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Pacific Notes: Virtanen, Neal, Slepyshev, Sekera

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One preseason game remaining and Jake Virtanen remains with his team. The former sixth overall pick in 2014, has failed to crack the Canucks roster, but a solid training camp has many believing he has a good chance to become a regular in Vancouver this year, according to NBC Sports Cam Tucker.

After getting into 55 games two years ago with Vancouver in an underwhelming season, he managed to make just 10 appearances last year and even struggled with the AHL’s Utica Comets, scoring just 19 points in 65 games. However, his skills are obvious. Canucks GM Jim Benning has stated that his size and speed just need developing. At 6-foot-1 and 229 pounds and only 21 years old, Virtanen is trying to establish himself now, but is also trying not to think about whether he makes the roster this season. He has focused on his play instead and has already notched three preseason goals.

 

2017-18 Primer: Detroit Red Wings

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With the NHL season now less than a week away, we continue our look at what each team has done this summer and what to watch for in the year to come.  Today, we focus on the Detroit Red Wings.

Last Season: 33-36-13 record (79 points), seventh in Atlantic Division (missed playoffs)

Remaining Cap Space: $-3.02MM per CapFriendly—including Johan Franzen ($3.95MM), who will go on LTIR.

Key Additions: D Trevor Daley (free agency, Pittsburgh), F/D Luke Witkowski (free agency, Tampa Bay), F David Booth (PTO), F P.A. Parenteau (PTO)

Key Departures: F Drew Miller (free agency, unsigned), F Andreas Athanasiou (RFA, unsigned)

[Related: Detroit Depth Chart From Roster Resource]

Anthony ManthaPlayer To Watch: F Anthony Mantha – Mantha is an enigma for many Red Wings fans. Despite having the size, strength and skating ability to be a dominant force in the league, he at times drifts into the background or disappears completely. His coaching staff has felt the same, moving him into the press box at times during his rookie campaign, and ultimately demanding more from him on a game-by-game basis.

This year will be a telling one. Mantha comes into the year after scoring 17 goals and 36 points in just 60 games, but even their distribution showed his inconsistency. Seven goals and fifteen points came in a 12-game span in the middle of the season, where he showed off just how forceful he can be with the right work ethic. He would score just 14 points in the remaining 32 games.

Now, with the Red Wings pivoting towards their youth and a sort of on-the-fly rebuild, Mantha must be better. At 23, the time is now for him to prove that he can be more than just a secondary scoring threat, and team up with other youngsters like Dylan Larkin to bring the next wave of Detroit success.

Key Storyline: Last year after the Red Wings fell out of contention, they did something they hadn’t done in some time. At the trade deadline, they moved Brendan Smith, Tomas Jurco and Thomas Vanek for future assets. That idea of selling mid-season is something almost entirely foreign to this generation of Red Wings fans, as the team hadn’t missed the playoffs since 1990.

Going into this season with a new arena and new hopes, the team will have to make a similar decision. If they aren’t competing for a playoff spot in early 2018, selling off some assets is a necessary next step. Though they’re expected to struggle once again, the team is over the cap and used some of their room to bring in a veteran Trevor Daley. That move seemed to show that they weren’t willing to go for a full rebuild, at least not yet.

While there is certainly upside in parts of their roster, players like Mike Green, Gustav Nyquist and Jimmy Howard are all unlikely to be around for the next great Red Wings team. Moving on from them whenever they can would help both the salary structure and the on-ice product down the line. Green especially will be a sought-after commodity at the trade deadline as he heads towards free agency, as the 31-year old can still provide offense from the back end. He has a full no-trade clause that would have to be worked around though, taking away some of the Red Wings’ leverage in trade talks.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Oilers Notes: Defense, Yamamoto, Stanton

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The Oilers are coming off of their highest point total since 1986-87 and certainly look like they’re a team on the rise.  Anchored by Connor McDavid and a strong supporting cast up front, GM Peter Chiarelli told Sportsnet 590 (audio link) that he’s not concerned about their offense heading into the season but that the team is still looking to add to their defense:

“Right now, the scoring, I’m not really that concerned with. We lost Sekera and he won’t be back for a while, so that’s an area that we’re working on and we feel is an area that – I’m somewhat satisfied where we are, personnel-wise, but it can always be improved.”

