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Snapshots: Tatar, McNeil, Umberger, Tuulola

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Tomas Tatar’s arbitration hearing took place this morning, at the conclusion of which the arbitrator was given 48 hours to reach a decision on his salary for next season. Tatar cannot be awarded a two-year contract through arbitration since he will reach unrestricted free agency next year, but as Craig Custance of The Athletic points out could still work out a long-term deal with the Red Wings before the decision come in. We saw a similar situation play out in 2014 with P.K. Subban, who had his hearing with the Montreal Canadiens before signing an eight-year contract a day later.

Last week it was reported the two sides were still quite a bit away in terms of an agreement, with Tatar turning down a five-year $25MM contract. While they may have worked closer to a deal, a one-year decision through arbitration would likely spell the forward’s end in Detroit. Tatar would immediately hit the trade block if he hadn’t already, with many teams likely after him as a rental piece as the season went on. If Ken Holland and the Red Wings didn’t think they could get a deal done, they would have to look long and hard at any proposals for Tatar that would improve the club long-term.

  • The Syracuse Crunch have signed Reid McNeill to an AHL contract, taking him away from the St. Louis organization where he spent 2016-17 and adding him to the Tampa Bay Lightning affiliate. McNeill was a sixth-round pick of the Penguins in 2010, but has never been able to turn his size and defensive ability into a tryout at the NHL level. In 61 games last year split between the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Chicago Wolves, he registered ten points.
  • Dallas Stars beat writer Mike Heika of SportsDay held a Q&A with readers and answered all sorts of questions regarding the Stars and their big offseason moves. One of them revolved around R.J. Umberger, who has signed a professional tryout with the team after a full year away from the game. Heika believes the invitation to camp is more of a friendly opportunity handed out by Umberger’s former coach in Ken Hitchcock than a real tryout for the Stars this season. If Umberger can show he’s healthy and rejuvenated, a successful camp under a familiar system could look good around the league. Now 35, Umberger could potentially sign a one-year contract with performance bonuses, though those kinds of deals come with risks as well.
  • The Montreal Canadiens have re-signed Yannick Veilleux on a two-way minor league deal. The contract will pay different amounts depending on whether Veilleux plays in the AHL or ECHL this season. Veilleux spent last year in the Montreal system bouncing between the two leagues, finding some success with St. John’s. Selected in the fourth round by the St. Louis Blues once upon a time, he’s still waiting for his first chance at the NHL level.
  • The Calgary Flames will watch Eetu Tuulola return to Finland for the upcoming season, leaving the Everett Silvertips where he had played in 2016-17. Tuulola was a sixth-round pick of the Flames in 2016 and tried his hand in the Canadian junior ranks with 31 points in 62 games. He’ll play for HPK in Finland’s Liiga next year, a professional team that can offer a bit more development opportunity than Everett.

Columbus’ Tortorella Is Next Coach In Need of Payday

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The Columbus Blue Jackets may find themselves in some coaching trouble as head coach John Tortorella is entering the final year of his contract and if the team doesn’t ante up soon, he could walk at the end of the season next year. However, the problem is that coaches are making a lot more money than they used to and a team like Columbus has never paid a coach more than $1.5MM a year, which went to Ken Hitchcock. According to Yahoo Sports’ Greg Wyshynski, the team may be forced to offer up at least $3.5MM to keep the veteran coach in Columbus.

Wyshynski writes that in the last few years, teams have been spending when it comes to coaches with Toronto’s Mike Babcock starting the process after the Maple Leafs gave him a $6.25MM per year deal. From that point on, Joel Quenneville cashed in with the Blackhawks at $6MM and Montreal gave Claude Julien $5MM to take over the Canadiens. It could be this new trend that has also spilled over into many teams hiring first-time coaches like this offseason when the Arizona Coyotes (Rick Tocchet, Florida Panthers (Bob Boughner), Vancouver Canucks (Travis Green) and the Buffalo Sabres (Phil Housley) all grabbed young coaches that wouldn’t demand big paychecks.

Could Tortorella be the next coach to break the bank? Currently, according to Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch, Tortorella makes $2MM per year, but the Blue Jackets only pay $750,000 of that as he is still receiving money from his one-year stint in Vancouver. However, the two-time Jack Adams Awards winner, which goes to the NHL’s best coach, deserves a major raise and if the Blue Jackets don’t offer that, they could lose him.

Snapshots: Umberger, O’Brien, McLean

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After a full year away from the NHL, R.J. Umberger has signed a professional tryout with the Dallas Stars for camp this fall. Umberger was bought out of the last year of his deal in 2016, but according to Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch will be brought in with former coach Ken Hitchcock to training camp.

