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Archives for March 2019

Minor Transactions: 03/30/19

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You know the NHL season is wrapping up when teams can clinch playoff spots without even winning games. Out West, both the Vegas Golden Knights and St. Louis Blues earned playoff berths with the Arizona Coyotes’ shootout loss to the Colorado Avalanche, even though both teams suffered losses to inferior clubs. With every NHL team now down to five or less regular season games remaining, those windows to reach the postseason are tightening. Several more dominoes could fall tonight, as the New York Islanders and Toronto Maple Leafs can clinch, while Montreal-Canadiens-Winnipeg Jets and Columbus Blue Jackets-Nashville Predators are both critical games for all involved. The stakes are high and teams are making sure that they are ready to go with roster adjustments. Make sure to follow along with all of the minor moves made today:

  • Nick DeSimone’s stint with the San Jose Sharks lasted just one day, as he has been returned to the AHL’s Barracuda. The Sharks have opted not to recall another defenseman, but instead add a forward in Dylan Gambrell, one of the few players scoring at a better clip than DeSimone in the minors. Gambrell has 41 points in just 45 games with the Barracuda, but has yet to find the score sheet through six games with the Sharks this season. The University of Denver star looks like a future NHLer, but it’s unclear if San Jose is planning to give him another look before the end of the regular season or if he is simply a depth call-up. With a big game tonight against the Vegas Golden Knights, the Sharks would need some production out of Gambrell were he to play. The Sharks also announced they have recalled defenseman Jake Middleton. The 6-foot-3 defenseman has scored five goals and 19 points in 54 games for the San Jose Barracuda in the AHL.
  • The Columbus Blue Jackets continue to battle injuries on the blue line and have called up Adam Clendening to replace the sidelined Adam McQuaid. McQuaid took a high shot from Montreal’s Andrew Shaw the other night, for which there was surprisingly no response for the league. McQuaid has a history of injury trouble and there is no timeline for his return yet. Ryan Murray also continue to be out of commission, considered “week-to-week” by the team. As such, Clendening gets the call as the current seventh defender. The experienced depth defenseman has been highly productive with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters this season, but less so in just four games with Columbus. If another absence does cause Clendening to draw in to the Blue Jackets’ lineup, he is fully capable of playing at the NHL level, but the team would love to see production more closely resembling his strong minor league numbers.
  • The season is over for the WHL’s Red Deer Rebels after a first round loss, but the Chicago Blackhawks are not ready for Brandon Hagel and Reese Johnson to be done playing just yet. The team has reassigned the 2016 draft pick and recent free agent signing to the AHL’s Rockford Ice Hogs for the remainder of the season. Hagel, 20, recorded a whopping 102 points in 66 games this season and added another six postseason points, even in a four-game sweep. Understandably, the Blackhawks want to see how the WHL’s fourth-highest scorer can perform at the pro level. Joining him is Johnson, who just signed with Chicago earlier this month. The technical centerman and Red Deer captain registered 53 points on the year, but could wind up an even better pro player than junior player.
  • The Anaheim Ducks announced they have recalled forwards Chase De Leo and Sam Carrick from the San Diego Gulls of the AHL. The 23-year-old De Leo had a solid season with San Diego after Anaheim acquired him this summer in a trade with Winnipeg. De Leo has 19 goals and 51 points in 61 games. He hasn’t made an NHL appearance since the 2015-16 season. The 27-year-old Carrick has 28 goals and 28 assists in 57 games this year with the Gulls and has appeared in five games with the Ducks this season with no points.

Arizona Coyotes Expected To Sign Erik Kallgren

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The Arizona Coyotes have received phenomenal goaltending from Darcy Kuemper this season and have both he and injured starter Antti Raanta under contract next season, with AHLers Adin Hill and Hunter Miska likely to stick around as well as impending restricted free agents. However, it never hurts to have redundancies in net and Arizona is about to add another goalie to the system. Reports out of Swedish news source Sport Bladet indicate that 2015 Coyotes draft pick Erik Kallgren is on his way to the U.S. to sign his entry-level contract. The team has yet to confirm a deal with the young keeper.