Edmonton was dealt a big blow back in mid-May when it was announced that Andrej Sekera would miss six-to-nine months with a torn ACL which will keep one of their top-two defenders out for the first few months of 2017-18.  While they’ve added some help in recent years in Adam Larsson, Kris Russell, and Matt Benning, they still don’t have the deepest group of blueliners to work with.

[Related: Oilers Depth Chart from Roster Resource]

Finding the right addition may prove to be somewhat of a challenge for Chiarelli.  It’s likely that he has set his sights on a top-four replacement for Sekera and those types of players are rarely available at this time of year.  It’s also understandable that the GM would prefer to add a rental player as while they currently have more than $8MM in cap space for this season per CapFriendly, McDavid’s new eight-year, $100MM contract is set to kick in a year from now.

Other news out of Edmonton:

  • The Oilers are facing a tough decision with 2017 first rounder Kailer Yamamoto, writes Postmedia’s Robert Tychkowski. While the soon-to-be 19-year-old has made a very strong case for a roster spot so far this preseason, he is on the smallish side at just 5’8 and around 155 pounds while from a longer-term perspective, having his cheap entry-level contract begin as McDavid’s massive extension does would be more beneficial on the salary cap.  If they do put him in the lineup to start the season, their attack will be even deeper with Yamamoto finishing fifth overall in the WHL in points per game last season at 1.52.
  • The team announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Ryan Stanton suffered a crack in his foot and will be out for a while. The 28-year-old has 120 career NHL games under his belt but has spent most of the last two seasons at the minor league level.

2017-18 Primer: Edmonton Oilers

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With the NHL season now just a week away, we continue our look at what each team has done this summer and what to watch for in the year to come.  Today, we focus on the Edmonton Oilers.

Last Season: 47-26-9 record (103 points), second in Pacific Division (lost to Anaheim in second round)

Remaining Cap Space: $8.33MM per CapFriendly

Key Additions: F Ryan Strome (trade, New York), F Jussi Jokinen (free agency, Florida),

Key Departures: F Jordan Eberle (trade, New York), F Benoit Pouliot (buyout), F Matt Hendricks (free agency, Winnipeg), F Tyler Pitlick (free agency, Dallas), F David Desharnais (free agency, New York), D Griffin Reinhart (expansion, Vegas)

[Related: Edmonton Depth Chart From Roster Resource]

Jesse PuljujarviPlayer To Watch: F Jesse Puljujarvi – While most of the eyes will still be focused on Connor McDavid no matter where the Oilers are playing, Puljujarvi should command some attention as well. The fourth-overall pick from 2016 won’t turn 20 until next May, and seems to be in a dogfight to even make the roster out of camp. Kailer Yamamoto, the team’s top pick from the most recent draft is giving Puljujarvi all he can handle as he tries to prove that he’s ready to take the next step in the NHL.

That next step is an important one, as Puljujarvi had an up-and-down season a year ago. Starting the year with the Oilers, he rarely saw enough minutes to really make an impact and was eventually sent down to the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL. Once there, he slowly found his game before going on a tear to prove that he could dominate in the minor leagues. The 18-year old scored 28 points for the Condors, which actually ranked fifth among forwards despite playing in only 39 games.

The training wheels are off now though, and if Puljujarvi is to make this team he’ll have to perform. While there is no chance of him being labelled a bust this early in his career, a breakout would go a long way to helping the Stanley Cup contending Oilers reach that next level.

Key Storyline: When the Oilers committed $168MM to two players this offseason, they locked themselves into the same yearly salary cap struggles the Pittsburgh Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks have endured. While obviously both franchises have experienced immense success, they each took home their first Stanley Cup while at least one of their “Big Two” was still on a more reasonable contract. That’s this year and this year only for the Oilers, as McDavid’s record-setting $12.5MM cap hit kicks in next summer.

