Bruins Notes: Marchand, Miller, Miller
In his 500th NHL game yesterday, Brad Marchand celebrated in style. The pesky 28-year old scored five points (2G, 3A) and continued proving he’s one of the NHLs brightest stars. After setting a career high in goals (37) and points (60) last season, Marchand is on pace to shatter his assist high this year while setting the point mark once again. His 43 points in 46 games rank among the top 10 in the NHL and leads the Bruins by 10.
Remember, Marchand was a third-round pick for the Bruins in 2006 and was thought of as an under-sized bottom six-type player. Instead, he’s turned into one of the most consistent goal scorers in the NHL, racking up at least 20 in every season except the lockout-shortened 2012-13, when he scored 18. With 17 this year and no signs of slowing down, he may post back-to-back 30+ goal seasons and prove that he should eventually be talked about as a Hart trophy candidate.
- In all the fun that was Marchand’s 500th came some bad news, as Kevan Miller was knocked out by Jakub Voracek during the second period. The defenseman has suffered a concussion and is “in the protocol” according to head coach Claude Julien. In Joe Haggerty’s latest column for CSNNE, he reports that Miller was absent from practice today and will be out indefinitely. Voracek did not receive any supplementary discipline from the league for the hit.
- The Bruins will be without either Miller, as Colin Miller was also missing from today’s practice due to the lower-body injury that he’s been dealing with. Haggerty reports that Miller did skate on his own before practice however, meaning his return may be on the horizon. Julien seemed unaffected by the news of both Millers, saying “we’ve got some depth at that position. We still have enough guys up here to get through, and hopefully we’ll get some guys back sooner rather than later.” Joe Morrow will likely figure back into the lineup in their absence.
Snapshots: Senators, Blackhawks, Stars
News and notes from around the NHL this morning:
- Ottawa Senators forward Clarke MacArthur skated with the team this weekend but is no closer to returning to action, reports the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch. MacArthur faced a litany of tests on Friday to help determine if he is ready to return to action, but GM Pierre Dorion refused to divulge any new information. MacArthur has missed the entire season so far after suffering a concussion in training camp. The Senators are exercising caution with the forward because of his concussion history. GM Dorion did say that MacArthur would accompany the team on its five game road trip—but he is not slated to play during that time.
- The Ottawa Senators also recalled goaltender Chris Driedger from the AHL Binghamton Senators this morning. The team reassigned goaltender Matt O’Connor to go the other way. Both goalies have struggled in the AHL this year. Driedger has a 2.74 GAA and a .909 SV%, and O’Connor has a 2.90 GAA and a .896 SV%. No reason was given for the move, but Driedger costs $135K less per season so this may just be a business decision.
- The Chicago Blackhawks recalled forward Nick Schmaltz from the AHL Rockford IceHogs. The young forward hit the ice this morning during a team optional skate, reports CSN’s Tracey Myers. Schmaltz has bounced between Rockford and Chicago this year, tallying 1G and 3A in 26 NHL games, and 6G and 3A in 12 AHL games. The former first-round draft pick has yet make the jump Chicago was hoping for, but expect Schmaltz to remain with the club until Chicago determines how much depth they need to add at the trade deadline.
- The Dallas Stars recalled defenseman Patrik Nemeth from the AHL Texas Stars this morning. Nemeth is averaging just under 16 minutes a night when he plays with the Stars, but has yet to register a point. The Swedish defenseman has struggled to make the big club since joining the organization in 2012-13, and is dangerously close to becoming a veteran AHL presence.
Central Moves: Nemeth, Schmaltz
With Jamie Oleksiak expected to miss 3-6 weeks after suffering a hand injury on Tuesday, the Dallas Stars have recalled Patrik Nemeth from his conditioning stint. The defenseman played four games for the Texas Stars, scoring three points.
Nemeth was recently listed as the most likely Stars player to be traded by Mike Heika’s mailbag. The 24-year old has somehow only played 84 games in the NHL in his career, despite being with the team for long stretches. Remember he was the player who lost almost an entire season to a deep laceration in 2014.
It’s still not clear if he will be inserted into the lineup on a regular basis, as Stephen Johns took Oleksiak’s place immediately. The 24-year old Johns may be more valuable in the spot since he is one of two right handed defensemen on the roster (John Klingberg being the other).
