So, now that the Stanley Cup final is over I am going to make this thread for the upcoming season. Mostly I want it here because of the upcoming expansion draft and regular draft and free agency. I imagine this year will be much more interesting than the average year because of the expansion draft with the Las Vegas Golden Knights.

So, feel free to come here with any updates related to NHL Hockey. Any news or rumors or anything like that are more than welcome.

I'll try and post regularly but I'll need others to post in here too so that I can keep posting

It could be just a rumor, but I heard Dustin Brown from the LA Kings could be in the works to join the new Golden Knights franchise. It would be a great start as far as talent and leadership goes for Vegas.

MattyIce : and a great way for LA to get out of at least 1 terrible contract. I wonder how many picks that is going to cost LA.... cause I wouldn't take Dustin Brown for nothing. He's not an effective enough player for that considering what he costs.

Trades so far:

Washington Capitals get F Tyler Graovac and Minnesota Wild get 2018 5th-Round Pick.
Montreal Canadiens get F Jonathan Drouin, 2018 6th Round Pick (Conditional) and Tampa Bay Lightning get D Mikhail Sergachev, 2018 2nd Round Pick (Conditional)
Arizona Coyotes get C Nick Cousins, G Merrick Madsen and Philadelphia Flyers get LW Brendan Warren, 2018 5th Round Pick
Buffalo Sabres get D Nathan Beaulieu and Montreal Canadiens get 2017 3rd Round Pick
Calgary Flames get G Mike Smith Arizona Coyotes get 3rd Round Pick (Conditional), D Brandon Hickey
and G Chad Johnson.
New Jersey Devils get D Mirco Mueller and 2017 5th Roundd-Pick San Jose Sharks get 2017 2nd Round-Pick and 2017 4th-Round Pick.

Interesting start so far. Drouin trade was obviously the biggest one so far. Drouin had a solid season last year so hopefully he can help Montreal with their offense. Not sure if I would have given up Sergachev for Drouin personally but Yzerman did well with Drouin getting this trade done.

I'm excited to see what happens with the upcoming expansion draft coming up. It will be especially interesting to see what teams pay in order to not lose a single player.

Forwards

Teemu Pulkkinen (selected from Arizona Coyotes)
William Carrier (Buffalo Sabres)
Cody Eakin (Dallas Stars)
Tomas Nosek (Detroit Red Wings)
Jonathan Marchessault (Florida Panthers)
Reilly Smith (via trade with Florida Panthers)
Connor Brickley (Carolina Hurricanes)
Chris Thorburn (Winnipeg Jets)
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (Philadelphia Flyers)
Nikita Gusev (via trade with Tampa Bay Lightning)
Mikhail Grabovski (via trade with New York Islanders)
James Neal (Nashville Predators)
Brendan Leipsic (Toronto Maple Leafs)
David Perron (St. Louis Blues)
Oscar Lindberg (New York Rangers)
Erik Haula (Minnesota Wild)
Alex Tuch (via trade with Minnesota Wild)
William Karlsson (Columbus Blue Jackets)
David Clarkson (via trade with Columbus Blue Jackets)

Defensemen

Luca Sbisa (Vancouver Canucks)
Jon Merrill (New Jersey Devils)
Brayden McNabb (Los Angeles Kings)
Jason Garrison (Tampa Bay Lightning)
Jake Bischoff (via trade with New York Islanders)
Deryk Engelland (Calgary Flames)
Colin Miller (Boston Bruins)
Marc Methot (Ottawa Senators)
David Schlemko (San Jose Sharks)
Griffin Reinhart (Edmonton Oilers)
Alexei Emelin (Montreal Canadiens)
Clayton Stoner (Anaheim Ducks)
Shea Theodore (via trade with Anaheim Ducks)
Trevor van Riemsdyk (Chicago Blackhawks)
Nate Schmidt (Washington Capitals)

Goaltenders

Marc-Andre Fleury (Pittsburgh Penguins)
Calvin Pickard (Colorado Avalanche)
Jean-Francois Berube (New York Islanders)

also....

1st round (2017) from Jets
1st round (2017) from Islanders
2nd round (2017) from Lightning
2nd round (2019) from Islanders
2nd round (2019) Blue Jackets
2nd round (2020) from Penguins
3rd round (2019) from Jets
4th round (2018) from Lightning
5th round (2017) from Hurricanes
6th round (2017) from Sabres

Pretty interesting roster so far. I imagine there is a lot of opportunity to improve the forwards but I think defense and goaltending are actually solid. It is nice to see that this roster won't be a joke this year.... at least on paper. We'll see how things play out in real games but it looks good right now.

