Monthly Archives: June 2017
NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – June 23, 2017
Coyotes, Tippett mutually agree to part ways citing ‘philosophical differences’
The Arizona Coyotes and head coach Dave Tippett have mutually agreed to part ways, the team announced Thursday.
"On behalf of the entire Coyotes organization, I would like to sincerely thank Tip for all of his hard work and the many contributions he made to our organization," said team owner Andrew Barroway. "Tip is a man of high character and we are very grateful for his leadership during his tenure as our head coach. Ultimately, we have some philosophical differences on how to build our team. Therefore' we mutually agreed that it is in everyone's best interest to have a coaching change in order to move our franchise forward."
Barroway bought out Coyotes' minority owners to become the sole owner of the club earlier in June.
Tippett, 55, took over the Coyotes bench in 2009-10, leading Arizona
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Best NHL expansion team ever? Vegas might have a case
LAS VEGAS (AP) Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley has repeatedly said he wants to win the Stanley Cup within the first six years of his new team's existence.
After Vegas came away with a jackpot from the expansion draft, Foley's franchise goalie is even bolder.
''Let's do it earlier,'' Marc-Andre Fleury said Thursday. ''Why wait six years? I don't know where I'll be in six years. Right away our goal has to be to get good, to improve and to go out there.''
Vegas shouldn't start blocking off the Strip for the parade just yet, but Sin City's new team is holding a remarkable hand after general manager George McPhee's 37-player haul from the expansion draft and several subsequent trades.
Nashville general manager David Poile is among many hockey observers who think the Golden Knights have the ingredients for the most competitive expansion team in league history. From Fleury on out, Vegas already has a solid NHL roster with a sturdy blue line and four lines of capable forwards.
What they don't have is the game-changing playmakers and goal-scorers that separate decent teams from great ones, but they've got a plan for that, too: Vegas will add even more top-shelf talent Friday in the draft in Chicago, where McPhee holds three first-round picks, including the sixth overall.
The players who have already arrived in Vegas realize that although they're starting over, they aren't starting from scratch.
''They put a great group together,'' said forward Reid Duke, who became the Golden Knights' first player when he signed as a free agent in March. ''You never really know what to expect, but they made some big splashes. Got a lot of good players, a lot of good picks. It's nice to see that they are not only building for right now, but the future, too. They've got some smart guys up there, and they know exactly what they are doing.''
McPhee continued his moves Thursday, swinging two trades to add draft picks in place of claimed players who might not have made the Golden Knights' roster. Vegas shipped defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk and a seventh-round pick next year to Carolina for Pittsburgh's second-round pick this year, and then traded David Schlemko to Montreal for a fifth-round pick in 2019.
After Foley paid $500 million to the league as an expansion fee, the Golden Knights were given favorable franchise-building terms explicitly designed to give them a better chance to be competitive more quickly than the new teams of the previous 25 years.
Instead of forcing Vegas fans to watch several years of plodding franchise-building, the NHL wants the Golden Knights to be decent from the start.
Can they be the best expansion team ever? It's quite possible.
The NHL added nine franchises between 1991 and 2001, and no team did better than the Florida Panthers, who went 33-34-17 and racked up an expansion team-record 83 points in the 1993-94 season. The NHL still had ties in 1994, so teams didn't pick up extra points through shootout wins.
All but four teams in the Western Conference recorded more than 83 points last season. An 84-point season would have put the Golden Knights in sixth place in an eight-team Pacific Division last season, ahead of Arizona and Vancouver.
The Golden Knights aren't ready to make any predictions yet, but once they get together in Vegas for the first time under coach Gerard Gallant, they'll start to figure out just how good they can be.
That transition to the desert will be easier for some Golden Knights: Deryk Engelland has lived in Las Vegas in the offseason for a decade.
''We'll get our numbers out there for guys to reach out if they need anything, if it's a place to crash, to see outside the Strip and come look for places (to live) or whatnot,'' Engelland said. ''Definitely ready for that part of it.''
