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Wild, Jared Spurgeon To Work On Long-Term Extension This Summer

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The Wild plan to prioritize signing defenseman Jared Spurgeon to a long-term contract extension this summer, GM Paul Fenton told reporters, including Sarah McLellan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.  For his part, Spurgeon certainly appears to be interested in sticking around as well:

My family loves it here.  We love it here. I want to win here, so you can just go about it the way you can and let your agent do his thing.

Spurgeon has one year remaining on his current contract that carries a cap hit of just under $5.2MM.  While the deal came under fire when it was initially signed back in December of 2015 when he hadn’t established himself as a long-term top-four option, it’s one that looks like a bargain now.  Spurgeon had a career year in 2018-19, collecting 14 goals and 29 assists in 82 games while his total ice time played was the eighth-most in the league.

The 29-year-old has spent his entire nine-year career with Minnesota after not signing with the Islanders who actually drafted him in the sixth round back in 2008.  He’s now logged over 600 career games between the regular season and playoffs and as a core part of the back end for the Wild, Spurgeon is poised to earn a decent-sized raise on his next contract, one that would likely take him close to retirement if he does indeed sign a long-term deal.

Because of the fact he’s signed for next season, any extension can’t officially be signed until July 1st but discussions can occur before that time.

Cale Makar Named 2019 Hobey Baker Award Winner

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On Friday night, the top player in all of college hockey was announced as University of Massachusetts sophomore defenseman Cale Makar. Makar was named this year’s recipient of the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, the highest honor in NCAA Men’s Hockey, at a special event held in Buffalo, New York, the site of this year’s Frozen Four Championship. However, Makar is in Buffalo for more than just an awards banquet, as he and UMass defeated the University of Denver in overtime on Thursday and will play for the National Championship tomorrow night. Makar, the fourth overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, is then expected to join the Colorado Avalanche in their first-round postseason series as early as Monday. Talk about a wild week.

Makar edged out two other talented defensemen for the Hobey Baker this year; his fellow “Hat Trick Finalists” were Harvard University’s Adam Fox and St. Cloud State University’s Jimmy Schuldt. This was the first time that all three finalists were defensemen, as voting has begun to favor defensemen more in recent years than it had in the past. University of Denver defenseman Will Butcher won the award in 2017, but prior to that it had not gone to a blue liner since Boston University’s Matt Gilroy in 2009. Like Butcher, now with the New Jersey Devils, Makar, Fox, and Schuldt are all expected to step into immediate NHL roles once turning pro. Schuldt, an undrafted senior, has already signed with the Vegas Golden Knights, while Makar will soon do the same with the Avalanche. Fox, a junior, has been the subject of controversy with not one, but two different NHL teams already, as he has been reluctant to sign with the team that drafted him, the Calgary Flames, and his current rights holder, the Carolina Hurricanes. As a result, the speculation is that Fox will return to Harvard for his senior season and could be a Hobey Baker candidate again next season.

As for the man of the hour, it’s hard to argue that Makar was not deserving of this recognition. Considered by many to be the top prospect in hockey, Makar is a generational talent in terms of his skating and ability to move the puck. Makar is an elite play-maker with vision and creativity, but is far from just an offensive specialist. He is not afraid to play physical, breaks up plays with consistency, and is a smart positional player. Makar holds a team-high 49 points in 40 games this year, but also leads UMass with a +33 rating. Nationally, Makar is second among all defensemen in both goals and assists and is third in scoring among all players, but still has one game remaining with the National Championship still to come.

The next step for Makar will be to sign his standard three-year entry-level contract, but the 20-year-old is likely to burn his first year immediately by suiting up for Colorado as soon as possible. He will then challenge for and likely succeed in landing a starting role for the Avalanche next season and should wind up as a top-four if not top-pair defensemen for the team by the end of the 2019-20 season. The dynamic defender will undoubtedly be one of the favorites to win the Calder Trophy next season as the best rookie in the NHL. Despite the unbelievable streak that Makar is on right now, the best is yet to come for the promising prospect.

