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More On The Winnipeg Coaching Search

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The Winnipeg Jets are one of many teams without a head coach at the moment, and for weeks the focus has been on Barry Trotz as the top target. The former New York Islanders coach is a top target for many teams though, and with him taking his time deciding what’s next, the Jets will have to make some contingency plans.

According to Murat Ates of The Athletic, one of those is St. Louis Blues assistant Jim Montgomery. In fact, Ates writes that Montgomery is the “No. 2 choice” behind Trotz at the moment.

The former Dallas Stars head coach–who was fired due to unprofessional conduct in 2020, before checking himself into a treatment facility for alcohol abuse–has rebuilt his career with the Blues and is now a candidate for several jobs around the league. He even has ties to the area, having played a season for the Manitoba Moose in 1999-00, and the organization as Ates details.

In terms of coaching success, Montgomery’s resume is outstanding. He won two USHL championships during his three-year span as head coach of the Dubuque Fighting Saints, and then took home a national championship with the University of Denver in 2017. He was named the NCAA Coach of the Year that season, and was soon being recruited to the NHL ranks.

In Dallas, he posted an overall record of 60-43-10 and took the team to the second round in his only full year behind the bench.

Latest On Johnny Gaudreau

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Calgary Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau could very well be the top free agent on the market when the frenzy kicks off on July 13. That is of course unless the Flames are able to lock up their offensive dynamo before then. The team is putting the “pedal down” according to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, as they try to beat the clock.

Seravalli points out something that is important to remember in cases like this. The Flames’ advantage of being able to offer Gaudreau an extra year will disappear once free agency begins, meaning they have just over a month left to offer him an eight-year deal. If he reaches July 13 without a contract, the 28-year-old forward will only be able to sign a seven-year contract, no matter where he chooses to go.

Every time that general manager Brad Treliving has spoken about Gaudreau, he’s made clear that Calgary hopes to retain the services of their 115-point man. Despite that, speculation continues to swirl around the New Jersey native, suggesting he might be interested in returning to the east coast. As always, any contract talks will likely be determined by overall salary first and foremost, as it does with almost every player that hits the market.

On that end, the Flames certainly have enough cap space to win a bidding war, though there are other players who could be affected by where Gaudreau lands. Matthew Tkachuk and Andrew Mangiapane are both restricted free agents just a single year from unrestricted free agent status, and could simply use the arbitration system to get to the open market in 2023. Any long-term extensions with them will be buying out almost exclusively UFA years and would be expensive.

The focus is obviously on Gaudreau though, as there is a lot more time to talk to the RFA forwards after the free agent period begins. If they don’t get the first domino in place by then, things could be drastically different in Calgary next season.

Oilers Notes: Nurse, Goaltending, Puljujarvi

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The Edmonton Oilers were obviously dealing with several key injuries by the time they were eliminated by the Colorado Avalanche, including limiting issues for Darnell Nurse and Leon Draisaitl. When speaking with the media today in his end-of-year press conference, general manager Ken Holland announced that none of the injured players are expected to need surgery at this point.

That’s huge news for a team that obviously has its sights set on contending for the Stanley Cup again next season. As we’ve seen around the league, playoff injuries can cause absences at the beginning of the following season that drastically hurt a team’s chances–or at least their seeding. Draisaitl, who Holland confirmed was dealing with a high ankle sprain, still had 32 points in 16 playoff games. Nurse was dealing with a torn hip flexor for all three rounds.

  • Holland also admitted that the Oilers didn’t have a true number one goalie this season but explained just how few of those actually exist. He explained that he still needs to talk to Mike Smith and Mikko Koskinen but the team is hoping that Stuart Skinner can take a step into a regular NHL role next season, even if that obviously isn’t going to be at that number one level. Koskinen is an unrestricted free agent and not expected to be back with the Oilers, while Smith still has one year left on his contract at a $2.2MM cap hit.
  • One of the more interesting moments in the press conference was when the manager was pressed about Jesse Puljujarvi, who found himself in the bottom six more often than not at the end of the year and is a restricted free agent this summer. When asked if Puljujarvi was part of the solution for the Oilers moving forward, Holland simply said “that’s what I have to sort out.” The 24-year-old forward is due a $1.41MM qualifying offer and is eligible for arbitration.

David Pastrnak To Discuss Extension In July

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The Boston Bruins are experiencing quite a bit of change. Not only did they fire Bruce Cassidy, but it is unclear whether Patrice Bergeron will return, Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy are both out long-term following surgery, and now David Pastrnak’s future with the team seems suspect.

Last night, Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic wrote an explosive article about Pastrnak’s future in Boston, suggesting that he may not be open to a long-term extension. The piece even quotes a source close to the star forward, who claims there is “no chance” that Pastrnak would return with Don Sweeney as general manager.