In Chicago, the team has decided to call up Nick Schmaltz as insurance for Artem Anisimov‘s illness. The team is carrying only 12 forwards, and if Anisimov couldn’t go would have had to dress seven blueliners.
Schmaltz was signed out of the University of North Dakota this spring after two very successful seasons. The 20th overall pick in the 2014 draft, Schmaltz has played 26 games for the NHL club this season. Just 20-years old, Schmaltz has shown he may be a little raw for the league but has a huge ceiling.
Poll: 2005 NHL Draft Take Two: Twenty-Eighth Overall Pick
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)
22nd Overall: Andrew Cogliano (Boston Bruins)
23rd Overall: Kris Russell (New Jersey Devils)
24th Overall: Darren Helm (St. Louis Blues)
25th Overall: Cody Franson (Edmonton Oilers)
26th Overall: Benoit Pouliot (Calgary Flames)
27th Overall: Vladimir Sobotka (Washington Capitals)
Now we move forward to the 28th pick, which was held by the Dallas Stars.
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, Dallas went to the US High School circuit to select blueliner Matt Niskanen. While he hadn’t been tested at a high level (he averaged nearly 2.25 points per game his draft year), Dallas was confident that his skills would eventually translate to the NHL level. They were right.
After a pair of seasons at Minnesota-Duluth, Niskanen turned pro and was a regular with the Stars right away. He picked up 35 points in his sophomore NHL campaign which remains the second best output of his career.
In February of 2011, Dallas dealt Niskanen along with left winger James Neal to Pittsburgh in exchange for Alex Goligoski. Niskanen spent parts of four seasons with the Penguins and had his best year of his career in 2013-14, collecting 46 points in 81 games. That helped him earn a seven year, $40.25MM contract with Washington in the summer of 2014. He has been with the Capitals ever since then and is currently in his third season with the team.
Overall, Niskanen sits seventh among games played by 2005 draft picks, third among blueliners to only Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Keith Yandle. In 695 career games, he has 46 goals and 202 assists.
With the 28th pick of the 2005 NHL Redraft, who should the Stars select? Cast your vote below!
Mobile users, click here to vote.
Central Notes: Kero, Stars Mailbag, Suter
Despite it providing a short lived lead, Tanner Kero‘s goal against the Red Wings last night during the Hawks 4-3 victory showed the youngster is fitting in quite well. The Daily Herald’s John Dietz reports that Kero is making the most of his callup, being a stellar fill-in for the injured Marcus Kruger as a third line center. This coming for a player who wasn’t entirely sure he had what it takes to be an NHL player long ago as a freshman at Michigan Tech. With a young wife and child at home, Kero certainly has the stress of being successful beyond just himself. But wife Taylor Kero looks at it as a day-by-day process, one that requires her husband–and their family–to take what opportunities life provides.
“You definitely have to be flexible. That’s what this lifestyle calls for,” Taylor said. “We just take things day by day. We’re grateful and hope for the best, and hopefully this opportunity lasts a lot longer.”
Minor Transactions: 1/11/2017
There has been a flurry of roster transactions so far today with several players recalled from or reassigned to the minor leagues. We’ll keep track of those moves in this post:
- According to Eric Stephens of The Orange County Register, the Anaheim Ducks recalled forward Stefan Noesen and blue liner Shea Theodore from the San Diego Gulls of the AHL. In a corresponding move, defenseman Brandon Montour was reassigned to the Gulls. Montour made his NHL debut after initially being recalled on December 28th though he failed to register a point in five appearances. Noesen has one goal on the campaign in seven games while Theodore has a goal and five assists in 21 contests this season for Anaheim.
- Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News tweeted this morning that Jamie Oleksiak is dealing with a hand injury and will likely be “out for a bit.” He goes on to say that fellow defenseman Stephen Johns will take Oleksiak’s spot in the lineup for tomorrow’s game at home against Detroit. With eight defensemen on the roster – Patrik Nemeth is currently playing for the AHL Texas Stars on a conditioning assignment though remains on Dallas’ official roster – no call-up is expected to be made. In a later tweet, Heika adds that with Texas playing at home, Stars head coach Lindy Ruff would easily be able to bring Nemeth back from his assignment if necessary.