AHL Notes: Smith, Sadek, Boka, Afanasyev

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After wrapping up a four-year collegiate career at Bowling Green State University, defenseman Adam Smith was ready to turn pro. While the Nashville Predators were not prepared to offer the 2016 seventh-round pick an entry-level contract, the invisible hand of the market still guided Smith to the organization. The Predators’ AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals, announced a two-year AHL deal with Smith today. The contract will begin with 2019-20, as Smith finishes out this season on an amateur tryout offer. Smith, 22, is not much of an offensive asset on the blue line, but played an important role for Bowling Green en route to an NCAA Tournament appearance as a dependable defensive presence. If he continues to progress over a couple years in the minors, Smith could find himself with an NHL deal with Nashville down the road.

  • Former Big Ten rivals Jack Sadek and Nick Boka have become teammates at the pro level this last month after the duo signed amateur tryouts with the AHL’s Iowa Wild. The defense pair are both recent draft picks of the Minnesota Wild – Boka in the sixth round out of the University of Michigan and Sadek in the seventh round out of the University of Minnesota, both in 2015 – but did not do quite enough in their college tenures to earn entry-level contracts right away. Instead, they were asked to show that they were worthy of a continued investment by the Wild, starting with a stint with the ECHL’s Allen Americans. Now, both players have been recalled by Iowa as the first step toward getting closer to an NHL deal. Both Sadek and Boka are right-handed shots with good size who improved over their four years in college, so there is a lot to like about the prospects. However, they both have work to do to earn an extended look with the organization.
  • The AHL may have another “true rookie” to look forward to next season. USHL standout Egor Afanasyev, who many see as a fringe first-round pick in the upcoming NHL Draft, appears destined to follow in the footsteps of fellow imports like Klim Kostin and Martin Kaut by jumping right to the pro level next year. Afanasyev de-committed from Michigan State University earlier this year and has not been looking to join another college program next season. Meanwhile, he was drafted into the OHL by the Ottawa 67’s and had his rights traded to the Windsor Spitfires this season, but there has been little to no talk of him joining the junior squad. Instead, the Russian-born power forward clearly prefers to play in the AHL next season. He does have the size to do so; Afansyev stands 6’3″ and over 200 lbs. and plays with an edge to match. He also has the skill, as he has scored at better than a point-per-game clip this season for the Muskegon Lumberjacks and the deeper analytics indicate he has been even better than that. Ultimately, the team that drafts Afanasyev will decide on what the best next step would be in his development, but as his draft stock continues to rise it is becoming increasingly likely that he makes his pro debut in 2019-20.

Canadiens Notes: Drouin, Okulov, Free Agency

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One of the underlying reasons why the Montreal Canadiens were unable to hold on to a wild card spot down the stretch was the poor play of one of their best players, Jonathan Drouin. Speaking with Alexis Belanger-Champagne of La Presse, Drouin acknowledged that his play suffered when it matter most in the final games of the season. He even owned his decreased ice time, understanding that head coach Claude Julien needed productive, confident players on the ice and he was playing frustrated and failing to find results. Drouin finished the season with 53 points in 81 games, but only contributed one goal and two assists in Montreal’s final 18 games. Yet, for all of his late-season struggles, Drouin does not expect to be shopped this off-season. The 24-year-old forward did match a career-high in points this year and early in the season was on pace to shatter all previous personal marks. Drouin knows that he dropped the ball, but tells Belanger-Champagne that he is happy with the Canadiens and knows he can be a difference-maker once again next season and beyond. GM Marc Bergevin seems to agree. Bergevin told La Presse that Drouin showed maturity with how he handled his poor play and that he understands his role on the team. Bergevin expects the young scorer to “take another step forward next year.” At $5.5MM for four more years, Drouin can still be a bargain for the Habs and certainly a dependable top-six forward. Bergevin is not one to overreact, so expect Drouin to be back in the bleu, blanc, et rougue next year.

