Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Archives for October 2020

OHL Will Not Allow Body Checking In 2020-21

at CDT | by

Oct 31: Ontario’s Premier, Doug Ford, tweeted this evening that the provincial government is “engaging” with the OHL to create a safe return to play plan, and specifically notes that he would like to see the league return with body checking. “To date no decisions have been made,” says the Premier.

Oct 30: The Ontario Hockey League had already made a major change to their season in response to the continued spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, delaying the start of the 2020-21 campaign until February and announcing a shortened 40-game schedule. Yet, due to another decision influenced by COVID-19, the league will look very different when it does return in a few months. Sportsnet reports that Ontario’s minister of sport, Lisa MacLeod, has announced that body checking will not be permitted in OHL games this season.

Of course, this is not as straightforward as it may seem. While MacLeod stated that she arrived at this decision based on the spread of COVID-19 in the QMJHL and that she felt “removing purposeful physical contact from the game was a necessary step to preventing the spread.” However, many in the media have already asked if this opinion was really backed up by any evidence or the opinion of any experts in the field. The use of the word “purposeful” also suggests that incidental contact will still be allowed. Or will it? Where will the league draw the line and what will the punishment be? There’s also the major issue of jurisdiction in this case. The OHL includes three American teams – two in Michigan and one in Pennsylvania – who do not have to abide by the health ordinances of Ontario. There is still a question as to whether the border will be open at that time to accommodate those clubs, but if they do participate this year, will body checking be allowed in their home games?

With so many questions still to be answered, it is no surprise that TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that the decision is not quite official with so many factor still needing to be discussed. Similarly, the OHL’s stance right now is more or less “no comment”, stating “Until such time as we arrive at an agreed upon Return to Play protocol with the Government of Ontario, the League will have no further comment on the matter of body contact.”

If body checking is completely removed from OHL competition this year, it will make the jobs of NHL Draft hopefuls and NHL scouts even more difficult. Without a 2020 postseason and given the shortened 2020-21 regular season, players will have less opportunity to display their talents for scouts ahead of the 2021 Draft. Now, the Ontario government is asking those players to play a completely different style of hockey in what will already be a small sample size. Without intentional contact, it will be immensely difficult to not only evaluate defensive ability, but also to get a frame of reference for offensive ability. Play will be much faster and much more offensive than normal, with defenseman and forecheckers limited in their ability, goalies exposed by a much more open game, and scoring forwards unable to show that they can produce even with opposing contact. The players hurt the most will be those who haven’t already been identified as elite, surefire first-rounders in next year’s draft. Those lucky few have already been seen by scouts, but the dozens of other OHLers who needed the season to prove they have NHL potential have just had their season length slashed and now their game fundamentally changed.

PHR Mailbag: Tryouts, Blues, Rangers, Chara, Draft

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Topics in this edition of the PHR Mailbag include PTO candidates, St. Louis’ now-vacated captaincy, the state of the back end for the Rangers, Zdeno Chara’s future, and the recently-completed 2020 NHL Entry Draft.  If your question doesn’t appear here, check back for it in last week’s mailbag.

lapcheung39: Which player will most likely get a contract or PTO from teams that are dealing with a depleted roster?

There are going to be a lot of teams looking for players on PTO agreements between now and training camp.  Some teams will be looking to try to fill the last roster spot or two while others may have interest in bringing some in for a potential taxi squad in case the NHL does like MLB did this past season in an effort to try to reduce the amount of shuffling with the farm teams.  On the flip side, many players will be looking for one of those in a last-ditch effort to try to catch on somewhere, especially with opportunities overseas largely dried up at the moment.  It’s hard to single out a particular player who might get one as there will undoubtedly be dozens handed out but here are a few that could be in that situation among players that suited up at in least 50 NHL games last season.

Madison Bowey – Detroit opted to non-tender him this offseason to avoid the arbitration process and the fact he hasn’t signed elsewhere yet is notable.  Bowey’s only 25 and is a right-shot option while his price tag should be low.  Given the dearth of righties with experience out there, it’s reasonable to think he should have signed already.  Since he hasn’t, it seems like teams will be waiting to see if he’ll accept a tryout first instead of committing guaranteed money now.

Michael Frolik – The winger had a really tough year with both Calgary and Buffalo (especially when compared to his then-$4.3MM price tag) but he’s only one season removed from a 34-point campaign.  There has been overseas interest but by all accounts, Frolik wants to take another run at an NHL spot and if he’s willing to take a lesser role, there should be some takers.

