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Archives for August 2018

Snapshots: Seattle, Ward, Michalek

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While many expect that Seattle will eventually be awarded an expansion franchise, an important date in the process has now been set.  Tod Leiweke, the president and CEO of the potential team, told 950 KJR (audio link) that his group will be meeting with the executive committee of the Board of Governors in early October (likely the 2nd) and assuming all goes well, they will then be granted an audience to the full membership after that.  The prospective franchise has already been told what their fee to enter the league would be ($650MM) while their season ticket drive received over 25,000 deposits in less than a half an hour when the process opened up back in March.  With that in mind, it’s hard to imagine that they won’t eventually be awarded a team unless something goes seriously awry in this meeting.

Other notes from around the hockey world:

  • Winger Joel Ward finds himself without a contract but despite the fact he’s unsigned just a couple of weeks before training camp, he hasn’t given any thought to going overseas, reports John Matisz of The Score. The 37-year-old is only a couple of years removed from a 43-point last season but he struggled in 2017-18, notching just a dozen points in 52 games while spending time as a healthy scratch.  If he wants to be at training camp, he will likely have to settle for a PTO at this point.
  • Veteran defenseman Zbynek Michalek has not yet decided if he will play this upcoming season or retire, notes Arizona Sports’ Craig Morgan. The 35-year-old has been taking part in informal skates in Arizona but if he does decide to play in 2018-19, it wouldn’t be with the Coyotes.  He spent last season with Sparta Praha of the Czech Extraliga and could look to return there.  If Michalek does retire, he’ll finish up with 784 career NHL games under his belt, including 612 with the Coyotes.

Salary Cap Deep Dive: Buffalo Sabres

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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 2018-19 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.

Buffalo Sabres

Current Cap Hit: $73,034,524 (under the $79.5MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

D Rasmus Dahlin (three years, $925K)
F Casey Mittelstadt (two years, $925K)
F Tage Thompson (two years, $925K)

Potential Bonuses:

Dahlin: $2.85MM
Mittelstadt: $850K
Thompson: $213K

Total: $3.913MM

Mittelstadt had a strong rookie season at the college level and the Sabres saw enough in him to convince him to forego the rest of his NCAA career and signed him back in March, burning the first year of his entry-level deal in the process.  While Buffalo’s hopes are justifiably high that he can make an impact right away, he could be a year away from really stepping into their top-six.  If that is how he progresses, one good year and one decent season could make him a bridge candidate.  Thompson was a key component of the Ryan O’Reilly trade this summer and split last year between St. Louis and the AHL.  It’s certainly possible that this is the case again if Thompson can’t lock down a spot on the top three lines to start the season.  As he projects to be more of a complementary player, there’s a good chance Buffalo looks for a short-term deal with him two years from now.

That won’t be the case with Dahlin, however.  The top pick back in June is expected to start in the top four defensively right away and it shouldn’t be long before he ascends into the number one role.  He is touted as a legitimate franchise player and those are the ones that get locked up to long-term, big-money deals as soon as possible.  There’s a good chance that two years from now, he’ll have already been inked to a max-term extension that makes him one of the higher paid defenders in the league.

One Year Remaining, Non-Entry-Level

D Nathan Beaulieu ($2.4MM, RFA)
F Zemgus Girgensons ($1.6MM, RFA)
F Johan Larsson ($1.475MM, RFA)
D Jake McCabe ($1.6MM, RFA)
F Matt Moulson ($5MM, UFA)
F Jason Pominville ($5.6MM, UFA)
F Evan Rodrigues ($650K, RFA)
F Jeff Skinner ($5.725MM, UFA)
G Linus Ullmark ($750K, RFA)

The Sabres picked up Skinner earlier this month for a fairly small return given his offensive pedigree.  He projects to slide onto their top line and really fill the hole vacated by Evander Kane while bringing that line more of a scoring touch.  He could be poised to have a big season which would really boost his market value heading into free agency.  Pominville may make nearly the same amount of money but his expectations will be considerably lower.  He has become more of a role player since returning to Buffalo and should be in a bottom six spot in 2018-19.  He’ll also be 36 when he hits the open market.  Put it all together and he’s likely looking at having to take at least a 50% pay cut on his next deal and probably more than that.  Moulson will almost assuredly be in the minors all year but nearly $4MM of his deal will still be on the books.  He won’t be brought back next summer and they’ll certainly welcome the extra flexibility.

