Michael McCarron was selected by the Montreal Canadiens with the 25^th overall pick in the first round of the 2013 NHL Draft at the Prudential Center in Newark. The Grosse Point, Mich. native has a decision to make. Will the big power forward honor his commitment to head coach Andy Murray and Western Michigan University or will he opt to cross the border and play for the London Knights in the OHL?

"I'm still waiting to make a decision. I'm going to talk to the organization and see what they think and make a decision that is best for me," said McCarron when asked on his plans for the upcoming season.

"I'm going to make the decision with my family and we'll go over the pros and cons of both [WMU and London]," added McCarron.

McCarron's older brother will be a junior at Cornell University in the fall so education is obviously important for the family. "I still need to grow into my body and I'd get my education which is huge with my family," said McCarron, on the pros of going to WMU.

McCarron has already been on the Western Michigan campus in Kalamazoo this summer. He has spent time training with WMU's strength and conditioning coach Tim Herrmann.

"I've been in Kalamazoo the past two weeks working out with their strength and conditioning coach. The whole team has been there," said McCarron at the draft last Sunday.

According to a report by David Drew of MLive, Broncos coach Andy Murray is confident that McCarron will be suiting up for Western Michigan come October. Murray is an NHL coaching veteran, having been behind the bench for the Los Angeles Kings and the St. Louis Blues before taking over at WMU.

"I'll probably make the decision within the next week," said McCarron when asked about his timetable to decide between the NCAA route and the CHL route.

Trevor Timmins, Montreal's Director of Amateur Scouting, refused to comment on the situation other than to say it will be up to the player.

McCarron was slated to go somewhere early in the second round by most experts, but his stock had been rising. His skating ability has improved and he will grow into his body as he develops. At the draft, he said he was unsure what to expect.

"I was thinking second round, but hoping first round. I had talked with Montreal once during the year and then went to their mini-camp," said McCarron.

There are few franchises in professional sports that can be ranked ahead of the Montreal Canadiens in terms of prestige, history and tradition. That fact was not lost on McCarron following his selection.

"It's so special. Putting on an original six jersey gives me the chills," said McCarron, of getting picked by the Canadien, immediately following the draft.

Jeff Cox covers hockey for SBNation. Follow him on twitter @JeffCoxSBNation.

Boston Bruins

Ryan Fitzgerald, F, Boston College

Garnet Hathaway, F, Brown

Matt Lindblad, F, Dartmouth

Casey Bailey, F, Penn State

Colton Hargrove, F, Western Michigan

Brian Ferlin, F, Cornell

Chris Casto, D, Minnesota-Duluth

Matthew Grzelcyk, D, Boston University

Matt Benning, D, Northeastern

Robbie O'Gara, D, Yale

Wiley Sherman, D, Harvard

Derek Docken, D, Alaska-Anchorage

Zane Gothberg, G, North Dakota

Philadelphia Flyers

Kyle Flanagan, F, St. Lawrence

Mark Alt, D, Minnesota

Shayne Gotisbehere, D, Union

Nick Luukko, D, Vermont

Eamonn McDermott, D, Colorado College

Terrance Amorosa, D, Holderness Prep (Uncommitted)

Carsen Chubak, G, Niagara

Cal Heeter, G, Ohio State

Merrick Madsen, G, Harvard

Ryan McKay, G, Miami

Matt Skoff, G, Penn State

Toronto Maple Leafs

Tony Cameranesi, F, Minnesota-Duluth

Teddy Doherty, D, Boston College

Kevin Goumas, F, New Hampshire

Eric Knodel, D, New Hampshire

Dennis Robertson, D, Brown

Dominic Toninato, F, Minnesota-Duluth

Montreal Canadiens

Mac Bennett, D, Michigan

Michael Cichy, F, Western Michigan

Michael Condon, G, Princeton

Matt Grassi, D, Michigan State

Mark MacMillan, F, North Dakota

Michael McCarron, F, Western Michigan

Greg Pateryn, D, Michigan

Colin Sullivan, D, Boston College

Steve Quailer, F, Northeastern

Dustin Walsh, F, Dartmouth

Tampa Bay Lightning

Colin Campbell, F, Lake Superior

Brian Hart, F, Harvard

Cody Kuynk, F, Alaska-Fairbanks

James Mullin, F, Miami

Carl Nielsen, F, Michigan Tech

Brendan O'Donnell, F, North Dakota

Matthew Peca, F, Quinnipiac

DrewOlson, D, Minnesota-Duluth

Adam Wilcox, G, Minnesota

Florida Panthers

Nick Bjugstad, F, Minnesota

Michael Downing, F, Michigan

Connor Brickley, F, Vermont

Rocco Grimaldi, F, North Dakota

Matt Buckles, F, Cornell

Wade Megan, F, Boston University

Tony Turgeon, F, Nebraska-Omaha

Joe Basaraba, F, Minnesota-Duluth

Corey Trivino, F, Boston University

Drew Shore, F, Denver

Zach Hyman, F, Michigan

Dan Kolenda, F, Niagara

Michael Matheson, D, Boston College

Ian McCoshen, D, Boston College

George Hughes, D, St. Lawrence

Ben Gallacher, D, UMass (Ohio State transfer)

Eddie Witchow, D, Wisconsin

R.J. Boyd, D, Michigan State

Sam Brittain, G, Denver

Evan Cowley, G, Denver

Winnipeg Jets

Andrew Copp, F, Michigan

Mike Zalewski, F, Rensselaer

Mark Cooper, F, Bowling Green

Matt Bailey, F, Alaska-Anchorage

Austin Czarnik, F, Miami

Luke Eibler, D, Northern Michigan (Northeastern transfer)

Michael Young, D, Nebraska-Omaha

David Johnstone, F, Michigan Tech

Tucker Poolman, D, North Dakota

Brenan Serville, D, Michigan

Zach Loesch, D, Lake Superior

Matt White, F, Nebraska-Omaha

Peter Stoykewych, D, Colorado College

Kevin Czuczman, D, Lake Superior

Jacob Trouba, D, Michigan

Connor Hellebuyck, G, UMass-Lowell

Charlie Lindgren, G, St. Cloud

Jason Kasdorf, G, Rensselaer

Jamie Phillips, G, Michigan Tech

Juho Olkinuora, G, Denver

Ottawa Senators

Branden Komm, G, Bentley

Andrew Hammond, G, Bowling Green

Tim Boyle, D, Union

Mike Sdao, D, Princeton

Justin DaSilva, D, Ohio State

Jack Berger, F, Princeton

Jeff Costello, F, Notre Dame

Chris Wideman, D, Miami

Ryan Dzingel, F, Ohio State

Max McCormick, F, Ohio State

Buddy Robinson, F, Lake Superior

Quentin Shore, F, Denver

Chris Leblanc, F, Merrimack

Robbie Baillargeon, F, Boston University

Cole Schneider, F, UConn

Derek Grant, F, Michigan State

Edmonton Oilers

Joey LaLeggia, D, Denver

Dillon Simpson, D, North Dakota

Ben Lindemulder, D, Univ. of Alberta (Transferred from NMU)

Aidan Muir, F, Western Michigan

Evan Campbell, F, UMass-Lowell

John McCarron, F, Cornell

Jujhar Khaira, F, Michigan Tech

Jake Baker, D, Northern Michigan

Andrew Miller, F, Yale

Connor Jones, F, Quinnipiac

Lee Moffie, D, Michigan

Bryce Van Brabant, F, Quinnipiac

Kenny Morrison, D, Western Michigan

Kellen Jones, F, Quinnipiac

Chicago Blackhawks

Cohen Adair, F, Northern Michigan

Chris Calnan, F, Boston College

Grayson Downing, F, New Hampshire

Quinn Gould, F, Merrimack

John Hayden, F, Yale

Matt Lorito, F, Brown

Kevin Hayes, F, Boston College

Chris McCarthy, F, Vermont

Tim O'Brien, F, Dartmouth

Milos Bubela, F, Rensselaer

Pat Mullane, F, Boston College

Garrett Thompson, F, Ferris State

Tyler Motte, F, Michigan

Anthony Louis, F, Miami

Vincent Hinostroza, F, Notre Dame

Jake Chelios, D, Michigan State

Luke Curadi, D, Rensselaer

Kirill Gotovets, D, Cornell

Justin Holl, D, Minnesota

Luke Curadi, D, Rensselaer

Sam Jardine, D, Ohio State

Stephen Johns, D, Notre Dame

Guy Leboeuf, D, Rensselaer

Zach Loesch, D, Lake Superior

Nick Mattson, D, North Dakota

Michael Paliotta, D, Vermont

Dan Weissenhofer, D, Air Force

Nolan Zajac, D, Denver

Matt O'Connor, G, Boston University

Matt Tomkins, G, Ohio State

Garrett Thompson, F, Ferris State

Detroit Red Wings

Luke Glendening, F, Michigan

David Pope, F, Nebraska-Omaha

Michael Babcock, F, Merrimack

Dean Chelios, F, Michigan State

Ty Loney, F, Denver

Dominik Shine, F, Northern Michigan

Nick Jensen, D, St. Cloud

Dane Walters, F, Western Michigan

Trevor Hamilton, D, Miami

James De Haas, D, Clarkson

Columbus Blue Jackets

Seth Ambroz, F, Minnesota

Sean Collins, F, Ohio State

TJ Tynan, F, UMass-Amherst

Trent Vogelhuber, F, Miami

Jeremy Langlois, F, Quinnipiac

Thomas Larkin, D, Colgate

Jake Hansen, F, Minnesota

Mike Reilly, D, Minnesota

Will Weber, D, Miami

Martin Ouellette, G, Maine

Peter Quenneville, F, Quinnipiac

Washington Capitals

Riley Barber, F, Miami

Travis Boyd, F, Minnesota

Garrett Haar, D, Western Michigan

Blake Heinrich, D, Minnesota-Duluth

Caleb Herbert, F, Minnesota-Duluth

Patrick Koudys, D, Penn State (transferred from RPI)

Brian Pinho, F, Providence

Zach Sanford, F, Boston College

Nate Schmidt, D, Minnesota

Patrick Wey, D, Boston College

Sam Anas, F, Quinnipiac

Clarke Saunders, G, North Dakota

Pittsburgh Penguins

Brian Dumoulin, D, Boston College

Eric Hartzell, G, Quinnipiac

Scott Wilson, F, UMass-Lowell

Blaine Byron, F, Maine

Nashville Predators

Chase Balisy, F, Western Michigan

Zach Budish, F, Minnesota

Sebastian Geoffrion, F, Alabama-Huntsville

Joe Pendenza, F, UMass-Lowell

Ludwig Karlsson, F, Northeastern

Wade Murphy, F, North Dakota

Jimmy Vesey, F, Harvard

Anthony Bitetto, D, Northeastern

Garrett Noonan, D, Boston University

Zach Stepan, F, Minnesota State-Mankato

Minnesota Wild

Adam Brace, F, Robert Morris

Mike Collins, F, Merrimack

Adam Gilmour, F, Boston College

Erik Haula, F, Minnesota

Avery Peterson, F, Grand Rapids (Minn.) HS (Uncommitted)

Mike Boivin, D, Colorado College

Gustav Olofsson, D, Colorado College

Nick Seeler, D, Nebraska-Omaha

John Draeger, D, Michigan State

Matt Nelson, D, Princeton

Nolan De Jong, D, Michigan

Carson Soucy, D, Minnesota-Duluth

Tony Capobianco, G, Canisius

Steve Michalek, G, Harvard

Los Angeles Kings

Johnny Brodzinski, F, St. Cloud

Nic Dowd, F, St. Cloud

Nick Shore, F, Denver

Brian O'Neill, F, Yale

Michael Mersch, F, Wisconsin

Joel Lowry, F, Cornell

Derek Forbort, D, North Dakota

Paul LaDue, D, North Dakota

Kevin Gravel, D, St. Cloud

San Jose Sharks

Mark Cooper, F, Bowling Green

Chris Crane, F, Ohio State

Cody Ferriero, F, Northeastern

Max Gaede, F, Minnesota State-Mankato

Brent Harris, F, Connecticut

Eriah Hayes, F, Minnesota State-Mankato

Sean Kuraly, F, Ohio State

Rylan Schwartz, F, Colorado College

Tommy O'Regan, F, Harvard

Danny O'Regan, F, Boston University

Travis Oleksuk, F, Minnesota-Duluth

Matt Nieto, F, Boston University

Brodie Reid, F, Northeastern

Reed Seckel, F, Northern Michigan

Sebastian Stalberg, F, Vermont

Brian Ward, F, Dartmouth/St. Lawrence

Jake Jackson, F, Michigan Tech

Kyle Bigos, D, Merrimack

Isaac MacLeod, D, Boston College

Cliff Watson, D, Sioux City Musketeers (de-committed from Ohio State)

