Sports

Yost: Three questions facing the rebuilding Ottawa Senators – TSN

Published

4 years ago

March 15, 2021

Where does the rebuild go from here? It’s the most pressing question facing the Ottawa Senators.

Temporary realignment due to the coronavirus outbreak has put the Senators in a difficult position this season. The Atlantic Division was top-heavy, offering a sampling of elite teams and minnows alike. The North isn’t nearly as strong at the top, but it has an ample number of average or slightly above-average teams. That means Ottawa has been a sizable underdog in almost every game this season.

It’s the inverse of what their Ontario rival in Toronto is dealing with this season. The Maple Leafs have established themselves as the prohibitive favourite to emerge from the North, but there are still genuine concerns about how they will match up against some of the league’s elite teams.

And much like the Maple Leafs won’t be tested against old Atlantic foes like the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning, the Senators don’t have an opportunity to establish their game against other rebuilding or transitional teams like the Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings.

But one thing seems increasingly clear: The Senators do not appear to be close to competing for a playoff berth, running behind their self-established timeline.

Shifting a rebuilding timeline isn’t the worst outcome. Sometimes slowing down and being realistic about player development and broader organizational talent can be a net win. Decisions and player moves made out of frustration with rebuilds and timelines tend to end ugly – we have a laundry list of examples to point to on that front over the past 20 years.

That said, it’s important for Ottawa to understand what’s not working right now. The team is 10-20-1, and that’s with three wins against Toronto. From my perspective, there are three notes of concern for Ottawa as they head towards the off-season.

1. What is the plan in net?

Ottawa tried to answer this question last off-season, bringing in 26-year-old Matt Murray on a four-year, $25 million-dollar contract – one with a limited no-trade clause that kicks in next season. The Murray signing was always going to be a bit of a gamble, with the Senators betting that Murray’s ugly final year in Pittsburgh was an outlier and that buying low on a goaltender with upside would pay off.

One problem: Murray is following up last season’s career lows (which were already sub-replacement level) with new career lows in Ottawa.

Some of this is indisputably tied to raw and immature defensive structure up front, but Murray has built a small film room of mistakes in a matter of 22 games. And there hasn’t been anything to smile at behind Murray – Marcus Hogberg (85.9 per cent stop rate) has been abysmal, and Joey Daccord (89.7 per cent stop rate) is still quite young.

As a group, they are 31st in the league by a considerable margin:

The amount of daylight between Ottawa and teams with truly dreadful goaltending – the tandems in San Jose and Detroit have struggled for years now – is staggering. And again, some of this (especially the team save percentage numbers) is just as much a reflection of poor defensive play as it is substandard goaltending.

Goaltenders have made ample mistakes in Ottawa’s net this year. On the other hand, there is a staggering amount of shooting volume coming from dangerous scoring areas – and in Ottawa’s case, the low slot specifically:

2. Are the kids alright?

That brings me to my second point. Ottawa is struggling as a team because most players on the team are struggling.

The veteran players occupying roster spots (or, even worse, brought in for stability purposes on short-range contracts) have largely been anchors on the team’s overall performance. But at some point, performance-based scrutiny will follow the younger players as well. It’s a young man’s NHL, and although development isn’t linear, you want to see guys sustaining some degree of success at this level.

Some of this rebuild has already paid off. Forward Brady Tkachuk is a bona fide top-six forward and one of the game’s best at attacking in the interior at the age of 21. Defenceman Thomas Chabot, 24, has shown more than enough over his four years in the league to be considered top-four calibre on the blueline. But most of the rest is still up in the air.

Let’s look at how each player’s on-ice contributions have stacked up this year, but let’s also control for some of the woeful goaltending that has been behind them this season.

In this case, we will look at actual goals scored per 60 minutes as a group against expected goals scored against per 60 minutes. And in this case, we’ll also cap to the core group – age 26 or under as of this season:

That’s a sea of red, but I think a couple of examples – defenceman Artem Zub (via KHL St. Petersburg) and forward Nick Paul – are important, because it shows that not every player is struggling, and not every player’s woeful numbers can be chalked up to merely the teammates around him. Zub has been exceptional in a second-pairing role, and Paul has evolved into a reliable middle-six forward with a polished defensive game.

A lot of these players are simply going to need more time. Tim Stutzle has 17 points in 28 games as a 19-year-old rookie, an early indication that there’s a lot of upside to his offensive game already. But it is critical for Ottawa to figure out, and relatively quickly, which of their transitional prospects still have upside to lean into and which ones are hitting a wall.

