Week In Review

The hockey world continues to keep tabs on the situation between USA Hockey and its women’s team in advance of the World Championships which start this week.  Player agent Allan Walsh suggested late Saturday that American NHL players may also decline to participate in their World Championships (which start in May) as a sign of solidarity.  With the puck dropping on the women’s side on Friday, there will likely be plenty more to this story in the days to come.  In the meantime, here are five key stories from the week that was:

1) Sharp To Undergo Hip Surgery – It came out just before the trade deadline that Dallas winger Patrick Sharp had been dealing with a lingering issue that wound up preventing the Stars from trading him.  It came out on Saturday that he is set to undergo hip surgery, ending his season.  The pending unrestricted free agent will be sidelined for four to five months so he should be ready in time for training camp.  Sharp finishes the campaign with just 18 points in 48 games, his lowest point total since his rookie season back in 2003-04.

2) Halak’s Back – Earlier this season, the Islanders determined their three goalie situation wasn’t an ideal one and eventually waived Jaroslav Halak, sending him to the minors after he went through unclaimed.  Now, with the team battling for their playoff lives, New York is once again turning to carrying three netminders as they recalled him on Thursday.  His return was a successful one as he made 37 saves in a shootout win against the Penguins.  The Isles have eight games remaining and sit two points behind Boston with a game in hand for the final Wild Card spot and will likely turn to Halak again at some point in the next two weeks.

3) Ekblad Returns, Gets Hurt Again – The return of Panthers blueliner Aaron Ekblad from his latest concussion came as quite the surprise, especially since he had only missed a couple of weeks and the fact that Florida is out of the playoff picture.  His return was short-lived though as he has suffered a neck injury and is once again on the shelf.  Head coach/GM Tom Rowe admitted on Saturday that he had some reservations about putting him back in, even though he had been cleared to return by team doctors.

4) KHL Free Agent Asking Prices – KHL forwards Vadim Shipachyov and Evgeni Dadonov are expected to be highly sought after this summer but teams that are interested better be prepared to pay up.  Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Wednesday that Shipachyov is seeking a contract with an AAV of $5.5MM while Dadonov is looking for $3.5MM per year.  Shipachyov was third in KHL scoring with 76 points in 50 games and has yet to play at the NHL level.  Dadonov came in fifth with 66 points in 53 games and spent parts of three NHL seasons with Florida early in his career.

5) Blue Jackets Extend Three – Columbus signed a trio of players to two year extensions on Monday.  Defenseman Scott Harrington inked a two year, $1.65MM contract as did forward Lukas Sedlak while forward Markus Hannikainen signed a deal worth a total of $1.35MM.  Of those three, only Sedlak will meet the NHL’s 40/70 requirements when it comes to meeting an exposure quote in the Las Vegas expansion draft in June.

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The trade deadline has now come and gone but that hasn’t stopped there from being any key storylines throughout the hockey world.  Here are five from the week that was.

1) News From GM Meetings – There weren’t many proposed changes coming from the GM meetings but there will be a couple of recommendations for next season.  It was suggested that teams should no longer be able to use a timeout following an icing while the managers would also like to see some tweaks to the bye week system.  Surprisingly, there wasn’t enough support to recommend any changes to the offside rule, one that has come under fire more frequently with the challenge system.  The league also suggested the salary cap should come in between $75.5MM-$76MM but that’s assuming that the NHLPA exercises their full 5% inflator.  Given the state of escrow at the moment, that’s no guarantee.

2) Bettman Comments On Glendale – The trouble surrounding the Coyotes and their arena situation has been well documented.  NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman entered the discussion on Wednesday, issuing a letter to Arizona officials detailing why the team needs a new home in the area.  While some have suggested the team could and should remain in Glendale but Bettman is certainly not a fan of that option, stating that “The Coyotes cannot and will not remain in Glendale”.

3) Stars Extend Two – Dallas, in need of having some NHL forwards eligible to be exposed in June’s Vegas expansion draft, inked a pair of wingers to contract extensions in Adam Cracknell and Curtis McKenzie.  Both players received one year deals worth $675K and $700K respectively.  Each team must expose at least two forwards who have played either 40 games this season or 70 over the past two years combined.  McKenzie meets the first requirement while Cracknell fulfills the latter.

4) Vegas Signs Their First Player – Speaking of the Golden Knights, they completed their first transaction in franchise history, signing Reid Duke to a three year, entry level contract.  Duke was a 6th round pick of the Wild back in 2014 but didn’t sign and is in the middle of his final WHL season with Brandon.  He already has set career highs in goals (36), assists (34), and points (70) through 56 games with the Wheat Kings this season.

