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Snapshots: DeBrincat, Brown, Anisimov, Chlapik

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In a head scratching move, the United States left Alex DeBrincat and Logan Brown off its world juniors roster today. NBC’s Jason Brough writes that Brown’s removal may be due to a lingering wrist injury. Regardless of that injury, Brown has racked up 21 points (8-13) in 15 games for the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires. DeBrincat’s omission is more of a mystery. The 19-year-old second round selection in 2016 has been torching the OHL as a member of the Erie Otters, notching 30 goals and 30 assists in just 28 games. Craig Custance wonders if being a right hand shot hurt his chances, but even that seems an odd reason to leave off the young scorer. DeBrincat leads the OHL in goals and is second in total points–behind teammate Taylor Raddysh–who is expected to be on the Canadian roster.

  • The Blackhawks have placed Artem Anisimov on the injured reserve writes Mark Lazerus and have called up Tanner Kero in his place. The move enables Anisimov to gain more rest as he was already out for the Blackhawks 4-3 loss to Ottawa Tuesday night. Anisimov has 27 points (14-13) in as many games this season with the Hawks. Kero, meanwhile, is Rockford’s leading scorer and should see ice time with both Anisimov and Marian Hossa likely out for tomorrow’s tilt against Colorado.
  • The Senators have inked center Filip Chlapik to an entry level deal. Chlapik currently plays on the Charlottetown Islanders, where he is the leading scorer with 44 points (20-24). Chlapik also set an Islanders record by recording a point in his first 21 games. A second round selection in the 2015 draft, he will also be representing the Czech Republic in the World Junior Championships starting December 26.

Islanders Sign Stephen Gionta

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The New York Islanders announced today that they have signed veteran forward Stephen Gionta to a one-year, two-way contract. Gionta had been playing on an AHL contract with the Islanders’ affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, but will now have a shot at getting back to regular NHL minutes. New York has recalled Gionta following the finalization of his new deal.

Gionta’s relationship with the Islanders began way back in August, when the small, shifty center agreed to a professional tryout with the team. While playing a preseason game in September, Gionta broke his foot and was released from his PTO with an injury settlement. Following his recovery, Gionta inked a minor-league deal with the Tigers to get back in to playing condition. In seven games in Bridgeport, Gionta had just one goal and two assists, but did enough to show the Islanders brass watching that he was back to health and ready to contribute at the highest level.

The younger sibling of Brian Gionta, Stephen followed in his brother’s footsteps and played college hockey at Boston College. While Brian, a third-round pick of the New Jersey Devils in 1998, was busy leading the Devils throughout the mid-2000’s, Stephen signed with the club out of college and began working his way toward the NHL. After Brian left to sign with Montreal Canadiens in 2009, Stephen was able to fill one of the holes up front left, in part, by his departure in 2010-11. However, Gionta didn’t fully take over as a starter in New Jersey until 2013-14. Gionta scored 50 points in 270 games over parts of six seasons with the Devils, but will be remembered by fans for his dominance at the AHL level more, where he was the Lowell Devils all-time leader in games played and then the inaugural captain of the re-located Albany Devils. Capable of mentoring young players at the AHL level while also contributing in all aspects of the game at the NHL level, Gionta is a savvy signing by the Islanders.

Snapshots: Three Stars, World Junior Captains, Iginla

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The NHL has named Artemi Panarin, Henrik Lundqvist, and Eric Staal as its Three Stars of the Week.

Panarin had three goals and seven assists for 10 points in four games. He bookended two thee-point performances with a pair of two-point nights as the Blackhawks continued their five-game winning streak. Panarin now has 34 points in 34 games this season

This week marks the second consecutive week with a New York Rangers goaltender as the second star. Last week, Antti Raanta was the second star as he temporarily took over the starting role from Lundqvist, but now the man they call The King has taken back over. Lundqvist went 3-0-0 and allowed just three goals to go with his 0.967 SV%. He and Raanta combined for a shutout when Lundqvist was forced to leave a game after being run over by Cody Eakin (for which he was suspended).