Matt Tennyson, D, Western Michigan

Joakim Ryan, D, Cornell

Zach Palmquist, D, Minnesota State-Mankato

Gage Ausmus, D, North Dakota (de-committed from Denver)

Troy Grosenick, G, Union

Steve Racine, G, Michigan

Phoenix Coyotes

Connor Clifton, D, Quinnipiac

Jedd Soleway, F, Wisconsin

Rhett Holland, D, Michigan State

Zach Larraza, F, Denver

Hunter Fejes, F, Colorado College

Dallas Stars

Thomas Aldworth, F, Providence

Curtis McKenzie, F, Miami

Jacob Fallon, F, Vermont

Devin Shore, F, Maine

Will White, F, Northwood Prep (uncommitted)

Greg Johnson, D, Williams College

Dmitry Sinitsyn, D, UMass-Lowell

JB Baum, D, Dallas Stars U16 (uncommitted)

John Keeney, G, Alaska-Fairbanks

Cab Morris, G, Dartmouth

Buffalo Sabres

Tyler Gjurich, F, Maine

Brad Navin, F, Wisconsin

J.T. Compher, F, Michigan

Sean Malone, F, Havard

Anthony Florentino, D, Providence

Alex Iafallo, F, Minnesota-Duluth

Calvin Petersen, G, Notre Dame

Connor Hurley, F, Notre Dame

Christian Isaackson, F, Minnesota

Judd Peterson, F, St. Cloud

Tim Schaller, F, Providence

Andrew Black, F, Colgate

Connor Knapp, G, Miami

Kevin Czuczman, D, Lake Superior

Chad Ruhwedel, D, UMass-Lowell

Jake McCabe, D, Wisconsin

Calgary Flames

Corban Knight, F, North Dakota

Ben Hanowski, F, St. Cloud

Johnny Gaudreau, F, Boston College

Matt DeBlouw, F, Michigan State

Drew McKenzie, D, Vermont

Dan O'Donoghue, D, Mercyhurst

Noel Acciari, F, Providence

David Eddy, F, St. Cloud

Brody Hoffman, G, Vermont

Curtis Leonard, D, Rensselaer

Kenny Agostino, F, Yale

Bill Arnold, F, Boston College

Josh Jooris, F, Union

Mark Jankowski, F, Providence

Jon Gillies, G, Providence

John Gilmour, D, Providence

Bryce Van Brabant, F, Quinnipiac

John Ramage, D, Wisconsin

Tim Harrison, D, Colgate

New York Islanders

Anders Lee, F, Notre Dame

Brock Nelson, F, North Dakota

Scott Mayfield, D, Denver

Eamon McAdam, G, Penn State

Stephon Williams, G, Minnesota State-Mankato

Taylor Cammarata, F, Minnesota

Evan Rodrigues, F, Boston University

Doyle Somerby, D, Boston University

Cason Hohmann, F, Boston University

Ben Rosen, F, Boston University

Colton Beck, F, Alaska-Fairbanks

Jason Clark, F, Wisconsin

Branden Gracel, F, UMass-Amherst

Joe Diamond, F, Maine

Greg Miller, F, Cornell

Nick Sorkin, F, New Hampshire

Matt Tabrum, F, Denver

Riley Wetmore, F, UMass-Lowell

Mike Daluisen, D, Quinnipiac

Mike Keenan, D, Dartmouth

Bennett Schneider, D, Hamilton College

Bradley Nunn, D, SUNY-Fredonia

James Mazza, D, Youngstown Phantoms (Uncommitted)

Ken Reiter, G, Minnesota-Duluth

Joel Rumpel, G, Wisconsin

New York Rangers

Brady Skjei, D, Minnesota

Patrick Brown, F, Boston College

Kyle Jean, F, Lake Superior

Teddy Doherty, D, Boston College

Eric Robinson, F, Dartmouth

Conor Allen, D, UMass-Amherst

Ryan Faragher, G, St. Cloud

Eric Levine, G, Robert Morris

Jeff Malcolm, G, Yale

Adam Tambellini, F, North Dakota

Carter Rowney, F, North Dakota

Steven Fogarty, F, Notre Dame

Anaheim Ducks

Kyle Novak, F, Western Michigan

Grant Besse, F, Wisconsin

Kevin Lind, D, Notre Dame

Nic Kerdiles, F, Wisconsin

Kevin Roy, F, Northeastern

Steve Whitney, F, Boston College

Keaton Thompson, D, North Dakota

Antoine Laganiere, F, Yale

Chris Wagner, F, Colgate

Jaycob Megna, D, Nebraska-Omaha

Josh Manson, D, Northeastern

Brian Cooper, D, Nebraska-Omaha

Vancouver Canucks

Joe Cannata, G, Merrimack

Sam Marotta, G, Merrimack

Ben Hutton, D, Maine

Wesley Myron, F, Boston University

Joseph Labate, F, Wisconsin

Cory Kane, F, Ferris State

Andrew Gladiuk, F, Bentley

Mike Borkowski, F, Colgate

Matthew Beattie, F, Yale

Paul Geiger, D, Clarkson

Kevin Lough, D, Colgate

Michael Quinn, D, Alaska-Fairbanks

Mike Williamson, D, Penn State

New Jersey Devils

Zach Tolkinen, D, Quinnipiac

Jeff Cox covers hockey for SBNation. Follow Jeff on twitter @JeffCoxSBNation.

(Glossary --note SC above stands for "scoring chances". Credits: Hockey Analysis, Behind the Net, and NHL.com.)

2013 Kings 5v5 Player Usage Chart (via Hockey Abstract):

(Big blue circle= good possession numbers relative to teammates, big orange circle = bad possession numbers relative to teammates)

Positives: Let's start with the obvious: goals, goals, goals. Last year's Stanley Cup run overshadowed the Kings' season-long struggle to score goals. Jeff Carter was expected to be the solution to that, and showed flashes during the latter part of the 2012 season. In 2013, he was everything the Kings could have asked for in that regard, finishing fourth in the NHL in goals despite getting second-line minutes for most of the season. He was wildly effective at finding the net both at even strength (third in goals/60 minutes) and on the power play (eight goals on the man advantage, also top-ten in the NHL). The team wasn't starved for goals this season; Carter was a big reason why.

So how did Carter excel outside of the goals department? Observe the scoring chance differentials for the Kings in the chart above. Aside from taking seven scoring chances per 60 minutes (tops on the Kings), the team regularly outchanced their opponent with Carter in the lineup. Carter also didn't shy away from tough competition, regularly taking on the opponent's second line and winning that battle. And this was with all of his games against the Western Conference; we might see Carter feast on some weak defenses next season.

Finally, from simple day-to-day viewing, Kings fans discovered some of Carter's other attributes in his first full season with the team. Backchecking? Excellent. Faceoffs? Solid; he won 52.6% of them this year. Speed? Breathtaking. Defensive positioning? Good. It's enough to want a sniper on your team, but a sniper who can also play defense, kill penalties, and lead the rush? That kind of player doesn't come around very often. Carter was the only player on the Kings to get a Hart Trophy top-5 vote; the possession wizardry of Justin Williams aside, he was probably the only King who deserved one.

Negatives: Blame it on the Kings' stacked forward corps, but Carter actually didn't shoot the puck a ton this year given how often Los Angeles controlled possession. As the go-to player in Philadelphia, Carter was regularly averaging over four shots per game. This season? Not even three. This isn't so much a negative as it is a question: why isn't LA's best shooter (by the eye test as well as the stat sheet) getting his shots? Five players shot the puck at a higher rate than Carter; that doesn't seem optimal.

Additionally, his possession numbers weren't anywhere near as eye-popping as his goal count. The second line drove possession well during the regular season, but they were outperformed by the first line by a significant margin and ended up with slightly below-average numbers relative to the team. The playoffs went much better for Carter and Richards in that regard... thanks, Playoff Penner.

Having said that: when we look at the ten players who spent the most time on the ice with Carter this season, seven of them had better possession numbers with Carter than without him, and his most common linemates (Mike Richards, Dustin Penner, and Kyle Clifford) all benefited from his presence. The bad news? Only two of those ten actually had a better goal differential with Carter, compared to without Carter. We might be able to blame this on bad luck; despite shooting the lights out himself, the team as a whole still only shot 9.5% while he was on the ice, and the goaltenders had a brutal save percentage behind Carter and his teammates.

Going Forward: This is what I like to call the "reasonable expectations" section of the evaluation...

Carter was a 19.5% shooter this season, and a 16% shooter at even strength. That's not normal. The Los Angeles Kings shot 9.3% this year, which means Carter's shots went in twice as often as his teammates' shots did. Carter is an excellent shooter, but given his career statistics, you'd expect his shooting percentage next year to be around 10-12% instead. We got a glimpse of his "state of regression" in the playoffs, when he scored six goals in 18 games with a shooting percentage at 10.7%. Having said all that, Carter is going to be counted on to put the puck in the net, and anything under 30 goals should be a disappointment. With a consistent left winger and a little more ice time, Carter might get more shots, and that would help his cause.

Also, look for him to get more than seven assists next season. THAT is a reasonable expectation.

Grade: It's a clear A for Carter.

The first year eligible potential Hockey Hall of Fame inductees came out recently, and there are a lot of familiar names. Specifically, a lot of Pacific division former players.

Paul Kariya, Rob Blake, Scott Niedermayer, Mathieu Schneider, Bryan Smolinski, Darryl Sydor, Alexi Zhitnik, and Sergei Zubov.

There's also a lot of known shitheads. Such as

Rob Blake, Chris Chelios, Kirk Maltby, Rob Blake, Brad May, Keith Tkachuk, Rob Blake, Darcy Tucker, Brendan Witt, and, former King, Rob Blake.

In fact, there are 25 former skaters that are first year eligible, with the list being right here.

However, there are only two goalies. One of them is Roman Turek (lololol). The other...

That's right kids, the one and only, Dan Cloutier!

Cloutier has an extensive resume of being in fights, getting hurt, and being beat by slap shots from halfway down the rink.

Dan Cloutier was also instrumental in the Los Angeles KingsStanley Cup winning season by being a fucking awful goalie and letting the Kings stock up on high end draft picks. I guess you could say he was responsible for Drew Doughty, Slava Voynov, Wayne Simmonds (subsequently Mike Richards), and mi único Alec Martinez.

Okay, a few things to note:

1. 6-0. Against Nashville.
2. He speared Hartnell first.
3. That's two potential Hall of Fame guys out there getting worked over by Nashville with Cloutier and Shitstain Blake.
4. Haha Brian Willsie.
5. Hahahahahahaha Barry Brust.
6. Scott Hartnell probably deserved it, really.

Let's break down some Cloutier stats and comparable active netminders, shall we....

• 139 wins to 142 losses, good for a 49.5% winning percentage
  • Comparable to Nikolai Khabulin, Steve Mason, and Ondrej Pavelec.
• 15 shutouts in 351 games played, a shutout every 23.4 games
  • Again comparable to Ondrej Pavelec, but to be fair Marc-Andre Fleury and Cam Ward just narrowly top Cloutier.
• An 89.9% career save percentage
  • Fine company with Jonas Gustavsson and Curtis McElhinney.
• A slim 2.77 career goals against average, and a record year with the Kings with his GAA at 3.98
  
  • Khabulin and Ward have similar career numbers, as does every no-name backup goaltender (except Ondrej Pavelec, who is even worse).
    
