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WHL Notes: NHL Loans, Guenther, Knak

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The Western Hockey League is finally back in action. Nearly a year since the top junior league canceled the remainder of its 2019-20 season due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the WHL has returned to play. The league announced a 24-game season back in early January with a to-be-determined late-February start date and that date was Friday, as four Central Division teams matched up. As one might expect, the re-opening of the WHL has a number of previously displaced players rushing back to their respective teams. Below are the signed NHL prospects who had been playing in the AHL that have been officially reassigned to the WHL:

Adam Beckman, Minnesota Wild –> Spokane Chiefs
Gianni Fairbrother, Montreal Canadiens –> Everett Silvertips
Kaiden Guhle, Montreal Canadiens –> Prince Albert Raiders
Ridly Greig, Ottawa Senators –> Brandon Wheat Kings
Ozzy Wiesblatt, San Jose Sharks –> Prince Albert Raiders
Tristen Robins, San Jose Sharks –> Saskatoon Blades

  • The WHL season may only be one day old, but the league’s leading scorer is a name to know. Dylan Guenther, a consensus top-ten prospect in the 2021 NHL Draft, started his campaign with the Edmonton Oil Kings with a pair of goals and a pair of assists to take the WHL’s top scoring spot. Guenther is one of the greatest beneficiaries of the WHL’s return, however brief, if the NHL does not postpone the 2021 draft. The top prospect was facing the possibility of missing out on his entire draft year, having only played in four games in the Alberta Junior Hockey League. While many CHL players jumped to the USHL this season, Guenther held out hope that the WHL would return and is now rewarded with 24 games to show what he can do. Likely a top-ten pick either way, the lack of certainty in this NHL draft class will now allow Guenther to fight his way into the top-five and potentially even to the top overall spot with an elite performance. A supremely skilled scoring winger, Guenther is the biggest name to watch in the WHL’s shortened season.
  • Another name to watch is Swiss forward Simon Knak. Despite some expectation that he would be selected last year in his first NHL Draft go-round, Knak slipped through the cracks. That was despite finding success in his first season in North America, recording 34 points in 49 games for the Portland Winterhawks. However, the draft dream is still alive. Knak has spent this season back home in Switzerland, suiting up for powerhouse HC Davos at the top level of the Swiss National League. He held his own too, recording eight points in 25 games in his first pro experience. Knack very easily could have stayed in Davos and continued his pro career. However, possibly inspired by his recent success as well as a strong run as captain of Switzerland’s U-20 team, Knak has decided to stay true to his plans and head back to Portland. Davos announced that Knak has been recalled from his loan and is returning to the WHL, hoping to catch the eye of NHL scouts by playing a top role for the Winterhawks. The question is whether he can do enough in a shortened season to earn a selection as an overage pick.

Injury Notes: Blues, Kuznetsov, Larkin

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As the St. Louis Blues embark on a six-game road trip, they are leaving many of their top players behind. While Vladimir Tarasenko appears ready to be activated from the Long-Term Injured Reserve, many other Blues are not as lucky. Alex Steen and Carl Gunnarsson are out for the year, placed on LTIR, while Tyler Bozak, Ivan Barbashev, and Robert Thomas all remain sidelined on standard IR, and you can now add two more to the lengthy list of absences, as Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Colton Parayko and Jaden Schwartz also did not travel with the team. Due to the length of the trip, this implies that both are currently dealing with substantial injuries and will not be recovered within the next two weeks. This aligns with a recent report from The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford that suggest Parayko had been playing through a back injury but simply could not keep going, especially as his performance suffered. Surgery is a potential option for Parayko, but for now he is being given substantial rest and rehab in hopes that it can be avoided. Schwartz remains more unknown, only termed day-to-day thus far, but clearly his injury is more of the “week-to-week” variety. The Blues will have to hope for the best from their top options and trust their depth, as a long bout of the injury bug can be especially debilitating in a shortened season.

