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How Are The 2016 Draft Picks Doing? Picks #1-5

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Now more than ever, the NHL is a draft and develop league. While trades and key free agent signings are still an important part of the game, gone are the days where core players could be obtained for a few draft picks and low level prospects. The key to building a solid franchise foundation is drafting well. If gifted with a top five pick, the pressure in the salary cap era is even more stifling.

With the 2017 NHL Draft just over six months away, it’s always interesting to see how the 2016 picks are doing following their selections. Some like Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine, really need no introduction. The contributions to their respective teams have been significant, and talked about during the first half of the season. Here are the top five picks in order, and what they’ve been up to since being drafted last June.

#1 overall pick: Auston Matthews

What else is there to say? The Toronto Maple Leafs picked the Arizona native and they haven’t been disappointed. Nearly a point-per-game player, Matthews has 36 points (21-15) in 40 games and despite a goal scoring drought a few months back, Matthews has hit his stride. A knack to score big goals and showing a strong two-way game as well, Matthews is the backbone of a Toronto rebuilding project that includes a lot of exciting young players. The future is looking very bright in hockey’s mecca.

#2 overall pick: Patrik Laine

The Winnipeg Jets knew they were getting a good player in Laine, but just how good wasn’t revealed until the regular season began. Laine has netted two hat tricks this season and until Matthews heated up, there was significant discussion that Laine could be the choice for the Calder Trophy for league’s best rookie. Though a concussion sidelined him, Laine was also nearly a point-per-game player with 37 points (21-16) in 42 games. He still leads all rookies in goals and points.
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Minor Transactions: 1/13/17

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Here is where we’ll keep tabs on today’s minor roster moves:

  • Following their loss to Minnesota, the Canadiens announced (Twitter link) that they assigned right winger Nikita Scherbak and left winger Bobby Farnham to their AHL affiliate in St. John’s. Scherbak played in three games with Montreal, picking up a goal while Farnham was held off the scoresheet in his three outings though he recorded 17 PIMS.  It’s believed the team is likely to have at least one of center Alex Galchenyuk or right winger Andrew Shaw back in the lineup shortly and these moves open up the roster spots for them to be activated off injured reserve.
  • The Lightning have recalled right winger Erik Condra from AHL Syracuse per a team release. The 30 year old has been up and down a lot recently but has yet to see much NHL action overall, skating in just eight games with Tampa this season.  He has collected 23 points (7-16-23) in 24 minor league contests but isn’t expected to be in the lineup tonight against Columbus.
  • Winnipeg announced that they have recalled blueliner Julian Melchiori from Manitoba of the AHL. He will take the roster spot of rookie winger Patrik Laine, who was placed on injured reserve retroactive to January 7th.  Melchiori has seen action in four games with the Jets this season but has spent most of the year with the Moose, picking up two goals and four assists in 31 minor league games.
  • The Sharks announced (Twitter link) that they have sent defenseman Mirco Mueller back to the San Jose Barracuda, their AHL affiliate. This marks the fourth separate occasion that he has been sent back to the minors this season.  He has got into just three NHL games this year, scoring a goal while adding an assist.  He also has eight helpers in 25 AHL contests.
  • New Jersey announced via Twitter that they have assigned right winger Nick Lappin to Albany of the AHL in order to activate center Jacob Josefson off injured reserve.  The 24 year old Lappin made his NHL debut earlier this year and has spent the bulk of this season with the Devils, collecting four goals and three assists in 35 games.

Snapshots: Burmistrov, Canucks, Ducks

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Since being selected off waivers on January 2nd, Alexander Burmistrov has still yet to make it to Arizona due to work visa issues. Now, according to Dave Vest the team’s director of news content, Burmistrov has his visa and is just waiting to get his passport back from the government. As soon as he does, he’ll fly out to Arizona and join the team.

The Coyotes hope he’ll be ready to play on Friday, when they’ll begin to evaluate what they have. The former top-10 draft pick has just two points this season and hasn’t developed into the dominant two-way center the Jets had hoped for when they selected him. The Coyotes will use the rest of this year to determine if they can find some use for him going forward, or if he’s just another busted prospect.

