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Los Angeles Kings Reach Loan Agreement With Eisbaren Berlin

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Sometimes it pays to have rich parents. The Los Angeles Kings have reached an agreement with Eisbaren Berlin of the DEL to have a group of five young players loaned overseas for the next while. The two hockey teams are owned by the same parent company, Anschutz Entertainment Group. Alex Turcotte, Tyler Madden, Akil Thomas, Aidan Dudas, and Jacob Ingham will join the DEL as they prepare for their upcoming season, though will all be back when NHL training camps get underway.

Not only will these players get a chance to stay on the ice training with a professional environment, but it can also serve as a relationship and chemistry building experience for a group that will be integral to the Kings success down the line.

Turcotte, the headliner here and one of the top prospects in the NHL, was the fifth-overall pick in 2019. After a strong rookie season at the University of Wisconsin, Turcotte signed his entry-level contract and could be competing for an NHL roster spot as soon as the 2020-21 season gets underway. The 19-year-old center scored 26 points in 29 games for Wisconsin but is also known for his strong defensive game.

Madden meanwhile came to the Kings organization in the Tyler Toffoli trade with Vancouver and also decided to sign his entry-level contract this spring. Two outstanding years at Northeastern University turned Madden from a third-round lottery ticket into a top prospect and he’ll now be a name to watch in the coming years.

Thomas, Dudas, and Ingham were all selected by the Kings in 2018 and are each coming off excellent performances in the OHL.

Thomas started the year on the struggling Niagara IceDogs but ended up with the Peterborough Petes, a club that had their eye on the Memorial Cup before things were shutdown for the year. The 20-year-old forward had 84 points in just 49 games and continued to show why he should have been picked above 51.

Dudas was a fourth-round selection but actually managed to make his AHL debut in the spring of 2019, scoring two points in six games with the Ontario Reign. While he’s undersized, the 20-year-old center continues to shatter expectations and even made it onto the 2020 Canadian World Juniors team.

Ingham, the lone goaltender of the bunch, was just a sixth-round pick of the Kings a couple of years ago but had the best season of his life this year with Kitchener. With a 33-8-5 record and .917 save percentage he was one of the best goalies in the league, while also taking home the OHL Humanitarian Award for his work with Hockey Gives Blood, an organization that helps raise awareness about the importance of donating blood.

NHL Announces First And Second All-Star Teams, All-Rookie Team

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Following the announcements of the final five NHL regular season awards, the league also revealed their three all-league rosters: the First-Team All-Stars, the Second-Team All-Stars, and the All-Rookie Team. Below are the 2019-20 honorees:

First All-Star Team (link)

G: Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg Jets
D: Roman Josi, Nashville Predators
D: John Carlson, Washington Capitals
LW: Artemi Panarin, New York Rangers
C: Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton Oilers
RW: David Pastrnak, Boston Bruins

The 2020 First-Team All-Stars are a historic group, the first time since the inaugural all-league honors in 1930-31 that all six honorees are first-time members of the team. Unsurprisingly, this team also covers most of the league’s major awards with Draisaitl taking home the Hart, Ted Lindsay, and Art Ross, Josi winning the Norris, Hellebuyck winning the Vezina, and Pastrnak earning the Rocket Richard.

Second All-Star Team (link)

G: Tuukka Rask, Boston Bruins
D: Alex Pietrangelo, St. Louis Blues
D: Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay Lightning
LW: Brad Marchand, Boston Bruins
C: Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche
RW: Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning

The President’s Trophy-winning Boston Bruins finish with a league-best three players on All-Star rosters. Their division rival, and current Stanley Cup finalist, the Tampa Bay Lightning are the only other team with more than one inclusion on the all-star rosters. Noticeably absent from either all-star teams are future Hall of Famers Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals. This is just the third time since 2005-06 that at least one of the pair have not been on a postseason All-Star team, while they have both have been selected in the same year eight times in the past 15 years.

