D Owen Power, Michigan

United States:
F Nick Abruzzese, Harvard
F Matthew Beniers, Michigan
F Brendan Brisson, Michigan
F Noah Cates, Minnesota-Duluth
G Drew Commesso, Boston Univ.
D Brock Faber, Minnesota
F Sean Farrell, Harvard
D Drew Helleson, Boston College
F Sam Hentges, St. Cloud State
F Matthew Knies, Minnesota
F Marc McLaughlin, Boston College
F Ben Meyers, Minnesota
D Nick Perbix, St. Cloud State
D Jake Sanderson, North Dakota
F Nathan Smith, Minnesota State

Chicago Blackhawks To Interview Peter Chiarelli For GM Vacancy

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Buckle up, Blackhawks fans. As Chicago prepares to begin interviews this week for their current vacancy at General Manager, at least one big name has been confirmed as a candidate. TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that former Boston Bruins and Edmonton Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli will interview for the Blackhawks’ GM job. In fact, the club sought out the experienced executive, currently the Vice President of Hockey Operations with the St. Louis Blues, and requested that he apply. Dreger adds that the interview process could move quickly with the NHL Trade Deadline approaching next month. If Chiarelli is deemed to be Chicago’s top option, he could be named leader of the front office within weeks.

Even after more than three years removed from his last GM job, Chiarelli remains a polarizing figure in the hockey community. As a young GM, he built a Stanley Cup winner (and shortly thereafter a finalist again) in Boston – and that is something that can’t be taken from him. Chiarelli built the core of that championship team from scratch and his fingerprints are still all over the current Bruins. His efforts included signing Zdeno Chara, Marc Savard, Andrew Ference, and Torey Krug; trading for Tuukka Rask, Adam McQuaid, Johnny Boychuk, Mark Recchi, Dennis Seidenberg, and Nathan Horton; and drafting Phil Kessel, Milan Lucic, Brad Marchand, Matt Grzelcyk, Tyler Seguin, Dougie Hamilton, and David Pastrnak. However, in building a winner he also made some questionable deals that cost the Bruins Blake Wheeler, Kris Versteeg, Boychuk, and most notably Kessel and later his return, top-ten picks Seguin and Hamilton. High-value picks he dealt away turned into the likes of Rickard Rakell, Jason Dickinson, current Bruin Derek Forbort and more. Chiarelli was also wrong more often than he was right in the draft, which wasn’t helped by his willingness to give up picks.

When Chiarelli arrived in Edmonton with plans on turning the historically bad club into contenders, he walked right in to drafting Connor McDavid first overall in 2015. While the book is still out on some of Chiarelli’s later draft picks, the obvious McDavid selection was one of his few hits, with Jesse Puljujarvi, Kailer Yamamoto, and Tyler Benson hardly living up to their draft billing. Chiarelli also struggled in free agency, giving too much to old friend Lucic and unproven Mikko Koskinen while failing to provide McDavid and Leon Draisaitl with suitable wingers. Yet, what Chiarelli is most infamous for are his trades in Edmonton, with none more talked about than the Taylor Hall–Adam Larsson swap. He also sent away Justin Schultz, Jordan Eberle, and Ryan Strome in lopsided deals and gave away a first-round pick (Mathew Barzal) for Griffin Reinhart. Yet, the Oilers did improve under Chiarelli and his extensions for McDavid and Draisaitl now look like bargains. If he had just avoided a few of his mistakes, the Oilers might have made a run to the Cup just like Boston.

So is it time for another chance? Dreger notes that the Blackhawks do have many candidates and by no means does he insinuate that Chiarelli is already the front-runner. Current interim Kyle Davidson will get a look, as could Seattle Assistant GM Jason Botterill, who was reportedly the runner-up for the Anaheim job. Displaced interim Ducks GM Jeff Solomon could also be in consideration, as could a number of others who were in the mix for the recently-filled jobs in Montreal and Vancouver. However, there is no doubt that for entertainment’s sake, having Chiarelli back in the GM chair would be fun to watch.

Johan Larsson Undergoes Surgery

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One of the interesting trade chips that the Arizona Coyotes held this season was center Johan Larsson, who is actually having a pretty strong year with the rebuilding club. The 29-year-old had 15 points in 29 games and was holding his own in heavy defensive minutes once again. Unfortunately for the Coyotes, he won’t get a chance to showcase those skills much further. Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports reports that Larsson has undergone surgery for a sports hernia and notes that the early projection would have him missing eight weeks.

