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Pacific Notes: Thornton, Edmonton Defense, Nugent-Hopkins

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After a double-overtime thriller in which the Vegas Golden Knights took a 2-0 lead in their first-round series with the Los Angeles Kings, the San Jose Sharks will attempt to take a 2-0 lead of their own tonight against the Anaheim Ducks. The Sharks, who picked up a 3-0 victory Thursday on the road, got a surprise during pre-game warmups when injured veteran center Joe Thornton participated in the pre-game skate before Thursday’s game. According to Paul Gackle of the Mercury News, Thornton is close to returning to the team, but isn’t yet ready.

Thornton, who went down in January with a torn MCL injury, has been rehabbing for the past 11 weeks, but has said that unlike last year when he returned from a knee injury after just two weeks for the playoff run, he intends to make sure he isn’t a distraction to the team before returning. However, the more wins that the Sharks can pick up in the meantime can buy time until Thornton believes he is fully healthy and ready to return to the lineup.

  • Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal writes that the Edmonton Oilers are desperate to repair their defense and wants to trade for a top-line defenseman. While he suggests the team could offer up its lottery pick in a deal to get Arizona’s Oliver Ekman-Larsson or work out some type of deal to get Colorado’s Tyson Barrie, neither is realistic. The team’s best chance at solving their defensive issues is right-handed shot Justin Faulk from the Carolina Hurricanes. The 26-year-old is falling down the Hurricanes’ depth charts with the emergence of younger defensemen like Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce. Faulk would also fix their logjam of left-handed defenseman as several defenseman such as Andrej Sekera and Kris Russell are left-handed, but playing on the right side. The problem is that Carolina wants a forward back. So who are they going to send?
  • Matheson, in the same article, adds that the Oilers have no intention of trading Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who might be their best trade chip. The center was rumored to be a trade candidate with his high salary ($6MM AAV) over the next three years. However, the team believes he might be the perfect linemate for Connor McDavid as a wing, which would move youngster Ryan Strome to the third-line center position. Nugent-Hopkins is coming off a season where he tied his career-high in goals with 24 (and he missed 20 games this season).

Peter Chiarelli Will Return As GM Of Edmonton Oilers

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Edmonton Oilers CEO Bob Nicholson met with the media today, and immediately confirmed that GM Peter Chiarelli would be back next season. Chiarelli will retain the position as President of Hockey Operations, and “has a plan to get [Edmonton] in the playoffs next season.” Nicholson did not, however, lend a vote of confidence to the coaching staff, instead saying that Chiarelli would evaluate all of them and make a decision.

Chiarelli’s tenure as a GM in the NHL has been checkered at best, with many fans pointing out the long list of star players he has traded away in the past. After the impressive MVP-worthy performance from Taylor Hall this season, that list—which also includes Phil Kessel, Blake Wheeler, Tyler Seguin, Jordan Eberle, Dougie Hamilton and others—was waved around as a reason to fire the veteran executive at the end of a disappointing year. The Oilers were expected to compete for the Stanley Cup, and instead found themselves missing the playoffs entirely despite an 108-point season from Connor McDavid.

Whatever plan Chiarelli has in place will be a difficult one to pull off. With McDavid’s $100MM contract extension kicking in, the Oilers have almost $62MM in cap space tied up in just 14 players for the 2018-19 season. That’s before they deal with restricted free agents like Ryan Strome, Anton Slepyshev, Darnell Nurse and Matt Benning, or any UFA signings they decide to make.

Obviously, the Oilers could bounce back and be one of the league’s best teams next season. With McDavid and Leon Draisaitl leading the offense, and improvement from the blue line and in net could easily push them back into the playoffs. Still, betting on a turnaround from those two positions isn’t exactly a plan, meaning there is something else coming for Edmonton in the next few months. If your mind immediately goes to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and a potential trade, Chiarelli implied that he will not trade the young forward in yesterday’s press conference.

Milan Lucic, Kris Russell, Andrej Sekera and Cam Talbot all hold no-movement clauses at the moment, and though Talbot’s turns into a limited clause in the summer he is probably the least likely of the group to be moved. The other three don’t carry much value in trade because of their high price tags and diminishing returns, meaning Edmonton would likely have to eat some salary in any potential move.

Nicholson praised Chiarelli’s relationships with other GMs as a positive during the presser, indicating that it will help him turn things around through trade if he decides to. Though that may be true, it’s not like other teams will be lining up to fix the problems with the Oilers roster. With a high draft pick and some interesting young talent, Chiarelli will be must-watch TV at the upcoming draft and free agency period.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Snapshots: Awards, Holland, Leiweke

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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.

Minor League Notes: Niku, Elie, Oilers

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Sami Niku’s season is just getting better, as today the AHL announced that he has been named the league’s top defenseman for the 2017-18 season. Niku had already been named to the All-Rookie and First All-Star Team, after recording 53 points in 73 games. His first year of professional hockey in North America couldn’t have gone any better—unless of course the Manitoba Moose win the Calder Cup—as he even scored his first NHL goal in the one game he played for the Winnipeg Jets.

Niku was selected in the seventh round three years ago, and is now the youngest player to ever take home top defenseman honors in the AHL. After playing well at every level so far, you can pencil him into a roster spot with the Jets in the coming years. That’s another hit for their draft and development systems, that have started to churn out NHL talent at a ridiculous rate.