Tim Schaller – Another one that was overpaid on his last deal, Schaller has quietly spent most of the past four years in the NHL (241 games played in that span), mostly in a fourth line role.  If he wants to hang around and fight for a 12th or 13th forward spot on a roster, he will quite likely have to do it via the PTO route as it’s hard to see him getting a guaranteed contract with quite a few players still unsigned.

Again, the PTO market is very likely going to be busier than normal and with the state of the market being what it is at the moment, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a notable player or two be forced to go that route.

vincent k. mcmahon: With Alex Pietrangelo now gone, who will be the new Blues captain? I think Ryan O’Reilly should be at the top of the pecking order.

That seems like the logical choice.  Alex Steen was the other alternate captain and he’s unlikely to have much of a role next season and almost certainly won’t be brought back as a free agent after that so there’s no point in going that route.  The injury factor would take Vladimir Tarasenko out of the equation as well even though he’s been there for a while.

Naming a captain isn’t something a team wants to do every couple of years so you either name a budding star that you’re building around or a veteran that’s signed for a while.  They don’t really have anyone in the first category and among the veterans, it’s hard to see them handing it to one of Pietrangelo’s replacements in Justin Faulk or Torey Krug.  Up front, there are only three veterans signed for three years (or more) in O’Reilly, Brayden Schenn, and Oskar Sundqvist.  It’s safe to rule Sundqvist out so that leaves Schenn who is signed for six more years instead of just three for O’Reilly.

Considering O’Reilly already wears the ‘A’, he’s the front-runner for the spot.  Beyond him, Schenn is the only other one that seems somewhat likely to get that role (if they opt to name a new captain at all).

acarneglia: What’s next for the Rangers rebuild?

@Sully_from: How do you see the Rangers D playing out, Trouba, Fox, DeAngelo, Ryan Lindgren, Libor Hajek, K’Andre Miller, and Nils Lundkvist are eight players for six spots not to mention Brendan Smith. Who gets traded, position changed?

Getting a long-term second center would be ideal but it’s probably not going to be Ryan Strome and Filip Chytil isn’t ready for that role yet.  I’d like to see him get eased into that role a bit next year to help try to see if he can fill that hole in the future so that’s one thing I think they could do next season.

The other hole of note is on the left side of their back end.  As the second question notes, the strength of New York’s defense both in terms of quality and quantity is right-shot defenders.  It’s great to have that much depth on that side (especially given the fact it’s the harder of the two sides to get quality depth for) but at some point, that needs to be spun off to fill a weakness.  If it’s not a new 2C, flipping an impact righty for an impact left on the blueline is a logical next step to take for GM Jeff Gorton.

As for the current state of their back end, I don’t think much of anything is going to happen unless the RD for LD trade comes up.  Lundkvist is signed with SHL Lulea for the entire season and while that presents the opportunity for him to join New York midseason potentially given the later start to the NHL season, that won’t affect anything now.  Miller will likely need some time with AHL Hartford as well.  They’ve hedged their bets with adding veterans Jack Johnson and Anthony Bitetto who will likely serve as placeholders for the youngsters (which could include Hajek if he needs more time).  Having Smith as someone that can play on the third pairing or the wing will be handy and it wouldn’t surprise me to see him shift between the two roles again.  Lindgren will get a bigger role next season and Johnson may have to play more than a nominal role until one of Miller or Hajek is ready to push him down a pairing.

bigalval: Chara signs with the Kings on a one-year deal and a coaching job when he retires?

I have to admit, when I thought of possible non-Boston landing spots for Chara, Los Angeles was not on my radar but the idea does make some sense.  There are definitely openings on their back end and having him around to work with some of their youngsters like Michael Anderson and Tobias Bjornfot would certainly be beneficial.  As those two improve, then Chara could be slid down into a lesser role which is probably more ideal for him at this stage of his career.

The question I have is that if he decides to leave Boston (and I’m only saying if to that one as it’s quite possible he stays in the end), does he really want to go to a rebuilding team that doesn’t seem to have an eye on making the playoffs next season?  Or would he rather go to a contender, even if it means more of a restricted role?

If this was to happen, I wonder if Chara would go in to the deal knowing that he’d be likely to be traded closer to the trade deadline where he could give the Kings a shortlist of teams he’d be willing to go to.  (If there is enough interest in him, some sort of no-trade clause would seemingly be likely.)  If that’s something either side isn’t open to doing, then it’d be difficult to see a path for Chara to play there next season.

backhandinbaptist: Is there a reason Noel Gunler fell out of the first round? Fantasy-wise Dobber has him in top 10, and central scouting has him as #9 among EU skaters, but Dobber did mention there were perceived (but mainly false according to them) attitude issues. Any reasons he won’t turn into a top-level offensive talent as many scouts have him pegged as?

