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San Jose Sharks Recall Kevin Labanc

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The San Jose Sharks have decided he’s waited long enough, and have recalled 20-year old Kevin Labanc from the AHL. No word on the corresponding move, or whether Labanc will feature in the lineup right away.

After being selected in the sixth round of the 2014 draft, Labanc has done nothing but score. 234 points in the following two years of junior made him a can’t-miss prospect in the Sharks system, and after making his AHL debut in last year’s playoffs, he was off to a scorching start in his rookie year. The forward has 10 points in 6 games, and will now see if his up-tempo game and playmaking ability can work at the next level.

For the Sharks, a team that is trying to get younger while saying goodbye to its older core, Labanc represents the next wave of talent. The 5’11” actually plays more of a physical game than one would expect, and can dominate on the powerplay with his crisp passing ability. Whether the Sharks, who currently rank 12th in the NHL will use him on the man advantage is unclear.

With Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau likely exiting San Jose after this season, the team needed to start looking forward to who will fill their top-six next year.  If Labanc can find any success as a rookie this season, perhaps he’ll be ready to skate alongside Tomas Hertl next year, on one of the top two lines.

Franchise Faceoff: San Jose Sharks vs Pittsburgh Penguins

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Tonight in San Jose two teams who went to battle nearly five months ago to determine who could lift hockey’s greatest trophy, will be back at odds fighting for just two points. The Sharks and Penguins will match up in what should be an outstanding game of hockey, not only because of the recent history but the immense skill on each side.  The Penguins have followed up their championship season with a great 7-2-2 start, while the Sharks have sputtered a bit at 6-5-0.

Each team has an incredible puck moving defenseman on the back end in Brent Burns and Kris Letang, and deep forward groups. They play very different styles, with Pittsburgh flying in straight lines down the rink, while San Jose prefers a slightly slower, possession based attack. They do both have great futures, with players like Tomas Hertl and Olli Maatta only starting to hit their true potential.

It may lie in the financials that these two teams diverge however, as the Sharks have a number of big name players hitting free agency this summer, while the Penguins are locked into long-term deals with all of their top guns. You might see these differences in different ways however, as the Sharks will have plenty of freedom once Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau move on, while the Penguins will have little room to sign another big ticket.

So tonight, when the two teams who dominated the hockey world last season come together, we ask you to decide which roster (not all the franchise perks that go with it) would you rather have, if you were building a team for this season and the future?

Which roster would you rather have?
Pittsburgh Penguins 86.11% (155 votes)
San Jose Sharks 13.89% (25 votes)
Total Votes: 180

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.

Patrick Marleau Plans To Play Beyond This Season

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San Jose center Patrick Marleau has no plans to retire when his contract expires at the end of this season, CSN Bay Area’s Kevin Kurz reports.  The 37 year old is in his 19th NHL year, all with the Sharks.

Whether or not Marleau’s career would continue with the only NHL franchise he’s ever known is a big question though.  Last season there were reports that he would look favorably on a trade and rumblings that he and head coach Peter DeBoer weren’t on the same page although Marleau said that was blown out of proportion.

This season, his role has been scaled back.  While he remains a fixture on the top power play unit, he is no longer a regular on the penalty while his ice time has dropped to a little under 17 minutes per game.  For comparison, the last time he played under 17 minutes a night was back in 2001-02.  Marleau also finds himself out of the top six at 5-on-5 play and has exclusively played the left wing so far this season instead of his natural position at center.

[Related: Sharks Depth Chart]

Marleau is one of San Jose’s ‘big three’ pending unrestricted free agents joining center Joe Thornton and defenseman Brent Burns.  Earlier this week, TSN’s Bob McKenzie suggested that Thornton could be in line for another three year deal while Burns will be in line for a significant raise as potentially the most prominent UFA next summer.

It’s safe to suggest that if he does return for a 20th season, be it in San Jose or elsewhere, Marleau will likely be headed for a pay cut.  He currently is making $6.5MM in salary this year with a cap hit of just under $6.7MM.  Kurz adds that any decision on his future will likely wait until the conclusion of this season.

