Offseason Checklist: New York Rangers
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. Next up is a look at the Rangers.
Expectations were high for New York heading into the playoffs. They had a solid regular season and loaded up for the playoffs, adding wingers Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane while also getting Niko Mikkola to help on the back end. Instead of their firepower carrying the day though, they struggled to score with consistency which played a big role in their early exit at the hand of New Jersey. One big change has already been made behind the bench but GM Chris Drury still has some work cut out for him in the coming weeks.
Finalize Coaching Staff
After a long search, the Rangers have figured out who their head coach is going to be following yesterday’s hiring of Peter Laviolette on a three-year deal worth just under $5MM per season. Now, the team will need to finalize the rest of their staff. Mike Kelly and Jim Midgley were let go last month along with former bench boss Gerard Gallant while Gord Murphy will now also not return. That means the only holdover from last year’s staff is goalie coach Benoit Allaire.
It’s not entirely uncommon for a head coach to come in with a clean slate. Two of Laviolette’s assistants from last season in Washington, Kevin McCarthy and Blaine Forsythe, also departed the Capitals and possibly resurface in similar roles with the Rangers. It’s also possible that AHL Hartford head coach Kris Knoblauch could be promoted after four years with the Wolf Pack. He does have two seasons as an NHL assistant under his belt in 2017-18 and 2018-19 with Philadelphia.
Having the assistants in place by free agency isn’t a necessity since Laviolette is in place but it wouldn’t be surprising to see this one get checked off within the next couple of weeks.
Clear Cap Space
At first glance, New York’s cap situation doesn’t look terrible as they project to have a little over $11.7MM in space, per CapFriendly. However, when you consider that they have to sign eight or nine players with that money, including second contracts for a pair of core youngsters, it doesn’t take long to realize that this is going to be a problem. They need to open up some cap room which isn’t necessarily going to be easy in an environment where many others will be looking to do the same.
At first glance, forward Barclay Goodrow seems like a possible cap casualty. The 30-year-old has certainly come as advertised in his first two seasons with the team, providing his two best offensive seasons while still providing the grit and defensive play that endeared him to Drury in the first place. The problem is that he carries a cap hit of just over $3.64MM. For a bottom-six forward, that’s an above-market rate and one they can’t afford. On top of that, he has four years left on his contract. That will make it difficult to move him but he’s the logical one to try to trade.
If a trade involving him can’t be reached, then it gets tough. Defenseman Ryan Lindgren and forward Filip Chytil are on either side of Goodrow on New York’s salary scale but both are important parts of their younger core. Moving anyone making less than that isn’t going to move the needle much in terms of cap savings and going above Chytil’s contract lands you with six skaters that have full no-move clauses.
There are definitely things that are easier said than done and when it comes to opening up cap room, this is certainly one of those for the Rangers. However, they’re going to have to bite the bullet at some point over the next few weeks; whether it’s the one they likely want to move (Goodrow) or one they don’t remains to be seen.
Re-Sign Key RFAs
A good chunk of the cap space that they have is going to go to two of their prominent restricted free agents, players that are pegged to be significant pieces of both the present roster and the future one. Accordingly, the Rangers would like to avoid having to move either defenseman K’Andre Miller or forward Alexis Lafreniere to alleviate their cap challenges.
Miller has the better track record of the two and established himself as a fixture in the top four in his sophomore year. This season, he was even better, more than doubling his point total from 20 to 43 while taking a bigger role in the lineup, finishing second to only Adam Fox in ice time. As a result, even a short-term bridge contract is going to be on the pricey side, likely somewhere in the $3.5MM to $4MM range. Meanwhile, a longer-term agreement that buys out some UFA time is likely to creep past the $6MM mark based on the year he just had. The Rangers would undoubtedly love to give Miller that long-term contract but unless they find a way to free up significant cap room (by moving one of those six high-paid players with NMCs), they’ll be forced to go the bridge route with him, giving them some short-term flexibility with a higher price point to come when it’s up.