The Mistake of Giving Eugene Melnyk a Liver Transplant: Who were the biggest steals in the draft? Yes, I know we won’t be able to adequately judge for years but come on it’s October and there is no hockey!

There are some prospects where scouts are split on the overall upside and Gunler fits into that category.  Rankings were all over the board with him (his CSB rating when coupled with the others put him in a late 1st/early 2nd range) and while there is some offensive upside (I wouldn’t go as far as calling it top-level though), the rest of his game (defense, skating, and shift-to-shift consistency) seems to be questioned.  Not having a chance to play in the World Juniors may have raised a few eyebrows as well and presented one of those ‘what do they know that we don’t’ type of situations that can send a player dropping.  Having said that, getting him at 41 was a great pick in my books and Carolina getting him and Seth Jarvis with their top two selections was a fantastic start to their draft.

As for steals, Hendrix Lapierre at 22 qualifies if he can stay healthy.  It’s a big if considering everything he went through last year but he went in looking like a top-ten talent.  Assuming he does stay healthy, that should be a good value selection for Washington and with their top centers locked up for a while, they can afford to bring him along slowly.

A little further down is Florida’s selection of Ty Smilanic at 74.  He’s another player that was limited by injuries but profiled to be a higher pick than that heading into the season.  He needs a fair bit of development still and going the college route will afford him the longer opportunity to do so.  If he can get back to that better level, he could be a middle-six forward which would be a nice pickup near the middle of the third round.

I’d also throw Martin Chromiak at 128 to the Kings in there.  There is a lot of uncertainly with him having only played half a year in the OHL having played in the Extraliga before that.  That wasn’t a great developmental environment for him and likely caused part of his drop but he’s someone that I thought was going to be off the board well before that spot.  In the fifth round, it’s not even a gamble at that point but there is certainly some upside.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

East Notes: Schneider, Mittelstadt, Flyers

at CDT | by 3 Comments

Three weeks ago, reports surfaced that the Islanders were set to sign veteran goaltender Cory Schneider in what looked to be a number three role but that hasn’t yet materialized.  However, GM Lou Lamoriello told NHL.com’s Brian Compton that he expects a deal to get done:

There’s a good sort of chance of that transpiring. As you know, I had Cory in New Jersey and I think that he’s trying to resurrect his career, and with our coaching staff, I’ve had several conversations with Cory, so I think that rumor will come to fruition.

The 34-year-old hit the open market when New Jersey opted to buy out the final two years and $12MM of his contract earlier this month following a pair of tough years that saw him post a .897 SV% and a 3.22 GAA in 39 games.  In the ideal scenario for the Islanders, Ilya Sorokin thrives as the backup to Semyon Varlamov and Schneider isn’t needed but if the rookie falters, it appears they’ll eventually have an experienced veteran in place that can be called upon if needed.

More from the Eastern Conference:

  • Buffalo has been active with its restricted free agents lately with new deals for goalie Linus Ullmark plus forwards Sam Reinhart and Victor Olofsson, they still have some work to do. To that end, Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News reports (Twitter link) that talks for RFA forward Casey Mittelstadt were supposed to resume last week although clearly, nothing has been agreed upon yet.  The eighth-overall pick in 2017, Mittelstadt has struggled in his two full professional seasons when up with the Sabres but has fared much better with AHL Rochester.  He’s waiver-exempt to start next season so a two-way deal appears to be the likely outcome when a deal does get done.
  • While there are quite a few teams interested in UFA winger Mike Hoffman, it doesn’t appear as if the Flyers are one of them. NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jordan Hall relays that while the team could certainly use the help of the man advantage that Hoffman can provide after they went 4/52 on the power play in the playoffs, they have not reached out to Hoffman’s camp at this time.  While they have a little over $4.8MM in cap room at the moment, a sizable piece of that will be earmarked for RFA defenseman Philippe Myers.

Talks Stalled Between Blue Jackets And Pierre-Luc Dubois

at CDT | by 3 Comments

When Columbus parted with defensemen Markus Nutivaara and Ryan Murray in trades and bought out center Alexander Wennberg, it looked as if the Blue Jackets were planning on making a splash.  However, it turns out that their plan was to use that to act as a deterrent to a potential offer sheet for restricted free agent center Pierre-Luc Dubois.  However, with that effectively off the table, talks aren’t progressing as GM Jarmo Kekalainen told Michael Arace of the Columbus Post-Dispatch that discussions between the two sides have effectively stalled.

