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Archives for June 2022

Minnesota Wild Extend Connor Dewar

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June 22: The Wild have officially announced the two-year, one-way deal for Dewar, which will come with an average annual value of $800K.

June 21: The Minnesota Wild are about to avoid restricted free agency with Connor Dewar, as Michael Russo of The Athletic reports the two sides are closing in on a two-year, one-way contract. Dewar is coming off his entry-level deal and would not be eligible for arbitration this offseason. Financial details have not yet been disclosed.

Selected 92nd overall in 2018, Dewar made quick work of the AHL and was in the NHL on a regular basis this season. In 35 games for Minnesota, he scored two goals and six points, while racking up 25 penalty minutes–including a fight against Mackenzie Entwhistle that quickly endeared him to fans. In the minor leagues, he showed that he has outgrown the AHL by racking up 17 points in 19 games, offensive numbers that continued the upward trend that he has followed to this point.

An option as a fourth-line center for the Wild next season, a one-way contract does suggest that Dewar has the inside track for a roster spot in 2022-23. Given that the 22-year-old is no longer waiver-exempt gives him another advantage in that regard, as does what is likely a relatively inexpensive cap hit. With Minnesota dealing with a tricky financial situation thanks to massive buyout penalties, young, cheap forwards like Dewar will be incredibly important.

There is still plenty of work to do for general manager Bill Guerin. While Kevin Fiala may end up traded instead of extended, there are plenty of other restricted free agents that need new contracts, including Jacob Middleton, one of the team’s deadline acquisitions.

Winnipeg Jets Exploring Market For Blake Wheeler

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The Winnipeg Jets are at a crossroads, after failing to even reach the playoffs in a season they were expecting to contend for the Stanley Cup. The team is without a head coach, has uncertainty regarding the next contract for Pierre-Luc Dubois, and is closing in on the end of long-term deals for two of their most prominent offensive pieces.

Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele are both scheduled for unrestricted free agency following the 2023-24 season, and while the latter may not be on the move despite some questionable comments, the team is apparently exploring the market on the former.

Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff explains that the Jets have begun to engage with teams on the possibility of moving Wheeler, and points out that the captain’s full no-trade clause will change on July 1, when he will have to submit a five-team list that he would accept a trade to.

Of course, Wheeler will also turn 36 later this summer and despite strong offensive results, has been criticized heavily in recent years for his overall contributions. The 6’5″ winger had just two goals through his first 30 games of this season, by which point the Jets were already well behind the pace and struggling to stay relevant. He did finish with 17 goals and 60 points total in 65 games but had poor defensive metrics once again, and relied heavily on easy deployment to find so much scoring success.

He also comes with a prohibitive $8.25MM cap hit for the next two seasons (though the actual salary owed is a bit lower than that), limiting the number of teams that could justify bringing him on without the Jets retaining some of the money.

Still, in the right situation, he can still be a strong contributor and perhaps be an option for a team looking to push over the top next season. It would be a drastic culture shift to see the team’s captain and long-standing cornerstone leave–Wheeler has been with the franchise since it still played in Atlanta–but there are winds of change blowing in Winnipeg after such a disappointing year.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Martin Necas Drawing Interest

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The Carolina Hurricanes appear to have hit the jackpot in 2020 first-round pick Seth Jarvis, who is already a regular in the top-six and produced 48 points in 82 games (combined regular season and playoffs) this year. With Jarvis’ rocket-fueled ascension though, there have been fewer minutes and fewer opportunities for another first-round selection.

Martin Necas, the 12th overall pick in 2017, saw his ice time drop to just over 16 minutes a night this season and even lower than that in the playoffs, where he failed to score a single goal. The 23-year-old was drafted with the potential to play center but has been used almost exclusively on the wing so far and took a noticeable step backward offensively this season.

He was honest about this fact at his end-of-year availability, telling reporters:

I have to help the team more, I have to produce more. That’s what everyone expects from me and I didn’t do that this year. It was disappointing.

Necas had 40 points in 78 regular season games, not even reaching the mark he set last year in the shortened 56-game schedule. He is now a restricted free agent coming off his entry-level contract with 119 points in 203 career games.

Still, there is so much obvious upside in the 6’3″ forward that it’s easy to understand why teams might be calling. Pierre LeBrun explained on TSN’s Insider Trading that the Hurricanes may not be rushing to trade Necas but if a deal came about for a young defenseman, they would at least listen.

