NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – August 26, 2024
More details on why the Flyers terminated Ryan Johansen’s contract, Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki on how the addition of Patrik Laine should help his club, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
SPORTSNET: In his latest “32 Thoughts” column, Elliotte Friedman shed more light on why the Philadelphia Flyers terminated Ryan Johansen’s contract last week citing a material breach.
“I don’t like to question injuries, especially since anyone who’s played 905 games (like Johansen) is guaranteed to have legitimate ones. I’m told the key will be everyone navigating how he went from not missing games and practices in Colorado to how he was unable to play for either Philadelphia or AHL Lehigh Valley. The timing is a little weird, which probably has something to do with video of Johansen dancing at his wedding. Again, I wouldn’t try to handicap this, except for saying the NHL and NHLPA hate risking precedent from an arbitrator, so a settlement is always the preference without an air-tight case.”
PHILLY HOCKEY NOW: Jonathan Bailey noted Johansen played in 63 games with the Colorado Avalanche last season before getting traded to the Flyers on March 6.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Flyers reportedly attempted to send Johansen to their AHL affiliate in Lehigh Valley following the trade. He informed them of his injury which prevented that move and kept him sidelined for the rest of the season.
Johansen’s agent vowed to fight his client’s contract termination. He claims the 32-year-old forward has a “severe hockey injury” scheduled for surgery, adding his client worked “in good faith” with the Flyers, its medical staff, and authorized third-party physicians.
THE ATHLETIC: Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki believes adding Patrik Laine will improve his team’s roster this season. The Canadiens acquired the 26-year-old winger last week from the Columbus Blue Jackets.
“I think we can beat anybody,” said Suzuki last Thursday. “I thought last year we competed against really good teams all the time.” The 25-year-old Canadiens captain believes adding Laine and a healthy Kirby Dach makes their forward unit “look pretty scary.”
Suzuki contacted Laine following the trade, telling the winger he’d be a “great addition.” He added that Laine is excited about joining the Canadiens and ready to go.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: A motivated Laine and the return of Dach should bolster the Canadiens offense which relied heavily on the top line of Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky for the bulk of its production last season. If both players stay healthy they’ll provide the Habs with much-needed scoring depth.
MONTREAL HOCKEY NOW: Speaking of the Canadiens, a local restaurant chain created a burger honoring Arber Xhekaj called “The Sheriff”, taken from the defenseman’s nickname. Xhekaj appeared in the promotion holding the burger, but the restaurant had to edit the picture to make the blueliner’s huge hands appear smaller so as not to dwarf the product.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: A torn hamstring will sidelined Jaromir Jagr for six weeks, forcing him to miss the start of Rytiri Kladno’s season in the Czech Extraliga. The 52-year-old former NHL star and future Hall-of-Famer owns the club and had hoped to play in every game for them this season.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Jagr’s spent the past seven seasons playing for Kladno since ending his 24-year NHL career midway through the 2017-18 season.
TSN: The American Hockey League last week announced it has mandated cut-resistant gear for all its players and on-ice officials.
The decision was made after former AHL and NHL player Adam Johnson died when his throat was cut by a skate during a game in England’s Elite Ice Hockey League.
The Canadian Hockey League instituted a similar policy last November. USA Hockey implemented a policy that dictates all players 18 years and younger to wear neck protection in all games and practices.
The NHL does not yet have a similar policy but numerous players started wearing neck guards following the incident.
Well.
Good times in the ol NHL.
George your analysis of contracts handed out to young NHL’ers was succinct but conveniently left out what’s in our own back yard. Mr. Sanderson, Mr. Stutzle and probably the steal of the three Mr.Batherson. We’ll see which of those three “quick extensions” are gonna play out as a win. Certainly Tim’s numbers warranted the deal he got…the other 2?
I hope Ullmark’s deal doesn’t get done until mid season when he and the team are doing well.
Finally the case of the Flyers contract termination is a funny one. Normally teams get fluffy doc reports to hide players and contracts (LTIR etc etc) in this case they’re trying to prove the opposite for the purpose of contract termination. I’m surprised nobody has called Briere out with some kind of wheelchair meme which would snicker-worthy.
Sanderson got paid so fast…why?
Stutzle at least had a top line season before the extension
Why did Sanderson get paid? Really?
I dunno, maybe it’s that he just turned 21 in July and at 6’3″:
– Led the team in minutes
– half pt/gm D-man
– Doesn’t get protected like a young D, in fact the opposite.
– played the highest % of his minutes against elite opposition than any D-man on the team.
– While doing that led the D in +/-
Did I mention he just turned 21? What more could you ask for in a young D-man?
