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Ryan Spooner, Matt Hendricks On The Trade Block

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As part of their Saturday Headlines segment (video link), Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos and Elliotte Friedman provided some information regarding a couple of players believed to be on the trade block:

Ryan Spooner (Bruins)

Kypreos suggested that the Vancouver Canucks could be a possible fit for the Boston center.  GM Jim Benning is familiar with the 24 year old from his time as an Assistant GM with the Bruins while Spooner has also had some success with Loui Eriksson, who left Boston to sign with the Canucks back in July.

After a 49 point season last year, Spooner has had a quieter start to this season with just eight points (3-5-8) in 24 games.  However, with a cap hit of just $950K, he’s an affordable player for any team and with the Canucks likely looking to transition towards being more of a younger team, the fit makes sense.

Friedman noted last month that teams had been expressing an interest in Spooner but it’s far from a guarantee that he gets dealt.  It’s certainly possible that the Bruins view him as part of their long-term core and that this slow start isn’t a sign of things to come.

CSN New England’s Joe Haggerty reports that talks regarding Spooner have increased in recent weeks and that the team is now seeking a top six forward in return, a departure from their previous asking price of a top four blueliner.  He also gets the sense that Boston’s management is motivated to move him as he may not be the right fit for head coach Claude Julien’s system.

Matt Hendricks (Oilers)

Hendricks was a healthy scratch in Saturday’s 3-2 overtime win against the Ducks and Friedman believes that Edmonton is making him available to other teams.  He has missed over a month with a lower body injury and as a result, Hendricks has played in just five games so far this season.

With a cap hit of $1.85MM this season, teams may be hard pressed to fit Hendricks into their salary structure, especially since the 35 year old is limited to a fourth line role.  Friedman suggests that his hometown Minnesota could be a potential fit.  However, the Wild are currently into LTIR meaning that their cap space to work with is extremely limited.  For any deal to work, Minnesota would likely have to send equal salary the other way or the Oilers would have to retain some of his salary.

Both Kypreos and Friedman also touched on Montreal’s Max Pacioretty.  While they were quick to emphasize that the Canadiens are not shopping their captain, Kypreos suggested that there may be a bit of friction between Pacioretty and head coach Michel Therrien.  He has heard that several teams around the league are watching the situation closely and suggests that if Montreal decides to commit to playing more of a defensive game in front of Carey Price, that they could consider moving the 28 year old for a top four defenseman.  However, with a cap hit of $4.5MM, quite low for a four time 30-goal scorer, it would be challenging for GM Marc Bergevin to get top value back at a similar price tag.

Atlantic Division Snapshots: Yzerman, Beleskey, Bjugstad, Bibeau

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The Tampa Bay Lightning entered the 2016-17 campaign as a popular pick to emerge from the Eastern Conference to compete for the Stanley Cup championship. While it’s still relatively early, Lightning GM Steve Yzerman is concerned with the team’s inconsistent play, though as Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times writes, that concern is tempered by calm.

Entering tonight’s home contest against Washington, the Lightning boast a record of just 13 – 11 – 1 through their first 25 games and currently reside in fourth place in the Atlantic, seven points behind first place Montreal. If the postseason was to start today, Tampa would be on the outside looking in, one point behind the Capitals for the final wild card spot though Washington has played three fewer games. Despite their standing and the fact the team has lost four in a row, Yzerman is not interested in making a move simply to “shake things up.”

“If there’s an opportunity to make us a better team, I’m certainly willing to explore it. But I like our team. I like the character of our players. We’re very careful of the type of person we bring in and which players we move out. That isn’t going to change.”

The trouble of late, according to Yzerman, has been the team’s lackluster play in their own zone. As Smith notes, Tampa Bay has given up 19 goals over the last four games; a figure which could have been higher if not for the quality play of the team’s net minders.

It’s easy to understand Yzerman’s hesitation to try to solve the team’s problems via the trade market. At this point so few teams have the available salary cap space necessary to make more than minor deals.

