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Maple Leafs Expected To Sign Ryan Reaves

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It appears that the Maple Leafs will be adding some toughness to their roster once the UFA market opens up in less than three hours.  Last night, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported (Twitter link) that Toronto will be signing rugged winger Ryan Reaves to a multi-year contract.  Today, TSN’s Darren Dreger adds (Twitter link) that the AAV for that deal should be around $1.3MM and that it remains to be seen if it will be a two-year agreement or a three-year one.

The 36-year-old started the season with the Rangers but asked to be moved early on after having a very limited role in New York.  He got his wish and was moved to Minnesota in late November, becoming a regular in the lineup for the Wild for the rest of the way.  Reaves was relatively productive in his role, collecting five goals and ten assists in 61 contests with his new team; his 15 points matched the second-best point total of his career.

Of course, Toronto isn’t bringing in Reaves for his point-producing ability.  He has been one of the more physical wingers in the league for more than a decade and while he doesn’t drop the gloves often anymore, that ability remains part of his game.  New GM Brad Treliving evidently would like to see his club get a little more physical up front and bringing in Reaves will certainly help to make his fourth line that much tougher.

Red Wings Re-Sign Gustav Lindstrom

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For the second time in less than an hour, the Red Wings have re-signed one of their non-tendered players.  This time, it’s defenseman Gustav Lindstrom as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve signed him to a one-year, $950K contract.

Detroit opted not to tender the 24-year-old an offer of just under $1MM yesterday that also would have given him salary arbitration eligibility.  That proved to be a wise move considering they were able to get him for less than the qualifier by matching the salary he received last season.  Lindstrom will once again be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent next summer.

Lindstrom played in just 36 games last season, dealing with a couple of injuries while also spending time as a healthy scratch.  He picked up a goal and seven assists in those appearances but saw his ice time dip to a career-low 14:10 per night.

At the moment, Detroit has just five blueliners under contract for next season but with more than $27MM in cap space at their disposal per CapFriendly, that’s likely to change before too long.  Assuming they add a capable veteran or two, it’s likely that Lindstrom will remain in a depth role for 2023-24.

Red Wings Sign Klim Kostin

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A day after non-tendering him, the Red Wings have agreed to terms with winger Klim Kostin, announcing (Twitter link) that they’ve signed him to a two-year contract.  The deal will carry an AAV of $2MM.

The 24-year-old was acquired at the draft from Edmonton along with Kailer Yamamoto (who was later bought out) in exchange for future considerations.  The move allowed Detroit to get a head start on contract negotiations and while it might have taken a little longer than they would have liked, they were able to get a deal in place.  By non-tendering Kostin, the Red Wings eliminated the risk of a higher-than-desired salary arbitration award.

Last season was an interesting one for the 24-year-old.  After failing to crack St. Louis’s roster in training camp, Kostin was placed on waivers and went unclaimed, allowing him to be sent to the minors.  That actually upped his trade value and the next day, Edmonton moved blueliner Dmitri Samorukov (who had also just gone unclaimed) to the Blues to pick up Kostin.

It took a month before Kostin got his first NHL opportunity but when he did, he didn’t look back.  He wound up being a capable bottom-six winger for Edmonton, notching 11 goals and 10 assists in 57 games while averaging a little under three hits per game in just over ten minutes a night.  Kostin also was a good contributor in limited playoff playing time, recording five points despite seeing ATOI dip to less than eight minutes per contest.

While Edmonton certainly would have liked to keep Kostin for themselves, the threat of salary arbitration was too much for them to take the chance, resulting in them giving him away to Detroit.  Clearly, with this contract, the Red Wings feel that Kostin will be capable of playing at least a bigger role for them next season and if he has a performance similar to his 2022-23 campaign, they should get at least a decent return on this deal.

Ryan O’Reilly And Luke Schenn Expected To Test The Market

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The Maple Leafs were hoping to keep a pair of their pending unrestricted free agents in the fold but it may not play out that way.  Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that center Ryan O’Reilly will test the market today while Chris Johnston of NorthStar Bets and TSN adds (Twitter link) that defenseman Luke Schenn will do the same.