- After adding forward Derek Grant via waiver claim from Buffalo today, the Nashville Predators reassigned fellow forward Frederick Gaudreau to Milwaukee of the AHL, according to The Tennessean’s Adam Vingan. The 23-year-old rookie has made nine appearances for Nashville this season, the first NHL action of Gaudreau’s career, and has tallied a single assist. In 24 contests with the Milwaukee Admirals, Gaudreau has netted five goals and 14 points. Vingan speculated that Gaudreau’s reassignment might indicate that either James Neal or Colin Wilson could be ready to return to the lineup. Neal was placed on IR retroactive to 1/3 and is currently eligible to be activated. Wilson last played on 1/6.
- The Pittsburgh Penguins have recalled blue liner David Warsofsky from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton while reassigning net minder Tristan Jarry to the Baby Pens. Jason Mackey, who covers the club for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, reported on the moves and added that with Jarry back to the minors, Matt Murray should be ready to at least serve as Marc-Andre Fleury‘s back-up for tonight’s game against Washington.
- Defenseman Slater Koekkoek and goalie Kristers Gudlevskis were both returned to the AHL Syracuse Crunch, Tampa Bay’s top minor league affiliate, tweets Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times. Koekkoek’s assignment might seem odd on the surface as the blue liner had appeared in 12 of the last 13 Lightning games. But, as Smith points out, Koekkoek does not need to clear waivers to be sent to the minors while fellow defenders Luke Witkowski and Nikita Nesterov do.
- The Washington Capitals announced they have sent forwards Paul Carey and Liam O’Brien to Hershey of the AHL, according to the team’s official Twitter account. The assignments leave the team with just 12 forwards on the active roster, a fact that suggests T.J. Oshie will be back in the Caps lineup tonight. That was later confirmed by Capitals head coach Barry Trotz.
- Two days after sending the fourth overall selection in the June entry draft, Jesse Puljujarvi, to Bakersfield the Edmonton Oilers have assigned fellow forward Anton Lander to the same club. Called up from the Condors was forward Jujhar Khaira, who has eight goals and 18 points in 24 AHL games this season.
Most Man-Games Missed At Midway Point
While the headlines follow teams missing multiple major contributors to injury – case in point the resilient 2016-17 Montreal Canadiens, whose injury issues have been well-documented – there’s an argument to be made that losing a greater amount of depth players is in fact more detrimental to a team’s success, even if it doesn’t garner as much attention. ESPN’s Matthew Coller examined the amount of ice time, in man-game minutes, lost this season due to injury and the resulting success or failure of the most injured and most healthy teams. Despite the story line, the Canadiens only rank tenth right now in missed minutes, perhaps providing some explanation to how they have maintained their winning ways despite being banged up. Other teams have not been so lucky.
Of the five most injured teams in the first half of 2016-17, four have drastically underachieved, even though you might not suspect that they have had such bad injury struggles. At the top of the list is the Detroit Red Wings, whose historic playoff streak is in extreme jeopardy as they sit in the basement of the Atlantic Division through 40 games. Two of their season’s biggest bright spots have also been two of their largest injury concerns, as 11 games were missed by leading scorer Thomas Vanek, signed to a one-year “show me” deal this summer, and resurgent goalie Jimmy Howard is on the shelf for the second time already and expected to be out until February. Add in a long, ongoing absence of Darren Helm and off-and-on issues with defenseman Brendan Smith among other injuries, and the Red Wings lead the league with 3,122 minutes missed. Few have pointed to injuries as the main reason for Detroit’s dismal showing, but there’s evidence to express that it may be the primary influence. Backing up the claim are the struggles of the Buffalo Sabres, Dallas Stars, and Winnipeg Jets as well, all of whom have suffered noteworthy injuries, but also an excess of depth injuries as well. These four teams are all performing below what was expected of them in 2016-17, and injuries may be the prime source of blame. Only the Edmonton Oilers have bucked the trend, as they have been able to survive numerous serious injuries to their defenseman and are having their best season in recent memory with the second most man-games missed in the entire league.
