Mac vs. Jack is just one of the stories with hockey coming back
Here are 10 plot lines to follow before, during and after the 2015-16 NHL season
Squint tightly and peer through the glare of this Blue Jays playoff charge, and you’ll see the faint outlines of the boys of winter coming into view.
It doesn’t feel like hockey season yet, nor does it feel very long since the end of the last one. It was just 89 days ago, in fact, that Gary Bettman handed the Stanley Cup to Chicago captain Jonathan Toews, and here we go again already.
By the time Strombo and the boys offi- cially ring in the 2015-16 NHL season on Hockey Night in Canada less than a month from now, any number of hockey stories will be demanding your attention, even if the Jays are still alive.
Here are10 big NHL plot lines to consider while watching the big doubleheader from New York on Saturday:
Mac versus Jack
We know Connor McDavid easily outdistanced Jack Eichel in the contest to become the No. 1 pick in last summer’s NHL draft. But now we get to see which one will become the better player while competing for two teams, Edmonton and Buffalo, that very much want to start moving up the standings. Odds are McDavid will win this battle as well, but Eichel insisted at the draft that he believed he was the better player. We shall see.
The Babcock effect
We know Mike Babcock can guide teams filled with Hall of Fame players to Cups, and we know he can take the most talented roster on the planet to an Olympic gold medal. But how will he fare with a Leaf team not exactly overflowing with talent?
Babcock, oddly enough, has never won NHL coach-of-the-year honours. If he can take these Leafs to the playoffs in his
first season, he’ll be a lock.
The great debate in Montreal
General manager Marc Bergevin says his team will have a captain, the 29th in a long and glorious line. But who? It has to be one of last year’s four assistants, a group that included P.K. Subban, Max Pacioretty, Andrei Markov and Tomas Plekanec. It’s got to be either Subban or Pacioretty, and you will get support for both. A serious tibia fracture suffered by Pacioretty during the off-season complicates the matter. The decision will be fascinating.
Working on the World Cup
By the time the tournament rolls around next September it will have been 12 years since the last one, an absurd amount of time. Nevertheless, the concept of having it all in Toronto could create a festival atmosphere, and the inclusion of a young guns team and a European squad comprised of players outside the major powers adds a novelty factor. This season, meanwhile, will be dominated by discussions of rosters based on individual performances. If you think this off-season was short, next year’s will seem even shorter.
Growing the original 30
Both Las Vegas and Quebec City want in, and the NHL is likely to decide by December how it wants to proceed. There’s a lot of support for Vegas, while Quebec faces the problem that the NHL really doesn’t need another eastern-based franchise right now. Accepting Vegas and rejecting Quebec, however, risks a Canadian backlash. So this is going to take a delicate touch from Gary Bettman.
Shadow over a star
No one is at all sure how the rape allegation against Chicago forward Patrick Kane is going to proceed, but given how the league handled the Slava Voynov situation last year, it seems unlikely Kane will be part of the Blackhawks until there is some kind of resolution. He’s the biggest American star in the league right now, and his absence would be noteworthy.
Chopping up the champs
Related to the Kane story, of course, is the state of the defending champion Hawks. Once again, Chicago was forced to dump contracts after win- ning another Cup, including sending Patrick Sharp to Dallas and Brandon Saad to Columbus. Kris Versteeg and Joakim Nordstrom were traded on Friday so Marcus Kruger could be signed. The contracts of Toews and Kane now suck up a huge part of the Chicago payroll, and Stan Bowman is going to have to be incredibly resourceful for his team to try and repeat.
Tick, tick, tick
That’s the sound of the clock ticking on the futures of Steven Stamkos in Tampa and Anze Kopitar in Los Angeles. Both are slated to be unrestricted free agents next summer, both say they want to try to stay where they are, and both would be highly sought after if they made it to next summer. Stamkos is the sniper every team wants. Kopitar is the big two-way centre every team needs.
New boss in Manhattan
After 15 years at the helm of the Rangers, Glen Sather has retired and been replaced by his assistant, Jeff Gorton. The Rangers made it to the Cup final two years ago and finished first in the league with 113 points last season. To generate those two excellent campaigns, Sather expended a lot of future assets to acquire players like the departed Martin St. Louis, and now Gorton has to deal with the consequences.
Starting at full strength
The second half of last season was incredibly exciting for the Ottawa Senators. The play of forward Mark Stone and goalie Andrew Hammond fueled the second half, as did the coaching of Dave Cameron. None were part of the puzzle when last season started, but they will be this fall. That should, in theory, help the Sens pick up where they left off. Damien Cox is a broadcaster with Rogers Sportsnet and a regular contributor to Hockey Night in Canada. He spent nearly 30 years covering a variety of sports for the Star, and his column will appear here Saturdays. Follow him @DamoSpin.