Canada’s Sportsnet spent some quality time this week talking with defenseman P.K. Subban, who was surprisingly traded from the Montreal Canadiens to the NashvillePredators last month.
Subban gave the sports network his first extensive comments about the trade, and addresses some of the questions and rumors swirling about why he was abruptly dealt. Give the two-part interview a look.
Two summers ago, the Montreal Canadiens showed defenseman P.K. Subbanthe money, signing him to an eight-year $72 million deal. Wednesday, the Habs showed him the door.
Damn, what happened?
A Hab no more. Defenseman P.K. Subban heads to the Nashville Predators in a surprising trade.
Either the Canadiens front office lost its mind or lost its patience and dealt fan-favorite Subban, the 2013 Norris Trophy winner as the National Hockey League’s best defenseman, straight-up for All-Star D-man Shea Weber.
Montreal General Manager Marc Bergevin maintained that the swap of the 27-year-old Subban for the 30-year-old Weber will help the Canadiens move from a non-playoff-appearing 38-38-6 team to an eventual Stanley Cup contender.
“We completed today an important transaction which I am convinced will make the Canadiens a better team,” the general manager said.”In Shea Weber, we get a top rated NHL defenseman with tremendous leadership, and a player who will improve our defensive group as well as our power play for many years to come. Shea Weber led all NHL defensemen last season with 14 power play goals. He is a complete rearguard with impressive size and a powerful shot. P.K. Subban is a special and very talented player. He provided the Canadiens organization with strong performances on the ice and generous commitment in the community. I wish him the best of luck with the Predators.”
Hmmm, so much to decode here. But you don’t need to
D-man Shea Weber goes to Montreal from Nashville for Subban.
be Luther, President Barack Obama’s fictional anger translator from “Key & Peele,” to know that Bergevin’s statement was a stinging Gordie Howe backhand aimed right at Subban.
In praising Weber, Bergevin took not-so-veiled digs at Subban’s leadership qualities,
his ability to play well with others, and his overall game on the blue line.
It’s no secret that Subban’s flamboyant, high-risk playing style drove Canadiens Head Coach Michel Therrien nuts at times. And there were rumblings of discontent among some Habs players with Subban this season.
And, of course, the trade is the latest chapter in the Great P.K. Subban Debate. Several members of the hockey establishment argue that his game is more style than substance and some old school hockey heads complain that he’s too colorful a personality.
Subban supporters say his swashbuckling playing style and larger-than-life personality have been good for the game. They argue that he’s been disrespected by the hockey intelligentsia for not fitting the cookie-cutter mold of what an NHLer should be. Some question whether race is a factor.
Subban’s been on the receiving end of several high-profile snubs. Toronto Maple Leafs Head CoachMike Babcock, when he coached the Gold Medal-winning Canadian men’s hockey team at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, played Subban for only 11 minutes – all in one game.
Subban’s Canadiens teammates passed him over last season to be the team’s nominee for the NHL’s King Clancy Memorial Trophy – presented to the player who exhibits leadership on and off the ice and has contributed to the community – despite the fact that he pledged $10 million to Montreal’s Children’s Hospital, the biggest philanthropic commitment by any athlete in Canadian history.
Subban seemed to take Wednesday’s trade in the same fluid stride he’s taken the previous slights. He told Nashville reporters via conference call Wednesday that “Right now, I’m going to a team that wants me” He added that he felt “a whole lot closer” to winning a Stanley Cup with Nashville than he did in Montreal.
“On the business side of things, the Montreal Canadiens paid me a lot of money two years ago to do what I do for a living,” he said. “At the end of the day I just wanted to come in and do my job. But obviously right now I’m going to a team that wants me and the Montreal Canadiens felt that they had to take it down a different path.”
Some key 2015-16 statistics don’t show much space between Weber and Subban. Weber was ninth among NHL defensemen in scoring with 20 goals and 31 assists for 51 points in 78 games. He was third on the Predators in scoring.
Subban was 12th among the league’s defensemen, matching Weber’s 51 points on 6 goals and 45 assists in an injury-plagued 68 games. He was Montreal’s fourth-leading scorer last season.
Weber, touted as the more defensively responsible blue liner, had a plus-minus rating of minus-7. Subban was a plus-4.
Weber averaged 25:12 minutes per game and 29.9 shifts per game. Subban logged an average of 26:21 minutes per game and 28.3 shifts per game.
Weber was the more effective power play scorer – Bergevin’s main point – with 14 goals compared to Subban’s 2 in 2015-16. Neither player had a game-winning goal last season.
Subban and Weber have one other thing in common. Neither has been able in recent seasons to get their teams over the hump to the Stanley Cup Final.
Needless to say, the trade hasn’t gone down well with hockey fans in and out of Montreal. A New York Postheadline read “P.K. Subban Trade is Canadiens Purging NHL’s Biggest Persona.”
The Montreal Gazette quotes fans calling the trade “Ridiculous,” “insane,” “a disgrace.” Welcome to Montreal, Shea Weber.
So, on the same date that #Habs traded Chris Chelios 26 years ago, they ship away PK Subban. We know how the Chelios trade turned out.
