SPORT-SCAN DAILY BRIEF NHL 08/13/19 1150840 Arizona Coyotes help Chandler youth hockey league after 1150868 Lowetide: Projecting the 2019-20 Edmonton Oilers their gear was stolen opening-night lineup 1150841 Arizona Coyotes owner 's popular quote now featured on shirt 1150842 NHL Network names Coyotes’ Phil Kessel a top-20 winger 1150869 will become the first Florida Panthers’ in the NHL player to receive this honor 1150843 Arizona Coyotes step up to replace stolen hockey 1150870 Roberto Luongo to become first Florida Panthers player to equipment have his retired 1150871 Roberto Luongo to have number retired by Florida Bruins Panthers, still unsure about what is next 1150844 Bruce Cassidy picked up fitting advice from Bill Belichick at Patriots practice 1150845 Here's where Bruins stand on NHL Network's top centers, 1150872 NHL Contraction Draft: In a 12-team league, we created a wings rankings Kings team that can contend 1150846 20 Under 25: Look closely, and you'll see Brandon Carlo's value to Bruins 1150847 NHL Contraction Draft: In a 12-team league, the Bruins 1150873 With Don Waddell backing out of GM search, where do look even scarier Wild go from here? 1150848 As Mike Lynch departs Channel 5, we relive the golden 1150874 Q&A: Bruce Boudreau on life without a GM, his future, age of Boston TV sports anchors Parise’s status and more MontrealCanadiens 1150849 Labatt USA to feature a golden ale for Sabres Fan Fest 1150875 What the Puck: Why did the Habs take part in 'shady' John 1150850 The Sabres need to improve in a lot of categories in Scott deal? 2019-20. Which ones are the most possible? 1150876 NHL Contraction Draft: Canadiens add snipers and size to fill long-standing needs in our 12-team league 1150851 Flames lose Juuso Valimaki for foreseeable future to torn ACL 1150877 Single-game Predators tickets go on sale Tuesday 1150852 Flames regrouping after injury to highly regarded blueliner 1150853 2019 NHL farm system rankings: No. 31 Calgary Flames 1150878 What Devils’ Nikita Gusev said about trade to N.J., expectations of joining NHL 1150854 Canes’ Don Waddell receives contract extension, will 1150879 What NJ Devils' Joey Anderson needs to show to grab remain as GM and president NHL roster spot 1150855 With Don Waddell signed, Tom Dundon says: ‘I’m comfortable with what we’re doing and how we’re doing it’ 1150880 Islanders-related events company sues health clinic for nearly $2M in unpaid sponsorships 1150856 Still-unsigned Blackhawk Brendan Perlini is just one small piece of NHL’s massive restricted free agent blocka 1150857 Kris Versteeg doesn't believe his time in NHL is over just 1150881 Meet the Connecticut trainer who is responsible for yet keeping many Rangers players in top shape over the 1150858 Patrick Kane named 2nd-best wing in NHL Top Players summer Poll 1150882 NHL Contraction Draft: In our 12-team league, Rangers 1150859 Andrew Shaw on ovation at Blackhawks Convention: 'I add offense to supplement current core tried to stay serious but I had to crack a smile' 1150860 ‘It’s fun to prove people wrong’: Blackhawks center Dylan NHL Strome doesn’t plan on regressing 1150883 ’s expanding NHL front office? New GM Ron 1150861 NHL Contraction Draft: Familiar faces re-join Blackhawks Francis has strong candidates looming once he gets hiring in a 12-team league go- 1150862 Avalanche’s Mikko Rantanen ranked No. 9 among NHL 1150884 Joel Farabee hit his weight , his next one is to make wingers the NHL 1150885 NHL Contraction Draft: Connor McDavid leads stacked forward corps for Flyers in our 12-team league 1150863 Are the Dallas Stars legit contenders after another busy offseason? 1150864 In addition to hard work, Stars goalie prospect Colton 1150886 Penguins Predictions: Will Evgeni Malkin bounce back learning importance of working smart from subpar season? 1150887 Jake Guentzel left off best wingers list, and fans have some questions 1150865 Howard's future, Larsson's potential keys to Red Wings' 1150888 One question for every skater on the Penguins’ roster goaltending outlook 1150866 Anthony Mantha’s dominant finish bodes well for Red Wings 1150867 NHL Contraction Draft: In our 12-team league MacKinnon joins hometown boy Krug on new-look Red Wings 1150889 Sharks jersey retirements: Why Evgeni Nabokov should be honored first 1150890 NHL Contraction Draft: Scoring against the new-look Sharks in our 12-team league will be no easy task St Louis Blues 1150891 NHL Contraction Draft: In a 12-team league, new look Blues have leadership to spare 1150892 NHL Contraction Draft: In a 12-team league, the Maple Leafs become a super team 1150893 ‘Like going to your dad’: What ’s time in North Dakota reveals about the new Leafs assistant coach 1150901 Roberto Luongo to have number retired by Florida Panthers, still unsure about what is next 1150894 Capitals PR man wins $1 million Powerball drawing 1150895 Capitals’ Vice President of Communications wins $1 million Powerball 1150896 A month of celebration for Alex Ovechkin 1150897 Alex Ovechkin named Top 20 winger in NHL 1150898 Outlook 2019-20: The Carolina Hurricanes 1150899 6 reasons fans should not expect Braden Holtby to take a hometown discount on his next contract 1150900 2019 NHL farm system rankings: No. 30 Washington Capitals Websites 1150902 The Athletic / Pronman: 2019-20 NHL farm system rankings 1150903 The Athletic / NHL Contraction Draft: Imagining what the league would look like in 2019 with only 12 teams 1150904 TSN.CA / Ristolainen has been miscast on Sabres blueline

SPORT-SCAN, INC. 941-284-4129 1150840 Arizona Coyotes

Arizona Coyotes help Chandler youth hockey league after their gear was stolen

Molly Hudson, Arizona Republic Published 10:15 p.m. MT Aug. 12, 2019

The Arizona Bobcats Youth Hockey Program is "scrambling" to prepare for their season after a trailer containing the team's gear was stolen from the Ice Den Chandler on Sunday morning, according to a Facebook post by Ice Den Chandler.

However, help already is on the way, thanks to the Arizona Coyotes.

Around 5:30 a.m., a trailer with the license plate number 24341C was removed from the Ice Den located at 56th Street and Harrison Street, the post states.

The "players and teams are devastated by the situation and (are] now scrambling to prepare for the season," the post read.

Ice Den Chandler later commented on its own post, saying, "We remain optimistic that the gear will be located."

For more stories that matter, subscribe to azcentral.com.

The Arizona Coyotes posted on Twitter on Monday morning that, "New equipment is on the way."

The tweet read, "Our team, led by Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Lawson Crouse and the Coyotes organization, led by Ahron Cohen, will be donating $10,000 each ($20K total) to the Arizona Bobcats Hockey team to replace their stolen hockey equipment".

The Ice Den Chandler is asking that if you have information regarding the incident please call the Chandler police non-emergency silent tip line: (480) 782-4440, according to the post.

Police did not immediately respond with comment.

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Arizona Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo's popular quote now featured on shirt

Jeremy Cluff, Arizona Republic Published 8:59 a.m. MT Aug. 12, 2019

In his introduction as the new owner of the Arizona Coyotes earlier this month, Alex Meruelo said: “I sure as s**t want to win.”

The quote quickly became very popular on social media.

Now, it's been turned into a shirt.

The Coyotes recently announced that a shirt featuring the quote can be purchased at the team's official store.

You asked for it, you got it. 

Available now at @theCoyotesDen. pic.twitter.com/rLopBEexkk

— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) August 10, 2019

The shirt is bound to be popular with a fan base that, well, really wants to win.

Meruelo is bound to be popular if the team does win.

The Coyotes haven't made the postseason since the 2011-12 season.

The team finished four points out of a playoff berth last season.

Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo speaks to the media at a press conference announcing Meruelo's new ownership of the Coyotes at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz. on July 31, 2019.

“I have this knack for picking up businesses that are broken, losing money and turning them around and making them successful,” Meruelo said during his introductory news conference. “I don’t see the Coyotes in that situation but they have problems as we all know. It’s not a secret.

"But I’m very committed to this state, to the Valley, to the fans of Arizona. I’ll do everything I can in my heart and in my hard work to make sure we can make it viable.”

Winning would be nice, but Meruelo will also be popular with the Coyotes' fan base if he keeps the team in Arizona, as well.

How about you just win and then you can offer shirts that say Stanley Cup Champs? I've seen enough gimmicks from the Coyotes over the years.

— Tim Jarrell (@TimJarrellAZ) August 10, 2019

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NHL Network names Coyotes’ Phil Kessel a top-20 winger in the NHL

BY TOM KUEBEL AUGUST 12, 2019 AT 3:20 PM

The Arizona Coyotes added one of the top players at his position this offseason in acquiring winger Phil Kessel.

According to two different rankings by NHL Network and a fan vote, Kessel ranked as either the 20th or 17th best winger in the NHL.

Kessel finished with 82 points last year, including 55 assists. His 55 assists alone would have ranked as the top scorer on the Coyotes ahead of Clayton Keller who logged 47 total points in 2019.

League-wide, Kessel finished tied for 23rd in total points and tied for 18th in assists. Taking away centers and defenseman would have launched the 31-year-old, 13-year veteran even higher on the lists.

The Coyotes traded for Kessel in June along with Dane Birks and a fourth-round draft pick in 2021 for Alex Galchenyuk and Pierre-Oliver Joseph.

He was a member of two Stanley Cup winning teams with the Pittsburgh Penguins and helped Team USA to a silver medal in the 2010 Olympics.

He enters the season with the third-longest active consecutive games played streak in the NHL with 774 trailing only former Coyote Keith Yandle, now with the Florida Panthers, and Patrick Marleau, who is currently a free agent.

Arizona Sports LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150843 Arizona Coyotes

Arizona Coyotes step up to replace stolen hockey equipment

BY CHARACTER COUNTS AUGUST 12, 2019 AT 11:54 AM

After a Chandler youth hockey team had a trailer full of equipment stolen on Sunday morning, the Arizona Coyotes stepped up to help replace the missing gear.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Lawson Crouse and president and CEO Ahron Cohen will be donating $20,000 to the Arizona Bobcats hockey team as they prepare for the upcoming season.

The Bobcats, based out of Ice Den Chandler, had requested help from the public in recovering the stolen trailer full of equipment through a Facebook post that included information on who may have taken the load and how to contact the Chandler Police Department.

The Coyotes organization was among the first to react and share the post on Sunday. On Monday the team tweeted out that it was going to step up and provide further assistance.

Although the culprit was still not found as of noon on Monday, Ice Den Chandler believes the trailer was taken by a man driving a Toyota Sequoia with the license plate located in the back window.

The trailer of equipment contained trailer plate No. 24341C.

Anyone with more information was requested to call Chandler PD non- emergency silent tip line at 480-782-4440.

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Bruce Cassidy picked up fitting advice from Bill Belichick at Patriots practice

By Darren Hartwell August 12, 2019 3:30 PM

Coaching a professional sports team in Boston has its perks. Among them: getting to pick the brain of one of the greatest coaching minds in professional sports.

Boston Bruins bench boss Bruce Cassidy was the latest local coach to take advantage of Bill Belichick on Monday, attending the ' training camp practice outside Gillette as the head coach's guest.

Cassidy and Belichick were spotted chatting during practice, and NBC Sports Boston's "The Camera Guys" caught up with Cassidy after the session to see how their talk went.

#NHLBruins coach Bruce Cassidy took in #Patriots training camp today. Like all the great ones- he never stops learning. pic.twitter.com/I44CPhjGdb

— The Camera Guys (@NBCSCameraGuys) August 12, 2019

According to Cassidy, the two discussed how best to move on from a championship loss, a fitting topic considering Cassidy's Bruins suffered a heartbreaking loss to the St. Louis Blues in Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, a little over a year after Belichick's Patriots fell to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII.

Bruins Summer Series: David Krejci isn't going anywhere

"A little bit about his team, a little bit about situational stuff that happens," Cassidy told The Camera Guys. "For example, coming off a loss at the end of the season, they did it two years ago to Philly, rebounded to win a championship last year.

"So, what kind of preparation goes into that, or do you just put it all behind you and move on? So, try to steal a few things here and there in that area."

New England obviously shook off that Eagles loss successfully, taking down the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII to win their third title in five years.

Cassidy's Bruins face a tall task if they want to follow in the Patriots' footsteps, although they are one of the favorites to win the 2020 Stanley Cup with a roster that remains mostly intact from last season.

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Here's where Bruins stand on NHL Network's top centers, wings rankings

By Nick Goss August 12, 2019 11:48 AM

August isn't the most robust time for NHL news, so what better way to some excitement than some good old fashioned debate?

The NHL Network has been releasing its rankings of the top players at each position this month, and the lists for centers and wings were the first to be revealed.

Bruins fans likely won't have too many issues with the top 20 wingers ranking. Bruins left winger Brad Marchand is at No. 4, while right winger David Pastrnak is at No. 10. Sure, Pastrnak could be higher after scoring 38 goals in just 66 games last season, but the competition here was quite strong.

Here's a look at the top 20 wingers in the league, according to NHL Network:

So, what do you think? #NHLTopPlayers pic.twitter.com/dkK26mRH9G

— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) August 12, 2019

The ranking where Bruins fans might take issue with is centers. Patrice Bergeron, despite being the top two-way player in the league (sorry Ryan O'Reilly), comes in at No. 7. For what it's worth, the fans voted Bergeron at No. 3 among all centers.

Here's the full list of NHL Network's top 20 centers.

Our Top 20 Centers are... #NHLTopPlayers pic.twitter.com/gNgTUyUqyk

— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) August 5, 2019

Bergeron tallied 79 points (32 goals, 47 assists) in 65 games last season, in addition to his excellent work defensively and on special teams. His nine goals tied for the team lead in the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs. Aleksander Barkov and Nathan MacKinnon are really good players, but are they both better than Bergeron right now? Probably not.

The Bruins star was voted the league's third-best all-around player in The Athletic's player poll released in February, so we know Bergeron's peers understand his immense value to the B's and how he impacts the game in so many ways at a high level.

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20 Under 25: Look closely, and you'll see Brandon Carlo's value to Bruins

By DJ Bean August 12, 2019 11:20 AM

There’s a good chance you’re going to hear “unsung hero” from time to time in Brandon Carlo’s career. It’s certainly a label that was befitting of him in the Bruins' run to the Stanley Cup Final, when he was third on the team in time on ice.

So, why would a second-round pick who’s been nothing but solid three years into his career be “unsung?” Well, he’s on a blue-line that has one of the greatest ever at the position and two of the best offensive defensemen in the league. With all the attention garnered by Zdeno Chara, Torey Krug and Charlie McAvoy, it’s easy to let the smooth- skating but offensively limited Carlo slip under the radar.

Watch the games, however, and Carlo’s impact is unmistakable. One of the biggest takeaways for the Canadian media in Boston’s first-round dismissal of the Maple Leafs was just how reliable a defender Carlo had become. It was Carlo’s first postseason experience, as injuries kept him out of the playoffs in his first two seasons.

Carlo was drafted at a time when the Bruins were in dire need of young defensemen. They’d just traded Dougie Hamilton, were months away from dealing Johnny Boychuk and didn’t have any top prospects at the position. He’s blossomed into just the top-four defender they needed. McAvoy’s presence means he doesn’t need to be a top-pair player (they both play the right side), but Carlo could become one of the better shutdown defenders in the league.

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NHL Contraction Draft: In a 12-team league, the Bruins look even scarier

By Joe McDonald Aug 12, 2019

The NHL’s recent expansion into Las Vegas has been a raging success. The expectations are high for what’s to come in Seattle. But what if the league went the other way, back to the way it looked over 50 years ago?

The Athletic’s writers got together this summer to bring that idea to life, at least as best we can. We’ve got 12 teams — the Bruins, the five other Original Six teams, plus Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Minnesota and San Jose — participating in a redraft, trying to put together a team to win the Stanley Cup in 2019-20. Each existing team got to keep four players from their current roster, but otherwise the entire league is up for grabs, and just like in 1967 there are no salary cap restrictions to consider.

After protecting Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy, the best way to finish building this Boston team was down the middle.

Since we already have one of the best top lines in the NHL with Marchand, Bergeron and Pastrnak, the idea was to create depth throughout the lineup.

Brayden Point has similar Bergeron characteristics as a two-way centerman, so he’s a natural fit to anchor the second line, along with Patrik Laine on the right and Jonathan Drouin on the left. This trio should produce some serious offense, especially with the defensive pairing of Keith Yandle and Brandon Carlo moving the puck from the back end.

The third line is a combination of young talent, and experience with Brady Tkachuk playing the left, Mathew Barzal in the middle and two- time Stanley Cup champion Patric Hornqvist on the right side. The veteran will serve as a mentor and protector on and off the ice for the two younger players.

It was only natural to bring Jumbo back to Boston at this stage of his career. For Joe Thornton, maybe returning to where it all began will serve as a bit of motivation for the 40-year-old future Hall of Famer. Sure, his exit didn’t sit well with him or with Boston fans when he was dealt to San Jose in 2005, but returning to Boston as a fourth-line winger would allow him to fit as a leader on and off the ice.

Having Charlie Coyle center the fourth line, with Brett Connolly on the right should create one of the better bottom-six trios in the league. Combining the size, strength and talent of Thornton and Coyle, along with the goal-scoring ability of Connolly, this line should produce at both ends of the ice.

For their ability to play at both ends of the ice and move the puck, Grzelcyk and McAvoy would be paired with Bergeron’s line.

Zdeno Chara, 42, would be the perfect mentor for Rasmus Ristolainen. Imagine the increased development for Ristolainen under the future Hall of Famer’s tutelage. Plus, Chara could be even more effective with a smaller workload.

In net, the tandem of Sergei Bobrovsky and Jaroslav Halak could be the perfect candidates for the Jennings Trophy. Bobrovsky would start the majority of the time, but Halak would almost be on par in order to keep one another fresh for the stretch run and into the playoffs.

This is definitely a lineup coach Bruce Cassidy could guide to victory.

The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150848 Boston Bruins But it’s not their fault it’s not the 1980s. And the 1980s was when being a sports anchor in Boston meant you were a first-class, board-certified, highly compensated celebrity.

As Mike Lynch departs Channel 5, we relive the golden age of Boston TV Over the past several weeks I’ve interviewed Lynch, Lobel and Dennis — sports anchors separately — about being a sports anchor in the 1980s and how they got there. I asked about money, about rivalries, about interactions with athletes. And, yes, I asked them to share their thoughts on today’s By Steve Buckley Aug 12, 2019 television news and if they’d do it all over again. Some answers have been condensed for clarity. And I started here: What was it like?

Lobel: There was this night at the Garden, Bobby Orr is back because Before there was Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, there was Bob Lobel. he’s doing a thing for BayBank, and he skates onto the ice in a BayBank Before there were two all- stations in Boston, there was John sweater. I think the Bruins were playing Quebec that night and it was Dennis. between periods. And they have me in the net. I had Gerry Cheevers’ mask on, that carved-up thing he used to use. He loaned it to me. Reggie And before there were blogs, podcasts and YouTube, there was Mike Lemelin gave me lessons. I think every goal Bobby scored was like a Lynch, the longtime sports anchor at WCVB (Channel 5) in Boston who’ll thousand dollars to this charity. I think he scored 18. The only shot he be calling it a night at the conclusion of Thursday’s 11 p.m. newscast. missed was the one he shot at my cup, and of course he did that on There no doubt will be on-air farewells, perhaps a tear or two, and then, purpose. It was Bobby Orr. He could do anything he wanted on purpose. said Lynch, who turns 65 in September, “I’ll just get in the car, go home, That’s the kind of stuff we would do. It was somewhat magical being on and figure out what’s next.” TV in the ’80s. I loved it and I understood it. It was crazy.

But to say Lynch’s departure marks the end of an era in Boston television Dennis: We were very competitive, Bob and Mike and I. We had interns isn’t accurate, and for the simple reason that we’re talking about an era watching and logging each others’ sportscasts every night to make sure that ended years ago. It’s just that Lynch, a Swampscott native and we didn’t miss something that Bob or Mike had, or to feel good about former two-sport Harvard athlete, turned out to be more durable than all something that Mike or Bob didn’t have. For the most part, we were the big-name players he covered — even Carl Yastrzemski, who was 43 pretty friendly. when he took his last big-league swing. But as the television industry kept changing, along with the way people get their news, Lynch, who For the most part? debuted on Channel 5 in 1982, survived ownership changes, Dennis: Obviously with any kind of competition, I wouldn’t call it stress management changes and changes on the news desk. but there was a desire to beat the other guy’s brains in journalistically. I He is the last of the Big Three sports anchors of the 1980s. John Dennis don’t think I ever went to a party with Bob or Mike. We never socialized anchored at Channel 7 (its call letters morphed from WNAC to WNEV to together. Obviously, we showed up for live shots at the Garden or WHDH) from 1982 until 1998 before reinventing himself as a fixture on every night … we never socialized but we were competitive WEEI, Boston’s first all-sports radio station. Lobel, easily the best-known and I think all three of us were good for each other. sports anchor in Boston television history, manned Channel 4 (WBZ) Lobel: I would say that our relationship was competitive. But with John, I from 1981 until being on the wrong end of a station-wide purge that took guess for some reason he didn’t like our attitude, we didn’t like his place in 2008. attitude. That’s we as in Channel 4, the sports office. I don’t know, how Dino. Lobie. Lynchie. should I say this, I had a much better relationship with Lynch than with John in those days. Their heyday was the 1980s and ‘90s, and they covered Boston sports with a star power that seems unimaginable by today’s standards. These Dennis: It’s just the way it was. I was not socializing with the people I was three amigos of the 6 and 11 o’clock sportscasts were as well-known as competitive with. It’s like in — it’s different now but the old- the athletes they covered, their comings and goings sometimes meriting school guys would not go out for dinner with the guys on the other team a line or two in Norma Nathan’s “The Eye” gossip column in the Boston or pat asses at the batting cage. It was business, that’s all. There was no Herald. At a time when “Cheers” dominated prime-time TV ratings from rancor, just trying to beat each others’ brains in. the fictitious Boston bar where “everybody knows your name,” everybody And yet sometimes they — that is, Lynch and Lobel — helped each other in knew the names Mike Lynch, Bob Lobel and John out. Dennis. Heck, Lobel was so well known he even appeared on “Cheers.” Lynch: I’ll never of forget the night took his jersey off, and If you wanted the score of that night’s Bruins game, or a replay of that he had the No. 77 underneath. And they walked off center ice at the old towering Jim Rice home run into the summer night, or a sound bite of Garden, those two steps you’d go down to the locker rooms there, and Larry talking about Dr. J., you made it home in time to catch Lynchie, or we’re all interviewing (Phil) Esposito, and Espo’s crying. Our shooter Lobie, or Dino. If you were late — that is, if you tuned in to Channel 4 and Dickie Dunham was there, and Channel 4 was there, and I’d guess saw Johnny Carson talking about Ronald Reagan and not Bob Lobel Tommy Rehkamp was with Lobel, and maybe Jack Crowley with Dino, talking about Roger Clemens — it meant you had missed the 11 o’clock and we finish the interview and Espo went up to watch the game, and news and would be going to bed sports-starved. Dick Dunham said, “My recorder didn’t work. I didn’t get it.” So I called It was the Wild, Wild West of Boston television when everyone watched Lobel up and I said I have a problem. He said don’t worry about it, we’ll the news at 6 and 11 and the city’s three network affiliates waged Steel make a dub, send a cab over — he sent a copy to us. That’s the kind of Cage Matches for ratings points. This isn’t to say the current roster of relationship we had. Now if it was an exclusive interview, different story. Boston’s sportscasters lacks personality and talent. Channel 4’s three- But if it’s something where we’re all there and something happens piece-suit-wearin’ Steve Burton muscles to the front of every media through no fault of anyone, no problem. scrum and is a “name” at WBZ after years serving as Lobel’s understudy. Lobel: I don’t remember that. There are a lot of things I don’t recall that It doesn’t hurt that he’s the son of the late Ron Burton, who in 1960 was happened. But those things happened, and on a personal level. Whether the first player drafted in the history of the original Boston Patriots it was myself, or (producer) Alan Miller, or whoever made the call from Also at Channel 4, veteran Dan Roche is a cheery, upbeat voice-of-the- Channel 5. It would have been different if it was 7, but on the other hand people type whose questions can be heard at practically every news maybe not if they would have humbled themselves to make the call and conference. Butch Stearns at Channel 25 is a former sports star from ask us. Who are we not to give it to them? Because it could have been Braintree, which works well for him because he comes across on-air like us. We could have needed them as much as they needed us. he’s everybody’s old high school buddy. Joe Amorosino has won a Dennis: I was not aware of that story, but this a good one from my first truckload of awards during the more than 20 years he’s been at Channel year in spring training, February of ’79. Jack Crowley was my long-term, 7, and Raul Martinez at NBC/Channel 10 has that Lobel-like, I’d-do-the- forever sports photographer and we were shooting film. In those days, job-for-nuthin’ look about him. Ditto with Channel 25’s Tom Leyden and you’d shoot whatever you were shooting and you would take that film and Channel 7’s Trey Daerr. you would put it in a canister and one of us would have to go to either the Tampa or the Orlando airport and put it on Delta Dash. You’d put it on a plane and someone would get it at Logan, run it to the TV station, put it into the processor, bring the film out and then edit your piece. So I’m in guy at Channel 5. And Bill O’Connell had left to go to Channel 7, Don spring training and Jack is breaking me in and he says, “Since I carry the Gillis had been around for a long time and had a lot of vacation, and camera and all the equipment down here, you’re aware the reporter has Clark Booth had a deal where he didn’t have to anchor. He was more to run the film to the airport.” And it was an hour, either way, whether it’s comfortable doing stories. So Leary would work these 30- and 40-day Tampa or Orlando. So like an idiot I drive to the airport, one hour out, one stretches and he finally went to (news director) Jim Thistle and he said, “I hour back, Jack’s sitting at the pool at the Holiday Inn with a cocktail in really need somebody just to give me a day or two off here and there.” his hand. When I got back home a week later I mentioned it to someone And Jim said, “Who you got?” and he said he worked with this guy Mike and they said, “No, no, no, no. Those aren’t the rules. You’re supposed Lynch in radio, why don’t we bring him in. to take turns.” Jack took advantage of me. Long story short, the following year I called him on it. I said, “That’s bullshit. This year we’re taking Lobel: When there was an opening on weekends on the TV side at WBZ turns.” they auditioned three people. I think they hired me basically because I was already in the building, not because of anything else. Jack Crowley, 85, retired and living on Cape Cod, said, “That’s about right. And if I had gone to the airport, by the time I got back the spring Lynch: They brought me in on Friday night, March 26, 1982, to watch the training morning session was over. So he agreed to it and I caught on 6 o’clock news. So I came in, I wore a jacket and tie, and I sort of stood and I figured I might as well keep him going and tell him he has to do it in the wings and watched. And as the news went on, my jaw started even though sometimes I’d get my shooting done early.” dropping, thinking I could never do this. When it was over they sat me in a chair and they gave me Leary’s script, and they said look into that Lynch: It was a nightly contest to see who could cover the same story camera and here’s your audition. I had never been in a differently or have something unique, or break a story. Breaking a story in my life. was a real big deal back then, because you had to wait till 6 o’clock. With no internet, if you had something you were biting your fingernails that Lobel: And then Liz Walker came to WBZ, and she and I worked really nobody else had it before 6 o’clock. And we all went through this. well together on weekends. We became good friends and it showed on Breaking a story was a real coup and a feather in your cap. the air. When they moved her to Monday through Friday to anchor the news they moved me over with her to keep her company. The ratings battle in those days in the ages 25-54 demographic was strictly a competition between Channels 4 and 5, with Channel 7 a distant Lynch: So I did the audition and I looked like a mannequin and when I third. By way of example, the Nielsen ratings for November 1986 show finished they said let’s go up to Jim Thistle’s office. And Jim was sitting WCVB (Channel 5) getting an 8 share in the 6 p.m. time slot, with WBZ there, it was Friday night, it was the end of his work week, and he had (Channel 4) getting a 7 share. WNEV (Channel 7) had a 3. In the 11 p.m. seen the tape, he watched it in his monitor and he said, “What do you time slot, WBZ earned a 9 share, with WCVB earning a 6. WNEV again think?” And I said, “Mr. Thistle, give me six months, eight hours a day of had a 3 share. “These days, the stations are lucky to get a 1,” said a rehearsal, maybe I might be ready.” He said, “Well you don’t have that former Boston television executive. “There are just so many different much time, you’re on tomorrow night at 6. Good luck.” And that’s how it options now.” started.

Dennis: (Lobel) had the ratings and I think the popularity. Lynchie had the Although Dennis would wind up making more money than Lobel and local ties, the Swampscott guy and that sort of stuff, and Channel 7 in Lynch during his morning-drive days on WEEI, it appears he was the those days was such a distant third and there was so much turnover. My lowest paid of the three during the 80s. list of anchors I worked with on 6 and 11 was Jack Cole, John Henning, Dennis: I was making between $300,000 and $400,000. Tom Ellis, R.D. Sahl, Brad somebody or other, some pretty boy from somewhere. Channel 7 was always looking for the right combination. Lynch: Let me put it the way — I never made Ted Williams money. And They had a big buildup when they brought in the Dream Team of Tom by that I mean 406 — Ted hit .406 in 1941. I didn’t make 406. I made Ellis and Robin Young. That was another iteration of Channel 7 shaking under that. things up and saying, hey, let’s see if we can knock a couple of ratings Lobel: I was north of $500,000. points off of 4 and put them in our basket. There was constant turmoil and news directors coming and going and anchormen and anchorwomen Dennis: At the height of his TV career, Bob was making between 5 and 6. coming and going. That was generally acknowledged.

Lynch: You either liked Chet (Curtis) and Nat (Jacobson) and Dickie Lynch: I never made what Bob made. I guess we had Chet, Nat and (Albert) and Mike Lynch (on Channel 5), or you liked Liz (Walker), Jack Dickie, and I was more than happy to be the insignificant right fielder in (Williams), Bruce (Schwoegler) and Lobel on Channel 4. And I mean no that lineup. I was happy to have that job and do it where I grew up. I had disrespect, but Channel 7 changed anchors a lot, but they had Harvey Don Gillis’ old job. And then in 2009 everybody got whacked and I’m Leonard for weather and Dino for sports. slowly making my way back to where I was, but I’ll never get there. But I’m happy. I’m not complaining. Of the three, only John Dennis had worked extensively in television before landing Boston TV gigs. Lynch and Lobel had been working in Lynch was the local kid who went to Harvard and in 1975 kicked a 26- radio. yard field goal with 33 seconds remaining to lift Harvard to a 10-7 victory over Yale before a crowd of 66,846 at Yale Bowl in the 100th edition of Dennis: You’re talking about a kid from Kansas City — I’m not from The Game. In 1977, with pitcher George Ravanis one out Kansas City but I worked in Kansas City before I came here — stepping away from firing a no-hitter against Harvard, Lynch crushed a curveball into something and coming out of it smelling like a rose, in terms of inside the third-base bag. To this day Ravanis keeps an autographed timing, with Larry and The Big Three, Squish the Fish and all that was photo of Lynch on the wall of his family-owned Cambridge restaurant, happening. It was tremendous … I came to Boston in the fall of 1978 Frank’s Steakhouse. This kind of “hometown guy” status has served doing weekends and I started doing 6 and 11 in 1982. Lynch well, especially when his station introduced its “High Five” Lobel: I was doing radio in when WBZ offered me an campaign to honor local high school athletes. afternoon radio job. That very same week one of my best friends in Lynch: The station wanted to make it a professional athlete of the week, Manchester, he had a Dodge dealership and he wanted me to be his like let’s give it to Bruce Hurst because he pitched two shutouts this sales manager. You can’t make this up. And I said, “You know, Doug, I week. And I said, “Bruce Hurst doesn’t care if we give him a High Five.” have to think about this, but I don’t think I can turn the ‘BZ thing down. It’s When I first started I went to every Rotary Club luncheon because I was what I’ve been doing here in Manchester.” ‘BZ back then was Larry Glick, trying to make a name for myself. I would go to every Lions Club, every Jerry Williams, Guy Mainella. There was no social media, no internet. It Knights of Columbus banquet and I’d be everywhere. And one of the was those guys and their 50,000 watts and everyone knew who they most-asked questions I would get was why don’t you do more high were. So I moved to Boston to do radio. school sports. So I said why don’t we do a High Five for (high schools). It Doug MacKenzie, who owned MacKenzie Motors, said, “I had him tested was Sept. 27, I think, 1985, the day of Hurricane Gloria, and we did a through a testing facility I used to hire people, and they said, ‘If you don’t piece on a guy named Joe Betro, a running back from Walpole. His hire him, we will.” I really thought he would make a difference for us but father was the police chief. We said Joe Betro ran for four touchdowns he went on to bigger things. We’re still friends. We still golf together.” against Braintree last Saturday afternoon and he is this week’s High Five. Well, when I got up to the sports office the phone started to ring off the Lynch: I was doing radio with Brian Leary with WITS, we did Harvard hook. And it was people saying, “Hey we’ve got a kid from Framingham football together, we were very good friends and he was the weekend that’s twice as good as him,” and “We got a kid in Waltham that’s a heck of a running back, why don’t you take a look at him?” “We got a soccer guess it was Jack (Edwards) for a while. And some other people. But I player here in Masconomet, why don’t you take a look at her.” So I said, would generally see the reporters there as opposed to Bob or Mike. OK, we’re on to something here. And that’s how it started. Lobel also had a reputation for showing up at the station just minutes Lynch’s reputation was also enhanced by WCVB’s goofy “I Like Mike” ad before a newscast. campaign, which featured such Boston stars as Ray Bourque, Wade Boggs and Dave Cowens as well as national celebrities — James Earl Lobel: That’s a little exaggerated. Pretty much throughout the day I was Jones! — making cameos and singing the “I Like Mike” jingle. It turns out paying attention to what was going on in the world that I was covering or the campaign was suggested by former governor and talking about. I pretty much knew what was in that script. The closest I 1988 Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis. ever came to missing the sportscast was 10 seconds. I was caught in traffic on the Southeast Expressway. I was coming from some thing on Lynch: After he lost in ’88 we used him as a political analyst for all the the Cape, some event. I had called them and said it’s going to be close, elections and one night he says, “You ought to do a campaign, like the ‘I just hand me my IFB — which is the thing you stick in your ear. Just give Like Ike’ thing when Eisenhower ran for president in the ’50s.” Somehow me my script, and I’ll just walk right into the studio. Which is exactly what it got to our creative services department, and sure enough the buttons happened. I just sat down, I did it. I never made that mistake again. It came out, they were the red, white and blue. I was flattered and was serious then, but now it’s one of those stories you tell and people humbled. You can see the spots on YouTube now. My kids every once in say, “Wow.” a while play them. Dennis, a recovering alcoholic who left WEEI in 2016, splits the year Bob Lobel was known for pushing his on-set “Panic Button” when things between homes in Florida and “two miles from the Boston Marathon weren’t going well for one of the Boston teams, and he would exclaim, starting line.” Until recently he was a lively and frequent presence on “Why can’t we get players like that?” when a former Boston athlete had a Twitter, until, he said, “Twitter croaked me because of my conservative big game against the Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics or Patriots. But perhaps views.” Lobel does some occasional radio in New Hampshire and until Lobel’s biggest night on the air took place in 1992, during his Sunday this year was a part-time public address announcer at Fenway Park. “I night “Sports Final” program, when he did a live in-studio interview with did in-stadium announcing when I was at the University of Vermont Boston sports icons Larry Bird, Bobby Orr and Ted Williams. before I ever did anything on radio or television,” he said. “And now here I am, up until this year, doing in-stadium announcing. What goes around Lobel: I’m finding out now, all these years later, how big a deal it was. At comes around, I guess.” Lobel suffers from spinal stenosis and needs the time, to me and our producer Alan Miller, we did a show, we did a crutches to get around, though he can still golf thanks to a specialized television show. It was creative, it was unique and it got a lot of attention, cart. He also takes medical marijuana for pain relief after “hovering and that was our goal. One day I said why don’t we do Bird and Orr, two around addiction to oxycontin” following knee replacement surgery. As winter guys, put them together, it would be interesting, see if they’d do it. for Lynch, he says he has every intention of working again in TV or radio. I asked Orr first, because I knew him, and then Bird signed on. And then The three men have differing views on today’s mediascape. a week before, Ted Williams’ kid, John Henry, came into our office. He said I heard you’re doing something with Orr and Bird. Would you like Lynch: I think today’s sportscasters have the same hopes and visions dad to sit in with you guys? I said, “I think that would work.” and excitement and anticipation that we all had. They don’t know that things have changed. They only know what they know right now. They Alan Miller, who produced the show, said, “We didn’t have a green room, have an opportunity to work in Boston in a great sports market with so we brought Ted, Bobby and Larry into the news director’s office. So it teams that win all the time. No, I don’t feel sorry for them. I’m happy for was them, Bob and me, just talking. But it might as well have just been them. I’m envious. I wouldn’t mind starting over again. It’d be a different Ted. He commanded the room. You should have seen the look in Larry challenge. Bird’s eyes. He was just in awe of Ted Williams. It was quite a night. And that whole thing was Bob Lobel’s idea.” Lobel: No, I don’t feel bad for them. I would rather still be there. I think they’re lucky to be there. I think they’re lucky to have what they have. But Lobel: I’ve never watched that show. Still. I’ve never watched it. Because I had sports steroids. I know I would drive me crazy, wanting to ask questions I didn’t ask, or seeing questions I did ask that were stupid. Lobel is not referring to the athletes being on steroids — even though they were, of course — but to the sportscasts themselves being six, For John Dennis, being the No. 3 guy in a two-team race made things seven, sometimes eight minutes long. The sports segments on today’s difficult. But one area where Dennis could excel was in boxing — newscasts rarely stray beyond three minutes. something that’s not as big a deal today but was important in the 1980s during the rise of Marvelous Marvin Hagler, the middleweight boxing Lobel: It’s not anything these guys, or women, did to make it the way it is. phenom from Brockton, Mass. It’s the whole natural change in the way television has become part of our lives. It’s so taken for granted now. Twenty years ago, it wasn’t taken Dennis: Bob Lobel always had the ratings at Channel 4. They were the for granted. most-watched TV station. But we all tried to pick out our little niche where we could accelerate our coverage and bring something that nobody else Dennis: If I were advising a young person, a senior at Emerson or BU’s could. Lynchie’s was the High Five thing, obviously, which I guess is still communications school, about how to improve their communication going on. Bob had the aw-shucks humor, the why-can’t-we-get-players- ability, by far is so much more helpful in creating a talented and like-that-push-the-panic-button-type thing. And I guess early on I sort of successful broadcaster than anchoring the 6 and 11 o’clock sports for a identified myself, for all the other stuff, with my relationship with Goody couple of minutes every night. I mean think about it. Essentially what Bob and Pat Petronelli, who were Hagler’s trainers. I like to say that I covered and Mike and I did for many, many years would be … basically what we Marvin when he had hair. I forget who he was fighting, I don’t know if it did was, “Hey, good evening, this team beat that team by this score. was Willie “The Worm” Monroe but it was somebody of that era and that Here’s the highlights! And here’s what they had to say in the locker room! ilk, and there was a picture of Marvin with fuckin’ hair on his head. So I OK, and down in Foxboro this team beat that team by this score, here’s knew Marvin — and Goody and Pat, God rest their souls — coinciding the highlights and here’s what they had to say in the locker room. with Marvin’s rise to superstardom in middleweight boxing. I’d always get Goodnight, Chet! Goodnight, Jack! Goodnight, Liz!” I mean, it was sort of calls from them, knew when they were going to fight, all the stuff. Marvin mindless, and you were reading off of a prompter and there’s really no Hagler was sort of a niche that I settled into. And I will say this without cliff that you’re standing on that makes you think and communicate in a fear of reservation or someone disputing it, because it’s just my opinion, measured way, or express thoughts and ideas and defend them. Which but of all the things I have covered in Boston sports for 40 years, without is exactly what talk radio does. You have to understand the subject, you question, and it’s not even a close race, the most exciting, the most have to create and form an opinion about that particular subject and then amazing, the most nerve-wracking thing I have ever seen was Hagler- you have to have the ability to defend whatever side you take, whatever Hearns at Caesars Palace in 1985. The buildup to it was remarkable. take you have, against our co-hosts and against callers. You really have The animosity between the (Thomas) Hearns camp and the Hagler camp to stretch your communication muscles far more than being a television on the other side, you could cut the tension with a knife. anchor.”

Dennis also made it a point to cover every news conference he could, The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 often asking pointed questions.

Dennis: I always would recall Alan Miller being there for Bob, or Bob Neumeier being there for Bob, or whoever Lynchie’s weekend guy was, I 1150849 Buffalo Sabres

Labatt USA to feature a golden ale for Sabres Fan Fest

By Scott Scanlon Published August 12, 2019|Updated August 12, 2019

Labatt USA will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Buffalo Sabres with a special release beer this weekend during the Sabres Fan Fest.

Blue and Gold Ale, which was brewed at the Labatt Brew House, next door to KeyBank Center, which will host Fan Fest from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

“Fifty years of hometown hockey in Buffalo is something to celebrate and the best way we know how is with a Labatt beer,” said Lauren Christopher, Labatt USA public relations manager. “It was fitting that Marty Biron helped us conceive the idea to brew a special beer for the golden anniversary.”

Biron – a former Sabres and current member of an NHL- related radio show and Sabres game broadcasts – said Tuesday he was a longtime fan of Labatt Blue as he helped announce that the small-batch beer will debut during Fan Fest.

