Rask, Bruins Table Talks Until After Playoffs
The Boston Bruins are focused on the next round and a long playoff run, meaning contract talks can wait for pending free agent goaltender Tuukka Rask. Bruins president Cam Neely told reporters today including Amalie Benjamin of NHL.com that Rask and the team have agreed to push off any negotiations until after the season.
Though he is unquestionably their starting goaltender right now and just posted a .941 save percentage in the first round, it will be interesting to see how the two sides come together this offseason. The Bruins have a young goaltender in Jeremy Swayman who looks ready for the job and Daniel Vladar who has dominated the minor leagues. The 34-year-old Rask and longtime tandem partner Jaroslav Halak are pending free agents, meaning if the Bruins wanted to, they could make a pretty drastic shift in net next season and reinvest the cap space elsewhere.
There is very little that Rask has failed to accomplish at the NHL level. A Stanley Cup, a Vezina Trophy, a Jennings Trophy, a First All-Star team selection, nearly 100 playoff appearances—the list goes on for one of the most successful goaltenders of his generation. Rask’s .921 regular season save percentage puts him third all-time behind only Dominik Hasek and Johnny Bower; his .927 in the playoffs close to the top as well.
Still, there has been a faction of Bruins supporters that have had a near-constant call for change in the Bruins crease thanks to perceived aloofness or inconsistency from the Finnish netminder. Now, as the offseason approaches, there will be a difficult decision to be made. Bruins GM Don Sweeney is used to those; he let franchise icons Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug leave in free agency last summer, noting a need to give more ice time to their young defensemen. The same could be said about the goaltending position after Swayman, who has two more years on his entry-level contract, burst onto the scene and recorded a .945 save percentage in 10 appearances.
Boston carried a $9.25MM cap hit this season between Rask and Halak, a number that could drop dramatically next year if they handed the reins to Swayman. That kind of financial capital would be more than enough to reinforce other parts of the lineup or perhaps even help to retain the services of deadline addition Taylor Hall.
Of course, handing the crease to a relatively unproven goaltender as key members of the team continue to age out of their prime is a risky proposition. There’s no reason the decision has to be made now, in fact, what happens over the next several weeks in the playoffs should hold weight. But there is a tough call coming in Boston when the talks between Rask and the Bruins resume.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
NHL Issues Two More Fines
The NHL has fined two more players for incidents from yesterday’s action, deciding not to hand out suspensions. Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh has been fined $5,000, the maximum allowable under the CBA, for his cross-check on Florida Panthers forward Mason Marchment. His teammate Pat Maroon has been fined $3,879,31, the maximum allowable for his salary level, for unsportsmanlike conduct at the end of last night’s game.
In McDonagh’s case, the incident occurred partway through the first period when the game was 1-0 for the Lightning. The two players had been battling all shift, but as Marchment approached McDonagh near the benches, the Tampa Bay defenseman raised his stick and delivered a cross-check to the head. McDonagh was given a two-minute penalty for roughing on the play and Marchment did not suffer a major injury.
For Maroon, there were just under 15 seconds left in the game and the score was out of reach, but the Tampa Bay forward engaged with Florida forward Noel Acciari. Maroon took just 12 faceoffs this season, but lined up as a center for the center ice draw and pushed forward with his stick extended. The event resulted in a scrum between several players, penalties to both teams, and a misconduct for Maroon.
Alex Ovechkin Confident New Contract Will Come With Washington
The Washington Capitals held their end-of-season media availability today after being knocked out of the first round by the Boston Bruins. One of the most pressing questions, and seemingly one that wasn’t talked about enough this season, was the future of Alex Ovechkin, who is a pending unrestricted free agent. There is no cause for concern, as Ovechkin joked and explained he is confident a deal will get done:
I’m confident. Obviously we still have time, obviously I want to finish my career here. I’m pretty sure we will do something soon.
Maybe we’ll sign a contract right now, after the media.
Ovechkin, 35, dealt with injury for really the first time in his career, missing several games down the stretch for the Capitals. He finished with 24 goals and 42 points in 45 games, failing to win the Rocket Richard trophy for just the second time in the last nine years. It was also the first time since 2016-17 season and just the third time in his career that his average time on ice dipped below 20 minutes, with perhaps the cracks of age finally showing on the Russian machine.
Still, a legacy player like Ovechkin isn’t going anywhere. He will almost certainly sign a new multi-year contract with the Capitals and finish his NHL career with the franchise, attempting to chase down Wayne Gretzky‘s goal-scoring record. In 1,197 career games, Ovechkin now has 730 goals, fifth all-time and 164 behind Gretzky.
The interesting part isn’t whether he will return to Washington, it’s how much it will cost them. Ovechkin is dealing with the negotiation himself, working with owner Ted Leonsis and GM Brian MacLellan directly. The veteran sniper is coming off a 13-year deal he signed in 2008 that carried a cap hit of $9,538,462 and paid him $10MM in each of the last seven seasons. That cap hit actually might go up on his next contract.
