Millers off-season Preview

 

Coming off a shocking end to the season that saw the Millers win 8 of the final 10 games of the regular season and the first 2 games of their playoff series as the number 8 seed one might think the Millers are on the verge of an upswing. Real (NHL) life is cruel, and injury woes and poor performances by several of the core players have tempered expectations going into the 2021-22 season. What follows is a summation of the team’s off-season moves, free agency decisions, the draft and how the current roster shapes up.

 

Trades

To date Georgetown has made just one trade.

Nick Schmaltz to Capeside for Mikael Granlund and prospect Gage Gocalves.

Schmaltz did a fantastic job as the 2^nd line RW and 1^st unit PP member but was caught in a numbers crunch as he’s spent the entirety of this NHL season as Center and the Millers prefer some defensive and face-off ability from their pivots, neither of which Schmaltz provides. With Larkin, Hayes, Gourde and Kotkaniemi entrenched down the middle and unlikely to be rated as wingers, Schmaltz was the odd man out. Enter Capeside, in need of a 2^nd line Center. Granlund returns to Georgetown, where he began last season skating on the Larkin line before being dealt away to Amos for a couple of prospects. This time around Granlund is expected to play as a middle 6 winger, opposite either Vrana or Farabee. Granlund will also be killing penalties and supporting the power play. Goncalves is a hard-working, quick and physical forward prospect. He’s seen as a complementary player at the highest level, willing to do the dirty work but skilled enough to hold his own in the top 9.

Free Agency

Georgetown has 4 pending Unrestricted Free Agents: Blake Comeau, Michael del Zotto, Bobby Ryan and Wayne Simmonds. Comeau did yeoman’s work after his acquisition, stabilizing the 2^nd line and the PK. He’s unlikely to be re-signed as Georgetown has younger wingers they want to look at. Ryan and Simmonds were acquired after hot starts with the Millers hopeful of one emerging as a bottom 6 scorer and PP asset. Both ended up injured and tailed-off their early scoring pace and are long-shots to return. Del Zotto has the best chance to come back, despite the relative depth of the Millers blueline. MDZ played up and down the lineup, showing decent chemistry with Shea Theodore in a run on the top pair, and anchoring a revolving cast of teammates on the 3^rd unit. His re-sign price would be close to $5 million which is pricey for a 3^rd pairing rearguard but the Millers have cash to spare.

The Restricted Free Agents are Christina Djoos, Kevin Hayes, Drake Caggiula, Jordan Martinook, Jake McCabe, Marcus Nutivaara, Lucas Wallmark and Casey DeSmith. Hayes is a no-brainer to be extended, possibly for the maximum amount of years. Martinook is versatile and solid defensively and is expected to return. McCabe was acquired to give more bite to the D unit and did well paired with Theodore. He suffered a devastating knee injury during the NHL season and it’s unknown how much he’ll be able to contribute next season but the club likes him and will likely give him a one year contract and monitor his rehab. DeSmith will be extended and will compete with Jonathan Bernier for the backup goalie job. Wallmark did a fine job as the 3^rd line Center, showing some really good chemistry with Jakub Vrana, but he’s performed poorly in the NHL and the Center depth makes him expendable. Caggiula brought a spark after his acquisition but hasn’t produced in the NHL and will be replaced by younger, cheaper options on the 4^th line. Nutivaara and Djoos are both offensive-minded Dmen with deficiencies in their own zone. Djoos is younger and cheaper and thus more likely to return as a depth defender on a one- year contract. 

 

The Draft

Their late season run took the Millers out of the lottery and they will pick 7^th overall. The club has 7 other picks in the draft, the earliest coming in the 4^th round, and have announced a willingness to deal those picks for prospects, cash or 2022 picks.

 

The Current Roster

Assuming no UFA re-sign and the RFAs returning are Hayes, Martinook, DeSmith and McCabe, this is the early version of the Millers depth chart:

(* denotes rookie)

LW-C-RW

Fabbri-Larkin-Fast

Granlund-Hayes-Farabee

Vrana-Gourde-Foegele

Texier-Kotkaniemi-Martinook

Wagner, Grundstrom, Maltsev*

 

D

Theodore-Miller*

Leddy-Skjei

Smith*-Anderson*

McCabe, Stecher

 

G

Binnington

Bernier

DeSmith

Hogberg

As Sutton retires, Miners hire Berube as new Head Coach

 

CANADIAN PRESS (Toronto, ON):

 

Some surprising news out of the Nickel City this week, as the Sudbury Miners have named a new head coach for the 2021-22 CCHL Season.

