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Archives for July 2021

Maple Leafs Sign Nick Ritchie

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For the second straight day, the Maple Leafs have added a former Bruin winger to their team, announcing the signing of Nick Ritchie to a two-year contract.  The deal will carry a cap hit of $2.5MM.

The 25-year-old was the tenth-overall pick back in 2014 with Anaheim hoping he’d become an impact power forward but that didn’t really happen; while he brought plenty of physicality, his offensive production was hot and cold.  That made him expendable and in 2020, Ritchie was flipped to Boston in exchange for Danton Heinen with the hopes that the Bruins could help unlock that offensive consistency.

To his credit, Ritchie did manage a career-high 15 goals last season despite the shortened schedule while chipping in with four points in 11 playoff contests but the Bruins opted to not tender him a $2MM qualifying offer earlier this week which made him an unrestricted free agent; Heinen suffered the same fate with Anaheim.  Ritchie did pretty well on the open market, landing more than that offer would have been for from Toronto while getting a second year.

With the Maple Leafs, Ritchie should have an opportunity to compete for a spot in the top six with both Zach Hyman and Nick Foligno moving on in free agency.  He’s someone that both head coach Sheldon Keefe and GM Kyle Dubas are somewhat familiar with from their days with OHL Sault Ste. Marie as Ritchie spent a partial season there to wrap up his major junior career.

This may very well be it for signings from the Maple Leafs; CapFriendly now has Toronto at roughly $1.4MM over the $81.5MM Upper Limit of the salary cap.  However, that’s with a projected full 23-man roster and as we saw last season, they’re likely to carry closer to the minimum of 20 skaters.  Even after removing some potentially AHL-bound players (pending waivers), they’ll still basically be in a spot where they will be just about at the cap ceiling so any other moves to add to their roster from here on out will require offsetting money.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the signing.

Toronto Maple Leafs Sign Ondrej Kase

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High ceiling, low floor. That’s what comes with skilled forward Ondrej Kase. When healthy, Kase’s talent is apparent. The 25-year-old winger has a 20-goal season on his resume and has scored at nearly a half-point per-game pace in his young career. The problem is that Kase has only played in 207 games through five NHL seasons, averaging just a half-season’s worth of games per year due to injury. The Boston Bruins learned the hard way that Kase cannot be relied upon, as he played in just nine regular season games total with the team after coming over from the Anaheim Ducks at the 2019 NHL Trade Deadline. This past year, he missed all but three games due to a head injury in the second game of the season and left his return game early, unable to handle getting checked.

Yet, the Bruins still nearly extended him a $2.6MM qualifying offer this summer. Bruins GM Don Sweeney had planned on retaining the dynamic, but fragile forward but changed course. The fact that Kase even remained in consideration for a new deal at that price point speaks to the upside that he brings if he can get healthy and stay healthy.

The Toronto Maple Leafs appear willing to take that chance. The team has announced a one-year, $1.25MM with Kase. While the term mitigates some risk of Kase being unable to return to form following a year missed almost entirely due to concussion symptoms, the Maple Leafs still had to commit over $1MM in order to sign Kase. That signing puts Toronto right up against the salary cap with their projected 23-man roster; so much so in fact that if Kase is on regular injured reserve, the Leafs will not have the room to even recall a minimum salary player to replace him. The trade-off of course is that a healthy Kase will be an excellent addition to their forward corps as a player who can skate with their stars and produce points. It is the ultimate boom-or-bust bargain for Toronto.

Tampa Bay Lightning To Re-Sign Taylor Raddysh

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Tampa Bay Lightning GM Julien Brisebois name-dropped restricted free agent forward Taylor Raddysh recently when discussing how the team’s recent veteran departures up front combined with their limited salary cap space would push young, affordable players into regular roles. Raddysh’s new deal certainly seems to back that up. CapFriendly reports that the Bolts and Raddysh have come to terms on a new three-year deal with a $758K AAV, the structure of which implies the 23-year-old winger is set to become a lineup regular. The breakdown is as follows:

21-22: Two-way, $750K NHL, $100K AHL ($125K guaranteed)
22-23: One-way, $750K
23-24: One-way, $775K

Raddysh may not have any NHL games to his credit just yet, but the Lightning clearly believe that he is ready for the opportunity – and then some. A three-year deal, two of which are one-way and one of which is non-minimum salary, is more than Tampa needed to give to the untested forward, but seemingly wanted to display their faith in the big winger.