As for Lafreniere, the 2020 first-overall pick has yet to become a top offensive threat. However, his production has increased over the last couple of years and with it, his playing time. Still just 21, there’s still plenty of time to live up to his potential or at least carve out a bigger role in the lineup. The fact that he has underachieved so far along with their cap situation completely takes a long-term contract off the table. Lafreniere will be getting a short-term bridge deal, an arrangement both sides will be content with. A two-year deal should check in around the $2.75MM mark while a three-year pact would push his AAV past $3MM. It could also be suggested that if they can’t move Goodrow or clear out salary otherwise, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Lafreniere could become a cap casualty although that clearly wouldn’t be their preference.
Sign A Backup Goalie
Last summer, the Rangers decided to cut some costs in goal, moving out Alexandar Georgiev to Colorado for a trio of draft picks and signing Jaroslav Halak for less than half of what Georgiev received from the Avs. The decision was certainly understandable; with one of the top starters in the league in Igor Shesterkin (coming off a Vezina-winning campaign) and a tight salary cap picture, going cheaper on a second-stringer made sense.
Halak worked out reasonably well for New York, posting a 2.73 GAA with a .903 SV% in 25 games and in a year that saw goal rates go up, his numbers wound up being a bit better than league average. In the end, they got good value on their $1.5MM investment.
But Halak is 38, making him one of the oldest goaltenders in the league. Does he have another season like that in him? Do they want to look at other options, perhaps ones that are a bit cheaper to try to free up more room? Internally, veteran third-stringer Louis Domingue is in the fold and is signed for the league minimum which would help from a cap standpoint but the 31-year-old hasn’t had double-digit NHL appearances since 2019-20. The goalie market moves fast in free agency with the annual game of musical chairs often starting and ending on July 1st so Drury has a few weeks to figure out his plan and wish list on this front.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Canadiens Notes: Gurianov, Belzile, Draft
The Canadiens are not expected to tender winger Denis Gurianov a qualifying offer this summer, reports Arpon Basu of The Athletic (subscription link). The 26-year-old was acquired from Dallas just before the trade deadline with the hopes that a change of scenery could help him rediscover his scoring touch. While Gurianov did manage five goals in 23 games following the swap (after scoring just twice in 43 games in Dallas), he was held without a point in his final ten games which isn’t the best result when you’re trying to earn a qualifying offer. That offer is worth $2.9MM and salary arbitration eligibility and it appears that Montreal won’t be giving him that opportunity. However, Basu adds that they are open to bringing him back at a discounted rate if there isn’t strong interest in him in free agency, similar to what they did with Rem Pitlick last summer, non-tendering him before handing him a two-year contract days later.
More from Montreal:
- Basu also reports that winger Alex Belzile appears set to test the market next month. The 31-year-old started the year in the minors but was brought up when injuries struck, giving him his first taste of NHL action. Belzile played in 31 games with Montreal this past season, picking up six goals and eight assists while averaging more than 12 minutes per game. As a result, Basu notes that he’s hoping to secure a one-way contract this summer which is an offer that the Canadiens are evidently not willing to make at this time.
- The team is aggressively trying to move up from the fifth selection, per Radio-Canada’s Alexandre Gascon. There seems to be a growing expectation that the first four selections later this month will all be centers with Russian winger Matvei Michkov sliding past that group. Accordingly, if Montreal wants to land one of those, they’ll need to get into the top four. Gascon suggests that San Jose’s selection at number four is the target while Basu adds in his piece that they’ve also reached out to Anaheim to inquire about the price of moving up to pick number two, a cost that would certainly be significant. The draft gets underway two weeks from today.
Maxime Lagace Signs In Sweden
Veteran goaltender Maxime Lagace has had no trouble getting contracts in recent summers, locking in one-year, two-way deals fairly early in free agency in each of the last five seasons. However, he has opted to go a different route this time around as Farjestad of the SHL announced that they’ve signed Lagace to contract for the 2023-24 season.
The 30-year-old has spent the last two seasons with Tampa Bay, primarily with their AHL affiliate. After being one of the stronger goalies at the minor league level in previous years, Lagace struggled this past season, notching a 3.34 GAA with a .888 SV%, his poorest numbers since the 2016-17 campaign. This was also just the second time in the last six seasons that Lagace didn’t see any NHL action; the bulk of his playing time at the top level came back with Vegas in their inaugural year.
