While Alexis Lafreniere is one of 13 restricted free agents still looking for a contract for next season, he told Simon-Olivier Lorange of La Presse that discussions are ongoing and that he’s hoping to see a deal reached within the next few weeks. The 2020 top pick has had some ups and downs in his young career as he looks to secure a full-time spot in the top six for the Rangers. Coming off a 39-point season and the fact that New York’s cap space is quite limited, it’s a lock that Lafreniere won’t be getting a long-term agreement when an agreement is reached. At this point, the question is likely more if he’ll be receiving a one-year bridge deal or a two-year pact. Either way, he’ll have arbitration eligibility when that contract expires.
Elsewhere in the East:
- In an interview with Mikhail Zislis of Sport-Express, Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin indicated that he was pleased with Washington’s decision to hire Spencer Carbery as their new coach, citing Carbery’s familiarity with the organization having spent time as the coach with AHL Hershey. The 37-year-old was also asked about the possibility of changing teams one day but answered that unless the team asked him to accept a move, it wouldn’t make sense for him to move on as long as everything continues to suit him. Ovechkin has three years left on his contract with a $9.5MM AAV.
- While the Panthers have some short-term wiggle room from a salary cap perspective with both Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour likely to start on LTIR, George Richards of Florida Hockey Now figures that Florida is done on the free agent front this summer. They were active on the back end on the open market, adding four players that project to be on their roster when the season starts while they also added Evan Rodrigues and Kevin Stenlund up front. Eric Staal, who spent most of 2022-23 on the fourth line, is still unsigned but Richards feels he’s unlikely to accept a PTO this time around without a likely roster spot available for him; Stenlund is likely to fill that particular spot on the depth chart.
The Caps and Ovechkin are toast, Rebuild!!!!!!!!
I don’t think they’re toast as much as the Penguins are, who are intent on being the oldest team in history and making Detroit’s rebuild seem very short. The Caps AHL squad is very strong, and they now have a coach who will actually give the young guys a chance at the NHL level. That said, they’ve got Oshie and Backstrom blocking the way, and bad contracts with Kuznetsov and Mantha. I think their days of dominating the division and winning President’s Trophies are done for a while, but they can be a fringe playoff team the last couple years of Ovechkin’s tenure. After that, they will have to rebuild but are positioned fairly well right now unless they gut their farm the next 2 years.
Father Time getting ready to slew-foot Eric Staal into retirement? I thought I heard FT saying, “Don’t make me go Jamie Benn and *accidentally* fall on you!”
Father Time will be busy this year and he should probably have an office in Pittsburgh. In the dead puck era a lumbering guy could still get away with keeping his job up to 40. Not any more. If your speed is gone, you’re probably gone. Even Ovechkin, who is still faster than average…I wouldn’t be surprised to start seeing a trend downward in his non PP minutes starting this year.
@Thornton Mellon – Remember The Great 8’s motto. “Russian Machine Never Breaks”. Sure, it’s been a little dinged up in the past couple of years, but he’s on a mission to pass #99. That shouldn’t be underestimated. And, he’ll have more say than the average bear when it comes to his TOI.
Yes, I’m not talking drastic, at least now. His average MPG has been 20-21, I can see that going to 18:30-19 over the next couple years. That’s still pretty high for a winger. He still hasn’t missed as much time to injury added together in his career as any of 3 incidents from #87 out in Western PA.
I postulate this because he’s had a couple of minor things happen late in the season the past couple of years.
@Thornton Mellon – Sid’s definitely been unfortunate with injury bugs in his career. I would hope Alex doesn’t get crazy with demands for more playing time. It would suck to see him get a stupid injury that would cost significant time.