Sharks Notes: Pending UFAs And Their Destinations

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The San Jose Sharks may be without one of their big bearded players next season.

Bob McKenzie appeared on TSN 690 on Monday morning, and spoke about the Sharks big three unrestricted free agents. Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, and Brent Burns are all UFAs at the conclusion of this season. McKenzie believes Thornton is in a blank-check type of situation, saying “he’ll probably get another three-year deal at some point, I would think, and it’ll be a fill-in-the-blank type deal.”

McKenzie isn’t so sure that Marleau will be back, however. He points to Marleau requesting a trade last season and the fact that he’s not considered a core player there anymore as reasons that he may not return to the Sharks.

Meanwhile, Burns is one of the premier defensemen in the NHL, scoring 27 goals and 75 points last season and is at a point-per-game pace already this season. While McKenzie believes Burns “in many ways, he wants to be back in San Jose,” he also points to a lack of contract talks this past summer.

McKenzie said Burns appears to be “keeping a little bit of an open mind here to see how the season goes before he makes any commitments.”

“So I can’t sit here and tell you, by any stretch, that he won’t be back with San Jose next year. But I would also caution and say that we shouldn’t assume that it’s an absolute slam-dunk that he will be back with San Jose.”

Should Burns decide to test the market, there will be no shortage of teams interested in the big defender. The Bruins, Coyotes, Devils, Maple Leafs, Oilers, and Red Wings, would all have serious interest in the big righty.

Oilers broadcaster Bob Stauffer has previously hinted that Edmonton will have extreme interest in Burns. Burns has a great relationship with former Sharks coach and current Oilers coach Todd McLellan, and the Oilers desperately need to add a right-handed offensive weapon to their blueline. Stauffer shared a link to McKenzie’s comments with a wink and a nudge. Back in June, Stauffer had mentioned Adam Larsson as a target of the Oilers and also expressed that he wouldn’t be surprised if Taylor Hall was traded for a defenseman.

Pacific Division Snapshots: Boedker, Megna, Stecher, McGinn

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After an “underwhelming” start to the 2016-17 campaign, San Jose bench boss Peter DeBoer has shuffled his lines in an effort to spark the 2 – 3 Sharks, writes Paul Gackle of The Mercury News. Tomas Hertl, who has spent much of the season skating on the top line with Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton, slides down the lineup and will center the third line. Meanwhile, Mikkel Boedker and Joel Ward have been promoted and will each move up a line.

Hertl, who has two goals and three points in six contests, will center a line with Patrick Marleau and Melker Karlsson on his wings. Boedker joins the aforementioned Pavelski and Thornton on the first line. Ward takes over as the second line right wing and will skate with Logan Couture and Joonas Donskoi.

For DeBoer, it’s not about punishing poor play or rewarding good; it’s about trying to find the right combinations that will allow the coach to roll four forward lines.

“It’s not a panic situation or anything, but you’re always looking for ways to get the most out of your group and our four-line game hasn’t been where I want it to be. I want to make sure that we are a four-line team and we’ll keep shuffling things until we are.”

Hertl’s play at center last year when Couture was out gave DeBoer the necessary confidence to move the young Czech forward back to the pivot spot.

 “Hertl can play anywhere, his game is at that point. He’s a good enough player now that, not only can he play anywhere, I think he can make other people better around him.”

The Sharks currently sit tied with Anaheim for third in the Pacific Division but have a minus-four goal differential and have tallied just 14 markers on the season. Whether DeBoer’s changes pay off for the Sharks remains to be seen but it’s evident some form of shakeup was needed in San Jose.

