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Snapshots: Quebec Expansion, Roy, Radulov, Trouba

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In a post for ESPN.com published this morning, Craig Custance provides a wealth of information on a wide array of topics. The entire piece is well worth the read but here are several of the highlights.

  • Custance relays an update on possible expansion into Quebec City, per comments from NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly. Daly said that while he would like to see the NHL return to Quebec, “hopefully at some point in my career,” there are currently no serious discussions of adding a 32nd team to the league. Daly: “We’ll recap the expansion process, but I don’t expect there will be any announcements on new expansion.” Further diminishing the chances of a Quebec entry any time in the near future, Daly also stated that despite the drawn out process, the Arizona Coyotes will “find a long-term arena in the Phoenix area,” thus eliminating any talk of possibly relocating the club. All together, the NHL is satisfied with 31 franchises and the existing geographical balance of those teams. While Daly’s comments appear to pour cold water on the idea of a Quebec franchise, it’s still a good possibility the league places a team there in the relatively near future.
  • During the first period of Team North America’s win over Team Europe, former Avalanche VP of hockey operations and head coach Patrick Roy met with the media. Roy is said to have resigned his position due to philosophical differences with other members of management and a loss of influence in the front office. When asked whether the Avs choice not to seriously pursue winger Alexander Radulov in free agency was a contributing factor to his decision to leave the organization, Roy indicated that while he vouched for his former Quebec Remparts star and would like to see him one day play for Colorado, the final call was always Joe Sakic’s and that Roy “respected his decision.” Roy would later suggest that the team is giving more thought to using analytics in their decision-making and that also may have played a part in his decision to leave.
  • Earlier today we touched on the lack of progress in talks between RFA Johnny Gaudreau and the Flames. But Gaudreau is far from the only remaining unsigned RFA of note. According to Custance, Winnipeg defenseman Jacob Trouba has not spoken to agent Kurt Overhardt since camp opened for the World Cup of Hockey. Custance also points out that one potential benefit to RFA’s participating in the tournament is the chance to further enhance their values with excellent performances at the tournament playing against many of the top players in the world. Trouba, for example, believes that he can fill a greater role with the Jets and if given a heave dose of responsibility with Team North America, perhaps he can prove to Winnipeg he is deserving of more ice time.

Oilers Notes: McDavid, Klefbom, Expansion

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Will Connor McDavid be named captain twice in the next month? That’s entirely possible, with both Team North America and the Edmonton Oilers needing a captain.

With his GM and coach from Edmonton being among those in charge of the team, and the support of his teammates, it’d be a surprise if anyone else was named captain.

So far, McDavid has been lining up alongside Jonathan Drouin and Mark Scheifele on the North American first line in practice, as well as headlining the first unit powerplay.

Meanwhile, Oilers veteran forward Matt Hendricks was on Edmonton radio on Tuesday. According to Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot, Hendricks told Oilers insider Bob Staufffer that McDavid would make an excellent captain, as “it’s going to be Connor’s team and we want him to be the leader, because … he’s the best player definitely here in Edmonton, if not the best player in the game right now.”

  • Hendricks also talked about skating with Oilers new top pairing, Oscar Klefbom and Adam Larsson, saying they both looked good. Klefbom missed 52 games last season with a broken hand and multiple Staph Infections, and was being fitted with a custom skate this summer, but according to Hendricks “Klef is feeling good and has that big smile on his face, so that was nice to see for sure.”
  • Over at OilersNation, TSN host Jason Gregor went through all 30 teams to examine who could be exposed in next summer’s expansion draft. He doesn’t believe the Oilers have many tough decisions, with McDavid and Nurse not needing protection. Gregor has the Oilers protecting Milan Lucic, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl, Andrej Sekera, Klefbom, Larsson, Brandon Davidson and Cam Talbot. That would leave Benoit Pouliot, Patrick Maroon, Nail Yakupov, and Griffin Reinhart exposed. Unless Maroon plays like he did at the end of last season with McDavid, or Yakupov finally breaks out, then the Oilers won’t be too fussed about the expansion draft. Pouliot is a solid NHLer, and scores at a much higher rate than you would expect (equal with Jonathan Toews and higher than Johnny Gaudreau), but Gregor believes it’s likely Vegas will look to add defense over forwards. A young, former 4th overall pick like Reinhart could be a serious consideration for Vegas. Reinhart was added at great cost at the 2015 draft, but hasn’t managed to crack the Oilers full time yet.

Flames Were Close To Acquiring Ben Bishop At Draft

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Ben Bishop is entering this season without a guaranteed starting role in Tampa Bay after Andrei Vasilevskiy played extremely well down the stretch and into the playoffs last season. In an interview with the Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times on Friday, he said that “(a trade) looked like for a little bit it was going to happen. At kind of the last minute (the Flames) went out and got Elliott. It was close, but there was never… It wasn’t that close, obviously.”

