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Hurricanes Re-Sign Maxime Lajoie

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The Hurricanes have reached an agreement with their final arbitration-eligible player as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that they’ve signed defenseman Maxime Lajoie to a one-year, two-way deal.  The contract will pay $750K in the NHL, $125K in the AHL, and has a total guarantee of $200K.

The 24-year-old saw plenty of NHL action with Ottawa back in 2018-19 but has predominantly been in the minors since then.  Last season, Lajoie played in 60 games with AHL Chicago, scoring four goals along with 29 assists.  He also got into five games with Carolina where he was held off the scoresheet while averaging 12:32 per contest.

Looking ahead to next season, it’s likely that Lajoie will have a similar role with Carolina, one that sees him start in the minors (as long as he clears waivers in training camp) and then is recalled when injuries arise.  He will need to play in 13 NHL games in 2022-23 for the Hurricanes to retain his RFA rights; if he plays fewer games than that, he’ll be eligible for Group Six unrestricted free agency.

Once Carolina officially announces the deal, the clock will begin to tick on their second buyout window which will open up three days after the deal is made official and last for 48 hours.  The Hurricanes have roughly $1.8MM in cap space per CapFriendly and still need to re-sign Martin Necas who didn’t file for arbitration last month.  Necas will undoubtedly make more than that which will create a bit of a cap crunch for the team so that window could be of interest to them.  A player needs to make $4MM and have been in the organization at the trade deadline to be eligible to be bought out this route.  Worth noting, defenseman Jake Gardiner – who missed all of last season with back and hip issues – makes $4.05MM and has been medically cleared to return for next season.  On the surface, he could be a potential candidate to be bought out of the final year of his deal once the buyout window reopens for them.

Metropolitan Notes: Hurricanes, Zucker, Jiricek

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Hurricanes GM Don Waddell indicated to Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer that he expects to reach a settlement with defenseman Maxime Lajoie in advance of Tuesday’s arbitration hearing.  The 24-year-old spent most of the season in the minors so a new agreement shouldn’t be hard to come to.  What’s notable is that once that new deal is reached, Carolina will get their second buyout window soon after and Waddell didn’t rule out the possibility of using it but noted that they could make things work without going that route.  A player must make $4MM to be eligible to be bought out in this window and blueliner Jake Gardiner – who missed all of last season with back and hip issues – makes $4.05MM.  He has been cleared to return which does make him eligible to be bought out.  Once Lajoie’s deal is signed, the buyout window will open up three days later and lasts 48 hours.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • Penguins winger Jason Zucker has recovered from the series of lower-body injuries that plagued him in the second half of last season, notes NHL.com’s Jessi Pierce. It has been a tough go for the 30-year-old who has recorded just 47 points in 94 games since being acquired by Pittsburgh just before the 2020 trade deadline.  Next season will be a contract year for Zucker and unless he can get back to the form he had with Minnesota, he’ll be looking at a considerably cheaper deal next summer compared to his current $5.5MM AAV.
  • Blue Jackets prospect David Jiricek has been cleared to join the Czechs for the upcoming World Juniors, their hockey federation announced (Twitter link). The 18-year-old tested positive for COVID-19 late last month and wasn’t able to travel with the rest of the team to begin tournament preparations.  Jiricek, the sixth-overall pick last month, will be Czechia’s top defenseman in this event and a strong performance could help get him in the mix for a roster spot with Columbus for the upcoming season.

Rangers Linked To Jimmy Vesey

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Jimmy Vesey spent the first three seasons of his career as a member of the Rangers before bouncing around in recent years.  However, it appears a return to New York is on the horizon as Larry Brooks of the New York Post reports that the unrestricted free agent is expected to sign with the Rangers.

After opting not to sign with Nashville and later Buffalo, Vesey became one of the more prominent mid-August college free agents in recent memory.  He eventually agreed to join the Rangers and was a serviceable depth scorer, notching 50 goals and 40 assists in 240 games over three seasons.

Things haven’t gone as well since then as the 29-year-old has moved around frequently.  In the last three seasons, he has only put up half of the points that he did with New York while playing for four different teams – Buffalo, Toronto, Vancouver, and New Jersey.  Vesey spent last season with the Devils, collecting eight goals and seven assists in 68 games while averaging 14:25 per night.

