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Archives for February 2017

Snapshots: Hanzal, Capitals, Gallant, Vanek

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While the Coyotes and center Martin Hanzal had engaged in contract extension discussions earlier this season (and remains open to re-signing), he has yet to receive an offer from the team, he told Sarah McLellan of the Arizona Republic.

“When I get an offer, I’ll see.  I haven’t got an offer yet from the Coyotes. We haven’t talked.”

“Obviously, we’re getting closer and closer (to the trade deadline).  So it’s going to be interesting, and I don’t know if they want to move me or not. I have no expectations. I’ll focus on the hockey games and see what happens.”

Hanzal is slated to become an unrestricted free agent in July and with Arizona well out of the playoff picture, they’re likely to either sign him or trade him by the March 1st deadline.  GM John Chayka’s asking price is known to be quite high with a first round pick plus a quality NHL-ready younger among the elements he’s seeking in a trade.

Elsewhere around the league:

  • One team that is likely to be quiet at the deadline is the Washington Capitals, suggests Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post. The offseason additions of Lars Eller and Brett Connolly have deepened their forward group so there’s no pressing need to add some depth there like they did last season with Daniel Winnik.  Khurshudyan notes that the team could add some more depth on the back end, which we also identified as their top need heading into March in our Deadline Primer.
  • The Panthers are granting teams permission to speak with former bench boss Gerard Gallant, reports Harvey Fialkov of the Sun-Sentinel (Twitter link). Gallant has two years left on his contract with the team after being surprisingly let go back in late November.  With Claude Julien now off the market, it will be interesting to see if interest picks up in Gallant.  If another team does hire him, they won’t owe Florida any compensation as the rule that permitted draft pick compensation was scrapped back in January of 2016.
  • After missing Sunday’s game against Minnesota with an ankle injury, Detroit winger Thomas Vanek returned to practice today and is hopeful he’ll be ready to play tomorrow night against St. Louis, notes MLive’s Ansar Khan. Vanek is having a solid bounce back season after being bought out by the Wild in the summer with 14 goals and 22 assists in 43 games and is widely expected to be one of the more sought after rental players in the coming weeks.  However, he suggested that he’s open to sticking around as well: “Could I see myself staying here? Yeah, that would be great but again, it’s a business.”

Friedman’s Latest: Galchenyuk, Gionta, Fowler, Boyle

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On top of today’s coaching change, Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin may have a decision to make sooner than later regarding center Alex Galchenyuk, writes Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman in his latest 30 Thoughts column.  The 23 year old is set to become a restricted free agent at the end of the season (with a $3.1MM qualifying offer) and has two years of team control remaining before he’s eligible for unrestricted free agency.

However, despite a strong season so far with 29 points in 37 games, the team doesn’t appear to be set in thinking that he can be a full-time center.  He has just a 42.3% success rate at the faceoff dot which isn’t ideal for a top line quality forward.  Could the team be persuaded to move him for someone that they feel is a better fit down the middle?  If Bergevin hasn’t made that decision already, he will need to soon.

As always, the full column is well worth a read but are a handful of the highlights:

  • Sabres captain Brian Gionta has asked the team to not move him. The 38 year old is in the final season of a three year, $12.75MM deal he signed back in 2015.  He has had a nice season with Buffalo, posting 27 points in 56 games and has a good chance at surpassing the 33 points he put up last season which made him a player that many expected to go as a rental in the coming weeks.  Worth noting is that Gionta’s trade protection only allows for him to be dealt to five teams; he can block a deal to the other 24.
  • Although he has been thought of as a strong candidate to be dealt dating back to the draft back in June, the belief around the league is that the Ducks will look to strike a long-term extension with Cam Fowler. The blueliner is well on his way to a career year with 30 points in 57 games and will undoubtedly get a nice raise from the $4MM cap hit he currently has.  Teams can’t sign any extensions until there is one year remaining on the contract meaning that July 1st is the earliest anything could be done.
  • Edmonton, Columbus, and Toronto are among the teams interested in Tampa Bay center Brian Boyle. He’s in the final year of his deal with a very manageable cap hit of $2MM which will make him particularly attractive to some cap-strapped teams as well.  In a radio interview earlier, Friedman suggested that a first round pick (which doesn’t carry as much value this year due to a weaker draft class) could wind up being what it costs to secure Boyle, who is set to be a UFA at the end of the season.  We took a closer look at Boyle last week as part of our Trade Candidates series.

