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NHL playoff marathon ready to launch

The NHL playoffs are ready to face off this Wednesday, April 10th as 16 teams will be fighting it out for the Stanley Cup. Let’s take a quick look at who’s playing who and each club’s chances of moving on to the second round.

Eastern Conference

Tampa Bay Lightning vs Columbus Blue Jackets

The Lightning locked up their playoff spot long ago as the top team in the NHL and Atlantic Division champions. Their 62 wins tied a league record and forward Nikita Kucherov won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer with 128 points. In addition, goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy led the league in wins with 39. Columbus made the playoffs on the last weekend of the season as the second wildcard team in the East. The club acquired pending free agent forwards Ryan Dzingel and Matt Duchene at the trade deadline and also hung onto their own pending free agent stars in forward Artemi Panarin and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who led the league with nine shutouts. Tampa Bay won all three games in the season series and should be able to take care of Columbus in the first round of the playoffs, but it won’t be a cakewalk.

Boston Bruins vs Toronto Maple Leafs

The Bruins finished second in the Atlantic Division while the Leafs weren’t far behind in third. The teams have met twice in the postseason in recent years with Toronto blowing a lead in the third period of game seven on both occasions. When the teams met last season the Bruins’ line of David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand combined for 30 points in the series as the Leafs simply couldn’t contain them. However, defenceman Jake Muzzin and  forward John Tavares have been added to Toronto’s lineup over the past year and that could make a difference. The Leafs have plenty of offence, but struggle defensively and that’s why Boston won the season series three games to one. The Leafs haven’t played well down the stretch and Boston is favoured to advance in a relatively long series.

Washington Capitals vs Carolina Hurricanes

The Capitals won the Metropolitan Division again this season and are of course the defending Stanley Cup champions. Sniper Alexander Ovechkin led the league in goals for a record-setting eighth time with 51 and the Hurricanes finally ended a nine-year postseason drought this year. Carolina was one of the hottest teams in the league during the second half of the season with a record of 31-12-2 and locked up the conference’s first wildcard spot. Carolina has a good mix of veterans and youth, but they failed to beat Washington in four tries during the regular season. The Stanley Cup champions should advance, but Carolina will keep the games and series close.

New York Islanders vs Pittsburgh Penguins

The Islanders placed second in the Metropolitan Division with the Penguins coming in third. Barry Trotz took over as head coach of the Islanders this season and turned the league’s worst defensive team in 2078/18 into one of the best this year. Goaltender’s Robin Lehner and Thomas Greiss each had remarkable campaigns to make up for the team’s lack of offence. The Penguins big guns include Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby and it will be interesting to see if the Islanders can contain them. The Islanders went 2-1-1 against Pittsburgh in the season series and if they can score enough goals may pull off a mild upset here.

Western Conference

Calgary Flames vs Colorado Avalanche

The Flames won the Western Conference for the first time since 1988-89, when they won their only Stanley Cup. Bill Peters took over as head coach and was fortunate enough to have an offensively-loaded squad led by Johnny Gaudreau’s 99 points. Captain Mark Giordano leads the defence and chipped in with 74 points. The big question mark is the team’s goaltending which consists of Mike Smith and David Rittich. Colorado had injuries to deal with late in the season, but clinched the West’s second wildcard spot in the last week. The status of forward Mikko Rantanen is unclear, but Colorado’s chances fade if he can’t play. Colorado also has their fair share of scorers with Nathan MacKinnon tying Gaudreau at 99 points. Colorado didn’t beat Calgary in their three regular-season games and won’t be able to beat them four times to win this series.

San Jose Sharks vs Vegas Golden Knights

The Sharks and Golden Knights finished in second and third place respectively in the Pacific Division. The Sharks have two Norris Trophy-winning blue liners in Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson with Burns leading the league in assists and points for defencemen this season with 67 and 83. However, Karlsson only returned to the lineup from injury in the last game of the season. Vegas added veteran forwards Max Pacioretty, Mark Stone and Paul Stastny over the past year and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury posted eight shutouts. Vegas eliminated San Jose in last year’s playoffs on their way to the Stanley Cup Final and went 2-1-1 in the regular season this year. The Sharks’ goaltending was sub par this season and that may see them knocked out once again by Vegas.

