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Archives for August 2017

Snapshots: Wennberg, Pastrnak, Army, Butler

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Alexander Wennberg isn’t worried. Despite being one of the final 19 restricted free agents left to sign this summer, the Columbus centerman knows the two sides will get a deal done before long. That’s what he told Tom Gulitti of NHL.com, who profiled Wennberg’s summer goals to get bigger and stronger for next season. Wennberg is a key part of the Columbus offense, recording 59 points last season and growing into the top line center spot that was vacated when the Blue Jackets traded away Ryan Johansen.

Wennberg was part of the reason that trade was possible, as Columbus knew they had something special ready to break out. The 22-year old now has 99 points over his past two seasons and could see even more offensive opportunity with Artemi Panarin now in the fold, and Cam Atkinson established as a top goal scorer. An absolutely deadly playmaker on the powerplay, the next step is getting Wennberg to shoot more at even strength and create his own opportunities. If he does, a long-term deal could look especially valuable in a year or two.

  • Similarly, David Pastrnak doesn’t seem fazed by the fact that he remains unsigned now into August. He told Tim Campbell of NHL.com that contract negotiations are entirely in agent J.P. Barry’s hands, and that he’s just focused on taking another step forward next season. It’s hard to believe more improvement is coming for Pastrnak, who scored 34 goals and 70 points as a 20-year old last season. Climbing any higher would put him among the absolute best in the league, if he’s not there already. For Boston fans worried about a potential deal, he had this to say: “The guys are great. The city is great. The fans are great. I like the arena. The city is full of good restaurants and young people.”  Sure doesn’t sound like a player that wants to leave anytime soon.
  • The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have hired Tim Army as an assistant coach for next season, after he was fired by the Colorado Avalanche earlier this offseason. The long-time NHL coach will work alongside head coach Clark Donatelli in a reversal of roles for the pair, after working together at Providence College in the past.
  • Bobby Butler is coming back to North America after a few years abroad, as he signed a one-year AHL contract with the Milwuakee Admirals. Butler was signed by the Ottawa Senators out of the University of New Hampshire back in 2010, and played 130 NHL games before finding himself stuck in the minors for 2014-15. Success was hard to come by in the SHL and KHL, so he’s back to try and show off his AHL All-Star talent once again. This contract will maintain his eligibility for the USA Olympic team, but at this point in his career he’d be a long-shot over some of the young college players.

Kirill Kaprizov Officially Signs With CSKA

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Though it was widely expected since last month, CSKA Moscow of the KHL has finally officially announced the signing of Minnesota Wild prospect Kirill Kaprizov to a three-year contract extension. The deal will expire in the spring of 2020. Interestingly there was some rumor this morning that Kaprizov refuted the fact that he had signed, leading Michael Russo of the Star Tribune to once again call the situation “shady.”

Kaprizov’s draft status as a fifth-round pick shouldn’t fool you, he’s an elite prospect who would likely step right into the Wild’s lineup if he were coming to North America. Instead, he’ll continue to develop in Russia where he dominated last season. Last year in his age-19 season he scored 42 points in 49 games and could battle for the league lead at some point during the contract. The move to a powerhouse like CSKA should help, especially if he is allowed to skate alongside Valeri Nichushkin and Maxim Shalunov. That young line could be one of the most dynamic in the league next season, and rack up points on a team that already went 44-8-8 last year.

Contracts can be bought out more easily in the KHL than in the NHL, meaning there is still a possibility that Kaprizov comes over to the Wild before 2020. Just as likely though is that he stays in Russia for a good part of his career, and only comes across at a later time. Since there is no transfer agreement in place between the two leagues, Minnesota will hold his draft rights in perpetuity.

It will be interesting to see if Kaprizov makes the Russian Olympic team, after he captained the World Junior team to a bronze medal last year. His nine goals and 12 points both led the tournament, and he could easily find himself contributing even alongside players like Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk.

Dallas Stars’ Upcoming Roster Crunch

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While everyone points to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Chicago Blackhawks and Washington Capitals and their upcoming training camp cap crunches, there is another team that may be facing the reality of losing a player on waivers before the start of the season. Toronto and Chicago will both likely use long-term injury space to clear room on their salary cap as the season begins, but the Dallas Stars don’t have that luxury (if you can call it that).

Looking at the Stars’ CapFriendly page, there are 22 skaters currently listed in their NHL portion. Each of these 22 are waiver eligible, and 20 of them are on one-way contracts. Devin Shore is still on his entry-level deal, but it would be shocking to see him spend any time in the minors this year after a solid 2016-17 campaign in which he registered 33 points. The other two-way deal is Brian Flynn, a prototypical 13th forward who hasn’t seen the minors in almost five years.

