Five Key Stories: 12/26/22 – 1/1/23
The week following the holiday break is typically a quiet one and this was no exception, aside from a key veteran signing a contract extension. It’s among the news highlighted in our key stories.
Crawford To Switzerland: One veteran coach is off the free agent market as Marc Crawford has been hired by Zurich in Switzerland on a three-year contract. If you’re thinking you’ve seen this headline before, it’s actually the second time that Crawford has coached this franchise as he had a four-year stint with the club beginning in 2012-13. Crawford was last behind an NHL bench last season with Chicago but hadn’t caught on anywhere this season. Meanwhile, the outgoing coach in Zurich is also of some note as it’s Rikard Gronborg. The 54-year-old has received NHL interest in the past and now that he’s a free agent, teams could come calling again.
Wounded Coyote: One of the early bright spots for the Coyotes has been rookie winger Matias Maccelli. Entering the holiday break, he sat second in the league for points by a first-year player despite largely flying under the radar. Unfortunately for him and Arizona, the 22-year-old will miss the next six weeks with a lower-body injury. Maccelli played in 23 games last season and had just six points but had three goals and 19 assists in 30 games prior to the injury which was sustained in their final game before the break against Los Angeles.
Staying In Dallas: Veteran center Joe Pavelski had a very productive 2021-22 campaign, earning himself a one-year extension. He’s off to a similarly productive first half this season and he has once again earned a one-year extension, this time signing it on the first day he was eligible to. The 38-year-old will receive $3.5MM in base salary plus $2MM in achievable bonuses (maxed at 20 games played) along with a no-move clause. The deal is similarly structured to the one he’s on this season, giving Dallas some flexibility as bonuses can be rolled over and charged against the cap the following year. Pavelski has 200 points over his first 243 games with Dallas, giving them some steady and reliable production at the top of their lineup.
Good News/Bad News For Avs: It has been a rough year injury-wise for the Cup champs as Colorado has been missing several key players all season long. They did get one of those players back this weekend when center Nathan MacKinnon was activated off IR after missing the previous 11 games with an upper-body injury. The 27-year-old has 34 points in 24 games this season (a pace of 116 over a full 82-game schedule) and will give the Avalanche a second top scoring threat at the top of their lineup. However, it wasn’t all good news on the injury front as winger Valeri Nichushkin has re-injured his surgically repaired ankle with no timetable for his return. He has been a point-per-game player when he has played this season so his absence will once again be felt.
Hanging Them Up: Veteran winger Devante Smith-Pelly has decided to call it a career, announcing his retirement at the age of 30. He played in parts of eight NHL seasons with Anaheim, Montreal, New Jersey, and Washington, recording 101 points and 799 hits in 395 games, a pretty good career for the 2010 second-round pick. Smith-Pelly last saw NHL action in the 2018-19 campaign but had caught on with AHL teams since then, spending the second half of last season with Montreal’s AHL affiliate in Laval.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
PHR Mailbag: Rangers, Canucks, Devils, Buyers And Sellers, Red Wings Centers, Roster Spots
This edition of the PHR Mailbag largely focuses on the trade deadline which is now just over two months away. If your question doesn’t appear here, check back in last weekend’s mailbag.
met man: Brian, do you think the Rangers should upgrade the backup goalie situation?
When I first saw this question, my immediate thought was yes, they should do something to upgrade the spot. Jaroslav Halak is not having a particularly strong season which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise considering how poorly things went for him last season with Vancouver. It stands to reason that if Igor Shesterkin gets injured, they’re in trouble. In that sense, it does make sense to try to upgrade.
However, my second thought changed my tune somewhat. Yes, they’ll be in trouble if Shesterkin goes down but that will be the case with whatever backup they have whether it’s Halak or one of the second-stringers that might move in the next couple of months. Knowing that, is a second-string upgrade the most efficient use of their cap space? Or should they focus on players that are going to play every night that improve their scoring or defense?