All-Rookie Team (link)

G: Elvis Merzlikins, Columbus Blue Jackets
D: Cale Makar, Colorado Avalanche
D: Quinn Hughes, Vancouver Canucks
F: Victor Olofsson, Buffalo Sabres
F: Dominik Kubalik, Chicago Blackhawks
F: Nick Suzuki, Montreal Canadiens

The rookie elite, led by Calder Trophy-winner Makar, is an older group than usual. Merzlikins, Olofsson, and Kubalik, all 25 or older, played in Europe for a considerable amount of time before jumping to North America as a polished product, while Makar and Hughes each played a pair of seasons in the NCAA and Suzuki aged out of juniors before turning pro. Nevertheless, the first-year pros were all impressive and still have many  quality years ahead of them.

Leon Draisaitl Wins 2020 Hart Memorial Trophy

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Last but certainly not least, the Hart Memorial Trophy was announced as the finale of the NHL Awards presentation. The Edmonton Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl was named the recipient of the award, which is presented to the player deemed most valuable to his team. Draisaitl adds MVP honors to his impressive trophy shelf for this season, having already received the Art Ross Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award. The Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon and the New York Rangers’ Artemi Panarin were Draisaitl’s competition for the Hart, as they were for the Lindsay as well.

While Draisaitl won earlier in the night as the “most outstanding player”, the Hart puts more emphasis on which player is most valuable to his team, which makes the arguments for MacKinnon and Panarin much stronger than they were for the Lindsay. Both MacKinnon (43 points more than Colorado’s next-best scorer) and Panarin (20 points more than New York’s next-best scorer) were crucial to their teams’ successes this season and did not play with any other players who were even remotely in the conversation for the Hart. Having two or more elite players on one team often makes it hard for either to win MVP, as evidenced this year by the Boston Bruins’ David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand, who finished third and sixth respectively in NHL scoring but fourth and ninth in Hart voting.

Why then was Draisaitl able to win when Connor McDavid finished second in points and fifth in Hart voting? The answer lies not in the teams’ top talent, but in their depth. The Avalanche and Rangers are more similar to the Bruins in top-to-bottom talent than are the Oilers, who lack any real impact forwards outside Draisaitl, McDavid, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Panarin’s Rangers are deeper in difference makers than Edmonton and New York would not have even made the playoffs in a typical year, while MacKinnon’s Avs were missing some of their best players for much of the year, but had that star power nonetheless and likely would have been a playoff team even if he had played at a replacement level. The Oilers needed Draisaitl and McDavid to play at superstar levels this season to be a successful team, so with Draisaitl outplaying McDavid and covering for him when McDavid missed seven games, he really was immensely valuable. That explanantion can at least explain the slim margin of victory for Draisaitl over MacKinnon, as the former received just 147 voting points more than the latter.

Roman Josi Named Winner Of The 2020 Norris Trophy

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The NHL Awards roll on with the presentation of the James Norris Memorial Trophy, presented to the league’s top defenseman. This year’s winner is the Nashville Predators’ Roman Josi, as voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. Josi took the award against stout competition, with the Washington Capitals’ John Carlson and the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Victor Hedman as his fellow finalists.

Josi, 30, has received Norris votes in the past but made it impossible for the PHWA to ignore him this season with a career-high 16 goals and 65 points in just 69 games. Josi led all defensemen in goals and trailed only Carlson in assists, points, and points per game. He also led all defensemen in shots by a wide margin. Josi additionally averaged the third-most total time on ice and even strength time on ice this year and finished in the top-ten among defensemen in plus/minus.

With all that said, this was expected to be one of the tighter awards races given that the well-rounded Hedman is a previous winner and multiple-time finalist, while Carlson enjoyed a career year of his own that was arguably superior to Josi’s offensively. Yet, the voting was convincingly in favor of Josi. The Predators star received 109 first-place votes to Carlson’s 56 and finished more than 200 voting points ahead. Meanwhile, Hedman finished closer to the St. Louis Blues’ Alex Pietrangelo in fourth than he did challenge Josi and Carlson. Call it a reflection of his career more than this season alone if you like, but Josi undoubtedly deserved a Norris and was terrific in 2019-20.

Connor Hellebuyck Wins 2020 Vezina Trophy

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The Vezina Trophy has been announced and the 2019-20 winner is the Winnipeg Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck. Presented to the best goaltender each season, the award is voted on by the NHL’s general managers. Hellebuyck was selected as the recipient over the Boston Bruins’ Tuukka Rask and the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy.

