National Post (National Edition)
CROSBY EXIT MIGHT MAKE SENSE FOR PENS
TRADE COULD SPEED UP REBUILD IN PITTSBURGH AND GIVE VETERAN SHOT AT FOURTH STANLEY CUP
How long before Sidney Crosby gets asked if he would be willing to waive his no-trade clause?
This might be a question for another year. But if this is the beginning of the end for the Penguins core that has won three Stanley Cups together — and with Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang two years away from free agency, it's certainly looking that way — then sooner or later, Crosby has to decide how he wants to spend the final years of his career.
Is he happy with just making the playoffs in Pittsburgh? Or does he want to try to win a fourth Stanley Cup somewhere else?
Crosby, 33, has another four years after this season remaining on his contract. After that, it's likely that he'll retire. The question is whether that gives the managerial team of Ron Hextall and Brian Burke enough time to turn an aging roster with no top-end prospects into contenders again — and whether Crosby has the patience to see it through.
If he doesn't, then it's time to find him a home where he can become the NHL's version of Tom Brady and continue to add to his Hall of Fame legacy.
Personally, I'd love to see him in Edmonton passing the torch to Connor McDavid. But that would entail sending the younger — and, at this stage in his career, the better — Leon Draisaitl to Pittsburgh. And unless Pittsburgh throws in Tristan Jarry and Letang, I don't see how that makes the Oilers better than they already are.
A more realistic option could be Montreal, where the window on winning a championship is only open for as long as Carey Price and Shea Weber are in their primes.
Crosby's father was a 12thround pick of the Canadiens, while Crosby spent his junior days playing for Quebec's Rimouski Oceanic. So there's a connection there. The question is whether GM
Marc Bergevin would give up a piece of the future (any deal would have to include Nick Suzuki) for a chance to win now. Imagine Crosby in Boston, where he can reunite with his World Cup linemates in Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. Or how about feeding passes to Alex Ovechkin in Washington? Or in Vegas, where all the stars seem to be heading these days?
Any of those places look better than Pittsburgh does for the foreseeable future.
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT
The toughest job when hosting a season in the middle of a pandemic belongs to whoever has to do the schedule. Next toughest? Writing a weekly power rankings column when so many games have been postponed. New Jersey, which just returned from a COVID-19 bye week, has five wins in 10 games. Vancouver, which has two more wins, has played 19 games. Everyone else lies somewhere in between … One month in, who are the best teams in the NHL? If you go by wins, it's Toronto, followed by Vegas, Boston, Carolina, Tampa Bay and Florida. If you go by point percentage, it's the same six teams, except the order is slightly different. Both times, Florida is there. When is the last time that happened? … Looking ahead to the 2022 Olympics, the biggest question for Team Canada will be whether it can win gold with average goaltending and defence. Carey Price is the unquestioned starter. But Price isn't the same goalie he was six years ago. And with the possible exception of 22-year-old Cale Makar, none of Canada's defencemen are considered Norris Trophy candidates anymore … I don't know if Pius Suter, who has six goals and 10 points in 17 games as an undrafted rookie for the Blackhawks,
will become the next Artemi Panarin or Dominik Kubalik. What I do know is that their European scouts deserve a significant raise after unearthing yet another gem.
HERE'S ONE FOR YOU
I'd love to know what hockey fans in Calgary and Vancouver were thinking after seeing William Nylander splashed across the front page of the Toronto Sun with the headline: “Assembly still required.” For perspective, Nylander was drafted four spots after the Flames took Sam Bennett and two spots after the Canucks selected Jake Virtanen. Only one of those players woke up on Wednesday tied with Sidney Crosby with 12 points. … If you pay attention to Nylander on a nightly basis, his inconsistency will drive you crazy. But then you look at his stats at the end of the year and see that he's got somewhere around 25 goals and 60 points. How many teams would be happy to be paying US$6.9 million for that level of production? … If you don't think the New York Rangers erred in not loaning Alexis Lafreniere to Canada's world junior team, consider that Ottawa's Tim Stutzle went from starring for Germany to starting his rookie season with four goals and seven points in 14 games. Lafreniere, who went almost a year without playing, has one goal and no assists in 14 games … How many more games does Buffalo have to lose before the Taylor Hall trade rumours begin? Better yet, how many more losses before someone starts reporting that Jack Eichel wants out again?
FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH
Alex Galchenyuk, who has already been traded from Ottawa to Carolina and then to Toronto this season, is on his seventh team in four years. That's not what anyone envisioned when he was selected with the third-overall pick in 2012. And yet, he ranks second in his draft class with 321 points in 557 games, behind only Filip Forsberg (367 points in 473 games), so it's difficult to call him a bust or anything resembling one … The reason the Leafs were so interested in Galchenyuk? They've lost faith in Jimmy Vesey as a top-nine option. Plus, Galchenyuk can play centre. That versatility could come in handy if Auston Matthews or John Tavares get injured … Naming the Jets the winner of the trade for Pierre-Luc Dubois just got tougher. Not only does Dubois have to outperform Patrik Laine (four goals and six points in seven games), but he now has to also outperform Jack Roslovic (four goals and 10 points in 10 games). With no goals and no shots in two games, he's so far doing neither … The one thing preventing Ottawa from taking the next step toward contending — aside from time, of course — is they don't have enough veterans on the team for the kids to learn from. Ask the Maple Leafs how valuable players like Tyler Bozak, James van Riemsdyk and even Leo Komarov were to their rebuild. Then ask yourself how different this roster would look with Mark Stone, Jean-Gabriel Pageau or even Bobby Ryan on it.
WHO HAS MORE HART: MCDAVID OR MATTHEWS?
Connor McDavid or Auston Matthews?
As of today, those are the top two choices for the Hart Trophy. To be more specific, they are the only choices.
I couldn't even tell you who the next MVP candidate would be. All I know is that whoever it is — whether it's Nathan MacKinnon or Victor Hedman or Brad Marchand or Leon Draisaitl — he's a distant third to those other two players, who have separated themselves from the pack.
This year belongs to McDavid and Matthews, who have replaced Sid and Ovie as the new faces of the league. And like Crosby and Ovechkin, how you value one over the other has become a personal preference of what you value more in the game.
With McDavid, who leads the league in points and jaw-dropping plays, it is all about speed. With Matthews, who's finally grown into his six-foot-three and 220-pound body, the way the puck flies off his stick is something we've never really seen.
Watching Matthews these days is like watching a far more skilled version of Anze Kopitar. He's as complete a player as you're going to find in the NHL. McDavid isn't the same type of defender and he doesn't possess Matthews' catch and release, but you don't want to miss any one of his shifts because you don't know what trick he's going to pull next.
Both have been instrumental to their team's success.
Heading into Wednesday's game against Ottawa, Matthews was ranked sixth in scoring with 20 points in 15 games. Only four of those points came on the power play and only once has he been held off the scoresheet. Of his league-leading 13 goals, five were game-winners.
Prior to Wednesday's game against Winnipeg, McDavid had scored 30 points in 17 games. He is tied for fifth in the league with nine goals, with three of them being game-winners, and already has nine multi-point games, including four times where he recorded three or more points.
Who's got the early edge? I don't know. But with five more meetings between the Maple Leafs and Oilers, there's plenty of chances remaining
to find out.
ZITO DESERVES CREDIT
If you were making a list of early finalists for GM of the year, Florida's Bill Zito would probably have a hard time bumping out Montreal's Marc Bergevin, Columbus' Jarmo Kekalainen or Toronto's Kyle Dubas from most people's top three.
But after missing the playoffs for the past five seasons, Zito deserves some credit for the Panthers' 9-2-2 record to start the year.
Just not all of it, said the humble GM.
“You have to give Dale some credit,” Zito said of former GM Dale Tallon, who laid the foundation in Florida by drafting Aaron Ekblad, Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau, and then bringing in head coach Joel Quenneville and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky last year.
“I'd love to take credit for those guys. But in fairness, all I did was show up.”
That's not entirely true. While a lot of what has made Florida successful was in place before Zito arrived, the new GM added his stamp to the roster by swapping out six of the top nine forwards. And he did it in a way that satisfied the team's accountants.
Carter Verhaeghe, who has seven goals and 12 points in 13 games, is earning US$1 million. Anthony Duclair and Alexander Wennberg, who have combined for four goals and 13 points, are on one-year deals worth US$1.7-million and US$2.25-million. And Patric Hornqvist, who was traded from Pittsburgh in exchange for the more expensive Mike Matheson, has six goals and 12 points.
Combined, the four players have scored 17 goals for less money than what Toronto is paying John Tavares.
“We looked at it and thought, `How can we build the team the right way for the future, but also improve as immediately as we could without mortgaging the future?' ” said Zito.