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Minor Transactions: 09/10/22

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With training camps on the horizon, we saw an influx of players signing PTO agreements on Friday and many more will wind up doing so in the coming days.  Meanwhile, other players will be scrambling to lock down contracts overseas as those seasons get underway.  Here’s a rundown of the recent minor moves around the hockey world.

  • Veteran defenseman Stefan Elliott won’t try to catch on with a team in North America as instead, Djurgarden in Sweden’s Allsvenskan announced they’ve signed the blueliner to a one-year deal. The 31-year-old spent the last two years with Frolunda of the SHL.  Elliott has played in 87 career NHL games over parts of six seasons plus another 298 AHL contests spanning seven campaigns but it appears his preference at this point of his career is playing overseas.
  • Former Flyers defenseman Oskars Bartulis has announced his retirement at the age of 35, notes Sporta Centrs in Latvia. He was part of Philadelphia’s system for five seasons at the beginning of his career, getting into 66 games with the team.  Since returning overseas, he spent most of his time in the KHL with brief stints in Austria and his native Latvia.

This post will be updated throughout the day.

Salary Cap Deep Dive: Vegas Golden Knights

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Navigating the salary cap is one of the more important tasks for any GM.  Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful.  Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2022-23 season.  This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL.  All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.

Vegas Golden Knights

Current Cap Hit: $92,736,310 (over the $82.5MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

None

Signed Through 2022-23, Non-Entry-Level

G Laurent Brossoit ($2.325MM, UFA)
G Adin Hill ($2.175MM, UFA)
F Brett Howden ($1.5MM, RFA)
F Phil Kessel ($1.5MM, UFA)
F Nolan Patrick ($1.2MM, RFA)
F Sakari Manninen ($750K, UFA)

Kessel was brought in a couple of weeks ago once the Golden Knights learned that they had some extra LTIR flexibility.  He’s not the high-end sniper he was in the prime of his career but he still finished third on the Coyotes in scoring last season and should be a low-cost secondary scoring option on a team that doesn’t have a lot of value contracts.  Howden was limited last season due to injuries and often was on the fourth line when he was in the lineup.  Despite that, he received this contract back in July to avoid any possibility of arbitration but he’ll need to take on a bigger role to justify getting qualifying him with arbitration rights next summer.

Patrick saw very limited action last season as his concussion issues continued and he might be another LTIR candidate for the upcoming season.  Unless something changes, he’ll be non-tendered in June.  Manninen’s strong showing at both the Olympics and the Worlds earned him his first NHL contract at the age of 30 on a one-way agreement and will have a good chance to earn a roster spot, especially if they have enough LTIR flexibility to carry more than the minimum-sized roster.

Brossoit was brought in last summer to serve as the backup goaltender and continued his trend of alternating good and bad years with 2021-22 landing in the latter category.  His availability for the start of this coming season is in question due to hip surgery so he is going to have a limited window to show that he’s worthy of a similar contract next summer.  Hill was recently acquired using part of their extra LTIR space and should get a good opportunity to boost his stock heading into free agency next summer, especially if he could lock down the starting role at some point.  Even if not, he could get a small boost as the backup market continues to improve.

Signed Through 2023-24

F Michael Amadio ($763K, UFA)
F William Carrier ($1.4MM, UFA)
D Ben Hutton ($850K, UFA)
F Jonathan Marchessault ($5MM, UFA)
D Alec Martinez ($5.25MM, UFA)
F Chandler Stephenson ($2.75MM, UFA)

Marchessault is one of the few remaining original Golden Knights and is the leading scorer in franchise history after five strong seasons.  He’ll be 33 on his next deal and if he can maintain the type of production he has provided Vegas, he could get a multi-year agreement around this rate again.  Stephenson has become quite the bargain after Washington couldn’t find a regular role for him in the lineup.  He has quickly become a top-six center that makes third-line money and at this point, him doubling his current AAV is definitely doable on the open market in 2024.

