Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Expansion

Clayton Stoner Clears Waivers; Stays With Ducks

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

After placing Clayton Stoner on waivers this week, the Anaheim Ducks were hoping a team would take a shot at the veteran defender and take the entirety of his cap hit off their hands.  Instead, the 31-year old has cleared and will remain in camp according to Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register.

Stoner has become the odd man out in Anaheim after the development of their young defense corps, and is dead cap space for a team trying desperately to re-sign Hampus Lindholm and Rickard Rakell. The two young stars are still both without contracts as opening day approaches, with some believing that the team doesn’t have enough room to sign both to long-term deals.

The Anaheim blueline is very crowded even without Lindholm in camp however, as the team sent down two blue-chip prospects in Brandon Montour and Shea Theodore today. As discussed previously, the team will have to sort out the situation before next year’s expansion draft, or risk losing one of them for nothing.

Stoner for now will continue to skate in camp, and may perhaps find a spot on the team if Lindholm is not signed in time. More likely however, the veteran of 346 career NHL games will be buried in the AHL to save as much money as possible.

Red Wings Notes: Hicketts, Howard, Zetterberg, Kronwall

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Detroit Free Press’ Helene St. James pens an article about 20-year-old defenseman Joe Hicketts and his adjustment as he graduated from juniors and embarks on the newest stage of his career. Hicketts was a free agent pickup by Detroit in 2014, and though he has a smaller stature, Hicketts certainly feels that it works to his advantage:

“Being a smaller guy, you’re always going to have doubters. But if I can be physical and win those battles, it helps me and the team.”

Though Jeff Blashill has described him as a slower skater, Ansar Khan writes that Blashill also believes that Hicketts is a hockey player “through and through” and must be willing to have “statement” games every time he laces up the skates. Hicketts will be assigned to Grand Rapids once exhibition games cease, but for Hicketts, whose childhood dream was to be a hockey player, just going out and having fun with the game he loves is how he will overcome the questions of his 5’8 frame and lack of speed.

In other Red Wings news:

  • St. James adds that goalie Jimmy Howard was slated to be in the net for the entirety of tonight’s contest against the Bruins. When asked about Howard, Blashilll had this to say:

“I spoke to Jimmy about two weeks ago.  I’m not going to discuss everything I talked with him about in terms of his role, but the one thing I will tell you is that I said there’s no question that he is going to have an impact on our success this year.

Howard, of course, was the subject of trade rumors and beyond that, a likely candidate for being left unprotected for the upcoming expansion draft next summer. Though it’s an expensive tandem with Petr Mrazek, Howard was instrumental last season in picking up the club when Mrazek struggled.

  • Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News tweets that Blashill believes captain Henrik Zetterberg and defenseman Niklas Kronwall could skate on Tuesday. Zetterberg’s availability has been a source of uncertainty because of a knee injury. Kronwall has suffered through his own knee issue that has lingered on and would threaten his career if he chose to have surgery. Zetterberg is expected to move to the wing this season while Kronwall will most likely see his minutes reduced as a result of the knee problem.

Snapshots: Fleury, McDavid, Oilers Training Camp Battles

at CDT | by 1 Comment

If he had it his way, Marc-Andre Fleury would spend the rest of his career in Pittsburgh.

The first overall pick in 2003 has been with the Penguins his whole career, winning two Stanley Cups. However, there are two major roadblocks to Fleury’s wish: next summer’s expansion draft and teammate/ heir apparent Matt Murray.

The 31-year-old Fleury had an unbelievable season in 2015-16, winning 35 games and posting a 0.921 SV%. Unfortunately, he suffered a concussion towards the end of the season, which allowed Murray to take over the starters role on his way to the Penguins’ Stanley Cup victory.

In an interview with Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Fleury said both he and Murray give the Penguins a chance to win games, and “bottom line, that’s what matters. It doesn’t matter who’s in the net.”

Fleury said he met with management after last season and knows where he stands.

When asked if he would request a trade to get more starts, Fleury was emphatic, “No. No. No. I’ve always said this is like my home. I wish I could play here my whole career.”

With next summer’s expansion draft looming, the Penguins will only be able to protect one goaltender. It seems unlikely they would chose Fleury at the expense of the 22-year-old Murray. Fleury has a no-move clause and will need to be protected by his team, unless he chooses to waive it. The Penguins may ask him to move before then, to avoid losing him for nothing, but Fleury isn’t thinking about that, telling Bombulie he plans on going with the flow, and that he’ll “see what happens”

In other news from around the hockey world:

  • Team North America coach Todd McLellan isn’t worried about Connor McDavid going pointless in the World Cup preliminaries. According to TSN’s Frank Seravelli, McLellan thinks McDavid needs to be more selfish, comparing it to McDavid’s first three games in the NHL, where he was “asking for permission” while he was feeling out the style of play.
  • Back in Edmonton, the Oilers expect college free agent Drake Caggiula to contend for a forward position to start the season, according to Bob McKenzie (via Chris Nichols). The smaller Caggiula models his game after Bruins star Brad Marchand: pesky, fast, and skilled.
  • The Edmonton Journal’s David Staples has a new article on Oilers camp invite Kris Versteeg. Staples praised Versteeg as “the kind [of player] the team needs and has sorely lacked”, calling him an “excellent bet”. Versteeg has played with Milan Lucic, trained with Brandon Davidson, and played for GM Peter Chiarelli. He cited McDavid, Rogers Place, and playing close to home as reasons for picking the Oilers over other teams who offered PTOs.

Snapshots: Vegas Name, Concussion Protocol, Cowen Hearing

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Las Vegas something Knights.

What that something will be has yet to be announced, but owner Bill Foley confirmed on Friday that will be the basis for the team’s name. Foley appeared on Brian Blessing’s Sportsbook Radio show on Friday. According to Blessing, the team and league are still fine-tuning the logo, but the name and colors have been chosen.

Throughout the last couple weeks, Foley has trademarked several team nicknames, though he admitted they were a “ruse” to “irritate” people. It’s been long speculated that Foley wanted the team to be nicknamed the Knights, but trademark issues with the OHL’s London Knights will likely squash that.

The Las Vegas something Knights will make their NHL debut for the 2017-18 season.

Elsewhere in the hockey world:

  • Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman has an new piece up on sportsnet.ca about some changes coming to the NHL’s concussion protocol. Currently, team-affiliated “spotters” are responsible for noting if players have sustained a traumatic injury and are supposed to pull the player off the bench to a quiet room for further evaluation. However, there has been some debate that the spotters aren’t always doing their jobs properly. Now, Friedman reports, there will be four independent spotters watching all games on television. Should they see any visible signs of a concussion, they will notify the team that their player must be pulled from the game for observation. The in-house spotters will remain in each arena. According to Friedman, the full protocol will be revealed shortly before the start of the regular season.
  • Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun reported that a resolution between the Maple Leafs and Jared Cowen won’t come for another month. Horby tweeted that the hearing will not take place until early or mid October. The Leafs acquired Cowen in the Dion Phaneuf trade back in February, mainly because of a quirk in his contract that would give the Leafs a salary cap credit if he’s bought out. Cowen underwent surgery after the season on doctor’s orders, and claims he is still injured and therefore ineligible to be bought out. Cowen is entering the final year of his contract, which pays him $3.1MM per season.

Snapshots: Quebec Expansion, Roy, Radulov, Trouba

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

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

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

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

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

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

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

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

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

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

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

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.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

scroll to top