Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Archives for July 2016

Snapshots: Burrows, Francis, Arbitration

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

When the 2015-16 season came to a close, it seemed a sure bet that the Vancouver Canucks were going to buy out the final year of Alex Burrows’ four-year, $18MM contract. He’d seen his play dwindle, and GM Jim Benning was clear that he wanted to move in a younger direction, all but pointing the finger at the 35-year old.  But, as the first buyout window came and went, it was Chris Higgins and not Burrows that found his contract voided.

Now, Burrows says that he’s ready for the new season and is challenging himself to be better.  In talking to Ben Kuzma of The Province, Burrows provided great insight into his preparation and mindset heading into this season, including making it clear that he will relish a leadership and mentor opportunity with the younger players this season.

He’s even open to being a healthy scratch on occasion: “There are so many worse things in life than being a healthy scratch or they put a young guy in the lineup ahead of you. My wife is healthy and my kids are healthy and it puts things in perspective.”  Here’s some more from around the league:

  • After years of floundering without a clear direction, Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News opines that the Carolina Hurricanes are finally doing a re-build the right way. With a full stable of young defensemen they’ve built through the draft, the team now has the option of dealing from a position of depth – one that is scarce throughout the league. Kennedy mentions the recent rumors of David Krejci from Boston as a possible target for one of their young blueliners.
  • In hiring Brad Shaw as an assistant coach last month, the Columbus Blue Jackets added an experienced name that can help build and develop their defense like he did in St. Louis. When asked by Rob Mixer of NHL.com why he chose Columbus, Shaw made it clear that players like the recently extended Seth Jones, and second overall pick Ryan Murray were a key factor: “The young defensemen here played a big part in my decision, no doubt about it. The biggest challenge in working with young players is trying to pin down and have a clear picture of what the final product will look like when they’re at their best in the NHL. Every guy is different.”
  • After Philadelphia signed Jordan Weal earlier today, three of the twenty-five players who are headed to arbitration (through their own filing or the team’s) have now come to terms before their hearings, as General Fanager tweets. You can follow all the arbitration cases on their tracker, as well as up-to-date depth charts at Roster Resource.

Minor Transactions: 07/11/16

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Here is where we will keep track of all the minor transactions happening today:

  • According to Harvey Fiaklov of the Sun Sentinal, the Florida Panthers have inked Denis Malgin to a three-year entry-level contract, after drafting him in the third round in 2015. The 19-year old played for Zurich last season under new Ottawa Senators assistant coach Marc Crawford. Overshadowed by number one pick Auston Matthews, Malgin put up 17 points in the professional league.
  • Thomas Raffl is heading back to Austria, instead of signing with a new team in the NHL.  After coming over last season to play in the AHL, the unrestricted free agent has decided to take his talents back to Europe, according to Brennan Klak.
  • The Minnesota Wild have announced that they’ve re-signed defenseman Zach Palmquist to a one-year, two-way deal worth $660K at the NHL level.  The 25-year old scored 11 points last season in the AHL, his first full professional season.
  • Roman Lyubimov, a 24-year old forward from the KHL has agreed to terms with the Philadelphia Flyers on a one-year entry-level contract, according to a team release.  Lyubimov has played six seasons already in the KHL, breaking in as an 18-year old in 2010-11.
  • The San Jose Barracuda have inked a quartet of players to one-year, AHL contracts.  John McCarthy, Jake Marchment, Matt Willows and Jamie Murray all signed with the team according to a press release.  Marchment is a name well known to San Jose fans, as he’s the nephew of former player and current development coach Bryan Marchment, a veteran of 926 NHL games.

Ryan O’Reilly DUI Case Dismissed In Court

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

According to a series of tweets from London Free Press reporter Jane Sims, the case against Ryan O’Reilly from last summer’s impaired driving incident has been dropped, due to “no reasonable prospect of conviction.”

O’Reilly was charged with impaired driving and failure to remain at the scene when he crashed his truck into a Tim Hortons in London, Ontario on July 9th of last year.  The Buffalo Sabres forward had recently signed a seven-year contract extension worth $52.5 million dollars.

