Ottawa Senators head coach D.J. Smith admitted the team is surprised by Josh Norris' continued absence.
"Everyone involved never seen this coming," Smith said Saturday, according to The Athletic's Ian Mendes. "We all thought Josh would go through a little bit of practice, take a few bumps, and get in an exhibition game, and away we'd go. And that just didn't happen."
Norris was limited to just eight games last season due to a shoulder injury. He returned to the Senators' lineup in January but only appeared in three contests before being shut down for the remainder of the campaign to undergo surgery.
"With injuries, things happen sometimes where maybe it didn't rehab quite the way they expected," Smith said. "Everyone involved is not willing to let him go out there and play."
Norris was anticipated to play in the preseason but has yet to receive clearance from the medical staff.
"We thought he was going to play the game at home against Winnipeg (on Sept. 29), and he wasn't cleared or allowed to play," Smith said. "Then, we thought he would play against Pittsburgh (on Oct. 2). Same thing. At this point, I'm just told he's unable to play.
"Never did we think that possibly we'd start the year without him, and it certainly looks that way."
Smith didn't give a timeline for Norris' return.
In addition to Norris' absence, Ottawa has yet to sign forward Shane Pinto to a new contract. The 22-year-old is the last remaining unsigned restricted free agent.
The Senators play their final preseason game on Saturday before commencing the regular season on Wednesday against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin continues to take care of business ahead of time.
The club signed forward Ryan Hartman to a three-year contract extension with a cap hit of $4 millionon Saturday.
The Wild signed fellow 2024 unrestricted free-agent forwards Mats Zuccarello and Marcus Foligno to multi-year extensions last Friday.
Hartman put together the two most productive seasons of his career after moving from wing to center ahead of the 2021-22 campaign. He set career highs that season with 34 goals and 31 assists in 82 games, then produced 37 points in 59 contests in 2022-23.
While Joel Eriksson Ek is regarded as the team's most complete pivot, Hartman once again projects to center the team's top line between Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov in 2023-24.
The Chicago Blackhawks selected Hartman 30th overall at the 2013 NHL Draft. He spent time with the Nashville Predators and Philadelphia Flyers before signing with the Wild as a free agent in 2019.
Minnesota now projects to have approximately $12 million in cap space next offseason in what will be the final year of the bloated buyout cap hits for Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. The combined dead cap hit will shrink from $14.7 million this year and next year to just $1.6 million in 2025-26.
The difference a year can make as an NHL head coach is incredible. In 2022, Darryl Sutter won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year after leading the Calgary Flames to a 111-point campaign. A year later, he was fired after his club missed the postseason.
Leashes are short and turnover is inevitable. A staggering 19 of the 32 NHL bench bosses have yet to coach their teams for two full seasons.
No coach should feel safe, but the following six should feel more heat than the rest.
Coaches were ordered by their hiring date. Our hot-seat-o-meter is on a scale of one π₯ to five π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯.
Mike Sullivan, Penguins
Dave Sandford / National Hockey League / Getty
Hired: Dec. 12, 2015
There's evidence to suggest Sullivan's job is safe. He led the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016-17 and is regarded as one of the best bench bosses in the league. He still has two years left on his contract and assisted in ownership's search for a new hockey operations architect. That doesn't sound like someone who's on thin ice, does it?
But Sullivan is the second-longest tenured coach in the league, and the Penguins haven't won a playoff series since 2018. The club even missed the postseason last year. That's not to say it's Sullivan's fault - the roster is aging and always seems to be littered with injuries at the wrong time.
It's a results-driven business, though, and the Penguins' sole goal is to make one last run while Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang are still effective. It's why new president of hockey operations and general manager Kyle Dubas made a win-now move to acquire another veteran star in Erik Karlsson.
As much as Dubas praises his inherited coach, Sullivan is not his guy. If the Penguins get off to a bad start, Dubas might believe the team needs a fresh voice. And if Pittsburgh misses the playoffs again, that'll surely be the last straw for Sullivan.
Hot-seat-o-meter: π₯π₯π₯π₯
Craig Berube, Blues
Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / Getty
Hired: Nov. 19, 2018
Berube is in a similar situation as Sullivan. He guided the Blues to a Stanley Cup in his first season on the job which, in theory, should give him a longer leash. But he's only led the club past the first round of the playoffs one time since, and St. Louis missed the postseason altogether in 2022-23.
