NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – October 8, 2022

by | Oct 8, 2022 | News, NHL | 5 comments

Recaps of Friday’s games, the Flames sign MacKenzie Weegar to an eight-year contract extension, the Blackhawks and Canucks make a trade and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.

GAME RECAPS

NHL.COM: The Nashville Predators kicked off their regular season by downing the San Jose Sharks 4-1 at the NHL Global Series in Prague, Czechia. Juuse Saros made 30 saves for the win while Eeli Tolvanen scored what proved to be the game-winner early in the second period. Prague native Tomas Hertl tallied for the Sharks. The two clubs face each other again today.

Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl (NHL Images).

In preseason action, the Pittsburgh Penguins crushed the Buffalo Sabres 7-1. Sidney Crosby scored twice and added an assist, Evgeni Malkin had three assists, Jake Guentzel a goal and two assists and Bryan Rust tallied twice for the Penguins.

Leon Draisaitl had a goal and three assists to lead the Edmonton Oilers to a 5-3 victory over the Seattle Kraken. Connor McDavid and Evander Kane each had a goal and an assist.

The Winnipeg Jets got a three-point performance from Kyle Connor and two goals from Pierre-Luc Dubois in a 5-3 win over the Calgary Flames. Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck kicked out 35 shots.

Detroit Red Wings forward Tyler Bertuzzi scored twice as his club doubled up the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2.

Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko faced just seven shots to shut out the Arizona Coyotes 4-0.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: That’s not a typo. The Coyotes only mustered seven shots on Demko.

HEADLINES

CALGARY HOCKEY NOW: The Flames signed defenseman MacKenzie Weegar to an eight-year, $50 million contract extension yesterday. Weegar, 28, is in the final season of a three-year deal worth an average annual value of $3.25 million.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Weegar was acquired by the Flames from the Florida Panthers in the trade that also sent Jonathan Huberdeau to Calgary in July. The $6.25 million AAV on his new contract is a significant raise for the late-blooming defenseman, who tallied a career-high 44 points last season. The deal also comes with full no-trade protection for the first four seasons.

Weegar’s contract leaves the Flames with $80.3 million invested in 18 players for 2023-24. There’s no question they’re in “go-for-it” mode for the foreseeable future. Time will tell if they get good value for their expensive investments in Weegar, Huberdeau and free-agent addition Nazem Kadri.

THE PROVINCE/NBC SPORTS CHICAGO: The Vancouver Canucks trade forward Jason Dickerson and a second-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for defenseman Riley Stillman.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Canucks needed to add a defenseman as well as free up salary-cap space. Swapping Dickinson and his $2.65 million cap hit through 2023-24 for Stillman and his $1.35 AAV through ’23-’24 addressed both needs. The rebuilding Blackhawks, meanwhile, were able to add a second-round pick to give them six selections in the first three rounds of the 2024 draft.

TSN: Speaking of the Canucks, blueliner Tyler Myers is out two-to-four weeks with a lower-body injury.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Canucks are also missing rearguard Travis Dermott, who is recuperating from a concussion.

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: Some good news for the Flyers as winger Joel Farabee has been cleared for contact and could play in the club’s season-opener. He underwent disk replacement surgery in June.

DETROIT HOCKEY NOW: Red Wings defenseman Robert Hagg has been cleared to return to play. He’s been sidelined by a concussion.

DAILY FACEOFF: Carolina Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook, Edmonton Oilers center Mattias Janmark and Dallas Stars goaltender Anton Khudobin are among the players to hit the waiver wire on Friday. Teams have until noon ET today to claim them.

NHL.COM: The St. Louis Blues released Tyler Pitlick from his professional tryout offer.

THE HOCKEY NEWS: Hockey New Brunswick joins three other regional hockey organizations in withholding a portion of their player registration fees from Hockey Canada. Meanwhile, Nike joined a growing list of sponsors withholding support over a lack of confidence in the national governing body’s leadership stemming from its mishandling of sexual assault allegations levied against players from the 2003 and 2018 World Junior teams.