No word on whether the league will hand out additional discipline to the center, but for now O’Reilly can start to put the incident behind him.  The Sabres hope that nothing else comes of it, as O’Reilly played exceptionally well for them last season, scoring 21 goals and 60 points in 71 games.

Montreal Introduces Laval As New AHL Affiliate

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

As we speculated here yesterday, the Montreal Canadiens have officially announced that they will move their AHL affiliate St. John’s to Laval, Quebec for the 2017-18 season.  The city is building a new 10,000 seat arena that will house the team, and is now just a short distance from it’s parent club.

St. John’s has had terrible luck in keeping a professional hockey team over the years, as this represents the third time a club has moved away from the maritime city in recent memory. The Maple Leafs and Jets both once had affiliates there, before moving them into their respective metropolitan areas, just as Montreal has done today.

If a team ever were to head to Quebec City, perhaps St. John’s could be a successful fit, but for now the city must watch their third franchise leave in just over ten years. Montreal also announced that it will have a naming contest to determine what the new nickname of the team will be.

Flyers Sign Jordan Weal To One-Year Deal

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

After filing for arbitration last week, Philadelphia Flyers forward Jordan Weal has come to terms with the team on a one-year, two-way deal, according to Tim Wharnsby of CBC. The deal will see him paid $650K at the NHL level, and $200K if he remains in the AHL.

Weal made his NHL debut last season for the Los Angeles Kings before being involved in the trade that brought Vincent Lecavalier and Luke Schenn out west. Weal is a small framed center, capable of putting up a ton of points at the AHL level, including back to back twenty-goal seasons in 2013-15.

Last season the 24-year old only got into 14 total games, as injury and waiver limbo kept him in the NHL all season. After being acquired by Philadelphia, the former Calder Cup MVP spent many games watching from the press box, as the team was unwilling to expose him to waivers to send him down.  Now he’ll try to crack the Philadelphia top-6, and prove that he can carry over that scoring prowess to the next level.

Week In Review: 7/3/16 – 7/9-16

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

While the first full week of July didn’t feature quite the frenzy of its predecessor in terms of major UFA signings or blockbuster trades, it was still a busy one.  Here’s a look back at the week that was around the hockey world.

Trades

Jonathan Bernier (Maple Leafs) – To Anaheim for a conditional draft pick

Notable Re-Signings

Magnus Paajarvi (Blues) – One year, $700K
Calvin Pickard (Avalanche) – Two years, $2MM
Darcy Kuemper (Wild) – One year, $1.55MM
Phillip Danault (Canadiens) – Two years, $1.825MM
Kyle Palmieri (Devils) – Five years, $23.25MM
Mark Scheifele (Jets) – Eight years, $49MM
Nathan MacKinnon (Avalanche) – Seven years, $44.1MM

Notable UFA Signings

Mason Raymond (Ducks) – One year, $675K
Jordin Tootoo (Blackhawks) – One year, $750K
Jared Boll (Ducks) – Two years, $1.8MM
Chris Kelly (Senators) – One year, $900K
Evgeny Medvedev (formerly of the Flyers) – Two year deal in the KHL

Contract Extensions

Reilly Smith (Panthers) – Five years, $25MM
Derek MacKenzie (Panthers) – Two years, $2.75MM
Mathieu Perreault (Jets) – Four years, $16.5MM
Jacob Markstrom (Canucks) – Three years, $11.5MM

Prospect Signings

Patrik Laine (Jets) – Three year entry-level deal
Matthew Tkachuk (Flames) Three year entry-level deal
Jake Bean and Julien Gauthier (Hurricanes) – Three year entry-level deals

Arbitration Filings

24 players filed for salary arbitration in advance of Tuesday’s deadline (Link)

Injuries

Teemu Pulkkinen (Red Wings) – Four to six months (shoulder surgery)

Retirements

Matt Carkner (Link)

Backup Goalie Options For Toronto

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

After trading Jonathan Bernier to the Ducks earlier this week, the Maple Leafs are in the market for a new backup goalie.  Head coach Mike Babcock told reporters that they’re looking for a “good pro,” implying that they’re looking for an experienced veteran to work behind 26 year old Frederik Andersen.