In January, Frank Seravalli wrote for TSN that Ovechkin’s pre-pandemic ask was a $12.5MM per-year salary. That number would tie him with Connor McDavid as the league’s top earner, and though the flat cap situation may have changed things, the eventual deal is still expected to be quite large. That is going to make it tough for the Capitals, who already have more than $72MM committed to next season and will likely need to make other changes after getting bounced in the first round.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
NHL Making Progress On Olympic Participation
The 2022 Olympic Winter Games are coming quickly and there is no definitive answer yet on whether the NHL will participate. That could be changing soon, as hockey insider Frank Seravalli reports that the league has received a verbal commitment from the IOC to fund travel and insurance, one of the biggest sticking points in previous negotiations. Seravalli notes there is still a lot of work to be done, including negotiating whether the NHL will be allowed to use game footage and other promotional material, something the Olympic committee has long been against.
Progress is progress though and it will be welcome news to hockey fans all over the world. Best-on-best hockey always creates a memorable event, whether at the Olympics or World Cup, and the lack of NHL participation in the 2018 Games robbed some of a chance to compete for their country. Players like Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid who are now five and six years into their NHL careers still haven’t had a chance to represent their nations on the Olympic stage.
The 2022 Games are scheduled to begin on February 4, 2022, meaning there would need to be a stoppage to the NHL schedule while the league’s best go to Beijing. In 2014, the last time the NHL participated, Canada took home the gold in a 3-0 win over Sweden. The U.S. finished off the podium entirely, downed in the bronze medal game by tournament MVP Teemu Selanne of Finland.
In 2018, without the NHL involved, the Olympic Athletes from Russia took home gold, defeating Germany in the gold medal match. That Russian team included several former NHL talents like Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk along with several names who would make their debuts in the coming years, like Ilya Sorokin, Igor Shesterkin, and Kirill Kaprizov.
Anaheim Ducks Hire Jeff Solomon As Assistant GM, VP Of Hockey Ops
A name well known to NHL hockey in Southern California is on the move, but isn’t going far. Long-time Los Angeles Kings executive Jeff Solomon has joined his former team’s most bitter rival. The Anaheim Ducks have formally announced Solomon as their new Assistant General Manager and Vice President of Hockey Operations. He fills the position left behind by the recently-retired David McNab. Solomon served as VP of Hockey Ops (later Senior VP and Executive VP) over 14 years across town with the Kings.
Solomon, 63, has spent 35 years in hockey, first as an agent and then with L.A. since 2007. His role with the Ducks will be very similar to how he served the Kings. Solomon will work primarily in “strategic budget planning”, managing the salary cap, negotiating contracts, and handling salary arbitration proceedings. Of course, Solomon will also have some input into player evaluations and personnel decisions.
A long-time Californian, Solomon oversaw two Stanley Cups ins L.A. but is now on to a new challenge in Anaheim. Whereas the Kings have considerable cap space heading into the off-season, the Ducks are more limited with only 15 regulars under contract, a number of restricted free agents in need of new contracts, and $22.555MM to add a much-needed boost of talent to the roster. With that said, Solomon also enters a situation where the organization has budding stars at forward and defense in Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale, a deep pipeline at all positions, and a guaranteed top-four pick this year. His job of managing the cap will be made much easier if the Ducks impressive group of entry-level players all take a step forward next season.
Snapshots: Tarasenko, AHL, North Playoffs, Soucy
Blues winger Vladimir Tarasenko has decided to change agents according to Bally Sports Midwest’s Andy Strickland (Twitter link). After being represented by Octagon’s Mike Liut, he will now be repped by Paul Theofanous of TMI, LLC, who represents several prominent Russian players including Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Semyon Varlamov. The timing of the switch is a little odd as Tarasenko has two years remaining on his current contract which means the earliest that he could sign an extension with St. Louis is July of 2022.
Elsewhere around the NHL:
- The AHL is considering adding a play-in round for their playoffs, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported in the latest Saturday Headlines segment (video link). It’s unclear if the idea is for next season or for 2022-23 when Seattle’s affiliate in Palm Springs becomes the 32nd team in that league, meaning that half the league will make and miss the playoffs. Currently, their postseason format in a normal year is the top four teams in each division get in with no Wild Card which is a bit different than the normal format for the NHL’s playoffs. The AHL is often used as a trial balloon for ideas that could one day make their way to the NHL and this could be another one of those.
- A decision has still not been made about whether the winner of the North Division will be able to host games in their home city or be forced to relocate to a neutral site in the United States, notes Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic (Twitter link). There continues to be a mandatory quarantine period for anyone travelling from the U.S. to Canada and a special exemption would need to be granted from the Canadian federal government to allow some of the games to played in Canada. LeBrun suggests that a decision will need to be made by the start of the second round so there should be more news on this front within the next week or so.
- Wild defenseman Carson Soucy will miss tonight’s fifth game against Vegas due to an upper-body injury, notes Sarah McLellan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. He has logged just over 13 minutes a game on their third pairing through the first four games of the series. Prospect Calen Addison, who got into three games back in February, will take Soucy’s spot in the lineup and make his playoff debut in the process.
