Penguins Have Shown Interest In Jack St. Ivany
One of the unsigned college prospects to hit the open market earlier this week was defenseman Jack St. Ivany after Philadelphia opted not to sign him to a contract but it appears he’ll get one before too long. Dave Molinari of Pittsburgh Hockey Now reports that the Penguins are among the teams that are interested in signing him to an entry-level deal.
The 23-year-old was a fourth-round pick of the Flyers back in 2018 (112th overall) back when Ron Hextall was in charge. Hextall, of course, is now the GM in Pittsburgh so he has a fair bit of familiarity with St. Ivany’s game already.
St. Ivany split his college career between Yale and Boston College, spending two seasons with each school. Last season, he picked up four goals and 20 assists with the Eagles, setting new benchmarks in goals and points. While he was eligible to play a bonus season, St. Ivany instead decided to turn pro and while he didn’t get a contract from the team that drafted one, it appears as if one will be coming his way soon enough.
Flyers Re-Sign Jackson Cates
Aug 15: Philadelphia has made it official, announcing Cates one-year, two-way contract.
Aug 14: The Flyers have agreed to terms with one of their remaining unsigned players as CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that they’ve signed forward Jackson Cates to a one-year, two-way deal. The contract will pay $775K in the NHL and $120K in the minors.
The 24-year-old played his first full professional season in 2021-22, splitting time between Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley of the AHL. He played in 37 games with the Phantoms, picking up two goals and eight assists but was able to collect his first career NHL goal in 11 contests with the Flyers.
As Cates burned the first year of his entry-level deal in 2020-21 when he signed after his junior season with the University of Minnesota-Duluth, he technically wasn’t a restricted free agent. Instead, he was classified as a 10.2(c) player (referencing the section of the CBA his contractual situation refers to); those players don’t have any salary arbitration rights nor are they eligible to negotiate or receive an offer sheet. That didn’t give him much leverage in contract discussions although he’ll receive an extra $40K at the minor league level compared to his entry-level deal.
Cates has one year of waiver exemption remaining and it’s likely that he’ll start next season with Lehigh Valley once again where he’ll have an opportunity to play his way into a recall as the year progresses.
GM Chuck Fletcher still has some work to do this summer as wingers Hayden Hodgson and Wade Allison as well as defenseman Linus Hogberg are all restricted free agents. All three saw brief NHL action with the Flyers last season and should agree to new deals over the coming days.
Five Key Stories: 8/8/22 – 8/14/22
While there were some big signings over the past seven days, there were also some notable injuries that are also featured in our key stories.
Signing Middlemen: In the span of a few hours, the Bruins shored up their center situation for next season. They first signed Patrice Bergeron for what will be his 19th season with the team, giving him a one-year, $2.5MM deal with an additional $2.5MM in bonuses that will be earned once he plays in ten games. Next up was a reunion with David Krejci after a season overseas as he received a one-year pact worth $1MM in base salary and $2MM in bonuses, three-quarters of which will be earned once he gets to 20 games. Lastly, they inked Pavel Zacha to a one-year, $3.5MM deal to avoid salary arbitration. Boston now has strong depth down the middle but while all three are on one-year pacts, they’ll likely be paying a good chunk of that money in 2023-24 through a bonus overage penalty. That deferral will allow them to take one more run at contention with their veteran core.
Big Money For Crouse: The Coyotes have talked about winger Lawson Crouse being a big part of their future plans. They demonstrated their faith in the 25-year-old as they signed him to a five-year deal that carries a $4.3MM AAV. Crouse is coming off of his first 20-goal season while he has led the Coyotes in hits for four straight years. Power forwards are hard to come by and often command pricey deals and that was the case here as Arizona bought out the final two years of Crouse’s RFA eligibility plus his first three UFA-eligible campaigns, ensuring they’ll have him for the prime of his career.
Lehner Out For The Year: The Golden Knights will be without their starting goalie for the entirety of the 2022-23 season after it was announced that Robin Lehner will need hip surgery. This comes on the heels of the shoulder surgery he had back in May on an injury that ended his season prematurely. Vegas will now add his $5MM to their LTIR pool which will also feature Shea Weber ($7.857MM) and perhaps Nolan Patrick ($1.2MM). That gives Vegas some flexibility to try to add a replacement netminder and re-sign defenseman Nicolas Hague. With the availability of backup Laurent Brossoit for the start of the season also in question after his hip surgery, youngster Logan Thompson is currently set to be their opening night starter.
