This is a feature that will run about every two weeks with improbable stats and situations in the National Hockey League.
Teams:
on April 17th the New York Islanders and Columbus Blue Jackets would have a better chance of making the playoffs than last years eastern conference champions the New Jersey Devils.
the Los Angeles Kings would have a better offense than the Boston Bruins, Vancouver Canucks, or Philadelphia Flyers.
only three of the top five powerplays would belong to playoff teams while five of five penalty kills would belong to playoff teams.
the Montreal Canadiens, and the Ottawa Senators would have more penalties per game than the Anaheim Ducks.
only two of the bottom five faceoff teams would be in playoff position, while all of the top five faceoff teams would be in.
zero of last years eastern conference division winners, The Panthers, The Rangers, and the Bruins would be in that position today.
zero of last years bottom five years teams would be there right now.
Players:
despite missing games with a concussion, Brad Marchand would still be tied for a top 20 position in goal scoring.
Alex Ovechkin would not only be the only player in double digits in powerplay goals, but also have a six goal cushion on those tied for second.
half of Adam Henrique’s ten goals would come on special teams, two short handed, and three on the powerplay.
the league leader in short handed assists would have three, and be Lee Stempniak.
the only defenseman in the NHL with more than one short handed assist would be, Jay Bouwmeester.
heading into the last handful of games of the season, Daniel Alfredsson would have almost twice the PIMS of Raffi Torres.
seven of the top ten defensemen in assists would be left handed shots, Mark Streit, Duncan Keith, Niklas Kronwall, Alex Goligoski, Sergei Gonchar, Kimmo Timonen, Ryan Suter, but two of the top three would be right handed, Kris Letang and P.K. Subban.
Sergei Bobrovsky would be the only goaltender in the top five for sv% and the top five for shootout wins.
the top ten goalies by save percentage would combine for a cap hit o $23,875,000 with over a quarter of it belonging to Henrik Lundqvist, who’s team has the lowest point total.
With the deadline looming, and about a bakers dozen games left for many team, it is time to take a look at what we know about all the teams in the NHL.
Pittsburgh: We know Ray Shero likes to make deadline trades, we know health is sorta returning for this team. We also know that with a current cumulative cap hit higher than next years cap, and Morrow’s decline and questionable health that this is likely a one shot deal for the guys currently in uniform.
Montreal: It’s kinda hard to figure out why more people aren’t excited about his team. They are fifth in goals for, ninth in goals against, there only real bad component is their penalty kill. While we’re at it, Tomas Plekanec deserves way more attention than he gets, if he could drag the penalty kill into respectability, or even just score a shorthanded goal or two he’d be on my Selke shortlist.
Winnipeg; We know this team needs desperately to buy quality defense at the deadline. Adding offense wouldn’t hurt at all, but the backend needs to come first they are one of just two top eight teams in the east to allow triple digit goals already.
Boston: This team needs an attitude adjustment. They do not have the raw focus or hunger they did in their Cup winning year, what body they add isn’t the solution, the size of the fight in that dog is.
Ottawa; Clearly this is a team made up of undercover superheros, or at least the guys left on the ice. They might not go to far this year, but oh man this team has some good young talent and might even lead the conference if they were healthy. A cheap rental forward who can add to the scoring would be nice, but this team could easily produce an upset or two.
Toronto: The fact that no real changes have been made to this team since Brian Burke was fired, and it has just about locked up a playoff spot means he shouldn’t have too much trouble landing his next GM job, and probably trading for Kadri, Gardiner, and Grabovski or pennies on the dollar.
New Jersey: The Devils have spent all season proving last season wasn’t a fluke. How they’ve done this is anyones guess. They are winning right now even without Kovalchuk, It would not surprise me if they became sellers at the deadline, but in a very limited sense.
