Montreal Canadiens netminder Andrew Hammond is looking forward to making his first start since 2018 after interim head coach Martin St. Louis confirmed the 34-year-old will take the crease against the New York Islanders on Sunday.
"I'm through-the-roof excited. Last year was difficult at times, but I think it gave me a good opportunity to get ready for this moment. So when I do play, I feel like I'll be ready," Hammond said during his media availability Saturday.
Hammond, who was traded to the Canadiens from the Minnesota Wild earlier this month, last saw NHL action in April 2018 during three playoff contests as a member of the Colorado Avalanche. He surrendered five goals on 37 shots in his last game.
Up until his move to Montreal, Hammond spent the 2021-22 campaign with the AHL's Iowa Wild and went 6-2-3 with a .908 save percentage over 11 games.
Hammond gained some notoriety in the early years of his NHL career with the Ottawa Senators. He became widely known as "the Hamburglar" during the 2014-15 season after helping the unlikely Senators reach the playoffs with a sparkling .941 save percentage and 20-1-2 record.
Following his surprise success, Hammond struggled to rediscover his form and played 24 contests with Ottawa in 2015-16 before recording seven regular-season appearances over the next two campaigns.
"I still want to play in this league," he said. "I think I can play well, and having that self-belief has kind of driven me to keep wanting to keep trying."
He added, "Things haven't always necessarily come easy, and it's taken a little bit longer than it would for some other people but for me, it's just kind of worked out this way."
Hammond has backed up Sam Montembeault during Montreal's past two contests.
He holds a .923 save percentage and a 2.31 goals-against average in 56 career NHL appearances.
Puck drops on Hammond's Canadiens debut Sunday at 2 p.m. ET.
In the late spring of 1998, Cleveland's Major League Baseball team attempted something never done before in the league: It went public.
With an initial public offering on the NASDAQ exchange, anyone could buy a small slice of the franchise.
The club traded under the ticker symbol "CLEV." Cleveland joined the NBA's Boston Celtics (ticker: BOS) and the NHL's Florida Panthers (PUCK) as the only publicly traded North American pro sports franchises.
Cleveland was coming off a World Series appearance and was selling out Progressive Field for entire seasons. On June 4, 1998, when the stock debuted, the entire allotment of 4 million shares was sold within an hour of the opening bell. The shares debuted at $15 apiece, raising some $54 million after fees for late owner Richard Jacobs, who sold about half his stake in the club but retained voting rights and control.
When it opened in 1994, Cleveland's new ballpark was first named after owner Richard Jacobs. David Liam Kyle / Getty Images
"I'll find a good use to put it to," Jacobs told the Cleveland Plain Dealer of the cash. "I'm pleased with the acceptance of the offer by institutions and fans."
Jacobs hoped to diversify the club's revenue streams through media and real estate endeavors.
Today, the Guardians, Celtics, and Panthers are all under private ownership. Cleveland's baseball team was publicly traded for a little more than a year until Larry Dolan bought it in November 1999. Shareholders who held CLEV stock were paid $23 per share. The Panthers were purchased by an investment group in 2001. The Celtics were taken private in 2002. That was the end of the direct-listing era of publicly traded North American pro teams.
One can buy indirect stakes in the Atlanta Braves or Toronto Blue Jays through their parent companies, Liberty Media (BATRA) and Rogers Communications (RCI), or in New York Knicks and New York Rangers stock through MSG Sports (MSGS), but there are no longer any North American-based sports franchises listed on their own.
You can indirectly buy a slice of the Atlanta Braves by buying stock in Liberty Media. Icon Sportswire / Getty Images
There are a few European soccer clubs, like Manchester United (ticker: MANU) whose shares can be purchased on public markets. The Green Bay Packers are owned by shareholders but shares of the team are not traded on the stock market.
So why don't we see more sports teams go public, at least in a limited fashion? Many fans would love to buy shares in their favorite teams like the San Francisco Giants or Dallas Cowboys.
