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Vegas Not Worried About Having Too Much Defense

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To some observers, the Vegas Golden Knights have some problems. The team has 13 defensemen on their roster, 11 with NHL experience. Yet, general manager George McPhee is not worried about the glut of defenders on his roster. While the coaches get a say, it will be McPhee who will make the final decision on who plays.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal’s David Schoen writes that the team will likely keep eight defenders on their 23-man roster, so that should give defenseman a bit of comfort room. He also writes that it looks like nine players will compete for those eight spots. Three veterans will undoubtedly make the roster in Jason Garrison, Deryk Engelland and Luca Sbisa. Expect Brayden McNabb, the physical defender from the Los Angeles Kings to get a spot on the defensive roster as well as Nate Schmidt, who just signed a new two-year deal for $4.45MM. That’s five. Colin Miller, who led the Boston Bruins in Corsi For and Goals For percentage last season, should also be in the top six.

That leaves a still a number of defensemen who will be fighting for those last two spots.

“Our defensemen can count. They know there are a lot of D here right now,” McPhee said. “We’ll just have to see how camp goes and how we proceed. To be fair, you’d like to say it’s going to be the best six guys, but we’ll see. Sometimes you have to think short term and long term in this job and do what’s best for the organization from that standpoint.”

That quote might suggest that former Anaheim Ducks’ Shea Theodore, who the team picked up in an expansion deal, might be forced to start the season for the AHL Chicago Wolves as he still has waiver options remaining. Theodore, who had a major impact for the Ducks’ defense in the playoffs last year is still just 22 years old and only has 53 games of NHL experience so far, not including the playoffs. He put up just nine points in 34 games last year, but put up eight points in 14 playoff games in an expanded role. Others who will have to fight for spot include Jon Merrill, Clayton Stoner, Griffin Reinhart and Brad Hunt.

Schoen speculates that Merrill is likely to stay with the team, which could leave Stoner out. The team picked up Stoner with Theodore in part of an expansion trade deal. The Anaheim Ducks wanted to rid themselves of Stoner’s $3.25MM contract, but the 32-year-old injury plagued defender has not played since early last season and played in just 14 games last year.

Of course, none of this speculation makes any difference if the team can make a deal. The Golden Knights, who have already traded off several defensemen since the expansion draft, could be waiting for training camps to start. They may be hoping that an injury or a lack of depth could prompt a team to trade for one of their glut of defensemen. However, for now, McPhee continues to state that he is happy to have so much depth on their blueline.

“The neat thing about this process, and I’ve tried to explain this to a number of people, it’s still a blank canvas,” McPhee said. “We’re completely open minded about what might develop. I’m open for some unknown surprises. It’s wide open, and it should be.”

New Jersey Devils Must Focus On Defense

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The New Jersey Devils team struggled on all aspects last season, so general manager Ray Shero concentrated the offseason on upgrading its offense and they did that successfully. They selected Nico Hischier with the first-overall pick in this year’s draft and expect him immediately contribute as a center. They traded with the capped-out Washington Capitals to acquire 26-year-old winger Marcus Johansson for a couple of draft picks. They even signed veteran Brian Boyle to add a little scoring punch on the back lines. And with some of their young players slowly emerging, the Devils offense looks to be heading in the right direction.

Not so much on defense. Their defense, which struggled on giving up shots last year, hasn’t changed at all. The team still has Andy Greene, Ben Lovejoy, Damon Severson and John Moore as their top-four defenders — the same guys who tied for sixth in most goals allowed (2.94) and finished 10th in shots allowed (31.4). With no changes on defense, don’t be shocked if those numbers don’t improve too much. To make matters worse, there is expected to be little improvement among these regulars as most of them are getting old. Greene is turning 34 and starting to slow down. Lovejoy, 33, struggled last year and was demoted off the top line. Moore had a career-high 12 goals, but struggles on defense. Only the 22-year-old Severson has future promise.

However, what options remain? According to CBS New York’s Steve Lichtenstein, Shero is “keenly aware” that the team needs to upgrade their blueline. With all their promising youth and development on offense, the team seems to have few defensive prospects at all.