Dozens of Sabres alums, as well as current players and coaches, will be part of the free festival. A 5K run will precede it at 9 a.m.

Blue and gold is classic golden ale brewed with Cascade and Mosaic hops and finished with Cashmere hops. It will have a mild berry character and tropical and stone fruit aroma – and won’t be around for long. It will be available at the Brew House and the adjoining Draft Room while supplies last.

Buffalo News LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150850 Buffalo Sabres They were tied for last in shooting percentage last season at 8.2 percent. Of the top 16 teams, 12 made the postseason.

Johansson has a career shooting percentage of 13.4 percent. Vesey is at The Sabres need to improve in a lot of categories in 2019-20. Which 12.3 percent. During the past two seasons, Montour is tied for 77th ones are the most possible? among defensemen at five percent. Those are nice additions.

There also could be rebound seasons for Jack Eichel, Conor Sheary and By John Vogl Aug 12, 2019 Evan Rodrigues, who were well below their career averages last year. Conversely, Jeff Skinner jumped to 14.9 percent from his career average of 10.7 percent.

It’s easy to say the Sabres need to improve. But where exactly? And is it Verdict: The Sabres haven’t ranked above 25th in shooting percentage possible? since 2012-13. They should move up this time, which would coincide with a rise in goals. From goals and blocked shots to hits and goals allowed, Buffalo ranked near the bottom of the NHL in a bunch of categories in 2018-19. The Goals against offseason additions should help in some of them. But getting better everywhere will certainly be a chore. While Buffalo should score more, there’s no doubt it has to allow fewer goals. The Sabres were 24th in goals against at 3.27 per game. Let’s look at the obvious and obscure areas where Buffalo has to rally and who might provide the pick-me-up. The only playoff teams to rank in the bottom half of the NHL were San Jose (21st), Toronto (20th) and Washington (17th). So of the top 16 Goals teams, 13 made the playoffs. Defense wins games.

The Sabres tied for 24th. Of the 16 teams that made the playoffs, 13 Verdict: This another area where Krueger holds the key. The previous ranked in the top 16. So, yeah, goals are important. game plan didn’t work. The new one needs to be better.

The Sabres brought in Jimmy Vesey (17 goals) but haven’t re-signed Hits Jason Pominville (16) so that’s a wash. But they’ve also added Marcus Johansson, who’s topped 20 goals twice, and Victor Olofsson, who First, we have to acknowledge that of all the NHL stats, hits are most scored 30 in the AHL and found the net twice in a six-game call-up. That subjective. A bump into the boards in one rink may not register on the pair should do better than last year’s left wing rotation of Vladimir stat sheet in another. Sobotka, Tage Thompson, C.J. Smith, Remi Elie and Scott Wilson, who But there’s little doubt the Sabres earned their 27th-place ranking. Their combined for 14 goals in 192 games. 1,565 hits work out to 19 per game. Put another way, that’s one every Defenseman Brandon Montour produced 10 points in 20 games and three minutes. Going further, that’s one hit every fourth shift. could put up 40 during a full season. Fellow newcomer Colin Miller That’s pretty weak. should add 30 points or more. The only Buffalo defensemen to top 20 last season were Rasmus Dahlin (44) and Rasmus Ristolainen (43). One of the highlights of the entire home schedule came March 17th against St. Louis, when the Sabres threw five checks in a 30-second Verdict: The Sabres should definitely score more after bolstering their span. The fans roared in long-awaited appreciation. wings and defense corps. The only players to average more than 1.5 hits per game were Blocked shots Ristolainen (three) and Zemgus Girgensons (two). Miller averaged 1.9 in Buffalo allowed 33 shots per game, ninth most in the NHL, so the goalies Vegas, but none of the other newcomers are known for throwing their faced a lot of rubber. The skaters didn’t. weight around.

The Sabres were dead last with 1,003 blocked shots – 378 behind first- Verdict: No one expects the return of Rob Ray, Brad May and Matthew place Ottawa and 167 behind middle-of-the-pack Montreal. If the Sabres Barnaby, but physicality gets arenas hopping. There are few signs the had matched those numbers on shots headed toward the net, the goalies Sabres will bring the noise. could have faced two to four fewer shots per game. Faceoffs

Fewer shots means fewer goals allowed. The Sabres were abysmal, ranking 28th in the NHL at 47.9 percent. Neither Montour, Miller nor Henri Jokiharju are shot blockers, so none of There were 16 teams over 50 percent and 12 of them made the playoffs. the additions will help in this category. No one wants see Dahlin take a Mittelstadt will clearly need to be better during his second season. Eichel puck off the hand. Despite the low team ranking, Zach Bogosian (1.8) jumped up from 41.5 percent in 2017-18 and more improvement would and Jake McCabe (1.7) set career highs in blocks per game while be huge. Ristolainen (1.6) was at his career average. Johansson, who has taken regular faceoffs just once since 2012, has a Verdict: Unless coach Ralph Krueger’s system puts more people in career average of 41.8 percent with a career high of 48.6 percent. shooting lanes, the goalies will continue to face more pucks than their counterparts. Verdict: The Sabres didn’t add a center and the top returning player is a left winger, so Buffalo should get used to defending as soon as the puck Winning percentage when leading after two periods is dropped.

Good teams lock up their victories. Of the 16 teams to make the playoffs, Five-on-five goals 14 ranked in the top half of the league in this category. While the Sabres were 24th in overall scoring, they were marginally The Sabres were 27th. They lost six of the 24 games in which they led better at five-on-five scoring, ranking 21st. That’s still not going to cut it. after 40 minutes, coughing up points that teams such as Toronto (36-0- Dallas (30th), Colorado and Boston (tied for 19th) were the only playoff 1), Calgary (31-1) and Columbus (32-2) put in their pockets. teams in the bottom half of the rankings.

Johansson might become a calming influence. During his seven seasons Vesey and Johansson score most of their goals at five-on-five. During the with Washington, the Capitals ranked third in the category by going 210- past three seasons, Vesey ranks 101st among forwards with 43 even- 6-13. He learned how to lock it down. strength goals, ahead of guys such as Sam Reinhart and Ryan O’Reilly Verdict: Once again, this really is up to Krueger. The coach has to (41 each). Of Johansson’s 120 career goals, 90 have come at even convince the players they can win and put them in position to succeed. strength.

Shooting percentage Verdict: General manager Jason Botterill targeted guys who could score at five-on-five and it should show. There are numerous reasons why the Sabres haven’t been able to score. A big one is lack of accuracy. Five-on-five goals allowed Once again, 13 of the top 16 teams made the playoffs. Buffalo was tied for 27th.

The team’s six worst players in goals-for percentage were Will Borgen, Elie, Wilson, Matt Hunwick, Berglund and Matt Tennyson. They combined for minus-36 at five-on-five. They are either gone or aren’t projected to make the team.

Tage Thompson (minus-20), Sobotka (minus-19), Marco Scandella (minus-15) and Girgensons (minus-11) also struggled mightily at even strength, and they could have trouble making the roster.

Though Vesey and Johansson score a lot at even strength, they also give up a lot. Johansson was minus-12 at five-on-five last year while Vesey was minus-6.

Verdict: While some of the guys who struggled most are gone, improvements to the overall system will be required. That is Krueger’s department.

Winning percentage when the opponent scores first

Good teams aren’t fazed by being down. Of the 16 playoff squads, 12 ranked in the top half of the NHL in wins when the opponent scored first.

Buffalo was 28th with a 9-30-4 record.

Verdict: Krueger will have to instill confidence that a 1-0 deficit doesn’t mean the game is over.

Secondary scoring

Everybody knows the top line of Eichel, Skinner and Reinhart carried Buffalo. But the drop-off was huge.

Sheary ranked fourth among forwards with 34 points. Only two teams had a No. 4 scorer with fewer points: Dallas (30) and Vancouver (31).

Johansson, Vesey and Olofsson should make a difference by bolstering the depth chart and pushing other players down the lineup. Krueger might do a better job of line creation than Phil Housley. But there are still holes at center and right wing.

Verdict: The Sabres simply can’t be as top-heavy as last season, right? There should be improvement in secondary scoring and other areas.

It’s just a matter of how much.

The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150851 Calgary Flames

Flames lose Juuso Valimaki for foreseeable future to torn ACL

Kristen Anderson, Postmedia

The Calgary Flames are suddenly in the market for a sixth defenceman after receiving some unexpected news out of over the weekend.

Juuso Valimaki, the team’s 16th overall selection from the 2017 draft, suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee while off-season training in Nokia. The injury requires surgery which will happen in Calgary in the coming weeks while the rehabilitation and recovery process is around six to nine months.

Meaning the 20-year-old left-shot blueliner will be sidelined for the start of the 2019-20 NHL season — and beyond, which suddenly puts a wrench in the Flames’ depth chart.

Valimaki was expected to slot into the third pairing this upcoming campaign, potentially alongside fellow up-and-coming righty Rasmus Andersson.

“You want to support him first, he’s devastated,” said Flames general manager Brad Treliving. “He’s really upset. He was having a great summer of training and obviously we were excited to see him. I thought this was going to be a year where he’d take a big step. But these things happen in life. So, you deal with it and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Valimaki was one of the biggest surprises out of last year’s fall training camp, cracking the roster as a fresh-faced 19-year-old just a few months removed from the playoffs with the Tri-City Americans.

He was just gaining traction in his rookie season, logging his first 22 regular season big league appearances, before he suffered a high ankle sprain at Las Vegas on Nov. 23.

That kept him out of the lineup — any lineup — until mid-season when he was assigned to the on Jan. 22. He played 20 games for the Flames’ affiliate, scoring four goals and adding 10 assists and 14 minutes (he was also a plus-nine) before being recalled to the Flames for the final weeks of the regular season.

Valimaki drew into two contests prior to the team’s brief playoff run on April 1 at Los Angeles and April 3 at Anaheim. In the first-round upset by the Colorado Avalanche, he played in two games and averaged 16:47 of ice time.

Many believe Valimaki could emerge as captain Mark Giordano’s successor on the team’s top pairing, and even wear a letter on his jersey as part of the leadership group.

The smooth-skating, confident six-foot-two, 212-pounder is so highly regarded that he was targeted by many teams at last year’s trade deadline as potential bait (although Treliving didn’t bite — and never planned on Valimaki being part of those conversations, either).

However, this injury changes everyone’s plans, for this season especially.

“He’s a young guy and has a bright future in front of him,” Treliving said. “The number one priority is getting him looked after and getting him on the road to recovery ASAP.

“Juuso is a really driven young man and he’ll attack rehab like he does everything else and he’ll be back from this. Now, we have to say, what next?”

The door is now open for Oliver Kylington to slot into an everyday role with the club and, potentially, Brandon Davidson who was inked to a one- year, two-way deal on July 1. Or, potentially, they will look elsewhere.

“We’re certainly going to look at the options available to us,” Treliving said.

Calgary Sun: LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150852 Calgary Flames got here from camp. This just knocked him back. But he’s doing a lot better.”

Dave Cowan said he received a text over the weekend from his client: Flames regrouping after injury to highly regarded blueliner “Call me when you can.” Bracing, he reached out to Valimaki.

“It was pretty emotional,” said Cowan, a Calgary-based agent of O2K By Scott Cruickshank Aug 12, 2019 Worldwide Management Group. “He was in tears. It’s a hard call to get. Talking to the kid, it’s a relationship beyond words. It’s a friendship. You feel for him, first and foremost. But looking at Juuso’s character … I just got off the phone with him, he’s already poised to be an impact guy next News of Juuso Valimaki’s season-spoiling injury was shocking. year (2020-21). One of the Calgary Flames’ cogs being done in by an off-ice training “There’s going to be some low times, but he’s a kid whose mind is mishap in Finland? Cruel stuff. extremely strong. He’s extremely determined. He’s extremely passionate. There are a number of ways to approach the fallout: He’s essentially someone who won’t let anything stand in his way.

The human — extent of damage, challenge of recovery “He said to me this morning, ‘My plan’s the same. When I get back, I’m going to be a top guy, help this team win, and be one of the best D-men The hockey — loss of a quality player, roster realignment in the league.'”

The business — what-now side of the ordeal, subs and salaries Treliving, too, noticed the improvement to Valimaki’s mood.

“The (primary) concern is just dealing with Juuso, right?” said general “You spend a few days going through the mourning process,” he said. manager Brad Treliving on Monday afternoon. “That’s the most important “Now you’re switched over to, ‘OK, let’s get this thing fixed, find out thing. Let’s get him in as good a place as we can get him. All the other exactly what all’s going on and what needs to be done, get it done.’ stuff? We’ll figure it out. But he’s the most important part of the equation. Talking to him (Monday), he’s anxious to get moving.”

“No. 1 is something’s happened — let’s get some care to him One silver lining for Valimaki is that his brother Niko will be in the city this immediately, let’s get our people on top of it, let’s find out what the heck it winter. The 16-year-old is enrolled at the Edge School. is. We think we’ve got through that stage. Now it’s just supporting him. “So he will have some family here,” Cowan said. “I’ll get to work and our staff will get to work on everything else. We’ll figure out what it means cap-wise, we’ll figure out what it means With T.J. Brodie still in town — despite summerlong scuttlebutt — and numbers-wise, we’ll figure out what we need to do to replace somebody. without Valimaki, the blue line could shape up something like this:

“I’m sure that’ll take up the next little bit of August for us.” Mark Giordano — T.J. Brodie

As everyone — at least in Calgary — knows, Juuso Valimaki is a star in Noah Hanifin — Travis Hamonic the making. Oliver Kylington — Rasmus Andersson Last season, the youngster deservedly cracked the Flames’ opening- Look familiar? Yes, it’s the same half-dozen in the same configuration night lineup and he didn’t look out of place. It took a high-ankle sprain to that combined to propel the locals into the top spot in the Western derail his progress — but only temporarily. Because soon after returning Conference. to Calgary — following a 20-game stint with AHL Stockton — he was dropped into Games 4 and 5 of the first-round series against Colorado. “You’ve got the six that were there,” Treliving said. “Our group is there.” He thrived on that stage. It says something about Valimaki’s ability that the absence of a player Observers, in light of all those career years in 2018-19, had been who suited up only 24 times in the regular season could cause such wondering how the Flames would get better going forward. Well, with a alarm. full season of Valimaki’s goodness, for starters. But this is a big kid with a big personality — and top-pairing potential. That notion, however, was sunk Saturday. It had been no stretch to consider the blueliner a legitimate part of the Valimaki tore the anterior cruciate ligament of his right knee. The Flames Calder Trophy conversation. have already declared the defenceman to be out indefinitely, mainly because no one yet knows the extent of the damage. “It has an effect because we expected Juuso to be here,” Treliving said. “Knowing how he was trending … we certainly did a lot of planning with Treliving, though, said the Finn will be sidelined for “months, not weeks.” him involved (in the picture), so that’ll change.” Recovery from ACL tears — and subsequent surgery — can take as long as six months, leading to some grim math going into this season. So what now?

Short term, Valimaki needs to be cleared to fly to Calgary. The Flames — with 12 forwards (not including restricted free agents Matthew Tkachuk and Andrew Mangiapane), seven defencemen “Let it settle, let some swelling come out of it before he travels,” Treliving (including Valimaki), two goalies, two buyouts — have $73.74 million said. “Then (the operation) will be in North America, I’m assuming. Is that committed to salary. Calgary or somewhere else? I’m not sure. We’re still sorting that out.” That leaves less than $8 million of room, although the Flames, with What is known is that Valimaki will stay in Calgary post-surgery and Valimaki on long-term injured reserve, will receive some cap relief. rehabilitate under the Flames’ watch. “That’s why my hair goes from not even going grey, to just falling out,” That’s the physical side of the grind. Treliving said of the moving parts — cap concern and replacement potential — in the aftermath of Valimaki’s injury. “All those things are Emotionally, too, there’s a toll. A blossoming prospect sidelined for things that we’re looking at right now.” months, maybe even a full season — imagine the heartbreak. The Flames have lost a solid rearguard — and, it’s worth pointing out, a “My initial talk with him … he was devastated — that’s probably the only very cheap rearguard. word I can use,” Treliving said. “That’s what we’ve been doing on the weekend, just trying to pick his spirits up. We just say, ‘Listen, you’re a From the left-side-playing Valimaki, the Flames could have expected young man. People come back from these things. You’ve got lots of even-strength and possibly special-team minutes, all for a cap hit south hockey, lots of career, ahead of you.’ You’ve just got to try to comfort him of $900,000. as much as you can. Entry-level players who can contribute are like gold; for instance, “He’s a really serious kid, really driven, mature. He went through the everyday defender Rasmus Andersson, who pulls down a modest high-ankle sprain last year and then finished the year great. He’s had a $756,000. terrific summer and was all on course to hit the ground running when he And a likely candidate to fill Valimaki’s spot is Oliver Kylington, whose cap hit is $731,000.

In terms of replacement bang for the buck, that works. For the Flames, it needs to.

With Tkachuk still not signed — “It continues,” Treliving said of the negotiation with agent Craig Oster — there isn’t a tonne of wiggle room. Quickly finding a new home for winger Michael Frolik ($4.3 million) would significantly loosen up things for Treliving, even if it would be Tkachuk eating up most of that space.

Meaning the promotion of Kylington, 22, makes sense. He dressed 38 times for the Flames last winter, averaging 12:25 of ice time.

“When Juuso got (the high-ankle sprain), Oliver grabbed ahold of a spot and basically ran all year with it,” Treliving said. “He played really well.”

Nevertheless, the Flames’ boss isn’t sitting on his hands. He’s already seeing what’s out there.

Bagging a veteran place holder on the open market is one option. Budget left-handers include (with last season’s ticket): David Schlemko ($1.85 million), Luca Sbisa ($1.5 million), Joe Morrow ($1 million).

Are any of them better — or better priced — than Kylington?

Earlier in the offseason, Treliving did sign a pair of defencemen — left- sider Brandon Davidson, 27, and right-sider Alexander Yelesin, 23 — to bolster the team’s depth.

Now, thanks to the weekend’s development, the dynamic has changed.

“We’re going to look internally. We’re going to look externally,” Treliving said. “It’s too early to say, ‘we’re going to do this, we’re doing to do that,’ because we just crossed this bridge.”

The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150853 Calgary Flames defenders and is creative in how he tries to create chances. He moves the puck well and shows a high-level understanding of the game. Nikolaev might only have average size, but he competes hard, has an 2019 NHL farm system rankings: No. 31 Calgary Flames edge to his game and projects to kill penalties as a pro. His skating is just OK. He has an awkward skating stride that has him hunched over and limits his explosiveness. There are times I see average speed from him, and other times I worry if he’ll have enough pace and explosiveness on By Corey Pronman Aug 12, 2019 his first few steps to play in the NHL.

4. Dustin Wolf, G, Everett-WHL Corey Pronman’s deep dive into the farm system of every NHL April 16, 2001 | six-foot | 161 pounds organization includes a ranking of all of the team’s prospects, broken into tiers based on their projection; the impact on the upcoming season and Tier: Legit NHL prospect an overall ranking of all players under 23. Further explanation of Pronman’s system, player eligibility, prospect tiers and the complete Wolf had a fantastic season in the WHL, clearing a .935 save percentage ranking of all 31 teams can be found here. as a U18 and named runner-up for goalie of the year. The next highest save percentage ever among a goalie with 40-plus games at the same The Flames’ 31st-place ranking can be attributed to dealing a lot of picks age was Leland Irving in 2006, with a .925. Wolf has an obvious issue. in recent years, reaching deep into the remains of their system this past His size. He’s just under six-foot, and that’s a significant problem in his season and seeing almost all their top prospects graduate. A lot of their pro projection. Aside from his frame, he checks off all the boxes you top prospects are very young and likely not on the cusp of contributing, want in a goalie. He’s very athletic, he doesn’t let in bad goals, he therefore the top of their rankings features several 2019 draft picks. anticipates the play very well and he stops a lot of pucks. Some days I would say he’s a very poised, calm goalie. Other days I see him playing Key additions: Jakob Pelletier, Ilya Nikolaev, Dustin Wolf very aggressive and doing the best he can to not make his height an Key subtractions/graduations: Juuso Valimaki, Dillon Dube, Oliver issue with his angles. I do think for a guy his size there are too many Kylington, Andrew Mangiapane, Rasmus Andersson moments where he’s sprawling around the crease for my liking, but it’s a nitpick. Some scouts have huge reservations on him because they don’t 2018 farm system ranking: No. 29 think he will translate to the NHL, and it’s a very fair criticism, but to date, he hasn’t done much to give pause. 2019 draft grade: C-plus 5. Filip Sveningsson, LW, Oskarshamn-Allsvenskan Prospect Rankings July 3, 1999 | six-foot | 181 pounds 1. Mathias Emilio Pettersen, C, Denver-NCHC Tier: Legit/chance bubble April 3, 2000 | 5-foot-10 | 172 pounds Sveningsson was the top scoring U20 player in the Allsvenskan and Tier: Very good/legit bubble made Sweden’s world junior team. He was impressive playing versus Pettersen had a great freshman season as one of the top players for one men particularly as a weapon on the power play. Sveningsson is a skilled of the best teams in the country. He started off hot but tailed off a bit in forward who can make difficult plays, but what stood out to me this the second half. When discussing Pettersen with an NHL scout, he said, season was his shot. He’s got an absolute bullet of a wrist shot and one- “he’s got high-end skill and high-end hockey sense; you probably couldn’t timer, and scored quite a few goals from long-distance that goalies didn’t ask for more in the sixth-round (pick).” Pettersen has always been a have a chance on. He’s OK off the puck as he competes fine and at the great playmaker. He showed that he could make highly creative plays world juniors was a penalty kill guy for that team. His quickness isn’t the versus NCAA players consistently and run Denver’s top power play. This worst, but it’s what keeps him off the NHL trajectory at the moment. season what helped him was adding speed and pace to his game. He hit 6. Adam Ruzicka, C, Sudbury-OHL the blue line often with speed. He’s never going to be the most physical player and he’s small, but I’d like to see him get inside more to get more May 11, 1999 | 6-foot-4 | 203 pounds goal-scoring opportunities. Tier: Legit/chance bubble 2. Jakob Pelletier, LW, Moncton-QMJHL Ruzicka is a frustrating prospect. He has all the talent to be an NHLer, March 7, 2001 | 5-foot-9 | 171 pounds yet at the junior level, he consistently underwhelmed and did not become the impact player he has the potential to be. At 6-foot-4 with legit high- Tier: Legit NHL prospect end puck skills, Ruzicka would show flashes of being able to take over a Pelletier had a great second season in the QMJHL and was among the game. There would be the occasional highlight reel rush or scoring play top scorers in the league. Despite his massive point total (39 goals-89 where he would blow you away. Then there were times his game lacked points in 65 games), Pelletier is not a natural scorer. He’s a fine skater pace, it lacked effort and as a result, he wouldn’t get much done. I still but doesn’t have an explosive stride. His stride breaks down at times, but believe in the player, there’s too much there. He turns pro next season I’ve seen him pull away from players at times too. He’s skilled but won’t and hopefully he thrives in an environment surrounded by a development dangle defenders or go end to end. Rather he’s a very smart and very staff. competitive forward. Pelletier shows great vision as a playmaker and 7. Demetrios Koumontzis, LW, Arizona State-NCAA makes tough plays in small areas. If you ever can’t find Pelletier on the ice, look around the opponent’s slot or net and you’ll likely spot him. He March 24, 2000 | 5-foot-10 | 183 pounds lives in the tough areas of the ice and competes very well for pucks despite not being that big. He scores by going to the tough areas but has Tier: Legit/chance bubble a sneaky good shot, too. You don’t have 39 goals by accident. He also Koumontzis had a great freshman season, as a big part of ASU’s kills penalties quite well. There are legit concerns about a player his size surprisingly strong season. He was a top playmaker for the team, without great speed or hands projecting to the NHL, but he could make it consistently showing high-end vision and making highly creative plays based on his compete level, character and sense. with the puck. His skill level is also quite impressive, and he will have the 3. Ilya Nikolaev, C, Yaroslavl-MHL ability to create offense at the pro level. He’s small but Koumontzis competes hard and doesn’t shy away from engaging – even though he June 26, 2001 | six-foot | 190 pounds still needs to bulk up a lot. His skating isn’t the prettiest. He’s not slow, but his feet flail a lot instead of a clean stride. If he cleans up his skating Tier: Legit NHL prospect stride, I think he’s an NHLer. Nikolaev was one of the better centers in his age group the past two 8. Dmitri Zavgorodniy, LW, Rimouski-QMJHL years. He was impressive this season at the junior and international levels, as Russia’s No. 1 center at the U18 level, and was great in junior Aug. 11, 2000 | 5-foot-9 | 174 pounds the last two months. He impacts the game in several ways. With the puck, he’s a highly skilled playmaker. He can make plays through Tier: Legit/chance bubble Zavgorodniy had a good second QMJHL season, being a little more Nov. 6, 1999 | six-foot | 192 pounds consistent offensively. He’s a weapon in the offensive zone and on the power play. Zavgorodniy’s vision is awesome, and he has a bullet of a Tier: Has a chance wrist shot. That lets him pick apart defenses in multiple ways, and he is a There was a time I thought Roman would be a legit skill and scoring type player you want with the puck on his stick. He’s gotten a little quicker and player as a pro, but his game has evolved. He’s more of a reliable two- competed a little harder than I saw last season, but both areas are still way player who is well-rounded but not dynamic and hasn’t scored a ton places for growth for him to be an NHL player. If he adds another half- in junior. Roman skates and handles the puck well, but neither his speed step, which he could because he has a good stride, it’ll go a long way. nor his skill is dynamic. He makes plays but he won’t be a true playmaker 9. Glenn Gawdin, C, Stockton-AHL at the pro level. I do like how well he competed, how many plays he made around the net and the defensive value he showed this season. March 25, 1997 | 6-foot-1 | 192 pounds He’s a player without a clear flaw and that has some pro value even if it’s not going to get you excited. Tier: Has a chance 15. Martin Pospisil, C, Sioux City-USHL Gawdin had a solid first pro season, logging a ton of minutes for Stockton in all situations. What makes Gawdin appealing is his high-end hockey Nov. 19, 1999 | 6-foot-2 | 183 pounds sense and how hard he plays. His vision would allow him to make difficult plays in the NHL. He always sees all his options around him and can Tier: Has a chance surprise with how creative he is with the puck as a passer. He can take Pospisil was one of the best players in the USHL, returning to the league the tough defensive minutes and punish opposing forwards physically. as a 19-year-old. He’s an interesting player because he’s a skilled My question on Gawdin for the NHL is whether he’s a dynamic enough playmaker with size and a real bite to his game. Pospisil consistently offensive player. He’s gotten quicker since his WHL days, but his speed made high-end passes when I watched him at the USHL level and was a and 1-on-1 skill are not anything special. driver on his line. I appreciate the physicality he plays with, but he needs 10. Artyom Zagidulin, G, Magnitogorsk-KHL to learn where the line is at times. His penalty minutes have been insane the past two seasons and he needs to bring those down to a reasonable Aug. 8, 1995 | 6-foot-2 | 176 pounds level. His skating is OK. He’s not slow, but not quick. I’ve seen him occasionally push the pace with average speed, but I’ve seen his stride Tier: Has a chance break down and lack quickness at times, too.

Zagidulin was a quality goalie in the KHL, earning an NHL contract 16. Lucas Feuk, LW, Sodertalje-J20 SuperElit following his 23-year-old season as a rookie in the league. Zagidullin is not that big, but he’s 6-foot-2. He’s not that quick, but he moves around Feb. 19, 2001 | six-foot | 185 pounds the crease well. What stands out to me is his smarts and his calmness in net. He reads the play very well, challenging at the right time and is not Tier: Has a chance often out of position. He’s quick enough that if he reads a difficult pass Feuk had a good season in Sweden’s junior league and intrigued me in about to happen he can get to it. There are enough physical tools for him brief international appearances. He’s skilled, sees the ice well and has to be a good pro. Is he an NHL goalie? I am skeptical. He’ll likely start in some grit in his game. He’s a mediocre skater and, along with the fact I the AHL and we’ll see how it goes from there. don’t see a truly dynamic trait in his offensive toolkit, I am a bit skeptical 11. Matthew Phillips, RW, Stockton-AHL of his NHL chances. But the skill is intriguing enough to mention him given he’s 18 with room for growth. April 6, 1998 | 5-foot-7 | 154 pounds Depth Players Tier: Has a chance Eetu Tuulola, RW, HPK- (Age: 21): Tuulola has good skill, instincts, Phillips is a very good skater with a high skill level. He had a fine rookie size and can score goals in a variety of ways. He lacks speed and off- pro season even though he didn’t dominate as he did in his junior career. puck value, though. His obvious limitation is that he’s 5-foot-7, and given that, I would have liked to see more dynamic elements from him consistently in the AHL to Alexander Yelesin, D, Yaroslavl-KHL (23): Yelesin has good feet and feel more confident in his NHL projection. I saw flashes of that, though. physicality, but he’s not the biggest or most skilled player. I like his hockey sense as a passer and defensive player but not sure how many 12. Carl-Johan Lerby, D, Malmo-SHL NHL attributes he has.

July 7, 1997 | 5-foot-11 | 176 pounds 2019-20 Impact

Tier: Has a chance Gawdin and Zagidulin might be able to help if there are injuries. Otherwise, there’s no real immediate help on the way other than the Lerby was a top player for Malmo. He’s a very good puck-moving young recent graduates in guys like Dube. defenseman with the high-end vision and enough skill to make tough offensive plays versus men. His issues are that he’s undersized and an Organizational Top 10 (23 and Under) average skater. He was decent defensively at the SHL level and played the penalty kill at that level, but he could be challenged in North America Matthew Tkachuk, LW (21) with the speed and physicality. Noah Hanifin, D (22)

13. Josh Nodler, C, Fargo-USHL Sam Bennett, C (23)

April 27, 2001 | six-foot | 196 pounds Juuso Valimaki, D (20)

Tier: Has a chance Rasmus Andersson, D (22)

Nodler was good for Team USA internationally and Fargo in the USHL Dillon Dube, C (21) this past season. His hockey sense drives his value. Nodler is a top-end playmaker who can run a power play off the flank and make very creative Mathias Emilio Pettersen, C (19) passes routinely. He’s got good hands, but he’s not a guy who will try to Oliver Kylington, D (22) go through defenders a ton. Nodler’s sense and skill give him a chance to play, but he’s got a lot to work on. His skating doesn’t impress at his Andrew Mangiapane, LW (23) size; it’s roughly average speed with a stride that could use work, which isn’t helped by the fact his frame has a lot of weight on it already. Jakob Pelletier, LW (18) Defensively he’s fine, but he’s not going to put guys through walls. He’s a Tkachuk has developed into one of the best wingers in the NHL, as a guy you draft for the offensive upside, wait three to four years in college highly-skilled, highly intelligent and at times highly agitating forward who and hope he comes out improved. can put up a ton of points. Hanifin got a lot more responsibility in Calgary 14. Milos Roman, C, Vancouver-WHL than in Carolina. He may never be the once projected impact defenseman, but with his elite skating, size and enough skill, he will be a solid top-four defender for a while. Bennett’s development hasn’t gone the way Flames fans hoped. He’s still a fine player but there’s not much impact there. Andersson has fantastic poise and vision with the puck and can both outlet pucks and quarterback from the blue line at a high level. His improved skating has gone a long way. Dube is an excellent skater who competes well and showed more skill this season than I thought he had. Kylington is also a very good skater who has worked to make plays while not trying to do too much.

Player Eligibility:

A skater no longer qualifies as an NHL prospect if he has played 25 games in the NHL in any campaign, regular season and playoffs combined, or 50 games total; or reaches age 27 by Sept. 15.

A goalie no longer qualifies as an NHL prospect if he has played 10 games in the NHL in any campaign, regular season and playoffs combined, or 25 games total; or reaches age 27 by Sept. 15.

Tier Definitions:

Special NHL prospect: Projects as a true NHL star, someone who is among the best players in the league.

Elite NHL prospect: Projects as an impact player, someone who is top 10-15 percent in the NHL at his position.

High-end NHL prospect: Projects as a first-line forward or a top-pair defenseman.

Very good NHL prospect: Projects as a top-six forward, top-four defenseman or starting goaltender in the NHL.

Legit NHL prospect: Projects to be a full-time NHL player in the bottom half of a roster.

Has a chance: The prospect has a chance to make it as a full-time player if some improvements are made.

Depth Players: These are prospects who do not have NHL toolkits, but could be good AHL players and provide depth to an organization.

The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150854 Carolina Hurricanes The biggest question mark remains Justin Williams, the Canes captain who will turn 38 in early October. Waddell said he and Dundon have talked to Williams but said Williams, an unrestricted free agent, remains Canes’ Don Waddell receives contract extension, will remain as GM and undecided about whether to return or retire. president “The feeling is he’s still debating it,” Waddell said. “I’m not sure which way. If you asked me a while back I’d said he’d probably be playing, but we’re still in contact with Justin and he’s trying to make a decision on BY CHIP ALEXANDER what’s best for him and his family.”

As for Waddell, he decided staying with the Canes was best for him. NHL bylaws require teams to have a general manager under contract on Sept. The drama, as Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon referred to it 1. Waddell has one. Monday, over Don Waddell’s contract has ended. “We’re doing this because we want to do this, not because of that rule,” Waddell will continue as president and general manager of the Dundon said. Hurricanes, the organization announced. Dundon said Waddell, 60, had been given a three-year contract extension. News Observer LOADED: 08.13.2019 Neither Dundon nor Waddell seemed overly concerned about the contract -- or a lack of one since June -- during a media conference call on Monday. Both again indicated they always believed Waddell, a finalist for the NHL’s general manager of the year award after the Canes’ 2018- 19 season, would continue in his dual role with the team.

“Tom and I have talked and it’s not like this has been a mystery to either one of us,” Waddell said in the conference call. “My feeling was I didn’t want to leave here. I think it got blown out of proportion after the contract expired. I knew in time we’d work it out.

“I’ve been through this before, with other opportunities and so forth, but at the end of the day I’m right where I belong and right where I should be.”

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One opportunity was an opening with the Minnesota Wild, which began the search for a general manager after Paul Fenton was fired July 30 after just one year. Waddell interviewed for the Wild job with approval from Dundon.

“Tom and I talked about it when the job opened up and we talked about me exploring it and Tom was OK with that,” Waddell said. “I felt at that point I should probably do it.”

Word of Waddell’s interest caused a stir in the NHL -- a sitting GM, albeit without a contract, interviewing for another position was a rarity. The Wild’s interest in Waddell was understandable, coming after a season in which the Canes reached the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2009 and advanced to the Eastern Conference finals.

The Canes’ surge into the playoffs was spurred, in part, by Waddell’s trade with Minnesota in January that brought forward Nino Niederreiter to Carolina, infusing some need offensive production.

“For me, I told Don he had a job as long as he wanted it,” Dundon said Monday. “I’m comfortable with what we’re doing and how we’re doing it and I thought it would take something extremely compelling for him to leave, but if there was something better for him in this world that was that much better than our situation, whether we had a contract or not, I’d be rooting for him.

“A contract doesn’t help me that much, candidly. But given the situation we were in and it made everybody more comfortable, then we did it. ... I’m glad this makes everybody feel better.”

Since the season ended, the Canes have had assistant general manager Mike Vellucci and goaltending coach Mike Bales leave the organization for other hockey jobs -- Vellucci after coaching the Charlotte Checkers to a Calder Cup title in the American Hockey League. Assistant general manager Brian Tatum also left.

But as Waddell said Monday, the Canes continued “business as usual” although handling the ’ offer sheet to center Sebastian Aho as free agency began wasn’t a usual GM task. The Canes quickly matched the offer sheet, giving Aho a five-year contract worth an average of $8.454 million a year.

Waddell has traded defenseman Calvin de Haan while trading for forward Erik Haula and goalie James Reimer and signing forward Ryan Dzingel as a free agent. 1150855 Carolina Hurricanes

With Don Waddell signed, Tom Dundon says: ‘I’m comfortable with what we’re doing and how we’re doing it’

By Sara Civian Aug 12, 2019

Opinions on Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon’s business philosophy vary drastically based on who you ask, but he operates unanimously differently than any other NHL owner.

The latest deviation from the hockey world norm had been stewing for months, but boils down to something Dundon made clear Monday after re-signing President and GM Don Waddell to a three-year contract: He’s not a fan of contracts.

“It’s probably less drama to have a contract,” Dundon said via teleconference Monday. “But I’m comfortable with what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. I know what our relationship is and I thought it would take something extremely compelling for him to leave but if there was something better for him in this world, something that much better than our situation, I’d be rooting for him. Contracts don’t help me that much, candidly. I understand that I’m alone on this one but that’s how I feel.”

Waddell had been performing his duties without a contract since June 30. The Minnesota Wild pulled an unusual move in firing Paul Fenton five weeks before the start of the season, then, in an equally unusual move, Dundon allowed Waddell to explore that opening when the Wild came calling for his GM of the Year finalist.

“One morning we (Waddell and Minnesota) met and that was basically the last conversation we’ve had about it,” Waddell said via teleconference Monday. “I’ve been through it before with other opportunities, but at the end of the day I’m right where I belong and where I should be.”

Right where he belongs, of course, is with the Hurricanes — a source close to the situation confirmed to The Athletic that this was almost definitely going to be the outcome all along. But signing the contract and wanting to be in Raleigh don’t alleviate all the questions that come from taking — and reportedly nailing — an in-person meeting with the Wild.

“We talked about exploring it, and Tom was OK with that, so I felt that at that point I should probably do it,” he told The Athletic. “Unfortunately their timetable was different than my timetable. They said their timetable was longer than either one of us would expect. But we kept talking, business as usual. The day I went in there (Minnesota) that afternoon we (Carolina) made a trade for a player and continued to operate normally.”

This particular situation worked out in Dundon’s favor, as did the offer sheet, but one might wonder if a precedent of calling bluffs is emerging and what it could mean for future negotiations. What if, for example, teams come calling for Rod Brind’Amour at the end of his contract?

Dundon offered insight into his philosophy that’s more telling than any standalone event.

“If somebody wants a contract, if that’s important to them, I’m open- minded to it,” he said Monday. “If that job (Wild GM) hadn’t opened up and he (Waddell) hadn’t called, I wouldn’t have thought twice about this. I don’t think (writing it down) changes the outcome of what he’s going to do or how long he’s going to do it. We have a couple guys on contract right now, I think (Eric) Tulsky is on a five-year contract right now. Don and I really value him, he’s got kids and he wanted security so I gave him a five-year contract. There’s others who aren’t on contracts. Every situation is different. When he (Waddell) got into this situation where it made him more comfortable, then I gave it to him.”

Sources confirmed to The Athletic that Tulsky (VP of Hockey Management and Strategy) is actually on a four-year contract.

Regardless, Dundon and the Hurricanes are operating on a case-by-case basis until further notice. There’s been “drama” indeed, quite possibly a few unhappy campers and problems may arise in the future. But there hasn’t been a compelling enough reason to do things differently — yet.

The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150856 Chicago Blackhawks General manager Stan Bowman has made it clear the Hawks plan to re- sign Perlini, especially after manufacturing some cap flexibility by trading Artem Anisimov for Zack Smith. But Perlini clearly isn’t one of the NHL’s Still-unsigned Blackhawk Brendan Perlini is just one small piece of NHL’s top remaining free agents, even on Aug. 12. massive restricted free agent blockade Chicago Sun Times LOADED: 08.13.2019 Perlini is the last Blackhawks player without a contract, but he’s one of many restricted free agents still unsigned around the league.

By Ben Pope@BenPopeCST Aug 12, 2019, 7:30am CDT

Brendan Perlini remains without a contract after being traded from the Coyotes to Blackhawks last season. Getty

Fans look at the Blackhawks’ contract chart and worry about winger Brendan Perlini, who remains a restricted free agent nearly a month after the team’s last offseason transaction.

Perlini looks around the league and sees nothing strange at all.

‘‘It’s just something that happens quite slow for a lot of guys,’’ he said last month at the Blackhawks Convention. ‘‘I’m definitely not sitting by the phone every minute, going: ‘What’s going on? What’s going on?’ You’re going to drive yourself nuts.’’

It was an excellent point then, and it still stands now. The NHL has reached a restricted free agent (RFA) impasse, and until one of the major names signs and breaks the dam, nearly every team has a foot stuck in the mud.

The Maple Leafs’ Mitch Marner, the Lightning’s Brayden Point and the Avalanche’s Mikko Rantanen are the headliners, the franchise players who likely will push $10 million salary-cap hits on their new deals — when they happen. The Maple Leafs already have positioned their salary structure to work even if Marner holds out.

But Marner, Point and Rantanen are just the tip of the iceberg. The Flames’ Matthew Tkachuk and the Jets’ Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor aren’t far below that top tier, and the notable RFAs go on and on beyond that.

In fact, of the top 18 free agents of any type entering the summer (as determined by Evolving Wild’s popular contract projections), 11 remain unsigned, and 10 of those 11 are RFAs. All of them are projected cap hits above $6.5 million.

This offseason paralysis is radically different from ’s problem in recent offseasons. The NHL’s blockade is with its young free agents, not its veterans, and this probably will prove to be a one-time issue.

Still, it’s perplexing. The lack of movement at the top of the board has created a trickle-down effect.

It’s still unknown whether Marner is worth $9 million or $12 million per season. That might seem relatively inconsequential, but when that margin of uncertainty is applied further down the board, the consequences are huge. Is the Rangers’ Tony DeAngelo worth $3 million or $6 million? Is the Wild’s Kevin Fiala worth $2 million or $4 million? Is Perlini worth $1 million or $2 million?

Operating conservatively, as always, teams with notable RFAs left have set aside big cap-space portions in case the precedent is set on the $12 million end of the spectrum. Fourteen teams still have more than $7 million in cap space, according to Capfriendly.

