Episode 145 of Sound Of Hockey probably won’t age quite as well as others, since the guys recorded before Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final (sorry). BUT, there’s some great content in this one, as always.
This week, the guys start by sharing their feelings on the Matiss Kivlenieks tragedy, which hit very close to home for so many in the hockey world. They then lighten things up by chatting about the Seattle Kraken assistant coach hirings, as well as the naming of the Kraken Community Iceplex, which begs the question, “What’s an iceplex?”
Next, the final Sound Of Hockey Three Stars of the season is presented before John leads Andy and Darren in a challenging game of Let’s Get Quizzical.
Other segments this week include Weekly One-Timers and Tweets of the Week.
One of the most important pieces to any hockey team is a high-end defenseman. Every successful club has at least one guy who can move the puck, join the rush, and pile up points from the back end. In a class that features a number of such defenders, Luke Hughes is among the best, and there’s an outside chance that the Seattle Kraken call his name at the NHL Entry Draft on July 23.
If the last name Hughes sounds familiar, it should. Luke is the youngest of the Hughes brothers, all of whom were drafted with top-ten picks. Quinn Hughes was selected by the Vancouver Canucks with the seventh overall pick in 2018, while the New Jersey Devils took Jack Hughes first overall in 2019.
That is quite the track record for the Hughes clan and the case could be made that they are the new American hockey family – move aside Tkachuks.
Like Quinn, Luke is an exciting defenseman who can skate and control the puck. He’s had the fortune of watching and learning from both of his NHL brothers. That has been a big boost for Luke during his NHL Draft season.
“They kind of taught me going into the year that you got to be ready for everything,” Hughes said during the NHL’s Top Prospect media availability this week. “You’ve got to stay level-minded and you can’t get too high or low all through the year. And I think that really applies to me this year with all the COVID implications and getting shut down and quarantined at numerous times throughout the year. So, that was one big piece of advice they gave me.”
Hughes spent the season playing with the United States National Team Development Program (USNTDP) but suffered a lacerated tendon in his foot that kept him from playing in any postseason tournaments.
He is healthy now and hoping to continue following in his siblings’ footsteps. Both Quinn and Jack played for the USNTDP on their way to the NHL and Luke will follow Quinn’s path as he has committed to play for the University of Michigan next season,
“I’m super excited to go to Michigan,” Hughes said. “I think you guys know we’re going to be a really good team next year and hopefully we can go pretty far and try to win it all. So, I’m super excited for my time and I think watching my brother Quinn go through it and how much he grew up as a player, but more as a person just to meet really smart people and make longtime friends… I’m really excited for that.”
Michigan’s Owen Power, Matty Beniers, and Kent Johnson will all be selected early in this year’s draft and all could potentially return to play for the Wolverines next season. Add a Luke Hughes to that mix and the Frozen Four will be in reach.
But that’s for next season. What we care about is the draft and where Hughes will be selected.
“I think every year you’re trying to get better at something, but you know, right now I’m trying to just work on all aspects of my game so I can dominate at the next level,” Hughes said.
Defenseman Luke Hughes is a fantastic skater and puck handler which could lead him to be drafted high in July’s NHL Draft. (USA Hockey photo)
Luke Hughes by the numbers
Listed at 6-foot-2 and 176 pounds, Hughes spent last year with the USNTDP U18 club, which also gave him time competing in the USHL. He appeared in 38 games with the U18 team and scored six goals while adding 28 assists for 34 points.
He burst on the scene and started garnering attention during the 2018-19 season with the Little Caesars 15U team. Hughes posted monster, video-game-like numbers there, piling up 83 points, and 22 goals, in 71 games.
While an injury kept him from participating in the U18 Championships this spring, he did play for the US in the U17’s the prior season, scoring a goal and three assists in six games.
He says that the injury that kept him out of the U18’s is healing, and he’s set to attend the US’s World Junior Summer Showcase. It’s expected that he would make that roster and appear at next winter’s tournament, again following in his brothers’ footsteps.
“I’ve been skating for five weeks now, and I’ve been working out for like eight or nine, so I feel really good,” Hughes said about his injury. “I’m almost 100 percent… I finished rehab and there’s no problem with the toe. It feels great and I’ll be ready to go.”
What the scouts say about Luke Hughes
Hughes has been consistently ranked among the top five prospects for the upcoming draft. NHL Central Scouting has him slotted as the fourth-best North American skater. He’s been ranked as high as third and as low as 11th in the various online draft rankings.
Scouts focus on his skating and ability to handle the puck. He’s the type of skater that will draw defenders to him which frees up space on the ice for his teammates. Hughes has the ability to find those open guys with the puck and make those around him better.
“Look at what Quinn Hughes has done for the Vancouver Canucks, then you say, oh, there’s his brother Luke, who’s also in this draft,” Hockey Sense’s Chris Peters told the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. “(Luke) is 6-foot-2, where Quinn is like 5-foot-10. Luke skates very similarly to Quinn. He doesn’t have the straight-ahead speed that Quinn does yet but that could come. (Luke) is not quite as dynamic offensively either, but he is an offensive defenseman, he scores points, and he gets pucks through to the net. He makes plays.”
