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Archives for June 2019

Ottawa Senators Re-Sign Andreas Englund

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Tuesday: The Senators have officially announced the contract.

Monday: After re-signing winger Anthony Duclair earlier today, the Senators aren’t done for the day just yet.  CapFriendly reports that Ottawa has inked defenseman Andreas Englund to a one-year, two-way contract.  The deal will pay him the league minimum $700K in the NHL and $80K at the minor league level.

The 23-year-old has spent the majority of his professional career at the minor league level but has seen NHL action in each of the last three seasons.  In 2018-19, he played in 68 games with AHL Belleville, recording 14 points.  He also got into three games with Ottawa and was held off the scoresheet.

Intriguingly, Englund actually accepted an amount below his qualifying offer of $735K.  While doing so allowed him to get a small increase in his AHL pay, it also might help his chances of sticking around in the NHL.  He’s eligible for waivers in 2018-19 so if he can’t crack Ottawa’s roster on a full-time basis, the low price tag could help his odds of getting claimed off the waiver wire.

San Jose Sharks Trade Justin Braun

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After inking Erik Karlsson to a huge extension, the San Jose Sharks were going to need to move out some salary. Today they’ve done just that, as Justin Braun and his $3.8MM cap hit is on his way to the Philadelphia Flyers. The Sharks will acquire a 2019 second-round pick and a 2020 third-round pick in exchange for the veteran defenseman. Braun is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent next summer.

Braun becomes the second defenseman the Flyers have acquired this month, after flipping Radko Gudas to the Washington Capitals in exchange for Matt Niskanen. More changes very well could be coming for Philadelphia, who now have six defensemen on one-way contracts with Ivan Provorov and Travis Sanheim still to sign. For now though, the acquisition of Braun gives the team another more experienced player to pair with some of their younger defensemen and give them quality minutes on the back end.

The 32-year old just completed his sixth consecutive season averaging more than 20 minutes a night with the Sharks, serving as a counterbalance to some of the team’s more offensive blue line options. Braun recorded more defensive zone starts than any other defenseman on the San Jose roster, and logged more short-handed ice time than anyone not named Marc-Edouard Vlasic. That kind of play responsible effort will be welcomed, though there are certainly warning signs of decline from Braun. After reaching a career-high in points during the 2017-18 season with 33, the veteran defenseman dropped back down to just 16 in 2018-19. That included just two goals and poor possession statistics, something the Flyers will hope he rebounds from when given a different opportunity in Philadelphia.

For San Jose, this was a necessary move to open enough room for their summer plans. After inking Karlsson to an eight-year, $92MM contract yesteday the team found itself with $26.5MM of cap space dedicated to just three defensemen. Something needed to go in order to have room to sign restricted free agents Kevin Labanc, Timo Meier and Joakim Ryan. Getting a pair of draft picks, one of them relatively high, was an ideal outcome for a team that needed to dump salary somewhere. Obviously Braun isn’t a worthless player, but the team was in a tricky situation and had to decide how to wiggle their way out before getting into real negotiations.

There is also the presence of Brenden Dillon, who is heading into the final year of his current contract and may be a candidate for an extension at some point. Dillon is just 28 and seemed to fit in well alongside Karlsson during the 2018-19 season, registering a +19 rating and matching a career high with 22 points. If the Sharks had to pick one of Braun or Dillon to keep around, it made sense to retain the left-handed, younger player.

Latest On Nikolaj Ehlers, Winnipeg Jets

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Just a few days ago there was a report that the Winnipeg Jets were now listening on offers for speedy forward Nikolaj Ehlers, and today more news came out about his potential future. Frank Seravalli of TSN writes that “the belief is” Ehlers has been offered to the Carolina Hurricanes in an attempt to pry free one of their right-handed defensemen. That kind of move makes sense given the Jets’ recent trade of Jacob Trouba and current hole on the right side of their defense. Tyler Myers, another part of what was once a huge strength for the Jets on the right, is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent if Winnipeg can’t find a way to re-sign him.

The Hurricanes do have an incredible amount of talent on the blue line and have been connected to almost every team in search of defensive help. Dougie Hamilton, Justin Faulk, Brett Pesce and Trevor van Riemsdyk make up an impressive group of right-handed options that could all be of interest around the league. The team also has youngsters Haydn Fleury and Jake Bean waiting in the wings for a full-time opportunity, though both are left-handed.

