WOW! This is another BIG episode, with another BIG-TIME guest!
Fresh off of competing in the Elite Women’s 3-on-3 for Team USA, where she scored the loan goal for the Stars and Stripes, the legendary HILARY KNIGHT joins Sound of Hockey for an awesome interview!
With Hilary, the guys discuss her experiences at the NHL All-Star Game and what it meant to her to be able to compete on such a huge stage. She also gives her first-hand account of why the #ForTheGame Movement is so important, and how a viable women’s professional hockey league should actually look. Oh, and of course she dishes some trash talk toward Team Canada, because why wouldn’t she?
Also in this episode, John, Andy, and Darren chat about the All-Star Game and some of its memorable (and not-so-memorable) moments, consider the news of potential changes to the AHL and how they could impact Seattle, and argue over ferry schedules.
During his 16-year NHL career Stu Barnes played with many different teams. Monday, the NHL Seattle pro scout met his new team in person for the first time since joining the expansion franchise in September.
Barnes, along with the rest of the Seattle scouting group are in town to meet each other and go over preliminary scouting reports with General Manager Ron Francis, Assistant General Manager Ricky Olczyk, and Director of Hockey Administration Alexandra Mandrycky.
All five scouts will be appearing Tuesday night at the Pacific Science Center for a public forum to talk about the scouting process. Barnes will be on the stage along with Cammi Granato, Ulf Samuelsson, Dave Hunter, and John Goodwin.
“I knew Ronnie from playing with him in Pittsburgh and Ulfie I knew a little from playing against and mutual friends,” Barnes says about his new teammates. “Getting to meet the other guys has been great. I talked to Ricky a lot on the phone this fall. It’s a nice bunch of people and to see the office and the excitement, it’s awesome.”
His time with NHL Seattle has just begun but Barnes is not new to Seattle or the Northwest.
Barnes started his hockey journey across the border playing in the Western Hockey League with the New Westminster Bruins in 1987. He burst out with a strong rookie season by scoring 37 goals while piling up 101 points.
At the conclusion of that season, the Bruins packed up and relocated to Kennewick, giving berth to the Tri-City Americans.
“All of a sudden we’re moving to Tri-City and nobody really knew where that was,” Barnes says. “We went down in the summer for a preview on the Fourth of July and it was hot, it was like 105 degrees, and I’m from Edmonton.”
Stu Barnes played with the Tri-City Americans during their first two seasons in the WHL. (Tri-City Americans photo)
When the following season rolled around, the arena in Kennewick wasn’t ready so the team had to start on the road for the first 17 games.
The road start didn’t hurt Barnes’ game. He would score 59 goals that first year in Tri-City, along with an astonishing 82 assists as the Americans made the playoffs in their inaugural season.
“We were sold out every night,” Barnes says. “We had some good players. I think we had four guys who ended up playing significant time in the NHL.”
At the end of the season, Barnes was selected fourth overall in the 1989 NHL Draft by the Winnipeg Jets.
Before he embarked on his pro career he would return to Tri-City for one more season in 1989-1990 and turned in another monster campaign with 52 more goals, 91 assists and 144 points. He would make his NHL debut with the Jets in 1991 and go on to play 1,136 games with the Jets, Florida Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Buffalo Sabres, and Dallas Stars.
His NHL career saw him play in the Stanley Cup Final with Florida and Buffalo and he was a teammate of Francis’ in Pittsburgh.
As Barnes left the Northwest his connection to the region didn’t end.
He met his wife during his time in Kennewick and maintained an off-season home there for many years, as did his Americans’ teammate Olaf Kolzig. In 2004, a chance to purchase an ownership stake in the Americans presented itself and the former teammates jumped at it.
The duo has owned the club since.
“We were lucky because we had such a good experience,” Barnes says. “When we got involved, we wanted our guys to have a great experience. Obviously you want to be successful with wins and all that kind of stuff, but in the end we wanted players to come into our organization and spend whatever amount of time they’re there, and when they move on say ‘what a great experience that was, I had a great time’. Hopefully they move on to play pro hockey or go on to use their scholarship.”
As a player in the WHL with New Westminster and Tri-City, Barnes would play many games in Seattle.
