Matthew Lombardi Retires
It’s a name that hasn’t been heard in the NHL in a few years, and now never will again. Former two-way specialist and long-time Calgary Flames center Matthew Lombardi announced his retirement from pro hockey this weekend at the age of 34. The defensive forward has played the past three seasons with Geneve-Servette HC in the Swiss National League A.
Lombardi was once a rising star in the NHL. A third-round pick by the Flames in 2002, fresh off of a 130-point season for the QMJHL’s Victoriaville Tigres, Lombardi quickly became a highly regarded NHL prospect. He made his league debut in 2003-04, garnering Calder consideration as he scored 29 points and quickly established himself as a complete, defensively responsible player. In 2006-07, Lombardi put together his first 20-goal season as part of a 46-point effort. Altogether, Lombardi had 167 points in 347 games with the Flames and led the team in shorthanded time on ice and shorthanded goals during that span. However, by the NHL Trade Deadline in 2009, Lombardi had not progressed the way that Calgary had hoped. In need of more talent down the middle, the Flames traded Lombardi along with Brandon Prust and a first-round pick that would become Brandon Gormley to the Phoenix Coyotes for Olli Jokinen. Ironically, in the 2008-09 season split between Calgary and Phoenix, Lombardi matched his career high of 46 points and then topped it in his 2009-10 season in the desert with 53 points. Meanwhile, Jokinen performed worse on a point-per-game basis in the latter half of 2008-09 than Lombardi and had just 50 points in 2009-10 and was traded out of Calgary. Unfortunately, Lombardi was unable to keep besting his career bests. After signing a three-year, $10.5MM deal with the Nashville Predators in 2010, Lombardi suffered a concussion in just the second game of the season and missed the entire 2010-11 campaign. He would never suit up for the Predators again, as they traded he and Cody Franson to the Toronto Maple Leafs the following summer. Lombardi struggled to return to his pre-concussion performance level in Toronto, scoring just 18 points to the tune of -19 in 2011-12. Even when traded back to Arizona, where he had enjoyed the best year of his career, Lombardi struggled, scoring just eight points in 21 games as a part-time player for the Coyotes before being traded yet again, this time to the Anaheim Ducks.
Looking for a jump start to a career that had grown cold, Lombardi headed overseas to Switzerland in 2013 to play with the NLA’s Geneve-Servette. In his first year, Lombardi became a fan-favorite with a team-best 50 points in 46 games. However, injuries have slowed him down the past two years as he’s played in just 53 games. Yet, Lombardi continued to play with a scoring touch and a dominant defensive edge when active and was a leader for the team. Unsure about his future, Lombardi took the summer to decide on his commitment to hockey before calling it a career this weekend. Although he may not be as recognizable a name as some, Lombardi played a strong all-around game and had the potential to be ever better. Although that ceiling was never reached, Lombardi should be remembered for the success he did have and admired for always striving to be better.
Previous Post-Roster Freeze Trades
As of 11:59pm last night (Eastern time), the NHL’s annual holiday roster freeze kicked in.
While there were some rumors kicking around prior to the freeze, there wasn’t anything that seemed imminent. However, we have seen trades made within days of the roster freeze ending. Here are the previous post-roster freeze trades of past few years.
2015-16: On December 28, 2015, the Edmonton Oilers traded former starter Ben Scrivens to the Montreal Canadiens for Zack Kassian. Both teams were looking for a comeback story: Scrivens had fallen to fourth on the Oilers depth chart, while Kassian had just cleared waivers after completing the NHL’s substance abuse program. Scrivens played 15 games in Montreal, winning just five times. While one of those was a 5-1 win for Scrivens over his former team, the Oilers have likely won this trade. Kassian has gotten his act together and is a solid bottom six energy forward/ penalty killer with 15 points in 67 games so far. Scrivens is now playing in the KHL.
