Snapshots: Trouba, Ducks, Goaltending
In the latest edition of Insider Trading on TSN, the panel of Bob McKenzie, Darren Dreger and Pierre LeBrun discussed a number of subjects. One of them was Jacob Trouba, and the potential of a trade in his future. While Trouba has insisted all along that it isn’t about money in his contract dispute, the Jets are rumored to be willing to go to six-years, $33MM to get the defenceman under contract.
Even though it seems like most teams would want Trouba, Dreger reports that it doesn’t look like there is a fit anywhere in Canada. The Maple Leafs, Oilers and Canadiens have all been rumored to be interested in the 22-year old in the past.
- On Hampus Lindholm and a possible deal of Cam Fowler, LeBrun reports that it might not be as guaranteed as one would think. While it still seems likely that one of the Ducks young defenceman will have to be shipped out, the fact that Simon Despres has hit the LTIR and has no timetable on his return the team has a little more wiggle room under the salary cap.
- In Carolina, Dreger suggests that Ryan Murphy may be on the block, since he’ll likely be exposed at next year’s expansion draft. The 23-year old former first round pick split last season between the NHL and AHL levels.
- On the goaltending front, Los Angeles sounds like they’re putting all their eggs in the Peter Budaj basket for now. They’re waiting for Mike Condon to hit waivers from the Pittsburgh Penguins, but that may not happen for a while as Pittsburgh wants to try and keep or get an asset for the young goaltender.
Maple Leafs Notes: Andersen, Griffith, Reimer
When Toronto Maple Leafs saw rookie Auston Matthews score four goals in a losing effort, it was a sign of things to come for the team this season. Despite scoring 21 goals in 6 games, and taking leads into the third period a handful of times, the team is 1-2-3 as they head into tonight’s matchup with the Florida Panthers.
Jamie McLennan of TSN broke down what he thinks is one of the key factors in their record and analyzed the weak play of Frederik Andersen. McLennan says that Andersen has allowed at least one “bad goal” in each game this season, deflating the team and allowing the opposition to come back. It’s not all bad for Andersen though, as the TSN panelist says that his team defense hasn’t helped him very much through the first few games. He’ll be in net when they take on the Panthers.
- Seth Griffith will work his way into the lineup for the Leafs tonight, his first game of the season since being claimed on waivers October 11th. The former Boston Bruin is a dangerous offensive talent that hasn’t been able to find his footing in the NHL thus far, but scored 77 points in 57 AHL games last season. He’ll start on the fourth line, taking Peter Holland‘s place alongside another recently claimed player in Ben Smith.
- James Reimer will make his return to Toronto as a member of the Florida Panthers tonight, though in a backup role to Roberto Luongo. While Reimer was somewhat of a divisive character among Leafs fans during his tenure with the team, he does rank among the leaders in many all-time categories among Toronto netminders. While he’ll most likely be remembered best for the collapse in game 7 against Boston three years ago, he also could have likely been a part of the re-build had they not decided to go after Andersen this summer.
Snapshots: Maple Leafs Blue Line, Vancouver, McIlrath
There has been much written about this past summer’s blockbuster trade which sent LW Taylor Hall from Edmonton to New Jersey in exchange or D Adam Larsson; most of it critical of the Oilers side of the transaction. But Kevin McGran of TheStar.com opines that not only has the trade benefited both teams so far, it actually represents the sort of trade the Toronto Maple Leafs may have to explore in the future.
Hall already has five goals in six games for the Devils while Larsson has fit in well on Edmonton’s blue line, helping the Oilers to a 6 – 1 – 0 record. Even if Hall is considered the superior player, it still appears as if the deal has worked out in both team’s favor.
