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Five Key Stories: 10/15/18 – 10/21/18

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This was a rough week around the NHL when it came to injuries as several prominent players are out long-term.  Those are highlighted in the top stories of the week.

Schultz Out Four Months: The Penguins will be without defenseman Justin Schultz for the next four months after he underwent surgery to repair a fracture in his left leg.  The injury was sustained back on October 13th against Montreal.  He’s a key cog on their back end but it doesn’t appear as if there are any plans to replace him externally for now with GM Jim Rutherford indicating that their current plan is to try to fill his spot from within.  Considering he is one of their better offensive threats and typically logs nearly 20 minutes a night for them, that’s going to be a tall task.

Ritchie Signs: The number of remaining restricted free agents around the league was cut in half after the Ducks and winger Nick Ritchie agreed to terms on a three-year, $4.6MM deal.  Ritchie was believed to be seeking a one-year pact but Anaheim wanted the three-year pact to give them some cost certainty.  It will still take a bit of time before he suits up as he has to get his immigration paperwork in place as well as get his conditioning up to playing shape.

Matheson Gets Two: Following his controversial throw down of Canucks center Elias Pettersson last weekend, the NHL suspended Panthers defenseman Michael Matheson for two games.  Those games were served during the week while Pettersson is currently in concussion protocol but isn’t expected to miss much more time.

Tuch Locked Up: The Golden Knights continue to lock up their core youngsters.  After inking defenseman Shea Theodore to a seven-year contract last month, they did the same with winger Alex Tuch on a deal that will carry an AAV of $4.75MM and a five-team no-trade clause in the final three years of the contract.  The 22-year-old has yet to play this season as he works his way from a lower-body injury and has just 84 career regular season games under his belt.  Tuch is coming off of a 37-point rookie campaign and still has plenty of upside so while there is certainly some risk to the deal given his limited experience, there is also a chance that this becomes a team-friendly contract over the next few years.

More Injuries: Schultz was hardly the only notable injury around the league.  Vegas will be without their top free agent acquisition in center Paul Stastny for up to two months due to a lower-body injury which certainly isn’t good news for an offense that is struggling to score.  Meanwhile, Coyotes pivot Christian Dvorak suffered a torn pectoral muscle while rehabbing the lower-body injury that held him out of training camp.  He has undergone surgery and is out indefinitely.  Meanwhile, even prospects were bit by the injury bug.  Ottawa winger Brady Tkachuk has seen his strong start to his rookie campaign delayed by a month due to a torn ligament in his left leg while Red Wings prospect winger Evgeny Svechnikov (a first-round pick in 2015) will miss five-to-six months due to a torn ACL.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Bridge Contract Likely For William Nylander

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While the mutual preference of both the Maple Leafs and winger William Nylander would be to get a long-term deal done, Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston reports that this no longer appears to be an option.  He notes that there isn’t an AAV that is high enough for Nylander’s liking that fits in with Toronto’s salary structure for 2019-20 and beyond.

With that in mind, the Leafs are basically down to two options – either sign him to a bridge contract or trade him and by all accounts, the latter route is something they have no interest in going at this point nor has Nylander requested a move.

Accordingly, the bigger question now is how long the bridge deal will be.  Although the 22-year-old has gone through his entry-level contract, only two of those seasons qualified as counting towards UFA status as he failed to play in 40 games back in 2015-16.  As a result, Nylander is still five years away from being able to become an unrestricted free agent.  That gives Toronto the opportunity of pursuing a three-year bridge pact instead of the standard two while still leaving him with a couple of arbitration-eligible seasons at the end of the deal.  In doing so, they’d also have a much better idea of what they can afford long-term as by then, both winger Mitch Marner and center Auston Matthews will be locked up as well.

As most core players coming off of their entry-level deals sign long-term deals, there aren’t many comparable contracts in recent years to work with.  One that would be close is Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov.  Following two straight seasons of over 60 points (same as Nylander), the Russian inked a three-year, $14.3MM contract.  That took up 6.53% of the salary cap at the time; that percentage of the current cap today would work out to an AAV of just over $5.19MM which would seemingly represent the ceiling of a Nylander bridge deal.  A contract like that could very well be back-loaded as well to yield a higher qualifying offer at its expiration.

