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Archives for August 2020

Vladimir Tarasenko To Leave Bubble

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When Vladimir Tarasenko was cleared to return to action for the St. Louis Blues as the season restarted, it was a huge boost for a club looking to repeat as Stanley Cup champions. After suiting up just four times and being held scoreless, however, there was obviously something wrong with the superstar winger.

Tarasenko will now leave the bubble in Edmonton to return to St. Louis and consult with team doctors on his surgically-repaired shoulder. An update will be given next Monday, meaning he will not be available for the rest of their first-round series against the Vancouver Canucks.

The 28-year old winger missed games three and four against the Canucks, despite playing nearly 22 minutes in a game two overtime loss. Before the restart, he had last played on October 24, 2019, missing almost the entire 2019-20 season due to his shoulder surgery.

Eetu Luostarinen Loaned To KalPa

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Eetu Luostarinen has had quite the year. After signing his entry-level contract last spring, the young forward made the jump to North American pro hockey, playing for the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL. A month into the season, he earned himself a recall to the NHL where he played in eight games for the Carolina Hurricanes, before returning to anchor a line in the minor leagues.

Even though things were going fairly well in his rookie season, he found himself moving to a new organization in February when the Hurricanes traded him (along with three others) for Vincent Trocheck.

Now, after finishing his season with five scoreless games for the Springfield Thunderbirds, Luostarinen will return to Finland’s Liiga and play for KalPa again. The Florida Panthers have loaned the 21-year-old forward back to his old club team until the end of November when he will presumably return for NHL training camp.

Selected 42nd overall in 2017, the 6’3″ center was excited to get another chance to play in Finland as he continues his development. For prospects still looking to make their mark, getting a chance to start playing overseas before training camp is a bonus. Luostarinen has two years remaining on his entry-level deal.

Sabres Hire Seth Appert As AHL Head Coach

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August 18: The Sabres have made it official, announcing Appert as the new head coach of the Americans. New Sabres GM Kevyn Adams released a statement on the move:

Seth has a proven track record of developing talent at various levels and we are looking forward to him being the next head coach of the Rochester Americans. His approach to coaching and leadership, both on and off the ice, is a natural fit with the philosophy Ralph Krueger and I have started to implement as we build the organization. Seth will be an asset to Rochester and to the Sabres organization, and I’m excited to see him succeed behind the bench with the Amerks.

August 14: As part of a massive shakeup earlier this offseason, Buffalo let go of their entire AHL coaching staff.  It appears that new GM Kevyn Adams has found his next coach for AHL Rochester as Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News reports that Seth Appert will be appointed to the position with an official announcement expected next week.

This will be Appert’s first professional coaching opportunity but he has plenty of experience behind the bench.  He has spent the last three seasons with the USA Hockey National Development Team Program in a head coaching role which was preceded by an 11-year stint as the head coach at RPI.  Before that, he was an assistant for nine years at Denver.  Appert was pegged to be head coach for the USA’s entry in the World Under-18 Championship before the pandemic put an end to that tournament.

In recent years, the Sabres have iced a veteran-laden team in Rochester but by all accounts, that approach will be shifting to a younger, more cost-efficient team.  Accordingly, bringing in a head coach with considerable experience working with young players makes a lot of sense for Buffalo.  While the team may not have quite as much success as they did under former coach Chris Taylor (who led the team to a 116-65-33 record in his time with the team), the goal will be to have more success on the player development front, an area that the Sabres have struggled with in recent years.

Lysowski notes that former NHL winger Alex Tanguay and J.D. Forrest were others considered for the position.  Tanguay is an assistant coach with AHL Iowa, the affiliate of the Wild but his coaching experience is limited to just this season.  Forrest, meanwhile, has been an assistant with Pittsburgh’s AHL squad in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for the last four years.

Offseason Keys: Nashville Predators

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As teams are eliminated from the Qualifying Round, it means that the offseason has arrived for several more squads.  Having covered the teams that weren’t a part of the NHL’s return, we shift our focus to the ones that have been ousted.  Next up is a look at Nashville.

