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Submit Your Questions For The #PHRMailbag

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The All-Star break is almost upon so it’s a good time for our next mailbag segment.  Following the break, playoff races will start to head up while the trade market should come into focus while there should start to be pressure on players and teams to finalize extensions or shift their focus toward finding a new destination.

Our last mailbag was run in two parts.  The first examined the possibility of Jonathan Toews joining Boston, possible trade candidates for Arizona, what’s next for Minnesota and Nashville, and more.  Among the topics in the second column were Vancouver’s potential difficulty for trying to shake up their core, if it’s time for New Jersey to go all in, and Detroit’s center situation.

You can submit a question by using #PHRMailbag on Twitter or by leaving a comment down below. The mailbag will run on the weekend.

Ilya Mikheyev Undergoes Season-Ending Surgery

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Feb 2: The Canucks have announced Mikheyev underwent successful knee surgery today, though still did not give a concrete timeline for his recovery.

Jan 28: Although Canucks winger Ilya Mikheyev scored the game-winner in last night’s victory over Columbus, it will be his last goal (and game) for a while. Following the contest, the team announced (video link) that Mikheyev will miss the remainder of the season and will undergo knee surgery.  An exact timeline for his recovery is not yet known.  However, the expectation is that he will be ready for the start of training camp.

The injury actually occurred back in the preseason when he partially tore his ACL.  At the time, the team opted to classify it as a lower-body injury but the 28-year-old only missed the first three games of the year before returning on October 18th.  To his credit, Mikheyev did pretty well under the circumstances, collecting 13 goals and 15 assists (tying his career high) in 46 games despite being slowed down due to the tear.  Those numbers were fairly close to the ones he had with Toronto the year before that helped him land a four-year $19MM contract this summer.

Since he will be out for the year, Vancouver will be able to put Mikheyev and his $4.75MM AAV on LTIR, giving them some extra flexibility to navigate the salary cap for the stretch run.  While the Canucks aren’t likely to be buyers (they sit sixth in the Pacific Division and are a dozen points out of a Wild Card spot), this will give them a chance to be a bit more creative when it comes to salary retention or taking an expiring contract back to facilitate a trade.

Although Vancouver was only carrying 13 healthy forwards on their roster for Friday’s game (including Mikheyev), the team also revealed postgame (Twitter link) that winger Phillip Di Giuseppe was assigned to AHL Abbotsford.  The 28-year-old was a healthy scratch against Columbus and has just one NHL appearance under his belt this season.  With now just 11 forwards on their roster, more roster moves will be expected once their schedule resumes after the All-Star break.

East Notes: Senators, Horvat, Perbix

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There’s some good news and bad news on the injury front for Ottawa.  On the positive side, TSN’s Claire Hanna relays (Twitter link) that defenseman Artem Zub is expected to be ready to return after the All-Star break.  It has been a tough year on the ice for the 27-year-old who has been limited to just 21 games this season while missing time with three separate injuries, the current one being an upper-body issue.  It hasn’t been all bad, however, as he inked a four-year, $18.4MM extension with the Senators last month.

Meanwhile, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch relays (Twitter link) that goaltender Cam Talbot might not be ready to return after the break.  He suffered a lower-body injury last Wednesday and it’s the second time this season that injuries have held him out of the lineup.  If the Senators are going to climb back into the playoff race, they’ll need him healthy while if they’re going to try to move him by the March 3rd trade deadline, he’ll need to get back and show potential suitors that he’s ready to go.

