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Archives for August 2021

Rochester Americans Hire Mike Peca

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The Rochester Americans are bringing in a face that’s familiar to many Buffalo Sabres fans, hiring Michael Peca as an assistant coach for the AHL club. Peca will replace Adam Mair, who has been named director of player development for the Sabres. Jason Karmanos, GM of the Americans, released a short statement on the hire:

Michael brings a wealth of experience as both a player and coach and will be a tremendous addition to our coaching staff in Rochester. He will play an integral role in the development of our prospects, and we look forward to him making an immediate impact for our organization.

Peca, 47, spent last season with the Washington Capitals as a development coach, but before that was part of the Buffalo Jr. Sabres program. A veteran of nearly 1,000 NHL games, he served as captain of the Sabres for four years, leading them to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1999. An Olympic gold medalist and two-time Selke Trophy winner, there’s plenty of knowledge and experience that Peca can impact on the young Sabres prospects.

That player development is key for a Sabres team that needs more than just the top picks to become NHL players. If they want to reach a level of contention, some of the team’s mid-round or even undrafted prospects will have to start providing value at the highest level. Peca’s job will now be to help guide those young players along the pipeline, showing them the path he took from the second round to the NHL.

Minor Transactions: 08/02/21

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After a number of busy days on the free agent market, NHL transactions are starting to show signs of cooling down. Those big-league deals will continue throughout the summer, but now the minor deals will increase in frequency as some NHL hopefuls settle for minor league deals or make the jump overseas. Follow along with those contracts here:

  • The San Jose Barracuda announced that they have signed veteran defenseman Mark Alt to a one-year AHL contract. Alt, 29, is entering his ninth NHL season, having previously spent time with the Philadelphia Flyers, Colorado Avalanche, and Los Angeles Kings, as well as their respective affiliates. Alt has logged over 400 AHL games and 20 NHL games. What he may lack in high-end ability, Alt makes up for in dependability as a big, defensively sound blue liner. The former Colorado Eagles captain and Ontario Reign alternate also brings leadership and experience to the AHL ranks, something that the San Jose Sharks will value as they groom their prospects.
  • Goaltender Evan Fitzpatrick has inked a two-year deal with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers, the team announced. The St. Louis Blues opted not to extend a qualifying offer to the 23-year-old Fitzpatrick, a somewhat surprising move for a formerly well-regarded second-round prospect. It is equally strange to see him settle for a minor league deal. While Fitzpatrick had struggled in the pros leading up to this past season, he did nothing to damage his stock in a brief 2020-21 showing. In three appearances, Fitzpatrick recorded a 2-0-0 record with a 1.65 GAA and .930 save percentage. While a very small sample size, it also could have marked the beginning of Fitzpatrick meeting his potential. If so, the Checkers stand to gain for not one but two years, unless an NHL competitor swoops in. Charlotte also signed former Florida Panthers prospect Karch Bachman, who spent his first pro season in the ECHL after a standout career at Miami University.
  • Overage forward Simon Knak was drafted in his second go-round this year after another stellar year with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks, picked up by the Nashville Predators in the sixth round. However, he won’t make his pro debut in North America any time soon. The 19-year-old Swiss winger signed a two-year deal back home with the NLA’s HC Davos, the team he spent 25 games with on loan this past season. Knak will be under contract through the 2022-23 season, after which time the Predators hope he will be ready to return.

Ryan Murray Signs With Colorado Avalanche

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One of the top remaining unrestricted free agents is now off the market. Defenseman Ryan Murray, ranked No. 22 in PHR’s Top 50 UFA’s and the fourth-highest ranked unsigned free agent has found a new home, at least for the time being. The Colorado Avalanche announced that they have signed Murray to a one-year, $2MM contract.

Murray, 27, could be quite the bargain for the Avs, coming off of a contract that paid him $4.6MM annually. The 2012 second overall pick may not be the two-way dynamo that many expected when he was drafted, but he has developed into a strong defensive player who can contribute modest offense as well. Murray is a solid positional defender who blocks shots and wins puck battles with regularity and can move the puck up the ice, making him an easy player to hand significant ice time. In 395 career games, Murray has recorded 124 points and 663 blocked shots in over 20 minutes per game.

