New York Islanders

The Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday fired head coach Alain Vigneault and assistant coaches Rick Bowness and Newell Brown, according to TVA's Louis Jean, reported ProHockeyTalk.com.

SAN JOSE, CA _ Sharks forward Raffi Torres has been suspended for a charity barbecue this Memorial Day weekend after an illegal check to the head, the NHL announced today. The charity suspension is the first for Torres, who has been suspended four times by the league for infractions during games. Torres will not lose any salary but he will be absent from this Sunday's Bay Area Prosthetics for Pets Celebrity Barbecue and Fundraiser. read more

SAN JOSE, CA _ Sharks forward Raffi Torres has been suspended for a charity barbecue this Memorial Day weekend after an illegal check to the head, the NHL announced today. The charity suspension is the first for Torres, who has been suspended four times by the league for infractions during games. Torres will not lose any salary but he will be absent from this Sunday's Bay Area Prosthetics for Pets Celebrity Barbecue and Fundraiser. He is currently suspended for the entirety of San Jose's playoff series against Los Angeles for a high hit on the Kings' Jarret Stoll in Game 1. The hit that caused the Memorial Day suspension occurred during an organizational meeting for the barbecue. With time winding down on the meeting, Torres caught former San Francisco 49er Merton Hanks with an elbow to the head as Hanks was pouring himself a cup of coffee. Hanks appeared dazed and in extreme discomfort as he lay on the floor covered in lukewarm coffee. Torres was ejected immediately from the meeting, while Hanks was helped off the floor and given some Tylenol as a precautionary measure. The Sharks are not expected to appeal the suspension, but general manager Doug Wilson issued a statement vehemently disagreeing with the decision. Wilson insists that Torres was simply reaching for a donut over the shoulder of ex-Golden State Warrior Tim Hardaway, another member of the charity's celebrity board, when his shoulder inadvertently grazed Hanks' head. For Wilson's outspoken comments, the NHL also decided to fine the Sharks 300 hamburger buns, to be delivered to the barbecue no later than noon on Sunday. Torres has a history of questionable actions at community events throughout his NHL career. Last season as a member of the Phoenix Coyotes, Torres was disqualified from one of Alice Cooper's charity golf tournaments for parking his golf cart directly over a rival player's ball in the middle of the fairway. In 2007 while playing for Edmonton, Torres was ejected from a Select-A-Seat event for new season ticket holders after allegedly throwing two teenagers down a flight of stairs at Rexall Place. The Bay Area Prosthetics for Pets Barbecue is an annual event featuring a host of actors, athletes and musicians raising money for the research and distribution of artificial limbs for animals ranging from hamsters to miniature horses. All of the teams from the Oakland/San Francisco/San Jose area send players and Torres was expected to be the Sharks' representative. His replacement has yet to be named. "They'll probably send that Swedish guy, Raga, Ragu...Ragamuffin... something like that, man," said rocker Sammy Hagar, the charity's founder and the barbecue's chief organizer. "The Q's gonna go on no matter what some dickhead does, man. Not gonna harsh this buzz. "We got some killer grub from Guy Fieri, some Cabo Wabo tequilla, a little music, some girls, Rickey Henderson's gonna be there, it's all good. If Raffi promises to chill out, we'll fix him a plate of leftovers he can eat the next day." ___ This is a parody. But is it really that far-fetched to see Torres (or Sammy Hagar) doing any of this? BTW: Did you know that Merton Hanks is basically the NFL's Brendan Shanahan? I had no idea.

Longtime NHL defenseman Andy Sutton is calling it a career at age 38, announcing his retirement on Wednesday after sitting out the 2013 season with a knee injury.

Andy Sutton played 676 NHL games over 15 years, paying the physical toll and maintaining a professional hockey career through what was his final season with the Edmonton Oilers in 2013. But c’mon, we all know the guy’s legacy as he announces his retirement on Wednesday. It’s two-fold. First, and perhaps foremost, it’s this indelible soundbyte in 2010 in which he questions a reporter about his expertise: “Are you asking me or are you telling me?” and “So you’re an expert?” and “You saw the replay?” have entered into the NHL lexicon. It’s like the “Who’s on First?” for puckheads. The other legacy: The suspensions, and his reaction to them. Sutton was an early poster boy for Brendan Shanahan’s Department of Player Safety, getting suspended for 13 games total in Shanny’s first year as sheriff: Five for a headshot on Gabriel Landeskog of the Colorado Avalanche and eight for another hit to the head on Alexei Ponikarovsky of the Carolina Hurricanes . He was also one of the first players to speak out against the NHL’s crackdown on certain types of hits. As he told the Edmonton Journal: "This will be hard because my style of play is to be on my toes, playing physically," said Sutton. "You may see more hits with my back and my butt than my shoulders and my elbow. Seems to be the only way you're not suspended anymore." "Those guys have to calm down, it's nuts. Everybody does. You can almost dissect every hit and see a guy leaving his feet or there's contact to the head. Guys are always leaning (with the puck). It can look like an elbow, but it's not. The media shows it 1,000 times." After two seasons of the Department of Player Safety and Rule 48, do you read Sutton’s comments in a different light?

