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Poll: Who Is The Most Likely To Bounce Back The Best From Injury?

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Injuries plague teams every year and are often hard to predict or prepare for. Yet every season, several key players find their seasons ruined due to an injury. While the league didn’t really lose a superstar player like the Tampa Bay Lightning did in 2016-17 when Steven Stamkos went down with a torn lateral meniscus in his knee and appeared in just 17 games. However, there quite a few players who went down for a chunk of time that definitely diminished their seasons. However, assuming everyone is back healthy, who will come back and have the best season next year?

Among those that missed the most time include Jeff Carter of the Los Angeles Kings, who missed 55 games with a leg injury. The 33-year-old posted a solid 13 goals and 22 points in 27 games when he returned and should be poised to put up big numbers next season, centering the second line likely alongside Tanner Pearson and Tyler Toffoli. The question is when will Father Time catch up with him. Speaking of Father Time, San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton missed quite a bit of time in the second half of the season when he suffered a knee injury that knocked him out for 35 games. The 39-year-old posted 13 goals and 36 points last season in just 47 games and could put up more impressive numbers if he can get in a full season.

Several players suffered through injuries, but also saw their numbers decline due to the lack of success of their franchises, including the New York Rangers’ Chris Kreider. The 27-year-old was looked to a year ago to lead the team in scoring after he posted a 28-goal season in 2016-17, and had 11 goals before being diagnosed with a blood clot, requiring surgery. He came back to add another five, but was far from the star forward the struggling Rangers needed. Montreal Canadiens’ Max Pacioretty also struggled last year, posting just 17 goals in the first 64 games before going down for the season with a knee injury. That production was a far cry from the four straight 30+ goal seasons he has put together before that. Can he bounce back to form whether that’s with Montreal or another team?

The Rangers also were without their star defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk for 36 games with a knee injury. The team signed to a four-year, $26.6MM deal last offseason and was looked upon to quarterback the Rangers’ offense. However, the 29-year-old managed just five goals and 18 assists in 46 games. Defenseman Justin Schultz also didn’t produce the big season that the Pittsburgh Penguins were hoping for as the 28-year-old blueliner missed 19 games with a lower-body injury. He went from a 12-goal and 51-point season in 2016-17 season to just four goals and 27 points this past year.

Goaltending also has quite a few options on players hoping to bounce back and while the Chicago Blackhawks’ Corey Crawford might be an obvious candidate, the veteran goalie did post excellent numbers (2.28 GAA, .929 save percentage) before he went down with what is believed to be a concussion. However, Montreal’s Carey Price was struggling quite a bit when he went down with a concussion. Price, who had just signed an eight-year, $88MM extension last summer, did get into 49 games, but finished with a poor 3.11 GAA and a disappointing .900 save percentage. Price has bounced back before from a down season, so there is hope the superstar goaltender can bounce back. Finally Colorado’s Semyon Varlamov struggled with injuries the past two seasons, needing two hip surgeries a year ago and then had knee issues this year. In 51 games, Varlamov finished with a 2.68 GAA, but also now has to share duties with newly acquired Philipp Grubauer if he wants to bounce back, especially since he will be an unrestricted free agent in a year.

So which player will be able to rebound from injury and return themselves to an elite player?

Pro Hockey Rumors app users, click here to vote.

Winnipeg Jets’ Jacob Trouba Awarded One-Year, $5.5MM Contract From Arbitrator

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Winnipeg Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba was awarded a one-year, $5.5MM contract from an arbitrator, according to Elliotte Friedman. The deal is an even split down the middle as the Jets submitted a $4MM bid, while Trouba requested a salary at $7MM.

The deal is very cap friendly for the Jets who could have seen a much larger sum awarded to Trouba. The Athletic’s Sean Tierney reports that the salary comparisons included Duncan Keith, Andrej Sekera, Tyler Myers, Justin Schultz, Colton Parayko and Jeff Petry.

