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Posts Tagged Devin Setoguchi

Devin Setoguchi Placed on IR

Dec 8

Posted by EB in News | No Comments

The surprising Minnesota Wild has been dealt a blow as right winger Devin Setoguchi has been placed on the injured reserve.

The Wild has been a top story to follow this season as they are currently leading the Western Conference. With a record of 18-7-3 for a total of 39 points, it seems their playoff drought has finally come to an end. Minnesota’s last playoff appearance came during the 2007-2008 season where they lost in the first round to the Colorado Avalanche.

Setoguchi left in the first period of Tuesday’s game at San Jose with a lower-body injury. He is tied for a team leading 8 goals. Setoguchi has five helpers to put his point total to 13. Setoguchi has been averaging close to 17 minutes a game, a contributing part to the teams success. Still, Setoguchi has room for improvement with a team worst plus minus of negative 7.

The loss of Setoguchi will definitely hurt the Wild in their dominance of the West, but will they be able to hold onto their lead? Setoguchi’s injury is still unknown to be a lengthy or short one, but at the least, the winger will have to miss 7 days from being placed on injured reserve. The time off will see Setoguchi missing that of 3 more Wild games. The team plays the Los Angelese Kings tonight, the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday and the Winnipeg Jets next Tuesday. Tonight’s matchup will be a good test as the Wild will also be missing forward Cal Clutterbuck who is out with a thigh injury.

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2011-12 NHL Season Preview: San Jose Sharks

Sep 20

Posted by Chris in Season Previews | No Comments

Key Offseason Additions: Jim Vandermeer, Brent Burns & Martin Havlat (both traded from Minnesota), Michal Handzus, Colin White, Andrew Murray, Thomas Greiss, Ben Guite, Sean Sullivan and Matt Pelech.

Key Offseason Losses: Devin Setoguchi, Ben Eager, Ian White, Niclas Wallin, Kent Huskins, Scott Nichol, Jamal Mayers, Charlie Coyle and Dany Heatley

Last Season Ranking: 2nd in the West

Offense: After two consecutive Western Conference Finals losses, the San Jose Sharks made some major roster changes this offseason. The question is whether these changes will be enough to finally get San Jose over the hump and make them Stanley Cup contenders?

One of the biggest trades of the summer involved the Sharks sending Dany Heatley to Minnesota in exchange for Martin Havlat in basically a tit-for-tat trade. While Havlat always carries injury concerns, he is capable of roughly the same point production as Heatley. The major reason the Sharks pulled the trigger on Havlat, however, is his ability to score in the playoffs, an area that Heatley seemed to struggle in his two years in San Jose.

Havlat will join Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau as the big offensive guns on the team this season, but San Jose sports great secondary scoring in Joe Pavelski, Ryane Clowe and Logan Couture, who is coming into his second season in the NHL and will look to prove that his 32-goal rookie outburst wasn’t a fluke. With players of this caliber rounding out your top two lines, San Jose remains one of the deepest offensive teams in the league and should have no trouble putting goals in the net.

Defense: The other big trade of the summer also involved San Jose and Minnesota. The Sharks sent forward Devon Setoguchi to the Wild just days after he signed a contract extension in exchange for defenseman Brent Burns. Burns is young, mobile and capable of providing offense while maintaining solid defensive pressure. He will help alleviate some of the burden from Dan Boyle and should pay immediate dividends for the Sharks on the blue line. A 50+ point season may not be out of the question for Burns, who posted 46 with the Wild last season.

While the Sharks lost three defenseman in Niclas Wallin, Kent Huskins and Ian White, the team still has Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Jason Demers and Douglas Murray to help round out their blue line. It’s likely that Jim Vandermeer, Colin White and perhaps Justin Braun will all fight for the remaining spot on the ice.

The Sharks finished 10th in the league in goals against per game last season with an average of 2.54. Expect more of the same from the Sharks this season.

Goaltending: After a rough start last season, Antti Niemi emerged as the number one in San Jose and ultimately became the playoff starter as well. He posted solid stats in the second half of the season and was rewarded with a contract extension and pay increase. The number one job is Niemi’s to lose this year.

Behind Niemi is 31-year-old Antero Niittymaki, who had a decent season last year with a 2.72 goals against average and a .896 save percentage. The Sharks would probably like to see a better save percentage this season, but Niittymaki is a capable backup who should start 20-30 games and win 12-18 of those.

HWB Playoff Prediction: The Sharks are playoff bound no doubt. But will their offseason moves make them Stanley Cup bound?

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Other Transactions That Didn’t Involve Philadelphia

Jun 24

Posted by Eddie in News | 1 Comment

With the Draft occuring tonight and the blockbuster trades and signings that occured yesterday in Philadelphia, other transactions that could have went unnoticed Thursday was the re-signing of Devin Setoguchi by the San Jose Sharks and the Montreal Canadiens coming to terms with defenseman Andrei Markov.

