St. Louis Blues Hire Marc Savard
The St. Louis Blues have decided to give Marc Savard his first shot in the NHL coaching ring, hiring him as an assistant for Craig Berube. Savard had been working as an analyst for Toronto Maple Leafs broadcasts and has a relationship with Berube going back to their playing days. The Blues’ bench boss released a short statement on the hire:
I was fortunate to play with Marc during my career and I’m very familiar with his passion and acumen for the game. He was a tremendous player and possesses an elite offensive mind. His addition to our staff will be a great benefit to our players and the organization.
There’s no doubting how effective Savard was during his playing career. Originally selected in the fourth round—likely because of his size, given he had just scored 139 points in 66 OHL games—he quickly forced his way into the NHL and never looked back. The 5’10” center was an incredible playmaker, creating space for himself before finding an open teammate. In 807 career regular season contests Savard recorded 706 points, including back-to-back years of 97 and 96 during his prime. His 69 assists in 2005-06 was the franchise record for the Atlanta Thrashers/Winnipeg Jets until last season when Blake Wheeler recorded 71.
Unfortunately, Savard’s career was cut short by multiple concussions sustained in 2010 and 2011. When the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011, Savard’s name was included despite not having played in the postseason after the team petitioned the league to include it. He wouldn’t play again, though his contract would run through the 2016-17 season.
Savard joins Steve Ott and Mike Van Ryn as assistants for Berube as the Blues attempt to defend their Stanley Cup championship in 2019-20. He is expected to take on a role with skills development and contribute to the powerplay.
Pacific Notes: Kovalchuk, Hoffman, Ritchie, Karlsson
The Los Angeles Kings may have moved one of their biggest trade chips several weeks ago in Jake Muzzin, but don’t expect the Kings to stand pat as the deadline nears. Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times writes that general manager Rob Blake has spoken to veteran winger Ilya Kovalchuk, who is seriously considering waiving his no-move clause to go to a contender.
However, Kovalchuk, who signed a three-year, $18.75MM deal last summer, might not fetch a big return for the Kings. A team has to be willing to take on two more years of the 35 year-old’s contract which carries an expensive $6.25MM AAV with it. He has scored 13 goals and has 28 points in 50 games so far this year, while dealing with injuries, but few teams would be willing to give up more than a lower-level prospect to take on Kovalchuk.
Elliott also points out that Los Angeles are far more likely to hold onto defenseman Alec Martinez, who might not bring back the return they were hoping for, while few teams have shown much interest in Jeff Carter so far.
- Sportsnet’s Marc Savard tweets that the Florida Panthers are getting a lot of calls on forward Mike Hoffman and the Arizona Coyotes, who are looking to make a late playoff run, are pushing hard to acquire the speedy winger. The 29-year-old is having a nice season as he has 26 goals and 51 points, which is in line for a career year. Hoffman could bring back a signficant return as he has another year on his deal at $5.19MM and would be another significant addition of scorers for the Coyotes.
- The Anaheim Ducks may make a quiet move or two, but after agreeing to a five-year extension with Jakob Silfverberg, the team lacks any significant trade assets to move at the trade deadline. However, The Athletic’s Eric Stephens (subscription required) writes that with the play of Max Jones and the Max Comtois (currently in juniors), winger Nick Ritchie might be expendable now and be potentially available. A holdout at the beginning of the season, Ritchie eventually signed an inexpensive three-year deal, totaling just $4.6MM, which some teams might covet. Ritchie, of course, hasn’t proven he can be anything more than a 15-goal scorer.
- Kevin Kurz of The Athletic reports that Erik Karlsson, who left in the second period of Saturday’s loss to Columbus, tweaked his groin injury in the game. No word on the severity of the injury, however. Karlsson already missed a month between January and February with that lower-body injury, and more missed time would be a setback for a Sharks’ team trying to work their way to the top of the Pacific Division. Head coach Peter DeBoer said he is concerned. “Absolutely,” said DeBoer. “I thought we were as conservative and cautious as you can be but muscle injuries you don’t know. Sometimes you get in positions or over-extend it. We’ll see where it’s at tomorrow.”