  • Remi Elie has been sent back to the AHL for the Texas Stars playoff run, after a successful rookie campaign with the Dallas Stars. Elie recorded 14 points in 72 games, and will now get a chance to show off in the minor leagues. Never an elite scoring talent, Elie will nevertheless be an offensive weapon for Texas, who are currently staring at a first round series with the Tucson Roadrunners. The second-round pick from 2013 won’t be waiver exempt again next season, meaning this might be his last chance to really contribute in the minor leagues for the Dallas organization.
  • Similarly, the Edmonton Oilers have sent both Ethan Bear and Keegan Lowe back to the AHL to help the Bakersfield Condors in their last few matchups. Bear got into 18 games with the Oilers down the stretch, and could be a potential option for the team next season when they are looking for puck-moving right-handed defensmen. For now, both will focus on improving their play in the last few games of the AHL season and putting in an offseason of training.

2018 NHL Draft Lottery Odds

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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.

Edmonton Oilers Sign Cooper Marody To Entry-Level Contract

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The Edmonton Oilers announced they have signed University of Michigan’s Cooper Marody to a three-year, entry-level contract. The Oilers acquired the 21-year-old forward’s rights from the Philadelphia Flyers several weeks ago in exchange for a 2019 third-round pick when rumors began to surface that Marody might not want to sign with the Flyers due to their depth up the middle, according to Edmonton Journal’s Jim Matheson.

Marody, drafted in the sixth round in 2015 by Philadelphia, had a breakout year this season with the Wolverines as he scored 16 goals and added 35 assists in 40 games and took his team to the Frozen Four, as Michigan lost in the semifinals to Notre Dame.

The prospect is considered to be a smart player with excellent hands, who still needs to work on his skating abilities. However, it is believed he is more ready than most of their center prospects in their system. In three years with Michigan, the center tallied 31 goals and 59 assists in his career. 

 

Red Wings GM Ken Holland Signs 2-Year Extension

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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.

 

Snapshots: O’Ree, World Championships, Yamamoto

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The NHL has announced a new award to be given out annually, named the Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award. It will be given to the a person not affiliated with the league or any club, who “best utilizes hockey as a platform for participants to build character and develop important life skills for a more positive family experience.”

The award is named after Willie O’Ree, the NHL’s first black player who has spent decades working to bring the sport of hockey to those who may not normally be exposed to it or able to afford to play. O’Ree was honored this year on the 50th anniversary of his NHL debut—suiting up for the Boston Bruins on January 18th, 1958.

  • Several players have announced their intention to play at the upcoming World Championships, including Thomas Chabot (Canada), Chris Kreider (USA) and Casey Mittelstadt (USA). The tournament is loading up on talent this season, perhaps in part as a response to the lack of Olympics participation. The teams should be filled with talent, as others like Connor McDavid and Mathew Barzal have already expressed interest.
  • Tyler Benson and Dmitri Samorukov will be joining the Bakersfield Condors for the end of the season, but Kailer Yamamoto will not. The Edmonton Oilers’ first-round pick from 2017 suffered an injury in the WHL playoffs and will focus on his health instead. Yamamoto played just nine games with the Oilers at the beginning of the season, meaning he won’t burn a year of his entry-level contract. Watch for him to make an impact at training camp next fall, and try to secure a full-time roster spot.

Offense From Defense: Can Edmonton Improve Their Blue Line Production?

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In this week’s excellent (as always) 31 Thoughts column from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, he mentions a statistic that won’t be news to anyone who has watched the Edmonton Oilers on a regular basis this season:

Entering Wednesday’s games, Edmonton had 127 points from defensemen, 27th in the NHL. (Nashville is best, at 195.) That is something the Oilers will address in the off-season. It’s a priority.

While many will point to Cam Talbot’s struggles to repeat his 2016-17 season or the lack of secondary scoring and wing options for Connor McDavid as the team’s biggest issues, Friedman has hit on a sometimes overlooked failure of the team. The Oilers defensive group has simply not been good enough at creating offense.

That’s not to say they have to jump into rushes with more frequency, or try to go coast-to-coast like a Bobby Orr-redux, but their struggles at exiting the defensive zone with possession have been easy to see this season. That’s resulted in so few points, even with an outstanding offensive talent like McDavid driving the offense. So if they need some help in terms of a puck-moving defender, where can they find it?

One option would be free agency, where John Carlson and Mike Green both move the puck exceptionally well. Though Green’s future is cloudy at best, Carlson is set to hit the market as the top available defenseman and could earn a seven-year contract with a huge cap hit. The problem for the Oilers isn’t that Carlson may not be worth that much, but that they might not be able to afford him. The team has already committed to four defensemen—Andrej Sekera, Adam Larsson, Oscar Klefbom and Kris Russell—for at least another three seasons, at a combined cap hit of almost $18MM. Add in extensions for Darnell Nurse (who currently leads the group with 25 points) and Matt Benning and it’s clear there will have to be another sort of change made.

That would have to come through trade if there is to be a real change, and it’s not clear exactly who that would be. Some have speculated that the team was showcasing Klefbom this season, and Sekera has struggled through injury this season and not looked the same. Klefbom would certainly still have many suitors if he was shopped around, but it’s not so easy with Sekera. The 31-year old defenseman has a full no-movement clause (Russell also holds one of these) until the summer of 2019, meaning he would have to agree to any potential trade. His $5.5MM cap hit is another potential red flag for an acquiring team, who can’t be sure of the production he’ll bring going forward.

Either way, something must be done in Edmonton after a terribly disappointing season. The fact that they’ve identified the defense as a problem to be fixed is a good thing, and one that is sure to bring quite a bit of news this summer.

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.

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