The Toronto Maple Leafs proved a lot of NHL experts wrong last season when they qualified for the playoffs for the second time since 2004. And while the feat was no fluke, Auston Matthews knows that replicating last year's success will be a much tougher task this season.
"Only 16 teams make it and it’s not going to be easy," Matthews said Friday, according to the Toronto Sun's Lance Hornby. "We surprised some teams last year. That doesn’t really matter now. It’s a new season, they’re going to know that we have some firepower and they’re not going to take us so lightly."
While Toronto didn't make any major splashes on the free-agent market, they did add veteran depth, and, with the signing of Patrick Marleau, some winning caliber, as well.
"He‘s played 19 years, he’s been in the Stanley Cup finals, he knows how to win,” said Matthews. "When I talked to him he was pretty excited to be here."
"All three of those guys we picked up are veterans who can definitely help us now, as a young team. They’re guys who’ve been there. Ron Hainsey won a Cup last year (in Pittsburgh), Dominic Moore is a Toronto native and been in the league a while."
With another year of experience under is belt and new teammates in tow, Matthews expects both himself and his team to elevate their play for the 2017-18 campaign.
"As an individual and as a team, we all want to take a step forward this season."
Despite missing the playoffs in three of the last five seasons, the Philadelphia Flyers are not in rebuild mode - if you ask general manager Ron Hextall, anyway.
Yes, the Flyers did pick with the second overall selection in this year's draft, but that was mostly due to a stroke of good luck, as the Flyers were a competitive team that finished only seven points short of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot. A result that Hextall feels is a strong indication of the direction his club is going.
"You’re not rebuilding when you’re competitive," Hextall said, according to Sam Carchidi of Philly.com. "A rebuild, to me, is when you go to the bottom and you pick high, high, high - and essentially, you’re not trying that hard to win. That’s not in our DNA. We want to win. We want to win as many games as possible."
"We’re not going to go to the bottom of the league and pick first overall for four or five years. That’s no way to build culture. Our vision was to stay competitive, and build, and get younger - and that’s exactly what we’re doing."
Landing Nolan Patrick with the second overall pick obviously goes a long way to ensuring that vision come to fruition, but, Hextall realizes that at the end of the day, execution on the ice is all that matters.
"I can sit here and tell you 85 points, 105 points, but it really doesn’t mean anything," said Hextall. “What’s (important) is when our team starts the season and we go do it. Do we expect to make the playoffs? Of course we expect to make the playoffs."
" ... I’m comfortable saying we expect to make the playoffs because our team on paper is good enough to make the playoffs."
The Flyers drop the puck on their 2017-18 season Oct. 4 in San Jose.
The following players are already adequate fantasy performers, but some basic analytics suggest they could make the leap from good to great this season if some more bounces go their way.
Aaron Ekblad, Panthers
Ekblad had a strange season. He played a career-low 68 games but set a career high with 225 shots. His career shooting percentage heading into the season was 7.7, but he only scored on 4.4 percent of his shots in 2016-17.
If he maintains his shot generation but scores on the 7.7 rate from his first two seasons, he projects to score 21 goals if he plays all 82 games.
It was also strange that despite having a prominent role on Florida's blue line, he only managed 11 assists after averaging 24 in his first two seasons. This was likely a mix of bad luck and the Panthers being without their two best forwards - Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau - for good chunks of the season.
Elias Lindholm, Hurricanes
Lindholm set a career high with 34 assists last season even though he missed 10 games due to injury. Thirty-four helpers is pretty good for a 22-year-old, but the data indicates his assist total could have been much higher.
Amazingly, 29 of the 34 were primary helpers. Most players have a much closer split in their assist totals. For example, Nicklas Backstrom had 32 primary assists and 31 secondary assists.
As the first-line center on what projects to be a much-improved Hurricanes team, there's a good chance Lindholm at least triples his secondary assist totals. With some luck in the shooting percentage department (his was 3.2 percent below league average last year), Lindholm is a darkhorse candidate to collect 70 points.
Frank Vatrano, Bruins
Vatrano is expected to be a mainstay on Boston's second line this season, and if Bruce Cassidy ever opts to split up the Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak trio, Vatrano could find himself playing alongside even more talented players.