Elsewhere in the East:

  • Speaking with reporters including Harman Dayal of The Athletic (Twitter link) following today’s trade, Islanders center Bo Horvat indicated that there weren’t any discussions regarding a possible extension before the move was made. The 27-year-old is set to earn a significant raise on his current $5.5MM AAV and is well on his way to a career year as he already has 31 goals and 23 assists so far this season.  New York has a little over $67MM in commitments next season per CapFriendly and a new deal for Horvat would take up more than half of the space of what’s projected to be an $83.5MM cap for 2023-24.
  • Nick Perbix’s time in the minors was short-lived as the Lightning recalled him today, per the AHL’s transactions log. The defenseman was sent down yesterday when Rudolfs Balcers came off LTIR following the conclusion of his conditioning stint; Perbix had to go down to keep them cap-compliant.  Now that Balcers is off the roster (he was sent down after clearing waivers), the 24-year-old could be brought back.  Tampa Bay could have kept him down through the All-Star break if they wanted but there wouldn’t have been a cap benefit to do so as they’re still in LTIR where cap room can’t be banked.

West Notes: Kraken, Appleton, Shore

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While it seems odd that Seattle won’t have a representative at the upcoming All-Star Game with Matty Beniers being replaced by Vegas center Chandler Stephenson, it appears the league did try to get a replacement representative from the Kraken.  GM Ron Francis told Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times that another Seattle player was asked but declined in order to use the break to recuperate while most of the players had already left with their last game before the break coming on Saturday.  They will be the lone team at the event without a representative.

More from the Western Conference:

  • While the Jets didn’t have Mason Appleton back in the lineup tonight for their final game before the All-Star break, TSN’s John Lu relays (Twitter link) that the winger is expected to play in their first game back on February 11th. The 27-year-old has been out since mid-November with a wrist injury and has been limited to just 14 games this season where he has a goal and five assists.  Appleton’s eventual return will certainly bolster Winnipeg’s bottom six and will also open up some extra cap space heading to the deadline as they will have to move someone off the roster before they can activate him from IR.
  • Late Sunday, the Oilers announced (Twitter link) that they recalled forward Devin Shore from his conditioning stint with AHL Bakersfield. The 28-year-old last played with Edmonton nearly a month ago and has just three assists in 29 games so far this season.  After a slow start with the Condors, Shore picked up five points in his final three games with them so it will be interesting to see if the Oilers find a way to get him into the lineup.  The team also confirmed the release of emergency goaltender Matt Berlin.  Berlin briefly played late in Saturday’s victory over Chicago.

Five Key Stories: 1/23/23 – 1/29/23

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The final full week of January has come to an end with quite a bit of big news across the NHL.  We’ll recap those in our key stories.

Done For The Year…Again: When the shoulder injury to Senators center Josh Norris was initially diagnosed, he was ruled out for the season.  However, after getting a second opinion, they opted for rehab and he was able to return to the lineup last week.  Unfortunately, the injury returned in just his third game back and Norris has once again been ruled as done for the year.  This time, the designation will stick as he will be undergoing surgery.  Suffice it to say, the first season of his eight-year, $63.6MM contract didn’t go as planned as his season ends with just two goals and an assist in a total of eight games played.

Trade Candidate Injured: Going back to last season, there has been an expectation that the Coyotes would move defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere by this trade deadline.  Interested teams have likely seen the last of him in the desert as the 29-year-old suffered an upper-body injury that will keep him out four-to-six weeks.  On the long end of the timeline, he might not be ready by March 3rd (but should be soon after).  The pending unrestricted free agent is having another nice season offensively with nine goals and 20 assists in 48 games and assuming Arizona is willing to retain the maximum 50% on his contract, he’d be a nice addition for several playoff-bound squads at a prorated $2.25MM AAV.

Bridge For Kuzmenko: Generally speaking, a player entering the UFA market at 27 isn’t looking for a short-term bridge contract.  But Canucks winger Andrei Kuzmenko isn’t a typical UFA as he’s in the midst of his first NHL season so his preference was to not sign a long-term agreement.  In the end, he got his wish as the two sides agreed to a two-year, $11MM extension that will kick in next season and contains a 12-team no-trade clause.  It has been a successful first season in North America for Kuzmenko as he has 22 goals and 21 assists in 48 games, good for fifth on the team in scoring.  The agreement keeps him with Vancouver for at least a little while longer while giving him a shot at testing the open market in 2025 when he’ll be more established at the top level.