It’s not to say that the team won’t be able to compete once it does—Pittsburgh and Chicago have both won subsequent Cups while paying big prices—it’s that this theoretically should be one of the best chances they’ll ever have. While McDavid is sure to be among the handful of top players for the next decade, he’s already there and earning only $925K (plus bonuses) in salary. The question will be have the Oilers done enough to build a team around him for this season in order to take advantage of that.

The Oilers have $66.7MM committed to this season, and just over $60.7MM on the books for next. The difference is that this year that’s projected out from 24 roster players, while next there are only 13 under contract. The $8.33MM in cap space this year is one of their greatest assets, and no one should be shocked if they’re aggressive in-season going after rentals. While they can’t take on money for the future, they should be as close to the cap as their budget allows this year when it’s all said and done.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Jeff Tambellini To Retire, Coach At Michigan

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Former NHL forward Jeff Tambellini may be retiring from pro hockey, but he seems to have his next career already planned out. The University of Michigan revealed tonight that Tambellini will return to campus to finish his degree and has been named an “undergraduate assistant coach”. Tambellini himself has yet to recognize his retirement, but may never actually do so in any official capacity.

Normally, “graduate assistant coach” is a title given to recent grads helping out with their alma mater’s program in some way. Tambellini’s new title of “undergraduate assistant coach” is almost unheard of, but fitting for the former All-American who left Michigan a year early after three dominant seasons. He returns to finish his degree with over a decade of pro hockey experience under his belt.

A first-round pick of the Los Angeles Kings in 2003, there were high expectations of Tambellini that only increased with each collegiate season. Yet, once he turned pro, the small, speedy forward struggled to skate around the opposition like he could in the NCAA. The Kings traded him to the Islanders after only four games with the team, sending he and Denis Grebeshkov to New York for Mark Parrish and Brent Sopel. Tambellini carved out a bottom-six/AHL depth role for himself on the island and played for New York for four more seasons, accumulating 46 points in 176 games. Tambellini played his final NHL season in 2010-11 with the Vancouver Canucks, posting a career-best 17 points and +10 rating in 62 games and playing in the Stanley Cup Final against the Boston Bruins.

Since then, Tambellini has had an up-and-down experience as a globe-trotting veteran. He was a force to reckon with in his first pro season outside the NHL, scoring 45 points in 50 games with the ZSC Lions of the Swiss NLA. Injuries limited his production in his second season with the Lions, so he moved on to Sweden, where he played well for MODO. He again struggled in the following year, splitting his time between the SHL and NLA, but not finding results in either location. 2015-16 marked an attempted NHL comeback, as Tambellini signed a one-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Despite impressive production in the AHL, Tambellini did not see any NHL action and headed back to Sweden last season, where he struggled mightily and, at the age of 33, likely decided it was time to hand up his skates.

However, his new opportunity with the Wolverines should allow Jeff to follow in his father’s footsteps. Steve Tambellini played ten years in the NHL, but is likely best known for his later work off the ice. Steve was the GM of the Edmonton Oilers from 2008 to 2013 and also previously worked for the Vancouver Canucks and Team Canada. He is currently a scout for the Anaheim Ducks. While Jeff seems to be heading more in a coaching route rather than toward a front office future, it is clear that hockey intelligence runs in the family and Jeff could have a shot a great coaching career, beginning with his return to Ann Arbor this season. Who knows, if coaching is a great fit for Jeff, he may end up back in the NHL, this time behind the bench, before little brother Adam Tambellini, a New York Rangers prospect, makes it to the big time himself.

Benson Expected To Return To Junior In Mid-October

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  • Oilers prospect Tyler Benson will likely start the season on injured reserve but is expected to join his junior team (the WHL’s Vancouver Giants) on October 13th, notes Postmedia’s Jim Matheson. Benson, Edmonton’s second-round pick (32nd overall) in 2016, has yet to skate with the team in training camp and has not been cleared for any contact drills after undergoing double sports hernia surgery over the summer.

