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Aaron Ekblad

Ekblad Practicing With Panthers

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Evidently the upper-body injury which prevented Aaron Ekblad from playing in either of Team North America’s final two games at the World Cup of Hockey is healing just fine. According to Alain Poupart, writing for the Panthers team site on NHL.com, Ekblad is back in Florida and was on the ice today doing some individual work.

Ekblad absorbed a hit from Team Finland’s Leo Komarov during North America’s first game of the round-robin portion of the tournament and was thought to have suffered a concussion as a result. However, it was later reported by Mark Spector of Sportsnet that was not the case and in fact was simply a neck injury.

The first overall selection in the 2014 draft, Ekblad is already one of the league’s best young defensemen and is a vital cog for Florida. He had a sensational debut campaign, scoring 12 goals and 39 points in 81 games and winning the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie for the 2014-15 season. Ekblad followed that up with an equally impressive sophomore year, potting 15 goals and assisting on 21 more.

The 20-year-old blue liner has been solid in his own end too with a plus-minus rating of +30 combined over his first two NHL seasons. Although plus-minus can be unreliable in gauging the quality of defensive play, Ekblad has performed well in the puck possession department, posting a career Corsi For % of 52.9% reinforcing the notion of Ekblad’s steady play in his own zone.

Snapshots: Panthers, Girardi, Tlusty

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Fresh off a team record 103-point season and just the franchise’s fifth playoff appearance, the Florida Panthers were not content to rest on their laurels. After a surprising front office shakeup highlighted by the promotions of Dale Tallon and Tom Rowe, to president of hockey operations and general manager respectively, the Panthers hit the ground running in the offseason. Looking to add puck-moving and skill to the team’s blue line, Florida dealt veteran stay-at-home defenseman Erik Gudbranson to Vancouver while acquiring Keith Yandle and Mark Pysyk in separate trades. They topped off the summer shopping spree by signing Jason Demers as a free agent.

With Jaromir Jagr, Reilly Smith, Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Aaron Ekblad all returning plus the club’s new additions, expectations have never been higher in the South Florida hockey market, as George Richards of the Miami Herald writes. The Panthers organization, from ownership on down is embracing those expectations.

Nick Bjugstad:

 “We all expect to win, have a winning mentality that has been introduced the past couple of years. Us younger guys have learned it’s not acceptable to miss the playoffs. That has been instilled by our veteran guys, our coaches, our organization. We’re all buying in. Everyone wants to win here, not just the players.”

Dale Tallon:
“We had our best season ever, so the guys are confident and aware. They feel good about themselves and know they can get to the next level.”
On paper the Panthers and Lightning would appear to be the two best bets to come out of the Atlantic Division and to challenge for the Eastern Conference crown. Nothing is certain, of course, until we see the actual product on the ice but it’s clear the Panthers are well under way to building a winning culture in South Florida.
Elsewhere in the NHL:
  • Prior to the 2015-16 campaign, New York Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi was known to be a reliable and steady defense-first blue liner on a team noted for being among the stingiest defensive clubs. The Blueshirts finished in the top five in goals allowed in each season from 2010-11 through 2014-15. Last season the club ranked 15th overall and the decline in play from Girardi and fellow defenseman Marc Staal attracted much of the blame for the drop-off. The question the Rangers had to ask themselves was whether Girardi’s regression was injury-related – he played much of the season with a cracked knee cap – or the result of years of wear-and-tear finally catching up. The team is banking on the former and Girardi himself is confident he will play at a much higher level in 2016-17, according to Steve Zipay of Newsday. The Rangers will need the 10-year vet to be much better this season if they plan to contend for a Stanley Cup.
  • Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar (via the team’s Twitter account) broke the news that Jiri Tlusty, recently inked to a PTO to attend camp with the club, had failed his physical. It’s unclear at this point what caused the veteran forward to flunk the physical but it could be related to the wrist  surgery he underwent in January. Obviously this is a setback for Tlusty, who coming off a disappointing season in New Jersey was likely facing an uphill battle to make Colorado’s roster. It’s feasible the two parties could look to renew the relationship once Tlusty is healthy or he could look to latch on somewhere else if the opportunity with the Avalanche closes.