  • Pierre LeBrun says the Vancouver Canucks will not trade away draft picks for a short-term gain to get them into the playoffs. That would jive with what Frank Seravalli said earlier today when he said that gaining draft picks would probably be the priority for GM Jim Benning. LeBrun does say that if they could acquire a young player capable of contributing for the next few years they’d be open to it, but realistically who wouldn’t?
  • There’s a nasty flu going around the Anaheim Ducks room, reports Adrian Dater of Bleacher Report. That’s not good as starting tomorrow night the team has five games in eight nights and are fighting the San Jose Sharks for the first seed in the Pacific division. Luckily, they’ll face the hapless Avalanche twice during those games, with another one against the Coyotes to boot.
  • Dylan DeMelo will be out a couple of weeks, according to Kevin Kurz of CSN. The defenseman was seen in a cast tonight before the team’s game against the Calgary Flames. With DeMelo out, Tim Heed may work his way in on the bottom pairing at some point.

Most Man-Games Missed At Midway Point

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While the headlines follow teams missing multiple major contributors to injury – case in point the resilient 2016-17 Montreal Canadiens, whose injury issues have been well-documented – there’s an argument to be made that losing a greater amount of depth players is in fact more detrimental to a team’s success, even if it doesn’t garner as much attention. ESPN’s Matthew Coller examined the amount of ice time, in man-game minutes, lost this season due to injury and the resulting success or failure of the most injured and most healthy teams. Despite the story line, the Canadiens only rank tenth right now in missed minutes, perhaps providing some explanation to how they have maintained their winning ways despite being banged up. Other teams have not been so lucky.

Of the five most injured teams in the first half of 2016-17, four have drastically underachieved, even though you might not suspect that they have had such bad injury struggles. At the top of the list is the Detroit Red Wings, whose historic playoff streak is in extreme jeopardy as they sit in the basement of the Atlantic Division through 40 games. Two of their season’s biggest bright spots have also been two of their largest injury concerns, as 11 games were missed by leading scorer Thomas Vanek, signed to a one-year “show me” deal this summer, and resurgent goalie Jimmy Howard is on the shelf for the second time already and expected to be out until February. Add in a long, ongoing absence of Darren Helm and off-and-on issues with defenseman Brendan Smith among other injuries, and the Red Wings lead the league with 3,122 minutes missed. Few have pointed to injuries as the main reason for Detroit’s dismal showing, but there’s evidence to express that it may be the primary influence. Backing up the claim are the struggles of the Buffalo Sabres, Dallas Stars, and Winnipeg Jets as well, all of whom have suffered noteworthy injuries, but also an excess of depth injuries as well. These four teams are all performing below what was expected of them in 2016-17, and injuries may be the prime source of blame. Only the Edmonton Oilers have bucked the trend, as they have been able to survive numerous serious injuries to their defenseman and are having their best season in recent memory with the second most man-games missed in the entire league.

Aside from the Washington Capitals (who have been impossibly healthy with just 10 games and about 170 minutes missed) and San Jose Sharks at #1 and #2, two teams who seemingly have not had issues with major injuries in recent years, a lack of man-games missed can certainly make a case as a vital ingredient to the success of overachieving teams this season. Rounding out the top five are the Ottawa Senators, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Carolina Hurricanes, all of whom have lost less than 1,000 minutes to injury and all of whom are surely big surprises thus far in 2016-17. No one could have expected the Blue Jackets to hold the NHL’s best record at this point, nobody guessed that the Senators would be contenders in the Atlantic, and many picked the Hurricanes to be the worst team in the league. Even though Ottawa has seen Bobby Ryan, Mike Hoffman and Mark Stone all miss time and Carolina just got Jordan Staal and Elias Lindholm back from injury, the overall roster-wide health is what has kept these teams afloat. All three rosters could easily be exposed by a string of long-term injuries, but they have been able to make it this far without encountering such loss and it has boosted them to the positions they are currently in.

Many teams have had recent success with top-heavy lineups containing a handful of stars and relative no-names as filler (read: Chicago Blackhawks), and there’s no reason to believe that doesn’t work. However, these injury trends seem to show that missing time as a whole due to injury instead of injuries to individual top players is what can derail a team. A team built with depth in mind can combat the loss of two, three, or four starters, but a top-heavy team can struggle to replace one star, nevertheless multiple full-time contributors. The man-games missed to success correlation is an interesting concept for team builders to follow and understand. It’s a risk-reward scenario, and several teams this season are showing the extremes of success and failure as a function of injury.