Looks like Columbus upgraded on the offensive side in picking up Panarin from Chicago. The contract is 2 years / $7 million. I remember some Blackhawks fans during Panarin's rookie-of-the-year season 2 years ago saying "He's the future of the Blackhawks." I wonder what they think of him now lol

Chicago also sent over Tyler Motte and a 6th round pick in the 2017 draft. Columbus traded forward Brandon Saad. He has 3 years left on a 6 year / $36 million contract. Anton Forsberg and a 5th round pick in next year's draft were also sent to Chicago.

Ugh, I haven't been able to post in here for a while but SO Much has happened. Lots of trades, lots of signings. McDavid's enormous contract extension.

I'd try and list even a part of what has happened but it would take way too long to compile.

I want to get into hockey this season, but I don't know what team to root for. I want to root for a team that is a contender, but they are also right there on the edge. I also would love to root for an "underdog" story. Another thing, and I hope people don't take this the wrong way, but I wouldn't mind rooting for a team that has a player who is actually decent who is black. I think it is a little funny that football and basketball are majority African Americans, but hockey, last I heard anyways, had only 3 African American professional players. 

My friend roots for the Predators, and he doesn't like the Penguins because of Crosby. He says that he's the NHL's "Golden Boy", so he gets away with a lot of stuff. However, another one of my friends is a Penguins fan. It's just weird, and I really don't know how to pick a team. 

Any suggestions before the season starts?

thing1 : first off, there are more than 3 black players. Sure they don't represent 50+% of the players like Football and Basketball but there are more than 3


As for teams to root for.... that's hard to say. I'm more in the camp of I have teams I refuse to cheer for and then everyone else is on a sliding scale of who I like more than the other team.

geeogree : Well, I am currently debating the Preds. My friend said that their black player is actually really good. They're kind of an underdog story because they are relatively new to the league ( I think? ). They got one of their first playoff runs, and then they lost in the finals, 4-2. 

thing1 : well, they won't really be the underdogs this year will they? I mean, a trip to the finals and you can't really be the underdog in the next season.

Also, what does it matter if a team has a black player or not?

Because it's not really a thing. I don't know how to explain it without sounding like a bad person. It's just like a "damn, you don't see too many black players. This dude must be really good." It makes me want to root for them. 
Kind of like Yao Ming got really popular for a few months in the NBA a couple of years ago. 

thing1 : ah, fair enough. I just was wondering what the curiosity was with it.

Preds will be a good team to cheer for this year if you want a team to cheer for. You could also look for a list of all the teams with black players and cheer for those teams

I hoping that Anaheim will do better this year. We have been so close every year, but never make it to the finals

thing1 : If you ask me, I would root for Ovi to win one. Of course I'm talking about Alex Ovechkin from the Capitals. Although I don't like any of the sports teams coming out of DC ... the Washington Redskins because I was a Cowboys fan growing up, and the Washington Nationals because of Bryce Harper mostly ... I have a different view of the Capitals. It doesn't matter what the sport is, I seem to gravitate towards the underdog and cheer for them, especially if I'm watching a game and I don't have a dog in the fight.

In my opinion, the next player that deserves to win his first one is definitely Ovi. This year, he ran into the buzzsaw that was Sidney Crosby and his Penguins. But Ovi took him to 7 games this time. I was rooting for the Capitals pretty hard in that game, but they couldn't get any offense going. Perhaps next time he will come out on top. We will have to see.

MattyIce : part of me wants Ovi to win and part of me wants to watch him never win ever. I've never been a big fan of him as a player. He seems so 1-dimensional and when he's not contributing offensively he basically disappears as a player. A lot of other stars contribute in other ways when they aren't producing well offensively but watching Ovi if he isn't scoring he isn't doing much else on the ice.

And it makes me laugh that he hasn't gotten out of the 2nd round. I do want to watch a new team win though. Crosby and the Pens have won back to back and now it is time for someone else to be in the finals from the East.

So the regular season is getting very, very close to starting and I'm really interested to see how things play out.

I feel like the top teams got worse from last year to this year which means there is a good chance of someone else winning the cup. Not that I'm mad that Pittsburgh won again because I do like their team but I would like to see new teams get there (maybe a Canadian one).