  • In some surprising news from earlier, Evgeny Kuznetsov was ruled out for the Washington Capitals’ Saturday matinee match-up. Kuznetsov has been diagnosed with an undisclosed upper-body injury and is considered day-to-day, but it is unknown when and how the injury occurred. According to The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir, Kuznetsov was a full participant in practice on Friday, even getting in some early solo work. There is no word on if he will be available to the Capitals tomorrow for their re-match with the New Jersey Devils.
  • The Detroit Red Wings will be without their captain and leading scorer this weekend, the team announced. Dylan Larkin has been ruled out for Saturday and Sunday meetings with the rival Chicago Blackhawks and is considered day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. With Tyler Bertuzzi still sidelined as well, the league’s second-lowest scoring teams loses another major name from its short list of weapons.

Anaheim, Vancouver Discussing Jake Virtanen Trade

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Normally Pacific Division rivals, the Anaheim Ducks and Vancouver Canucks are nevertheless discussing a trade that would send underperforming young forward Jake Virtanen further down the Pacific coast. According to multiple sources, the two teams continue to negotiate what the exchange of packages may look like. A flurry of information over the past hour or two implies that talks are very much still ongoing and public nature of the trade discussion is often a strong indicator that a deal of some sort will get done. However, The Athletic’s Thomas Drance writes that while the Canucks and Ducks are “grinding away”, a deal is not imminent for now.

Virtanen’s name as the headliner of this trade should come as no surprise. He has been one of the most verified members of the trade block this season, with whispers of Vancouver’s impatience with his lack of production dating back to last season. It’s difficult to blame the Cancucks for being upset with Virtanen to the point of wanting to move on; the 24-year-old was the sixth overall pick in 2014 and plays with the size and skill to be a dynamic power forward. Virtanen was seen as one of the safest bets in his draft class, yet six years later has shown too much floor and not enough ceiling. Although 2019-20 marked a career year for Virtanen with new highs in goals and points, it still only amounted to 18 goals and 36 points whilst his checking game diminished. After earning 55 NHL games as a rookie in 2015-16, the Canucks’ first sign that Virtanen’s effort and reliability may become a question came the following season, when he only played in ten NHL games and spent the rest of the season producing pedestrian numbers in the AHL. At the top level ever since, Virtanen has only managed 20 points, 25 points, and the aforementioned 36 points in his first three full NHL seasons.

The final straw for GM Jim Benning and company has been Virtanen’s play so far this season. The obviously talented forward has failed to meet expectations before, but this time the disparity is too great. Virtanen has just one point in 19 games despite ample opportunity early on in the campaign. As a result, Virtanen has now been relegated to a fourth line role, a poor fit for a player of his offensive ability but who also too frequently plays without energy. Unable to motivate their young forward and without a fit in the lineup, Vancouver is looking to move on.

The Ducks make sense as a partner in a Virtanen trade for many reason. Anaheim’s roster, though it includes a number of established veterans, is largely in a rebuild. The team has acquired a large group of young pro options and are in the process of evaluating who they do and do not want to build around as their new core. Unfortunately, veterans and youngsters alike have been underperforming in Anaheim, last year and early this season. The Ducks are understandably willing to take on a high-upside risk in Virtanen given that they have scoring opportunity to spare in their ever-changing lineup and are looking for top talent to build around.

There are a number of potential underachieving young forwards who could be off to Vancouver in exchange, but it seems that one name in particular has emerged as a definite inclusion. Both The Athletic’s Rick Dhaliwal (link) and Sportsnet’s Nick Alberga (link) report that forward Danton Heinen is expected to be moving to Vancouver in the potential trade. A fellow member of the 2014 draft class, though as an unheralded fourth-rounder of the Boston Bruins, Heinen has nonetheless found slightly more success than Virtanen. However, his numbers are trending in the wrong direction. After a 47-point rookie season in 2017-18, Heinen fell to 34 points the next year and ultimately fell out of favor in Boston last season, dealt to Anaheim for Nick Ritchie at the trade deadline. Heinen has recorded 10 points in 26 games across two seasons so far for Anaheim – a 32-point full-season pace – indicating that his scoring may not jump back up to near-50 and beyond with the Ducks either. Vancouver appears willing to take the chance on the British Columbia native though, perhaps with some added insight from former Bruins executive Benning. Whether or not he fits the description of the “young forward” that the club has been hunting for depends on your definition of the word.

