Things have slowed down considerably after a hectic rush to begin free agency. With the dog days of summer in full swing, it’s time to open up the mailbag once again.
Our last one came in the more immediate aftermath to the draft and free agency and was broken into two pieces. The first looked at whether the Golden Knights could deal from their blue line depth to improve their depth scoring, whether Utah could move on from Barrett Hayton, and a few remaining storylines to keep an eye on this offseason, among other things. The second dealt with the best lineup fit for Steven Stamkos in Nashville, how the Flyers may alter their roster ahead of Matvei Michkov’s arrival, and the Stars’ cup chances.
You can submit a question by using #PHRMailbag on Twitter/X or by leaving a comment down below. The mailbag will run on the weekend.
I’m curious about Oliver Kylington. In 2021-22, he seemed like he was about to become a star. I caught a few Flames games (I’m not a Flames fan but the Gaudreau/Tkachuck team was stacked and fun–how far they’ve fallen) and by the eye test, he was responsible in his zone, excellent at break-outs, and he looked like he could have some offense. I was thinking in 2022-23, he was a breakout candidate and the Flames defense was looking amazing with Andersson, Tanev, Hanifin, and him. But of course, he missed the whole season due to mental health struggles. Then he came back last year and while he wasn’t a force on a pretty bad Flames team, I chalked that up to getting his footing after taking a whole year off. He was even a Masterton finalist. It feels cruel that he’s unsigned despite being a young-ish defensemen with at least one solid year behind him. Wouldn’t he be an incredible show-me signing with top-4 potential? Does it feel like NHL teams have a bias against him for his mental health issues? Or do teams really feel like he’s not that good?
I read somewhere that he’s looking for a mult-year deal more than 2 years (I can’t substantiate that as fact though). It could be term is the sticking point. I feel like he would be a great add on a 1 year prove it deal…. I can’t see why most teams wouldn’t jump on that.
Looks like he’s going to Colorado
Is Ruff the right coach to put together a system that will take full advantage of the Sabres talent and allow the team to finally make the playoffs?
Lol I rescind my question. But seriously, it took that long for a team to sign him to a 1/$1.05 contract????
May have simply taken that long for Kylington to realize no one was going to offer him a better deal.
Even though his situation is obviously settled, I’ll weigh in quickly. I was the high vote for him by far in our Top 50 UFA rankings; I wasn’t thinking top-four potential but I saw a third-pairing player with upside and likely only needing a short-term contract which I thought would be appealing in a market where a lot of depth defenders got medium-term agreements. That he had to settle for this is something I certainly wasn’t expecting; I can’t help but think he had some better offers earlier, turned them down thinking he get more, and then had to turn around and settle for the best he could get. I expect Kylington will outperform that contract quite easily and be a pretty good bargain for Colorado.
I’d certainly have some words for his agent, if I were in Kylington’s skates. It’s been apparent for several years now to anyone with an IQ above room temperature that July 1st and onward is Musical Chairs on Ice: a mad signing scramble that leaves a handful of players (like, say, Evan Rodrigues and Danton Heinen last year) blinking and wondering where the big contract offers went. It doesn’t take long for cap space to vanish and 23-man active roster slots to fill up.
It looks like Dallas’s roster is set, do you see Jim making possibly another trade some point in the season or any other moves. Thanks Josh
What do you sports writers do during dead season like this? Obviously there’s international signings and all that, but I gotta imagine it gets boring hitting F5 on your usual news sources in August. :P
Out of the top UFA names left – where do you see everyone landing? Are we expecting PTOs, waiting for training camp to start to shake out? Anyone heading to Europe?
There been some reports & chatter that Tampa should go after Nashville’s young goalie Yaroslav Askarov to backup Andrei Vasilevskiy. Many feel Vasy would be more open to not taking on so many games if he had a backup goalie he felt comfortable sharing with not that he doesn’t like Johansson or anything but the reality is Johansson is just an average goaltender at best. Furthermore, it wouldn’t hurt if that backup goaltender had the same cultural background either as Vasy.
What would Tampa after to give up to get Askarov from Nashville? One would assume the 2026 1st round pick would be the starting point. I’m sure a potential prospect would be added but I don’t think Tampa would give up Conor Geekie, Issac Howard or even Ethan Gauthier in the trade. Maybe they just bundle some draft picks.
*Have* to give up to get…
If Askarov was content continuing as a backup why would he want out of Nashville. He is obviously looking for a chance to become a starter.
The problem in Nashville is, he’s currently not scheduled to even be the backup in Nashville. Scott Wedgwood is the planned backup. Askarov is currently set to be in the AHL again. Nashville doesn’t appear to think all that much of him if they brought in veterans like Wedgwood & Matt Murray during this offseason.
At least in the Tampa situation, he would be a legitimate backup to quite arguably the best goalie of his generation in Vasilevskiy & learn a lot from him let alone gain experience in the NHL which he isn’t getting in Nashville at all.
I like the idea. Seems a tough get, but I’d like to see it.
Huh? Nashville wouldn’t be the only team in the league by a long chalk that prefers its hot goalie prospect to get 50-55 starts in the AHL over 20 starts in the NHL. It happens league-wide.
Askarov wants to play in the NHL that’s why there has been trade speculation. He’s shown he’s ready to get some NHL action since he’s been in the AHL for 2 years already. He isn’t going to get NHL experience in Nashville.
Going to a team like Tampa, he will be legitimate backup to quite arguably the best goalie of his generation in Vasilevskiy & learn a lot from Vasy (& from top goalie coach Frantz Jean) let alone gain significant experience in the NHL in the process which he’ll probably play between 20-25 games unlike in Nashville where he’s going to be playing none.
