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Archives for April 2017

Snapshots: Masterton Finalists, Sabres, Worlds

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The NHL has announced its finalists for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. The Masterton is awarded to the player “who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey”. Each team nominates their own candidate for consideration, and the top three vote-getters are announced before the awards. The final three are Ottawa’s Craig Anderson, Carolina’s Derek Ryan, and Anaheim’s Andrew Cogliano.

Anderson was forced to take an extended hiatus while his wife was battling cancer. The netminder returned to action after a long stretch away from the rink, and immediately posted a shutout against the New York Islanders in February as he continued his dominance of the crease. His .926 save percentage this season was second among goalies who had played more than 30 games, and was a huge factor in his team making the playoffs. Ryan is a 30 year-old rookie, and spent his entire career toiling in the minors and overseas before finally getting his shot at an NHL roster spot. Cogliano has been unbelievably resilient and tough in his impressive ironman streak, playing over 800 straight games since entering the league. If he has another few seasons of perfect attendance, he could break ironman records thought hopelessly lost to ancient hockey history. The Masteron winner will be announced on June 21st at the NHL Awards show in Las Vegas, which will also feature the announcement of the Golden Knights’ roster selections.

  • The Athletic’s Scott Powers gave insight into Blackhawks players possibly travelling to compete in the World Championships. Ville Pokka will not compete for Finland, apparently due to a contract issue. Artem Anisimov will not play for Russia, which is a big blow for that squad, as his size and unique skillset would have been useful. He is still nursing a lower-body injury which impacted his play in the team’s first-round exit. Patrick Kane is unlikely to play for the United States, but has made no official comment on the matter.
  • The Buffalo News reflects on the season-long failure of the Sabres to provide their goalies support. Looking forward to a new GM and head coach hire, fans are hopeful for higher standards and less streakiness. This offseason, it seems as though providing goal support for Jack Eichel will be paramount, as the team struggled mightily to find steady production. Comments from players are looking forward to revamping their play style next season at even strength, by not allowing such a disparity in shot opportunities. Offensive help in terms of UFAs will be difficult to find, as there is sparse selection. T.J. Oshie, Radim Vrbata, Kris Versteeg, and Patrick Eaves are all names that should intrigue the Buffalo front-office – though it is uncertain which will still remain unsigned come July 1st.

Detroit’s Uncertain Future

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The Detroit Red Wings missed the playoffs for the first time in 25 years in 2016-17. Not seeing the winged wheel on the ice is something deeply unfamiliar to many, and Detroit’s management is hoping that it won’t become a trend. However, there is definitely concern going forward as to what direction the team will head. While the team is technically going through a rebuild, effectively doing so can be quite difficult when you have so many aging players taking up spots and cap dollars. There are also questions as to whether any extended period of failure would be embraced by management, as fan-site Winging it in Motown wondered earlier this month. The strategy for GM Ken Holland is going to be complicated, as fans might need to grow accustomed to losing for a brief spell if the team is to strengthen its core.

Firstly, they will need to decide which players are part of the core and which are accessory pieces. There were good signs this off-season when Holland decided to sell assets, including Thomas Vanek, Tomas Jurco, Brendan Smith, and Steve Ott. This is a solid portent that there will be future moves, but there is room for doubt. For example, the 36 year-old Henrik Zetterberg has 4 years left on his contract at $6.083 MM, while the 33 year-old Frans Nielsen was just signed to his long-term deal, good for another 5 years at $5.25 MM. Justin Abdelkader and Darren Helm still have plenty left in the tank, but at $4.25 MM and $3.8 MM respectively, and years of term, is a full rebuild truly so feasible? Niklas Kronwall is another well-paid veteran at 36 years-old, and he has two more seasons under contract.

