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KHL Notes: Sorokin, Kuznetsov, Lyubimov

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The New York Islanders have some of the top goalie prospects in the world, but will have to wait a few more years at least to see Ilya Sorokin on North American ice. The Russian goaltender has reached a three-year extension with CSKA Moscow. He was under contract for the 2017-18 season already.

Sorokin is one of the best goaltenders in the KHL, winning Goaltender of the Year two seasons ago age-20. Should he ever decide to come to North America the Islanders would welcome him with open arms, but it still doesn’t seem like he’s considering it. Back in May, he told reporters after the World Championships that he would be focused on the 2017-18 season, but an extension will keep him overseas even longer.

Vladislav Gavrikov Signs Two-Year Deal In KHL

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Despite the Columbus Blue Jackets’ best efforts, Vladislav Gavrikov is staying in Russia for the time being. It had previously been reported that he’d signed a two-year contract, which will now belong to SKA St. Petersburg after being traded from Yaroslavl. Gavrikov listed the chance to play in the Olympics as part of his decision, as well as the development he still requires as a hockey player.

The Blue Jackets drafted Gavrikov 159th-overall in 2015, but have tried in vain to bring him over to North America this spring as he’s already shown a capability at the highest level. Two full years in the KHL and an impressive performance at the recent World Championships has Gavrikov considered one of the top Russian defenders in the world not playing in the NHL, and though he’s not much of an offensive presence could still provide some solid depth to the Blue Jackets blueline.

Still just 21 there is no risk of the Blue Jackets losing Gavrikov’s rights, but it is frustrating for them that he re-upped for two years. After SKA won the Gagarin Cup this season, they have quite a draw on young Russian players when promised a key role, and this time they won any recruitment battle. Now, Columbus will just have to wait and watch his development from afar, hoping he’ll reconsider in the spring of 2019. Watch out during the playoffs that season, as Gavrikov could make an immediate impact like Vladimir Sobotka did for the St. Louis Blues when he came over just before the postseason.

Coaching Notes: Woods, McFarland, Desjardins, Weight

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Yesterday, while 217 individuals took their first step toward fulfilling their dreams of being NHL players one day, two others took a major step toward becoming NHL head coaches:

The Minnesota Wild announced that they have hired Bob Woods as an assistant coach for the 2017-18 season. Woods was an assistant for the Buffalo Sabres under Dan Bylsma in 2016-17, but was not retained by the Sabres after Bylsma and GM Tim Murray were fired and replaced with Phil Housley and Jason Botterill respectively. Buffalo was not Woods’ first NHL experience; he previously worked for the Anaheim Ducks and Washington Capitals as an assistant, both under current Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau. Woods also worked for Boudreau in the AHL, replacing him as head coach of the Hersey Bears when Boudreau was promoted to the Capitals open position. Woods led the Bears to Calder Cup championships in 2006 and 2009, before being called up to Washington himself. In the brief time after working alongside Boudreau for nine years and being hired by Buffalo, Woods was also the head coach and general manager of the Saskatoon Blade of the WHL. Equipped with years of experience coaching at all levels, as well as a prolific playing resume in the minor leagues – Woods is an ECHL Hall of Famer and holds the record for most career goals by a defenseman – Woods is a great addition for the Wild and should fit in perfectly alongside his long-time friend and mentor.

Not long after Minnesota tabbed their new assistant, the Florida Panthers named Paul McFarland as a new member of their coaching staff. On the other end of the spectrum to a guy like Woods, McFarland is relatively new to the coaching game. The 31-year-old was once an OHL prospect with dreams of being an NHL player, but upon realizing that his playing aspirations were a long shot, instead attended Acadia University, continued to play and study the game, and got into coaching after graduating in 2010. McFarland returned to the OHL served as an assistant coach for the Oshawa Generals for three years and then spent the past three seasons as the head coach of the Kingston Frontenacs. McFarland led the junior club to a 111-71-22 record, qualified for the playoffs all three years, and helped to develop highly-regarded prospects Lawson Crouse, Roland McKeown and Warren Foegele, as well as two second-round selections yesterday, Jason Robertson and Eemeli Rasanen. Panthers’ coach Bob Boughner, a rookie NHL head coach himself, is reportedly very excited about bringing McFarland aboard and his ability to assist with the development of young players in Florida.