If they do decide a deal is in order either at or near the trade deadline, the Lightning do have an appealing asset to market in goaltender Ben Bishop. Bishop, who has been a Vezina Trophy finalist twice in the last three seasons, is in the final year of his contract. With Andrei Vasilevskiy inking a three-year contract extension over the summer and presumably the team’s future starter, the Lightning could move Bishop to address other areas of need.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division:

  • Matt Beleskey of the Boston Bruins was knocked out of this afternoon’s game against Buffalo after absorbing a heavy hit from Sabres blue liner Taylor Fedun, writes Joe Haggerty of CSNNE. Beleskey suffered the lower-body injury late in the first period and his return was ruled out by the team soon thereafter. The gritty forward was a big-ticket free agent signing in the summer of 2015, inking a five-year, $19MM pact with Boston. This season he has struggled, scoring just two goals in 23 games for the Bruins.
  • Struggling to find their way on the ice and having already relieved head coach Gerard Gallant of his duties, the Florida Panthers, under new bench boss Tom Rowe continue to tinker with the lineup in an effort to find some consistency. With Nick Bjugstad returning recently from injury, the team tried lining him up on the right side, instead of at his customary pivot position, to try to ease him back into the lineup. But after five games – and zero points for the 6-foot-6 center – Bjugstad is moving back to the middle, where Rowe feels he will be “more comfortable,” as Harvey Fialkov writes. Currently two points behind Washington for the second wild card slot in the East, Florida needs to improve their play if they want to qualify for the postseason for the second consecutive campaign and a return to normal production from Bjugstad would be a big help in that regard.
  • Finally, with starting net minder Frederik Andersen battling an undisclosed illness and unable to practice yesterday, the Toronto Maple Leafs have recalled Antoine Bibeau from the AHL on an emergency basis, according to Mike Augello (Twitter link). Elliotte Friedman adds that while Andersen is still expected to play, the team wanted certainty just in case, and with the Leafs in Vancouver to play the Canucks tonight, Toronto acted early as a precaution. Bibeau has yet to make his NHL debut and it appears unlikely he will do so tonight. While he has no big league experience, the 22-year-old goalie has appeared in 87 contests over the last three seasons with the Marlies.

Minor Transactions: Ottawa, Colorado, Boston, Arizona

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The Ottawa Senators have re-assigned forward Max McCormick to the AHL’s Binghamton Senators and recalled Buddy Robinson and Andreas Englund. McCormick was used sparingly over the last month with the team, playing in just five games. Even when he did play, McCormick averaged just seven minutes of ice time each game. He has been held scoreless so far this season and has just five shots on goal. The demotion will allow McCormick to get some play time, and the Senators will see if Robinson can bring more to the table in his stead. With just three NHL games under his belt, Robinson is still an unknown at the highest level, but did have a goal and an assist and was a +2 in his short stint with the team last season.

Meanwhile, this is the first career call-up for the young Swedish defenseman Englund. A 2014 second-round pick, Englund is a big, physical defenseman who can bring some added toughness to Ottawa. With Marc Methot day-to-day, it stands to reason that Englund will make his NHL debut tomorrow against the Florida Panthers.

Other promotions and demotions include:

  • The Colorado Avalanche have returned both Samuel Henley and Gabriel Bourque to the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage. Henley made his NHL debut last night and scored his first career goal, but the Avs fell 3-2 to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Considering that Colorado is a team that should take all the scoring it can get (ranked 29th in scoring and goal differential), it seems odd that the team was so quick to send Henley back down. The 23-year-old has not put up big numbers thus far in his pro career, but is just three years removed from being a 30-goal scorer in the QMJHL. With just over five minutes of ice time on his NHL resume, the Avs were quick on the trigger to return this prospect. Bourque, on the other hand, has yet to register a point in six games with Colorado this season. He’s looked more like the player who had four points in 22 games with the Predators in 2015-16 than the player who looked like a future stud in Nashville with 16 points in 34 games in the lockout season of 2012-13. His chances at redemption may be running out.
  • The Boston Bruins have promoted Anton Blidh from the Providence Bruins of the AHL, giving the young Swedish winger his first career call-up. He is expected to make his debut tomorrow in Buffalo, skating on the Bruins’ fourth line. Blidh brings the toughness and intensity that the Bruins love and coach Claude Julien has applauded his work ethic. A Boston team that has a lot of talent but whose effort has been suspect at times this season may just need the boost that a high-energy kid looking to make a name for himself can bring. The 21-year-old has nine points in 16 games and has posted a +8 in Providence. The leap in production from his first season in North America last year to this year has been apparent.
  • The Arizona Coyotes have re-called Tyler Gaudet from the AHL’s Tuscon Roadrunners. A young team with deep minor league depth, Arizona has made frequent moves between Tuscon this season. Maybe it’s the shorter distance compared to when their affiliate was in Springfield, Massachusetts last season. Whatever the reason, the ease by which the Coyotes have promoted and demoted has not benefited Gaudet. The 23-year-old center was able to stick around for longer chunks of time last season, playing in 14 games, and was expected to carve out a role for himself in 2016-17. Instead, he has played in just one game despite being on the active roster multiple different times. Hopefully for Gaudet, he gets to stick around, but don’t be surprised if he’s back in Tuscon by week’s end.