Kevin Schultz, Islanders Point Blank:This might be one of the more unusual scenarios that we’ve heard regarding coaching positions, but if reports are to be believed, Islanders coach Jack Capuano may be coveted by his alma mater, the University of Maine, for their vacant head coaching job. After enduring a few bad, losing seasons Capuano guided a young Islanders team to the playoffs this year. That’s got to be more than enough incentive for coach and team to continue to work together, but it’s not clear if Capuano is under contract for next season. The Islanders don’t release coach contract info but the prevailing wisdom seems to be that Capuano’s contract was up after this year (after three years at the helm, and that sounds like a standard contact, anyhow). Back in April, Newsday’s Arthur Staple wrote that Capuano’s contract was likely up: On the subject of Capuano’s contract status, neither he nor GM Garth Snow would comment. It was believed that Capuano’s contract runs through this season, but Snow steadfastly refuses to reveal any information about his coach’s status. There’s been no news of an extension, at least not yet, and with the Maine job vacant since early April — a seemingly extended amount of time — that has led to lots of speculation. That speculation has included Scott Pellerin, also a Maine alum, as well as Capuano. Yesterday, College Hockey News cited two sources that said Maine was interested in Capuano: Then there’s rumblings that [Maine Athletic Director Steve] Abbott would like to woo New York Islanders head coach Jack Capuano, a Maine alum, back to Orono to run the hockey program. Given the Islanders’ success this past season, making the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2007, on paper, it appears to be a long shot. But according to two sources, there have been overtures made and while Islanders’ majority owner Charles Wang would be smart to ink his head coach to a contract extension after the success the team enjoyed this season, nothing is certain… According to the same two sources, Capuano is the lowest paid coach in the league. A college hockey job still pays less than the lowest paying NHL gig, but its also carries more job security than the revolving door that the NHL coaching carousel can be. To add to that, Capuano’s son is going to be playing baseball at Maine this year. To be clear, there’s no indication that Capuano has any interest in the Maine job. It would be surprising if the Islanders didn’t want to bring him back after this season, and equally surprising if the coach didn’t want to see through the fruits of his young team finally coming of age. But Maine, if they are indeed making overtures, holds a few cards with potential job security and his son.

The New York Islanders are excited to announce tryouts for the Junior Islanders Quebec Tournament. Tryouts will take place at Islanders IceWorks in Syosset. The first tryout is June 25 & 26 and the second tryout is August 13 & 14. There is an $8...

There is a coaching search underway right now that has nothing to do with the New York Islanders, yet the location of this search has at least tangentially drawn them in. The University of Maine has been without a head coach since firing Tim Whitefield in April and naming associate coach Bob Corkum as interim coach. Maine, many Islanders fans recognize, is the alma mater of three particularly important people steering the Islanders and their young players: General manager Garth Snow, head coach Jack Capuano and Bridgeport Sound Tigers head coach Scott Pellerin. read more