Snapshots: Islanders, Las Vegas, Ekblad

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News and notes around the NHL tonight:

  • The New York Islanders hired former player Claude Loiselle as Hockey Operations Consultant today. Loiselle held the same position with the Arizona Coyotes last year. As a player, Loiselle netted 92G and 117A in 616 games for the Detroit Red Wings, New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs, Quebec Nordiques, and New York Islanders. He has also held numerous management positions around the NHL after retiring, including Assistant GM positions with the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Loiselle faced criticism during his Toronto stint, however, stemming from claims of cap mismanagement and responsibility for the much-maligned David Clarkson contract.
  • The Las Vegas NHL Expansion Team hired Vince Williams as a professional scout today. Normally scout hirings are not news, but the new Las Vegas team will have the almost-Herculean task of assembling a farm system from scratch. Williams previously coached the ECHL Orlando Bears before being let go in 2015.
  • Team North America GM Peter Chiarelli confirmed this evening that Aaron Ekblad suffered a concussion against Finland and will not play for the remainder of the tournament. Ekblad was pulled hours before Team North America’s games last night against Team Russia with an undisclosed upper body injury. It is believed that the young defenseman suffered the concussion after being hit by Leo Komarov.

East Notes: Kessel, Daley, Pulkkinen, Mueller, Ekblad

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Penguins right winger Phil Kessel and defenseman Trevor Daley are both on track in their recovery from injuries sustained in the postseason, writes Bill West of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.  Kessel had hand surgery back in July and isn’t expected to participate in much (if any) preseason action but anticipates he’ll be ready when the puck drops to start the season:

“I’ll obviously be out there skating in camp. I’ll progress as it goes. But I’ll be ready to start the first game of the year. … (The hand) feels a lot better now than it did last year.”

As for Daley, who broke his ankle in the Eastern Conference Finals, he has been training hard on the ankle for the last three or four weeks.  He’s set to begin his first full season with Pittsburgh after being acquired from Chicago last December.

More from the Eastern Conference:

  • Red Wings right winger Teemu Pulkkinen has been cleared for contact following shoulder surgery back in June, notes MLive’s Ansar Khan. Pulkkinen struggled in his first full NHL campaign last season, spending a lot of time as a healthy scratch.  He got into just 36 games, recording six goals and six assists, a disappointment considering he had scored just over a point per game in the AHL.  The 24 year old is hoping to be able to get into a couple of games towards the end of the preseason with the hoping of being available for Detroit’s season opener.  His recovery appears to be well ahead of schedule as he was originally expected to miss 4-6 months.
  • Forward Peter Mueller, who is attending training camp on a PTO, is open to signing an AHL contract, reports WEEI’s DJ Bean. The willingness to play in the minors hasn’t always been there as two years ago Mueller requested his release after training camp with St. Louis, who had planned to send him to their AHL affiliate.  Last season, Mueller played with Malmo of the SHL, picking up 13 goals and 12 assists in 43 games.  His positional versatility could come in handy for the Bruins as Mueller has spent time at all three forward positions in recent years.
  • The Panthers have decided to bring Aaron Ekblad back to Florida, which all but confirms that he will miss the remainder of the World Cup of Hockey, tweets Harvey Fialkov of the Sun Sentinel. Ekblad, who was on Team North America, missed Monday’s game due to an upper body injury.  Still with North America’s back end, Columbus defenseman Ryan Murray missed practice today but is expected to play tomorrow vs Sweden, reports ESPN’s Craig Custance.

Aaron Ekblad Out With Injury

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Team North America—and Florida Panthers—defenseman Aaron Ekblad will not play in tonight’s World Cup game against Team Russia because of an upper body injury. Ekblad led all players in ice time with over 23 minutes played in the team’s 4-1 win over Finland on Sunday. George Richards of the Miami Herald reports Ekblad has suffered a mild concussion.

The young defenseman will be replaced by unsigned RFA Jacob Trouba. Trouba has yet to come to terms with the Winnipeg Jets, and a strong performance replacing Ekblad could go a long way in his contract negotiations. Trouba had a bit of a production setback last season, scoring 6G and 15A  in 81 games, but he remains a top-flight defensive prospect for the Jets.

Ekblad just signed a eight-year extension worth $7.5MM a year, so the Panthers have the right to be concerned about his health.  Panthers GM Tom Rowe told Richards that he doesn’t expect the defenseman to play again in the tournament.  Ekblad scored 15g and 21A in 78 games last season and is looking to build off that success as he progresses in his development. This injury highlights why NHL GMs worry about international competitions as they impose risk upon the league’s top players outside of scheduled NHL games.

