Not too long ago, the Calgary Flames were a small team. At least, until they got on the ice against the Edmonton Oilers, who were a bunch of pipsqueaks. Both tended to carry big, imposing fighters on their fourth line, but as far as size that could play, there wasn’t much in either town.
Today, 6-foot-6 defenceman Dougie Hamilton plays on the Flames’ top pairing with Mark Giordano. His 48 points have him tied for fifth in scoring among NHL defencemen.
The addition of 6-foot-3 Michael Stone next to T.J. Brodie has really solidified the Flames back end. Big Deryk Engelland is on the third pairing, while 6-foot-3 Troy Brouwer was added up front, and 6-foot-3 Sean Monahan is your No. 1 centre in Calgary.
Matthew Tkachuk is a load with an attitude who has made room for Mikael Backlund and Michael Frolik on the second line, while Micheal Ferland is playing on the first line – spot that once belonged to tiny Jiri Hudler.
Calgary is bigger, badder, and noticeably better this season.
“I just think whenever you put a guy up with your top players, sometimes they think they need to change the way they play,” Flames coach Glen Gulutzan said of promoting Ferland. “The only thing that really changes is probably your minutes. But what you need to do for those guys, and the reason we put him there, is they need what you bring.”
In Edmonton, of the 24 players listed on the Oilers active roster, 11 are 6-foot-3 or taller.
The first pairing of Adam Larsson and Oscar Klefbom are both 6-3. Darnell Nurse is 6-5. Eric Gryba is 6-4. Up front they have Pat Maroon on one line, Milan Lucic on the next and Zack Kassian on the third line.
Which makes me wonder, could Ferland become the next Maroon?
Eric Francis wrote a lovely piece about Ferland’s recovery from alcoholism, and although Maroon has not had to fight those battles, he had his own ‘come to Jesus’ moment when the Anaheim Ducks moved him for spare parts last season. Maroon upped his commitment to fitness and being a pro, and this year has 25 goals, 39 points (both career highs), and was named Friday as the Oilers nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. (Backlund got the nod in Calgary)
Imagine a Battle of Alberta featuring Tkachuk-Ferland versus Maroon-Lucic on the top two lines? How McDavid-Gaudreau and Draisaitl-Monahan? Those are the makings of a pretty good playoff series, wouldn’t you say?
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Lander to KHL
It was kind of odd this past week when word leaked out that Oilers farmhand Anton Lander — a pending restricted free agent playing in AHL Bakersfield — had agreed to a deal with Ak Bars Kazan of the KHL. He’ll play the season out under contract with Edmonton but will jump to the Tatarstan region of Russia for next season to play for the Snow Leopards (translated).
“The reality is that the top deals in the KHL get agreed to now,” Lander’s agent J.P. Barry told us on Friday. “A lot of the talent is re-upping over there. They have their own timetable, so the money and quality of the deals comes off the table over time.”
As a pending RFA, it is Lander’s right to sign wherever he wants next season. If the Oilers wish to retain his NHL rights they’ll have to issue Lander a qualifying offer, but we suspect GM Peter Chiarelli will simply wish the player luck. Maybe they qualify him — it won’t cost the Oilers a dime to retain his rights — but Lander is a star in the AHL, yet can’t cut it in the NHL. Most blame his pedestrian foot speed.
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“It came to point, he’s been through waivers, he didn’t get traded…,” Barry said. “These (KHL) offers have been out there for well over a year for him. He’s basically going to be a first-liner at that level.”
With far lower tax rates in Russia, top KHL players can net between $1-2 million in the KHL. They get paid in rubles, and with the ruble falling over the past couple of years that has diminished the KHL’s financial advantage.
Kazan’s head coach is Zinetula Bilyaletdinov — known over here as Coach Bill — the Winnipeg Jets assistant under John Paddock from 1993-95. Some familiar names on the roster: Jiri Sekac, Alexander Svitov, and Carolina draftee Michal Jordan.
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The Skinny in Minny
I remember seeing the Wild beat up on Edmonton on Jan. 31 before losing 5-1 in Calgary, then rolling over Vancouver on a Western swing this season. Minnesota looked like they’d run away with the Central — and that was before adding Martin Hanzal at the deadline.
Now, they’re 2-8-0 in their last 10 games, eight points behind the Blackhawks, and watched lowly Philadelphia walk into the Xcel Energy Centre and beat the Wild 3-1 Thursday.
“I’m concerned because I’m used to them having jump and energy,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau told reporters post-game. “And for me to sit here and say, ‘Ah. Everything’s good,’ when we’ve lost six out of seven, eight out of 10… It’s not as good as we’d like it, that’s for sure.”
Minnesota will get either St. Louis or Nashville in Round 1. I’ll still pick the Wild in either series, but I’m not as bullish on their Cup chances as I once was.
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Five-Ring Circus
Lots of stories this past couple of weeks about players who want to go to the Olympics. Newsflash: Of course players want to play in the Olympics, and also that the 90 per cent of players who do not get invited to play love the guaranteed mid-winter holiday.
But if I were an owner, there’s no way I would vote to support the Olympics under the current agreement. For instance: Think of how few times you’ve seen a replay of Crosby’s golden goal since 2010. Those are all NHL players creating a historic moment in hockey history, yet the NHL can’t air the goal on its various platforms because the video is property of the International Olympic Committee. And that’s only a start.
A compressed schedule, the risk of injury (John Tavares), missing out on three weeks of February hockey — the softest part of the U.S. sports schedule after the Super Bowl and before March Madness and Major League Baseball. Would you shut your business down during prime weeks of your selling season, let someone else make money off of your wares yet have no rights to profit from or even partner in the exercise?
As for complaints that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is using it as a CBA bargaining chip, let us recall where he learned that strategy: From former union head Bob Goodenow.
I like watching the Olympics as much as the next hockey fan. But unless the deal changes significantly from the IOC’s end, I won’t blame the owners a bit if they refuse to send players.
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First-Round Travellers
It’s amazing how many first-round draft picks have gone through the Oilers organization and ended up elsewhere, yet are still kicking around the National Hockey League.
Taylor Hall (New Jersey), Nail Yakupov and Magnus Paajarvi (St. Louis), Sam Gagner (Columbus), Riley Nash (Boston), Andrew Cogliano (Anaheim), Devan Dubnyk (Minnesota), Ales Hemsky (Dallas)…
As is always a case when an organization falls on hard times, the collateral damage is found in players like Cogliano, who had to go to Anaheim to discover what he really was as an NHL player, and played consecutive game No. 778 Friday against Winnipeg. Or Dubnyk, who was given every chance in Edmonton, but wound his way through Nashville, Montreal and Arizona before finding his game in Minnesota.
The latest to taste some success is Paajarvi, who has kicked around the fringes of the Blues organization for four seasons now. He’s only played 23 games for the Blues this season, but he has eight goals (three in the past two games). At 25, Paajarvi will likely play his 300th career game this season, a fair milestone to state an opinion of the player.
He had all the tools and great size, but has not taken those attributes into the harder areas of the rink enough to make use of them offensively. Paajarvi is a bottom-six forward, and if he can maintain a certain battle level he could likely squeeze another 300 games out of his NHL career.