Lagace’s signing amounts to a trade of sorts. Earlier this offseason, Tampa Bay lured away Matt Tomkins from his contract with Farjestad, inking him to a two-year, two-way contract. That move effectively pushed Lagace out of a job in Syracuse as Tomkins will work with prospect Hugo Alnefelt next season. In the end, it’s Lagace who winds up with Tomkins’ old job. If things go well for him in Sweden in 2023-24, it’s quite possible that Lagace could look to return to North America and resume his familiar third-string role if he wants to try to get another taste of NHL action.
Blue Jackets Re-Sign Joshua Dunne
The Blue Jackets have taken care of one of their pending restricted free agents early as CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that they’ve re-signed forward Joshua Dunne to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal will pay $775K in the NHL and $125K in the minors with a total guarantee of $175K.
The 24-year-old signed a two-year contract with Columbus as an undrafted college free agent back in 2021 and has seen NHL action in two of his three professional seasons including a career-high eight appearances with the Blue Jackets in 2022-23. However, he’s still looking for his first point at the top level. He did, however, have a strong season with AHL Cleveland, finishing second on the Monsters in goals with 20 and fourth in points with 37.
Dunne would have been owed a qualifying offer of nearly $918K this summer with an AHL salary of $80K. Instead, he has opted to take less than that in the NHL in exchange for the higher guaranteed salary. With Columbus trending toward being a team that spends close to the salary cap again next season, the lower cap charge should also help his chances of a recall. Dunne will once again be a restricted free agent with salary arbitration rights next summer.
Five Key Stories: 6/5/23 – 6/11/23
In some years, teams wait until the end of the Stanley Cup Final before announcing big news. This is clearly not one of those years as there were several key moves made around the NHL which is recapped in our key stories.
Three-Way Trade: The first big trade of the 2023 offseason is in the books in a three-team swap involving the Flyers, Kings, and Blue Jackets. Needing to clear salary, Los Angeles moved goaltender Calvin Petersen and defenseman Sean Walker to Philadelphia, sending them a 2024 second-round pick and defensive prospect Helge Grans as an incentive for them to do so. Meanwhile, Ivan Provorov is on his way to Columbus in exchange for a first-round pick and a second-rounder with the Kings retaining $2.025MM of Provorov’s contract for the next two years. Los Angeles also picked up a pair of AHLers in the swap, Hayden Hodgson and Kevin Connauton.
For Columbus, they added a top-four blueliner that started off his career strong but has plateaued as of late. Defense was an issue for the Blue Jackets last season and they feel his addition will go a long way toward fixing that under eventual head coach Mike Babcock. Philadelphia, meanwhile, adds three good draft picks to aid in their rebuild plus an intriguing prospect in Grans while they’ll hope to rebuild Petersen’s value. As for Los Angeles, the purpose of the trade was to free up cap space and they spent it quickly, re-signing defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov to a two-year deal that carries a $5.875MM AAV and a full no-move clause. Gavrikov became a key cog in their back end after coming over from Columbus at the trade deadline – for the first-round pick that was flipped for Provorov, no less – but his preference was a short-term contract to allow him to test the market a couple of years from now in a more favorable cap environment.
Severson To Columbus: The Blue Jackets weren’t done adding to their back end with Provorov’s addition. After receiving permission from the Devils to negotiate with pending UFA Damon Severson, a contract was agreed upon. New Jersey inked the blueliner to an eight-year, $50MM contract and then traded him to Columbus for a third-round pick. The move was done as a true sign-and-trade, just the second of those in history (the other being the Matthew Tkachuk trade last summer). Severson saw his offensive numbers dip a bit this season but he still managed 33 points in 81 games despite a near-four-minute drop in playing time. He’ll give Columbus another capable offensive player on the back end, joining Provorov, Zach Werenski, and Adam Boqvist as defensemen that are capable of putting up some offense.
