Let the John Tavares sweepstakes begin.
The Oshawa Generals have placed the Canadian Hockey League’s star attraction on the market, but contrary to popular belief, there may not be many teams in the running to acquire his services.
First, not all of the Ontario Hockey League general managers contacted by Sportsnet.ca had heard of Tavares’ availability, which may mean the Generals could be interested in dealing with a few teams exclusively.
Second, very few teams have the assets to make a serious pitch to acquire Tavares.
As one OHL general manager indicated, Wednesday’s news could be nothing more than the Generals weighing their options.
"Just because you find out who’s interested and who’s available doesn’t mean first and foremost that you trade him now, and secondly, that you trade him at all," the GM said. "Sometimes when you’re looking at dealing a very good veteran player in these situations, what you have in terms of expectations and what the return would be and what you can get sometimes doesn’t match and at the end of the day, you don’t end up doing a deal."
While many like to speculate Windsor would be the ideal destination, Spitfires general manager Warren Rychel confirmed the rumour, but appears to be in no rush to make the trade.
"We’ll listen and see like we do every other trade," Rychel said. "It hasn’t got to that point (where a possible return for Tavares has been discussed) and everyone knows today he’s going to become available."
However, being available today does not mean Tavares will be traded tomorrow.
As a GM indicated, a trade of this magnitude, which would likely involve a package of young players and high draft picks, would take time to transpire.
"I think that any time you’re looking at discussing the transfer of an elite player, contrary to what some people believe, it just doesn’t happen over a couple phone calls one night and gets done the next day," the GM said. "It usually takes a while and I think what teams will be doing before making a final decision of moving him is finding out what the market bears."
The major player in this rumour appears to be the London Knights.
A message left with Knights general manager Mark Hunter was not returned Wednesday but many sources believe the Knights will be at the top of the list.
One of the main reasons the Knights will contend for Tavares is that their window to win appears to be smaller than that of the Spitfires. London will likely lose goaltender Trevor Cann and forwards Akim Aliu and Justin Taylor.
Nazem Kadri could also start the season with an NHL team as he is expected to be a Top 15 pick in this summer’s NHL draft while defenceman John Carlson could also be in the NHL.
The Spitfires, meanwhile, are loaded with talent and will likely have the same core returning next season. Highly-touted goaltender Brandon Maxwell, who could be the first goalie drafted by an NHL team in June, will join them next season after USA Hockey denied his release. As Rychel said, it’s unlikely the Spitfires would mortgage their future by trading young players and picks for a one-year player in Tavares.
All of Windsor’s young players have been impact players so far. Rookie forward Austin Watson would likely carry the most value, outside of players like Taylor Hall and Ryan Ellis, in a trade but he will not be eligible to change teams this season.
OHL rules stipulate that 16-year-old players cannot be traded unless they were a first round pick in the OHL draft, and only then between Jan. 1-10. Watson was a second round pick last year.
If not Windsor or London, don’t rule out a couple of darkhorses in Brampton and Guelph. Although these two teams wouldn’t likely have as many assets to trade as London, sources indicate they may both be buyers before the trade deadline.
Frontenacs hire Gilmour
The sputtering Kingston Frontenacs made a move they hope will re-ignite their sluggish team by hiring Doug Gilmour as their new head coach.
Gilmour, a Kingston native, had a long and fruitful NHL career, playing for teams such as the Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens. He was most recently the assistant coach with the Toronto Marlies, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Maple Leafs, but resigned Monday to accept the head coaching position in Kingston.
The move should come as a breath of fresh air for the struggling Frontenacs organization. Although Gilmour is thin on coaching experience, he should bring a new level of excitement to a franchise in desperate need of it.
Kingston has struggled mightily out of the gate this season after being picked as Sportsnet.ca’s darkhorse team. With a collection of talented players, much more was expected out of the team than their current last place standing in the Eastern Conference.
Luckily, Gilmour will have had a few days to prepare his team as he accepted the job Monday and will be behind the bench for the first time on Friday when the Frontenacs host the conference’s top team, the Belleville Bulls.
It’s not hard to see why Kingston hired Gilmour who was known as a motivational and inspirational player during his NHL career.
One can’t help but look at a few other examples of players-turned junior coaches as reason to believe this venture should be successful. T
he London Knights have seen a complete revival in their franchise since the Hunter brothers joined the league. Similar success has occurred in Windsor where Bob Boughner was the OHL’s coach of the year last season.
Big weekend for Roy
Québec Remparts head coach Patrick Roy will have his hands full this weekend.
