2007 NHL Draft Take Two: Third Overall Pick
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.
Starting this week, 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)
Already Benn has made one of the biggest jumps in any of the three years we’ve covered in this series. The Dallas Stars captain had only played a single year of junior hockey in the BCHL when he was picked in 2007, but immediately made the Stars look like geniuses thereafter. A dominating power forward for the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL the following two seasons, Benn would step right into the NHL in 2009 and never really look back. Scoring 22 goals and 41 points as a rookie he would finish seventh in Calder Trophy voting, actually four spots ahead of James van Riemsdyk who was the real second overall pick.
Benn has scored at least 22 goals in every season of his career save for the lockout-shortened 2012-13. He reached his peak on offense a few years ago when he recorded 41 goals and 89 points in 2015-16, establishing himself as a star in the league and earning an eight-year, $76MM extension to stay with Dallas for the majority of his career. Second among all 2007 draftees in goals and points, it’s easy to see why the voters took him ahead of the other available names.
Third overall in 2007 belonged to the Phoenix Coyotes, who must have seen Benn up close at some point but decided that Kyle Turris was the BCHL star they wanted. The British Columbia native had just put up 66 goals in 53 games for the Burnaby Express, leading the league by 15 (though he actually lost the overall scoring title to undrafted Tyler Bozak). Turris looked like a lock as a future first-line center, but unfortunately things didn’t go quite that smoothly in Arizona.
After a year at the University of Wisconsin, Turris decided to sign with the Coyotes but things wouldn’t last in the desert. After a few years bouncing back and forth from the minor leagues, Turris sat out the beginning of the 2011-12 season as a restricted free agent to try and force a trade but eventually would decide playing hockey was better for his career. After just six games with the Coyotes that season however, Turris was shipped to the Ottawa Senators. He would become an excellent player when given the minutes in Ottawa, but in 2017-18 he was flipped again when the Senators got a chance at Matt Duchene.
While Turris has been a fine player, he is coming off a terrible year with the Nashville Predators and ranks 11th in scoring from the 2007 draft. Certainly not a bust if you take his whole career into account, but you can bet the Coyotes would have liked a different player if they could do it all over again.
With the third pick of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, who should the Philadelphia Flyers select? Cast your vote below!
2007 Redraft: Third Overall
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P.K. Subban 48% (694)
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Logan Couture 28% (410)
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Jakub Voracek 6% (90)
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Max Pacioretty 6% (82)
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Ryan McDonagh 3% (49)
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James van Riemsdyk 3% (41)
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Wayne Simmonds 1% (16)
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Evgenii Dadanov 1% (9)
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Kevin Shattenkirk 1% (8)
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David Perron 1% (8)
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Mikael Backlund 0% (6)
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Riley Nash 0% (6)
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Brendan Smith 0% (5)
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Kyle Turris 0% (5)
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Brandon Sutter 0% (4)
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Carl Hagelin 0% (4)
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Patrick Maroon 0% (4)
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Jake Muzzin 0% (3)
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Paul Byron 0% (2)
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Sam Gagner 0% (1)
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Nick Bonino 0% (1)
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Robert Bortuzzo 0% (1)
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Ian Cole 0% (1)
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Thomas Hickey 0% (1)
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Alec Martinez 0% (1)
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Alex Killorn 0% (1)
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Lars Eller 0% (0)
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Karl Alzner 0% (0)
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Carl Gunnarsson 0% (0)
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Justin Braun 0% (0)
Total votes: 1,453
[Mobile users click here to vote]
*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.
2007 NHL Draft Take Two: Second Overall Pick
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.
Starting this week, 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?
On Monday we asked the PHR community to weigh in on who should have been selected first overall in 2007 and after more than 2,100 votes (and probably even before that) the decision is clear. Though he didn’t get quite the 88% that Sidney Crosby came away with for the top honor from our 2005 redraft series, Patrick Kane was still the obvious choice to retain his top spot. Kane earned more than 85% of the votes with no other player earning even 4%. That certainly makes the decision for second a mystery, one that we’ll look at today.
