Kasperi Kapanen Not Yet Joining Toronto Marlies For AHL Playoffs
The Toronto Marlies are about to begin a playoff series with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms tomorrow, and the team has all hands on deck. All hands but one at least, as Kasperi Kapanen doesn’t seem to be joining them after being eliminated from the IIHF World Championship yesterday. Though, as Scott Wheeler of The Athletic pointed out yesterday, he is eligible to join the Marlies for their playoff run, Kapanen posted a photo of a plane ticket from Copenhagen to Helsinki on his Instagram account earlier today. As Wheeler had mentioned, there was a possibility that Kapanen would return to Finland after what has been a long year to begin his offseason.
This doesn’t by any means guarantee that Kapanen won’t join the team at some point. The Marlies are a favorite for the Calder Cup after an incredible regular season and two impressive series wins against Utica and Syracuse, the latter of which ended in a four-game sweep. There is always a chance that Kapanen joins them somewhere down the road, but the team already has a glut of talented wingers to choose from.
Kapanen, 21, established himself as an NHL regular in the second half of the season and played in all seven games against Boston in the first round of the playoffs with the Maple Leafs. The speedy winger recorded nine points in 38 games during the regular season, but was limited to fourth-line duties for much of that time. After a solid performance for Finland at the World Championship, he’ll try to nab a role higher up the lineup next season with the Maple Leafs. The team is expected to let James van Riemsdyk and Leo Komarov go in free agency, opening up some more minutes for players like Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson to fill.
Morning Notes: Backstrom, Mironov, Comets
Nicklas Backstrom was present at the Washington Capitals morning skate today, but rotated in and out of the regular lineup. Head coach Barry Trotz wouldn’t give any indication whether the star playmaker would return tonight, calling him a game-time decision once again. Interestingly though as Tom Gulitti of NHL.com points out, Trotz revealed that Backstrom has not been medically cleared, something that was not previously known.
The Capitals are in good shape against the Tampa Bay Lightning as they head into game four up 2-1 in the series. Though the Lightning were able to avoid falling down 3-0 by winning game three, they have a lot of work to do to topple the Capitals. Backstrom’s return would make that even more difficult, especially if he can jump start the Washington powerplay once again.
- Andrei Mironov has signed a three-year deal back in the KHL after being released by the Colorado Avalanche in March. The 23-year old defenseman never did fit into the Avalanche organization, playing just 10 games for the NHL squad this season. Mironov is technically an unrestricted free agent now that he agreed to a mutual termination with Colorado, meaning we may see him back in the NHL one day. That day will have to wait for now, as he returns to the KHL for Dynamo Moscow.
- The Vancouver Canucks have signed Tanner MacMaster and Jagger Dirk to one-year AHL contracts, bringing them in after amateur tryouts coming out of college. MacMaster played 18 games for the Utica Comets including five postseason contests, scoring 11 points in the process. The 22-year old forward was a dominant player at Quinnipiac University this season, and will try to prove he can keep up the early performance in his first full season of professional hockey.
Joel Bouchard Named Head Coach Of Laval Rocket
As many have expected, the Montreal Canadiens have hired Joel Bouchard to be the next head coach of their AHL affiliate. Sylvain Lefebvre had been fired recently as head coach of the Laval Rocket, a job that Bouchard will take after a few years leading the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada of the QMJHL. The deal is for three seasons, and the Canadiens also announced that Larry Carriere, who had previously been GM of the team, will stay on as director of player personnel and senior advisor for Montreal.
Laval finished their AHL season with 12-straight losses and looked completely disjointed for much of the year under Lefebvre. Bouchard will be tasked with building the program up again and developing some more talent for the Canadiens to utilize. Though winning is important at the AHL level, players need to be better prepared for the NHL when they get the call. Montreal does have some talented prospects, but too often they’ve struggled when asked to play a role at the higher level.
Bouchard, a former NHL defenseman who played 364 games in the league, will bring his signature defensive structure that led to such success in the QMJHL. The Armada went to their second consecutive league final and finished with a 50-11-7 record on the year, earning Bouchard a Coach of the Year win. Luckily he’ll have his captain with him, as the Canadiens signed Alexandre Alain to an entry-level contract recently and will likely send him to Laval to start the year.
Aaron Ness Re-Signs With Washington Capitals
The Washington Capitals have re-signed Aaron Ness to a one-year, two-way contract that will see him earn $650K at the NHL level. Ness was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, after spending most of the season in the AHL with the Hershey Bears.
