Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Russia Adds Top Talent For IIHF World Championship

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Teams that lose in the first round of the NHL playoffs often represent the biggest source of talent for the IIHF World Championship, and for Team Russia that is certainly the case this season. Igor Eronko of Sport-Express tweets that Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov and Nikita Zaitsev have all accepted an invitation from Russia to suit up in next month’s tournament. Evgenii Dadonov from the Florida Panthers will be joining them, giving the Russians quite the powerful forward group.

It’s not just those players who are headed to Slovakia for the tournament, as the team had previously received commitments from Evgeni Malkin, Nikita Kucherov, Ilya Kovalchuk, Mikhail Sergachev, Kirill Kaprizov, Andrei Vasilevskiy and others.

For Ovechkin, this is just another chance to add to his incredible international resume. The Washington Capitals have been knocked out of the playoffs early many times in the past, leading to the superstar forward suiting up 12 times in the past for this tournament. While still looking for an Olympic gold—Russia won last year when the NHL did not attend—Ovechkin has won this tournament three times previously and has a total of eight medals.

The action begins on May 10th.

Jordan Weal Interested In Staying With Montreal Canadiens

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Montreal Canadiens have already re-signed two of their trade deadline additions, inking short extensions with both Nate Thompson and Christian Folin in recent days. At least one more of their expiring contracts could stay, as Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports that there have been preliminary discussions between the Canadiens and the representatives for Jordan Weal. LeBrun adds that Weal has interest in staying with the Canadiens.

Weal, 27, was acquired on deadline day in exchange for Michael Chaput and quickly found a fit with Montreal. He recorded 10 points in 16 games with the team and was given more responsibility and ice time than ever before in his career. The talented forward is actually approaching unrestricted free agency for the second time despite being relatively young, as he was heading for Group VI status in the summer of 2017 before inking a two-year deal with the Philadelphia Flyers in late June.  That deal was predicated on a hot streak over the last few weeks of the 2016-17 season, not unlike the stretch that Weal just went through with Montreal.

Even with his relatively small NHL resume—Weal has only suited up 169 times and never played more than 69 games in a single season—there seemed to be a great fit in Montreal for the third round pick. There’s a good chance he could find a full-time role next to some of the team’s other talented young forwards, giving him a chance to really show what he can do at the highest level. The Canadiens have plenty of cap space, but still need to make smart decisions with it and not fill their roster with overpriced talent. There’s little chance that Weal can command huge numbers, making him a potential low-risk, high-reward play for the team.

San Jose Sharks Sign Danil Yurtaikin

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The San Jose Sharks have inked another international free agent, this time signing Danil Yurtaikin to a two-year entry-level contract. Yurtaikin was undrafted and played this season with Lokomotiv in the KHL. GM Doug Wilson released a statement on his newest forward:

Danil is an explosive skater who uses his speed to create and sustain production in the offensive zone. His offensive talents led him to finish in the top three in scoring among players under 22 in the KHL. He has a championship pedigree as a two-time MHL champion and experience with the Russian national team. We’re excited for him to join our organization.

Yurtaikin, 21, was actually ranked 63rd among international skaters for the 2015 draft by the NHL’s Central Scouting but was a relatively unknown talent and ended up going undrafted. He ended up playing in the World Juniors for Russia in 2017, recording three points and helping to secure a bronze medal. Still, the Sharks are taking a chance on a player that doesn’t have a ton of experience at the professional level, with just 58 games under his belt in the KHL.

The Sharks have been aggressive in how they’ve added players from around the world over the last few offseasons, and appear to be following that trend again this year. Yurtaikin and Joel Kellman are just the latest lottery tickets for Wilson, who continues to build an excellent program in San Jose.

Joel Kellman Signs With San Jose Sharks

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Wednesday: The deal has been officially announced by the Sharks, who included this statement from GM Doug Wilson:

Joel has consistently proven his skill and hockey IQ, as is evident in his continued improvement in juniors, Allsvenskan, and the Swedish Hockey League. He has proven himself at each level, including over 200 games before the age of 24 at Sweden’s highest level, which is an accomplishment on its own. His intelligence and responsibility on the ice are going to be a huge asset to our organization and we look forward to his joining us.

Tuesday: The San Jose Sharks have signed Swedish forward Joel Kellman, according to Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports. The deal is a one-year entry-level contract.

Kellman, 24, has played the last four seasons in the SHL and recorded 34 points in 45 games this season for Brynas. The talented offensive player has long been an effective weapon in the Swedish ranks, but never drew much NHL or international attention. That has apparently ended now that he’s on his way to San Jose, where he can battle for a spot with the team in 2019-20.

The Sharks are not new to the European free agent scene, having signed players like Lukas Radil and Radim Simek out of the Czech Republic in recent years. The team knows that with so much capital tied up in veterans like Brent Burns, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Logan Couture, they need to fill out the fringes of the roster with cheap, effective talent. While there’s no guarantee that Kellman can bring his level of production to the NHL, he does offer plenty of professional experience while still only earning an entry-level salary.

