Snapshots: Fleury, McDavid, Oilers Training Camp Battles
If he had it his way, Marc-Andre Fleury would spend the rest of his career in Pittsburgh.
The first overall pick in 2003 has been with the Penguins his whole career, winning two Stanley Cups. However, there are two major roadblocks to Fleury’s wish: next summer’s expansion draft and teammate/ heir apparent Matt Murray.
The 31-year-old Fleury had an unbelievable season in 2015-16, winning 35 games and posting a 0.921 SV%. Unfortunately, he suffered a concussion towards the end of the season, which allowed Murray to take over the starters role on his way to the Penguins’ Stanley Cup victory.
In an interview with Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Fleury said both he and Murray give the Penguins a chance to win games, and “bottom line, that’s what matters. It doesn’t matter who’s in the net.”
Fleury said he met with management after last season and knows where he stands.
When asked if he would request a trade to get more starts, Fleury was emphatic, “No. No. No. I’ve always said this is like my home. I wish I could play here my whole career.”
With next summer’s expansion draft looming, the Penguins will only be able to protect one goaltender. It seems unlikely they would chose Fleury at the expense of the 22-year-old Murray. Fleury has a no-move clause and will need to be protected by his team, unless he chooses to waive it. The Penguins may ask him to move before then, to avoid losing him for nothing, but Fleury isn’t thinking about that, telling Bombulie he plans on going with the flow, and that he’ll “see what happens”
In other news from around the hockey world:
- Team North America coach Todd McLellan isn’t worried about Connor McDavid going pointless in the World Cup preliminaries. According to TSN’s Frank Seravelli, McLellan thinks McDavid needs to be more selfish, comparing it to McDavid’s first three games in the NHL, where he was “asking for permission” while he was feeling out the style of play.
- Back in Edmonton, the Oilers expect college free agent Drake Caggiula to contend for a forward position to start the season, according to Bob McKenzie (via Chris Nichols). The smaller Caggiula models his game after Bruins star Brad Marchand: pesky, fast, and skilled.
- The Edmonton Journal’s David Staples has a new article on Oilers camp invite Kris Versteeg. Staples praised Versteeg as “the kind [of player] the team needs and has sorely lacked”, calling him an “excellent bet”. Versteeg has played with Milan Lucic, trained with Brandon Davidson, and played for GM Peter Chiarelli. He cited McDavid, Rogers Place, and playing close to home as reasons for picking the Oilers over other teams who offered PTOs.
Snapshots: Steen, Ristolainen, Sobotka, Halak, Bobrovsky
Although he withdrew from the World Cup of Hockey last month, Blues forward Alex Steen is hoping he will be ready to suit up for St. Louis in their season opener on October 12th, reports Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Steen stops short of saying he’ll definitely be ready to play against Chicago on opening night but hopes to be ready by then or shortly thereafter:
“(The opener) seems like a realistic target, but we’ll see how it reacts. I haven’t done much. These (practice) skates, there’s not a lot of contact, so we’ll see once we get a little bit of contact. But I think for sure I see myself playing in October.”
Although he won’t be able to play for his native Sweden in the tournament, Steen noted that the goal of being able to play there actually forced him to accelerate his rehab process from his shoulder surgery back in early June. Without doing so, the chances of him being available to start the season would have been lower.
Steen also denied the speculation that he has given the team an ultimatum to re-sign him before the end of the preseason:
“I don’t know where that surfaced, that’s not something that’s come from me. I want to be in St. Louis and the organization knows that. I’m sure we’ll get to it when we get to it, so we’re not stressed about it. Right now, the whole focus has been on the shoulder, getting that ready and getting the group back together again.”
Steen is entering the final year of his contract, one that carries a cap hit of $5.8MM and a salary of $6.5MM. He has been in St. Louis since late 2008 when he was acquired from Toronto along with defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo in exchange for right winger Lee Stempniak.
Elsewhere around the league:
- Buffalo blueliner Rasmus Ristolainen isn’t yet worried that he doesn’t have a new deal with the Sabres, writes Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News. Ristolainen is coming off his entry-level pact which carried a guaranteed salary of just $925K. He was one of the bigger bargains on the back end last season, one where he had a career high 41 points in 82 games. Harrington suggests that Ristolainen, who will suit up for Team Finland at the World Cup of Hockey, is seeking a five or six year deal which would cover his remaining restricted free agent years.
- There is still no deal in place yet to officially allow Vladimir Sobotka to return to St. Louis for the upcoming season, notes ESPN’s Joe MacDonald. The Blues and his KHL team Avangard Omsk as well as his agent are expected to talk during the World Cup to try to come to a resolution. Sobotka has one year on his deal remaining in Russia but also owes St. Louis one year with a salary of $2.725MM, an arbitration award from back in July of 2014.