The 22-year-old is coming off of a bit of a quieter year offensively although he still led the team in scoring with 18 goals and 31 assists in 70 games while logging nearly 18 minutes a night of ice time, most of which was on their top line.  Dubois was much better in the playoffs, picking up four goals and six helpers in 10 games which certainly was an encouraging way to end his year.

There’s no denying that he is the focal point of the attack for the Blue Jackets now so it stands to reason that they’d want to lock him up to a long-term deal now and buy out some UFA years.  On the flip side, this isn’t an ideal marketplace from a players’ perspective to sign long-term with the Upper Limit of the salary cap levelling out for the foreseeable future.  Financially speaking, a bridge deal to get to arbitration a couple of years from now when revenues are potentially back on the upswing may be better for him.  That would keep his price tag down now and possibly allow for Columbus to make another addition this offseason as well.

Despite not having spoken to Pat Brisson (Dubois’ agent) for a little while, Kekalainen expressed no concern about the two sides not being on the same page at this time.  With no arbitration eligibility and other top restricted free agents (such as Islanders center Mathew Barzal) still unsigned as well, it’s a waiting game as it often is; defenseman Zach Werenski was in a similar situation last year before signing a three-year deal in the days leading up to training camp.

Whichever way Columbus ultimately goes, they’ll have plenty of cap room to work with.  Following their offseason activity, they currently have a little more than $12MM in cap space, per CapFriendly, with only Dubois and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov in need of new deals.  Gavrikov wasn’t eligible for salary arbitration and doesn’t have enough experience to be eligible for an offer sheet either so there’s no immediate rush to get anything done with him either.

Buffalo Sabres Loan Jonas Johansson To Germany

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

After making his NHL debut this past season and putting up stellar numbers in the AHL, young Buffalo Sabres goaltender Jonas Johansson is hoping to take the next step this coming season. Given the struggles that veteran Carter Hutton experienced this year, Johansson should have the opportunity to challenge for an NHL role from the get-go. Being fully prepared for a training camp battle will be a major factor in Johnasson’s odds in the position battle, so the net minder is getting an early start to his season. The Krefeld Pinguine of Germany’s DEL have announced that they have acquired Johansson on loan from the Sabres.

The DEL has postponed its regular season start until mid-December, but the league has put together a preseason tournament for eight of their 14 teams, called the Magenta Sport Cup. Johansson’s loan covers the extent of the tournament, which begins on November 11. After that point, it is unclear if he will stay with the Krefeld or will return to Buffalo in anticipation of NHL training camp opening.

By landing Johansson, Krefeld gets a goalie who recorded a .921 save percentage and 2.28 GAA in the AHL last season, both of which were top-ten marks. While he was limited to just five AHL appearances in 2018-19, his performance was even better. Johansson, 25, stands 6’5″ and 214 lbs. and is a great positional goaltender. He will be a major asset for Krefeld, as he hopes to be in the backup role for Buffalo.

RFA Notes: Hintz, Dunn, Lagesson

at CDT | by 1 Comment

With new contracts done for fellow restricted free agent forwards Radek Faksa and Denis Gurianov, the Dallas Stars have just one more name to check off the list. Roope Hintz is the lone remaining RFA for the Stars and after two straight solid seasons to begin his NHL career, the young forward is due a sizeable raise from his entry-level contract. However, Dallas is running low on salary cap space. CapFriendly currently projects the club to have just $3.4MM in space for a 22-man roster. While that currently includes nine defenseman, which is not realistic, swapping a blue liner for another forward from the AHL roster will essentially cancel out. This means the Stars have approximately $3.4MM to offer Hintz in terms of AAV, and that is if they don’t plan to make any other additions to a forward corps that lost Mattias Janmark and has not re-signed Corey Perry. However, GM Jim Nill is not worried. He tells The Dallas News’ Matthew DeFranks that the team expects to get Hintz under contract “in the next week or two.” Nill claims that the two sides have had “great discussions” and are close to an extension. If Hintz signs a short-term deal similar to the two-year, $5.1MM pact signed by Gurianov, the Stars will remain under the cap ceiling and may even have room for another addition. If the two sides instead decide that a long-term deal is the better route, the AAV could climb above that of Faksa’s $3.25MM on his five-year deal, which would put Dallas right up against or over the cap. Nill seems confident that a deal will be made one way or another and that the team can sort out the rest.