Five For Roy: This past week wasn’t just bad news for Vegas as they agreed to a five-year, $15MM deal with center Nicolas Roy. The 25-year-old established himself as a capable third-line center last season, notching 15 goals and 24 assists in 78 games while logging over 16 minutes a night. For context, he had just 25 points in 85 games heading into the season. It’s a bit of a risky agreement given Roy’s lack of a proven track record but there is also plenty of upside with this deal as if he’s able to play even at a similar level over the next few years, this should become a bargain contract for the Golden Knights. On a veteran-laden team that doesn’t have many below-market value deals, Roy’s should be one of the exceptions before too long.
Achilles Injuries: A pair of players suffered torn Achilles tendons during offseason training and have undergone surgery. The first was Hurricanes winger Max Pacioretty, one of their key summer acquisitions. Instead of him helping to offset the losses of Vincent Trocheck and Nino Niederreiter, they’ll now have to wait until closer to the trade deadline for him to make his Carolina debut. They won’t have any short-term cap issues with his $7MM AAV becoming eligible for LTIR but that’s not much consolation. Meanwhile, after missing all of last season with a core muscle injury, Sharks blueliner Nikolai Knyzhov also sustained the injury and will be out for six months. The 24-year-old was a regular for San Jose back in 2020-21 but it will be quite a while again before he’ll have a shot at reclaiming his spot on their back end.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Looking At The August 15 Free Agents
The middle of August is typically quiet in the hockey world, especially on a transactions front. Most of the heavy lifting of team building is done and while there are some NHL free agents remaining, many of them will be waiting until closer to training camp for their next contracts.
But we’ll soon see a new group of players hit the free agent market as some teams will be losing the rights to some of their college prospects. These are players that have played out their NCAA eligibility (or at least have gone four years since being drafted) but have not signed an NHL contract. Those teams hold their exclusive rights up to and including August 15th. Here’s a listing of those players as well as when they were drafted (round/overall, year).
Arizona
D Michael Karow (5/126, 2017)
Boston
F Jack Becker (7/195/2015)
Calgary
F Mitchell Mattson (5/126/2016)
Carolina
D Tyler Inamoto (5/133, 2017)
Chicago
D Stanislav Demin (4/99, 2018)*
D Josh Ess (7/215, 2017) – signed in France
Colorado
F Tyler Weiss (4/109, 2018)*
Columbus
G Peter Thome (6,155, 2016)
Montreal
F Brett Stapley (7/190, 2018)*
NY Islanders
F Logan Cockerill (7/201, 2017) – signed in Sweden
D Ben Mirageas (3/77, 2017)
Philadelphia
D Jack St. Ivany (4/112, 2018)*
Pittsburgh
D Clayton Phillips (3/93, 2017)
San Jose
G Mike Robinson (3/86, 2015)
Tampa Bay
F Cole Guttman (6/180, 2017)*
F Samuel Walker (7/200, 2017)*
Vegas
F Nicolas Campoli (6/158, 2017)*
F Brandon Kruse (5/135, 2018)
Washington
D Benton Maass (6/182, 2017) – signed with Washington’s farm team
*-The player is eligible to return for a bonus fifth season due to the pandemic. Some of those decisions aren’t made public so some of these players might wind up playing another year and remain property of their respective NHL clubs.
Some years, there are some August 15 free agents that generate a lot of interest – Jimmy Vesey and Alexander Kerfoot are somewhat recent examples – but this class doesn’t have anyone like that. However, there are some players that will be intriguing.
Guttman and Stapley are both coming off strong years with Denver that saw them post better than a point per game for the champion Pioneers. Weiss was just shy of the point per game mark with Omaha-Nebraska while Walker had 27 points with Minnesota. As for Karow, he got into 13 games with Dallas’ farm team down the stretch and didn’t look out of place. Those are at least a handful of players that should be receiving some phone calls once they officially hit the open market.
Sharks Seeking Second-Round Pick For James Reimer
The annual goalie carousel at the beginning of free agency has come and gone but there still could be some trade activity involving netminders. San Jose still has three NHL goalies and while they’ve said they’d be comfortable keeping all three to start the season, that’s usually not an ideal scenario.
That hasn’t stopped GM Mike Grier from placing a high asking price for James Reimer, however, as Sheng Peng reports in his latest column for NBC Sports Bay Area that the Sharks are asking for a second-round pick to move the veteran. If Reimer was the one to go, that would then have San Jose enter next season with a tandem of Kaapo Kahkonen and Adin Hill who has been cleared for training camp after missing most of the last three months of 2021-22.
In a vacuum, a second-round pick for a capable backup like Reimer isn’t crazy. The 34-year-old is coming off a year that saw him post a .911 SV% in 48 games, a mark that was above the NHL average despite the fact he was on a team that came up well short of making the playoffs. He’d represent an upgrade for several teams and with a $2.25MM AAV, he’s one of the cheaper veteran backups compared to deals that have been handed out over the past year or so.
