Lehtera Placed On Injured Reserve
After Jori Lehtera was pulled from the St. Louis Blues game on Saturday night, did not return, and has not played since with little word about his injury, it was only a matter of time before he landed on IR. Suffering from an undisclosed “upper body injury”, Lehtera will join line mate Jaden Schwartz on the injured reserve and it could be a while before he’s back on the ice. An exact time frame for his return is still unknown.
Lehtera left the game against the New York Rangers in the first period on Saturday, though it is unclear when the injury specifically occurred. He did not return, and was later joined in the locker room by defenseman Carl Gunnarsson and grinder Kyle Brodziak, both of whom went down with injuries as well. While Gunnarsson and Brodziak joined the Blues on the team’s western Canada road trip, Lehtera stayed home, presumably because the team planned to place him on IR.
The Blues now find themselves thin down the middle with Lehtera and Brodziak on the shelf. The losses have forced wingers Alex Steen and Dmitrij Jaskin to move to center, but a long-term absence for Lehtera may cause further roster shake-ups. Look for Patrik Berglund to step up, as well as a call-up for free agent addition Landon Ferraro. St. Louis is off to a strong 3-0-1 start, and they will look to beat the injury bug with continued success in the absence of Lehtera and others.
Kotkansalo Commits To Boston University
One of the best defenseman available in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft is set to join the team that cleaned up at the top of the 2016 Draft, Boston University. This June, the Terriers watched as a combination of current players and 2016-17 commits were selected all over the first round of the NHL Draft. Freshman Clayton Keller went #7 to the Arizona Coyotes, sophomore defenseman Charlie McAvoy was taken by the hometown Boston Bruins at #14, freshman defenseman Dante Fabbro went soon after at #17 to the Nashville Predators, and almost immediately following that, freshman forward Kieffer Bellows went #19 to the New York Islanders. Yet another freshman defenseman, Chad Krys, was selected by the Chicago Blackhawks in the second round. After the recent commitment of Kasper Kotkansalo, BU will have yet another defenseman go early in 2017.
Kotkansalo, a strong, Finnish defenseman who played most of his junior hockey with the Espoo Blues in Finland, finally made the jump overseas this year to play with the Sioux Falls Stampede of the USHL. Just three games in to the new campaign, Kotkansalo has decided where he’ll be going for his next season in North America, as he’ll head to Boston to join the Terriers. In a draft that looks to be dominated early on by CHL junior players, Kotkansalo appears to be one of only three NCAA-bound players that look like first round picks at this point. His Blues and World Juniors teammate Eeli Tolvanen has gone from friend to foe, joining USHL rival Sioux City Musketeers this season, having already committed to joining BU’s biggest rival, the Boston College Eagles, next year. Tolvanen is expected not only to be a first round pick, but a top ten pick. After the winger Tolvanen is center Casey Mittelstadt, an American playing for the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers and committed to the University of Minnesota. Mittelstadt too is a bona-fide first rounder, with potential to move up into the top ten ranger as well.
Rounding out the group is Kotkansalo, who is expected by most to be a mid-to-late first round pick, and right now is realistically the only NCAA-bound defenseman capable of being taken near the top of the draft. The fact that he is headed to a school where he will play with other top picks may be enticing for teams, as Boston University has put together an elite team where player development is assured. Watch for the big Finnish blue liner this June in the NHL Draft and next year in NCAA action with the BU Terriers.
Trevor Van Riemsdyk On The Block
According to Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman, Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk is available to interested teams. After missing out on Nail Yakupov and going all in with several young, unproven kids up front, Chicago is now hoping to bring in a veteran forward to help out, and they are dangling van Riemsdyk as trade bait. Whether or not the 25-year-old defenseman is enough to get the deal done is another matter.
Since signing with the Blackhawks out of the University of New Hampshire in 2014, van Riemsdyk has yet to find the same success in the NHL as older brother James van Riemsdyk. His rookie year in 2014-15, he played in 18 games, recording just one point. Last season, he actually played in all 82 games for Chicago, but again was somewhat of a non-factor, with just 14 points and a -5 rating playing on the bottom pair. Yet, the Blackhawks re-signed the RFA defenseman to an affordable, two-year extension this summer. To begin the new campaign, van Riemsdyk got the call in the season opener at home, but was unimpressive in a 5-2 blowout loss to the rival St. Louis Blues. In the three games since, van Riemsdyk has yet to play. Now, it seems as if his time in Chicago altogether could be coming to an end. The signings of Brian Campbell and Michal Kempny, breakout of Gustav Forsling, and presence of veteran Michal Rosival as the extra defenseman and several others with NHL experience down on the farm has made van Riemsdyk more than expendable. Although his contract is cheap, the Blackhawks have seen him in action in over 100 NHL games and believe that his play leaves something to be desired.