Sunday Evening Snapshots: Panarin, Mason, Simmonds, Kane

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Super sophomore Artemi Panarin recently inked a two-year extension that will tie him to the Blackhawks through his restricted free agent years. Upon the expiration of the pact, one that carries an AAV of $6MM, Panarin will be a UFA and at 28 should be positioned to land a lucrative long-term deal in free agency. The structure is ideal for Panarin, as it allows him to max out his earnings over the next two years while still allowing him to reach free agency while still young enough to command a max-term deal. As Chris Kuc and Chris Hine of the Chicago Tribune write, the deal overcame a late and unexpected obstacle in order to reach the finish line.

Panarin decided to change representation from Tom Lynn to Dan Milstein just before the agreement was finalized but the former stayed on to help the new agent complete the negotiations. Lynn, a former assistant GM with the Wild, has a strong relationship with Chicago assistant GM Norm MacIver and that helped grease the wheels on the arrangement. Milstein credits Lynn for his professionalism in difficult circumstances.

“After Artemi told him about the change, (Lynn) offered to stay on to help in any way he could,” Milstein told the Tribune. “He had called me and offered to pass on any and all things he had worked on previously. He and I consulted closely … (and) the whole thing came together in 48 hours.

“(Lynn) was very instrumental and he’s a class act. Ninety-nine percent of people would have hung up the phone and never spoke to you again. I can’t say anything bad about Tom and I know Artemi can’t say anything (bad) either.”

Panarin, who doesn’t speak English well, made the move because of the language barrier.

“As somebody who doesn’t really speak English fluently, it was a little bit of a hassle to bring everything to a translator first, have meetings and have to go through a translation at some point,” Panarin said via an interpreter. “I felt more comfortable getting somebody who speaks Russian.”

Kuc and Hine report that a source conveyed that despite what Milstein said, the relationship he shared with Lynn “was not as amicable as Milstein portrayed.” Regardless, Chicago and Panarin were ultimately able to find common ground and work out a deal both sides were happy with.

Elsewhere around the NHL tonight:

  • Sam Carchidi of Philly.com wonders whether the Flyers should re-sign goaltender Steve Mason to serve as a bridge to the team’s prospects at the position. According to Carchidi, the plan at the beginning of the campaign was to allow Mason and Michal Neuvirth, both pending free agents, to compete to see which one would earn an extension but injuries to Neuvirth have allowed Mason to take the lead in that competition by default. Ultimately the scribe feels Neuvirth is simply too injury-prone to be counted on as an undisputed #1 goalie. Carchidi believes a strong second half would nearly guarantee that the Flyers would look to re-up Mason. As it stands, should the team extend Mason, the team would have to expose young net minder Anthony Stolarz, who Carchidi feels has potential. The best bet, in the opinion of Carchidi, might be to deal Neuvirth and add another goaltender under contract for 2017-18 and whom they can leave exposed for the expansion draft.
  • Sticking with the Flyers, the Department of Player Safety will not have a hearing with Wayne Simmonds for his hit that knocked Lightning forward J.T. Brown out of yesterday’s game, tweets Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times. Smith adds that Brown has been placed on IR requiring him to sit out at least seven days as a result.
  • With Buffalo hosting Winnipeg last night, John Vogl of The Buffalo News revisits the blockbuster trade the two clubs made nearly two years ago. On February 11, 2015, Buffalo acquired winger Evender Kane, defenseman Zach Bogosian, and young goaltender Jason Kasdorf in exchange for defenseman Tyler Myers, winger Drew Stafford, forward prospects Joel Armia and Brendan Lemieux and a 1st round draft pick. While Kane has struggled to produce up to his talent level, he did hit the 20-goal plateau last season and is on an 82-game pace for 26 goals this season. Myers, meanwhile, has missed all but 11 games this season but did contribute 27 points in 73 contests last season. Stafford had a 21-goal campaign a year ago but has slumped to just three this season. Vogl considers it too early to declare a winner, though with the 20-year-old Lemieux and Jack Roslovic – the player chosen with that first round pick – still developing, the Jets have a good chance of ultimately coming out ahead in the swap.

