Snapshots: Kucherov, Wild, Dumoulin
While TSN’s Bob McKenzie noted yesterday that Tampa Bay RFA Nikita Kucherov is the most likely of the remaining restricted free agents to receive an offer sheet, he told TSN 690 in Montreal today (via Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot) that he doesn’t expect the Lightning to make him available in trade talks:
“Steve Yzerman is not, I don’t believe, going to make a conscious decision to trade him. Because I think of all of those guys, some of them that he signed recently like (Alex) Killorn – we’ll keep Hedman out of the equation because he’s a lynchpin on defense – but when you’ve got all of those guys… Palat is up next year, Tyler Johnson is up next year, you’ve got Killorn. Let’s be honest. The guys that you would think Steve Yzerman would be most interested in moving are guys like Val Filppula and some of the other guys up front, not Kucherov.”
On top of Killorn and Palat needing new deals next year, so too does Jonathan Drouin while Ben Bishop will be an unrestricted free agent. The team has roughly $5.5MM in cap space to work with this season according to Cap Friendly and have just over $55MM committed to 13 players already for 2017-18. While Yzerman has suggested in the past that he shouldn’t have to trade anyone to get Kucherov signed for this season, someone inevitably will have to go sooner rather than later.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- The Wild have a quartet of players drafted in the first two rounds back in 2009 that will be crucial to their success this season, writes Michael Russo of the Star-Tribune. Forwards Charlie Coyle, Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter, and Jason Zucker are all 24, which in the eyes of GM Chuck Fletcher is a key year as it often represents the time that players have their breakthrough. The team didn’t change much up front over the summer and will be counting on those four to take another step forward offensively under new head coach Bruce Boudreau.
- After spending 2015-16 in a shutdown role, Pittsburgh defenseman Brian Dumoulin is looking to get more involved in the attack this season, notes Bill West of the Pittsburgh Tribune. After starting last year on the third pairing, he slowly worked his way up the lineup, finishing the postseason on the top pair while averaging nearly 22 minutes per night. He made a mark at the offensive end late in the postseason and wound up scoring in the Stanley Cup-clinching game which also was just his second goal in 103 games. With Olli Maatta now healthy, Dumoulin is in a battle in training camp to retain his top pairing spot alongside Kris Letang.
Snapshots: Trouba, Stoll, Bjugstad
Recently it was learned that RFA defenseman Jacob Trouba and his representation formally requested a trade from the Winnipeg Jets. The young blue liner cited his wish for consistent playing time on the right side and dismissed the notion his request was based on either money or a desire to leave the city of Winnipeg. The Jets understandably are placing a high price on Trouba and it’s been said the team wants a left-shooting defender of comparable talent and age to the 22-year-old native of Michigan.
One team thought to have been on the hunt for a top-four blue liner this summer and linked in the past to Trouba is Boston. The Bruins essentially admitted that interest when team president Cam Neely appeared last month on CSN’s Great American Hockey Show:
“Basically from April to now everybody is talking about our back end, and not being able to land a top-four defenseman. We still have an opportunity as far as cap space goes if something shakes free, and I know Don [Sweeney] has been working hard trying to do something. But I feel like as a group we can do better than we did last year.”
While Boston, like many teams, might love to add a young talent the ilk of Trouba, Joe Haggerty of CSN New England believes the acquisition cost would simply be too high. Haggerty reasons that in order to meet the Jets supposed asking price, the Bruins would have to part with highly-skilled defenseman Torey Krug in exchange. Krug is a “leader-in-the-making,” who adds toughness and attitude to the lineup according to Haggerty.
At the end of the day, even while highlighting Krug’s strengths, Haggerty admits it’s unlikely that would be enough on its own to pry Trouba away from the Jets. Ultimately he believes the combination of a pricey new contract for Trouba and the cost in terms of players and/or other assets is simply more than the Bruins should be willing to pay.
