Double Shifted

Right now, the two frontrunners for the NHL's Calder Trophy, given to the rookie of the year, are Blackhawks forward Alex DeBrincat and Coyotes forward Clayton Keller. Right now, Keller ranks third in points among rookies with 23, and DeBrincat ranks fourth with 21. Keller's points are good enough for the bottom-dwelling Coyotes, while DeBrincat's points rank second among the Blackhawks behind only superstar Patrick Kane, who has 27 points. When it comes to goals, DeBrincat ranks second and Keller ranks third. DeBrincat has 12 goals, while Keller has 11. "Kitty" began his season slowly towards the beginning of the season after winning the NHL's prospect tournament in overtime for the Blackhawks, but caught fire in the month of November and is showing no signs of slowing down. Keller is a great hockey player, but surrounded by the talent in Arizona there's simply no way Keller can keep up with DeBrincat, who's playing with players like Kane, Duncan ...

Vinnie Hinostroza was called up from the Chicago Blackhawks’ minor-league team, the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs. To clear up roster space, the Blackhawks sent down forward Tanner Kero, who was scratched for the past few games. Hinostroza lead the IceHogs in points, with 22, and assists, with 13. He also has nine goals, which ranks second on the team only to Matthew Highmore. Hinostroza has played in 56 games with the Blackhawks over his career, with six goals and eight assists for a total of fourteen points. Kero played in eight games for the Blackhawks this year before being scratched for the next ten games. He had one goal to go with his two assists for a total of three points. Kero generally played on the Blackhawks’ fourth line until he was squeezed off of the roster by Hawks forwards Tommy Wingels, Lance Bouma, and John Hayden. Kero is a talented player, but the Blackhawks didn’t have room for him on their roster filled with talented forwards. Kero was sent to waivers and cleared th...

The 2017-18 NHL season is upon us, and while there's still months of hockey left to play, we're going to look at Double Shifted's playoff predictions. Western Conference The Blackhawks finish the season as the first seed in the Central for the second year in a row. The Wild, coming off a great season led by Ryan Suter, Zach Parise, and Joel Eriksson Ek, but the biggest hero is Devan Dubnyk. Dallas grabs the third seed narrowly, and ends up avoiding a first-round matchup against Edmonton. St. Louis gets the first wild-card spot and heads to Canada to face the Oilers in the first round. The Predators ride a late-season win streak into the second wild-card spot, with Patrik Laine and Mark Schiefle 's Winnipeg Jets close behind. Nashville heads to Chicago for  a first-round matchup for the second year in the row against Patrick Kane and the Chicago Blackhawks. Edmonton, led by Connor McDavid, wins the Pacific division narrowly over the Anaheim Ducks. Arizona squeaks ...

NHL AIRPORT GATE 6: NEW YORK PREVIOUSLY:  The New York Islanders were 42 games into the season and had a record of 16-17-8. The next night, they played the Boston Bruins. They won. Then they kept winning. Even with captain John Tavares out with an injury, the Islanders kept winning and won six games in a row in the final stretch of the regular season, just missing out on the playoffs, when the Toronto Maple Leafs won in their 81st game, clinching a playoff spot. Interim coach Doug Weight lead the team to just missing out on the playoffs by one point. Anders Lee led the team in goals with 34, while Tavares lead the team in scoring with 66 points. Thomas Greiss won the most games for the Islanders out of any goalie, with 25 points.  ARRIVING: Jordan Eberle: Eberle was acquired in a trade with the Edmonton Oilers for Ryan Strome. The Islanders have probably already won this trade while they acquire Eberle, who scored 20 goals and had 51 points last year. They'll add s...

NHL AIRPORT GATE 5: LAS VEGAS PREVIOUSLY:  The Golden Knights had a pretty solid expansion draft, taking players like Jason Garrison, James Neal, Jonathan Marchessault, and Nate Schmidt. They also found the face of their franchise in Marc-Andre Fleury, and stockpiled draft picks from poor, defenseless teams like Winnipeg or the Islanders. Vegas had three first rounders (acquired from stealing Winnipeg's and New York's) and used them to take Cody Glass, Nick Suzuki, and Erik Brannstrom.  ARRIVING: Vadim Shipachyov: Shipachyov played in the KHL on a line with Blue Jackets star Artemi Panarin and Florida Panther Evgeny Dadonov. He's also played with prestigious players like Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kolvachuk. Shipachyov is in a whole new world in the NHL, but the Golden Knights believe he can continue his offensive production. He is projected to be the Golden Knights' first-line center, playing with Neal and Marchessault. Literally Everyone Else Is New: It's a wh...