Snapshots: Prospects, Olympics, Savard
The NHL’s Central Scouting has released their midterm rankings for North American and International skaters, with Andrei Svechnikov and Rasmus Dahlin leading the way respectively. Dahlin is about as locked in as a prospect can be for the first-overall selection, but several others will be battling for the number two spot. Svechnikov, Filip Zadina, Adam Boqvist and Brady Tkachuk are all top options who could be in the top three selections, and should b considered blue chip pieces for whoever ends up with them.
Interestingly, players like Ryan Merkley (#21 among North American skaters) and Bode Wilde (#22) find themselves relatively far down the list despite their previous top-10 projections. Whether that has more to do with their own play slipping this season or the influx of talent throughout the draft class is unclear, but it should excite even teams in the playoff picture with the prospect of adding an impact player on defense.
- Many of the Olympic rosters have now been released, with young players like Dahlin, Miro Heiskanen and Eeli Tolvanen dominating the headlines for Sweden and Finland. Rosters for the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland and host Korea are available on the IIHF website. Igor Eronko of Sport-Express reports that the Olympic Athletes from Russia squad will release their roster on Thursday, which should be one of the powerhouses of the tournament.
- Marc Savard has officially announced his retirement, exactly seven years after his last game in the NHL. The exquisite playmaker was forced from the game due to concussion problems, but was still technically under contract through last season. His career ended in 2011 with the Bruins after 807 games, in which he registered 706 points including seasons of 97 and 96. According to Chris Lomon of the NHLPA, Savard is looking to move up the coaching ranks after spending some time behind the bench of his sons’ triple-A teams.
PHR Mailbag: Blashill, Trade Deadline, Savard
Over the last few days, we’ve taken your mailbag questions on Twitter using the hashtag #PHRMailbag and on the site via the comments feature. Here are the inquiries for this edition of the mailbag:
@JimRouleau39: When will the Red Wings make a move on Jeff Blashill? The team seems to have no energy! And continue to beat themselves.
This season has been nothing short of a disaster so far for Detroit. They sit dead last in the Eastern Conference and their quarter-century playoff streak is in serious jeopardy. Despite that, I don’t suspect Blashill’s job is in jeopardy any time soon.
GM Ken Holland is quite patient and Blashill was long heralded as Mike Babcock’s successor even while he was still behind the bench for the Red Wings. At that time, they were hesitant to grant interviews for Blashill to interview for other NHL head coaching jobs, something that doesn’t typically happen. Blashill has been Holland’s guy for a long time now and it’s hard to see one season, as bad as it has been, cause him to change his mind.
Detroit has been hit hard by injuries this year while goalie Petr Mrazek hasn’t played anywhere near the level that he is capable of. These are also factors that suggest that Blashill will get another opportunity next season with what may be a bit of a different looking roster.
Jay: In general would you expect less trades this deadline because of the expansion draft or will that not really have a huge impact.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see a quieter deadline this year because of the dearth of sellers and a lot of teams being capped out. I don’t expect the expansion draft to be at the forefront at the deadline though except for the sellers who can try to plan ahead a little bit. For the teams that are looking to contend, their focus is going to be adding the right piece(s) to help them win now and worry about sorting out their protected list later. Most of the deadline deals are likely to be rental players anyways and it’s unlikely that those pending unrestricted free agents will be considered for protection.
For teams like Arizona, Colorado, and whoever else becomes a sure fire seller over the next month, they can determine what their list is likely to look like in June and who is most likely to be selected by the Golden Knights. From there, they could see if a buyer would have interest in making a move for that player but beyond that, I suspect the bulk of the expansion-related deals will come after the trade deadline.
@Grade5Woolgar: Where and how is Marc Savard? Post concussion and no news since. Is he ok?
Savard is living in Peterborough, ON and is staying involved in hockey as, like many retired players, he is coaching his son at the minor hockey level. He also has taken up golf and has qualified for a couple of tournaments on a lower professional golf circuit although his physical limitations have made it difficult for him to play a full four rounds. He’s also dealing with some memory loss as well given all of the concussions he has dealt with, the last one coming back in 2010-11 when he last played.
This is the final year that Savard will be on the books of an NHL team as the Devils acquired him from Florida as a salary cap dump last offseason. Once his contract expires, he will likely officially file his retirement papers.