• How will the next Penguins front office be built?
• Why regular season regulation wins are important to remember in the playoffs
• Sorting through the NHL Awards
Before this season, Calgary offered extensions to GM Brad Treliving and head coach Darryl Sutter. Sutter took his. It begins this summer and lasts two seasons.
Treliving thought about it, wasn’t sure…decided to punt. It came up from time-to-time during the season, but, ultimately, he wanted to wait until it was over.
We’re here, and we have our answer.
Treliving and the Flames “mutually agreed to part ways” on Monday, five days after their last game of a disappointing 2022-23. Don Maloney, now President of Hockey Operations and interim GM, said Treliving first indicated last Wednesday he was leaving. It is believed a deteriorating relationship with Sutter played a major role in the GM’s decision, that the two could not continue working together and really hadn’t communicated well in some time. If Sutter didn’t have an extension, maybe the outcome is different.
“I’m not going to get into the granularity of this,” Flames President and CEO John Bean said.
Several sources indicated they believed Sutter will return as head coach, but proclaiming anything as rock-solid is premature.
“I am reviewing everything,” Maloney replied.
There is some internal surprise Treliving chose to leave, so it remains to be seen how it all plays out.
The Flames wanted someone in place if this happened, that’s why there was talk last week Maloney and Craig Conroy had been extended. This is confirmation of at least one of them, and Conroy’s might be dependent on becoming GM. He’s waited a long time for that opportunity, and there is organizational support for him.
If anything was going to change this outcome, it was the player exit meetings. They were, in the words of one player, “Brutally honest.” Tyler Toffoli clearly is happy to extend after a 34-goal season. Much more cautious were Mikael Backlund and Elias Lindholm. Backlund, 41 games behind Mark Giordano for second in franchise history, had a strong season and has made it very clear in the past he would love to captain the team. Lindholm is someone the Flames badly want to keep.
I think there was hope that some of this commentary — undoubtedly more pointed behind the scenes — would sway the organization into making a change behind the bench.
The Flames had factions this year, which included player-versus-player. That happens when your season doesn’t go how you wanted or expected. The priority must be injecting youth into the roster and making Jonathan Huberdeau work. Some of that is on the player, but it’s also on the environment around him.
32 THOUGHTS
1. Treliving rockets to the top of any available openings (or those that could come). In Pittsburgh, many of us wondered what it meant that head coach Mike Sullivan is part of the transition team. With a couple of days to look into it, I think it’s more along the lines of there’s not very much experience among the remaining group as opposed to Sullivan gaining Belichickian-level power. Assistant GM Alec Schall, for example, has a lengthy, competent history as an agent, but is relatively new in the front office. That’s where a Treliving-type makes sense.
Expect the Penguins to cast a wiiiiiiiiiiide net. During his media availability, Fenway’s David Beeston didn’t commit to any particular front-office structure, basically saying he’d see where the journey took them. Fenway doesn’t yet know a ton of people in hockey, so this is about discovering who to meet as much as it is about discovering who to hire. (It’s going to be interesting to see if any other teams are wary about this. They generally don’t stand in the way of anyone chasing a promotion, but it’s not unusual in these paranoid days for worry these interviews are about “lifting best practices.”)
Ron Hextall likes to keep his circle tight — he despises hearing players’ names in trade rumours — but there’s a demand the new front office be more collaborative. (Great story about Hextall: during at least one trade-deadline meeting this year, everyone in the room had to put their phones in the middle of the table, so nothing could leak.)
Even before last week’s firings, the Penguins were committed to making more of a commitment to analytics, so they definitely will be looking to talk to people at the forefront in places like Buffalo, Carolina, Colorado, Columbus, New Jersey, Seattle and Toronto. But that’s going to be just one part of this search. I believe they will also be talking to some up-and-coming former hockey-playing executives (examples would be the likes of Shawn Horcoff and Steve Staios), and some others with a bit more experience.
It’s also possible the Penguins ask the NHL about Stan Bowman’s status. Before Sullivan’s trajectory took off with his hiring at AHL Wilkes-Barre, he worked in the Blackhawks’ front office. They were going to work together on the 2022 US Olympic team before Bowman’s resignation. There are going to be a lot of names linked to western Pennsylvania.
2. I would also expect the Penguins to look outside of hockey. They’re not afraid of that. One name to consider: Jeff Greenberg, who joined the Blackhawks this season from the Chicago Cubs. Greenberg was interviewed by the Blackhawks for the GM job that went to Kyle Davidson, and was still hired. Apparently, Theo Epstein — who, sources say, once worked for Fenway — thinks highly of Greenberg. That’s a pretty decent recommendation for Pittsburgh ownership.
