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Archives for January 2021

Five Key Stories: 1/25/21 – 1/31/21

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The final week of January featured quite a few surprises which are highlighted in our key stories.

Blues Discussing Dunn Trade: It wasn’t that long ago that Vince Dunn was viewed as a key part of the long-term core for the Blues.  He had a 12-goal, 35-point season in 2018-19 but saw his production dip last year.  Things haven’t gone great this season either and he has already been scratched.  As that benching was happening, it was revealed that St. Louis has been discussing the defenseman in trades with other teams, seeking a first-round pick in return.  The 24-year-old is on a one-year, $1.875MM contract and with the Blues needing to be cap compliant for when Vladimir Tarasenko returns midseason, they’re not in a position where they can take on a more expensive player in a return.

Rutherford Resigns: The Penguins are suddenly on the lookout for a new general manager after Jim Rutherford abruptly resigned his title, citing personal reasons.  The 71-year-old joined Pittsburgh in 2014 after spending two decades at the helm in Carolina and Hartford and helped build a Stanley Cup-winning roster in 2016 and 2017.  Patrik Allvin has been elevated to the interim GM role while the team is hoping to have a full-time replacement named over the next few weeks.  That will take someone like former Arizona executive John Chayka out of any possible consideration as he was suspended for all of 2021 for conduct detrimental to the league when he tried to resign from Arizona to go elsewhere; his contract was eventually terminated.

DeAngelo On Waivers: Last season, Rangers defenseman Anthony DeAngelo led the team in points by a defenseman and was tied for fourth league-wide in that regard.  That helped land him a two-year, $9.6MM contract this offseason.  However, things haven’t gotten off to a good start this season with him being benched for two games while there have been some other incidents, including a reported fight with a teammate following Saturday’s game.  As a result, New York has placed DeAngelo on waivers.  His cap hit is high enough that only a few teams can afford to place a claim and with these off-ice concerns coming to light, there’s a good chance he’ll go unclaimed.  At that time, it will be worth monitoring to see what the Rangers plan to do with the 25-year-old.

Trade Requests: A pair of clients of Darren Ferris (Quartexx) are seeking a change of scenery.  First Flames center Sam Bennett is hoping for a trade after a tough start to his season.  While the fourth-overall pick in 2014 has had some success offensively in the playoffs, it hasn’t translated to much in the way of regular season success.  He had just a dozen points in 52 games in 2019-20 and has only one assist in seven contests this season.  Bennett has a $2.55MM AAV and is eligible for arbitration this summer.  Meanwhile, Montreal blueliner Victor Mete would also like to be moved with a lack of playing time being the issue there.  It wasn’t that long ago that he was on their top pairing with Shea Weber but his playing time and role have dipped considerably since then to the point where he had limited minutes in the bubble and has been a healthy scratch in all eight games this season.  After accepting his qualifying offer, Mete has a $735K price tag and will be arbitration-eligible in July.

Howard Retires: Veteran goaltender Jimmy Howard has decided to call it a career, hanging up his skates at the age of 36 after a 14-year NHL career, the entirety of which was spent with Detroit.  Howard played in 543 games for the Red Wings, good for third in franchise history.  Ken Holland, who was Howard’s GM back in Detroit for many of those seasons, tried to bring the netminder to Edmonton when Mike Smith was injured but instead, Howard decided to retire having played only for the team that drafted him back in the second round in 2003.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Mitchell Stephens Out At Least Two Months

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Lightning center Mitchell Stephens suffered what appeared to be a significant lower-body injury last Saturday against Columbus with the expectation of an extended absence.  Today, head coach Jon Cooper revealed to reporters, including Joe Smith of The Athletic (Twitter link) that Stephens is expected to miss at least the next two months.

The 23-year-old had cracked Tampa Bay’s roster this season after splitting last year between the Lightning and AHL Syracuse and had slotted in on the fourth line where he had an assist and a faceoff win percentage of 65.4% in four games before suffering the injury.

Tampa Bay has already transferred Stephens to LTIR where he joins wingers Nikita Kucherov and Marian Gaborik plus goaltender Anders Nilsson; all three of them are out for the season.  The move allows them to add his $737.5K cap hit to their LTIR pool which is now approaching $18MM with their combined spending (regular cap spending plus LTIR) just shy of $99MM.