Nashville Predators vs Dallas Stars

Nashville won the Central Division on the last day of the season while Dallas took the first wildcard spot in the West in the last week. Nashville has one of the best blue lines in the league with rearguards Ryan Ellis, P.K. Subban, Mattias Ekhlom and Roman Josi while the offence is led by Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson. However, Dallas netminder Ben Bishop led the league in save percentage this year at 93.4. Dallas also has some offence in Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn. Nashville went 3-2 against Dallas in the regular season with just one win coming in regulation time. This should be another close series with Nashville winning it.

Winnipeg Jets vs St. Louis Blues

Winnipeg finished second in the Central Division with the Blues right behind them. The Jets are led offensively by Patrik Laine, Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele, but Connor Hellebuyck has struggled slightly in net. The Blues have offence in Ryan O’Reilly and Vladimir Tarasenko and rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington’s 1.89 goals-against average led the league while posting a record of 24-5-1 and a save percentage of 92.7. The Blues were last in the league on January 1st and then caught fire when Binnington was called up from the AHL. Winnipeg went 3-1 in the regular season against St. Louis with two wins coming in regulation time. The Jets have faltered lately while the Blues remained hot and St. Louis should win a tough series.

NHL enters final week of 2018/19 season

As the NHL enters the final week of the 2018/19 season there are still a few playoff spots open as teams try to punch their tickets to the postseason.

The Tampa Bay Lightning clinched the Atlantic Division a couple of weeks ago and also locked up the top spot in the Eastern Conference and the entire league. This means the President’s Trophy Winners will have the luxury of home ice advantage throughout the entire postseason.

The Boston Bruins have also clinched a playoff spot in the Atlantic Division and they can finish the season in either second or third place. The Toronto Maple Leafs are six points behind them with four games remaining on their schedule and could possibly take second place and home ice advantage in the first round. However, the Maple Leafs still haven’t clinched a postseason berth as of April 1st as they could be passed by the fourth-place team in the Atlantic, the Montreal Canadiens. Montreal sits five  points back of Toronto with three games to play.

In the Metropolitan Division, the first-place Washington Capitals and second-place New York Islanders have clinched playoff spots and are battling for the division title. The Capitals currently have a three-point lead over the Islanders with each club having three games to play. The Pittsburgh Penguins sit in third place, but have yet to clinch a playoff position. This is because the Columbus Blue Jackets are just three points behind them and the Carolina Hurricanes are four points back with each team having three contests remaining.

The Blue Jackets enter April as the first wild-card playoff team in the Eastern Conference with Carolina one point behind in the second wild-card spot. Montreal is one point behind Carolina and two back of Columbus with each team having three games to play. Two of the three teams will make the playoffs while the other will be eliminated.

In the Western Conference, the Calgary Flames have clinched the Pacific Division and the conference crown. It’s the first time they have won their division in 13 years. Calgary is guaranteed home ice advantage in all Western playoff games. The San Jose Sharks and Vegas Golden Knights have also sewn up playoff spots in the Pacific Division.

The Central Division is still up for grabs as the Winnipeg Jets enter the final week of the campaign tied with the Nashville Predators for top spot. However, the St. Louis Blues are just two points behind them. All three teams are guaranteed of playoff spots and have three games remaining to fight it out for the division title.

As far as the wild-card race goes in the West, the Dallas Stars own the first position while the Colorado Avalanche sit in the second spot, four points behind them. The Arizona Coyotes and Minnesota Wild are still alive in the race with Arizona just one points behind Colorado and four points behind Colorado. Dallas, Arizona and Minnesota each have three games remaining while Colorado has four. The Chicago Blackhawks and Edmonton Oilers are also mathematically alive as they could each catch Colorado for the second wild-card position if they win all four of their remaining games and Colorado fails to earn another point. Realistically though, the Western race is between Colorado, Arizona and Minnesota.

As for other late-season NHL news, 33-year-old Russian winger Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals reached the 50-goal mark again this season to become the third player in league history to do so at least eight times. Both Wayne Gretzky and Mike Bossy lead the way with nine 50-goal seasons.

Columbus Blue Jackets’ forward Cam Atkinson has tied Rick Nash at 41 goals for most goals in a season for the franchise. Atkinson now has three games remaining to break the record which was set in 2003/04. Forward Artemi Panarin of Columbus also set new franchise highs as he has 56 assists on the season along with 83 points. He set the club records lat year with 55 assists and 82 points.

