Despite Benchings, Ben Hutton Has Not Requested A Trade
- Despite the fact that Canucks defenseman Ben Hutton spent plenty of time as a healthy scratch this season and was publicly criticized by head coach Travis Green at times, he has not asked for a trade, his agent Andy Scott told Postmedia’s Ben Kuzma. The blueliner, who turns 25 on Friday, recorded just six assists in 61 games in 2017-18 after putting up a total of 44 points over the previous two years. With a cap hit (and salary) of $2.8MM next season that will also represent his qualifying offer in the summer of 2019, Hutton will need a bounce-back season to avoid potentially becoming a non-tender candidate.
Elias Pettersson Likely To Start On The Wing
Canucks prospect Elias Pettersson is likely to play on the wing to start next season if he makes the NHL roster, GM Jim Benning acknowledged to Postmedia’s Ben Kuzma. Pettersson, a natural center, spent most of this past season on the wing so it’s hard to foresee him switching back to the tougher position while trying to get used to playing at the NHL level. Accordingly, Kuzma speculates that Vancouver could be in the market this offseason for a veteran on a short-term deal that could act as a bridge for players like Pettersson and Adam Gaudette to allow them to ease into NHL duty.
Jonathan Dahlen Reassigned To Utica Comets
After another outstanding season in Sweden, Vancouver Canucks prospect Jonathan Dahlen is on his way to the Utica Comets to help in their postseason run. Utica has three games remaining before the end of the regular season, but have already secured a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Dahlen, 20, was acquired last season from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for Alexandre Burrows, and has done nothing but impress since. After scoring 44 points in 45 games last season for Timra in the Swedish second league, he matched that total in one fewer game this time around. That was good for second in the entire league, and his 14 playoff points led all Allsvenskan skaters.
Selected 42nd overall in 2016, Dahlen is a legitimate top-six forward prospect that could contribute to Vancouver’s offense sooner than later. His creativity with the puck and goal scoring ability makes him dangerous from anywhere in the offensive zone, and can find opportunities where others may not. Though somewhat undersized—unlike his father, long-time NHL player Ulf Dahlen who stood 6’2″—he gets quite a bit of power in his shot and can almost always find space to unload it.
The young forward might need a whole year (or more) in the AHL before really making an impact in Vancouver, but he’ll get a chance to turn some heads over the next few weeks. If he jumps right into the action with Utica—who have had trouble scoring goals at times this season, relying on Thatcher Demko to steal games for them—there is no reason to think he won’t be able to produce offense at good clip.
Morning Notes: Trotz, Stamkos, Boeser
The playoffs are important for every coach in the league as they try to secure their job and legacy in the league. None more than for Barry Trotz though, who could face unemployment if he can’t get the Washington Capitals past the second round, despite winning the Metropolitan Division for the third consecutive season.
Trotz is in a unique position, as detailed by Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post. Svrluga writes that assistant coaches Todd Reirden and Blaine Forsythe both have contracts beyond this season, despite Trotz being in his final year. Brian MacLellan was also just signed to a new multi-year extension, meaning the coach will likely take the heat should Washington fail once again.
- Steven Stamkos hasn’t played since the first of April, but that won’t stop him from getting into the lineup for Game 1 in the Tampa Bay Lightning-New Jersey Devils series. Stamkos has been confirmed healthy enough to go, giving the Lightning back another superstar just in time.
- Brock Boeser was one of the brightest lights in the entire NHL this season, starring for the Vancouver Canucks in his rookie year. That all came to an end when he suffered a broken bone in his back in early March, an injury that could have been much worse. “That injury could have ended my career, honestly” Boeser told Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet, while discussing the pain he went through in the hospital. The young forward is expected to make a full recovery and be ready for the start of the 2018-19 season.
2018 NHL Draft Lottery Odds
The regular season is over and for the first time in NHL history there are 15 teams on the outside of the playoff picture. For those squads and their fans, it’s a long wait for anything positive to come, with the 2018 NHL Entry Draft more than ten weeks away, scheduled for June 18th, and the start of free agency another two weeks after that. However, the odds for this year’s NHL Draft Lottery are now set and teams can at least look forward to the ping pong balls being drawn at the end of the month, on Saturday, April 28th. With the teams in the running now set, here are the odds for the #1 overall pick in this years draft:
31st – Buffalo Sabres: 18.5%
30th – Ottawa Senators: 13.5%
29th – Arizona Coyotes: 11.5%
28th – Montreal Canadiens: 9.5%
27th – Detroit Red Wings: 8.5%
26th – Vancouver Canucks: 7.5%
25th – Chicago Blackhawks: 6.5%
24th – New York Rangers: 6.0%
23rd – Edmonton Oilers: 5.0%
22nd – New York Islanders: 3.5%
21st – Carolina Hurricanes: 3.0%
20th – New York Islanders (from Calgary Flames): 2.5%
19th – Dallas Stars: 2.0%
18th – Philadelphia Flyers (from St. Louis Blues (top-ten option)): 1.5%
17th – Florida Panthers: 1.0%
If you are a fan of one of these teams, you can entertain yourself for the next few weeks with this Lottery Simulator from Tankathon.com.
