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Minor Transactions: 09/21/21

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Today certainly had a flurry of big-name news, a rarity for this time of year. But even through the Kirill Kaprizov contracts and the Elvis Merzlikins extensions of the world, NHL teams have made a flurry of minor transactions today in preparation for training camps. As camps begin and rosters are announced, players still without a confirmed home for next season will pop up across the league. Here are some of today’s minor transactions:

  • The expansion Seattle Kraken have added a good bit of depth on try-out deals. The team’s invited Tye Kartye and Cole Mackay of the Soo Greyhounds to camp, as well as Francis Marotte of the ECHL’s Allen Americans. Kartye and Mackay, both forwards, have been teammates with the Soo since 2018. Both haven’t played hockey since the 2019-20 season due to the OHL’s shutdown in 2020-21. They were both on the path to success, however, potting over 50 points individually. They’ll gain some valuable experience at an NHL camp. Marotte, a 26-year-old netminder, comes in after just one season of professional hockey. He impressed in the ECHL this year, boasting an 8-3-1 record and .917 save percentage.
  • The Vegas Golden Knights have added a trio of their own on tryouts, headlined by defenseman Ian McCoshen. Now 26, the former second-round pick by Florida now hasn’t seen NHL action since 2018-19. He’s unlikely to see NHL ice within the Vegas organization, one of the deepest defenses in the league, but could be a solid AHL body if he ends up signing with the team. They’ve also brought in OHLers Kaleb Pearson and Daniel D’Amato. Pearson scored 52 points in 62 games in 2019-20 with the Owen Sound Attack, and he’s headed to Prince Edward Island to play collegiate hockey this season. D’Amato will suit up for his Erie Otters again this year after scoring 32 points in 63 games back in 2019-20.

Training Camp Notes: Bruins, Blue Jackets, Penguins

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As development camps begin to wrap up around the NHL, training camp rosters have been released throughout the day and into the evening. There’s been a variety of rather interesting surprises and irregularities as the rosters have been released to the public. One of the more unusual aspects of the day has to do with the Boston Bruins training camp roster. It appears as though veteran AHL defenseman Aaron Ness will be attending camp with the team. While no contract terms have been announced, he had previously signed a professional tryout contract with the Seattle Kraken. A contract announcement can likely be expected in the near future.

Elsewhere from training camps around the league:

  • Another surprise inclusion comes in the form of a veteran goaltender. The Columbus Blue Jackets released their roster today, including 30-year-old veteran netminder Jean-Francois Berube. The Quebec native, originally a selection of the Los Angeles Kings in 2009, is returning to the organization after a one-year stint there in 2018-19. It was played entirely with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters. While Berube’s numbers have dipped in recent seasons, he was once a capable third-string option and still could provide valuable goalie depth to the organization. Similar to Ness, no contract terms have been released yet for Berube, but it’s something to look out for.
  • The Tribune-Review’s Seth Rorabaugh reports that forwards Sam Houde and Josh Williams are attending Pittsburgh Penguins camp on amateur tryout contracts. Both signings could help plug some organization depth weaknesses caused by a cascading injury effect. Houde comes to the team after serving as the captain for the QMJHL’s Chicoutimi Sagueneens, scoring 28 points in 29 games during his final QMJHL season. Williams, a winger out of the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings, showed off his goal-scoring skills this year with 17 goals and 30 points in 22 games. Both could slot into depth roles in the AHL and could eventually become bigger parts of the organization if signed.

Minnesota Wild Sign Kirill Kaprizov For Five Years

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The Minnesota Wild have re-signed winger Kirill Kaprizov to a five-year, $45MM contract. The deal carries a $9MM average annual value and takes him through the 2025-26 season. Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports that the deal carries a no-movement clause for the final two years. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports the full salary breakdown:

  • 2021-22: $5.0MM
  • 2022-23: $10.0MM
  • 2023-24: $12.5MM
  • 2024-25: $10.0MM
  • 2025-26: $7.5MM

Minnesota had to wait five years after they drafted Kaprizov to see him in NHL action, but all can agree that he was worth the wait. This year’s Calder Trophy winner, Kaprizov was nearly a point-per-game talent. Playing over 18 minutes a night, the 23-year-old Russian led the Wild with 27 goals and 51 points, only missing one game all year. The Athletic’s Michael Russo reports that he’s due to arrive in Minnesota tomorrow and will deliver an in-person press conference pending vaccination status.

