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Ryan McDonagh

Snapshots: Heiskanen, Petry, McDonagh, Penguins

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The Stars could have defenseman Miro Heiskanen back as soon as Tuesday, relays Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News.  The 22-year-old is once again averaging nearly 25 minutes a night on the back end for Dallas while being a capable secondary contributor as well with 29 points in 52 games.  He has been out for more than three weeks due to a bout with mononucleosis and will be a welcome return to the Stars as they look to hold onto the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.

Elsewhere around the NHL:

  • The Canadiens announced that defenseman Jeff Petry is out indefinitely with a lower-body injury. The 34-year-old has had a tough season both in terms of his production (16 points in 57 games) and defensive play while the team wasn’t able to find a suitable trade for him at the deadline to honor his request to be moved.  William Lagesson will make his Montreal debut against Toronto tonight in Petry’s absence.
  • The Lightning will be without blueliner Ryan McDonagh indefinitely due to an upper-body injury, per a team announcement (Twitter link). The injury was sustained in the third period on Thursday against Boston when he blocked a shot.  Joe Smith of The Athletic adds that the injury shouldn’t cost McDonagh the rest of the season but that he’ll be out for a couple of weeks.  Tampa Bay has six other defensemen on the roster so they’re okay for now but if another blueliner goes down, it could be an issue as the team does not have any cap space to bring someone up from AHL Syracuse.
  • Penguins center Evgeni Malkin is set to be a game-time decision for tomorrow’s game against Detroit, notes Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The veteran was a late scratch last night due to an illness, one that kept him away from practice today as well.  Meanwhile, after leaving last night’s game after just 4:19, goaltender Casey DeSmith was cleared to skate today and is expected to be available for tomorrow’s contest.

This Day In Transactions History: Lightning Acquire Ryan McDonagh And J.T. Miller

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Four years ago today was the 2018 NHL trade deadline, one that featured several notable swaps, including Evander Kane to the Sharks, Tomas Tatar to the Golden Knights, and Paul Stastny to the Jets.  But the biggest one of all came from the Lightning and Rangers.  New York had released their letter committing to rebuilding their franchise earlier in the month and had already made some moves to shore up their future.  This was their biggest one with Tampa Bay moving out several future assets in an effort to win now.

The Lightning picked up defenseman Ryan McDonagh along with winger J.T. Miller in exchange for winger Vladislav Namestnikov, center Brett Howden, defenseman Libor Hajek, plus a first-round pick in 2018 and a second-rounder in 2019.  It has only been four years but it’s safe to say it worked out a whole lot better for Tampa Bay than it did for New York.

McDonagh immediately became a stabilizing force on the back end for the Lightning.  They didn’t need him to play upwards of 24 minutes a night as he was with the Rangers but gave them someone beyond Victor Hedman and Anton Stralman that was capable of shouldering a key load on the back end.  Then-GM Steve Yzerman wasted little time working on an extension with McDonagh and as soon as he became eligible to sign one in July, McDonagh inked a seven-year, $47.25MM deal to ensure he’ll be sticking around for the long haul.

Miller didn’t exactly have the same fate.  He was quite productive down the stretch for Tampa Bay, averaging nearly a point per game after the trade but struggled in the playoffs and didn’t produce as much the following year.  That resulted in him being traded to Vancouver for a pair of draft picks, including the 2020 first-round selection that they ultimately flipped to New Jersey in 2020 as part of the Blake Coleman trade.  Coleman, of course, played an important role on Tampa Bay’s Cup-winning teams in 2020 and 2021 so even though Miller didn’t have the type of impact they were hoping for, they still ultimately got a good return out of his inclusion in the trade.

As for what the Rangers got, things haven’t gone quite so well.  Namestnikov was quiet down the stretch but his performance with Tampa Bay before the trade was still good enough to land him a two-year, $8MM contract that would take him to unrestricted free agency.  One year later after a quiet season, he was flipped in a cap-clearing trade for minor league blueliner Nick Ebert and a fourth-round pick in 2021 that was used on Kalle Vaisanen.  Not a great return on the impact forward they were hoping Namestnikov would be.  He’s now in Detroit and is a candidate to be moved by March 21st.

Howden was a first-round pick of the Lightning back in 2016 (27th overall) and profiled as a key two-way center after putting up some impressive numbers in junior.  However, that offensive output didn’t materialize in the pros and after scoring just 16 goals in 178 games over parts of three seasons with the Rangers, they gave up on him, sending him to Vegas for a 2022 fourth-round pick.  Howden has actually done fairly well this season with 18 points in 39 games for the Golden Knights despite spending a lot of time on the fourth line.