The milestones will keep coming for the Golden Knights throughout the summer while they build toward the first game in franchise history in Dallas on Oct. 6, followed by their home debut Oct. 10 against the Coyotes.
Vegas' first player development camp starts Tuesday.
''It's a different situation for everybody in here to come into a team where there is no team,'' said defenseman Jason Garrison, claimed from Tampa Bay. ''It's the first team. You just want to establish a friendship and a culture right away, and it starts right now and leads into training camp and continues forward to the first game.''
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Follow AP Hockey Writer Greg Beacham on Twitter: www.twitter.com/gregbeacham
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McPhee says Vegas isn’t done dealing: ‘We have to move some contracts’
One day after selecting an initial roster, Vegas Golden Knights general manager George McPhee manufactured two trades, sending David Schlemko to the Montreal Canadiens and Trevor van Riemsdyk to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Many expected a flurry of deals once the league-wide trade freeze lifted Thursday morning, and while the wheeling and dealing was subtle to start, McPhee insisted Vegas has more in store.
"We have to move some contracts," McPhee told TSN's Pierre LeBrun.
With a variety of teams looking to shore up their blue lines, it's expected Vegas will continue to trade defenseman after selecting 15 at the expansion draft Wednesday night.
However, LeBrun added that McPhee isn't interested in selling young assets such as Nate Schmidt and Shea Theodore, whom he plucked from the Washington Capitals and Anaheim Ducks, respectively.
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NHL considering penalizing teams for incorrect coach’s challenge
The NHL's coach's challenge was in the limelight during the playoffs, perhaps most notably in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final when Nashville's Filip Forsberg was deemed offside on P.K. Subban's series-opening goal after a challenge from Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan.
The league is apparently looking into ways to reduce the amount of coach's challenges.
Colin Campbell, the NHL's Executive Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations, said that the league is considering assessing a minor penalty for an incorrect coach's challenge of an offside, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.
"If you're going to challenge, you better be sure," he told TSN's Frank Seravalli.
The proposal will need to be reviewed by the board of governors and competition committee, but it would undoubtedly make coaches more timid when contemplating the use of their challenge. With less challenges used, games would move faster - even if it's a matter of shaving off a couple minutes here and there.
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The 3 biggest surprises from Vegas’ expansion draft
With many of Vegas' expansion-draft selections being leaked by reporters hours before the announcement, there weren't a ton of surprises among the roster picks. However, with an abundance of side deals, three storylines in particular shocked the hockey world.
Pittsburgh forcing Vegas to take Fleury
Marc-Andre Fleury is coming off one of the worst seasons of his career, but he is still without a doubt a top-30 goaltender. Despite this, Pittsburgh had to offer Vegas a second-round draft pick just so it would take on his contract, which has two years remaining at $5.75 million per season.
The surprising part is that Pittsburgh couldn't find a trade partner for Fleury, who had waved his no-movement clause. Not even Philadelphia or Winnipeg.
Both teams desperately need a goaltender, and while Philadelphia is a division and provincial rival, there's no reason why Winnipeg couldn't have pulled off a deal with the Pens. If Pittsburgh was willing to give up a 2020 second-rounder to get rid of his contract, they likely would have taken just about anything in return from Winnipeg.
The Jets either have a lot of faith in Connor Hellebuyck, or didn't want to pay Fleury for just two more seasons. Both questionable, to say the least.
Vegas passing on Matt Dumba
The Golden Knights made a side deal with the Wild to pass on exposed defenseman Matt Dumba. Instead, they ended up with center Erik Haula from the expansion draft and prospect Alex Tuch via trade.
Haula is seemingly a third-line center at best, and Tuch, the 18th overall pick in 2014, is unproven, having played just six NHL games.
Dumba, on the other hand, was the seventh overall pick in 2012, is only 22 years old, has 228 games of NHL experience, is coming off a career year, and is a right-handed-shooting defenseman, which so many teams covet.
