Training Camp Battles: Jets, Blue Jackets, Caggiula, Chabot
Jets coach Paul Maurice isn’t ruling out carrying three goalies (Ondrej Pavelec, Michael Hutchinson, and Connor Hellebuyck) to start the season, writes Paul Friesen of the Winnipeg Sun. Hellebuyck is viewed as Winnipeg’s goalie of the future but is the only waiver exempt goalie of the three. It’s uncommon but not rare for teams to carry three (the Islanders did for the bulk of last year) as not only does it mean that one is in the press box every night, it also prevents the team from carrying another extra skater which is often more desirable.
Pavelec is entering the final year of his contract which carries a cap hit of $3.9MM. However, he struggled last year with a save percentage of just .904 with a GAA of 2.78 which would make it very difficult to trade him.
Hutchinson, meanwhile, signed a two year deal this offseason with a more manageable cap charge of $1.15MM. While his numbers weren’t much better than Pavelec’s last year (a slightly worse GAA while being three points higher in save percentage), he likely slots in as the backup moving forward and doesn’t appear to be a candidate to be traded.
If they do keep all three up to start, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Winnipeg shuffle Hellebuyck back and forth between their AHL affiliate, who plays out of the same area as the Jets.
Other training camp battles to follow:
- Still with goaltenders, there is a battle brewing for the number two job with Columbus, notes Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch. Sergei Bobrovsky is the surefire starter but incumbent Curtis McElhinney plus youngsters Anton Forsberg and Joonas Korpisalo are both in the mix as well. Of the three, only the 33 year old McElhinney would have to clear waivers. Forsberg has had the best preseason but if the team decides that it’s best for their young players to play more in the AHL than dress as the backup with the big club, they may opt to keep the veteran around to start the season and see if one of the youngsters forces his way into the role midseason or as a spot starter.
- Edmonton rookie center Drake Caggiula has turned heads at camp, writes Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Sun. The Oilers signed the small but highly coveted college UFA late last season and he has made a run at a roster spot. Tychkowski opines that his strong play could allow the team to bump Leon Draisaitl up to the wing to further strengthen their second line.
- 19 year old defenseman Thomas Chabot has made the opening Ottawa roster, according to a tweet from his junior team in Saint John. Chabot was Ottawa’s top pick in 2015 (18th overall) and had 45 points in 47 games at the QMJHL level last season. He’s eligible to play in nine NHL games before burning the first year of his entry-level contract.
Training Camp Cuts: 10.05.16
We’re now a week away from the beginning of the NHL regular season. Teams are getting closer to their final rosters, and with that comes more cuts.
Here are the cuts made on October 5, 2016:
Carolina Hurricanes (via General Fanager):
G Michael Leighton (on waivers for purpose of assignment to Charlotte, AHL)
D Keegan Lowe (on waivers for purpose of assignment to Charlotte, AHL)
C Brody Sutter (on waivers for purpose of assignment to Charlotte, AHL)
D Matt Tennyson (on waivers for purpose of assignment to Charlotte, AHL)
LW Brendan Woods (on waivers for purpose of assignment to Charlotte, AHL)
Columbus Blue Jackets (via team release):
D Keith Aulie (released from PTO)
D Marc-Andre Bergeron (released from PTO)
RW Mike Brown (released from PTO)
C Jarret Stoll (released from PTO)
RW Daniel Zaar (assigned to Cleveland, AHL)
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.’’
Quotable Coaches: McLellan, Maurice, Blashill
Coaching in the preseason is a difficult task. You have to find combinations that may never play again together, and judge your players against a mixed bag of NHL experience. It leads for some interesting answers, when talking to coaches around the league. Here are some reactions from the league’s bench bosses.
Todd McLellan (via NHL.com), on young Drake Cagguila a recent signing out of the University of North Dakota:
He’s played a very admirable game, and been a factor in each of them. He’s allowed us to think about some other things, one being Leon (Draitsaitl) on the wing. It’s certainly not written in stone, we’ve got a lot of preseason left to play and a number of decisions to make moving forward.