  • Since 2006 when Cloutier debuted with L.A., in a single season, no goalie with over 20 games played has topped Cloutier's mark of 3.98 GAA. He's a real record holder.

Well.

If I was Winnipeg, I'd really be looking for a new goalie. And, yes, Cam Ward won you a Cup, Carolina. But holy shit, does he suck.

In a historical sense, goaltenders that were as statically atrocious as Cloutier and stayed in the league as laughably long as he did include Garth Snow, Kevin Weekes, and Marc Denis. One person that does top Cloutier in awfulness (and games played) though:

Thank you Jesus for this gift.

Anyways, what's Dan Cloutier been up to lately?

You can go home again even if you’re the butt of jokes. Former Canucks goalie Dan Cloutier was hired by the team to be their new goaltending consultant.

Knowing that their proverbial window may be closing, it's good to see the Canucks commit to the rebuild from the back out. I can think of no one better than Dan Cloutier to make sure your goaltending tanks.. He has my vote for the Hall of Fame, but as a "builder". The Lightning won a Cup shortly after his stint in Tampa. Vancouver was a perennial contender (except that they are a Canadian franchise doomed to fall short) once moving on past Cloutier. And again, the Kings won four short years AD (after Dan). The man is a hero.

God bless you Dan Cloutier.

(Glossary --note SC above stands for "scoring chances". Credits: Hockey Analysis, Behind the Net, and NHL.com.)

2013 Kings 5v5 Player Usage Chart (via Hockey Abstract):

(Big blue circle= good possession numbers relative to teammates, big orange circle = bad possession numbers relative to teammates)


Positives: Trevor Lewis played a primarily defensive role this season and he excelled in that endeavor. He allowed the third fewest scoring chances on the team (per 60) among forwards while being tasked with arguably the toughest minutes. What Trevor Lewis may be best at is disrupting defenseman as they attempt to breakout of the zone. He often will use his speed to pickpocket or disrupt passes and make breakouts a nightmare.

Offensively, he is quite conservative as he chooses to dump the puck in more often than not and hardly ever turns the puck over on entry. I think he may be a little too conservative in that regard because he does seem to have some offensive talent. He actually had the 4th most shots at even strength among Kings' forwards and took the 5th most scoring chances. He has been hampered throughout his career by a lack of finish, but at some point goals will start trickling in if he can keep creating opportunities. I mean, he'll never be Jeff Carter or Alexander Ovechkin, but his career shooting percentage of 3.9% seems unsustainably low.

In addition, he ate up a lot of time on the penalty kill (second only to Jarret Stoll). On the kill, he performed reasonably well as he allowed the 3rd fewest shots (per 60) among penalty killers.

Negatives: Trevor Lewis' biggest fault seems to be his hands...or lack there of:

He has a difficult time getting the puck past the goal line. In fact, over the last four years at even strength, Lewis' shooting percentage is an absurdly low 3.75%. That is 3rd worst in the NHL, ahead of only Scott Gomez and Craig Adams.

When he was on the ice, the Kings did manage to drive play slightly better than the opposition. Yet, the way he and his line-mates did that was through repetitive dump and chase hockey that sometimes made the viewer feel like s/he was stuck in an elevator with a traffic school instructor...AKA bored out of their minds:

Sure, they won a lot of games this year and had another deep playoff run. So, it's easy to make the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" argument. But, is it wholly necessary for the third line to play such a conservative brand of hockey? Couldn't they afford to open up a tad and carry the puck into the zone every once in a while in the hopes that they might increase some of the offensive output of the bottom six rather than just relying on them to eat up time on the clock?

Looking Ahead: Trevor Lewis is still an RFA and his qualifying offer sits at $735,000. He'll undoubtedly be brought back at an amount close to that. It's unfortunate for Lewis that none of things he does well are reflected in traditional statistics and thus seems doomed to make slightly less than his true worth.

That being said, his insanely low shooting percentage seems due to improve. If it does, the Kings could find themselves getting excellent value out of Lewis in the coming years. They could also increase his value by playing him along side some more offensively talented players. Lewis is adept at pressuring the puck and forcing turnovers. That skill is somewhat squandered by being lined up next to Dwight King and Jarret Stoll (who has focused more on defense in recent years).

Grade:C. Lewis was very sound defensively but was a bit too one-dimensional. LA is going to need more secondary scoring going forward and players like Lewis are going to need produce a little more in that regard.

Last season, the Los Angeles Kings pulled off a pretty neat trick, as they returned essentially the entire roster of their Stanley Cup-winning squad. It was never going to happen this season, with a number of players due for a raise, and Rob Scuderi and Brad Richardson both left the team on the first day of free agency. After picking up Jeff Schultz, the Kings have 19 players signed, with five RFAs having received qualifying offers (Trevor Lewis, Kyle Clifford, Jordan Nolan, Jake Muzzin, and Alec Martinez).

This, of course, brings us to the only remaining unrestricted free agent from the 2012-13 Kings: Dustin Penner.

Penner is far from the only high-profile free agent forward on the market...

UFA forwards still available: J. Jagr; M. Grabovski; M. Raymond; D. Brunner; B. Morrow; D. Penner; N. Antropov; D. Cleary; S. Gomez.

— Yahoo Sports NHL (@YahooSportsNHL) July 8, 2013

... so maybe it's not a huge surprise that Penner hasn't found a home yet. But the overall lack of buzz around Penner is surprising. The one bit of news: an Edmonton Journal article that fueled rumors even while clarifying that said rumors were "smoke, no fire." Other than that, we've only heard fake insider shots in the dark regarding Penner.

Let's take a look at three possible reasons why Penner hasn't found a home, and why we haven't heard anything regarding Penner.

Penner's Value is Unclear to GMs

Dustin Penner got what's known as a "show-me" contract last year, a one-year deal which cut his salary from an offer-sheet granted $4.25 million down to $3.25 million. As a point of comparison, let's see which forwards are making $3.25 million next season side-by-side with Penner.

• Rich Peverley was prolific in 2011-12, but he took a step back this year. He got traded with Seguin to Dallas.
• Clarke MacArthur scored .5 PPG this season, his lowest since 2009-10. However, according to PPP, he wasn't very well-utilized and this deal was a potential steal. Especially considering this was a UFA contract; $3.25 million might be higher than what other teams were offering.
• Jarret Stoll's value lies less in scoring, but he's been producing as much as Penner.
• Paul Gaustad is a bottom-six winger who got a surprisingly big contract last year, but again, his value lies less in scoring. He had injury trouble this season.
• Patrik Berglund got an RFA raise after a breakout season. Now, don't expect that goalscoring again next year (he shot 23% in 2013... holy jumpin!), but he produced quite a bit.
  

At that contract, the Kings aren't expecting Penner to score at a 30-goal pace as Berglund did this year, but you would hope for 15-20 goals and 40-50 points. Penner didn't do that, but he's capable. His value lies in whether any NHL team agrees that he's capable. As a GM, what are you paying for? Are you paying for the 2012 playoffs? The 2013 regular season? The 2013 playoffs? Penner will probably receive a pay cut; the question is how large it will be.

Robert pointed out yesterday that he was rather unlucky this season,and his shooting percentage has been low since the trade. I'd expect a bounce back next season. However, given that he has struggled to score since the day he got to Los Angeles, I'm not sure how GMs are evaluating his worth. But it doesn't look like the Kings are going to wait around for that production to increase. Which brings us to reason number two...

The Kings Don't Have Room For Him (Yet)

It's been broken down by John Hoven pretty well already, so I won't waste too much time analyzing it. But the basic picture is this: the Kings have nineteen players signed, and five unrestricted free agents to deal with. That puts the Kings one player above a 23-man roster already, with 13 forwards who had significant NHL time last season; that's not including players such as Tanner Pearson and Linden Vey who will fight for depth spots. Without a trade, Penner's not getting a spot here; so, there's not much urgency from other teams trying to sign Penner before he re-ups with Los Angeles. That's a nice transition into the third point...

Similar Forwards Are Available (and Waiting)

Take a look again at the forwards who haven't been signed. We can safely expect most of them to be in the $2-4 million range once signed. But look at the distribution of forwards who have been signed thus far; this is showing the count of free agents who signed for a cap hit of less that $1 million, $1 million-$1.99 million, $2 million-$2.9 million, and so on. (The list of signings is available at TSN).

For the sake of comparison, here are the cap hits of the Los Angeles Kings, via CapGeek.

It's not apples-to-apples, but fewer of those mid-range salaried players have been signed than we'd expect. The high-end players were snapped up on Day 1, and a ton of minimum or close-to-minimum players found homes. But Penner is waiting, along with a number guys who will make around the same amount of money. We might see them start going more quickly once the first few forwards in that group are signed and the pickings get slim. But for now, GMs seem to be evaluating whether those investments will be worth it. Prudent!

Of course, we don't know what kind of offers Penner has received so far. He might have some proposals on the table, and he might just be taking his time. Personally, I'd like to see Penner back in Los Angeles, as there's a good chance he'll exceed expectations once his next contract is signed. Unfortunately, that's looking unlikely, so we'll keep an eye on his situation to see where he ends up.

Hooray for free agency uncertainty.

(Glossary --note SC above stands for "scoring chances". Credits: Hockey Analysis, Behind the Net, and NHL.com.)

2013 Kings 5v5 Player Usage Chart (via Hockey Abstract):

(Big blue circle= good possession numbers relative to teammates, big orange circle = bad possession numbers relative to teammates)

Positives:Jordan Nolan plays on the right wing of the fourth line. With two prolific scorers (Williams and Carter) and a defensive wizard who gets plenty of ice time (Trevor Lewis) ahead on the depth chart, that fourth line right wing isn't going to get a lot of action. So what's the goal? Provide energy, hit some people, don't screw up too much, repeat. Did he provide energy? Sure. Did he hit people? Yup; he ranked in the top 100 in the NHL in hits despite only playing 8:28 per game. Even if the Staples Center scorers are pretty generous in awarding hits, that's impressive. So Nolan did what was asked of him. And in spite of taking a fair amount of penalties, he also drew just as many as he took. Not bad.

In addition, I'll give a nod to the old-school aspect of the game. Nolan fought six times this season, and according to hockeyfights.com, he won four of them and drew one. He actually fought more than Kyle Clifford, and that's a switch that Darryl Sutter would probably encourage as Clifford continues to (hopefully) develop into an offensive threat. If you insist on keeping a guy who fights in your lineup, you'd like him to (a) chip in some points, or (b) provide cheap energy in limited minutes. Nolan fits (b), and that will be a consideration as to whether he keeps his spot in the lineup next season. As of now, Nolan has the lowest salary on the team, and even having filed for arbitration, he's not getting that big of a raise. So his spot on the big club seems pretty safe.

Negatives: So, Nolan's overall numbers (both stat-wise and possession-wise) were... um... not great. Now, the point production doesn't matter all that much; six points in 44 games is about expected for a Kings fourth-liner who gets a lot of penalty minutes. However, you want your fourth line to keep their heads above water. Nolan didn't do that. He was the worst forward on the team in terms of possession, and he was the only King with a negative shot differential. In other words, when he was on the ice, the Kings allowed more shots than they took. He wasn't overwhelmingly bad in this regard, but it's not a flattering number when compared to Fraser, Clifford, etc. This was the case despite Nolan starting his shifts in the offensive zone a whopping 64% of the time.

With some injuries to forwards in the playoffs, there were hopes that he'd step up his game; however, he instead looked overwhelmed. The majority of the Kings were outshot in the playoffs, but Nolan's Corsi numbers were the worst on the team, and it wasn't close. This primarily is because Sutter couldn't shelter Nolan as much during the playoffs; the bottom-six forwards for St. Louis, San Jose, and Chicago were all effective, and Nolan and his teammates consistently ended up pinned in their defensive zone by the end of their shifts. Despite winning the first two games against San Jose, Nolan was removed from the lineup, and only appeared in Game 6 of the San Jose series and Game 5 of the Chicago series from then on. (For what it's worth, Nolan played every playoff game in 2012.)