Still, I always look forward to a new season of hockey to watch. I don't know how regularly I will update this thread because I know I won't get a ton of responses from people but hopefully someone replies often enough to keep it lively

So, the regular season has started and already I can imagine fans in Toronto are losing their minds.

7-2 win over Winnipeg (big deal honestly...) and they're probably already planning the parade. No doubt they are a good team and could win but there are a lot of other good teams out there with plans to win.

One of those being Pittsburgh who lost their season opener in OT to St. Louis. Solid game from what I saw of it and hopefully a sign of things to come for St. Louis. I've liked St. Louis for a while but they don't seem to be able to quite get anything going in the playoffs.

2 more games going on right now. Calgary and Edmonton, BATTLE OF ALBERTA!, and Philly and San Jose (cause, you need to play eventually, why not right away?).

A bit of a slow opening night to the season but some good games to start with. Looking forward to the hundreds more to come!

I renamed my old thread because it is old and rather than trying to make a new one I'll just keep this one going

I'm pretty happy with the way the season has gone for Calgary. 1st in their division, 4th in the conference and 7th overall. I'd honestly rather have it this way than to be 1st overall in anything. And almost 30 games in means this isn't a fluke of the early part of the season or anything. Only real worry right now is goaltending. Does Smith still have 60 start in him or is the season going to be split more evenly? I'm hoping Rittich keeps going strong and manages to overtake Smith as the #1. Smith hasn't been great this year but Rittich has been solid. Time will tell.

I'm also loving how yet again it seems like things are up in the air. Teams that were expected to be good have been average or bad and some bad teams have been pretty good. I wasn't always a fan of the salary cap system but seeing more parity in teams as the years go by is actually enjoyable. Harder to have true dynasties anymore.

Ok, I know, I know, I did hide the first couple of weeks this season. I admit it. But now, now?

GO KNIGHTS GO.

After a HORRIBLE start, Vegas has come to life and beaten some good times (looking at you Calgary). The team has just played better over the last few weeks than they started (Thanks Nate Schmidt) and some out there names (like Reeves and Eakin). Patches has also started to play his game, getting in his goals and overall being better on the puck. Losing Haula and Statsny to month-to-month injuries has hurt, but I’m glad they aren’t 100% season ending.

Rest of the league has pretty much gone as planned, except for buffalo. They’ve been surprisingly good (even tho we all saw it coming). Leaves look amazing, lightning look amazing, as we expected. Sharks have been struggling, which I love. Wish EK had come to VGS but getting to beat him and the sharks has been great.

Also, in the one game Vegas has played SJ, I confirmed my hatred for Evander Kane. Dudes a jerk.

I also feel bad for Ilya Kovalchuk, who I love from his time in Atlanta. Wished he was doing better, got more minutes, and wasn’t hurt, but as a King hater, I guess it isn’t all bad.

I was really excited about the news this week about the Seattle team, I might even start writing about them when the time comes.


I plan on going to my second game of the season soon to see the Islanders play either Pittsburgh or Vegas

Ah, the local mod powers have allowed me to spam my thread a bit more often!

I'm excited about a Seattle team as well. Round out the league.

I think the talk about adding after that is stupid though. You can't add teams to a league forever and expect it to continue to get better. North America is fairly saturated. You could move a couple teams around possibly but I can't see adding anything else and having it be good. There is also talk of China or Europe as a possible expansion site and I think that is the most idiotic thing ever. I don't want teams having to travel to Europe to play home games over there. That's stupid. I really hope this is the last expansion the NHL has.

Tom Wilson is a scumbag. That is all I have to say.

I heard about the Seattle team right after the Press Conference. I'm really exicted, and it couldn't have come at a better time, because I had decided to start paying attention to hockey, and had decided to root for the Predators as my team because that was my friends team.
I guess I can take some time learning the game so that by the time the Seattle time comes around, I actually know what the heck I am watching.

thing1 : Hopefully Seattle actually sucks for a little while like an expansion team is supposed to instead of instantly being good like Vegas. It's kind of unfair for them to be gifted a good team right out of the gate.

On a different note, my Islanders are INCREDIBLE right now. They've now won 9 of their last 10 games. Additionally, they are 9-1-0 with Josh Ho-Sang in the lineup and 6-0-0 with Devon Toews in the lineup.

I'm still pretty happy with what the Islanders have been doing this year.

I remember writing an article for my school newspaper after only a few games on how they can do well without their star and they proved me right.

