TSN’s Hockey Insiders on the work ahead for Brad Treliving and Jason Spezza, if the worlds could be an option for Sasha Barkov, the CHL hoping for more recruiting flexibility, the Leafs’ exit interviews, and the Stars’ injuries.
GINO REDA: The puck drops on the World Championship in Zurich in a month, so who’s going to be on Team Canada? Here are the Insiders, Chris Johnston and Darren Dreger.
Now that 16 teams have been eliminated, there’s a huge pool of players that have become available, and now we’re starting to get an idea of who could be wearing the red-and-white Maple Leaf, Dregs.
DARREN DREGER: That’s the expectation over the course of this week, but I can tell you that Hockey Canada has a lot of respect for the end of the NHL regular season. They don’t want to pile on the players just yet.
What the Canadian brass knows is that there is a tremendous amount of interest from top players who aren’t qualified to play in the Stanley Cup postseason. Team Canada management is on conference calls this week. They’re putting their list together, the players that they’ll invite, and they’re looking at their coaching staff, with Misha Donskov expected to play a key role.
But I’d look at some veteran players being invited, and likely going to accept. Let’s start with Toronto Maple Leafs leader, John Tavares. Tavares has often played for his country, he often accepts the invitation and takes the call. The belief is that he will do it again to extend his year as the Toronto Maple Leafs obviously aren’t making the playoffs.
But again, I’m told that the list of players with interest in playing in Switzerland for Team Canada is a significant list.
CHRIS JOHNSTON: And what the Worlds really does is allow players, as you mentioned, Dregs, to extend their season. But for one, it might be a place where a guy can start his season.
That would be Aleksander Barkov of the Florida Panthers, who’s been out rehabbing that injury after blowing his knee out in the first practice back in September in Florida.
At this point, nothing has been decided, but there certainly is a debate about whether it makes sense for him to go and represent his country, Finland, at the Worlds.
He missed the entire year for Florida, had to miss out on the Olympics in Milan. He’s a proud Finn, but also it would be a long wait if he didn’t play until next NHL season, which wouldn’t pick up until September.
So, look for an opportunity perhaps for Barkov to join the Finnish team there and get his season underway after what’s been a grueling year of rehab work and conditioning skates.
REDA: Historically, the CHL recruiting and eligibility systems have been pretty rigid. At times, that’s been restricting. But could we see some changes on that front, Dregs?
DREGER: Yeah, there’s a lot of work ahead to make that a reality, but we could see some changes coming.
I know that the Canadian Hockey League representatives met with Hockey Canada at the recent Frozen Four to initiate discussions on maybe reframing the relationship with Hockey Canada, similar to what USA Hockey has with the NCAA.
Really, that’s what’s invited this change, or initiated this level of dialogue, is the reality that the NCAA really doesn’t operate under any rules governing hockey, nor do they have any restrictions.
I think the CHL believes that perhaps it’s time to start levelling the playing field, and they want to encourage more flexibility in the system that would allow them to openly recruit American and European players.
But again, this conversation with Hockey Canada, the CHL, is just an initial back and forth, and I would expect that the bigger discussions have yet to be had.
REDA: The Leafs play their final game of the season Wednesday night. Not a while then it’s the exit meetings. Those meetings are usually handled by the GM, but the Leafs don’t have one of those right now. So how’s that going to play out, C.J.?
JOHNSTON: It’s going to happen actually in two phases. One of which is with the assistant GMs, Brandon Pridham and Ryan Hardy, who have been effectively running the team since Brad Treliving was fired at the end of last month.
They will conduct a series of meetings with the players at the end of the year. But given the unique circumstances here, I would say that there might not be a lot of clarity the way there might sometimes be in those meetings because everyone around the Leafs, including Pridham and Hardy, are waiting to see the direction the organization goes.
We should also mention there will be a second set of meetings for players with head coach Craig Berube, which I think is notable because some have speculated about what the future might hold for Berube.
Well, it’s a pretty good indication that he is safe for the time being as the Leafs finish out the season with him also meeting with players.
REDA: The puck drops on the playoffs on Saturday. It’s crazy, but two of the top three teams in the West, the Stars and Wild, are going to be meeting in the opening round, and Dallas has got some question marks going in, CJ.
JOHNSTON: Yeah, those would be major question marks. Miro Heiskanen and Roope Hintz have both been out with lower-body injuries for Dallas, and at this point in time, they’re slotted to start on Saturday afternoon.
There’s not a lot of window there for those recoveries to be finished. It’s not clear if either will be available to the Stars to start the playoffs.
What I can tell you is there’s a little more optimism on Heiskanen. The Stars expect in the coming days here to have clarity there whether he gets in for Game 1. If not Game 1, probably pretty soon after that fact.
But with Hintz, it could go either way. There’s a chance he plays, there’s a chance we don’t even see him in round one. While Dallas did get through last year’s first round against Colorado without Jason Robertson and Heiskanen because of injuries, obviously they don’t want to have to repeat that fact because it’s going to be a tough first round matchup for them.
REDA: We asked Gary Bettman if the league should consider going back to the 1 vs. 16 playoff format to avoid such an early clash of the titans, but the commissioner said absolutely not, it’s first round meetings like this that make this the perfect system.