Eight For Caufield: One of the top restricted free agents was taken off the board as the Canadiens signed winger Cole Caufield to an eight-year contract that carries an AAV of $7.85MM and has partial no-trade protection in the final three years, the only ones he was eligible to receive that protection. The deal is the second-highest given to a forward in franchise history and checks in just $200K total behind captain Nick Suzuki. Caufield got off to a strong start offensively this season with 26 goals in 46 games before undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery. The 22-year-old has just 123 regular season games under his belt so it’s a contract that certainly carries some risk. However, if Caufield is able to become a consistent 40-goal scorer, the deal could become a team-friendly one down the road as well.
Ducks Hire Cronin: The Ducks have found their new head coach as the team announced the hiring of Greg Cronin. The 60-year-old has plenty of experience behind the bench and got his start in the NHL back in the 1998-99 season with the Islanders. Cronin also has lots of experience working with younger players, highlighted by six seasons as the head coach at Northeastern while spending the last five in charge of Colorado’s AHL team. This will, however, be his first crack at running an NHL bench. Anaheim is a team that is embarking on a full-scale rebuild and is a team that will be integrating several prospects into an already young core group. Accordingly, going with a coach that is well-versed in working with younger players makes a lot of sense for GM Pat Verbeek.
Trouble In Winnipeg: Jets center Pierre-Luc Dubois has one year of RFA eligibility remaining but he has made it known that he doesn’t want to spend it in Winnipeg as he has requested a trade. His desire to not sign with the team long-term is well-known but it seemed possible that he’d wind up on another one-year contract and at least start 2023-24 in Winnipeg but his camp has made it clear that doing so is not a desirable outcome. Accordingly, with the draft less than three weeks away, expect his name to come up frequently in trade speculation.
Meanwhile, he won’t be the only one in that situation following a report that goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, a year away from being UFA-eligible himself, also appears to be unwilling to sign an extension. The veteran has been one of the top goalies in the league for the past several years and would undoubtedly command strong interest on the trade front should Winnipeg decide to make him available now. Hellebuyck is signed for next season at a $6.167MM AAV.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
East Notes: Konecny, Jost, Red Wings
The Oilers are among the teams that have inquired about the availability of Flyers winger Travis Konecny, reports Kurt Leavins of the Edmonton Journal. It’s expected that Edmonton will shop around to try to find a forward upgrade but fitting in Konecny’s contract, one that has two years left on it at $5.5MM, would be tricky given their own cap situation. The 26-year-old tied his career high in points this season with 61 despite missing 22 games down the stretch due to an upper-body injury. With Philadelphia appearing to be heading for a rebuild, it stands to reason that GM Daniel Briere will be fielding plenty of calls about his leading scorer in the coming weeks.
Elsewhere in the East:
- Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli suggests that Sabres center Tyson Jost’s arbitration eligibility could be problematic for Buffalo this offseason. The 25-year-old was claimed off waivers back in November and is owed a $2.25MM qualifying offer. However, Seravalli points out that Jost’s career numbers are similar to Andrew Copp’s two years ago and the former Winnipeg forward was awarded a $3.64MM AAV in a hearing. Such a price tag for Jost would be difficult to justify which makes him a decent non-tender candidate if a deal can’t be reached before the deadline at the end of the month.
- MLive’s Ansar Khan examines some coaching candidates for Detroit’s AHL vacancy. ECHL Toledo head coach Dan Watson has been considered a logical choice for a while but Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde indicated that Watson’s family situation is a strong tie for him to stay at that level. Red Wings assistant Alex Tanguay has never run a bench before so the opening could be an opportunity for him to get his feet wet in that role while Khan suggests that another Detroit assistant, Jay Varady, could also be a strong candidate and has a head coaching background at lower levels in the past. The top position with Grand Rapids has been open for nearly two months now.
Offseason Checklist: Colorado Avalanche
The offseason has arrived for all but the two teams that still have a shot at winning the Stanley Cup. It’s time to examine what those eliminated squads will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at Colorado.
After winning the Stanley Cup last year, expectations were high for the Avalanche heading into this season. However, lingering injury issues for Gabriel Landeskog left them without a top winger for the entire year and they ultimately came up short in the first round, falling to Seattle. Now, GM Chris MacFarland will be tasked with making some moves to try to get them heading toward what they hope will be a deep playoff run once again.
