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2022 Vezina Finalists Announced

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Over the next week, the NHL will be releasing the finalists for all of the major regular season awards. After yesterday’s Norris announcement, next up is the Vezina Trophy, which is given to the best goaltender in the NHL and is voted on by the league’s general managers.

This year’s finalists are Jacob Markstrom of the Calgary Flames, Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers, and Juuse Saros of the Nashville Predators.

Markstrom, 32, is a finalist for the first time, following his best and most consistent season to date. Appearing in 63 games for the Pacific Division-winning Flames, the big netminder won 37 games, posted a .922 save percentage, and led the league with nine shutouts. The backbone for his team all season long, Markstrom was a huge part of the stingy Flames team that turned from a high-flying circus into a controlled, defensive team under head coach Darryl Sutter.

Shesterkin, 26, is the odds-on favorite to win the award, despite his recent struggles in the playoffs. The Rangers would have been absolutely lost without him this season, and he led the league in both save percentage and person goals-against average. That .935 mark was ten points higher than his nearest competitor and raised Shesterkin’s career number to something of legends. Among goaltenders with at least 100 NHL appearances (he has exactly that), his .928 career save percentage is well ahead of Dominik Hasek’s .922 for first place. It will obviously be hard to maintain that over a whole career, but the Russian netminder is off to a historic start.

Saros meanwhile shouldn’t be forgotten. The 27-year-old netminder appeared in 67 games for the Predators, more than any other goaltender in the league, despite being injured in the final week. Last year’s sixth-place finisher, he posted a strong .918 save percentage and dragged Nashville into a playoff spot. One of the smallest goaltenders in the league at 5’11”, Saros continues to show why the Predators were so excited about his development even when they still had Pekka Rinne in place as the starter. Since his rookie season in 2016-17, Saros hasn’t posted a save percentage under .914 and now has a career mark of .920 in 222 appearances, good for seventh on the all-time list.

2022 Norris Trophy Finalists Announced

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The NHL has started to release their award finalists, this time announcing the three nominees for the Norris Trophy. The award is given out to the top defenseman “who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position.” Last year’s winner was Adam Fox of the New York Rangers, but he won’t be defending his title this time around.

This year’s finalists are Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators, Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche, and Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Josi, winner of the award in 2020, nearly reached an unfathomable offensive level this season when he scored 23 goals and 96 points for the Predators. He became the highest-scoring defenseman in nearly three decades and joined a group of Hall of Fame defensemen with at least 96 points in a single season. Only Bobby Orr, Paul Coffey, Al MacInnis, Brian Leetch, Denis Potvin, Phil Housley, and Ray Bourque have ever reached those heights previously, nearly a Mount Rushmore of offensive NHL defensemen. It is the second time he has been named a finalist, following his win two years ago.

Makar, still just 23 years old, has now been a finalist in back-to-back seasons after finishing second in voting last year. The Avalanche phenom led all defensemen with 28 goals and racked up 86 points, pushing his career total just over a point-per-game through three seasons. It’s hard to fathom the ceiling for the 2017 fourth-overall pick, who also took strides defensively this year and once again was one of the most valuable players in the league by many metrics. Makar averaged nearly 26 minutes a game and set highs in more traditional defensive statistics like +/- (+48), blocks (110), and hits (95).

Hedman is probably used to this by now, after being a finalist in each of the last five seasons previous. He won the award in 2018, a season that paled in comparison (at least offensively) to this year. The big Tampa Bay blueliner racked up his first 20-goal season and pied on a career-best 85 points, while playing in all 82 games for the first time in his 13-year career. Averaging more than 25 minutes a night in all situations, Hedman is carving out a career that will have him considered among the very best the game has ever produced when it is all said and done.

Tomorrow, the award announcements will continue with the three finalists for the Vezina Trophy.

Juuse Saros Remains Out For Game 4

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Nashville Predators star goaltender Juuse Saros will remain out of the lineup as the Predators look to avoid a sweep tomorrow, per head coach John Hynes. The team will likely continue to roll with Connor Ingram in the net with veteran David Rittich backing him up.

Hynes noted during his availability this morning that Saros is skating now as he recovers from a lower-body injury, but his activities are still limited. Ingram has performed admirably in a tough situation, putting up a .919 save percentage in two starts (three appearances). While Saros could likely amass somewhat better numbers, the Avalanche have hemmed the Predators at every turn and look to be the only team to sweep their way into the Second Round.

