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Paul Byron

Snapshots: Subban, Roussel, Rust

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Bon retour P.K.! That’s what the Bell Centre’s video board read as the crowd jumped to their feet so salute a former star returning last night. P.K. Subban made his return to Montreal as a member of the Nashville Predators and received quite the ovation from Canadiens fans, standing and cheering him on throughout his video tribute as tears rolled down the defenseman’s face. Arpon Basu of NHL.com writes that those tears are all we saw from the former Norris winner all night, as the Predators fell 2-1 on a last second goal from Paul Byron.

At ESPN, the insiders—including Craig Custance, Scott Burnside and Pierre LeBrun—take a look at the short and long term ramifications of the Subban-Weber trade 60 games in. Weber is signed for another nine seasons in Montreal, while Subban is only under contract through 2021-22.

  • The hits just keep on coming for the Dallas Stars, who lost Antoine Roussel last night to injury and likely for the year. Mike Heika of SportsDay reports that head coach Lindy Ruff expects Roussel to be “a while; in all likelihood the rest of the year.” Though the Stars aren’t really competing for a playoff spot any longer, Roussel was having a career year. He was just three points shy of setting a career-high in points, and would likely have broken his goal and assist marks as well with 20 games remaining.
  • Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has some good news for Penguins fans, as he spotted Bryan Rust skating before practice. A playoff hero last season, Rust has been a solid contributor to the Penguins run this year. With 25 points in 50 games, he’s giving the team some excellent secondary scoring and is a useful piece up and down the lineup. Molinari also adds that new defenseman Mark Streit will be wearing #32 for the Penguins when he suits up for a game.

Paul Byron Returns To Habs Lineup

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After leaving the Montreal Canadiens’ match-up against the Dallas Stars last week with an upper body injury and sitting out their game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, Paul Byron is ready to return. The small, speedy forward took a big hit from Dallas’ Patrick Sharp and was unable to return, but after “a couple days off to let the body recuperate”, head coach Michel Therrien has confirmed that Byron has been cleared to play against the Washington Capitals tonight.

Though it has hardly shown through in the standings, the Canadiens have had their fair share of injuries this season and are happy to have Byron back after just a short absence with Alex Galchenyuk, Brendan Gallagher, Andrew Shaw, and David Desharnais still out of the lineup with injury. Byron is one of the main reasons that their injuries have gone largely unnoticed, as he is enjoying the best season of his career in 2016-17. The 27-year-old winger has scored 23 points in 39 games, already a career-high, and could easily double that mark before the end of the year. After being claimed off of waivers from the Calgary Flames early in 2015-16, Byron has taken his game to the next level in Montreal. Once just a replaceable bottom-six piece, Byron has transformed into one of the most reliable weapons in the Habs’ offense.

With Byron returning to the lineup surprisingly quickly, the Canadiens continue to march toward complete health. Recent news had Galchenyuk and sidelined veteran defenseman Andrei Markov back skating and expected to begin practicing again, while Shaw and Desharnais take steps toward a return as well. With a commanding lead in the Atlantic Division – nine points and three games in hand on the Boston Bruins- the Canadiens can simply tread water for the remainder of the regular season and still wind up with a top-two spot in the Eastern Conference. Only an injury to all-world goalie Carey Price could derail their playoff hopes at this point.

How Will The Expansion Draft Impact Canadian Teams?

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Continuing our look at different expansion draft angles,  CBC’s Amy Cleveland examines how the draft will affect the seven teams in Canada. Laying out the rules for the draft, Cleveland looks further and prognosticates who she sees as “potentially protected” versus those players who would be “intriguing” in being exposed. She further writes that all seven Canadian teams will be able to protect the bulk of their important players. The Flames sit prettiest without any non-movement clauses in contracts while the Leafs and Senators have only one player with an NMC (Nathan Horton, and Dion Phaneuf respectively).

Below are Cleveland’s picks for each team. Going to CBC’s page with the story includes in depth reasoning behind each of Cleveland’s choices.

Calgary Flames
NMC protected players: None.

Potentially protected: 

Intriguing exposed:

Edmonton Oilers
NMC protected players: Milan Lucic (F), Andrej Sekera (D), Cam Talbot (G)

Potentially protected: 

Intriguing exposed:

Montreal Canadiens
NMC protected players: Carey Price (G), Jeff Petry (D)

Potentially protected: 

Intriguing exposed: 

Ottawa Senators
NMC protected players: Dion Phaneuf (D)

Potentially protected: 

Intriguing exposed: 

Toronto Maple Leafs
NMC protected players: Nathan Horton (F)

Potentially protected: 

Vancouver Canucks
NMC protected players: Loui Eriksson (F), Daniel Sedin (F), Henrik Sedin (F)

Potentially protected: 

​Intriguing exposed: 

Winnipeg Jets
NMC protected players: Dustin Byfuglien (D), Toby Enstrom (D)

Potentially protected: 

Intriguing exposed:

 

Atlantic Notes: Vanek, O’Reilly, Ristolainen, Byron, Czarnik

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While he was quickly cast aside in recent years by Montreal and Minnesota, winger Thomas Vanek is still full of confidence and motivation heading into the season, writes MLive’s Ansar Khan.  After the Wild bought him out in June, Detroit quickly snapped him up, signing him to a one year, $2.6MM deal.  Vanek noted a big reason for signing with the Red Wings was their belief that he can fill a key role with the team:

“The way they described my game and how they see my fit here, it’s something I wanted to hear because I still feel I can score 20-plus goals.”

Vanek is expected to start the season alongside speedy center Darren Helm although the opposite winger has yet to be determined.  Head coach Jeff Blashill also stated that Vanek should play on the top power play unit, where he will be expected to get to the front of the net instead of playing on the perimeter as much as he has in recent years.

[Related: Red Wings Depth Chart]

Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division:

  • Sabres center Ryan O’Reilly left Wednesday’s preseason game – his first since returning from the World Cup of Hockey – with back and midsection spasms, notes John Vogl of the Buffalo News. However, the injury doesn’t appear to be series with head coach Dan Bylsma classifying it as a day-to-day issue.  The team already is missing right winger Kyle Okposo plus blueliners Zach Bogosian and Dmitry Kulikov with various bumps and bruises, although none are believed to be too serious.
  • Bylsma also expects the team to reach an agreement with a contract with RFA defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen before the start of the season next week. The 21 year old is in camp with the team and is taking part in practices (unlike the other restricted free agents around the league) but has not yet suited up in the preseason.
  • Canadiens left winger Paul Byron is battling pneumonia, reports TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie.  He’s expected to miss at least a few days which at least puts his availability for the beginning of the season into question.  Byron had a career high 11 goals with Montreal last season, earning himself a three year contract in the process.
  • Boston center prospect Austin Czarnik has made a significant impression in training camp which has allowed head coach Claude Julien to experiment with an all centers second line comprised of Ryan Spooner, David Krejci, and David Backes, notes CSNNE’s Joe Haggerty. However, Julien suggested that the team may yet experiment with Czarnik on the wing which would force one of the other centers (likely Backes or Spooner) back to the third line.

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