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Archives for October 2018

Snapshots: Lundqvist, Kings, Tanev

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With the Rangers in the middle of rebuilding, many have wondered if goaltender Henrik Lundqvist would be willing to stick around to see it through.  Larry Brooks of the New York Post asked the veteran that very question and Lundqvist emphasized his commitment to the team:

“I’m committed to this. I know that this is going to be a test, how I handle the ups and downs, the growing and the mistakes. Not only me, but the players who have been here for a while and are not used to this. But I’m prepared for it. I’m embracing the challenge.”

The 36-year-old has been a mainstay for the Rangers since 2005-06 and while there may be a couple more rough years ahead (many expect them to be sellers once again by the trade deadline), Lundqvist appears to be ready to wait it out.  He’s signed through the 2020-21 season with a cap hit of $8.5MM.

Elsewhere around the league:

  • On the heels of Jonathan Quick’s knee surgery, the Kings do not plan to explore the trade market for a short-term replacement, reports Curtis Zupke of the LA Times (Twitter link), who adds that the typical recovery timeline for Quick’s injury is three-to-six weeks. While that isn’t a significant amount of time, Los Angeles is already sitting at the bottom of the Western Conference and if their struggles continue while Quick is out, they may find themselves too far outside of the postseason picture.  In the meantime, they’ll turn to Jack Campbell and veteran Peter Budaj to hold down the fort in his absence.
  • Canucks defenseman Chris Tanev is missing his fourth straight game on Wednesday and the team announced on Twitter that he’s doubtful to suit up on Friday as well due to a bruised hip. Head coach Travis Green is hopeful that Tanev will be able to travel with the team at the start of their upcoming road trip which gets underway November 6th in Detroit.  Injuries have long been an issue for the 28-year-old as he has yet to surpass the 70-game mark in his career.

Hurricanes Making Progress In Contract Talks With Sebastian Aho

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The Hurricanes have made progress towards locking up star winger Sebastian Aho to a long-term deal, reports Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News and Observer.  GM Don Waddell acknowledged that he’s hopeful a deal can be reached by the end of the season.  If he’s unsigned at that point, he will become a restricted free agent this summer but will not have salary arbitration rights.

The 21-year-old is off to a prolific start to his year, setting a franchise record for a consecutive point streak to start a season while also equalling an NHL record for the most consecutive games with an assist to start a season.  While negotiations have been ongoing since the start of the year, it’s reasonable to suspect that this has boosted the asking price as talks progress.

Waddell provided a little insight into the talks, noting that there are roughly 20 reasonably-comparable players to the winger.  Aho and agent Gerry Johansson have three outliers on the high end of that scale while the team has three on the low end.  The two sides are looking to find a middle ground between the remainder of those comparables with Waddell stating that “The amount of money we’re talking, there’s not a crazy difference”.

One of the outliers on Aho and Johansson’s end is believed to be Sabres center Jack Eichel who is in the first season of an eight-year, $80MM contract.  Alexander notes that a deal like that is not on the table for Aho.

Some potential comparable players that aren’t on quite as expensive of a contract would include Winnipeg center Mark Scheifele, Colorado pivot Nathan MacKinnon, Calgary center Sean Monahan plus winger Johnny Gaudreau, and Boston winger David Pastrnak.  All of those players are top-line options on their respective clubs and carry cap hits between $6.125MM and $6.75MM.  With the Upper Limit increasing in recent years, the equivalent salary cap percentage could realistically stretch Aho’s next contract over the $7MM mark.

Carolina won’t have any issue fitting Aho’s next deal onto their books as they have just shy of $47MM committed to 13 players for next season, per CapFriendly.  He’s one of their lowest-paid players this season with a base salary of just $925K (the entry-level maximum) but by this time one year from now, Aho will almost assuredly be the top-paid player on the Hurricanes, surpassing center Jordan Staal ($6MM) for that title.

Atlantic Notes: Vanek, Luongo, Byron

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The Red Wings will be without winger Thomas Vanek for two-to-three weeks due to a lower-body injury which is believed to be a knee issue, reports Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press.  The injury occurred early in the first period on Tuesday night against Columbus.  Detroit has filled his spot with Wade Megan but another recall may be needed depending on the availability of center Andreas Athanasiou for Thursday’s game versus New Jersey.  Vanek is off to somewhat of a quiet start this season with five points in a dozen games, well off the pace of his output from last season when he collected 56 points between Vancouver and Columbus.