  • Willie Desjardins might not be a head coach in the NHL for a while after being fired by the Vancouver Canucks back in April, but that doesn’t mean he won’t have an important team to lead. Desjardins has been tabbed as the head coach for Team Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics, a great honor regardless of the fact that the NHL won’t be participating in the Games. Desjardins will be looked upon to lead a talented, young Canadian team against a similarly young and talented American team as well as several different European squads that will have veteran professionals on their rosters. However, Desjardins has had major success at the junior and AHL level and is a strong pick for the position. He likely left NHL assistant offers on the table to take the job, but his name will certainly be back up for NHL head coach consideration if he can get it done on the big stage come this winter.
  • New York Islanders’ coach Doug Weight made an exciting announcement today, as his son, 16-year-old Danny Weight, committed to powerhouse college hockey program Boston College. The Eagles will get Weight’s services beginning in 2019-20, after he plays for the U.S. National Development Program for the next two seasons. At 6’0″, 170-lbs. already, Weight projects to be a power forward just like his dad, but will have an edge in development at BC versus his father’s time at Lake Superior State University in the early 90’s.

Snapshots: Schedule, Rapid City, Samsonov

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The full 2017-18 NHL schedule will be released on a special television production on the NHL Network on Thursday at 2pm CDT, and with it will likely come the end of any last hope for the league to go to the 2018 Winter Olympics. Anyone holding out hope that the league would change their staunch position and find common ground with the IIHF should drop it when the schedule is finalized and released.

Already, the league has announced that the All-Star game will be in Tampa Bay, and there will be regular season games played in Stockholm, Sweden. With several outdoor games also on the docket and the Vegas Golden Knights entering the league, it should be an interesting season to be sure.

  • The Rapid City Rush have come to an agreement with the Minnesota Wild to be their new ECHL affiliate, after the Quad City Mallards left the Minnesota organization to partner with the Golden Knights. The Rush were previously the affiliate of the Arizona Coyotes, but are much closer geographically to both St. Paul and Des Moines, where the Minnesota and Iowa Wild respectively play. Though there is (very) rarely movement from the ECHL to the NHL, Iowa and Rapid City will be working closely together to develop the young Wild prospects.
  • In speaking with Tarik El-Bashir of CSN, Washington Capitals Assistant General Manager Ross Mahoney said that he thinks prospect Ilya Samsonov is still a year away from coming to North America, and that they’re happy to wait for him. Samsonov was the first goalie off the board in 2014, and had an outstanding season with Magnitogorsk this year, registering a .936 save percentage in 27 games. It’s tough to find a better goaltending prospect than Samsonov, who has the size and mobility to be a starter in the NHL should he keep developing.

Maxim Shalunov Still In Blackhawks’ Future Plans

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When negotiations were ended in early April between Maxim Shalunov and the Chicago Blackhawks, it was reported that part of the reason was due to the NHL’s decision not to go to the Olympics. Turns out, according to Scott Powers of The Athletic, that the Blackhawks didn’t push very hard for him this season and are actually fine with him developing in Russia for the time being. Shalunov signed a three-year deal with his KHL club Novosibirsk Sibir before being traded to the powerhouse CSKA Moscow team. Powers writes that the Blackhawks weren’t convinced he’d score right away in the NHL, something that is important for his game. His agent echoed though that Shalunov “100%” expects to come to the NHL after the three year contract expires.

Shalunov was a fourth-round pick of the Blackhawks in 2011, and dominated the Russian junior league before coming to North America for a taste of the minor-league professional ranks in 2013-14. After playing in the AHL and ECHL for a season, he returned to the KHL more well-rounded and has started to use his size and scoring ability more and more. This year the 6’4″ forward scored 19 goals and 37 points in 49 games, leading his club. He’ll be hard pressed to repeat that on the stronger CSKA team, but will also be surrounded by more talent.

