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Archives for May 2019

Florida Panthers Sign Aleksi Heponiemi

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The Florida Panthers have big plans for this offseason, and it started today by getting a top prospect under contract. The team announced they have agreed to terms with Aleksi Heponiemi on a three-year entry-level contract. GM Dale Tallon released a statement regarding his new prospect:

We are thrilled to have agreed to terms with Aleksi. He is an immensely skilled and dynamic player with excellent vision and hockey IQ. Aleksi has been an elite player at every level and a leader on winning teams on the junior and international stages. We look forward to Aleksi’s development with the Panthers and believe he will be an important part of our organization’s success for years to come.

Heponiemi, 20, was selected 40th overall in 2017 but with hindsight may have deserved to go even higher. The Finnish forward oozes offensive potential, and showed it off in 2017-18 by scoring 148 points in 83 games with the Swift Current Broncos. After dominating the WHL he left for Finland this season and ended up with 46 points in 50 regular season games for Karpat, good for 12th in the entire league. While he struggled in the playoffs, there’s good reason to believe that Heponiemi will turn into a productive player for the Panthers down the line.

That 2017 draft also produced Owen Tippett for the Panthers, another top offensive player that could make waves for them in the near future. Add those two to others like Henrik Borgstrom, Grigori Denisenko and Serron Noel and you have the makings of another wave of forward talent for new head coach Joel Quenneville to mold. With stars like Aleksander Barkov already in their prime for the NHL club, and the Panthers expected to go hard after some top free agents this summer, things are looking up in Florida.

Columbus Blue Jackets Extend Elvis Merzlikins

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After burning his entry-level contract without actually suiting up in a game, Elvis Merzlikins has signed another deal. The Columbus Blue Jackets signed the goaltender to a one-year extension for the 2019-20 season. Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports that the deal is worth $874,125 at the NHL level

Merzlikins, 25, was originally selected by the Blue Jackets in 2014 but has waited in Switzerland biding his time and developing into one of the best non-NHL goaltenders in the world. The Latvian netminder posted excellent numbers in the NLA year after year, but finally came over to the Blue Jackets in March and signed a one-year entry-level deal. That contract was burned immediately despite Merzlikins only practicing with the team, but he’ll surely get more than optional skates next season.

With Sergei Bobrovsky expected to move on to a different locale in free agency this summer, the path to a starting role in Columbus has never been more open. Merzlikins could very well be that starter next season, though the team still has Joonas Korpisalo in the organization. Korpisalo is scheduled to become a restricted free agent on July 1st, a date that actually comes with an interesting CBA quirk. As CapFriendly points out, NHL organizations are required to have at least three goaltenders under contract at all times. With Korpisalo, Bobrovsky, Keith Kinkaid, and Jean-Francois Berube all hitting free agency this summer the team only had Daniil Tarasov and Matiss Kivlenieks with deals for 2019-20.

If Merzlikins is given the job in Columbus, it wouldn’t exactly be handed to a goaltender without experience. While he may have never played in the NHL, the 6’3″ netminder has played against top competition for years internationally. Representing Latvia at World Junior, World Championship and even Olympic qualifying tournaments, he has routinely kept top scorers at bay. In Switzerland he has been named the Goaltender of the Year multiple times while posting save percentages somewhere between .913-.924 year after year.

Interestingly, Merzlikins will be a restricted free agent once again in 2020. The short-term deal is likely the best option for both sides, with the player wanting to prove his worth at the NHL level and the team not willing to commit to an unproven goaltender.

Egor Yakovlev Signs In KHL

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The New Jersey Devils gave Egor Yakovlev plenty of opportunities to prove himself in the NHL, but it apparently wasn’t enough to keep him around. The Russian defenseman has returned to the KHL after just one season in North America, signing a two-year deal with Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Yakovlev is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent on July 1st, but has already committed to his Russian return.

Yakovlev, 27, played 25 games for New Jersey this season, while also suiting up 19 times for their AHL affiliate. The veteran KHL defenseman ended up with seven points in the NHL, but will return to Russia where he has found success over the years. Undrafted, he played his first full season for Yaroslavl in 2012-13 and has been part of several international tounaments. In 2018 he took home a gold medal as part of the “Olympic Athletes from Russia” and has won the Gagarin Cup and World Championship gold in the past.

The one-year deal that he signed with the Devils made Yakovlev an unrestricted free agent again this summer, but the North American professional grind was obviously not a perfect fit. He’ll likely be brought up once again in a couple of years as a potential option for teams looking at outside defensive help.