O’Reilly was one of Toronto’s key trade deadline acquisitions, coming over in a trade from St. Louis.  The 32-year-old fit in well with his hometown team, picking up 11 points in 13 games down the stretch while winning 62% of his faceoffs.  O’Reilly then put up nine points in 11 playoff contests, cementing himself as one of the top middlemen on the open market; he ranks seventh on our Top 50 UFA list.

LeBrun notes that the Maple Leafs had interest right to the end so it’s possible that the veteran circles back depending on how his market plays out today.  That said, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that Detroit, Montreal, Nashville, and Vancouver are all linked to O’Reilly as well so there could be enough interest to push his price tag out of Toronto’s price range.

As for Schenn, Johnston reports that again, there was mutual interest in getting something done but the level of interest in the 33-year-old has yielded an offer from another team that’s too strong for the Maple Leafs to match.  Schenn matched his career high in points with 22 last season and chipped in with a career-high 318 hits.  After playing for the last four seasons on contracts worth less than $1MM, that seems sure to change today for the 37th-ranked UFA on our list.

Sharks And Canucks Have Discussed Tyler Myers Trade

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There has been an expectation for a while now that the Canucks will look to move the final year and $6MM that Tyler Myers has remaining on his contract in an effort to free up some cap space this summer.  In a recent appearance on Sportsnet 650 (audio link), Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported that the Sharks are a team that’s believed to have discussed a Myers trade with Vancouver to the point that there has been a deal on the table for several weeks now.

It’s worth noting that Myers has a $5MM signing bonus that is payable in the new league year.  For many players, the payment date for those bonuses is July 1st.  However, Myers is one of the exceptions with his bonus believed to be payable in mid-September.  With that in mind, it’s possible that this could be the hold-up in a swap although Seravalli suggested that this isn’t necessarily the case.

The 33-year-old looked to be a two-way threat when he first came to the NHL with his best two offensive seasons coming during his first two years with Buffalo.  However, he has become more of a defense-only player, especially in recent years as he has managed just a single goal in each of the last two years with Vancouver.

However, he has logged more than 20 minutes per game throughout his career and while he may be better suited for a lower role at this point, the fact he can still cover tough minutes might be appealing to a team like San Jose which isn’t exactly loaded with proven blueliners and is trying to move their top one in Erik Karlsson.  In-season, he’ll have a prorated salary of just $1MM which could only help from a trade value perspective.

Considering what the market has been for teams looking to dump salary, Vancouver shouldn’t be expecting much of a return, if any, to clear Myers off the books.  But if they do have a viable option on the table to take on the contract, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them take it, either now or even if they have to wait until closer to training camp when the bonus is paid off.  If a deal is either done or agreed on in principle, Vancouver could be a team to watch for when the market opens up less than 24 hours from now.

Senators Linked To Josh Bailey

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Veteran Josh Bailey is a late entrant into the upcoming free agent market after the Blackhawks officially bought out the final year of his contract earlier today, basically accepting a 2026 second-round pick from the Islanders to execute that move and carry the nearly $4MM combined in dead cap charges over the next two years.  However, that doesn’t mean that he won’t have suitors in free agency; Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that the Senators are linked to the winger.

The 33-year-old surpassed the 1,000 games played mark early this past season but things didn’t go particularly well for him.  Bailey managed just eight goals and 17 assists in 64 games.  By the end of the season, he was a frequent healthy scratch and didn’t suit up at all in their first-round loss to Carolina, basically cementing that he’d be on the way out at some point.

That said, Bailey is only a year removed from a 14-goal, 44-point campaign and would be an intriguing addition if a team believes that he’s capable of having a bounce-back season.  With the year he had and the fact he’s receiving nearly $2.7MM from Chicago, there’s a good chance that Bailey will be signing a relatively cheap deal, limiting the risk.  If he does indeed wind up in Ottawa, the hope would be that he’d add some offensive depth to a bottom-six group that struggled to produce at times in 2022-23.

There are some ties between Bailey and the Senators.  In his junior days, he played in Windsor for two seasons where Ottawa head coach D.J. Smith was a part of the staff.  Meanwhile, current Sens associate coach Jack Capuano coached Bailey for parts of seven seasons with the Islanders so if Bailey chooses to go there, he’ll have plenty of familiarity with at least two of his new coaches.