Setoguchi Renews Pact with Sharks

Setoguchi was a restricted free agent with San Jose, and he signed a three-year contract with the team. Craig Custance via Twitter reported the contract to be at $3 million per season but the announcement of the signing on nhl.com didn’t disclose any financial terms. At only 24 years old, Setoguchi scored 22 goals  and finished with 41 points in 72 regular-season games in 2010-11. During the playoffs, he tied for the team lead in playoff goals with seven and had 10 points in 18 postseason games. He had a niche for scoring game-winning goals as he had five during the regular season and two overtime goals in the playoffs.

While he made $1.8 Million last season, he played on a one-year deal that he signed last summer. The team wanted to see what he can prove and he did show flashes of brilliance in the second half of the season. His first half was brutal as he went 7-5-12 on the stat line the first 33 games of the season. He found his touch and lit the lamp more in the final 30+ games of the season when he went 15-13-28 in the later half of the season according to the Fear the Fin Blog.

The Sharks can only hope he can continue his consistency he brought to the table late in the season and in the playoffs. $3 million could have been a stretch to pay him, but Setoguchi played solid at the right time to drive his stock higher.

Markov Remains in Montreal

Andrei Markov will remain in Montreal for three seasons.

 

The Habs are taking a huge gamble and giving a three-year contract to a player who didn’t see any playing time last season in Andrei Markov. Markov, 32, was supposed to be the teams top player on the blue line, but he missed most of the 2010-11 season with a knee injury he suffered seven games into last season. This wasn’t his first rodeo with the injury bug as he has missed 112 games in the regular season from 2009-2011. When he’s healthy, he’s one of the top players on the blue line in the league. But the 6′, 209 lbs. Russian has to find a way to stay healthy and be productive for his team. His cap hit is reported to be $5.75 million per season. He would be interesting to see the progression of younger defensemen who was able to get playing time and experience in his absence. Markov could most likely play with P.K. Subban, who led the team in goals (14) and points (38) in 77 games as a rookie.

Things could also look good for James Wisniewski, as he joined the team via trade and will have an entire off-season and training camp to get adjusted to his new team.

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Easton Hockey Scores Big in 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs

Jun 23

Posted by Matt in Gear, News | No Comments

Zdeno Chara, Rich Peverly, and David Krejci of the Boston Bruins

Zdeno Chara, Rich Peverly, and David Krejci of the Boston Bruins all use Easton Sticks

As fans, we can look back on the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs and remember a lot of thrilling, high-intensity matchups featuring a myriad of remarkable saves and highlight-reel dangles. But as one of the major hockey equipment manufacturers, Easton Hockey will look back on 2011 as a year where their sticks dominated the playoffs.

According to Easton’s Big Play Newsletter, they have the following honors to celebrate:

  • #1 in the 2011 Playoffs for players who scored more than one point
  • #1 in the 2011 Playoffs for goals
  • #1 in the 2011 Playoffs for assists
  • #1 in the 2011 Playoffs for points

Easton also scored big with some individual honors as well:

  • Mike Cammalleri – lead all first round scorers with 3 goals and 7 assists. Stick – Easton Stealth RS.
  • David Krejci – lead all playoff scorers in goals with 12, points with 23, and game winning goals with 4. Stick of choice: Easton Stealth RS.
  • David Krejci & Devin Setoguchi – Only two players in the 2011 playoffs to score hat-tricks. Both used the Easton Stealth RS.
  • Teemu Selanne – Only player to score 6 goals in a single series. Stick – Easton Stealth S19.

Beyond that, more than twenty different players scored a goal using the new Easton Stealth RS hockey stick. What started as a project to a sample of NHL players in the 2011 playoffs, turned into the achievements above.

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Los Angeles Kings coach skips post-series handshake

Apr 27

Posted by Chris in News | No Comments

Los Angeles Kings Coach Terry MurrayOne of the NHL’s most long standing traditions comes at the end of every playoff series when the members of both teams come together at center ice to congratulate one another on their hard work and effort during the best-of-seven series. Missing the post-series handshake is looked upon as severely unsportsmanlike, which has some members of the San Jose Sharks wondering why Terry Murray, head coach of the Los Angeles Kings, failed to go through the handshake line when the two teams completed their first round playoff matchup earlier this week.

“Kings battled hard! Tough series with 3 OT games!,” said San Jose forward Jamal Mayers via his Twitter account after the series concluded Monday night. “Too bad Murray didn’t have class to shake hands like players (who bled) and Asst Coaches.”

Devin Setoguchi made a similar claim on his own Twitter feed by writing, “Would like to know why coach of the Kings Terry Murray never shook our hands?? Might be a first??”

