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Evening Notes: Räty, Gagnier, Brown

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Ian Kennedy of The Hockey News is reporting that decorated netminder Noora Räty is set to sign with the Metropolitan Riveters of the Premier Hockey Federation. The 33-year-old has backstopped Finland to two bronze medals at the Winter Olympics and was named Best Goaltender at the World Championships a whopping five times while leading her country to four bronze medals.

Just this past October, Räty had announced that she was retiring from Finland’s national team, but she left the door open to continuing her hockey career. Now she will do so in America, which must be a big moment for her given that she has advocated for a long time for a professional league in North America that could push women’s hockey forward. Räty put up sparking numbers one again this past season as she posted a .943 save percentage in nine starts for HPK of Naisten Liiga to go along with a 1.56 goals against average.

In other evening notes:

  • The Rockford Ice Hogs announced today that they’ve signed center Ryan Gagnier to a one-year AHL contract. The 20-year-old Gagnier spent the last three seasons with the OHL’s Oshawa Generals and was the team’s leading scorer this past season putting up 31 goals and 38 assists in 66 games. The 6-foot, 186-pound Tecumseh native improved dramatically over the course of his junior career and finished with 113 points (53G, 60A) in 189 OHL games. Gagnier was never drafted to the NHL and was somewhat of a late bloomer, he was an excellent penalty killer this past year and finished second in voting for the OHL Eastern Conference’s best penalty killer.
  • Team USA has added Ottawa Senators forward Patrick Brown to their 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championship roster. This will be Brown’s first appearance ever at an IIHF world championship as the 30-year-old has never represented the U.S. at any level in these tournaments. Brown was dealt mid-season by the Philadelphia Flyers to the Ottawa Senators and finished the year with four goals and eight assists in 61 NHL games split between the two clubs. The Americans have won their first three games of the tournament and will face Austria on Wednesday in their fourth of seven preliminary round games.

Edmonton Oilers Notes: Staios, Bouchard, Yamamoto

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Frank Seravalli had a lengthy discussion on the Daily Faceoff Rundown podcast about the future of the Edmonton Oilers. In the discussion Seravalli said he doesn’t expect huge changes on the ice, but he does believe that there will be changes to the management structure as they attempt to be “protective and proactive with Steve Staios.” Seravalli went on to say that the former Oilers defenseman is regarded in Oilers circles as being their general manager of the future and the club may want to shift their hierarchy to give Staios a bigger voice before another team scoops him up.

What that could look like remains to be seen, but Seravalli went on to say that he wouldn’t be surprised if the Oilers promoted current general manager Ken Holland to President of Hockey Ops which would allow Staios to shift over to Holland’s old job and preserve the teams already thin management group. Whatever management group is in place will have much work to be done this summer. The Oilers window for contention is beginning to close as superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl inch closer to unrestricted free agency. Draisaitl has just two years left on his current deal and McDavid has three. If the Oilers don’t get over the hump soon, they could find it difficult to retain the franchise cornerstones.

In other Oilers notes:

  • Seravalli also spoke about the next contract for Evan Bouchard saying that he fully expects the Oilers to try and get the defenseman on a bridge contract due to their current salary cap predicament. The 23-year-old is coming off a good season in which he put up eight goals and 40 points in 81 regular season games, however in the playoffs the Oakville native exploded for 17 points in 12 games, including 15 points while quarterbacking the Oilers white hot powerplay. Seravalli wondered if a bridge contract would even be possible given how important Bouchard has been to the team since the mid-season Tyson Barrie trade. The advantage for the Oilers will be that Bouchard has no rights to arbitration at this time.
  • Seravalli and Jason Gregor spoke about the Oilers need to upgrade the right wing spot this summer. This was echoed by Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic who believes that top six winger Kailer Yamamoto’s poor play in the playoffs might have turned him into a trade candidate. Yamamoto is due $3.1MM next season and struggled in the playoffs putting up just a single goal and four points in 12 games despite getting a lot of top six minutes. The Spokane native wasn’t much better in the regular season putting up 25 points in 58 games, a steep drop from his career high of 41 points in 81 games in 2021-22.

