Snapshots: Bruins, World Championships, Oilers – Ducks
CSNNE’s Joe Haggerty cautions the Boston Bruins brass to stay away from free agency this offseason. He reports that Cam Neely doesn’t plan to make any signings, as he indicates that he doesn’t foresee the Bruins making any significant splashes in free agency. Haggerty sees this as a good thing, recalling the signings of both David Backes and Matt Beleskey, who he writes have struggled to live up to the pricey expectations. Though Neely defends both signings, he admits that both players have not played as the Bruins envisioned they would. Backes, according to Neely, struggled to acclimate at first in Boston while Beleskey has struggled to stay healthy. Both signings, Haggerty reports, should be reminders to approach the offseason with caution.
- It was a rough day for the American squad in the World Championship as they dropped their opener 2-1 to Germany. USA Today’s Kevin Allen writes that Thomas Greiss bacstopped the German victory, and only Connor Murphy managed to get a puck past him. Head coach Jeff Blashill didn’t seem too concerned, believing that a lack of familiarity with one another also played a role in the Americans’ struggles.
- TSN’s Frank Seravalli previews the Oilers-Ducks matchup tonight, reporting that Oilers forward Milan Lucic believes that it’s about “taking the play” to the Ducks. After dropping the first two games at home, Anaheim rallied back from a 2-0 series deficit to force the series into a best of three. Seravalli writes that Ryan Getzlaf has been the series’ most dominant “force,” notching 13 points in eight playoff games, including four points in the Ducks’ series tying victory on Wednesday. Also playing a role in the shift in series momentum? The Ducks’ smooth, puck moving defensemen. Oilers head coach Todd McLellan had this to say: I don’t think there’s a team that throws six skaters out there like that. It’s as good as there is in the [NHL] in my opinion. It’s not like you’re running up against somebody that’s a little slow in the retrieval or doesn’t have the ability to maneuver. All six do. Our work is cut out for us.
Team USA Names Fifteen Players To World Championship Squad
Though some of the names had already been confirmed, USA Hockey has released a full list of the 15 players that have agreed to play in the upcoming World Championships. The team so far is as follows:
Nick Bjugstad (Florida Panthers)
Daniel Brickley (Minnesota State, undrafted)
J.T. Compher (Colorado Avalanche)
Andrew Copp (Winnipeg Jets)
Danny DeKeyser (Detroit Red Wings)
Christian Dvorak (Arizona Coyotes)
Jordan Greenway (Boston University/Minnesota Wild)
Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg Jets)
Jimmy Howard (Detroit Red Wings)
Dylan Larkin (Detroit Red Wings)
Anders Lee (New York Islanders)
Connor Murphy (Arizona Coyotes)
Brock Nelson (New York Islanders)
Cal Petersen (Notre Dame/Buffalo Sabres)
Jacob Trouba (Winnipeg Jets)
Among the expected NHL names are three college player, Brickley, Greenway and Petersen who are interesting additions to the squad. Greenway, for instance, played in the World Juniors just a few months ago and is still just 20-years old. This shows how much the hockey world believes that he’s ready for the NHL, as he already has the size and strength to compete with fully grown men. Petersen’s inclusion as the third goalie is very interesting, as though he won’t be expected to get much playing time it is an excellent experience for the youngster. A prospect of the Buffalo Sabres, Petersen had another outstanding season for the Fighting Irish and is currently in negotiations with the team to turn pro.
Brickley on the other hand is currently a free agent, though he intends on returning to Minnesota State for his junior season. The undrafted defenseman just finished a point-per-game sophomore year which had him turning heads across the country. If he decides to turn pro after next year, he’ll have teams lined up to bid on his services. A good showing in the World Championships could increase his profile even further.
The Red Wings are well represented, and should be since Jeff Blashill will be the head coach of the team. Jack Capuano, Rand Pecknold and Seth Appert will join him as assistants. Larkin, Howard and DeKeyser should all play important roles on the team. Capuano will obviously be very familiar with the Lee-Nelson duo, though it may be a bit awkward after his firing earlier this season.
Roster Crunch: Arizona’s Defense Corps
With training camps well underway, there are plenty of interesting battles for roster spots throughout the league. One of the more intriguing ones is happening in Arizona as the Coyotes now find themselves with a plethora of defensemen battling for a spot on their back end. Here’s a closer look at their blueline battle.
Locks
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – He is undoubtedly their number one defenseman and will be used in all situations. He’s also on a cap friendly deal for a top rearguard coming in with an AAV of just $5.5MM for the next three years.
Alex Goligoski – New GM John Chayka wasted little time with the former Dallas Star. He acquired his negotiating rights and quickly inked him to a five year, $27.375MM contract to be another anchor for their back end.