Girgensons was once viewed as a potential second or third line center but he has struggled to score in each of the past three seasons which has resulted in more of a checking role for him.  He should be able to be qualified next summer but he won’t have much of a case for a raise if 2018-19 is comparable to the past three years.   Larsson wasn’t able to build off of a decent half season in 2016-17 and scored just four times in 80 games last season.  He’s likely to be on the fringes of the roster for the upcoming season and if his offensive struggles continue, he’ll be a non-tender candidate.  Rodrigues performed rather well in his half season and is no longer waiver-exempt.  He should be a regular now (albeit in a bottom-six role) and even if his output drops a bit, he should still get at least a small raise on his next deal.

Beaulieu was brought in from Montreal in advance of the Expansion Draft last summer with the hopes that a change of scenery would help him reach his potential.  Instead, he turned in the worst season of his career and with their offseason additions on the left side, it’s possible that he’s out of the lineup to start the year.  He’s lining up as a strong candidate to be non-qualified next summer.  McCabe missed nearly the last two months of last season due to shoulder surgery, a disappointing ending to what was a fairly quiet year overall.  He should still be able to hold down a regular spot but unless he takes a big step forward in his development, a one-year contract next summer is a real possibility.

Ullmark has been viewed as a goalie of the future for Buffalo and heads into the season poised to battle for the starting job with newcomer Carter Hutton.  Assuming he gets into 25-30 games at a minimum, he should at least double his current AAV next summer and if it’s closer to a 50-50 split of playing time, he could approach the $3MM range on his next deal.

Two Years Remaining

D Zach Bogosian ($5.143MM, UFA)
D Matt Hunwick ($2.25MM, UFA)
D Marco Scandella ($4MM, UFA)
F Conor Sheary ($3MM, UFA)
F Vladimir Sobotka ($3.5MM, UFA)
F Scott Wilson ($1.05MM, UFA)

The Sabres picked up Sheary and Hunwick in what amounted to a salary cap dump from the Penguins earlier this summer.  While Hunwick projects to be more of a depth player, Sheary should slide into a middle-six role.  Showing that he can produce away from Pittsburgh’s top centers would go a long way towards helping establish his market value two years from now.  Sobotka was also added primarily for salary cap purposes as he was included in the O’Reilly deal.  After spending most of last season on the wing, he will need to get back to the middle if he wants to help his value.  Wilson didn’t put the type of numbers last year that he did in 2016-17 in Pittsburgh but he did enough to likely earn himself a fourth line role next season.

Bogosian’s time in Buffalo has not been particularly good.  He has had difficulty staying healthy in recent years and has struggled when he was in the lineup.  There was some thought that he’d be a buyout candidate back in June and while that didn’t happen, he’ll be near the top of the list of candidates again next summer barring a bounce back year.  Scandella was brought in to try to help stabilize Buffalo’s top four and he succeeded while taking on a larger role than he has been accustomed to.  For a second pairing cap hit, this is a decent value deal.

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Metropolitan Notes: Flyers Goaltending, Tryouts, Guentzel

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With Anthony Stolarz now healthy and top prospect Carter Hart turning pro, the Flyers have a bit of a logjam between the pipes.  With that in mind, Dave Isaac of the Cherry Hill Courier-Post suggests that a trade may be the optimal route for Philadelphia to consider and that one of Stolarz, Alex Lyon, or Michal Neuvirth would make the most sense to move.  Brian Elliott is pegged to start at the NHL level while they will want to give Hart a large workload with AHL Lehigh Valley which leaves the other three vying for a pair of backup spots.  All three of those trade options have to clear waivers to get to the minors so if there is a move to make, the time to do it would be before opening rosters are finalized.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • From that same article, Isaac notes that the Flyers gave consideration to bringing in someone on a PTO deal but ultimately decided against it, at least for the time being. With them wanting to leave some spots available for some of their younger players, bringing in a veteran to clutter things up may not be the best move for them to make.
  • Penguins winger Jake Guentzel is their most notable young player entering the final year of their contract. While a bridge contract may make some sense given their usual status of being tight to the Upper Limit, Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review believes that Pittsburgh instead will opt for a long-term deal and that if he produces like he did last season, an AAV north of $5.75MM is a likely outcome if the salary cap grows once again for 2019-20.  While that may seem difficult to fit in, the team has more than $10MM in expiring contracts up front which will make it a bit easier to do a deal like that.

Jets Re-Sign J.C. Lipon

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The Jets have inked another of their restricted free agents, announcing the re-signing of winger J.C. Lipon to a one-year, two-way contract.  The deal will pay him the league minimum of $650K at the NHL level while Postmedia’s Ken Wiebe adds (Twitter link) that he will receive $150K at the minor league level.  The contract contains a total guarantee of $210K.

