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Islanders Reviewing GM Garth Snow

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After missing the playoffs this season by just a point, albeit in a year when they expected to be contenders, the Islanders have begun their off-season evaluations and must ask the tough questions if they want to improve in 2017-18. One of those questions is about the fate of GM Garth Snow. Snow, who has been on the job for over a decade now, made many moves this season that deserve some scrutiny. The firing of head coach Jack Capuano and promotion of Doug Weight seemed to work out; letting Kyle Okposo and Frans Nielsen (116 points combined in 2015-16) walk in free agency and replacing them with Andrew Ladd and Jason Chimera (64 points in 2016-17) not so much. Snow’s job is safe for now, but the Islanders are doing their due diligence in reviewing the GM’s recent moves and plans for the future.

However, they are going about it in a strange way. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Islanders have been polling league executives to see how they think Snow has been doing. In theory, this is an interesting plan: hire and outside firm to get the opinions of peers across the league and avoid bias from within the organization. The execution is lacking, though. So far, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, despite some highly questionable moves. The reasoning behind this is relatively simple: What incentive does any rival executive have to be critical of Snow? If they think Snow is doing poorly, they can only benefit from the Islanders’ continued struggles while he is in charge and may even want to keep him in control of player operations in hopes of swindling him in a trade down the road.

This is clearly a flawed system and hopefully the Islanders are only taking this feedback with a grain of salt in evaluating Snow’s future. It would be a shame for Snow to lose (or keep) his job after all this time based on the faulty polling of competitors.

Rangers Notes: Holden, Klein, Miller

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Despite being tied 1-1 in their first round series with the Montreal Canadiens and the match-up moving home to Madison Square Garden for the next two games, the New York Rangers have made some notable changes to their lineup. The most intriguing is the absence of defenseman Nick Holden. Holden, acquired from the Colorado Avalanche in the off-season for just a fourth-round pick, has proven to be a solid pickup by GM Jeff Gorton. The big 29-year-old blue liner was healthy for 80 games this season and contributed career-highs in offensive production with 11 goals and 23 assists. Those 34 points were more than highly-paid teammates Dan Girardi and Marc Staal combined. Holden was also a +13 on the year, second only to captain Ryan McDonagh among defenseman, and was second on the team, again to McDonagh, in ice time as well, averaging over 20 minutes per game.

Yet, when the puck dropped on Game Three, Holden was watching from the press box as a scratch. There has been no indication that Holden was hurt in either game in Montreal, nor is there any knowledge of nagging injuries. For now, it seems as though Holden, arguably the Rangers’ second best defenseman this season, is simply a healthy scratch. Holden has only one assist and is a -1 so far in the playoff series, including a -2 in Friday’s loss, but it is hard to find sufficient evidence that his play has been poor enough recently to warrant a scratch. Perhaps there is more to the situation than has been revealed just yet, but for the time being the Rangers will see, for just the third time all season, how a lineup without Holden plays.

  • In his place, the Rangers have moved veteran defenseman Kevin Klein into the lineup. The emergence of Brady Skjei, the trade for Brendan Smith, and, of course, the occasional injury have limited Klein to just 60 games this season, the fewest games he has ever played in a full NHL season in his career. Klein may not have the offensive upside that some of his fellow defenders do, but he is a very strong player in his own end and an intimidating physical threat. After allowing four goals against the Canadiens in Game Two when they held them scoreless in Game One, it reasons that the Rangers and coach Alain Vigneault may want to create a stronger defensive presence and Klein can get the job done. Klein will skate alongside Skjei tonight, while Smith moves up to replace Holden alongside Staal.
  • Another interesting change is the demotion of J.T. Miller to the Rangers’ fourth line. Miller, in just his third full season, finished second on the team in scoring behind Mats Zuccarello with 22 goals and a career-best 34 assists. How quickly the memory of 56 points can be erased when a top scorer fails to register a point in back-to-back playoff games and takes only 3 shots to boot. Now, Miller finds himself on the checking line with Oscar Lindberg and Tanner Glass and will likely see a major drop in 5-on-5 ice time until he can work his way up into the top nine again.

Bruins Notes: Krejci, C. Miller, Morrow, Subban

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Fresh off a 2-1 Game One win against the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night without three starters in David Krejci, Torey Krug, and Brandon Carlo, it appears that the Boston Bruins will have to line up for Game Two with an even more short-handed roster. While the team has until their matinee puck drop on Saturday to make any official announcement, it sounds as though defenseman Colin Miller will join the growing list of injuries. Miller, who left the previous game after suffering a lower body injury on a trip from Mark Borowiecki, was on the ice for practice today, but left early due to pain and discomfort. After practice, head coach Bruce Cassidy made it sound very unlikely that Miller would be available for the next game.