More from around the NHL:
- It’s unclear at this point whether or not Jarret Stoll makes the final roster of the Columbus Blue Jackets but what is clear is that the veteran pivot is not ready to call it a career, according to Tom Reed of The Columbus Dispatch. “I definitely think I have a lot left in the tank and my body feels good. I understand the game is getting younger – young, skilled and fast — but I feel like I can still contribute.” Reed goes on to write that Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella did not express “strong feelings either way” with regards to Stoll’s recent performance against Pittsburgh. Stoll, who is one of four players on PTOs remaining with the Blue Jackets, is an excellent faceoff guy and expereinced penalty-killer who has been part of two Stanley Cup championship teams while a member of the Kings. He left Los Angeles as a free agent and signed with the New York Rangers last summer. After 29 games with the Blue Shirts, Stoll was off to Minnesota after the Wild claimed him on waivers. He would finish the campaign with just nine points in 80 games in 2015-16. Perhaps most troubling is that he was among the worst drivers of puck possession in the league, finishing with a CF% of just 37.34%, a rate which was actually last in the NHL.
- After winning the Atlantic Division in 2015-16, the Florida Panthers appear poised to take the next step following an active offseason. The team invested huge resources this summer to upgrade the blue line in an effort to support a talented and deep group of forwards. As Harvey Fialkov writes, while the team’s top two lines are essentially set in stone, the club is still searching for the right wingers to play with third-line pivot Nick Bjugstad. Fialkov believes Jared McCann, acquired in an offseason deal with Vancouver, Colton Sceviour and Jon Marchessault, who were both inked as free agents this summer, are the likeliest candidates to line up next to Bjugstad this season. McCann, a former first-round draft choice, was specifically targeted by the Panther front office to fill a top-nine role, as Fialkov writes. Sceviour is quick and has averaged 10 goals and 25 points playing the last two seasons for Dallas. Marchessault is undersized, 5-foot-9 and 174 pounds, but has plenty of skill. Bjugstad believes that finding chemistry with the right linemates is the most critical factor: “It’s more about learning the system and getting that effort. Everyone’s getting more and more comfortable with each other, especially the younger guys. We’re figuring out how guys work out on the ice and see which guys click with each other. I think there’s a lot of different options and that’s what’s good about this team. We have a lot of depth.’’
Snapshots: Patrick, Gudas, Tootoo
The NHL’s Central Scouting has released their initial rankings for the 2017 draft today, and 29 players have received ‘A’ grades, the first-round stamp of approval. Among them is expected top pick Nolan Patrick of the Brandon Wheat Kings, who is already getting unfair comparisons to hall of fame players like Jonathan Toews.
Whether Patrick develops into an elite two-way center or not, he does look like a blue-chip prospect at this point, after scoring 102 points in 72 matches last season. He’s off to a nice start this year, having scored three points in his first two games.
- According to multiple reports including Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo! Sports, Radko Gudas will not receive any supplementary dicipline for his hit on Jimmy Vesey last night. The Flyers’ defenseman was ruled to not have time to change his path once Vesey turned his back to him. Vesey was not seriously injured on the play, though he easily could have been as his head hit the glass. This comes after the league issued a one-game suspension to Niklas Hjalmarsson for his hit on Ty Rattie. The league is also considering additional punishment for Tanner Pearson after an illegal check to the head.
- No stranger to league discipline himself, Jordin Tootoo is trying to make the Blackhawks’ roster this fall and as Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun Times writes, it’ll take more than just his leadership. Tootoo understands that the game has changed in the past decade, and his place as an enforcer on the fourth line is no longer safe. He’ll have to prove he can play an effective style of hockey with his stick and skates before lending his fists to the team. Tootoo has shown he can contribute in the past, scoring double digit goals twice in his career, most recently in 2014-15.
Snapshots: Vegas, Hjalmarsson, Pearson, Elias
The expansion Las Vegas may not yet have a team name but they now have a team president as the team announced the hiring of Kerry Bubolz to that position today. He departs the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers where he most recently served as their president of business operations.
Bubolz has a bit of a hockey background having served as president and alternate governor for the AHL’s Cleveland (formerly Lake Erie) Monsters while also spending some time in the Carolina Hurricanes organization.
While the team name hasn’t been announced, everything else appears to be falling into place for Las Vegas. They have an experienced GM running the show in George McPhee while also bringing in scouting directors. Recently, reports surfaced that the team may be permitted to make trades in advance of next June’s expansion draft which would be a first for an expansion team in league history.