The 25-year-old spent all of last season with Winnipeg’s AHL affiliate in Manitoba and posted his best numbers since his rookie professional season.   In 68 games with the Moose, he collected 17 goals and 21 assists which ranked him tied for eighth on the team in points.

Lipon has just nine games of NHL experience under his belt in his five-year professional career.  Those contests came in 2015-16 where he picked up a single assist in that time.  Since then, he has been an important cog for their farm team and spent the past two seasons as an alternate captain, a role he is likely to reprise in 2018-19 assuming he clears waivers as expected.

The Jets still have work to do heading into training camp as they still have two of the 13 remaining RFAs around the league in defenseman Josh Morrissey and goalie Eric Comrie.  While Comrie will likely sign a short-term deal, Morrissey’s case is much more prominent.  While there haven’t been reports as to whether he’s working on a bridge contract or a long-term pact, he did express optimism last week that a deal would be reached in time for training camp.

OHL Institutes Draft Pick Trade Restrictions

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If you’re a fan of junior hockey, some of the trades made in the OHL the past few seasons have drawn laughter and confusion upon announcement. In order to load up on present day talent, various teams had begun trading draft picks that wouldn’t be used for six, seven or eight years into the future. A January trade involving Los Angeles Kings top prospect Gabe Vilardi for instance from the Windsor Spitfires included a Kingston Frontenac second-round pick from 2025. The OHL has had enough of these transactions, and today announced new trade restrictions that will come into effect on September 1st:

Commencing September 1, 2018, OHL teams will be allowed to trade draft choices a maximum of six years into the future, transitioning to five years prior to the commencement of the 2020 OHL Priority Selection, and four years prior to the 2021 OHL Priority Selection. 

At the conclusion of the phase-in period, league policy will stipulate that OHL clubs may only trade a draft choice four years into the future.

Though the stiffest restrictions will not come into play for another few years, this will begin to reduce the number of transactions teams can make by mortgaging their future for today’s success. The entire CHL has an issue with teams cycling through short periods of intense contention followed by firesales that make them barely competitive, usually aligning with hosting the Memorial Cup. Some more financially stable teams can stay competitive on an annual basis through other means, but this hopefully will bring more parity to the league by avoiding cycles like this.

Trade Protection Around The NHL

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As we approach training camp for the 2018-19 season, the rumor mill has started to turn again and speculation has begun about potential trade deadline targets. When players like Tyler Seguin, Max Pacioretty, Erik Karlsson and Wayne Simmonds are all without much progress in extension negotiations, fans and media alike start to wonder whether they will be flipped at some point to a contender before reaching free agency. Unfortunately for many teams around the league, trades aren’t possible for certain players without their blessing. No-trade and no-movement clauses are still prevalent throughout the league, with veterans sometimes coveting them in free agency almost as much as contract term.

Remember that these clauses cannot be included in a contract until the player’s unrestricted free agent years, meaning a deal like Connor McDavid’s eight-year, $100MM pact couldn’t include any trade protection until year five despite it carrying the highest cap hit in the league. Below is the full list of clauses around the NHL for the 2018-19 season, per CapFriendly:

For ease of reading, clauses have been converted to no-trade lists based on the current 31-team NHL.

Anaheim Ducks:

Corey Perry – 30-team NTC, NMC
Ryan Getzlaf – 30-team NTC, NMC
Ryan Kesler – 30-team NTC, NMC
Cam Fowler – 26-team NTC
Ryan Miller – 24-team NTC
Patrick Eaves – 8-team NTC
Andrew Cogliano – 6-team NTC

Arizona Coyotes:

Alex Goligoski – 30-team NTC, NMC
Marian Hossa – 30-team NTC, NMC
Brad Richardson – 30-team NTC, NMC
Derek Stepan – 30-team NTC
Niklas Hjalmarsson – 20-team NTC, NMC
Dave Bolland – 20-team NTC
Jason Demers – 8-team NTC
Michael Grabner – 8-team NTC

Boston Bruins:

David Krejci – 30-team NTC, NMC
Patrice Bergeron – 30-team NTC, NMC
Brad Marchand – 30-team NTC, NMC
David Backes – 30-team NTC, NMC
Zdeno Chara – 30-team NTC, NMC
Tuukka Rask – 22-team NTC
Torey Krug – 8-team NTC

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Sergei Shumakov Expected To Sign With Washington Capitals

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Wednesday: Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post tweets that the contract is not finished, though the Capitals are “exploring it.” The deal has still not been announced, though there have been reports that Shumakov will not sign with either the Chicago Blackhawks (via Scott Powers of The Athletic) or New York Rangers (via Larry Brooks of the New York Post), two other teams that were linked to the Russian forward.