More from the Atlantic:

  • While the Panthers were hopeful that goaltender Roberto Luongo would be able to play during the NHL Global Series this week, it doesn’t appear that this will be the case. Instead, head coach Bob Boughner told reporters, including NHL.com’s Brian Compton, that they now hope that he will be available to return at some point next week.  Following their two games in Finland, their next game will be November 8th so that appears to be the new target date.  Luongo was injured in the season opener back on October 6th and Florida has gotten off to somewhat of a sluggish start without their top netminder, going 2-4-3 to start the season.
  • Canadiens winger Paul Byron is listed as questionable for Thursday’s game against Washington after leaving Tuesday’s contest with a lower-body injury, notes Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette. He did not participate in practice today but Claude Julien doesn’t believe the issue is too serious.  Byron, fresh off of signing a four-year extension just before the season got underway, is off to a good start with seven points through eleven games.  If he can’t play, winger Andrew Shaw will likely take his place in the lineup.

Corban Knight Out Four Months With Broken Collarbone

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It was a short-lived return to the NHL for Corban Knight of the Philadelphia Flyers, who was injured in Saturday’s game against the New York Islanders. Today, Flyers GM Ron Hextall announced that Knight will be out for the next four months with a broken collarbone, taking him out for a huge chunk of the season.

Knight, 28, had played three games for the Flyers this season after spending the entirety of 2017-18 in the minor leagues. An established offensive presence in the AHL, he wasn’t able to contribute anything on the score sheet through those first few games and may have been playing himself out of the lineup already. That decision has been made for the team now, as he’ll be out until at least February with this injury.

The Flyers had already recalled Tyrell Goulbourne and Nicolas Aube-Kubel, and this news will likely only prolong one of their stays. The team inserted Aube-Kubel into the lineup last night against the Vancouver Canucks, but gave him just over five minutes in ice time. It’s clear there is a need in Philadelphia for qualified forwards given the injuries to Knight, James van Riemsdyk and Michael Raffl, but what’s much less clear is who will capitalize on the opportunity. The team is struggling near the bottom of the Metropolitan Division, and needs to find a spark to turn things around or risk falling too far behind the leaders.

Jonathan Quick Undergoes Surgery, Out Indefinitely

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The Los Angeles Kings’ season is off to a rough start, and it might not be looking up for some time. The team announced today that Jonathan Quick is out indefinitely following surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee. The team has recalled Peter Budaj, who will back up Jack Campbell in net for the Kings.

This is a crushing blow to a Kings team that is already at the bottom of the NHL standings thanks to an early season Quick injury and uninspired play by many of their key players. Los Angeles will now have to find a way to climb out of the basement with their best goaltender sidelined, and a duo in place that combined for a grand total of 13 NHL appearances last season. Campbell is completely unproven at the NHL level despite his early play, while Budaj is now 36 and has had a only a single successful season over the last several years.

The Kings do have talent on their roster, but not enough of it has shown through the early part of the year. Drew Doughty and newcomer Ilya Kovalchuk lead the team with eight points through the first 11 games, but younger players like Adrian Kempe and Michael Amadio have failed to take the necessary steps to elevate the team. Much of the rest of the core in Los Angeles is already on the wrong side of 30 and declining with age, leaving the coaching staff struggling to find any sense of consistency on a nightly basis.

While this season is certainly off to a rough start, and Quick’s injury only exacerbates that, there are at least rays of hope on the horizon. Gabe Vilardi has recently returned to the ice in a non-contact jersey, and prospects like Kale Clague and Rasmus Kupari are off to great starts in their respective professional leagues. Jaret Anderson-Dolan even has two goals in his first two games after being sent back to junior earlier this month, and should be part of the Canadian World Junior squad in a few months. The struggles of the NHL club can’t be fixed right away with any of those young players, but this season is also quite young. With talents like Doughty and Anze Kopitar still on the roster, the Kings could stage something of a comeback throughout the year—they’ll just have to do it without the services of Quick for the time being.

Anaheim Ducks Send Sam Steel To AHL

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The Anaheim Ducks have lost six straight games after falling to the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 last night, and look like they’ll be making some changes. The team has recalled Kiefer Sherwood and Kalle Kossila from AHL San Diego while sending top prospect Sam Steel back down. Steel saw his ice time drop to just over 11 minutes against the Flyers, easily the lowest total of his young career. In addition, Joseph Blandisi has been returned to the AHL.