That means the remaining unrestricted free agents — and there are several quality ones, from Jake Gardiner (the only unrestricted free agent left among the aforementioned top 18) to Derick Brassard to Patrick Maroon — are also held up in line.

And so are the lower-tier RFAs, such as Perlini. His 21 points in 68 games for the Coyotes and Hawks last season rank 21st among remaining RFAs, a far cry from Marner’s 94 points in 82 games with the Leafs.

Coincidentally, Marner and Perlini are represented by the same agent, Darren Ferris. But it’s safe to say the latter’s negotiations aren’t as high- intensity as the former’s. 1150857 Chicago Blackhawks

Kris Versteeg doesn't believe his time in NHL is over just yet

By Charlie Roumeliotis August 13, 2019 1:05 AM

For the third time in his career, Kris Versteeg is back with the Blackhawks organization. But this time around, he's on an AHL contract after signing a one-year deal with the Rockford IceHogs in April.

Versteeg last played in the NHL during the 2017-18 campaign, but a hip injury forced him to miss more than half the season with the Calgary Flames. He spent the past season in the KHL and Swedish Hockey League, and proved to himself that he feels he can still play at a high level.

While Versteeg understands that nothing is guaranteed and he may have been brought in by the Blackhawks to be a veteran presence in Rockford, the 33-year-old winger believes his time in the NHL isn't over just yet.

"I mean, it would be nice," Versteeg said in an interview with NBC Sports Chicago. "And I think for me, the best way I can describe it is, I don't play hockey because I need money anymore. Just to be brutally honest, I don't need that. What I need is, I need to play hockey and if I didn't feel that I needed to play hockey and I couldn't play at a high level, then I wouldn't need to play hockey anymore either. I would just retire and go do other things.

"But I feel I can play still at a high level, especially coming off my last hip surgery and feeling how good I felt in Sweden without really being in hockey shape. So I felt like there's something left in me to give and if I didn't feel I needed that then I wouldn't be here today in the situation going to Rockford and trying to play, so I'm going there with the intentions to play at a high level in Rockford and to contribute every night. That's what I plan to do."

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Patrick Kane named 2nd-best wing in NHL Top Players Poll

By Cam Ellis August 12, 2019 11:38 AM

The NHL's annual Top Players countdown is underway, as is tradition with during every major sports' offseason.

This is good news for Blackhawks fans, because the NHL thinks winger Patrick Kane is still pretty damn good:

So, what do you think? #NHLTopPlayers pic.twitter.com/dkK26mRH9G

— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) August 12, 2019

This stands to reason, as Kane had his 2nd-best goal-scoring season (44) last year, and his 110 points were a career-high. He also set a career-best in assists (66).

In less enjoyable news, no sight of Alex DeBrincat in the Top-20. There's always next year, Alex.

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150859 Chicago Blackhawks

Andrew Shaw on ovation at Blackhawks Convention: 'I tried to stay serious but I had to crack a smile'

By Charlie Roumeliotis August 12, 2019

Andrew Shaw never wanted to leave Chicago. Salary cap reasons forced the Blackhawks into trading the two-time Stanley Cup champion to Montreal, where he signed a six-year contract in the summer of 2016.

So when The Mutt was reacquired by the Blackhawks in June, you had to wonder who was more excited for the reunion: Shaw himself or Blackhawks fans?

Thunderous ovation as Andrew Shaw is welcomed back to Chicago by #Blackhawks fans. pic.twitter.com/U4Os8plc3n

— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) July 26, 2019

Judging by the warm reception he got at the 12th annual Blackhawks Convention, it's easy to say the fans. But it meant a lot to Shaw, too.

“Oh it’s pretty awesome," Shaw said in an interview with NBC Sports Chicago. "It was tough not to smile. I tried to stay serious but I had to crack a smile. That love feels amazing. It’s a city that helped make me who I am. I grew up here. You know, five years. Five amazing years. Memories that just all come back to you at once. It was a pretty cool feeling.”

Shaw was brought back for a variety of reasons. His presence, both on and off the ice, has been missed by the Blackhawks over the years and it showed. Both Shaw and the Blackhawks haven't gotten a taste of the postseason in consecutive seasons now and they're both looking to change that.

“I mean, it’d be awesome," Shaw said. "I haven’t been in the playoffs in two years, either. It’s boring. You go home and you watch playoff hockey and you wish you were a part of it. We’ve got to use that to fire ourselves to push a little bit harder. Sometimes it can be a one-game difference so you’ve got to make sure you’re prepared for every game and you got to go out there and give it your all every chance you can.”

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150860 Chicago Blackhawks three best along with (John) Tavares, you know, both sides of the puck. You look at those guys and see what they do and you can learn from that.

‘It’s fun to prove people wrong’: Blackhawks center Dylan Strome doesn’t “I think, yeah, you’re obviously going to give up some chances, but at the plan on regressing same time I was a plus-2 here, I think … Obviously you don’t want to give up a lot of chances and a lot of goals, but sometimes you got to take risks. I think it’s a give and take. Luckily, I had the coach’s confidence By Scott Powers Aug 12, 2019 where he wasn’t going to bench me if I made a bad read and gave up a scoring chance, and they liked the good reads.”

Strome has had the opportunity to work side by side with Toews in Dylan Strome is used to people doubting him. Chicago this offseason. For Strome, it’s been motivating just to watch He heard and read the criticism during his time with the Arizona Coyotes how Toews prepares. as he struggled offensively and was demoted to a bottom-6 role. Now “To see how hard he works in the gym, to see how hard he goes,” that Strome’s produced with the Blackhawks, he’s aware that some Strome said. “I remember the first week that I got here because I was at expect his numbers to drop off because of last season’s underlying the World Championships and he had started working out a few weeks metrics. before, maybe a week and a half before or two weeks. I get back and Despite putting up 51 points in 58 games with the Blackhawks, Strome we’re pretty dead tired after the first workout. And he’s dead tired as well, defied his on-ice expected-goals percentage by nearly 10 points. The and he goes downstairs and grabs a stick and goes upstairs and shoots team had a whopping 12.98 shooting percentage with him on the ice. the puck in the shooting pads. You see that and it makes you want to Some say he can’t keep that up. work hard. It makes you want to go harder. It’s good to see. I’m happy that I stayed and go to see that, see how hard these guys work and see Strome, of course, disagrees. what it takes to be elite.”

For one, Strome has been striving this offseason to become a better all- Strome has gotten on the ice with Blackhawks teammates and other NHL around player, remaining in Chicago most of the summer as part of that players. During a training session with Keane last Thursday, Strome quest. He’s also confident that last season wasn’t just puck luck. He joined Kane, Alex DeBrincat, Olli Maatta, Brandon Saad, Collin Delia, believes the truth lies in his actual numbers, not the expected ones. J.T. Compher, Ryan Hartman and a few others. Players like Evgeny Kuznestov exceed their expected-goals rate season after season. Keane hasn’t worked a lot with Strome yet – they are expected to train together several times in the coming weeks – but Keane has studied his “I don’t look at (analytics), no. No, not really,” Strome said recently. “I’ve game and has a plan for where he’d like to make some improvements. seen some articles this summer where people are saying that how many chances I gave up last year and I’m not going to be able to sustain it. “Obviously I really like his decision making and his play making and People are going to say what they’ve going to say. Analytics are one passing ability,” Keane said. “What we’ve started to work on is some play thing, but results are another thing. You got to go out there and prove it. away from the puck and then putting himself in positions to have a little bit more space with the puck to make plays or create that space before “There’s going to be lots of articles all the time. Obviously you try to not he gets the puck or with it. So, that will be kind of where we’re starting at to worry about what people say. Obviously if someone’s tweeting you, this point to get going based on some of the things we noticed from you’re going to read it. It’s just the way it goes. You got to block out the analyzing his game film. best you can. But I think it’s fun to prove people wrong. A lot of people were kind of writing me off pretty quickly there through my first year and a “I think there’s technical things he can continue to improve (with his half in Arizona there. Happy I could kind of turn it around and I’m excited skating). But as far as his smoothness and the way he blends his hands what I can do this year.” and feet together, there’s a lot of things to like. But what we’re going to lead into moving forward here, maybe getting a little quicker out of turns, That excitement has been building through the long offseason. Strome using his feet and his hands deceptively together. Within possession, add represented Canada at the World Championship in May, then returned to a little more deception on top of what he does already. Just as far being Chicago and got on a workout program created by Blackhawks strength more explosively and those things, you can always improve those areas. and conditioning coach Paul Goodman. He’s also been working with On and off the ice, we’re trying to improve that too. I like a lot of the Brian Keane on the ice and will attend Darryl Belfry’s invite-only camp things he does within his skating. I just want him to keep building on it.” later this month. Strome has been happy with his experience with Keane so far. One main objective for Strome this offseason has been to build his endurance. He could feel a difference taking on more minutes with the “He’s great,” Strome said. “I had never met him. I had heard the guys Blackhawks after the trade last season. skating with him and they liked him. Obviously if Patrick Kane’s skating with someone for skills-wise, obviously the guy is doing something right. “I think just getting my conditioning better,” Strome said. “Coming from He runs good skates.” Arizona where I only played around maybe 8-13 minutes a game, now from here, I’m pretty much every game I was over 15, from 15-20. Just Alex DeBrincat was the one who recommended Strome train in Chicago getting my conditioning up. I think I’ve gained a bit of strength. I think my this offseason, as he did last year. The Blackhawks also thought it’d be a power’s gotten a little bit better. I think the conditioning is a big thing, not good idea. Strome discussed it with his agent, and they agreed. getting tried after 35, 40 seconds and being able to battle out that last 10 “They felt that it was best for me and my development,” Strome said. seconds in the D zone to get the puck out. Obviously want to try to give “Obviously you want to make them happy. I want to stay here. They felt up a few less chances this year and try to create a little bit more at the this was the best place for me and obviously I’m going to listen. It sucks end of my shifts. We’ll see what happens.” being away from my family for a lot of the summer, but sometimes you As confident as Strome is that he can continue to produce at a high rate, got to make those sacrifices. I think I’m happy with the decision so far.” he is mindful of decreasing the amount of opposing opportunities he’s on Strome has made the most of his summer in Chicago, living in the ice for. He was second worst among the Blackhawks in Corsi against Streeterville, going to Cubs games, visiting Navy Pier and playing golf. per 60 minutes in 5-on-5 play and in goals against per 60 minutes. Strome is ready for the season to get going, but he knows there’s no real Strome accepts that he’ll be on the ice for some goals against, especially finish line. When the games begin, he’s confident he can sustain and with the way he plays, but he also believes there’s a learning curve he’s even improve upon last season. still figuring out as a 22-year-old center. “I’m excited,” Strome said. “Playing for the Chicago Blackhawks in this “It’s something I think every offensive player has to learn deal with and market, with the kind of team we have and the moves we made, how can every centerman, especially young centerman,” Strome said. “I think it’s you not be excited? How last year ended, you have to look at the hard to be really good on the offensive side puck and the defensive side positives what’s coming next year. I feel like I have unbelievable of the puck. I think Tazer’s (Jonathan Toews) is if not the best in the chemistry with Alex. I think we play great together. We have so much fun league at that on both sides of the puck. That’s a great guy to learn from. out there. I wish the season was starting, but pretty much two months left Him and (Sidney) Crosby and (Patrice) Bergeron, I would say are the till the season starts for real, got to put the work in here the last couple months, looking forward to it. I think I have to go into this year with a real positive mindset, a mindset of hopefully the Blackhawks are going to be back this year.”

The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150861 Chicago Blackhawks For picks five and six, I started thinking about a shutdown pairing. I love Jaccob Slavin, but with Jacob Trouba on the board — like Carlson a year ago, a pipedream target for the Blackhawks this season — I had to take NHL Contraction Draft: Familiar faces re-join Blackhawks in a 12-team him and hope Mirtle would be thinking offense. Alas, Mirtle grabbed league Slavin. Figuring there’d be plenty of stay-at-home defensemen left by next pick, I rounded out my top six with 41-goal scorer Cam Atkinson, the right winger for whom Toews spent all last season looking. We’re little (Atkinson, DeBrincat, Kane, Teravainen), but we’re prolific. By Mark Lazerus Aug 12, 2019 For seven and eight, we started picking two at a time to speed things

along. And I needed some defense. I got scooped on Shea Theodore, Hi. My name is Mark, and I am a hypocrite. and then I was torn between T.J. Brodie and Brett Pesce, so I let handedness make the decision for me. Brodie can pair with Trouba to I’ve spent the better part of the last seven seasons chiding Blackhawks form a heck of a second pair. With my other pick, I took Evander Kane. general manager Stan Bowman for making so many nostalgia movies — For one thing, he can score goals. For another, I can squeeze some bringing back everyone from Kris Versteeg and Andrew Ladd to Johnny more disposable income out of Blackhawks fans by making them buy Oduya and Brian Campbell to Patrick Sharp and Andrew Shaw. You new jerseys with “P. KANE” on the back. Hey, if I’m working for the team can’t recapture lightning in a bottle, I say. You can’t live in the past, I say. now, this stuff is important. You can’t go home again, I say. For nine and 10, I went with more defense. Danault can be what Marcus So naturally, I drafted Teuvo Teravainen in The Athletic’s contraction Kruger was to the 2013 and 2015 Blackhawks teams — a penalty-killing draft — an exercise in which new NHL commissioner and cruel, cruel stud and the guy you want on the ice when you’re clinging to a one-goal man Eric Duhatschek drives a dagger into the hearts of hockey fans in lead late in the games — only with legitimate offensive ability. The nontraditional markets everywhere (like, you know, all of Western Blackhawks have missed this guy every bit as much as they’ve missed Canada) and shrinks the NHL to a mere dozen teams. I drafted Phil Teravainen, and that Weise/Fleischman trade in 2016 is probably the Danault, too. Even brought back Nick Schmaltz as a fourth-liner, biggest miss of the Bowman era. Then, to go with one that got away, I because, hey, what the hell. picked one that just got here — Calvin de Haan, a very good defensive defenseman and quality Guy In The Room who can anchor my shutdown In my defense, I felt obligated to maintain some of the essential pair. “Chicago-ness” of the team. That was the point of protecting four players — in Chicago’s case, I went with the obvious quartet of Patrick Kane, For 11 and 12, I rounded out my top nine with another dynamic but Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Alex DeBrincat — but I took it a step diminutive dynamo in Clayton Keller. Brandon Saad as a fourth-line further by reacquiring the two biggest Ones Who Got Away (perhaps winger to go with Danault? I love it. Saad remains a possession monster others don’t think of him that way, but I love Danault’s game, and have and an excellent defensive forward. They’ll be great together. since the first time I saw him in a prospect camp). There’s no worse feeling as a fan than that moment when you realize you’re just rooting for For 13 and 14, well, I might have started losing interest at this point. I laundry, not the people in those uniforms. So I tried to walk a fine line was working on another story, it was a long time between picks, and I between Best Player Available and Best Chicago-Adjacent Player stopped monitoring what everyone else was doing. So I blew it on the Available. . Oh, well. Hellebuyck’s no slouch. And Marc-Edouard Vlasic is coming off a down year, but he’s been one of the best shutdown guys And looking back at my team (and the other 11), I feel comfortable saying in the league for years. He and de Haan can handle all the difficult … Meh. matchups while Keith, Carlson and Trouba run roughshod over everyone else. I mean, it’s a damn good team, no doubt. Look at the depth down the middle. Look at the top six up front. Look at that top four on the back end. For 15 and 16, I figured I’d give Schmaltz another chance. He’s another But between picking 11th out of 12, my “Chicago-ness” angle and guy who can play wing or center (very valuable), and when he was dialed perhaps focusing a bit too much on putting together an actual team — in, he was a ferocious backchecker. Like Joel Quenneville and Bowman with a checking line and a shutdown pairing and the like — I wonder if I before me, I’m hoping I can coax some consistency out of the supremely might have overthought this thing. In a theoretical league like this, maybe talented but hot-and-cold Schmaltz. I should be just trying to win 8-7 every night. And because I didn’t pay attention to all of Duhatschek’s preamble, I didn’t realize until the draft Oh, and I needed a backup goalie. I probably should have taken Corey was three-quarters complete that Dom Luszczyszyn was going to Crawford here for old time’s sake, but went with Grubauer instead. I don’t simulate the entire season. Should have just picked all the Corsi gods need that obnoxious, one-note Lazerus guy writing yet another column and ran away with the thing. Oh, well. about how I’m stuck in the past, unable to let go. Man, I hate that guy.

I also figured there were 12 good goaltenders in the NHL, and that The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 nobody would be dumb enough to pick a second goalie until very late in the draft. Oops. I didn’t quite wind up with Anton Forsberg and J-F Berube, but my Connor Hellebuyck-Philip Grubauer combo doesn’t quite compare to the North Wild’s /Pekka Rinne duo. That said, my team would destroy Russo’s, even though he scooped Aleksander Barkov from me in the first round, so I’m not going to worry about it too much.

Let’s break down some of the picks.

I was picking a center in the first round, no matter what. Depth down the middle is critical, and a one-two punch of Toews and Mark Scheifele is awfully good (even if I wanted Toews-Barkov). On the flip side of the snake draft, I knew I needed a top-pairing defenseman to go with Keith, because I wasn’t going to pick again in ages. John Carlson had a Norris- caliber season last season, and is an ideal right-shot partner for Keith. Off to a good start.

OK, maybe I picked Teravainen a few picks early. Don’t care. He’ll always be the One That Got Away (well, until Henri Jokiharju wins his first Norris Trophy, I suppose), and I’m all about the fan service. Also, he’s really, really good, and only 24. He’s a winger now, but is a natural center, which gives me some lineup versatility. After that, I went right back to center for my next pick, scooping up Logan Couture to lead my third line. I’m already loaded with proven playoff performers. 1150862 Colorado Avalanche 17. Matthew Tkachuk, Calgary Flames

18. Gabe Landeskog, Avalanche

Avalanche’s Mikko Rantanen ranked No. 9 among NHL wingers 19. Patrik Laine,

NHL Network has Rantanen and linemate Gabe Landeskog (No. 18) in 20. Phil Kessel, Arizona Coyotes the top-20 Denver Post: LOADED: 08.13.2019

By MIKE CHAMBERS |PUBLISHED: August 12, 2019

Unsigned Avalanche right winger Mikko Rantanen was ranked No. 9 among NHL wingers in the NHL Network’s countdown series Sunday, and linemate Gabe Landeskog came in 18th on the top-20 list.

Nathan MacKinnon, who usually centers Landeskog and Rantanen on what has been dubbed the MGM Line, was previously ranked No. 3 among centers.

Rantanen, a restricted free agent who was 17th on the countdown list a year ago, led the Avs in playoff scoring with six goals, eight assists and 14 points in 12 games. He missed the last eight games of the regular season with a leg injury, which he likely played through during the postseason.

Rantanen, 22, had a career-best regular season of 31 goals and 87 points in 74 games.

“He’s a guy with his big frame, his capability, the guys he’s able to play with, he’s unbelievable,” NHL Network analyst Mike Rupp said during Sunday’s show. “I think this is a great opportunity to be much higher than No. 9 next season.”

Rantanen came in one spot behind 27-year-old Artemi Panarin, who signed a seven-year, $81.5 million contract with the New York Rangers as an unrestricted free agent July 1. Panarin’s annual average is $11.6 million.

As an RFA coming out of his entry-level contract, Rantanen could fetch an annual deal worth a club-high $8 to $10 million — but he and the Avs probably won’t settle on a deal until the dominos begin to fall among league-wide comparisons.

RFA right wingers Mitch Marner, 22, and Patrik Laine, 21, were ranked No. 5 and No. 19, respectively, on Sunday’s list and are also coming out of their entry-level deals. Left wing Matthew Tkachuk (17th) is in that same group along with Brock Boeser, Kyle Connor, Pavel Zacha and Brayden Point.

The Avalanche begins rookie camp Sept. 6 and veterans are scheduled to report Sept. 11.

NHL Network’s Top 20 wingers heading into 2019-20 season:

1. Nikita Kucherov,

2. Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks

3. Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals

4. Brad Marchand, Boston Bruins

5. Mitch Marner, Toronto Maple Leafs

6. Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton Oilers

7. Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary Flames

8. Artemi Panarin, New York Rangers

9. Mikko Rantanen, Avalanche

10. David Pastrnak, Boston Bruins

11. Blake Wheeler, Winnipeg Jets

12. Claude Giroux, Philadelphia Flyers

13. Mark Stone,

14. Vladimir Tarasenko, St. Louis Blues

15. Taylor Hall, New Jersey Devils

16. Jonathan Huberdeau, Florida Panthers 1150863 Dallas Stars Questions are abundant about what the Stars will get from the forward group. Will Roope Hintz and/or Gurianov step forward to provide more positive production? What, if anything, will the Stars get from Perry? Can Are the Dallas Stars legit contenders after another busy offseason? Pavelski be a significant weapon on the Stars' powerplay, and can he provide good value when his shooting percentage falls back in line with the rest of his career?

By Josh Lile Not to mention that there is virtually no way injuries stay away. At some point the depth will be tested. This is the one area I have fewer concerns.

The Stars have many guys on the cusp who could make an impact down The image of Jamie Benn coming inches away from eliminating the St. the lineup. If they have to play more often in the event of an injury to a Louis Blues in Game 7 is going to be one that sticks in the minds of fans key forward, can any of those guys provide enough of a boost to keep for a long time. A the Stars hanging in there?

As the 2019-20(!) season approaches, the Stars being inches away from The biggest question of all, and one that gives me the most pause, is eliminating the eventual Stanley Cup winners is being used to take the what happens if Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin come back to the measure of the state of the franchise. Logically, they must be mere goalie pack? Both performed well above expectations a season ago, inches away from being a legitimate Stanley Cup contender, right? including an almost historic performance from Bishop. I don't think you can reasonably expect Bishop to do that again. If the Stars lose ground in Maybe. goaltending, how much of the gains they appear poised to make with their skater group will be wiped out? Let's take as much bias as we can out of this for the moment by doing some simple math using Evolving-Hockey's Goals Above Replacement. Benn being so close to keeping the Blues from the Stanley Cup has GAR, as it is more colloquially known, measures how many goals players almost nothing to do with anything that is going to take place this year. and teams are above replacement level. Is it more complicated than Looking at things objectively, the Stars have a chance to be a decent that? Sure, but for our purposes here that definition will work. Big club. We know they're likely to get good goaltending. For once the numbers good, small numbers bad. Me take rock, make wheel, life made questions are mostly somewhat positive. At the worst they're a likely easy. You get the idea. playoff team, but if they get some bonus production from some of the question mark spots in the lineup, perhaps they could be a bit better than The Stars were 10th overall in GAR: Good! that. At even strength, Stars skaters were 21st: Bad! Dallas Morning News LOADED: 08.13.2019 On the powerplay, 8th. Shorthanded, 12th: Solid!

GAR from penalties placed the Stars at 29th:  !

Stars goalies were 2nd in the league behind only the Islanders: Elite!

The Stars got elite goaltending with quality special teams while praying for the Lord above to help them at even strength. Sounds about right, eh? This tenuous statistical grip on a playoff spot is one that needed significant reinforcements this offseason. The only area for real meaningful growth the Stars had was at even strength.

So, what did the Stars do about it? They purged a decent amount of the negative contributors. This is the list of players who will not be back with the Stars, or who should expect to see diminished roles given reasonable health from the Stars regulars.

Removing the ice time of this group significantly bumps the Stars at even strength at the expense of a little bit of powerplay thump. Julius Honka and Valeri Nichushkin will be missed for different reasons. Honka for his value at even strength despite the occasional odd mistake, and Nichushkin for his ability to get the Stars net positive powerplay chances.

In addition to the subtractions the Stars added Joe Pavelski, Corey Perry, and Andrej Sekera to the mix. A healthy Stephen Johns would count as another addition. Let us assume perfect health for the Stars' 20 regular skaters and project how the lineup would look over a full season based mostly on last year's production prorated.

(I didn't count Perry or Gurianov in the final totals because if either actually play that poorly, they aren't going to get enough minutes to sink the Stars that badly.)

Many questions exist about this lineup, but as it stands they have a chance to put up some heavy GAR totals. A score of 100 would make them a top ten skater group. That total will almost certainly come down when the depth gets tested as season-long attrition sets in. Players like Justin Dowling and Taylor Fedun helped the Stars stay afloat in 2019. The Stars will need them to do it again, but hopefully over shorter stretches of time.

The blue line is a significant wild card. If Johns and Sekera are healthy they improve the corps quite a bit. I used the two full seasons for Johns at the NHL level for the projections. I skipped over Sekera's 2018 season for the purposes of this as he was coming back from an ACL injury, and he was clearly not himself. Both can be big positives. If either is out, they will be replaced by Roman Polak, if he isn't already in the opening lineup. Over an 82 game swing, one of those two swapped with Polak is a deficit of about ten goals. This would not be ideal. 1150864 Dallas Stars Three years ago, when the Stars took Point in the fifth round, he was a raw talent with potential. Going into this season, he’s in the thick of the next stage of his career. That talent has been molded, and now he’s In addition to hard work, Stars goalie prospect Colton Point learning looking to elevate it. Prior to last season, Point was in a position where importance of working smart the game came easy to him at the levels he was playing.

Last season was an eye-opener and reinforced the importance of detail. In addition to working on smaller movements and being in crisp position By Saad Yousuf Aug 12, 2019 in front of the net, he’s worked harder on his conditioning, getting his body fat down to his personally-preferred 10 percent. After spending time

adjusting to the professional level, his focus now shows he belongs. For years, Colton Point put his head down and played. He worked as The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 hard as possible to prevent pucks from finding nets, all in the hopes that focus would make him a professional goaltender.

After breaking through to the professional level last season, Point has scaled things back a tad and learned that — especially as a goalie — it’s as much about working smart as it is working hard.

“It’s a big thing that I learned this season, that I was trying almost too hard, and when you’re being that over-intense, you start to make mistakes that you normally wouldn’t make when you’re playing your game relaxed,” Point said. “It’s about precision, it’s about being smooth, being calm and trusting yourself and not trying to overdo it.”

Point has always been aware of the importance of precision, but it came under a spotlight this last season. For the first time in four seasons, his save percentage dipped under .915, as he posted a .887 mark in 13 games with the Idaho Steelheads of the ECHL and an .857 mark in seven games with the AHL’s Texas Stars. The competition was stiffer than he’d ever encountered, but Point also noticed some cracks within his own game that needed to be addressed.

Goalies don’t glide around the ice the way forwards or defensemen do. Consequently, there is less room for error. The phrase “game of inches” has a very real meaning when it comes to preventing talented hockey wizards with sticks as their wands from sneaking the puck through a small opening.

Making the most of every movement is Point’s new goal this season and something he worked on quite a bit last month at Stars development camp.

“It’s just committing every movement to muscle memory,” Point said. “You can get scored on if you don’t own your post properly when you’re sliding back. You miss it by an inch, you leave a gap open and these shooters now are capable of putting the puck through it.”

Point credits his improvements to a lot of people, from Stars goalie coach Jeff Reese to the entire coaching staff in Cedar Park and his AHL peers — Phillipe Desrosiers and Landon Bow. However, there was a new twist added in his most recent development camp when he had the opportunity to work with former Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen.

The players Point is preparing himself to face in the NHL are very different from the ones he grew up watching, and it’s not in reference to the names on the jerseys. The NHL style of play has shifted from more of a big, physical form of domination to a blazing speed that leaves the goalie’s head spinning. Point mentioned Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid as an example of that evolution, and the Stars have a number of similar players, probably best highlighted by 20-year-old defensive phenom Miro Heiskanen.

“I would 100 percent say it has changed,” Point said. “It was big hits, huge guys, massive defenders, and everyone was massive. Now, it’s such a speed- and skill-dominating game. There are guys doing stuff out there that maybe 10 years ago, people didn’t even think was possible … Guys are getting faster and faster, and it’s harder to play against. That’s obviously why they’re doing it.”

The NHL still has its fair share of big hits and imposing giants, but speed is the new flavor. Until recently, Point catered his playing style to being a stellar rock in front of the net and swatting away shots. Now, he’s more agile and continuously working on his mobility as well as even just tracking players in front of the net. That’s why working with Lehtonen was so timely and beneficial for Point: Lehtonen not only watched the change take place, but he played through both eras at a high level.

“He’s played with those guys that have those traits,” Point said. “I mean, he’s played with both, but he has insight on things like that which is huge for guys like me and (Jake Oettinger) who are trying to make our way through the ranks.” 1150865 Detroit Red Wings possible to develop and in future years, maybe get an (NHL) opportunity.”

One more huge variable in the goaltending position is improved play from Howard's future, Larsson's potential keys to Red Wings' goaltending Bernier. The veteran was signed to a three-year contract in the summer outlook of 2018 to provide consistency in net behind Howard, but Bernier had a lackluster first season with the Wings.

Ted Kulfan, The Detroit News Published 3:00 p.m. ET Aug. 12, 2019 Bernier, 30, was 9-18-5 with a 3.16 GAA and .904 save percentage. He’ll need to be better, for the Wings to be better overall this season.

How they stack up This is the first of a three-part series examining the state of the Red Wings' organization at every position. Today: goaltenders. Key goaltenders in the Red Wings’ organization:

Detroit – Jimmy Howard has been a big part of the Red Wings’ Jimmy Howard: A common question in recent years: Will Howard remain goaltending situation for the last decade. with the Red Wings past the trade deadline? He's been a Wings' backbone during the rebuild. Howard ensured another year of stability by signing a one-year contract late last season worth $4 million (with another $1.1 million possible if the Jonathan Bernier: Needs to improve his performance after a sub-par first Wings make the playoffs). season with the Wings. Rarely stole a victory for the Wings.

Howard, 35, didn’t hide his preference to remain in Detroit, rather than be Calvin Pickard: If either Howard or Bernier is hurt, Pickard can step in an dealt at the trade deadline last March. Howard has made it clear he'd provide NHL-quality goaltending. Will also provide an experienced voice love to remain a Red Wing throughout his career. for Filip Larsson.

“This is the only organization I know,” said Howard. “I love playing for the Filip Larsson: Many eyes will be on Grand Rapids to see how Larsson Wings, my family loves living in Detroit. It’s very special.” develops in his first professional season. Has had two consecutive exceptional junior/college seasons. Trade speculation around Howard was rampant last season. Kaden Fulcher: Expected to play in Toledo, Fulcher appeared in his first With the Red Wings expected to be sellers at the deadline again in the NHL game the final night of the season. 2019-20 season, and Howard on a one-year contract, there’s likely a ton of rumors about Howard’s future again. Pat Nagle: Keyed Toledo’s run to the Kelly Cup finals last spring.

Howard’s situation will go a long way in determining how the goaltending Detroit News LOADED: 08.13.2019 position will look going forward.

Howard and Jonathan Bernier held the position last season and will do so again beginning in October.

Prospect Filip Larsson will begin his professional career in Grand Rapids, with veteran Calvin Pickard backing Larsson.

Signing Pickard in free agency and establishing some depth in the goaltending position – and a bridge between Howard/Bernier and Larsson – was one of general manager ’s goals.

The lack of NHL experience in the minor-league level would have left the Red Wings exposed if Howard or Bernier were to suffer a long-term injury.

“We feel with the two goalies we have, if we were to have an injury, we feel the third goaltender position is very important,” Yzerman said of Pickard. “We wanted to put a goaltender with some experience to partner with Larsson. A guy who is a good leader, high character and a good work ethic, and we believe he (Pickard) fits the bill.

“It gives us a little bit of security for knowing we have him over the course of the two years (Pickard’s contract). He has NHL experience and he can come up and play games if we need him to do that. He’s proven he can do that.”

For his NHL career, Pickard is 32-50-9, in 87 games, with a 2.93 GAA and .908 save percentage, and he arrives in the Wings organization with a reputation for being a stellar teammate and with an established work ethic.

Pickard should be a valuable asset for Larsson, who will be making his pro debut.

Larsson, 20, has given the organization – and its fans – hope for the future with two consective outstanding seasons in junior and college hockey.

Last season at Denver, Larsson had a 1.94 GAA and .932 save percentage while leading the Pioneers to the Frozen Four.

Larsson took part in June’s development camp and talked about his future with the Wings.

“I know it’s a good opportunity,” said Larsson of the Wings’ goaltending depth chart. “There are still two great guys up there but they’re getting older. But I’m not looking at the NHL next year. For me, I want to make that AHL team (in Grand Rapids) and I want to get as many games as 1150866 Detroit Red Wings

Anthony Mantha’s dominant finish bodes well for Red Wings

By Ansar Khan

(Another in a series of player profiles prior to training camp.)

Anthony Mantha

Position: Right wing

Age: 25 (on Sept. 16)

Height/Weight: 6-5/225

2018-19 stats: 67 games, 25 goals, 23 assists, 48 points, minus-8 rating, 30 penalty minutes.

Career stats: 217 games, 68 goals, 67 assists, 135 points, minus-5 rating, 137 penalty minutes.

Contract: One year remaining at a cap hit of $3.3 million. Will be a restricted free agent next summer.

2018-19 in review: Led NHL in goals (eight) and points (15) in eight games from March 23 to the end of the regular season. … Career high in goals. … Equaled career high in points. … Third on team in goals and points. … Tied for team lead with seven power-play goals and was second in power-play points with a career-high 13. … Career-high four assists vs. Chicago Feb. 20. … First career hat trick and career-high five points March 31 vs. Boston. …Missed 15 games with hand injury suffered in fight with Colorado’s Patrik Nemeth (who the Red Wings signed on July 1) on Dec. 2. Other fighting major was against Philadelphia’s Wayne Simmonds on Feb. 17. … Second on team in shots per game (2.96). … Recorded 10 shots vs. Columbus Nov. 26. … Went 22 for 50 on faceoffs (44 percent). … Seventh in goals (68) among players drafted in 2013. Only one player drafted lower than Mantha (20th) has scored more goals – Pittsburgh’s Jake Guentzel, selected 77th, has 78 goals. … Tallied seven goals and seven assists in nine World Championship games for the U.S., tying for second in goals and tying for fifth in points in the tournament.

2019-20 outlook: The Red Wings are excited about the way Mantha finished the season and his continued strong play at the World Championship. He surely would have reached 30 goals and possibly 60 points if he hadn’t essentially missed a quarter of the season between his injury and the time needed to get back into the flow.

Mantha has found a comfort level and new level of consistency playing on a line with Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi, a unit that surely will stay intact to start the season.

The club is encouraging Mantha to use his ‘elite’ wrist shot more often and he was rewarded for developing a quicker release. Used in a net- front capacity in the past (even strength and power play), Mantha is more effective away from the net, where he can utilize his shot more, especially near the half-wall on the power play.

Mantha is due for a significant bump in his next contract, possibly for four or five years and in excess of $5 million per season.

Quotable: “It’s hard to score 30 goals and do it consistently, because once you do it once, you get tougher match-ups, the other coach is watching you. … It’s hard to find people that big that can do what he’s done. Certainly, he’s a big part of the future of this hockey club. (The Red Wings) could have almost had three 30-goal scorers if Mantha wouldn’t have gotten hurt.” – former Red Wings general manager Ken Holland.

Key question: Is Mantha’s strong regular season finish and performance at the World Championship an indication of things to come?

Michigan Live LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150867 Detroit Red Wings Imprecise again, but when I was starting from behind, I needed to try something a little different.

It is fun to imagine what this team would look like on the ice — Tkachuk NHL Contraction Draft: In our 12-team league MacKinnon joins supersizing the Bertuzzi-Larkin-Mantha line that broke out down the hometown boy Krug on new-look Red Wings stretch for Detroit; MacKinnon and Hall dominating and drawing so much attention that Arvidsson ends up with a career year; Reilly Smith and Paul Stastny owning the flow of play and setting up expected-goals By Max Bultman Aug 12, 2019 monster Andrei Svechnikov to break out, in his older brother’s current city. Apologies to Athanasiou for sticking him on the fourth line, but the

team was so stacked there was just no choice. He’ll get more chances to I finally know how an NHL GM feels on Draft Lottery day. smash the game open against bad matchups this way anyway.

Well, other than the fact that my job wasn’t on the line. And the fact that I If I had a regret, it would probably have to be taking Johnsson with my wouldn’t actually be drafting the league’s next generation of superstars. last pick over either Bertuzzi or Filip Zadina. Both would have kept more And that it was all just for a simulation, and … OK, so I don’t still don’t Detroit identity and Zadina’s ceiling is certainly higher. And if I were know what it’s like watching the ping-pong balls decide the fate of your picking an actual team for this upcoming season, I’d likely have taken franchise in Toronto. Bertuzzi because of how versatile he can be in the lineup. But Johnsson looked just a little bit better on the computers, from what I could tell, and But I do know that when I got the notification that I had finished second in with limited NHL data on Zadina, I didn’t want to chance it. the contraction draft lottery Eric Duhatschek conducted, it felt like I had hit a jackpot for real. Charlie O’Connor, columnist at The Athletic for the I don’t know how this group stacks up to the super teams in Toronto, Flyers, was going to get Connor McDavid, and that was fine. I was going Boston or Pittsburgh — Rossi getting Jack Hughes to go with Crosby, to get my pick of Nathan MacKinnon and Nikita Kucherov — and frankly, Malkin, and his secret-service-caliber defense corps feels a bit unfair — considering some of the talents the other teams were protecting, that was but I do know fans in Detroit would love watching these guys go out and a break I badly needed. keep possession all damn game.

By now, hopefully, you’re aware of the project to which I’m referring. If I’m being honest, though, I think the exercise mostly reinforced how Based off the question “what if the NHL never expanded beyond 12 much is lost when a team is all stars, all the time. The room for young teams?” we at The Athletic conducted a “contraction draft” to condense players to come up and try to earn their way into that tier is part of the fun the teams’ talent pools and show what the average roster would look like of the sport. On my team alone, guys like Johnsson, Hronek and maybe — how absurd the talent concentration would be, but also what would be even Athanasiou (a former fourth-rounder) might have had a hard time lost by keeping the league small. Each team got to protect four active cracking into the league in the first place. And all three of them are players to preserve its essence, but, as will be no surprise to Red Wings’ electric players to watch. fans, that left me at a bit of a disadvantage as their pseudo-GM. Toronto Yes, it’s nuts to imagine MacKinnon finishing off a feed from Hall in protected four superstars. My last spot was down to Filip Hronek — a Detroit, then hopping the boards for Larkin to take the ensuing draw. And rookie who hasn’t even played a full season — and Tyler Bertuzzi, a if the league had stayed at 12 teams, maybe that could have been a great player for the current Red Wings, and a prime example of how reality. much of the game would be lost if the league was still so small …but one who ultimately didn’t end up drafted in our simulation. But I know one thing: Auston Matthews wouldn’t even be playing hockey if it weren’t for the expansion-team Coyotes. I kept Hronek for two reasons: one, I didn’t want to protect just forwards; and two, the ultimate assessment of our teams was to be done via And that’s really why I wrote this whole preamble: I hereby request for simulation. I was hoping Hronek’s combination of production and youth Commissioner Duhatschek to kindly take Matthews out of James Mirtle’s could give him a slight boost in the analytics models. lineup.

And when it came time to make some picks, my draft strategy followed a The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 similar set of goals. I consulted with friend of The Athletic (and Analytics Knower) Prashanth Iyer before the draft and decided to prioritize elite forwards early on, load up on defense in the middle rounds and then try and find some late-round gems to fill out the bottom six. I couldn’t have been happier when, after drafting MacKinnon second overall, I got Taylor Hall and Matthew Tkachuk at the next turn. Combining them with Dylan Larkin, that gave me four borderline elite forwards to build around, with keeper Anthony Mantha and middle-round sleeper Viktor Arvidsson filling out the top six. By the end, my team looked like this:

I obviously think it’s a strong lineup, but the most absurd thing about it might be that my roster is almost cap compliant, based on last season’s salaries. If you replaced Varlamov with a backup goalie on an ELC, I’m pretty sure it would be. It wasn’t a rule, and I didn’t even notice until the draft was over … but I wouldn’t mind getting some extra points for it.

As for the roster itself, getting Torey Krug home to Detroit should delight fans in this hypothetical world. Dougie Hamilton is a perpetually underrated defenseman to match him with on the top pair. Steve Yzerman gets old friend Mikhail Sergachev back and playing with Hronek, while Shea Theodore and P.K. Subban form an impressive second pair.

That core is not going to top the defensive juggernaut assembled by colleague Rob Rossi in Pittsburgh, with Norris candidates all over the lineup, but the goal was to find as many relatively cheap, play-controlling defenseman as possible — we were being judged by the computers, after all.

I mostly used the website hockeystatcards.com as a draft board, considering it tracks Dom’s game score metric, and while I’m sure it didn’t exactly follow how the simulation would judge, it was a helpful guide. I also used this article Dom wrote in December, projecting the NHL in 2021, to get a feel for what his model thought of certain players. 1150868 Edmonton Oilers Tippett might be able to increase offence by moving Klefbom from the top pairing and sliding Darnell Nurse into a shutdown duo with Larsson. That would also allow the coach to give Klefbom more offensive zone starts, Lowetide: Projecting the 2019-20 Edmonton Oilers opening-night lineup possibly alongside new arrival Persson on the second pair.

Kris Russell, Matt Benning and Jones would be third-pairing options, and if Persson struggles, any of the three could move up to the second By Allan Mitchell Aug 12, 2019 pairing. It’s a bunch of veterans who have been together for some time, but as a group, they badly need improved puck control and movement.