Chicago’s hope is that someone else sees potential in van Riemsdyk. They want to leverage their depth on the blue line into help up front. Not quite a prospect at 25, the Blackhawks have to hope that they can find a desperate, D-needy team looking for a depth defenseman capable of playing big minutes. Otherwise, van Riemsdyk alone will not be enough to net the veteran forward that Chicago wants. Given the team’s cap crunch, the Blackhawks will either have to ship out more salary than just van Riemsdyk’s $825K cap hit, or offer a package enticing enough to get the other team to retain salary. In either scenario, van Riemsdyk alone is not enough to get the player that GM Stan Bowman would like. It is possible that they acquire an affordable, low-ceiling depth player straight up for van Riemsdyk, and continue to give major ice time and responsibility to Tyler Motte, Ryan Hartman, Nick Schmaltz and Vinnie Hinostroza, but that does not seem to be the ideal plan for Bowman.
First Coach Fired Odds
Las Vegas odds-maker Bovada, who already gave us Stanley Cup and final standings predictions, has now chimed in on the perennial question that starts each season: which coach is the first to be fired? That question often doesn’t take long to be answered, which explains why the site was so quick to get the board up and running. From former Stanley Cup winners to those still with their first NHL team, Bovada has given the following five coaches on the hot seat a decent chance to be “unseated” before their peers in 2016-17:
John Tortorella, Columbus Blue Jackets – 13/4
If this scenario for Columbus sounds familiar, that’s because it is. The Blue Jackets entered last year with questions about then-head coach Todd Richards, and after an 0-7 start to the 2015-16 season, it was Richards out and Tortorella in. An experienced bench boss who won a Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay in 2004 and found success with the New York Rangers as well, Tortorella was brought in to provide a firm hand and some structure to a floundering, young team. Columbus had long been expected to take that next step after a surprising run to the playoffs in 2013-14, so even though their team had major holes on paper, Tortorella’s 34-33-8 record after taking over was seen as a disappointment. After the Blue Jackets finished last in the Metropolitan Division on his watch, Tortorella entered the off-season as one of the prime candidates to be fired first. He didn’t help himself this summer either, after he led Team U.S.A to a disastrous result at the World Cup of Hockey. So far the team is 0-2, including blowing a 3-1 lead with five unanswered goals against in a 6-3 loss to the Boston Bruins in their home opener. Though it’s early, the Blue Jackets have the worst goal differential in the Eastern Conference. Another slow start for Columbus could cost “Torts” his job not long after first getting it. This wouldn’t be the first time either; he was fired as head coach of the Vancouver Canucks before the end of his first season with the team in 2014-15. Tortorella is often criticized for his blunt, abrasive demeanor and he simply does not mesh well in some locker rooms. A young Columbus team that is far from a playoff contender seems likely to part ways with the veteran coach sooner rather than later.
Willie Desjardins, Vancouver Canucks – 7/2
Tortorella’s replacement in Vancouver for the 2014-15 season was Desjardins. Fresh off of a Calder Cup championship with the AHL’s Texas Stars, he was hired to help lead the Canucks to postseason success as well as to help develop their young players. Neither objective has been fulfilled thus far though. Desjardins went 48-29-5 in his first year with the team, but Vancouver was bounced in the first round of the playoffs in an upset loss to the Calgary Flames. Last season, the Canucks went 31-38-13 and failed to even qualify for the postseason. With an overall record under .500, Desjardins is on the hot seat as is. Add in that management believes that Vancouver should be a contender, while in reality many see them as potentially the worst team in the league in 2016-17, and Desjardins is in an even tougher situation handling lofty expectations. Through two games, the Canucks are undefeated and atop the Pacific Division, so the head coach is doing all he can to hold off skepticism. Should Vancouver (as expected) begin to struggle, the focus will be back on Desjardins and his job will be in jeopardy.
