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John Tavares

Full List Of Mandatory-Protection Players In Expansion Draft

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Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston has published the full list of players who, due to no-movement clauses in their current contracts, must be protected in the upcoming expansion draft for the new Vegas Golden Knights. These are players who will count against the protection limits should they choose not to waive their NMC rights prior to the draft.

Each team has the right to protect either:

A) Seven forwards, three defenders, one goaltender

or

B) Eight skaters, one goaltender

These players will count against those numbers, and as Johnston points out, there are some notable inclusions and omissions from this group. Players like Jordan Staal, Rick Nash and Bobby Ryan all had incorrect information spread about their contracts. The former two will now need protection, while the latter will not, due to his deal only having a no-movement to the minors clause.

The Chicago Blackhawks, with eight players listed, will have little flexibility at the draft, with only four forward spots (or one defenseman) left to use. Many others, according to Johnston, including Toronto’s Nathan Horton, are likely to be made exempt if they are still on LTIR as the draft approaches.

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Islanders’ Notes: Halak, Lineups, Injuries

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As the New York Islanders try to right the ship and get their season back on track, they welcome the defending Stanley Cup Champions tonight. The struggling Islanders sit dead last in the Eastern Conference and have been unable to find an answer to their offensive woes.

Tonight, the team will start Jaroslav Halak for his seventh straight game after starting the year with a three-goalie rotation. Halak has done his best with what’s in front of him this year, as even with a .904 save percentage he’s still carrying a 3.09 GAA. Surely he’d like to improve both numbers, but it’ll be tough against Sidney Crosby and Co.

  • The team will look to shake things up tonight, as Shane Prince will get back into the lineup, putting them back to 12 forwards (they’d been playing with 7 defensemen recently). Scott Mayfield will return to the press box after playing just under seven minutes in their last game. Anthony Beauvillier will move back to the middle, while Ryan Strome moves up to the first line on John Tavares’ wing. The team will also reunite the fourth line of Casey Cizikas, Nikolay Kulemin and Cal Clutterbuck, after a failed attempt of Clutterbuck on the top line.
  • Dennis Seidenberg, one of the Islanders’ effective blueliners is skating with the team, but can still barely eat through his broken jaw. He’s still a while off from getting back into game action according to head coach Jack Capuano, who doesn’t expect it “to be any time soon”. The other injured Islander, Ryan Pulock, is getting closer, but isn’t expected to play on the upcoming west coast road trip, when the Islanders will face the Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings in four nights.

New York Islanders Looking For An Offensive Boost

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Maybe Cal Clutterbuck isn’t a good enough winger for John Tavares — who knew?  In a piece for Newsday, Arthur Staple reports that the New York Islanders are looking for an upgrade on offense, and have been scouring the league for possible options. Staple mentions the Colorado Avalanche as a possible trade partner, as their struggles mirror those found in New York. While Matt Duchene’s name is bandied about, the possibility of that kind of a blockbuster still seems far-fetched.

The Islanders sit last in the Metropolitan Division and have scored just 2.5 goals per game, a big drop from the 2.83 they scored last season. While that drop-off could have been partially expected after the departures of Kyle Okposo and Frans Nielsen to free agency, big ticket signing Andrew Ladd has been a disaster for the Isles, relegated to the fourth line at times. His three points in 16 games lends credence to the idea that he was always more of a secondary-scoring type playing in excellent situations.

While no one is questioning Ladd’s work ethic or leadership qualities, it’s quite telling that Clutterbuck and Josh Bailey have been skating with Tavares over him. It’s not clear where the next wave of offense is expected to come from though, as youngsters Ryan Strome and Anthony Beauvillier have each scored just five points through the first part of the season. In Staple’s article, he mentions Josh Ho-Sang and Michael Dal Colle as potential additions; both are skating with Bridgeport of the AHL at the moment and finding varying degrees of success. Ho-Sang though has apparently caught whatever Ladd has, and has seen his playing time reduced and was even a healthy scratch on Friday night.