McGran argues that the Leafs, much like Edmonton, have a lot of highly-skilled forwards but a lingering deficiency on the blue line. Toronto has some interesting players on defense – Nikita Zaitsev, Jake Gardiner and Morgan Rielly, for example – but with Matt Hunwick and Roman Polak seeing regular playing time and with few prospects of particular note in the system, it’s clear the Leafs could use more young talent on the back end. While it’s possible the youngsters already on Toronto’s roster develop into a decent group of blue liners, it’s more likely the Leafs may eventually have to instead consider dealing from a position of strength – scoring wing – to address a weakness – defense. And just as the Oilers had to do, the Leafs might have to sacrifice a talented and popular player – and perhaps even a better player than the one they acquire – in order to fix the issues on the blue line.
The scribe does note that the Leafs likely won’t have to make that decision right away; that they likely have a year or two to see how things shake out.
More from around the NHL:
- Goal-scoring is up around the league with a per-game-average of 5.91 markers to date. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case in Vancouver where the Canucks have averaged just two goals per game, the lowest rate in the NHL. Writing for The Province, Jason Botchford highlights some disturbing trends suggesting the Canucks offensive issues are likely to linger throughout the season. Botchford notes that the team is dead last in even-strength, score-adjusted shot-attempt differential and suggests that trend will place additional pressure on Vancouver’s special teams. But through seven games, the Canucks have converted on just 12.5% of their man-advantage chances. Two players the Canucks expected and needed to step up this season have yet to do so. Defenseman Ben Hutton has recorded just a single goal while winger Sven Baertschi has failed to find the back of the net. As Botchford writes, the Canucks have talent but perhaps not enough depth at this point.
- Earlier today we learned the Rangers waived Dylan McIlrath. The former first-round pick had appeared in just one game and was the eighth defenseman on the team’s depth chart. As Larry Brooks of the New York Post noted via Twitter, the Rangers simply weren’t going to keep eight defensemen on the roster all season. Brooks also believes the chances of McIlrath getting claimed is “50-50.”
Milan Michalek, Jamie McBain, Steve Bernier All Clear Waivers
October 25: Michalek, McBain, and Bernier all cleared waivers, TSN’s Bob McKenzie reports (Twitter link).
October 24: The Toronto Maple Leafs have waived winger Milan Michalek while the Arizona Coyotes have placed defenseman Jamie McBain on waivers, TSN’s Bob McKenzie reports (Twitter links). They join Steve Bernier on the waiver wire, whose signing and waiving were reported earlier today.
Michalek was acquired by Toronto last season as a salary throw-in as part of the Dion Phaneuf trade with Ottawa. He played in just 13 games with the Leafs last season, picking up a goal and five assists. He’s off to a quieter start this year, with a goal and an assist in five games while averaging just 14:16 per night, his lowest ice time since his rookie season back in 2003-04 (where he played in just two contests).
For his career, the 31 year old has played in 747 games with the Sharks, Senators, and Maple Leafs. He has 208 goals and 238 assists under his belt as well as four years with 55 or more points, the most recent coming in 2011-12. However, with a salary and cap hit of $4MM, it’s unlikely that any team will claim him, even if they think he could help their team. More likely will be that teams will wait to see if Toronto is willing to retain any salary in a trade for him down the road.
As for McBain, he’s in his first year with the Coyotes after signing a one year, two-way deal early in free agency, one that pays him $650K in the NHL and $300K at the AHL level. He has suited up in three games with Arizona so far this season, being held off the scoresheet while averaging 16:40 per game.
After spending the first four years of his career in Carolina, McBain has bounced around in recent years with stints in Buffalo and Los Angeles on top of his time with the Coyotes. He has played in 348 career NHL contests, picking up 30 goals and 80 assists.
The move bodes well for Coyotes rookie blueliner Jakob Chychrun who is now one of seven remaining defensemen with the team. He has played in four games so far and hasn’t looked out of place, picking up three points while logging over 16 minutes per night.
Additionally, Ottawa’s Phil Varone cleared waivers and will be assigned to Binghamton of the AHL.
Maple Leafs Claim Ben Smith Off Waivers
The Toronto Maple Leafs have claimed Ben Smith off waivers from the Colorado Avalanche, reports TSN’s Bob McKenzie.
