Puck Daddy Power Rankings: Bozak's future; arbitration; KHLers coming?

[Author's note: Power rankings are usually three things: Bad, wrong, and boring. You typically know just as well as the authors which teams won what games against who and what it all means, so our moving the Red Wings up four spots or whatever really doesn't tell you anything you didn't know. Who's hot, who's not, who cares? For this reason, we're doing a power ranking of things that are usually not teams. You'll see what I mean.]

7. Tyler Bozak

Lost in the whole Phil Kessel trade thing, at least a little bit, is the fact that Toronto still has Tyler Bozak signed for another three seasons at $4.2 million per. That's a lot of money for a guy who was effectively paid to be a running buddy.

And not to really kick the guy while he's down, but the fact that he played six seasons alongside Kessel and only managed to rack up 76 primary assists is kind of remarkable. That's fewer than 13 per season on average. Most No. 1 centers could do that in their sleep playing with Kessel.

But — and this bears repeating over and over — Bozak isn't and never was a No. 1 center. The good news is he's not really paid like one either, but the question is whether he's even a No. 2. Next season, when he's no longer playing aside Kessel, or even James van Riemsdyk (who probably deserves a run-out with the more-skilled Nazem Kadri, and will likely get it because Mike Babcock is a hell of a lot better at his job than Randy Carlyle), we will get the true measure of Bozak's quality.

The likely answer will be unflattering to player and executive who gave him his contract in the first place, and there seems to be a very good chance that he crashes down through the lineup pretty hard, and pretty quickly. His numbers away from Kessel — few of them though there may be — imply he might not even be a third-line center. Which is amazing, if you think about it.

Or, you can just put it this way.

But at least he's got the $12.6 million coming to him. Unless he gets bought out. Which will probably become an increasingly distinct possibility.

6. Managing expectations

Because fans regularly comparing the kid to Jesus Christ wasn't making things difficult enough for him, Connor McDavid went out and scored five goals in his first exhibition at rookie camp this week. It seems that most of these goals were of a quality ranging from “quite nice” to “dear god.” The rest of his teammates combined for three.

This is basically going to make it impossible for anyone to see things even remotely clearly when McDavid even starts playing in exhibition games against a mix of NHL and AHL talent in a few months. Right now he's mostly playing against college and junior players.

And let's not forget the biggest reason to take these performances with a grain of salt: These are college and junior players drafted by the Oilers, so... y'know.

5. Hot dogs, faraway hot dogs

What kind of man eats faraway hot dogs?

4. Arbitration

Often, a lot of the guys who take player-elected arbitration are guys people who are fans of other teams haven't heard much about. Brendan Shinnimin is taking the Arizona Coyotes to arbitration. Matthew Clark is taking the Colorado Avalanche. But that's basically where the “Who is this guy?” list ends this year. They're in the vast minority.

Other than that, you could put together a decent team from just the guys headed to arbitration. Derek Stepan, Braden Holtby, Marcus Johansson, Mike Hoffman, Colin Wilson, Gustav Nyquist, etc. are all going to state their case (or are at least using the option as a sort of last resort while they continue negotiating contracts with their teams).

If I'm, say, the Washington Capitals or New York Rangers, I'm throwing a lot of money at my guys because they're proven NHLers and I'd want to get them locked up as long as possible. This is all Part Of The Process and Hockey's Just A Business, but you don't want to give your franchise goalie or the best center on your team the chance to get all pissed off at you in an arbitration hearing. They are, as we've learned over the years, often unpleasant.

Holtby and Stepan really shouldn't even be getting to this point. They have nothing left to prove to their teams; they are — or should be, anyway — franchise cornerstones. Period. This is especially true of Holtby, who apart from a two-month stretch in 2013-14, has been awesome for basically his entire career. And even that bad, bad, bad 2013-14 season you occasionally hear about when it comes to Holtby? He went .915 in 48 appearances. Most GMs would step over their own mothers to get a goaltender for whom .915 is a down year. And they'd be right to do it.

