nhl

New York Islanders: Tom Kuhnhackl signs a PTO

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New York Islanders, Tom Kuhnhackl

The New York Islanders have successfully retained another one of their free agents not named Mat Barzal. Yesterday, it was reported that Tom Kuhnhackl was on the training camp roster. But, just like his teammate Mat Barzal, Kuhnhackl did not take the ice. This was either due to the fact that he didn’t sign a contract yet or his shoulder wasn’t ready to go.

It seems as if it was the second reason as the Islanders announced that Kuhnhackl signed a PTO. What is a PTO? It’s basically a professional tryout, it’s what Mike Hoffman signed last week with the St. Louis Blues. In the case of the Isles, Kuhnhackl signed a PTO because they need to sign Barzal first. Then they will use the rest of their money to sign Kuhnhackl. What does Kuhnhackl bring to the Islanders?

Great Forechecking

Tom Kuhnhackl never played better Hockey than when the Isles played the Panthers in the play-in round. His forechecking was outstanding, the third line was the best line in that series for this reason. They gave the opposition absolutely no time to get settled and set up a play. Kuhnhackl created a couple of goals based on his board play in the offensive zone. Kuhnhackl always gives his all in every single game, and this team needs more of that effort. I believe that Kuhnhackl could definitely take that Left-Wing spot on the third line once again.

Leadership

The Islanders don’t need more veterans who can teach the young guns, but that’s what Kuhnhackl is. Kuhnhackl is a winner, he won 2 Stanley Cups in back to back years with the Pittsburgh Penguins. In fact, Kuhnhackl has never missed the playoffs in his NHL career. Kuhnhackl brings a winning mentality and knows how to get it done in the playoffs.

New York Islanders: Matt Martin Signs New Contract

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New York Islanders, Matt Martin

Longtime New York Islanders enforcer Matt Martin has just signed a new deal to stay with the team. The deal is worth $1.5 million dollars over 4 years. A long deal, but this will certainly keep Martin in town for the rest of his career. This deal is beautiful if you truly know what the 4th line brings to this team. There are several implications for the team’s plan going into the future with this contract. So, what does Matt Martin’s new contract mean for the Islanders?

Ross Johnston’s Future

Ross Johnston was signed to a four-year deal worth $1 million dollars a year recently. Martin has also been re-signed for four years, so what does this mean for Ross Johnston? I believe this is basically the end for him on the Islanders. I will forever standby the fact that Martin is a better Hockey player than Johnston. When you need someone to apply pressure and maybe score, you put in Martin. When you need an enforcer who can just beat people up, you put in Johnston.

This is the NHL, not the UFC. Playing good Hockey is way more important than beating up the other team and taking penalties.

Other Players’ Contracts

Thomas Kuhnhackl, Andy Greene, Corey Schnieder, and Mat Barzal all still need new contracts. Corey Schneider will probably sign the 1 year, $700k deal that he was reported to sign in October.

Andy Greene will most likely also sign for an amount around that. I would say a deal around 1 year worth $850k.

Mat Barzal will take almost all of the remaining cap space left with about $800k left for Kuhnhackl. Johnny Boychuk must officially retire first for all this to work, I don’t know what’s the holdup though. And Dmytro Timashov’s new deal is still waiting to be announced. Don’t worry Isles fans, they will resign Barzal soon.

New York Islanders: Training camp roster announced

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New York Islanders

New York Islanders‘ training camp officially hit the ice this morning. And just before the team hit the ice, general manager Lou Lamoriello released the official training camp roster. There were 34 skaters and 4 goalies on this roster, and it managed to answer so many questions. Without any further stalling or build-up, who made it to the 2021 Islanders’ training camp?

Forwards

Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way. Mat Barzal is on the training camp roster, but he did not take the ice today. This means Barzal has taken a physical and can get on the ice the second he signs his next contract. Another surprise was forward, Tom Kuhnhackl. This offseason, it looked as if Kuhnhackl was forgotten, but I guess Lamoriello had another trick up his sleeve. Kuhnhackl also didn’t take the ice today, it’s either he doesn’t have a contract yet, or because of his shoulder. Dmytro Timashov was on the ice, and that means he did receive an official contract, so that’s one less person to sign. Also, Kieffer Bellows and Oliver Wahlstrom made a few good defensive plays today. Finally, Josh Ho-Sang has still not been invited to camp, and his time with the Islanders has gotten even more toxic than my last relationship.