If Garth Snow, who is in Toronto at the annual GM meetings, decides to look elsewhere he’ll need to be careful not to mortgage the team’s future in pursuit of something that may not be able to be found.  A single player, while clearly helpful, may not be able to turn around what has been a disaster of a season so far. If one were to listen to Islanders’ fans, it’s a problem with the head coach Jack Capuano and not the players. Staple reiterates what many others have said however, that Capuano is in no danger of losing his job – for now.

Duchene, while an interesting option, would surely cost a huge haul coming off his first 30 goal season in the NHL. The speedy forward is only 25 still despite having over 500 games of experience and is under contract for two seasons after this at a $6MM AAV. After signing Ladd to a seven year, $38.5MM deal this summer the Islanders are right up against the cap and although they do have some flexibility with LTIR they would likely need to move out some money to bring in an impact forward.

To add a little bit of insult to injury, P.A. Parenteau, the winger New York waived prior to the season is off to a hot start in New Jersey. His five goals would tie him for the lead on the Islanders with Tavares and costs just $1.25MM.

NHL, Stakeholders Discuss Possible Change To Draft Age

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Could the NHL change the draft age from 18 to 19?

TSN’s Bob McKenzie spoke about the possibility on Tuesday night’s edition of Insider Trading. Former third-overall-pick Pat LaFontaine is leading a group of stakeholders that includes the NHL, NHLPA, CHL, USHL, Hockey Canada, USA Hockey, and NCAA to discuss a “whole new development model.”

According to McKenzie, the model would go from age five to age 20, and would include changing the NHL Draft-eligible age to 19, with “some obvious exceptions for exceptional players.”

The system would likely feature an expanded version of the CHL’s Exceptional Player Status. Normally, players aren’t eligible to play in the WHL, OHL, or QMJHL (the CHL’s three leagues) until they’re 16. However, there is a process (outlined extensively by McKenzie here) where players deemed exceptional can begin to play Major Junior at age 15. Players and their families apply to the CHL and Hockey Canada, and the player is examined on and off the ice to determine if he truly is exceptional. So far, only six players have ever applied, with John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad, Connor McDavid, Sean Day, and 2018-eligible Joseph Veleno being successful candidates. The first thee on that list went first overall in their OHL and NHL draft years, while Day went fourth in the OHL draft was a third-round pick of the New York Rangers in 2016. While it’s still early in his career, McKenzie noted that “some were questioning whether he was as blatantly exceptional as Tavares, Ekblad or McDavid.”

Changing the NHL Draft age would drastically change the way the draft is conducted. Looking back over the past two drafts, top selections like McDavid, Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews, and Patrik Laine would likely have been able to still be drafted at age 18. All four of them have been successful in their rookie seasons, and were clearly NHL-ready at age 18/19. While McDavid was a CHL exceptional-status player, the other three played NCAA, Swiss National League, and Liiga in their draft years. The NHL and other stakeholders would need to find a way to coordinate with all leagues to determine which players are truly exceptional and deserve to be drafted at age 18.

While the above mentioned players would still have been drafted at 18, elite prospects like Dylan Strome, Mitch Marner, Noah Hanifin, Jesse Puljujärvi, and Pierre-Luc Dubois may have been forced to wait an extra year, depending on the rules set out. As it stands now, several teams have issues with how the NHL-CHL agreement is laid out, as it forces 19-year-old draft+1 players to either play in the NHL or CHL when the AHL may be the best for their development. Strome is a current example: he’s posted 129 and 111 points in his last two years in the OHL and has nothing to gain from returning to junior, where he will dominate and potentially learn bad habits because of how dominant he is at that level. Strome has just one assist in six NHL games this year, and would be well-served by 40 games in the AHL to learn the pro game. That’s currently prevented by the NHL-CHL agreement. On one hand, it’s easy to see that CHL teams don’t want to lose their brightest stars before they absolutely have to, but at the same time it may not be in the player’s best interests to go back to junior. Changing the draft age to 19 could alleviate this issue, with drafted players only playing one more year of junior, at most, before turning pro.