Carrier isn’t a significant scorer although he produces more than most fourth-liners do while providing them with plenty of physicality.  This is a bit of an above-market deal for someone in that role compared to a lot of fourth-liners signing for around $1MM or less but Vegas is getting more out of him than other teams will from their depth pieces.  Amadio was brought in off waivers last year and was a decent depth contributor, earning himself a one-way deal but he’ll need to become an everyday regular to do much better than that in 2024.

Martinez likely left money on the table when he signed an extension last summer but injuries really limited him last season which has hurt his value.  He’ll be 37 when his next contract starts and at that point, he might have to go year-to-year at a lower rate than this one.  Hutton turned a PTO into a one-year deal, then did well enough to get this extension.  He has been in a fringe role for a few years now so his market isn’t likely to change much over the next couple of seasons.

Signed Through 2024-25

F Keegan Kolesar ($1.4MM, UFA)
G Robin Lehner ($5MM, UFA)
F Jake Leschyshyn ($767K, UFA)
D Brayden McNabb ($2.85MM, UFA)
F Jonas Rondbjerg ($767K, UFA)
F Reilly Smith ($5MM, UFA)
D Shea Theodore ($5.2MM, UFA)
G Logan Thompson ($767K, UFA)

Smith hasn’t been able to produce at the level he did early on in his time with Vegas but he continues to be a reliable secondary option that can play in all situations so the team opted to hand him a new three-year deal in July at the same rate of his last one.  If the downtick in production continues though, he’ll be hard-pressed to get another $5MM deal in 2025.  Kolesar avoided arbitration with his deal last month and did well with this agreement following his only full NHL season.  Clearly, Vegas believes he has another level he can get to which would make this a team-friendly deal if he can step into a regular role on the third line.  Leschyshyn and Rondbjerg were both up and down last season but are now waiver-eligible which could help them stick at the end of the roster and could boost their stock by securing a regular spot in the lineup at some point during their contracts.

Theodore has emerged as a strong top-pairing blueliner over the last few seasons which makes his deal one of the biggest bargains they have as they’re getting top production at a second-pair rate.  He’ll be 30 at the end of this agreement so a max-term contract could be coming his way at a considerably higher price tag than this one.  McNabb, meanwhile, isn’t a big point-producer and provides most of his value on the defensive side of things.  As long as he can continue to hover around the 20-minute mark, the Golden Knights will get a good return on this contract.

Lehner was the undisputed starter for Vegas last season with Marc-Andre Fleury being traded away last summer in a straight salary cap dump move.  However, injuries limited him to just 44 games while he battled inconsistency which is hardly the outcome they were hoping for when they picked Lehner to be the starter.  To make matters worse, they recently revealed that he will need hip surgery that will keep him out for all of the upcoming season.  While that created the LTIR room for them to add Kessel and Hill, Lehner’s absence certainly also creates a big question between the pipes not only for the upcoming season but beyond as well since hip issues can often be a lingering issue.

Thompson will get an opportunity to be at least the short-term answer to the goaltending question as he will get a long look at being the starter this season.  If he can lock down that role, his contract will become one of the top bargains in the league.  If things don’t go well, however, he’s a candidate to be sent down when Brossoit is cleared to return; Thompson remains waiver-exempt for the upcoming season.

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Atlantic Notes: Zub, Allen, Bertuzzi

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With the Senators recently getting a long-term deal done with Tim Stutzle, the logical next choice for an extension would seemingly be winger Alex DeBrincat who was acquired from Chicago at the draft.  However, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports in the latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link) that defenseman Artem Zub is the one that Ottawa will be shifting its focus to.  The 26-year-old is entering the final season of a two-year, $5MM contract and will be an unrestricted free agent next summer if a new agreement isn’t in place by then.  Zub has quickly cracked Ottawa’s top four and has 36 points in his first 128 NHL contests.  That smaller track record could make a long-term extension tougher to navigate but it’s likely that it will need to come in higher than the $3.25MM in salary he’s set to receive this season.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

