Snapshots: Awards, Holland, Leiweke
The NHL will hold their annual awards ceremony on June 20th, a few days before the 2018 Entry Draft. The event will be held in Las Vegas once again, an exciting proposition for the Golden Knights who could be coming off a historic Stanley Cup victory in their first season.
Finalists will start to be announced in just a few days on April 17th, with the Vezina Trophy kicking things off. This awards season has been even more debated than usual, with almost a dozen legitimate candidates for the Hart Trophy and no consensus on other top awards like the Norris or Selke.
- Ken Holland is back in the Detroit Red Wings front office, but he is willing to bring in some more voices to help strengthen the club’s decision making. That’s what Craig Custance of The Athletic (subscription required) examines in his latest piece, digging into who could be potential additions. An interesting name that comes up is Kyle Raftis, GM of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and successor to Toronto whiz-kid Kyle Dubas.
- Tod Leiweke has officially been announced as CEO and President of the prospective Seattle expansion team, joining his brother Tim Leiweke who is already part of the Oak View Group that placed the bid and will be minority owner. The pair have tons of experience running professional sports teams, including Tod’s stint as CEO of the Seattle Seahawks in the past.
Red Wings Notes: Green, Goaltending, Larkin, Nielsen
Red Wings defenseman Mike Green’s surgery to repair his cervical spine was a successful one, GM Ken Holland told reporters, including Gregg Krupa of the Detroit News (Twitter link). Holland also noted that Green should be fully recovered for the start of training camp. The rearguard was shut down late in March and wasn’t healthy heading into the trade deadline which played a role in him not being traded.
The question now becomes whether or not Detroit shows interest in re-signing the pending unrestricted free agent. While Green’s offensive prowess isn’t what it once was, he still put up 33 points (8-25-33) in 66 games and their back end doesn’t have a lot of threats from the point. However, considering that he’s 32 years old and the fact that the Wings are in the midst of a rebuild, it may not make a lot of sense to bring him back unless he’s amenable to a short-term contract. Holland stated that a decision on whether or not to pursue a new deal with him may not be made until after the draft in June. Green made $6MM in each of the last three years and it’s likely that his next deal will carry a pay cut.
More from Detroit:
- Blues goaltender Carter Hutton is on Detroit’s radar for the offseason, reports MLive’s Ansar Khan. The 32-year-old is coming off a career year in which he led the league in goals-against average (2.09) and save percentage (.931). The Red Wings are in need of another goalie with the trade of Petr Mrazek prior to the trade deadline to play alongside Jimmy Howard, who has one more year on his deal with a cap hit of just under $5.3MM. Hutton’s salary was an even $1MM this season and he will undoubtedly command a significantly bigger deal on the open market this summer.
- Centers Dylan Larkin Frans Nielsen has committed to play at the upcoming World Championships, Khan notes (Twitter links). It will be Larkin’s fourth appearance in the tournament while Nielsen will be suiting up for the first time since 2012 (and eighth time overall). The tournament is set to be held in Nielsen’s native Denmark which likely plays a role in his decision to play this time around.
Red Wings Head Coach Jeff Blashill Expected To Return For Next Season
Tuesday: At his season-ending press conference, Holland confirmed that Blashill will be back for the 2018-19 season. The Detroit GM cited the improvement of their young players under Blashill as a positive. The Red Wings have decisions to make on some of those young players, as Anthony Mantha, Dylan Larkin, Andreas Athanasiou, Martin Frk and Tyler Bertuzzi are all restricted free agents.
Sunday: There has been plenty of speculation surrounding the status of Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill lately. Detroit struggled considerably this season and wound up missing the playoffs by 25 points and as a result, some have wondered if a change may be coming.
Although an official announcement isn’t expected until Tuesday, both Gregg Krupa of the Detroit News and Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos (video link) report that Blashill will be sticking around for next season. He was GM Ken Holland’s choice as the replacement for Mike Babcock when he left to join the Maple Leafs three years ago and Holland himself just landed a contract extension earlier in the week.
This means that Blashill will be behind the bench to start his fourth season as an NHL head coach in October but now, the focus will shift to whether or not he will get an extension or enter his ‘lame duck’ season. CapFriendly’s coaches contract tracker has the 44-year-old entering the final year of his deal in 2018-19 and while most teams frown on having their coaches in that situation, we have seen it happen the last couple of years with Barry Trotz in Washington and Ken Hitchcock when he was with St. Louis. Considering how Detroit fared in 2017-18, it would make some sense for Holland to at least consider that approach here.
Regardless of which way they go when it comes to another contract, it appears that the status quo will remain intact in Detroit heading into the 2018-19 season.