Maple Leafs Notes: Dubas, Matthews, Bunting, O’Reilly, Samsonov, Peksa

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2:50 PM: Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas took his turn at the podium today, and issued some useful clarity on both his own future and his plans for the Maple Leafs moving forward, should he be retained as GM. On his own future, Dubas said it would be a “family decision” on whether he will remain as head coach, and that he would either remain an executive in Toronto, or step away and take some time to “recalibrate on the season” he just had. Perhaps most importantly for other teams potentially interested in hiring Dubas to fill their vacant GM roles, Dubas stated: “you won’t see me next week popping up elsewhere,” meaning he is highly unlikely to be a possibility for any of this cycle’s GM vacancies.

His other revealing comments today were regarding the Maple Leafs’ general strategy, and how he would approach improving his team. Dubas said he would be “interested in doing anything” with his roster this summer, and that he “would take nothing off the table at all,” which obviously includes superstars such as Matthews. Dubas cited the Panthers (and presumably their bold, core-shaking trade for Matthew Tkachuk last summer) as an example of a team that re-structured a disappointing core in a successful manner, so based on these comments, it seems there could be a greater appetite for seismic change in Toronto than some might have anticipated.

For what its worth, Toronto’s core players almost exclusively expressed sincere hopes that they could remain Maple Leafs and not see their core group of players broken up. But based on Dubas’ recent comments, it looks as though their general manager will examine every possible opportunity to improve his team, even if it requires saying parting with some talented familiar faces.

12:30 PM: Since the Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated from the second round of the playoffs by the Florida Panthers, much of the focus of the hockey world has been on three of the team’s key figures: general manager Kyle Dubas, head coach Sheldon Keefe, and superstar face of the franchise Auston Matthews. While the futures of both Dubas and Keefe are technically more immediately pressing, it’s the fate of Matthews that is likely to have the most significant on-ice consequences. The 25-year-old 2021-22 Hart Trophy winner is set to see his current $11.6MM AAV contract expire after next season, and will gain a full no-movement clause this summer, giving Toronto no opportunity to consider trades for him should he decide he wants to test the open market.

Toronto must be thankful, then, that testing the waters of unrestricted free agency does not seem to be Matthews’ top priority. As relayed by Northstar Bets’ Chris Johnston, Matthews told the media that his “intention” is to remain a Maple Leaf, and that he would like an extension to be finalized before next season. It’s worth noting that Matthews’ comments on his future today will feel extremely similar to what John Tavares communicated to the media as he approached the expiry of his contract with the New York Islanders, and Tavares ultimately did leave as a free agent. So that is to say that even with these comments, there remains a ways to go before Matthews’ pen hits the paper on a lucrative new long-term deal, and the possibility that he departs still exists. But in terms of each outcome’s likelihood,  Matthews’ comments today have to give confidence to the Toronto market that their team’s best player is in it for the long haul.

Other notes regarding the Maple Leafs:

  • One player who seems unlikely to be signing a contract extension to remain in Toronto is 27-year-old winger Michael Bunting. Today Bunting told the media, including Sports Illustrated’s David Alter, that he didn’t have any contract talks about an extension with the Maple Leafs during the season. While it’s possible Bunting, who scored 23 goals and 49 points this season before disappointing in the playoffs, could ultimately find a way to return to Toronto, it does not seem as though that outcome is likely. Bunting has a chance to headline a class of free agent left wingers relatively thin in top-level talent, meaning it’s a strong possibility that he’s able to earn a better offer from another club than Toronto is in a position to make.
  • Speaking with the media today, Maple Leafs center Ryan O’Reilly also answered questions on his future. Johnston reports that O’Reilly sounded “more inclined to test the open market on July 1 than try and work out an extension” with Toronto, which once again feels like the likeliest outcome given the cap constraints Toronto’s big contracts have forced them to work with. After a disappointing 40-game run this season with the St. Louis Blues, O’Reilly was dealt to Toronto and the trade seemed to revive his game. He scored 11 points in 13 regular-season games and nine in 11 playoff games, including a few important contributions in high-leverage moments. But having significantly helped his stock with his playoff performance, O’Reilly may also have placed himself out of Toronto’s price range for a contract extension.
  • The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun relays word from Maple Leafs netminder Ilya Samsonov regarding the injury that knocked him out of the team’s second-round playoff series against Florida. Samsonov said an unfortunate collision with teammate Luke Schenn caused him to suffer a neck injury, and it’s that injury that forced rookie Joseph Woll between the pipes. Samsonov ultimately finished his nine-game run in the playoffs with sub-par numbers (.898 save percentage and 3.13 goals-against-average in nine games played) though he did manage to backstop Toronto to their long-awaited playoff series victory. Samsonov added in his media availability that he hopes to be able to re-sign with Toronto, who will have the opportunity to retain his rights as an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent with a $1.8MM qualifying offer.
  • The Toronto Maple Leafs signed 2021 sixth-round pick Vyacheslav Peksa to a three-year, $851k AAV entry-level deal. Peksa, a 20-year-old Russian netminder, has been developing in KHL club Ak Bars Kazan’s system for a few seasons now. Last year was his final campaign at Russia’s junior level and he posted a .936 save percentage in 56 games played. This year, he moved to Russia’s second-tier men’s pro league and posted an impressive .921 save percentage in 40 games, vastly outplaying Vladimir Mosin and Ilya Golubev, the two other goalies on his team who also happen to be older than Peksa. This move allows Peksa to continue his development in North America, where he could either end up with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies or ECHL’s Newfoundland Growlers.