While releasing that information may just be a negotiating tactic, the Hurricanes are obviously considering some changes. Just a few days ago it was reported that Ethan Bear has been given permission to speak to other teams about his own value heading into an RFA negotiation, and with Vincent Trocheck, Nino Niederreiter, Max Domi, Derek Stepan, Ian Cole, and Brendan Smith all set to hit the open market, Carolina could have a very different look at the start of next season.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Anaheim Ducks Interested In Josh Manson Reunion

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One of the most speculated-about scenarios at every trade deadline is one where a team, out of the playoff race, trades away an important pending free agent only to re-sign him a few months later. After all, why not lease the player for a nice deadline return of future assets, that make the team even stronger upon his return.

In practice, this rarely happens. Those deadline additions are either extended by their new team or reach free agency and suddenly find themselves surrounded by new suitors.

This year, it appears the Anaheim Ducks will be trying to pull off the unlikely scenario of bringing back a sold-off veteran. Pierre LeBrun reports on TSN’s Insider Trading that Anaheim has an interest in a reunion with Josh Manson, once his run to the Stanley Cup Final is finished with the Colorado Avalanche.

Manson, 30, has been a nice addition for the Avalanche, giving their defense corps some additional snarl while adding some nice (and likely unexpected) offense at key moments. As LeBrun notes though, it will be very difficult for Colorado to retain him, given how many other free agents they have on the roster–some of which they’re hoping to sign after the playoffs come to an end.

Meanwhile, Manson had seen his reputation around the league take a bit of a hit in recent years, as his minutes and effectiveness waned in Anaheim. That doesn’t mean the Ducks are done with him though, as he is extremely well-liked in that dressing room and could still be a nice veteran piece to help the team transition into the next phase of their build.

Currently carrying a $4.1MM cap hit, it will be interesting to see what Manson can command on the open market. His playoff performance has only driven his value back up but defensemen who don’t offer much offensively rarely get big paydays–at least in relative terms–in free agency.

Offseason Checklist: Boston Bruins

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With the offseason in full swing aside from the two teams in the Stanley Cup Final, it’s time to examine what each squad will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at the Bruins.

It wasn’t a particularly eventful season for Boston who once again was one of the stronger teams in the Atlantic Division and while they wound up in a Wild Card spot, they were safely in a playoff spot early on.  However, they weren’t able to get past Carolina in the first round and since then, it has been a busy few weeks for the Bruins.  GM Don Sweeney will have a lot of work to do over the coming weeks, assuming a new contract gets worked out between now and then.

Hire A New Coach

It was a move that came as a surprise to some but Sweeney and team president Cam Neely opted to make a change behind the bench, dismissing Bruce Cassidy earlier this month.  This, despite the team going 245-108-46 under his watch during the regular season.  The playoff success hasn’t been there, however, with the team playing a game below .500 which likely played a significant role in the decision to make a change.  Cassidy wasn’t out of a job for long and now has a long-term deal to coach in Vegas.

This feels like a crossroads situation for the Bruins and, for the time being, at least, Boston isn’t being linked to many of the veterans that have been around the block with quite a few teams over the years.  Their current crop of known candidates consists primarily of first-time options (Seattle assistant Jay Leach, Toronto assistant Spencer Carbery, and Pittsburgh assistant Mike Vellucci) or one-time NHL bench bosses (David Quinn, St. Louis assistant Jim Montgomery, and Boston assistant Joe Sacco).

Turning to that type of coach could signal an openness to try a different path and perhaps even take a short-term step back as none of these options carry the type of win-now expectations that a ‘recycled’ veteran often does.  At any rate, Boston will want to have their new bench boss in place by the start of free agency on July 13th as the new coach will want to have some say in their personnel moves.

Re-Sign Or Replace Bergeron

Patrice Bergeron has been a fixture down the middle for Boston for the last 18 years.  He’s a five-time Selke Trophy winner and sits 18 points shy of the 1,000-point mark for his career.  The 36-year-old hasn’t shown signs of slowing down and is consistently one of their leading scorers.  But Bergeron is set to become an unrestricted free agent next month and there is some uncertainty about his future as a result.  This isn’t a case of him threatening to test the market and go elsewhere – he has already ruled that out – but rather a case of him deciding whether or not to hang up his skates and call it a career.