2018 NHL Draft Lottery Odds
The regular season is over and for the first time in NHL history there are 15 teams on the outside of the playoff picture. For those squads and their fans, it’s a long wait for anything positive to come, with the 2018 NHL Entry Draft more than ten weeks away, scheduled for June 18th, and the start of free agency another two weeks after that. However, the odds for this year’s NHL Draft Lottery are now set and teams can at least look forward to the ping pong balls being drawn at the end of the month, on Saturday, April 28th. With the teams in the running now set, here are the odds for the #1 overall pick in this years draft:
31st – Buffalo Sabres: 18.5%
30th – Ottawa Senators: 13.5%
29th – Arizona Coyotes: 11.5%
28th – Montreal Canadiens: 9.5%
27th – Detroit Red Wings: 8.5%
26th – Vancouver Canucks: 7.5%
25th – Chicago Blackhawks: 6.5%
24th – New York Rangers: 6.0%
23rd – Edmonton Oilers: 5.0%
22nd – New York Islanders: 3.5%
21st – Carolina Hurricanes: 3.0%
20th – New York Islanders (from Calgary Flames): 2.5%
19th – Dallas Stars: 2.0%
18th – Philadelphia Flyers (from St. Louis Blues (top-ten option)): 1.5%
17th – Florida Panthers: 1.0%
If you are a fan of one of these teams, you can entertain yourself for the next few weeks with this Lottery Simulator from Tankathon.com.
Detroit Red Wings Place Jared Coreau On Waivers
Sunday: Coreau has cleared waivers and the Detroit Red Wings have assigned the goaltender to the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL, according to the Detroit Free Press’ Helene St. James.
Saturday: Although waivers is considered a rarity at this time of year, the Detroit Red Wings have placed goaltender Jared Coreau on waivers today, according to MLive’s Ansar Khan. The move is made with the hope that he’ll clear waivers, so the team can send him to the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins as that team embarks on their playoff run.
The 26-year-old spent most of this season with the Griffins as he played in 36 games for the Red Wings’ AHL affiliate. He put up solid numbers there, posting a 2.47 GAA and a .916 save percentage, but was recalled on Feb. 20 to serve as the Jimmy Howard‘s backup after the team traded away Petr Mrazek to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Coreau, who has showed promise over his career, has struggled at the NHL level, especially this year. In six games, he has a 4.35 GAA and a .876 save percentage. The team may be hoping that no team would take the chance of claiming him with his struggles at the NHL level. Interestingly enough, Coreau is expected to start for the Red Wings final regular season game today.
Atlantic Notes: Bruins, Boucher, Ristolainen, Zetterberg, Bertuzzi
There is just one game remaining on the NHL regular season schedule and the league schedulers picked a good one as the Boston Bruins will host the Florida Panthers today in the lone game. While many people thought the game would have significant meaning for the Panthers (Philadelphia’s victory Saturday officially eliminated Florida from the playoffs), it instead has an effect on Boston.
If the Bruins win, they will jump over the Tampa Bay Lightning as the top seed of the Eastern Conference and get home ice advantage in the first three rounds of the playoffs. A win of any kind would give them a matchup with the New Jersey Devils. A loss will pit the Bruins against the Toronto Maple Leafs, a team they have struggled with this year. The only known matchup in the Eastern Conference are the Pittsburgh Penguins vs. the Philadelphia Flyers and the Washington Capitals vs. the Columbus Blue Jackets.
“Let’s face it, we were trying to find our own game and get to where we thought we were at the start of the year, which was definitely a playoff team,” said head coach Bruce Cassidy via NBC Sports Joe Haggerty. “We just didn’t know where we would fit, and the way Tampa got out of the gate, and Toronto for that matter, it was going to be an uphill battle. But here we are. We’re in a position to take it, and that’s a credit to the guys. We’ve worked hard to get here. This wasn’t by accident. We didn’t back in.”
- The Ottawa Senators, who ended up finishing in 30th place this season, must make a decision on their coaching situation. Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen writes that Guy Boucher is in a strange situation as he did everything right a year ago at this time and has done little right since. The team’s defense and special teams were atrocious this year and need to get fixed. The question is, will it be Boucher or another coach? Garrioch says that even if Boucher survives, expect changes to the staff as last year is considered unacceptable.
- Jon Vogl of the Buffalo News writes that the Buffalo Sabres need to make sweeping changes to avoid another dismal season next year, but unfortunately, the team has a lot of contracts with term which will be hard to move, so the team will need to be creative in trades. The defense has six players already under contract and few top-four players, citing that Rasmus Ristolainen is considered their No. 1 defenseman and he is no where even close to that. He will have four more years on his contract at $5.4MM AAV and has shown little improvement and isn’t the leader they hoped he would be.
- Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press writes that Detroit Red Wings’ Henrik Zetterberg must decide whether he wants to keep playing. The 38-year-old still has three years left of the 12-year contract he signed in 2009 at $6.083MM AAV, but back then it was assumed players wouldn’t play the entire contract out. He’s logged over 1,000 and if he chooses to retire, the Red Wings would save $6MM in cap space if the team is able to place him on long-term injured reserve. St. James adds, however, that the veteran might want to come back for one more year as he is just 42 points away from reaching 1,000 points.
- St. James also tweets that the Red Wings have decided not to send forward Tyler Bertuzzi to the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL for their playoff run. They believe Bertuzzi has done enough at the AHL level and want him to hit the gym and get stronger with a full offseason of workouts.