It would be quite a story to see Umberger get back on the ice, as he at one point was one of the more consistent scoring wingers in the league. In the four seasons stretching from 2008-2012, Umberger scored 94 goals and 198 points and was a shining star in Columbus. His career quickly fell apart after heading to Philadelphia, before a buyout would push him out of the league entirely. Now 35, he’ll try to show that he has a bit left in the tank.

  • The Washington Capitals have signed their last remaining restricted free agent, inking Liam O’Brien to a one-year two-way contract. O’Brien will earn $650K at the NHL level, but that would be a big jump for the undrafted forward. O’Brien has just 14 NHL games to his name, and just a single one over the past two seasons. It’s hard to see him making enough of an impact to get a bigger role for the Capitals this season.
  • The Iowa Wild have hired Brett McLean as an assistant coach for this season, giving him his first crack behind the bench. McLean just finished his playing career after a couple of seasons in Austria, the last stop on a long winding road. Drafted by Dallas in 1997, McLean never played for the Stars but did suit up for 385 NHL games. An incredibly talented offensive player, he was undersized before it was common in the league, and would eventually take his talents to Europe and be a big part of the developing Swiss NLA. He’ll come in and help the Minnesota Wild’s AHL franchise now, trying to pass on a little of that offensive knowledge to their young players.

Dallas Stars Hire Rick Wilson, Stu Barnes As Assistant Coaches

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The Dallas Stars have decided who will join Ken Hitchcock behind the bench next season, hiring assistant coaches Rick Wilson and Stu Barnes. Curt Fraser will be a holdover from the previous staff. Hitchcock, hired after Lindy Ruff was let go at the end of the season will try and turn around what was an extremely disappointing club last year.

Wilson, 66, was around with Hitchcock during his first stint as head coach of the Stars, and is a life-long assistant in the NHL. He was first hired into the league in 1988 by the New York Islanders, and has been behind benches coaching defensemen ever since. His familiarity with Hitchcock and his systems will come in handy as the team looks to revamp the Stars play style.

Barnes on the other hand is still fairly green in terms of NHL coaching experience, only spending two years behind the bench under Marc Crawford during his Dallas stint. Barnes is a co-owner of the Tri-City Americans of the WHL (along with Olaf Kolzig) and has coached US prep academies. Just 46, Barnes is ten years removed from a playing career that took him all over the NHL. Suiting up for 1,136 games and registering 597 points, he made the transition from highly-touted young scoring threat to grizzled checking center quite smoothly.

Snapshots: Blues, Wilson, All-Star Game

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The St. Louis Blues cleared house today, firing coaches Ray Bennett, Steve Thomas, Rick Wilson and Ty Conklin. The quartet had hugely varying experience levels, from Wilson’s 27 seasons as an NHL assistant to Thomas’ three. Conklin may be the most surprising though, as he was part of the team—along with assistant GM Martin Brodeur—to turn around Jake Allen’s season after goaltending coach Jim Corsi was fired. Allen’s second-half turnaround continued into the playoffs and helped the Blues make a splash, recording an amazing .935 save percentage in the postseason.

Brodeur is also not returning as the team’s goalie coach, but is heading up a search for a new one. Many would have presumed that Conklin would have been a front-runner given his familiarity with Allen, but apparently they will go in another direction. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet tweets that both Craig Berube and Darryl Sydor are “good bets” to move up from the Chicago Wolves and take places in the St. Louis coaching staff next season.

  • On Wilson, Friedman believes that he may immediately head to Dallas to reunite with Ken Hitchcock a long-time friend and coaching associate. Wilson was behind the Stars bench going all the way back to the Minnesota North Stars days, and was present for Hitchcock’s entire first run with the team. They won a Stanley Cup together in 1999.
  • The lack of an announcement for next year’s All-Star Game had people wondering if the league was holding out a sliver of possibility of still heading to the Olympics, but it seems as though the announcement will come soon on the host city. After Friedman broke that it may be heading to the southeast this morning, Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times reports that the Lightning are the likely candidates. Though it’s “not a done deal yet” Smith writes that Tampa obviously has the capacity to host big events. The city has held several huge sporting events over the years including Super Bowls and Frozen Four tournaments. If the All-Star festivities are announced with the full schedule, it likely means any ray of hope that the league will head to the Olympics is finished. Once plans are set in motion for the city, it would be near-impossible to go back on.

Central Notes: McDonough, Seguin, Nashville – St. Louis

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Chicago Blackhawks president and CEO John McDonough is blunt in his assessment of the Blackhawks to the Chicago Sun-Times Mark Lazerus: they were steamrolled. Said to be “steaming” at their quick demise, McDonough is confident that general manager Stan Bowman can improve upon the latest first round exit for the only franchise in the salary cap era to win three Stanley Cups. Though happy with what Bowman and coach Joel Quenneville have done in the past, he tasks the Blackhawk bosses with building upon the talent that’s already there. Blackhawk fans can take solace in the fact that McDonough sees a lot of gas in the tank for a team many think may be worn out, but McDonough says that the organization is reviewing everything to make sure the Hawks fortunes are on an upward trend.

