The Montreal Canadiens could make the first real move in the NHL draft with the third overall pick.
If everything goes as expected in Big D on Friday night
Courtland Sutton Color Rush Jersey , play-making Swedish defenseman Rasmus Dahlin will be the first overall pick by the Buffalo Sabres. Russian forward Andrei Svechnikov will then go to Carolina.
”Obviously Rasmus and Andrei deserve it, they’re unbelievable players,” American prospect Brady Tkachuk said Thursday. ”From the third (pick) on, it’s just whatever the team wants, so we’ll see what happens. But it’s going to be pretty exciting to be a part of.”
So the real draft action should begin when Montreal goes on the clock.
The Canadiens will have their choice of the other top prospects like right wing Filip Zadina, who’s playing in the Quebec league, and Tkachuk, the left wing from Boston University who is looking to follow father Keith and brother Mathew into the NHL. Maybe Finnish center Jesper Kotkaniemi.
Plenty of other top defensemen will also be on the board, including Adam Boqvist, Quintin Hughes, Noah Dobson and Evan Bouchard.
”The most important is going to be tomorrow when Montreal goes on the stage
Daniel Kilgore Color Rush Jersey , and they will say my name or not,” Zadina said. ”I’m just glad I can be there in the top five, top six players. It’s unbelievable.”
Or maybe the Canadiens, who have 10 picks in the seven-round draft over two days, make a deal and let another team move into that slot.
Trevor Timmins, Montreal’s assistant general manager, expects GM Marc Bergevin’s to be ringing.
”We’re ready to go,” Timmins said Thursday. ”The list is never set in stone until we go head to the draft from the hotel here, but we’re confident of the prospects that we like … right from that third overall pick to the last pick we make on Saturday.”
Timmins said centers, offensive defensemen and scoring wingers have the highest asset value on the Canadiens draft board, and that all are needs in their organization.
Ottawa has the fourth pick
Josh Allen Jersey Elite , and No. 22, and team officials were going through scenarios again Thursday.
”It was one of the best meetings I’ve had with scouts in 20 years talking about what we plan on doing at (No.) 4, what possibilities are at 22, how these players will impact our organization moving forward,” Senators GM Pierre Dorion said. ”We’re just excited. We suffered this year. There’s no doubt we suffered as a team with the number of losses. But the one good thing is we know we’re getting a really good player here.”
Arizona, Detroit, Vancouver, Chicago, the New York Rangers and Edmonton hold the final picks in the top 10. The New York Islanders, who on Thursday hired Stanley Cup champion coach Barry Trotz, then have consecutive picks before the draft-hosting Dallas Stars select 13th.
The draft at the American Airlines Center comes 25 years after the former Minnesota North Stars moved to bring NHL hockey to Dallas.
Coyotes GM John Chayka said he has five players who would fit his team in the fifth spot.
”We understand that there’s a variety of outcomes that could exist and then we’re going to have a plan in place that accounts for any of the iterations of what could occur
http://www.steelersauthorizedshops.com/authentic-terrell-edmunds-jersey ,” Chayka said. ”It’ll be an interesting draft. I’m sure there’ll be opportunities to move up and opportunities to move down and opportunities to stay and take the pick.”
While general managers and team officials did their final prep for the draft, several of the top prospects took part in other activities in the Dallas area.
The prospects first were at a youth hockey clinic with several players from the Dallas Stars. There was then a media availability at Reunion Tower, more than 500 feet above the ground. That vantage point overlooks the city and next to the open lot where once stood Reunion Arena, the home of the Stars when the won the Stanley Cup in 1999.
Dahlin said he wasn’t feeling nervous about the likelihood of having his name called first Friday night.
”I haven’t actually thought about it so much yet,” Dahlin said. ”It’s crazy to be here actually, I can’t believe it. … Sometime in the near future I will stop and think what I am going through. I’m just trying to enjoy this time as much as I can.”
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AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this report.
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Next season’s defending champion Washington Capitals will look a lot like the group that won the Stanley Cup last month.
They re-signed defensemen John Carlson and Michal Kempny and forward Devante Smith-Pelly and have so far only lost fourth-line center Jay Beagle and backup goaltender Philipp Grubauer from their title-winning roster.
Yet the few changes could be substantial for the Capitals, most notably new coach Todd Reirden taking over for Barry Trotz with a roster that is so similar that the expectation will be another deep playoff run.
”There’s going to be many things that stay the same, but there’s gonna be some things that I think I have to be cognizant of,” Reirden said as he was introduced Tuesday. ”I want to create an environment where players are going to continue to be challenged with new ideas and new ways to improve their games.”
Based on the continuity of promoting a four-year assistant, general manager Brian MacLellan and Reirden expect this to be a ”seamless transition.” Set aside the awkward circumstances of Trotz’s departure and the Capitals had been grooming Reirden for a head coaching job somewhere in the NHL for some time now.
Reirden was the finalist for Calgary’s job two years ago and in retrospect is glad that didn’t work out. His first NHL head coaching job happens to be this one, as just the fourth coach in the past 30 years to assume control of a Cup champion.
With the vast majority of the roster back
Calvin Ridley Color Rush Jersey , Alex Ovechkin coming off a playoff MVP performance and almost the entire defense he helped develop back to try to repeat, the pressure is on.
”Todd’s at that point in his career where he’s earned a head coaching job,” MacLellan said. ”He’s put in all the work. He’s got all the experience. It’s just a matter of seeing him take control. I have all the faith in the world that he can accomplish it. He’s just ready to do it right now.”
Beagle signed a four-year, $12 million contract with the Canucks, and the Capitals traded Grubauer and defenseman Brooks Orpik to the Avalanche to clear the cap space they needed to ink Carlson to a $64 million, eight-year deal. Orpik could still return after Colorado bought him out and made him a free agent, which could mean 18 of 19 players who skated in the Cup-winning Game 5 against Vegas are on the roster to begin next season.
”It’s one of those offseasons where you’re not trying to make a change because you like what you have culturally,” MacLellan said. ”This group really seems to like playing together and there’s a good chemistry there, so I think it was our decision to try to (keep) as much as we could.”
That did not extend to Trotz, who wanted to be paid closer to market value for a Cup-winning coach than the automatic extension that kicked in with a small raise from his previous salary. MacLellan believes Reirden can build on what Trotz started, and the 47-year-old new Capitals coach is confident in his abilities because of how much responsibility he had the past two seasons as associate coach.
”We all had input in it in what our decisions were made
http://www.patriotsauthorizedshop.com/authentic-trent-brown-jersey ,” Reirden said. ”I feel strongly about the direction of our team and the style that we played during the year that it wasn’t necessarily just one person’s idea, but it was our whole staff that had large input into how our team was going to play.”
The Capitals will need one assistant coach to replace Trotz choice Lane Lambert, but will keep the rest of the staff intact. They’ll look to Travis Boyd or recently signed Nic Dowd to replace Beagle. And if they can’t bring back Orpik, they’ll likely find a veteran defenseman to play on the third pair.
That’s about all that’s different when the Stanley Cup banner is raised to the rafters Oct. 3, which is no accident.
”We’re always looking to improve certain areas,” MacLellan said. ”We always look at, `We’ve got a hole here. We need to fix that.’ Or, `This is a way we can get to that next level.’ We’ve always had that type of attitude. This year, it’s trying to maintain what we had.”
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