It’s easy and probably overly simplistic to suggest that the Seattle Kraken go all out in signing unrestricted free agents (UFA) at July’s Expansion Draft. If Seattle were to agree to terms with one of those players in the team’s 48-hour exclusive negotiating window, that guy would become its pick from the Expansion Draft list.
But should the Kraken explore this route? Are there players available that would be worth it?
The only sensible answer is maybe.
While there are big-named UFA’s out there, like Alex Ovechkin and Taylor Hall, the chances of them being signed by Seattle are pretty slim. In fact, signing any UFA’s at the Expansion Draft is far from a given for the Kraken. Looking back at Vegas’ Expansion Draft, the Golden Knights signed one UFA, Deryk Engelland, at the Draft.
It’s a different NHL world this time around, however. The flat salary cap has teams dealing with tighter budgets and Seattle may be able to offer more lucrative deals.
The most likely scenarios for this to happen come from teams who don’t have attractive unprotected players for the Kraken to simply pick with their Expansion selection. It’s also possible that from these clubs, Seattle chooses to pick a player who is set to become a free agent and simply allows them to walk – something that Vegas did with three players.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t options that warrant kicking the tires on. We have a list of some interesting UFA players that are worth exploring. Will they sign all of them? No, but these players would be quality additions for Ron Francis and his crew to consider.
Potential Seattle Kraken UFA targets at the Expansion Draft
Tyson Barrie, D, Edmonton Oilers
The Oilers brought Barrie in during the offseason, signing him to a one-year, $3.75 million deal, and have reaped the benefits. Barrie possibly could have found more money elsewhere, but the gamble has paid off for both player and team.
Barrie, who has always been a scoring defenseman, is having one of his best seasons in the NHL with Edmonton. His 39 points through Edmonton’s first 46 games match his point totals in 70 games with Toronto the previous year. Barrie has thrice topped the 50-point mark and is on that kind of pace this year.
connor mcdavid gets his league leading 50th point of the year with this filthy feed to tyson barrie, who puts the oilers up 2-1! –@zjlaingpic.twitter.com/fKcgGsXqAo
— Oilersnation.com, Oily Since ‘07 (@OilersNation) March 13, 2021
So why should Seattle consider Barrie as an Expansion Draft UFA?
Having a puck-moving defenseman who can contribute offensively and man the power play is essential in today’s NHL. Barrie is that guy and if signed by the Kraken would most likely move to the top of their defensive pairings when you consider the other defensemen who may be available.
He does have some flaws – most notably the play in his own end. Barrie has been a minus player for the majority of his career, but as we know, the plus-minus number can be deceiving. Digging further, he’s coming off two seasons where he topped the 50-percent Corsi-for number. This year he’s a hair under 50 and is on the ice for more scoring chances against than he is for which could be a concern.
With Toronto, a team that has been challenged defensively, the numbers were better and he was a positive player in terms of scoring chances.
Coming off a strong offensive season probably means a pay bump and term for Barrie, but at 29 years old he’ll be relatively affordable with productive years still to come. Edmonton could look to re-sign Barrie but doing so would require them to protect him and risk exposing a young defenseman like Ethan Bear.
Other Oilers options
Barrie may be the top option from Edmonton. Oscar Klefbom is a player who has been hurt all year, and if the Oilers can’t get an injury waiver for him, they may gamble that Seattle would balk at an injured player. If healthy, he’s a better option than Barrie but also likely protected. Otherwise, Seattle is looking at younger, less proven guys like Caleb Jones on defense or former first-round pick Tyler Benson.
Chris Driedger, G, Florida Panthers
The 26-year-old Driedger has been a pleasant surprise for the Panthers this year and a big reason they’re in a race for the Discover Central top spot. Coming into the season he had 12 NHL games under his belt but caught fire and is out-playing Sergei Bobrovsky, whom Florida is paying $10 million a year through the end of time.
Driedger’s save percentage of .923 tops Bobrovsky’s .905 and his $850K-per-year pay check makes him a bargain. Driedger will be in for a raise, but who can pay him more than Ron Francis and the Seattle Kraken?
Florida has a logjam in the net and with Bobrovsky taking up such a huge cap hit, the team won’t be able to pay Driedger. After Driedger, the Panthers have the heralded Spencer Knight waiting in the wings to be the next goalie, making Driedger expendable.
There will be goalies available elsewhere in the Expansion Draft that the Kraken could look at. They need three and based on this season, Driedger would be among the top guys they could rope in.
The biggest question surrounding Driedger is if he can be trusted. He has not played a lot of NHL hockey and spent most of his pro career bouncing around the minors from the AHL and ECHL. Goalies are a different breed and take longer to develop. Driedger is still relatively young and if the Kraken feel that this season is proof of the player he’s going to be, he’d be a UFA worth going after at the Draft.
Other Panthers options
The Panthers aren’t going to offer too many attractive players for Seattle at the Expansion Draft. They acquired Sam Bennett at the trade deadline, and while he was a target on Calgary’s roster, he most likely will be protected by Florida. Otherwise, Seattle is looking at guys like Radko Gudas and Markus Nutivaara which makes Driedger a more desirable option.