An eight-week timetable would mean Larsson won’t be back before the trade deadline, and given the notorious nature of hernia surgeries having a lasting effect on a player’s performance even after they’re cleared to return, it’ll be hard for a team to bet on him in any deal. Morgan does suggest on Twitter that there was some interest in Larsson, interest that could remain if he’s on track to return at some point.

Last season there was actually a deal that could be considered comparable, even if Larsson’s recovery will take a little longer than initially expected. The Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Riley Nash from the Columbus Blue Jackets for a conditional draft pick, despite Nash being on long-term injured reserve and not expected back until the playoffs. The depth center ended up playing in two postseason games for Toronto, meaning the Blue Jackets landed a sixth-round pick. If there is a reasonable case to keep Larsson sidelined until the playoffs, any number of contenders that are using LTIR by the deadline could add him simply as another depth piece for later.

NHL Announces Player Assignments For Skills Competition

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The NHL All-Star Skills competition will take place tomorrow night in Las Vegas, and the league has announced ahead of time which players will participate in which events. The player assignments for the seven events are as follows:

Fastest Skater

Chris Kreider, NYR
Adrian Kempe, LAK
Kyle Connor, WPG
Evgeny Kuznetsov, WSH
Jordan Kyrou, STL
Dylan Larkin, DET
Cale Makar, COL
Connor McDavid, EDM           

Save Streak

Jack Campbell, TOR
Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL
Frederik Andersen, CAR
Tristan Jarry, PIT
Cam Talbot, MIN
Juuse Saros, NSH
Thatcher Demko, VAN
John Gibson, ANA

Fountain Face-Off

Jonathan Huberdeau, FLA
Claude Giroux, PHI
Jordan Eberle, SEA
Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson
Roman Josi, NSH
Nick Suzuki, MTL
Zach Werenski, CBJ
Mark Stone, VGK

Hardest Shot

Adam Pelech, NYI
Timo Meier, SJS
Victor Hedman, TBL
Tom Wilson, WSH

Breakaway Challenge

Goalies: Manon Rhéaume & Wyatt Russell

Kirill Kaprizov, MIN
Trevor Zegras, ANA
Jack Hughes, NJD
Alex DeBrincat, CHI
Alex Pietrangelo, VGK

Las Vegas NHL 21 in ’22

Nazem Kadri, COL
Auston Matthews, TOR
Joe Pavelski, DAL
Steven Stamkos, TBL
Brady Tkachuk, OTT

Accuracy Shooting

Leon Draisaitl, EDM
Clayton Keller, ARI
Rasmus Dahlin, BUF
Sebastian Aho, CAR
Jake Guentzel, PIT
Troy Terry, ANA
Johnny Gaudreau, CGY
Patrice Bergeron, BOS
Jonathan Marchessault, VGK

Two new events, the Fountain Face-Off and 21 in ’22 will be held outside in the Bellagio fountain and Las Vegas strip respectively. Individual winners of each event will earn $30,000.

Snapshots: Coyotes, Botterill, Flyers

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Under new general manager Bill Armstrong, the Arizona Coyotes took a very clear path last summer. They shed long-term commitments while providing a cap haven for teams struggling to put together a roster in the current financial situation the league finds itself in. Taking on short-term bad-money contracts like Loui Eriksson, Andrew Ladd, Antoine Roussel, Shayne Gostisbehere, Anton Stralman, and Jay Beagle netted them a whole variety of draft picks, and they’re ready to do it again.

Chris Johnston explained this week on TSN’s Insider Trading that the Coyotes are “eyeing a chance to be an important go-between at this deadline” as other teams deal with a tight cap situation. With plenty of cap space themselves, they could take on more bad contracts or even retain salary in a three-way deal. Notably, however, they can only use that latter strategy once. After retaining money on both Darcy Kuemper and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, the Coyotes can only be involved in one other retained salary transaction this season. Kuemper’s agreement ends at the end of the year, meaning they could jump back into that ring in the summer.

