The old joke of “Slow News Day” has some truth to it on a day after the NHL season came to an end, but there’s still a lot going on under the surface…even if the biggest Blue Jackets news yesterday might have been that they showed up as a Jeopardy question last night.
Today, the Bruins prepare for their championship parade, but apparently it’s going to be a little bit rainy, with a side of awkward, since the City of Boston isn’t doing anything to allow players to speak to their fans. Good one.
The Calgary Flames have hired former Jackets’ goaltending coach Clint Malarchuk as their new goaltending coach.Clint had to spend a lot of time battling his demons before a short stint in Atlanta, and now this transition to Alberta, back near his home town. We wish him the best.
Do “Re-tread” coaches really give a team a better chance to win than a “new” head coach? HOTH takes a look.
Fire The Cannon continues their look at the Jackets’ drafting history with the second round. This is painful, I’m warning you right now.
So if you’re going to take part in a riot, it’s probably a good idea to not be a well documented elite amateur athlete. It’s also a good idea not to let people film you setting a police cruiser on fire. Just saying.
The roster for the Jackets’ development camp has been set (minus the addition of this year’s draft selections), and Puck Rakers has the details. Interesting that so far, the only camp invitees outside of the team’s existing prospects are forwards. Could that be a sign of Howson’s planned drafting direction? Keep shoring up the goaltending and defensive pipelines?
Speaking of development camps – we mentioned that Team Canada released their roster yesterday, and that Ryan Johansen was given an invitation, but Team USA also released theirs. PHT has a look at both rosters.
Over at 10TV’s Wall to Wall Sports blog, Rob Kunz looks at Scott Howson’s tasks this offseason, and points out that he’s performed a similar roster overhaul before.
In Restricted Free Agency news, the Nashville Predators filed for arbitration with Shea Weber, while the New Jersey Devils did the same with Zach Parise. On the one hand, this is a normal tactic when both sides are working on a deal, but want more time without having to worry about the risk of an offer sheet. On the other, this can be the start of a slippery slope where both sides do their best to tear the other down and then have to live with each other for at least a year if the arbitrator awards a mandatory contract. Of course, there’s plenty of time in both cases to get a deal done – they can’t even sit down for a hearing until July 20th.
Interesting that the Jackets did not elect for arbitration with any of their current RFA crop. Now, the players themselves can still choose to file for arbitration, with a deadline of July 7th, but it suggests that either Scott Howson doesn’t feel he needs to protect himself from offer sheets (entirely possible), that he feels he can get any RFAs he intends to retain under contract without arbitration (equally possible), or that he intends to leave as many options open as possible, allowing him to negotiate on the one side, but also able to explore moving the player in trade on the other. (Probably the most likely)
Justin Bourne talks a bit about locker cleanout day, and what it feels like as a player.
Finally, this may shock you, but the Vancouver Canucks were kind of banged up.
Have a nice Saturday!