Evening Transactions: Blues, Oilers, Devils, Sharks

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News and notes from around the NHL this evening:

  • The Blues announced that they have recalled forward Wade Megan from the Chicago Wolves. The 26-year-old made his NHL debut earlier this season, scoring a goal in his first career game. In 50 games with Chicago this season, Megan has collected a league-high 23 goals to go along with 22 assists. Earlier today, the team placed forward Paul Stastny on the injured reserve with a lower-body injury.
  • The Oilers have activated winger Iiro Pakarinen from the injured reserve, the team announced on Twitter. This wasn’t a huge surprise, as Pakarinen was recalled earlier this week following the demotion of forward Anton Lander. After scoring five goals and compiling eight assists last year, the 25-year-old hasn’t played a single game for the Oilers this season.
  • The Devils announced (via Twitter) that they had activated defender Jon Merrill from the injured reserve. After having missed the past four games with an upper body injury, the 25-year-old is expected to play for New Jersey tonight. In 27 games this season, the former second-rounder has accounted for one goal, three assists, and 18 penalty minutes.
  • The Toronto Marlies, the Maple Leafs AHL affiliate, announced (via Twitter) that they have acquired defender Alex Gudbranson on loan from the Wild. The 22-year-old has spent this season playing with the Quad City Mallards of the ECHL, where he’s compiled four goals and 11 assists in 45 games.
  • As part of their near-daily roster shuffle for cap reasons, the Sharks announced (via Twitter) that winger Timo Meier and Marcus Sorensen, as well as defenseman Tim Heed, have all been sent to their AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda.  Of the three, only Meier has played a semi-regular role in the NHL this season, suiting up in 25 games while recording three goals and two assists.

Canadiens Fire Michel Therrien, Hire Claude Julien

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Following a recent stretch that saw the team drop 10 of their past 13 games, the Canadiens have decided to make a coaching change. The team announced that they have relieved head coach Michel Therrien of his duties and have hired Claude Julien as his replacement. Chris Johnston of Sportsnet tweets that the rest of the coaching staff will be retained for the time being.

“I would like to sincerely thank Michel for his relentless work with the Montreal Canadiens over his eight seasons behind the bench, including the last five seasons when we worked together,” said general manager Marc Bergevin. “The decision to remove Michel from his coaching duties was a difficult one because I have lots of respect for him. I came to the conclusion that our team needed a new energy, a new voice, a new direction. Claude Julien is an experienced and well respected coach with a good knowledge of the Montreal market. Claude has been very successful as an NHL coach and he won the Stanley Cup. Today we hired the best available coach, and one of the league’s best. I am convinced that he has the capabilities to get our team back on the winning track.”

Therrien re-joined the organization back in 2012, and he led the team to the playoffs during his first three seasons. However, the team struggled last year, finishing with a .500 record for the first time since the 2011-2012 campaign. Bergevin made several bold moves this past offseason, and the team seemed to have regained their form, starting the campaign with a dominant 13-1-1 record. However, the squad has struggled recently, and despite sitting atop the Atlantic Division, their lead is quickly fading.

There were plenty of whispers that Therrien could find himself on the hot seat, as our own Mike Furland wrote yesterday. A number of teams recently saw an uptick in production following a coaching change, which perhaps added some fuel to the fire in Montreal.

This will be a reunion of sorts for Julien, who coached the Canadiens for 159 games in the early 2000s. The 56-year-old spent much of the past decade in Boston, where he led the team to seven playoff births and a Stanley Cup Championship. However, the Bruins failed to make the playoffs in each of the past two seasons, and their 26-23 record this season led to Julien’s firing earlier this month. ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun tweets that the Canadiens asked the Bruins for permission to interview Julien on Sunday. In a subsequent tweet, LeBrun reports that multiple teams reached out to Boston in hopes that they could secure an interview with their former coach.