Smith will be joining Toronto for a second stint with the team. Late last season, he was acquired from San Jose by the Leafs as a salary throw-in as part of the James Reimer trade and evidently the team liked what it saw from Smith even though they didn’t re-sign him in the offseason. He had two goals and four assists with the Leafs in 16 games but was held off the scoresheet in six contests with San Jose.
This season, Smith has played in four games with the Avalanche, collecting zero points and a -2 rating while averaging 10:46 per night. For his career, he has played in 201 NHL contests between Chicago, San Jose, Toronto, and Colorado, picking up 27 goals and 23 assists.
Smith will likely reprise his fourth line penalty killing with the Maple Leafs, who also waived Milan Michalek on Monday. He’ll earn $675K in the NHL this year and $150K in the minors after signing a two-way deal back in the offseason. As James Mirtle of the Globe and Mail points out, the Leafs will actually save $275K on the cap by adding Smith in place of Michalek although just over $3MM of Michalek’s salary will still count on their cap if he clears and is sent to the minors.
[Related: Maple Leafs Depth Chart]
Off-Season Stories Providing Immediate Results
In the world of professional sports, the off-season has turned into a period of perpetual risk. When even the slightest move is scrutinized and analyzed with such severity, teams are trying harder and harder to minimize those gambles.
This summer saw a few key story lines for some of the leagues biggest franchises, and many of them are providing early dividends. Let’s take a look at some of the most talked about players of the summer, and where they sit just a few games into the seasons.
Auston Matthews – Toronto Maple Leafs:
The first big name to drop, Matthews was selected first overall by the Maple Leafs after they held on to their #1 spot in the draft. Seen as a franchise-type talent who could make an impact right away, Matthews proved he could play at this level at both the World Championships and the World Cup, before setting an NHL record in his first game with four goals.
With six points in his first four games (and two more assists tonight), the 19-year old Arizona-born centerman has already made an impact. He was made the second star in the first week of the season, and saw his jersey sales skyrocket to the top of the league. While it’s extremely unlikely he’ll continue at this pace for his entire rookie season, the Maple Leafs have to be please with his play thus far.
Steven Stamkos – Tampa Bay Lightning
Expected to hit the open market and garner the most interest of any free agent in the history of the NHL, Stamkos instead decided to sign back with the Lightning at the beginning of the summer. GM Steve Yzerman committed long-term to the 26-year old, handing him an eight year, $68MM deal just before free agency started.
Stamkos hasn’t taken the money and sat back, with four points in his first four games (and another goal tonight). The former 60-goal man is off to a blistering start and will again battle for the Rocket Richard trophy. Fans everywhere will wonder what he could have done for their team had he decided to head somewhere else.
Jimmy Vesey – New York Rangers
The biggest (deserved or not) story of the entire center was the saga of Jimmy Vesey, a college standout who refused to sign with first the Nashville Predators, and then the Buffalo Sabres. After months of speculation and build up, the winger decided to go to New York, where he would play with former teammate Kevin Hayes.
Though he had just one goal through his first four, Vesey has two more tonight, making people wonder just how effective he truly will be this season. The pendulum of “top-six winger”-“third line ceiling” that we heard all summer isn’t determined yet, but his three goals are already more than most Rangers fans expected through five games.
Franchise Faceoff: Calgary Flames vs Montreal Canadiens
There is a common theme among teams that miss the playoffs: weak goaltending. That’s what is credited as the biggest contributor to the demise of the Calgary Flames and Montreal Canadiens last season. The Habs lost all-world goaltender Carey Price early enough to torpedo their chances at the post season, while the Flames have been looking for a reliable netminder since the heyday of Miikka Kiprusoff.
This summer saw a fix for both clubs as the Canadiens got their Vezina winner back from injury, and the Flames brought in two established NHL goalies in Brian Elliott and Chad Johnson. While obviously these are different paths, they’ve provided the same hope to both fan bases. A return to the playoffs is certainly possible for both, though they’re off to much different starts.
Montreal is undefeated in regulation through four games and leads the Atlantic Division with seven points, while the Flames have struggled out of the gate to a 1-3-1 record. The season is very young however, and both teams have more success planned for their immediate future.