Ness, 27, has never been able to make the impact many expected of him when he was selected 40th-overall in 2008 by the New York Islanders. Always a solid point producer at the AHL level, he has only suited up for 47 NHL games across seven professional seasons. Eight of those came this year with the Capitals, in which he recorded just a single point.
The talented but undersized defenseman is likely destined to spend much of next year in the minor leagues, but is certainly a nice depth piece to have for a team that expects to contend for the Stanley Cup. Any contender needs dynamic players with NHL experience waiting in the minor leagues, and Ness will be no different.
Impressively, he secured a $425K minor league salary for the second season in a row, a relatively high amount for AHL players. That salary could come with a bigger leadership role, something he previously held with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Ness served as captain in 2014-15, when he registered 45 points in 74 games, his best professional season to date.
Winnipeg Jets Recall 13 Players From AHL
Now that the Manitoba Moose have been eliminated from the AHL playoffs, the Winnipeg Jets have recalled their “Black Aces.” These players are unlikely to get into the playoff lineup, but will skate with the team and experience what it’s like to go through an NHL postseason. The team has recalled:
F Mason Appleton
F Chase De Leo
F Jansen Harkins
F Brendan Lemieux
F J.C. Lipon
F Nic Petan
F Michael Spacek
D Julian Melchiori
D Jan Kostalek
D Sami Niku
D Nelson Nogier
D Logan Stanley
Of special note is Stanley, who spent this season with the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL. The behemoth defenseman joined the Moose just recently, but didn’t get into a game with them. He’ll get a chance to see what his future holds, as Stanley is expected to make it to the NHL within the next few seasons. The first-round pick had an outstanding season after battling injury in 2016-17, and should be a fixture on the Moose blue line next year.
Many of the other players called up already have experience at the NHL level, including Niku who made his debut this season. The seventh-round pick won the AHL Defenseman of the Year award as a rookie, after putting up 54 points in 76 games. The Jets, who already have one of the deepest defense corps in the league, are well stocked for the future.
Dubas Has Many Decisions To Make In Toronto
Just a couple of days into his new job and people are starting to see the challenges ahead for Toronto Maple Leafs new general manager Kyle Dubas. To start, the 32-year-old GM has been with the organization for four years and must deal with older, more experienced personnel, including 55-year-old Mark Hunter (at least for now) and 55-year-old Mike Babcock.
While Dubas has been given the keys to one of the most famed and loaded franchises, Dubas must also make his mark on the roster and lead the team to that next championship level. Many big decisions will come up just in the next few months including locking up his young players for the future, while building a winner in the one-year window before those deals kick in.
The first big decisions the GM will have to deal with is deciding if one or any of their unrestricted free agents will be brought back, including James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak and Leo Komarov. Both van Reimsdyk and Bozak are expected to get significant raises this summer when they sign new contracts and would be very challenging to bring back. Bozak in particular is valuable as the team is not nearly as strong at the center position as they are at the wing. However, Komarov could be a possibility if he encounters a dry market and the Maple Leafs believe he can still be of help. However, with great depth and a GM who is well aware of what type of players the team has at the AHL level, letting all three walk away is a legitimate possibility.
However, James Mirtle of The Athletic (subscription required) writes that Dubas will want to put his own brand on the Maple Leafs, so expect multiple changes. Among those possibilities, includes a potential run at John Tavares or a defenseman like Dougie Hamilton. However, Mirtle points out that a player like Nikita Zaitsev could become one of those changes. With a partial no-trade clause kicking in next year and Zaitsev’s limitations with the puck, this might be a good time to move on from him if they don’t feel he will be a good fit in the future.
The defense might be the key to Dubas success. Often labeled as the team’s failing this season, a change might be necessary, but with limitations to long-term deals, the most likely way to upgrade the blueline would be through a trade, although it’s unlikely Dubas would move Mitch Marner or William Nylander to make a major upgrade.
Goaltending could be an issue too. Despite the solid performance by backup goaltender Curtis McElhinney this year, Dubas might look to trading the 34-year-old veteran netminder. With Garrett Sparks dominating in the AHL (1.79 GAA, .936 save percentage with the Toronto Marlies) and the real possibility the team could lose him to waivers at the start of next season, the team must decide whether it’s time to give Sparks the No. 2 spot.