Add Second Center
With Nathan MacKinnon locked up for the long haul on his record-setting eight-year, $100.8MM contract, Colorado doesn’t have to worry about finding a top-line center anytime soon. However, they will need to address the vacancy at that position on the second line.
It’s a spot that the club largely tried to fill internally this season following the departure of Nazem Kadri to Calgary last summer. The results were mixed as both Alex Newhook and J.T. Compher getting chances with varying degrees of success with newcomer Evan Rodrigues briefly getting a look as well. Compher responded with a career year, notching 52 points. However, he’s set to hit unrestricted free agency this summer for the first time and coming off the year he had and a marketplace where he is one of the top middlemen out there, a return doesn’t seem likely. Newhook still likely isn’t ready for the role and Rodrigues will also hit the open market next month.
That means that MacFarland will need to look outside the organization to fill that spot. On the surface, this feels like a spot where Landeskog’s LTIR could be used; the captain has already been ruled out for the entire 2023-24 campaign, giving the Avs his full $7MM contract to use, boosting their cap space to a little over $20MM, per CapFriendly. (They do, however, have as many as eleven players to sign with that room.)
However, given the uncertainty surrounding Landeskog’s long-term availability, acquiring someone on a multi-year contract with that money would carry some risk, especially knowing that there’s another big-ticket contract coming down the pipeline soon with Mikko Rantanen two years away from unrestricted free agency. As a result, their preference might be to look at someone on an expiring contract (which could have them turning to a certain division rival), allowing them to fill that spot while maintaining some longer-term flexibility. Either way, it’s an area that will need to be addressed as they won’t have the luxury of filling it from within next season.
Re-Sign Key RFAs
Colorado has two prominent restricted free agents this summer and what they do with both of them will go a long way toward determining how aggressive they can be in trying to fill out the roster. Bridge deals for Newhook and defenseman Bowen Byram are certainly defensible with how things have gone so far although, in a salary cap environment that is expected to be higher in the next couple of years, they’d be setting themselves up for less flexibility down the road in exchange for more flexibility now.
Newhook wasn’t able to grab a full-time top-six spot but it wasn’t all bad as the 22-year-old reached the 30-point mark for the second straight year while setting a new benchmark in goals with 14. On top of that, he showed some improvement at the faceoff circle, beating his rookie season performance by nearly 7% although there is still a lot of work to do on that front. The development might be slower than they hoped for but he should still factor into their future plans. It would be a gamble to give him a pricier long-term agreement unless they were convinced that a big jump in production is on the horizon. The safer bet is a back-loaded two-year bridge contract around the $2.25MM to $2.5MM mark that buys both sides more time.
As for Byram, his case is a little less clear. When he has been healthy, he has been a key part of their top four and has shown considerable improvement. The soon-to-be 22-year-old logged nearly 22 minutes per game in both the regular season and the series against Seattle despite seeing limited time on special teams. It stands to reason there’s another jump or two coming in his development. However, he has a lengthy stretch of concussion concerns to the point where he briefly thought his career might have been over back in 2021.
If they lock him up on a long-term deal now, there’s a chance it become a very team-friendly one down the road but if he doesn’t stay healthy, it could be a problem for them fairly quickly. With just 91 career regular season games under his belt, a bridge contract shouldn’t break the bank too much and should fall somewhere within the $3MM range. Meanwhile, a long-term agreement that buys out multiple UFA years could double that bridge amount. With no arbitration eligibility, this could drag on but getting a contract done sooner than later would certainly help Colorado determine what else they can do in free agency this summer.
Toews Extension Talks
To say that Colorado has done quite well with the acquisition of Devon Toews would be an understatement. When then-GM Joe Sakic acquired him from the Islanders for two second-round picks, it seemed like a low price to pay. He then signed Toews to a four-year contract that carries a $4.1MM AAV. Suffice it to say, it was already a team-friendly agreement heading into this season where all the 29-year-old did was put up 50 points and log over 25 minutes per game for the second straight year. Now, it’s arguably one of the best-value contracts in the league. Toews has one year left on that contract which means that he’s eligible to sign an extension as of July 1st.