Ovechkin tops the goal scoring parade with 51 and should win another Rocket Richard Trophy for leading the league in goals. Forward Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers has 47 on the year and centre John Tavares of the Toronto Maple Leafs has 45 and are the only players with a realistic chance of catching him.

Also, defenceman Brent Burns of the San Jose Sharks recently scored his 14th regular-season overtime goal to break the old NHL record for defenceman which was set by Scott Niedermeyer.

Several NHL playoff spots still up for grabs

The majority of NHL teams have reached the 75-game mark this season, meaning there are seven contests remaining on the schedule. However, it looks like some of the playoff races will likely go down to the wire by being decided on the last day of the season April 6th. The Tampa Bay Lightning were the first to clinch a postseason berth as they recently clinched the President’s Trophy as the league’s top team. This meant they also locked up top spot in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference and will have home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs.

A few other clubs have guaranteed themselves a shot at Stanley Cup glory this spring as the Calgary Flames, San Jose Sharks and Winnipeg Jets have all clinched a playoff spot in the Western Conference. Over in the East, the only other side to lock up a berth so far is the Boston Bruins. On the other side of the coin, the Ottawa Senators, New Jersey Devils, Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres are officially out of the playoff race in the East with no chance to catch the second wild card team.However, it should just be a matter of time before the Washington Capitals, New York Islanders, Toronto Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins clinch spots in the East. As of March 25th the Carolina Hurricanes held the first wild card spot and had a five-point lead over the Columbus Blue Jackets with each team having seven game to play. The Montreal Canadiens sat in the second wild card position and were just two points in front of Columbus with the Blue Jackets having a game in hand. The two teams are scheduled to meet each other in a crucial game in Columbus on Thursday, March 28th.

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Flyers and Florida Panthers were still mathematically alive, but highly unlikely to make the playoffs. In the West, the Los Angeles Kings are the only team officially without a chance at reaching the postseason. However, time is quickly running out on the Anaheim Ducks, Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers. The Vegas Golden Knights, Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues are all on the verge of booking a ticket to the playoffs.

As for the wild card race, the Dallas Stars were sitting in the first wild card position with a one-point lead and a game in hand over the Colorado Avalanche who were in the second wild card spot. The Minnesota Wild and Arizona Coyotes were just two points behind Colorado and the Chicago Blackhawks were alive with an outside chance as they were five points behind with a game in hand on Arizona, Minnesota and Colorado.

With many of the teams that are hunting down a playoff spot still scheduled to play each other the scenario can change from day to day. While some teams are simply trying to make the postseason others are fighting for a better position to try and gain home-ice advantage where possible. Those teams who are already officially out of the races aren’t likely hoping to go on a late-season winning streak since the odds of winning the draft lottery increase the lower they finish in the standings.

It looks like the Ottawa Senators, Los Angeles Kings, Detroit Red Wings and New Jersey Devils will be fighting it out for last place overall. It won’t take long to see which team succeeded since the NHL recently announced that the 2019 Draft Lottery will take place on Tuesday, April 9th, just three days after the regular season ends.

Tampa Bay Lightning clinches NHL’s Presidents’ Trophy

It was just a matter of time before the Tampa Bay Lightning were officially recognized as the NHL’s best regular-season team in 2018/19 and they did that with a 4-1 home win over the Arizona Coyotes on March 18th. With their latest triumph, the Lightning clinched the NHL’s President’s Trophy as the top squad in the league. They also locked up the top spot in the Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division at the same time. It’s the first time in the franchise’s history the team has won the President’s Trophy and they also have one Stanley Cup to their name which was won in 2003/04.

Another milestone was reached during the contest as forward Steven Stamkos notched the 384th goal of his NHL career and 36th of the season to become the franchise’s all-time leading scorer ahead of Vincent Lecavalier. Tampa’s record for the season rose to 56-13-4 with the victory and they’ve now won five straight games. Winning the President’s Trophy means Tampa is guaranteed home ice advantage in each of their upcoming playoff series. They will kick off the postseason by playing the second wild-card team in the Eastern Conference.

Stamkos the Lightning captain, finished the game with 384 goals in 737 regular-season outings while Lecavalier managed to net 383 goals while playing 1,037 contests with the club. Tampa Bay clinched the President’s Trophy in their 73rd game of the 82-game season to become the second-fastest franchise in league history to clinch the silverware. The Detroit Red Wings managed to achieve the feat after 71 games in the 1995/96 campaign. Tampa also leads the league in goals as of March 19th with 287 while their 191 goals against is the fourth-lowest in the league.

