When Jack Eichel finished his game last night without registering a point, he was still sitting in the top-10 with .93 pts/gm this season. He had a “Schedule B” bonus coming to him worth $2MM for finishing that high, a nice send off to what was a frustrating season for both him and the team. After being injured through much of the first part of the season, Eichel returned at an extremely high level and struggled to try and keep the Sabres afloat. They didn’t, finishing dead last in the Atlantic Division and despite his effort he had one more loss still to come.
When Leon Draisaitl scored his 29th goal of the season in the third period of last night’s Edmonton-Vancouver game, all the celebration was over Connor McDavid registering his 100th point. Eichel on the other hand was probably pulling his hair out, as the point moved Draisaitl ahead of him for 10th in pts/gm and eliminated his bonus by just 0.01 (h/t CapFriendly for pointing it out). Terrible for Eichel, but actually quite good for the Sabres, who would have had to carry that $2MM as a penalty against next year’s cap since they are into their LTIR space this year.
- The Washington Capitals have signed Beck Malenstyn to a three-year entry-level contract, after his breakout season with the Calgary Hitmen. The team had previously signed him to an amateur tryout for this season, but apparently thought he had done enough to earn a contract. Despite the deal kicking in next season, it is expected that Malenstyn will head back to the Hitmen for another year, as he doesn’t turn 20 until next February. The power forward put it all together this year, scoring 32 goals and 56 points. His previous career high had been eight goals.
- Tyler Johnson hopes to remain in Tampa Bay long-term, according to Bryan Burns of NHL.com. The restricted free agent is one of several big names the Lightning have to re-sign this summer, a task that GM Steve Yzerman is confident in according to Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times. After clearing some room at the deadline by moving out Valtteri Filppula’s contract, Yzerman may indeed have enough room to bring everyone back. While the expansion draft still poses a difficulty, the former NHL great has done a wonderful job in keeping the Lightning core together and should be a contender again next season should he find better injury luck.
I do not think the expansion draft still poses a difficulty. With the Trades the Lightning made we may have a couple of high price “D” on the list and some very good forth line players, but we can only lose one. Also we have a bunch of 1 and 2 year players who do not need to be protected.