Now with the deal complete, the Jets must turn their attention to their other restricted free agents. The team still has to deal with Brandon Tanev, Marko Dano, Tucker Poolman, Josh Morrissey, Nicolas Kerdiles, Eric Comrie, Nicolas Petan and J.C. Lipon. With the Trouba deal, the team will have less than $13MM in cap space to lock them up. However, that number will be reduced even further once performance bonuses have been added into the cap, making it closer to $9.3MM.

Regardless, the biggest concern was Trouba’s deal, which the team has 48 hours to accept it (which they will) or allow him to walk away now as an unrestricted free agent. While this relieves immediate pressure, the one-year deal suggests the team must go through the same process once again next season as he will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights for the 2019-20 season before he will become an unrestricted free agent. The team has to hope they can come to a long-term agreement at some point in the next year before losing him before the 2020-21 season. With the possibility that Trouba is not interest in signing long-term with the Jets, Trouba’s name could find itself in the rumor mill for quite a long time. The team, however, cannot talk extension until Jan. 1, 2019.

Behind The Scenes Of The Jacob Trouba Arbitration Case

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Arbitration cases rarely go through the hearing stage in the NHL, so for Jacob Trouba and the Winnipeg Jets to have reached this point in their negotiations – on the first scheduled day of hearing dates no less – is a major surprise. TSN’s Sara Orlesky reports that the two sides did in fact sit down for their hearing with the arbitrator and that a decision will be handed down in the next 48 hours. The Jets and Trouba have until that decision is made to agree to a deal on their own terms, likely a long-term extension, otherwise they will be stuck with a one-year deal and have to go through the process once again next summer.

So what exactly did it look like in the hearing today? Likely not what many would think. While the player and team are present during presentations to the arbitrator, neither team executives nor the player’s representation are in charge of arguing the case. The NHL Players’ Association handles the player side, while the teams use one of three lawyers to present their side: Dan Rabinowitz and Andre Nowakowski of Miller-Thomson in Toronto or Andre Lepage of BFC in Montreal. Each side makes their case based on briefs that they have previously filed to both the opposing side and the arbitrator, bringing in exhibits to support their arguments as well. The briefs contain the salary figures sought; the Jets reportedly filed at $4MM and Trouba at $7MM. It is a wide spread for the abitrator to consider and he may decide at or in between those figures.

What is the content of the arguments? Also somewhat contrary to what one may think, the two sides spend little time actually arguing the merits of the player, at least in absolute terms. The backbone of a salary arbitration case is the comparable players. For Trouba, the NHLPA would generally have comparable players that make $7MM or more to show that their filing number is fair, while the team reps will use comparable players around $4MM or less to prove their value. Each side will identify strengths or weaknesses to the player and find comparables that they can use to strengthen those points. The use of concrete search criteria to choose comparable players is key and often results in both sides tweaking their criteria ever so much that it includes only player who benefit their case. There are also rules regarding the players used: they must be current contracts, they must be recent contracts, and they must be contracts signed by a player who was or would have been an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent. Any deviation from this criteria would seriously injure the persuasiveness of the use of that comparable player. Other things that cannot be considered are off-ice behavior, even including something like Trouba’s previous contract holdout, or the team’s salary cap or roster depth status, which the Jets wish they could use in this case.

So who might be comparables in the Trouba case? The filing numbers for both sides suggest that there could be a wide range of possibilities. Using only the most basic metrics – games played and points-per-game – players like Justin Schultz, Colton Parayko, and Tyson Barrie lie right in the middle of the two values at $5.5MM and either side might struggle to use them effectively. Unfortunately for the NHLPA, those appear to be their best options. The case for any might be percentage of the salary cap rather than actual salary, given the major jump this off-season. Players like Torey Krug, Jared Spurgeon, Sami Vatanen and Dmitry Orlov would favor the Jets slightly more, but their home run option is likely a player like David Savard at $4.25MM.