Of course, if this was a simple one-for-one deal, it would be done by now. According to multiple sources, both players seem to be aware that they are included in the potential trade, but work still needs to be done on the additional pieces. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that balancing the books may be part of the problem, though Virtanen carries a $2.55MM cap hit this year (and next) while Heinen sits at $2.8MM, so there is not much an impactful discrepancy, even for two cap-strapped clubs. Drance notes that Vancouver was insistent on getting current value back for Virtanen, rather than just a pick or prospect to dump his salary, but Anaheim may be looking for more as a result of giving up a roster asset and taking on an additional contract year. Regardless of the reason for the deal not being completed, the two sides appear close and continue to talk. Stay tuned for more.

Derek Stepan May Miss The Rest Of The Season

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The news doesn’t appear to be good for Senators center Derek Stepan.  While the team is waiting for official word and have currently classified him as week-to-week, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that the expectation is that the veteran will be out for six months and will need surgery to repair a separated shoulder.  That would put an end to his season and with it, their plans to trade him back to an American-based team.

The 30-year-old was brought in by Ottawa back in December from Arizona in exchange for a second-round pick.  At that point, the bulk of his salary already paid via signing bonus as he was owed just $2MM while still carrying a $6.5MM AAV, giving the Sens a bit of flexibility to stay over the cap floor while keeping their costs down.  They were also hoping that he’d be a capable veteran to help some of their blossoming young talent although his on-ice performance didn’t quite live up to that goal.

Prior to the injury which was sustained back on Tuesday against Montreal, Stepan had just a goal and five assists in 20 games.  He’s also averaging a career-low in ice time at just over 15 minutes per game.  While he was certainly hopeful that he’d be able to rebound from a tough year with the Coyotes in 2019-20 that saw him put up career lows in goals (10), assists (18), and points (28), clearly things were going in the opposite direction.

Between that and the injury, Stepan isn’t going to be hitting the UFA market in an ideal situation.  Garrioch adds that Ottawa has no interest in retaining his services which takes one option off the table. With 2020-21 going the way it did for Stepan, he may have to look for a one-year deal where he can try to build back some value and hope to hit what could be a slightly less financially restrictive free agent market in 2022.

Central Notes: Cirelli, Cernak, Mrazek, Gudas, Forsling

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Tampa Bay will have one of their top forwards back in the lineup tonight as Anthony Cirelli is expected to play against Dallas, relays Joe Smith of The Athletic (Twitter link).  The 23-year-old has missed the last six games due to an upper-body injury and was off to a big start before it occurred, notching four goals and six assists in his first dozen games.  With the Lightning carrying a minimum-sized roster, they won’t have to make a corresponding roster move to get him activated.

Meanwhile, despite leaving Thursday’s victory over Carolina early with his lower-body injury, the Lightning will also have defenseman Erik Cernak in their lineup.  He’s logging more than 18 minutes per game on their back end so far this season and his availability means that they can hold Luke Schenn down on their taxi squad, extending his waiver exemption in the process.

More from the Central Division:

  • It appears that Carolina’s wait to get their starting goalie back is almost over. GM Don Waddell told Luke DeCock of the Raleigh News and Observer (Twitter link) that the Hurricanes are targeting next Sunday’s game against Florida for Petr Mrazek to make his return from a thumb injury sustained late last month that required surgery.  Carolina has actually done relatively well without Mrazek in the lineup, winning nine of 15 games since he was injured (including the game it occurred) but having their number one back in the fold will give them a nice boost as they look to work their way up the division.
  • Florida will have defenseman Radko Gudas back in their lineup tonight versus Carolina, notes Jameson Olive of the Panthers’ team website (Twitter link). He was a late scratch on Thursday night due to an upper-body injury.  Gudas is fifth on the team in ATOI by a defender, logging just over 17 minutes per game in his first season in Florida.  Meanwhile, they’ll be without Gustav Forsling due to a lower-body issue.  The early-season waiver claim has been held off the scoresheet in eight games so far this season.