But with most goalie situations settled, Grier will be hard-pressed to get that type of value for Reimer. Sure, Vegas could use a goalie with Robin Lehner out but if they do look to make a move, it stands to reason that they’d look for more of a proven starter and Reimer isn’t that type of player. The Flyers could need a backup with Ivan Fedotov’s uncertain short-term future but fitting him in on the cap would be tricky. Arizona needs a second-stringer but with them not really focused on winning, their preference might be to look on waivers for a cheaper option over trading a good draft pick for a player they’d ultimately look to flip a few months later at the trade deadline.
With that in mind, it’s difficult to see Grier being able to find a taker for Reimer at that asking price. The safer play for the new GM might be to see how things go in training camp and see if an injury or two shakes up the landscape a little bit. Again, it’s rarely ideal for a team to enter a season with three capable netminders but in this case, it might be the right call for the Sharks if they can’t get their desired trade return for Reimer.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Oilers Have Held Talks With Sam Gagner
Earlier this month, Oilers GM Ken Holland mentioned that he’d like to add more depth to his roster although, for the time being, he doesn’t have the cap space to do so once he re-signs RFA Ryan McLeod. But that hasn’t stopped him from having discussions with free agents and Kurt Leavins of the Edmonton Journal reports that one of the players they’ve spoken with is veteran winger Sam Gagner.
The 33-year-old is no stranger to Edmonton having played for them on a couple of occasions in the past. He spent seven years with them after being drafted by them sixth overall back in 2007 before returning in 2019 for parts of two more seasons. With 317 points in 542 games with them, he sits 21st on their all-time scoring list.
Gagner hasn’t done a lot of scoring in recent years, however, with just one season of more than ten goals since 2016-17. Fortunately for him, the one time he did that since then was last season with Detroit when he put up 13 goals and 18 assists in 81 games, all but two of those coming at even strength. That type of depth scoring should be appealing to some teams but right now, it’s not a desirable market for veteran role players with so many teams at or near the cap ceiling.
Gagner is 33 games shy of reaching the 1,000 games played mark. At this point, it’s likely that he’ll have to settle for a minimum contract if he wants to have a chance of getting to that mark in 2022-23. A return to where it all began certainly makes some sense for the Oilers but only if they can find a way to free up enough cap space to bring him back for a third stint with the team.
Snapshots: Eller, Golden Knights, DeBrincat
With Washington’s top two centers being Evgeny Kuznetsov and newcomer Dylan Strome (with Nicklas Backstrom injured) and Connor McMichael in the mix as well, some have wondered if the Capitals should look into moving veteran middleman Lars Eller. However, Sammi Silber of Washington Hockey Now cautions against that approach, noting that having a bit of a logjam down the middle is never a bad thing while Eller can certainly help on the defensive side of things, an area that McMichael isn’t ready to take on just yet. With one year left at $3.5MM, Washington would have some interest if they were to shop the 33-year-old around but his best value might come later in the season compared to now when the trade market is not yielding top returns for veteran players.
More from around the hockey world:
- While the season-ending injury to Robin Lehner has many thinking that the Golden Knights need to acquire a goaltender, Vegas’ Ken Boehlke argues that the best move they could make is to make no move at all. That will allow them to evaluate whether the core of this roster is truly good enough to contend and assess the readiness of Logan Thompson to be a full-time NHL goaltender. If they’re in the playoff picture midseason, that approach would also give them a bit of cap flexibility to try to add thanks to LTIR as they won’t have spent Lehner’s $5MM at that point. Vegas hasn’t shown much patience in their brief NHL tenure but there’s definitely a case to be made for them to have some now.
- In his latest mailbag column (subscription link), Scott Powers of The Athletic reports that Alex DeBrincat didn’t show interest in signing a long-term deal with the Blackhawks before his trade to Ottawa last month. The 24-year-old was only eligible to sign an extension at the start of the new league year on July 13th (a few days after the swap) and is owed a qualifying offer of $9MM next summer. That amount will likely be the starting point for extension negotiations with the Senators as he’s coming off his second 41-goal campaign over the last four years.