Aside from the Washington Capitals (who have been impossibly healthy with just 10 games and about 170 minutes missed) and San Jose Sharks at #1 and #2, two teams who seemingly have not had issues with major injuries in recent years, a lack of man-games missed can certainly make a case as a vital ingredient to the success of overachieving teams this season. Rounding out the top five are the Ottawa Senators, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Carolina Hurricanes, all of whom have lost less than 1,000 minutes to injury and all of whom are surely big surprises thus far in 2016-17. No one could have expected the Blue Jackets to hold the NHL’s best record at this point, nobody guessed that the Senators would be contenders in the Atlantic, and many picked the Hurricanes to be the worst team in the league. Even though Ottawa has seen Bobby Ryan, Mike Hoffman and Mark Stone all miss time and Carolina just got Jordan Staal and Elias Lindholm back from injury, the overall roster-wide health is what has kept these teams afloat. All three rosters could easily be exposed by a string of long-term injuries, but they have been able to make it this far without encountering such loss and it has boosted them to the positions they are currently in.
Many teams have had recent success with top-heavy lineups containing a handful of stars and relative no-names as filler (read: Chicago Blackhawks), and there’s no reason to believe that doesn’t work. However, these injury trends seem to show that missing time as a whole due to injury instead of injuries to individual top players is what can derail a team. A team built with depth in mind can combat the loss of two, three, or four starters, but a top-heavy team can struggle to replace one star, nevertheless multiple full-time contributors. The man-games missed to success correlation is an interesting concept for team builders to follow and understand. It’s a risk-reward scenario, and several teams this season are showing the extremes of success and failure as a function of injury.
5 Key Stories: 1/2/16 – 1/8/16
Let’s recap the five biggest stories from the week of 1/2/2016 through 1/8/2016:
- The Columbus Blue Jackets occupy the top spot in the league due in large part to their recent 16-game winning streak. The team had a chance to tie a record set by the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins – a team led by “Super” Mario Lemieux and the ageless Jaromir Jagr – but the Blue Jackets came up short, falling to the Washington Capitals by the score of 5 – 0. Nonetheless, it’s an incredible feat accomplished by the Blue Jackets and an announcement to the rest of the league that they are indeed a team to be taken seriously.
- It’s been an up-and-down year in Winnipeg, but Jets rookie phenom Patrik Laine has been a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing season. The 18-year-old Finn is currently tied for third in the league in goal scoring with 21 and has already established himself as one of the league’s most exciting young stars. Unfortunately, Laine is out indefinitely after suffering a concussion in Winnipeg’s 4 – 3 loss to Buffalo on Saturday.
- Colorado has certainly been one of the league’s biggest disappointments in 2016-17. An offseason coaching change was expected to spark a talented roster back into playoff contention but instead the Avalanche have been the worst team in the league and at this point are one of the few clubs who can safely be called “seller” in advance of the trade deadline. This of course has led to all kinds of rumors, with the most recent involving Boston. The Bruins reportedly inquired as to the availability Gabriel Landeskog with Colorado asking for rookie blue liner Brandon Carlo in return. While there appears to be no traction in trade discussions between the two teams, that could change closer to the March 1st deadline.
- It was a busy week on the waiver wire with several players switching teams by virtue of waiver claims. Reid Boucher changed clubs twice going from Nashville to New Jersey and finally on to Vancouver all via waivers. Ty Rattie went from St. Louis to Carolina and San Jose lost Matt Nieto to Colorado.
- Montreal winger Brendan Gallagher is slated to miss the next eight weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a fractured hand. Gallagher was injured when a shot from teammate Shea Weber struck his hand during a recent game.
Minor Transactions: 1/6/17
Here are the minor transactions from around the hockey world for January 6, 2017.
- The Pittsburgh Penguins have called up goaltender Tristian Jarry and defenseman Chad Ruhwedel from the Wilkes-Barrie/ Scranton Penguins. Jarry has 14 wins this season, which puts him in a four-way tie to lead the AHL. Jarry returns to the NHL club to cover for Matt Murray’s recent injury. The Penguins had their CBA-mandated bye-week, so Jarry was sent down to play games instead of getting a week off. He has yet to make his NHL debut. Ruhwedel has 15 points in 27 games with the AHL club this year, and two points in five NHL games.
