Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Archives for March 2020

Evening Notes: Rossi, Flyers, Tryamkin, Oilers

at CDT | by 3 Comments

Marco Rossi won’t have to wait very long to hear his name called once things get underway at the 2020 NHL Draft.  The center led the OHL in scoring this season with 120 points in 56 games which is quite impressive for anyone, let alone a draft-eligible player.  If he doesn’t stick with whichever NHL team drafts him though, don’t expect him to return to junior hockey.  He told Jean-Francois Plante of Le Droit that if he isn’t in the NHL, his plan is to go back overseas and play in a professional league instead; 67’s head coach Andre Tourigny told Plante that the team wouldn’t block him from trying to do so.  The Austrian came up through the ranks in Switzerland before joining OHL Ottawa and could opt to play there once again.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • While some teams are using this layoff to get a head start on contract discussions, that doesn’t appear to be the case in Philadelphia. Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher told Jordan Hall of NBC Sports Philadelphia that he hasn’t started any talks about a new deal with any of their pending free agents.  Among the notable unrestricted free agents on their roster are goalie Brian Elliott, defenseman Justin Braun, and center Derek Grant while forwards Oskar Lindblom and Nolan Patrick, who have had their seasons cut short to respective health concerns, headline their list of restricted free agents.
  • With the KHL season now over, talks between the Canucks and defenseman Nikita Tryamkin have picked up, reports Postmedia’s Ben Kuzma. The 25-year-old spent parts of two seasons in Vancouver before returning to Russia for the last three seasons.  However, Tryamkin is looking to return to Vancouver for the 2020-21 campaign but his agent Todd Diamond acknowledged that the uncertainty surrounding next year’s salary cap is also likely to play a role in any contract talks.
  • If play resumes, the Oilers should have a pair of players back in their lineup. Head coach Dave Tippett told reporters, including Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic (Twitter link) that defenseman Mike Green (knee) and winger Joakim Nygard (upper body) have both recovered from their respective injuries and will be ready to go whenever the puck drops.  Green was one of Edmonton’s trade deadline additions but played in just two games before getting hurt while the speedy Nygard has nine points in 33 games in his rookie campaign.

Ducks Sign Roman Durny

at CDT | by 4 Comments

The Ducks have been active signing their prospects lately and that continued today.  CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that Anaheim has signed goaltender Roman Durny to a two-year, entry-level contract beginning in the 2020-21 season.  The deal breaks down as follows:

2020-21: $792.5K NHL salary (including signing bonus), $132.5K performance bonuses, $70K AHL salary
2021-22: $822.5K NHL salary (including signing bonus), $70K AHL salary

Durny was a fifth-round pick of Anaheim (147th overall) back in 2018 after he made the decision to move from playing at home in Slovakia to the USHL in his draft year.  The move was a good one as he posted a 2.38 GAA and a .920 SV% in 25 games with Des Moines and followed that up with a 2.61 GAA and a .909 SV% in 50 games with the Buccaneers last season.

However, he made the curious decision to jump into the professional ranks for this season and wound up playing on a one-year minor league contract.  He was limited to just 13 games with ECHL Norfolk and didn’t fare particularly well with a GAA of 4.02 and a .881 SV% but clearly, the team saw something they liked.  One of their minor league goalies, Kevin Boyle, is slated to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason and with Durny getting signed, it would appear as if Boyle won’t be retained for next season.

Stretch Run Storylines: Toronto Maple Leafs

at CDT | by 2 Comments

As things stand, the NHL is planning to have games resume at some point over the coming weeks.  Assuming the regular season continues, there will be plenty of things to watch for over the stretch run.  Over the coming weeks, PHR will examine the top stretch run storylines for each team.  We continue our look at the Atlantic Division with Toronto.

It has been an interesting season for the Maple Leafs.  An early coaching change yielded some early returns but before long, they were back to being consistently inconsistent.  At their best, they’ve shown they can contend with the top teams in the league but when they’re not on, they’ve been highly beatable.  A return to form for some of their top players would go a long way towards helping them secure a playoff spot if games resume and those underachievers are highlighted in the storylines to watch for.

Goaltending

Frederik Andersen has had some hot and cold moments throughout his tenure with the Maple Leafs and before this stoppage came, he was in the middle of one of those cold streaks, posting a save percentage of .879 over a three and a half week stretch in February.  That’s a below average mark for any NHL goaltender, particularly a starter on a team that has eyes on a long playoff run this season.

To his credit, Andersen was a lot better over his final three starts before this stoppage and that’s the level of play they’ll need from him if they want to contend.  Can he stay at that level?

