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Archives for February 2017

Friedman’s Latest: Bishop, Kulikov, Dadonov, Shipachev

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Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman posted the latest installment of his “30 Thoughts” feature and as usual, it’s replete with interesting tidbits. The whole piece is well worth a read in full but here are a few of the highlights:

  • With Ben Bishop nearing free agency and with the presence of Andrei Vasilevskiy as the team’s future in goal, rumors have circulated since this past summer that the Tampa Bay Lightning might attempt to deal the former rather than losing him for nothing in July. Friedman indicates that word is the Lightning are willing to move the 30-year-old netminder but that the offers Tampa GM Steve Yzerman have so far received are not good enough for serious consideration. Yzerman is in a tough spot. His team has underachieved and may well miss the playoffs altogether unless they go on a run soon. Barring a surprising Stanley Cup run fueled by strong play in goal from Bishop, there is essentially no chance the team re-signs the veteran goalie. With three key RFA’s – Jonathan Drouin, Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat – to extend this summer the cap savings the Lightning will receive with Bishop leaving is simply too valuable. At some point Yzerman will have to make a decision and the best bet might be to deal Bishop now and try to add assets in return. Those assets can either turn into young NHL-ready talent to help the Lightning on the ice next year or can be used to help entice other clubs to take a burdensome contract off their hands to improve their cap situation.
  • Another pending UFA, Buffalo Sabres defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, is also said to be available via trade and Friedman considers the 26-year-old blue liner a player “worth watching.” Kulikov was acquired from Florida along with a second-round pick just prior to the draft in exchange for Mark Pysyk, and second and third-rounders in 2016. The Sabres were hoping Kulikov would fill a need in the team’s top-four but injuries have derailed his season so far. All told, the Russian defender has played in just 23 games this season, compiling two points along the way. However, Kulikov seems to be getting his game back in order just in time for the trade deadline. Over the past three games, he has averaged around 24 1/2 minutes of ice time and has netted both of his points in the last four appearances. Defensemen are always in demand at the deadline and Kulikov should be no different. Unless Buffalo puts on a full court press to ink him to an extension, it seems likely the Sabres will move Kulikov in the coming weeks.
  • Friedman notes that NHL clubs have been scouting the KHL more than usual and adds that the league is considering contraction, meaning there will be fewer jobs overseas next season. This could prompt some KHL stars to consider plying their trade in North America in 2017-18. Friedman specifically mentions Evgeni Dadonov and Vadim Shipachev, both of whom play for St. Petersburg SKA, as two of the bigger names who could draw a lot of attention if teams believe there is a chance they will come over. Front offices are always looking for talent and expect clubs to look to exploit the opportunity if the KHL does scale back on the number of teams in the league.

Stars Acquire Goalie Peters From Coyotes

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The Dallas Stars and Arizona Coyotes combined to finalize a trade this afternoon with four minor league players changing hands. Dallas announced the transaction on their official NHL.com website. The most notable name is that of goaltender Justin Peters, who goes from the desert to the Stars organization. He has appeared in 83 career NHL games, posting a GAA of 3.08 and a S% of 0.901 over parts of seven seasons. In three games earlier this season with Arizona, Peters has a loss in his only decision while allowing seven goals on 70 shots against.

Peters will provide experienced depth and a possible upgrade for Dallas’ AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars. Texas goaltenders have combined for a GAA of 3.35 and a S% of 0.890 in 50 games this season. Peters hasn’t had a particularly strong season for Arizona’s Tucson affiliate, recording a GAA of 4.17 and a S% of 0.868, but has posted solid numbers in the past in that league.

Also coming to Dallas is defenseman Justin Hache, who was Arizona’s seventh-round pick in the 2012 entry draft. He has split this season between the Coyotes AHL and ECHL affiliates, tallying one assist in five games for Tucson and nine points in 21 contests for the Rapid City Rush.

Joining the Coyotes organization are forwards Brendan Ranford and Branden Troock. Ranford is the only one of the two to have seen any NHL action, appearing in one game with Dallas last season. The 5-foot-10, 182-pound left wing was originally a seventh-round selection in 2010 by Philadelphia. Since turning pro in 2013-14, Ranford has appeared in a total of 250 games with Texas and has registered a scoring line of 55-105=160 with 89 minutes in penalties.

Troock, a 6-foot-2, 194-pound right wing was chosen by the Stars in the fifth-round of the 2012 draft and has spent the last four campaigns splitting time between Texas and Idaho of the ECHL. In 98 career AHL games, Troock has scored nine goals with 30 points.

It’s unlikely this trade will pay dividends for either team at the NHL level, but it’s possible that the clubs are shuffling some of their minor league depth in order to better facilitate another, more significant deal later. It’s likely the Coyotes will be a seller at the trade deadline and wingers Shane Doan and Radim Vrbata may generate interest in the weeks ahead. Adding Ranford and Troock gives the Arizona organization enough experienced minor league depth at that position to help survive the loss of one or both NHL veterans, should the right offer come along.

