Oilers Recall Dylan Holloway, Assign James Hamblin To AHL
The Oilers have made a pair of roster moves in advance of their game tonight against Calgary. The team announced that they’ve recalled forward Dylan Holloway from AHL Bakersfield; in a corresponding move, forward James Hamblin was assigned to the Condors.
Holloway got off to a slow start to his season with Edmonton, notching just one goal in his first 14 games of the campaign while logging only a little over 11 minutes a night. He then suffered a lower-body injury in mid-November, one that caused him to miss nearly two months. Upon being cleared to return, the 22-year-old was assigned to Bakersfield where the plan was to give him some reps at center. It wound up being a short-lived stint with the Condors but a successful one as Holloway had two goals and two assists in just four games in the minors. It will be interesting to see if he sees time down the middle and takes Hamblin’s spot directly or if they’ll shift him back to the wing.
As for Hamblin, the 24-year-old has spent the bulk of the season with Edmonton, suiting up in 31 games so far. However, Hamblin’s role has been quite limited as he is logging less than eight minutes a night and has been limited to just two goals and one assist offensively while winning just over half of his faceoffs. Hamblin has been more productive with Bakersfield, picking up three goals and two helpers in six games with the Condors. He’ll get a chance to play much bigger minutes as a result of this swap.
Senators Have Offered Several Contract Terms To RFA Shane Pinto
Senators center Shane Pinto is skating with the team and is expected to make his season debut on Sunday versus Philadelphia after serving his 41-game gambling suspension but before he can do so, he needs to sign a contract first. As Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reported in an intermission feature on TSN (video link), the team has presented several different contracts to the restricted free agent.
Many expect that the 23-year-old would sign a contract at or around his previous qualifying offer which checked in at just over $874K over the summer. That would give him time to rebuild his value while giving the Senators, who have been up against the cap ceiling throughout the season when they haven’t been in LTIR, as much flexibility as possible.
But Garrioch notes that Ottawa has proposed a two-year term along with four-, five-, and six-year offers. A two-year bridge agreement was believed to be discussed over the offseason before the suspension was announced; at the time, the price tag for that agreement was believed to be in the low $ 2MM range. Such a move could still be palatable while allowing Ottawa to shift more of the salary into the second season, maximizing Pinto’s compensation while keeping the AAV of the deal lower. While it was under vastly different circumstances, Washington recently took that approach when they signed UFA defenseman Ethan Bear last month.
The longer-term agreements would obviously cost more and in some cases, walk Pinto right to free agency; he is under team control through restricted free agency through the 2027-28 campaign. Speculatively, the price tag for those agreements would push more toward the $5MM range which certainly wouldn’t fit in Ottawa’s salary cap structure. If Pinto is amenable to one of those agreements, there would need to be a cap-clearing move before the contract could be registered.
Despite the various offers on the table, the one-year agreement still seems like the most plausible scenario for both sides. Pinto is coming off a 20-goal campaign but only has 99 career games under his belt so committing to a long-term agreement would come with some risk. A one-year deal still wouldn’t make Pinto arbitration-eligible (he’s two years away as he didn’t accrue a season in 2021-22 due to injuries) but it would allow both sides more time to assess his fit on this roster. They only have a few more days to figure out which route they’ll go if they’re going to get Pinto in the lineup on Sunday.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Snapshots: Flyers, Grubauer, Pearson, Engvall, ECHL, Dionicio
Flyers defensemen Sean Walker and Nick Seeler have been speculative trade candidates for most of the season as pending unrestricted free agents but with Philadelphia finding itself in a top-three spot in the Metropolitan Division, there’s a chance they may not move after all. As Kevin Kurz of The Athletic notes (subscription link), that would be an outcome both blueliners would be quite pleased with as both have expressed an interest in remaining with the Flyers beyond this season. Walker carries a $2.65MM cap hit and has 15 points in 44 games while logging over 20 minutes a night on the back end while Seeler makes the league minimum and is averaging more than 17 minutes a night. Both players appear to be heading for raises on the open market next summer.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- The Kraken moved goaltender Philipp Grubauer to LTIR before last night’s late recall of John Hayden, PuckPedia reports (Twitter link). Grubauer has been out for more than a month already so he’s eligible to be activated as soon as he’s cleared to return from his lower-body injury. The 32-year-old has a 3.25 GAA and a .884 SV% in 17 starts so far this season.
- Canadiens winger Tanner Pearson will accompany the team on its upcoming road trip as he works his way back from a hand injury, relays Sportsnet’s Eric Engels (Twitter link). The 31-year-old has missed more than a month with this latest hand issue after undergoing several surgeries last season. Pearson has four goals and four assists in 27 games so far and is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.
