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Golden Knights Re-Sign Jimmy Schuldt, Reid Duke

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The Vegas Golden Knights have worked out new contracts with a pair of restricted free agents. The team announced that defenseman Jimmy Schuldt and forward Reid Duke have re-signed. Both have inked one-year, two-way contracts worth the minimum $700K AAV. AHL salary values were not disclosed.

Schuldt, a top collegiate free agent who turned pro after the 2018-19 season, spent this year in the minors, playing in 52 games with the Chicago Wolves. He notched 21 points and looked comfortable playing defense at the pro level. With just six defenders signed to one-way contracts as of now, Schuldt could be in line for a full-time role with Vegas this coming season.

Duke, who is best remembered as the first player ever signed by the Golden Knights, struggled through his first pro season three years ago but has found his role as a two-way contributor in the years since. Duke may not have NHL upside right now but the 24-year-old still has time to improve.

Anaheim Ducks To Extend Chase De Leo

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The Anaheim Ducks have reportedly come to terms on a new contract with forward Chase De Leo. CapFriendly reports that De Leo will sign a one-year, two-way deal with the Ducks at the minimum $700K AV. De Leo is expected to make $140K at the AHL level. A restricted free agent with arbitration rights, De Leo returns to the Ducks for another year without issue.

De Leo, 24, does not look like a threat to take an NHL roster spot at this point in his career. For the second straight season, De Leo played in just one game with the Ducks and failed to record a point. After appearing in two scoreless games with the Winnipeg Jets in his first pro season, De Leo has yet to record his first NHL point in four games.

At the AHL level, De Leo saw a significant drop-off in production this past season. After recording 20 goals and 55 points in 66 games in the minors in 2018-19, De Leo sunk to just ten goals and 25 points this year. Fortunately for him, the Ducks see something in De Leo to keep him around for another season.

Detroit Red Wings Complete Loans, Sign Free Agents

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The Detroit Red Wings have been checking several boxes on their offseason to-do list today. First, the team has officially assigned Joe Veleno to Malmo of the SHL and have changed Moritz Seider’s loan from Mannheim of the DEL to Rogle of the SHL. These changes are important, as they signify full-season loans of two of the team’s top prospects. Veleno and Seider are expected to spend the entire 2020-21 season overseas, though the SHL season does usually end in March.

In a rebuilding year for the Red Wings, getting Veleno and Seider playing right away should be considered a benefit for their development. There is no clear schedule for the AHL at this point, and given that the NHL is targeting a January start date that should be considered the very earliest a minor league season could be held. The two first-round picks will instead get to play immediately and will have a full season in one of the best leagues in the world.

The team has also reached agreements with two of their restricted free agents, signing Adam Erne and Taro Hirose to one-year contracts. Both players were not included in yesterday’s qualifying offers, and now we know why. Erne and Hirose will both be back in the organization for at least one more year.

Hirose, 24, was signed out of Michigan State University in 2019 and made an impact down the stretch for the Red Wings, scoring seven points in 10 games. That level of production wasn’t carried into this year, but the entire Red Wings team was brutal and Hirose still did register plenty of offense at the minor league level. With an improved club and higher level of play, perhaps Hirose can still become an impact player for the team.

Erne on the other hand will likely never provide much offense at the NHL level, but can still serve a role as a depth option for the Red Wings this season. In 170 career games he has just 32 points, most coming with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2018-19. Detroit GM Steve Yzerman knows Erne well from their time together with the Lightning and obviously feels he can still play a role in the organization.

Montreal Canadiens Sign Noah Juulsen

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The Montreal Canadiens have taken care of one of their restricted free agents (though not the one some are hoping for). Noah Juulsen has signed a new one-year, two-way contract with the team worth $700K in the NHL.

Juulsen, 23, was a first-round pick of the Canadiens back in 2015 but has hand incredibly bad injury luck over his short professional career. In 2017, just a few weeks after GM Marc Bergevin called him “very close” to being NHL ready, Juulsen suffered a broken foot in an exhibition game. Your first taste of professional is hard enough without having a six-week recovery period keeping you off the ice at the beginning of the season. Juulsen would play 23 games for the Canadiens and 31 for the Laval Rocket, but clearly had more to give.

A year later, in November of 2018, Juulsen’s terrible luck reared its ugly head once again. While playing in the NHL with the Canadiens, Juulsen had slowly worked his way up the lineup and even logged more than 20 minutes of ice time in a win against the Vancouver Canucks. He looked ready to contribute on a nightly basis, playing top-four minutes for the Canadiens and fulfilling his first-round pick status. Then, in a game against the Washington Capitals, he was struck in the face with the puck on two occasions and was forced to leave.

