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Penguins Notes: Murray, Sheary, Hagelin

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The Pittsburgh Penguins will take on the San Jose Sharks tonight in a rematch of the Stanley Cup Final from last season, and there will be a familiar face in net. Matt Murray will make his second start of the season after allowing just a single goal in his debut against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday. Even though Marc-Andre Fleury has played exceptionally well to start the year, head coach Mike Sullivan says both netminders will continue to play, according to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

We’re fortunate. We have two really good goaltenders that we know are going to give us a chance to win. We’re going to do our best to keep them both in the mix. We’ll go from there. These situations always have a way to work themselves out. Inevitably performance is always the dictator.

Mackey expects that Murray’s play tonight will factor large in the decision of who to start on Tuesday at home, though it’s up in the air from that point. The team doesn’t have another back-to-back situation until November 18th and 19th.

  • The Penguins will get some help up front to try and score some goals for Murray, as Conor Sheary will return from a seven game absence to play tonight. Sheary suffered an eye injury last month in Montreal and has been itching to get back into game action.  According to Mackey, he’ll start on the fourth line with Matt Cullen and Eric Fehr, though he could quickly ascend back up the lineup. Sheary has one goal and two assists on the season in just four games.
  • The ’HBK’ line (Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino and Phil Kessel) is officially broken up, according to Adam Gretz of NBC. The trio that was so dominant in the playoffs is now spread out over the Penguins top three units, with Hagelin skating alongside Sidney Crosby and Patrick Hornqvist.  As Gretz notes, Hagelin brings a lot of the same aspects that Pascal Dupuis added so effectively to Crosby’s wing over the years. Hopefully it will spark something in the speedy winger, as he only has two points on the season so far.  Kessel on the other hand is off to a great start this season and now finds himself skating alongside Evgeni Malkin and Chris Kunitz. #81’s ten points this year trails only Malkin on the Penguins, and he leads the team in assists.

Connor McDavid’s Next Contract

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He may be eight months away from being able to sign it, and 20 months before it takes effect, but Connor McDavid’s second contract is already a topic of conversation in the hockey world.

Despite being only 19-years-old and 55 games into his NHL career, McDavid is already a top-five player in the NHL. Of course, he’s scored 60 points in those 55 games, and is currently sitting tied for second in NHL scoring. He’s also the youngest captain in NHL history and the unquestioned face of the Oilers franchise.

McDavid is currently in the second year of his three-year entry-level contract. Including bonuses, McDavid can make $3.775MM per season. He’s eligible to negotiate and sign a contract extension on July 1, 2017. The longest term possible is eight years, something that’s a given for the Oilers but perhaps a point of worry for the McDavid camp. On Tuesday night’s Insider Trading, TSN and ESPN insider Pierre Lebrun floated the idea that the potential lockout in 2020 or 2022 could affect the player agent’s willingness to sign through that. He followed that up on Wednesday morning on TSN radio in Vancouver, pointing to the past CBA’s effects on player contracts. In 2005, there was a 24% salary rollback to all players; in 2013 they added cap recapture penalties to so-called “cheat deals” like Shea Weber’s. While Lebrun isn’t saying McDavid doesn’t want to sign an eight-year extension in Edmonton, he does point out the possibility of a four-year deal because “there’s some concern that when the CBA ends, maybe they need to protect themselves because the rules may change on existing contracts.”

Numbers-wise, McDavid is a very likely candidate to become the highest-paid player in the NHL. Chris Johnston discussed McDavid on Tuesday night’s Sportsnet Hockey Central, opining that he “doesn’t see any” situation where McDavid doesn’t become the highest-paid player in the NHL. Currently, Blackhawks forwards Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane’s $10.5MM cap hits are the highest in the NHL. Kings captain Anze Kopitar is the only other player making $10MM or more.

Of course, the Oilers could luck out if McDavid is as superstitious as the previous “next one” Sidney Crosby. Following his standard entry-level contract, Crosby has signed two separate contracts with an AAV of $8.7MM, which of course is the same as his number. Getting McDavid signed at under $10MM per season would be a major win for the Oilers and allow them to build a stronger team around him. Both sides can look no further than the Blackhawks struggles to keep their team together with Toews and Kane accounting for a combined $21MM against the cap.

