Brodeur with plenty of praise for Elliott

Over the past couple of years, Martin Brodeur has had the opportunity to watch new Calgary Flames netminder Brian Elliott flourish.

After Elliott sustained an injury in the early goings of the 2014-15 season, the St. Louis Blues inked the veteran Brodeur to a professional try-out agreement and then a one-year deal.

He ended up appearing in just seven contests with the Blues, officially announcing his retirement in late January of 2015, but St. Louis immediately named him special assistant to general manager Doug Armstrong. Later on that year, the Blues named him assistant general manger.

Moving Elliott was a tough decision for Armstrong, Martin, and Blues, who regarded the 31-year-old very highly.

"He’s a pretty good goalie," Brodeur told Sportsnet 960 The FAN at the 2016 NHL Draft. "We in St. Louis were really fortunate to have him this year with some of the injuries we had. He really carried the play for us in the regular season and the playoffs.

"It was a numbers game for us with Jake Allen ready to take over the number one spot. The crease was a little crowded for us. Brian is a great competitor and a really good goalie and finally he gets the chance to be the number one. He’s been looking for that for a long time.

"The Blues wish him well for sure."

In 2015-16, Elliott posted a 23-8-6 record with a 2.07 GAA, an NHL-best .930 save percentage, and four shutouts. In the playoffs, he made 18 appearances and posted a 2.44 GAA, a .921 save percentage, and one shutout.

"He went stretches with 20 starts in a row this year and the way he played in the playoffs in the tough environments in Chicago, Dallas, and San Jose and really played well," Brodeur praised. "He gave us a chance to win every game.

"I have no doubt he’ll be just fine."

As per long-time analytics expert and NHL.com contributor Rob Vollman, Elliott's underlying numbers over the last three years are just as impressive.

He ranks sixth in save percentage, third in home plate save percentage, and sixth in quality start percentage.

"He’s a good goaltender," Brian Burke said. "He stops the puck. I think all the other stuff that he does is important for a team like ours with a lot of good young goaltenders coming; his work ethic, his attention to details, practive habits. But mainly that he stops pucks.

"Going back to his days in college, he’s a guy that doesn’t allow bad goals. He’s a battler. He gets second effort saves. I think he’s a professional. He’s approached the goaltending position as a professional."

Credit: Calgary Flames

Rangers prospect Buchnevich feels he is ready for NHL

Selected by the New York Rangers in the third round (No. 75) of the 2013 NHL Draft, Pavel Buchnevich made it clear he's ready for the challenges that await him in his first season in North America.

"If I weren't sure, I wouldn't come here," Buchnevich said on Tuesday through an interpreter, Rangers director of European scouting Nickolai Bobrov.

Buchnevich skated in 40 games before he was traded to SKA St. Petersburg in December. He had career highs in goals (16), assists (21) and points (37), helped St. Petersburg advance to the Western Conference Finals with a goal and two assists in 14 playoff games. He agreed to terms with the Rangers on a reported three-year, entry-level contract worth $925,000 per season on May 13.

"I felt I was getting a lot of ice time and I needed experience and I didn't feel I was ready. Now I feel better and more ready," the 21-year-old said. "I felt, obviously, the age was a bit different. Even at 20 it's still considered to be young. I felt I needed more time to get physically prepared in Cherepovets and then in SKA [St. Petersburg], and get more experience and get older.

"I think I'm not quite a goal-scorer, but I'm a thinking player, a cerebral player, and a playmaker."

Buchnevich had 37 goals and 87 points in 158 regular-season games, and 17 goals and 41 points in 31 playoff games while competing in the Russian junior league.

"I'm focused on the present and on the summer, and getting in shape and getting ready for this type of hockey," Buchnevich said. "As far as the language barrier, all the guys are being very helpful. They either show by hands or help with the words. I'm living with another Russian, [defense prospect] Sergey Zborovskiy, and he's been very helpful as well."

Gooch's Corner (6/2016): Vegas franchise affecting fantasy hockey?

By @GucciardoJoey

EDITOR'S NOTE: I will be publishing "Gooch's Corner" on this blog once a month. I do support a specific NHL franchise (just see my Twitter), but I can assure you that I will never be biased in these pieces of "Gooch's Corner" that I write.