Going Forward: Jordan Nolan played 44 of 48 games during the regular season. He played seven of 18 in the playoffs; along with the departed Brad Richardson, fellow forwards Tyler Toffoli, Colin Fraser, and Kyle Clifford all saw more action. With Richardson gone and Dustin Penner likely following suit, he should keep a roster spot. He'll have a chance to earn his spot on the fourth line again, but he'll likely have to beat out one of the remaining three players to do so. It seems most plausible that he'll start the season as the 13th forward, with a chance to work his way back if someone gets hurt or if one of the Kings' young guns (Toffoli, Frattin, Clifford, and King) struggles. Hopefully, his growing pains this season set him up for a rebound next season.

Grade: Unfortunately, Nolan's first full season was a bumpy ride, and he didn't progress as much as was hoped after his surprising debut. It's a D for Nolan, whose lineup spot is much shakier now than it was at this time last year.

You might remember Ilya Kovalchuk. He was this hockey player the Kings were chasing pretty hard way back in the olden days of 2010. In fact, some considered L.A. to be the "prime suitors" for his services. As we all know, L.A. missed out on Kovalchuk as he signed to the Devils on a 17-year, $102 million contract. Well earlier today, 3 years into his contract, Kovalchuk announced his retirement.

Now at just 30 years old, Kovalchuk isn't retiring from the sport altogether. Reports are that he will join SKA of the KHL where he will likely recoup the $77 million he left on the table with the Devils. Obviously, this whole situation came as a shock to everyone. And it lead to a lot of LOLing directed at the Devils from the Kings twitterverse.

But is this really a bad thing for the Devils? Sure, it leaves them in a tough spot for the '13-14 season. Yet, in the grand scheme of things, this is beneficial to them for several reasons.

After the dust has settled, Kovalchuk made $23M over 3 seasons. He also cost them a 1st round pick and $250K a year in salary cap penalties over the next 12 years. If this is what it took to sign Kovalchuk in June of 2010, this is what Lou Lamoriello and Dean Lombardi would have looked like trying to be the first one to get to the phone to sign him:

via www.startrek.com (after you follow this link to startrek.com be sure to come back and finish reading this article)

In other words Kovalchuk at 27, earning $23 over 3 years is a much better deal than Kovalchuk at $102M over 17 years. His production had already begun to slide plus players in the NHL generally tend to not to age very well. That's not to say that they didn't get any value out of him during those three years, in fact it's very likely those years were the ones where they were going to get the most value out of him throughout the duration of his contract.

In addition, if he would have retired at 35, the cap penalty would have been $3.5M for 7 years. So that's another bullet dodged. In the end, a team that was really struggling financially got out of a toxic contract and now are likely much more alluring to potential investors.

As far as the upcoming season goes, certainly this doesn't do them any favors. But last year, the Devils were one of the strongest puck possession teams in the league who were dogged by poor goaltending. Kovalchuk wasn't much of a contributor to their possession game and they seemed to have addressed their goaltending problem this off-season by acquiring Cory Schneider.

Now they've lost Kovalchuk, and sure there's nobody out there they can bring in to replace him. But there are some undervalued players left on the market. Namely, Mikhail Grabovski and Dustin Penner. If the Devils, can add 2 or 3 pieces like that this offseason, they could be surprise a lot of people next year-- while also being in much better financial shape in the coming seasons.

• In the beginning, the lockout ended, and we rejoiced. Then our teams hit the ice, and, for some of us, the rejoicing was over.
• For others, it wasn't so bad. The Chicago Blackhawks began the season with a historic win streak that apparently rescued small children from a burning building, a bunch of people from drowning in the lake, and all of the kittens stuck in all of the trees in the state of Illinois.
• P.K. Subban began the season by sitting out a few games and then signing a criminally cheap contract with the Canadiens (not your team), which included a clause entitled "How The Organization Will Pay Dearly For This In July 2014."
• Ryan O'Reilly also famously sat out the beginning of the season, and then signed a contract with the Avalanche, which included a clause entitled "How The Organization Just Saved Jay Feaster's Ass From Itself."
• The Washington Capitals started the season depressingly/miserably/soul-crushingly, which appears to have been a character-building experience for Washington Capitals fans. Those of you who have ever made half a joke about the Capitals will know what I'm talking about.
• Meanwhile, somewhere in New Jersey, Daniel Briere's oldest son opened a kitchen cupboard to get a cereal bowl and was almost crushed by all the Class that fell out of it.
• In Detroit, the Red Wings embarked on the Post-Lidstrom Era, which means, they, uh, were there, kind of.
• The Nashville Predators embarked on the Bunch Of Injuries To Key Players Era, which brought out the Ottawa Senators' competitive streak.
• The Florida Panthers were not to be outdone, and immediately began suffering injuries to all of their key players, all of their replacement level players, three quarters of the staff, and anyone living within 25 miles of their BB&T Center.
• In Washington, the Captials eventually recovered, in part due to Alexander Ovechkin being so awesome that he played on both wings at the same time, which is probably how this happened.
• The Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup in April.
• The Columbus Blue Jackets almost made the playoffs, but unfortunately, against the hopes of every human being outside the state of Minnesota, the last remaining spot in the Western Conference was won by the Minnesota Wild. THIS IS WHY NOBODY LIKES YOU, MINNESOTA WILD.
• The Toronto Maple Leafs made the playoffs for the first time in 9 years, which was a beautiful moment for Leafs fans, MLSE, the CBC, TSN, and all of their sponsors. The Leafs then took one of the best teams in the NHL to seven games, but the hockey gods proceeded to bind their arms and legs together in the final minutes of Game 7.
• The New York Islanders also made the playoffs after a relatively long drought and became the official bandwagon team of the 2013 NHL playoffs.
• The San Jose Sharks swept the Vancouver Canucks and played an absolutely stellar series against the reigning Cup champs, taking the Kings to seven games, because Patrick Marleau is a useless bum.
• The Wings went up 3-1 on the Hawks as Jonathan Toews turned into a petulant child. Tantrum City. Then he stopped being a baby and the Requisite Playoff Adversity was Overcome.
• In the East, a bunch of dumb, boring shit happened, yada yada yada, the Bruins won the conference.
• The Stanley Cup Finals were glorious, which is often what happens when you put the best teams together, and also I was vindicated because I've been terrified of the Bruins since the beginning of the season but every time I said they were practically unstoppable some Habs fan would argue with me that the Bruins weren't even that good and maybe we shouldn't have underestimated them because holy crap and also I was right.
• Patrice Bergeron played with a million injuries, culminating in a collapsed lung, and now every player is going to think doing this is okay because Bergy did it, and he's got heart, and everybody respects Bergy, and it's the playoffs... until somebody dies.
• The elevator to the press box at TD Garden is really slow.
• The Blackhawks beat Boston, and in doing so did not save hockey, or any children trapped in a burning building, or anybody drowning in the lake, or any kittens in trees.
• They saved humanity.
• The End.
• Well, not really, because then a whole bunch of other stuff happened.
• Such as the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, in which the Colorado Avalanche took Halifax Moosehead Nathan MacKinnon with their first pick, after telling everybody who would listen that they would be taking Nathan MacKinnon with the first pick, which resulted in everybody being surprised that they actually took Nathan MacKinnon with the first pick.
• Mike Gillis concluded his year-long mismanagement of his goaltending situation by mismanaging his relationship with his remaining goaltender.
• Before the draft, Philadelphia and the surrounding areas had declared a state of emergency after being overrun with Daniel Briere's Class, so Paul Holmgren did the only thing he knows how to do and threw money at the problem in the hopes that it would go away. He followed that up by ending the Ilya Bryzgalov Era in Philly. In a related story, none of Danny Briere's Class ever accidentally dripped onto Flyers beat writers.
• The Leafs decided to do things a little differently, and threw money at the solution to go away instead, following that up with the most predictable signings in the history of the universe.
• The Bruins threw their problem away, to Dallas, who maybe hope to hide the problem in their new jersey redesign, which will grow on you, I promise. Boston got Loui Eriksson in return, which further proves my theory that the devil owns Peter Chiarelli's soul.
• Speaking of the Devils, Ilya Kovalchuk retired from the NHL, which sucks for those of us who enjoyed his work, but more so for Jeremy Roenick, who isn't taking it so well.
• Speaking of turning your back, Daniel Alfredsson left Ottawa, and their fans are devastated, which means Andrew Berkshire isn't going to be even a tiny bit nice to them during this difficult time. Alfie is not going to win a Cup with Detroit.
• Speaking of traitors, Jarome Iginla went back to the hat and asked to be sorted again, to Slytherin House.
• Speaking of Slytherin House, as of this writing, Montreal is in on Jaromir Jagr, again, according to his agent. Hahahahahaha.
• If I missed your team or something that happened to it, it's probably because I don't care.

tl;dnr version: the Chicago Blackhawks saved humanity.

The Los Angeles Kings have come to terms on a two-year contract extension with restricted free agent Jake Muzzin, the team announced on Friday afternoon.

While the financial terms of the agreement were not made available via the club, the Kings did announce that the agreement is two years in length. The deal will pay Muzzin a total of $2 million, which amounts to a $1 million annual average value against the salary cap, according to Darren Dreger of TSN. The 24-year-old defenseman completed a one-year, $577,500 contract in 2013, which carried a base salary of $67,500 at the American Hockey League level, according to CapGeek.com.

Muzzin appeared in 45 games with the Kings last season and recorded 16 points (seven goals, nine assists), 35 penalty minutes and averaged 17:54 of ice time per game. Originally selected with the No. 141 overall pick in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins, Muzzin has played in 56 career regular season games, all of which have come with the Kings.

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Realignment means several things for the National Hockey League. Most obviously, it means different teams in each division (duh), and fewer divisions overall. But perhaps an overlooked aspect of this is how much more important competition within the divisions becomes under the new system. Playoff seedings will be determined primarily by division, rather than conference, with the top three teams from each division getting in (it was watered down somewhat with the needlessly complicated "Wild Card" system, but let's just go ahead and ignore that for now). Playoffs in the first two rounds will be divisional. And the regular season schedule will again put an increased focus on divisional play: rather than the old system where the Kings would play the non-Pacific Western teams 4 times per season, they will only see the teams from #ConferenceIII the other Western division twice per year. Which is, yes, the same amount of times they'll see the Eastern Conference teams.

So you'd better get used to the Kings' divisional opponents: like it or not, you'll be seeing them more often than the rest of the league, and the games will be more important than ever before. With that in mind, we're going to go team-by-team and talk about each of them: where they've come from, what they've done recently, and what might be expected from them in the future. A few of these teams (San Jose, Anaheim, and Phoenix) are already quite well-known to us, as they also come over from the former Pacific division. The other three are refugees from the ex-Northwest, as the Canadian trio of Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary get invited to our hockey beach party (err, or desert party? they have beaches in Arizona, right?).

So without any further ado, let's get started with.....

Calgary Flames

2012-13 Record: 19-25-4, 42 pts, 4th in Northwest, 13th in West

2011-12 Record: 37-29-16, 90 pts, 2nd in Northwest, 9th in West

Last Playoff Appearence: 2008-09 (lost 4-2 in 1st Round to Chicago)

Last Stanley Cup: 1989 (def. Montreal 4-2)

SB Nation Blog: Matchsticks and Gasoline

Why start with the Calgary Flames, you ask? Well, when doing almost anything in life, it is usually best to start from the bottom and work your way to the top. And had the New Pacific or whatever they're going to call it existed in this lockout-shortened season, the Flames would have finished at the very bottom. The only two teams who finished below Calgary in the Western Conference last year were Colorado & Nashville, both who will be taking up residence in.....uh......the division that isn't ours.

The Flames have seemingly been circling the drain for most of the past decade, ever since going to the Stanley Cup Final in 2004 with some guy named Darryl Sutter as their head coach. That plucky Flames team finished 6th in the West before going on a string of upsets, finally falling to the Tampa Bay Lightning in 7 games. Of course, as you probably know, the NHL went into a season-long lockout right after that, and then coming out of that lockout the Flames were talked up as Canada's best hope at bringing home the Cup. The Flames did pick up a Northwest division title in 2005-06, but their playoffs would be over shockingly quick after getting upset in the 1st round by the (then-still-Mighty) Ducks in 7 games. That would end up being the start of a trend for the Flames, as they made the playoffs the next three seasons and were eliminated in the first round each time.