After bouncing those two thoughts around, I’ve come to some sort of hedge answer. If I’m GM Chris Drury, I’d flip a mid-round pick to Columbus for Joonas Korpisalo at the deadline. At that point, there isn’t much more than $300K left on his contract which shouldn’t be too difficult to fit in. If they wanted to bank a little extra space between now and the deadline, they could paper Ben Harpur back and forth to help on that front.
Korpisalo’s numbers aren’t great but they’re better than Halak’s and he’s the type of goalie that might be worth getting an early look at to see if he’d fit as a longer-term backup beyond this season. He does have some playoff experience and did quite well so as long as adding him doesn’t prevent them from making a bigger splash, it’d be worthwhile doing. However, it’s worth noting that Halak can’t be buried in the minors which would offset most of Korpisalo’s cost as he has a full no-move clause so that would need to be factored into their spending plans.
cheftay: Who do you see Vancouver trading Horvat to and what a potential trade might look like? Do you see them possibly trading Miller too before his NTC kicks in this summer? If you were Vancouver’s GM, what might you do with this team going into the trade deadline and in the offseason? Would you buy out OEL?
In a recent mailbag, I had Vancouver finding a way to re-sign Bo Horvat and I don’t want to fully bail on that just yet. I think a factor in their contract offers has been their cap situation but if things improve on that end (such as saving some money on a Brock Boeser trade, for example), they would be able to up their offer and that might be enough to bridge the gap. I’m certainly not as confident in that happening as I was a month ago but I think it could happen.
Between that and hoping for as much certainty on next year’s cap as soon as possible, I think a Horvat trade, if it comes to that, comes close to the trade deadline. It’s easier for other teams to make the money work in late February/early March than it is in January. As for where, I like Colorado. They’re a team that has a long-term need that might be willing to do an extension at the same time as the trade. If Vancouver retains 50% and there’s an extension in place, I could see part of the offer being a first-round pick and young center Alex Newhook.
As for J.T. Miller, I don’t see him moving short of him turning around and asking for a trade. Trading players before a long-term extension kicks in rarely happens and I don’t think the offers now would be better than what they were being offered pre-extension. He should still be part of their long-term plans.
There’s not a whole lot Vancouver can really do to dramatically change up the core beyond moving Horvat if an extension can’t be reached. They’d be selling low on Boeser and Conor Garland while Tyler Myers isn’t going anywhere yet (when his signing bonus is paid though, that’s another story). I’d be selling high on Luke Schenn who may not be the best defenseman to move but at a $900K cap hit, he’s cheap enough to create a good bidding war. If they can’t extend Andrei Kuzmenko, I’d be moving him as well. I’d be trying to move Tanner Pearson as well but I don’t think there’d be much traction there.
Then there’s Oliver Ekman-Larsson. With four years left at $7.26MM (excluding Arizona’s portion), that contract isn’t getting any better. But with two of those buyout years (25/26 and 26/27) costing $4.767MM each, that’s a bit too much of a single-year cap charge to eat right now. Plus, carrying eight years of dead cap money is hardly ideal. In the short term, I’m not convinced they can get a better defender for less money than the new guy’s cap hit plus Ekman-Larsson’s cap charge and if they can’t do that, why buy him out? Ekman-Larsson isn’t a top defender anymore but he’s still more than serviceable. They don’t have a particularly good or deep back end right now so for now, he stays.
Grocery stick: Right now the Devils seem to be on track for reaching the playoffs. That should make them buyers at the trade deadline. What are they doing with Holtz and Nemec who are their most high-end prospects in my book? Will the Devils flip their top prospects for success this season? They have some valuable depth players on expiring contracts so there won’t be a ‘next season’ for this Devils team. Are they going all in?
Generally speaking, I don’t like the idea of teams going all in after being a non-playoff team. It’s rare for a team to go from being a cellar dweller to a contender in one fell swoop so why push all the chips in so quickly? On the other hand, I’m not convinced that the Devils are a sustainable contender as things stand so with things falling into place this season, is it better to take your shot?
