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Archives for September 2020

Veini Vehvilainen Loaned To JYP

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The short-term exodus of European players in the AHL continues, this time with Columbus Blue Jackets goaltending prospect Veini Vehvilainen being loaned to JYP in Finland. The agreement states that Columbus can recall Vehvilainen at any point, meaning he’ll likely be back for whenever training camp opens in North America.

Vehvilainen, 23, is just another goaltending prospect in the pipeline for the Blue Jackets, who have become something of a goalie factory this season. Both Joonas Korpisalo and Elvis Merzlikins came out of obscurity to put up All-Star numbers in the NHL, and Vehvilainen could potentially be next in line. Selected in the sixth round in 2018, the relatively small goalie has done nothing but dominate at Finland’s highest level. In 119 regular season Liiga appearances, Vehvilainen has posted a .926 save percentage, only increasing that to .929 in his 37 postseason matches. Twice he was named Finland’s top goaltender, while also helping win World Junior and World Championship gold medals.

In his first season in the AHL, Vehvilainen posted a .901 save percentage in 33 games. He and Matiss Kivlenieks, another interesting prospect, could very well battle for the NHL backup role if the Blue Jackets decide to move one of their other talented goaltenders this summer. For an organization that watched a two-time Vezina winner walk away in free agency last summer, the crease looks to be in plenty of good hands.

Snapshots: King Clancy Trophy, Kucherov, Bishop, Holzapfel

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Now that the NHL has reached the conference championship phase of the playoffs, so too can the NHL awards, which are expected to be handed out day-by-day over the next couple of weeks. First up is expected to be the King Clancy Trophy, awarded to the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community. The trophy will be awarded this evening before the start of Game 1 between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Dallas Stars. The three finalists for the awards are Minnesota Wild’s Matt Dumba, New York Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist and New Jersey Devils’ P.K. Subban.

Dumba has been committed to racial and social justice and the Hockey is for Everyone initiative and helped form the Hockey Diversity Alliance with seven current and former NHL players. Lundqvist supports several different initiatives, including aid for children’s health, education, underprivileged youth, Hockey Fights Cancer and the Make a Wish Foundation. Subban also supports several groups, including initiatives for underprivileged youth, medical support and promoting racial and social injustice.

  • Despite the bad news that the Tampa Bay Lightning will have to go through the Eastern Conference Finals without Steven Stamkos, the team did get some good news, however, on the injury front. The Athletic’s Joe Smith reports that first-line forward Nikita Kucherov is expected to be available Monday for the Lightning’s first game against the New York Islanders. Kucherov was forced to leave Game 5 against the Boston Bruins with an undisclosed injury, but has had almost a week to recover. The 27-year-old has been quite effective in the playoffs so far with four goals and 16 points in 13 games.
  • The Dallas Stars will be without starting goaltender Ben Bishop once again as The Athletic’s Sean Shapiro reports that Bishop and defenseman Taylor Fedun remain “unfit to play.” Both skated today, but neither appear ready to play. The scribe did add that forwards Andrew Cogliano and Mattias Janmark are both expected to be game-time decisions today. Bishop has appeared in just three games during the playoffs and hasn’t made an appearance since Aug. 31 against Colorado when he allowed four goals in 13 minutes before being replaced. The team will rely on Anton Khudobin once again, who is 8-5 with a .909 save percentage in 14 games during the playoffs.
  • Former AHL forward Riley Holzapfel announced his retirement after spending his four years with the Vienna Capitals of the Austrian League. Holzapfel was a second-round pick of the Atlanta Thrashers in 2006 and five season in the AHL before opting to play overseas in 2013, playing three seasons in the SHL before joining Vienna in 2016. He was never able to break into the NHL, however. The 32-year-old was still productive with Vienna, scoring 18 goals and 46 assists in 48 games.

Atlantic Notes: Stamkos, Domi, Debrusk

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There seems to be plenty of questions surrounding Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos, who has yet to make his playoff debut after undergoing core muscle surgery in early March and now has been listed as “unfit to play” with a lower-body injury. Now it looks like that if he will play in the playoffs it will have to be in the Stanley Cup Finals.

The Lightning and head coach Jon Cooper announced that Stamkos will miss the entire Eastern Conference Finals due to his undisclosed injuries, adding that he will update that status if anything changes. There was plenty of hope that Stamkos might be ready to return to the team and supplement the offensive powerhouse Lightning against the stingy defense of the Islanders. However, that won’t happen here and the team will have to win the series without him if they have any hopes of him returning for the playoffs.