There is a coaching search underway right now that has nothing to do with the New York Islanders, yet the location of this search has at least tangentially drawn them in. The University of Maine has been without a head coach since firing Tim Whitefield in April and naming associate coach Bob Corkum as interim coach. Maine, many Islanders fans recognize, is the alma mater of three particularly important people steering the Islanders and their young players: General manager Garth Snow, head coach Jack Capuano and Bridgeport Sound Tigers head coach Scott Pellerin. For the Maine opening, the Islanders-related scuttlebutt began in April, when Pellerin's name was mentioned in media as a candidate but Pellerin wouldn't comment. There has been nothing concrete naming Pellerin as a finalist for the job, but pretty much any former Black Bear currently behind a bench has had his name surface. Including Jack Capuano. The latest local report from the Bangor Daily News mentions neither Capuano nor Pellerin, though the university is not exactly naming names. Maine says it expects to have one secured by next week, is interviewing more candidates, but will not acknowledge specific candidates because many are in current jobs. The Bangor paper has the following candidates: ... reliable sources in the hockey community have indicated the frontrunners include University of New Hampshire assistant coach and former Colby College head coach Jim Tortorella, former Black Bear and University of Massachusetts assistant and current Yale University assistant Dennis "Red" Gendron, Maine associate head coach and Black Bears interim head coach Bob Corkum, and Mark Osiecki, former University of Wisconsin assistant, who was recently fired as the head coach at Ohio State after three seasons. ... but of course there could be more. Completely coincidentally (Of course? Of course.), Jack Capuano was named to the University of Maine Sports Hall of Fame earlier this month. And readers here brought this up in the morning LHH thread: A College Hockey News column, which otherwise reads almost like a message board "cheap SnoWang!!1" piece ripping the Islanders' frugality, says "according to two sources, there have been overtures made" from Maine to the Islanders about Capuano. You Be Capuano The Islanders are always mum on the contract status of their coaches, but Capuano is widely believed to have finished a contract this season. So put yourself in his position, if indeed the alma mater came asking: He's in an interesting spot. He's survived the worst and his NHL team is on the rise, so he theoretically can command an extension and a raise -- something few would have predicted in January -- but also his position is not one of perfectly solid ground. (It almost never is in the NHL, but...) The Islanders coaching staff had this team "humming," as the players say, by the final third of the season. But it's also a staff with two assistants who were suggested if not outright picked for Capuano. Meanwhile, NHL coaching jobs are inherently unsafe, and a step backwards after the team raised expectations in 2013 would be disastrous for Capuano. An eighth seed this past season, the bar is now set there as the minimum for 2013-14. The team was healthy in 2013. What if the injury scourge returns, or the goaltending further underwhelms? Meanwhile, NCAA hockey jobs are ... well they're not cushy exactly, but they often end up being long term. A New Englander leading the good life at his alma mater could sound enticing versus the instability of the NHL, where even Jack Adams award winners are a fluke- or injury-aided losing streak away from suddenly acquiring an expiration date. On the other hand, Capuano is in the very position he has toiled so many years to secure: Leading a team that is only expected to get better, carving out respect for the club and his work around the league, at a point where the latter two help his bargaining position. It's all a matt

The New York Islanders announced another low-on-the-radar signing today that may have you asking yourself, "Who?" As is typical in these late-bloomer additions to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, his history and path to the pros is an adventurous one. The signing is Chris Bruton, who is essentially an undersized AHL fighter with some modest hockey skill. (See his ample fight card at hockeyfights.com, going back to Spokane in the WHL.) But he gets a two-way contract -- i.e., an NHL deal -- so he at least potentially could see time with the big club. This is part of the annual rotation of muscle guys we see in the AHL, with some of them receiving that added carrot of a two-way deal. From the team release: Bruton, 26, scored 10 points (four goals, six assists) in 69 games last season with the Peoria Rivermen of the American Hockey League. The Calgary, ALTA, native led Peoria with 134 penalty minutes, while posting a plus-2 rating. He split his first professional season (2011-12) between Peoria and the ECHL’s Alaska Aces, totaling 18 points (eight goals, 10 assists) in 65 games. You'll note two things there: 1) Don't expect much offense, and 2) His ECHL Alaska Aces ties likely led to positive references for the Islanders, who have previously dipped into Alaska, where they recruited current assistant coach Brent Thompson into the organization (first as head coach at AHL Bridgeport) after his success with the Aces. However, the other thing that stands out is at the end of the release: After juniors, Bruton played Canadian university hockey at Acadia University in Nova Scotia. That's why he didn't play his first pro season until age 24, where AHL Peoria noticed him and called him up in 2011-12. They then re-signed him for this past season, with this in mind according to the Peoria Journal Star: The 5-foot-11, 205-pound Bruton earned a call-up from ECHL Alaska during the season and made a big impression on the parent club St. Louis Blues while in Peoria. He fought nine times in just 38 games, and also bagged his first two goals at the AHL level. "We've been around Chris Bruton for a while and we're glad to have him under the Blues umbrella," said Blues assistant general manager, director of pro scouting and Rivermen GM Kevin McDonald. "He joins a long line of players who have earned a chance to come up from the ECHL to Peoria during a season, got the job done and earned an AHL deal to stay there, then earned a full contract to return another year. "We think he has a big ceiling and we want to see what develops." Now at age 26, I doubt anyone sees "a big ceiling" for Bruton, but he undoubtedly ingratiates himself to his teammates and fans if his Peoria experience is any indication. You'll also see him as the first testimonial in this Riverman "You Can Play" project video. With Peoria being abandoned by the Blues and scrambling to field a SPHL replacement for the Illinois town, it was time for Bruton to find a new location if he was going to continue chasing moves up the pro ladder. Now, suddenly, that chase include an outside shot at appearing in an NHL uniform.