Kallgren, 22, was a seventh-round selection by Arizona four years ago out of the Allsvenskan, Sweden’s version of the AHL where most top young players develop before moving to the top-level Swedish Hockey League. While Kallgren had yet to graduate from the Allsvenskan, he has improved each year including a very impressive 2018-19 campaign to cap it off. Kallgren started 32 games for AIK, recording a .920 save percentage and an impeccable 2.02 GAA that ranked in the top five in the league. At 6’3″ and nearly 200 lbs., Kallgren has good size and has actually grown significantly in the years since he was drafted. Yet, it is his athleticism that has been highlighted thus far in his career. With great variation in the size and style of the goaltenders in the Coyotes’ system, it will be interesting to see if Arizona’s coaches push Kallgren to adopt a style more similar to the smaller, quicker Raanta or the bigger, sturdier Kuemper.

Kallgren tells Sport Bladet that he has signed a two-year ELC, likely starting next season. However, as he is currently on his way to Arizona, he is probably set to join the AHL’s Tuscon Roadrunners on an amateur tryout to end the year. The Roadrunners have eight games left in the regular season, but have a lot of work to do to make the playoffs and more likely than not will miss the postseason. Kallgren stands a better chance of making his North American debut this season if Tuscon falls out of the playoff race sooner rather than later, removing meaning from some of their final regular season games. As for next year, Kallgren states that his goal is to see NHL action in the upcoming season, but he knows that there is a long way to go before that can happen. He seems far more certain that he can win the starting job in the AHL though, which would mean supplanting established third-stringer Hill. The Coyotes were under pressure to sign Kallgren, whose draft rights would have expired on June 1st of this year, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t see him as a legitimate AHL option. It will be interesting to see how the young Swede performs next year and where he fits into the ’Yotes long-term plans.

East Notes: Gordon, Chabot, Sabres

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Flyers head coach Scott Gordon told reporters, including Sam Donnellon of the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer that he has yet to hear anything about whether or not the team is interested in removing the interim tag for next season and beyond.  While Philadelphia is likely to come up short of making the postseason, they have performed quite well since relieving Dave Hakstol of his duties, compiling a 25-17-4 record under Gordon’s tutelage.  While there are some notable veteran bench bosses that will likely be looking to get back behind a bench this summer, how the 56-year-old has fared with the Flyers could help generate some interest from other teams if GM Chuck Fletcher opts to go in a different direction.

Elsewhere in the East:

  • Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot is still dealing with multiple injuries, notes Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. He still hasn’t fully recovered from the shoulder issue he had three months ago while his broken toe still isn’t back to 100% either.  With that in mind, it wouldn’t be surprising if Ottawa decided to give him a rest down the stretch or at least try to scale back his ice time.  It’s expected that he will get an invite for the upcoming World Championships but Chabot indicated that he’ll need to be fully recovered before agreeing to go.
  • The Sabres could have center Evan Rodrigues and defenseman Jake McCabe back in the lineup on Saturday, notes Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald (Twitter link). McCabe was effectively ruled out for the season earlier this month when it was announced that he’d miss five-to-six weeks with an upper-body injury but he’s clearly ahead of schedule as it has barely been three weeks since then.  As for Rodrigues, he missed Thursday’s game with an upper-body issue of his own.

Flyers And Ryan Hartman Have Had Preliminary Contract Talks

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After a strong rookie season in 2016-17, Ryan Hartman looked like a potential fixture in Chicago’s lineup for years to come.  However, he has bounced around since then and has been dealt in consecutive trade deadlines, shifting from Nashville to Philadelphia last month.

Although his output has dipped this season, the 24-year-old indicated to John Dietz of the Chicago Daily Herald that he’s hopeful to settle down with the team, suggesting that he’d like to sign a long-term deal this summer.  Hartman noted that he and his agent have already held preliminary talks regarding a new contract with GM Chuck Fletcher.

However, considering the drop-off offensively – something that hasn’t changed since joining the Flyers as he has just five points in 14 games – it’s hard to imagine that a long-term pact is something that Philadelphia would like to do at this time.  While they’re projected to have plenty of cap space this summer with less than $49MM in contracts already, it’s likely that they’ll be looking to be active on the free agent and trade market to add impact players.  Locking up a bottom-six piece like Hartman on a long-term deal that buys out some UFA years would take away some of that financial flexibility so it wouldn’t be high on their priority list.