Despite the team’s $19.4MM in available cap space, via CapFriendly, there isn’t much available on the free agent market. The team failed to bring over Kevin Shattenkirk at the onset of free agency. Their attempt failed as he instead inked a long-term deal with the rival Rangers. The best possibility remaining at this point would be Cody Franson, but according to Lichtenstein, he is not on Shero’s radar. Perhaps a trade can fix their defense. Vegas has too many defenders and one might be able to be had for cheap. One of them is former Devil Jonathon Merrill, who they lost to Vegas in the expansion draft, but how much of an improvement would he be if he was part of the problem in New Jersey last year. Hopefully, New Jersey has a plan.

Odd Defenseman Out In Vegas

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Although some of this might be attributed to wishful thinking, the Edmonton Journal’s David Staples openly wonders whether Griffin Reinhart could find his way back to Edmonton. This comes only a day after Reinhart was signed to a reasonable $800,000 deal for two-years in Vegas. Staples wonders whether the excess of defense on the left side will force Vegas to place Reinhart on waivers in an attempt to send him to the AHL. He surmises, probably correctly, that GM Peter Chiarelli would take another gamble on the player if it were to get that far. It seems incredibly unlikely he would make it to Edmonton’s position in the waiver wire, however, as many worse franchises would likely place a claim. It’s even less likely that Vegas management would risk losing that sort of asset for nothing in the first place.

Reinhart is unlikely to make an Edmonton return, but it’s not totally inconceivable that he’d be the odd man out in Vegas. The team went heavy on defense in the expansion draft, and odds are that they will eventually lose someone to the waiver wire if they can’t maneuver more moves. Once Nate Schmidt is signed, they’ll have 11 defensemen on the NHL roster, and that’s if Erik Brannstrom doesn’t make the big squad. Even assuming the Golden Knights can trade two more players, they’re not likely to carry more than 8 defensemen. Someone will be sacrificed to waivers unless GM George McPhee can pull some magic before the start of the season.

The most aged players include Jason Garrison (32), who has a no-trade clause, Deryk Engelland (35), Luca Sbisa (27), and Clayton Stoner (32). Brayden McNabb, Colin Miller, Schmidt, and Shea Theodore will likely constitute the team’s future defense, and it might be difficult for Reinhart to crack that group. Brad Hunt and Jon Merrill are the least likely to attract any major attention if they were to be waived, so there is no necessity to start floundering yet. Hunt in particular would pass with almost no difficulty, as the 5’9, 28-year old defender hasn’t been overly impressive in his 33 career NHL games. Still, depending on who else is moved and whether Reinhart makes an impact at training camp, he could be seen as a non-core piece. McPhee will need to make a determination as to who will be getting major playing time, considering that at this moment things are far too crowded for the younger players to shine.

McNabb, Schmidt, and Miller seem the safest for the moment, but anything can happen. The right side has to be a concern, as only Engelland and Miller naturally play that position. As for now, we’ll have to wait and see who gets unloaded for picks and future assets, and whether they will be much difficulty in doing so. It seems unlikely that Vegas would move Reinhart, a young piece who they just re-signed, considering that if nothing else he can fill a 7th or 8th defensive position. Sbisa and Stoner seem to be the most likely to move out to a team starved for defensive depth, especially considering their contracts are each only good for one more season.

Vegas Still Has To Deal Multiple Defensemen

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The Vegas Golden Knights still have a lot of work left for them as the offseason continues. The team was heavily commended for focusing on drafting defense in the expansion draft several weeks ago and from there flipping those players for picks as Golden Knights general manager George McPhee has stated numerous times that they are building for the next five years. The team has stockpiled a large number of draft picks since then and still have a number of players to trade, whether that will be now or at the trade deadline next season.

However, they seem to have one issue that they must address before the season starts. Despite trading a bunch of defenseman for picks, the team still has a surplus of defensemen on its roster and the market is beginning to dry up. The team has already traded Trevor van Riemsdyk to Carolina, David Schlemko to Montreal and Marc Methot to Dallas for picks. Just last week, the team moved Alexei Emelin to Nashville, but they had to retain $1.1MM of his salary in order to make the deal work.

The team currently has 11 defensemen with NHL experience on its roster, which is about four or five defensemen too many. The team has made it clear that it doesn’t want to trade its young defensemen, so it’s the veterans they want to trade. The last thing the Golden Knights want to do is be forced to play veterans like Jason Garrison, Clayton Stoner and Luca Sbisa over their younger, but more than ready defensemen. The problem is that Garrison, Stoner and Sbisi are struggling players on expensive contracts. While all three players have only one year on their contracts remaining, Garrison will get $4.6MM, Stoner receives $3.25MM and Sbisi will make $3.6MM next season.