Hajek was another player who impressed at the junior level and it looked as if he’d become a quality NHL defenseman before too long.  While he was a regular for a lot of last season, he was a fixture on the third pairing with sheltered minutes and this year, he has been a frequent healthy scratch.  They don’t want to lose him for nothing on waivers but this is a situation where if they move him, the return will almost certainly be as underwhelming as Howden’s was.

As for the draft picks, it’s a bit too early to make any significant conclusions on those.  The first-rounder yielded defenseman Nils Lundkvist and while he has been fairly quiet in his first season in North America, his track record of offensive success in Sweden is promising.  The second-rounder turned into center Karl Henriksson who isn’t putting up big numbers in Frolunda of the SHL but is holding down a regular spot in the lineup.  Both could certainly be part of New York’s future with Lundkvist getting a sniff of NHL action earlier this season.

For New York to have any chance of salvaging any sort of value from this trade, they’ll need those prospects to become impact players.  They’re down to Vaisanen, Lundkvist, Henriksson, a fourth-round pick, and Hajek (or whatever limited return they get for him).  That’s not a great return from a trade that they were hoping would give them several long-term building blocks for the future, a cautionary tale for how even trading for players that appear to be quality prospects can still not work out as well as intended.  Meanwhile, Tampa Bay has won a couple of Stanley Cup titles since then and while McDonagh’s contract may not age great considering he’s signed through 2026, he’s still playing an important role for them.  The biggest swap of the 2018 deadline looks like a clear-cut victory for them as a result.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

NHL Issues Two More Fines

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The NHL has fined two more players for incidents from yesterday’s action, deciding not to hand out suspensions. Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh has been fined $5,000, the maximum allowable under the CBA, for his cross-check on Florida Panthers forward Mason Marchment. His teammate Pat Maroon has been fined $3,879,31, the maximum allowable for his salary level, for unsportsmanlike conduct at the end of last night’s game.

In McDonagh’s case, the incident occurred partway through the first period when the game was 1-0 for the Lightning. The two players had been battling all shift, but as Marchment approached McDonagh near the benches, the Tampa Bay defenseman raised his stick and delivered a cross-check to the head. McDonagh was given a two-minute penalty for roughing on the play and Marchment did not suffer a major injury.

For Maroon, there were just under 15 seconds left in the game and the score was out of reach, but the Tampa Bay forward engaged with Florida forward Noel Acciari. Maroon took just 12 faceoffs this season, but lined up as a center for the center ice draw and pushed forward with his stick extended. The event resulted in a scrum between several players, penalties to both teams, and a misconduct for Maroon.

East Notes: Kravtsov, Svechnikov, McDonagh

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New York Rangers fans learned more than a week ago that prospect Vitali Kravtsov would be loaned to his former team, Traktor Chelyabinsk in the KHL this coming season. However, a small wrinkle developed since as Traktor announced the transaction this morning, revealing that Kravtsov was going to spend the entire season with their team.

That was contrary to general beliefs that the 20-year-old Russian would spend time in North America with a chance to win a roster spot with the Rangers in 2020-21. Up until now, most teams are loaning their prospects overseas with the ability to recall them for NHL training camps whenever that will be. That may not be the case here, although a recent report from USA Today’s Vince Mercogliano suggests that the Rangers can recall him at any time. However, the scribe adds that the team could very conceivably leave him in Russia for the entire KHL season, although the team will likely wait to see how he fares.

Kravtsov, who had a tumultuous first pro season in which he split time between the AHL, KHL, VHL and then back to the KHL, isn’t expected to automatically win a spot on the Rangers roster and with the AHL season being pushed back until December, it makes lots of sense to allow him to develop for a full season in the KHL to develop his skills. Whether New York will recall him for training camp in November or December isn’t clear, but it should be noted that unless Traktor makes the playoffs, he could be available to join the Rangers in late February or after his team is eliminated in the playoffs, which means he could be available to join the Rangers with plenty of season left in the NHL.

  • NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti reports that Carolina Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov, who suffered what looked to be a severe ankle sprain during the team’s series against the Boston Bruins, said he’s feeling 100 percent and believes that he would be able to play now for the Hurricanes had the team managed to get past Boston in the first round. Svechnikov was a key component to the team’s success with four goals and seven points in six playoff games before being injured in Game 3. The Hurricanes lost consecutive one-goal games in Games 4 & 5, suggesting his play could have made the difference in the series.
  • The Tampa Bay Lightning will be without veteran defenseman Ryan McDonagh for Game 4 in a key game against the Boston Bruins, according to The Athletic’s Joe Smith. McDonagh, who has been out since suffering an undisclosed injury in Game 1, will be replaced once again with two defensemen as the team is expected to play Braydon Coburn and Luke Schenn as the team will go with seven defensemen for a second straight game.

