Archives for July 2021

Free Agent Focus: Edmonton Oilers

July 3, 2021 at 4:00 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 2 Comments

Free agency is now just under a month away and many teams are already looking ahead to when it opens up. There will be several prominent players set to hit the open market in late July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well. Edmonton has already taken care of their most notable potential unrestricted free agent but they still have some important veterans on expiring contracts.

Key Restricted Free Agents

F Kailer Yamamoto – There was some disappointment in the first half of his contract as the 21-year-old couldn’t get established as a regular. Then same the second half of 2019-20 where he was nearly a point per game player on their second line. That led to high expectations for this season which weren’t met. However, he still managed a respectable 21 points in 52 games, playing as a full-time regular for the first time. Given Yamamoto’s limited NHL experience, a short-term contract is likely and it will be interesting to see what he winds up with. His half-season showing last season is enough to give him a bit of leverage but his numbers this year will limit his earnings upside.

F Jujhar Khaira – The 26-year-old hasn’t been able to produce much over his career and only managed three goals and eight assists in 40 games this season. However, he is one of Edmonton’s more effective penalty killers and is a good fit on their fourth line. A $1.3MM qualifying offer is on the high side, especially since Khaira has arbitration rights. If they can’t work a deal out by the July 26th deadline, there’s a decent chance that he will be non-tendered.

F Dominik Kahun – A surprising non-tender last summer after Buffalo opted to avoid the risk of an arbitration award that was too high for their liking, Kahun wound up settling for a one-year, $975K contract, a deal that looked like a bargain given the fact he had two straight seasons over 30 points. However, he didn’t play well for long stretches in Edmonton and could be heading for a similar fate later this month unless they can agree to terms on a similarly-priced deal over the next few weeks.

Other RFAs: F Tyler Benson, D Theodor Lennstrom, F Cooper Marody, G Stuart Skinner, G Dylan Wells

Key Unrestricted Free Agents:

D Tyson Barrie – After a disappointing season in Toronto leading into unrestricted free agency a year ago, Barrie opted for the best fit in the fall over the best contract. The move turned out to be a wise one as he led all NHL blueliners in points with 48 in 56 games. In doing so, he should have a stronger market now than he did in the fall and should be able to get a bigger contract. However, he turns 30 just before reaching the open market and as someone that isn’t known for his play in his own end, Barrie isn’t going to command top dollar like Dougie Hamilton will if he reaches free agency. Barrie should have a good chance to reach the $5.5MM AAV he had on his previous contract with Colorado and Toronto which would still represent a nice raise on the $3.75MM he made this season and, perhaps more importantly, land a multi-year deal in the process.

D Adam Larsson – At this point, he seems to be the priority to re-sign for Edmonton with recent progress being made on that front. The 28-year-old is a steady defensive presence and since he doesn’t put up many points, he isn’t going to be able to command a big raise, if he gets one at all. Something in the high $3MM to low $4MM range seems like a reasonable fit for Larsson which would allow him to get a deal similar to the one he just finished up while still giving the Oilers some cap flexibility to try to add to their roster.

G Mike Smith – After Edmonton wasn’t able to land a longer-term fit between the pipes in the fall, they opted to re-sign Smith in a move that worked out quite well for them in the end. The 39-year-old posted his highest save percentage (.923) and lowest goals against average (2.31) in a decade and lost only six of his 30 starts in regulation time. That would seemingly have him in line for a raise on the $1.5MM base salary he made this season but his age will likely limit his suitors, holding his market back accordingly. The Oilers would be wise to look for a longer-term fit once again but if they can’t find one, circling back to Smith makes sense. Assuming he signs another one-year deal, he’ll be eligible for performance bonuses again, giving them some extra short-term wiggle room on the cap.

Other UFAs: F Alex Chiasson, F Tyler Ennis, F Joseph Gambardella, D Slater Koekkoek, D Dmitry Kulikov, F Alan Quine, F Patrick Russell

Projected Cap Space

The Oilers have a little over $16MM in cap space at the moment and those amounts could increase if they opt to buy out goalie Mikko Koskinen or winger James Neal. A new deal for Larsson will cut about a quarter of that room out and a starting goalie will eat into that as well with Smith costing about half of what a longer-term option should. Yamamoto is the only RFA of significance so there should be some room for GM Ken Holland to work with regardless of what happens between the pipes. The question becomes whether they should spend it on one impact piece or spread it out to give themselves better depth throughout the roster. They have a few more weeks to determine which way they want to go.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.