After playing junior with the Tri-City Americans, Stu Barnes is now part of the team’s ownership group. (Tri-City Americans photo)
He played against the Thunderbirds in the old Mercer Arena as well as appearing under the iconic roof at what was the Seattle Coliseum. He was on the visitor’s side but remembers the hockey scene in Seattle well.
“Great fans,” Barnes says. “I know my second year in the league they had a really good team. Glen Goodall was scoring at will, he was an automatic three, four points a night guy. What an atmosphere it was. It was always loud, and they cranked that Gary Glitter ‘Rock n Roll’ song. I heard that thing about eight times a night every time I came in here. It was fun.”
Transition to scouting
Barnes retired from the NHL as a player in 2008. His career ended with the Dallas Stars and he would go on to work for the Stars as an assistant coach and consultant.
When the opportunity to join NHL Seattle arose, it was an easy decision.
“Just the connection over the years with this part of the world,” he adds. “I have family in the area, in Tri-City, and always thought what a fantastic hockey town this is. I played here for three years against the Thunderbirds and love the city and this part of the country.”
Based out of Dallas, where he makes his home now, Barnes has been on the job since the start of the NHL season.
He and his fellow pro scouts have started the process to prepare NHL Seattle for the expansion draft in 2021. They are scouting current NHL players, gathering information and thoughts on who might be available and who looks to be the right type of player to bring on.
“Everybody wants, obviously, players that are high skilled and competitive,” Barnes says. “I think for now it’s about getting a good, strong base of knowledge about as many players as possible.”
Barnes has never worked full time as a scout before but as an assistant coach has experience in player evaluation. A big part of coaching is breaking down film on your players as well as pre scouting your opponents.
His experience behind the bench and on the ice as a player is a valuable asset but Barnes says that scouting has been a transition for him.
“It’s less stress,” Barnes says with a smile. “With the situation we’re in we are looking out a year and half from now. As a player and coach, I think everything is ‘right now’. You have to win now, score now, don’t make a mistake now. It’s different but it’s been a learning experience and I’ve really enjoyed it.”
As a player and owner in Tri-City, Barnes has had an impact on Northwest hockey for three decades. Now with NHL Seattle, his impact on the local hockey scene continues to grow as hockey grows in Seattle.
I will be doing a series of posts on the Vegas Golden Knights to help understand likely scenarios for Seattle in just 15 months’ time when Seattle starts building their roster. This first post is taking a look at how Vegas approached their NHL Expansion Draft.
Pre NHL Expansion Draft
The Vegas Golden Knights were able to accumulate two groups of assets: 1) the right (and obligation) to select one player from each of the 30 existing teams in the Expansion Draft 2) NHL Entry Draft Picks. There are rules and requirements of the Expansion Draft, but that is a post for a different time. There were also a couple Free Agent signings before the Expansion Draft, but the focus of this first post is on the assets Vegas accumulated in that Expansion Draft. Vegas’s negotiations of Expansion Draft player selections also had a major impact to their Entry Draft Picks. As a matter of setting a visual baseline, here is simply what Vegas’s Expansion Draft selection and Entry Draft Picks would have looked like at the start. Just like all NHL teams, the Vegas Golden Knights are entitled to 7 NHL Entry Draft Picks per year.
I know this is a simple bar chart that probably doesn’t need to be a standalone visual but just bear with me a bit.
Requirements and Side Deals
The expansion rules stated that the Golden Knights were required to select one unprotected Expansion Draft eligible player per team in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft. There was a lot of nuance in the expansion rules in regards to protecting players, but to keep it simple, let’s just assume one player must be selected from each NHL team. What is also allowed, which was used strategically by Vegas, is the negotiation of terms of their player selection with each respected team. This is commonly referred to as a “Side Deal”. An example of this was when Anaheim agreed to trade Shea Theodore to Vegas if Vegas selected Clayton Stoner in the Expansion Draft. Clayton Stoner was injured and would never play another NHL game. Theodore was a young up and coming defenseman for Anaheim. Vegas gets a young prospect while Anaheim would get the Clayton Stoner contract and financial commitment taken off their books. There was a total of 10 Side Deals in the Expansion Draft that netted the Golden Knights an additional 6 players, 10 Entry Draft picks, and signing rights to one player.
