A week after coaching the Washington Capitals to the 2018 Stanley Cup championship, Barry Trotz was spotted getting off a plane at Sea-Tac Airport. The news spread quickly and Seattle hockey fans took to social media, breathlessly speculating he was in Seattle to interview for the head coach job with the yet to be named NHL Seattle franchise.
The excitement was and is understandable.
He was on the market as his contract with the Capitals had expired and is considered one of the best in the business. It didn’t matter to fans that Seattle had not officially been awarded an NHL franchise, nor that it had no general manger to interview Trotz. He had a Stanley Cup ring and that made him attractive.
As it turned out, Trotz was grabbing a connecting flight to Canada and ended up signing with the New York Islanders shortly after.
It happened again this past season when the Toronto Maple Leafs fired Mike Babcock. Another Stanley Cup winner was available and despite his prickly nature, and questionable tactics with players, there were calls for him to be the first head coach in Seattle.
We are a season away from the Seattle Kraken first season and they have yet to hire a bench boss. Finding that first coach could happen at any time and will be the next big hire for the franchise. General Manager Ron Francis said earlier this summer that the team was going to wait until the 2019-2020 season concluded before exploring a coach hire.
Once the Tampa Bay Lightning raised the Cup in October, Seattle went on the clock.
The goal is to win a championship so why not hire a guy with a ring? Babcock is still available but the fall out from his time in Toronto makes him an unlikely candidate. Will his track record of success sway Francis?
While its enticing to get an experienced Cup winner behind the bench, history tells us that the chances another championship is on the way are slim.
In fact, since 1968 only one coach has won the Stanley Cup with more than one team. Scotty Bowman won the Cup with the Montreal Canadiens, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Detroit Red Wings and nobody else comes close.
Unfortunately, Bowman has retired from coaching and is not available. As investment bankers will warn, past performance does not predict future earnings so at some point a coach will match Bowman and win the Cup with multiple teams. The odds are long however and perhaps Seattle should cast a wider net for its coach.
It’s expected that Francis will look to an experienced coach who has been behind the bench of an NHL team in the past. Due to the nature of being an expansion team, that makes sense. The team Francis pulls together at the expansion draft will have to learn how to play with each other so having a leader who doesn’t have to also learn how to be an NHL coach is a plus.
But does an experienced coach promise better success than a guy coaching in the league for the first time?
Of the 31 current coaches in the NHL, 20 had been head coaches in the league prior to holding their current position. That includes Lindy Ruff in New Jersey and Peter Laviolette in Washington, both of whom were hired in the offseason .
Only two of those coaches have won the Stanley Cup with their current teams (St. Louis’ Craig Berube and Pittsburgh’s Mike Sullivan) while 13 have made the playoffs. Both Trotz with the Islanders and Peter DeBoer with Vegas have coached their current team to the conference finals – both of which occurred this past postseason.
DeBoer is one of three of the experienced coaches who have reached the Final with two different franchises, getting there with the Devils in 2012 and San Jose in 2016. Philadelphia had a good season with the experienced Alain Vigneault behind the bench and he made previous Final runs with Vancouver in 2011 and with the New York Rangers in 2014. Laviolette has yet to coach a game for the Capitals but he won the Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006 while losing the Final with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010 and Nashville in 2017.
Having an experienced coach can lead to success in terms of making the playoffs and reaching the Final. During the last ten Stanley Cup Finals, only one team was coached on either the winning or losing side by a guy in his first stint as a head coach.
That one coach is Jon Cooper who has lost and won with Tampa Bay. Cooper is one of 11 coaches who are currently working their first NHL bench and of those, eight have reached the postseason. Outside of Cooper, Carolina’s Rod Brind’Amour has guided his club the furthest, reaching the Eastern Conference championship in 2019.
It’s difficult to judge the new coaches as they haven’t coached long enough to make conclusions but it is clear that an inexperienced coach doesn’t necessarily mean your team won’t or can’t be successful.
Colorado’s Jared Bednar and Vancouver’s Travis Green are first time coaches who have young teams overflowing with talent and could be in for successful runs in the near future.
