April 24, 2015
Michael Clifford
2015-04-24
Thoughts on Chiarelli, Miller, Johnson – and was Forsberg snubbed?
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The Calder Trophy finalists were named yesterday with Mark Stone, Johnny Gaudreau, and Aaron Ekblad being named as the three contenders for rookie of the year.
This seemingly caused a big stir because of the so-called "snub" of Filip Forsberg. While I agree that Forsberg had an amazing season for Nashville, there were three rookie forwards who all cracked 60 points (something that has become a rare occurrence in the NHL), and then an historic season from an 18-year-old defenseman. Forsberg had the bad luck of having his rookie year this year. I think Ekblad was a lock to be one of the three finalists, which means one of those forwards was going to get left off. While I do agree that it's a bit of recency bias that has edged Stone into the top three, I don't see any one of those players as clearly more deserving than the others. One of the forwards was going to be disappointed, it happened to be Forsberg. So be it.
From Hockey Reference: Aaron Ekblad is the first 18-year-old defenseman to manage at least 39 points since Phil Housley in 1982-1983. The only other defenseman with at least 39 points at that age is Bobby Orr (and he did so in far fewer games).
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It'll be announced later today, but it looks like former Boston general manager Peter Chiarelli is going to have some sort of management role with the Edmonton Oilers. I will have a full article about it once it is official, but this seems to be the beginning of the end of one of the worst managerial regimes in modern NHL history. This team has bungled everything from their goalies, to their depth, to their coaching and everything in between for a decade now. It will be interesting to see if Chiarelli will have full autonomy (besides Nicholson). No one person in that management group has earned the right to stay on another day, regardless of accomplishments in the 1980s. There is no reason to keep them on at all. It's not like Kyle Dubas being brought in where maybe he needed a mentor as he got his feet wet in the business. Chiarelli has as much experience as necessary, and MacTavish/Lowe have done nothing to deserve being spared from the chopping block.
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It seems Johnson and Gaudreau are proving that being small doesn’t mean you can’t be highly successful in the NHL. Here’s what Johnson did in the AHL that showed flashes of what has been shown with Tampa Bay.