He’s a mature player, he’s got a mature body and a pretty good approach to the daily routine. I think he’ll get the rest that he needs. After that, if he just keeps playing the way he is, he has an impact every night; he shoots the puck, he makes plays, he looks comfortable on the powerplay, he’s been able to penalty kill. That’s not a bad menu for a rookie coming into training camp for the first time.
Paul Maurice (via the Jets Twitter), on first-round pick Logan Stanley heading back to junior:
Playing defense as much as anything, who you’re talking to on the line and what you’re partner is telling you has a really big impact. He got to know Tyler Myers, Dustin Byfuglien and all the guys playing on that side of the ice, and he really enjoyed that.
It’s going to take him some years before he’s an NHL defenseman, learning all the small things about how to position your body, how to roll off a hit, how to extend your stick, all those things. Those training camp conversations are really important.
Jeff Blashill (via the Wings Twitter), on Teemu Pulkkinen and what he has to do to be successful in the NHL:
When guys aren’t like Justin Abdelkader who bring other things like physicality, size, or net front presence, ultimately you have to produce points, whether it’s assists or goals. He’s certainly somebody who has shown a prolific ability to score, be it in the minor leagues.
I saw it first hand, he’s somebody with a right-shot. If he can add that element of scoring, that’ll do what I talked about in camp; demand that you stay here.
Training Camp Cuts: 10/1/16
With the turning of the calendar to October, the regular season is now less than two weeks away. Accordingly, teams continue to pare down their training camp rosters. Here are today’s cuts:
(Players denoted with an asterisk will be assigned if they clear waivers on Sunday.)
Buffalo Sabres (Via Team Release)
D Brady Austin (assigned to Rochester, AHL)
RW Justin Bailey (assigned to Rochester, AHL)
D Mac Bennett (released from PTO, will report to AHL camp)
LW William Carrier (assigned to Rochester, AHL)
C Daniel Catenacci* (assigned to Rochester, AHL)
C Eric Cornel (assigned to Rochester, AHL)
C Jean Dupuy (assigned to Rochester, AHL)
D Paul Geiger (released from PTO, will report to AHL camp)
RW Vaclav Karabacek (assigned to Rochester, AHL)
G Jason Kasdorf (assigned to Rochester, AHL)
C Justin Kea (assigned to Rochester, AHL)
LW Matthew Lane (released from PTO, will report to AHL camp)
G John Muse (released from PTO, will report to AHL camp)
LW Daniel Muzito-Begenda (released from PTO, will report to AHL camp)
D Brycen Martin (assigned to Rochester, AHL)
RW Evan Rodrigues (assigned to Rochester, AHL)
LW Cole Schneider* (assigned to Rochester, AHL)
Central Division Notes: Trouba, Carle, Rozsival, Tuch
Despite Jacob Trouba‘s recently publicized trade request, the Jets should only move him if it’s on their terms because of the bad precedent it would set for future RFAs, opines Ted Wyman of the Winnipeg Sun. As Wyman notes, the Jets are a draft-and-develop organization given their status as a small market team and the difficulties they face in competing for marketable free agents. Acquiescing to Trouba’s request would harm the club’s leverage when it comes to future negotiations with players like Nikolaj Ehlers, Kyle Connor and Patrick Laine when they reach restricted free agency. A small market club needs to be able to retain as much of their best young talent as possible and the Jets must be able to keep the salaries of their RFAs in line while those players are still under team control.
Wyman also believes that since Trouba has yet to live up to his full potential in his first three seasons on the league, he should be willing to accept a fair market contract and to play wherever his coach wants him to play. If he wants to move over to the right side, as he has indicated, he needs to beat out one of the incumbents – Dustin Byfuglien and Tyler Myers.
As Wyman writes further, it’s likely Trouba’s insistence on playing on the right side is in fact a smoke screen and the reality is the young defenseman simply wants out of Winnipeg. Of course Trouba and his agent, Kurt Overhardt, have both insisted his request is based solely on his desire to be a right-side defenseman and has nothing to do with the city or the organization.