Florida Panthers Invite Adam Pardy On PTO

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According to Harvey Fialkov of the Sun Sentinal, Adam Pardy will be attending Florida Panthers camp on a professional tryout. The team of course will be without top blueliner Aaron Ekblad for part of camp as he plays for team North America at the World Cup of Hockey.

While it would be pretty surprising to see Pardy crack the roster following training camp, he will provide veteran competition for the younger players, as well as a toughness and edge lacking on the Panthers back end since their trade of Erik Gudbranson to the Vancouver Canucks. Pardy has 52 points across an NHL career that has seen him hit the ice 338 times for five different teams. Last year he got into just 23 games, split between the Oilers and Jets.

For the Panthers, they’ve already done their offseason shopping and indeed Fialkov reports that Pardy’s addition is probably the last before camp opens. By locking up their young core and signing some key free agents, Florida has positioned themselves well to compete for the Stanley Cup for the foreseeable future.

Panthers Reach Six-Year Extension With Jonathan Huberdeau

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The Florida Panthers have locked up another young forward.  The team has come to a six-year extension with Jonathan Huberdeau that will pay him $35.4MM ($5.9MM AAV). Currently under contract for one more season, Huberdeau is earning $3.25MM in 2016-17, and would be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent next summer. Jonathan Huberdeau

The 23-year old was once the third overall pick by Florida in the 2011 draft, and has done nothing but score in his short NHL career. In 272 career games, the former Saint John Sea Dog has 172 points, including a career-high 59 last season. Skating mostly alongside Aleksander Barkov and Jaromir Jagr, the trio formed one of the more dominant lines in the Eastern conference last season, combining for 184 points.

Florida has quickly locked up much of their future this summer, signing extensions with Reilly Smith (Five years, $25MM), Vincent Trocheck (Six years, $28.5MM) and Aaron Ekblad (Eight years, $60MM) while signing free agents Keith Yandle (Seven years, $44.45MM), Jason Demers (Five years, $22.5MM) and James Reimer (Five years, $17MM) to long-term deals.

With it, the team has created cap certainty in a world where that’s very valuable from year to year, and has built a core that is easily a playoff contender every season. With no one cracking $8MM per season (Ekblad comes the closest at $7.5MM) they’ve also ensured that they won’t have too much money tied up in a single player or pair like many of the other cup contenders around the league.

Bob McKenzie of TSN was first to report the sides were close, and Chris Johnston of Sportsnet reported it was done.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. 

Quotable: Gomez, McLellan, Babcock

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Scott Gomez marked his retirement today with a post in The Players’ Tribune, and instead of simply thanking his fans, teammates and everyone that had supported him along the way, Gomez used the opportunity to share his second love: poetry. Gomez delivers a 23-stanza freestyle, expressing his love for the game he played for 32 years, and one he affectionately refers to as Mrs. Hockey.

So this is our goodbye
Damn girl, it’s finally here
The fact that you leave me
You’d bet I have tears

I will always love you
That I’ll never hide
Because of you Mrs. Hockey
I’ll always live my life with pride
Till the day I die…

Read more

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.

Potential 2016-17 Impact Rookies: Carlo, Fasching, Mantha, Matheson

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Pro Hockey Rumors continues our series profiling this year’s crop of rookies, now moving on to the Atlantic Division and four more first-year players who could make a splash this season. You can see the first posts covering the Metro Division here and here.

Brandon Carlo (Boston) – Even though Boston has an aging roster and failed to qualify for the postseason in either of the last two seasons, the Bruins surprisingly might not be integrating any rookie talent to the roster to start the 2016-17 campaign. The team does have some quality young talent coming down the pipeline but most of those prospects are probably a year away and Boston wouldn’t appear to have much room on their roster for a first-year player. But if one of the kids does give the Bruins a reason to carry a rookie this year it may well be defenseman Brandon Carlo.

Carlo was chosen by Boston in the second-round of the 2015 entry draft with the 37th overall selection on the heels of a 25-point campaign with TriCity of the WHL. Listed at 6-foot-5 and 203 pounds, Carlo certainly has NHL size. He currently projects as a smooth skating, defense-first blue liner with enough tools to project as an above-average offensive contributor if he develops further.