  • While Pat Verbeek eventually landed the Anaheim Ducks general manager job, another assistant GM was apparently close. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that Jason Botterill, AGM of the Seattle Kraken, was a finalist for the Ducks position. It would have been Botterill’s second chance in charge of a front office after his short stint with the Buffalo Sabres, one which did not go well. In three years leading the Sabres, the team finished no higher than sixth in the Atlantic Division and his draft results were certainly mixed. While he did land Rasmus Dahlin and Dylan Cozens, other high picks were used on Casey Mittelstadt (8th, 2017), Marcus Davisson (37th, 2017), Mattias Samuelsson (32nd, 2018), and Ryan Johnson (31st, 2019), all players who have either struggled or been unable to quite make their mark at the NHL level just yet.
  • The Philadelphia Flyers officially made a few changes to the front office. Alyn McCauley has been promoted to director of player personnel, while Tom Minton is now the director of hockey operations. McCauley has been with the Flyers for five years as a pro scout, while Minton was previously the director of hockey information and video. Recently, general manager Chuck Fletcher explained that the team is doubling the size of their analytics department and investing more in development staff.

Michael Houser Clears Waivers

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Feb 3: Friedman reports that Houser has cleared waivers. He can now be sent to the minor leagues.

Feb 2: The Buffalo Sabres, finally getting some goaltenders healthy again, have placed Michael Houser on waivers today according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The team had Craig Anderson and Dustin Tokarski dressed last night, meaning Houser can now return to the minor leagues and wait for his next NHL opportunity.

It’s been an interesting year for Houser, who was playing in the ECHL as recently as 2019-20. The undrafted netminder was on a minor league deal last season when the Sabres were forced to sign him to an NHL contract and put him in the net. The exact same situation happened again this season when he was signed in mid-January after more goaltending issues in Buffalo. Despite all that he has actually been excellent when called upon and now spots a career NHL save percentage of .917 through six appearances.

Still, the chance of him being claimed at this point is extremely low given his checkered history in the minor leagues, which only even includes 23 AHL appearances since the start of the 2015-16 season. Should he clear as expected, he’ll likely go back to Rochester where the Americans are scheduled to play 13 games in February.

It will be interesting to see who would be the first call-up should the Sabres run into any other goaltending trouble, after Aaron Dell was also sent to the AHL earlier this week. The veteran goaltender appears to have served his full suspension by staying on the active roster through the game against the Colorado Avalanche, meaning he could be recalled and play for the Sabres whenever necessary.

Poll: Which Team Currently Outside The Playoffs Will Make It?

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The All-Star weekend is always the unofficial halfway point of the season, but this year brings an odd spread of games played thanks to COVID postponements and the previously scheduled Olympic break. While the Anaheim Ducks have played in 48 of their 82 games already, the New York Islanders have just 39 completed.

Despite still more than half the season remaining for some teams, many believe the Eastern Conference playoff picture is essentially already finalized. The Boston Bruins, currently sitting in the second wildcard spot, have a nine-point lead on the Detroit Red Wings despite having played four fewer games. The Islanders perhaps have a better shot if they were to catch fire in the second half, because of the number of games they’ve played to this point.

In the West, it’s not nearly as clear-cut. The Calgary Flames currently sit in the final wildcard spot, but are just three points behind the Anaheim Ducks for a divisional position with six fewer games played. In fact, the Pacific division in general will be an interesting race given how few games the Flames and Edmonton Oilers have played so far. Both of those teams could potentially contend for the division lead–currently held by the Vegas Golden Knights–with a relatively short winning streak. In the Central, it’s a little tighter, but the St. Louis Blues, currently in a wildcard position are still in danger of being caught by those pesky Pacifics.

Even teams like the Dallas Stars, San Jose Sharks, Vancouver Canucks, and Winnipeg Jets aren’t really out of it at this point, despite rollercoaster seasons each. Winnipeg, once considered a Stanley Cup contender, has been brutal of late and now sits nine points behind the Flames for the last spot, but has also played just 42 games. There is still plenty of season left for them to make a push, though they’ll need better play from the leadership group in order to do it.

So which team that’s currently outside the playoff picture will end up making it? We’ve included the most likely answers below, but if you feel confident in someone else make sure to explain why in the comment section.