Ruled out indefinitely, Juulsen actually did make a return to play a few games with both the Canadiens and the Laval Rocket of the AHL. In February however, he was shut down due to a “vision-related issue.” In September 2019 he was still suffering from headaches, though just a month later he was cleared for action once again. He ended up departing the team in November to see a specialist, and the 13 games he had played for Laval to that point remained his total for the rest of the season.

With a new deal and a clean bill of health, Juulsen will attempt to make a comeback even at the age of 23. He has played just 93 professional games over parts of four seasons, but still possesses all the skills to be a regular in the Montreal lineup. He’ll have to prove it, but if he is truly healthy Montreal could still have a valuable asset on their hands.

New York Islanders Re-Sign Sebastian Aho

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The New York Islanders have reached an agreement on a new two-year contract with Sebastian Aho, according to Arthur Staple of The Athletic. No, the Carolina Hurricanes star forward has not somehow signed another offer sheet. The Islanders have signed their own Aho, a restricted free agent defenseman that has spent the last two seasons in the AHL.

Aho, 24, was a fifth-round pick of the Islanders back in 2017 and actually played in 22 NHL games during the 2017-18 season. Since then he has been manning the Bridgeport Sound Tigers blue line, racking up points as one of the minor league’s most effective offensive defensemen. This season, Aho scored 30 points in 49 games and was included on the Islanders 52-man travelling party for the return to play postseason.

Aho’s deal will be a two-way contract in 2020-21 and a one-way in 2021-22 according to Staple, avoiding restricted free agency. He will qualify for Group VI unrestricted free agency at the expiration of the contract if he fails to play in 58 NHL games over the next two seasons.

Columbus Blue Jackets Issue Qualifying Offers

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have announced which restricted free agents will receive qualifying offers, with few surprises. Josh Anderson, Gabriel Carlsson, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Vladislav Gavrikov, Matiss Kivlenieks, Ryan MacInnis, Kevin Stenlund and Calvin Thurkauf have all received qualifying offers from the team and will remain in the organization.

That means Devin Shore, Maxime Fortier, Justin Scott, Paul Bittner, Michael Prapavessis and Ryan Collins did not, making them unrestricted free agents on Friday.

The only real surprise is Shore, and only because the Blue Jackets acquired him this season in exchange for Sonny Milano. The 26-year-old Shore has not been particularly effective since the 2017-18 campaign, splitting the last two seasons between three teams and recording just 12 points in 2019-20. Add in the fact that he was due a $2.4MM qualifying offer in order to remain with the Blue Jackets and it’s not hard to see why the team decided to cut bait.

Still, Shore could represent a cheap depth signing for a team this offseason if they think he can be of use to a bottom-six. The 26-year-old forward has experience at center and on the wing and has scored double-digit goals in three different seasons.

Bittner and Collins may also bring a twinge of disappointment to Blue Jackets fans, given they were both second-round selections that never seemed to pan out. Bittner especially was hyped coming off a successful junior career but failed to score much in the AHL. Collins, the 47th pick in 2014, never added any offense to his defensive game and could only rely on his size for so long.

Minor Transactions: 10/02/20

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The hockey world is brimming with energy as next week’s draft and free agent frenzy approach. There is a buzz in every corner of the NHL as teams attempt to restructure their rosters and deal with uncertain financial situations. Meanwhile, the minor and European leagues continue to fill out their own depth charts with players from around the world. We’ll keep track of some of the minor moves right here:

  • The Ontario Reign signed three players to AHL contracts, including the older twin brothers of Montreal Canadiens prospect Ryan Poehling. Nick Poehling and Jack Poehling will both start their professional careers after four years at St. Cloud State University. The team also added Jack Sadek, who spent the 2019-20 season with the Allen Americans of the ECHL after failing to sign an entry-level contract with Minnesota and seeing his draft rights expire last summer.
  • Jordan Murray, who spent the last three seasons with the Belleville Senators, has signed a deal with Dinamo Riga in the KHL. Murray, 27, led all Belleville defensemen last season with 34 points in 57 games and is a former star at the CIS/USports level in Canadian university hockey.
  • Former NHL forward David Broll will be back on North American ice next season after playing with the Coventry Blaze in 2019-20. Broll has inked a deal with the Indy Fuel of the ECHL. The 27-year-old forward played five games for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2013-14, recording a single point.

