Welcome to 2019 NHL Draft day! Let’s get to the news.
The Bolts
The Tampa Bay Lightning have announced that Ryan Callahan has a degenerative back disease and he will be placed on Long-Term Injured Reserve for next season, his final season under contract. This is both a really crappy way for Cally to end his heroic career for a myriad of reasons, as well as a convenient way to alleviate some of their salary cap issues. Both can be true and both are true. [Raw Charge]
While it has been clear that his time with the Lightning was coming to an end, this is definitely not the way you’d like to see a player like Callahan end his career. The definition of a heart and soul player, he was a huge voice and leader within the locker room. Even though injuries and age had started to catch up to him, he still provided great value even with his contributions on the ice diminishing.
In official contract news, the Lightning have announced that they have sent qualifying offers to all their Restricted Free Agents. This means all of the players under team control and without a contract will remain under team control. Players who do to not get qualified become Unrestricted Free Agents and tend to either sign with a new team or sign an AHL contract.
#tblightning GM Julien BriseBois confirmed all of the team’s RFAs have received qualifying offers ahead of the June 25 deadline – Brayden Point, Paquette, Martel, Erne, Verhaeghe, Masin, Thomas, Hults
— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithTB) June 21, 2019
On Wednesday night, Andrei Vasilevskiy won the Vezina Trophy for best goaltender in the league. Check out the reactions from around the Lightning organization!
“I want to thank the entire Tampa Bay Lightning organization for the opportunity to play for the best hockey club in the world.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy becomes the first #Bolt to collect the Vezina Trophy at the #NHLAwards: pic.twitter.com/BN0OsKZB1Y
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) June 20, 2019
Meanwhile, Andrei Vasilevskiy becomes the first #SyrCrunch alumnus to win the Vezina Trophy. https://t.co/M63kgoLYp7
— Lukas Favale (@LukasFavale) June 20, 2019
Down in Syracuse, Daniel Walcott has re-signed for another season with the club. He joined Lukas Favale for an episode of the Crunch Time podcast. It’s a hilarious listen.
Have you ever heard the one about the watermelon in the #SyrCrunch locker room? I hadn’t either, until Daniel Walcott
told the story on Episode 3 of #CrunchTime. https://t.co/G4AcS8Y6Sd— Lukas Favale (@LukasFavale) June 20, 2019
The comments, oh the comments.
The Draft
Who should the Tampa Bay Lightning target in the first round? Lauren Kelly tackles that question. [Raw Charge]
The following players are prospects who are right now, projected to be drafted in the late-first and early second round (though that does not mean they don’t have the potential to go much higher than that). The prospects below are not listed in any particular order, and all of them bring different skill-sets to the table that could be enticing to the Lightning.
Who should the Tampa Bay Lightning target in the later rounds? GeoFitz tackles that question. [Raw Charge]
So below are a group of players that the Black Book either didn’t rank in their overall list or gave No Draft grades that I consider to be intriguing prospects. When we’re talking about the later rounds, there’s never a guarantee that the player is going to work out. In fact, a player drafted after the third round making any impact in the NHL, like Cedric Paquette, Mathieu Joseph, and Ondrej Palat, is the exception rather than the rule.
It’s a crapshoot to try and guess who your hockey team will specifically pick, but this article by Sunaya Sapurji of The Athletic may lift a certain name above the rest. [The Athletic]
He met with 24 teams at the combine and after that, he had a second round of interviews with three teams — the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Toronto Maple Leafs and his hometown Calgary Flames.
The Game
So last season’s officiating was a bit of a mess for a variety of reasons. So the NHL has added/changed some of their laws around to try and make things easier for everyone. Like last year, it looked like they had some good ideas. What we’ll be saying a year from now, who knows. [Pension Plan Puppets]
Coaches Challenges are no longer associated with team timeouts. All failed coach’s challenges will result in a “delay of game” penalty. Two or more failed challenges in a game will result in a double minor following each offense. A team can challenge as many times as they want in a game.
UPDATED: with official wording from the NHL https://t.co/Ms6j9wVGmu
— Hardev Lad 🏳️🌈 (@HardevLad) June 21, 2019
The Vancouver Canucks have extended defenseman Alex Edler. He will make $6 million in each of the next two seasons. [Botchford’s Canucks Army]
At 33 years old, Edler has his best days behind him, but he demonstrated how he was able to stay consistent, putting up 10 goals and 34 points last season in just 56 games played. His 0.61 points per game was his highest rate since the 2010-11 season.
Alex Edler signs a two-year extension with #canucks that carries a $6M AAV.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) June 20, 2019
Also from Vancouver, guess who’s (potentially) back! PETER CHIARELLI!!!! We couldn’t believe it either! [Botchford’s Canucks Army]
No matter what side of the Benning fence Canucks fans lie on, every single one can agree that Chiarelli was not a good General Manager during his time in Edmonton. Countless articles highlighting his infamous trades that involved sending out future Hart Trophy winners and mismanaging the Oilers into the dark abyss while still employing the greatest player in decades.