Connor Murphy – The former first rounder has seen his ice time increase each season and he surpassed the 20 minute average last year. He also signed a long-term deal this offseason, getting an average of $3.85MM over the next six years.
Zbynek Michalek – After rejoining the Coyotes last offseason, Michalek spent most of the year in a third pairing role, one he’s likely to reprise this season. While he could potentially be deemed expendable, he carries a cap hit of $3.2MM which may be difficult to unload in the current market and it’s unlikely that they would bury his contract in the minors given their status as a low-budget team.
Luke Schenn – Chayka brought the 26 year old in on a two year deal this offseason with a decent value at $1.25MM per year. While he projects as a third pairing player, it’s unlikely he’s going to get pushed off the roster so quickly after signing with the team.
Michael Stone – Stone had a career year last season and spent a lot of time on Arizona’s top pairing. While he may not have as big of a role this year, he’s a sure fire bet to start in their top four.
That’s six blueliners that are pretty much locks to start the season with the Coyotes, leaving them one or two (at most) spots to fill from a group of six other defensemen who could conceivably make a run at one of those positions.
Snapshots: Keith Gretzky, Quebec Expansion, Couture
In an article appearing on Today’s Slapshot – a division of The FanRag Sports Network – Craig Morgan, who also covers Arizona for AZSports.com, discusses several topics that relate in some way to the Coyotes. Interestingly, Morgan writes about Keith Gretzky, who was recently hired as an assistant GM in Edmonton and who was the director of amateur scouting for the Coyotes from 2007 – 2011 and oversaw the team’s drafts during that time. Gretzky was hired by the Oilers in part due to his scouting experience and success running the drafts for Arizona and more recently Boston. But Morgan says Gretzky’s successes at the draft may be overstated.
Despite success in the first round, where the Coyotes selected the likes of Kyle Turris, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Mikkel Boedker and Connor Murphy, the team has struggled to find NHL talent in the lower rounds. According to Morgan, new Coyotes GM John Chayka has said a team’s ability to draft is measured in the later rounds. Clubs need to be able to identify and develop prospects outside of the draft’s first round in order to sustain on-ice success.
During his tenure with the Coyotes, the team selected 29 players in rounds two through seven, according to the article. Of that group, only four have made it to the NHL and just two are still in the Coyotes organization.
Teams typically need to draft and develop two or three NHL contributors every year in order to keep the pipeline of affordable young talent flowing. Even if your first-round pick pans out, clubs need at least one more of their selections to hit for the draft to be considered fruitful. If you aren’t hitting on your draft choices then it’s likely the team will have to go the free agent route to flesh out its roster and consequently put themselves in a salary cap bind. Teams like the Coyotes simply can’t afford to do that.
Now Morgan does go on to say Gretzky’s track record with Arizona does not necessarily have anything to do with the job he did in Boston. Nor is it an indicator of how he’ll perform as the assistant GM in Edmonton.
For more from Morgan and elsewhere in the NHL:
- Even though they were not awarded an expansion franchise for 2017-18, the group behind the Quebec bid is not giving up on bringing an NHL franchise to Quebec City. Quebec likely will eventually get a franchise, though it may not be via expansion. I believe the league wants to also place a team in Seattle and that would probably be through expansion. Quebec would then be in a position to take in a club looking to relocate. Most of the teams that have been recently linked to relocation currently reside in the East. In order to gain balance between the two conferences, expanding from 15 – 16 clubs in the West is the simplest solution, while keeping Quebec as a fallback in the event of relocation.
- In a piece for The Players Tribune, San Jose forward Logan Couture lists the six defensive players he considers the toughest to match-up against. Not surprisingly, all of his choices reside with him in the Western Conference, including one who also suits up for the Sharks. It’s hard to argue with any of his choices and it’s easy to understand the apparent western bias since he sees the guys in his own conference at least two times more often during the regular season, to say nothing of the playoffs. Brent Burns and Duncan Keith are elite players who impact the game in all three zones. Roman Josi is rapidly developing into one of the top blue liners in the NHL. Mark Giordano – Couture has a funny story about the Flames standout – might be a late-bloomer but he is undoubtedly a quality player. Finally, Anze Kopitar and Jonathan Toews may well be the best two-way pivots in the game today.
Coyotes Sign Jakob Chychrun To Entry Level Contract
Craig Morgan of AZSports tweeted that the Arizona Coyotes have inked the second of their two, 2016 first-round draft choices, defenseman Jakob Chychrun, to a three-year ELC. Chychrun, selected 16th overall in last month’s draft, likely has only an outside chance at cracking the Coyotes roster on opening night as the club already has eight blue liners with NHL experience under contract. It’s far more likely the team will elect to return him to his junior club for more seasoning.