Murray did make an effort to shake the hands of Todd McLellen, head coach of the Sharks, and his assistant coaches, but failed to walk through the line and shake the hands of each player. The Kings’ assistant coaches went through the entire handshake line. McLellan and his coaching staff also entered the handshake line after the game.

“(Shaking hands) has always been about the players. My opportunity to complement the opponent is through the media, which I did several times in the series,” Murray said in response to the criticisms. “And last night I said that they were good enough to win four series in this year’s playoffs. That’s high praise coming from me.”

Skipping one of hockey’s most honored traditions doesn’t sit well with players. Just ask Sidney Crosby, who missed the post-series handshake with the Detroit Red Wings in 2009 when the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated Detroit to win the Stanley Cup. That incident certainly didn’t sit well with Red Wing veteran Kris Draper, who had no difficulty calling Crosby out on the situation. While there was no real resolution to the Crosby incident, stories continued to pop up for several weeks after as players weighed in on Crosby’s actions.

While Murray may believe that he rightfully has no place in the handshake line as a coach instead of a player, he still owes it to the opposition to go out and congratulate them personally on their hard work and effort. He can say whatever he wants in a press conference or through the media, but the handshake line offers him the opportunity to meet his foe face-to-face and congratulate them on their victory. It’s a humbling experience both for players and for coaches to admit defeat, but it’s a necessary growing opportunity as well. Hopefully next season Murray will wise up and step out to center ice and shake hands instead of speaking through the media.

What do you think? Should Los Angeles Kings coach Terry Murray have taken part in the handshake line or does he have a point that the handshakes are just for players?

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San Jose Sharks

Sep 19

Posted by Chris in Season Previews | 3 Comments

High expectations for the San Jose Sharks in the regular season often leads to brutal disappointment in the post season, or at least that’s been the trend the last several years. Last year, the Sharks trounced the competition and strode into the playoffs as the NHL’s best team only to be ousted by Anaheim in the first round. The bitterness from that loss resulted in a slight overhaul in San Jose, but the expectations are just as high rolling into this season. Nothing short of a Stanley Cup victory will be acceptable, and the pieces are in place for that to happen.

The Sharks made one of the biggest off-season acquisitions by trading Jonathan Cheechoo and Milan Michalek to the Ottawa Senators for sniper Dany Heatley. This move finally gives San Jose a dominant scoring threat night in and night out. After scoring 56 goals in 2005-06, Cheechoo’sjoe-thornton(2) production slowly declined over subsequent years and he couldn’t be counted on to be the wing man for Thornton. Heatley, however, is a two-time 50-goal scorer and still managed 39 goals in an “off” season last year with the Senators. Alongside center Joe Thornton, who has contributed 60 or more assists in each of his four seasons with the Sharks, Heatley could easily find his way into the 50-goal scorers club this season.

Players like Joe Pavelski, Devin Setoguchi and Ryan Clowe supplement the secondary offense and are all capable of putting up 20 goals and 40-60 points a season. Setoguchi, who came out of nowhere and chipped in a stunning 31 goals in his first full season with the Sharks, might even find himself on the right side of the top line with Thornton and Heatley. If this happens, look for Setoguchi to improve his production from last year’s 65 points.

And don’t forget about the likes of former captain Patrick Marleau, who seems to be somewhat of an enigma in recent years. While Marleau can usually be counted on for nearly 30 goals and 70-80 points a season, trade rumors consistently pop up regarding Marleau’s departure and many media outlets have suggested that Marleau isn’t the least bit phased about losing the captaincy. As a possible free agent at season’s end, Marleau might be trade bait if his production doesn’t live up to expectations or if the effort isn’t consistent night in and night out.

Goaltending should again be quite impressive this season with Evgeni Nabokov in net. The 34-year-old goaltender won 41 of the 62 games that he started last season for San Jose and finished the season with a 2.44 goals against average and a .910 save percentage. Expect the Sharks to ride Nabokov hard between the pipes again, and expect a similar outcome. Nabokov is a vital part of San Jose’s success this season.

The problem with this team, however, seems to be effort and leadership. Each spring as the Sharks enter the playoffs, the team fails to take the next step to the level of play required night in and night out in order to hoist the Cup. There aren’t any players who get out on the ice and lead by example. Stripping Marleau of the captaincy was a great move by head coach Todd McLellan. Hopefully this forces someone to take the reins and be a real leader on this team and lead them to the Promised Land in June.

The Sharks have all the right pieces, and barring a huge meltdown or major injuries, the Sharks could easily swim their way through the regular season to become President’s Trophy winners again. But the Sharks have been there and done that. It’s now or never to step up and go all the way. The NHL’s biggest choke artists have something to prove this year, and they are reloaded and ready to begin their quest.

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