Training Camp Cuts: 09/24/17

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The more than fifty cuts made from training camps around the league yesterday was only the beginning. Weekend or not, expect the announcements to keep flooding in, and we’ll keep track of it all right here:

Arizona Coyotes
F Michael Bunting – Tucson (AHL)
D Kyle Capobianco – Tucson (AHL)
F Conor Garland – Tucson (AHL)
D Joel Hanley – Tucson (AHL)
D Pierre-Olivier Joseph – Charlottetown (QMJHL)
F Jens Looke – Tucson (AHL)
D Dysin Mayo – Tucson (AHL)
F Lane Pederson – Tucson (AHL)
F Mike Sislo – Tucson (AHL)
D Jalen Smereck – Tucson (AHL)
D Tyson Strachan – released from PTO

Boston Bruins
D Christopher Breen – Providence (AHL)
D Connor Clifton – Providence (AHL)
D Taylor Doherty – Providence (AHL)
F Zachary Senyshyn – Providence (AHL)

Carolina Hurricanes
F Patrick Brown – Charlotte (AHL)
F Julien Gauthier – Charlotte (AHL)
D Brenden Kichton – Charlotte (AHL)
D Roland McKeown – Charlotte (AHL)
F Andrew Miller – Charlotte (AHL)
D Dennis Robertson – Charlotte (AHL)
D Philip Samuelsson – Charlotte (AHL)

Dallas Stars
D Gavin Bayreuther – Texas (AHL)
G Landon Bow – Texas (AHL)
G Philippe Desrosiers – Texas (AHL)
F Sheldon Dries – Released from ATO
F Max French – Released from ATO
F Austin Fyten – Released from PTO
D Shane Hanna – Released from ATO
D Niklas Hansson – Texas (AHL)
D Dillon Heatherington – Texas (AHL)
F Samuel Laberge – Released from ATO
D Matt Mangene – Released from PTO
F Colin Markison – Released from PTO
F Cole Ully – Texas (AHL)

Edmonton Oilers
F Mitch Callahan – Bakerfield (AHL)
F Grayson Downing – Bakersfield (AHL)
D Caleb Jones – Bakersfield (AHL)
F Joey Laleggia – Bakersfield (AHL)
D Keegan Lowe – Bakersfield (AHL)
D Ryan Mantha – Bakersfield (AHL)

Montreal Canadiens
F Daniel Audette – Laval (AHL)
F David Broll – Laval (AHL)
G Zachary Fucale – Laval (AHL)
F Jeremy Gregoire – Laval (AHL)
D Brett Lernout – Laval (AHL)
F Martin Reway – Laval (AHL)
F Nikita Scherbak – Laval (AHL)

Read more

Poll: The Fate Of The Remaining RFA’s

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Notable players have begun to be cut from training camps and placed on waivers as the season draws closer, under two weeks away now. Yet, two restricted free agents still have yet to even sign a new contract, nevertheless compete in camp. Columbus’ Josh Anderson and Detroit’s Andreas Athanasiou still remain unsigned long after agreements were reached in more difficult RFA cases like those of David Pastrnak and Sam Bennett. Not only do the pair still not have contracts for the coming year, but seemingly no progress has been made recently either.

After it was reported more than a week ago that there was a “vast gap” in negotiations between Anderson and the Blue Jackets, a recent update stated that “no progress” had been made since then either. The newest piece of information has Anderson traveling to Switzerland, where he could potentially meet with several NLA teams. Anderson has also spoken about the possibility of starring for Team Canada at the Olympics. Anderson scored 17 goals for Columbus last year, which would be quite a lot of production for a team chasing a division title to lose.

Athanasiou is beyond overseas speculation; he has several hard offers on the table from KHL clubs. While “talks continue” between the two sides, there has been no concrete news for days. The “Riley Sheahan-to-Pittsburgh” rumor, that is supposedly contingent on an agreement with Athanasiou, has obviously not happened either, as it has been all quiet from both the Red Wings and their talented, young player. Athanasiou scored 29 points in 64 games for the struggling Wings last year. Can a team lacking much game-breaking talent afford to lose such a player?

