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Archives for December 2020

Edmonton Oilers Sign Ethan Bear

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Late last night, the Edmonton Oilers were finally able to get their young up-and-coming defenseman under contract, signing Ethan Bear to a new two-year deal. The contract will carry an average annual value of $2MM through the 2021-22 season, leaving Bear a restricted free agent once again in two years’ time.

The 23-year-old broke out last season, suiting up in all 71 games for the Edmonton Oilers and logging nearly 22 minutes a night for the team. That earned him a tenth-place finish in the Calder Trophy voting, though he was continually overlooked thanks to some other incredible rookie defensemen in the Western Conference. While Bear may not be at the same level as Cale Makar, he’s still an extremely important piece for the Oilers to build around on the back end.

With Oscar Klefbom out for the entire upcoming season, Bear will be asked to do even more for the Oilers this season. Sure, the team has added Tyson Barrie as a powerplay quarterback and Slate Koekkoek as a depth option, but neither one seems like a long-term fit. Instead, Bear and other youngsters like Philip Broberg and Evan Bouchard will make up the next core of defenders for the Oilers, should they all fulfill their potential.

With Bear under contract, the Oilers have now finished all of their restricted free agent negotiations but find themselves slightly over the salary cap ceiling. Klefbom’s hit can be moved to long-term injured reserve to add some more flexibility, though the team will likely attempt to be compliant (under the $81.5MM cap ceiling) on opening day to maximize the relief of that move.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Calgary Flames Sign Garret Sparks To PTO

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When the ECHL’s daily transactions today listed Orlando Solar Bears goaltender Garret Sparks as being recalled by the Calgary Flames, it left many puzzled. After some digging, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was among those to clarify that Sparks has signed a PTO with the Flames and will join the team for training camp.

Sparks, 27, spent this past season with the Vegas Golden Knights and even made an appearance with the team. However, he otherwise spent the entire season in the AHL and had fewer starts and lesser numbers than starter Oscar Dansk. A former Toronto Maple Leafs prospect and occasional backup, Sparks actually has nearly 40 NHL games on his resume as well as very strong career AHL numbers. Yet, in recent years he has failed to capitalize on his NHL chances and has outgrown the prospect label, leaving few options for the unrestricted free agent this off-season. Sparks signed with Orlando earlier this month without any better opportunities at the time.

Sparks now has a second chance to get back into the NHL this season as he is set to attend camp with Calgary. The Flames are set in the NHL with big free agent addition Jacob Markstrom and incumbent David Rittich, but Sparks could still be of value in some other roles. Sparks is likely to compete with fellow veteran Louis Domingue to get the nod as the team’s taxi squad goalie this season. The new roster fixture allows a select group of players to travel and practice with the NHL roster without counting toward roster limits  and with salary being treated as if they were in the minors. However, these players – and especially the No. 3 goalie – may not see much game action this season, so the slot is better used on a veteran than a prospect in need of appearances like Artyom Zagidulin or Tyler Parsons. Even if the Flames opt to go with Domingue for the taxi squad, they may still want to sign Sparks as a second AHL goalie. It is still unclear if Zagidulin will be recalled from his loan to the KHL to play in the AHL this year, but if not there will be a hole alongside Parsons for the Stockton Heat.

Kirby Dach Suffers Injury, Will Miss 4-5 Months

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December 28: The prognosis is in and the news isn’t great for the Blackhawks and their fans. Chicago has announced that Dach has undergone surgery on his fractured right wrist and the timeline for recovery is four to five months. According to the NHL’s revised 2020-21 schedule, only the earliest possible return would allow Dach to play in the regular season and even a potential playoff run might be out of the question if there are any delays to his recovery. Most likely, the Blackhawks will be without their young standout this season.

December 24, 11:30am: McKenzie adds to his report, tweeting that Dach suffered a fracture but more testing will be needed before deciding if surgery is needed. Speculating on the length of time Dach will miss, McKenzie suggests that a 4-8 week timeline would be for a normal fracture but if surgery is required it could be “considerably longer.”