Snapshots: Bouchard, King, Canucks

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Evan Bouchard has been named OHL Defenseman of the Year, receiving the Max Kaminsky Trophy for 2018-19. Bouchard put up 53 points in 45 games for the London Knights, captaining the squad after returning from a brief stint in the NHL. Selected tenth overall last June, Bouchard played seven games for the Edmonton Oilers at the beginning of the season and recorded his first NHL goal in the process. The 19-year old then returned to the OHL where he routinely logged close to 30 minutes in ice time for the Knights and was a dominant player in the playoffs, recording another 21 points in just 11 games. He is now

Finished his junior career now, it seems likely that Bouchard will spend the 2019-20 season with the Oilers as a full-time member of their defense. The Oakville, Ontario native is an elite puck mover and has excellent offensive instincts. Jumping into rushes or getting pucks through traffic, Bouchard is one of the most dynamic goal-scoring threats in among junior defenseman and will try to carry over that production to the NHL level. Any doubt that he’ll be able to might have been pushed aside when he recorded three points in his AHL debut earlier this week.

  • The Rockford IceHogs have removed the interim tag from Derek King’s job title, making him the head coach moving forward. King took over when Jeremy Colliton was promoted to the NHL and finished with a 29-28-7 record behind the bench. The team has also given assistant coach Anders Sorensen a multi-year extension, providing some stability for the AHL organization.
  • Rick Dhaliwal of Sportsnet provides updates on several Vancouver Canucks prospects, tweeting that Linus Karlsson, Kristoffer Gunnarsson, Artyom Manukyan and Toni Utunen are all expected to stay overseas for next season. As Dhaliwal subsequently points out, Gunnarsson’s exclusive draft rights expire on June 1st of this season meaning he will become an unrestricted free agent if the Canucks don’t get him under contract. The 22-year old defenseman was a fifth round pick in 2017, but has just two points in his 124-game SHL career.

Minor Transactions: 04/25/19

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The second round is coming up and all four wild card entries are still alive. The NHL playoffs is a wild and crazy ride this season but hockey fans everywhere are loving it. As the eight remaining teams prepare for action in the coming days, we’ll keep track of all the minor moves right here.

  • Clark Bishop is back up with the Carolina Hurricanes as the team prepares for their second round matchup with the New York Islanders. Bishop has bounced up and down during the postseason due to the injuries to Andrei Svechnikov and Micheal Ferland, and will once again be considered an insurance policy for the start of round two.
  • The Boston Bruins have recalled Zane McIntyre to serve as a third goaltender while they get set to face the Columbus Blue Jackets. In addition, the team has assigned Kyle Keyser to the minor leagues after his OHL team was eliminated from the junior playoffs.
  • Joe Cannata is on his way to the Colorado Avalanche, recalled today from the minor leagues. Cannata played most of the season at the ECHL level, but can give the team an extra practice goaltender for the time being.
  • Dylan Gambrell, Lukas Radil and Josef Korenar are on their way to San Jose, joining the Sharks after their AHL club was eliminated from the playoffs last night. The San Jose Barracuda lost in four games to the San Diego Gulls, meaning the Sharks will have some extra bodies hanging around for their playoff run.

Mitch Marner Contract Negotiations “Priority One” For Maple Leafs

at CDT | by 10 Comments

The Toronto Maple Leafs cleaned out their lockers today and held their final media availability of the season after losing their first round series against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night. The team has now been ousted in the first round for three straight years and some tough questions are going to raised about how they can improve in the future while still paying top dollar for players like John Tavares and Auston Matthews. Another one of their expensive forwards will soon be Mitch Marner, who is heading into a contract negotiation this summer as a restricted free agent for the first time. GM Kyle Dubas today called the Marner contract “priority one” when speaking with reporters including Jonas Siegel of The Athletic, noting that he is going to do everything possible to try and get it done before July 1st.

That is when Marner’s current deal would officially end, and potentially when he could sign an offer sheet with another team to drive his price up. It also is when the Maple Leafs could start their unrestricted free agent shopping if there is any to do, something that would be extremely difficult without knowing how much Marner will cost next season. Toronto is set to be one of the teams closest to the salary cap ceiling next year given their expensive core, and could very well need to move out some contracts to make room for Marner and the other restricted free agents—a group that includes Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson.

The team went through a disastrous negotiation with William Nylander last year that resulted in him missing a good chunk of season, something that Dubas and his front office will avoid at all costs this time around. Nylander never really did get his game back after sitting out for so long, and finished with just seven goals and 27 points in 54 games.

Already committed to around $75MM for next season, the Maple Leafs will also likely not be able to afford to bring back Jake Gardiner. The veteran defenseman has played his entire professional career for the Maple Leafs organization after a trade brought his rights over from the Anaheim Ducks in 2011. As an unrestricted free agent Gardiner will likely draw plenty of interest from around the league despite his notoriety for turning the puck over at times (including one stark example in Tuesday’s elimination game), given his status as a top point producer. Gardiner has registered at least 30 points in a season on six different occasions, including a career-high of 52 in 2017-18.