When combined with the more than $12.3MM Dallas is paying goaltenders this year—including the buyout of Antti Niemi—the team currently projects over the $75MM salary cap. The Stars will have to remove one of the players just due to roster constraints, but there is also the case of Julius Honka. Honka is still waivers exempt, but many believe he’s ready to take the next step and join the Stars full-time. The 21-year old is poised for a breakout campaign, that could end up costing the Stars one of their other defensemen.

It’s extremely unlikely that the team will carry nine defenders, meaning that if Honka makes the team out of camp at least one would need to go. The most likely candidates are Greg Pateryn or Patrik Nemeth, though it may be tough to squeak either of them through waivers. While neither has shown the ability to contribute in the top-4, both would provide solid NHL depth to a team looking to improve their blue line. If Dallas doesn’t make a move in the next month to trade off some of their surplus defense, the battles in camp may be some of the most interesting to watch around the league.

Summer Predictions: Pacific Division

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The hockey world is at a standstill now that August has rolled around. With all of the arbitration cases now decided and just a few restricted free agents left to sign, players and fans alike are counting the days until training camp starts. While there are still several names in free agency that could still help an NHL club, it seems like many are destined either for professional tryouts or late-summer deals after injuries strike.

So now we’ll get into our summer predictions. Before the start of the year we’ll be releasing a full season preview with projections for each club and the expected playoff teams, but first we’ll ask you to give us your take on how you believe each division will end up. We’ve already looked at the Metropolitan and Atlantic divisions, where the Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning are leading respectively. The Lightning didn’t even make the playoffs last season, but as we’ve examined before could have a bounce-back year if they can stay healthy. The upstart Maple Leafs are currently second, despite barely getting into the postseason last year.

Today, we’ll move to the other Conference and take a look at highly contested Pacific division. They’ll welcome in a new franchise this season, but could still be one of the most competitive groups in the NHL with four teams who have legitimate claims as a Stanley Cup contender. Choose who you think will win the division this season, and make sure to leave your full prediction for the division standings in the comments. As a proxy for the overall standings, we’ll be sure to publish these results alongside our own PHR rankings in September.

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Morning Notes: Jagr, Morin, Samsonov

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Jaromir Jagr didn’t think he’d be left out in the cold this summer, waiting for an NHL contract long into the offseason. The 45-year old spoke with NHL.com correspondent Micheal Langr and discussed the challenges he’s faced so far and what he wants to do going forward. Joking that he could play for Kladno in the Czech Republic, a team that he owns, he still has his sights set on 2,000 points in the NHL.

Jagr is actually coming off another fine season even though his goal total dropped to 16. His possession play is still elite, and despite his lack of foot speed and reputation doesn’t hurt you defensively. He could still be an extremely effective option for teams looking to round out their top six and get some help on the powerplay.

  • According to our friends at Roster Resource, Jeremy Morin has signed in the KHL for this season, leaving the North American system after several unsuccessful years. Morin was drafted 45th overall by the Atlanta Thrashers in 2009, but has found little success in the professional ranks. Heading to the KHL will allow him to re-invent his game and potentially compete for a chance on the US Olympic team if he gets off to a fast start.
  • Ilya Samsonov is one of the best goaltending prospects in the world, and Washington Capitals fans will be happy to hear that he’s willing to play in the AHL if he comes across to North America next year. In a new interview with Daria Tuboltseva of Championat, Samsonov speaks about the constant communication he has with the Washington front office, and how it would be a dream to eventually play with Russian superstars like Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitry Orlov. Samsonov is still only 20, but has an outside chance at going to the Olympics with Team Russia because of his outstanding first two seasons in the KHL. Last year he posted a .936 save percentage and was nearly unbeatable.

Free Agent Profile: P.A. Parenteau

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It has been quite the recent fall from grace for unrestricted free agent winger P.A. Parenteau.  He’s five years removed from a 67 point season and has played for five different organizations since then and now finds himself looking for his next contract more than a month into free agency.

May 18, 2017; Nashville, TN, USA; Nashville Predators right wing P.A. Parenteau (11) behind the net during the first period against the Anaheim Ducks in game four of the Western Conference Final of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports2016-17 got off to a very weird start to Parenteau.  He was coming off a good season with Toronto and landed a one-year deal with the Islanders to potentially play alongside John Tavares like he did when he had that 67 point campaign.  Instead, he found himself on waivers after training camp before suiting up for a single regular season game.

New Jersey picked him up and the 34-year-old acquitted himself relatively well in a secondary scoring role, picking up 27 points (13-14-27) in 59 games before the Predators picked him up to serve as injury insurance and extra depth although he was a scratch for most of their postseason run.