- New York Islanders goaltender Jaroslav Halak has earned the #1 job for Team Europe at the World Cup, head coach Ralph Krueger announced. He beat out Islanders teammate Thomas Greiss and Washington’s Phillip Grubauer for the job. Team Europe plays their first game of the tournament on Saturday afternoon against Team USA.
- Columbus Blue Jackets netminder Sergei Bobrovsky will start Team Russia’s first game on Sunday afternoon, reports NHL.com’s Nick Cotsonika. He beat out Colorado’s Semyon Varlamov and Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy for the start in the opener. Head coach Oleg Znarok wouldn’t say who he plans to start beyond that and noted that no decisions have been made on what their lineup against Sweden will be.
Snapshots: Zetterberg, Miller, Brown
With the departure of Pavel Datsyuk to the KHL, Detroit Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg assumed the mantle as the team’s longest tenured player. Entering his 14th NHL campaign and soon to turn 36-years-old, the skilled Swedish forward has certainly seen better days as evidenced by his 16-point drop in scoring from 2014-15 to this past season. That being said, Zetterberg is still someone the Wings will lean on if the team wishes to stretch its streak of qualifying for the postseason to 26 years.
Zetterberg acknowledges a drop-off in his play during the second half of each of the previous two seasons and suggests he is looking at different ways to stay fresh throughout the coming season, according to Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press.
“That’s what’s gotten me the last two years, I ran out of gas. You can’t play hockey in this level when you run out of gas. So that’s one thing we’re going to play around with.”
Zetterberg tallied 27 points in the season’s first 34 games through December but struggled down the stretch recording just nine points over the final 24 contests. He also chipped in just a single point, a goal in game three, during Detroit’s five-game, first-round playoff loss to Tampa Bay. Zetterberg stated he is at least willing to listen if head coach Jeff Blashill suggests decreased ice time or even taking a game off here and there.
“As a player, as soon as you hear ‘less minutes,’ you’re not happy. I don’t think I will go and tell Coach I need less minutes. But if he decides that I need to play less or get some rest dates, I’m open to listen to that.”
“We want to see the younger guys take steps and kind of take minutes from the older guys. But I won’t give it away, they have to earn it. That’s part of the transition. I went through it when I came in and started to play more. But you have to earn it.”
Zetterberg has five seasons remaining on a long-term deal that took effect in 2009-10. He carries a cap hit just in excess of $6MM annually but the final three seasons of his contract come with actual salaries of $3.35MM, $1MM and $1MM respectively. It will be interesting to see if Zetterberg is both willing and able to finish out the pact with the Red Wings.
Elsewhere around the league:
- After trading away talented young blue liner Dougie Hamilton and steady veteran defender Johnny Boychuk in successive offseasons, the Boston Bruins are still searching for a reliable top-four defenseman, as Joe Haggerty opines. An aging Zdeno Chara is still the club’s top defenseman with Torey Krug likely not far behind but beyond those two, pickings are slim. Haggerty admits the team has the cap space and veteran assets to make a trade if they so choose, though they may already have the top-four option they seek on the roster. While also listing prospect Brandon Carlo and youngster Joe Morrow as possibilities, Haggerty believes Colin Miller might be the Bruins “X-factor” on the blue line. As Haggerty notes, Miller scored 19 goals and 52 points in 70 AHL games with the Manchester Monarchs in 2014-15, suggesting he has the skill to put up points in the big leagues. Miller came to Boston from Los Angeles in the Milan Lucic trade during the 2015 offseason and may be coming into his own as an NHL player after producing 16 points in just 42 games as a rookie. With few quality options available either on the trade market or in free agency, it might be wise for Boston to give Miller a chance before looking outside the organization for a top-four blue liner.
- According to Chris Johnston of Sportsnet (via tweet), Mike Brown is the latest veteran player to land a PTO with the tough guy winger signing on in Columbus. Brown, 31, spent time with both San Jose and Montreal last season, scoring two goals and three assists in 58 games with 90 PIMs. For his career, Brown has potted 19 goals and recorded 778 minutes of penalties in 407 NHL games. He has suited up for Vancouver, Anaheim, Toronto and Edmonton in addition to the Sharks and Habs in his nine NHL seasons. The Blue Jackets bought out the contract of veteran enforcer Jared Boll earlier this summer and could see Brown as a possible replacement depending on his play during training camp.