- The Islanders announced (Twitter link) that winger Pierre Engvall is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury. His first full season in New York hasn’t quite gone to plan as the 27-year-old has just five goals and nine assists in 41 games so far, hardly the type of performance they were expecting after giving him a seven-year, $21MM contract last summer.
- The ECHL announced that it has approved the expansion application from Bloomington, Illinois to begin play in the 2024-25 season. The yet-to-be-named team will be the 30th squad at that level. The ECHL has affiliation agreements with 28 of 32 NHL teams this season, a number that could very well go up as a result of this news.
- Ducks prospect Rodwin Dionicio is having a breakout year in the OHL and had a strong showing at the World Juniors but it appears an entry-level deal won’t be coming his way anytime soon. Instead, EHC Biel-Bienne in Switzerland announced that they’ve inked the blueliner to a three-year contract which will begin next season. Anaheim has until June 1, 2025 to sign the 19-year-old who has 31 points in as many games at the junior level this season but will they want to commit two seasons of that contract to someone who will be playing overseas? That’s a decision GM Pat Verbeek will have to ponder down the road.
Hurricanes Prospect Noah Gunler Linked To SHL
The Hurricanes have several prospects playing on loans overseas this season, a by-product of them not having their own AHL affiliate. One of those is winger Noah Gunler who is currently playing in Finland. However, it appears he’s close to heading back home as Henrik Sjoberg of HockeyNews SE reports that Gunler is close to signing with SHL Lulea for the remainder of the season.
The 22-year-old was regarded by some as a first-round pick back in 2020 but ultimately slid to the second round, going 41st overall. Since then, Gunler has bounced around a bit, spending time in Sweden, the AHL, and Finland.
This season, Gunler has posted five goals and three assists with Karpat while averaging 15 minutes a night. But a move to Lulea would allow him to rejoin his hometown team, one he spent time with as recently as the 2020-21 campaign.
Gunler is signed with Carolina through the 2024-25 season and assuming the Hurricanes are able to find a more stable AHL situation, he should be back in North America to play the final year of his entry-level contract.
Mutual Interest Between Blackhawks And Petr Mrazek In A Contract Extension
The Blackhawks have been busy in recent days with the two-year extensions that they’ve handed out to winger Nick Foligno and center Jason Dickinson. It appears as if they may not be done on that front as ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reports (Twitter link) that there is mutual interest in exploring a possible extension with goaltender Petr Mrazek; Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli suggests the netminder is likely to be the next one to ink a new deal to stay in Chicago.
The 31-year-old came to the Blackhawks back in 2022 in a salary-dumping move by Toronto. Mrazek struggled in his first season with the team but has fared much better this season, posting a .913 SV% through his first 29 games. That puts him in the top 20 league-wide among goalies with at least 10 appearances so far while doing so on an injury-ravaged rebuilding team that’s in a battle for the basement.
Mrazek is currently making $3.8MM and while that amount might seem high for a netminder who has been more of a platoon player throughout his career, the market rate for those types of goalies has gone up in recent years. A year ago, it looked as if he was heading for a considerable cut in pay but now, something around this price point, if not a small raise, is within the realm of possibility on a short-term agreement.
The Blackhawks have 24-year-old Arvid Soderblom as their other goaltender and he has struggled considerably this season, posting a save percentage of just .875. Meanwhile, Drew Commesso is one of their better prospects but the 21-year-old has struggled a bit with the IceHogs, posting a .894 SV% through his first 17 appearances. Jaxson Stauber, who made six appearances with Chicago last season, hasn’t fared any better with Rockford either.
Accordingly, having a veteran netminder around for another year or two makes some sense for GM Kyle Davidson. It seems that his preference for now is that Mrazek continues to be that veteran option, a desire that appears to be mutual.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Kings Recall Samuel Fagemo
With center Blake Lizotte listed as doubtful for tonight’s game against Dallas, the Kings opted to make a roster move to add some extra forward depth. The team announced that they’ve recalled winger Samuel Fagemo from AHL Ontario, filling their one vacant roster spot.
It has been an interesting start to the season for the 23-year-old. A late cut in training camp, Fagemo was claimed off waivers by Nashville and spent nearly six weeks on their roster. However, playing time was hard to come by as he played in just four games, scoring once. That landed him back on waivers in November where Fagemo was scooped up once more by Los Angeles. As no other team put in a claim at that time, they were able to send him down to the Reign.
Since then, Fagemo has been a high-end scorer, notching 20 goals in just 24 games, ranking second in the AHL in that department despite the fact he missed the first 11 games of their season. It’s the third straight year that he has reached the 20-goal mark although he needed 46 games to get there last season. Now, he’s being rewarded for his efforts with a recall where he’ll look to have more success than his first couple of stints with the Kings which saw him collect two goals and an assist in 13 games over two seasons.