2020 Year In Review: October

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2020 was certainly a unique year away from the rink.  However, it was also a year that featured several big trades and free agent signings, coaching changes, and much more.  We continue our look back at the top stories from around the game on a month-by-month basis.  Next up is October, a month that is typically full of excitement with action picking up on the ice.  Last year, it was one to remember for everything that happened away from it.

The New July 1: Normally, July 1st is when there is a frenzy of free agent signings as the market opens up.  This year, that opening came on October 9th and there was once again a large number of signings.  The full signing recap of the day can be found here but some of the notable deals included Jacob Markstrom going to Calgary to take the spot vacated by Cam Talbot who signed in Minnesota; Braden Holtby signed with Vancouver to take Markstrom’s spot.  While quite a few people expected Torey Krug to remain in Boston, he didn’t, instead signing the biggest deal of the day, a seven-year, $45.5MM pact with St. Louis.

Draft Activity: Just three days before the opening of the free agent market was the draft.  As expected, Alexis Lafreniere went number one to the Rangers and there weren’t too many surprises near the top.  While trade activity has fallen off at the draft in recent years, there were a couple of trades of note.  First, the Senators found their goalie for the future, acquiring Matt Murray from Pittsburgh for a second-round pick and prospect winger Jonathan Gruden and they wasted little time signing Murray to a four-year, $25MM contract.  Meanwhile, the Predators and Wild made a notable swap, as Luke Kunin and a fourth-round pick went to Nashville in exchange for Nick Bonino plus second and third-round selections.  Bonino gives the Wild much-needed depth down the middle while Kunin is a promising winger although he’s off to a slow start with his new team.

Pietrangelo To Vegas: While the Golden Knights had been speculatively linked as a suitor for Alex Pietrangelo on the off-chance he’d leave the Blues, the salary cap appeared to be a very steep impediment.  How could a team that’s over the cap ceiling afford the highest-priced free agent on the market?  They found a way by offloading Paul Stastny and his $6.5MM cap hit to Winnipeg and then shipped Nate Schmidt ($5.95MM) to Vancouver, taking below-market returns for both of them in the process.  That freed up just enough money to afford to give Pietrangelo a seven-year, $61.6MM contract and stay in cap compliance (although they’ve often been dressing just five defensemen to accomplish that).  While Vegas has had a strong back end early in their franchise’s history, they now have a legitimate number one to anchor that group for years to come.

More Notable Trades: There were quite a few trades in October with a lot of them centered around freeing up cap room.  However, there were a couple of notable ‘hockey deals’ that were made.  First, Montreal sent center Max Domi along with a third-round pick to Columbus for winger Josh Anderson.  Both teams wasted little time signing their new players to contracts though they took a different approach.  The Blue Jackets gave Domi basically a second bridge contract with a two-year, $10.6MM deal that walks him to UFA eligibility.  On the other hand, Anderson inked a seven-year, $38.5MM pact, a considerable risk considering he had just one goal last year with significant shoulder issues.  Meanwhile, Colorado added winger Brandon Saad with a bit of retention plus defenseman Dennis Gilbert from Chicago for blueliners Nikita Zadorov and Anton Lindholm.  In Saad, the Avalanche get a capable top-six winger on an expiring contract that fits their current financial window while Zadorov gets a change of scenery with the Blackhawks hoping he’ll do well enough to be part of their long-term plans.

Hall To Buffalo: It usually doesn’t take long for top free agents to find a contract with deals typically getting done on the first day.  It wasn’t the case for the top defenseman in Pietrangelo and it wasn’t for the top forward in Taylor Hall who waited until the third day before signing a one-year, $8MM contract with the Sabres.  While Hall had previously indicated an openness to signing a short-term pact, it still came as a bit of a surprise, especially signing with a non-playoff team in Buffalo.  However, pairing him up with Jack Eichel on the top line certainly could be the boost to his numbers that he’s looking for in order to try to cash in with a long-term deal at a similar price tag this coming summer.  However, while he has eight assists so far, he has just one goal through ten games.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Mathew Dumba Placed On Injured Reserve

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The long list of absentees continues to grow for Minnesota as defenseman Mathew Dumba has been placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury, notes Sarah McLellan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.  That means he will be out for at least the next four games including tonight’s matchup against Colorado.  Head coach Dean Evason indicated that there’s no timetable for his return while acknowledging it doesn’t look good.

