Articles in NHL Teams

from Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet,

After experiencing three coaches, two general managers and countless trade rumours during his two seasons of turmoil in the Vancouver Canucks’ maelstrom, Conor Garland is accustomed to hearing things.

The 27-year-old winger from Boston, who embraced the idea of a frantic Canadian market when former general manager Jim Benning acquired him from the Arizona Coyotes two summers ago, has exited social media as a survival instinct.

He noted last season that the start of trade rumours attached to him coincided with the start of the five-year, $24.75-million-US contract he signed right after he was traded.

Garland has heard a lot of things during his two seasons. But when he arrived back in Vancouver earlier this month to join teammates skating ahead of training camp, Garland heard something new. It was strange, foreign, almost eerie. It was. . . quiet.

“Yeah, for sure it feels different,” Garland said Monday in his first interview since returning to the West Coast. “Guys got out here early for a reason; everybody's excited and we're working hard on our skates. It just has a different feel.

“Last year was a little bit of a distracted feeling. There was a lot going on. Our captain situation, the coaching situation, we had a lot going on. So it's nice that it's quiet. And now it's up to us.”

There’s nothing going on now except preparation.

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ESPN's Kristen Shilton and Greg Wyshynski caught up with dozens of star players at the NHL Player Media Tour near Las Vegas last week, and asked all the pertinent questions: What team or player are they most excited to watch? Which current or former teammate will one day make a great coach or GM? What's their go-to restaurant on the road? And what rule change would they enact if they could pick only one?

What team or player are you most excited to watch this season?

Matthew Tkachuk, Florida Panthers: I'm excited to see what Boston does after their season last year, how they follow that one up.

Mario Ferraro, San Jose Sharks: I have to go with Toronto Maple Leafs. Noah Gregor, who's my good buddy, just signed a PTO there but I'm confident that he's going to sign [a contract] there. And Dylan Gambrell, who I used to play with, is on that team too. I grew up in Toronto so I'm always kind of keeping in the loop with what Toronto's doing. I'm kind of surrounded by it. I talked to my cousins today, and they won't stop talking about Toronto. I'm like, I'm right here. I play for the Sharks. I don't give an eff' about Toronto, whatever. But I'm kind of sucked into it. I grew up a Leaf fan, but it was easy moving on. I was just so happy to be in the NHL and so honored to be with the Sharks. As soon as I got drafted, I just forgot about the blue and white. It's all about the teal.

Josh Morrissey, Winnipeg Jets: I would say probably Chicago, just with Bedard coming in and so much hype around his game. I have not seen his shot live.

much more

from the NHL website,

Unsigned veteran players can earn a contract with an NHL team by impressing enough in training camp on a professional tryout contract (PTO). Training camps open Wednesday and the regular season begins Oct. 10.

The following notable players (listed alphabetically) will be in an NHL camp on a PTO:

Zach Aston-Reese, Carolina Hurricanes

The 29-year-old forward had 14 points (10 goals, four assists) in 77 regular-season games with the Toronto Maple Leafs last season, and one goal in six Stanley Cup Playoff games. Aston-Reese has 80 points (42 goals, 38 assists) in 307 regular-season games with the Maple Leafs, Anaheim Ducks and Pittsburgh Penguins and five points (two goals, three assists) in 29 playoff games.

Josh Bailey, Ottawa Senators

The 33-year-old forward had 25 points (eight goals, 17 assists) in 64 games with the New York Islanders last season. Bailey has 580 points (184 goals, 396 assists) in 1,057 regular-season games during 15 seasons, all with the Islanders, and 50 points (16 goals, 34 assists) in 71 playoff games.

continue for many more names..

via the YouTube page of TSN,

After much controversy surrounded new head coach Mike Babcock’s style and some Blue Jacket players last week, the team decided to part ways with the veteran bench boss. Columbus management spoke to the media Monday, and explained what led to the decision, and apologized for making a mistake with the hire.

I’ve been very fortunate during my time in Detroit and now in Edmonton, although my last three years in Detroit were beginning to chart a rebuild, but the teams have been good.