The Lightning will be the favourite to win the Stanley Cup this spring with both the fans and oddsmakers. They will now attempt to become the ninth team in NHL history to win both the President’s Trophy and the Stanley Cup in the same season. However, the President’s Trophy wasn’t introduced until the 1985/86 season. Tampa Bay currently boasts five players on the roster with at least 20 goals this season as Brayden Point leads the way with 38. He’s followed by Stamkos at 36, Nikita Kucherov with 35, Tyler Johnson at 26 and Yanni Gourde with 20.

In addition, Kucherov leads the NHL in assists with 82 and in total points at 117. At the other end of the ice, goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy is tied for the league lead in wins with 36. Louis Domingue has also played well and has won 20 games himself as a backup goalie this season. Team-wise, Tampa Bay has been excelling on the power-play and penalty killing units as their success rate with the man advantage is 28.4 per cent and their penalty killing is rated at 85.7 per cent. There’s no doubt the Lightning deserves to be favoured once the playoffs face off, but as many former President’s Trophy winners can attest to, winning the regular season points race certainly doesn’t guarantee anything in the postseason.

Carolina Hurricanes playing up a storm

The Carolina Hurricanes have enjoyed a fine season under new head coach Rod Brind’Amour, but they still haven’t come close to locking up a playoff spot. As of March 11th the team had a record of 37-24-7 for 81 points They were sitting in fourth place in the Metropolitan Division, two points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins and the final playoff spot. However, they owned the first wild card playoff position in the Eastern Conference, two points in front of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Montreal Canadiens with a game in hand on Montreal.

The Hurricanes have been one of the better puck possession clubs in the NHL this season, but it didn’t always result in wins. Their fortunes seemed to turn around when acquiring Nino Niederreiter from the Minnesota Wild for fellow forward Victor Rask  in a Jan 17th trade. Carolina’s record since the deal is 15-5-2 and that’s vaulted them up the standings and into a playoff spot. Also, the team’s goals-per game has risen to 3.70 since the trade as the offense is now ranked 14th in the league compared to 27th before Jan. 17th.

The 26-year-old Niederreiter of Switzerland had nine goals and 14 assists for 23 points in 46 games with Minnesota this season and has 11 goals and 21 points for Carolina in 22 games. He’s also a plus-7 with the Hurricanes and was a -11 with the Wild. Niederreiter has been playing with centre Sebastian Aho on the team’s top line for the most part since arriving in Carolina and they have gelled well together on the ice. Aho had 30 goals and 77 points after 68 games and the 21-year-old native of Finland was on pace for 36 goals and 93 points and a plus-30 rating.

The third member of the line is 37-year-old veteran Justin Williams who had 20 goals and 44 points in 68 games and is on pace for 24 goals and 53 points. The trio possesses plenty of skill, but has also been outworking the opposition on a consistent basis night after night. When Niederreiter arrived it allowed Brind’Amour to play Teuvo Teravainen on the second line to spread out the scoring. Teravainen has been playing with veteran centre Jordan Staal and has posted 18 goals and 63 points in 68 games and is a plus-21. Staal has 17 points in 36 games and the third member of the line Micheal Ferland, had 17 goals and 35 points in 58 contests.

The top six forwards in Carolina feature a fine balance of youth, veteran leadership, hard work, aggressiveness and skill. There may not be any superstars in the mix, although Aho will soon be considered one, but everybody knows exactly what his role is and is playing it to perfection. The team’s blue line also lacks star status, but it’s solid and has been getting production from the likes of Brett Pesce and Jaccob Slavin. Pesce had 22 points in 59 outings while Slavin had chipped in with 28 points in 68 games.

The rest of the rearguards are also dependable as Calvin de Haan, Dougie Hamilton and Justin Faulk had combined for 67 points. In net, the Hurricanes have been relying on veteran Curtis McElhinney and Petr Mrazek. Both of them have been among the hottest netminders in the league since February when it comes to goals-against average and save percentage. However, neither of them are mentioned in conversations when it comes to the NHL’s best goalies.

Even though they’ve risen up the standings, the Hurricanes are far from home and dry at this stage. They have 14 games remaining in the season with some tough opposition ahead of them. They play the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals twice with the Flyers still clinging to their playoff hopes. They must meet the Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs as well as teams in the Western Conference fighting for their playoff lives such as the Colorado Avalanche and Minnesota Wild.