The Flames locked up their top two players this summer, inking Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau to long-term deals, while the Habs have youngsters Brendan Gallagher and Alex Galchenyuk looking like stars in their own right. Both franchises have questions on their blueline past their big #1’s (Mark Giordano and Shea Weber), but have intriguing young players filling the holes.
[Calgary Flames Depth Chart vs Montreal Canadiens Depth Chart]
On Monday we asked who would you rather have, the Oilers or Maple Leafs roster and it was remarkably close after almost 500 votes were cast. This week we’ll ask the same of two other teams north of the border.
If you were buying a roster (not all the franchise perks that go with it) to build a championship team, which would you take?
Snapshots: Corrado, Tortorella, Rakell, Weise
Toronto blueliner Frank Corrado finds himself in a familiar situation this season and as Chris Johnston of Sportsnet writes, it’s not a good one to be in. Last year, the Leafs claimed Corrado off of waivers just prior to the start of the season and then proceeded to keep him in the press box for the better part of two months, save for a brief conditioning stint in the AHL. The justification was that the team thought high enough of him to keep him on the roster and not risk losing him for nothing but that he wasn’t quite good enough to be in the lineup.
Fast forward to this year and history seems to be repeating itself for Corrado, who has been a healthy scratch in four straight games to start the year. Toronto is carrying eight defensemen to start the season and their other scratch – Roman Polak – made his season debut on Thursday, suggesting that Corrado once again sits eighth on the depth chart without much hope of getting into the lineup. The belief remains that if Toronto tried to assign him to the minors, he’d be claimed off of waivers, creating an identical situation to last season.
For the time being, it appears that like last season, it’s going to take an injury or two for Corrado to get into the lineup. Until then, he’ll have to bide his time and wait for a chance which is far from an ideal situation for a 23 year old who has yet to play 50 games in each of the last two years.
More from around the league:
- Today marks the one year anniversary of the Blue Jackets hiring John Tortorella as their new head coach. In that time, the team has played to a 34-35-8 record, notes Puck Rakers’ Tom Reed. Clearly, Columbus was looking for more of an immediate impact from Tortorella behind the bench and as a result, he is one of the coaches who came into the season firmly on the hot seat. The Jackets made a quick coaching change last season and if the team continues to struggle, GM Jarmo Kekalainen may be quick to pull the trigger again this year.
- The agent for Ducks center Rickard Rakell told Eric Stephens of the OC Register that the expectation is that Rakell will be able to report to the team sometime next week. Rakell is in the process of securing a P-1 visa which is required before he can resume skating with Anaheim. In the meantime, Rakell will continue to work out on his own in Sweden while waiting for the visa process to be completed which is expected to be shortly after the weekend.
- Philadelphia right winger Dale Weise has been suspended for three games as a result of an illegal check to the head on Anaheim defenseman Korbinian Holzer on Thursday night, the NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced. No penalty had been assessed on the hit during the game. Weise becomes the third Flyer to miss time due to suspension already this season, joining Brayden Schenn and Radko Gudas.
Injury Notes: Scandella, Marincin, Redmond
Tonight’s injury update in the NHL:
- The Minnesota Wild report that defenseman Marco Scandella is out of tonight’s Wild game versus the Toronto Maple Leafs because of an undisclosed illness. Michael Russo of the Minnesota Star-Tribune reports that Matthew Dumba will take his place. Scandella is logging 2nd-pairing minutes with the Wild—averaging just under 20 minutes a night—but remains pointless so far. Dumba has had more luck, scoring 1G in his first three games while logging just over 18 minutes a night. Minnesota drafted Dumba 7th overall in 2012 and has seen the defenseman progress in each of first three years in the NHL.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs announce that defenseman Martin Marincin is also out of tonight’s game with the Minnesota Wild. Marincin is replaced by Roman Polak. Marincin has been a nice surprise for the Maple Leafs since they acquired him last year, and he is currently played over 21 minutes a night. He has 1A in the team’s first three games. Polak makes his second Toronto debut tonight—he re-signed with the team in the offseason after being traded to the San Jose Sharks near the 2015-16 NHL Trade Deadline.
