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Archives for October 2018

Andrej Sustr Clears Waivers

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Saturday: Sustr has cleared waivers, Friedman reports (Twitter link).

Friday: The Anaheim Ducks have had a rough start to the season, and have decided to make some changes. Andrej Sustr, signed this offseason to a one-year contract, has been placed on waivers according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.

Sustr, 27, was not so long ago a full-time player for the Tampa Bay Lightning. The right-handed behemoth, who stands 6’7″ and can seemingly reach from hashmark to hashmark, suited up for more than 70 games in three straight seasons for the team, recording a career-high of 21 points in 2015-16. That came crashing to a halt last season when he played in just 44 games, and was allowed to leave in unrestricted free agency given their new options like Mikhail Sergachev and Ryan McDonagh.

It took just a few days on the open market for Sustr to find a home though, as he signed with the Ducks for $1.3MM and was expected to take a spot on the third pairing. The team had also signed veteran defenseman Luke Schenn, but for far less money. They’d waived Korbinian Holzer even before he ended up with wrist surgery, and all signs pointed to Sustr improving on the 13 minutes of ice time he averaged last season. That didn’t happen through his first four opportunities, as the team gave him fewer than that in each game. He still managed to take a minor penalty in three of those games, and didn’t help the Ducks do much at either end.

That $1.3MM price tag will likely keep Sustr in the Ducks organization, and allow them to move him to the minor leagues if necessary. Though there is always a need for right-handed defensemen in the league, his play so far has not shown much reason to believe he can be one of them. The Ducks would receive $1.025MM in cap relief by burying him in the minor leagues, though they’re not right up to the ceiling at the moment anyway.

West Notes: Smith, Bortuzzo, Bouchard

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Based on their roster in recent games, Sean Shapiro of The Athletic (subscription required) speculates that Stars center Gemel Smith could be heading for the waiver wire in the near future.  Justin Dowling appears to have moved ahead of Smith on the depth chart while it’s telling that the team opted to play seven defensemen over using Smith recently.  It wouldn’t be the first time that the 24-year-old has been on waivers as he was placed there in the summer in advance of his arbitration hearing, one that saw him get awarded a $720K salary.  Smith has shown that he can be a capable fourth liner in the past but hasn’t fared particularly well in his two games so far this season and if Dallas needs to make a roster move, he could very well become the one leaving to make room for him.

Elsewhere out West:

  • While there is no firm timetable for his return, Blues defenseman Robert Bortuzzo is not expected to need surgery on his lower-body injury, notes Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The team will give him a couple of weeks to rest and then re-evaluate his situation at that time.  While St. Louis is down another blueliner for now, they should get Carl Gunnarsson back in the lineup at some point next week once he finishes up his rehab assignment with AHL San Antonio.
  • Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard is quickly approaching the games played threshold where a decision will need to be made regarding whether or not to keep him up. Based on his performance thus far and the current state of Edmonton’s back end, Postmedia’s Derek Van Diest suggests that it’s likely that the 19-year-old will stick around past the ten-game mark, officially burning the first year of his entry-level contract.  Bouchard has a goal in seven games so far this season while averaging a little over 12 minutes per night of ice time.  If he does stick around, the next key threshold will come a couple of months from now when he approaches 40 games on the active roster as reaching that will accrue a season towards UFA eligibility.

2006 NHL Draft Take Two: Twenty-Third Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.” Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

Our look back at the 2006 NHL Entry Draft is now in full swing as we poll the PHR community to see who would have been selected in the first round and in what order knowing what we know now. Through the first 21 picks, we’ve already seen potential Hall of Fame players switch teams, and multiple captains move up and down the draft board.

Here are the results of the redraft so far:

1st Overall: Jonathan Toews (St. Louis Blues)
2nd Overall: Claude Giroux (Pittsburgh Penguins)
3rd Overall: Nicklas Backstrom (Chicago Blackhawks)
4th Overall: Brad Marchand (Washington Capitals)
5th Overall: Phil Kessel (Boston Bruins)
6th Overall: Jordan Staal (Columbus Blue Jackets)
7th Overall: Milan Lucic (New York Islanders)
8th Overall: Kyle Okposo (Phoenix Coyotes)
9th Overall: Erik Johnson (Minnesota Wild)
10th Overall: Derick Brassard (Florida Panthers)
11th Overall: Bryan Little (Los Angeles Kings)
12th Overall: Nick Foligno (Atlanta Thrashers)
13th Overall: Semyon Varlamov (Toronto Maple Leafs)
14th Overall: Artem Anisimov (Vancouver Canucks)
15th Overall: Michael Grabner (Tampa Bay Lightning)
16th Overall: Patrik Berglund (San Jose Sharks)
17th Overall: Jeff Petry (Los Angeles Kings)
18th Overall: Jonathan Bernier (Colorado Avalanche)
19th Overall: Mathieu Perreault (Anaheim Ducks)
20th Overall: Michael Frolik (Montreal Canadiens)
21st Overall: Cal Clutterbuck (New York Rangers)
22nd Overall: James Reimer (Philadelphia Flyers)

