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Archives for August 2022

University Of Michigan Parts Ways With Mel Pearson

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The University of Michigan hockey program announced Friday that the school has decided to move on from head coach Mel Pearson after multiple third-party allegations of mistreatment surfaced against the coach, as reported on by The Athletic’s Katie Strang.

University of Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel gave the following statement on the coaching change:

It has been determined that Mel Pearson will not return as our ice hockey coach. This decision has been weighed heavily and for some time. We welcomed an independent third-party review into the climate and culture of our program before furthering our assessment in lockstep with campus leadership. Our student-athletes having a positive and meaningful experience is of paramount importance, and a clear expectation within our department is that all employees and staff are valued and supported. I deeply appreciate and value the many individuals who came forward throughout this review. Today’s announcement reflects the seriousness with what we’ve heard and the values we hold dear at Michigan.

Per Strang, Pearson faced multiple allegations, such as forcing a former team captain out of the program, directing players to lie on COVID-19 tracing forms, and overseeing a program that included mistreatment of female staff members, among other allegations.

Pearson had served as the school’s head coach since the 2017-18 season and served as an assistant and associate coach from 1988 to 2011.

Michigan, who won the Big Ten conference tournament last season and advanced to the 2022 Frozen Four, will have a new head coach next season to oversee the development of players such as New Jersey Devils defense prospect Luke Hughes and top 2023-eligible draft prospect Adam Fantilli.

Snapshots: Oettinger, Faber, Tarasenko

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The Dallas Stars’ last two outstanding free agent negotiations of this summer are major ones. Two of the team’s young cornerstone talents, Jake Oettinger and Jason Robertson, are restricted free agents. The team would likely prefer to lock both players down to long-term contracts, but their cap situation may prohibit them from doing so. The Stars have $10.3MM in salary cap space remaining, which is more than many other teams can boast but also likely not enough to get both players’ signatures on long-term pacts. The result of this salary cap challenge has been slow-moving talks between Oettinger and the Stars specifically.

Per The Athletic’s Saad Yousuf, talks between the Stars and Oettinger have, per his sources, “gone nowhere.” Oettinger’s camp has reportedly remained entirely flexible on the term he’d be willing to accept, but on the AAV side “won’t settle for something they deem to be unfair relative to the market that has already been set.” As Yousuf mentions (subscription link) the lack of ideal contract comparables has made ironing out a deal difficult. While Oettinger is still overwhelmingly likely to be signed and ready to start for Dallas in time for next season, this development is certainly not an encouraging one.

Now, for some other news from across hockey:

  • USA Hockey has announced its captains for the upcoming World Junior Championship. Minnesota Wild prospect Brock Faber, who was acquired by the team as part of the Kevin Fiala trade earlier this summer, was named the team’s captain. Chicago Blackhawks prospect Landon Slaggert and San Jose Sharks prospect Thomas Bordeleau were named alternate captains.
  • St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko had a great season last year, scoring 34 goals and 82 points. But despite those strong numbers, he may not be in St. Louis to stay. NHL.com’s Dan Rosen stated in a recent mailbag that he has “no reason” to suspect that Tarasenko’s trade request from last summer was ever rescinded, although he also did state that the Blues have no interest in dealing him. Andy Strickland of Bally Sports Midwest recently reported that the Blues never asked Tarasenko to waive his no-trade protection as part of an offer for Matthew Tkachuk, and despite a possibly still-active trade request it is likely that Tarasenko spends another season in St. Louis.

Minor Transactions: 08/05/22

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As the offseason rages on, make sure to keep track of all of the non-NHL transactions going on all around the hockey world. We’ll keep an updated tracker of today’s moves right here:

  • Former NHL goalie Jared Coreau is switching leagues. The 30-year-old netminder has spent the last two seasons tending the crease in the IceHL, and now he’ll move to the Slovakian Tipos Extraliga. His new club, HC Slovan Bratislava, announced today that they have signed Coreau to be their new goalie. Coreau played on the worst team in the IceHL last season and now will go to a more competitive team as Slovan Bratislava are the defending Slovak league champions.
  • Winnipeg Jets 2016 third-round pick Luke Green has left the team he was set to play for next season. Per an official team announcement, Green has stepped away from the Nurnburg IceTigers and will not participate in next season’s DEL campaign. Green spent last season playing in HockeyAllsvenskan and a year in the DEL would have been a nice step up for the 24-year-old blueliner. Green has dealt with some brutal injury luck in his young career, and last season was the first that he played in more than 15 games since 2016-17.
  • 2003 fourth-overall pick Nikolai Zherdev, is staying put in Belarus but playing in their domestic league rather than the KHL. Yunost Minsk has announced that Zherdev will be playing for them next season rather than for Dinamo Minsk of the KHL. Zherdev split time between Slovakian and Italian clubs in 2021-22, his first full season playing since 2017-18, and this move is likely what’s best for him at this stage of his career. Zherdev hasn’t been an impactful KHL performer in at least a half-decade and it would likely have been a mistake for Dinamo Minsk to expect him to jump into their KHL lineup and perform. Now, he gets to continue his career at a level of hockey more suitable for him.
  • The Bridgeport Islanders, the New York Islanders’ AHL affiliate, announced today that they’ve signed three players to contracts for next season. The three are defensemen Ryan MacKinnon, Vincent Sevigny, and goalie Henrik Tikkanen. MacKinnon, 27, is an ECHL/AHL tweener who has played in Bridgeport before. Sevigny is a 21-year-old undrafted prospect who played last season in the QMJHL, scoring 64 points in 62 games as he captained the Saint John Sea Dogs to a Memorial Cup win. Tikkanen, 21, was the Islanders’ seventh-round pick in 2020. The massive six-foot-eight netminder spent most of last season in Ornskoldsvik playing for MoDo Hockey. He’ll join Bridgeport and likely spend time at the ECHL level as he’s behind Jakub Skarek and Ken Appleby on the depth chart.

Matvei Michkov Suffers Injury

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August 5: In an official statement from Russia’s hockey federation, Russia Hockey states that Michkov will miss just two weeks of action, rather than the two months that was initially reported.

They state that they plan on Michkov participating in a tournament that is set to begin on August 22nd, which makes this a far better timeline for Michkov than the one he appeared to be on just yesterday.

August 4: After suffering a lower-body injury in a KHL preseason game as the result of a hit from former NHL defenseman Alexei Emelin, top 2023 NHL Draft prospect Matvei Michkov will miss two months of game action, as reported by The Athletic’s Corey Pronman.

Michkov is likely to miss at least the first month of the KHL’s regular season, if not more.

Widely regarded as a surefire top-three talent in next year’s draft (if not top-two), Michkov is a bit of a controversial prospect for a lot of circumstances out of his control. Breaking into the KHL on one of the best teams in the league last season as a 17-year-old, Michkov was able to show what he can do professionally in the season before his draft year with five points in 13 games. His production in Russia’s junior league was equally as outstanding, racking up 51 points in just 28 MHL games.

But with Michkov under contract until 2026 with his KHL team (SKA St. Petersburg), and with the increased uncertainty about whether he’d even be able to leave the country if he got out of the contract, Michkov may go lower in the draft than his talent level suggests.

Hopefully, it’s not a severe loss of development time for Michkov, who remains one of the most electric prospects in hockey.

Calgary Flames Extend Jonathan Huberdeau

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10:20 PM: We have some more details on the contract. Here’s the financial structure of the deal, per Friedman. 

2023-24: $7MM signing bonus, $3.5MM salary
2024-25: $7MM signing bonus, $3.5MM salary
2025-26: $7MM signing bonus, $3.5MM salary
2026-27: $9.5MM signing bonus, $1MM salary
2027-28: $9.5MM signing bonus, $1MM salary
2028-29: $7MM signing bonus, $3.5MM salary
2029-30: $9.5MM signing bonus, $1MM salary
2030-31: $5MM signing bonus, $5.5MM salary

The deal carries a full no-move clause, and the final two years have a partial no-move clause that allows him to be dealt to 12 teams.

The Flames have also now officially announced the deal.

9:54 PM: Before he’s even played a game for the team, Jonathan Huberdeau has chosen to remain with the Calgary Flames for the next nine seasons. Per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, the Flames and Huberdeau have agreed on an eight-year, $10.5MM AAV deal, a contract that is the richest in Calgary Flames franchise history.

This is a legitimately massive extension, and it already bodes well for Flames GM Brad Treliving’s bold decision to acquire two at-the-time pending unrestricted free agents (along with a prospect and a pick) for Matthew Tkachuk. Huberdeau is one of the most talented players in the NHL, and he’s perhaps the closest comparable to Johnny Gaudreau that Treliving could have acquired.

A pass-first winger, Huberdeau was a crucial part of a Florida Panthers offensive attack that seemed to score at will in 2021-22. Huberdeau scored 30 goals and 115 points, numbers that would have won Art Ross and potentially Hart trophies just a few years ago, in the days before the dominance of players such as Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews.