Ironically, this is the second time the organization has replaced Therrien with Julien, as the former head coach was replaced by the future Bruins head coach during the 2002-2003 season. Andrei Markov and Tomas Plekanec are the lone holdovers from Julien’s previous stint with the organization.

Trade Notes: Oilers, Krejci, Parenteau, Boyle

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The Oilers are on pace to make the playoffs for the first time since the 2005-2006 season. As a result, there’s some pressure on general manager Peter Chiarelli to make some moves that will help the team secure that playoff birth. While the executive admitted that he doesn’t believe his team is a true Cup contender, he did provide some insight into his pre-deadline strategy.

“I really don’t want to delve into that market,” Chiarelli said (via Sportsnet’s Mark Spector). “I think there are areas we can tinker with; I think the team deserves it. We wanted to be in the conversation. We are.

“(But) we’ve made a lot of moves in the summer, and they’re coming around. I’d rather see those play out…(Deals) fall in your lap … but I don’t see being heavily involved in that market.

“I don’t think it’s the right time for this team, but having said that … once you get into the playoffs, you never know.”

As we anticipate the March 1st trade deadline, let’s explore some other trade notes from around the NHL…

  • An NHL executive told WEEI’s Jimmy Murphy that Bruins center David Krejci has been a target of multiple teams (Twitter link). However, the same sourced wondered whether the veteran could now be off the market due to his and his team’s recent play. The 30-year-old has 14 goals and 25 assists this season.
  • That same executive also told Murphy that Predators general manager David Poile has been “a lot more aggressive” over the past year, and that sentiment apparently applies to this season (Twitter link). Nashville is currently slotted in as the top wild-card team in the Western Conference.
  • It seems like P.A. Parenteau’s name has been floating in trade rumors for the better part of a year, and the Devils winger recently told Andrew Gross of NorthJersey.com that he understands that he could be on the block if the team falls further out of the playoff hunt. “I went through it last year,” Parenteau said. “I was having a really good year and I didn’t get traded. Who knows? The market changes every year. I’m aware of my age, and when I sign a one-year deal like that, if the team is going to be out of playoff contention, there’s a chance I get moved.”
  • Joe Smith of TampaBay.com tweets that he isn’t surprised at the trade talks surrounding center Brian Boyle, citing the veteran’s leadership presence in the locker room. However, Smith says these are the reasons why the Lightning should actually be looking to keep the 32-year-old. In 50 games this season, the veteran has collected 13 goals and seven assists, and he’s on pace to set career-highs in both categories.

Blues Place Paul Stastny On Injured Reserve

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The Blues’ injury woes continue. The team has announced that they’ve placed forward Paul Stastny on the injured reserve with a lower-body injury. The veteran was injured following a collision with Maple Leafs forward Nazem Kadri on February 9th. Fortunately, Lou Korac of NHL.com tweets that the 31-year-old may only be out through the week.

The Blues will certainly miss the veteran, especially with fellow forwards Robby Fabbri and Kyle Brodziak sidelined with their own injuries. Coach Mike Yeo recently discussed Stastny’s importance to the team.

“He’s usually the first guy over the boards for a power-play face-off or the first guy over the boards for a penalty kill faceoff and those are key. He’s a very important player for us,” Yeo said. “You don’t take out a top-line center from too many lineups where they don’t feel that. It’s got to be a next-man-up mentality here. We have more than capable players and our focus is on the guys that are in the lineup and if we take care of our job, we give him a chance to get better and obviously we’ll be stronger when he gets back.”

In his third season with the squad, Stastny ranks fourth on the Blues in points (15 goals, 20 assists).

Jannik Hansen “Would Prefer” To Stay In Vancouver

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Canucks forward Jannik Hansen will surely be a popular name as we approach the March 1st trade deadline. However, in an interview with Iain MacIntyre of the TheProvince.com, the veteran made it clear that he wants to stay in Vancouver.

