Five Key Stories: 2/13/23 – 2/19/23
With the trade deadline now less than two weeks away, activity is starting to pick up across the NHL with a pair of signings and a trade headlining the key stories of the week.
Maatta Re-Signs: Olli Maatta opted to take a one-year deal with Detroit last summer in the hopes of rebuilding some value after some tough showing with Chicago and Los Angeles. That proved to be a wise move as he agreed to a two-year, $6MM extension with the Red Wings that runs through the 2024-25 campaign. The 28-year-old has been a dependable depth defender for Detroit this season, logging more than 18 minutes a night and his extension will allow some of their prospects to spend a bit more time developing at AHL Grand Rapids.
Gavrikov Sits: Perhaps inspired by Arizona’s decision to sit Jakob Chychrun for trade-related reasons last weekend (a move hasn’t happened yet), Columbus has decided to follow suit with blueliner Vladislav Gavrikov. The 27-year-old is expected to be one of the top rental blueliners on the move but the Blue Jackets have set a high asking price at a first-round pick, a third-rounder, and a fourth-round selection although they may have a taker pending another move being made first. Gavrikov had a breakout year last season with 33 points in 80 games but while his playing time hasn’t gone down in 2022-23, his production has as he has just three goals and seven assists in 52 games so far. At this point, it’s not believed that the rearguard will be discussing an extension with any of his trade suitors.
Maple Leafs Make A Splash: The Maple Leafs decided to do their deadline shopping early as they acquired centers Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari from St. Louis in a three-team swap. St. Louis, who retained 50% of O’Reilly’s $7.5MM AAV, receives Toronto’s 2023 first-round pick, Ottawa’s 2023 third-round pick, and Toronto’s 2024 second-round pick along with prospect Mikhail Abramov and veteran Adam Gaudette. Minnesota retained an additional 25%, receiving a 2025 fourth-round pick for their troubles along with prospect Josh Pillar. The swap certainly bolsters Toronto’s depth down the middle which is particularly important with the Maple Leafs lined up with Tampa Bay and Boston as their potential first two opponents. It is, however, a bit of a high price tag when you consider that O’Reilly had just 19 points in 40 games prior to the swap, well below his norms. Both O’Reilly and Acciari are set to become unrestricted free agents this summer but Toronto is certainly going all-in while St. Louis now has three first-round picks at their disposal as they look to rebuild.
Staying In Los Angeles: The Kings have locked up a young blueliner for the long haul as they’ve inked Mikey Anderson to an eight-year, $33MM contract extension that will go through the 2030-31 campaign. The 23-year-old is logging nearly 22 minutes per game this season and while he doesn’t put up a ton of points (his 13 this season is already a career high), he plays an important role on the penalty kill and there’s still certainly time for him to improve. As long as Anderson stays in the top four for Los Angeles, this contract should age well.
Toews Out Indefinitely: There were set to be questions about Jonathan Toews and if he’d agree to be traded by the deadline with Chicago firmly in a rebuild. However, he revealed that he is still dealing with symptoms of Long COVID and Chronic Immune Response Syndrome and, after consulting with team doctors, he has elected to take a step back and focus on getting healthy. He isn’t necessarily out for the season but the decision has now been made that he will not be traded in the coming days. Toews has spent his entire 15-year NHL career with the Blackhawks.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Trade Deadline Primer: Montreal Canadiens
Halfway through February, the trade deadline looms and is just a few weeks away. Where does each team stand, and what moves should they be looking to make? We continue our look around the league with the Montreal Canadiens.
This season was supposed to be another transition one for Montreal after finishing last in 2021-22. While the team has a few more points than some may have expected, they remain a team that’s squarely in the middle of a rebuild so that has gone as planned.
What hasn’t gone as planned is their injury situation. The Canadiens are missing numerous regulars at the moment including a pair of veterans that were perceived as their top trade assets. A return to action for those players in the next ten days or so could get them back on the radar but otherwise, it could potentially be a much quieter deadline for them than originally expected.
Record
23-29-4, 8th in the Atlantic
Deadline Status
Seller
Deadline Cap Space
$4.54MM in LTIR relief, 0/3 retention slots used, 46/50 contracts used, per CapFriendly.