LaFontaine and the stakeholders will meet again on Wednesday. On Insider Trading, McKenzie said they’ll “need to get some traction soon if it’s going to happen.”

The NHLPA would also need to agree to the change in collective bargaining when the current CBA expires in 2022 (both sides can opt out two years early). Convincing the Players Association that players will have to wait an extra year before making an NHL salary could be a tough argument, but it will be interesting to see how the discussion goes over the next little while.

The Jack Capuano Situation

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After finally breaking through to the second-round of the playoffs in 2015-16, following six consecutive first-round postseason defeats, it was expected that the New York Islanders might be ready to take yet another step in their progression. After all, the team returned its roster nearly intact and boasts a legitimate franchise player in John Tavares. Though it’s early, the Islanders are off to a disappointing 3 – 5 – 0 record and currently reside in a last place tie with Carolina. This combined with other factors has led Brandon Cohen of Today’s Slapshot to conclude that Jack Capuano has surpassed his expiration date as head coach of the Islanders.

In addition to the slow start to the 2016-17 campaign, Cohen points out that despite moving on to the second round last season and winning game one against Tampa Bay, the Islanders “crumbled” when it mattered most and turned in a disappointing effort in the series-clinching 4 – 0 loss to the Lightning in game five. Cohen also notes that a year earlier, with a chance to advance with a game seven win over Washington in the first round, the Islanders mustered just 11 total shots on goal in a performance that can best be described as “flat.”

Capuano was elevated to head coach early on in the 2010-11 campaign and is in his seventh season with more than 450 games running the Islanders bench. He’s guided the team to three playoff appearances and back-to-back 100-point seasons but as noted earlier, just a single playoff series win. It’s rare for a coach who has achieved little postseason success to be allowed that much time but GM Garth Snow has obviously exercised patience when it comes to Capuano.

The Islanders handling of their goaltending situation has elicited criticism in the last couple of days. The team has carried three goaltenders for much of the last couple of seasons due in large part to the fact Jean-Francois Berube is not waivers-exempt and would almost certainly be claimed if exposed. Because of this, it’s been hard to find appropriate practice time to keep the team’s goalies sharp. Of course some of the blame for this falls on Snow for his inability or unwillingness to move one of his tenders to clear the logjam while obtaining some value in return. But Capuano shoulders some of the responsibility as it is on him to schedulea nd plan practices.

Capuano has also found it difficult working offseason additions Jason Chimera and Andrew Ladd into the lineup. The duo has accounted for just four points, all assists, while taking up $7.75MM in cap space this year. Over the last six years, Ladd has averaged 0.33 goals-per-game and has tallied at least 23 markers in each of the last five full seasons he has played. Yet he has just one helper to date through eight games even though he has had John Tavares and Josh Bailey as linemates 63% of the time, according to the website Left Wing Lock.

Again, you could find fault with Snow for handing out those free agent deals but Ladd has been a steady producer for a long time and the onus is on Capuano to find a way to help jump start the veteran winger’s game.

Capuano has drawn praise for focusing on the development of young players. In addition to Tavares, Kyle Okposo has developed into a solid power forward who has tallied at least 60 points two of the last three seasons. Frans Nielsen turned into one of the game’s best two-way centers, mostly under Capuano’s tutelage. Meanwhile, Travis Hamonic and Calvin de Haan have grown into solid top-four defenders.

Of course there have also been several high draft picks who have yet to reach their potential. Josh Bailey was selected 9th overall in 2008 but has yet to score more than 16 goals or 41 points in any season. Ryan Strome had a 50-point campaign as a 21-year-old sophomore but his production tailed off tremendously in 2015-16, scoring just seven goals and 28 points last season.