The Miners announced that Craig Berube has been hired as the second head coach in franchise history.

Berube replaces Derek Sutton, who – in a surprise announcement – retired after the 2020-21 CCHL Finals due to health issues. 

The 55-year-old Berube has spent the last three seasons as head coach of the St. Louis Blues, leading them to a Stanley Cup in 2019.

Miners General Manager Terry James said the club evaluated all options before deciding on Berube, who compiled a record of 99-56-22 in 177 games behind the bench with St. Louis.

"After a detailed review, it was clear to us that Craig Berube was the best fit to become the head coach of the Miners”, James said in his statement.

"Craig's track record in development and winning the Stanley Cup with St. Louis to begin his coaching career made us take great notice of him as a candidate.  More importantly, it became clear in speaking with his employers in St. Louis and people around the league, that Craig was the best fit for our program in terms of our on ice vision and on-going development philosophy."

The Calahoo, Alberta native played 1054 NHL games and amassing 3,149 penalty minutes, good for 7^th on the all-time list. He was an undrafted free agent signing of the Philidelphia Flyers back in 1986.

Fort Erie Offseason Rumored Trades and Stars Available

 The Fort Erie Falcons offseason makeover has begun with four trades already, unofficially, having taken place.  

In the first move, the Falcons sent Blake Wheeler to the Canosa Conference champion Sudbury Miners for Ian Cole, prospects Peyton Krebs, and J.J. Petreka.  Fort Erie will also receive a third-round draft pick in this trade.  

While it hasn't become official yet, it appears that Ian Cole could become part of a re-sign and trade for the teams' given Cole's pending UFA status and Sudbury GM Terry James' admiration for the player.  

The next trade saw Reilly Smith and Chippawa's fifth-round pick in 2022 move to Bismarck for Gabe Vilardi and a third-round pick in 2021.

Fort Erie General Manager Matt Young wasted little time from there in moving Vilardi as he was off to Denver to join the Spurs in a deal that saw Casey Mittelstadt return to the Falcons.   Mittelstadt appears to have taken a step in his game and while he may not be ready for duty with the Falcons next season, the following year Mittelstadt could crack the lineup as a top-nine forward.  

The final deal of the week has Braydon McNabb and Nick Paul moving from Fort Erie to Amos in exchange for prospects Adam Mascherin and Antonio Strangers.  

While Young hated to move Paul in the deal, the reality is that Paul wasn't going to be able to earn significant playing time and with his salary, he needed to move to a team where he can contribute now.  

The word out of the Falcons' offices is that they are not done dealing.  Jeff Petry is in the middle of a great NHL season and is projected to have ratings higher than Alex Pietriangelo for the upcoming season.  It's surprising nobody has jumped on the opportunity to improve their defence thus far but something tells this reporter it won't be long before somebody recognizes the opportunity to improve.  

The team is also rumored to be shopping one of Artemi Panarin or Jack Eichel. While Young doesn't want to deal either player, the reality is that spots need to be created to give the younger players an opportunity to play in the CCHL.  

It should be an exciting few weeks around the CCHL as the offseason kicks into high gear and teams shuffle to improve their lineups for the 2021-22 season.  

CCHL Schedule Release Notes by The Commissioner

 The CCHL schedule will be released very soon and it looks like another fun season upcoming.

We have added four additional days to the schedule in order to try to mitigate the number of three-in-three sequences that happen during the course of the season.  This past season we had quite a few of them and with fatigue and potentially reduced durability ratings due to COVID, we didn't want to have too many of them.  

The reality is trying to get 82 games done for 22 teams over 156 days, there are going to be situations where the simulator's internal schedule generator can't meet the parameters as I've defined.  

