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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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Free Agency Recap: Independence Day

Jul 4

Posted by Eddie in News | 3 Comments

Sunday was a quiet day on the free agency front, the transactions of note was defenseman Derrick Meech going from Detroit to Winnipeg. Meech was a regular in the lineup during the franchises appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2008 and 2009, but has spent most of his time with the AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids since then. Another notable transaction was forward Niclas Bergfors switching conferences as he goes from Florida to Nashville.

The big bomb was dropped late Sunday night when San Jose traded star forward Dany Heatley to Minnesota for Martin Havlat. The trade was one of the biggest transactions of the early transfer period. The two were actually teammates with the Ottawa Senators the first seasons after the 2005 lockout. The trade will give Minnesota a franchise player, something they have not had since Marian Gaborik left in 2009. San Jose hopes to get someone with the playoff drive and experience that could help push them over the top as they have lost in the conference finals each of the last two seasons. Havlat has played in the postseasons twice since the lockout; in 2006 when Ottawa was upset in the second round by Buffalo and 2009 when Chicago lost in the conference finals to Detroit. Last season he played 78 games, scored 22 goals and recorded 40 assists. Heatley wasn’t as productive in 2010-11 as he was in 2009-10, but only two seasons in San Jose. Last season he scored 26 goals in 80 games but was largely absent during the postseason when he scored three goals in 18 games. During the 2010 playoffs he was even more absent when he lit the lamp 39 times in 82 games but scored twice in 14 playoff games.

Heatley also ranked first in the NHL in power-play goals (128) and game-winning goals (58), third in goals (325) and fifth in points (689) since he entered the League in 2001. Minnesota scored just 206 goals last season, the fifth-lowest total in the League.
Today on July 4, there were a few free agent transactions of note. Goalie Curtis McElinney signed with Phoenix. It will be his fourth-team in the span of his five seasons. The 6-foot-2, 197-pound goalie has made 67 NHL appearances in that time, posting a 18-26-4 record with a 3.13 goals against average (GAA) and a .898 save percentage. The free-agency pool for goalies is even smaller as several teams are looking for help in net.

In addition, Fan-attacking forward Rick Rypien is staying in Canada but is changing teams as he signed a deal with Winnipeg. He is 27 years old and played in 119 career games in the NHL with the Canucks from 2005 to 2011 where he has scored 16 points and 226 penalty minutes.

The Jets were pretty busy in the first few days of free agency, as they signed six players over the holiday weekend.

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Hockey World Blog Season Previews 2010: Minnesota Wild

Sep 23

Posted by EB in Season Previews | 14 Comments

Key Offseason Losses: Derek Boogard, Owen Nolan

Key Offseason Additions: John Madden, Matt Cullen

Last Season Ranking: 13th, West

Captain Mikko Koivu looks to lead a rebuilding Minnesota Wild this year to a less than likely post season appearance.

Captain Mikko Koivu looks to lead a rebuilding Minnesota Wild this year to a less than likely post season appearance.

Offense: The Minnesota Wild have a 1-2-3 punch in captain Mikko Koivu, Martin Havlat and Andrew Brunette. Koivu and Havlat are both balanced players capable of putting the puck in the net while Brunette is a good set up man.

Antti Miettinen, new addition Matt Cullen and winger Guillaume Latendresse are also key roles for the team. Miettinen should reach the 40 point mark if not even more this season. Cullen will be the pivotal tool for the team’s second line, netting only 16 goals last season, but adding 32 assists between both the Carolina Hurricanes and the Ottawa Senators. Latendresse, since coming to Minnesota, has really clicked posting 37 points in 55 games played. Latendresse is really an under rated player and should be considered for depth in any fantasy team.

From there another true player worth watching, partly because of the name, the other part of his physical play style, is Cal Clutterbuck. If Clutterbuck can stay healthy, the team may have a decent three lines that should help the team in close games.