Philadelphia’s David Kase Signs In Czech Republic
Flyers winger David Kase has decided to not bother going through restricted free agency this offseason. Instead, Sparta Praha of the Czech Extraliga announced that they’ve signed the 24-year-old to a two-year contract.
Kase was a fifth-round pick of Philadelphia back in 2015 (128th overall) and signed his entry-level deal in 2018. He has made NHL appearances in each of the last two seasons (a total of seven games, one of which was in 2020-21) but has spent the bulk of that time in the minors. This season, he had nine points in 19 games with AHL Lehigh Valley while picking up 25 more in 27 contests with Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic before the season started in North America.
Philadelphia can retain Kase’s rights by tendering him a qualifying offer this summer, one they already know he won’t be signing as a result of this deal. Doing so would enable them to retain his NHL rights through this contract in case they want to bring him back over in 2023. However, given his limited impact in North America, it’s also possible that they just cut ties with him entirely.
Hurricanes Sign Blake Murray
The Hurricanes are spending their off day in their first-round series against Nashville by taking care of one of their prospects as the team announced that they’ve signed forward Blake Murray to a three-year, entry-level contract. The deal will carry a cap hit of $758K. GM Don Waddell had the following statement on the signing:
Blake has shown his goal-scoring abilities in the Ontario Hockey League. We’re looking forward to helping him reach his potential as he takes the next steps in his career.
Murray was a sixth-round pick (183rd overall) of the Hurricanes back in 2019 out of Sudbury of the OHL. Waddell is certainly correct that the 19-year-old has shown an ability to score at the junior level as he reached the 30-goal mark in both 2018-19 and 2019-20. However, he didn’t have the opportunity to make it three straight years with that league not playing this season. Fortunately for him, he was able to find a spot overseas as Murray got into 16 games with Surahammars of Sweden’s HockeyEttan where he continued to produce, notching seven goals and 16 assists which certainly helped his case to be signed.
Had they not signed Murray, Carolina would have lost his rights on June 1st; with that deadline now just over a week away, there could be more transactions like this over the coming days. In the meantime, Murray will turn pro next season and will push for a spot with AHL Chicago.
Central Notes: Chicago Goalies, Quenneville, Detroit Prospects
The Blackhawks went into this season with plenty of uncertainty between the pipes with Malcolm Subban and Collin Delia battling for the number one role with Kevin Lankinen serving as a third option. Of course, by the end, Lankinen had established himself as the starter but there is still plenty of uncertainty regarding the viability of this trio. Despite that, Phil Thompson and Chris Sosa of the Chicago Tribune feel that the team would be justified sticking with that same goalie group for next season which would allow them to evaluate Lankinen’s potential viability as a long-term starter while determining if one of Subban or Delia is worthy of a full-time backup spot. All three netminders are slated to become unrestricted free agents in the 2022 offseason.
More from the Central:
- Still regarding a Chicago goaltender, USA Hockey announced that prospect Drew Commesso has been added to their roster for the World Championships, replacing Anthony Stolarz who was injured in Sunday’s victory over Canada. The 18-year-old was a second-round pick of the Blackhawks (46th overall) back in 2020 and had a .915 SV% in 11 appearances in his freshman year at Boston University.
- The fact that Seattle has yet to name their inaugural head coach is somewhat of a surprise given the veterans that have been available and the fact that GM Ron Francis wants an experienced voice behind the bench. However, Larry Brooks of the New York Post suggests the reason for that could be that the Kraken are interested in Panthers bench boss Joel Quenneville, positing that Florida might be willing to let him go for financial reasons. Considering the season that they’ve had, it’d be tough to imagine that they’d simply let him go to save some money but if there is even a remote possibility of it happening, Francis’ patience in naming a coach would be justified.
- While many expect Red Wings top prospects Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond to make the jump to the NHL next season, Detroit GM Steve Yzerman told MLive’s Ansar Khan that the youngsters aren’t pencilled into a spot on the roster. While he acknowledged that Seider – recently named the SHL’s defenseman of the year – should be ready to jump into the NHL lineup, Detroit has preferred a slower development approach in recent years which could result in the youngsters getting some AHL time first.
Josh Archibald Receives One-Game Suspension
The decision needed to be made quickly with Winnipeg and Edmonton playing again tonight and the ruling is in. Oilers winger Josh Archibald has received a one-game suspension for his hit on Jets defenseman Logan Stanley on Sunday night, the Department of Player Safety announced (video link).
With 8:49 left in the third period, Archibald was called for tripping on a low-bridge hit on Stanley. In the league’s announcement, they determined that it met the criteria to be called clipping, calling Archibald’s hit “excessively low” while it is illegal to dip at or below knee level to deliver a hit. To make matters worse, the Jets scored on the man advantage to make it 4-2, then added two more to tie up before overtime where Nikolaj Ehlers potted the winner to give Winnipeg a 3-0 series lead.
This is the second suspension of Archibald’s career as he also received a two-game ban back in 2018 for a hit to the head on Ryan Hartman who was with Nashville at the time. Meanwhile, Edmonton will likely turn to one of James Neal Alex Chiasson, or Dominik Kahun to take Archibald’s place in the lineup; both were healthy scratches on Sunday night after playing the first two games of the series.