Back in 2007, the Philadelphia Flyers held the second overall pick and decided to take a powerhouse winger from just a couple of hours up the road. Middleton, New Jersey native James van Riemsdyk had been a top prospect for years, though he had had gone a different route than fellow American-born winger Kane. While Kane decided to take his talents to the OHL in his draft year and play for the London Knights, van Riemsdyk stayed with the USNTDP and suited up with future NHL names like Colin Wilson, Jimmy Hayes and Kevin Shattenkirk. The young forward had been committed to the University of New Hampshire for years and wouldn’t join the Flyers organization for another two seasons.
When he did, it took him no time at all to make an impression. Jumping straight to the NHL in the 2009-10 season, van Riemsdyk recorded 15 goals and 35 points in his rookie campaign but finished 11th in Calder Trophy voting—the award went to Tyler Myers, who put up 48 points as a rookie defenseman for the Buffalo Sabres, a total he has never matched. van Riemsdyk was an obvious talent and would record his first 20-goal season the following year, but after a disappointing 43-game season in 2011-12 he found himself on the way to the Toronto Maple Leafs by way of trade. The Flyers would receive 2008 fifth-overall pick Luke Schenn, who had stepped directly into the NHL and was seen as a potential star shutdown defender.
Things didn’t quite work out that way for Schenn, but van Riemsdyk quickly morphed into a top goal-scoring threat for the Maple Leafs. In six years with Toronto the winger recorded 154 goals in 413 games, topping out with 36 in 2017-18. He found his way back to Philadelphia as a free agent last summer, and put up another 27-goal effort in just 66 games. In all, van Riemsdyk ranks sixth among 2007 draftees with 228 goals in his 675-game career and looks like he still has several years of top productivity left. While he hasn’t been the superstar that Kane turned into, he certainly wasn’t a bust with the second overall pick.
That doesn’t mean he was the best available pick though.
With the second pick of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, who should the Philadelphia Flyers select? Cast your vote below!
2007 Redraft: Second Overall
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Jamie Benn 35% (697)
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P.K. Subban 32% (627)
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Logan Couture 17% (329)
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Jakub Voracek 4% (73)
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Max Pacioretty 3% (61)
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James van Riemsdyk 3% (57)
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Ryan McDonagh 3% (55)
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Kevin Shattenkirk 0% (8)
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Wayne Simmonds 0% (8)
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Lars Eller 0% (6)
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Mikael Backlund 0% (6)
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Sam Gagner 0% (5)
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Brendan Smith 0% (4)
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Karl Alzner 0% (4)
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Nick Bonino 0% (4)
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Kyle Turris 0% (4)
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Robert Bortuzzo 0% (3)
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Riley Nash 0% (3)
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Brandon Sutter 0% (3)
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Ian Cole 0% (2)
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Jake Muzzin 0% (2)
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Thomas Hickey 0% (2)
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Carl Gunnarsson 0% (2)
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Carl Hagelin 0% (2)
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Alec Martinez 0% (2)
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Patrick Maroon 0% (1)
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Evgenii Dadonov 0% (1)
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David Perron 0% (1)
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Paul Byron 0% (1)
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Alex Killorn 0% (1)
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Justin Braun 0% (1)
Total votes: 1,975
[Mobile users click here to vote]
*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.
2007 NHL Draft Take Two: First Overall Pick
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.
In the fall of 2016, PHR ran a series where fans were able to choose the order in which picks should have been selected during the 2005 NHL Entry Draft. While Sidney Crosby was still the obvious choice for first overall, there was huge turnover for the rest of the first round. Last summer we repeated the process for the 2006 draft, which moved Jonathan Toews up two spots to first overall and Erik Johnson all the way down to ninth among other changes.
This time around we’ll be looking at the 2007 draft which featured two American-born wingers headline an impressive offensive group. Five players from the first round never did make it to the NHL*, while four others would play fewer than 100 games. There was plenty of talent near the top of the 2007 class as well as a future captain who was passed over multiple times by the entire league. Now with the benefit of hindsight he’s surely going to be put up where he belongs.