Extension Talks Cool Between Hurricanes And Andrei Svechnikov

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Over the offseason, Hurricanes GM Don Waddell had indicated that one of his priorities was to get winger Andrei Svechnikov signed to a contract extension.  The pending restricted free agent is now in the final year of his entry-level contract and has been a big part of Carolina’s success over the past couple of seasons.  However, he’s in a bit of a slump as of late with just one goal – an empty-netter – over the last 11 games.  As his on-ice play has slowed down, so too have his contract talks, reports Luke DeCock of the Raleigh News and Observer.

Although discussions on this deal started back in the offseason, Svechnikov’s agent Todd Diamond indicated that it may take until the summer to get something done with the shortened season also acting as an impediment in talks:

Things are kind of status quo. There’s a time and place to have deeper talks. There’s just so many games right now, it’s not the right environment for it. It may take into the offseason.

While Carolina would certainly like to get Svechnikov signed to a long-term deal, a bridge contract certainly would seem to make more sense on the surface at this point.  They already have more than $53MM in commitments for next season, per CapFriendly, and the 20-year-old is hardly the only one in need of a new contract.  Defenseman Dougie Hamilton is a pending unrestricted free agent while their goalie tandem of Petr Mrazek and James Reimer are also UFA-eligible.  Getting deals done to re-sign or replace them and round out the rest of the roster doesn’t make a long-term contract that buys out some UFA-eligible years the most viable of options.  Team owner Tom Dundon acknowledged to DeCock that a bridge deal is the likeliest route they’ll take and is quite confident in getting an agreement in place:

It’s easy, because he’s ours, we’re going to pay him fair and get it done.  That’s just when not if. We want to get it done. These are fairly easy deals to get done. The market, if you look at the bridge deals that have been done, it’s not that hard.

Svechnikov will be entering the RFA market this offseason without arbitration eligibility, something that he needs one more year of service time to reach.  Even with the lower goal output as of late, he still has 16 points in 19 games to sit one off the team lead and had a 24-goal, 61-point campaign in 2019-20.  Accordingly, even a short-term deal could creep into the $5MM range but that would still allow the Hurricanes to have enough cap flexibility to take care of some of those other free agents.  It just looks like it’s going to take a little while longer for them to get a deal done.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Linus Ullmark To Miss At Least A Month

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Yesterday, Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger indicated that he was hopeful that goaltender Linus Ullmark would be in a day-to-day situation after missing their two games this weekend.  Unfortunately for him and Buffalo, that isn’t the case.  Speaking with reporters before today’s matinee including Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News (Twitter link), the best-case scenario for the netminder is that he’ll be back in a month.

Ullmark sustained the lower-body injury in the first period of Thursday’s game against New Jersey after making a stop on Nico Hischier.  Carter Hutton took his place after the period ended and is likely to play both games against the Flyers this weekend but Harrington suggests in a separate tweet that the Sabres may have to look outside the organization beyond that point.

That may be a good idea for GM Kevyn Adams.  While Ullmark has done well this season with a 2.44 GAA and a .919 SV%, Hutton’s regression has continued.  After putting up career-worsts in GAA (3.18) and SV% (.898) in 2019-20, he has failed to improve upon those this season, checking in at 3.24 and .889 respectively heading into today’s contest.  Technically still just six points out of a playoff spot, their postseason hopes aren’t entirely dashed but relying on Hutton to carry the load while trying to stay in the mix would be risky.

However, goaltending depth has been hard to come by this season as they’ve been snatched up off waivers routinely to the point where some teams are simply carrying three goalies to avoid the risk of losing their third-stringer for nothing.  That means that trading for a short-term upgrade is even going to be harder than usual.