Hughes is not ranked as high as someone like Owen Power, but there are those who believe he ultimately has the most upside of the class.
He is confident on the ice with the puck and off it.
“I think my three biggest strengths are my hockey sense, my skating, and compete level,” Hughes said about his game. “I can play in all situations. I can play the power play I can play the PK. You know, I can defend the cycle, defend the rush, and net-front. I’m really poised with the puck in my transition game.”
Luke Hughes on film
The attributes that Hughes and scouts alike use to define his game can be found on film.
In this clip from play in the USHL, Hughes demonstrates his puck management and poise as he draws two defenders to him up high. His on-ice vision allows him to see the teammate that is left open, and he makes a sure pass that sets up a great look at the net.
Love this little bit of work by Luke Hughes. Great catch, draws pressure from two forwards at the top of the zone. Manipulates the defenders, throws a pick and creates space for his D partner to gain inside ice. How many defenders just shoot off the pass? Love to see it @FCHockeypic.twitter.com/TM70enZoZ0
In this entertaining shift, he pinches in and gets the entire defense chasing him as he controls the puck, shows off some edge work, and eventually spins a defender right off his skates to free up space for himself.
Controlling the puck to exit the zone is a key skill for a defenseman. Here is an example of Hughes retrieving it in his own end and beating two forecheckers by himself with poise to rush the puck to the opposing blue line.
Watching some USNTDP U17 hockey from early December. Stumbled upon this clip of Luke Hughes (2021). Hughes is so good. pic.twitter.com/LAs3V7sHWQ
Will the Seattle Kraken take Luke Hughes with the second overall pick?
The prevailing thought is that Seattle will pick Matty Beniers or Owen Power at number two, depending on what the Buffalo Sabres do with the first pick.
But that assessment is speculation based on the latest NHL Draft rankings around the internet. They have Hughes pegged as the fourth- or fifth-best option. Of course, none of that matters. If Seattle’s amateur scouting team and Ron Francis feel that Hughes’ potential is the highest of this class, then don’t be shocked if they select him.
Francis drafted defensemen with his first pick three of the four drafts he had while with the Carolina Hurricanes and with the number of quality blueliners in this year’s class, he could do so again by taking Luke Hughes to come away with a cornerstone of the future.
The New Jersey Devils have the fourth overall pick and if Seattle passes would love to team up Luke Hughes with his brother Jack, whom they drafted first overall in 2019.
“My brother, you know, clearly wants me to be there and that’d be super cool to play with him,” Luke Hughes said. “I’d love that but at the same time, it’s 32 great teams out there and I’d be happy to go to any one of those teams.”
Last week the Kraken announced a partnership with the Charlotte Checkers to be Seattle’s temporary affiliate in the American Hockey League (AHL). As part of the announcement, the Kraken revealed that they will be sharing the Checkers with the Florida Panthers while they wait for the future home for their own AHL team in Palm Desert to be completed for the 2022-23 season. Sharing an AHL affiliate is nothing new as the Golden Knights shared with the St. Louis Blues in Vegas’ inaugural season in 2017-18.
To understand how the Kraken might use the Checkers next season, let’s take a deep dive into how the Golden Knights used the Chicago Wolves in their first season, 2017-18.
Golden Knights prospects in Chicago
First, let us look at how many Golden Knights prospects played in Chicago during the 2017-18 season.
In his media availability last week, Seattle Kraken general manager Ron Francis stated that the Kraken would be sending between eight and 12 players including one goalie to Charlotte next season. This is close to the range the Golden Knights used in year one with the Wolves. However, there were several games where the Golden Knights had more than 12 prospects suit up and play for the Wolves.
Acquisition type
The maximum number of Vegas prospects that appeared in any one game in Chicago was 16, but there were a total of 20 players that played at least one game that entire regular season. In order to understand how Seattle might acquire AHL players, let us take a look at how the Golden Knights acquired their AHL players.
It’s interesting to see that Vegas signed nine free agents to “two-way” contracts. A “two-way” contract is when there are two different salaries associated with the player that is dependent on where that player is in the organization (either the AHL or NHL).
AHL Player Utilization Categories
When we double-click on the details of these Chicago Wolves players, we can start to see how the Kraken might use these AHL roster spots. I have classified these players into categories.
Just passing through
Alex Tuch and Shea Theodore played a total of 11 games in the AHL in October and were called up to the Golden Knights roster in November, never returning to the AHL.
Goalies
Two of the seven Chicago Wolves players that played in the NHL that season were goalies. Even with two goalies in the NHL and the two in Chicago, the Golden Knights did not have enough goalies for that season. With a whole host of injuries, Vegas actually used five different goalies in the NHL that first season. The fifth goalie used was WHL goaltender Dylan Ferguson who was used in an emergency basis. Seattle will likely need to find a spot for at least one additional goaltender in the ECHL in case of a scenario where injuries require a fourth goaltender to be used, even in a backup role.