West Notes: Blues, Flames, Canucks
The St. Louis Blues just narrowly missed out on making the playoffs this season, losing in regulation to the Colorado Avalanche in their regular season finale – the only result that could have eliminated them from the postseason picture. To add insult to injury, the Blues have also played the 2017-18 season without an AHL affiliate, leaving fans without the consolation prize of at least watching a team of St. Louis prospects make a playoff run. Nevertheless, the team has assigned goalie Ville Husso and defenseman Chris Butler to the San Antonio Rampage, the team with the majority of the Blues’ minor league prospects. Yet, the Rampage sit in last place in the extremely tight AHL Pacific Division with just three games remaining. Dejected Blues fans may have to follow Beau Bennett and Wade Megan with the Chicago Wolves or Jordan Binnington with the Providence Bruins if they want a horse in the race come AHL playoff time.
- Calgary Flames GM Brad Treliving told the Canadian Press that his team has a “laundry list” of issues to sort out this off-season. After making the postseason last year and, as the article notes, adding Mike Smith and Travis Hamonic last summer, missing the playoffs this year can only be seen as a disappointment and Treliving is ready to make changes. At the top of that “laundry list” is deciding what to do with head coach Glen Gulutzan. Beyond that, one list item specifically mentioned by Treliving is figuring out how to fix the Flames’ tepid power play, which finished 29th in the league and only got worse as the season wore on. As Treliving puts it, “In a league where the margins are thin, it’s not surprising that the teams that are successful in (special teams) usually have successful years, so it was critical.”
- One team that will be far less active this off-season are the Vancouver Canucks. Jeff Paterson of TSN gets the feeling that this could be one of the quietest Canuck off-seasons in years. President Trevor Linden spoke with the media today and stated that “Obviously on a day like this, we’re disappointed by not achieving all of our goals. At the same time, we’re encouraged as an organization with where we are moving forward. I think this group has an identity with its young players. That’s exciting” Paterson read this statement as saying that after back-to-back busy summers, the team is disappointed in its performance, but with a young core and plenty of depth in talented prospects, this is a team moving in the right direction. For that reason, Paterson hypothesizes that it could be a “wait and see”-type summer, writing “Outside of the National Hockey League draft lottery and the draft itself, don’t be the least bit surprised if you don’t hear a peep from the Vancouver Canucks until training camp.”
Vancouver Canucks Send Three To AHL
Now that the Vancouver Canucks’ season is over, they’ve sent Nikolay Goldobin, Tyler Motte and Ashton Sautner to the Utica Comets for their upcoming playoff run. While Sautner was up under emergency conditions and could always be sent back, both Goldobin and Motte had been involved in paper transactions at the trade deadline to make them eligible for the AHL playoffs. Reid Boucher, who is also eligible, would need to clear waivers in order to be assigned to the AHL.
The Comets have clinched their playoff spot with three games remaining, but are looking at a first round matchup with the Toronto Marlies if they can’t catch the Rochester Americans in the next few days. Though anything can happen in a playoff series, the Marlies have been the best team in the AHL for much of the season and will head in as the top seed.
Goldobin especially should be a huge help for the Comets, as he finished fifth in team scoring despite playing just 28 games in the minor leagues this season. His 30 points in those games continued the near point-per-game pace he’s set in the minors. The 22-year old forward should spend most of the season in Vancouver again next year.
Ben Hutton Hoping For A Restart In Vancouver
Just a couple of years ago, Canucks defenseman Ben Hutton was viewed as a key cog in their future plans. Fast forward to today and the 24-year-old is coming off a campaign where he failed to score a goal in 61 games and spent considerable time as a healthy scratch. Following their loss on Saturday, he acknowledged to Jason Botchford of the Vancouver Province that “a restart button would be nice”.
While the implication in the article is that Hutton would welcome a fresh start with Vancouver next season after being called out on multiple occasions by head coach Travis Green, Botchford notes that many around the team have Hutton pegged as a possible trade candidate this summer. He carries a cap hit of $2.8MM through next year which also serves as his qualifying offer in June of 2019 and if his role doesn’t change with the Canucks for next season, he’d certainly be a non-tender candidate. Accordingly, it may make sense for the team to look to move him this offseason even though they’d be selling low.
Western Notes: Blackhawks, Greenway, Horvat, Dahlen, Kovalchuk
Don’t expect too many changes in the Chicago Blackhawks roster this season. At least that’s what Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times writes as he examines the roster and the team’s salary cap flexibility.
