A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious and less so, and rolling four lines deep. According to league sources, it’s still early. Hearing there’s no need to panic. Confirming plenty of runway left.
1. As the mercury rocketed in late July 2022, they dubbed it the “Summer of Brad.”
Calgary Flames fans had watched one of their best players leave for zero return in free agency and another request a trade down south.
So, when Brad Treliving salvaged the evacuation by acquiring Jonathan Huberdeau (fresh off his 115-point campaign) and legit top-four defenceman MacKenzie Weegar from Florida, as well as landing top UFA centre Nazem Kadri, the executive was lauded for making lemonade from lemons.
He’d won the off-season (#HotTreeSummer) and proved that, yes, talent could commit to pickup-truck life in Alberta.
“I’m a big believer you build your team in the summer,” Treliving has said on many an occasion.
Then the hockey started, the Flames fizzled, and Treliving left cold. A Craig Conroy rebuild began, and pundits became a little more cautious to award the Cup in August.
Fast forward two summers, to 2024.
While there was no question that Treliving — now in Toronto — upgraded the Maple Leafs’ blueline — his targeted area of improvement — and made a logical coaching change, no one on the outside was proclaiming July ’24 as a Treliving masterclass.
The four-game returns on the GM’s work since Game 7, however, are sparkling:
• The re-signed Max Domi has five assists, a plus-6 and is centring a deadly second scoring line.
• Oliver Ekman-Larsson, whom Treliving has admired since their Coyotes days, leads all Leafs in ice time (21:50), has stabilized the second pair, and is now quarterbacking PP1.
• Chris Tanev is, as advertised, quietly been the ideal partner for Morgan Rielly.
• Goalie Anthony Stolarz enters Saturday’s measuring-stick contest versus the Rangers with a shiny .940 save percentage and made everyone at ease when intended No. 1 Joseph Woll strained his groin in pre-season.
• For less than a million bucks, Steven Lorentz has swiftly become a fan favourite and fourth-line staple.
• Playing hardball with inspired RFA Nick Robertson appears to have been the right play.
• Treliving’s wish to pass the captaincy baton went about as free of drama as anyone could hope (thanks to John Tavares).
• And, most importantly, Craig Berube’s no-nonsense, slam-the-pedal approach has made an impact. Case in point: Wednesday’s angry timeout when his charges let a 5-0 lead slip to 5-2.
“We don’t want to get complacent, right? Staying sharp,” said Berube, whom reporters noticed halted Friday’s practice to give the 3-1 Leafs a tightening. “Sort of goes back to the last game: 5-0, you take your foot off the gas a little bit. We don’t want to do that.”
“Craig is keeping us really honest,” Ekman-Larsson said. “The way he carries himself around the room and just chats every morning and walks around here with a good mentality, it’s been good. It’s been really good. I think everybody knows what to do out there and what he expects us to do. So, it’s been good.”
Treliving’s good work is hardly done here. There’s the Timothy Liljegren file and the flyer he took on Max Pacioretty and the mysterious cartilage (or lack thereof) floating in Jani Hakanpää’s knee.
By and large, however, the GM’s decisions appear to be paying off.
And if this keeps up, if the Maple Leafs can keep limiting their opponents to two goals or less, we might just look back on 2024 as the true Summer of Brad.
2. With Drew Doughty sidelined long-term, Los Angeles Kings defenceman Brandt Clarke has been thrust into a top-four role and had put up four assists over his sophomore season’s first four games.
“They have a lot of faith in me,” said the 21-year-old of his coaches and teammates, who are encouraging him to leap into the rush and let his offensive instincts flourish.
Clarke, an eighth-overall pick, racked up 23 goals in 21 games for the Barrie Colts in his final junior campaign and 46 points in 50 games for the Ontario Reign last season as an AHL rookie.
“Clarkie is super confident. Very offensive player. Sees ice very well. So, there’s a lot of things to like from him,” raved teammate Quinton Byfield. “He’s just getting started.”
Clarke’s start has been accelerated, for better or worse, due to Doughty’s injury. And the all-world veteran has been in his fellow righty’s ear throughout camp and into the season, offering words of instruction and encouragement.
“It was obviously devastating when he went down. But he even came to me and told me: ‘You got to be the next man up, have that next-man-up mentality.’ And I said that I appreciated that,” Clarke said. “I dedicate so much to him. He’s helped me out since the moment I got into this organization. He was the first person to text me going back in the day when I got drafted (in 2021).”
While the Kings (2-1-2) battle to stay in the Pacific hunt with their No. 1 blueliner unavailable for months, Clarke is leaning on Doughty’s available wisdom and on-ice example of composure while he helps keep the ship afloat.