Then there is the goaltending situation. Detroit is paying over $9 million dollars in contracts to their two tenders, both of which have had their difficulties. Jimmy Howard had what could be considered a bounceback year, posting a .927 save percentage after the awful .906 dip the season before. The caveat – he only started 26 games. The other half of the duo, Petr Mrazek, received the bulk of the starts – 50 in all. Unfortunately, his stats took a nosedive to a .901 save percentage, as he struggled mightily behind his flightless team. To complicate matters, Howard has a modified No-Trade Clause, under which he can list the 10 teams he would accept a trade. The obvious decision seems to be that they will bank on Howard going forward and try to flip Mrazek to a team in need of help in the crease – he only has one year remaining at $4 MM before he needs his contract re-negotiated. If they are unable to do so, Mrazek would likely be snagged by Vegas in the expansion draft. But management obviously showed confidence in Mrazek’s abilities this season, sticking through him despite his impressively bad statistics. Perhaps Howard is the one on the way out of Motown. But if Mrazek flounders yet again, what does the pipeline hold?

The team as a whole has already allotted $67.09 MM to 18 players (two of whom are now on LTIR), and they need to sign RFAs Andreas Athanasiou, Xavier Ouellet, and Tomas Tatar. Only two players are coming off the books, the moderately paid forwards Joe Vitale and Drew Miller, either of whom could potentially re-sign. In terms of prospects, the talented winger Evgeny Svechnikov is the most promising potential addition. He posted 20 goals and 51 points in his rookie season with the Grand Rapids Griffins and impressed with his size. Anthony Mantha continues to be intriguing, and Athanasiou definitely has the talent to take another step forward. However, there isn’t a ton of help on the horizon in terms of defense. A top-flight prospect here would do wonders for the squad going forward. With 11 picks in this year’s draft, in what is Holland’s last contracted season as GM, decisions with incredible importance lie ahead. Will Hockeytown fully commit to a long-term rebuild, or will they make runs at competing in the relatively weak Atlantic division with a mix of aging and inexperienced players?

Chicago Blackhawks Fire Assistant Coach Mike Kitchen

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4:55pm: Chris Hine of the Chicago Tribune is reporting that Quenneville is “upset and surprised” by the firing, implying that it was not his decision. He also writes that the two are “best friends”. Hine points to the 2012 incident between Quenneville and Bowman over director of player personnel Barry Smith’s presence at practices as a similar example of perceived dysfunction in the Chicago organization. It will be interesting to see what other changes are instituted by the front office in the coming weeks.

11:53pm: After being swept in the first round of the playoffs, Blackhawks’ GM Stan Bowman promised there would be changes in Chicago and the first decision has come down. The team has fired Assistant Coach Mike Kitchen, and released this statement:

We believe this decision is best for our organization moving forward. We appreciate his many contributions.

Kitchen has been with the team since 2010 and goes all the way back to 1998 with head coach Joel Quenneville when they were both behind the bench in St. Louis. Kitchen actually replaced Quenneville as head coach of the Blues when he was fired in 2004, and remained with the club after the lockout until being fired himself during the 2006-07 season. Even before that, the two played together from 1979 through 1983 with the Colorado Rockies and New Jersey Devils.

Chicago ranked in the bottom half of the league in both powerplay and penalty kill this year, the latter of which Kitchen was responsible for. While they weren’t the only reason for their early exit, special teams did play a role in the Blackhawks not living up to expectations. Even in 2015-16 the Hawks’ PK had dropped to 22nd in the league, and someone eventually had to pay the price.

The ’Hawks now find themselves in a troubling cap situation once again, this time without the elation of a long playoff run to fuel their offseason. They’ll have to look long and hard at the core of this team and see if it is good enough to compete in the playoffs going forward, despite once again holding the top seed going in. Four games can do a lot of damage to the psyche of a franchise, and this is the first signal that the expected changes are coming fast.

Los Angeles Kings Will Not Buy Marian Gaborik Out Of Current Contract

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With four years left on his current contract and rumors swirling that he was on the trade block at the deadline, Marian Gaborik was an early candidate for a possible buyout to help the Los Angeles Kings cap situation—until today. In a press conference to introduce new head coach John Stevens, GM Rob Blake announced (via Helene Elliott of the LA Times) that Gaborik will not be bought out this summer. Instead, Blake explained that Gaborik had been playing hurt and has already undergone a procedure to fix whatever ailment was keeping him from being 100%.