Including LTIR-relief from former captain Andrew Ference (career-ending hip surgery), the Oilers are around $5MM below the cap. Things will change in the summer, when Leon Draisaitl is an RFA. Look for depth defenseman Mark Fayne to bought out or traded with salary retained to clear most of his $3.625MM cap hit, and perhaps a trade involving a bigger salaried player. McDavid and Darnell Nurse finish their entry-level contracts in 2018, and then Jesse Puljujärvi in 2019 (presuming he stays in the NHL this year and doesn’t slide.

While negotiations cannot begin until July, Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli and his management team are already having internal discussions about the contract, and so are McDavid’s agents, Jeff Jackson and Bobby Orr. Expect a similar timeline to fellow exceptional status recipient and first-overall pick Aaron Ekblad signing his extension with Florida; the two sides agreed in principle to a new deal early in the morning of July 1st.

Johnston was dead-on when he called extending McDavid the “biggest decision the Oilers are going to have for the next decade.”

Lineup Return: Crosby, Murray, McGinn

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News and notes from tonight’s NHL lineup announcements:

  • The reigning NHL MVP Sidney Crosby makes his season debut tonight with the Pittsburgh Penguins against the Florida Panthers. Crosby missed the first six games of the season with a concussion he suffered in preseason practice. His early return must alleviate concerns the organization had with his recovery, given that Crosby missed 101 games over two seasons with concussions and related issues. Crosby will make his debut centering Scott Wilson and Patric Hornqvist.
  • The Pittsburgh Penguins regain another key piece to their Stanley Cup winning team as Matt Murray will dress for tonight’s game. Murray is slated to back up Marc-Andre Fleury tonight, and could start as early as Thursday against the New York Islanders. Murray missed Pittsburgh’s first six games as he recovered from a broken hand suffered in the World Cup of Hockey. Originally slated as the Penguins third-string goalie last year, Murray eclipsed backup Jeff Zatkoff when Fleury went down with injury, and maintained the starting role throughout the playoffs—despite Fleury returning to the team.
  • Jamie McGinn will play his first game tonight for the Arizona Coyotes, the team announced, after signing a three-year, $10MM contract this offseason. McGinn was sidelined since the beginning of the season with an upper body injury and was placed on Injured Reserve retroactive to October 5th. The Coyotes waived Jamie McBain today to make room for McGinn’s return. McGinn is a hard-nosed player with soft hands—he scored 22G and 17A in 84 games last season between Buffalo and Anaheim.

Injury Updates: Penguins, Bruins, Stars, Blues, Kings

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Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby returned to practice for the first time on Monday since sustaining a concussion just prior to the start of the regular season, notes Sam Kasan of the team’s official website.  He also wasn’t wearing a non-contact jersey which is a sign that he should be nearing a return to the lineup in the near future.  Crosby skated on the top line in practice along with wingers Patric Hornqvist and Scott Wilson.  There remains no firm timetable for his return, but head coach Mike Sullivan wouldn’t rule out a possible return this week.

Still with the Penguins, Kris Letang (upper body) and Conor Sheary (eye) did not practice today, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports (via Twitter).  Both players are currently listed as day-to-day.

Other injury updates from around the league:

  • With Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask still unavailable to practice, the team announced that they’ve recalled prospect Malcolm Subban on an emergency basis. On top of that, Anton Khudobin left practice early with an upper body injury, adds Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe.  Rask remains day-to-day while there’s no word yet on the severity of Khudobin’s injury.
  • After returning to the lineup on Saturday from a groin injury, Dallas right winger Ales Hemsky is once again on the shelf with a groin injury and won’t play tomorrow, notes Mike Heika of the Dallas News. Additionally, center Jason Spezza tweaked something and is listed as questionable.  Jiri Hudler (flu) is skating and is nearing a return to the lineup but is not expected to play on Tuesday night.  The team announced that Hemsky has been placed on IR while center Justin Dowling has been recalled from Texas of the AHL.
  • St. Louis center Jori Lehtera skated on his own today as he continues to recover from an upper body injury, reports Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter link). In a follow-up tweet, Timmermann adds that right winger Dmitrij Jaskin is day-to-day with a back issue.
  • Kings goaltender Jeff Zatkoff is expected to miss around a week with his groin injury, head coach Darryl Sutter told reporters including Jon Rosen of LA Kings Insider. Zatkoff was expected to be the backup to Jonathan Quick this season but was thrust into the starting role with Quick expected to miss the next three months.  In the meantime, Los Angeles will continue to go with Peter Budaj as their starter while speculation continues that the team will eventually have to add some help via the trade route.