December 24, 9:30am: Team Canada has lost its captain. The Chicago Blackhawks may have lost their young star. After taking an awkward hit yesterday during a pre-tournament game, Kirby Dach has been ruled out for the World Junior Championship according to Bob McKenzie of TSN. Though team doctors are still assessing the injury and the team has not yet officially announced it, McKenzie tweets that not only will he miss the WJC but Dach is also expected to miss NHL time.

This is a worst-case scenario for everyone involved. Team Canada has enough forward power to replace Dach and still be a favorite, but this is exactly the reason that some teams don’t want their top prospects going to an international tournament so close to the NHL season. Dach of course missed the event last year because he was already a full-time roster piece for the Blackhawks, but the team gave him the chance to go this year and wear the “C” for his country. Now, not only will Dach not get to play in a WJC, but he is going to miss some of his sophomore NHL season as well.

Blackhawks camp starts in just over a week, with games scheduled to start in three weeks’ time. We’ll have to wait and see how long Dach is out for, but given how effective he was in the postseason bubble, this is a big blow for Chicago. As an 18-year-old rookie, Dach scored 23 points in 64 games for the Blackhawks last season but came into the bubble even better, recording six points and generally looking like one of the most dangerous players on the ice in Chicago’s nine games.

Of course, the Blackhawks also announced that Alexander Nylander would miss several months yesterday after knee surgery, meaning two of the team’s young forwards are out for the time being.

Minor Transactions: 12/28/20

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Training camp is just a few days away and things are heating up in the hockey world. With waivers open and rosters being announced, minor transactions will come fast and furious all across the league. We’ll keep track of them right here.

  • The Pittsburgh Penguins have released their training camp roster, which will include Jordan Nolan as reported earlier this month. The veteran forward signed an AHL deal with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins but will attend camp on a PTO trying to earn an NHL contract. Nolan, who last played in the NHL during the 2018-19 season, scored 27 points for the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL last year.
  • The Buffalo Sabres have also released their camp roster, which will not include Casey Nelson. The team has confirmed that Nelson has opted out of the upcoming season. The team also has a few extra spots open, likely leaving room for World Junior players like Dylan Cozens to join after their tournament ends.
  • The Nashville Predators have recalled five players from the ECHL’s Florida Everblades. Patrick Harper, Tanner Jeannot, Tommy Novak, Cole Smith, and Josh Wilkins have all been brought back up, presumably to attend the Predators training camp in the coming days. The quintet, who are all signed to NHL deals, helped the Everblades get off to an easy 5-0 start this season, outscoring their competition 25-7.
  • Previously reported professional tryouts for Scott Darling and Kevin Connauton with the Florida Panthers have been confirmed. Both will attend training camp in an attempt to land an NHL contract with the team. The Panthers of course were actually the team to execute a buyout on Darling’s last contract after a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes, which means he’s already on their books for around $1.2MM for the upcoming season. That number won’t go anywhere, even if he does sign a new deal with the team.
  • T.J. Brennan hasn’t played in an NHL game since 2015-16, but he has managed to land an NHL contract in each of the four seasons since then. That streak has come to an end now though. Swiss club HC Thurgau has announced a one-year deal with Brennan, a major move for a club whose defense has been thinned by injury. The accomplished AHLer should immediately become one of the top players for Thurgau, who plays in the second tier Swiss League.
  •  After just one full year in the NHL on his entry-level contract, forward Ryan Kuffner is making the move overseas. The Princeton product has signed with ERC Ingolstadt of Germany’s DEL, the club announced. Kuffner joins a team that rosters several other familiar AHL veterans and the young forward should be a good fit. Whether he produces at a level that warrants a second look in the NHL however remains to be seen.