Today, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet tweets that Pastrnak and agent JP Barry are expected to sit down with Sweeney in early July to discuss an extension. The insider also notes, however, that if Pastrnak won’t sign the Bruins would “definitely have to move him.” To Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald, Barry also indicated that he doesn’t know where The Athletic’s report came from and that they have a “solid relationship” with Sweeney.

That’s perhaps shocking to some, given Pastrnak’s status in Boston as one of the most dynamic offensive players in the league but more and more it appears as though the Bruins are heading toward a rebuild. Trading the 26-year-old winger would obviously have a huge effect on any efforts in that direction, especially if it came with an attached extension wherever he ends up. The Bruins would likely get an incredible haul, given this is the kind of player that can push a team over the top and take them from playoff hopeful to Stanley Cup contender.

He’s done that for Boston for so many years, racking up 240 goals and 504 points in 510 career games. Pastrnak has been even better in the playoffs, totaling 74 points in 70 games, and remains one of the most lethal powerplay threats in the league. If made available, teams around the league would likely be scrambling over each other to get a chance.

Still, it wasn’t always this way for Boston. The team signed Taylor Hall to a four-year, $24MM contract last summer to give them a weapon beyond the first line. Just a few months ago they traded a huge package of picks and prospects for Hampus Lindholm, extending him to an eight-year $52MM contract immediately. Those aren’t moves that a rebuilding squad usually does, meaning that a Pastrnak extension should obviously still be a priority.

The question is really raised if he won’t sign it, and what that will do for the competitiveness of the team–Hall and Lindholm acquisitions be damned. If no deal is reached, Pastrnak could quickly become the biggest story of the summer.

Joachim Blichfeld Signs In SHL

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The San Jose Sharks won’t be able to rely on Joachim Blichfeld as an injury call-up next season, as the young forward has signed a two-year contract with the Vaxjo Lakers in the SHL. The team will be able to retain his exclusive rights by issuing a qualifying offer but this is a disappointing turn for a franchise that will need young talent in the coming years.

Blichfeld, 23, made his NHL debut during the 2019-20 season and got into another handful of games in 2020-21, before spending the entire 2021-22 campaign in the minor leagues. The 6’2″ winger was excellent for the San Jose Barracuda, scoring 24 goals and 45 points in 61 games but failed to even earn a single call-up, other than a short period on the taxi squad when it was brought back in January.

He then suited up for Denmark at the World Championship, where he scored another five goals in seven games, an impressive total that easily led the squad. All of that doesn’t really matter for the Sharks now as they’ll lose him for the next two years at least, and perhaps longer if Blichfeld decides to stay overseas. While he wasn’t someone they had invested a ton of resources into–Blichfeld was a seventh-round pick, 210th overall in 2016–he did represent some nice depth for the organization.

Latest On Claude Giroux

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The free agent market this summer may be headlined by players in their prime like Johnny Gaudreau and Filip Forsberg but there is also another tier of older talents that can still make a huge impact. Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Patrice Bergeron, and Marc-Andre Fleury could all be going into the Hall of Fame one day and are technically available, once July 13 rolls around.

There’s another player that should be included in that group: Claude Giroux. The Philadelphia Flyers icon is now 34 and though he may not have a ton of time left in his career, there’s no doubting that he can still be an impact player. After scoring 18 goals and 42 points in 57 games with the brutal Flyers squad this season, Giroux showed exactly how productive he can still be by joining the high-flying Florida Panthers and adding 23 points in 18 games. He had another eight points in the Panthers’ ten-game playoff run and now must make a decision on where to take his career next.

According to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, the first priority would be to stay in Florida. Both Giroux and his agent Pat Brisson told LeBrun that there is a desire to stay with the Panthers if possible, and general manager Bill Zito confirmed that he hopes to find a way to make it happen. Hope, of course, is the operative word, as the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Panthers don’t exactly have cap space to throw around this summer.

For the first time in a little while, there are no big restricted free agents to sign, but with more than $71.3MM already committed to 16 players, a $637K bonus overage penalty carrying over to next season, and Keith Yandle’s buyout penalty jumping to nearly $5.4MM, the Panthers will have to make some moves just to fit their current group in under the $82.5MM ceiling. Getting Giroux seems extremely difficult unless he’s taking a huge discount compared to what he could make on the market.

Wherever he lands, Giroux will have an outside chance at hitting the 1,000-point mark this season. The 15-year NHL veteran currently sits at 923 and needs just six goals to hit 300. It would be extremely odd to see him reach those milestones in a non-Flyers sweater, even if he did seem to fit in after arriving in Florida.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Offseason Checklist: Winnipeg Jets

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The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that weren’t playoff-bound plus those who were eliminated in the first two rounds.  It’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at the Jets.