That’s kept my focus on winning. It’s fun coming to the rink, trying to win, trying to be a playoff team and trying to go on a playoff run. Trying to be the last team standing.

The last time I was in the Final as a manager was in 2009. The last time I won was in 2008. It feels like a lifetime ago.

So all I’m focused on right now is trying to manage this team and build this team, put together this team the best we can. Then I’ll worry about the future at the appropriate time.

-Ken Holland, GM of the Edmonton Oilers. Thomas Drance of The Athletic has more ($) from a Q & with Holland.

from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

The end for Mike Babcock as an NHL coach was neither sad nor sentimental — just more bull-headed narcissism for a man who no longer seems capable of getting out of his own way.

He tripped over his words, his actions, his intentions and his thoughts before he coached so much as a game or a practice for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

You can say this much about Babcock now, the one-time star coach of the Detroit Red Wings, Team Canada and the Toronto Maple Leafs: His NHL career is ostensibly over.

Coaching Columbus was his shot at redemption and it fizzled out before a shot was even fired. Instead, his own version of Goodbye, Columbus was not a Philip Roth novel, but an epitaph for a once-terrific career.

The end for Babcock in Columbus began with a player-leaked story to a podcast — one of his players, clearly, and never identified. The story exploded within days of the original report by former NHL player Paul Bissonnette on Spittin’ Chiclets — and from there it just got worse. The NHL got involved. The players’ association, clearly on direction from some of its members in Columbus, got involved. The very experienced and wise Blue Jackets front office, led by John Davidson and Jarmo Kekalainen, got involved.

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added3:53pm,

from Helene Elliott of the LA Times,

The NHL apparently will go to any lengths to promote the sport — except to put a franchise back in Quebec City. In this case, the league is sending the Kings about 8,000 miles to expose Australian hockey fans — and there are enough to sustain a 10-team semipro league — to the NHL product in two preseason games against the Arizona Coyotes.

Since Melbourne is 17 hours ahead of Los Angeles, the teams will face off Friday and Saturday at 9 p.m. Pacific time. The games will be simulcast by familiar Kings announcers Nick Nickson, Jim Fox and Daryl Evans on NHL Network and iHeartRadio, a rehearsal for their simulcasts on Bally Sports West in the first year of a new three-year agreement with Diamond Sports Group. The games will take place at Rod Laver Arena, home of the Australian Open.

The Kings’ traveling party will include defenseman Jordan Spence, who was born in the Sydney suburb of Manly. Nathan Walker grew up in Australia and represented the country in international play but was born in Wales. Spence can’t double as a tour guide: his family left Australia for Canada when he was 1½, too young for him to remember his native land. This is his second trip back; his parents, Kyoko and Adam, will be among the fans in Melbourne.

“I think they’re more excited just because they lived there longer,” said Spence, who has Japanese and Canadian citizenship through his parents. “They have some friends they’re going to reconnect with and they’re going to come to the game and stuff. Yeah, it will be pretty cool.”

It’s a long way to go for two games that won’t count in the standings. Deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the NHL had wanted to send teams to Australia for a while but the logistics didn’t work until now. It probably won’t be an annual destination because of the distance, and the NHL isn’t likely to threaten the popularity of Australian Rules Football or rugby, but it’s a toehold for a league seeking a bigger international footprint.

more

from Ken Campbell of The Hockey News,

As the Florida Panthers were burning their way through the playoffs last spring, Spencer Knight would say the same thing to anyone who inquired about the reason for their unlikely trip to the Stanley Cup final.

“I told people it was because they got rid of a lot of the dead weight,” Knight joked.

As the Florida Panthers approach Day 1 of training camp on Thursday, their backup goalie will be back with them for the first time since he left the team to enroll in the NHL/NHL Players’ Association player assistance program in late February. While the Panthers were rallying to make the playoffs and shocking the hockey world with their inspiring run, Knight was at his parents’ home in Darien, Conn., dealing with an ongoing case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) that made it impossible to continue playing in the NHL.

