Columbus Blue Jackets News Clips June 25-26, 2020 Columbus Blue Jackets PAGE 02: The Athletic: ‘Damn coin toss’: The twist of fate that defined the early Wild and Blue Jackets PAGE 08: The Hockey Writers / Blue Jackets Face New Johansen Situation with Dubois Cleveland Monsters/Prospects NHL/Websites PAGE 11: The Athletic: Amid safety concerns, older NHL coaches weigh-in on return to play PAGE 14: The Athletic: Amid positive tests, NHL’s return hinges on transparency and responsibility PAGE 17: The Athletic: Ice in July and August? NHL ice techs ready for a challenge when season restarts PAGE 20: Sportsnet.ca: Road to NHL's return gets bumpier as more players arrive from abroad PAGE 23: TSN.ca: Iginla, Wilson, Lowe among Hockey Hall of Fame's class of 2020 PAGE 26: Philadelphia Inquirer: Sports rosters must expand much more to avoid coronavirus shutdowns PAGE 29: Seattle Times: Amazon buys naming rights to KeyArena, will call it Climate Pledge Arena PAGE 32: The Athletic: Seattle franchise out to ‘answer this challenge’ with Climate Pledge Arena name PAGE 34: The Athletic: The No. 1 pick draft: NHL execs reveal how Alexis Lafreniere stacks up PAGE 38: Sportsnet.ca: NHL/NHLPA talks on CBA include escrow cap, salary deferral for players PAGE 40: Sportsnet.ca: Sportsnet's 2020 NHL Draft Prospect Rankings: Lottery edition PAGE 44: Sportsnet.ca: 2020 NHL Draft Lottery Primer: Senators have a chance to win big PAGE 47: The Hockey News: Breaking down every goalie controversy in the 24-team playoff tournament PAGE 52: Tribune Chronicle: An ode to a fading sports tradition 1 The Athletic / ‘Damn coin toss’: The twist of fate that defined the early Wild and Blue Jackets By Michael Russo and Aaron Portzline – June 25, 2020 Editor’s note: One day after a look back at the 2000 Wild-Blue Jackets expansion draft on its 20th anniversary, we examine how integral a single coin toss was to the early direction of two franchises. The early fate of two new NHL franchises hung in the balance on June 1, 2000, when NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly led a small contingent into a board room inside the Hilton across from the Meadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey. It was the morning of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final. Across the highway from the vast hotel, the New Jersey Devils would play host to the Dallas Stars that evening. With the Manhattan skyline in view just over the Hudson River, the New York Rangers, in typical I-don’t- give-a-$%&# fashion, rattled the hockey world and did their best to upstage both nearby events that same morning with the news that legendary Edmonton Oilers boss Glen Sather would become their next general manager. But still, all of that outside noise did nothing to quell the excitement in that boardroom, where Columbus Blue Jackets GM Doug MacLean and Minnesota Wild GM Doug Risebrough gathered on either side of Daly, forming a half-circle around a high-top cocktail table covered by a tablecloth with the NHL shield on it. Daly held a specially made coin in his hands: the Wild logo on one side, the Blue Jackets logo on the other. The winner of the coin flip — these were simpler times, remember — would get to choose between picking first in the expansion draft or picking third in the entry draft, both of which were set for later that month in Calgary. This was a seminal moment for two franchises — two excited hockey markets — and yet it was Daly’s hands that were trembling. “Bill is a confident guy, but I couldn’t believe how nervous he was,” Risebrough said. “Bill gets all the big jobs at the league,” MacLean cracked. “(Daly) was like, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do: We’re going to flip this coin. It’s going to land on the table,’” Risebrough recalled. The scene that followed was right out of a Leslie Nielsen movie. “He flips the coin, the coin hits the table and it falls into my feet right below me,” Risebrough said. “I look down and I see the Wild logo facing up.” Risebrough was ecstatic … until Daly lunged down to grab the coin. “‘We have to do it again,'” Risebrough recalls Daly saying. “‘It has to land on the table.'” Risebrough couldn’t believe it. 2 “I’m standing there thinking, ‘What are the chances of it coming up Wild twice?'” But as fate would have it, Daly flipped the coin again and “bang,” Risebrough said, “it came up Wild again.” “So basically,” Risebrough said, “we won the coin toss twice.” That double whammy was the first kick in the teeth