That would certainly be a devastating blow for the Bruins as they don’t have anyone in the system to replace him.  If Bergeron does retire, Boston will need to go hard after the notable middlemen in free agency highlighted by Nazem Kadri while Vincent Trocheck will also generate plenty of interest.  If Evgeni Malkin makes it to the open market, they could check in on him as well with a short-term offer.  The other route is to try to trade for an impact middleman but they don’t have their first-rounder this year, their next two second-rounders after next month’s draft, while their prospect pool isn’t the strongest.  That will make it difficult to trade for an impact center if it comes to it.

Adding one will certainly be a necessity if Bergeron retires as they don’t have anyone else that’s even an ideal second-line center let alone a top liner.  Erik Haula and Charlie Coyle have been hit or miss in key offensive roles in their careers and while they are quality secondary players, they aren’t ideal fits on the top trio.  With that in mind, if Bergeron returns, they could still use an impact center behind him.

Forecasting Bergeron’s contract if he chooses to come back is a difficult one since he is limiting his options to only the Bruins; it’s not implausible to think he’d sign a team-friendly contract to give them some extra cap flexibility.  As it stands, they have just over $2MM in cap space which is hardly enough to do much of anything with.  If Bergeron was to sign a one-year deal, he’d be eligible for incentives which would give them the ability to roll those onto the 2023-24 cap and buy themselves a bit of wiggle room for next season.

Determine Pastrnak’s Future

David Pastrnak has certainly provided plenty of value for a late first-round pick back in 2014.  Over his eight-year career, he is just shy of averaging a point per game and has been no lower than third in team scoring over the past six seasons.  Basically, he has been a consistent fixture on Boston’s top line while doing so at a team-friendly price as the 26-year-old has been under contract at $6.67MM for the last five years and is signed for the 2022-23 season at that price as well.

Obviously, Boston’s preference will be to sign Pastrnak to a contract extension as soon as he’s eligible once the new league year begins on July 13th.  It’s going to take a sizable financial commitment to do so and it’s fair to say his camp will be keeping a close tab on Johnny Gaudreau and Filip Forsberg this summer with Pastrnak’s price tag likely to fall somewhere between what those two get.  Something in the $9MM range is certainly doable.

However, there has been some speculation that Pastrnak may not be willing to sign an early extension which will certainly complicate things for Sweeney.  While Boston would undoubtedly command a significant return in a trade for him, doing so would also definitively close their window of contention; if Bergeron was to return, they could plausibly give that core one more chance so that has to be taken into consideration.  While it’s possible that they go into next season without a new deal in place, that does have its risks.  Accordingly, the Bruins will want to have a good sense of what Pastrnak’s intentions are before the start of free agency, so this will need to be near the top of Sweeney’s priority list.

Bring In Defensive Depth

On the surface, the Bruins have some decent defensive depth and will have Jakub Zboril healthy after he missed most of the season due to an injury.  With eight defensemen on one-way deals, it would seem like they wouldn’t need any more help.

However, Matt Grzelcyk is out until at least November and Charlie McAvoy is out until at least December due to offseason shoulder surgeries.  Mike Reilly also underwent offseason surgery but should be ready for training camp.

While Boston’s depth is decent, they’re going to need some extra bodies to get through the first couple of months of the season.  Jack Ahcan could be an option after getting into six games this year but they might want someone with more experience.  Accordingly, Sweeney may have his eyes on some veteran depth players for training camp PTOs or two-way contracts with an intention of having them play in Providence once everyone is healthy.  With the potential for an NHL roster spot or two to start the season, that could be appealing to those players as they consider their options in free agency next month.

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

Award Notes: Jim Gregory Award Finalists, All-Rookie Team, All-Star Teams

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While there were five awards handed out on Tuesday, there is still one more to be announced.  That one is the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award.  It’s voted on by all 32 NHL GMs as well as some NHL executives at the end of the second round.  Not surprisingly, all three of the finalists, who were named during the NHL Awards show, were among the four to help lead their teams to the conference finals including Julien BriseBois of the Lightning, Chris Drury of the Rangers, and Joe Sakic of the Avalanche.  Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello won the award a year ago.  The winner for this won’t be announced until partway through the first round of the draft next month in Montreal.

More news from awards night:

Auston Matthews Wins The 2022 Hart Trophy

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On Tuesday, the final five NHL awards are being handed out.   Last up for the night was the Hart Memorial Trophy, given to the most valuable player as voted by the PHWA.  After receiving the Ted Lindsay Award for the same honor as voted by the players, Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews was this year’s recipient.  The other finalists were Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin and Oilers center Connor McDavid.