The Jets meanwhile aren’t looking just to improve their defense, but also find a way to navigate what will be a difficult cap situation. Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor both need new contracts that will take up a huge part of their remaining cap space, and they still need to find a way to improve the club after this season’s disappointing finish. Ehlers was a huge part of that disappointment, scoring just 37 points in 62 games in the first year of his seven-year, $42MM deal. The 23-year old forward was completely shutout in six playoff contests and now has failed to score a single postseason goal through 21 games.

Mathieu Perreault, who has long been included in Jets trade rumors, was also discussed by Seravalli. The TSN scribe notes that the Jets explored packaging the veteran forward along with Trouba, though that obviously didn’t materialize. Perreault has two years left on his current deal with a $4.125MM cap hit and scored just 30 points last season while playing in a greatly diminished role.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Coaching Notes: Eaves, Scuderi, Rook

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have made some changes to their AHL leadership, installing Chris Clark as general manager and Mike Eaves as head coach. Clark takes over for Bill Zito who was recently received a promotion with the Blue Jackets, while Eaves replaces the recently departing John Madden behind the bench for the Cleveland Monsters. Zito released a statement on the two hires:

Chris has spent a great deal of time over the past several years working with players throughout our organization, including those in the American Hockey League, and his thorough understanding of player personnel and the league make him the perfect choice to serve as the general manager of our AHL affiliate. Chris’ familiarity with our organization, combined with Mike Eaves’ long and successful history of working with young players, will provide our organization with great leadership that will benefit our players in Cleveland.

Eaves comes to the Monsters after a long coaching career including more than a decade with the University of Wisconsin. The 63-year old last coached in professional hockey back in 2000 with the Pittsburgh Penguins, but does have experience at the AHL level.

  • The Nashville Predators have announced a trio of coaching hires, filling out their development team with some familiar faces. Rob Scuderi, Sebastien Bordeleau and Dave Rook have been hired as defense, forward and goaltending development coaches respectively. Scuderi played more than 900 NHL games over a long NHL career and will now jump into the coaching fray for the next part in his hockey career. Bordealeau also played in the NHL—including on the first iteration of the Predators back in 1998—though spent the second half of his playing career dominating the Swiss NLA. Rook meanwhile didn’t have that sort of playing career, but has been a goaltending coach for a long time at the junior level and has experience with Juuse Saros already.

Hunter Miska Not Expected To Receive Qualifying Offer

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It wasn’t so long ago that Hunter Miska was a hot goaltending prospect after an impressive freshman season at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. After playing well in the BCHL and USHL, Miska had stepped right into the starting role with UMD and posted a 27-5-5 record en route to the National Championship game (which the Bulldogs ultimately lost). A finalist for the Mike Richter award as the nation’s top goaltender, Miska posted a .920 save percentage that season and recorded five shutouts. Several NHL teams came calling, before he eventually signed his two-year entry-level contract with the Arizona Coyotes.

Now after two disappointing years of professional hockey, Miska may be looking for a new organization. Craig Morgan of The Athletic is reporting that the team will not give Miska a qualifying offer this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent. The Coyotes already have four goaltenders under contract and will certainly be issuing a qualifying offer to Adin Hill after he showed he may be ready for a bigger role in the near future. Miska meanwhile struggled in 2018-19, positing an .895 save percentage in 25 appearances for the Tucson Roadrunners.

Still, Miska did make his NHL debut this season in relief and there is reason to believe he can still be an effective professional goaltender. The 23-year old has rushed through several different development levels over the last few years and may just be lagging behind his new surroundings a bit. As an unrestricted free agent he will be able to pick his next destination carefully, and look for the best situation for his hockey future.

Tampa Bay Lightning Re-Sign Braydon Coburn

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The Tampa Bay Lightning are bringing back one of their veteran defensemen, re-signing Braydon Coburn to a two-year deal. The contract carries an average annual value of $1.7MM, a considerable drop from Coburn’s last deal.

Coburn, 34, actually had an excellent bounce back season for the Lightning in 2018-19, finishing with 23 points in 74 games and solid possession statistics. While he’s no longer the 22+ minute man he was during his prime for the Philadelphia Flyers, Coburn still represents a reliable veteran presence on the blue line for Tampa Bay. That was obviously important for the team to maintain, given that Dan Girardi and Anton Stralman are both scheduled to become unrestricted free agents this summer. With Coburn back in the mix, it seems unlikely that the team will be able to afford either one unless they sign for a considerable bargain.

That’s because the Lightning now sit at a projected $76MM in cap commitments for next season. Amazingly that doesn’t include a deal for young star center Brayden Point, who will certainly cost more than the $6.88MM in cap space the team currently projects to have unless he takes a short-term bridge deal. Tampa Bay is expected to make a move to clear some cap space at some point this offseason.