Huberdeau is one of the rare wingers in the NHL who can drive a line. When Huberdeau is at his best, he functions as a rising tide that lifts everyone else who shares the ice with him. The Panthers have had many breakout success stories in recent years, such as Carter Verhaeghe, Jonathan Marchessault, and Anthony Duclair, to name a few, and Huberdeau’s presence helped each of those players reach new heights in their careers.

While nobody will mistake Huberdeau for a Selke Trophy contender, the reality is he has put increased effort into polishing his two-way game. Former interim Panthers head coach Andrew Brunette frequently used Huberdeau on the penalty kill, and in Calgary he should be able to help there in a pinch, although they should already have specialists more suited for those minutes.

With his full on-ice value in the picture, getting Huberdeau under contract beyond this season is a major win for the Flames, even at a $10.5MM cost. Huberdeau’s 115-point season earned him that kind of hefty cap number, and the Flames, still reeling after the loss of Gaudreau and Tkachuk, have to be eagerly willing to pay it.

Will this deal look the best in 2028, 2029, or 2030? No, it probably won’t. Huberdeau is 29 and isn’t getting any younger. But the Flames had a strong regular season last year, and clearly want to win a Stanley Cup in the immediate future. This contract will take Huberdeau into his late thirties. With Gaudreau and Tkachuk now gone, they needed to acquire players like Huberdeau. Once they got one, they needed to find a way to hold on to him. Now they have.

In all fairness, there is the possibility that Huberdeau could regress. But on the flip side, he could age like his former teammate, Claude Giroux, who has scored well as he’s aged and recently earned a large, multi-year contract from the Ottawa Senators despite the fact that he’ll turn 35 in January.

Any way you slice it, this is a deal the Flames simply had to make. Some might quibble about the term, the cap hit, et cetera, and that’s fair. This is a lot of money to commit to a player for a long time. But NHL teams don’t have the luxury of getting picky with their 115-point players.

Paying a little bit too much for a little bit too long is simply the nature of shopping at the top of the market in the NHL. The reality is nearly every team would rather pay a star a bit too much than have nobody worth paying. This is a big win for Calgary and extremely welcome news for a Flames fanbase that just a few weeks ago felt completely hopeless.

Picture courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

New Jersey Devils Extend Miles Wood

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The New Jersey Devils and forward Miles Wood have avoided arbitration, settling on a one-year, $3.2MM deal for next season. Wood was set to have an arbitration hearing on Saturday. Now, he heads back to the Devils with a contract in hand for next season.

Wood, 26, has become an increasingly important member of this young Devils team. The former Boston College Eagle has been with the team since 2016-17, and has scored decently well. He had 17 goals and 25 points in 55 games in 2020-21 but missed most of 2021-22 due to a hip surgery. The hallmark of Wood’s game is his speed. He’s an incredibly fast straight-line skater and that allows him to be a goal-scoring threat.

Wood also has thrived in an “agitator role,” playing with the kind of physicality and tenacity New Jersey fans have long loved to see in their players. Wood has worn the “A” letter since the start of the 2020-21 season and has taken on an increased leadership role with the Devils.

If Wood can stay healthy for next season, the Devils will get a major boost to their lineup. Since this is a one-year deal that walks him to a chance at the open market, Wood’s long-term future in New Jersey is unclear. But if he can stay healthy and score 15-20 goals, as he’s shown he can, the Devils will likely have no problem locking him into a contract for the long haul.

Offseason Notes: Necas, Celebrini, Barberio

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Martin Necas is one of the biggest-name restricted free agents still out there on the market. The 2017 12th overall pick had a disappointing year in 2021-22, but in 2020-21 had the makings of a future star, scoring 41 points in 53 games, a 63-point pace. Necas didn’t have the game-by-game impact many expected him to have last year,  though, and he was supplanted in the Hurricanes’ forward pecking order by fast-rising rookie Seth Jarvis. He needs a new contract, and despite many speculating that he may need a change of scenery, Hurricanes GM Don Waddell remains focused on ironing out an extension.

Per Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer, Waddell is nearing that goal. Waddell is quoted as saying that the team and Necas’ camp are negotiating on an “almost a daily basis” and that a deal is “getting close.” Waddell even takes it a step further, saying definitively that “it’s going to get done.” Despite a disappointing most recent season, it’s in the best interest for the Hurricanes to get Necas locked into an extension. While he’s mostly played as a winger in the NHL, Necas has prior experience as a center and could be in a position to seize a top-six center spot should Jesperi Kotkaniemi struggle in that role.

