The Philadelphia Flyers will listen to teams calling about the second-overall pick according to Dave Isaac of the Courier-Post, but don’t expect them to make any deals. After moving up in the draft lottery, the Flyers have a chance to pick an elite talent at No. 2 in Nico Hischier or Nolan Patrick and continue building towards a contender down the road.
With Travis Konecny, Ivan Provorov and others making an impact already, the Flyers look like they’ll have a real chance to surround Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek with enough talent to compete before they start to decline. Both stars are signed long-term for over $8MM, and still have enough good years left to be around when this year’s pick makes a real impact. The top prospects have been doing interviews at the NHL Combine, and will both participate in all the fitness testing this weekend.
- Barret Jackman is back in St. Louis after the team hired him today as their new development coach. Jackman retired from the NHL last fall after 14 years, and will now take on a role coaching the young players coming through the system. The 876-game veteran played all but one NHL season in St. Louis and recorded 186 points over his career. Never much of an offensive guy, he instead offered reliable defensive structure and penalty killing, eating up minutes on the back end against tough competition. Winning the Calder trophy for Rookie of the Year in 2003, he’ll be able to relate to kids coming into the league at a young age and finding success, only to struggle through the next few seasons.
- Pekka Rinne was in the starter’s net today at practice for the Nashville Predators, according to Chris Johnston of Sportsnet. After being pulled in Game 2 and replaced by Juuse Saros, there has been much speculation whether Rinne would be given the net for Game 3 tomorrow night. It looks like for at least another game, Peter Laviolette will go with the guy who got him here and give Rinne another chance.
- Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that Newell Brown is in consideration for an assistant coaching position alongside Travis Green this season. Brown was fired by the Arizona Coyotes earlier this spring after another poor special teams effort last season. He coached with the Canucks for three seasons prior to going to the Coyotes, and was part of the staff that took Vancouver to the finals in 2011.
Rinne should be on the bench but Saros would get smoked even worse. Maybe Pittsburgh will trade Fleury to Nashville before tomorrow’s game? lol