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Nashville Predators Sign Nino Niederreiter

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The Nashville Predators have landed one of the top free agents remaining, signing Nino Niederreiter to a two-year, $8MM contract. The $4MM average annual value comes in quite a bit below the $5.25MM cap hit he had carried for the last five years, and the two-year term will leave him as a UFA again at the age of 31.

There is a lot to like about this deal for the Predators, who now have the opportunity to reunite Niederreiter with former linemate Mikael Granlund if they choose. Getting a 24-goal scorer for such a reasonable contract perhaps shows how tight the market has become in the days since free agency opened, as this move presents very little risk for Nashville general manager David Poile.

With Filip Forsberg taken care of, the Predators had nearly $8.5MM in cap space to add to the current roster, with only Yakov Trenin left to re-sign. Putting Niederreiter in the mix gives them another versatile, physical winger to move up and down the lineup, one that comes with a strong history of goal-scoring.

Over a career that spans parts of 11 seasons and 732 games, Niederreiter has scored at almost exactly a 20-goal pace and most of his damage comes at even-strength. On last year’s Carolina Hurricanes team, for instance, his 20 even-strength goals trailed only Sebastian Aho (23) and Andrei Svechnikov (21) for the team lead.

Adding that kind of player–who also comes with 1,115 career hits–will help to lengthen out a Predators offensive group that suddenly looks rather imposing. After Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen’s incredible bounce-back performances in 2021-22, the emergence of Tanner Jeannot and Philip Tomasino, and now Niederreiter’s addition, the team should be able to ice three lines that can produce offensively. Add in Ryan McDonagh on the back end and the Predators are setting up to be a real contender in the Central Division.

For the player, this is a rather stunning contract, given how similarly productive wingers like Rickard Rakell had landed much longer and more lucrative contracts. Still, Niederreiter has set himself up to hit the market again in two years when the cap will be starting to increase and at a young enough age to land another long-term deal. For the next two, he should provide solid value for the Predators as they continue to chase their first Stanley Cup.

William Riedell Lands PTO With Vegas Golden Knights

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Over the next few months, unsigned players will start to earn professional tryouts with various organizations, giving them a chance to attend training camp and showcase their skills. Today, CapFriendly tweets that William Riedell has landed one of those agreements with the Vegas Golden Knights.

The 25-year-old defenseman played two games with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms this season after finishing his college career with a year at Ohio State but will be looking for a more permanent home in 2022-23. Undrafted, the physical defender played four seasons for Lake Superior State but with an added year of eligibility, transferred to Ohio State to serve as the Buckeyes’ captain.

In 171 college games, Riedell racked up 20 goals and 61 points. He’ll now try to prove he’s worth an NHL contract, or at least land a deal with a minor league organization that will allow him to enter the professional ranks on a full-time basis.

These tryout contracts will become much more regular later on in the summer, as opportunities dry up around the NHL and AHL.

Michael Frolik Signs In Czechia

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There will be no NHL return for Michael Frolik but he’s not ready to hang up his skates just yet. After spending last season in the Swiss league, the veteran forward has signed a one-year deal in his native Czechia with Bili Tygri Liberec.

Frolik, 34, played nearly 900 games in the NHL before departing for Europe last year, suiting up for the Montreal Canadiens, Buffalo Sabres, Calgary Flames, Winnipeg Jets, Chicago Blackhawks, and Florida Panthers (not to mention a PTO with the St. Louis Blues) throughout his long career. A Stanley Cup champion in 2013 and a two-time Olympian, the versatile winger was an excellent role player for quite some time.

Now, with a new deal in place and his last effective NHL season coming in 2018-19, we can put a period on his North American career. In 858 games, he scored 159 goals and 384 points, while appearing in the playoffs just 47 times. He sits 12th in scoring from his 2006 draft class (Frolik was picked 10th) and made nearly $35MM in his career, according to CapFriendly.

San Jose Sharks Linked To Spencer Carbery

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The San Jose Sharks are late to the head coaching search party. After firing Bob Boughner and his staff later into the offseason, most marquee coaching options are off the market, leaving the Sharks to get creative with their search. According to San Jose Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng, multiple sources confirmed to him that the team has interviewed Spencer Carbery for the open position.

Carbery spent 2021-22 as an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs and was responsible for the team’s power play, which finished first in the league during the regular season. 40 years old, Carbery was named the AHL’s Coach of the Year in 2021, his last of three seasons as the head coach of the Hershey Bears. He also won the same award in the ECHL in 2014 during a five-year run as head coach of the South Carolina Stingrays. You might recognize them for being the team where Stanley Cup Champion coach Jared Bednar got his head coaching start.

Carbery would certainly help San Jose’s goal output if his time in Toronto is any indication. San Jose’s power play clocked in at 19% last season, 22nd in the NHL, while they scored just 211 goals in total, which was third-last. He could be the key to an offensive resurgence from players like Erik Karlsson and help get the most out of youngsters like William Eklund and Thomas Bordeleau if they make the team.

