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Vladimir Sobotka Arrives In US, Signs Three-Year Extension

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After days of rumors that Vladimir Sobotka was working on a multi-year deal with the St. Louis Blues, the team has announced that he has signed his previously awarded arbitration contract, and agreed to a three-year extension worth $10.5MM ($3.5MM AAV) that will kick in next season. Sobotka will meet the team in Carolina for their Saturday night matchup against the Hurricanes, and is eligible for the playoffs. He will burn through a prorated version of his current $2.725MM deal this year, earning around $45K in the last four days of the season.

Sobotka has remained a thorn in the side of Doug Armstrong ever since. At times teasing that he would return, media and fans have discussed a reunion between the two sides for years now without one ever happening. Now, with just three games left in the St. Louis season, Sobotka will return to the NHL and look to make an impact right away. Vladimir Sobotka

The 29-year old center scored 30 points for Omsk this season in the KHL, and continued to show why fans hoped he would return. Despite never being the biggest player on the ice, Sobotka plays a fast, bang-and-crash style that can be effective against any opponent. He’ll never be a first-line player, but can provide a strong amount of depth down the middle and has been one of the best faceoff men in the world for several years.

All of these traits helped Sobotka play on both special teams in the past, and he could help the Blues in those areas once again—though, the team ranks fairly high in both already. With the team deciding to move Ivan Barbashev up to the first line today, Andy Strickland of Fox Sports commented on how head coach Mike Yeo believes Alex Steen is more dangerous from the wing. Adding Sobotka will help keep Steen there, while keeping the third line dangerous. Perhaps he can even get more out of Nail Yakupov, who has just nine points on the season.

At the end of the day for Blues fans, Sobotka’s return is an important one for the playoffs. Whether you think of him as a redundancy on a roster that gave Patrik Berglund a five-year extension just before the trade deadline, or the NHL version of a spurned-lover who can never be forgiven, if the team wants to go far into the playoffs depth is important. At this point, Sobotka represents an upgrade over some of the players who would be forced into the spotlight if a star suffered an injury.

Next year may be a different story, with the Blues committing a lot of money to players who are likely on the wrong side of their performance curve. With Colton Parayko in line for a big raise should they want to lock him up long-term, the team will find themselves pressed pretty tightly up to the cap. Only Scottie Upshall is coming off the books as an unrestricted free agent. In terms of the expansion draft, Sobotka was always eligible, but back on US soil and with a contract extension in tow, he would look much more attractive to the Vegas Golden Knights should he be left unprotected. That poses a bit of an issue, as the Blues have at least eight forwards (and likely a few more) that deserve protection. It will be interesting to see who they decide to expose, and if the Golden Knights go after potential or performance when selecting a Blues player.

Bob McKenzie of TSN was first to report that Sobotka was on US soil and undergoing his physical.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Unpacking The Court’s Decision On The Wideman Suspension

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Yesterday the Southern District of New York confirmed a neutral arbitrator’s decision to reduce Dennis Wideman’s suspension from 20 games to 10 games. Wideman incurred the suspension after striking a referee during a game late last season (video link). Unless the NHL decides to appeal—which is unlikely given the ruling—this ends the Wideman disciplinary issue between the NHL and NHLPA.

The controversy centered on whether Rule 40.2 (intent to injure an official) or 40.3 (no intent to injure an official) applies. The NHL initially suspended Wideman 20 games under Rule 40.2. Rule 40.2 states that any player who deliberately strikes an official and causes injury, or deliberately applies physical force with intent to injure shall be suspended no less than 20 games. The rule defines intent to injure as any physical force that a player knew or should have known could reasonably be expected to cause injury. The NHLPA argued that 40.3 applied instead, which carries a lesser minimum suspension of 10 games. The NHLPA argued that Wideman’s concussion sustained just prior to hitting the official made him unable to comprehend the situation enough to satisfy intent to injure.

