NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – November 4, 2020
Tyler Seguin and Ben Bishop undergo surgeries, the latest on Mark Scheifele and Elias Lindholm, the Red Wings re-sign Anthony Mantha, and more in today’s NHL morning coffee headlines.
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS: Stars forward Tyler Seguin and goaltender Ben Bishop recently underwent surgeries that could sidelined them for up to five months. Seguin underwent surgery on his right hip on Monday while Bishop had right knee surgery on Oct. 21. If the timelines hold, Seguin would return to action on April 2 while Bishop should return on March 21.
Dallas Stars center Tyler Seguin underwent hip surgery (Photo via NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Seguin and Bishop might not miss that much playing time should the tentative Jan. 1 start date for next season be pushed into February or March.
SPORTSNET: Winnipeg Jets center Mark Scheifele said he’s fully recovered from the Achilles injury suffered three months ago during the qualifying round series against the Calgary Flames. “I’m 100 percent, no question, said Scheifele, adding he’s now skating every day.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Losing Scheifele was a devastating blow that contributed to the Jets’ demise in that series against the Flames. Having their first-line center healthy will be crucial to their playoff hopes next year.
THE SCORE: Speaking of the Flames, Josh Wegman cites head coach Geoff Ward told Sportsnet’s Eric Francis his club could explore whether they’ll have a better lineup with Elias Lindholm moving back to his natural position at center on a full-time basis. Lindholm has a career faceoff win percentage of 52.4 and has received down-ballot votes for the Selke Trophy for his two-way play.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Wegman looked at what the Flames’ top-two forward lines could look like with Lindholm at center, pointing to the solid five-on-five production he had with Matthew Tkachuk and Andrew Mangiapane.
THE DETROIT NEWS: The Red Wings re-signed forward Anthony Mantha to a four-year, $22.8 million contract. The annual average value is $5.7 million and is the longest and most expensive contract Steve Yzerman has extended to any Wings’ player since taking over as their general manager.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Mantha, 26, has been hampered by injuries but the 6’5, 234-pounder has 30-goal potential. The rebuilding Wings can afford to make that investment in the hope he’ll be a key part of their ongoing development.
Mantha’s signing leaves the Wings with over $71.9 million invested in 22 players with Dmytro Timashov still to sign. There’s enough cap space for Yzerman to target a cap-strapped rival to acquire a quality player under contract for next season, but it appears his roster is set for next season after bringing in Bobby Ryan, Marc Staal, Thomas Greiss and Vladislav Namestnikov.
NEW YORK POST: Rangers center Ryan Strome is seeking a one-year, $5.7 million contract through arbitration while the club countered with $3.6 million. His hearing is slated for Nov. 5. The Rangers can walk away from an arbiter award over $4, 538, 958.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Only one player (Detroit’s Tyler Bertuzzi) needed arbitration thus far to settle their contract for next season. Strome’s is one that could be worth watching, especially if he gets an award over $4.539 million.
CAP FRIENDLY: reports the Ottawa Senators avoided arbitration with Christian Jaros, signing the 24-year-old defenseman to a one-year, two-way contract worth $750K at the NHL level.
NHLPA: Four players remain scheduled for arbitration hearings. Ryan Strome is slated for Nov. 5, Rangers winger Brendan Lemieux and New York Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock on Nov. 6 and Florida Panthers defenseman MacKenzie Weegar on Nov. 8.
Yesterday Slick62 you asked “what’s up with Jaros” – well, as I indicated, he was hoping to get a larger minor league salary – which a lot of RFAs were pursuing this year who feel they are settling into becoming AHL mainstays who are called up as injury replacements.
In his case, Dorion agreed to bump his salary there from $70,000 to $250,000. while retaining the $750,000 NHL hit.
Lyle, re your observation on Seguin and Bishop, all these options to have surgery now are, to me anyway , a clear indication that word has filtered through the NHL teams that, although publicly the league officials will keep to the Jan 1/Feb 1 start options, the reality is, don’t expect to be playing any time before March – or perhaps later … or never.
It’s also a reason why trades/UFA signings have petered out, since there’s absolutely no rush to significantly change the payroll.
Short of never playing, could the NHL devolve into a league of teams that can profit by TV revenue alone? Are there enough such teams to form such a league, and would public interest support broadcasting their games?
TV revenue is – in every major sport – very much based upon how much private companies/organizations/etc., are willing to fork over in advertising fees. In that regard, hockey – at least in the U.S. – is well behind NFL, baseball, basketball, college football and even bowling.
Added to that is the fact that a lot of the above-mentioned types of advertisers are losing their shirts due to the economic downturn and so may not be prepared to fork over millions of dollars to advertise things they aren’t selling to begin with.
Add Gustav Nyquist to the growing list of those opting for surgery – 5-6 months recovery in his case and a possible $5,500,000 LTIR for Columbus depending upon if and when we have a season.
So what is the master plan for cable TV to keep the fans interested until they figure out what and when.
The Big Ten will start Nov 13 so I figure that NBC sport network and maybe NHL network will have some games on TV. OHL looks OUT at this time.
So will some SHL games be on TV here or will it be replays of the replays. Viewership on some of these cable channels must be zippy.
Curling ? anything ?
The Masters starts next Thursday.
Probably darts! Or “tournament poker.”
You guys repeatedly ignore the world’s number 1 sport…. Gladiator Tiddlywinks …. Coke and Pepsi are duking it out for full advertising rights
Paid cable subscription to all events is a Gobsmacking $1.99 per decade
The Pengy family has just re-upped for the ‘20 through ‘29 seasons…. best twoonie ever spent
Heads up …. Aloysius Patrick O’Halloran is favoured over Sir Oliver Plimpton in tonight’s main event… make your wagers good sirs
…or go back to the early days of ESPN and watch a lot of Australian Rules Football.
Doubt that – they’re applying ever more stringent measures to combat the virus there