With Subban in the fold, the Predators are taking a different approach that the team hopes will lead to a Stanley Cup. Nashville historically was a defense-first team under Head Coach Barry Trotz.
Trotzwas replaced two seasons ago by Peter Laviolette, who likes his defenseman to be able to move the puck quickly out of their zone and initiate offense – either through pinpoint passes or skating.
Though Laviolette is a no-nonsense coach in the Therrien mold, Subban should thrive in Laviolette’s system.
“In P.K., when people might talk about him, it’ll be his skating, the fact that he can transport the puck himself, the fact that he can distribute the puck, he’s constantly in motion,” Laviolette said. “He has worn a letter in the National Hockey League, was being considered for captain of the Montreal Canadiens, so there’s leadership quality there as well.”
In addition to his skating ability and 100-mph-plus slap shot from the point, Subban brings something to the Predators that the franchise has never had – star power, someone who can put butts in seats.
Though Subban was enormously popular among fans in Montreal he was never the face of the franchise, not with all-world goaltender Carey Price and U.S.-born team captain Max Pacioretty there.
He’s poised to be The Man in Nashville.
“P.K. Subban is an elite offensive defenseman with tremendous skill and contagious energy that makes the Nashville Predators a better team now and into the future,” said Nashville GM David Poile. “Superstar defensemen of his caliber are a rare commodity, and we are thrilled to add him to the organization.”
The 2013 National Hockey League Draft was as deep in talented defensemen as it was steeped in diversity.
And some defensemen from diverse backgrounds selected in that draft at New Jersey’s Prudential Center are beginning to make their mark in the professional game.
The Columbus Blue Jackets expect big things from defenseman Seth Jones.
Each player is chasing his dream for National Hockey League stardom, climbing professional hockey’s ladder at his own pace – or that dictated by the team that drafted him.
Jones, taken by the Nashville Predators with the fourth overall pick of the draft, hasn’t spent a day in the minor leagues. But after he spent more than two seasons in Music City, the Predators traded him last week to the ColumbusBlue Jackets for talented but enigmatic center Ryan Johansen.
The swap from Nashville, currently sixth in the NHL’s Western Conference, to Columbus, dwelling in the NHL Eastern Conference cellar, wasn’t a knock on Jones’ play.
The Blue Jackets expect big things from the Texas-born son of former National Basketball Association forward Popeye Jones. In Nashville, Seth Jones was the student to defensive master Shea Weber.
In 40 games with the Predators, Jones tallied 1 goal and 10 assists and averaged 19:42 minutes on ice per game.
With Columbus, he’ll play more minutes and see more power play time and penalty-killing action under demanding Head Coach John Tortorella. He’ll go from being one of the guys on Nashville’s blue line to being The Man on the Blue Jackets back end.
“He’s going to get a lot bigger role with our team,”Blue Jackets General Manager Jarmo Kekalainen told reporters last week. “He’s 21 years old and he’s got the future ahead of him and a lot of room for growth and development. We believe he’s a good two-way defenseman that can add some offense to our game.”
Ironically, one of the last things Jones saw in Nashville was the player he was traded for as he and Johansen passed each other at the airport. Jones expressed excitement about the new opportunity in Columbus.
“They made it pretty clear that they’re going to throw a little bit more at me than I’ve been used to getting,” Jones told reporters in Columbus. “I’m excited and ready to take on the challenge.”
Nurse believed he was NHL-ready from the moment he slipped on an Oilers jersey on draft day. But the team’s brain trust thought otherwise and sent him back to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, his junior team inthe Ontario Hockey League, for the 2013-14 season. He went back to the Soo again in 2014-15.
He was assigned to the Bakersfield Condors, the Olilers’ AHL affiliate,after this season’s
After being promoted from the AHL, Darnell Nurse is averaging 21 minutes per game.
training camp and was called up to the parent club after some of its defensemen suffered injuries.
Since then, Nurse has tallied 2 goals and 5 assists while averaging 21 minutes of ice time per game in 34 games. He’s also added a little toughness to an offensively-talented but grit-challenged Oilers lineup. He’s amassed 19 penalty minutes, five of them coming from a fight against Milan Lucic, the Los Angeles Kings’ physically-imposing and feared veteran forward.
Some thought the bout was too much too soon for the rookie Nurse. He didn’t.
“My mum was like, ‘What are you doing?’ My dad said he was proud of me,” Nurse told The Edmonton Journal. “This (fighting) is something I’m going to have to do the way I play.”
Madison Bowey is only a two-hour drive from where he hopes to eventually be: With the Washington Capitals. The team took Bowey in the second round with the 53rd pick of the 2013 draft.
After he captained his Western Hockey League Kelowna Rockets to the MasterCardMemorial Cup Final last season and teamed up with Nurse on the blue line to help a diverse Team Canada win the Gold Medal at the 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, the Capitals sent Bowey to the AHL’s HersheyBears.
He has 2 goals, 11 assists, and 24 penalty minutes in 33 games with the Bears.
“I think it’s been going pretty well,” Bowey told PennLive last month. “It’s a learning process and I’m learning a lot every day.”