5) College Free Agency Opens – NCAA teams are starting to be eliminated from their playoffs and as a result, the free agent market is beginning to open up.  The Capitals struck early, agreeing to contracts with defenseman Kristofers Bindulis and winger Hampus Gustafsson.  Both deals begin next season and each player will report to AHL Hershey for the rest of this year on amateur tryout contracts.  With more teams being eliminated next weekend, several more players are expected to sign in the coming days.

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Although the trade deadline is quickly approaching, several of the key stories over the past week came off the ice.  Here are five of the top stories from the week that was.

1) Coaching Change In Montreal – Although the Canadiens find themselves atop the Atlantic Division, that wasn’t enough to prevent GM Marc Bergevin from making a change behind the bench, as he let Michel Therrien go.  Replacing him is Claude Julien who returns for his second stint with the team after serving as their bench boss from 2003-2006.  Coincidentally, it also happens to be the second time that Julien replaced Therrien in Montreal after they originally let Therrien go back in 2003.

2) Vermette Suspended Ten Games – Ducks center Antoine Vermette was handed an automatic ten game suspension as a result of him slashing linesman Shandor Alphonso after a faceoff back on Tuesday night.  The NHLPA has filed an appeal on his behalf and there is no timetable for when that will be heard.  He won’t be permitted to play while he waits for the appeal process to play out.  Vermette has 22 points in 58 games with Anaheim this season while ranking second in the league in faceoff percentage.

3) Nyquist Suspended Six Games – Red Wings winger Gustav Nyquist received a six game ban for a high sticking incident on Minnesota defenseman Jared Spurgeon last weekend.  It’s the second longest suspension in the league this season (tied with Philadelphia’s Radko Gudas, both behind Vermette’s) but it has largely been criticized as being too lenient.  Working in Nyquist’s favor was that Spurgeon wasn’t seriously injured on the play and that he had no prior history of supplemental discipline.

4) Tanguay Retires – Unable to land an NHL contract, left winger Alex Tanguay announced that he is joining the NHL Network as a full-time television analyst, meaning that he has effectively announced his retirement.  The 37 year old hangs up his skates with an impressing 863 points in 1,088 career regular season games with the Avalanche, Flames, Canadiens, Lightning, and Coyotes.

5) Maatta Out Six Weeks – The Penguins were hit with some tough news on the injury front, losing Justin Schultz indefinitely to a concussion and Olli Maatta for at least six weeks after he underwent hand surgery.  With just seven weeks left in the season, it’s certainly plausible that Pittsburgh could hold him out of the lineup for the rest of the regular season and place him on Long-Term Injury Reserve.  That would then allow them to basically free up nearly $4.1MM in cap space to make a deadline at the trade deadline before activating Maatta for the playoffs (where there is no cap in place).

With the trade deadline now less than a month away, things are really starting to pick up throughout the league.  Here are the top stories from the week that was.

1) Blues Fire Ken Hitchcock – Although he was set to retire at the end of the season, the Blues made their coaching change earlier than expected, as they fired Ken Hitchcock on Wednesday.  Associate coach Mike Yeo, who was supposed to take over as head coach after the season, was named as his replacement.  Also let go was goalie coach Jim Corsi with long-time NHL netminder Martin Brodeur taking over that role for the rest of the season.

2) Jarome Iginla Hopes To Be Traded – While he was unwilling to accept a trade last year, Avalanche right winger Jarome Iginla is much more open to the possibility this season, admitting that he is hoping to be dealt to get a shot at playing for the Stanley Cup.  Both Iginla and the Avalanche have struggled considerably this season and Colorado is set to miss the playoffs for the third straight season.  The 39 year old Iginla is a pending unrestricted free agent but carries a rather pricey cap hit of $5.33MM.

3) Arizona Arena Deal Falls Through – Just when things were finally starting to look up for the Coyotes and their lengthy search for an arena outside of Glendale, a proposed agreement to build an arena in Tempe, Arizona fell through.  The team has a lease in Glendale through the 2017-18 season but it’s expected that team ownership will continue to look for other options in the area over pursuing an extension to that lease.

4) Rangers Extend Alain Vigneault – The Rangers handed head coach Alain Vigneault a two year contract extension while giving him a significant raise on the final year of his original deal.  After being set to earn $2MM next season, the 55 year old bench boss will receive twice that while earning $4MM and $4.25MM in 2018-19 and 2019-20 respectively.  He’s fourth in franchise history in wins and will likely move up to third in the next couple of weeks.