Parenteau has scored at least 13 goals in seven of his eight full NHL seasons.  While on the surface, that may make him an appealing secondary scorer, his overall game isn’t the strongest while he isn’t the best of skaters either.  As a result, he has seemingly become the type of player that teams feel they can use for a bit but are expendable before too long.  While the negative here is that he’s moved elsewhere fairly quickly, the positive is that teams have continued to be interested in him along the way.

Potential Suitors

At this stage of the summer, Parenteau may be best suited to look for a rebuilding team who would view him as a bridge until a youngster is ready before moving him midseason to a team with injury issues or in need of more depth.

Teams that come to mind are the Coyotes who have a plethora of youngsters without much in the way of a veteran supporting cast.  He’d serve as insurance in case some of them need more time in the minors.  His former team in New Jersey also makes some sense as they have a few vacancies to fill up front.  Florida also has some holes to fill up front and have lost quite a bit of their attack this offseason.  The Sharks haven’t added much as they’re hoping some of their young players can make the jump but someone like Parenteau would hedge against them not being ready right away.

Projected Contract

Back in June, Parenteau slotted in at #41 on our Top 50 Free Agents list with a projected one-year, $1MM contract.  With the number of veteran offensive wingers still on the market, there’s a good chance he’ll have to take a bit less to land a guaranteed deal in the coming weeks.  Parenteau is an interesting candidate to go the international route to take a shot at playing in the Olympics if he’s still unsigned as of a month from now with only PTO offers on the table.  There is a potential market for him but it’s a small and crowded one.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Snapshots: Draisaitl, Polak, Blackhawks

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Oilers center Leon Draisaitl is the most prominent of the 19 remaining restricted free agents.  While some have suggested that he and Bruins RFA winger David Pastrnak could be looking for similar contracts (and could be waiting for the other to sign before finalizing their agreements), David Staples of the Edmonton Journal suggests that Buffalo’s pursuit of an eight-year extension for center Jack Eichel is worth keeping an eye on, especially if he signs his deal before Draisaitl puts pen to paper on his.

Eichel hasn’t had as productive of a year like Draisaitl did in 2016-17 (77 points in 82 games) but he is younger and has the higher draft pedigree which will be factors in negotiations with Buffalo.  Staples asserts that it will be hard for Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli to argue that Draisaitl should be paid less than Eichel and given what the 2015 second overall pick has done in his two years with Buffalo plus his draft status, he should be heading for a second contract north of $7MM, if not more.

Staples projects that Draisaitl should be in line for a contract between $7.2MM and $8MM but that the young German’s agent, Mike Liut, may want to wait to see if Eichel signs first in the hopes of strengthening Draisaitl’s bargaining leverage.  While anything in or around that range is certainly a big ticket contract, the Oilers have more than enough cap space to fit him in this year as they currently have just shy of $17MM in cap space per CapFriendly.

More from around the hockey world:

  • Although he has yet to land a new contract this summer, unrestricted free agent defenseman Roman Polak isn’t dealing with any setbacks in his injury rehab, TSN’s Kristen Shilton reports (Twitter link). The 31-year-old underwent surgery on his leg in mid-April after being injured in the second game of Toronto’s first round series against Washington.  Polak is coming off a $2.25MM contract and between the injury and his status as a third pairing player, he will likely be taking a sizable pay cut on his next contract.  He is not eligible to sign a contract with performance bonuses as he’s under 35 and didn’t spend more than 100 days on injured reserve in 2016-17.
  • While Chicago is capable of placing winger Marian Hossa on summer long-term injury reserve now to free up cap space to make another offseason addition (like Toronto has already done), NHL.com’s Dan Rosen suspects that the Blackhawks will wait until the regular season to do so. While that will stop them from adding anyone else of note for a couple of months, waiting until the puck drops on 2017-18 will give them the most amount of in-season flexibility.  It was announced back in June that Hossa will miss all of 2017-18 at the very least due to a progressive skin disorder.

Salary Cap Deep Dive: Montreal Canadiens

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Navigating the Salary Cap is probably one of the more important tasks for any general manager to have. Teams that can avert total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2017-18 season. This will focus more on those players who are integral parts of the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.

Montreal Canadiens

Current Cap Hit: $66,537,977 (under the $75MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

D Jakub Jerabek (One year remaining, $925K, UFA)
F Artturi Lehkonen (Two years remaining, $839K, RFA)

Lehkonen made a strong first impression after coming over from the Swedish League, earning himself a regular spot in the lineup.  As the season progressed, his responsibilities started to increase and he spent some time in Montreal’s top six.  He should find himself either on the second or third line to start next season.