They're nowhere near the likes of the Lightning like usual, but they're right up there at the top of the division in terms of points. They're on pace for 100 points.

tgags123 : I mean, it would be nice if they were great right away. lol.
I actually looked up how the expansion draft worked, and found it very interesting. I wonder if Seattle will be willing to eat somebody's large contract, if a team decides to take a chance and make somebody with a large contract that they don't want to foot the bill for anymore available.

If they are competitive (not necessarily playoff competitive) within 3 years, I'll be happy. And playoffs within 5, then I'll be really happy.

thing1 : They shouldn't be good right off the bat. That isn't fair to the other teams. They should have to earn it, rather than being given a competitive team to start with.

dark mode : I've been so happy with the Islanders. I though they were going to suck, and they don't lol. They're actually really good.

tgags123 : Yep. Imagine if they still had Tavares though. Who knows maybe the chemistry is a bit better now or maybe they could have been 100 times better.

I really need to go to a few games during the second half of the season.

tgags123 : Why should they be forced to be bad at the beginning? If the team is good, then the team is good. If they are a bottom feeder, then so be it.

dark mode : Eff that snake. We don't need him. Barzal is better anyway.

thing1 : They shouldn't be forced to be bad at the beginning, but the expansion draft rules should be changed so that they aren't given a bunch of good players for free.

I've been watching Calgary play Colorado and Calgary is getting outplayed badly (outshot 28-12 right now) but are up 3-2. Oh, 4-2 now on shot 13? Really don't deserve to be winning this game but they are.

I'm not upset that they are likely going to win but they aren't playing well enough to win tonight.

The Islanders sent Josh Ho-Sang down to the AHL yesterday, and I am every upset about it. He was playing great, both offensively and defensively. The Islanders were 9-1-0 with him in the lineup this season. Of course the first game without him they lose. They have as many losses in 1 game since sending him down than they had in 10 games with him in the lineup. I just don't understand why management hates him so much. He's so good, yet for some reason they'd rather keep Michael Dal Colle or Tom Kuhnhackl in the NHL instead. Terrible.

tgags123 : that's one of these strange things though. The team plays well with him in the lineup but I think he had 1 goal and 1 assist (I checked last night and that might be wrong). So personally he wasn't doing all that well but the team was doing well.

And the loss right after getting sent down. If no one else noticed I am sure he did. I'm surprised he has survived in the organization as long as he has. After all the drama between him and the organization I would have assumed they would have moved him by now. Maybe what they are asking for him isn't what anyone will pay or maybe they are hoping he "grows out of it" or something. Hard to know what goes on behind the scenes. Hopefully he continues to produce in the AHL and proves them wrong.

geeogree : His point totals weren't great, but that's mostly because Filppula and Komarov weren't capitalizing on the opportunities that Ho-Sang created for them. I don't know how much you follow advanced stats, but over the span of time that he was with the team, he was one of the best players in the league at maximizing shots for and minimizing shots against. Here's a graph from @HaberMetrics, one of my favorite Islanders Twitter accounts:



And another one showing how he made pretty much everyone he played with better:

tgags123 : ah, I don't follow too much of the advanced metrics. So, on paper (regular statistics) he doesn't look great but looking at something like this he is outperforming the entire team.... and yet gets sent down.

Maybe if they put him on a line with people who could finish he would have more to show for it on statistics most people see.

I agree with you on this one. It makes no sense.

Other than the loss on my birthday, the Islanders have been super awesome over the last 2 or so weeks. Including todays sick win against the Rangers, they won 7 of their last 8 games and are creeping up the standings.

They're still near the bottom of the playoff board but their just pointd behind. Only a couple points separate them from the top.

zanderlex : Isles play the Rangers again tomorrow at 1:00 in Brooklyn! I'm actually going to the game, I'm super excited. They were terrible in the third period yesterday, they only had 1 shot the entire period and they scored on it lol. Hopefully tomorrow they dominate the whole game like I know they can.

tgags123 : I was gonna go tomorrow but the tickets are way too expensive lol.

zanderlex : Yeah, Isles / Rangers games are always really expensive to go to. That's what happens with a rivalry game. I got the tickets from my mom for Christmas. It should be a lot of fun, especially after the feisty game yesterday. I'm excited.

tgags123 : man you're so lucky. I really wish I could go to this one. Especially since I live right along the train.