Persson on the second pair would represent an improvement over More than in any year in recent memory, the Oilers hit midsummer with a Russell from a year ago. major cloud of vague hanging over the roster. Holes are one thing, but as A quick note about recalls. In predicting the seven names above, I’m it stands now, this edition of the club will see at least six spots decided in excluding some outstanding talents who are either NHL-ready or damned September based on performance. My August projection last season close. Evan Bouchard’s passes are going to be difficult to send away, correctly predicted 20 of 23, missing out on (I suggested William Lagesson and Ethan Bear are knocking on the door, and Dmitri Jakub Jerabek) among defenceman, and missing forwards Alex Samorukov posted the most impressive season in the entire system. We Chiasson and Kailer Yamamoto (suggesting Scottie Upshall and Pontus could see a veteran traded to make room at any time, including this Aberg). However, as Chiasson and Garrison signed Oct. 2, and my list summer. published Aug. 30, I think it was a fair representation of the state of the team at the time. Puck IQ shows Nurse and Larsson playing the most minutes last year against elites (546 for Larsson, 525 for Nurse), and those totals might I doubt this year’s attempt will be as close. There are far too many rise if Tippett makes them the shutdown pairing. If Nurse flourishes in variables, including the fate of Jesse Puljujarvi and a monster logjam of that feature role, his next contract will be a monster. possible wingers who are impossible to handicap (they’re all shades of gray). Here’s my take on what the opening-night lineup might look this Centres (5): Connor McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jujhar Khaira, fall: Gaetan Haas, Colby Cave

Goaltenders (2): Mikko Koskinen, Mike Smith Connor McDavid is beyond brilliant and pulls a mediocre (or worse) team to impressive heights when he’s on the ice. I looked for a single stat that The Mikko Koskinen contract extension received the headlines, reflected his impact and settled on five-on-five goal differential, with 97 especially coming in the hours before Peter Chiarelli was fired by the on and off the ice. Edmonton was 77-75 with McDavid on the ice in 2018- Oilers. It became the story of Koskinen, obscuring some interesting (and 19, and that’s a massive slide from the previous season (81-61). In 2018- positive) facts about his first season in Edmonton. 19, without McDavid, the Oilers were 69-103. It is a damning statistic and In his first 1,000 minutes, Koskinen performed well. He boasted a .925 points out just how bad Peter Chiarelli’s final team performed. save percentage while going 11-5-1 leading up to Christmas 2018. The Ryan Nugent-Hopkins played almost 400 minutes five-on-five against Oilers played him on back-to-back nights Jan. 19-20, and beginning on elites and was outscored 12-17 against the league’s best in those the 20th, Koskinen finished the season 11-12-5 with a .900 save minutes. There are those who are critical of the Nuge, but the fact is percentage. One of the key items mentioned by Ken Holland and Dave Edmonton hasn’t provided strong enough linemates for the task at hand Tippett over the course of spring and summer is making sure both in these recent seasons. His most common linemates a year ago were goalies play and get plenty of rest. That alone should help Koskinen’s Alex Chiasson, Jesse Puljujarvi and Milan Lucic. The addition of James performance in the coming season. Neal might offer the No. 2 line an offensive spark. MIKE SMITH ON HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH OILERS COACH DAVE Jujhar Khaira has been mentioned as a centre option by management, TIPPETT: “TIPP WAS A BIG REASON WHY MY CAREER TURNED and based on the lack of proven quality behind Nos. 97 and 93, I’ve AROUND IN ARIZONA … I HAVE A LOT OF RESPECT FOR THE WAY placed him here. In a recent look at possible top-six forward options, HE COACHES, THE WAY HE TREATS PEOPLE. HIS Khaira showed well everywhere but offensively. He is the best roster TRANSPARENCY IS UNLIKE A LOT OF COACHES. HE’S VERY option at No. 3 centre, unless Gaetan Haas makes a big-time impact in HONEST. (1/2) training camp. It’s a better bet that Haas fights with Colby Cave for the — DANIEL NUGENT-BOWMAN (@DNBSPORTS) JULY 1, 2019 fourth-line pivot role, with Kyle Brodziak also in the picture. I have Brodziak beginning the season on LTIR, but if he can come to camp and Mike Smith signed with his old coach (Tippett), and Edmonton procured a show previous levels of ability, it would represent a major positive for goalie who owns a 17-5-1 career record against them, including a nifty Edmonton at this position. .924 save percentage. Catherine Silverman spoke to me shortly after Smith’s signing. She said: “When he’s on his game, his size and his Wingers (9): Leon Draisaitl, Zack Kassian, James Neal, Alex Chiasson, reasonably above-average command of puckhandling can make him an Markus Granlund, Josh Archibald, Joakim Nygard, Sam Gagner, Tomas unstoppable force even when facing a high volume of shots. His bad Jurco games are especially poor, though, and he has a fiery temperament that Call this segment in the projection an exercise in futility, because there is can seem to drive him to perfect games or sink his own ship. He may end so much that isn’t known. Leon Draisaitl’s magical season (50 goals, 105 up being exactly what Edmonton needs in net, a decisive presence who points) came while he spent 67 percent of his ice time (all disciplines) isn’t afraid to call out his teammates and wake them up, but there’s no with Connor McDavid. McDavid’s right wingers could be Zack Kassian, guarantee.” Alex Chiasson and James Neal, with Neal being a fascinating possibility. Last season Edmonton’s SA/60 (31.21) at five-on-five ranked No. 20, Most fans have Neal playing left wing with Nugent-Hopkins, although he with GA/60 (2.65) slotting No. 23 in the discipline. Tippett’s best teams can play either side. My opinion is that any of Chiasson, Kassian, Khaira did well in these categories, an example being the 2013-14 Phoenix and Sam Gagner might spend time with the Nuge on the second line. If Coyotes. Expect improvement by year’s end in shots against, and rested RNH doesn’t find chemistry with any of these men, don’t discount the goalies should help as well. possibility that we see Tippett use Nugent-Hopkins on a “featured Defencemen (7): Oscar Klefbom, Adam Larsson, Darnell Nurse, Matt checking” line with veterans Markus Granlund and Josh Archibald. Benning, Kris Russell, Caleb Jones and Joel Persson Tippett is going to play the hell out of Granlund and Archibald on the I’m projecting two additions to this year’s lineup, with Caleb Jones and penalty kill, and there’s reason to believe the No. 3 centre (Jujhar Khaira) Joel Persson replacing Jason Garrison and Evan Bouchard. The big on my depth chart will also play a feature role when the team is short- news in training camp will probably surround the pairings. I think there’s a handed. Khaira had a solid year in the discipline in 2017-18 but fell off good chance Tippett splits the two veteran Swedes in an effort to better some last season. define the top two pairings. Oscar Klefbom and Adam Larsson led the To my mind Tippett will want to make the fourth line an “outscoring” line, Oilers in defensive zone starts (over 10 percent, via Natural Stat Trick) meaning Sam Gagner could do some damage against the soft parade. per 60, Larsson’s total ranking No. 16 among all NHL regulars. Haas and Cave are my centres for the trio, but Gagner can take strongside faceoffs to help out, and Joakim Nygard might flourish on a line facing lesser competition. One quick note: I don’t know what is going to happen with Jesse Puljujarvi over the rest of summer, but this is a classic case of rock meets hard place. If the young man was serious about Europe, he’s already there, so the NHL is preferable. He could be traded. It’s still technically possible he signs in Edmonton in the days close to training camp opening. If he’s on the roster, third-line right wing is possible, but he could also land on the left side. If he signs with the Oilers, he’ll make the team and ideally push Alex Chiasson down the depth chart.

Projected opening-night roster, 2019-20

Leon Draisaitl—Connor McDavid—Zack Kassian

James Neal—Ryan Nugent-Hopkins—Alex Chiasson

Markus Granlund—Jujhar Khaira—Josh Archibald

Joakim Nygard—Gaetan Haas—Sam Gagner

Extra: Tomas Jurco, Colby Cave

Darnell Nurse—Adam Larsson

Oscar Klefbom—Joel Persson

Kris Russell—Matt Benning

Extra: Caleb Jones

Mikko Koskinen (Mike Smith)

The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150869 Florida Panthers THIS AND THAT

▪ The Panthers’ only other retired number is 93, in honor of their first team president, the late Bill Torrey. That number commemorates the Roberto Luongo will become the first Florida Panthers’ player to receive franchise’s first game in 1993. this honor ▪ Luongo’s further comments on Bobrovsky were that he is “very technical” and a “great addition” to the team. “He will give the team a BY WALTER VILLA chance to win,” Luongo said.

Miami Herald LOADED: 08.13.2019

If anybody knows how new Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky feels … it’s former Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo.

Prior to the start of the 2006 season, the Vancouver Canucks signed Luongo to a four-year, $27 million deal — a large NHL contract in those days.

Last month, on July 1, the Panthers signed Bobrovsky to a seven-year, $70 million contract. Luongo had announced his retirement from the Panthers and the NHL on June 26, clearing the way for Bobrovsky.

“I was happy for him,” Luongo said on Monday when asked for his thoughts on Bobrovsky’s deal. “It reminds me of when I signed a big contract with Vancouver. It comes with big expectations.”

Luongo, 40, did an impressive job of living up to expectations throughout his career, which is why he ranks third in NHL history with 489 wins, trailing only Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy. Luongo played 19 NHL seasons, making six All-Star Games and winning two Olympic gold medals, with Canada in 2010 and 2014.

On Monday, the Panthers made it official, announcing that Luongo’s jersey — No. 1 — will be retired March 7 in a home game against the Montreal Canadiens. Luongo — who will become the first Panthers player to have his jersey retired — is from Montreal, making that date perfect for the ceremony.

“It’s super exciting because I know everyone back home will be watching,” said Luongo, who played 11 years with the Panthers. “Montreal is the team I grew up watching. Hopefully, there will be a lot of people [at the BB&T Center] to enjoy a special moment.”

Crowd size has long been an issue for the Panthers, who finished next to last in the NHL last season with an average of 13,261 in the building.

Luongo admitted Monday that it was “disappointing” that there weren’t more people at what turned out to be his last game as a player, a 4-3 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils on April 6 at the BB&T Center.

“There were not many people at the game,” Luongo said. “It’s a little bit sad.”

Of course, Luongo didn’t know at that time that he would announce his retirement two months later. He was under contract with the Panthers, and he fully intended to return to the team, even if as a backup.

But as the offseason dragged on, Luongo — for the first time in his career — found that his hunger to prepare for the next season was waning.

“I decided to listen to my body,” Luongo said of his retirement choice. “My body didn’t want to go through the summer workouts anymore. August was always the worst month – double training, on the ice and in the gym. I won’t miss that part.

“But I will miss the guys once the season starts. [Still], it was time for me to step away from the game.”

Luongo said he didn’t realize until this past weekend that he is the first Panthers player to have his jersey retired.

“That makes it extra special,” he said. “It’s a great honor. I’m looking forward to the night [March 7].”

Luongo made it clear that while Montreal is where he was born, South Florida is where he is raising his family.

This is home now, and he also wants to stay in the game somehow. He has said he doesn’t envision himself as a coach, but, ultimately, he would love to be a general manager, making trades and doing deals.

“Hockey is my life,” he said. “I want to stay involved. I’ve had a few conversations [with the Panthers]. There’s nothing set in stone, but, down the line, you will see me around.” 1150870 Florida Panthers played in a Panthers uniform marks the fourth-most in franchise history by any player.

Luongo, the fourth pick in the 1997 draft by the Islanders, also was a two- Roberto Luongo to become first Florida Panthers player to have his time Olympic gold medalist for Canada (2010, 2014) and led the team to number retired the 2004 World Cup of Hockey title.

Sun Sentinel LOADED: 08.13.2019 By KEVEN LERNER and BRETT SHWEKY

SUNRISE- Roberto Luongo — the most popular player in Florida Panthers history — will become the first player in team history to have his number retired.

Luongo, who retired on June 26 after a stellar 20-year career, will have his No. 1 jersey retired on Saturday, March 7, against his hometown team — the Montreal Canadiens.

“It’s a great honor. When I found out [Sunday], I didn’t even realize I was going to be the first player retired,” Luongo said during a conference call with reporters on Monday. “Obviously, it makes it extra special and I’m looking forward to that night.”

The Panthers previously retired two other numbers — 93 for the team’s first president, Bill Torrey, to commemorate the franchise’s inaugural game in 1993, and 37 in honor of franchise founder H. Wayne Huizenga, who passed away on March 22, 2018. That number was selected by the Huizenga family in recognition of his birth year and lucky number.

Luongo said he was looking forward to returning for a 21st season, but his body was telling him otherwise.

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“At the end of the day, I just decided to listen to my body," Luongo said. “I knew that I was at the point in my career, where my body didn’t want to go through the motions of a summer workout anymore and it was just getting harder and harder for me to prepare for the season to get my body ready to play. When the season ended, I had every intention on coming back. My mind was not thinking about retirement at all.

“There’s been a wide range of emotions over the last few months for me,” added Luongo. “To be honest with you, it’s been bittersweet to know that I’m stepping away from the game. It’s hard to let something go that you love so much.”

The Parkland resident and Montreal native ranks second in NHL history in games played by a goaltender (1,044), third in wins (489) and ninth in shutouts (77). He is one of only three goaltenders in NHL history to have played in 1,000 games.

“Roberto is a cornerstone of Panthers history and an icon of the game,” said team owner . “He has represented himself and the Panthers with tremendous dignity, determination and a standard of excellence throughout his career. His level of commitment to this franchise, his teammates, his family and the South Florida community is second to none. There is no player more deserving to be the first Florida Panther to have his jersey number retired.”

The Panthers originally acquired Luongo in a trade with the New York Islanders on June 24, 2000. During his first five seasons with the Panthers, he tied for the third-most shutouts (26), was a finalist for the 2003-04 Vezina Trophy and played in the 2004 All-Star Game. He spent the next eight seasons with Vancouver before returning to the Panthers in 2014.

“A true professional, competitor and gentleman, Roberto set the standard for players in this organization,” said Panthers general manager Dale Tallon. “There was never a question in any of our minds that Roberto would be the first Panthers player to have his number retired by the franchise. One of the game’s most iconic goaltenders, he gave his heart and soul to the Panthers and the South Florida community and carried himself with dignity, modesty and humor."

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Luongo, a five-time All-Star, has 489 career wins — the third-most in NHL history behind only Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy.

Luongo played 11 seasons with the Panthers and is the team’s all-time leader in wins (230), shutouts (38) and saves (16,068). His 572 games 1150871 Florida Panthers — 205 LIVE (@WWE205LIVE) JULY 24, 2019

By retiring with three years remaining on a heavy front-loaded contract, Luongo technically gave up $3.6 million in real salary owed to him and Roberto Luongo to have number retired by Florida Panthers, still unsure did the team a favor as far as the salary cap goes. about what is next Because of the way his contract was structured, Luongo would have counted for $5.3 million per season against the salary cap for the next By George Richards Aug 12, 2019 three years.

By retiring early, Florida is only charged a recapture penalty of $1.1 million for the next three seasons. The Canucks, who originally signed SUNRISE, Fla. — Whether he was was playing for the Canucks or the Luongo to his 12-year contract, will be hit with just north of $3 million for Panthers, if it was August, Roberto Luongo could be found on the ice in the next three seasons because of the early retirement. South Florida preparing for another season. And, by retiring early instead of “going through the motions” of being put For years, Luongo’s offseason routine was rigorous. In the steamy on the long-term injured list, Luongo is free to move on with the next step summer months, he would go from early morning workouts at the in his career, and things such as his jersey retirement and Hall of Fame Panthers’ IceDen in Coral Springs to spending his afternoons in the gym. eligibility can move forward.

This summer has most definitely been different for Luongo. “At the end of the day, I just decided to listen to my body,” Luongo said. “I was at the point in my career where my body just didn’t want to go In June, just days before the Panthers made a huge splash in free through the motions of a summer workout anymore and it was getting agency, Luongo announced his retirement after 19 NHL seasons with the harder and harder during the season to get ready to play. The more we Islanders, Panthers and Canucks. got into the summer, the more I realized it was time to step away from For the first time since he was a young boy, he is not preparing for an the game.” upcoming season. What Luongo ends up doing next remains a bit of a mystery, although “Yeah, it has definitely been weird,” Luongo said Monday. “It has been general manager Dale Tallon has said he would be welcomed to join the different. You know, I give my wife (Gina) every day the play-by-play of franchise in an off-ice capacity whenever “he feels it is right to join us.” where I should be; going on the ice, going to work out. Luongo’s younger brother Leo is the goaltending coach for Florida’s AHL “Usually, this time of year and August is the worst month. You’re doing team in Springfield and Roberto has said the job his brother has done double-training at the gym and on the ice, so I am not missing that part, I makes him proud. can tell you that. But I am going to miss being around the guys once the Luongo also has said he doesn’t think coaching is in his future, although season starts.” he says “hockey has been my life” and wants to remain in the game in On Monday morning, the Panthers announced Luongo will become the some capacity. first player in franchise history to have his number retired. I’M A MAN OF THE PEOPLE. SO I NEED SOME ADVICE While team founders H. Wayne Huizenga and Bill Torrey have numbers — STROMBONE (@STROMBONE1) AUGUST 12, 2019 retired in their honor, Luongo will be the first player to see the number he wore all those years hung from the rafters of BB&T Center in Sunrise. “I definitely want to stay involved somehow,” Luongo said. “For now, nothing is set in stone. We have had a few conversations, but I definitely On March 7, when his hometown Montreal Canadiens make their second want to stay involved in the game. But the when-and-where, we’re not visit to Sunrise, the team will honor Luongo for all he meant to the sure just yet. Down the line somewhere, you will see me around some organization since they acquired him in a blockbuster deal with the time.” Islanders in 2000. The Panthers have been loyal to a number of former players over the LUONGO WILL BECOME THE FIRST #FLAPANTHERS PLAYER IN years, with captains Bryan McCabe and Derek MacKenzie in the hockey FRANCHISE HISTORY TO HAVE HIS JERSEY NUMBER RETIRED ON operations department and Shawn Thornton working on the business MARCH 7, 2020. side of the organization. » HTTPS://T.CO/Q7Q72FVI6L PIC.TWITTER.COM/SZD1BYKDVR Owner Vinnie Viola and Tallon will find a place for Luongo. — FLORIDA PANTHERS (@FLAPANTHERS) AUGUST 12, 2019 “Roberto is a cornerstone of Panthers history and an icon of the game,” Luongo ended up having two stints with the Panthers. Viola said in a statement released by the team on Monday.

After being traded to Vancouver in 2006, Florida reacquired Luongo in “He has represented himself and the Panthers with tremendous dignity, 2014. He finished his career holding every goaltending record in Florida determination and a standard of excellence throughout his career. franchise history and will likely head to the Hall of Fame in three years Roberto exemplifies what it means to be a Florida Panther. His level of near the top of the NHL record books as well. commitment to this franchise, his teammates, his family and the South Florida community is second to none. “It’s a great honor,” said Luongo, who is second among goalies in games played (1,044), third in wins (489) and ninth in shutouts (77). “There is no player more deserving to be the first Florida Panther to have his jersey number retired.” “When when I found out yesterday, I didn’t even realize I was going to be the first player to have his number retired so obviously that makes it even Deciding it was time extra special. It’s a great honor and I am looking forward to the night.” Luongo officially announced his retirement with a lengthy post through What is next? his popular Twitter account, but it came as little surprise to the people closest to him. A month after he announced his retirement, Luongo’s first public appearance came in a WWE bit as the Singh Brothers, whom Luongo Goalie coach and friend Robb Tallas worked with Luongo not only during says he has known since his days with the Canucks, made a video of the season but also during those grueling summer workouts as well. them trying to get him to join them in the ring. When the 2018-19 season ended, Luongo said he was ready to come While Luongo may find himself doing some wrestling cameos down the back for at least another season and said he was cool with being put into road, his longterm career could come in the Panthers’ front office. a backup role.

BEFORE #205LIVE, THE @SINGHBROSWWE DECIDED TO SEE IF “I have done it before, I know what it takes, and I realize I am 40 years @STROMBONE1 (ROBERTO LUONGO) IS INTERESTED IN A NEW old and taking on a heavy workload at this age is tough,” Luongo said a CAREER PATH SINCE RETIRING FROM THE @NHL day before what became his final NHL game back in April. PIC.TWITTER.COM/Q49O7TPEYC “I am well aware if I come back, that is the likely scenario for me. And I “There has been a wide, wide range of emotions over the past few am OK with that. I like to practice. The only time I don’t practice is if I am months for me,” Luongo said. “I thought about it a little bit, have seen tired, but if I am not playing as many games, I would have more energy some clips online that for some reason I always go and watch them, look to practice and work on my game. When I have missed some time, I at some of the things I have accomplished and some of the saves I have have had some of my best games when I have come back. So that’s not made. an issue at all.” “To be honest, it has been bittersweet to know that I am stepping away I’D LIKE TO SELECT A SEAT SYMBOLIC OF MY CAREER…..DO YOU from the game. It is hard to let something go that you love so much.” HAVE ANYTHING AVAILABLE BEHIND THE GOAL LINE? HTTPS://T.CO/SXZVYJFKIW The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019

— STROMBONE (@STROMBONE1) JULY 2, 2019

The Panthers eventually signed Sergei Bobrovsky to take over as the starter, a move that had been in the works for a long time.

Tallas said that when the season ended, the Panthers were moving forward with the idea Luongo would return. Then, Luongo and Tallas met for coffee and it was apparent Luongo wasn’t all in for another ride.

“At the end of the season, it sounded like he was ready to come back and then he got away from the game a little bit,’’ Tallas said. “Everything settled down from the season, he was enjoying time with the family instead of being at the rink for six hours, spending all that time on the training table.

“During the season, that’s the routine and you go with it. When you don’t have to do it anymore, you kind of realize, ‘Wow, that wasn’t a lot of fun.’ He put in a lot of work. And now, you’re starting at zero again. I think that was a hard mental block to get over.”

Luongo admits that, while he was ready to return for a 20th NHL season, when he thought about getting back into the gym and back onto the ice, his body wasn’t willing.

For the first time, Luongo said, he dreaded the idea of getting back after it.

That, he said, told him he was done.

“It was a gradual thing,” Luongo said on how he came to the final decision. “When the season ended, I had every intention of coming back. My mind was not thinking about retirement at all. Then the offseason started and the weeks started to go by and I started thinking about having to start my conditioning program and all that stuff.

“My body was just telling me I was not ready to go through all that stuff again. We got into May and I started working out a bit and it was just getting tougher and tougher for me to recover and go through all the preparations I had to just to get through the season. …”

“I think the final kicker for me was for the first time in my life when I thought about getting back on the ice in August, I was not looking forward to it. That was a sign for me that all the work it took to get ready to play had taken over my love of the game.”

By retiring this offseason, there will be no “Farewell Tour” for Luongo.

When he played in Florida’s season finale April 6 against New Jersey, Luongo says he did not look at that as his final game and if he had, it only would have been a distraction to him.

“It is a bit of hit-or-miss because I am glad it went that way and was able to just go out there and play and not think about it,” Luongo said. “If we would have known (that would be the last game), it would have been a distraction.

“But on the other hand, there weren’t many people at the game and it was kind of sad that aside from my wife and kids and a friend who was in town, there weren’t many of (my) people there to see it. It is disappointing in that sense, but you can’t control everything.”

His final moment as an NHL goalie came with Luongo dropping to the ice in frustration after Travis Zajac scored on a power play in overtime to give the Devils a 4-3 victory.

On March 7, expect Luongo to have a full contingent of family members and friends inside a packed house as his No. 1 ascends up to the highest reaches of an arena that has been like home to him for so long.

By playing Montreal, the pregame ceremony will almost certainly be broadcast throughout his home province of Quebec, allowing friends and fans who cannot travel to Broward County to enjoy it from their living room. 1150872 Los Angeles Kings Better yet, I might be able to move Quick to improve my team at the made-up trade deadline.

Importantly, there’s some youthful energy on my team as well – next NHL Contraction Draft: In a 12-team league, we created a Kings team year’s Calder Trophy winner Cale Makar also patrols my blue line and I that can contend took a chance that a healthy Nolan Patrick, starting his third full NHL season, is going to break out in 2019-20 and be a steal in the final round. Longtime Kings fans may remember that Brayden Schenn was actually a By Lisa Dillman Aug 12, 2019 Kings draft choice in 2009 but was later sent to the Philadelphia Flyers in the Mike Richards trade. We love his versatility and we’re happy to have

him back playing in his rightful home next season. So the devilish sorts that run The Athletic in Canada came up with a You’ll notice the presence of forward Kasperi Kapanen. Kings General bright idea to pass away the time of day this summer. They wanted us to Manager Rob Blake couldn’t pry him loose from the Maple Leafs in the think of the NHL back when it was a 12-team league – which people with Jake Muzzin trade in January, but I managed to take him off the board long memories in Los Angeles will remember fondly. Red Kelly was the before GM Max tried to spirit him away to Detroit. first coach. Bob Wall was the first captain. A wild-and-crazy guy, Jack Kent Cooke, owned the team. Now, I’m been waiting until the end to explain the three picks that may have Kings fans up in arms – three Ducks are joining us as well: Ryan The idea was to see who, among today’s NHL players, would survive to Getzlaf, Jakob Silfverberg and Hampus Lindholm. Getzlaf obviously isn’t play in a league which only consisted of the dozen teams of the post- the player he once was, but for one more year, he’s going to help us 1967 expansion. I got to protect four players off the current Kings’ roster compete for the Stanley Cup. And anyone that watches hockey in and after that it was a free-for-all. Southern California has to come away impressed with the steady That first step was also the easiest part of the exercise: Anze Kopitar, consistency that Silfverberg and Lindholm bring. Put it this way: If Ducks Dustin Brown, Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick made up my holdover GM Bob Murray ever made them available in real life, chances are Blake Kings’ nucleus. Kopitar and Brown have an undeniable chemistry. would be all in, bidding for their services. Doughty is a consistent Norris Trophy contender if you subtract last Side note: My team also has one former captain (Brown), the current season’s subpar showing. Quick is only little more than a year from Kings captain (Kopitar) and the captains from Anaheim (Getzlaf) and winning the William M. Jennings Trophy for the lowest goals-against Calgary (Giordano). average in the league. Who will be captaining this outfit? Well that hot-button topic might be I was also a bit fortunate in the next stage, getting the third pick in the worthy of 1,000 more words. In other words, best dealt with in a randomly selected order (hey, isn’t about time someone in L.A. kinda roundtable on another day. sorta did well in a lottery?) So there it is – the revised and revamped Los Angeles Kings, as part of a Truthfully, knowing Connor McDavid was going first, I’d hoped to land made-up, shrunken-down NHL world. Maybe I’m biased, but it certainly Nathan MacKinnon of Colorado here. Alas, he went second to the Detroit looks like a Stanley Cup contender to me. franchise (boo: Max Bultman). So as a ‘consolation’ prize, I took the reigning Hart Trophy winner, Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 Lightning. If Ilya Kovalchuk couldn’t find any chemistry with Kopitar and Brown, maybe Kucherov can. He sure looked capable of providing the sort of offense (128 points last season) the Kings have sorely lacked the past few seasons.

The downside with picking third was I didn’t have another selection until the third-last pick of the second round. But here, I was happy to grab Calgary Flames defenseman Mark Giordano. Some will argue that Giordano is getting on in years and his play may soon start to deteriorate, but the stated goal of the assignment was to win the Stanley Cup in 2019-20, so I’m betting that the drop-off next year isn’t going to be nearly as sharp as some people believe. If you can get land winners of prestigious league awards, back-to-back, I’m saying that’s a pretty good starting point.

And since I couldn’t get MacKinnon in the first round, I was happy to find his former Colorado Avalanche teammate Matt Duchene available in the third round to play behind Kopitar. Strength down the middle was a strong suit in the Kings’ two Stanley Cup championships – and a lot of what Duchene brings, especially his foot speed – is what made Jeff Carter so effective before injuries took a step away from him.

From there, I started a run of what eventually ended up being three Dallas Stars – Jamie Benn, Alexander Radulov and right at the end, rookie Roope Hintz. At different times last season, when coach Jim Montgomery threw his lines in a blender, those three played together and were quite effective. I have them playing apart, but on those nights when we need to juggle the lines, I can see that being a useful unit.

As a team, the Winnipeg Jets lost three of their top five defensemen to free agency or trade this summer – and they lost the other two to me. In Josh Morrissey, I have one of the best two-way shutdown defensemen in the league. In Dustin Byfuglien, I have one of the most physically dominant presences – someone with a skill level and a shot that makes him a 25-minute-a-night performer. In real life, he’s a handful to defend against and fun to watch when he gets it going.

Some may argue that Quick’s best days are behind him, but if they are, Tuukka Rask – who led the Boston Bruins to the 2019 Stanley Cup final – is going to be a perfect partner, and they can fight it out for the starter’s position. 1150873 Minnesota Wild move on. There’s no doubt Waddell would have been a finalist for the Wild job, but it’s believed Leipold told Waddell that he just wasn’t in a position yet to say if Waddell for sure would be offered the job.

With Don Waddell backing out of GM search, where do Wild go from The Wild, sources say, “still have a ways to go” in the process before here? making a final decision as to who will be the fourth full-time GM in Wild history.

By Michael Russo Aug 12, 2019 That delay put Waddell in a tough spot.

“Their timetable was different than our timetable,” Waddell told The Athletic. “I wish the Wild nothing but the best. They’ve got some things to While the search for the next general manager of the Wild is expected to figure out, of course, and some challenges and decisions to make, but advance into the next stage this week, one top candidate pulled himself they’ll get a good GM and they’ve got a lot of good pieces there. out of the running Monday. “They’re an experienced team. I’ve studied that team a lot the last 10 Don Waddell, the current president and GM of the Carolina Hurricanes, days or so now.” called Wild owner Craig Leipold late Monday morning to officially back out of the process. After a weekend of contemplation, Waddell met with Leipold returns to Minnesota on Tuesday and it’s believed he, Majka and his own owner, Tom Dundon, and negotiated a new three-year contract executive advisor Mike Modano will talk to more candidates on the phone to remain in Raleigh. and in person. Then, the process should advance quickly as second interviews are lined up with top candidates like Hextall and Guerin and Dundon is not a fan of signing his employees to contracts, saying potentially an aggressive courtship yet again with Fitzgerald. Monday, “I understand that I’m alone on this one, but that’s how I feel. … Contracts don’t help me that much, candidly, but given the situation we’re The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 in, it made everybody more comfortable that we just did it. … I’m glad this makes everybody feel better.”

Even though Waddell’s contract expired June 30, Dundon wasn’t worried about Waddell’s future until it erupted last week that the veteran NHL executive could conceivably leave Raleigh for the Twin Cities right before the upcoming season. After all, Waddell had been operating as Carolina’s hockey ops and business-side boss all offseason.

Dundon was heavily criticized for leaving Waddell blowing in the wind after he managed the Hurricanes to the Eastern Conference Final last season and was named a GM of the Year finalist. Dundon ultimately relented and signed Waddell long-term.

“The Minnesota opportunity was intriguing,” Waddell told The Athletic Minnesota during a phone interview. “I know Craig and I like Craig, but it’s a situation where I like it here in Carolina and it was just a matter of Tom having different opinions on the whole contract thing than me. That’s now changed.”

Waddell’s withdrawal likely thrusts former Philadelphia Flyers GM Ron Hextall, current Pittsburgh Penguins assistant GM and current New Jersey assistant GM Tom Fitzgerald even further up the pole as top contenders for the job.

It’s believed Montreal Canadiens assistant GM Scott Mellanby and London Knights co-owner and GM Mark Hunter are also candidates, as well as potentially former Tampa Bay Lightning GM and current NHL Network analyst Brian Lawton.

The Wild had interest in talking to associate GM Bill Zito for a second straight offseason, as well as New York Rangers assistant GM Chris Drury. But as of now, sources say, Minnesota wasn’t granted permission to talk to either man.

Hextall, the winningest goalie in Flyers history, and Guerin, a 400-goal scorer and two-time Stanley Cup champ as a player, apparently had great first interviews with Leipold and team president Matt Majka. While Fitzgerald has yet to interview for the job, the Wild have sought permission to talk to him for a second consecutive offseason after he was largely considered the runner-up to Paul Fenton last go-around. Fitzgerald, the original Predators’ captain who played more than 1,000 NHL games, has 10 years of managerial experience with Pittsburgh and New Jersey.

Waddell, who has 40 years of professional playing, coaching, scouting and managerial experience, immediately entered top contender status when he flew to Racine, Wisconsin, last week and interviewed on the same day Guerin met with Leipold and Majka. That came a few days after Hextall and former Oilers and Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli interviewed for the job.

Waddell has a great relationship with Leipold. In fact, the former Atlanta Thrashers president and GM was considered the runner-up to David Poile when Leipold, then Nashville’s owner, selected Poile as the first- ever Predators’ GM in 1997.

Over the weekend, sources say Waddell called Leipold to explain he was getting pressure from his owner to either commit to staying in Carolina or 1150874 Minnesota Wild No.

How would you characterize your relationship with Fenton?

Q&A: Bruce Boudreau on life without a GM, his future, Parise’s status My relationship with him was cordial. We talked, we never yelled at each and more other. It was cordial.

You’ve coached three NHL teams, have worked for a number of GMs. How awkward is this right now that you’re a month from training camp By Michael Russo Aug 12, 2019 and you don’t have a GM to ask questions to, to meet with to get ready for the season? Does that affect the way that you can do your job now, how you prepare for training camp, the exhibition games, putting the Bruce Boudreau is back in town after more than two weeks away visiting roster together, things like that? his mum and working at his 36th annual Golden Horseshoe Hockey School. It really doesn’t affect anything I’m doing, actually, right now. I’m going to be in again Monday morning putting all of training camp together with the When the veteran coach left Minnesota in late July, the Wild employed a staff. I don’t think there’s going to be any major player transactions at this general manager. That’s no longer the case despite training camp stage in the game, so I’m putting training camp together with the guys opening four weeks and three days from Monday. that we’re going to have. I guess my biggest concern is the restricted free agents that aren’t signed and finding out what the odds of them being in Boudreau has stayed out of the fray as owner Craig Leipold, president camp are because that would affect camp if we missed three guys — Matt Majka and executive advisor Mike Modano search for Paul Fenton’s (Kevin) Fiala, (Joel Eriksson) Ek and (Louie) Belpedio. Our numbers replacement, joking that he only knows the candidates for the job based would differ and probably the line combinations would differ by good off what The Athletic has reported and “hearsay.” margins if those guys aren’t around. Also, I have to see what shape — The top candidates, The Athletic has reported former Flyers GM Ron not physically … but what leg shape — Mikko (Koivu’s) in, whether he’s Hextall, Penguins assistant GM Bill Guerin, Devils assistant GM Tom taking full contact (after his season-ending knee surgery in February). Fitzgerald, Canadiens assistant GM Scott Mellanby and London Knights Those are big training camp questions that usually a GM’s the one to co-owner and GM Mark Hunter. On Monday, Carolina Hurricanes answer in combination with our trainers and doctors. president and GM Don Waddell — previously also a top candidate — But as far as my responsibilities right now, I’m still tinkering with line informed the Wild he’s backing out of the search and staying with combinations every moment. The good thing about having TRIA as your Carolina, sources say. practice facility is that everybody’s able to come and skate and work out “I’m not sure if Craig will want me involved in the process or will seek my probably by the third week in August. That means I can have individual thoughts, but we’re both in town starting this week, so we’ll see,” meetings with these guys before camp and get everybody on the same Boudreau said. page. That’s really my big thing right now. Last year was unacceptable. None of us were happy the way things ended, so we have to get Boudreau returned to Minnesota late Saturday night. everybody excited and ready to go for a big year. So those are things I’m really looking forward to. On Monday morning, he’ll meet with his coaching staff about training camp, then head out to Eagan in the afternoon to watch Vikings practice Paul Fenton from the sideline with coach Mike Zimmer. Craig Leipold and Paul Fenton (Michael Russo) His youngest son, Minnesota Blue Ox now-assistant coach Brady Boudreau, is also running a satellite offshoot of his dad’s hockey school Obviously, as you just said, last year was a big disappointment for the in Coon Rapids on August 19-23 (see the bottom of this story for more team and particularly for you personally. It’s the first time you missed the information), so pops will be part of that. playoffs in a season where you coached the full year since 1998. How confident are you that in this tough conference and tough division that But right now, without a GM, Boudreau is sort of alone on an island as he you’ll be successful this season with the additions of Mats Zuccarello and preps for training camp. Ryan Hartman and returns of Mikko Koivu and Matt Dumba?

That being the case, late last week, Boudreau spoke to The Athletic I think if we’re hungry, I still think we’re a good team. I thought we were a about life without a GM, how he’s proceeding, his thoughts about the good team the beginning of last year and I still think we’re a good team upcoming season and how and where he sees players being plugged now. Obviously, last year went awry when we ran into some injuries and into the lineup. made some significant roster changes in January and February. We’re a different team than the start of last year, but quite frankly, my experience Here’s The Athletic’s conversation with the Wild’s soon-to-be fourth-year in this league tells me that all the teams are fairly similar. So whichever head coach. team wants to work hard enough and play the right way is going to be Chuck Fletcher is the man that hired you. How odd is it that you’ll be successful on those nights. coaching for your third general manager in Minnesota? In a league where Last month, I sat down with Zach Parise, and it’s very clear he feels like coaches are hired and fired all the time and the GM is usually the one in his clock is ticking and isn’t the happiest camper after last season’s place long-term, it seems unheard of. changes. He’s worried that he’s now 35 and the team is in a bit of a It certainly doesn’t happen very often, and I’m very grateful that I’m given rebuild situation. Do you feel like you have to get in front of him and talk another opportunity with another GM to coach this team, for sure. Listen, to him and try to get him in a positive frame of mind entering training I don’t want to go anywhere else. I came to Minnesota to win a Stanley camp? Cup, so I’m going to have to put my best foot forward here. The team’s Yeah, I read the story and was talking to Craig and Paul, so I do want to going to have to do really well. That’s the way I look at it. I really am go to lunch with Zach and plan to call him very soon. But I want to talk to excited about this season. every player, and Zach is just one of them. As far as I’m concerned, How stunned were you on July 30 when Craig called you and told you he Zach’s a very important part of our team. He led the team in scoring and had fired Paul? when healthy I don’t think he’s slowed down. He’s always in tremendous shape, so yeah, his clock is ticking, but I don’t think it’s ticked where Yeah, it was about an hour before (The Athletic) broke it. I don’t know there’s 20 seconds left. It isn’t the bomb before it goes off. I think he’s got what the right word is. You’ve been hearing rumors and things, but when at least a couple solid seasons left to go in him. If you know Zach, I mean it happens, you’re still sort of shocked because I remember my reaction no matter what has transpired, the one thing he’s not going to ever let was, “Wow. Wow.” I wasn’t freaked out, but at the same time, I wasn’t anybody do is outwork him. So I guarantee he will be coming into camp overwhelmed with it. The timing obviously was surprising only because hungry and wanting to play and wanting to win and wanting to succeed in that doesn’t usually happen so late in the summer. But I think my reaction Minnesota. to Craig was, “These are hard decisions, Craig. You have to do what you think is right for the organization. But, where do we go from here?” I was told that not long before Paul was fired, he met with Jason Zucker to try to start mending fences there after it got out in the public that Have you spoken to Fenton? Zucker was nearly traded a few times. Do you expect after what Jason went through last year and this offseason with this being so public that things are going to be a huge thing as far as he goes. Again, he could he’s going to come in as motivated as ever? make it very tough for a lot of people out there.