Atlantic Notes: Marner, Red Wings, Montour

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The Maple Leafs haven’t hidden the fact that getting winger Mitch Marner re-signed before he reaches restricted free agency in July is their top priority.  To that end, Sportsnet’s John Shannon reports (Twitter link) that GM Kyle Dubas met with Marner’s agent Darren Ferris yesterday but Dubas isn’t willing to comment publicly on the state of negotiations.  Marner had a career-high 94 points in 2018-19 to lead Toronto in points for the second straight season.  As a result, he has himself in great shape to land a huge raise on the $925K he received on his entry-level deal.  Teammates John Tavares and Auston Matthews will each be earning at least $11MM in 2019-20 and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Ferris pushing for a salary around that amount for Marner as well.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

  • While Anthony Mantha and Andreas Athanasiou had breakout years, Ted Kulfan of The Detroit News posits that the pair could make the most sense as trade candidates to land an impact defenseman. Detroit’s prospect depth is up front but most of their young players aren’t going to yield a top-four blueliner in a trade at this point.  Mantha and Athanasiou are also set to become restricted free agents in 2020 and will be in line for significant raises at that time.  New GM Steve Yzerman showed with Tampa Bay that he can be aggressive on the trade market and this would be one way to put a stamp on his team rather quickly.
  • Sabres defenseman Brandon Montour will miss the remainder of the World Championships due to a lower-body injury, Hockey Canada announced. The injury was sustained on Monday in their victory over Slovakia.  There’s no timetable for how long he’ll miss beyond these next two weeks.  Canada has one roster spot remaining and it’s all but a given now that they will use it on another blueliner.

Sabres Hire Ralph Krueger As Their New Head Coach

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Buffalo’s coaching search has come to an end.  Ralph Krueger will be the next head coach of the Sabres.

Krueger has largely been out of hockey for the last few years as he had served as the Director and Chairman of Southhampton FC since 2014.  His only coaching during that time was with Team World at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey where they surprisingly reached the Gold Medal game.

The 59-year-old has three years of NHL coaching experience with Edmonton.  He spent two years with them as an Associate Coach after being hired in 2010 following more than a decade with Switzerland’s national team.  Krueger was then promoted to head coach for the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign but was dismissed following the season.  Interestingly, he’s already familiar with one of Buffalo’s assistants as Steve Smith was part of the staff during his time with the Oilers.

Krueger will be taking the place of Phil Housley who was let go at the end of the season.  The Sabres have had a bit of a coaching carousel in recent years; this is the fifth new bench boss Buffalo has had since 2013.

As was the case during his time with Edmonton, Krueger will be tasked with trying to instil some structure to the Sabres.  Despite changing their goaltending tandem over the summer, they still struggled to keep the puck out of the net as they ranked 23rd in the league in that category and their back end was prone to some untimely lapses in their own zone.

The heat will likely be on pretty quickly as Buffalo has now missed the playoffs for the last eight years and there isn’t much patience remaining from ownership to turn things around.  However, GM Jason Botterill clearly feels that Krueger is the right one for the job; Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic notes (Twitter link) that the interview process was a thorough one with seven coaches getting considered.

Offseason Keys: Philadelphia Flyers

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While the playoffs are well underway, many teams have already started their offseason planning.  What storylines lie ahead around the league in what is shaping up to be a likely busy NHL offseason?  Next up in our Offseason Keys series is a look at the Philadelphia Flyers.

There has been plenty of change in Philadelphia over the past several months.  Ron Hextall was dismissed as GM with Chuck Fletcher taking over.  After a little while, he then let Dave Hakstol go as head coach, promoting Scott Gordon in an interim role.  While this was all happening, the Flyers were battling a litany of injuries between the pipes and underachieving overall.  As a result, they missed the postseason which has led to more off-ice changes.  Gordon is headed back to the AHL with Alain Vigneault taking over as head coach while two new assistants in Michel Therrien and Mike Yeo have been brought in.  Now with all of that off-ice work done, here are the on-ice keys for Fletcher and the Flyers this summer.

Add An Impact Forward

Last summer, James van Riemsdyk was brought in to bolster their attack.  While he didn’t have a bad season statistically (27-21-48 in 66 games), his addition didn’t have the desired effect as Philadelphia went from a team that was slightly above the midpoint offensively to slightly below.  The good news for the Flyers is that they have plenty of cap space to work with so they will be able to dip back into the UFA market again if they so desire.

After adding a winger last offseason, there’s a good chance that Fletcher will prioritize adding a center this time around.  While Sean Couturier has emerged as a quality top liner, there are some question marks behind him.  Claude Giroux can play down the middle but appears to be more effective on the wing at this stage of his career.  Nolan Patrick has the upside to get to that level one day but after a 31-point sophomore season, he’s probably not ready for that role yet.  Scott Laughton had a career year but he’s probably better served as a bottom six pivot.