3. Whatever happened with Pittsburgh and Vancouver and JT Miller is like the “white whale” of NHL reporting. We know it was a hugely-complicated move, very difficult to pull off. But, at the base of it all, the Canucks made a huge ask (as they should): I believe two firsts and a good prospect. At the end of the day, I just don’t think the Penguins wanted to go there.
4. Finally, on Pittsburgh: I believe the Penguins want to re-sign Jason Zucker. I just don’t know if it’s going to be possible. He played very well, and will be wanted.
5. Okay, Kyle Dubas. In the aftermath of the regular season, just talking to other teams, it’s amazing how they perceive what’s happening in Toronto. They find it hard to believe he’s leaving. They think all these rumours are just various stakeholders sabre-rattling and negotiating through the media. “He’s got the best winning percentage (among GMs post-expansion) in franchise history,” one executive laughed. “He’s not going anywhere.” (Yes, yes, we all know and recognize the playoff issue.)
Remember the ownership structure in Toronto: Rogers (37.5 per cent), Bell (37.5 per cent) and Larry Tanenbaum (25 per cent). I do believe, at one point in relatively recent history, a contract extension for Dubas was proposed, only to be blocked because there wasn’t enough ownership support. That’s where Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment is right now.
I’ve mentioned this before, but firing Mike Babcock with $25M remaining on his contract changed the organizational dynamic for extending people. It affected the Masai Ujiri negotiations, now Dubas’s (plus others we don’t see publicly) and strained relationships across the organization. If Dubas indeed comes available, there will be plenty of interest. We’ll see if everyone comes to their senses.
6. Ottawa GM Pierre Dorion confirmed what was expected: the Senators have told Alex DeBrincat they would love to extend him, but want to know well before the draft if there will be any reason he wouldn’t do so. DeBrincat will respect that timeline. Informative Monday media conference from Dorion, who said Cam Talbot wanted a two-year extension, but the team was only willing to do one, so he won’t be back; same situation for Austin Watson, although he could still be back; and there’s a one-year option for Travis Hamonic.
7. When Dorion talked about trading for a goalie, the first I thought of was John Gibson. He’s never said much about it, but the Duck netminder badly wants a shot at winning and Anaheim is willing to accommodate. There are always questions about how much money a team for sale will commit to. Gibson has four years and $25.6M remaining on his contract (assuming anyone takes all of it). In comparison, Ottawa acquired Jakob Chychrun, who has two years and $12.4M (in cash) to go. There are lots of considerations: Gibson’s health, his willingness to go there and what kind of deal it would take. But it was the first name I thought of.
8. Two coaches with one year remaining on their contracts didn’t receive guarantees on Monday. Incoming Nashville GM Barry Trotz said he has a good relationship with John Hynes, but wants to have more detailed conversations before committing to next season. The Predators were like the Undertaker post-deadline, arising out of nowhere to make a surprising charge. Dorion said DJ Smith has “done everything asked of him,” but wouldn’t go any farther. (It’s never unanimous, but many of the Senators like playing for him.)
I remember an old Lou Lamoriello conversation: if you’re letting a coach enter their final season, you basically know the answer. Not everyone feels that way, but I don’t think he’s in the minority. In recent months, Stanley Cup winners Jared Bednar and Mike Sullivan were extended with one year remaining, as was Don Granato, behind the bench for Buffalo’s resurgence. Teams know what they have. And coaches — with the Coaches’ Association behind them — are doing a better job supporting each other.
9. There was a rumour Peter Laviolette would retire instead of pursuing another coaching opportunity. That’s not true, he’s very much interested in coaching again.
10. Andrew Brunette’s “out” in his contract for a head-coaching job activates in the offseason, but the Devils have big plans in the meantime.
11. Sounds like Philadelphia will be reaching out to prospective candidates this week, but not expecting any of them to be for Daniel Briere’s GM position.
12. Kyle Okposo’s exit interview made it sound like he might be retiring, but I don’t think that’s the case. Expectation is he’s going to play in 2023-24.
13. There was a time Vancouver may have considered moving Thatcher Demko this summer, but that’s over after how he played upon return from injury.
14. One of the most-watched players this first round will be Tampa’s Ross Colton. One year to go before unrestricted free-agency, now arbitration-eligible. Teams are always looking for good centres, and the Lightning’s cap situation is tight, tight, tight.
15. Kind of mind-boggling that Joel Eriksson Ek is already skating for Minnesota and could be an option. When he was hit by a shot late in the season, rumours were he had a bad break and the chances were very, very slim we’d see him. That’s good, hate to see players miss the best time of year. Meanwhile, Tanner Jeannot skated for Tampa Bay on Monday. Word was he fortunately escaped serious damage when injured against the Islanders, and that looks correct.
