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New Jersey Devils Interview Gerard Gallant

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The New Jersey Devils aren’t waiting around to get a jump on their coaching search, despite the NHL still holding out hope that the rest of the 2019-20 season will be completed at some point. Pierre LeBrun reported on today’s Insider Trading for TSN that the Devils have interviewed several candidates for the position including former Vegas Golden Knights head coach Gerard Gallant. As LeBrun points out, that interview was conducted by GM Tom Fitzgerald, who is also only operating under an interim tag after Ray Shero’s dismissal earlier this season.

Alain Nasreddine, who took over as interim head coach when John Hynes was fired, is also still a candidate for the full-time position. Nasreddine has actually posted a 19-16-8 record with the Devils since taking over, much better than his predecessor and perhaps a reason he should be considered moving forward.

Gallant though is a big fish on the market, as we discussed in one of our recent PHR Panels. He was fired after just two and a half seasons with the Golden Knights, despite taking them to the Stanley Cup Final in year one and the playoffs again in year two. Gallant has a career .550 winning percentage as a head coach, which is actually brought down considerably by his first stint behind the bench with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Landing a coach of that stature would certainly be a big step for the Devils who appear to be on the right track towards competitiveness once again, even though their chance at making the playoffs this season faded quite quickly. With two first-overall selections down the middle in Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes, three first-round picks to make this season and several high-end prospects ready to soon make an impact there are hopefully better times ahead in New Jersey.

Bill Peters Hired In KHL

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After Bill Peters’ resignation was accepted by the Calgary Flames, following their investigation into racial slurs he used in the past against former player Akim Aliu, it was hard to see a way for him to return to coaching in the NHL. That doesn’t mean Peters’ career behind the bench is over however, as he has been hired by Avtomobilist in the KHL.

The team announced a two-year deal for the former head coach of the Flames and Carolina Hurricanes, who has also led Team Canada at the World Championship. The incident with Aliu took place when Peters was head coach of the Rockford IceHogs in the 2009-10 season.

In six seasons as an NHL head coach, Peters had a 199-175-64 record and made the playoffs only once.

Evening Notes: Greene, DeBoer, Gostisbehere

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The New York Islander paid a premium price to acquire 37-year-old defenseman Andy Greene from the New Jersey Devils at the trade deadline, sending the Devils their 2021 second-round pick. However, with the suspension in place, the Islanders have only gotten 10 games from the veteran blueliner.

Newday’s Andrew Gross writes, however, that Greene has made it clear that he doesn’t have any intention to retire at the end of this season.

“Oh, yeah, for sure, in my mind, I’m definitely going to play,” Greene told Newsday this week.

While that doesn’t necessarily mean that Greene, an unrestricted free agent this offseason, would return to the Islanders next year, at least it’s still a possibility. Greene finished his 14th season in the league with two goals, 14 points and 155 blocked shots in 63 games.

  • If the NHL decides to go with a playoff system with more than the standard 16 games, the Vegas Golden Knights would receive a bye in the first-round of the playoffs as they are the No. 1 seed in the Pacific Division. However, head coach Peter DeBoer suggested recently, via SinBin’s Ken Boehlke, that he isn’t enamored with that idea and would not be interested in a bye for his team. “I don’t want to be the team with the bye, sitting there after being off for a month or two months or three months. Having teams play two-out-of-threes and play-in games while you’re sitting there. There’s a huge advantage to having actually played games. I know the bye sounds like an advantage. And it is an advantage if you’ve been playing an entire 82-game season and you roll into that and you have 10 days to prepare for the next round. But when you’ve been sitting around for months, it’s a disadvantage. From a fairness point of view, that would be a concern for me.”
  • Once considered to be a future franchise piece to their defense, Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere has struggled for two straight years, which includes a five-goal, 12-point season last year in 42 games. While there was talk that he could have been a trade candidate at the trade deadline, Philadelphia Inquirer’s Sam Carchidi writes that it’s extremely likely that Gostisbehere will be traded within the next year due to the expansion draft in 2021. With the team likely to only protect three defensemen, it’s a lock that the Flyers will protect Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim and Philippe Myers, leaving Gostisbehere available to Seattle. However, the scribe believes that team is more likely to trade him rather than just hand him over to Seattle for nothing.

Snapshots: Laviolette, Darling, AHL Signings

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It’s been quite a while since former Nashville Predators head coach Peter Laviolette has coached a game. The 55-year-old coach was fired by Nashville on Jan. 6 and was later hired to coach the U.S. at the World Championships which was cancelled on Mar. 21. However, the head coach has made it clear that he wants to return to the NHL coaching ranks as soon as possible, according to Adam Kimmelman of NHL.com.

The coach has gone back and looked at his successes behind the bench in hopes of improving as a coach.