Defense

The Islanders invited 12 defensemen to training camp, and only half of them will be playing on opening night. Honestly, I don’t see a single top 6 spot up for grabs right now. There are 6 defensemen competing to be the next man up if an injury occurs. This is the case unless Andy Greene just totally forgets what Hockey is. I think either Sebastian Aho or Grant Hutton will receive the honor of being called the 7th defenseman.

Goalies

Four goalies received an invite to Islanders’ training camp this year. Take a guess who got invited. Obviously, Semyon Varlamov and Ilya Sorokin would get an invite. And there literally is no one else behind them other than Corey Schneider and Jakub Skarek. No shockers here. This is the full training camp roster. The Isles are in for another successful season if they can develop their young guns properly.

New York Islanders: Mat Barzal contract negotiation update

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Mathew Barzal, New York Islanders

New York Islanders training camp started today, and to everyone’s surprise, they still haven’t re-signed franchise center Mat Barzal. Contract negotiations resumed just last week after the all the dates were announced. Regardless of this, Barzal could sign any day now. General manager Lou Lamoriello and fellow Islanders’ teammates believe that Barzal will sign within the coming days.

Mat Barzal is currently on Long Island and is quarantining in hopes of joining his team immediately after signing his contract. Everyone around the Isles are confident in Barzal’s new contract, but the terms of the deal have not been finalized.

When I think about this contract, I look at similar players around the league. Players like Mitch Marner and Pierre-Luc Dubois. These elite players got bridge deals after holding out for many, many months. Mat Barzal is no exception to this trend. Barzal is 100% looking at a 2-3 year deal. This helps both sides. The Islanders get time to resign all their guys like Anthony Beauvillier, Adam Pelech, and Ilya Sorokin to long term deals. While Barzal can earn even more for a longer period of time-based on his play for the next few years. A bridge deal is the only deal in play here.

Amount

Excuse me if I sound like a broken record here, but the Islanders don’t have a ton of salary cap. The terms of Matt Martin’s contract has not come out yet. The same thing goes for Andy Greene.

I assume it’s either the league minimum or very close to it. So, this leaves the Islanders with about $7.5 million dollars left to sign their franchise center. This is probably not enough to sign Barzal. But Lou Lamoriello can just send someone down or put Andrew Ladd on LTIR and solve this cap space issue. I believe the deal will come in at around $8.5-$9 million dollars. So, my final prediction for Mat Barzal’s new contract is 3 years worth $8.7 million a year.

New York Rangers announce training camp roster

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On Thursday, the New York Rangers announced their roster for the upcoming training camp that starts in a few days. The Rangers open their season on January 14.

Like the summer re-start, the players invited to this camp face an unusual set of circumstances for this season.

The NHL will allow each team to carry a “taxi squad” of four to six players in addition to the regular roster rules that teams usually follow. This is especially important as it not certain if the AHL will be playing and if it’ll be possible for players from those teams to travel back and forth from their NHL clubs.

All of this is necessary as the coronavirus, which has led to numerous positive tests in other leagues and has wreaked havoc with their rosters. Therefore, it makes sense for NHL teams to have additional players on hand all year. In this scenario, teams will be permitted to repeatedly move players back and forth from the taxi squad, every day if needed.

Even with the “regional” aspect of the temporary division alignment, teams could “send down” players to the taxi squad without them having to board a plane and travel to the next game.

The other aspect of the taxi squad will be the effect it has on the cap, whether this was meant to be intentional or not. The taxi squad will allow for is some creative accounting practices in meeting tight cap demands. Many media outlets have reported that the new roster rules will be used for more than simply COVID-19 insurance.

So with training camp set to officially open for the Blueshirts on January 3, there will be many more considerations that the Rangers coaching staff and brass will need to take into account when assembling their team for the upcoming 56 game season.

New York Islanders: Why the Islanders missed out on top free agents

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Mathew Barzal, New York Islanders

The New York Islanders yet again missed out on another top tier free agent for what seems like the 20th year in a row. This time, it’s not because of poor team success or lack of an actual home stadium. No, this time there was a different reason for why the Isles couldn’t sign a top guy.

Mike Hoffman would’ve helped out the Islanders scoring situation tremendously. The same goes for Anthony Duclair and even Andreas Athanasiou. But, there’s no reason to look at the past and say who the Isles should’ve signed. There is one key reason why the Islanders couldn’t sign anyone of importance. It was a waiting game, and the season was announced before a key person was signed.