Over the next month as we wait for training camp to begin, we’ll be going through the entire 2007 NHL Entry Draft to have the PHR community select who they would have picked knowing the result of the player’s career. We’ll include a list of players to vote for, and update the first round as it progresses. While 2006 actually had some discussion over who would be first overall, this year seems pretty cut and dry.
The Chicago Blackhawks had the first pick 12 years ago and didn’t make a mistake, choosing Patrick Kane after the undersized winger put up 176 points in 74 games for the London Knights of the OHL. Kane had some of the finest puck skills the league had ever seen, and was a lock to be an elite offensive producer at the next level. Now 30, the Blackhawks winger has been a superstar for more than a decade and will likely crack the 1,000 point mark during the 2019-20 campaign. He’s coming off a career-best 110 points and shows no sign of slowing down. The Blackhawks turned Toews and Kane into a Stanley Cup core and wouldn’t change a thing, but is he still the top choice looking back?
With the first pick of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, who should the Chicago Blackhawks select? Cast your vote below!
2007 Redraft: First Overall
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Patrick Kane 86% (1,865)
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P.K. Subban 4% (87)
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Jamie Benn 3% (64)
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Logan Couture 2% (42)
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Ryan McDonagh 1% (17)
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Max Pacioretty 0% (10)
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Robert Bortuzzo 0% (10)
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James van Riemsdyk 0% (8)
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Jakub Voracek 0% (7)
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Patrick Maroon 0% (7)
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Ian Cole 0% (6)
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Brendan Smith 0% (6)
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Karl Alzner 0% (5)
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Riley Nash 0% (5)
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Jake Muzzin 0% (5)
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Thomas Hickey 0% (4)
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Evgenii Dadonov 0% (4)
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Sam Gagner 0% (3)
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Kevin Shattenkirk 0% (3)
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David Perron 0% (3)
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Wayne Simmonds 0% (3)
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Paul Byron 0% (3)
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Carl Gunnarsson 0% (3)
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Lars Eller 0% (2)
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Carl Hagelin 0% (2)
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Nick Bonino 0% (2)
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Kyle Turris 0% (1)
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Brandon Sutter 0% (1)
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Mikael Backlund 0% (1)
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Alex Killorn 0% (1)
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Alec Martinez 0% (1)
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Justin Braun 0% (0)
Total votes: 2,181
[Mobile users click here to vote]
*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: Which Teams Would Be On Your No-Trade List?
Every year more than 100 NHL players submit no-trade lists of one kind or another. Whether it is a list of teams they would be willing to go to, or a list that they very much would not, many of the league’s best players get a chance to have some say in where they end up. Sometimes a no-trade list will include teams that would be the most likely to be interested, giving the player final say. But other times it is just a personal preference of markets or organizations that they would or wouldn’t want to be a part of.
Former Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Nikita Zaitsev for instance holds a 10-team no-trade list now that he is into his unrestricted free agent seasons, and had to waive it in order to accept a trade to the Ottawa Senators earlier this offseason. Zaitsev spoke with Igor Eronko of Sport-Express, explaining that his list included the Senators, Montreal Canadiens, Calgary Flames, Winnipeg Jets, Edmonton Oilers, Vancouver Canucks, Detroit Red Wings and “two more.” Obviously that includes every other Canadian team, though it’s not clear if that is because of the culture or just the situations each team is in.
Moving from a non-traditional hockey market to a place like Toronto or Montreal might be jarring for many players, but those same places might be quite appealing to others. New York and Los Angeles are hot destinations in many industries, but also may not interest people not so many years removed from small town living. State tax rates might come into account for the financially savvy, while team success could be the deciding factor for others. There are countless reasons to how no-trade lists are formed.
So what teams would be on your list? We’ll run this experiment with the same 10-team no-trade list that Zaitsev has. Choose the teams you would block a move to and make sure to explain your decisions in the comments.