Then finally, it happened: for the first time in 7 years, the Flames missed the playoffs entirely in 2009-10. Over the course of the next three years, the Flames would try just about every quick-fix method on the planet to try and return to the playoffs, while the rest of Canada loudly proclaimed they needed to blow it up and rebuild. Indeed it often seemed like every Canadian sports columnist wrote a "the Flames should trade Jarome Iginla" column every other week. That Darryl Sutter guy would move up from coach to GM following that Stanley Cup final loss, hire everyone from Mike Keenan to his brother to try and fill his shoes, only to get fired and.....well.....we know what happened to him next. His replacement as GM, Jay Feaster, has been highly criticized by both Flames fans and the general hockey community, with his infamous deceleration during the 11-12 season that they were "going for it" becoming a comedic refrain. Indeed the Flames entered the lockout-shortened 12-13 campaign with a rebuild seemingly the last thought on their minds, hiring a veteran coach in Bob Hartley and looking to once again contend with the same Iginla/Kiprusoff core of the past decade. He also made a bold move early in the season, attempting to offer sheet Colorado Avalanche restricted free agent Ryan O'Reilly while he was a contract holdout. The Avalanche ended up matching the offer sheet, and it later came out that the Flames would have had to put him on waivers anyway (due to ROR playing in the KHL after the NHL season had already begun); in another words, the Flames would have had to give Colorado their 2013 first and third-round picks without actually getting the player. This has understandably been held up as another example of Feaster's general incompetence, but to the shock of some this gross miscalculation did not result in Feaster losing his job.

As the Flames began to flounder yet again during the course of the season, finally (and mercifully), action was taken. Jarome Iginla was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins, after some confusion where the Boston Bruins apparently thought they had a deal for him. Iginla's preference however was Pittsburgh, and having a full no-movement clause he was in control of his own destiny, and so the Flames ended up taking a vastly inferior package from the Penguins to make the deal. Star defenseman Jay Bouwmeester was later dealt to the St. Louis Blues as well, and Kiprusoff was nearly dealt to the Toronto Maple Leafs before the goaltender himself blocked the deal. All signs now point to Kipper retiring after a less-than-stellar season, and now the Flames are poised to enter the new division without any of their previous franchise cornerstones. However, Feaster himself has made conflicting remarks on whether or not this will be a "full rebuild", declaring in separate statements that ownership expects the team to contend for a playoff spot next year while also hinting that this could end up being a much slower process. The Flames can thus be viewed at as kind of an X factor in the new division; they could end up tanking this coming season in order to add a high draft pick, or they could end up making some kind of bolder move to try and turn things around more quickly. However, their relative lack of action in the offseason so far would seem to indicate a more patient, long-term approach is finally being taken in Calgary.

Calgary Flames Recent Team Statistics

(note: due to the smaller-than-usual sample size of a 48-game season, I have also included their team stats from the last full 82-game season in 2011-12. obviously, all ranks are out of 30. for comparison's sake, I have also included LA's stats for each season.)

As you can see, Calgary was a very poor puck possession team in the 2011-12 season, finishing just 26th in Fenwick Close (which is a team's fenwick rating when within two goals). They actually improved a bit in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, and their team scoring improved even more than that, despite being a middling team in 5v5 shooting percentage (ranking 18th). However, their goals against per game plummeted from 14th all the way down to 28th, thanks in large part to a league-worst .890 5v5 save percentage. Miika Kipprusoff deserves much of the blame for that, starting 24 games and posting a godawful .882 sv% along the way. His backup, Joey MacDonald, only fared slightly better, starting 17 games (mostly while Kipper was out due to injury) and posting a .902 sv%. Kipper's likely retirement should see their save percentage climb at least a little, even though his replacements don't exactly inspire confidence. If they can keep their possession numbers closer to last year's dismal 20th rather than the truly awful 26th ranking of the last previous season, their goals against should come down a bit.

Calgary Flames Offseason Transactions

Trades

Sent Alex Tanguay &Cory Sarich to Colorado for David Jones& Shane O'Brien
(Calgary saved some money on this deal, but the return for Tanguay- a productive, if aging scorer- was very underwhelming. Jones is a 28-year-old winger who did have one 27-goal season, but was one of the worst puck possession players in the NHL last year. Sarich and O'Brien is largely a wash, and indeed have the exact same cap hit.)

Sent a 4th round pick in 2015 to San Jose for TJ Galiardi
(Galiardi was a middling 3rd liner for San Jose, who played relatively easy competition and didn't fare especially well against it. Still, the cost was obviously low for Calgary here.)

Sent a 5th round pick in 2014 to St. Louis for Kris Russell
(Again, Calgary acquired an asset at a very low cost just for the purposes of icing a team next year. Russell will likely play top 4 minutes in Calgary; probably not particularly well, mind you, but he'll play them.)

Signings

Karri Ramo- 2 years, 5.5 million
(His rights were originally acquired by Calgary in the Cammalleri-Bourque trade with Montreal during the 2011-12 season. Ramo has spent the last four seasons playing with Avangard Omsk of the KHL, posting sv%s of .913, .925, .925, and most recently .929. His last stint in the NHL was in 2008-09 when he appeared in 24 games for a dismal Tampa Bay Lightning squad, posting just an .894 sv%. Time will tell whether he can translate his recent KHL success to the NHL this time around, but expect him to battle hard with Joey MacDonald for the Flames' starting job in October. Of course, it could certainly be argued that the Flames overpaid a bit here for a goalie that hasn't started a single National Hockey League game in four years.)

Joey MacDonald- 1 year, 925,000
(Speaking of Joey Mac, he'll return to battle Ramo for playing time next year. You know what you're gonna get out of MacDonald, which is probably below-league-average goaltending.)

Chris Butler: 1 year, 1.7 million
(Butler was among Calgary's worst defensemen last season at driving play, as he was a -13.50 in on-ice Corsi- only Anton Babchuk was worse. In relative Corsi, he fared even worse at a -11.1, worst on the team. With only 8 points in 44 games he's not exactly a scoring threat from the back end, either.)

Chad Billins: 1 year, 925,000
(The undrafted 25-year-old Billins was an AHL all-star last year on the Calder Cup-winning Grand Rapids Griffins, and will get a shot to play on Calgary's bottom pairing. He may have some offensive upside after posting 40 points in 76 games last year, but is undersized at just 5'10.)

Draft Picks

1st round, 6th overall- Sean Monahan (Center/Canadian/OHL Ottawa 67s)
1st round, 22nd overall- Emile Poirier (Left Wing/Canadian/QMJHL Gatineau Olympiques)
1st round, 28th overall- Morgan Klimchuk (Left Wing/Canadian/WHL Regina Pats)
3rd round, 67th overall- Keegan Kanzig (Defenseman/Canadian/WHL Victoria Royals)
5th round, 135th overall- Eric Roy (Defenseman/Canadian/WHL Brandon Wheat Kings)
6th round, 157th overall- Tim Harrison (Right Wing/American/NEPSAC Dexter School)
7th round, 187th overall- Rushan Rafikov (Defenseman/Russian/MHL Yaroslavl Jrs.)
7th round, 198th overall- John Gilmour (Defenseman/American/Hockey East Providence)

By all accounts the Flames had a solid draft, as their three first-round picks (their own 1st plus Pittsburgh & St. Louis' picks from the Iginla & Bouwmeester trades, respectively) allowed them to restock their desperately bare cupboard with some high-end offensive prospects. Some were surprised that the Flames didn't attempt to trade one of their first rounders to try and pick up some more picks later in the draft, as Calgary had no 2nd or 4th rounders. And the pick of Poirier at 22nd was looked at as a bit of a reach by some, as he was ranked all the way down at 57th in the NHLNumbers "consensus rankings" (basically a weighted average of many different draft rankings, based on previous accuracy), an especially confusing move when you consider that Calgary still had another pick at 28th.

Current Roster

(an expected NHL roster based on what they currently have signed, as well as any pending RFAs. again, for the sake of looking at a full season, both their numbers from the shortened 12-13 campaign & full 11-12 season are included. unless otherwise listed, they played in the NHL with Calgary.)

Forwards

Defensemen

Goaltenders

Coach: Bob Hartley (2nd season)
General Manager: Jay Feaster (4th season)

Top Prospects

(the following is a list of Calgary's top 10 prospects, as ranked by Hockey's Future. for the sake of this list, I didn't include any players they listed as "prospects" who already made my Calgary roster list, such as Sven Baertschi for instance, who is ranked as #1 on their site.)

As you can see, Calgary's overall top ten prospect list does not feature a ton of high-end offensive talent. According to Hockey's Future, the Flames prospect strengths are 3rd/4th line forwards and "grit and leadership" (??), while their weaknesses are offensive defensemen and first-line forward talent (which would explain why all three of their first rounders were forwards taken for their offensive upside). Overall, HF ranked Calgary's prospect pool at 20th out of 30 in their 2012-13 spring rankings (for comparison's sake, the Kings, a current contender, were ranked slightly higher at 18th). It's clear any potential rebuild would basically be starting from almost square one in Calgary.

Overall Outlook

It's difficult to be all that intimidated by the Flames entering our division next season. Calgary is a team that appears to be just at the very beginning stages of a rebuild, and as their provincial neighbors can tell them, a full rebuild can be a slow and sometimes frustrating process, one that is hardly guaranteed for success. Despite Feaster's previous bluster about looking to contend for a playoff spot as soon as the upcoming season, the team has done virtually nothing in the offseason so far beyond simply acquiring players to ice a team. They have not been active in free agency, and their few trades were not exactly blockbuster acquisitions. The Flames will have a younger team than ever before and could play spoilers late in a season (as they did to some degree this year, having a decent record once they moved Iginla & co.), but they should be no significant threat for one of the new division's three guaranteed playoff spots.

Agree or disagree on my outlook for Calgary? Fire away in the comments and let me hear it! Of course, I would also love to hear from any fans of the Flames themselves, to see if they disagree with any of my assessments. I hope you enjoyed reading this breakdown of a new division rival, and we'll get back at it next time with the *other* new arrival from Alberta.

The Kings knocked out the first of what will likely amount to five restricted free agent deals by signing Jake Muzzin earlier today. Kyle Clifford, Alec Martinez, Trevor Lewis, and Jordan Nolan remain unsigned. The latter three filed for arbitration on Wednesday. While arbitration can be tumultuous for some (see: Michael Cammalleri), Jake Muzzin proves that filing for arbitration ultimately means very little. Usually it just means that the player has no issue staying with his team. While Dean Lombardi has a pretty short history with arbitration as general manager of the Kings, one doesn't expect many hiccups with the last three arbitration-eligible free agents.

Los Angeles Kings

• In addition to signing Muzzin, the Kings signed forwards Maxim Kitsyn and Brian O'Neill. Kitsyn signed a three year entry level contract, while O'Neill re-signed for just one season. O'Neill spent last season with Manchester, where he accrued 3 goals and 12 assists in 49 games. Kitsyn has yet to play professional hockey in North America and he spent last season in Russia. Russia guru Dmitry Chesnokov reported that Kitsyn would like to play in LA. Here'sKitsyn's reviewby Hockey's Future.
• Jon Rosen has interviews from the prospect camp with Derek Forbort and Valentin Zykov.
• While it seemed like a longshot to begin with, Dustin Penner is likely taking his talents elsewhere next season. We touched on the unlikelihood of him coming back yesterday (and John Hoven did before us). Penner remains a competent possession player that is likely to outperform his point totals as a King.
• Dean Lombardi spoke with John Hoven yesterday about having too many defenseman. I think the most interesting takeaway from that is the following quote from Dean: "Let’s see if Schultz can get back on that plus-50 season, make Keaton better, get Marty back on track and Muzz, just keep getting better. So, we have multiple options there depending on how they grasp ‘I gotta get better.’" Interesting to see him reference +/- for one. However, far more intriguing to me is the little bit about Alec Martinez. Maybe not all hope is lost for him as a King? The link also contains an update/non-update on Willie Mitchell.