 

Minor Transactions: 2/1/2017

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Here’s where we will track the day’s less significant roster transactions:

  • The Columbus Blue Jackets reassigned defenseman Dean Kukan to the Cleveland Monsters of the AHL, according to The Columbus Dispatch’s Aaron Portzline (via Twitter). The 23-year-old blue liner was recalled Sunday but did not appear in the Jackets wild 6 – 4 win over the New York Rangers last night. He appeared in eight games last season, his first in the NHL, but failed to register a point. The Swiss-born Kukan signed a deal with Columbus prior to the 2015-16 season after a lengthy pro career playing in his home country. In 37 games this year with Cleveland, Kukan has 13 points.
  • Joe Haggerty of CSNNE has relayed that Zane McIntyre has been recalled by the Boston Bruins to replace Anton Khudobin as the team’s backup netminder. The Bruins are desperate for quality play in goal behind starter Tuukka Rask. McIntyre and Khudobin have combined to post a woeful record of 1 – 8 – 2 in 15 appearances with a GAA of 3.42 and a S% of 0.875. Boston has just two back-to-backs scheduled this month, suggesting they won’t have to rely on their backup much, provided Rask remains healthy.
  • Defenseman Dylan McIlrath and forward Paul Thompson, each of whom was placed on waivers by Florida yesterday, went unclaimed and will remain in the Florida Panthers organization, according to Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston. George Richards, who covers the Panthers for the Miami Herald, later added that McIlrath was reassigned to Springfield, along with forward Jared McCann.  McIlrath, acquired earlier this season from the New York Rangers, has seen action in just five games for Florida this season. The former first-round draft pick has had trouble earning regular playing time. Thompson, 28, has played in 21 games for the Panthers, registering three assists while averaging less than eight minutes per game.
  • The Washington Capitals returned blue liner Christian Djoos to Hershey of the AHL, reports Tarik El-Bashir of CSN Mid-Atlantic. Djoos was Washington’s seventh-round selection in the 2012 entry draft and has yet to debut in the NHL. He’s in the midst of a solid season for Hershey, tallying 26 points in 35 AHL contests.

 

Conor Sheary To Miss Up To Six Weeks With Upper-Body Injury

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The Pittsburgh Penguins will be without Conor Sheary, one of their most productive forwards and Sidney Crosby’s wing man, from four-to-six weeks, according to Jonathan Bombulie of the Tribune-Review. Pittsburgh bench boss Mike Sullivan made the announcement following the team’s practice today. It’s unclear when exactly Sheary suffered the injury, but presumably it occurred during Pittsburgh’s 4 – 2 win over Nashville last night.

Sheary, who was originally signed by the Penguins as an undrafted free agent, has developed into a solid winger and currently ranks third on the team in goals with 17. In 42 games this season, the 24-year-old winger has totaled 35 points and posted a plus/minus rating of plus-18.

He made a name for himself after being called up to the team around mid-season last year, providing speed and key goals down the stretch and into the playoffs for Pittsburgh. In 44 appearances in 2015-16, Sheary potted seven goals and 10 points. He added another 10 points in 23 playoff contests, helping the Penguins to a Stanley Cup championship.

Wild Trade Hagel To Senators For Future Considerations

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The Minnesota Wild and Ottawa Senators have made a minor trade on Wednesday morning, according to Michael Russo of the Star Tribune.

The Wild have sent minor-league forward Marc Hagel to the Senators in exchange for future considerations. Hagel has 76 points in 198 games at the AHL level. All but six of those games have been with the Iowa Wild. This season, Hagel has two goals and seven points in 26 games. The 28-year-old former NCAA winger has not played in the NHL.

Hagel has one year remaining at $605K. The trade clears a contract off the Wild’s 50-contract limit; they now sit at 47 contracts and the Senators are up to 44. This gives the Western Conference-leading Wild a little more leeway to make trades before the upcoming deadline.

Ottawa has since announced that Hagel will report to Binghamton of the AHL.

Barberio And Gilbert Placed On Waivers

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The Los Angeles Kings and Montreal Canadiens are making waiver moves on Wednesday morning. Defensemen Tom Gilbert and Mark Barberio are both on waivers, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.

Gilbert has five points in 18 games with the Kings so far this season, his first in Los Angeles. He has been in and out of the lineup all season. Gilbert spent the previous two seasons in Montreal, after bouncing around between Minnesota and Florida. He’s perhaps best known for his time in Edmonton, where he developed into a solid top-four defenseman. Gilbert has 223 points in 655 games in the NHL, including a career-high 45-point season with Edmonton in 2008-09, before being traded to the Wild at the 2012 trade deadline for Nick Schultz. Gilbert missed the end of last season with knee-surgery. He’s a bottom-pairing defenseman at this point, and may have to go to the AHL and work his way back to the NHL.