2014-15: Just a day after the roster freeze ended, the Oilers acquired Derek Roy from Nashville for Mark Arcobello. Roy had just cleared waivers and had 10 points in 26 games with the Predators. He found immediate success with the Oilers, scoring 22 points in 46 games. He remains one of the few centers to ever get consistent results from Nail Yakupov, who scored 25 points in 35 games with Roy as his center. Arcobello had 12 points in 36 games for an Oilers team with almost no depth at the center position: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Boyd Gordon were the only legitimate NHL centers on the roster, with Leon Draisaitl just days away from being sent to the WHL. Arcobello played just four games in Nashville before bouncing around to Pittsburgh and Arizona before the end of the season.
2013-14: On December 30, 2013, the Calgary Flames traded former OHL scorer Greg Nemisz to the Carolina Hurricanes for tough guy Kevin Westgarth. Nemisz, a former first-round pick of the Flames and double Memorial Cup champion with the Windsor Spitfires, played parts of two seasons for the Hurricanes’ AHL affiliate. However, after suffering three season-ending injuries in as many seasons, Nemisz retired. He’s now an assistant coach for the OHL’s Oshawa Generals. Westgarth played 36 games for the Flames, which were his last in the NHL. He failed to stick with the Oilers on a PTO the following year, and ended up playing his last year of hockey for the Belfast Giants of the Elite Ice Hockey League in the U.K.
Interestingly enough, only one of the six players (Kassian) is still in the NHL. Scrivens and Roy are now in the KHL, Arcobello is playing in the Swiss League, and Westgarth and Nemisz are retired.
If you’re handicapping this year’s post-roster freeze movements, expect the Oilers to make a minor trade and for both players to be out of the NHL within two years.
Snapshots: Three Stars, World Junior Captains, Iginla
The NHL has named Artemi Panarin, Henrik Lundqvist, and Eric Staal as its Three Stars of the Week.
Panarin had three goals and seven assists for 10 points in four games. He bookended two thee-point performances with a pair of two-point nights as the Blackhawks continued their five-game winning streak. Panarin now has 34 points in 34 games this season
This week marks the second consecutive week with a New York Rangers goaltender as the second star. Last week, Antti Raanta was the second star as he temporarily took over the starting role from Lundqvist, but now the man they call The King has taken back over. Lundqvist went 3-0-0 and allowed just three goals to go with his 0.967 SV%. He and Raanta combined for a shutout when Lundqvist was forced to leave a game after being run over by Cody Eakin (for which he was suspended).
Staal had four goals and five points in three games as part of a 3-0-0 week. The Wild have now won seven straight and Staal is leading the team in goals, assists, and points; he has 24 points in 30 games in his first year in Minnesota.
- Hockey Canada has named its leadership core for the upcoming World Junior Championships. Arizona Coyotes prospect Dylan Strome will wear the C for Canada, while Mathew Barzal and Thomas Chabot will serve as alternate captains. All three players played for Canada at last year’s tournament and appeared in the NHL at the start of the season. While they combined for just 10 games and one assist in the NHL, all three are 2015 first-round picks and dominant CHL players. Strome has 295 points in 191 games with the Erie Otters; Islanders sixteenth-overall pick Barzal has 281 points in 174 games with the Seattle Thunderbirds; Chabot, a defenseman picked eighteenth overall by Ottawa, has 128 points in 182 games with the Saint John Sea Dogs.
- The Vancouver Canucks most recent first-round pick, Olli Juolevi has been named captain of Team Finland. Juolevi had nine assists in seven games in last year’s tournament, as Finland won gold. So far, Juolevi has 21 points in 26 games with the London Knights.
- Today marks 21 years since the Calgary Flames acquired Jarome Iginla from the Dallas Stars for Joe Nieuwendyk. The trade worked out pretty well for both teams: the Stars won the Stanley Cup four years later with Nieuwendyk playing a key role, and Iginla became the face of the Flames franchise. Nieuwendyk was in the prime of his career, while Iginla was an eleventh-overall pick playing for the Kamloops Blazers. Amalie Benjamin of NHL.com tweeted that Iginla initially thought he had been traded to the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen. After turning pro, Iginla scored 1095 points in 16 years with the Flames, leading them to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2004. He’s bounced around between Pittsburgh, Boston, and Colorado in the four years since he was traded. Iginla could be on the move again this year, as the Avalanche are one of the worst teams in the NHL and he could want to go to a contender for the end of his career.