Linus Ullmark, G, Buffalo Sabres
Another option at goalie, Ullmark is a year older than Driedger and has a longer NHL resume to consider. He’s in the final year of a $2.6 million contract and may want to escape the mess of Buffalo for greener pastures with the expansion Kraken.
Ullmark has appeared in 117 games with the Sabres and his save percentage has increased the last three seasons as his playing time has risen. While he’s not an elite goaltender, he’s been good and has been stuck on a bad team for the entirety of his tenure.
He also has a Kraken connection as he worked with Kraken pro scout Andrew Allen when Allen served as Buffalo’s goaltending coach. Can Seattle cash in on that to lure him away?
Buffalo most likely would want to sign Ullmark and could do so prior to the Expansion Draft. They have cap room and no other strong goaltending options. If the Kraken is interested, they would have to bank on Ullmark wanting a new home in order to make it happen.
Other Sabres options
The Sabres added Anders Bjork in the Taylor Hall deal at the deadline but most likely will protect him now. That doesn’t leave too many exciting options from Buffalo. Guys like Kyle Okposo, Will Borgen, or Cody Eakin are other options but don’t move the needle much.
Ryan Murray, D, New Jersey Devils
It feels like a lifetime ago when Murray was selected second overall in the NHL Entry Draft from the Everett Silvertips. That was in 2012 and while he’s been a solid, two-way defenseman, he’s been plagued by injuries. In his eight NHL seasons he’s played more than 60 games only three times.
He was traded from Columbus to New Jersey this offseason and has stayed healthy, playing in 41 games so far. Murray has 12 points but scoring isn’t really his main strength. He’ll never light up the scoresheet but he’s good in his own end and has been that with the Devils this season.
Murray’s underlying stats are even for the most part, and he would provide the Kraken with an experienced blueliner.
At 27 years old, he still has good hockey in him, and while he’s coming off a $4.6 million contract, it’s possible that the Kraken could get him at the Expansion Draft on a similar, if not cheaper, UFA deal. The Devils could look to re-sign Murray, but they already have a good deal of cap space tied up in defensemen P.K. Subban and Damon Severson.
Other Devils options
The Devils could dangle Subban and his $9 million a year contract in front of the Kraken. While he’s a big name, Subban’s production has waned the past couple of seasons. It would be a splash for Seattle to select Subban but perhaps may not be the best on-ice move. Murray is three years younger, cheaper, and just as productive.
Zach Hyman, LW, Toronto Maple Leafs
The Maple Leafs don’t have cap space. That’s the result of having three players – Auston Matthews, John Tavares, and Mitch Marner – each making over $10 million a year, and that means they are going to lose some free agents.
Hyman has twice topped the 20-goal mark, is 28 years old, and too pricey for the Maple Leafs to reasonably re-sign.
He would be a solid addition for the Kraken to swing for via the UFA window at the Expansion Draft. Hyman has the skill to score and his underlying numbers are great. He drives play.
Hyman’s Corsi-for this season is 52 percent, his expected goal percentage is an impressive 67 percent, and while he’s on the ice the Maple Leafs enjoy a 63-percent advantage in terms of high-danger scoring chances. That all adds up to a quality player that Seattle would benefit from.
Seattle won’t get him for the bargain of $2.25 million a year as Toronto has enjoyed. Looking at some comparables, he’s in line for a pay raise. It helps that the Kraken have all the cap space in the world at the moment.
Other Maple Leafs options
Looking at the Toronto projected protected list, the most intriguing player available may be defenseman Justin Holl. While he’s having a good season, he is not as productive as Hyman and would be a downgrade.
When the puck drops for the Seattle Kraken’s inaugural season this fall, ESPN will return to broadcasting NHL games for the first time since 2004. Perhaps it’s a fitting coincidence of timing for two sports businesses that had their share of detractors when they were trying to get started.
Overcoming rejections and the cynical naysayers requires a determined attitude and special leadership to make these innovative visions, which were underestimated by others, a reality. For Seattle hockey fans, they’ve had Oak View Group CEO Tim Leiweke to plan and deliver the renovation of Climate Pledge Arena and Kraken majority owner David Bonderman and president and CEO Tod Leiweke to recognize the region’s untapped interest in hockey.
In ESPN’s case, founder Bill Rasmussen took an idea for a 24-hour sports network and turned it into a reality in 1979 despite multiple prospective investors turning down his proposals and many broadcasters and businesspeople telling him it would fail.
“He’s got more optimism than anyone I think I’ve ever met,” said Mike Soltys, who Rasmussen hired as ESPN’s first intern in 1980 and is now vice president, corporate communications at the network. “He’s always just looking at things from the positive side and how to make them happen. And when things don’t go right he has the ability to just move on from them. He doesn’t dwell on it.”
Now 88 and living in Lake Forest Park just north of Seattle, Rasmussen radiates the positivity and optimism that served him well in the network’s formative days and beyond. In a Zoom interview last month, he recalled how he persevered to achieve his goal to create ESPN.
“It’s hard to believe that in the 1970s before ESPN came along there really weren’t, comparatively speaking, very many live sports on television,” Rasmussen said. “The three big networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) only did about 1,300 hours combined in the course of a year. … Saturday afternoon football or a baseball game and Sunday ‘Wide World of Sports’ or something. We were saying we’re going to do 8,760 hours of sports around the clock all year.
