SEA ISLAND, Ga. - This was not the way it was supposed to go down.
In the lead-up to Tuesday’s announcement, the arrival of an NHL club in Seattle had been billed as a 2020 endeavor, with the prospective ownership group distributing 2020-related swag to local fans and even erecting ‘NHL 2020’ flags on the city's famous Space Needle during a press conference.
Recently, though, the league’s tune changed in regards to timing. Otherwise excellent, the expansion application pitched to the board of governors this week couldn’t promise that a revamped KeyArena (now known as Seattle Center Arena) would be up and running for the start of the 2020-21 season.
So, a group of extremely wealthy businesspeople was forced to do something they don’t normally do: swallow their pride and accept reality. The dream of bringing an NHL team to the state of Washington wasn’t over, it had just been put on hold.
“I have business cards I’m going to have to toss out that say ‘Seattle 2020,’” CEO Tod Leiweke joked on stage at a posh resort in coastal Georgia during the unveiling of the unnamed, Pacific Division-bound team on Tuesday afternoon.
“There’s some collector’s editions out there right now,” quipped senior advisor Dave Tippett, laughing over the phone from his office in Seattle.
The NHL-starved Pacific Northwest market has suffered through a number of false starts over the years. In fact, they've been here before. Back in 1974, a group headed by a man named Vince Abbey was awarded a franchise, but couldn't get its act together financially and folded before playing a single game.
Patrick McDermott / Getty Images
The current group - which is headlined by billionaire David Bonderman and Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer - will finally ice a team. They have deep pockets, serious political capital, and it doesn’t hurt that nearly 35,000 people have signed up for season ticket deposits.
“I woke up today thinking about the fans,” said Leiweke, whose brother Tim, a former Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment executive, is also heavily involved with the project. “What did they feel on March 1st when they put down deposits without knowing anything? No team name, an ownership group they didn’t know very well, a building plan that was back then somewhat defined but fairly vague.”
The most difficult part is over. The ownership group has been accepted by the 31 existing teams in unanimous fashion. They will have no trouble covering the $650-million expansion fee or financing the $800 million arena construction project. The community is vibrant, young, and prosperous.
“I think for better or for worse, what we’ve learned about the market confirms what we always thought about the market, which is it’s a young, dynamic, engaged market. Supports its professional sports franchises,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said. “It’s an area of the continent that can be served well by a NHL team, it’s good solid ownership, it’s going to have a first-rate arena. There’s not a whole lot not to like.”
Icon Sportswire / Getty Images
Of particular interest moving forward is landing on a suitable name, logo, colors, and finding a general manager. Compared to the Vegas Golden Knights, who were awarded the 31st franchise in June 2016 and started their debut season roughly 16 months later, Seattle has all the time in the world - something like 34 months before opening night.
"It's exciting and daunting and scary and all the things,” said Bruckheimer, who was fittingly off to the ‘Top Gun 2’ set following the press conference. “You just want to do right for Seattle, and bring great players and hopefully pick a name where we won't get too many people mad at us.”
The name will be a hotter topic in the short term, especially with the Metropolitans, Kraken, and Totems all gaining substantial support from factions of the fledgling fan base. Again, no rush.
“We have a little bit of time there,” Leiweke said. “We’re going to get it right.”
Asked if the club’s original timeline for hiring a GM had changed to accommodate the extra year of being on the sidelines, Tippett was noncommittal. They may tab someone in early-to-mid 2019, or they could choose to delay it a year when the June 2021 expansion draft is approaching.
“It all depends on who the person is, what the circumstances are,” he said. “There’s a lot of factors that come into play, but I wouldn’t rule (a 2019 hire) out."
“I talked to a lot of people involved in the Vegas situation and they told me you think you have a lot of time but you don’t,” Tippett added. “All of a sudden, you’re scrambling to put staff together. It gives you more time to make sure your decisions are right and to just generally prepare for things.”
Thanks to the Seattle Metropolitans, who won the 1917 Stanley Cup as a member of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, the area has some history to draw from. There's also four Western Hockey League junior teams in the state, including a pair in the Seattle area.
And in due time, there will be another monster question: Will the NBA return to Seattle after moving the SuperSonics to Oklahoma City? Seattle Center Arena is being built to accommodate basketball anyways, with the WNBA's Storm sharing the rink with the NHL club.
“One miracle at a time," Bonderman said.
John Matisz is theScore's National Hockey Writer. You can find him on Twitter @matiszjohn.
The NHL will officially expand to 32 teams after granting a franchise to Seattle at the Board of Governors meetings on Tuesday. Needing 24 of 31 existing teams to vote "yes" to approve their expansion application, the Seattle ownership group received unanimous 31-0 support from the power brokers gathered at the swanky Cloister resort in coastal Georgia.
The unnamed club is slated to begin play in fall 2021. Seattle will join the Pacific Division and the Arizona Coyotes will move to the Central Division, ensuring both conferences have 16 teams and every division contains eight teams. Realignment will stop there, and it will not come into effect until the 2021-22 season.