Around the League

• The Edmonton Oilers added to an already talented forward pool by acquiring David Perron yesterday. Edmonton sent Magnus Paajarvi and a second round pick to St. Louis in exchange for Perron. You should remember Perron for repeatedly running into Jonathan Quick in the first round of this season's playoffs. Also for being a generally solid hockey player. We get to see him more this year. Fun, yeah? [via Copper & Blue]
• Mike Gillis, GM of the Vancouver Canucks, has every intention of meeting with Roberto Luongo at some point. No, really you guys. He totally is going to hash things out with his star goalie at some point. He pinky swore. [via NHL.com]
• Matt Duchene appears close to an extension with the Avalanche. Alternatively, he's about to be traded. Who knows!? #daterjinx [via Adrian Dater]
• Here's some fallout from the Kovalchuk retirement. [In Lou We Trust] [Player Quotes via Fire & Ice]
  

That's about it. Not too much going on around the hockey world right now. However, several solid players remain in free agency and that should provide something to pay attention to for the next two months. Wait, two whole months? UNTIL PRE-SEASON?

Last time in Realignmentpalooza, we looked at the Calgary Flames and came to the conclusion that they probably won't be very good. Of course, Calgary is not the only National Hockey League team in the province of Alberta, and while they appear to be just on the precipice of a "full rebuild", their neighbors to the north have been happily (?) rebuilding for nearly half of the last decade. Are they further along in their process than Calgary? Yes, undoubtedly. But does that mean we should take them seriously as a contender for one of our new division's three guaranteed playoff spots in the upcoming 2013-14 season? Let's dig a little deeper and find out.....

Edmonton Oilers

2012-13 Season: 19-22-7, 45 pts, 3rd in Northwest, 12th in West

2011-12 Season: 32-40-10, 74 pts, 5th in Northwest, 14th in West

Last Playoff Appearance: 2005-06 (lost 4-3 in Stanley Cup Final to Carolina)

Last Stanley Cup: 1989-90 (def. Boston 4-1)

SB Nation Blog: Copper & Blue

Before the lockout that cancelled the entire 2004-05 season, the Oilers were a consistently middling hockey club. Long removed from the dynasty days of the 80s or the plucky, somewhat-forgotten Gretzky-less Cup run of 1990, the Oilers managed to make the playoffs five straight seasons from 1996-97 until 2000-01; even more amazingly, they played the exact same team, the Dallas Stars, in every single one of those seasons, despite never advancing past the second round. And although they upset a very good Dallas club in 96-97, they would go on to be eliminated by the Stars in all four meetings that followed. In 01-02 they missed the playoffs before returning in 02-03 and getting knocked out by, you guessed it, the Dallas Stars again in the first round. In 2003-04 they would again miss the playoffs, followed by the aforementioned lockout.

Coming out of the lockout, few things were expected from the 2005-06 Oilers, but awful goaltending early on masqueraded a surprisingly solid club. Chris Pronger, a guy SoCal hockey fans know very well, came over from the St. Louis Blues in the previous offseason, and helped make the Oilers a very not-fun-team to play against. Midway through the season the OIlers acquired veteran goalie Dwayne Roloson from the Minnesota Wild, and he posted a .905 sv% with the Oilers; not particularly good, but considering the other three goalies he replaced had sv%s of .880, .884, and .880, it was a huge improvement, and enough to get the Oilers into the playoffs as an 8th seed.

Now stop me if you heard this one before: an 8th seeded team in the Western Conference, featuring the likes of Matt Greene and Jarrett Stoll, went off on a string of upsets. The President's Trophy-winning Red Wings were taken out in 6, the San Jose Sharks went down in 6 as well, and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim went down shockingly fast in the Conference Finals in just 5 games. They weren't the dominant possession team that Los Angeles was in their own similar string of upsets, but lead by Pronger on the back-end and a very balanced offensive attack (Horcoff had 19 pts, Fernando Pisani had 18, Hemsky had 17, and a few others were in mid-to-high double digits) as well as a stellar .927 sv% performance from the veteran Roloson, the Oilers emerged as the shocking winners of the West.

But unlike our own Kings, this Cinderella story had a far less happy ending. The Oilers put up a good fight in the Stanley Cup Final, taking it as far as it could possibly go, but they fell to the eventual champion Hurricanes in Game 7. Following this near-miss, the Oilers were forced to trade Chris Pronger amidst rumors that his wife was unhappy in Edmonton. He was dealt to Anaheim in return for Joffery Lupul (who never seemed to find his elite offensive game with the Oilers, and arguably wouldn't reach his full potential until arriving in Toronto many years later), Ladislav Smid, and a few draft picks. While Pronger would quickly lead the Ducks to their first Cup in his very first season in Anaheim, the Oilers would flounder without him. Simultaneously they watched the primary reason for their Cup Final appearance walk while also locking up various other contributors to expensive long-term deals. Pisani got 4 years and $10 million, the aging Roloson got 3 years and $11 million, and most notably Horcoff got 3 years and $10.8 million dollars. Horcoff, an above-average center who never really put up close to the numbers in that fateful playoff run again, would eventually be signed to an even more ridiculous contract: a 6-year, $33 million dollar deal that kicked in before the 2008-09 season. And while Horcoff is a useful player, a $5.5 million cap hit for him was obviously quite absurd.

Without Pronger's talent along the blueline and with a cast of overpaid roleplayers up front, the Oilers would flounder for the next few seasons. They put up point totals of 71, 88, and 85 in the three years following their run to the finals, missing the playoffs each time. Along the way the Oilers would make some noteable personnel changes, including trading Stoll & Greene to Los Angeles in exchange for Kings defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky. Finally, as the wheels totally fell off in 2009-10, the Oilers would loudly pronounce that a full rebuild was being undertaken in Edmonton. Historical revisionism on behalf of the Oilers brass and even some in the media has attempted to paint the rebuild as beginning earlier, either before the start of the 09-10 season or even a year or so beforehand, but given their coaching hire heading into the year (Pat Quinn, not exactly a "let's play the kids and suck" kind of choice) it's difficult to really believe it. Instead it looks more like a situation where midway through the season, the brass realized their team was going to be quite awful, and finally decided to embrace a full rebuild. Starting with a likely high draft pick, after all, makes it an easier sell.

And by the time the 2009-10 season was over, the Oilers would start with a very high draft pick indeed, as they finished last overall and then won the draft lottery to retain the first overall pick. After a much-publicized "Taylor vs. Tyler" debate, the Oilers would go with the potential-superstar Left Winger Taylor Hall. The Oilers relieved Quinn of his duties and promoted associate coach (and former Rangers head coach) Tom Renney prior to the 2010-11 season, but the result would be virtually the same: 62 points, the same as in 09-10, and once again last overall in the NHL. Again, the Oilers won the draft lottery, and again picked first overall, this time taking center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The Oilers would improve a bit in the 2011-12 season, finishing 12 points better, but that was still only good enough for 14th in the West, 29th overall. Finally showing the first signs of impatience with this now three-year-old rebuild, GM Steve Tambellini fired Renney at the end of the season, replacing him with associate coach Ralph Krueger. Krueger was talked up as having a different approach than his predecessors, with much of his coaching experience coming overseas in Europe, winning several Austrian championships and later leading the Swiss national men's team to some success.

The Oilers entered the 2011-12 draft lottery without the best chance of picking 1st overall for the first time in three years, but for the third straight season the lottery balls fell Edmonton's way, and they leapfrogged Columbus to pick first yet again. The Oilers would add yet another elite offensive talent with the pick in Russian RW Nail Yakupov, and then added even further to their young nucleus with a mild shocker later that offseason. Justin Schultz was originally a second-round pick of the Anaheim Ducks (43rd overall) in the 2008 draft, but became a free agent following the 2011-12 season after de-registering from the University of Wisconsin having still not signed a deal with the Ducks. Justin was an offensive defenseman who put up very good numbers in college hockey, and thus was courted by any number of teams, from Vancouver to New York (Rangers) and everywhere in-between. Finally, Schultz somewhat-surprisingly signed with the Oilers on June 30th, 2012, citing among other things a desire to return home to Canada and an opportunity to step into Edmonton's lineup immediately thanks to their woefully thin blueline.

As the 2012-13 lockout came into effect, the Oilers many young players would end up assigned to their AHL affiliate in Oklahoma City. Schultz impressed in his pro debut, putting up 48 points in just 34 games as part of a dynamic power play unit with Hall, Nugent-Hopkins, and Jordan Eberle. As the lockout ended and preparations began for the abbreviated 2012-13 season, many thought the continuity of the youngsters playing together in the AHL beforehand would be a huge advantage. Denver Post hockey reporter Adrian Dater infamously named the Oilers the best team in the entire Western Conference in his preseason power rankings, and while many scoffed at this at the time, others thought he perhaps wasn't all that far off in his assessment. So expectations were high in many circles for the Oilers beginning play, and while they started off pretty well with a 4-2-1 mark in their first seven games, it would mostly be downhill from there. That impressive power play from Oklahoma City mostly carried over (finishing 20.1%, good enough for 8th in the league) but the Oilers would struggle mightily to score at even strength. They scored just 2.2 goals per 60 minutes, 25th in the league, not nearly good enough for a team with so much young talent.

Finally, as it became clear the Oilers were going to miss the playoffs yet again, changes were made. The long-mocked Tambellini was replaced as General Manager with the man who had coached that 2005-06 Oilers squad, Craig MacTavish. This hiring was not without its critics either, as many saw it as team president Kevin Lowe simply hiring yet another former Oiler rather than bringing in the best person available. But even amidst these criticisms of his hire, MacTavish made it perfectly clear that he wasn't going to continue the status quo of the Oilers. As he explained, he was an impatient man, and he wanted to speed up the Oilers long rebuilding process. His first truly shocking move came at the end of the season, as he fired Krueger- who ended up getting just one lockout-shortened season to coach the team- and replaced him with Dallas Eakins, a man who had repeatedly been talked up as the next great NHL head coach following several successful seasons coaching the Toronto Maple Leafs' AHL affiliate. MacTavish made it clear that he would be open to trading one of the Oilers' young offensive talents if it would help improve the team, but to date he has yet to pull the trigger on such a move. He has, however, undoubtedly made his mark on the team already via several trades and free-agent signings, as we will break down further below. This will be a different Oilers team than the one that has disappointed regularly for the past few seasons, and everyone now will be asking whether or not they can finally make a real step forward and contend for a playoff spot.

Edmonton Oilers Recent Team Statistics

(note: as with last time, I have included the 2011-12 stats as well due to the small sample size nature of a 48-game season. and once again I have included LA's stats for both seasons for comparison's sake.)

There's a slight disconnect here between Edmonton's traditional stats- which improved slightly- and their #fancystats, which took a bit of a dip. Much of that can likely be explained by the aforementioned small sample size. Edmonton also saw a marked improvement in their 5v5 sv%, as their team .922 was good for 14th in the league last year following a .916 (20th) in 2011-12. Devan Dubnyk, who had a very good .920 sv% in 38 games last year, will return this season, although backup Nikolai Khabibulin (who had a .923 sv% in 12 games) is off to Chicago. If Dubnyk can maintain those kinds of numbers over the course of a full season, it will go a long way towards helping the Oilers continuing to chip away at their GA this year. Of course, some much-needed improvement in their FenClose would help quite a bit in that category as well. Also worth noting is that despite all the hype the Oilers' PP unit got heading into the 12-13 campaign after having played together in Oklahoma City, their PP % actually declined a small amount in a season that saw the overall NHL PP efficiency rise.

Edmonton Oilers Offseason Transactions

Trades

Sent Shawn Horcoff to Dallas for Philip Larsen& a 2016 7th Round Pick
(The Oilers saved 4.475 million in cap space from this trade, and there's no doubt that Horcoff was overpaid for what he brought to the team, but that's where the positives end for them here. The Oilers were already a team lacking in bottom-six forwards, especially ones who could play a shutdown role, and removing Horcoff only adds to that problem. The Oilers did address this somewhat in free agency- more on that in a bit- but the loss of their captain is still a negative given what they got back for him. Larsen played on the third pairing for Dallas, almost never saw any special teams play, and didn't post strong possession numbers at all. His lone positive is that at 23 he still has time to develop into something more. Of course, a 7th round pick is virtually meaningless.)