NHL Eyeing Exhibition Game In China; Continues History Of International Play

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According to TSN’s NHL Insider Darren Dreger, the NHL is expected to play an exhibition game in China next season. While the NHL is easily the most nationally diverse of the “Big Four” North American sports leagues and has a history of playing international games, this would be their first foray into the world’s most populous country. Whether it be just one or a series of exhibition games next season, the league building a relationship with China will result in much fanfare and a great opportunity for the growth of the game.

International play is no stranger to the NHL. As far back as 1938, the league has played games overseas. That year, the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens played a nine-game Spring series in England and France. Twenty years later, the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers did the same thing, committing to a 23-game European tour in late April and all of May. The teams visited England, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, and West Germany. In 1976, the Washington Capitals and Kansas City Scouts played four games in Japan, the NHL’s first international event in Asia. The Capitals have been busy on the international stage ever since, playing five games against the Minnesota North Stars in Stockholm, Sweden in 1980 and competing against the New York Rangers and several Swedish and Finnish pro teams in a tournament hosted by the two countries in 1981. The team from the United States capital was back at it in 1989, joined by the Calgary Flames in a series of games against European teams that took place throughout Sweden and what used to be Czechoslovakia and the USSR. The NHL returned to Sweden and the USSR the following year with an exhibition tournament including the Montreal Canadiens and Minnesota North Stars, while a similar tournament took place at the same time in West Germany and Austria featuring the St. Louis Blues and Edmonton Oilers.

While international play has not been eliminated since then, it has been dialed back significantly. Gone are the days when the NHL would send it’s teams to Europe for weeks at a time. Instead, small two or three game series took place throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s, with teams frequently playing in London, Tokyo, Helsinki and Stockholm over the years, as well as more obscure places like the Tampa Bay Lightning and Buffalo Sabres taking on Austrian pro teams in 1998 or the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers squaring off in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2006. From 2009 to 2011, the league would send a handful of teams over to Europe during preseason to each play exhibition games against local teams or NHL foes. While many of the games took place in the usual countries, some highlights included the Chicago Blackhawks in Zurich, Switzerland in 2009, the Boston Bruins visiting Belfast, Northern Ireland in 2010, and the first visits to former Soviet nations like the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Latvia in 2010 and 2011.

However, if an exhibition game in China does come to be in 2017-18, it will be new territory for the NHL. Other than games in Japan, Asia is largely untouched by the world’s best hockey league. However, that doesn’t mean that the game has not grown regardless. The popularity of hockey in China has been on the rise for years now. The KHL was the first league to notice the trend, playing exhibition games in the country before finally establishing an expansion team there, the Kunlun Red Star, who are currently playing in their inaugural season. That’s not to say that the NHL has been slow on the uptake though. Last year, the Boston Bruins became the first team to strike a sponsorship deal with a Chinese company, O.R.G. Packaging, and sent players and personnel over this summer to conduct hockey clinics and share the brand around the country. Winger Matt Beleskey even documented the trip for the Players’ Tribune. With the NHL formalizing it’s interest in the country, expect more teams to follow suit, building relationships in one of the world’s most influential countries. Although the Bruins may have already built a local fan base and the Capitals were the NHL’s ambassadors throughout the 70’s and 80’s, it appears that the league is intent on sending west coast teams across the Pacific for the game. Though nothing is finalized, Dreger reports that early indications are that if one game is to be played it will be between the Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks.