 

5 Key Stories: 1/2/16 – 1/8/16

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Let’s recap the five biggest stories from the week of 1/2/2016 through 1/8/2016:

  • The Columbus Blue Jackets occupy the top spot in the league due in large part to their recent 16-game winning streak. The team had a chance to tie a record set by the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins – a team led by “Super” Mario Lemieux and the ageless Jaromir Jagr – but the Blue Jackets came up short, falling to the Washington Capitals by the score of 5 – 0. Nonetheless, it’s an incredible feat accomplished by the Blue Jackets and an announcement to the rest of the league that they are indeed a team to be taken seriously.
  • It’s been an up-and-down year in Winnipeg, but Jets rookie phenom Patrik Laine has been a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing season. The 18-year-old Finn is currently tied for third in the league in goal scoring with 21 and has already established himself as one of the league’s most exciting young stars. Unfortunately, Laine is out indefinitely after suffering a concussion in Winnipeg’s 4 – 3 loss to Buffalo on Saturday.
  • Colorado has certainly been one of the league’s biggest disappointments in 2016-17. An offseason coaching change was expected to spark a talented roster back into playoff contention but instead the Avalanche have been the worst team in the league and at this point are one of the few clubs who can safely be called “seller” in advance of the trade deadline. This of course has led to all kinds of rumors, with the most recent involving Boston. The Bruins reportedly inquired as to the availability Gabriel Landeskog with Colorado asking for rookie blue liner Brandon Carlo in return. While there appears to be no traction in trade discussions between the two teams, that could change closer to the March 1st deadline.
  • It was a busy week on the waiver wire with several players switching teams by virtue of waiver claims. Reid Boucher changed clubs twice going from Nashville to New Jersey and finally on to Vancouver all via waivers. Ty Rattie went from St. Louis to Carolina and San Jose lost Matt Nieto to Colorado.
  • Montreal winger Brendan Gallagher is slated to miss the next eight weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a fractured hand. Gallagher was injured when a shot from teammate Shea Weber struck his hand during a recent game.

Jets Update Laine’s Condition

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Winnipeg Jets head coach Paul Maurice announced today that Patrik Laine did indeed suffer a concussion as a result of a hard hit delivered by Buffalo’s Jake McCabe during the third period of yesterday’s game. Maurice added that there is currently no timetable for the talented rookie winger’s return.

Laine was attempting to receive a pass in the neutral zone when McCabe stepped up and put a body on the 18-year-old Finn. According to Maurice, the two players ended up butting heads during the initial collision. Laine then hit the back of his head on the ice as he fell following the hit. After the game, Maurice said he had “no issue” with the hit.

The second overall pick in the June 2016 draft, Laine is tied for third in the league in goals scored (21) with the player chosen ahead of him, Auston Matthews. He was in the midst of a nice stretch of hockey, tallying two goals and five assists in four games prior to the injury. It’s impossible to overstate how important Laine is to the Jets and with the team struggling to find consistency, losing him for a long period would be a damaging blow to their playoff chances.

Lightning Notes: Brown, Yzerman, Trades

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Jets star rookie Patrik Laine wasn’t the only player forced to depart his game after taking a big hit during the day’s early action. Checking winger J.T. Brown left Tampa Bay’s contest against Philadelphia in the third period after taking a shoulder/upper arm to the head courtesy of Wayne Simmonds. Simmonds wasn’t penalized on the play as the officials evidently deemed the hit to be inadvertent.

The two came together along the Tampa Bay blue line with Simmonds cutting in front of Brown, presumably making an effort to remain onside prior to going off the ice on a change as a Flyers teammate dumped the puck into the offensive zone. The Lightning winger, who has just four points in 36 games this season, didn’t see Simmonds coming and stayed on the ice for a couple of minutes after the hit.

Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times tweeted that Lightning head coach Jon Cooper didn’t offer anything specific as to Brown’s condition after the game, saying just that it “didn’t look good to me.” Cooper also declined to comment on the hit itself, instead deferring to the league.

The Department of Player Safety reviews all plays of this nature and it’s conceivable Simmonds could face discipline. Replays do seem to show the Flyers leading goal scorer leaning in towards Brown just prior to contact. However, it doesn’t appear Simmonds has ever been fined by the DoPS, much less suspended; a fact which will likely work in his favor.