Summary of the Expansion Draft.
From a player perspective, this is how players were acquired in the Expansion Draft.
Notes: In the example above, Clayton Stoner would be considered “Expansion” while Shea Theodore would be considered “Expansion (Trade)”. Nikita Gusev was unsigned at the time of the Expansion Draft but his NHL rights were owned by Tampa Bay and traded to Vegas via a “Side Deal”. That asset is classified as “Expansion (Trade-Rights)” in the chart above.
Expansion Draft Detail
Shuffle the Assets
The makeup of the Golden Knights assets from the Expansion Draft would start to morph over time as the Golden Knights would start to shuffle things around. Keep in mind that an NHL roster carries 23 players and even with Vegas’s AHL team it was inevitable that Vegas would need to cut down its player assets.
At a high-level, there were 4 different scenarios that would play out of these player assets.
Left Via UFA – This is a scenario where Vegas drafted a player that they knew would become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st (a week later). This would imply they had no intention of signing this impeding and free agent and did not see any other notable assets on the NHL team’s roster from which they came. Thorburn (WPG), Brickley (CAR), & Berube (NYI) are the players in this category.
The Flip-Trade – In this scenario, the Golden Knights more than likely had a predetermined arrangement with another NHL Team that if Vegas chose player X on Team A, then Team B would then trade assets 1 & 2 to Vegas for player X. There were 4 players that were immediately traded to another NHL Team, quite literally, the very next day after being drafted in the Expansion Draft. Emeline (MON -> NSH), Schlemko (SJS -> MON), Methot (OTT -> DAL), and van Riemsdyk (CHI -> CAR) are in this category.
LTIR/ Salary Dump – this is a scenario where a team had some deadweight on their roster that was eating into their salary cap. Vegas would have a lot of room in their salary cap and could take on the cap-hit in exchange for other assets. Stoner (ANA), Clarkson (CBJ), and Grabovski (NYI) fit in this category. (LTIR = Long Term Injured Reserve)
Trade – This was more of a conventional trade that really didn’t have anything to do with the Expansion Draft other than the asset. Calvin Pickard was acquired in the Expansion Draft, but was traded to Toronto in October after Vegas would claim Malcom Subban (not reflected in chart below) off waivers right before the inaugural season.
Start of the inaugural Season
Here is a final look at the players that were acquired directly or indirectly via Expansion Draft that would start the 2017-18 season as property of the Vegas Golden Knights.
Of course, one of the biggest stories with the Expansion Draft was how Vegas accumulated NHL Entry Draft picks. Draft picks were acquired in the Side Deals and the Flip-trades. Vegas would acquire a net of an additional 14 draft picks via Side Deals and trades.
The Seattle expansion might not look like the Vegas Expansion Draft, but the scenarios will be similar. Most pundits are forecasting that there won’t be a lot of Side Deals available for the Seattle Expansion Draft. It’s possible, but there will be teams with too many quality assets at one position that would require exposing those assets in the Expansion Draft. Teams could be motivated to trade a prospect or two, to keep Seattle from selecting an unprotected player. Furthermore, there will likely be salary cap issues of some NHL teams that can be exploited for Seattle. For more information on the Expansion draft rules, check out this post on NHL.com.
In the next post, I will dig into how these assets were used in the 2017-18 season. For players, it will be where they played and for the entry draft picks, how they were utilized (i.e. picks or trades).
HUMONGOUS episode of Sound of Hockey this week, as the guys welcome Julie Stewart-Binks, host of the Fubo Sports Network’s “Call it a Night with Julie Stewart-Binks” and “Drinks with Binks.”
With Julie, the guys discuss her very unique career covering MLB, MLS, and (of course) the NHL, where she spent several seasons reporting on the Ducks and Kings, among others. Also with Julie, lots of chatter about her beloved Maple Leafs and her thoughts on Seattle as a sports market.
Aside from the very fun interview with Julie, there’s just generally good banter this week, with some Seattle updates, another coach getting fired and quickly replaced, memories from the KHL All-Star Game, and some serious consideration about whether Alex Ovechkin is the best goal scorer of all time. John also forces Darren to talk about the Blackhawks for some reason.
Segments this week include Goalie Gear Corner, Weekly One-Timers, and Games on the Radar.