Central Notes: Zadorov, Hagel, Glendening, Stars

July 3, 2021 at 2:58 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 4 Comments

The Blackhawks are starting to find some common ground in negotiations with pending RFA defenseman Nikita Zadorov, reports Scott Powers of The Athletic (subscription link). Powers notes that Zadorov’s original ask was a five-year deal with a $5.85MM AAV, one that buys out four years of UFA eligibility but is a high price for someone that is more of a fourth or fifth defenseman, especially in this marketplace. He suggests that something in the $4MM range would make more sense. The 26-year-old is owed a $3.2MM qualifying offer but also has arbitration rights which could deter Chicago from tendering it by the July 26th deadline if no deal is in place by then.

Minor Transactions: 07/03/21

July 3, 2021 at 1:56 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

While NHL free agency doesn’t get underway for another four weeks, the same can’t be said for AHL free agency. Players on one-year deals hit the open market back on Thursday and some of those players will be finding new teams while others may look overseas. We’ll keep track of those moves here.

The Canadiens have signed winger Danick Martel to a one-year AHL contract, per an announcement from their affiliate in Laval (Twitter link). The 26-year-old spent last season on a minor league deal with New Jersey, notching 14 points in 24 games with Binghamton. Martel has 13 career NHL games under his belt between Philadelphia and Tampa Bay, last suiting up at the top level in 2019.
Former Carolina winger Brody Sutter is opting to stay overseas as Vienna of the ICEHL announced that they’ve signed the 29-year-old to a one-year deal. Sutter has played a dozen career NHL games but after being relegated to a full-time AHL player in 2017-18, he has opted to play internationally instead of sticking around in North America. Sutter spent the last two seasons with Iserlohn in Germany.
Draft-eligible goaltender Tomas Suchanek has decided to come to North America. In an interview on Ocelari Trinec’s site, the netminder has elected to report to Tri-City of the WHL for next season. Suchanek spent this season in the second division in the Czech Republic, posting a 3.12 GAA along with a .908 SV% and the fact he’s going to play major junior could help boost his draft stock.

Oilers Making Progress On A Contract For Adam Larsson

July 3, 2021 at 12:52 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 1 Comment

Earlier this week, Edmonton ticked one big item off their to-do list with the re-signing of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to an eight-year, $42MM contract. Now, their focus is set on re-upping pending UFA defenseman Adam Larsson and it appears that progress is being made on those discussions. Larsson’s agent J.P. Barry told Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic (subscription link) that there is an emphasis on the length of the deal but that talks are going well:

We’re making progress on a contract. Sometimes teams like to move quicker than players. He’s just thinking about everything. We’re getting there. There are a few things we can still discuss.

We’d like to get some term. He’s a pretty young free agent defenseman.

Barry is certainly correct in noting that Larsson is fairly young for a blueliner with the type of experience he has. He is only 28 but already has 10 years under his belt after making the jump to the NHL as an 18-year-old after New Jersey made him the fourth-overall pick back in 2011.

While Larsson has carved out a solid NHL career with over 600 NHL games under his belt, he’s also not the top-pairing defender the Devils hoped he’d be. However, he has turned into a capable stay-at-home player on the second pairing but this isn’t a great situation to be entering free agency with limited point totals and a flat salary cap. While Larsson improved on his numbers from a year ago, he still only managed 10 points in 56 regular season games this season. That will certainly restrict how expensive his next deal will be.

As it turns out, Larsson may actually be facing a small dip in pay after coming off a six-year, $25MM contract. Deals given to Joel Edmundson and Brenden Dillon last summer both checked in under the $4MM mark and serve as reasonable comparables to Larsson. Both landed four-year deals as well which makes Barry’s comment about term more notable as it seems unlikely Larsson would settle for something with fewer years than that.

Assuming they’re able to get something done – Nugent-Bowman suggests something could be done as soon as next week – that should all but close the door on Tyson Barrie returning. A new deal for Larsson would put him, Ethan Bear, and Evan Bouchard on the right side of the depth chart for Edmonton. At some point, they need to get Bouchard – the tenth-overall pick in 2018 – into the lineup and bringing both Larsson and Barrie back would make that difficult.

While many teams will want to wait to re-sign their pending unrestricted free agents for expansion purposes, Edmonton’s situation is cleaner than most teams. A re-signed Larsson would likely push Caleb Jones away from being protected but both he and William Lagesson (another projected exposed player) have had limited roles so far in their NHL careers. Losing one of them to Seattle would still put them in a better situation than a lot of teams. Accordingly, there’s no reason to delay finalizing a contract and ensuring that Larsson sticks around for the foreseeable future.