Seattle's ownership group - known officially as the Seattle Hockey Partners - is led by private equity CEO David Bonderman and Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer. They are required to pay the league an expansion fee of $650 million, or $150 million more than the Vegas Golden Knights' fee back in 2016.
Icon Sportswire / Getty Images
The group hoped to enter the league in the fall of 2020, but the NHL's concerns about the timeline for extensive arena renovations kicked the club's debut a year down the road. Work being done on KeyArena, the former home of the NBA's SuperSonics, will cost north of $700 million. Another $70 million has been earmarked for a practice facility, with both venues scheduled to open around October 2020.
While the NHL has never stationed a franchise in Seattle, the Seattle Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association won the 1917 Stanley Cup. Multiple groups have tried to bring a team to the Pacific Northwest hub over the past few decades. This attempt succeeded in large part because it had private financing, an arena plan, and close to 35,000 season ticket deposits.
The NHL is now the second North American pro sports league with 32 teams, joining the NFL. It beat the NBA - widely considered this generation's "it" league - to Las Vegas and will be the lone winter sports league with a presence in Seattle.
The 15th-largest metropolitan area in the United States with a population of 3.867 million, Seattle is home to the NFL's Seahawks and MLB's Mariners. The SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008.
John Matisz is theScore's National Hockey Writer. You can find him on Twitter @matiszjohn.
SEA ISLAND, Ga. - The NHL's board of governors dispersed from a three-hour meeting Monday evening having just discussed a number of league matters that didn't relate to the presumed expansion to Seattle.
Yes, Tuesday - the second and final day of the board's winter meetings - will be reserved for talk about, and a vote on, Seattle becoming the 32nd franchise. However, Monday featured discussions about the arena situation in Ottawa, the fate of another edition of the World Cup of Hockey, and next year's cap.
With that in mind, here are three non-Seattle things we learned on Day 1:
Bettman 'disappointed' with Sens' situation
In a post-meeting scrum with the media, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was asked if he was concerned with the Ottawa Senators' arena situation.
"I would say I'm more disappointed with how this played out, but these are complicated matters," Bettman replied.
Amid attendance woes, the Senators' downtown arena development project is flailing in the wind. Over the past two weeks, owner Eugene Melnyk has filed a $700-million lawsuit against his partner, John Ruddy, while a second interest group has stated they would be willing to take over the development.
There's a chance the downtown project is trashed, forcing the Senators to continue their residency at Canadian Tire Centre, which is located in the nearby suburb of Kanata. It's not ideal, but the league doesn't view the status quo as a terrible Plan B.
"For a whole host of reasons it would be nice (to have a downtown rink)," Bettman said. "But Mr. Melnyk has said if he has to make Canadian Tire Centre work, he can do that."
Added deputy commissioner Bill Daly: "He's the owner of the franchise and you have to defer to his local expertise. So, if he feels like he can make it work there long term, we'll certainly support that."
World Cup 2020 discussions stalled
Pumped for a sequel to the 2016 World Cup of Hockey? Well, you might want to dial it back.
The NHL and NHLPA aren't currently engaged in talks about a fall 2020 tournament. With the clock ticking, Bettman isn't pleased.
"For the last year and a half, two years, we've been anxious to anchor plans for a World Cup, but for whatever reason, the players' association hasn't been prepared to do that," he said.
Of course, any business centered around an event like the World Cup is linked with negotiations over the next CBA. All-star weekend, which goes Jan. 25-26 in San Jose, appears to be the deadline the league has set for the players' association to restart talks.
"If we're going to do a World Cup, and do it with the planning necessary, if we don't know (if the players' association is interested) by the first of the year or (the) all-star (break), then there's no sense in trying to pull off a World Cup for 2020," Bettman said.
"They know the timeframe," he noted later. "The puck's in their end."
Salary cap projected to rise again
The NHL has told its clubs to expect a salary cap of about $83 million for the 2019-20 season.
If the projection becomes reality this coming fall, the NHL will have added $3.5 million to its ceiling and, for the first time, climbed past the $80-million mark.
It's a far cry from the first season of the cap era, where teams could spend just $39 million in 2005-06.
"I think the fact that the salary cap continues to increase means revenue's continued to increase, which means the state of the sport and the business is very healthy, as healthy as it's ever been," Daly said. "And that's good for us, that's good for the players, I think it's good for everybody."
John Matisz is theScore's National Hockey Writer. You can find him on Twitter @matiszjohn
Kyle Dubas uttered those five words in July when asked about the prospect of re-signing Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander in the wake of John Tavares' monster free-agent contract.
No qualifiers. No hedging. Just straight to the point. The Maple Leafs' general manager laid it out in plain English: We can and we will.
It was the type of comment that - if things go sideways - can haunt a young GM in both the court of public opinion and in future negotiations with agents. Yet, with the first of those three stars signing a long-term deal this weekend, Dubas has begun living up to his promise.
"I know people were ready to jam that one down my throat," he said Saturday following the announcement of Nylander's six-year, $45-million extension.