I would take a guy like him over Stutzle all day, and I think Stutzle will be a very good offensive player.
Sanderson is already a good bargain, and will be an absolute steal over time. He is Ottawa’s best D-man already and it ain’t close IMO. The guy will be a perennial Norris vote getter, even though the trophy usually goes to high scorers, which is a pet peeve of mine. The kid does it all.
Yeah. I’ll take that all day everyday. I feel many fans can’t differentiate between good and very good players…between bad and good is a bit better but not much.
The cap hit is really misleading since so many non-hockey factors can apply to it being what it is, along with playing ability.
Sanderson getting the big contract just shows they learned nothing from Chabot.
Big D-man, great skater, great offense, minute muncher subsequently burned out and injury prone.
Big contract that he earned but is unable to live up to.
Not sure that’s fair HF30. Chabot was playing 25-26 minutes a night, Sanderson 23 & change. Chabot on a crappy team and getting caved in. That isn’t the case anymore in OTT. Zero evidence that Sanderson will burn out or be injury prone. He’s a better player than Chabot already, Chabot is more of one trick pony on the offensive side of the ledger.
Don’t get me wrong they need to keep improving defensively, but they should, and are a better team now.
2 different players, playing different roles. If anything I see Sanderson getting fewer PP minutes, and seeing more shut down minutes than he already does. Points may go down? I dunno what their plans are.
Lots of young D-men who are high end get fed minutes, it’s how they learn. Seider in DET, Dahlin in BUF, and now Power is too. Heiskann in DAL. Nobody is talking about them burning out. Makar in COL is another.
High end D play big minutes, it’s what they do, or they wouldn’t be high end D-men.
Dark G, Ottawa’s $8 million club consists of these 5 players, each of whom got their deal from Dorion:
Thomas Chabot – 8-years at $8 mil per signed in Sept 2019 – expires 2027-28. Over his play the last 2 or 3 seasons it can rightfully be argued that he is not an $8 mil D – but much of his “deterioration” can be laid at the feet of previous coaches Guy Boucher and D. J. Smith who burned him out by playing him – routinely – upwards of 35 minutes a game. Hopefully, the new regime of coaches, combined with a stay-at-home type RD Jensen – and more in the range of 21-22 minutes on average – can turn that around.
Brady Tkachuk – 7 years at $8,205,714 signed in Oct 2021 – expires 2027-28 – the only one of the 5 to demonstrate yearly improvement and overall consistency.
Tim Stutzle – 8 years at $8,350,000 signed in Sept 2022 – expires 2030-31 – steady progress through the first 2 seasons of the deal – 2021-22 – 79gp 22g 36a 58 pts -27 then 2022-23 – 39g 51a 90 pts -3 – followed by a “down” season in 2023-24 – 18g 52a 70 pts -17. He needs a bounce-back season under the new regime
Josh Norris – 8 years at $7,950,000 per signed in Sept 2022 – expires 2029-30 – the 2021-22 season where he scored 35g 20a 55 pts and a -7 was the catalyst for Dorion to dole out that deal – he had no way of knowing, of course, that his shoulder injury would become a regular feature and he wanted desperately for Norris to succeed, his being the big “catch” from the Karlsson deal. His future is all in the hands of fate now
Jake Sanderson – 8 years at $8,050,000 per signed in Sept 2023 – expires 2031-32 – the 5th overall in 2020 certainly came with some consensus hype from among the draft pundits, and as Ray Bark notes above, he has shown more enough (including being the only plus player on the D riddled with glaring minus stats (like the dearly-departed Chychrun) so far to harbour the hope that his deal will be regarded as Dorion’s best career move within the next 2 seasons.
As for Batherson, his production at RW since signing his 6 year deal in Sept 2021 – expires 2026-27 – suggests that his $4,975,000 per deal is the best bang for the buck on this roster.
Another excellent and informative post George! I think in 2 years, fans will see just how team friendly these 8 mil contracts are, especially Tkachuk’s. It’s going to make it a lot easier to trade him when he says he wants out.
Heh, Ed, the hope here is that the new coaching regime, a defensive system that is followed through all 4 lines and D-pairings, and the roster changes made (so far) will improve the team to the point where he won’t be seeking a trade.
It s one thing to lock up your young players with long term deals to save down the road,but in Ottawa s case if they get injured frequently or they Don t improve,you can look really bad!
I remember back in 1997 or 1998 Wayne Babych was doing a hockey school in a Northern community i was working in.
