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Snapshots: Three Stars, Halak, Coyotes

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The NHL has released the Three Stars for last week and unsurprisingly, Jacob Markstrom takes the top spot. The Calgary Flames goaltender earned his league-leading eighth shutout, made 46 saves against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and then backstopped the Flames to another win against the New York Islanders. With a career-best .926 save percentage on the season, Markstrom has catapulted himself directly into the Vezina Trophy conversation in recent weeks and is one of the biggest reasons that Calgary has turned into a Stanley Cup contender.

The second and third spots went to Patrik Laine and Nico Hischier respectively, both coming off six-point weeks. Laine, who is heading into the summer as a pending restricted free agent once again, now has 27 points in 27 games for the Blue Jackets this season. His game-winning goal with just a few seconds left against the Montreal Canadiens was a perfect example of the incredible power he can generate, and why he’s such a feared goal scorer when playing his best. Hischier meanwhile had five goals of his own, taking him to 13 on the season. While he doesn’t generate the same kind of press that some other first-overall picks have, Hischier has quietly been an excellent performer for the Devils since entering the league in 2017, racking up 176 points in 273 career games while providing strong defensive play down the middle.

  • Vancouver Canucks goaltender Jaroslav Halak has been clear that he doesn’t want to be traded, according to Elliotte Friedman who joined Rick Dhaliwal on CHEK TV today. While Halak’s name continues to be in the rumor mill, the goaltender holds full control of his future with a no-movement clause and will not be traded without his approval. The 36-year-old has a .903 save percentage in ten appearances and will earn a substantial performance bonus for his next start.
  • If you want to get an idea of what Arizona Coyotes games will look like next season inside Arizona State University’s rather small facility, Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports was tweeting out photos of the construction. The small arena is expected to have a capacity somewhere between 3,000-5,000 when it is completed and will house both the ASU Sun Devils and Coyotes for the next several seasons.

Snapshots: Vanecek, Rierden, Brassard, Scandella

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Although the Capitals find themselves comfortably in a playoff spot, goaltending has been an issue for them at times this season.  Both Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov have had chances at starting and at other times, they’ve platooned when both are healthy.  Speaking with J.J. Regan of NBC Sports Washington, head coach Peter Laviolette indicated that he’d like to give Vanecek a chance to run with the number one job when he returns from his upper-body injury with the hope of solidifying their netminding before the playoffs.  While Washington has very limited cap space to work with, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them keep tabs on the goalie market for the time being in case Vanecek isn’t able to play with consistency which was an issue for him in the first half of the season.

More from the around the NHL:

  • Penguins assistant coach Todd Rierden is out indefinitely after suffering a knee injury when he slipped on ice while shoveling during the All-Star break, notes Johnny McGonigal of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He is set to undergo surgery on Monday.  Matt Cullen, who works in Pittsburgh’s player development department, will join up with the team on Monday to help with their power play.
  • Flyers center Derick Brassard missed today’s game due to soreness, relays Giana Han of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link). The veteran has dealt with lingering hip issues all season long that has caused him to miss time on three separate occasions.  Head coach Mike Yeo indicated that the decision to give him the game off was so that he wouldn’t have to “go through all that” again so it appears they’re taking some precautions to avoid another extended absence.  When healthy, Brassard has done well this season with 11 points in 20 games.
  • Blues defenseman Marco Scandella has a lower-body injury that will keep him out either day-to-day or week-to-week, notes team reporter Chris Pinkert. The injury was sustained on Thursday against New Jersey.  Scandella had played in every game this season although his 17:29 ATOI is the lowest of any of his full seasons.  With that strange of a designation, it seems reasonable to suggest that he’ll miss at least a couple of games.

Snapshots: Trade Bait, Giordano, Halak

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The trade deadline is now just over five weeks away and the stove is heating up. TSN’s Chris Johnston has released his first Trade Bait board, with Arizona Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun firmly planted at the top of the list. An interesting mix of youth, upside, and contract status that rarely appears as an in-season trade candidate, Chychrun’s market likely encompasses most of the league.

The rest of the board includes the usual names, Ben Chiarot from Montreal, John Klingberg from Dallas, but also some that perhaps aren’t talked about as much, like Mark Pysyk of the Buffalo Sabres and Chris Tierney of the Ottawa Senators. In all, there are 24 names among the targets listed by Johnston, plus the extra cap space that the Coyotes have learned to weaponize in order to make asset additions.