Seasoned vets
Jason Garrison, Paul Thompson, Brandon Pirri, Philip Holm, Chris Casto, Teemu Pulkkinen, and TJ Tynan were all over 25 years old when the 2017-18 season started. Garrison and Pulkkinen were drafted in the Expansion Draft. Holm was a mid-season trade acquisition with Vancouver. Of the group, only Garrison played in the NHL that season.
Worth a look
Griffin Reinhart, Zac Leslie, Tomas Hyka, Stefan Matteau, Jake Bischoff, and Tobias Lindberg were all between 22 and 25 years old when the season started. It’s hard to know for sure what the projection was for these players when Vegas acquired them, but none of them would have much more than a cup of coffee in the NHL. This makes you wonder if acquiring those players for the 2017-18 season was worth it and how Seattle might consider minimizing these types of players.
Youngsters
Reid Duke and Keegan Kolesar were both under 22 years old when the season started in 2017-18. Duke was the first player to sign a professional contract with the franchise but has yet to play a game in the NHL. Kolesar played his first NHL game during the 2019-20 season and has emerged as an NHL regular this year, appearing in 44 of 56 regular-season games. Nick Hague joined the Chicago Wolves at the very end of the 2017-18 season for five games when his OHL season wrapped up.
The road ahead for the Seattle Kraken and the AHL
The Kraken’s approach to the utilization of the Charlotte Checkers might be answered in the Expansion Draft. They could pursue younger players that need a season or two in the AHL before expecting to make the NHL. They might also focus on free agents that are more NHL ready, as this would give the team a better chance of backfilling for injuries during the season.
Either way the next 30 days should answer a lot of the questions we have about this team in year one. Buckle up. This is going to be fun.
Man, even when we think we know something before the team has explicitly stated it, they still find a way to throw a curveball, proving once again that the Kraken are quite good at keeping secrets.
Here’s what we know about new Kraken assistant coaches Jay Leach and Paul McFarland.
Jay Leach
Leach, a 41-year-old native of Syracuse, NY, joins the Kraken after four seasons at the helm of the Providence Bruins, the AHL affiliate for Boston. Leach was successful in Providence, posting a 136-77-16 record and leading the P-Bruins to first-place finishes in the Atlantic Division in each of the last two seasons. They lost in the first round of the playoffs in 2017-18 and 2018-19, and no playoffs were held in 2019-20 or 2020-21 due to the pandemic.
Boston had reportedly considered bringing Leach up to the big squad for next season to replace recently departed Jay Pandolfo as an assistant on Bruce Cassidy’s staff, but Divver states that the opportunity with Seattle was just too good for Leach to pass up.
Journeyman player
You have to love Leach’s journey to the NHL, both as a player and as a coach. After four years at Providence College, where he was the captain of the Friars in 2000-01, Leach had to grind in every sense of the word to reach the pinnacle.
BOSTON, MA – JULY 08: Bruins coach Jay Leach during Bruins Development Camp on July 8, 2017 at Warrior Ice Arena in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire)
He played in the ECHL for the Mississippi Sea Wolves, Augusta Lynx, Long Beach Ice Dogs, and Trenton Titans. In the AHL, he had stints with the Springfield Falcons, P-Bruins, Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Norfolk Admirals, Portland Pirates, Lowell Devils, Worcester Sharks, and Albany Devils.
Leach got a two-game cup of coffee in the NHL in 2005-06 with Boston, two more games in 2007-08 in Tampa Bay, and later had more robust stretches with New Jersey, Montreal, and San Jose.
In all, Leach played 180 career ECHL games, 499 AHL games, and 70 NHL games during his 11-year pro career.
Journeyman coach
Leach began his coaching career in 2014-15 with Adler Mannheim of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in Germany, where he served as an assistant under Geoff Ward. He then joined Mike Sullivan’s staff in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton the following season, and when Sullivan was promoted to Pittsburgh, Leach assumed the head coaching role with the AHL club on an interim basis. During Leach’s one year with the WSB Penguins, current Seattle Kraken assistant general manager Jason Botterill was running the AHL team as the AGM for Pittsburgh.
The next stop for Leach was back in Providence where he played college hockey and several seasons of his pro career. He joined the P-Bruins as an assistant to Kevin Dean in 2016-17, but after that one year and a dramatic run to the AHL’s Eastern Conference Finals, Dean was promoted to become an assistant with the NHL Bruins. Leach was tabbed as Dean’s replacement as full-time head coach to start the 2017-18 season, where he has remained until now.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am for the opportunity to join the Kraken,” said Leach. “From the ownership group to Ron Francis to Dave Hakstol, it is truly an incredible opportunity to work with them. I’m looking forward to the Expansion Draft, free agency, and training camp as we start to see the team come to fruition.”