- The Washington Capitals have recalled forward Liam O’Brien from the Hershey Bears of the AHL. O’Brien has 18 points in 28 games with the Bears, and could play his first NHL game since 2014-15. He had two points in 13 games with the Capitals in his first year of professional hockey. O’Brien has 42 points in 132 AHL games in his career, and is in the final year of his entry-level contract.
- A day after clearing waivers, Anton Khudobin is on his way to the AHL as the Bruins call up Zane McIntyre in a swap of backup goaltenders. McIntyre is unbeaten in the AHL this season with a spectacular 10-0-0 record and an AHL-leading 0.951 SV% and a 1.41 GAA. He hasn’t had the same success at the NHL level, though. He’s 0-2-0 in three appearances with a 0.859 SV% and a 4.04 GAA. Meanwhile, Khudobin has struggled in his second stint in Boston, with just one win in seven games and a GAA of 3.06. He’s in the first season of a two-year contract which pays him $1.2MM per season. Khudobin will still account for $250K against the Bruins cap while he plies his trade in the AHL.
- The Bruins have also returned energy forward Noel Acciari to the Providence Bruins. Acciari has struggled to earn regular play time in Boston since returning from injury two weeks ago.
- The Chicago Blackhawks have assigned defenseman Gustav Forsling to the Rockford Ice Hogs of the AHL. Forsling was a pleasant surprise who made the Blackhawks out of training camp, but has seen his ice-time decrease throughout the season. He has four points in 32 games in the NHL this season. The Blackhawks likely wanted to stop carrying eight defensemen, as veterans Brian Campbell and Michal Rozsival were healthy scratches for last night’s game. Forsling did not need to clear waivers to be sent down, so he was the odd-man out.
- Staying with the Blackhawks organization, Spencer Abbott was recalled by Chicago on January 3. Three days and one game later, he’s heading back to the Rockford. Abbott was held pointless in just over eight minutes of ice on Thursday night. He has 21 points in 30 AHL games in his first full year in the Blackhawks organization since being acquired at the 2015 NHL trade deadline. Abbott played last season in Sweden before returning to North America. It’s likely that Jordin Tootoo will draw back into the lineup in his place.
- The Dallas Stars have sent Patrik Nemeth to the AHL on a conditioning stint. The 6’3, 215 lbs defenseman has played in just 16 games with the Stars this season, with no points.
- Oilers prospect Jordan Oesterle is heading back to Bakersfield. He has yet to appear in any NHL games this season, having been recalled to serve as the seventh defenseman twice. The speedy defenseman has eight points in 14 AHL games this year after scoring five points in 17 games with the Oilers last season.
Snapshots: Panthers, Stars, Lightning
News and notes from around the NHL this evening:
- The Florida Panthers have called up Jared McCann from the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds, reports Harvey Fialkov. The Panthers acquired McCann from the Vancouver Canucks—alongside a 2016 2nd and 4th round pick—for defenseman Erik Gudbranson and a 2016 5th round pick. Initially drafted by Vancouver in the first round in 2014, McCann now has 1G and 2A in 17 games for the Panthers. He has also scored 4G and 2A in 15 games for Springfield.
- Dallas Stars prospect Denis Guryanov scored the overtime game-winning goal for Russia—against Sweden—to win the bronze medal in the World Junior Championships. The Russian forward scored 4G and 3A this tournament, good for 11th overall in scoring. Stars color commentator Daryl Reaugh tweeted that the team’s veterans liked Guryanov’s attitude, work-ethic, and talent. Guryanov currently plays for Dallas’s AHL affiliate the Texas Stars, and has scored 4G and 9A in 23 games. The team hopes his tournament performance carries over to the second half of his AHL season.
- Tampa Bay Lightning forward Cedric Paquette returns to the lineup tonight against the Nashville Predators. Paquette missed the last six games with a lower-body injury suffered on December 20th against the Detroit Red Wings. Paquette has struggled so far this season, scoring only 3G and 4A in 31 games. Tampa is currently on the outside of the playoffs looking in, but could make a late season push when both Ben Bishop and Steven Stamkos return.