Metro Division Snapshots: Islanders, Raffl, Crosby, Grubauer

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It was recently suggested that the New York Islanders could look to exercise an opt-out clause in their lease and leave Barclays Center following the 2017-18 campaign. The team’s first year in the arena didn’t go as smoothly as hoped with obstructed sight lines and the poor condition of the ice drawing heavy criticism. However, with new ownership in place for the Islanders and a concerted effort on the part of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment to address the concerns related to Barclays Center, it appears as if the relationship between the team and the arena’s operator is in a better spot today, as Brian Heyman writes for Newsday.

Brett Yormark, CEO of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, was at the Islanders’ home-opener on Sunday and “got an overall positive vibe” from fans in attendance, and said about the fan reaction: “A little bit different tone than last year.”

According to Heyman, Barclays added additional Islanders “imagery and branding,” at the arena as well as beefing up on Islanders merchandise in the team store. Additionally, they’ve brought aboard an “ice technician” to help keep the ice in good playing condition. Those efforts did not go unnoticed by team co-owner Jon Ledecky:

“I think fans have already talked to us after the opening day that they feel like it’s our home now. Just the whole feel of the building in our second season — Barclays has worked hard to make our fans feel like it’s their home. And I really appreciate that.”

Despite the progress, the Islanders still could exercise their opt-out after the 2017-18 season though that might appear less likely than it did just a few weeks ago, as Ledecky notes:

“We’re in a great relationship with Barclays now. No one has a crystal ball about the future. We’re moving forward in our relationship with them in a very positive framework.”

Elsewhere in the Metro Division:

  • Flyers LW Michael Raffl was forced to exit the team’s 7 – 4 loss to Chicago Tuesday night with an abdominal pull, according to Tim Panaccio of CSN Philly. He suffered the injury during the second period when he absorbed a body check along the boards. Raffl, who has one goal so far this season in three contests, was the only Flyer to suit up for all 82 games in 2015-16 and finished fifth on the club in goals with 13. It’s not clear at this point how long the Austrian winger will be out.
  • Sidney Crosby, who has yet to appear in a game this season for Pittsburgh due to a concussion, could return to practice Wednesday, writes Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Head coach Mike Sullivan indicated Crosby’s response to a workout Tuesday would determine when he would return to the ice with his teammates. Seth Rorabaugh of DKPittsburghSports.com noted via Twitter, however, that Crosby was not among the early participants at the team’s practice, though that could certainly change.
  • Due to the compressed schedule this season, Washington Capitals backup goalie Philipp Grubauer is in line to see more action between the pipes this season, as Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post observes. Grubauer started just 16 of the 22 games he appeared in during the 2015-16 season but according to Capitals head coach Barry Trotz, he could end up starting one-quarter of the team’s contests this year: “I said to the goaltenders, if I could go Grubi one game and then Holts three, that type of situation, that would be in the perfect world what I’d like to do.” That split would see Grubauer receive 20 – 21 starts over the course of a full season. As Khurshudyan notes, Grubauer typically catches the second end of back-to-backs and the Capitals are scheduled to have 16 of those this year. Braden Holtby started 66 times in 2015-16, down from 73 starts the year prior, and Trotz would like to see a further decrease this season: “I think it’s important for the whole journey that we get the right number of games and keep both goalies sharp and not overwork guys. I thought last year with Holts, we did a better job of that than we did the year before. I’d like to do a better job in that area than we did last year even.” 

Injury Notes: Schwartz, Crosby, Hartman, Bitetto, McGinn

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St. Louis forward Jaden Schwartz has started skating as he continues to recover from an elbow injury sustained late in September, Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.  While he will accompany the team on their road trip to Western Canada early next week, he still isn’t ready just yet to return to the lineup.

