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Central Notes: Winnik, Upshall, DeBrinicat

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The Minnesota Wild have seen enough out of Daniel Winnik, who is on a PTO with the team. He has been informed they don’t need to see him again and now begins the waiting game for the 32-year-old forward, who must wait to see if the Wild will choose him over youngsters Joel Eriksson Ek or Luke Kunin, according to The Athletic’s Michael Russo (subscription required).

Winnik, who is looking to play for his eighth NHL team, had a good camp and impressed head coach Bruce Boudreau.

“I pulled him aside and I talked to him and said, ’Danny, you’ve done great. I know exactly how you play. We just want to look at a couple of the young kids,'” Boudreau said. “So it’s not like he would have to come in here and play great to either make the team or not make the team.”

According to Russo, Kunin has had the better camp so far between the two rookies and the team intends to look at both he and Eriksson Ek more closely in tonight’s preseason game against the Dallas Stars. Kunin, who has been playing center for the team all preseason will be tried at right wing.

As for Winnik, he remains a free agent and could sign with any team, but might have to take a small pay cut if he makes the Wild’s roster as the team is low on cap space.

  • The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford tweets that Scottie Upshall passed a physical and was signed to a PTO and is currently practicing with the team. The hope is that a contract can be worked out in the next couple of days. Upshall spent the past two years in St. Louis. The 32-year-old fourth-liner had a solid season a year ago with the Blues, scoring 10 goals and eight assists. He was just released from his PTO with Vancouver and has a good chance to return to his old team with the multitude of injuries to players like Patrik Berglund, Zachary Sanford, Robby Fabbri and Alex Steen.
  • The Daily Herald’s John Dietz writes that it looks like Chicago Blackhawks’ Alex DeBrincat might make the team, writing that he had an excellent training camp. “It seems like every time he’s around the puck good things happen,” coach Joel Quenneville said to Blackhawks TV reporter Eric Lear. The Hawks still have many decisions to make, according to Dietz, including whether or not to keep seven or eight defensemen.

Atlantic Notes: Sergachev, Chara, Kronwall

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Mikhail Sergachev has done everything that he can do on the ice. Now it’s a question of whether Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper plans to keep the 19-year-old on their roster or send him back for another year of juniors. The 6-foot-3 top-prospect defenseman, who came over to the Lightning this offseason as the key piece in the Jonathan Drouin trade, must wait until Tampa Bay brass finalizes their roster, according to Tampa Bay Times’ Joe Smith.

The scribe writes that Sergachev has played major minutes in four preseason games so far as the team scrutinizes whether they plan to keep him. Smith believes that evaluation will continue for the first nine games of the season, the most that Sergachev can play in the NHL before his entry-level contract kicks in and begins his NHL service time. Whether the team keeps him from that point on is up in the air.

“It could be nine games, 10 games, 40 games, there’s no rush,” general manager Steve Yzerman said. “We haven’t decided our lineup for opening night. We’ll decide that in a week.”

Smith says while Sergachev has impressed many with his skills, he has often tried to do too much on the ice and made mistakes. However, the team’s plan has been to get him as much ice time as possible with the hopes of getting him as much experience as possible. Sergachev actually made the Canadiens roster last year out of training camp. However, he played in just three games before being returned to Windsor.

  • The Boston Bruins have been playing it safe with veteran blueliner Zdeno Chara this year. The 40-year-old defenseman has played in just one game and the team has no intentions of playing him in tonight’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks, according to CSNNE.com. The team is fearful of losing another left-shot defenseman after Torey Krug went down last week with a fractured jaw. Head coach Bruce Cassidy admitted that the 6-foot-9, 250 pounder doesn’t need much time to get ready for the season. “I don’t think Zee needs it to be honest with you. He’s been around a long time and will get his work in at practice,” he said. The team also hopes that it will keep him fresher for the regular season.
  • MLive’s Arpon Basu writes that veteran defenseman Niklas Kronwall is listed as day-to-day after sustaining a groin injury. He has only played in one preseason game due to back spasms and has now been scratched for tonight’s game. Coach Jeff Blashill said if he can’t practice on Tuesday, he will not likely play in the season opener.