- The Montreal Canadiens reported that defenseman Zach Redmond will be out for six weeks after suffering a broken foot in practice. The Canadiens signed Redmond to a two-year deal this summer but he has yet to play for the big club. Redmond was expected to get playing time if the Canadiens sent rookie Mikhail Sergachev back to the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires. Last Season Redmond spent time between the Colorado Avalanche and its AHL affiliate San Antonio Rampage. The blueliner put up 2G and 4A in 37 NHL games.
Atlantic Division Snapshots: Maple Leafs, Babcock, Andersen, MacArthur, Howard
The Toronto Maple Leafs have won just one of their first three contests but by virtue of two overtime/shootout defeats, the team has accumulated four of a possible six points. As Mark Masters of TSN writes, Leafs bench boss Mike Babcock is “relatively pleased” with where his team sits in the standings.
“We’ve had an opportunity, I believe, to be 3-0. We’ve got four out of six points, which if you told me that before this started I would’ve said, ‘That’s fine,’ but we could’ve had more and I’m a bit greedy and so are the guys.”
Toronto is one of the youngest teams in the league, with six rookies – Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Zach Hyman, Connor Brown, Mitch Marner and Nikita Zaitsev – skating regular shifts for the Leafs. With that much youth it’s likely the team will understandably have plenty of ups and downs during the season. Babcock noted that the team’s top line, for example, which consists of Matthews, Nylander and Hyman, has some room to grow based on Wednesday’s performance against the Jets:
“I thought it was really dangerous offensively and not very good defensively.”
Toronto may or may not be ready to challenge for a playoff berth this season, but the arrow is certainly pointing up for a Leafs team that boasts a ton of young, high-end skill and talent.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division:
- Also from the Masters piece, goaltender Frederik Andersen has struggled out of the gate as the Leafs new #1 goalie, posting a 3.61 GAA and a Save % of just 87.6% in three starts, but Andersen is not yet worried. “If you just look at stats it doesn’t look pretty, but I thought I played pretty well. Obviously, some small things I got to clean up and me and Stevey (goalie coach Steve Briere) got to work today in practice so small fixes. I’m not too worried.” The Leafs paid a steep price to land Andersen from the Ducks – a 2016 first-round pick and a 2017 second-round pick – then rewarded the Danish netminder with a five-year, $25MM contract with the belief he would solve the team’s longstanding issues in goal. It’s a small sample size of course, but so far Andersen has not lived up to expectations in Toronto.
- Veteran forward Clarke MacArthur, concussed during Ottawa’s initial intrasquad practice in training camp, is expected to join the Senators on their three-game, Western Canadian road trip beginning this weekend, writes Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen. MacArthur is still not close to playing and may have only recently started skating but the news is still encouraging. This is the fourth documented concussion within the last 18 months for the 31-year-old winger. The hope for the Senators, according to head coach Guy Boucher, is that just having MacArthur around the team on the trip will be good for him: “Obviously, he’s not going to play. We’re talking about being with the guys, being part of the routine. It would be good for him mentally, but we still haven’t 100% decided that.”
- For six seasons, Jimmy Howard was the #1 goalie for the Detroit Red Wings before losing the job to Petr Mrazek last season. Howard struggled in the backup role in 2015-16 but coming into the season knowing Mrazek would again be the starter has helped the veteran netminder adapt, according to Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. Said Howard: “I think I know how to handle the situation a lot better now. Last year I didn’t quite understand how to be the backup, never had been it before. So I fully understand the role now and how to stay mentally sharp in between starts.” Howard qualifies as an expensive backup with a contract that runs through the 2018-19 season and that calls for a cap hit of nearly $5.3MM per. Detroit was rumored to be looking to trade the 32-year-old goalie this summer and could do so again this offseason, assuming he isn’t claimed in the expansion draft by Las Vegas.