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2019-20 Miscellaneous NHL/Hockey News Thread

cmaleski2 said:
Caps - Samsonov
Pens - Jarry
Flyers - Hart
Rangers - Shesterkin
Jackets - Merzlikins
Isles - Sorokin
Devils - Blackwood
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I mean, you're discounting the fact that several of those guys haven't proven that they're anything other than basic, garden variety, predictably erratic NHL goaltenders. I'm not getting all jealous of any list that includes the likes of MacKenzie Blackwood, Tristan Jarry and Elvis Merzlikins until any of them post two decent seasons back to back. Full seasons, mind you. Not 20-30 game stretches. And heck, Samsonov and Sorokin have never even been full time starters in the league. And the NHL is the ultimate "show me" league when it comes to goaltending.

That's the thing with the current state of NHL goaltending ... basically every team is starved for consistently good goal keeping from one year to the next. And almost nobody gets it.
 
cmaleski2 said:
Yesterday the Islanders were able to sign super goalie prospect Ilya Sorokin to an entry level contract using the bargained rules in place for the restart. His one year entry level deal will basically pay Sorokin nothing as its not allowed to include a signing bonus and he is not allowed to play for the Islanders this season (he can work out with the team).

As Sorokin's entry level signing age is '25' (he turns 25 in 3 weeks), his entry level deal is only for 1 season, the 19-20 season. That means he is will have completed his entry level requirements without having been paid a dime and without having played a game.

As a follow up to the entry level deal that is simply a paper transaction, the Islanders signed Sorokin today to a 1 year extension for the 20-21 season. He will get a $1 million signing bonus and a $1 million salary. These rules effectively have allowed Sorokin to skip entry level requirements and limits.

Goaltending will continue to be one area that the Canes are behind in when compared to most of the rest of the Metro. Most of the Metro teams are going to be sporting some solid young goalies

Caps - Samsonov
Pens - Jarry
Flyers - Hart
Rangers - Shesterkin
Jackets - Merzlikins
Isles - Sorokin
Devils - Blackwood

Maybe someday for the Canes?
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That's a pretty decent list of young goalies in the Metro for years to come if most of them pan out. I still think the Canes need to make a move for a better option in goal at some point soon...like after the conclusion of this season soon. It may have to be an established guy and there will be a few out there...Matt Murray, Braden Holtby, Robin Lehner...but they have to find a trade or a UFA option that shores up the net. Maybe someday the Russian kid Kochetkov will be ready, but that's not anytime soon and from what I have seen from Ned and his style is that he perhaps is a future backup at best in the NHL.
 
To wrap up my conclusions from above ... for Carolina going forward, I actually like the 1A/1B thing until such time as you can either obtain or develop a legit No 1. And by "legit No 1" I mean a guy you can count on to actually be good over 60 starts for 4-5 years. Until then, get two cheap-ish guys and figure it out.
 
BTW ... following up on tracking the MLS bubble in Orlando with regards to Covid testing, they released their latest round of test results last night. Only one positive player test and it was from the Nashville team that are disqualified from play but currently stuck isolating in the bubble. That's exceptionally good news.

Also encouraging is that NWSL managed to get all the way through their round robin in Utah without any additional positive tests from players or staff. Now, as one of the players pointed out the other day, we're talking about women athletes here and they tend to be a bit more disciplined in their rule-following than the bros ... but still. I'll take as proof of concept with regards to effectively maintaining a multi-team bubble.
 
Jack Adams finalists: Bruce Cassidy, Alain Vigneault, John Tortorella

Calder finalists: Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar, Dominik Kubalik

Jackets had a lower winning % than the Canes but lost a bunch of players in the offseason...Panarin, Bob, Dzingel. And then they lost Korpisalo for all of January and most of February, only getting 37 games from him.
 
My main concern about the goalies is that the Canes don't have any young goalie that has shown himself really capable at the NHL level since Cam Ward. All of the other Metro teams have young guys on their roster who have shown they can stop the puck at the NHL level or in the case of the Islanders, is a high end professional prospect. The Canes have Ned who they clearly don;'t trust and a bunch of prospects that have no NHL experience and barely any pro experience in any sort of major league.

The other Metro teams are ahead of the Canes on the 'goalie prospect' curve, by a lot at the moment. They have young guys already taking over starting jobs or playing 25-30 games as a very capable backup. It wouldn't matter so much if the Canes had a legit solid #1 already, but we don't.
 
I mean, it's cheaper by far to grow your own goalies but that's not the only way to get the job done. The key is not to fall in love with the wrong guy (Cam Ward) and to not get yourself in a position of desperation where you might have limited options (Darling, and to some extent Mrazek although that worked out OK). If you're thoughtful about it, the process doesn't have to be haphazard.
 
Masterton finalists:

Stephen Johns - Dallas. He missed 22 months with post concussion syndrome, retuning in January 2020

Oskar Lindblom - Flyers. He just completed chemo for a rare form of bone cancer.