More from the NHL’s Central Division:
- Four seasons ago, Matt Carle‘s stock was such that the 27-year-old defender received the second-largest contract inked by any player during the summer of 2011. Last season, he fell out of favor in Tampa Bay and despite the Lightning often suiting up seven blue liners, Carle still couldn’t crack the lineup. It was no surprise, then, that the Lightning opted to buy out the remaining two years of his deal as the team looked to save as much money as possible in order to re-sign several important free agents. Carle would end up signing a one-year deal with Nashville worth just $700K, where the 11-year veteran will be reunited with head coach Peter Laviolette. Under Laviolette, Carle had some of his best yearss, statistically, while a member of the Flyers, tallying at least 35 points in each of his final three seasons with the team. Carle hopes that at age-32 and playing for a coach with whom he is both comfortable and familiar, that he can once again be an important player for a contending team. The Predators do boast one of the league’s most talented blue lines but there is room for a veteran to stabilize the unit, particularly after dealing away team captain Shea Weber this summer.
- Veteran defenseman Michal Rozsival has carved out a solid 15-year NHL career and realizes his days in the league are numbered. Rozsival has spent the past four seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks and was brought back by the club for what the 38-year-old defender hopes will be his fifth campaign in the windy city. But after the 2015-16 season, Rozsival wasn’t sure he would be back in Chicago and despite signing a one-year, $600K deal, he isn’t even sure what his role with the Hawks will be, as Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune writes. “Right now, I still don’t know what my role is. It might be determined by the way I play. The last four years I’ve played 20 games, I’ve played 30 games and I’ve played 50 games. I’m ready for anything and for any kind of role. Obviously, I would love to be playing. I’m always trying to fight for my ice time.” It’s likely the Blackhawks value his experience and will find a spot for him on the roster, even if it is as the seventh or eighth defenseman.
- Minnesota entered training camp with a few openings at forward and plenty of candidates to earn those jobs. Unfortunately for the Wild, none of those candidates have impressed head coach Bruce Boudreau to this point in the preseason, according to Michael Russo of the Star Tribune. Veteran role players Zac Dalpe and Ryan Carter have failed to make a mark while youngsters Alex Tuch, Kurtis Gabriel, Joel Eriksson Ek and Tyler Graovac have yet to grab hold of a job. Whether this might prompt GM Chuck Fletcher to explore his alternatives or not is unclear but he may have to if the in-house options continue their collectively mediocre play.
RFA Notes
It’s been an unusual off-season in the NHL, with seven high profile Restricted Free Agents (RFAs) remaining a week into training camp. Compared to last off-season, when teams moved quickly to sign or trade players to avoid the threat of offer sheets.
In a series of tweets, TSN’s Bob McKenzie sent out the latest in negotiations from across the league.
Anaheim Ducks – Hampus Lindholm and Rickard Rakell – The Ducks are using Morgan Rielly and Seth Jones as comparable contracts, while Lindholm’s camp is pointing to Aaron Ekblad‘s $7.5MM AAV. McKenzie clarifies that Lindholm isn’t asking for $7.5MM, more in the $6MM-plus range. McKenzie hasn’t been able to determine the range of numbers from the Rakell negotiations yet.
Arizona Coyotes – Tobias Rieder – The two sides are less than $500K apart. Rieder is currently looking for two years at $2.5MM per season, while the Coyotes aren’t budging on their offer of two years in the low $2MM range. Rieder does have KHL offers to consider, or McKenzie suggests he could ask for a trade or hold out.
Buffalo Sabres – Rasmus Ristolainen – The Sabres and Ristolainen are in the same situation as the Ducks and Lindholm, according to McKenzie. The two sides are at least $1MM apart, with each side standing firm with their comparables.
Calgary Flames – Johnny Gaudreau – This is likely the most fascinating case, as Gaudreau isn’t technically an RFA because he falls under the 10.2(c) CBA clause. Because Gaudreau hasn’t accrued three years experience, he isn’t eligible for an offer sheet and therefore has basically no power, other than holding out. McKenzie believes the Flames want Gaudreau to sign in the same range as Sean Monahan (six-years, $6.375MM per) and no higher than captain Mark Giordano ($6.75MM per), while Gauderau is looking for more than $8MM per season. The two sides have not negotiated recently, according to McKenzie, who called the situation “bit of a Cold War”.