In addition, the Hurricanes must tackle the teams they’re directly battling with for a playoff spot in the East as they have to go head to head with Montreal and Columbus once each and face Pittsburgh twice more. Every game is important the rest of the way, but the duels with Montreal, Columbus and Pittsburgh will go a long way in deciding who does and who doesn’t make the playoffs.

Edmonton Oilers and Ottawa Senators heading in the wrong direction

It appears there’s a race to the basement of the NHL this season as the prize will be greater odds in this summer’s draft lottery. American prospect Jack Hughes is expected to be taken with the first overall pick and what team wouldn’t want him?  Well, the Ottawa Senators have the inside track on last place overall and the Edmonton Oilers also have an outside chance at claiming the dishonour.

The Senators are falling apart at the seams and don’t currently own a first-round draft pick this year. They traded it away last season to the Colorado Avalanche in a deal that landed them star forward Matt Duchene. The transaction didn’t look too bad at the time, but Duchene was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent this July 1st. The Senators gambled they could re-sign Duchene and also took a chance of trading away the top overall draft selection in June.

If you haven’t heard by now, the Senators definitely won’t be re-signing Duchene as he was sent to the Columbus Blue Jackets at the trade deadline for draft picks and prospects. In addition, Ottawa also dealt pending unrestricted free agent forwards Ryan Dzingel and Mark Stone. When you add in the fact the team sent Erik Karlsson and Kyle Turris packing in the last year or two we find the Senators have arguably traded away their best five players a few of the top performers in the league.

Ottawa must now rebuild from scratch, but it’s not going to be easy to keep their fans happy. The team already struggles to sell tickets to its home games in the outskirts of Kanata and fans certainly won’t be flocking to see a squad that lacks a legitimate NHL star and a team with little chance of making the playoffs. To add salt to the wounds, it doesn’t look like Ottawa will be getting a new rink in the city’s downtown core anytime soon.

The Edmonton Oilers on the other hand are arguably icing the best player in the world right now in centre Connor McDavid and it appears his talents are being wasted with the non-contender. Former general manager Peter Chiarelli was understandably fired earlier this season, but he left the club in a bit of a mess when it comers to salary cap space. In addition, Edmonton doesn’t really have many prospects to turn things around whereas the Senators now have plenty of them due to their recent trades.

Of course, prospects aren’t proven NHL players and they could turn out to be either studs or duds. But at least Ottawa has a few to fall back on. But even so, they need somebody to coach these youngsters as former bench boss Guy Boucher was recently fired. It was a bit of an odd move considering there are less than 20 games remaining in the season and the Senators have no chance at making the playoffs.

Back in Edmonton the team also has high-scoring forward Leon Draisaitl to ice along with McDavid,  and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is a fine player. However, the organization is lacking when it comes to the blue line and goaltending. Chiarelli traded high-scoring Taylor Hall to the New Jersey Devils for rearguard Adam Larsson, but that was a one-sided deal for the Devils as Hall was named the NHL’s most valuable player for 2017/18 and took home the Hart Trophy.

Chiarelli also paid $42 million over seven years million for enforcer Milan Lucic and handed netminder Mikko Koskinen a new three-year deal worth $13.5 million even though he had just 32 games of NHL experience under his belt. As far as prospects in Edmonton go, Chiarelli selected forward Jesse Puljujarvi with the fourth overall selection in the 2016 draft and he scored four goals and five assists this season before being taken out of the lineup for hip surgery. Let’s not forget Matthew Tkachuk was still available in the draft at the time.

Both teams’ sets of fans must be quite frustrated with how things have panned out lately. But on the bright side, Ottawa does have several prospects to help turn things around in the future and the Oilers still have the best player in the world in McDavid and a more than capable sidekick in Draisaitl. However, if the teams fail to make the playoffs again next season there may be more than just a few empty seats at their respective rinks.

2019 NHL Trade Deadline comes and goes

There was a flurry of activity on NHL trade deadline day as usual as there were a total of 20 deals completed on Feb. 25th. These trades saw 32 players and 16 draft picks swap teams.

Let’ take a look at the day’s major deals and see how each team fared.

The Philadelphia Flyers sent forward Wayne Simmonds to Nashville Predators and in return they received forward Ryan Hartman as well as a conditional fourth-round draft choice in 2020.