Mark Blinch / Getty Images
For a second, Dubas let that subtle acknowledgment of the famous soundbite linger while sharing a laugh with reporters.
"But we’ll stick with it and that’s our goal," he continued, essentially doubling down. "We want this group to be together as long as we can possibly keep it together, and we hope that all of these guys can be career Leafs, especially this young core group of players that we have."
After a historically long standoff with Nylander, Dubas is understandably joyous. The 19-8-0 Leafs - one of the NHL's best teams through a third of the 2018-19 schedule - just added a difference-making skater coming off back-to-back 61-point campaigns. And it's also a win for Nylander, who stood his ground and will be paid handsomely through his mid-20s. He's set to reunite with his teammates ASAP and could make his season debut as early as Thursday.
Beyond that, the deal should have wide-reaching consequences for the Maple Leafs and the league as a whole.
What now for the Leafs?
By signing Nylander before Saturday's 5 p.m. ET deadline, the Leafs narrowly avoided two suboptimal scenarios: having a valuable asset sit out an entire year, or trading that valuable asset amid a very successful season.
Toronto had plenty of salary-cap space available and took full advantage by front-loading the contract so Nylander can cash in a quarter of the money between now and next training camp:
Still, even with Nylander's $10.28 million on the books this season, Dubas can add almost $5.15 million before hitting the upper limit of the cap. After paying out performance bonuses, the remaining money will likely be spent in some way, shape, or form by the Feb. 25 trade deadline.
"We'll still be able to potentially add to the group," the GM said Saturday, "and if we can strengthen the group, we will."
Again, Dubas is laughing in the short term. While it's a reasonable contract for both sides, Toronto's brass effectively won the battle by locking Nylander in at an average annual value of less than $7 million - no small feat considering negotiations stretched into December.
The hard work, on the other hand, is just beginning.
This coming summer alone, 13 players on the current Leafs roster are scheduled to hit free agency, including restricted free agents Matthews, Marner, and Nylander fill-in Kasperi Kapanen, along with unrestricted free agent Jake Gardiner, the polarizing top-four defenseman.
Some negotiations will be easy, while others should be contentious. Matthews and Marner, whose respective camps have put off contract talks until the offseason, will set the tone for the rest of the group. As the franchise's present and future, both will surely command eight figures per year.
Kevin Sousa / Getty Images
Right now, many within the hockey world project Matthews around $12 million and Marner in the neighborhood of $10 million. For argument's sake, let's assume the goal-scoring center and the playmaking winger sign long-term extensions for a combined $22 million. That's a big chunk of the pie.
In that scenario, the Big Four - Tavares, Matthews, Marner, and Nylander - would be earning roughly $40 million, or half of the current upper cap limit. And if the '19-20 upper limit falls somewhere between $81.4 million and $85.4 million (as the NHL projects), this hypothetical but entirely realistic situation would leave Dubas with between $3 million and $7 million to fill out next year's roster. In other words, pennies.
It could get worse, too.
The smart bet is on Matthews (averaging a goal per game this season) and Marner (on pace for 115 points) continuing their upward trajectories. Even after their production inevitably tapers off a bit, the pair of 21-year-olds should still make compelling cases for gigantic, potentially disruptive raises that would likely put a tremendous amount of pressure on Dubas.
The Nylander standoff may ultimately be the most difficult negotiation of the three, but deals for Matthews and/or Marner will require some serious finessing by Dubas and assistant GM Brandon Pridham, the club's in-house cap guru.
The signing also means that suddenly, two bits of business by former GM Lou Lamoriello - Patrick Marleau's buyout-proof $6.25-million-per-year deal and Nikita Zaitsev's $4.5-million-per-year contract - are major headaches. And Gardiner, who could probably attract offers between $6 million and $7 million per season on the open market, looks as good as gone.
Unless, of course, president Brendan Shanahan's team-first mantra gains steam down the stretch and winning is enough to change minds.
Does Gardiner take a hometown discount in an effort to finish what he started in Toronto? Would Matthews take fewer dollars, therefore giving Marner a lower benchmark?
Maybe. But maybe not. Barring something unforeseen - like a salary-dumping trade - money's going to be hella tight for the Leafs. The potential discounts will be trims; not full financial haircuts. There will be hoops to jump through, and the possibility of an offer sheet (or two?) from another team is lurking in the background.
For now, "we can and we will" has legs. Nylander's under contract through 2023-24 and the other key pieces are lodged in position. Come summertime, however, all bets are off. There might even be a sequel to this standoff story.
What now for star-studded 2019 RFAs?
In the same way it creates a benchmark for the future Matthews and Marner extensions, Nylander's signing should benefit rival stars who are finishing up their entry-level contracts this season.
For a while, Jack Eichel's second contract of $10 million per year over seven seasons has been the high-water mark for elite forwards not named Connor McDavid. The next rung is Leon Draisaitl and his $8.5 million per year over eight, then David Pastrnak's $6.67 million over six, and then Nikolaj Ehlers' $6 million over seven.