In a one-hour interview with The Hockey News for an in-depth story for the upcoming Goalie Issue, Knight talked about what led him to seek the help of the players’ assistance program and how he has come out the other side with a renewed perspective on both his life and his career.

“I was spiralling in a direction I didn’t want to be going,” Knight said.

Knight said all of it started in 2019 when he was a freshman at Boston College. For reasons he can’t explain, he started excessively washing his hands. The trips to the washroom to run his hands under the tap increased to the point where he talked to his parents about it after that season and thought he might need some help. But it never really hampered his ability to function.

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via the YouTube page of the NHL,

Sit back and watch some of the best shots from the 2022-2023 NHL season, featuring top-shelf blasts, bombs from the point and precision snipes from top players like Alex Ovechkin, Steven Stamkos, Tage Thompson and more.

26 minutes long, watch below...

from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,

- Buffalo Sabres GM Kevyn Adams knocked the Tage Thompson extension out of the park, and now he's trying to lock in Rasmus Dahlin (RFA 2024) for all his prime years, too. Pierre Dorion style.

According to Andrew Peters, Dahlin is poised to crack the $10 million mark on his next AAV, but the sides are in a tug-o-war over term. Dahlin is said to want five years; the Sabres want eight, the max.

If you believe in the player, get him signed for as long as possible.

Interesting that Dahlin is taking a page out of the Matthews/Matthew Tkachuk playbook here, trying to steer himself to unrestricted free agency quicker. Dahlin isn't happy his extension remains unsettled with camp opening in a few days, according to Peters.

Let's see who blinks.

- For the price tag (one year at $1.5 million), Tomas Tatar is a heckuva September pickup for the Colorado Avalanche.

While the '22 champs can't replace injured captain Gabriel Landeskog and will miss centre JT Compher, their forward corps have undergone a fascinating overhaul now that Jonathan Drouin, Ryan Johansen, Miles Wood, Ross Colton, and Tatar have all been added to the top nine.

Tatar should arrive motivated off his sixth 20-goal campaign, and he seldom misses time due to injury.

The concern here is that the winger's production routinely dries up come playoffs. Tatar has just seven goals and 13 points in 52 postseason outings.

Still, the 30-year-old should give the Avs some cheap secondary scoring this winter.

Nicely done.

more topics...

from Amalie Benjamin of the NHL's website,

When the Arizona Coyotes step onto the Qantas 787-9 Dreamliner that will take them from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Australia, on Saturday night, their movements -- their sleep, their meals, their supplements -- will be part of a carefully crafted dance designed for optimum performance and recovery, a plan created to tamp down on the tolls a transpacific flight might take.

The lights will dim at an optimal time. The meals will be served on Australian Eastern Time.

The hope is that it will help.

There are no guarantees, of course. But faced with the prospect of a 15-plus hour flight and a 17-hour time difference, the Coyotes -- along with their counterparts, the Los Angeles Kings -- are working their hardest to make a trip to Australia not much harder than one to New York.

"Anything that we can help them to find a one percent improvement, I think our guys are really open to," Coyotes high performance director Devan McConnell said.

Because although there is plenty of excitement for the Coyotes and Kings about going to Australia for the 2023 NHL Global Series, where the teams will play two exhibition games at Rod Laver Arena on Sept. 23 and 24, the trip is not without its pitfalls.

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from Matt Larkin of The Daily Faceoff,

The NHL and NHL Players’ Association are set to meet Friday in New York. While the meeting had been previously scheduled for a standard discussion covering multiple agenda items, as reported by TSN’S Darren Dreger, the two sides will focus primarily on the investigation into the conduct of Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Mike Babcock.

The meeting will take place one day after NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh and assistant executive director Ron Hainsey visited Columbus to meet with the Blue Jackets are part of an ongoing investigation into allegations that Babcock had invaded his players’ privacy by asking to see personal information on their phones.

The allegations surfaced earlier this week when former NHLer Paul Bissonnette told a story on his hit podcast Spittin’ Chiclets, claiming a Blue Jackets player told him Babcock had asked to see players’ phones and then AirDropped them on his office television screen....

As reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman Thursday night, the NHL and NHLPA were at first satisfied with explanations from Jenner and Johnny Gaudreau. “However, it appears things changed for both later that night when information was received that some of the younger Blue Jackets were uncomfortable with what had occurred,” Friedman reported.

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from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

There is no doubt that Peter Laviolette will be a hands-on head coach. That has been one of Laviolette’s hallmarks throughout his 22 years behind an NHL bench. That is one of the qualities that differentiates him from Gerard Gallant, his immediate predecessor as Rangers head coach, who took more of a laissez-faire approach to the job.

The Rangers will notice that from the jump when main training camp opens on Sept. 21. Or maybe individual players already have detected that, if they’ve crossed paths with Laviolette in the corridors of the practice rink during the last week or so while getting onto the ice for informal prep sessions.

Laviolette brings a distinct style to the mix. Incoming assistant coaches Phil Housley, Michael Peca and Dan Muse bring fresh eyes to the equation. Entrenched norms — some of which had their origins under Gallant’s immediate predecessor, David Quinn — may be challenged, if not upended even after this two-year stretch in which the Blueshirts compiled the fifth-best record in the league with 110-point and 107-point seasons, respectively.

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from Eric Francis of Sportsnet,

Elias Lindholm didn't seem overly interested in trying to convince anyone he might re-sign with the Calgary Flames.

Noah Hanifin was equally as non-committal as Mikael Backlund was a day earlier.

All three arrived at the team’s annual golf tourney on Wednesday, praised the city, the organization and their teammates, and insisted they were excited to start the season.

Their collective message when asked if they'd prolong their stay in Calgary past this season: "We’ll see what happens.”

If it sounded an awful lot like the same script Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk read months before they bolted. And it's because with such a delicate subject, there’s really only one way to answer the media’s leading questions.

By playing along.

Everyone wants to know if there’s still a chance they’ll commit long-term or if GM Craig Conroy will ultimately have to deal them by the deadline.

Optimists will suggest they left that door open.

Pessimists remind everyone how sour Lindholm and Backlund were on returning as they excited Cowtown last spring, and of the summertime reports Hanifin had decided he wouldn’t re-sign.

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from Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now,

Ward also wonders whether the Blue Jackets truly vetted this situation. Did they consider all of the fallout that could be coming their way prior to hiring Babcock? Revelations of how the longtime coach was bullying players were leading to his ouster from the NHL.

“From an organizational standpoint, I have no idea if this is anything they’ve could have projected, or thought about possibly being something that could happen to them in bringing Babock in,” Ward said. “But if they didn’t, they didn’t really do their research. The idea that maybe as an organization they didn’t do their full homework and search what potentially could be brought to their doorstep.”

Ward said that he’s also been hearing from someone within the Columbus organization. What he’s being told is how uncomfortable the situation is currently within the team.

“They’re right now on pins and needles trying to figure out what he’s all about,” Ward said. “There’s a little bit of an uncomfortable feel of how to absorb him.”

Ward also believes that from Babcock’s standpoint, he has to recognize that his every move will be under intense scrutiny.

more

from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,

The Tampa Bay Lightning didn't want to be that team.

That team — the first one in 19 years — to lose a playoff series to the Toronto Maple Leafs, to watch the visitors celebrate on your home ice, to have a three-year streak of trips to the Stanley Cup Final blow up in six wild games.

"In my head, we should've won the Cup. Every year we should win the Cup, in my head. Yeah, obviously we're pissed off. We don't want to lose," Lightning stud defenceman Mikhail Sergachev told 32 Thoughts: The Podcast Wednesday at the Player Media Tour.

"We don't want to be the team that Toronto finally got to the second round, and they beat the Tampa Bay Lightning. They didn't go through the second round. But we didn't want to be that and lose to them."...

"We'll see when camp starts how pissed off we are. The guys are very competitive even now. Usually before camp we skate [together]," Sergachev said.