Dumba could have been a legitimate top-four defenseman for Vegas to build around. Or, they could have selected him in the expansion draft and then traded him to a team in desperate need of a right-handed-shooting defenseman, such as the Toronto Maple Leafs, and received a package a lot more valuable than Haula and Tuch.
Florida giving up a 30-goal scorer to shed Smith's contract
Reilly Smith's contract is bad. He's owed $5 million per year through the 2021-22 season, and is coming off a campaign in which he only scored 15 goals and registered 37 points.
However, Smith is just 26, and scored 25 goals and added 25 assists the year prior, when Florida wasn't hampered with a number of key injuries.
Nonetheless, Florida was so desperate to move this contract it was willing to give up on a goldmine in Jonathan Marchessault. The 26-year-old scored 30 goals last season and is scheduled to make just $750K next season.
This was a huge win for Vegas.
(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)
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7 games to circle on the 2017-18 NHL schedule
Missing hockey yet? We are too, and upon the NHL announcing the complete 2017-18 schedule Thursday afternoon, we picked seven games you can already start looking forward to.
Crosby visits McDavid - Oct. 24
This one speaks for itself, doesn't it?
The world's best player versus his presumed successor for that title is something we should cherish while we can, and with only two meetings each season, it's appointment viewing for hardcore hockeyheads.
Senators, Canadiens head outdoors - Dec. 16
Division rivals Ottawa and Montreal will head outdoors in the nation's capital for the NHL 100 Classic to celebrate the league's centennial season.
Leafs-Capitals at West Point - March 3
(Photo Courtesy: Action Images)
After a wildly entertaining six-game series in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Maple Leafs and Capitals will renew hostilities at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
Golden Knights home opener - Oct. 10
After two games on the road to begin their inaugural NHL season, the Vegas Golden Knights will head home to host the Arizona Coyotes for the club's first home game at T-Mobile Arena.
Rumor has it the city of Las Vegas knows how to throw a party, and you can bet the Golden Knights will kick things off properly.
Stanley Cup rematch - Oct. 7
It won't take long for the Nashville Predators to catch a glimpse of the Pittsburgh Penguins' new Stanley Cup banner.
In just their second home game of the season, the Pens will host the Preds, who they defeated in six games to win their second consecutive Stanley Cup in June.
Fleury heads home - Feb. 6
(Photo Courtesy: Getty Images)
After 13 seasons with the club that drafted him first overall, Marc-Andre Fleury will play in Pittsburgh as a visitor for the very first time in early February.
Fleury was asked by the Penguins to waive his no-movement clause in order to become available for Vegas, and the Golden Knights officially plucked the 32-year-old Wednesday night.
"Flower" was adored by Penguins supporters and his teammates throughout his time in the Steel City, and his return is sure to be an emotional one.
Leafs in Vegas - Dec. 31
Speaking of parties in Vegas, the Golden Knights will face a marquee opponent to ring in 2018, as the Maple Leafs are in town on New Year's Eve for their first game in Sin City.
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Oilers GM will match ‘any offer’ for RFA Draisaitl
Edmonton Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli isn't letting star forward Leon Draisaitl go anywhere.
He said the Oilers will match "any offer" if a team signs Draisaitl - a restricted free agent - to what he termed a "predatory offer sheet," according to Sportsnet's Chris Johnston.
The reason for Chiarelli's terminology is that signing an RFA to an offer sheet generally goes against the "GM code," especially when it comes to a player of Draisaitl's caliber - in that case, it's basically an unwritten rule.
The German forward had 29 goals and 77 points this past season, and added 16 points in 13 playoff games. At just 21 years old, he's already basically to Connor McDavid what Evgeni Malkin is to Sidney Crosby; if McDavid is Batman, Draisaitl is Robin.
If a GM does sign Draisaitl to a massive offer sheet, Chiarelli will clearly match it. However, if the offer is big enough, it could handcuff the Oilers and limit their cap flexibility going forward.
From the outside, signing Draisaitl seems like a legitimate strategy for a divisional rival, but those general managers know that what goes around comes around. If a GM does this, he needs to prepare for the same thing whenever one of his own star players becomes an RFA.
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