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Western Notes: Blackhawks, Greenway, Horvat, Dahlen, Kovalchuk

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Don’t expect too many changes in the Chicago Blackhawks roster this season. At least that’s what Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times writes as he examines the roster and the team’s salary cap flexibility.

Coach Joel Quenneville admitted that many things went wrong this year, but he believes that if the team comes back and all play better, the Blackhawks should return to the playoffs next season. Factor in the loss of Marian Hossa, the injury to goaltender Corey Crawford and some down years by several key players, perhaps a turnaround is possible.

“If we all collectively have better years in all aspects … I believe we’re very capable of [rebounding],” Quenneville said. “We’ve seen many games this year where we look like we could be a really good team. [It’s] just that consistency, putting that in place.”

Lazerus writes that the team should look into adding a top-four defenseman, but was quick to point out that it’s unlikely the team will go after Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson as that pricetag would be too high even though it looks as if the Blackhawks should have considerable cap space. He also adds the team desperately needs to find a quality backup goaltender to avoid the problems the team had to endure during the second half of this season.

  • Sarah McLellan of the StarTribune writes that while the Minnesota Wild’s bottom line of Tyler Ennis, Matt Cullen and Charlie Coyle has been successful of late, but head coach Bruce Boudreau might break it up as it sounds like the coach is leaning towards starting rookie Jordan Greenway over Ennis. “I don’t know where he’s going to play [in the playoffs], but I’m sure I’ll find a spot,” Boudreau said.
  • Rick Dhaliwal of Sportsnet tweeted that Vancouver Canucks forward Bo Horvat received an invitation to play for Canada at the upcoming world championships in Denmark this summer.
  • Dhaliwal also adds that Vancouver Canucks prospect Jonathan Dahlen will rest for a few days before reporting to the Utica Comets of the AHL. Dahlen, a prospect the Canucks acquired at the trade deadline in 2016 for Alexandre Burrows, has been lighting up the Allvenskan league and helped lead his team Timra to be promoted to Sweden’s top tier league.
  • European reporter Alex Nunn tweeted that KHL star Ilya Kovalchuk has confirmed that he will spend the next two or three seasons in the NHL. Kovalchuk will be an unrestricted free agent on April 15, when he turns 35 years old.

Metropolitan Notes: Rangers, Boychuk, Pulock, Ward, Kempny

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With the New York Rangers being the first team in almost a year to be looking for a head coach after firing Alain Vigneault Saturday evening, the team has said it will commence with their search immediately. The team must decide whether they are looking for a big name coach, a up-and-coming coach or a coach that is good at working with young players.

The New York Post’s Larry Brooks offers 10 potential candidates to replace Vigneault, leading those suggestions with three collegiate coaches, including the University of Denver’s Jim Montgomery, Boston University’s David Quinn and Union College’s Rick Bennett. He also suggests Toronto Marlies coach Sheldon Keefe of the AHL would be a good fit.

According to Brooks, there are also several veteran NHL coaches available, including Dan Bylsma, Darryl Sutter, Dave Tippett and Patrick Roy.

  • Andrew Gross of Newsday reports that veteran defenseman Johnny Boychuk will undergo surgery Monday, but would not reveal what it is for. The 34-year-old defenseman missed quite some time this season, playing in just 58 games this season. He is expected to be 100 percent by June.
  • Arthur Staple of The Athletic (subscription required) writes that while little has gone right this year, one bright spot has been the strong finish of rookie defenseman Ryan Pulock. The 23-year-old blueliner finished with 10 goals, most in the NHL for rookie defensemen. His 18:24 of average ice time was second among rookie defensemen behind Boston’s Charlie McAvoy. Staple suggests that his improvement on the defensive end could potentially make him a top-pairing defenseman.
  • The Charlotte Observer’s Chip Alexander wonders what will happen to long-time goaltender Cam Ward now that the season is over. The veteran goalie who has spent 13 years with the organization will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason and at 34 years old, the team must decide whether they want to bring him back or go in a different direction. Despite taking a backup role this year, Ward still played in 43 games and finished with a 2.78 GAA and a .906 save percentage as he had to fill in for a struggling Scott Darling. Of course, with no general manager in place yet, it might be a while before the team sorts that out.
  • After going out a year ago and trading for star defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk and then being eliminated in the first round, the Washington Capitals have taken the opposite course this year, quietly trading for Michal Kempny from the Chicago Blackhawks. While hardly a headlining defenseman, Kempny has been a good fit with Washington and has changed their defense for the better, according to Washington Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan. Kempny, who was often a healthy scratch for Chicago has filled in as a top-four defenseman and is averaging 16:46 per game. As the team prepares for a matchup with the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the playoffs, they hope the improvement of their defense might help them with a long playoff run.