Predators Hoping To Make An Expansion Trade With Seattle

July 3, 2021 at 11:51 am CDT | by Brian La Rose 12 Comments

After a lot of side deals that were made with Vegas didn’t exactly work out for the other team, some have wondered if there will be less of those this time around. Some general managers have suggested their intentions is just to lose who they lose and be done but that isn’t the case for Nashville. In an appearance on ESPN 102.5 The Game (audio link) following the Viktor Arvidsson trade on Thursday, GM David Poile indicated his preference would be to get a side deal in place:

Ideally, if we could strike a deal to determine a certain player who we would lose, I’d like to do that.

They effectively had an opportunity to make an arrangement with the Kraken with Arvidsson who Poile acknowledged would have been left unprotected and selected by Seattle had it not been for the trade with Los Angeles. In the end, his preference was to get some assets in return for the veteran and they did just that by picking up second and third-round draft picks.

Nashville is in a situation where they will almost certainly want to protect four defensemen, limiting them to just being able to protect four forwards. With that in mind, they’re likely to leave high-priced veterans in Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen. Making a move to clear one of those contracts off the books would certainly help free up some extra flexibility but with both signed long-term at $8MM apiece, a trade like that isn’t the most realistic.

Arvidsson’s departure now allows them to protect someone like Calle Jarnkrok which would then push Nick Cousins and Rocco Grimaldi to the forefront of likely exposed forwards with veterans Matt Benning and Mark Borowiecki the notable blueliners that would be available. On the surface, a side deal doesn’t appear to be needed as none of those are core players but evidently, Poile would like to have some more certainty surrounding who he’s going to lose. With the expansion draft being less than three weeks away, time is quickly ticking for him to make a deal to get that certainty in place.

Offseason Checklist: Nashville Predators

July 3, 2021 at 10:49 am CDT | by Brian La Rose 3 Comments

The offseason is in full flight with only two teams still standing. We continue our series which examines what those eliminated teams need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at Nashville.

It was another season of hanging around the middle for the Predators. They managed to secure the final playoff spot in the Central before being dispatched by Carolina in the first round. Their offense again sat around the middle of the pack once again as it was a case of history largely repeating itself with several high-priced veterans underachieving. GM David Poile has to be encouraged by the fact they won 18 of their last 25 games to get into the postseason but despite that, the biggest part of their offseason should revolve around shaking up the core, something that is already underway.

Granlund Decision

Mikael Granlund was one of the stranger UFA cases back in the fall. He was much better in 2019-20 after the coaching change to John Hynes and it looked like his strong finish was going to help him rebuild some value heading into the open market. It was at the point where both sides were expected to move on as he was expected to cost more than what the Preds could afford.

That didn’t happen. Instead, he was one of the players that couldn’t get the money he wanted at the start of free agency and tried to wait it out. However, even that didn’t work and he ultimately returned to Nashville in late December on a small pay cut ($3.75MM) with the hopes of a repeat second half that would give him a bigger market this time around.

That didn’t really happen either. He had 13 goals and 14 assists in 51 games this season which isn’t bad by any stretch but it’s hardly top-line production. He logged plenty of ice time (19:28 per game which led all Nashville forwards) and he spent extended time at center for the first time since 2015-16. Those are elements that will help his market.

In the end, Granlund’s market hasn’t changed much. The 29-year-old is a capable second-liner who is miscast in a bigger role with Nashville. Is he worth keeping around? Given his role, definitely. But at what price? Is Granlund willing to take a multi-year deal around this price tag? If so, they should be able to work something out. But if he’s aiming for closer to his previous contract as he was in October, that contract probably isn’t going to come from Nashville.

Re-Sign Goalies

The Predators have their minor league goaltending situation settled for next year with a trio of players under contract. However, the same can’t be said in the NHL as both Juuse Saros and Pekka Rinne are in need of new deals and are in very different situations.

Saros was long viewed as Nashville’s goalie of the future and after basically being in a platoon last season, he became their starter this year, getting nearly 63% of the starts. The 26-year-old responded with the best year of his career, posting a 2.28 GAA with a .927 SV%, well above the league average on both fronts. That has him well-positioned for a big raise from the $1.5MM he made on his bridge deal. He’s now arbitration-eligible and is a year away from reaching unrestricted free agency, giving him some extra leverage in talks. However, the Predators have Yaroslav Askarov in the system having made him their first-rounder last October. He is now the goalie of the future, not Saros. So while Saros’ performance is deserving of a long-term, big-money deal, does Poile have interest in that type of commitment? That’s certainly not a given. Knowing Askarov is in the system, another medium-term pact (three to five years) could be a preferable compromise, giving them some stability for now but allowing them to pivot to their top prospect when he’s ready.