With Miller out, in addition to Krug and Carlo, Joe Morrow is the next man up to slot in on the blue line. Morrow, a former first-round pick and a piece of the Tyler Seguin trade, has not been able to work his way into regular play time in years with the Bruins. With John-Michael Liles in the fold this season, Morrow was bumped down to eighth on the depth chart and has not played in almost three months. However, the Bruins were able to beat the Senators with just five defenseman for most of Game One, so even a cold Morrow could be an upgrade as Boston looks to take a stranglehold on the series with another road win.

  • Having Krejci back would certainly go a long way to help the Bruins take a 2-0 series lead, but Cassidy confirmed that Boston’s highest-paid player will miss another game. Cassidy did add the qualifier that “as of today” he would miss the game, and Krejci did suit up for warm-ups before being a late scratch in Game One,  however he missed practice today and all signs point to the Bruins playing is safe with their third-highest scorer.

Minnesota Wild Sign UMD Defenseman Carson Soucy

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The Minnesota Wild have wrapped up an immensely successful regular season and have turned their attention toward preparing for the postseason, but the front office is still working hard to prepare for the future. The Wild announced this evening that they have inked 2013 fifth-round pick Carson Soucy to a two-year entry-level contract that will begin in 2017-18. Soucy will join the AHL’s Iowa Wild for the remainder of the season.

Soucy is coming off a strong season playing for NCAA runner-up, the University of Minnesota-Duluth. The 6’4″ 22-year-old defenseman was a dominant force skating on the Bulldogs’ top pairing as they fought for the top spot in the nation all season long. Soucy, who wore the “A” in his senior season, was a model of defensive responsibility and physical play for four seasons in Duluth. Although he lack much offensive upside, with a career-high 15 points this season, he makes up for it in a solid stay at home game.

Although the Wild are known for having one of the deepest defensive units in hockey, their strength is also their weakness in the upcoming Expansion Draft. Able to protect only three or four defenseman, Minnesota faces a conundrum with five defenseman on the roster that would be very attractive to George McPhee and the Vegas Golden Knights. Ryan Suter must be protected, but it seems likely that only two of Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin, Marco Scandella, and Matt Dumba will join him. One of the other two is prime for the picking. With that in mind, the Wild have begun stockpiling young depth options like Gustav Olofsson, Mike Reilly, and now Soucy. Assuming Minnesota is out a defenseman this summer, Soucy has a chance to make his NHL debut next season if his defensive game translates to the next level.

Kings Fire Head Coach Darryl Sutter And GM Dean Lombardi

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In a massive overhaul of their front office, Los Angeles Kings ownership group AEG announced that head coach Darryl Sutter and General Manager Dean Lombardi have been relieved of their positions. A pair of former players and current executives have been promoted with Luc Robitaille named President and Rob Blake named the new General Manager and Vice President. The duo will oversee all of hockey operations which now includes finding a new coach. The Kings will hold an official press conference tomorrow to introduce Robitaille and Blake in their new capacities.

The sweeping changes come after a disappointing season that saw the perennial contenders miss the playoffs entirely. Despite a long-term injury to starting goalie Jonathan Quick, it was instead the offense that struggled for much of the season. Anemic at times, the offense finished 24th in the league with 2.4 goals per game behind poor production from Anze Kopitar, Marian Gaborik, and Dustin Brown and a step backward in development for Tyler Toffoli. Much of the blame for the goal-scoring struggles fell on Sutter’s dated style and slow-paced structure and Lomdardi’s inability to add scoring via trade. Lombardi likely sealed his fate with a strange deadline deal to acquire Tampa Bay Lightning starting goaltender Ben Bishop in exchange for expectation-shattering veteran backup Peter Budaj and other pieces just as Quick had finally gotten healthy. The move did little to help the Kings down the stretch, whereas those same pieces or others could have been used to acquire a scorer instead. Los Angeles finished in tenth in the Western Conference, eight points behind the Nashville Predators and Calgary Flames for a playoff berth.