"We'll do five drills and play a game. Usually it's like beer-league hockey. Now, it's intense. Some hitting, too. It's great. Competitive. No one is going to let me walk them on the blue line. It's not acceptable anymore."

read on

from Michael Russo and Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic,

What’s the latest on unsigned Ducks restricted free agent Trevor Zegras? And Canucks star Elias Pettersson?

Agent Pat Brisson, who represents some of the NHL’s biggest stars, joined Pierre LeBrun and Michael Russo on Wednesday’s The Athletic Hockey Show, providing updates on both as well as an array of other clients, from why Jake Sanderson went long-term with the Senators to how that deal impacts Owen Power’s future with the Sabres to the timelines for unsigned Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews....

On the future of Kane, who underwent hip resurfacing surgery in June and was expected to miss four to six months

Well, I’m so proud of him. First of all, his rehab has been unbelievable. He’s been so dedicated … because rehab is as important if not more than the surgery itself. We’ve had many conversations here and there. There’s a lot of interest with Patrick Kane. But our goal here is to see if and when he clears — and again, I’m not going to put dates, whether it’s November or December, I don’t know. At that point, we’ll look at the landscape, we’ll look at what the needs are going to be for certain teams, the cap space. There’s gonna be so many other factors that we don’t know yet in three months or four months or two and a half. And I think we’re going to be in a really good seat at that point to make the right decision with Pat.

On the future of Toews

With Johnny, he’s doing well. He’s feeling well. He released a statement a few weeks ago that he wants to take some extra time. He knows his body, knows what he wants. Would I be surprised if he calls me in November or December and wants to play again? Maybe. I don’t know. But the one thing I know is he’s in a good place right now.

read on ($)

via the NHL PR department,

The 2023-24 NHL season opens with a tripleheader Oct. 10, 2023, when the Predators visit the Lightning, followed by Sidney Crosby and Penguins host the Blackhawks after the latter selected Connor Bedard with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft. The Golden Knights will close out the night when they raise their first Stanley Cup championship banner to the rafters of T-Mobile Arena prior to their game against the Kraken – the only time the clubs will meet before a showdown in the 2024 Discover NHL Winter Classic.

from Josh Bailey at The Players' Tribune,

Over the past couple of months, there have been quite a few moments that have brought me to a pause. I think what has hit the hardest is realizing that this chapter has come to an end. All of the things that I love about putting on the Blue and Orange are now just a memory. Although it has made me emotional at times, I will always cherish those memories.

I want to thank not just this great fan base, but the people of Long Island as a whole.

This place is special. From the outside, I think a lot of people would agree. What’s not to love? But what really makes this place unique is the people. All of you. That’s why Long Island will always be home for me and my family.

From playing my first game in the Isles sweater at 19 to my last at 33, it has been quite a ride. Not always the smoothest of rides, but I wouldn’t change a thing. The tough times make you stronger and allow you to enjoy the good ones that much more, and we had plenty of good ones. I do recall some rather funny moments at the Coliseum. Some nights, if I was starting, the national anthem could be a vulnerable 90 seconds standing there at the blueline. (I heard it all — the encouragement and the “encouragement.”)

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from Jamie Thomas of WinnipegJets.com,

There are not many honours in team sports bigger than being named captain.

That honour was given to Winnipeg Jet forward Adam Lowry officially Tuesday morning as he becomes the third captain in franchise history since the team moved here from Atlanta. He follows Andrew Ladd and Blake Wheeler who served as captain for five and six years respectively.

“When I found out, I was pretty excited, almost a little speechless. It’s something growing up you kind of can dream about and something that seems almost unattainable,” said Lowry.

“Getting to be a captain of a Canadian NHL team is pretty special and something I’m really looking forward too.”

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ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Blues President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Doug Armstrong announced today that defenseman Torey Krug suffered a right-foot injury while training for the upcoming 2023-24 season.

Krug is scheduled to be re-evaluated on Oct. 1.

Krug, 32, is entering his fourth season as a Blue. Overall, the Livonia, Michigan, native has posted 444 points (85 goals, 359 assists) and a plus-31 rating in 701 career NHL regular-season games, including 107 points (18 goals, 89 assists) and a plus-8 rating in 178 regular-season games with the Blues.