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NHL Names Western Conference All-Stars

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Sportsnet is reporting that the NHL has named the first 16 selections from the Western Conference who will appear in the NHL All-Star Game that will take place February 3rd in Toronto.

The game will be held in Canada for the first time since 2012, when it was held in Ottawa. Toronto hasn’t hosted the game since 2000 and this year will be the first time that the NHL uses a four-team, three-on-three format in combination with the fantasy draft format that was used from 2011-2015. The league will name four captains, one for each team, who will take part in a draft to select their teams on February 1st.

The initial players named from the Western Conference are as follows:

Central Division

Arizona: LW Clayton Keller (4th appearance)
Chicago: C Connor Bedard (1st appearance)
Colorado: C Nathan MacKinnon (3rd appearance)
Dallas: G Jake Oettinger (1st appearance)
Minnesota: LW Kirill Kaprizov (3rd appearance)
Nashville: C Filip Forsberg (1st appearance)
St. Louis: C Robert Thomas (1st appearance)
Winnipeg: G Connor Hellebuyck (3rd appearance)

Pacific Division

Anaheim: LW Frank Vatrano (1st appearance)
Calgary: C Elias Lindholm (1st appearance)
Edmonton: C Connor McDavid (7th appearance)
Los Angeles: G Cam Talbot (1st appearance)
San Jose: C Tomas Hertl (1st appearance)
Seattle: RW Oliver Bjorkstrand (1st appearance)
Vancouver: D Quinn Hughes (1st appearance)
Vegas: C Jack Eichel (1st appearance)

The initial announcements of 32 players (one player to represent each team) tonight will be followed by the naming of the final 12 all-stars in the coming weeks. Those 12 players will be decided by a fan vote on NHL.com as well as several of the NHL’s social media platforms.

What Your Team Is Thankful For: Edmonton Oilers

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As the holiday season approaches, PHR will be taking a look at what teams are thankful for in 2023-24. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Edmonton Oilers.

Who are the Oilers thankful for?

Connor McDavid

The more things change, the more they stay the same, and that’s held true for the Oilers’ generational talent. McDavid is currently carrying 34 points through 22 games, tied with Cale Makar for eighth in the league in scoring. He’s reached that mark despite a slow start, scoring just four points in the first eight games of November. But things are clicking for the 26-year-old once more, as McDavid has scored an unbelievable 21 points in his last eight games. That’s an 82-game pace of 215.25 points – and while there’s a very slim chance that he ever breaks the 200-point ceiling, the fact that McDavid has held onto that scoring pace over more than a handful of games is incredible. He’s scored in every game over the eight-game stretch, recording multiple points in six of them, and is sticking to  Wayne Gretzky’s tactic of leaning into assists – with 16 of his recent 21 points coming in the form of helpers. The Oilers have faced a lot of adversity this season but McDavid has made it clear that he won’t let it get him down as he looks to top the 153 points he scored last year.

What are the Oilers thankful for?

A stretch of home games.

The Oilers have struggled to get things going on the road this season, with a dismal 4-8-0 record when playing in another team’s barn. That fact hasn’t gelled well with their early schedule, which had them on the road for 11 of their first 19 games. Their longest stretch of home games in November was a four-game stretch early in the month when the team was facing an injury to McDavid and swirling questions about then-head coach Jay Woodcroft. Both factors weighed heavily on Edmonton and they fell 1-3-0 before having to get back on the road.

The cycle seemed to be continuing as they lost their first three games of their most recent road trip – a four-game-long trip around the eastern-US. But with a 5-0 win over the Washington Capitals to cap it off, the Oilers found their momentum just in time for their recent stretch of four home games, and one away game at the neighboring Winnipeg Jets. Edmonton has been on fire now that they’re back at Rogers Place, currently on a six-game winning streak that’s seen them outscore their opponents 31-to-11. They’ve been getting everything they could want in their recent outings, scoring an average of roughly five goals each game and seeing their goaltenders post a collective .947 save percentage.

After a dismal start to the season, the Oilers are now truly looking like a team that can challenge the best in the West. They have four more games at home before they embark on a six-game road trip in late-December. New head coach Kris Knoblauch will hope a strong stretch at home will be enough of a boost to amend the Oilers’ current luck on the road.

What would the Oilers be even more thankful for?

Consistent Goaltending.