NHL.COM: Former goaltender Dave Dryden passed away on Tuesday at age 81. The older brother of Hall-of-Fame netminder Ken Dryden, Dave played in 203 NHL games with the New York Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks, Buffalo Sabres and Edmonton Oilers, as well as 242 games in the WHA from 1961-62 to 1979-80.

Dryden left his mark on the game by pioneering the first cage combination goalie mask. He continued working on improving and refining equipment following his retirement.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: My condolences to Dryden’s family, friends and former teammates. Today’s goaltenders owe him a debt of gratitude for his efforts to improve their equipment.







5 Comments

  1. In past months I’ve looked at % of the cap spent on the top 5 cap hit of each team. On the eve of a new season I got curious as to how they would stack up when looking at roughly half of the rosters – or the costliest 10 of each 23-man unit. In doing so it became clear that the majority of the 32 teams do so on the basis of 6 F, 3 D and 1 G (I do not include any perpetual LTIRs). The results among the consensus contenders show startling differences in how much of their cap is devoted to 10 players and how much is left for the bottom half of each roster.

    Atlantic
    Toronto 84% – 16%
    Tampa Bay 79% – 21%
    Florida 77% – 23%
    Boston 71% – 29%
    Ottawa 68% – 32%
    Montreal 63% – 37%
    Detroit 56% – 44%
    Buffalo 51% – 49%

    Metropolitan
    New York Rangers 78% – 22%
    Columbus 75% – 25%
    Philadelphia 73% – 27%
    Carolina 72% – 28%
    Washington 72% – 28%
    Pittsburgh 69% – 31%
    New York Islanders 68% – 32%
    New Jersey 67% – 33%

    Central
    Nashville 77% – 23%
    Winnipeg 75% – 25%
    Colorado 75% – 25%
    Dallas 74% – 26%
    * Minnesota 72% – 28%
    St. Louis 70% – 30%
    Chicago 64% – 36%
    Arizona 51% – 49%

    *The Wild includes $12,743,588 of their Top 10 for Parise & Suter

    Pacific
    Los Angeles 75% – 25%
    Edmonton 75% – 25%
    Vegas 73% – 27%
    Vancouver 73% – 27%
    San Jose 69$ – 31%
    Calgary 64% – 36%
    Seattle 62% – 38%
    Anaheim 58% – 42%

    • Another way of looking at is comparing the depth for each of the consensus “contenders” this coming season in terms of how much of the cap can be devoted to the “bottom 13” (assuming each team goes with the limit – some may not due to cap constraints)

      Calgary $29,700,000
      Pittsburgh $25,525,000
      St. Louis $24,750,000
      Boston $23,925,000
      Carolina $23,100,000
      Washington $23,100,000
      Minnesota $23,100,000
      Vegas $22,275,000
      Dallas $21,450,000
      Colorado $20,625,000
      Edmonton $20,625,000
      Nashville $18,975,000
      Florida $18,975,000
      New York Rangers $18,150,000
      Tampa Bay $17,325,000
      Toronto $13,200,000

  2. three observations
    (1) kudos to Treveling in CGY, what a great rebound this offseason after losing Gaudreau and Tkachuk.
    (2) What was Florida thinking in trading out so many assets for Tkachuk? Huberdeau Weeger a forward and a pick. Since JH and MW signed in CGY, the deal looks a lot worse for Florida
    (3) I thought the Hawks and Flyers were the top contenders for Bedard, but Arizona had 7 SOG in a game?? shameful but they don’t deserve Bedard

    • Treliving setup his team to be a strong contender for the next 4 seasons.
      Best D core and goaltender in their division.
      If those forwards get some chemistry it will take lots of #97 to take them out in the Pacific

      • And, as I indicated above, that strong top 10 cap layout is supported by the most cap space to strengthen their depth. Damned good job in the circumstances by Treleving who, at this stage anyway, has to be the leading candidate for the GM of the year award.