Early Notes: Tolvanen, Capuano, Hamonic
Top draft prospect Eeli Tolvanen, a Finnish winger who has played hockey in the USHL for the past two years, was expected to go to Boston College in the fall. That will no longer happen, as according to USHR Tolvanen has failed to pass the admission standards for BC and will not be admitted. He’ll instead have to look for an opportunity elsewhere.
The Oshawa Generals own his rights in the CHL, or he could find a home at a lesser university or in Europe. He had been climbing up boards, even ranked 8th among North American skaters by CSS. He finished 17th on Bob McKenzie’s final list for TSN, but may end up in the bottom third of the first round after this news. Though it obviously looked bad from the outside, teams will have a much better insight from their meetings with him.
- Darren Dreger of TSN confirms something that Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet has been chasing, that Jack Capuano will join the Florida Panthers as an associate coach. Capuano was fired from the New York Islanders midway through the 2016-17 season, the only organization he’s ever coached for. After coming up through the AHL system, Capuano took over in 2010-11 and led the Islanders to three playoff experiences. He’ll take care of the defense and penalty kill in Florida.
- Discussion around Travis Hamonic continues, with Friedman saying on radio (via Chris Nicholls of FanRag Sports) that the Flames and Leafs are both interested. Friedman believes the Islanders are looking for two first-round picks for the defenseman, who has three years left at a reasonable $3.8MM cap hit. Hamonic’s actual salary is $4.9MM for the next few years, which may deter some teams from going after him.
Islanders’ Perplexing Side-Deal With Vegas
As I briefly mentioned in a previous article, the New York Islanders decided to travel a very perplexing road with their protection list. They shielded only 3 forwards, and protected 5 defensemen, allowing a whole host of forwards to be claimed. These include Brock Nelson, Ryan Strome, Casey Cizikas, Nikolai Kulemin, and Josh Bailey at the upper end of the spectrum. Defenseman Calvin de Haan, who has reportedly has had difficulty coming to a deal with management on a new contract, is also left at Vegas’ disposal
What complicates matters is that Arthur Staple of Newsday has been insinuating that the Islanders have a deal in place to protect Nelson, Strome, and de Haan, while others, such as Darren Dreger, believes the deal only applies to forwards. NHL Numbers stated today that the protection agreement would protect only Bailey and Cizikas, which is easily the most disastrous deal of the group. From a pure value standpoint, Nelson, de Haan and Strome have far more value than either player. Staple believed yesterday evening that the Islanders were going to trade their 15th overall selection in order to push Vegas in a favorable direction. Even still, it doesn’t explain the particulars of the players protected.
John Tavares is an obvious keeper, and Andrew Ladd helped the offense in a big way after a rocky start. Anders Lee is coming off a phenomenal 34 goal season in only his 3rd full outing. The defense revolves around Nick Leddy and Travis Hamonic, and despite his steps backward Johnny Boychuk is a big minute eater for the team. You could have made a case for Ryan Pulock over Boychuk, and made that quite convincingly, but it seemed inevitable that team would lose a defender no matter what. Boychuk did have an NMC, which complicated that matter. Considering that the team was 17th in goals against this past season, that wasn’t exactly a worst-case scenario.
Instead of taking the orthodox 4-4 route and protecting Nelson or Strome as well as Pulock or de Haan, or protecting all but one forward in a 7-3 scheme, the Islanders chose instead to protect a relative no-name in Adam Pelech. Pelech had a solid season, to be sure, but he is a bottom-pairing defenseman and doesn’t project as a difference maker. By opting to leave these players exposed, they take a large aspect of the decision making out of their own hands. GM Garth Snow sacrificed a first round pick and a certain degree of autonomy to protect two forwards, when they could instead have done that on their own. If the end goal was to entice Vegas into selecting Thomas Hickey, they could have done so without the bizarre protection structure. This isn’t even delving into the insanity of surrendering a first-round selection to protect one mid-level player over another.
All in all, the Islanders and GM Garth Snow have stolen the show today for most bewildering decision. Unless the deal with Vegas is far more encompassing than it appears at the moment, they are looking to lose a solid contributor and a 1st-round pick when both could have been avoided.