Considering Philadelphia’s long-term struggles between the pipes, it’s only fitting that they wind up with Reimer, a goaltender, with this selection.  While he wouldn’t have come close to providing the value that Giroux (their original selection) did, he would have at least given them another NHL-caliber option between the pipes at a time where the Flyers had churned through a lot of different netminders.

Reimer gets quite a boost from his original selection as the Maple Leafs selected him with the 99th pick.  As is often the case with goaltenders, it took a while for him to make his mark as he didn’t make his NHL debut until 2010-11 after spending time at both the AHL and ECHL levels.

The 30-year-old has been remarkably consistent when it comes to his playing time.  In each of his eight NHL seasons (not including 2018-19), he has played between 32 and 44 games.  In other words, he has basically been a platoon player for most of his career but Reimer has still posted decent numbers, including a .914 SV%.  For comparison purposes, Philadelphia has only had a team save percentage above that mark in one of those years.

We now move on to the twenty-third pick which was held by the Washington Capitals.  The Caps used that pick on Semyon Varlamov, who they viewed as their goalie of the future (and our readers viewed as the top goalie of this draft class as he went thirteenth to Toronto).  It didn’t take too long for him to make an impact as he became a starter in the RSL (now the KHL) in his post-draft year and he was in North America for the 2008-09 season where he got into six games with the big club.  One year later, he was their full-time backup.

However, with Michal Neuvirth already in the fold and Braden Holtby close to being NHL-ready, Washington decided to deal him to Colorado for a 2011 first-round pick (used on Filip Forsberg) and a 2012 second-round pick (that they later dealt away).

In his time with the Avalanche, Varlamov has been their number one netminder (when he has been healthy, something that hasn’t always been the case).  In parts of eight years with the team, he has posted a quality .917 save percentage.  He led the league in wins in 2013-14 and is off to a fine start this season, leading the league with a .953 save percentage through his first seven starts.  Interestingly enough, his future in Colorado past this season is uncertain after history repeated itself in the summer with the Avs acquiring Phillip Grubauer from Washington with the idea that he will be their goalie of the future.

Although Washington’s original choice is no longer available, there are still some quality players to choose from.  Who should they take with the twenty-third selection?  Have your say by voting in the poll below.

Mobile users, click here to vote.

Zack Smith Out Indefinitely With A Facial Fracture

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While Senators center Matt Duchene had a strong showing in his first game back in Colorado following his trade last season, things didn’t go as well for the rest of the team.  On top of losing the game, center Zack Smith sustained a broken bone in his face after being hit by a skate, notes Postmedia’s Ken Warren (Twitter link).  There’s no timetable for how long he’ll miss but he has been sent home by the team for treatment, suggesting he’ll miss at least the next two games with the team on the road out West.  Head coach Guy Boucher classified the injury as “serious”.

Smith, who cleared waivers at the end of the preseason, has gotten off to a solid start this season.  Through nine games, he has two goals and three assists while leading all forwards in hits with 21.  He also sits second to Duchene in faceoffs won and taken.  That’s more of the output the team was expecting when they inked him to a four-year, $13MM extension back in January of 2017; that contract played a big role in him making it through waivers unclaimed.

It has been a rough season already for Ottawa when it comes to injuries.  Center Jean-Gabriel Pageau tore his Achilles’ tendon back before training camp while veteran winger Marian Gaborik is dealing with a lingering back issue.  Meanwhile, winger Brady Tkachuk, who had six points in his first four NHL games, is also on the shelf due to a torn ligament in his leg.

The Senators were only carrying the minimum 12 forwards on their active roster so there’s a very good chance they will be bringing someone else up before they take on Vegas on Sunday.