The story of Edmonton’s early season has been one of underwhelming goaltending. The team has iced three different goalies this season, with all three recording a save percentage below .900. Starting goalie Stuart Skinner has managed a .888 through 19 games, en route to a 10-7-1 record. This is despite the Oilers facing a league-average xGA/60 (expected goals-against per-60) of 2.54, tied with Winnipeg for the 12th-best mark in the league, per Evolving Hockey. And while the former Calder Trophy runner-up Skinner has improved as of late – recording a .911 save percentage and 9-2-0 record in his last 11 games – there’s still reason to be uncertain in Edmonton’s crease. The Oilers are 3-12-1 when they allow three-or-more goals this season, emphasizing that the team is only as good as the goaltending that they receive. If they want to be true Stanley Cup-contenders, they’ll need to make sure their netminders are just as efficient as their scorers.

What should be on the Oilers holiday wish list?

A lucky trade offer.

The Oilers are clearly not far off from being a very scary team. Their top scorers – McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – are mostly performing as expected; the blueline has seen added help through the continued breakout of Evan Bouchard and the addition of Mattias Ekholm; and it seems Skinner is bringing some reliability back into the crease. But there still seems to be something holding back Edmonton from reaching their full potential. The team has six members of their forward group with fewer than eight points through their first 24 games and their defense seems to strike in waves.

But Edmonton has recently made former eighth-overall pick Philip Broberg available for a trade, something that could prove lucrative as many teams around the league look for a spark on defense. While Broberg’s professional career in North America is off to a choppy start, there are still teams around the league with high hopes for the 22-year-old defenseman. It helps that Broberg is on a cost-controlled deal, recording an $863K cap hit this season and set to become a restricted free agent next year. The right trade could be enough to patch one of the Oilers’ holes, whether it’s bringing in another depth-forward, providing more competition on defense, or adding support between the pipes. The NHL is gearing up for an exciting Trade Deadline and the Oilers could emerge from it with the plenty of hope for the future.

Evening Notes: Zadorov, Giordano, Hyman

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ESPN’s Kevin Weekes is reporting that there remains a lot of interest in Calgary Flames defenseman Nikita Zadorov. Among the teams interested are the Dallas Stars, Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils, and fresh off their cap-clearing trade, the Vancouver Canucks.

Zadorov requested a trade a few weeks ago and at the time his agent Dan Milstein had hoped for a quick resolution although one has yet to be reached. Trades have proven difficult this season due to so many teams being within a million dollars of the NHL salary cap ceiling. The Flames have reportedly told Zadorov that they are willing to move him but will be patient in the process as they wait for the right deal to come along.

Zadorov has a goal and five assists in 21 games so far this season while averaging over 18 minutes a night in ice time.

In other evening notes:

  • The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced that defenseman Mark Giordano will not return to tonight’s game due to an upper-body injury. It is unclear when Giordano sustained the injury as he had a shot on goal during his final shift and then remained on the ice until the Florida Panthers scored their first goal. The Maple Leafs’ defense core has been decimated by injuries which has forced Giordano to play in an elevated role after starting the season on the third pairing. The 40-year-old has a goal and four assists in 20 games this season and has an average 18:28 of ice time per game.
  • The Edmonton Oilers have announced that forward Zach Hyman won’t dress for tonight’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights due to an undisclosed illness. Hyman was a full participant in the team’s morning skate today taking his usual spot on the team’s top line but was not well enough to play this evening. Mattias Janmark was elevated into Hyman’s role alongside Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins which also opened a spot for Sam Gagner to be reinserted into the lineup. Hyman has been one of the Oilers’ most consistent players with 12 goals and 10 assists in 20 games this season.

Injury Notes: McDavid, Hischier, McCabe

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As both the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames take the ice at Commonwealth Stadium in Alberta today for practice in preparation for the 2023 Heritage Classic tomorrow evening, several reports are coming out of the Oilers practice that captain Connor McDavid has joined his teammates on the ice (X Link). There is growing excitement throughout Edmonton that McDavid will be in the Heritage Classic tomorrow, after missing the last two games.

The injury status of McDavid appears to be a bit complicated, as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet had mentioned he was extremely pessimistic that McDavid would be available for the Heritage Classic, given the nature of his injury and the atypical playing conditions on an outdoor rink. Given the importance of McDavid to the Oilers and the NHL in general, it is more than unlikely that Edmonton is trying to rush McDavid back, but he may have healed quicker than previously thought.

The team could certainly use him back on the ice regardless of whether it is the Heritage Classic or not, as the Oilers have still only managed one win in their first seven games to start the regular season. If the team is set to take a step in the right direction on the season, there is no better team to do it against than their in-province rival.