Upcoming Draft Picks
2023: FLA 1st, MTL 1st, MTL 2nd, MTL 3rd, MTL 4th, PIT 4th, VEG 4th, CGY 5th, MTL 5th, MTL 6th, MTL 7th
2024: MTL 1st, COL 2nd, MTL 3rd, MTL 4th, MTL 5th, MTL 6th, EDM 7th, MTL 7th
Montreal also has Calgary’s 2025 first-round pick which, through a series of conditions, could transfer in 2024 if it falls between 20 and 32 and the Canadiens elect to take it. It could take until 2026 to be conveyed.
Trade Chips
All season long, Sean Monahan has been an expected trade chip. When healthy, he is a capable middle-six center that can play both the power play and penalty kill. The problem is that staying healthy has been a problem. He suffered a foot injury in early December and was only expected to miss a few weeks originally but it is now two months and counting. If he can get back playing, there will be some suitors as long as Montreal can retain 50% of his $6.375MM AAV. However, it’s likely that the draft pick being offered will be a fair bit lower than the Canadiens were originally hoping to get and it would be prudent for them to try to put a condition in there based on games played. If that’s the case, it’s possible that GM Kent Hughes flips the script and tries to work out a short-term extension with the 28-year-old.
Veteran defenseman Joel Edmundson has also been in trade speculation for a while. He isn’t a rental as he has another year left on his contract with a $3.5MM AAV, a price tag that’s reasonable for someone that can log 20 minutes a night. His physicality and ability to kill penalties would also be appealing, as would his playoff experience which includes two runs to the Stanley Cup Final since the 2018-19 campaign. However, he has been dealing with recurring back injuries and that’s likely to deter someone from giving up a strong return unless he’s able to get back to action soon and be no worse for wear. This might be a situation where the Canadiens opt to hold onto him for next year and try to get a better return for him as a rental.
Montreal also has a couple of pricey rental veteran forwards in Evgenii Dadonov ($5.5MM) and Jonathan Drouin ($5MM) that they will be willing to move. Dadonov was traded at the deadline last season but the deal was eventually vetoed due to his no-trade clause and instead, he went to the Canadiens for Shea Weber’s contract last summer. He has struggled this season (although he has seven points in his last 12 games) and at best, they’d be looking at a late-round pick with salary retention. Drouin is in a similar situation and has struggled to put the puck in the net; his last goal came on January 1st, 2022. That said, he has a dozen assists in his last 14 games.
In terms of other forwards with term that could go, Mike Hoffman ($4.5MM through next season) and Joel Armia ($3.4MM through 2024-25) are players they’d likely be willing to move. However, with them being signed beyond this season, it seems likelier that any move they could make would be a lateral swap for a similar-priced contract, not one to necessarily add pieces for their rebuild.
Other Potential Trade Chips: F Paul Byron (LTIR contract), D Chris Wideman
Team Needs
1) Young Goaltending: Carey Price’s playing days are all but over and they have an NHL tandem that isn’t the greatest. In the prospect pipeline, Cayden Primeau has shown flashes of upside but he’s far from a guarantee to be an NHL netminder. The Canadiens have some late-round picks performing well at lower levels but they’re a few years away still. A prospect that’s a bit closer to being NHL-ready would fill in a bit gap in their prospect pool.
2) AHL Help: With Montreal currently missing so many players, their organizational depth is being tested. If they do move some veterans out, there will be roster spots that need to be filled and if those are covered by players currently in the minors, those spots will then need to be back-filled. (Alternatively, they could agree to take some expiring veterans back and keep their current players in the minors.) This isn’t a big priority in the grand scheme of things but with the Canadiens not having a lot of quality trade chips and the likelihood that their heavy lifting will come in the offseason instead, this is something that they can realistically strive for in the next couple of weeks.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Colorado Assigns Ben Meyers To The AHL
Ben Meyers has been shuffled back and forth between the NHL and AHL in recent weeks and on this transaction, he’s going back down as the Avalanche announced (Twitter link) that the winger has been sent back to AHL Colorado. It’s his third assignment to the minors over the past three weeks.
Meyers has played in 31 games this season, including suiting up earlier this afternoon in a comeback overtime victory over Anaheim. However, he hasn’t had much offensive success at the top level, managing just a single goal without any assists while averaging around ten minutes a night. He has fared better at the minor league level, collecting six goals and three assists in 15 games with the Eagles.