GM Kyle Dubas decided to bring in some insurance just before the trade deadline with the acquisition of Jack Campbell who started off strong enough that he’d have pushed for a bigger role had Andersen’s struggles continued.  There’s something to watch for on his end as well – if he wins six games in the regular season, the conditional 2021 third-round pick would upgrade to a second-round selection.  Campbell is halfway there; if the season is played out in full, he’ll have a shot at getting there.  If not, it will be interesting to see if any proration occurs by the league to determine if the condition was met.

Playing For A Contract

Tyson Barrie’s first season in Toronto hasn’t gone as well as anyone would have hoped.  As a high-skilled offensive blueliner, going to a team with a lot of top-end firepower seemed like a good fit for him to have a big season in his UFA walk year.

But that hasn’t happened.  Instead, he has dropped to just five goals on the season, his lowest full-season total of his career.  It’s not due to a lack of playing time either as he’s averaging slightly more ice time than he was last season with Colorado when he had a career high in points.

Not surprisingly, his name was in trade speculation leading into the trade deadline although clearly, nothing came of it.  With the Maple Leafs hoping to contend and them only carrying half of his contract with the Avs paying the rest, it was going to be hard to find a right fit that would have brought them another top-four defender back.

Not only would Barrie rebounding be a big boost for Toronto but it would also be a boon to his free agent stock which has taken a bit of a hit this season before even factoring in the looming questions regarding the Upper Limit of the salary cap.  There’s certainly a lot riding on how the rest of the year goes for him.

Matthews’ Quest

Auston Matthews was having quite the season offensively before the rinks went quiet.  He sits just three goals shy of the 50-goal mark and if he can get there, he’d become just the fourth player in franchise history (joining Dave Andreychuk, Gary Leeman, and Rick Vaive) to reach that mark.  If games resume with close to a full schedule, he’ll have a good shot at getting there.

That takes us to the second half of his quest.  Vaive holds the franchise record at 54 with Matthews sitting at 47 in 70 games, a goal per game mark of 0.67.  Toronto had 12 games left in the season.  At that rate, Matthews would project to get eight more which would have got him the record.  He’d likely need the league to play out the full 82 games to have a shot at setting the new record but if that happens, this will certainly be something to watch for.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

John Leonard Agrees To Terms With San Jose Sharks

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The San Jose Sharks have reached another agreement with a college star, announcing that John Leonard will be joining the organization. The team did not announce any contract details, likely for the same reasoning as Brinson Pasichnuk earlier today—it’s unclear whether the contract will start in 2019-20 or 2020-21. Still, Sharks GM Doug Wilson released a short statement on the young forward:

John is a high-end shooter who is creative with the puck. He took big steps in both his fitness level and all-around game and became one of the most dominant offensive players in college hockey this season. We are excited to see his continued growth as a member of the Sharks organization.

Leonard, 21, recently finished his junior season at UMass-Amherst and is a top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award after scoring 27 goals and 37 points in 33 games. Originally selected 182nd overall by the Sharks in 2018, he has quickly shown that his offensive ability can be relied upon even if the rest of his game is still a work in progress.

Snapshots: League Timeline, 2021 Draft, Bouwmeester

at CDT | by 9 Comments

UPDATE 4:45pm: The Toronto mayor’s office clarified the ban to TSN radio, indicating that it does not include sporting events, only “city events and event permits.”

4:00pm: As mentioned in the earlier story about the NHL extending their period of self-isolation for players and team staff, even April 15th—the new end date the league announced—seems very aggressive given the much longer bans that states, provinces, and cities have already instituted. This afternoon Toronto, one of the league’s biggest markets,  announced a ban on all public events through June 30th. That would seemingly include playoff hockey games, making it quite difficult to resume any action that includes the Maple Leafs in the next three months.

While there could be ways around a ban like this for regular season games—neutral venue sites could potentially be used—it’s hard to see a world where the Maple Leafs would be forced to play playoff contests somewhere else. Revenue from the playoffs in the league’s big markets is crucial, especially so in a season cut short. At this point, fans can only wait and see what happens, but the NHL season is just getting further and further away.