2017-18 Primer: Dallas Stars

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With the NHL season now less than a week away, we continue our look at what each team has done this summer and what to watch for in the year to come.  Today, we focus on the Dallas Stars.

Last Season: 34-37-11 record (79 points), sixth in Central Division (missed the playoffs)

Remaining Cap Space: $503K per CapFriendly

Key Additions: G Ben Bishop (trade, Los Angeles), F Martin Hanzal (free agency, Minnesota), D Marc Methot (trade, Vegas), F Tyler Pitlick (free agency, Edmonton), F Alexander Radulov (free agency, Montreal)

Key Departures: F Cody Eakin (expansion, Vegas), F Ales Hemsky (free agency, Montreal), F Jiri Hudler (free agency, unsigned), G Antti Niemi (buyout, Pittsburgh), F Patrick Sharp (free agency, Chicago)

[Related: Stars Depth Chart From Roster Resource]

Player To Watch: G Ben Bishop – Despite the fact that Dallas has been among the top spending teams in goaltending in recent years, the position has been an issue for them for a while now.  That’s why they acted quickly to acquire Bishop’s rights from the Kings and then sign him to a six-year, $29.5MM contract.

Ben BishopBishop isn’t coming off the best of seasons himself though as his .910 save percentage between Los Angeles and Tampa Bay was his lowest in any of his full NHL seasons while it actually checked in below the league average.  However, Kari Lehtonen and Niemi combined for a .893 SV% so even if Bishop plays at a similar level in 2017-18, it would represent a significant upgrade over what Dallas received between the pipes last season.

If the 30-year-old can get back to his level of the previous few seasons though, he could wind up being one of the most important acquisitions of the offseason while making Dallas that much closer to being a contender.  That’s a lot to ask of any goalie but Bishop’s track record suggests he has the capability to have that type of impact for the Stars.

Key Storyline: The goaltending has been upgraded with Bishop.  The offense has been bolstered with Radulov and Hanzal and projects to among the stronger forward groups in the league.  GM Jim Nill added Methot to the back end as well but is that enough of an upgrade for a group that struggled last season?

Dallas finds themselves with several blueliners who have higher potential but have yet to reach it just yet in players like Julius Honka, Esa Lindell, and Jamie Oleksiak while veteran Dan Hamhuis is coming off a quiet season himself.  Obviously, they’re hoping for continued development from their younger players but this isn’t a group on paper that’s among the best league-wide.

As a result, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Nill try to add some help on the back end at some point during the season.  Given their current cap constraints though, they’re going to have a hard time taking another player on without shipping someone out the other way so will the Stars look to deal from their strength up front to get a defensive upgrade?  They’ll wait to see what they have first but this situation could be one to watch for as the season progresses.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Training Camp Cuts And Recalls: 09/30/17

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With season-opening rosters due on Tuesday, teams are in the process of making their final cuts before the 2017-18 campaign gets underway.  As always, we’ll have all the movement right here throughout the day.

Buffalo Sabres

F Justin Bailey – Rochester (AHL)
F Nicolas Deslauriers – waivers for purpose of assignment
D Taylor Fedun – waivers for purpose of assignment
D Cody Goloubef – release

Detroit Red Wings

D Robbie Russo – Grand Rapids (AHL)
D Filip Hronek – Grand Rapids (AHL)
F Corey Elkins – released from PTO

Los Angeles Kings

D Chris Lee – released from PTO

Montreal Canadiens

F Daniel Carr – waivers for purpose of assignment
D Jakub Jerabek – Laval (AHL)
F Michael McCarron – Laval (AHL)
F Peter Holland – waivers for purpose of assignment

New Jersey Devils

G Ken Appleby – Binghampton (AHL)
D Viktor Loov – waivers for purpose of assignment
F Kevin Rooney – Binghampton (AHL)

Vancouver Canucks

F Anton Rodin – waivers for purpose of assignment

Some teams will also be recalling players to suit up for their final preseason game.  Here are those moves.