Snapshots: Gudas, Maatta, Monahan, Byfuglien
The wrist problem that caused Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas to withdraw from the Czech Republic’s entry into the World Cup of Hockey is one that lingered during last season, reports Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Gudas didn’t get into specifics about the injury but noted that there was ligament damage and that a small issue could have turned into a bigger one.
Gudas believes that he is still 1-3 weeks away from the wrist being back to 100% (he is currently unable to shoot the puck) but expects to be ready to start the season.
Earlier this summer, Gudas inked a four year contract with a cap hit of $3.35MM. He played in 76 regular season games with the Flyers, collecting 14 points while adding 116 PIMS, 304 hits, and 157 blocked shots.
[Related: Flyers Depth Chart]
Other news and notes from around the NHL:
- Penguins defenseman Olli Maatta still has to fulfill his mandatory military obligations to Finland but has an agreement to delay that for at least another three years, tweets Sports Illustrated’s Alex Prewitt. Maatta had a challenging postseason, one where he suffered a concussion and was also a healthy scratch at times, but still picked up seven assists in 18 games. He’s expected to be a key cog on Pittsburgh’s blueline this season.
- Flames center Sean Monahan is expected to be ready for the start of Calgary’s training camp, writes Postmedia’s Kristen Odland. Monahan withdrew from the World Cup of Hockey earlier this month after straining his back in training. Fresh off a seven year deal he signed in August, Monahan decided to take a pass on the tournament to make sure he’s 100% ready to start the season with the Flames.
- Winnipeg defenseman Dustin Byfuglien is expected to play on the wing for Team USA in their final World Cup tune-up game against Finland tonight, reports Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press. Whyno adds that Brandon Dubinsky and Kyle Palmieri will be healthy scratches for the Americans. Byfuglien is no stranger to playing the wing, seeing time there with the Jets off and on in recent years.
Snapshots: Dubois, Crosby, Team NA
After being selected as the surprise third overall pick in the latest NHL Entry Draft, Pierre-Luc Dubois is trying to prove to everyone that he derserved to be picked above Jesse Puljujarvi and Matthew Tkachuk. In a piece by James O’Brien at NBCSports, Dubois is clear what his goal is this fall.
(The Blue Jackets) drafted me third in front of the guy everybody thought they were going to draft, but I think they made the right decision. I want to prove that to everybody.
For at least the first few years of his career, he’ll be compared to Puljujarvi constantly which is probably more unfair than anything. The Finnish winger has already been playing against men for parts of two seasons, while Dubois will head back for his final year of junior hockey (that is if he doesn’t surprise everyone to make the Blue Jackets out of camp). It may take him a while, but as GM Jarmo Kekalainen comments when talking about what will set Dubois apart, “I keep coming back to his character and hockey sense.”
- Team Canada has often found trouble pairing players with Sidney Crosby at international competitions, with many high level talents moving on and off of his wing throughout past tournaments. That said, head coach Mike Babcock may have found a group that he’ll stick with this time. As TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron look like the set wingers for the Team Canada captain. It’s a plan Babcock had way back in May, when he was first envisioning what his lineup might look like. The interesting part, is that Marchand is one of Team Canada’s only natural wingers, and Bergeron is highly regarded for his all-around ability and hockey IQ. Perhaps it’s centers that don’t find a home on Crosby’s wing, similar to the way Pittsburgh has never been able to consistently pair Crosby with Evgeni Malkin for any length of time.
- The top two picks of the 2015 NHL draft will be linked once again, as Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel will skate on a line in their second pre-tournament game against Europe tonight. The third musketeer will be Johnny Gaudreau, still unsigned as he’s entered his negotiation freeze during the tournament. With three of the strongest skaters in the NHL on the ice at once, team North America will surely be interesting to watch, the plan all along of the NHL and commissioner Gary Bettman when he introduced the slightly off-the-board format.
Snapshots: US-Canada Rivalry, Injury Updates
Though the comments were tepid, many top tier Canadian players took exception to some of the late hits by Team USA during the American squad’s 4-2 victory yesterday. Jonathan Toews was careful with his comments, but was blunt about some of the questionable hits doled out by the aggressive Americans. Via the Chicago Tribune, Toews had this to say:
“Without saying too much, I think there were a couple of borderline hits there where our guys were put in some awkward positions and there’s not much you can do there. The one on Weber was the right call there. We just have to try and protect ourselves and expect that the officials are going to do what they have to do. We have no problem with the chippiness and the physical play (but) it doesn’t matter where you’re playing, I think you always have to respect the player when he has his back to you.”
Toews wasn’t the only one making careful comments. Captain Sidney Crosby and netminder Carey Price both agreed that some hits “crossed the line.” Nick Cotsonika writes that Mike Babcock put the onus on the referees to control the rough play during a game between two rivals:
“There were lots of scrums tonight. They were generated by the players. The referees can clean that up in two seconds. All you’ve got to do is put people in the box. No more scrums.”