Garrison, 32, has lost a step and found himself being demoted to the bottom of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s depth chart. His salary forced Tampa Bay to offer Vegas two draft picks and Russian prospect Nikita Gusev to take him in the expansion draft. Stoner has dealt with numerous injuries in the last few years and Anaheim had to offer Shea Theodore to make Vegas take Stoner, but after playing just 14 games for the Ducks last year and a declining game, who would want him and that salary? Sbisi is just 27, but he struggled with Vancouver and with his salary may not have much trade value either, but he might be their best hope to make a deal.

The point, of course, is that Vegas will want to play their young defensemen like Theodore, Nate Schmidt, Colin Miller, Brayden McNabb, Jonathon Merrill and maybe even Griffin Reinhart. So, the team must do something to avoid the logjam. There are other options as well. Like Emelin, they could retain some of these players’ salaries in hopes a team would take some of them off their hands. They could wait till training camp and watch for teams that still have holes or suffer injuries that need filling. Another option would be to buy them out or even just sit them in favor of their younger players. However, one would hope Vegas has a plan in place.

Devils-Bruins Notes: Lappin, Prout, Stafford, McPhee

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Ahead of tonight’s road match-up with the Boston Bruins, the New Jersey Devils have recalled rookie winger Nick Lappin on an emergency basis from the AHL’s Albany Devils. Lappin is expected to get the call tonight, as the 24-year-old forward has worked his way back into the lineup. Lappin has four goals and three assists in 35 games with New Jersey this season, but was sent down to the minors on January 12th and had yet to return to the lineup. While in Albany, Lappin was nearly a point-per-game player, with nine goals and eleven assists in 24 contests. Lappin is in just his second pro season since leaving Brown University, and no matter how many games he plays for the Devils down the stretch, he will not be eligible for exposure in the Expansion Draft. GM Ray Shero will have to look elsewhere on the roster for the solution to his coverage problem.

  • A pair of deadline day acquisitions will make their debuts tonight. With Andy Greene out of the lineup for personal reasons, Dalton Prout will get a chance to show the Devils what he brings to the table. The 26-year-old tough guy had only played in 15 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets this season before being traded for Kyle Quincey at the deadline, but brings a physical game and hard-nosed presence to any game that he is a part of. With another year left on his contract, Prout is looking to impress his new team and carve out a role for himself in the future. In the short-term, he is likely trying to play well enough tonight to get into the Devils’ lineup tomorrow, against his former Blue Jackets team.
  • On the other side of the ice, Drew Stafford will get into his first game with the Bruins since being acquired on Wednesday. It has been a tough season for Stafford with the Winnipeg Jets, as injuries have limited him to just 40 games, and he has managed to score just 13 points in that sample size. However, Boston knows all too well how dangerous Stafford can be when he’s on his game. As a member of the Buffalo Sabres, Stafford was a consistent goal-scoring threat and tended to have some of his best games against the Bruins. Coach Bruce Cassidy hopes that Stafford can get back to his productive ways skating on a line with Ryan Spooner and Frank Vatrano, who have both been on fire since the coaching change.
  • With the trade deadline over with, Vegas Golden Knights GM George McPhee is out scouting with a clearer picture of who might be available to his team on June 21st when the new expansion team will be picked. Tonight, he’ll be taking in the Devils vs. Bruins in Boston, likely with an eye on defenseman. Although Boston and New Jersey are not exactly known for their blue line depth, neither team looks to have many attractive options up front to be exposed in the Expansion Draft. Instead, the Devils will have to pick four of Greene, Prout, Damon Severson, John Moore, Ben Lovejoy, and Jon Merrill to expose, while the Bruins can only protect one of Adam McQuaid, Colin Miller, and Kevan Miller to go along with Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug.  

