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Archives for October 2020

Carolina Hurricanes Re-Sign Max McCormick

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The Carolina Hurricanes are welcoming back a valued depth forward. The team has announced a new one-year, two-way contract with veteran Max McCormick. The extension carries a $700K NHL salary and $125K AHL salary. McCormick will be an unrestricted free agent once again at the conclusion of the 2020-21 season.

McCormick, 28, initially arrived in Carolina as a free agent last summer. He did not see any NHL action this season for the first time since 2014-15, but still managed to prove his worth to the club. McCormick recorded 35 points in 56 points, placing him among the top five scoring forwards for the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers. With fellow top scorers Janne Kuokkanen and Julien Gauthier now gone and the Hurricanes’ affiliate relocating to Chicago, McCormick’s return provides some consistency and leadership to a team undergoing major changes.

McCormick has the ability to contribute at the NHL level as well. As a member of the Ottawa Senators, he played in 71 games over four years and chipped in ten points and 136 hits as an impact fourth liner. McCormick plays a heavier game than his stature may indicate and can hold his own on a checking line. The Hurricanes have not used a typical checking line in recent years, but should they opt to insert some grit and energy into the bottom-six, McCormick is a great option.

Jan Jenik Loaned To Kettera

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After loaning Ilya Lyubushkin back to the KHL, the Arizona Coyotes have sent another player abroad today. This time it’s Jan Jenik who has been loaned to Kettera of the Finnish second league.

Jenik, 20, was actually injured at the World Juniors this season and ended up playing in just 27 games for the Hamilton Bulldogs of the OHL. A third-round pick (65th overall) in 2018, he was one of the most dynamic players in the whole league during that short period, racking up 22 goals and 56 points.

That performance certainly has a lot of excitement surrounding the Czech-born forward, who was actually ranked 98th in Corey Pronman’s recent list of the top players under 23 for The Athletic. Getting him back on the ice is a huge deal for his development, even if it does come in an uncertain time for professional hockey players.

Because of his age, Jenik’s entry-level contract is not actually eligible to slide forward another season, meaning the Coyotes will burn the first year no matter where he plays. With that in mind, it will be interesting to see if he gets a chance in training camp to potentially push for a spot in the NHL right away, or ends up in the AHL, which recently announced they are targeting a February start date.

AHL, OHL Targeting February Start Dates

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The NHL said as recently as last week that they are still targeting a January start for the 2020-21 season, but other leagues may not be so optimistic. Jeff Marek of Sportsnet reports that at the OHL GM meeting today, a plan was presented that would have their regular season start on February 4. Training camp for the junior league would start on January 23, with a 40-game schedule expected. The AHL meanwhile had their own meeting, this time with the league’s board of governors, which included a new target start date of February 5.

While the idea of hockey returning in February is exciting, it also means nearly a year between meaningful games for many prospects. Leagues shut down in early March this year, and though some teams have found landing spots for their players overseas, many have been limited to training in small groups or individually.

The AHL had originally given a target date of December 4, but “due to the ongoing COVID-19 public health crisis” that has been moved back two full months. The minor league is much more reliant on ticket sales than the NHL is, while also not being quite as well set up for regional bubbles. With so much uncertainty over the public health situation, individual state, provincial and federal guidelines, and an NHL season that isn’t set in stone yet, even this AHL target is completely temporary. It can—and very well might—be changed again down the line.

For now though, the leagues will hope to get things started in just over three months’ time.

Columbus Blue Jackets Re-Sign Kevin Stenlund

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have completed a pair of transactions, signing Kevin Stenlund to a one-year, two-way contract for 2020-21 and loaning Jacob Christiansen to Bratislava in the Austrian ICEHL. Christiansen will return in time for the upcoming season in North America. Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports that Stenlund accepted his qualifying offer, meaning he’ll carry a cap hit of $874,125 in the NHL this season on the two-way deal.

The 24-year-old Stenlund never did have a ton of notoriety as a prospect, but several years after he was selected 58th overall in 2015, he made his NHL debut for the Blue Jackets in 2019. After that quick four-game taste, he was back with the Cleveland Monsters again, providing solid two-way play and adding size to the minor league lineup. This past season he spent much more time in the NHL, suiting up 32 times for the Blue Jackets in the regular season, scoring six goals and ten points. He even dressed in two of the team’s postseason matches, scoring a key goal on the powerplay against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Now, he will have to compete for a roster spot in what has become a crowded forward group in Columbus. The team has added Mikko Koivu and Mikhail Grigorenko in free agency while trading for Max Domi as well. Even without Pierre-Luc Dubois signed they have a long list of forwards battling for minutes, including youngsters Alexandre Texier, Emil Bemstrom, and Liam Foudy. Stenlund will have to earn any opportunity he wants next season.

Mac Hollowell Loaned To TUTO

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have sent another one of their prospects overseas, this time loaning Mac Hollowell to TUTO of the Finnish second league. Hollowell split last season between the Toronto Marlies and Newfoundland Growlers in his first year of professional hockey.