Madison Bowey hopes to be an impact player with the AHL Hershey Bears – and eventually with the Washington Capitals (Photo/Courtesy JustSports Photography).
Bears Head Coach Troy Mann agrees.
“From the bench as you watch him play, when he’s moving the puck and limiting his turnovers, he’s having a good game,” Mann told PennLive. “Like any young defenseman, there are nights where his gap control might not be as good as we need it to be, or his defensive-zone coverage. But I think he’s progressing the way we all thought he would. He’s a second-round pick that’s going to need some nurturing in the AHL for a couple seasons.”
Jordan Subban was chosen in the fourth-round of the 2013 draft by the Vancouver Canucks with the 115th pick. His older brother, MontrealCanadiens superstar defenseman P.K. Subban, declared before the draft that Jordan was a better, more cerebral blueliner than he is.
Like his big brother, Jordan is about offense from the back end. The 5-foot-9 defenseman notched 25 goals and 27 assists for the Ontario Hockey League’s Belleville Bulls last season.
Utica Comets defenseman Jordan Subban (left) doing what he does best – shooting (Photo/Lindsay A. Mogle/Utica Comets).
He’s continuing his offensive ways in his first season with for the Utica Comets, the Canucks’ AHL farm team, where he has 5 goals and 14 assists in 29 games.
“The (AHL) is a little more skilled than I thought it was going to be,” Subban told Utica’s Observer-Dispatch in November. “It was a bit of an adjustment. There are a lot of good players…I think I’ve taken a big step in my zone, but I still have work to do.”
Jonathan-Ismael Diaby will be the first to admit that he’s still very much a work in progress. At 6-foot-5 and 223 pounds, he’s described himself as “bigger, taller and slower” compared to other hockey players.
Nashville Predators 2013 draft pick Jonathan Diaby (left) working on improving his game with the AHL Milwaukee Admirals (Photo/Milwaukee Admirals).
But the Predators love his size – a “monster,” one scout called him – and his ruggedness. Nashville took him in the third round with the 64th pick in the 2013 draft.
Since then, the former Victoriaville Tigres defenseman has bounced between the Milwaukee Admirals, the Preds’ AHL affiliate, and CincinnatiCyclones, Nashville’s ECHL farm team.
The son of a soccer player from the Ivory Coast, Diaby is scoreless in five AHL games this season but has 21 penalty minutes. He has 1 assist and 11 penalty minutes in 17 ECHL games.
“I just want to show more consistency and show that I’m more poised and more in control of the game,” Diaby told The Tennesseanduring the Predators’ training camp in September. “As a hockey player, you come to training camp, you want to make the team, but it’s a learning experience. I’ve still got a lot to learn and a lot to improve on. The AHL’s a great league.”
The 2015 NHL Draft will forever be considered one of the deepest drafts in league history in terms of talent. But it will also go down as one the richest drafts in terms of diversity.
Nine players of color were selected in the draft’s seven rounds. Yes, Connor McDavid had his name called by the Edmonton Oilers, and Jack Eichel’s by the Buffalo Sabres. But forward Jordan Greenwayalso got the call. So did Bokondji Imama, a two-fisted winger whose family hails from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ditto forward Andong Song, who carries the hockey aspirations of a nation on his New York Islanders jersey-clad shoulders. Here’s a look at some of the players chosen:
Jordan Greenway is wild about playing for Minnesota Wild – after attending college.
Greenway, a forward with the USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program, was drafted in the second round by the Minnesota Wild, the 50th player selected overall.
The 6-foot-4 player from Potsdam, N.Y., tallied five goals and 15 assists in 23 games last season for the NTDP’s United States Hockey League entry and nine goals and 35 assists in 53 games for the U.S. National Under-18 squad.
“I’m fortunate enough just to be here in the draft,” Greenway 18, told reporters after donning a Wild jersey. “Being drafted here is great. Everyone dreams of being in the NHL Draft one day. It’s just unbelievable.”
Greenway won’t be a stranger in the Twin Cities. He played three seasons for Shattuck-St. Mary’s, a hockey power prep school about 57 miles south of St. Paul. But don’t look for Greenway in the NHL soon. He’s committed to playing hockey at Boston University this fall.
“I really like the city of Boston,” he said. “Playing college hockey or the (Ontario Hockey League) is a good route. For some people college hockey is a good route and for some people the OHL is a good route. I like school.”
Keegan Kolesar’s loss proved to be his gain at the draft. The Seattle Thunderbirds right wing was taken by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the third round with the 69th overall pick.
Kolesar worked hard to shed about 20 pounds off his 2013-14 playing weight. At 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, Kolesar scored 19 goals and 19 assists in 64 games for Seattle. He also was a regular visitor to the penalty box with 85 minutes.
Keegan Kolesar (right) lost weight and put up the points for Seattle last season (Photo/Brian Liesse/Seattle Thunderbirds).
“The weight loss and dedication I put into training and nutrition really helped,” Kolesar told The Winnipeg Sun. “I’m a power forward in the truest sense. I think I’m one of the better forecheckers in the (Canadian Hockey League). I like to fight and I have a knack for the net and offensive instincts. I play well in all three zones.”