After a disappointing finish to what was a strong 2018-19 season when they were ousted by Dallas in the first round, the Predators opted to spend less on their back end and attempted to bolster their offense with the addition of Matt Duchene.  The results didn’t go as planned.  Instead, Nashville once again featured a middling attack and the change behind the bench to John Hynes instead of Peter Laviolette didn’t change much.  When the pandemic hit, they were battling for the final Wild Card spot in the West and they didn’t perform particularly well in their Qualifying Round loss to Arizona.  Now three seasons removed from their appearance in the 2017 Stanley Cup Final, GM David Poile has some work to do.

Make Way For Youth

If it seems like the Predators have been a veteran-laden squad lately, it’s because they have been.  Even as core veterans have been moved out, they’ve been replaced by other high-priced veterans.  As a result, they were one of the oldest teams in the league this season and when the play-in round hit, only one regular under the age of 25 was in their lineup and that was defenseman Dante Fabbro.  At a time where the league is getting younger and quicker, Nashville has been heading in the opposite direction.

That’s something that Poile seems to be acutely aware of as during his end of season availability from the Predators’ team site (video link), he mentioned half a dozen prospects that he expects to push for a roster spot next season, highlighted by Eeli Tolvanen up front and Alexandre Carrier on defense.

However, of their 12 forwards they used in the playoffs, 10 are already signed for next season and the two that are set to be unrestricted free agents (more on them shortly) will either need to be retained or replaced.  Poile may need to turn to the trade market to move out some of his forward depth and open up a spot or two for those youngsters to contend for.

Shake Up The Top Six

Poile has made no shortage of attempts to try to bolster his forward group in recent years.  Duchene was added last summer, Mikael Granlund at the 2019 trade deadline, plus Kyle Turris in a 2017 swap and Nick Bonino months before that in free agency.  Ryan Johansen in 2016 was the biggest one of all in what was a big one-for-one swap with Seth Jones going the other way.  Every move made some sense at the time but it’s safe to say that none of them have panned out as intended.

All of these additions were only good enough to get the Predators to 17th in the league in scoring this season with only a couple of tenths of a goal more per game than 2018-19.  Clearly, more work is needed.

Nashville has a pair of notable unrestricted free agents to deal with in Granlund and Craig Smith.  Granlund played a bit better under Hynes with 11 of his 17 goals coming after the coaching change.  He had a bigger role, logging over 19 minutes a game over that stretch so it’s possible that he could be part of the solution moving forward.  Smith, meanwhile, has been inconsistent over his career.  At times, he has been able to play like a front liner but in others, he has struggled considerably.  The two carried a combined $10MM cap hit and that money will need to be spent either re-signing or replacing both players.

If they re-sign one or both of them, Poile would still benefit from doing something to shake up the composition of their top six.  There’s an argument to make that every one of their top forwards underachieved offensively this season.  It’s possible (if not probable) that some will rebound next year but finding a different player or two that better meshes with the returning core could help unlock the offensive potential that this group has which is something they need to have happen if they want to get back into contention.

Add Proven Defensive Depth

For the last few years, Nashville has been forced to fill out the last few spots on their back end with veterans that have notable limitations.  The priority had been getting players at or around the league minimum salary such as Yannick Weber, Matt Irwin, and Anthony Bitetto (before being lost to waivers in 2018-19).  While they saved cap space which was important, those players were only able to log a few minutes.

It seems like they’re heading in that direction again.  Jarred Tinordi had been a minor league regular for more than three years but suited up for them in the playoffs is already signed for next season.  Ben Harpur, acquired from Toronto near the deadline, is another one with recent minor league time and is also signed.  Steven Santini, part of the P.K. Subban trade last summer, is under contract for one more year but spent most of the season in the minors.  These are players that are best served as injury recall depth, not regulars on the third pairing.

Even if someone like Carrier proves to be worthy of a spot, he may not be ready for more than a limited role.  If he isn’t ready, he may still get a spot thanks to his low cap hit.

