The Weekly 5-on-5: The NHL is back at work

Testing… testing… 1, 2, 3. Is this thing on?

Boy oh boy it has been a minute, but it is Labor Day weekend and you know what that means, your regularly-scheduled trash pickup will come a day late. It also means… We are back at it here on the DNVR Avalanche beat.

It’s so funny, in past years when the Colorado Avalanche would see their seasons come to an end by April or May, the offseason felt never-ending. It would feel like years in between the final game of the season, and the opening night of the next. Hockey couldn’t arrive fast enough. 

This summer though? This one was different. 

This year, the Colorado Avalanche are the Stanley Cup Champions. 

Obviously, that means there wasn’t a premature ending to the 2021-2022 campaign for the team. Which in turn meant, our season at DNVR went right to the glorious end as well.

So really, instead of having what feels like endless time in between last season and next season… I can’t believe we’re almost ready to get going again! 

It was just barely over eight weeks ago that Gabriel Landeskog and the Colorado Avalanche hoisted the Stanley Cup at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, and it was about two weeks after that that all of the teams (er, well… most of the teams. We’ll come back to this) around the league were wheeling and dealing on the opening day of Free Agency.

It truly does feel like just a week or two ago. It’s amazing how this offseason has flown by. 

In any event, it’s time to start looking at how the league will be shaking out in the season that lies not-so-far ahead, and to kick off this season’s Weekly 5-on-5, I’m going to start with my biggest questions still needing to be answered as we are just weeks away from training camp.

This was one of the more interesting off-seasons in recent memory, full of some blockbuster moves, blindsided-signings, a Stanley Cup Champion taking WEEKS to come to a decision, a shocking amount of legitimate NHLers left waiting for contracts as you read this, and Erik Johnson being celebrating, absolutely hammered. Seemingly every day. 

Armed with all of that info, let’s unpack and talk about what answers we’re still waiting on. 

1. P.K. Subban and the rest of the UFAs

I just got done mentioning how many quality UFAs sit on the open market on Memorial Day weekend. It’s genuinely shocking. 

P.K. Subban, Calvin de Haan, Zach Aston-Reese, Sonny Milano, Victor Rask, Evan Rodrigues. Even to a lesser extent, Guys like Blake Comeau, Nathan Beaulieu, Danny Dekeyser, Cody Eakin… these are all players that, in my opinion, would absolutely make A LOT of teams better. Even if just marginally. 

I don’t remember the last time we had this many players that are legitimate NHL-caliber players just sitting out there waiting for a contract or a PTO.

It makes you wonder, what happened this summer? What was it that caused seemingly every team to take a more cautious approach to UFAs this year? Unrestricted free agency is usually the time of year when you see GMs make brutal mistakes, and players can get a healthy overpay. 

While there was no shortage of boneheaded decisions around the league, the NHL’s general managers look to have maybe learned their lesson on overpaying bottom-half-of-the-lineup contributors. 

That’s no disrespect to the players themselves of course, but let’s be real here. If you’re still sitting out there at the beginning of September, I doubt a team is going to come knocking with a 7×7 and top-line minutes to offer. 

Regardless, was it the flat cap? Is it a reflex of the copycat nature of the NHL? Meaning, is everybody trying to emulate Colorado’s speed/versatility model? Or is it simply that teams are just starting to tighten up in the way they do business around the fringes? 

Again, look at the Avalanche. The depth just buried their opponents in the playoffs. You can’t have that kind of depth if you’re handing out bad deals every summer. I’m going to be very interested to see who, of who is left out there, gets a PTO in the coming weeks. 

2. Lou Lamoriello and the New York Islanders

I mean, you don’t really have to say much here, it was just a really surprising summer from a team that absolutely has to bounce back this season. 

Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING went wrong for the New York Islanders last season. After back-to-back runs to the Eastern Conference Finals in each of the COVID-shortened seasons, the Islanders stumbled out of the gates and never recovered. 

They just seemed like they could never get their footing. They follow up that with swinging and missing on two of the biggest UFAs of the summer, leaving them with a total off-season haul of… absolutely nothing. This is what I meant earlier when I said *most* teams.

Lou Lamoriello got his own internal business taken care of, and nothing more. 

They’ll either look like geniuses for believing in their group and trusting that last season was a fluke, or ol’ Lou is going to be standing there at the end of the season holding an Acme Dynamite Kit. 

3. Calgary and Florida

One of the biggest trades we have seen in a long time. 

After Johnny Gaudreau officially moved on from the Calgary Flames and joined the Columbus Blue Jackets (still, just insane honestly), the Flames’ other 100+ point-scorer, Matthew Tkachuk, told the club he had no intention of signing an extension once his deal expired next summer.

The Flames went from Pacific-Division favorite overnight to potentially watching their two best players leave town for nothing. 

Huge credit to GM Brad Treliving, who made it very clear he wasn’t going to just stand by and watch it happen. 

He flipped Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers in exchange for Johnathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar. Not a bad return. Treliving has been able to extend Huberdeau, and add Nazem Kadri to the mix. 

He took what was shaping up to be a brutal offseason, and turned it into one that may have actually seen them get better?

That’s the question for both Calgary and Florida. After the blockbuster summer? Did either team actually get better? Or was it a lateral move?

Maybe even in Florida’s case… did they get worse?

4. Toronto and Edmonton gamble in net

The Avalanche just proved that if you dominate the possession game, you play smothering, structured team defense, you don’t need all-world goaltending to win a Stanley Cup. 

Unfortunately for the Edmonton Oilers and, to a slightly lesser extent, the Toronto Maple Leafs, smothering defense hasn’t really been synonymous with their play styles.