“Just to watch him and see how he resets his mind,” Clarke said. “Whether we’re up or down a goal, he was always ready to get over the bench and wanted to make a difference. And that’s inspiring and something I want to do. So, looking at him and just seeing his mentality — that is really something I’m trying to pick pieces from.”
3. Is there a more exciting play in sports than the goalie goal?
Filip Gustavsson became just the 15th man in pads to accomplish the feat as the stars aligned this week.
The Minnesota Wild netminder was presented with the perfect conditions to strike: a two-goal lead, a power-play limiting the Blues to just five skaters, an empty cage at the other end, and a hard dump-in smack in the chest.
Drop. Load. Float in a 200-foot beauty right up the gut.
The cool part of Gustavsson’s PPG is that he was given the idea to take a crack at it from the mischievous Marc-André Fleury — who has done it all in his career except score himself.
“Flower looked up to the board and was like, ‘We’re up two goals. You should probably try it if you get the chance. You’re shooting, right?’” Gustavsson told reporters post-game, while wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with Fleury’s face. “I was like, ‘Yeah, maybe I should.’”
And you thought tandem love died when the Bruins traded Linus Ullmark.
4. Quote of the Week.
“It’s definitely a lot closer of game if I don’t play.” —Cale Makar, following a 6-2 home loss to the Islanders, amid Colorado’s troubling 0-4 start
5. With all due respect to the slow start in Edmonton and the absence of saves in Colorado, we’re not sure first month tensions run higher than in Buffalo.
The new/old coach has summoned just one win through six games, and the new captain is fighting Peyton Krebs at practice after throwing a low bridge.
Sure, “boys will be boys,” as Lindy Ruff puts it, and we have no doubt Rasmus Dahlin and Peyton Krebs have indeed buried the hatchet.
Still, this is a bad look.
Moreover, this is bad roster construction.
The Sabres are supposed to be trying to turn the corner on their forever rebuild, yet they’ve already dug a standings hole that puts them on track for extending their NHL-record playoff drought to a 14th(!) season.
Frankly, GM Kevyn Adams has too many “boys.”
With an average age of 25.1, the Sabres are the league’s youngest team by a full year (the rebuilding Flyers are second-youngest, at 26.1).
Adams has locked up some great, raw talent, sure. But he has failed to surround those enticing pieces with the proper mix of veterans to set a standard, establish a culture.
No doubt, the GM is on the hot seat.
However, we’re not certain how an off-ice change can solve the on-ice product in the immediate future.
Considering the strength of the Atlantic Division, the Sabres still feel like a long-term project — and the fans of Buffalo deserve better.
6. Winnipeg-turned-Pittsburgh blue-chip prospect Rutger McGroarty was loaned to the AHL having just three games in the NHL and two shots on net.
The 20-year-old is eager. He’s just not ready. So, his entry-level contract will likely slide.
Still, the forward with No. 2 on his back did have his dream come true: He made the show.
And once he did, McGroarty quickly rang Mom and Dad to tell them he’d been sharing a sheet with the likes of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
“They’ve been there every step of the way, so that was my first call,” McGroarty said. “My mom started crying; she was super happy. My dad was super fired up. I think they got in the car, like, two hours later and started driving down to Pittsburgh (for the home opener).”
Knowing he’d be battling to stay up, McGroarty was still living out of a Pittsburgh hotel.
The biggest shock about the life of an NHLer?
“How much free time you have,” he said.
Even though he would spend more time at the rink than he ever did in Michigan — extra on-ice reps, getting treatment, chatting with teammates — his workdays would wrap by 2 p.m.
“And you’re just, like, hanging out. You have your full day in front of you. You can do whatever. So, that’s definitely really cool,” said McGroarty, who eschews video games.
“I watch a lot of hockey. I know it’s very just, like, a normal answer. But I do watch a lot of hockey. And I just hang out with you guys. I eat a lot of food. And I’m in a new city, too. So, I go wander around the city.”
Coach Mike Sullivan believes McGroarty has a keen aptitude for the game and thinks it well. The coach noticed steep improvement over the course of training camp.
“The biggest thing that jumps out at us is, first and foremost, his competitive spirit. He’s a real competitive guy. Wins a lot of puck battles. He’s really good on the wall,” Sullivan said.
The catch?
“I think he’s adjusting to the pace of the game, which I think is one of the biggest challenges for young players when they’re trying to establish themselves in the NHL,” Sullivan explained. “Not just how quickly players skate and execute, but also how quickly they think the game.”
Let’s see if a strong showing in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton can earn the 20-year-old a recall.
7. Here’s our early favourite for wildest stat of 2024-25.
Four Connors have already scored goals in Edmonton before McDavid: Kyle, Bedard, Zary and Brown.