  • One of the other names on the list is Mark Giordano, appearing near the top as he did on The Athletic’s version last month. Giordano spoke with Ryan S. Clark of The Athletic for a piece released today and indicated that he still hasn’t spoken to Seattle Kraken general manager Ron Francis about the impending deadline decision. Giordano doesn’t actually have full control of that process as his no-trade clause only lists 19 teams he can be traded to, but as a respected veteran and the first captain in team history, he’ll be consulted along the way. Giordano admits to Clark that he doesn’t exactly want to be traded, but understands that there is “a business side to this sport.”
  • There was a misunderstanding in the performance bonus clause for Vancouver Canucks goaltender Jaroslav Halak, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. It was widely reported that Halak had reached the 10-game threshold to earn a $1.25MM bonus the other night but that clause is actually for 10 starts not appearances. Halak has started just nine games so far this season.

Snapshots: Laine, Bozak, Giroux

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Columbus Blue Jackets forward Carson Meyer was supposed to make his NHL debut tonight, but it’ll have to wait for another day. Patrik Laine took warmups with the team and is playing for Columbus in tonight’s game against Buffalo, per team reporter Jeff Svoboda. Laine was dealing with an undisclosed issue in between games, but it turned out that he wouldn’t miss any time. That’s good for the team, as he’s already missed plenty this season. Through just 25 games, he’s still having a very good season in Columbus, posting 12 goals and 24 points. The pending restricted free agent is quietly producing at the highest rate of his NHL career.

More notes from around the league on this Thursday night:

  • Tyler Bozak isn’t a go tonight for the St. Louis Blues, per NHL.com’s Lou Korac. He wasn’t at morning skate, either, so it’s likely an undisclosed injury keeping Bozak out of the lineup. Returning to the Blues on a one-year deal this offseason, the veteran center has three goals and nine points in 37 games while taking on a fourth-line center role. Dakota Joshua will draw in against the New Jersey Devils.
  • Ahead of the trade deadline, rumours around Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux will continue to swirl. Colorado Hockey Now’s Adrian Dater reports that Flyers scouts are present at tonight’s game between the Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning, fuelling the fire that the Avalanche have interest in the prized forward. Giroux is in the final year of his contract and tied for the lead in points among Flyers with 36 points. His leadership and all-around acumen would become immediately invaluable to the Avalanche, presumably back as a winger in the top-six. It would give the already stacked Avalanche forward core options galore, potentially allowing head coach Jared Bednar to have Nathan MacKinnon and captain Gabriel Landeskog on separate lines.

Snapshots: Stone, Flyers, Canadiens

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The Vegas Golden Knights are coming up to a different deadline. When Jack Eichel is ready to return–not to mention Alec Martinez, who is also skating with the group–the team will have to clear a good amount of salary off the books to activate him from long-term injured reserve. Players like Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith have been bandied about as potential pieces that could be moved out, but Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff has heard a very different idea.

The belief is, and again, we’ll see how the Golden Knights play this in the coming days, is that [Mark] Stone is suffering from a degenerative back condition that may keep him out long term. Maybe until the playoffs? That’s the big question mark. And Stone, if his $9.5 million salary is moved to the long term injured reserve, that would open up enough space not just for the Vegas Golden Knights to activate Jack Eichel…

Stone has missed games this season on several different occasions as he deals with a back injury that won’t go away, but moving him to LTIR through the end of the season would certainly be a dramatic decision. It has obviously been done most recently with Nikita Kucherov, who missed an entire season only to be activated in the playoffs when the salary cap disappears, but the idea of losing Stone for the last 34 games wouldn’t be ideal for anyone. The Golden Knights aren’t even guaranteed the playoffs at this point despite being at the top of the Pacific Division. They sit just five points ahead of the fourth-place Calgary Flames that beat them 6-0 last night.

  • The Philadelphia Flyers have made two additions to their analytics staff, hiring Kathryn Yates as a hockey analyst and Cole Anderson as lead data scientist. General manager Chuck Fletcher had recently promised to expand the analytics department, and these hires now take it to five full-time staff members. After a disappointing season, there will obviously be plenty of work for Fletcher and the rest of the staff to do this summer.
  • When Martin St. Louis was introduced as the next head coach of the Montreal Canadiens today, general manager Kent Hughes explained that it wouldn’t be the only change he makes. In fact, he told reporters including Arpon Basu of The Athletic that the coaching change is “the first of several.” Hughes has already said he’s open to anything, not just selling off rental pieces at the trade deadline. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period adds that the Canadiens have been getting lots of calls on players that still have some term left.