Signings

(in the interest of holy-crap-this-article-is-long, I'm omitting several signings that are strictly minor league/depth moves.)

Andrew Ference- 4 years, $13 million
(Ference is an interesting case, as the defenseman comes over from a dominant Boston Bruins squad that has reached two Stanley Cup Finals in the past three seasons. But although Boston is a very strong puck possession team overall, Ference himself is not a driver of that; rather he is quite the contrary, consistently posting the worst relative Corsi of all Bruins blueliners. Judging by the contract given to him the Oilers expect him to be a 2nd-pairing defenseman and he will likely start the season that way, but in reality he is an average 5/6 defenseman at best. Playing him as a 4 will likely not work out very well for the Oilers. But hey, he's a hometown kid coming home so maybe everything will magically work out for him in Edmonton!)

Boyd Gordon- 3 years, $9 million
(While the Oilers overpaid a bit here- both in a third year and a $3 million cap hit- what they got was a very good defensive center. Gordon started most of his shifts in the defensive zone for the Coyotes and still came out even or ahead in the various possession stats. He's an improvement over an aging Eric Belanger, and should help fill the void left behind by Horcoff. As of right now this is perhaps the only legitimate shutdown player the Oilers have on their bottom-six.)

Jason LaBarbera- 1 year, $1 million
(With the Bulin Wall heading back to Chicago, the Oilers signed the former LA King to back-up Dubnyk. Barbs posted very strong numbers as Phoenix's backup last season, with a .923 sv% in 15 games. He's also clearly positioned as a backup at this point in his career, so unlike with Khabibulin there will be far less speculation or clamoring for him to overtake Dubnyk in the local media or within the fanbase.)

Jesse Joensuu- 2 years, $1.9 million
(I can't really top Copper & Blue's hilarious take on this signing, in which they speculated MacT signed him solely on his credentials of being big & Finnish. It's tough to argue with that logic considering his underlying numbers are pretty bad and he's never scored much at this level either. Not a particularly good addition to their already-weak bottom-six, and if they're expecting him to play third-line wing minutes their third line is unlikely to be very good.)

Draft Picks

1st round, 7th overall- Darnell Nurse (Defenseman/Canadian/OHL Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds)
2nd round, 56th overall- Marc-Olivier Roy (Center/Canadian/QMJHL Blainville-Boisbriand Armada)
3rd round, 83rd overall- Bogdan Yakimov (Center/Russian/MHL Reaktor)
3rd round, 88th overall- Anton Slepyshev (Left Wing/Russian/KHL Salavat Yulaev Ufa)
4th round, 94th overall- Jackson Houck (Right WIng/Canadian/WHL Vancouver Giants)
4th round, 96th overall- Kyle Platzer (Center/Canadian/OHL London Knights)
4th round, 113th overall- Aidan Muir (Winger/Canadian/MWEHL Victory Honda)
5th round, 128th overall- Evan Campbell (Left Wing/Canadian/BCHL Langley Rivermen)
6th round, 158th overall- Ben Betker (Defenseman/Canadian/WHL Everett Silvertips)
7th round, 188th overall- Gregory Chase (Center/Right Wing/Canadian/WHL Calgary Hitmen)

Nurse was a strong pick at 7th overall, with perhaps Russian forward Valeri Nichushkin (who ended up going 10th overall to Dallas) as the only better player available. Given the Oilers' strength at forward as well as the "Russian factor", Nurse was a more-than-justifiable pick. He's a 6'5 young defenseman who still may have untapped offensive potential, as he played behind two other D-men on the power play with the Greyhounds. It may be asking a bit much for him to step into the lineup in 2013-14, but he should be competing for a roster spot in 2014-15. As far as the rest of their draft went, the Oilers ended up moving earlier picks for greater depth, which some have questioned as a general strategy. Still, the notoriously critical Oilers blogging community seemed mostly positive with MacTavish's first draft overall.

Current Roster

(an expected NHL roster based on what they currently have signed, as well as any pending RFAs. again, for the sake of looking at a full season, both their numbers from the shortened 12-13 campaign & full 11-12 season are included. unless otherwise listed, they played in the NHL with Edmonton. asterisks for different league, parentheses for different team.)

Forwards

Defensemen

Goaltenders

Coach: Dallas Eakins (1st season)
General Manager: Craig MacTavish (2nd season)

Top Prospects

(the following is a list of Edmonton's top 10 prospects, as ranked by Hockey's Future. for the sake of this list, I didn't include any players they listed as "prospects" who already made my Edmonton roster list, such as Nail Yakupov for instance, who is ranked as #1 on their site. also as was pointed out after my Calgary article, this list does not include any 2013 draft picks.)

Years of rebuilding has its spoils, and the Oilers currently have a deep prospect pool. Hockey's Future ranked Edmonton's prospects third-best in the NHL during their 2012-13 spring rankings, citing very strong depth on defense, a "variety of talent" at forward, and good size at center. Their only complaints were a lack of high-end offensive talent beyond Nail Yakupov (who of course already made the Oilers' roster this season), and a true "blue chip" goaltending prospect. In addition they also claim the Oilers lack a "bonafide power play QB" and depth at RW. Regardless, the Oilers do have a number of interesting prospects that could battle for a spot on an already young roster in training camp this season, especially on defense where they desperately need the help anyway.

Overall Outlook

It's tough to break down the Edmonton Oilers at this point, because in the back of your mind there's a nagging feeling of "they have to get it together eventually". There's undoubtedly a lot of young talent here, between the forwards who have already broken into the NHL (Hall, Eberle, Nugent-Hopkins, Yakupov, etc.) and a number of intriguing prospects on defense, lead most prominently by the young Swede Klefbom. At the same time, the Oilers still have some very glaring holes in their current lineup. Their top-six forward unit looks skilled and should be productive, but if their bottom-six was a rock band they'd be named "Boyd Gordon & the Unsustainables". Simply put, there's no way their bottom-six forward group can deal with tough competition on a consistent basis over the course of an 82-game season, as currently constructed. The bottom-six wasn't particuarly good last year, and has lost two of its best puck possession players in Paajarvi and Horcoff. If the Oilers could make a move to bring in some help for Gordon to play tough minutes against quality competition, the Oilers would start to look like a more well-rounded team.

On defense, the Oilers do not look particularly solid right now. Andrew Ference is not a legitimate top 4 defenseman, but he's being paid like one in Edmonton and should enter camp with the fourth spot. It's going to take Klefbom and perhaps even one more young defenseman stepping in and really having an impact in order to turn this unit around. Otherwise, the Oilers did little to improve a very lackluster blueline. Remember, the Oilers finished 28th last season in FenClose, so this was a very poor puck possession team. If they're going to really compete in the new division, they're going to have to drive play forward in a way they haven't in the past few seasons. Their holes on defense and in shutdown forwards who can play against the other team's top lines still look unfilled, so the chances of them making a significant improvement on last year's numbers look slim. In goal, they should be fine, as Dubnyk looked good last year and LaBarbera is a more-than-capable backup. But overall, this team does not look like a serious contender for one of the division's three guaranteed playoff spots, at least without making a significant move (or perhaps even two) before the 2013-14 season. They do have some interesting young players and should not have much trouble scoring goals (especially on the power play), so they could be a dark horse for one of the conference's Wild Card spots.

Agree or disagree with my assessment on the Oilers? Think they're already ready to contend? Let me know about it in the comments section below! Next time we'll talk about a team you should already be pretty familair with- the ArizonaQuebecSeattlePhoenix Coyotes.

Good news coming into a Monday morning is always welcome, so here we are.

Los Angeles Kings

• Separate header probably wasn't necessary, but whatever. According to reports, Alec Martinez has signed a two-year deal with the Kings, which means he won't need to have a cagematch with Dean Lombardi in arbitration hearings. And considering Martinez was scratched for large parts of last season and Martinez has some big-time #fancystats on his side, it would've been quite the battle.
  
  For Martinez, it's a higher price than I was expecting; clearly, Alec's contributions during the 2012 playoffs and regular season were not forgotten. The Kings now have nine NHL-caliber defensemen under contract. Darryl Sutter's going to have to do some impressive juggling to keep all of them happy; more likely, one of them will probably be traded at some point. Four offensive defensemen, five defensive defensemen...
  
  (Considering the LA Kings Insider and I are both on vacation, it'll almost definitely happen this week.)

Alec Martinez

#27 / Defenseman / Los Angeles Kings

Height: 6-1

Weight: 206

Born: Jul 26, 1987

• So, looking at the Kings' larger cap picture: three RFA forwards left to sign, and $3.1 million with which to do it. My estimates one month ago gave Trevor Lewis $1.2 million/yr, Kyle Clifford $0.9 million/yr, and Jordan Nolan $0.65 million/yr. However, I underestimated the cap hits of both both Muzzin and Martinez, and I don't see Lewis getting only $100K more than Martinez anymore. Regardless, this should be just enough room for Lombardi to make it work.
• Because you can never learn enough about Maxim Kitsyn, here's an in-depth look from Gann Matsuda over at Frozen Royalty.

Loosely Kings-Related!

• Ilya Kovalchuk put pen to paper on a four-year contract with SKA in the KHL. Could he make $15-20 million, as early rumors suggest? We'll see!
• Dmitri Cheshnokov reports that Alexander Frolov will remain in the KHL as well, with Avangard. Sorry, Frolov enthusiasts.
• From the LA Times: ESPN Zone at LA Live (across the street from Staples Center, of course) has closed, making room for three new, cheaper, more delicious restaurants. What's not to like?
  (Smashburger is excellent, by the way.)
• Corey from Shutdown Line posted an interesting breakdown of Kings zone entries, from what I'm guessing is the San Jose playoff series. We (okay, mostly Robert) will be looking at zone entries later this summer and explaining their significance. But all you need to know about this chart is: the first line does well getting the puck into the zone, Carter is a beast, and Tyler Toffoli is mighty impressive.

  I could just name this chart "Kopitar and everyone else." pic.twitter.com/LscblZVjM5

  — Corey Sznajder (@ShutdownLine) July 15, 2013

  
  

Finally, a hearty welcome to Nick (who delivered the happy Muzzin news on Friday), and a hearty welcome back to John (who's doing some great work with the recurring Realignmentpalooza! feature). You should follow them on Twitter. And me. Yeah.

Ron Hextall has had a lot of success since he last left Philadelphia in 2006. Working with the Flyers as a scout, the Los Angeles Kings offered him a position as assistant general manager, the first in many moves that would turn the Kings into the tired "Flyers West" cliche. He won a Stanley Cup, as we all know, but his days on the West Coast are over.

Hextall's coming home. The Flyers named him an assistant general manager and the director of hockey operations on Monday, a move that's awesome, first of all, but also has a lot of implications and raises a lot of questions.

1. Did Paul Holmgren just hire his successor?

Hextall is well on the way to becoming a general manager in the NHL. His track record in Los Angeles is fantastic by all accounts, and he probably wouldn't have left that organization unless he felt he had a chance to advance his career beyond AGM here in Philly. General managers don't keep their jobs forever, and by hiring Hextall, Holmgren may have just turned up the temperature on his own seat.

2. What are his responsibilities?

Each AGM has different areas they oversee. Barry Hanrahan is a lawyer by training and handles the salary cap. John Paddock looked over the minor league system (and there's some confusion over Paddock's current role, too). What will Hextall do? Will his role be more broad? Will he have his hand in everything as Holmgren's right hand man? We just don't know.

In Los Angeles, he served as the GM of the Kings AHL affiliate in Manchester, so it's likely safe to assume that Hexy will have a pretty big say in what happens with the Phantoms. Remember, the Phantoms are moving back to the area in time for 2014, so it's possible that the Flyers will attempt to actually give a shit about them. It's pretty clear they haven't cared much about putting a competitive AHL product on the ice since they moved to upstate New York.

3. What happens to Chris Pryor?

Pryor has been in the organization for since 1999, when he was hired as an amateur scout in the U.S. He was promoted to his current role in 2006. He oversees all scouting operations both amateur and pro in his role as director of hockey ops, a job that now apparently belongs to Ron Hextall. So what happens to Pryor?