AEG CEO Dan Beckerman called the move “an extremely difficult decision… made with an enormous amount of consideration”, but in the end they felt that it was the best for the team. Beckerman expressed his gratitude to both Sutter and Lombardi in the company’s statement, as the pair did build and operate a Kings team that won two Stanley Cups in a five-year span, but simply felt it was time to move on. Sutter joins a growing list of highly decorated  veteran coaches available on the open market, but only time will tell if his old-school style is appealing to one of the teams in the hunt for a new bench boss. Sutter is a Hall of Famer, but his NHL future is currently in doubt. Lombardi meanwhile is not long removed from being considered a top team builder in the NHL. Lombardi built a winner in L.A., but simply forgot to keep building. Nevertheless, he will find a job in a front office sooner rather than later. The new team of Robitaille and Blake have their work cut out for them this off-season, as the Kings faces a difficult Expansion Draft scenario, likely a middling first-round pick unable to contribute next season, several contracts that should be shed if possible, and, of course, a desperate need for scoring help up front.

 

McDavid, Crosby, Holtby Take Home Statistical Awards

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We are still a couple months out from the naming of the majority of NHL Awards – Hart, Vezina, Norris, Selke, Calder, and more – but as the regular season came to end last night, three phenoms of the game clinched some impressive hardware.

Connor McDavid, at just 20 years old, added two assists last night in a winning effort to finish the season with an even 100 points and seal the title of Art Ross Trophy winner. Awarded annually to the player with the most points in the regular season, McDavid took the lead in the scoring race early in the season and never looked back. He faced some competition along the way, such as last year’s winner, Chicago’s Patrick Kane, Boston’s Brad Marchand, and a certain superstar on the Pittsburgh Penguins, but in the end finished with 11 more points than the nearest challenger. McDavid’s point totals were mostly due to a league-leading 70 assists, seven more than second-place Nicklas Backstrom of the Capitals, and his 30 goals were not too shabby either, placing him just outside the top 25 in that category. McDavid is the second youngest winner of the Art Ross and even more impressively, won the award playing for a team that had only one other player, Leon Draisaitl, who has both 25 goals and 25 assists or better. Edmonton recorded 247 goals this season, good enough for eighth in the league, and McDavid contributed to over 40% of that scoring. The Art Ross winner is often the leading candidate for the Hart Trophy, given to the league’s Most Valuable Player, and don’t expect it to be any different for McDavid, whose efforts have almost single-handedly turned around the franchise and transformed them into a playoff team. The scary thing: he’s just getting started.

Not to be outdone, Sidney Crosby, the youngest Art Ross winner on record at 19 years old (he added another a few years later too) fell just short of a third crown in 2016-17 with 89 points, but managed to secure the goal-scoring title and the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy. Crosby’s 44 goals were best in the league, just ahead of Toronto rookie Auston Matthews and Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov, while Crosby too was pressured by Brad Marchand for much of the season. In the end, the Penguins captain proved to be too good. The last time that Crosby scored over 40 goals was in 2009-10, when his 51 tallies earned him a share in the Richard with Lightning star Steven Stamkos. Crosby now joins Stamkos, rival Alexander Ovechkin, and former teammate Jarome Iginla as the only active players to have won the award multiple times. In a season marked by injury for the Penguins, the team still managed to lead the league in goals for with 282 and Crosby led the way, potting 16% of those goals. Amazingly, Crosby is still not even 30 years old, so fans have plenty of years left to look forward to Crosby-McDavid scoring races.

On the other end of the ice, it was Washington Capitals’ brick wall goaltender Braden Holtby who backstopped his team to a league-best 182 goals against. The William M. Jennings Trophy is awarded each year to the goalie (or goalies) on the team that allowed the fewest scores and by a wide margin of 13 less than the Columbus Blue Jackets, Washington led the way behind Holtby. Holtby was near the top of nearly every statistical category for keepers this regular season with a league-best 42 wins (tied with Edmonton’s Cam Talbot), a second-place goals against average of 2.07, just one hundredth worse than the Blue Jackets’ Sergei Bobrovsky, and a top-five save percentage of .925. Holtby has certainly put him self in the mix for the Vezina Trophy this season, but faces stiff competition from Bobrovksy. Not to be forgotten in the Capitals’ stingy winning equation is backup Philipp Grubauer. The Jennings  can be awarded to multiple goalies if each plays in a minimum of 25 games. Grubauer was fantastic in 2016-17, with numbers rivaling Holtby’s, albeit in a lesser sample size, but with just 23 games under his belt failed to qualify for the award. Nonetheless, Grubauer’s 2.05 GAA and .926 SV% were astounding and should earn him a look as a starter next year, whether by Washington trade or selection by the Vegas Golden Knights in the upcoming Expansion Draft.