Brooks suggests that Vesey’s contract should check in at or around the league minimum of $750K, making it a low-risk proposition.  If he’s able to secure a spot at the end of their roster, he’ll give them some low-cost depth.  If he’s unable to do so, the Rangers can clear his entire contract off the books by waiving him and sending him to AHL Hartford.

After starting his career with plenty of fanfare, Vesey has seen his stock drop quickly as of late.  With that in mind, a return to the one team that he had some success with makes a lot of sense as he looks to get back on track and extend his NHL career.

Oilers Re-Sign Tyler Benson

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The Oilers have agreed to terms with one of their remaining restricted free agents, announcing (Twitter link) that they’ve re-signed winger Tyler Benson to a one-year, two-way contract.  The deal will pay $750K at the NHL level while PuckPedia adds (Twitter link) that Benson will receive $275K in the minors.  The contract has a total guarantee of $350K.

The 24-year-old spent most of last season with Edmonton but had a limited role.  Benson suited up in 29 games with the Oilers but managed just one goal and one assist while averaging 8:33 per game.  With the team needing to free up some cap and roster space to facilitate their eventual trade deadline acquisitions, Benson was placed on waivers in mid-March and passed through, allowing him to be assigned to AHL Bakersfield.  Benson was much more productive with the Condors as he had a dozen points in 18 contests, allowing him to finish up the season on somewhat of a better note.

Benson opted not to file for salary arbitration last month and with a one-year, two-way deal being the eventual outcome, the decision to not go that route isn’t particularly surprising.  He’ll get a chance to earn a roster spot again with Edmonton in training camp where having a cap hit of the league minimum will certainly work in his favor.  However, with how he performed last season, the Oilers will be less hesitant to put him on waivers this time around so he will need to impress in the preseason to avoid being on waivers in early October.

Coyotes, Lawson Crouse Exchange Arbitration Figures

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With their scheduled arbitration hearing now 48 hours away, the Coyotes and winger Lawson Crouse have exchanged their requested awards.  The gap, as it almost always is, is sizable, as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that Arizona has submitted a $2.5MM figure and Crouse has come in with a $4MM request.

The 25-year-old is coming off of a career season, one that saw him post 20 goals and 14 assists despite missing 17 games mostly due to a hand injury.  Crouse also received a sizable jump in playing time for his efforts as head coach Andre Tourigny increased his ice time by more than three minutes a game compared to 2020-21 as he logged 17:26 per game.  It’s also worth noting that Crouse led the Coyotes in hits for the fourth straight season with 181.

Power forwards with some offensive ability are hard to find in the NHL and often get more than expected on their contracts as a result.  Those types of deals are often done closer to the player becoming UFA-eligible and Crouse is still a couple of years away from that threshold so the timing for such a move isn’t quite right.  To that end, it’s notable that both sides asked for a one-year award, fully knowing the big negotiation is probably a year away.

No matter what happens with this negotiation (or hearing if it makes it that far), Crouse will be in line for a considerable raise after playing on a bridge deal that carried a $1.533MM AAV for each of the last three seasons.  The two sides will have until the start of the hearing on Monday to negotiate a settlement but once that hearing starts, the arbitrator will have the final say on what Crouse’s salary for next season will be.

Vegas Golden Knights, Keegan Kolesar Agree To Terms

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Per a team release, the Vegas Golden Knights have agreed to terms with winger Keegan Kolesar on a three-year contract worth an average annual value of $1.4MM.

Kolesar, while not an expansion draft selection, is effectively an original Golden Knight. Drafted by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the third round in 2015, Columbus traded Kolesar to Vegas in exchange for a 2017 second-round pick just days after the expansion draft. That pick, 45th overall, originally belonged to the Tampa Bay Lightning — a pick Vegas received as part of expansion draft considerations. Columbus then selected Alexandre Texier with the pick.

While Texier may be the better player out of that deal so far, Kolesar made a name for himself with multiple Golden Knights suffering injuries this season. Kolesar is certainly a rough-and-tumble kind of player, but he’s had a decent offensive output as well. In 77 games in 2021-22, he set career highs with 77 games played, seven goals, 17 assists, and 24 points. He’s a candidate to play a bigger role yet again next season as salary cap constraints have decimated some of Vegas’ forward depth.