While the injury may have been causing his struggles this year, the fact remains that Gaborik is now coming off back-to-back seasons with less than 25 points. The 35-year old has looked slow relative to his peers for two seasons, and it looks like the three-time 40-goal scorer is a thing of the (distant) past. At $4.875MM per season, he isn’t coming anywhere close to the production expected.

Because Gaborik’s deal is front-loaded, a buyout becomes more and more unattractive as the years go on. As the actual salary decreases, so does the amount of cap-hit you can save by buying him out, making it almost pointless. Next summer would be the last chance to really get any valuable relief out of a buyout, meaning Gaborik likely will be expected to play out the contract and try to provide at least some value to the Kings. The team made a similar decision last summer with regards to Dustin Brown, who remains a buyout candidate this summer to free up some space.

Blake and the Kings need to sort out their finances before next summer when the conversation will turn to a possible extension for Drew Doughty. Under control for two more seasons, the reigning Norris winner will need a Brent Burns-like extension in 2019 and the team will have to be able to sell him on their ability to compete in the near future. With both Brown and Gaborik on the books until 2022 and 2021 respectively, the team may need to look at a cap-eating team like Arizona or the newly constructed Vegas team for some relief.

Marc Bergevin Hopes To Extend Carey Price July 1st

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With Carey Price entering the final year of his contract this summer, the Montreal Canadiens can officially sign him to an extension as of July 1st. That’s what GM Marc Bergevin intends to do, leaving little time for speculation on the all-world goaltender’s future. Price himself said today to John Lu of TSN tin that he wants to stay in Montreal, and is motivated to re-sign under new coach Claude Julien. Bergevin also said that he would not trade Price for anyone. Carey Price

In 2017-18 Price will be in the last season of a six-year $39MM extension he signed as a restricted free agent in the summer of 2012, and an extension may result in the highest cap-hit among goaltenders in the league. That record is currently held by the goaltender that just eliminated Price and the Habs, with Henrik Lundqvist holding an $8.5MM cap hit this season. Lundqvist was 32 when his current seven-year extension came into effect, while Price will be just 31. With both goaltenders never winning a Stanley Cup but leading their respective countries to Olympic gold, they are an apt comparison as the Canadiens enter negotiations.

Price and Lundqvist both hold a career .920 save percentage in the regular season and have each won a single Vezina trophy. While it may be argued that Lundqvist has shown more consistency throughout his career, Price broke in at a much younger age and is still in prime goaltending years. Lundqvist on the other hand may be showing signs of decline—though not in these playoffs—as he enters his mid-thirties. Price’s extension will assume the same risk, as he’ll undoubtedly be locked up for at least seven years.

After this morning hearing that both Alexander Radulov and Andrei Markov would like to return to the Canadiens, it would seem as though this summer is as much about locking up the current team as adding new parts for Bergevin. He needs to address the center position among other things, but will first look to maintain the status quo with some of this year’s best performers. It will be interesting to see just how much money he hands to the trio (if all three re-sign), and how much he looks towards the future after a disappointing first round exit.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Snapshots: McCarron, Golden Knights, Zito

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The Montreal Canadiens have sent Michael McCarron back to the AHL to play in the IceCaps playoff run. The young forward had 19 points in 32 games in the AHL this season, but spent the better part of the year either on the Canadiens’ fourth line or in the press box. After being selected in the first round (25th overall) in 2013, McCarron has yet to make a real impact at the NHL level. His size and goal scoring ability has been on display at the lower levels, but will need to find more consistency to play a regular role in Montreal next year.

For now, he’ll join St. John’s for their playoff series with the Syracuse Crunch, currently tied at a game apiece. The two teams are back at it Wednesday night as they look for a first round victory and a step closer to the Calder Cup. McCarron should give the IceCaps a big boost up front, joining other young forwards like Charles Hudon and Nikita Scherbak.