Originally slated to select 20th overall, the Coyotes moved up four slots in a deal with Detroit that also saw Arizona absorb Pavel Datyuk‘s $7.5MM cap charge. The trade allowed the Wings to clear significant cap space from their books while moving back just a few positions in the draft. Detroit also picked up a second-round choice, 53rd overall, which the team used on defenseman Filip Hronek. Meanwhile, Arizona put themselves in position to take a player they liked tremendously and had even considered drafting with the seventh overall selection.
Chychrun played his junior hockey with the Sarnia Sting of the OHL. In 62 OHL contests, Chychrun tallied 49 points and boasted a +23 plus-minus rating. His father, Jeff, appeared in 262 NHL games, spending time with Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Edmonton and Pittsburgh in a career spanning parts of eight seasons.
First year GM John Chayka has been among the league’s busiest executives this summer. Chayka added D Alex Goligoski via trade and LW Jamie McGinn and D Luke Schenn as free agents to bolster a young but talented roster. He also re-signed team captain Shane Doan and restricted free agent defenders Michael Stone and Connor Murphy to new contracts. Whether these additions will help get the Coyotes back into the postseason or not remains to be seen but Chayka has shown he is unafraid to make impact moves so far.
Snapshots: NHLPA, Boston’s Prospects, Murphy
Ian McLaren writes that the NHLPA has hired Bruce Meyer as the senior director of collective bargaining, policy, and legal. NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr commented that the hiring brings someone in who has over three decades of legal experience. The current collective bargaining agreement is set to expire on September 15, 2022. However, the league or the player’s union can opt out of the current early, just at different dates. As long as it is delivered in writing, the NHL can opt out on September 1, 2019. The NHLPA can opt out on September 15, 2019.
The addition of Meyer brings more talent into the NHLPA’s fold as many analysts felt the NHL “won” the last round of labor war. There have been work stoppages in each of the last three negotiations which included an entire season wiped out in 2004-05. Both the 1994-95 and 2012-13 were shortened as a result of the league and player’s union’s negotiations.
In other NHL news:
- Joe Haggerty writes that prospects Ryan Donato and Ryan Fitzgerald are on their way in terms of development. Both are currently playing college hockey, Donato with Harvard and Fitzgerald with Boston College. While Donato is entering his sophomore season that is full of promise, Fitzgerald is gearing up for what will be his final season playing college hockey. Haggerty reports that Fitzgerald, coming off a 47 point (27-20) campaign in 2015-16, seems to be saying the right things in terms of joining the Bruins upon graduation. However, as Haggerty points out, anything is possible should Fitzgerald have a dominant senior season.
- Sarah McLellan reports that with the signings of Connor Murphy and Michael Stone, the defensive corps are all but solidified. Though McLellan points out more moves could happen, she writes that the Coyotes are happy with the long term deal with Murphy, who appeared to take the next step in his development last season. Stone, who suffered a season ending knee injury, expressed his desire to put in the work to earn a long term deal down the road.
Arizona Stays Busy, Lock Up Stone To One-Year Deal
Immediately on the heels of the Connor Murphy signing, the Arizona Coyotes have inked fellow blue liner Michael Stone to a one-year, $4MM contract, according to AZSports’ Craig Morgan. Stone and the Coyotes had been scheduled to go to arbitration on August 4th but the two parties obviously found common ground and thus avoided a hearing.
Stone blossomed in his fourth full season in the desert, averaging nearly 22:30 of ice time per game. He ranked second among Arizona defensemen behind Oliver Ekman-Larsson, tallying 36 points in 2015-16. The Coyotes drafted the 26-year-old in the third-round (69th overall) of the 2008 draft.
After accounting for Stone’s deal, Arizona is left with more than $6MM in cap space and only RFA Tobias Rieder left unsigned. That figure is a bit surprising given how busy the Coyotes have been this summer upgrading their roster. In addition to locking up their own RFA’s, Arizona has re-upped with Shane Doan (one-year, $3.88MM), signed UFA winger Jamie McGinn to a multi-year deal worth $10MM over three seasons, and acquired pending free agent Alex Goligoski via trade before extending his contract for five years with an AAV of nearly $5.5MM. That doesn’t even include Pavel Datsyuk‘s $7.5MM cap hit which Arizona absorbed as part of a deal to move up four slots in the first round of the recent draft. To still be $6MM under the cap ceiling is an impressive bit of work from John Chayka.
Given the offseason work and the young talent already on the roster, it’s conceivable the Coyotes could force their way into a playoff spot in 2016-17. That’s especially true if goaltender Mike Smith, who missed three months of action last season due to a core muscle injury, returns to form as a quality netminder.