Which teams would be on your no-trade list?
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Ottawa Senators 9% (1,524)
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Edmonton Oilers 7% (1,185)
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Buffalo Sabres 7% (1,175)
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Winnipeg Jets 6% (1,031)
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Columbus Blue Jackets 5% (945)
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Arizona Coyotes 5% (927)
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New Jersey Devils 5% (819)
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Detroit Red Wings 4% (763)
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Minnesota Wild 4% (746)
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New York Islanders 4% (696)
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Calgary Flames 4% (690)
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Montreal Canadiens 4% (643)
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Carolina Hurricanes 4% (638)
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Vancouver Canucks 3% (557)
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Toronto Maple Leafs 3% (545)
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Florida Panthers 3% (534)
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Philadelphia Flyers 3% (518)
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Anaheim Ducks 3% (510)
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Los Angeles Kings 3% (491)
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New York Rangers 2% (402)
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Boston Bruins 2% (328)
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Pittsburgh Penguins 2% (300)
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Dallas Stars 2% (267)
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Washington Capitals 1% (251)
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Chicago Blackhawks 1% (235)
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San Jose Sharks 1% (235)
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St. Louis Blues 1% (220)
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Vegas Golden Knights 1% (182)
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Nashville Predators 1% (160)
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Tampa Bay Lightning 1% (97)
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Colorado Avalanche 1% (93)
Total votes: 17,707
[Mobile users click here to vote!]
Poll: Is Tyson Barrie A Significant Upgrade Over Jake Gardiner?
While most people look at the Toronto Maple Leafs’ acquisition of Tyson Barrie as a major plus when the team picked up the lead defenseman and Alex Kerfoot for Nazem Kadri and Calle Rosen on July 1, there are other analytics experts who suggest that the addition of Barrie isn’t much, if any improvements over Jake Gardiner, who the team has allowed to walk away in free agency.
Of course, Barrie looks like an impressive upgrade, especially when you look at his offensive numbers. Barrie scored 14 goals and 59 points last season and posted 57 points the previous year, giving Toronto another top-notch offensive defenseman next to Morgan Rielly. Gardiner was a second-pairing defenseman whose offense disappeared last year with 30 points, even though he posted 52 points the previous season. However, only one player, Barrie or Rielly, can get those first-line power play minutes and there is no guarantee that Barrie will be able to pry those minutes away from Rielly next season, suggesting that Barrie’s number’s could drop quite a bit. In fact, two goals and 23 assists came off the power play last season where Barrie was the team’s quarterback of the first power play unit.
However, analytics suggest that Gardiner, despite his struggles might prove to be a better blueliner, especially defensively. While Toronto is an offensive juggernaut, Gardiner still had a plus-19 rating in plus-minus, while there are some questions about how good a defender Barrie is. In Colorado, Barrie posted a minus-3 on an Avalanche squad that made the playoffs last season and a minus-19 the previous year, when they were a playoff team as well. While plus-minus might be considered to be an unreliable fact, Gardiner has been solid for Toronto despite the fact receiving Toronto fans wrath for years. He has averaged over 21:48 of ATOI over the past three years and in those three years ranks 23rd in the league in points with 125. In goals above replacement (GAR), which is an all-encompassing stat to evaluate skaters, Gardiner ranked 17th among defenseman last year and fifth in the league at even strength, according to evolving-hockey.com. Barrie ranked 50th last season and 66th at even strength.
However, Gardiner’s value seems to have dropped. Despite being considered one of the top defensive free agents on the unrestricted free agent market, Gardiner remains unsigned with rumors he’s seeking $7MM per season. While a change in scenery might have been needed for Gardiner, it doesn’t necessarily mean that Barrie will be the better player.
So, is Barrie a significant upgrade over Gardiner?
Is Tyson Barrie a significant upgrade over Jake Gardiner?
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No. Jake Gardiner wasn't that bad. 52% (898)
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Yes. Major upgrade. 48% (837)
Total votes: 1,735
Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.