The issue with Murray is health. The injury-prone blue liner has missed nearly 220 games in his career due to various ailments. However, at just $2MM Murray is well worth the gamble for the Avs. The team may have been looking for a veteran defenseman following the departure of Ryan Graves, but in reality Murray is a luxury for the team. With a top four of Cale Makar, Samuel Girard, Devon Toews, and Erik Johnson, budding youngster Bowen Byram, depth option Jacob MacDonald, and new addition Kurtis MacDermid, the Avalanche are more than capable of surviving a Murray injury absence.

West Notes: Zadorov, Kesler, Nurse, Khaira, Blackhawks Cap

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The fact that Flames defenseman Nikita Zadorov was among the 17 players to file for salary arbitration on Sunday raised some eyebrows considering he has been with Calgary for all of a few days.  However, his agent Dan Milstein of Gold Star released a statement via Twitter outlining that the short time since the move played a role in the filing:

We filed for arbitration on Nikita Zadorov’s behalf simply because the trade was recent and there wasn’t enough time to negotiate new contract with Calgary Flames. Discussions are ongoing and both sides are hopeful to have a contract in place soon.

The potential for an arbitration award that was too rich for Chicago’s liking played a role in Zadorov being traded and the Flames are certainly conscious of that.  However, we’re still another week and a half away from hearings beginning so there is still ample time to get a deal done.  Zadorov was qualified at $3.2MM and will get more than that on his next deal.

More from the Western Conference:

  • After seeing Chicago pick up Tyler Johnson and a draft pick for Brent Seabrook’s whose playing days have come to an end, the Ducks have told teams they’re open to doing a deal like that involving Ryan Kesler who is in the same situation, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports in the latest 31 Thoughts podcast (audio link). Kesler is entering the final year of his contract that carries a $6.875MM AAV and could be acquired to add to a teams’ LTIR pool while sending out some sort of salary offset that ultimately frees up some cap space, allowing Anaheim to add something for someone that isn’t going to play for them.
  • In the same podcast, Friedman reports that the Oilers are now focused on a max-term extension for defenseman Darnell Nurse. Previously, the expectation was a medium-term deal but with Dougie Hamilton’s contract with New Jersey setting the market, a long-term pact in the $9MM range appears to be the target for the 26-year-old who is coming off his top season that saw him collect 16 goals and 20 assists in 56 games while logging over 25 minutes a night.
  • Blackhawks forward Jujhar Khaira told reporters, including John Dietz of the Daily Herald, that he had multiple teams show interest in him in free agency. Edmonton declined to tender a $1.3MM qualifying offer and the 26-year-old wasn’t able to get that on the open market, ultimately taking a two-year deal worth $975K.  With just 21 points over the last two seasons, Khaira’s limited production limits him to a fourth-line role so a pay cut was likely for him though he managed to secure a second year at least.
  • Still with Chicago, Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman spoke with the media today and told reporters, including Mark Lazerus of The Athletic (Twitter link) that they don’t have to make any salary-cap-related moves to open up some space. They still have to re-sign young forwards Brandon Hagel and Alex Nylander and are about $3MM below their LTIR ceiling, per CapFriendly, with goalies Malcolm Subban and Collin Delia presumed to be off the roster either by waivers or trade.  That would lock in short-term deals for Nylander and Hagel to keep cap compliant but otherwise, it could be a quiet rest of the summer for them.

Slow-Developing Market For Vladimir Tarasenko

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There has been an expectation over the past few months that the Blues and Vladimir Tarasenko would be parting ways.  First came the news that he was being shopped which was followed up by Tarasenko’s trade request going public.  The first opportunity came and went with expansion; although St. Louis left the winger unprotected, Seattle instead opted for RFA defenseman Vince Dunn.  Then came the draft and the opening of free agency and still the veteran remains with the Blues.

Accordingly, GM Doug Armstrong told reporters including Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he is changing his focus towards dealing with his restricted free agents and “as of now I don’t see anything changing for a while” when it comes to his roster which suggests there is no viable trade option on the horizon for Tarasenko.

There are a trio of restricted free agents to deal with in forwards Zach Sanford, Jordan Kyrou, and Robert Thomas.  The Blues have a little over $6MM in cap room, per CapFriendly, which means they should be able to get those three locked up but they won’t have anything left to spend after that.  That means that the delay in finding a Tarasenko trade is basically holding up the rest of their offseason planning.