  • Earlier this week, ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reported (Twitter link) that the Canadiens had opened up extension discussions with goaltender Jake Allen. Friedman clarified in his podcast that those discussions are still in the preliminary stage and that nothing is close while the team wants to get a sense of Allen’s intentions sooner than later.  The 32-year-old is entering the final year of his contract that carries a $2.875MM AAV and with Carey Price likely done for the season already, he’ll once again be their projected starter.  Between that and the recent market for veteran goalies, Allen could push closer to the $4MM range on a new deal with Montreal.
  • Dylan Larkin isn’t the only notable Red Wings forward that’s entering the final year of his contract as winger Tyler Bertuzzi is also in that situation. MLive’s Ansar Khan posits that a long-term agreement for the 27-year-old should check in somewhere between $6MM and $7MM per season.  Bertuzzi is coming off his best season with 30 goals and 32 assists in 68 games after missing almost all of 2020-21 due to injury and even with a more limited market compared to most free agents since he wasn’t able to play in Canada last season, he’ll be one of the more sought-after players if he gets to free agency next summer.

Dominik Simon Signs In Czechia

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After seeing NHL action in each of the last seven seasons, Dominik Simon is heading home to where it all began as Sparta Praha of the Czech Extraliga announced that they’ve signed the 28-year-old to a two-year contract.

Simon played in a career-high 72 games last season split between the Penguins and Ducks after he was included in the Rickard Rakell swap just before the trade deadline.  He picked up three goals and ten assists in those contests while averaging a little over ten minutes a night, numbers that put him in line with plenty of fourth liners.  For his career, he has 22 goals and 55 assists in 256 games, most of which came during a pair of stints with Pittsburgh.

However, while he had a PTO offer from Pittsburgh this summer to possibly land a third opportunity with the team, he has instead decided to go for a guaranteed role back home.  Simon should have a chance to play a much bigger role than the fourth line spot he has become accustomed to so a good showing overseas could get him back on the NHL radar for 2024.

Metropolitan Notes: Zucker, Bailey, Hagelin

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Jason Zucker’s tenure with the Penguins has been a tough one with the veteran struggling to stay healthy and not being as productive as expected when he has played.  With that in mind, some wondered if they’d try to find a home for him this summer.  As Dave Molinari of Pittsburgh Hockey Now reports, they did have the opportunity to do so but elected to not pay the high premium it would have cost to do so.  The proposal, which is believed to come from a division rival, would have seen the Penguins part with a first-round pick to clear the final year and $5.5MM of his deal off the books while not receiving anything in return.  We’ve seen that happen recently with the Sean Monahan trade but it would have been a steep price to pay for Pittsburgh.  Interestingly, no team in the division has the money to take on Zucker’s deal outright so this opportunity likely would have come early in the summer before other moves were made.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • While some expected the Islanders to move Josh Bailey in order to free up cap space this summer, Arthur Staple of The Athletic reports (subscription link) that the winger was told at the draft that he wouldn’t be getting moved. The 32-year-old managed to record 44 points in 74 games last season but has seen his production taper off over the last few seasons compared to a three-year stretch where he had at least 56 points per season.  Bailey has two years left on a contract that carries a $5MM AAV and in this trade market, New York would have been hard-pressed to get top value for his services if they did move him.
  • Capitals winger Carl Hagelin took part in informal team skates without needing a no-contact designation, relays Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic (Twitter link). The veteran has been dealing with an eye injury that has his availability for the upcoming season in question but the fact he’s skating without restriction bodes well for him.  The 34-year-old had 14 points in 53 games last season.