One of the quickest ways to enhance (and in some cases, accelerate) a rebuild is by understanding your prospect pool better than every other organization.

Every team in the league loves trading for 22-year-old players with upside. But the gap between a Griffin Reinhart trade and, say, a Filip Forsberg trade is significant. And merely waiting for all prospects to develop, knowing that some of these guys just won’t get there, is rebuilding poison.

3. Can this small-market team weaponize cap space?

It’s a small but significant item for teams with ample space right now in light of commissioner Gary Bettman’s recent remarks.

With no salary cap relief through growth, the teams tight against the cap – of which there are many – are going to have to be increasingly flexible in order to preserve their contention window. Some of those teams are going to naturally regress towards the middle of the pack of the standings anyway, and there will be ample player displacement.

The Senators have $18 million in real cap space right now, and have very few players signed through next season. If the appetite to spend any money on improving the roster is there, Ottawa is as well-positioned as anyone to take advantage – be it by buying up draft picks for dead contracts or acquiring talented players made available from cap-strapped teams.

The question, ultimately, is if they have the cash flexibility to achieve that.

Data via Natural Stat Trick, Evolving Hockey, HockeyViz, NHL.com

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Source link

Sports

Red Wings sign Moritz Seider to 7-year deal worth nearly $60M

Published

5 hours ago

September 19, 2024

Anne Joseph

DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Red Wings made another investment this week in a young standout, signing Moritz Seider to a seven-year contract worth nearly $60 million.

The Red Wings announced the move with the 23-year-old German defenseman on Thursday, three days after keeping 22-year-old forward Lucas Raymond with a $64.6 million, eight-year deal.

Detroit drafted Seider with the No. 6 pick overall eight years ago and he has proven to be a great pick. He has 134 career points, the most by a defenseman drafted in 2019.

He was the NHL’s only player to have at least 200 hits and block 200-plus shots last season, when he scored a career-high nine goals and had 42 points for the second straight year.

Seider won the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie in 2022 after he had a career-high 50 points.

Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman is banking on Seider, whose contract will count $8.55 million annually against the cap, and Raymond to turn a rebuilding team into a winner.

Detroit has failed to make the playoffs in eight straight seasons, the longest postseason drought in franchise history.

The Red Wings, who won four Stanley Cups from 1997 to 2008, have been reeling since their run of 25 straight postseasons ended in 2016.

Detroit was 41-32-9 last season and finished with a winning record for the first time since its last playoff appearance.

Yzerman re-signed Patrick Kane last summer and signed some free agents, including Vladimir Tarasenko to a two-year contract worth $9.5 million after he helped the Florida Panthers hoist the Cup.

___

AP NHL:

Source link

Sports

Veterans Tyson Beukeboom, Karen Paquin lead Canada’s team at WXV rugby tournament

Published

6 hours ago

September 19, 2024

Anne Joseph

Veterans Tyson Beukeboom and Karen Paquin will lead Canada at the WXV 1 women’s rugby tournament starting later this month in the Vancouver area.

WXV 1 includes the top three teams from the Women’s Six Nations (England, France and Ireland) and the top three teams from the Pacific Four Series (Canada, New Zealand, and the United States).

Third-ranked Canada faces No. 4 France, No. 7 Ireland and No. 1 England in the elite division of the three-tiered WXV tournament that runs Sept. 29 to Oct. 12 in Vancouver and Langley, B.C. No. 2 New Zealand and the eighth-ranked U.S. make up the six-team WVX 1 field.

“Our preparation time was short but efficient. This will be a strong team,” Canada coach Kevin Rouet said in a statement. “All the players have worked very hard for the last couple of weeks to prepare for WXV and we are excited for these next three matches and for the chance to play on home soil here in Vancouver against the best rugby teams in the world.

“France, Ireland and England will each challenge us in different ways but it’s another opportunity to test ourselves and another step in our journey to the Rugby World Cup next year.”

Beukeboom serves as captain in the injury absence of Sophie de Goede. The 33-year-old from Uxbridge, Ont., earned her Canadian-record 68th international cap in Canada’s first-ever victory over New Zealand in May at the Pacific Four Series.

Twenty three of the 30 Canadian players selected for WXV 1 were part of that Pacific Four Series squad.

Rouet’s roster includes the uncapped Asia Hogan-Rochester, Caroline Crossley and Rori Wood.