Thomas notes that Tarasenko has expanded his list of teams he’s willing to go to and at this point, he’s willing to go pretty much anywhere to get the change of scenery he so desires.  In terms of potential suitors, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period suggested in a recent appearance on the NHL Network (video link) that the Islanders, Rangers, and Devils are in the mix but others that had interest such as the Flyers have since dropped out.  Of those three, New Jersey has the cleanest cap situation to make a move for Tarasenko without needing any sort of salary offset.

Tarasenko’s trade value is certainly at the lowest it has been in a while as the 29-year-old underachieved after coming back from yet another shoulder surgery (his third in two years), notching just four goals in 24 games last season and didn’t make much of an impact at the World Championships after joining Russia late in the tournament.  With a $7.5MM cap hit for two more years and a $9.5MM salary, it’s a hefty price tag to take on and considering how he performed after coming back, it’s understandable that there is some hesitance to give up a return of significance.

While there is no firm timeline to necessarily get something done, the more that teams spend either on the open market or re-signing their own players makes it harder to get a Tarasenko trade done as cap space dries up so from that standpoint, the sooner a move gets done, the better.  The old adage is that it only takes one phone call to get something going on the trade front.  Armstrong is certainly hoping that call is coming soon.

Flyers Elect Salary Arbitration For Travis Sanheim

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It’s rare that we see a team elect salary arbitration with a player but even rarer that it happens twice in the same year.  That is indeed the case, however, as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that the Flyers have elected arbitration with defenseman Travis Sanheim.  He joins Minnesota’s Kevin Fiala as those that were taken to arbitration today.

Sanheim is a particularly interesting case.  Two years ago, he was coming off a breakout season that saw him collect 35 points in 82 games but with his limited track record at the time, the two sides agreed on a two-year bridge contract that carried a $3.25MM AAV.  The expectation was that the deal would quickly become a bargain and that the now-25-year-old would be in line for a significant raise at its expiration.

However, that hasn’t exactly been the case.  Sanheim is coming off somewhat of a disappointing season, one that saw him notch just three goals with a dozen assists in 55 games despite averaging a career-high 21:53 per game.  When you factor in the 2019-20 campaign, he had 40 points in 124 games on his bridge deal.  Those numbers aren’t poor by any stretch but they’re also not numbers that should land a player the significant raise that it seemed like he’d be headed for two years ago.

While the filing will guarantee that Sanheim will be signed by the end of the month, it also permits him the opportunity to select the term of the contract should it get to a hearing.  Arbitration awards can only be one or two years so Sanheim could opt for the latter which would take him to UFA eligibility in the 2023 offseason.  A hearing will now be scheduled between August 11th and 26th but a deal can be agreed upon up until the beginning of the hearing; it used to be that a settlement could be reached at any time but that rule was changed in the last CBA.

Coyotes Re-Sign Dysin Mayo And Blake Speers

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The Coyotes have taken care of two more of their restricted free agents, announcing the re-signing of defenseman Dysin Mayo to a one-year, two-way contract and forward Blake Speers to a one-year, two-way deal.  Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.  The team also confirmed the previously reported re-signing of Cam Dineen.

The 24-year-old was a fifth-round pick of the Coyotes back in 2014 (133rd overall) but has spent the entirety of his professional career at the minor league level.  Last season, Mayo played in 35 games with AHL Tucson, collecting a goal and three assists along with 22 PIMS.  While those numbers don’t particularly stand out, he has done enough over his 256 career AHL contests to warrant being qualified last month.

Mayo is waiver-eligible but has cleared in training camp in each of the last two years so there’s a good chance he will pass through unclaimed once again in the fall.  He will serve as depth with the Roadrunners once again and unless he manages to become a regular with the Coyotes in short order, he will be eligible for Group Six unrestricted free agency next summer.

As for Speers, he was acquired from New Jersey as part of the Taylor Hall trade but hasn’t seen any NHL action since his three-game stint in the 2016-17 campaign.  Injuries limited the 24-year-old to just four games with the Roadrunners last season.  He’s also waiver-eligible but a safe bet to clear and will be recallable injury depth for Arizona next season.  Like Mayo, Speers can also become a Group Six UFA next summer.

Wild Elect Salary Arbitration For Kevin Fiala

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Minnesota and winger Kevin Fiala will be heading to salary arbitration after all.  While he wasn’t among the players to file for a hearing yesterday, the Wild announced (Twitter link) that they have elected to take Fiala to a hearing.