This deal however doesn’t drastically change the arithmetic for the Lightning. They were always going to have to bring in at least one more defenseman, and a $1.7MM cap hit is reasonable for a veteran of more than 1,000 NHL games. The question will be if Coburn can continue to play at a championship level throughout the two-year deal, as the Lightning still hold contender status in the Eastern Conference. Luckily the team already has Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh locking down the left side, taking a lot of pressure off the veteran.

East Notes: Johnson, Backes, Stralman

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The five-year, $16.25MM contract that the Penguins gave defenseman Jack Johnson last summer drew some immediate ire.  Considering that the team is still tight against the cap even after dealing away Olli Maatta over the weekend, some may be wondering if Johnson could also be on the move at some point.  GM Jim Rutherford poured cold water over that idea, telling Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the Maatta swap means that Johnson will be sticking around:

“We certainly had to make a move from a cap point of view. … We were getting ourselves to a point where we might have been in a little trouble.  It was going to be either Johnson or Maatta to open up the necessary cap space and open up the logjam at defense. And as it turned out, it ended up being Olli.”

The 32-year-old logged over 19 minutes a game for the Penguins last season although his offensive output continued to drop as he scored just a single goal.  It appears as if Johnson will be resuming his role on their back end when the puck drops on next season in October.

Elsewhere in the East:

  • While Bruins forward David Backes has been brought up as a speculative candidate to leave Boston, it doesn’t appear as if that will be the case. Speaking with reporters including Joe Haggerty of NBC Sports Boston (Twitter link), GM Don Sweeney stated that Backes will not be going anywhere this offseason.  The 35-year-old has two years remaining on his deal with a $6MM cap hit and a partial no-trade clause but because of the structure of the contract, a buyout wouldn’t save Boston much on the cap.  Instead, it appears they’ll ask him to hold down a spot in their bottom six once again next season.
  • Lightning free agent defenseman Anton Stralman will be participating in the UFA interview window which begins next week, agent Marc Levine told Joe Smith of The Athletic (Twitter link). That suggests that there hasn’t been much progress made in discussions about a possible contract extension.  Stralman, 32, is coming off an injury-plagued 2018-19 campaign but still logged over 20 minutes a night and with the market for right-shot defenders dwindling quickly, he should have plenty of suitors if he does indeed make it to the open market next month.

Free Agent Focus: Pittsburgh Penguins

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Free agency is now less than a month away from opening up and there are quite a few prominent players set to hit the open market while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign.  The Penguins have their core already under contract but will have some work to do to fill out the end of their roster.  Here’s a closer look at their free agent situation.

Key Restricted Free Agents: D Marcus Pettersson – After being a depth piece with Anaheim, Pettersson stepped into a larger role upon his early-season acquisition and really established himself as a capable blueliner.  He also showed a bit of offensive upside, something that hadn’t been all that prevalent dating back to his time in Sweden.  Pettersson’s emergence helped pave the way for the Penguins to deal Jamie Oleksiak back to Dallas later on in the season as well as move Olli Maatta to Chicago this past weekend.  He doesn’t have arbitration rights and thus doesn’t have a lot of leverage so between that and their salary cap situation, expect a short-term bridge deal with the hopes that he’ll outperform it.

F Zach Aston-Reese – One of the top college free agents in the 2017 class, Aston-Reese began to establish himself as a regular in the second half of the season while also suiting up in all four games in the postseason.  At this point, the 24-year-old is likely to see a lot of time on the fourth line though he is capable enough offensively to move up if injuries arise.  Even though he is arbitration-eligible, players like this without much of a track record at the NHL level don’t tend to get big raises so a one-year contract near his qualifying offer (just over $874K) is likely what he’ll wind up with.

Other RFAs: F Joseph Blandisi, F Teddy Blueger, F Adam Johnson, D Jeff Taylor

Key Unrestricted Free Agents: F Matt Cullen – His second go-round with Pittsburgh wasn’t as successful as his first but Cullen still provided some contributions to the fourth line.  He was their second-best option at the faceoff dot while he chipped in on the penalty kill and added a respectable 20 points.  For the league minimum salary, that was pretty good bang for their buck.  However, Cullen turns 43 in November and at some point, they’ll need to try a younger player in that role.  The time for that change is probably this summer.

F Garrett Wilson – The 28-year-old got his first taste of extended NHL action, getting into 50 games with the Penguins after playing just 34 in the seasons leading up to that.  He was limited to a spot on the fourth line despite some impressive numbers in the early going with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (18 points in 18 games).  He could get a look from more than just Pittsburgh this summer but every offer is likely to be around the league minimum.