At the end of the hockey school Wayne would play in a scrimmage game with the locals, his brother Dave accompanied him on this trip, who was a member of the Philadelphia flyers, Dave was asked if he would play and he said no, you never know where there is a camera or person who made report back to the fylers and he would lose his insurance money as he was out with a knee injury.
Let’s not forget about Alex Newhook, who played well after his return from injury. If they stay healthy, Dach, Laine and Newhook will form a solid second line.
A lot of ifs and hopes this year Howard. Dach seems to be made of glass, and Laine is often hurt. How long will it take him to find his mojo if he does remain healthy, after being out so long?
What about Anderson? Is Gallagher too banged up to be effective anymore?
A lot of things have to go well for the Habs this year for them to be competitive.
LJ, you could be describing the Senators above when it comes to players made of glass (Chabot) and often hurt (Norris) and that “a lot of things have to go well …. in order to be competitive …”
A lot of similarities in that regard. But I’ll tell you, a first line of Slafkovsky – Suzuki – Caufield and a 2nd line of A healthy Newhook and Dach and Laine will elevate their first two line’s production well up into the top half of the league.
You will also get very good offensive production from the first D pairing of Matheson and Guhle, and should get decent production from the 2nd pairing of Hutson and Savard.
The domino effect of Laine and the return of a healthy Dach should also bolster the 3rd and 4th lines and, again much like Ottawa, they’ll need to improve the overall defensive structure to turn around some of those glaring minus stats (a combined -37 for the first line), although, unlike Ottawa, you can’t really point a finger at an under-performing, glaringly inconsistent goalie tandem as a major contributing factor. Your goalies are not a major part of the widespread minus stats.
True, George. But I am not going to get ahead of myself, for as we see so often in rebuilds – Ottawa, Buffalo, Detroit – things can go sideways.
Our teams are in a tough conference. As far as I can see, there is one wild card up for grabs.
In order for the Habs to make the playoffs they need to get past Ottawa, Buffalo, Detroit, and Washington.
I see a slide for the Bruins and the Bolts, but not out of the playoffs.
Tall order. Calls for expectation management.
Stanley Cup champion Shane Hnidy is the only sheriff I recognize.
I always thought Arbers nickname was Al?
Either way, he has bad wings and is ripe to get clipped this year.
Tigre de papier.
I love when Bruins fans underestimate Habs players!!!
2422,
I’m not keen on “the sheriff” as Arber’s nickname, I greatly prefer WiFi.
He’s a player who can fight not just a fighter
He’s a personality with ambition, drive and a protective instinct but let’s be honest there’s always a bigger bear.
habfan,
I like WIFI also as his nickname…..
he is a player 1st and a tough Customer 2nd….👍
No it is “WIFI” because his name is like a WIFI password
Ah, SOP, your first segue into trolling, perhaps?
Yes, Xhekaj has had both shoulders operated on, not uncommon for players. He’ll be fine, and while he will still be a physical force he wants to be, in his own words, more than a meat head. Smart enough to know he can’t stay in the league as a one dimensional player. Let’s see if Rempe figures that out.
Besides, he showed excellent judgement in turning down an offer from the Leafs so he could sign with the Habs.
tigre de papier? Mais non! Enfant terrible, oui.
And, as you said yesterday, how did my reply end up here?
I’m just fooling around, LJ.
I like the kid.
He projects to be a really good player who can throw em hard and fast when he has to step up for his teammates.
The Habs need that because that gem of a man, Pezzatta has been jumping weight classes and taking bouts that he shouldn’t have to.
His parents
story is fascinating.
Hard work, hope, perseverance, dedication.
I listened to a podcast about the family last year.
Left me smiling.
With that said….
Here’s to the Habs missing the playoffs by a point!
Touche, SOP!
Yeah, I like the kid’s story too. His Mom working in a tire shop, at the age where she has a 20 year old. Maybe the Habs should draft her!
And I think you will get your wish, at least as far as the Habs missing the playoffs again this year.
George,
I think if the sen’s start the season with Shane pinto on the 2nd line and Josh Norris on the 2nd line on the wing …. that should help him and his shoulder out a lot….
As for Chabot playing 2nd pairing d…. with a ture
RD man in Nick Jensen who is more stay at home and can move the puck out the zone
this could be a very good 2nd pair untill that rookie turns 20 and they put him in the lineup
6ft3 & 203lb RD-man Carter Yakemchuk the
7th pick over all👍
We also have Ullmark in goal possibley sens best goaltender in the past 10yrs…..
A 3rd line with speedster Riley they may have a very good 3rd line all they need is a Tough RW for the 4th line and put Zack MacEwen in the minors….❓👏