 

East Notes: Senators, Haley, McDonagh, Martin

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With quite a few pending unrestricted free agents, the Senators are certainly a team to keep tabs on over the coming weeks on the trade front.  However, GM Pierre Dorion told TSN that the trade market has been relatively quiet so far:

Everybody is really kind of feeling each other out and seeing if they’re going to be in the playoffs or if they’re going to be buyers or sellers. There have been a lot of conversations, a lot about nothing.

Of their ten UFAs, Dorion acknowledged that they do have some interest in keeping some of them but he has no intention on publicly commenting on who those may be or the status of talks after what transpired last season with the Mark Stone and Matt Duchene situations.  The GM also indicated that they would like to keep some veterans in the mix so it’s far from a guarantee that those that don’t receive new deals will be dealt by the Senators by the February 24th trade deadline.

More from the Eastern Conference:

  • Rangers winger Micheal Haley is out indefinitely and is set to undergo surgery for a bilateral core muscle injury, the team announced (Twitter link). The veteran physical forward has played in 22 games with New York this season, recording a goal along with 50 penalty minutes while averaging a career-low 5:32 per night.  Haley is slated to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.
  • Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh is expected to miss at least two weeks due to his lower-body injury, relays Diana C. Nearhos of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). The injury was sustained back on Thursday night against Pittsburgh.  Head coach Jon Cooper indicated that this won’t be a season-ending issue but that they’ll re-evaluate him after the two-week mark which suggests that the veteran could be out for a little while after that stretch.
  • Islanders winger Matt Martin told Newsday’s Andrew Gross that he isn’t concerned about his pending free agent status and is solely focusing on the stretch run for now. He admitted that when he was first set to test free agency four years ago, he fully expected to remain with New York but instead signed a four-year, $10MM deal with Toronto with then-GM Lou Lamoriello.  Lamoriello is now the GM of the Islanders and the only trade he has made since joining them was to acquire Martin.  Clearly, Martin has a backer in Lamoriello which should bode well for the potential of an extension this time around.

Injury Notes: Glass, Atkinson, McDonagh

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After a horrible spill in which many feared that Vegas Golden Knights rookie Cody Glass might have suffered a significant knee injury Saturday against St. Louis, The Athletic’s Jesse Granger reported that he’s heard from multiple sources that Glass suffered a bone bruise and is not expected to require surgery.

The 20-year-old suffered a similar injury last season with the Portland Winterhawks in the WHL, but this injury is the opposite knee. The forward could still miss a significant amount of games, but there is no ACL/MCL tear, which means Glass should be back when they need him, at the very least. Glass has been a fixture on Vegas’ third line as he has five goals and 12 points in 37 games.

  • NHL.com’s Jeff Svoboda reports that Columbus Blue Jackets forward Cam Atkinson is a 50-50 proposition for playing on Monday against the Los Angeles Kings. The veteran has been out since Dec. 19 with a high ankle sprain. Atkinson did practice today and was on the top power-play unit, suggesting he might be ready. The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline adds that high ankle sprains are tricky and there is a big difference between practicing and games. Atkinson said that he still feels a high ankle sprain to his left ankle that he suffered several years ago.
  • The Athletic’s Joe Smith reports that Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh will miss Sunday’s game against Carolina with an upper-body injury. The veteran defenseman went down Saturday and left the game. There is no report on the severity of the injury, so more could come on Monday. McDonagh has had a tough season after a 46-point campaign last year. He currently has just one goals and 11 points in 40 games.