Selected in the fourth round two years ago, Hollowell is another Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds connection for the Maple Leafs—the organization that GM Kyle Dubas and head coach Sheldon Keefe both came from. The undersized defenseman is already 22 as he was an over-aged prospect when the Maple Leafs picked him, but certainly brings a lot of talent to the table.

In 2018-19 when Hollowell went back to the Greyhounds, he led all OHL defensemen in scoring with 24 goals and 77 points. While he was older than much of his competition, it still demonstrated the easy puck-moving capabilities that Toronto hopes to coax out at the professional level. Things didn’t go quite as smoothly in the AHL, but Hollowell did still record 12 points in 34 games for the Toronto Marlies.

A longshot to ever become an impact player at the NHL level (or perhaps even reach it at all), Hollowell nevertheless signed his entry-level contract in 2019 and is heading into the second season of the three-year deal. He’ll get his blades on the ice in Finland for the time being but is expected to be back in North America for training camp.

Minnesota Wild Sign Marco Rossi To Entry-Level Contract

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October 28: Now that Rossi has been signed, a loan to the ZSC Lions can become official. Rossi actually doesn’t count against the import player limit for Zurich thanks to holding a Swiss player license from his years in the development system. He will return to North America in time for NHL training camp.

October 23: The Minnesota Wild have signed top draft choice Marco Rossi to a three-year, entry-level contract. Rossi has spent the last two seasons with the Ottawa 67’s of the OHL before going ninth overall in this month’s draft.

Rossi, who turned 19 a month ago, is considered one of the few players selected this year that could be able to step directly into an NHL lineup next season. The Austrian-born center was a sensational talent for Ottawa, scoring 120 points in just 56 games this season. That point total led all CHL skaters and he was named the OHL’s Most Outstanding Player.

Good at both ends of the rink, the biggest knock on Rossi is his size. Standing just 5’9″ he is by no means the prototypical big-bodied center, but he makes up for it with skill, skating ability and tremendous awareness.

The OHL was shooting for a December start date in the past, but is now much more likely to push the start of their season even further. If that’s the case, Rossi could very well end up in NHL training camp with the Wild as the next stop in his hockey career.

Ottawa Senators To Sign Alex Galchenyuk

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12:00pm: The Senators have officially announced the contract, signing Galchenyuk to a one-year, $1.05MM contract for the 2020-21 season. Dorion released a statement on the deal:

Alex’s signing represents another good addition for us at forward. He’s versatile in that he can play both left wing and centre. He’s gifted offensively, has been a solid power-play contributor and is a proven goal scorer in this league.

11:07am: The Ottawa Senators are going to add some more offensive firepower to the lineup, as Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports they are close to signing unrestricted free agent Alex Galchenyuk. Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia tweets that the contract is expected to carry a salary of $1.05MM.

Galchenyuk, 26, is a long way from the 30-goal campaign he had in 2015-16 with the Montreal Canadiens. Since then he’s been included in separate trades for Max Domi, Phil Kessel, and Jason Zucker, bouncing from Montreal to Arizona, Pittsburgh and Minnesota. He was a disaster for the Penguins, scoring just five goals and 17 points in 45 games despite getting an early opportunity beside Evgeni Malkin, and was anything but a dominant presence for the Wild, registering zero points in their four qualification round games.

Still, he’s 26 and was a third-overall pick eight years ago. There is incredible skill in Galchenyuk’s hands and though he has been a relative disappointment given his draft position, he still does have 135 goals and 320 points in 549 regular season games. That’s good enough for second among all players drafted in 2012, behind only Nashville’s Filip Forsberg (166 goals, 353 points).

In Ottawa, he can slide into a lineup that suddenly looks a lot deeper than expected. The Senators have not only added Galchenyuk, but also Evgenii Dadonov and Austin Watson to a forward group that will also likely include third-overall pick Tim Stuetzle. On defense they’ve added Josh Brown and Erik Gudbranson while solidifying the crease with Matt Murray. It’s an impressive offseason for GM Pierre Dorion, who has been adamant that the Senators will be competitive sooner than many believe.

The question now becomes where exactly Galchenyuk plays, given he is likely more effective as a center (even if there are still legitimate questions about his defensive ability). The team already has Chris Tierney, Colin White, Josh Norris, and Logan Brown as potential pivots, meaning someone—perhaps Galchenyuk—will have to move to the wing.

Still, for just over a million dollars, this is an almost risk-free move for Dorion. At worst, Galchenyuk struggles and the team doesn’t retain him next season. At best, he rediscovers his previous 30-goal potential and becomes a core piece in the rebuild. Most likely? Galchenyuk gets strong powerplay time and becomes a trade chip for the Senators at the deadline to add even more assets to the cupboard.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Ilya Lyubushkin Loaned To KHL

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The Arizona Coyotes have loaned defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin back to his old KHL club, Yaroslavl Lokomotiv, until NHL training camps open in a few months. Lyubushkin signed a new contract with the Coyotes earlier this month and is expected to challenge for a full-time roster spot in 2020-21. For now, he’ll go back to the place that put him on NHL radars in the first place.