After being ousted by Montreal in the playoffs a year ago, GM Kevin Cheveldayoff shored up the back end with the hopes that would help Winnipeg get to that next level.  Instead, they underachieved this season, both with and without Paul Maurice behind the bench, and ultimately came up short of reaching the playoffs.  Cheveldayoff once again will have some work to do to try to get the Jets back into the postseason picture.

Hire A Head Coach

With Maurice surprisingly stepping aside midseason, Cheveldayoff made the logical choice to elevate Dave Lowry to the interim head coaching role.  It didn’t result in the type of improvement they were hoping for as Winnipeg’s points percentage under Lowry (.537) was basically identical to Maurice’s (.534).  In other words, the coaching change didn’t move the needle.

Lowry was the logical choice at the time in that the team wouldn’t have had the opportunity to interview assistants currently employed if they made a full-time hire midseason.  While a handful of assistants are still working at the moment, the team has been able to do a more comprehensive search (beyond Barry Trotz, who is basically singlehandedly holding up the market right now).

While Lowry is expected to interview for the full-time role, a new voice from outside the organization would make the most sense.  A new system from a new coach could be a significant enough change to avoid needing to necessarily make any core changes to the roster.  Cheveldayoff is thought of as one of the managers who tends to be patient with his rosters so it’s quite possible that a big addition behind the bench could be their biggest move of the summer.  But with free agency fast approaching (where coaches want to have their input), a new coach will need to be in place soon.

Re-Sign Dubois

When Cheveldayoff decided to shake up his core early in the 2020-21 season with the acquisition of Pierre-Luc Dubois for Patrik Laine and Jack Roslovic, the 2022 offseason became a very important one for the Jets.  That corresponded with the end of Dubois’ contract as the 23-year-old is set to become a restricted free agent with arbitration eligibility this summer.  He has already gone through one contentious negotiation, one that ended with a trade request out of Columbus, and now, Dubois is two years away from being eligible to hit the open market.

He’s coming off a strong season, one that saw him reach a career-high in goals (28) while picking up 60 points.  That has him positioned to land more than the $6MM qualifying offer he’s owed but the question is how much higher should they be willing to go?  If they want to sign him to a long-term deal that buys up some UFA years (and Dubois is amenable to signing that type of contract), the AAV is likely to go beyond Kyle Connor’s $7.143MM price tag.  Do they want to go that high and reset the benchmark for their younger core?

On top of that, there is also a question of where Dubois best fits.  He was brought in to play center but he has spent a fair amount of time on the wing as well.  A long-term, big-money deal could potentially price them out of re-signing Mark Scheifele in a couple of years; does it make sense to do that for a player who may be better off as a winger than a center?

If it feels like there are a lot of questions for a pending restricted free agent, it’s because there are.  The route they go with Dubois will help shape their planning for beyond the 2022-23 campaign so getting this done sooner than later would be ideal.  Dubois is likely to file for an arbitration hearing if something isn’t worked out over the next six weeks so this is something that will need to be resolved by late July or early August at the latest.

Create Cap Flexibility

The Jets have around $18MM available this summer but have anywhere between seven and ten players to sign with that money.  A big chunk of that will go to Dubois which won’t leave a lot to spread around the rest of the openings.  Freeing up a bit of extra flexibility would certainly help Cheveldayoff to build out the rest of the roster without having to resort to signing several players for minimum-salary deals to stay cap compliant.  Forward depth has been problematic the last couple of years so being able to spend a bit more on their bottom six would help.

In order to do that, they will likely need to trade away from their back end as there really aren’t any viable non-core forwards that could be traded to free up space.  They have nearly $25MM tied up in their five most-expensive blueliners which is a lot.  Nate Schmidt didn’t have a great trade market a year ago and that likely hasn’t changed while Josh Morrissey and Neal Pionk aren’t likely to go anywhere.  That whittles it down to Brenden Dillon ($3.9MM through 2023-24) and Dylan DeMelo ($3MM through 2023-24); moving one of them to make a roster spot for a prospect like Ville Heinola or Dylan Samberg would give them some cap relief and also provide a chance for one of them to get an extended look in the NHL.  In a summer where many teams will be looking for some extra flexibility, any little bit helps.

Fill Backup Goalie Slot

Eric Comrie more or less got the backup goalie spot by default with the Jets due to his contract being at the league minimum.  To his credit, he did quite well this season, posting a .920 SV% and 2.58 GAA in 19 appearances, giving Winnipeg solid value from that backup spot.  But Comrie is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer and after the year he had, he should be able to command more than $750K on the open market.