Minor Transactions: 4/8/18

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With the Eastern Conference still undecided until today’s final regular season game, the Western Conference has no questions as the Colorado Avalanche finished off the St. Louis Blues in a 5-2 victory Saturday as they clinched the final playoff spot. The Nashville Predators got the top spot and will face the Avalanche. In other first-round matchups, the Vegas Golden Knights will face the Los Angeles Kings, the Anaheim Ducks will face the San Jose Sharks and the Minnesota Wild will face the Winnipeg Jets. 

Florida Panthers’ Radim Vrbata To Retire After Season

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The Florida Panthers honored veteran Radim Vrbata during tonight’s game and announced that tonight’s game against the Buffalo Sabres will be his final appearance in an NHL uniform. He is not expected to play tomorrow and will retire at the end of the season, confirms Buffalo News’ Mike Harrington.

The 36-year-old winger has only appeared in 41 games this season and hasn’t played since March 8. He has just five goals and 19 points this season, a far cry from a season ago, when he scored 20 goals and tallied 55 points with the Arizona Coyotes.

In his 17-year career, Vrbata has played for multiple teams, including the Colorado Avalanche, Carolina Hurricanes, Chicago Blackhawks, Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vancouver Canucks and the Panthers. He has played in 1,056 games, putting up 284 goals and 339 assists for 623 points and had two 30-goal seasons.

Blackhawks’ Patrick Sharp To Retire At End Of Season

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Chicago Blackhawks Patrick Sharp played in his final home game Friday and is expected to play his final game of his career Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets in Winnipeg, ending a lengthy career since 2005 and including 10 years as a integral piece to the Blackhawks, which led to three Stanley Cup championships.

“I think I’ve known what I wanted to do for a long period of time here and it’s never easy, you know?” an emotional Sharp said in the Blackhawks’ dressing room following the loss via Chris Kuk of The Athletic. “But I think I’m just ready to take that next step in my life, and I’m looking forward to it.”

In two stints with Chicago, the 36-year-old Sharp has tallied 249 goals and helped the Blackhawks to Stanley Cups in 2010, 2013 and 2015. After winning the title in 2015, Sharp was then traded to the Dallas Stars where he 28 goals over two seasons. He signed a one-year, $800K contract to return to Chicago. With his skills on decline, the winger played the lowest average minutes of his career since his rookie season, averaging 12:50, scoring 10 goals and 21 points in 69 games.

While Sharp didn’t announce his retirement beforehand, it was quite obvious to anyone who watched Friday’s game against the St. Louis Blues, according to Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times. Sharp played the most minutes of the season, playing 19:03. His parents were in attendance and the veteran started on the team’s top line. He wore his old “A” on his sweater and the team gave him a video tribute during the third period. At the end of the game, Sharp skated to center ice under the spotlight teammates stayed on the bench and tapped their sticks.

On a whole, including two seasons playing for the Philadelphia Flyers who drafted him in the third round back in 2001, Sharp finished his career with 287 goals, 333 assists and 620 points in 939 games. He also was part of Team Canada’s gold medal Olympic team in 2014 in Sochi, Russia.

Joel Quenneville, Stan Bowman Will Return To Blackhawks In 2018-19

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The decision has been made, and both Joel Quenneville and Stan Bowman will return to the Chicago Blackhawks in 2018-19 according to team president John McDonough (via Mark Lazerus of the Chicag0 Sun-Times).

Quenneville has faced rumors over his future all season as the Blackhawks struggled, and he was even included in TSN’s latest list of coaches that could be fired on Monday. That speculation can end now that McDonough has made it clear he’ll keep the same group in place.

Chicago played spoiler to the St. Louis Blues last night, and now sit 23rd in the league with 76 points on the season. That’s easily bad enough to miss the playoffs, but won’t give them a huge chance at winning the draft lottery in a few weeks. Still, the Blackhawks haven’t picked in the top-15 of the first round in a decade, selecting Kyle Beach 11th-overall a year after taking Patrick Kane with the first-overall pick.