Schwartz was originally expected to miss at least a month with the injury and it’s about halfway into that timeline currently.  Head coach Ken Hitchcock doesn’t have a firm expectation of when Schwartz should return to the lineup but it would appear he’s pretty much on schedule at this time.

With the departures of David Backes and Troy Brouwer this offseason, Schwartz will be expected to take on a larger role in the offense for the Blues this year.  In an injury-riddled 2015-16 campaign, he had 22 points in 33 games but put up point totals of 63 and 56 in the previous two seasons.  St. Louis inked him to a five year, $26.75MM extension back in July.

Other injury news and notes from around the league:

  • Penguins center Sidney Crosby skated on his own for the fifth straight day after being diagnosed with a concussion back on Monday, Sam Werner of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes. Head coach Mike Sullivan is encouraged by Crosby’s progress but there remains no timetable for his return to game action.  He has yet to receive the green light to participate in contact drills.
  • Chicago right winger Ryan Hartman suffered a lower body injury in a goalmouth scramble in just his second shift in Friday’s loss to Nashville, Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times notes. Head coach Joel Quenneville didn’t provide a projected timeframe for his return but added that Hartman will “miss some time”.  The 22 year old has a goal and an assist in two games so far this season.
  • Predators defenseman Anthony Bitetto suffered an upper body injury in a fight against Nashville’s Jordin Tootoo on Friday night. He left the game and did not return.  Thomas Willis of the Predators website reports (via Twitter) that he will not play tonight.  Instead, Yannick Weber will make his season debut.  Bitetto is expected to be re-evaluated on Monday.
  • Coyotes left winger Jamie McGinn will have to wait a little while longer to make his regular season debut with Arizona as he continues to recover from an upper body injury, AZ Central’s Sarah McLellan notes via Twitter. Head coach Dave Tippett said he remains day-to-day and that it’s questionable that he will travel with the team for their upcoming Eastern Conference road trip next week.

Snapshots: Malkin, Athanasiou, Subban

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Penguins writer Sam Kasan reports that with Sidney Crosby out for indefinitely, the Penguins are looking at Evgeni Malkin as the man to lead the team in his absence. A mainstay in Pittsburgh since being drafted second overall in 2004, teammate Chris Kunitz comments that having Malkin is a huge plus that most teams in the NHL don’t have:

“Most teams don’t have that luxury. ’Geno’ is an important guy for us. He’s going to get more offensive zone time for himself with ’Sid’ being out and showed (Thursday) that he can change a game at any time.”

Kasan writes that Malkin already put the team on his back after having a breakaway goal, assist, and a shootout goal in the Pens’ 3-2 victory over Washington. Malkin admits that it’s not easy being with Crosby, but adds that he feels his confidence is back after having a sub-par performance in the World Cup of Hockey.

In other news from around the league:

  • Ansar Khan tweeted earlier that the Red Wings are already shuffling lines in the wake of a 6-4 loss at the hands of Stanley Cup favorite Tampa Bay Thursday night. The Red Wings jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead and held a 3-1 lead before the Lightning reeled off four straight goals. The Detroit penalty kill had a busy night while the line of Steve Ott, Drew Miller, and Luke Glendening had a statistically brutal evening. Khan reported that Andreas Athanasiou was slotted into a line with Henrik Zetterberg and Frans Nielsen, while Ott was working into the fourth line. Khan later tweeted that those would indeed be the lines for Saturday’s contest against Florida, meaning that Ott would be the odd man out. This could be an early indicator that head coach Jeff Blashill will truly mix and match in order to find a spark, and will be quick to yank players from the lineup swiftly, whether they’re veterans or rookies. Last season, Athanasiou had 14 points (9-5) in 37 games and did so averaging just over nine minutes on the ice.
  • PK Subban notched his first goal as a Nashville Predator with a blistering slap shot in the first period of Nashville’s contest against the Chicago Blackhawks. Subban, who was traded for Shea Weber on June 29, ripped a shot from just inside the blue line to even the score at one. Known for his enthusiasm, and philanthropy during his time in Montreal, Nashville has fallen in love with its new star and the success expected on the ice should only increase his legend in the Music City.