Metro Division Notes: Wennberg, Vesey, Schenn, Raffl
The Columbus Blue Jackets are one of the league’s biggest surprises this season under head coach John Tortorella. The team’s points-percentage is #1 in the league, and they boast the NHL’s top-ranked man-advantage unit as well. While the play of rookie defenseman Zach Werenski and goaltender Sergei Bobrovski is garnering much of the attention, third-year center Alexander Wennberg has played a vital role in the team’s surge this season.
Wennberg debuted in 2014-15 and tallied 20 points in 68 games as a rookie. He would double that points total in 69 contests in his sophomore campaign but is in the midst of a breakout season in 2016-17 with 25 points in 28 appearances. If he maintains that pace he would finish with more than 70 points. According to Tortorella via Aaron Portzline of The Columbus Dispatch, Wennberg, now in his third professional season, has embraced the added responsibility that comes with experience.
“Before camp started, we talked about responsibility as a third-year pro,” Tortorella said. “He’s not a rookie anymore. He’s not feeling his way through the league anymore. He needs to take responsibility with his play, and he’s done that.”
For his part, the young pivot believes his physical development has allowed him to improve in all aspects on the ice.
“I’m bigger now, stronger,” Wennberg said recently. “It’s a hard league, the best in the world, and I was a young guy when I got here. Of course it’s tough. I do feel different this year. I know Torts better and he knows me better, too. So it’s good.”
Although known more for his skill, Wennberg recently had occasion to show he isn’t afraid of physical play. Friday night he dropped the mitts with Flames rookie Matthew Tkachuk after the latter delivered a big hit on Brandon Saad in the Jackets defensive zone. He may not have fared particularly well in the engagement but he certainly earned the respect of his teammates and his coach.
“I’ve talked since I’ve been here that I think Wenny needs to be more involved,” Tortorella said. “Not to fight, but to be more involved in the inside part of the game, and he’s done that this year.
“For him to stand in there – right in front of the bench – that’s important for camaraderie and the tightness of the bench to see that guy stand in there.”
Elsewhere in the Metro Division:
- Jimmy Vesey spurned several teams when he agreed to terms with the New York Rangers this summer as an unrestricted free agent. Chief among them was the club who originally drafted the skilled winger in the 3rd round of the 2012 draft, the Nashville Predators. Of course everyone knows the story by now. Nashville GM David Poile thought Vesey would sign with the club upon the completion of his senior season at Harvard but Vesey had other ideas. Once it became clear the Predators would not be adding the young winger, the team pivoted and traded his rights to Buffalo in exchange for a third-round pick. Buffalo also failed to secure Vesey’s name on a contract and it was the Rangers who would add the talented prospect to their organization. Vesey is off to a strong start with the Blueshirts, registering 10 goals and 17 points in 31 contests. He’s already played against the Sabres in Buffalo and received a cold reception. Tonight, however, Vesey and the Rangers travel to Nashville where Adam Vingan of The Tennessean expects Vesey will receive a hostile welcome from Predators fans. Vesey certainly expects one and is looking forward to getting it over with: “I kind of have been knowing it was coming. It’s going to be the worst of it, and once this game is done with, maybe it’ll settle down.” Rangers bench boss Alain Vigneault doesn’t expect the atmosphere to distract the rookie: “I think this is the third time this is happened. He hasn’t shown at all that he’s been at all influenced by it. If the fans get their money’s worth, then I guess fine for them, but I know it’s not going to bother the young man at all.”
- The Philadelphia Flyers had their 10-game winning streak broken today in Dallas, but the stretch of winning hockey has elevated the Flyers from a .500 club to one that comfortably holds a playoff spot. Coincidentally, their streak began at the same time Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol moved Brayden Schenn to center from wing, replacing him with Michael Raffl on the top line, as Sam Carchidi of Philly.com writes. Schenn initially centered the fourth-line for two games but has spent the past eight on the second-line and that trio has combined for 12 goals and 22 points since.