Evening Transactions: Blues, Oilers, Devils, Sharks

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News and notes from around the NHL this evening:

  • The Blues announced that they have recalled forward Wade Megan from the Chicago Wolves. The 26-year-old made his NHL debut earlier this season, scoring a goal in his first career game. In 50 games with Chicago this season, Megan has collected a league-high 23 goals to go along with 22 assists. Earlier today, the team placed forward Paul Stastny on the injured reserve with a lower-body injury.
  • The Oilers have activated winger Iiro Pakarinen from the injured reserve, the team announced on Twitter. This wasn’t a huge surprise, as Pakarinen was recalled earlier this week following the demotion of forward Anton Lander. After scoring five goals and compiling eight assists last year, the 25-year-old hasn’t played a single game for the Oilers this season.
  • The Devils announced (via Twitter) that they had activated defender Jon Merrill from the injured reserve. After having missed the past four games with an upper body injury, the 25-year-old is expected to play for New Jersey tonight. In 27 games this season, the former second-rounder has accounted for one goal, three assists, and 18 penalty minutes.
  • The Toronto Marlies, the Maple Leafs AHL affiliate, announced (via Twitter) that they have acquired defender Alex Gudbranson on loan from the Wild. The 22-year-old has spent this season playing with the Quad City Mallards of the ECHL, where he’s compiled four goals and 11 assists in 45 games.
  • As part of their near-daily roster shuffle for cap reasons, the Sharks announced (via Twitter) that winger Timo Meier and Marcus Sorensen, as well as defenseman Tim Heed, have all been sent to their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda.  Of the three, only Meier has played a semi-regular role in the NHL this season, suiting up in 25 games while recording three goals and two assists.

East Notes: Snow, Senators Power Play, Merrill, Hall

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While Islanders head coach Jack Capuano has come under fire for their slow start to the season (they sit 15th in the Eastern Conference with a 5-8-3 record), not enough criticism has been directed towards general manager Garth Snow, suggests Peter Botte of the New York Daily News.

Snow has been at the helm of the Isles since 2006, retiring from his playing career to take the position.  At the time, he stated that the goal was to take them from being a team looking to sneak into a playoff spot to one that would be a consistent contender but that has yet to be the case; two of their last three appearances came as a wild card or eighth seed.

While previous owner Charles Wang had placed significant restrictions on spending for the most, that isn’t the case with new owners Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin as the team sits with just over $600K in cap space according to CapFriendly.  Snow’s offseason spending has yet to work out as left wingers Andrew Ladd and Jason Chimera have underachieved while P.A. Parenteau is off to a good start…for New Jersey after the Islanders waived him in training camp.

Wang had a reputation for being very loyal to his employees but neither Capuano nor Snow have that type of history with the new ownership.  In their first year owning the team, it’s hard to imagine them cleaning house so quickly but if the team continues to struggle, that could change.  It’s not often that in-season GM changes are made given the lack of available candidates from other organizations which could play a role should ownership feel a change is necessary at some point.

Other notes from the Eastern Conference:

  • The Senators are last in the NHL on the power play with a success rate of just 9.3% (a surprise given that Guy Boucher’s teams have a reputation for being strong in that regard). Don Brennan of the Ottawa Sun wonders if sticking defenseman Dion Phaneuf up front in the crease to work as a more effective screener is the way to go.  Boucher calls a move like that a last resort and is more inclined to try different forwards – including tough guy Chris Neil – in different spots on the man advantage for the time being.
  • The Devils announced via Twitter that they have activated defenseman Jon Merrill off of injured reserve. Merrill broke his index finger in the preseason and has yet to suit up for New Jersey since the regular season got underway.  He had five points in 47 games last season while averaging nearly 17 minutes per game of ice time.  Still with the Devils, left winger Taylor Hall will not play tonight due to a lower body injury.  Andrew Gross of Fire and Ice adds that Hall is being evaluated by team doctors and more should be known about his situation later today.

Week In Review: 10/3/16 – 10/9/16

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It’s officially the last week of the offseason with the first games of the new regular season slated for Wednesday. Obviously roster pare downs dominated the headlines this week but there were a few other transactions of note as well as a handful of injuries that might prompt teams to see what’s available on the open market. Without further ado, here is the roundup of this week’s top hockey stories.

Key Free Agent Signings:

  • Kris Russell – Edmonton (one year, $3.1MM): It’s probably not the lucrative deal Russell was looking for at the outset of free agency but the veteran shot-blocker finally did secure a contract for 2016-17. Perhaps with a solid performance for the Oil, Russell will be in better position to pursue a multi-year pact next summer.
  • Tobias Rieder – Arizona (two years, $4.45MM): It looks like the Coyotes got the player at the price they wanted. It had been reported that Rieder was looking for $5MM over two years while the club was offering $4.4MM. Clearly the 23-year-old forward gave more than he got, presumably because he wanted to get back on the ice.
  • Jakub Nakladal – Carolina (one year, $600K): It will be interesting to see how the 28-year-old Nakladal fits with the Hurricanes current crop of talented blue liners. Not including Nakladal, Carolina has seven NHL-caliber defensemen on the roster, only one of whom is older than 24.