Coaching matters in the NHL. The head coach does more than dump a bucket of pucks on the ice at practice. He has to establish the roster, line combinations, goalie rotations, defensive pairings, power-play strategy, break outs, neutral zone systems, faceoff set plays, the penalty kill, forechecks, and find chemistry among his players. Finding the right match is vital.
Francis will bear a lot of the responsibility here.
Not only will it be his decision as to who steps behind the Kraken bench for game one, but he will pick the players on the roster. A good coach can squeeze wins out of talent but if there is none, that coach will have a hard time winning. Did Joel Quenneville suddenly become a good coach when he got to Chicago and won three Cups after limited success in St. Louis and Colorado? Or was the difference that he had Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews?
Experienced or not, Francis will need to give the Kraken first coach something to work with.
Seattle needs a coach who can work with a mix of players who have not played together before. Former Vegas head man, Gerrard Gallant, is the only head coach who has experienced the modern expansion process. He had success and is available after being fired mid-season this past year.
Could he be a Seattle candidate? Does he want to go through expansion again? Gallant feels like a match, but one has to wonder why Seattle hasn’t talked to him already. Nothing has stopped the Kraken from reaching out and there haven’t been any reports of those talks happening.
Francis has time to make a choice, but the clock is ticking. Will he choose a coach who has been through the NHL grind before? Or will he look to a younger, hungrier, greener coach who’s been a successful as an assistant or head coach in a lower level to lead the Kraken?
With the NHL Draft and the opening of free agency, the Sound Of Hockey guys have a lot to cover in a short time this week, so they follow-up last week’s introduction to “Interesting or Carry On?” with an extended version of the fledgling segment this week.
Together, John, Andy, and Darren give a quick run-down of all 31 teams and their recent moves, deciding along the way which clubs deserve a little more attention.
Other segments this week include Weekly One-Timers and Tweets of the Week.
Free agency is upon us and, even though the Seattle Kraken will not be participating, there are still things to keep an eye on this year that could impact the Kraken down the road.
Here are my top 5 things to keep an eye on during free agency.
The NMC
Look for any players signing deals that have a Full No-Move Clause (NMC). NMC’s are generally reserved for the cream of the crop of free agent players. A NMC means that the team must protect the player in next summer’s Expansion Draft. It is highly likely that these players would be protected without the NMC, but the NMC will limit teams’ options. Anything that restricts other teams’ options and flexibility should be considered a good thing for Seattle.
Cap Crunch teams
All teams will be impacted by the flat salary cap related to COVID-19 lost revenues, but the more teams spend to the cap, then the more vulnerable these teams will be during the Expansion Draft. This could benefit Seattle during the Expansion Draft in 2 ways:
Teams could expose some high-value, high-cap-hit players with the hopes that Seattle selects these players to shed some salary cap. Of course, this doesn’t mean Seattle will select this player, so let’s go to #2.
Similar to what happen in the Vegas Expansion Draft, teams could negotiate side deals with Seattle to shed some high salary players in an effort to create more salary cap space to sign pending RFAs or other UFAs in 2021. Anaheim traded Shea Theodore to Vegas for taking Clayton Stoner and Winnipeg traded a 1st round pick and a 3rd round pick for in exchange for Vegas selecting Chris Thorburn Bottom line we want teams to spend to their limit.
Shea Theodore was traded to Vegas from Anaheim as compensation for Vegas selecting Clayton Stoner in the 2017 Expansion Draft. (Photo by Jeff Speer/Icon Sportswire)
Goalies Carousel
This is certainly the trendy topic leading into the free agency period and for good reason. This year will probably see the most goalies change teams that the league has ever seen in any prior offseason. There are some high-profile goalies that will change teams this year. Corey Crawford (CHI), Jacob Markstrom (VAN), and Braden Holtby (WAS) are likely to change homes. For the 30 teams participating in the 2021 Expansion Draft (Vegas is exempt), each team will only be able to protect one goalie, so goalie signings this free agent period should give us a better sense of which goalies get exposed in the upcoming expansion draft next summer.