16. If Toronto is going to end its first-round curse, power play impotency must be Viagra’d. In five of their six playoff defeats, the man-advantage was worse — and sometimes substantially worse — than in the regular season. The one exception was the 2018 defeat to Boston, where it went from 25 per cent to 26.7. Otherwise: 23.8 to 16.7 (2017, Washington); 21.8 to 18.8 (2019, Boston); 23.1 to 15.4 (2020, Columbus); 20 to 13 (2021, Montreal); and 27.3 to 14.3 (2022, Tampa Bay). This year, they were second-best to Edmonton’s historic power play, at 26 per cent. Back-to-back.
17. Good omen for Boston (54), Edmonton (45), Toronto (42), Carolina, New Jersey and Dallas (39), Vegas and Tampa Bay (38). In the salary-cap era, 13 of the 17 Stanley Cup champions were among the top seven (including ties) in regulation wins. It makes sense, with no three-on-three or shootouts in the playoffs. Ten of the champions were in the top five. The lowest winner was 2019 St. Louis, which tied for 14th.
18. In the last 25 years, there’ve been situations where a goalie started the playoffs for one team, only to be replaced a couple of games in. The most well-known recent examples are Braden Holtby for Philipp Grubauer in 2018 and Cam Ward for Martin Gerber in 2006. What you rarely see is a true postseason tandem during a successful run.
Pittsburgh won it all in 2017 with Marc-Andre Fleury playing 15 games and Matt Murray 10, which was injury-related; Philadelphia reached the final in 2010 (Michael Leighton 14 and Brian Boucher 12) and 1997 (Garth Snow 12 and Ron Hextall seven). This year has a chance for multiple scenarios. Carolina, Florida, Los Angeles, Minnesota, New Jersey, Seattle and Vegas wouldn’t surprise anyone if they used multiple goalies. Edmonton and Toronto seem much more settled, so it’s probably bad news if they’re switching around. Boston’s another category altogether, very comfortable no matter who starts.
19. In taping a playoff feature, Josh Morrissey — the 2013 CHL Scholastic Player of the Year — told a hilarious story about the one time he was benched for academic reasons. When Leon Draisaitl joined WHL Prince Albert, Morrissey was responsible for driving him to school. There was a first bell at 8:50 am and a second bell at 9. They would show up in-between those bells, and that wasn’t good enough for their first-period English teacher.
“I can’t blame Leon,” he laughed. “First report card came out, and we both had a whole bunch of lates. So, of course, it’s not Leon’s fault, he’s new to Canada. But it was a miscommunication…At the combine that year, it actually got brought up in a meeting I had with the Bruins.” They knew? “I think it was their head scout, that was the one game he came to watch me play all year and I was scratched because of being late. That was kind of an uncomfortable conversation to have. It probably motivated me for the rest of that school year and season.”
In true Morrissey fashion, he again refused to blame Draisaitl after explaining all of this, even after I told him the story would be funnier if he did.
20. Morrissey on the Jets core: “That was something we talked about. We all really like each other and love playing with each other…I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but (we don’t want) to feel like we have any regrets at the end of this season.” Connor Hellebuyck: “I think it’s more, we know what we have here and we don’t want to waste it.”
21. A couple of players indicated they could tell the way the Avalanche played against Nashville last Friday night that Colorado wanted no part of Minnesota. That’s not a shot at Seattle, but, when you play the Wild, you know you’re getting stitches. And Colorado has zero margin for any more injury with Gabriel Landeskog out.
22. It’s voting time, and one case I spent a lot of time on was Clayton Keller for the Masterton. At the last GM meetings, Arizona’s Bill Armstrong said that after Keller’s serious injury last season, the talented forward was skating before he could even walk properly. “That’s true,” Keller said last week. “There were a lot of days waking up and getting out of bed where I said, ‘Okay, I’m going to be able to walk normally today,’ but it took a lot longer than I wanted to. Skating felt a lot more natural.” How long did it take before you could walk? “Three-and-a-half to four months.” That puts his impressive 2022-23 into greater perspective, including tying Keith Tkachuk’s franchise-record 86 points in a season.
23. How long did it take to feel right on the ice? “A couple of games into the season, I felt like myself again.” What helped was taking an early bump the season-opener in Pittsburgh. “I felt the contact, was completely fine. It freed me up, no longer nervous.”