Toronto GM Kyle Dubas has stated on many occasions that he believes that he can keep the core of the team together even after bringing in John Tavares this offseason.  Given the state of where things are, it appears that he’ll have to settle for giving Nylander a short-term deal to make that happen.

Bruins Begin Extension Discussions With Charlie McAvoy

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The Bruins have started discussions regarding a contract extension for defenseman Charlie McAvoy, reports Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos (video link).  He noted that the blueliner wants to avoid going the route of a bridge contract so a long-term deal is the focus here.

The 20-year-old is only in his second full NHL season after he burned the first year of his entry-level pact in 2016-17 when he suited up in six postseason contests.  He’s off to a very strong start to his sophomore campaign with six points in seven games while logging just shy of 21 minutes per night on a fairly deep Boston back end.

However, his overall lack of NHL experience (just 76 games between the regular season and playoffs combined – less than one full season) could certainly complicate things.  While there is cause for optimism that McAvoy will become one of the better offensive blueliners in the league, the lack of a track record in the pros could give Boston GM Don Sweeney some pause if the asking price comes in too high.

Kypreos suggested that Florida’s Aaron Ekblad could be a comparable second contract that McAvoy’s camp might push for.  He is in the midst of an eight-year, $60MM pact that has really been a market-setter for defensemen coming off of their entry-level deals.

However, Ekblad had two full seasons under his belt at the time that deal was signed and has the draft pedigree of being a first overall selection, elements that aren’t in place here for McAvoy.  However, their platform seasons are somewhat similar in terms of point production – McAvoy averaged 0.51 points per game last season while Ekblad checked in at 0.46 in his second year.

Even with that, it would be hard to envision McAvoy getting that much of a commitment this early from the Bruins.  However, it could certainly be used as a starting point of negotiations which are likely to pick up in the weeks to come.

While McAvoy is Boston’s most prominent potential restricted free agent, they have three other notable youngsters that are also going to see their entry-level deals expire after the season in blueliner Brandon Carlo as well as wingers Ryan Donato and Danton Heinen.  They have just shy of $64MM committed to 16 players for next season per CapFriendly so while it’s going to cost a lot to get McAvoy locked up long-term, they have the financial flexibility to get a deal done without causing much of an issue when it comes to the salary cap.

While Sweeney will certainly be keeping an eye on the trade market in the weeks and months to come as he likely will be looking to add before the trade deadline, a new deal for his top young defenseman is also going to be near the top of his priority list at that time.

Minor Transactions: 10/20/18

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It’s a busy Saturday around the NHL with 13 games on tap so there is likely to be plenty of roster movement throughout the day.  We’ll keep tabs on those moves here.

  • Late last night, the Ducks announced that they had sent winger Troy Terry down to San Diego of the AHL and recalled winger Pontus Aberg to take his place on the roster. Terry had yet to record a point with Anaheim in six games so they’re hoping a trip to the minors will get him going.  He’s off to a good start after posting three points on Friday night.  Meanwhile, Aberg was claimed by the Ducks late in training camp but they re-waived him shortly thereafter.  He has a goal and an assist in two games with the Gulls so far this season.
  • With just six defensemen on their active roster, the Senators were expected to bring someone up in advance of tonight’s game against Montreal. They’ve now done so, announcing (Twitter link) that they’ve summoned blueliner Christian Jaros from AHL Belleville.  Jaros has already played in two games with the big club after making the team out of training camp, collecting an assist while averaging 10:32 per night.
  • The New Jersey Devils also made a couple of moves late last night as well, as the team announced they have assigned forward John Quenneville to the Binghamton Devils of the AHL, while recalling forward Kevin Rooney. Quenneville, the team’s 2014 first-round pick, made the team out of training camp, but hasn’t recorded a point in four games. The team hopes to get his offense going in Binghamton. Rooney, the 25-year-old penalty-killing forward scored 14 goals with the Binghamton Devils last season and had two assists in five games this year.
  • The Dallas Stars assigned forward Roope Hintz to the Texas Stars of the AHL, according to NHL.com’s Mark Stepneski. The 21-year-old had played five games with Dallas to start the season, but has failed to tally a point so far, especially Friday when he was given the opportunity to play on the team’s first line next to Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn with Alexander Radulov out. Hintz played a career-high 17:26 and only posted two shots, a hit and a block. “You get an opportunity like that, you got to be pressuring pucks, you got to be creating more turnovers,” said Dallas head coach Jim Montgomery (via SportsDay’s Matthew DeFranks). “Didn’t see enough. It wasn’t a bad game.”
  • With neither Charlie McAvoy or Kevan Miller having skated during the pre-game skate, the Boston Bruins announced they have recalled defenseman Urho Vaakanainen from the Providence Bruins of the AHL on an emergency loan. The 19-year-old is the team’s 2017 first-round pick and has two assists in six games in his first season in North America.