The Hawks will retain his rights for the time being and wait for him to come over as a in-his-prime 26-year old ready to contribute to their top-six right away. The big, heavy forward should be ready to take on a big role with the team then, as long as nothing comes between the two sides in the next few years. Whether the Olympic decision had anything to do with it or not, Shalunov will get a chance to compete for a spot at the Games, especially if the NHL punishes any players hoping to go anyway.

KHL Targeting Restricted Free Agents

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CSKA Moscow warned that they’d be after some of their Russian stars, attempting to woo them back with dreams of the 2018 Olympics and a chance to compete for their country. It seems they’ve found two targets, as Igor Eronko of Sport-Express reports the KHL club is in contact with Washington Capitals defender Dmitry Orlov, and Philadelphia Flyers forward Roman Lyubimov. Both players are restricted free agents and could leave for their home country should they want to.

News from Russian clubs should be taken with a grain of salt, but this smoke may have a fire attached to it especially in the case of Lyubimov. In April, he side-stepped a question about going home to Russia for a chance to compete in the Olympics, saying it would be a “tough decision”. The Flyers forward did only come over to the NHL this season, and saw less than 10 minutes of ice-time a night in his 47 games. While he wouldn’t be a devastating loss for the Flyers, Orlov’s departure would send shocks through the Capitals system.

Unlike Lyubimov, Orlov has been in North America for several seasons, coming up through the AHL system and only making his presence really felt the past two seasons. The 25-year old puck-mover has turned into an excellent player, able to play almost 20 minutes a night and record 30 points a season. Losing him in the same season as Karl Alzner and the newly acquired Kevin Shattenkirk would hurt the Capitals’ defensive group quite a bit. Orlov also never played for Moscow, and in fact his hometown and former KHL team Novokuznetsk has just been exiled from the league in an attempt to get it more financially stable.

Orlov is in line for a hefty raise should he stay in North America this summer, one that it will actually be quite difficult for the Capitals to afford. With Evgeny Kuznetsov, Andre Burakovsky, Brett Connolly, Nate Schmidt and Philipp Grubauer all hitting restricted free agency as well, the team will have to carefully carve up the cap-space pie to fit them all in. That’s assuming they don’t try to re-sign Alzner, Shattenkirk, T.J. Oshie, or Justin Williams, all of whom are unrestricted free agents this summer.

Snapshots: Olympics, Johansen, Rakell

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The Pyeongchang Olympics organizing committee president Lee Hee-beom stated that he is still willing to negotiate with the NHL to get them involved with the Olympics. He stated that he didn’t believe the NHL was being “greedy,” and was still open to working out a deal to allow NHL players to play during the Olympics for the 2018 Olympic Games.

The Sporting News writes that Lee stated that he is willing to be flexible and while he doesn’t know what the NHL wants in order to make a deal, “but whatever they ask – if it is acceptable for us – we will do our best.”

The International Ice Hockey Federation has also been willing to discuss options, but it is believed that a “game-changer offer” is needed in order to get the NHL owners to agree to stop the season for three weeks for the Olympics. The IIHF has already agreed to pay players’ travel and insurance costs, but balked at the NHL’s demand for a share of marketing rights to a commercial league.

  • Nashville Predators’ Ryan Johansen was reportedly diagnosed with acute compartment syndrome, according to NHL Network’s Jon Morosi. The team has not confirmed this. He is expected to fully recover. As reported yesterday, Johansen was knocked out of Game 4 against the Ducks and had immediate surgery and was ruled out for the remainder of the playoffs. He was their No. 1 option on offense after putting up 61 points this season. Ian McLaren of theScore writes that captain Mike Fisher will also be out for Game 5 tonight with an undisclosed injury.
  • The Predators may have mounting injuries, but the Ducks are suffering as well. Already without veteran Patrick Eaves, now The Tennessean’s Adam Vingan tweets that the Ducks will be without Rickard Rakell for Game 5 tonight with a lower body injury. The 24-year-old center broke out with 33 goals during the regular season and had seven goals and 13 points during the playoffs.