Joey Daccord Re-Signs With Kraken

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Seattle won’t be letting Joey Daccord test the open market tomorrow.  Instead, the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve re-signed the netminder to a two-year contract.  The deal will carry an AAV of $1.2MM.  CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that the salary is an even $1.2MM per season with no signing bonuses.

The 26-year-old was eligible to reach unrestricted free agency as a Group Six player as he has just 19 career NHL appearances under his belt over parts of five professional campaigns.  Five of those top-level contests came this season with the Kraken where he put up a 3.14 GAA and a .900 SV%, numbers that were an improvement on his career averages of 3.64 and .884, respectively.

Daccord spent most of the season with AHL Coachella Valley, performing quite well for the Firebirds.  He finished fifth in the minors in both GAA (2.38) and SV% (.918), helping to lead his team to the second-best record in the AHL.  He found another gear in the playoffs, posting a 2.22 GAA and a .926 SV% but Coachella Valley fell in the seventh game of the Calder Cup Finals earlier this month to Hershey.

With Martin Jones set to hit the open market tomorrow, there’s an opening between the pipes in Seattle for a partner with incumbent starter Philipp Grubauer.  It’s quite possible that Daccord and veteran Chris Driedger could battle for that number two spot with the loser going on waivers and returning to the Firebirds if he clears.  If that happens with Daccord, all but $50K of his cap hit would be cleared off the books, limiting the risk that the Kraken are taking with this type of commitment for someone who has been a third option for the majority of his career.  But as far as insurance policies go in goal, Daccord has shown himself to be one of the stronger ones.

Latest On Boston’s Pending Unrestricted Free Agents

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Veteran center David Krejci indicated after the playoffs that he’d take some time to think about his future.  While he hasn’t made a final decision about retiring yet, he told Dominik Dubovci of hokej.cz that when the puck drops on the 2023-24 campaign, he will not be playing, either in Boston or back home.

The 37-year-old returned to the Bruins this past season after spending a year back home.  He basically picked up where he left off, notching 16 goals and 40 assists in 70 games, providing Boston with an important secondary scoring boost which helped play a role in them taking home the Presidents’ Trophy during the regular season.  That performance helped earn Krejci the 16th spot on our Top 50 free agents list, even with the expectation that it would be the Bruins or retirement for him.

Krejci admitted that Prague hosting the 2024 World Championship is particularly appealing to him so he’s not ruling out playing at some point next season.  While it’s possible that it could be with the Bruins, signing with them would run the risk of not being able to play in the tournament if Boston was able to pull off a long playoff run.

If that’s the case, it’s possible that Krejci could opt to play for part of next season back home, get named to Czechia’s entry for the Worlds, and call it a career on home ice.  It’s a scenario that Krejci himself didn’t think was feasible back in May when he said he’d either play in Boston or retire.  But a chance to go out on home soil while representing his country certainly is an enticing scenario.

Either way, the Bruins will be entering this weekend’s free agent period with certainty now that Krejci will not be on their roster in October when 2023-24 gets underway.  It remains to be seen what happens with fellow veteran middleman Patrice Bergeron and with his future also being in question, Boston will undoubtedly be looking to try to fill two center spots over the coming days.

They also will be looking to fill a key winger slot as David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period relays (Twitter link) that Tyler Bertuzzi will be heading to the open market on Saturday.  When they moved Taylor Hall to Chicago on Monday to free up $6MM in cap space, there was some expectation that Boston would then turn around and try to get something done with Bertuzzi and then make another cap-clearing move.  Clearly, that hasn’t happened.

The 28-year-old is coming off a quiet season, one that saw him manage just eight goals and 22 assists in 50 games.  However, Bertuzzi is only a year removed from a 30-goal campaign while he also has two other 21-goal campaigns under his belt so it’s believed that this was a blip and not a sign of things to come.

Bertuzzi’s performance with Boston certainly helps to fuel that belief.  After being acquired from Detroit at the trade deadline, he picked up 16 points in 21 games down the stretch before tying for the team lead in scoring in their first-round loss to Florida with five goals and five assists in seven contests.  That performance landed him in the tenth spot in our rankings, fifth among wingers.