The Winnipeg Jets nabbed left wing Erik Foley in the third round with the 78th pick in the draft. Foley grew up a Boston Bruins fan in Mansfield, Mass., but is looking forward to starting a pro career with the Jets in “a real hockey hotbed.”
Erik Foley meets the press after being drafted by the Winnipeg Jets.
Foley scored 27 goals and 27 assists in 55 games last season with the USHL’s CedarRapids RoughRiders. “I’m a power forward,” he said. “I like to use my body, use my shot.”
Foley’s stock rose in the days leading to the draft. One USHL coach told The WinnipegSun that Foley was “probably the toughest player in the USHL to play against.”
Foley won’t be playing with Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien soon. He’ll be in Rhode Island playing for the Providence Friars, the reigning NCAA Frozen Four champs, this fall.
Right wing Mathieu Joseph had been to Florida only once before attending the draft. Now he may be calling the Sunshine State home after the Tampa Bay Lightning chose him in the fourth round, the 120th overall pick.
Mathieu Joseph was all smiles after being drafted by Tampa Bay Lightning.
A native of Chambly, Quebec, Joseph notched 21 goals and 21 assists in 59 games for the Saint Johns Sea Dogs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League last season.
“I’m kind of a power forward with a little bit of skill, so I can bring some offense but I can play on the penalty kill, too,” he said. “I’m more of a guy who’s hard to play against. I’m always a guy who’s going to forecheck and backcheck and I’m always intense, I think that’s pretty much the type of hockey (Tampa Bay) is playing.”
Caleb Jones came along to watch his big brother Seth Joneson draft day 2013 in Newark, N.J. The Jones family waited anxiously until the highly prized defenseman was taken fourth overall by the Nashville Predators.
Last weekend was Caleb’s turn. The sturdy 18-year-old defenseman from theNTDP was drafted in the fourth round by the Oilers, the 117th pick overall.
“This was a little less nerve-wracking,” Caleb said.
At 6 foot and 194 pounds, Caleb is the smaller of the hockey-playing sons of Popeye
Defenseman Caleb Jones hopes to join big brother Seth Jones in the NHL/.
Jones, the former NBA player, but he may be the grittier of the two. “I’m a two-way defenseman,” he said. “I play a physical game, aggressive in the corners”
He had 8 points in 25 games last season with the NTDP, but also 28 penalty minutes against opposition in the USHL.
As Seth Jones did, on the way to becoming one of the up-and-coming elite NHL defensemen, Caleb will go play for the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League next season. His Big Brother Seth offered any advice?
“I didn’t have too much for him,” Seth told The Hockey Writers. “I’m not like some grizzled vet, but with the draft being this summer (for him), I just told him to take it one step at a time. It’s not about rankings or this and that. Just go play hockey. Play the way you know how to play and just don’t try to do too much. Just the little things.”
Another NHL draft, another stud defenseman drafted from the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets. Blue-liner Devante Stephens was tabbed by the Sabres in the fifth round with the 122nd pick. He follows in the Kelowna skates of Madison Bowey, a Washington Capitals prospect, Nashville Predators D-man Shea Weber, and the Chicago Blackhawks’Duncan Keith.
Stephens had four goals and seven assists in 64 games for Kelowna. He had four assists in 17 WHL playoff games with the Rockets.
“He’s convinced he’ll be an NHL player,” Greg Royce, the Sabres director of amateur scouting, told The Olean Times Herald. “We’re convinced he’ll be an NHL player. I do believe he was a steal there.”
The Buffalo Sabres think they’ve found a jewel in Kelowna’s Devante Stephens (Photo: Marissa Baecker/Kelowna Rockets)
The Oilers added to its stockpile of young defensemen by taking Ethan Bear in the fifth round with the 124th player chosen overall.
Bear, 18, scored 13 goals and 25 assists for the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds last season. He also contributed a goal and an assist playing for Canada’s Under-18 team last season. The 5-foot-11 native of Regina, Sask., is Ochapowace First Nation.
Ethan Bear, left, joins a young Edmonton defensive corps that includes 2013 first-round pick Darnell Nurse (Photo/Brian Liesse/Seattle Thunderbirds)
“It’s amazing,” Bear said after the Oilers drafted him. “They’re a great organization. It’s been exciting this whole day, especially to get picked by Edmonton.”
Perhaps no sixth-round draft pick in NHL history has generated as much attention as defenseman Andong Song, who was taken by the Islanders over the weekend with the 172nd pick.
China’s Andong Song made hockey history at the 2015 NHL Draft.
Song is the first player in draft history born in China. He arrived at Sunrise’s BB&T Center with an entourage: His family and a television crew from China’s CCTV that followed his every move.
“Hopefully what I want to do is rally people behind me,” the 18-year-old Beijing-born player said. “Not focus on myself but do something good for Chinese hockey.”
Hockey in China could surely use a boost. A country with over 1.3 billion people, China has only 610 hockey players – 118 men, 308 juniors, 184 females – according to IIHF figures. The nation has only 58 indoor ice skating rinks and 43 outdoor facilities.