I think so. I’ve talked to Jason and people tend to forget, he scored 33 If you include Nico Sturm and (Gerry) Mayhew, I don’t think there’s a lot goals the year before. The biggest difference in his goal-scoring last year of teams that have potentially 16 NHL forwards on their roster, which is (21 goals) and the year before was missed opportunities. He had the what we’ve got right now. So I mean, it might not have the 110-point same amount of opportunities. He hit twice as many posts as he did the scorer that other teams have, but we’ve got some very good NHL hockey previous year and what was the anomaly was that the ones went in two players and I was telling somebody last night, “People are writing us off years ago and hit the post last year. He’s going to get his chances. I way too early.” mean he must’ve missed as many breakaways as most guys did in the league, and that’s not Jason. He’s going to score those goals and Mikko Koivu sometimes you go through those rough patches during the course of the Mikko Koivu (Tom Szczerbowski / USA Today) year. Not everybody has 50-goal seasons though. Alex Ovechkin had two 30-goal seasons and I don’t think that people thought he lost it, and I So to be clear, if Mikko’s ready to go, it’ll probably be him with Donato definitely don’t think Jason’s lost it. He’s going to be hungry and he’s and Greenway. But if you have to start him slow, he may have to start on going to play. I think he’ll probably have his best season ever. the fourth line and you’d go with Ek there or if Rask comes in looking great, maybe even him there? Jason Zucker Yeah, so much depends on how Mikko’s health is. Even on the forward Can I ask a question I’ve gotten from fans — do line combinations lines, maybe Zucker doesn’t work with Zuccarello. Maybe it’s got to be potentially change suddenly now that Paul’s not here? In other words, Zach. These are all things that we’re going to have to try out in camp. when a GM acquires two players like Ryan Donato and Kevin Fiala, One of the things I was thinking, it’s a curse and a blessing at the same there’s often pressure on the coach to play the new guys. I remember time. We have a lot of good players. But it’s not that easy to see the fits your first season, that’s why Martin Hanzal suddenly played ahead of Erik because we have a lot of similar players, a lot of left-shot players, a lot of Haula. I presume that’s why Anthony Bitetto suddenly played last year players who can play wing or center, so I don’t really know the ahead of Nick Seeler. Now that Paul’s gone, does it change potentially combinations yet because we had to go through so many of them last where Fiala and Donato sit in the lineup or are Fiala and Donato in the year, especially after the trades and the injury to Mikko. I don’t want to be same spots in your head today that they were two weeks ago? moving lines around all the time, so we’ll have to experiment in training I think when initially the trade is done you want to play the players that camp and see how things work. I’d love the lines that we choose at the you’ve traded for much more because you want to make everybody look start to stay the same all year, but you know how things go when you get better. I mean, the GM made the trade, so there is pressure to play his injuries or things aren’t working. guy. That’s just the way it works. But I mean, this is a new year. The other interesting thing you said is something I’ve been pointing out Everybody starts from the same starting block, I think, so those guys for awhile. I know you really like Kunin at right wing, but if you play him at have to come in and they’ve got to show that they’ll earn their spots. right wing, it really messes with the lines because either a young guy like But the reality is, they’re not going to play ahead of Zuccarello, for Donato or Greenway will be on the fourth line or won’t make the team. example, just because we traded for them, just because they’re younger. On the other hand, Kunin at right wing allows Rask or Sturm an open Zuccarello was our big free-agent signing for a reason and he’s going to center position. But it seems right now you plan to start Kunin at center, start on the first line and top power play. That’s the way it works. Fiala where he played a lot of the second half after Koivu’s injury and played and Donato are going to have to go out there and they’re going to have so well at in the minors in the playoffs? to prove themselves, and I think there’s a lot of guys like that. We had Ek As it stands now, there’s a better possibility of Luke being at center than and (Luke) Kunin and (Jordan) Greenway and Donato and Fiala playing there is at the wing. The only reason why I say that is what you just said: major roles on the team at the end of last year. If we put him on the wing, then you got on the right side Kunin, Fiala, Now, of course, we would love the younger guys to take that and run with Zuccarello, Hartman, Donato or Greenway or Brown or Mayhew. We it, but I guarantee you guys like Eric Staal, Zach Parise, Jason Zucker, have more wingers than we have centers. All of a sudden one of our top they’re going to come in and say, “Hey, whoa. I’m still a really good young players is probably on the fourth line, and I don’t want that. That player. I want to prove to them that I should play ahead of the young wouldn’t be good for the organization as a whole or their development. guys.” So it’s going to make for great competition, I think. Unless Luke played a lot last year and proved he could play. Maybe he is a somebody comes in and tells me, “No, we’re not going to do that,” then better winger than a center, but I’m at the mercy of trying to put the way I’m thinking is we play to win every night and the best players will everybody in the best position and these are the things we have to figure play. I don’t care if you’re 21 or 35, that’s the way it’s got to be. out. But I really felt Luke played well at center last year and putting him Could you kind of give me a hint of what some of your line combinations with Zach and Fiala would really put him in a good position where he can might be to start training camp? produce. When doing the center positions, we could easily go Staal, Ek, Mikko and Rask. Those are our four natural centermen, but then we’d You know, I’ve been looking at a couple things that I put on the board. I have a problem fitting in all the wingers. If Kunin doesn’t play center, we guess before I answer that, I should make clear that a lot of it depends have one extra winger on each side that can’t get in the lineup. So, we’ve on how Mikko’s health is, how his leg is. In other words, are we going to just got to figure out where everybody fits. You’ll probably get a good have to start him slow or is he ready to go off the bat? So I’ll preface view of it the first week of camp. everything that a lot of this depends on Mikko and that these are things that are just going through my head in early August. Anything can I know you love Nico Sturm. Where does he fit in, or does he not? change next month. But Staal will start as the No. 1 center, and I’m That’s another conundrum we have in camp. Sturm, I’ve watched him all looking at him with Zucker and Zuccarello. On the board, I really like the summer working out and practicing. This guy is determined to make the look and sound of Parise, Kunin and Fiala. And then, Mikko’s health will team, so we’ve got to give him a good, long look. Even Mayhew from the probably determine the other combinations. It’ll probably start with Mikko minors. He had a great playoff, everybody’s raving about him at the end or Ek with Donato and Greenway and then (Marcus) Foligno with the of the year. He’s got to get a good shot, and we will give him that. So other center (Ek or Mikko) and Hartman with J.T. Brown and Victor Rask that’s 16 forwards right there. We’ve got six games in preseason, plus pushing. practice, so there’s going to be a lot of inner competition. So that’s good. So, there’s a lot to unpack there. If Mikko’s healthy, how the heck does These guys will push guys. Let’s face it. You want to develop, but you Victor Rask even get in the lineup? It just seems like once Eric Staal’s want to win and our division, if you look from one to seven, it’s so tough contract was extended, Rask was guaranteed to be on the outside right now. We don’t see a weak sister. Our goal is to win and to win right looking in no matter what Paul said about expecting Rask to bounce off the bat, so the best guys are going to play. back. Nico Sturm

Well, I won’t discuss that, but it’s a conundrum, there’s no doubt about it. Is it fair to say that one giant key to this season is going to be how big a This is probably the first time ever since Rask’s rookie season that he’s step is taken by Kunin, Greenway, Eriksson Ek, Fiala and Donato? come in being a complete underdog. I guess we’ll have to see how hard he worked in the summer and how much stronger he got, all of those Hundred percent. I’ve watched it so often where they talk about sophomore jinxes is where second-year players have a real drop-off. I think with this group, though, our second-year players and Ek as a third- year player are ready to take off not drop off. Fiala’s obviously been around for awhile, but it’s time for him to really excel. If they do it, it’ll make life very interesting for everybody.

A little more than a week into training camp, you’ll play road exhibition games in Colorado and Dallas and in between you’re heading to Vail for three days of practice and team bonding. Do you expect by then that you’ll really cut down your roster or do you think a new GM now may need more time to evaluate his new players and you could suddenly bring more than 30 guys?

Obviously, things could change when you have a new GM, but the plan before now at least was to bring about 28 players. Bring those 28 to Colorado and go from there. This is a season I think with the turnover and the veterans coming back, preseason games we’ll probably be using more veterans than normal, especially with one less preseason game than usual. We want to get everybody acclimated as soon as possible because I don’t think it’s any secret that the start of our season is going to be very difficult (with 13 of the first 18 games on the road).

I talked to a former GM and current team exec yesterday that said never in his career has he had a head coach entering the last year of his contract. He just thinks it’s not good, that the coach is always going to have that in the back of his head, that any time there’s stress in the season, it’s going to be a topic with the press, that a coach coaches in survival mode rather than the long-term importance for the team. You’re entering the final year of your contract. Will you talk to the new GM or Leipold about this?

You know what, I’m not worried about it. Honest to God, I know (an extension) is something we all want, but at the same time it’s not going to affect any way I do my job. If I’m a guy that continually looks for the positive things if (an extension) doesn’t happen, do well, and you’ll get rewarded. If it doesn’t happen, well, it doesn’t happen. I’m not going to go in there looking over my shoulder. I’m going in there looking to do a good job. Craig has had confidence in me for three years, and I’m really appreciative of that fact. I hope he continues to have confidence because we’ll be pushing forward this year and doing our best.

If you guys hire a GM in two weeks or even longer, can you imagine how crazy it will be for a new GM to come in this late in the summer, move his entire life here and learn the team — staff, players, everything — just before training camp?

I’ve never looked at it that way. I’ve changed teams coaching in the midseason twice, once going from Hershey to Washington, the other getting fired in Washington and being hired by Anaheim the next week. I just looked at it as really exciting. I never looked at the pitfalls. I just looked at it as an exciting adventure and I think any GM that comes in here will look at it the same way, at least I hope so.

How much are you looking forward to the second “BRUSSO RADIO” we are co-hosting at the KFAN booth at the State Fair on Labor Day, Sept. 2, from noon-3 p.m.?

I am, but only because of the great food at the Fair.

Note: There are limited spots available for children ages 8-13 for Brady and Bruce Boudreau’s hockey school Aug. 19-23 in Coon Rapids. The school includes lunch every day, on-ice sessions for four hours a day and daily prizes including jerseys, sticks and chocolate. Some of the guest instructors include Wild assistant coaches Bob Woods and Darby Hendrickson and Wild assistant director of player development Matt Hendricks. Some Wild players may attend, as well as director of player development Brad Bombardir, former Wild assistant coach John Anderson and former Wild player Stu Bickel. If interested in signing up for the school, go to goldenhorseshoehockeyschool.org.

This story has been updated to reflect Waddell pulling out of the running for the Wild GM job.

The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150875 MontrealCanadiens And the other question is why Montreal would do this. What was in it for the organization? Obviously they didn’t have any use for Scott. When Montreal began to look like one of the villains in the drama and with a What the Puck: Why did the Habs take part in 'shady' John Scott deal? Hollywood movie based on the story coming (announced in 2016), the Habs finally called Scott up for one game in a Canadiens uniform and A new podcast about the 2016 dealings has me thinking about John after that one game, the team gave him the option of returning to the Ice Scott's mistreatment by the NHL and the Coyotes' and Canadiens' Caps in Newfoundland or retiring. He retired. More Habs spin in other managers. words.

It just makes you wonder. The Canadiens used to be considered one of the classiest organizations in pro sports. But this story is all about a total BRENDAN KELLY, MONTREAL GAZETTE Updated: August 12, 2019 lack of class. Look, if you have another explanation for Montreal’s role in the Scott saga, let me know. Like he says, if it walks and talks like a duck, then it’s fishy. I have been thinking a lot in recent days about John Scott and the role the Montreal Canadiens played in what Scott calls a “super shady” deal The one thing that comes loud and clear from the podcast is what a to try to prevent him from playing in the 2016 All-Star Game. genuinely humble and nice fellow John Scott is. Oh well, the good news is he gets the last laugh. He had his moment in and will probably This odious episode for the Habs, the Arizona Coyotes and the head have his moment on the big screen. office of the National Hockey League happened way back in January 2016 but it’s been on my mind because I recently listened to a podcast Montreal Gazette LOADED: 08.13.2019 from earlier this year recounting the incredible Scott story. The podcast is called The Punchline and it’s associated with New York City public radio station WNYC.

Here’s a quick recap of what happened to Scott. Greg Wyshynski, the guy formerly behind the popular Puck Daddy blog, started a joke campaign to get Scott named to the 2016 All-Star Game, the joke being that Scott, an enforcer, was anything but an NHL all-star. Fans with a good sense of humour and a healthy dislike for the way Gary Bettman was running his league got behind the campaign and Scott ended up topping the voting.

The NHL brass flipped out and did everything they could to stop Scott from going to the game. They tried to intimidate him and when that didn’t work, just days before the game, Scott’s team, the Coyotes, traded him to Montreal. The Canadiens then immediately sent him down to their American Hockey League affiliate, which was located in St. John’s, Nfld., at the time.

When it happened, most pundits said this meant he would not be able to play in the All-Star Game ’cause he was no longer in the NHL. In the end, under tremendous public pressure, the league caved and let him play and Scott became a hero, scoring two goals and being named MVP of the game.

Right after the trade, in mid-January 2016, most writers and fans suggested it smelled mighty fishy and that it looked like the NHL brass had cooked up this deal to punish Scott for not agreeing to take a pass on the game. Influential TSN columnist Bob McKenzie said at the time: “His inclusion in this trade, in my mind, was absolutely orchestrated to solve the all-star issue for the league.”

Here’s what Scott said to Coyotes GM Don Maloney when he heard that he’d been traded, as he recounted the conversation on The Punchline podcast: “Are you effin kidding me? What? And he was like, ‘Yeah it was a hockey move. We needed a little defensive help and we traded you to Montreal for this guy (Jarred Tinordi).’ And I said, ‘This is an effin joke. Are you kidding me?’ And he said, ‘Sorry the deal’s been done.’ And I was like, ‘OK. Whatever! Super shady to be traded right after I’m in the All-Star game. If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it’s fishy’.”

Then Scott had to tell his wife, Danielle, who was nine months pregnant with twins. And per the terms of the trade, he had to be on a plane from Phoenix to St. John’s that same day.

He told her, basically saying: You have to deal with this. Take our two kids, the two kids in your belly, pack our stuff.

“It’s so bizarre to have to say that to her but there was nothing I could’ve done,” Scott said on the podcast.

His wife told of how it just hit her like a ton of bricks and she started sobbing.

Who does this to someone? Well apparently the NHL does, in cahoots with the managers at the Coyotes and Canadiens. So who signed off on this in Montreal? Obviously general manager Marc Bergevin. But did he have to run it by team president Geoff Molson? Or, in fact, did the NHL brass orchestrate this thing by contacting the owners of the two teams involved? 1150876 MontrealCanadiens If I was going to cover this team, I did not want to use the words “black” and “hole” and “middle” in the same sentence ever again. With these three, I feel I’ll be pretty safe.

NHL Contraction Draft: Canadiens add snipers and size to fill long- Game-breaking scorers standing needs in our 12-team league Haven’t you always had the impression Alex Ovechkin would like to play in Montreal at some point? I have. So I rectified it right off the bat with my By Arpon Basu Aug 12, 2019 first pick.

Yes, he will be 34 by the time next season starts, but he led the league in goals at age 33. And age 32. And age 30. And age 29. You get the idea. It’s funny how the mind can work, how it can subconsciously take on As far as game-breaking scorers go, Ovechkin is probably the greatest in some of the qualities it has focused much of its attention on over the NHL history. years. I feel Rickard Rakell fits here as well, despite a down year where he This contraction draft was a perfect example of it. scored 18 goals (down from 34 and 33 the two previous seasons) Furthermore, I don’t think it will be very long before Jake DeBrusk finds For instance, my first thought when Eric Duhatschek proposed this himself in this category as well. In fact, coming off a 27-goal second exercise was, “Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if in this alternate universe the season in the NHL, I’m banking it will happen right now. The same could Canadiens wound up with Sebastian Aho? At worst, I would win humour be said of Josh Anderson building off his 27 goals in his third full NHL points for that pick alone! It’ll kill! I’ll win the draft in the court of public season. opinion and that’s all that really matters!” Filling the hole at left defence Except my intent to acquire Aho didn’t have quite enough conviction behind it. Instead of taking Aho with the sixth overall pick in the draft, I Having protected Shea Weber and Jeff Petry, the same problem that foolishly hoped he would last until my next pick at No. 19. I also foolishly exists currently loomed large on this fantasy team. This is what led to the didn’t anticipate Jeremy Rutherford and the St. Louis Blues being so Ekman-Larsson pick in the second round after Rutherford ruined my Aho lame. pick. But I also took Mattias Ekholm in the fourth round, giving the Canadiens a top-4 of Ekman-Larsson with Weber and Ekholm with Petry. The Blues took Aho at No. 16. I was so flustered and angry at Rutherford I actually think Ekholm-Petry would be the top pair on this team. that my rage created a fog of indecision in my brain and I wound up taking Oliver Ekman-Larsson at No. 19, a pick I immediately regretted. Later in the draft, in the 11th and 12th rounds, I took Aaron Ekblad and Darnell Nurse to form the third pairing. Which leads me to … Taking Aho at No. 6 might have been a bit of a reach, but not much of one. I just didn’t totally buy into my plan to acquire him. It was a half A lack of size of physicality measure. This is the one I had no intention of addressing in this process. It I wonder what inspired me to do something like that. honestly was not on my mind at all because I’ve always felt this has been an overplayed narrative surrounding the Canadiens. But the Looking through my picks in this draft, from top to just before the bottom, subconscious is a funny thing. reveal to what extent writing about the same Canadiens problems over the years had a massive influence on me, some without me even Once I was done drafting this team I took a look at it as a whole and realizing it. Those problems, in no particular order: A lack of depth at the realized that, totally unintentionally, I had built a massive team. centre position, a lack of game-breaking scorers, a lack of left defencemen and, the one that I didn’t even realize I was considering until The defence, with Weber (6-foot-4, 229 pounds), Petry (6-3, 197), afterward, a lack of size and physicality. Ekman-Larsson (6-2, 200), Ekholm (6-4, 215), Ekblad (6-4, 220) and Nurse (6-4, 221) averages 6-foot-3½ and 214 pounds. Up front, the The team I picked, and the order in which I picked it, addresses each of average is 6-foot-1 and 202 pounds, a number mitigated by the fact those issues that have plagued the Canadiens to varying extents over some of the smaller players who bring the average down – namely the years I have covered the team, which dates back to the Y2K bug. Gallagher, Horvat, DeBrusk and Yanni Gourde – play a bigger game than Therefore, while this Canadiens team might not be a winner, at least we their size would suggest. won’t hear about those same old issues anymore. That alone is a win in my eyes. Not to mention the goalie tandem of Price and Devan Dubnyk averages 6-foot-4 ½ and 220 pounds. But before we get into the picks, an explainer on my keepers of Carey Price, Shea Weber, Jeff Petry and Brendan Gallagher. I strongly Smurfs? Gargamel finally found their village and made mushroom soup considered not keeping Price because I knew his influence would not out of it. translate well to the way this team would be evaluated. But ultimately, The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 picking four players to keep on a team defined by its depth means there’s a lack of standout options, and if I didn’t keep Price I didn’t know who else I would protect, aside from the three other guys I decided on.

Weber and Petry struck me as obvious picks because I wouldn’t have to worry about the right side of the defence in the draft and they both performed at a high enough level to justify it. Gallagher was a no-brainer because his play-driving ability puts him in a rare category among NHL forwards.

Also, I didn’t draft any current Canadiens because where’s the fun in that?

And now, the Canadiens’ problem areas you will no longer need to hear about thanks to my draft selections:

Centre depth

I used my third, fifth and sixth picks on centres Sean Monahan, Pierre- Luc Dubois and Bo Horvat. The first two guys are young and productive and the third is an all-situations monster that plays some of the most difficult minutes in the NHL and still puts up numbers. Getting centres who are still on the upswing of their careers was also important. 1150877 Nashville Predators

Single-game Predators tickets go on sale Tuesday

Paul Skrbina

Seats for Predators games at Bridgestone Arena can be difficult to come by.

The team has sold out 153 consecutive games. Single-game tickets for the 2019-20 season go on sale at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Ticketmaster.com, the team said Wednesday.

“Every game in Smashville is special thanks to the atmosphere that our fans have created and the on-ice play of the back-to-back Central Division champion Predators,” CEO and president Sean Henry said in a statement. “We are looking forward to making each game even more unique this season.”

Various theme nights and giveaways, including six player bobblehead nights, are planned. That information is scheduled to be announced Monday.

Single-game premium options will allow fans to purchase tickets that include suites that can hold 16-50 people. Additional information is available by calling 615-770-7888 or e-mailing [email protected].

Fans also will be able to buy a Nashville Predators Foundation package that will give the buyer access to four charity events – Petey's Party, a fashion show, a wine fest and a beer fest.

Tennessean LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150878 New Jersey Devils “Is it a good bar? I will reach for (Kucherov),” Gusev said, via Google Translate. “And there already how it will turn out - maybe not all at once, but of course there is a goal.”

What Devils’ Nikita Gusev said about trade to N.J., expectations of Star Ledger LOADED: 08.13.2019 joining NHL

By Chris Ryan

Following his trade to the Devils from the Vegas Golden Knights on July 29, new winger Nikita Gusev opened up about his crazy summer in his home country.

In a wide-ranging interview with Igor Eronko of Sport-Express in Russia, Gusev touched a variety of topics, including his relationship with the Golden Knights prior to the trade, his reaction to the Devils and what he expects when joining the NHL full time next season.

The Russian interview can be roughly translated via Google Translate, giving a general sense of Gusev’s answers.

Eronko also fully translated a few select answers on Twitter, starting with Gusev’s thoughts on his talks with the Devils before signing in New Jersey.

“The (Devils) showed me they very much need me. It’s very important for me and it tells a lot,” Gusev said, according to Eronko’s translation. “I followed them because my friend (Egor) Yakovlev played there so I have an idea what kind of a team it is. With all the new players I’m sure we can play well and win.”

More Gusev: 'The #NJDevils showed me they very much need me. It's very important for me and it tells a lot. I followed them because my friend Yakovlev played there so I have an idea what kind of a team it is. With all the new players I'm sure we can play well and win'

— Igor Eronko (@IgorEronko) August 2, 2019

Following the trade and signing with the Devils, Gusev also talked on a conference call, with the help of a translator, with Devils GM Ray Shero, coach John Hynes and others.

That introductory meeting help set the groundwork for the working relationship between player and team, though the two sides didn’t dive into the nitty-gritty or specifics of his role in New Jersey.

Buy Devils tickets: StubHub, SeatGeek

Gusev, a right-handed shooter, played left wing in the KHL. And while the idea of playing right wing in the NHL wasn’t discussed on that conference call, Gusev said he would be comfortable on either side.

“Nobody asked me in the (Devils) if I could play RW, but I played there before,” Gusev said, per Eronko’s translation. “Maybe on small NHL rinks it would be more comfortable for me to play RW.”

More Gusev: 'Nobody asked me in the #NJDevils if I could play RW, but I played there before. Maybe on small NHL rinks it would be more comfortable for me to play RW'. Now he trains a lot to get himself prepared for the season and has English classes every day

— Igor Eronko (@IgorEronko) August 2, 2019

While Gusev is still conducting his offseason training in Russia, he said he tries to spend about one hour each day learning English from a teacher to help him transition to his first season in North America.

Gusev has played in his native Russia during his entire pro career, even after being drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the seventh round of the 2012 NHL Draft. His rights were traded to Vegas in 2017 prior to the team’s expansion draft, and after signing a one-year entry-level contract with the Golden Knights in April, the team did not have the cap room to ink Gusev as a restricted free agent this summer, leading to his trade to the Devils.

Like any player transitioning to the NHL from the KHL at any point, Gusev will have a transition to make playing on a smaller ice against an uptick in competition. He still has a high bar for his personal goals.

When asked about his own expectations for production in the NHL, Gusev didn’t put a number on himself, but he wants to chase the 128- point season just completed by fellow Russian Nikita Kucherov, who won the MVP award with the Tampa Bay Lightning. 1150879 New Jersey Devils Rangers defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk (22) during the second period at Prudential Center.

“I think there’s more offense from him, for sure,” Fitzgerald said. “I think What NJ Devils' Joey Anderson needs to show to grab NHL roster spot he can play more offensively and he will.”

The problem is that the scoring chances can be few and far between for Abbey Mastracco, NHL writer Published 9:13 a.m. ET Aug. 12, 2019 a young player playing down in the lineup. With the way the current roster is constructed, Anderson would be looking at a fourth-line role. But in Binghamton, he’ll likely play up in the lineup and play in all situations. It’s a tough aspect of player development, though not an uncommon one. NEWARK — Everything was going about as well as Joey Anderson could have expected in his rookie season. After a short stint in the “What you find is the lack of scoring chances,” Fitzgerald said. “They’re American Hockey League to start the season, Anderson was called up to not coming and he’s down there in the lineup and what you don’t want to the New Jersey Devils and played well through his first 10 games. do is lose the ability to think offensively, you can be creative and now you’re in survival mode. Like (they’re thinking), ‘I don’t want to leave so The 21-year-old forward out of Minnesota-Duluth was steadily earning I’m going to dump it in and play my position.’ Well, you’ve got to do that more playing time with a responsible defensive game and an ability to kill anyway, so that’s the balancing act with all of these players.” penalties. Anderson played 14 minutes and scored his first NHL goal in a road win on Nov. 15. It looked as though the team was starting to put Anderson may be ready for the NHL but in order to crack the Devils’ things together after a rocky stretch and that Anderson would be a solid opening night roster he’ll need to round out the two-way game with more part moving forward. offense.

“He’s an all-around player so you can drop him on the power play, PK, 4- Bergen Record LOADED: 08.13.2019 on-4, 6-on-5, he can do everything really well,” Devils’ assistant general manager Tom Fitzgerald said recently at the club’s annual prospect development camp. “He’s a smart player and I think he compliments good talent and players really well.”

But then he went crashing into the net in his 11th game and everything changed. A broken ankle required surgery and surgery required a lengthy absence.

New Jersey Devils right wing Joey Anderson (49) celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal against the Philadelphia Flyers during the first period at Wells Fargo Center.

Anderson returned and played 35 games for the Devils last season but now he finds himself in a tough spot. The roster has undergone a significant transformation this summer, with general manager Ray Shero adding first overall draft pick Jack Hughes, veteran right winger Wayne Simmonds and talented KHL left wing Nikita Gusev.

Anderson is one of a handful experienced young players on the bubble.

“Those are guys who are going to be on the team this year so those are less spots for guys to earn,” Anderson said last month at the Devils’ annual prospect development camp at Prudential Center. “It kind of motivates you to do more this summer and come into camp as ready as possible and try and earn one of the few spots.”

By the time Anderson returned to the lineup last season, several key players had been traded away and others were injured. And while this should have created an opportunity for the gritty forward, instead the Devils decided he needed more development and sent him back to the AHL.

Danny Weight, Jack Hughes and Joey Anderson as they wait to take part in a drill. Hughes worked out with other young players in the DevilÕs organization at their 2019 Development Camp held at the Devils practice facility in Newark.

Soon enough, he was back in the NHL because of injuries on the main roster, but the one thing Anderson lacked last season was the one thing he never even had a chance to obtain: Consistency.

Despite the back-and-forth, he performed well at the NHL level. Anderson scored four goals, assisted on three, had a 48 percent Corsi and excelled on the penalty kill. The Devils sent him off for the summer with the directive to up his conditioning level in order to improve his skating and durability.

“Being in better shape, it gives you a chance to be quicker and faster,” Fitzgerald said. “Not that he was in a bad shape, but what these kids are going to learn — and I tell this to my own kids — is that once you think you’re in good shape there’s another level up there. And when you get to that next level there’s another level of conditioning.”

Anderson has been working with a skating coach this summer and working on his skills with his brother Mikey, a Los Angeles Kings prospect. The skating and the physical conditioning has improved and now it needs to show up on the scoresheet.

Apr 1, 2019; Newark, NJ, USA; New Jersey Devils right wing Joey Anderson (49) skates with the puck while being defended by New York 1150880 New York Islanders

Islanders-related events company sues health clinic for nearly $2M in unpaid sponsorships

By Priscilla DeGregory August 12, 2019 | 8:26pm | Updated

A company related to the Brooklyn Nets and New York Islanders is taking a chain of health clinics to court — and seeking nearly $2 million for broken contracts, according to a new lawsuit.

The Nets and an Islanders-related events company entered into a series of 10-year sponsorship deals with ProHEALTH Corp. worth $3.4 million in 2014 — with the health company paying for “sponsorship, promotional and other rights” at the Nets training facility and the Barclays Center during certain Islanders events, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed Monday.

But the Lake Success, NY, health company stopped paying its quarterly fees in October 2018 and is now refusing to pay up — despite repeated requests from the Nets and the Islanders’ company, Brooklyn Events Center LLC, court papers allege.

The teams said they have honored their end of the deal.

“ProHealth has stated both on phone calls and in emails that it has no intention of paying the Nets Outstanding Fees and that it has no intention of meeting its future obligations under the Nets Agreement,” the court documents charge. “Instead, ProHealth has demanded, without any basis, that Nets LLC agree to accept half of the Nets Outstanding Fees and agree to early termination of the Nets Agreement.”

The teams say they are owed for past and future fees of $1.7 million.

A spokesperson with ProHEALTH’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group, said, “We have not seen the lawsuit and do not comment on pending litigation.”

New York Post LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150881 New York Rangers Louis was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018, he invited Prentiss to Toronto for the ceremony and thanked him in his acceptance speech. Like Kreider, St. Louis was a self-motivated, hard-working Meet the Connecticut trainer who is responsible for keeping many person by nature. Unlike Kreider, St. Louis was undersized (and Rangers players in top shape over the summer therefore undrafted) and had to outwork teammates and opponents to get where he did.

“He was a big part of me getting into the Hall of Fame,” St. Louis said of By Rick Carpiniello Aug 12, 2019 Prentiss. “For me, I don’t get there unless I play into my mid-to-late 30s. I had a late start. I was 23 when I started in the NHL. I caught up because

of my later years. I won a scoring title at 37 (in 2013). I went to a Stanley STAMFORD, Conn. – The game has changed. Boy, has it ever. Cup Final, a conference final my last two years (with the Rangers, after winning a Cup in Tampa earlier). I did mention Ben because he deserves There was a time, not long ago, when NHL players would come to to be mentioned, because I think without his help, I don’t think I would training camp to get into shape. Of course, that was also a time when have gotten inducted into the Hall of Fame.” players, beer can in hand, would bum cigarettes from the shirt pocket of a young reporter in the locker room after the game. It was in those later years of St. Louis’ career when the specialized training paid off most. But we digress … “Ben brought to me his knowledge and his work ethic at a time where I Today’s NHL player typically takes a few weeks off, if that, after the was turning 30,” St. Louis said. “When you get in your 30s, everybody season, then gets right back at it. For many, the hot summer months thinks you’re going to slow down, you’re getting old, this and that. At a bring more hard work than the September-through-April schedule that, time I needed it the most – you know, I always worked hard, but now I for some teams, stretches into June. had Ben, somebody who knew what he was doing. I was a good hockey player. I didn’t really know how to get stronger in the right way, how to Summer is where training specialists, in many cases hockey-specific work around injuries. Ben just brought me his knowledge, his passion, his specialists, come in. In this corner of the metropolitan New York area, the work ethic and I was just able to get to another level and to play a long go-to specialist is Ben Prentiss of Prentiss Hockey Performance and his time because of that. state-of-the-art facility in Stamford that sits atop twin hockey rinks. “He pushed me. He pushed me to play to that level, that I thought I was “He is the best trainer,” said the Rangers’ Chris Kreider, a disciple of working hard, but there was another level. It’s hard to get that other level Prentiss since he turned pro in 2012. “Obviously I’m biased, but he’s the on your own.” best trainer in the world, for a few reasons. He’s incredibly knowledgeable and he’s spent a lot of time at it. Every summer he’s fine- Now Prentiss trains St. Louis’ two oldest sons. One of them, Ryan, 16, is tuning the workouts, adding and taking things away. He’s really at the going into the national developmental program. cutting edge with everything, with all things (nutrition and supplements) and all things strength and conditioning. So for us, it’s the most edge I “Marty was very good to me,” Prentiss said, “and mentioning me in his think you can potentially get with your summer lifts and your summer Hall of Fame speech … but I don’t lose for a second that Marty St. Louis workouts. was going to be in the Hall of Fame whether he knew me or not. You can’t lose sight of the fact that in team sports, especially hockey, as a “But beyond a professional standpoint is he’s an incredible human being. strength coach you can have them jump higher, have better internal I think a big part about being a trainer is probably 90 percent actually range of their hip, broad jump better, lose their body fat, gain flexibility. knowing yourself and another 10 percent of basically being a therapist. But if they can’t skate and play the game of hockey, then it doesn’t There’s a lot of guys, a lot of personalities and a lot of bodies in and out, matter. And vice versa, they might be very good at skating and playing a lot of moving parts. But he goes about it pretty seamlessly. He’s a the game, but you might see him in here and say, ‘Who’s that guy?’ He’s genuine person and he really does care about his athletes. You feel like a professional athlete and you couldn’t believe it. you’re an extension of his family when you’re working out with him.” “So you can’t get carried away. Marty would have been a great player Kreider, a strength and fitness obsessive, moves to Connecticut for the regardless. He was crazy into fitness before I met him. One of the things summers to work with Prentiss. Many of his teammates, past and we had to do was just harness (it), especially as he got older.” present, work there with him. A high school buddy who had grown up in Westchester introduced Kreider to Prentiss early in his college career at One of Prentiss’s great success stories – and certainly there were many Boston College. When he turned pro, Kreider said, “it was a no-brainer” other doctors and trainers nvolved in it – was Max Pacioretty. In 2011, to hook up with Prentiss. the New Canaan, Conn. native, then with Montreal, suffered a broken neck on a hit by Boston’s Zdeno Chara. Now Pacioretty is Prentiss’s On this August day, Kreider is front and center as Prentiss, 47, leads a longest-tenured active player. complex, hourlong group stretch featuring more than a handful of NHL players, several of them Rangers, as well as college-bound players or “I take a lot of pride in getting Max back,” Prentiss said. “When he broke those headed for the U.S. national developmental program, all of them his neck he showed up in my gym in a neck brace and people thought he PHP clients. They start at the arch of the foot and go all the way up the was dead or he was not going to ever play the game again. We trained body. him – it was like 16 or 17 weeks of training – and he went on to win the Masterton Trophy (for perseverance and dedication, in 2012) and had an “It runs the gamut,” said Prentiss, who also trains younger athletes, some unbelievable year. That, to me, along with Marty winning the scoring race from other sports. “We let anybody do it. Well, some moms drop their as the oldest guy, those are two things that stand out. Those are things kids off and say, ‘Can I do it?’ We tell them, ‘No, players only.’” that I know were long roads.”

“Those aren’t random stretches,” Prentiss said. “Those are strict styles Prentiss’s road began in California. His dad was a power lifter who drove I’ve learned over the years and been certified in, and we mesh them the family there to work with the big names of the sport. together to do one (long) stretch. And it’s hockey specific. Strength is limited by fascia. Some of these guys are so tight and they hate “I was literally in a crib in Gold’s Gym in 1972-73 with Arnold stretching. You get guys who don’t like to work out but only want to Schwarzenegger and those guys,” Prentiss said. When his parents stretch, but you have to develop power and you have to develop force to divorced, Prentiss was raised on Cape Cod, where he played hockey and get faster. But you also have to be flexible. And where are you flexible? other sports, then for a semester at the University of Tampa.

“So you have to see where they’re tight, and then it’s not just whether “I got into exercise science (there) and that was it,” he said. “My they’re tight, but it’s also whether they’re weak or strong. You can be freshman year of college I made the switch over from athlete to trainer.” flexible, but you can be weak in that range of motion. So we address all In 2000, Prentiss opened his own place in Darien, Conn. – a gym a bit of this.” bigger than a two-car garage with no shower facilities. It was there he (JpgRick Carpiniello) had his first NHL pupil, Jason Arnott, then of the Dallas Stars, around 2003. Prentiss would go to Wasaga Beach, Ont. to train him and Arnott Kreider is a long-timer, but not the longest or the most famous. For about built a gym in his house. Four years ago, PHP moved to the spacious 16 years, Prentiss has trained and befriended Martin St. Louis. When St. studio in Stamford. There he has high-tech equipment and staff. He points to “the Kill Room” where athletes do especially difficult exercises. In it is an AlterG machine, which removes up to 70 pounds of body weight as the athlete runs, helping to build aerobic capacity while not stressing the body’s joints. PHP also has an onsite optometrist who does computerized vision training (particularly popular with today’s goalies, though some, like longtime client Jonathan Quick, eschew it). Other than the group stretches, Prentiss believes in small group training with two or three players at a time.

After Arnott, he built a stable that included contemporaries Doug Weight, Keith Tkachuk, Al MacInnis, Chris Pronger, Barrett Jackman and Jeremy Roenick. There is a long wall in the gym with signed, framed jerseys of players such as Arnott, St. Louis, Pacioretty, Kreider, Derick Brassard, Quick, Kevin Shattenkirk, the Staal brothers, Clayton Keller, Matt Moulson, Brad Richards, Mike Cammalleri, Torey Krug, Charlie McAvoy, James Neal and many others, plus dozens of sticks and autographs. The Stanley Cup has been there – Richards, for instance, brought it there when he won in Chicago in 2015 – and just last week, the AHL’s Calder Cup was carried in by the captain of the Charlotte Checkers, Patrick Brown. Brett Pesce of the parent Hurricanes happened to be working out there the day before.

Many Rangers have done their summer work there, including those mentioned above plus Mika Zibanejad, Pavel Buchnevich, Brett Howden, Filip Chytil, Lias Andersson, Alexandar Georgiev, Marc Staal, Boo Nieves, Brendan Smith and others. Prentiss is now an official strength and conditioning consultant with the team.

Prentiss has also trained the Yankees’ Mark Teixeira, high school lacrosse players, an Olympic skeleton athlete, decathletes and hurdlers. But it remains mostly a hockey facility.

“It just kind of turned into that, and it’s been something I obviously enjoy and do well with so it’s been the majority of it,” he said.

“I’m fortunate enough to have been training guys in the NHL for 18, 19, 20 years. When I was younger it becomes more like, you take so much pride in it and it’s something new. As you get older, it becomes more normal to you. Then you expect more of yourself and you expect more of them and you put more into it. So yeah, there’s a lot invested.

“But again, you have to temper those things. It used to be like, if a guy tweaked his hamstring, I wouldn’t sleep for four days because I’d be thinking it’s my fault. On the other side, I wouldn’t take credit (for) a guy scoring goals. You’re a part of a cog in a team. There’s a skating coach. If you’re on a team, there’s an athletic trainer, there’s a strength coach. Here, I do their nutrition, I do the energy systems, I do the stretching. I’m pretty much covering all those things.”

Prentiss gets defensive, he said, when he reads or hears about his athletes from fans or media.

“Absolutely, you not only take pride in your guys, but you also get defensive when you read articles – I know them as human beings and that’s a thing that fans and media don’t understand. These guys are human beings. Certain guys, you just train them and you become close. Then there’s certain guys that you go out to dinner with them and my wife is friends with their wife. So it’s not ideal to blend that, but you spend so much time with them. I mean, I trained Max since he was 20. He’s now 30 and he’s got four kids. And Marty….now I’m training Marty’s kids. Matt Moulson, I spent so much time with him. When he signed his big deal he took me out to dinner with his family. Those are things people don’t see, and matter, for sure.”

Regardless of the personal closeness that develops when you spend summer after summer with a person, the bottom line is the training.

“I don’t think anyone understands how hard you need to train and how professionally you need to approach what we need to do on a daily basis if you want to play in the NHL for a long time and to maximize your potential as an athlete,” Kreider said. “For (the athletes) it’s an eye- opening experience when you come to the gym and realize – some of the guys who have come in recent years, Mika and Howden and Brendan Smith – it was eye-opening for me. I thought I worked hard. I don’t think anyone realizes how hard you need to work and how hard you can work. You’re definitely pushing the envelope here.”

Or, at least, stretching it.

The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150882 New York Rangers We did a six-round snake draft, then we were scheduled to take a break, followed by five rounds in which you’d pick two players whenever your turn arrived.

NHL Contraction Draft: In our 12-team league, Rangers add offense to The youngins and their young bladders wanted to power through instead supplement current core of taking a five-minute scheduled break. But the order of selection allowed me, um, relief. In fact, since the New York Rangers picked first in Rounds 7-16, by the time it snaked back to me I twice had half-hour By Rick Carpiniello Aug 12, 2019 breaks in which to, um, use the facilities, make a sandwich, take a nap.

It was an odd kind of draft because we weren’t really playing for anything. Anyway, I hadn’t done a fantasy draft since I once selected a rookie third I always fantasized about this – and it will never, ever happen. baseman for the Oakland A’s named Mark McGwire (a remarkably lucky But how much fun would it be if the NHL let every single player be free pick who, I believe, cranked out 49 homers that season … little did we every summer, then had a draft where actual GMs sat and sweated at know). It was called a Rotisserie League back then. their tables and picked their teams for every season? So I decided, in a 12-team league with 2019 hockey talent, skill was the I mean, televising such a draft would do historically huge ratings – much way to go. Now I understand that some computer somewhere is going to bigger than the Stanley Cup final or anything else NHL-related. eventually name a champion based on, I don’t know, possession stats, shot suppression, zone entries or some such data. Plus (again, it would never, ever happen) teams could pay their players based on rounds in which they were picked. You’d go X dollars for first- But I figured I’m going for skill – for offense. So I not only protected four rounders, a little bit less for second-rounders, etc. There’d be no need for forwards, but I drafted five more in the first six rounds. I could get D-men salary caps, no need for negotiating contracts. You could do away with later, and the ones in the middle rounds, other than a few exceptions, the July 1 lunacy. wouldn’t be much worse statistically than those picked early.

But imagine, any team could potentially become a power team every I did snag former Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh, but he’s not going to season. Or a bust. Just like fantasy teams. be my captain this time around … if there is such a thing. I think I’ll name Zibanejad since I think he has a high probability of being the actual Of course it wouldn’t work because the NHLPA would never go for it (no Rangers captain in the near future. Maybe not. long-term contracts, set salaries for players based on where they were picked) and the NHL couldn’t do it because there’d be no developmental Goalies were another story. Some were protected – Carey Price, Jordan league plan or additional players. The list of reasons would be longer Binnington. There was only a run on them late. And really, as I think than Zdeno Chara. about it, should have taken Alexandar Georgiev instead of Robin Lehner. But in fantasy sports, you kinda want starters, not backups, and I’m still Anyway, we did this exercise at The Athletic, a sort of “contraction draft” not convinced Lundqvist won’t be the clear No. 1 at least to start next to figure out: If the NHL contracted back to a 12-team league, which season. On the other hand, who’s sure Lehner won’t be a backup on a current players would be on rosters and which would be looking for work potentially mediocre team in Chicago? I shouldn’t try to reason that pick. I in other leagues? just choked.

My brethren (and sistren?) at The Athletic represented the 12 teams (the I guess I’ll find out how much else I got wrong. Win or lose, it won’t cost Original Six plus St. Louis, Minnesota/Dallas North Stars, Los Angeles, me anything. That’s the best news. California/Oakland (Golden Seals), Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, while the esteemed Eric Duhatschek of Alberta fame was the acting The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 commissioner/enforcer. Typically of The Athletic hockey writers, too, one of them was working throughout (St. Loo’s Jeremy Rutherford was on the phone with agents and had to be nudged to make a pick) and one of them was in an airport between flights (Question: when isn’t Minny’s Mike Russo in an airport? Answer: When he’s on a plane).

The rules were pretty simple. You had to have 12 forwards, six defensemen, two goalies. You could protect four players from the team’s current roster and everybody else was fair game. You were supposed to select a team, without salary restrictions, to win a Stanley Cup next season.