Minor Transactions: Last Day Of The Regular Season

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The Washington Capitals, who have long since clinched the President’s Trophy for the best record in the NHL this season, have next to nothing to play for in their 2016-17 regular season finale. What better use for such a game than to reward a time-tested contributor to the organization. The Capitals announced today that they have recalled Garrett Mitchell, as well as Chandler Stephenson, from the AHL’s Hershey Bears for the last game of the season. Mitchell, the Hersey captain, will make his NHL debut at 25 after being a sixth-round selection of the Capitals back in 2009. Far from an offensive juggernaut, Mitchell is instead a physical two-way forward who makes up for his lack of points by sticking up for the Bears’ younger players and leading by example in his own end. It is a classy move by Washington to give a player who has worked hard for the organization a brief glimpse at NHL life, even though his ceiling appears to be a nothing more than a fourth-line player at this time.

Around the league, the transactions are coming in fast:

  • Washington’s opponent tonight is the Florida Panthers and newly-recalled young goalie Sam Brittain. It remains to be seen if Brittain will make his NHL debut tonight, but he’ll at least be on the bench as Florida announced that the 24-year-old had been promoted from the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds for the game. Brittain has played mostly in the ECHL this season and is far from being a regular NHLer any time soon, but will at least get a look at big league action in the season finale.
  • Another goalie getting a rare look at the highest level is the New York Rangers’ Magnus Hellberg. Buried behind all-world keeper Henrik Lundqvist and one of the more reliable backups in the league, Antti Raanta, Hellberg was surely excited to hear that he had been called up from the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack. Hellberg, 26, has never started an NHL game and that won’t change tonight as Raanta gets the call for the Rangers. However, Hellberg has seen the ice three times in his career and has strung together several strong AHL seasons in a row, so gaining some more experience tonight, even from the bench, brings him closer to an NHL future.
  • A goalie headed the other way today is the Montreal Canadiens’ Charlie Lindgren. Despite nothing but success in his few NHL appearances early in his young career, the Habs are set in net with Carey Price and Al Montoya. Lindgren will have to wait for opportunity to strike for a longer stint with the Canadiens, as he’ll head back down to the AHL and the St. John’s Ice Caps alongside defenseman Brett Lernout, the team announced.
  • Another pair headed back to the minors are Winnipeg Jets’ prospects Kyle Connor and Nelson Nogier. Following their season finale yesterday, the Jets decided today to return the duo to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose to get some final play time in this season. While the Jets expected more than five points in 20 games from Connor in his rookie season, after being a Hobey Baker finalist for the University of Michigan last year, expect him to play a major role for Winnipeg in 2017-18.
  • Another player set to take on a major role next year is Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Robert Hagg. Fans can get a preview of the prospect-studded blue line that Philly is likely to roll out in 2017-18 when Hagg makes his NHL debut today. The team announced his recall this morning from the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, and he will skate alongside the likes of Shayne Gostisbehere and Ivan Provorov tonight and Travis Sanheim and Samuel Morin as well next year in a truly impressive collection of young talent.
  • Across the state, the Pittsburgh Penguins are planning on resting some of their players today – those that aren’t already injured anyway – and have called up a trio of players from the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to help fill the voids. Oskar Sundqvist and Derrick Pouliot, two names familiar to Penguins fans, will return to the lineup, while Jean-Sebastien Dea will make his NHL debut. A longtime WBS contributor, Dea’s work ethic and consistency has finally earned him his first shot at the pros for a team that is in desperate need of depth that can step up their play.
  • Pittsburgh’s Round One opponent, the Columbus Blue Jackets, are adding some promising young talent of their own in forward Sonny Milano. The team announced that they had promoted the 2014 first-rounder from the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters and that he will get the call today against the Toronto Maple Leafs as the Jackets look to reverse their recent luck before the postseason gets underway. Milano has only skated in three games with Columbus this season, but leads the Monsters in scoring with 46 points in 61 games.
  • The St. Louis Blues announced that they have recalled defenseman Chris Butler from the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. However, Butler’s return to the NHL lineup may be overshadowed by the possibility that Vladimir Sobotka could also make his season debut after a long hiatus from the team while playing in the KHL.
  • With an extremely disappointing season finally over in Dallas, the Stars have moved a slew of players back down to the AHL’s Texas Stars to give them some play time before the end of the season. Forwards Jason Dickinson, Mark McNeill, Gemel Smith, Denis Gurianov, and Remi Elie and defenseman Julius Honka will all head back to Texas, a team that, like its affiliate, has no chance at the playoffs either.

More to come throughout the final day of the 2016-17 season

Maple Leafs Call Up Garret Sparks On Emergency Basis

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Per usual, the last day of the regular season has already provided a flurry of activity. Recalls abound as teams heading to the playoffs rest their starters and those remaining teams, with nothing left to play for, begin to take a look ahead with some new additions to the lineup. However, one move already today is an outlier: the Toronto Maple Leafs have announced an emergency call-up of goaltender Garret Sparks from the AHL’s Toronto Marlies.