Song’s selection prompted the IIHF to put a list of Asian hockey milestones on its website. Song admits that he feels “a lot of pressure from people back home” to help put hockey on the map.
“Good pressure,” he added. “That’ll motivate me to become a better player and hopefully I’ll make them proud.”
A 6-foot, 165-pound blue-liner, Song played last season for New Jersey’s Lawrenceville School. He tallied 3 goals and 7 assists in 26 games. He’ll play next season for Philips Academy, a top prep school in Andover, Mass. He hopes to catch the attention of an NCAA Division I hockey school.
Song has international hockey experience. He twice played for China in the InternationalIce Hockey Federation’s Division B World Under-18 championship and captained the team that played in the 2015 tournament in Novi Sad, Serbia. He had two assists in five tourney games.
“When I started playing (in China) there weren’t a lot of people,” he said. “There wasn’t much support for the game. Last year when I went back, it had been eight years since I’d seen Chinese hockey and it was tremendous how far it’s grown. I’m sure they’ll keep trying to catch up to Europe and North America and Russia. There’s still a gap between them, but I’m sure if we focus on hockey we can catch up.”
Lightning draftee Bokondji Imama apparently has a game as tough as his name.
Bokondji Imama could one day have the most distinctive name in the NHL.
The Montreal native, a solid 6-foot-1, 214 pound left wing for the QMJHL’s St. John’s Sea Dogs, realized his dream when the Lightning selected him with the 180th overall pick in the sixth round.
Imama had three goals and six assists in 23 games for the Sea Dogs, but he also had 48 penalty minutes. According to the website hockeyfights.com, Imama had 15 in the 2014-15 regular season and two during the preseason.
Imama’s father, also named Bokondji, and mother were born in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bokondji grew up as a typical kid in Montreal, playing hockey on outdoor rinks. But he loved all sports, and played rugged games with his father. The training turned him into a physical player.
“I’m a physical player who likes to stick up for his teammates,” he said, “but I can play the game, too.”
It’s conceivable that you might see Imama in the NHL someday protecting Lightning sniper Steven Stamkos and Tampa’s other young scorers.
The Color of Hockey’s Lew Serviss contributed mightily to this post.
Caleb Jones came along to watch his big brother Seth Jones on draft day in 2013 in Newark, N.J. The Jones family waited anxiously until the highly prized prospect was taken fourth overall by the Nashville Predators.
Defenseman Caleb Jones sports Edmonton’s new retro jersey. He hopes to join big brother Seth Jones in the NHL.
This year, it was Caleb’s turn. The sturdy defenseman from the U.S. National Team Development Program was drafted in the fourth round by the Edmonton Oilers, 117th overall. “This was a little less nerve-wracking,” he said.
At 6 foot and 194 pounds, Caleb is the smaller of the hockey-playing sons of Popeye Jones, the former NBA player, but he may be the grittier of the two. “I’m a two-way defenseman,” he said. “I play a physical game, aggressive in the corners.”
He had 8 points in 25 games last season with the NTDP, but also 28 penalty minutes against opposition in the United States Hockey League.
As Seth Jones did, on the way to becoming one of the up-and-coming elite NHL defensemen, Caleb will go to play for the Portland Winterhawks in the WHL next season.
Tyrell Goulbourne isn’t going to let a little thing like recovering from surgery on a lacerated calf muscle keep him from being with his Kelowna Rockets teammates when they compete for the Memorial Cup in a four-team major junior hockey tournament that begins Friday in scenic Quebec City.
“I wouldn’t miss it if I was in a wheelchair, I’ll be there,” Goulbourne, the 21-year-old left wing told Western Canada’s AM 1150 radio.
Goulbourne’s injury – he was cut by Portland Winterhawks forward Keegan Iverson’s skate in the third round of the Western Hockey Leagueplayoffs – has been the only downer in the Rockets’ ride to the 97th annual Memorial Cup tourney that will determine the Canadian Hockey Leaguechampion.
Injured Kelowna Rockets forward Tyrell Goulbourne will root for his team in the Memorial Cup from the sidelines (Photo/Marissa Baecker/Kelowna Rockets).
The team stormed through the Tri-City Americans, the Victoria Royals, and the Brandon Wheat Kings to capture the WHL’s Ed Chynoweth Cup, losing only three games along the way. The Rockets began the playoffs with a four-game sweep of the Americans and ended it by sweeping the Wheat Kings.
The quest for the Memorial Cup begins Friday when the Rockets face the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’sQuebec Remparts, the tournament’s host team. The Rimouski Oceanic, the QMJHL’s champions, and the Oshawa Generals, the Ontario Hockey Leaguechamps, also qualified for the tournament.
An Edmonton native, Goulbourne was a major contributor to the Rockets’ 53-13-5-1 regular season record and in the team’s playoff run before his injury. A Philadelphia Flyers third-round draft pick in 2013, he tallied 22 goals and 23 assists in 62 regular season games and notched a goal and an assist in 12 playoff games.