“Right now, I think I’m just focused on going back to what I found has worked for me as a coach and go back to that,” Laviolette said. “I don’t have a team, I don’t have any players, but what I can focus on is what happens when I can go to a team and I can start to get involved with the players and the identity of the team and building that team, building the organization.”

  • Former NHL goaltender Scott Darling spent the 2019-20 season in Austria, quite a step down from the NHL after he was bought out by the Florida Panthers at the start of the season. While his team Innsbruck struggled last season, his numbers didn’t project those of a former NHL player as he finished with a 3.34 GAA and a .898 save percentage in 33 games. However, the 31-year-old, who played with the Chicago Blackhawks and Carolina Hurricanes, made it clear that his primary goal is to return to North America and resume his career there, even if that means signing an AHL deal and working his way up from there, according to John Dietz of the Daily Herald. “This pandemic has kind of sidetracked everything,” Darling said. “I was talking to some teams here. Ideally I’m going to try and play here next year, whether it be starting in the (AHL) or whatever.”
  • Two junior players signed their first professional contracts as the Toronto Marlies announced they have signed defenseman Noel Hoefenmayer and forward Jeremy McKenna to two-year AHL contracts. the 21-year-old Hoefenmayer was the biggest prize after leading all OHL defensemen in scoring last season with 26 goals and 82 points last season for the Ottawa 67s. Hoefenmayer was originally a fourth-round pick in 2017 by the Arizona Coyotes, but was never offered a contract by the Coyotes. McKenna scored 40 goals and 82 points with the Moncton Wildcats of the QMJHL this season. Both will join the Marlies next season, a team well-known for developing their minor league players.

Bob Boughner Has The Upper Hand To Remain As Sharks Head Coach

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While the Sharks haven’t entirely committed to removing the interim tag from head coach Bob Boughner, it certainly seems as if they’re leaning in that direction.  Speaking on a recent conference call, GM Doug Wilson told reporters, including Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News that Boughner currently has the upper hand in the process but that they intend to do a thorough review once the season officially comes to an end.

Boughner was named as the interim bench boss back in December, taking over from Peter DeBoer (who took over as the head coach in Vegas barely a month later).  While San Jose sits at the bottom of the standings in the West (they have a 14-20-3 record under Boughner after being 15-16-2 under DeBoer), Wilson felt there was some progress made in the second half of the year:

I was pleased to see some of the overall play improve over the last half of the year. There were times more often than not that we were playing the game the right way.

Of course, Boughner’s performance behind the bench this season isn’t the only reason that he is the frontrunner to get the job on a full-time basis.  He spent two years as an assistant with the team (2015-16 and 2016-17) before joining Florida as their head coach and a good chunk of the core is still there and that familiarity certainly doesn’t hurt.

If he does eventually have the interim tag removed, a quick turnaround is going to be expected.  The Sharks don’t have much in the way of salary cap flexibility to change their roster so the majority of their core will likely return.

Having fewer top players go down with injuries will certainly help in that regard and Wilson did have some positive news on that front.  Center Tomas Hertl is well ahead of schedule in his recovery from knee surgery while defenseman Erik Karlsson (thumb) and center Logan Couture (concussion) are close to being fully healthy and could return if the season resumes at some point over the coming weeks and months.

Calgary Notes: Event Shutdown, Sveningsson, Peters

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Just like Toronto earlier this week, the city of Calgary has announced a shutdown of all public events until June 30. Unlike Toronto however, who said its ban would not affect the Maple Leafs, Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi explicitly said that the Flames will not be allowed to “hold gatherings” during that time, according to Danny Austin of Postmedia.

While the NHL already seemed more likely to be holding whatever remaining 2019-20 games they play in July and August (if at all), this guarantees no action will be held in Calgary for the next three months. The Flames currently sit third in the Pacific Division but would drop to the second wildcard position if the league decided to use points percentage to determine seeding. Either way, it seems like they would be included in this year’s playoffs, meaning this ruling and others like it only complicate things moving forward.

  • One Flames prospect that won’t be taking part in any Calgary games for a while is Filip Sveningsson, who has signed with MODO of the Swedish Allsvenskan (second league) for next season. A seventh-round pick from 2017, Sveningsson played most of his season in the SHL this year but will move back down a level and try to help MODO get back up to the top league. The Flames hold his exclusive draft rights until June 1, 2021.
  • Bill Peters, the former head coach of the Flames who resigned from his position following the investigation of past events brought up by Akim Aliu, is potentially heading overseas for his next job. Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal tweets that Peters’ name has come up in Russia as a possible candidate for a coaching job with Yekaterinburg in the KHL. Pavel Datsyuk, who played under Peters when he was an assistant with the Detroit Red Wings, spent this season with Yekaterinburg.

Nathan MacKinnon To Miss 1-2 Weeks With Lower-Body Injury

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While it obviously isn’t the worst news they could have received, the Colorado Avalanche will still be shaking their fists in frustration today. Head coach Jared Bednar told reporters including Ryan S. Clark of The Athletic that Nathan MacKinnon will be out for one to two weeks with a lower-body injury.