The Jets will once again need to shop towards the lower end of the market unless they can free up a few extra million in cap space but while Mikhail Berdin is on a one-way deal for next season, his performance with AHL Manitoba isn’t good enough to really contend for that spot so they will almost certainly have to look outside the organization if they can’t reach a new deal with Comrie.  Considering the opening day of free agency usually results in quite the game of musical chairs for netminders, this is something Cheveldayoff will need to address by July 13th.

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

Snapshots: King Clancy, Smith, Somppi

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The NHL award being revealed on Tuesday was the King Clancy Trophy which is given annually “to the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community”.  It was announced that Devils defenseman P.K. Subban is this year’s winner.  He created the P.K. Subban Foundation in 2014 while playing with Montreal and pledged $10MM over seven years to Montreal Children’s Hospital.  Subban also founded Blueline Buddies in 2016 when he played for Nashville and earlier this year, he donated $1MM in support of Le Spot, a Montreal mental health clinic while also matching donations to help Ukrainian cancer patients.  It’s the fourth time that Subban has been a finalist for the award with this being his first win.  Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf and Edmonton’s Darnell Nurse were the other finalists.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Oilers goaltender Mike Smith met with reporters today (video link) and indicated that it’s “too early to tell” if he’s going to return next season. The 40-year-old had an up-and-down season and acknowledged that he played through injuries for most of the year but still managed to post a .915 SV% in 28 games during the regular season, a number that he came close to maintaining in the playoffs (.913).  Smith is signed for next season already with a $2.2MM cap hit but he is not subject to the 35-plus rule that many veterans are.  In the last CBA, a provision was put in that says the rule does not apply if the compensation in each year is uniform or if the salary increases each year.  The latter applies to Smith so Edmonton wouldn’t face a cap penalty if he opted to retire.
  • Pending Lightning RFA forward Otto Somppi has decided to head overseas for next season as Lukko of the Finnish Liiga announced that they’ve signed the 24-year-old to a one-year deal. Somppi has spent the last four seasons in Tampa Bay’s farm system but never received a recall to the NHL.  In 50 games this season with AHL Syracuse, he had 23 points.  Tampa Bay can retain Somppi’s NHL rights through 2025 by issuing him a qualifying offer next month.

Tyler Lewington Signs In Austria

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After spending most of the past seven seasons in the minors, pending UFA Tyler Lewington has opted for a change of scenery as EC Salzburg of Austria’s ICE HL announced they’ve signed the defenseman to a one-year contract.

The 27-year-old signed a two-way deal worth a guaranteed $400K with Boston last summer on the opening day of free agency, giving the Bruins some veteran depth in the minors that could be called upon when injuries arose.  However, Lewington only suited up in two games at the top level and instead spent the bulk of the year with AHL Providence where he had nine points and 66 penalty minutes in 55 games.

Over his career, Lewington has suited up in a dozen NHL contests between Washington, Nashville, and Boston with most of his playing time coming in the AHL where he has 341 career regular season appearances under his belt.  The games he played this season qualified him for veteran status in the minors and AHL teams can only dress five of those in a game so having that designation likely would have negatively affected Lewington’s market this summer.  Knowing that, he got a head start on the market with this move, one that should see him have a chance to play a bigger role next season with the Red Bulls and if all goes well, he could still return to play in North America down the road.

Vancouver Canucks Sign Nils Aman

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The Vancouver Canucks have announced today that they have signed prospect center Nils Aman to an entry-level contract. Aman was one of the prospects whose exclusive rights expired last week. As part of the announcement, Canucks GM Patrik Allvin gave the following statement on Aman:

Nils is a smart hockey player who plays with speed and has a strong work ethic. He possesses a good two-way game, and we look forward to seeing his continued development on both sides of the ice with the Canucks organization.

Aman was drafted by the Colorado Avalanche at the 2020 draft, getting selected in the sixth round, 167th overall. The Avalanche opted to let their exclusive rights to sign him expire, though, and that’s what has allowed the Canucks to swoop in and nab him on an entry-level deal. Aman has spent the last two seasons as a full-timer for Leksands IF of the SHL. Aman ranked ninth among Leksands forwards in average time on ice, getting just under 14 minutes a game, and his role meant he had consistently infrequent production over the course of his two SHL seasons. He posted 10 points in his first campaign and 14 in his second, although he did flash some offensive upside with 41 points in 45 games in 2018-19 for Leksands at the junior level.

While the Canucks aren’t signing Aman with the expectation that he will suddenly become an offensive force, Allvin’s comments provide a look at the more reasonable expectation for what the Canucks hope Aman will develop into in North America. It’s the speed, work ethic, and “good two-way game” that Allvin mentions that will likely carry him as he makes the transition to North American professional hockey, and if he develops well he could be able to play a similar role in Vancouver as he did in the SHL. At the very least, though, this signing gives the Canucks another prospect to add to their developmental system at no asset cost beyond the contract slot he’ll occupy.

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