So right away, I had to make a difficult decision because, unlike a fantasy league, there were no actual ground rules set for determining winners and losers. But like fantasy hockey, most of us – or some of us … or one of us (me) drafted based on last year’s scoring, and/or expected scoring for the coming season. There was little or no room for defensive defensemen, checkers, grinders, tough guys, etc.

I also hit a disadvantage, I thought, because my team is, in real life, in a full-blown rebuild. In addition to Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin, I chose to protect Kaapo Kakko and Vitali Kravtsov. Perhaps that was a mistake. But other teams were protecting more superstar-like players (Pittsburgh, for example, , Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang).

It was eye-opening, too, how the Rangers’ real-life players were viewed by the drafters around the 12-team league. Other than Jacob Trouba, no other team selected a Ranger. I managed to snag Chris Kreider late, and Henrik Lundqvist even later. There were seven current Rangers in our 12-team league, and I had six of them.

I chose to keep Kakko and Kravtsov partly because A) having never been through a rebuild in 40-plus years of covering this team I’m kinda on-board to see how it goes, and thus have a constant eye on the kids and B) I figured I might be able to claim Lundqvist later and maybe Trouba earlier … and that scoring defensemen and goalies were going to be easy to get in general and, again, I had no idea really how a winner is going to actually be decided (by a computer play-out, I’m told). 1150883 NHL That sentiment was echoed that day by Seattle NHL team owner .

“He’s a smart guy,’’ Bruckheimer said. “He’s done really well in Toronto Seattle’s expanding NHL front office? New GM has strong and London.’’ candidates looming once he gets hiring go-ahead And while the pair ultimately felt Francis the better-rounded GM candidate, having Hunter as an assistant GM would enable him to focus Geoff Baker exclusively on his strongest area of expertise.

Both Hunter and Francis worked for this past year. Francis was a co-GM of Team Canada at the World Hockey Inside the NHL Championships while Hunter was GM of the Under-20 program and ran Canada’s entry at the World Junior Hockey Championships. One of the first things everybody does when guessing whom Seattle NHL team general manager Ron Francis will hire for his coaching staff is Speaking of Hockey Canada, a third candidate for Seattle’s front office check out the rosters of his 1980s Hartford Whalers squads. could be ex-Whalers goalie Sean Burke, 52, one of Francis’ co-GMs at the world championships this past spring. Burke never played with They spawned a legendary NHL coaching tree, starting with former Francis in Hartford or Carolina despite time in both places, but they defenseman Joel Quenneville, now with Florida and building on his apparently worked well together with the Canadian side. second-most victories by a coach in league history behind Scotty Bowman. The Francis-captained Whalers also produced Edmonton Burke spent six years as goaltending coach and player-development Oilers coach Dave Tippett and current or former NHL coaches and director with the Arizona Coyotes and is entering his fourth season as a assistants Kevin Dineen, , Ulf Samuelsson, Doug Jarvis, western region pro scout with the Montreal Canadiens. Steve Weeks, John Anderson and Brad Shaw. Given a glaring weakness for Francis in Carolina was his inability to land But on the front-office side, candidates aren’t quite as obvious. Yes, there a goalie, Burke’s insights likely wouldn’t hurt. NHL Seattle could also look are ex-Whalers as well – recently fired Minnesota Wild GM Paul Fenton at Burke as a candidate to run their American Hockey League franchise potentially one – but also guys that never wore the Hartford uniform, or, if expected for Palm Springs, Calif., given his familiarity with the region and they did, only once Francis had already left the team. player-development background.

And it’s more the front-office types Francis probably hires within the For now, the franchise has only approved hiring Francis this early. coming year while leaving coaching calls until months after that or even spring of 2021. UW Huskies’ Kyler Gordon has always been an athlete. But is he a starting corner? NHL Seattle has the June 2021 expansion draft to prepare for and front- office strategy to solidify, meaning Francis needs assistant GMs and There has been speculation NHL Seattle might approach recently fired player-personnel types sooner than bench staffers. Wild GM Fenton, given his former Whalers ties and stellar prior job as a Nashville Predators assistant GM. But Fenton only played half a season And those who have observed Francis up close say to look no further for the Whalers when Francis was there and they never knew each other than Ricky Olczyk, 49, his former assistant GM with the Carolina well. Hurricanes, as a potentially critical hire in navigating contractual and collective-bargaining agreement (CBA) issues. Also, NHL Seattle plans to lean heavily on analytics and one reason Fenton was fired was reportedly his underutilization of the Wild’s staffers Francis has known Olczyk and his family – including his parents — for – including Alexandra Mandrycky, now NHL Seattle’s director of hockey years. Olczyk’s older brother, Ed, NBC Sports analyst and one of the administration. best U.S. players ever, teamed with Francis in Pittsburgh for two seasons. One sleeper could be TV hockey analyst Ray Ferraro, a mainstay of those 1980s Whalers teams with Francis. Ferraro lives nearby in Ricky Olczyk earned his law degree at Cornell University, worked for the Vancouver, B.C., and is regarded as a potential management type given NHL Players’ Association and was running a consulting firm before his strong on-air player analysis. becoming an Oilers assistant GM for six seasons. Francis hired Olczyk as his own assistant GM in Carolina in June 2014 right after assuming Also, there’s former Philadelphia Flyers GM Ron Hextall, an assistant the GM position. GM of the Los Angeles Kings back when NHL Seattle honcho Leiweke’s older brother, Tim, was that team’s president. Hextall is viewed as a “He was a salary-cap guy, so he kept up with the cap and the ins and strong drafter and his goaltending knowledge – plucking Everett outs of the CBA,’’ one Hurricanes source said of Olczyk. “He and Ron Silvertips product Carter Hart as a second-rounder for the Flyers – could worked amazingly well together and I can’t see why they couldn’t help Francis get over his netminder hump. recreate that in Seattle.’’ But Hextall could also soon be hired as a GM elsewhere. And NHL Olczyk resigned after Francis was fired as GM and took a professional Seattle wants to avoid another Tippett scenario where they hire a front- scouting job with the Toronto Maple Leafs – a role at which he is office assistant too early and have them bolt for a bigger job before the arguably underemployed. new team plays.

Another potential assistant, who played for the Whalers but not alongside Hunter could also get a GM job this summer. But if he doesn’t, unlike Francis, is former Maple Leafs player-development director Mark Hunter, Hextall, he’s never been a GM before and will be going on two years 56. The former NHL winger helped build the powerhouse London Knights removed from the league. junior franchise after purchasing them in 2000 and graduating players like Patrick Kane, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and Corey Perry to the In other words, a Seattle front-office post for him – as for Olczyk and NHL as the team’s GM. Burke — could appear mighty enticing once Francis gets the hiring go- ahead. Hunter served four years with the Leafs before leaving last year and returning to the Knights after being passed over for Toronto’s GM job in Seattle Times LOADED: 08.13.2019 favor of Kyle Dubas. While in Toronto, Hunter developed a reputation as a shrewd talent evaluator – gleaned from running his junior-hockey franchise – and has since been looked at as a GM candidate by several teams.

Even before Francis was hired, NHL Seattle had looked closely at Hunter and been impressed by his talent recognition. In a breakfast interview at the NHL draft in Vancouver a few weeks before hiring Francis, NHL Seattle CEO Tod Leiweke said of Hunter: “The work he’s done there has been terrific.’’ 1150884 Philadelphia Flyers Carsen Twarynski, a third-round pick in 2016, and they’re at the team’s practice facility a lot.

“Obviously there’s a couple guys that still need to get signed (winger Joel Farabee hit his weight goal, his next one is to make the NHL Travis Konecny and defenseman Ivan Provorov) so we’ll see what happens,” Farabee said. “A lot can change by the time training camp even happens. Right now I’m obviously going for the third line wing spot. Dave Isaac, NHL writer Published 8:36 a.m. ET Aug. 12, 2019 That’s my goal. Hopefully if I have a good camp I can make the team. We’ll see what happens.”

VOORHEES — All summer long Flyers prospect Joel Farabee has stayed in South Jersey to train, hoping to impress the front office as the Dave Isaac 2018 first-round pick embarks on his first professional season. Courier-Post LOADED: 08.13.2019 While he hasn’t yet met new head coach Alain Vigneault, he’s gotten pretty close with the training staff and has already accomplished his first goal. Farabee gained a good amount of muscle to bring his weight up from the 163 pounds he was when the Flyers drafted the winger last summer.

“I’m pretty close to 180 pounds now,” Farabee said. “I think I’m in a pretty good spot weight-wise that I want to be at, so I feel really good, a lot stronger on the ice.

“If I put on too many pounds this summer, it would probably hurt me hockey wise. I’m just trying to take it day by day and see what happens.”

Over the weekend was something of a test run against different competition.

For the last few days, his linemates in the pro-am division of the Checking For Charity tournament were New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider and Columbus Blue Jacket Sonny Milano. Their team, headed by Sewell native Tony DeAngelo, also of the Rangers, fell short of repeating its title and lost to a team constructed by John and Nolan Stevens, the sons of ex-Flyers coach and player John Stevens.

Earlier this month, Farabee was playing against teenagers at USA Hockey’s World Junior Summer Showcase, where he had five points in four games. As a returning member, Farabee felt at ease and at home wearing his country’s uniform. He had a hat trick against Kazakhstan in the World Juniors last season and finished with five points in seven games.

He’d be a lock to make the squad again…on one condition.

“I think the only thing would be…I talked to the coaching staff there and obviously if I make the NHL, I won’t be at World Juniors,” Farabee said. “That was kind of the only thing. When I played I was going as hard as I can. I wasn’t letting up. It’s a good level. It’s not like I completely dominated. It was good to play with some old friends and old teammates. It was a good showcase.”

Farabee was careful not to say he felt like had graduated past that level, but the obvious goal is to make a pretty big jump from playing at as a freshman last year, where he was the NCAA’s top rookie, to cracking the Flyers’ roster when training camp starts next month.

How realistic is that?

At development camp in late June, Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher pointed mostly to Farabee’s need to add weight so he could withstand the rigors of an 82-game season, adding, “but in terms of hockey sense, skill, skating, passion to play the game, he has all those elements already and it’s just going to be a question of time, and really, maturity. Watching him out here, his talent stands out. It wouldn’t take you many drills to pick him out as one of the better players on the ice.”

There is a clear spot that seems to be attainable for Farabee and it’s the right wing spot on the third line which likely has either Oskar Lindblom or James van Riemsdyk on the left and Nolan Patrick at center. There will be a battle for that spot in training camp and some of Farabee’s competition includes fellow prospects German Rubtsov, Nicolas Aube- Kubel and Morgan Frost, more experienced players like Andy Andreoff, 28, and Kurtis Gabriel, 26, Tyler Pitlick, 27, and 31-year-old Chris Stewart who will be in training camp on a tryout.

Farabee has played left wing most of his life but doesn’t anticipate the right side being much of an issue. He’s feeling good heading into rookie camp, which begins early in September, that he can outlast the rest.

Meantime, Farabee is just waiting to make an impression on the decision makers. He rented an apartment with Lehigh Valley Phantoms winger 1150885 Philadelphia Flyers perfectly. Looking for an offense-only group possessing utterly blinding speed? Ehlers-McDavid-Konecny will do nicely. And three of the players in those two scenarios (Niederreiter, Ehlers and Konecny) will likely end NHL Contraction Draft: Connor McDavid leads stacked forward corps for up receiving bottom-sixer minutes when the season is finished. That’s Flyers in our 12-team league how deep this group of forwards is.

Roster fit wasn’t ignored, either.

By Charlie O'Connor Aug 12, 2019 10 Over half of our forwards have extensive recent experience killing penalties — a thankless job that becomes all the more important now that every team’s power play is absolutely loaded. Ondrej Kaše and Konecny have shown they can score at impressive rates even when Do you want the short version of our case for the new-look Philadelphia receiving limited ice time — a necessity since both will likely spend a lot Flyers being the best club in our totally fake, 12-team contracted NHL? of time in fourth-line roles. And Eric Staal serves as our elder statesman, It’s fairly straightforward, actually. bringing 14 years of NHL experience and a Stanley Cup ring to the table. We have the best player, the best two-way center and the best goalie in See? We didn’t even ignore intangibles — we just got them in the form of hockey. Have fun with that, competition. a 4C who scored 42 goals just two seasons ago.

OK, now onto the long version. And we haven’t even highlighted Stone (second in 2018-19 Selke balloting and the best play-driving wing in hockey), Filip Forsberg (the Connor McDavid gives the Flyers an edge over every team in this best forward on one of the league’s best teams over the past few years), fictional league (thank you, lottery luck) — he’s the fastest functional or the fact that we covertly re-litigated the 2017 NHL Draft by swapping skater in the world, a lock for 100+ points and still only 22 years old. In out Nolan for Nico (take that, no-longer-in-existence Devils). Good luck addition, he’s the consensus best player in hockey despite opponents slowing down this group. being able to sell out from a matchup standpoint to try and slow him down, due to the utter toothlessness of the rest of the Edmonton Oilers The defense roster. To build such a stacked set of forwards, we had to make some sacrifices Good luck trying to do that with Sean Couturier centering Line 2. Yes, when it came to the blue line. But not too many sacrifices. Patrice Bergeron, Ryan O’Reilly and Aleksander Barkov fans — With only four protection slots available to us and Couturier and Giroux Couturier is now the best two-way center in hockey. No forward over the no-brainer keeps, the extremely difficult choice was made to protect Ivan past three seasons has had a more positive impact on his teammates’ Provorov and Travis Sanheim over Shayne Gostisbehere. Ghost will be ability to drive Expected Goal differential (per Evolving Hockey’s missed. But the thought process was that Provorov and Sanheim Regularized Adjusted Plus-Minus stat) and no skater period (that’s right, possessed higher even-strength upside, while we were likely to add a not even McDavid) has generated more Goals Above Replacement (also top-pair caliber defenseman in the draft more than capable of thriving in via Evolving Wild) over the past two seasons than Couturier. He’ll take on PP1 duties, where Gostisbehere has historically provided a large portion top lines nightly in his usual tough minutes role, which could open up of his value. McDavid to somehow become even more dominant — a terrifying thought for this suddenly-small league. Enter John Klingberg, our new No. 1 defenseman.

Heading into the contraction draft, the Flyers’ front office (run in a Somehow, it seems like Klingberg is still underrated; he’s one of the dictatorial fashion by yours truly) made the philosophical decision to league’s best offensive defensemen, who also proved reliable enough for prioritize forwards over defensemen. The thought process? While a poor defense-first head coach Ken Hitchcock to skate him for 24 minutes a blue line corps can drag a team down, it was our belief that forwards night during a season that saw him finish sixth in Norris Trophy balloting. drive goal differential most. And with only 72 defensemen expected to Klingberg is easily a top-10 defenseman in the NHL and he was top-5 on remain in the league, we were confident we’d be able to easily build a our personal board. “good enough” blue line, especially if we constructed a loaded forward corps and added an elite goalie to the mix. We believe we’ve done just He also should prove to be an ideal righthanded complement to Provorov that. on the top pair. As we noted back in June, Provorov’s biggest 5-on-5 issue thus far in his career has been an inability to drive offense from the The forwards backend; his impact on defensive results has largely been fine. Handing him a truly elite driver of offense as a partner is exactly what the doctor When it came to building a group of forwards, we leaned heavily towards ordered. players who both have a track record of lighting the lamp at a top-sixer level and — most importantly — consistently help push play in the right The same concept applies in reverse for our plan to unlock Sanheim — a direction. In the end, 11 of our 12 forwards count as consistently supremely talented offensive defenseman who occasionally makes “positive” play-drivers, with only Travis Konecny as an exception. mistakes in his own end. His gift is Brett Pesce, the league’s best actually-good defensive defenseman. Like Klingberg, Pesce provides a But over the past two seasons in Philadelphia, Konecny has shown an righthanded complement to a young lefty blueliner, and also like the ability to complement play-drivers extremely well, not only not dragging Swede, his strengths match up with a young Flyer’s current weaknesses down their results, but giving them a boost of offense in addition to not perfectly. negatively impacting their usual territorial dominance. And this team is going to have the puck a lot. In essence, the goal here was the same as Chuck Fletcher’s goal entering the 2018-19 offseason — get two veteran defensemen who can Over the past two seasons, our 12 forwards have posted a 52.06 percent complement the young talent already here — except Klingberg and average Corsi For Percentage at 5-on-5, and a 53.10 percent xG For Pesce are far better than Matt Niskanen and Justin Braun at this stage of Percentage, per Corsica.Hockey. Even more impressive is the fact that their respective careers. The hope is that placed into ideal situations, (per RelTM metrics), on average they’ve pushed up the performance of both Provorov and Sanheim take the leap into superstardom, justifying their linemates by four percentage points, by both Corsi and xG. The fact our decision to wait on defensemen in the contraction draft. that the other teams in this league are stacked with high-end talent as well should keep our squad from generating something ridiculous like a To build our third pair, we bought low on Dmitry Orlov, who is still only 28 high-50 percent shot share at even strength, but we’re willing to wager and before a down season in 2018-19, had delivered back-to-back that by putting all of these play-drivers together, we’ll at least regularly be positive RAPM seasons (in both Corsi and xG) as the No. 1 even in the 53-55 percent range. strength defenseman by minutes on a Cup contender. We’ll bet on a bounceback. As for Colin Miller, he’s been maybe the league’s best third- The versatility of our forward corps is also tough to deny. pair righthanded defenseman for the past few years, so we’ll keep him in Both Giroux and William Nylander can play center in a pinch, providing that comfortable role on our club. Granted, his minutes will be tougher essential lineup flexibility in case of emergency. Also, there are some now that even most fourth lines have the firepower of Line 2s in the 31- truly terrifying potential line combinations if the goal is to play situational team NHL, but Miller has the talent to manage. hockey. Want a shutdown, we’re-literally-playing-keepaway-with-the-puck The goalies line? A trio of Nino Niederreiter, Couturier and Mark Stone fits the bill The biggest reason we’re willing to cut a few corners on defense, however, is because we believe we have the best goalie in the NHL ready to bail us out when things go bad. No, we’re not referring to soon- to-be 21-year old Carter Hart, who was re-added as a backup in the late rounds to avoid a full-scale riot from Flyers fans who have already deemed him the franchise savior. We’re talking about John Gibson, formerly of the now-defunct .

By raw save percentage, Gibson already has a strong case to be viewed as the best — only Antti Raanta’s 0.9242 SV% over the past three seasons betters Gibson’s 0.9221 among goalies with at least 2000 minutes played, and Raanta has appeared in a whopping 4,728 fewer minutes than Gibson over that span.

But it’s when shot location and quality are added to the picture that Gibson begins to look otherworldly.

For three straight seasons, the Ducks were gashed for scoring chances to the point where Gibson was “expected” to post a save percentage below 0.910. And every year, Gibson essentially added about 0.015 to his SV% through sheer wizardry. He’s the only reason the house of cards that Randy Carlyle constructed didn’t collapse years ago.

Season Expected SV% Actual SV% Difference

2018-19 0.901 0.916 +0.0158

2017-18 0.908 0.926 +0.0174

2016-17 0.909 0.924 +0.0152

As a result, he utterly dominates by public advanced goalie metrics. By Corsica.Hockey’s Goals Saved Above Average metric, he’s prevented 83.03 over the past three seasons; only Sergei Bobrovsky is close at 78.70 and third place (Frederik Andersen) checks in way back at 44.13. By Evolving Hockey’s Goals Saved Above Expected, it’s the same tale: Gibson leads (86.09), Bobrovsky is in relatively close pursuit (75.41), and then the rest of the field is upwards of 40 goals behind.

But while Bobrovsky turns 31 in September and is coming off a down year, Gibson is only 26 and still in the heart of his prime. Factoring in age, Gibson seems like the clear-cut choice as the netminder most likely to be the best in hockey during the 2019-20 season.

Gibson’s only flaw? He’s been prone to minor injury issues, which occasionally knock him out of the lineup. But in the event of a Gibson ailment, Hart is still around — he of the 0.917 save percentage at age 20. It’s hard to imagine Flyers fans would be too worried to see their golden boy check-in for 30 games or so, if necessary.

Final thoughts

With this club, we’re betting on an unparalleled 1-2 punch down the middle, a group of high-skill wingers with long track records of 5-on-5 dominance, a logically-structured defense corps that unlocks the potential of two young stars and an elite goaltender who finally will get to play in front of a loaded group of skaters.

Are there concerns? Sure. Some teams in this league are rolling blue line corps with as many as three viable Norris Trophy contenders (Los Angeles, Toronto, Pittsburgh, San Jose), while our defense is more fine than spectacular. By average age, the Flyers will be the youngest team in the new league, which some might argue is a positive but others would contend it could be a detriment come playoff time. And if Gibson does go down, we’re depending on an unproven 21-year old goalie to carry the load.

Still, the sheer talent up front should overwhelm most teams, and Gibson will go a long way towards erasing any defensive issues caused by the lack of star power on the back end. I’ll throw down the gauntlet: this new- look Philadelphia squad has to be viewed as an imaginary Cup favorite.

The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150886 Pittsburgh Penguins C. In between

Malkin will always have an aggressive streak to his game because he’s an offensive player willing to take risks to score goals, but the entire Penguins Predictions: Will Evgeni Malkin bounce back from subpar offseason narrative Penguins management has written revolves around season? being harder to play against. Malkin has bought into that sort of philosophy before, and there’s no reason to think he won’t again. Add in a little puck luck and he should be a plus player. Given his age, though, Jonathan Bombulie it’s not wise to think his rating will soar through the roof.

Follow the Pittsburgh Penguins all season long.

In the weeks immediately following a humiliating first-round playoff Jonathan Bombulie is a Tribune-Review staff writer. ouster, Pittsburgh Penguins star Evgeni Malkin took a tremendous amount of heat. Tribune Review LOADED: 08.13.2019

Perhaps the intensity of the flames — the ones that suggested he could be traded as Penguins management mulled how dramatically it would alter the team’s roster — was a bit unexpected, but the general temperature of the conversation was not.

Malkin had a poor season by his lofty standards. Everyone knew it. He knew it, too.

“I had a bad season, and I’m going to get out of the hole,” Malkin told Russian website RUsport.ru at the World Championships in Slovakia. “Sometimes, criticism is justified. This time, it’s probably justified.”

It’s important to note exactly where Malkin fell into a hole last season.

His overall offensive production was fine. Malkin had 46 even-strength points. His average over the previous five years was 45.2.

His power-play production wasn’t bad either. He had 26 power-play points. His average over the previous five seasons was 28.8

The real problems came in two areas.

First, he scored only 21 goals, well off his average of 30.6 from the previous five years.

Second, when he was on the ice at even strength, the Penguins gave up an average of 3.69 goals per 60 minutes. That’s the worst such figure of his career.

For the Penguins to bounce back from a disappointing season, Malkin will need to improve in those two areas. While it’s an imperfect stat for a lot of reasons, the best way to gauge Malkin’s progress in both might come from looking at his plus-minus rating.

THE QUESTION

After posting a team-worst minus-25 rating last year, what will Malkin’s plus-minus rating be this season?

MULTIPLE CHOICE

A. Better than plus-5

Malkin undoubtedly contributed to his minus-25 with some lackadaisical play, but he was also a victim of circumstance much more than the average player. For instance, when he was on the ice on the power play, the Penguins gave up 12 goals. In the three previous seasons combined, that total was seven. Get that stat and a few others back to normal and Malkin should be back to his career average, which is around a plus-8.

B. Worse than minus-5

Expecting a 33-year-old hockey player to make significant improvements in any facet of his game is flying in the face of mother nature. Also, the Penguins are counting on the departure of Phil Kessel to boost Malkin’s all-around play, and there’s a problem with that theory: When Malkin and Kessel were on the ice together at even strength last season, the Penguins gave up 3.67 goals per 60 minutes. When Malkin played without Kessel, that figure was 3.71. Basically no difference.

C. In between

Puck luck is rarely a satisfying explanation for a poor season from a player, but in Malkin’s case, it applies pretty well. When Malkin was on the ice at even strength, Penguins goalies had an extraordinarily low .891 save percentage. His individual shooting percentage was 11.2, his worst total in a full season since 2009-10. If Malkin makes no substantive changes to his game but those two figures regress toward the mean, he will hang around the break-even point in plus-minus.

THE PREDICTION 1150887 Pittsburgh Penguins

Jake Guentzel left off best wingers list, and fans have some questions

JOSHUA AXELROD

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

AUG 12, 2019 4:08 PM

Jake Guentzel is a Stanley Cup champion who’s been extremely productive in his three years with the Penguins. And yet some experts don’t feel he’s even in the top 20 at his position.

NHL.com’s David Satriano released his top 20 NHL wings list Sunday, and Guentzel’s name was nowhere to be found.

Is there a statistical argument for Guentzel to be included among the NHL’s elite wings? Let’s investigate.

Guentzel had a career year last season, putting up 40 goals and 36 assists while playing in every game for the Penguins. He also has scored 24 goals in 41 career playoff games, including 13 during the team’s 2016-17 Stanley Cup run.

That’s a solid resume for a guy selected 77th overall in the 2013 draft. It’s also at worst comparable to a few players at the bottom of NHL.com’s list of best wings.

Coincidentally, none other than ex-Penguin and current Arizona Coyote Phil Kessel came in at No. 20. His numbers last year were in the same range as Guentzel’s, as Pittsburgh’s favorite weirdo still managed to put up 27 goals and 55 assists in what was considered a down year for him.

The difference in plus/minus — the stat indicating how the team fared with a player on and off the ice — between Guentzel and Kessel last season, though, is staggering. While Guentzel’s plus/minus was a respectable plus-13, Kessel came in at an eye-popping minus-19.

Plus/minus is admittedly a flawed stat on which to judge a player, as it has as much to do with the line they play on and the opponents they face while on the ice as actual individual performance. But it does indicate that there’s an argument for Guentzel to be at least in the same class as his ex-teammate.

Guentzel also provided much more help to his team last season than the Winnipeg Jets’ Patrick Laine, who’s No. 19 on NHL.com’s list. Laine scored only 30 goals and assisted on 20 with a plus/minus of minus-24 last year. Guentzel would have a legitimate gripe seeing that guy beat him out given his 2018-19 numbers.

Sidney Crosby sat down with Barstool Sports' Spittin' Chiclets podcast for a rare long-form interview.

Adam Bittner

Some might say Guentzel is a product of Sidney Crosby’s brilliance and that his only elite skill is scoring goals. The counter to that would be that he still had to find the back of the net consistently to have those statistics — with or without Crosby’s help. And if an NHL player were to have one elite skill, goal-scoring is possibly the best one to have.

It’s also worth mentioning that Satriano ranked Crosby No. 2 among all NHL centers and Evgeni Malkin No. 13.

You’re welcome to feel however you want about those rankings.

Joshua Axelrod:

Post Gazette LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150888 Pittsburgh Penguins from 2017-18. The active, qualifying leader is , at 16.93. Great as Guentzel is, a step back is more likely than not.

Still, he’s a gifted shooter, and he’s going to play on a line with Crosby. One question for every skater on the Penguins’ roster That alone should get him within shouting distance, even considering regression. Throw in more power play time — he was eighth on the team with 2:07 per game and tied for fourth in goals with six — and you’re By Sean Gentille Aug 12, 2019 25 getting closer. Another 227 shots at 15 percent puts him at 34 percent. Can you count on six extra PP goals? Seems right on the border.

Bryan Rust: Will the consistency ever come? Think of it this way: Penguins training camp starts in about a month. We’ve been carping about the first day of free agency for more than six On one hand, 18 goals in 72 games is pretty good. On the other, 16 of weeks. So we’re over the mountain. It’s time to start talking about the them came in December, January and February. No player had more 2019-20 season. time with Crosby and Guentzel last season than Rust, and for as good as he was in the winter, he’d lost the job by the spring. He’s likely to get So, in a format we’ve ripped off wholesale from Max Bultman at The another crack at it at the start of the season, Josh Yohe has said. If Athletic Detroit, here is one big question for every skater on a one-way you’re in that spot, protracted droughts can’t be a regularity. In each of contract. No goalies. Sorry, goalies. his last two seasons, Rust has scored four goals in the first 38 games, Centers then poured it on. Production in the NHL isn’t consistent; guys who are as good as Rust was in the middle of the season make $7 million a year. Sidney Crosby: Will we see another prime season? Expecting much more over the course of a season would be unfair. But man, the peaks and valleys are plentiful here. We certainly got one in 2018-19 — unless you were expecting the 131- point pace from 2010-11. If so, you had to settle for 100 points, more Jared McCann: Should everyone pump the brakes a bit? possession-driving beastliness and a defensive season that, rightfully, had him as a fringe Selke finalist. His game has changed a little — he’s Ryan Wilson did a good job of outlining some potential roadblocks for splitting defenses less and relying on spot-picking a little more — but McCann at HockeyBuzz, but the gist is this: Of those 11 goals he scored there’s something special about watching great players age into different with the Penguins, four came at 5v5. Overall, his points/60 were in line varietals of greatness. with his time in Florida, when he was playing with worse players. With Crosby, that number jumped from 1.33 to 1.86, with some decent At some point, the productivity will start to dip, but I’m not going to bother underlying defensive numbers. He’s young, and he’ll be a useful player trying to guess when that happens. He’s special, and obsessing over for as long as the Penguins have him. It’s just probably not the time to whether he’s still in his peak years will rob you of something that’s cool pencil him in as a 25-goal guy with Crosby or Malkin. Could that happen? enough in its own right. A better question might be “How far can he shoot Sure. Should you bet on that happening? No. up the all-time scoring list?” Another 90 points will put him at 1,306, six ahead of Jarome Iginla in 34th place. Alex Galchenyuk: Does he fit on Malkin’s wing?

Evgeni Malkin: What does the bounce-back look like? It’s wise of the Penguins to say, from the start, that Galchenyuk is a winger. He was drafted as a center, and Montreal tried to force him into Let’s bet on it happening in some form. If it doesn’t, it won’t be due to that spot for years, but … he’s a winger. He fits there in part, as Jesse lack of motivation. He’s 33, but I’m not ready to pencil him in as a 72- Marshall wrote after the Kessel trade, due to his shooting ability. He’s point player moving forward. It’s also worth noting that came in 68 also good at gaining the offensive zone with possession and not good at games, and at times amidst a marriage with Phil Kessel that had run its starting the rush himself. There won’t be any question about who gets course. If he stays healthy and finds 5-on-5 chemistry with Alex things started here: it’ll be Malkin. Maybe a defined pecking order on the Galchenyuk and whoever else ends up on his line — one legit age- second line will be good for everyone. related concern last season was that he seemed less apt at creating chances all by himself — Malkin should crack 80 points and look better in Dominik Kahun: Can he be cloned? the process. Kahun is young, fast, cheap, productive in his role (37 points in 14 Nick Bjugstad: Is he The Third-Line Center Behind Crosby And minutes per game), a net positive possession player and — again — Malkin?™ cheap. The Penguins could use one more of him. He’s not a difference- maker on his own, but, like Blueger, he’s also the sort of guy that Cup All signs point to him starting out the season in that role. Bjugstad felt lost contenders have in multitudes. in the shuffle because of Jared McCann’s emergence (more on that later), but at 3C, he did exactly what they needed from him. Is he a long- Patric Hornqvist: What’s left? term answer? That’s impossible to say, for a lot of reasons. But he’s It’s tough not to hope there’s something. Hornqvist is already a franchise huge, drives offensive output at 5v5 and is more than capable of legend for plenty of reasons, and watching him at his peak was wildly contributing on a second power-play unit. On paper, he’s the exact sort of fun. Max effort made a good player an often-great one. The question, player they’ve looked for since the 2017 offseason, and the platonic ideal always, was how long Hornqvist’s body would cooperate. Last season, of their roster for this season has him in this spot. after 26 points in his first 34 games, a huge red flag popped up. For the Teddy Blueger: How does he respond to a regular lineup spot? second time in the season, Hornqvist was concussed — and when he returned, he was a shell of himself. In 39 games post-injury, he had three There are easier things for a young player to do than win over Mike goals and 11 assists and, most amazingly, was dropped from the top Sullivan, but Blueger is going to have his shot, if only out of necessity. power-play unit. It wasn’t pretty. It also may not be as bad as it seems; That’s good for the Penguins, because he’s the exact sort of player good Hornqvist, almost unbelievably, scored on just 2.6 percent of his shots teams have in their bottom six: young and cheap, with offensive upside after his injury. His career mark is at 9 percent. So, he wasn’t just bad — and possession numbers that won’t get you nuked by the competition. he was unlucky to a remarkable degree. Maybe fresh luck combined with Matt Cullen didn’t bring much of that to the spot last season. Six goals a long offseason gets him back on track. The Penguins don’t necessarily and four assists in 28 games isn’t great, but there’s reason to expect need him to be as good as he was, but getting the post-injury version, more. given his cap hit, would be a real, large problem for them.

Wingers Dominik Simon: Are people going to stop arguing about him?

Jake Guentzel: Can he do it again? If he plays farther down in the lineup, they should. Simon does most things you want to see from a winger in 2019 — except score himself. At Scoring at least 40 goals in a single season still means something. It some point, if you’re in the discussion to be a top-line guy, that needs to always will; 12 guys managed it last season, up from seven the year matter. By a lot of measures, the Crosby-Guentzel line was more before. Is it an arbitrary number? Sure, but lots of milestones are. Gotta productive with him riding shotgun. That’s all well and good; he deserves draw the line between good and great goal-scorer, and scoring 40 is credit there. But … he doesn’t score. So, play him down and try to work tough. Know what’s also tough? Consistently shooting 17.6 percent. something out on L1 with someone else. If nothing clicks, so be it, but the That’s where Guentzel was last season, up nearly 5 percentage points best version of the Penguins has Simon using his talents in the bottom Gudbranson was better with the Penguins than a lot of people could’ve six. guessed; his numbers improved across the board. Just how much of that is attributable to Pettersson remains to be seen, and pairing him with Brandon Tanev: How much of that contract can he justify? Johnson is “not ideal,” as Yohe said, but if you want to stack the top two There’s not a ton left to say about Tanev; it’s not his fault the Penguins pairs, this is the outcome. chose to pay him more, longer, than anyone else. Time to start thinking Juuso Rikola: Will the adjustment process continue? about what he’ll be like in the lineup — and there’s a scenario where it’s fairly easy to imagine him as part of a good fourth line. Playing with Did you know Rikola played 37 games last season? It didn’t feel like quite Blueger and Simon would help neutralize his issues with offense- that many. His results were generally below average, and that aligns with generation, and they’d help put his shot (good, by all accounts) to use. how he looked on the ice. Maybe a full year of skating on North American He’s fast and plays hard as hell, and on a fourth line with cheap ice will help. Otherwise, barring injury, it’s tough to see him cracking the teammates, the whole situation makes more sense. In 2019-20, at least. left side of the defense with any regularity. It bears noting that he was good in training camp last season. A repeat performance would help. Zach Aston-Reese: Where does he settle in? Chad Ruhwedel: Will he again get the holiday season off? Aston-Reese is in an interesting position. On one hand, he’s healthy with a one-way contract. On the other, bottom-six winger has suddenly He somehow didn’t play between Nov. 19 and Feb. 13. He’s got a two- become a crowded spot for the Penguins. Aston-Reese is going to fight year contract now ($700,000 annually), and he’s right-handed, which for time with Simon and Tanev in particular, if all three are healthy. He’s always helps. You could do much worse with your depth defensemen. versatile enough to fit in a lot of different places, though. It’s just a matter of getting consistent time. The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019

Defensemen

Kris Letang: How many games will he play?

That’s always the question for Letang. It should basically be the only one. If you obsess over his risk-taking nature, stop. If you blame him for the Penguins’ team-wide defensive issues, you shouldn’t. “Can he change his game” would imply that he should change his game. He’s great, and he makes the team better by virtue of stepping on the ice. The only complaint — not that it’s something he’s in particular control of — is how often he steps on the ice.

The Penguins have tried, for years, to get Letang to cut back on the sort of stuff that gets him hurt. He’s 6 feet tall, and his workout-warrior habits won’t change that, so things happen, and he misses games. It’s part of the experience. Finding that particular balance may never happen; he’s 32 now, and players generally don’t get healthier in that phase of their career. The Penguins can get away with him playing, say, 65 games, as he did in 2018-19. Anything more than that will be a tough ask.

Brian Dumoulin: Does it make any sense to split up him and Letang?

It’s kind of a stupid question, yeah? That speaks to how reliable Dumoulin is; you know what you’re getting from him. There aren’t many variables out there. Still, it’s funny to see just how much time those two spend together. Dumoulin skated more than 911 5v5 minutes with Letang. That’s more than any other partner, with the next closest being Zach Trotman, who got 96 minutes with Dumoulin while Letang was hurt, and Jack Johnson, who had 75 minutes with Dumoulin that did not go well (40 percent of shot-attempts for, 44 percent of scoring chances for). It’d be tempting to share the wealth. It’d also qualify squarely as “messing with a good thing.”

Justin Schultz: Just how much money will he make?

If Schultz stays healthy and produces on the power play, he’s going to be a very rich man. The UFA defensemen crop for next summer is stronger than 2019’s, but still thins out quickly after Alex Pietrangelo, Tyson Barrie, Torey Krug, Justin Faulk and Schultz. We live in a world where Tyler Myers signed for six years and $30 million. Schultz already makes $5.5 annually. Barring major issues, he’s going to be in position to break the bank.

Marcus Pettersson: Is he ready for the top four?

The Penguins certainly seem to think so, and Pettersson’s work with Erik Gudbranson would suggest as much. Playing him with Schultz (and on the ice with Malkin’s line as often as possible) could go a long way to correcting one of the their biggest issues last season: a second pair that could start things in their own zone.

Jack Johnson: How long is his leash?

Johnson played gradually fewer minutes as the season progressed and was scratched for Game 1 of the postseason. That suggests at least something — but there’s no Olli Maatta contingency plan anymore. Would the coaching staff have the stomach to sit him for, say, Juuso Rikola?

Erik Gudbranson: Can he maintain his positive momentum? 1150889 San Jose Sharks Of all the Sharks goalies, Nabokov has the best case for jersey retirement right now. That could change if Jones lifts a Stanley Cup in San Jose, but even then he might not be as fondly remembered as his Sharks jersey retirements: Why Evgeni Nabokov should be honored first predecessor.

Yet there are other skaters -- who we’ll reveal over the course of this week -- who have a better case than Nabokov to have theirs retired first. By Marcus White That doesn’t mean you won’t see No. 20 hanging at SAP Center in the future, especially as Nabokov remains connected with the organization, August 12, 2019 2:06 PM but it won't happen before some of those other names.

After all, Nabokov's legacy as one of the most popular players in Editor’s Note: The Sharks are the only team in the Pacific Division -- franchise history already is cemented without a jersey retirement. other than the nascent Vegas Golden Knights -- who have not raised the Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 08.13.2019 jersey of a former player to the rafters. This week, NBC Sports California will examine the cases of the five likeliest candidates to have the Sharks’ first retired number. We start with goaltender Evgeni Nabokov.

When you think of Sharks goaltenders, only one name comes to mind.

Martin Jones might be San Jose’s franchise netminder right now, and Arturs Irbe might have helped put the team on the map by playing “like wall” in the Sharks’ Cinderella run in their first-ever playoff appearance. But neither of them -- or any other goalie in the franchise’s existence -- can be called to mind with an oft-repeated nickname.

Few words have been chanted more at SAP Center than “Nabby,” the nickname of Russian goaltender Evgeni Nabokov. No goaltenders have captivated Sharks fans more, and only a few skaters have.

Let’s examine the case for -- and against -- the Sharks retiring Nabokov’s No. 20 first.

The case for

No Sharks player has been on the ice for more minutes than Nabokov. The nature of his position is such where Nabokov played nearly 1,000 fewer games for San Jose than Patrick Marleau, but was on the ice for over 6,000 more minutes.

Technicalities aside, Nabokov is far and away the longest-tenured goaltender in Sharks history. No other netminder has worn the uniform for more than five seasons, while Nabokov spent a decade in teal. He easily leads Sharks goalies in games played (563), and Nabokov played in 15 more games than the next two closest goalies (Jones and Antti Niemi) combined.

He is 130 wins ahead with the most victories in franchise history (293), but Nabokov wasn’t just a compiler. He remains the only Shark to win the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year, and his second- place finish for the Vezina Trophy in 2007-08 is the highest of any San Jose goalie.

Nabokov was a fan favorite, even as he briefly lost his starting job to Vesa Toskala in the middle of his Sharks tenure. He is responsible for some of the most memorable saves in franchise history -- his 2007-08 playoff run alone contributed many -- and still works for the organization as a goaltending development coach.

The case against

In some areas, Nabokov’s on-ice resume lags behind his legacy. Of the 18 goaltenders in Sharks history to play in at least 25 games, Nabokov ranks fifth in regular-season save percentage (.912) and fourth in goals- against average (2.39). Jones is hot on the tail of many of Nabokov’s postseason records, and he can pass Nabokov for first in playoff wins and playoff shutouts if San Jose has a deep run next spring.

Nabokov's Vezina runner-up season in 2007-08 exemplifies this dichotomy. Nabokov led the league in games played (77), wins (46) and tied for third in shutouts (six). He also ranked fifth in goals-against average (2.14) among goalies who played in at least 10 games, but 28th in save percentage (.910) and 27th in goals saved above average (0.70) among goaltenders in that same sample.

There also is the question of which jersey to retire. Nabokov wore Nos. 35 and 20 in his career, rocking the former for three seasons and the latter for seven. He won the Calder wearing No. 35, and Nabokov also had a higher save percentage (.916) in his first number than his second (.911). Yet, No. 20 surely is the one most fans associate with his career. A dual number retirement isn’t unprecedented, but seems like a bridge too far for a team that is yet to retire any numbers.