  • Drouin’s return doesn’t mean that the Canadiens won’t try to address their offense this summer. In fact, the team already has their sights set on an import out of Russia. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that Montreal is “high” on KHL forward Konstantin Okulov. Okulov, 24, is currently playing in the Gagarin Cup Final with CSKA Moscow and his breakout regular season has extended into the postseason. The skilled forward has 12 points in 15 playoff games following a career-high 20 goals and 31 points in 48 regular season games. The Habs would like to see if his high-powered game can translate to the NHL. Unfortunately, Friedman also notes that Okulov is under contract for one more year with CSKA and may not be available to Montreal this off-season. Unless he both wants and is granted a release from his contract, the Canadiens may need to keep scouting for another year.
  • As for attracting free agents already in the NHL, The Montreal Gazette’s Pat Hickey opines that the Canadiens may have a tough time luring top names to Montreal this summer despite ample cap space. It doesn’t have anything to do with team personnel, either. Hickey notes that taxes and cost of living are among the negatives of making the move to Montreal and claims that has deterred free agents in recent years. However, Hickey adds that this might not be a bad things, as Bergevin’s track record of late has been better with trades than it has been with signings. The Habs will undoubtedly still add a few free agents, but in need of a veteran backup goalie, a top-four defenseman, and a top-six forward, the team will likely have to tackle the trade market to address at least one of those holes.

2019 NHL Draft Lottery Results

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The ping pong balls have been drawn and the first 15 picks of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft are set. The league conducted its annual Draft Lottery tonight and the big winners were the New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers, and Chicago Blackhawks. The Devils, with an 11.5% chance of winning the No. 1 overall selection, did just that and astoundingly will have their pick of the class for the second time in three years. New Jersey won the draft lottery in 2017 and selected Nico Hischier and will have the chance to add another elite talent this year. This continues the almost comical lottery luck that has followed Taylor Hall in his career, moving from Edmonton to New Jersey. The Rangers held a 7.8% chance of moving up to the second overall pick and in this specific draft class were very lucky as well, as their consolation prize will be the second of two elite players at the top of the draft board. This will also be the first time in the modern draft era that New York selects within the first three picks. The Blackhawks may have a more difficult choice facing them at No. 3, but aren’t complaining after jumping from No. 12 into the top three, a move that had just a 3% chance of happening. Chicago has been a dynastic franchise this decade and will look to return to greatness by adding one of the draft’s top talents. Altogether, these three teams all moving up in this order was a result that had just a 0.027% chance of occurring.

Following the lottery results, the odds for which were set by the final league standings for non-playoff teams, the first half of the first round will play out as follows:

  1. New Jersey Devils
  2. New York Rangers
  3. Chicago Blackhawks
  4. Colorado Avalanche (from Ottawa Senators)
  5. Los Angeles Kings
  6. Detroit Red Wings
  7. Buffalo Sabres
  8. Edmonton Oilers
  9. Anaheim Ducks
  10. Vancouver Canucks
  11. Philadelphia Flyers
  12. Minnesota Wild
  13. Florida Panthers
  14. Arizona Coyotes
  15. Montreal Canadiens

The biggest loser of the night has to be the Colorado Avalanche, who fall out of the top three spots despite having a 49.4% chance of winning at least one of the those picks. This is the second time in just three years that Colorado has entered the lottery with the best odds at No. 1, only see three teams win the lottery and pass them up. In 2017, it was again the Devils who stole their top pick. After swindling the Ottawa Senators, it seemed the Avs were destined to cash in, but instead end up with the worst-case scenario. The Los Angeles Kings also have to be unhappy with the results, as the team slides from their second-to-last finish to the fifth overall pick. The Kings desperately could have used an injection of elite young talent next season and may not end up with an immediate contributor at No. 5. While they didn’t have the best of odds, the Vancouver Canucks are undoubtedly still disappointed in missing out on an opportunity to pair Jack Hughes with older brother Quinn Hughes, the team’s first-round pick in 2018 who already made a splash in his first few pro games down the stretch, or to at least make a top-three selection in front of the home crowd.

