The Pre-Game Skate: Power Rankings, Up & Down, and Farts

This is what we called The Daily Scrum once, but that name isn’t going to stick. Now it’s The Pre-Game Skate. High five.

Monday seems to be the day for the power rankings to pour in. Fansided (Wild ranked #9, Kings #1), ESPN (Wild #6, Kings #1), Bleacher Report (Wild #10, Kings #1), and The Hockey Writers (Wild #13, Kings #1) have all released their preseason power rankings.

Anything surprise you there? The THW list having Dallas over the Wild is surprising to me, as is Fansided having the Islanders at #22. I think Islanders are going to surprise people this year. I love the pick-up of Nick Leddy and Johnny Boychuk over the weekend. I think those are going to make that defense deep and much better than most people expect.

AHL bound

The Wild aren’t the only team that have fans who hope to see young talent bursting through the door to the NHL. Chicago fans have been patiently awaiting the arrival of who they hope will someday soon be their #2 center in Teuvo Teravainen. Fans will have to keep on waiting though, as he’s AHL bound, leaving many fans are questioning the call.

In fact, the moves Chicago has just made aren’t too different from the debates you’re hearing about the Wild. A star prospect being sent down because he’s not going to get enough ice time if they keep him up is what we’ve heard about Mathew Dumba and Christian Folin all camp. (Though both Dumba and Folin have likely made the Wild’s opening night roster.) In addition, space is being limited in Chicago’s forward corps because they’ve decided to add size and “grit” by signing Daniel Carcillo.

Chicago isn’t the only team upsetting diehards by being patient with top prospects, Arizona’s Max Domi, San Jose’s Nikolay Goldobin, Carolina’s Haydn Fleury, Philadelphia’s Samuel Morin, Buffalo’s Mikhail Grigorenko, the Islanders’ Joshua Ho-Sang, and Vancouver’s Hunter Shinkaruk are all headed to the AHL or their juniors teams. (Though reports say Goldobin may not return to juniors and would instead prefer to play in Europe this season.)

Despite that list of cuts a lot of young players in similar positions are going to be making the case for permanent roster spots on opening night, including Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl, Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau and Sam Bennett, the Rangers’ Kevin Hayes and Anthony Duclair, Pittsburgh’s Kasperi Kapanen, Tampa’s Jonathan Drouin, Florida’s Aaron Ekblad, Buffalo’s Sam Reinhart, the Islander’s Griffin Reinhart, Toronto’s William Nylander, Winnipeg’s Nikolaj Ehlers, and Boston’s David Pastrnak.

Ryan Johansigned

Columbus’ Ryan Johansen finally has a contract. He agreed today to a three-year, $12 million deal. The contract reportedly pays him $3M in the first two years and $6M in the third with an AAV of $4. That’s significantly lower than the numbers that were being tossed around before. Johansen is a good player and Columbus does really need him, especially with Nathan Horton and Boone Jenner injured to start the season, but I think Blue Jackets may have gotten the best of this one. Johansen at $3M is a steal.

Unfortunately for the team, Johansen has missed all of the preseason and will be hitting the ice without that practice for their October 9 season opener — if he’s available at all at that point, they have not yet said if he’ll be in the lineup. Most are expecting the Blue Jackets to take a big step forward this year and be a contender. Starting the season with Johansen in the lineup is a big win for the team.

Notes and Notes

– Carolina, who did very little in the offseason, has been put in a terrible position to start the season after losing first line center Jordan Staal for 3-4 months with a broken leg. Well, it gets worse. They appear to have lost winger Jeff Skinner after he took an elbow to the head from Captials’ defenseman Matt Niskanen in the team’s preseason finale.

– Willie Mitchell, who signed with the Panthers during free agency this summer, has been announced as the team’s eighth captain.

– After the Jets traded forward Eric Tangradi to the Canadiens for goaltender Peter Budaj and forward Patrick Holland yesterday — a move that looked like it would have the Jets backing up Ondrej Pavalec with Budaj instead of Michael Hutchinson — the team has elected to put Budaj on waivers.

– There’s been a lot of talk about P.K. Subban‘s farts in the last 24 hours. (Not a joke.) The question I haven’t seen addressed is, How does he make himself fart on command like that?