His 11.74 shots on goal per 60 minutes was the eighth-highest mark in the NHL. The only problem was that he missed 38 games and averaged less than 14 minutes per contest.
Playing a full season in an expanded role, Vatrano could become a 30-goal scorer in 2017-18. After all, he did score 36 goals in 36 AHL games in 2014-15. The 23-year-old is a high-volume shooter with a knack for scoring.
Tanner Pearson, Kings
Pearson has consistently improved in his NHL career.
Season
Age
PPG
SPG
ATOI
2013-14
21
0.28
1.24
10:49
2014-15
22
0.38
1.62
13:18
2015-16
23
0.46
1.73
14:28
2016-17
24
0.55
2.34
16:19
As you can see, his points per game and shots per game have increased with age and ice time. He turned this progression into 24 goals and 20 assists last year on what was a down season from many Kings forwards, including his linemate, Tyler Toffoli.
Pearson ranked seventh in the NHL with 66.4 shot attempts per 60 minutes at five-on-five. However, of his 364 total shot attempts, he only hit the net with 187. Pearson has a heavy shot, and, if he's able to harness it, goals will come in bunches for the former first-round pick.
The Kings made a coaching change in the offseason, replacing Darryl Sutter with John Stevens. It's possible Stevens will give Pearson a bump in his ice time, which could once again result in positive strides offensively for the 25-year-old.
Last season, the Vancouver Canucks scored the second-fewest goals in the league. On Friday, they made a move to help correct that.
The club put pen to paper with forward Thomas Vanek, agreeing to a one-year, $2-million contract. Vanek might be getting up there in age, but he feels he can still be valuable, especially in the goal-scoring department.
"Looking at the team, they are obviously not where they wanted to be last year, but I think you can grow fairly quickly in this league and talking with (first-year coach) Travis Green and (general manager Jim) Benning, they wanted to come in and have someone help out scoring goals, and it just seemed like a really good fit for me," Vanek said, according to NHL.com's Kevin Woodley.
Vancouver finished with the NHL's second-least productive power play last season, connecting on just 14.1 percent of its opportunities. Luckily for the Canucks, that is where Vanek feels his presence can be felt the most.
"That's one of my specialties," Vanek said. "I think I am still very good in front of the net and tipping pucks and reading other players and finding that open space, so it's definitely in my mindset to come in there and work for that power-play time."
Vanek scored five of his 17 goals on the power play in 2016-17, while adding another eight power-play assists. He certainly still has value and it is because of this reason that the 33-year-old admits he never lost faith that he would sign a deal this offseason.
"After you don't go that first week or the first couple days, I knew it was going to be a longer summer," he said, "but at the same time I wasn't worried about it. I knew what I could do and what I could bring, and in fact, if anything, training harder to prove people wrong. I still feel like I can have a lot of years left and score many goals."
The club later inked Darling to a four-year contract and now the man who backed up Corey Crawford will take the reigns in Carolina. Cam Ward would certainly like to keep his net in light of the acquisition, but he understands the move and will do whatever he can to help his new goalie counterpart.
"I'm realistic," Ward said, according to Chip Alexander of the News Observer. "I understand the situation. I know he was brought in here to sign a four-year deal for pretty good money not to be a backup.
"I know where I am in my career. … Certainly I’m a competitive guy and I still want to be able to play and I’ll do whatever I can to earn that ice time, but I'm hopeful he can make that next step. He deserves that."
In 2016-17 Ward posted his worst save percentage and goals-against average in three years with .905 and 2.69 marks respectively. Meanwhile, Darling posted a save percentage of a .924 and a goals-against average of 2.38 - albeit in a smaller sample size.
It's likely part of the reason why Ward admits he was very supportive when he caught wind of the Darling trade.
"I thought it was a great move," Ward said. "I've heard nothing but good things about Scott Darling. … I look at a guy who’s ready to take that next step.
"I've been very fortunate to be here as long as I have and to be a No. 1 guy for over a decade, so I think I have something to offer to him. I think I can offer him my experience and give him the support he needs to make that next step."