Nylander etched out a new rung after waiting out his team until deadline day. In turn, he raised the bar, and will make roughly $300,000 more per season than his good pal Pastrnak. It may not seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but comparables are crucial during future contract talks.
Gerry Thomas / Getty Images
Meanwhile, the 2019 RFA class - headlined by Patrik Laine, Mikko Rantanen, Brayden Point, Matthew Tkachuk, Sebastian Aho, Brock Boeser, Kyle Connor, Timo Meier, Charlie McAvoy, and Ivan Provorov - is stupidly talented and will reap the rewards of Nylander's standoff.
All of them have interesting cases, particularly Rantanen, given his offensive explosion this year, and Boeser, due to his injury history. How valuable is Tkachuk to Calgary's success? Will he agree to make north of $7 million but not quite Draisaitl money, establishing yet another rung?
One issue is that teams are mostly ill-prepared for this trend of young players earning this much, this soon. Previously, the typical high-end skater had to wait until their third contract to really see their bank account swell. Not anymore in a league dominated by rookies, sophomores, and players in their early 20s.
And, as the hockey world was reminded on a seemingly daily basis during the Leafs-Nylander saga, these RFAs don't usually qualify for salary arbitration. So, if the team and player aren't seeing eye to eye, the threat of sitting out - or in Nylander's case, actually sitting out - can become a real problem.
"I hope that, for the sake of everybody - the players, the teams, the game, in general - that teams and players are able to work together and have everybody there in time for training camp, and get everything sorted and done," Dubas said when asked if the Nylander situation might set a precedent across the league.
"I think it's great for the fans and it's great for the game, in general, to have every great, young player available and every exciting, young player available to be out here every night. We've deprived the fans of that for two months, so we're happy to get one back."
John Matisz is theScore's National Hockey Writer. You can find him on Twitter @matiszjohn.
With the 2018-19 season rolling past the quarter mark, it's time to use our emoji vocabulary to once again describe the NHL's 31 clubs.
Here is one emoji taking the early-season temperature of each team.
Anaheim Ducks - 😫
Someone save John Gibson. No other goalie is being worked into the ground like the 25-year-old Ducks starter. Gibson, who is an absolute bargain at $2.3 million, has faced the most high-danger shots, second-most shots, and has played the third-most minutes among goalies. The 2011 second-rounder may not be standing by Christmas.
Arizona Coyotes - 💁
The Coyotes' offense doesn’t make a ton of sense. At even strength, they're shooting an abysmal six percent en route to a league-low 35 goals. On the power play, where teams are supposed to shine, they’ve produced only 11 goals. On the penalty kill: 10 goals to go along with an 89.2 percent kill rate. Such a weird contrast for a team with 23 games played.
Boston Bruins - 🔧
In preseason, it felt like a virtual guarantee that the Bruins would snag one of the Atlantic’s three playoff spots. A wild-card team right now, they’re by no means in trouble, but a series of injuries, particularly to defensemen, have thrown a wrench into their plans. Charlie McAvoy has missed 17 games, Torey Krug 11, Brandon Carlo eight, and Zdeno Chara six.
Buffalo Sabres - 🛫
Hands down the best story in hockey, Buffalo's rebuild is finally taking flight. Three newcomers - Jeff Skinner, Carter Hutton, and Rasmus Dahlin - have taken center stage, while Jack Eichel (one point ahead of Skinner for the team lead) is flourishing in his fourth season. At 17-6-2, the Sabres are back in business. What a time to be alive.
Gerry Thomas / Getty Images
Calgary Flames - ✋
In a division filled with so many passengers, the Flames have raised their hand and challenged for the Pacific’s No. 1 position. At the micro level, someone is stepping to the fore as well, with David Rittich supplanting 36-year-old starter Mike Smith between the pipes. Rittich, a second-year NHLer, owns a .924 save percentage through 13 games.
Carolina Hurricanes - 🎡
From the Viking clap, to the glass jump, to the sassy Twitter account, to the winning, the Hurricanes are the NHL’s version of a carnival. Not only are they sitting in a playoff spot with a 12-9-3 record, they also boast excellent underlying numbers. It has been a very long time since this team was relevant on the national scene. They are now.
Chicago Blackhawks - 🤹
Rookie head coach Jeremy Colliton is tasked with juggling the demands of a brand-new role and the demands of having brand-new players under his watch. Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman acquired Dylan Strome and Brendan Perlini earlier this week, just 20 days after naming 33-year-old Colliton as Joel Quenneville’s replacement. Make your mark, kid.
Colorado Avalanche - 🎮
Colorado's first line is the closest thing hockey has to a video game experience. Nathan MacKinnon between Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen fills highlight reels and scoresheets. A lightning-fast wrecking ball of a trio, they have amassed 26 goals for and allowed just 11 against in a league-high 323 minutes together at five-on-five. Incredible.
Columbus Blue Jackets - ☔
It can’t be easy being GM Jarmo Kekalainen right now, but through two months he has managed to fight off the Artemi Panarin-Sergei Bobrovsky storm. The big-ticket pending free agents are in limbo, having both stated publicly they are undecided on their futures. This situation had "distraction" written all over it, yet Columbus is 14-8-2. Winning helps.