While quality is often a stronger argument than quantity when it comes to goaltending performance, Hellebuyck’s impressive campaign was an exception. While Rask led all starters in both save percentage and goals against average by a wide margin this season, he did so in just 41 games. Hellebuyck meanwhile played in 58 games, more than 80% of the Jets’ games. He led the league in total shots against and saves, as well as shutouts, and finished second in wins and total time on ice. Yet most impressively given his heavy workload, Hellebuyck finished second to Rask in save percentage among starters and sixth among starters in goals against average. Of the 31 NHL GM’s, 19 cast a first-place vote for Hellebuyck versus ten for Rask, allowing the Jets keeper to edge out the victory.

Hellebuyck, a former college standout at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, has had an up-and-down NHL career, but finally put everything together this year. While he has previously led the league before in wins and saves, he has also had seasons where he has struggled immensely. Winnipeg can likely put those worries to rest after the 27-year-old established himself as one of the best in the game with an outstanding 2019-20 season.

Leon Draisaitl Named 2020 Recipient Of The Ted Lindsay Award

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Next up on NHL Awards night was the Ted Lindsay Award, a unique honor of “most outstanding player” as voted on by the players. This year’s winner is Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers. Not only was Draisaitl objectively the best player in the league this season as the Art Ross Trophy-winner with the most points in the NHL, but his peers also viewed him as the game’s best in 2019-20. Draisaitl won the award over the Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon and the New York Rangers’ Artemi Panarin.

Draisaitl has been on the cusp of superstardom for the past few years, but the 24-year-old sealed the deal this season with his second straight campaign with more than 100 points. Draisaitl led the NHL in points, points per game, assists, and game-winning goals in 2019-20, while also finishing in the top-five in goals and power play goals and leading all forwards in time on ice per game.

By nearly all metrics, Draisaitl was the best offensive player in the NHL this season and can hold his own defensively as well. His fellow players clearly saw this and voted him as the Ted Lindsay winner. However, this win not only signifies that Draisaitl was an elite player this season, but that he has now officially escaped the shadow of Connor McDavid in the eyes of his teammates and competitors. While McDavid, considered by many to be one of if not the best player in the NHL, missed some time this season, he was outplayed by Draisaitl on a per-game basis when healthy too. If anyone still saw Draisaitl as the Kurri to McDavid’s Gretzky, those days are now over.

 

Cale Makar Named 2020 Calder Trophy Winner

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The NHL Awards kicked off with the presentation of the Calder Memorial Trophy, awarded each year to the first-year player judged to be the best of the rookie class. This year, the award went to Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar, as voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. Makar beat out fellow defenseman Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks forward Dominik Kubalik.

While Kubalik was indeed a finalist for the Calder, this was a two-horse race between Makar and Hughes as expected. The PHWA voting revealed that only the New York Rangers’ Adam Fox received a first-place vote besides Makar and Hughes (and he received only one) while just five second-place votes were cast outside of the duo. At the end of the day, Makar did not receive any votes that were not first- or second-place and earned more than double the number of first-place votes as his Canucks counterpart. That was more than enough for the Colorado wunderkind to take home the Calder.

Makar, 21, has received a major hockey award for the second year in a row after he was named the Hobey Baker Award winner last year as the best player in NCAA college hockey. Just as Makar took the University of Massachusetts to the NCAA Championship game last year, he helped the Avalanche to a top-five record in the regular season and to the semifinals in the Western Conference. A dynamic puck-moving defenseman who recorded 50 points in 57 games as a first-year pro, all while logging big minutes for a rookie, Makar has the makings of a superstar in the NHL and could be back in awards contention sooner rather than later as a Norris Trophy candidate.

Otto Somppi, Oskari Laaksonen Loaned To Lahti

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Two more young players will spend the next several months playing overseas, as Otto Somppi of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Oskari Laaksonen of the Buffalo Sabres have been loaned to the Lahti Pelicans in Finland. Both players can be recalled when NHL training camps open.