With the signing, the Golden Knights and Kolesar avoid an arbitration hearing, which was set for August 10. Kolesar will become an unrestricted free agent in 2025.

Latest on MacKenzie Weegar

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While the Calgary Flames may have lost two superstars this offseason, they at least got one in return, and they spent last night locking up to a long-term deal. With Jonathan Huberdeau now set to be in a Flames uniform for the next nine seasons, many eyes are glancing towards the pending UFA status of the other big piece of the Matthew Tkachuk trade: defenseman MacKenzie Weegar.

TSN Calgary’s Salim Nadim Valji reports that sources tell him Weegar has “a strong, genuine desire” to stay in Calgary and that he and the Flames will engage next week about an extension for the 28-year-old defenseman.

After a pair of seasons in which Weegar received Norris votes, his stock is at an all-time high. There’s good reason for that, though. A dominant two-way defender, Weegar had emerged as the most underrated important part of the Panthers team that’s been on a meteoric rise the past few seasons. Now bringing his talents to Calgary, he adds to one of the best defense cores in the Western Conference, at least for next season.

But looking at Calgary’s future, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be too challenging to get an extension done with Weegar. The two albatross contracts weighing down Calgary’s salary cap picture for the upcoming season, Milan Lucic and Sean Monahan, both expire at the end of 2022-23. With more than $11MM coming off the books in the form of those two deals, the Flames will have upwards of $15MM in space to work with next offseason, per CapFriendly, with few other big contracts to sign.

It’s the 2024 offseason where things get tricky. The majority of their core, including Elias Lindholm, Mikael Backlund, Tyler Toffoli, Noah Hanifin, Chris Tanev, and Oliver Kylington all hit the UFA market then, and with the salary cap only expected to increase a further $1MM to $84.5MM, things might get tricky with a solid few of those players at least due significant raises.

In the immediate future, though, a long-term extension for Weegar shouldn’t pose any problems for the Flames.

2022 Arbitration Tracker

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The dates for the upcoming arbitration hearings have been set, with the first one scheduled for July 27. Hearings will continue through August 11 this year, with that being the busiest day of the schedule. It is important to note that the CBA agreement in 2020 changed the rules for arbitration so that once a hearing begins, teams are no longer allowed to negotiate with the player in question.

The full schedule is:

July 27
Isac Lundestrom (Anaheim Ducks) – Settled: 2 years, $1.8MM AAV

July 29
Jesse Puljujarvi (Edmonton Oilers) – Settled: 1 year, $3.0MM

July 30
Kasperi Kapanen (Pittsburgh Penguins) – Settled: 2 years, $3.2MM AAV
Matthew Phillips (Calgary Flames) – Settled: 1 year, $750K AAV (two-way contract)

August 1
Mathieu Joseph (Ottawa Senators) – Settled: 3 years, $2.95MM AAV
Steven Lorentz (San Jose Sharks) – Settled: 2 years, $1.05MM AAV

August 2
Yakov Trenin (Nashville Predators) – Awarded: 2 years, $1.7MM AAV

August 3
Jesper Bratt (New Jersey Devils) – Settled: 1 year, $5.45MM AAV

August 5
Andrew Mangiapane (Calgary Flames) – Settled: 3 years, $5.8MM AAV

August 6
Miles Wood (New Jersey Devils) – Settled: 1 year, $3.2MM AAV

August 7
Kailer Yamamoto (Edmonton Oilers) – Settled: 2 years, $3.1MM AAV

August 8
Ethan Bear (Carolina Hurricanes) – Settled: 1 year, $2.2MM
Lawson Crouse (Arizona Coyotes) – Settled: 5 years, $4.3MM AAV
Zack MacEwen (Philadelphia Flyers) – Settled: 1 year, $925K

August 9
Maxime Lajoie (Carolina Hurricanes) – Settled: 1 year, $750K (two-way contract)

August 10
Keegan Kolesar (Vegas Golden Knights) – Settled: 3 years, $1.4MM AAV
Oliver Kylington (Calgary Flames) – Settled: 2 years, $2.5MM AAV

August 11
Mason Appleton (Winnipeg Jets) – Settled: 3 years, $2.167MM AAV
Morgan Geekie (Seattle Kraken) – Settled: 1 year, $1.4MM AAV
Tyce Thompson (New Jersey Devils) – Settled: 2 years, $762.5K AAV (partial two-way)
Matthew Tkachuk (Florida Panthers) – Settled: 8 years, $9.5MM AAV
Jake Walman (Detroit Red Wings) – Settled: 1 year, $1.05MM
Pavel Zacha (Boston Bruins) – Settled: 1 year, $3.5MM

Yakov Trenin Contract Settled Via Arbitration

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After their arbitration hearing on Tuesday, an arbitrator has awarded Nashville Predators forward Yakov Trenin a two-year contract with a cap hit of $1.7MM, per Sportnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Trenin will be an unrestricted free agent in 2024 on expiry.