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Snapshots: MacEwen, Tynan, Vermette

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The Vancouver Canucks have dipped their toes into the 20-year old free agent waters, signing undrafted center Zack MacEwen to a three-year entry-level contract. MacEwen is playing for the Gatineau Olympiques of the QMJHL where he often skates with Blue Jackets’ third-round pick Vitaly Abramov, one of the league’s top scorers.

Elliotte Friedman reports that both Ottawa and Tampa Bay had been in on MacEwen recently, before the Canucks eventually signed him. MacEwen is a point-per-game player for the first time in his junior career, scoring 62 in 59 games this season. He’ll join Matthew Highmore and many others as teams around the league start snapping up any talent that has slipped through the cracks.

Mikhail Grigorenko, Patrick Wiercioch In Play As Deadline Approaches

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On the latest installment of Insider Trading on TSN, the panel—which includes Darren Dreger, Bob McKenzie and Pierre LeBrun—discussed several topics going into the last two weeks before the NHL Trade Deadline. While LeBrun relays that some front office members around the league believe that Colorado GM Joe Sakic will wait until the summer for any possible Matt Duchene move, Dreger reports that there are other names in play.

Both Mikhail Grigorenko and Patrick Wiercioch are mentioned by name, the first we’ve heard one these two directly. The two weren’t listed in Sakic’s “untouchables” recently, and come as little surprise as the team looks to rebuild from the disaster that has been this season.

Grigorenko especially will come with some interest, due to his young age—he turns 23 on May 16th—and former first-round pick status. Since going 12th overall in 2012 though, Grigorenko has failed to deliver on his promise of a big top-six center. Instead, he’s recorded just 18 goals and 59 points in 193 games.

Wiercioch signed a one-year deal with the Avalanche after not receiving a qualifying offer from the Ottawa Senators last summer, and has put up numbers similar to those he did in Ottawa between 2012-15. While he only plays 17 minutes a night, he does have 11 points in 43 games (all at even strength) and has a bit of upside for a team needing a depth defenseman for a playoff run. Both players are restricted free agents at the end of the season and eligible for arbitration.

McKenzie also mentioned that Duchene is seen as a winger by many teams around the league, who think he can perform better there than in the middle. It will be interesting to see if his market develops as a center or a winger as we get closer to the deadline, or if Sakic will have to wait until the summer to deal him to a team willing to slot him into the middle for 2017-18.

Snapshots: Scouts, Blackhawks, Yakupov

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With the trade deadline rapidly approaching, but not many teams finding themselves out of the playoff race a team like Colorado is becoming the scouting capital for the NHL. Tonight as they take on the Buffalo Sabres in a rare trip to the North East, teams have come out in full force to watch players like Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog. Terry Frei of the Denver Post tweeted out the list of scouts in attendance, and it includes 24 names including three from the Maple Leafs and two each from Montreal, Los Angeles, Columbus, Winnipeg and Calgary.

The Maple Leafs in particular have a strong contingent, sending assistant GM Kyle Dubas down in person. The Maple Leafs are being tight-lipped on the status of Mitch Marner after leaving the game last night, though there have been reports of the amount of cap space the team has opened up prior to the deadline. Don’t forget that Buffalo has struggled this year as well, and have multiple players (like Evander Kane) that would be interesting to teams around the league.

  • The Chicago Blackhawks have gotten some reinforcements today, bringing Nick Schmaltz and Tanner Kero up from the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL according to Tracey Myers of CSN Chicago. The Hawks have been off since February 11th on their mandatory bye-week, but get back into the swing of things with three games in four nights (and four in six) starting Saturday.
  • Former first-overall pick Nail Yakupov is back in the St. Louis Blues lineup tonight for the first time in nearly two weeks. With a career almost completely off the rails it will be interesting to see what happens to him at the deadline, and whether a team makes a play for his upside. Still just 23-years old, Yakupov only has six points in 31 games this season and is barely playing over 10 minutes a night whenever he does crack the lineup. He’s arbitration eligible this offseason, and is a clear candidate to not even be tendered a qualifying offer. His $2.5MM salary is currently way more than he is producing, and the QO would need to be the same.