Short Term Deals
Keep an eye out for short term deals, as in really short. The scenario here is that a big time free agent signs a one-year deal with the hopes of either winning a championship with a well-positioned team or the player might take a one-year deal with the hope that they can sign a more lucrative deal with a team that has a lot of cap space…as in Seattle. This would be the Taylor Hall to Colorado on a 1-year deal.
Crowded Blue Lines
Alex Pietrangelo (STL), Torey Krug (BOS), Tyson Barrie (TOR), Kevin Shattenkirk (TBL), TJ Brodie (CGY), and Sami Vatanen (CAR) are all likely to find new homes in free agency. Wherever they sign, odds are decent that they will be protected, which means that some other defender will be exposed. There are several teams that already have some interesting decisions to make regarding who to protect on the blue line in the upcoming Expansion Draft. Having more teams with crowded blue lines will expose more talent and will be better for Seattle.
Several of these scenarios might not play out and we still expect some more roster movement leading up to the 2021 Expansion Draft, but we are starting to put the cake in the oven. We should have a better idea how it will turn out very shortly during this free agency period.
An NHL Draft in October? It wouldn’t seem possible that is what the pandemic world brought us as the NHL went online for this year’s selection fest.
Tuesday’s first round didn’t offer too many shocking surprises but there were picks of interest.
As expected, the New York Rangers took Alexis Lafreniere from the QMJHL with the first overall pick and he should jump right to the NHL. The real drama was who would go second to the Los Angeles Kings.
The Kings ended that drama by taking Quinton Byfield from the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves at number two while German star Tim Stutzle was snatched up by the Ottawa Senators with the third pick.
Day two of the draft took place Wednesday and we mean all of Wednesday. With the draft taking place online the pace slowed and it became the unbearable length of the Draft. What started at 8:30 AM Pacific ended close to 4:30 PM.
At that kind of pace it is easy to miss things but we’ve got you covered. Here are some of the highlights from the 2020 NHL Draft that you may have missed.
Byfield’s historic day
By coming off the board second overall Byfield became the highest drafted black player in the history of the NHL. Two players, Seth Jones in 2013 and Evander Kane in 2009 were selected fourth overall in their respective drafts.
“It definitely means a lot to me,” Byfield said of the honor. “It’s something special and being in the record books for anything is special…my Dad and Mom didn’t play hockey or have too much knowledge about that. It’s just growing the game together. It just shows that there’s a lot of opportunity for everybody in the world and you can play every sport and be successful in it.”
The Germans are coming
Earlier this month Leon Draisaitl became the first German player to win the Hart Trophy as the NHL MVP. He was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers, out of the WHL, in 2014. It was the highest a German player had been drafted and now he has company as Stutzle went to the Senators at number three Tuesday night.
There is a German surge of players as Stutzle wasn’t the only German taken in the first round. At pick 17, the Chicago Blackhawks took Lukas Reichel out of Berlin. It’s the first time ever two Germans were selected in the first round.
Early in the second, at pick 34, Buffalo drafted John-Jason Peterka from Munich giving the Germans three players selected early in the draft. You can bet some scouting trips overseas are being booked to take a closer look at the German leagues.
The international game
Canadian players led the way over the two-day draft, with 70 players selected. That was followed by 52 American players and 32 Swedes.
In all, players from 13 different countries and 27 different leagues were drafted.
Ottawa 67’s (OHL) star Marco Rossi was taken ninth overall by the Minnesota Wild and he became the fifth Austrian born player picked in the first round and only Thomas Vanek – picked fifth by Buffalo in 2003 – was taken out of Austria higher.
Big day for Senators
They’ve been the butt of jokes for the past few years thanks to some head scratching PR fumbles as well as a lot of losses but the Ottawa Senators had two good days.
Loaded with 13 picks coming into the Draft, the Senators used three in the first round, starting with Stutzle at three. They also held the fifth pick and used it to take US defenseman Jake Sanderson from the USNTD program. Ottawa finished their first-round haul by looking at the WHL to pick Ridley Greig from the Brandon Wheat Kings at 28.