While the Flames would eventually trade for Brian Elliott to fill their crease, a move including Bishop might still be on the horizon.  The netminder is owed $5.95MM this year in the final season of his deal, and was overtaken by Vasilevskiy in the playoffs after he injured his ankle.  While Bishop is unsure of his future, the Lightning inked Vasilevskiy to a three-year extension this summer that will pay him $3.5MM per season through 2019-20.

If GM Steve Yzerman decides to start the season with the two goaltenders, he’ll surely receive plenty of interest throughout the year as other netminders go down to injury. While he can’t keep both long-term, as an expansion draft for the new Las Vegas franchise would surely select one of them should they both be under contract, Bishop could be a huge piece to dangle should something similar to the Carey Price injury happen to another team this season.

For now, Bishop is just trying to push all the trade speculation out of his head, and focus on hockey.  He’s one of the goaltenders set to report to Team USA camp for the upcoming World Cup in a few days, though it’ll be another fight to get ice-time – Cory Schneider and Jonathan Quick are the other two.

Las Vegas Hires Kelly Kisio As Pro Scout

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If you were an expansion team, looking to fill your ranks with the best hockey minds not currently employed by an NHL team, where would you look? Las Vegas has decided that the WHL is the place to go, as they’ve mined another long-time front office member from the junior ranks.  According to a team release, Kelly Kisio, a member of the Calgary Hitmen front office for the past 18-years, has been hired by the expansion franchise as a pro scout.

Kisio first joined the Hitmen in 1998-99 as the General Manager, and continued in that role until 2013 when he was promoted to President of Hockey Operations.  He also spent four seasons behind the bench with the club from 2004-08 while still in his GM role.  He’ll now join the Vegas club as a pro scout covering the western region.

An excellent player in his day, Kisio scored 658 points in 761 goals for the Red Wings, Rangers, Sharks and Flames, including a 78 point effort in 1987-88. Serving as captain of the Rangers for over three seasons he made one all-star appearance in 1993.

The hiring of Kisio follows a clear pattern for GM George McPhee this summer, after he hired AGM Kelly McCrimmon from the Brandon Wheat Kings and amateur scout Bruno Campese from the Prince Albert Raiders among others.

Snapshots: Las Vegas Trademarks, Madden, Reirden

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One way or another, it seems as though the “Knights” will suit up in Las Vegas for the 2017-18 season. The NHL reports that their newest expansion team filed for three trademarks last week: Golden Knights, Silver Knights, and Desert Knights. Team owner Bill Foley reportedly wanted the team to be named the Black Knights, after the Army Black Knights of the U.S. Military Academy, which he attended. Eventually, it sounded like he had settled on just “Knights”, but the team had trademark contention with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League. Now it appears as though a color (or climate) will end up attached to Knights. While the double entendre of “Las Vegas Knights” won’t be as clean, the first team called the Knights in major North American pro sports will still be a nice addition to the National Hockey League.

In other news:

  • Another team with recent name news, the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters, announced the hiring of John Madden as their new head coach. Formerly known as the Lake Erie Monsters, the Columbus Blue Jackets affiliate is fresh off of a Calder Cup championship in 2015-16. As a result, head coach Jared Bednar was a top NHL head coaching candidate this off-season, and was officially named the new head coach of the Colorado Avalanche last week. In need of a new coach for their AHL team, the Blue Jackets brass targeted Madden as their first choice and it appears that there was mutual interest. The long-time New Jersey Devil was fired this off-season after three years as an assistant with the Florida Panthers, the team with which he finished his playing days, but now moves on to another stage of his hockey career. A veteran of nearly 900 NHL games and a strong two-way player, Madden has the knowledge and experience to teach the young Monsters skaters how to play a complete, responsible game.
  • In another coaching move, the Washington Capitals announced that they have promoted Todd Reirden to associate coach. Reirden has served as an assistant coach to Barry Trotz for the past two seasons, and has been given long looks by both the New Jersey Devils and Calgary Flames as a potential head coach in that time span. As associate coach, Reirden will hold on to his previous responsibilities of working with defenseman and the power play unit, but will also be in charge of running training camp while Trotz is away at the World Cup.

Las Vegas Adds Scott Luce To Front Office

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Late last night the Las Vegas expansion franchise announced that they had hired another former director of player personnel to their front office, this time in the form of Scott Luce. The former Florida Panther director will now serve in the role of director of amateur scouting for the Vegas franchise, a role which he should excel at.

Luce has spent time as a scout for the Panthers, Lightning and Senators over his hockey career, one that has spanned more than three decades.  A goalie in his playing days, Luce made it all the way to the AHL with the Rochester Americans in 1990-91 before calling it a career a year later.