Minor Transactions: 05/15/23

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With Game Seven between the Dallas Stars and Seattle Kraken tonight, the NHL’s second round is set to come to a close. Just four NHL franchises will remain in contention for the Stanley Cup, while the majority of teams are now earnestly preparing for their offseason work.

One minor league did give out a championship yesterday, the Federal Prospects Hockey League, a league that brands itself as being “Single-A” level. (Where the ECHL is Double-A, AHL is Triple-A, and so forth.) The Danbury Hat Tricks erased a 2-0 series deficit and took home the Commissioner’s Cup in a decisive Game Five, the first title for a Danbury team since the now-defunct Danbury Whalers won the same trophy in 2013. The Hat Tricks’ victory was another notable moment in the history of pro hockey in Danbury, a city whose former pro team, the Trashers, once rostered players with NHL experience such as Mike Rupp, Rumun Ndur, and Brent Gretzky and was the subject of a Netflix documentary.

With fewer and fewer leagues still set to play and the IIHF World Championships fully underway, teams across the hockey world are getting to work on their offseason moves. We’ll keep track of any notable transactions here:

  • After hitting the open market late last month, former NHL forward Patrice Cormier has found his next team. The 32-year-old two-time Manitoba Moose captain has signed with the DEL’s Eisbaren Berlin, a club desperate for a bounce-back season after following up their back-to-back titles with a playoff miss. Cormier is five seasons removed from his last in North America and has been in the KHL for that entire period. He spent this past season with Automobilist Yekaterinburg and scored 19 points in 55 games. He’s also had stops elsewhere in Russia and in Kazakhstan in his time since playing for the Moose.
  • Former Florida Panthers depth defenseman Colby Robak announced his retirement from professional hockey today on social media, according to the Daily Sentinel’s Ben Birnell. The 33-year-old defenseman played 47 NHL games, mostly for the Florida Panthers, between 2011-12 and 2014-15. Beyond his NHL experience, Robak’s career highlights include three seasons spent as a star defenseman for the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings, being named to the AHL All-Star game in just his second season as a professional, and leading the German DEL in points by a defenseman in 2020-21. After spending 2021-22 with the DEL’s Schwenninger Wild Wings, his third campaign in Germany and second as an alternate captain for the franchise, Robak didn’t play in 2022-23 and has now made the choice to end his playing career.
  • Matt Bradley, a former Montreal Canadiens prospect and ECHL champion, has signed with the DEL’s Straubing Tigers after spending the better part of the last two seasons playing for the Vienna Capitals in the ICEHL. The 26-year-old has played exceptionally well in the Austrian capital, notching 82 points in 67 games alongside 22 points in 22 playoff games. His success in the Central European ICEHL has now earned him a chance in Germany’s top flight, and while Vienna will now need to cope with the loss of their top scorer Bradley gains a significant opportunity to step onto a DEL playoff team and look to seize a similarly important offensive role.
  • Slovakian forward Miroslav Mucha, a recent graduate of the college hockey ranks with Lake Superior State and Michigan State University, has signed with Bili Tygri Liberec of Czechia’s Extraliga. The 25-year-old has three games of pro experience under his belt, them all coming with the ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits on a contract he signed late in the ECHL campaign. The former Michigan State captain scored 35 points in 37 games in his final season with Lake Superior State University before transferring to the Spartans for this season, and scored 17 points in his final 38 games of college hockey. Now he’ll head to Czechia, where he’ll look to score his first professional points and establish himself in the country’s top league.
  • Two-time SHL champion Eric Martinsson, a veteran of the European pro circuit, has signed with the Vaxjo Lakers of the SHL, the club he played for from 2014-2018. Martinsson is a 30-year-old blueliner who spent this past season playing for HV71, and the year before played for Barys Astana in Kazakhstan. Martinsson has 13 games of pro experience in North America, all of them coming in 2018-19 with the Iowa Wild. He scored an impressive nine points in that span but ultimately chose to return to Europe to play in Switzerland. Now, he’ll get to join the reigning Swedish champions.