Unfortunately for those GMs, players who elect to go to arbitration cannot be extended offer sheets. But they had their chance to sign one of the best goalies in the league, and didn't bother.

3. KHLers coming?

This summer it seems there are more teams than usual signing players from the KHL, and rumors are also flying that guys like Alex Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn might be amenable to coming back to the good ol' US of A (or Canada). In Kostitsyn's case, he says he'd sign a one-year, “show me” deal to prove he's serious about not missing curfew during the playoffs, and he actually seems focused on not-playing in Russia.

As for Radulov, well, he's out of contract right now so he's basically a UFA free to sign anywhere that will pay him what he wants. Says it's about “options,” and so on. The skill level he carries is unreal; since 2010-11 he has 306 points in 232 KHL games. And yeah, the KHL is bad, but no one posts anything close to those numbers. Last year's 71 points in 46 games was better than second-place Jan Kovar, who had 68... in 60.

If the Predators think Stevie Moses — who had 57 points in 60 games — is worth a short-term flyer of a contract, there's no reason for (insert NHL team here) to kick the tires on Radulov and see what he'd cost.

And while it feels like they've been gone forever, Kostitsyn is 30, and Radulov only turned 29 a few days ago. Gotta think there's tread left on the tires if they can re-acclimate to the North American style. Last time Radulov tried it didn't go so well, but it's worth taking the temperature, that's for sure.

2. Local kids

The Wild have long had an obsession with signing players who grew up or played in Minnesota (and likewise, players who grew up or played in Minnesota have an obsession with signing with the Wild). Now it seems as though this enthusiasm is spreading to other teams.

Take, for instance, the Blue Jackets signing Kole Sherwood, an undrafted kid who was apparently planning on at least one more year — probably two — in the USHL before going to Boston University, and Sherwood will instead play for the London Knights until such time as he's NHL-ready. Why is this important? Sherwood is from New Albany, Ohio, and would have probably started playing hockey right around the time the Blue Jackets started up. He has, in fact, played for the Blue Jackets' bantam, U16, and U18 teams over the last four seasons.

This is one of those things that is a little weird, but you can apparently sign undrafted kids the second they don't get selected as an 18-year-old (Sherwood turned 18 three days before Noah Hanifin). Columbus didn't want to risk losing him in the draft next season, so they signed him straight away instead. They apparently liked what they saw at development camp.

This is a can't-lose signing, though. If Sherwood never becomes anything great at the junior level (and given the eagerness to sign him, that seems doubtful), they stuff him in the AHL a few years from now and forget about it. But if not, boy, imagine the headlines a year or two from now, huh?

Meanwhile, there was also the Bruins trading for and signing Jimmy Hayes to a three-year deal for short money, to serve as something of a Reilly Smith replacement. Now, was Smith overpaid? Hoo boy yes. Was this a good for the Bruins for that reason? Yes. Was it a good move to help the Bruins on the ice next season? Not really. Was it a good move to win the team a little bit of positive PR because Hayes is both a competent NHLer and Boston native? You bet it was, buddy.

People have taken to praising the work of Don Sweeney over the last week because he's shed a few of the bad contracts the team carried, but this is like praising the captain of the Titanic for getting everyone to the life boats safely. There's still a massive issue with this roster (one good defenseman who is a few months away from being able to collect Social Security). But Sweeney is now unassailable in the Boston media because he brought in a Boston Guy. The net sum of all his moves, some of which have been smart, and some idiotic, have brought the Bruins to this point: They're still worse off now than they were at the end of last season. And for a guy not going into a rebuild, with a team that's still going to be capped-out, well, that still seems bad.

But hey, Jimmy Hayes is a Dawchestah kehd. Gutta sign 'im!

1. Restricted free agents

Evgeny Kuznetsov signed a two-year deal on Monday that carries an AAV of $3 million. Pretty good deal for a player who looks poised to become a very good NHLer in short order.

(Not ranked this week: David Poile for signing Mike Ribeiro.

Gross.)

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