Jack Capuano, New York Islanders – 15/4
Although most would say that the Islanders have been a strong team and perennial contender over the last few years, Capuano’s tenure with the team has not actually been that smooth. After taking over for Scott Gordon in 2010-11, Capuano has never finished above third in the division. In six years as the head coach, the Isles have missed the playoffs three times and in the three times they did make it, they were eliminated in the first round twice and in the second round the other time, this past season. While even making the playoffs is an upgrade for a team that struggled mightily in the 2000’s, more is expected of Capuano and a team led by superstar John Tavares. With Tavares’ free agency looming large in the near future, the Islanders head coach is under pressure to prove that New York has a bright future and is a team worth playing for. Management did not help him accomplish that goal this summer, as strong, young producers Kyle Okposo and Frans Nielsen departed in free agency, only to be replaced with older, lesser replacements in Andrew Ladd and Jason Chimera. Many expect the Islanders to slip in 2016-17, perhaps even out of the playoff picture, but the team certainly does not believe that. If the season begins to trend in that direction (1-2 so far), don’t be surprised if Capuano’s job is the first victim of a sinking ship.
Michel Therrien, Montreal Canadiens – 11/2
Therrien has been fired as the head coach of the Canadiens once, and there’s no reason to believe it couldn’t happen again. While Montreal has made the playoffs three times in the four years since Therrien returned before the 2012-13 season, the epic collapse of the squad last season due to the loss of goalie Carey Price turned a lot of focus toward Therrien’s shortcomings as a coach. Although his second stint with the Canadiens has been much improved compared to his .500 record over parts of three seasons with the team from 2000 to 2003, Therrien has still received much criticism over his coaching style and decision-making. Recently, the Habs have decided that trading offense (P.K. Subban, Lars Eller) for defense and “grit” (Shea Weber, Andrew Shaw) is the best way to maximize the production of Therrien’s system. If those moves fail to pan out, and the Canadiens struggle again in 2016-17 in the relatively weak Atlantic Division, expect Therrien to be out the door in Montreal yet again.
Claude Julien, Boston Bruins -13/2
Julien is the longest tenured coach in the NHL and the Bruins’ all-time leader in coaching wins. He’s taken them to two Stanley Cups, won one, and added a President’s Trophy to boot. He is as close to a sure-fire Hall of Famer as any coach in the league. Yet, in arguably North America’s biggest sports city, missing the playoffs two years in a row is unacceptable. The past two years, Boston has seen late-season collapses bump them just outside the postseason picture, and a lot of the blame has fallen upon Julien. There have been rumors for two straight summers that he was all but gone. However, it has not happened. A third year with no playoff hockey in Boston? This time it won’t go unpunished. Julien is working with one of the stronger forward groups in the league, with many of his best players in their primes, but has wasted precious years by not giving them a chance at the Cup. His once-unstoppable defensive scheme has not been well-implemented by the personnel he has had over the past two years, as the Bruins have shed their title as one of the toughest teams to play against in the NHL. Julien also has had well-documented difficulties with working with young players, a problem that has hindered Boston’s ability to bring young talent up to the team. In 2016-17, Julien has a lineup filled with budding, young players, including defensemen Brandon Carlo, Colin Miller, and Rob O’Gara. If he can get the defense back on track by working well with the young players and allowing his offense to focus more on scoring, then the Bruins will be back in the playoffs and their long-time coach will stick around. If not? There will be a new longest-tenured NHL coach in the near future.
Honorable Mention:
Paul Maurice, Winnipeg Jets – 7/1
Alain Vigneault, New York Rangers – 7/1
Krueger The Top Candidate For Las Vegas Head Coach?
In his bold predictions for the 2016-17 season, TSN’s Frank Servalli predicts that the head coach of the Las Vegas expansion team will be Ralph Krueger. The head coach of Team Europe at the World Cup of Hockey last month, a team that exceeded everyone’s expectations, Krueger has gotten plenty of buzz as a top coaching candidate for any spots that open in the near future. No NHL coaching gig will get as much attention as the man picked to helm the new team in Las Vegas next season.
The only problem? Krueger is currently the chairman of Southampton FC of the English Premiere League, and yes that is a soccer team. Although Krueger grew up in Canada and was a hockey player, he was born in Germany, and his German roots and time spent playing and coaching overseas also made him a big soccer fan. He was named director of Southampton in 2014, and was soon after promoted to chairman. As of now, he has pledged his dedication to his switch to soccer, but Servalli notes that Krueger also added in a World Cup interview that he would “never say never”.