As with any coach, there have been plenty of ups-and-downs for the Islanders under Capuano. But while Snow has demonstrated plenty of patience to date with his head coach, the time to make a change behind the bench might be drawing near if the Islanders can’t shake off the early season doldrums.

 

Western Conference Snapshots: Ducks, Preds, Duchene

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The Ducks have been busy making moves the last couple of days, according to Eric Stephens of The Orange County Register, though none included the highly anticipated re-signing of top defenseman Hampus Lindholm. Off to just a 1 – 3 – 1 start out of the gates, Anaheim demoted Mason Raymond – who recently cleared waivers – forward Nick Sorensen and blue liner Jacob Larsson. All three will report to San Diego of the AHL.

Meanwhile, the Ducks have recalled forwards Joseph Cramarossa and Michael Sgarbossa, along with defenseman Shea Theodore. Theodore was partnered with veteran defender Kevin Bieksa in practice and appears poised to make his 2016-17 debut for Anaheim.

The Ducks will also insert one of Cramarossa or Sgarbossa into the lineup for the first time this season. For the soon-to-be-24-year-old Cramarossa, an appearance would also represent his NHL debut. Cramarossa has played in 164 AHL games in the Anaheim organization since being drafted in the third-round of the 2011 draft, and has netted 17 goals and 31 points.

Additionally, the team also placed defenseman Simon Despres on LTIR as we noted earlier.

Whether these moves will spark the team and help shake the Ducks out of their early season doldrums or not remains to be seen. If not, and given the team just brought back head coach Randy Carlyle, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the team make a trade or two to help try to right the ship.

More from around the Western Conference:

  • Nashville is another team that has had a busy weekend with regards to making transactions. With the team ravaged by food poisoning, the Predators were forced to recall five players from the AHL just to field a full lineup for Staurday night’s showdown against Pittsburgh. Team captain Mike Fisher, wing Craig Smith and goaltender Pekka Rinne all missed the game, which Nashville somehow managed to win despite the depleted lineup. Today the club announced that they’ve sent three of the call-ups back to Milwaukee of the AHL. Juuse Saros, who made his NHL debut in goal and earned the win, joins forwards Frederick Gaudreau and Trevor Smith in returning to the minors.
  • It might be hard for some to believe but 25-year-old Matt Duchene appeared in the 500th NHL game of his career in last night’s loss to Florida, as Terry Frei of The Denver Post writes. Afterwards, Duchene said, “it’s the first real milestone game that made me feel a bit old.” Duchene is the third player from the 2009 draft class to reach the 500-game mark, joining the top overall pick, John Tavares, and former Colorado teammate Ryan O’Reilly. For his career, Duchene has scored 159 goals and 382 points in his eight seasons with the Avalanche.

2016-17 Season Preview: New York Islanders

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With the start of the regular season today, we continue our look at every team in the NHL. Today, we look at the New York Islanders.

Last Season: 45-27-10 (100 points), Finished 4th in the Metropolitan Division. Defeated Florida 4-2 in first round; Lost to Tampa Bay 4-1 in the second round.

Remaining Cap Space: $1.39MM per CapFriendly

Key Newcomers: Andrew Ladd (free agent), Jason Chimera (free agent), Dennis Seidenberg (free agent).

Key Departures: Kyle Okposo (signed with Buffalo), Frans Nielsen (signed with Detroit), Matt Martin (signed with Toronto).

[Related: New York Islanders Depth Chart at Roster Resource]

Players To Watch: Mathew Barzal. There are a number of players to watch, but Barzal is exciting to watch and the 16th overall pick from 2015 will be counted on to help replace the quality of players lost to free agency. Barzal had 88 points (27-61) with Seattle in the WHL last season and added 26 points (5-21) in just 18 playoff games. He’s only 19, but Barzal has a chance to make an early mark on the Islanders’ season.

