While defenseman Calvin de Haan was deemed as likely to miss the start of next season after undergoing shoulder surgery back in May, he told reporters, including Scott Powers of The Athletic (Twitter link) that he’s hopeful to be ready to go when the puck drops in October. The initial timeline for recovery was four-to-six months so if he does get the green light to play to start the season, he’ll be pretty close to the best-case scenario. The Blackhawks acquired the 28-year-old earlier this summer from Carolina and with them starting the season in the Czech Republic, it’s certainly possible that they could hold him out of their opener and give him nearly an extra week to further recover.
Elsewhere around the league:
- While many expected that veteran defenseman Deryk Engelland would end up staying with the Golden Knights, he told Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he still received one-year offers from other teams this summer. However, he ultimately waited for Vegas to clear out David Clarkson’s contract before signing a one-year, bonus-laden deal to stick around. While he’ll be 38 by the end of next season, Engelland admitted that he’s not viewing the upcoming campaign as his final year and that he anticipates playing another season beyond this one, preferably in Vegas.
- Although the Capitals need to clear up a bit of salary cap space over the next couple of months, that’s not going to be their only priority the rest of this offseason. Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic notes (subscription required) that GM Brian MacLellan plans to sit down with center Nicklas Backstrom and goaltender Braden Holtby next month to begin the process of discussing their futures with the team beyond 2019-20. Both players are slated to become unrestricted free agents next summer and will be looking for raises on their current deals ($6.7MM for Backstrom, $6.1MM for Holtby). With Washington’s tight salary cap situation, they may not be able to afford to give both the pay increases they may be seeking.
IF (I repeat IF!) the Caps are forced to choose, Keep Backstrom. Don’t get me wrong I love what Holtby has done for and meant to this team. But I also know how much Backstrom means to the top two lines, the power play, the PK and hopefully a return to effective faceoff % [which dropped off last year. The symbiotic relationship with Ovechkin is another good reason.
This would obviously require taking some of what Holtby salary would be next year and beyond and invest in a Goalie as Samsonav is not quite there yet. But the same would have to be said about finding a top 6 Center.