McDavid did find the back of the net in Nashville, during the Oilers’ first road game, and will have a good chance at being the fifth Connor to score at Rogers Place this season Tuesday.
Mercifully, the visiting Carolina Hurricanes are Connor-free.
8. Sidney Crosby offered this advice to first-time captain Auston Matthews when he rolled through Toronto this week:
“It’s just important to be yourself. Here, everything is magnified that much more. There’s always pressure being a captain. But here, I think you just got to be yourself. There’s going to be lots of experiences to learn from. No matter how long you’ve done it or where you are, you’re always learning. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.”
Matthews showed zero signs of pressure when he went pointless through the first three games of his C-son (sorry), nor while Toronto’s vaunted power play scuffled to its 0-for-11 start.
After Matthews and the Maple Leafs’ man-advantage both busted slumps in Wednesday’s 6-2 thump of the Kings, a reporter asked Matthews if the goals alleviated some of the stress.
“Stress?” Matthews responded, incredulous. “C’mon, man. There’s no stress here.”
He’s still being himself.
9. Matthews — one of the first six Americans named to the country’s 4 Nations Face-Off squad — has already had multiple conversations with head coach Mike Sullivan about the tournament.
And while Sullivan tries to be respectful of his national players’ time on game days, like when his Penguins roll through Toronto, the two started developing a relationship way back when the NHLers were on track to participate in the Beijing 2022 Olympics.
Team USA will have a plenty of current and former captains and leaders to choose from (Quinn Hughes, Matthew Tkachuk and Jack Eichel among them), but we have a hunch Matthews will be wearing a letter.
“In situations and tournaments like this, it’s kind of about who can come together and be a team as quickly as possible,” Matthews said.
“That’s usually the team that has the most success, and that’s the main goal. You’re going to have a lot of really elite players. It’s just putting the ego aside and doing what’s best for the team and coming together as quickly as possible.”
10. Crazy to think we’re only about six weeks out from roster finalization for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
So, how are Team Canada’s goaltending candidates doing?
Well, none of the presumptive frontrunners has a winning record or posted a save percentage that begins with a 9: Jordan Binnington (.895), Darcy Kuemper (.890), Stuart Skinner (.845), Adin Hill (.851), Tristan Jarry (.836).
We need a bigger sample size, but you gotta wonder if GM Don Sweeney goes with a hot hand and some darkhorse candidates could squeak onto the roster.
Jake Allen (2-0, .974), Sam Montembeault (2-2, .932) and Mackenzie Blackwood (0-0-2, .910) have started strong.
And Utah’s Connor Ingram has yet to lose in regulation (3-0-1) but hasn’t exactly been impenetrable (.868).
Who wants the nation’s net? Please, stand up.
11. Igor Shesterkin is a fabulous goaltender. He was the Rangers’ best performer in the post-season and has jumped off to a fine contract year (2-0-1, .921).
That said, his reported turning down of an eight-year contract extension at $11 million per season is starting to feel like an overpay.
All the other big-workload No. 1s seem content with the new industry standard. Ilya Sorokin, Jeremy Swayman, Linus Ullmark and now Jake Oettinger are happy making $8.25 million for the primes of their career.
Is the 2022 Vezina champ better than those peers? Sure.
As Detroit coach Derek Lalonde commented after Shesterkin stood on his head in a 4-1 victory over Detroit: “I can see why he turned down the 88 [million]. Good agent.”
Is he $3-million-per-year better? We’re not quite sold.
An $11-million salary would elevate Shesterkin above Carey Price and make his next deal the richest for any goalie in the cap era. Which makes sense and feels like a win for the player.
If agent Maxim Moliver keeps pressing GM Chris Drury for something over Artemi Panarin’s $11.64 million, he risks overplaying his hand.
Drury should call the bluff.
Let’s say Shesterkin holds firm on his price. The most he could get from an opposing (and, likely, worse) club on the open market is seven years. Even at a preferred $12 million per season, his total contract would come in at $84 million.
No. 13. As heart-wrenching as it may be, please do yourself a favour and watch the Columbus Blue Jackets’ full tribute to Johnny Gaudreau.
Whether it was the team playing the first 13 seconds of its home opener without a left winger, or Sean Monahan scoring and pointing skyward to the banner, or the resilience of the Gaudreau family willing to stand front and centre through unthinkable grief, or Guy Gaudreau taking the ice for practice, or the fan base chanting “JOHN-NY! HOC-KEY!” or the club’s new Donkey of the Game tradition, the organization and the family has handled this unspeakable tragedy with the utmost class.
“I felt like Johnny was watching down on us today,” Sean Monahan told reporters that night. “I had a feeling I was going to get one. Fortunately enough, I did. … I definitely could feel John today.”