Undrafted, Lyubushkin worked his way up the depth chart with Lokomotiv, playing five seasons in the KHL before signing an NHL contract in 2018. The 26-year-old provides almost no offense—he is still looking for his first NHL goal, 92 games in—but does represent a physical presence that is basically unmatched in Arizona. Even while playing in only 51 of the team’s 70 games and averaging just over 14 minutes a night this season, he led all defenders in hits with 151.

When he signed his one-year contract, he joined four other defensemen on the roster that will become unrestricted free agents in the 2021 offseason. Lyubushkin, Alex Goligoski, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Jason Demers and Jordan Oesterle are all on expiring deals, meaning if new GM Bill Armstrong wants to shake up the roster there will be an obvious opportunity on the blue line.

Lybushkin meanwhile will get a chance to go back to the organization that developed him, even if it is on a short-term loan. He played more than 300 games in the KHL before coming over, recording nearly 400 penalty minutes in the process.

Snapshots: Draft Rankings, Tallon, OHL, Crotty

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While scouting opportunities have been rather limited so far, preparations for the 2021 NHL Entry Draft must go on.  Accordingly, the NHL’s Central Scouting Bureau released its Players to Watch list with 341 prospects listed in total.  A total of 31 players were ranked as ‘A’ (first round) grades with the rest checking in at ‘B’ (second or third round) or ‘C’ (fourth round and beyond).

While Alexis Lafreniere was the widely-anticipated top pick heading into last season, there isn’t a consensus number one choice just yet.  Defensemen Owen Power (Michigan, NCAA), Luke Hughes (US NDTP), and Brandt Clarke (Barrie, OHL) along with centers Aatu Raty (Karpat, SM-liiga) and Kent Johnson (Michigan, NCAA) plus winger Dylan Guenther (Edmonton, WHL) are all among those who figure to be within the top-10 with some contending for the top spot.

More from around the hockey world:

  • It appears that former Florida GM Dale Tallon may not be out of a job for long. Rob Rossi of The Athletic reports (subscription link) that the 70-year-old has emerged as a candidate to join the front office in Pittsburgh.  The Penguins made a move yesterday with the firing of Jason Karmanos and it’s possible that they could turn to Tallon to take his place, albeit likely in a role other than assistant GM.
  • The OHL is expected to announce their revised plans to start the 2020-21 season on Wednesday. TSN’s Darren Dreger reports (Twitter link) that the league is now targeting a February 4th start date with training camps beginning on January 25th.  With the regular season needing to be extended well past its usual March finish date, Dreger also notes that a reduced playoff field of eight teams is expected to be announced as well.  This is a significant difference compared to the other major junior leagues as the QMJHL has already started their season (though most divisions have been shut down temporarily) and the WHL is targeting January 8th to get things underway.
  • Cameron Crotty’s professional career was supposed to begin in Arizona’s system but he’ll have a detour in Norway first instead. Sparta Sarpsborg of the Eliteserien announced that they’ve added the defenseman on a loan agreement although he has yet to make it over there so it will be a little while before he debuts.  The 21-year-old opted to turn pro with the Coyotes after spending three years at Boston University where Crotty had 10 goals and 17 over that span.

Hurricanes Re-Sign Haydn Fleury

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Scratch another player off the arbitration list.  The Hurricanes announced that they have re-signed defenseman Haydn Fleury to a two-year deal with a $1.3MM AAV.  The two sides were scheduled for a hearing on November 8th.  GM Don Waddell released the following statement:

Haydn made a huge leap in his development last season and established himself as an everyday NHL defenseman. He was very dependable late in the regular season and in the playoffs, and we look forward to him continuing his development into an elite NHL defenseman.

The 24-year-old was up with Carolina all season, the first full NHL campaign of his career.  However, given the depth that the Hurricanes have, Fleury was limited to 45 regular season games in almost exclusively a number six role.  He had four goals and ten assists, numbers that were decent considering he averaged less than 14 minutes per game.  However, Fleury was tasked with a bit more ice time in the playoffs, logging over 16 minutes a night while chipping in with a pair of goals in eight games.

That was enough to earn Fleury a small raise in his second trip through restricted free agency after he made $850K this season.  Notably, this contract will give him a third and final RFA stint in 2022 as he’ll still be a year shy of being able to hit the open market and he will be arbitration-eligible once again.

Even though Carolina has lost Joel Edmundson (trade with Montreal), Trevor van Riemsdyk (free agency, Washington), and Sami Vatanen (unrestricted free agent), Fleury will still have some work cut out for him to earn a regular spot in the lineup.  As things stand, he’s likely to battle with offseason acquisition Joakim Ryan and prospect Jake Bean for the sixth spot on their depth chart.  Even with the raise, it’s a reasonable price tag for a player that still has some upside but may still have to spend some time in the press box.

Waddell still has some work to do in the short term though as Warren Foegele is still in need of a contract with an arbitration hearing scheduled for November 4th.  Following this signing, Carolina has about $3MM in cap space to work with and a good chunk of that will be going to the winger.

Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic was the first to report the deal.

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