Friedman’s Latest: Cap, Islanders, Purcell, Cowen

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In the latest edition of his wonderful 30 Thoughts column, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman touched on a wide variety of topics of interest to hockey fans, including where the salary cap is expected to land for the 2017-18 season.

  • At this month’s GM meetings, managers are expecting to receive a preliminary number for the salary cap. Friedman reported that a couple GMs are “hoping for $75MM.”
    That would be an increase of $2MM over the current $73MM ceiling. Last summer, the cap went up by just $1.6MM, which was a smaller increase than what most teams were expecting, and also one of the smaller increases in cap history. The cap has risen by more than $3MM six times since it was implemented in 2005-06.
  • After discussing the New York Islanders management situation, Friedman joked that “one day I’m going to ply GM Garth Snow with enough truth serum to find out how hard he planned to go after Steven Stamkos, what he was going to offer, and how that affected his July 1, 2016 decisions.”
    The off-season did not go as planned for the Islanders, who lost Kyle Okposo and Frans Nielsen to free agency and replaced them with Andrew Ladd and Jason Chimera. Ladd has just three goals and six points this season, and is signed for seven years. He’s a prominent member of Pro Hockey Rumors’ 2016 UFA All-Bust Team.
  • As we speculated when he was placed on waivers, the Los Angeles Kings had tried to trade Teddy Purcell before placing him on waivers. However, they were not willing to take a contract back, as we suggested most teams would offer. Friedman suggested Ottawa could have interest, as Purcell previously played for Senators head coach Guy Boucher when the pair were in Tampa Bay, but it doesn’t work at the moment for budget reasons. Friedman says he “wouldn’t be surprised if someone takes a chance” later in the season
  • Finally, with Jared Cowen’s arbitration result due to come later today, Friedman pointed out that a Cowen win would “wreak havoc” on next year’s cap for the Maple Leafs because of rookie bonus overages. Currently Cowen’s buyout is a $650K cap credit for Toronto, but that could change to a $3.1MM cap hit depending on whether or not the arbitrator deems Cowen was healthy enough to buy-out in the summer (numbers via Cap Friendly).

Snapshots: Gaudreau, Staal, Ritchie, Fedotenko

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It went almost right down to the wire but eventually, the Calgary Flames and RW Johnny Gaudreau found common ground on a long-term arrangement. Given that the team was adamant Gaudreau’s new deal not exceed that recently signed by top defenseman Mark Giordano – $6.75MM annually – and the player’s insistence for a more lucrative pact, the two sides were able to bridge a sizable gap in relatively short order. According to Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun, it wasn’t until Gaudreau himself became active in the negotiations and realized the Flames offer was more than fair given the circumstances, that the deal was struck.

Because he only had two years of NHL experience, Gaudreau was not eligible for arbitration nor could he sign an offer sheet with another organization. Without these rights, Gaudreau’s leverage was severely limited. Gaudreau’s pact surpasses that recently reached with Sean Monahan and matches Giordano’s.

While Gaudreau may have backed off his salary demands somewhat, the Flames had to give in other areas as well to get the deal done. Gaudreau received a partial no-trade clause in the final year of the arrangement and the contract buys out only one year of unrestricted free agency. It was thought Calgary was pushing for a max contract of eight years but that would have bought out three seasons of free agency and likely would have justified a higher average annual salary demand.

As Francis notes, at the end of the day the Flames get one of the league’s best young talents and a cornerstone of their franchise under long-term contract for a price that shouldn’t hinder their salary cap flexibility. On the other hand Gaudreau gets a nice raise for a player with only two years of NHL experience and he will be eligible to test unrestricted free agency when he is 29-years-old.