With the next two Winter Olympic Games slated for Pyeongchang, South Korea and Beijing, China, hockey culture in Asia is more important now than it has ever been. Grassroots hockey has grown throughout the continent and we are seeing the best skill to ever come out of Asia. Japan and South Korea are both ranked in the top 25 by the IIHF, and their rankings have been improving each year. There is no doubt that the game has taken hold of the Far East. Hockey is a global game and the NHL is the undisputed face of the sport. A growing relationship between the league and a country with a population nearing 1.4 billion can only be good for the game. Hockey in China has a bright future and the NHL deserves credit for fostering its growth with plans for exhibition events.

Islanders Activate Seidenberg, Place Pelech On IR

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As reported earlier today, Dennis Seidenberg has gotten some great news to start December. The team has removed him from their injured reserve list and he’ll make his return tonight against the Washington Capitals.  To make room, the team has moved Adam Pelech to IR retroactive to November 28th with an upper-body injury.

Seidenberg had hoped that he could return by Sunday against the Red Wings, but he’ll in fact make it back into the lineup less than three weeks after suffering a broken jaw on a Michael Matheson shot. The veteran defenseman was off to a great start in New York after signing a $1MM deal with the team this offseason. The deal followed a buyout by the Boston Bruins of the last two seasons of his four-year, $16MM extension he signed just after the start of the 2013 season. The 35-year old has eight points in fifteen games this season after suiting up for Team Europe at the World Cup and Germany in Olympic qualifiers this summer.

His return comes at the expense of Adam Pelech though, who was moved to IR following his injury Monday night. Though originally just reported as soreness, he’s obviously in enough pain to keep him out for the minimum of seven days (which would rule him out until Tuesday’s matchup against the New York Rangers). Pelech had originally been an injury replacement for Travis Hamonic, who was originally given a 4-6 week timeline but came back within eight days of his injury.

The Islanders have had a revolving door on their blueline this season, with injuries happening to several players and at times dressing seven defensemen. They’ll look to get back a little bit of stability with the return of Seidenberg, who will make three solid pairings for the team as it looks to get back into the playoff hunt.

 

Poll: 2005 NHL Draft Take Two: Twenty-Second Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.” Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2005 NHL Draft, which kicked off the salary cap era and ushered in many of the current NHL superstars. The question we’re looking to answer is knowing now what we didn’t know then, how different would this draft look now with the benefit of hindsight?

Here are the results of our redraft so far:

1st Overall: Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins)
2nd Overall: Carey Price (Mighty Ducks of Anaheim)
3rd Overall: Anze Kopitar (Carolina Hurricanes)
4th Overall: Jonathan Quick (Minnesota Wild)
5th Overall: Kris Letang (Montreal Canadiens)
6th Overall: Tuukka Rask (Columbus Blue Jackets)
7th Overall: Bobby Ryan (Chicago Blackhawks)
8th Overall: Marc-Edouard Vlasic (San Jose Sharks)
9th Overall: Ben Bishop (Ottawa Senators)
10th Overall: James Neal (Vancouver Canucks)
11th Overall: T.J. Oshie (Los Angeles Kings)
12th Overall: Keith Yandle (New York Rangers)
13th Overall: Paul Stastny (Buffalo Sabres)
14th Overall: Marc Staal (Washington Capitals)
15th Overall: Patric Hornqvist (New York Islanders)
16th Overall: Niklas Hjalmarsson (Atlanta Thrashers)
17th Overall: Anton Stralman (Phoenix Coyotes)
18th Overall: Jack Johnson (Nashville Predators)
19th Overall: Matt Niskanen (Detroit Red Wings)
20th Overall: Justin Abdelkader (Florida Panthers)
21st Overall: Martin Hanzal (Toronto Maple Leafs)

Now we move forward to the 22nd pick, which was held by the Boston Bruins.

To recap how this works:

  • We will go through the 2005 NHL Draft and have our readers select, through a voting process, who they think should have been taken with the selection.
  • The entire first round will be redrafted, spanning picks one through thirty. The new selection is chosen by the majority of votes.

Back in 2005, the Bruins selected defenseman Matt Lashoff out of Kitchener of the OHL.  He was billed as an offensive blueliner and he showed signs of living up to those expectations after being drafted, picking up 47 points in just 56 games in 2005-06 at the junior level.  He also averaged 0.59 points per game at the AHL level on his entry-level contract which is strong production for any defender.