New York Rangers: We know this is either the Eastern Conference’s best bad team or worst good team. We know time is running out on the current off ice leadership for this team. We know in order to get this level of under-performance elsewhere in sports you’d have to threaten professional cycling with accurate testing and jail time for violators. We know that if the Islanders and Devils make the playoffs and the Rangers don’t the angst in Blue Shirt nation will be legendary
New York Islanders: We know John Tavares should be getting way more attention than he does, he is after all over a point per game, second in goals, and seventh in points. If the Islanders make the playoffs, he has to be on the Hart shortlist. We know that Brad Boyes would be a frickin’ idiot to sign anywhere else next season given that he has more points in 34 games this season, than in 65 last year.
Carolina: With several games in hand their current 10th place position is deceiving, we know however they need to win those games. We know that Cam Ward isn’t nearly as irreplaceable as the faithful would have you believe. We know that Jeff Skinner (signed to a big endorsement deal by Dewey, Slewfoot and Diver) will probably not like the attention he receives night after night from top defenses.
Washington: We know that Adam Oates deserves a boatload of capital for turning the ship around on the fly without the benefit of a training camp, stable goaltending, or a team with any confidence in itself. He’s also got Ovechkin back to a point per game by using that weird thing called logic and letting him play more minutes. We also know that this team still isn’t built right and that problem still resides at a higher level than Oates.
Tampa Bay: We know that Yzerman is just as good at constructing a defense as he was at fighting.
We know he needs to fix that if he’s going to make it to his fourth year as general manager. He’s clearly good at identifying offensive talent, so swapping some of the current stable to rebuilding or needy teams for a veteran defenseman or two shouldn’t be completely impossible.
Buffalo: We know Terry Pegula can’t be pleased with the state of his hockey team. We know that with next years realignment no one with an ounce of hockey sense would pencil this team into next years standings about sixth place without major changes. We know if they blow up the team right they could have a pretty good chance at drafty both Seth Jones and Connor Mcdavid.
Philadelphia: We know the keep defenseman healthy the same way The Real World finds the mentally unbalanced to film every season. We know that no to long ago the Flyers went to the Stanley Cup finals, and have regressed further and further every year. WE know this is another team that’s due for some administrative housekeeping even if the health problems make things look worse than they are.
Florida: We know that last year despite an absurd amount of injuries the team went toe to toe with the eventual Eastern Conference champions. We know that this year, another absurd amount of injuries and dramatically poorer goaltending from the guys not named Markstrom have lead not to the Southeast division title but once again to the eastern conference basement. We know they have a couple more solid prospects in the pipeline. We know there is tons and tons for Dale Tallon and company to do.
This is a feature that will run about every two weeks with improbable stats and situations in the National Hockey League.
Teams:
that the Anahiem Ducks, the Montreal Canadiens and Carolina Hurricanes would all lead their divisions as we crept up on the halfway mark.
that the Vancouver Canucks would lead the Northwest division and the Washington Capitals would be in the basement of the east with identical goals for per game at 2.74.
the defensive minded Phoenix Coyotes would have have a goals per game advantage on the star studded San Jose Sharks of .59 goals per game.
the Tampa Bay Lightning would lead the league in goals per game and be in 11th place in the east.
of the top five powerplays by percentage, only two would belong to division leaders; Pittsburgh and Anahiem, while two more belong to teams outside the playoffs; Washington and the New York Islanders with the Saint Louis Blues leading the race for second in in the central division.
the New Jersey Devils who finished last season wit the best penalty kill at 89.6% would be 25th on March 2nd with a 77.4% kill more than 2% lower than even the Columbus Blue Jackets of last season.
on March 2nd three teams would be .500 or better when trailing after 2 periods; Chicago, Anahiem, Boston.
Players:
four players would have drawn at least three penalties per 60 minutes played; Patrick Kaleta of the Sabres, Dustin Brown of the Los Angeles Kings, Mark Fistric of the Edmonton Oilers and Torrey Mitchell of the Minnesota Wild. (minimum of 10 games played)
Jay Bouwmeester would finish 10.1% more shifts in the offensive zone than he started there while Shea Weber would finish 2.4% less shifts in the offensive zone than he started.