He was fired from the Panthers early this summer when the team decided it needed a shake-up in their front office, despite coming off the most successful season in their history.  The team shuffled the chairs and Luce was left without a seat when the music stopped, even though he’d been a huge part of the turnaround in Florida.

Aaron Ekblad, Vincent Trocheck, Erik Gudbranson, Nick Bjugstad, Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau are just a few of the names that Luce had been instrumental in drafting over the past few years, building a young core almost unrivaled among other NHL teams. While no scout has a perfect record, Luce seems to be a well respected judge of talent and will be another strong signing by GM George McPhee and the group in Las Vegas. If the team is to succeed they’ll need strong drafts in their first few years, giving young players for the city to latch onto.

Canadiens Name Eric Crawford As Director Of Pro Scouting

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After the Las Vegas expansion team hired away Vaughn Karpan this week, the Montreal Canadiens were left without a director of pro scouting, and today have named his replacement. Eric Crawford, a former member of the Vancouver Canucks front office was hired by Montreal as a pro scout last season, and will be promoted to the vacant position.

The younger brother of long-time NHL head coach and now Ottawa assistant Marc Crawford, Eric joined the Montreal front office after 16 seasons in various positions with the Canucks, including director of player personnel from 2010-2015. He was part of the teams that drafted players like Ryan Kesler, Cory Schneider, Alexander Edler and Bo Horvat, but also missed on quite a few high draft picks throughout the last decade.

Crawford will join Trevor Timmins, the current vice president of player personnel and director of amateur scouting, to try and turn around a Montreal franchise that was exposed without the goaltending of Carey Price a season ago. With young players like Alex Galchenyuk and the newly drafted Mikhail Sergachev in the mix, Crawford and Timmins have the start of a promising future; now they must continue it.

Snapshots: Fehr, NHLPA, Vegas, Lucic, Pietrangelo

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The head of the NHLPA, Donald Fehr, recently sat down with the Canadian media to discuss the upcoming World Cup of Hockey while also touching on other subjects of note. An edited and condensed version of the interview was posted by Jonas Siegel on The Globe And Mail. As usual, the entire piece is worth a read but here are some of the highlights.

When asked whether or not the union was on board with the timing of the tournament, Fehr said, “it’s not that pre-season is the best time, but it probably is, at the moment, better than the others.”

He would go on to state: “There has been some informal discussions, for purposes of this World Cup that never rose to the level of serious consideration, that maybe we ought to do it in February. And it’s conceivable that that would be considered going forward.”

There is no perfect time to hold an event like this. Any way you look at it, a tournament held at any point in the year is going to prolong the season and shorten the summer for the players. While teams would probably prefer their players not to participate due in large part to the risk of injury, both owners and union members have a vested interest in successfully pulling off events of this nature since the added revenue will be divided by the players and the league.

Fehr also addressed the idea of European expansion from the players’ perspective. He indicated at least a few players have taken note of the KHL’s presence on the continent and the fact that so many players are European born. While making it clear these conversations were of the internal variety and did not involve the NHL in any way, Fehr did seem to suggest the players would be open to the idea and it was something that would merit further study.

Finally, on the subject of the potential of another lockout, Fehr pointed out that baseball has been the only sport to experience prolonged labor peace over the last two decades. He also mentions, probably not coincidentally, that baseball is the only major sports league without a salary cap.

In terms of possibly avoiding another work stoppage following the 2018-19 campaign when both parties will have the option of opting out of the current CBA, Fehr referenced just how far off that point in time is relative to the average player’s career by saying: “our membership will turn over more than 50 per cent between now and then.”

More from around the NHL:

  • The Las Vegas expansion franchise today announced yet another addition to their front office/operations staff. The club has hired Mike Levine for a scouting/player development position. Levine spent the last three years as an assistant coach at Brown University. According to the release on the Vegas Is Hockey website, Levine comes with a solid reputation as a recruiter both at the collegiate and prep levels.
  • Not surprisingly, Milan Lucic said as many as 10 teams expressed serious interest in signing the big winger before he inked a seven-year contract with Edmonton, according to Chris Nichols writing for Today’s Slap Shot. Lucic was one of the top players available on July 1st and was guaranteed to generate a lot of interest on the free agent market. It’s not certain how many of Lucic’s suitors were willing to extend themselves as far as the Oilers did, either financially or with a seven-year term, but his status as a coveted free agent was never in doubt. He would ultimately choose Edmonton, saying, “I went with my heart and my loyalty to Peter and chose the Edmonton Oilers.”
  • Sportsnet’s John Shannon tweeted earlier today that the St. Louis Blues will announce Alex Pietrangelo as the team’s new captain tomorrow. He will replace David Backes, who left St. Louis in free agency after accepting a five-year deal with the Boston Bruins. The choice of Pietrangelo makes a lot of sense given he is one of the team’s best players, has been with the organization his entire pro career and is under long-term contract ensuring he will be a Blue for the foreseeable future.