Metropolitan Notes: Burakovsky, Chytil, Jones

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Although Capitals winger Andre Burakovsky is off to a slow start this season, the organization doesn’t have an inclination to trade him, reports Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post.  He has been held without a point through the first six games and is coming off of a 25-point campaign from the year before, his lowest output since his rookie campaign.  If his struggles continue, the team may have to change their thinking as another quiet year could make him a non-tender candidate as he’ll be owed a qualifying offer of $3.25MM this summer, his salary this season.  Given how often Washington is tight to the cap, that could be too rich for them to carry on their books moving forward.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • Rangers center Filip Chytil is quickly approaching the nine-game mark where the team will then have to decide on whether or not to keep him up and burn the first year of his entry-level contract. Head coach David Quinn appears to be leaning towards keeping him up as he told reporters, including Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post, that “As long as he continues to put forth an effort, we’re going to let him play because we think very highly of him.  He’s a big piece of our future and I think he could be good right now. This isn’t just about the future, this is about us winning hockey games right now and we think he can help us.”  If Chytil does play in his tenth game, the next important threshold will be when he reaches 40 games on the active roster.
  • Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones has been cleared for contact in practice, notes Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch. While he won’t play today, he appears to be on the verge of returning to the lineup which will be a big boost for their back end.  Jones suffered a torn MCL late in the preseason that had a four-to-six week recovery timeline and it appears he’ll be getting back in the shorter of those two timeframes.

East Notes: Point, Dzingel, Duchene, Wilson

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Lightning GM Julien BriseBois held contract extension discussions this week with the agent for center Brayden Point, reports Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic on TSN’s Insider Trading (video link).  However, both sides agreed to shelve those talks until after the season.  He made quite an impact for Tampa Bay last year with 32 goals and 34 assists and is off to a strong start in 2018-19 with four points in as many games heading into tonight’s contest.  That’s going to have him in line for a significant raise on the league-minimum $650K salary ($686K cap hit) that he’s receiving this season even though he won’t have salary arbitration rights.  However, it won’t be until the offseason now until he finds out how much his next deal will be for.

Elsewhere in the East:

  • The Senators are expected to have winger Ryan Dzingel back in the lineup on Saturday against Montreal, notes TSN’s Brent Wallace (Twitter link). He has missed the last two games due to a lower-body injury.  Meanwhile, while the team was hopeful that defenseman Cody Ceci (upper body) and winger Alex Formenton (concussion) would also be ready to play Saturday, head coach Guy Boucher indicated that both will be out until next week at the earliest.
  • Still with the Senators, center Matt Duchene confirmed to reporters, including Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch, that his agent held preliminary extension discussions with GM Pierre Dorion earlier this week. It’s expected that if an agreement can’t be reached between now and the trade deadline in February that he will wind up being dealt as a rental player.  Duchene has a $6MM cap hit with a $6.5MM salary this season and it’s likely that his next contract will eclipse that.
  • Tom Wilson’s suspension appeal with the league was a lengthy one, reports Sportsnet’s John Shannon (Twitter link), who notes that the hearing took over seven hours altogether. However, no ruling from Commissioner Gary Bettman is expected until next week as he will use the weekend to review the transcripts.  Wilson has served the first six games of a 20-game suspension and is currently eligible to return to the Capitals lineup on November 21st.