“And you know, of course everybody says that’s not gonna work; nobody’s gonna watch it. Where are you going to find all the sports, etc.? And by comparison, of course, we did get to 8,760 hours, we went 24 hours a day. Not right at the beginning but shortly thereafter.”
For some perspective, he pointed out, ESPN in 2019 presented 83,340 total live hours of studio and event programming – TV and digital combined. Safe to say, millions of sports fans are thankful Rasmussen persisted and eventually landed crucial investment money from Getty Oil to turn his idea into the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.
Getting fired by the WHA’s New England Whalers in 1978 helped lead Bill Rasmussen to create ESPN and what would become one of the biggest brands in sports business. (Joe Faraoni/ESPN Images)
Rasmussen forges ahead while confronting Parkinson’s disease
Even in retirement, Rasmussen has been resilient while forging ahead through personal setbacks such as Parkinson’s disease. He doesn’t like to describe himself as “suffering” from the disease because he can do everything he enjoys. Rasmussen has had to make some adjustments, although “I don’t think I could field groundballs anymore at third base like I used to,” he said.
Unsurprisingly, he’s tackling Parkinson’s with the same spirit he tapped into for overcoming obstacles and achieving his business success.
“Everybody kids me, how can I be so optimistic? Well, that’s the way I’ve been. I’ve been around for (nearly) 90 years … and I’ve just been positive,” he said. “I think we can do anything that we set our minds to do. Someday there’ll be a cure for Parkinson’s.”
To stay active and sharp, Rasmussen has been writing a book that is due to be released in the fall. It looks at the evolution of sports and sports radio, TV and streaming from the 1930s to the 2020s along with major historic U.S. and world events during his lifetime.
“I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease many years ago. And so a neurologist said, ‘You have to keep busy; do something. Write a page a day; write a book. Do something.’ So I said, ‘Well, why not write the book?’ It has been very helpful and it’s fun to go through and recall all of the things that I witnessed and go and learn (about) the things before.”
Rasmussen has been witness to significant changes in sports and broadcasting. Born in Chicago, he served in the Air Force and earned an economics degree and an MBA before starting an advertising services business. Then in the early 1960s his love of sports led to a career pivot, and he became a versatile TV and radio broadcaster who worked on news and multiple sports.
He said he had been eager to become a baseball play-by-play announcer and finally got his chance. After working games for a Double-A team in Pittsfield, Mass., he discovered the hard truth that all hockey fans can understand.
“About the 10th game in I decided this is a really boring job,” Rasmussen said with a laugh. “Hockey was much better because (it’s) in motion all the time.”
Hockey, it turns out, had a big assist in creating ESPN. In 1974, Rasmussen joined the World Hockey Association’s New England Whalers as their communications director. But in 1978, Whalers owner Howard Baldwin fired Rasmussen along with the rest of the front office.
If Baldwin – the movie producer who later brought action stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Russell Crowe to the ice in “Sudden Death” and “Mystery, Alaska,” respectively – hadn’t fired Rasmussen, he wouldn’t have had the urgency to start a new business. ESPN would not exist – or at least be what it is today – without the head start it got from Rasmussen and his son Scott.
Quest to find a cure
Since being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2014, Bill Rasmussen has tried to use his influence and connections to help others, improve research, and raise money to find a cure for the disease.
“The biggest single thing with Parkinson’s is people don’t want to even go find out whether or not they have it,” Rasmussen said. “They might notice a little tremor; they might notice a little hesitation in their step. I say, ‘Well, you know, that’ll be OK,’ those are the early indications of Parkinson’s. But people don’t want to hear those words, so you can’t really attack living with it until you admit that you have it.”
The ESPN founder is on the Michael J. Fox Foundation’s patient council and is actively involved in the American Parkinson Disease Association to help raise awareness. He said it’s important for more people of all ages with the disease commit their time to participate in research studies.
“No one knows when it starts. They can’t just say, OK we’ve discovered you at this stage, we know that you probably contracted this a year ago or 10 years ago, we can’t do that because we haven’t got enough research,” Rasmussen said.
A person is diagnosed with Parkinson’s about once every nine minutes in the United States, according to the APDA.
“So you can imagine that’s lot of people, and we don’t even know how many people who just don’t want to admit it,” Rasmussen said.
One of the main messages he makes through his volunteer roles and outreach is to remind people to not give up. Describing himself as being on the “intentionally optimistic side rather than ‘Oh, woe is me’ side” in response to being diagnosed, Rasmussen also is excited by the advances being made to cure the disease.
“I’m a confident guy. I think they can solve it,” Rasmussen said. “I don’t know if it’s while I’m still here, but I’ll just have to live longer that’s all. I figure 100, 105 maybe. By that time I’ll be slowing down.”
“I’ve been asked that a few times, and it probably wouldn’t have (been created),” Rasmussen said of ESPN. “I would have kept on doing hockey till I either got fired or got bored, one or the other, and it turned out I got fired first.”