Hogan-Rochester and Crossley were part of the Canadian team that won rugby sevens silver at the Paris Olympics, along with WXV teammates Fancy Bermudez, Olivia Apps, Alysha Corrigan and Taylor Perry. Wood is a veteran of five seasons at UBC.

The 37-year-old Paquin, who has 38 caps for Canada including the 2014 Rugby World Cup, returns to the team for the first time since the 2021 World Cup.

Canada opens the tournament Sept. 29 against France at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver before facing Ireland on Oct. 5 at Willoughby Stadium at Langley Events Centre, and England on Oct. 12 at B.C. Place.

The second-tier WXV 2 and third-tier WXV 3 are slated to run Sept. 27 to Oct. 12, in South Africa and Dubai, respectively.

WXV 2 features Australia, Italy, Japan, Scotland, South Africa and Wales while WXV 3 is made up of Fiji, Hong Kong, Madagascar, the Netherlands, Samoa and Spain.

The tournament has 2025 World Cup qualification implications, although Canada, New Zealand and France, like host England, had already qualified by reaching the semifinals of the last tournament.

Ireland, South Africa, the U.S., Japan, Fiji and Brazil have also booked their ticket, with the final six berths going to the highest-finishing WXV teams who have not yet qualified through regional tournaments.

Canada’s Women’s Rugby Team WXV 1 Squad

Forwards

Alexandria Ellis, Ottawa, Stade Français Paris (France); Brittany Kassil, Guelph, Ont., Guelph Goats; Caroline Crossley, Victoria, Castaway Wanderers; Courtney Holtkamp, Rimbey, Alta., Red Deer Titans Rugby; DaLeaka Menin, Vulcan, Alta., Exeter Chiefs (England); Emily Tuttosi, Souris, Man., Exeter Chiefs (England); Fabiola Forteza, Quebec City, Stade Bordelais (France); Gabrielle Senft, Regina, Saracens (England); Gillian Boag, Calgary, Gloucester-Hartpury (England); Julia Omokhuale, Calgary, Leicester Tigers (England); Karen Paquin, Quebec City, Club de rugby de Quebec; Laetitia Royer, Loretteville, Que., ASM Romagnat (France); McKinley Hunt, King City, Ont., Saracens (England); Pamphinette Buisa, Gatineau, Que., Ottawa Irish; Rori Wood, Sooke, B.C., College Rifles RFC; Sara Cline, Edmonton, Leprechaun Tigers; Tyson Beukeboom, Uxbridge, Ont., Ealing Trailfinders (England);

Backs

Alexandra Tessier, Sainte-Clotilde-de-Horton, Que., Exeter Chiefs (England); Alysha Corrigan, Charlottetown, P.E.I., CRFC; Asia Hogan-Rochester, Toronto, Toronto Nomads; Claire Gallagher, Caledon, Ont., Leicester Tigers (England); Fancy Bermudez, Edmonton, Saracens (England); Julia Schell, Uxbridge, Ont., Ealing Trailfinders (England); Justine Pelletier, Rivière-du-Loup, Que, Stade Bordelais (France); Mahalia Robinson, Fulford, Que., Town of Mount Royal RFC; Olivia Apps, Lindsay, Ont., Lindsay RFC; Paige Farries, Red Deer, Alta., Saracens (England); Sara Kaljuvee, Ajax, Ont., Westshore RFC; Shoshanah Seumanutafa, White Rock, B.C., Counties Manukau (New Zealand); Taylor Perry, Oakville, Ont., Exeter Chiefs (England).

—

Follow @NeilMDavidson on X platform, formerly known as Twitter

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.

Source link

Sports

Vancouver Canucks star goalie Thatcher Demko working through rare muscle injury

Published

6 hours ago

September 19, 2024

Anne Joseph

PENTICTON, B.C. – Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko says he’s been working his way back from a rare lower-body muscle injury since being sidelined in last season’s playoffs.

The 28-year-old all star says the rehabilitation process has been frustrating, but he has made good progress in recent weeks and is confident he’ll be able to return to playing.

He says he and his medical team have spent the last few months talking to specialists around the world, and have not found a single other hockey player who has dealt with the same injury.

Demko missed several weeks of the last season with a knee ailment and played just one game in Vancouver’s playoff run last spring before going down with the current injury.

He was not on the ice with his teammates as the Canucks started training camp in Penticton, B.C., on Thursday, but skated on his own before the sessions began.

Demko posted a 35-14-2 record with a .918 percentage, a 2.45 goals-against average and five shutouts for Vancouver last season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.

Source link