The original article incorrectly linked Dylan Strome.
New York Islanders Activate Hamonic, Terminate Emergency Conditions On Ho-Sang
Apparently Josh Ho-Sang did enough to stay with the big club last night, as the team has kept him around even after activating Travis Hamonic from injured reserve. Originally on emergency recall, the Islanders have terminated those conditions and placed him on a regular recall. That means Ho-Sang could last the rest of the season with the Islanders, and why not?
The ridiculously skilled winger played 17 minutes last night alongside Andrew Ladd and Brock Nelson, and didn’t look out of place at the NHL level. After dominating the AHL in his first taste of professional hockey—36 points in 48 games is a good start at any level for a 20-year old—he’ll get a chance to help the Islanders down the stretch and possibly into a playoff spot. The team, desperate for wingers all season has to be excited about the prospect of pairing Ho-Sang’s playmaking ability with John Tavares down the line, even if that will have to wait until next season.
Drafted 28th overall partly because of a belief he was a problem off the ice, the Islanders seem very happy with their newest player. They’ll need all the help they can get tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks, as the team continues a brutal nine game road trip that will see them fly all over the continent. They’re 3-1 on it so far after beating the Dallas Stars last night, but with games against Chicago, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and St. Louis left to go, it will likely decide their playoff fate.
Minor Transactions: 1/12/17
Here is where we’ll keep tabs on today’s comings and goings with the minor leagues:
- The Islanders announced (Twitter link) that they have recalled defenseman Scott Mayfield from AHL Bridgeport. He will take the place of Travis Hamonic on the active roster, who has been placed on injured reserve retroactive to January 7th. Mayfield has played in three games with the Isles this season, picking up a goal and two assists. He has spent the bulk of the season in the minors where he has three tallies and three helpers in 23 contests.
- Nashville announced the recall of defenseman Alexandre Carrier from Milwaukee of the AHL. Carrier, a fourth round pick of the Predators back in 2015, has had a strong rookie season in the minor leagues, recording 22 points (4-18-22) in 35 games, earning himself a spot in the AHL All-Star Game.
- With their bye week set to come to an end, the Coyotes announced that they have recalled center Laurent Dauphin and winger Brendan Perlini from their AHL affiliate in Tucson. Dauphin has spent the bulk of the season with Arizona, recording three points in 21 games while producing at a point-per-game clip in 11 minor league contests. As for Perlini, he has suited up in 15 NHL games, scoring four goals and an assist while adding 19 points (14-5-19) in 17 games with the Roadrunners.
- After just three games with AHL Hartford, the Rangers have recalled (Twitter link) winger Pavel Buchnevich. The Russian rookie made an early impact this season, recording four goals and four assists in ten games before back spasms took him out of the lineup for nearly two months. New York had sent Buchnevich down to get back into game shape and evidently they’re pleased with how performed; he had a goal and an assist in his three minor league contests.
- Pittsburgh has assigned defenseman Chad Ruhwedel to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link). He did not get into any action with the Penguins after being recalled on January 6th. Ruhwedel has suited up in five NHL games this season, recording a goal and and an assist.
- The Ducks announced that they have assigned center Chris Wagner to AHL San Diego. The 25 year old has three goals in 25 games with Anaheim this season and cleared waivers back in mid-November. Recently, the team had experimented with playing him on the wing; that type of versatility may come in handy as he pushes to be the next player recalled from the Gulls.
Islanders Notes: Defensive Struggles, Beauvillier, Goaltending
The New York Islanders find themselves near the top of the league in shots allowed at 32.6 per game; only Arizona (35.5) allows more. As Newsday’s Arthur Staple notes in a reader mailbag, their struggles in that area appear to stem from a systems change designed to compensate for some struggles in their transition game.
The Isles are coached to allow a bit more possession in their back end but strive to allow more shots from the outside as a trade-off. Unfortunately, they’ve struggled when it comes to retrieving the puck and as a result, they’ve taken a beating in the overall possession game which is one of the reasons for their slow start to the season.
