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Archives for June 2020

Islanders’ Nassau Coliseum Closing For Foreseeable Future

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Mikhail Prokhorov is closing the Nassau Coliseum, per Patrick Clark of Bloomberg.com. Nassau Coliseum, of course, is where the Islanders play their home games. They had planned to make Nassau their home again for the 2020-2021 season.

Onexim Sports and Entertainment currently runs the arena, Clark explains, but they’ll be looking for someone else to take over operational and fiscal responsibility of the venue moving forward. In a statement quoted by Clark, Onexim said this of their decisions: “The unforeseeable and unprecedented Covid-19 crisis has had a devastating effect on the operations of the Coliseum and its finances. While we still believe in the enormous long term economic value of the Coliseum and the development of the surrounding land, we recognize that such value will be best realized by other parties.”

The Islanders may have to find a new home for the 2020-2021 season, but it may just be a matter of time until someone else takes over the lease. The Islanders played in Brooklyn previously, but the relationship wasn’t a fit for either party, promoting the Islanders to move back to Nassau.

The Islanders are constructing their own space in Belmont Park, Clark notes, which could create competition for Nassau and make finder a new leaser all the more complicated. Of course, with the pandemic more-or-less halting all potential uses for a gaming and entertainment arena, there’s no shortage of potential roadblocks to getting Nassau up and running again. Regardless of what happens with Nassau, the Islanders had hoped to have the new arena ready by the 2021-2022 season.

One Trade The Capitals Would Like To Have Back

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While we await the return of the NHL, let’s take this opportunity to look back at some of the influential transactions in NHL history. For no particular reason, let’s jump to the trade deadline of the lockout-shortened 2012-2013 season.

On the date in question (April 3, 2013), the Washington Capitals were two points out of a playoff spot, looking to boost their chances of returning to the postseason for the sixth consecutive season. The Caps had been banged up to start the year, but at the deadline, they were on the rise and rounding into form. To get that little bit of extra oomph, the Caps traded top prospect Filip Forsberg to Nashville for LW Martin Erat and prospect Michael Latta.

The deal made a certain amount of sense at the time, as the Caps were trying to get over the hump and capture their first Stanley Cup. Led by all-world 27-year-old winger Alex Ovechkin, the pieces to make a run were in place, even if they hadn’t lived up to those lofty expectations as of yet. Forsberg, the 11th overall selection of the draft in the year prior, had a bright future, but he wasn’t anticipated to add value to the Caps for some time. Erat led the Predators with 21 points and 17 assists at the time of the deal.

Caps General Manager at the time George McPhee said this of the deal (from Katie Carrera of the Washington Post): “You’re here to win. We’ve been in that mode for a while. This is six years of trying to win a Cup. We had our rebuild phase, we sort of rebuilt things on the fly here, but we’d like to continue to make the playoffs while we’re doing it.”

Sure enough, adding a top-six winger like Erat to a line with Matthieu Perreault and Joel Ward could very well have made the difference for Washington. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but Erat did not end up making the difference. He manages just two goals in 62 games with the Caps before requesting a trade the following season, which the Caps granted. They did manage to get back to the playoffs in 2012-2013, but they were bounced by the Rangers in the first round.

Latta lasted with the Caps for longer, though he never made much of an impact on the ice. He scored four total goals for Washington in parts of three seasons from 2013 to 2016.

As for the Predators, they are happy with their end of this deal. So much so that five years later, they took a victory lap with a gloat tweet.

Forsberg has made good on his prospect status in developing into a capable top-liner for Nashville. Still just 25-years-old, he’s averaged 0.36 goals per game and 0.41 assists per game over his NHL career. He’s a big piece of the Predators success over the years, and a player the Caps would certainly love to have back.

Sabres Move Quickly, Stay In-House For Next GM

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News broke this morning that Buffalo Sabres ownership had changed course and decided to fire GM Jason Botterill less than a month after confirming him in his role. The Sabres have been relatively trigger happy in the past with leadership roles, evidenced by the fact that Botterill’s predecessor Tim Murray is still on the books until the end of this month, per The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun.

At least for the next couple of weeks, the Sabres will be bankrolling three different GMs – but the one that matters most now is the new guy: Kevyn Adams. Botterill’s replacement isn’t actually all that new, as he is the Sabres’ current Senior Vice President of Business Administration. Adams originally came to the organization in 2009 as a player development coach before joining the bench an assistant coach from 2011 to 2013, writes NHL.com’s Jourdon LaBarber. Adams is a former player who lasted 11 seasons in the NHL with Toronto, Chicago, Columbus, Florida, Carolina and Phoenix. He won a Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2005-2006.