Replacing Mike Yeo with Berube in 2018 helped catapult the Blues to a spectacular second half and a Stanley Cup victory. So would it really be shocking if GM Doug Armstrong believes a new bench boss could yield similar results this season if his team gets off to a poor start? We don't think so.
The Blues' roster has undergone plenty of changes since winning the Cup in 2019. There's more speed and skill, and less size and physicality. Berube's north-south coaching style is a better fit for the latter, so replacing him with a more open-minded, creative offensive coach would be logical if things go awry.
Hot-seat-o-meter: π₯π₯π₯π₯
Todd McLellan, Kings
MARTIN KEEP / AFP / Getty
Hired: April 26, 2019
It's highly unlikely the Kings make a midseason coaching change. They're one of the most well-rounded teams in the league and should cruise to a playoff spot.
However, GM Rob Blake has aggressively added to his roster lately. First, it was Kevin Fiala in the 2022 offseason, then it was Vladislav Gavrikov at the 2023 trade deadline, and finally Pierre-Luc Dubois this summer. Between those additions and the unknown of how much longer Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty will remain highly effective players, there's ample expectation on the Kings to deliver in the playoffs - stat.
McLellan is a good coach but, under his watch, the Kings bowed out in the opening round of the playoffs two years in a row. He's also the longest-tenured coach in the league to not win a Stanley Cup or Jack Adams Award. Considering the Kings' talent, another first-round exit will likely cost him his job.
Hot-seat-o-meter: π₯π₯
D.J. Smith, Senators
Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / Getty
Hired: May 23, 2019
It's a make-or-break year for Smith, who's under more pressure than any head coach in the NHL this season. He's the longest-tenured coach without a playoff series victory and is in the last guaranteed year of his contract. (His deal has a club option for 2024-25.)
Ottawa's failures early in Smith's tenure were excusable since the team was rebuilding. But GM Pierre Dorion built a roster that's now more than talented enough to make the playoffs.
Poor starts have plagued the Senators in the past: They began the 2022-23 campaign with a 6-12-1 record and were never able to dig themselves out of that hole.
Smith's job security last year was likely due, at least in part, to uncertainty surrounding the team's ownership. But with Michael Andlauer assuming full control in September, there's no reason Smith should survive another poor start. If Ottawa misses the playoffs for a seventh straight season - and fifth under Smith - a coaching change will be a guarantee.
Hot-seat-o-meter: π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯
Sheldon Keefe, Maple Leafs
Mark Blinch / National Hockey League / Getty
Hired: Nov. 20, 2019
Keefe's chances of getting fired during the season are slim. The Leafs have been a regular season juggernaut under his guidance, and he owns the third-highest points percentage of all time among coaches with at least 100 games. The Leafs are also the heavy favorite to win the Atlantic Division this year since the Lightning are without Andrei Vasilevskiy to start the campaign and the Bruins lost so many key pieces.
The postseason will determine Keefe's fate. Sure, he led Toronto to its first playoff series win since 2004 last season, but losing to the Panthers in five games in Round 2 was an extremely underwhelming finish.
Keefe also has a new boss above him in GM Brad Treliving. If Toronto's postseason ends in disappointing fashion yet again, it'd be understandable for Treliving to want to hire his own coach - despite giving Keefe a two-year extension in August.
Hot-seat-o-meter: π₯π₯π₯
John Tortorella, Flyers
Len Redkoles / National Hockey League / Getty
Hired: June 17, 2022
Tortorella's first season as the Flyers head coach was a rocky one. We'll excuse him for the poor on-ice results. A 14th-place finish in the conference may not be pretty, but it's hard to imagine anyone could've done much better with a flawed roster that was hit hard by injuries. But he seemed to clash with several players, which is not a distraction this organization needs.
The hard-nosed, old-school bench boss just doesn't seem to be a fit for a rebuilding team like the Flyers. Tortorella can be an effective motivator for a veteran, win-now club, but overseeing the development of a young roster isn't the 65-year-old's forte at this point in his career.