I'm honestly still pinching myself at how well Calgary has been doing this year. I've watched several games where the team has gotten down 2-0 or given up a 1 or 2 goal lead only to rally in the 2nd or 3rd period and come away with the win. That hasn't always been the case but this year it feels like they are never out of the game no matter where things stand. Their compete level is nearly always there (except the most recent game in Colorado where they didn't seem motivated at all) and they manage to score almost at will. They've got the 2nd highest goal total (and are 2nd overall in the league) right now. Goals against is 15th which isn't great but could be a lot worse considering how Smith has played in some games.

I'm trying to keep my expectations tempered though. Playoffs are a totally different beast but at least this team has been in 3 playoff series in the past 3 years so it won't be as overwhelming as their return to the playoffs in 2016. And with Tampa Bay as best in the east we might be up for a rematch 15 years in the making.

Man 7 minutes into the game and the Islanders are destroying the best team in the league.

geeogree : I've been expecting Calgary to break out for a few years now. The success they're having this season doesn't surprise me that much. They have a really solid team, and Johnny Gaudreau is a beast.

zanderlex : I have no idea what's going on right now lol. Where was this team against the Rangers yesterday? 3 goals in the first 5 minutes against the Lightning, crazy.

tgags123 : Not only that, 4 minutes after the Islanders scored their 3rd goal was when Tampa Bay even gotten their first shot of the night.

2 of the Islanders goals were scored within 30 seconds.

While Vegas is up there with Calgary at the top of the west standings, it is concerning just the amount of games they’ve already played, meaning that other teams can make up points and they catch up in games. Also concerning is the workload that Flower has been on as of late, playing just about almost every game for Vegas. Subban has been playing more, and has looked sharper, but MAF is leading the league in games played, but also in wins.

Also concerning is the slump that Wild Bill and Marchy have been in lately, not scoring many goals or points. It is AMAZING to see John Merril finally start to play like a professional, which is helping the defense a ton. Also since Statsney got back from injury, he’s looked fantastic, scoring 8 goals since his return a few weeks ago.

I was sad to see Marchessault didn’t get last man in ballot, but it’s fine having just Flower as an all star. Vegas is generally looking a lot better than they did at the beginning of the season.

Man I really picked a good day to go to a game. My plan was to stay home or go see a movie and then I randomly checked to see if there were ANY sports games going on today and saw that my 2 favorite hockey teams were playing each other.

The beginning of the game was crazy man. The islanders scored 3 goals before the Lightning even had their first shot. They destroyed the best team in the league and won I think 11 of their last 14 games. They're on a role.

There are rumors floating around that the reason for Josh Ho-Sang's demotion was because he was late to a team meeting, and now they are trying to trade him. To me, that is ridiculous. Yes, being late to a team meeting is unacceptable. Do what they do in every other sport and bench him for a game or two. Don't punish yourself by making your team significantly worse, and then forcing yourself to trade a very talented player for next to no return (because his trade value isn't very high at the moment).

The way they are handling Ho-Sang is kind of crazy to me. Austin Watson was arrested for beating his girlfriend, and was welcomed right back into the Predators lineup as soon as he was finished serving his suspension. Ho-Sang (who, by the way, is also a more talented player than Watson) was late to practice once, and was now late to a meeting once, and they're burying him in the AHL and attempting to trade him for a bag of pucks for it. Makes no sense to me. I get wanting to send a message that tardiness is unprofessional and unacceptable, but sacrificing the success of the team is not the way to do it.

Now that that rants is over, apparently I'm going to the Isles game against the Blues in Brooklyn tomorrow. My mom's boyfriend randomly called me earlier today and asked if I wanted to go, and obviously I said yes. I hope they play as well against the Blues as they did against the Lightning yesterday.

I'm not sure what the rules are about double posting in this thread, but THE NEW YORK ISLANDERS ARE NOW IN FIRST PLACE IN THE METROPOLITAN DIVISION! Additionally, they have the same amount of points as the Toronto Maple Leafs (John Tavares' new team) in the same number of games played.

In their last 16 games, the Isles are 13-3-0. They just dominated the defending Stanley Cup Champion Washingon Capitals in DC, with their backup goalie playing, on the second night of back to back games.

I've never seen Isles hockey like this before. I really hope we play Toronto in the playoffs and absolutely destroy them. That would be the most satisfying feeling ever.

I'm excited. I really feel like this team is for real. Not only are they winning, they are completely outplaying their opponents. I can't wait to see how far this team can go.