While stuck in freeway traffic in Connecticut, Rasmussen and his son were killing time by brainstorming “what if” and “what about” ideas when it led to thoughts of creating a 24-hour sports channel.
This perfect example of one door closing and another one opening combined with some serendipity in acquiring satellite access and making your own luck through ingenuity and hard work created a path to success. Rasmussen eventually used $9,000 from a credit card advance to create ESPN, and the world’s first 24-hour television network was launched in 1979.
Whalers connections from ESPN to the Kraken
Another parallel between ESPN and the Kraken is the team’s links to the Whalers. The WHA’s New England Whalers joined the NHL and became the Hartford Whalers a year after Baldwin fired Rasmussen. Seattle general manager Ron Francis was drafted fourth overall in 1981 and played 10 seasons in Hartford. Former NHL Seattle advisor Dave Tippett, who’s now coaching the Edmonton Oilers, played seven seasons in Hartford.
After witnessing the wild days of the WHA, Rasmussen could probably write an entertaining book about the ups and downs of the New England Whalers. As was common for the upstart league that tried to compete with the NHL in the brawling 1970s, the Whalers had their share of notable characters, such as colorful coach Harry Neale, combative goalie Al “The Bear” Smith, hard-hitting Jack “Killer” Carlson, “Slap Shot” Hanson brother Steve Carlson, and feisty pest Johnny “Pie” McKenzie.
McKenzie, who had helped the Boston Bruins win two Stanley Cups before bouncing around the WHA, was a gritty, 5-9 grinder who liked getting under the opponent’s skin. Rasmussen recalled McKenzie “around a gaggle of players” and doing his instigating best during a 1978 game after the Hartford Civic Center’s roof had collapsed in a snowstorm.
Gordie Howe getting suited up at age 50. You can literally feel the old man strength. pic.twitter.com/lw4utTUjKS
“We were playing up in Springfield, and it’s an image I can see right now talking to you,” Rasmussen said. “He was agitating, you know, elbows and the stick and all this. Somebody turned around, and I don’t know if they were swinging at him but they missed him and hit somebody else. He just went over and he jumped up and sat on the boards while there’s a big fight going out on the ice. He’s the guy who started it all, and he’s sitting over on the boards. He looked like a little kid with his legs hanging down, and he was laughing. He was a character.”
Another “big-time instigator” Rasmussen admired and has fond memories of is Gordie Howe, one of the WHA’s marquee players and the biggest star of the New England Whalers. After moving from the Houston Aeros to the Whalers in 1977-78 with his sons Mark and Marty, the Detroit Red Wings legend led New England in scoring with 96 points in 76 games. Even as he was turning 50 in 1978, Howe’s fitness was superior to most of his teammates, and Rasmussen said he could still run rings around the rookies.
“I remember (Neale) saying this one year you had to have the players run, I don’t know a six-minute mile or some such thing as part of their conditioning in the fall. And Gordie won it every time! He was ahead of them, so he finally said, ‘You can’t do this, Gordie. You’re embarrassing them,’” Rasmussen said with a laugh.
“Can you imagine the young, what 18-, 20-year-old who thinks he’s in great shape and here’s this graybeard saying, ‘Come on, kid, catch up.’”
Old-time hockey, like Eddie Shore
Rasmussen’s old-time hockey connections run even deeper than the WHA. While he was working radio and TV jobs in Springfield, Mass., Rasmussen did play-by-play for the American Hockey League’s Springfield Indians/Kings. Team owner and Boston Bruins legend Eddie Shore decided he needed to give Rasmussen some one-on-one lessons on the finer points about hockey.
“I remember Johnny Wilson was the coach and he had me down (on the ice for practice). And if they were missing somebody I would skate the right wing or left wing or center, whatever the deal was,” Rasmussen said. “I was just filling a position, nobody did anything to me. But you’d have to wear shin guards because those guys they just can’t help but tap somebody in the shins with a stick.
“But Eddie Shore came out one day, and he used to come out and blow the whistle when the Zamboni was coming out after the morning skate. And I’d go off like everybody else, and he said – I can still hear him – he said, ‘Mister come over here. Mister you, over here. He says, if you’re gonna do this you oughta learn how to skate.”
Rasmussen wasn’t exactly a novice. He said he’d skated for 40 years and was a referee for junior hockey in Massachusetts.
“And then he said, ‘Do you know how to hold a hockey stick?’ I mean he’s really giving it to me. So come over here, he dropped a bunch of pucks and he started backhanding them up against the boards. … And he’s just standing and he’s firing pucks backhand and he says, ‘OK you do that.’ I couldn’t do a backhand. I couldn’t lift the puck off the ice backhanded if I was doing it from then till now. It would never happen. But he said, ‘We’re going to teach you,’ and he frequently would come over as we were going off and he’d say, ‘Let’s try this today.’”
Shore’s legacy as a rugged Hockey Hall of Fame player and two-time Stanley Cup winner for the Bruins is nearly matched by his notoriety as a cheapskate owner. Rasmussen recalled a famous 1966 players strike over poor wages that led to Shore recruiting replacement players from the Eastern Hockey League, which “was known mostly for drop the puck and let’s fight. Those were tough days.”
