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.
I am constantly asked what’s the latest with the NHL Team in Seattle. Questions vary between when are we going to hear the name? When can I purchase my tickets? When is the practice facility opening? How are we going to land Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews in the expansion draft? Lately, I’ve been getting questions on what to expect in the next year. To address the last question, I thought I would share my thoughts based on what has been publicly communicated or historical knowledge based on launches of other franchises over the years. By no means should any of this be considered a “plan of record” from the actual NHL Seattle franchise, but more so my thoughts and speculation.
Next year is going to be a big year for the NHL Seattle franchise. Let’s take a look at what to expect from the club.
Team Name & Branding
Duh. This should not be a surprise since most of us expected it in 2019 (for good reason). 2020 will be the year that we can finally put this “discussion” to rest and move on with a team identity. Along with the name, you can bet we will get the team colors and logo, as well. The Vegas NHL franchise announced their name just 10 months before they took the ice for the first season. The current publicly communicated timeline for a name is “first half” of 2020. I take that as March, April or June, which will be more than a full year before the team takes the ice. No team name announcement will come during the Stanley Cup Playoffs as this will detract from the playoffs. So, by the process of elimination, I narrowed it down to just before the playoffs or after the Stanley Cup Final. (Again to be 100% clear, this is pure speculation based on a rough understanding on historically how major announcements like these get made by the league).
Construction projects
To the fans, the #1 priority is the team name, but to NHL Seattle and the Oak View Group (OVG), they have three major construction projects that are probably a bigger priority with tight timelines and huge financial investments.
The Seattle Center Arena
The sooner the Arena at Seattle Center is complete, the sooner OVG can start to recoup their $1 Billion private investment. For hockey, the arena needs to be completed by Mid-September 2021, but the Seattle Storm is a tenant that was expected to start their 2021 season in the new building (~May 2021). Additionally, the sooner the arena is complete, the sooner they can start booking concerts and shows. Bottom line, OVG is motivated to get this completed as soon as possible and a bulk of the construction will be done in 2020.
Practice Facility at Northgate
Let’s not forget about the 3-sheet practice facility in Northgate. Typically, NHL Teams have a prospect camp shortly after the NHL Entry Draft, that would put it roughly in the July 2021 timeline. I imagine there could be some contingency to hold the camp at one of the other local rinks in the area, but I am sure that is not the preferred option. The drop-dead date for the practice facility is probably September of 2021 when NHL training camps begin.
Arena in Palm Springs
As if the two major construction projects weren’t enough, OVG and NHL Seattle decided to take on building a new arena for an expansion AHL Team that will serve as the affiliate for the Seattle NHL franchise. The Palm Springs Arena is expected to break ground soon with completion by the start of the AHL Season in Fall of 2021. The 10,000 seat arena has an estimated cost of $250 Million. Interesting side note is that Vegas did not have to build an arena (or team) for their AHL affiliate as they plugged into an existing AHL franchise, the Chicago Wolves and shared that affiliate with the St. Louis Blues in their first year.
None of these projects will be complete in 2020, but all of them should be making major gains and at least start to resemble a final product at this time next year.
Season Tickets
In the last 3 months the customer account representatives at NHL Seattle have been meeting with Club Seat season depositors for seat selection of the ~2000 club seats in the new arena. The next 6 months should be the window where NHL Seattle goes through the non-club season ticket depositors which are truly the majority of season tickets. How they pull this off should be interesting. For club seats, they had customized one-on-one type appointments at the NHL Seattle Visitors Center. That simply will not scale to get through ~10,000+ season ticket depositors. How they lay out price points will be interesting as well since the high Club Seat prices seemed to catch some people off guard. (Side Note: NHL is one of the most expensive pro sporting events to attend, so it could be people were unaware and did not anticipate the sticker shock.) The team has also hinted at split season ticket packages and game packs to give an opportunity for more fans to check out a game.
Arena Name
Let’s face it, “New Arena at Seattle Center” does not exactly roll of the tongue. We should expect an announcement of the official name and sponsor of the new arena sometime in 2020. There is nothing urgent about naming the arena but these things generally happen well before the project is complete. For comparison, the Golden State Warriors new arena got a name three and half years before it opened (and a year before they broke ground).
Ramping up hockey staff
We probably won’t hear much on the hockey operations side, but the team will need to start ramping the amateur and European scouting staff. These are critical positions that need time to evaluate and gather intel about the players across all the various pro and amateur leagues. (FYI, you might want to catch this Pacific Science Event: The Science of Scouting.)
It might be a long shot, but hiring a coach in 2020 is not out of the realm of possibility. When the Seattle franchise hired Ron Francis close to 2 years before the first NHL Entry Draft, they signaled that if the right person is available, they will not hesitate to pull the trigger in hiring them. You can expect that same guiding principle when hiring the first head coach. For comparison, Gerard Gelant was hired by the Vegas Golden Knights 5 months before they started their first training camp. I frankly don’t see the Seattle franchise waiting that long to find a coach.
Episode 68 of Sound of Hockey is here, and although Andy came down with apparent food poisoning just before recording, he still manages to participate remotely, while John and Darren keep things rolling in studio.
It’s a fun episode this week in general, as the guys break down the coaching change in Nashville, give their stream of consciousness thoughts on the Winter Classic, and recap the last week of the WJC.
They also ask the age-old question, is the correct phrase “coming down the pike” or “coming down the pipe?” Tune in to find out.
Segments this week include Bad Boys, You Don’t See That Every Day, and Weekly One-Timers.
A new year is here, and so too is a new episode of Sound of Hockey.
That Benedict Arnold, known as Andy Eide, has returned from a one-week hiatus (suspension?) to fill us in on what’s happening in the WHL, and he joins John and Darren to give a full breakdown of what’s been playing out at the World Junior Championship.
Also in this episode, the guys wax poetic about the year and decade that have been, and opine on what we should expect in the 2020 hockey world.
Segments this week include Goalie Gear Corner, Buy, Sell, or Hold, and Weekly One-Timers.
expected it in 2019 (
in Northgate. Typically, NHL Teams have a prospect camp shortly after the NHL Entry Draft, that would put it roughly in the July 2021 timeline. I imagine there could be some contingency to hold the camp at one of the other local rinks in the area, but I am sure that is not the preferred option. The drop-dead date for the practice facility is probably September of 2021 when NHL training camps begin.
will need to start ramping the amateur and European scouting staff. These are critical positions that need time to evaluate and gather intel about the players across all the various pro and amateur leagues. (