Kevin Klien of the Nashville Predators would have played the most games without getting a single penalty at 21 while playing more than 20 minutes a night.
of all players with at least 200 faceoffs, Paul Gaustad would lead the NHL in winning percentage at 63.8%.
of the top ten points producers, only six would be on teams currently out of the playoffs: #1 Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning #3 Thomas Vanek of the Buffalo Sabres, #4 John Tavares of the New York Islanders #7 Martin St Louis of the Tampa Bay Lightning #9 Jakub Voracek of the Philadelphia Flyers #10 Matt Moulson of the New York Islanders
Sam Gagner of the Edmonton Oilers would have more powerplay points than; Nicklas Backstrom of the Capitals, Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings, Daniel Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks and Teemu Selanne of the Anahiem Ducks.
two time Stanley Cup champion Rob Scuderi of the Los Angeles Kings would lead the league in shorthanded time on ice per game at 4:24, an 11 second per game heavier load than last season leader Francois Beauchemin
The perennial powers in the Eastern Conference are mostly living up to their potential. It is the bubble teams, and the wild cards that are making life so interesting. I doubt anyone outside the Francosphere predicted the Canadiens would lead the Eastern Conference at any time, and yet they do. Predicting the Capitals as a basement dweller might have been a little easier, but it still counts as a surprise.
Washington Capitals: We know Adam Oates is a first year head coach. We know he didn’t get a real training camp to break everyone in. We know if McPhee fires him the general manager is probably writing his own pink slip at the same time. We know Mike Green still can’t stay healthy to save his life.
Buffalo Sabres: We know that after hundreds of reminders as to how long he’d been in place Lindy Ruff who still has five years left on his contract is no longer the Sabres head coach. We know the team’s identity is still unknown even to the men on the roster. We know they desperately need to improve at faceoffs. We also know we’re not going to see major changes to way the team plays until the general manager departs and someone else brings in the right mix of talent and attitude.
Florida Panthers: We know that part of last years division championship was a perfect storm of divisional woes. We know that no team in the east has scored less. We know that some of their youngsters are starting to come along. We know the teams goaltending woes are a real big part of why they aren’t performing better despite the emergence of Huberdeau.
New York Islanders: We know that John Tavares is really god damned good. We know that Brad Boyes appears to have a pulse again. We know those two and Matt Moulson aren’t enough to save the team from god awful goaltending and substandard defense. We know Vishnovsky is very unlikely to stick around past the end of the season and tutor the teams young defenders.
Winnipeg Jets: We know the Southeast divisions least south or east team is not great offensively, but that their defense is worse. We know the Jets are somehow worse at home than on the road. We know that if only two of your top five goal scorers have a positive +/- 200 foot hockey probably isn’t happening. We know that the last time a goaltending tandem let a team to the Cup without either of them having a save percentage north of .900 was probably before most of the roster were allowed to cross the street by themselves.
Philadelphia Flyers: We know that this team is unbareably burdened by eight no trade and no movement clauses. We know this team has more ability that it is showing. We know the goaltending has again, been reminiscent of the 1980s. We know the tether for the front office and coach have got to be pretty short.
Tampa Bay Lightning: We know if the team could transfer 10% of the talent from their top forwards to their defense they’d be a juggernaut. We know if the team had a third and fourth line who anyone outside the city could name their defense might not matter. We know that Vincent Lecavalier is playing point per game hockey for the first time since George W. Bush was president. We know that Matheiu Garon is one of the best goaltenders in the southeast division this year.
New York Rangers: We know that not many people picked this team as a bubble team. We know that their powerplay can’t be properly described without using what some would call “unprintable words”. We know the offense as a whole can be called mediocre at best. We know Rick Nash somehow managed to play two games over a couple of days before he felt the hit from Milan Lucic that is blamed for his getting taken out of the lineup.
Ottawa Senators: We know this a very resilient team. We know Craig Anderson’s name should be etched onto the Hart and Vezina by early April if he stays anywhere near his current 1.49 gaa and .952 sv%. We know that despite the resilience and the absurd goaltending the team needs to either make a trade or find someone in the system to contribute outside the crease.