A full training camp and another year of acclimation to North America are both good omens for Kaprizov’s performance in 2021-22. A dominant scorer and a lethal power-play presence, Kaprizov aims to not only lead the Wild but to be one of the best talents in the Western Conference. Kaprizov put together a remarkable two-way performance for a rookie last season as well, posting a 51.2% Corsi for at even strength and boasted impressive advanced analytics as well. Steps forward in any regard will solidify his status as an elite talent and quickly make this deal worth its price tag.

The move comes after months of negotiations and nervousness on the part of Wild fans. The term and the dollar amount aren’t necessarily a surprise to anyone who’s been closely following the situation, however. A $9MM cap hit was reported as the likely value by The Athletic’s Michael Russo weeks beforehand.

Despite all the fanfare made about Minnesota’s salary cap situation this offseason following the buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, the Wild still remain in decent shape for 2021-22. Kaprizov was the only remaining restricted free agent on the roster, and they’re still left with $3.2MM in space considering a 22-man roster. The true crunch comes next season, where the cap penalty due to the buyouts increases by a full $8MM.

Regardless, it’s an immediate relief for Wild fans, who’ll have five more years (in all likelihood) of a player who captured the eyes and hearts of many this season. Expected to be a franchise cornerstone moving forward, the Wild now look to push even further towards contention.

All salary cap figures courtesy of CapFriendly.com.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Images.

Elvis Merzlikins Signs Five-Year Extension

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have locked up their starting goaltender, signing Elvis Merzlikins to a five-year, $27MM contract extension. The deal kicks in for the 2022-23 season and runs through 2026-27, carrying a $5.4MM cap hit. Previously, both Merzlikins and tandem mate Joonas Korpisalo were scheduled to become unrestricted free agents after the upcoming season. Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports the full contract details:

  • 2022-23: $5.25MM
  • 2023-24: $6.0MM
  • 2024-25: $6.0MM
  • 2025-26: $5.525MM
  • 2026-27: $4.225MM

Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen released a statement on the deal:

Goaltending is a position of strength for our team and Elvis Merzlikins has been an important part of that over the past two seasons so we are very excited to have agreed to terms on a contract extension that will keep him in Columbus for at least the next six years. He is big, athletic and has a tremendous passion for the game and we believe he will be an integral part of our success in the coming years.

Merzlikins, 27, certainly hasn’t taken the usual path to stardom in the NHL, but he nevertheless is well on his way to establishing himself as one. Selected in the third round of the 2014 draft, the Latvian netminder was playing as a teenager in Switzerland. He would remain there for another five seasons, putting up outstanding numbers while routinely suiting up for his country internationally. Time and again he would stand out as the best player on the Latvian side, keeping them in games where they were vastly outmatched and posting numbers like his .940 save percentage at the 2018 tournament.

In 2019, at the end of the 2018-19 season, he finally decided to sign with the Blue Jackets and start his North American career. He would end up playing just two games in the minor leagues, quickly showing that he was more than ready for the NHL. In that rookie season, he posted a .923 save percentage in 33 appearances, good enough to finish fifth in both Calder and Vezina Trophy voting.

Last season, those numbers dropped a bit, but Merzlikins was still able to register a .916 on a struggling Columbus team. His partner, Korpisalo, finished with an .894 and likely lost the race to be the Blue Jackets’ long-term goaltending option. This new contract all but confirms that, though obviously the 27-year-old Korpisalo could also be retained at a lower price to secure the position.

While he has played the smaller half of the games the last two seasons, Merzlikins should be expected to take the lion’s share this year if he can stay healthy. In fact, just a few weeks ago he told reporters that he wants to play as much as he can, even hoping to win the Vezina as a tribute to his close friend Matiss Kivlenieks, another Blue Jackets goaltender who tragically passed away earlier this summer at age 24. Merzlikins credits Kivlenieks for saving his and his pregnant wife’s life, who were standing 20 feet away when a fireworks mortar struck the young netminder.

Merzlikins, the new father–his son, Knox Matiss Merzlikins was born on August 20–is now locked up long-term in Columbus and carries the 12th highest cap hit among NHL goaltenders. That rank is likely to go down as more contracts are signed, but the Blue Jackets have put their faith in him as their starter for the next several years.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Tyler Motte Recovering From Surgery

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Heading into the 2020 bubble playoffs, many fans around the league may have never noticed Vancouver Canucks forward Tyler Motte. He had registered just 38 points in 187 games to that point in his career, bouncing from Chicago to Columbus to Vancouver as a depth player moving in and out of the lineup. But in that condensed postseason, Motte made a name for himself with endless energy and a few well-timed goals, helping the Canucks reach game seven of the second round.