On the promotion of Kevyn Adams to GM, ownership said this: “New General Manager Kevyn Adams and Head Coach Ralph Krueger already have a close working relationship and we are excited to see what they can do together as we reconfigure our hockey operations…We have had the pleasure of watching Kevyn build his post-playing career over the past nine years under multiple roles throughout our organizations. We are confident Kevyn and Ralph will work together to build a consistent contender. As always, we are here to provide the necessary resources…”

It’s a little surprising to see a replacement named so quickly, especially given that the Sabres don’t expect to take the ice again for quite some time. One would think that now would be the perfect time for an exhaustive search for the perfect candidate. If nothing else, the Sabres could have used this opportunity to gain insight into rival organizations through the interview process, as is common practice with this type of hire. Evidently, Sabres’ ownership felt they had the right candidate in-house already.

Adams will presumably be expected to hop-to and show ownership notable improvement. In his favor, the team is already on an upward trajectory, and Adams should have plenty of time to get his house in order prior to the draft and offseason. If the Sabres miss the playoffs next year, they’ll have tied the longest playoff drought in league history.

Sabres Fire GM Jason Botterill

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The Buffalo Sabres have relieved General Manager Jason Botterill of his duties after three years in the role, per a team release. Senior Vice President of Business Administration Kevyn Adams will take over as Botterill’s permanent replacement.

The move comes as a bit of a surprise as we’re just three weeks removed from ownership announcing a plan to keep Botterill in his role. Botterill joined the Sabres as a respected hockey mind from the Penguins organization.

Sabres’ owners Terry and Kim Pegula released a statement this morning with the news, reasoning the change thusly: “This morning, we informed Jason Botterill he will no longer be the General Manager of the Sabres. This decision was made after many candid discussions with Jason during a full review of our hockey operation. We recognized we have philosophical differences regarding how best to put ourselves in a position to compete for a Stanley Cup. So, we decided to make this change.”

The statement goes on to thank Botterill for his time with the Sabres. During his three years span, Botterill signed star Jack Eichel to a long-term contract (8-years, $80MM), but the Sabres failed to finish higher than 6th in the Atlantic Division. This season, they finished 25th overall, just one spot out of the 24-team playoff. They haven’t reached the postseason since the 2010-2011 season – the longest active postseason drought in the NHL.

More changes could be afoot for the Sabres, as Botterill’s firing did not happen in a vacuum. Wholesale changes are being made to the Sabres’ hockey operations department. Assistant GM Randy Sexton as also let go by the club, per the Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun. Steve Greeley was another casualty, tweets Frank Seravalli of TSN Sports, though Seravalli thinks Greeley and Sexton should have no trouble catching on with another organization.

Bruins Sign Victor Berglund

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With Monday being the deadline for players under contract next season for teams in countries that have transfer agreements with the NHL to sign an NHL deal, there have been quite a few signings today.  Boston has joined in on the action as CapFriendly reports that they’ve signed defenseman Victor Berglund to a three-year, entry-level contract.  The deal carries an AAV of just over $818K before performance bonuses and breaks down as follows:

2020-21: $775.5K salary (including signing bonus), $70K AHL salary, no performance bonuses
2021-22: $835K salary (including signing bonus), $70K AHL salary, $15K performance bonuses
2022-23: $842.5K salary (including signing bonus), $70K AHL salary, $82.5K performance bonuses

Berglund was a seventh-round pick of the Bruins back in 2017 (195th overall) and has spent time in Sweden’s second-tier pro league (Allsvenskan) since his draft-eligible year while playing in MODO’s system.  This season, he picked up 10 goals and 12 assists in 52 games and got into a pair of games in the qualification round before the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to that.

The 20-year-old has committed to transfer to Lulea of the SHL for next season back in March but presumably will now set his sights on a full year in North America with AHL Providence.  It won’t be Berglund’s first foray into the AHL though as he got into four games with them late in the 2019 season.

Jets Sign Arvid Holm To An Entry-Level Contract

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After signing Kristian Reichel to an entry-level deal today, the Jets have signed another prospect, announcing that they’ve inked goaltender Arvid Holm to a three-year, entry-level pact.  The deal will carry an AAV of just over $845K at the NHL level before performance bonuses.

The 21-year-old was a sixth-round pick of Winnipeg (167th overall) back in 2017 while he was playing at the Swedish junior level.  Over the last couple of years, he has moved to the professional ranks and spent this past season with Farjestad of the SHL.  While he was the backup netminder in Champions League play, Holm had the bulk of the workload in league play where he made 31 appearances, posting a 2.27 GAA and a .915 SV%, numbers that placed in the top-ten league-wide.

It will be interesting to see what the Jets have planned for him next season.  Eric Comrie and Mikhail Berdin are both already under contract and will likely form the goaltending tandem with AHL Manitoba as they did this season.  Laurent Brossoit is slated to become an unrestricted free agent this summer so there could be an opening behind Connor Hellebuyck but it would certainly be risky to throw Holm into that role right away.  He could certainly suit up with ECHL Jacksonville but if that’s the level they see him playing at, a loan back to Sweden could ultimately be the better move for his development, especially with the start of next season at the North American minor pro levels certainly in question.  CapFriendly reports that Holm’s deal contains a European Assignment Clause.