In the meantime, Jonas Johansson has been promoted from the taxi squad and will serve as Hutton’s backup this weekend.  We’ll soon see if they’re able to bring someone else in or if they’ll indeed be filling Ullmark’s absence internally until he’s able to return.

Bruins Claim Jarred Tinordi Off Waivers From Predators

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The Bruins have added some depth to their back end as Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston reports (Twitter link) that they’ve claimed defenseman Jarred Tinordi off waivers from Nashville.

The 29-year-old has played in seven games this season with the Predators, logging a respectable 16:34 per night of ice time.  However, he was pushed out of his spot by Ben Harpur and while Nashville thought they’d be able to sneak him onto the taxi squad considering he has cleared waivers four other times in his career, clearly that wasn’t the case.

Tinordi was a first-round pick of Montreal (22nd overall) back in 2010 but never was able to carve out a regular role for himself and was eventually traded to Arizona in 2016 as part of the move that saw John Scott get traded after being voted in as an All-Star starter.  He played seven games with the Coyotes that season before spending three full seasons in the minors.  However, injuries forced Nashville to recall Tinordi last year and he did well enough to play in 28 games with them (plus four more in the bubble) and see early action this season.

With Boston, Tinordi provides some extra insurance on the left side of their back end with Matt Grzelcyk and Jeremy Lauzon both on injured reserve at an affordable price.  He’s in the second and final season of his contract that carries a league-minimum salary of $700K in the NHL and $300K in the minors although he will have to go through waivers again if the Bruins try to send him down once those injured players return.

Stefan Noesen Clears Waivers

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Saturday: While Tinordi was claimed by Boston, Noesen cleared waivers, Friedman reports.  Kevin Kurz of The Athletic adds that Noesen has been sent to the taxi squad for the time being although he is likely to see some time in the AHL at some point to get some game action.

Friday: According to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, Stefan Noesen of the San Jose Sharks and Jarred Tinordi of the Nashville Predators have been placed on waivers today.

Noesen, 28, was actually claimed off waivers by the Sharks last season, but re-signed to a one-year, $925K contract after impressing down the stretch. That hasn’t been the case this time around, as Noesen has zero points in five games on the season and is basically out of the rotation. By waiving him, the veteran forward can be placed on the taxi squad or sent to the minor leagues.

Tinordi meanwhile has cleared waivers many times in the past, but keeps receiving more opportunities with the Predators. The 29-year-old, 6’6″ defenseman has five points in 35 games over the past two seasons. He has been replaced of late by another hulking defenseman, 26-year-old Ben Harpur who has played in each of the last three games. Tinordi could end up on the taxi squad, or perhaps return to the AHL where he played 32 games last season.

Penguins Hire Chris Pryor As Director of Player Personnel

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When Ron Hextall was named general manager of the Penguins earlier this month, speculation quickly turned to how long it would take before Chris Pryor was added to Pittsburgh’s front office.  It turns out the answer was two and a half weeks as the team announced today that they’ve hired Pryor as their Director of Player Personnel.  The release states that his role will be to help oversee the scouting efforts in North America and Europe and assist with all player personnel decisions.

Pryor, 60, held various roles with the Flyers from 1999-2019 including Amateur Scout, Director of Scouting, and Director of Player Personnel.  It was there that he worked with Hextall who held Philadelphia’s GM title for three years.  Both were let go at the same time in late November of 2018 with Hextall becoming a senior advisor with the Kings and Pryor going to Nashville as a scout.

Pryor becomes the third addition of note to Pittsburgh’s front office since Jim Rutherford’s sudden resignation last month joining Hextall and new President of Hockey Operations Brian Burke.

As for Derek Clancey who was in the Director of Player Personnel role before today’s move, he has been let go by the Penguins, Hextall confirmed to Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Twitter link).  He was in his second season in that role with Pittsburgh and had been with the team since 2007 when he started as a pro scout, later moving up to Director of Professional Scouting.

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