Nashville then made a deal with the Minnesota Wild as they swapped forward Kevin Fiala for forward Mikael Granlund. The Predators also received future considerations from the Toronto Maple Leafs for forward Nicholas Baptiste. Granlund is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st.

The St. Louis Blues added defensive depth by acquiring rearguard Michael Del Zotto from the Anaheim ducks. It cost the Blues just a  sixth-round pick in the 2019 draft.

Anaheim also traded forward Brian Gibbons as they shipped him to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for blue liner Patrick Sieloff. The Ducks also traded defenseman Brandon Montour as they received a first-round draft pick in 2019 from the Buffalo Sabres for him as well as defender Brendan Guhle.

The Winnipeg Jets were the busiest team on deadline day as they made half a dozen deals. They sent a seventh-round draft pick in 2020 to the Minnesota Wild for forward Matt Hendricks. They acquired forward Par Lindholm form the Toronto Maple Leafs for forward Nic Petan and traded future considerations to the Columbus Blue Jackets for forward Alexander Broadhurst.

In addition, Winnipeg received defenceman Nathan Beaulieu from the Buffalo Sabres for a sixth-round draft choice this summer.  Defenceman Bogdan Kiselevich was acquired from the Florida Panthers for a seventh-rounder in 2021. Winnipeg’s biggest trade saw them land center Kevin Hayes, who’s an unrestricted free agent this summer. Hayes came over from the New York Rangers in exchange for Winnipeg’s first-round draft pick this year and a conditional fourth rounder in 2022. The Jets also gave up Brendan Lemieux in the deal.

The Rangers also traded another player who’s eligible for unrestricted free agency this summer as forward Mats Zuccarello was dealt to the Dallas Stars. In return, New York received a conditional 2019 second-round draft pick and a conditional third-round selection next year.

The Vegas Golden Knights landed forwards Tobias Lindberg and Mark Stone win a swap with the Ottawa Senators. Right-winger Stone is scheduled to become a free agent this summer and Vegas gave up defenceman Erik Brannstrom and forward Oscar Lindberg.

Ottawa also traded another pending free agent in forward Ryan Dzingel as he went to the Columbus Blue Jackets with a 2019 seventh-round draft choice. In return, the Senators picked up forward Anthony Duclair along with second-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021.

The Vancouver Canucks shipped rearguard Erik Gudbrandon over to the Pittsburgh Penguins in return for forward Tanner Pearson. Pittsburgh also traded forward Tanner Pearson to the Florida Panthers for defender Chris Wideman.

The Canucks also made a deal with the San Jose Sharks by swapping Jonathan Dahlen for fellow forward Linus Karlsson. San Jose also added pending free agent Gustav Nyquist to their roster by sending a 2019 second-round draft pick to the Detroit Red Wins along with a conditional third-rounder next year.

The Colorado Avalanche received centre Derick Brassard for a third-rounder in 2020 from the Florida Panthers. If the Avalanche re-sign Brassard, who’s an unrestricted free agent in July, the Panthers will also send along a conditional sixth-rounder next season. Florida also sent forward Tomas Juco to the Carolina Hurricanes and received future considerations. They then made another deal with Carolina by giving future considerations for forward prospect Cliff Pu.

The New Jersey Devils sent forward Marcus Johansson to the Boston Bruins for a 2019 second-round draft selection and a 2020 fourth-round pick.

The Columbus Blue Jackets picked up defenceman Adam McQuaid in a trade with the New York Rangers and gave up blue line prospect Julius Bergman along with a 2019 fourth and seventh-rounder. Columbus also acquired goaltender Keith Kinkaid as they sent the New Jersey Devils a 2022 fifth-round draft pick for him.

The Montreal Canadiens dealt Michael Chaput to the Arizona Coyotes for fellow forward Jordan Weal and the Dallas Stars added defenseman Ben Lovejoy to the team from the New Jersey Devils in exchange for defender Connor Carrick and a 2019 third-round draft choice.

Philadelphia Flyers will soon set unwanted NHL goaltending record

Once Cam Talbot sorts out his visa issues, the Philadelphia Flyers will soon set an unwanted and dubious NHL record of using eight different netminders in a season. The Flyers traded for the 31-year-old on Feb. 16th when they sent fellow goaltender Anthony Stolarz to the Edmonton Oilers in return. Talbot is in the final year of his contract and is eligible for unrestricted free agency on July 1st. Stolarz is also playing out his contract and the 25-year-old is set to become a restricted free agent in the summer.