Elsewhere in the Pacific Division:

  • The Vancouver Canucks have announced via their team website that they have recalled forward Jayson Megna and defenseman Troy Stecher from Utica of the AHL. Furthermore, according to Jon Abbott who covers the Canucks for TSN1040, Megna is slated to play on the fourth line tonight against Ottawa. Stecher is set to make his NHL debut tonight and will skate with Alex Edler, with whom he partnered during preseason action, again per Abbott. Megna appeared in six games for the New York Rangers in 2015-16, netting a single goal and two points for the Blueshirts. Stecher signed with Vancouver as an undrafted free agent following three seasons playing for the University of North Dakota. The two draw into the lineup due to the continued absences of Derek Dorsett, Alexandre Burrows and Chris Tanev.
  • The Arizona Coyotes will receive a welcome boost tonight as offseason free agent addition Jamie McGinn is set to make his 2016-17 season debut, as Coyotes Senior Director of News Content Dave Vest writes. McGinn missed the team’s first five games due to an upper-body-injury. Head coach Dave Tippett says the veteran wing will have to quickly readjust to the speed and pace of the game:  “He’s going to have to get up and going. At least he had exhibition games (and) played well in the exhibition games. He’s been off for a couple weeks now. The pace has gone up. He’ll have to get into the pace of the game, but he’s a good veteran guy. He’s hard around the front of the net. Hopefully he brings us a little veteran presence we need right now.” Vest also notes that goalie Justin Peters is slated to make his first start of the 2016-17 campaign between the pipes tonight for the Coyotes. The 30-year-old Peters, who has 67 NHL starts on his resume, appeared in a relief role for the Coyotes last Thursday and stopped 23 of the 24 shots he faced. Peters has assumed the backup role in Arizona behind Louis Domingue following the lower-body-injury to Mike Smith.

 

Goalie Notes: Price, Dell, McCollum

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Carey Price will be out again tonight as the Montreal Canadiens take on the Pittsburgh Penguins on home ice. Price is battling a flu to start the year, and hasn’t been able to play for the team yet. While Price’s absence really caused problems for the Habs last season, perhaps bringing in Al Montoya was a better decision than anyone even expected.

Through two games, Montoya and the Habs have picked up three of a possible four points and the netminder carries a 1.92 GAA and .942 sv%. While Montoya has never had to carry the load of a full NHL schedule, his presence means that the Canadiens can likely give Price a little more rest this season and still be very competitive.

Montoya will be backed up by Charlie Lindgren tonight, who made one start for the club last season.

  • Steve Zipay of Newsday is reporting that the San Jose Sharks will give rookie Aaron Dell his first NHL start in net tomorrow night against the Islanders. Dell has worked his way through the minor-league system and deserves a chance to show what he can do at the highest level. The undrafted 27-year old has spent time in the ECHL during his career, but posted solid numbers at every level.
  • Newest Calgary Flames netminder Tom McCollum joined Sportsnet 960 today, and had a clear answer for why he signed with the Flames. “Calgary was far and away the best opportunity for myself.”  McCollum mentions that after being cut from a PTO with Los Angeles, there wasn’t all that much interest from anyone else, until Calgary offered him a deal. A former first-round pick by the Red Wings, McCollum has had a ton of success with Grand Rapids, but never got a foothold in the NHL.

Pacific Notes: Quick Update, Brouwer, Despres, Sharks

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Los Angeles GM Dean Lombardi provided a brief update on Jonathan Quick’s injury situation on Friday.  At this time, Quick and the team are still consulting with doctors with regards to the best way to proceed, reports Jon Rosen of LA Kings Insider.  Lombardi is hoping a decision in that area is made sooner than later and at that time, the team will know more about how long he’ll be out instead of the current week-to-week designation.

A few years ago, Quick suffered a groin strain that caused him to miss two months of action.  While Lombardi didn’t specify that this is another groin issue, he did indicate that the injury is in the “same area”.

In the meantime, Jeff Zatkoff will take over as the interim starter and will get the nod tonight in their home opener against Philadelphia.  Veteran Peter Budaj will serve as the backup.

More news and notes from the Pacific Division:

  • While he has been with Calgary for all of one game since joining the team in July, Flames right winger Troy Brouwer has been a vocal presence both on and off the ice, notes Wes Gilbertson of the Calgary Sun. Accordingly, the team has named him one of their alternate captains, making him just one of four players to wear a letter after changing teams in the offseason.  Brouwer had a strong debut with Calgary, picking up a goal while playing just over 16 minutes.
  • Anaheim defenseman Simon Despres may be dealing with another concussion, notes Eric Stephens of the OC Register via Twitter.  Speaking with reporters regarding the Rickard Rakell contract, GM Bob Murray noted the plan is to have Despres meet specialists and that something is wrong that they need to get to the bottom of.  He added that this latest problem was not the result of a hit or a fall.
  • The San Jose Sharks have assigned top prospect Timo Meier to the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda, the team announced. He has been dealing with mononucleosis and is still likely a little while away from returning to game action.  Last season, he had 34 goals and 53 assists in 52 games in the QMJHL.  The Sharks recalled right winger Dan Carpenter from their farm team.  Carpenter led the Barracuda in scoring last season with 55 points in 66 games and got into one game with the big club.