2007 NHL Draft Take Two: Twelfth Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.”  Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended.  For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2007 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now.  Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

Here are the results of the redraft so far, with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall: Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks (1)
2nd Overall: Jamie Benn, Philadelphia Flyers (129)
3rd Overall: P.K. Subban, Phoenix Coyotes (43)
4th Overall: Logan Couture, Los Angeles Kings (9)
5th Overall: Max Pacioretty, Washington Capitals (22)
6th Overall: Jakub Voracek, Edmonton Oilers (7)
7th Overall: Ryan McDonagh, Columbus Blue Jackets (12)
8th Overall: James van Riemsdyk, Boston Bruins (2)
9th Overall: Wayne Simmonds, San Jose Sharks (61)
10th Overall: Kevin Shattenkirk, Florida Panthers (14)
11th Overall: Jake Muzzin, Carolina Hurricanes (141)

It’s hard to eclipse Benn’s 127-spot jump in our redraft series, but Muzzin has done just that. Rising an amazing 130 selections, the Woodstock, Ontario defenseman has certainly put together quite the career for himself so far. Every team passed on Muzzin before the Pittsburgh Penguins eventually snapped him up in the fifth round, and it’s easy to see why. In 2007 Muzzin was coming off just one half-season of play in the Ontario Hockey League after suffering a herniated disc as a 16-year old and missing an entire year of hockey thanks to surgery. Scoring just eight points in 50 games that season for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, he wasn’t even listed on the NHL Central Scouting’s list of top draft eligible players from North America—a list that includes 200 names.

The Penguins saw something though in order to draft him, but it would never actually pay off for them. Muzzin would never sign with the Penguins and instead returned for three more full seasons with the Greyhounds. That’s where he learned to become an ultra-efficient puck-moving defenseman even without any real standout skills. His decision making and size allowed him to play in basically every situation however and he eventually would earn the OHL Most Outstanding Defenseman award in 2010. That 2009-10 season was enough to catch the eye of the Los Angeles Kings organization who signed him in January 2010 to an entry-level contract.

It still wasn’t a totally smooth road for Muzzin with the Kings, but within three years he had established himself as a full-time NHL player. His second full season in the NHL the Kings would win the Stanley Cup and Muzzin would lead all defensemen in playoff goals with six. Muzzin would remain a rock solid option for the Kings for several more seasons and represent Canada by winning gold at both the World Championships and World Cup—his first two international competitions.

At the deadline last season the Toronto Maple Leafs paid a hefty price to acquire the now-veteran defenseman, and he’ll suit up again for them this season on the final year of his contract. Muzzin ranks fourth among defensemen from the 2007 draft with 229 points and certainly deserves his place in the first half of the first round.

You can bet that Montreal would have been happy picking Muzzin 12th the way his career turned out, but back in 2007 they made an even better pick. Ryan McDonagh, who came in at pick number seven in our redraft originally went to the Canadiens, in one of the best draft classes we’ve seen in some time. McDonagh would never actually pull on the bleu blanc et rouge, but went on to have an excellent career with the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning so far.

Unfortunately for Montreal, McDonagh isn’t available this time around. There’s still plenty of talent on the board, but who should they pick?

With the twelfth pick of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, who should the Montreal Canadiens select?  Cast your vote below!

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*Tragically, 17th overall pick Alexei Cherepanov died at the age of 19 and would never get a chance to suit up in the NHL. He has not been included in this vote.

Poll: Who Is The Stanley Cup Favorite Now?

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If you had asked a crowd of hockey fans before the playoffs began to put down a bet on who would win the Stanley Cup, there would likely have been one resounding favorite. The Tampa Bay Lightning had just completed a historic 62-win season and had everything you would want in a team. Top scorers, including potential Hart Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov who led the league with 128 points this season. Shutdown defenders like Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh, both playoff-tested from years of postseason play. One of the best goaltenders in the world in Andrei Vasilevskiy, a Vezina finalist for the second consecutive season.

None of that mattered though, after the Columbus Blue Jackets erased a 3-0 first period lead in game one and never looked back. Tampa Bay was swept out of the first round, and weren’t the only favorite to be overcome. All four division leaders were knocked out this season, the first time that has happened in the history of the NHL. The Calgary Flames (107 points), Washington Capitals (104) and Nashville Predators (100) all saw their playoff run end early. Even other 100-point teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins were ousted, though this time by even better regular season teams that were forced to face higher seeds than in playoff formats of the past.

The second round started last night, with the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues taking early series leads. Are they now the default favorites to go all the way? What about the upstart wild card teams like the Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes who have more young talent than they know what to do with?

If that same crowd were asked today to name a favorite, it might not be as easy. Cast your vote below and make sure to leave your thoughts in the comment section!

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New York Rangers Almost Traded Ryan McDonagh To Edmonton In 2016

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In his most recent 31 Thoughts column earlier this week, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman mentioned that now-former Edmonton Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli was close to making a blockbuster trade back in 2016, just days before he traded Taylor Hall to New Jersey for Adam Larsson. Friedman, however, had no knowledge of the details of that blockbuster. However, New York Post’s Larry Brooks got a confirmation from multiple sources that the trade would have been with the New York Rangers.