Goalie Notes: Sharks, Ustimenko, Bachman

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The San Jose Sharks have been linked strongly to Devan Dubnyk in recent days, meaning Pierre LeBrun’s latest report for The Athletic should come as little surprise. LeBrun writes that the Sharks are on the lookout for a “1B” to install behind Martin Jones, with Dubnyk, Braden Holtby and James Reimer all candidates.

Short-term is the key part of the Sharks search, leaving Holtby as an interesting inclusion. The former Washington Capitals starter is about to hit free agency after his worst season in the NHL and perhaps could be looking at a shorter deal to rebuild his value. Still, signing to serve as the backup, even if it is in a tandem role, may not be the best way to accomplish that.

  • Sometimes when a team has a young goaltender starring in the NHL, it’s easy to forget about their other prospects. That’s the case in Philadelphia where Carter Hart steals all the headlines, but the pipeline is filled with other interesting names. One of those, Kirill Ustimenko, is headed overseas for the time being, loaned to HC Gomel of the Belarusian Extraliga. That’s Ustimenko’s hometown team, where he can continue to develop his game before eventually returning to North America. The 21-year-old was a third-round pick in 2017 and posted a .919 save percentage in 31 starts at the ECHL level in 2019-20.
  • Former NHL goaltender Richard Bachman’s playing days are over, as the Iowa Wild of the AHL has announced his hiring as goaltending coach. Bachman, who suited up in the AHL and SHL just this season, played in 49 NHL games over a long professional career.

Morning Notes: Johnson, Murray, Predators

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Jim Rutherford may be a bigger fan than most of Jack Johnson, but that doesn’t mean the Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman will be in the lineup on opening night. Rutherford, the Penguins GM, spoke with Josh Yohe of The Athletic yesterday and explained that after acquiring Mike Matheson from the Florida Panthers there may not be any room on the left side for Johnson next season.

[Brian] Dumoulin and [Marcus] Petterson are still young and aren’t going anywhere. And obviously we like Matheson a great deal. He’ll play on the left side. So, that’s our left side. Those three. That’s it.

Rutherford suggested that Johnson could play the right side or is maybe “just going to be a depth guy” for 2020-21, but it certainly wasn’t the same vote of confidence he gave when the season ended. There is still lots of offseason left and the Penguins priority may be moving a goaltender, but make no mistake that there may still be changes coming on the blue line.

  • Michael Murray has been hired by the Minnesota Wild as an assistant to the general manager, coming over from his post with the AHL. Murray was named vice president of hockey operations for the minor league in 2011 and was considered the second in command behind commissioner Dave Andrews. As Michael Russo of The Athletic points out on Twitter, Murray happens to be the son of Minnesota GM Bill Guerin’s former agent. The team explained that Murray will help oversee the day-to-day of the hockey operations department and assist with contract negotiations, player development, and scouting.
  • The Nashville Predators are considering moving one of their centers according to Frank Seravalli of TSN, who lists Ryan Johansen, Matt Duchene, and Nick Bonino on his latest Trade Bait board and mentions Kyle Turris as well. Nashville has an incredible $26.1MM in cap space locked up in those four, with only Bonino’s deal (the cheapest of the bunch) expiring anytime soon. There wasn’t a 45-point player in the bunch of them this season, with Duchene (42) coming closest.

Snapshots: Ryan, Soucy, USHL

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The Ottawa Senators bought out Bobby Ryan over the weekend, but that doesn’t mean his playing career is over. Interest has already started to emerge, with Kevin Kurz of The Athletic tweeting that the San Jose Sharks are one of “many teams” that have checked in on the free agent winger.

Ryan, 33, will be making more than $1.8MM in each of the next four years regardless of what his next contract is, meaning he may be willing to take a cheap deal to get back on the ice with a new organization.

  • The Minnesota Wild are still negotiating with Carson Soucy according to Michael Russo of The Athletic, one of their pending unrestricted free agents. Russo reports they are also speaking with Kyle Rau and Matt Bartkowski, and will be signing Hunter Warner to an AHL deal instead of issuing him a qualifying offer. With the Stanley Cup now awarded, front offices will be in overdrive trying to get new deals in place before free agency opens on October 9.
  • The USHL has released its schedule for the 2020-21 season, expected to start on November 5. Each team will be scheduled for 54 games over the 24-week season, which ends on April 24. The junior league is an important development step for many prospects and will try to navigate the season with a regional schedule.

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