Toronto Maple Leafs: We know the Leafs have a coach who can get the individuals on the roster to play like a team. We know James Riemer is still built out of balsa wood and bubble gum. We know Phil Kessel is probably due a goal scoring explosion sometime real soon. We know a 4.4 shooting percentage is not something anyone associates with Kessel, even when he has one. We know that Grabovski is either being unforgivably misused or just having an off year after having been in the top three in scoring for the team the last two years.
Pittsburgh Penguins: We know this team can’t hold onto a shred of discipline when playing their cross state rivals. We know they can score. We know balance isn’t how this team is build. We know they are going to have to do something really creative to get under the cap next year and have a contender.
Boston Bruins: We know Brad Marchand is contributing big time. We know Nathan Horton is a UFA at the end of the season. We know the powerplay is still “a work in progress” despite success in recent games. We know they’ve played the least games so far of any team in the NHL.
Carolina Hurricanes: We know the team has their fair share of offensive talent. We know Justin Faulk is the future of the teams blueline. We know they lead their division by being more evenly mediocre than the other teams in their division.
Montreal Canadiens: We know believers in karma will point to the last two season and say this is just an evening of the scales. We know those folks would be better served to point to the vastly underrated Tomas Plekanec and the rookie Alex Galchenyuk who have pushed the Habs offense from 20th last season to 9th th
Tonight in God’s waiting room the Sunshine State the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning will square off, no word on early bird specials at the concessions:
Seeing Red are Scott Clemmensen, Peter Mueller, George Parros, Drew Shore, and Jack Skille
Flashing across the ice in White and Blue are, Ryan Malone, Nate Thompson, B.J. Crombeen, Adam Hall, Matt Carle, Brian Lee, and Matt Taormina.
Toronto’s home squad are hoping to be inhospitable hosts to their fellow Ontario team as the Karlsson and Speazza deprived Senators roll into town. The twoWant will be looking to leapfrog Montreal and tie Boston in points for a share of the Northeast lead.
Casting a vote is likely team USA goaltender Craig Anderson, backed up by Ben Bishop, Mike Lundin owns a piece of the blueline while Jim O’Brien and Erik Condra make their way as forwards.
Toronto’s Americans are rearguards John-Michael Liles and Mike Komisarek, the forwards are Phil Kessel, James Van Riemsdyk, David Steckel, and Mike Brown.
The Philadelphia Flyers will be bringing a very Canadian squad to Montreal:
The only American on the Flyers roster is Tom Sestito, the pride of Rome New York (we’re not counting the traitor Couturier who plays for Canada internationally.)
The 20% American roster of the Habs includes possible Olympians Alex Galchenyuk and Max “Tweets At The Movies” Pacioretty, team captain Brian Gionta, Eric Cole, and blueliner Francis Bouillon
Wang’s “not really for sale” Islanders host the equally financially stable Devils tonight:
Rick Dipietro is on pace to pass last years total games played, Joe Finley and Brian Strait will skate in front of the crease, Kyle Oksoso leads the American presence with Marty Reasoner as its elder statesman, and Colin McDonald and Keith Aucoin round out the roster.
First round draft pick Stefan Matteau and Stephen Gionta will be joined by Bobby Butler, Mark Fayne, Andy Greene, and Peter Harrold are the Devils Americans.
Anaheim will stop to roost in Nashville for the night.
Bobby Ryan and Nick Bonino will be in the lineup for the Ducks and Patrick Maroon, Kyle Palmieri, will be out there with Nate Guenin and Ben Lovejoy.
Hal Gill stands on the blueline for the Predators, the nearly as tall Paul Gaustad plays pivot, and with them are Colin Wilson, Craig Smith and the teams longest tenured American David Legwand.
The Blue Jackets are looking to look their best for their new General Manager, while the Coyotes hope to slip past the idle Wings.
Jack Johnson leads the blueline with James Wisniewski, John Moore and Tim Erixon, while the forwards are missing the injured Cam Atkinson, RJ Umberger, Brandon Dubinsky, Jared Boll, and Nick Foligno will all look to make their presence felt.