The Flyers have already dressed seven goalies so far this season as Michal Neuvirth, Brian Elliott, Mike McKenna, Alex Lyon, Dustin Tokarski, Carter Hart and Stolarz have all spent time between the posts for the team. Elliott and Neuvirth started the season as the top two goaltenders, but then ran into injury problems. They’re both still under contract to the team for the remainder of the season and will then become unrestricted free agents.

Twenty-year-old Carter Hart of Sherwood Park, Alberta has emerged as the team’s top goaltender this year and is expected to hang onto his job even with the addition of Talbot. Hart, who was drafted 48th overall by the Flyers in 2016, had a 13-6-1 record after his first 20 games this season with a 2.55 goals-against average and a 92.4 save percentage. Talbot has appeared in 31 games with the Oilers with a mark of 10-15-3 with a 3.36 GAA and a save percentage of 89.3.

Talbot was expected to be dealt before the NHL’s trade deadline of Feb. 25th as Edmonton recently inked goaltender Mikko Koskinen to a new $13.5 million, three-year contract. Talbot, of Caledonia, Ontario, went undrafted and signed with the New York Rangers as a free agent in 2010. He played for the club in 2013/14 and 2014/15 before being traded to Edmonton. Talbot led the league in games played by a goalie in 2016/17 and again in 2017/18 when he guarded the crease 73 and 67 times respectively.

He’s played 284 regular-season games in his career with a mark of 137-110-24, a GAA of 2.59, a 91.5 save percentage and 20 shutouts. Talbot’s also 7-7 in 15 career playoff games with a 2.48 GAA, 92.2 save percentage and two shutouts. He led the league in wins in 2016/17 with 42 and his 31 victories in 2017/17 were ranked 10th. He also had a fine season in 2014/15 as he was ranked fourth in both goals-against average and save percentage at 2.21 and 92.6. However, he also led the NHL in losses in 2015/16 and 2017/18 with 27 and 31 respectively.

The 6-foot-6-inch Stolarz was drafted by the Flyers in 2012 with the 45th overall pick. He played in seven games with the team in 2016/17 and in 12 this season. He went 6-4-4 in Philadelphia with a GAA of 2.86 and a save percentage of 91.1 along with two shutouts. He’s now expected to give Koskinen a good battle for the top job in Edmonton. As for the Flyers, they will have given up a good young prospect for a rental player if Talbot decides to leave the team as a free agent at the end of the season.

However, club management may feel it was worth if if the squad makes the playoffs this season. As of Feb. 18th they had just won three games in a row and were 8-1-1 in their past 10 outings, but were still six points behind the final wild card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Philadelphia also had three teams to overtake, but if they can extend their recent hot streak, anything’s possible.

The axe falls on Anaheim Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle

For the second time in his NHL head coaching career, Randy Carlyle has been fired by the Anaheim Ducks and general manager Bob Murray. With just two victories in the last 21 outings since December 18th and riding a seven-game losing skid, the move was inevitable. However, many fans and experts believe the axe should have fell long before it got to this point. The team is 2-15-4 over that time after they won 11 of their 13 previous games and occupied second place in the Pacific Division.

Despite the Ducks’ woeful record over the last 21 contests they are still somehow in the playoff race in the Western Conference. They have 51 points on the season and share last place in the conference with the Los Angeles Kings, but as of Feb. 10th they were only half a dozen points out of the final playoff position. Murray has announced that he’ll be taking over Carlyle’s coaching duties even though he has no experience behind the bench. He added that a new head coach will be hired in the offseason. One potential candidate is Dallas Eakins, who’s currently the bench boss with the Ducks’ AHL farm team the San Diego Gulls.

Carlyle becomes the sixth NHL head coach to lose his job this season after no coaches were let go in 2017/18. The 62-year-old Sudbury, Ontario native first took over behind the Anaheim bench in 2005 and led the team to a Stanley Cup triumph in 2006/07. He was fired from the Ducks the first time during the 2010/11 campaign and was replaced by Bruce Boudreau. Carlyle was then hired by the Toronto Maple Leafs and led the team to the playoffs once in three-and-a-half years before being dismissed from his job in January, 2015.