This will be Leach’s first time coaching at the NHL level. He will be responsible for overseeing Seattle’s defense.
Paul McFarland
You don’t have to look too far to find the connection between McFarland and the Kraken, as he served alongside Hakstol as an assistant in Toronto in 2019-20. At just 35 years old, he has quickly risen through the coaching ranks and proven himself every step of the way.
The Richmond Hill, Ontario, native was most recently serving as general manager and head coach of the Kingston Frontenacs of the OHL. Ironically, he did not coach a game on this stint, as the team’s season was canceled due to the pandemic, but he did coach a full season for Kingston in 2016-17 when the Frontenacs went 33-26-9.
McFarland spent two seasons running an outstanding power play for the Florida Panthers before joining the Maple Leafs. He was also an assistant with the Oshawa Generals from 2012 through 2014 and was head coach of Team Canada at the U-18 Hlinka Gretzky Cup in 2017.
It is expected that McFarland will run the Kraken’s forwards and power play.
Playing career
What makes it even more impressive that McFarland has already reached this level of coaching is that he did not really come close to the NHL as a player, a credit to his abilities behind the bench.
After four seasons in the OHL with the Kitchener Rangers and Windsor Spitfires, McFarland went on to play four seasons of U Sports hockey for Acadia University, where he was the captain of the team from his sophomore season onward.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to have the opportunity to be part of the Seattle Kraken organization,” said McFarland. “It is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I look forward to working with Dave again, the rest of our staff, and our players.”
Assistant coaches are more good finds for the Kraken
The Kraken continue to uncover diamonds in the rough with every hire they make. Leach and McFarland have great track records as both assistant and head coaches, and they are both regarded as having bright futures at the NHL level.
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.
“Secondary scoring” is a term that is thrown around as an essential ingredient to a team’s success in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I have heard it for years and have largely accepted it. For this week’s Data Dump, I want to dig into the numbers around “secondary scoring” to evaluate if it truly is important or just some playoff lore that we like to talk about.
There is no consensus definition for secondary scoring, but the general thought is that it is the scoring beyond a team’s top line or top goal scorers. Think of it as a distribution of goal scoring.
You do not have to look far in this year’s playoffs to find a good example of “secondary scoring.” For the Tampa Bay Lightning, Tyler Johnson scored two goals in Game 3 and Blake Coleman scored in Game 2 and 3 of the Stanley Cup Final. Neither of these players would be considered a top goal scorer for the Lightning, but it is not totally surprising when they do score.
Secondary scoring by the numbers
Figuring out how to evaluate secondary scoring is a challenge. After several exploratory iterations, I landed on what is the percentage of the team’s goals scored for the top-three goal scorers on the team. The lower the percentage of goals scored by these primary goal scorers, the more secondary scoring you are getting from other players.
Here is a look at the average percentage of goals scored by the top-three goal scorers in the Stanley Cup Playoffs based on the round the team reached in the postseason. Note that I excluded the first-round playoff games since the sample size of games played per team is relatively small.
Based on the visual above, teams with more secondary scoring (lower percentage in the chart) tend to go deeper in the playoffs. However, just because you have more secondary scoring, does not automatically mean a good playoff run.
Here is a look at the team detail over the last four years.
This year, Winnipeg only saw 35% of its scoring coming from their top-three goal scorers and last year, Philadelphia saw 34% of its scoring from its top three, but neither team advanced past the second-round.
It is important to consider context when looking at numbers, particularly for the teams with a small sample size. In Winnipeg’s case, Mark Scheifele, tied for second in scoring in the playoffs for the Jets, was suspended for the last three games against Montreal and therefore did not have an opportunity to score more goals. Had Scheifele played and scored, the percentage of top-three goals would have gone up, while the secondary scoring would have gone down.
Player detail
Here is a look at the player detail that has made up the top-three scorers by team by year and the percentage of teams’ total goals.
If you look at Vegas this year, Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty, and Jonathan Marchessault accounted for just 30 percent, but if you followed the Montreal-Vegas series, you would realize that those players came up relatively empty in that series with a total of one goal over the six games. The 30 percent is not really an indicator of the secondary scoring but more likely a lack of scoring from the top-three goal scorers.
Except for Tampa Bay in 2020, the Stanley Cup Final teams’ (in red) top-three goal scorers all account for less than the average of 43 percent. What stands out to me is that teams with a much greater dependency on their top-three goal scorers: Boston-2021, Boston-2020, Islanders-2019, and Pittsburgh-2018 all failed to make it past the semi-final round of the playoffs.
Conclusion
The only conclusion I can reasonably come up with based on this quick analysis is that you cannot be overly dependent on your top-three goal scorers and expect playoff success.
Although it may appear that secondary scoring is a component of playoff success, there are other factors involved. Goalies, injuries, special teams, etc. are all factors that can contribute to a team’s success. We would need to identify all the contributing factors to determine just how important secondary scoring is when we consider all these components. We could also expand the scope of the analysis to include regular season to determine how the distribution of scoring may predict playoff secondary scoring.