for a bad-luck Blue Jackets franchise that would make the playoffs only once in its first 12 seasons and took until Year 18 to win a playoff round. So began a long streak of bad breaks when it came to draft picks. Put it this way: Getting the higher pick in the entry draft — the third overall selection as opposed to fourth — was considered the more valuable commodity than picking first in an expansion scrapheap filled with castoffs, retreads and soon-to-be retirees. “That’s not exactly a good runner-up (prize),” MacLean said, laughing, of missing out on the higher pick in the entry draft, which took place 20 years ago Wednesday. “I remember thinking that day, ‘What a way to start this franchise off, losing this damn coin toss.’” Twice! It really is amazing how a flick of the wrist by a league official, coupled with gravity and the hard surface of a table causing a silver coin to bounce a certain way, can initiate the paths of two NHL franchises. The NHL Draft always seems to go in cycles, and there are some drafts — like, 1979, 1988, and 2003 — that are jam-packed with franchise-altering players that litter not only the first round but beyond. And then, there are some classes like 2000 that are simply not as strong. There were two game-breaking scorers at the top of the draft — Dany Heatley and Marian Gaborik, then a steep decline from there. The top six picks in the 2000 draft would wind up combining for 4,765 regular-season games, but only 11 of the remaining 24 players taken in the first round even played more than 200 games. And once then-Islanders GM Mike Milbury decided to blow a hole through his franchise by trading both his goalies — Roberto Luongo and Kevin Weekes — on the morning of the 2000 draft and thus making it apparent he was going to draft Rick DiPietro first overall, it made the burn of not winning that coin toss three weeks earlier sting once again for MacLean. That’s because it cinched the fact that Minnesota would be able to select Gaborik or Heatley third overall. “It was so frustrating,” MacLean said. “The fact that us and Minny are coming into the first-year expansion with two teams after Nashville and Atlanta had already come in, and we’re picking third and fourth in the draft? Like, it was a joke, totally a joke.” 2000 NHL Entry Draft: Top six picks Pick Team Player Pos. GP Stats 1 Islanders Rick DiPietro G 318 130-136, 2.87 GAA, .902 Sv% 2 Thrashers Dany Heatley F 869 372 G, 419 A, 791 PTS 3 Wild Marian Gaborik F 1035 407 G, 408 A, 815 PTS 4 Blue Jackets Rostislav Klesla D 659 48 G, 111 A, 159 PTS 3 5 Islanders Raffi Torres F 635 137 G, 123 A, 260 PTS 6 Predators Scott Hartnell F 1249 327 G, 380 A, 707 PTS The top three on the Wild’s list were Gaborik, Heatley and DiPietro. Minnesota never had any use for DiPietro because it had already swung its first trade in franchise history to acquire Manny Fernandez and selected Jamie McLennan one day earlier in the expansion draft. “We wanted a scorer,” Risebrough said. “We were for sure taking Gaborik. There was no debate. Heatley was there, Gaborik was there, but we had Gaborik ahead of Heatley. Once the Islanders traded Luongo, we knew they were going to take DiPietro. It was between Heatley and Gaborik. I asked (then- Atlanta Thrashers GM) Donny Waddell, ‘Who you gonna take?’ He said, ‘We’re going to take Heatley.’ I said, ‘Thanks for telling me that,’ and went back to our table and said, ‘Gaborik is going to be there.’” The Blue Jackets’ top three were, in order, Heatley, Gaborik, and Rostislav Klesla, a stay-at-home defenseman from the Czech Republic. The Jackets had DiPietro fourth and Scott Hartnell fifth. They had considered goaltender Brent Krahn with the No. 4 overall pick if DiPietro was taken, but that faded after they acquired Marc Denis earlier that month in a trade with Colorado. “We loved Gaborik,” MacLean said, “and we spent a lot of time over in Slovakia with him. (Then-director of amateur scouting) Don Boyd absolutely loved him. I had seen him at the World Junior the year before in Winnipeg when he was an underage (player). It was the first time I had seen him.” At 2 a.m. on the day of the draft, MacLean got word that the Islanders were taking DiPietro. He then started to hear rumors out of Atlanta that the Thrashers were going to take the defenseman, Klesla. MacLean was elated. If true, the Blue Jackets would be guaranteed Heatley or Gaborik. “Then all of a sudden, (the Thrashers) take Heatley at two, so then we knew Gaborik would go three,” MacLean said.