However, that failed to translate into much NHL success.  He played in 46 games with the Bruins (recording just eight points) before being dealt to Tampa Bay as part of a package for Mark Recchi, who went on to play two more years in Boston.  Lashoff didn’t fare much better with the Lightning, seeing just 17 games of action before getting traded to Toronto, where he played in just 11 contests.  All in all, Lashoff has played in 74 career NHL games and none since the 2010-11 season.

Since then, he has bounced around, playing in five different countries and leagues over the past five seasons.  This year, he has caught on with San Antonio of the AHL (affiliate of Colorado), playing in 13 games.  He has five points in those contests but also possesses a -15 plus/minus rating, ranking him last out of 865 skaters to play in at least one AHL game this season.

With the 22nd pick of the 2005 NHL Redraft, who should the Bruins select?  Cast your vote below!

Mobile users, click here to vote.

Forbes’ 2016-17 NHL Team Valuations

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If you’re looking to buy an NHL franchise, here is your market value. For those who do not know of the world-famous company, Forbes is a leading American business magazine, named for its editor-in-chief, Steve Forbes. The company focuses on financial and business stories in a multitude of industries, including technology, sciences, art, law and, of course, the professional sports industry. Each year, Forbes runs a valuation of sports franchises around the globe, from NFL football in the United States to UEFA “football” in Europe. Today, Forbes released its valuations and rankings of all thirty current NHL teams – with the Vegas Golden Knights not quite ready to be analyzed just yet.

Unsurprisingly, the most successful team in North America’s biggest city reigns supreme over the rest of the league. With deep playoff runs in back-to-back years and a hot start to 2016-17, the New York Rangers are considered to be the NHL’s most valuable franchise with a $1.25B valuation. The Rangers top the chart for the second year in a row, after being denied the top spot for more than a decade prior, and see a 4% bump in their value from last year. Success coupled with some heavy renovations to Madison Square Garden and nearly a nightly sellout rate brings New York the big bucks, as they took in about $219MM in revenue last year, $17MM more than the next in line.

Second and third overall are Original Six Canadian power houses: the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs. Both hold on to their respective places from last year. However, the Maple Leafs held the top spot for an astonishing ten-year stretch from 2005 to 2014, before being bumped down to #3 last year. Having made the playoffs just once in the last decade, as well as seeing a 13-year sellout streak snapped in 2014-15, there is no doubt that the team has lost some value. A $1.1B valuation for a team that has struggled as much as Toronto has is not too shabby though, and is a testament to the city and its fans. Meanwhile, Montreal joins the Rangers as the only team to bring in over $200MM in revenue in 2015-16. The annual leader in attendance among the seven Canadian NHL teams, Montreal is a titan of industry in Canadian pro sports with a $1.12B valuation. Although both the Canadiens and Maple Leafs lost value this past year (5% and 4% respectively), this is most likely due to the weakness of the Canadian dollar. Both teams continue to excel fiscally, worth much more than any other Canadian NHL team or the Toronto Blue Jays, Toronto Raptors, or likely the entire Canadian Football League combined.

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John-Michael Liles Out Indefinitely With A Concussion

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The Boston Bruins tweeted that John-Michael Liles has been diagnosed with a concussion, and as such, will be out indefinitely due to league concussion protocol. Boston also issued a release on its’ website.

Initially reported as an upper body injury, Liles was hurt when he tripped over Ben Bishop’s goalie stick and went head first into the boards. He needed assistance from teammates to leave the ice and didn’t return to the game. Video of the incident is available via NBC Sports.

Liles has five assists in 22 games this season.

Darren Dreger On Dougie Hamilton

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TSN Insider Darren Dreger was on Naylor & Landsberg in Toronto this morning to talk about the possibility of a Dougie Hamilton trade out of Calgary and the interest of the Maple Leafs. While Dreger downplayed the idea that anything has been discussed between the Maple Leafs and Flames, he admitted that he believes Hamilton is still available for the right price.

I think that Toronto should be intrigued by Dougie Hamilton. But as (TSN analyst) Ray Ferraro just pointed out, Hamilton is valued by the Calgary Flames. His game has improved over the past three weeks to a month, and big…young, right-shot d-men are hard to find.