Tampa Bay Lightning – Nikita Kucherov – If not Gaudreau, then Kucherov is definitely the most complex RFA situation due to the Lightning’s cap issues. While Kucherov has a long list of comparable contracts in the six-year, $36MM range, that’s not possible in the Lightning’s current state. They’ll need to move someone to accommodate another $6MM; McKenzie believes Ben Bishop will be traded sometime this season, but expects he’ll start the season in Tampa.
Winnipeg Jets – Jacob Trouba – There has been plenty of digital ink spilled on Trouba‘s trade request, but the only new information from McKenzie was that Trouba is not interested in signing an offer sheet, because the Jets would not be allowed to trade him for a calendar year, should they match. That defeats the purpose of wanting to be traded.
It is still early in the season, but there is a firm deadline coming up: December 1st. Should an RFA not be signed by then, then he will be ineligible to play for the remainder of the season.
This is likely only a consideration for Trouba, with the Jets’ habit of slow-playing trade requests and waiting out poor trade offers.
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.
Jacob Trouba Not Happy With Winnipeg’s Defense Jam
Jacob Trouba‘s agent Kurt Overhardt spoke to TSN 1290 Winnipeg’s Hustler and Lawless today to expand on his client’s trade request. Among the clarifications offered the by the agent, the most significant was that Trouba does not feel that he can progress as a right-handed shot in the Jets’ lineup.
Overhardt told the radio hosts that his client was dissatisfied with the current roster situation and cited the fact that Trouba does not want to play on the left side just to garner adequate playing time. The agent states that Trouba cannot realize his potential in this system because he cannot play his natural position. The Jets have two significant right-handed defenseman in Dustin Byfuglien and Tyler Myers, and Trouba thinks that those two are stifling his playing time on the right side.
More telling, however, is that the agent referenced a move to bring in a skilled defenseman last year that created the problem. That move is most likely the Evander Kane trade with Buffalo that brought back Tyler Myers. Trouba was likely asked to change sides to accomodate Myers, and that may have hampered his production. Overhardt then alluded that Trouba’s exit interviews last season exacerbated the situation—most likely by refusing to move Myers to the left side.
Some defenseman can play both sides, but most have a definite preference. Trouba’s production noticeably suffered since Myers’s arrival. The defenseman scored only 6P in 24 games in 2014-15 after Myers arrived on March 12, and then scored 8 less points in 16 more games than in his rookie season. It is possible that Trouba is just not developing as anticipated, but the player thinks the club and its roster situation is hampering his production, and that is why he is asking for a trade.
Jets’ High Asking Price For Trouba
TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie discussed Jacob Trouba‘s trade request out of Winnipeg on TSN 690 in Montreal on Monday morning, saying, based on the asking price of a similar caliber left-shot defenseman, “not all that many teams that are positioned well to get him.”
On Sunday, Pro Hockey Rumors’ Zach Leach explored some of the teams that would have interest in the young Trouba.
The asking price has lead to names like Hampus Lindholm and Darnell Nurse being floated about. McKenzie doesn’t believe the Ducks are willing to move Lindholm for Trouba, as Lindholm is more proven at this time.
TSN’s Ryan Rishaug appeared on TSN 1260 in Edmonton later on Monday morning, saying if he was the Oilers he wouldn’t be willing to move Nurse to acquire Trouba, because the money wouldn’t make sense for someone who hasn’t shown an ability to produce on the power-play. Nurse has “home-run potential”, and Rishaug couldn’t guarantee that Trouba would be better than Nurse in four years.
Rishaug would be more willing to move young left-handed defenseman Brandon Davidson, who blossomed into a top-four defenseman last season, while adding draft picks.
The Jets have to ask for the moon initially, as a public trade request has a certain way of tanking a player’s perceived trade value. It’s why the Lightning ultimately didn’t trade Jonathan Drouin; the trade offers that come in for players publicly on the trading block are dramatically lower than what the team is willing to accept.
However, the Jets are right to ask for a major haul in exchange for Trouba according to Travis Yost, analytics columnist for TSN. Yost wrote that Trouba’s advanced stats are a “recipe to earmark a young player for a long career as a first-pairing type in the NHL.”