Flames Re-Sign Artyom Zagidulin

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Artyom Zagidulin’s first season in North America didn’t see him come close to putting up the numbers he did in the KHL in 2018-19 but he showed enough to convince the Flames to give him another look as they announced that they’ve signed him to a one-year, two-way contract extension.  CapFriendly reports that the deal carries a $700K salary at the NHL level, a $125K salary in the minors, and an overall guarantee of $225K.

The 24-year-old spent this season with Stockton of the AHL in a timeshare with Jon Gillies as each goalie made 30 appearances for the Heat.  Zagidulin’s numbers (3.07 GAA, .898 SV%) weren’t quite as strong as Gillies (2.69 GAA, .907 SV%) but it’s worth noting that Gillies was in his fourth season at the AHL while Zagidulin was in his rookie campaign.

With Gillies slated to become a Group VI unrestricted free agent this offseason, Zagidulin should have a chance for a bigger chunk of the workload in Stockton next season.  Calgary has two other young netminders that are eligible for restricted free agency in Tyler Parsons and Nick Schneider.  Both spent the season with Kansas City of the ECHL and put up rather pedestrian numbers.  Accordingly, it’s possible that one may be non-tendered with the other serving as Zagidulin’s backup in the AHL next season.

Snapshots: The Return Of Sports, AHL, Ducks

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Commissioner Gary Bettman will appear with 5 other sports commissioners on tonight’s ESPN special The Return Of Sports, the NHL announced. Also appearing on tonight’s program will be Roger Goodell of the NFL, Adam Silver of the NBA, Rob Manfred of MLB, Cathy Engelbert of the WNBA and Don Garber of MLS. The show should provide a hefty amount of equivocation, but there’s at least the possibility of some interesting insights mixed in, especially as the WNBA has released their return to play and MLB continues the public squabble that stands in the way of their 2020 season.

  • The American Hockey League released their own Return to Play task force today. Leading the charge will be outgoing AHL President and CEO David Andrews. He’ll serve as Chairman of the AHL 2020-221 Strategic Return to Play Task Force. A number of NHL general manages are also serving on the committee. The role of the committee, per the AHL, will be to provide strategic expertise and planning, rather than the execution of the AHL’s return to action.
  • The Anaheim Ducks will not furlough or release any employees at this time, which includes staff at the Honda Center, per Elliott Teaford of the OC Register/Southern California News Group. Those making $75K or more may face a pay cut, but it’s still encouraging to see a team do their best to keep staff employed. The Ducks had previously announced that part-time staff will be paid through the end of the month, but there’s nothing new on that front. The Ducks are done for the year after finishing in 13th in the Western Conference with 67 points. With the playoffs not yet underway, it’s impossible to know when the Ducks will hit the ice next. It’s hard to know right now exactly how next season’s schedule might be impacted by this year’s delay.

 

Ryan Reaves Signs Two-Year Extension With Golden Knights

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Ryan Reaves has some unfinished business with the Vegas Golden Knights. Reaves has appeared with the Golden Knights for each of their three seasons, and he’ll be back for the next two, the right-winger announced himself via Twitter. The terms of the deal were revealed in the team announcement. Reaves will make $1.75MM per season.

The native Canadian entered the league in 2005 as a fifth-round draft choice of the St. Louis Blues. He made his debut with the Blues as a 24-year-0ld during the 2010-2011 season, ultimately spending seven seasons in St. Louis. The Blues traded Reaves and a 2nd round pick to the Pittsburgh Penguins in June of 2017 for a 1st rounder and Oskar Sundqvist. Reaves didn’t last a full season with the Penguins, while Sundqvist has turned himself into a rotation piece for the Blues.

The Penguins shipped Reaves to Vegas with a 4th rounder for Tobias Lindberg (who has since been traded twice more). This season, Reaves registered 15 points with 10:09 ATOI. As noted by the team in their press release, Reaves led the league in hits this season with 316 across 71 games. The 33-year-old should continue to be an active presence if/when the Golden Knights return to action.

Jets Sign Kristian Reichel To Two-Year Deal

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The Winnipeg Jets have signed Kristian Reichel to a two-year, entry-level contract that will start next season, per CapFriendly (via Twitter). The deal will pay out a base contract of $700K in the first season and $775K in the second year. The Jets have announced the deal as well.

The 22-year-old Czech native comes to Winnipeg as an undrafted free agent after two seasons with the Manitoba Moose of the AHL. Reichel registered 17 points this past season (including 12 goals) in just 39 games, a marked bump after notching 10 points in 55 games the year prior. The Moose list Reichel as a right-winger, though as a draft prospect he was listed at center, and indications are that Jets view him in that light as well.

Reichel’s best season as a professional came arguably the year before he joined the Moose. While with the Red Deer Rebels of the WHL, Reichel put up 57 points across 63 games. While that showing didn’t get him drafted to an NHL team, the son of former NHL player Robert Reichel will look to get his first taste of NHL action with the Jets next season.

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