The next six weeks or so will go a long way in determining which route they go. Right now, things are looking good even with their recent struggles but if they continue to slip, the willingness to go all in likely dissipates somewhat. I don’t think Simon Nemec will be in play but I do think Alexander Holtz could be in the right situation. That right situation would be getting a young (25 or under) core piece that has at least four years of team control remaining.
As things stand, I think they’re softer buyers. Andreas Johnsson’s expiring contract won’t carry value but he’s a good enough player that he can be used as a contract matcher which would give them $2.275MM (his cap charge while in the minors) in full-season space to work with. That’s enough to add a depth piece or two (depending on if the other team retains) and send a message that management believes in this group without risking much of anything in terms of longer-term assets and cap flexibility.
aka.nda: What’s going on with the Sens and Blue Jackets? They gonna be buyers or sellers? Who are the targets? Possibly same question in regard to the Rangers and Flames as well.
Ottawa: They’re a bit of a Wild Card for a couple of reasons. Can they get back into the Wild Card race? I think they can. But with an estate basically running the team right now, what do they have for budget space? Playoffs were the expectation after a busy summer of upgrades so it’s hard to see them sell. Besides, other than Cam Talbot, I’m not sure there’s a pending UFA that carries a lot of trade value for them. I think they’re light buyers in terms of shoring up their depth (there are plenty of possible targets on that front) but I’m intrigued to see if they have something bigger going that requires Nikita Zaitsev‘s contract being moved out.
Blue Jackets: The playoffs aren’t an option for them so they’re sellers but this will be a softer sell. In other words, move the pending UFAs but not the core guys. Vladislav Gavrikov will fetch a good return and as long as they’re willing to retain half of Gustav Nyquist’s deal, I think they can get a mid-round pick for him plus whatever they get for Korpisalo. I wouldn’t be surprised if GM Jarmo Kekalainen prefers already-drafted prospects over draft picks as those players better fit the timeline of their young core.
Rangers: We’ve covered the goalie situation already but let’s look at the skaters. They’ll be buyers barring them falling well out of the playoff race. I had Vladimir Tarasenko going there in last weekend’s mailbag and that’s the side of the market I expect them to be on. If there’s a key forward (winger or center), they’ll be inquiring. Defensively, I think they’ll look to upgrade on their sixth defender; Ben Harpur is a capable depth player but do they really want him in the lineup in the playoffs? Who they target there depends on the forward they get.
Flames: Right now, they are narrowly holding onto a Wild Card spot. As long as they stay in that range, I think they’re buyers on the rental front. With over $80MM in commitments for next season already per CapFriendly, they can’t really afford someone on a multi-year deal. Depending on what happens with Oliver Kylington, they might want to add a defensive upgrade but otherwise, a top-six winger will be the target. Having said that, I could see them being a team that sells a bit as well in an effort to try to free up some cap space. At first glance, Andrew Mangiapane might be someone whose contract they might want to try to get out of. Maybe the buying move is a player-player swap, not a player-for-futures one that we typically see.
Snapshots: Three Stars, Top Rookie, Penguins, Zohorna
With the calendar turning to January, the NHL announced its Three Stars for December. Taking home the top spot was Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin, whose 13 goals last month moved him up into second in all-time NHL goals as he now sits at 806, 88 behind Wayne Gretzky for the record. Oilers center Connor McDavid was the second star after leading the league in goals (14) and points (31) while tying for the lead in assists (17) and is the first player this season to record 30 points in a month. Sabres center Tage Thompson was the third star after picking up 22 points in 11 games while helping Buffalo pick up eight wins to get back within striking distance of a Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- The NHL also revealed the Rookie of the Month for December with Hurricanes netminder Pyotr Kochetkov getting the nod. The 23-year-old posted a 1.63 GAA along with a .939 SV% and two shutouts in eight appearances last month, just weeks after inking a four-year, $8MM contract extension that kicks in next season.