The wonderful thing about the Simon T schedule maker is that you can actually go in and edit the schedule afterwards.  I've tried to catch as many of these as I can and move them around in the schedule but unfortunately, I'm kind of out of real estate in terms of dates where it's not creating a lot of conflicts elsewhere.  

The one thing is that we don't want to run much beyond 150 days in the season, especially next year with expansion looming.  150 days is about a 5 month season and with the prospects tournament and playoffs that gets us to about six and a half months of solid game action.  

As you're reviewing your schedule this week, please know that it's been reviewed pretty thoroughly.  If you do see a scenario where you have more than two instances of three games in three days, please let me know as I might be able to fix it somehow still.  

CCHL Year End Awards Presented by Siberia

 

Hello sports fans. With the CCHL season over, it’s time to announce the end-of-season awards. What a season it was as we crowned a new champion, the Seattle Reign. This season was more competitive as the new playoff format allowed 2 more teams to make the playoffs. We had 4 rounds of fun hockey.

We had a lot of worthy nominees for the end-of-season awards. Without further ado, let’s look at the award winners.

 

Lady Byng - given to the most gentlemanly player

·         Ondrej Kase - F - CAP: 2 PIMS in 81 games

·         Artemi Panarin - F - FOR: 2 PIMS in 82 games

·         Sam Reinhart - F - NIA: 2 PIMS in 82 games

·         Josh Bailey - F - WIS: 2 PIMS in 82 games

·         AND THE WINNER IS: The bread man, Artemi Panarin, winning 63% of the votes

 

Selke - given to the best defensive forward

·         Patrik Kane - FOR: Led all forwards with a +41, 3rd in the league with 112 points

·         Patrice Bergeron - SIB: Had a +35 and led the league in scoring with 128 points

·         Noel Acciari - FOR: Kane's teammate and defensive specialist was +38

·         Anthony Cirelli - LAS: The defensive specialist put up 55 points while putting up a +12 on the Aces

·         AND THE WINNER IS: Patrice Bergeron, who garnered 68% of the votes

 

Calder - given to the best rookie (min 20 games played in NHL 2018-19 season to qualify)

·         Victor Oloffson - F - HAM: 43 points in 74 games

·         Adam Fox - D - LIE: 67 points in 82 games

·         Cale Makar - D - POR: 58 points in 69 games

·         Ethan Bear - D - SEA: 37 points in 79 games

·         AND THE WINNER IS: Adam Fox, who was 7 votes ahead of runner up, Cale Makar

 

Norris - given to the best defenseman

·         Mattias Ekholm - SEA: 88 points in 81 games, +24 for the CCHL champion Seattle Reign

·         Roman Josi - SUD: 86 points in 82 games for the Canosa Conference champions

·         Doug Hamilton - AMO: 83 points in 83 games for the first year Comets

·         Alex Pietrangelo - FOR: 83 points in 82 games, led the league with a +44

·         Mark Giordano - SPR: 83 points in 82 games

·         AND THE WINNER IS: Mattias Ekholm, who won by a landslide, receiving 72% of the votes!

 

Vezina - given to the best goaltender

·         Connor Hellebuyck - SIB: lead the league with a 2.75 GAA and 51 wins, and 2nd with a .906 S%

·         Frederik Anderson - SUD: second in the league with a 2.85 GAA and tied for 6th with a .900 S%, 5th in the league with 40 wins

·         Braden Holtby - FOR: third in the league with a 2.95 GAA and 4th with a .904 S%

·         Andrei Vasilevskiy - AMO: 6th in the league with a 3.06 GAA and tied for 6th with a .900 S%, second in the league with 47 wins

·         Mikko Koskinen - HAM: was 4th in the league with a 2.98 GAA and led the league with a .910 S%

·         AND THE WINNER IS: Connor Hellebuyck, who also won by a landslide, receiving 81% of the votes!