D Tommy Cross (BOS)
F Jordan Szwarz (BOS)
D Jakub Zboril (BOS)
D Devon Toews (NYI)

Morning Notes: Trade Market, Brassard, Avalanche, Canadiens

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With expansion no longer something that general managers need to be planning around this season, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic told TSN 690 (audio link) that there should be more trade activity in 2017-18 than there was last year:

“I was talking to a GM today and we were saying this might be more active a trade year than last season because the Vegas expansion process kind of suffocated the trade market last year (during the season, that is).  Obviously, we had fireworks in the offseason.  But before the trade deadline, not quite as crazy a year.  And now teams don’t have to worry about that.  It’s something they don’t have to sweat.  I think it’ll liberate some teams.”

Of course, the trade market is rarely robust at this time of the year as most teams will want to wait at least a month or so to assess what they have and what they need before looking to make deals although there is likely to be a trade or two in the coming days as teams look to finalize their rosters before Tuesday’s opening roster deadline.  In the same interview, LeBrun suggests Montreal and San Jose as teams to watch for as they both lost a significant player in the summer and have plenty of cap space to work with while St. Louis may be doing something soon with their slew of injuries.

Elsewhere around the league:

  • Senators center Derick Brassard has been cleared for contact by team doctors, notes Postmedia’s Ken Warren.  He underwent shoulder surgery back in June and was expected to be out four-to-five months and it appears that he will be back in the lineup at the four-month mark when Ottawa takes on Washington in the regular season opener on Thursday night.
  • The Avalanche have called a press conference for Monday where it’s expected that they will officially announce a new AHL affiliation with the Colorado Eagles, reports BSN Denver’s Adrian Dater.  The affiliation would come into effect starting in the 2018-19 season so the Avs would maintain their current affiliation with AHL San Antonio for the upcoming season while the Eagles will remain as an ECHL franchise for 2017-18.
  • Following their game on Friday, the Canadiens announced (Twitter link) that winger Nikita Scherbak and goaltenders Zach Fucale and Michael McNiven were all re-assigned to Laval (AHL). All three players had previously been cut during training camp but were called up for insurance purposes.

West Notes: Duchene, Ducks, Steen, Juolevi

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With the start of the regular season now less than a week away, Matt Duchene remains a member of the Avalanche and Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggested to 630 CHED in Edmonton (audio link) that things are currently pretty quiet on the trade front with Colorado.  GM Joe Sakic has set a very high asking price and as of yet, no one has been willing to meet it so it appears there’s a good chance that this will drag out into the season.  Friedman notes that Columbus remains very interested in Duchene’s services while a trio of Western teams, Edmonton, Anaheim, and Nashville have been in and out of talks at times as well.  Duchene has two years left on his contract with a $6MM cap hit but aside from the Ducks, the other three teams all have the cap room to take him on without sending any money the other way.

More from the West:

  • Ducks defensemen Hampus Lindholm and Sami Vatanen are progressing well from their respective offseason shoulder surgeries, head coach Randy Carlyle told Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register. Both players have been skating in recent days, albeit in non-contact jerseys.  Both rearguards are expected to miss all of October but have set a target to return to Anaheim’s lineup on November 1st.
  • While Alex Steen’s hand injury will keep him out for the first week of the regular season, Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the issue isn’t expected to keep him out too long beyond that. Steen is going to be counted on to play a big role when he returns, especially with long-term injuries to center Patrik Berglund (out until December) and winger Robby Fabbri, whose season is over before it even started due to a torn ACL.
  • The Canucks have not yet decided where to assign defenseman Olli Juolevi. His agent Markus Lehto told Rick Dhaliwal of News 1130 (Twitter link) that a team in Europe could be a possible landing spot.  The OHL’s London Knights – where he has spent the past two seasons – seems to remain the likeliest destination for the 19-year-old for now.