  • The Dallas Morning-News’ Mike Heika answers fans by indicating that the Stars won’t consider trading Tyler Seguin–unless they believe he’s not the right match with Jamie Benn. Heika believes that the Stars are hoping for new bench boss Ken Hitchcock to have a role in making Seguin a dominant two-way center. With an expensive contract, but still only 25 years of age, the Stars aren’t about to give up on the center. He also believes that Seguin will be motivated to take the next step as a player and sees Seguin being “very determined” to improve after fighting through injury the past few seasons.
  • It’s the battle of goaltenders when the Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues meet up in the second round of the playoffs. NHL.com’s Shawn Roarke writes that the goaltending is just one of many storylines as the two Central division foes meet for the first time in playoff action. Roarke sees lead time as another factor, as both teams enjoyed leading their respective first round opponent for long stretches of time. The Tennessean’s Joe Rexrode believes the Predators should win the series,  but is far from issuing a guarantee about it. Rexrode sees St. Louis’ staunch defense giving the Preds some problems while he openly wonders if the inconsistent Predators during the regular season could return for a playoff encore, disappearing just as quickly as they appeared to remind fans why they were preseason favorites. Meanwhile, St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Jeff Gordon echoes a number of Rexrode’s insights, adding that the return of Colin Wilson for the Preds and matching Nashville’s depth serves as some difficulties St. Louis might encounter.

Snapshots: Stevens, Koppanen, Seguin

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The Los Angeles Kings are apparently only looking at John Stevens currently for their head coaching position, reports both Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreger of TSN. Stevens, as some may remember, coached the Philadelphia Flyers for parts of four seasons from 2006-2009 where he had a record of 120-110-34 and took the team to the playoffs for two seasons. His resume includes a Calder Cup championship, and he has been part of the Kings organization now for seven years.

It doesn’t mean that Stevens has the job, or that he even will be retained as an assistant, but the new Kings’ GM Rob Blake wants to exhaust internal options before looking outside the organization. Stevens definitely has the qualifications, but it may come down to just needing a new voice in the room. The new management team will likely decide before long, so that whoever it is can be part of the offseason discussions prior to the expansion and entry drafts.

  • The Boston Bruins have signed Joona Koppanen to a three-year, entry-level contract. The Finnish forward was rumored to have turned down NCAA offers last week and was set to “turn pro”. Now it’s clear that meant with the Bruins, as the contract will kick in for the 2017-18 season. The 19-year old could now come over and join the AHL Bruins for next season, developing his game further from the excellent season he had in the Finnish junior league. With 54 points in just 38 games, it was clear Koppanen needed a greater challenge next season. A fifth-round pick of the Bruins in 2016, the 6’5″ Koppanen has the size to enter the professional ranks right away.
  • At a press conference to introduce Ken Hitchcock this morning, one of the first things the new Dallas Stars’ head coach said was that he expects Tyler Seguin to return to center and play “in all situations”. That will include some penalty kill time as Hitchcock intends to turn Seguin into the dominant center the Bruins had hoped for when they picked him second overall. Already an offensive dynamo, Seguin told Mark Stepneski of NHL.com that the idea of playing all over the ice “makes him giddy”. It should, if it can turn him into a dynamic two-way player. Hitchcock is known for riding his stars hard when they play poorly defensively, even if they are succeeding at the offensive end. Perhaps he’s exactly the coach Seguin needs to turn him into the MVP-type player that he clearly has the talent to be.

Dallas Stars Hire Ken Hitchcock As Head Coach

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Thursday: The Stars have made it official, naming Hitchcock as head coach. He has a multi-year deal that will transition into a consulting role thereafter.

Wednesday: After firing Lindy Ruff just a few days ago, the Dallas Stars have acted quickly, and according to multiple reports (including Tim Cowlishaw of ESPN) are set to hire Ken Hitchcock as their next head coach. The Stars are coming off a dreadful season that saw them finish with just a 34-37-11 record, a 30 point fall from their division leading 2015-16 season. Ken Hitchcock

Hitchcock of course was fired from his latest job mid-season, when the St. Louis Blues let him go early and installed Mike Yeo as the bench boss. At the time Hitchcock was said to be considering retirement, though many around the league doubted that he would ever be able to stay away from the game should an opportunity present itself. Well, now one has in one of his old stomping grounds. The eventual hall-of-fame coach spent the first seven seasons of his coaching career in Dallas, winning a Stanley Cup in 1999 and returning to the Western Conference Finals the following year. His team finished first in the division five straight seasons, and only had a losing record in his first year.