  • HC Davos of Switzerland’s National League made two notable signings today. First, they inked a deal with 34-year-old veteran blueliner Noah Schneeberger, who has over 500 games of experience at the National League level. Schneeberger has played for Davos before, and won a title with the team in 2015. The other player they signed is 24-year-old Aleksi Peltonen. The captain of St. Lawrence University this past season, Peltonen is the son of Finnish Hockey Hall of Famer Ville Peltonen, who also is the head coach of Liiga side HIFK Helsinki. He’s also the grandson of another Finnish hockey Hall of Famer, Esa Peltonen, a former top scorer and champion at HIFK. Now, the younger Peltonen will get his pro career started in Switzerland, the league where his father was a head coach for two seasons.
  • Young blueliner Theodor Johnsson has made the switch from the SHL to the Finnish Liiga. The 20-year-old has transferred from the Malmo Redhawks to Liiga’s Vaasan Sport. Johnsson broke into the SHL this past season skating in 35 games for the Malmo Redhawks, a team that only narrowly avoided relegation to the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. While he only scored three points, Johnsson’s performance in that stretch and his 18-game run for the Vaxjo Lakers last year proved good enough for Vaasan to take this chance and sign him to this contract.
  • Undersized defenseman Aleksi Anttalainen has signed a contract with SaiPa after spending the last four seasons with TPS Turku in Liiga. Anttalainen impressively carved out a role as a lineup regular for TPS the season after aging out of the QMJHL, where he played with the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada and Moncton Wildcats. Though some might look at Anttalainen’s physical attributes and typecast him as more of an offensive defenseman, Anttalainen has actually remained in the lineup in TPS despite not producing very many points. He’s scored just 24 in 149 career Liiga games, and SaiPa are clearly comfortable with the unique package of skills he’ll bring to their lineup, hoping that his blend of skating skill and physicality will help improve a team that came in last place in last season’s Liiga campaign.
  • Recent ICEHL champions EHC Red Bull Salzburg have announced that four players will not be continuing with the club. Among those names is Danish forward Nikolai Meyer, the player who scored the team’s championship-winning goal in Game Seven of the finals against HC Bolzano, and was among their top scorers on a point-per-game basis with 26 points in 31 games this season. The 29-year-old is no stranger to success in the European pro ranks, as he led HockeyAllsvenskan in scoring during his 2018-19 season with Sodertalje SK and was named the league’s forward of the year. While his short stay in Czechia with HC Plzen didn’t exactly go swimmingly, Meyer has been productive in multiple leagues across Europe and should be able to receive some interest now that he’s hit the open market.

This page will be updated throughout the day

Snapshots: Bergevin, Romanov, Teravainen

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The Calgary Flames’ GM search seems to be kicking into a higher gear, as some of the names the team could be interviewing to fill their vacant position continue to be reported. A new name that has emerged in the process is that of current Los Angeles Kings executive and former Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin. On the 32 Thoughts podcast, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said that he’s “heard Marc Bergevin’s name” connected to the search as the team has narrowed down its list of candidates.

Bergevin, 57, served as general manager of the Canadiens from 2012 to 2022.  During his tenure, Bergevin became a bit of a divisive figure in both Montreal market and across the NHL, with nearly every observer seeming to have a strong opinion on his work with the Canadiens. This could be due to the fact that Bergevin made quite a few bold, blockbuster trades, with some that paid off for his franchise (such as the controversial P.K. Subban for Shea Weber swap) and others that cost the team dearly. (Mikhail Sergachev for Jonathan Drouin) Now, a relatively short period removed from his departure from Montreal, it seems Bergevin could be in contention to earn another shot at being an NHL GM. Also worth noting is this news, combined with earlier reports that the Flames are looking to interview Maple Leafs executive Brandon Pridham, reveals that the organization is taking a wide-ranging approach to fielding candidates for their GM opening, as they are reportedly considering both candidates with extensive experience in the role and candidates without any experience as an NHL GM.