***

These questions all will be answered in the coming weeks and months, but in the meantime, it's good to have Hexy back in the fold. Welcome home, Ron.

Life is full of unpleasantness. You work until you die, all while struggling to find any happiness, and then you are forgotten and lost to time. But there are a few nice things along the way that God has bestowed upon us. Tasty burgers, alcohol, me (ladies), and SyFy channel movies. Specifically, the shark ones. Sharktopus, Swamp Shark, Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus, and the list goes on. However, Sharknado may have been the greatest social commentary regarding the new Pacific(?) division of the NHL and shark related disasters.

This gif, seen above, elaborates on the struggle of man. One must face all their darkest fears and overcome them only to then experience rebirth from the womb of challenges conquered and vanquished. Blood that is shed is necessary in life, and ferocity is often required. Typically with chainsaws.

So why you may wonder why it's sunny out during a hurricane, or how a shark can eat metal and jump, that's not important. So ignore the CGI and stock footage from the 1990s, and reflect.

Here's a who's-who breakdown

The main guy

Naturally, the Kings relate quite easily to the hero of the film. They are confident, yet not arrogant, and are capable of just about anything. For example

They just want order brought back, which includes them being awesome, and everyone else acknowledging that. The main guy (Fin, I think?) is a pro surfer or something, owns a bar/restaurant on a pier, and has ladies flock to him. Sounds like a winner to me. They never give up, win, and chainsaw through sharks.

Quote to live by: "Chainsaws. Nice."

Sharks

The Sharks are obviously the Sharks. They are a menace to society, specifically in southern California, and are universally despised.

Try as they might in the movie, they are ultimately defeated, much like in crunch time with the Sharks we all have come to know. They do manage to take a few people down with them however, such as Bobby (or was it Chris?) in the movie and Jarret Stoll.

Quote to live by: "Rawr I'm a shark"

The waitress chick

This gal's name was "Nova". It was incredibly stupid, which fit perfectly, because she was a fucking idiot also. Turns out, she changed her name to Nova, and her original name was Genuine. You should all know by now, this female is the Ducks. Sorry, I know it was a softball setup, but hey.

She tries to be helpful, isn't, and is then eaten by a shark in midair after falling out of a helicopter. She can't even steal the guy from 90210 back from Tara Reid, and get's stuck with his loser son instead. Who are subsequently both saved by the chainsaw wielding father of the year. So don't let the brief moments of badassery fool you. She sucks, the Ducks suck, but at least she was in a bikini. Thanks for nothing, Teemu.

Quote to live by: "They took my grandfather, and now I really HATE sharks"

That Australian guy

You knew this guy was going to die from the moment you saw him. He was foreign and the best friend. He was attacked once and owed his life to the main character. He was the comic foil. His beard also magically disappeared and reappeared between scenes. So the Vancouver Canucks are this dude.

You may look at the Canucks and think, "I don't know, they may make it this time," but face it. They're toast. They always were. No matter the setup, the best friend/Canadian team never makes it. They are usually annoying, in the way, whiny, and frankly you are glad when they are gone. They typically also go out in astonishing fashion, and Sharknado doesn't disappoint with the Aussie getting a tornado thrown shark attached to his leg before being whipped off the hood of his stolen Hummer by a gust of wind, shark still attached.

Quote to live by: "It's that time of the month"***Side note - This was a joke made right after a guy was devoured by a shark in front of his family, and then regarding how much blood was in the water. Yes. The guy made a period joke. He was awesome, unlike the Canucks. Fuck you Brad Richardson!***

Some old dude

I really just kind of felt bad for this guy. Not the character, but the actual actor. The guy seemed to be at the end of his career and wanted a paycheck fast. So he took the role of old, perverted drunk and was killed 30 minutes into the movie saving a dog. It would have been a pretty powerful scene if his last words weren't so damn ridiculous, or if he hadn't had ran towards the sharks instead of back to the car. Just one of those mistakes I guess. The Flames lock this spot down. They are a joke at this point, will die dishonorably (and hilariously), and will be quickly forgotten. The "drunk" aspect is covered by Jay Feaster, and the "perverted" part by T.J. Galiardi for his weird Calgary fetish.

Quote to die by: "Oh man! Ow!" (Seriously, that's what he yells as he is ripped apart by sharks)

The new husband/douche

I honestly can't remember this guy's name. Carl? Connor? Colin? It's not important. What is important is that he is bothersome and is quickly killed due to his own stupidity. The Oilers are stupid. The end.

Quote to live by: "What's all the ruckus?"***Side note - I really, really want to have this quote be my ringtone. It is the whitest sounding delivery I have ever heard, and who the hell says "ruckus" anymore? It was the greatest introduction a character could have asked for before being killed less than two minutes later.***

Tara Reid

There is nothing redeeming about Tara Reid, and despite all odds, she isn't dead. Naturally, the Tara Reid of the Pacific is the Arizona Coyotes. In Sharknado, Tara Reid is whiny, obnoxious, and worst of all, alive through the movie. The Coyotes are quite possibly likely to be a playoff team for a while since all of western Canada is awful. It's a sad world we live in. For whatever reason, the powers that be keep Reid and the Coyotes around. Probably just as a reminder to everyone else how awful shit could be potentially if they aren't careful.

Seriously though, she does absolutely nothing during the entire movie. They can't even flaunt her around as hot anymore. Everyone would just be better served if she just moved to Seattle.

Quote to live by:

Never change, Shane Doan.

Friday evening was the Ducks' annual open house in which fans could stop by, have a few drinks, light appetizers, listen to a panel discussion from the Ducks front office and drop a few thousand bucks on season tickets if they so desire. This year's panel was emceed by Ducks radio voice Steve Carroll at what would be center ice, were there ice, and included Executive Vice President and COO Tim Ryan, Head Coach Bruce Boudreau and General Manager Bob Murray.

There was far too much to cover in one post so we're splitting it into probably three (maybe four) parts. We'll ramp up to the real hot topics that need more dissecting toward the end of the week, but first, a taste of what's new at Honda Center from Tim Ryan.

Ryan opened the discussion with some updates on the Grand Terrace project and complete overhaul of concessions in the arena, which got several hearty rounds of applause. At one point Ryan stopped to say that he's never gotten so much applause, "so the food must have sucked for 20 years."

It seems to me like they redo something with the food every year, but this time they've booted out Aramark food services entirely and brought the whole operation in house. The new organization will be coordinated by someone they pulled from the newly opened Barclays Center in Brooklyn and an executive chef from Churchill Downs (which sounds pretty impressive).

The Grand Terrace addition on the South side of the building will have a Wolfgang Puck restaurant called Puck's Tavern. It is unconfirmed whether they chose Wolfgang for the pun alone. I was initially under the impression that the restaurant would be open to the public but this time Ryan said it will be open "for the season ticket holders," by the start of the season.

Access to the swanky rooftop Terrace itself will be for members only, and apparently there is already a waiting list hundreds of names deep.

Possibly the biggest news regarding arena upgrades was the announcement that the arena has "reached verbal agreement with four major branded organizations of food that you know that will be spread out in the concession stands on the lower level." Again, it seems like they've done this before with Ruby's and Carl's Jr. but they only lasted for a year or two each. So, consider my judgment reserved.

He wasn't only concerned with food. As always, Ryan lauded the Samuelis for investing in the building and keeping it looking new and up to date technologically after 20 years of use. He cited the wifi system that was installed in recent years, which I would describe as hit or miss, and added that the latest advance will be a distributed antenna system to boost the 4G reception, coming this year. Along with that, Aaron Teats and the marketing team will be updating the Ducks' mobile app to include some form of real time instant replay.

The new Team Store, also associated with the new construction, will be 6,100 square feet (as opposed to the existing 1800 sq ft store) and "it's going to look like Nordstrom's." If there's one thing you can say about Tim Ryan, it's that the man knows his audience.

Finally, Ryan gave an update on the process of purchasing tickets for the outdoor game versus the Kings at Dodger Stadium. Details will follow, but the basic gist of it is that season ticket holders will have a priority period between July 29 and August 5 to purchase from the allotment of tickets given to the Ducks by the NHL. There is also an allotment for Kings season ticket holders and once those seats are purchased the rest will go up for the general public.

According to Ryan "it looks like" Ducks season ticket holders will be able to purchase up to double the number of season seats they have existing on their account. So, if you're not a ticket holder and want to go to the Dodger Stadium game, it sounds like your best bet is to cozy up to one and cut a deal within the next couple of weeks.

The emotions of Los Angeles Kings fans were toyed with for quite a while, but after lots of speculation the Blackhawks' Daniel Carcillo did indeed make his way from the Chicago Blackhawks to Los Angeles. KingsCast TV was way ahead of everyone else, posting the scoop at 1:44 PM Pacific...

Hearing Carcillo headed to #LAKings for a pick.

— KingsCast TV (@kingscast) July 16, 2013

... but it took a while for any sort of confirmation. In the end, it's a single conditional draft pick. If Carcillo plays more than 40 games with Los Angeles next season, the Kings give up a 5th round pick in 2015. If he doesn't, the Kings give up a 6th round pick. I'll take the under; if the Kings actually need Carcillo to play more than half the regular season games, we might be in trouble. (He hasn't done that since 2010-11.)

Daniel Carcillo

#13 / Left Wing / Chicago Blackhawks

Height: 6-0

Weight: 203

Born: Jan 28, 1985

Carcillo's name is a familiar one, but as you can see, he never actually played all that much for a stacked Chicago team. As per usual, we'll break this move down further in the next few days to figure out what we're getting.

The first takeaway: we now have a little over $2 million to work with, and Clifford, Lewis, and Nolan still need to be signed. Lewis is almost guaranteed to be back, but the fates of both Clifford and Nolan are in doubt. The second takeaway: cool, a natural left winger! He replaces the newly departed Dustin Penner, who signed with Anaheim right as this trade was being announced. (Cheers, Dustin.) The third takeaway: training camp is going to be extremely competitive this year.

• Defensemen competing for two regular spots: Keaton Ellerby, Jake Muzzin, Alec Martinez, Jeff Schultz, Willie Mitchell (if healthy)
  
• Forwards competing for five regular spots: Dwight King, Tyler Toffoli, Matt Frattin, Colin Fraser, Carcillo, Jordan Nolan (if signed), Kyle Clifford (if signed)

Of course, Carcillo has a long history of suspensions and fines as well. His suspension for boarding Tom Gilbert last January earned him a seven-game suspension, his tenth disciplinary action from the league. His record has been clean since; let's hope it stays that way.

Give us your initial thoughts on the trade in the comments.

The Los Angeles Kings have acquired forward Daniel Carcillo in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for a conditional 2015 NHL Draft pick, according to Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times. The trade will save the Blackhawks $825,000 in cap space and free up a roster spot, according to Lazerus.

Carcillo had just two goals and one assist in 23 games during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season. He started the season on Chicago's top line with Marian Hossa and Jonathan Toews, but was forced to miss 15 consecutive games due to a leg injury suffered during the season opener. Even when Carcillo was healthy enough to return to the lineup, he was relegated to being a role player.

Fortunately for Carcillo, he was able to have his day with the Stanley Cup before being shipped off to Los Angeles where he no doubt hopes to play larger role as an aggressive, agitating forward. As for the Blackhawks, general manager Stan Bowman said last Friday that the Blackhawks likely won't be making any more offseason signings.

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It's a questionable move, but ultimately a low cost, low risk, high potential-reward move. Dustin Penner has come back to the Anaheim Ducks after a fling with the Edmonton Oilers and a few years with the Los Angeles Kings. Anaheim will being paying him $2 million for one year of service, a considerable pay cut from the $3.25 million that Los Angeles was dumb enough to pay him, and as Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period points out, a much better bargain than what some teams are paying for similar output. As long as Penner can prevent any further nonsense injuries to himself, this isn't all that horrible of a move. It's nothing all that impressive or exciting, but it could have been worse.

This entire article is mostly an excuse to use this image, which misguided Wings fan Josh Howard made just for the occasion.

So, what say you? Horrible mismanagement from Bob Murray, or an exciting opportunity to get the band back together?