No NHL head coach should be feeling secure these days.
Not after the surprise firing of Vegas Golden Knights head man Gerard Gallant on Wednesday morning. Gallant was in his third season with Vegas and is just two years removed from guiding the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Final in the franchise’s first season of existence.
It’s not like things have been going poorly in the desert.
Vegas had a strong season last year, finishing second in the Pacific Division before being eliminated in an epic and contentious first-round series with the San Jose Sharks. This year, Gallant had coached Vegas to a 24-19-6 record and are three points off division leading Arizona.
Not usually the resume of a coach on the hot seat but Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon felt that the team – which had lost four straight at the time of the move – was underachieving this year.
“In order for our team to reach its full potential, we determined a coaching change was necessary,” McCrimmon said via a team press release. “Our team is capable of more than we have demonstrated this season.”
The story became stranger as McCrimmon announced that Gallant would be replaced by former Sharks coach Pete DeBoer. The Sharks fired DeBoer a scant 35 days prior to him landing back in the division with his former club’s most heated rivals.
WWT1: Was Vegas underachieving? Looking at the Golden Knights’
(Photo by Jeff Speer/Icon Sportswire)
underlying numbers they were one of the top possession teams in the league with the third best five-on-five Corsi-for percentage (53.4), are number one in scoring chances for and have the ninth best power play. Goaltending has been inconsistent, and the Golden Knights have the seventh lowest team save percentage. With the trade deadline coming up, the word is that Vegas may be looking to bolster its defensive play which could help. Ironically, DeBoer was let go in San Jose in large part due to the Sharks struggles in goal so hopefully he has figured out how to improve that as he takes over a team with similar issues.
WWT2: If you’re a coach on the hot seat beware of the Buffalo Sabres on the schedule. Gallant was fired the day after Vegas lost 4-2 to the Sabres in Buffalo on Tuesday. Earlier in the season, the New Jersey Devils fired coach John Hynes on Dec. 3rd, the day following the Devils were pummeled by the Sabres 7-1. The Buffalo Sabres are coach killers.
WWT3: With Gallant out, Vancouver Canucks head coach Travis Green becomes the ‘dean’ of Pacific Division coaches. No other head man in the Pacific has been with his club as long as Green, who has never guided the Canucks to the playoffs. Green is in his third season with Vancouver and this year’s team is the best he’s had so far. The Pacific has been a roller coaster this year, with seemingly every team still in contention and has seen three coaching changes all ready.
WWT4: The Gallant firing had the predictable reaction in Seattle as media and fans alike speculated about his fit with NHL Seattle. Would he be a fit? Obviously, Gallant is perhaps more qualified than anyone to guide an expansion team, having done so just three seasons ago. He’s known as a player’s coach which had a lot to do with his early success in Vegas, so he appears to have the credentials. Those credentials may land him on an NHL bench before NHL Seattle is ready to pull the trigger on a coach, however. Gallant will be highly sought after and the rate at which coaches have been let go this year, there are sure to be openings coming up.
WWT5: In non-coaching news, the Pittsburgh Penguins got a boost this week with the return of Sidney Crosby to the lineup. Crosby had missed 28 games for the Penguins and didn’t look rusty as he scored a goal and added three assists as the Penguins beat the Minnesota Wild to extend their point streak to four games. Pittsburgh has dealt with a number of injuries this year – Crosby and Evgeni Malkin being the most prominent – and yet are just four points behind the Washington Capitals in the Metropolitan Division. Now they get their best player back. Watch out.
WWT6: The NHL All-Star Game – set for Jan. 24 and 25 in St. Louis – announced a couple of new features for the skills competition. The big news was a Canada-U.S.A. women’s three-on-three game featuring some of the best players in the world. The American roster is highlighted by stars Hillary Knight and Amanda Kessel and the Canadians will feature Natalie Spooner, Laura Fortino and others. NHL Seattle will have a representative as pro scout Cami Granato will coach the U.S. team.
WWT7: Also added to the skills contest will be the Gatorade Shooting Stars event that will feature players attempting trick shots from platforms set up in the stands. That event joins the regular Fastest Skater, NHL Save Streak, Accuracy Shooting, and Hardest Shot.