When things resumed for the 2020-21 season, the bang-and-crash forward suddenly found his role increased for the Canucks. He averaged more than 16 minutes a night through his first 15 games, scoring five goals in the process. Unfortunately, he was injured in a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs and eventually found himself on long-term injured reserve, meaning he’d miss a good chunk of the season. He dealt with two other stints on the sideline with injuries and ended up with just 24 games played last season.

Now, after it was made clear that Motte wouldn’t be available to the Canucks at the start of training camp, Rick Dhaliwal and Thomas Drance of The Athletic have confirmed it is because he is rehabbing from an undisclosed surgery. Vancouver GM Jim Benning explained that the team will “see where [Motte] is at here in the next three weeks.”

On the second season of a two-year contract signed after that strong playoff performance, Motte will carry a cap hit of $1.225MM this season. That three-week timeline mentioned by Benning likely refers to the period from now until the team’s first game, which will be held in Edmonton on October 13. If Motte’s not ready to join the lineup by then, the team will have to find another option to take his minutes and penalty-killing role.

Ottawa Senators Sign Tyler Ennis To PTO

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Sep 21: Thomas Drance and Rick Dhaliwal of The Athletic report that the Vancouver Canucks also offered Ennis a PTO and will “continue to monitor” his situation with the Senators. It is important to note that a tryout with one team does not stop a player from signing an NHL contract with another, meaning at any point Ennis could decide to join the Canucks if an offer is put on the table.

Sep 19: The Ottawa Senators are bringing back a familiar face. The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch reports that the team will bring veteran forward Tyler Ennis to training camp on a PTO after he spent time with the team in 2019-20.

Last season with the Edmonton Oilers, Ennis struggled to stay in the lineup consistently and was limited to just nine points in 30 games. But while Ennis isn’t the 20-goal scorer of yore, he’s still shown the ability to be a valuable depth contributor at the NHL level. He maybe demonstrated that most during his time in Ottawa, scoring 14 goals and 33 points in 61 games. He was dealt to the Oilers at that year’s trade deadline, but now the Edmonton native will have another chance to show he can make an impact in Ottawa.

It’s hard to imagine Ennis receives anything more than league minimum based on his production last season. Still, Ennis remains a reliable play-driving forward who’s good at helping chance generation in the bottom six. Ottawa’s forward depth may have gotten a slight boost with the signing of Logan Brown yesterday, but the team still needs more bodies to fill out depth roles. Ennis could very well help alleviate this weakness for Ottawa at a bargain-bin price. It’s hard to argue with most any professional tryout contract, but Ottawa could see some serious dividends here if Ennis performs similarly to his 2019-20 numbers.

Winnipeg Jets Place Sami Niku On Unconditional Waivers

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Sep 21: According to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, Niku has cleared waivers. He can now have his contract terminated and become a free agent.

Sep 20: Somewhat surprisingly, the Winnipeg Jets have placed Sami Niku on unconditional waivers for the purpose of a mutual contract termination, according to CapFriendly. Niku was heading into the second season of a two-year one-way contract he signed in 2020 that carried an average annual value of $725K. That entire cap hit will come off the books with the termination and Niku will become an unrestricted free agent.

While usually these terminations are followed by a contract overseas, it does not appear to be the case for Niku. Chris Johnston of the Toronto Star tweets that Niku is hoping for a fresh start with another NHL organization and Europe is not his current focus. It’s understandable that the 24-year-old defenseman believes he can play at the highest level, given his dominance of the AHL and 54 games in the NHL.

Despite that early experience, it seemed obvious that Niku was not going to get regular playing time with the Jets this season after the team brought in several new options on the back end. Nate Schmidt and Brenden Dillon have joined the group, while Logan Stanley, Dylan Samberg, and Ville Heinola all represent young options that have passed him on the organizational depth chart. Niku played just six games for the Jets this season.

A seventh-round pick in 2015, Niku’s stock skyrocketed in the next few years, as he established himself as a top prospect in Finland. He found success at the World Juniors, winning a gold medal in 2016, found regular playing time in Liiga, the highest level of Finnish hockey, and then won the Eddie Shore Award as the AHL’s best defenseman in an outstanding rookie season in North America. That 2017-18 campaign, when Niku registered 54 points in 76 games for the Manitoba Moose, earned him a one-game call-up with the Jets and a regular role the following season. Since then things haven’t gone as smoothly, but there is still a lot of upside in the smooth-skating defender.

Of course, this is basically just giving Niku a chance to pick his next team. If the Jets had tried to send him down this season he would have required waivers, meaning any team in the league could have claimed him for that $725K cap hit (actually lower than the league minimum this season). A contract termination will allow him to negotiate with whoever he wants and find a spot where he can receive NHL minutes, if available. For teams looking for young assets, there are certainly worse gambles to take.