Red Wings GM Ken Holland Signs 2-Year Extension
The Detroit Red Wings announced that Red Wings governor Christopher Ilitch has signed general manager Ken Holland to a two-year extension. Holland, who was the architect behind Detroit’s Stanley Cup success over the years, was to be a free-agent as his contract was expiring at the end of the season. With the team starting a massive rebuild, there was some thought the team might look in a different direction to spearhead that phase of the franchise, but that proves not to be the case.
Holland has been in his role as general manager since 1997 and during his tenure has sent the Red Wings to 18-straight playoff appearances as he built a dynasty that won Stanley Cups in 1998, 2002 and 2010. In recent years, however, Holland has been responsible for bringing in many veteran free agents with the hopes of avoiding a rebuild. The long-term deals, high salaries and no trade clauses have jammed up their team’s salary cap situation and had them miss the playoffs for two straight years.
There has been plenty of speculation about Holland and where he might end up once his contract expired. Some thought he might retire, while his name was also thrown about as a top candidate to potentially run the Seattle expansion team.
Injury Notes: Nash, Nash, Glendening, Muzzin, Johansson, Smith, Dvorak
The Boston Bruins continue to get healthier as NBC Sports’ Joe Haggerty reports that Rick Nash could play as early as Sunday, although the team may also wait for their first playoff game next week. Nash has missed 10 straight games with what was listed as a upper-body injury. However, Nash confirmed to Haggerty that he has been dealing with a concussion and is starting to feel better.
The 33-year-old was a key trade deadline acquisition for Boston, but has only appeared in 11 games so far for the Bruins. He has three goals and three assists in that span and has a total of 21 goals this season between the Bruins and New York Rangers.
The Bruins also announced that Riley Nash is out for the weekend. The Bruins forward took a puck to the head last week and required 40 stitches inside and outside of his ear to repair the damage. He has missed three straight games while having a breakout season. The 28-year-old has 15 goals and 26 assists this year, both career highs. No word if he will be available for the playoffs next week.
- MLive’s Ansar Khan reports that although Detroit Red Wings forward Luke Glendening was originally believed to be out for the season, the forward will be active for tonight’s season finale. Out with an upper-body injury, he missed one game after being forced to leave Tuesday’s game against Columbus during the second period.
- Fox Sports’ Jon Rosen reports that Los Angeles Kings defenseman Jake Muzzin is skating, although he will not play in tonight’s regular season finale. The 29-year-old blueliner has missed four games with an upper-body injury. Rosen adds that head coach John Stevens wouldn’t say for sure whether Muzzin would be ready to play for the first game of the playoffs next week.
- Tom Gulitti of NHL.com tweets that forward Marcus Johansson is close to being ready to return to the ice, but still isn’t 100 percent. The 27-year-old winger has not played since Jan. 23 with a concussion, but could be ready for the playoffs next week if all goes well. After a 24-goal season a year ago with the Washington Capitals, Johansson has managed to appear in just 29 games this year, putting up just five goals. A healthy Johansson could be a big boost to the Devils.
- The Vegas Golden Knights announced that center Reilly Smith will be a game-time decision for tonight’s game against the Calgary Flames. Smith, who has been out with an upper-body injury has missed 15 straight games. If he plays, the team’s first-line center might just be looking to get some work in before the playoffs start.
- Arizona Coyotes’ Dave Vest reports that forward Christian Dvorak, who has missed the last three games with a lower-body injury, will not play in tonight’s regular-season finale. He finishes his season with 15 goals and 37 points.
Black Monday: The Day The Coaches (Could) Disappear
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.
AHL Names 2017-18 All-Rookie Team
The votes have been cast, and this year’s AHL All-Rookie Team has been released. The AHL rookie teams are always a mix of top draft picks and surprising prospects, and this year is no different. The team is as follows:
Goaltender: Ville Husso, San Antonio Rampage (St. Louis Blues)
Defense: Filip Hronek, Grand Rapids Griffins (Detroit Red Wings)
Defense: Sami Niku, Manitoba Moose (Winnipeg Jets)
Forward: Mason Appleton, Manitoba Moose (Winnipeg Jets)
Forward: Daniel Sprong, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (Pittsburgh Penguins)
Forward: Dylan Strome, Tucson Roadrunners (Arizona Coyotes)
Obviously winning this award doesn’t guarantee NHL success, but it is a strong sign for players who will experience a long and successful professional career. The past All-Rookie teams have included many eventual NHL All-Stars, and could again in this group.
Strome is obviously the most recognizable name, selected third overall in 2015. He hasn’t been able to find a ton of success at the NHL level, but dominated the AHL in his first season. Scoring 50 points in 47 games he leads all (qualified) rookies in points-per-game, and likely won’t be in the minor leagues again next season.
Of note is two Winnipeg Jets prospects, both selected late in the 2015 draft. Appleton and Niku were picked 168th and 198th respectively, but both had outstanding rookie seasons with Manitoba and are more names to look for in the Jets lineup over the next few years. Niku made his NHL debut last night and scored on his first shot, just the latest accomplishment in his first season in North America.