Selected in the first round of the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, Steel is still just 20 years old and is in his first year of professional hockey. A dominant offensive player at the junior level, he was limited to just three points in his first 13 games with the Ducks and none since scoring his first NHL goal on October 21st. Like many of the Ducks, his possession statistics have been quite poor through the first month of the season though he was holding his own in the faceoff circle at exactly 50%. That isn’t enough to keep him in the lineup though, and the Ducks will hope he can get his offensive confidence back while playing in the minor leagues.

The team has a game tomorrow against the New York Rangers, and it looks like Patrick Eaves may be ready to make his season debut after skating this morning on a line with Adam Henrique and Isac Lundestrom according to Eric Stephens of The Athletic. The team has also reunited the line of Andrew Cogliano, Ryan Kesler and Jakob Silfverberg as they try to spark their group. After riding a hot John Gibson to a few wins at the start of the season, the Ducks find themselves in a tailspin towards the bottom of the Pacific Division and could quickly find themselves at a real disadvantage in the playoff race if they can’t turn it around.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Teams “Calling Left And Right” On William Nylander

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The calendar is about to turn over to November, and like the seemingly daily updates that have come out for the past few months there is no progress in talks between the Toronto Maple Leafs and restricted free agent William Nylander. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet calls the situation “a deadlock” in his latest 31 Thoughts column, and notes that the team will have to start considering a trade at some point. That leads right into Frank Seravalli of TSN’s first Trade Bait board of the season, which lists Nylander at the very top of a group of 15 players. Seravalli reports that “teams have been calling the [Maple] Leafs left and right” to inquire about Nylander, though Toronto is continuing to turn them away.

Now just a month away from the December 1st deadline—which would make Nylander ineligible to play at all this season should he fail to have a contract by then—pressure is starting to really build between the two sides. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic again pointed towards the Carolina Hurricanes as a team that has interest in Nylander, something that Seravalli agrees with noting that they’ve made it “explicitly clear” that they would put in an offer if Toronto makes him available. While there is no reason to believe a trade is the likely outcome at this point, there are obviously teams ready to pounce if the young forward is ever shopped around.

There’s good reason for that interest, given the consecutive 61-point seasons Nylander has recorded and strong overall performance for the Maple Leafs. Though he hasn’t played yet this season, there is considerable upside for any team who could pry him loose and get him under contract. Remember though that any team that is trading for him would need time to work out their own contract before the deadline, making the real deadline for Toronto even sooner than that December 1st threshold.

All of this is moot if the two sides can get together on something, but from all accounts Toronto GM Kyle Dubas has stuck to a number or salary range that would allow him to fit everyone into their structure going forward. With Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner still to sign next summer, Maple Leafs President Brendan Shanahan has publicly stated that some players may have to take a little less in order to win in Toronto. He pointed to how John Tavares turned down more lucrative offers in free agency, while explaining that his former Red Wings teammates may have done the same when they were trying to make a dynasty in Detroit. There has been no sense from the Nylander camp one way or the other how they feel about that kind of a situation, other than the high priced long-term asks at the beginning of the negotiation.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Minor Transactions: 10/31/18

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It’s Halloween and the NHL has just a single game on tap, as the Chicago Blackhawks will take on the Vancouver Canucks this evening. As teams hand out tricks or treats to their fringe roster players, we’ll be right here to keep track of all the movement.

  • Ville Husso has been returned to the minor leagues by the St. Louis Blues, after Jake Allen rejoined the team at practice. Allen’s injury is apparently not as serious as originally feared, meaning Husso can go back to starting for the San Antonio Rampage for now. The 23-year old goaltender is still waiting for his first shot at the NHL, but has to clean up his game at the AHL level first.
  • Colby Cave, who was up on emergency conditions for the Boston Bruins, has been returned to the AHL. Cave, who played three games for the Bruins last season, is a hugely important forward for the AHL’s Providence Bruins, but was only brought up as insurance for some of the banged up NHL players. He’ll likely see some game action with Boston later on this season, but for now will return and try to extend his excellent start to the year.
  • The Minnesota Wild have reassigned Matt Read to the AHL, after seeing him play just five games in the NHL. The veteran forward will be used as an extra man this season and bounce up and down, clearing waivers when required.
  • Wade Megan has been recalled by the Detroit Red Wings, while Joe Hicketts is on his way back to the Grand Rapids Griffins. This is Megan’s first recall of the season after clearing waivers just before the end of training camp. The 28-year old forward has four points in eight games with the Griffins, and will be looking to play just his fifth career NHL game if he can get into the Detroit lineup.
  • The Los Angeles Kings have sent Austin Wagner and Sean Walker back to the Ontario Reign, partly as a cap-saving move. The Kings find themselves pressed right up against the cap ceiling given their current roster, and are trying to save space by sending players down on short term assignments. The team will likely recall a forward before tomorrow’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers, though since they’re in a long homestand could use the proximity of Ontario to their advantage and remain at a roster of 21 for as long as possible.
  • The New York Islanders have recalled Christopher Gibson under emergency conditions as Robin Lehner is dealing with a minor injury. Sending Tom Kuhnhackl down to the minor leagues in his place could mean that Cal Clutterbuck is ready to return, but for now the focus is on the goaltending position and how long Lehner will be out. Coach Barry Trotz didn’t believe it was a serious injury, but with Lehner playing so well to start the season it’s tough to see him taken off the ice at all.
  • Aaron Ness has been recalled by the Washington Capitals, while Travis Boyd has been sent down on a long-term injury conditioning loan. With Brooks Orpik dealing with a minor injury, Ness will serve as insurance for any pregame injuries.
  • The Carolina Hurricanes announced that they’ve recalled defenseman Haydn Fleury from Charlotte of the AHL.  The 22-year-old played in four games with the Checkers while on loan from Carolina and while he may once again be the odd man out on their back end to start, he’ll at least be in better game shape when called upon.