Hitchcock is known for his bristly nature with players, but also for some unconventional tactics that often pay dividends. He is currently number four on the all-time coaching list, and will surpass Al Arbour for third with just two wins next year. His .606 career winning percentage also ranks among the leaders.

The Stars will have to do more than just change coaches in order to climb back up the standings, but this at least provides them with a picture of what the team’s leadership will look like before they start working on the roster. Goaltending is still one of the biggest issues in Dallas, as they ranked last in save percentage despite paying over $10MM to the duo of Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi. Each will become an unrestricted free agent after next year, so Hitchcock and the Stars will need to prepare for the next chapter in net.

Hitchcock has been regarded as something of a defensive coach in the past, introducing systems that limit high quality shot attempts. It will be interesting to see whether this group can accomplish those systems, as they don’t have the established defensive core that some of his previous teams did. What they do have, is a young group that can grow under his tutelage and perhaps change the “high-flying” reputation.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Coaching Notes: Hitchcock, Montgomery, Hunter

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In Elliotte Friedman’s latest “30 Thoughts” column for Sportsnet, the venerable hockey insider goes into all the coaching movement around the NHL and lends his opinions and insight onto some of the still unresolved situations. In Dallas, where the team is set to announce the hiring of Ken Hitchcock tomorrow, Friedman notes that it will be a one-year deal—as is Hitchcock’s preference—with a possible transition into consulting thereafter.

Hitchcock isn’t really an answer long-term for any franchise, as at 65 he’s dabbled with the idea of retirement lately. The idea of him sticking around in a system and being just one phone call away from taking over would be a difficult one to accept for the new coach if they do go in a different direction a year from now. It’s hard to coach in the NHL, and much more so when the team has a legend sitting in the press box “consulting” on whether you’re doing a good job.

  • Friedman again mentions Jim Montgomery from the University of Denver, who is likely on a list of candidates for the Florida Panthers job. Dallas Eakins and Phil Housley are other names to watch, with all three looking like they’ll deserve a shot (or a second shot in Eakins’ case) sooner than later.
  • Dale Hunter is one of the people that the Vegas Golden Knights have reached out to, though he declined the opportunity to return to the NHL. Hunter quit his job with the Washington Capitals back in 2012 to return to London, where he and his brother Mark Hunter—who works as an assistant GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs—own one of the top franchises in the OHL.
  • Sabres’ GM Tim Murray met with the media today to discuss the underwhelming 2016-17 season, and reiterated that he doesn’t intend to fire Dan Bylsma as head coach. According to Bill Hoppe of the Times Herald, Murray puts this season on himself. He will have to work to better the roster, not just lay it all at the feet of his coach after another disappointing season.
  • While not a coach, Mike Futa of the Los Angeles Kings has been promoted to assistant GM. Futa has been with the club for a decade as a VP of Hockey Operations and Director of Player Personnel. He’ll work with the new management team made up of Rob Blake and Luc Robitaille to try and bring the Kings back to the playoffs in a short turnaround.

Morning Notes: Gallant, Dallas, Carlson, Polak

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When the Dallas Stars snatched up Ken Hitchcock this morning just days after firing Lindy Ruff, it took away one of the veteran options the Vegas Golden Knights could have considered for their head coaching job. Bob McKenzie of TSN tweets that with the Dallas vacancy filled, Gerard Gallant should be considered a front-runner for the Golden Knights job.

Gallant was fired from the Florida Panthers early in the year to the dismay of much of the hockey world, a decision that seems regrettable now that Tom Rowe has also been relieved of his duties in the sunshine state. Gallant has been considered an excellent head coach for years, though his actual record isn’t awe-inspiring. In the three years he’s made it through a full season, he’s only taken his team to the playoffs once and holds a career 152-140 record in the regular season.

  • The Dallas staff will have an entirely different look next year, as the entire coaching staff save Curt Fraser have been let go according to Andy Strickland of Fox Sports. Even Fraser could be let go, but will have a discussion with Hitchcock in the next few days. The former Atlanta Thrashers head coach, Fraser has been with the Stars for five seasons, longer even than Ruff.
  • John Carlson was back at Washington Capitals practice today and skating on the top unit with Karl Alzner according to Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post. He was previously listed as probable for the game, but as Khurshudyan puts it now “he’s playing, y’all”.
  • The Maple Leafs on the other hand, first-round opponents of the Capitals, had Roman Polak back at practice today after leaving their final game with a lower-body injury. Perhaps more importantly though, rookie defender Nikita Zaitsev was absent once again. Zaitsev took a hard hit from Nick Foligno and was diagnosed with an upper-body injury.

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