Mat Barzal

The Islanders couldn’t make a single move until their top guy actually re-signed. And as everyone knows, Mat Barzal still doesn’t have a contract. The Islanders weren’t going to make a move that took up a bunch of cap space until Barzal signed.

I’ve seen a bunch of people call for Lou Lamoriello’s head because he couldn’t sign Duclair for $1 million dollars. The Islanders aren’t loaded with cap space, every dollar counts for this team. The Isles only have around $9.5 million in cap space left, and their franchise guy hasn’t even signed yet.

Also, they still have deals for Matt Martin, Corey Schneider, and Andy Greene that still have to be made official. So, it’s not like the Islanders can just sign anyone they feel like. This isn’t NHL 21 connected franchise mode, there’s no option to play without a salary cap.

The NHL releases the New York Rangers schedule for 2020-21

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The NHL’s 2020-21 regular season will commence Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021, and conclude Saturday, May 8, when 30 of the League’s 31 teams take to the ice. The New York Rangers will not be a part of the opening night and will place their first game the next night when they host their rivals, the New York Islanders.

The league announced that the top four teams in each division will qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, with intradivisional play in the first two rounds (#1 vs. #4; #2 vs. #3). The four teams that advance to the Semifinal Round would be seeded by their regular-season points total, with the No. 1 seed playing the No. 4 seed in one series and the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds meeting in the other. Formal training camps will begin on Jan. 3. There will be no pre-season games. The seven teams that did not participate in the 2019-20 Return to Play will be permitted to open their training camps as early as Dec. 31.

In their press release, the league stated that the NHL and NHLPA determined that the ongoing closure of the U.S.-Canada border required realignment, and the League and the Players also sought to minimize team travel as much as possible by shifting to exclusively intradivisional play. It is the current plan to play games in the home arenas of participating teams while understanding that most arenas will not, at least in the initial part of the season, be able to host fans. However, depending on prevailing conditions both in local markets and across North America, the League will be prepared to play games in one or more “neutral site” venues per division should it become necessary. Each team in the East, Central, and West divisions will play every other team in its division eight times while each team in the North Division will play every other team in its division nine or 10 times.

 

New York Islanders: Projecting the line for Opening Night

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New York Islanders

The NHL has agreed to resume play on January 13th, that’s not too far from now. And the New York Islanders lineup still has a ton of questions left to be answered. Questions such as, who will be on the third line? What will the defensive lines look like without Devon Toews? Will Oliver Wahlstrom or Kieffer Bellows make the cut? These are the questions that go through the head of every Islanders fan daily. So, what will the lines look like when the Islanders take the ice next?

First Line

I don’t think this line will change that much. Jordan Eberle had a down year last year and looks out of place sometimes, but there’s no one to take him down a line. The first line is going to be Anders Lee, Mat Barzal, and Jordan Eberle for at least one more year. When all three of these forwards are on their game, it’s hard to slow them down. Yes, I believe Mat Barzal will be signed within the coming weeks. The contract negotiations just resumed between the two sides the other day. As for the defense, it’s going to be Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock. No shockers here.

Second Line

During the playoffs, the Islanders had the best second line in Hockey. The combination of Josh Bailey, Brock Nelson, and Anthony Beauvillier was dangerous. These 3 have some of the best chemistry I’ve ever seen in Hockey. There’s no way you can break this line up. It just wouldn’t make sense to do that. Now, for the defense, Nick Leddy and Scott Mayfield will man the second line. The only reason not putting Noah Dobson on this line for Leddy is not wanting two guys with the same shooting hand. I still think you can get around this, but no one really knows Dobson’s abilities.

Third Line

There’s only one guy on this line who I know will actually be here. J.G. Pageau will be the third line center, and he’s not a third-line guy. Pageau plays like a top 6 forward, and if the Islanders didn’t have Nelson or Barzal, he would be in the top 6. On the left-wing of Pageau, I have Leo Komarov. Leo Komarov is a grinder, and Barry Trotz loves his grinders. On the right-wing of Pageau, I have Kieffer Bellows. I understand Bellows shoots left-handed, but he’s waited a long time for this opportunity, I don’t think he can let this one slip away. Very easy to see Oliver Wahlstrom take this spot, though. The bottom pairing for the defense is none other than Noah Dobson and Andy Greene. Greene will most likely retire after this year, but not before transferring all his knowledge to Dobson.

