Well, we are almost in the dog days of summer. UFA signings have slowed considerably and there is little news circulating the hockey world other than the release of the 2013/14 NHL schedule and the new division names. To see my thoughts on the new division names check out my twitter account by clicking the button at the top right of your screen. Over the next few weeks to kill time as we wait for October I will put together individual player talent analysis and general scouting reports for those players. To make it more fun for all of us, comment the name of a player you would like to see written up or let me know on twitter. Follow me at @JohannesHockey and make sure to give me feed back! As always, thanks for reading. Enjoy your summer. -J
I apologize to all of you readers for my lack of coverage today, I was traveling all day and didn't have access to internet. Within a few days I'll put out a piece with some random thoughts from free agent frenzy today. For now all I'll say is.. Wow. What a day of signings and trades, very exciting and at times shocking. I'll be writing up the Ryan trade as well as the new deals of players including Iginla, Clarkson, Bozak, Horton, Alfredsson, Weiss, Scuderi, Hamonic, Ference, Stalberg, Ribeiro and more. So much going on today and over the next few says, it should be entertaining! Check my Twitter feed for some random thoughts on today! Thanks for sticking around -J Former Philadelphia Flyer Daniel Briere has signed a two year deal with the Montreal Canadiens, reportedly paying the 35-year-old forward an average of 4 million per season. Generously listed as 5'10 and 179 pounds on NHL.com, Briere doesn't bring the size that the Canadiens desperately crave in their system. Already featuring pint sized players such as Brian Gionta, David Desharnais and Brendan Gallagher, Montreal would be far better suited to a Free Agent more along the lines of Ryane Clowe or David Clarkson, rather than the diminutive Briere. Daniel brings valuable production and offensive skill to the power play, but can't be trusted to handle heavy minutes in all situations. The Briere signing seems redundant to me. The Habs are in need of young burgeoning power forwards with size and scoring prowess, not small, defensively unreliable players in their mid 30's. Briere is a character guy and a respected voice in the dressing room. He hails from the nearby city of Gatineau, Quebec, so the crowd will cheer him on as a home town hero no matter what. By no means is Briere a bad addition for Montreal, there were simply better fits on the open market for a player of his style.
Today fans of the NHL were rocked by a massive trade between the Eastern and Western conferences. The Stanley Cup finalist Boston Bruins shipped former second overall pick Tyler Seguin to the Dallas Stars with Rich Peverley and defensive prospect Ryan Button in exchange for the underrated Loui Eriksson, forwards Matt Fraser and Reilly Smith and rearguard Joe Morrow. Dallas gains a gifted, explosive offensive player in Seguin, who has been called out recently on his immaturities. While this can be a red flag sometimes, most young players do experience bumps along the road as they mature. Just look at Patrick Kane; he's turning out just fine. The versatile Rich Peverley adds to the Stars centre depth and Ryan Button is a long shot to make the NHL. I've been fond of Button's skill set for a while, and I can see him turning out well for the Stars all though he will have to work hard to prove himself. Loui Eriksson gives the Bruins a big bodied, responsible, perennial 70+ point producer in the prime of his career, and arguably the best player in this deal at the moment. Eriksson could put up career numbers on a line with either the intelligent Patrice Bergeron or the shifty David Krejci. Reilly Smith has a shot at making the big club this fall, and could surprise some critics. Smith is speedy and works hard, the production will come once he has the chance to adjust to the big league game and get more comfortable with his play. Smith is definitely a potentially rewarding sleeper. Fraser could turn out to be a second line power forward or an AHL lifer, we'll just have to wait and see. The well travelled Joe Morrow is loaded with potential as a puck moving D, and could have a large impact on Boston's blue line a year or two down the road. All in all, I love this trade for both teams. Deals like this one bring excitement to the fans in the off season, and everyone loves to see star players moved. It should be great to see how this one plays out down the road. Edmonton Oilers general manager Craig MacTavish finally found a taker for the maligned Shawn Horcoff. The suddenly active Dallas Stars further added to their depth at centre by taking on Horcoff and his large contract in exchange for blue liner Philip Larsen and a 7th round pick in 2016. Oilers fans should be jumping up and down in excitement just for being rid of Horcoff's awful contract, and yet somehow MacTavish managed to receive a respectable return for Shawn. Philip Larsen is still young and could be an excellent puck mover for the third defensive pair, but meanwhile he adds depth to the Oilers pipeline of D. This is a great move from an Oilers perspective, and a questionable move from the Stars side. I understand Dallas wanting experienced help for their young stars but that contract is painful to even think about. As of now I call this one a win for Edmonton. Give Johannes Hockey a follow on Twitter for more updates, thoughts and content! Thanks for reading! -J As of today I have a Twitter account up and running for the website, so look in the top right corner to toss me a follow! I plan to use Twitter to connect and share with you all on a more regular basis so go check it out!