In this age of record retail trading, with millions of new individual investors opening brokerage accounts and actively trading on apps and elsewhere, there is likely even more demand for pro sports stocks than in the 1990s. Teams could be the new meme stocks.
Team owners often claim they are struggling to turn a profit. They could raise hundreds of millions of dollars by selling off a portion of their clubs at a time of record valuations for many asset classes, including sports franchises. A record number of companies went public in 2021 taking advantage of market conditions.
When MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said last week that MLB owners would be better off to invest in the stock market instead of major-league teams, numerous fans stated on Twitter that they would be happy to transfer funds from their 401(k) to invest in baseball clubs.
If I could buy a microscopic share in a team - any team - right now, I’d run to the bank to get the check cut.
Wouldn't fans rather trade in actual shares of the Yankees and Dodgers than NFTs? Fans would likely gobble up shares even if they were owned more as souvenirs than in hopes of ballasting their retirement accounts.
So why isn't this happening?
For starters, MLB introduced a rule in 2017 that prevented a club from going public. The Braves and Blue Jays were grandfathered in.
An industry source familiar with the rule told theScore, "It was decided that having a public company own an MLB team did not mesh with our rules concerning having a controlling owner who has ultimate authority and responsibility for making (team) decisions."
Similar to MLB, the NFL prohibits public ownership, and the NBA and NHL have requirements that make it difficult to go public, according to Stephen Dodson, a portfolio manager for the San Francisco-based Bretton Fund.
When Manny Ramirez took the field in 1998 - including in this playoff game against the Yankees - he did so as an employee of a publicly traded team, the first in MLB history. Jonathan Daniel / Getty
Moreover, despite the lofty franchise values that pro sports enjoy, Dodson said Wall Street is not overly enamored with the prospect of investing in sports teams.
"A sports team is almost always worth more to a very rich person than it is to a company who only cares about its cash flows," Dodson said in an email interview with theScore.
"Sports teams are a bit of a vanity asset, like owning a Picasso, and the highest bidder is going to be a very rich person who wants to own the team so they (can) call themselves an owner of a sports team."
Growth opportunities are limited for most sports teams because they are largely still tied to local and regional revenues. Only the most iconic brands could hope to open up revenue streams nationally or globally.
Bill Miller, a financial journalist, said at the time of Cleveland's IPO, "The Indians can only sell ballgames in one spot, and that's Cleveland."
Even the club acknowledged this in its prospectus filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "The Company's management believes that much of the Club's local revenue potential has been realized and that future increases in the Club's revenues, operating income and net income, if any, are likely to be substantially less than those realized over the past five years."
One fund manager told Reuters of the CLEV stock, "This is something you buy and hang (the certificate) on the wall, or give to your grandson."
Florida Panthers new owner Vincent Viola and Original team owner H. Wayne Huizenga walk out on the ice at the BB&T Center on October 11, 2013 in Sunrise, Florida. Huizenga had taken the Panthers public. Eliot J. Schechter / Getty
While pro sports is big business, and franchises are valuable assets to own if you can afford them, it's relatively minor compared to other publicly traded giants.
Consider that Apple, the most valuable North American company, produced $123 billion in fourth-quarter revenue. That's more than all revenue MLB reported for 18 years combined from 2003 to 2020 ($120 billion).
Raphael de Balmann, co-portfolio manager with Dodson at the Bretton Fund, noted in an email interview with theScore, "Pro sports economics are set up to minimize reported income. This is important for a lot of reasons, not least that you have extremely strong unions. Public companies generally want to show high incomes."
Player pay was another foremost concern for the Cleveland baseball club, as it shared in its 1998 prospectus filing.
"The goal of the Company's player personnel management efforts is to maintain a competitive team while limiting the unpredictability in player salaries resulting from salary arbitration and free agency," the filing stated. "Management's confidence in its ability to identify promising young players has permitted the Club to selectively enter into multi-year contracts with players early in their careers."