The 6’3″, 210-lb. forward is a rare homegrown prospect still in the Tampa pipeline, having been drafted in the second round in 2016. Raddysh was a well-regarded prospect, topping 100 points in the OHL in 2016-17 for a stacked Erie Otters team that included numerous current NHLers, including Tampa’s own Anthony Cirelli and Erik Cernak and brother Darren Raddysh. His offense has not slowed much in the pros either, recording 110 points in 159 AHL games, including scoring at a better than point-per-game pace this season.

With few right shot forwards pegged for a roster spot in Tampa Bay, Raddysh has an outside shot of cracking the roster right away this season. The big winger may have been blocked slightly by the recent addition of Corey Perry, but he also has a great opportunity to learn a lot from the talented veteran.

Alex Tuch Undergoes Shoulder Surgery

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The Vegas Golden Knights will be without Alex Tuch for the first part of the season, after the winger underwent successful shoulder surgery. Tuch is expected to make a full recovery but has been given a recovery timeline of six months.

News like this is a double-edged sword for Vegas fans. On the one hand, it’s a terrible loss to have Tuch missing for the first chunk of the season, as he’s grown into one of their most valuable forwards and a bargain at $4.75MM. On the other, the team was already over the cap and still needed to sign restricted free agent Nolan Patrick (and likely add another depth defenseman). Tuch’s injury will hurt, but it also allows the team to become cap compliant by moving him to long-term injured reserve, something GM Kelly McCrimmon directly referenced in his media availability today.

Still, it’s difficult to replace a player like Tuch, who brings a blend of size and speed that is rarely found in the NHL. The 25-year-old forward posted 18 goals and 33 points in 55 games this season, despite playing most of the year outside of the top-six. His two most common linemates at even-strength were Nicolas Roy and Tomas Nosek, not exactly the players most associated with offensive production. Still, Tuch’s 16 even-strength tallies were second on the team behind only Max Pacioretty (18), showing just how important he is to the overall success of the Golden Knights.

The Golden Knights did seemingly prepare for this over the last few days though, re-signing winger Mattias Janmark and acquiring Evgenii Dadonov from the Ottawa Senators. Dadonov may have had a bad season in 2020-21, but had previously scored at least 25 goals in three consecutive years. He should essentially replace Tuch for the time being, though obviously brings a different playstyle than the 6’4″ freight train.

Every time the Golden Knights have a player removed from the roster or add some cap flexibility, the immediate speculation goes to Jack Eichel and his ongoing trade saga in Buffalo. Speaking to reporters including David Schoen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, McCrimmon explained that he thinks this is the roster they’ll be going into training camp with, but noted that “anything can change with a phone call.”

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

St. Louis Blues Sign Ivan Barbashev

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The St. Louis Blues have reached an agreement with Ivan Barbashev on a new two-year contract according to his agent Dan Milstein of Gold Star Hockey. Barbashev was a restricted free agent and eligible for salary arbitration this summer. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that the contract will carry an average annual value of $2.25MM. PuckPedia reports that Barbashev will earn $1.9MM in 2021-22 and $2.5MM in 2022-23.

Even with the recent additions of Brandon Saad and Pavel Buchnevich, there appears to be more playing time available in St. Louis this year for some of its young forwards. The team has bid farewell to Jaden Schwartz, Mike Hoffman and Sammy Blais, with trade rumors still swirling around Vladimir Tarasenko and Tyler Bozak still out there as an unrestricted free agent. Though it seems unlikely that Barbashev, a part-time center, would move into the top-six, he still should probably receive a bit more playing time than the 13 minutes he’s averaged to this point.