[Mobile users click here to vote]

Anaheim Ducks Hire Pat Verbeek

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Official now, the Anaheim Ducks have hired Pat Verbeek as their next general manager. Verbeek leaves the Detroit Red Wings where he has spent the last three years as assistant GM. Ducks’ owners Henry and Susan Samueli released a statement on the hire:

Susan and I are delighted to welcome Pat Verbeek to our community to guide our hockey club as the next General Manager of the Anaheim Ducks. Pat’s outstanding work ethic and vast knowledge of the game as a successful executive and player throughout his 35-plus years in the NHL make him an outstanding fit to lead us forward. He brings a unique pedigree, having vast experience and serving in integral leadership roles for championship teams as both a player and executive at the NHL level.

Verbeek, 57, has a long history of success as a player, scout, and executive, being part of Stanley Cup-winning teams at all three levels. He has been moving through front offices right alongside Steve Yzerman for the last decade-plus but will now get a chance to run an organization of his own.

Replacing Bob Murray, who resigned earlier this year, Verbeek has an interesting challenge ahead of him with the exciting young Ducks’ group. There are core pieces reaching the end of their contracts this season–Rickard Rakell, Hampus Lindholm, and Josh Manson are all scheduled to become unrestricted free agents–but the youth of Troy Terry, Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale and others have helped the team stay competitive in the Pacific Division. Selling off rentals isn’t something that playoff contenders do very often, but it would also be difficult to watch a player like Lindholm walk without getting anything in return.

With more than six weeks until the deadline, there is plenty of time to make those decisions and Verbeek comes right at the start of the All-Star break, meaning he’ll have a few days to get familiarized with his new staff and organization.

It’s an organization that does have a history of success, despite its relatively short lifetime. Since entering the NHL in 1993, Anaheim has reached the Stanley Cup Final twice, won it once, and gone to three other Conference Finals. The most recently long playoff run came in 2017, when a Randy Carlyle-led group fell in six games to the Nashville Predators in the third round. Currently, the Ducks sit seventh in the Western Conference with a 23-16-9 record, but they have played six more games than a couple of the teams chasing them and could quickly slip out of a Pacific Division playoff spot. Sorting by points percentage would drop them to ninth, making Verbeek’s job even more difficult in the coming weeks.

Of course, unlike some of the other managers that have taken over this season, Verbeek also isn’t really dealing with a cap table bloated with long-term deals. Only Adam Henrique, Jakob Silfverberg, John Gibson, and Cam Fowler are signed through the 2023-24 season, with just the latter two under contract past that. That sort of flexibility will allow Verbeek to put his stamp on the Ducks in short order, even if this case doesn’t require a tear-down.

AHL Shuffle: 02/03/22

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The All-Star break is upon us, meaning that taxi squads are now a thing of the past. The teams that played last night will dissolve it today, hopefully never to be seen again. Despite that, we’ll still be keeping track of all the shuffling between the NHL and AHL as always, though after today there will be a few days where no moves happen while players take a much-needed rest and get ready for what is going to be a hectic second half.

Atlantic Division

  • The Detroit Red Wings have sent Joe Veleno back to the AHL, though again that is likely only a paper transaction through the break. The young forward has been a regular in the lineup recently and scored his fourth goal of the season against the Los Angeles Kings last night.

Metropolitan Division

  • The Washington Capitals have dissolved the taxi squad, meaning Lucas Johansen and Pheonix Copley have been returned to the Hershey Bears. There will likely be recalls in a few days, but for now, both of those two can join the AHL squad and keep playing.

Central Division

  • The Minnesota Wild have reassigned Kevin Czuczman and Zane McIntyre to the Iowa Wild, where they’ll wait for their next opportunity at the NHL level. McIntyre, 29, has only ever played eight games in the NHL and all of them came during the 2016-17 season. He does have a .914 save percentage with Iowa though, in his first season with the organization.

Pacific Division

  • The Seattle Kraken have returned Connor Carrick, Cale Fleury, and Kole Lind to the Charlotte Checkers. Fleury, 23, has played nearly the entire season in the minor leagues, racking up 17 points in 36 games.
  • The Calgary Flames have assigned Byron Froese and Connor Mackey to the AHL, as expected. The team comes into the break on a three-game winning streak that has them poised for a second-half run, which kicks off with a seven-game homestand starting next week.
  • The Edmonton Oilers have sent Colton Sceviour, Stuart Skinner, William Lagesson, and Slater Koekkoek down, though some of those may end up back with the big team in the coming months. Lagesson especially has been an interesting find, even if he’s playing just a handful of minutes whenever he’s in the lineup.

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