Crewsings Around the NHL: The Young Guns Take Aim

It’s time to…ahem…Crewse around the NHL again, and considering the fact that I’ve been working on this article on-and-off since last Thursday, I hope everything in it is still relevant. 

Today we’ll be talking mainly about the young guns who are making an impact in the NHL this season.

* We’ll begin things on a bit of a quick and somber note today.  Joe Sakic deserved better than this.  You’d almost think a higher power was rather forcefully telling him that his time has passed.

* On that note, this is definitely a year in which the next generation of stars is making its mark.  We’ll start today with Matt D’Agostini, who tore up the AHL over the first quarter of their season, and followed that up by starting his NHL career with goals in each of his first four games for Les Habitants.

 My sources in Montréal have told me that D’Agostini has been staying late after practice every day, not for himself mind you, but to make sure Alex Kovalev knows in which direction to shoot the puck.  Considering Kovalev hasn’t scored for the Habs since George W. was firmly in power in the US, the extra practice can’t hurt.

* Next, we look at one of the more interesting goaltending situations that isn’t getting nearly enough play...at least not yet.  Remember a few years ago when Antero Niitimaki looked like the real deal?  The next year he got hurt, and when he finally came back, he was brutal. 

Basically, the same thing happened the following year.  This year, however, the future No. 1 in Philly looks to be back on his game.  Niiti is rocking a 5-1-2 record, with a GAA of 2.70 and a SV% of .909.  This in comparison to starter Martin Biron with a 2.95 GAA and a SV% of  .900.

Niitimaki was actually sitting with a 2.44 GAA and .917% until giving up five goals in a 6-5 SO win over Carolina on Dec. 11.  With the current recession and subsequent salary cap issues that will be affecting teams come 2010-11, don’t be surprised if Philadelphia, short of Martin Biron leading them to a Stanley Cup victory this year (highly unlikely), lets Biron walk as a UFA this summer & gives Niiti the starting goalie job.

* There is a dearth of young players currently at the top of the league’s scoring race.  Beyond the usual suspects (Makin, Crosby, and Ovechkin are 1-3), Ryan Getzlaf is fourth (36 points); Patrick Kane, who before this season I thought would break 100 points this year, is tied for sixth (34 points) with Mike Richards, who may be this generation’s Doug Gilmour; Zach Parise, who jumped seven spots with his four assist performance last Friday night is tied for 11th (33 points); Devon Setoguchi is tied for 13th with Jeff Carter (32 points); Nicklas Backstrom and Phil Kessel(!, who is only seven points away from a new career high) are tied for 15th (31 points); Alexander Semin (who I will talk more about later), Mikka Koivu, and Nikolai Zherdev are among five players tied for 17th (30 points).  Sitting on the cusp of the top 20 are Rocket Richard front-runner Thomas Vanek, and the upstart David Krejci, whose name I will definitely have to learn how to spell, both with 29 points. Vanek has a mere five assists in 30 games this year.

*Let’s talk about Alexander Semin.  Because really, I’m not the only one who is.  Everywhere I turn in the hockey media, he seems to be there. 

Rogers Sportsnet’s Hockey Central on Saturday night talked about him in depth.  Sports Illustrated just wrote a feature article about him.  On and on goes the list. 

To sum up the talk, be it from broadcasters or former teammates such as Olie Kolzig, Semin is probably the most purely talented player in the NHL (easily far more talented than his Cap-mate in Washington, Alex Ovechkin). 

However, he has yet to learn the nuances of the game.  For Semin, it’s all about scoring, playing fancy.  He doesn’t know how to play through pain. He was cleared by Washington’s team doctors a full two weeks before he returned to the lineup, which is not the first time he has pulled such a routine.  As a result, his new nickname in Washington is “Dr. Semin.”

It is a pretty safe bet to say that he has the best snapshot of the past 20 years (seriously), yet he apparently doesn’t have the mental makeup to excel in the most challenging of situations.  It was a revelation to read what Kolzig had to say about the kid.

Kolzig lauded him for his pure skill & ability, but also said that Semin didn’t have a clue about how hockey is played in the NHL.  And yet, you look at what Semin had done this year before his injury (leading the NHL with 27 points in 15 games), or the fact that he led the Caps in playoff scoring last year with eight points (to Ovechkin’s seven) in their seven-game defeat vs. Philadelphia.

  He’s incredibly quiet and shy about his English, so I wonder if former teammates like Kolzig, along with some current teammates, don’t realize how much he does get it, as those playoff points (vs. last year’s strong Flyers team no less) would attest to. 

