The NHL regular season is creeping closer, and my next post should have plenty of fodder from both the Avs and Jets. As things stand, teams are finalizing their rosters, making big trades to get under the cap, sending players down to the AHL and back to juniors (and ruining the hockey pools of people who don't do their research on that subject). The injuries are piling up, the contract disputes are settling down at last, and the landscape of the league this season is coming into clearer focus at last. With the exhibition schedule over, and the start of the season now mere days away, NHL teams have given their fans lots to talk about in regards to roster decisions this past week. Who stayed and who left has been a major source of angst amongst fans of every team, and some stories in particular have stood out, including:
-The Toronto Maple Leafs can make the news in Canada for sleeping on their left sides instead of their right, so it's no surprise the roster decisions in Leafland were heavily scrutinized by not only their fans but the sports media. When it was revealed the Leafs would be starting the year without a fighter for the first time since they acquired Colton Orr back in 2009. Frazer McLaren was also sent down to the AHL, so the Leafs will be starting the year without a heavyweight fighter. They'll still have some scrappers in David Clarkson and Carter Ashton, but Clarkson is playing in a full cage after Sabres tough guy Cody McCormick damaged his orbital bone in a fight. Kind of a shame. The Leafs/Canadians tilt on opening night always used to feature a good scrap, but may not this year. I'll still be watching just because it's the first meaningful hockey game in way too damn long.
-Still with the Leafs, they sent William Nylander back to Sweden. I'm not really surprised, but then towards the end there I started to wonder if they might keep him. Nylander is amazingly skilled, and should provide the Leafs with another offensive weapon next year or the year after. One player they kept, who I was very happy to see stick with the big club, was Brandon Kozun. I always want to see the guys I cheered for in their junior years do well. Kozun was a victim of a numbers game in L.A. with too many good forwards ahead of him. The former Calgary Hitman has found a home in Toronto for now, and here's hoping it lasts.
-Speaking of juniors, the Winnipeg Jets returned three players to their respective CHL clubs. Nik Ehlers was sent back to join the herd in Halifax, where he'll terrorize the QMJHL for one more year at least, and represent Denmark at this years World Junior Championships. Josh Morrissey was returned to Prince Albert, and Nic Petan was sent back to Portland. Both of them will represent Canada this year at the WJC barring injury, and both are likely going to tear the WHL apart this year (seeing as they did last year). One player who stuck with the big club was Adam Lowry, and boy he earned it with his preseason play. A physical force who killed penalties and showed an ability to chip in offensively, Lowry looks primed to have a solid year, starting on the Jets third line. He'll bring a tenacity on the forecheck that was too often lacking from last years squad. On that note, the Jets did a much better job of forechecking in the preseason than they did in last year's season. Here's hoping that ridiculous one man forecheck is a thing of the past.
-The Avs ended the preseason on a winning note after losing every other game, finally earning a win over the L.A. Kings in the annual Frozen Fury event in Las Vegas. It was a fun game to watch, or so I'm told (the NHL network didn't carry the game in Canada), and from the highlights it looks like Duchene is rounding into form nicely. MacKinnon too. But perhaps the nicest surprise of all was seeing Ryan Wilson flattening Kyle Clifford with a beautiful backwards-skating shoulder check, the kind which he built his reputation on. Wilson was among the league's more devastating open ice hitters before injuries starting to come knocking, derailing basically the entirety of the last two years for the physical defenseman. Wilson at his best is a hard checking, no nonsense defenseman who can occasionally drop the gloves and always punished players with hard, clean checks. He moves the puck pretty well too for a defensive defenseman. It'd be good to see him get back to the form that led to Colorado extending him.
-One hard-hitting defenseman who hasn't slowed down at all is Johnny Boychuk, whose crushing hits have terrorized oncoming forwards for years. A playoff monster with the Bruins, who times his hits perfectly and leaves players wondering what truck hit them, Boychuk was traded by the Bruins to the New York Islanders over the weekend, mainly due to cap constraints. Boychuk will not only instantly make the Islanders harder to play against, but will serve as a mentor to young Travis Hamonic, who plays a similar style.
-The Islanders paid a steep price to get Boychuk (two second round draft picks) which, along with the deals they made to get the rights to Dan Boyle (which didn't pan out) and Jaroslav Halak (which did) tells me just how desperate the Islanders are not to give the Buffalo Sabres a lottery pick this year. The trade that sent Matt Moulson to Buffalo in exchange for Thomas Vanek (who gone less than six months later) may end up costing Garth Snow his job if the first round pick they shipped out with Moulson turns into Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel (or anyone else in the top five for that matter). Since the Sabres are likely looking at a lottery pick of their own, giving them a second such pick in a draft year as incredibly skilled and deep as this one would be creating a monster.
-Oh and finally, the ugly situation between Ryan Johansen and the Columbus Blue Jackets has been resolved as much at it ever will be. Johansen has been signed, and will be in the lineup to start the season, but the bad blood that stemmed from the extremely public feud between his agent, Kurt Overhardt, and Columbus management isn't going to go away just because the contract was signed.
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