When former GM Chuck Fletcher hired Tortorella, he thought his team was good enough to compete for a playoff spot. But things have changed and, even though expectations are low, it wouldn't be surprising if new GM Daniel Briere made a coaching change if he doesn't see his young players developing as hoped.
Sat Shah and Bik Nizzar breakdown a solid 3-1 win for the Vancouver Canucks over the Calgary Flames to conclude the regular season. Hear from Head Coach Rick Tocchet post game. Plus Randip Janda also provides his analysis.Β
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.
There wasn't much suspense when it came to the divisional slots for the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season. But the wild-card races provided some drama, as two teams in the Eastern Conference missed out by a single point, and two more in the West failed to qualify by two and three points, respectively.
Some of those bubble teams have a legitimate chance to get over the hump in 2023-24, and not every team that snuck into the postseason in 2022-23 is a lock to do so again.
Here are the five teams that are most likely to create playoff chaos, either by taking a step back and concluding their campaigns early or by rejoining the postseason field:
Buffalo Sabres
Darcy Finley / National Hockey League / Getty
The Sabres' rebuild is heading in the right direction, and a postseason berth could be a realistic goal for the club in 2023-24. Buffalo was one of those Eastern Conference squads that came up short by a single point after 82 games, so it's entirely conceivable that this up-and-coming team will make it next spring.
This season could be a golden opportunity for the high-flying Sabres to grab a wild-card spot or even a divisional berth, as a couple of longtime powerhouses in the East may have a harder time reaching the postseason than usual. The Boston Bruins got significantly worse over the summer thanks to two big retirements and two impact players exiting in free agency. Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Lightning have to play at least the first two months of the campaign without their stalwart in the crease.
The Sabres could greatly benefit if one or both of those Atlantic Division foes experience a big drop-off in performance. Of course, that may not be all that likely. But even if Boston and Tampa don't slide in the standings, one or both of last season's Eastern Conference wild-card teams could slip up.
That alone would open the door for a talented Buffalo squad that ranked third in the NHL in goals per game in 2022-23. And once the Sabres are in, their skilled youngsters and lower expectations could help them surprise one or more established contenders - including the Bruins and Lightning.
Florida Panthers
Bruce Bennett / Getty Images Sport / Getty
Before eliminating the historically dominant Bruins and making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, the Panthers scratched and clawed their way into the playoffs by one point as one of the aforementioned wild-card teams in the East. Florida still boasts Hart Trophy finalist Matthew Tkachuk, two-way wizard Aleksander Barkov, and a solid supporting cast including Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart. However, the Cats will be without key defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour for at least October.
Given how the standings shook out in 2022-23, every available point is crucial. The Panthers will be forced to trot out the decaying husk of Oliver Ekman-Larsson and reclamation project Mike Reilly while their two integral players on the back end are on the shelf. If Florida loses even one or two more games than expected during this stretch, it could come back to haunt the defending Eastern Conference champions in April.
The Panthers led the NHL in shots on goal and ranked sixth in goals per game last season. They were also a top-five team in terms of expected goals for percentage and scoring chances for percentage at five-on-five. So Florida should once again excel at puck possession and creating scoring chances.
But even so, the margin for error is incredibly thin, and one rough week could be the difference between the Cats making another playoff run and cleaning out their stalls wondering what went wrong.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / Getty
When the Penguins missed the playoffs for the first time in 17 years this past spring, big changes were inevitable. Pittsburgh fired general manager Ron Hextall and his right-hand man, Brian Burke, replacing them with Kyle Dubas in a dual role. The new boss then made a huge splash by acquiring reigning Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson in a blockbuster three-way trade.
The Pens' aging core should be invigorated by Karlsson's arrival. Even if the 33-year-old regresses as expected following a surprising career year, he gives Pittsburgh another star and a potentially explosive top power-play unit. The Penguins also missed the last postseason by a single point, so the addition of the dynamic defenseman could easily get them back into the picture. This team has more than enough experience with Cup wins and playoff runs to do damage once it gets there, too.
The New York Islanders qualified by two points in 2022-23, claiming the East's top wild-card spot by one point over the Panthers and by two over the Sabres and Pens. But it isn't hard to envision the new-look Penguins leapfrogging their Metropolitan Division counterparts this time around.