Both teams entered free agency looking for help keeping the puck out of their own net. The Oilers, especially by the time their worn-down group got to the Western Conference Final, were just trying to outscore their problems. They simply couldn’t keep teams from scoring. 

Toronto, in my opinion, suffered a bit more from the goaltending itself falling apart and really costing them late in the year. Their high-powered lineup needed the support in goal and didn’t get it. 

So what did those teams do to address their respective problems? Well let me tell you, The Maple Leafs acquired Matt Murray to be their #1, the same Matt Murray who was placed on waivers by the Ottawa Senators last season, and brought in Ilya Samsonov from Washington after he failed to secure the job there.

And the Oilers, the Oilers signed Jack Campbell, the very goalie that the Maple Leafs let walk because they didn’t think he was worth more than about $3M according to most reports. 

Two teams with generational talent, and both teams seem perfectly content with rolling the dice year after year and hoping that their elite players can will them to a championship.

5. Viva Las Oh my goodness

Holy smokes. A borderline unbelievable change in course out in Las Vegas. How quickly things change. Early on last season, they had just acquired Jack Eichel, and seemed poised to circumvent the salary cap to try and take a “super team” into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

They forgot one thing though. Using LTIR to exploit a loophole in the NHL’s salary cap, only really pays off if you actually make the playoffs. 

The wheels completely fell off, they wasted their one shot at a run to the Cup with a team worth well more than $80M. 

They missed the postseason and were forced to deal with all of their problems without first getting the reward. Hmmm… what a shame. 

Anyway, things went from bad to worse, as they basically had to rip down the core of their team for literally almost nothing in return. Now it has been announced that Robin Lehner will miss the entire upcoming season with an injury, and it looks like Vegas is going to start the season with last year’s AHL tandem. 

Is this still a playoff team?

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We keep talking about it on the podcast, this season obviously matters for the Avs, but you get a little bit of a buffer here as you start the title defense. Some of the questions still facing Colorado though will determine how efficiently they’ll be able to defend their title. 

1. 2C, or not 2C (I’ll be here all night)

Getting the obvious one out of the way first. With Nazem Kadri now in Calgary, the Avalanche will need to find a solution at Center behind Nathan MacKinnon. There was (and technically still are) a couple of options out there on the open market, but nothing that apparently met Colorado’s needs. 

It appears as if they’re going to try and fill the void internally. My personal guess is that they’re going to use Mikko Rantanen as a buffer while they ramp up Alex Newhook in his sophomore season. More on that in a second. 

Either way, I think taking the wait-and-see approach is the correct call here. There is no need to go out and overpay for a solution that you don’t love. You have, at bare minimum, a couple of options you can explore already in place, and as I always say, your roster doesn’t have to be set before training camp. 

Take your time, make the right move, not a move right now. 

2. Alex Newhook

Speaking of their options at 2C. It’s going to be one of the biggest storylines of the year in my opinion. Everybody saw this as a potential outcome, and many questioned why the Avs didn’t give Newhook more responsibility down the stretch and into the playoffs, in order to begin grooming him to take over for Nazem Kadri. 

In my opinion, there were plenty of reasons a Stanley Cup contender didn’t overload the 21-year-old rookie. The transition to the NHL is incredibly difficult. 

The way I see it though, it’s his time now. The Avalanche has the pieces in place to be able to give Newhook the support he needs, and the time to ramp him up to a full-time 2C.

That’s what I think the plan is, and I’m sticking by that until I’m proven otherwise, but what becomes of Newhook will absolutely be one of the biggest questions to be answered this year. 

3. The Goalies

For the second year in a row, Joe Sakic and new GM Chris MacFarland made it clear that they weren’t overpaying a goalie. 

They just won a Cup behind completely average goaltending. Average, in the playoffs, Darcy Kuemper was WAY better last season than people give him credit for. 

They said thanks but no thanks, and went out and got their guy on the front end of the market, and paid less than most since they were willing to take a bit of a swing on Alexandar Georgiev. A goalie who was really being looked at as the next big thing before Igor Shesterkin showed up on Broadway. 

It’s been up and down for Georgiev since, and the Avs are hoping a fresh start, and playing behind a very structured team will take him to the next level. 

Like I mention earlier about the Maple Leafs of last season, can Georgiev and Pavel Francouz be good enough to keep the Avalanche in it as contenders, or will this tandem break under the pressure of bigger roles forth net minders?

4. Ben Meyers

Kadri is out, Ben Meyers is in.

Obviously, Meyers isn’t here to replace Kadri, but as it stands right now, that’s really the only change to the lineup versus the team that dressed in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Myers played a handful of games near the end of the season last season and showed well. No doubt Jared Bednar and company will be looking for him to bring a lot to the middle-six. 

He was one of last season’s top college free agents, and you don’t usually see those guys settle on contending teams. This was a big get for the Avs, and there are lots of scouts out there that REALLY like this kid. 

5. If not a center, then what?

Said it a minute ago, your roster doesn’t have to be set in stone tomorrow. You’ve got time. I think the Avalanche are really hoping that one of their internal options will be able to fill the void left by Kadri’s departure. If that happens, what could/should they do with the money they have left over?

It’s Cup or bust. Now, until this core has aged out. They’re going to go for it every year. So you know that there going to do everything they can to improve their team. 

I’ve been saying for weeks that I think a guy like Jesse Puljarvi profiles as a player that would fit in great. But there are going to be plenty of options out there. 

I’ve also been told that the Avs really, really would like to see if they could get Patrick Kane out of Chicago for another run at the Stanley Cup. That’s probably not really “news” though, given that I’m sure every team would like to pick up a player of that caliber.

If it’s not a center they’re after, if they can fill that job in-house, look for Colorado to pursue a top-six winger who they think can give them some extra kick.