Predators Begin Extension Talks With Pekka Rinne

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The Predators have started preliminary discussions regarding a potential contract extension for starting goaltender Pekka Rinne, TSN’s Bob McKenzie reported in an appearance on NBCSN (video link).

Rinne is in the final season of a seven-year, $49MM contract and in that time, he has established himself in the upper echelon of goalies around the league while he is the reigning Vezina Trophy winner.  However, he turns 36 next month which means any new deal is going to carry a little bit of extra risk due to the 35-plus designation.

Nashville also has Juuse Saros in the fold, locked up on a three-year, $4.5MM contract.  He has long been viewed as their goalie of the future and some had wondered if they might be considering beginning that transition this season.  These talks would seemingly put that idea on hold though.

Looking ahead to next year, the Predators shouldn’t have too much difficulty fitting a new deal for Rinne.  They have a little over $64MM committed to 17 players for 2019-20 per CapFriendly and don’t have many other expiring contracts of note (wingers Kevin Fiala, Ryan Hartman, as well as center Colton Sissons are the other regulars in need of new deals).

While that would make a one-year extension feasible, their payroll situation gets a little more complicated in 2020-21 when defenseman Roman Josi and winger Craig Smith are eligible for unrestricted free agency.  Locking up those two will cost a fair bit more than the $8.25MM they’re currently receiving; new deals for them and a multi-year pact for Rinne could push Nashville near the $70MM mark for just 13 players (not including new deals for Fiala, Hartman, and Sissons) which will push them very close to the salary cap once they fill out the rest of their roster.

With that in mind, it wouldn’t be surprising if Nashville GM David Poile tried to get Rinne to go year-to-year to mitigate some risk and create an opportunity to do bonus-laden deals to help navigate the salary cap concerns.  However, at the same time, it’s hard to imagine that Rinne would forego a shot at the open market without some sort of multi-year commitment from the team.  With talks at the early stage, there’s still a long way to go but this should be an interesting negotiation to keep tabs on in the weeks and months ahead.

West Notes: Brown, Gaudreau, Oilers, Wild Injuries

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It doesn’t appear as if the Kings will be without Dustin Brown for too much longer.  He’s currently on long-term injured reserve as he works his way back from a broken finger and isn’t eligible to be activated until October 28th at the earliest.  While there was some concern he’d be out longer than that, Jon Rosen of LA Kings Insider notes that the winger has begun taking part in team drills that don’t involve contact and that he could be activated for their game on the 28th.  The 33-year-old is coming off a career year in 2017-18 that saw him collect 61 points and he could be a boon for a Los Angeles power play that has failed to score so far this season.

More from the West:

  • Although Flames winger Johnny Gaudreau was pulled from Wednesday’s game against Boston by concussion spotters, he is feeling fine which should have him in line to play on Friday night versus Nashville, reports Sportsnet’s Eric Francis (Twitter link). Meanwhile, Francis adds there won’t be any disciplinary action towards Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who delivered the hit on Gaudreau.
  • While there are teams that are keeping tabs on the potential availability of Toronto RFA William Nylander, don’t count the Oilers among that group. TSN’s Darren Dreger noted in an appearance on TSN 1050 (audio link) that Edmonton GM Peter Chiarelli is not pursuing the winger although they could certainly benefit from some extra scoring pop up front.  However, given their limited cap room, finding a deal that would keep them under the Upper Limit would be tricky.
  • The Wild will be without center Matt Hendricks for the next two-to-three weeks, head coach Bruce Boudreau told reporters, including Sarah McLellan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (Twitter link). The injury was sustained on Tuesday night against Arizona.  Meanwhile, center Joel Eriksson Ek has been ruled out for their next two games while Boudreau is hopeful that winger Marcus Foligno (illness) will be able to travel with the team to Dallas for their game on Friday.