Key Storyline: Can the Isles make up all that they lost in the offseason? Losing Okposo, and Nielsen will test the Isles, who though driven by captain John Tavares, will certainly miss the production from both players and especially the two-way play from Nielsen, who will fill the same role in Detroit. The Islanders broke through the first round by stunning Florida, but were dispatched quickly by Tampa Bay. Ladd will certainly help, but his numbers fell a bit last season. Chimera will also chip in and Seidenberg will help shore up an already strong defensive corps. Another question mark is in net: what will they get out of Jaroslav Halak? Thomas Greiss was terrific last season, and it’s almost a 1A-1B argument with the netminders. Regardless, a step back wouldn’t be shocking as the Islanders lost a lot in the offseason but another playoff appearance shouldn’t be discounted with a team that has a lot of positives.

New York Hockey Notes: Halak, Tavares, Rangers

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The New York Islanders face an interesting choice when deciding who will be between the pipes to start the 2016-17 season. They have three goalies on one-way contracts – Jaroslav Halak, Thomas Greiss and Jean-Francois Berube – though realistically when it comes to the starting job, the choice will be between Halak and Greiss.

Halak had a solid season in 2015-16, winning 18 of his 36 starts and stopping nearly 92% of the shots he faced. The advanced stats crowd holds Halak in particularly high regard due in large part to his ability to limit goals against on high danger shot attempts. Over the last two seasons, Halak has stopped 84.03% of shots against from high danger scoring areas in 5v5 situations. That figure is good for seventh overall in the NHL among goalies who have seen at least 1,500 minutes of 5v5 play. Halak ranks higher than bigger names like Braden Holtby and Henrik Lundqvist.

Greiss was excellent in goal for the Islanders in the postseason with Halak unavailable due to injury. He also ranks among the best goaltenders in preventing goals in high danger situations. His 84.97 HDSv% at 5v5 is the fourth highest over the last two seasons. It’s his strong play last season and the presence of Berube that has led some to postulate the Islanders could look to trade Halak to address other needs.

This issue was addressed by Arthur Staple of Newsday in this reader mailbag. Staple points to Halak’s strong play in the World Cup as the starter for the surprising Europeans and indicates that the Islanders organization is intent on keeping him on board. That means Greiss is likely headed back to the #2 role while Berube is likely to have to wait his turn while suiting up for Bridgeport in the AHL.

Other points of interest in Staple’s mailbag and roster notes on the Islanders Big Apple rivals:

  • Staple takes an early stab at what it will ultimately cost the Islanders to extend captain and face-of-the-franchise John Tavares. He reasons that since Tavares is the “one true star” of the team – unlike in Chicago (Toews/Kane) and Pittsburgh (Crosby/Malkin), he will be able to command a larger piece of the Islander salary cap pie. Staple refers to it as a “blank check situation for him,” and a max length deal in the range of $9.5MM to $10MM annually is where the negotiation will end up. Tavares likely could push for more and certainly the Islanders would prefer a lower number but the team will undoubtedly do whatever necessary to ink their captain to a long-term deal.
  • Answering a query regarding the continued development of defenseman Nick Leddy, Staple feels the 25-year-old blue liner can take the next step and become an “elite” defender. Staple suggests the Islanders will limit Leddy’s ice time by cutting his penalty-killing duties in the hopes he will remain fresher and produce better numbers at five-on-five.
  • Steve Zipay of Newsday projects the Rangers opening night roster and notes the team will have a significant amount of cap space remaining for one of the few times in recent memory. The Blueshirts had just $200K in cap space to open the 2015-16 campaign but assuming Zipay’s projections are close to accurate, the team will have in excess of $3MM with which to play with. Of course having that flexibility would allow the Rangers to add salary at any point during the season, rather than waiting until the trade deadline, should they find a deal to their liking.