The verdict 1150890 San Jose Sharks go with Nate Schmidt, the fiery, emotional heartbeat of the Golden Knights blue line, or the still-available Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who had a strong final few months of the regular season but really scuffled through NHL Contraction Draft: Scoring against the new-look Sharks in our 12- the All-Star break? team league will be no easy task I went with Schmidt. After all, since I presume I have to cover this team, he’s always pretty good for a postgame quote or two. Personality-wise, I think he and his partner Burns would get along tremendously. And he’s By Kevin Kurz Aug 12, 2019 9 coming off of a more consistent season than Vlasic’s, anyway. Vlasic went in the 14th round to Chicago where he can reunite with Couture.

In order to counter what might be some feelings of ill-will with the local When it was proposed by Eric Duhatschek that we at The Athletic redraft fan base, I went to a current Shark for the 12th round, filling out my top the NHL in and make a 12-team league existing of current players and I nine with Kevin Labanc as the right wing on the Krejci-JVR line. Kevin was tabbed to select the San Jose/California team, I knew that my club Hayes and Jakub Vrana became my fourth line wingers and the up-and- would get off to a good start. coming Will Butcher my third-pair D-man on the left side. The first decision of selecting four players to protect wasn’t all that Former Sharks goalie Thomas Greiss was my final selection and I’m sure simple, which is really a reflection to the number of high-end players that he’ll get a fair share of starts to spell Fleury from time to time. are currently on the Sharks’ roster. When I first glanced at the protection lists of some of the other teams, I was struck by some of the names that Overall, I was pretty pleased with my draft. No one is playing out of were protected by some of my fellow fantasy general managers (I’m position, as all of my forwards are slotted in where they played the looking at you Travis Sanheim, Filip Hronek and Vitali Kravtsov). I’m not majority of last season. Fleury and Greiss as both coming off of strong suggesting that their choices were wrong, but those guys aren’t exactly campaigns. But it’s my defense that really looks like the strength of my household names. team. It features three right-handed shots and three left-handed shots, which is becoming increasingly important in today’s game and all of them In other words, I felt like I had a pretty good advantage going into this posted at least 30 points last season. thing. The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 I figured I might as well keep the league’s most dangerous and dynamic blue line as intact as possible, so Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson were pretty easy decisions. After all, defensemen are the most difficult players to find, and both of those guys would probably have been first or high second-round picks had they been left available.

From there I had to keep two forwards. I penciled in Tomas Hertl — the Sharks’ most productive forward in the 2018-19 regular season — as my second-line center. That left one of Timo Meier, Logan Couture and Evander Kane as my final pick. I went with Meier, who was second on the Sharks in even-strength points last season (behind Hertl) and who should have a real shot at reaching 40 goals this season. Couture, by the way, ended up being the first Sharks player drafted by another team, going late in the third round to Chicago (he was the only current Sharks player selected in the first six rounds, with Kane going early in the seventh).

But enough about the current Sharks, let’s fill in this roster.

Keeping Burns and Karlsson allowed me to go forward-heavy in the first few rounds. I figured Hertl and Meier were a good center/left wing for my second line, so I made high-scoring left wing Johnny Gaudreau my first pick with the fourth overall selection and grabbed Jack Eichel as my top- line center in the second round. Blake Wheeler was still somehow available in the third round, so he slotted in on the right side to give me a pretty ridiculous top line of Gaudreau-Eichel-Wheeler, a trio that combined for 272 points last season. I wanted another center in the fifth round, hoping Nicklas Backstrom or Matthew Barzal might linger, but they didn’t — so the perennially underrated David Krejci became my third-line pivot.

A left-handed defenseman was my next target, and Zach Werenski will slot in with Karlsson on a pretty killer top pair (I went with Werenski over the promising Rasmus Dahlin, which took a few moments of thought). A couple scoring wingers in Brock Boeser and James van Riemsdyk helped to fill out my forward lines after that. Boeser can play on the right side of the Hertl-Meier line, while van Riemsdyk and Krejci are a couple of veteran guys with good playmaking ability that can anchor the third line. Ryan Ellis was up next, and hopefully, he won’t mind being my right shot guy on the third pair behind Karlsson and Burns.

Then we turned to the Sharks’ nastiest rival for not one, but three straight selections, making a group of Vegas Golden Knights put on teal sweaters less than four months after their bitter and controversial playoff defeat.

Obviously, I was looking for an upgrade in goal over the Sharks’ current tandem, and I was fortunate that Marc-Andre Fleury was still available in the ninth round. So he’s my No. 1, and although he’s getting older, he’s still one of the best in the league. Next up was William Karlsson, who can skate as the fourth-line center.

After that I had an opening to fill out my top four on the blue line and needed another left-handed D-man. This is when I made what was probably my most difficult decision in the draft in the 11th round … do I 1150891 St Louis Blues As planned, I nabbed Parayko in the next round, and then added more captain material in Dallas’ Joe Pavelski, who would fit perfectly on my second line with Landeskog and Aho. This draft thing was going better NHL Contraction Draft: In a 12-team league, new look Blues have than I expected, not because my team was taking shape, but because I leadership to spare hadn’t completely embarrassed myself yet. That was coming.

First, however, after seeing Dallas’ Miro Heiskanen up close all season, I desperately wanted the 19-year-old rookie. But Russo grabbed him, so I By Jeremy Rutherford Aug 12, 2019 10 compensated with Philadelphia’s Shayne Gostisbehere and Colorado’s Samuel Girard on my next two picks.

At that point, I wasn’t worried about my goaltending with Binnington in When there’s a message from Eric Duhatschek in your inbox, you open net, but with so many stud goalies still available, I figured I’d grab one. it. I mean, he did everything but call Central Registry to finalize the recent But here’s where I shamed myself: an agent I’d been trying to get a hold Milan Lucic-James Neal swap before it happened. of for days called back during in the draft, and it was difficult to keep up When the Hall of Fame writer is asking you to be part of an NHL with the players flying off the board. So when I called out Tampa Bay’s “contraction” draft, trimming the league down to 12 teams, you don’t even Andrei Vasilevskiy, Russo responded: “I took Vassy, JR, which warms blink. At The Athletic, we’re encouraged to think outside of the box, but my heart.” with Duhatschek behind the idea, I half expected commissioner Gary Yes, I was that guy, taking a player who was already gone. Bettman to send out an email confirming that contraction was, in fact, coming. I went with Dallas’ Ben Bishop, which was fine, but in hindsight, I probably should have been less worried about my goalie tandem and I had a couple of other reactions that I’ll touch on before I get to my more focused on my skaters. After I took Bishop, Russo took Florida’s roster. Vincent Trocheck and Nashville’s Ryan Johansen, who would have First, to Blues fans. I love them, but some like to believe that St. Louis looked good up the middle on my club. But my bottom-six isn’t too doesn’t get enough respect. Well, the city was awarded Winter Classic in shabby with Columbus’ Gustav Nyquist, Minnesota’s Mats Zuccarello, 2017, will host the All-Star game in 2020 and now Mr. Duhatschek has Vegas’ Alex Tuch, Carolin’s Ryan Dzingel, Colorado’s Joonas Donskoi included the Blues in his fantasy league. So what are fans going to and Washington’s Lars Eller, along with some depth on defense in New complain about now? Jersey’s Damon Severson and free-agent Jake Gardiner.

Secondly, I thought ‘OMG, I’m going to be in a draft with 11 of the best Overall, I like Rob Rossi’s roster the best, even if he did draft NHL writers alive.’ Well, 10 and Mike Russo. I’m kidding, Russo’s Army, Washington’s Tom Wilson to protect Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and I’m kidding. But for the record, we had the draft date and time set and Evgeni Malkin and New Jersey’s Jack Hughes. “Nobody’s messing with then Russo informed everyone he needed to change it because he’d be my stars,” Rossi claimed. To which, noting Pittsburgh’s early playoff exit on a plane to Germany for a vacation that was probably a scouting trip to last season, I replied: “They’ll only have to protect them for one round!” check up on the Wild’s 2015 sixth-round pick. “Hold on there Jeremy ‘One Cup’” Rossi responded. By now I’m sure you’ve read about our ground rules, but just in case: pick “Blues win one Cup and they get all cocky,” Russo added. a team to win the Stanley Cup in 2019-20; protect four players; draft in snake order (I had the No. 9 overall pick). As it turns out, Mr. Duhatschek’s contraction idea will probably be like every other fantasy league I’ve participated in. That is, my team may not My protected listed wasn’t as cut-and-dried as I expected. I knew I’d be fare very well, but the draft was a blast. keeping Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly, but there would be some great goalies available, so Jordan Binnington wasn’t a guarantee. And The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 while Alex Pietrangelo would be a wise choice, Colton Parayko put on quite a show in the playoffs and would be hard to leave off the list. In the end, I kept the Stanley Cup-winning goalie and the captain and told myself I’d grab Parayko early in the draft.

Here’s how the rest of it unfolded …

With the ninth-overall pick, I figured Connor McDavid might be gone and I had that pegged accurately as he went No. 1 overall (smiley emoji face). It was a bit too soon, though, to ruin Mark Lazerus’ day and take his man-crush, Teuvo Teravainen. Therefore, I went with Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl, who had the third-most points in the league last year with 105.

“How obnoxious is JR,” Russo typed in our chat room.

“I’m sure he didn’t expect to get Leon ninth overall,” Mr. Duhatschek replied.

Before my second pick, it was suggested that we should allow Carolina’s Sebastian Aho, who was seven days removed from signing an offer sheet from Montreal, to drop to our Canadiens colleague, Arpon Basu. So with the 16th pick in the draft, three before Basu was on the board, I took Aho.

“DAMMIT,” Basu belly-ached.

“BOOOO,” Mr. Duhatschek politely protested.

“JR ruins everything,” Russo whined.

With my first two picks yielding two forwards who combined for 80 goals and 188 points last season, I liked how my draft started up front, but I remember warning myself it was time to take a defenseman. But when it was my turn again, Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog was still available. Smitten with the idea of playing Draisaitl with O’Reilly and Tarasenko, and Landeskog with Aho, I took the Avalanche captain. If I’m going to win the Stanley Cup next year, leadership is important, and I now had two captains (Pietrangelo and Landeskog) and three who wear letters (including Tarasenko) on my roster. 1150892 Toronto Maple Leafs Maybe that’d add some intrigue and give the remaining players not picked something to play for.

Still, I’d wager on this Leafs team up against most Olympic squads and NHL Contraction Draft: In a 12-team league, the Maple Leafs become a all-star teams. It’s pretty clear from this roster that the hockey you would super team see night to night in a 12-team NHL would be truly spectacular.

The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 By James Mirtle Aug 12, 2019 33

Perhaps I’m biased – hey, this is my team – but one of the more wonderful results of this whole contraction-draft exercise has to be the creation of a hypothetical super-line built around Auston Matthews, Elias Pettersson and Mitch Marner.

Try stopping that trio in the offensive zone.

I had an advantage as Maple Leafs GM in that my four keepers were superior to most (if not all) of the competitors: Matthews, Marner, John Tavares and Morgan Rielly felt like no-brainers as the holdovers.

The disadvantage? Luck of the draw: Toronto was given last pick to open the draft thanks to Commissioner Duhatschek, which meant missing out on McDavid, MacKinnon, Kucherov etc. early in the first round. Still, getting superstars like Mikko Rantanen and Victor Hedman with my first two selections felt like a win at 12th and 13th overall.

My strategy was based around not being overly concerned about goaltending (especially given how many good starters fell deep in this draft) and trying to build a high-end D core around Rielly while still aggressively trying to complement the top offensive talent already in place. Because it was clear, in a 12-team league, that everyone would have a lot of firepower on lines one through three.

I think this was accomplished given I paired top forwards with top defencemen on my first six selections (Rantanen-Hedman, then Pettersson-Barrie, then Kuznetsov-Slavin) to ensure the top four defencemen were all high end. Subsequent mid-round picks then largely went to forwards as I wasn’t overly concerned with the third D pair (which still ended up quite solid in Muzzin-Hanifin) or backup goaltender.

I’m glad I didn’t seriously contemplate keeping Frederik Andersen as he was available in Round 8 after 132 NHL players were off the board. (Backup netminder, Antti Raanta, meanwhile, was taken right at the very end of the draft, likely in large part due to his injury-abbreviated 2018-19 campaign with the Coyotes.) These Leafs are well-situated in goal, despite not burning many resources there.

Ultimately the group of skaters I ended up with was incredibly dangerous with the puck but still quite well-balanced. Most of the forwards are good two-way types, with excellent shutdown and possession options like Mikael Backlund and Justin Williams available late in the draft to fill out the fourth line.

If there was an area for improvement, I probably could have been even more aggressive on defence without giving up much up front. It’s worth debating whether having a dominant 3C (Kuznetsov) matters more than strong depth defencemen.

Your opinion may vary on somewhat controversial players like Hoffman, Dadonov and Hanifin, too, but I went into the draft knowing that Dom’s Game Score model was going to favour a few players like that who perhaps aren’t as highly regarded in the general public.

I left the draft thinking that these revamped Leafs had a fairly good shot at coming out as the league favourites, although I ultimately wasn’t surprised that Charlie’s Flyers ended up as the only team ahead of them. The combination of his very good understanding of how the model would rank these teams with having first pick and getting McDavid was a lot to overcome.

More than anything, I came away from this exercise realizing just how tough it would be to make a 12-team NHL (something I can appreciate in another sense given my grandfather, Gordie, just missed making the Original Six NHL back in the ‘40s). A more realistic number of teams for an exercise like this is probably somewhere in the low 20s. It would be absurd to leave the kind of talent we did in the AHL here.

Perhaps in this revamped 12-team Duhatschek league, the second division would take on more importance and there’d be relegation and promotion the way you see in the English Premier League? 1150893 Toronto Maple Leafs captain, even if it appeared as if his future might be in coaching, not playing.

“I just sensed that he had the insight and the quality of attributes that ‘Like going to your dad’: What Dave Hakstol’s time in North Dakota would make him a very good coach,” said Gasparini. reveals about the new Leafs assistant coach Midway through his third season, Hakstol turned pro. His academic eligibility at North Dakota was limited because he had already taken By Joshua Kloke Aug 12, 2019 12 some college courses in Red Deer. As a result, he joined the IHL’s Indianapolis Ice. Four more seasons split between Indianapolis and another Midwestern stop, with the Minnesota Moose followed.

T.J. Oshie sat silent in his dressing room stall at the Ralph Engelstad He was 28 years old and his dream of playing in the NHL was fading. Arena, afraid of what would come next. In 1997, Sioux City, Iowa wasn’t exactly a prime destination for young After their final game before a two-week Christmas break, Oshie’s hockey players. Former Musketeers assistant coach Leigh Mendelson University of North Dakota men’s team were defending Western remembers an old rink that in his estimation was 20 feet too short and 15 Collegiate Hockey Association champions, but mired in a four-game feet too narrow. losing streak. “All the skilled guys didn’t want to get banged around every shift, so they After the game was expecting a tongue-lashing from the coaching staff, had a real blue collar group,” said Mendelson. or even a call to just sweep the continued losses under the rug ahead of Christmas. Then head coach Dave Hakstol quietly walked into the The USHL’s Musketeers were a problem that needed fixing. dressing room, closed the doors behind him and instead of standing in Head coach David Lohrei left the team after just one game and the his typical spot in front of the group, took a seat in an empty stall. Musketeers needed a new coach right away. Gasparini was now Hakstol didn’t want to give his team a piece of his mind. He wanted to commissioner of the USHL and immediately thought of Hakstol. hear from them. “It was a very difficult circumstance, but I knew Dave could handle it,” “’We’re OK,’” the now Washington Capitals forward remembers Hakstol said Gasparini. “It needed a very strong individual.” saying. Sure, Hakstol hadn’t coached a game in his life. But Gasparini stepped in What followed was an hour-long “heart-to-heart” according to Oshie on behalf of the Musketeer owner to offer him the job, which ended during which Hakstol opened the floor to his players to get their input on Hakstol’s dream of playing in the NHL. why they were losing. “Out of nowhere, in the span of 72 hours, I’m done playing, I’m going to “He handles things the right away,” said Oshie. “It’s honestly like going to some town called Sioux City, which I’ve never been to,” Hakstol told the your dad.” Grand Forks Herald in 2014, “and I’m going to try to coach.”

After allowing every player to feel like they had ownership in the team’s Gasparini had seen enough of Hakstol to believe in his management results, things changed for the better in Grand Forks. skills.

“I thought for sure we were winning the national championship after that,” “Coaching is not necessarily what you know, but what you can get people said Oshie. to do,” said Gasparini. “It’s as much about having the intrinsic qualities that help you lead and manage people. Those are qualities which he has North Dakota lost just two of their final 16 regular season games before and had at that time.” being eliminated in the NCAA Frozen Four semifinal. But it was Hakstol’s ability to keep his team committed while giving them a voice during the According to Mendelson, Hakstol’s struggled remembering every player’s lowest point of the year that was key for Oshie. name during first appearance behind the bench. But he stuck to what he knew: short and direct instructions. And it is why Hakstol, who spent three-and-a-half seasons as head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers but failed to win a single playoff round, “He was very down to earth, very straight forward, not a lot of fanfare,” was hired by the Toronto Maple Leafs as an assistant coach this said Mendelson. summer. To understand Hakstol best, you have to look his 11 seasons In Hakstol’s first season, the Musketeers finished 8-43-2. Player turnover as head coach at the University of North Dakota, where he developed as was rampant. HockeyDB lists 41 different players for the Musketeers that a coach and learned the principles that could be applied to a young Leafs season. At the start of the next season, Hakstol began instilling faith in core. his players: he’d give them opportunities, but he wanted them to buy in to Hakstol’s assistant coaches remember a common phrase popular with his plan. players at UND: “Bring your lunch bucket to work.” “It’s still about having guys that’ll lay down and die for each other,” said It’s a work ethic Hakstol subscribed to at an early age. Growing up on a Mendelson. “And it was natural that guys would do that for Dave.” farm in the tiny village of Warburg, Alta., with a population of roughly 800, Hakstol developed a defensively sound team that went from allowing work was never in short supply. There were always problems to solve. 5.68 goals per game the previous season to 2.76 goals against per game Hakstol’s move to North Dakota didn’t offer much culture shock. the next. The turnover decreased. The Musketeers went 35-18-0-3 that season and would make the playoffs in his next three seasons in Sioux “It’s almost like you’re in Canada,” said former assistant coach Brad City. Berry, who now serves as UND head coach. “There’s not a lot to do other than play hockey and go to school.” “There was only one way he was going to go: By just going and out- working everyone else,” said Mendelson. North Dakota’s coaches had been making frequent trips to Red Deer, Alta., in the late 1980s to scout future NHLer Dixon Ward of the Red won two national titles in his 10 seasons as coach at the Deer Rustlers. But their eyes kept returning to a defensive defenceman. University of North Dakota. He was an outspoken character whose word carried weight around campus. Former North Dakota assistant coach Cary Eades saw teammates listening when Hakstol spoke, especially after he finished his checks or And when Blais announced in 2004 he was taking an assistant coaching stood up for them. Eades appreciated the defensive defenceman’s job with the Columbus Blue Jackets, he left little doubt as to who his consistency from shift-to-shift and his relentless work ethic. replacement should be.

“Those are things that carried over into his coaching role as well,” said Blais said Hakstol, with four seasons of head coaching at the USHL and Eades. “He’s lived that way ever since.” four seasons as an assistant coach at UND, should be named head coach. Given Hakstol’s ability to turn around the Musketeers and his ties Hakstol joined the University of North Dakota in 1989, playing for one of to the program, he was an easy add to the North Dakota coaching staff the school’s most noted coaches, John “Gino” Gasparini. Hakstol played when he joined in 2000. regularly, a rarity for freshman. By his sophomore season, he was named So why look outside the program, when Hakstol was already embedded games. Traditionally the responsibility of players, Goehring remembers in North Dakota, Blais asked. how Hakstol would jump into the middle of a of players at centre ice to lead their morning stretch. Few words would be spoken, but it was Hakstol wasn’t about to rock the boat in his new role. He sought to keep enough to get his young team quiet, and hopefully, ready. young players accountable for their actions, which was also one of Gasparini’s defining traits as a coach. “It set the mindset for how the day was going to go,” said Goehring.

“The game of hockey isn’t rocket science,” Hakstol told the Grand Forks Hakstol’s early tenure at North Dakota was marked by consistent efforts Herald. “The philosophy and style of hockey that Dean brought to the to win a national championship. table, that won’t change. That (up-tempo game) is a style that people have said is the way hockey is meant to be played.” His teams had notoriously slow starts. In trying to teach his young players to be accountable for their own actions, Hakstol would often give Talk to people about Hakstol and you’ll only be able to dance around the them the kind of responsibility they weren’t used to previously. As a topic for so long: His piercing glare. It was used to set the tone for the result, it would often take longer than anticipated for Hakstol’s teams to young players he coached. He was the boss, and he had high find their stride. expectations for his players. There was no need to verbally remind a player when they made a mistake, or weren’t acting professionally — the Late in the season was when Hakstol’s teams would shine. His teams stare was enough. went to the national semifinals for all four of his first seasons in charge, the first time in UND history that happened. One of Hakstol’s former players told reporter Brad Elliott Schlossman: “That stare will penetrate the back of your helmet.” If Hakstol appears rigid, the opposite is true with how he approaches game planning. Chicago Blackhawks forward Drake Caggiula remembers his very first meeting with Hakstol before committing to UND. Caggiula didn’t say Dane Jackson played with Hakstol at North Dakota. And after a two- much. He didn’t want to disappoint the man with the stare. season stint with the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs, Hakstol approached Jackson about joining his staff as an assistant coach. Jackson was “He had that intimidating look to him,” said Caggiula, who played for impressed with how Hakstol had evolved beyond the defenceman with a three seasons under Hakstol. few tools and a strong work ethic to now have a “bigger view of the game.” The stare was just part of Hakstol’s stern and sometimes paternal approach. Every effort was made to ensure young players fell in line with “How can we do things differently?” Jackson remembers Hakstol the way he wanted the game played. consistently asking his staff.

“Some guys don’t like the sternness, or things being so straight forward,” If an opposing team outperformed North Dakota, Hakstol would said Caggiula. “But he gives it to you without any fluff.” meticulously study video to understand how his team was beaten. Practices afterwards would focus on implementing what Hakstol had Off the ice, Caggiula saw a different type of coach emerge. The kind who learned. was approachable, take players out for coffee to discuss their lives and what sort of future they wanted in hockey. And whenever experienced players or coaches would come through North Dakota, Hakstol would lean on them for information. Oshie Hakstol’s approach could very well differ from that of his predecessor, remembers Hakstol grilling him on what he saw from special teams in the assistant coach D.J. Smith, who left the Leafs to take over the head NHL. coach job with the . Smith endeared himself to players with an understanding ear and an infectious sense of humour. “He always reached out for other opinions,” said Berry. “It wasn’t one of those ‘This is my team, this is what we’re going to do.’ It was a shared Now, the Leafs may have found someone who governs with a heavier environment. And I think that’s healthy.” hand. Stern was a word that came up again and again in speaking with former colleagues and players. He will likely be tasked with running a You could make the argument that Hakstol wasn’t ready to jump from the middle-of-the-pack Leafs penalty kill that finished at 79.9 percent on the NCAA to the NHL with the Philadelphia Flyers. Still, many close to season. Hakstol say his curiosity and the high standards he holds players to has not wavered, even through a tumultuous three-and-a-half seasons in “You can be the best player on the team and if you make a mistake, he’ll Philadelphia. let you know about it,” said Caggiula. “No different than if a guy on the fourth line make a mistake, he holds everyone accountable.” Now, the Leafs are betting on that approach as Hakstol seeks to prove he is capable of coaching at the NHL level. His former North Dakota Oshie agrees. players certainly believe it.

“He’s very good at dealing with young men who have great talent but “He helped me become a pro player,” said Oshie. “I’ll always look up to can’t really stick to the game plan,” said Oshie after being asked for his Hak as a father figure.” opinion on why the Leafs would hire Hakstol. Oshie clarified that he doesn’t necessarily believe the Leafs have these types of players, but The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 believes in the importance of having this type of coach.

He remembers breaking a team rule early on in his career at UND. Despite being one of the team’s more talented and respected players, Hakstol didn’t hesitate to strip him of his alternate captain’s role.

“I always respected the way that, even when I made my fair of mistakes, he always treated me like an adult and I always appreciated that,” said Oshie.

As much as Hakstol wanted to empower his young players, he also wanted to keep them focused on the task at hand.

Karl Goehring played under Hakstol when he was an assistant coach in the 2000-01 season, and then returned to North Dakota to serve as a goalie coach for Hakstol from 2010 to 2015. He remembers a “stoic” coach who was always very direct with his players.

“You always know where you stand and his expectations,” said Goehring. “And it’s very professional in the way he presents it to guys.”

That professionalism extended to the ice.

Morning game day skates were not simply to loosen up. If Hakstol’s stern demeanour could be found anywhere, it was on the ice the morning of 1150894 Washington Capitals

Capitals PR man wins $1 million Powerball drawing

By Matthew Paras - The Washington Times - Monday, August 12, 2019

The Washington Capitals’ main spokesman won $1 million from a July 27 Powerball drawing, according to the Virginia Lottery.

Sergey Kocharov, the Capitals’ vice president of communications, bought five lottery tickets on an impulse when at Harris Teeter on Kings Mill Lane, letting the computer randomly select his numbers. One of Kocharov’s tickets hit the first five numbers: 1-19-31-48-61.

“I was surprised,” Kocharov said in a press release. “I always hear about jackpot wins. It feels great!”

The Harris Teeter location will also receive a $10,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.

The press release also includes a photo of Kocharov holding a giant $1 million check.

Kocharov has been with the Capitals since 2010, meaning he also has a championship ring from when Washington won the Stanley Cup in 2018. His winnings did not convince him to give up his job in hockey, as he mentioned at the end of a tweet Monday:

On for tennis match this week for sure -but let it be known that this idea was all from my old man (I never play Lol) who was in town for four days and left a happy man. Couldn’t be more happier for my dad - the hardest working family man and my role model. Be at work tomorrow :) https://t.co/m0YXebBmJG

— Sergey Kocharov (@SergeyKocharov) August 12, 2019

Washington Times LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150895 Washington Capitals

Capitals’ Vice President of Communications wins $1 million Powerball

By Quinton Mayo August 12, 2019 9:28 PM

Capitals Vice President of Communications has had a lot of good fortune recently and this is just another addition to his collection.

Sergey Kocharov casually purchased a Powerball ticket while grocery shopping at Harris Teeter on Kings Mill Lane.

“I saw the Powerball sign and said, ‘I may as well try it,’” he recalled to valottery.com

Kocharov's victory was a major win for Harris Teeter too, as they received a "$10,000 bonus from the Virginia Lottery for selling the winning ticket."

“I was surprised,” Kocharov said. “I always hear about jackpot wins. It feels great!”

As humbly as he knew how, Kocharov made sure to give proper credit where it was due: his father.

On for tennis match this week for sure -but let it be known that this idea was all from my old man (I never play Lol) who was in town for four days and left a happy man. Couldn’t be more happier for my dad - the hardest working family man and my role model. Be at work tomorrow :) https://t.co/m0YXebBmJG

— Sergey Kocharov (@SergeyKocharov) August 12, 2019

Congratulations Sergey, this one's on us you.

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150896 Washington Capitals

A month of celebration for Alex Ovechkin

By Julia Karron August 12, 2019 12:14 PM

It's the eighth month of the year, so what better way to celebrate August than by highlighting the Great Eight himself, Alex Ovechkin?

For the month of August, our Capitals team is releasing a daily 'Alex Ovechkin-themed highlight' tying into the number of the day for the month of August.

August 1: First Overall Pick in 2004 NHL Debut

Alex Ovechkin was drafted first overall in 2004, and he set the Caps franchise on a new course.

August 2: Two goals in NHL debut vs. Columbus

What's better than scoring one goal in your NHL debut? Scoring two!

August 3: Three-time Hart Trophy Winner

Ovi's been the most valuable player in the NHL three times. Can he make it a fourth this year?

August 4: Four career 4-goal games

Not many players can notch four goals in a game. The Great Eight has done it four times.

August 5: Kisses on the Cup during his twirl after they won

It took five games to beat the Vegas Golden Knights, but Ovechkin helped lead the Caps to their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

August 6: Scored OT goal vs Atlanta in six seconds on Dec. 15, 2006

In one of the fastest goals in NHL history, Ovi torched the Atlanta Thrashers for an overtime winner.

August 7: Seventh-most game-winning goals in NHL History

Ovechkin has proven how clutch he is over his career and has the seventh most game-winners in NHL history with 107.

August 8: Rocket Richard Trophies won

Ovi will be looking for a ninth scoring title, but the Great Eight currently holds eight of them.

August 9: Needs nine Power-Play Goals to pass Teemu Selanne for 3rd most in NHL history

One of the deadliest power-play scorers ever, Ovechkin is only nine goals away from having the third-most in NHL history.

August 10: Matt Bradley fight

Ovechkin rarely gets into fights, but Steve Downie almost roped him into one had it not been for Matt Bradley.

August 11: 11th among active players in assists

Many don't think of Ovechkin as an all-time great passer, but he currently ranks 11th among active players on that list.

August 12: 12-time All-Star

In Ovechkin's fourteen-year career, he's been an All-Star 12 times. He can make it a 13th in the 2019-20 season.

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150897 Washington Capitals

Alex Ovechkin named Top 20 winger in NHL

By Julia Karron August 12, 2019 11:41 AM

Before the 2019-20 season kicks off, the NHL Network has dubbed Alex Ovechkin one of the best wingers right now, as part of their #NHLTopPlayers series.

Ovi grabbed third on the list, just behind the Tampa Bay Lightning's Nikita Kucherov and the Chicago Blackhawks' Patrick Kane.

"This guy just lives and breathes to score goals and he did it again this past season," NHL Network analyst Mike Rupp said. "He's going to hit probably this next season, 700 goals."

Should Ovi hit 700 goals next season, he would be eighth all-time on the NHL's goal leader board. He currently sits at 13th all-time with 658 goals.

Ovechkin's 2018-19 campaign was his most productive since the 2009- 10 season, and he scored 51 goals along with 38 assists.

It's the eighth season he's scored 50 or more goals, and trails only and Mike Bossy, who each have nine 50+ goal seasons.

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150898 Washington Capitals from everywhere. At times it was hard for the Capitals to even get the puck during the road games in that playoff series. They couldn’t win any of them.

Metropolitan Division Outlook 2019-20: The Carolina Hurricanes Petr Mrazek had a nice season in goal (.914 save percentage), but he’s never been able to put together long stretches of top-level play. If there is a question here, it remains in goal. It’s been Carolina’s undoing before. By Brian McNally August 12, 2019 10:06 AM Mrazek will share the net with James Reimer this year after Curtis McElhinney (.912 save percentage) departed. He played 33 games to

Mrazek’s 40 so Reimer will likely have to give them a decent workload. The Capitals enter the 2019-20 season looking for their fifth consecutive One thing to note: Carolina’s farm system remains excellent. The Metropolitan Division title. Charlotte Checkers won the AHL’s Calder Cup last season so there are But this could be the most challenging year yet. The bottom of the pieces to bring up if injuries strike or players don’t perform – even in goal. division has improved dramatically with offseason moves and the top of Don’t be surprised again. If the Hurricanes struggle to match last year’s the division still has quality teams. It’s hard to figure who will crater and feel-good vibes, they remain a quality team with young talent that could finish last. The winning team might not top 100 points. take another leap forward. Depth on the back end might be an issue, the For the next two weeks, NBC Sports Washington will take a look at each second line must gel and the goalies must shake their inconsistent Metro team and where they stand with training camps opening in less history. But Carolina should be in the playoff mix all season and there are than a month. Today: The Carolina Hurricanes. legitimate reasons to think they could win the division, too.

Let’s start with last year’s Cinderella story. The Carolina Hurricanes Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 08.13.2019 always seem to go big when they make the Stanley Cup playoffs. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does their history is spectacular.

Last year was no exception. They rallied to knock out the defending champion Capitals in the first round with a double-overtime Game 7 road victory and followed that with a sweep of the New York Islanders.

If Carolina lost its way in the Eastern Conference Final against Boston in a four-game sweep, it’s hard to be too down. The Hurricanes have emerging young talent all over the place and should be right back in the mix for a playoff spot, if not the division title.

Carolina (46-29-7, 99 points) had a dream season. Their Storm Surge celebrations became a true NHL phenomenon. You had to watch their games just to see how they would entertain the swelling crowds in Raleigh after wins. That momentum carried over to the playoffs, a place they hadn’t been for a decade as the fanbase eroded waiting for something, anything to bring them back.

The patience paid off. Analytics darlings for years with high shot totals and promising prospects, it all came together finally when they finally got above-average goaltending to go with the good stuff already in place.

Think they were a fluke? You’re wrong. Carolina smirked as the Montreal Canadiens tried to poach star center Sebastian Aho with an offer sheet this summer. The 21-year-old Finn might have some catching up to do in the locker room for signing with another team. But the Hurricanes quickly matched the five-year, $42.27-million deal and owner Tom Dundon basically mocked Montreal in his press conference afterward for the attempt.

So Aho, one of the game’s bright young stars with 30 goals and 83 points last year, is locked in place. He centers a top line that is formidable with Teuvo Teravainen and trade acquisition Nino Niederreiter. That January deal with the Minnesota Wild was highway robbery. He had 30 points (16 goals, 14 assists) in 36 games with Carolina and 23 overall.

Add in the wildly talented Andrei Svechnikov, who showed no fear, though few smarts in challenging Alexander Ovechkin to a fight in the playoffs, should find a home on the second line at age 19. He scored 20 goals as a rookie. That could be one of the biggest differences for Carolina, which used its vast amount of cap space to trade for Vegas’ Erik Haula, who could play center. That’s a great buy-low gamble. Haula missed most of last season with an injury but had 29 goals for the Golden Knights in 2018 when they went to the Stanley Cup Final.

That would push veteran center Jordan Staal and – if he ever signs – right wing Justin Williams to the third line. Staal had a fine season as the two-way conscience of Carolina and Williams scored 23 goals at age 37. The former Capital is beloved in Raleigh. He was a key part of the 2006 Cup-winning team in his early years. Hard to imagine they don’t work something out for one more year. That third line is savvy and scary no matter who you put on the left-wing. If Williams chooses to retire, that would be a blow.

Jaccob Slavin, 24, proved to be one of the best young defensemen in the NHL last year and Dougie Hamilton, 25, fit in well after a trade with Calgary last summer. Brett Pesce, also 24, anchors the second pair with Justin Faulk, the old man at 26. That’s a good, versatile group and their skating ability played a big part in the Hurricanes getting shots on goal 1150899 Washington Capitals If anything, Holtby is worth more than Bobrovsky. Convincing him to take several million dollars less per year than a goalie he directly compares to is going to be a really tough sell.

6 reasons fans should not expect Braden Holtby to take a hometown The NHLPA discount on his next contract We have talked a lot about Bobrovsky’s contract this summer because, as the top free-agent goalie available, he has set the market with his new By J.J. Regan August 12, 2019 6:42 AM deal. Holtby is one of the best goalies in the world and will arguably be the best goalie on the market in 2020. HIs deal will be what every other goalie is compared to. If he takes a massive discount, it will really hurt the negotiations of every other goalie in need of a new deal. One of the biggest stories of the Washington Capitals’ offseason is over a contract that does not even expire until 2020. Braden Holtby is entering You want $7 million per year? That’s what Holtby got and he is a Vezina the final year of his current deal and should be due a substantial and Cup-winner. You’re not as good. raise...one the Caps will likely be unable to afford. How Holtby’s new contract affects everyone else is arguably not his There are many Holtby fans out there who seem to think a hometown problem, but let’s assume that Holtby actually cares about other people. discount is all but guaranteed. He doesn’t care about money and he likes Taking a deal worth $6 or $7 million per year would significantly impact it in Washington so much he will be happy to take whatever the Caps can other free agent goalies. When you are part of a union and are messing give him! with the future salaries of other players, you can at least expect to have a conversation with someone from the union over what accepting less will Holtby has made it clear in May that he would like to stay in Washington mean for other goalies around the league. and he certainly could choose to take less than he is worth to help the team...slightly less. That is his prerogative, but there’s a limit. To think he No no-movement is going to take a massive discount and leave several million dollars per year on the table seems unrealistic. No-movement clauses were a big topic of conversation in 2017 when the NHL held an expansion draft for Vegas. Teams were obligated to protect And there is nothing wrong with that. A professional hockey career is players with no-movement clauses from the draft. This caused a panic very short and players have to take advantage when they have the among some general managers, but not the Caps. No one on the team chance. Holtby has established himself as one of the top netminders in had a no-movement clause so it was not an issue. the NHL and there is nothing wrong with trying to cash in on that if that is what Holtby chooses to do. Fast-forward to 2019 and once again, no one on the roster has a no- movement clause. There are several players with no-trade clauses, but If you are someone who believes “he has made enough money! He none with no-movement. It just does not seem to be something that the should be fine taking a minimum deal to stay with the team!” then this Caps give out. article is not for you. Enjoy your fantasy land where players do not care about getting paid for doing their jobs and feel free to check back in when When you add in the fact that the team’s top prospect, Ilya Samsonov, is the season starts and all the talk of money and contracts is over. a goalie, then it seems like there is virtually no shot that Holtby gets a no- movement clause. For the rest of you, here are six reasons why fans should not simply assume Holtby is going to be taking a massive hometown discount. with Why does that matter? Washington. Because there is another expansion draft in 2021. If Holtby is going to Holtby took the Caps in arbitration in 2015 sign a long-term deal with a team, it would presumably be because he wants to stay with that team and in that city for the length of the contract. Think Holtby doesn’t care about his contract? Well, he did in 2015. He A starting caliber goalie like Holtby will certainly be an attractive filed for arbitration when he and the team remained far apart in contract candidate for Seattle in the net expansion draft, especially after seeing negotiations. The process went so far that Holtby and the team actually the success Marc-Andre Fleury has had in Vegas. had his arbitration hearing before finally reaching an agreement before the arbitrator made his ruling. With Seattle looming and Samsonov in the organization, it is not unreasonable to think Holtby will want some sort of guarantee that if he Holtby had to scratch and claw to get a five-year contract worth $30.5 signs in Washington, he will stay in Washington. Given their track record million for a $6.1 million cap hit. Since then, Holtby has won a Vezina and the fact that Samsonov is considered the future of the team, Trophy, a William M. Jennings Trophy and a Stanley Cup. however, Holtby is unlikely to get a no-movement clause with the Caps.

But yeah, I'm sure he won't care what his next contract pays. In a contract negotiation, everything affects the bottom-line. If Holtby wants a no-movement clause, and there is every reason to believe he A really close comparable would given the circumstances, if he doesn’t get one, that will have to Ultimately the market will dictate a player’s worth, but comparable translate to the Caps giving him more money. It’s a trade-off. contracts are a good way to estimate what a player can get paid. It is a lot to ask to expect Holtby to accept less money and no no- Sometimes it can be hard to find a perfect comparable, but that is not the movement clause. case for Holtby. This will be his last big deal Sergey Bobrovsky just signed a seven-year, $70 million contract in July with the Florida Panthers and it just so happens that he is the perfect Holtby will turn 30 in September. He is in his prime now, but he won’t be comparable to Holtby. by the time this deal expires. This is going to be Holtby’s last time to cash-in and his value is never going to be this high again. Every year is Holtby will be 30 when his contract expires, the same age Bobrovsky is going to push him further into his 30s making the last years of a long- now. Here’s a look at how they compare statistically: term deal more of a question mark. Bobrovsky: 2.46 GAA, .919 save percentage, 33 shutouts, two Vezina This is the time for Holtby to max out the money and the term. There’s no Trophies time for a “take a team-friendly deal now and we’ll totally take care of you Holtby: 2.47 GAA, .918 save percentage, 35 shutouts, one Vezina on the next contract" type of deal. Trophy Human nature That’s pretty close...until you look at their playoff numbers. Whatever your job may be, no one likes to see someone else get paid Bobrovsky: 11-18 record, 3.14 GAA, .902 save percentage, no shutouts more than you if you do a better job. It is human nature and a feeling we can all relate to. Just because Holtby’s new deal may include a few more Holtby: 48-41 record, 2.09 GAA, .928 save percentage, seven shutouts, zeros and commas than most people does not mean that human nature one Stanley Cup no longer applies. You may think paying $10 million a year for a goalie is crazy. Yet, a 30- year-old goalie with similar stats and no Cup just got paid that and he also got a no-movement clause. Why would anyone assume Holtby would ask for less than that?

Comcast SportsNet.com LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150900 Washington Capitals average. He’s big and strong, showing good puck protection skills. He’s not overly physical but competes well.

