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Archives for July 2018

Dallas Stars Still Scouring Trade Market

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It has been a quiet off-season for trades to this point, with the last major deal being the St. Louis Blues’ acquisition of Ryan O’Reilly for a package of three players and two picks back on July 1st. It has also been close to a month since the Dallas Stars were named the front runners for superstar defenseman Erik Karlsson – or any legitimate Karlsson rumors for that matter. Yet, the Stars still remain active on the trade market, according to Dallas beat writer Mark Stepenski. Could they be the team that makes the next big trade?

Stepenski recently spoke with Stars GM Jim Nill about the off-season. While their discussion mostly centered on a Tyler Seguin extension, Martin Hanzal’s recovery progress, and the restricted free agency situations of Mattias Janmark and Gemel Smith, the two also talked about bringing in players not currently on the roster. Nill admitted that the team was still interested in making additions this summer, saying:

“I can’t name things, but there is still lots out there. We’re talking to teams. There is still a lot of movement happening within the business. I can’t say there is anything happening overnight, but there is a lot of dialogue still.”

The Stars are clearly interested in adding another big-name defenseman to add to defense that already sports John Klingberg and a now-healthy Marc Methot among others. Karlsson is obviously the top available defenseman, but the Ottawa Senators’ asking price was reportedly too high. The team could also look at the likes of Justin Faulk, Chris Tanev, or perhaps even disgruntled Jacob Trouba. However, the team actually performed better at preventing goals than they did scoring them last season. Despite impressive forward depth on paper, the Stars tied for 18th in the league in goals for and a scoring drought was one of the main factors behind the late-season collapse that cost them a playoff spot. While the team has already re-added Valeri Nichushkin and signed Blake Comeau and Erik Condra, it wouldn’t be surprise if the “lots out there” that Nill is looking into are forwards. Artemi Panarin, Max Pacioretty, Jeff Skinner, and Mathieu Perreault have all been considered likely to move at one point this summer and now New York Rangers’ center Kevin Hayes can be added to that list as well.

It does seem that Nill is right that there are a lot of talented players available and he is no doubt talking to teams, but the question remains whether he can actually put together a big trade to help his team this off-season. Dallas has more than $6MM in cap space and many intriguing young players and prospects. They certainly seems like a team that could make a splash at some point this summer.

Trevor Smith Signs AHL Contract With San Antonio

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Journeyman forward Trevor Smith will be back in the AHL next season, but for the first time in his career it won’t be on an NHL contract. The long-time pro has played on a one- or two-year two-way contract since his first full season in 2007-08, but that streak has come to an end. Smith has signed a one-way minor league contract with the San Antonio Rampage, the AHL announced today.

Smith, 33, has been a constant presence in the AHL for a long time, with at least one game played in eleven of the past twelve years, for a total of 593 games. During that time, he has also skated in 107 NHL games, including a career-high 54 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2014-15. The University of New Hampshire alum signed with the New York Islanders to begin his pro career and has since signed contracts with the Anaheim Ducks, Tampa Bay Lightning, Pittsburgh Penguins, Toronto Maple Leafs, and most recently a two-year deal with the Nashville Predators. Smith has always had incredible production in the AHL – 438 total points and .75 points per game – but transitioning that offense has been a constant struggle; Smith has only 20 career NHL points and has never cracked double-digits in a single season.

As such, it is no surprise that the aging Smith is no longer considered a valued NHL asset. Although just last season he scored 43 points in 66 games in the AHL, he has only one scoreless NHL game on his resume over the past three years and has a history of being a non-factor at the top level. Nevertheless, he will still be a major boost for the Rampage in 2018-19. The former captain of both the Toronto Marlies and Milwaukee Admirals will play an important leadership role in San Antonio and his offensive experience and ability will help the team succeed as well as assist in the development of top young St. Louis Blues forward prospects like Jordan Kyrou, Klim Kostin, Erik Foley, and Nolan Stevens. Smith’s NHL days may be over, but he can still be a difference-maker in the AHL, where he has thrived for more than a decade.

New York Rangers Sign Kevin Hayes To One-Year Deal

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The New York Rangers have settled with Kevin Hayes prior to his arbitration hearing, but it’s not for a long-term deal. According to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, Hayes has signed a one-year contract worth just over $5MM, which would make him an unrestricted free agent next summer. Larry Brooks of the New York Post gives a bit of detail, reporting the deal is worth $5.125MM. Hayes was scheduled for an arbitration hearing on August 2nd, which only could have resulted in a one-year contract for the 26-year old.

Hayes is coming off a season in which he traded some point production for more goals, scoring a career-high 25 times but only registering 44 points. A very useful player for the team who can line up at wing or center, there was already plenty of reason to believe that the Rangers could be interested in trading him for the right price. The team has committed to getting younger and faster over the last year, and it wasn’t clear that Hayes really fit into that plan going forward. The team also has several interesting center prospects ready to take on bigger roles, and Mika Zibanejad still signed for another four years.