How would you approach understanding secondary scoring? Put your thoughts in the comments section or send me a message on twitter.
We did it, team! We made it through the 110-degree heat that suffocated our region and had more than 50 percent of us wishing that we had at some point bucked the Emerald City trend of not having air conditioning. If the unparalleled heatwave had arrived last week, at least the Seattle Kraken hiring a head coach in Dave Hakstol and a TV color commentator in JT Brown would have provided a distraction.
Instead, the fiery heat of 1,000 suns torched our region in a relatively quiet week for the Kraken, when all we could do was sweat and daydream about the artificial chill of an ice arena.
The good news is that the peak levels of swass are behind us, 4th of July weekend is upon us, and we are just 19 days away from the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft. Holy guacamole!
Kraken Community Iceplex
Hey, speaking of ice arenas, the Seattle Kraken training center at Northgate brought to you by hockey (or whatever it was previously being called) officially has a slightly more concise name now!
The team has partnered with Starbucks as its “Community Impact Partner to strengthen the community and advance inclusion and equity in Seattle.” Apparently part of that partnership means renaming the practice facility the Kraken Community Iceplex. It also means that said iceplex will have a Starbucks Community Store as one of its many amenities.
Rendering of exterior of the newly named Kraken Community Iceplex, opening in September (source: Seattle Kraken).
The word “iceplex” does have a pretty good ring to it. It’s like a complex, but it’s centered around ice. It’s an iceplex.
The partnership with Starbucks is interesting too. The coffee giant has tried to demonstrate that it cares about its community, so it’s no surprise that everything mentioned in the team’s press release about the partnership is focused on diversity, equity, and Seattle pride.
Rendering of Starbucks Community Store at Kraken Community Iceplex (source: Seattle Kraken).
UW to play its home games at Kraken Community Iceplex
One other small nugget of Seattle-centric hockey news this week was that the University of Washington’s club hockey team will begin playing its home games at the Kraken Community Iceplex this coming season. The Huskies, who compete in the ACHA, previously played their home games at Olympic View Arena in Mountlake Terrace.
The new arena is much closer to campus and obviously will provide a more modern game-day experience for players and fans alike.
We are excited to announce that we will be playing out of the Seattle Kraken’s practice facility in Northgate starting the 2021-22 season!#huskyicehockeypic.twitter.com/ZWckkuEiqa
Pre-Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft trade rumors heating up
Some Seattle Kraken trade rumors started swirling this week. The first one revolved around Duncan Keith’s status as a Chicago Blackhawk. Elliotte Friedman surmised that a trade could be brewing to send the three-time Stanley Cup winner to “either the Pacific Northwest or western Canada.”
There are rumblings Chicago is working on a potential Duncan Keith trade to either the Pacific Northwest or Western Canada. Word is Keith and team are working together to get him to a place he wants to go. We will see where this goes.
Keith has familial ties to this area of the continent, and reports indicate that the Blackhawks are trying to work with him to find a suitable landing spot. Keith has a full no-movement clause, so he can veto any trade he doesn’t like.
Keith has just two years left at a $5.5 million cap hit, but the real dollars left are quite low at $3.6 million total remaining to be paid. If there’s a sweetener thrown in to get the Kraken to take that cap hit, it makes a ton of sense to throw Keith onto the second pairing on the Kraken blue line. Keith’s kid lives in Canada, though, so north of the border is probably preferable for him.
There have also been unsubstantiated rumors flying around on Twitter that the Kraken are interested in Jake Voracek from the Flyers. Hakstol did coach Voracek, but man, at an $8.25 million annual cap hit through 2023-24, Philadelphia better be giving up its kitchen sink to get Seattle to take that on. Voracek’s production has also waned pretty dramatically in recent years, so I just don’t see it.
Meanwhile, the Nashville Predators have traded one of their core forwards, Viktor Arvidsson, to the Los Angeles Kings for a second-round pick in this year’s draft and a third-round pick next year. On paper it feels like a great deal for the Kings, who are trying to kickstart their rebuild.
Arvidsson, 28, is just two years removed from a 34-goal season, but he has been dealing with a lot of injuries of late that have greatly hampered his production. His addition to the roster means LA will likely have to expose either Blake Lizotte or Lias Andersson in the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft.
More coaches hired around the NHL
After the Kraken hired Hakstol last week, the Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes each named their bench bosses for the foreseeable future.
The Sabres have removed the interim tag from Don Granato, who did seem to have a calming influence on that organization, though the team only went 9-16-3 under his watch this season. Still, he’s a well-respected hockey man who has been through the grind of coaching at every level of the sport and survived Hodgkin’s lymphoma, so you can’t help feeling good for the guy.
The Sabres made the announcement in a pretty great way on social media.