The question is how patient Bowman and Quenneville will be, and how patient can they even afford to be. Kane and Jonathan Toews are no longer young ascending players, and core members of their Stanley Cup teams like Brent Seabrook and Patrick Sharp are a shadow of what they once were. There is a new young wave of players in the form of Nick Schmaltz and Alex DeBrincat, but it’s not clear if they’ll be enough to crack the championship window back open in the coming years. A return to health for Corey Crawford would help, but there are problems on the Chicago blue line that would cause struggles for any goaltender.

Obviously this isn’t a rebuild situation, not with players like Toews and Kane still on monster contracts and still on the right side of 30. With that in mind, it is understandable to stick with the group that has brought you success in recent years, even if this season was a disappointing hiccup. Whether or not they’ll be able to navigate another tricky offseason and bring glory back to Chicago is unclear, but they certainly have enough experience to do so.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Black Monday: The Day The Coaches (Could) Disappear

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The NHL looks like it will finish an entire season without seeing a single coach fired for the first time since expansion in 1967, but there could be a dark lining on that stat coming next week. “Black Monday” as it is being termed could be coming after the final game of the regular season this Sunday, with close to a dozen coaches finding themselves on the hot seat.

In last night’s Insider Trading segment on TSN, Bob McKenzie broke down a list of potential firings that looked like this:

Glen Gulutzan, Calgary Flames
Bill Peters, Carolina Hurricanes
Joel Quenneville, Chicago Blackhawks
Jeff Blashill, Detroit Red Wings
Todd McLellan, Edmonton Oilers
Doug Weight, New York Islanders
Alain Vigneault, New York Rangers
Guy Boucher, Ottawa Senators
Barry Trotz, Washington Capitals

Some of these names simply don’t have a contract for next season, including Trotz, who also happens to be the only coach on the list heading to the playoffs. The Capitals have won the Metropolitan Division for the third year in a row, but will be judged entirely on their postseason performance. Washington must find some success past the second round, or there could be a shake up in order starting with the man behind the bench.

The rest of the list is a who’s who of disappointing seasons, with Quenneville sticking out like a sore thumb. Arguably one of the best coaches of all-time, Quenneville’s firing could cause what McKenzie terms a ripple effect throughout the league. Though he doesn’t expand on that idea, many have wondered whether another team would fire their incumbent to have the opportunity to hire Quenneville should he become a free agent, much like the Montreal Canadiens did last season when Claude Julien was let go from Boston.

In New York, while both coaches might not be back it would be for very different reasons. Vigneault has had a lot of regular season success with the Rangers, but as they enter into an unfamiliar rebuild they could want to start with a fresh face behind the bench. For Weight and the Islanders, this season was an abject failure as they tried to woo John Tavares with a trip to the postseason. They won’t get there, and now have to worry about whether their captain and superstar will stick around.

There could be many other names you could suggest for the list, and it is extremely unlikely that all of these will get the boot before the start of 2018-19. You can be sure some changes are coming though, even if it does come after a remarkable season of patience by general managers around the league.

Minor Transactions: 04/02/18

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The NHL is down to the last week of the season, with all games scheduled to be wrapped up by Sunday night. With that in mind, we’ll keep track of all the minor moves around the league and give context on how they could impact the playoff picture. Check back throughout the day to stay up to date on your favorite team.

  • According to Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News, the Buffalo Sabres have recalled Matt Tennyson from the minor leagues to help replace the injured Victor Antipin. Antipin was knocked unconscious this weekend against the Nashville Predators, and won’t play again this season. Tennyson has played 14 games for the Sabres this season, though most of his work has come in the AHL. The 27-year old defenseman is still looking for his first NHL point of the season.
  • Back and forth goes Oliver Kylington, who has been recalled once again by the Calgary Flames today. Kylington is still looking to get a chance at the NHL level, but the 20-year old defenseman has seen positive progression while in the minor leagues.
  • Thatcher Demko is on his way back to the minor leagues, in time to help the Utica Comets with their playoff push. If the AHL playoffs started today, the Comets would have to dangerous Toronto Marlies in the first round, a matchup that would really test Demko and give him an opportunity to show he’s too good for the minor leagues.
  • The Boston Bruins have recalled Colby Cave from the minor leagues under emergency conditions, bringing up the forward once again. Cave made his NHL debut earlier this year, and could get back into the lineup if one of the injured players for Boston can’t play.
  • The Chicago Blackhawks have swapped goaltenders, recalling Jeff Glass from the minor leagues and sending Collin Delia back down. Delia had a very interesting debut, suiting up after Anton Forsberg was injured, only to suffer an injury himself and relinquish the net to emergency goaltender Scott Foster. Delia has played at three different professional levels already this season, impressive for an undrafted goaltender out of Merrimack College.
  • The Dallas Stars have reassigned Jason Dickinson to the minor leagues, giving him back to the Texas Stars for their playoff run. Texas will welcome him back with open arms, as Dickinson has 16 goals in just 36 games this season.