Elsewhere around the league:
- Chicago defenceman Niklas Hjalmarsson has been suspended for the remainder of the preseason and one regular season game, the NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced. As a result, Hjalmarsson will miss the season opener against St. Louis on October 12th and will forfeit a little more than $22K in salary.
- The Department of Player Safety also announced (via Twitter) that Los Angeles left winger Tanner Pearson will have a telephone hearing for his illegal check to the head on Edmonton defenseman Brandon Davidson on Sunday night. The hit occurred in the second period and Pearson was ejected for the hit.
- Unrestricted free agent left winger Patrik Elias is taking a “month-by-month approach” when it comes to his hopeful return to the Devils this season, he told Mike Morreale of NHL.com. Although he isn’t under contract, he is still participating in team meetings and has a stall in the dressing room in anticipation of a return. Elias is their all-time leading scorer with 1,025 points in 1,240 games and has only played for New Jersey in his 20 year NHL career.
Snapshots: Tkachuk, Rinne, Red Wings
Matthew Tkachuk scored the game winning goal for the Flames in their 2-1 victory over Vancouver Friday night. But all of Calgary took a collective sigh of relief after Tkachuk looked to suffer an injury early in the second period. Pat Steinberg tweeted the reaction as soon as Tkachuk was rocked into the boards by defenseman Joseph Labate. What appeared to be a serious injury barely kept him off the ice. Tkachuk returned to score the game winner and the sixth overall draft pick of the 2016 has looked good early on a line with Sam Bennett and Troy Brouwer. Calgary bench boss Glen Gulutzan said this about Tkachuk:
“(Brouwer) certainly helps and Bennie, they’ve got a little chemistry, but Matthew, he fits right in. He’s always around the net so he’s always picking up loose change.”
In other NHL notes:
- Adam Vingan writes about Pekka Rinne and his approach to the game after playing for Team Finland in the World Cup of Hockey. The 33-year-old netminder has been fighting the perception that he is in decline and Vingan notes that Rinne was the rock of Nasvhille’s team for many years. Last season, Rinne had 66 starts, which was second in league for all goalies. Vingan points out, however, that Rinne led the league in starts with a save percentage less than 85 percent during eleven of those 66 starts. Regardless, the Preds don’t seem too concerned about Rinne’s performance. Captain Mike Fisher agreed with coach Peter Laviolette who said Rinne is capable of winning games for the Preds:
“We’re all excited to see him back. He’s a leader around here. Practices, games, he works so hard. He brings the level up by the way he competes.”
- The Red Wings have trimmed their roster and included veteran Dan Cleary who was signed to a professional tryout. Cleary will now report to Grand Rapids, and it appears that his days, or opportunities with the Red Wings are over. Since signing again with Detroit during the 2013-14 season, Cleary has been in steep decline and a lightning rod of criticism from fans who felt he took a spot from younger players to play.
Snapshots: Dallas Stars, Oilers Captaincy, Cap Compliance Deadline
News and notes from around the NHL this evening:
- The Dallas Stars signed undrafted defenseman Ondrej Vala today to a three year ELC. The Czech defenseman played with the Kamloops Blazers of the WHL last season, scoring 4G and 17A in 72 games. Vala also played in the 2016 Traverse Tri-City Tournament this September. It is expected that Vala will play in Kamloops again as continues to develop.
- The Edmonton Oilers will name a new captain this season, but according to TSN’s Bob MacKenzie, the announcement will not come until Leon Draisaitl and Andrej Sekera rejoin the team after playing in the World Cup of Hockey. The Oilers are expected to make Connor McDavid the next Oiler captain, and his Team North America captaincy only fuels the speculation—especially since Team North America’s GM is none other than Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli.
- NHL teams will have to be under the salary cap by October 11, 2016 at 5pm, reports TSN’s Bob MacKenzie. Teams are allowed to exceed the salary cap by 10% during the off-season to accommodate free agent signings and injuries, but by Opening night every team has to be cap compliant.
Snapshots: Cowen, Werenski, Heatherington
The long and contentious Jared Cowen saga seems to finally have an end date put in place, as the arbitration hearing has been set to determine whether the Toronto Maple Leafs were actually able to buy out the defenseman. Toronto successfully bought Cowen out earlier this summer, but the NHLPA has filed a grievance and contends that they were not allowed to do so, due to Cowen’s continuing injured status.
