According to Seth Rorabaugh of the Tribune-Review, the Pittsburgh Penguins are unlikely to issue forward prospect Raivis Ansons his $813K qualifying offer this summer. Ansons would become an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career and would be a candidate to return overseas to continue his professional career.
The Penguins selected Ansons with the 149th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft from the QMJHL’s Baie-Comeau Drakkar. Ansons scored 13 goals and 35 points in 60 games during his draft year, and Pittsburgh believed he could be a long-term candidate in the bottom-six of the team’s forward group.
After a year in his native Latvia and a return trip to the QMJHL, Ansons signed his entry-level contract with the Penguins in 2022 and played for their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Unfortunately, his time in the AHL has been nothing short of a disaster, as Ansons has only managed five goals and 14 points in 87 career contests. Coupled with an undisclosed injury that limited him to nine games this year, the Penguins organization is seemingly ready to move on from one of their recent draft choices.
Other notes from the Metro Division:
- Although General Manager Daniel Brière would like to add more pieces than he subtracts this offseason for the Philadelphia Flyers, don’t expect them to be wild spenders. Anthony Di Marco of DailyFaceoff writes that Brière will only look for specific areas of need, rather than go after the market’s biggest fish. The only hypothetical option Di Marco listed was Brock Nelson of the Colorado Avalanche on a three-year deal, given the Flyers’ need for centers. Meanwhile, although the team may like to improve their disappointing goaltending, Di Marco doesn’t believe Brière will be interested in any of the options on the free-agent market.
- Despite having his entry-level contract reported two weeks ago, Alexander Nikishin has yet to play a game in the Carolina Hurricanes organization. Much of that can be explained away due to his visa issues, however, Cory Lavalette of the North State Journal passed along a note from Carolina General Manager Eric Tulsky indicating Nikishin hasn’t signed his entry-level contract yet. Fortunately, Tulsky pointed out they’re merely working out the deal’s finer points, and the organization doesn’t feel rushed to add Nikishin to a lineup that has won the first two games of their Round One series against the New Jersey Devils.
“Ansons scored 13 goals and 35 points in 60 games during his draft year, and Pittsburgh believed he could be a long-term candidate in the bottom-six of the team’s forward group.”
Unless it’s an elite generational third line center like Jordan Staal, you should NEVER draft a player thinking they will be in your bottom six or on your bottom pairing.
Those roles can be filled easily, you should only chase ceiling and upside during the draft.
I disagree. Plenty of prospects are not expected to be top 6 contributors. Also, it’s obviously not easy to fill out a bottom six because ours has been crap for years.
The guys who you draft hoping they can be stars often settle into bottom six. If not, they are cheap to acquire in trades or as free agents. That Hextall and Dubas are bad at it doesn’t change the price.
As one example, Kirill Kaprizov was a swing for the fences boom or bust fifth round pick. Imagine being the team in front of them who took a guy who might be a fourth line plugger. Chase upside. It pays off.
*Just looked for fun, Ryan Shea was taken ahead of Kaprizov.
If you only go for boom or bust picks every time you’ll end up with bust the vast majority of the time. Sometimes it’s wise to take more of a sure thing role player. Someone that doesn’t pan out as a top line player rarely plays the kind of game you want in a grinder in the bottom 6.
You can miss on most picks if you hits on some booms. Drafts are every year and rosters only so big.
I haven’t followed drafts too closely for a while since we have no picks, but guys like Robby Fabbri and Curtis Lazar who have spent most or their whole careers respectively in the bottom six are top of mind examples of guys who were offensive stars in junior and had to adjust.
You can find a million Ryan Shea’s for everyone one Kirill Kaprizov.
Just different philosophies. Agree to disagree. We succeeded in 16 and 17 because we had young bottom six players. Some panned out to be more, like rust, but most were role players and weren’t highly touted. If you have to go to free agency to find bottom six guys you end up with what we have. Over paid guys that fail to make a difference.
The Canes also indicated that he can play some AHL games as long as he doesn’t sign. If he needs to play NHL, he’ll sign right then.
Sam Bennett is the guy for the Flyers I reckon. Youngish still, decent C2/3 who shouldn’t cost a lot nor command massive term. He might go somewhere else for a little less, but he can help the wings.
Bennett over Nelson, if it came down to those two. Surely there is a goalie available that can go one-two with Ersson. The two Russians? Nyet.
I’d like to see Bennett on the Canes. Add a little snarl.
Bennett will be a Leaf if he doesn’t sign with Florida. Tavares will take $3-4 mill less on his next deal and if they don’t sign Marner, will have about $20 mill available. Knies will likely get around $6 mill and they can buy out Reaves, trade Kampf as well. Bennett will get around $6 mill x 6 years. A lot for him but he’ll give you 3-4 solid years at the least.
My thinking is Knies will get around 7-8 million. Tavares around 6-8, short term, based on his production. No one is giving the Leafs a home team discount. Hasn’t happened to date, so why should it be expected to happen?
Ladies and gentlemen, the ultimate homer. Everyone is signing with the leafs for only $6m!!!!
I agree on Tavares. As I said $3-4 mill less on his current deal. I wouldn’t go more than 2 years though. Knies could get $7-8 but as a RFA he doesn’t have much leverage. But I’d be happy if he signed for $7.5. That also means Marner is likely gone unless they trade Nylander and sign Marner. It’ll be a fun off season.
Blah blah blah. You’ve nothing intelligent to say I guess?
He has a point. You loaded your post with if’s, likely’s, and guesses. The NHL offseason is not as easy as fleecing your drunk buddies in fantasy hockey.
Who’s fleecing anybody? It’s called an opinion. IF you or someone doesn’t like it they shouldn’t be on comment boards.