The incomparable Zdeno Chara still anchors the Bruins defense corps but is 39-years-old and has seen his best years are in the rear-view mirror. Torey Krug is probably the club’s #2 defenseman – if not #1 – and Adam McQuaid is solid enough. But outside of those three players, the Bruins currently have Kevan Miller, John-Michael Liles and Colin Miller in the top-six on their depth chart. Assuming Carlo shows well at training camp, he could easily force his way onto the roster ahead of any one of the latter three names.

Boston’s assistant general manager, Scott Bradley, spoke highly of Carlo earlier this summer when discussing some of the club’s prospects including; Carlo, Jakub Zboril and Jeremy Lauzon.

“Obviously [you had to like] what Carlo did when he was brought in [to Providence] at the end. It just bodes well for what we have coming this year. Zboril and Lauzon are probably going back to junior, but Carlo is going to get a long look.”

Bradley’s comments certainly suggest Carlo has a leg up on his fellow top defense prospects coming into camp.

Hudson Fasching (Buffalo) – Last season, Buffalo broke camp with two supremely talented rookies, Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart, in their opening night lineup. The duo would combine to score 47 goals and 98 points in 160 games for the Sabres. Hudson Fasching is unlikely to have that same type of impact in Buffalo this season but should earn a regular role and has the potential to provide some offense from the team’s bottom-six.

Fasching made his Buffalo debut last season, appearing in seven contests and netting his first career NHL goal. He signed his ELC with Buffalo after wrapping up his junior season at the University of Minnesota, where he scored 20 goals in 37 games for the Golden Gophers. Fasching also saw action in 10 games during the 2016 IIHF World Championship and tallied two assists playing for Team USA.

At 6-foot-2 and 216 pounds, Fasching has the size necessary to excel in a power forward role. Whether or not he can score enough to eventually fill a top-six scoring role with the Sabres is the question. But with talented players like Eichel, Reinhart, Ryan O’Reilly and Kyle Okposo around him, Fasching could produce points if he can develop chemistry with some combination of the aforementioned skaters.

Anthony Mantha (Detroit) – The development of Mantha could be key to Detroit’s ability to keep its 25-season playoff appearance streak in tact. Like Boston, Detroit’s core is aging with half of the 18 skaters expected to see regular ice time either turning or already at least 30-years-old during the 2016-17 season. Mantha has the skill and talent to join Dylan Larkin as future foundation pieces for Detroit.

Mantha got his first taste of NHL action last season, racking up two goals and three points in 10 games while averaging 11:42 of ice time per contest. He has also accumulated extensive pro experience playing for Detroit’s AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids. In 122 games with the Griffins, Mantha recorded 36 goals and 88 points. His experience playing for Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill, both with Detroit and Grand Rapids, should benefit the big winger as he attempts to make the roster for the 2016-17 campaign.

The 6-foot-5, 214 pound Mantha is said to be an excellent skater with a terrific shot and release. Detroit is known for being patient with their prospects and allowing them to develop at a slow pace in the minor leagues. It’s possible Mantha will start the year in Grand Rapids but could position himself as one of the first players promoted in the event of an injury on the big club. If he does get his shot at some point with the Wings, Mantha could surprise some people.

Michael Matheson (Florida) – The Panthers boast a solid defense corps with plenty of options to flesh out the six man group. Keith Yandle, Aaron Ekblad, Alex Petrovic and Jason Demers comprise a skilled group of top-four blue liners while currently Mark Pysyk and Jakub Kindl are listed as the third pair on the team’s depth chart. Additionally, the team can also call on veteran Steven Kampfer to provide further depth.

There doesn’t seem to be room for a rookie to earn a spot but injuries are an unfortunate reality in hockey and Michael Matheson would likely be the first player Florida goes to if one of their regulars goes down. Matheson got into three games with the Panthers last year, going scoreless and averaging 17:32 of ice time. He’s also appeared in 59 AHL games over the last two seasons and recorded eight goals and 22 points during that time.

The former Boston College Eagle was the Panthers first-round pick, 23rd overall, in the 2012 draft. He’s known as an excellent skater and puck-handler with offensive instincts. With the NHL evolving into a speed and transition gme, Matheson would seem well-suited to one day play a regular role in the league. If things fall just right, that day could come as soon as this season.

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

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