More Injuries: Still with Vancouver, Ilya Mikheyev’s first season with them has come to an end as he will undergo season-ending knee surgery to fix an ACL injury.  The winger actually suffered the injury back in the preseason but only missed a handful of games as he was able to play through it.  Mikheyev’s year comes to an end with 13 goals and 15 assists in 46 games.  Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs will be without their top center for at least three weeks as Auston Matthews is out with a knee sprain that will also keep him out of the upcoming All-Star Game.  While his numbers are down this season, Matthews still has 25 goals and 28 assists in 47 games, his fifth straight year of averaging over a point per game.

Sharks-Avalanche Trade: The Sharks and Avalanche made a four-player swap with Colorado acquiring blueliner Ryan Merkley and winger Matt Nieto in exchange for winger Martin Kaut and defenseman/winger Jacob MacDonald.  Merkley and Kaut are 2018 first-round picks that haven’t panned out with their original clubs and will look to rebuild their value elsewhere.  MacDonald is a depth defender on a cheap two-way deal for a couple of seasons which holds some value for San Jose who doesn’t have a lot of cap flexibility while Nieto gives Colorado some reliable depth scoring and a player who is already familiar with playing there having previously spent parts of four seasons with the Avs.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Predators Unsure Of Deadline Plans

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After making the playoffs a year ago, the Predators added a pair of key veterans in Ryan McDonagh and Nino Niederreiter in the hopes of trying to take another step forward.  However, they’ve gone in the wrong direction and find themselves three points out of a playoff spot heading into tonight’s action.   Speaking with Paul Skrbina of The Tennessean (subscription link), GM David Poile acknowledged that while he wants to do something, the lack of success in the playoffs gives him some pause so he’s not sure what his plan is yet leading into the trade deadline:

In the last few years we’ve been in the middle, been making the playoffs. But we have not been able to be successful in the playoffs, (which) causes me pause in terms of where the team is headed, where we should go. This next month before the trading deadline is critical to our thinking and in our planning.

We’ve been here for a few years, so I’d like to get out of that in some form or fashion. That means doing something. Does that mean buy more? Does that mean taking a step back? I don’t know the answer to that yet. That’s what we work on, think about every day.

If Nashville decides to sell, they don’t have much in the way of expiring contracts which is typically the currency at this time of the season; their most prominent pending UFA is goaltender Kevin Lankinen.  Next up would be depth winger Cole Smith.  Neither player is going to garner much of a return if any.  Pending RFA defenseman Dante Fabbro has been a speculative trade candidate dating back to last season but he’s in the midst of a down year and is averaging just over 16 minutes per night; if they move him now, they’d be doing so at a low point in his value.

While they in theory could turn around and do a bigger selloff, Poile ruled out that course of action.  Plus, this isn’t typically the right time to move out players with pricey contracts and long-term commitments.

Speaking of those commitments, with nearly $70MM on the books for next season already per CapFriendly, there’s not much room to add aside from rentals if Poile wanted to try to bolster his roster to make a late push at a playoff spot.  That said, it’s fair to wonder if a non-playoff team should be adding rental players; that’s generally not a wise course of action to take.

If they sell, they don’t have much to work with in terms of typical trade deadline currency.  If they buy, they’re going to be more or less limited to short-term rentals with no guarantee that they can get back into the mix.  Either way, the Preds don’t appear to be in an ideal situation with the deadline now just five weeks away.

Rangers Searching For Defensive Depth Upgrade

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Although the Rangers gave blueliner Ben Harpur a vote of confidence with a two-year, $1.575MM contract extension earlier this week (a nice outcome for someone who started the year on an AHL tryout), it shouldn’t automatically be construed that he is in the plans for their upcoming playoff push.  To that end, Larry Brooks of the New York Post reports that GM Chris Drury is believed to be looking for an upgrade on Harpur on the third pairing alongside Braden Schneider.