How much will that new contract cost? It seems fair to suggest that they won’t want to go past Cale Makar’s $9MM AAV but if Toews has a third year like this one, his price tag could come pretty close to that number.
Can they afford that price point? Potentially, especially depending on which route they go with Byram. If both get long-term contracts, the price of their back end (which also includes Josh Manson for three more years at a $4.5MM cap charge) is going to balloon in a hurry. That’s not ideal for a team that is already top-heavy up front.
To that end, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Avs try to work out something early with Toews. If they can get an extension in place in early July, it’s possible that they turn around and try to find a trade for Samuel Girard, who has four years left at $5MM. That’s not a bad contract by any stretch – it’s arguable that it’s a below-market one – but they can’t afford to see their back end cost approach the $30MM mark and with the injury trouble Manson had this season, it’s quite unlikely he moves which makes Girard the potential trade casualty. In a free agent market that isn’t the deepest, Colorado could net a strong return for Girard’s services. But they can’t really shop him too aggressively until they know that Toews is signed so in a perfect world, that domino falls rather quickly.
Upgrade Forward Depth
Colorado’s bottom-six group struggled as a unit this season. For a lot of the time, the Avs were rarely playing their fourth line and when they weren’t on the ice, they weren’t able to get much going. The end result was a frequent shuffling of low-cost personnel in the hopes that one or two of them would stick. Eventually, they had to turn to the trade market, picking up Denis Malgin and Matthew Nieto, both of which at least stabilized things a little bit.
The majority of that unit is poised to turn over. Veterans Darren Helm (who was injured most of the year), Andrew Cogliano, Nieto, and deadline acquisition Lars Eller are all unrestricted free agents. Malgin is currently an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent but is a non-tender candidate just to avoid the possibility of going to a hearing. Several of the recalls from the minors that got a chance during the season are also pending UFAs. There is going to be considerable turnover in this group.
This year, finding capable low-cost options wasn’t easy in-season. Now, there’s at least a chance to try to build a more complementary bottom six in the summer, albeit with similar financial restrictions as by the time they find a center and re-sign Newhook and Byram, a big chunk of their cap room will be gone. They will need to find the right mixture of veterans and under-the-radar depth pieces (with perhaps a waiver claim or two in training camp) to give head coach Jared Bednar a shot at running four lines with some regularity in 2023-24. The options will be plentiful but with so many teams needing players at or near the league minimum, demand for some of these players is going to be high as well.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Kraken Sign Jani Nyman
The Kraken have signed one of their draft picks from 2022 as CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that they’ve signed forward Jani Nyman to a three-year, entry-level contract. The deal will carry an AAV of $950K and breaks down as follows:
2023-24: $775K salary, $95K signing bonus, $80K games played performance bonus
2024-25: $855K salary, $95K signing bonus
2025-26: $855K salary, $95K signing bonus
The 18-year-old was a second-round pick last year (49th overall) following a strong season in Finland’s second-tier Mestis league. This season, Nyman moved up to the SM-liiga, the top division in Finland, on a full-time basis and didn’t look out of place playing for Ilves, scoring 10 goals in 29 games while averaging over 12 minutes a night. He also suited up for the Finns at the World Juniors, picking up two goals and an assist in three games.
Nyman still has one year left on his deal with Ilves and it seems likely that Seattle will opt to let him stay and play at home for next season. If that happens, his contract will slide, meaning it will still have three years left on it heading into the 2024-25 season.
Panthers Notes: Hornqvist, Luostarinen, Gaber
While Panthers winger Patric Hornqvist hasn’t played since early December before being shut down with post-concussion symptoms, the veteran told reporters including Michael Russo of The Athletic (subscription link) that isn’t ruling out trying to play next season. Instead, he’ll think about it during the summer and decide after that time. Hornqvist is participating in some on-ice activities with the team but won’t be back in this series while he also sits in on coaching meetings. The 36-year-old is a veteran of 901 career NHL appearances over 15 seasons and is slated to become an unrestricted free agent this summer when his five-year, $26.5MM contract comes to an end. It seems that it will take a while yet before he decides if he’ll try to play a 16th campaign.