Staal had four goals and five points in three games as part of a 3-0-0 week. The Wild have now won seven straight and Staal is leading the team in goals, assists, and points; he has 24 points in 30 games in his first year in Minnesota.

  • Hockey Canada has named its leadership core for the upcoming World Junior Championships. Arizona Coyotes prospect Dylan Strome will wear the C for Canada, while Mathew Barzal and Thomas Chabot will serve as alternate captains. All three players played for Canada at last year’s tournament and appeared in the NHL at the start of the season. While they combined for just 10 games and one assist in the NHL, all three are 2015 first-round picks and dominant CHL players. Strome has 295 points in 191 games with the Erie Otters; Islanders sixteenth-overall pick Barzal has 281 points in 174 games with the Seattle Thunderbirds; Chabot, a defenseman picked eighteenth overall by Ottawa, has 128 points in 182 games with the Saint John Sea Dogs.
  • The Vancouver Canucks most recent first-round pick, Olli Juolevi has been named captain of Team Finland. Juolevi had nine assists in seven games in last year’s tournament, as Finland won gold. So far, Juolevi has 21 points in 26 games with the London Knights.
  • Today marks 21 years since the Calgary Flames acquired Jarome Iginla from the Dallas Stars for Joe Nieuwendyk. The trade worked out pretty well for both teams: the Stars won the Stanley Cup four years later with Nieuwendyk playing a key role, and Iginla became the face of the Flames franchise. Nieuwendyk was in the prime of his career, while Iginla was an eleventh-overall pick playing for the Kamloops Blazers. Amalie Benjamin of NHL.com tweeted that Iginla initially thought he had been traded to the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen. After turning pro, Iginla scored 1095 points in 16 years with the Flames, leading them to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2004. He’s bounced around between Pittsburgh, Boston, and Colorado in the four years since he was traded. Iginla could be on the move again this year, as the Avalanche are one of the worst teams in the NHL and he could want to go to a contender for the end of his career.

Snapshots: Crawford, Tavares, Lucic

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The Chicago Blackhawks could be getting a nice early Christmas gift on Friday night.

Despite having an appendectomy just two weeks ago, Corey Crawford has progressed enough in his recovery that he may start on Friday night against the Colorado Avalanche. Coach Joel Quenneville told Chris Hine that he would like to see Crawford get in a full practice before returning to the lineup.

The Blackhawks are off on Monday after playing back-to-back on the weekend, however Crawford will skate on his own. Backup Scott Darling has played the majority of games since Crawford has been out, including both games over the weekend. Darling is 6-2-1 since taking over from Crawford, which includes his current five-game winning streak.

  • Glen Schiller and Jamie McLennan on TSN’s That’s Hockey 2Nite discussed if there is any reason why John Tavares would want to re-sign with the Islanders. The Islanders have been “a mess” this year, following up a 100-point season with a 74-point pace. With the Metropolitan Division being the best division in hockey this year, there’s essentially no way the Islanders can climb back into the playoff picture without a 15-game winning streak. McLennan points to the free agency departure of Kyle Okposo, who had great chemistry with Tavares, and the struggles of his replacement, Andrew Ladd. Both players signed for similar contracts, but the Islanders chose the older player with no history with their superstar over the younger, right-handed player with years of success on Tavares’ wing. Tavares, McLennan argues, must be wondering who he would play with consistently and could look forward to playing with years from now if he signed an eight-year contract.
  • Over at OilersNation, Jonathan Willis wonders why the Oilers have not tried separating Milan Lucic and Connor McDavid to boost McDavid’s scoring. While he’s still leading the NHL in scoring by two points with 39 points in 33 games, he has just one even-strength assist in his last eight games. Lucic has just one goal in nine games this month. Despite Lucic’s struggles, the only changes made on the top line have been on the right side. Jesse Puljujärvi, Drake Caggiula, Jordan Eberle, Tyler Pitlick, and Leon Draisaitl have all had time with Lucic and McDavid, with varying degrees of success. Willis suggests moving Lucic to play with Draisaitl on the second line and bumping one of Benoit Pouliot or Patrick Maroon up to the top line; Willis points to chemistry between Draisaitl and Lucic and the dramatically better scoring numbers of when playing with McDavid as evidence of the merit of his suggestion.

