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Golden Knights Place Fleury, Marchessault On IR

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The Las Vegas Golden Knights may have had a nice start to their inaugural season, but Chris Johnston of Sportsnet tweeted that the team just placed two of their best players on injured reserve today in Marc-Andre Fleury and Jon Marchessault. No word on how serious their injuries are. The Golden Knights confirmed the transactions and announced they will call up prospect Alex Tuch and goaltender Maxime Legace from Chicago of the AHL.

The loss of Fleury, who has been the face of the franchise, is devastating to a team who lacks a solid backup goaltender. Fleury has helped lead Vegas through their first three victories, but the goaltender took a knee to the head from Anthony Mantha in the middle of Friday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings. While nothing has been officially declared by the Golden Knights about his injury, rumors that he has suffered a concussion have surfaced. Fleury has had multiple issues with concussions in his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins, so the team will likely be cautious with the 32-year-old veteran. He was having a good season so far in four games with Vegas, as he 2.48 GAA and a .925 save percentage. If you remove the last period he played (coincidentally, after he took the knee to the head), those numbers would be even better as he allowed four goals in that one period alone.

For the time being, the team will have to put their faith in backup Malcolm Subban. In fact, Subban will start tonight against his former team, the Boston Bruins. Just 12 days ago, Vegas decided to claim Subban from the Bruins and place their veteran backup, Calvin Pickard, on waivers. Pickard cleared waivers and the Golden Knights traded him to Toronto in exchange for prospect Tobias Lindberg and a 2018 sixth-round pick three days after that. Subban has little NHL experience. He played one partial game back in 2014-15 and another partial game last year, totaling 62 minutes and allowed three goals in each outing. In the preaseason this year for the Bruins, Subban played in four games, finishing with a 2.71 GAA and a .889 save percentage.

Marchessault, who has been playing on the Golden Knights top scoring line, is listed out with a lower-body injury. The 26-year-old wing scored 30 goals for the Florida Panthers last year before being claimed by Vegas in the expansion draft. He so far has just one goal in the team’s first four games. He will be replaced by Tuch, who was one of the top players for Vegas in the preseason. A physical player, Tuch was praised for his work on the boards and gritty, hard-working style. He was forced to go to Chicago because he was waiver-eligible on a roster full of non-waiver eligible players. Tuch has taken advantage of his time in Chicago. In three games with the Wolves, Tuch had four goals and an assist. The 21-year-old was a first-round pick by the Minnesota Wild back in 2014.

The team also recalled Lagace to be the team’s backup. Lagace, 24, has spent the last few years going back and forth between the AHL and the ECHL. He played for the Texas Stars last year in the AHL and played in 32 games, putting up a 3.56 GAA and a .883 save percentage. This year for the Wolves, Legace has allowed eight goals in two games with a 4.05 GAA.

Shipachyov, Theodore On AHL Opening Roster

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When the Vegas Golden Knights sent Vadim Shipachyov, Shea Theodore and Alex Tuch to the AHL earlier this week, it was expected that they would be recalled in time for tonight’s season opener. It was supposed to be just a paper transaction to give the team time to find a buyer for some of their defensemen, but that idea now has a little bit of doubt.

The Chicago Wolves—Vegas’ AHL affiliate—have submitted their “Opening Night Roster” to the AHL, and it includes all three of the expected recalls. Though this doesn’t guarantee that they’ll stay down, it’s interesting that the team would even include them if they knew a call-up was coming today. Even more to that point, the team tweeted out that both Tuch and Theodore have new numbers, though Shipachyov was not included.

Vegas currently has eleven healthy forwards, but many expect James Neal to come off the injured list to dress in tonight’s game. If that’s true, they wouldn’t necessarily need to recall anyone to ice the regular 12 forwards, six defensemen and two goaltenders. Neal was on the ice at morning skate, without Shipachyov.

NHL Snapshots: Johansson, Hanzal, Spezza, Tuch

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Former Washington Capitals forward Marcus Johansson said he wasn’t surprised that he found himself traded a couple of months ago to the New Jersey Devils. Despite winning another President’s Trophy, given to the top regular season team, Johansson knew that the team’s lifespan was limited and was prepared for a possible breakup. The Capitals traded Johansson, lost defenseman Nate Schmidt to the expansion draft and allowed Justin Williams, Kevin Shattenkirk and Karl Alzner all depart via free agency.

NBC Sports Cam Tucker writes that Johansson recognizes that as being part of the game and is ready to move on to a bigger role with the Devils who need scoring. New Jersey had the third-worst offense in the NHL last year at 2.2 goals per game.

“Sometimes you have to change things and we had some good opportunities to win these past two years and we didn’t take them and I think this is what comes afterward,” said Johansson. “They have to change something and guys needed new contracts and stuff like that, so that’s the way it goes. There’s nothing more to say about it.”

  • Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun writes that the renaming of the Toronto Maple Leafs arena last week that has Scotiabank getting the naming rights for $800MM (CAD) on July 1, 2018, will have a huge benefit to the players throughout the league. He writes that half of the $40MM each year goes to the hockey-related revenue, which should have a positive influence on the future salary cap.
  • Sportsday’s Mike Heika interviewed Dallas Stars’ head coach Ken Hitchcock about the team’s center position and learned that the new coach expects to play newly acquired Martin Hanzal at center, but still hasn’t made up his mind when it comes to Jason Spezza. “To me, Hanzal is a center. The role Jason will have is a split duty role, and if I play Spezza on the wing, it will be a left wing. Jason will play a lot of center and some wing. We need to start with the puck, so he’s definitely going to be taking draws on his strong side,” Hitchcock said.
  • Las Vegas Review-Journal’s David Schoen writes that while the Golden Knights are not likely to keep any first year players (other than Vadim Shipachyov, people should keep an eye on Alex Tuch. The 21-year-old wing who was a first-round pick of the Minnesota Wild in 2014, could be a darkhorse candidate to make the team. Vegas, known for stockpiling draft picks, actually traded their third-rounder two months ago for Tuch. He scored 18 goals in 57 AHL games for the Iowa Wild and managed to play in six NHL games a year ago.

Wild Did Not Push To Sign Kirill Kaprizov

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Despite rumors earlier this off-season that Kirill Kaprizov, one of the top prospects of the Minnesota Wild, was potentially looking to make to the jump to the NHL, the young Russian scorer ended up re-signing in the KHL. The 20-year-old inked a three-year deal with CSKA Moscow of the KHL, with the new contract finally being made official yesterday. The term of the deal surprised many, as – barring a player buyout – Kaprizov’s highly-anticipated NHL debut would not be until 2020. However, in an interview today with Soviet Sports (link in Russian), Kaprizov lent some reasoning to his new contract. It seems that the Wild were not all that interested in bringing him overseas this off-season after all.

When the reporter asked “Minnesota showed great interest in you?” (translated), Kaprizov replied honestly that he has not had any direct contact with the team. He stated that Wild representatives last spoke with his agent at the 2017 World Juniors, but had not reached out since. Kaprivoz’s understanding was that Minnesota was simply waiting for his arrival “one day”, which flies in the face of speculation that the team had reached out to the 20-year-old this summer. While some have opined that the negotiations were effected by outside intervention, seemingly supported by Kaprizov’s previous reluctance to confirm a new KHL contract and an assumption that he was waiting for an offer from Minnesota, Kamprizov had the chance to say as much today and failed to do so.

While Kaprizov was just only a fifth-round pick in 2015, he has already greatly outperformed his draft slot. At just 19 years old last season, Kaprizov registered 42 points in 49 games for the KHL’s Salavat Yulaev Ufa, second only on the teams to former NHLer Linus Omark, and then added another 12 points in seven games in an impressive World Junior showing. Why then did Minnesota not reach out to the high-scoring youngster? Kaprizov was asked in his interview if he had given any thought to the difficult task of breaking into a Wild top six of Zach Parise, Eric Staal, Mikko Koivu, Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter, and Jason Zucker, to which he of course replied that he had not thought of since Minnesota had not yet offered him the chance to play for the team, but the reported does make a valid point. Even with Alex Tuch and Erik Haula now in Vegas, Kaprizov stood little chance of cracking that top six and may have even struggled to beat out Charlie Coyle, rookie Luke Kunin, or recent additions Marcus Foligno and Tyler Ennis for a top nine role. Rather than waste Kaprizov on a checking line role or put him in the AHL, it seems likely that the Wild would simply rather let him continue to develop in the KHL. As for the three-year term, Minnesota and Kaprizov both realize that getting out of KHL contracts is relatively easy and should a spot open up for him sooner than three years, don’t be surprised to see the two sides finally come together. Even if he does play out his contract with CSKA, the reporter notes that Kaprizov would still be only 23 years old, the same age that Artemi Panarin came over from Russia and won the Calder Trophy.

The bridge is far from burnt between Kaprizov and the Wild, but it is interesting to note that the information surrounding their relationship appears to have been way off. For now, Kaprizov will continue to be just a “prospect” of the Wild, but with a shallow pipeline of talent in Minnesota and a point-per-game player continuing to grow and develop in arguably the second best hockey league in the world, it seems likely that these two sides will be joined sooner rather than later.