Now, for some other notes from across the NHL:

  • Canadian forward Macklin Celebrini, a player currently projected to be a top prospect for the 2024 NHL draft, has committed to an NCAA school. Per NBC Sports Chicago’s Colby Cohen, Celebrini has committed to the Boston University, and will play there after spending next season with the USHL’s Chicago Steel. Celebrini has spent the past two seasons at minor hockey powerhouse Shattuck St. Mary’s, a school in Minnesota that has an impressive list of NHL alumni including Sidney Crosby, Kyle Okposo, and many others. Celebrini is expected to be a top player in the USHL before he heads to the NCAA.
  • Yesterday, we covered how former NHL defenseman Mark Barberio had agreed to a mutual contract termination with his club, Lausanne HC. Now, we know where Barberio will be spending 2022-23. Per a team announcement, KHL club HC Dynamo Minsk has signed Barberio to a one-year deal. Barberio last appeared in the NHL in 2019-20, getting into 21 games with the Colorado Avalanche. 2022-23 will mark his return to the KHL after spending six games with HC Ak Bars Kazan last season, where he scored three points.

Free Agent Profile: Sonny Milano

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Before 2021-22, it looked like Sonny Milano’s career was headed in the direction many other former top prospects’ careers had gone. A talented run of scoring at lower levels, a solid first season in pro hockey, and then a stagnant development track that leads to an inability to hold down an NHL spot. That’s seemed to be where Milano was going.

The 16th overall pick at the 2014 draft, Milano’s puck skills and overall creativity made him an intriguing forward prospect. After a successful year in the OHL in his first season as a Blue Jacket, Milano made the transition to pro hockey, playing in 54 games for the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters. He played decently well, scoring 31 points, and even earned a three-game cup of tea at the NHL level.

From that point, Milano progressed slowly, but steadily. He had another productive AHL year, a few more NHL games, and then finally got an extended look in Columbus in 2017-18, scoring 14 goals and 22 points in 55 games. The offensive talent was there, but Milano’s struggles away from the puck meant that his NHL role was limited and his overall usage inconsistent. Under a demanding coach like John Tortorella, Milano needed to become a more well-rounded player in order to thrive, and he wasn’t able to.

Milano was dealt to the Anaheim Ducks in February 2020 for Devin Shore, and then missed most of 2020-21 due to an upper-body injury. He cleared waivers at the start of 2021-22 and then went on to have the most productive season of his career. In 66 games Milano scored 14 goals and 34 points, and featured in highlight-reel plays as a frequent running mate of superstar rookie Trevor Zegras.

It looked like Milano had finally found a home in the NHL, but earlier this summer the Ducks made a surprising move. They chose not to issue Milano a qualifying offer and let him hit unrestricted free agency, where he remains today. So, why might Milano still be on the market?

Well, it likely comes down to his flaws away from the puck, the holes in his game that have dogged him for his entire career. We know what Milano can do. He can stick with talented players and help finish their plays. He can dazzle with his creativity and help drive offense. But he can also hurt his team away from the puck and struggle to make any sort of impact when he’s not “on.”

His inability to polish his game is likely why he remains unsigned, but that doesn’t mean there’s no place for him in the NHL. Despite the issues in his two-way game, Milano is still an undoubtedly talented offensive player. He’s also still young at just 26 years old, and the combination of his offensive skill level and age isn’t easily found at this stage of the offseason market. Some teams might be weary of his overall profile, but the bottom line with him is that he can help a team score goals, so he’ll find a way to catch on somewhere.

Stats:

2021-22: 66 GP, 14G 20A 34pts, -9 rating, 10 PIMs, 94 shots, 15:17 ATOI

Career: 197 GP, 36G 45A 81pts, -26 rating, 46 PIMs, 255 shots, 13:15 ATOI

Potential Suitors:

Based on Milano’s profile on the ice, he’ll likely fit best on two types of teams: cap-strapped contenders looking to add some more offensive juice to their attack, or rebuilders who want to take a flyer on a relatively young free agent to occupy a roster spot and protect their current young forwards from being rushed to the NHL. With those two types of teams in mind, there are a few franchises that could make sense for Milano.

One team that makes sense for Milano is the St. Louis Blues. The Blues had one of the deepest top-nines in hockey last year, but the loss of David Perron this offseason means there could be a hole in their top nine that needs to be filled. They don’t have a ton of cap space, but assuming they can find room for Milano he could be a solid add to their lineup. He would have quality linemates to feed off of in St. Louis and would give coach Craig Berube more options as to how to deploy his top three forward lines.