  • Vegas Golden Knights’ head coach Gerard Gallant believes that his squad will be more talented than either of the Columbus Blue Jackets or Minnesota Wild when they entered the league, telling NHL.com that they will have a better chance at getting “a few more high-end players”. While it’s true that the Golden Knights don’t have to battle with another team in the upcoming expansion draft, the Wild were lucky enough to get Marian Gaborik third overall in their first entry draft, something that Vegas will need to emulate should they want to compete in their first few years. The Golden Knights will have the most important day to-date for their franchise on Saturday when the league holds the Draft Lottery. Vegas currently holds a 10.3% chance to select first overall, and will almost assuredly be drafting somewhere in the top-5.
  • John Vogl of The Buffalo News reports that Blue Jackets’ assistant General Manger Bill Zito should be considered a candidate for the vacant GM role in Buffalo. Vogl has compiled a list of names that should be considered with many likely interviewing for the job. It includes current assistants Zito, Tom Fitzgerald (Devils), Jason Botterill (Penguins), Chris Drury (Rangers) and Norm Maciver (Chicago). It will be interesting to see if Terry Pegula and the Buffalo organization do hire someone who hasn’t held a GM position before, as he stated in a recent press conference that experience was one of the things they would prioritize in the search.

Joe Thornton Played With Torn MCL And ACL

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San Jose Sharks coach Peter DeBoer spoke with the media today about their series loss against the Edmonton Oilers, and revealed that Joe Thornton had been playing with a torn MCL and ACL. He also says that Tomas Hertl had been playing with a broken foot, while Patrick Marleau had a broken finger. It likely means there is surgery in the near future for Thornton, which could drastically affect his free agency.

As he heads into the summer, Thornton is one of the top free agents on the market in what is a light year up front. Along with Alexander Radulov and T.J. Oshie, Thornton is one of the only proven top-six contributors available even as he approached 38 years old. His 50 points this season were a considerable step backwards, but he is just a year removed from an 82 point season in 2015-16. If his knee injury is further debilitating, he could be looking at a much lower cap-hit for someone to take a chance on him.

Though the Sharks would like to retain both Thornton and Marleau, it may be time to move on from the legends and try to build around Hertl and some of the other young players they have. Melker Karlsson, Marcus Sorensen, Joonas Donskoi and Chris Tierney are all restricted free agents this summer and deserve raises, while the team already has quite a bit of money tied up in their over-30 crowd, including the new $64MM extension for Brent Burns that kicks in next year.

Should Thornton make a full recovery, several teams may bite the bullet on the risks that his age and health pose, and offer a two-year deal to give him one last chance at the Stanley Cup. If it was his last stint in San Jose, skating with a “floating” knee seems like a loyal way to pay off a fan base that has cheered him for years, even if it did result in a first round exit.

New York Islanders Sign Dennis Seidenberg

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The New York Islanders have signed Dennis Seidenberg to a one-year contract through 2017-18. The 35-year old defenseman was to become an unrestricted free agent once again this summer. The deal will pay Seidenberg $1.25MM, a slight raise over the $1MM he earned this season."<strong

After being bought out by the Boston Bruins last summer, Seidenberg struggled to find any potential contracts until the World Cup. By showing he could still compete at the highest level playing with Team Europe, he earned a one-year deal with the Islanders and actually had somewhat of a renaissance early in the year. Scoring eight points in his first twelve games, he unfortunately broke his jaw in mid-November and would never quite get back to the same level of play. Still, he scored 22 points in 73 games for the Isles—his highest total since 2011-12—and was a team-high +25 (for what it’s worth). That kind of production for such a low cost is a good deal for anyone, as the Bruins actually paid him more to not play on their team this season.

It is interesting to note that Seidenberg will now fill the Islanders’ defense requirement for the expansion draft should they head into the June event with changes on their blueline. While currently the team must protect Johnny Boychuk due to a no-movement clause, they would only have two remaining protection slots (should they decide to go the 7-3-1 route) for some combination of Nick Leddy, Travis Hamonic, Calvin de Haan, Ryan Pulock and Thomas Hickey. That doesn’t seem like a perfect situation, and inking Seidenberg may be a signal that the Islanders are preparing for life without one or two of their current or upcoming defensemen.