Final Training Camp Cuts: 10/11/2016

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As teams work to get their rosters finalized before today’s 4pm deadline, the final cuts from camps have started to come down.

Buffalo Sabres (via team release)

Alexander Nylander (to Rochester, AHL)
Nick Baptiste (to Rochester, AHL)
Dan Catenacci (to Rochester, AHL)
Brendan Guhle (to Prince Albert, WHL)

Calgary Flames (via team release)

Linden Vey (to Stockton, AHL)
Daniel Pribyl (to Stockton, AHL)
Brett Pollock (to Adirondack, ECHL)

Carolina Hurricanes (via Chip Alexander):

Warren Foegele (to Kingston, OHL)

Chicago Blackhawks (via team release)

Brandon Mashinter (to Rockford, AHL)
Mark McNeill (to Rockford, AHL)

Colorado Avalanche (via team release):

Trent Vogelhuber (to San Antonio, AHL)
Mike Sislo (to San Antonio, AHL)

New Jersey Devils (via team release)

Scott Wedgewood (to Albany, AHL)

New York Islanders (via Arthur Staple)

Adam Pelech (to Bridgeport, AHL)
Ryan Pulock (to Bridgeport, AHL)

Minnesota Wild (via Michael Russo)

Christoph Bertschy (to Iowa, AHL)

San Jose Sharks (via Mike Halford)

Mirco Mueller (to San Jose, AHL)
Nikolay Goldobin (to San Jose, AHL)
Ryan Carpenter (to San Jose, AHL)
Barclay Goodrow (to San Jose, AHL)
Dan Kelly (to San Jose, AHL)
Kevin Lablanc (to San Jose, AHL)

St. Louis Blues (via team release):

Jordan Binnington (to Chicago, AHL)

Vancouver Canucks (via Bob McKenzie)
Tuomo Ruutu (released from PTO)
Emerson Etem (waived for purpose of assignment to Utica, AHL) – per team release

‘Yotes Notes: Rieder, Dvorak, Smith

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One of the more interesting training camps this fall has been that of the Arizona Coyotes, with their glut of young players trying to make it, and ongoing speculation about Tobias Rieder’s situation.  On Monday, the German forward inked a new deal with the team, ending his holdout. Today, as Sarah McLellan reports, he has still yet to travel to Coyotes camp due to a visa issue.  While head coach Dave Tippett hopes that he’ll join the team tomorrow, there is no guarantee either way.

Rieder signed a two-year, $4.45MM deal, a deserved raise after scoring 14 goals and 37 points last season. An excellent checker, Rieder provides a two-way game with enough secondary scoring to make him a very valuable player for any team, especially one that will have so many young faces up front this season.

  • Also from McLellan, Tippett tells her that Christian Dvorak and Jamie McGinn will both miss tonight’s game with minor injuries. They’re both hoping to practice tomorrow, but won’t know until the morning. Dvorak is expected to make the leap from the OHL straight to the NHL club this season after posting 121 points in 59 games last season for the London Knights. He added 35 more in 18 playoff games and would have had a shot for the player of the year award, had it not gone to his linemate (and Toronto Maple Leafs prospect), Mitch Marner.
  • McLellan also penned a piece about Mike Smith, mentioning that he worked hard this summer to build up his strength and change his mental approach to games. The goaltender will have to be sharp this season if Arizona has any dreams of the playoffs, as the 34-year old is still their best option between the pipes. The former Vezina trophy finalist got into just 32 games last season, but is feeling healthy this camp. He’ll start for the Coyotes tonight against the Sharks in their final preseason game.

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