- Penguins defenseman Kris Letang accompanied the team to Boston in advance of tomorrow’s Winter Classic but didn’t practice and remains listed as day-to-day, notes Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. At this point, it seems unlikely that he’ll be able to suit up in the outdoor game. Meanwhile, blueliner Chad Ruhwedel was a participant in practice, albeit in more of a reserve capacity. He has been out for the last two games and could be available to suit up against the Bruins.
- Radim Zohorna has been shuffled back and forth off Calgary’s roster in recent days and that trend continued today as FlamesNation’s Ryan Pike relays (Twitter link) that the Flames have sent Zohorna back to AHL Calgary. The 26-year-old has played in five NHL games this season and will likely be recalled in advance of their next game on Tuesday. For each day Zohorna is in the minors, the Flames are banking a little over $4K in cap space while extending his waiver exemption as he’ll remain exempt until he plays in ten NHL games or is on Calgary’s roster for 30 days.
Senators Stepping Up Efforts To Move Nikita Zaitsev
It has been a tough year for Senators defenseman Nikita Zaitsev, to put it lightly. He has struggled when he has been in the lineup and passed through waivers earlier in the season which resulted in his first career AHL action.
However, it appears as if they’re stepping up their efforts to move the 31-year-old as ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reports (Twitter link) that Ottawa has given Zaitsev’s permission to speak to other teams to try to help facilitate a trade. Additionally, Weekes reports that the Sens are also willing to part with a sweetener – a good prospect or high draft pick – to get a deal done.
Zaitsev has another year after this one on his contract that carries a $4.5MM cap hit. That’s a high price tag for someone who is averaging less than 17 minutes per night when he’s in Ottawa’s lineup. While he had a 36-point rookie season with Toronto in 2016-17 which helped shape the price tag of his current deal, he hasn’t been able to reach half of it since then. Notably, he also has a ten-team no-trade clause which gives Zaitsev a bit of an ability to control what happens next.
If Ottawa is indeed willing to move a quality asset to get out of the final year and a half of Zaitsev’s deal, it stands to reason that the primary objective is to clear the full contract off the books, similar to what Calgary did when they sent Montreal a protected first-round pick to get out of the final year of Sean Monahan’s contract. That suggests that they’re likely unwilling to retain on the contract or take a bad deal back as if they were, they wouldn’t need to attach an additional asset to make a move happen.
Ottawa has a little more than $4.3MM in full-season cap space at the moment, per CapFriendly. That amount is lower than what it really should be as at the moment, they have six players on injured reserve (including Zaitsev); as some of them return and their short-term replacements go back to the minors, they will have considerably more cap room to work with.
However, it’s also worth noting that they’re typically a budget team, not one that spends to the Upper Limit and with an ownership situation that’s certainly in flux with efforts to sell the team well underway, it’s possible that they don’t have the green light to spend right to the limit. Accordingly, if they want to make a move to add to their roster, they might need to move Zaitsev to have the budget room to do so.
With the bulk of the trade market still a fair way away from developing with so many teams needing to bank more cap room, they haven’t had much luck finding a taker for him yet. Perhaps now with his agent being able to speak to teams and the Senators willing to incentivize a team to take on Zaitsev’s contract, they’ll eventually have some better luck making it happen.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
East Notes: Red Wings, Raanta, Blue Jackets
Robby Fabbri is nearing a return for the Red Wings and there’s more help on the horizon as well as head coach Derek Lalonde told reporters, including MLive’s Ansar Khan (Twitter link) that wingers Tyler Bertuzzi and Filip Zadina are on the same timeframe for a return and should be back in the next eight to ten days. Bertuzzi has missed the last month after undergoing wrist surgery and while he’s off to a slow start this season, he had a career-high 62 points in 2021-22. Meanwhile, Zadina has missed more than seven weeks with a lower-body injury. With those two and Fabbri close to coming back, Detroit’s forward group is about to get a lot deeper in the very near future as they look to hang around the Wild Card battle.