  • One team that would have to go over the salary cap to sign a key RFA are the St. Louis Blues. In fact, the Blues are already over the cap’s upper limit and are more accurately dealing with the off-season limit on spending over the cap. Yet, defenseman Vince Dunn needs a new contract and right now that seems like an impossibility for St. Louis. However, GM Doug Armstrong believes that it will all work out. Speaking with Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Armstrong stated that two sides are content to wait until closer to the start of the season to finalize and extension. The team may even need to wait until after the season officially starts, when they can place Vladimir Tarasenko and/or Alex Steen on Long-Term Injured Reserve. Once those players’ cap hits are removed from the calculation, St. Louis will have plenty of room to re-sign Dunn and more. The young rearguard has developed into a reliable top-four option for the Blues and will be due a major pay increase, but that will pale in comparison to the potential $13.25MM vacancy created by Tarasenko and Steen hitting LTIR.
  • There may not be much in the hockey news cycle right now, but the Edmonton Oilers made an odd choice to fill the gap by pumping the tires of a player they have yet to re-sign. The Oilers recently released a piece touting the overseas accomplishments of defenseman William Lagesson, who is still seeking a new contract for next season. Lagesson has seven points through nine games with HC Vita Hasten of Sweden’s Allsvenskan and is already looking forward to competing for a regular NHL role this season. Lagesson played in eight games with Edmonton last year, but failed to record a point. He still has a history of solid two-way play in the NCAA and AHL and if Edmonton is agreeing that he is NHL-ready, that could come in handy in contract negotiations. Of course, “NHL-ready” and NHL opportunity are not the same and Lagesson has an uphill battle to crack the Oilers’ roster that already includes five one-way defensemen (not including the injured Oscar Klefbom), a more established RFA in Ethan Bear in need of a new deal, and younger, more elite prospects like Evan Bouchard and Philip Broberg clamoring for a chance.

Snapshots: Wilson, Schedule, Lemieux

at CDT | by 2 Comments

In a piece for The Players’ Tribune that is well worth the full read, unrestricted free agent forward Colin Wilson detailed his ongoing battles with his mental health and addiction.  Towards the end of the piece, he indicated that he believes his playing days have come to an end.  The 31-year-old was only able to play in nine games for the Avalanche last season after undergoing double hip surgery that didn’t fix the issue so he underwent the procedure again since then.  If it is indeed the end of the line for Wilson, he’ll wind up with 113 goals and 173 assists in 632 career games over 11 seasons between Colorado and Nashville, who drafted him seventh overall back in 2008.

More from around the hockey world:

  • NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan that one of the things they’re focusing on as they work on the 2020-21 schedule is trying to get back to a more normal one for 2021-22. For that to happen, next season would likely need to be somewhat truncated which is something that both the players and the league appear to want to avoid.  Daly also pointed out that they do not view the start of the Olympics in July as a date that they have to finish by as some of their possible models involve playing past that time.  However, if the goal is to get closer to a regular start for the following year, playing into late July or early August would make that difficult.
  • The Rangers have a pair of arbitration hearings on the docket for next week in center Ryan Strome and winger Brendan Lemieux. While they’re limited to a one-year term for the former, they’ll have the option to elect a one-year or two-year award for the latter.  Larry Brooks of the New York Post suggests that New York will opt for a two-year term for Lemieux in an effort to limit his earning upside for 2021-22.  The 22-year-old had six goals and a dozen assists along with 111 PIMs in 59 games last season.  Lemieux’s hearing is scheduled for November 6th.

Tyler Seguin’s Surgery Delayed

at CDT | by 2 Comments

It was a month ago that we learned that Stars center Tyler Seguin was set to undergo surgery to repair a torn labrum but GM Jim Nill told reporters, including NHL.com’s Tracey Myers, that the procedure hasn’t happened just yet.  Instead, due to complications from the pandemic, the new plan is that Seguin will be able to go under the knife sometime next week.

The timeline for recovery remains the same at four months.  All of a sudden, instead of potentially being ready to start the season (or at least soon after), he could be out at late as early March and miss considerable time.  Even with the start date for the 2020-21 campaign still up in the air, all indications point to the league trying to get underway at some point in January.