Snapshots: Halak, Almari, Crouse

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The Vancouver Canucks have confirmed that Jaroslav Halak will start this evening against the New York Islanders, meaning a $1.25MM performance bonus will be triggered for playing in his tenth game of the season. In normal circumstances that wouldn’t be much of a concern but the Canucks are one of the many teams using long-term injured reserve this season to put together their current roster. If they can’t fit that $1.25MM in by the end of the season, whatever is left would be carried over to next season.

In fact, Halak has another potential bonus of $250K should he end the year with a save percentage over .905. He’s currently at .918 through his first nine appearances, meaning he would need some tough performances over the last few months to get it down below that threshold.

  • The Pittsburgh Penguins have decided to loan Niclas Almari to Finland, after he failed to really catch on in the minor leagues. Almari, 23, was a fifth-round pick in 2016 that signed his entry-level contract in 2019, playing 51 games for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in 2019-20. This year though, his time has been split between WBS and the Wheeling Nailers, not seeing regular ice time at either stop. With the entry-level deal expiring at the end of the season, Almari is a prime candidate to go unqualified and become an unrestricted free agent.
  • One of the Arizona Coyotes players that was thrown around in trade rumors earlier this season was Lawson Crouse, given his strong performance on the rebuilding club. Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports, one of the most plugged-in Coyotes reporters around, threw some cold water on any Crouse discussion when he replied “he’s not being traded” on Twitter today. Crouse, 24, will be a restricted free agent at the end of the season and is arbitration-eligible.

Snapshots: Montreal, Matthews, Ovechkin

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The Montreal Canadiens will be allowed to have 50 percent capacity at home games as of February 21, according to Quebec Premier Francois Legault today. By March 14, they will be back to full capacity under the current plan. The Canadiens have five home games between now and the first threshold, which means five more games of lost revenue for the team and league.

Recently, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman put some pressure on the government by suggesting that this summer’s draft could be pulled from Montreal if restrictions were not lifted. Should this plan move forward and there are no further complications that cause another shutdown, it would seem as though the Canadiens will host the event after all.

  • Auston Matthews didn’t take part in practice but was feeling “pretty good” today according to head coach Sheldon Keefe, who spoke to reporters including Joshua Kloke of The Athletic. Matthews left last night’s game late in the third period with what appeared to be a head or neck injury after colliding with Brett Pesce. The injury wasn’t before the Toronto Maple Leafs superstar scored another two goals, taking him to 31 in 40 games this season.
  • Alex Ovechkin has cleared the COVID protocol and is available for the Washington Capitals today according to head coach Peter Laviolette. Ovechkin was asymptomatic during his All-Star isolation and is expected to be in the lineup when the team takes on the Columbus Blue Jackets this evening. The team sent Brett Leason, who likely would have been in the lineup if Ovechkin had been unavailable, back to the AHL. Ilya Samsonov and Connor McMichael, who missed practice yesterday while awaiting results, have also been cleared according to Tom Gulitti of NHL.com.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Eichel, Blue Jackets

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The NHL has released the Three Stars for last week, and because that included the All-Star game, Claude Giroux has been given the top honors. The Philadelphia Flyers captain did record four points in two games before heading to Las Vegas, where he won the All-Star MVP. The speculation over whether Giroux stays in Philadelphia through the trade deadline continues, with the veteran forward explaining that there is still a lot of time left before those decisions need to be made.

Second and third place went to two players who weren’t at the event, as Mitch Marner and Mason Marchment took home second and third respectively. The Toronto Maple Leafs star had seven points in the two games before the break, scoring three more goals to keep his streak alive. While Marner isn’t known as a goal scorer, he now has tallied in each of his last six games and 14 on the year. Marchment, meanwhile, had a six-point effort on the last day of January, taking him to 23 points in 22 games this season. An undrafted forward that the Maple Leafs then Florida Panthers developed, the 6’4″ Marchment has learned to impact the game in almost every capacity.