Nicolas Hague, Vegas Golden Knights Not Progressing Towards Contract

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After an offseason where navigating a tricky salary cap situation dominated the headlines for the Vegas Golden Knights, the team is down to their last remaining restricted free agent, and one who we documented earlier today: defenseman Nicolas Hague. Although the organization has done a good job thus far of working within their restraints, they’re left in a bit of a tough spot with their remaining cap and one of their bright young defensemen. At the moment, Vegas sits just around $10.24MM over the upper limit of the NHL’s $82.5MM. salary cap. Somewhat fortunately, they will be able to cancel out around $12.86MM in cap hit by placing defenseman Shea Weber and goaltender Robin Lehner on LTIR, leaving them with $2.64MM in available space. The issue there is whether it will be enough to get Hague signed.

Of concern, it sounds like it may not. As Fox 5 Vegas’s Vince Sapienza reports, things apparently are not progressing between team and player, who apparently have had “very little dialogue since early July.” Sapienza adds that though Hague is in Las Vegas and ready to join the team for the start of training camp on September 21st, he and his representatives are becoming concerned with the lack of communication. Sapienza also notes that if no deal is reached by the start of training camp, Hague is expected not to report and will instead train elsewhere in the interim.

Seeing that the two sides have apparently had very little communication since the early parts of the offseason is absolutely worrisome for those following the Golden Knights. The organization has made its moves to stay below the salary cap and get creative doing so, but those tough decisions, like the one to move Max Pacioretty to the Carolina Hurricanes for merely future considerations, were seemingly meant to allow the team to extend key players like Hague. Should Hague hold out by not attending Golden Knights training camp, that itself wouldn’t be a concern, the practice happening regularly for unsigned RFAs.

If Vegas were to be without Hague into the regular season, they could field a complete roster, having six defenseman signed and on the NHL roster right now (not counting Weber, who won’t play), with several depth options available to close the gaps, but none as good, and experienced, as Hague. Looking closer at the numbers, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Vegas be able to sign Hague for less than the $2.64MM they will have available after utilizing LTIR, but the 23-year-old Kitchener, ON native has shown an ability to play reliable minutes in his own zone with his offensive ability still progressing, so an affordable deal may not be easily found. But, with the possibility of forward Nolan Patrick also landing on LTIR, Vegas could increase its available space to $3.84MM, likely enough to bring back the hulking defenseman.

Last year, Hague had four goals and 10 assists in 52 games while averaging 18:40 per night, and sports a respectable 10 goals and 32 assists in 142 career NHL games. A 2017 second-round pick of the Golden Knights, Hague just finished the final year of his ELC.

2008 NHL Draft Take Two: Eighth Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.”  Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science, and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now.  Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

The results of our redraft so far are as follows with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall: Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)

2nd Overall: Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings (2)

3rd Overall: Roman Josi, Atlanta Thrashers (38)

4th Overall: Alex Pietrangelo, St. Louis Blues (4)

5th Overall: Erik Karlsson, Toronto Maple Leafs (15)

6th Overall: John Carlson, Columbus Blue Jackets (27)

7th Overall: Jacob Markstrom, Nashville Predators (31)

In the real draft, Nashville made an all-around solid pick with forward Colin Wilson, a college standout who would carry his hard-working game over into the NHL ranks. Wilson’s 286 career points are good enough for 18th among 2008 draftees. Though he wasn’t a bust, Nashville could have potentially found another outcome by selecting Markstrom with the seventh pick, which might seem peculiar at first, but may have had an enormous positive impact overall. On the date of the 2008 draft, franchise great Pekka Rinne had played just three NHL games to date, establishing himself as a star the following season.

Having Markstrom in the fold behind Rinne would have blocked the younger goaltender, but may have proven a valuable trade asset for Nashville. Markstrom’s value as a prospect was as high as it could be in the early 2010’s given his ceiling, and Florida used that to its advantage, trading him along with forward Shawn Matthias to the Vancouver Canucks for Roberto Luongo and a minor leaguer. Had Nashville opted to keep Markstrom around, it’s interesting to consider that he didn’t establish himself as a regular starter until the 2017-18 season, right around the time Rinne began to take a step back due to injury and age. This could have fit as a perfect transition, however as we have seen, Nashville found that nonetheless with Juuse Saros.