After all the comparables have been presented, arguments have been made, and rebuttals and closing comments have been heard, the arbitrator will take his time to make the decision on just how much Trouba is worth based on everything he has witnessed. During that time, the two sides – who have also been enlightened to some extent – also come back together and talk contract terms. In recent years, hearings have more often than not led to independent agreements and not official decisions. Will it be the same for Jacob Trouba and the Winnipeg Jets? We will know soon enough.

Metropolitan Notes: Panarin, Oleksiak, Skjei

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With the team’s work with their restricted free agents now complete, Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen now has time to work on more important projects for the team. The GM’s top priority is to attempt to talk to star Artemi Panarin and try and talk him into signing a long-term deal. Now, NHL.com’s Igor Eronko reports that Kekalainen intends to meet with Panarin in France on Monday.

Panarin, who will be an unrestricted free agent next season, could become the headline superstar available to teams like John Tavares was this offseason. The 26-year-old originally signed with the Chicago Blackhawks and was traded a year ago to Columbus to alleviate salary cap issues. He posted excellent numbers with the Blue Jackets in the first season, putting upu 27 goals and a career-high 82 points. He has already stated that he isn’t willing to discuss an extension “as of now,” and it has been suggested by his agent Dan Milstein that the Blue Jackets might be better off trading him now.

Kekalainen obviously hopes that he can either convince Panarin to consider signing an extension soon or be convinced that he will have to make a trade to get Panarin to a team that he wants to play for.

  • The Pittsburgh Penguins locked up defenseman Jamie Oleksiak to a three-year, $6.4MM deal a few days ago, but it shows how far the 6-foot-7, 255-pound blueliner has come, according to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Unable to break into the Stars’ lineup throughout the first five years of his career, he found himself traded to Pittsburgh where assistant coaches Jacques Martin and Sergei Gonchar altered his entire game like the franchise has done in the last few years with other blueliners such as Justin Schultz, Ian Cole and Chad Ruhwedel. Using film, they have worked on his defensive skills, penalty killing, his shot and his stickhandling to start and have high expectations for him next season. His offense has already started as in 47 games with Pittsburgh he posted four goals and 14 points.
  • Shayna Goldman of The Athletic (subscription required) breaks down the New York Rangers restricted free agency dilemma, especially looking at what to do with defenseman Brady Skjei in regards to giving the blueliner a bridge deal or long-term deal. The scribe looks back to forward Kevin Hayes, also a restricted free agent, who received a two-year bridge deal, but now will cost the team quite a bit of money. Skjei, who is coming off a down year, might be better off with a bridge deal to see what kind of player he becomes over the next two seasons. However, a long-term deal might also be quite beneficial because it would come at a lower cost. Even if he doesn’t become more than a third-pairing defenseman, a low-cost long-term deal has quite a bit of trade value as well.

Rutherford Eyeing Trade Market To Improve Penguins

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Changes are coming in Pittsburgh this off-season, but GM Jim Rutherford is “not even really thinking about free agency right now”. Speaking with Josh Yohe of the Athletic, Rutherford admits that “we won’t really have the cap space to do anything anyway. We’re going to re-sign some of our restricted free agents. And at that point, we’re around the cap.” The Penguins need to re-sign RFA’s Bryan Rust, Riley Sheahan, Daniel Sprong, Jamie Oleksiak and more and even with the expected increase to the salary cap limit will only have $8-12MM maximum to work with. The team could make a couple additional minor moves here and there on the unrestricted free agent market, but Rutherford is correct that team is strapped for the cap space to make any significant signings this summer, at least as things stand now.