On October 19th, according to Bob McKenzie, an arbitrator will decide whether to uphold or reverse the buyout. If Cowen wins, he would be due his $4.5MM salary, where as if the buyout was upheld, he’d earn just $750K this season and next.
For the Maple Leafs, that $3.75MM in savings would help the rebuild even further, as they’ve used their financial power to gain assets (or, usually, rid themselves of burdens) over the past few seasons. Cowen underwent hip surgery this summer and won’t be ready for any kind of hockey until February at the earliest.
- For the Blue Jackets, this season holds a lot of promise. One of the biggest stories will be the debut of Zach Werenski, the team’s top prospect (outside of perhaps Pierre-Luc Dubois). As Werenski gets ready to make his preseason debut on Thursday, he wrote a piece for NHL.com describing the journey he’s taken so far. “I’m trying to make the NHL. It’s a little nerve-wracking, I won’t lie, but I feel confident that I can make it happen,” he writes, being honest with himself and the reader instead of spouting bravado. Werenski certainly seems ready; he joined the Lake Erie Monsters late last season, and led them with 14 points in the playoffs en route to a Calder Cup victory.
- Still with Columbus, Tom Reed of the Columbus Dispatch reports that Dillon Heatherington has suffered a fractured wrist and will be out 6-8 weeks. A second-round pick in 2013, he was set to continue his development at the AHL level this season. Aaron Portzline, also of the Dispatch, adds that fellow prospect Keegan Kolesar has undergone hernia surgery and will be out at least six weeks. Kolesar scored 61 points in 64 games with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL last season, and will head back for one more year.
Snapshots: World Cup Buzz, Shaw, Trouba
Team Canada is one game away from winning the World Cup of Hockey after defeating Team Europe in Game One of the Finals on Tuesday night, but there was something noticeably missing in Toronto: a loud crowd.
Canada won 3-1 against Team Europe’s “best game of the tournament”, despite playing “nonchalant” according to TSN’s Frank Seravalli. However, the lack of a natural rivalry between them and a mixture of eight smaller European countries, combined with the relative ease with which Canada has rolled through this tournament lead to empty seats and a less-than-enthusiastic atmosphere.
Canadian defenseman Alex Pietrangelo told Greg Wyshnyski that “once the game got going, the excitement was there. But you play against the Americans, you play against the Russians, and it’s obviously different.”
Steven Stamkos noticed it too, saying the team’s other games had “away fans that were creating some noise. This was probably the team that had the least amount of support, just because of the makeup of the team in the tournament to start with.”
It’s unfortunate to see the relative lack of interest surrounding the final, especially after the buzz generated by Team North America earlier in the tournament.
In other news from around the hockey world:
- Newly-acquired Montreal Canadiens forward Andrew Shaw has only played one game for his new team, and is already garnering attention from the NHL Department of Player Safety. Shaw hit Capitals’ rookie Connor Hobbs from behind after feeling he was slew-footed by Caps forward Jay Beagle. Shaw subsequently fought another rookie in Nathan Walker, and tried to pump up crowd mid-fight before landing the decisive blow.
- With the news that Jacob Trouba has wanted out of Winnipeg since May, many analysts have wondered why the Oilers didn’t move Taylor Hall for Trouba, instead of Adam Larsson. However, Bob McKenzie gave TSN 1050 two reasons why a trade centered around Hall for Trouba didn’t materialize (transcribed by Chris Nichols from Today’s Slapshot). First, the Jets weren’t interesting in spending $6MM on Hall when they knew they would have Nik Ehlers, Patrik Laine, and Kyle Connor patrolling the port side for a considerably lower cost. Secondly, McKenzie believes the Oilers like Trouba, but doesn’t believe they are one of the frontrunners for his services. He points to Oilers coach Todd McLellan‘s usage of Trouba at the World Cup for the U-24 team; Trouba didn’t crack the lineup until Aaron Ekblad was injured. The Oilers clearly rank Larsson as a better NHL defenseman today.