Barring any moves being made tomorrow, Boston will enter Saturday’s free agent period with a little over $11MM in cap space, per CapFriendly.  However, with six forwards to sign with that money along with re-signing netminder Jeremy Swayman, a lot of their shopping is likely to come at the lower end of the market even though they have several prominent players to try to replace.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Sabres Notes: Jost, Draft, Rochester

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With the deadline for tendering a qualifying offer now less than 24 hours away, Sabres GM Kevyn Adams told Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald that the ball is in Tyson Jost’s court as the two sides try to plug away at a new contract.  The 25-year-old was claimed on waivers back in November from Minnesota and had some success with his new team, picking up 22 points in 59 games.  However, he’s owed a $2.25MM qualifying offer tomorrow, one that also grants him arbitration eligibility.  That offer is a bit on the pricey side for someone who has yet to have a lot of offensive success in the NHL, not to mention the risk of the arbitrator adding to that.  Adams noted that discussions have been ongoing for several weeks now so it’s clear that Buffalo would like to keep Jost in the fold but if a deal can’t be reached by 4 PM CT on Friday, there’s a decent chance that the center will be non-tendered.

More from Buffalo:

  • The Sabres were among the teams that were trying to move up into the top ten last night, Adams noted (video link). However, those efforts were rebuffed but in the end, they wound up with the player that they were trying to move up to get as forward Zach Benson, a consensus top-ten selection heading into the draft, wound up slipping to Buffalo at the 13th pick.
  • Buffalo’s AHL affiliate in Rochester has added a pair of youngsters for next season as the Americans announced that they’ve signed 21-year-old forward Riley Fiddler-Schultz to a two-year contract and 21-year-old defenseman Nicolas Savoie to a one-year deal. Fiddler-Schultz just finished up a five-year career with WHL Calgary and notched 31 goals and 44 assists in 64 games this past season.  Savoie, meanwhile, spent his five-year junior career with Quebec of the QMJHL, picking up 48 points in 65 games in 2022-23 while helping lead the Remparts to the Memorial Cup.

Offseason Checklist: Vegas Golden Knights

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The offseason is now fully underway after Vegas took home the Stanley Cup which means that it’s time to examine what each team will need to accomplish over the coming months.  We wrap up our series with a look at what the Golden Knights have left to do.

When team owner Bill Foley talked about winning the Stanley Cup in six years after their expansion team started, the idea seemed far-fetched.  But in the end, that’s exactly how it played out as they took out Winnipeg, Edmonton, Dallas, and Florida to take home the title.  GM Kelly McCrimmon is now tasked with trying to keep as much of his Cup-winning core intact as possible.  He has already made some moves that were on the original version of this checklist but here’s what’s left for them to work on.

Goalie Moves

It’s interesting that Adin Hill’s reported two-year extension that was reportedly agreed to over the weekend has yet to be registered with the league compared to someone like Ivan Barbashev, whose deal was agreed to and registered on Wednesday.  Speculatively, this could be related to tagging space since LTIR players (like Robin Lehner) count against that limit.  Because we’re not in the new league year yet, the tagging rate is 10% above the $82.5MM cap.  In the offseason, you can go 10% above the new cap level, or $83.5MM while offseason LTIR is also an option if needed.

Not registering the deal now gives them some extra flexibility in the short term as they have $1.1MM less in spending allowance before Saturday to fit Hill’s contract into.  This likely played a role in Barbashev’s deal getting announced only after they moved Reilly Smith.  This isn’t anything to be concerned about if you’re a Vegas fan as this is just a bit of CBA minutia but they will have to get Hill’s contract finalized in the coming days.

Speaking of goalies, they need to make a determination about Lehner’s future.  With Hill’s pending new contract, it appears that they don’t think Lehner will be able to return next season.  If that happens, they can put him on LTIR as they did this past season.  But it’s also possible that they want to clear that contract off the books as they did with Shea Weber’s deal at the trade deadline.  Deciding if it’s worth parting with an asset to free up the contract slot will be a small item on McCrimmon’s list.