Unfortunately for Toronto, there aren’t many quality veterans available in free agency.  There are four NHL free agents with at least 100 games of experience in Jhonas Enroth, Anders Lindback, Karri Ramo, and Ben Scrivens.  However, all four of those players have either struggled in recent years or are considerably undersized for the position (Enroth) leading many to assume the team will ultimately trade for a backup instead.  With that in mind, here are some potential veteran trade candidates for the Leafs.

Thomas Greiss (New York I.) – This past week, the Islanders re-signed J-F Berube giving them three goalies on one-way deals.  Jaroslav Halak is the clear #1 while the fact they are keeping Berube around suggests that management is high on his potential.  That leaves Greiss as potentially the odd man out.  Greiss is coming off the best season of his career plus a strong playoff run so the asking price should be somewhat high.  However, the Leafs would be getting an above average backup and would give themselves two quality options between the pipes each and every night.

Curtis McElhinney (Columbus) – The Blue Jackets have youngster Joonas Korpisalo waiting in the wings who handled himself quite well in 31 NHL games last season.  McElhinney is coming off a down season but has been a reliable backup in previous years.  Considering Columbus is looking to get younger, the asking price here wouldn’t be terribly high and would allow the Leafs to add a short-term fix while they let youngsters Garret Sparks and Antoine Bibeau battle it out in the minors for another year.

Ondrej Pavelec (Winnipeg) – After trading a bad contract in Bernier away, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense on the surface to turn around and trade for another one in Pavelec.  However, the Leafs have a couple of similarly-priced deals in Milan Michalek and Colin Greening that they could potentially flip to offset the salary.  A deal like this would give the Leafs someone that could slide into a #1 role if Andersen gets hurt while Winnipeg would free up a spot for Connor Hellebuyck to join the NHL team on a full-time basis.

Failing that, a trade for Michael Hutchinson from Winnipeg could be another possibility.  While he doesn’t have a ton of NHL experience, he has seen action in at least 30 NHL games in each of the last two seasons and dealing him away would allow the Jets to move Hellebuyck up full-time as well.

There aren’t a lot of veteran netminders out there for the Leafs but they still should be able to add one without much difficulty between now and the start of training camp in September.

West Notes: McGinn, Shore, Blues

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Prior to entering free agency, left winger Jamie McGinn was looking to find a bigger role in terms of his ice time as well as leadership, he told Sarah McLellan of AZCentral.  The Coyotes were looking for someone to help mentor their young core forwards in Max Domi, Anthony Duclair, and Dylan Strome as well as someone who was willing to get to the dirty areas to score and identified McGinn as someone who would be a fit.  Not surprisingly, it didn’t take too long before the two sides agreed to a three year, $10MM contract on July 1st.

McGinn also had someone he could turn to for information about playing in Arizona as his brother Tye spent part of the 2014-15 season with the Coyotes and obviously the elder Jamie liked what he heard.

The 27 year old profiles as a top six forward with Arizona which should give him a chance to beat his career high in points (39) that he set last season, split between Buffalo and Anaheim.

More from around the Western Conference:

  • Dallas center prospect Devin Shore is a candidate to step into a bottom six role for the Stars following the departures of Vernon Fiddler (to New Jersey) and Colton Sceviour (to Florida). Shore missed the second half of last season following shoulder surgery but impressed in his freshman pro campaign, picking up 26 points in 23 AHL games.  If Shore, a second round pick in 2012, can crack the roster in training camp, he coincidentally will follow in the footsteps of the Stars’ first rounder in 2012, Radek Faksa, writes Steve Hunt of NHL.com.  Faksa also suffered a shoulder injury in his first pro season but was still able to crack Dallas’ lineup the following season.
  • St. Louis will be changing their playing style to reflect the departures of physical forwards David Backes, Troy Brouwer, and Steve Ott as well as the addition of David Perron, head coach Ken Hitchcock told Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Hitchcock has been working closely with coach-in-waiting Mike Yeo to incorporate part of the system Yeo ran with the Wild into how the Blues want to play next season.  While St. Louis will have less toughness in their lineup, they hope to compensate for that by being tougher on the puck, something that Minnesota was known for under Yeo’s tenure.  With only RFA Jaden Schwartz left to re-sign this offseason, it doesn’t appear likely that the Blues will wind up doing much to replace the grit they’ve lost as a new deal for him will eat up a big chunk of their remaining cap space.