Agent Mike Liut Set To Bury The “Bridge Deal” This Off-Season

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For some time now, the landscape of NHL contracts has been changing, trending away from short and relatively inexpensive contracts for young restricted free agents. These “bridge deals” had long been used by teams to keep promising young talent on a reasonable price tag after their entry-level contract expired. While teams have been complicit in the movement away from bridge deals, players have simply begun to produce at a much higher level far sooner than in the past and, in turn, agents have demanded more term and salary than they ever had the leverage to command previously. The bridge deal is not yet extinct, but players and their representatives are having a much easier time landing expensive, long-term deals as early as possible in recent years.

While the beginning of the end for affordable youth can be traced back to superstars like Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin – whose cap hits now look like bargains some years later – it is within the last few years that young players of a lesser caliber than the all-world exception have been able to land similar pacts. The architect of multiple recent deals of great length and value has been Mike Liut of Octagon Sports. A former NHLer himself, Liut is the director of Octagon’s hockey division. Forbes reports that Liut manages 22 clients and over $325MM in player salary. His efforts to eliminate the bridge deal have played no small part in that impressive total. Liut negotiated the eight-year, $60MM contract signed by the St. Louis Blues’ Vladimir Tarasenko back in 2015, when Tarasenko had less than 200 NHL games to his credit. He then put together the eight-year, $49MM contract of the Winnipeg Jets’ Mark Scheifele in 2016, before he became the point-per-game player he is today. However, the crown jewel of Liut’s collection has to be the massive eight-year, $68MM contract belonging to the Edmonton Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl. Signed last year, Draisaitl’s deal carries an $8.5MM cap hit that is among the top fifteen players in the league. Yet, Liut somehow landed Draisaitl that deal after just two and half seasons, only one of which was truly impressive.

Now, Liut has a chance at a repeat performance of the Draisaitl deal not once, not twice, not even thrice, but with four different prominent players this off-season. Liut counts Patrik Laine, Mikko Rantanen, Brock Boeser, and Jake Guentzel among his clients and each of those four is set to have their entry-level contract expire this off-season. Winnipeg’s Laine has finished in the top ten in goal scoring in each of his first two seasons and was second only to Ovechkin for the league lead last year. Colorado’s Rantanen recorded 84 points in 81 games last year and currently shares the NHL lead in points and assists. Vancouver’s Boeser finished second in Calder Trophy voting last year and led the Canucks in scoring. Pittsburgh’s Guentzel is a Stanley Cup champion and a proven clutch scorer. Liut has shown an ability to bypass the bridge deal before and has an excellent chance at landing each of these players an expensive long-term deal. Other restricted free agents like Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and Sebastian Aho are also certain to land similar deals. As such, in an off-season with an abnormal amount of high-profile RFA’s, each one could end up with an expensive, long-term extension. The effect, as Liut hopes, that the bridge deal dies as a result.

Tom Wilson Will Take Appeal To Neutral Arbitrator

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After receiving no reduction for his 20-game suspension from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman this week, Tom Wilson was given seven days to decide whether he’d take his appeal to a neutral arbitrator. It didn’t take quite that long to make a decision, as John Shannon of Sportsnet confirms that Wilson and the NHLPA will in fact appeal once again. This was not unexpected, as Wilson basically has nothing to lose at this point and could potentially see some of his lost salary returned to him.

When Dennis Wideman followed the same path and saw his suspension for colliding with an official reduced from 20 to 10 games, the Flames defenseman had already missed the original amount. What he did recoup by still appealing to the third party arbitrator was salary, which is part of why the NHLPA and Wilson will continue this course of action. The Washington Capitals forward has already missed nine games this season, and is scheduled to be eligible to return after the team’s November 19th matchup with the Montreal Canadiens. This arbitration process can be lengthy, and there’s a good chance most, if not all of his suspension will have already been served by the time a decision is made.

Bettman released a 31-page decision after a seven hour hearing for the first appeal, which detailed how the Department of Player Safety went about their 20-game decision in the first place. It also hoped that the long ban would serve as a “wake-up call” to Wilson in its conclusion, stating that the previous suspensions had clearly not been effective in deterring his behavior.

Injury Notes: MacKenzie, Edler, Krug

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The Florida Panthers moved to a different leadership group this season when they named Aleksander Barkov captain and pulled the “C” off the sweater of Derek MacKenzie. That didn’t mean the former captain had any less importance to the roster though, and he was set to remain a consistent presence in the bottom six and veteran one in the locker room. His support of Barkov’s new role was key for the team, and after acknowledging it would be his final season, MacKenzie was set to go out on his own terms.