Somppi, 22, is another one of Tampa Bay’s late-round draft picks that the organization has committed to developing. The 206th overall pick in 2016, Somppi has now been in their minor league system for two seasons, scoring 18 points in 45 games for the Syracuse Crunch this year. A 6’2″ center that exploded with 83 points in his final year of junior for the Halifax Mooseheads, he’ll be a restricted free agent after the 2020-21 season when his entry-level deal expires.

Laaksonen meanwhile has no experience on North American ice, having played the last three seasons with Ilves in Finland after his 2017 selection by Buffalo. The 21-year-old defenseman was a third-round pick and competed for Finland at the 2019 World Juniors, winning a gold medal alongside other talented defenders like Henri Jokiharju, Urho Vaakanainen and Ville Heinola.

Unlike Somppi, Laaksonen still has plenty of time under contract with the Sabres after only inking his entry-level deal a few months ago. It would be a lot less surprising to see him spend the entire 2020-21 season overseas, though at some point the Buffalo organization would likely want to see him compete in the AHL. That was likely the plan for this season, though Laaksonen was actually signed to his entry-level deal just a day before the team fired GM Jason Botterill.

Free Agent Focus: Carolina Hurricanes

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With free agency now less than a month away, many teams are already looking ahead to when it opens up.  There will be several prominent players set to hit the open market while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign.  The Carolina Hurricanes already traded away the rights to one pending free agent but still have some tough decisions to make.

Key Restricted Free Agents

F Warren Foegele – The journey to the NHL wasn’t smooth for the 24-year-old Foegele, who actually left the University of New Hampshire in 2015 to return to the OHL and continue his development back at the junior level. A few years later and it’s clear that that was the right decision for him after two full seasons as a member of the Hurricanes. After really making a name for himself in the 2019 playoffs where he nearly registered as many points as his whole regular season, Foegele came back in 2019-20 as an integral part of the Carolina machine.

In 68 games he scored 13 times and put up 30 points despite averaging just over 12 minutes at even-strength and not touching the ice on the powerplay. That level of production won’t land him a huge raise, but it should afford him a little more ice time and a bigger role moving forward. The question will be whether or not they can work out a multi-year contract or if either of the two sides would rather test arbitration.

D Haydn Fleury – It’s easy to forget that Fleury was the seventh-overall pick in 2014, because to this point in his career he frankly hasn’t lived up to that draft billing. Selected ahead of first-round talents like William Nylander, Nikolaj Ehlers, Dylan Larkin, and of course David Pastrnak (whose selection at 25 still haunts most of the league), Fleury has still played just 132 games in the NHL. That said, his talents did start to show themselves down the stretch for the Hurricanes, with the team even giving him a chance to play more than 20 minutes in four of his last five games before the season was canceled.

In the postseason, Fleury’s role with the team was still large enough to think that they will move forward with him as a full-time member of the defense. With Joel Edmundson traded and two other defensemen set to hit unrestricted free agency, there will be minutes to go around. Like Foegele, Fleury is arbitration-eligible but still might not be able to argue for much of a raise given he played just 45 NHL games this season.

Other RFAs: F Steven Lorentz, F Clark Bishop, F Spencer Smallman, F Jacob Pritchard, D Oliwer Kaski, D Roland McKeown, D Gustav Forsling, G Callum Booth

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

F Justin Williams – Does he come back for a 20th NHL season? It’s not clear at all what Williams’ plans are, but last time it took him until January to officially return to the league and it just so happens that that is when the next season is expected to start. Maybe the next few months will be enough time off for the veteran forward to get the itch again and if Carolina is willing, it seems like the only destination. Williams signed for just $700K (plus performance bonuses) this season and would likely do the same if he returns.

D Sami Vatanen – The bigger question is trade deadline acquisition Vatanen, who actually may have never suited up for Carolina had the playoffs not been delayed. The 29-year-old was injured when the Hurricanes acquired him at the deadline and tweaked it again meaning he never did actually play a regular season game for the team. That didn’t stop head coach Rod Brind’Amour from using Vatanen a lot in the playoffs, but even that postseason performance seems unlikely to land him a new contract with the Hurricanes this offseason.