Meanwhile, in the desert, the Coyotes went off the board a bit with their hiring of André “Bear” Tourigny as their head coach after parting ways with Rick Tocchet in May. Tourigny spent the last three seasons behind the bench of the Ottawa 67’s in the Ontario Hockey League and also coached Team Canada to silver at the 2021 World Junior Championships.
If you texted Bear to wish him congratulations, it may be a little while before you hear back.
I think I’m running late a little. Sorry everyone who I didn’t get back to yet. I’m on it pic.twitter.com/5WexKWYZLd
Former players Alex Tanguay and Tuomo Ruutu were also hired as assistant coaches in Detroit and Florida, respectively this week.
Around the boards
The Montreal Canadiens, playing in their first Stanley Cup Final since 1993, asked if they could increase the number of fans allowed into the Bell Centre for the remainder of the series from 3,500 to 10,500. The request was denied by the Quebec Public Health authorities. The decision is a tad ironic, considering thousands of fans are allowed to stand shoulder to shoulder in the streets to watch the games, but that’s neither here nor there.
— CBC Newfoundland and Labrador (@CBCNL) July 2, 2021
Jonathan Toews was back in the public eye for the first time this week since the Blackhawks announced at the beginning of the 2020-21 season that he was dealing with a mysterious illness that caused him to sit out for the entirety of the campaign.
I wasn’t too vocal about the things I went through this year. I appreciate the understanding and support and wanted to share this message on where I’m at. pic.twitter.com/3qgftKki10
I don’t know what chronic immune response syndrome is, but I know I don’t want it.
The big individual NHL Awards were announced this week. If you listen to the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, you will understand when I say that the only award that matters, of course, is the Calder Trophy. Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov won the rookie of the year award with 99 first-place votes, the biggest landslide victory since Teemu Selanne in 1992-93. Imagine being the one writer who didn’t vote for Kirill. OK, but seriously, the full list of winners can be found here.
ESPN announced its full lineup of hockey broadcasters and reporters in a video that will surely hype you up. No Gary Thorne, but still, some pretty incredible names in here.
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.
BIG-TIME GUEST ALERT! On this week’s Sound Of Hockey Podcast, the guys welcome recently retired player and newly hired TV color analyst for the Seattle Kraken, JT Brown. This is a very fun interview that you won’t want to miss, featuring discussion about Brown’s story, his audition to join the Kraken, and his exceptional gaming skills. John, Andy, and Darren also give him a few ideas for catch phrases and new ways that he can do in-game analysis.
Also in this episode, the guys talk about the big Seattle Kraken news from the past week, like the hiring of Dave Hakstol and the naming of the Charlotte Checkers as Seattle’s temporary AHL affiliate. They also break down the ugly situation happening with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Bits include Sound Of Hockey’s Three Stars. Segments include Weekly One-Timers and Tweets of the Week.
On this week’s Sound Of Hockey Podcast, the guys welcome recently retired player and newly hired TV color analyst for the Seattle Kraken, JT Brown. This is a very fun interview that you won’t want to miss, featuring discussion about Brown’s story, his audition to join the Kraken, and his exceptional gaming skills. John, Andy, and Darren also give him a few ideas for catch phrases and new ways that he can do in-game analysis.
Also in this episode, the guys talk about the big Seattle Kraken news from the past week, like the hiring of Dave Hakstol and the naming of the Charlotte Checkers as Seattle’s temporary AHL affiliate. They also break down the ugly situation happening with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Bits include Sound Of Hockey’s Three Stars. Segments include Weekly One-Timers and Tweets of the Week.
In a sign that we are somewhat returning to normal, the Canadian Hockey League held its annual Import Draft Wednesday morning. Both Puget Sound WHL teams, the Everett Silvertips and Seattle Thunderbirds, made selections to stock up on talent for the upcoming season.
While the draft was back, there were some differences this year.
The Import Draft usually occurs after the NHL Draft, but this year happened a month prior. Instead of selecting the draft order by reverse season record, the CHL held a lottery to determine order. Everett won the lottery among WHL teams and held the second overall pick.
All 60 CHL teams – including the WHL, OHL, and QMJHL – participated in the two-round process. CHL teams are allowed two imports on their roster at any one time. Both the Silvertips and Thunderbirds had import slots open so both made selections in the draft.
Players drafted are not required to play in the CHL, which means recruiting of these Import Draft picks is now underway.
Here is a closer look at who the Silvertips, Thunderbirds and the rest of the US Division selected Wednesday.
Everett Silvertips
In his first action since adding general manager to his job title, Everett head coach Dennis Williams made one pick in the Import Draft.
The Silvertips played last year without imports but were hoping they would see Kasper Puutio and Michal Gut back in the fold. Puutio was drafted in the fifth round of the 2020 NHL Draft by the Florida Panthers and signed a pro contract with KalPa Kuopio in Finland, so he will not be returning to the Silvertips. Gut is expected back, though, which is good news for Everett after he scored 13 goals and 36 points for the Silvertips in 2019-2020.