The Canadiens beat out a handful of other NHL teams to sign the 26-year-old Jerabek back in May.  He’s coming off a strong first season in the KHL with Vityaz Podolsk where he finished fifth in points by a defenseman.  With Montreal losing their top three left-shot defenders from last season (Andrei Markov to the KHL, Nathan Beaulieu to Buffalo via trade and Alexei Emelin in the Expansion Draft), there is an opening for him to step in and play right away.  If he doesn’t make the opening roster, he has a European Assignment Clause in his contract.

One Year Remaining, Non-Entry-Level

F Phillip Danault ($912K, RFA)
D Brandon Davidson ($1.425MM, RFA)
F Jacob de la Rose ($725K, RFA)
F Ales Hemsky ($1MM, UFA)
F Andreas Martinsen ($675K, UFA)
F Torrey Mitchell ($1.2MM, UFA)
D Joe Morrow ($650K, RFA)
F Tomas Plekanec ($6MM, UFA)
D Mark Streit ($700K, UFA)

Potential Bonuses

Streit: $300K

Plekanec is Montreal’s highest-paid forward in terms of cap hit and is coming off of arguably the worst season of his career.  While he is still a serviceable checker, his production dropped from 54 points two years ago to just 28 in 2016-17.  Given their lack of depth down the middle, he’ll still be called on to log an important role this coming season.  Danault is coming off of a breakout campaign that saw him ascend to the top line.  If he can follow that up with a similar effort in 2017-18, he’ll be in line for a significant raise next summer and has arbitration eligibility.  Hemsky missed most of last season with hip problems and is looking to rebuild his value on a team that had issues scoring with consistency.  Mitchell should be able to hold on to his fourth line role for one more year but will be pushed by de la Rose for playing time while Martinsen will likely slide into a reserve spot.

On the back end, Davidson will enter his first full season with the Canadiens after being acquired near the trade deadline from Edmonton.  He didn’t see a lot of action after being acquired and will likely battle with Jerabek for ice time.  Streit was recently brought in just before Markov’s departure was made official.  While he can’t handle big minutes anymore, he can still contribute offensively and could push for a third pairing/power play specialist role for a year.  Morrow is no stranger to head coach Claude Julien and was brought in after Boston didn’t qualify him.  He’ll also battle for a spot but could also be waived and sent to AHL Laval to serve as depth.

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Team USA Contacts Olympic Candidates

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Last week when USA Hockey announced its management and coaching staffs for the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics, there was much speculation that the team would be made up mostly from the college ranks. After all, Tony Granato the head coach of the squad is also the head coach at the University of Wisconsin, and there had already been several college names playing on the international stage at this spring’s World Championship.

In another wonderful profile by Alex Prewitt of Sports Illustrated, Team USA GM Jim Johannson admitted that he’d already reached out to somewhere between 85 and 90 potential players, 60 percent of whom are currently playing in Europe. The rest are “evenly split between the AHL and NCAA ranks” according to Prewitt. That would seem to suggest that the US team will have a more professional atmosphere, with players like Chad Rau being likely targets. Rau has found success in both the Finnish Liiga and Russian KHL over the past few seasons, and could lend a level of experience to the team.

Johannson also said that currently unsigned NHL players are on his radar, but he’ll have to wait to see what their future in the league is before trying to bring them in. Any player on an NHL contract is ineligible to play, even if they are currently in the minor leagues. Players signed to AHL-only contracts can be taken.

Brendan Gaunce Signs With Vancouver Canucks

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As if our recent list of restricted free agents reminded the Vancouver Canucks of their still-needed contract negotiations, the team has announced a two-year deal with Brendan Gaunce worth a total of $1.5MM. Gaunce will remain a restricted free agent at the end of the contract.

The 23-year old played 56 games for the Canucks last season but was held to just five points, a hugely disappointing number for a former first-round pick. Gaunce was selected 26th-overall in 2012, but has just six points to his name in the NHL so far. Amazingly he led the entire Vancouver forward group with 94 hits, embracing the fourth line bang-and-crash role that he’d been given.

That role needs to increase if Gaunce is ever to show some of the offensive skill he has flashed at the lower levels. In junior, he was a two time 30-goal scorer who could drag defenders to the net with his size and strength and in the AHL he’s been a fairly successful power forward. It hasn’t translated to the NHL, but with a one-way commitment for two years the Canucks are essentially telling Gaunce that this is his chance to prove himself. The rebuilding club needs some of their young depth players to step up if they’re to ever get back to contention, and Gaunce (along with Jake Virtanen, another disappointing first round pick) is right at the top of that list.

Vancouver still has one restricted free agent left to sign and it’s an extremely important one: Bo Horvat. The young center is a huge part of their future, and GM Jim Benning has been clear he wants to sign him to a long-term deal. With Gaunce now out of the way, his entire attention can be given to the Horvat situation.

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