That would certainly be a big loss for Dallas as even though Seguin is coming off a quiet season offensively by his standards (17 goals and 33 assists in 50 games), he still led the team in scoring by a considerable margin while logging more than 19 minutes a night for the third straight year.  While that’s not a great return on a $9.85MM price tag, replacing a number one center is tough for any team to have to try to do for any extended period of time.

It would be difficult for Nill to make a move to try to replace him as well.  While they have more than $4MM in cap room still, a good chunk of that will be going to RFA winger Roope Hintz.  Meanwhile, while Seguin would potentially be eligible for LTIR which would give them some space to work with to replace him, they’d have to get back into cap compliance before he could be activated.  Given how difficult it has been to move money in the offseason where there is technically more flexibility, having to free up cap space in-season will be a challenge.  Accordingly, the Stars will likely have to fill Seguin’s spot from within and hope to manage without him in the early going next season.

Jets Loan Skyler McKenzie To Germany

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Winnipeg has found a place for another one of its prospects to play as the team announced (Twitter link) that they have loaned winger Skyler McKenzie to EHC Freiburg of the DEL2.  As has been the case with the majority of these international loans, it will last until NHL training camps begin.

The 22-year-old was a seventh-round pick (198th overall) of the Jets back in 2017 in his second year of eligibility following an impressive offensive season with WHL Portland.  He improved on those numbers in 2017-18 with a 47-goal, 87-point campaign which was enough to earn him an entry-level contract with Winnipeg.

McKenzie has spent the first two years of his professional career exclusively at the AHL level with Manitoba and he improved upon his rookie numbers with nine goals and 14 assists in 58 games with the Moose last season.  With one year left on his entry-level deal, he will need to take another step forward in 2020-21 to secure a qualifying offer and while he’s going to a second-division league in Germany, getting some game reps in should help his case when training camps in North America get underway.

Negotiation Notes: Ekman-Larsson, Bertuzzi, Gushchin

at CDT | by 2 Comments

While the Oliver Ekman-Larsson trade rumors dominated the pre-free agency headlines, the Arizona Coyotes’ star defenseman ultimately stayed put. Now, the ’Yotes captain tells AZ Central’s Jose Romero that this was the result that he had hoped for:

I have a clause in my contract, a no-trade, no-move clause. At the same time, I did not want to stand in the way if the organization felt otherwise. That’s how I am as a person. It was more that if they wanted to remove me, I set up the two clubs as an alternative, but, as I said, I wanted nothing better than to continue in Arizona so it feels good that it turned out the way it did.

Ekman-Larsson didn’t stand in the Coyotes’ way of making a trade per say, but the longest-tenured Coyote provided as little flexibility as he could while seeming open to a deal. Ekman-Larsson provided Arizona with just two teams he would accept a trade to, the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks, and also set a deadline of October 9 for a deal to be completed. While the team reportedly had talks with both Boston and Vancouver, no deal could be reached in time and Ekman-Larsson stayed put. While he admits that even being available on his own terms was uncomfortable, Ekman-Larsson feels happy to still be a Coyote and has moved past the whole situation. Arizona meanwhile will have to find another way to solve their current salary cap crisis.

  • While there is a negative correlation between reaching a salary arbitration hearing and the number of seasons that player spends with his team after the fact, Tyler Bertuzzi remains on good terms with the Detroit Red Wings, according to Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. Bertuzzi tells James that all is well, even after the player was critically examined by his own team in front of an arbitrator, who seemingly agreed with an award closer to where the Red Wings filed. Bertuzzi went so far as to say the process “went smoothly” and stated that it was “nothing personal at all.” Congratulations are due to Detroit and GM Steve Yzerman on not only winning the arbitration battle, but maintaining such good terms with the subject. Bertuzzi’s experience with an arbitration hearing is far from the norm.
  • Daniil Gushchin, selected in the third round by the San Jose Sharks earlier this month, had previously signed with the OHL’s Niagara Ice Dogs this summer after the team picked him fourth overall in the 2020 CHL Import Draft. This seemingly marked the end of his consideration of going the collegiate route as well as his time in the USHL. Yet, with the OHL season delayed, Gushchin’s USHL club, the Muskegon Lumberjacks, have revealed that their star forward is still very much in the mix for the 2020-21. It is possible that the Ice Dogs have negotiated a loan of Gushchin to the Lumberjacks until OHL training camps open, but it also may be that the skilled forward has simply found himself a place to play. So long as Gushchin stays in the USHL this season and does not suit up in the OHL, he would maintain his NCAA eligibility and could still wind up joining a college program, many of whom had interest before he committed to Niagara.

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

scroll to top