Injury Notes: Green, Cizikas, Huberdeau

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After taking a late hit from the Anaheim Ducks’ Ryan Kesler as the game was ending last night, Red Wings’ defenseman Mike Green is “probably day to day” according to GM Ken Holland (via Brendan Savage of MLive). While the team is taking the day off, they’ll know more about his condition on Monday. The Red Wings won the game on the back of Tomas Tatar’s first career hat trick, and Green logged his normal heavy workload. The veteran defender has 18 points in 32 games this season and is on pace for another solid year. With 413 points in 681 games, Green has been one of the most consistent offensive producers from the back end over the last decade, though he hasn’t suited up for 80+ games since 2007-08. Injuries seem to find him, and we’ll keep an eye on his status heading into Monday’s matchup against the Carolina Hurricanes.

  • The Islanders announced today that Casey Cizikas will be out for a while, as he’s unable to even skate yet. The 25-year old center missed the Islanders’ last game with an upper-body injury, and it’s unclear if he’ll be back before the Christmas break. Cizikas has taken on a larger role with the team this season due to their lack of depth down the middle, playing over 14 minutes a night. With 13 points in 29 games, he was well on his way to a career year before the injury – his previous being 29 last season.  In his absence, Brock Nelson moved back to center and Anders Lee moved up to the top line. Cal Clutterbuck, a longtime winger of Cizikas, was skating alongside Ryan Strome.
  • Down in Florida, the return of Jonathan Huberdeau is inching closer and closer. Harvey Filakov of the Sun Sentinel tweeted out some photos of the young forward skating by himself today as the Panthers took the day off from the ice. Huberdeau has missed the entire season so far with a leg injury, after putting up a career high 20 goals and 59 points last season. As Florida struggles to a 14-13-5 record, they’ll welcome Huberdeau back with open arms and expect the former 3rd overall pick to help them push for a playoff spot down the stretch. The team could really use him, as they currently rank 23rd in goals for.

Snapshots: Sabres, McDavid, Meier, Burakovsy

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The Buffalo Sabres will be getting back a defenseman soon.

NHL Buffalo correspondent Joe Yerdon reported that one Sabres coach Dan Bylsma expects one of Zach Bogosian or Taylor Fedun to travel with the team on their upcoming road trip. Meanwhile, injured forward Tyler Ennis is skating on his own as he makes his way back from groin surgery. Bogosian and Ennis have been out since early November, while Fedun has been out since the beginning of December.

The Sabres host the New York Islanders on Friday night, so new Sabres winger Kyle Okposo will face his former team for the first time after nine years on Long Island/ Brooklyn. Okposo leads the Sabres in scoring with 21 points in 29 games, while his replacement on the Islanders, Andrew Ladd, has just seven points in that stretch. Okposo’s 21 points would rank second on the Islanders, behind only John Tavares.

  • Edmonton Oilers center and budding superstar Connor McDavid should win the Hart Trophy, argues Ryan Lambert of Puck Daddy. Lambert took a look at the Oilers advanced stats with McDavid on the ice compared to when he’s not on the ice, and it isn’t pretty: when McDavid isn’t on the ice, the Oilers are in the bottom-half in every category for each stat for all teams from 2007-2016, but jump to mostly the top end (including some NHL bests) when McDavid is on the ice. Lambert compares McDavid’s affect to that of Taylor Hall’s tenure in Edmonton, in that the Oilers are awful without but the player is so strong that he lifts them to respectability. David Staples of the Edmonton Journal suggests that the Oilers need Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle to “twist the throttle harder” in order to boost their scoring numbers. Eberle has 23 points in 32 games but could have more, having missed some glorious opportunities while being set up by McDavid; Nugent-Hopkins has struggled with a 5.7% shooting percentage and 15 points in 32 game. More was expected from the pair of $6MM men to help mitigate the loss of Hall.
  • San Jose Sharks rookie Timo Meier will play his first NHL game on Friday night in Montreal, according to lineups posted by TSN 690’s Amanda Stein. Meier, who played junior in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, has 15 points in 17 games in the AHL so far this season. He was the Sharks’ first pick, ninth overall, in the 2015 NHL draft.
  • The Washington Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan reports that the Capitals have no timetable for getting Andre Burakovsky back into the lineup. Burakovsky was a healthy scratch in the Capital’s last game, a 4-2 win over the Islanders. He has just two goals and 10 points in 28 games this season.