LAS VEGAS -- With the NHL announcing that the city of Las Vegas would be awarded with an NHL franchise at the start of the 2017-18 season, I was wondering something.

Could this new team affect fantasy?

Think about it, the NHL hasn't expanded since 2001-02, when the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild came into the league.

Fantasy hockey wasn't really a big thing in 2001, now was it? (I chuckle to myself here)

Now, an NHL expansion means that teams will lose at least one of their players.

I'll put the expansion draft into an easy way to understand. This process is why teams lose at least one player, like I mentioned.

All NHL teams besides the expansion team must "unprotect" at least two forwards and one defensemen. The expanding team then must pick a certain number of forwards, defenseman, and in the process find goaltenders to play on their team. The expanding team must pick at least one player from all other NHL teams, but they can only select players that the other NHL do not protect. "Protected" players can not be chosen by the expanding team.

The expanding team also has a high selection in the draft right before the inaugural season. In this case, this Las Vegas team in the 2017 NHL Draft will be guaranteed a highest draft pick of no lower than sixth overall in the first round.

We'll see in the future what players will be playing for this Las Vega franchise.

Kreider said early playoff exit may be "blessing in disguise" for Rangers

"The Neutral Zone" Staff Report

Chris Kreider is confident that the Rangers early
playoff exit in 2016 is a positive for the team.

The New York Rangers in April faced one of their most early playoff exits in recent years. They were eliminated from the 2016 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Pittsburgh Penguins in five games, the reverse of what happened between the two teams in Round one of 2015, where the Rangers won the series in five games.

The exit was the earliest one for Rangers winger Chris Krieder, who told NHL.com on Thursday that the early playoff exit may be a "blessing in disguise" for his team.

"I haven't been out this early since I was 17," the 25-year-old forward said Thursday. "It's a bit strange, but honestly it might be a little bit of a blessing in disguise for us. It's a good opportunity to get healthy and go work on some things moving forward."

Kreider, a first-round pick of the Rangers (No. 19) in the 2009 NHL Draft, has 61 regular-season goals in four seasons with the Rangers and has had 21 goals in each of the past two seasons. 

He just finished a two-year deal he signed after the 2013-14 season and can become a restricted free agent July 1. Kreider said he is focused on training for the 2016-17 season and not on a new contract with the Rangers.


"I haven't really thought about it, to be honest," Kreider said at a reception for 37.5 Technology, which helps develop sports apparel. "It's a bit of a cliche, but you can only control what you can control, and you just block everything else out. What I can control is getting in the gym, getting on the ice now, working to get healthy and get better."

McDavid at No. 10 in overall rankings?

Special Report by @GucciardoJoey.

Is Connor McDavid worthy of going 10th overall on
Pete Jensen's 2016-17 fantasy hockey rankings?

Connor McDavid had high expectations from the Edmonton Oilers when they drafted him with the first overall pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft.

But McDavid did not play a full NHL season, missing tons of playing time after an upper-body injury sustained in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers that December.

There is no doubt that Artemi Panarin was the top rookie in 2015-16, posting 30 goals and 47 assists for 77 points. But we'll never know if McDavid could have topped that or not if he had a full season without the injury.

But here's the odd part.

Pete Jensen, a fantasy hockey writer for NHL.com ranked McDavid at No. 10 for his overall 2016-17 fantasy hockey rankings.

McDavid was seen in the draft as possibly the best first overall draft pick since the Pittsburgh Penguins drafted Sidney Crosby in 2005. Crosby was No. 2 on the list, behind the Chicago Blackhawks' Patrick Kane.

It's very obvious that McDavid would have had much better season numbers if he did not miss all that playing time due to the injury. He was able to play after the injury before the season ended, but obviously had no playoff stats because of the fact that not only did Edmonton not make the playoffs, but none of the NHL's Canadian franchises made it either.

McDavid, the former Erie Otters forward in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), posted 16 goals and 32 assists for 38 points in 2015-16, along with a +/- of -1, 105 shots and 18 penalty minutes.

New York Islanders forward John Tavares was right behind McDavid in the rankings at 11th.

In all honesty, I feel that Jensen must be really confident that McDavid will have a goof sophomore season in 2016-17 to put him 10th overall on his fantasy rankings for next season, because we can't really tell how good of a rookie season McDavid could have had if he did not miss all of those games due to the injury.