Zac Rinaldo Not Invited To Blue Jackets Camp

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Despite signing a contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets just over a month ago, Zac Rinaldo is not invited to their training camp. When speaking with the media today, Blue Jackets president John Davidson explained that Rinaldo has chosen not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and because of that, will appear at the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters training camp instead. Greg Wyshynski of ESPN tweeted the full quote:

Forward Zac Rinaldo, who we signed to a two-way contract this summer, is not vaccinated and because of that – and that’s his decision – the plan is to start him in the American Hockey League and he will not be coming to our training camp.

Rinaldo, 31, has played 374 games in the NHL but is known much more for his skill with his fists than the puck. The veteran forward has just 42 career points but has racked up 758 penalty minutes. The likelihood of him securing a full-time role on the Blue Jackets was already very slim, but appears to be non-existent now as the league’s strict policies make it difficult to carry a player who has refused the vaccine. Recently, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly projected that only 10-15 players on NHL rosters will be unvaccinated by the start of the season. The Blue Jackets announced that the other 67 players invited to NHL training camp are vaccinated.

Still, it is likely that Rinaldo and his agents already knew that he would be playing in the AHL for a good portion of the year since they negotiated a hefty $300K minor league guarantee. Despite his $275K AHL salary, he’ll receive the full $300K even if he fails to play a single game for Columbus.

Additionally, The Columbus Dispatch’s Brian Hedger reports that the NHLPA will review the situation, considering Rinaldo has not officially been sent to AHL Cleveland as of yet.

Rinaldo played four games last season for the Calgary Flames, scoring zero points.

Arizona Coyotes Sign Alex Galchenyuk To PTO

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The Arizona Coyotes are bringing a familiar face back to training camp, signing Alex Galchenyuk to a professional tryout according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic.

Galchenyuk, 27, appeared to be on his way out of hockey entirely before the Toronto Maple Leafs picked him up this season and worked to rebuild his game. It proved effective–at least somewhat–in the regular season when he registered 12 points in 26 games, but Galchenyuk was back to his frustratingly inconsistent self in the postseason. Flashes of brilliance were marred by one brutal giveaway, making his four points in six games against the Montreal Canadiens not mean much of anything.

It’s that inconsistency that has plagued Galchenyuk since his 30-goal season in Montreal when he looked like the star they hoped to select at third overall in 2012. He has struggled to find a fit with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Minnesota Wild and Ottawa Senators since then, meaning his last successful season was actually in Arizona in 2018-19. He had 19 goals and 41 points that year playing away from the bright lights of a big market, a form he is obviously hoping to regain with this tryout contract.

For the Coyotes, skill, inconsistent as it may be, is needed on this year’s roster. The team has Clayton Keller, Phil Kessel, and Nick Schmaltz at the top, but otherwise have a group of forwards that are all basically bottom-six options at this point. In fact, many of them couldn’t even secure that role on other teams, meaning Galchenyuk should have at least a fighting chance for an NHL contract.

Philadelphia Flyers Announce Several Injuries

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Philadelphia Flyers training camp hasn’t even officially opened yet and the team is already announcing multiple injuries. Kevin Hayes will be out six to eight weeks following abdominal surgery, Samuel Morin was given a six to eight-week timeline after knee surgery on September 10 and Wade Allison, who was injured at the recent rookie tournament, is out indefinitely with an ankle sprain. Zayde Wisdom is still out indefinitely following his shoulder surgery and Cooper Zech is out six to eight weeks with an upper-body issue.

Hayes is the obvious headline here, given he is expected to be a key part of the Flyers’ attack again this season. According to head coach Alain Vigneault, the veteran center felt pain in his groin yesterday and went in for surgery today. Six weeks from today is November 2, meaning he will miss at least the first ten or so games of the regular season should the timeline prove accurate.

In fact, the head coach specifically noted how difficult the first month of the season will be without Hayes and Allison, who also made quite an impact in his short time last season. The 23-year-old Allison scored four goals and seven points in 14 games with the Flyers after showing he was more than ready for the jump to the NHL. Selected 52nd overall in 2016, he could very well push up the depth chart this season as the team tries to find a new identity.

For Morin, this latest surgery was to have loose bodies removed, not a repair of any major ligament. That should inspire at least a bit of confidence that he’ll be able to return at full strength, but it’s difficult to project anything for the 26-year-old at this point. Once a promising defensive prospect, his professional career has been ravaged by injuries, limiting him to just 58 games (at any level) since the start of the 2017-18 season. After a failed attempt to restart his career as a forward, Morin returned to the defensive side of the puck late last season and is listed again as a defenseman this season.

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