When does one hockey season conclude, and another begin?
It’s not easy to sum up an NHL season.
Unless, of course, all that matters is the identity of the Stanley Cup champion, which would mean the 2015-16 season was, primarily, about the Pittsburgh Penguins and the very different two halves of their journey to a championship.
That logic would certainly resonate in Pennsylvania — well, outside of Philadelphia, anyway — but not nearly as much in the rest of the league. A season is many things to many people, to many towns, to many teams, and these days, it’s a little difficult to define exactly where one season ends and the next begins.
For example, did “last” season start with Connor McDavid being drafted first overall by the Edmonton Oilers and end with Phil Kessel finding redemption by lifting the Cup in San Jose?
Or did it begin with opening night wins by the Habs, Rangers, Sharks and Canucks, and end with P.K. Subban traded to Tennessee and Milan Lucic signing a $42-million (U.S.) contract to join McDavid in Alberta?
For the Maple Leafs, of course, one of the most important sequences in team history began on July 1, 2015, when Kessel was traded to Pittsburgh for draft picks and cap space, and concluded with a 30th-place Toronto squad drafting Scottsdale, Ariz., product Auston Matthews first overall in Buffalo last month, arguably the most important draft pick for the franchise since Darryl Sittler (eighth overall in 1970) or Wendel Clark (first overall in 1985), depending on your vintage and point of view.
That, you could argue, was a season within itself. Possibly a pivotal one for the Leafs.
But what were some of the larger dominant themes of the 2015-16 hockey campaign?
It’s a little difficult to define exactly where one season ends and the next begins
Here are a few ideas: The absence of all seven Canadian teams from the post-season was a major disappointment to fans north of the border, to the league and the NHLPA hit by reduced post-season revenue streams, and by Sportsnet, which saw interest in watching playoff hockey decrease at a time when some are speculating hockey in general is losing its foothold in North America.
While the absence of the Leafs was no surprise, there was dismay in Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Calgary and, to a lesser extent, Edmonton. The spectacular fall of the Habs, fuelled by the absence of injured goalie Carey Price, was shocking, and Subban was sent packing as a result.
The good news was that Canadian teams drafted Matthews, Patrick Laine, Jesse Puljujarvi, Matthew Tkachuk, Olli Juolevi, Mikhail Sergachev and Logan Brown in the first round, all of whom could be NHL all-stars one day.
All season long, the possibility of expansion percolated in the background until an announcement was finally made late last month that Las Vegas was in and Quebec City was out. The 31st team, likely to be named the Black Knights, will have to prove it can do better in the desert than the Arizona Coyotes have done, and in a place no other pro league has opted to try on for size.
The league continues to combat the notion there isn’t enough scoring at a time when total output per game has dipped below five goals per game. The tight-checking sixgame Cup final featured only 27 goals combined between the Pens and Sharks. Next fall, the league has promised to whittle down goalie equipment, which should in theory promote more goal-scoring.
The pending free agency of Tampa winger Steven Stamkos, just like Mike Babcock a year before, was a story from the beginning of the season to the moment he signed a new eight-year contract with the Lightning on the eve of the free agent season. Leaf fans who imagined Stamkos might want to come home and play were disconsolate.
Another player, this one a nonNHLer, also made free agent news. Harvard senior Jimmy Vesey outraged traditionalists by turning down an offer from Nashville to join the club for the playoffs in order to make himself an unrestricted free agent Aug. 15. The Preds traded his rights to Buffalo, but he hasn’t signed there either.
Only diehard Chicago Blackhawks fans would argue McDavid wasn’t the most talented rookie player this season, but he didn’t win the Calder Trophy. That went to 24-year-old freshman Artemi Panarin of the Hawks, mostly because injuries held McDavid to 45 games (he still had 48 points) and voters clearly decided that wasn’t enough to qualify for the Calder. Even with McDavid, the Oilers were awful again, forcing GM Peter Chiarelli to break up his young core by trading former first overall pick Taylor Hall to New Jersey for stay-at-home defenceman Adam Larsson, a deal panned by many in Edmonton.
Chicago forward Patrick Kane began the season under the cloud of ugly rape allegations stemming from an incident in his hometown of Buffalo. The charges ultimately went nowhere, and Kane played all season as if he barely noticed, winning the scoring title with 106 points and the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player.
Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby played so poorly in the opening months of the season many were left stunned by his lack of productivity. There was open speculation as to whether he would be among the first 16 players named to Team Canada for the World Cup. Well, he was on that list, and as GM Jim Rutherford tinkered with a struggling Pittsburgh lineup that was 12th in the conference in January, Crosby heated up and carried his team down the stretch and into the postseason. Ultimately, he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
The game lost Mr. Hockey, Gordie Howe, last month at the age of 88. It produced an outpouring of memories and affection for a man who played in the NHL at the age of 52, and realized the greatest hockey dream of them all, playing pro hockey on the same line as his two sons.
The World Cup was a story behind the scenes all season, particularly the wisdom of including a team of North American players under the age of 24 and a Team Europe from some of the non-hockey powers overseas. Meanwhile, the NHL still hasn’t committed to participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.
Long-time NHL goon John Scott — somehow, some way — ended up dominating the headlines at the all-star game in Nashville to which he never deserved an invitation. Mischievous fans wanting to make a mockery of the game voted him in, and Scott became a cause celebre when it appeared the league was trying to deny him the right to play. Ultimately, he did play, his fellow players embraced him and he walked away with MVP honours, upstaging the success of three-onthree play as the new all-star game format.
Scott got more than his 15 minutes of fame and possibly a movie deal, but the 33-year-old currently doesn’t have a contract for next season. Damien Cox is a broadcaster with Sportsnet and Hockey Night in Canada. He spent nearly 30 years covering a variety of sports for the Star, and his column appears here Saturdays. Follow him @DamoSpin.