If or when he returns, however, The Athletic’s Joe Smith believes that Stamkos will likely begin on the team’s second line and center both Alex Killorn and Anthony Cirelli as they likely won’t want to breakup the impressive play of the first-round combo of Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov.

  • With plenty of rumors swirling around Montreal Canadiens forward Max Domi after a disappointing second season with the team, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports on Hockey Night in Canada Saturday night that Domi’s agent, Darren Ferris, and Canadiens’ general manager Marc Bergevin met to discuss Domi’s future. Friedman notes that Domi is not requesting a trade out of Montreal. “The news got out that Max Domi has a new agent — he’s now represented by Darren Ferris,” Friedman said. “He met with Marc Bergevin, he didn’t really want to say too much about the meeting, but the one thing he was willing to say was that Max Domi has not asked for a trade from the Montreal Canadiens. I don’t know where this is going to go, but Domi has not asked to be traded.” Domi saw a 11-goal and 28-point decline in his statistics last year, something the team wasn’t thrilled about as Domi saw his playing time in the playoffs drop significantly to 14:21 of ATOI.
  • The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa (subscription required) writes the Boston Bruins are likely going to have a challenging time finding a new contract with restricted free agent Jake Debrusk. The forward is averaging 1.09 goals per 60 minutes of play on the team, the fourth-highest number on the team, besides the team’s top-line players. However, his inconsistency has showed at times as he has also been put on the team’s third line at times. However, with impressive numbers, he is in line for a contract similar to that of Travis Konecny (six years, $33MM) and Brock Boeser (three years, $17.63MM). However, with the flat salary cap, Debrusk may have to accept less in a short-term deal.

Montreal Canadiens Loan Lukas Vejdemo To Allsvenskan

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The Montreal Canadiens signed Lukas Vejdemo to a one-year, two-way deal on Friday and now the team announced they are loaning him to Sodertalje SK in the Allsvenskan to get playing time and work on his game. The 24-year-old is still expected to report to training camp for the 2020-21 season.

Vejdemo finally broke into the NHL this season, playing seven games and scoring one goal. However, he has spent most of his two years in North America with the Laval Rocket of the AHL. He had 13 goals and 29 points in 66 games last season and followed that up with nine goals and 19 points in 47 games this past year with Laval. Before that, the forward spent three years in the SHL and has never played in the Allsvenskan’s men’s league before.

This is the second player that the Canadiens have sent to Europe to work on their game while the NHL’s 2020-21 start isn’t expected to begin until December, at the earliest. The team sent defenseman Otto Leskinen to KalPa Kuopio of the Liiga last month.

 

Washington Capitals Interview Mike Babcock, Gerard Gallant

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Reports surfaced a week ago that the Washington Capitals received permission to interview veteran coach Peter Laviolette for their open head coaching position. However with three big-name coaches available, many felt GM Brian MacLellan would also interview the other two, to fill the vacancy left after the team fired Todd Reirden.

Last night during Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Washington has already interviewed former Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock:

“Last week the reports got out that the Washington Capitals had permission to interview Peter Laviolette for their vacant head coaching job, this week it’s believed that they interviewed Toronto’s former head coach Mike Babcock,” Friedman said. “And he is a legitimate candidate for the position.”

Babcock certainly would provide the Capitals with a ton of experience. The 57-year-old coached the Anaheim Ducks for two seasons before taking on the Detroit Red Wings for 12 years, which included winning the Stanley Cup in 2008. He spent four and a half years with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but failed to lead the team through a round of the playoffs. Throw in a sluggish start to the 2019-20 season and he was fired in November. He has a combined 351-173-133 regular season record.

However, it doesn’t end there as Friedman also noted later on in the segment that the Capitals have also interviewed former Columbus Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights’ head coach Gerard Gallant. The veteran coach coached each team for two full seasons each before getting fired in the middle of his third season with each team. However, he did win the Jack Adams award in 2018 in Vegas’ inaugural season when he took the expansion team to the Stanley Cup Finals. He was also the runner-up for the Jack Adams with Florida in 2016.