Other injury notes:

  •  In last night’s game against the Buffalo Sabres, New Jersey Devils captain, Nico Hischier, was not in attendance on the bench to start the second period, after receiving a hit to the head from Sabres’ defenseman, Connor Clifton, earning him a match penalty for the rest of the game. Hischier would eventually come back to the game for New Jersey, but would not play a lot of minutes from then on out. Today, team reporter for the team, Amanda Stein, is reporting that Hischier will not be in the lineup tomorrow night, suffering an upper-body injury as a result of the penalty.
  • Although Toronto Maple Leafs’ defenseman, Jake McCabe, will not be on the ice with the team in their next upcoming matchup against the Nashville Predators due to a groin injury, Toronto apparently gathered very positive results from McCabe’s MRI report. David Alter of The Hockey News reports that McCabe won’t be out of the lineup ’too long’, and the MRI results were a best-case scenario for both the player and the team.

Injury Notes: Forbort, McDavid, Kostin, Zub

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Boston Bruins defenseman Derek Forbort missed Sunday’s game with an undisclosed injury and has been announced as day-to-day. Forbort has appeared in four games so far this season, recording two points and a +3. Fourth-year pro, Ian Mitchell, slotted into the NHL lineup in Forbort’s absence, recording one assist and two penalties in 10 minutes of ice time. Mitchell slotted in for an injured Kevin Shattenkirk on Saturday – earning his first two games of the season over the weekend.

Other injury notes from around the league:

  • Connor McDavid has been announced as out for one-to-two weeks with an upper-body injury. This comes at terrible timing, with Edmonton playing in the 2023 Heritage Classic on October 29th. In the latest episode of the 32 Thoughts podcast, Elliotte Friedman was pessimistic that McDavid would play in the matchup, given the uncertainty of outdoor playing conditions. Friedman added that McDavid not appearing in the overtime period of Saturday night’s game is a sign of how serious the injury is being taken. There are few players in the league who impact a lineup more than McDavid, and there’s no doubt the league hoped he would play in the upcoming outdoor game, so all eyes will turn toward how this injury progresses.
  • Detroit Red Wings forward Klim Kostin also missed Sunday’s game with an undisclosed injury and is considered day-to-day. He’s played in four games this season, failing to record a point and tallying seven penalty minutes. Jonatan Berggren slotted into Kostin’s lineup spot, only recording one shot on the stat line in 13-and-a-half minutes of ice time. Kostin is on a newly signed, two-year contract that carries an annual average value of $2.0MM.
  • Artem Zub is expected to be out for the Ottawa Senators’ next game. In response, Ottawa has recalled Jacob Bernard-Docker from the AHL. Zub has played in four games this season and recorded three points, a mark that ranks Zub in the top three of Senators’ defender scoring. Bernard-Docker has played a sole game for Ottawa this year; only his 33rd NHL game despite being around the league since 2020-21. Bernard-Docker is expected to slot into the NHL lineup again with Zub out, although the Senators are practicing with seven defenders.

Connor McDavid Out With Upper-Body Injury

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After last night’s loss to the Winnipeg Jets in overtime, the Edmonton Oilers have even more bad news coming down the pipeline. In an update this afternoon, the team has announced that the captain of the team, Connor McDavid, will miss the next one to two weeks with an upper-body injury.

As one of the favorites to win the Stanley Cup this season, the Oilers have been one of the most disappointing teams to start the 2023-24 NHL season. In five games played, including the loss to Winnipeg last night, the Oilers are the owners of a 1-3-1 record, good for 29th in the league standings as things currently stand.

Nevertheless, the team still has 77 games to correct the dismal start, but the loss of McDavid is about as substantial as possible. Even after only recording one win in the first five games, it is in spite of McDavid getting off to another solid start. In the first handful of games to start the season, McDavid has averaged just over 20 minutes of ice time per night, scoring two goals and six assists, which is good for 12th in the league in scoring to start the year.

Thankfully for the Oilers, seeing McDavid on the injured reserve has not been a common occurrence during his career in the NHL, he has seemingly only missed time due to injury during his rookie season in 2015-16, as well as towards the end of the 2019-20 season.

In the meantime, even without the injury to McDavid, the Oilers need a wake-up call to most of their team in the early part of the season. Aside from the usual suspects of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard, and Zach Hyman, the depth in Edmonton has failed to make a positive on the club so far this season.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Connor McDavid Suffers An Apparent Injury

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It has been a bumpy start to the season for the Edmonton Oilers, and things could become even more difficult. Greg Wyshynski of ESPN is reporting that Oilers superstar center Connor McDavid suffered an apparent injury in the third period of Edmonton’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets last night.