In watching him on Saturday night, what resonated for me was not his talent (of which there is a tremendous amount), but the fact that, when absolutely crushed in front of the Montreal net on said previously injured back, he got right up and didn’t miss a shift. 

To me, Semin will go one of two directions over the course of his career: he will either be this generation’s Alexei Kovalev, a supremely talented enigma who only plays when he wants to. 

Or, he will be this generation’s Alex Semin, which we will find out what that means if he lives up to his moniker of, according to Caps’ future multiple-time all-star defensemen Mike Green, “…by far the most talented player in the league, by far.”

* It’s not just the early-to-mid-20’s crowd who is leaving its mark on the NHL this year either.  The Class of 2008 has been surprisingly effective thus far.  Drew Daughty (second overall), is third in rookie defensemen scoring with 3 goals, 11 points, and is a +2 while playing 23:30 a game for the still-hapless LA Kings.

 When I watched him play in the Southern Ontario Midget AAA finals in 2005, I wouldn’t have guessed in a million years he would be doing what he’s doing already.  Daughty is a perfect example of what happens when God-given talent is combined with a peerless work ethic. 

He’s not alone from his draft class however.  Luke Schenn (fifth overall), who I fully admit I hoped would play his nine games with Toronto and then be sent back to the WHL, has been stellar for the Blue & White. 

Before his injury, Schenn was playing on the shutdown D-unit with Jeff Finger, was averaging 20:56 a night, but recently playing 22-25 minutes, and in the words of Leafs’ Coach Ron Wilson, was their “best defensive defenseman.”  You can’t really beat that, can you? 

Steven Stamkos (first overall), for all his troubles in Tampa Bay, does have 12 points already, which is five more than Joe Thornton scored in his rookie season.

  He may not get the 50-60 that I thought he would get (then again, Radim Vrbata, his RW on paper in the pre-season, flaked out big time this year and has since gone home to the Czech Republic to play), but he will definitely have his moments, and no later than 2010-11, will be one of the top scorers in the NHL.

* Since he doesn’t get enough play in the media either, let’s head to Nashville, home of Shea Weber.  Weber is currently tied for the NHL lead in points by a defensemen (25, with Dan Boyle, who has played two less games than Weber).  Weber is far from a one-trick pony, however.

  He is a +12 with 4 PPG and 7 PPP, along with both a short-handed goal and assist.  He plays 23:52 a night, has blocked 29 shots in 30 games, and has thrown 62 hits. 

When I watched him play for Canada in the WJC 5 years ago, I never did understand why he was a second-round draft pick.  He manned the point on the power play back then, and devastated team after team with hits that could only be classified as blueline explosions. 

Weber is easily one of the top three defensemen in the NHL thus far, and should be talked about as much, if not more, than fellow Westerner Dion Phaneuf (23 pts, -8 in 30 games this year).

* While we’re in Nashville, let’s take a look at another top young defender.  I’m sure everyone reading this knows the last name Suter (and if you don’t, do your homework), so it should come as no surprise that Ryan Suter, Weber’s American counterpart, is shining brightly as well. 

He has 18 points in 30 games, a +5, just over 23 minutes a game, 32 blocked shots, and 6 power play assists for the fourth-year pro and former first-round pick (7^th, 2003).

A pair of tremendous building blocks for the future for Nashville, both of whom (Weber at $4.5m/yr through 2009-10, and Suter at $3.5m/yr through 2010-11) have contracts at reasonable cap numbers already in place.  That being said, Weber will be a very interesting UFA in 2010. 

That is the summer where the salary cap is projected to drop, though no one knows yet how much.  Dion Phaneuf, the closest comparison to Weber that exists, makes $6.5m/year for the next six years.  That contract was signed while the salary cap continued to escalate. 

Nashville is a small-market team, and with the cap dropping in 2010, how can they afford to keep Weber without sacrificing too much of their cap space to be able to sign enough talented players to be a contender?

I guess this goes to show you, even when the NHL is being enthused by an influx of young talent, the fact that it’s still a business always rears it’s ugly head in the end. 

Speaking of the business side of hockey, be sure to check my archives, as there is an interview I conducted with Florida Panthers’ Head Coach Peter DeBoer there. 

Since we mostly talked about the present and future today, I have a treat for you – a blast from the past.  This is a Sports Illustrated article from 1982, almost 26 years to this day, and it is four of the greatest players in NHL history discussing the wonder that is the early career of The Great One, Wayne Gretzky.

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1126259/1/index.htm

Thanks again for…ahem…Crewsing around the NHL with me, and I’ll do my best to have one more article up before Christmas (about the upcoming WJC).