Poll: Which UFA Contract Will Look The Worst Next Year?
When July 1st rolls around every year, excitement around the NHL goes through the roof. Top players are available for nothing but money and fans want their favorite team to shell out the dollars and cents to improve the club. Unfortunately, the deals that are made on the unrestricted free agent market are so often flawed and doomed to fail. Teams overpay for over-the-hill veterans or lock up players already in their prime for far too long. Former NHL GM Brian Burke has long held the belief that more mistakes are made on the first day of free agency than any other.
Every year we get a reminder of just how tricky the free agent market is. In 2017 we saw players like Karl Alzner (five years, $23.1MM), Patrick Marleau (three years, $18.8MM) and Kevin Shattenkirk (four years, $26.6MM) all sign contracts that would be regretted down the road. Alzner has spent time in the minors after clearing waivers, Marleau has already been bought out of the last year of his deal and Shattenkirk could potentially face the same fate later this summer if the New York Rangers are desperate for cap space.
Just one year after the 2018 frenzy and there are already several deals that look like mistakes. Jack Johnson‘s long-term deal (five years, $16.3MM) has Pittsburgh Penguins fans shaking their heads, while the Calgary Flames can’t find a spot for James Neal (five years, $28.8MM). Ilya Kovalchuk (three years, $18.8MM) looks like a shadow of what he once was.
Given the history of failure in this period, you can only assume that there will be teams deeply regretting things they did just a few days ago. Even just a year from now they might be trying to buy out some of the contracts they signed, or shipping them somewhere else to free up room. Which will be the worst? Which contract will be so unbearable a year from now that fans will be hollering for its removal? Cast your vote below and make sure to leave a comment explaining why:
Only contracts signed July 1, 2019 have been included
Which UFA contract will look the worst next year?
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Sergei Bobrovsky (FLA): 7 years, $70MM 23% (752)
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Brandon Tanev (PIT): 6 years, $21MM 13% (425)
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Tyler Myers (VAN): 5 years, $30MM 12% (399)
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Mats Zuccarello (MIN): 5 years, $30MM 11% (350)
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Semyon Varlamov (NYI): 4 years, $20MM 8% (272)
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Artemi Panarin (NYR): 7 years, $81.5MM 8% (255)
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Matt Duchene (NSH): 7 years, $56MM 7% (224)
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Anders Lee (NYI): 7 years, $49MM 5% (163)
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Joe Pavelski (DAL): 3 years, $21MM 5% (149)
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Anton Stralman (FLA): 3 years, $16.5MM 3% (100)
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Gustav Nyquist (CBJ): 4 years, $22MM 2% (72)
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Other (leave in comments) 1% (44)
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Joonas Donskoi (COL): 4 years, $15.6MM 1% (30)
Total votes: 3,235
[Mobile users click here to vote]
Poll: Where Will Jake Gardiner Sign?
Usually, within the first few days of free agency, the majority of the top players are off the market. It’s rare that one of the top players at a particular position is still available but that’s the case when it comes to defenseman Jake Gardiner.
The 29-year-old was slotted sixth in our Top 50 UFA Rankings with a projection to have the highest AAV of any blueliner to actually make it to the open market. That could certainly still happen but so far, there haven’t been many teams linked to him.
There are likely a couple of reasons for that. For starters, the back injury that caused him to miss some time is something that teams will be leery about when considering whether or not to commit a long-term deal to him. On top of that, he’s also coming off a quieter year offensively as he scored just three goals in 62 games while his 0.48 point per game average was his lowest in three years.
Nonetheless, he remains the only defenseman still out there that is basically a lock to play in a top-four role next season. There are quite a few teams that still have a vacancy to fill in that slot as well but at this point, it’s reasonable to infer that his market isn’t quite as bullish as it was thought to be just a few days ago. It has been suggested previously that he’d like to return to Toronto but given their movement so far this offseason and what’s still to come, that doesn’t appear to be a likely outcome even if his asking price comes down.