Snapshots: Bruins Injuries, Crosby, Lindgren, Lindback

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Judging by their roster to start the new season, the Boston Bruins’ new colors might be black and blue. Patrice Bergeron, Adam McQuaid, and Kevan Miller will all miss the season opener in Columbus on Thursday night.

While Bergeron and McQuaid are considered day-to-day with lower and upper body injuries respectively, Miller will miss approximately six weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a fracture in his left hand.

2016-17 Season Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins

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With the start of the regular season only hours away, we look at the last team in our season preview series: the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Last Season: 48-26-8 (104 points). 2nd in the Metropolitan Division. Won Stanley Cup.

Remaining Cap Space: $(-3.18MM) per CapFriendly (Pens are expected to place Pascal Dupuis and his $3.75MM cap hit on LTIR)

Key Newcomers: G Mike Condon (waivers, Montreal)

Key Departures: F Beau Bennett (trade, New Jersey), D Ben Lovejoy (UFA, New Jersey), G Jeff Zatkoff (UFA, Los Angeles)

[Related: Pittsburgh Penguins Depth Chart at Roster Resource]

Players To Watch: Sidney Crosby. The unequivocal best player in the NHL right now is sidelined indefinitely with another concussion. Crosby sustained his latest concussion during training camp on the Friday before the seasons starts. The concussion derails what was set to be a promising start to the season after Crosby returned from the World Cup of Hockey a champion and MVP. He led the tournament in scoring by potting 3G and 7A. And while concussions are now taken more seriously, Crosby’s history with head injuries only intensifies the potential harm for the Penguins Captain. He missed a significant chuck of 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons with concussions and neck issues stemming from hits to the head, and another similar injury is cause for concern.

If Crosby comes back healthy and with no lingering effects, then the Pens are expected to challenge for the Cup once again. The team made no major moves this off-season, and avoided the almost inevitable cap-shedding summers that plagued the Chicago Blackhawks over the past six years.

Key Storyline: Goaltending. Who will step up and take the reins this season? Most hockey pundits assumed that Marc-Andre Fleury would be traded and Matt Murray would assume the starting role. Fleury lost his starting position to Murray after the rookie’s excellent playoff performance. The Pens attempted to insert Fleury back into the lineup during the playoffs but the team faltered and Coach Mike Sullivan went back to Murray.

The other reason many thought that Fleury would be traded was that if he remained on the roster past June, his newly activated NMC would force the Penguins to protect him and expose Murray in the expansion draft. Obviously Pittsburgh would like to keep Murray over Fleury as the former is arguably better, younger, and cost-controlled. That leaves Fleury as the odd man out in this situation, and the Pens could move him during the season if the price is right. Regardless of when they move him, the tension surrounding the situation could have an adverse effect on team morale. The Penguins have a bit of time to contemplate platooning both goalies, however, as Murray broke his hand during the World Cup of Hockey and will miss a few weeks as he recovers.

Snapshots: Concussions, Crosby, Prust

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News and notes from around the NHL this evening:

  • The NHL has updated its concussion protocol to add two key elements: (1) central office spotters watching all the games via the League office, and (2) mandatory fines for clubs who do not remove a player who requires a concussion evaluation. The central office staffers will watch the games back at league headquarters in New York and alert teams and in-arena spotters anytime they feel a player requires concussion evaluation. Concussions have become a hot topic is sports—namely the NFL—and the NHL’s on-going concussion litigation may have affected this change.
  • Speaking of concussions, Sidney Crosby has no timetable for recovery but is not worried about any longterm effects, reports Will Graves of the AP Sports. Crosby suffered another concussion this preseason and is currently out indefinitely. He took part in an hour-long skate today with other injured players but intends to take it day by day. Crosby is no stranger to concussions—he missed significant time in 2011 and 2012 with a concussion and related injuries stemming from numerous collisions. His history may be of benefit, however, as Crosby understands that concussion recovery takes patience and that he cannot rush progress.
  • The Toronto Maple Leafs have released forward Brandon Prust from his PTO, reports Sportsnet’s Chris Johnson. Prust failed to make the team after a disappointing training camp. Despite being released, Prust continued to practice with the team today before the season began in an effort to garner a contract nonetheless. Prust acknowledged that making the Maple Leafs was a long shot, and he hopes that he turned some heads in the process.

 

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