Ward will turn 34 this season, while Darling turns 29 this coming December. Ward has 11 full seasons under his belt and knows his game is not at the level it once was.
"I'm getting toward the end," Ward said. "I hate to say that but it's realistic. I'm not in the first-half of my career; I'm in the second half.
"You learn to appreciate the game a lot more, your time with your teammates and trying to help them out. I'm looking forward to meeting Scott. I think we’ll be a good partnership."
While training camp is now just a few weeks out, Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving remains confident the team will get restricted free agent Sam Bennett signed to a new contract.
"We’re going to get Sam signed," Treliving said, according to Eric Francis of the Calgary Herald. "Every contract is unique and takes its own course. We’re working away at it and we think Sam is going to be a good player in this organization for a long time. He’s growing and I know he’s had a good summer. We’ll keep banging away at it."
Bennett just finished his second full season with the Flames, although it was a year in which he saw his stats take a hit. After tallying a respectable 18 goals and 18 assists in 2016, he potted just 13 goals and notched 13 assists this past year.
Bennett is coming off of his entry-level deal and the Flames still have over $7 million in cap space, so a deal is surely forthcoming.
Meanwhile, with a year away until he becomes an unrestricted free agent, the team must also start considering what to do with Mikael Backlund. The 28-year-old is coming off a career-year, contributing 22 goals and 53 points - good enough for third on the club - while playing a huge role with the Flames.
"We’ve got lots of time and he’s a good player and a good man," said Treliving. "We’ll see where that goes."
Treliving is sure to be a busy man in the coming weeks.
The Edmonton Oilers forward demolished his previous career high of 11 goals - tallying 27 last season while also putting up a career-best 42 points - largely playing alongside one or both of McDavid and Draisaitl.
"Obviously without those two I wouldn't have the success I did, but sometimes you've got to give yourself some credit too," Maroon said, according to NHL.com's Louie Korac. "Those two are very tremendous players, and for me I've just got to keep doing what I'm doing to stay with them.
"Obviously Todd McLellan had a really big part in that. He gave me an opportunity to play with those two. For me, I've just got to continue what I did last year, come (to training camp) in really good shape again and hopefully good things fall into place again."
Given the incredible talent both youngsters have shown in such a short time, Maroon knows it's up to him to do some of the dirty work when he is on the ice alongside the two - going to the net, banging away at pucks, and getting into the open areas.
"Playing with Connor and Leon Draisaitl last year, a lot of people don't give Leon enough credit because there's always Connor there," Maroon said. "But I think with both of them together really helped me out last year. They obviously see things that certain players don't see. So for me, I think I was trying to do my part, be big and strong, go to the net hard and hoping for them to find me and hopefully clean up the mess if they got a shot or whatever."
In all, Maroon proved to be a vital part of the Oilers' offense during the regular season and the playoffs - where he tallied another eight points in 13 games. There is certainly renewed confidence in Edmonton and, while Maroon and Co. will look to improve on last year's performance, the big winger understands that nothing is guaranteed.
"I think for us, we can't expect to just do it again," Maroon said. "We've got to start out of the gate hot and play how we're capable of playing and go into the season with confidence and a swagger that we are a good hockey team.
"I think everyone's excited to get this season started. Last year was a tough fall to Anaheim, but we've bounced and we came a long way. It was a proud moment not only for the organization but the players to see how far we came from the year before to doing that. I think the guys are really excited and anxious to get the season started. We know what we're capable of and we know what we have to do to make the playoffs again."
The club signed the 33-year-old to a one-year, $2-million contract on Friday, the team announced.
"Thomas has been a prolific scorer throughout his career and we're excited to add his offence and experience to help with the continued growth of our forwards," general manager Jim Benning said in a release. "His skill and ability to contribute on the scoresheet, combined with his lead-by-example style will help our team this year, and will benefit our younger players as they continue to develop their game."
Vanek is coming off an interesting year that saw him post a respectable 15 goals and 38 points with the Detroit Red Wings, before being dealt to the Florida Panthers where he failed to replicate the same kind of offense, chipping in just two goals and 10 points in 20 games.
The Canucks will be Vanek's seventh NHL club of his career and his seventh stop in just a four-year span.