Dallas Stars Notes: Niemi, Lehtonen, Nichushkin

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The Dallas Stars surprised many by taking the Central Division crown and finishing with the most points in the Western Conference in 2016-17, just one season removed from missing the postseason entirely. Their success was driven primarily by the most prolific offense in the league as Jamie Benn (41), Tyler Seguin (33) and Jason Spezza (33) led the way with hugely productive seasons. However, while the team had no problem putting the puck in the opposition’s net, they did have plenty of issues keeping it out of their own. Along those lines, Jason Brough of Pro Hockey Talk writes that the club’s “biggest question mark” entering the new season remains between the pipes in Big D.

Antti Niemi and Kari Lehtonen combined to stop just 90.6% of the shots they faced during the regular season a year ago. Lehtonen (90.6%) ranked 38th and Niemi (90.5%) 40th overall among qualified net minders in that category. They were even worse come playoff time with neither goalie able to stop 90% of the shots against.

The Stars were thought to be considering the possibility of acquiring another goalie, with Ben Bishop named as one possibility but it’s not clear whether any substantive talks with the Lightning or any other club ever took place. Nevertheless, Jim Nill seems confident his goaltending tandem will rebound enough to give the club at least capable play between the pipes. Each has had success in the recent past and it wasn’t that long ago that Niemi backstopped the Chicago Blackhawks to a Stanley Cup so there is some reason for Nill’s optimism.

For more on the Stars…..

  • In a separate piece for Pro Hockey Talk, Brough identifies Stars winger Valeri Nichushkin as being “under pressure.” Despite playing on the most prolific offensive team in the league, the 21-year-old Nichushkin struggled, netting just nine goals in 79 regular season contests. He followed that up with a lone point, an assist, in 10 playoff games. Nichushkin, the 10th overall selection in the 2013 entry draft, has a ton of ability and as veteran scorers Patrick Sharp and Ales Hemsky each enter the final years of their respective contracts, the club may well need the young Russian to step into one of those spots sooner rather than later.
  • Revisiting the goaltending situation in Dallas, Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News addressed a reader’s question on the subject as part of a recent chat. Specifically, Heika was asked how much salary the Stars would need to retain in order to facilitate a trade of one of Niemi or Lehtonen. Heika speculated that any team that would look to acquire either goalie would want Dallas to keep 50% of the player’s salary on their books. On the other hand, Heika says that GM Jim Nill doesn’t seem too keen on the idea and would rather hang on to the duo in the hope that one or both can rebuild value with solid 2016-17 performances. At this point it seems most likely that the Stars will at least open the season with Niemi and Lehtonen manning the net. But should they again scuffle and with plenty of teams perhaps willing to move a goalie prior to the 2017 expansion draft, Dallas could look to upgrade the position ahead of the trade deadline.

 

David Conte Possibly Headed To Las Vegas

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After adding a Director of Hockey Legal Affairs earlier today in Andrew Lugerner, the Las Vegas expansion team is now pursuing a much more veteran hockey voice. Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News is hearing that GM George McPhee is set to hire David Conte, a long-time scouting director.

Conte worked for 31 years in the New Jersey Devils organization, mostly under Lou Lamoriello (now the Toronto Maple Leafs’ GM), but was let go last year when Ray Shero took over. While Kennedy doesn’t say what role he would be filling for the the club, bringing in an uber-experienced hockey mind like Conte can never be a bad thing.

Conte, 67, has a solid draft record.  With picks like Bill Guerin (#5), Martin Brodeur (#20), Scott Niedermayer (#3), Brian Rolston (#11), Brendan Morrison (#39), Steve Sullivan (#233), Patrik Elias (#51), Scott Gomez (#27), Brian Gionta (#82) and many more elite NHLers being at least somewhat influenced by him, he’s proved that he can spot talent in a draft in the first few picks and in later rounds.  According to an NHL.com article from the time of his dismissal, he was also very influential in signing undrafted free agents John Madden and Brian Rafalski.

His detractors however, say that the game may have passed him by, as shown by his most recent draft record. Players from the Devils’ 2012, 2013, 2014 drafts have played in a total of two NHL games thus far, and only Damon Severson has played a full season from the 2011 group.

Whether the Vegas team is competitive right away is yet to be seen, and will rely heavily on who is available at next year’s expansion draft.  But with the team McPhee is building, they’ll at least have the potential for long-term success. Whether it comes, will be one of the biggest stories to watch over the next decade.

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