While Nashville needs to make some room up front for younger players, they need to find a way to have a third pairing that can log more than 11-14 minutes per game.  Ideally, they’d be able to kill penalties, an area that was a problem for the Predators this year as they were last in the West with a 76.06% success rate.  If the league intends to play 82 games next season, it stands to reason that the schedule may be a bit more compressed than usual which will make a more capable third pairing that much more important.  Limited finances or not (depending on what happens up front), shoring up their defensive depth is something they should be looking to accomplish.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Senators Won’t Attempt To Trade Up For Top Pick

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While the draft lottery didn’t quite go the way that the Senators wanted, they still wound up with two of the first five selections in October’s NHL Entry Draft with their picks slated to fall third and fifth.  Considering that they’ve added several notable picks and prospects in recent years (even without having their own first rounder a year ago), the thought of packaging those two picks together to try to move up to the top slot to land prospective top pick Alexis Lafreniere had come up.

However, Senators owner Eugene Melnyk told Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch that they won’t be entertaining the idea of trying to move up to nab that top selection:

The idea of trading our 3rd and 5th picks for the No. 1 pick is nonsensical.  We’re very excited to welcome our many new Ottawa Senators that will come to us via the upcoming draft.

As things stand, Ottawa is likely to land one of OHL center Quinton Byfield or German forward Tim Stutzle with the third pick and both could be ready to play in the NHL next season.  Whoever they get with the fifth pick may not be NHL ready right away but the Sens have several youngsters in the system that are close to making the jump so there’s no rush for whoever is picked there to suit up for Ottawa.

Garrioch suggests that the Canadiens will likely make a push for the top selection.  Lafreniere is from Quebec while he notes that Montreal’s management made a strong push for them to be a part of the Draft Lottery during the NHL’s Return to Play discussion.  However, they upset Pittsburgh in the Qualifying Round and as a result, they will pick no higher than 16th which will likely make such a move quite difficult.

Having said that, the odds that the Rangers would deal the pick are quite low.  The last time a number one pick was moved was back in 2003 when Florida moved down two spots.  However, with Melnyk stating that the Senators don’t intend to try to move up, the one team that could do a similar deal is now off the table as it appears that they’ll be quite content to stay at picks three and five.

Blackhawks Sign Cameron Morrison

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A total of 21 prospects quietly became unrestricted free agents over the weekend.  Chicago has dipped their toes into the market once again as PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that the Blackhawks have signed winger Cameron Morrison to a two-year, entry-level contract.  Financial terms of the deal are not yet known.

Morrison was a second-round pick of Colorado back in 2016 (40th overall) out of Youngstown of the USHL where he finished tied for second in league scoring.  While his production didn’t entirely carry over to his college career at Notre Dame, he was quite consistent offensively, picking up between 21 and 27 points in each of his four seasons.  He saved the best for last, picking up 13 goals and 14 assists in 37 contests this year.

The 21-year-old didn’t reach an agreement with the Avalanche so with his college eligibility now exhausted, he became a free agent although he wasn’t on the market for long.  Chicago has a long track record in recent years signing college players and several of them have worked their way into the lineup along the way.  On the surface, it’s unlikely that Morrison would crack their roster for next season but he should start with AHL Rockford; as things stand, they’re hoping to start the 2020-21 campaign in December similar to the NHL’s plans.

Panthers Receive Permission To Interview Rangers Assistant GM Chris Drury

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While the Panthers have a couple of months before the offseason opens up, it appears that they are looking to fill their GM vacancy quickly.  Last week, Canadiens assistant GM Scott Mellanby and former Kings executive Mike Futa were linked to Florida and Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported in the latest Saturday Headlines segment (video link) that Rangers assistant GM Chris Drury has received permission to interview for the position.