Elsewhere around the NHL:

  • Despite a disappointing 2015-16 campaign split between Carolina and the New York Rangers, Eric Staal was still expected to land a lucrative deal as one of the few free agents with a track record of top line offensive production. Surprisingly, Staal agreed to terms with the Minnesota Wild on a three-year deal worth $3.5MM annually; an AAV notably less than what he may have received elsewhere. But, as Mike Russo of the Star Tribune writes, it was more important for Staal to find the right fit than it was about landing a big contract. Staal: “I know I can be a very good player. So my focus July 1 [in free agency] was finding a fit where I’m going to be counted on, and get a chance and be on a team that’s going to win. This team is good enough to win and good enough to win now. I feel like this is almost the second part of my career, the start of the second half.” While the general consensus is that the soon-to-be-32-year-old Staal has slowed down, Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau doesn’t see it that way: “He can skate as fast as he ever did. Everybody told me he slowed down, yet every drill we do skating-wise, he’s led. His shot is the same, the way he handles the puck is the same, the way he practices has been tremendous. He’s a very smart person. Just a real pro.” Staal is expected to assume the top center slot with the Wild and will be counted on to help lead the way offensively.
  • The Anaheim Ducks boast a tremendous one-two punch in center Ryan Getzlaf and right wing Corey Perry. Over the years the Ducks have played the two stars together on the same line and while the duo has provided excellent production, the team has failed in numerous attempts to find the right skater to make the duo a trio. Patrick Maroon, Carl Hagelin and David Perron are just a few of the players the Ducks have employed on the left side of Getzlaf, but none managed to stick for long. But perhaps the team has finally found a long-term solution and as Eric Stephens of The Orange County Register writes, the young and talented Nick Ritchie views the opportunity to play on the same line as Getzlaf and Perry as a “privilege.” Ritchie, just 20, has tremendous size at 6-foot-2 and 232 pounds and enough skill to eventually develop into one of the league’s top power forwards. He debuted in the NHL in 2015-16, netting just two goals and four points in 33 games but if he can first earn, then keep his spot on the top line, he’s likely to have a more successful sophomore campaign.
  • Veteran winger Ruslan Fedotenko announced his official retirement following a 12-year NHL career, per a release on the NHLPA website. Fedetenko bounced around the league, spending time with five different organizations and winning two Stanley Cups. In 863 career contests, Fedotenko potted 173 goals and tallied 366 points to go along with 472 penalty minutes. While he hasn’t appeared in an NHL game since 2012-13, Fedetenko attempted a comeback this past season, signing with the Minnesota Wild. He would play in 29 games for the Wild’s AHL affiliate in Iowa, scoring three goals and seven points. Fedotenko may be best remembered for scoring both goals in the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 2 – 1 Stanley Cup-clinching game seven win in 2004 over Calgary.

Dennis Seidenberg Signs With New York Islanders

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5:40pm:  The Islanders have officially announced the deal.


12:03pm: TSN’s Darren Dreger is reporting Team Europe defenseman Dennis Seidenberg will join the New York Islanders on a one-year contract after the conclusion of the World Cup. The deal, expected to come in at exactly $1MM, is a far cry from the four-year, $16MM deal he was just bought out of in June.  Boston deemed him expendable after multiple sub-par seasons, and instead re-signed John-Michael Liles and Joe Morrow to fill out their blueline. Dennis Seidenberg

Dreger believes there were seven teams, including the Ottawa Senators, interested in the German defenseman, however they wanted to wait until the conclusion of the World Cup to sign him. They’ve missed their chance now, as the Islanders are set to snatch him up and try to regain some of his early-career play.

Now 35, Seidenberg was once considered an excellent shutdown defender capable of contributing 20-25 points per season. A veteran of 758 career games, he’ll be joining his sixth NHL club and look to make it back to the playoffs with the Isles. After a wild series with the Florida Panthers which featured less than steller defensive play, perhaps Seidenberg can add some consistency to a back-end led by high-flying Nick Leddy.