The Other Option For Josh Anderson And Andreas Athanasiou

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There are just two remaining restricted free agents in the league in Columbus winger Josh Anderson and Red Wings winger Andreas Athanasiou.  Both players appear to be at an impasse when it comes to multi-year contract talks and it has been suggested that they could go overseas for the season and suit up in the Olympics.

While that would solve a problem in terms of getting them playing time and a paycheck (not to mention a nice bonus of playing in the Olympics, an opportunity that wouldn’t typically be afforded to them), there would still one other problem that will be lingering, a lack of arbitration rights.

Both Anderson and Athanasiou are coming off of their entry-level contracts so arbitration isn’t an option for them and that will still be the case a year from now if they play overseas for the full season.  In theory, an offer sheet is a possibility but if a team was willing to extend one by now at a salary that the player wants, it would have already been signed.

As a result, this is a rare circumstance where the teams hold a lot more leverage than they typically do at other times in restricted free agency and that’s likely part of the reason that there hasn’t been much movement lately on either side, short of Anderson reportedly asking for a trade.  And even with that, it’s not likely that Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen will be willing to entertain that option considering how hard they worked to keep him away from Vegas in expansion not to mention the precedent it could set in negotiations with future players down the road.

While it would seem like both players are basically at an impasse, there is another option that isn’t really being discussed too much.  Pretty much all contract talks thus far have been multi-year deals but why not focus on a one-year pact instead?

While Anderson and Athanasiou would likely be leaving a bit of money on the table for 2017-18, a one-year contract would also set them up with arbitration eligibility next summer.  The threat of having an arbitrator side with their numbers in a hearing shifts at least some of the negotiating leverage back in their favor.

Meanwhile, the teams would get their players under contract and playing for them which is the desired outcome while also allowing them some more time to try to hammer out a long-term deal; both players could sign extensions as early as July 1st.  In Detroit’s case, getting Athanasiou a bit cheaper would also help in their efforts to work around a tight salary cap situation this season.

Of course, finding the right salary number on a one-year deal is easier said than done.  However, it would appear that there’s a better chance of trying to bridge the gap on a contract like that than a multi-year one considering the fact little progress has been made since July.

There are still a few more days before the regular season gets underway so there is still time for Columbus and Detroit to work out multi-year contracts with their respective players.  But if talks can’t gain traction soon, the time might be right to compromise and focus on a one-year deal instead.

Metropolitan Notes: Aho, Hornqvist, Read, Andersson

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While the Hurricanes drafted Sebastian Aho as a natural center back in 2015 (35th overall), they plan to keep him on the wing for the full year once again, head coach Bill Peters told Chip Alexander of the News & Observer.  The idea behind doing so is to allow him to ease into the North American game at a slower pace and keep expectations in check which will be more beneficial for his development.  The 20-year-old is coming off of a strong rookie season that saw him post 49 points (24-25-49) in 82 games.  Carolina has been searching for a legitimate top line center for a few years now and Aho could be that player but they’ll be waiting at least another year to find that out.

Elsewhere in the Metropolitan:

  • Penguins winger Patric Hornqvist has yet to practice or play in the preseason as he recovers from offseason surgery on his broken hand but the team is hopeful that he will be able to suit up in the season opener on Wednesday, notes Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Hornqvist will be heading into the year looking to surpass the 20-goal mark for the fifth straight year which would certainly help his case heading into unrestricted free agency.
  • With the Flyers still carrying 15 forwards in training camp, at least one more needs to be cut before the season-opening roster deadline on October 3rd. Dave Isaac of the Courier-Post speculates that winger Matt Read could be the odd man out with youngsters Taylor Leier and Oskar Lindblom both making strong cases to stick with the team.  Read is in the final year of his contract with a $3.625MM cap hit so if he were to be cut and clear waivers, Philadelphia would still be carrying a $2.6MM cap charge on the books even with him in the minors.
  • Although the Rangers can recall recently-cut center Lias Andersson from his SHL team in Frolunda if need be during the season, they don’t intend to do so, reports Brett Cyrgalis of the New York GM Jeff Gorton noted their preference is for Andersson to receive consistent top-six minutes which is something that he could receive in Sweden but not in New York this season.  Unlike a junior-aged player in the CHL, the Rangers don’t have to be in an emergency recall situation before they could bring Andersson back across the pond.

Vegas Golden Knights Sign Nicolas Hague To ELC

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The Vegas Golden Knights have signed Nicolas Hague to a three-year entry-level contract. The second-round draft pick from this summer is already back with the Mississauga Steelheads of the OHL, where he will continue to serve as alternate captain. The Steelheads project to be one of the better teams in the OHL this season, with Hague providing a solid two-way leader on the back end.

The 18-year old Hague was expected to be drafted in the first-round this year, before slipping just slightly to 34th overall. That drop allowed the Golden Knights to add him to what was already shaping up as an excellent draft group, joining Cody Glass, Nick Suzuki and Erik Brannstrom from the first round. That quartet will form the backbone of the Golden Knights’ prospect ranks for the time being, especially if they continue to develop at the rate they showed last year.

Hague came into last year with some mobility issues, but worked hard to put them behind him and start to unlock the offensive potential he’d shown as a youngster. Playing a pretty determined two-way game, he registered 46 points in 65 games and showed off what should be an NHL-capable shot from the point. While there is still a lot of development to go, Hague is an intelligent, instinctive defender that could easily have a top-4 future.

Because of his age and the fact he’ll spend the year in junior, the first year of his contract will not be burned this year. Depending on how his game progresses he’ll likely head back to Mississauga again in 2018-19, but there is huge potential buried in his 6’6″ frame.

Snapshots: Drouin, McNiven, Mariners

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Jonathan Drouin is getting a crack in the middle for Montreal this season, after the team traded away blue-chip prospect Mikhail Sergachev for him. Center isn’t a position that Drouin has spent much time at in the NHL, but he has obviously been taking notes on those he wants to emulate. Yesterday, he gave Eric Engels of Sportsnet some of his thoughts on the other top centermen around the Eastern Conference. On Patrice Bergeron in particular:

To me, he’s the best center in the league if you’re looking at the all-around 200-foot game. He’s tough to beat. He’s always competing for every loose puck, neutral zone, anywhere—he’s always on it. He’s somebody you hate to play against, and at the end of the day he still scores and produces points without cheating offensively.

The piece is a great read on how other players view some of the superstars in the league, including thoughts on lesser-known stars like Aleksander Barkov and Alexander Wennberg. Drouin will have a lot of pressure to perform in his first year in Montreal, after earning a big extension right away. The former Tampa Bay Lightning pick has all the talent to do it.

  • The Montreal Canadiens have recalled goaltender Michael McNiven from the Laval Rocket to serve as an emergency goaltender tonight. Charlie Lindgren is expected to be dressed for the game, but is coming off a minor injury and the team wants to make sure it has another option. McNiven was one of the first camp cuts last week, and will be spending his year in the minor leagues. Last year for the Owen Sound Attack of the OHL, McNiven posted an incredible 41-9-2 record with a .915 save percentage. McNiven went undrafted but earned an entry-level contract back in 2015. This will be the first real season under that deal, as it slid for two years while he finished his junior hockey career.
  • The new Portland ECHL team has chosen a name, and it will be familiar to those who were in Maine decades ago. The Maine Mariners are back for the third time, after first debuting in 1977. This new team will be the ECHL affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers, after the team purchased the defunct Alaska Aces this summer and will join the league next season.

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