NHL AIRPORT GATE 4: COLORADO PREVIOUSLY: The 2016-17 Colorado Avalanche finished 21 points back from the second-worst team in the NHL (Vancouver), and that was the third-worst finish in NHL history. Trade rumors surrounded Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog, and Nathan MacKinnon,  but none of the trio left Colorado. The leading scorer was MacKinnon with just 53 points. Mikko Rantanen led the team with just 20 goals-87th in the league. MacKinnon's 53 ranked 73rd, but the next closest Av was Duchene in 157th. Coach Patrick Roy left the team for the second time, and it didn't get any better for Colorado. They didn't get the first pick in the draft, they fell to fourth, where they got a solid defenseman in Cale Makar. (However, he's no Nolan Patrick or Nico Hischier ). ARRIVING: Colin Wilson: Colorado traded a 2019 fourth-rounder for Wilson, who holds the Predators franchise record for most goals in a series and had 35 points in 70 games with Nashville last season. He had ...

NHL AIRPORT GATE 3: NEW JERSEY PREVIOUSLY: To be fair, the New Jersey Devils are playing in a division with teams like the Penguins, Rangers, Capitals, and Blue Jackets, while teams like the Flyers and Islanders also are competitive teams. But also, that's the way the NHL works, and the Devils found out the hard way, posting a 70-point record and getting the first pick in the NHL draft. New Jersey was the worst team in the conference and missed the playoffs for the fifth year in a row. The leading scorers were Kyle Palmeri and Taylor Hall, who tied with 53 points each. ARRIVING: Nico Hischier: The Devils decided to take Hischier ahead of Nolan Patrick in the draft. Hischier had 86 points while playing for the Halifax Mooseheads in the CHL. Hischier could be the first-line center, playing alongside Hall and Palmeri. There won't be much pressure on him, Hall has said he wants to make life easier for the rookie, but if he doesn't outperform Patrick, there'll be p...

NHL AIRPORT GATE 2: DETROIT PREVIOUSLY: The Red Wings had made the playoffs for 26 straight seasons, but it all fell apart this year, as for the first time, Detroit missed out on playoff hockey. This year could be classified as the start of a rebuild, but with pieces such as Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha the Red Wings are not going to completely break apart the team. The Wings finished with 79 points last year, second-worst in their division (last place belonged to the Buffalo Sabres). Henrik Zetterberg lead the team in points with 68, while Thomas Tatar scored 25 goals to top his team in scoring. The biggest event for the Wings this season was the final game at Joe Louis Arena, the team will move into Little Caesars Arena for the upcoming season. ARRIVING: Trevor Daley: Daley is fresh off two Stanley Cup Championships with the Pittsburgh Penguins and should arrive hungry for more. He could become one of the Red Wings' top two defensemen, playing with either Danny DeKeyser ...

NHL AIRPORT GATE 1: VANCOUVER PREVIOUSLY: The 2016-17 Vancouver Canucks were absolutely horrible. The only team that was worse was the Colorado Avalanche, who finished with 48 points. The leading point-scorer on the team was Bo Horvat, also their team's only all-star, who had 52 points. That placed him 86th in the league. The next closest player was Henrik Sedin, with 50 points. The Canucks' goaltending was also terrible, Ryan Miller was the starter and had the worst GAA on the team, (2.80). ARRIVING: Sam Gagner: Gagner posted a career-best 50 points with the Columbus Blue Jackets last season, and should boost both the Canucks' power play, which was second-worst in the NHL at 14.1% last year, while Gagner had 18 power-play goals with the Blue Jackets. He should also kick up the Sedin twins' point production, which was already good for players of their age. Michael Del Zotto: Del Zotto had 18 points with the Philadelphia Flyers last year and once put up 41 points. H...

The Nashville Predators reached the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in their history and lost to the repeat champion Pittsburgh Penguins in six games. Soon after, the Predators signed center Ryan Johansen to an eight-year, $64 million contract that will pay him an average of $8 million a year. To put his contract into perspective, that's only $700,000 less than Penguins captain Sidney Crosby gets paid on a yearly basis. The only player paid higher than him on the team is P.K. Subban , who gets an average of $9 million a year, and Filip Forsberg and Pekka Rinne  aren't far behind, getting paid yearly averages of $6 million and $7 million. Johansen's contract is the largest ever paid in Predators history (Subban's was paid with the Montreal Canadiens).    As of now, the Predators are the twelfth-most cap crunched team in the league. To compare, the 2010 Blackhawks, in their first run to the finals in 49 years (longer than the Predators had to wait), were also cap-c...