New York has had a trio of defenders in that role this season with largely middling results.  Zachary Jones had the first opportunity over the first seven weeks of the year but the team decided he was better served by playing big minutes with AHL Hartford.  Libor Hajek continues to be stuck in the undesirable situation of not being deemed good enough to play regularly but is too good to risk losing for nothing on waivers.  The end result has once again been frequent healthy scratches.

Harpur has had the bulk of the opportunities lately but hasn’t stood out himself although he at least has provided a bit of consistency defensively.  Even so, he has just 14 career playoff games under his belt over his first six NHL seasons and as he’s averaging less than 14 minutes a night, it’s understandable that they’d want someone capable of doing a bit more.  All told, those three have combined for three goals and four assists across 51 games so it’s definitely a position that could stand to be improved upon.

The Rangers are one of the few buyers that are poised to have considerable cap flexibility heading into the March 3rd trade deadline with CapFriendly pegging their spending room at just over $6.78MM in full-season salary.  Between that and the potential for a trading team to retain salary, that’s more than enough space to make a splash up front as expected and then improve a depth spot or two.  And while impact defenders don’t often go at the deadline, moves to shore up defensive depth are quite commonplace.

With more than $67MM in commitments for next season already and a few key young players heading for restricted free agency (headlined by blueliner K’Andre Miller, center Filip Chytil, and winger Alexis Lafreniere), it’s unlikely that Drury would want to add someone signed beyond this season.  Fortunately, there should be several left-shot depth defenders on expiring contracts from teams that will be selling.  It’s a bit early yet to determine who all those sellers will be but Drury will have multiple teams and players to choose from when the time comes to find an upgrade on Harpur.

East Notes: Talbot, Brodie, Murray, Wilson

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It’s not shaping up to be a particularly strong trade market for veteran goaltenders but Postmedia’s Ken Warren posits that Senators netminder Cam Talbot could be in play, suggesting the possibility of the veteran re-signing seems less likely now than just a few weeks ago.  The 35-year-old – who has already been ruled out of the next two games – has a 2.90 GAA and a .905 SV% in 28 games with Ottawa this season, numbers that are close to league average.  While it would likely take some retention on his $3.667MM AAV, the pending unrestricted free agent could certainly serve as an upgrade on the second-string option for several contenders and essentially keep Talbot in the role that he was acquired to fill for the Sens this season.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:

  • The Maple Leafs could get a key defenseman back in the lineup tomorrow against Washington as TSN’s Mark Masters relays (Twitter link) that T.J. Brodie is planning to suit up pending medical clearance. The veteran skated on the top pairing at practice today and would be a welcome addition to Toronto’s back end.  Brodie is averaging over 21 minutes a night (third-most among their defenders) and has eight points in 28 games so far.  Brodie is currently on IR and the Leafs have a full roster so they’d have to send someone down to activate the blueliner.
  • Still with the Maple Leafs, Sports Illustrated’s David Alter notes that goaltender Matt Murray is dealing with an ankle issue. He was supposed to get the start last night against Ottawa but exited warmups early, resulting in Ilya Samsonov getting the nod once again.  It’s unknown at this point if Murray will be available to dress on Sunday against Washington.  He has a 2.73 GAA and a .911 SV% in 19 games so far this season, numbers that are nearly identical to his career averages.
  • Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette told reporters including NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti (Twitter link) that they have ruled out winger Tom Wilson for their final two games before the All-Star break. The 28-year-old left Tuesday’s game against Colorado after blocking a shot off his right leg.  The team plans to re-evaluate him after the break.  Wilson has played in just eight games this season after missing time with an ACL injury and has two goals and an assist so far.