A deal of this sort gives Hayes a chance to impress early in the season with improved performance, but also puts him squarely in the crosshairs for a February trade. A player many teams would love to have for a late-season playoff push, if there’s no chance of a long-term deal the Rangers would be making a mistake by not moving him for a return as they recently did with Rick Nash, Michael Grabner and Nick Holden. The team isn’t expected to really contend for the Stanley Cup again next season, but are building an incredible prospect pipeline in short order.

At a little over $5MM, Hayes is certainly an affordable target for teams at the deadline, especially if any of the salary has been given out as a signing bonus. With teams struggling to find center depth and willing to pay a premium for it when in a playoff race, the Rangers may have just secured themselves another nice package with very little risk. That’s assuming that the team doesn’t re-open extension talks in 2019, when the two sides will be able to negotiate. For now, all contract talks have to be put on hold until January since it is just a one-year deal.

With the earlier signing of Miikka Salomaki with the Nashville Predators, that leaves just six restricted free agents still scheduled for arbitration. One of those is Rangers’ forward Ryan Spooner, who is also only eligible for a one-year award given his age. The team, meanwhile, has quite a bit of cap space remaining even after adding Hayes big deal, and could take on some excess salary in trade if they are given the opportunity. For a team trying to complete a quick rebuild, getting assets by flexing their financial muscle is an easy way to speed up the process.

William Nylander “Not Too Stressed” About Contract Talks

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have been in and out of the news all offseason, first for convincing John Tavares to sign with them long-term and recently regarding contract talks starting between the team and Auston Matthews. While Tavares, Matthews and a potential extension for Mitch Marner have received quite a bit of attention, another key forward is still without a deal. William Nylander is a restricted free agent for the first time this offseason, and is still currently unsigned as we head into August. That certainly isn’t bothering Nylander though, who was asked by TSN recently whether he’d be willing to sign a shorter bridge deal with the team.

That’s between my agent and Kyle [Dubas], I mean they’re talking about it. I’m not really into that right now. Once it gets closer to the season I think I’ll be more dialed [in]. Kyle says it’s going to take some time so I’m not too stressed about it.

That lack of stress appears to be all over the Maple Leafs roster as they head into next season excited about what it could bring. After ending up in last place in the NHL just a few years ago, the Maple Leafs have made it to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. Unfortunately those postseason episodes both ended with early exits, something they hope to change this year.

After signing Tavares the team has certainly improved their forwards and now boasts one of the deepest center group in the NHL, but many have wondered how they’ll fit everyone into the salary cap with an added $11MM contract on the books. Matthews and Marner are entering the final seasons of their entry-level deals, while Nylander should get quite a substantial raise at some point this summer. Dubas, the young GM who took over the hockey operations from Lou Lamoriello earlier this offseason, seemed awfully confident that he could keep the group together when he appeared on Sportsnet’s 31 Thoughts podcast earlier this summer. He also gave some insight onto why the negotiations with a player like Nylander may take a little longer than many expect:

It might go a little bit slower than some people would like but that would be on me to continue to be patient with it and make sure that these guys are not just signing because it’s a long-term contract and it’s obviously a nice pay increase for them, but they want to be here as part of the long-term, they know where we’re going and they’re a full part of that rather than sign a deal and then a year later wonder what the vision is for the program and whether they want to be part of it.

Obviously there will still be some anxious Maple Leafs fans waiting to see what Nylander agrees to, but for now he seems completely removed from the situation as his representation works with the Toronto front office to figure out some common ground. Whether that comes in the form of a bridge deal that will allow them to save some cap space over the next few years, or he’s locked into a long-term deal at an much higher cap hit is the biggest question mark. A hold out doesn’t seem to be a possibility at this point.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Minnesota Wild Sign Matt Read

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Matt Read, fresh off an expensive contract that didn’t quite work out with the Philadelphia Flyers, has signed with the Minnesota Wild for the 2018-19 season. Read has agreed to a one-year, two-way contract that will pay him the minimum $650K at the NHL level.

Read, 32, hadn’t yet started the third season of his NHL career when he signed a four-year, $14.5MM contract extension in September of 2013. The undrafted forward had been one of the most successful NCAA free agent signings in recent history, scoring 24 goals as a rookie in 2011-12 and 24 points in just 42 games during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season. He followed the extension with another good season during the last year of his first contract, but things quickly deteriorated thereafter. In 2014-15 he scored just eight goals and 30 points, the highest point total he would register during the four-year deal. That even led to a demotion to the minor leagues this past season, after clearing waivers without any interest.