As for Rinne, he was Nashville’s starter for more than a decade but his numbers have dipped considerably in the past two years to the point where they have been below the NHL average. At 38, he is on the last legs of his career and hasn’t even committed to playing next season although he has expressed a desire to remain with the Preds if he does come back. Given that there will be better options available that could also push Saros for playing time though, the fit may not be great aside from the element of having him be a career Predator. At this point, Rinne will be going year to year which opens up the ability to offer bonus-laden deals which would give them some extra cap flexibility but it will come at a sharp dip in pay from the $5MM AAV he had the past two seasons. Even half of that could be a stretch. If they do decide to move on, the UFA market is deep enough that they’ll be able to bring in a capable replacement.

Offensive Core Shakeup

Over the past several seasons, Poile has tried to add to his core group up front, particularly down the middle. Ryan Johansen was acquired as was Kyle Turris while signing Matt Duchene and Nick Bonino as free agents. That’s a pretty good group of players on paper but it hasn’t panned out. Johansen and Duchene have underachieved significantly, Bonino was traded (though Luke Kunin, who they acquired in the move, has some upside), and Turris was bought out. Simply put, it’s not working.

The problem for Nashville is that the rest of their attack has also scuffled recently. Viktor Arvidsson had seen his production drop sharply which helped lead to this week’s trade while Filip Forsberg’s has ticked down. Even Granlund underachieved offensively.

To Poile’s credit, he has recognized the problem in the past and tried to address it; it just hasn’t gone well when he has done so. But it’s time to try again. Younger forwards like Kunin and Eeli Tolvanen can be part of the solution but they’re not ready to step into top roles and the combination of veterans they have just aren’t getting the job done under multiple coaches now.

With the flat salary cap, there could be an increase in swapping high-priced underachieving forwards and the Predators are a team that may want to look at going that route. With nearly $23MM in cap room, there will also be an opportunity to try to add a secondary scoring piece or two which would be welcome additions but that alone won’t take them from being a below-average scoring team to an above-average one. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done up front and bringing in a new piece or two to the top-six may very well help them go in the right direction. A shakeup is needed and Arvidsson’s departure alone won’t be enough.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.

Mikhail Grigorenko Signs In The KHL

July 3, 2021 at 9:38 am CDT | by Brian La Rose 2 Comments

Mikhail Grigorenko’s second act in North America wound up being even shorter than his first. The 27-year-old has decided to take a pass at testing unrestricted free agency later this month and is instead heading back home as CSKA Moscow announced that they’ve signed Grigorenko to a three-year contract.

Grigorenko spent the three seasons before 2020-21 with CSKA before deciding to give the NHL another try after he struggled considerably with Buffalo and Colorado in his first opportunity. That brought him to Columbus, a team that had some vacancies down the middle to fill; there was definitely a fit on paper.

That fit didn’t translate to on-ice success, however. He tallied just four goals and eight assists in 32 games with the Blue Jackets this season while clearing waivers back in mid-March. In the end, he wound up being just a role player and accordingly, it seemed unlikely that he’d be able to come close to the $1.2MM he made this season. Had he stuck around, he’d have been looking at something closer to the minimum.

With that in mind, a trip back to CSKA where he has had some success certainly makes sense. But while he’ll only be 30 when this contract is up, it’s quite unlikely that Grigorenko will attempt a third tour of duty in the NHL. Assuming this is indeed the end of his playing days in North America, he leaves with 26 goals and 50 assists in 249 games over parts of six seasons. That’s not the type of return Buffalo was expecting when they made Grigorenko the 12th-overall pick in 2012.

Latest On Duncan Keith

July 2, 2021 at 8:29 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 9 Comments

Duncan Keith trade rumors have been swirling ever since Wednesday. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet’s original report stated that Keith, who has a full no-movement clause in his contract, preferred to be dealt to either Western Canada or the Pacific Northwest. The story has only gained more specific details since then. It’s since been reported that the Edmonton Oilers and Seattle Kraken were Keith’s preferred destinations, but today, there’s been a lot of discussion on the Oilers’ side of the coin.

Now, a report by The Athletic’s Daniel Nugent-Bowman is suggesting that Edmonton may only pull the trigger on a potential deal if certain conditions are met. Considering the Oilers and general manager Ken Holland’s goal of being in ’win-now’ mode, Keith’s steep $5.5MM cap hit is a complicating factor in any potential deal. So while Chicago won’t be giving him away for peanuts, for Edmonton to swing a deal, the cap differential needs to be close to even when all is said and done.