Snapshots: Scheifele, Sharks, Kuzmenko

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Despite some ominous comments earlier in the week, it turns out that Winnipeg Jets star Mark Scheifele did not request a trade in his exit interview with GM Kevin Cheveldayoff, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Schiefele had expressed concern over the direction of the team after the Jets missed the playoffs this season, which raised some eyebrows in the media and across the league. Scheifele is signed through the next two seasons, so if he was unhappy enough with the situation, he would have had to request a trade, which likely would have occurred during his exit interview this week. Instead, the situation remains status quo in Winnipeg, at least for now. If the Jets, who have a lot of money tied up in long-term contracts, cannot find a way to improve the roster within their salary cap restrictions early this offseason, Scheifele’s position could change. The 29-year-old center has the ability and the contract to draw immense interest if he does hit the trade block this summer.

  • Friedman notes that another team who could be in the star trading business this offseason are the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks reportedly held preliminary trade discussions with multiple teams this season regarding Erik Karlsson, and those talks could continue over the summer. The Sharks need to first name a new general manager, for which a search is ongoing, but the expectation is that whoever the team hires will be directed to retool rather than rebuild. In order to get more competitive sooner rather than later, the Sharks need to add more high-end depth to their lineup and need more cap space to do so. Moving all or even part of Karlsson’s five remaining years at $11.5MM would help immensely and the trade return wouldn’t hurt either. However, is it realistic to expect the Sharks to find a team both willing and able to add Karlsson? Friedman suggests that Brent Burns, who has three years remaining at $8MM, might be easier to move and would still accomplish the task of redistributing a mass amount of cap space from the right side of the blue line to be used elsewhere in the lineup. The Sharks are also expected to evaluate their options with Marc-Edouard Vlasic this offseason, whose remaining four years at $7MM could prove impossible to move but could be bought out instead.
  • While the Jets and the Sharks will be looking for outside-the-box ways to improve this summer, neither team appears to be in the race for KHL free agent Andrei Kuzmenko. Friedman lists the Carolina Hurricanes, Edmonton Oilers, Nashville Predators, Vancouver Canucks, and Vegas Golden Knights as the finalists for the Russian winger’s services. Kuzmenko, 26, initially drew interest from at least 20 NHL teams, but now that his KHL contract has expired as of May 1 and he has begun actual negotiations, the list has been trimmed considerably. Kuzmenko is coming off of a career year in the KHL, recording 20 goals and 53 points in 45 games for SKA St. Petersburg, plus another 14 points in 16 playoff games. While he would be brand new to the NHL and his international experience is somewhat limited as well, Kuzmenko could be an affordable impact forward right away next season.

Predators Recall Cody Glass

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  • The Predators have recalled center Cody Glass from AHL Milwaukee, putting the 23-year-old in the lineup for their third game against Colorado. Glass had a strong showing with the Admirals, picking up 62 points in 68 games while finishing fifth in the league in assists with 48.  However, that hasn’t translated to much success in his limited action with Nashville as he had just one assist in eight regular season games.

West Notes: Saros, Canucks Scouts, Kuzmenko

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While it was previously reported that there was some hope that injured Nashville Predators starting goaltender Juuse Saros would be able to play after the first two games of his team’s first-round series against the Colorado Avalanche, it seems that timeline may have been a bit optimistic. Today, Predators coach John Hynes announced that Saros would not be playing in game three and that rookie Connor Ingram will retain the starter’s crease. After a brutal overtime loss last night, the Predators have a crucial home contest on Saturday as they try to fight their way back into the series.

While this news is undoubtedly unfortunate for the Predators given their increasingly dire situation and Saros’ brilliance this year, there is one wrinkle to this storyline that could prove to be a positive for Nashville: the emergence of Ingram. The rookie started game 2 after season-long backup David Rittich’s game one implosion, and performed admirably. Ingram made some spectacular saves and finished with 49 saves on 51 shots, nearly carrying the Predators to a miracle road victory. If Saros’ injury is what puts Ingram into the spotlight and he raises his stock leaguewide considerably, perhaps that can be some consolation to the Predators faithful.

Now, for some other notes from across the league:

  • It has been a season of much change for the Vancouver Canucks, and today there was some shuffling in their scouting department. Thomas Drance of The Athletic reported that the Canucks have parted ways with four members of their amateur scouting department: Derek Richard, Tim Lenardon, Brandon Benning, and Pat Conacher. The Vancouver Sun’s Patrick Johnston added a fifth name to the departures, reporting that Ted Hempson is also leaving the organization.  That’s a decent number of scouts to leave at one time, and this development supports the idea that this new Canucks front office is seeking deep, substantive changes to the organization.
  • The courting process has begun with highly-touted KHL free agent Andrei Kuzmenko, and the landscape regarding his suitors is starting to take shape. The Edmonton Journal’s Jim Matheson reported that Oilers GM Ken Holland “may have talked to [Kuzmenko] personally” and that the team is interested in the point-per-game KHL scorer. In addition to the Oilers, CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal reports that the Canucks interviewed Kuzmenko today, and that “there is good interest from both sides.” It was previously reported that as many as 20 teams could be actively interested in signing Kuzmenko, so it’s likely that reports like these concerning his recruitment process will continue to trickle in as the competition to secure his services heats up.