A couple of years ago, Keller read Kobe Bryant’s The Mamba Mentality and said it really helped him. “Having confidence, being more invested in the mental side of the game, how important it is to believe in yourself. Self-talk is everything. I’ve gotten so much better at going through tough times. There were times in-game I’d get frustrated, but the last two years I’ve been able to find a way to stay with it: ‘It’s gonna happen.’ Before I was super-hard on myself, too hard at times.”
He also likes a video of UFC fighter Rose Namajunas repeating “I’m the best” in the octagon before a fight. “That’s super-cool. It stuck with me.” I find stuff like this really interesting.
24. Keller is a scratch/one-handicap golfer. How did he do the first time he played after the injury? “76…My swing was fine. I was okay, surprised myself.” I guess. I’d have shot 176.
25. The wildest story on Long Island this week is one Islander fan buying an official team jersey, putting “Mrazek” and the number 34 on it, then sending it to Chicago — making the goalie “an honourary Islander.” Mrazek was the goalie in the Blackhawks’ 5-2 win over Pittsburgh last week that gave the New Yorkers a path to the postseason.
26. The NHL frowns on revealing awards voting in advance of the ceremony, but, as you know by now, I like to give an indication of what I’m thinking. The Professional Hockey Writers’ Association allows me the privilege of voting on the Hart, Calder, Norris, Selke and Byng Awards. Remember: if I don’t vote for your favourite team or player, it’s because I hate them, their city, their organization, and, most importantly, you.
HART TROPHY: Come on, this race was over before Santa ate your milk and cookies.
Who’s second? Has to be either David Pastrnak or Matthew Tkachuk.
Who else is on the ballot/was considered? Brent Burns, Leon Draisaitl, Jack Hughes, Kirill Kaprizov, Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon, Mitch Marner, Jason Robertson, Tage Thompson.
27. NORRIS TROPHY: The final voting is going to be really something. Look, Cale Makar is the best defenceman in the NHL, and if he wins, I won’t riot in protest. However, I’ve always given extra credit for games played. It’s really hard to play 80-82 games in this league, you get hurt without even trying, so I try to reward those who are able to dress every night.
Erik Karlsson hit 100 points. He was on-ice for a league-high 126 goals against at even-strength, but a couple of qualifiers: San Jose was outscored 21-4 when he was on-ice with an empty net, which makes his stat-line look worse. Karlsson is never going to confuse anyone with two-time Norris winner Rod Langway, but he played 500 minutes more than any other Shark on the NHL’s third-worst even-strength defence.
Who else is on the ballot/was considered? Who wasn’t? This is the toughest to get down to five. I loved, loved, loved, Miro Heiskanen’s season. Brent Burns, Rasmus Dahlin, Vince Dunn, Adam Fox, Dougie Hamilton, Quinn Hughes, Hampus Lindholm and Josh Morrissey.
28. CALDER TROPHY: For me, it came down to Matt Beniers and Stuart Skinner. Sometimes, I wonder if the vote should be about In 10 years, who will be the best of this class? But it’s not how this works. In that case, I’d probably be voting for Owen Power.
Who else is on the ballot/was considered? Lots of good ones, this was the second-hardest vote. Wyatt Johnston, Matias Maccelli, Kirill Marchenko, Mason McTavish, Jake Sanderson, Logan Thompson.
29. SELKE TROPHY: Gonna be tough to beat five-time winner Patrice Bergeron. Longtime nemesis (and two-time winner) Anze Kopitar will be there, though. As will Sebastian Aho, Mikael Backlund, JT Compher, Sidney Crosby, Joel Eriksson Ek, Nico Hischier, Mitch Marner and Elias Pettersson.
LADY BYNG: Now that Brian Burke is no longer with a team, I’m going to make him vote this one for me. Almost everyone in the Hart race could win this. Draisaitl, Hughes, Marner, McDavid, Pastrnak, Robertson. Even Kucherov and MacKinnon fit the criteria. (I’m trying to decide if MacKinnon would punch all voters in the face if he won the Byng. Not impossible.) Same with the Norris. Two I wanted to add were Brayden Point and Jake Sanderson. From Nov. 3 to Jan. 28 — 39 games — Sanderson did not get a penalty. He had 12 minutes all year, incredible for the role he played.
30. Arnprior, ON’s David Silye — who played at Minnesota State the last two seasons — is transferring to Wisconsin.
31. Teams at least four points out on Nov. 1 went zero-for-four in making the playoffs this season. (That was Columbus, Ottawa, St. Louis and Vancouver.) In 82-game seasons during the salary-cap era, just nine of 66 teams four out on Nov. 1 have recovered to make it. Start fast, kids.
32. There’s no NHL team in her adopted hometown of Houston (yet), but after seeing her opening-day first pitch, I’d love to see what Megan Thee Stallion would do with a puck-drop.