It was in the early 1990s that Cleveland pioneered the practice of signing young players to pre-arbitration extensions to control costs. Sandy Alomar Jr., Carlos Baerga, and Charles Nagy were among the first Cleveland targeted.
Manchester United's IPO hit the New York on Aug. 10, 2012. Bloomberg / Getty Images
One member of an MLB ownership group who spoke to theScore said tax implications are a major reason why we don't see owners rushing to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on the day of an IPO debut. Pro sports teams are akin to a Captain America-like shield for deflecting tax bills. Last year, ProPublica investigated the ways in which owners use their teams to avoid paying millions in taxes.
"There are a few major tax advantages in sports team ownership," De Balmann said. "The most obvious is depreciation in (a stadium). If you own Madison Square Garden, you depreciate the building over 30 years. That's a big tax shield.
"If you also own the Knicks and the Rangers, you have the Knicks and the Rangers pay a massive amount of rent - causing the Knicks and Rangers to be break-even ventures - and then the abnormally large income stream at the building is offset by its depreciation, so neither entity owes any cash taxes. That requires common control of both the arena and the team."
James L. Dolan has private control of the Knicks, Rangers and Madison Square Garden. Rich Graessle / Getty Images
The Braves Group, as shown in Liberty Media's financial reports, wrote down $20 million in depreciation and amortization for their most recent quarter.
The open scrutiny that comes with being a public company would be unthinkable for any group of billionaires.
Cleveland's IPO prospectus offered a compendium of the team's financials for the years from 1993 to 1998.
"In the current baseball dispute, the MLB teams refuse to open their books to the MLBPA, and in salary-cap sports such as the NBA, there is a very negotiated term, BRI - Basketball Related Income - that the owners insist upon to allow them to hide the rest of their economics," De Balmann said.
All that said, the Celtics and Indians were good investments for Wall Street and fans as publicly traded companies. They weren't just souvenirs; they both beat the market, which runs contrary to Manfred's claim last week that the stock market is a better investment than owning an MLB club.
Joshua Hubman, who wrote a 2011 thesis on the topic for the Finance and Sport Management program at SUNY Brockport, found that during the 14-year run when the Celtics were public, the stock produced an average annual return of 16.4%, including its dividend. That was compared to the S&P 500's 9% annual return during the same period.
(The S&P 500 is a stock market index that tracks the performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States.)
Celtics chairman Don Gaston, who took the team public in 1986, is next to Larry Bird in this 1986 team photo. If you invested in the Celtics, you would have beaten the S&P 500. Bettmann / Getty Images
Cleveland beat the S&P 500 by 34 percentage points during its time being traded.
The Panthers averaged 12% gains per year but trailed the S&P 500's stronger return of 20% during its time on the open market. The NHL was also a much weaker industry at the time. The late Wayne Huizenga was awarded the Panthers as an expansion franchise in 1993 and took it public in 1996 to share the pain with investors after losing millions.
(A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), a shell company that raises money through an IPO then purchases a company to avoid the IPO process, tried to buy the Panthers in 2009, but the deal fell through and the club remained private.)
With COVID-19 restrictions impacting teams' revenue over the last two years, some franchises have sold pieces of their companies to SPACs that are focused on sports.
Former Oakland Athletics executive Billy Beane is a partner in Redball, a SPAC that sought to acquire 25% of Fenway Sports Group earlier this year, although that deal has reportedly fallen through. Theo Epstein, the former Cubs and Red Sox executive, is a partner in Arctos NorthStar, a sports SPAC that trades on the New York Stock Exchange. Sportico reported that Arctos has $2.9 billion in assets and has already purchased small shares in the Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Minnesota Wild.
Increasing franchise valuations is no doubt part of the appeal for SPAC investors. Many pro sports franchise values have greatly outpaced S&P 500 returns.
Fans would love to own small stakes in their favorite teams, but for now, it looks like SPAC shares, or those of Rogers or Liberty Media, are as close as they can get.