“I have another year on my contract, so maybe a team that’s not in the playoffs would want me for next year,” he said. “It’s tough for me to figure out what’s going to happen…But I’ve made it very clear I’d prefer to stay here.”

The 30-year-old would be a worthwhile investment for contenders seeking some offensive reinforcement. While his five goals and seven assists through 23 games leaves plenty to be desired, the veteran is certainly capable of finding the back of the net. Last season, Hansen finished with a career-high 22 goals, making it his fifth-straight season that he’s netted at least 10 scores.

Hansen is also very affordable. The veteran is currently in the third season of a four-year, $10MM deal, and he carries a tolerable cap hit of $2.5MM. That means an interested team wouldn’t have to break the bank to acquire the forward.

On the flip side, as PHR’s Zach Leach pointed out earlier this month, Hansen’s injury concerns are real, as he’s missed a chunk of games over the past two seasons. Furthermore, the veteran has a limited no-trade clause and can block a trade to all but eight teams. This would surely complicate any potential deal.

“If the team comes to me, I give them my (trade list of eight teams) and then it’s in their hands,” Hansen explained. “I can’t veto a trade…If (Canucks GM Jim Benning) wants to trade me, he can trade me.”

 

 

Morning Transactions: Blue Jackets, Jets, Canucks

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News and notes from around the NHL this morning:

  • The Blue Jackets have added winger Oliver Bjorkstrand to the roster on an emergency recall, the team announced (via Twitter). The 21-year-old has compiled one assist and six penalty minutes in five games for Columbus this season. Down in Cleveland, the former third-rounder has scored 14 goals and collected 12 assists in 37 games. Bjorkstrand participated in the AHL All-Star Classic earlier this season.
  • The Jets have recalled defenseman Julian Melchiori from their AHL affiliate and placed goalie Ondrej Pavelec on the injured reserve, the team announced (via Twitter). Melchiori has played four games for the big-league club this season, giving him a total of 16 career NHL games under his belt. In 32 games for Manitoba this season, the 25-year-old has posted two goals and four assists. Meanwhile, Pavelec was placed on the IR retroactive to February 7th. In eight starts this season, the goalie has gone 4-4 with an .888 save percentage.
  • The Canucks have recalled forward Brendan Gaunce from the Utica Comets, the team announced (via Twitter). The 2012 first-round pick has played in 47 games for the Canucks this season, collecting only five assists. As a rookie during the 2015-2016 season, the 22-year-old scored a single goal in 20 games.

Senators GM Confirms Trade Talks With Avalanche

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With the trade deadline approaching, Senators general manager Pierre Dorion confirmed yesterday that he has had trade talks with Avalanche general manger Joe Sakic (via Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun). However, Dorion noted that the Avalanche’s current asking price is too high.

“I’ve talked to (Sakic), as I’ve talked a lot of my other counterparts, and maybe some names aren’t out there,” Dorion said during an appearnce on TSN 1200. “It’s the right thing to do to kick tires to find out what’s available and what’s not available from their team.

“I don’t think the reports are always accurate and sometimes it’s better to hear from the horse’s mouth. Joe and I talked and, at this point in time, I can’t see us going in that direction. It wouldn’t make sense. We want to do something to try to improve the team and making deals is very difficult to do.

“We’re second after Florida as far as making deals but I can’t see us mortgaging everything in the future and some stuff in the present to get one or two or whatever players are out there. I think we have to be realistic that we want to improve but to give up three, four or five assets would be something that would be very difficult to do.”

Dorion didn’t mention which players were discussed, but Garrioch assumes the general manager was eyeing Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog, who is believed to be on the trade block. The writer notes that Colorado would presumably want defenseman Cody Ceci, a first-round pick in 2017, one of the Senators’ top prospects (Thomas Chabot or Colin White) and other pieces in exchange for the veteran. Landeskog’s been having a below-average season, scoring 11 goals and collecting 11 assists in 43 games.