Instead, another one-year deal seems likely.  That would give both Hartman and the Flyers time to determine if he’s part of their long-term picture and if so, he’d still have two years of RFA eligibility remaining at that time.  He’s owed a qualifying offer of just under $920K this summer and can file for salary arbitration which should get him a decent raise on his current $875K salary.

Snapshots: Svechnikov, Maatta, Fox

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The Detroit Red Wings have found some success with several young forwards this year as they try to move on from the Henrik Zetterberg era and embrace a youth movement, but one that was expected to play a big part was nowhere to be found. Evgeny Svechnikov, selected 19th overall in 2015, was forced to undergo knee surgery to reconstruct his ACL in October. He was expected to return to action near the end of the season, but Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press is now reporting that he will not play at all in 2018-19.

Interestingly, as St. James notes, that may actually be a blessing in disguise for the Red Wings. The young forward will now not be waiver eligible in the 2019-20 season as he was scheduled to be, meaning the team can start him in the AHL right out of training camp if he’s not ready to help the NHL lineup. Svechnikov wouldn’t have maintained his waiver-exempt status if he’d played in even a single professional game—NHL or AHL—this season.

  • Olli Maatta has been activated from injured reserve by the Pittsburgh Penguins and will return after missing 21 games with a lower-body injury. The 24-year old is coming back with just enough time to get his legs under him before the playoffs begin, a huge boost for a Penguins team that has suffered from several injuries on the back end this season. It’s tough to know exactly how much the team will push Maatta over the last few games of the regular season, but he lengthens out the team’s defense group by a considerable amount. Brian Dumoulin switched over to the right side in practice recently to accommodate Maatta’s return, though it’s not clear if that pair will stay together.
  • With Adam Fox and Harvard losing today in the NCAA tournament, we will soon find out what his official decision is regarding signing or returning to school next season. Fox has repeatedly said that his mind is not yet made up, something that Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic (subscription required) also reported earlier today. Though there is obviously a draw to turning pro and getting into the Carolina Hurricanes organization right away, Fox could potentially graduate next year with a Harvard degree and the chance to become an unrestricted free agent in August 2020. LeBrun also explores the idea of Carolina trading Fox’s rights this season instead of waiting for the summer, in order to get full value if they do not believe he will sign with them down the road. If Fox signs this season he would burn the first year of his entry-level deal, and would be eligible for the expansion draft if he played just a single game.

Theodor Lennstrom Drawing NHL Interest

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Every year there are teams combing the European ranks to try and find the rare player who was overlooked as a junior. Those who are now showing NHL-caliber talent in their home countries but were never drafted. Players like this are unrestricted free agents and can provide an immediate talent injection for nothing more than a few hundred thousand dollars. Joakim Nygard is one of those players and has drawn interest from at least two NHL teams, but he’s not alone. Darren Dreger of TSN reports that Nygard’s teammate Theodor Lennstrom is also creating some buzz, though doesn’t indicate which teams have shown interest.

Lennstrom, 24, is another overlooked Swedish defenseman that has found success in the SHL, recording 31 points across 94 games the past two years. He would be signing just a one-year entry-level contract if he decided to come over, but teams would at least control him for a few years to determine whether he could contribute down the road.

There’s obviously no guarantee that he would contribute right away, just ask Calle Rosen and Andreas Borgman who signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2017 but haven’t seen much NHL time. But there are also some great stories like Lawrence Pilut, who looks like he’ll be a big part of the Buffalo Sabres blue line for some time. Pilut has just six points in 28 games this year but could be a full-time member of the Sabres next season and was acquired for nothing more than a contract slot.

Like his teammate, Lennstrom will likely look to try to find the best opportunity for playing time in the NHL. If someone can offer him a clear opportunity to contribute it may be the breaking point in negotiations since his earnings will be capped by the entry-level system.

Submit Your Questions For The #PHRMailbag

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The end of March is upon us and playoff scenarios are starting to become more and more clear. Teams like the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs have a good idea what is coming in the postseason, and are trying to peak at the right moment. Meanwhile, the draft lottery is just around the corner and the Colorado Avalanche look like they’ll have the best odds despite currently sitting in a playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Los Angeles Kings and Detroit Red Wings meanwhile hope they can jump up a few spots and land their choice of Jack Hughes or Kaapo Kakko.