We now turn to the eighth overall selection and one of two first-round picks belonging to the then-Phoenix Coyotes. The Coyotes, much like the Predators before them and the New York Islanders right after, picked a good player and someone far from a bust in forward Mikkel Boedker. For his career, Boedker had 118 goals and 209 assists for 327 points over 709 games played, enough for 15th in points and 19th in games played among members of the 2008 draft class. Those numbers put Boedker out of an elite class of player, like Stamkos, Doughty, and Karlsson ahead of him, but fit him squarely among good, solid NHLers.

The speedy Danish winger began his career with a pair of seasons in the Frolunda development program over in Sweden prior to joining the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers for the 2007-08 season – his draft year. Boedker dominated with Kitchener, netting 29 goals along with 44 assists in 66 games. Not only that, but the forward notched six points in as many games playing for Denmark’s World Juniors squad that year.

The impressive performance was enough not only to have Boedker selected eighth-overall, but would help him make the Coyotes roster as an 18-year-old. Despite his age, Boedker showed he was ready for the NHL, putting up a relatively impressive 11 goals and 17 assists in 78 games in the desert. After his rookie effort, the Coyotes opted to give the forward more time to develop, having him spend the majority of the 2009-10 and 2010-11 campaigns in the AHL, though he didn’t take too much of a step forward there.

After establishing himself as a reliable secondary option in the seasons before, Boedker broke out in 2013-14, tallying 51 points in 82 games for the final Phoenix team, his 19 goals marking a career-high. Fast forward to 2015-16, Boedker again hit the 51 point mark, ultimately tying his career-high, but was dealt at the trade deadline to the Colorado Avalanche. The deal worked out well for Boedker, who had 12 points in 18 games down the stretch, however the Avalanche would fail to make the playoffs. The trade didn’t work out so well either for what was now known as the Arizona Coyotes. They acquired prospects Connor Bleackley and Kyle Wood, neither of whom ever played an NHL game (in fact, Bleackley re-entered the draft in 2016, and was selected by the St. Louis Blues in the fifth round), as well as veteran forward Alex Tanguay, who provided a similar 13 points in 18 games the rest of the way, retiring at season’s end.

Returning to the winner of the trade, Boedker himself, his run with the Avalanche capping off three straight seasons of solid production which helped him sign a four-year, $16MM deal with the San Jose Sharks in free agency that summer. The forward spent the first two seasons of that deal with San Jose, eventually being traded to the Ottawa Senators. At the conclusion of the contract, Boedker signed with Lugano in Switzerland, likely finishing off his NHL career.

All in all, the Coyotes got fairly decent value for their eighth overall selection, receiving 213 points in 445 games over eight seasons, fetching some worthwhile value on the deadline trade market. However, in hindsight, there were several other names available who may have had a greater impact on the franchise. Who could have had a greater impact in Arizona: an impact defenseman like Tyler Myers or Jared Spurgeon? A Vezina Trophy winner like Braden Holtby? Another scorer, but one who admittedly helped get the puck in the back of the net a bit more, like Cam Atkinson or Jordan Eberle? Or was Boedker the right choice all along?

With the eighth overall pick in the 2008 NHL draft, who will the Phoenix (Arizona) Coyotes select? Cast your vote below.

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.

Anaheim Ducks Sign Nathan Beaulieu To PTO

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We have another PTO signing for today. Defenseman Nathan Beaulieu has signed a professional tryout agreement with the Anaheim Ducks, per CapFriendly.

Beaulieu, 29, arrives in Anaheim coming from the Pittsburgh Penguins. Beaulieu didn’t actually suit up in a game for Pittsburgh, but he was acquired by the team at the 2022 deadline.

Beaulieu played 24 games last season, all for the Winnipeg Jets, averaging a career-low 10:46 time-on-ice per game. Beaulieu has over 400 games of NHL experience, and has operated in a seventh-defenseman role for the past four seasons as a member of the Penguins, Jets, and Buffalo Sabres.