Carolina already has five defensemen locked up for at least $4MM per season, a number that Vatanen will likely be trying to eclipse on a multi-year deal in free agency. He’s coming off a four-year contract that carried a $4.875MM AAV, and though the flat cap situation may squeeze middle-tier free agents like Vatanen, it’s hard to see how the Hurricanes could really justify bringing him back without a trade of someone else.

Other UFAs: D Trevor van Riemsdyk, F Max McCormick, F Brian Gibbons, G Anton Forsberg

Projected Cap Space

Hard to justify because the Hurricanes only have about $7.8MM in cap space going into the offseason and have more pressing needs than their third pairing. James Reimer and Petr Mrazek are both heading into their final seasons under contract and the Hurricanes have been included in plenty of goaltending speculation. There is also a new deal just around the corner with budding superstar Andrei Svechnikov, who will be a restricted free agent for the first time in 2021.

Promoting youngsters like Jake Bean can provide some more flexibility because of their inexpensive entry-level contracts, but the Hurricanes may end up more involved in the trade market than free agency given their current situation.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

More On Alex Pietrangelo’s Pending Free Agency

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When news surfaced over the weekend that talks had broken off between the St. Louis Blues and captain Alex Pietrangelo, speculation exploded all over the hockey world trying to figure out where the star defenseman will play next season. Almost every team in the league could use a Norris-level right-handed defenseman who can play in all situations, but the list that could actually fit him into their salary cap structure doesn’t appear to be nearly as high.

That won’t stop fans from trying to find a way (as evidenced by CapFriendly’s Toronto Maple Leafs page getting a surge of traffic) and it won’t stop discussion over what Pietrangelo’s presence would mean to a team looking to change their defensive identity. Toronto, a team that has struggled for ages on the defensive side of the puck, also happens to be where Pietrangelo grew up and is getting plenty of press as a potential destination. Today, Andy Strickland of Fox Sports Midwest spoke with Carlo Colaiacovo on TSN radio and gave his thoughts on whether playing in Toronto could excite Pietrangelo:

I think it one-hundred percent does. 

You talk about pulling at the heart strings and the idea of playing there? I think that one-hundred percent exists. Now whether or not they can meet his demands–and again, Toronto is going to be competing with other teams to get his services.

You look at the signing bonus Toronto has paid at some of these other guys including Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews. The Blues don’t need to pay that kind of signing bonus money. When we talk about bonus money, he’s not looking for that level of bonus money from a team like St. Louis. But from a team like Toronto? Knowing they can afford to pay that? They’re going to have to pay bonus money in that range.

The entire interview is quite fascinating, given it takes place between someone who covers the Blues closely and someone who is close with Pietrangelo (Colaiacovo also played in St. Louis and was in his wedding party). Still, even with a lot of things pointing to the Maple Leafs entering the race for the pending free agent, it will be a difficult task for them to pull off.

Toronto isn’t in quite as dire of a cap situation as some seem to think, with more than $6MM in space and only two important restricted free agents to sign, but that doesn’t mean adding Pietrangelo is even a good idea. The team already has so much money tied up in the very top-end of their roster that adding another $8MM+ cap hit (the very low-end of what he’s expected to receive on his next deal) could potentially weaken their depth even further.

Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star argued against moving one of the team’s other top players in his latest column and Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas has never indicated a willingness to listen on names like Mitch Marner or Morgan Rielly. More likely, a move to land Pietrangelo would come at the expense of some names lower in the lineup like Andreas Johnsson or Alexander Kerfoot.

Past the Maple Leafs, there will be several other teams picking up the phone to contact Pietrangelo and Newport Sports on October 9th. In fact, Strickland suggested today that there actually may be some excitement from the defenseman to see what is out there for him.

I don’t think it truly comes down to the money. It does come down to how the deal is structured. At the end of the day I truly believe that Alex Pietrangelo, the idea of going elsewhere, of entering free agency, I think that excites him. I think he is interested in seeing what else is out there.

There is now less than three weeks until Pietrangelo and the rest of the class can start talking to new teams, when free agency opens on October 9.

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