Roster Moves: Fedun, Wotherspoon
Follow this post for all of the day’s transaction news.
- The Buffalo Sabres today activated defenseman Taylor Fedun from IR and assigned him to Rochester of the AHL, according to Mike Vogl of The Buffalo News. Fedun has been out the last two weeks with a shoulder injury. On the season, the 28-year-old blue liner has four assists in eight games. The assignment of Fedun may mean that Zach Bogosian is ready to return to the lineup, suggests Mike Harrington, also of The Buffalo News (Twitter link). Bogosian hasn’t played since November 1st due to a sprained MCL.
- Fellow defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon of the Calgary Flames has been reassigned by the club to their AHL affiliate, the Stockton Heat, according to a release on the team’s official website. Wotherspoon has not appeared in a game this season for the Flames but over the course of the previous three campaigns, the former second-round pick has seen action in 26 contests, recording five assists. The assignment of Wotherspoon leaves the Flames with just six healthy blue liners, leading Wes Gilbertson, who covers the team for Post Media, to suggest the team may recall Brett Kulak from the minors. Kulak, 23, has played in 15 games this season and has registered three assists.
Bob Hartley To Coach Latvia
Bob Hartley, the 2015 Jack Adams Trophy winner, will be named the head coach of the Latvian national team, according to Aivis Kalniņš.
According to Kalniņš, all that’s left to do is sign the contract. In an interesting note, Sportsnet’s Mark Spector notes that Hartley was chosen over finalists Patrick Roy and Ron Rolston.
The legendary Avalanche goaltender resigned as the team’s coach in August over disagreements on player decisions like the Nick Holden trade. Rolston has previously coached college hockey, several AHL teams, and the Buffalo Sabres.
Hartley, a veteran of nearly 1000 NHL games, most recently coached the Calgary Flames, but was fired last summer after missing the playoffs. His Jack Adams trophy came following the 2014-15 season where the Flames rode unsustainable percentages and got to the second round of the playoffs. Hartley has previously won the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001.
Hartley is a good coach to motivate Latvian players, who will have to out-work their opponents in order to have a chance against highly-skilled international teams. Former Latvian coach Ted Nolan and goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis nearly managed to beat Canada at the 2014 Sochi Olympics; Canada’s 2-1 win was one of the most exciting games of the entire tournament. Latvia was able to score on Canada, which is something that international powerhouses USA and Sweden was not able to do.
PTO Checkup
During the offseason NHL teams extended a total of 194 professional tryouts (PTOs) to players trying to earn a professional contract for the upcoming season. Of those 194 players, only eleven earned a permanent NHL/AHL contract. Those lucky 5% have had varied success this season, and this article looks at how those players have fared so far.
Steve Bernier: New York Islanders
Steve Bernier failed to garner a contract on his PTO right away, but the New York Islanders signed him to a one-year, two-way deal on October 24, 2016. The contract pays him $600K (NHL) / $200K (AHL). Bernier has remained with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers—the Islanders’ AHL affiliate—all season, posting 8G and 5A in 15 games.
Gabriel Bourque: Colorado Avalanche
Gabriel Bourque signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Colorado Avalance worth $800K (NHL) / $200K (AHL). The 26 year-old forward has split time with the Avalanche and its AHL affiliate San Antonio Rampage this season. Bourque has failed to register a point with Colorado, but has 3G and 5A in 16 games for San Antonio
Rene Bourque: Colorado Avalanche
Rene Bourque signed a one-year, one-way deal with the Colorado Avalanche worth $650K. Bourque has impressed so far, scoring 8G and 3A in 11 games for the Avalanche. He’s already surpasses last years totals (3G and 5A in 49 games) and could come closer to regaining his prior form.
Justin Fontaine: New York Rangers
Justin Fontaine signed a one-year, two-way deal with the New York Rangers worth $600K (NHL) / $300K (AHL) after failing to earn a contract with the Minnesota Wild. The 29 year-old forward remains in the AHL so far this season and has racked up 3G and 8A in 21 games for the Hartford Wolf Pack.