One defense pairing in particular who hasn’t thrived under the changes is their expected top duo of Nick Leddy and Travis Hamonic. Both players have struggled considerably in their own end but Staple points out that the coaches are pleased with the other pairs which is why they haven’t been split up yet; they worry about doing more harm than good if they change things up.
Given that the Metropolitan Division has quickly become the hottest in hockey and that they find themselves at the bottom, they may soon have to take the risk of changing things up on the back end in the hopes that doing so can take some of the pressure off their goaltending.
More news from the Islanders:
- While some have speculated that rookie forward Anthony Beauvillier could potentially be loaned for the upcoming World Juniors, that won’t be the case, reports TSN’s Bob McKenzie (Twitter links). The 19 year old has seven points in 20 games this season but has been a healthy scratch more often as of late, suiting up just twice this month. Beauvillier is expected to sit tonight against Chicago, adds Brian Erni of IslandersPointBlank.
- The goaltending situation continues to be a strange one, as Erni along with Andy Graziano debate in a separate column. Jaroslav Halak has a below average goals against average and save percentage while Thomas Greiss is much better in both categories. However, Halak has seen the bulk of the action so far. Part of that is likely due to the fact he has been on the trade block for a while now but with the team quickly falling out of the playoff hunt, it would be understandable if they opted to go with the hotter hand. Further complicating things is Jean-Francois Berube, the third string netminder who has played all of six minutes this year. Graziano notes that if he doesn’t reach 30 appearances this year (highly unlikely at this point), Berube becomes eligible for unrestricted free agency so if they want to keep his RFA rights, they need to play him a lot more as well.
Snapshots: Islanders, Bickell, Hamilton
Travis Hamonic is a tough player to play against, and it turns out he’s also a tough player to keep out of the lineup.
Eight days ago, the Islanders announced Hamonic would miss between 4-6 weeks with an upper body injury. Despite that prognosis, Hamonic will dress on Monday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning. That’s a total of three games missed.
Islanders coach Jack Capuano told Arthur Staple and other reporters that the team would dress seven defensemen tonight, scratching forwards Alan Quine and Shane Prince.
Hamonic isn’t the only Islanders defenseman battling injury. Dennis Seidenberg was placed on Injured Reserve with an upper body injury, which Staple believes is a broken jaw. It’s a tough break for Seidenberg, who has been a success in Brooklyn after being bought out by the Bruins. Seidenberg has a nice statline, with 4 goals and 4 assists and a +10 rating in 15 games.
- Carolina Hurricanes winger Bryan Bickell spoke to Chris Hine from the Chicago Tribune about his recent diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, telling Hine that he’s “just uncertain.” He says doctors were able to catch the disease “early in its progression” and he hopes to be able to return later this season. Bickell would not be the first NHLer to play with MS: Minnesota Wild goalie Josh Harding was diagnosed early in the 2012-13 season but went on to play for parts of two more seasons. Hine quoted Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews as hoping Bickell can “find ways to stay strong.”
- Calgary Flames defenseman Dougie Hamilton has already experienced his fair share of trade rumors during his time with the Boston Bruins. He was ultimately traded to Calgary for a first round pick and a pair of second round picks at the 2015 NHL Draft. Hamilton had a career-year in his first season with the Flames, but has just six points in 16 games this season, with half of those coming in just one game; he’s pointless and -10 in his last seven games. The Flames have not been good this year, with just five wins in 16 games. Two nights ago on Hockey Night In Canada, Sportsnet analyst Nick Kypreos reported that several teams have called Flames GM Brad Treliving to see about the big right-handed defenseman’s availability. Kypreos said he doesn’t “suggest for one second that Calgary is shopping this guy, but there are some teams inquiring.” He suggested Arizona and Pittsburgh have made calls about Hamilton. The Coyotes would love to have a big right-handed defenseman to compliment Oliver Ekman-Larsson, while the Penguins would just like to improve their defense. Hamilton told Wes Gilbertson of the Calgary Sun that he saw Kypreos’ report, but that trade rumors are “part of the game” and the latest round is “just a distraction, if anything.”