Keith Yandle, a probable Olympian, Chris Summers and David Moss are the American contingent for the desert dogs.
In a battle of bottom feeders the Oilers and Avalanche will square off.
Erik Johnson leads the Avs blueline, assisted by Matt Hunwick while Aaron Palushaj represents the forwards.
Edmonton occasionally lets Ryan Whitney on the ice along with blueliners Core Potter and Jeff Petry and forward Chris Vandevelde.
Tonight the NHL’s oldest American NHL franchise will faceoff against their division rivals the Buffalo Sabres:
The Bruins Brass have purged all the Americans they could from the roster, Chris Bourque is the son of a Canadain, Jay Pandolfo is the 13th forward, so take your pick.
For the Buffalo Sabres, Nathan Gerbe and Ryan Miller lead the way with Marcus Foligno, Drew Stafford, Patrick Kaleta, TJ Brenna, Jordan Leopold,Tyler Myers, and Mike Weber filling out the roster.
The Winnipeg Jets and Pittsburgh Penguins will duel,
Dustin Byfugelien, and Blake Wheeler are part of a large of a very American crew that includes Mark Stuart, injured goalie Al Montoya, Zach Bogosian, Zach Redmond, Ron Hainsey, former Pittsburgh Penguin Eric Tangradi, and Jim Slater.
Facing them will be Brooks Orpik, Matt Niskanen, Joe Vitale, Brandon Sutter for the Penguins.
When the Flyers and Devils square off, they’ll have their own American compliment
First round draft pick Stefan Matteau and Stephen Gionta will be joined by Bobby Butler, Mark Fayne, Andy Greene, and Peter Harrold are the Devils Americans.
In Orange and Black are Tom Sestito, and Sean Couturier.
The Red Wings and Ducks will also play tonight.
Jimmy Howard leads the Red Wings Americans, and travels with Brian Lashoff, Drew Miller, and Justin Abdelkader.
Bobby Ryan and Nick Bonino will be in the lineup for the Ducks and Patrick Maroon, Kyle Palmieri, will be out there with Nate Guenin and Ben Lovejoy.
The Sharks look to get back on track against the Blackhawks.
Patrick Kane highlights the Chicago side, with Nick Leddy and Brandon’s Sadd and Bollig.
Missing from the Shark tank are Justin Braun, Tommy Wingels, Scott Gomez and Adam Burish.
Despite recent news coverage, the Blues have stars other than Taresenko, and the Flames have the odd American of their own.
Lee Stepniak steps up under the red white and blue and brings Chris Butler, and Tim Jackman with him.
David Backes is the Captain of the St Louis squad, TJ Oshie, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Ian Cole are on the ice as well while Jamie Langenbrunner is on the shelf.
The Canucks and Stars will square off on the left coast.
Expected to return real soon now is Ryan Kesler, David Booth is down and out, Jordan Schroeder is however enjoying some ice time with Andrew Alberts, Keith Ballard and Cory Schneider for Vancouver.
The Dallas American element is a three man threat with Alex Goligoski, Richard Bachman, and Eric Nystrom.
Not many people were surprised when the eastern conference representative to the NHL Stanley Cup Finals was from the Atlantic division last year. Many were surprised that it was in fact the Kovalchuk/Broduer led Devils and not the Malkin lead Penguins, the Rangers coached by Mr Personality, or the Flyers with their goaltender and his Humongous Big contract.
Penguins: If Fluery plays at any point like he did in the playoffs last spring, the season could be over right there. Both Vokoun and Zatkoff will be salivating for the #1 spot if he slips up. Worse still, this teams defense is not as good as it was last year. Kunitz, Adams, and Dupuis are all on the shady side of thirty and as we saw last spring, even a healthy Malkin and Crosby can’t carry this team without a lot of help. Brandon Sutter is a very promising young center, how well he fills Jordan Staal’s locker remains to be seen.
