The school backpacks are coming out of the closet, kids are trying on last year’s skates to see if they still fit and in roughly one month’s time, NHL training camps will be in full swing.
Sorry friends; summer is wrapping up.
Of course, the upside of transitioning to fall is the aforementioned return of NHL hockey. And while we’re really not that far off from filling up the water bottles, most teams still have an issue — big or small — lingering around the building.
With that in mind, we’re raising one item for every team that figures to be a talking point between now and the start of camps. To streamline things a little it, we’ll tackle this issue one division at a time. On Wednesday, we examined the Metropolitan Division. Today, we’ll take a peek at the Atlantic, where hockey’s most popular team just took care of a huge piece of business and a record-setting squad from this past year has an enormous hole up the middle.
Is Pavel Zacha the top-line centre come the start of camp? It’s hard to overstate what the loss of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci to retirement means for the B’s. Krejci was a solid 2C for 15 years and Bergeron is walking into the Hall of Fame as one of the very best two-way guys his position has ever known.
Still, there is a lot of talent sprinkled throughout this club that established a new league record with 135 points last year. There’s also a somewhat unique situation out there in that we entered the summer knowing both Mark Scheifele of the Winnipeg Jets and Elias Lindholm of the Calgary Flames were high-end centres who could potentially be moved thanks to the fact they are less than 12 months from becoming unrestricted free agents.
I’m on record saying the Bruins should push every chip they can find in for a new top-line pivot.
Even if Boston can’t trade for a new top-six centre — something that’s never easy to do — the club should still be fighting hard for a playoff spot. But if GM Don Sweeney can manage to swing a deal for somebody like Scheifele, the Bruins will be right back in the thick of it.
Can they acquire Noah Hanifin or another top-four blue-liner? Hanifin’s name has been out there all summer, as he’s made it clear — with the ability to test the UFA market in 2024 — that Southern Alberta will not be his long-term home. Buffalo is linked to every defenceman available on the trade market and would no doubt like to get a long-term commitment from anybody it pursues, whether that’s Hanifin or another guy who can sign with the highest bidder in 2024, Carolina’s Brett Pesce.
Are there extensions coming for Moritz Seider or Lucas Raymond? Two things we know about Wings GM Steve Yzerman; he’s never in a rush to get these things done and he’s definitely not going to negotiate in the media.
Yzerman famously went down to the wire with Steven Stamkos in Tampa Bay before the latter signed on the eve of free agency and Detroit captain Dylan Larkin was only a few months from being able to hit the open market when he inked an eight-year deal with his hometown team in March.
Still, it’s pretty clear the Larkin situation hung over the player and team a bit last year and while it’s by no means a direct comparison — Seider and Raymond are, of course, only eligible to become RFAs when their entry-level deals expire — it would sure set things off on a positive note if, between now and camp, Yzerman and Seider were sitting beside each other talking about how the big D-man was here to anchor the defence corps through the next decade.
How are the top two defencemen feeling? Both Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour had shoulder surgery in the off-season. The former definitely won’t be ready to go when camp opens and it’s unclear if Montour will be at a point where he can fully jump in to on-ice activities, either.
Montour is also one of three important Cats — along with defenceman Gustav Forsling and centre Sam Reinhart — who are entering the final year of their deals before becoming UFAs. Any late-summer extensions coming after the big post-season run?
Can they find a new home for goalie Casey DeSmith? Montreal jumped in on the swap that sent Erik Karlsson to Pittsburgh because it landed the team a second-round pick and an opportunity to get Mike Hoffman fully off the books. As part of that wheeling and dealing, Montreal re-routed Jeff Petry to Detroit for a relatively light return. Now, they’re trying to do the same with DeSmith.
The Habs already have a crowded crease with Jake Allen, Sam Montembeault and Cayden Primeau on the scene.
DeSmith just turned 32 and is set to make $1.8 million against the cap for one season. The American has a respectable .912 career save percentage in limited action, so somebody in need of goalie depth might take a long look.
Is there any news coming on a new arena? Chances are there won’t be any movement on this front until at least the fall, as Ottawa mayor Mark Sutcliffe has signalled he’d like new owner Michael Andlauer to consider a few options beyond the always-discussed LeBreton Flats site.
While there doesn’t figure to be anything concrete here soon, it’s still wonderful for Sens fans to know there’s a clean slate with Andlauer coming in and what appears to be a fairly clear path to getting the team out of the burbs and into the city.
How much has a nice, long break helped this crew? We won’t really know the answer until the season starts and maybe not until it’s four or five months old. But after playing in three straight Stanley Cup Finals, Tampa’s charges were surely in need of a summer-long ice bath. Maybe four-plus months of recharging will help this team refocus and come charging out of the gate.
The Leafs answered perhaps their biggest off-season question when they inked Auston Matthews to a four-year contract extension on Wednesday. There’s also been some clarity around another guy entering the final year of a contract, but not in the same way. William Nylander has basically said it would take a lot for him to leave Toronto — but don’t expect that to translate to a new deal anytime soon for the 27-year-old.
So what about Sheldon Keefe? The coach is entering the final year of his contract and, after some intense get-to-know-ya meetings with new GM Brad Treliving, it was determined Keefe would be back next year. Both parties have basically indicated a new deal will happen when it happens to prevent Keefe from entering the season as a full-on lame-duck bench boss.
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