The biggest focus will be on Marner though, who just finished a 94-point season to put himself into the top echelon of forwards in the NHL. The fourth-overall pick from 2015 has 224 points in 241 regular season games and found immediate chemistry with John Tavares this year. He was also used in a penalty killing role for the Maple Leafs in the playoffs, only adding to his versatility and value in the upcoming negotiations.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

NHLPA Announces Ted Lindsay Award Finalists

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The National Hockey League Players’ Association has named the three players up for their most prestigious honor. The Ted Lindsay Award is presented each year to the “most outstanding player in the NHL”. Unlike the Hart Trophy though, the Ted Lindsay is voted on by the candidates’ peers themselves, the NHLPA’s member players. This year, the three named as finalists are the Chicago Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane, the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov, and the Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid.

McDavid is no stranger to the Ted Lindsay; the Oilers’ superstar has won the award in each of the past two seasons. Generally, the players put less stock into team success than do voters for the Hart, making McDavid an easy choice despite Edmonton’s struggles. The last player to win the award before McDavid was none other than Kane, who took home the honor in 2015-16. Not only has Kucherov never won the award, he is a first-time finalist.

Yet, Kucherov would seem to be the favorite to receive the title this year. Tampa’s top scorer led the league in scoring with 128 points, 12 more than McDavid and 18 more than Kane. He also finished first in assists and power play points by a wide margin, as well as among the league’s best in goals, plus/minus, and shots. Also, if team performance does come into play in voting, Kucherov’s Lightning had a record-setting regular season, winning the President’s Trophy with 128 points, 21 more than the next-best team. Kucherov seems to have on overwhelmingly strong case for the Ted Lindsay (and Hart), but the final result won’t be revealed until the NHL Awards on June 19th.

Toronto’s Zach Hyman Out Six Months Following ACL Surgery

at CDT | by 1 Comment

Everyone is injured to some degree if they’re still playing at this time of year, but every postseason there are a handful of unbelievable injuries that some NHLers are able to play through. The first such case in 2019 has come to light, as the Toronto Maple Leafs have announced that Zach Hyman suffered a torn ACL in his knee during the team’s first round series against the Boston Bruins. Hyman is scheduled to undergo surgery on Monday, after which the timeline for his recovery is at least six months. His status for the start of the regular season is very much in doubt.

Hyman limped off the ice not once, not twice, but three times over the course of the Maple Leafs’ hard-fought seven games against the Bruins, but Hyman himself claims the injury occurred in Game Four of the series. Yet, Hyman continued to play for three more games, seemingly without a hitch. He averaged 18:07 average time on ice in the series, fourth-most among Toronto forwards, and recorded a goal and 25 hits. The skilled two-way forward played his role as best he could and Hyman is one of the few Leafs who have avoided a share of the blame pie since the team was eliminated. One can only imagine the pain that Hyman had to endure to continue playing on a torn ACL, which should only gain him further favor with the Toronto faithful.

However, the team must now consider that Hyman will almost certainly miss training camp and possibly weeks or months of the regular season while he recovers. The 26-year-old winger is coming off of a career year offensively and that production, as well as his gritty style, will need to be replaced early on. Hyman’s $2.25MM cap hit will likely be off the books to begin the year, which should help the Leafs slightly with their cap crunch, but how the team will go about using their small amount of cap space while also properly accounting for Hyman’s potential absence will be something to watch for as Toronto shakes things up this summer.

Montreal Canadiens Re-Sign Nate Thompson

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Montreal Canadiens acquired veteran forward Nate Thompson ahead of the NHL Trade Deadline this season to add bottom-six depth for a playoff run that never materialized. They gave up little to acquire him, swapping a fourth-round pick in this year’s draft for Thompson and a fifth-rounder from the Los Angeles Kings. Yet, the Habs have decided to make the most of that minor investment. The team has announced a one-year contract extension with Thompson. It is a one-way deal worth $1MM.

The extension represents a small pay cut for Thompson, who had a $1.65MM AAV on his previous two-year deal, one that was originally signed with the Ottawa Senators but was served with three different teams. Yet, it is a fair downgrade for the 34-year-old forward. While still a dependable two-way player and an asset at the face-off dot, Thompson point totals fell last year and he hasn’t cracked 20 points since 2010-11. Yet, in just 25 games with Montreal, Thompson scored more points than he accumulated with the Kings in more than twice the games earlier in the season. If that level of production continues – a 23-point pace – this deal will be a great bargain for the Canadiens.

With Thompson signed and the Habs already confirming that backup goaltender Antti Niemi won’t be returning, the team has very few unrestricted free agents to worry about. Only forward Jordan Weal, a fellow deadline addition, and defenseman Jordie Benn are set to hit the open market. Like Thompson, Weal played far better in Montreal than in his previous locales during the season, while Benn had a career year in 2018-19. Both are strong candidates to return to the team.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

scroll to top