The move comes not as a luxury, but as a necessity. The Leafs may have the most important game of the day, as they get set to square off with the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight with major playoff seeding implications on the line. A regulation loss and Toronto faces the Washington Capitals in the first round, a match-up many consider to be a quick elimination for any team, as the Eastern Conference’s second wild card team. If they are able to pick up even one point, Toronto leap frogs the Boston Bruins and gets to play the rival Ottawa Senators in the Atlantic Division pairing. So who will be in net for this big game? It won’t be starter Frederik Andersen. Andersen left yesterday’s game, a playoff-clinching win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, early due to injury and will not suit up tonight. It remains unclear what kind of condition Andersen is in, having been pulled due to injury twice in recent weeks, but Toronto will play it safe with their starter. Curtis McElhinney will get the call instead today against his former team, and played admirably in relief of Andersen yesterday, but has not played in back-to-back games all season.

Cue Sparks, who may end up seeing the ice in relief in one of the most important games of the season for a team he has yet to appear with in 2016-17. With Jhonas Enroth the backup in Toronto earlier this season, a brief reprieve by Antoine Bibeau, and then the subsequent claim of McElhinney, Sparks has not had the opportunity to take the ice for the Maple Leafs this season. Could that change tonight? Sparks started 17 games for Toronto last year, and while his .893 save percentage and 3.02 goals against average were unspectacular, Sparks played relatively well for a 22-year-old. This season with the Marlies, Sparks has been exemplary despite sharing the net with Bibeau, recording a .926 SV% and 2.07 GAA in 29 appearances. Sparks has shown that he deserves another shot at the NHL, but will he get that chance tonight? Could Andersen’s injury be worse than indicated and afford Sparks a playoff roster spot? That all remains to be seen, but what’s clear is that, at least for now, Toronto needs depth in net for a big game and Sparks is the guy to provide it.

NCAA All-American Teams Named

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Prior to the reveal of University of Denver defenseman Will Butcher as the 2017 Hobey Baker Award-winner and ahead of the NCAA championship game tomorrow night, the American Hockey Coaches Association released the rosters of this year’s collegiate All-American Teams. The teams, first and second squads from either side of the country, are listed below with their NCAA teams as well as NHL-drafted or signed organization, if applicable:

East All-Americans

First Team:

RW Zach Aston-Reese, Northeastern (Pittsburgh Penguins)

RW Spencer Foo, Union

C Mike Vecchione, Union (Philadelphia Flyers)

D Adam Fox, Harvard (Calgary Flames)

D Charlie McAvoy, Boston University (Boston Bruins)

G Charles Williams, Canisius

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Will Butcher Wins Hobey Baker Award

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On Friday night, the top player in college hockey was announced as Denver defenseman Will Butcher. Butcher edged out Northeastern winger Zach Aston-Reese and Union College center Mike Vecchione, the other Hat Trick finalists, for the Hobey Baker Award, the highest honor in NCAA hockey. Butcher is the first defenseman to win the award since Boston University’s Matt Gilroy in 2009.

Butcher had an incredible season for the University of Denver Pioneers, and he’s not done yet. Denver, the top seed in the country, is set to take on Minnesota-Duluth for the NCAA National Championship tomorrow night, a reward that Butcher would likely covet even more than the Hobey Baker. However, for now he can relish in the spotlight of being names the top player in college hockey. Butcher scored seven goals and added 30 assists in 42 games this season, good enough for second in scoring among defensemen, and his +27 rating ranked among the top ten in all skaters. Butcher was also named the top offensive defenseman in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference and is also a stout defender in his own end.

Unlike Aston-Reese (7 points in 7 games for the AHL’s Wilke-Barre/Scranton Penguins) and Vecchione (debuted for the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday), Butcher won’t be seeing any NHL action this season. A fifth-round pick of none other than the NHL’s worst team, the Colorado Avalanche, in 2013, Butcher has the option of signing with the Avs after his season ends tomorrow night, but by then Colorado will have just a Sunday matinee remaining in the season. While Colorado certainly hopes that the nation’s best player and a college senior would still sign with the team soon regardless – they could definitely use a top young defenseman – that may not be the case. It is already April and Denver’s success has eliminated any chance that Butcher can make his pro debut this season. He could easily instead choose to hold out until August and test free agency for the best opportunity to both play and win. Colorado has not been very good at the latter, but time will only tell what the next step is for the Hobey Baker winner. His focus right now is on adding another trophy to his collection tomorrow night.

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