Brooks reports that just before pulling the trigger on the Hall-Larsson deal, Chiarelli was close to a deal that would have sent the 2016 fourth-overall pick (used to take Jesse Puljujarvi) to the Rangers for defenseman Ryan McDonagh. The belief is that New York was interested in drafting Clayton Keller of the U.S. National Development Team with the fourth pick to begin the rebuild process then. Brooks adds there were other pieces to the deal, but points out that after the team’s first-round exit to Pittsburgh that year, the team felt it needed to re-tool their team with McDonagh being the most marketable player on the Rangers at the time.

Instead, Chiarelli turned the deal down, took Puljujarvi and sent Hall to New Jersey for Larsson, while the Rangers instead packaged Derick Brassard to Ottawa in a deal to get Mika Zibanejad. The team did discuss McDonagh with other teams at that time, including a deal with Colorado for either Nathan MacKinnon or Gabriel Landeskog, but the Avalanche weren’t that high on McDonagh’s value.

Considering how Puljujarvi has turned out in Edmonton thus far and how successful Hall has been since leaving the Oilers, the trade could have altered the outcome for Edmonton as well as Chiarelli, as McDonagh could have helped stabilize the team’s defense. However, there is no guarantee that Chiarelli still wouldn’t have moved Hall later on anyway.

Of course, the Rangers team may look quite a bit different with Keller on their team now as the 20-year-old put up a 23-goal, 65-point campaign in his rookie season last year and currently has 11 goals and 35 points this year and would have been a great piece to build around. Instead the franchise held onto McDonagh until last year’s trade deadline when they sent him and J.T. Miller to Tampa Bay in exchange for Vladislav Namestnikov, propects Libor Hajek and Brett Howden as well as a 2018 first-round pick (Nils Lundqvist) and a conditional 2019 second-rounder.

 

Atlantic Notes: Lightning, Trocheck, Backes, Schenn

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The Tampa Bay Lightning had two chances to acquire superstar defenseman Erik Karlsson to their lineup and while many still feel that they should have gone out and paid the price to bring one more superstar into their lineup, The Athletic’s Joe Smith (subscription required) looks back and feels the team should be thankful it didn’t do that when it had the chance.

While the Lightning seriously considered trading with Ottawa at the trade deadline and then again in the offseason, the team opted to go a cheaper route and bring in defenseman Ryan McDonagh. That trade was critical, according to Smith, who writes has been crucial to the team’s penalty kill, which was 28th in the league at the time of the trade last season. While he doesn’t contribute as much offensively, that’s one area of the game that Tampa Bay doesn’t need help on.

The scribe also points out that the team would have been forced to move Mikhail Sergachev in any deal to acquire Karlsson, and while the youngster has had an up-and-down season so far this year, the team still views Sergachev as a top-four defenseman and a key piece to the Lightning’s long-term future.

  • Wells Dusenbury of the South Florida Sun Sentinel writes that Florida Panthers forward Vincent Trocheck is ahead of schedule in his rehab on his fractured right ankle that he suffered on Nov. 11. The 25-year-0ld returned to the ice both Friday and Saturday. “It was encouraging,” Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. “I talked to him and asked him how it was to be on the ice [Friday] and he said he was a little sore during the day, but he woke up real good today, so that’s a good sign after his first skate.” Boughner said that Trocheck definitely won’t be back until after the all-star break, but much will depend on how he feels with each step in his recovery.
  • Despite never having any success next to David Krejci, Boston Bruins forward David Backes filled in on the team’s second line alongside Krejci and Jake Debrusk and showed that he might be the answer to their team’s hole there, according to NHL.com’s Joe Haggerty. Backes scored the game-winning goal against Buffalo Saturday and looked like the perfect linemate after the team has cycled through Ryan Donato, Anders Bjork and Danton Heinen all failed to succeed there. The 34-year-old has seen his offense decline over the years from a 30-goal threat to a 14-goal season a year ago. With just four goals this season, the team would be thrilled if Backes could contribute in a top-six role in the future.
  • That report comes a day after Haggerty’s report that the Bruins have expressed interest in acquiring Brayden Schenn from St. Louis. While Haggerty writes that the team has shown considerable interest in Minnesota’s Charlie Coyle, the scribe writes that Schenn would be a much more intriguing option to fill the hole on the second line. While the 27-year-old center’s numbers have been down this year with just eight goals and 23 points, he is coming off a 28-goal, 70-point season last year and could be a big addition to a Bruins team if they opt to go out and get him.

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