Islanders Notes: Defensive Struggles, Beauvillier, Goaltending

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The New York Islanders find themselves near the top of the league in shots allowed at 32.6 per game; only Arizona (35.5) allows more.  As Newsday’s Arthur Staple notes in a reader mailbag, their struggles in that area appear to stem from a systems change designed to compensate for some struggles in their transition game.

The Isles are coached to allow a bit more possession in their back end but strive to allow more shots from the outside as a trade-off.  Unfortunately, they’ve struggled when it comes to retrieving the puck and as a result, they’ve taken a beating in the overall possession game which is one of the reasons for their slow start to the season.

One defense pairing in particular who hasn’t thrived under the changes is their expected top duo of Nick Leddy and Travis Hamonic.  Both players have struggled considerably in their own end but Staple points out that the coaches are pleased with the other pairs which is why they haven’t been split up yet; they worry about doing more harm than good if they change things up.

Given that the Metropolitan Division has quickly become the hottest in hockey and that they find themselves at the bottom, they may soon have to take the risk of changing things up on the back end in the hopes that doing so can take some of the pressure off their goaltending.

More news from the Islanders:

  • While some have speculated that rookie forward Anthony Beauvillier could potentially be loaned for the upcoming World Juniors, that won’t be the case, reports TSN’s Bob McKenzie (Twitter links). The 19 year old has seven points in 20 games this season but has been a healthy scratch more often as of late, suiting up just twice this month.  Beauvillier is expected to sit tonight against Chicago, adds Brian Erni of IslandersPointBlank.
  • The goaltending situation continues to be a strange one, as Erni along with Andy Graziano debate in a separate column. Jaroslav Halak has a below average goals against average and save percentage while Thomas Greiss is much better in both categories.  However, Halak has seen the bulk of the action so far.  Part of that is likely due to the fact he has been on the trade block for a while now but with the team quickly falling out of the playoff hunt, it would be understandable if they opted to go with the hotter hand.  Further complicating things is Jean-Francois Berube, the third string netminder who has played all of six minutes this year.  Graziano notes that if he doesn’t reach 30 appearances this year (highly unlikely at this point), Berube becomes eligible for unrestricted free agency so if they want to keep his RFA rights, they need to play him a lot more as well.

PTO Checkup

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During the offseason NHL teams extended a total of 194 professional tryouts (PTOs) to players trying to earn a professional contract for the upcoming season. Of those 194 players, only eleven earned a permanent NHL/AHL contract. Those lucky 5% have had varied success this season, and this article looks at how those players have fared so far.

Steve Bernier: New York Islanders
Steve Bernier failed to garner a contract on his PTO right away, but the New York Islanders signed him to a one-year, two-way deal on October 24, 2016. The contract pays him $600K (NHL) / $200K (AHL). Bernier has remained with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers—the Islanders’ AHL affiliate—all season, posting 8G and 5A in 15 games.

Gabriel Bourque: Colorado Avalanche
Gabriel Bourque signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Colorado Avalance worth $800K (NHL) / $200K (AHL). The 26 year-old forward has split time with the Avalanche and its AHL affiliate San Antonio Rampage this season. Bourque has failed to register a point with Colorado, but has 3G and 5A in 16 games for San Antonio

Rene Bourque: Colorado Avalanche
Rene Bourque signed a one-year, one-way deal with the Colorado Avalanche worth $650K. Bourque has impressed so far, scoring 8G and 3A in 11 games for the Avalanche. He’s already surpasses last years totals (3G and 5A in 49 games) and could come closer to regaining his prior form.