Dumba’s absence is a tough blow to the Wild’s back end as he has been a key part of their top four for several years now.  After a quiet 2019-20 season offensively, he is off to a better start this year with three goals through his first nine games; the rest of Minnesota’s defenders have just one combined.

Meanwhile, Evason is hopeful that Marcus Johansson’s undisclosed injury won’t keep him out for long although he isn’t in the lineup tonight.  Goaltender Alex Stalock and winger Mats Zuccarello are also injured with the latter being transferred to LTIR to accommodate today’s taxi squad recalls of wingers Gerald Mayhew and Kyle Rau plus defenseman Luke Johnson.  Will Bitten and Mason Shaw were added to the taxi squad in corresponding moves, per CapFriendly.

Salary Cap Deep Dive: Tampa Bay Lightning

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Navigating the salary cap is one of the more important tasks for any GM.  Teams that can avert total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful.  Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation for the 2020-21 season.  This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL.  All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.

Tampa Bay Lightning

Current Cap Hit: $98,785,916 (over the $81.5MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

D Callan Foote (one year, $925K)

Potential Bonuses
Foote: $500K

Championship teams often don’t have many entry-level contracts and the Tampa Bay Lightning are no different. The team does have Foote ready to step into the lineup after the team moved on from Brayden Coburn and the rookie has taken a third-pairing role for the team and likely will play sheltered minutes for most of the season even if he did already score a goal in just four games this season.

One Year Remaining, Non-Entry-Level

F Marian Gaborik ($4.88MM, UFA)
G Anders Nilsson ($2.6MM, UFA)
F Blake Coleman ($1.8MM, UFA)
G Curtis McElhinney ($1.3MM, UFA)
F Barclay Goodrow ($925K, UFA)
D Luke Schenn ($800K, UFA)
F Alexander Volkov ($700K, RFA)
F Gemel Smith ($700K, UFA)
D Andreas Borgman ($700K, RFA)

The Lightning is using its cap space wisely, taking advantage of several injured players and going out and acquiring several other contracts of players on LTIR to maximize their cap space. The contracts of Gaborik and Nilsson will help the team for cap purposes, but will also expire next season for the team. The Lightning also made a couple savvy deals at the trade deadline last year when acquiring Coleman and Goodrow in separate deals. Not only did each player make big contributions during the team’s championship run, but both are still on affordable contracts for this year. The question will be whether Tampa Bay can bring one or both of them back for next season.

The team also has 37-year-old backup netminder in McElhinney. The veteran has been out for the start of the season, but it is believed he’ll be back soon and should be quite reliable. McElhinney had a .906 save percentage in 18 games and should help the team for this year. The team may opt to go in a different direction for 2021-22. Schenn is another key depth piece for the Lightning.

Two Years Remaining

F Brayden Point ($6.75MM, RFA)
F Ondrej Palat ($5.3MM, UFA)
D Jan Rutta ($1.3MM, UFA)
F Pat Maroon ($900K, UFA)
F Mathieu Joseph ($738K, RFA)
F Mitchell Stephens ($738K, RFA)

The team has a number of players signed long-term, but the team has a few other key players they might want to lock up. One player will be Point who has taken his game to a whole new level in the last couple of years. The 24-year-old scored 32 goals in 2017-18; 41 in 2018-19; 25 in 66 games last year and has established himself as a first-line player. He will be eligible for an extension at the end of this season and it will be interesting if Tampa Bay gives him a long-term deal then.

While Palat’s contract looked questionable a year ago when injuries were significant issues, Palat had an impressive year last year, putting up 17 goals and 41 points and was an essential top-six player for him. Maroon and Rutta both have been essential depth options for the Lightning, while Joseph and Stephens have taken significant roles on their fourth-line after splitting time between the AHL and NHL last year.

Three Years Remaining

F Anthony Cirelli ($4.8MM, RFA)
D Mikhail Sergachev ($4.8MM, RFA)
F Alex Killorn ($4.45MM, UFA)
D Erik Cernak ($2.95MM, RFA)

With three key restricted free agents during the offseason, Tampa Bay finally was able to get all three under contract, signing them to three-year bridge deals. Cirelli, Sergachev and Cernak are critical players to the team and the team can get three years out of them before having to figure out the complexities of their cap situation at that point. The 23-year-old Cirelli had 16 goals and a career-high 28 assists in 68 games last season. The 22-year-old Sergachev worked his way into the team’s top-four on defense and had a career-high 10 goals last season. Cernak, 23, had a second straight solid season as a top-four defenseman, including 172 hits last year. The Lightning might be forced to move one of them down the road, but they are certainly locked in for the near future.