Bobby Ryan - Sens. Came through the player assistamce program, missed 3 months
 
Lady Byng finalists:

Nathan MacKinnon - Avs. A Ted Lindsay finalist, he had 35 goals, 93 points and 12 PIM in 69 games

Ryan O’Reilly - Blues. 10 PIM in 71 games

Auston Matthews - Leafs. He had 47 goals, 80 points and 8 PIM in 70 games

Jaccob Slavin’s omission is a crime. As Greg Wyshynski tweeted, he played almost 1,600 minutes and had 10 PIM. Wyshynski has both Slavin and Teravainen on his ballot.
 
Wyshynski is correct to call out Slavin's omission. Unfortunately the Lady Byng has become too much about giving a trophy to forwards with high point totals and low penalty minutes just to get them a trophy.

Seeing that in the last 65 years, only 1 Dman has been awarded the Lady Byng (Brian Campbell in 2011-12) I don't like Slavin's chances. If he wasn't even a finalist this season when he certainly was worthy of consideration, its hard to see him ever winning.

It really is incredible that Slavin can be that effective as a DMan and have so few penalties. That's not that at all easy to do. He fits the 'gentlemanly play' description for sure, although I will admit every once in a while I would like him to be a little less nice out there.
 
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I mean ... the Lady Byng has never had any real criteria. So ... yeah. It'd be nice to see Slavin win it, and he's as much of an actual gentleman out there as you could ask for. But I ain't holding my breath.
 
Dom Luspellcheck and James Martel from The Athletic think Slavin was robbed too. They both had Slavin at the top, as did Charlie O’Connor who covers the Flyers for The Athletic.

 
cmaleski2 said:
Wyshynski is correct to call out Slavin's omission. Unfortunately the Lady Byng has become too much about giving a trophy to forwards with high point totals and low penalty minutes just to get them a trophy.

Seeing that in the last 65 years, only 1 Dman has been awarded the Lady Byng (Brian Campbell in 2011-12) I don't like Slavin's chances. If he wasn't even a finalist this season when he certainly was worthy of consideration, its hard to see him ever winning.

It really is incredible that Slavin can be that effective as a DMan and have so few penalties. That's not that at all easy to do. He fits the 'gentlemanly play' description for sure, although I will admit every once in a while I would like him to be a little less nice out there.
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Great post on everything you touched on. Slavin might be the kindest, most decent defenseman that you will ever find in terms of playing the game and the position the right way yet still totally shutting down just about everything in his own end and in front of the net. No dirty stick work, hardly ever will give a guy a face wash or a shot from behind...he's almost too damn nice out there yet he still plays like a top shutdown D, that is incredibly hard to do game in and game out season after season in this league.
 
CanadaCanes said:
Great post on everything you touched on. Slavin might be the kindest, most decent defenseman that you will ever find in terms of playing the game and the position the right way yet still totally shutting down just about everything in his own end and in front of the net. No dirty stick work, hardly ever will give a guy a face wash or a shot from behind...he's almost too damn nice out there yet he still plays like a top shutdown D, that is incredibly hard to do game in and game out season after season in this league.
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We've seen our fair share of gentlemanly players in the Canes tenure in NC, but even guys like Ron Francis and Glen Wesley would bust out the can opener on a particularly annoying opponent every so often. Slavin? Never. Dude is the most stand-up of guys.
 
jeffbear said:
We've seen our fair share of gentlemanly players in the Canes tenure in NC, but even guys like Ron Francis and Glen Wesley would bust out the can opener on a particularly annoying opponent every so often. Slavin? Never. Dude is the most stand-up of guys.
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And Francis won 3 Lady Byngs, 2 with the Pens in 94-95 (he won the Selke that year too) and 97-98 and 1 with the Canes in 2001-02. He added a King Clancy in 01-02 too, “Awarded to the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian cont ribution to his community.”
 
I mean, sure ... but point being, both of those are 100% reputation-based awards. Which is fine I guess, but the NHL had a ton of those things, all with fairly fuzzy criterium.
 
Selke finalists:

Patrice Bergeron - he’s won 4 times
Sean Couturier - 17-18 finalist
Ryan O’Reilly - last year’s winner
 
Carlson will win the Norris easily. Selke could be Bergeron or O'Reilly, hard to really pick a favorite there.

Multiple writers have discussed Slavin in regards to the Lady Byng and said he was in their top 3. Eventually they release the full voting tallies, so we will see where Slavin actually ended up, but based on what a lot of writers have stated in regards to him being robbed, he must have either finished 4th or 5th in the Lady Byng voting OR a lot writers are completely clueless.
 
cmaleski2 said:
Carlson will win the Norris easily. Selke could be Bergeron or O'Reilly, hard to really pick a favorite there.

Multiple writers have discussed Slavin in regards to the Lady Byng and said he was in their top 3. Eventually they release the full voting tallies, so we will see where Slavin actually ended up, but based on what a lot of writers have stated in regards to him being robbed, he must have either finished 4th or 5th in the Lady Byng voting OR a lot writers are completely clueless.
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Carlson and Josi are first time finalists, Hedman is a finalist for the 4th year in a row. Carlson has been the front runner since about mid-October, I don’t see any way he doesn’t win it.
 
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