Perhaps most importantly, the Blues have an overabundance of talented forwards who are responsible in their own end, such as Ryan O’Reilly, Ivan Barbashev, and Pavel Buchnevich. Their presence could limit the negative impact of Milano’s poor defensive game and free him up to focus on the offensive side of the ice.

Another club that could make sense on a one-year deal is the New York Rangers. Like St. Louis, they have a wealth of talented forwards to stick Milano with. The Rangers also have a pretty wide-open right side of their forward group, and although Milano is a left winger he could possibly slot in and compete with Vitali Kravtsov, Kaapo Kakko, and Sammy Blais for minutes on one of the Rangers’ top-two lines.

One club that is rebuilding that Milano could fit with is the Chicago Blackhawks. He would be a similar signing to their prior deals with Andreas Athanasiou and Max Domi, only at a lower cost. Milano would help the Blackhawks fill out their top two lines and keep them from needing to rush Lukas Reichel into a top-six role. The Blackhawks’ roster is among the weakest in the league, and adding a scorer like Milano would be wise in the case that he has a productive first half to his season, as he then could become a flippable asset at the deadline.

Projected Contract:

If a free agent is still available in August, they probably won’t be able to issue huge salary demands to interested teams, save for special cases like with still-unsigned center Nazem Kadri. As a result, Milano’s next deal is unlikely to pass the $1.7MM figure he played on last season. A one-year deal at around $1MM seems like the most likely outcome at this point, if he’s getting an NHL contract.

Adding a player in his mid-twenties who scored at a 42-point pace for just $1MM against the cap is a solid bit of business for many teams. But a team will have to be confident in their ability to properly utilize Milano so he doesn’t end up a net negative thanks to his defensive play.

Finding a proper fit in a lineup could be a challenge, but it’s far from impossible. At a cost at or below $1MM, Milano could quickly make it worth the hassle for any team that signs him.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Financial information courtesy of CapFriendly.

San Jose Sharks Re-Sign Mario Ferraro

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4:35 pm: CapFriendly reports that Ferraro is paid $3.25MM evenly across his contract, except 2022-23 carries a $2.25MM base salary and $1MM signing bonus.

11:35 am: San Jose Sharks general manager Mike Grier announced today that the team has re-signed defenseman Mario Ferraro to a four-year contract. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the contract carries a $3.25MM cap hit, which will take him directly to unrestricted free agency in 2027.

Grier gave the following statement with regard to Ferraro’s signing:

Mario has shown that he is a dynamic and reliable defenseman for our club, skating top-level minutes against the best competition every night and delivering solid results. His energy and work ethic are the reason why he has achieved so much in his early part of his career, and we look forward to watching him continue to grow and elevate his role on the team.

Ferraro had a rough season in 2021-22 by most metrics, but the 23-year-old defenseman was deployed against the other team’s top competition on a nightly basis. Ferraro’s offensive output dipped to 14 points in 63 games compared to 17 points in 56 games in 2020-21, and he posted a career-low Corsi for percentage at even strength of 44.8%.

There’s no question that Ferraro still carries legitimate, long-term top-four potential in the Sharks organization, and a four-year term is evidence that the team believes the same. Under a new head coach in David Quinn, look for Ferraro’s two-way game to get back on track to where it was in 2020-21.

For a defenseman who was only drafted five years ago, though, he’s already got a lot of ground covered in terms of NHL games. He ranks third in games played among defensemen from the 2017 draft class, with his 180 games slotting in behind Henri Jokiharju’s 213 and Miro Heiskanen’s 275.

Juho Lammikko Signs In Switzerland

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A second NHL player has opted to sign overseas in the Swiss National League today. Former Vancouver Canucks forward Juho Lammikko has signed a one-year contract with the ZSC Lions after not receiving a qualifying offer last month, per his new team.

Lammikko joins his third different European league in four seasons with this signing. The former Panthers prospect spent the 2019-20 season with Kärpät in the Finnish Liiga and the first part of 2020-21 with the KHL’s Metallurg Magnitogorsk.

The Finnish-born forward returned to Florida for the shortened 2020-21 season after he appeared in 40 games for them in 2018-19. A preseason trade saw him spend the 2021-22 season with Vancouver, however, finally departing the Panthers organization after they drafted him in 2014.

It’s rare that a European player can make two successful comebacks from heading abroad, so much like Michael Raffl earlier today, it’s likely that we’ve seen the last of Lammikko in the NHL. Across three seasons, he played in 159 games, scoring 11 goals, 15 assists, and 26 points. The 6’3″, 203-pound forward was taken by Florida in the 2014 NHL Draft with the 65th overall pick.

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