The 23-year-old signed with Colorado as an undrafted college free agent last season, burning the first year of his contract right away as he got into a handful of games with the Avs down the stretch. He’ll be a restricted free agent this summer owed a qualifying offer of just over $874K but at this point, it seems likely that the team will be pushing for him to take less than that in exchange for either a one-way deal or a two-way pact with a higher AHL salary as his lack of NHL production will make it tough to justify paying more than the minimum.
East Notes: O’Reilly, Gaudreau, Dach, Wilson
While it’s a frequent occurrence that a team acquires a player on an expiring contract and then quickly signs him to an extension, that won’t be the case for the Maple Leafs and center Ryan O’Reilly. Speaking with reporters today (video link), GM Kyle Dubas indicated that there have been no discussions about an extension nor are there plans to do so. Instead, the plan is to see how he fits in with his new team and then assess whether there’s mutual interest in trying to extend his stay with Toronto. With more than $72.6MM committed to just a dozen players for next season per CapFriendly, it’s going to be quite difficult for them to keep their new middleman unless they’re able to free up considerable cap space this summer.
More from the Eastern Conference:
- The Blue Jackets announced (Twitter link) that winger Johnny Gaudreau will miss tonight’s game against Dallas due to a lower-body injury. That means his Ironman streak will come to an end at 349 games; only two players (Phil Kessel and Brent Burns) had longer active streaks. Gaudreau hasn’t been able to put up the production he had with Calgary last season but still has 52 points in 55 games, good for an 18-point point lead on Patrik Laine who sits second. Lane Pederson will make his Columbus debut in Gaudreau’s place.
- The Canadiens announced (Twitter link) that center Kirby Dach will miss his second straight game tonight against Toronto due to a non-COVID illness. The 22-year-old tried to take part in the morning skate but left just minutes in. Dach has had a breakout year in his first season with Montreal as he has 12 goals and 23 assists in 54 games so far, good for third on the team in scoring.
- The Capitals have activated winger Tom Wilson from injured reserve, reports NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti (Twitter link). The 28-year-old has been out for more than three weeks after blocking a shot off his ankle late last month. Between that and his recovery from knee surgery last spring, Wilson has been limited to just eight games so far, where he has two goals, an assist, and 33 hits.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson To Miss Several Weeks
It has been a tough season, to put it lightly, for Canucks defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson. It just got a little tougher as head coach Rick Tocchet told reporters including Patrick Johnston of the Vancouver Province, that the veteran will be out “some weeks” due to an ankle injury.
The 31-year-old has struggled considerably in his own end which has helped contribute to Vancouver allowing the second-most goals in the NHL heading into today’s action. On top of that, Ekman-Larsson has underachieved offensively, scoring just twice while picking up 20 assists in 54 games, numbers that are well below what he was putting up with Arizona when he had a six-year stretch of recording at least 39 points. As a result of his struggles, his average ice time per game has dropped to 20:11, three minutes below his career average and his lowest since his rookie campaign back in 2010-11.
Ekman-Larsson still has four years left on his contract with Vancouver being responsible for a $7.26MM cap charge; Arizona is covering an additional $990K. With that much term remaining, it will be extremely difficult for GM Patrik Allvin to move him; carrying an eight-year buyout charge certainly isn’t ideal either. There’s no good situation for the Canucks moving forward when it comes to the veteran and now they’ll be without him for at least a few weeks. Christian Wolanin was recalled from AHL Abbotsford earlier today and could have an opportunity to get into the lineup fairly quickly.
Stars Recall Fredrik Olofsson
The Stars have added some extra forward depth in advance of their game tonight against Columbus, announcing the recall of winger Fredrik Olofsson from AHL Texas. Dallas had an open roster spot so no corresponding move needed to be made.
The 26-year-old is in his first season in North America after signing with the Stars as a free agent last May, inking a one-year, one-way contract worth the NHL minimum of $750K. Olofsson was initially drafted by Chicago back in 2014 but didn’t sign with the team, allowing him to become a free agent. He will once again hit the open market in July.
Olofsson has been up for two separate stints with Dallas this season, getting into 13 games. He has held his own in a limited role, picking up a goal and three assists while averaging a little under ten minutes per night on the fourth line. Olofsson has been a bit more productive in the minors, tallying five goals along with nine helpers in 37 contests. Knowing he’ll be testing free agency again in a few months, he’ll need to make an impact if he wants a shot at landing another one-way agreement.