Killorn is the only player who will be an unrestricted free agent in three years. The 31-year-old had a breakout season last year with career highs in goals (26) and points (49).Read more

North Notes: Virtanen, Dube, Anderson, Chabot

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After being scratched two games in a row, speculation is beginning to form around Vancouver Canucks forward Jake Virtanen. In fact, with the team being in need of defensive help, the Canucks might be willing to move on from Virtanen and his $2.55MM AAV.

The Province’s Patrick Johnston writes that one possibility might be trading Virtanen to Montreal in exchange for defenseman Victor Mete. Johnston notes that Montreal was interested in Virtanen when the two clubs discussed a deal at the 2019 draft for the now-24-year-old forward. Virtanen, who finished with 18 goals last season, so far has struggled with just one goal in nine games this season, which of course, begs the question of whether Virtanen still has any trade value.

  • There will be no hearing for Calgary Flames forward Dillon Dube for his hit Saturday(video here) against Montreal Canadiens forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi, according to TVA’s Renaud Lavoie. Dube had a high hit on Kotkaniemi in the head behind Montreal’s net. No call was made. Sportsnet’s Eric Engels adds that the NHL reviewed the hit, but determined, according to Rule 48.1, that head contact was unavoidable.
  • While no official word has come from the Montreal Canadiens, Jonathan Bernier of Le Journal de Montreal reports (translation required) that forward Josh Anderson, who was pulled out of the lineup Saturday due to flu-like symptoms, tested negative for COVID-19. It is believed that Anderson’s symptoms were due to something he ate. Anderson has been quite effective this year with four goals and five points in eight games so far this year after being acquired from Columbus during the offseason. Sportsnet’s Eric Engels confirms that the Canadiens told him that Anderson tested negative on Saturday and are awaiting a test from Sunday morning.
  • Ottawa Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot will not play Sunday and is listed as day-to-day, according to Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch. The team recalled Artem Zub earlier today in case Chabot, who was removed from Thursday’s game due to an undisclosed injury, wasn’t able to go, which Garrioch has now confirmed.

COVID Protocol Related Absences: 01/31/21

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Each day, the NHL will publicly release the list of players that are unavailable to their respective teams due to being in COVID-19 protocol. Here is today’s group:

Carolina – Jesper Fast
Chicago – Nicholas Beaudin; Adam Boqvist; Ryan Carpenter; Alex DeBrincat; Lucas Wallmark
Columbus – Patrik Laine
Dallas – Andrej Sekera*
Detroit – Adam Erne; Robby Fabbri; Sam Gagner; Jonathon Merrill; Filip Zadina
Los Angeles – TBA
Minnesota – Marcus Foligno*
New Jersey – Mackenzie Blackwood; Connor Carrick; Aaron Dell; Kyle Palmieri*; Sami Vatanen*; Travis Zajac
Vegas – Alex Pietrangelo
Washington – Evgeny Kuznetsov; Ilya Samsonov
Winnipeg – Pierre-Luc Dubois

As a reminder, inclusion on this list does not mean that a player has tested positive for Coronavirus or even that they have been confirmed as a close contact to another positive person. Included in the NHL’s list of possible reasons for someone being on the list is are the following:

(1) an initial positive test which remains unconfirmed until confirmatory testing is completed pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (2) mandated isolation for symptomatic individuals pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (3) required quarantine as a high-risk close contact in accordance with the Positive Test Protocol; (4) isolation based on a confirmed positive test result and/or; (5) quarantine for travel or other reasons as outlined in the COVID-19 Protocol

No word yet on the status of Andreas Athanasiou and Blake Lizotte who were both on the list Saturday, but the list now says TBA, suggesting the two could be activated soon.