First lets take a look at the deal Vincent Lecavalier signed with the Philadelphia Flyers earlier today. The 33 year old centre agreed to a 5 year pact paying him 22.5 million over the duration of the contract, an average of 4.5 million per year. Tampa Bay owes Lecavalier almost 33 million over the next 14 years as compensation for buying out his albatross of a contract, so he won't exactly be short on cash any time soon. This deal is certainly more reasonable than his prior contract with the Lightning. From a Flyers stand point, I don't see the need to bring in Lecavalier. He is still an above average number 2 centre, but Philly already has Claude Giroux as their number 1 as well as Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier developing nicely down the middle. If I'm the GM Paul Holmgren, I'm more concerned about finding another goalie and cleaning up that mess on the back end. It doesn't make sense to add Lecavalier for 4.5 a year when the team obviously has more pressing holes to fill and already has impending salary cap issues. Vincent is a great addition to any team, but I'm just not feeling it in Philly. Draft Winners Buffalo- The Sabres are solidified on D now for the foreseeable future after adding two beasts in the first round, the all around minute-munching Rasmus Ristolainen, and the Russian house of a rearguard Nikita Zadorov. Raw project forwards Connor Hurley and Justin Bailey fell to the team in the second round as well as the all-heart JT Compher. Nicholas Baptiste is a great add in the third round and Calvin Petersen is a solid goalie they can bring along slowly. All in all I love what the Sabres did at the draft. Columbus- The Jackets picked up three solid forward prospects in the first round, the intelligent Alexander Wennberg, the rough and tumble Kerby Rychel, and the underrated Marko Dano. I can see all three of these players being members of the big squad in a few years time and having large impacts, so the first round was a win. Dillon Heatherington is a rock on the blue line while Oliver Bjorkstrand is an undersized sniper who oozes skill. Nick Moutrey is a big man and a good project winger to take a flyer on in the fourth. Peter Quenneville has a lot of work to do but certainly has some great tools. This is an excellent crop of players containing many different traits, I see at least four of these guys being future NHL players. Montreal- Management filled a big hole in the organization by adding some massive size, taking the 6'5 power winger Michael McCarron in the first round along with the versatile Jacob De La Rose (6'2) and Connor Crisp (6'3). Nabbing the best goaltender in the draft in the early second, Zach Fucale, is a brilliant pick up. Artturi Lehkonen, Sven Andrighetto and Martin Reway are small but incredibly skilled scorers, and Jeremy Gregoire could either be a bust or a home run. The Canadiens managed to add size without losing skill, a tough task to complete. Nashville- Anytime a player of Seth Jones' caliber falls to you at number four, that's an automatic win. Juuse Saros gives the Preds yet another European net minder to crank out of the goaltending factory. Forward Felix Girard has loads of smarts and potential, he just needs time to hone his game. JI Diaby brings meat to Nashville's deep blue line while Teemu Kivihalme has some respectable tools. The rest of the Predators picks are a who's who of different players, providing the organization with multiple options moving forward. Vancouver- The Canucks were ecstatic to add the all-around game of Bo Horvat and the speed and skill of Hunter Shinkaruk in the first round, as well as the useful Cole Cassels in the third round. Jordan is the smallest of the Subban family, but he possesses great puck moving skills from the blue line and high upside. D-man Miles Liberati will shine in London with increasing responsibilities and the solid Anton Cederholm is a steel in the fourth round. I bet you Vancouver fans weren't expecting a draft this successful! Vancouver sends goaltender Cory Schneider to New Jersy for the ninth overall selection in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. At first glance this would appear to be a slight return for a top notch asset in Cory Schneider, but there are several key factors to take into consideration when evaluating this deal. First of all, Vancouver was dealing Schneider from an organizational position of strength at goal. The Canucks were able to deal a brilliant young goaltender without concern primarily because of a man named Roberto Luongo. Luongo is more than capable of handling a starting role for an NHL team, and as long as GM Mike Gillis is able to smooth over the questionable relationship between the player and management, the Canucks will be stable in net for the forseeable future. Throw in the likes of Eddie Lack and Joacim Eriksson developing in the minors and suddenly it makes sense for Vancouver to deal Schneider. The ninth overall pick was used to select Bo Horvat, a toolsy centreman with two-way smarts and blue-chip intangibles. Horvat is one of my favourite players from the entire 2013 draft class, and I truly believe he will develop into an incredible player for the Canucks. Drafting Horvat fills a need for Vancouver by bringing in centre depth and a player who simply put, knows how to win. Horvat was a