The cap hit comes in just below the midpoint of the two filings. The Predators filed at a two-year deal worth $1.35MM per season, while Trenin filed at a one-year deal worth $2.4MM.

In his second full NHL season, Trenin set career-highs in pretty much everything. His 80 games played, 17 goals, seven assists, 24 points, +7 rating, and 14:40 average ice time all game in close to or well above his previous marks.

At 25 years old, Nashville’s 55th overall selection in 2015 is turning into an important player in their bottom six. A respected hitter and solid penalty killer, Trenin does have some solid shooting upside too and contributes at both ends of the ice. Alongside players like Zach Sanford, Colton Sissons, and Tanner Jeannot, he forms a pretty tenacious and aggressive bottom-six forward group in Nashville.

Arbitration hearing decisions will be quiet for the next few days. The next unsettled decisions come after August 8, when Arizona’s Lawson Crouse has his hearing.

Free Agent Profile: Anton Stralman

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At the peak of his game, defenseman Anton Stralman was possibly the most underrated two-way defenseman in the league. In his late 20s, his first few seasons in a Tampa Bay Lightning uniform were his best, receiving some Norris votes and flourishing in a top-four role on an emerging Tampa team looking to win. Since signing a well-paid free-agent deal with the Florida Panthers in 2019, though, his point production and his defensive play have declined severely.

Fresh off his 36th birthday at the beginning of the month, Stralman is still looking for an NHL contract next season. Spending the final season of that three-year contract signed with Florida with the Arizona Coyotes, Stralman did have his highest point total since 2015-16. It also came with an increase in ice time, though, which saw his defensive game decline even further from where it had in Florida.

Stralman still carries value in his leadership and experience, and given he’s 70 games away from 1,000 in the NHL, it’s a fair bet to assume he still has the drive to play in the NHL. On a contending team, though, he’s likely not more than a sixth or seventh defenseman at this stage. He does have the added value of being a right-shot defenseman, which some teams could surely use some added depth at. His play-driving ability, at least offensively, is still strong, but would likely need a sound two-way partner to have a lot of effectiveness.

Stats

2021-22: 74 GP, 8-15-23, -16 rating, 12 PIMs, 95 shots, 44.4 CF%, 21:20 ATOI
Career: 930 GP, 63-230-293, +49 rating, 285 PIMs, 1314 shots, 51.3 CF%, 20:00 ATOI

Potential Suitors

One team looking to make the next step that needs some added security at right D is the Vancouver Canucks. A bottom-pairing role could be a good fit for Stralman here alongside a solid, young two-way partner in Travis Dermott. It’s a win-win, allowing Dermott to benefit from Stralman’s leadership, and Stralman’s play on its own is likely an upgrade over that of Kyle Burroughs or Tucker Poolman. The Canucks already have a lot of depth defensemen in the organization, though, and with Jack Rathbone fighting for NHL ice time, it might be too much for the organization to add to at this point.

The Edmonton Oilers are also a team without much defensive depth outside of their top six, which is fairly locked in at this point. With no great options to carry around as an extra on the NHL roster, Stralman could look to head to Alberta for a chance to win his first Stanley Cup.

With the Florida Panthers losing both MacKenzie Weegar and Ben Chiarot this summer, a return to the Sunshine State may also be a good fit for Stralman, who could join a depth contingent there that includes Marc Staal and Lucas Carlsson.

Projected Contract

At this stage, unless he’s joining a team not expected to make a huge playoff bid, Stralman’s contract would likely be a one-year deal close to, if not exactly, the league minimum $750K. All of the above-mentioned suitors are teams right up against their salary cap limits, and fitting Stralman in would be a tough ask if he’s not on the cheap.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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