Travis Sawchik is theScore's senior baseball writer.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman upheld Boston Bruins star Brad Marchand's six-game suspension for roughing and high-sticking Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry, the league announced Friday.
The incident occurred during a testy matchup between the Eastern Conference foes on Feb. 8. Marchand punched Jarry in the head after the netminder denied the Bruins winger on a scoring chance in the dying seconds of the final frame. A scrum broke out soon afterward, and Marchand hit Jarry's mask with his stick.
Brad Marchand punches Tristan Jarry and then sticks him in the mask.
Referees assessed Marchand a minor penalty for roughing and a match penalty on the play.
The Department of Player Safety announced its decision to suspend the 33-year-old on Feb. 9. Marchand filed an appeal a couple of days later, arguing that his actions were stupid but weren't "suspension-worthy."
His hearing was held on Feb. 16. In his ruling, Bettman said he found Marchand's remorse to be sincere but added that the veteran's suspension history is "unenviable." The league has suspended Marchand eight times in his career and twice this season. He received a three-game ban for slew-footing Vancouver Canucks defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson in November.
Marchand testified that Jarry provoked him by saying, "How about that f------ save?" but admitted he overreacted.
Marchand leads all Bruins with 49 points in 39 games this campaign. He's already sat out four games of his suspension and is eligible to return Thursday against the Seattle Kraken.
Edmonton Oilers forward Jesse Puljujarvi will miss approximately the next four weeks with a lower-body injury, head coach Jay Woodcroft said Friday.
Puljujarvi was hurt during a 7-3 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night.
The 23-year-old tied the game 7:26 into the second period with his 12th goal of the season before exiting just over three minutes later.
Puljujarvi was in the midst of a career campaign in his fifth year with Edmonton. The Swedish-born winger produced 16 assists to go along with his dozen markers through 46 games. He's already set a new personal best in the NHL with 28 points this season, and he's three goals shy of tying his career-high in that regard.
The Oilers' fourth overall pick in 2016 has frequently skated alongside Connor McDavid on the team's top line in 2021-22.
The Montreal Canadiens are bringing in another Tampa Bay Lightning icon less than two weeks after naming Martin St. Louis head coach.
Vincent Lecavalier is the club's new special advisor to hockey operations, while Nick Bobrov will serve as co-director of amateur scouting along with Martin Lapointe, who already occupied that role in addition to director of player personnel.
Lecavalier excelled over a 17-year playing career spent primarily with the Lightning. The Quebec-born forward notched 421 goals and 528 assists over 1,212 games, helping Tampa Bay win the Stanley Cup in 2004. Lecavalier won the "Rocket" Richard Trophy three years later after posting a career-high 52 goals in 2006-07.
The 41-year-old hung up his skates in 2016, and the Lightning retired his number in 2018. Lecavalier remains Tampa Bay's all-time leader in games played, ranks second in both goals and assists, and sits third in points in franchise history. He captained the team from 2008-13 after doing so in 2000-01 and sharing the "C" in the previous campaign.
Lecavalier and St. Louis were Lightning teammates for 12 seasons. The newer member of the Canadiens was a longtime client of Kent Hughes, the ex-agent who Montreal recently hired as general manager.
Bobrov was the New York Rangers' director of European scouting from 2015-21 and served the same role with the Boston Bruins from 2001-06. Canadiens executive vice president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton worked with Bobrov in both of the latter's previous stops. Montreal hired Gorton in November on the same day as former GM Marc Bergevin's firing.
The Nashville Predators and Carolina Hurricanes have seen a lot of each other over the last year and change. Thanks to division realignment a season ago, they've actually gone head-to-head nine times.
Of those nine meetings, guess how many featured more than six goals? I'll give you a hint - the answer rhymes with hero. That's right, all nine contests would've at least pushed with a total of six.
I expect the streak to extend to 10 for a few reasons.