Matthew Tkachuk Tells Flames He Won’t Sign Long-Term

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6:12 pm: Sportsnet’s Eric Francis contested the reported list of teams that Tkachuk will sign a long-term extension with, saying the trade list of St. Louis, Vegas, Florida, Nashville, and Dallas is “not accurate”.

1:16 pm: What has been apparent for a while is now official, as Matthew Tkachuk has told the Calgary Flames that he will not sign a long-term contract, according to Jeremy Rutherford and Hailey Salvian of The Athletic. The report indicates that a trade is “likely to happen soon” and that Tkachuk has provided the team with a list of where he would agree to a long-term extension.

According to The Athletic, that list includes the St. Louis Blues, Vegas Golden Knights, Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators, and Dallas Stars, with the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers also expressing interest in the past.

The Flames filed for salary arbitration earlier this week, taking the threat of an offer sheet off the table and giving them some time to potentially work out an extension, or trade the restricted free agent before he accepted his $9.0MM qualifying offer. It appears to be the latter, as an arbitration award would only take Tkachuk directly to unrestricted free agency a year from now, allowing him to take his services wherever he wanted without the Flames receiving anything in return.

After losing Johnny Gaudreau last week, Calgary must cash in the Tkachuk chip before they run out of time. While that doesn’t necessarily need to be right now, allowing Tkachuk to work out a long-term deal with an acquiring club would likely maximize the return for the Flames.

Like Gaudreau, Tkachuk is coming off a massive career-best season, where he notched 42 goals and 104 points while playing in all 82 games. He received Hart and Selke trophy votes, was named a second-team All-Star, and finished eighth in league scoring. With Tkachuk part of arguably the best line in the NHL alongside Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm, the Flames outscored teams 108-49 with him on the ice at even-strength.

Still just 24, he is a year away from unrestricted free agency due to how quickly he entered the NHL. After being the sixth-overall pick in 2016, he jumped right into the league and scored 48 points as a rookie. Now through six seasons, he has 152 goals and 382 points in 431 games, with nearly 600 hits.

This is the kind of franchise-altering talent that almost never gets to the open market and one that is worth mortgaging some of your future for in a trade package. Tkachuk’s overall impact on the game can be felt in several ways, and he could help a contender looking for the edge, or a younger squad hoping to add some rocket fuel to their rebuild.

Where this leaves the Flames on that spectrum isn’t exactly clear. If they do part ways with Gaudreau and Tkachuk in the span of a few weeks, the entire core of their offensive attack has essentially disappeared. While Lindholm is an excellent player on an outstanding contract, Blake Coleman adds versatility and experience to the middle-six, and Andrew Mangiapane has expressed a desire to be part of the long-term solution, it’s hard to know if that is really enough to stay competitive.

A decision that front should inform any potential return, and whether the Flames would then dive into what’s left in free agency to try and give themselves a boost for next season. With only Coleman, Rasmus Andersson, and Jacob Markstrom signed for more than two years, there would at least be an opportunity for a rebuild, if the team wanted. But with so many complementary pieces in place on reasonable deals, it’s hard to see general manager Brad Treliving tearing it down at this point.

Either way, while Flames fans will be frustrated with Tkachuk’s unwillingness to stay, they can at least be happy that he told them early enough to still land a substantial trade package in return.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Latest On Patrick Kane

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With the Chicago Blackhawks deciding to rebuild halfway through their previous rebuild, speculation has run rampant about all-time great Patrick Kane’s future with the team. If dealt, he’d be one of the best players and biggest names traded in the past few seasons, joining blockbuster deals like the Jack Eichel and Erik Karlsson trades. However, TSN’s Darren Dreger today pumped the brakes on trade rumors, saying that Kane’s camp “remains undecided” and that any rumors at this point are purely speculative.

At 33 years old, Kane still has 100-point potential while logging heavy minutes. He hasn’t hit that mark since posting 110 points in 2018-19, but he’s stayed well above a point-per-game pace since then on a continually struggling Blackhawks squad. One of the most decorated American-born players of all time, his playing ability still remains very close to his prime.

It’s because of that fact that a potential trade seems so realistic to fans around the league. It would’ve seemed a guarantee just a few seasons ago that Kane would remain a Blackhawk for life, but as the team failed to rebuild quickly (or properly in the slightest) and management changed hands drastically, no one would blame him for not wanting to waste the last few seasons of his peak on a sinking ship.

With or without Kane, Chicago figures to be a bottom-five team next year with little doubt. Trading him could, however, end up being the difference between a top-five selection and the 2023 first overall selection, which would land them a potentially generational center in Connor Bedard.

Just one season away from unrestricted free agency, it could make a lot of sense for Chicago to deal him ahead of the season too. While they might not get as high of a return without an extension in place for Kane with his new team, it could open the door for him to return to the team in 2023-24 to potentially usher Bedard into the league if they do land the top pick.