The team is already without several other forwards including Mikko Rantanen and Nazem Kadri, weakening their depth up front considerably. One positive is that Cale Makar is expected to return for the Avalanche tonight, though MacKinnon’s absence will still obviously be felt.

Not only does it hurt Colorado’s chances of catching the St. Louis Blues for first place in the Central Division, but this also may rob MacKinnon of his first 100-point season. The explosive forward has recorded 97 and 99 points the last two years and sits at 93 in just 69 games so far this year. Two weeks could mean missing eight of the team’s final 13 games though, making it tough to crack the elusive threshold.

It could also potentially impact any Hart Trophy votes that may have been coming MacKinnon’s way, though Leon Draisaitl’s 110 points may have already done irreparable damage to that campaign.

Snapshots: League Cancellations, Bjugstad, Hamonic

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As the spread of COVID-19 continues around the world, professional sports leagues and organizations are starting to feel the effects. The San Jose Sharks are the first NHL team that is dealing with the consequences, as gatherings of more than 1,000 people have been banned in Santa Clara county. Kevin Kurz of The Athletic (subscription required) examined the situation in full, noting that the possibility exists that the Sharks will play in front of no fans later this month.

It’s not just individual teams feeling the changes though. Today, both the EBEL and DEL, leagues in Austria and Germany respectively, have cancelled the remainder of their seasons, including playoffs. The EBEL also includes teams from Hungary, Italy and the Czech Republic.

  • It has become routine among the Pittsburgh Penguins this season to expect injury, though one still has to feel for Nick Bjugstad. The forward has suffered another lower-body injury that is unrelated to any prior, and has been listed as “week-to-week” once again according to head coach Mike Sullivan. Bjugstad has played just 13 games this season, scoring two points.
  • Travis Hamonic was back at practice in full for the Calgary Flames today, skating alongside T.J. Brodie on the second defense pairing. That suggests the veteran defenseman will return to the Flames’ lineup later this week for the first time in over a month. Calgary is barely holding onto their third place position in the Pacific Division, meaning Hamonic’s return will be a welcome one as they prepare for the stretch run.

Claude Julien Will Be Back As Montreal Head Coach

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Barring a late-season run, the Montreal Canadiens look destined to finish outside the playoff picture for the third year in a row. That playoff drought coincides with Claude Julien’s current tenure as head coach, at least in terms of full seasons under the veteran bench boss—he went 16-7-1 down the stretch after Michel Therrien was fired in 2017 to get the Canadiens in, but lost in the first round to the New York Rangers.

Despite the fact that the Canadiens have taken a drastic step back from their 96-point season a year ago and are currently sitting with their fourth-worst winning percentage since 2003, changes don’t appear to be coming. In an interview with RDS today, general manager Marc Bergevin explained that Julien will still be the team’s coach next season.

The veteran coach is in his second stint behind the bench of the Canadiens, but now has just a .529 winning percentage in those games. During that time his club has played in just 17 playoff contests, winning just a single round—back in 2004.

Missing the playoffs for three straight seasons quite often gets a coach fired, but questions about the Canadiens don’t end at Julien. Tomas Tatar has been the team’s most consistent offensive player this season but is under contract for just one more year. Shea Weber’s health was a concern once again, and top prospects like Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Ryan Poehling didn’t have the development years many expected. There is obviously plenty of hope for the future—especially when you look at the way Nick Suzuki has transitioned to the NHL—but there will be a lot of pressure this offseason for the group to see appreciable improvements.

Even if Julien and Bergevin come back to start the 2020-21 season, it doesn’t mean their seats won’t be incredibly hot.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Adam Erne Out With Broken Hand

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The Detroit Red Wings don’t have much to play for down the stretch, but it was still a period where young players could show the organization they deserve to be kept around. Adam Erne won’t get that chance, as head coach Jeff Blashill announced today that the forward has suffered a broken hand and may miss the rest of the season.

Erne, 24, followed Steve Yzerman to the Red Wings this season after becoming a full-time option for the Tampa Bay Lightning, but hasn’t been able to deliver the same sort of impact. In 56 games he has just five points for Detroit, and though his 142 hits are still impressive, it’s not exactly clear where his role will be moving forward.

Earning $1.05MM on a one-year deal, Erne will become a restricted free agent with arbitration rights this summer. That’s a common situation among Detroit forwards, as seven of the 14 currently on the roster are scheduled to become RFAs. That sort of uncertainty in the forward ranks will make for quite the interesting offseason, especially if Yzerman and the rest of the front office plan to take a step forward next season.

If they decide not to bring back all of their free agents, who will end up going unqualified? Erne’s qualifying offer will actually be just shy of $1MM thanks to some signing bonuses, and because of this injury could potentially be a two-way offer (depending on whether he misses the rest of the year or not).

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