It was a career year for Matthews in terms of goals (60), assists (46), points (106), and shots on goal (348) with his goal and shots totals leading the league despite only playing in 73 games.  His goals per game rate (0.82) was the highest in the NHL since Mario Lemieux back in the 1995-96 campaign.  That helped lead Toronto to the second spot in the Atlantic Division and their most successful season in franchise history in terms of points.  Matthews is the third Maple Leaf to win the Hart and the first to do so in quite some time as Toronto’s previous winner was Ted Kennedy back in 1954-55.

Matthews received 61% of first-place votes among the 195 ballots cast while appearing on all but two of them.  That helped him finish more than 500 points ahead of McDavid to take home the award with Shesterkin coming a distant third.  Four other players received a first-place vote – Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau, Florida’s Jonathan Huberdeau, Nashville’s Roman Josi, and Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov.

The full voting results can be found here.

Cale Makar Wins The 2022 Norris Trophy

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On Tuesday, the final five NHL awards are being handed out.  The second-last award of the night was the James Norris Memorial Trophy, handed out to the NHL’s best defenseman.  This year’s winner is Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar.  The other finalists were Predators blueliner Roman Josi and Lightning rearguard Victor Hedman.

Makar led all defensemen in goals this season with 28, becoming just the fifth blueliner in the last 30 years to get that many goals.  He also finished second in points (86) to Josi, who had 96.  While thought of as an offense-first defender, Makar took a regular turn on Colorado’s penalty kill this season as well which helped him average 25:40 per contest.  While this voting doesn’t cover his playoff performance, the 23-year-old has been dominant in the postseason as well, picking up 26 points in 17 games while his ATOI has jumped up to a little under 27 minutes a night.

Interestingly enough, Makar actually finished second to Josi in first-place votes, 98-92.  However, Makar had 22 more second-place selections (98-72) which helped him garner 25 more voting points to secure the victory.  He was also the only player to appear on all 195 ballots with Josi not being put on one of them.  It’s the closest vote for this award since the 2011-12 campaign when Erik Karlsson edged Shea Weber for the award.  Only one other blueliner, Boston’s Charlie McAvoy, received a first-place vote.

The full results of the voting can be found here.

Auston Matthews Wins The 2022 Ted Lindsay Award

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On Tuesday, the final five NHL awards are being handed out.  Third on the docket was the Ted Lindsay Award, given to the player voted as the most outstanding in the league by the players.  This year’s recipient is Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews.  The other finalists were Oilers center Connor McDavid and Predators defenseman Roman Josi.

The 24-year-old led the league in goals scored for the second straight season, hitting the 60-goal mark for the first time in his career despite missing nine games due to injury or suspension, becoming the first player to hit that mark since Steven Stamkos did it back in 2011-12.  Matthews set a new league record for the most goals scored by an American-born player, besting Jimmy Carson’s mark of 55 back in 1987-88.  Between November 24th and April 9th, Matthews scored 51 times in just 50 games.  That helped lead Toronto to a 115-point season, the most points in franchise history.

Matthews, who was a finalist for the award last season, is the fourth different winner of this award in as many years.  The last time that happened was between 2009-10 and 2012-13.  Unlike the other awards being revealed on Tuesday, no voting breakdown was released. He is the first Maple Leaf to win the award.

Moritz Seider Wins The 2022 Calder Trophy

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On Tuesday, the final five NHL awards are being handed out.  The second award of the night was the Calder Memorial Trophy, handed out to the NHL’s top rookie.  Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider took home the trophy after a stellar first season.  Maple Leafs winger Michael Bunting and Ducks center Trevor Zegras were the other two finalists.

The 21-year-old was the sixth-overall pick by Detroit back in 2019 and spent his post-draft season with AHL Grand Rapids before playing in Sweden last season.  The extra seasoning certainly was beneficial as he led all rookie defensemen with 50 points (seven goals and 43 assists), the third-highest point output from a rookie rearguard in the last 30 years.  Seider also led all rookies (including forwards) in assists and power play points while logging more than 23 minutes a game to lead all Detroit defensemen, a franchise record for all rookies.

As a result, the vote wasn’t particularly close.  Of the 195 PHWA members to cast a ballot, Seider was ranked first on 170 of them while he was the only player to appear in the top three on every ballot.  That helped Seider become the first Detroit rookie to win the award since goaltender Roger Crozier back in the 1964-65 season.

The full results of the voting can be found here.

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