Carolina Hurricanes Sign Seth Jarvis

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The Carolina Hurricanes have signed their top draft choice, inking Seth Jarvis to a three-year entry-level contract. Jarvis was recently one of the final cuts from Team Canada for the World Juniors and is awaiting the start of the WHL season. Hurricanes GM Don Waddell released a short statement:

Seth is an extremely talented player with elite puck skills and scoring ability. He has a very bright future, and we are excited to watch him continue his development into an NHL player.

Jarvis, 18, was the 13th overall selection in this year’s draft after his outstanding 2019-20 season with the Portland Winterhawks. The Winnipeg-born center had 42 goals and 98 points in 58 games, finishing second in WHL scoring behind only Minnesota Wild prospect Adam Beckman. Unfortunately, he’s one of the top prospects that now hasn’t played a competitive game in nearly ten months, unless you count the intra-squad games at Canada’s WJC selection camp.

That long wait is important to remember when considering this contract. Though most top picks are quickly inked to their entry-level deals, it may be even more important for a player like Jarvis. Should the WHL cancel the season at any point, he would likely be eligible to join the AHL. Even before that he could potentially stick around with the Hurricanes on their taxi squad, learning from the NHL players that will one day be his teammates. Of course, his deal will only actually kick in if he plays in seven games with Carolina. It will likely slide forward as he continues his development.

Corey Perry Signs With Montreal Canadiens

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The Montreal Canadiens have added even more veteran depth, this time signing Corey Perry to a one-year contract worth $750K. Perry is the fifth Stanley Cup winner the Canadiens have added this offseason, following Jake Allen, Joel Edmundson, Tyler Toffoli, and Michael Frolik.

Now 35, it’s easy to dismiss Perry as nothing but an extra forward on a team that already seemed to have too many for the NHL roster. But that would be diminishing the talent that the 2011 Hart Trophy winner still has, flashed once again in the postseason with the Dallas Stars. No, he won’t be scoring 50 goals again, but Perry adds some net-front touch and a bite that is hard to replicate. In the Stars recent playoff run, he scored five goals including a game-winner, good enough for fifth among Dallas forwards. That kind of secondary scoring is exactly what the Canadiens will need, considering they believe themselves to be a real contender for the playoffs in the new All-Canadian division.

The fact that Perry comes at a near-minimum cost removes any sort of risk for Montreal. Though the team technically projects to be over the salary cap at the moment, that can easily be fixed by either waiving one of their depth forwards or even moving a young name to the taxi squad for the start of the year. Though Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Nick Suzuki, and Alexander Romanov are all expected to play big roles on the team this year, the fact that they’re all waiver-exempt could lead to some transaction gymnastics at the start of the year.

It’s interesting to see these veterans taking such low offers in a squeezed offseason. After his strong performance in the playoffs, one could have assumed that Perry might be able to secure a bigger salary in a normal year. Now the pressure is on for him to perform well enough to even keep his NHL career going. For the other teams in the North division, keep your head up.

Henrik Lundqvist Will Not Play This Season

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Dec 28: Lundqvist announced on Twitter that he will undergo open-heart surgery to try and fix his health issues. The procedure will include an aortic valve, aortic root, and ascending aortic replacement.

Dec 17: The Washington Capitals’ big offseason acquisition won’t actually get to play for them this season. Henrik Lundqvist announced in an emotional tweet that he will not be able to suit up for the Capitals due to a heart condition. The full letter to fans:

It breaks my heart (literally) to share this news: I will not be joining the Capitals this upcoming season. After many weeks of tests and conversations with specialists around the country, it’s been determined that a heart condition will prevent me from taking the ice. Together, we have decided that the risk of playing before remedying my condition is too high, so I will spend the coming months figuring out the best course of action.

For the past two months I’ve been so inspired by the opportunity to play in DC and committed to my game, spending every day at the rink to prepare for the upcoming season. The news was very difficult to process but after the last test result earlier this week we knew there was only one way to go from here.