The Draft ended with 10 picks going to Ottawa plus they picked up a starting goalie after swinging a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins for Matt Murray. The Senators sent Jon Gruden and a second round pick to the Penguins in the deal.
Suddenly, the Senators aren’t so funny.
Another strong draft for the WHL
For the second straight Draft, the WHL saw 28 players taken by NHL clubs. Last year that was tops among all development leagues and while the league had another strong showing, it came up three short as the OHL led the way with 31 players picked.
Portland’s Seth Jarvis was selected by the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2020 NHL Draft’s first round. (Brian Liesse)
Locally, the US Divisions teams did well, highlighted by Portland Winterhawks star Seth Jarvis being the first WHL player chose. Jarvis went in the first round with pick 13 to the Carolina Hurricanes. He wasn’t the only Winterhawk who had his name called as Cross Hanas was selected by the Detroit Redwings at 55 and Tampa Bay took Jaydon Dureau with pick 147.
Gage Goncalves of the Everett Silvertips was a big riser, going to the Lightning with the last pick of the second round. The center exploded for 33 goals this past season after scoring once the year before and flew up the draft rankings. He was joined Wednesday by Everett teammates Kasper Puutio (153 to Florida) and Ronan Seeley (208 to Carolina).
Spokane’s Jack Finley was picked in the second round by the Lightning – Tampa Bay obviously scouted the US division – and Post Falls, Idaho product Bear Hughes was picked 148th by the Washington Capitals.
Defenseman Tyrel Bauer of the Seattle Thunderbirds was taken by the Winnipeg Jets with pick 164 and teammate Matthew Rempe was taken with the next pick by the New York Rangers.
Sound of Hockey is here to get you fully prepared for the NHL Draft, which will take place virtually on the evening of Tuesday, 10/6. Even if you get to this after the Draft, though, it should hold up pretty well, as you will learn about the guys that get selected.
The best way that Andy, John, and Darren know how to help bring you up to speed is to welcome back their best friend and ESPN prospect/draft guru, Chris Peters. Chris once again dazzles with his unmatched wealth of knowledge, and will leave you feeling like an expert.
On this episode, the guys also welcome Matthew Rempe, a 6’8″ prospect from the Seattle Thunderbirds who has a solid shot at getting selected. Matthew brings some serious bulletin board material in his interview.
Plenty of NHL transactions to discuss this week as well.
Segments include Weekly One-Timers and Tweets of the Week.
Sound of Hockey is here to get you fully prepared for the NHL Draft, which will take place virtually on the evening of Tuesday, 10/6. Even if you get to this after the Draft, though, it should hold up pretty well, as you will learn about the guys that get selected.
The best way that Andy, John, and Darren know how to help bring you up to speed is to welcome back their best friend and ESPN prospect/draft guru, Chris Peters. Chris once again dazzles with his unmatched wealth of knowledge, and will leave you feeling like an expert.
On this episode, the guys also welcome Matthew Rempe, a 6’8″ prospect from the Seattle Thunderbirds who has a solid shot at getting selected. Matthew brings some serious bulletin board material in his interview.
Plenty of NHL transactions to discuss this week as well.
Segments include Weekly One-Timers and Tweets of the Week.
The NHL Entry Draft is this Tuesday (First Round) & Wednesday (Rounds 2-7). For all the new hockey fans out there, I thought it would be a good idea to lay out how the NHL Entry Draft works. The NHL Draft works similarly to the NFL, NBA, or MLB drafts. It consists of seven rounds, with each round consisting of the same number of selection choices as there will be teams in the League in the following season. The draft order is generally determined based on a “Worst to First” order of the most recent completed season. However, the top 3 teams of the draft order are determined by a weighted lottery system of teams that did not qualify for the playoffs.
Who gets drafted?
The NHL Entry draft is for top hockey players 18 – 20 years of age. Last year there were 217 players selected by NHL teams across 138 teams and 33 leagues that can be classified as amateur, development, or other international professional leagues. The most prominent leagues are the United States Hockey League (USHL), Ontario Hockey League (OHL), Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), and the Western Hockey League (WHL). The WHL should sound familiar to Washington and Oregon residents because that is the league where the Spokane Chiefs, Tri-City Americans, Everett Silvertips, Seattle Thunderbirds, and Portland Winterhawks play.