  • Another major market that has already lost an NHL event is Montreal, where the Canadiens were stripped of the 2020 Entry Draft—or at least the full scale of it. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports that Montreal can expect to have a full draft either in 2021 or 2022, though there is another interesting option for next year. LeBrun tweets that the new Seattle franchise has shown interest in trying to bring the entry draft in next season to pair with the expansion draft, though it isn’t clear if it will be feasible at this point.
  • Among all the disruptions and distractions, it’s sometimes hard to find any good news these days. Alex Pietrangelo of the St. Louis Blues gave us some of that today, when he told reporters including Dan Rosen of NHL.com that teammate Jay Bouwmeester is doing well in his recovery from a cardiac episode he suffered in February. The Blues captain noted that teammates have checked in on Bouwmeester and that he has seen him walking about their shared neighborhood recently.

NHL Extends Isolation Period To April 15

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Another week down, another week added. Darren Dreger of TSN is reporting that the league has extended its recommended period of self-isolation for players and staff until April 15, just a week after extending it to April 6. The initial recommendation had been until March 27, though obviously that went out the window quickly after seeing the rapid spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) across the continent.

This recommendation is for league activities, but there are other states and cities that have recommended isolation for even longer. It is not clear how players or facilities in those areas would resume normal activity even after April 15 has passed.

There have been four confirmed cases of COVID-19 among NHL players to this point, two from the Ottawa Senators and two from the Colorado Avalanche. All other players have been told to self-isolate and the league has shutdown all practices, facilities and even informal team workouts. The NHL Awards, Draft and Combine were all postponed indefinitely, leaving the league timeline completely uncertain.

Obviously at this point there is no word on when the league will be able to resume, if at all. The NHL has asked for building dates into August and there has been speculation about potential September playoffs. The league has maintained through everything that they will do everything in their power to hold a full 82-game schedule for the 2020-21 season, but for this season things are still being pushed back.

Toronto Maple Leafs Frontrunners To Sign Alexander Barabanov

at CDT | by 5 Comments

March 31: Maple Leafs’ GM Kyle Dubas admitted at media availability today that his team is pursuing Barabanov, explaining to Chris Johnston of Sportsnet that the team likes the Russian forward’s ability to make plays under pressure. Johnston also notes that there doesn’t seem to be any rush from Barabanov’s side to make a decision.

March 28: With the KHL playoffs now canceled, many of the league’s top free agents can now consider signing new contracts. One of the more interesting forwards, Alexander Barabanov, has expressed interest in coming to North America and signing with an NHL team with at least 20 teams showing interest in the diminutive forward to this point.

However, a recent report from Sport-Express’ overseas reporter Igor Eronko suggests that the Toronto Maple Leafs are the leading candidate to sign the 25-year-old, although he did report that there are three teams he’s considering, which also includes the Arizona Coyotes. TSN’s Darren Dreger does add that nothing is confirmed. In fact, there are no guarantees he’s definitely coming to the NHL yet. He reports that Barabanov and his agent Dan Milstein will begin interviewing teams next week.

Barabanov has played full seasons for SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL for the past five years and has scored anywhere between 10 to 20 goals in each of the last four years. He scored a career-high 17 goals and 46 points in 58 games in the 2018-19 season but saw his numbers dip this past year after suffering a broken hand in December from a slashing incident. He finished his season with 10 goals and 20 points in 43 games. Regardless, the forward is expected to fill a role as a solid bottom-six forward despite his lack of size at 5-foot-8 and 159 pounds.

If Toronto is the front-runner, it wouldn’t be a big surprise as general manager Kyle Dubas has made it a priority to add undrafted talent to his salary cap-strapped team by looking overseas. He added forward Ilya Mikheyev out of the KHL last year, who did make an impact in the first half of the season before suffering a wrist laceration when the skate of New Jersey’s Jesper Bratt ran over his wrist. Mikheyev has eight goals and 23 assists in 39 games this season. Despite the injury, he is expected to play a major role for the Maple Leafs next season. Toronto hopes they can get similar production from Barabanov if he agrees to sign with them.

Arizona is also in the mix. The Athletic’s Craig Morgan confirmed the Coyotes interest as general manager John Chayka talked with Barabanov earlier this season when he visited St. Petersburg. No word on who the third team Barabanov is considering.

Snapshots: Palve, Nakladal, Christensen

at CDT | by 3 Comments

The venture into North American hockey appears as if it will be short-lived for veteran Finnish forward Oula Palve. Palve initially signed a one-year deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins this summer, finally making the jump after a career year in the Liiga. However, he never made it to Pittsburgh, recording a paltry eight points through 37 games with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. The Penguins opted to move him to the Dallas Stars in January for defenseman John Nyberg, after which he recorded just five points through 23 games with AHL Texas. Palve’s time in the minors has indicated that it is unlikely he will make it to the NHL, so the speculation is now that he will return to Europe. Only this time, he is set to sign in the Swedish Hockey League, reports national news source Expressen Sport. Palve is expected to be a hot recruit for SHL teams, with Rogle and Farjestad expected to be the top suitors. At 28, Palve’s first season in North America is likely to be his last, especially if he signs a long-term deal in Sweden.