The Matt Murray that has 3 career NHL starts? That’s vet depth above probably the #1 G prospect in thr sport? I’ll concede signing wedgewood is a bit confusing when you groomed Askarov to be your 1a/b for this season. But they likely thought they were trading Jussi at that point in time and just wanted a reliable solid vet to eat up 35ish games behind Askarov. If anything, Askarov likely gets traded to a team that can offer him at least 35 starts this year and compete for #1 next season. Not somewhere that they start their #1 60+ games, has 4 years left on his current 9.5M contract and will still only be 34 at the end of that and likely has a few more quality years left in his window beyond that, just not at 9.5M.
@Thunder, I agree he wants a shot in the NHL, but he likely wants more than the 15 or so games he gets in Tampa as thr #2. He likely wants a shot to compete as a 1a/b guy so he could be a 1a or 1 next year. That opportunity won’t present itself in Tampa for at least another 3-4 years. But he could get that this year on many teams. Imagine a team like LA, EDM, or TML giving him a shot to compete with their starters? Provides him with the most possible opportunity to compete for a #1 spot as early as this year.
Also, where are these reports that TBL are looking into this? I frequent many rumor sites and this is the first time I have heard it. Was it a TBL fan site/forum where it was suggested? It makes little to no sense to me aside from a Tampa stand point.
What do you make of the Kings off season? Can they make the playoffs in a tough conference? I think Rob Blake has done a terrible job as GM your thoughts on the Kings?
In the next CBA do you think the league will consider proposing any solutions to the advantage US teams in states without a state income tax are enjoying with contracts or anything to address the fact that it seems more and more Canadian teams are at a disadvantage attracting talent?
Only a few of the states do not have a state income tax. The NHL teams that currently play in states without an income tax are Seattle, Vegas, Dallas, Nashville, Florida, Tampa Bay and in the next couple of years Columbus. Some states have an income tax around or over 10% (Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and California. A good example comes from last year’s draft. Adam Fantilli and Leo Carlsson were projected to go in the 2nd and 3rd spots. The only question was who would Anaheim select? As we all know they took Carlsson. Carlson and Fantilli both signed identical three year entry level contracts for 3 years at $950k per year. Fantilli will pay 2.75% in state income tax (an amount the state of Ohio is lowering every year until it’s gone). Carlsson will pay 12.3% (yearly). Over the 3 years of their entry level deals, Carlsson will pay around $291,000 in state income tax, while Fantilli will pay no more than $77,000 (probably less). So from an economic standpoint, Fantilli was better served to be selected third overall instead of second.
Baji, Minnesota doesn’t have a 10% income tax rate. The rates go from like 5.53,6.5, 7.6 and 9.85 for the highest earners
9.85% is close enough to 10%. If you’ll read my comment, I said, “around or over”.
Doubt it. The relative weakness of the Canadian dollar has been an issue for over a *generation.* Heck, the whole reason why over thirty years ago most Canadian NHL clubs had their farm teams in the Maritimes was so they could pay the prospects in Canadian dollars.
Your whole explanation misses the point that on a second contract the Blue Jackets can pay Fantilli less money overall, but due to taxes being lower Fantilli can have the same amount of money end up in his pocket as Carlson. So teams like Florida and Tampa Bay even before LTIR cap manipulation can pay players a lower salary cap hit on average. This is all while teams in markets with higher taxes such as the Leafs, Rangers, Habs, etc all subsidize these teams too through revenue sharing.
Any chance Matthew Phillips can get a one way deal this season. If not, where do you think he might land? Thanks
Vegas bought low on Holtz and bet they could unlock some of his upside. Being a Habs fan, Montréal did have some degree of success with “reclamation” projects. I’m a big fan of Dylan Holloway and Peyton Krebs. Thoughts on how both players would fit into the Habs lineup, and the price to get them? Thanks
They’re both 23 or under and under team control for 3 years or more. Neither are reclamation projects. Reclamation projects usually need a long enough career to prove what they currently are, that’s usually about 300 games. Holloway has been injured a lot and only played 89 games to date. Krebs is at 215. If you want to acquire either of them, you have to pay full price. A reclamation project costs pennies on the dollar.
Two Bruins topics:
1) What’s going on with Swayman? How far apart do you think they are? Could Swayman’s camp be asking for more than the Bruins have remaining under the cap ($8.6m)? What’s he gonna do, sit out?
2) Apparently, the Bruins are counting on middle-six minutes and secondary scoring from a couple of youngsters; Poitras (20 yo, former 2nd round pick, 15 points in 33 NHL games) and Lysell (21yo, former 1st round pick, 0 NHL games). If either of those guys fail, they can turn to Merkulov (23yo, former college free agent, 0 points in 4 NHL games) or elevate Brazeau (26yo, undrafted junior player, 7 points in 19 NHL games) from the 4th line. Is this strategy going to pay off?
What the heck is going on in Anaheim? They seem to have failed at their desired off season plans. Besides having a year under the belts of some decent prospects and a few new assistants, what other positive qualities are there to tout?
GM’s on the hot seat…Blake, Lamoriello, Yzerman. Coaches on the hot seat…Richardson, Lalonde, Huska.
Who’s the up and comers to replace them?
Im curious to know if non compete orders and union fees are involved in pro contracts and if so how do those work in a state like here in Minnesota where it’s illegal to charge a non union member union fees and non competes are also illegal now.
Since I know the NHL does have their form of a union in the nhlpa
If Krug’s playing career is hypothetically over (although it’s still up in the air on if he can or can’t resume playing) does this put pressure on the Blues of adding another d-man outside of the additions of Suter and Joseph?
What’s is happening with Pacioretty? Does he have a contract? Could a strapped team use a discounted Pacioretty (Pittsburgh)? Will he get signed or just retire?