Juuse Saros owns a .924 save percentage this season and has saved 18 more goals than expected through 41 games. That's the fourth-highest total in the NHL.
Saros' counterpart has performed just as well, if not better. Frederik Andersen has rebounded in the best way imaginable during his first season in Carolina. His save percentage sits at .928, and only Igor Shesterkin (+26.5) - the odds-on Vezina favorite - has fared better (+24.9) in terms of goals saved above expectation.
The goaltending should be great, and I have faith in both defenses helping their guy out as well. The Predators have been one of the league's best at limiting high-danger chances. The Hurricanes are competent as well, with Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce chewing up big minutes.
With the makeup of each team, and both entering this game having lost at least two in a row, I just don't see this turning into a shootout.
Life is good under new head coach Jay Woodcroft. The Edmonton Oilers have won all four games since he became bench boss and their underlying numbers suggest those results were no fluke.
The Oilers have outshot opponents 112-85 (56.85%) at five-on-five, controlled more than 59% of the expected goals, and beaten teams into the ground on the scoreboard (14-3).
Their superstars have busted out of their slumps (relatively speaking) while the support players have contributed at both ends of the rink.
That's why the Oilers have been scoring at will, and that's why they have allowed fewer shots and chances per minute than every team in the NHL over the last four games. Small sample size, I know, but this is a much different team than we saw under Dave Tippett.
The Winnipeg Jets have spun their wheels for a while now. The offense is inconsistent, they routinely get outplayed, and Connor Hellebuyck is only just coming out of a bad slump.
I see a lot of edges for this red-hot Oilers team and expect their success to continue this weekend.
Bet: Oilers (-120)
Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @ToddCordell.
Jack Eichel may have flashed his elite skating and playmaking abilities Wednesday in a 17-minute debut for the Vegas Golden Knights, but overall, his performance was underwhelming. The former Buffalo Sabres star center recorded one shot on goal, won eight of 19 draws, took two penalties, and was on the ice for one of Colorado's goals in a 2-0 loss.
Golden Knights head coach Pete DeBoer told reporters postgame that it was a "great first step" for Eichel, who's jumping onto a moving train following a nearly year-long layoff. DeBoer's not wrong, Eichel will be fine in time.
Bruce Bennett / Getty Images
Of course, the more interesting part of Eichel's debut was the manner in which he was activated off long-term injured reserve (LTIR). Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon announced Monday that captain and presumed Eichel linemate Mark Stone and his $9.5-million salary-cap hit would be placed on LTIR, freeing more than enough space to fit Eichel's $10 million.
Stone, who missed time earlier this season, is dealing with a nagging back problem. Yet the convenient timing of his move to LTIR raised more than a few conspiratorial eyebrows across the hockey world. Similar to Patrick Kane and Nikita Kucherov in 2015 and 2021, respectively, Stone could potentially be reinserted into the lineup for the first game of the playoffs, where teams can exceed the limit because there's no postseason salary cap.
(It's also possible Stone returns prior to the playoffs, which would force Vegas to shed salary ahead of the March 21 trade deadline. McCrimmon has said Stone's recovery timeline is currently "impossible to predict.")
Jeff Bottari / Getty Images
I poked around a bit this week to see if rival team executives were irked by what appears on the surface to be another convenient LTIR situation.
The consensus view from a few conversations: The 2014-15 Chicago Blackhawks, 2020-21 Tampa Bay Lightning, and (perhaps) the 2021-22 Golden Knights aren't doing anything egregious. LTIR rules, which were agreed upon by the NHL and NHLPA in collective bargaining, allow this kind of maneuvering given the player is, in fact, injured. Clubs are just finding a competitive advantage within the CBA's scope.
"I know the league is making sure teams aren't abusing their LTIR - and I don't think anyone's abusing it, to be clear - but it's a loophole and teams are jumping through it," one executive said. "It sort of is what it is."
"Someday it might be us," the exec said, laughing.