  • Former NHL defenseman Jakub Nakladal is making a career change. Nakladal, 32, spent parts of two seasons in the NHL with the Calgary Flames and Carolina Hurricanes and was considered by some to be underappreciated in his time. Nakladal joined the KHL’s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl midway through the 2016-17 campaign and has been one of their top defensemen ever since. He also shined at the 2018 Olympic Games with the Czech Republic. Despite this success, Nakladal has decided to return home to continue his playing career. Lokomotiv issued a press release thanking the free agent while acknowledging that he has decided to return to the Czech Extraliga, where he last played in 2011-12. There is no indication yet exactly where Nakladal might be headed, but the safe bet is that he will return to HC Pardubice, the organization he grew up in.
  • Over the past few years, American International College has emerged as the star of Atlantic Hockey, which is otherwise the weakest conference in the NCAA. Their leader through this climb has been forward Blake Christensen, who has been nothing if not consistent with 20+ points in each of his four years. Last season, Christensen was a Hobey Baker candidate with 47 points in 41 games. Now that his college career is over, Christensen will look to prove that he can continue to produce in the pros despite what some may think about his Atlantic competition over the past four years. The AHL’s Bakersfield Condors will give him that chance, announcing a one-year deal for the undersized but skilled winger. Christensen could be an intriguing player to watch next season in the minors.

Ducks Sign Jack Badini And Hunter Drew

at CDT | by 3 Comments

Monday: Anaheim has confirmed the pair of signings, announcing that Badini and Drew are the latest to join the franchise. Both contracts are set to begin in the 2020-21 season.

Saturday: The Ducks have agreed to terms with a prospect for the second straight day.  CapFriendly reports that they’ve signed forward Jack Badini to a two-year, entry-level contract.  They’ve also inked defenseman Hunter Drew to a three-year, entry-level pact, also per CapFriendly.  Badini’s deal carries an $805K cap hit and contains $20K in performance bonuses for the 2020-21 season.  Meanwhile, Drew’s contract carries an AAV of just over $793K and contains no performance bonuses.

Badini was a third-round pick of the Ducks back in 2017 (91st overall) and recently wrapped up his third season at Harvard.  His production actually tapered off somewhat this past season as his six goals and 14 points in 31 games were actually the lowest of his NCAA career.  Nonetheless, he showed enough to get Anaheim to sign him now over returning for his senior year.

Drew, meanwhile, was a sixth-rounder in 2018 (178th overall) and actually spent all of this season in Anaheim’s minor league system.  He played in 29 games with AHL San Diego and another five with ECHL Tulsa.  While he only had seven points with the Gulls, he was more productive with the Oilers at the lower level with four assists in his five contests with them.  The Ducks had until June 1st to sign him or let him become an unrestricted free agent.

San Jose Sharks Closing in On Brinson Pasichnuk

at CDT | by 1 Comment

6:30pm: The suggestion that Pasichnuk was waiting for a team to offer the Perunovich “double contract” appears to have been correct. TSN’s Frank Seravalli reports that the Sun Devils standout has agreed to terms on two separate deals, one that would begin this season should the NHL regular season resume and one that would begin in 2020-21. The Sharks have yet to to confirm the signing and may wait until one contract or the other can be affirmed.

5:00pm: The San Jose Sharks may be adding another defenseman to their system, as Kevin Kurz of The Athletic tweets the team is “closing in” on a contract with Brinson Pasichnuk. The Arizona State University captain recently completed his senior season and is an unrestricted free agent.

When Kurz adds that the young defenseman was highly sought after, he isn’t exaggerating. Previous reports had as many as 20 teams interested in Pasichnuk, though he had recently whittled that list down to just two. If he has indeed chosen to sign with the Sharks, any delay likely is due to the uncertainty around the NHL season. Pasichnuk wanted to see if there was any chance of signing for this year before making a contract official, similar to the way Scott Perunovich went about his contract with the St. Louis Blues recently.

There’s good reason for that interest from two-thirds of the league. Pasichnuk recorded 30 points for the second consecutive season, bringing his total up to 107 in 136 college games. The left-handed defenseman went undrafted out of the AJHL, but has continued to improve his game as the competition increased. The next step will be trying to continue that production at the professional level, something he apparently is ready to do as part of the Sharks organization.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

scroll to top