As a result, it is the trade market that Rutherford is more interested in. The team has already stated that they don’t plan to buy out any of their current players, but they could look to move them via trade. Atop that list are likely wingers Carl Hagelin and Conor Sheary and defenseman Matt Hunwick. In fact, the blue line appears to be the most likely area for a player to be traded away, as the team enters next season with six veterans under contract and Oleksiak and Frank Corrado as restricted free agents. Rutherford stated to Yohe that defenseman Brian Dumoulin is the most untouchable player on the back end due to his invaluable defensive play, and also expressed his fondness for Oleksiak and Olli Maatta as well. Rutherford said that the front office is optimistic that Kris Letang and Hunwick will perform better next year and were happy with the play of Justin Schultz and Chad Ruhwedel as they made up for Letang’s and Hunwick’s shortcomings respectively this season. However, Rutherford added that his comfort with this group doesn’t mean that won’t make a change.

The goal in making any deal is to improve the depth and youth of the Penguins’ forward corps. This explains why the team was connected to Max Domi recently, before he was traded to the Montreal Canadiens last week. The team is seeking versatility and upside up front and are willing to move substantial assets to get it, but Rutherford wasn’t willing to part with the Alex Galchenyuk-level ask from the Arizona Coyotes for Domi. Rutherford knows that even if he does nothing this summer, Pittsburgh will still be a contender, and as such he does not need to overpay in any trade. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are not going anywhere and Rutherford has already confirmed that he is not shopping Phil Kessel. It’s safe to assume that young winger Jake Guentzel and new acquisition Derick Brassard are also safe. That is already shaping up to be a solid group yet again and the internal addition of younger players should add energy and potential. However, Rutherford’s preference still is to add depth and even more youth if he can to combat the injuries and fatigue that hurt his aging roster last year. Those are the moves he is looking to make this summer and it seems inevitable that at least one such transaction will be made by the expert executive. They may not be three-peat champions, but the Penguins are going to re-stock and be dangerous again in 2018-19.

Nicklas Backstrom Out For Game Six

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The Washington Capitals finally have a chance to get past the Pittsburgh Penguins, the one roadblock that has kept them from true Stanley Cup contention for years, as they enter Game Six this evening with a 3-2 series lead. However, as they take on the two-time defending champs in their own building, the Capitals will be even further disadvantaged by the loss of one their top players. The team has announced that Nicklas Backstrom is out for the crucial match-up and is day-to-day with an undisclosed upper-body injury.

While Washington may not want to officially announce the specifics of Backstrom’s injury, it is clearly a hand injury. As Sportsnet’s John Shannon points out, Backstrom was obviously sporting a heavily bandaged right hand when entering the arena earlier. Backstrom blocked a Justin Schultz shot with his hand in the first period of Game Five and saw limited ice time and no face-offs for the rest of the game. The injury now appears to be severe enough that he could not play through it tonight.

Not only is Backstrom a bona fide regular season star in the NHL, with a near point-per-game pace throughout his entire eleven-year career, but he is arguably better in the postseason. Backstrom has 88 points in 107 playoff games while skating for more than 21 minutes per night. Especially during the Caps’ current run, Backstrom has been an offensive force, recording 13 points in 11 games, including a three-point game against the Penguins in a Game Three win. Backstrom’s absence will not go unnoticed and is a major detriment to the Capitals’ depth. Washington has lost in each of the last six opportunities that they have had to reach the Eastern Conference final. To snap that streak, either tonight or possibly on Wednesday night too, they will have to find a way to win without Backstrom.

Kings’ Dustin Brown Suspended For One Game

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7:15 PM: Brown has been suspended for one game, the Department of Player Safety announced (Twitter link).  He will sit out Tuesday night against Carolina and return on Thursday versus Pittsburgh.

1:38 PM: The Department of Player Safety announced this afternoon that they will have a hearing today for the Los Angeles Kings Dustin Brown for kneeing Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev during Saturday nights game. The knee-to-knee hit can be seen here.

Brown, who is not new to the Department of Player Safety hearings, had a hearing only last month for cross-checking Pittsburgh Penguins’ Justin Schultz. In that incident, Brown got a surprisingly gently slap on the wrist as he was not suspended despite receiving a five-minute major and a game misconduct for the hit. He was fined $10,000. Brown had been suspended two games 18 months previous to that for a hit against Jason Pominville, then with the Minnesota Wild.

