NHL notebook: Potential Nash deal rife with subplots
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Puck Rakers
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One Signed, Two Set Free
The Blue Jackets have agreed to terms with defenseman Austin Madaisky on a three-year, entry-level contract, and the official deal should be announced shortly. Madaisky was a fifth-round pick (No. 124 overall) in the 2010 NHL entry draft.
Two other picks - right winger Petr Straka (2nd round, No. 55) and defenseman Brandon Archibald (4th round, No. 94) - have been informed by the Blue Jackets that they won't be signed, sending them back in the pool of draftable players for next month's draft in Pittsburgh.
Of those two, Straka is the mild surprise.
He had 28-36-64 in 62 games with Rimouski (QMJHL) during his draft year, but tailed off badly the last two seasons. In 2010-11, he had 10-15-25 in 41 games. This season, he had 18-19-37 in 54 games. That's fewer points the last two seasons -- 62 in 95 games -- than he scored as a 17-year-old.
However, Straka made a pretty good last-best argument for a deal with his performance in the QMJHL playoffs. He had 10-12-22 in 21 games, becoming a point-a-game player once again. The bet here is that he gets drafted his June, but certainly on Saturday (2nd through 7th rounds) and probably later in the day.
The Blue Jackets acquired the pick used on Straka with the 2010 trade deadline deal that sent winger Raffi Torres to Buffalo.
Madaisky, meanwhile, blossomed this season in his fourth year of juniors, the last three spent with Kamloops (WHL). He had 13 goals, 37 assists, 50 points and a plus-20 rating, all career highs. He also had 87 penalty minutes. He could play a fifth year of junior next season, or begin his pro career, likely with AHL Springfield.
Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson and the hockey operations department face one last difficult decision as it pertains to the 2010 draft class. Goaltender Mathieu Corbeil remains unsigned, and the Jackets still aren't sure if they want to keep him in the fold.
"We'll evaluate him in the Memorial Cup and make a decision," Howson said. "Not sure right now."
Corbeil is 50-11-2 in the last two seasons with Saint John of the QMJHL, which won the Memorial Cup last season and is a favorite to repeat. Corbeil, named the QMJHL's goalie of the year, is 16-0-1 in this year's playoffs, with a 2.18 goals-against average and .917 save percentage.
Those numbers will cause many readers to scratch their temples and wonder: "How could they possibly not want this guy?" What the Blue Jackets are trying to determine is if Corbeil is a product of a powerhouse hockey club or a goaltender with legitimiate NHL potential. These are the questions that keep scouts up late at night.
Two weeks ago, the Blue Jackets seemed to be leaning away from signing Corbeil. These days it seems to be leaning back the other direction, though no decision has been made.
-- Aaron Portzline
twitter: @aportzline
The Blue Jackets enter their second week of listening to trade offers for captain Rick Nash. As with any story of this magnitude, there are angles and offshoots that deserve examination. Here are a few:
• Nash has provided the Blue Jackets a short list of clubs to which he would approve a trade, but general manager Scott Howson is talking to clubs beyond that secret list. One would have to believe that 29 GMs called him early last week.
If Howson gets a deal that blows him away from a non-preferred club, he could go to Nash and his agent, Joe Resnick, and present the possibility.
Boston, Los Angeles, the New York Rangers, San Jose, Toronto and Vancouver are believed to be on Nash’s list, which has been held under tight wraps by Howson and Resnick.
• Blue Jackets senior adviser Craig Patrick — an NHL GM for 23 seasons with Pittsburgh and the Rangers — is doing much of the heavy lifting on all of the Jackets’ trade talks, but Howson is still calling the shots.
“Craig has been a great sounding board,” Howson said. “He has been through this. He is just a really good, knowledgeable, experienced person to talk to about this.”
Patrick said he and Howson “speak almost hourly,” and that he’s invigorated to be back in the game.
“This is an exciting time of year, yes,” Patrick said, “but for me the adrenaline flows 12 months a year. This is what I love to do.”
• The Blue Jackets plan to overhaul their goaltending this summer, and it would be ideal to land a franchise netminder in the trade of Nash or center Jeff Carter, whom the club is also shopping. But it’s not a demand, a source told The Dispatch.
“We want value,” the source said. “Doesn’t have to be that position.”
• The conventional wisdom is that the Blue Jackets would get a better deal for Nash, and the others, if they waited until the NHL draft (June 22-23 in Pittsburgh), when clubs would have more salary cap flexibility and wouldn’t be worried about messing with team chemistry heading into the playoffs.
“We have all that research,” Howson said. “The most opportune time to make trades is probably at the draft, because you get more teams involved.
“But that doesn’t mean there aren’t good trades to be made at the trade deadline.”
• Howson was assistant general manager in Edmonton in 2007 when the face of the Oilers’ franchise, Ryan Smyth, was traded at the trade deadline, to much public scorn.
The two situations are different — Smyth was a soon-to-be unrestricted free agent, and the Oilers and Smyth’s agent were a few hundred thousand dollars apart on an extension when the trade was made.
“We didn’t know we were trading Ryan until 30 minutes before the deadline,” Howson said.
• Many around the league believe that Boston, vying for a second straight Stanley Cup, is trying to put together a deal for Nash.
On the surface it seems highly unlikely that the Bruins would part with goaltender Tuukka Rask, the heir apparent to veteran Tim Thomas.
But what if Thomas, signed through next season, wants to play two or three (or four) more seasons?
If that message is conveyed to the Bruins’ brass, perhaps Boston would be willing to part with Rask, top defenseman prospect Dougie Hamilton and maybe a draft pick.
• The Rangers have been seen, from the outset, as a favorite in the Nash sweepstakes.
They have a player the Blue Jackets have long pursued — forward Brandon Dubinsky — and several young NHL players and prospects that could entice the Jackets, even though none is a goaltender.
It’s unlikely, sources say, that the Rangers will part with young defenseman Ryan McDonagh, but Michael Del Zotto could be had, as could Boston College junior Chris Kreider, a forward.
• Does any team need Nash or Carter worse than Los Angeles? The Kings are last in the NHL in scoring, at 2.07 goals per game. They have been shut out seven times, four of them 1-0 games.
Backup goaltender Jonathan Bernier, stuck behind quality No. 1 Jonathan Quick, is available, as is defenseman Jack Johnson. But there’s a wide range of opinion on both young players.
Bernier is 14-13-4 since the start of last season, barely playing as Quick excels. Nobody is sure whether Bernier is a No. 1 goaltender.
Slap shots
The Detroit Red Wings have won 22 straight at home, a mark that is being hailed as an NHL record, besting marks of 20 by Boston (1929-30) and Philadelphia (1975-76). Really, though, the Wings’ streak is inflated by post-lockout rules that eliminated ties. Pre-lockout, the Wings’ streak would have ended at 12 on Jan. 12 vs. Phoenix, when the Wings needed a shootout to win at home. … The Nashville Predators acquired towering defenseman Hal Gill from Montreal on Friday, making them even more formidable on their own side of the red line. If they add a scoring forward at the trade deadline, look out for this team in the postseason. … Vancouver has heard enough about its lack of toughness. Don’t be surprised to see an enforcer join ranks, possibly Anaheim’s George Parros.
aportzline@dispatch.com