Other UFAs: D Kevin Czuczman, F Jimmy Hayes, G John Muse, D Ethan Prow, F Ben Sexton, D Chris Summers, D Zach Trotman, D Chris Wideman

Projected Cap Space: As is almost always the case, cap space is at a premium for the Penguins.  They have over $76.6MM committed for next season already, per CapFriendly and several spots still to fill on the roster.  They can do that with contracts that are close to the league minimum but if they want to add another impact player, they’ll need to free up some cap room first.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Rangers Acquire Jacob Trouba

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The Rangers have made a big splash on the back end, announcing that they have acquired defenseman Jacob Trouba from the Jets.  Going the other way is defenseman Neal Pionk as well as the 20th overall pick in this week’s draft which had been previously acquired from Winnipeg as part of the Kevin Hayes trade.

Trouba is coming off a career year that saw him collect 50 points (8-42-50) while averaging just shy of 23 minutes per game in the regular season.   Despite that, there was an expectation that a trade was likely.  The 25-year-old held out back in 2016 and had requested a trade at that time before rescinding his request when he signed in November.  Even with that, it was believed that he remained hesitant to commit to them long-term, especially after he opted to go through the arbitration process last summer.

It will now be up to Rangers GM Jeff Gorton to get Trouba to commit.  Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman notes (Twitter link) that Winnipeg did not grant New York permission to speak to the blueliner about a new deal before the trade was made.

Trouba must be tendered a $5.5MM qualifying offer later this month, one that they will clearly make.  It will take considerably more for him to forego testing unrestricted free agency in July 2020 so a long-term deal could approach the $7MM-$8MM mark when all is said and done.  That’s a price tag that the Rangers are likely willing to pay as he slots in as their top defenseman right away.

As for Pionk, the Jets are adding a capable blueliner but one that doesn’t have a lot of NHL experience.  After signing as an undrafted free agent in 2017, he made it to the NHL midway through 2017-18 and played his first full campaign this past season.  He fared pretty well, collecting 26 points in 73 games while averaging over 21 minutes a night.  That should allow him to step into a prominent role fairly quickly with his new team.

Like Trouba, Pionk is a restricted free agent this summer and is eligible for salary arbitration.  Unlike Trouba, he won’t be commanding a massive salary given his relative inexperience.  That is notable considering the team still has to sign restricted free agent wingers Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor, as well as UFA defenseman Tyler Myers, whose return is much more of a legitimate possibility as a result of this swap.  While it wouldn’t be directly tied to this move, Myers could essentially be a part of this trade if he re-signs as it wouldn’t have been possible without Trouba moving first.

With Erik Karlsson and now Trouba off the market (and Myers potentially following suit), the market for right-shot defensemen has drastically been altered in a hurry.  With a lack of impact free agent defenders available, expect trade talks to pick up around the league in the coming days.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Kings Notes: Leipsic, Brodzinski, Coaching Staff

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The Los Angeles Kings have started talks with Brendan Leipsic’s representatives, according to Jon Rosen of LA Kings Insider. The team would like to sign Leipsic if possible after he found his NHL footing in Los Angeles following a waiver claim in early December. The 25-year old forward scored 18 points in 45 games for the Kings, more tha he had for any one team previously.

Leipsic was originally selected in the third round by the Nashville Predators, but has already been involved in two trades and was picked by the Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft. That kind of turmoil is rarely productive for an NHL career, something a new contract with Los Angeles could fix. Obviously the Kings have lots of work to do this summer in order to try and get younger and faster, but Leipsic has apparently done enough to impress the front office in his short tenure.

  • Jonny Brodzinski however looks like he’ll be heading for a fresh start elsewhere. The 25-year old forward qualifies for Group VI unrestricted free agency this summer and GM Rob Blake told Curtis Zupke of the Los Angeles Times that Brodzinski will make it to the open market. Blake did explain that he expects to sign a “majority” of the team’s restricted free agents however, which include names like Leipsic, Alex Iafallo and Adrian Kempe. Brodzinski ended up playing just 54 games for the Kings over the last three seasons, and wasn’t able to translate his powerful shot and minor league scoring ability into much production at the NHL level.
  • Blake told Rosen that the team will have just two assistant coaches this season, including Marco Sturm who will stay on with the club. Rosen expects the other coaching hire to be Trent Yawney who worked with head coach Todd McLellan in Edmonton last season, but notes that there have been other interviews. The Kings handed McLellan a five-year, $25MM deal to turn things around in Los Angeles and will need to surround him by the best coaching staff possible if a return to the playoffs is in the cards.

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