You can expect that over 50% of the players drafted will come from these 4 leagues with the other 50% spread across ~30 other leagues.
Nationality
From a ‘Place of Birth’ perspective, most of the draft picks are born in the US or Canada but that overall % is decreasing as Finland, Russia, and Swedish born players have been increasing in number over the last couple of years.
Expectations
Not all draft picks will play in the NHL and it will be several years before we see some of these players in the NHL. The vast majority of draft picks will be sent to club affiliates or back to their amateur, development, or college teams to develop further until which time they are called up.
Here is a look at how those games are played for skaters over a career based on year after draft.
And here is a look at those games spread over a career for goalies based on year after the draft.
Given that draft picks may not be seen playing in the NHL for several seasons after the draft, the draft is a reflection of the future state of NHL teams. I hope this gives you a little bit more appreciation and understanding for the NHL Entry Draft.
When NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman opens the NHL Draft this coming Tuesday it will look different than ever before.
Instead of addressing the gathered NHL clubs and fans from a stage, serenaded by boos from the cheap seats, he’ll start the proceedings via an online stream. The cutaways to young players in the stands sweating it out in their newly pressed suits alongside their families will be replaced with web cams of prospects’ living rooms as they gather around a television.
That won’t assuage the excitement of the draft as hundreds of young players wait to have their dreams fulfilled. It will be a long couple of days for prospects but filled with hope of hearing an NHL team announce that they’ve been drafted.
Every draft has its unexpected or unpredictable elements. There will be risers and fallers, trades, and a number of surprises over the two-day event.
What we do know is that the New York Rangers have the first pick and will draft Alexis Lafreniere to kick off the opening round. With the QMJHL’s Rimouski Oceanic, Lafreniere has been dominant. He played in 173 games over his three-year career with Rimouski and scored 114 goals with 297 points.
As NHL scouts might say, ‘that’s decent’.
The goals and points are impressive, and he’s got speed, skill, and the all-important hockey sense which makes him the clear pick. His major-junior days are in the past as the Rangers will add him to their roster next season.
The NHL will conduct the first round of the draft on Tuesday with the remaining six rounds conducted Wednesday. Here’s what to watch for over both days.
Is it Byfield or Stutzle at number two?
Often resembling a marquee horse race, the ‘battle’ between Quinten Byfield and Tim Stutzle to be the second overall pick has been fun to watch this season. Who goes number two depends on who you talk to, or which draft ranking you believe in.
The general consensus among the online scouts lean Byfield’s way but none of that matters. All that does is what the Los Angeles Kings – holders of the number two pick – think of the two prospects.
Both are great players and worthy of being selected at number two.
Byfield plays for the OHL’s Subdury Wolves and is coming off a monster year that saw him pile up 82 points in 45 games. He’s 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds and while he looks like a power forward, he has the skill of a smaller player.
The collector of bow ties can skate with the best of them and has the speed to pressure the defense. He’s also got a big shot, is a play-maker, and physically is ready for the NHL game now.
There was an outside chance that Stutzle could have played here in the Pacific Northwest during the past WHL season. Drafted by the Seattle Thunderbirds in the 2019 CHL Import Draft out of Germany, Stutzle weighed his options briefly and chose to play in the German pro DEL last year with Manheim.
Rather than play against his age group, he was able to compete against men in a pro league at 17-years-old and posted 34 points in 41 games. He doesn’t have the size of Byfield – listed at 6-foot-1 and 187 pounds – but he’s got speed, dekes, and the potential to be a dynamic scorer.
Stutzle played on the wing last year but has the ability to switch to center, something he did in his younger days and something that makes him a more valuable prospect.
Where will the prospects come from?
Last year’s draft was a boom for both the U.S. National Team Development players and the WHL. The American program set a new record by having seven players selected in the first round while the WHL led all amateur leagues with 28 players taken overall.
Who’s going to lead the way this year?