Justin Fontaine: New York Rangers
Justin Fontaine signed a one-year, two-way deal with the New York Rangers worth $600K (NHL) / $300K (AHL) after failing to earn a contract with the Minnesota Wild. The 29 year-old forward remains in the AHL so far this season and has racked up 3G and 8A in 21 games for the Hartford Wolf Pack.

Nicklas Grossmann: Orebro HK (SHL)
Nicklas Grossmann initially signed a one-year, one-way contract with the Calgary Flames for $575K. The Swedish defenseman lasted three games before the Flames attempted to demote him to the AHL Stockton Heat. Grossmann, however, did not report to Stockton, so Calgary terminated his contract. Grossman failed to register a point in those three games with the Flames.

Eric Gryba: Edmonton Oilers
Eric Gryba signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Edmonton Oilers worth $950K (NHL) / $250K (AHL). The move has not yet panned out as Gryba remains pointless through 14 games. The Oilers placed Gryba on IR on November 30th, and the defenseman is reportly nearing a return. While Gryba was never an offensive defenseman, the Oilers do expect more from him and could send him down if he doesn’t improve when he returns.

Lauri Korpikoski: Dallas Stars
Lauri Korpikoski signed a one-year, one-way contract with the Dallas Stars worth $1MM after failing to sign with the Calgary Flames—the team that initially offered Korpikoski a PTO. In 29 games for the Stars, Korpikoski has 4G and 5A, which is respectable but nothing noteworthy. He’ll have to improve if he wants to stay in the lineup after all the Stars’ injured players return.

Tom McCollum: Calgary Flames
Tom McCollum signed a two-year, two-way deal with the Calgary Flames worth $575K and $650K in the NHL and $175K and $200K in the AHL. Despite the two-year deal, however, McCollum has seen little action. The former first rounder has played 1 game in the AHL with the Stockton Heat and 3 games in the ECHL with the Adirondack Thunder.

Devin Setoguchi: Los Angeles Kings
Devin Setoguchi returned to the NHL this year with the Los Angeles Kings on a one-year, two-way deal worth $575K (NHL) / $45K (AHL). The former eighth overall pick has 3G and 4A in 24 games. Setoguci returns after playing in Switzerland for a year, and is still looking to regain his scoring touch with the Kings.

Jack Skille: Vancouver Canucks
Jack Skille signed a one-year, one-way deal with the Vancouver Canucks worth $700K. In 22 games this season Skille has 3G and 1A and plays less than nine minutes a night. Skille has never lived up to his draft position—7th overall in 2005—and has bounced around the league ever since.

Kris Versteeg: Calgary Flames
Kris Versteeg signed a one-year deal with the Calgary Flames worth $950K after failing to maintain a contract with both SC Bern (Swiss) and the Edmonton Oilers. Versteeg’s SC Bern contract was voided when Versteeg failed his medical exam. In 19 games with the Flames, however, Versteeg has 4G and 7A. So far the signing seems to have paid off for Calgary.

Comparative Standings: One Year Ago

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With the first third of the season completed for all but Columbus (who have amazingly played just 26 games, six fewer than the Winnipeg Jets), there have been some huge swings from a year ago.

Those Blue Jackets are the league’s most improved team, with a staggering 18 more points through 26 games than last season. Their huge swing is only matched by the Dallas Stars equally amazing drop-off of 18 points the other way. The Jackets can attest their improvement to the development of young players like Zach Werenski and Alexander Wennberg, while the Stars have seen a litany of injuries to their star players including Jason Spezza, Patrick Sharp and Johnny Oduya.

The Central Division as a whole is off to a slower start this year, with only the Chicago Blackhawks bettering their 2015-16 record. The Colorado Avalanche, expected to take a step forward with their young core has suffered the exact same fate with 23 points through 27 games.