Elsewhere in the East:
- While Carolina’s original intention might have been to send Pyotr Kochetkov back to the minors when Frederik Andersen returns from his injury, his play has made that much more difficult. Accordingly, Adam Proteau of The Hockey News opines that Antti Raanta might be the odd one out between the pipes. He has a 2.53 GAA with a .900 SV% in 14 starts this season, a decent return on a $2.25MM AAV. While the Hurricanes likely wouldn’t be able to command a sizable return for Raanta’s services, he could be a useful pickup for a team looking for a short-term option between the pipes.
- The Blue Jackets announced (Twitter link) that goaltender Daniil Tarasov suffered an upper-body injury in practice on Friday. The 23-year-old was likely to be sent to the minors soon with Elvis Merzlikins clearing COVID protocol earlier this week but this will now delay that for at least a few days as Tarasov is listed as day-to-day. He has played in a dozen games with Columbus this season, recording a 3.40 GAA with a .907 SV%.
- Still with the Blue Jackets, defenseman Nick Blankenburg has resumed skating as he works his way back from a broken ankle, relays Aaron Portzline of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 24-year-old has been out for the last seven weeks due to the injury and there remains no timetable for his return. Blankenburg has three points in seven games so far this season.
Flyers Sign Ethan Samson To Entry-Level Contract
The Flyers have agreed to terms with one of their prospects as NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman relays (Twitter link) that they’ve signed defenseman Ethan Samson to a three-year, entry-level contract. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The 19-year-old was a sixth-round pick by Philadelphia back in 2021 (174th overall) but Samson has outperformed his draft stock since then. After putting up 48 points in 68 games with Prince George of the WHL last season, he’s off to an even better start this year with 24 points in 27 contests. That was enough to earn Samson an invitation to Canada’s camp for the World Juniors although he wasn’t able to crack their roster.
Samson will remain in junior this season so technically, while the first year of the deal is this season, it will slide a year and still have three years remaining on it. He’ll be eligible to turn pro next season and with the Flyers only having three of their current AHL defensemen under contract beyond this year at the moment, there should be an opportunity for Samson to suit up for AHL Lehigh Valley in 2023-24.
Atlantic Notes: DeBrincat, MacDonald, Kapanen
Senators winger Alex DeBrincat has had a very strong month of December with 18 points in 13 games heading into today’s action. When they acquired him at the draft, he was viewed as someone that they likely felt was a long-term piece of the puzzle. However, Postmedia’s Ken Warren suggests a long-term agreement for the pending RFA might not be a slam dunk. With the ownership situation not settled, do the Sens have a firm commitment that they’ll be able to spend right to the Upper Limit next season? With the team struggling, do they want GM Pierre Dorion working out another long-term contract for a forward, one that would limit their flexibility? A new deal for the 25-year-old probably pushes Ottawa into a situation where their top six forwards will account for more than 50% of the cap next season. Would they be better off spending that money to upgrade the back end for a more well-rounded roster?
Accordingly, Warren wonders if there’s a scenario in which Ottawa trades DeBrincat at the trade deadline. If they’re out of the mix and DeBrincat isn’t overly open to a long-term agreement, it’s possible that the smarter long-term play would be to move him. It’d be a notable step back for the Senators at least in the short term but if they’re still out of the playoff picture in a couple of months, it’s one that might get considered if there’s no extension in place by then.
More from the Atlantic:
- Lightning prospect Cameron MacDonald is on the move in the QMJHL as Saint John announced that they’ve moved the forward to Gatineau for a pair of draft picks. The 19-year-old was a fifth-round pick by Tampa Bay back in 2021 (160th overall) and is averaging more than a point per game this season with 16 goals and 13 assists in 27 contests. In order for the Lightning to retain his NHL rights, they’ll have to sign MacDonald by June 1st and how he fares down the stretch with the Olympiques will go a long way toward determining if he’s worthy of an entry-level deal.