Dallas Stars - 💎
Whether it’s the southern market, the position, or his playing style - a combination of factors are keeping rookie gem Miro Heiskanen out of the spotlight. Despite skating for 22:57 a night against high-quality competition and pitching in the odd point (11 in 26 games), the 19-year-old Finn isn’t garnering a lick of attention outside of the Stars' orbit.
Dave Reginek / Getty Images
Detroit Red Wings - 😖
That’s Jeff Blashill’s head exploding. A tad dramatic at first blush; however, no team has a worse balance of special teams than Detroit, which must drive the head coach nuts. Over the course of the young season, the Red Wings have been shorthanded for 146 minutes and on the power play for 107. Thirty-nine minutes is a gigantic gap this early.
Edmonton Oilers - ⏲️
Peter Chiarelli is on the clock. Once a GM fires his coach - like Chiarelli did last week with Todd McLellan - the attention shifts. And given that most of the Oilers' issues can be traced back to roster construction, Chiarelli’s seat is blazing hot. If Connor McDavid can drag his teammates into the playoffs, the narrative changes. If he can't ...
Florida Panthers - 🏎️
It’s time to step on the gas and catch up to the pack. A popular preseason pick to return to the playoffs, the Panthers have faltered in the early going. Goaltending has been a huge issue, with James Reimer (15 games), Roberto Luongo (nine), and Michael Hutchinson (four) posting save percentages of .894, .902, and .839, respectively.
Los Angeles Kings - 🐢
The Wild may technically be the oldest squad in the NHL, but the Kings feel the oldest. Firing John Stevens has done nothing to solve L.A.’s woes in the short term. If anything, it has exasperated their on-ice issues: They’re still slow moving, incapable of generating offense, and, for reasons unknown, Ilya Kovalchuk is now toiling on the fourth line.
Minnesota Wild - 🥕
An interesting early-season trend: Minnesota dangling a carrot to other teams and then taking it away. The Wild have allowed the first goal in 16 of 24 games but won nine of those contests. Clearly slow-starting, Bruce Boudreau’s group has a minus-3 goal differential in the first period, plus-10 in the second, and plus-4 in the third.
Francois Lacasse / Getty Images
Montreal Canadiens - 🏙️
There is something about the bright-lights, big-city environment of Montreal that has Max Domi reinvigorated. With 11 goals and 15 assists in 25 games, the 23-year-old center is on pace to smash career highs. Prior to being traded to the Canadiens in June, Domi looked ordinary in Arizona. In hockey Hollywood, he has looked extraordinary.
Nashville Predators - 💼
Business as usual in Nashville. With a .700 points percentage and plus-22 goal differential, the defending Presidents’ Trophy winners once again find themselves in the hunt for the regular-season crown. Pekka Rinne, 36, leads all goalies in save percentage (.936), and Filip Forsberg's 14 goals put him just outside the top 10 in scoring. Ho-hum, right?
New Jersey Devils - 💪
According to Hockey Reference's strength of schedule metric, the Devils have endured one of the hardest opening stretches in the league. Yet, the worst is still to come. Over a 10-game span starting Friday, New Jersey will face the Capitals, Jets, Lightning, Sharks, Predators, Maple Leafs, and Blue Jackets. Time to flex those muscles.
New York Islanders - 🍪
Does anybody actually believe in these Islanders? Their 12-9-2 start is a nice, cookie-sized treat for a fan base abandoned by John Tavares, but that’s about all it is - nice. At five-on-five under Barry Trotz, New York ranks 27th in the NHL in both shot attempts and scoring chances, and owns an unsustainably high shooting percentage of 10.5 percent.
New York Rangers - 🎯
GM Jeff Gorton’s hiring of David Quinn was right on the money, with the latter leading the rebuilding Rangers to a 13-10-2 record. Special teams are middling and the underlying numbers aren’t great, but there’s a lot to like about this squad, including strong starts from Henrik Lundqvist (.921 SV%) and Mika Zibanejad (21 points).
Ottawa Senators - ⛲
The fountain of youth can be found in Canada’s capital. A total of nine rookies have suited up for the Senators. The club has three of the NHL’s top eight first-year scorers in forwards Brady Tkachuk (16 points in 14 games) and Colin White (16 in 24) and defenseman Max Lajoie (11 in 25). Sophomore Thomas Chabot has been stellar, too, with 29 points in 25 contests.
Philadelphia Flyers - 🌐
The world-wide search is on for the Flyers’ next general manager. President Paul Holmgren and Co. are looking for someone from outside the organization who has a "bias for action." While nothing has been decided and others are in the mix, former Wild GM Chuck Fletcher reportedly has the inside track.
Pittsburgh Penguins - 📱
Jim Rutherford is surely working his cell phone each and every day. The displeased Penguins GM already shipped out Carl Hagelin and appears motivated to pull the trigger again. Rutherford’s main message through 24 games: Pittsburgh needs more from its complementary players. Full stop.