“It was comedy on ice for about two or three games before they finally reached some sort of an accommodation, and the real guys came back and played,” Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen, left, and Bristol, Conn., Mayor Michael Werner dig into the groundbreaking ceremony for ESPN studios in 1980. (ESPN Images)
The standards for running a pro sports franchise have thankfully progressed since the 1960s. Shore resisted broadcasting Indians games on the radio until the mid-1960s because he thought it would hurt ticket sales, although Rasmussen said they “always sold out 5,934 people every game.”
Shore’s management style for pinching pennies involved members of his family helping the Indians cut costs. Rasmussen recalled dropping in on the Eastern States Coliseum in West Springfield in the offseason during a horse show and running into Shore’s son Ted.
“I said, ‘Teddy, what are you doing here? There’s no hockey today.’ He says, ‘Oh, I’m making popcorn,’” Rasmussen said.
“I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m making popcorn.’
“This is like August or early September, so he took me back and showed me they had these big, they looked like 55-gallon drums, and they’re made out of fiberboard. He’s back there filling those and making popcorn for the season. So you know the popcorn that you’re eating in November and December was probably made in August and September.”
Fortunately venue management and sports franchise ownership have evolved considerably since then, and Rasmussen and his fellow Seattle hockey fans can expect much fresher fare when Climate Pledge Arena opens. And whenever the Kraken make their national TV debut, Seattle fans should give some thanks to their innovative neighbor in Lake Forest Park with the unwavering optimism for not giving up on his vision to create ESPN.
“I think I’m a great advocate of getting up in the morning and having a happy thought right away,” Rasmussen said. “I remember Jimmy Durante used to sing this song about you’ve got to ‘Start Off Each Day With a Song,’ and that’s a happy song.”
(Top photo of Bill Rasmussen on the “SportsCenter” set: Rich Arden/ESPN Images)
Jim Wilkie is a longtime Northwest journalist, former NHL editor and NHL Insider writer for ESPN.com, onetime GSHL All-Star, and SJHA hockey dad. Follow him on Twitter @jimwilkie.
Earlier this week Greg Wyshynski published an interesting piece on ESPN+ on fighting in the NHL during this pandemic-impacted season. He talked to Nicolas Deslauriers of the Anaheim Ducks about the mentality of engaging in pugilistic activities with no fans in the building during this unorthodox campaign. It is a great piece, so check it out if you can.
The article referenced how fighting is up this season. It triggered me to look into how this aspect of hockey has changed in the NHL over the last 20 years for this week’s Data Dump Saturday.
NHL fighting trends
Over the last 20 years or so, fighting has been going down across the league as traditional “enforcers” have been replaced by younger, more skilled players.
The reasons for the decline of fighting are beyond the scope of this post, but it comes down to a combination of stricter penalties for fighting, awareness on long-term impacts of repeated concussions, and data supporting that skill on the fourth line is more valuable than enforcers.
The increase we have seen in 2020-21 could come from the heightened tensions associated with the all intra-division format in this unique regular season. Teams are playing their divisional rivals more frequently versus the traditional cross-league schedule in which they would face certain opponents less frequently.
Impact of fighting on team performance
Here is how fighting breaks down by team and division in 2020-21.
On one side of the coin you have two of the worst teams in the league this year in Anaheim and Ottawa leading their respective divisions in percentage of games with fights. On the other side, the Buffalo Sabres, a comparable bad team, have close to the fewest games with fights.
Additionally, Tampa Bay and Florida are two of the better teams in the Discover Central Division and are also the top two teams in the division in percentage of games with fights. The summary is that fighting does not correlate to winning or losing records in the NHL.
Fighting in the NHL by player
The next question I wanted to answer is which individual players are still fighting in the NHL. Let’s first look at how many players are fighting in the NHL by season.
Looking at the drop in the number of players participating in fights in 2020-21 is a bit misleading. The season is not complete, and even when it wraps up in May, it will be shorter than previous campaigns. The net result is that this gives less opportunity for players to get in a fight.
I then wanted to look at the percentage of players that are getting into fights and how many of them are getting into multiple fights.
Again, the drop in the 2020-21 numbers of players participating in multiple fights could be misleading for reasons stated above, but the consistent drop over time can be attributed to the fact that there are no longer players that are in the league exclusively for fighting.
Here is a look at the fight leaders in the NHL this season.
It’s interesting to see a player like Brady Tkachuk leading the league in fights this season because he also is tied for the lead in points on the Senators with 30 as of April 24. Tkachuk is a good example of the shift away from the dedicated enforcer role. Austin Watson and Deslauriers may not have the offensive skill that Tkachuk has, but they still contribute with .29 and .22 points per game, respectively.
To help understand how the makeup of players fighting in the NHL has changed, let us now compare the top 10 fighters from the 2000-01 NHL season.
The number of fights these guys had in that single season is the first thing that stands out. Even if you doubled Tkachuk’s six fights and extrapolated that to a full season, it is still less than half of Andrei Nazarov’s 27 fights in 2000-01. Nazarov had only six points in 79 games that year. Of the list of top 10 fighters, only Matthew Barnaby and Tie Domi contributed beyond the fighting and intimidation role the others played in their careers. This validates the theory that we are seeing fewer and fewer one-dimensional enforcers in the league now.