While Matt Duchene and Joe Pavelski sit atop the list of unrestricted free agent centers, Brock Nelson and Kevin Hayes could also make some sense as second line options so there are a few options to choose from.  Landing a player from that group would go a long way towards really deepening Philadelphia’s attack for 2019-20 and beyond.

Defensive Decisions

Coming into the season, Ivan Provorov appeared to be in line for an expensive second contract.  He had just completed a dominant sophomore campaign, one where he looked like the potential number one defenseman that every team covets.  He could still ascend to that level but his 2018-19 season saw him take a bit of a step back, creating some questions as he enters restricted free agency.

What is the better route to go?  Does a bridge deal make more sense for Provorov now with the hopes that he’ll get a much better contract a couple of years from now?  Does Philly want to wait to lock him up or are they going to push for a long-term pact right away?  Considering their cap room, it seems reasonable to think that they will try to skip the bridge and do a long-term contract but it may make more sense for the 22-year-old to take a short deal and look for the bigger payday in a year or two.

They’re also going to have to make a call on Shayne Gostisbehere who had been involved in trade speculation leading up to the deadline.  His point output dipped considerably in 2018-19, going from 65 the year before to just 37.  He won’t be winning any awards for being the best defender in his own end but his offensive upside alone is enough to yield plenty of suitors while his contract ($4.5MM AAV through 2022-23) is also enticing.  Fletcher will need to determine if he’s part of the future and if not, he could bring back a sizable return on the trade market.

Backup For Hart

Heading into the season, it looked like the Flyers were going to be able to give Carter Hart some time in the minors while Brian Elliott and Michal Neuvirth would hold down the fort in Philadelphia.  That didn’t come close to working out as planned as by mid-December, the rookie was in the NHL and was there to stay as he took over the number one job.

Now, the Flyers have to find a backup for him and it’s not as simple as some other searches around the league will be.  Given Hart’s inexperience, they’re going to be looking for someone that has some experience working with a younger netminder while still being able to play a significant workload if the youngster struggles or is injured next season.

With that in mind, Fletcher brought in Cam Talbot before the deadline in what looked like a tryout for that role.  Instead, he only made three starts down the stretch so he may not wind up being the answer after all.  Elliott could also be an option to bring back while there are several other veterans that will be available as well.  While it’s only a backup goalie, finding the right one to work with Hart potentially for multiple seasons makes it a bit more important than a typical search for a number two.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

West Notes: Pirri, Avalanche, Oilers

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Golden Knights winger Brandon Pirri made quite an impact upon being recalled from the AHL partway through the season and finished up with an impressive 18 points in 31 games.  Accordingly, he indicated to SinBin.vegas’ Ken Boehlke that he will be looking to sign with a team that’s willing to give him a full-time NHL opportunity.  While that’s certainly justifiable given how he performed with Vegas, it also increases the likelihood that he’ll be looking elsewhere for next season considering he still spent time as a healthy scratch in both the regular season and the playoffs.  Considering their cap situation for next year, it’s also likely that Pirri – who made the league minimum $650K salary this season – will get a contract richer than what Vegas can afford.

More from the West:

  • It appears some changes are on the horizon in Colorado.  On top of planning to be more aggressive in adding via free agency, Mike Chambers of the Denver Post reports that all five Avalanche unrestricted free agents are unlikely to return for next season.  Their list of UFAs is headlined by goaltender Semyon Varlamov who lost the number one role to Philipp Grubauer and he will certainly be looking for an opportunity elsewhere.  Up front, Derick Brassard and Colin Wilson appear to be on the way out with some young forwards close to making the jump while blueliner Patrik Nemeth is in a similar situation.  Gabriel Bourque is the other regular on the roster that could walk and while he could re-sign at a rate close to the $950K he made this season, it’s also quite possible that they opt to try someone else in his role.
  • It appears that the Oilers are hoping to be active on the international free agent market. Postmedia’s Jim Matheson notes that Edmonton is eyeing a few European free agent forwards.  As their cap space is limited for next season, it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to afford some impact wingers so it’s not surprising to see them look overseas in the hopes that someone can potentially step in and play right away while likely being on an entry-level deal; any European player aged 27 or younger is subject to the entry level system.

Colorado Avalanche Planning To Be “More Aggressive” In Free Agency

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When the free agent period rolled around last year, Colorado Avalanche GM Joe Sakic was coming off a year in which his team had over-performed. After finishing dead last in the NHL during the 2016-17 season with a dreadful 22-56-4 record, things turned around for them and the team rode an MVP-type season from Nathan MacKinnon all the way to the playoffs. While they were knocked out by the Nashville Predators in six games, it was a successful year overall and one that must have had Sakic thinking about bigger things.