Should Las Vegas GM George McPhee convince Krueger to return to hockey and coach the league’s newest team next year, it would not be his first stint as an NHL bench boss. Krueger began working for the Edmonton Oilers in 2010 and was promoted to head coach for the 2012-13 season. After finishing below .500 and missing the playoffs, Krueger was relieved of his duties after just one season. However, his recent success at the World Cup shows that the former Oilers coach still has a passion for the game of hockey, as well as an innate ability to coach it. It is a certainty that Las Vegas will inquire about Krueger’s interests in a return, and if you believe Servalli, he will be the first head coach of the franchise in 2016-17.
Jamie Oleksiak On The Trade Block
Within a catch-all sports article in the Toronto Sun, Steve Simmons slipped in a line implying that Dallas Stars defenseman Jamie Oleksiak was for sale. With a plethora of young blue liners supposedly available across the league, all much more high-profile than Oleksiak, his availability has flown under the radar. However, with the season underway and many teams seeing the holes in their lineups, those who can’t meet the demands for names like Jacob Trouba or Cam Fowler might just end up swinging a deal for the big Dallas defenseman.
The expectations for Oleksiak were high when he was taken 14th overall by the Stars in the 2011 NHL Draft. At 6’7″, and over 250 lbs. at such a young age, Oleksiak had the size and raw power to become a shutdown defenseman in only a short matter of time. After his freshman year at Northeastern University, Oleksiak was drafted by Dallas and decided to move to the junior ranks. His first and only season in the OHL was split between the Saginaw Spirit and Niagara Ice Dogs, and Oleksiak showed his first glimpses of puck-moving ability. Dallas jumped at the chance to sign their up-and-coming star while he was still a teenager, and he rewarded them with the best year of his career with the AHL Texas Stars and even got into 16 games with the big-league team. Every year since, those once-promising numbers have gone down. Oleksiak has been unable to stick in Dallas, and has not had the same production in the AHL either. Last year, injuries kept him from doing much at either level.
Now it looks as if the Stars are trying to sell Oleksiak based on his potential before he’s officially labeled a bust. With little production to use as a selling point, all Dallas has is the size and style of the big blue liner. A big defenseman who has shown an ability to skate and move the puck will always have some value, but how much is yet to be determined. If Dallas is set on giving up on Oleksiak, expect him to be moved this season, no matter the sunk cost.
The Nine Biggest Hockey Days Of The Season
Today is a huge day for NHL action. At least from a games-played perspective that is. While ten-game, eleven-game, and twelve-game days are frequent throughout the league calendar, October 15th marks the first of a rare group of days this season where nearly every NHL team is in action.
Beginning at 7:00pm ET, there are 13 games on the schedule tonight. 26 of the the 30 teams in the league take the ice, including several making their season debuts, with only Buffalo, Carolina, Edmonton, and Los Angeles having the day off. Fans will have to wait almost a month to get another chance to see this many teams in action at once. The next 13-game days come on Saturday, Novmber 5th, when the Avalanche and Wild get the day started with a matinee game, and Tuesday, November 15th, the first of many big Tuesdays.
December features no such hockey-heavy days, but the NHL has cleverly scheduled big days as bookends to All-Star weekend in late January. Thursday, January 26th features 13 games, including Eastern Conference rivalry match-ups in Pittsburgh-Boston and Tampa Bay-Florida. Then, after All-Star festivities are over, the league returns with the ultra-rare 14-game day on Tuesday, January 31st, which is littered with great games.
Not long after that, there are 13-game days on back-to-back Saturdays, February 4th and February 11th, each highlighted by a handful of strong matinee match-ups. March is without any big hockey days, but they return in April as the regular season enters it’s stretch run. Tuesday, April 4th features 13 games, and many of them are divisional face-offs that could have important postseason implications. Finally, the league wraps up the year with 14 games on the second-to-last day of the season as Saturday, April 8th will be the regular season finale for many and potentially crucial points will be at stake as the playoff picture solidifies. 28 teams will surely be desperate for a win on the final Saturday of the season.
So mark your calendars hockey fans: the 2016-17 season has begun and today is the first of nine days this year when you should tune in if you want to maximize your NHL exposure this season.