Added on Waivers:

  • Martin Frk – Carolina: Carolina wasn’t the only team that put a claim in on Frk but the Hurricanes were awarded the young Czech RW. He potted 27 goals for Detroit’s AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids in 2015-16 and it was mildly surprising to see the Wings risk losing him by placing him on waivers but clearly they felt the roster spot was best committed elsewhere.

Trades: 

Injury Report:

  • Jonathan Huberdeau is expected to miss 3 – 4 months with what is being called a lower-body-injury. It will be interesting to see if Panthers management looks outside the organization in an attempt to fill the void as Huberdeau was the team’s top scorer on the LW. The team does have around $10MM in cap space if they did choose to go that route.
  • Nick Bjugstad will be out for four weeks due to a broken hand. The Panthers third-line pivot tallied 34 points in 67 games last season.
  • Michael Del Zotto is set to miss the next 4 – 5 weeks with the dreaded lower-body-injury.
  • Again with the lower-body-injury, the Flyers will also be without C Scott Laughton for three to our weeks.
  • Devils defenseman Jon Merrill is out four weeks with a broken index finger.
  • Penalty-killing specialist Matt Hendricks will miss significant time, once more due to a lower-body-injury. Oilers head coach Todd McLellan indicated it would be “weeks” before Hendricks would be able to return.

Retirements:

  • Defenseman Barret Jackman called it quits after a solid, 14-year NHL career. Jackman was originally chosen in the first-round by St. Louis back in 1999 and played all but one season with the Blues before finishing up in Nashville. He wraps up his career with 186 points more than 1,100 penalty minutes in 876 regular season contests.
  • Dan Boyle announced his retirement following 17 seasons in the NHL. Boyle, one of the league’s top offensive blue liners throughout much of his career, recorded at least 39 points eight out of nine seasons from 2002-03 through 2011-12. He would score more than 600 regular season points in nearly 1,100 NHL games. Boyle was a member of the 2003-04 Stanley Cup champion Tampa Lightning and also spent time with Florida and San Jose before wrapping up his career playing two seasons with the New York Rangers.

 

 

Devils Lose Merrill, Gazdic For Four Weeks

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The New Jersey Devils announced today that they will be without the services of defenseman Jon Merrill and forward Luke Gazdic for four weeks each due to injury. Merrill broke his index finger in Saturday’s preseason tilt against the New York Rangers, while Gazdic suffered a broken left foot on September 26th.

The loss of Merrill is a particularly tough one for the Devils as their top-six was already a bit thin. Merrill recorded a goal to go along with four assists in 47 games in 2015-16 but missed the final three weeks of the season due to a shoulder injury. He had surgery on that shoulder in May and was expected to miss four months but recovered quickly enough to participate in training camp.

The Devils could choose to roll with Seth Helgeson or perhaps Yohann Auvitu to pick up the slack on the back end until Merrill is healthy. Or the club could look to the waiver wire where a number of interesting players could be available. Jakub Kindl, cut by Florida, or Matt Bartkowski, released from his PTO with Ottawa, could represent solid, short-term fixes for the Devils.

While Kindl might have name recognition going for him, he would also represent a fairly sizable financial commitment should the Devils claim the 6-foot-3, 199-pound blue liner. He is in the final year of a contract that has an AAV of $2.4MM but with Detroit retaining $360K as part of last year’s deadline trade with Florida, any team claiming Kindl would be on the hook for just over $2MM.

On the other hand, Auvitu is an intriguing player. The French-born blue liner was named the top defenseman in the Finnish League in 2015-16 and attracted plenty of interest from teams in both the NHL and the KHL this summer before choosing to sign with the Devils. The 27-year-old Auvitu also speaks five different languages: English, Russian, German, Finnish and French.

Gazdic, a big LW, spent the last three seasons with Edmonton, seeing action in 129 games for the Oil and accumulating just five goals and eight points. He was expected to add some size and toughness to the organization in a depth role.

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.

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