As for Lizotte, he left last night’s game against Carolina early with a lower-body injury and did not return. The 26-year-old has struggled a bit offensively this year compared to 2022-23 when he had a career-high 11 goals and 23 assists in 81 games. This season, he checks in at five goals and four helpers in 34 contests with his playing time dipping to just above 11 minutes a night, the lowest ATOI mark of his career.
Canucks Notes: Pettersson, Hughes, Kuzmenko
Canucks center Elias Pettersson is the most prominent player among those eligible for restricted free agency this summer. Although talks were reportedly shelved heading into the season, there have been some discussions since then. Whether there will be more remains to be seen as Pettersson’s agent Pat Brisson told Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre that he’s unsure if there will be further talks on that front between now and the end of the season. Pettersson, who can break the all-time NHL record tonight for consecutive games with a game-winning goal (he’s currently at four), has 22 goals and 35 assists in 42 games and stands to land considerably more than his $8.82MM qualifying offer whenever a new agreement is eventually reached.
More from Vancouver:
- Defenseman Quinn Hughes has shown himself to be quite dynamic offensively throughout his NHL career. However, at least one person in Vancouver’s front office though felt he could be better utilized. In an appearance on the NHL Network (video link), former head coach Bruce Boudreau indicated that he was approached several times about making the 24-year-old a center, a request he rebuffed each time. Hughes is having a stellar season on the back end this season with 51 points in 42 games so far, making him a strong contender for the Norris Trophy so it’s safe to say keeping him on the back end was the right call.
- Things haven’t gone well for winger Andrei Kuzmenko in his sophomore year. After scoring 39 goals last year, he has just eight so far this season and has been healthy scratched five times. However, his agent told Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic (subscription link) that Kuzmenko is happy in Vancouver and isn’t looking to leave. The 27-year-old has another year left on his contract after this one with a $5.5MM price tag which would make finding a viable trade in which they receive full value a challenging proposition.
Red Wings Recall Brogan Rafferty
The Red Wings have added some extra depth on the back end heading into their game tonight against Los Angeles, announcing (Twitter link) the recall of blueliner Brogan Rafferty from AHL Grand Rapids. Detroit had two open roster spots so no further moves were needed to bring him up.
The 28-year-old is in his first season in Detroit’s organization after signing a two-year, two-way deal with them back in July. Rafferty has exclusively played with the Griffins this season and is having a quieter year by his standards offensively, notching just 13 points in 33 games. This comes on the heels of a 51-point effort with AHL Coachella Valley last season, helping the Firebirds reach the Calder Cup Finals.
Rafferty has three career NHL appearances under his belt with Vancouver, the most of recent of which came back in the 2020-21 campaign where he had an assist in his lone game. Detroit now has eight blueliners on its active roster which is a bit surprising but it’s possible that his addition is a hedge against someone potentially being unavailable to take on the Kings.
Salary Cap Deep Dive: New York Islanders
Navigating the salary cap is one of the more important tasks for any GM. Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.
PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation for the 2023-24 season. This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.
New York Islanders
Current Cap Hit: $84,906,199 (over the $83.5MM Upper Limit)
Entry-Level Contracts
F Simon Holmstrom (one year, $863K)
After a quiet rookie year, Holmstrom has become a shorthanded scoring specialist this season, being among the league leaders in that department. Even so, he is primarily deployed in a bottom-six role which will limit his earnings upside. A bridge deal seems quite likely although he could push his way toward the $1.5MM mark if he can keep up his current pace.
Signed Through 2023-24, Non-Entry-Level
D Sebastian Aho ($825K, UFA)
D Robert Bortuzzo ($950K, UFA)
F Cal Clutterbuck ($1.75MM, UFA)
F Matt Martin ($1.5MM, UFA)
D Mike Reilly ($1MM, UFA)
After an injury-riddled 2022-23 campaign, Clutterbuck has managed to stay healthy this season and play a bigger role than many expected. Still, he’s 36 with a lot of physical games under his belt. In theory, he should be looking at a dip in pay but GM Lou Lamoriello has gone to painstaking lengths to keep his fourth line together so it’s hard to rule out the possibility of another deal like this one. Martin’s injury issues should limit his mark but again, a lower-cost extension heading into his age-35 year is likely an option at least being considered.