The younger Hughes, who was actually in attendance at tonight’s lottery event, has of course long been considered the likely top pick this spring and should start getting used to the idea of playing in New Jersey. The U.S. National Team center is considered a high-end play-maker already and turned down a scholarship to the University of Michigan earlier this season, knowing that he could be an impact player immediately in the NHL. As for the fit with the Devils, Hischier has already climbed atop the depth chart at center, but New Jersey will soon be able to boast amazing youth and depth down the middle with the addition of Hughes. Finnish winger Kaapo Kakko has pressured Hughes to be the top pick this year, but many still see him as a close second. The Rangers won’t mind, as Kakko is an extraordinary offensive talent who will score goals and throw his body around right away in the NHL. Kakko could become a major star in the New York market with his flashy goal-scoring ability and will certainly have the opportunity to play a major role right away. At third overall, there are many options for the Blackhawks, but the early expectation based on organizational depth would be a skilled forward like Vasili Podkolzin or Alex Turcotte. Chicago already has several promising young defensemen in the pipeline and can now add an elite forward to their growing young core of Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Strome, and Brendan Perlini. Now relegated to the No. 4 pick, the Avalanche will still undoubtedly get a strong player, just as they did two years ago with Cale Makar, if not an immediate contributor in the top remaining prospect on their board. A player like big Canadian center Dylan Cozens would fit in nicely with what Colorado is building.

Now that the order is set, the next step is the draft itself. Everyone may have their projections, but only the day of will reveal the actual futures of these teams and players. This year’s draft is set to take place in Vancouver beginning on June 21st, a day that New Jersey, New York, and Chicago are now much more excited for. Stay tuned.

Bruce Boudreau To Return As Minnesota Head Coach

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The Minnesota Wild made some big changes in the front office recently, but won’t be doing the same behind the bench. GM Paul Fenton spoke with reporters today and made it very clear that Bruce Boudreau will be back next season despite missing the playoffs this year. Fenton also explained that he will try to “fix this on the fly” instead of trying a full rebuild, and noted that players like Matt Dumba, Mikko Koivu and Zach Parise will be ready for training camp.

Boudreau, 64, has been with the Wild for three seasons and failed to get them past the first round of the playoffs in each of the first two. Missing completely led some to believe that he may be on his way out, given he wasn’t even hired by Fenton, but there are few with his history of success available. The former Washington and Anaheim bench boss trails only Scott Bowman and Jon Cooper in winning percentage among coaches with at least 500 games, and has still never had a season under .500 in his career. His resume also includes championships at both the ECHL and AHL level, and this season marks just the second time his NHL club has missed the playoffs. He won the Jack Adams award as Coach of the Year in 2008.

Even with all of that, the seat is certainly still hot in Minnesota. The team won’t be tearing down the walls to rebuild a roster that hasn’t been able to eclipse mediocrity, and if they don’t find success soon there will have to be changes. Fenton did already alter the look of the core group of players by trading away Nino Niederreiter, Charlie Coyle and Mikael Granlund, and will likely have some more moves coming this summer. Boudreau’s task will now be putting all those new pieces together and getting back in the race in the Western Conference, and will do it on the last year of his current contract.

Perhaps some luck will come Boudreau’s way this evening when the draft lottery results are announced, and he’ll have a new star to set into his line up. Even if it doesn’t, he’ll have to find a way to get more production out of young forwards like Luke Kunin, Joel Eriksson Ek and Jordan Greenway.

Minnesota Wild Start Front Office Changes

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If you though the changes in Minnesota were over following the big trades they made this season, you were wrong. Michael Russo of The Athletic (subscription required) reports that the team have fired former assistant general managers Andrew Brunette and Shep Harder along with lead hockey researcher Andrew C. Thomas. Russo adds that Chris O’Hearn could potentially be brought in as a replacement AGM, and Bruce Boudreau is expected to return as head coach.

All three of the people the Wild let go would’ve seen their contracts come to an end this summer, but that doesn’t change the fact that they were looking for a shakeup in the front office. After years of making the playoffs but failing to progress, the team brought in GM Paul Fenton to enact drastic change on the organization. The roster looks much different after veterans like Nino Niederreiter, Mikael Granlund and Charlie Coyle were all sent packing, and now the front office will have several new voices as well.

Brunette especially was a well known member of the Wild, going back to his playing days with the team. The veteran of 1,110 NHL games spent several seasons in Minnesota over two stints with the team, and re-joined the organization after retirement in 2012. Harder too had been with the team for more than a decade, starting as an intern.

The Wild missed the playoffs this year for the first time since 2012, but made a commitment to get younger by acquiring pieces like Victor Rask, Ryan Donato and Kevin Fiala. The team also signed top college free agent Nico Sturm, and will have a chance tomorrow at winning the draft lottery to move up in the first round. Still, there are big decisions to be made on what direction the team takes this summer. Veteran defenseman Jared Spurgeon will be entering the final year of his current contract and is eligible for an extension on July 1st. So too is Mikko Koivu, though his future depends much more on how his 36-year old body responds to a major knee injury.