Drury has been with the Rangers since 2015 when he joined them as their Director of Player Development.  The following year, he was promoted to assistant GM and became GM of AHL Hartford in 2017 as well.  In 2019, he got his first international GM role when he was in charge of Team USA at the World Championships where they lost in the quarterfinals.  Given his experience, his name has come up for several GM vacancies around the league over the years.

Friedman adds that Bruins assistant GM John Ferguson Jr. and Maple Leafs assistant GM Laurence Gilman are also believed to be interview targets although those have not been finalized as of yet.  Ferguson Jr. spent five seasons as Toronto’s GM from 2003-04 through 2007-08 while Gilman hasn’t had the opportunity to be a GM at the NHL level.

Snapshots: Predators, Lauko, Lipon

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The Nashville Predators have made a couple of changes to their coaching staff for the 2020-21 season, announcing today that they will not renew the contract of assistant Dan Muse. Rob Scuderi, who had been serving as an assistant on an interim basis, will be returning to his role as defense development coach.

Muse had been with the Predators for three seasons following a stint as the head coach of the Chicago Steel (USHL). Nashville will begin the search for new assistants immediately, giving John Hynes a chance to bring in his own team as he prepares for his first full season behind the Predators bench.

  • Jakob Lauko will start the 2020-21 season with HC Karlovy Vary of the Czech league but is expected back with the Boston Bruins when NHL training camp opens. The 20-year-old forward spent this season with the Providence Bruins, scoring just nine points in 22 games. The limited action was due to a knee injury Lauko suffered at the very start of the World Junior tournament, meaning any games he can play in the Czech Republic will be beneficial to his development.
  • J.C. Lipon’s contract with the Winnipeg Jets is up and the 27-year-old forward will take his talents to the KHL. Dinamo Riga has signed Lipon to a contract for the 2020-21 season after he failed to make it to the NHL once again this year. A third-round pick back in 2013, Lipon made his NHL debut in the 2015-16 season but hasn’t been back to the NHL since. Instead, he played 61 games for the Manitoba Moose this year, scoring 31 points.

Zach Aston-Reese Undergoes Shoulder Surgery

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Like Evgeni Malkin this morning, the Pittsburgh Penguins have announced that Zach Aston-Reese recently underwent surgery. The forward underwent a procedure on his left shoulder and is expected to miss six months. That likely means Aston-Reese won’t be ready for the start of 2020-21 training camp, though the exact start date of that season is still subject to change.

Aston-Reese, 26, has been a stable presence in the Penguins lineup since soon after signing as an undrafted free agent in 2017. The college star from Northeastern has played in 117 NHL games over the last three seasons and though he doesn’t bring a ton of offense, has chipped in enough to maintain a role in the lineup.

He signed a two-year, $2MM extension in the summer of 2019, meaning he’s still under contract for the 2020-21 season at a reasonable price. That doesn’t guarantee him a spot with the Penguins given GM Jim Rutherford’s recent comments about change, but it’s going to be tough to move him for full value as he deals with this rehab.

Gustav Lindstrom Loaned To Almtuna

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The Detroit Red Wings have found another opportunity for one of their young prospects, this time loaning Gustav Lindstrom to Almtuna of the Swedish second league. Lindstrom, like many other Detroit youngsters including Mortiz Seider and Filip Zadina, is expected back for training camp in a few months.

Like Seider, Lindstrom is another exciting defense prospect for the Red Wings who could make an impact in the coming years. In fact, the 21-year-old did make his NHL debut this year, suiting up for 16 Detroit games during his first year in North America. The second-round pick from 2017 actually has experience at the SHL level as well, making it an interesting decision to send him back to the Allsvenskan. Detroit could be hoping that he will get huge minutes there in a league he had already graduated from while he prepares to make the NHL roster in November.

In 45 games for the Grand Rapids Griffins, Lindstrom recorded just five points but was an encouraging presence on the blueline. The Red Wings philosophy for years was to “overripen” players in the minor leagues before bringing them up to the NHL, but given how poor the big club performed this season there may be more opportunity for young players. Getting his legs under him overseas will only give Lindstrom a headstart on the competition.

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