The 25-year-old is coming off a strong season that saw him notch 20 goals and 20 assists in 50 games, good for second on the team in scoring behind fellow RFA winger Kirill Kaprizov.  It was a strong follow up to his first full season with Minnesota in 2019-20 where he had 23 goals and 31 helpers in 64 games which has certainly bolstered Fiala’s value heading into these contract talks.  He was qualified at $3.5MM but stands to earn considerably more on his next contract.

There are a handful of different rules in place for club-elected versus player-elected arbitration.  The first is that no matter what the ruling is, Minnesota can’t walk away.  As Fiala was filed on, he gets to determine the term of the contract.  That’s certainly notable as he’s two years away from UFA eligibility and as a result of this decision from the Wild, he could simply opt to go to a hearing and elect the two-year term that would take him to the open market in 2023.  Not that it would happen here but Minnesota cannot offer less than Fiala’s salary from last season; teams that are filed on can go slightly lower.

Fiala will now be added to the list of players that will have an arbitration hearing scheduled from August 11th through the 26th.

Rangers Making Progress On Igor Shesterkin Contract

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When Sunday’s arbitration-filing deadline came and went without Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin being on that list, it caught some by surprise.  However, it appears there was a reason for that as USA Today’s Vince Z. Mercogliano reports that the two sides are making progress on an agreement in the $5.75MM to $6MM per season range.  Evidently, those discussions have gone well enough without needing to put the pressure point of a hearing in place.

The 25-year-old was drafted in the fourth round by the Rangers back in 2014 but they had to wait a long time to sign him; Shesterkin only came to North America two years ago.  After spending most of his rookie campaign in the minors, Shesterkin was New York’s starter last season, posting a 16-14-3 record along with a 2.62 GAA and a .919 SV%, numbers that were both better than the league average.  At this point, he’s clearly their starter of the present and future which is why Alexandar Georgiev has been in trade speculation for more than a year now.

One of the challenges in finding a viable deal that works for both sides is Shesterkin’s lack of experience as he has just 48 career appearances under his belt (including one playoff game in the bubble in 2020).  There aren’t many comparables to work with which would have made an arbitration hearing particularly interesting.  Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko was one of those reasonable comparable options but it appears his five-year, $25MM will represent more of the floor than the ceiling.

The Rangers have ample cap space to work with to fit Shesterkin’s eventual contract in as they have more than $13MM in cap room per CapFriendly with only the netminder and blueliner Libor Hajek to re-sign.  Getting this deal done sooner than later would give GM Chris Drury a better idea of what he’s able to spend this summer and between this report and the fact his camp didn’t file for arbitration suggests they’re getting close to having an agreement in place.

Atlantic Notes: Eichel, Foligno, Witkowski

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The Rangers and Golden Knights are among the teams that are still interested in Sabres center Jack Eichel, notes Larry Brooks of the New York Post.  Brooks suggests that Buffalo retaining salary might be enough to get New York to part with a top young asset like Kaapo Kakko in a deal although with five years left on that contract, retaining would be a sizable cost for Buffalo which may not be something they want to do.  Meanwhile, Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon mentioned earlier in the week that he expected that the team they have now is what they’ll go into training camp with but as we’ve seen in the past, they’re willing to make big moves and move players around to make the salary cap fit work.

More from the Atlantic Division:

  • Still regarding Eichel, Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News posits that the statement his agents released on Friday isn’t going to help the trade process along as GM Kevyn Adams won’t want to acquiesce now and create any appearances that the statement forced his hand. While the clock is ticking for him to have the artificial disk replacement surgery that he’s seeking and be ready for training camp, Sabres doctors won’t sign off on that and are pushing for standard fusion surgery which carries a longer recovery time.  We’ll find out soon enough if there’s a team that’s willing to meet Buffalo’s price tag or if this process will drag out longer.
  • Bruins winger Nick Foligno told Aaron Portzline of The Athletic (subscription link) that he has fully recovered from the back injury that limited him to just four of Toronto’s seven playoff games and that he’ll be ready for training camp in September. Boston signed the 33-year-old winger to a two-year, $7.8MM deal on the opening day of free agency and informed Foligno that they may use him on his off-wing with Brad Marchand and Taylor Hall serving as the top two left wingers on the depth chart.
  • The Red Wings will use veteran Luke Witkowski on both the wing and on defense with AHL Grand Rapids, GM Steve Yzerman told reporters (video link). The veteran, who primarily plays on the back end, has played both positions over the last few seasons and had a sparing role with AHL Syracuse in 2020-21 but should be called upon to play more regularly next season.

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