Tuesday: There had been recent reports that KHL forward Sergei Shumakov was looking for an NHL contract, and it appears he has found one on a team known for its Russian contingent. The Washington Capitals have signed Shumakov to a one-year entry-level contract according to NHL.com correspondent and Sovsport reporter Pavel Lysenkov. The Capitals have not announced the contract yet, but all signs point to the 25-year old joining Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov and Ilya Samsonov in the Washington organization.

Shumakov had the best offensive season of his career last season after moving over to CSKA Moscow, recording 40 points in 47 games and more goals—17—than fellow highly touted players like Kirill Kaprizov and Valeri Nichushkin. While Shumakov is several years older than those two, he still brings a level of offensive upside that could be very valuable to the Capitals as they look to repeat as Stanley Cup champions. Washington has other young players like Jakub Vrana and Andre Burakovsky hoping to take big steps forward this season, but signing Shumakov can only improve their depth up front.

The contract of course guarantees Shumakov nothing in the way of playing time, given that he’ll be on a two-way deal like any other entry-level contract. The deal could very well include a European Assignment clause though, which could send Shumakov back to Russia if he can’t crack the NHL lineup. We won’t know that until the contract is announced, but for now Washington fans can just be happy they’ve added another forward with very little risk.

Wayne Simmonds, Philadelphia Flyers Have Had “Preliminary” Extension Talks

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Extension updates are coming out like wildfire from the BioSteel training camp in Toronto, and John Matisz of theScore gives us the latest regarding Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds. Simmonds told Matisz that he’s had preliminary talks with the Flyers about an extension, but wants to prove that when healthy he can still be the dominant offensive presence he was two years ago.

Simmonds, 30, is heading into the final year of his current contract with much to prove after an injury plagued 2017-18. Even though he still recorded 24 goals and 46 points, it was a significant drop off from his consecutive 30+ goal campaigns in previous years and 60-point output in 2015-16. Simmonds was obviously limited by injuries for much of the year, which also reduced his willingness to engage physically at times leading to his lowest hit total (129) in a full season since 2010-11, and the lowest fight total (3) of his career.

While there was still obviously plenty to like about Simmonds game, there is now some question about how he’ll hold up over a long-term contract given his style of play and age. The Flyers were clear that they had interest in signing the power forward to an extension when GM Ron Hextall spoke about it at the NHL Entry Draft, but few reports have come out about any negotiations since. Simmonds has been one of the game’s biggest bargains on his current six-year $23.8MM contract that he signed in 2012, but is likely looking for a substantial raise from the $3.975MM cap hit he’ll carry this season.

Minor Transactions: 08/29/18

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The calendar is about to turn to September, and NHL hockey is just around the corner. We’ll keep track of all the minor hockey transactions right here, as we prepare for the regular season to begin.

  • The Rochester Americans continue their busy offseason, signing Judd Peterson to a one-year AHL contract. Peterson played two games for the Americans after finishing his four-year career at St. Cloud State last season, where he served as captain during his senior year. Selected in the seventh round by the Buffalo Sabres in 2012, Peterson actually became an unrestricted free agent earlier this month when he was not given an entry-level contract.
  • David Rundblad has signed a new two-year contract with SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL, ending any speculation that he could come to North America again in the near future. Rundblad, a first-round pick by the St. Louis Blues in 2009, played 113 games in the NHL before returning to Europe a few years ago. Now 27, he may never decide to come back to North America and prove that he could be a difference maker on the blue line but there will still be some interest in him when this contract expires.

Matt Stajan Signs In Germany

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After playing in his 1,000th NHL game last season, Matt Stajan may be finished in North America. The 34-year old forward has signed with the Munich Red Bulls of the DEL in Germany according to Chris Johnston of Sportsnet, ending a run of 13 consecutive seasons spent exclusively in the NHL.

Stajan was originally selected in the second round by the Toronto Maple Leafs back in 2002, and had quite the year following his draft. Heading back to the Belleville Bulls of the OHL, he would lead his club in scoring with 94 points in 57 games while helping Team Canada to a silver medal at the World Juniors. At the end of the year he would suit up for both Toronto and the St. John’s Maple Leafs for one game each, scoring his first AHL and NHL points in the process. A full-time member with Toronto the next season, he would go on to establish himself as a solid two-way center and even record 55 points in 2008-09.

After being included in the trade that brought Dion Phaneuf to Toronto, Stajan would suit up for 558 regular season contests with the Calgary Flames and become a key veteran presence on the team. His offensive production fell of during his last few seasons, but he was still given some incredibly difficult defensive assignments and asked to take some key faceoffs. While his NHL career is likely coming to an end, he should find some success in Europe for at least a few more seasons.

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