Alex Nylander has been a busy man the past couple of weeks since he signed his entry level contract with the Buffalo Sabres.
@SnipeShow98 has been working out and skating with some of his new Sabres mates. Nylander wants to be ready to take a veteran's left wing position when camp opens in five weeks,
Nylander and his bro William have been working on the ability to defy gravity.
Look Ma, we brushed and flossed today
Back to school shopping at Hugo Boss and Calvin Klein never sucks. Thats what all the cool kids are doing!
Alex has also been practicing his cursive writing in English. His penmanship has gotten so much better in the past two weeks.
None cooler than Alex Nylander!
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If I Was You, I'd Wanna Be Me Too https://t.co/ZBqczkEhPi pic.twitter.com/OaLGrmarW7
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) August 7, 2016
Today, we focus on the Metropolitan Division, the home of the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins played who played an inspired brand of fast, physical hockey late last season. The Pens made a couple of heralded roster tweaks after Christmas. They fired their head coach which re-energized a then slumbering Sidney Crosby. The rest is hockey history.
The NHL is a copy cat league.
This season, every GM in the NHL wants to mimic the template that the Penguins followed to their Cup championship. Follow the leader, right? Dump bad salaries, add more skill and speed. Demand that all of your players play both sides of the puck, get great goaltending, and hope like hell that your team avoids major long term injuries.
The Metropolitan is home to a cluster of the highest spending teams in the NHL. Money doesn't necessarily buy Stanley Cup champions, however, it sure can help a GM and owner to sign and retain its best players. Money can also help attract the biggest free agents to one's team in a moment of need. Gunning down the Pittsburgh Penguins will not be easy for teams around the NHL. Kudos to Pens GM Jim Rutherford who promoted diamonds in the rough from his AHL Wilkes Barre Pens at the same time that Mike Sullivan was hired as head coach of the big club. Show of hands: who knew the identity and could have predicted the tremendous impact that Matt Murray, Conor Sheary, Brian Rust, Tom Kuhnhackl, and Brian Dumoulin would play from February to June for the Pens? Your nose is growing. Nobody in the hockey world, except Rutherford and Sullivan, had a clue that the young bloods were capable of elevating and inspiring Sid, Geno, Kunitz, Hornqvist, Kessel, Bonino, Hagelin and the rest of the high dollar veterans.
Nobody.
Without Herculean efforts from Murray, Sheary, Rust, Kuhnhackl and Dumoulin, the Penguins get bounced from the playoffs in the first round. The kids were the unsung heroes and they bought time for the Hagelin-Bonino-Kessel line to spark and catch fire. The kids also proved that they could play with “THE Kid… and the other veterans.
Who could have accurately predicted that a 21 year old rookie goalie named Matt Murray could have successfully supplant the revered and loved incumbent Marc Andre Fleury from his net? Nobody saw that coming. In the Stanley Cup playoffs, Murray was 15-6 with a .923 save percentage and 2.08 GAA. He allowed just 44 goals against on 575 shots faced. Murray was sensational.
Haters would say that Rutherford got lucky and caught lightning in a bottle with Murray. Rutherford would say the contrary. Sullivan knew the competitor that he had in Murray and the GM trusted both men when they were promoted to the Penguins via Wilkes Barre.
As a result of Pittsburgh's recent success, 29 other NHL GMs have spent the past six months scouring and scouting rosters in major junior, NCAA, Europe, and the waiver wires in desperate hopes of finding one of the next one or two unsung heroes.
While his peers and counterparts scramble to find the solutions tho their roster ailments, Rutherford puffs his cigar, savors two fingers of scotch and sings on the top of his lungs Megan Treanor's "If I was You I'd Wanna Be Me Too".
Here's the updated view of the never boring Metro:
Carolina Hurricanes
Cap Space Remaining: $16,736,667 (The most salary cap space in the NHL as of 8/7/16). No unsigned RFA Needs: Top six forward, Top 4 D.
Columbus Blue Jackets
Cap Space Remaining:$3,817,857 No unsigned RFA Needs: Veteran right shot D
New Jersey Devils
Cap Space Remaining: $13,034,404 Unsigned RFA: Reid Boucher. Needs: Top 6 scoring forward, depth D-man.
New York Islanders
Cap Space Remaining: $3,658,524 Unsigned RFA: Ryan Strome Needs: Top 6 scoring forward, depth D-man
New York Rangers
Cap Space Remaining:$3,425,000 Greatest Cap Hit: Henrik Lundqvist: $8.5MM No unsigned RFA Needs: Top 6 scoring forward, QB D-man to replace Keith Yandle
Philadelphia Flyers
Cap Space Remaining: $413,334 No Unsigned RFA Needs: Top 6 scoring forward, depth D-man
Pittsburgh Penguins
Cap Space Remaining: -$2,757,499 No Unsigned RFA Needs: Top 9 scoring forward, depth D-man
Washington Capitals
Cap Space Remaining: $3,454,871 Unsigned RFA: Dmitry Orlov Needs: Depth D-man
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That moment when Alex Ovechkin decides to get his boggy skate on at Gorky Park in the heart of Moscow.