Regardless, Kane’s choice will be an important one to watch as the offseason progresses. He’ll still command a fair bit of salary cap space even if Chicago does retain salary, unless the acquiring team wishes to pay a third team extra assets in order to retain additional salary.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Latest On P.K. Subban

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Despite his declining production in recent years, P.K. Subban still represents an interesting free agent case. On a short-term, low-cost deal, a team would be getting the 2013 Norris Trophy winner who as recently as 2020-21 was still averaging more than 22 minutes a night. According to his agent Don Meehan, who spoke with Nicolas Cloutier of TVA Sports, Subban is still considering his options and intends on playing in 2022-23.

Only 33, Subban made it onto our top-50 free agent board at No. 37, ahead of some other defensemen like Ian Cole, Jan Rutta, Olli Maatta, and Colin Miller who have already found homes for next season. While a team couldn’t know that they are definitely getting a player better than that group, none of them have ever come anywhere close to the kind of upside that Subban has shown in the past.

The fact is, as a right-handed offensive defenseman, it might actually be a player higher up that chart that is holding things up. John Klingberg is still unsigned, and represents a much more in-his-prime option for a team looking for a little boost on the back end. Once he makes a decision on where to go next, there may be additional teams interested in adding Subban as a cheaper fallback plan.

No matter where he goes, Subban will be looking at a massive pay cut. He has carried an average annual value of $9MM since 2014 when he signed an eight-year, $72MM deal with the Montreal Canadiens. Traded twice since then, it’s been so long since Subban was on a reasonably-priced contract that it’s hard to really understand what kind of upside he could even provide at this point.

There is a chance of significant surplus value if he’s willing to sign a one-year deal, though detractors will say that his best days are so far behind him that it would be wasting money. There could be a good argument for a professional tryout in this case, even if that seems farfetched with the prices that other defensemen have received this summer. It would allow a team to see Subban in their system before making a commitment, and allow him to negotiate a bit more lucrative contract closer to the season, should his play dictate it.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Boston Bruins Hire John Gruden

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The Boston Bruins have hired John Gruden (no, not Jon Gruden) as an assistant coach for the upcoming season, adding to Jim Montgomery’s staff. He spent the last four seasons with the New York Islanders but was fired along with Jim Hiller (who joined the Los Angeles Kings staff yesterday) in June, after the team moved Lane Lambert into the head coaching position.

Gruden, 52, should be a familiar name to Bruins fans, who may remember his short stint with the team during his playing days. Drafted 168th overall by Boston in 1990, he played parts of three seasons with the team and was a star for the Providence Bruins of the AHL for a short period. Overall, his playing days resulted in just 92 regular season NHL games.

His coaching career though has been much more successful. As head coach of the Hamilton Bulldogs of the OHL, Gruden won the league championship and took the club to the Memorial Cup, before falling to Sam Steel and the Regina Pats in the semifinal. He parlayed that junior success into a role with Barry Trotz, where he was partly responsible for the huge defensive turnaround the Islanders experienced.

Now, as the Bruins move forward with a different staff, Gruden joins Joe Sacco and Chris Kelly as assistants under Montgomery.

Washington Capitals Sign Gabriel Carlsson

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The Washington Capitals have added some defensive depth, signing Gabriel Carlsson to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal will carry an NHL salary of $750K and an AHL salary of $400K.

Carlsson, 25, was one of the players that did not receive a qualifying offer this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent after playing sparingly for the Columbus Blue Jackets the last several years. Originally selected 29th overall in the 2015 draft, he has just 75 games played at the NHL level.

While 38 of those games did come this year, there’s not a lot of track record to go on for Carlsson, given he has averaged fewer than 13 minutes a night in his short career. He’s huge–6’5″–and can skate well enough, but hasn’t ever been much of a puck-mover and offers very little offensive upside. In his minor league career, which spans 146 games in the AHL, he has just 32 points.

Still, in terms of depth signings, a 25-year-old first-round pick that has size and (some) NHL experience certainly isn’t the worst option. The Capitals have enough at the position between their returning veterans and younger prospects that Carlsson shouldn’t be asked to play regularly, and will likely spend a good bit of the year in the minor leagues.

Tim Heed Signs In Switzerland

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After spending one year in the KHL, Tim Heed is heading back to Switzerland. The veteran defenseman has signed a new two-year contract with HC Ambri-Piotta, likely ending any chance of him returning to North America.

Heed, 31, played 38 games for the San Jose Sharks in 2019-20, earning $960K on a one-way contract. With the uncertainty surrounding the 2020-21 season, however, he signed in Switzerland with HC Lugano and dominated the NL with 34 points in 47 games, leading the league in goals by a defenseman.

That led to an offer from the KHL, where he played for Spartak Moscow this season, still doing well with 26 points in 45 games. After terminating his contract, Heed is now headed back to Switzerland instead of trying his hand on this side of the pond, despite being a pretty successful depth defenseman during his time in San Jose.

Over 105 career games, Heed racked up 29 points and posted outstanding possession statistics–though those were heavily weighted by the offensive deployment he was given. As an offensive-minded player, he was an option on the powerplay but didn’t draw many tough assignments at even-strength, averaging just over 14 minutes a game during his time in the NHL.

With a two-year deal in place and his 31st birthday passing back in January, a return to North America seems unlikely at this point.

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