The Capitals are in a good position with so many veteran coaches available. The team, who has a history of hiring inexperienced coaches, has made it clear they are willing to bring in a coach with plenty of experience as the window for the team is starting to close. Star forward Alex Ovechkin will be turning 35 years old in 11 days and likely only has two to three years remaining at his peak and with little youth in the system, Washington will need a coach that can light a fire under them in the next few years.

Sean Burke Interviews For Arizona Coyotes’ GM Position

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The Arizona Coyotes have already started their interviewing process for their open general manager position. Coyotes beat writer Craig Morgan reported that the team has already interviewed Sean Burke, who has spent 12 years with the organization off and on, most recently served as the GM for Hockey Canada.

Burke, who played for nine teams over 20 years, including a five-year stint with the Coyotes, lives in the Valley, and is an obvious candidate for the position. He was hired in 2008 by Arizona (Phoenix then) to serve as director of prospect development. He also was an assistant general manager for the team as well as a goaltending coach at different times during his tenure before accepting a scouting job with the Montreal Canadiens in September of 2016. In July of 2017, Burke was named general manager of Hockey Canada, a post he held until 2019.

Burke is likely the first of many candidates likely to roll through Phoenix with the hopes of landing the GM position as owner Alex Meruelo and new team president and CEO Xavier Gutierrez are looking to make a big hire to start their tenure off right. Interim general manager Steve Sullivan is also a candidate, while the team just interviewed assistant general manager Jason Karmanos on Thursday.

Ryan Reaves Receives One-Game Suspension

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The Golden Knights will indeed be without winger Ryan Reaves for their series-opening game against Dallas on Sunday as the league announced that he has received a one-game suspension for an illegal check to the head of Canucks forward Tyler Motte on Friday night.  The video from the Department of Player Safety explaining their decision can be found here.

The hit occurred late in the second period and Reaves received a major and a match penalty for the hit which was reviewed and upheld by officials.  Vancouver was unable to score with the critical man advantage and ultimately fell 3-0.

With Reaves out of the lineup, Nick Cousins will likely take his place for Game One against the Stars.  He had been scratched when Tomas Nosek returned on Friday night.  He has five assists in 14 games so far this postseason while Reaves has four helpers in 15 contests.

Free Agent Focus: Washington Capitals

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While the official start date of free agency remains in flux depending on when the playoffs end (the later of October 9th or a week after the completion of the Stanley Cup Final), 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.  Washington has most of their team already signed for next season but a few players of note will have their contracts expire next month.

Key Restricted Free Agents

F Travis Boyd – Boyd is Washington’s only roster forward that’s slated to be a restricted free agent so he appears here by default.  He was actually quite productive in a limited role this season with 10 points in just 24 games while averaging just 11:45 per game.  The Capitals are going to need to go with cheap roster fillers so if Boyd is willing to accept something around the $800K he has made the last two years, he could stick around.

D Jonas Siegenthaler – After spending most of his first two seasons in North America in the minors, Siegenthaler held a regular roster spot this season, getting into 64 games which were mostly spent on their third pairing.  The 23-year-old also played in all but one of their playoff games which is a good sign that he’ll be part of their plans for next season.  He’ll be able to get more than his qualifying offer of $787.5K but as is the case with their forwards, affordability at the bottom of the depth chart will be critical.  Siegenthaler is worthy of a multi-year deal but to keep costs low, a one-year pact around $1MM may be the likelier outcome.

Other RFAs: D Kristofers Bindulis, F Shane Gersich, D Connor Hobbs, D Lucas Johansen, F Brian Pinho, F Daniel Sprong

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

D Brenden Dillon – Acquired from San Jose before the trade deadline, Dillon became an important part of Washington’s top four right away, averaging a little over 20 minutes a game before the pandemic hit and over 22 minutes per contest in the playoffs.  Offensively, he’s limited (surpassing the two-goal mark just once in the past six years) but he’s steady in his own end, can block shots, and adds a level of physicality that many teams will covet.  While a big raise isn’t likely, Dillon should still be able to command a small increase on the $3.27MM AAV he has played under for the last five years as there will be teams with an interest in using him on their second pairing.

D Radko Gudas – Dillon’s acquisition wasn’t good news for Gudas as it pushed him a little further down the depth chart to the point where he was scratched at times in the playoffs.  That doesn’t help his free agent case.  The change in scenery from Philadelphia didn’t allow him to show more in his new environment but rather solidified that he’s a third pairing option.  His physicality and the fact that he’s a right-shot player will still ensure that there’s a good market for him but as teams will likely look to go cheaper on their depth players in the flattened cap environment, the top price point of his market may not be much higher than the $2.35MM AAV he had this season.