A possible move of one of them is even more likely due to the cap-crunch the Islanders find themselves in, already with over $70MM committed to next season. With a new contract due for de Haan, and at least some tweaking needed in the forward group—which could come in the form of a promotion for top prospect Michael Dal Colle—the Islanders will be very tight to the cap all summer. Boychuk’s $6MM hit that doesn’t expire until the end of 2022 is the tough one, as he’ll start next season at 33.

Arthur Staple was first to break the deal on Twitter, and also provided the financial details.

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Andrei Markov Wants To Play For Montreal In 2017-18

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38-year old Andrei Markov spoke to reporters today as the Montreal Canadiens cleared out their lockers. He was clear in his future commitment to the squad as Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports reports, saying that he wants to play next year and finish his career with the Canadiens. The longtime NHL defender is an unrestricted free agent this summer, coming off the final season of a three-year, $17.5MM deal he signed in 2014.

Despite Markov’s advanced age, he remains an excellent puck moving defenseman that can contribute both at even-strength and on the powerplay. His 18 even-strength assists easily paced the Canadiens’ defense despite playing in only 62 games and recording the lowest average ice-time since 2011-12 when he was dealing with a devastating knee injury that stole over a year from his career. While he can’t be relied upon to log 25+ minutes anymore, he is still an effective option on the left side for a team that has had trouble creating offense quickly.

Markov actually only earned $4.25MM in salary this year as his contract was front-loaded, and that is much closer to the number he’ll have to accept to remain a Canadien. The team also can’t afford to commit to him for very long, as Alexander Radulov will likely require a long-term deal and Carey Price is a free agent after next season. With Shea Weber earning almost $8MM for the next nine years (assuming he doesn’t retire), the Canadiens can’t be throwing $5MM at Markov to keep him around.

Latest On Ilya Kovalchuk’s NHL Return

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When it was reported on Saturday night’s Hockey Night In Canada broadcast by Elliotte Friedman that Ilya Kovalchuk could return to the NHL next season, it caused fans around the league to imagine the Russian winger on their team’s top line and hope he could bring some of the elite scoring ability he showed before bolting for the KHL in 2013. While it is still possible for him to play anywhere in the league, Bob McKenzie of TSN wanted to set the record straight on the requirements for Kovalchuk’s return. Ilya Kovalchuk

Since Kovalchuk is still on the Voluntary Retirement List (VRL) for New Jersey, he is able to sign a contract with only the Devils should he return, unless every single team in the NHL signs off on a contract with someone else. Though nothing is impossible, McKenzie (and we here at PHR) believe that getting the entire league to sign off is incredibly unlikely and isn’t the route for Kovalchuk into the league.

Instead, the 34-year old would need to sign with the Devils and then be traded to whichever team won the bidding, likely resulting in an asset for the Devils in return. The team cannot trade his rights while he is still on the VRL, meaning they would need to do a sign-and-trade should he expect to play for a different team. Of course, that would likely remove several teams from contention since the Devils would not want to watch Kovalchuk play on a rival squad.

Though he’s been away from the NHL for several years, Kovalchuk is still regarded as one of the top scoring wingers in the world and would draw significant interest if he was a normal free agent. Because of the New Jersey requirement however, it may sour some teams on the whole process, unsure of what exactly they’re getting and for how long. Though the NHL and KHL generally respect each other’s contracts, Kovalchuk has been involved in grey-area transactions before and likely doesn’t have all that many more elite-level years left anyway. It will be interesting to see who pursues him, or if it is the Devils themselves that bring him back into the fold. For a team that has trouble scoring goals, but has a lot of money tied up in their aging core, perhaps adding a player of Kovalchuk’s stature would be a last-ditch effort to create a contender in New Jersey with this group.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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