Four Rockets players were among the Top 10 scorers in the WHL playoffs. Still, Kelowna is known more for its defense. After all, this is the team that produced the likes of defensemen Shea Weber of the Nashville Predators, Duncan Keith of the Chicago Blackhawks, Tyler Myers of the WinnipegJets, Josh Gorges of the Buffalo Sabres and the Flyers’ Luke Schenn.
Madison Bowey hoists WHL championship trophy, perhaps a practice lift for the Memorial Cup (Photo by Marissa Baecker/Kelowna Rockets).
Carrying on that blue line tradition is team captain Madison Bowey, a 2013 Washington Capitals 2013 second-round draft pick. His 2014-15 season could earn him more than a look-see from Capitals Head Coach Barry Trotz during the team’s rookie camp and training camp later this year.
The 20-year-old Winnipeg native scored 17 goals and 43 assists in 58 regular season games and had a gaudy plus-minus of plus-38. He had 7 goals and 12 assists in 19 WHL playoff games. Bowey also played for Gold Medal-winning Team Canada in the 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, scoring a goal and 3 assists in the tournament.
All Bowey has done is win this season to the point that he’s in a position to complete a hat trick – an IIHF championship, a WHL championship, and a Memorial Cup.
Another Rockets defenseman, Devante Stephens, hopes to follow in Bowey’s skates and be selected by a National Hockey League team at the 2015 NHL Draft in Sunrise, Fla., next month. He’s ranked 116th among North American skaters by the NHL’s Central Scouting Service.
Devante Stephens hopes to follow a long line of Kelowna defensemen into the NHL (Photo/ Marissa Baecker/Kelowna Rockets).
Stephens scored 4 goals and 7 assists for the Rockets in 64 regular season games and 4 assists in 17 playoff games. The Surrey, British Columbia, native won the team’s Rookie of the Year and Most Improved Player awards this season.
If Stephens, 18, hears his named called inside Sunrise’s BB&T Center at the June 26-27 draft, he may give an assist to Bowey, whose absence from the Rockets for the world junior championship gave Stephens more minutes and more responsibility on the ice.
“When the guys went away to world juniors….I really had an opportunity to show the coaches what I had,” Stephens told Rockets TV. “And I think it was a real stepping block for me, especially in this league. I really just got to show my stuff.”
Born in Haiti and raised in Canada, Michael Herringer helped backstop the Rockets to the WHL championship (Photo by Marissa Baecker/Kelowna Rockets).
Rockets goaltender Michael Herringer has had a chance to show his stuff to Rockets coaches – and potential NHL suitors – this season. In 14 regular season games Herringer posted an 11-2 record and recorded 2 shutouts.
Born in Haiti and raised in Comox, British Columbia, the 19-year-old Herringer had a 2.33 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage. He went 3-0 in the WHL playoffs with a 1.96 goals-against average and a .934 save percentage.
Predator’s Seth Jones dons red, white, and blue jersey again (Andre Ringuette/HHOF-IIHF Images).
Jones, 20, adds a wealth of international experience to a young U.S. team that’s set to compete in the 16-nation tournament which runs May 1-17 in Ostrava and Prague, Czech Republic.
He’s a three-time IIHF gold medalist, having helped the U.S. to the top prize at the 2011 and 2012 IIHF Under-18 World Championships and the 2013 World Junior Championship.
Jones, son of former National Basketball Association star Popeye Jones, also skated for Team U.S.A. in the 2014 IIHF World Championship and made the tournament’s All-Star team. He was also named best defenseman by the tournament’s directorate.
The U.S. team begins its 2015 quest for the gold May 1 against Finland, a game in which Jones could face goaltender Pekka Rinne, a Nashville teammate. Rinne was the 2014 tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
The 2015 U.S.A.-Finland game will be aired live on cable’s NBCSN at 10 a.m. All of the American squad’s games will be live-streamed for mobile devices, desktops and tablets via NBC Sports Live Extra.
The fourth player taken in the 2013 NHL Draft, Jones appeared in all 82 games for the Predators during the 2014-15 regular season. He tallied eight goals and 19 assists and had a plus/minus of plus-3.
He played in all six of the Pred’s first-round playoff games against the ChicagoBlackhawks. He had no goals, four assists and was a minus-6. The Blackhawks eliminated the Predators four games to two.
But rather than go home to Plano, Texas, at the end of his National Hockey League season, Jones decided to head to the Czech Republic. He joins other NHLers who are skating for their countries after their teams either failed to qualify for the playoffs or were eliminated in the first round.
Team Canada features an all-NHL roster that includes forwards Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers and Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche.
The U.S. roster is a mix of NHLers, American Hockey League players, and NCAA Division I college players including Boston University forward Jack Eichel, likely to be taken by the Buffalo Sabres with the second pick in the 2015 NHL Draft June 26-27.
NHL players joining Jones on the American squad includes forward Nick Bonino of the Vancouver Canucks, defenseman Torey Krug of the Boston Bruins, and defenseman Justin Faulk of the Carolina Hurricanes.
Portland Winterhawks center Keegan Iverson was among 42 players invited to the U.S. National Junior Evaluation Camp, an audition for a spot on the American team that will compete in the 2015International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship.