That all changed when he suffered a shoulder injury on opening night, and quickly decided that surgery would be the best option for his long-term health. MacKenzie was officially placed on injured reserve today, and will have the corrective surgery when the team returns from their two games in Finland next week. According to George Richards of The Athletic, the team has not made a corresponding roster move yet.

  • Alexander Edler suffered an injury early in Wednesday night’s game against the Arizona Coyotes, and will undergo an MRI to see if there is any major damage. Edler is just another walking wounded for the Canucks, who have seen Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Chris Tanev all exit the lineup recently with injuries. The team is expected to get the two young forwards back before long, but may have to be without Edler for a while longer if the tests show any structural damage.
  • Speaking of losing a defenseman for a while, the Boston Bruins have been without Torey Krug all season as he works his way back from an ankle injury suffered at the end of the preseason. That absence may be coming to an end though, as head coach Bruce Cassidy told reporters that Krug was “very close” to a return and could be in the lineup as early as Saturday evening when the Bruins take on the Montreal Canadiens. Boston has been struggling to find any consistency on their blue line as they deal with injuries to several key players, but are still 6-2-2 through their first ten games.

Submit Your Questions For The #PHRMailbag

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We’re now a few weeks into the NHL season, and the most asked question from the last mailbag is still unanswered: when will William Nylander sign? Contract negotiations between the Toronto Maple Leafs and their young forward continue, and Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet is the latest to report that things may be heading towards a six-year deal. That’s exactly what our own Brian La Rose had to say when asked to assess the situation earlier this month:

Ultimately, if I had to handicap what’s going to happen, I’d guess that the focus becomes a six-year deal, one that buys out just one year of UFA eligibility which will ultimately lower Nylander’s demand on the AAV with fewer UFA years than a max-term contract.  Toronto will up their offer to closer to $7MM and they’ll settle there with Nylander’s camp knowing that he will be in the prime of his career when he hits the open market where an even bigger contract will await him.

That’s not all Brian had to say about the young forward, as we ran a special Nylander-centric edition of the #PHRMailbag in addition to our regular feature. Now is time for another one, hopefully with some more varied questions. Submit a question on Twitter using the #PHRMailbag hashtag or by commenting down below. We’ll do our best to answer each and every one, and it will appear this weekend.

If you’re sick of hearing about the Maple Leafs core, check out the other half of the most recent edition where Brian dives into the rash of injuries around the league and the effect of sending Filip Zadina to the AHL.

Minor Transactions: 10/26/18

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All eyes are Colorado tonight to see the league’s hottest line back in action against the Ottawa Senators. Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen will welcome former Avalanche star Matt Duchene back to town for the first time since his trade last season, while trying to continue their winning ways. As always, we’ll keep track of all the minor moves teams make to get ready for tonight’s games and tomorrow’s full schedule:

  • The Los Angeles Kings have sent Sheldon Rempal back to the minor leagues, as Dustin Brown prepares for his return to the lineup. Rempal played in three games for the Kings but was held scoreless, something he hasn’t experienced in the minor league so far. Rempal has recorded at least a point in each of his first four AHL games with the Ontario Reign, and has a total of eight on the season. The 23-year old undrafted forward was signed out of Clarkson University after a breakout season.
  • With John Quenneville sent to the AHL, the New Jersey Devils have recalled Joey Anderson according to Tom Gulitti of NHL.com. Anderson would be making his NHL debut if he gets into a game, but Gulitti believes he’s only up as an insurance policy for Marcus Johansson who missed practice today with an illness. Anderson, a promising forward prospect for the Devils, has five points through his first eight professional games and may end up outplaying his third-round draft status with ease.

Department Of Player Safety Fines Kyle Clifford

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The Department of Player Safety has been busy so far this year, and today handed out their latest punishment. Los Angeles Kings forward Kyle Clifford has been fined $4,301.08 for kneeing Jordan Greenway last night. That was the maximum allowable fine, but Clifford will avoid suspension altogether. Clifford stuck out his leg to trip Greenway in the middle of the ice and was penalized for it, and the fight that followed with Nick Seeler.

Though it won’t go down as a suspension, Clifford will be considered a repeat offender if anything else happens in the next 18 months. That means any supplementary discipline will end up costing him much more salary, and this fine will be taken into account for the rest of his career in any decisions from the Department of Player Safety. Really, it means that the Kings forward will need to avoid any suspect incidents or face increased punishment.

As for Greenway, he suffered no major injury on the play and was sent to the AHL for the next few games to get his play back on track. He’ll be back in Minnesota for their road trip next week.

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