Reilly has fared pretty well since coming over on a waiver claim from Florida. Given his limited NHL time the last couple of seasons though, it’s hard to foresee a big raise coming his way. Perhaps something closer to $1.5MM if he keeps up his current production in the second half but for him, securing a multi-year agreement might be more of a priority. Bortuzzo was brought in to cover some minutes in the wake of the injuries on the back end but is likely looking at something near the minimum if he wants to play a 14th NHL season. Aho has established himself as a regular over the last couple of seasons and showed a bit of offensive upside last year. That should push him into the $1.5MM range on a multi-year deal; he should have a few suitors on the open market.
Signed Through 2024-25
D Noah Dobson ($4MM, RFA)
F Hudson Fasching ($775K, UFA)
F Julien Gauthier ($787.5K, UFA)
F Brock Nelson ($6MM, UFA)
F Kyle Palmieri ($5MM, UFA)
D Alexander Romanov ($2.5MM, RFA)
Nelson has had somewhat of a career resurgence in recent years, putting up his best two years in the last two seasons and is hovering near a 70-point pace again this season. That makes him a bit of a bargain, a thought that didn’t seem as likely when this contract was first signed. If he can hold this pace over the next year and a half, another small jump could be doable on a shorter-term agreement.
Adding Palmieri made sense to try to add to New York’s offense in 2021 but it’s fair to say that he has underwhelmed on that front since being acquired. He’s getting paid more at the level of a 45-point player and injuries have stopped him from getting more than 33 in a single season yet. It’s not a crippling overpayment but he’s going to need to do more if he wants to get this much on the open market in 2025. Gauthier and Fasching are end-of-roster players that, at this point, appear likely to remain around the minimum salary moving forward.
When the Islanders opted to use their leverage to get Dobson to take a bridge deal, it was one that it looked like he’d outperform fairly quickly. It’s safe to say that has happened and then some. After putting up 100 points over the last two seasons, the 24-year-old is now around the point-per-game mark, making him one of the top-scoring blueliners in the NHL. We know point producers get paid but add his strong two-way play to his output and New York has a player primed for a hefty increase in salary. At this point, with Dobson having arbitration rights, it’s looking like the question won’t be if he’ll double his current AAV but rather by how much more it’ll go up beyond that.
Romanov was another player who was more or less forced into a bridge contract with their cap situation at the time. The 24-year-old has been a consistent presence on the second pairing over the last few years but doesn’t have the offensive numbers to push him into the higher-paid tier of defenders. Still, a long-term agreement that buys out some UFA eligibility should go past the $4MM mark.
Signed Through 2025-26
F Jean-Gabriel Pageau ($5MM, UFA)
F Anders Lee ($7MM, UFA)
Lee has been an impactful power forward for most of his time with the Isles but is starting to show signs of slowing down. He’ll be 36 when this deal is up and his next contract, if there is one, will likely be half of this one or less. Pageau, meanwhile, has been a steady middle-six center over the past several years although his production has dipped this season as well. If he’s trending toward being more of a true third liner at this point, this deal will become an overpayment fairly quickly. He’ll be 34 when this contract is up and he’ll likely be heading for a fair-sized dip in pay as well.
Multiple Teams Showing Interest In Acquiring Rights To Sasha Chmelevski
Sasha Chmelevski’s first attempt at playing pro hockey in North America didn’t go particularly well and when his contract with the Sharks expired in 2022, he opted to head back home to play in the KHL; San Jose tendered a qualifying offer to retain his rights at that time. However, after a strong couple of seasons there, ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reports (Twitter link) that teams are showing interest in acquiring his rights and that Chmelevski’s agent has been granted permission to try to facilitate a swap. Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and The Athletic notes (Twitter link) that the Canucks are among the teams showing interest.
The 24-year-old center was a sixth-round pick by San Jose back in 2017 (185th overall) out of OHL Ottawa. Chmelevski was a productive player in his final two years with the 67’s, collecting 151 points in 124 games over that stretch.
Chmelevski spent the majority of his entry-level deal with San Jose at the AHL level where he posted respectable numbers, collecting 35 goals and 53 assists in 122 games with the Barracuda. Meanwhile, while he didn’t score at the NHL level in 24 games with the Sharks, he did post ten assists despite spending a lot of time in the bottom six.
But Chmelevski’s decision to return to the KHL with a shot at more guaranteed money and a big role has paid off. He’s in his second season with Salavat Yulaev and currently sits tenth in league scoring with 21 goals and 22 assists in 49 games. Based on the trade interest, it appears there are at least some teams that are open to giving him an NHL look next season.
With San Jose in the midst of a rebuild, it’s a bit surprising that they don’t seem to be one of those teams. Otherwise, they’d be trying to work out an agreement with Chmelevski themselves. But with multiple teams showing interest, they might be able to pick up a decent draft pick or prospect for his rights which is still not a bad outcome for a player who opted to go overseas two seasons ago.