"Look," a second executive said, "if the Leafs traded for a really good player and Auston Matthews got hurt and they shut him down for three months and brought him back for the playoffs, so be it. There's a level playing field here."
If anyone has an issue with what's going on, fingers should be pointing at the NHL andthe players' union, not the teams. Besides, if enough influential people started voicing their displeasure behind the scenes, the league could theoretically rewrite the LTIR rules to punish a team for exploiting this loophole by, say, not allowing the injured player to compete in the first game or two of the playoffs.
"They can definitely amend it with the players' consent," the first exec noted. "I've always thought a good solution is to just put in some kind of penalty."
Or, as the second exec pointed out, let teams continue to do the LTIR dance as is. There's no guarantee it'll work out, anyway. Vegas, for instance, is not only without its No. 1 winger for an extended period but is also unable to test out a line of Eichel-Stone-Max Pacioretty until, potentially, the playoffs.
"Yeah, you're benefiting from the salary cap, and so on and so forth, but you're also hurting your team," the second exec said.
Wild's quiet dominance
David Berding / Getty Images
Six teams currently boast a points percentage of .700 or higher, and five of them (Colorado, Florida, Carolina, Tampa Bay, Toronto) are generating plenty of buzz as legitimate Stanley Cup front-runners.
Minnesota - the other .700 team - has been, from my observations, mainly labeled a fringe contender. It's a bit unfair, although the disconnect may be as simple as this: The Wild's biggest strength is their depth, and depth isn't sexy.
Kirill Kaprizov is the Wild's lone star attraction, with the crafty Russian winger tied for seventh in league scoring with 59 points in 44 contests. Yet, since another 11 Wild skaters have points-per-game rates of 0.50 or higher, Minnesota owns the third-best offense as measured by goals per game (3.8).
Dean Evason's team comes at the opposition in waves.
"We want to be an aggressive team, a team that's attacking at all times and on the right side of the puck at all times," captain Jared Spurgeon said in an interview earlier this week. "Having that depth definitely helps keep us fresh. Guys can go over the boards feeling like they're really able to attack, attack."
Bruce Kluckhohn / Getty Images
Six players have already reached double digits in goals - Kaprizov (22), Ryan Hartman (19), Marcus Foligno (17), Joel Eriksson Ek (15), Mats Zuccarello (15), and Kevin Fiala (14). Matt Boldy has dealt with multiple injuries in his rookie season but is close to joining the list; in 14 games, the rangy winger has pitched in seven goals (including a hat trick Monday) and seven assists.
"He's pretty special," Spurgeon said of Boldy. "Just the way he can shield the puck from opponents and the vision he has on the ice - not just passing-wise and how he can create for his linemates, but he also has a great shot."
"For being 20 years old, Bolds is so mature and so calm and cool with the puck," the blue-liner added. "He's very confident in his skill set, but at the same time, he's just out there having fun, making plays. He's been awesome."
The depth extends to other areas. Ice time is split fairly evenly between the top two defensive pairings, and between the pipes, starter Cam Talbot (29 starts) is sharing the workload with the promising Kaapo Kahkonen (16).
Amazingly, the Wild have had only one extended losing streak all season, dropping five straight games from Dec. 11 to Jan. 1, despite playing in a competitive Central Division.
"We have a mature group, and we know what we need to fix. So the next night we try to get back to our game," said Spurgeon, the longest-tenured Wild player. "It's the maturity of the group and the depth that we have at all positions."
You can say that again.
3 stunning Habs stats
Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images
The Montreal Canadiens have earned 25 points in 49 games for a .255 points percentage, the lowest rate since the salary cap was introduced in 2005-06.
The Habs' results thus far have been worse than the 2019-20 Detroit Red Wings (.275) and 2016-17 Colorado Avalanche (.293). They're even well behind this year's so-obviously tanking Arizona Coyotes (.292). Trades made ahead of the March 21 deadline (like Tyler Toffoli earlier this week) will do nothing to help the on-ice product in Montreal.