*denotes new addition

Scott Mellanby Won’t Interview For Pittsburgh’s GM Position

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Despite getting permission from the Montreal Canadiens to interview assistant general manager Scott Mellanby for their open general manager position, the Pittsburgh Penguins won’t be interviewing him, according to TVA’s Renaud Lavoie. The scribe writes that Mellanby spoke to Canadiens’ GM Marc Bergevin Sunday and informed him that he’s happy in Montreal and wants to enjoy the team’s success and will not interview for any job in the near future.

That’s a big blow to Pittsburgh who had narrowed down their job search to just a handful of candidates with Mellanby and Los Angeles’ Ron Hextall at the forefront. The team is also reportedly expected to give interim general manager Patrik Allvin an interview. Earlier today, it was reported that the Rangers would allow assistant general manager Chris Drury to interview for the post, if asked by Pittsburgh, which hadn’t happened as of Saturday afternoon.

Mellanby has worked for the Canadiens since 2012, but has no experience as a NHL general manager. He was promoted to assistant GM in 2014 and has been mentioned as a candidate for several GM positions, many of which he turned down interviews with. Mellanby did play five-plus seasons as a player in Pennsylvania, but for the rival Philadelphia Flyers.

Rangers Place Tony DeAngelo On Waivers

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1:45 p.m.: The Athletic’s Rick Carpiniello (subscription required) reports that an incident between DeAngelo and Rangers’ goaltender Alexandar Georgiev that occurred immediately after the team’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Penguins Saturday is the cause for DeAngelo being placed on waivers.

The scribe reports that three sources confirmed that the two players got into it in the tunnel on the way to the Rangers’ locker room. The altercation was quickly broken up and Georgiev was given a maintenance day Sunday due to the incident. The Rangers neither confirmed or denied the altercation.

1:00 p.m.: The Associated Press’ Steven Whyno talked to Rangers’ coach David Quinn after the move to put DeAngelo on waivers:

“Things happen in pro sports and that was a decision the organization made,” said Quinn. “It’s part of the business. It’s a decision we made. We’ll see how it plays out. I don’t want to get into specifics.”

Quinn added that DeAngelo was held out of practice Sunday to protect the waiver process, according to NHL.com’s Dan Rosen. The coach said it was an organizational decision to keep him off the ice today.

“This isn’t about one incident, it’s not about one thing,” said Quinn. “This is a situation that the organization felt was best at this current time and we’ll see how the situation plays out.”

11:06 a.m.: The New York Rangers surprised some people Sunday when Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that defenseman Anthony DeAngelo was placed on waivers. The 25-year-old, who just signed a two-year, $9.6MM deal during the offseason, is coming off a breakout 15-goal, 53-point season in 68 games. He has played six games under that new contract, but his struggles this season could be a sign that his time with the Rangers has come to an end.

The blueliner had an impressive campaign in 2019-20 with that offensive breakout. He received five votes in the Norris Trophy voting (the same number that Dallas’ Miro Heiskanen received). He put up a 30-point campaign in 2018-19 season and looked to have turned a corner last season after having spent time with three different organizations over his short career, including the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Arizona Coyotes.

What makes the move even more interesting is the fact the team gave him quite a raise in salary during the offseason. He has only played in five of the team’s eight games for the Rangers, who are currently sitting in last place in the East Division. He has averaged more than 20 minutes in his last three contests with New York, which includes his first point of the season Saturday in a overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Of course, his minus-six rating could also be a reason for the move. On top of that, DeAngelo has been asked to move to his opposite side this year and has also lost some power play time to Adam Fox this season, both which likely have played a part in his offensive struggles so far this year.

Several teams are on the lookout for defensive help and could be candidates to grab DeAngelo, including the Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins, although DeAngelo’s AAV could be an issue for some of those teams.

East Notes: Drury, Palmieri, Blackwell, Eller

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While earlier reports have suggested that the Pittsburgh Penguins have focused on two candidates for their open general manager position in Los Angeles Kings’ Ron Hextall and Montreal Canadiens’ Scott Mellanby, another candidate, New York Rangers’ assistant general manager Chris Drury had become a longshot due to the belief that the New York Rangers wouldn’t be granted to interview with the Penguins.

However, New York Post’s Larry Brooks writes that the Rangers would not stand in the way of Drury becoming a general manager, although as of Saturday afternoon, there had been no such request from Pittsburgh. The 44-year-old Drury has become one of the most sought-after assistant general managers in the league and the scribe believes that the Rangers are well aware that they will lose Drury to a GM opportunity sooner than later.

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