The one-week evaluation camp takes place August 2-9 in Lake Placid, N.Y. The world juniors, a showcase of future National Hockey
U.S. national junior team tryout, NHL Draft await Portland’s Keegan Iverson.
League talent, is Dec. 26, 2014 to Jan. 5, 2015 in Montreal and Toronto. USA Hockey officials invited Iverson to the evaluation camp two days ago.
“I was really excited to find out I have an opportunity to play for Team USA again,” said Iverson, a St. Louis Park, Minn., resident who skated for the U.S, Under-17 national team in 2012-13.
He drew the attention of USA Hockey officials with an excellent 2013-14 season with the Western Hockey League Winterhawks, tallying 22 goals, 20 assists and 70 penalty minutes in 67 games. Iverson, an alum of Canada’s Skillz Black Aces youth hockey teams, will have familiar faces around him at the U.S. evaluation camp. Three other Winterhawks – goaltender Brendan Burke and forwards Chase De Leo and Dominic Turgeon – are also auditioning in Lake Placid to audition for spots on the U.S. squad.
Nashville’s Seth Jones, former Portland Winterhawks and U.S. junior team star.
“The evaluation camp is an important step as the players try to earn spots on the U.S. World Junior Team,” Portland Winterhawks General Manager and Head Coach Mike Johnston said. “I am confident all four players will have strong showings and make positive impressions at the camp.”
The Winterhawks have been a talent incubator of sorts for junior championship teams. USA. Former Portland defenseman Seth Jones, who completed his rookie season with the Nashville Predators last April, played on 2011, 2012 and 2013 U.S. national junior squads. Winterhawks defenseman Mathew Dumba, the seventh overall pick in the 2012 NHL draft by the Minnesota Wild, played for Canada in the 2014 world juniors.
Iverson’s evaluation camp invite is part of what’s shaping up to be an excellent summer for him. Next weekend,
Winterhawks’ Mathew Dumba, a Minnesota Wild 1st-round draft pick and 2014 Team Canada national junior team member.
he’ll be glued to the television waiting to see which team selects him in the 2014 NHL Draft in Philadelphia. He’s ranked as the 85th-best North American skater by the NHL’s Central Scouting Service.
Iverson said watching the draft at home may be nerve-racking, but it’ll be a breeze compared to going through the grueling NHL Combine strength and endurance camp in Toronto last month.
“At the Combine, my teammates told me to be myself and everything will go well,” Iverson told reporter Lesley Dawson. “As for the draft process, they told me to be excited for when my name gets called, and be ready to work after.”
Nashville Predators defenseman Seth Jones’ rookie National Hockey League season is over, with the Preds failing to make the playoffs, but his hockey year is far from being done.
No NHL playoffs for Nashville’s Seth Jones but more international hockey as a Team USA member.
Jones was among the first 15 players named Tuesday to the U.S. Men’s National Team that will play in the 2014 International IceHockey Federation World Championship May 9-25 in Minsk, Belarus. Jones, the fourth player selected in the 2013 NHL Draft, played in 77 games for the Predators and tallied six goals and 19 assists. He averaged 19:37 minutes on ice per game.
Jones adds a wealth of international experience to the U.S. squad, having played for U.S. national development teams since 2010-11. He was a member of U.S. junior teams that won Gold Medals in 2013, 2012, and 2011. The son of former NBA player Popeye Jones was invited to the 2014 U.S. men’s hockey team’s pre-Olympic orientation camp last summer, the only invitee who hadn’t played in an NHL game.
He didn’t make the U.S. Olympic team but USA Hockey officials made it clear that Jones is definitely on their radar for the 2016 WinterOlympics, if the NHL sends its players to the Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. In the meantime, playing in the 2014 Worlds will mean that Jones will postpone rest for what already has been a long hockey period for him. He started the 2012-13 season with the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks, then played in the Junior World Championship, then returned to the Winterhawks for hockey’s Memorial Cup championship. He took about two-three weeks off between the time the Winterawks lost to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s HalifaxMooseheads in the Memorial Cup final and the 2013 NHL Draft. “It definitely felt like a 12-year – er, 12 month season,” Jones said at the pre-Olympic orientation camp.
Jones could be a vital cog in USA Hockey rebuilding its national team after an American squad filled with NHL players failed to medal at
the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. That team was led by Pittsburgh Penguins Head Coach Dan Bylsma. USA Hockey
Former Flyers Coach Peter Laviolette seeks to improve U.S. hockey team’s performance.
Tuesday named former Philadelphia Flyers Head Coach Peter Laviolette the bench boss of the 2014 men’s national team.
Laviolette served as an assistant coach in Sochi. Laviolette and his players will look to avenge the poor U.S. performance in Sochi and
improve upon the Bronze Medal the Americans won at the 2013 Worlds played in Helsinki and Stockholm last May.
The other players named to the team Tuesday were New York Islanders defenseman Matt Donovan; Torontoa Maple Leafs defenseman Jake Gardiner; Florida Panthers forward Jimmy Hayes; Boston College forward Kevin Hayes; goaltender Connor Hellebuyck of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Buffalo Sabres defenseman Jake McCabe; forward Peter Mueller of Switzerland’s Kloten Flyers; New York Islanders forward Brock Nelson; Edmonton Oilers defenseman Jeff Petry; Florida Panthers forward Drew Shore; Nashville Predators forward Craig Smith; forward Tim Stapleton of the AK Bars Kazan of Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League; Florida Panthers forward Vince Trocheck; and Winnipeg Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba.