Niko Huuhtanen – Finland – RW – 6-foot-1, 203 pounds – selected No. 2 overall
The Silvertips drafted a 2021 NHL Draft eligible forward with a lot of size working for him. Huuhtanen is ranked 49th among European skaters by NHL Central Scouting and is coming off a year where he scored 20 goals and 34 points in 37 games for a U20 Tappara team in the Finnish U20 SM-sarja league. Huuhtanen also represented Finland at the U18 World Championship this past spring where he notched a pair of goals and five points in seven games.
Scouts say he has a nose for goal scoring and possesses a heavy and strong wrist shot. His strength lies more working in the cycle rather than off the rush, and he has some room to approve his skating ability. If he signs with Everett, he’ll be a load to handle down low, behind and in front of the net.
Here’s a glimpse of how deadly that wrist shot can be:
The Silvertips have some offense to make up for with Cole Fonstad and Gage Goncalves both moving on this coming season. Huuhtanen signing and being a productive player could help in that endeavor.
Seattle Thunderbirds
Seattle also went without any imports this last season. In the offseason, the Thunderbirds acquired Russian forward Vladimir Alistrov from the Edmonton Oil Kings for defenseman Simon Kubicek. They also had selected defenseman Samuel Knazko from Slovakia in last year’s Import Draft.
According to general manager Bil La Forge, Alistrov will be playing in the KHL this coming season while Knazko, who was drafted and recently signed by the Columbus Blue Jackets, has chosen to play professionally in Finland this season.
So, with no imports incoming, the Thunderbirds made two selections Wednesday.
With their first pick, 41st overall, Seattle took an Italian forward in Alessandro Segafredo and followed with a right-handed defenseman from Great Britain, Leon Okonkwo Prada with pick 86.
Seattle went with a younger pick with their first selection with Italian winger Segafredo. He’s set to turn 17 in September which means he would not be eligible for the NHL Draft until 2022. He played for a number of clubs last season, including the Zurich Lions U17 team where he appeared in 26 games and scored 25 goals, 27 assists, for 52 points. He also got into 24 games with the U20 team and added 10 more goals and 11 points.
If he were to sign, Segafredo would join what is becoming a crowded forward group for the Thunderbirds. Seattle can return all but one of the forwards it deployed last season which would make for some interesting personnel decisions for La Forge.
Leon Okonkwo Prada – Great Britain – D – 6-foot-1, 201 pounds – selected 86th overall
It’s not often that a British player comes over to play in the WHL, and for Seattle, Prada would be the first. A big defenseman with a bit of grit to his game, Prada didn’t put up huge numbers with the Swedish Rogle BK J18 last year. However, two years prior, in a U18 league he put up 21 points in 27 games for the R8 Hockey Academy. The aforementioned grit showed up as well as Prada was penalized 32 minutes in those 27 games.
Like Segafredo, Prada joins a position group that is crowded. Seattle’s defensemen from last season are all eligible to return this coming season.
— Seattle Thunderbirds (@SeattleTbirds) June 30, 2021
The rest of the U.S. Division import picks
Portland Winterhawks
With Swiss Simon Knak, who was second in team scoring last year, set to return to Portland this year the Winterhawks made one import pick Wednesday. With the 26th pick overall they selected Czech left defenseman Marek Alscher to join their young blue line.
Tri-City Americans
The Americans made one pick in the draft last year with Czech Republic goalie Tomas Suchanek, who did not play in the WHL. At pick 57 this year they selected a U18 World Championship teammate of Suchanek, forward Petr Moravec. Eligible for the 2021 NHL Draft, Moravec is ranked 82nd among international skaters by NHL Central Scouting.
Spokane Chiefs
The Chiefs made two selections Wednesday. At pick 17 overall they selected big, 6-foot-3 defenseman Timofei Kovgorenya, from Belarus. Kovgorenya is 17, a right-handed defenseman who played last year for Minsk Bison in the Vysshaya Liga.
At pick 117 Spokane selected 17-year-old German center Yannick Proske who played for his home country in the U18 World Championship.
One thing we already know about the Seattle Kraken is that they know how to keep a secret. A year ago, they announced the team’s name, logo, and jersey design with nary a leak. No stolen mockups made the rounds, and we all experienced the name together.
A week ago, they struck again by hiring Dave Hakstol as the first Kraken head coach. Hakstol’s name was not mentioned by all the self-proclaimed media insiders leading up to the official announcement.
Yet there he was at the Edgewater Inn, sitting between general manager Ron Francis and CEO Tod Leiweke last Thursday.
“We didn’t do anything extraordinary,” Francis said about keeping the hire a secret. “Dave was employed by Toronto, so we didn’t want that being out there and a distraction, as he’s coaching with the Leafs so we just had the conversations, we talked about things and, you know, I think a lot of that credit goes to Dave. He just didn’t talk about it to anybody and when you don’t do that it doesn’t get out there.”
