All Habs Headlines: Tuesday July 7, 2015 |
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On this day in hockey history… 1980 — Gerry Cheevers announced his retirement as player and was named as the new coach of the Boston Bruins. 1992 — The Detroit Red Wings signed defence an Mark Howe. 2004 — The Colorado Avalanche hired Joel Quenneville as their new head coach. |
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► Canadiens development camp update
- After battling through meningitis last year Tim Bozon was down to 156 pounds. Following Canadiens training camp, Bozon was assigned to the Hamilton Bulldogs where he played three preseason games. It was clear that Bozon was not ready for the AHL and was sent to the Kootenay Ice to allow him to gain weight and regain his strength. Now, a year later the native of St. Louis has added 51 pounds and now tips the scale at 207.
- Bozon should be able to make the jump to the professional level in the fall. Bozon spoke about how his experience with battling meningitis changed him. “You see life from a different angle, I know I’m young but I feel like I have an adult mentality.”
- Nikita Scherbak was still his effervescent self when facing the media reacting to his chances to make the big club and help the Canadiens scoring woes, “It’s pretty hard to say right now I’ll score 30 goals but I’ll try practising first and try to make the team.”
- With Scherbak’s recent growth and increase in mass, he is one of the frontrunners to fill the Canadiens open roster spot along with Sven Andrighetto, Mike McCarron and Charles Hudon. Former Everett Silvertips teammate Noah Juulsen said he thought Scherbak had a “good chance” to make the team.
- Mike McCarron had a very strong season for the Oshawa Generals on their way to winning the Memorial Cup. On his future, McCarron said, “I haven’t really looked at where I’m going to fit in with the Montreal Canadiens, I don’t even know if I’m making the team this year, I’m just going to push as hard as I can and but myself in the best position to make the team.”
- To catch up on all prospect news from Brossard, read: 2015 Habs Development Camp – Day 1 and 2015 Habs Development Camp – Day 2.
► Reway on vacation
- As you may recall many were concerned with a June-deadline to sign Habs prospect Martin Reway. Given the confusion, we provided a clarification in this Headline post on May 29th. Reway intends to fulfill the final year of his contract playing for Sparta Prague.
- What went unnoticed to some in our report was that Reway would not be attending Canadiens development camp. Reway’s agent Peter Kadlecek told La Presse simply, “He will not go there.”
- With his fellow prospects working hard at this week’s Development camp, the optics of Reway tweeting about his vacation were slightly awkward.
Last few days in Turkey pic.twitter.com/iwPPSn2fVs
— Martin Reway (@rewy77) July 6, 2015
► Summer Weise
- Utility forward Dale Weise is a fan favourite in Montreal. And it is clear that his work ethic makes him a fav of head coach Michel Therrien. Used in all situations, it was Weise’s most productive season in the NHL with 10 goals and 29 points.
- So how is the Winnipeg-native spending the off-season? Weise told the NHLPA, “The summer for me is usually much of the same. I work out in the mornings and skate, then spend time with my family. I have a new daughter so it’s a busy household. I live on the lake in the summer, so I’m doing some fishing. Boating is always fun, too.”
- As far as goals for the upcoming season, Weise said, “My personal expectations this season are to obviously improve on the numbers I had,” he continued. “It’s hard to set numbers on where I would like to be, but goals as well as point-wise, I would love to beat what I had last year and continue to have success in the playoffs.”
► Blackhawks – Canadiens talking?
- According to Marc de Foy, Marc Bergevin and Stan Bowman have been chatting well past July 1st. On Monday, the Journal de Montreal reporter wrote that Bowman had talked to the Canadiens about Patrick Sharp, Bryan Bickell, Kris Versteeg, Marcus Kruger and Andrew Desjardins. De Foy had no information about any names on the Canadiens side.
- The Blackhawks are looking to reduce their payroll to be cap compliant. The Canadiens would also have to shed salary to take on any of the big names mentioned.