Coyotes, Connor Murphy Agree To Six-Year Pact
The Arizona Coyotes and first-year GM John Chayka continue to put the finishing touches on what has been a busy offseason in the desert. Today the club has agreed to a six-year deal with RFA defenseman Connor Murphy that comes with an AAV of $3.85MM. It appears the deal covers Murphy’s remaining RFA seasons along with at least one unrestricted year.
The player’s agent, Brian Bartlett, first indicated that the two sides were nearing an agreement yesterday.
Murphy, who turned 23 in March, finished third among Coyotes blue liners in points (17) and tied for 2nd in goals with six. Arizona is clearly buying into Murphy’s upside as despite his relatively modest offensive contributions to date, his new contract places him in the company of some more accomplished defenseman. Comparable contracts, according to General Fanager, include: Roman Josi ($4MM AAV), Travis Hamonic ($3.857MM AAV), Jake Muzzin ($4MM AAV) and Mattias Ekholm ($3.75MM AAV). Each of those players posted superior offensive numbers in their platform years.
Chayka recently explained the organization’s defensive philosophy in an interview with Dan Rosen of NHL.com when discussing the acquisitions of Luke Schenn and Alex Goligoski, stating: “Defense isn’t about defending, it’s about getting the puck in the forwards’ hands and getting the puck moving into the offensive zone. It’s about transitioning. That’s the philosophy and that’s been the theme behind the moves that we’re making, let’s get players who can get pucks back and get pucks up to forwards in an efficient and effective manner.”
It would seem then given the length commitment that Chayka and his staff view Murphy as an up-and-comer and someone who can help in the transition game both now and well into the future.
The six-foot-four, 212-pound Murphy was the Coyotes first-round selection (20th overall) in the 2011 Entry Draft. He’s appeared in 181 NHL regular season contests, tallying 11 goals and 32 points while also accumulating 100 minutes in penalties.
Chayka now can cross off another item on his to-do list but still has work to do before calling it a summer. The Coyotes are still working on new deals with RFA’s Michael Stone and Tobias Reider. The Reider negotiations could drag on through the summer as the two sides are evidently not close to agreeing on the forward’s market value.
Latest On Connor Murphy
While news has started trickling out about the Coyotes’ inability to sign RFA Tobias Rieder, Arizona may be closing in on one of their other remaining unsigned players. Craig Morgan of AZSports reports that Brian Bartlett, the agent for restricted free agent Connor Murphy expects to have a deal done by the end of the week.
Murphy, 23, saw his role with the Coyotes improve drastically last season especially following the trade of Keith Yandle. After the trade, he logged over 22:30 per night (up from 19:50 pre-trade) and held his own against tougher opponents. The bone-crushing hitter isn’t an offensive or possession dynamo, though he did contribute 17 points last season, and saw some limited powerplay action.
Even with the addition of Luke Schenn, Murphy will probably slot in beside another newcomer in Alex Goligoski on the second pairing next season, with fellow unsigned RFA Michael Stone skating alongside superstar Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Obviously, these pairings will be settled in camp, but Murphy will try to continue his strong development from first-round pick (20th overall in 2011) to top-four defenseman.
The Latest On Arizona’s Free Agents
The Arizona Coyotes are in the midst of discussions with restricted free agent winger Tobias Rieder and defenseman Connor Murphy but the progress the team is making with each differs considerably, writes Sarah McLellan of AZCentral. Talks with Murphy’s agent Brian Bartlett began last weekend and are going well while talks have been ongoing with Rieder’s agent Darren Ferris but the two sides remain far apart on a new deal.
Both players are restricted free agents coming off their entry level contracts and are not eligible for arbitration. Last season, Rieder set career highs across the board in his second full NHL campaign, scoring 14 goals and 23 assists in 82 games with the Coyotes. He also logged an average of 17:18 per game, third highest among Coyote forwards. Rieder was acquired from Edmonton back in March of 2013 and received a qualifying offer of just over $874K in late June.
Murphy, in his third NHL season, picked up six goals and 11 assists in 78 games while averaging a career high 20:30 per game, the third highest average on the team behind Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Michael Stone. Murphy was Arizona’s first round pick (20th overall) in the 2011 draft and also received a qualifying offer just over $874K last month.
On top of Rieder and Murphy, the team also has to re-sign arbitration-bound Stone, who was qualified at $1.45MM. The team also is hoping to re-sign long-time captain Shane Doan to a one year deal. The 39 year old scored 28 goals last year for the Coyotes, his highest goal total since 2008-09.
Arizona has just under $18.9MM in salary cap space to work with this offseason according to Cap Friendly.