Instead of going hard after some of the top names in free agency however, Sakic instead worked out some smaller deals with Ian Cole and Matt Calvert to bring in some veteran players, insulating his young group. Both contracts were for three seasons, not giving away too much length in case the 2017-18 team was a fluke. This season however the Avalanche proved it wasn’t, and now Sakic is getting ready for an even busier summer. When asked today at his season-ending media availability about the upcoming free agent period, the Colorado legend immediately seemed excited:

It’s a pretty good class this year. I already have targeted players in mind, if they become available, that we’re going to want to talk to about joining our club. You know we see positions of need, what we’re looking to do, and there are a few guys that we’re going to want to talk to if they become available. We’ll be more aggressive this year with that. Keeping in mind that if it doesn’t work out for the players that we want to talk to we’re not just going to go spend on anybody. We want the right players and the right fit.

This could end up being quite the offseason for Sakic to make his mark—or perhaps just another mark, given his legendary playing status—on the franchise. The team has a huge contract negotiation upcoming with restricted free agent forward Mikko Rantanen, but also with depth players like Alexander Kerfoot, J.T. Compher and Nikita Zadorov. The Avalanche also have two picks in the first round including the fourth-overall selection thanks to a trade with the Ottawa Senators, and a huge amount of cap space to go out and get a big name if they so choose. All of that after two straight playoff appearances, this season’s lasting more than just one round, and the Avalanche are in great shape moving forward.

That doesn’t mean there can’t be mistakes though. Sakic admitted that he would rather work on a long-term contract with Rantanen, but would concede to a short-term deal if he must. Thinking like that has likely spread throughout the entire league after teams watched a William Nylander negotiation come down right to the wire this year, only for the Toronto Maple Leafs forward to struggle all season after missing so much time. Getting Rantanen under contract before training camp would obviously be a positive, though Sakic wouldn’t expand on any potential time frame.

Minor Transactions: 05/14/19

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The middle of May doesn’t always bring with it a number of small transactions, but today happens to be a different story. Here are some minor moves from around the league:

  • The Carolina Hurricanes have recalled Patrick Brown once again, the latest transaction in a playoff-long shuffle between the AHL and NHL. Brown is up under emergency conditions meaning he will have to be sent back down if all of the Hurricanes are healthy enough to play in tonight’s game. He’ll start his own playoff series later this week when the Charlotte Checkers take on the Toronto Marlies in the AHL Eastern Conference Final.
  • The Rockford IceHogs have signed Liam Coughlin and Jack Ramsey to one-year AHL contracts, meaning they will stay with the Chicago Blackhawks organization for at least another year. The pair of draft picks both would have seen their exclusive negotiating rights expire later this summer after four year careers in the NCAA.
  • The Binghamton Devils have done the same, signing Ludvig Larsson to an AHL deal for 2019-20. Larsson played three years at Merrimack College before suiting up this season for Pennsylvania State University. Undrafted, he then spent seven games with the AHL Devils at the end of the year, enough to convince him to return to the organization for another season.
  • 37-year old former NHL defenseman Anton Volchenkov has re-signed with his KHL club for one more year, giving him another chance to continue a long and successful playing career. Originally selected by the Ottawa Senators in the first round of the 2000 entry draft, Volchenkov played nearly 800 games in the NHL before returning to Russia, including 86 playoff contests.

Brendan Shanahan Signs Six-Year Extension

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are sticking with the “Shanaplan.” The team has announced a six-year extension with president and alternate governor Brendan Shanahan through the 2024-25 season. Larry Tanenbaum, chairman of the Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment board released a statement:

On behalf of the MLSE Board of Directors, and certainly our company and fans as well, we are very pleased to see Brendan continue in his role as President of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Brendan’s positive impact on this team has not only been felt on the ice, where the team is on an impressive path, but throughout the league, with the Leafs alumni, and in the community. We look forward to continued success for the Maple Leafs under Brendan’s leadership over the next six years.

Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweets that he had heard rumblings about this earlier in the season but that the team was waiting until the offseason to announce it. Shanahan joined the Maple Leafs in 2014 and was an integral part of bringing in people like head coach Mike Babcock, former general manager Lou Lamoriello and current general manager Kyle Dubas. A native of Mimico, a Toronto suburb, Shanahan told the organization he had no plans of going elsewhere:

When MLSE approached me several months ago to discuss an extension, I told them this would be quite simple as I’ve had no desire to leave what we’ve started here with the Maple Leafs. I’m thankful to the Board of Directors, our coaches, trainers, management and office staff, and especially our players for the professionalism and dedication they display every day.

The Maple Leafs have gone to the playoffs in three straight seasons, and set a franchise record with 105 points in 2017-18. Still, Shanahan and the rest of the organization have their sights set on a far greater prize than regular season success. Toronto has not raised the cup since 1967.

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