G Braden Holtby – After a couple of quieter seasons by his standards, Holtby had a chance to stake his claim to the top UFA goalie available.  That didn’t happen.  Instead, he had the worst statistical season of his career with a 3.11 GAA and a save percentage of just .897.  Both of those were the worst of his career.  Holtby had an opportunity for redemption with Ilya Samsonov’s injury preventing him from playing in the postseason and his numbers (2.46 GAA, .909 SV%) were better but Washington was still ousted quickly.  Samsonov’s presence and Washington’s cap situation means that Holtby is almost certainly on the way out.  Had he established himself at the top of the free agent class, he would have been well-positioned to land a long-term deal.  Now, a short-term contract somewhere that gives him a chance to rebuild some value may be the better way to go.

Other UFAs: F Liam O’Brien, F Ilya Kovalchuk, D Tyler Lewington, D Colby Williams

Projected Cap Space

On the surface, having roughly $10MM in cap space to work with, per CapFriendly, isn’t too bad.  On the other hand, when you consider that they only have four defensemen under contract and could use a more proven second option to Samsonov, there really isn’t much to spend.  The majority of this team is already in place for next season and it will be up to a new head coach to get the most out of them.

Another factor to consider is that winger Alex Ovechkin is slated to become an unrestricted free agent next summer.  Committing another long-term deal now could make it tougher to re-sign him and that’s something they’re not going to want to do.  Expect most signings to be short-term deals as a result which should also give them a bit more financial flexibility to work with and they’ll need every bit of it.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Penguins Re-Sign Juuso Riikola

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The Penguins have kept one of their depth defensemen in the fold as they announced that they’ve signed Juuso Riikola to a two-year contract.  The deal carries an AAV of $1.15MM, a small increase on the $850K he received this season and takes him into unrestricted free agency at its expiration.  GM Jim Rutherford released the following statement about the move:

When he is on his game, Juuso has shown the ability to be a solid contributor for our team. We feel he is going to take the next step forward in his development.

The 26-year-old played in 36 games for the Penguins this season.  He was mostly in a reserve role but was called into action when injuries arose.  When Pittsburgh had several forwards go down, he wound up suiting up as a winger for four of those games.  Overall, he had a goal and six assists on the season along with 74 hits while averaging just shy of 14 minutes per night.

Riikola, who came to Pittsburgh as an undrafted free agent in 2018, could have a chance at earning more of a regular role next season.  Rutherford confirmed this week that Justin Schultz will not be returning which will free up a spot on the depth chart.  However, Riikola may have to get used to playing his off-side as he will remain behind lefties in Brian Dumoulin and Marcus Pettersson while veteran Jack Johnson also is in the mix.  If Riikola can adapt to playing on the right side, he might very well be able to take that next step forward in his development.  Otherwise, he may be reprising his role as a seventh defender heading into next season.

Pittsburgh now has roughly $8MM in cap space for next season with both of their goalies and multiple forwards (highlighted by Jared McCann) in need of new contracts.

Kings Loan Carl Grundstrom To Allsvenskan

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Just days after signing a two-year contract, there’s another transaction involving Kings winger Carl Grundstrom.  The team announced that they’ve loaned him to IF Bjorkloven of the Allsvenskan, the second division in Sweden.  (SHL teams aren’t permitted to bring in players on short-term loans.)  As is the case with many of these loans, Grundstrom will be recalled once NHL training camps get underway.

The 22-year-old looked to have an inside track at a full-time roster spot this season following a strong stint in 2018-19 after he was acquired from Toronto as part of the Jake Muzzin trade.  In that stretch, he picked up five goals in just 13 games.  Instead, Grundstrom only had a few brief NHL stints this season, playing in just 13 games while collecting four assists.  He spent most of the year with Ontario (AHL) where he fared much better offensively, picking up 12 goals and 16 assists in 40 games before the pandemic ended their season early.

Grundstrom is returning to a program that he has some familiarity with.  While he was drafted out of MODO of the SHL, he did spend three years with Bjorkloven’s program from 2010-11 through 2012-13, playing on their U-16 and U-18 squads.  As he’s now waiver-eligible, a good showing in Sweden could give Grundstrom a leg up on landing a full-time roster spot with the Kings for next season.

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