Barberio has four assists in 26 games this season with the Canadiens. This is his second season in Montreal; he had two goals and 10 points in 30 games with the Canadiens last season. Barberio was a free agent signing from the Tampa Bay Lightning, where he had 17 points in 103 games over three seasons. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and ESPN called Barberio a sixth or seventh defenseman who can skate and move the puck; LeBrun wouldn’t be surprised to see a team take a flyer on Barberio. The Canadiens recently acquired defenseman Nikita Nesterov from the Lightning, making Barberio expendable. If he clears, Barberio will be assigned to the St. John’s of the AHL.

In other waiver news, Florida Panthers Dylan McIlrath and Paul Thompson both cleared waivers.

Snapshots: Marchand, ISS, Avalanche

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Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand will not face any supplemental discipline for his trip of Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

Marchand skated behind Stralman and turned sharply, taking Stralman’s left leg out from under him (Streamable link to incident). Stralman told Roger Mooney of the Tampa Bay Times that he “can’t expect anybody to see [the play]” because of where it happened on the ice. When asked about the lack of a penalty on the play, Stralman said “I can’t say if he did anything or not, but I’m not the puck holder. I’m out in the neutral zone, and I get hit from behind. That’s all I got to say.”

The play was similar to another play involving Marchand last week. Marchand made a similar movement behind Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall (Streamable link). The Bruins pest was fined $10K for the incident. Friedman reported that there will be no supplemental discipline because the play wasn’t seen as intentional.

The All-Star Marchand has 49 points in 52 games this season. The Bruins have won three in a row and are now three points up on the Maple Leafs for third place in the Atlantic Division.

  • The International Scouting Service has released its Top 31 draft rankings for February. Brandon Wheat Kings center Nolan Patrick remains atop the list, followed by right-handed Swedish defenseman Timothy Liljegren, dynamic Swiss forward Nico Hischier, OHL sniper Owen Tippett, and big center Gabe Vilardi in the top five. Hischier had three points in the recent CHL Top Prospects Game, while Patrick and Tippett had two, and Vilardi one.
  • Speaking of top draft picks, the Colorado Avalanche are in for a tough rebuild, writes Cat Silverman of FanRag. While pro sports is usually divided into top teams with few prospects and poor teams with prospects aplenty, the Avalanche fall into an unfortunate middle ground: they’re a poor team with few prospects. The Avalanche are by far the worst team in the NHL (10 points below the 29th place Coyotes and on pace for the worst NHL season since the expansion Atlanta Thrashers) and they’re not even intentionally tanking. Silverman writes that Colorado fans need to accept that the team is going to be bad for the next little while as they trade away players like Matt Duchene and re-stock their prospect pipeline. It’s going to be a slow process because “unlike the other rebuilding teams, the Avalanche haven’t been grabbing pieces for the future. They’ve been losing, but trying to win now, and it’s left them at the bottom of the standings with little in the way of future help.”

Blues Fire Head Coach Ken Hitchcock

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The St. Louis Blues’ season has not gone off without a hitch, and now it will continue without Hitch.

Head coach Ken Hitchcock has been relieved of his duties, and will be replaced by assistant coach Mike Yeo. In addition, Lou Korac of NHL.com believes that goaltending coach Jim Corsi has also been let go. Hitchcock was in his seventh season as coach of the Blues. The team made the playoffs in each year of his tenure, but only made it to the Western Finals once, in 2015-16. Nick Cotsonika, also of NHL.com, writes that the Blues have the third-highest point-percentage (0.644) since Hitchcock took over in 2011-12.

Yeo was hired last summer as an assistant coach with the expectation that he would be named head coach following the 2016-17 season, when Hitchcock’s contract was up. Yeo’s work will now begin a few months earlier than expected. Yeo was hired after five seasons coaching the Minnesota Wild. The Wild made the playoffs three times under Yeo, but were never able to get past the Chicago Blackhawks. Funnily enough, Yeo was fired last year as the Wild tried to spark their team; they rallied and made the playoffs. Now Yeo is being promoted to spark a team to rally and make the playoffs.

It’s been a tough season for the Blues; in the summer, they lost captain and leader David Backes, Troy Brouwer, and goaltender Brian Elliott for a total of a second round pick. Elliott was part of a successful tandem with Jake Allen, but without Elliott as his platoon partner, Allen has fallen off a cliff. His save percentage has dropped from a 0.920 last season to a 0.897 this season. The most important task for Yeo is getting Allen back on track; the struggling netminder is set to begin a four-year extension worth $4.35MM per season. No coach, no matter how good, can out-coach an 0.897 SV%. However, it’s not as though the Blues would be saved had they not traded Elliott, as he has just nine wins in 24 appearances and a 0.892 SV% in his first season in Calgary.

The Blues are currently in the second wildcard spot in the Western Conference. However, there’s no margin for error, as the six teams competing for the two wildcard spots are within two points of each other. The Blues lost to one of those teams, the Winnipeg Jets, on Tuesday night.

Yeo will go for his first win as head coach of the Blues on Thursday night when the Toronto Maple Leafs visit St. Louis.

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