With the regular season coming to an end, it’s time to run another mailbag. We’ll be answering as many questions as we can this weekend. You can submit your query by using #PHRMailbag on Twitter or by leaving a comment down below.

If you missed our last mailbag, it came out in two parts given all the questions. First Brian tackled the Columbus Blue Jackets aggressive trade deadline and gave his thoughts on the playoff format, before digging into the upcoming negotiations with Erik Karlsson, Alex Pietrangelo and Brayden Schenn while taking a shot at the next Edmonton Oilers GM hire.

Jan Jenik Signs With Arizona Coyotes

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Though news had leaked out yesterday about a possible deal, today things became official. Jan Jenik has signed his three-year entry-level contract with the Arizona Coyotes, after his OHL season came to an end recently. Injured right now, he is expected to report to the Tucson Roadrunners if he can recover in time to get into any game action.

The 18-year old center was selected 65th overall by the Coyotes last June, and split this season between the Czech Republic and OHL. In 27 games with the Hamilton Bulldogs he recorded 30 points, but still hasn’t quite found his footing at the North American level. Technically he is eligible to go right to the AHL next season, but could return to junior to continue developing his skills and learn to dominate his age group.

Some may remember Jenik from the recent World Juniors, where he was left out of game action for much of the tournament only to look more than comfortable when he finally entered. Though his two assists certainly weren’t good enough to change the tournament outcome, he’ll almost certainly be back for the Czechs in a much bigger role next time around. Jenik will turn 19 on September 15th, and could quickly find himself jumping up prospect boards if he can continue to take steps offensively.

Calgary Flames Expected To Sign Artyom Zagidulin

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According to Darren Dreger of TSN, the Calgary Flames are closing in on a deal with KHL goaltender Artyom Zagidulin. The 23-year old played this season with Magnitogorsk, but was eliminated from the Gagarin Cup playoffs early on. Zagidulin’s contract technically doesn’t expire until the end of April, but he must have come to an agreement with the team in order to let him negotiate with Calgary. His NHL contract would have to be a one-year entry-level deal, which would kick in next season.

Zagidulin, 23, recorded a .924 save percentage and 1.96 goals against average for Magnitogorsk this season, the first time he was given a hefty load. Those numbers actually improved in his four playoff games where he had a .928, and should bode well for his future in North America.

Calgary has obviously been looking for an opportunity to improve their goaltending depth after both David Rittich and Mike Smith have struggled at times this season, and signing Zagidulin will cost them nothing but money. The team does have some young goaltenders in the system including Tyler Parsons, but only Jon Gillies has really shown that he could contribute at the NHL level in the short term. Rittich and Smith meanwhile are both free agents this summer, though the former is still under control as an RFA.

It’s unlikely that Zagidulin will give the Flames an NHL answer right away, but adding another legitimate prospect in goal was an obvious need this summer. The team looks like they’ll just get it done a little bit early, stealing a top option from overseas.

Matt Read Placed On Waivers

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Friday: Read has cleared waivers and can now be assigned to the AHL. 2

Thursday: According to Michael Russo of The Athletic, the Minnesota Wild have placed Matt Read on waivers, as he had finally worn out his exempt status by playing in ten games. Read cleared waivers before the season began and had been used as an insurance policy for the Wild, bouncing up and down between the AHL and NHL all season. Zach Parise is back at practice today for the Wild, meaning Read could be on his way back to the AHL should he clear waivers tomorrow.

It seems unlikely that anyone would claim Read at this point, given that he becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. The 32-year old forward was once a pretty effective member of the Philadelphia Flyers offensive attack, but will likely be limited to spot duty and minor league action for the rest of his playing career. In the AHL this season he has 34 points in 55 games, but that has only translated to a single goal during his ten games for Minnesota.

Read is AHL playoff eligible though, and with the Wild heading to the Calder Cup playoffs in a few weeks his presence will be greatly appreciated. Since moving to Iowa for the 2013-14 season and re-branding as the Wild, the team has not made a single appearance in the AHL playoffs. That’s all set to change this season under head coach Tim Army, who has led the group to a 34-22-12 record through their first 68 games. Iowa has a seven point cushion in the Central Division, but could still potentially catch the Grand Rapids Griffins or Chicago Wolves for an even better seed.

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