While a decision on Roman Polak might be an easy one, Dubas is well aware that the defenseman is a personal favorite of Babcock and does the young GM throw the veteran coach a bone and bring him back? In the end, nothing will be easy for Dubas, who will be scrutinized more than any general manager in the coming months.
Mathias Bau Signs With Washington Capitals
After a solid season in the AHL, Mathias Bau has earned himself an NHL contract. The 24-year old forward has signed a one-year two-way contact with the Washington Capitals that carries a $700K cap hit.
Standing a monstrous 6’7″, Bau had played this season on an AHL contract after signing out of Denmark last summer. In his rookie season in North America, he recorded 23 points in 58 games and took substantial steps forward in his overall game.
Though it’s unclear if he’ll ever make it to the NHL—at 25 to start next season, he doesn’t have a huge amount of development left even if large power forwards often taking longer to reach their peak—he’s done enough to secure a spot with Hershey next season. He also marks the fifth contract the Capitals have signed since May 1st, even as they continue on their current playoff run. Washington isn’t just focused on success in the NHL this season, but long-term success for the whole organization.
Daniel Sprong Will Be A “Regular” With Pittsburgh Penguins In 2018-19
The Pittsburgh Penguins held their season-ending press conferences today, after being eliminated by the Washington Capitals in the second round. Among the usual injury news, general manager Jim Rutherford also noted that young forward Daniel Sprong “will be a regular” on the roster next season. Sprong got into just eight games this season despite dominating at the AHL level, and will now get a chance to really prove himself in 2018-19.
Sprong, 21, was selected 46th-overall by the Penguins in 2015 and forced his way onto the NHL roster with an incredible training camp. He played 18 games in 2015 before going back to junior in December, where he would spend all of the next season and a half. This year, in his first full-time taste of professional hockey, he recorded 65 points in 65 games for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and tied for the league lead in goals with 32.
Interestingly, because the Penguins burned the first year of his entry-level deal in 2015-16 by keeping him up past 10 games, Sprong is headed into this summer as a pending restricted free agent despite only having one real season of professional hockey. He’s not arbitration eligible, and can still be given a two-way qualifying offer, but the team could decide to sign him to a longer-term deal if they believe he can be a core piece going forward.
There is little chance of Sprong holding out or going overseas, and next year should be a huge opportunity for him. The Penguins have shown a willingness in the past to give young players a chance alongside Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin, a dream scenario for a rookie trying to make an impact. Where Sprong fits into the lineup won’t be clear until training camp, but for now he can be secure in the idea that he he’s penciled in this summer.
Daniel Pribyl Signs In Czech Republic
After missing all of last season with a torn ACL, Calgary Flames forward Daniel Pribyl is heading home. He has signed a contract with Prague in the Czech Republic to play next season, leaving North America after just 33 games at the AHL level. Pribyl was set to become a restricted free agent this summer, after his two-year entry-level contract expired.
Pribyl was originally drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in 2011, but signed with the Flames in the spring of 2016 after an impressive run in the Czech league. The big-bodied center was expected to compete for a job on the NHL squad eventually, even if his high point totals from Europe were unlikely to be matched in North America. Instead, he recorded 15 points in 33 games for the Stockton Heat and then suffered the knee injury in training camp last September. For a player who looked like he might have a bright future here, his story is an unfortunate series of events.
The Flames can retain his negotiating rights for now by extending a qualifying offer but unlike players returning to the KHL will not hold them in perpetuity. Instead, this is likely the last we see of Pribyl in a Flames (or Heat) uniform. The team can now focus on their other restricted free agents, of which they have several.
New Jersey Devils Sign Brian Strait To Two-Year Deal
The New Jersey Devils organization will have a familiar face back for the next two seasons, as today the team announced a two-year, two-way extension for defenseman Brian Strait. Strait spent this season in the AHL with the Binghamton Devils, after previously seeing NHL time with Pittsburgh, New York and Winnipeg. The contract will carry an NHL average annual salary of $675K.
Strait, 30, is exactly the type of player every organization wants in their minor league system. Content to play regularly in the AHL and help the younger players, while also having enough NHL experience to fill in should injuries arise for the big club. With 187 games under his belt, most of which with the New York Islanders, Strait is no stranger to the NHL.
Though he had just eight points this season, the team thought enough of him to give him an “A” as an alternate captain and use him extensively in tough situations. He’ll likely return in a similar role, and be ready if needed by the Devils.