The Senators made a deal for former Sharks forward Tommy Wingels last month, and Dorion has noted that he’d welcome an additional forward or defender.

Deadline Primer: Detroit Red Wings

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With the trade deadline now just weeks away, we’re taking a closer look at each team.  Where do they stand, what do they need to do, and what assets do they have to fill those needs?

It’s been quite the purgatory for the Detroit Red Wings. Mike Ilitch, who transformed the Dead Wings into a four time Stanley Cup Champion, passed away on Friday. As if losing the owner who many current and former players considered to be a father figure wasn’t enough, the Wings 25-year playoff streak may end at a quarter century. Struggling to piece wins together, Detroit has a historically bad power play, a team besieged by injury, and a horrible return on investment from several players inked to expensive, long term deals.

For the first time since the early 90’s, the Red Wings are sellers. And yet, while it looks that the playoffs are slipping away, general manager Ken Holland may “stand pat” instead of selling off assets.

Record

22-24-10; 54 points. Last in the Atlantic; Last in the Eastern Conference.

Deadline Status

Seller

Deadline Cap Space

Current Cap Space: $0 ($8.3MM with LTIR relief)
Deadline Cap Space: $0 ($8.3MM with LTIR relief)
46/50 contracts, via CapFriendly

Draft Picks

2017: ( 9 Total) DET 1st, DET 2nd, DET 3rd, TOR 3rd, DET 4th, DET 5th, DET 6th, FLA 6th, DET 7th
2018: 7 Total) DET 1st, DET 2nd, DET 3rd, DET 4th, DET 5th, DET 6th, DET 7th.

Trade Chips

Mar 29, 2016; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Detroit Red Wings forward <a rel=There are a number of players to choose from but topping the list is Thomas Vanek, who has been linked to the Chicago Blackhawks among other teams. Should he stay healthy (he’s currently battling an ankle injury), he could fetch some prospects or a draft pick. Mike Green has been another name, though he seems less likely to be moved as the Wings are trying to upgrade on the blue line–and he has been good for them this season. Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar were also mentioned, targets by the Chicago Blackhawks. Petr Mrazek, though it seems odd since he has struggled and was just signed to a deal in the offseason, could also be shopped. Finally, Brendan Smith, in the final year of a contract, could be moved as well.

Team Needs

1) #1 defenseman. Good luck. Almost every team in the NHL seeks that top pair defenseman, the Red Wings truly haven’t had one since Nick Lidstrom retired. Worse, their young defensemen have regressed while the veterans are broken down versions of their once steady selves (Niklas Kronwall comes to mind). The problem in getting the top pairing defenseman they seek is two fold. First, only a young player with team control could garner the top d-man, be it Anthony Mantha, Dylan Larkin, or Andreas Athanasiou. But those are players the Red Wings aren’t willing to give up. Second, the salary cap situation is a mess being that Holland has handed out expensive, long-term contracts to players like Justin Abdelkader, who hasn’t scored a goal since November. To add and retain a top pair defenseman, a team needs salary cap space. The Wings are in trouble for years to come unless they can shed those contracts. Until the Red Wings fix the blue line, their slide will continue and only get worse.

2) An elite, generational player. In all of the seasons for the Red Wings to fall off, it would be the season where there isn’t a clear cut one and two option. Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine were all clear cut options in the last two drafts. Now? While Nolan Patrick, Nico Hischier, and Tim Liljegren are all great options, scouts are having a hard time agreeing on a clear cut favorite. Holland could trade draft picks and players to go after former top picks, like Matt Duchene, Nathan MacKinnon or Gabriel Landeskog, but that seems pretty far fetched. Plus, Holland has been gun shy during the Cap era when it comes to trades. But this year’s draft is not as certain as in previous seasons, and that doesn’t bode well for a team who desperately needs a top tier talent to get back on the right track. Larkin, Mantha, and Athanasiou are great starts as building blocks, but they are at least one, if not two, generational players away from getting back to the top of the hockey world again.

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