Brandon Magnus / Getty Images
San Jose Sharks - 🔓
Twenty-six games in, the Sharks are still trying to unlock the true potential of the Erik Karlsson acquisition. The transition has been fine, good, but the electricity everyone expected has just not been there. Fortunately for San Jose, the season is young and the courting process is ongoing. Karlsson isn’t an unrestricted free agent until July 1.
St. Louis Blues - 😬
It’s been difficult to watch the 2018-19 Blues. This season was the year public perception changed around the club, yet it sits 30th in the entire league in points percentage. Ryan O’Reilly has been tremendous, collecting 27 points in 23 games, but other offseason acquisitions - namely Patrick Maroon and Tyler Bozak - have been quiet.
Tampa Bay Lightning - 🤗
So many celebratory hugs. To nobody’s surprise, Tampa is scoring a boatload of goals, averaging 3.69 per game to trail only Colorado. Jon Cooper’s team attacks in waves, bagging four or more goals in 13 of 25 games. Top snipers Brayden Point, Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov, and Yanni Gourde are all on pace for 30-plus markers.
Toronto Maple Leafs - 🕺
One of the NHL’s most potent offenses has welcomed back superstar center Auston Matthews. On deck is William Nylander, assuming the restricted free agent comes to terms on a new deal in the next 48 hours. It’s crazy to think a Leafs lineup without Matthews and/or Nylander has scored 93 goals in 26 games. Sky's the limit moving forward.
Vancouver Canucks - 🎨
What Elias Pettersson produces between the boards for the Canucks is pure art. The stat line - 13 goals and eight assists in 21 games - is commendable. Watching him create, though? That’s the real treat. He’s such a slippery player and, at least thus far, the NHL has failed to contain him. At the moment, it’s Pettersson, Brady Tkachuk, and then everybody else in the Calder discussion.
Vegas Golden Knights - ⚙️
Following a 5-6-1 October, the gears have slowly but surely begun moving in the other direction for the Golden Knights. Led by the Jonathan Marchessault-William Karlsson-Reilly Smith line, the reigning Western champs have regained some of their swagger, winning four straight. The return of Nate Schmidt, sidelined by suspension, has fueled the ascent.
Washington Capitals - 🥁
Tom Wilson's suspension and overall rocky start aside, everyone in Washington seems to be marching to the same beat under new head coach Todd Reirden. The Metro Division-leading Capitals returned largely the same roster and don’t look disjointed at all with Trotz’s old assistant in charge.
Winnipeg Jets - 🎶
Is that Patrik Laine's music? Hoo boy, the Finnish finisher has been on an absolute tear as of late. Eleven goals in four games last week - five of which came in one showing - bring his season total to 19. Not everything has gone swimmingly for the 13-8-2 Jets (see: so-so five-on-five goal production), but Laine should be exempt from the blame game.
John Matisz is theScore's National Hockey Writer. You can find him on Twitter @matiszjohn.
On this monster episode, John is joined by TSN's Travis Yost and the Washington Post's Isabelle Khurshudyan to break down the latest headlines and trends.
Topics include:
The Jeff Skinner and David Pastrnak goal explosions
Erik Karlsson, the Senators, and the Sharks
Life in Washington in the post-Trotz era
Should the Capitals consider resting Alex Ovechkin?
Paul Fenton woke up on Friday with virtually the same Minnesota Wild roster he inherited six months ago.
For a rookie general manager tasked with elevating a very-good-but-not-great club to new heights, it might seem like he's sleeping on the job. But the relative inactivity is no fluke.
Instead of reconstructing the depth chart, Fenton is exercising restraint through American Thanksgiving - and the Wild are doing just fine despite the lack of moves, holding down second place in the Central Division with a 13-7-2 record and a plus-10 goal differential.
“We were very satisfied, to be honest," Fenton told theScore earlier this week, recalling his headspace following a quiet first offseason at the helm. "You look at this team, it had success to make the playoffs the last six years.
“For me to come in and automatically look at something and say, ‘I’ve got to change this’ or ‘I’ve got to change that’ - that wasn’t my strategy. I guess, by nature, you think you’ve got to do something, but the patience part was probably the best play that we had.”
Icon Sportswire / Getty Images
Typically, six months is a short window for a new GM to make a major impact on a franchise. As the person in charge, you want to save your desperate measures for desperate times. Then again, Minnesota's situation is atypical.
The Wild haven't advanced past the second round of the playoffs since 2003, most recently dropping the opening series in back-to-back years to start Bruce Boudreau's tenure behind the bench. Over Boudreau's two-plus years in Minnesota, only three teams have won more often in the regular season - the Washington Capitals, Nashville Predators, and Tampa Bay Lightning.
The knock on Minnesota for a number of years (really, since Marian Gaborik left a decade ago) has been the lack of legitimate high-end talent, the type of players capable of breaking a game or a series open. Washington, Nashville, and Tampa all have those players - as do several other contenders for the Stanley Cup.