Rangers; With the Nash induced overhaul the chemistry of this team will have changed a lot. What won’t have changed is a goaltender who gets too much work for his body, and possibly his mind, who isn’t quite as good in the playoffs as Roberto Luongo. What also hasn’t changed is that a large chunk of the cap space, particularly at forward likes to take nights off, frequently. The good news is that Marc Staal is healthy, Kris Krieder should be good go, and people will continue to ignore the enormous impact of Dan Girardi on this team despite the All Star’s constant excellence.
Islanders: In this short of a season, anything can happen. even Rick Dipietro not being the punchline of injury jokes. Nabokov is more than capable of taking this team of tomorrows stars to the playoffs with just a little help. Brad Boyes may find rejuvenation on Long Island, Thomas Hickey looks like he’ll finally get an NHL shot, and Vishnovsky is after Girardi the next best defensive defenseman in the division. I don’t actually expect to see John Tavares play his first NHL post season game this year, but I don’t expect the Islanders to be in the bottom of the standings.
Flyers: Bryzgalov has to be better and more consistent this season, right? Right? Even if he’s not, this team is a playoff lock without a colossal failure to show up. How well the Schenn’s play will impact the team a lot, Luke is used to playing in front of beer league goaltenders so that won’t be much of an adjustment, but playing with a highly talented offense will be. Where both of their minutes per game are at seasons end might be the most intriguing question about the regular season for this team.
Devils: Kovalchuk who last year led all forwards in ice time, was 5th in scoring, played huge short handed minutes and should have won the MVP will be back, hopefully sans the lower body injury that lamed him for two rounds last spring. Parise is gone, and while MB30 is back in crease, you have to ask how much is left in that tank, and if the lockout helped or hurt him. The two Adams can almost certainly look forward to even better years.
Top Dogs: I’m going to reluctantly pick the Penguins on the strength of having the best backup goaltender.
Exact details are unknown, but Dreger suggest it is a huge deal. At $100million and fourteen years the compensation would only be two first round picks, a second and a third. As the Philadelphia Flyers are unlikely to finish outside the playoffs anytime soon, that means picks no higher than 16 and probably in the mid twenties. If the total compensation passes $7,835,220 a total of $109,693,080 that compensation would go to four first round picks.
That is where the question gets murky. With their own system depth at defense, and their own picks they can turn four first round picks into a number of players. Next years draft is topped by defensive stud Seth Jones, Marsellis Subban cousin of P.K. is also in that draft class, Jordan Subban is another defender due in the next two seasons. Offensively the Oilers probably need to shed one or two top six forwards to make room on the roster and under the cap for players like Eberle, Hall, Nugent-Hopkins, Yakupov and more. This could be a reformation of the team, and for the better. They’ve never been a balanced team. They do need something in the way of top 30% of the league offensive players which they do not have to compliment the teams defense and Rinne in net.
If the offer hits the four first tipping point it might, just possibly be wiser to decline to match.
The other important question to ask is: Will the Flyers deal fit into the current CBA, or will they get whacked like the New Jersey Devils did over the first Ilya Kovalchuk contract? At twenty-six he’s been mostly healthy through his career, but has had a concussion that cost him games, and the eastern conference as a whole, and the Atlantic Division in particular have a lot more larger, more physical forwards to counter than the Central division offered.
—
I’m told by Bob Mand @HockeyMand:
it’ll be 4 1st-round picks regardless. After five seasons, the AAV isn’t the basis of compensation – you divide the total salary by 5 y (so, for a 20 y, $2m deal the comp. would be four 1sts, not a 2nd-round pick). Unless total comp is under $40m, its automatically 4 firsts.
A while back I looked at cities that might be good or bad destinations for Rick Nash. Since it appears Bobby Ryan is also on the trading block, a similar look is in order, along with some of the factors that may (should) lead to his trade.
The Anaheim Ducks as a team don’t lack talent. They have guys who have scored 30 and 50 goals recently, and a goalie capable of leaving opponents frustrated night after night. What they lack is anything like commitment in the first half of the season. They have played at best mediocre hockey until the football season winds down, and then between Christmas and New Years they are suddenly nearly unbeatable. It happens like clockwork.