More notes from across the NHL:

  • New York Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov underwent a minor surgical procedure on his shoulder, reports The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz. The procedure went well, and according to Kurz the procedure is not expected to interrupt Romanov’s readiness for training camp in any way. The 23-year-old defenseman averaged 19:27 time on ice per game in his first season on Long Island and pitched in 22 points. The Islanders traded their 2022 first-round pick to acquire him from Montreal, and have hopes that Romanov can become a long-term staple in their top-four.
  • Carolina Hurricanes team reporter Walt Ruff relays word from today’s practice that forward Teuvo Teravainen has shed his yellow non-contact jersey. This is a positive step forward for Teravainen, who has missed most of the Hurricanes’ run to the Eastern Conference Final due to a broken hand. The Hurricanes originally issued a four-to-eight-week timeline for Teravainen’s return, and if today’s news is any indication his return to the ice could be just around the corner, possibly giving coach Rod Brind’Amour’s lineup a major boost.

Morning Notes: Wild Offseason Plans, Flames GM Search, Draft Order

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After they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs once again, there appears to be somewhat heightened pressure Minnesota Wild to find a way to build a winning team within the three-year window Kirill Kaprizov’s current contract provides, as he will be eligible for unrestricted free agency after the 2025-26 season. But while that pressure on GM Bill Guerin likely exists, it is unlikely to materialize into a big-spending offseason for the team, as similar pressures might do for another franchise.

In a mailbag article today, The Athletic’s Joe Smith and Michael Russo warned for Wild fans to expect “the quietest July 1 in team history,” with maybe a two-way depth forward or a defenseman brought in at a bargain-bin price. (subscription link) This should not come as a surprise to anyone who frequents Minnesota’s CapFriendly page, of course, as the franchise remains completely financially hamstrung by their buyouts to Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. The dead cap figures associated with the two players’ bought-out contracts will rise $1MM each to $7.37MM this year, bringing the team’s total dead-money expenditure to about $14.7MM. In a flat-cap environment, it’s next to impossible for a team to add market-rate free agents to supplement its roster with that kind of cap constraint, and it’s likely we’ll see that this summer, perhaps even more than we did last year when Minnesota still managed to sign a player like Alex Goligoski to a $2MM a year contract extension.

Some other notes from across the NHL:

  • Who the Calgary Flames are targeting in their search for a general manager to replace the departed Brad Treliving has gotten some more clarity, as DailyFaceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports that the team plans on pursuing permission to interview Toronto Maple Leafs assistant general manager Brandon Pridham. Pridham, 49, has been with the Maple Leafs’ organization throughout their current rebuild, beginning as special assistant to the general manager before being promoted to assistant general manager for the 2018-19 season. Per Postmedia’s Wes Gilbertson, Pridham “has a reputation as a salary-cap whiz,” which is a trait that the Flames could certainly use as they navigate a future with some key players, such as Elias Lindholm, Tyler Toffoli, Mikael Backlund, Noah Hanifin, and Chris Tanev on contracts that expire after next season.
  • With the elimination of the Edmonton Oilers at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights last night, the later ends of the NHL draft order were finalized further. Edmonton’s first-round pick, one that belongs to Nashville thanks to the Mattias Ekholm trade, is now locked as pick 24, while the draft pick the St. Louis Blues are receiving from the Toronto Maple Leafs is locked into the number-25 slot. San Jose will pick at 26 with New Jersey’s first-rounder received in the Timo Meier trade, while Colorado will pick 27th, and Toronto will select 28th using the Boston Bruins’ first-round pick, an asset they acquired from the Washington Capitals in the Rasmus Sandin trade.

Five Key Stories: 5/8/23 – 5/14/23

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While the number of teams still in contention for the Stanley Cup continues to be cut down, there was plenty of notable news away from the ice which is highlighted in our key stories.

Flyers Set Front Office: The Flyers have found their replacements for former GM Chuck Fletcher.  Daniel Briere has had the interim tag removed to become the full-time GM while long-time Flyer broadcaster Keith Jones takes over as President of Hockey Operations.  While Briere has some front office experience as an assistant, it will be Jones’ first opportunity to work for a team.  Some had wondered if Philadelphia would opt for an experienced President to offset Briere’s relative inexperience but clearly, that wasn’t the case.  The two will be tasked with trying to get the Flyers out of the tough cycle they find themselves in as a team that has effectively spun its wheels in recent years and as a result, they could be heading for at least a short-term rebuild.