While he wasn’t necessarily classified as a repeat offender in his hearing in January, that won’t be the case this time around as a suspension would seem likely. With the Kings fighting to stay in the Western Conference playoff race (currently holding the third spot in the Pacific Division), losing Brown for any amount of time could be crippling. The 33-year-old wing has 16 goals and 38 points. He also has accumulated 52 penalty minutes, the most since he had 66 in the 2013-14 season.

Dustin Brown, Evgeni Malkin Receive Fines

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The Department of Player Safety has decided on supplementary discipline for the actions taken in last night’s Los Angeles Kings-Pittsburgh Penguins game, with Dustin Brown earning a $10,000 fine for cross-checking Justin Schultz, and Evgeni Malkin receiving a $5,000 fine for a spear delivered on Brown earlier in the game.

It’s a surprising result to be sure, since Brown was given a five minute major and a game misconduct for the hit, which was delivered while Schultz was already on his knees sliding towards the boards. Many expected him to receive a suspension, especially with a previous incident in his past that earned him two games for an elbow on Jason Pominville. Though it happened more than 18 months ago and would not classify him as a repeat offender in regards to the salary he would have to forfeit, all history is taken into account by the DoPS when handing out supplementary discipline.

For Malkin, the incident came in the first period when he appeared to purposefully lift his stick forcefully between Brown’s legs when they came together at the boards. Malkin was not penalized on the play, but will now be under more scrutiny from the referees and league going forward.

Morning Notes: Seattle, Chabot, Brown

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Seattle remains a likely destination for expansion in the coming years, and people have been keeping an eye on domain names for a potential hint at what the team could name themselves. Though this is extremely early in the process and means little, it is interesting that Christina Song, general counsel for the Oak View Group, registered 13 domain names according Chris Creamer at Sportslogos.net.

Cougars, Eagles, Emeralds, Evergreens, Firebirds, Kraken, Rainiers, Renegades, Sea Lions, Seals, Sockeyes, Totems and Whales are the potential nicknames, a wide-reaching group that is in no way guaranteed to include the eventual moniker. Still, it’s fun to think about what a Seattle Kraken uniform would look like, or what colors the Seattle Firebirds would wear.

Injury Notes: Parise, Letang, Kadri, Ellis

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The Minnesota Wild will welcome Zach Parise back tonight when they take on the Florida Panthers. Parise will be making his season debut after just a one-game conditioning stint with the Iowa Wild, and will attempt to get his season off to a good start against a Panthers team that Minnesota will meet for a second time in six games.

Parise hasn’t played in more than 74 games in a single season since 2011-12, but is still an integral part of the Minnesota forward group. Receiving Selke votes as one of the leagues best defensive forwards six out of the last eight years, and only a few seasons removed from a 33-goal season, the Wild will hope Parise’s presence will kick-start their playoff pursuit. The Wild find themselves in fifth place in the Central Division, but only a single point behind the Anaheim Ducks for the second wildcard spot.

  • Kris Letang and Justin Schultz both took their regular spots at practice this morning for the Pittsburgh Penguins, which could indicate their return tonight against the Philadelphia Flyers. For the Penguins, who are still sitting outside a playoff spot (three points back of the New York Islanders), getting Letang and Schultz back would be invaluable. If one or both can quickly return to peak form, the team will once again be one to watch in the Eastern Conference.
  • Nazem Kadri will return for the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight after suffering what appeared to be a concussion against the Arizona Coyotes. Kadri told reporters today including Kristen Shilton of TSN that it in fact was just a neck injury and that he never did feel any concussion symptoms. His return will allow the Maple Leafs to move Patrick Marleau back to the wing, where he is more accustomed and effective.
  • Ryan Ellis was scheduled to return on January 2nd, and it looks like he’ll make that happen. The Nashville Predators defenseman and associate captain will likely play his first game of the season after head coach Peter Laviolette told Adam Vignan of the Tenessean that Ellis was “right there and ready to go.”

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