Mathias Brunet
The Press
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It is, however, too early to do so, and a club regeneration is not limited to a single concept.
Take the recent example of two organizations now well structured and competitive after the arrival of new management, the Minnesota Wild and the Florida Panthers.
The favorable window of success closed on the Wild when Bill Guerin was hired in 2019. The Minnesota team had just missed the playoffs after being eliminated in the first round the previous three years, the core was old, Guerin has inherited horrible contracts, and the succession had nothing to cheer the fans.
In Florida, the Panthers were running in circles despite the presence of top players like Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Aaron Ekblad.
Before the arrival in 2020 of Bill Zito, a lawyer by training and former agent like Kent Hughes, the Panthers had been excluded in eight of the previous ten seasons, without ever winning a single round.
The Panthers and Wild obviously haven’t had time to recover to the point of winning a Stanley Cup or reaching the Finals, but looking at the standings this morning, the Panthers sit third overall in win rate with a 26-8-5 record, while the Wild are seventh at 22-10-3. And there are enough young players in important positions in both teams to hope for long-term success.
Zito inherited an overpaid and failing goalkeeper, Sergei Bobrovsky. The new GM of the Panthers has created a department of goalkeepers, headed by François Allaire. Bobrovsky has since recovered with a bang.
Our man did not hesitate either upon his arrival to replace two of the best counters of the team, Mike Hoffman and Evgeni Dadonov, by players neglected by other organizations.
Anthony Duclair and Carter Verhaeghe have become important offensive elements on the cheap. Duclair has 30 points, including 16 goals, in 31 games and Verhaeghe 32 points in 38 games.
Acquired from the Calgary Flames at a time when his value was at its lowest, Sam Bennett was a godsend. He cost a second-rate prospect and a second-round pick. Bennett has 39 points in 40 games since arriving in Florida.
We do not know the evaluation methods of Zito and his gang, but he knew how to turn lead into gold. Another fine example is defenseman MacKenzie Weegar. Weegar, a native of Ottawa, a seventh-round pick of the Panthers in 2013, was limited offensively in his first three seasons in Florida.
He has exploded offensively since the arrival of the new administration. Here he is with 61 points in his last 93 games. He had 41 in his first 172 career games.
Guerin, quoted by Hughes on Wednesday at a press conference, hasn’t made a clean sweep of Minnesota either.
He waited a year after taking office to part with two of his veterans in the center, Eric Staal and captain Mikko Koivu, and thus bring in new blood. A year later, he bought out the monstrous contracts of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise.
Who’s shooting the Wild right now? Guerin convinced the organization’s top prospect, Kiril Kaprizov, to join the team.
Youngsters Joel Eriksson-Ek and Jordan Greenway, who seemed to plateau under the former administration, got bigger roles. Ryan Hartman, 27, who in his best season had 31 points, already has 30 in 35 games at center for the first line. Mats Zuccarello, 34, is experiencing a great renaissance.
Other young people are slowly being integrated into the training. Matthew Boldy, a 2019 first-round pick, had four points in his first four games. Marco Rossi had the opportunity to play two matches recently.
The defense is essentially the same with Jonas Brodin, Matt Dumba and Jared Spurgeon, but 36-year-old Alex Goligoski and even Jon Merrill, both acquired for a pittance, are also getting tremendous new momentum.
Guerin also got a first-round pick (defender Carson Lambos, a member of the Canadian team at the most recent World Junior Championship) and a prospect, Calen Addison, from the Penguins for Jason Zucker in February 2020.
In short, Zito and Guerin determined the identity of the team and targeted players with a unique analysis grid, it must be admitted, without destroying the foundations of the club.
This is a bit of what Kent Hughes seemed to offer during his first press briefing on Wednesday. Only the future will tell us if he will be able to give hope to the fans of the Canadiens, who badly need it.
Patience with Jack Eichel
Jack Eichel has been training with his new Vegas Golden Knights teammates for about ten days, without contact, it must be said, and he should not be expected in training for several weeks. “He won’t be playing a game for a month or two,” coach Peter DeBoer told reporters Wednesday. But he is accompanying us on this trip and it will allow him to become even more familiar with his teammates. »
Eichel underwent delicate surgery to have an artificial cervical disc inserted in November after being traded from the Sabers to the Golden Knights. There’s little rush to see him again before the scheduled March 21 date since Vegas sits No. 1 in the Pacific section.