He returned to the Ducks in 2016/17 after Boudreau was let go. As for Murray, he’s been with the Ducks organization since 2005 in various capacities. He pulled the trigger on several trades earlier in the season in an attempt to change the team’s struggling fortunes, but they failed to make a positive impact. Anaheim missed the playoffs just once previously under Carlyle and he posted a record of 384-256-96 with the club  in 736 regular-season games, going 46-37 in the playoffs. He is ranked number one all-time for franchise coaching wins in Anaheim, but was just 21-26-9 this season.

Carlyle was relieved of his duties on Feb. 10th after the Ducks were beaten 6-2 in Philadelphia. It was their seventh consecutive defeat and they had been outscored 29-7 in the past five games as well as 14-0 during the first periods of that stretch. The Ducks endured a 12-game losing skid in January, but at the time Murray announced to the press that he wasn’t going to change head coaches. The Ducks then won a pair of games, but entered another extended losing streak immediately after.

The Ducks lost several key players to injuries at times during the current season and that definitely didn’t help their cause. However, some of them have returned, including high-scoring-winger Corey Perry, but they still haven’t been to snap their losing streak. Goaltender John Gibson has also been struggling and a coaching move certainly made sense. Murray may decide to shake up the roster with more moves between now and the February 25th NHL trade deadline, but the Ducks still have to pass seven teams in the standings to reach the last wild card playoff spot.

Detroit Red Wings slowly improving

As expected, the ageing Detroit Red Wings didn’t look like a playoff contender to start the NHL season. However, things looked up after they posted 11 wins in a 15-game stretch a few weeks later. The light at the end of the tunnel soon disappeared though as the team then won just seven of its next 25 games and lost several players to injuries. The Red Wings were enjoying a three-game winning streak as of Feb. 4Th, but it looks like it’s a case of too little too late as far as the playoffs are concerned.

Detroit still sat 10 points behind the last wild card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and had half a dozen teams to pass in the standings to reach it. If they miss the postseason again this season it’ll be the third straight year they’ve failed to make the playoffs. Of course, this is a shock to the fan base in Detroit since the club made the playoffs for 25 consecutive seasons before the streak was halted in 2016/17.

The future isn’t too dark in the Motor City though as 22-year-old Dylan Larkin looks destined to become a legitimate NHL star. Larkin has produced 22 goals and 27 assists for 49 points after 51 games  and is on pace for a 34-goal, 76-point campaign. The speedy youngster was taken 15th overall in the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft and impressed as a rookie with 23 goals and 45 points in 2015/16 and was a plus-11.

The organization and its fans were left scratching their heads the next season though when Larkin dipped to just 17 goals and 15 assists in his second year for 32 points and was a minus-28. The native of Waterford, Michigan bounced back last season with 63 points in 82 games, but still found the back of the net just 16 times for a career low. It now looks like he’s back on track for good and will set new highs in goals and points this year.

Larkin is maturing at a steady rate and has led the squad by example. He’s a tireless worker who combines skill and determination and it’s certainly paid off. In fact, he’s impressed head coach Jeff Blashill and general manager Ken Holland so much that he’s likely to be named the team’s next captain. Larkin has been averaging 21:54 of ice time per game this season to rank eighth in the league for forwards and is depended on in all game situations. He’s also proven to be a timely scorer with four game-winning goals so far this year and is one of the best faceoff men in the league at just over 54 per cent.

It’s true that Larkin doesn’t really excel in one specific area of the game, other than perhaps his speed, but he does do everything well, which makes him a very complete two-way player. If he can keep developing at the same pace Red Wings’ fans may be comparing him to their former captain and current Hall of Famer Steve Yzerman. But while Larkin is the team’s brightest star there are also some other fine young prospects in the organization to help him out.

The future success of the organization also lies in the hands of young forwards Andreas Athanasiou, Tyler Bertuzzi, Jacob De La Rose, Christopher Ehn, Filip Zadina, Evgeny Svechnikov, Michael Rasmussen and Anthony Mantha. There’s also some promise on the blue line with the emergence of Dennis Chowlowski, Joe Hicketts and Filip Hronek.

With the NHL trade deadline approaching on Feb. 25Th, the Red Wings could have some big decisions to make regarding veterans such as defencemen Nick Jensen and Niklas Kronwall as well as forwards Thomas Vanek and Gustav Nyquist and goaltender Jimmy Howard. Holland may move some of his veterans if possible to make room for younger prospects next season. Either way, the Red Wings should have a good shot at returning to the playoffs in 2019/20.