 

Metropolitan Notes: Fleury, Tavares, Josefson, Merrill

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While the Penguins will be missing Matt Murray for the next 3-6 weeks, they are expected to give Marc-Andre Fleury the bulk of the preseason starts instead of their other prospects that could conceivably start the season as the interim backup, writes Bill West of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.  Pittsburgh has a quality prospect in Tristan Jarry but they may prefer to give him regular action in the AHL to start the season rather than start on the bench behind Fleury in the NHL.

If that is the case, the team may look to bring in a short-term replacement, likely off the waiver wire.  Pittsburgh has just four goaltenders signed on an NHL contract and have some flexibility on the 50 contract limit so they have some room to bring another goaltender in.  Alternatively, the team has Leland Irving, who played in the AHL last season and has a handful of NHL games under his belt, on a tryout in camp.  If they don’t want to add someone from another organization, they could give him a two-way deal and have him start the season behind Fleury until Murray is ready to return.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • In a mailbag with readers, Newsday’s Arthur Staple expects John Tavares to seek an eight year deal worth between $9.5MM and $10MM per season from the Islanders when his contract expires following 2017-18. Tavares is currently making $6MM in salary for each of the next two years with a cap hit of $5.5MM.  The captain is coming off his second straight season with at least 30 goals and 70 points and led the Isles is both regular season and postseason scoring last year.
  • The Devils are experimenting with position changes for center Jacob Josefson and defenseman Jon Merrill (trying him on his off-side), notes Fire & Ice’s Andrew Gross. Merrill, a natural lefty, has played both sides on the back end over his career while Josefson, who is being tried out as a right winger, isn’t as used to his new position, having exclusively been deployed as a center since joining the Devils.  New Jersey has numerous options on the left side of their blueline including newcomer Kyle Quincey, who just joined the team yesterday so if Merrill can show he can play the right side, that will give the team much more flexibility moving forward.

Kevin Allen’s Latest: Early Predictions, Pivotal Players

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Kevin Allen writes that the Detroit Red Wings are one of five teams in danger of missing the playoffs this season. Similar to his reports while speaking with PHR, Allen lists a questionable defensive corps, inconsistent goaltending and whether or not goal scorers like Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist will find the net as they should as reasons why they may not make it back for a 26th straight season. Though he could see them sneaking in, the Wings are more vulnerable than ever before. It all depends on youth and everything coming together.

Allen also lists the Los Angeles Kings, Philadelphia Flyers, New York Islanders, and St. Louis Blues as candidates to possibly miss. With the Kings, Allen believes that the Calgary Flames and Arizona Coyotes, if better, could push the Kings who lost Milan Lucic to Edmonton. The Flyers, a surprise team in the playoffs last season, will have more competition in the Metropolitan Division while the Canadiens, who struggled after Carey Price’s injury, will also be better in the Atlantic, making the Eastern Conference a lot tougher.

The Islanders, Allen writes, lost some key players in Frans Nielsen, and Kyle Okposo. Though he calls it “sinful” to bet against a John Tavares led team, he still wonders if they grabbed enough to compensate for their losses. Finally, with the Blues, Allen reports that they took a “half step” back while division foes Chicago, Minnesota, and Nashville all improved. Further, Arizona and Calgary are better, crowding the already tight Western Conference. Losing David Backes, Brian Elliott, and Troy Brouwer also doesn’t help for depth purposes.

  • Earlier in the week, Allen also compiled a list of the ten most pivotal players heading into the season. Number one on that list is Kari Lehtonen, who will make an early push to be the primary option between the pipes for the Stars. Though he has struggled in the past, he has the opportunity to backstop a potential Stanley Cup contender. Should he not, the Stars have been an oft-reported  team to land Ben Bishop should he be available. Other names Allen included were Brian Campbell, a player he believes could solidify the Blackhawks defense, and Elliott, who could finally give the Flames a strong goaltending option.

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