There are a lot of different ways that this could all end up. Either or both could simply sign with their current teams, whether it be in the coming weeks or early in the season like several 2016 cases. Either one could be traded to a team with greater need and greater ability to sign them to a deal that comes closer to their desired term and salary. Or, the nuclear option, both have expressed and interest (read: threatened) in going overseas and could pull the trigger if their team will not sign or trade them. Take a crack at the poll below and sort through a variety of endings to these RFA sagas:

What will happen to Anderson and Athanasiou
Both sign with their respective teams 34.75% (90 votes)
Both play overseas 18.15% (47 votes)
Anderson signs, Athanasiou plays in KHL 13.13% (34 votes)
Both traded 11.20% (29 votes)
Athanasiou signs, Anderson traded 8.49% (22 votes)
Anderson signs, Athanasiou traded 8.11% (21 votes)
Athanasiou signs, Anderson plays in NLA 6.18% (16 votes)
Total Votes: 259

Early Extension Talks Between Maroon, Oilers

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The Edmonton Oilers locked up restricted free agent Leon Draisaitl, and inked an eight-year extension with Connor McDavid, but still have more work to do to keep this team together. One of the players they’d like to keep is big winger Patrick Maroon, and as Ryan Rishaug of TSN reports, the two sides have had early conversations on a potential extension.

Maroon broke out playing alongside McDavid last year, scoring 27 goals and registering 45 points. While those totals look minuscule next to McDavid’s 100-point season, they’re easily career-highs for the 29-year old power forward.

In training camp it looks like Maroon will get another crack at the shotgun seat on McDavid’s line, which will likely result in another strong season. What that means in terms of an extension is tricky though. Could anyone post those numbers with one of the best players in the world? Does Maroon compliment McDavid’s speed and finesse game especially well? Would his production fall off a cliff if put lower in the lineup? These are all questions the Oilers will have to answer before handing out any long-term money.

The team must also be mindful of their salary cap structure going forward. Next year, when McDavid’s $100MM extension kicks in, the team will have four forwards making $33MM each season. That’s nearly half of the salary cap already, without including the hefty contracts they’ve given out on defense and some new deals that are required for restricted free agents.

If Maroon is negotiating like a true 27-goal man, the Oilers may not be able to fit him in. If it’s more a good-faith, perfect-fit conversation, perhaps they can come to an agreement that keeps the “Big Rig” in Edmonton long-term.

Snapshots: Sheahan, Robinson, Aaltonen

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In Elliotte Friedman’s latest 31 Thoughts column for Sportsnet, the venerable hockey insider touches on several different trade topics we’ve heard about over the last few weeks. The most interesting is perhaps one brewing between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings surrounding Riley Sheahan. Friedman seems to think the deal could be contingent on whether Detroit comes to terms with restricted free agent Andreas Athanasiou, who is currently still holding out of training camp without a contract.

The Red Wings wouldn’t want to lose Athanasiou and Sheahan both, but if they wait much longer Pittsburgh GM Jim Rutherford might move on to one of his other two options. The Red Wings need to take advantage of trades when they can, even if moving Sheahan would weaken their center depth considerably.

  • Larry Robinson has been hired by the St. Louis Blues as a Senior Consultant to Hockey Operations. Robinson is a legendary hockey player and mind who has found success everywhere in the game. From a player, winning six Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens to a coach, raising three more championships with the New Jersey Devils. Most recently, he has been an associate coach and director of player development with the San Jose Sharks, helping them reach the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in their history.
  • Jonas Siegal of The Athletic penned an interesting piece on Toronto Maple Leafs’ new acquisition Miro Aaltonen, outlining his battle for a roster spot this season. Aaltonen was a free agent after the Anaheim Ducks—the team who originally drafted him—chose not to sign him in 2015, and apparently decided between the Maple Leafs and Vegas Golden Knights on where to start his North American career. It’s interesting that he chose Toronto, as he likely could have made the Vegas roster out of camp but will have a tough battle for the Maple Leafs. Part of that likely has to do with him signing way back in March, before Vegas even had a roster at all.

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