5) Hartford Interested In Hosting The Islanders – With the reports that the Barclays Center will look to remove the Islanders as their tenant following the 2018-19 campaign, the City of Hartford has publicly expressed an interest in becoming a landing spot for the team, either on a short-term or more permanent basis.  Majority owners Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin have been looking into alternative arena options going back to the beginning of the season.  It appears they’ll have another option to look into now.

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With the trade deadline now just six weeks away, we’re starting to see a bit more roster movement.  Those moves are among the five key stories for the week that was.

1) Toronto Changes Backups – With Toronto not wanting to have youngster Antoine Bibeau as their second goalie, they claimed veteran netminder Curtis McElhinney off waivers from Columbus (and subsequently sent Bibeau to the AHL).  Their backup goaltender to start the season, Jhonas Enroth (who cleared waivers earlier this season), was then dealt to Anaheim for a 2018 seventh round draft choice.

2) Predators Acquire McLeod – Nashville added some grit to their lineup, acquiring winger Cody McLeod from Colorado in exchange for prospect center Felix Girard.  The Avs are retaining 40% of McLeod’s $1.33MM cap hit on their books for this season and next.  Coincidentally, McLeod’s first game in a Predators uniform was against Colorado and he made an early impression, scoring against his former team.

3) All-Star Rosters Announced – The league named the full rosters for the upcoming All-Star Game later this month in Los Angeles.  All 30 teams have at least one representative while Chicago leads the way with four.  Interestingly enough, one of those picks, center Jonathan Toews, admitted that he was a bit confused by his nomination, arguing that some of his teammates were much more deserving of the spot.

4) Wickenheiser Retires – One of the pioneers in women’s hockey hung up her skates as Hayley Wickenheiser retired at the age of 38.  A five time medallist at the Olympic level with nine more medals at the World Championships, she also was the first female to play men’s professional hockey, spending time both in Finland and in Sweden.

5) Prospects On The Move – The CHL’s trade deadline came and went and several notable NHL prospects will be finishing their junior seasons elsewhere.  Among the players moved were Jeremy Bracco (Toronto), Mitchell Stephens and Anthony Cirelli (Tampa Bay), as well as Mitchell Vande Sompel (NY Islanders).  While the trades don’t affect their NHL rights, it likely means that they will be playing much deeper into the postseason.

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The past week in the hockey world was highlighted by a move that virtually no one saw coming.  Here are five key stories from the week that was.

1) Panthers Fire Gerard Gallant, Name Tom Rowe Interim Coach: While this is usually the time of year where a team or two decides to change head coaches, no one was expecting Florida to be the one to do so first.  That is indeed what happened as the Panthers fired Gallant, with Rowe, their general manager taking over for the remainder of the season on an interim basis.  The change was met with widespread criticism throughout the league as many felt that Florida was too quick to fire Gallant, especially given that they have been without Jonathan Huberdeau for the entire season.  Given that Rowe and team ownership are heavily invested in analytics, this will surely further fuel the debate between the old and new school philosophies.

2) NHLPA Rejects ‘Olympics for CBA Extension’ Offer: As expected, the NHL Players’ Association formally rejected the owners’ proposal to guarantee Olympic participation on 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea in exchange for the players agreeing to waive their right to opt-out of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement.  The owners haven’t been particularly enthused about the prospect of shutting down the league for two weeks midseason without any compensation and have been taking the public stance that the odds of them agreeing to go are lower than they were before.  It’s believed the NHL has until next month to make a decision on participation so this is far from the end that we’ll hear about this topic.

3) Maple Leafs Hold Peter Holland Back From Road Trip: It’s quite common for players on an active roster to be shopped around on the trade market but it’s much more rare when a team takes the step of telling the player to stay home while they continue to try to trade him.  That’s what has happened in Toronto, as the team told Holland to not accompany them on their Western road trip.  Holland, who cleared waivers in the offseason prior to his arbitration hearing, has played a sparing role this year, suiting up in just eight games so far this season.  GM Lou Lamoriello has acknowledged that Holland’s future with the team is limited and that they will continue to try to move him.  If they remain unsuccessful there, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him on waivers in the not-too-distant future.

4) NHL Planning An Exhibition Game In China: In recent years, it has been suggested that the league would like to get back to playing exhibition games overseas, something that was common in the years leading up to the last lockout.  While they have played in many different countries over that time, China hasn’t been one of them but there are plans to change that as the league is planning to play a preseason game in China next season.  The last time games were played across the pond was back in 2011 with matchups in six countries including Germany, Slovakia, and Finland.