Still, there’s very little risk in this signing for the Wild. A legendary player for Bemidji State University, he’ll return to Minnesota to try and resurrect his professional career. Whether that means he’ll get a chance at any NHL time with the Wild isn’t clear, but at the very least he can provide a veteran scoring threat for the Iowa Wild—another state he’s familiar with from his time with the Des Moines Buccaneers of the USHL. Read scored just a single goal in the NHL last season, but did add 16 points in his 33 AHL contests and could have some real offensive ability left if assigned to the minor leagues. On a minimum deal, if he shows anything in camp he would be an extremely inexpensive option for Minnesota.

Gemel Smith, Dallas Stars Submit Arbitration Figures

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The Dallas Stars risked losing Gemel Smith on waivers last week in order to establish his value around the league, and today filed their arbitration figure for the hearing scheduled on Wednesday. Chris Johnston of Sportsnet reports that the Stars have filed for a two-way contract, while Smith submitted a one-way $900K contract request. Sean Shapiro of The Athletic reports that Smith’s two-way qualifying offer is worth $715K.

Brett Kulak, who was also put through the waiver process before his arbitration hearing, and offered a $650K two-way deal by the Calgary Flames, was eventually awarded a $900K contract after filing for $1.15MM. Smith will likely land somewhere in between the two filings, provided he doesn’t settle with the Stars in the next few days. He and Cody Ceci are scheduled to have their hearings on Wednesday.

Smith will be in tough this season as he tries to carve out a bottom-six role on the Stars, and a two-way offer only strengthens the idea that he could find himself behind players like Remi Elie and Jason Dickinson on the depth chart. The additions of Blake Comeau and Valeri Nichushkin have given the Stars more secondary scoring options and left fewer minutes available. Smith will have to show he can contribute in those limited minutes, or face another assignment to the minor leagues. The fact that he’s already cleared waivers recently doesn’t guarantee that he would make it through the process unclaimed in September, but does make it easier for the Stars to risk him if he can’t crack the roster out of training camp.

Jarome Iginla Officially Retires From Professional Hockey

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One of the greatest power forwards to ever play in the NHL has officially called it quits today, as Jarome Iginla hangs up his skates for the last time as a member of the Calgary Flames. Though he hadn’t played professionally in over a year, today still marks the end of what has been an incredibly productive career for the 41-year old, who will finish up with 1,554 regular season games and 1,300 career points.

Though many remember him most as a young player for the Flames, Iginla was actually originally drafted by the Dallas Stars in 1995. Before he ever suited up in a professional game, he was already included in a deal for Hall of Fame forward Joe Nieuwendyk, who had won a Stanley Cup with the Flames but was embroiled in a contract dispute. Nieuwendyk would go on to help the Stars to another Cup in 1999, while Iginla would become one of the greatest Flames of all-time. In his first season during the 1996-97 season he scored 21 goals and was the runner-up to Bryan Berard—the first-overall pick from 1995—for the Calder Trophy as the league’s best rookie. Those 21 goals were a sign of things to come, as Iginla would go on to score 504 more  in a Calgary uniform (532 including playoffs) and 625 (662) in his entire career.

Scoring goals was a huge part of Iginla’s game, but there was so much more to the Calgary forward. A physical specimen who seemed to never tire, Iginla would continually punish defenders with his physical play and protect the puck all over the ice. Willing to drop his gloves to protect a teammate or spark his club, the eventual captain of the Flames was feared for his hands whether they had a stick in them or not. Even in a sport that has had an incredible history of tough players, Iginla was unique in his approach. He twice led the NHL in goal scoring, and won the Art Ross trophy as the league leader in points in 2001-02. He would be named a Hart Trophy finalist multiple times, and was the Flames MVP for more than a decade.

Outside of his on-ice accomplishments though, Iginla was a beloved player off the ice as well. Though opponents would not ever want to face him, he was almost universally respected by the hockey world and extremely popular among fans all over the world. Countless former teammates have told stories over the last few days about Iginla’s generosity towards fans, recalling times when he would be still signing autographs long after the rest of the team had left. In Canada, a country for who Iginla won two Olympic gold medals, he was one of the faces of a generation of hockey players that took over after the Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux years. That was no more apparent than when he set up Sidney Crosby for the “Golden Goal” in the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, once again battling physically in the corner to retrieve a puck and get it to a teammate in a dangerous location.

In the latter part of his career, Iginla bounced around the league trying to find a fit and bring home a Stanley Cup. Playing for Pittsburgh, Boston, Colorado and Los Angeles, Iginla would continue to find a way to score goals but never did bring home the elusive chalice. Though he’ll go down as one of the best players in NHL history to never win a Stanley Cup, he did find success at so many other levels. In addition to the two Olympic gold medals, Iginla won two Memorial Cups, and gold at the World Juniors, World Championships and World Cup.