Defense: You can guarantee veteran Marek Zidlicky will post at least 40 points this upcoming season. Brent Burns looks to stay healthy after playing reduced schedules in his last two seasons and Nick Schultz looks to do better than his previous seasons career high of 20 points. The remaining 3 defenseman look to add some talent as well as a lock down defense keeping the shots toa minnimum.

Goaltending: Niklas Backstrom will be the number one goalie again with Josh Harding normally backing him up, however harding has recently torn an ACL and MCL and is expected to be out for a bit leaving either Anton Khudobin or Wade Dubielewicz to see NHL play time.

Backstrom has had trouble fighting with back problems last season, but if healthy, could put up some decent statistics. Those statistics though will come in the likes of save percentage only, as with the lack of depth in the defense, Backstrom will be facing a lot of shots this seasons. If you do happen to pick him up on your fantasy team, play him as your number two goalie, and watch for good match-ups as it is very possible he could rebound from a poor season last year in shutouts. He only had 2 shutouts last season, a career low, but two seasons ago he had 8.

Season Outlook: The Minnesota Wild are still one to two players away from a competitive team, which not only sucks for the fans, but the team itself. Strong minded players will determine if the team is competitive or not on a day to day basis, but it is highly unlikely that the Wild will make the post season this year. Watch them for what it is worth and try not to worry too much, you could be a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. The Wild are developing and should be back in the mix in a few years.

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Chicago Blackhawks

Sep 29

Posted by EB in Season Previews | 1 Comment

Jonathan Toews looks to lead the Blackhawks to the Stnaley Cup.

Captain Jonathan Toews looks to lead the Chicago Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup this season.

A young speedy team who finished 2nd in the tough Central Division, and 4th in the Western Conference, looks to improve upon their Cup ending loss to the Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference Finals.

During the offseason the Blackhawks received some negative press about ousting general manager Dale Tallon to be replaced by Stan Bowman. Stan, the son of retired NHL coach Scotty Bowman, replaced Tallon due to a filed grievance from the NHL Players Association pertaining to the team missing deadlines for sending qualifying offers to restricted free agents. The team has since moved forward with the off season acquisitions of some pretty big names.

The Blackhawks were unable to resign unrestricted free agent Martin Havlat who eventually signed with the Minnesota Wild. Havlat scored 29 goals with 48 assists to total 77 points. He also posted 15 points in 16 games played in the playoffs last season, which happened to lead the team.

The void is to be replaced by NHL All Star player Marian Hossa who played for the Detroit Red Wings in the previous year. Hossa, who played for the Pittsburg Penguins before the Wings, has made the NHL finals 2 years in a row, yet both times have come up empty handed. Hossa underwent shoulder surgery in the off season and is expected to make his debut you in a Hawk’s jersey in late November. A question of full rehabilitation, game ready physical capability and team chemistry will be answered when he returns to the ice.

Center John Madden joins the mix of the Blackhawks this year. Madden has played for the New Jersey Devils for all his NHL career, posting 297 points in 712 regular season games and 41 points in 112 playoff games.

The Blackhawks have parted ways with goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin in hopes that Cristobal Huet will be able to carry the workload. The two goaltenders split time last year during the regular season, only one game difference. However, come playoff time, Khabibulin played all but 3 games. With the success of last year, one would think the possibility of doing the same two goalie system again, or if having to choose between the one, would have chosen to stay with Khabibulin, but that is not the case.

All hope is not lost though as the 34 year old Cristobal Huet has a respectable record and stats. Last season he had a 20-15-4-3 record in 41 games, with a .909 save percentage and a 2.53 goals against average. This number is down in comparison to the ’07-’08 season where he had a combined 32-14-6-4 record between Montreal Canadiens and the Washington Capitals.

The team is led by young stars Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. Together the duo is nearly impossible to stop, all things considering they are only 21 and 20 years of age. Together the two were able to net 59 goals and 80 assists between their 162 games played.

Defensively the team is led by offensive defenseman Brian Campbell. Campbell was 5th in points last year with 52, the majority of them being 45 assists. Shortly behind in points are defensemen Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook who both have better +/- ratings then Campbell. Keith tallied in at + 33 while Seabrook with +23.