The rest of the U.S. roster could be filled later with NHL players whose teams didn’t make the Stanley Cup Playoffs or are eliminated in the early rounds.
They share a heritage, they share a team, and two of them share a line. But Everett Silvertips forwards Jujhar Khaira, Manraj Hayer and Tyler Sandhu have something else in common: undeniable talent.
The three Vancouver-area players are among the top seven in scoring on their Western Hockey League major junior team. Their scoring numbers jump off the stat sheets, but the trio also opens eyes because they are among a small but steadily growing number of Indian players who are helping change the color of hockey.
Everett Silvertips’ Manraj Hayer (Photo: Christopher Mast Images)
“Kids have kind of seen us in the WHL and see players go into the AHL and NHL and they’re kind of taking note that it can be done,” said Hayer, 20, who was fourth on the team in scoring with 11 goals and 17 assists in 33 games before being sidelined by a concussion. “Lately, lots of East Indian kids have started to play hockey. Little kids have come up to me and said ‘I’ve seen you play and I want to follow in your footsteps.’ That’s kind of cool.”
Sandhu, who plays on a line with Hayer, seconded his teammate’s “cool.” “It’s exciting and an honor to have kids look up to you as you looked up to older players,” said Sandhu, 18, who is fifth on the Silvertips with 13 goals and 14 assists in 40 games. “For our culture, it feels good to be able to be part of a lot kids’ development in how they look at hockey and how they dream about playing as well. For me, it’s a dream of mine to play in the NHL and I just hope kids in my culture have that dream as well.”
Carolina Hurricanes center Manny Malhotra is currently the only Indo-Canadian player in the National Hockey League. But a next generation of players could be on the way in the near future, fueled by an interest in hockey that’s grown so large within Canada’s South Asia community that CBC’s “Hockey Night in Canada” airs broadcasts in Punjabi.
HNIC Punjabi’s crew. Left to right: Analyst Bhola Singh Chauhan, analyst Inderpreet Cumo and play-by-play man Harnarayan Singh.
“This broadcast has really helped the Punjabi community to connect with the sport,” Harbs Bains, president of the Surrey (British Columbia) Minor Hockey Association, told The New York Times last April. “It allows someone whose first language is not English to connect with the sport and between generations.”
Hockey is even slowly gaining a foothold in cricket-crazed India. A member of the International Ice Hockey Federation since 1989, the country of more than 1.2 billion people has more than 900 hockey players. In March 2012, India captured its first international ice hockey victory, a 5-1 over Macau at the IIHF’s Challenge Cup of Asia tournament.
Tyler Sandhu in action. (Photo: Christopher Mast/Everett Silvertips)
Hayer, 20, began playing hockey as a child because his older brother did. But Hayer never played with another Indian player in a game until Silvertips Head Coach and former NHL bench boss Kevin Constantine put him on a line with Sandhu in Everett two seasons ago.
“It’s been a different experience, I’ve never played with another East Indian player my whole life on any of my teams,” he told me recently. “It’s kind of cool just to be playing on his line. I think it kind of makes history – I don’t think it’s ever been done before, so it’s kind of cool.”
Hayer, Sandhu and Khaira were brought together in Everett, a city of 104,000 about 30 miles north of Seattle, by coincidence. Sandhu was among four prospects the Silvertips obtained in a May 2012 trade with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks in exchange for the rights to defenseman SethJones. Jones, a Nashville Predators rookie this season, was the fourth overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft.
Khaira, who’s seventh on the Silvertips in scoring with 10 goals and 11 assists in 30 games, played 37 games for Michigan Tech during the 2012-13 season. He exited college with three years of NCAA eligibility left after signing with the Oilers. He came to the Silvertips in a May 2012 trade from the WHL’s Prince George Cougars
“It was a lot of fun, it was probably one of the best years of my life,” Khaira said of his time at Tech. “The style of play is completely different. In college, you’re playing against older guys who are 23-24 years old and here you’re playing against guys who are 16, 17 so there’s a big difference in age.”
As for his future with the Oilers, the 19-year-old said “I’m going to focus on this season and develop my game as best as possible, and then try to make an impression at (the Oilers) camp next year and see where it goes from there.”
Hayer was scouted and signed by the Silvertips in the 2010-11 season.
The three have never played on a line together during a WHL game, but have during practices. Would they like to join the ranks of the 1970s Buffalo Sabres all-French-Canadian “FrenchConnection” led by Gilbert Perreault ,” the Boston Bruins’ German-Canadian “Kraut Line” of the 1940s that featured Milt Schmidt, or the famed “Black Aces,” an all-black minor league line in the 1940s headlined by Herb Carnegie?
“It would be cool, but at the same time Kevin Constantine knows what he’s doing and what he needs in a line,” Khaira said. “So I’m really confident in him and what he has for us.”