 

Jennings - given to the team/goalies with the fewest goals against

·         SIB: 237 goals against

·         FOR: 238 goals against

·         SUD: 239 goals against

·         HAM: 262 goals against

·         AND THE WINNER IS: Siberia (Connor Hellebuyck and Darcy Kuemper)

 

Now we have the 2 biggest awards, the Hart and Con Smythe trophies. The Hart trophy is given to the player who is the most valuable to his team in the regular season

·         Patrice Bergeron - SIB: 128 points in 80 games, led league in points

·         Mika Zibanejad - VIC: led the league with 60 goals and 2nd in points with 118

·         Patrick Kane - FOR: 48 goals and 3rd in the league with 112 points for President's trophy winning Falcons

·         Kyle Connor - SEA: Kyle led the Seattle attack and finished with 101 points for the cup winning Reign

·         AND THE WINNER IS: Patrice Bergeron, who was 8 points ahead of runner up, Mika Zibanejad!

 

 

Finally, we have the Conn Smythe trophy, given to the most valuable player in the playoffs

·         Mattias Ekholm - SEA: 11 goals and 24 points to lead the Reign

·         JG Pageau - POR: 12 goals and 27 points for the Corfield Conference runner ups

·         Auston Matthews - SUD: 11 goals and 24 points for the start Miners center

·         Mikko Rantanen - POR: led playoff performers with 30 points in only 19 games

·         AND THE WINNER IS: Mattias Ekholm in a landslide victory, 13 votes ahead of runner up, Mikko Rantanen

Well sports fans, there you have it, the awards for the 2020-2021 CCHL Season. Mattias Ekholm from the Cup winning Reign won two awards, and deservedly so! As we head into the offseason, we will see lots of movement as teams look to dethrone the Reign and win the Kehler Cup next year. Stay tuned for a busy offseason and monumental next season, sports fans!

Reign(ing) Supreme

 

Sudbury (AP) - Mattias Ekholm sat at his locker in the Visitor’s dressing room, a towel draped over his shoulders which served little purpose as it was soaked in champagne. He sat quietly and watched as his Seattle Reign teammates continue their celebration after having captured the CCHL’s Kehler Cup, the 1^st in Seattle’s franchise history.

His demeanour was stoic and content a look of satisfaction on his face. “Thanks, yes that was awesome” he uttered as athletic trainer Jim Nasium came by enthusiastically shook his right shoulder, gave him an obligatory fist pump and shouted “Yeah Baby…woooo”.

“That was awesome” Ekholm repeated, “I still can’t believe it…there are no words that adequately describe what I think we are all feeling. I do know I wouldn’t trade this moment for anything else” he paused for a brief moment and continued “….well other than the day I met Ida and the birth of our children but this is darn close” he wryly smiled.

Celebrations had concluded on the ice some 10 minutes ago when Seattle defeated the Sudbury Miners 2-1 in Game 5 of the Kehler Cup Final. It was a remarkable run for the Reign who concluded the playoffs with an amazing 10-1 record on the road, their only blemish a Game 5 loss to Bismarck in the 2^nd Round.

Seattle had somehow rebounded from a 10-3 opening night loss and a 4-8-2 start to the season but went 42-23-3 the rest of the way and make a late run up the Corfield Conference standings to finish in 4^th place. Led by Kyle Connor on offence and Ekholm on defence Seattle took the usual route to the Championship after relocating from California some 8 years ago.

Never a threat to win any Conference crowns they began a rebuild by trading away or parting ways with some of the bigger names to acquire youth and some additional draft picks. Gone were Evgeni Malkin, Patrice Bergeon and Jeff Petry, ushered in were the aforementioned forward Connor, Ekholm along with Nico Hischier, William Nylander, Oliver Bjorkstarnd and defenceman Jacob Chychrun

Seattle paired this youth movement with the various free agent signing to plug the holes, fill the gaps until the younger players were ready to take on larger roles. This year was no different, Mattias Janmark, Michael Raffl, Richard Panik, Andrej Sekera, Brendan Smith and Cam Talbot were all signed this off season.

All but Sekera and Talbot were to be role or depth players who if needed could fill in when injuries warranted or perhaps to provide a spark when head coach Scott Stevens, whose contract has expired, deemed it necessary to change up the lines.

These free agents were used occasionally as veteran defenceman Nick Jensen, Jon Merrill joined youngsters Ethan Bear and Carson Soucy on the back end. Up front veterans Jordan Staal, Jason Zucker, Andre Burakovsky, Artturi Lehkonen, Ivan Barbashev, Matt Duchene, Calle Jarnkrok and Jonathan Drouin mostly played bottom 6 forward roles with Burakovsky and Zucker mostly rounding out the top 6 forwards.