McDavid’s last shift occurred with 4:20 left in the third period as he remained on the bench through the final minutes of regulation as well as all of overtime. The 26-year-old phenom’s final two shifts were 33 and 34 seconds long, a huge decrease from his usual shift length of 56 seconds. McDavid could be seen in visible discomfort on his final shift as he grabbed at his side on a rush play.

After the game Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft said he had yet to speak with the trainers, but he believed McDavid’s ailment was a muscular issue. He added that the team would likely have more information later today or tomorrow.

The Oilers can ill afford to lose McDavid for any length of time. Edmonton is viewed as a cup contender by many pundits, although they haven’t started the season like one. The Oilers already sit nine points behind the defending Stanley Cup Champion Vegas Golden Knights and have only collected three points through five games.

Even with McDavid in the lineup Edmonton has struggled. They’ve posted a record of 1-3-1 on the season and have twice blown leads including a two-goal lead last night against Winnipeg. McDavid has done his part thus far with eight points in five games, however, the rest of the team has been outworked and overmatched throughout much of the season.

If McDavid is out for any length of time the Oilers start to the season could go from bumpy to rocky very quickly.

Who Will Be The NHL’s Next Highest Paid Player?

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Auston Matthews recent extension with the Toronto Maple Leafs has earned him the title of highest-paid player in the NHL. His new deal doesn’t kick in until 2024-25, but at that point, he will make an average annual salary of $13.25MM (CapFriendly) per season for four years. Prior to his new deal, Matthews was the fourth highest-paid player in the game behind Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid and Artemi Panarin.

MacKinnon’s new eight-year $100.8MM deal kicks in this season which will make him the highest-paid player in the league at $12.6MM for this year. His actual salary is much higher than his cap hit at $16.5MM, but the final four years of his deal will back-dive to $9.9MM in salary. McDavid has three years left on his current deal with a cap hit of $12.5MM while Panarin’s deal also concludes in three seasons and pays him $11.642MM annually.

With Matthews having topped MacKinnon’s new extension by over $600K annually the question now becomes, who will be the NHL’s next highest-paid player?

Connor McDavid – McDavid is the obvious answer. He is arguably the best player in the game and undoubtedly the best player in the world with the puck on his stick. The Richmond Hill, Ontario native will be 29 years old when he reaches unrestricted free agency and could essentially ask teams for a blank check and fill in the maximum salary under the salary cap. That is if he remains the best player in the world. While it seems hard to believe there is a world in which McDavid isn’t the game’s most explosive player, three years is a long time, and in hockey, it can be an eternity. There is also another Connor who could be the one to top Matthews’ extension.

Connor Bedard – It seems crazy that Bedard has yet to play a minute in the NHL and he could conceivably be the next highest-paid player in the NHL. But it could happen. Bedard signed his three-year entry-level contract with the Chicago Blackhawks on July 17th and should be a lock to make their opening night lineup. He will become a restricted free agent in 2026, the same time that McDavid becomes a UFA. It is fair to wonder how Bedard will produce once he is playing against men in the NHL, especially given that he will be playing on a bad Blackhawks team that will have its struggles. But he dominated the WHL with 71 goals and 72 assists in 57 games and obliterated the competition at the World Junior Championships with nine goals and 14 assists in 7 games. He’s a phenom, and in three years he could be paid like one.

Leon Draisaitl – Draisaitl has been one of the best bargains in the NHL since signing his eight-year $68MM contract back in August of 2017. All he has done during his six years under this contract is score 50+ goals three times, top 100 points four times, and win a Hart Trophy as well as an Art Ross Trophy. At 27-years-old Draisaitl is coming off the best season of his career having posted 52 goals and 76 assists in 80 games.

All things considered, it seems likely that Draisaitl will top Matthews’ contract two seasons from now when he becomes an unrestricted free agent. The native of Cologne, Germany will be 29 years old, and the salary cap should go up substantially between now and then positioning him to cash in big with any team of his choosing. Draisaitl will likely hold onto that distinction for just one season as McDavid and Bedard will be following right behind him and could top Draisaitl to earn the title of the highest-paid player in the NHL.

