Morning Notes: Van Ryn, Sedgwick, Salomaki

The Arizona Coyotes are still conducting a search for their next head coach, but it won’t be Mike Van Ryn. The St. Louis Blues assistant is officially out of the running according to Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic. It’s not clear whether that decision came from the team or the coach.

It made sense that Van Ryn would be a candidate, given the fact that Coyotes GM Bill Armstrong was with the Blues for nearly two decades before joining Arizona. The Blues assistant also actually started his NHL coaching career with the Coyotes organization, serving as a development coach in 2016-17 after a stint in the OHL. Arizona has also spoken to candidates including Todd Nelson, Benoit Groulx, Jay Leach and Andre Tourigny as they look to find their next bench boss.

• The Montreal Canadiens have reached a three-year contract extension with their resident capologist John Sedgwick, who serves as Vice President of Hockey Operations and Legal Affairs. Sedgwick has been with the team since 2013 and has been a big part of bringing the Canadiens minor league teams—the Laval Rocket and the Trois-Rivieres Lions—closer to home. The extension quickly came with a wave of media members lauding the move, with Mike Zeisberger of NHL.com calling Sedgwick “one of the brightest minds in the game.”
• Minor league forward Miikka Salomaki has signed a two-year contract with Orebro in Finland, leaving the NHL behind for the time being. The 28-year-old spent the entire 2020-21 season in the AHL with the Colorado Eagles, scoring just two goals in 26 games. Salomaki was once a regular in the Nashville Predators lineup, but has just five NHL games played since the end of 2018-19.