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Kevin’s Notebook: Good draft for USA; Good playoffs for backup goalies |
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NHL scouts have been able to do one-stop shopping if they wanted to watch a large collection of potential first-round draft picks in one place this season.
The release of the league's Central Scouting Draft Rankings show that the U.S. National Team Development Program has two of the top three ranked North American players. Logan Cooley and Cutter Gauthier are ranked No. 2 and 3 after Canadian Hockey League standout Shane Wright who is expected to go No. 1 in the draft.
"I think as many as nine NTDP players could be first round selections," said draft analyst Russ Cohen who does scouting reports for Sirius Radio and other outlets.
Central Scouting has three NTDP players ranked in the top 10, and seven in the top 22 in North America. Central Scouting ranks European players on a separate list. We could see six Europeans go in the top 10.
The NTDP players ranked highly on the North American list: No. 9 left wing Isaac Howard; No. 11 right wing Jimmy Snuggerud; No. 18 defenseman Ryan Chesley; No. 21 center Frank Nazar; No. 22 right wing Rutger McGroarty.
Cooley could end up going No. 2 in the draft.
"Cooley is a details guy who made sure he worked on every aspect of his game, not just what he was naturally good at," Cohen said. "He's one of the few natural centers in this draft."
The Notebook:
2. Edmonton’s Mike Smith (40 years, 43 days) became the 10th goalie over age 40 to record an NHL playoff shutout. Smith beat the Los Angeles Kings 6-0 Wednesday. The last before then was Tampa Bay’s Dwayne Roloson in 2011.
3. Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy is hockey’s version of a “stopper.” Since 2020, he is now 15-0 (1.31 GAA, .948 SV%) following a postseason loss.
4. Swedish 23-year-old free agent forward Pontus Andreasson (eight goals, 12 points in 10 playoffs) will sign with the Detroit Red Wings after the SHL Final. Andreasson’s Lulea team is in the Final.
5. On this date, May 5, 48 years ago, the Philadelphia Flyers beat the New York Rangers 4-3 in a Game 7 to become the first team from the 1967 expansion to beat an Original Six team in a playoff series. The Flyers then beat another Original Six team, the Boston Bruins, to become the first team from the 1967 expansion to win the Stanley Cup.
6. During the playoffs, everyone remembers how good Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin is. In the first two games, the ‘Canes scored 10 goals and Slavin is +6 with three points and four blocked shots.
7. The Carolina Hurricanes are a high quality team, but it is still hard to explain how dominate they are against the Bruins. They beat Boston three consecutive times in the regular-season and now twice in the postseason. In those five games, the ‘Canes outscored the Bruins, 26-4.
8. With Nashville’s Filip Forsberg and Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau, have we reached the point where both players say “Since I’ve gotten this close to unrestricted free agency, I may as well see what is out there for me.”
9. Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin said he is confident he will get a contract extension worked out this summer. He can be an unrestricted free agent after next season.
10. How often do we see upsets in the NHL postseason? Over the past 10 postseasons, excluding 2020 because the games were played at a neutral site, almost half of all best-of-seven series were won by the lower seed (66 of 135; 48.9%).
11. Is home-ice advantage still in style? Nope. At least not in Game 7 situations. Over the last decade, home teams are 22-22 in Game 7 situations. Game 7s are simply a coin flip.
12. Don’t understand Commissioner Gary Bettman’s reluctance to expand the playoffs. He recently voiced his opposition again to adding playoff teams. At the very least, I would love to see a No. 8 vs. No. 9 one-game playoff. The one-game "play-in" format has been a smash hit in baseball. Don’t buy the argument that it devalues the regular-season. You still must have a good regular-season to avoid being in a position to play that game. Under the current format, there’s the possibility that Game 82 will decide the fate of two teams. If we embrace the play-in idea, we are simply saying Game 83 will decide that spot every season.
13. We potentially have a. Pyotr Kochetkov vs. Jeremy Swayman goalie matchup Friday in Game 3 of the Carolina vs. Boston series. Pretty sure we didn’t see that coming.
14. Several intriguing names can be on the NHL goalie unrestricted free agent list this summer include Marc-Andre Fleury, Darcy Kuemper, Jack Campbell, Braden Holtby, Joonas Korpisalo and Ville Husso.
15. Would expect the Washington Capitals and Edmonton Oilers to talk to Kuemper, Korpisalo, Husso and Campbell if they aren't re-signed by then. Holtby could also be on their radar.
16. When you watched the Colorado Avalanche take down the Nashville Predators in Game 1, did you tell yourself coach John Hynes did a good job just getting this team to the playoffs?
17. Matt Duchene scored 19 goals in his first 100 games after signing with the Nashville Predators. This season, he scored 43 goals and a career-high 86 points in 78 games. How do you explain that?
18. The question for the Penguins this offseason is how many years are you wiling to give defenseman Kris Letang to get him to stay? He's 35, but he had 68 points and he can play 25-plus minutes per game. How much can they really afford to pay him and for how many years?
19. Expect the Winnipeg Jets to have a shakeup this offseason. The prevailing wisdom seems to be that the team’s culture/chemistry isn’t right. When I listened to Paul Maurice say his goodbye to Winnipeg upon his resignation earlier this season, it sounded like he was leaving a team that had issues. Sometimes, players don’t come together the way you want them to.
20. To me, Rick Tocchet seems like a logical choice to coach the Flyers. But many Philadelphia fans are pushing for John Tortorella because they believe he will make the team tougher mentally and physically.
21. The Philadelphia Flyers don’t have any cap space, and yet we still hear chatter about the Flyers’ desire to make an offer to Johnny Gaudreau if he goes to market.
22. In case you were wondering, Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang led all players in ice time (46:41) in that three overtime game against the Rangers.
23. Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin went more than 12 years between overtime playoff goals. That’s not close to the record. Ray Whitney went 16 years, 344 days. He scored an overtime goal in 1995 and then didn’t net another until 2012. He was 22 when he registered the OT tally in 1995 and almost 39 when he scored his next OT goal.
24. Wayne Gretzky holds the NHL season goal-scoring record of 92 goals, set in 1981-82. But his best goal-scoring season really was 1983-84 when he scored 87 goals in the regular-season and 13 in the postseason. That gave him 100 goals in 93 games. In the season he netted 92, Gretzky “only” had five postseason goals in five games.
25. Willy Lindstrom turns 71 today. He is known for being the first non-Canadian to score five goals in a game. He netted five for Winnipeg against the Philadelphia Flyers on March 2, 1982. The gifted right winger left Sweden to sign with the World Hockey Association’s Winnipeg Jets, joining fellow Swedes Curt Larsson, Thommie Bergman, Mats Lindh, Ulf Nilsson, Anders Hedberg and Lars-Erik Sjoberg. Those seven Swedes combined for 147 goals and 394 points. Lindstrom had 23 of the goals. He scored 159 goals in 361 WHA games and then added 161 goals in 582 NHL games. He was a member of the Edmonton Oilers’ 1984 and 1985 Stanley Cup teams.
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