Summary
Although fighting is indeed up this season compared to last, supporting Wyshynski’s comments, there are still indicators that fighting in the NHL has fundamentally changed. Even a small increase in games with fights this year is probably not a strong indicator of any changes to the trend we have seen over the last 20 seasons.
Oh, hello! I didn’t see you there. Do you come here often? I do. Every week, in fact. That’s why it’s called “Weekly One-Timers” and not “Occasional One-Timers.”
As is the case seemingly every week, we have plenty to chat about, and it’s another beautiful Friday in the Emerald City, so let’s be sure to enjoy our time together.
Seattle Kraken news
Last week was slightly more active than most for Seattle, but we were back to things being pretty quiet on the Kraken front this week.
The team is being sued by the Kraken Bar & Lounge, a punk rock bar in the University District, for $3.5 million, as first reported by Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times. The lawsuit states that the team’s name and new Kraken Bar & Grill, expected to open at the Kraken Training Center at Northgate in the fall, will harm the existing bar’s brand.
So, that’s interesting.
Friend of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, Everett Fitzhugh, released his second installment of “Sightseaing with Fitz,” which is absolutely worth the price of admission.
What does hockey look like in the Pacific Northwest?
Also, Kraken fans will likely have to wait just a little longer for opening night, as the start date for the 2021-22 season appears to be getting shoved back a bit.
The NHL on the GMs' call today shared its hopeful target date for puck drop next fall: Oct. 12. Which is about a week or so later than normal. Training camps hopefully opening Sept. 22. Again, that Oct. 12 start date is if there are no delays. @TSNHockey@TheAthletic
It has been a really tough year in a lot of ways for women’s hockey. Yet another blow was sustained on Wednesday when the IIHF Women’s World Championship was canceled for the second consecutive year. The tournament was slated to be played in Nova Scotia May 6 through 16, but provincial Premier Iain Rankin made the decision this week that the tournament should not go on, citing Covid-19 variants and rising case numbers.
There is still hope that a tournament can be played later in the summer, but even so, it’s another damaging development. Adding insult to injury, the Men’s Under-18 World Championship starts April 26 in Texas, and if we were a betting website (which we are not), we would bet that that tournament is going to be played out in its entirety.
Texas and Nova Scotia are two very different places in terms of how Covid is being handled, but it really does feel unfair that yet another international men’s tournament is set to get underway, while yet another women’s tournament gets canceled.
Robin Lehner calls out the NHL
Vegas Golden Knights netminder Robin Lehner—always outspoken on mental-health-related issues—claimed this week that the NHL lied to players about how it would proceed once players and team employees received their Covid vaccines.
In an impassioned press conference, he inferred that players, coaches, and staff were expecting to see their restrictions loosened a bit for the betterment of their lifestyles and mental health, but that has not happened. Instead, he says they won’t change the rules until all the teams in the league have the same opportunity to get the vaccine to eliminate competitive advantages.
Lehner’s comments on the topic begin around the five-minute mark of the below video.
— x-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) April 21, 2021
I’m all for taking every precaution against Covid, but if what he’s saying is true (it has been disputed by the league), then he has a very good point here.
I’ve always admired Lehner’s willingness to speak publicly on the societal topics about which he is most impassioned and would love to see more NHL players use their platforms in this way.
Around the boards
Spencer Knight made his NHL debut with the Florida Panthers this week and looked great in a 5-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, making 34 of 35 saves. The 20-year-old World Junior Championship hero was playing for Boston College in the NCAA Tournament just a couple weeks ago, so his quick ascension into an NHL start was a bit surprising. Knight is a highly touted prospect, selected No. 13 overall at the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. In his debut, Knight was wearing the same pads, glove, and blocker that he wore for the WJC along with his BC Eagles mask. Let’s get the guy some fresh gear, eh? I wrote about Knight way back in the NHLtoSeattle days of yore. They grow up so fast.
In that game between the Panthers and the Blue Jackets, Columbus coach John Tortorella healthy scratched Max Domi for the second consecutive game. Domi hasn’t had a great season by any stretch of the imagination, but it really is fascinating how Tortorella uses healthy scratches and benchings on his star players to try to get their attention. Domi—acquired in a trade with the Canadiens in October—returned to action on Thursday and registered 15:48 of ice time. The last-place Blue Jackets have also now been officially eliminated from playoff contention, so one has to wonder about the future of Torts in Columbus.
Patrick Marleau’s record-setting 1,768th NHL game received plenty of attention this week, including on Sound Of Hockey, so we don’t really need to talk about that here. But we do want to make sure you saw this great congratulatory video from the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
In this week’s Data Dump Saturday, I dig into the playoff races in the Central and West Divisions by looking beyond the points in the standings to get an idea of who might claim the fourth playoff spot in each division.
Earlier this week we did a round of Buy, Sell, or Hold on the Sound Of Hockey podcast where we discussed if Nashville or the San Jose Sharks were playoff bound teams. We talked about ‘games at hand’, ‘goal differential,’ and who is ‘hot’ right now as justification for our picks in qualifying for the playoffs.
Let us take a current and data-focused look at these two divisions with interesting playoff races.