There are now two important questions when it comes to Gardiner. How much has his stock dropped and where will he wind up signing? Have your say on the latter of the two by choosing where you think he will sign by voting in the poll below.
Which team will Jake Gardiner sign with?
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Montreal Canadiens 18% (395)
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Toronto Maple Leafs 9% (210)
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Winnipeg Jets 7% (165)
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Buffalo Sabres 7% (152)
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New Jersey Devils 5% (115)
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Detroit Red Wings 5% (112)
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Edmonton Oilers 5% (110)
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Minnesota Wild 4% (101)
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Pittsburgh Penguins 4% (92)
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Colorado Avalanche 4% (81)
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Vancouver Canucks 3% (76)
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Chicago Blackhawks 3% (67)
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New York Islanders 2% (53)
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Florida Panthers 2% (46)
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Anaheim Ducks 2% (44)
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Columbus Blue Jackets 2% (40)
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New York Rangers 2% (40)
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Ottawa Senators 2% (40)
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Boston Bruins 2% (38)
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Los Angeles Kings 2% (38)
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St. Louis Blues 1% (33)
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Arizona Coyotes 1% (30)
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Philadelphia Flyers 1% (30)
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Nashville Predators 1% (26)
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Tampa Bay Lightning 1% (21)
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Washington Capitals 1% (20)
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Dallas Stars 1% (17)
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Vegas Golden Knights 1% (17)
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Carolina Hurricanes 1% (14)
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Calgary Flames 0% (11)
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San Jose Sharks 0% (11)
Total votes: 2,245
Mobile users, click here to vote.
Poll: What Should The Stars Do With Valeri Nichushkin?
Valeri Nichushkin’s time with Dallas has certainly been a bumpy road, to say the least. After being the tenth overall pick in 2013, he made an immediate impact that season, posting 34 points in 79 games and it looked like the Stars had a top-six power forward in the making. However, things have only gone downhill from there.
Injuries marred his sophomore season while he only had nine goals and 29 points in his third season while seeing his ice time drop. Nichushkin’s frustration with his role ultimately led him to go back to Russia for two years with CSKA Moscow of the KHL. He didn’t exactly light it up over there but he did play relatively well and did enough to earn a two-year, $5.9MM deal from Dallas last offseason.
While the hopes that he could be a top liner were gone, the hope was that he could provide the Stars with some much needed secondary scoring for 2018-19. It didn’t happen. Instead, he managed to go the entire season without scoring a single goal, recording just ten assists in 57 games. While he had a few minor injuries over the year, he also spent a lot of time as a healthy scratch. That’s certainly not what anyone was expecting from him and isn’t anywhere close to enough production for his $2.95MM price tag.
GM Jim Nill is now faced with a decision that a year ago would nearly seem unfathomable considering that they waited two years to get him back in Dallas. Is it time for the Stars to part ways with Nichushkin?
As the winger is only 24, his buyout cost is considerably cheaper than the standard two-thirds cost. The team would only be responsible for covering one-third of his deal, meaning that he’d only count against their salary cap for $700K for next season and $450K for 2020-21. That would free up more than $2MM in cap room for 2019-20 and the Stars could certainly find someone that could be more productive than what Nichushkin brought to the table for that price tag. u
On the other hand, there’s no denying that he still has some upside. Sure, he’s probably not going to be a top scorer in the NHL but physicality with a bit of offensive punch still carries a lot of value around the league. Giving up on Nichushkin so quickly (via buyout or trade) could be a decision that they come to regret down the road.
What should the Stars do with Nichushkin? Have your say by voting in the poll below.
What Should Dallas Do With Valeri Nichuskin This Summer?
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Trade him 45% (250)
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Buy him out 30% (164)
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Keep him and hope he rebounds next season 25% (141)
Total votes: 555
Mobile users, click here to vote.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Poll: Who Will Win Game Seven?