In other Lightning related news:

  • With the Lightning currently on the outside looking in at a playoff spot, it’s time for Tampa Bay GM Steve Yzerman to do something to shake up a roster that all too often appears uninspired, opines Smith in a post for the Tampa Bay Times. However, like every other team looking to address their shortcomings via trade, Yzerman has found it difficult to find a deal to his liking:  “If there was something I could have done to this point that would make our team better, I would have done it,” Yzerman said. “We’ll keep trying.” Smith argues the Lightning desperately need a top-four defenseman though that also seems to be high on the list for several other clubs, consequently adding to the challenge of finding a good fit. In Yzerman’s experience, it’s been tougher than ever to make a trade as teams are cognizant of the upcoming expansion draft as well as careful of taking on contracts with term remaining given the expectation of the salary cap remaining flat next season. Yzerman also cites the presence of so few obvious sellers as another factor it’s been so quiet on the trade front.

Snapshots: Avalanche, Ottawa Prospects, Rubtsov, Laine

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With the likes of Gabriel Landeskog and Matt Duchene making it into the rumor mill recently, GM Joe Sakic commented to Terry Frei of the Denver Post on what he’s looking to accomplish when it comes to any possible transactions:

“The only thing I’m going to do is what helps this franchise down the line. We’re not going to be looking to doing anything for just this year. When we talk trades with different teams, I’m looking at the future. That’s where we have to go. We have to get younger. We have some good young guys that hopefully can make the next step in the next year or two and that’s the direction we’re doing. We’re trying to build this up.”

With the idea of getting younger in mind, Sakic went on to note that forwards Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and 2016 first round pick Tyson Jost are all but untouchable in any deal.

As for Landeskog, Adrian Dater of Bleacher Report reports (Twitter link) that the Kings have strong interest in the Colorado captain.  Earlier this week, he linked the Bruins as another team that wants to bring him in.  While Boston has the cap space to do such a deal, the Kings do not and are currently in LTIR with Jonathan Quick on the shelf.  Landeskog has a cap hit that’s slightly over $5.5MM which could potentially be a complicating factor for the Kings to get a deal done.

Elsewhere around the league:

  • After a strong showing at the World Juniors where he was named the MVP, TSN’s Darren Dreger told WGR 550 in Buffalo that defenseman Thomas Chabot is now an untouchable player for the Senators. He suggested that Tampa Bay had inquired about his availability last season but that Sens were hesitant to move him then.  Dreger also noted that Ottawa had tried to convince their other first round pick from the 2015 draft, Colin White, to turn pro this season but he wanted to stay in college for at least one more year.  With that in mind, it’s likely that they will try to sway him to forego the rest of his eligibility once his college season comes to an end in the coming months.
  • While there have been rumblings that Flyers 2016 first round pick German Rubtsov has left the KHL to join Chicoutimi of the QMJHL, GM Ron Hextall said that they have not heard conclusively whether he is leaving or not, notes Tim Panaccio of CSN Philly. He adds that Rubtsov, who had two more years left on his deal in Russia when he was drafted, had his agent, Mark Gandler, request that his KHL contract be terminated.  Rubtsov is in Philly to have team doctors evaluate a nose injury sustained at the World Juniors; Hextall told reporters that a decision on whether or not it will require surgery will be determined in the next few days.
  • Jets star rookie Patrik Laine was injured in the third period this afternoon on a collision with Sabres defenseman Jake McCabe. He was motionless on the ice for a couple of minutes and needed assistance to get off the ice.  No further information is available at this time regarding his status – head coach Paul Maurice had no update after the game (via Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun).

Waiver Claims: Burmistrov, Boucher

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Elliotte Friedman reports that the Arizona Coyotes have claimed Alexander Burmistrov from the Winnipeg Jets. The former eighth-overall pick hasn’t found his footing in Winnipeg (or Atlanta) since his draft, and will now open a new chapter.

Reid Boucher, the other player currently on waivers, is heading back to New Jersey after a short stint in Nashville. Boucher played just three games with the Predators, scoring one goal.

Burmistrov has long been expected to turn into a top-six forward, but has never turned into it. After two fairly successful seasons in the KHL, he returned to North America last year and only registered 21 points, despite playing in 81 games. Obviously, with his upside, the Coyotes will gladly take a risk on the 25-year old. Their team isn’t destined for anything big this season, and Burmistrov is still an RFA this summer. If he can find success in the desert, he could be a nice addition to that team.

For Boucher, he’ll head back to the only other franchise he’s ever known after a month away. The former fourth-round pick has had much success during his time in the Devils organization, and even scored 19 points in just 39 games last year for the Devils.

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