In 270 NHL games, Barbashev has scored just 89 points, but at least part of that is due to the defensive deployment that Craig Berube has always reserved for his line. The two-way forward has bought into the physical side of the game, and adds some positional flexibility by being able to line up in the middle or left wing. The fact that he spent more minutes playing with Kyle Clifford than any other player on the Blues last season suggests that there is room for offensive improvement if elevated in the lineup, but in his short stints with the more talented forwards he still hasn’t produced very much.

If there was a time for a breakout, it would be these two years, as Barbashev will actually be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this new contract. If he can set himself up as a reliable middle-six center, the number of interested teams would certainly be high.

For the Blues, deciding not to buy out any of Barbashev’s UFA years has kept the cap hit relatively low, and important move when the team still has Jordan Kyrou, Robert Thomas, and Zach Sanford to sign this summer. In fact, the team doesn’t have much room to operate with in those cases, unless of course, they move out a bigger contract like Tarasenko’s.

Dallas Stars Sign Nick Caamano, Colton Point

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The Dallas Stars made some big splashes when free agent frenzy began, but are now also taking care of some more internal contract work. Nicholas Caamano and Colton Point, two of the team’s restricted free agents, have been signed to one-year, two-way contracts for 2021-22. Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News tweets that both deals are worth $750K at the NHL level.

Caamano, 22, was one of the Stars players who tested positive for COVID-19 in training camp, leading to a delayed start to the season. After that, however, he spent the entire year with the team, bouncing back and forth between the active roster and taxi squad. He played in 24 games, but failed to score a single goal, registering just a single assist. Known more for his size and strength than his goal-scoring ability, he did rack up 41 hits in limited action and even took part in one of Dallas’ 12 fights. He’ll be in a battle for playing time once again, but the Stars obviously like him enough in that fourth-line role.

Point meanwhile will only be getting an NHL look if the Stars run into injury trouble. The 23-year-old goaltender played in 16 games for the Texas Stars this season, posting an .898 save percentage. Standing 6’5″, Point’s development will continue with the hope that he can reach the NHL at some point down the road. That probably won’t be this year, as after signing Braden Holtby, Dallas has four NHL-level netminders under contract. While it’s not clear what will happen in Ben Bishop’s case, the trio of Holtby, Anton Khudobin, and Jake Oettinger will surely take the full slate of games this season.

Paul Byron Undergoes Hip Surgery

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The Montreal Canadiens will be without Paul Byron for the start of the 2021-22 season after the veteran forward underwent hip surgery earlier this week. Though expected to make a full recovery, Byron is facing a recovery timeline of five months.

It was a difficult regular season for Byron, who was placed on and cleared waivers three separate times. The Canadiens were doing it in order to move him back and forth between the active roster and taxi squad to accrue cap space, but he was still technically available to the rest of the league for nothing. Instead of changing addresses, he remained with the Canadiens and played in 46 of the team’s 56 regular season games, scoring five goals and 16 points. His role on the team at even-strength has diminished, but Byron was still a regular on the penalty-kill, providing speed and fearlessness at the bottom of the lineup.

On Montreal’s underdog run to the Stanley Cup Finals, he averaged 14:35 through 22 games. He scored two game-winning goals, including an incredible short-handed effort from his knees at the very beginning of the postseason.

Now, as he works his way back from major surgery, it’s unclear if there will even really be a spot waiting in the Montreal lineup. The team added Mathieu Perreault and Cedric Paquette in free agency for the bottom-six, not to mention Mike Hoffman taking a spot somewhere. Cole Caufield should be with the team from the start of the regular season, meaning it’ll be a crowded group upfront. Perhaps injuries will have taken their toll by the time Byron is ready to return, but he could find himself on waivers once again.

Of course, Byron’s $3.4MM cap hit is what protects him from being nabbed off waivers, especially since it extends through the 2022-23 season. The Canadiens will actually be able to move him to long-term injured reserve for the early part of the year, giving some added flexibility, but would need to have that much cap room left when he’s healthy enough to continue his career.