There’s also plenty of work to be done, as Sturm, Donato, Fiala, Joel Eriksson Ek, Pontus Aberg are all restricted free agents that need new contracts. If all five of those players are back with full-time roles, there may not be enough room for the rest of the veteran group including Jason Zucker, who was close to being traded to the Calgary Flames at the deadline and could be a candidate to be moved this summer.

2019 NHL Draft Lottery Odds

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The regular season has ended, but for those 15 teams who missed the playoffs the wait won’t be long for the first exciting event of the off-season. The 2019 NHL Entry Draft may be more than ten weeks away, but the league has moved this year’s NHL Draft Lottery up several weeks to this coming Tuesday, April 9th, before the postseason even begins. With the final league standings in place after yesterday’s results and the teams with ping pong balls to be selected now set, here are the odds for the No. 1 overall pick in this years draft:

31st – Colorado Avalanche (from Ottawa Senators): 18.5%

30th – Los Angeles Kings: 13.5%

29th – New Jersey Devils: 11.5%

28th – Detroit Red Wings: 9.5%

27th – Buffalo Sabres: 8.5%

26th – New York Rangers: 7.5%

25th – Edmonton Oilers: 6.5%

24th – Anaheim Ducks: 6.0%

23rd – Vancouver Canucks: 5.0%

22nd – Philadelphia Flyers: 3.5%

21st – Minnesota Wild: 3.0%

20th – Chicago Blackhawks: 2.5%

19th – Florida Panthers: 2.0%

18th – Arizona Coyotes: 1.5%

17th* – Montreal Canadiens: 1.0%

It’s important to note that while the odds at winning the first overall pick are listed, there are lottery selections for each of the first three picks in the draft with each team’s odds increasing proportionally after each selection starting with first overall. The prize this year for Tuesday night’s lucky winner is expected to be U.S. National Team Development Program center Jack Hughes, an elite play-making pivot who has been wowing scouts for years. The consolation prize of picking second is not too shabby either; Finnish scoring winger Kaapo Kakko has closed the gap on Hughes and is also considered an elite talent. The No. 3 pick is finally where there will be some intrigue in June. Many feel Russian winger Vasili Podkolzin will be the pick, but a team may opt for a different style of forward like Canadians Dylan Cozens and Kirby Dach or Hughes’ teammate Alex Turcotte, while a D-needy club could reach for promising defender Bowen Byram. 

The NHL Draft Lottery will be nationally televised by NBC Sports, Sportsnet, and TVA beginning at 8pm ET on Tuesday. As opposed to last year, when the lottery took place over two separate sessions during playoff game intermissions, the event will return to being an independent hour-long show. Tune in to see who the big winner could be this year and how the top of the first round will look in this year’s draft.

No Discussions Yet About Replacing Bruce Boudreau

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Although the Wild will miss the playoffs this season, GM Paul Fenton and owner Craig Leipold have not discussed a coaching chance, reports Sarah McLellan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.  That suggests that Bruce Boudreau will be back behind the bench next season.  He has one year remaining on his contract after this season so it will be interesting to see if the two sides work out an extension or if Fenton opts to wait and preserve some flexibility to make an in-season change if they get off to a slow start in 2019-20.  Boudreau has the third-highest points percentage amongst active NHL coaches at .641.

Poll: Toughest First-Round Opponent For Tampa Bay Lightning?

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It’s been months since any team in the East other than the Tampa Bay Lightning was considered to have any real chance at the top seed in the conference. The Lightning have been one of the most dominant regular season teams in recent memory, locking up the President’s Trophy more than two weeks ago and joining the 60-win club earlier this week.

What has also been clear for some time is that Tampa would be destined to face the Boston Bruins or Toronto Maple Leafs in the second round of the playoffs, as their two divisional rivals have been near the top of the league standings for much of the year and always on a collision course to play each other in round one due to the NHL’s current playoff format. Yet, it’s easy to forget that the Lightning too have to win in the first round. Many have taken it as a foregone conclusion that Tampa would advance, but upsets occur in sports and the Lighting are as susceptible to a collapse as any heavy favorites that have fallen in the past.