The US and Canada meet again in exhibition play tonight.
In other hockey news:
- The Chicago Tribune’s Chris Kuc writes about the concern every team has with the injuries as the World Cup begins its tournament play with an exhibition tilt. With injuries to Marian Hossa, and Marcus Kruger, Blackhawks players were understandably concerned when two significant players from their team suffered injuries. Hossa’s, as it turns out, will not limit him and Europe coach Ralph Krueger said it’s “all green lights” for Hossa to play in Saturday’s game. Kruger, Kuc reports, has a more mysterious upper body injury and will be held out of play during Saturday’s Sweden’s exhibition game against Finland. Both Patrick Kane and Toews, when asked about the possibility of injury, shrugged it off and attributed it to a risk that’s always there, regardless of the circumstance.
Snapshots: World Cup Power Rankings, Updates
TSN’s Scott Cullen writes that Canada is the team to beat in the World Cup of Hockey. Cullen ranks Canada, Sweden, and North America ahead of the American squad, who he pegs as fourth in his tournament power rankings. Cullen expects the Americans to be competitive but can’t see a team squarely more concerned about a “tougher” style of play going very far in a tournament that emphasizes speed and skill. The US, Cullen writes, is all about smash mouth hockey, but their goalie tandem of Cory Schneider, Ben Bishop and Jonathan Quick could give those aforementioned skilled teams some fits. Cullen places Canada at the top simply because of the top end talent they boast on every line. Sweden, he writes, has an “absurd” defensive corps with Erik Karlsson, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Victor Hedman, Anton Stralman, Hampus Lindholm, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Mattias Ekholm all on the roster. He cautions that in order to knock off favorite Canada, they’ll need young forwards Filip Forsberg and Gabriel Landeskog to carry the team in scoring.
Team North America is one that Cullen believes could truly shock everyone. With young, fast, and skilled players like Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, and John Gaudreau, the under 23 team could turn some heads, and possibly pull some upsets that could unseat the favorites. For the rest of his rankings, Cullen places Russia, Finland, Czech Republic, and Europe as the bottom four teams respectively.
In other World Cup of Hockey News:
- The USA’s 4-2 victory over Canada featured a lot of aggressive play and injury scares that remained only as fears and nothing serious. Several high profile players took vicious hits, and some had to leave the ice. Flyers captain Claude Giroux took a hit from Joe Pavelski and didn’t return until later in the third period. Logan Couture also took a hard hit from T.J. Oshie in the second period but returned in the third. Though Shea Weber was slammed into the boards by Ryan Kesler in the second period, he didn’t miss any ice time. Kesler was assessed a boarding major and a game misconduct. Pavelski recorded the game winner while Derek Stepan sealed the game with an empty net goal in a contest that became more physical as it wore on. Earlier in the day, PHR recapped some of the other injury scares during exhibition play on Thursday.
Snapshots: Tampa’s Goalies, Lindberg, Kane, Fraser
While it has long been speculated that the Tampa Bay Lightning will have to move one of their two goalies in the near future, GM Steve Yzerman isn’t ruling out keeping both around in the hopes of having above average goaltending for every game this season, writes Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times.
After signing Andrei Vasilevskiy to a three year, $10.5MM extension that begins in 2017-18, Bishop has been speculated as being the odd one out. Those thoughts have become even more prevalent recently with the report that Bishop was close to being dealt to Calgary back at the draft. Yzerman did add that he expects both goalies to be available when they open their season on October 13th.
With Bishop projected to be the top goaltender in next summer’s UFA market, the Lightning could be faced with a situation where they lose him for nothing if they don’t trade him. However, as we saw last season with Steven Stamkos, Yzerman isn’t afraid to hold on to his pending free agents and use them as internal rentals to aid in what they hope to be a lengthy postseason run.
With the goalie market pretty well dried up at this point, they’ll likely have to wait until midseason to see if anyone struggles out of the gate or gets injured before determining whether or not it’s worth pursuing dealing Bishop who has been the Lightning’s starter each of the last three seasons.
Other news and notes from around the hockey world:
- Rangers center Oscar Lindberg has been skating for the past three weeks as he continues to rehab from hip surgery back in May, reports Newsday’s Steve Zipay. The 24 year old had a quality rookie campaign with New York last season, recording 13 goals and 15 assists in 68 games. With the team adding extra forward depth in players like Michael Grabner, Josh Jooris, Brandon Pirri, and Nathan Gerbe, Lindberg will be in a tough battle for a spot in the lineup when he returns to the lineup.