Suspensions: The fifth game of the Oilers-Golden Knights series was played without two key defensemen.  For Edmonton, Darnell Nurse had an automatic one-game ban upheld after being assessed an instigator penalty in the final five minutes of the game before.  Meanwhile, for Vegas, Alex Pietrangelo received a one-game suspension of his own for a slash on Edmonton forward Leon Draisaitl.  The common sentiment was that Pietrangelo’s suspension was lighter than expected but both players returned to action on Sunday as the series continued.

Landeskog To Miss 2023-24: Throughout this season, the Avalanche were hoping that they’d get captain Gabriel Landeskog back from his knee injury, so much so that they opted not to use all of his LTIR room at the trade deadline.  However, he was ruled out for the postseason before the playoffs began and now, he’s expected to miss the entire 2023-24 campaign after undergoing cartilage replacement surgery, a procedure that is a substitute for a joint replacement.  That means that Colorado will be without one of their top wingers for two full seasons.  Landeskog and his $7MM cap charge will once again be LTIR-eligible next season and it’s quite likely that the Avs will make full use of it this time around.  The 30-year-old is signed through the 2028-29 season.

Treliving Unable To Interview: After stepping away from the Flames, some have wondered if Brad Treliving could be in the mix for any of the open front office vacancies around the league.  However, that’s unlikely to happen as he is reportedly unable to interview with other teams until his contract expires on June 30th.  Teams typically grant former coaches and executives permission to speak to other teams about positions while they’re technically still under contract but once in a while, that doesn’t happen.  It appears this is one of those times.

Blackhawks Win Draft Lottery: The Draft Lottery resulted in a change at the top of the draft order and it was the Blackhawks who were the winners, moving up from the second spot to first, placing them in a position to draft WHL superstar center Connor Bedard next month.  Bedard would immediately become Chicago’s franchise player, giving them a foundational piece as they work through their rebuild.  Meanwhile, Anaheim, who went into the event with the top odds, won the draw for the second selection, positioning them to likely take Hobey Baker Award winner Adam Fantilli.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Offseason Checklist: Vancouver Canucks

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The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that aren’t taking part in the playoffs plus those that were eliminated early.  It’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at Vancouver.

After the team showed considerable improvement late in 2021-22 under Bruce Boudreau, there was hope that the Canucks could get back into the playoff picture.  Instead, things went off the rails quickly with a long-speculated coaching change dominating the headlines for an uncomfortable amount of time.  While there was improvement following the change that saw Rick Tocchet take over, they still came up short.  GM Patrik Allvin has his work cut out for him this summer if he wants to get Vancouver back into the playoff picture.

Create Cap Space

If Allvin and the Canucks are going to be able to do anything in terms of improving this franchise this summer, they need money to do so.  At the moment, they are projected to be over the cap next season, per CapFriendly, with multiple players still to re-sign.  That’s not ideal, to put it lightly.

There could be some help through LTIR.  Tanner Pearson’s playing future appears to be in serious question after recovery from his hand injury hasn’t gone anywhere near as well as planned.  If he misses all of next season, his $3.25MM would then land on LTIR.  Then there’s Tucker Poolman, who has dealt with lingering concussion trouble for the last couple of seasons and got into just three games this year.  If those symptoms persist, his $2.5MM could land on there as well.  Those two placements would at least give them enough cap space to fill out a full roster but still not make any material improvements.

Winger Brock Boeser has been in trade speculation for more than a year now and even though he has stated that his desire is to remain in Vancouver, that’s unlikely to change with a $6.65MM AAV for two more years.  Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli recently reported (video link) that the team is actively trying to move Conor Garland who carries a $4.95MM cap charge for three more seasons.  While he’s a quality forward, the remaining term on that deal will hurt his value.  Moving one of them would clear up some money plus a full-time spot for Nils Hoglander but Vancouver will be hard-pressed to get strong value in a return with how tight many teams are cap-wise.

Defensively, Tyler Myers and his $6MM price tag is one that could be on the chopping block.  Notably, the bulk of his deal is paid out in a signing bonus during training camp and it stands to reason that he’d have more value then than he would today.  Of course, that doesn’t help in terms of creating space for early-summer spending but it’s another avenue they could potentially pursue.