Latest On Dylan Larkin

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Last weekend, it was reported that the Red Wings had presented a new offer to center Dylan Larkin as they look to lock up their captain to a long-term extension.  Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press reports (subscription link) that the offer was for the maximum of eight years and carried an AAV of $8MM.  Considering there hasn’t been an announcement of an extension at this point, it’s safe to say that the offer was declined.

The proposal represented a fair-sized jump on the $6.1MM Larkin is currently getting on his deal that’s set to expire in June.  However, St. James points to the eight-year, $73.2MM extension ($9.15MM AAV) that Mathew Barzal signed with the Islanders as a logical comparable from Larkin’s camp.  If that’s the case, the two sides are likely trying to bridge somewhere in the range of a $1.15MM gap per season.  While a deal isn’t done yet, the 26-year-old doesn’t believe there’s any sort of strain in negotiations:

It doesn’t seem like there are any hard feelings, it is just the way it is going.  With Steve, I don’t really expect anything else. It’s been very professional and we’ve had a lot of conversations about the team and certain things that come up during a season with guys or whatever it may be. It’s been pretty status quo.

Larkin put up his second career 30-goal campaign last season and is averaging just shy of a point per game this season with 43 in 47 contests.  If he stays at that pace, it’ll be the third time he averages at least 0.9 points per game.  Those are certainly strong numbers but how much more of a ceiling does he still have offensively?  While Larkin is deployed as a number one center, there’s typically an expectation that the player in that role can help carry an offense and get past the point-per-game threshold.

That’s likely a big factor in negotiations.  A $9M-plus AAV would put Larkin in the top-25 in cap hit among NHL forwards but is he a top-25 forward?  Could he still become one as some of Detroit’s young talent continues to develop and improve, bolstering the scoring power for the Red Wings over time?  These are the questions that GM Steve Yzerman is certainly pondering at the moment.

It’s certainly not an ideal spot for Detroit to be in.  Larkin has made it clear that his desire is to stay with his hometown team.  Many expected an extension to be in place by now.  But while upping the offer for Larkin may not be ideal from a spending perspective, the alternative isn’t any better as trying to find a new top pivot on the open market comes with its own risks and would likely cost more than they’re offering here.

The Red Wings are a team that’s now in the process of trying to build back into being a playoff contender.  That’s a lot tougher task to do without a top center which means Larkin walking in free agency would be a tough blow.  Accordingly, even though there’s a sizable gap to be bridged financially, Detroit fans should still have some optimism that they’ll be able to find common ground on a new deal.  It’s just going to cost more than Yzerman and the Red Wings would like.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Golden Knights Assign Three To The AHL

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Ahead of tonight’s contest against the Islanders, the Golden Knights made a trio of roster moves, announcing (Twitter link) that they’ve assigned forwards Pavel Dorofeyev and Byron Froese along with defenseman Kaedan Korczak to AHL Henderson.

Dorofeyev has had three separate stints with Vegas this season but has seen limited NHL action despite that, getting into just three games where he was held off the scoresheet while logging just under 12 minutes per contest.  He suffered an undisclosed injury three weeks ago but this assignment means that Dorofeyev has been cleared to return since injured players can’t be sent down.  The 22-year-old was a top producer in the minors last season but has been a bit quieter in 2022-23, picking up six goals and six assists in 21 games with the Silver Knights.

As for Froese, he had been on his third recall of the month prior to this assignment and had been centring the fourth line during that stint.  So far this season, he has a goal and an assist in seven games while winning 61.5% of his faceoffs.  The 31-year-old is in the first season of a two-year, two-way deal and has been productive in Henderson with 27 points in 36 contests.

Korczak, meanwhile, has been up with Vegas on five different occasions this season, all within the last two months.  Along the way, he has gotten into ten games on the back end for the Golden Knights, picking up a couple of helpers along with 25 hits while logging 17:34 per night.   The 21-year-old also has eight points in 30 games in Henderson.   He’s likely to continue to be one of the top recall options the next time a defender goes down or the team wants some extra depth.

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