Extreme winning/losing tends to bring out stunning stats. Here's a few:
The Canadiens have lost by three or more goals 23 times. In 2022 alone, they've lost 14 of their 16 games - eight of them by three or more goals, including blowouts of 8-2, 7-2, and 7-1. Sad and demoralizing.
Montreal is the only team without a player in the top 100 in scoring. Nick Suzuki is tied for 126th (28 points). Toffoli, who's now with Calgary, is tied for 142nd (27). Jonathan Drouin and Artturi Lehkonen are both tied for 227th (20).
The Habs have a five-on-five expected goals against per 60 minutes rate of 2.81. In other words, not only are they losing often, and by a lot, but they're also getting destroyed territorially. Since shot-based metrics started being tracked in 2007-08, only the 2010-11 Islanders (2.84) and 2012-13 Hurricanes (2.82) have recorded worse five-on-five xGA/60 rates, according to Evolving Hockey.
Parting thoughts
Old guard: What a week for dudes over 30. Drew Doughty, 32, played in his 1,000th game. Sidney Crosby, 34, became the 46th player in NHL history to reach 500 goals. Alex Ovechkin, 36, scored his 30th and 31st of the season to stay in the hunt for the "Rocket" Richard and Hart trophies. And Jaromir Jagr, who turned 50 on Tuesday, laced up in Czechia's top pro league.
Jaromir Jagr turns 50 tomorrow. He is still playing hockey. Between the NHL, European leagues, regular season, and playoffs he has played more 2,410 professional hockey games since *1988*
Dallas Stars: Of the NHL's 32 teams, the Stars might be the biggest unknown with just a month left before the trade deadline. They're right around the playoff cut line in the Western Conference and certainly have enough talent to secure a postseason spot down the stretch. Yet John Klingberg is reportedly on the trade block and Joe Pavelski, if made available, would be a hot commodity. That's two veterans who could command a haul of draft picks and prospects. Is it worth selling, though? Does general manager Jim Nill instead stand pat? Buy, even?
Sam Reinhart: Following seven dreadful seasons in Buffalo, Reinhart is enjoying a career year with the juggernaut Florida Panthers, recording 45 points in as many games. The 26-year-old winger is also enjoying how the intensity can really ratchet up in the regular season when there's something to play for. That said, as Reinhart humorously pointed out to reporters after Florida's 3-2 overtime win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday, it's all so fresh.
Thursday was yet another winning day for our props. While Nick Suzuki didn't get the job done, Dylan Larkin and Patrick Kane did, pushing our record this week to 6-2.
We'll look to continue our success as we comb through the best values for Friday's four-game slate.
Aleksander Barkov over 3.5 shots (+105)
Another day, another Aleksander Barkov shot prop. He's been absolutely lethal of late, recording at least four shots in eight of his last nine games. Barkov has hit against the likes of the Vegas Golden Knights and the Carolina Hurricanes, so it's not like he's just beating up on bad teams.
His recent success should carry into Friday. The Minnesota Wild are a strong team, but they're not bulletproof, especially when it comes to preventing shots. They sit 21st in shots against over the last 10 games.
What adds to Barkov's appeal is how badly Minnesota has struggled to limit opposing centers' shots. Only five teams have given up more per game to the position.
I'm happy to take my chances with Barkov at plus money.
Joel Eriksson Ek over 2.5 shots (-125)
Joel Eriksson Ek is a machine on home ice. He's registered 39 shots over his last 10 games in Minnesota and gone over the number (2.5) in eight of his last nine. But Eriksson Ek isn't just grinding out wins; he's picking them up with room to spare. He's registered four shots or more in seven of the last nine and averaged 4.4 per game over the last five.
The Florida Panthers, like Minnesota, are a strong squad, but they also give up plenty of volume to opposing centers. Only seven teams concede more shots per game against centers.
Given Florida's struggles with the position and Eriksson Ek's insane volume on home ice, this line feels too soft.
Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @ToddCordell.