Atlantic Notes: Blashill, Bruins, Andersen, Deslauriers

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While Detroit’s rough start to the season has led to some early speculation that a coaching change could soon be on the horizon, Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press suggests that it’s an unlikely scenario at this point.  While they’ve allowed five goals per game, they’ve also been bombarded with injuries on the back end thus far.  Through six games, the only blueliners to suit up in each contest are rookies Filip Hronek and Libor Sulak and it’s hard to have success with their back end in the shape that it’s in.  St. James adds that management’s lower expectations heading into the season should also buy Jeff Blashill a longer leash to work with.  However, it should still be noted that Blashill is in the final year of his contract and the Red Wings added veteran bench boss Dan Bylsma to their staff this summer so if they want to make a move, they have an in-house option already in place.

More from the Atlantic:

  • While they have no plans to sign Lee Stempniak, the Bruins are looking to add a veteran forward, preferably a center, TSN’s Darren Dreger reported in the latest edition of Insider Trading (video link). He added that young wingers Anders Bjork and Danton Heinen could be dangled as a potential return although he was quick to indicate that they aren’t being shopped.  Boston lost center Riley Nash to Columbus in free agency this summer and have shifted David Backes down the middle to replace him.
  • Maple Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen provided an update to reporters, including Mark Zwolinski of the Toronto Star, regarding the knee issue that kept him out of Monday’s game. It’s not an actual injury that he’s dealing with but rather some excess swelling.  Andersen left practice early today and when asked about his availability for Thursday night, he was non-committal.  Toronto is currently carrying three goaltenders (the third being Eamon McAdam on recall from the ECHL) under emergency conditions but those will only last until Wednesday as there is a 48-hour limit.  At that time, the Leafs will either have to make a roster move to create a roster spot for McAdam or send him back down.
  • Montreal winger Nicolas Deslauriers participated in practice today for the first time since sustaining facial fractures in a preseason fight last month, notes Matt Cudzinowski of the Canadiens’ team website.  While he’ll need a few more skates before being game ready, it appears that they will soon once again be facing a roster crunch up front with the team already carrying 14 forwards on their active roster.  He’s coming off a season that saw him post ten goals in 58 games while leading the Canadiens in hits with 238.

Penguins Aren’t Planning To Trade For A Defenseman Following Justin Schultz’s Injury

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Although the Penguins will be without one of their top defensemen for the next four months after Justin Schultz underwent surgery to repair a fracture in his left leg, don’t expect the team to quickly try to fill his vacancy on the trade market.  Speaking with Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, GM Jim Rutherford indicated that they plan to give their remaining players a chance to fill that vacancy first before considering making a move:

“We’ll deal with it from within.  It won’t be any different than anything else. If our team doesn’t play as well as we’d like, then we have to consider other options.  At this point in time, we have guys who certainly deserve that opportunity.”

Pittsburgh will likely be leaning on Olli Maatta to take on a larger role although he is off to a bit of a slow start this season and was a healthy scratch at one point last week.  It will also give them an opportunity to really evaluate newcomer Juuso Riikola, who had a strong showing in training camp but has only played in a couple of games so far.  Jamie Oleksiak, a scratch over the weekend, should also slide back into the lineup and the Penguins will have to go to more of a by-committee approach on their back end, something they’ve had success with in the past.  However, with just one right-shooting defender in their top-six, they’ll be asking a couple of those players to play on their off-side.

As is often the case at this time of the year, cap space is limited for Pittsburgh as they can only take on a contract that’s just below $800K at this time, per CapFriendly.  As that basically amounts to the cost of an injury recall from the minors, they’d basically have to try to offset salaries if they wanted to make a move at this point.  While Schultz is eligible for LTIR which would enable them to go over the Upper Limit for the time being, they’d need to get back into compliance before they could activate him.  Accordingly, they likely won’t want to add significant salary this early, knowing that it could complicate things down the road when Schultz is ready to return.

The Penguins have quietly built up some extra depth on their back end in recent years.  Those additions are going to prove to be vital over these next few months.

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