In Anaheim, Beaulieu will join the competition for one of the open spots on the Ducks’ blueline, a competition that is getting relatively expansive. John Klingberg, Cam Fowler, Kevin Shattenkirk, Dmitry Kulikov, and Jamie Drysdale are all locks to be in the NHL, which means Beaulieu will be competing with Josh Mahura, Urho Vaakanainen, Simon Benoit, Colton White, and Olli Juolevi for one of the final two spots on the Ducks’ blueline, should the team choose to carry seven defensemen on their roster.

Given the state of the Ducks as a rebuilding club, it’s more likely that the team would prefer to run younger defensemen with more upside in those open roles. But even as he faces that reality entering camp, Beaulieu can still earn a spot and showcase his value to the Ducks. Should Beaulieu play well in the preseason while some of the younger defenseman struggle, he could earn an NHL contract to serve as the team’s seventh defenseman, just as he has for other NHL teams these past few seasons.

Snapshots: Media Rules, Panthers, Senators PTO

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The media’s access to NHL players has been limited over these past two seasons, in large part thanks to restrictions placed on locker room access in order to mitigate the risk of COVID transmission to players. Per the Professional Hockey Writers Association, as relayed by Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, those restrictions are ending. Per Thomas, NHL clubs were informed via email that “locker rooms must be open following all games and practices and all active players must be made available” to the media.

While the lifting of these media restrictions doesn’t have any direct impact on transactions or things such as the salary cap, it does serve as another piece of evidence pointing to a return to normalcy for the NHL. Given what deputy commissioner Bill Daly said last month, — that a rise to the salary cap could be coming earlier than anticipated, perhaps even as soon as the end of the 2023-24 season — the return of the media to NHL locker rooms is another indication that things are getting back to normal in the world of hockey.

Now, for some other notes from across the NHL:

  • The Florida Panthers made some additions to their Performance Department today, announcing the hires of Chris McLellan, Mike Joyce, and Mark Gaydos. McLellan was named vice president of sports performance, Joyce was named head strength and conditioning coach, and Gaydos was named assistant strength and conditioning coach. The Panthers have big plans for this season, and these three hires beef up the off-ice support they’re offering to their players as they hope to achieve their lofty goals in 2022-23.
  • Four players have signed professional tryout agreements (PTO’s) today, and there are likely a few more on the horizon. As relayed by Ian Mendes of The Athletic, Ottawa Senators GM Pierre Dorion strongly indicated that he’d be signing a skater to a PTO, saying “there is a contract to be had and there’s a spot to be had.” (subscription link) There are quite a few veteran players still on the market, such as P.K. Subban and Sonny Milano, and it looks like Dorion will be adding someone from that market for the preseason.

San Jose Sharks Sign Scott Harrington To PTO

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The number of PTO agreements signed today grows to four. The San Jose Sharks have announced the signing of defenseman Scott Harrington to a professional tryout agreement.

The Sharks have undergone a significant roster transformation in new GM Mike Grier’s first offseason, seeing a franchise face in Brent Burns depart and new NHL-quality players such as Matt Benning, Luke Kunin, and Oskar Lindblom enter the fold. With this PTO, Harrington joins the competition for a job on new coach David Quinn’s blueline.

Harrington, 29, was a second-round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins at the 2011 draft and has over 200 games of NHL experience, almost entirely with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Harrington spent most of last season with the Blue Jackets’ AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters, although he did get into seven NHL contests averaging 14 and a half minutes per game.

The six-foot-two Harrington doesn’t have much offense to his game, but he did see extensive time on the Monsters’ penalty kill and has experience as a defensive specialist. He’ll head to the Sharks camp to compete with Jaycob Megna, Radim Simek, and Markus Nutivaara for a spot on the lower end of the team’s defensive lineup.

 

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