I want to thank the entire Capitals organization for not only giving me this opportunity but also for their support throughout this challenging time. I will take the next few weeks to be with my family and I’ll be back to share the next steps. 

This is such disappointing news for one of the great players of the last generation. Lundqvist, who will turn 39 in March, sits sixth on the all-time wins list with 459, every one of them recorded with the New York Rangers. That era came to an end when the veteran goaltender signed a one-year, $1.5MM contract with the Capitals in October to replace Braden Holtby as the new backup for phenom Ilya Samsonov.

Often considered among the greatest players to never win the Stanley Cup, Lundqvist finished at least sixth in Vezina Trophy voting in each of his first ten seasons, winning the award in 2012 when he posted a .930 save percentage in 62 games. While he hasn’t actually won the thing, Lundqvist’s playoff performances have been among legend, with a .921 through 130 postseason appearances. In Sweden, perhaps he is even better known for his international exploits, which include Olympic and World Championship gold and silver medals.

For those wondering how this affects the Capitals salary cap situation, the team’s best course of action would likely be to place Lundqvist on unconditional waivers and terminate the deal. Though 35-plus contracts usually count regardless of what happens, that is only in the case of multi-year agreements, which Lundqvist was obviously not. If his contract is terminated, it will come off the books completely.

Regardless, the focus now should be on Lundqvist’s health and future. Here’s hoping we haven’t seen the last of the King on an NHL ice surface.

Blues Sign Mike Hoffman To PTO Agreement

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Dec 28: According to Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic, Hoffman is believed to have a one-year contract in place worth between $3.5MM and $4.5MM. The two sides are waiting to make it official to help maximize their salary cap flexibility.

Dec 27: Mike Hoffman is certainly taking a different route to securing a contract for the upcoming season.  The Blues announced that they have signed the winger to a PTO agreement with an invitation to training camp.  Back when free agency opened up, this certainly wasn’t the expected outcome for the player ranked fourth on our Top 50 UFA list.

The 31-year-old is coming off of another productive season that saw him put up 29 goals and 30 assists in 69 games with the Panthers.  It was the fifth time in the last six seasons that he had at least 27 goals and he’s tied for 16th in goals scored by any player over the past six seasons.  Hoffman is particularly adept when it comes to power play production and has scored 28 times with the man advantage over the past two years, tied for the fifth-most in the league.

So how has it come to this?  The UFA market wasn’t kind to wingers seeking long-term, big-money agreements; Taylor Hall had to settle for a one-year, $8MM deal with Buffalo while Tyler Toffoli opted for a multi-year agreement but had to take a pay cut to do so with Montreal.  Hoffman indicated a willingness to do like Hall and sign for one year but the higher-priced offers never really materialized.

Having said that, this isn’t a typical PTO agreement.  The Blues will have some salary cap flexibility with Alex Steen (out for the year) and Vladimir Tarasenko (out for several more months) heading for LTIR but for St. Louis to best utilize the cap space that those placements will provide, they will want to wait to move them there until the start of the season.  Hoffman will presumably sign a one-year agreement once the season starts for a much higher price tag than a deal that’s close to the league minimum as players who earn deals off of PTOs typically get.

St. Louis still has to re-sign RFA defenseman Vince Dunn but the approach for him could very well be the same, to wait for the LTIR placements to be made official and then sign the contract into that space.

It has been an interesting free agent market for Hoffman but it appears he will eventually get his one-year deal with St. Louis being the team to give it to him.  He’ll just have to wait a few more weeks for it to happen.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Senators Acquire Braydon Coburn And Cedric Paquette

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It was only a matter of time before the Lightning made a move to get cap compliant for the upcoming season.  That move has now been made as they shipped defenseman Braydon Coburn, center Cedric Paquette, and a 2022 second-round pick to Ottawa in exchange for Marian Gaborik and Anders Nilsson.  Both teams have announced the move.