For the more casual fans:
GP is games played.
PTS is the points earned (teams are awarded two points for a win, one point for an overtime or shootout loss, zero for a regulation loss).
P% is percentage of points earned versus what is possible.
GF is goals for goals for.
GA is goals against.
I am focusing on Arizona, St. Louis, and San Jose in the West and Nashville, Chicago, and Dallas in the Central. In my opinion, these are the only teams vying for the fourth and final playoff spots in their respective divisions.
Points percentage
Both San Jose and Nashville have made recent surges in the standings which have launched them into contention over the last few weeks. I want to see how these teams are trending by looking at their five-game moving average of point percentage.
In the chart below, you can see that Nashville has been outperforming Dallas and Chicago lately. Additionally, Chicago has been underperforming with a point percentage lower than 50 percent over the last 10 games.
In the West, you can see St. Louis underperforming has provided Arizona and San Jose the opportunity to be in contention in the playoff race.
It should be noted that we cannot assume that these trends will continue. There could be underlying conditions that are driving performance such as injuries, hot goalies, or coaching/strategy changes, but that is beyond the scope of this post.
Goal differential
Another stat to look at is goal differential which is the sum of goals scored minus the sum of goals scored against.
Nashville appears to be reaching another level in goal differential, scoring 18 more goals than it has allowed over the last 10 games. If you look at the goals for and goals against numbers you can see Nashville is doing it with a combination of higher-than-normal goal scoring and being stingy with the goals allowed.
Shot differential
One of the first things I look at when trying to understand how well a team is playing is shot differential. It does not account for everything, but in general, if a team is producing more shots than the opposing team, then they are getting more opportunities to score. From a statistical perspective, it is a way to broaden the sample size instead of simply looking at the number of goals in a game.
It is a little surprising to see Nashville with a negative 18 shot differential because in goal differential they were (coincidentally) a plus 18. This would imply a heavy reliance on goaltending. A quick look at Juuse Saros’ stats and it shows that he is averaging less than 1.25 goals against average and a save percentage of .965 over his last 10 starts.
Chicago’s shot differential has correlated with their points percentage obtained over the last 10 games.
As we stated earlier, Arizona and San Jose have been playing better over the last 10 games that has created the opportunity to get back in this playoff race, but the shot differential of -31 and -27 respectively is a bit surprising. This would imply that they have been more effective with their shots (i.e. scoring at a higher rate) or that they are relying on their goaltending as well.
I focused on the last 10 games for these teams, but again, there is no guarantee that their trends will continue over the remaining ~16 games of the season. The next 10 games facing these teams will be critical considering several of them will play each other and the stakes will be that much more significant as they jockey for position in the playoff hunt.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments or how you would evaluate a team’s performance in the playoff race.
If hockey is what you seek, then the past week should have been quite fulfilling for you, because there was a LOT of it to be found. What’s more, much of the hockey that was played was quite entertaining, with each game across the various elite leagues seemingly more exciting than the previous. If this past week of hockey were a GIF, it would certainly be the Vince McMahon GIF seen below.
Yes, it has been a fun week, and we at Sound Of Hockey endeavor to continue satiating your appetite for hockey enjoyment with this latest installment of Weekly One-Timers.
Is Ron Francis wheeling and dealing?
It makes sense that Seattle Kraken general manager Ron Francis would be talking to his counterparts across the NHL to gauge their varying levels of interest in consummating side deals in the lead-up to the Expansion Draft this summer. But we’ve never officially seen or heard it reported that this was happening. Well, until now, that is.
The Athletic’s Pierre Lebrun wrote this week that Francis has been fielding calls from fellow general managers in advance of the April 12 trade deadline, as they try to get a better feel for what it will cost to keep the Kraken’s tentacles off of any newly acquired players. Lebrun also reported that according to his source, Francis is asking for “a first-round pick and a prospect and maybe another piece.”
Lebrun also discusses this starting at the 3:04 mark of the below video.
So, that’s fun.
THE KRAKEN ARE WHEELIN’ AND DEALIN’! LET’S GO!
The real March Madness
Marathon game
You saw the marathon game between North Dakota and Minnesota Duluth, right? Or at least part of it? Because it went on for six hours and 12 minutes, so you had to have at least stumbled upon it while scrolling through channels at some point in your Saturday evening. In the end, it was UMD — for the fourth consecutive time — punching its ticket to the Frozen Four, while UND players looked sad.
It was just an incredible contest in every aspect with bizarre things happening throughout. Case in point, UMD’s starting goalie, Zach Stejskal, was forced out in the fifth overtime due to cramps. He was replaced by Ryan Fanti, who came in and made several huge saves after sitting on the bench for five hours. In total, 119 shots were taken, 142 minutes and 13 seconds ticked off the clock, and one record was set for the longest game in NCAA history on either the men’s or women’s side.
UMD now has a shot at its third straight NCAA title in a year that was supposed to be transitional for the Bulldogs.
Frozen Four field set
UMD will be joined in Pittsburgh by UMass, St. Cloud State, and Minnesota State.