Nashville Predators Reassign Jeremy Davies

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The Nashville Predators announced that they have reassigned defenseman Jeremy Davies to the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL (link). Davies had been with Nashville since being recalled on March 26th, playing in four of his six NHL games this season in that span. No corresponding move has been announced.

The 25-year-old defenseman spent a majority of this season with Milwaukee in the AHL, playing in 54 games, tallying six goals and 25 assists. The bulk of Davies’ time in the NHL this season was spent on the taxi squad in January, drawing into one game, and after his March 26th call-up. Because Davies was in the AHL on March 21st, he is eligible to play for Milwaukee in the Calder Cup playoffs.

Milwaukee, the third seed in the AHL’s Central Division, will begin its quest for the Calder Cup on Friday as they take on the Manitoba Moose, the 2nd seed in the AHL’s Central Division. While Davies can certainly fill in if Nashville needed it, sending him to Milwaukee gives the AHL club one of its more important defenseman for its playoff run, one which could be rather valuable in terms of development for some of Nashville’s prospects.

Originally a seventh-round selection of the New Jersey Devils in 2016, Davies was a standout with the Bloomington Thunder of the USHL before heading to Northeastern University, where he would spend three seasons. The defenseman would turn pro by signing with New Jersey in the spring of 2019, but was quickly traded to Nashville in the trade that sent P.K. Subban to the Devils in June of 2019.

Juuso Parssinen Assigned To AHL

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The Nashville Predators may have found another late-round Finn that can help the organization. Juuso Parssinen has been assigned to the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL, after his season in Finland came to an end in the finals.

Parssinen, 21, was the 210th overall pick in 2019, just a handful of selections from the end of the draft. After all, he had played just seven games at the Liiga level to that point and hadn’t stood out in any of them. Things have changed now, as Parssinen has been one of the most consistent young playmakers in the league the last two years, racking up 74 points in 95 games.

It was his performance in these playoffs that really showed what he is now capable of though, as he added four goals and 12 points in 18 games for TPS. Signed to his entry-level contract last May, he’ll now join the Admirals for his first taste of North American hockey. The team will start the Calder Cup playoffs on Friday when they take on the Manitoba Moose.

Yaroslav Askarov Signs AHL Tryout

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The first sight of Yaroslav Askarov playing North American hockey appears to be right on the horizon, as the top prospect has signed a tryout contract with the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL. Askarov is arguably the top goaltending prospect in the world and recently completed his contract in the KHL.

Selected 11th overall in 2020 by the Nashville Predators, the 19-year-old netminder has a mixture of size and incredible athleticism that has routinely received comparisons to other Russian goaltenders like Sergei Bobrovsky and Andrei Vasilevskiy. If he comes even near the height that those two have reached at the NHL level, he’ll have been more than worth his selection near the top of the draft.

The fact that he has signed a contract with Milwaukee is great news for Predators fans, who hope to have Askarov in the organization as soon as possible. He will be eligible to play in the AHL playoffs which start on Friday for the Admirals, though that wouldn’t be the case if he signed his entry-level contract for the rest of 2021-22. He would then be ineligible to be sent to the minors, meaning an ELC starting in 2022-23 will likely follow at some point.

While there is still work to be done on his game–he appeared in just six KHL games this season and has struggled at times in other situations–Askarov’s ceiling is still sky-high, and getting him to North America is a huge step. It seems very likely that he will spend next season in the AHL, starting as many games as possible as Nashville gets to start directly controlling his development.

Those starts could come quickly, as usual Milwaukee netminder Connor Ingram is currently with the Nashville Predators filling in for Juuse Saros in their own playoff series.

Juuse Saros To Miss At Least First Two Games

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The Nashville Predators already had an incredibly daunting task ahead of them when they drew the Colorado Avalanche in the first round, but now it might seem an impossible task. Head coach John Hynes told reporters including Adam Vingan of The Athletic that Juuse Saros, injured in the last week of the season, will miss at least the first two games of the series. Saros is on the trip but it is not yet clear when he will be back for the Predators.

In his absence, Hynes explained that they are still discussing whether to start David Rittich or Connor Ingram in game one. A decision that might be easy for most teams that have a regular backup, the Predators are in a sort of a unique situation. No other team relied on their starter more heavily than Nashville, who had Saros start 67 games this season. Rittich posted an .886 save percentage in 17 appearances, while Ingram had a .879 in three. The series starts tomorrow night.

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