So who has the best chance to knock off the regular season champs? Well, the defending Stanley Cup winners would have been an ideal match-up, but the Washington Capitals pulled out of range of a wild card finish earlier this week and clinched the top seed in the Metropolitan Division with a win on Thursday. The New York Islanders, with their suffocating defensive style and stellar goaltending, also would have been an intriguing opponent, but they have also assured themselves of a non-wildcard spot. Finally, the star-studded Pittsburgh Penguins would have made for a difficult and highly entertaining series with the Bolts, but a win on Thursday night guaranteed that they cannot finish any lower than seventh in the conference.

That leaves three potential opponents for Tampa Bay in round one: the Carolina Hurricanes, the Columbus Blue Jackets, and the Montreal Canadiens. Two of these three teams will make the playoffs – Carolina has clinched a playoff berth with a Thursday night victory – but only one will be lucky enough to land the second wild card spot and go up against the Lightning. Of these three, which one could pull off the eight seed upset?

The Hurricanes are on pace to finish seventh in the East and avoid Tampa and they cannot be caught by the Canadiens. However, if the the Blue Jackets pass by Carolina, the team would have to celebrate their first postseason in ten years by playing the Bolts. The ’Canes could give the Lightning problems with their ability to suppress shots, as they are the only team in the conference that allows less than 29 shots per game on average. A defense corps that is among the deepest and most talented in the league makes offense a struggle for the opposition and the added bonus of consistent play in net explains why Carolina is eighth-best in the league in goals against per game. Despite the franchise’s lack of postseason experience of late, Justin Williams and Jordan Staal are also major assets when it comes to playing smart, tough playoff hockey. The main concern for the Hurricanes though is that they have not been as successful offensively as they have been defensively. Despite leading the league in shots per game, the team is 16th in goals for per game and 20th on the power play and they’ve lacked game-breaking scoring talent this season outside of Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen. It’s impossible to expect to shutout Tampa Bay, so if Carolina can’t find some secondary scoring they could struggle against the Bolts.

As of now, Columbus looks like the favorite to finish eighth and play Tampa. That might not be what GM Jarmo Kekalainen expected when he added Matt Duchene, Ryan Dzingel, and Adam McQuaid at the trade deadline, but those moves will certainly help anyway. The Blue Jackets franchise has never won a playoff series and doing so against this Lightning team would be a tall task. However, they have both considerable talent and a chip on their shoulder. Like Carolina, Columbus does not allow many shots nor many goals and additionally have the best penalty kill in the conference. Unlike Carolina, they also have a star goalie in Sergei Bobrovsky. The Jackets would need Bobrovksy to shake off past struggles in the postseason, but if he does the Vezina Trophy-winner could be a game-changer. Offensively, Columbus has had an up-and-down year but are currently 12th in goals for per game. Duchene and Dzingel are major additions to a forward unit that already included elite talent like Artemi Panarin and Cam Atkinson. Unfortunately, all of this ability up front has still not led to consistent offense nor has it cured a miserable power play. Failure to capitalize on opportunities could be the Achilles heel of this team.

Then there’s Montreal, who need some help to make the playoffs, but could make waves if they do. The Canadiens can only end up in the eighth seed, so it’s Tampa or bust. Montreal can never quite be counted out with Carey Price in net and Shea Weber on the blue line, but the question is whether the other pieces are there to pull off not one but four wins against the Bolts. To their credit, the Habs have been a very balanced, consistent team this season that is right in the middle of the pack when it comes to goals and shots for as well as goals and shots against. Their power play is dead last in the NHL, which is obviously not typical of a playoff team, but it’s hard to find many other holes in their game. The problem is that nothing jumps out as being good enough for a massive upset, either. If Max Domi and Tomas Tatar stay hot and Price stands on his head as usual, anything is possible, but the Canadiens have simply been a good team and anyone who beats the Lightning will need to be great. Can they step up?

What do you think? The standings might say Columbus is the most likely opponent for Tampa Bay at this point, but who would be the toughest match-up for the President’s Trophy winners?

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