2017 Unrestricted Free Agents
Starting Wednesday, these guys all began playing for a pay-day. Some may re-sign mid-season, some may be dealt away as rentals, and some might cash in on July 1st, but they’re all looking forward to that next paycheck. These players will be talked about all year long, so may as well start early. Our own Mike Furlano took a look at the Top Ten UFA’s last month (denoted with *), and since then two have already re-signed. The group of impending free agents will surely shorten as the year goes on, but here is the current list of 2017 Unrestricted Free Agents:
Anaheim Ducks
G Jonathan Bernier
LW Ryan Garbutt
C Nate Thompson
D Korbinian Holzer
LW Mason Raymond
D Nate Guenin
G Dustin Tokarski
G Matt Hackett
D Jeff Schultz
Arizona Coyotes
D Michael Stone
RW Shane Doan
D Zbynek Michalek
C Martin Hanzal
RW Radim Vrbata
C Ryan White
D Jamie McBain
C Chris Mueller
G Justin Peters
Boston Bruins
D John-Michael Liles
C Dominic Moore
LW Zac Rinaldo
D Alex Grant
D Tommy Cross
Buffalo Sabres
D Dmitry Kulikov
RW Brian Gionta
D Cody Franson
C Cody McCormick
G Anders Nilsson
C Cal O’Reilly
D Justin Falk
C Derek Grant
D Taylor Fedun
Matthews First To Score Four Goals In Debut
Toronto Maple Leafs fans could not have asked for more from rookie sensation Auston Matthews in the team’s season opener. The #1 overall pick in the 2016 Draft, Matthews was a lock to make the roster and came in with high expectations. In less than two periods, those expectations were shattered. Auston Matthews scored two in the first period, added another couple tallies in the second, and as of this writing he’s still going. His second goal was a single-handed masterpiece, while his first and last came from fellow youngster and promising line mate William Nylander. Its only day one, but Matthews is well on his way to being the biggest name in Toronto hockey in a long time.
Before Matthews record-breaking performance, only four players had ever scored a hat trick in their NHL debut. Montreal’s Alex Smart was the first to do it in 1943, followed by the Quebec Nordiques’ Real Cloutier in 1979. In more recent memory, “flash in the pan” Fabian Brunnstrom accomplished the feat for the Stars in 2008, and current Rangers star Derek Stepan had a hat trick in his debut in 2010, kick-starting a strong NHL career. However, Matthews is the first to score four, and many Toronto fans will tell you that Stepan is simply a floor for what they believe Matthews can be.
Never before has a Calder race has such a definitive leader after the first day of the season as it has in 2016-17. While pucks have just dropped on a new NHL season, Matthews is already the biggest name in the league thus far. While his numbers will certainly return to normal, the hype alone coming out of Toronto may keep in the lead for Rookie of the Year from Game One to Game Eighty-Two.
PHR’s NHL Season Preview
Over the last month, Pro Hockey Rumors has been taking a closer look at the off-season by going team-by-team and analyzing pros and cons of each NHL squad’s roster entering the 2016-17 season. Our Season Previews have focused on each club’s key acquisitions and losses, current cap situation, players to watch, and important story lines to follow in the new campaign.
In case you missed your favorite team’s preview, we’re put them all together in once place for you. In addition, the writers at PHR have all chipped in to look ahead at how this season might turn out. After going through each team with an in-depth look at their strengths and weaknesses, we each have a unique outlook on the new season and who might be raising the Stanley Cup in June.
Here are the links to our 2016-17 Season Previews and the official Pro Hockey Rumors staff picks:
Eastern Conference:
Atlantic Divison
Boston Bruins
Buffalo Sabres
Detroit Red Wings
Florida Panthers
Montreal Canadiens
Ottawa Senators
Tampa Bay Lightning
Toronto Maple Leafs
Metropolitan Divison
Carolina Hurricanes
Columbus Blue Jackets
New Jersey Devils
New York Islanders
New York Rangers
Philadelphia Flyers
Pittsburgh Penguins
Washington Capitals
Western Conference:
Central Divison
Chicago Blackhawks
Colorado Avalanche
Dallas Stars
Minnesota Wild
Nashville Predators
St. Louis Blues
Winnipeg Jets
Pacific Divison
Anaheim Ducks
Arizona Coyotes
Calgary Flames
Edmonton Oilers
Los Angeles Kings
San Jose Sharks
Vancouver Canucks