The Stanley Cup will be awarded in just a few hours. Ryan O’Reilly, Alex Pietrangelo and Jordan Binnington lead the St. Louis Blues into Boston with one last chance to secure the first championship in franchise history, but they’ll be met by a Bruins team ready to defend home ice with everything they have. Both teams will have some lineup changes, as the Bruins are welcoming Matt Grzelcyk back from his concussion, while St. Louis is adding Joel Edmundson and Ivan Barbashev. Connor Clifton will drop out for Boston, while Robert Bortuzzo and Robert Thomas come out of the lineup for the Blues.
Both teams are dealing with bumps and bruises (or broken jaws, in the case of one hulking defender), but there’s no tomorrow. Everything can be left on the ice with several months to recover and just one shot at hoisting the chalice. Some players may never get another opportunity, something a player like Jay Bouwmeester knows all too well. The veteran defenseman has played 1,184 regular season games in his long career, but is in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time. In fact, he had only played in 49 playoff games total before the Blues went on this run.
For a goaltender like Tuukka Rask, this is another chance to silence his critics and establish himself as a franchise great. The 32-year old won a Vezina in 2014, but is playing at an incredible level in these playoffs. The Conn Smythe trophy may be his whether the Bruins win or lose, but it certainly won’t be as sweet without a victory lap on home ice.
So who will win tonight? Is it heartbreak for the Blues once again, or will the Bruins finally succumb to the physicality of this series? Cast your vote below, and let us know what you think in the comment section.
Who will win the Stanley Cup?
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St. Louis Blues 71% (1,113)
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Boston Bruins 29% (445)
Total votes: 1,558
[Mobile users click here to vote!]
Poll: Who Will Win The Eastern Conference Final?
The full schedule is not yet released, but we now know that the Boston Bruins and Carolina Hurricanes will kick off the Eastern Conference Final on Thursday evening at TD Garden. The two teams haven’t faced in a playoff series in a decade, and just the five times overall including two series when the Hurricanes were still known as the Hartford Whalers. In that 2009 series between the two, Carolina defeated Boston in seven games on an overtime winner by Scott Walker. In that deciding seventh contest, Rod Brind’Amour scored Carolina’s first goal, and will now try to defeat them again from behind the Hurricanes’ bench.
Even after walking through the New York Islanders in four games, the Hurricanes have a lot on their plate if they want to reach the Stanley Cup Final. Boston has already dispatched two strong teams in the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Columbus Blue Jackets, and have a goaltender playing some of the best hockey of his career. Tuukka Rask has posted a .938 save percentage through the first 13 games of the postseason, and looks as good as when he led the Bruins within two games of the Stanley Cup in 2013. While Zdeno Chara may be a few years out of his prime, the Boston defense has been excellent overall with huge contributions from Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo and Torey Krug. Unfortunately McAvoy will be out tomorrow night as he serves his suspension, giving the Hurricanes a slight advantage to start the series.
If the Hurricanes able to overcome the Bruins, it will likely be on the back of one of the game’s best clutch performers. Carolina captain Justin Williams has long been known as “Mr. Game Seven” around the league for his heroics in do-or-die moments, and lived up to his name by setting up Brock McGinn in double overtime to dispatch the defending champion Washington Capitals in the first round.
Boston though have their own experienced performers, including Patrice Bergeron who continued to play excellent two-way hockey to lead the Bruins through the first two rounds. The four-time Selke winner has just eight points in 13 games, but can never be counted out with a trip to the Stanley Cup Final on the line. Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Krejci—three holdovers from the Bruins’ 2011 championship—have 19 playoff game-winning goals between them, including six in overtime.
In a year where seeds haven’t mattered and any playoff team can upset any other, it’s hard to name a clear favorite in the series. Boston will enjoy home ice, but the Hurricanes will try to storm in and take that advantage back right away. Cast your vote below on who you think will win, and comment down below how many games the series will go.
Who will win the Eastern Conference Finals?
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Boston Bruins 63% (709)
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Carolina Hurricanes 37% (408)
Total votes: 1,117
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