 

 

 

Snapshots: Blues, Wilson, All-Star Game

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The St. Louis Blues cleared house today, firing coaches Ray Bennett, Steve Thomas, Rick Wilson and Ty Conklin. The quartet had hugely varying experience levels, from Wilson’s 27 seasons as an NHL assistant to Thomas’ three. Conklin may be the most surprising though, as he was part of the team—along with assistant GM Martin Brodeur—to turn around Jake Allen’s season after goaltending coach Jim Corsi was fired. Allen’s second-half turnaround continued into the playoffs and helped the Blues make a splash, recording an amazing .935 save percentage in the postseason.

Brodeur is also not returning as the team’s goalie coach, but is heading up a search for a new one. Many would have presumed that Conklin would have been a front-runner given his familiarity with Allen, but apparently they will go in another direction. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet tweets that both Craig Berube and Darryl Sydor are “good bets” to move up from the Chicago Wolves and take places in the St. Louis coaching staff next season.

  • On Wilson, Friedman believes that he may immediately head to Dallas to reunite with Ken Hitchcock a long-time friend and coaching associate. Wilson was behind the Stars bench going all the way back to the Minnesota North Stars days, and was present for Hitchcock’s entire first run with the team. They won a Stanley Cup together in 1999.
  • The lack of an announcement for next year’s All-Star Game had people wondering if the league was holding out a sliver of possibility of still heading to the Olympics, but it seems as though the announcement will come soon on the host city. After Friedman broke that it may be heading to the southeast this morning, Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times reports that the Lightning are the likely candidates. Though it’s “not a done deal yet” Smith writes that Tampa obviously has the capacity to host big events. The city has held several huge sporting events over the years including Super Bowls and Frozen Four tournaments. If the All-Star festivities are announced with the full schedule, it likely means any ray of hope that the league will head to the Olympics is finished. Once plans are set in motion for the city, it would be near-impossible to go back on.

2020 World Cup Tied To New CBA

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While the 2016 World Cup of Hockey wasn’t as successful as the NHL and NHLPA had hoped, it was a promising first step for a tournament that had been dormant since 2004. Now according to Gord Miller of TSN, who is commentating the IIHF World Championship currently, the 2020 tournament may be in jeopardy.

Miller tweets that the World Cup is “unlikely” should the NHLPA opt out of the current CBA—which they can do in September 2019—and don’t have a new agreement in place in time for the 2020-21 season. The 2004 tournament was followed by a lockout, a situation that will not be allowed to happen again.

There has been speculation for months (if not years) that the NHLPA will utilize their opt-out clause due to the growing concern over escrow and the NHL’s stance on the Olympics. When the NHL tried to bargain a CBA extension for Olympic participation, it was met with a resounding rejection from the players. Executive Director Donald Fehr at the time told the Canadian Press that there was “no appetite among players to extend the agreement.”

As Pierre LeBrun of TSN clarifies, neither side wants to hold the World Cup before they “turn the lights off” on a season, and have been in agreement on that part since the September tournament. It’s interesting though, that not only will the next negotiations impact league play but international competition as well. The 2019 opt-out dates—September 1st, 2019 for the league, and September 19th, 2019 for the players—will some of the most important since the last lockout to determine the future of the league.

IIHF Keeping Doors Open For NHL Olympic Participation?

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While the prospects of the NHL changing its mind and joining the 2018 Olympic Games in South Korea seem unlikely, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) says its keeping the doors open for that possibility. President Rene Fasel says that he is still attempting to broker a deal with the NHL and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), but a deal must be in place by mid-July if the NHL agrees to send players to the Winter Olympics in South Korea in 2018, according to Cam Tucker of NBC Sports.

Fasel claims any later than that will cause problems as finding hotels and accommodations for the NHL is a big task as the NHL often has a large group that comes over. He added that the NHL sent over 600-800 guests for the Vancouver Olympic Games in 2010 and then at least 400 for the Sochi Olympics in 2014.

About a month ago, the NHL told the Olympics they would not be participating, which caused many players to criticize that decision. Russian and Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin has threatened to defy the NHL on their decision and take part in Pyeongchang 2018. However, Tucker writes that Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman says that the NHL has no intention of changing its mind and the decision is final.

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