They will also need to decide if they want to carry a veteran third-stringer behind a tandem of Hill and Logan Thompson which is still relatively inexperienced all things considered.  They’ve had one in place the last two years with Laurent Brossoit and Michael Hutchinson but among the three other netminders signed for next season, none have any NHL experience while pending RFA Jiri Patera has just two appearances.  This is another small item on the list but with free agency almost here, it’s a decision that will need to be made quickly.

Work On Marchessault Extension

It’s safe to say that Jonathan Marchessault has worked out well as their expansion pick from Florida back in 2017.  The 32-year-old is their franchise leader in goals, assists, and points and is coming off a playoff performance that saw him lead the league in goals with 13, helping him take home his first Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.  That’s certainly a nice ending to his campaign and will give him some extra leverage as he becomes eligible to sign a contract extension as of Saturday.

Marchessault signed a six-year, $30MM deal just months into his tenure with Vegas and it has held up well through the first five seasons.  However, it’s safe to say that it’s going to take a higher AAV for him to put pen to paper on an extension, especially this far out from his free agent summer.  Yes, the Upper Limit of the cap is expected to jump but he turns 33 in December and wingers don’t typically show offensive improvement at that time.

Marchessault has reached the 30-goal and 60-point mark just once in the last five years and as he gets older, he should move more into a middle-six role.  Is that a lineup spot that they should be committing a pricey long-term contract to?  On the other hand, he’s one of the original ‘misfits’ and while the Golden Knights have made some moves that could be described as callous along the way, it’s possible that they could allow sentimentality to come into play with Marchessault.  At this point, an AAV of around $6MM on a medium-term extension might be needed.  Expect discussions on a new deal to happen at some point this summer.

Try To Create More Cap Space

At the moment, Vegas has around $7.6MM in cap room for next season, per CapFriendly.  That amount includes them using Lehner’s full LTIR space and does not count Hill’s expected contract, one that is expected to carry an AAV of around $4.9MM.  Basically, they’re going to have around $2.7MM at their disposal and that’s with a couple of forward spots to try to fill.  It’s a manageable situation but is one that would leave them in a spot where they’d have limited flexibility for any in-season activity.  While they’re more than used to being in that situation, it’s still one that they might want to avoid.

To do that, they’re probably going to look at dealing from their defensive depth.  Veteran Alec Martinez has a $5.25MM AAV and one year remaining on his deal.  The 35-year-old is still a serviceable piece but is better served as being more of a depth defender at this stage of his career.  In this market, clearing the full contract would be difficult but even if they’re able to move him with some retention, it’d help to free up some wiggle room.

Failing that, they can look to their depth players.  Ben Hutton has an AAV that’s just $25K above the league minimum that could be appealing to a team looking for cheap depth.  Meanwhile, prospect Brayden Pachal is now waiver-eligible and if the Golden Knights envision him not breaking camp with them, trying to move him now for a waiver-exempt asset would open up a bit more flexibility.  Doing something like this isn’t necessarily a must but a bit more wiggle room on the cap wouldn’t hurt.

Decide Howden’s Future

Vegas has a couple of RFA forwards to re-sign, center Brett Howden and winger Pavel Dorofeyev.  Dorofeyev’s contract should be somewhat straightforward as the youngster only has 20 NHL games under his belt so he’ll be signing for close to the league minimum of $775K.  But Howden’s will be a little trickier to navigate.

The 25-year-old is owed a $1.5MM qualifying offer by tomorrow’s 4 PM CT deadline.  However, the offer also carries salary arbitration eligibility which is something they might want to avoid.  Howden’s coming off a quiet year offensively with just 13 points in 54 games but with 279 career regular season appearances under his belt, he has enough of a track record to land a raise in a hearing.  Obviously, Vegas can’t afford to give him too much of one.

Do they manage to get something done in the next 24 hours that takes away the arbitration risk?  If not, are they comfortable tendering the qualifier?  Howden is coming off a nice playoff run and is someone they will want to keep around but there comes a point where he’s going to cost too much for the role he fills.  He’s not all that far from that spot so getting something done soon would certainly be desirable.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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