huge contributor for the OHL's London Knights in their run for the Memorial Cup. A year or two down the road, he'll be bringing that experiece to a team badly starving for a winning pedigree to push them over the edge as a true contender. Okay, so now we can look at the trade as Schneider for Horvat straight up. Hard to judge this deal yet because Horvat is still an unknown at the NHL level and Schneider has yet to hit 100 games. For New Jersey, this move makes perfect sense. With an aging legend almost ready to hang up the pads in Martin Brodeur, it was time for the Devils to find an heir apparent. Schneider fits the bill, he's young, talented and a home town east coast boy. Schneider can split time with Brodeur over the next season or two and learn the ropes from arguably the best goalie in the history of the league, and by then he'll be more than ready to fully take over the reigns from Marty. Schneider is now the Devils future in net, and in my opinion a perfect fit. For Lou Lamoriello it makes perfect sense to deal the ninth pick for Schneider, and he may even feel that he's made off like a bandit with this deal. Only time will tell which team won this deal, but from what we can evaluate so far it was just a good old hockey trade. Both teams filling a hole in the organization and gaining young, highly talented players. Horvat and Schneider each have very bright futures and will serve their respective teams well, all though from a Canucks perspective you may have wanted a slightly larger return for the more proven asset in Cory. All in all it is way too soon to declare a winner and a loser here, as for now it was just a case of two clubs working together to become better hockey teams. Let me know what you think of these trade analysis blogs, and thank you so much for reading! -J Wow, as always, draft day contained a little bit of everything for hockey fans. The drama of risers and fallers mixed in with a few trades made for an interesting day, all though not quite the action packed event it was hyped up to be. The top four picks made plenty of sense, but from then on it became slightly harder to desipher. Later on today you can expect a piece analyzing several of the key trades that took place on Sunday, and within the next day or two I will also be posting the first part of a series recapping the 2013 NHL entry draft and how each team faired in the event. I can't wait to start sharing more actual content with you all, these next few days leading up to free agency will surely bring loads of excitment. That's all for now. -J Well here we are, it's finally draft day. Things should be heating up within the next hour or so, so be prepared to stay glued to your television come the start of the draft. We could be looking at numerous trades coming up very soon with names such as Bobrovsky, Seguin, Schneider and Coburn floating around. As the day goes on I will update with thoughts and analysis on the draft and any trades that happen. Also look for a piece in the next day or two on tentative winners and losers from the Draft. Cheers! -J Here's some actual content for you guys! Accurately predicting the NHL draft is a next to impossible endeavour, as you can never tell exactly what each organization is plotting behind the scenes. I decided to take a shot in the dark at the first round just for fun, and for curiosities sake to see how closely I can predict the outcome. Feel free to let me know of any thoughts or opinions you have of my decisions, and give me a shout if you want any explanations as to my rankings. All right, here we go!
1. Colorado- Nathan MacKinnon, C 2. Florida- Seth Jones, D 3. Tampa Bay- Aleksander Barkov, C 4. Nashville- Jonathan Drouin, LW 5. Carolina- Valeri Nichushkin, LW 6. Calgary- Elias Lindholm, C 7. Edmonton- Sean Monahan, C 8. Buffalo- Darnell Nurse, D 9. New Jersey- Anthony Mantha, LW 10. Dallas- Hunter Shinkaruk, C 11. Philadelphia- Rasmus Ristolainen, D 12. Phoenix- Bo Horvat, C 13. Winnipeg- Alexander Wennberg, C 14. Columbus- Adam Erne, LW 15. NYI- Max Domi, C 16. Buffalo- Nikita Zadorov, D 17. Ottawa- Ryan Pulock, D 18. Detroit- Mirco Mueller, D 19. Columbus- Valentin Zykov, RW 20. San Jose- Samuel Morin, D 21. Toronto- Kerby Rychel, LW 22. Calgary- Ryan Hartman, RW 23. Washington- Curtis Lazar, C 24. Vancouver- Andre Burakovsky, LW 25. Montreal- Steve Santini, D 26. Anaheim- Ian McCoshen, D 27. Columbus- Frederik Gauthier, C 28. Calgary- Joshua Morrissey, D 29. Dallas- Michael McCarron, RW 30. Chicago- Jacob De La Rose, C Hey everyone, thank you for checking out my new website! I am an aspiring writer and as big a fan of hockey as you will find, my site is a hockey blog for any and all things hockey! You can expect all kinds of posts on this site ranging from scouting reports, trade rumours and analysis, pre and post game write ups, random thoughts and much more. This site will develop over time, so thank you for being patient with the relative lack of detail for the time being. Eventually I will establish a schedule for releasing blogs, but for now posts could come at any time. I also plan to connect with you all through Twitter as soon as I am more set up. I truly appreciate your support and readership, so please enjoy the content as you join me on my journey as a hockey writer! -J
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