The two biggest Canadian rebuild stories, Edmonton and Toronto have both improved, though not as largely as the fan bases in each city might have you believe. Four points for the Maple Leafs and five for the Oilers lend credence to the idea that it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish that counts. Though both franchises have a lot to look forward to, keeping up an advanced pace for an entire season is extremely difficult. The two teams finished last season with just 69 and 70 points respectively.

Below are the current standings. In parenthesis is the difference in points through the same amount of games last year.

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Notable Major Junior Trades From Recent History

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We reported yesterday that Pierre-Luc Dubois, the 2016 third-overall pick, is about to be traded from the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles to Blainville-Boisbriand Armada when the QMJHL trading period opens on December 18.

While the Screaming Eagles’ return on Dubois won’t be known until that date when the trade goes through, let’s take a look at the most recent top-five picks to be traded in junior:

John Tavares – Tavares was the first player to be granted exceptional status by the OHL; in fact, the rule was colloquially known as the John Tavares Rule for years afterward. Tavares is a little different from the rest of the players on this list, in that he was traded during his draft year, as opposed to after. On January 8, 2009, the Oshawa Generals (who will appear a few more times in this list) traded Tavares, future NHL defenseman Michael Del Zotto, and goaltender Daryl Borden to the London Knights for winger Christian Thomas, defenseman Scott Valentine, goaltender Michael Zador, and six draft picks. Tavares and Del Zotto were rentals who went on to play in the NHL the following seasons, while Borden played three games with the Knights before ending up in senior hockey. Thomas scored 246 points in 212 games with the Generals before turning pro. He’s appeared in 27 NHL games with three points to his name, and 241 AHL games with 125 points. He’s currently a member of the Hershey Bears. Valentine played out his uneventful CHL career in Oshawa and then bounced around North American pro leagues before heading to Europe. Zador is now retired.

Brayden Schenn – The younger Schenn brother was traded while he was playing for Canada at the 2011 World Juniors. The Los Angeles Kings 2009 fifth-overall pick was traded from the Brandon Wheat Kings to the Saskatoon Blades, who were gearing up for a playoff run. Schenn had played just two games that season prior to the WJC due to injury. Schenn was fantastic for the Blades, scoring 53 points in 27 games and another 11 points in 10 playoff games. The Wheat Kings received four draft picks (two first round picks) and two 15-year-old prospects, Tim McGauley and Ayrton Nikkel. Nikkel is now playing Canadian University hockey, while McGauley was actually a member of the Wheat Kings until last year; he’s now on the AHL Hershey Bears roster.

Leon Draisaitl – The Oilers selected Draisaitl third overall in 2014 with high expectations for “The German Gretzky.” Draisaitl had earned that nickname while playing German junior where he scored a ridiculous 192 points in 29 games. He then came to the WHL, where he scored 163 points 128 games before being drafted. With only two actual NHL centers (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Boyd Gordon) on the roster, Draisaitl made the Oilers out of training camp despite not showing he was ready. He played 37 games with the Oilers, scoring just 2 goals and 9 points before Oilers GM Craig MacTavish orchestrated a trade of Draisaitl’s rights in the WHL. The Memorial Cup-bound Kelowna Rockets acquired Draisaitl from the Prince Albert Raiders for forward Kris Schmidli, defenceman Dalton Yorke and three draft picks. Neither player did much for the Raiders, while Draisaitl scored 53 points in 32 games for the Rockets and was named the MVP of the Memorial Cup, which the Rockets lost to the aforementioned Oshawa Generals in overtime.

Michael Dal Colle – The Islanders’ fifth-overall pick in 2014, Dal Colle had three productive seasons in Oshawa before struggling in his second season, post-draft. Dal Colle was not picked by Canada for the World Juniors and fought with injuries. He had 25 points in 30 games before the Generals traded him on New Years’ Day 2016. The Kingston Frontenacs traded Robbie Burt, a first round pick, two seconds, and two thirds for the Generals captain Dal Colle. The ’99 born Burt has just 12 points in 56 games, and is not ranked by Central Scouting for the upcoming draft. Dal Colle turned it on in Kingston, scoring 55 points in 30 games and is now playing in the AHL, where he has 11 points in 24 games.

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