Canucks Recall Christian Wolanin, Place Travis Dermott On IR
The Canucks have made a pair of roster moves in advance of their tonight against Philadelphia, announcing (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled defenseman Christian Wolanin from AHL Abbotsford while placing defenseman Travis Dermott on injured reserve with an undisclosed injury.
Wolanin is up for only the second time this season with the first stint lasting less than 48 hours. The 27-year-old has found another gear offensively in the minors this season, recording an impressive 55 points in 49 games. That’s good for a tie for fourth overall in AHL scoring while he leads all blueliners by 10 points at a minimum. Prior to this season, the most points that Wolanin had in the minors in a single season was 31. He has 70 games of NHL experience under his belt with three different teams and has seen NHL action in each of the last five years.
Dermott, meanwhile, has had a tough season, missing more than 30 games with a concussion and now he’s on the shelf again having last played on January 25th. When healthy, the 26-year-old has been limited to just 11 games where he has only a single goal while averaging 13:45 per game, a career low. He’s in the final season of a two-year, $3MM contract and is owed a qualifying offer of $1.75MM this summer. With his struggles and Vancouver’s cap situation, he looks like a potential non-tender candidate this summer.
Hurricanes, Oilers Have Discussed Jesse Puljujarvi Trade
Earlier this week, the Oilers opted to drop down to a minimum-sized roster in order to get cap-compliant to activate winger Kailer Yamamoto from LTIR. As luck would have it, the flu bug hit the team for yesterday’s game against the Rangers and the team wound up playing short a player as Klim Kostin was unable to suit up. That’s not a viable situation for a playoff contender to have to navigate through for another couple of months before the season comes to an end so there has been an expectation that they will open up some cap space.
Jesse Puljujarvi has been widely speculated as the eventual cap casualty but, for the time being, they haven’t found a trade that works for them. However, Sportsnet’s Mark Spector reports that there is a belief that the Hurricanes have indicated that they are willing to move winger Ondrej Kase (currently on LTIR with a concussion) to Edmonton for Puljujarvi but only after the Finnish winger has cleared waivers. That would allow Carolina to shuffle him back and forth between the AHL if needed while seeing if a change of scenery could help get him going.
It has been quite a fall for the 24-year-old who was the fourth-overall pick in 2016 but hasn’t come close to living up to his draft billing. This season, Puljujarvi has been quite limited offensively, scoring just five goals along with seven assists in 53 games, hardly the type of production they were expecting after he posted 36 points in 65 contests just last season. It’s also hardly the type of return they were hoping for from someone carrying a $3MM cap hit.
Clearly, GM Ken Holland still believes he can salvage some sort of positive value for Puljujarvi as otherwise, he likely would have hit the waiver wire already. If he was to be claimed, they’d free up the full $3MM in cap room and if not, the proposed swap with Carolina would open up $1.5MM in regular cap room and $1.5MM (Kase’s cap hit) in their LTIR pool. While that wouldn’t be a great return by any stretch, it would certainly give them a bit more flexibility to work with as they either look to add a piece by the March 3rd trade deadline or to bring someone back up from AHL Bakersfield to avoid having to play short a player as they did last night. We’ll find out soon enough if Holland is able to find a better option for Puljujarvi than this one.
Trade Deadline Primer: Vancouver Canucks
Halfway through February, the trade deadline looms and is just a few weeks away. Where does each team stand, and what moves should they be looking to make? We continue our look around the league with the Vancouver Canucks.
While it wouldn’t be fair to say there were high expectations for Vancouver heading into the season, there were certainly some hopes that they’d be able to pick up where they left off after a strong second half in 2021-22. With Bruce Boudreau back for a full season, the team would be better offensively, Thatcher Demko would continue to be a strong starter, and things would be looking up.
Suffice it to say, that hasn’t happened. Boudreau was recently fired after months of speculation with Rick Tocchet taking over while Demko was having the worst season of his career before being injured, turning things over to a pair of AHL goaltenders. The end result is that they’re one of the worst teams in the league defensively and with one big move made already – Bo Horvat to the Islanders – the selling-off process is well underway.
Record
21-30-4, 6th in the Pacific
Deadline Status
Seller
Deadline Cap Space
$7.62MM in LTIR relief, 1/3 retention slots used, 47/50 contracts used, per CapFriendly.