After a down year in 2019, the OHL looks poised to have a big draft, especially in the first round. NHL’s Central Scouting has nine OHL players ranked among the top 31 of North American players. Byfield leads the way but look for Jamie Drysdale (Erie Otters), Cole Perfetti (Saginaw Spirit), and Marco Rossi (Ottawa 67’s) to be potential top ten picks.
Stutzle’s selection will be the second German-born player to go in the first round in as many drafts after Moritz Seider went sixth overall to Detroit last year. Stutzle may not be the only German taken in the first round this season. Germany has another high ranked prospect, John-Jason Peterka, who could end up selected in the top 31 slots. Like Stutzle, Peterka played professional last year, in the DEL, with Munchen.
How high will a goalie go?
Drafting a goalie is an adventure. It’s a position that develops on a different trajectory than others and its rare that they end up in the first round, especially early on.
During last year’s Draft in Vancouver, Spencer Knight of the USTD was taken by the Florida Panthers 13th overall, which was the highest goalie taken since Tampa Bay nabbed Andrei Vasilevsky at 19 during the 2012 Draft. That pick worked out well for the Lightning.
The first goalie to go in next week’s draft will be Yaroslav Askarov. The Russian has already begun his season, playing with St. Petersburg in the KHL, and is off to a great start by sporting a .974 save-percentage. Not bad for an 18-year-old playing in a professional league with older, veteran guys.
🚫🚨ASKAROV SHUTOUT🚨🚫
Yaroslav Askarov shuts out Spartak with a 33 save performance as SKA takes the game 2-0 in his first KHL start of the season!
Will the team that takes him have the same outcome as the Lightning have with Vasilevsky?
Will there be trades?
Under normal conditions, all 31 NHL teams are at the draft. Tables are set up on the main floor and with that many general managers in close proximity to each other, trades happen, often completed with face-to-face conversations.
Teams will be hunkered down at their home offices this time around. Will that limit trades?
Not likely.
With a tight salary cap situation due to the flat cap, there will be trades next week. Teams will either look to unload a current player to stockpile picks and free cap space, or cash in draft assets for a player to improve their roster.
It can be hard to predict, but there are six teams who have 10 or more picks this draft year. Montreal has 14 selections and Ottawa has 13 picks on the books. They could be candidates to wheel and deal and pick up an NHL player who will help right away in exchange for a prospect who may never make it to the league.
How will the locals fare?
A year ago, seven players from the WHL’s US Division were selected in the draft led by the Seattle Thunderbirds who had three guys picked.
The Portland Winterhawks and Everett Silvertips will have the most players off the board this time around. Portland’s Seth Jarvis will be the first US Division player taken as the speedy forward (who scored 98 points last season) is projected to be a first-round selection.
Portland’s Seth Jarvis vaulted himself into a top NHL Draft prospect this year. (Brian Liesse)
Everett’s Ronan Seely and Kasper Puutio will go in the next couple of rounds while Spokane’s Jack Finley could be a second or third rounder. Seattle should see defensemen Simon Kubicek and Tryel Bauer taken as well while it doesn’t look like the rebuilding Tri-City Americans will have a player drafted this year.
He’s not in the U.S. Division but Medicine Hat Tigers forward Lukas Svejkovsy, who hails from Point Roberts, Wa, should hear his name called in day two.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are your Stanley Cup Champions, and the guys from Sound Of Hockey have a lot of opinions about it.
On this week’s episode, John, Andy, and Darren dig deep into what it took for Tampa Bay to reach the promised land, before turning their attention to the upcoming NHL Draft. To do so, they welcome Seth Jarvis of the Portland Winterhawks and Gage Goncalves of the Everett Silvertips, two players expecting to hear their names called by an NHL team in October. Both interviews are fun, quick listens that give you a good idea of what it’s like to wait for your opportunity to get drafted in the midst of a pandemic.
Portland’s Seth Jarvis vaulted himself into a top NHL Draft prospect this year. (Brian Liesse)
Also in this episode, the guys discuss their takeaways from the event that was the Stanley Cup Final, as well as recent transactions in the NHL.
Segments this week include You Don’t See That Every Day, Weekly One-Timers, and Tweets of the Week.