The Chicago Blackhawks lack no skill in scoring points, and have a solid defensive core that also are able to contribute offensively. The goaltender position will be a test this year, but should not be a factor as the team is projected to be first within the Central Division as last year’s leader the Detroit Red Wings have suffered a major rebuild of new and young players.

Last year’s playoff’s were a learning experience for the young team. This year with one more year under their belt, and the addition of some veteran playoff performers, the Chicago Blackhawks have their eyes set on the Cup.

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Minnesota Wild

Sep 23

Posted by EB in Season Previews | No Comments

Minnsota's third jersey is but one of many changes to the upcoming Wild season.

Minnsota's third jersey is but one of many changes to the upcoming Wild season.

The Minnesota Wild, who finished only one spot out of the playoffs last season, looks to take the ice with a drasticly different team this year.

Head coach Jacques Lemaire announced he will not return to coach the Wild on April, 13 2009 and will be replaced by Todd Richards. Richards was once a professional hockey player, and since retiring from playing, has been the assistant coach of the Milwaukee Admirals and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL, as well as an assistant coach of the San Jose Sharks last NHL season. Richards looks to invigorate the team by transitioning from Lemaire’s defensive minded play style to a more aggressive, up-tempo style of play.

To carry out the transition, the team has decided not to resign wingers Stephane Veilleux and injury prone Marian Gaborik, but to replace them with veteran Petr Sykora and Martin Havlat. Sykora won the Stanley Cup last season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, contributing 46 points in 76 games played in the regular season, as well as 1 assist in the 7 games he played in the playoffs. The high flying Havlat is coming off of a career high 78 points with the Chicago Blackhawks. He scored 29 goals in 81 games played during the regular season, with 48 assists and a very good +29 rating. In the playoffs he averaged just under a point per game with 5 goals, 10 assists for a total of 15 points in 16 games played.

The team has a solid core of players, with veterans Owen Nolan and Marek Zidlicky, young talented Brent Burns, and hard hitting Cal Clutterbuck.  Just in case any rough stuff happens, the Wild also have heavyweight enforcer Derek “The Boogeyman” Boogard. The Wild were lead last season by center Mikko Koivu with 67 points; 20 goals and 47 assists in 79 games played.

Lastly, the team has goaltender Niklas Backstrom. Backstrom, who surprisingly only became the Wild’s starter in the ’07-’08 season after Manny Fernandez was traded to Boston. Backstrom has won the William M. Jennings (lowest goals against) and Roger Crozier Saving Grace (best save percentage) awards. Last season he went 37 wins and 24 losses in 71 games played. He was in the top 3 amongst goaltenders in all three categories of save percentage (.923%), goals against average (2.33) and shut outs (8).

The Minnesota Wild are a competitive team, who have seen the playoffs in 3 of their 8 seasons in the NHL. With a new coach, a new strategy as well as a few new stars among the team, this year they look to make it year 4. Look for the Wild to be fighting hard for the first place within the Northwest Division against the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames.

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Mended… Feather?

Jul 23

Posted by EB in News | No Comments

Marian Hossa

Marian Hossa

Reports are circulating about winger Marian Hossa of the Chicago Blackhawks undergoing shoulder surgery to repair his right rotator cuff. Hossa, who was acquired from Detroit Red Wings in the free agency, is expected to fill Martin Havlat’s void in the Blackhawk lineup. Marian posted 71pts in 74 regular season games as well as 15pts in the post season last year.

With surgery expected to be done July 24 and a 4 month recovery, fans should not fear his absence, as the youthful duo Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane should be able to maintain the level of play from last year’s season. Concerns still would arise after the fact. Could the surgery affect Hossa’s game? And if it does affect his game, will the Blackhawks make the post season? And how far will they go if they do? Potentially the most concerning, with a 12 year contract, is this the start of another injury plagued Marian?

Time will tell what all plays out. Regardless, the Chicago Blackhawks should be a great team to watch this upcoming season and seasons to come in arguably the most competitive division in the western conference.

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