- Prosecutors have submitted additional evidence against Sabres winger Evander Kane in his pending court case, writes John Wawrow of the Associated Press. Kane is facing four counts of non-criminal harassment, one count of disorderly conduct, and one count of misdemeanour trespass. He pled not guilty to all charges back in August and is scheduled to next appear in ourt on October 31st.
- Chicago UFA winger Matt Fraser has signed a one year deal with Rogle BK of the SHL, the Swedish team announced (link in Swedish). The Blackhawks acquired him as part of the Andrew Ladd trade prior to the last trade deadline although he never got into a game with the team; he last suited up in the NHL in 2014-15 where he played 60 games between Edmonton and Boston. The Blackhawks declined to tender him a qualifying offer back in June.
Snapshots: Vegas Name, Concussion Protocol, Cowen Hearing
The Las Vegas something Knights.
What that something will be has yet to be announced, but owner Bill Foley confirmed on Friday that will be the basis for the team’s name. Foley appeared on Brian Blessing’s Sportsbook Radio show on Friday. According to Blessing, the team and league are still fine-tuning the logo, but the name and colors have been chosen.
Throughout the last couple weeks, Foley has trademarked several team nicknames, though he admitted they were a “ruse” to “irritate” people. It’s been long speculated that Foley wanted the team to be nicknamed the Knights, but trademark issues with the OHL’s London Knights will likely squash that.
The Las Vegas something Knights will make their NHL debut for the 2017-18 season.
Elsewhere in the hockey world:
- Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman has an new piece up on sportsnet.ca about some changes coming to the NHL’s concussion protocol. Currently, team-affiliated “spotters” are responsible for noting if players have sustained a traumatic injury and are supposed to pull the player off the bench to a quiet room for further evaluation. However, there has been some debate that the spotters aren’t always doing their jobs properly. Now, Friedman reports, there will be four independent spotters watching all games on television. Should they see any visible signs of a concussion, they will notify the team that their player must be pulled from the game for observation. The in-house spotters will remain in each arena. According to Friedman, the full protocol will be revealed shortly before the start of the regular season.
- Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun reported that a resolution between the Maple Leafs and Jared Cowen won’t come for another month. Horby tweeted that the hearing will not take place until early or mid October. The Leafs acquired Cowen in the Dion Phaneuf trade back in February, mainly because of a quirk in his contract that would give the Leafs a salary cap credit if he’s bought out. Cowen underwent surgery after the season on doctor’s orders, and claims he is still injured and therefore ineligible to be bought out. Cowen is entering the final year of his contract, which pays him $3.1MM per season.
Snapshots: Price, World Cup
The World Cup of Hockey exhibition round kicked off on Thursday, with Russia beating Czech Republic, Finland defeating Sweden, and Team North America shutting out Team Europe. Though we’re only one day into the pre-tournament action, there have already been some injury concerns. With that in mind, the eyes of the hockey world will be on Team Canada goaltender Carey Price when the Canadians take on the United States in the first game of back-to-back exhibition contests. Price will make his hotly anticipated first start since November.
When asked about Price, Team Canada coach Mike Babcock said he expects him “to be great”, before asking that needed any elaboration.
USA left winger and Montreal Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty told TSN’s Mark Masters that, on a personal level, he’s happy to see Price “put on the pads again… because I know he suffered last year”. Pacioretty said he wasn’t able to share any secrets on scoring on Price because “there are no secrets on how to beat Carey”.
- Speaking of players competing against their NHL goaltenders, Team Canada forward Steven Stamkos and American goaltender Ben Bishop have been teammates in Tampa Bay for three and a half seasons, so Bishop has seen plenty of Stamkos in practice. However, Stamkos claims he shoots different spots in practice and that he’s going to “ring one by [Bishop]’s head first” then shoot somewhere else next.
- Also from the Team Canada camp, Coach Babcock confirmed that Corey Perry and Jay Bouwmeester will be healthy scratches tonight. Both men were injury replacements, for Jeff Carter and Duncan Keith respectively. Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston spoke with Babcock about how he plans on telling NHL stars that they will be scratched: “I’m just going to tell them. I’ve found in life when someone’s giving me bad news I like it fast.”
- Despite beating Team Europe pretty soundly last night, Team North America changed up their lines this morning. ESPN’s Craig Custance reported Flames RFA Johnny Gaudreau and Sabres sophomore Jack Eichel are now on the top line with captain Connor McDavid. Coach Todd McLellan said they will be making adjustments, and “the overall vision and hockey IQ” of McDavid, Eichel, and Gaudreau made it easy to put them together.