Snapshots: Schwartz, Ottawa Affiliates, Burns, Rangers
Although he returned to the lineup for the playoffs last season, St. Louis forward Jaden Schwartz was far from 100% healthy when he came back, he told Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. With a full offseason to heal up, Schwartz feels he has much more mobility in his previously injured ankle now:
“It was pretty locked up, so you’ve got to get a lot of soft-tissue work and get a little bit more movement and strength and there’s things that you do for that to try to get it back as close as you can to what it was before. It helps skating and all around it feels better.”
Schwartz played in just 33 regular season games last season, scoring eight goals and 14 assists. Despite playing at less than 100%, he fared a bit better in the playoffs, recording four goals and 10 helpers in 20 contests while logging nearly a minute per game more than his regular season average.
With the departure of David Backes and the continued uncertainty surrounding Vladimir Sobotka, head coach Ken Hitchcock noted that the Blues are likely to test out Schwartz at center (along with youngster Robby Fabbri) during the preseason.
Other news from around the hockey world:
- The Ottawa Senators will be moving their AHL affiliate to Belleville, Ontario for the 2017-18 season. At a press conference today, owner Eugene Melnyk confirmed that the Sens have purchased the ownership for their farm team in Binghamton, NY and have signed an eight year agreement. Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun notes that the move still requires approval from the AHL’s Board of Governors but that there shouldn’t be any issues there. This will mark the second pending move by a Canadian team already for next season as the Montreal Canadiens announced earlier this summer that their farm team will move to Laval to begin play in 2017-18.
- While the San Jose Sharks and Brent Burns’ agent (Ron Salcer) are in discussions regarding a contract extension, TSN’s Bob McKenzie reports that talks are not close to being at an advanced stage at this time and that there is no indication that they are nearing a deal. Burns is currently pegged to be the top unrestricted free agent next offseason if the two sides can’t lock down an extension. Last week, we took a closer look at what it might cost to keep Burns in San Jose on a long-term deal.
- Rangers GM Jeff Gorton considered making significant changes to their roster this offseason, writes Justin Tasch of the New York Daily News. Instead, he opted to make only one notable trade involving the core, dealing away Derick Brassard to the Senators in exchange for Mika Zibanejad. Gorton noted that the team has had a fair amount of playoff success in recent years and believes that some in the organization have more faith with the current team than those outside the team do.
Snapshots: Fortin, Flames, Team Europe
When the Chicago Blackhawks invited Alexandre Fortin to prospect camp this summer, even they didn’t expect to sign him to a three-year entry level contract just a few weeks later. It’s a huge step for the twice-undrafted forward from the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the QMJHL.
The 19-year old is the nephew of former NHL goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere and never did really blow away scouts during his junior years. But now, in Hawks rookie camp he turned enough heads to be kept around when the pro camp started, and then enough for the Hawks to invest in him. As assistant coach Kevin Dineen says in Chris Kuc’s latest Chicago Tribune article:
He’s a smart, cerebral kid who has a nice offensive skill set that he’s been able to show here early. He’s off to a real good start and he’s working his way in to trying to find a way into one of our exhibition games.
The Hawks have found overlooked players before, most notably with last year’s Calder trophy winner Artemi Panarin, who, while on the hockey world’s radar, was never believed to be able to step into a top-line, all-star role right away. With Fortin, perhaps they found another late-bloomer who they can shape into an offensive dynamo.
- The Flames have decided to send four players back to their individual WHL teams today; the group includes Brayden Burke, Aaron Hyman, Matthew Phillips and Nick Schneider. Only Phillips was actually drafted by the club (166th overall this year). The team has also cut Dennis Kravchenko from the NHL camp, and invited him to their AHL camp (which he accepted). Kravchenko has scored 61 points in 68 games the past two seasons while playing for UMass-Amherst in the NCAA. An undersized winger, he’s trying to follow the path of Johnny Gaudreau and prove offense is more important than stature.
- Team Europe, the overwhelming underdogs of the World Cup, have now advanced to the final series following an overtime win against Team Sweden. Tomas Tatar, the young flashy Red Wings forward scored twice, including the winner, to send home the defensive powerhouse. The makeshift squad will take on Canada in the best-of-three final series, starting Tuesday night.