More from Florida:
- Panthers head coach Paul Maurice confirmed to reporters including Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press (Twitter link) that forward Eetu Luostarinen will once again be out of the lineup tonight in the fourth game of the Stanley Cup Final. The 24-year-old is dealing with a lower-body injury that he suffered last round against Carolina and has five points in 16 postseason appearances with all of his production coming in the opening round versus Boston.
- One of the top college free agents will be attending Florida’s development camp next summer as Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal reports (Twitter link) that forward Riese Gaber will be in camp with the Panthers. The 23-year-old had 20 goals with the University of North Dakota this season but hasn’t signed an NHL deal yet and is expected to return for his senior year in 2023-24. If things go well at camp for Gaber, Florida could get a leg up on other teams looking to sign him in college free agency in 2024.
Minor Transactions: 6/10/23
Transaction activity around the hockey world is starting to pick up with free agency now just three weeks away. Among the activity are some minor moves; we’ll keep tabs on the NHL-related ones here.
- Rangers prospect Cooper Zech has signed a one-year with HC Kosice of the Slovak Extraliga, per a team announcement on Instagram. The 24-year-old defenseman split the season between AHL Rockford and two ECHL teams, getting into just 22 games in total. A pending restricted free agent, New York can retain his rights by issuing a qualifying offer later this month but given his limited success in North America thus far, they might just opt to relinquish his rights.
- Wild prospect Matvei Guskov is on the move in the KHL as Salavat Yulaev announced that they’ve acquired the center from CSKA Moscow. The 22-year-old was a fifth-round pick back in 2019 (149th overall) and is coming off a year that saw him pick up seven goals in 16 games at the second-tier VHL level while recording nine points in 37 KHL contests. As Russia doesn’t have a signed Player Transfer Agreement with the NHL, Minnesota holds Guskov’s NHL rights indefinitely.
- There was a big trade at the QMJHL draft today as Sherbrooke announced (Twitter link) that Ethan Gauthier was moved to Drummondville for a package of draft picks, including three first-round selections. Gauthier, the son of long-time NHL defenseman Denis Gauthier, had 69 points in 66 games with the Phoenix this season, a performance that could give him a shot at being picked in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft later this month.
- 2017-18 AHL MVP Phil Varone has signed a one-year deal with Dusseldorf EG of the German DEL. The 32-year-old forward is entering his third season in the European pro hockey circuit and has played in Russia, Switzerland, and Kazakhstan. This past year Varone ranked third on KHL side Spartak Moscow in scoring (behind two players who also have NHL experience in Shane Prince and Alexander Khokhlachev) with 30 points in 57 games. Varone has 415 career points in 521 career AHL games and if he’s remotely as successful in Germany as he has been in North America’s minor leagues, he’ll be a major addition to Dusseldorf for the playoff run they’ll hope to go on next season.
- 26-year-old center Dante Salituro, an ECHL All-Star in 2017-18, has signed a contract with EC Hannover Indians, a club in Germany’s third tier of pro hockey. Salituro has scored 134 points in 169 career ECHL games and was among the league’s top scorers just a few years ago. It’s been quite an adventure for him since that point, though. After scoring 61 points in 66 games for the Allen Americans in 2018-19 Salituro, a former top OHL prospect, earned a one-year contract with SaiPa in the Finnish Liiga. That deal contained a tryout period, though, and Salituro played just three games in Finland before leaving the club. He was then traded twice in the 2019-20 ECHL campaign and played for three clubs, failing at each stop to regain his All-Star form. Salituro then spent 2020-21 playing in Norway’s second division with Narvik Hockey before splitting 2021-22 between France and Slovakia. After scoring 25 points in 34 games in his debut season in Slovakia Salituro earned a one-year extension, though this past January he transferred to HC Presov. Now, he’s off to Germany to play third-division hockey with the hope of helping his club advance up the highly competitive German hockey ladder.
This post will be updated throughout the day.