Bobby Ryan has turned in four straight 30+ goal seasons and played about an average number of minutes a game to do it. In the last two seasons he’s added penalty killing to his pedigree. He was part of the American Olympic team that won silver just a couple seasons ago picking up a goal and assist along the way. While he played for the Ducks in the season after they won the Cup, none of his other stops have been the top tier hockey spots. Owen Sound of the OHL is not exactly the NHL player factory that that teams like the London Knights, Kitchner Rangers or some others.
The New Jersey Devils
This team leaps to the top of the list for several reasons. You can start with their having just lost a high profile left wing. Or you can go with Bobby Ryan being a Cherry Hill, New Jersey native. Either works. They need to replace the scoring they lost, and Ryan is probably the closest points per game producer they can get at .780 ppg to Parise’s .817, an argument can even be made for Ryan being as good or better given the slight playing time advantage to Parise, and more first line minutes.
The New York Rangers
One than that is unlikely to be an issue here is ego. Ryan is well liked, well respected and about third or arguably fourth in prestige on the Ducks, on the Rangers there’s at least as many players ahead of him who would be in line for media blitz and blame after the shiny wore off. The top two goal scorers on the left side last season were Hagelin at 38 points in his rookie season, and Fedetenko (now elsewhere) with 20 points.
Minnesota Wild
Sure they just landed Parise and Suter, but they just means they have less expensive prospects and probably several of them to move. Yes the Miami Heat jokes would get old even before the season started, but Parise, Ryan, Heatley between them aught to be able to fix the offense. A return almost has to include at least one of Granland or Phillips and Coyle. With a smaller contract than some of the other names team moving contracts out for space only leaves the danger of a thin bottom six.
Washington Capitals
With the near certain departure of Alex Semin, another left wing will be needed, why not Ryan? The media will even have to find a real reason to dump on him since he’s not Russian. Hell, the raw physicality on wing with him and Ovechkin on the ice together probably makes them favorites to for deep runs on more than just paper. Skill isn’t really lost either.
Nashville Predators
Strong goaltending, got that. Tough defense, got that too. Go too scorer? Bueller? Or maybe Bobby? With the departure of Suter, getting Ryan might make it easier to nail Weber to the floor. At only 1.6m more than Suter’s last Predators contract, he’s more than affordable and fills a need. The rabid fans in Nashville could push him to even higher performances.
Carolina Hurricanes
They said they were looking for a scoring winger to play with Eric Staal. Bobby Ryan meets both of those qualifications. Adding Ryan without losing someone off the roster (unlikely) would only put the Canes about half a million over the cap floor with 21 players on the NHL roster. If your top six includes Eric Staal, Jordan Staal, Bobby Ryan, and Jeff Skinner you have as good an offense as 80% of the NHL.
Buffalo Sabres
With an expected revamping in the offing, Ryan in and nearly anyone not Leino going back probably does good things for both lineups. With Roy gone, and Hodgson and Luke Adam both pretty young, who the center the Ducks would want in return might be is a bit murky, but playing in Buffalo would only be a let down in climate.
Detroit RedWings
Not only do they need to start accumulating talent under 35, any draft picks they could send back would be at a twenty year high in value. With the loss of Lidstrom, and the aging of the rest of their roster,
Montreal Canadiens
If they decide to tweak their roster Tomas Plekanec almost certainly goes back as part of the exchange. This would leave the Habs spending only slightly more, and open up more ice time at center for the recently extended Lars Eller and local boy Louis Leblanc. With Cole and Pacioretty at left wing, it might mean some other moves in were needed, but as well mean one of the three plays out of position.
Toronto Maple Leafs
They can send back anything but a center unless they cough up Grabovski and he’s willing to be traded their. Brian Burke is the general manager who drafted him and adding him to the mix in Toronto could deflect attention from Phil Kessel and who ever is unfortunate enough to be playing goal for a while.
