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Analyzing the Tkachuk for Huberdeau/Weegar trade: Did Flames or Panthers win? – Sportsnet.ca

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2 years ago

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It’s been a few days since the Flames and Panthers shook up the hockey world with a banger blockbuster trade. It’s not often superstars are on the move in the NHL, and this one saw two switching teams.

When it was clear that Matthew Tkachuk was not willing to sign long-term in Calgary, management took the opportunity to move him to increase the return. Since that sentiment was known, it wouldn’t have been too surprising if they lost leverage and couldn’t maximize the return to the heights of this calibre player. It’s not easy to win a trade as a team moving the best skater in all of it. But there were teams with interest and offers — but clearly, the Panthers were the most enticing.

After first losing Johnny Gaudreau to free agency and Tkachuk via trade, the Flames bring back Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar, along with a first-rounder and a prospect (Cole Schwindt). The Panthers, on the other hand, get the best player in all of this and extended him for eight years, at $9.5 million a year on average. So now that the dust has settled a bit and we’ve all have a second to digest the trade, and hear what all players involved (and managers) have had to say, let’s break it all down.

The biggest piece of this deal is obviously Tkachuk, who is coming off a 104-point career-year. With 42 goals on the year — also a career-high — his shooting is a key aspect of his offence. Tkachuk has really smooth hands and can pull off some really stellar plays, even in tight spaces. He can drive to the quality areas of the ice and concentrates most of his shots to the home plate area, even at 5-on-5 when he has less time and space out there. Plus, he can play a net-front role, which contributed to him collecting such a high rate of inner-slot shots. The winger is among the best at creating offence off the cycle thanks to his ability to generate scoring chances.


An underrated aspect of his game is his ability to set up his teammates as well. Tkachuk’s more of a dual-threat than he gets credit for. He sends his teammates a high volume of passes in the offensive zone and can move the puck right to the quality areas of the ice.

Tkachuk is responsible back in his own zone as well, which upgrades that winger slot for Florida. If he ends up playing with Aleksandar Barkov, that’s two elite two-way players on one line. Or, it could create a one-two punch with the duo split between the top-six, whether he’s centered by Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart, or even Anton Lundell for lineup balance.

But there is a ripple effect from this trade, that doesn’t have to do with Tkachuk directly. The loss of Weegar only weakens the Panthers team-defence that was already suspect, which puts more pressure on a starting goaltender who hasn’t always played up to expectations.

On the other side of it, there’s Calgary. After Gaudreau walked, it could have made all the sense in the world to stay a step back and quickly re-tool to extend their window. The Flames did lose their most valuable player, after all. The Tkachuk situation put them in a position to lose both of their superstar forwards.

In Huberdeau, they add one right back. He’s less of a Tkachuk replacement, and has more similarity to Gaudreau, thanks to his puck movement — although there’s a bit of a gap, and much of it shows below the surface.

Despite leading the league in assists (both raw totals and rate), Huberdeau didn’t earn the title of ‘best passer’ in 2021-22 — that was reserved for Gaudreau. The former Panthers’ winger didn’t rank as highly when it came to primary shot assists in all situations, or passes that directly preceded shots, and that showed on the scoresheet as well with a lower percentage of primary helpers.


*Viz from April 20, 2022

Plus, Huberdeau’s 5-on-5 impact wasn’t as strong this past season. That doesn’t change the fact that the Flames added a player who can move the puck better than most in the league. The winger can create shooting lanes for his teammates with his distribution; he puts out a high volume of passes, makes his own lanes to thread the puck to the slot, and completes his pass attempts at a high clip. Plus, Huberdeau has an effective shot when he opts to use it — but not to the extent where he’ll replace Gaudreau, who generated the second best rate of scoring chances off the rush at 5-on-5. Nor does he carry the puck in nearly as much as the former Flame. However, his passing could help keep Elias Lindholm (if paired together) towards the top of the charts in shot attempts off the cycle if he can get him the puck as often as his former linemate. And Bennett, who Huberdeau was often paired with, did generate quite a few scoring chances off the rush in Florida, thanks to help from his teammate’s set ups, so it’s possible that the Flames can find a way to keep those rush shots up.


What helps Calgary’s addition is that they’re a much better team defensively, and that structure should support Huberdeau more than Florida’s riskier style of play. Huberdeau does have some defensive struggles because of his all-offence focus; but within this structure, it shouldn’t standout as much.

Speaking of defence, the Flames addressed that with this trade as well with Weegar. He’s been sound back in his own zone for quite a few seasons, but really has gained appreciation for it in more recent years. Recency bias may say otherwise after some memorable misplays in the playoffs, but those are only a small snippet of his NHL career. And time in Calgary could strengthen his efforts on the backend even more — even if he doesn’t have Aaron Ekblad on his side for support.

Weegar’s defensive efforts start before opponents can even get into the offensive zone; at 5-on-5 he can be counted on to deny entry, whether he steps up in the neutral zone or closes the gap back in his own end to limit scoring chances. The defender does his best to block passing lanes and knock opponents off the puck — whether with his stick or a hit to change possession. Plus, he can help break the puck out of his own end with control.


The question is fit. The Flames already had a pretty solid top-four on defence without Weegar in the mix. Now, technically their top-five is even better. But who shifts to the third pair? Or, does a defender move to make room for Weegar in the top-four, maybe to bring back a forward to address the loss of their other top-six forward? That likely only happens if there’s a guarantee he’s sticking around for more than just the season.

That’s the risky part of this all. Huberdeau and Weegar both just entered the final year of their contracts. And that puts Calgary back to a situation they were just in with key pending unrestricted free agents. But the Flames have options on how to proceed, depending on their priorities for this upcoming season. And in the meantime, they just added two very strong players to their roster who should be in a position to succeed with the team’s defensive structure around.

So neither team walks away from the trade a loser. There’s a downside from both perspectives, but quite a bit of upside thanks to the calibre of the players each squad just added.

Data via Sportlogiq

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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

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17 hours ago

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October 18, 2024

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

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October 17, 2024

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OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

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October 17, 2024

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

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