Although the trade deadline is quickly approaching, several of the key stories over the past week came off the ice. Here are five of the top stories from the week that was.
1) Coaching Change In Montreal – Although the Canadiens find themselves atop the Atlantic Division, that wasn’t enough to prevent GM Marc Bergevin from making a change behind the bench, as he let Michel Therrien go. Replacing him is Claude Julien who returns for his second stint with the team after serving as their bench boss from 2003-2006. Coincidentally, it also happens to be the second time that Julien replaced Therrien in Montreal after they originally let Therrien go back in 2003.
2) Vermette Suspended Ten Games – Ducks center Antoine Vermette was handed an automatic ten game suspension as a result of him slashing linesman Shandor Alphonso after a faceoff back on Tuesday night. The NHLPA has filed an appeal on his behalf and there is no timetable for when that will be heard. He won’t be permitted to play while he waits for the appeal process to play out. Vermette has 22 points in 58 games with Anaheim this season while ranking second in the league in faceoff percentage.
3) Nyquist Suspended Six Games – Red Wings winger Gustav Nyquist received a six game ban for a high sticking incident on Minnesota defenseman Jared Spurgeon last weekend. It’s the second longest suspension in the league this season (tied with Philadelphia’s Radko Gudas, both behind Vermette’s) but it has largely been criticized as being too lenient. Working in Nyquist’s favor was that Spurgeon wasn’t seriously injured on the play and that he had no prior history of supplemental discipline.
4) Tanguay Retires – Unable to land an NHL contract, left winger Alex Tanguay announced that he is joining the NHL Network as a full-time television analyst, meaning that he has effectively announced his retirement. The 37 year old hangs up his skates with an impressing 863 points in 1,088 career regular season games with the Avalanche, Flames, Canadiens, Lightning, and Coyotes.
5) Maatta Out Six Weeks – The Penguins were hit with some tough news on the injury front, losing Justin Schultz indefinitely to a concussion and Olli Maatta for at least six weeks after he underwent hand surgery. With just seven weeks left in the season, it’s certainly plausible that Pittsburgh could hold him out of the lineup for the rest of the regular season and place him on Long-Term Injury Reserve. That would then allow them to basically free up nearly $4.1MM in cap space to make a deadline at the trade deadline before activating Maatta for the playoffs (where there is no cap in place).