There are few players who can truly be called unique in the game of hockey, and Jarome Iginla is one of them. Today he finished his professional career with the Calgary Flames and it won’t take long for him to get into the Hall of Fame.

Miikka Salomaki Signs Two-Year Contract With Nashville Predators

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Teams aren’t waiting around for their arbitration hearings, as the Nashville Predators have joined Calgary this morning in signing one of their restricted free agents. Miikka Salomaki, who was scheduled for a hearing on August 2nd, has signed a two-year contract worth a total of $1.5MM.

Salomaki, 25, is one of several forwards who will be battling for playing time at the bottom of the Nashville roster. The Predators signed several veterans like Zac Rinaldo, Connor Brickley and Rocco Grimaldi, while still having plenty of youth in players like Eeli Tolvanen and Ryan Hartman. While his playing time isn’t guaranteed, Salomaki does give the team another inexpensive option to soak up fourth-line minutes while the Predators dish out big money to other parts of their roster. Amazingly, the team still has around $7.6MM in cap space for this season even after inking their final restricted free agent. The team looks ready to compete for the Stanley Cup again in 2018-19, and has plenty of room to make an in-season addition if necessariy.

Through 58 games with the team last season Salomaki recorded just eight points, but was used for his high energy and physical play. Ready to go into the corners against any defender, he won’t hurt you on the scoreboard despite not contributing much offensively either. That’s enough for a team like the Predators, who have plenty of offensive weapons to carry them through the game. That responsible defensive presence actually still may bring about a role for Salomaki on the team this season, especially given Tolvanen’s inexperience. At the very least he’ll be a reliable 13th forward on the club for almost league minimum.

Liam Foudy Signs Entry-Level Contract With Columbus Blue Jackets

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed their 2018 first-round pick, announcing a three-year entry-level contract for Liam Foudy. Foudy is still expected to return to the London Knights for the 2018-19 season, which would allow his contract to slide forward one year.

Foudy, the 18th-overall selection this year, is an incredibly talented athlete that still has work to do to reach his full potential. Not expected to be drafted so high early in the year, Foudy kept climbing up draft boards and impressed at the NHL Scouting Combine where he won several events and performed well in nearly all the others. Though he had just 40 points for the Knights, he showed enough to make a believer out of Blue Jackets’ GM Jarmo Kekalainen, who is known to take big risks in the draft for players he thinks can be top-end NHL talents.

That’s the ceiling for Foudy, who will try to take the next step on a London team that should be a contender for the Memorial Cup this season. If he’s given more offensive responsibility, he could find another level of production and prove the Blue Jackets right. At the very least the team will continue to work with him and try to turn his outstanding athleticism into outstanding hockey performance.

Cody Ceci, Ottawa Senators Exchange Arbitration Filings

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With Garnet Hathaway re-signing this morning, the next player scheduled for an arbitration hearing is Cody Ceci of the Ottawa Senators. That meeting is on the books for Wednesday in Toronto, and Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports on the filings from both sides. The Senators have filed a $3.35MM ask, while Ceci is looking for $6.0MM. As usual, the ruling will likely come down somewhere in the middle of those two numbers should they not come to an agreement in the next few days.

Ceci, 24, is a player that has drawn quite a lot of attention over the years due to his continual inclusion in trade negotiations. In almost every discussion about the Senators and their pursuit of a high-end player, Ceci has been part of a potential return. That inclusion has been derided by the analytical community at times given Ceci’s poor possession numbers, but he continues to be an extremely valued piece of the Ottawa blue line. In fact, he may be the team’s top option should Erik Karlsson be traded before the season begins. That would put an incredible amount of pressure on the young right-handed defenseman, who has failed to put up big offensive numbers despite obvious ability and huge opportunity over the past few years.

Logging more than 23 minutes a night in each of the past two seasons, Ceci has been deployed in a defensive role (usually alongside Dion Phaneuf, who is now part of the Los Angeles Kings organization) to balance some of the offensive starts given to Karlsson. Though that is certainly a limiting factor in Ceci’s offensive numbers, there are other warts in his game that hinder his impact for the team and keep him from really reaching the top echelon of defensemen in the NHL. Those numbers should also lead an arbitrator to rule for much less than the $6.0MM ask, though probably well above the team’s filing as well. Ceci earned just $2.8MM last season, and should get a nice raise either way.

The Senators will almost certainly choose a one-year contract for their young defenseman, as he is scheduled to hit unrestricted free agency after the 2019-20 season. Leaving with just a one-year deal will allow them to continue to negotiate with him as a restricted free agent next summer, and try to get him to re-sign long-term. Otherwise, he could hit the open market as a 26-year old and really cash in as a right-handed option. Even with his poor possession numbers, there are still many who see Ceci as a key defender for the Senators and one who could step into top-four minutes for many teams around the league.

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