In addition to a tough schedule of three games in four nights, he will receive one of the highest honours bestowed upon him as the Montreal Canadiens, one of the teams he starred for, will retire his No. 33 on Saturday.
Roy won two Stanley Cup championships in three finals appearances during his career in Montreal, adding another two as a member of the Colorado Avalanche. In a teleconference call on Wednesday, Roy said it would be difficult to keep his emotions in check.
"A lot of people think I'm going to have some tears," he said. "When I retired or when I was in the Hockey Hall of Fame, I never been that type of person. It will be a good test for my emotion, that's for sure."
His Remparts, who play the Montreal Juniors on Friday, will be in attendance for the game.
"It was tough to get the tickets for the game," he said, "and almost impossible to bring all the players."
During the conference call, it was asked if Roy might one day like to move up to an NHL coaching position. While he said he didn’t feel ready to coach in the NHL, he also spoke about his pride of coaching in the CHL and spending time tutoring the players.
"A lot of people say, ‘Yeah, you got a lot of bus rides and stuff like that,’" he said. "I don’t mind. Having a chance to work with them means more than that."
Roy played three seasons for the Granby Bisons in the early-to-mid 1980s. The franchise is now in Cape Breton, known as the Screaming Eagles. Roy won a Memorial Cup with his Remparts the first year as their coach in 2006.
Silvertips remain in contention
After losing 13 players off their roster, the Everett Silvertips are very much still in the thick of things in the Western Hockey League this season.
Among the losses are forward Zach Hamill and goaltender Leland Irving, two very tough players to replace in any lineup. But as head coach John Becanic indicates, his team has performed admirably after being considered a rebuilding team from outside onlookers.
"The media, at the beginning of the year, had us picked anywhere from bottom to the second-bottom of the conference and throughout the Western Hockey League," he said. "It wasn’t where we projected our guys to be but you never know what you’re going to get with young players and we’ve had some young players, first year players, that have really carried the team the last little bit."
Heading into Wednesday night’s action, the ‘Tips are third in the U.S. Division behind defending Memorial Cup and WHL champion Spokane Chiefs and the defending regular season champion Tri-City Americans.
Although his team trails Spokane by just six points for top spot in the division, Becanic cautioned that it’s a long season with plenty left to be decided.
"Like any other sport, it’s not a complete season and there’s 50 more games to go and lots can happen and we can continue to improve into a better team," he said. "We could potentially hit a bump in a road and lose a few in a row.
"The key is to avoid those nine in a row (losing) swings. It’s nice to have the six and seven in a row winning-streaks but not if they’re followed by seven or eight or nine game losing-streaks.
Two of the veterans who are leading the way are forwards Kyle Beach and overage European Daniel Bartek. Beach missed the beginning of the season at Chicago Blackhawks camp after the team drafted him 11th overall last summer, while Bartek joined the team in a trade with the Brandon Wheat Kings.
Becanic was quick to praise the work of both forwards, particularly Beach’s discipline after two seasons high with penalty minutes.
"The one thing he has done since coming back from Chicago is you don’t see him in the top 10 or 15 in penalty minute takers in the league," Becanic said. "The longer and more he’s on the ice, the better team we are and the better chance we have at winning.
"He plays the game like a pro," Becanic said of Bartek. "He works extremely hard and obviously in our organization has been given the opportunity to contribute more offensively."
Petes add overage goaltender Daniels
Less than a week after trading veteran goaltender Trevor Cann to the London Knights, the Peterborough Petes brought another one back with overager Ryan Daniels.
Daniels was the odd man out in the numbers game in Saginaw as the Spirit also elected to go with up-and-coming goaltender Edward Pasquale. The Petes sent a fourth round draft pick to Saginaw for Daniels in a move Petes general manager Jeff Twohey said brings experience and stability to a young team.
"Our goal all along was not to put our goaltending in too much risk," Twohey said. "We have total faith in Jason Missiaen but we didn’t have a crystal ball to know whether he was going to get hurt or anything. With our extremely young defence here we felt it was crucial that we were able to put a veteran goaltender in every night and we’re able to do that now."
Daniels, a draft pick of the Ottawa Senators, joins Missiaen, a draft pick of the Montreal Canadiens, in the Petes’ crease. As Twohey explained, the acquisition of Daniels wasn’t meant to be seen as a lack of confidence in Missiaen but to give his team experience at the valuable position.
"Right now (our starter) is Jason obviously because Ryan hasn’t been playing," Twohey said. "We’re looking for healthy competition between the two of them to push each other and make each other better and as a result, make our team better. I think any time there’s healthy competition it should make players better if they’re competitors and we believe both our goaltenders are."