There are holes on this roster to be filled.  But to fill them, they need cap space.  To get that money, they’re going to have to move out a player of some significance, thereby creating another hole to fill.  That’s going to be a tough needle to thread.

Work On Pettersson Extension

While some players underachieved offensively under Boudreau, that wasn’t the case for Elias Pettersson who was off to a strong start before the coaching change, notching 19 goals and 35 assists in 44 games.  There might have been some concern that a coach that was interested in restoring some structure to Vancouver’s game might cut down Pettersson’s numbers.  That didn’t happen.  Instead, he was even more productive in the second half, tallying 20 goals and 28 helpers in 36 games, allowing him to reach the 100-point mark for the first time in his career.  He was one of just 11 players league-wide to accomplish the feat.  In short, he has become a legitimate top-line center.

In 2021, on the heels of an injury-plagued platform year, the two sides eventually agreed on a three-year bridge deal, one that carried a $7.35MM AAV while being heavily backloaded.  The salary structure is notable as the relatively new qualifying offer rule applies to it; he’s owed the lower of 120% of the AAV or $10.25MM, the 2023-24 salary.  120% of the cap charge is $8.82MM and if you’re looking for a starting point for negotiations, there it is.

Realistically, the price tag is going to come in well above that, especially based on recent center signings including Islanders pivot Mathew Barzal who checks in at $9.15MM despite only passing the 65-point mark once in his career.  It’s quite possible that a long-term agreement ultimately eclipses the $10MM mark.

There’s a case to be made that Vancouver should wait until next year to see if Pettersson’s production is repeatable.  However, the salary cap is expected to have a sharper increase in 2024 and with comparables often being based on the percentage of the cap it takes up, that could drive the asking price upward at that point along with his arbitration rights.  But, there’s value in taking care of your franchise players quickly and having early certainty about what he’ll cost moving forward can only help Allvin as he looks to reshape their cap picture.  Accordingly, expect them to take a run at extending Pettersson when he’s eligible to sign a new deal in July.

Look Into Miller Move

The seven-year, $56MM contract extension that J.T. Miller signed back in September was supposed to take his name out of the rumor mill.  However, with the Canucks struggling considerably out of the gate, that wasn’t the case as there was considerable speculation that he could be moved prior to the trade deadline.  While that didn’t happen, it wouldn’t be surprising to see his name come up once again, especially if they fail to find a suitable cap-clearing trade for one of their other pieces.

However, it’s important to note that there is a deadline for this to happen.  Included in the extension is a full no-move clause which kicks in on July 1st.  Vancouver could have allowed that NMC to roll over in his set-to-expire deal but opted not to.  While it’s not impossible to move a player with trade protection, the options are certainly more plentiful when the player doesn’t have any form of trade restrictions.

While Miller wasn’t able to equal his 99-point output from a year ago, the 30-year-old still had a productive campaign, notching 32 goals while picking up 82 points in 81 games.  Add that to a career-best 55% success rate at the faceoff dot and you have a player that is producing at a level worthy of the $8MM AAV.  As a result, expect to see his name surface in trade speculation leading up to the draft as there should be some interest in him, especially with a free agent market that’s lacking in quality middlemen.

Defensive Decisions

Vancouver has a couple of decisions to make with their pending restricted free agent blueliners.  Both Ethan Bear and Travis Dermott are arbitration-eligible this summer with arbitration eligibility.  Both of them have shown flashes at times but neither of them is a guarantee to be tendered.

Let’s start with Bear, a player who has seemingly been on tenuous footing in recent years in Edmonton, Carolina, and now Vancouver.  The Canucks picked him up in an early-season trade and he helped to stabilize an injury-riddled back end.  However, the 25-year-old is best utilized in a limited role and a $2.2MM qualifying offer is on the pricey side for someone in that role, not to mention the granting of arbitration rights that the offer entails.  Given their cap situation, can they afford that offer and the risk of a hearing?  Bear has expressed confidence that he will get something done but it will be interesting to see if he winds up with a deal before the qualifying offer deadline to take the threat of a hearing off the table.