4. Connor McMichael, C, London-OHL 2019 NHL farm system rankings: No. 30 Washington Capitals Jan. 15, 2001 | six-foot | 174 pounds

Tier: Legit NHL prospect By Corey Pronman Aug 12, 2019 19 McMichael had a great season, as a go-to player for London when its lineup was depleted, and he continued to produce and generate shots at Corey Pronman’s deep dive into the farm system of every NHL a high level when the roster filled out, although he tailed off toward the organization includes a ranking of all of the team’s prospects, broken into end. He doesn’t wow you with his tools, but he’s a quality player. tiers based on their projection; the impact on the upcoming season and McMichael is a very smart all-around hockey player. He sees the ice very an overall ranking of all players under 23. Further explanation of well, is creative with the puck and understands the game away from the Pronman’s system, player eligibility, prospect tiers and the complete puck. He’s not the biggest guy, but McMichael competes well. He gets to ranking of all 31 teams can be found here. the net and gets back on defense. With the puck, he’s skilled but not amazingly so. He can make some space with his hands, and his shot can The Capitals’ top prospect from last season, Ilya Samsonov, was up and surprise goalies with the ability to pick corners. His skating leaves some down as a rookie in the AHL, but they did bring in a few players in 2019 to be desired. He has decent speed but not great for his size, and his who could help the team soon. There isn’t a lot of impact talent in this stride is inefficient. I give a nod to his sense and production as indicators system now, unless Samsonov rebounds, but there are a few players that he could play in the NHL. who project to help the team down the line. 5. Martin Fehervary, D, HV71-SHL Key additions: Connor McMichael, Brett Leason Oct. 6, 1999 | 6-foot-2 | 194 pounds Key subtractions/graduations: Jonas Siegenthaler, Travis Boyd Tier: Legit NHL prospect 2018 farm system ranking: No. 31 Fehervary didn’t have the most eye-popping statistical season in the 2019 draft grade: C SHL, but I did like his season, particularly when he suited up for Slovakia at various events. He’s a great skater. His quickness is easily high-end Prospect Rankings and arguably elite. He will be able to skate with the fastest NHL forwards. 1. Ilya Samsonov, G, Hershey-AHL Fehervary also competes well and gets high praise for his character. Offensively he will never dazzle, but he has good hockey sense and can Feb. 22, 1997 | 6-foot-3 | 205 pounds move the puck fine. His lack of skill is why I don’t see him as a top-four, but some scouts who believe he could hit that level. Tier: Very good/legit bubble 6. Lucas Johansen, D, Hershey-AHL Samsonov had a tough first pro season in North America as he adjusted to playing goal on the smaller ice at the AHL level. I believe in the toolkit Nov. 16, 1997 | 6-foot-2 | 183 pounds a lot and have always been impressed over the years, so despite his .898 save percentage as a 21-year-old, I still have hope. Scouts who Tier: Legit/chance bubble watched him this season still seem optimistic too. His athleticism is elite, Johansen had a fine second pro season, as a middle of the lineup player he can make spectacular saves, especially as a 6-foot-3 goalie, and had for Hershey. He checks off the physical boxes you are looking for in a quite a few highlight reel moments this season. I think he’s a smart and pro. He’s a 6-foot-2 defenseman with good, if not very good, mobility. He technically sound goalie; and when he’s locked in, he squares can lead rushes at the AHL level very well and closes on checks well. everything. However, I also saw moments last season where he didn’t With Johansen, outside of his skating, there’s nothing about his game track the play that well, or his positioning was a bit off. offensively that really jumps out. He’s got some skill but it’s not high-end, 2. Alexander Alexeyev, D, Red Deer-WHL and I’m not sold he’s a power play type in the NHL. He defends fine, but I don’t know if he’s a shutdown/penalty kill type in the NHL. Nov. 15, 1999 | 6-foot-4 | 201 pounds 7. Riley Sutter, RW, Everett-WHL Tier: Legit NHL prospect Oct. 25, 1999 | 6-foot-3 | 209 pounds Alexeyev was a big minute eater for Red Deer in all situations and was an important player for Russia at the world juniors. Alexeyev is a big Tier: Legit/chance bubble defenseman with a good skill level. He can make difficult offensive plays Sutter had a good final season of junior, scoring around a point per game inside the offensive zone and on breakouts. I don’t see him as a first and playing all situations for Everett. He has a bit more skill and offense power play type in the NHL, and he gets too cute at times. But he has the in his game than I thought as a draft-eligible. He’s by no means going to poise and skill to move pucks as a pro. Alexeyev also has a very good ever hit highlight reels, but Sutter has some small-area skill and has shot, scoring or creating second chances off his shot. He’s mobile for his above-average instincts in the offensive zone. He’s great in front of the size. His speed won’t stand out, but he projects to be able to handle the net. With his 6-foot-3 frame and how well he competes, he can get the NHL pace. I know some NHL scouts who believe he can be a top-four tough goals. I don’t know if he’ll ever be fast or skilled enough to score defenseman. I’m not all the way there yet, but I’ve seen times when he that much as a pro, but he’s got a decent shot. looks the part. 8. Aliaksei Protas, C, Prince Albert-WHL 3. Brett Leason, RW, Prince Albert-WHL Jan. 6, 2001 | 6-foot-5 | 190 pounds April 30, 1999 | 6-foot-4 | 201 pounds Tier: Legit/chance bubble Tier: Legit NHL prospect Protas is a 6-foot-5 center who is a high-end passer and finisher, and he Leason was a significant riser all season. He was one of the top players had a fantastic postseason for Prince Albert. For every moment Protas in the WHL and, as a third-year, draft-eligible, worked his way onto made a basic rush, there was a time he feathered a pass through a Canada’s World Junior Championship team. There were times early in seam, saw a teammate coming with an eye in the back of his head or the season I thought Leason wasn’t for me, but he grew on me as the launched a hard wrister past a goalie from the circles. He can run a season went along. He’s 6-foot-4 but also has an intriguing skill set. He’s power play off the flank and make plays. Protas is a gangly skater who not a highlight reel player by any means, but he has decent puck skills awkwardly gets up the ice, though, and isn’t that physical. If he fixes his and can create offense with very good vision. He’s aware of his skating, he’s got a chance to be a good player with his instincts and size surroundings and can put pucks into seams. The biggest reason for down the middle. Leason’s jump as a prospect was his skating. It improved from poor to potentially above-average. He can turn the corner occasionally on 9. Vitek Vanecek, G, Hershey-AHL defensemen. Leason’s skating tests well, but in-game, his pace is very Jan. 9, 1996 | 6-foot-1 | 181 pounds Pilon was one of Hershey’s better offensive players as a rookie pro. What stood out to me from Pilon watching Hershey games was his speed. He’s Tier: Has a chance a very good skater and was often able to generate a controlled entry off Vanecek was one of Hershey’s best players and was named an all-star in his speed. He’s got skill and offensive IQ to go with his skating. I saw his third AHL season. I love the way Vanecek plays. He’s very quick, flashes of NHL quality in those areas, but not consistently, and overall I’d intelligent and aggressive. He’s not the biggest goalie but moves around grade both as above-average. Pilon is not the biggest guy, and while he the crease very well and can make tough saves consistently. His size at competes OK, he could probably be a bit better off the puck. about 6-foot-1 is his obvious weakness, but he challenges shooters so Depth Players well, makes standup saves when he has to and knows how to limit it as best he can. That said, his pedestrian save percentage numbers over the Connor Hobbs, D, Hershey-AHL (Age: 22): Hobbs has some puck- years are in part due to the fact he doesn’t cover up the net as well as an moving ability, a good shot and defends hard, but he’s an average skater equally talented 6-foot-3 goalie would. and doesn’t really wow in any aspect of the game.

10. Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, LW, Djurgarden-SHL Beck Malenstyn, LW, Hershey-AHL (21): Malenstyn has size, speed, hockey sense and competes well. He lacks NHL skill but could slot into a Feb. 10, 1998 | six-foot | 185 pounds fourth line if there are injury issues.

Tier: Has a chance Tyler Lewington, D, Hershey-AHL (24): Lewington is a mobile defender Jonsson-Fjallby struggled initially in the AHL. He went back to Sweden in who is hard on his checks and has good hockey sense. He lacks NHL November and had a decent season and a big postseason on the puck-moving skill but did play a few games for the Capitals last season. eventual SHL runner up. Jonsson-Fjallby brings a ton of speed and Shane Gersich, LW, Hershey-AHL (23): Gersich is a very good skater energy to a given shift. He flies up the ice (and also has the flow you and has some offensive ability, but he’s undersized and his puck game want in a speedster) with his speed and turns defensemen around doesn’t overly impress. regularly. He’s not a high-end skill type, but he can make 1-on-1 plays every so often. He forces plays at times and, while he has some vision, Tobias Geisser, D, Hershey-AHL (20): Geisser is big and fairly mobile for he’s not a natural playmaker. Ultimately he will need his offense to be a big defenseman, but he has a significant offensive upside question. He more consistent, especially in North America, but he has the tools to had one point in 47 AHL games last season. make it and be a bottom-six/penalty kill type if he does. Bobby Nardella, D, Notre Dame-Big 10 (23): Nardella is a very intelligent 11. Kody Clark, RW, Ottawa-OHL puck-mover with skill, but he’s small and a very average skater. He was a good college player, but he needs to prove he can defend and skate with Oct. 13, 1999 | 6-foot-2 | 185 pounds pros.

Tier: Has a chance Damien Riat, LW, Biel-Bienne-NLA (22): Riat has a nice skill level and Clark had a decent final season in the OHL. He was part of a very good can score goals, but I don’t see much about his game at this stage that Ottawa 67’s team and had some very impressive stretches. For a 19- looks NHL level. year-old, though, he didn’t exactly light up score sheets and looked like a Eric Florchuk, C, Saskatoon-WHL (19): He’s a decent two-way forward secondary player on his line at times. Clark has above average skill, with with enough skill to have some pro potential but nothing about his game flashes of top-end, and a very good shot. But I wouldn’t call him a driver jumps off the page. or a primary playmaker on a line. He skates fine but doesn’t have a ton of speed. He competes well and has some grit in his game. I don’t know 2019-20 Impact how many NHL elements his game has, but I could see an argument he was buried down a deep lineup and will produce more when he turns pro. The Capitals don’t have a lot of players who look clearly ready for the NHL, but there’s a lot of guys who could plausibly be ready or be pushed 12. Joe Snively, LW, Hershey-AHL into the NHL if there’s an injury. On defense, Alexeyev, Fehervary and Johansen could play games. At forward, Leason and Jonsson-Fjallby Jan. 1, 1996 | 5-foot-9 | 181 pounds could play games. In goal, Vanecek or Samsonov could play. I just don’t Tier: Has a chance feel confident about saying any of those players will play for the Capitals in 2019-20. Snively was a top player in the ECAC for Yale and then impressed after signing with the Capitals in the AHL. Snively has offensive talent. He can Organizational Top 10 (23 and Under) make skilled plays with the puck and is an excellent passer. He’s not the Jakub Vrana, LW (23) biggest forward at 5-foot-9, but he competes fine. I remember watching Snively when he was draft-eligible and having time for the way he plays Ilya Samsonov, G (22) the game. His issue is that, while he’s a good skater, for his size he doesn’t have truly elite quickness. Alexander Alexeyev, D (19)

13. Martin Hugo Has, D, Tappara-Finland Jr. Brett Leason, RW (20)

Feb. 2, 2001 | 6-foot-4 | 187 pounds Connor McMichael, C (18)

Tier: Has a chance Jonas Siegenthaler, D (22)

Hugo Has, at this time last season as a top talent in the 2001 age group, Martin Fehervary, D (19) looked promising. But his season was a disappointment. He didn’t play Lucas Johansen, D (21) all that well in league play and teams were very concerned about his trajectory. He does have an intriguing enough toolkit to remain a pick for Riley Sutter, RW (19) me, even given those concerns. He’s a 6-foot-4 defenseman who can Aliaksei Protas, C (18) move the puck. He has above-average IQ and some power play QB ability. His skating isn’t a selling point. I know some scouts who call him Vrana is a longtime favorite of mine. I don’t know if he will ever be a high- slow. I disagree. I think it projects as pro-average. He has some end guy, but he scored 20 goals last season. He’s a player full of speed, elusiveness and can close on checks but won’t be a blazer. He’ll need skill and offensive creativity that he could be a quality forward for work around the edges to become more consistent all-around, but there’s Washington for a while. an NHL toolkit here if he puts it together. Player Eligibility: 14. Garrett Pilon, C, Hershey-AHL A skater no longer qualifies as an NHL prospect if he has played 25 April 13, 1998 | 5-foot-11 | 187 pounds games in the NHL in any campaign, regular season and playoffs combined, or 50 games total; or reaches age 27 by Sept. 15. Tier: Has a chance A goalie no longer qualifies as an NHL prospect if he has played 10 games in the NHL in any campaign, regular season and playoffs combined, or 25 games total; or reaches age 27 by Sept. 15.

Tier Definitions:

Special NHL prospect: Projects as a true NHL star, someone who is among the best players in the league.

Elite NHL prospect: Projects as an impact player, someone who is top 10-15 percent in the NHL at his position.

High-end NHL prospect: Projects as a first-line forward or a top-pair defenseman.

Very good NHL prospect: Projects as a top-six forward, top-four defenseman or starting goaltender in the NHL.

Legit NHL prospect: Projects to be a full-time NHL player in the bottom half of a roster.

Has a chance: The prospect has a chance to make it as a full-time player if some improvements are made.

Depth Players: These are prospects who do not have NHL toolkits, but could be good AHL players and provide depth to an organization.

The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150901 Vancouver Canucks — 205 LIVE (@WWE205LIVE) JULY 24, 2019

By retiring with three years remaining on a heavy front-loaded contract, Luongo technically gave up $3.6 million in real salary owed to him and Roberto Luongo to have number retired by Florida Panthers, still unsure did the team a favor as far as the salary cap goes. about what is next Because of the way his contract was structured, Luongo would have counted for $5.3 million per season against the salary cap for the next By George Richards Aug 12, 2019 25 three years.

By retiring early, Florida is only charged a recapture penalty of $1.1 million for the next three seasons. The Canucks, who originally signed SUNRISE, Fla. — Whether he was was playing for the Canucks or the Luongo to his 12-year contract, will be hit with just north of $3 million for Panthers, if it was August, Roberto Luongo could be found on the ice in the next three seasons because of the early retirement. South Florida preparing for another season. And, by retiring early instead of “going through the motions” of being put For years, Luongo’s offseason routine was rigorous. In the steamy on the long-term injured list, Luongo is free to move on with the next step summer months, he would go from early morning workouts at the in his career, and things such as his jersey retirement and Hall of Fame Panthers’ IceDen in Coral Springs to spending his afternoons in the gym. eligibility can move forward.

This summer has most definitely been different for Luongo. “At the end of the day, I just decided to listen to my body,” Luongo said. “I was at the point in my career where my body just didn’t want to go In June, just days before the Panthers made a huge splash in free through the motions of a summer workout anymore and it was getting agency, Luongo announced his retirement after 19 NHL seasons with the harder and harder during the season to get ready to play. The more we Islanders, Panthers and Canucks. got into the summer, the more I realized it was time to step away from For the first time since he was a young boy, he is not preparing for an the game.” upcoming season. What Luongo ends up doing next remains a bit of a mystery, although “Yeah, it has definitely been weird,” Luongo said Monday. “It has been general manager Dale Tallon has said he would be welcomed to join the different. You know, I give my wife (Gina) every day the play-by-play of franchise in an off-ice capacity whenever “he feels it is right to join us.” where I should be; going on the ice, going to work out. Luongo’s younger brother Leo is the goaltending coach for Florida’s AHL “Usually, this time of year and August is the worst month. You’re doing team in Springfield and Roberto has said the job his brother has done double-training at the gym and on the ice, so I am not missing that part, I makes him proud. can tell you that. But I am going to miss being around the guys once the Luongo also has said he doesn’t think coaching is in his future, although season starts.” he says “hockey has been my life” and wants to remain in the game in On Monday morning, the Panthers announced Luongo will become the some capacity. first player in franchise history to have his number retired. I’M A MAN OF THE PEOPLE. SO I NEED SOME ADVICE While team founders H. Wayne Huizenga and Bill Torrey have numbers — STROMBONE (@STROMBONE1) AUGUST 12, 2019 retired in their honor, Luongo will be the first player to see the number he wore all those years hung from the rafters of BB&T Center in Sunrise. “I definitely want to stay involved somehow,” Luongo said. “For now, nothing is set in stone. We have had a few conversations, but I definitely On March 7, when his hometown Montreal Canadiens make their second want to stay involved in the game. But the when-and-where, we’re not visit to Sunrise, the team will honor Luongo for all he meant to the sure just yet. Down the line somewhere, you will see me around some organization since they acquired him in a blockbuster deal with the time.” Islanders in 2000. The Panthers have been loyal to a number of former players over the LUONGO WILL BECOME THE FIRST #FLAPANTHERS PLAYER IN years, with captains Bryan McCabe and Derek MacKenzie in the hockey FRANCHISE HISTORY TO HAVE HIS JERSEY NUMBER RETIRED ON operations department and Shawn Thornton working on the business MARCH 7, 2020. side of the organization. » HTTPS://T.CO/Q7Q72FVI6L PIC.TWITTER.COM/SZD1BYKDVR Owner Vinnie Viola and Tallon will find a place for Luongo. — FLORIDA PANTHERS (@FLAPANTHERS) AUGUST 12, 2019 “Roberto is a cornerstone of Panthers history and an icon of the game,” Luongo ended up having two stints with the Panthers. Viola said in a statement released by the team on Monday.

After being traded to Vancouver in 2006, Florida reacquired Luongo in “He has represented himself and the Panthers with tremendous dignity, 2014. He finished his career holding every goaltending record in Florida determination and a standard of excellence throughout his career. franchise history and will likely head to the Hall of Fame in three years Roberto exemplifies what it means to be a Florida Panther. His level of near the top of the NHL record books as well. commitment to this franchise, his teammates, his family and the South Florida community is second to none. “It’s a great honor,” said Luongo, who is second among goalies in games played (1,044), third in wins (489) and ninth in shutouts (77). “There is no player more deserving to be the first Florida Panther to have his jersey number retired.” “When when I found out yesterday, I didn’t even realize I was going to be the first player to have his number retired so obviously that makes it even Deciding it was time extra special. It’s a great honor and I am looking forward to the night.” Luongo officially announced his retirement with a lengthy post through What is next? his popular Twitter account, but it came as little surprise to the people closest to him. A month after he announced his retirement, Luongo’s first public appearance came in a WWE bit as the Singh Brothers, whom Luongo Goalie coach and friend Robb Tallas worked with Luongo not only during says he has known since his days with the Canucks, made a video of the season but also during those grueling summer workouts as well. them trying to get him to join them in the ring. When the 2018-19 season ended, Luongo said he was ready to come While Luongo may find himself doing some wrestling cameos down the back for at least another season and said he was cool with being put into road, his longterm career could come in the Panthers’ front office. a backup role.

BEFORE #205LIVE, THE @SINGHBROSWWE DECIDED TO SEE IF “I have done it before, I know what it takes, and I realize I am 40 years @STROMBONE1 (ROBERTO LUONGO) IS INTERESTED IN A NEW old and taking on a heavy workload at this age is tough,” Luongo said a CAREER PATH SINCE RETIRING FROM THE @NHL day before what became his final NHL game back in April. PIC.TWITTER.COM/Q49O7TPEYC “I am well aware if I come back, that is the likely scenario for me. And I “There has been a wide, wide range of emotions over the past few am OK with that. I like to practice. The only time I don’t practice is if I am months for me,” Luongo said. “I thought about it a little bit, have seen tired, but if I am not playing as many games, I would have more energy some clips online that for some reason I always go and watch them, look to practice and work on my game. When I have missed some time, I at some of the things I have accomplished and some of the saves I have have had some of my best games when I have come back. So that’s not made. an issue at all.” “To be honest, it has been bittersweet to know that I am stepping away I’D LIKE TO SELECT A SEAT SYMBOLIC OF MY CAREER…..DO YOU from the game. It is hard to let something go that you love so much.” HAVE ANYTHING AVAILABLE BEHIND THE GOAL LINE? HTTPS://T.CO/SXZVYJFKIW The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019

— STROMBONE (@STROMBONE1) JULY 2, 2019

The Panthers eventually signed Sergei Bobrovsky to take over as the starter, a move that had been in the works for a long time.

Tallas said that when the season ended, the Panthers were moving forward with the idea Luongo would return. Then, Luongo and Tallas met for coffee and it was apparent Luongo wasn’t all in for another ride.

“At the end of the season, it sounded like he was ready to come back and then he got away from the game a little bit,’’ Tallas said. “Everything settled down from the season, he was enjoying time with the family instead of being at the rink for six hours, spending all that time on the training table.

“During the season, that’s the routine and you go with it. When you don’t have to do it anymore, you kind of realize, ‘Wow, that wasn’t a lot of fun.’ He put in a lot of work. And now, you’re starting at zero again. I think that was a hard mental block to get over.”

Luongo admits that, while he was ready to return for a 20th NHL season, when he thought about getting back into the gym and back onto the ice, his body wasn’t willing.

For the first time, Luongo said, he dreaded the idea of getting back after it.

That, he said, told him he was done.

“It was a gradual thing,” Luongo said on how he came to the final decision. “When the season ended, I had every intention of coming back. My mind was not thinking about retirement at all. Then the offseason started and the weeks started to go by and I started thinking about having to start my conditioning program and all that stuff.

“My body was just telling me I was not ready to go through all that stuff again. We got into May and I started working out a bit and it was just getting tougher and tougher for me to recover and go through all the preparations I had to just to get through the season. …”

“I think the final kicker for me was for the first time in my life when I thought about getting back on the ice in August, I was not looking forward to it. That was a sign for me that all the work it took to get ready to play had taken over my love of the game.”

By retiring this offseason, there will be no “Farewell Tour” for Luongo.

When he played in Florida’s season finale April 6 against New Jersey, Luongo says he did not look at that as his final game and if he had, it only would have been a distraction to him.

“It is a bit of hit-or-miss because I am glad it went that way and was able to just go out there and play and not think about it,” Luongo said. “If we would have known (that would be the last game), it would have been a distraction.

“But on the other hand, there weren’t many people at the game and it was kind of sad that aside from my wife and kids and a friend who was in town, there weren’t many of (my) people there to see it. It is disappointing in that sense, but you can’t control everything.”

His final moment as an NHL goalie came with Luongo dropping to the ice in frustration after Travis Zajac scored on a power play in overtime to give the Devils a 4-3 victory.

On March 7, expect Luongo to have a full contingent of family members and friends inside a packed house as his No. 1 ascends up to the highest reaches of an arena that has been like home to him for so long.

By playing Montreal, the pregame ceremony will almost certainly be broadcast throughout his home province of Quebec, allowing friends and fans who cannot travel to Broward County to enjoy it from their living room. 1150902 Websites

The Athletic / Pronman: 2019-20 NHL farm system rankings

By Corey Pronman Aug 12, 2019 87

Welcome to The Athletic’s dive into the prospect talent pool for all 31 NHL organizations leading into the 2019-20 season.

This is a snapshot of the current state of every NHL farm system and the top prospects outside the NHL.

This overview will be divided into 31 columns going deep into each team’s farm system, with individual rankings and analysis of each prospect, counting down each day from the worst to the best. This page will be updated after each team’s analysis is published.

Each prospect’s talent will be ranked within its respective system and categorized in a tier based on their talent and potential that applies across all 31 systems.

There is no designated number of prospects I’m cutting each team’s ranking off at. Rather, I list all the prospects I think are NHL prospects within a system, so some rankings will contain more than others.

One thing I’ve become painfully aware of in the years of doing this series is how contentious the prospect eligibility threshold can be. Rarely does one player, unless it’s a truly elite prospect, move the needle dramatically, but it could impact a ranking by one or two spots.

There is no good way to define a prospect, whether objectively or subjectively, someone is going to get left out by the process, it’s just the way it goes.

With that said, the eligibility for being a prospect for these rankings is:

A skater no longer qualifies as an NHL prospect if he has played 25 games in the NHL in any campaign, regular season and playoffs combined, or 50 games total; or reaches age 27 by Sept. 15.

A goalie no longer qualifies as an NHL prospect if he has played 10 games in the NHL in any campaign, regular season and playoffs combined, or 25 games total; or reaches age 27 by Sept. 15.

And now for the rankings:

30. Washington Capitals

31. Calgary Flames

The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019 1150903 Websites Select a team to win the Stanley Cup in the 2019-2020 season, so don’t even try to draft a team because of its future potential. Draft a team to win now.

The Athletic / NHL Contraction Draft: Imagining what the league would Since we were mimicking the post-1967 expansion era of 12 teams, look like in 2019 with only 12 teams where there was no salary cap, we placed no financial restrictions on our teams. They were told to spend to their hearts’ content.

By Eric Duhatschek Aug 12, 2019 176 Everyone got to pick 20 players (12 forwards, six defensemen, two goalies) in a three-stage selection process that I invented off the top of my head.

In 2021, the NHL will expand again by putting its 32nd team in Seattle, In Stage 1, I permitted every GM to protect four players from the teams which will further fill in commissioner Gary Bettman’s geographic they covered. This was designed to preserve the essential Boston-ness “footprint” and also create the largest player pool in league history. of Boston, the essential Toronto-ness of Toronto and so forth. I just couldn’t imagine Brad Marchand wearing a Leafs uniform. Or Auston On a business level, expansion makes complete sense. Vegas joined Matthews playing for Montreal. This rule was modeled after a concept the two years ago, provided a $500 million windfall for NHL owners and was NHL used in 1979 during the merger with the WHA in which the existing a complete success, on and off the ice. Seattle will generate another WHA teams were permitted to retain two position players via a “priority” $650 million payout. selection process. It’s how Wayne Gretzky ended up in Edmonton, But what if you only examined the sport — and not the business — side playing for the Oilers. of the expansion equation? Does adding more and more teams improve In Stage 2, we conducted six rounds of a traditional snake draft, where the overall quality of play? Or does it actually dilute it? each team got to select one player. I determined the 1-to-12 order using Just because we here at The Athletic sometimes like to be contrarians, a highly sophisticated method: I put 12 names in a hat and drew them we thought we’d ponder those questions here in the midst of the summer out. Philadelphia won the Connor McDavid sweepstakes. recess. Congratulations to our man Charlie O’Connor!

Here we present our first-ever NHL Contraction Draft, where we’re asking That got us up to 10 players apiece. you, the reader, to suspend your natural disbelief for a brief time and In Stage 3, we did five more rounds of a snake draft, but this time, each ponder the following hypothetical: franchise got to select two players at a time. I confess: The goal here What if instead of constantly expanding the league, the NHL went the was to get us through the second half of the draft as expeditiously as other way and shrank it to a much smaller size? More specifically, what possible. In order to be fair, however, I also redrew the draft order, would the NHL look like if it had dug in as a 12-team entity, which is what because whenever I’m drafting a fantasy team, I hate to be either first or it was coming out of the original 1967 expansion? last in the order. This time around, the Rangers (and Rick Carpiniello) won the lottery and they got to pick first. Over the years, you’ve often heard the complaint: That expansion watered down the overall NHL talent pool and if only there were fewer Probably the unluckiest contestant was our Toronto correspondent, teams, the level of hockey across-the-board would be exceptional. James Mirtle. In the first stage of the draft, he picked 12th. In Stage 2, he drew No. 8. And no, he hardly complained about it all. Equally unlucky We occasionally see what happens when the chaff is eliminated and was Rob Rossi, in Pittsburgh. Rob selected 8th overall in the first stage best-on-best competitions occur – primarily at the Olympics and at the and 12th in the final stage. World Cup. It’s usually pretty great. So how would that look, on a nightly basis, in the NHL? And if we took this imaginative exercise one step The good news is, they both had access to a far deeper player pool to further, which players out of today’s pool would survive to play in a 12- begin with. team league? I could muster genuine sympathy for Max Bultman (Detroit), Lisa Dillman Here’s the math: There are roughly 750 players at any given time (Los Angeles) and for Michael Russo and his army of supporters in drawing an NHL salary – 31 teams comprised of 23-player rosters and Minnesota, who had to pre-select four protected players from franchises then a handful of others on injured reserve. If the league had only 12 that are either rebuilding or in transition. But as I told Russo, he also got teams, and you included only the 20 players in the starting lineup every a chance to add 16 warm bodies of his own choosing to beef up the rest night, that would reduce the player pool to just 240. of his squad.

Effectively, you’d see the league shrink by almost two thirds. The rest, Once we finalized the rosters, we turned them over to our resident mad about 500, would be in the press box, seeking employment in the minors genius Dom Luszczyszyn so he could run them through his predictive or playing in Europe. model and simulate what a 2019-20 NHL season would look like. You’ll find the results near the bottom of this piece. It would be a very different, very Darwinian world. Without further preamble, let’s examine the rosters of all 12 teams that Since we’re deep into the offseason anyway and idle hands are said to emerged to see what our contestants came up with. And for anyone be the devils’ workshop, here’s what we did. interested in the minutiae of the exercise, the protected lists and the round-by-round draft results are here. We gathered together 12 members of The Athletic’s hockey-writing staff and made them GMs of the teams they covered (sorry friends: No raises Eastern Conference are forthcoming). Western Conference We began with the Original Six (the Bruins, Blackhawks, Red Wings, Canadiens, Rangers and Maple Leafs). OK, if you’ve made it this far, you’ve probably arrived at a couple of different conclusions. Four of the 1967 expansion teams remain intact (the Kings, Flyers, Penguins and Blues) and so they’re here too. One, every single one of these teams is spectacular and in the real world, would presumably coast to a playoff spot and would have to be Of the remaining two squads, we merged the Minnesota North Stars with very unlucky not to win the Stanley Cup. the Minnesota Wild to create a single entity. Finally, since the California Golden Seals were based in the San Francisco Bay area, we turned Two, we’ve done real NHL GMs an enormous favor and essentially them into the Seals/San Jose Sharks. gotten rid of every single salary-cap headache that they have lingering on their rosters. Hundreds of millions of dollars of bad contracts have Naturally, trying to organize 12 hockey writers scattered across North disappeared. It’s like a giant contractual amnesty – and we didn’t even America was an exercise in herding cats, so I channeled my strictest have to endure a work stoppage to achieve it. inner Clarence Campbell voice and arbitrarily imposed the rules and parameters of our contraction draft. They were as follows: Three, there isn’t a lot of room in the 12-team NHL for many aging players, although happily at least two future Hall of Famers, Zdeno Chara and Joe Thornton, both survived. We can thank Joey MacDonald in of the exercise on their individual team sites: And explain why they Boston for that. picked who they did, or how unlucky they were in the draft order or with the team their real-world GM saddled them with. (You can find those What are some other takeaways? here)

Scorers But I couldn’t help getting in on the action myself, especially after Russo Last season, there were 55 NHL players who scored 70 or more points. went for a reach in the third round and made what I consider to be the As you might expect, all made the contraction-draft cut. There were most provocative choice in the entire exercise – selecting Phil Kessel for another 57 players who finished between 50 and 70 points – 56 of them his Minnesota team. Ha! Take that! made the cut. Only the Islanders’ Josh Bailey (56 points in 82 games) In 1967-68, there was no such thing as a no-move clause in any players’ didn’t get chosen. contract, so you know what that means. Welcome to the Twin Cities, Phil. Of the 60 players between 40 and 50 points, 13 missed the cut (Carl Hope you’re happy here. Soderberg, Chris Tierney, Tyler Bertuzzi, Andrew Shaw, David Perron, In addition to protecting his four Bruins, Joe McDonald, picking for Travis Zajac, Adam Henrique, Alex Kerfoot, Cody Eakin, Alex Boston, also drafted five more Boston players. But best of all, he also Galchenyuk, Bryan Little, Colin White and Alex Killorn). repatriated Joe Thornton, bringing Jumbo back home to where his career The real casualties came after that. If you were a forward who produced started. That’d be a bold decision, in either the real or the fantasy world. 40 points or fewer, you were in trouble. Now, there were also some very Mark Lazerus, in Chicago, protected Patrick Kane and then drafted good role players who missed the cut and in the real world, might not. I Evander Kane – brilliant strategy, I say – but then ruined it all by playing would cite the Jets’ Adam Lowry as an example of the sort of player who, them on separate lines. What fun is that? Kane and Kane – they need to despite scoring just 28 points in 78 games, might survive even in a raise havoc together and the good news is, with a 1-2-3 center ice core contracted NHL, because of his grit, and overall compete level. consisting of Jonathan Toews, Mark Scheifele and Logan Couture, they’d Sometimes, intangible qualities matter. Instead of selecting traditional have all kinds of Captain Serious types to keep them in line. third or fourth-line centers, our writers-turned-GMs went for skill, even at the bottom end of their respective rosters. In real life, things might look a I would have loved to have seen Sebastian Aho wind up in Montreal, but little different. sadly, Jeremy Rutherford plucked him for St. Louis in the second round, just a couple of picks before Arpon Basu would have grabbed him for the Time on ice Canadiens. I was also hoping the Tkachuk brothers, Matthew and Brady, I like time on ice as a means of assessing a players’ impact because it wound up on the same team, just to see the sort of mayhem they could frequently speaks to a coach’s trust in a player. Over the years, that’s potentially create. often been the difference between a player who forges an NHL career The Kings ended up with a lot of Ducks content (Ryan Getzlaf, Jakob and a bubble player who just can’t seem to stick at the NHL level – which Silfverberg, Hampus Lindholm). Even though they both play the right of the two has earned the coach’s trust? side, I would love to see how Drew Doughty and Dustin Byfuglien look on As you might imagine, last season, the top 35 players in terms of time on the ice together. Might be great. Might be a disaster. ice were all defensemen – No. 36 was Connor McDavid and the only Philadelphia’s third line – Nik, Nico and Nino – sounds like a boy band other forwards to crack the top 50 were Leon Draisaitl (40th), Patrick out of the ’60s (to me and to anyone else who can remember back to Kane (43rd) and Aleksander Barkov (50th). Dino, Desi and Billy).

The top 10 defensemen who didn’t make the contraction draft cut in The new Broad St. Bullies are, ironically, in Pittsburgh, where Rob Rossi terms of TOI were: Cody Ceci (42nd), Brandon Montour (44th), Ben has Tom Wilson, Micheal Ferland and Nazem Kadri to help run Hutton (49th), Mike Matheson (51st), Josh Manson (52nd), Danny interference for Jack Hughes. DeKeyser (58th), Matt Niskanen (61st), Erik Johnson (64th), Sami Vatanen (66th) and Mike Green (67th). I can’t imagine, even a contracted San Jose, meanwhile, cornered the market on elite-level Karlssons – NHL, where salaries aren’t an issue, that Manson, Johnson and Vatanen William and Erik – and given that the Sharks have played the Golden wouldn’t find their way onto a roster. But that’s just me. Knights twice in the last two playoffs, it’s probably not a surprise that both Nate Schmidt and Marc-Andre Fleury ended up fleshing out their roster. Money, money, money! Of course, a contracted NHL is just like the real thing in one important Next season, according to Hockey-Reference.com, the NHL will have category – only one team can win and one of our blue-chip all-star three players (John Tavares, Auston Matthews and Carey Price) earning squads is going to finish 12th out of 12 teams. $15 million (and to make it clear, here we are using actual salaries, not cap hits). There are three others earning $14 million or above (Erik So here are the results of Dom’s simulation. You’ll note two different Karlsson, Connor McDavid and Artemi Panarin) and two in the $13 prediction models below — one where these super teams face off million-range (Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin). There are also five players against the watered-down 31-team league and another where they only in the 12s, two in the 11s and eight in the 10s, meaning 23 players in all face each other. will earn $10 million or more in actual dollars during the 2019-20 season. There you have it. Charlie O’Connor’s Flyers and James Mirtle’s Maple All 23 are playing in the cap-free contracted NHL. Leafs are the front runners for our hypothetical super league title.

But there are 18 players scheduled to earn $6 million or more next As always, we invite readers to discuss, debate and disagree in the season, who didn’t make the cut, led by the Blackhawks’ Brent Seabrook, comments section below. at $7.5 million. Next on the hit list: Tyler Myers at $7 million (again, that’s his actual salary, not the cap hit of $6 million). The Athletic LOADED: 08.13.2019

From Myers, you then go to a who’s who of pricey players: Martin Jones, Ryan Kesler, Kevin Shattenkirk, Little, Ilya Kovalchuk, Bailey, Erik Johnson, Nick Leddy, Nik Hjalmarsson, Jordan Staal, Johnny Boychuk, Kyle Okposo, Kyle Turris, Zach Bogosian, Milan Lucic and Cory Schneider. There are a bunch of players in the $5-plus million range that didn’t interest our GMs either, including Frans Nielsen, James Neal, Nick Foligno, Ondrej Palat, Tyler Bozak, Mikko Koivu, Loui Eriksson, Derek Stepan and Nick Bjugstad. That’s where the sober reality of this exercise eventually sinks in – that the league’s highly paid middle class wouldn’t be around in our tighter NHL universe.

Random thoughts and observations

What fun would this exercise be if I couldn’t tease, prod or otherwise assess the work of my distinguished colleagues? Our correspondents were, of course, all invited to post their own explanations (and rebuttals) 1150904 Websites discernible matter. He’s had a decent impact on his team’s offensive performance, but he’s given it all back and then some in the defensive third.

TSN.CA / Ristolainen has been miscast on Sabres blueline That data supports what we have seen from Ristolainen over the years. When he has the puck, he can make plays and facilitate offence. But when he doesn’t, things go south rather quickly for him and his linemates Travis Yost and they tend to spend far too much time treading water in front of their crease.

The other thing that’s worth mentioning here is that this data is Have you ever listened to a general manager or head coach talk about a aggregated, but even season-to-season analysis would have turned up new player? What they get excited about varies greatly depending on some concerns early in his career. If we look at Ristolainen’s rate goals position. above replacement over the years and break it out by game state, we When teams talk about new forwards – perhaps they were recently can see where he falters and where he shines: drafted, traded for, or signed out of free agency – there is tremendous Ristolainen has been a consistently positive impact on the power play attention to their individual contributions. The commonly referenced and has been much more disciplined than his defensive peers, which measures are goals and assists. They are simplistic counting statistics, manifests in a favourable penalty differential. but they’re also repeatable and at least partially indicative of a player’s true scoring talent. There will always be focus on other measurables – The power play component is interesting to me – Ristolainen, at his best, skating ability and size, playmaking and vision, versatility when it comes is acting as a puck mover and distributor, capable of threading passes to deployment on special teams, their presence in the locker room – but through tight windows and triggering Buffalo’s premium shooters from you rarely get through a single press conference without some sort of dangerous scoring areas. With less defensive pressure and more time to statistical argument. act as a creator and playmaker, Ristolainen shines.

It’s a different story for defencemen. Relative to forwards, there is a lot But here is the problem: Ristolainen hasn’t shown that he can replicate more focus on usage. There are two reasons for this. One, defencemen that skill set at even strength. That’s critical, because 76 per cent of his scoring rates are substantially lower than forwards and most of their shifts come when the game is even up. It’s here where Ristolainen’s scoring tends to be assist-driven. Two, there has always existed a struggles to handle forechecking speed and puck pressure manifest, and historical dichotomy between expectations for forwards (they should be it’s why Buffalo seemingly spends endless amounts of time firefighting in the ones scoring) and defenders (they should be the ones suppressing front of their goaltenders when he is on the ice. goals). None of this is to say Ristolainen is a bad player. One of the prevailing That line of thinking is starting to evolve, but there still exists sentiments around Buffalo is that Ristolainen would have been much considerable opportunity in player analysis for the defender class. better off with less usage and more insulated minutes. The Sabres haven’t been able to do that for years because of their inability – until In the absence of a singularly clear measure that quickly speaks to a recently, anyway – to find more talent to put on their defensive depth player’s talent, teams still tend to rest their laurels on usage – the chart. That’s created a vicious cycle where Ristolainen has remained the argument being that if a coach played a defender a lot of minutes, those best internal option to shoulder significant ice time, even if he never minutes were both justified and indicative of high performance. We know delivered in those moments. NHL head coaches are extremely capable, but we also know that head coaches – along with front offices, fans, media and just about everyone I not only agree with that argument, I think it makes the case for why else in the hockey universe – have a difficult time understanding what another team around the league should take a flier on Ristolainen if he’s makes a defender ‘good.’ truly available. A smarter team will find a way to make use of his skill set – one that’s more catered to a second-pairing role and some speciality That brings us to this past weekend. The Buffalo News did an excellent work on the power play. job summarizing the Rasmus Ristolainen saga, one with a fresh new twist – the implication that the long-time Sabres defenceman has either But this is the danger of not knowing what you have until it’s too late, or requested a trade, or is at least considering requesting one. constantly betting blindly on future development. Far too often we see teams hold on to Ristolainen-types until it’s too late – wooed by their Ristolainen, the eighth-overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, has been an toolbox of skills, even if the performance has never been there. Teams NHL regular since the 2014-15 season. Over that timeframe, only eight that know early on exactly what they have on the blueline tend to do quite defencemen – Drew Doughty, Ryan Suter, Brent Burns, Roman Josi, Erik well on the trade front. (Remember this? And this?) Karlsson, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Alex Pietrangelo, and Duncan Keith – have played more minutes. It’s an impressive class that includes multiple Sit on a player for too long, and you not only erode your own team’s Norris Trophies and considerable individual accolades. performance, but you also fail to capitalize on any trade market that may have existed earlier. If we weighed ice time as a positive predictor variable of a player’s true talent, we would assume Ristolainen was quite the difference maker. But TSN.CA LOADED: 08.13.2019 that has never been the case. Ristolainen, like many defenders before him, is another story in how failed internal player evaluations and a lack of credible depth created an issue that the Sabres couldn’t solve until it was too late.

Let’s talk performance for a moment. One of the things we do have a strong understanding of is how players influence the performance of their teammates. The more skilled the player, the more likely that player has tremendous impacts on his teammates’ shot volume, expected goal rates and actual scoring rates over a longer period of time. It’s obvious when you overlay Ristolainen’s impacts against any his usage peers, who have all consistently exhibited excellence on the ice:

The point isn’t that Ristolainen isn’t better than Giordano, Burns or Hedman – I don’t think anyone would argue that point. The issue is really the gap in performance between the three. Giordano and Hedman, two of the best two-way defenders in the game, have tremendous influence on teammate play in all zones. Burns, a talented offensive defenceman, has elite offensive zone impact and middling defensive zone play.

Then you have Ristolainen. Ristolainen’s usage rates are just as laborious as those who won the Norris Trophy over the last three years, but the minutes he has given to Buffalo haven’t moved the needle in any