Nicklas Grossmann: Orebro HK (SHL)
Nicklas Grossmann initially signed a one-year, one-way contract with the Calgary Flames for $575K. The Swedish defenseman lasted three games before the Flames attempted to demote him to the AHL Stockton Heat. Grossmann, however, did not report to Stockton, so Calgary terminated his contract. Grossman failed to register a point in those three games with the Flames.
Eric Gryba: Edmonton Oilers
Eric Gryba signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Edmonton Oilers worth $950K (NHL) / $250K (AHL). The move has not yet panned out as Gryba remains pointless through 14 games. The Oilers placed Gryba on IR on November 30th, and the defenseman is reportly nearing a return. While Gryba was never an offensive defenseman, the Oilers do expect more from him and could send him down if he doesn’t improve when he returns.
Lauri Korpikoski: Dallas Stars
Lauri Korpikoski signed a one-year, one-way contract with the Dallas Stars worth $1MM after failing to sign with the Calgary Flames—the team that initially offered Korpikoski a PTO. In 29 games for the Stars, Korpikoski has 4G and 5A, which is respectable but nothing noteworthy. He’ll have to improve if he wants to stay in the lineup after all the Stars’ injured players return.
Tom McCollum: Calgary Flames
Tom McCollum signed a two-year, two-way deal with the Calgary Flames worth $575K and $650K in the NHL and $175K and $200K in the AHL. Despite the two-year deal, however, McCollum has seen little action. The former first rounder has played 1 game in the AHL with the Stockton Heat and 3 games in the ECHL with the Adirondack Thunder.
Devin Setoguchi: Los Angeles Kings
Devin Setoguchi returned to the NHL this year with the Los Angeles Kings on a one-year, two-way deal worth $575K (NHL) / $45K (AHL). The former eighth overall pick has 3G and 4A in 24 games. Setoguci returns after playing in Switzerland for a year, and is still looking to regain his scoring touch with the Kings.
Jack Skille: Vancouver Canucks
Jack Skille signed a one-year, one-way deal with the Vancouver Canucks worth $700K. In 22 games this season Skille has 3G and 1A and plays less than nine minutes a night. Skille has never lived up to his draft position—7th overall in 2005—and has bounced around the league ever since.
Kris Versteeg: Calgary Flames
Kris Versteeg signed a one-year deal with the Calgary Flames worth $950K after failing to maintain a contract with both SC Bern (Swiss) and the Edmonton Oilers. Versteeg’s SC Bern contract was voided when Versteeg failed his medical exam. In 19 games with the Flames, however, Versteeg has 4G and 7A. So far the signing seems to have paid off for Calgary.
Comparative Standings: One Year Ago
With the first third of the season completed for all but Columbus (who have amazingly played just 26 games, six fewer than the Winnipeg Jets), there have been some huge swings from a year ago.
Those Blue Jackets are the league’s most improved team, with a staggering 18 more points through 26 games than last season. Their huge swing is only matched by the Dallas Stars equally amazing drop-off of 18 points the other way. The Jackets can attest their improvement to the development of young players like Zach Werenski and Alexander Wennberg, while the Stars have seen a litany of injuries to their star players including Jason Spezza, Patrick Sharp and Johnny Oduya.
The Central Division as a whole is off to a slower start this year, with only the Chicago Blackhawks bettering their 2015-16 record. The Colorado Avalanche, expected to take a step forward with their young core has suffered the exact same fate with 23 points through 27 games.
The two biggest Canadian rebuild stories, Edmonton and Toronto have both improved, though not as largely as the fan bases in each city might have you believe. Four points for the Maple Leafs and five for the Oilers lend credence to the idea that it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish that counts. Though both franchises have a lot to look forward to, keeping up an advanced pace for an entire season is extremely difficult. The two teams finished last season with just 69 and 70 points respectively.
Below are the current standings. In parenthesis is the difference in points through the same amount of games last year.