U.S. National Development Program Announces 2017-18 Schedule

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It’s hard to make an argument that the American junior hockey system is superior to the Canadian junior hockey system. Sure, the USHL has been improving every year and the growth of college hockey has lead to a greater proportion of NHL draft picks coming out of the U.S. junior ranks than ever before. Still, the depth of talent and caliber of player coming out of the OHL, WHL, and QMJHL will almost always stand up to the best of the USHL or other lower tier leagues. However, the one thing Canadian juniors does not have that has been wildly successful in the United States is the presence of a National Development Program.

Located in Plymouth, Michigan the USNTDP houses both a U-18 and U-17 team, both of which travel throughout the country and sometimes even the globe to play hockey at many levels. The 2017-18 schedule, announced today, highlights the uniqueness of the national program. Unlike Canadian juniors, which can dominate the lives of the players, the teams largely travel on weekends, freeing the players up to live somewhat normal lives as high school students during the week. Additionally, rather than play against the same competition all year long, the team mixes it up quite a lot. Both squads play a majority of their games against local USHL competition and both also participate in national and international tournaments, but the U-17 team also squares off against teams from the Tier II NAHL, while the U-18 team is tested in exhibition games against NCAA programs from around the country. The U-18 team is scheduled to go up against college power houses like Harvard, Boston University, North Dakota, and Notre Dame this season.

Recruited from around the country, USNTDP players are the best of the best of junior-age Americans. The program has produced current NHLers like Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel, Seth Jones, and Zach Werenski just to name a few, with Calder candidates like Charlie McAvoy, Clayton Keller, and Alex Tuch about to make the jump as well. The prospect machine doesn’t show any signs of slowing down, so don’t miss the opportunity to catch the team in action if any of their games are with reachable distance. Current U-18 members include 2018 projected top picks like Joel Farabee, Bode Wilde, Oliver Wahlstrom and Jake Wise, who you’ll know soon enough as budding NHL stars.

Vegas Golden Knights Trade Breakdown

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The Vegas Golden Knights have already completed ten trades this offseason, wheeling and dealing around the expansion draft with a third of the NHL. While more deals will undoubtedly drop tomorrow and in the next few days, these first ten transactions have set the team up for success. We’ll take a moment to break down why each trade happened, though there may be more dominoes to fall regarding some of them.

Buffalo sends their 2017 sixth-round pick to Vegas

In the first trade of the night, Vegas acquires a late round pick in order to not select G Linus Ullmark from the Sabres. Golden Knights GM George McPhee explained on the Awards broadcast that they were down to two players, Ullmark and William Carrier and the Sabres made their decision for them with a pick. For what it’s worth, our mock draft had the same split decision over the two players with Ullmark eventually ending up as the selection.

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Expected Trades With Vegas Golden Knights

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The Vegas Golden Knights assuredly have more deals worked out than we know so far, but Bob McKenzie of TSN gave us a long breakdown of the ones that are expected to happen. With some added details from others like Michael Russo of the Star Tribune, Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch and Arthur Staple of Newsday, here are the deals that the hockey world is pretty sure have been agreed upon. To be clear, none of these trades are final until they are announced at tonight’s NHL Awards ceremony:

Minnesota Wild

Vegas signs Erik Haula to multi-year contract, forfeiting expansion selection. Sends conditional draft pick.

Minnesota sends Alex Tuch.

Anaheim Ducks

Vegas selects Clayton Stoner.

Anaheim sends Shea Theodore.

Chicago Blackhawks

Vegas selects Trevor van Riemsdyk.

Chicago sends Marcus Kruger.

This deal in particular should be subject to skepticism, as today’s news surrounding Marian Hossa complicates things. Scott Powers of The Athletic has been told that Kruger will remain with the Blackhawks through tonight, though it’s unclear what that would mean for van Riemsdyk who is still eligible to be drafted.

Columbus Blue Jackets

Vegas will not select Josh Anderson, Joonas Korpisalo or Jack Johnson.

Columbus sends 2017 first-round pick, a prospect, and David Clarkson.

New York Islanders

Vegas will not select certain players left exposed (unclear who exactly has been included).

New York sends 2017 first-round pick, and  Mikhail Grabovski.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Vegas selects Marc-Andre Fleury.

Pittsburgh sends unknown draft pick.

There are also deals in place with other teams including Florida and Tampa Bay, but reports have been inconsistent on the details thus far. McKenzie’s thread gives some insight into what they could be, but at this point it is still speculation. Again, each of these should be considered still only expected as details are fuzzy on each of them. We’ll update this page with any other deals that are leaked in the next few hours.