Coach Joel Quenneville admitted that many things went wrong this year, but he believes that if the team comes back and all play better, the Blackhawks should return to the playoffs next season. Factor in the loss of Marian Hossa, the injury to goaltender Corey Crawford and some down years by several key players, perhaps a turnaround is possible.
“If we all collectively have better years in all aspects … I believe we’re very capable of [rebounding],” Quenneville said. “We’ve seen many games this year where we look like we could be a really good team. [It’s] just that consistency, putting that in place.”
Lazerus writes that the team should look into adding a top-four defenseman, but was quick to point out that it’s unlikely the team will go after Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson as that pricetag would be too high even though it looks as if the Blackhawks should have considerable cap space. He also adds the team desperately needs to find a quality backup goaltender to avoid the problems the team had to endure during the second half of this season.
- Sarah McLellan of the StarTribune writes that while the Minnesota Wild’s bottom line of Tyler Ennis, Matt Cullen and Charlie Coyle has been successful of late, but head coach Bruce Boudreau might break it up as it sounds like the coach is leaning towards starting rookie Jordan Greenway over Ennis. “I don’t know where he’s going to play [in the playoffs], but I’m sure I’ll find a spot,” Boudreau said.
- Rick Dhaliwal of Sportsnet tweeted that Vancouver Canucks forward Bo Horvat received an invitation to play for Canada at the upcoming world championships in Denmark this summer.
- Dhaliwal also adds that Vancouver Canucks prospect Jonathan Dahlen will rest for a few days before reporting to the Utica Comets of the AHL. Dahlen, a prospect the Canucks acquired at the trade deadline in 2016 for Alexandre Burrows, has been lighting up the Allvenskan league and helped lead his team Timra to be promoted to Sweden’s top tier league.
- European reporter Alex Nunn tweeted that KHL star Ilya Kovalchuk has confirmed that he will spend the next two or three seasons in the NHL. Kovalchuk will be an unrestricted free agent on April 15, when he turns 35 years old.
New York Rangers Fire Coach Alain Vigneault
Hours after putting up an egg in their 5-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, the New York Rangers fired their head coach Alain Vigneault after five years. After four playoff appearances, the Rangers struggled, finishing 34-39-9 on the season. In all, however, Vigneault had quite a bit of success in his time in New York, which included taking the Rangers to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2013-14, his first season with the team. He led the team to a 226-147-37 record over the five years.
The firing also came after Vigneault himself stated in his post-game press conference that he deserved to stay and defended his record, according to Newsday’s Colin Stephenson.
“Yes, yes. Without a doubt,’’ he said when asked if he thought he would hold on to his job despite the Rangers’ 34-39-9 record, which caused them to miss the playoffs for only the second time since the NHL lockout that canceled the 2004-05 season. “I think my staff is the right staff for this job. I think — and this is just my opinion — but I think one of the strongest assets of this organization is its coaching staff and their experience.’’
Some of Vigneault’s struggles were not his doing as the Rangers decided to rebuild on the fly, sending out a letter on Feb. 7, telling fans about their decision to rebuild the team. The Rangers followed that by selling off several veterans including Michael Grabner, Rick Nash, Nick Holden, J.T. Miller and captain Ryan McDonah.
However, Stephenson also points out several issues that came up this season that forced the Rangers to head in that direction. After re-designing its defense with the acquisitions of star free agent Kevin Shattenkirk and re-signing Brendan Smith, the team was hoping to possess one of the best defenses in the league. Instead, the team started slowly at 1-6-2 in its first nine games and was 3-7-2 after 12 in which Vigneault almost lost his job. The team was able to right the ship after that, but only because of the impressive play of both the team’s goaltenders in Henrik Lundqvist and Ondrej Pavelec. Neither goalie was able to sustain their great play.
Injuries also played a part. Shattenkirk was playing hurt, while Smith came into camp out of shape and never returned to form before eventually being sent down to the AHL. Winger Chris Kreider missed 24 games due to a blood clot that led to surgery on his ribs. Center Mika Zibanejad missed nine games with a concussion, while Shattenkirk had knee surgery in January and never came back.
The Athletic’s Rick Carpiniello writes (subscription required) that there were other reasons as well that stand out when it came to Vigneault. The coach’s lack of success at the blueline have been issues for years as his system had failed repeatedly. Vigneault had undergone three different defensive assistant coaches in three years, including Ulf Samuelsson, Jeff Beukeboom and Lindy Ruff and replaced most of the defense and still failed to get them going. His tough love was also an issue as he butted heads with many players, especially Miller and Pavel Buchnevich. However, the most telling numbers is the team’s record from Jan. 7 to Feb. 25, when Vigneault led the team to just a 5-16-1 record.
Vigneault has a 648-435-98 overall record throughout his career with the Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks and the Rangers. He won the Jack Adams Award as Coach of the Year in 2007.
TSN’s Bob McKenzie was the first to report the news.