(General manager Brad) Treliving is at a place where if someone’s calling he’s willing to listen, but we in the media have done the bidding. Hamilton’s name is out there because we continue to talk about it – right or wrong.  

I think that Calgary is at least willing to listen…maybe Treliving does something significant like this, not just with Toronto, but moving Hamilton or a bigger piece to shake up the core.

Dreger mentions that Arizona and other teams called in on Hamilton at the NHL draft, though obviously nothing materialized from those talks. The defenseman is signed long-term, inking a six-year $34.5MM deal before the beginning of last season.  He’s an interesting piece to basically the whole league, as his potential is still mouth-wateringly high despite his rough start in Calgary.

Hamilton was drafted with Toronto’s first-round pick in 2011, only by the Boston Bruins. The team acquired the selection in the initial Phil Kessel deal (along with #2 overall in 2010 – Tyler Seguin) but traded the hulking defenseman to the Flames last summer for a package of draft picks.  Dreger seems convinced that the rumors of Hamilton returning to Toronto should be put to sleep, as Trelving answered him quite candidly the last time they spoke.

I asked Brad Treliving point blank yesterday if he had anything going on with the Toronto Maple Leafs. I didn’t suggest Hamilton, I just said anything. His response was: ’Nothing. Zero.’ When managers tell you that specifically, that bluntly, it means they don’t want that conversation to continue on, because there’s nothing there at least for the moment.

Atlantic Division Snapshots: Vasilevskiy, Bruins, Leafs

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When the Tampa Bay Lightning inked Andrei Vasilevskiy to a three-year contract extension this summer, a deal that doesn’t go into effect until the 2017-18 season, it appeared as if the organization was committed to the Russian net minder as its future number one goalie. With Ben Bishop set to hit free agency next July, the idea was to give Vasilevskiy about 35 starts this season to be sure he was ready to assume the load as a starter. After eight starts this season, it’s becoming clear to all that the 22-year-old is most definitely ready to be the man for the Lightning, writes Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times.

Vasilevskiy is 6 – 1 – 1 on the season and has a GAA of just 1.50 and a Save % of 0.951 in eight appearances. His hot start comes on the heels of helping the Lightning make it to game seven of the Eastern Conference Final against Pittsburgh last season after Bishop was injured. Vasilevskiy was solid in the postseason, stopping 0.925% of the shots he faced in eight games.

Assuming Vasilevskiy continues to develop into a quality starting option, his extension, which calls for an AAV of just $3.5MM, will prove to be a tremendous bargain for a team that already has a lot of its cap space tied up in long-term deals.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division:

  •  The Boston Bruins have long been thought to be in the market for a top-four blue liner, with Kevin Shattenkirk being one name linked to the team. However, given the team’s recent offensive struggles, Bruins management may want to reconsider their plans. Joe Haggerty, of CSNNE, reports that both the players and the coaches are becoming frustrated with the team’s lackluster goal scoring. David Pastrnak, the team’s gifted 20-year-old sniper, leads the team with 12 goals in just 16 games. Brad Marchand, currently out with a lower-body-injury, is second with six tallies while fourth-line pivot Dominic Moore ranks third on the club with five markers. Overall the Bruins rank 25th in the NHL, averaging just 2.3 goals-per-game. However, defenseman Torey Krug is confident the goals will come given the team finished fifth in the league last season in scoring: “When you see other teams get lucky bounces here and there – in Ottawa they’re shooting the puck wide and it goes off one of our guys and in, or in Minnesota the same thing happens – and we find ourselves not getting those bounces, then it starts to get frustrating when you’re getting good looks like we have been. Every team goes through these little lulls and we’ll work our way out of it. Hopefully it’s sooner rather than later.”
  • While the Toronto Maple Leafs are certainly a fun team to watch, bouyed by a talented young core of forwards, veteran head coach Mike Babcock knows defense wins championships. Ian Shantz of the Toronto Sun writes that Babcock is asking more from his blue liners as the team battles to stay relevant in the postseason race. Babcock singles out Morgan Rielly as the guy he wants to see play like a #1 defender: “We need (Morgan) Rielly to be our No. 1 guy. We need him to be very good for us, and that’s not racing around the rink. That’s playing without the puck.” The Leafs do have some talent on the back end but it’s likely that if they are buyers at the trade deadline that the blue line is the one area the team will look to improve.

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