Minnesota Wild Forward Erik Haula To Sign With Vegas Golden Knights

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According to Michael Russo of the Star Tribune, the Vegas Golden Knights will pass up a chance to pick a player from the Minnesota Wild. Instead, the team has signed Erik Haula to a three-year contract extension. In order for them to avoid Mathew Dumba and others, the Wild have also agreed to send Vegas prospect Alex Tuch while the Golden Knights will return a conditional draft pick.Erik Haula

This is a huge move for the Golden Knights, and one that could have been expected after the protection lists were released. The Wild chose not to make a deal before the lists were due, instead deciding to trade directly with the source of their roster discomfort. Dumba, Marco Scandella, Eric Staal and others were left unprotected despite serious interest from around the league. Instead of watching one of their defensemen walk out the door, the Wild will instead have to part with their first-round pick from 2014 in Tuch and an effective secondary option in Haula.

The 21-year old Tuch made his NHL debut this season, after two successful years at Boston College. Though he was held scoreless in his six game stint, he did put up 37 points in 57 AHL contests and could make an impact down the line for the Golden Knights. Though he may never be a top-line player, his size and scoring ability should at least allow him to be an effective middle-six winger. The most important part for the Wild was that it wasn’t Kirill Kaprizov, Luke Kunin or Jordan Greenway going the other way, three forward prospects that all may have higher ceilings than Tuch.

In Haula, the Golden Knights add to their forward depth with a versatile player who can skate at center or the wing. The 26-year old was due to become a restricted free agent for the final time in his career, coming off a deal that paid him just $1MM last season. His new contract will give the Golden Knights some cap certainty in the bottom of their lineup, while also gaining an asset. Russo doesn’t have details on the conditional pick, but says that it is “complicated.”

With trades for first-round picks from several teams and a report from last night implicating Shea Theodore in a potential deal with Anaheim, the Golden Knights are putting themselves in prime position to compete in the near future. “Asset harvesting” as George McPhee puts it is bearing fruit for the expansion team.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Minnesota Wild Recall Fifteen Players From AHL

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With the Iowa Wild’s season over, Minnesota has recalled their own group of Black Aces for the remainder of the playoffs. Fifteen players are on their way up from the AHL. The full list is as follows:

RW Sam Anas
RW Christoph Bertschy
C Pat Cannone
LW Ryan Carter
RW Kurtis Gabriel
C Tyler Graovac
G Steve Michalek
RW Zack Mitchell
D Gustav Olofsson
D Zach Palmquist
D Mike Reilly
D Nick Seeler
RW Alex Tuch
D Hunter Warner
D Mike Weber

As Michael Russo of the Star Tribune reports, these players were actually brought up prior to Game 3 on Sunday and will hold practices separate from the rest of the team. After the Game 4 victory by the Wild to stay alive, the Black Aces may be needed for a few more days. These players are unlikely to get into game action, but would serve as insurance should several Wild players go down unexpectedly.

After an outstanding season that saw contributions from several players on this list, the Wild find themselves on the brink of elimination in the first round of the playoffs. Should they find a way to extend their season and fight back against the St. Louis Blues, perhaps it could be a great learning experience for some of their youth to see up close. For now, these players will just skate hard under NHL supervision and try to make an impact for next year.

Luke Kunin Turns Pro; Signs ATO With Iowa Wild

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One of the biggest names in college hockey is set to join the professional ranks, as Luke Kunin has signed an entry-level deal with the Minnesota Wild. He’ll start on an amateur tryout for the remainder of this season, with his entry-level deal kicking in next fall. This had been expected for some time, but Wild fans can finally uncross their fingers and let out a sigh of relief. The University of Wisconsin center will be an interesting option for the NHL team as soon as next year. Luke Kunin

Selected fifteenth overall last summer, Kunin returned to Wisconsin for his sophomore season and improved in basically every way. Scoring 38 points in 35 games to lead his team, he improved his defensive game and took fewer penalties while being more physical. He was given the captaincy of the Badgers, the first sophomore to wear the “C” in over four decades, and also wore the same letter for Team USA at the World Junior Championships. He is a born leader on and off the ice, and may one day wear something on a Minnesota Wild sweater.

Given the Wild’s fairly deep forward group, Kunin may have to wait a year in the AHL before making his mark on the big stage. That shouldn’t slow him down though, as he’s heading for the NHL one day to be sure. With Iowa in a very tight race for the final playoff spot in the Central Division, Kunin will get a taste of the tight-checking hockey he’ll have to face down the line. It will be a good learning experience for him as he jumps right into the fire.

Kunin represents one of a handful of top Minnesota prospects that will start to replace the aging core of Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise and Jason Pominville over the next few years. Jordan Greenway, Kirill Kaprizov and Alex Tuch all look like they’ll be impact players in the NHL one day, as the Wild continue to show off their drafting skills. While they battle with the Chicago Blackhawks for the crown of the best in the West, there are more good days ahead for the Minnesota franchise and their fans.

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