Recent contracts to Mikhail Sergachev, Erik Cernak, and Anthony Cirelli pushed Tampa Bay well above the $81.5MM cap ceiling, even with winger Nikita Kucherov being ruled out for the entire regular season due to a hip injury.  While Gaborik and Nilsson carry combined cap hits of $7.475MM, both have been ruled out for the season and can be added to their LTIR pool which now stands at $16.975MM with Kucherov’s deal included.  By clearing out Coburn ($1.7MM) and Paquette ($1.65MM), the Lightning sit $15.816MM over the salary cap.  With that amount being lower than their LTIR pool, they’re now back in cap compliance.

Meanwhile, the Senators pick up a pair of veterans for two players they weren’t going to be able to use this season anyway while recouping a second-rounder to replace the one they parted with yesterday to acquire Derek Stepan from Arizona.

Coburn becomes the elder statesman of Ottawa’s back end.  The 35-year-old played in 40 games for Tampa Bay last season, picking up a goal and three assists while averaging 14:03 per game.  He had a limited role in their Stanley Cup run, suiting up just three times.  The pending unrestricted free agent will likely have a depth role in Ottawa though he will serve as injury insurance.

As for Paquette, the 27-year-old has been an effective fourth-line energy player for the Lightning the last several years.  In 2019-20, he had one of his better offensive seasons, notching seven goals and 11 assists in 61 games; his assist total was a new career-high.  He will bring some more physicality to Ottawa’s lineup, an element they have brought in quite a bit of this offseason in winger Austin Watson plus blueliners Erik Gudbranson and Josh Brown.  Paquette is also slated to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

Tampa Bay’s clear preference this offseason was to try to clear Tyler Johnson’s $5MM price tag as evidenced by the fact they put him on waivers back in October after they couldn’t find a taker for him in a trade.  While that one fell through, this is a pretty good Plan B for Julien BriseBois who was able to get the team back to compliance without having to trade a core player away due to Kucherov’s injury.  There will still be work to be done as with $85MM in commitments for 2021-22 already, they’re already over the expected cap for 2021-22 which should be at or very close to the current $81.5MM Upper Limit.  But that’s a problem for another day; for now, they’re good to go.

Senators Sign Tim Stuetzle

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Ottawa now has top pick from October’s NHL Entry Draft under contract as the team announced that they’ve signed forward Tim Stuetzle to a three-year, entry-level contract.  CapFriendly reports that the deal carries a maximum base salary of $925K (including a 10% signing bonus) as well as $2.5MM per year in performance incentives.  GM Pierre Dorion released the following statement about the deal:

Tim possesses an exceptional blend of both speed and skill and a playmaking ability that our fans are going to enjoy watching for several years to come. He’s a dynamic forward who we expect to become a key piece of our roster as we continue trending towards icing an eventual elite-level team.

The 18-year-old was the third-overall selection following a strong season with Mannheim of the DEL that saw him collect seven goals and 27 assists in just 41 games, impressive production for a teenager in a men’s league where he was the youngest player.  The plan was for him to play there to start this season as well but a hand injury that required surgery put an end to those plans.  Stuetzle also had a good showing at the World Juniors with five helpers in as many contests and currently finds himself there again as the 2021 event is now underway.

Once that tournament comes to an end, Stuetzle will report to training camp with Ottawa and should make a push to crack their lineup right away.  Even with a slew of additions up front (including Derek Stepan, Evgenii Dadonov, Alex Galchenyuk, and Austin Watson), Stuetzle could force his way into the lineup fairly quickly and will be competing with the likes of Drake Batherson and Joshua Norris to earn one of the spots that is likely going to be earmarked for a young player.  He’ll be eligible to play in six games before burning the first year of his entry-level deal (it’s usually nine but that has been prorated for the shortened season).  The Sens believe that he can be a centerpiece of their rebuild and if he’s able to step in and play right away, he should become a core player for them in the not too distant future.

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