  • Jack Eichel was on the ice at Vegas Golden Knights practice today and he was no longer wearing a non-contact jersey according to Jesse Granger of The Athletic. The injured forward still wasn’t practicing in the top-12, skating on a reserve line with Nolan Patrick and Michael Amadio, but it’s a good sign that he could be back in the coming days. Head coach Pete DeBoer suggested as much at the All-Star game, exciting Golden Knights fans and sending the rumor mill swirling again with how the team will clear the cap space.
  • The Columbus Blue Jackets have moved Jake Bean, Eric Robinson, and Alexandre Texier to injured reserve, recalling Brendan Gaunce from the AHL under emergency conditions. All three players are dealing with long-term injuries that were announced over the past few weeks and aren’t expected back for a little while. The placements on IR are all retroactive as well–Bean to January 30, Robinson to January 31, and Texier to January 26.

Snapshots: World Cup, Top Prospects, Memorial Cup

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When the NHL first appeared headed to the 2022 Olympic Games, it signaled what would have been the first best-on-best action since the 2016 World Cup. Even that event came with the caveat of Team North America, a young-guns squad that kept some top talent off their respective countries. Connor McDavid, for instance, has still never worn a Canada sweater at a top-tier international event and hasn’t even taken part in the World Championship since 2018.

Perhaps there is reason to believe that is going to change, as Pierre LeBrun explained on TSN’s Insider Trading that the NHL and NHLPA have made progress on a potential 2024 World Cup of Hockey. There is also surprising support for it to be held partway through the 2023-24 season, something that had previously been fought against by the owners. This tournament would be held in addition to NHL participation in the 2026 Olympics in Italy, meaning hockey fans could be finally getting a chance to see best-on-best action in the coming years.

  • Speaking of best-on-best, the CHL prospects game was originally scheduled to take place a few days ago has been rescheduled to March 23 in Kitchener, according to Corey Pronman of The Athletic. The event pits the best draft-eligible players in the OHL, WHL, and QMJHL against each other and provides a great scouting opportunity for NHL executives. The Ontario government is currently scheduled to lift all capacity restrictions on indoor events on March 14, which would potentially allow a full building for the showcase.
  • Another marquee scouting event on the calendar is the Memorial Cup tournament, which hasn’t been held since 2019 because of the pandemic. This year’s event is scheduled to be held in Saint John, with the Sea Dogs automatically entered as the host team. Darren Dreger of TSN adds that because of all the postponements that have happened in the CHL this season, the Memorial Cup is going to be pushed into June.

Snapshots: Coyotes, Botterill, Flyers

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Under new general manager Bill Armstrong, the Arizona Coyotes took a very clear path last summer. They shed long-term commitments while providing a cap haven for teams struggling to put together a roster in the current financial situation the league finds itself in. Taking on short-term bad-money contracts like Loui Eriksson, Andrew Ladd, Antoine Roussel, Shayne Gostisbehere, Anton Stralman, and Jay Beagle netted them a whole variety of draft picks, and they’re ready to do it again.

Chris Johnston explained this week on TSN’s Insider Trading that the Coyotes are “eyeing a chance to be an important go-between at this deadline” as other teams deal with a tight cap situation. With plenty of cap space themselves, they could take on more bad contracts or even retain salary in a three-way deal. Notably, however, they can only use that latter strategy once. After retaining money on both Darcy Kuemper and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, the Coyotes can only be involved in one other retained salary transaction this season. Kuemper’s agreement ends at the end of the year, meaning they could jump back into that ring in the summer.

  • While Pat Verbeek eventually landed the Anaheim Ducks general manager job, another assistant GM was apparently close. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that Jason Botterill, AGM of the Seattle Kraken, was a finalist for the Ducks position. It would have been Botterill’s second chance in charge of a front office after his short stint with the Buffalo Sabres, one which did not go well. In three years leading the Sabres, the team finished no higher than sixth in the Atlantic Division and his draft results were certainly mixed. While he did land Rasmus Dahlin and Dylan Cozens, other high picks were used on Casey Mittelstadt (8th, 2017), Marcus Davisson (37th, 2017), Mattias Samuelsson (32nd, 2018), and Ryan Johnson (31st, 2019), all players who have either struggled or been unable to quite make their mark at the NHL level just yet.
  • The Philadelphia Flyers officially made a few changes to the front office. Alyn McCauley has been promoted to director of player personnel, while Tom Minton is now the director of hockey operations. McCauley has been with the Flyers for five years as a pro scout, while Minton was previously the director of hockey information and video. Recently, general manager Chuck Fletcher explained that the team is doubling the size of their analytics department and investing more in development staff.

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