Seems simple enough.
So, what kind of coach are the Kraken getting in Hakstol? What kind of team will he put on the ice?
“If you go through an 82-game schedule and hopefully into a playoff run, resiliency is a huge part of what our team will be about,” Hakstol said. “It’s not always easy. The teams that relish those tough days and want to come back and battle together. Those are the teams that have success. I’ve always said humility as part of the group, humility to hold standards really allows you to respect this game and the game deserves respect … those are some of the different elements that lead us to the opportunity that we have here in terms of building tradition.”
The Seattle Kraken introduced new head coach Dave Hakstol last week (photo Brian Liesse)
Dave Hakstol and numbers
The Kraken have built a robust and highly credentialed analytics staff as part of their hockey operations. Led by Alex Mandrycky, it’s obvious that Seattle will use analytics as a tool towards building, and sustaining, a successful on-ice product.
It seems to reason that hiring a coach willing to embrace and work with analytics would be of importance.
“You know when I was actually being interviewed for my position that was something we came up with,” Francis said. “The ownership group is interested in that and thought that we should make that a part of our processes as we build out our team. So, certainly when we were asking the questions on the coaches, there were questions surrounding analytics and we did that with everybody. It wasn’t the only question, but it was certainly part of the process to make our final decision for sure.”
Not all coaches have embraced analytics in today’s NHL.
It seems counter intuitive not to. Embracing analytics doesn’t mean you turn into a robot, relying on charts to set your line combinations, or make adjustments to your game plan. The data, however, informs the decisions that the coach eventually has to make.
There’s nothing wrong with making tough calls armed with as much information as possible.
“It’s a phenomenal tool for us as coaches to evaluate and to discover and to find different avenues to improve our team,” Hakstol said. “The second piece of that is still a very human game 100% on the ice, it’s played with emotion and passion… So, the combination of the two is valuable. Never forget, this is a game that’s played on emotion and it’s a human game.”
Hakstol’s time in Philadelphia was a mixed bag
Hakstol was just the third coach to go straight from coaching in college to the NHL when he accepted the head coaching gig with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2015. It came after an impressive 11-year run in college with the University of North Dakota.
He spent three full seasons with the Flyers — he was let go 31 games into his fourth year after a 12-15-4 start — and led them to the playoffs twice.
The numbers for those Flyers teams are what you would expect for a middling team that made it into the postseason but lost in the first round. Their underlying metrics were all around 50 percent, including an expected goals forced percentage of 51. His goaltending was perhaps a bit under par with a collection of guys that included Steve Mason, Brian Elliott, and a group of seven additional journeymen who manned the pipes during his last season.
Over the three full years he was a coach, the Flyers’ goalies combined for a high-danger save percentage of 79 percent, which was 30th in the league for that time. Hakstol needed a guy to make a save for him.
None of that is to suggest that Hakstol was responsible for the Flyers inability to find a consistent goaltender. That’s long been a hitch in the Flyers’ stride and was so until Carter Hart arrived at the end of Hakstol’s tenure in 2018-2019.
It’s also tough to glean too much information from the stats of those Flyers teams when assessing Hakstol. Even the best coaches require talented players and the Flyers’ struggles this past season, where they failed to make the playoffs with a minus-38 goal differential, suggest that the team’s problems were deeper than coaching.
Hakstol has a chance now to take the lessons learned from that experience, plus two years as an assistant with a good Toronto team, and apply them to the Kraken, something he talked about last week.
There have been many cases of “second chance” coaches who didn’t win big in their first go-around but would get a second shot and end up succeeding. See Gerard Gallant, who had only a first-round loss in four years between Columbus and Florida before taking Vegas to the Cup Final in 2018.
Or check out Pete DeBoer, who has taken two teams, New Jersey and San Jose, to the Stanley Cup Final and three of the last four conference finals. Before all that he spent three seasons as the Florida Panthers head coach (2008-2011) and missed the playoffs each time.
Hakstol’s track record shows that he knows the game and knows how to win. That’s what led him to be the first Kraken head coach.
Coach Hakstol on team leadership with Kraken
During last Thursday’s press conference, Hakstol talked about the task ahead.
He has to put together a coaching staff and prepare to take a collection of payers thrown together after the Expansion Draft on July 21.
Part of that is finding leadership. There won’t be an established leader when the team first is assembled. The Vegas Golden Knights had the same challenge and famously didn’t have a captain until turning to Mark Stone this past season. Leadership is an important part of a hockey team and with the constant turnover of a college roster, it’s something Hakstol has some experience with.
“There may be that one guy that’s just absolute,” he said. “If that’s the case that usually becomes pretty apparent. With any group that I’ve coached I look at the core group. Our core leadership group. What the number of that group is, I don’t know what that number will be, maybe it’s four, five, maybe six, but its more so than just solely focusing on who the captain will be. It’s focusing on that leadership group.”
Don’t be surprised if there is no official Kraken captain in year one.