Fourth Line

Albert Einstein was called one of the smartest men on Earth when he discovered the equation: E=mc^2. Barry Trotz is called one of the best coaches in Hockey for keeping Martin, Clutterbuck, and Cizikas together. These three play their best Hockey when they’re together. Though they may be older and slower than they once were, they still get the job done. I don’t see Ross Johnston taking anyone’s spot for a long time.

Goalies

I think it’s pretty obvious who will be in net this year. It’s going to be the duo of Semyon Varlamov and Ilya Sorokin, and I think every Islander fan already knew this.

Its Official: The New York Rangers will play a 56 game schedule

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A New York Rangers hockey season will begin soon. On Sunday, the NHL announced it will play a 56-game season starting Jan. 13, 2021. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are slated to begin May 8 and last into July.

The league and NHLPA have come to an agreement on key dates and framework for the 2021 season, including scheduling, temporary realignment, and COVID-19 protocols, among the scheduling highlights is that teams will only play other clubs in their division during the regular season.

According to the NHL’s press release, the Stanley Cup Playoffs would feature 16 teams in the traditional best-of-seven, four-round format and conclude around mid-July with the plan of returning to a “normal” hockey calendar for the 2021-22 season (regular season beginning in October). The NHL and NHLPA will release the Health and Safety Protocols, transition rules, and critical dates calendar as well as the 2020-21 schedule in the coming days.

The press release also states that given the unpredictability of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NHLPA and the NHL intend to be flexible and adaptable in their approach during the coming weeks to ensure compliance with directives from both local and national governmental and health authorities focusing on the health and safety of the players, other game-related personnel and the communities in which we play. The priority will continue to be focused on the health and safety of our fans and Players and Club, League, NHLPA, and arena personnel.

The NHL is going with a division realignment that includes a seven-team Canadian division, which still requires approval from local health officials for the games to be held north of the border.

North: Ottawa-Montreal-Toronto-Winnipeg-Edmonton-Calgary-Vancouver

East: Boston-Buffalo-New Jersey-NY Islanders-NY Rangers-Philadelphia-Pittsburgh-Washington

Central: Carolina-Chicago-Columbus-Detroit-Florida-Dallas-Nashville-Tampa Bay

West: Anaheim-Arizona-Colorado-Minnesota-Los Angeles-Las Vegas-San Jose-St. Louis

Each team in the East, Central, and West divisions will play every other team in its division eight times, while each team in the North Division will square off nine or 10 times. The top four teams in each division will qualify for the playoffs.

 

New York Islanders: Expectations for Semyon Varlamov

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New York Islanders

The New York Islanders signed goalie Semyon Varlamov to a 4-year deal in free agency last year. Varlamov proved to everyone that his 2013-14 Vezina Trophy finalist season wasn’t a fluke. Varlamov recorded 19 wins, a .914 save percentage, and a 2.62 GAA in 39 games started.

In the playoffs, Varlamov would continue to shine with the Islanders as he single-handily won them a couple of games. Former Islanders’ goalie Thomas Greiss obviously held down a couple of wins too. Greiss relieved a lot of pressure off of Varlamov all season long. But, Thomas Greiss is in Detroit now, and rookie Ilya Sorokin takes the backup slot. There are some big expectations for the Islanders’ star goalie going into the 2020-2021 season.

Top 10 Goalie

The Islanders are not a team that can put up four goals every night and wins just off of firepower alone. They win off of their defensive schemes and good goalie play. If the Islanders want to make another deep playoff run, Semyon Varlamov must take another leap.

Varlamov might be 32 years old, but maybe you can still teach an old dog new tricks. I believe the stats Varlamov needs for him to be considered a top 10 goalie reads as follows. He needs under a 2.55 GAA, with a .917 save percentage. I assume he will play over half the 56 games during this season as well. If he plays 31/56 games with those aforementioned stats, he will be a top 10 goalie.

Mentoring Ilya Sorokin Correctly

How would one even measure if Varlamov’s teachings affect Sorokin’s’ playing abilities? “That’s another dumb point, all you make is dumb points.” Marc-Andre Fleury mentored Matt Murray, and the Penguins won 2 Stanley Cups in 3 years because of that.

Ben Bishop mentored Andrei Vasilevski, and Vasilevski has been a top 3 goalie for the past 5 years. Braden Holtby mentored Ilya Samsonov, and now Samsonov is one of the top young goalies in the league. If Semyon Varlamov can mentor Ilya Sorokin in the same ways that these guys did for their backups, the Islanders will win a Stanley Cup soon. There is no doubt in my mind about this at all. I expect Varlamov to do this successfully.