Milestones: Chris Neil and Jarome Iginla
Ottawa Senators forward Chris Neil and Colorado Avalanche forward Jarome Iginla will hit major milestones tonight when they hit the ice for their respective teams. Neil is set to play his 1,000th game while Iginla will play his 1,500th.
Chris Neil has played all of his 999 games for the Ottawa Senators. He was drafted in the 6th round (161st overall) in 1998—one pick before Montreal Canadiens defenseman Andrei Markov and ten picks before former Detroit Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk. In his 999 games Neil racked up 112 goals, 136 assists, and a whopping 2,492 penalty minutes. Known more as an enforcer than a scorer, Neil has dropped the gloves at least 172 times in his NHL regular season career, according to HockeyFights.com.
Jarome Iginla has split his 1,499 games between the Calgary Flames (1219 games), Pittsburgh Penguins (13 games), Boston Bruins (78 games), and Colorado Avalanche (189 games). He’s amassed 614 goals and 665 assists in those games alongside an additional 37 goals and 31 assists in 81 playoff games. Iginla was the centerpiece of the Flames from his first season in 1996-97 to when he was traded at the 2012-13 trade deadline to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Despite being 39 years old, Iginla has remained productive, scoring 30, 29, and 22 goals in his last three seasons.
The veteran forward is in the final year of his contract with the Avalanche that pays him $5.33MM a year, and it is unclear whether Iginla steps away from the game in the offseason. He is off to a slow start this season with only 3G and 3A in 25 games, which could be signs of decline or just a product of Colorado’s anemic offense—the team ranks 29th in goals for. There will be suitors for Iginla this offseason if he decides to continue playing, and the wily veteran could be a worthy addition to the expansion Vegas Golden Knights.
Minor Moves: Witkowski, Kulak, Wotherspoon
Thursday night in the NHL and there are 10 games on the docket tonight. With so many teams playing, there are sure to be a handful of minor moves to fill out rosters and cover injuries. We’ll keep you up to date right here.
- The Tampa Bay Lightning are off to a solid 14-11-2 start to the season, but have been struggling lately, losing five of their last six games. With three days off to regroup since their game on Sunday, the team has called up Luke Witkowski to give them a bit of a defensive boost. The Syracuse Crunch captain, Witkowski has played six games for the Lightning this year and offers a big physical presence on the back end. The 26-year old was a sixth-round pick of the Lightning back in 2008 and was a standout at Western Michigan University before joining the Crunch.
- Going in the opposite direction, the Calgary Flames are on a four-game winning streak but will make a move to give some more icetime to a young player. Brett Kulak has been sent down to the AHL to play more, as he’d sat out the last five games. Kulak is a 22-year old defender that the Flames think can be an NHL player for a long time, and they’d like him to develop just a bit more before installing him on their blueline. To replace him, the team has called up Tyler Wotherspoon from the Stockton Heat. A former second-round pick, Wotherspoon is a bit more polished and can offer a more physical game. Though Wotherspoon only has 26 NHL games under his belt, this will be his fourth season spending time with the Flames. No word on whether he’ll get into the lineup right away, or just take Kulak’s spot in the press box.
- The Vancouver Canucks have recalled Andrey Pedan from the AHL. Pedan has played 18 games for the Utica Comets this season, scoring just three points while racking up thirty penalty minutes. The former third-round pick played thirteen games for the Canucks last season, but hasn’t been able to crack the NHL lineup this year.
- After not playing in last night’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Teemu Pulkkinen has been sent down to the AHL. Just like his entire career to this point, Pulkkinen has been an outstanding scoring threat at the lower level but is unable to replicate it in the NHL. With 15 points in 16 games for the Iowa Wild, but just a single goal in 8 contests for Minnesota, the enigma persists.
- Brad Hunt, the AHL’s leading scorer, has been recalled by the St. Louis Blues. Amazingly, the defenseman has 29 points in 23 games playing for the Chicago Wolves. Always a big point producer at the lower level, Hunt has suited up in 21 NHL contests over the years.