As for Dermott, he showed some upside in the past with Toronto but that hasn’t carried over to his time with Vancouver.  Lingering concussion symptoms resulted in multiple IR stints and he played in just 11 games this season.  Dermott was the first player Allvin acquired after being named GM so it’s clear he thinks Dermott can help this team.  But with a $1.75MM qualifier and arbitration rights, that seems too pricey for them.  That said, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Canucks try to work out a one-year deal worth less than that amount, allowing them to give the 26-year-old one more chance.

Vancouver also has a decision to make on pending UFA blueliner Kyle Burroughs.  The 27-year-old played in a career-best 48 games this season, picking up five points and 165 hits on the third pairing.  He fits in a depth role but it’s possible that his fate is tied to Bear or Dermott’s as they might not be able to keep all of them around.  As a result, Burroughs might have to wait a while to see if he’ll be staying with his hometown team.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

East Notes: Sharangovich, Senators, Dubas

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Devils winger Yegor Sharangovich took a step backward offensively this season, notching just 13 goals and 30 points after putting up 24 and 46 respectively in 2021-22.  Things weren’t any better for him in the playoffs when he became a frequent healthy scratch.  The 24-year-old is a restricted free agent this summer with arbitration eligibility and Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman relayed in a recent appearance on Sportsnet 590 (audio link) that there was some speculation around the trade deadline that New Jersey was considering moving him then over concerns about his arbitration award.  While his playoff performance won’t bolster his case, his numbers from 2021-22 will likely push that award well beyond his $2.05MM qualifying offer and with the team needing to re-sign both Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier and deal with several other UFAs, what Sharangovich could get awarded might be more than they can afford.

Elsewhere in the East:

  • With final bids being due Monday for the Senators, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that the Melnyk family has informed the remaining potential suitors that they would like to retain up to 10% of the franchise in the sale agreement. It’s believed that there are six groups remaining in play although Garrioch notes it’s unlikely that all of them will wind up making a binding offer.  At the moment, he suggests three bids are likely and three other groups are more uncertain.
  • For anyone expecting immediate front office changes in Toronto following their second-round loss to Florida, that might not be the case. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas is scheduled to speak to the media on Monday.  Generally, if a team knows that they’re firing an executive, that person wouldn’t be taking questions.  It doesn’t mean changes won’t be coming but, for now at least, Dubas remains at the helm.

Snapshots: Landeskog, Reinbacher, Agents

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Outside of the playoffs, one of the major questions in the hockey world is if we will ever see the return of Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog. On May 10th, Landeskog opted to receive a cartilage transplant on his right knee, which will likely sideline him for the entirety of the 2023-24 NHL season.

This will mark two straight years that Landeskog will fail to play a game in the NHL, and serious doubts are being raised about his ability to return to the ice following this surgery. Talking to doctors and experts about the surgery, Bennett Sousa of The Denver Post says the jury is still out on that specific question.

Dr. Rachel Frank, a team physician for the MLS Colorado Rapids team, said, “We’ve seen this done before in patients and athletes at all levels, including the high school, the collegiate and the professional athlete. But at the elite level, it’s a bit less predictable because, quite frankly, it’s not as common.” Although the surgery has been quite successful in the past, Frank was quick to point out that the surgery is typically given for quality-of-life scenarios, not returning to their original form in athletics.

The only other major athlete to receive the surgery in recent memory would be Chicago Bulls guard, Lonzo Ball. In March of 2023, Ball opted to receive the surgery and has yet to make his return to the court at this time, missing the entirety of the 2022-23 NBA season. Due to the lack of comparables in the world of sports, Landeskog’s future in hockey is still up in the air.

Other snapshots:

  • In their loss against Team Sweden at the 2023 IIHF World Championship, Team Austria received even more negative news during the game, as top draft prospect David Reinbacher would not return to the game (Tweet Link). Receiving a hip check from Washington Capitals’ defenseman Rasmus Sandin, Reinbacher left the game with a lower-body injury. Clocking in at 20th overall on the draft board by TSN’s Bob McKenzie, Reinbacher scored three goals and 19 assists playing for EHC Kloten of the National League this season.
  • Although not pressing news, an interesting factoid was provided by PuckPedia today, as they announced that two agents have now crossed over the $1B mark in active contracts, as both Craig Oster of Newport Sports and Pat Brisson of CAA Hockey have crossed the threshold. Oster represents NHL talent such as Erik Karlsson, Mark Stone, and Matthew Tkachuk, while Brisson represents players such as Nathan MacKinnon, Sidney Crosby, and John Tavares.

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