Talbot who was brought in to compete with Semyon Varlamov for the #1 spot was never able to displace Varlamov, who not only cemented his #1 role but when it mattered most shone the brightest posting a save percentage of .942 in the Finals and single handily won the Cup clinching Game 5 when Seattle was outshot 45-15 but won 2-1.  Ironically Sudbury had dropped Varlamov 3 seasons ago and Seattle signed him as a free agent. Thatcher Demko, the projected future #1, saw some time up with the big club and won in his only appearance, starting the last game of the season.

Perhaps the most amazing aspect and what was one unusual aspect of Seattle’s Cup winning team, and it might be a CCHL 1^st, but Seattle won the Cup without making a single trade this season. That’s correct they made 0 trades only signing FA defenceman Dan Hamhuis as an emergency fill-in when they had injured and suspended defenceman leaving them shorthanded.

While making zero trades in a season is not a blueprint for success somehow Seattle had the right players to play specific roles and as evidenced by playoff performances by Janmark and Talbot all the players stepped in when needed and contributed.

GM Michelle Chapman was still smiling and celebrating with reclusive owner Cam McCurdy near the dressing room entrance as the coaching staff continued congratulating various players as they along with the other staff slowly made their way out of the dressing room to continue the celebration on the team’s buses. Those buses will be heading to the airport to catch the team’s charter flights back home to what will surely be an enthusiastic Seattle fan base.

Ekholm was conversing with Kyle Connor as the two of them were exiting the dressing room

“Mattias what words of wisdom are you imparting to Kyle?” a beat reporter yelled across the room.

Ekholm looked to the reporter and with a large smile upon his face said “Carpe Diem”

Carpe Diem indeed as for this one day the Seattle Reign and its fans would adhere to that motto.

Sudbury Miners: Season in Review 2020-2021

 CANADIAN PRESS (Sudbury, ON)

 

              What a ride!

In his first ever press conference when the franchise located to Sudbury, General Manager Terry James talked about his idea of building a team that would eventually establish themselves as one of the top teams in the CCHL.  

              This year that potential turned to reality.  Despite a slow start to the season, the Miners game would take off and see them finish the season in first place in the Canosa Conference, and 2^nd overall in the CCHL.   The Miners would make it all the way to the Kehler Cup Finals, before bowing out to the Seattle Reign in 5 games.

              “It was quite a ride this year and we are happy for our players and fans”, stated James.   “Losing in the Final was tough but that shouldn’t take away from the success we had this year.  For me and our staff, after coming so close, it will just drive us harder to bring that Cup back to Sudbury”.

              That is good news for the fans of the Miners.

On that note, as always with every year end, here is the Good, the Bad and the Ugly for the 2019-2020 edition of the Sudbury Miners.

 

THE GOOD   

·       Regular Season Success

They had trouble finding some consistency in the first month of the season, but with some aggressive in-season acquisitions,  the Miners never looked back and finished first in the Canosa Conference, and 2^nd in the league.   At times, they were dominating, as evidenced by their 14 games unbeaten streak during the season.

 

·       Playoff Run

Despite coming so close, this year was a success for the Miners.  Knocking off the defending Champion Siberia Ice-Cats and making it to the Kehler Cup Finals was excited for both management and the fans.  There is no reason to expect that the Miners can not remain contenders for next year.

 

THE BAD

•            Overtime Record

The Miners lost 10 games in overtime or shootouts.   While on the plus side, they still managed to get a point from these games, even winning a few of those games would given them a few more points in the bag.   At times, they needed to develop a killer instinct in the extra period.

 

THE UGLY

•            The CCHL Finals

One would have expected the Miners to put up more of a fight versus Seattle, so to lose in 5 games was ugly considered the expectations going into the series.   Were they fatigued from a hard fought 7-series versus Siberia.   It hard to say and the Miners will have all summer to think about it.

 

All in all, it was a very successful year in Sudbury but the ending leave a sour taste in their mouth this summer. This team is in a win now mode, as many of players on their current roster are in their prime.  The door is wide open for the Miners now, they just have to see if they are able to walk through it.