- Canadiens prospect Oliver Kapanen has signed a one-year extension with KalPa through the 2023-24 season, the Finnish team announced. The 19-year-old was a second-round pick by Montreal in 2021 (64th overall) and has seven goals and seven assists in 32 SM-liiga games this season. He’s currently playing for Finland at the World Juniors where he has two points in three games so far.
Avalanche Activate Nathan MacKinnon Off Injured Reserve
The Avalanche will have their franchise player back in the lineup tonight against Toronto as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve activated center Nathan MacKinnon off injured reserve. To make room for MacKinnon on the roster, winger Charles Hudon has been assigned to AHL Colorado.
MacKinnon suffered an upper-body injury earlier this month which was expected to keep him out for four weeks so he’s right on schedule. The 27-year-old was off to another strong start before the injury as he had 34 points in 23 games; even though he has missed 11 games, he’s still tied for second on the Avs in scoring. More importantly, he gives Colorado their top center back, allowing them to push J.T. Compher off the top line and balance out their forwards a bit better; Compher had been logging nearly 24 minutes a night in MacKinnon’s absence.
Colorado enters play tonight sitting fourth in the Central Division and is tied with Calgary for a Wild Card spot in the West. That has largely been due to an extremely long injury list that still has them without two top-six wingers in Gabriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin and two key defenders in Bowen Byram and Josh Manson, among others. Their push to put themselves in a much more favorable playoff position will be a lot easier with MacKinnon, their star center and the player who will have the richest contract in NHL history next season, returning to the lineup.
As for Hudon, he was recalled back on Tuesday on his third emergency loan of the season. The 28-year-old has played in nine games with the Avalanche this season, logging just shy of 11 minutes a night while being held off the scoresheet. He has 18 points in 22 contests with the Eagles and should be a recall option should another injury up front arise with the big club.
Sabres Assign Eric Comrie To AHL On A Conditioning Stint
Despite having the top-scoring offense in the league with an average of four goals per game, the Sabres find themselves eight points out of a playoff spot heading into today’s action. However, they could be getting some much-needed help between the pipes soon as Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News reports (Twitter link) that Buffalo has sent goaltender Eric Comrie to AHL Rochester on a conditioning stint and he will make the start against Toronto this afternoon.
Comrie is in his first season with the team after signing a two-year, $3.6MM deal with them back in July. The 27-year-old sustained a lower-body injury back in mid-November, one that was expected to keep him out for four weeks. It’s a little past that point already but with him getting an AHL start today, he’s very close to returning.
This season, Comrie has posted a 3.62 GAA along with a .887 SV% in 11 starts, numbers that aren’t particularly strong. However, he hasn’t had a lot of goal support relative to Craig Anderson and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen as four of Comrie’s seven losses have come with Buffalo scoring two or fewer goals. Now with the team being more consistently dangerous offensively, a better performance from Comrie is certainly possible.
His pending return is also good news for the Sabres in terms of developing Luukkonen. Comrie’s addition was intended to allow the 23-year-old to get a heavy workload in the minors but with Comrie’s absence and Anderson being the oldest player in the league, he has basically been in a timeshare situation lately. Once Comrie returns to the Sabres, that should change and Luukkonen can go back to being the starter for the Americans as planned.
Coyotes Recall Laurent Dauphin
The Coyotes have added some depth up front to their roster as they’ve recalled center Laurent Dauphin from AHL Tucson, per the AHL’s Transactions Log. They now have 14 forwards on their active roster although one of those, Matias Maccelli, is out for several more weeks and can easily be moved to injured reserve.
It’s the second recall of the season for the 27-year-old as Dauphin was also up with the team on an emergency basis for a week and a half in mid-November. He saw action in just one game during that stretch, however. Last season, Dauphin was a regular for Montreal in the second half of the campaign as he got into a career-high 38 games, picking up 12 points.
Dauphin has spent most of the season with the Roadrunners and has been quite productive, collecting 12 goals and 15 assists in 26 games, good for second on the team in scoring. The only player he’s behind is league leader Michael Carcone who was recalled to Arizona on Tuesday.