5) Predators Claim Reid Boucher Off Waivers: With Taylor Hall returning from injury, the New Jersey Devils needed to make a roster move to open a spot for their top forward to come back.  They decided to place Reid Boucher on waivers and one day later, Nashville claimed the 23 year old.  Boucher is only a year removed from collecting 19 points in 39 games and should provide the Predators with some serviceable forward depth while they deal with injuries to James Neal and Colton Sissons.

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Last week was a busy one around the hockey world.  Here are five prominent stories from the week that was.

1) Brent Burns Signs Long-Term Extension: The top unrestricted free agent was taken off the market early as the Sharks inked Brent Burns to an eight year, $64MM contract extension.  The contract contains a limited no-trade clause as well.  The deal gives him the second highest cap hit amongst defensemen in the league behind Nashville’s P.K. Subban.  As for San Jose, they’ll now turn their focus to a pair of key pending UFAs up front in Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau.

2) Las Vegas Reveals Team Name: After months of speculation, Las Vegas owner Bill Foley revealed that the expansion franchise, which will begin play in 2017-18, will be called the Vegas Golden Knights.  The team also displayed their logo for the first time although their uniforms will be unveiled sometime in the new year.   Shortly after that, the NHL released the list of mandatory-protected players for the expansion draft which will take place in June.

3) NHL Announces Changes To All-Star Eligibility: Following last season where fans stuffed the virtual ballot box for seldom-used enforcer John Scott (who was in the minors at the time the game was held), the league made some tweaks to their eligibility rules to prevent a situation like this from happening again.  Any player who is assigned to the minors between November 1st and January 26th will not be eligible to be voted into the game.  (An exception to this rule will be players on conditioning assignments.)  Beyond that, however, fans can vote for any player; the list hasn’t been reduced to only top players from each division.

4) Canucks Sign Ben Hutton To A Two Year Extension: Vancouver locked up one of their core blueliners to a bridge deal that will carry a cap hit of $2.8MM for 2017-18 and 2018-19.  He’s in his second NHL season and has five points in 22 games so far this season while averaging over 21 minutes per night.  GM Jim Benning noted that they would like to get center Bo Horvat signed to a long-term deal next.

5) Matt Carle Retires: After clearing waivers earlier in the week, Nashville defenseman Matt Carle announced his retirement.  The 32 year old finishes his career having played parts of 12 NHL seasons with the Sharks, Flyers, Lightning, and Predators, scoring 45 goals while adding 238 assists in 730 NHL games.  He retires as the third highest point getter all-time among Alaskan-born players.

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Last week was quite a busy one around the NHL.  Here are five prominent stories from the week that was.

1) Coyotes Announce New Arena Deal: After years of reports of potential relocation not to mention their arena deal in Glendale getting ripped up a couple of years back, there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel.  The Coyotes announced an arrangement with Arizona State University that will see a new 16,000-plus seat arena built within the district along Tempe Town Lake with the target of being ready for the 2019-20 NHL season.  In the meantime, the team is expected to come to terms on a short-term lease extension in Glendale for the next couple of years while their new facility is being built.

2) Steven Stamkos Out Long-Term: The Lightning will be without their captain for the bulk of the season after he suffered a torn meniscus on Tuesday against the Red Wings.  He underwent surgery and is expected to miss at least the next four months.  While Tampa Bay can conceivably place him on long-term injury reserve to open up some cap space to get a temporary replacement, this is still a big blow for Tampa Bay and Stamkos, who was off to a strong start this season with 20 points in 17 games.

3) Johnny Gaudreau Out Six Weeks: The Lightning weren’t the only team struck with the injury bug this past week as Gaudreau, Calgary’s leading scorer last season, suffered a broken finger against the Wild on Monday.  He underwent successful surgery and will be out for at least the next six weeks.  The injury came from a slash, one of 21 that he received against Minnesota alone.

4) Senators Waive Andrew Hammond; Clears: After reportedly declining a conditioning stint in the AHL upon being green lighted to return from a lower body injury, Ottawa placed Hammond on waivers on Saturday; he went unclaimed earlier today.  He’s off to a slow start this season with a 0-1-0 record with a 4.50 goals against average and a .793 save percentage in two appearances while Mike Condon, acquired as goaltending insurance earlier, has impressed in his three games.

5) NHL Discussing Change To Draft Age: A group of representatives across the various North American hockey leagues met to discuss a new player development model.  Among the discussions was the possibility of raising the minimum draft age by one year from 18 to 19.  The proposal also includes an exceptional status provision, similar to one that junior teams in the Canadian Hockey League currently have.  Nothing has been ratified as of yet as everything is still in the exploratory stage but this could be something to keep an eye on down the road.

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