Pekka Rinne Activated From Injured Reserve

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The Nashville Predators are finally whole in net, as today they’ve activated Pekka Rinne from injured reserve and assigned Troy Grosenick back to the minor leagues. Rinne had been out for ten days following a collision with teammate Kevin Fiala. He’ll now return to one of the best goaltending tandems in the league alongside young Juuse Saros.

Rinne, who turns 36 in just a few days, is one of the most interesting names to keep an eye on around the league. As Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic writes (subscription required), negotiations between the Predators and their franchise goaltender continue on a contract extension, though there doesn’t seem to be anything imminent. Rinne has been one of the best goaltenders in the league for more than a decade, ending as a Calder finalist after finally making the jump to start for Nashville at the age of 25. Though there have been lean times throughout his Predators career, the reigning Vezina trophy winner has a .919 save percentage in close to 600 regular season games and was a huge reason why Nashville reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 2017.

Still, having Saros ready to take over the job creates a dilemma for the Predators. In his limited career, the 23-year old netminder has been an outstanding backup for Rinne, posting a .922 save percentage over 56 games. There’s a school of thought that suggests he may even be better right now than his mentor and partner, and the fact that he’s signed to a three-year deal worth just a total of $4.5MM makes him one of the most attractive assets in the league. Imagine paying a top-tier starting goaltender just $1.5MM per season while in a Stanley Cup contention window.

That contract though is what makes the negotiation with Rinne so interesting. Even if they dial back his work and turn the duo into more of a straight tandem, the Predators could likely afford to pay Rinne a hefty sum to keep him there through the end of his career. Having one of their franchise icons remain on the roster as they try to bring home that elusive chalice is tempting, and may lead to an extension before the season is out. If not, Rinne would have plenty of suitors willing to give him one last multi-year deal to see if he can push them over the top, especially if he continues to play at such a high level now that he’s back from injury.

Winnipeg Jets Have “No Intention” Of Trading Tyler Myers

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If you were to peruse the list of players scheduled for unrestricted free agency next summer, in hopes of gaining some insight over the upcoming trade deadline market, one name seems to stick out among the defensemen. Even as Erik Karlsson takes much of the spotlight from the group, Tyler Myers of the Winnipeg Jets represents another star right-handed defenseman who could help basically every team in the league. That’s including his own, despite the Jets’ depth on the right side with Dustin Byfuglien and Jacob Trouba, as Myers is creating a mismatch by being an anchor on the third pairing.

The big defenseman is currently carrying a $5.5MM cap hit, and with new contracts due for restricted free agents Trouba, Kyle Connor and Patrik Laine in the summer, there may not be enough cash to bring Myers back. Even if he doesn’t have a new contract though, it doesn’t look like the Jets are willing to deal him anytime soon. On the latest edition of Insider Trading on TSN, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic states that the Jets have “no intention” of trading Myers at the deadline even if they can’t get him signed by then. Winnipeg is “all-in” for this season, and rely on their deep defensive corps as much as anything to contend in the Western Conference.

LeBrun does note that Myers’ agent did meet with Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff recently to at least work out where the team stands in regards to his client, but it does not sound like any actual contract negotiation has taken place. You can bet the entire league is monitoring the situation closely even if Myers is off the market for now, hoping that a mid-season swoon could make the Jets rethink their position.

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