Free Agent Profile: Radim Vrbata

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Two years ago, right winger Radim Vrbata was one of the more sought after forwards on the free agent market.  This summer, he has more or less been an afterthought through the first week.  Here is a closer look at his free agent situation.

Vrbata signed a two year deal with the Canucks in the summer of 2014 with the hopes that he could be a reliable scoring winger to play with the Sedin twins.  For the first year of that contract, he did exactly that, scoring 31 goals and 32 assists for a career high in points with 63.  Unfortunately for Vrbata and the Canucks, 2015-16 was an entirely different story.

Last season, he collected just 13 goals and 14 assists in 63 games while missing some time with a pair of lower body injuries.  Those 27 points were his lowest since 2003-04 while his -30 plus/minus rating was second worst in the entire NHL.  Between his struggles and a $5MM contract, Vancouver was unable to find a taker for him at the trade deadline.

Teams will now be wondering if last season was a sign of things to come or just an off year.  At 35 years of age, it’s certainly possible to think that he won’t be able to get back to his top line form.  On the other hand, he has averaged greater than half a point per game for six straight years before last season so there’s a case to be made that his track record suggests he’s worth another shot.

Potential Suitors

At this stage of his career, no one is mistaking Vrbata for a top line forward.  He’s one of those players who profiles as a second/third liner that can play on a power play.  Montreal showed considerable interest in him two years ago but likely doesn’t have enough money to sign him without having to make a trade beforehand.  Teams like the Senators, Hurricanes, Rangers, Ducks, Bruins, and Sabres all have the cap space and a potential roster spot for a player like Vrbata but so far, no specific team has been reported to show interest in him.

Projected Contract

Vrbata ranked 27th on our Top 50 UFA list and we had projected that he wouldn’t have much difficulty getting a deal as one of the secondary scorers in free agency.  Obviously, that didn’t happen so our projection of $3.7MM on a one year deal is probably going to be too high.  A one year contract remains likely though given his inconsistency from last season and the fact a multi-year deal would trigger the 35+ clause similar to what the Red Wings had to deal with when it came to Pavel Datsyuk’s retirement.

Atlantic Notes: Boston’s Defense, Red Wings, AHL Affiliates

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

While it’s no secret that the Bruins could use some help on the blueline, CSN’s Joe Haggerty suggests that the help may be coming later rather than sooner in the form of a midseason trade instead of an offseason addition.  As things stand, the UFA market for defensemen is getting rather thin quickly and there aren’t many teams willing to trade impact defenders at this time.  Players like Anaheim’s Cam Fowler and Colorado’s Tyson Barrie have been mentioned in trade rumors in recent weeks but the asking price for those players is justifiably quite high.

Haggerty suggests that some in Boston’s front office are growing skeptical that one of Brandon Carlo, Robbie O’Gara, or Matt Grzelcyk will be able to step into a top six role to start the season.  That would put more pressure on returnees Colin Miller and Joe Morrow, as well as John-Michael Liles, who will begin his first full season with the team.

The Bruins lost Zach Trotman to Los Angeles in free agency while buying out Dennis Seidenberg, thinning their depth on the back end accordingly.

More from the Atlantic Division:

  • Detroit head coach Jeff Blashill is a big fan of the Wings’ moves so far this offseason, writes MLive’s Brendan Savage. Early in free agency, the team re-signed center Darren Helm while adding centers Frans Nielsen and Steve Ott as well as winger Thomas Vanek.  Blashill acknowledged that Nielsen is expected to center Detroit’s second line next season though he wouldn’t go as far as suggesting who the wingers on that unit may be.  Vanek would be a candidate, as would returnees Justin Abdelkader and Tomas Tatar.
  • Both the Senators and Canadiens are expected to move their AHL affiliates in time for the 2017-18 season. Jason Miller of the Ottawa Citizen reports that the Sens will move their affiliate from Binghamton, New York to Belleville, Ontario.  Meanwhile, the Habs have called a press conference for Monday morning in Laval, Quebec where it’s expected that they will announce what has been speculated for a couple of years, that they will move their farm team from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Laval to play at a new 10,000 seat arena that’s expected to be ready in 2017.

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

scroll to top