Edmonton Oilers Rank Last In Salary Cap Rankings

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Daily Faceoff has ranked the Edmonton Oilers last in salary cap efficiency. This comes as no surprise after the website began its annual salary cap rankings list and after a deep dive into the numbers determined that there isn’t a team in a worse situation financially than the Oilers. It isn’t a shock given the Oilers current salary cap woes. The team finds itself with just 21 players on the roster and only $382,499 in cap space. Though finishing dead last on the list is new, Edmonton ranked second last in last year’s version of the list.

Daily Faceoff’s ranking system looks at no-move clauses, dead cap space, the quality of long-term contracts, bargain contracts, and the good deals versus the bad ones. Unfortunately, based on those criteria, it is easy to see why the Oilers find themselves at the bottom of that list. Edmonton has several problematic contracts on their books, and while they have some bargains like Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The bad deals outweigh the great ones.

Darnell Nurse is a really good defenseman; he eats a ton of minutes for the Oilers and plays a lot of tough situations. However, he does suffer a lot of mental lapses, and at $9.25 million a season, he just doesn’t bring the offensive upside you would like to see in a defenseman making that kind of money. Nurse is also likely to wear down as the miles pile up on his body. Those difficult minutes require that he play with a ton of physicality. It could take its toll on the 28-year-old when he gets on the wrong side of 30.

Some of the other bad contracts on the Oilers are goaltender Jack Campbell at $5MM per season as well as third-line winger Warren Foegele and third-pairing defenceman Brett Kulak at $2.75 million each. The contracts come in addition to the nearly $2MM per year the Oilers are still paying on the James Neal buyout.

On the surface, these contracts don’t look like outrageous overpayments because all the players listed above are still functional NHLers. However, in the flat cap era Campbell, Foegele, and Kulak are all replacement-level NHLers who could have been replaced by other players on contracts of less than $1MM per season. Couple that with the mishandling of Nurse’s previous bridge deals and it all amounts to around $10MM in inefficient salary cap spending that could lead to big problems for the Oilers down the road when they need to offer extensions to McDavid, Draisaitl, and Evan Bouchard.

Projecting Sidney Crosby’s Next Contract

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With Auston Matthews’ recent signing to a record-breaking contract, speculation has already started to ramp up as far as other soon-to-be elite free agents. While it is far too early for a lot of the chatter, it’s fair to wonder what kind of money these elite free agents will command when they come up for new deals. Connor McDavid was asked recently about it, and it is exactly what Dan Kingerski writes about in Pittsburgh Hockey Now. Kingerski wonders what type of contract Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby will get when his contract ends in two years. The comparison isn’t a great one given that Matthews and Crosby are in wildly different places in their respective careers, however, it is a fair question to ask given that Crosby is still playing at an elite level despite being 36 years old, and he will be eligible for an extension in less than a year.

Crosby is entering the 11th season of a 12-year deal he signed back in 2013. At the time, the Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia native’s $8.7MM cap hit was a considerable discount to give the Penguins. It allowed the team to have the cap space to surround him with elite talent. It was also a huge risk from the Penguins’ perspective given that Crosby was coming off multiple concussions, including one that put him out of action for nearly a year. But the Penguins made the move, which paid off in spades as the team captured Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017.

Crosby has given the Penguins a discount on every extension he has signed thus far in his career with both of his extensions coming with that $8.7MM cap hit. It has set the tone for Pittsburgh and allowed the Penguins to keep many of their stars under below-market contracts. For Crosby, he was always a team player but was also able to make nearly as much money off the ice as he did on it.

Pittsburgh fans and media have speculated about Crosby’s future since well before Matthews signed his extension and will likely continue to do so right up until he signs his next contract. But what might that look like?

It’s tough to project where Crosby’s game will be in two seasons, Crosby will be 38 years old by the time his next contract begins, however, NHL.com is projecting that Crosby will increase his point totals next season. Sid the Kid had 33 goals and 60 assists last season in 82 games and it’s hard to imagine him topping that at 36-years-old. But that is exactly what NHL.com is projecting he will do as they are predicting he will put up 102 points next season.

Whether or not Crosby hits that number is likely inconsequential when it comes to contract talks with the face of the Penguins franchise. Crosby has remained loyal to Pittsburgh and the Fenway Sports Group has remained steadfast in their desire to have Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang retire as Pittsburgh Penguins as evidenced by the long-term deals they gave Malkin and Letang.

Josh Yohe of The Athletic has said in the past that he believes Crosby wants to play until he’s around 40, which could make a two-year extension make sense. Under normal circumstances, a rising cap would lead a superstar like Crosby to ask for north of $10MM annually on an extension. However, given the past two extensions Sid has signed with Pittsburgh, Kingerski throws out an interesting number, $8.7MM per year.

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