UMass reached the final in 2019, but at that time, they had the likes of Cale Makar, John Leonard, and Mario Ferraro, all of whom are now well on their way to successful NHL careers. This is another team that largely flew under the radar this season, but got hot at the right time, earning a Hockey East postseason championship along the way. Zac Jones, a New York Rangers draft pick, and Matt Kessel, a St. Louis Blues draft pick, make up the top defense pairing, and together they are quite exceptional.
St. Cloud lost one of its best offensive players in Easton Brodzinski in the team’s regional championship against Boston College. Brodzinski broke his leg on a nasty (but clean) hit when he cut to the middle of the offensive zone. The Huskies really aren’t built around their stars, though, as they’re an experienced team that has been through the wringer.
Minnesota State may be the most intriguing story of the Frozen Four field. The Mavericks hadn’t won a single NCAA Tournament game in their history before defeating Quinnipiac in the opening round, then following that up with a convincing victory over a favored Minnesota Gophers team.
Ryan Sandelin, son of UMD head coach Scott Sandelin, scored the overtime game-winner against Quinnipiac to keep hopes alive for a father-son showdown in the NCAA title game. Goaltender Dryden McKay has had dizzying numbers over three collegiate seasons and earned a 22-save shutout over the Gophers to send his team through. He was named a Hobey Baker finalist, along with Wisconsin’s Cole Caufield and North Dakota’s Shane Pinto. Shockingly, McKay is undrafted.
The NCAA semifinals will take place on Thursday, April 8, and the final will be on Saturday, April 10.
Signing frenzy
With so many NCAA teams seeing their seasons come to crashing halts, there was a flurry of signings of high-end NHL prospects this week.
Player
Age
Old Team
New Team
Cole Caufield
19
University of Wisconsin
Montreal Canadiens
David Farrance
21
Boston University
Nashville Predators
Alex Steeves
21
Notre Dame
Toronto Maple Leafs
Matthew Boldy
19
Boston College
Minnesota Wild
Alex Newhook
19
Boston College
Colorado Avalanche
Spencer Knight
19
Boston College
Florida Panthers
Shane Pinto
19
University of North Dakota
Ottawa Senators
Cam York
19
University of Michigan
Philadelphia Flyers
Most of these players will need some seasoning in the AHL, but there’s some serious talent in the aforementioned group, so you should see at least some of them at the top level soon.
On the topic of signings, Thatcher Demko agreed to a five-year extension with the Vancouver Canucks worth $25 million, so apparently he isn’t a future Seattle Kraken after all. Bummer!
The #Canucks signed 25 y/o G Demko to 5 yr $5M Cap Hit extension:
Yr 1: $2.5M Base Yr 2: $3.5M Base, $1M Signing Bonus Yr 3: $6M Base, $1M Signing Bonus Yr 4: $6M Base Yr 5: $5M Base
The fine system is absurd. $5,000 is the most the NHL can fine a player based on the collective bargaining agreement with the NHLPA. McDavid makes $12.5 million per year. Do you know what $5,000 is to somebody who makes $12.5 million? Well, the median salary for all Americans is $31,133 according to the US Census Bureau. Fining somebody $5,000 when they have a $12.5 million salary is the same—in terms of percentage of income—as fining somebody who makes the median American salary exactly $12.44.
That oughta show ’em!
Around the boards
USA Hockey named Chicago general manager Stan Bowman and Minnesota general manager Bill Guerin as its GM and AGM respectively for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The appointments come with a caveat that if NHL players do not end up participating, Bowman and Guerin will not lead the brain trust.
The “Fox Sports [insert your region here]” network of… networks… is no more, instead replaced by something called Bally Sports. Bally’s owns and operates casinos across the nation, so you can bet your bottom dollar (get it?) that there will be some sort of wagering-related programming and promotions coming soon to a Bally network near you. The scorebug on the newly re-branded Bally networks is obnoxiously large, so there is already plenty of space for live betting odds in regions where sports gambling is legal.
Shayne Gostisbehere was put on waivers by the Philadelphia Flyers this week. All 30 other teams passed on claiming the puck-moving defenseman, so he was assigned to the taxi squad. There was a time when we at Sound Of Hockey thought Gostisbehere could be a good fit for the Kraken. We still kind of think that, but we’re a tad more apprehensive now.
The University of St. Thomas has hired Rico Blasi as its head coach to lead the team’s transition from Division III to Division I next season, when the Tommies will join the newly re-formed CCHA. Blasi previously coached Miami University (Ohio), where he spent twenty seasons behind the bench and posted an overall record of 398–311–76.
The Canucks have Covid, and it sounds like this could be a lengthy shutdown for the team. It is not a good situation, as at least eight players have tested positive as well as at least one member of Vancouver’s staff. Here’s hoping for quick recoveries for all involved in this latest outbreak.
Yes, the 18-game winless streak is finally over after a 6-1 drubbing of the Gostisbehere-less Flyers on Wednesday.
The very next night, Jeff Skinner had a stickless breakaway. The Rangers scored shortly after the below fiasco and ultimately won this one 3-2 in overtime to sum up Buffalo’s season quite nicely.
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at Sound Of Hockey and the host, producer, and editor of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is an inconsistent beer league goalie who believes that five players have to make a mistake before the puck gets to him. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFunBrown or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