► Youppi makes NHL16
- Youppi!, the popular mascot of the Montreal Canadiens, will be highlighted in NHL16. EA Sports says that they would like to improve the virtual atmosphere by adding unique arena elements.
- EA Sports gave a sneak peek on Monday revealing screenshots of four NHL team mascots: Youppi! (Canadiens); Mick E. Moose (Winnipeg Jets); Bailey (Los Angeles Kings); Stinger (Columbus Blue Jackets).
► Habs order data reports
- Over the weekend there was a buzz on social media about speculation that the Canadiens had added an analytics person to their hockey operations staff.
- Rod Francis of TSN 690 clarified the situation today tweeting that the team had come to an agreement for analytics consulting services. The unnamed person will provide reports to Habs hockey ops staff but will not be a full-time staff person.
Spoke to a #Habs rep today, they confirmed that an analytics consultant has been hired. Not a fulltime staffer. No name released. #tsn690
— Rod Francis (@InRodWeTrustMTL) July 6, 2015
► IceCaps add an assistant coach
- The Canadiens announced the appointment of Nick Carrière as an assistant coach with the St. John’s Ice Caps, the Canadiens new AHL affiliate.
- Carrière, son of Canadiens Assistant General Manager Larry Carrière, formerly coached for 10 years at Buffalo State and had a 109-127-27 record with the club to go along with nine playoff appearances.
- Carrière replaces Stephan Lebeau on the AHL coaching staff and will join fellow assistant coach Donald Dufresne and IceCaps head coach Sylvain Lefebvre.
► Place Jean-Béliveau
- A new public square adjacent to the new Videotron Centre in Quebec City will be named in honour of Jean Béliveau. The 13,000 square meter space will be a gathering place, will host events and will be decorated with works of art.
- It is a fitting tribute for Béliveau who began his hockey career with the Quebec Citadels and the Quebec Aces.
- “Jean Béliveau had shown his love for Quebec. Today we’ll show the love of Quebecers to Mr. Béliveau,”said Sam Hamad, the Minister responsible for the Capitale-Nationale.
- The widow of Jean Béliveau, Élise said, “It’s a great honor. If Jean lived, I think it would have been very embarrassed to see all the people who organized it all. For us, it will stay in our hearts all our lives.”
► NHL arbitration
- 23 players filed for salary arbitration this week, including: Mikkel Boedker, Philip Samuelsson, Brendan Shinnimin, Philip Varone, Lance Bouma, Paul Byron, Josh Jooris, Andrew Agozzino, Mat Clark, Gustav Nyquist, Erik Haula, Taylor Beck, Craig Smith, Colin Wilson, Eric Gelinas, Adam Larsson, Derek Stepan, Alex Chiasson, Mike Hoffman, Michael Del Zotto, Magnus Paajarvi, Braden Holtby and Marcus Johansson.
► Kadri signs
- The Toronto Maple Leafs signed forward Nazem Kadri to a one year contract extension worth $4.1 million. A one-year deal could be a signal that Leafs management are giving the young centre an opportunity to up his game.
- The former 7th overall pick had 39 points in 73 games last season, his lowest point total since 2011-13 when he played only 21 games.
► Bruins sign two players
- The Bruins signed a couple of recently acquired assets in Jimmy Hayes and Brett Connolly.
- Hayes was put under contract for the next three years at an average annual value of $2.3 million. Hayes was acquired for Reilly Smith who was traded, in part, due to amount of maneuvering it would take to sign him with the Bruins’ tight salary cap situation.
- Connolly, who was acquired near the trade deadline for a pair of second round picks, signed a one-year contract worth $1.025 million.
► Kuznetsov re-signs with the Caps
- Washington Capitals forward Evgeni Kuznetsov signed a two year contract extension with the Capitals with an average annual value of $3 million.
- In Kuznetsov ‘s first full season in the NHL after coming over from Russia he had 37 points and 11 goals in 80 games as the team’s second, and sometimes third, line centre.
► Youth movement?
- Corey Desormeaux asks and answers the question Are the Canadiens Starting a Youth Movement?
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