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Mathias Brunet
The Press
–
It is, however, too early to do so, and a club regeneration is not limited to a single concept.
Take the recent example of two organizations now well structured and competitive after the arrival of new management, the Minnesota Wild and the Florida Panthers.
The favorable window of success closed on the Wild when Bill Guerin was hired in 2019. The Minnesota team had just missed the playoffs after being eliminated in the first round the previous three years, the core was old, Guerin has inherited horrible contracts, and the succession had nothing to cheer the fans.
In Florida, the Panthers were running in circles despite the presence of top players like Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Aaron Ekblad.
Before the arrival in 2020 of Bill Zito, a lawyer by training and former agent like Kent Hughes, the Panthers had been excluded in eight of the previous ten seasons, without ever winning a single round.
The Panthers and Wild obviously haven’t had time to recover to the point of winning a Stanley Cup or reaching the Finals, but looking at the standings this morning, the Panthers sit third overall in win rate with a 26-8-5 record, while the Wild are seventh at 22-10-3. And there are enough young players in important positions in both teams to hope for long-term success.
Zito inherited an overpaid and failing goalkeeper, Sergei Bobrovsky. The new GM of the Panthers has created a department of goalkeepers, headed by François Allaire. Bobrovsky has since recovered with a bang.
Our man did not hesitate either upon his arrival to replace two of the best counters of the team, Mike Hoffman and Evgeni Dadonov, by players neglected by other organizations.
Anthony Duclair and Carter Verhaeghe have become important offensive elements on the cheap. Duclair has 30 points, including 16 goals, in 31 games and Verhaeghe 32 points in 38 games.
Acquired from the Calgary Flames at a time when his value was at its lowest, Sam Bennett was a godsend. He cost a second-rate prospect and a second-round pick. Bennett has 39 points in 40 games since arriving in Florida.
We do not know the evaluation methods of Zito and his gang, but he knew how to turn lead into gold. Another fine example is defenseman MacKenzie Weegar. Weegar, a native of Ottawa, a seventh-round pick of the Panthers in 2013, was limited offensively in his first three seasons in Florida.
He has exploded offensively since the arrival of the new administration. Here he is with 61 points in his last 93 games. He had 41 in his first 172 career games.
Guerin, quoted by Hughes on Wednesday at a press conference, hasn’t made a clean sweep of Minnesota either.
He waited a year after taking office to part with two of his veterans in the center, Eric Staal and captain Mikko Koivu, and thus bring in new blood. A year later, he bought out the monstrous contracts of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise.
Who’s shooting the Wild right now? Guerin convinced the organization’s top prospect, Kiril Kaprizov, to join the team.
Youngsters Joel Eriksson-Ek and Jordan Greenway, who seemed to plateau under the former administration, got bigger roles. Ryan Hartman, 27, who in his best season had 31 points, already has 30 in 35 games at center for the first line. Mats Zuccarello, 34, is experiencing a great renaissance.
Other young people are slowly being integrated into the training. Matthew Boldy, a 2019 first-round pick, had four points in his first four games. Marco Rossi had the opportunity to play two matches recently.
The defense is essentially the same with Jonas Brodin, Matt Dumba and Jared Spurgeon, but 36-year-old Alex Goligoski and even Jon Merrill, both acquired for a pittance, are also getting tremendous new momentum.
Guerin also got a first-round pick (defender Carson Lambos, a member of the Canadian team at the most recent World Junior Championship) and a prospect, Calen Addison, from the Penguins for Jason Zucker in February 2020.
In short, Zito and Guerin determined the identity of the team and targeted players with a unique analysis grid, it must be admitted, without destroying the foundations of the club.
This is a bit of what Kent Hughes seemed to offer during his first press briefing on Wednesday. Only the future will tell us if he will be able to give hope to the fans of the Canadiens, who badly need it.
Patience with Jack Eichel
Jack Eichel has been training with his new Vegas Golden Knights teammates for about ten days, without contact, it must be said, and he should not be expected in training for several weeks. “He won’t be playing a game for a month or two,” coach Peter DeBoer told reporters Wednesday. But he is accompanying us on this trip and it will allow him to become even more familiar with his teammates. »
Eichel underwent delicate surgery to have an artificial cervical disc inserted in November after being traded from the Sabers to the Golden Knights. There’s little rush to see him again before the scheduled March 21 date since Vegas sits No. 1 in the Pacific section.
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