How that happens isn’t entirely clear. There’s a nearly endless combination of assets in play that could make a deal work here. James Neal’s contract is similarly an albatross, and could get moved the other way with a couple of other pieces packaged in. Earlier reports today suggested that Caleb Jones could be part of a package to Chicago for Keith. Regardless, and especially if Jones is the centerpiece of a deal, Chicago will likely have to retain some amount of salary in a Keith trade. While Chicago is looking to contend sooner rather than later as well, one or even two million dollars against the cap in a retained salary transaction likely won’t be the end of the world.

It’s obvious the Blackhawks want to do right by Keith, who’s given more than anyone could’ve asked for to the franchise. But considering the 37-year-old’s restrictive demands, Chicago’s hands may end up being tied if they can’t get the return they desire — which is to say, a trade, while likely, is never a guarantee.

All contract information is provided by CapFriendly.

Seattle Kraken Ownership Give Ron Francis Green Light To Spend To Cap

July 2, 2021 at 5:34 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 15 Comments

In a Q&A post with The Athletic’s Ryan S. Clark today, Seattle Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke said today that he’s encouraged general manager Ron Francis to spend to the salary cap, if possible, in order to build a contending roster out of the gate.

The statement from Leiweke comes amidst one of the most hectic and compact offseasons in recent history, especially considering the lack of a salary cap increase. The fact that Seattle will be able to take advantage of the full $81.5MM available to them already gives them a competitive advantage on a handful of teams for a variety of reasons. The majority of NHL teams are still dealing with either buyouts, overage penalties, or retained salary transactions that will lower their spending ceiling next season. For some teams, spending to the cap is currently impossible as they continue to suffer from COVID-related financial losses.

It also allows Seattle to add some assets to the franchise’s cupboards in exchange for helping other teams out of their cap trouble. They’ll likely be a trade partner for the cap-strapped Tampa Bay Lightning, who currently need to clear over $5MM in cap in order to be compliant in 2021-22. A name like Yanni Gourde or Tyler Johnson could easily find themselves playing in the Pacific Northwest next season. And with some top-end free agents still remaining, the full amount of usable cap space may better enable Seattle to make a run at some big names like Dougie Hamilton or David Krejci, if they so choose.

While it’s impossible to expect a 109-point run of terror in their first season, things are shaping up to make at least a playoff berth a realistic option for the Kraken in Year One. With the Pacific Division shaping up as a weak matchup, combined with their salary cap advantages, Seattle should be a great draw out of the gate.

Minnesota Wild Sign Joel Eriksson Ek To Eight-Year Extension

July 2, 2021 at 4:48 pm CDT | by Gavin Lee 8 Comments

The Minnesota Wild have plenty of work to do this offseason when it comes to restricted free agents, but the team has scratched one name off the list. The team announced that they’ve signed Joel Eriksson Ek to an eight-year contract extension with an average annual value of $5.25MM ($42MM total). PuckPedia reports that the deal contains a no-move clause with a ten-team no-trade clause in the final five years of the contract and breaks down as follows:

2021-22: $3MM salary
2022-23: $3MM salary
2023-24: $6MM salary
2024-25: $9MM salary
2025-26: $7.5MM salary
2026-27: $6MM salary
2027-28: $4.5MM salary
2028-29: $3MM salary

Eriksson Ek, 24, really took his game to a new level this season, scoring 19 goals and 30 points in 56 games. That offensive production, while still valuable, doesn’t compare to the defensive play that the young center brings to the table. Eriksson Ek finished fourth in Selke Trophy voting this season and played an important role on both special teams.

Interestingly, over the last few weeks, it had looked like the Wild would wait on extensions for Eriksson Ek and fellow restricted free agent Kevin Fiala until they knew what kind of number Kirill Kaprizov was going to come in at. But with no clarity coming on Kaprizov’s situation. they decided to move forward with their young center anyway.

This extension buys out six years of unrestricted free agency for Eriksson Ek, but with such pedestrian numbers in his previous three seasons, it still comes in at a reasonable cap hit for a top-six center. Before this year, he had never scored more than eight goals in a single season and had just 66 points in his first 210 NHL games. Those numbers would have also come into play had Eriksson Ek gone to arbitration, even though this recent breakout would carry more weight but instead, it won’t get to that point with this long-term deal.

Michael Russo of The Athletic was the first to report that a long-term extension was close.

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