Carolina Hurricanes Sign Jalen Chatfield, Sam Miletic

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Though it was reported on the first day of free agency, the Carolina Hurricanes have only just now officially announced a contract for Jalen Chatfield. The free agent defenseman has agreed to terms on a one-year, two-way deal that will pay him $750K at the NHL level. Chatfield was a Group VI unrestricted free agent after spending the first few years of his career with the Vancouver Canucks organization.

The Hurricanes have also signed Sam Miletic to a one-year, two-way contract that carries an NHL salary of $750K. Miletic did not receive a qualifying offer from the Pittsburgh Penguins, making him an unrestricted free agent. Hurricanes GM Don Waddell released statements on both players:

Jalen is a reliable defenseman who can kill penalties. He’s coming off his first NHL season and we’re thrilled to add him to our organization.

Sam is a playmaking forward who has been an All-Star in the AHL. We’re excited for him to take the next steps in his development.

It’s been a long grind for Chatfield, 25, who went undrafted out of the OHL but signed with the Canucks in 2017. He spent three full seasons in the minor leagues, skating for the Utica Comets of the AHL, before receiving his first NHL opportunity this year. With the taxi squad in place, Chatfield didn’t have to go to the minor leagues anymore, but he still wasn’t receiving regular playing time with the Canucks. In 18 games, he recorded one point.

Miletic meanwhile is in a very similar situation, though he hasn’t received any NHL chances. The 24-year-old forward was signed as an undrafted free agent out of the OHL and has played three seasons with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. After registering just five points in 21 games this year, the Penguins cut him loose.

For both players, it seems more likely that they’ll be in the AHL than the NHL this season, but these contracts do still leave the possibility of a call-up open. To play with the Chicago Wolves of the AHL, they’ll both need to clear waivers.

Nashville Predators Sign Tanner Jeannot

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The Nashville Predators have signed Tanner Jeannot to a two-year contract, avoiding arbitration with the restricted free agent. The deal will carry an average annual value of $800K, paying Jeannot $750K in 2021-22 and $850K in 2022-23.

Talk about an underdog story. Jeannot has gone from undrafted free agent, to ECHL hopeful to NHL winger in quick succession, moving from the Moose Jaw Warriors to the Predators playoff lineup in three years. The 24-year-old forward experienced an incredible breakout this season, scoring 10 goals and 21 points in 13 AHL games, five goals and seven points in 15 NHL games, and even registering an assist in five playoff appearances.

Jeannot will be back in Nashville for the next two years, giving the Predators a cheap option to move in and out of the lineup when necessary. It’s not just offense that the 6’2″ winger brought though, as Jeannot racked up 53 hits in his 15 NHL games and even scored a short-handed goal. That bang-and-crash style is beloved by coaches, managers and fans alike, leading to the Predators actually protecting the young forward in the expansion draft.

While he may not be walking into a top-six role quite yet, betting against him certainly isn’t a good idea at this point. Jeannot now becomes a valuable, inexpensive option for head coach John Hynes to use when necessary.

Columbus Blue Jackets Re-Sign Mikko Lehtonen

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed Mikko Lehtonen to a one-year contract, giving the unrestricted free agent another chance to show what he can do at the NHL level. The 2020-21 season was Lehtonen’s first in North America after a long professional career overseas. The financial details have not yet been released.

Lehtonen, 27, was a highly sought after free agent last summer following an outstanding season in the KHL. He was named league defenseman of the year after scoring 17 goals and 49 points in 60 games with Jokerit, leading to a one-year contract with Toronto Maple Leafs. Many believed Lehtonen would get a full-time role on the Maple Leafs third pair and likely run the team’s second powerplay unit, but after Zach Bogosian established himself as a more reliable option on North American ice, Lehtonen was eventually moved to the Blue Jackets.

In Columbus, the savvy defenseman played 17 games, recording three points. He averaged 18 minutes a night for the Blue Jackets in those games, more than six minutes more than during his time in Toronto. With a full offseason and training camp to prepare, and room on the Columbus blueline, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Lehtonen find much more success this time around. While he may not be the breakout KHL star that some were hoping for, he’ll get another chance to show he is an NHL-level defenseman.

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