But Fenton, who spent 19 years working under Predators GM David Poile before replacing Chuck Fletcher in Saint Paul this past spring, isn't buying it. He disagrees with the notion that a team needs a superstar to win a Cup.
“Yes, I do, to be honest,” he said. “You look at the balance. Balance is the key. We have what arguably is as good a two lines (as anywhere). Two lines that are going to be productive going forward here. We’ve got a third line that is able to put points on the board. And our fourth line just seems to generate chances. Maybe they haven’t had the success, or the points, but they’ve spent the majority of the time playing in the offensive zone. When you have that, you’re eventually going to find success.”
The Vegas Golden Knights were three wins away from a championship last June, so it's hard to argue with Fenton - especially with seven Wild players on pace for 50-plus points heading into Friday night's game against the Winnipeg Jets:
SKATER
GAMES
POINTS
PACE
Mikael Granlund
22
22
82
Zach Parise
21
19
73
Mikko Koivu
21
19
73
Ryan Suter
21
17
63
Eric Staal
21
16
62
Jason Zucker
22
15
56
Matt Dumba
22
15
56
However, the Wild also have the oldest roster in the NHL, according to Hockey-Reference.com. The hopeful arrival of Russian stud Kirill Kaprizov - "when he’s done with his (KHL) contract, we’re hoping to have him over," Fenton said - and development of goalie Kaapo Kahkonen might curb that problem. Until then, the clock is ticking on Minnesota's core.
Key forwards Mikko Koivu, Eric Staal, and Zach Parise, No. 1 defenseman Ryan Suter, and starting goalie Devan Dubnyk are all between the ages of 32 and 35, and they'll earn $28.4 million in combined salary in 2018-19. That means five of Boudreau's top 10 weapons are on the wrong side of their career arcs.
Fenton could have altered the trajectory of his roster this offseason by pivoting to youth in some other fashion to put his stamp on the organization. Instead, he opted to take care of smaller business, inking Jason Zucker and Matt Dumba to long-term extensions and bringing in depth pieces like third-pairing defenseman Greg Pateryn and fourth-line center Eric Fehr.
Now 22 games into the season, Fenton has made only two minor trades during his tenure - one on Oct. 3 and the other on Wednesday, both involving non-NHLers. That older core, and particularly Dubnyk, Suter, and the oft-injured Parise, have been the least of his worries.
“Zach is back to playing like he was playing when he broke into the league," Fenton said of Parise. "He’s got great energy, great passion around the net - that’s the biggest thing. I was talking to him (recently) about eight feet in - that’s his game.
"When he’s on his game, he’s quick to loose pucks, he’s tipping pucks, he’s able to create chances, he scores off the rush when he has an opportunity to do so. Whenever he can generate quick retrievals of pucks, it seems like our team as a whole plays better.”
Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / Getty
Boudreau’s previous Wild teams excelled at suppressing scoring chances, hung around the top 10 in goals for and against, and boasted quality special teams. The 2018-19 squad is checking off all the same boxes, and some fresh talent, namely 21-year-old rookie Jordan Greenway, is contributing.
"He’s so big, he’s evasive, he’s strong," Fenton said of the power forward who scored his third NHL goal in a 6-4 win over Ottawa on Wednesday. "He can battle pucks to the net, he can make plays. He’s starting to shoot the puck more and it’s only a matter of time until he gets the results we think he’s capable of.”
Disrupting Boudreau's group might have been the power move, but Fenton's no-panic approach has paid dividends. Winning puts everybody's mind at ease, and so far the same old Wild look mighty dangerous.
But don’t mistake the new guy's patience for complacency.
“You’re always looking," Fenton said. "You’re always looking to improve your team and if it’s making a big splash, then you weigh the pluses and the minuses and you try to say, ‘If this is going to help our team, I’m going to do something.’ It isn’t like you don’t explore something (new) every day."
"That’s how I look at it."
John Matisz is theScore's National Hockey Writer. You can find him on Twitter @matiszjohn.
Last week, with the contest scoreless and a teammate in the penalty box, Grabner flung the puck at the Nashville Predators' net from just a few feet inside the offensive zone. The shot looked harmless - until it one-hopped at the hash marks. Beat clean, Pekka Rinne became the latest goalie to be victimized by the NHL's best offensive (and defensive) penalty kill.
Arizona's PK has already produced 10 goals (the next highest total is four) while humming along at a 91.7 percent clip defensively,allowing opponents to score just five times.Those numbers have resulted in an eye-catching shorthanded goal differential of plus-5 for the otherwise-middling 9-9-1 Coyotes. And considering the team bagged only two shorties in 2017-18, the recent binge may be the wackiest development of the young NHL season.
"I've played on some teams where the penalty kill is really good and you’ve had some dangerous guys who have scored off the penalty kill, but not to this pace," Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet, an NHL forward from 1994 to 2002, told theScore.
"It's given us some juice in the fact that we're hanging our hats on something," he added. "Some teams have identities. Right now, teams are playing us and they're going, 'Hey, this PK is No. 1, and if you’re not careful they can score.'"
