The NHL Expansion Draft and Awards
Why should we care? Victor Hedman is the Tampa Bay Lightning’s sole nominee, up for a Norris Trophy alongside Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns.
Vegas says that Hedman’s odds are not good, but it’ll still be nice to see him before he heads back to Sweden for his wedding. If it’s any consolation, Karlsson will likely not win either. This was anticipated by GeoFitz4 in his Norris article in April.
“As much as Lightning fans want Hedman to win, all signs point towards Burns for the award winner this season. His offensive prowess from the blueline is one of the best performances of the past 20 years. If you look into the advanced stats, there are some things that point towards some advantages from Hedman.” [Raw Charge]
Even though Hedman knows it’s likely he won’t win, “It’s obviously a tremendous honor for me,” Hedman told the Times. “To be there with Erik, too, playing with him when we’re under 15, under-16 national teams. Kind of growing up together on that stage. And then playing in NHL and getting nominated together for the Norris, its’ a good feeling. I obviously know it’s a long shot to win, but just to go there and experience everything, it’s going to be so cool, to see everything and how it works, take it all in.” [Tampa Bay Times]
The new betting odds on #NHLAwards will not make Erik Karlsson fans happy pic.twitter.com/LSwpsR7LVW
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) June 20, 2017
Also at some point during the Expansion Draft, the player that the Vegas Golden Knights are snitching from the team will be announced 15th. Three players will be announced at a time in reverse order of standings.
Will it be Slater Koekkoek, as everyone has guessed in their mock expansion drafts? Joe Smith seems to think not. “Those types of trades won’t be announced until Wednesday, so details aren’t available yet. GM Steve Yzerman neither confirmed nor denied whether he has a side deal.” [Tampa Bay Times]
Hearing #tblightning has a side deal in place with Vegas to protect its young ‘D.”
— Joe Smith (@TBTimes_JSmith) June 20, 2017
While there is no confirmation, Bob McKenzie thinks the deal will involve sending Garrison to Vegas. It will be interesting to see what else the Lightning send to the Golden Knights along with Garrison.
Finally, TB. “Hearing” VGK may take Garrison contract from TB. No details beyond that; not yet sure on incentive or anything firm, TBH.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 21, 2017
There’s some interest in expansion history around the blogosphere right now, including this piece from Canucks Army about the 1991-1993 expansion drafts. “Though the circumstances are quite different, we can learn a lot from these nine teams on what works and what doesn’t when breaking into the league as a brand new franchise. Let’s start with what can be learned from San Jose, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, Florida, and Anaheim, who joined the league between 1991 and 1993.” [Canucks Army]
Speaking of the NHL Awards, Sal Berry jumps into the hockey time machine and dials it back 20 years to showcase the attempt at humor that was the 1997 NHL Award show. Watch Phil Esposito awkwardly talk on a telephone and the Primeau brothers showcase the Wig Helmet. Good times indeed! [Puck Junk]
The Bolts
New jerseys! I want the laces back. “In typical NHL fashion, the new Adidas jerseys were leaked to the public a few hours before their official announcement. Most notable is the foregoing of the laces as well as a lower of the crest.” [Raw Charge]
Steve Yzerman weighed in on his off-season goals, and what’s interesting is that he didn’t feel like the defensive corps were at fault for the season. Instead, he emphasized that it was the team-wide defensive system that broke down.
I’ve transcribed this short video snipped for accessibility. [Tampa Bay Lightning]
Well, our offseason goals, number one, we have to deal with the expansion draft and see how that affects our team. And our restricted free agents that we hope to re-sign. We talked about it at the end of the year, where one of the areas where we struggled — that was defensively. And it doesn’t mean specifically our defensive core, the group, it’s as a team — we did not play well defensively.
We didn’t keep the puck out of our net, we didn’t limit the number of grade-A scoring chances that we gave up, that’s a team commitment. That’ll be one thing that was expressed to the players at the end of the season, that will be addressed by our coaches — as a team, how do we become a better team defensively? And again everyone would say, oh, as soon as you say, hey, we need to improve defensively, automatically we’re going to change our D — it’s more the way we play and as a team we have to address that.
In case you missed it yesterday, there was a lot of Shane Doan news. We wrote about whether he’d be a good fit on the Tampa Bay Lightning — and despite the flood of divisional opponents trying to skew our poll, we managed to vote “no.” Go see the results. [Raw Charge]
Loserpoints wrote a sobering piece about how Tampa Bay probably failed to let Jonathan Drouin develop his full potential. “All of this is to say that the Lightning did a great job of making the best of a difficult situation on Thursday, June 15th, 2017. BUT…and I’m sure you knew there was a “but” coming, that doesn’t necessarily mean they made great decisions leading up to Thursday, June 15th, 2017.” [Raw Charge]
Justin wrote yesterday’s Head to Head about my least favorite team, the New York Rangers. [Raw Charge]
Yesterday was an important anniversary for the Lightning and Steven Stamkos:
June 20, 2008.
91 puts on the ⚡️ for the very first time. pic.twitter.com/mAMFLxJyqB
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) June 20, 2017
The Crunch
Syracuse was awarded recognition for their group revenue this past season at the AHL’s annual meetings:
We’re proud of our sales staff for all the hard work they put in this season! Congratulations on your award presented at the #AHLMeetings. pic.twitter.com/7aUqJoQD7q
— Syracuse Crunch (@SyracuseCrunch) June 20, 2017
(photo credit to Jason Chaimovitch)
One forward returns, two pack their bags as busy Syracuse Crunch off-season begins. “The Crunch has already locked down one forward for the 2017-18 season while waving an expected goodbye to two others. Veteran checking-line forward Kevin Lynch said on Tuesday he has signed a one-year, AHL pact with the Crunch. Lynch was promoted from Indy of the ECHL during the year and was a key contributor in the second half of the season and into the playoffs.” [Syracuse.com]
Mike McKenna was allowed a special item from the run he helped the team go on during the Calder Cup playoffs:
Speaking of the ECHL: There was a slight realignment in the divisions. The K-Wings and their fellow Central Division rivals will say good bye to Wichita and Tulsa while welcoming Cincinnati and Kansas City. [ECHL]
The Prospects
Brett Howden, Boris Katchouk, and Taylor Raddysh were invited to Canada’s World Junior Championship camp. Cool. [Hockey Canada]