Evening Notes: Updated Draft Odds, Keith

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With the season winding down, and teams vying for the better odds of winning the Rasmus Dahlin sweepstakes, the Ottawa Senators took another step in upping their chances at the top pick by losing to Detroit 2-0 this afternoon. With just four games remaining, the Sens are tied with Arizona for the second worst record in the NHL with 65 points. Buffalo still has the best shot at securing the rights for the first overall pick. The NHL released the odds two days ago and with several teams within a few points of one another, the “tank-a-thon” race could be the matter of a few points as opposed to Colorado’s historically bad season in 2016-17.   As it stands, here are the odds for the ten worst teams through Saturday evening. Vancouver won in overtime, blowing a 4-1 lead late but still notching two points, which moved them from a 9.5% chance to 8.5%.  Please note that Arizona, Buffalo, New York (Rangers and Islanders), Edmonton, and Montreal all play tonight, which could alter the landscape a bit.

Buffalo (18.5%) – 60 points – 5 games remaining
Ottawa (13.5%) – 65 points – 4 games remaining
Arizona (11.5%)   – 65 points – 4 games remaining
Montreal (9.5%) – 68 points – 5 games remaining
Vancouver (8.5%) – 69 points – 3 games remaining
Detroit (7.5%) – 71 points – 3 games remaining
Chicago (6.5%) – 74 points – 3 games remaining
NY Islanders (6.0%) – 74 points – 4 games remaining
Edmonton (5.0%) – 74 points – 4 games remaining
NY Rangers (3.5%) – 75 points – 4 games remaining

  • The Chicago Blackhawks are going to miss the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade, and some of that has to do with the Hawks inability to score goals. Duncan Keith has seen his share of struggles and is on pace to set an NHL record for the wrong reasons writes the Chicago Sun-Times Mark Lazerus. After taking 183 shots on net this season, Keith has only gotten the puck past a netminder once. Though his goal scoring has dropped off since he potted 10 back in 2014-15 when Chicago captured the Stanley Cup, nobody saw Keith’s performance going off the rails quite like this. Lazerus writes that if Keith doesn’t score in the final three games, Keith will set the NHL record for lowest non-zero shooting percentage. Lazerus adds that while Keith has been far and away the best defenseman for Chicago this season, he’s even fallen away from what has been his best play. Lazerus attributes this to being one of the only true top four defenseman on the team, something that has bogged down the two-time Norris Trophy winner.

Minor Transactions: 03/30/18

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A busy night in the NHL brought several exciting finishes, but nothing quite like the drama that occurred in Chicago. Scott Foster, a 36-year old recreational goalie entered the game when Collin Delia was injured, and stopped all seven shots he faced en route to a first star selection and perfect NHL debut.

Because of the injuries to Anton Forsberg and Delia—who was also making his NHL debut—the Blackhawks made Jean-Francois Berube an emergency call-up, recalling the goaltender after just seeing him clear waivers this week.

Like always, we’ll keep track of all the other moves around the league:

  • Also facing goaltending problems, the Buffalo Sabres have recalled Adam Wilcox from the minor leagues. Wilcox has bounced around the minor leagues for the last few seasons, but is still waiting for his NHL debut. The 25-year old has a .903 save percentage in 28 games with the Rochester Americans this season.
  • The Dallas Stars have sent Curtis McKenzie back to the minor leagues, according to Mark Stepneski of NHL.com. McKenzie has played in just seven games for the Stars this year, and is still looking for his first goal of the season.
  • The Boston Bruins have returned Jordan Szwarz to the minor leagues, according to Mark Divver of the Providence Journal. Szwarz is having another excellent season in the AHL, recording 44 points in 46 games. His time in the NHL hasn’t been as fruitful, with just three points in 12 contests.
  • Kerby Rychel has been recalled by the Montreal Canadiens, after playing some of the best hockey of his career for the Laval Rocket of late. Rychel has registered 12 points in the 14 games since being traded from the Toronto Marlies, and could get his first taste of NHL action in more than two years. The 23-year old was a first-round pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets and debuted at age 20 to high expectations, but couldn’t find his footing in the NHL and was passed over by other prospects. He’ll try for a fresh start in Montreal, where they are dying for an offensive spark of any kind.

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