Winnipeg Jets
Zak Krill / National Hockey League / Getty
Much like the Panthers in the East, the Jets could stir up some postseason chaos simply by not being a part of the proceedings in the West.
Winnipeg would fall short of the playoffs for the second time in three years if that were to happen - and it's not too far-fetched to imagine. The Jets made it by two points in 2022-23 before the eventual champion Vegas Golden Knights bounced them out of the first round in five games. Winnipeg then traded the disgruntled Pierre-Luc Dubois and bought out declining former captain Blake Wheeler.
During the offseason, it looked like the Central Division squad might engage a full rebuild, as ever-reliable goaltender Connor Hellebuyck and productive center Mark Scheifele - both of whom are now pending unrestricted free agents - were trade candidates. But GM Kevin Cheveldayoff insisted his goal was winning with the dependable duo in the lineup.
That might be possible, particularly if Gabriel Vilardi - who Winnipeg acquired in the Dubois trade - breaks out and helps compensate for the departed forward's absence. But the Jets' return to the dance is by no means a certainty, and that could give another western Canadian squad a shot at redemption.
Calgary Flames
Derek Cain / Getty Images Sport / Getty
The Flames seem to have just as many things working in their favor as they have working against them as they try to restore their past status as a potential playoff threat. On a positive note, notoriously grating head coach Darryl Sutter is no longer around, and Calgary should play with more freedom under new bench boss Ryan Huska.
This club was also the third-best in the NHL in terms of both xGF% and SCF% at five-on-five in 2022-23. It fired more shots on goal than every team in the league except the Panthers. Calgary simply couldn't win enough close games. The 2021-22 Pacific Division champions dropped the most overtime or shootout contests in the NHL last season, missing the playoffs (while finishing behind the Jets in the overall standings) by two points.
A new head coach and some better luck in tight tilts could get the Flames back on track. Of course, there are also reasons why that might not happen. The biggest of which is they traded away their leading scorer, Tyler Toffoli, in June. Calgary already had issues putting the puck in the net, so players who struggled under Sutter, like Jonathan Huberdeau, will need to rediscover their past elite form. There's also the matter of goaltending, as the previously solid Jacob Markstrom had an atrocious 2022-23 campaign.
But if the 33-year-old can just give the Flames league-average goaltending, they'll have a legitimate shot at returning to the playoffs. Given their success in the puck possession game with largely the same group last season, this is a team that could succeed in the playoffs if it gets there. And that isn't unrealistic, especially considering Winnipeg appears headed in the other direction.
Dan and Sat answer your questions about what the Canucks need to do to get off to a hot start, whether or not they'll make trades or claims before the season starts, and much more!
This podcast was produced by Josh Elliott-Wolfe.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.
Dan and Sat take a look at some of the bubble players on the Canucks roster and who has shown they deserve a roster spot through the pre-season. Also, hear from Sportsnet's Triple Threat, Iain MacIntyre, on the bubble players, JT Miller, and more.
This podcast was produced by Josh Elliott-Wolfe.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.
Matt and Blake discuss the 45-year career of Stan Smyl upon his retirement from a day-to-day role with the Canucks, as well as the final preseason game lineup and the possibility of player moves over the long weekend. Does Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek mean desperation, loading up or no other right-handed options? Conor Garland with upward mobility for the finale, whereas Anthony Beauvillier and Nils HΓΆglander are down. Plus, Noah Juulsen drawing in as Cole McWard comes out. Other topics include the Lions and Bombers in a 1st place showdown, Taylor Swift and the NFL, the passing of Dick Butkus, and the Caps in Seattle for a 2nd-place (they hope) showdown in Seattle. Frank Seravalli shares what he's hearing on the Canucks trade front, the possibility of an Elias Pettersson extension before the season, goalie-needy teams scouring the waiver wire, NHL salary cap and economics coming out of the pandemic, plus Smyl's near half-century with the Canucks. The host of the Rink Wide: Vancouver podcast, Jeff Paterson, drops by to talk about the final dress rehearsal (or is it more experimentation?; what was said at the rink this morning; the final roster battles; the composition of the power play and his dealings with Smyl over the years. Presented by Applewood Auto Group.