For $1MM Seidenberg is worth the gamble – just like fellow veteran defenseman Kyle Quincey signed today. The Islanders can now surround their young back-end with a once dependable veteran who has a ton of playoff experience.

Snapshots: Cowen, Werenski, Heatherington

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The long and contentious Jared Cowen saga seems to finally have an end date put in place, as the arbitration hearing has been set to determine whether the Toronto Maple Leafs were actually able to buy out the defenseman. Toronto successfully bought Cowen out earlier this summer, but the NHLPA has filed a grievance and contends that they were not allowed to do so, due to Cowen’s continuing injured status.

On October 19th, according to Bob McKenzie, an arbitrator will decide whether to uphold or reverse the buyout. If Cowen wins, he would be due his $4.5MM salary, where as if the buyout was upheld, he’d earn just $750K this season and next.

For the Maple Leafs, that $3.75MM in savings would help the rebuild even further, as they’ve used their financial power to gain assets (or, usually, rid themselves of burdens) over the past few seasons. Cowen underwent hip surgery this summer and won’t be ready for any kind of hockey until February at the earliest.

  • For the Blue Jackets, this season holds a lot of promise. One of the biggest stories will be the debut of Zach Werenski, the team’s top prospect (outside of perhaps Pierre-Luc Dubois). As Werenski gets ready to make his preseason debut on Thursday, he wrote a piece for NHL.com describing the journey he’s taken so far. “I’m trying to make the NHL. It’s a little nerve-wracking, I won’t lie, but I feel confident that I can make it happen,” he writes, being honest with himself and the reader instead of spouting bravado. Werenski certainly seems ready; he joined the Lake Erie Monsters late last season, and led them with 14 points in the playoffs en route to a Calder Cup victory.
  • Still with Columbus, Tom Reed of the Columbus Dispatch reports that Dillon Heatherington has suffered a fractured wrist and will be out 6-8 weeks. A second-round pick in 2013, he was set to continue his development at the AHL level this season.  Aaron Portzline, also of the Dispatch, adds that fellow prospect Keegan Kolesar has undergone hernia surgery and will be out at least six weeks. Kolesar scored 61 points in 64 games with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL last season, and will head back for one more year.

Panthers Reach Six-Year Extension With Jonathan Huberdeau

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The Florida Panthers have locked up another young forward.  The team has come to a six-year extension with Jonathan Huberdeau that will pay him $35.4MM ($5.9MM AAV). Currently under contract for one more season, Huberdeau is earning $3.25MM in 2016-17, and would be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent next summer. Jonathan Huberdeau

The 23-year old was once the third overall pick by Florida in the 2011 draft, and has done nothing but score in his short NHL career. In 272 career games, the former Saint John Sea Dog has 172 points, including a career-high 59 last season. Skating mostly alongside Aleksander Barkov and Jaromir Jagr, the trio formed one of the more dominant lines in the Eastern conference last season, combining for 184 points.

Florida has quickly locked up much of their future this summer, signing extensions with Reilly Smith (Five years, $25MM), Vincent Trocheck (Six years, $28.5MM) and Aaron Ekblad (Eight years, $60MM) while signing free agents Keith Yandle (Seven years, $44.45MM), Jason Demers (Five years, $22.5MM) and James Reimer (Five years, $17MM) to long-term deals.

With it, the team has created cap certainty in a world where that’s very valuable from year to year, and has built a core that is easily a playoff contender every season. With no one cracking $8MM per season (Ekblad comes the closest at $7.5MM) they’ve also ensured that they won’t have too much money tied up in a single player or pair like many of the other cup contenders around the league.

Bob McKenzie of TSN was first to report the sides were close, and Chris Johnston of Sportsnet reported it was done.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. 

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