Upcoming Draft Picks
2023: NYI 1st*, VAN 1st, VAN 2nd, VAN 3rd, NYR 4th, VAN 4th, VAN 6th
2024: VAN 1st, VAN 3rd, VAN 4th, VAN 5th, VAN 6th, VAN 7th
*-Pick is top-12 protected in 2022-23 and becomes an unprotected pick in 2024 if it doesn’t convey this season.
Trade Chips
There has been no shortage of speculation surrounding defenseman Luke Schenn in recent weeks. The veteran has been a capable defensive piece on the third pairing over the last two seasons while being one of the most physical players in the league. He’s also extremely cheap as his $850K cap hit is just $100K above the minimum salary. Accordingly, this is a contract that pretty much everyone can afford without necessarily needing retention or salary offsets, elements we’re going to see come up frequently over the next couple of weeks. Schenn has indicated that he’d like to stay in Vancouver but they’re likely to get a high enough draft pick that they’ll opt to move him.
Also on the back end, Tyler Myers is another player who has been in trade speculation for a little while. Unlike Schenn, he’s not a rental (signed through next season) and certainly isn’t cheap with a $6MM AAV and a 10-team no-trade clause. He’s still capable of logging top-four minutes and in a swap of underperforming change-of-scenery veterans, there’s a move to be made with him. Another defenseman, Travis Dermott, is one to keep an eye on. Injuries and struggles have limited him to just 11 games so far. Owed a $1.75MM qualifying offer this summer, that’s a price that’s likely more than they’re willing to pay so if there’s a team that wants the 26-year-old as extra depth, it’s hard to imagine the Canucks passing up the opportunity to pick up a late-round pick there.
Up front, Brock Boeser is someone to keep an eye on. Things have not gone well for him this season but he has scored more than 20 goals in four of the last five years and likely would have gotten there in the year he didn’t had it not been for the pandemic-abbreviated schedule. There are teams that certainly could use him in their top six but with a $6.65MM price tag through 2024-25, fitting him into a contender’s cap structure will be tough. If they’re willing to retain salary though, there’s a chance he could be on the move as well.
Conor Garland is having a decent season and should reach 39 points for the fourth year in a row. However, he has taken a bit of a step back from last year and with the additions of Andrei Kuzmenko and Ilya Mikheyev last summer and the acquisition of Anthony Beauvillier in the Horvat trade, Vancouver has a surplus of wingers. Garland carried some decent trade value back with Arizona but how much will his contract (which runs through 2025-26 at a $4.95MM AAV) change things? Again, retention might be necessary to facilitate a move or at least take a similarly-priced player back.
Other Potential Trade Chips: G Collin Delia, F Micheal Ferland (LTIR contract), D Jack Rathbone, D Riley Stillman
Team Needs
1) Picks and Prospects – This one is pretty obvious for a team that’s heading for a rebuild. Vancouver hasn’t had more than six picks in the last three years and has only picked twice in the top 75 over that span. Their prospect pool isn’t the deepest as a result and needs to be built back up.
2) Cap Flexibility – At the moment, Vancouver has just over $80MM in commitments for next season while still needing to fill out a few roster spots. Even as a seller, they need to open up some room simply to be able to afford to ice a full team next season. Moving out one of their pricier contracts (Myers, Garland, or Boeser) would go a long way toward giving them some much-needed wiggle room.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Canadiens Recall Corey Schueneman
With the Canadiens carrying just six healthy defensemen on their roster and Justin Barron leaving Thursday’s game early due to injury, they’ve brought up an extra rearguard as Sportsnet’s Eric Engels reports (Twitter link) that Corey Schueneman has been recalled.
It’s the third recall of the season for the 27-year-old who was brought up for a pair of short stints in October although he didn’t get into any NHL appearances during that time. Schueneman has suited up in 43 games with AHL Laval this season, picking up five goals and 13 assists. Schueneman does have some NHL experience under his belt, however, as he got into 24 games with the Canadiens last season where he picked up six points and 40 blocked shots while averaging 16:36 per night.
Early indications are that Barron should be able to play tonight against Toronto so Schueneman, a pending unrestricted free agent, is likely just being added to the roster as an insurance policy at this point. To make room for him on the roster, defenseman Arber Xhekaj was placed on injured reserve. He’s out indefinitely after sustaining an upper-body injury last weekend. The team announced (Twitter link) that he’ll see a specialist next week with an update to come at that time.