Norm Hall / National Hockey League / Getty
If the Coyotes maintain their current shorthanded scoring pace - an extremely unlikely scenario given a third of their shots have gone in - they'd finish with 43 goals for the season. The all-time record of 36 is held by the Wayne Gretzky-led 1983-84 Oilers (no other team's scored more than 28), and it's safe to say the current Coyotes roster is nowhere near that Stanley Cup-winning level of talent, which only underlines the absurdity of its brilliant run.
And outside of the penalty kill, it's not all sunshine and lollipops for the .500 Coyotes. Marred by injuries to key contributors, struggling to score at five-on-five, and fifth worst with the man advantage, Tocchet's club has failed to seize the moment in the Pacific Division, which, beyond the Calgary Flames and San Jose Sharks, features nothing but underwhelming clubs.
"After a bad game, we've bounced back pretty well," Tocchet said, preferring to assess the opening stretch from a glass-half-full perspective. "Last year, especially in the first half, we'd have a couple of duds in a row, where now it's like, 'Hey, we had a bad game, let’s bounce back.' That’s the sign of a team that's coming to."
After a 70-point season in '17-18, Arizona's on pace for 82 this time around, while the typical playoff cutoff is approximately 95 points. Solid goaltending and some offense from spark plug Clayton Keller have certainly helped, but again, it's the PK keeping this team afloat heading into Wednesday's game against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Grabner, who ranks second to Boston's Brad Marchand in shorthanded goals (19) since entering the league in 2009-10, is leading the charge this season with four. His partner in crime, Brad Richardson, has three, while second-unit regulars Derek Stepan (two) and Lawson Crouse (one) have chipped in as well.
"We have a lot of pride in killing penalties and we’re getting our chances early here and taking advantage of them," Grabner said. "Really, it’s all about not being careless with the puck."
PK Category
Coyotes
NHL Rank
Goals for per 60 minutes
5.6
1st
Goals against per 60
2.8
1st
Shot attempts for per 60
21.4
2nd
Shot attempts against per 60
82.8
4th
Scoring chances for per 60
12.4
3rd
Scoring chances against per 60
39.4
2nd
Last season, Tocchet's first behind the Coyotes' bench, the team finished with mediocre PK numbers - 19th in kill percentage, and somewhere between 17th and 24th in each relevant advanced-stats category. Then, a few things happened: Grabner signed as a free agent, Hjalmarsson returned to full health, and Connauton slotted in for the departed Luke Schenn.
Now, the Coyotes' PK system - with those improvements in place - is working better than anyone could have imagined.
"We've been making really good reads," Tocchet said of his penalty-killing group.
"When we're applying pressure, the other guy - the weak-side guy - has been making really good reads. Sometimes you have to guess on these reads and we've been guessing right more often. Are we lucky on some of them? Maybe. But the guys have done a nice job reading it and coming out on the right side of that read."
The clip below illustrates the Coyotes' pounce mentality pretty well:
Richardson (No. 15 in red) steals the puck and quickly turns a broken possession by Vancouver's power play into an odd-man rush. Connauton (No. 44) and Grabner (No. 40) are with him, and the group scores off a rebound after a lackluster effort from the backchecking Canucks.
You'll notice that Grabner doesn't think twice about bolting north. The flying Austrian's lightning-fast anticipation makes him a constant breakaway threat, and he's made a career out of fast-break offense.
On the PK specifically, Tocchet's told Grabner to simply trust those instincts.
"I'm not going to put the shackles on him. I'd be crazy to make him robotic," Tocchet said. "I think he's a feel type of guy - knowing where the puck is, who has the puck, where the puck is going to go. I think that's a hockey IQ thing, and you have to let him do what he does.”
So, when a defenseman makes a good read on the penalty kill, Grabner's the logical first option for a breakout target. This is evident often, including in the sequence below, which involves some quick thinking from Connauton:
After picking off a pass below his own goal line, Connauton notices Philadelphia's Jordan Weal (No. 40 in orange) deep near the faceoff circle and Grabner gunning for the neutral zone. Hitting a teammate is the ideal choice here, but few possess Grabner's skating ability, so the 50-50 puck pursuit - which he wins before scoring - becomes more advantageous.
Overall, the Coyotes have shown flashes in the early going and the positivity is starting to snowball. For one, the Grabner signing (three years, $3.35 million per season) appears to be a nice piece of work by general manager John Chayka. Top center Alex Galchenyuk, injured to start the campaign, is coming along offensively. All-situations defender Jakob Chychrun is working his way back into the rotation after a long battle with his own injury. Raanta, also hurt, is close to returning ... the list is long.
But for a franchise that's starved for playoff hockey after missing out for six straight years, much more than a tremendous (potentially historic) penalty kill will be required on a game-to-game basis. And those other areas - at five-on-five and with the man advantage - must improve sooner rather than later.
"That’s been our Holy Grail," Tocchet said, pausing before finishing his thought.
"Trying to find that consistency."
John Matisz is theScore's National Hockey Writer. You can find him on Twitter @matiszjohn.