Atlantic Notes: Zacha, Sabres, Edmonds
Although the Bruins weren’t able to get Pavel Zacha signed to a multi-year deal, GM Don Sweeney recently told reporters in a press conference (video link) that they did try to get one done before ultimately settling on a one-year, $3.5MM agreement, one that will walk the 25-year-old to the open market next summer. Sweeney indicated that they have already stated their intention to Zacha’s camp to work out an extension on the contract that they just signed. However, they’ll have to wait until January before they’ll be permitted to do so. Zacha will be entering his first year with Boston after being acquired from New Jersey last month and is projected to center their third line behind Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic:
- While the Sabres were hoping that prospect defenseman Ryan Johnson would turn pro after development camp, Lance Lysowski of the Buffalo News reports that the blueliner has informed Buffalo that he’ll go back to college for his senior season. The 21-year-old was the 31st pick in 2019 and had 19 points in 39 games for the Minnesota Golden Gophers last season. If he doesn’t sign with Buffalo and becomes a free agent next August, the Sabres would receive the 31st pick of the second round in the 2024 draft as compensation.
- Also from Lysowski’s article, he relays that the immigration issue that prevented prospect Alexander Kisakov from participating in development camp has been resolved, paving the way for him to attend training camp next month. Kisakov had 62 goals over the past two years in Russia’s junior league and is expected to play with AHL Rochester next season.
- The Lightning attempted to sign prospect winger Lucas Edmonds as a free agent last season but they weren’t allowed to as Central Scouting ruled he had to go through the draft, notes Joe Smith of The Athletic (subscription link). Instead, Tampa Bay traded up on the second day of the draft to select the 21-year-old in the third round (86th overall). Edmonds led the OHL in assists with 79 last season and finished third in points with 113 and the team has already since signed him to his entry-level deal.
Free Agent Profile: Sam Steel
The flattened trajectory of the Upper Limit in the NHL in recent years has resulted in teams increasingly opting to non-tender players to avoid the risk of a salary arbitration award coming in higher than what they were willing to pay or could afford. Some of those players signed quickly while others remained unsigned exactly one month into the opening of the market.
Sam Steel fits in the latter of the categories in an outcome that few could have predicted just a couple of years ago. A first-round pick back in 2016 (30th overall), Steel was quite impressive in the minors in his rookie campaign in 2018-19, earning himself a 22-game stint with Anaheim. He did quite well with the Ducks, recording 11 points while seemingly entrenching himself as a staple of their future center plans.
Unfortunately for both him and Anaheim, things have largely gone downhill for Steel since then. While he has played exclusively in the NHL since then, he hasn’t come close to producing at the per-game levels of his first professional campaign. As a result, his playing time and role diminished over the last couple of seasons to the point where he was a healthy scratch a handful of times last season.
Still, young centers are hard to come by and often get extra looks with the organization that drafted them. But Anaheim wasn’t worried about being able to afford his cap hit; they simply wanted to part ways with the 24-year-old. The perceived upside from a few years ago and the fact he plays a premium position makes Steel one of the more intriguing players still available on the open market.
Stats
2021-22: 68 GP, 6-14-20, -17 rating, 16 PIMS, 66 shots, 46.0 CF%, 49.3 FO%, 12:19 ATOI
Career: 197 GP, 24-41-65, -35 rating, 52 PIMS, 226 shots, 47.5 CF%, 50.5 FO%, 14:09 ATOI
Potential Suitors
While some veteran players are likely hoping to catch on with a team with a chance of a long playoff run, Steel should be looking in the complete opposite direction. A squad that will give him a chance at earning a 13th or 14th spot on the roster is an opportunity for another season of NHL money but then what? Another year with limited minutes and production doesn’t bode well for him for the 2023 offseason. For Steel, finding a landing spot with a team that will give him a chance at seeing somewhat regular playing time is crucial. That could have him gravitating towards a rebuilding team over a veteran-laden squad with postseason expectations.
In the East, Ottawa is one team that might be a happy medium in terms of playoff hopes with a shot at playing time. The Sens have cycled through depth centers in recent years and have some younger players that have mostly been minor leaguers to this point that are going to push for playing time plus Dylan Gambrell who was on the fringes when it came to playing time a year ago. Steel could potentially supplant one of those players and see somewhat regular minutes on a team that should make a postseason push. The Hurricanes lost both Vincent Trocheck and Derek Stepan this summer. Stepan’s spot, in particular, could be a spot for Steel. If Montreal clears out some of its forward surplus in the coming weeks, they could wind up being a bit thin down the middle, creating an opportunity there as well.
Out West, Arizona has several young centers already but two of them – Jack McBain and Nathan Smith – haven’t played in the AHL yet. If the Coyotes prefer to give one of them top minutes in the minors, that could create a spot for him on a team that could justify playing him heavy minutes in a rebuilding year. The Jets need to add some forwards to fill out their roster and no established centers have been added yet to replace Andrew Copp (moved at the trade deadline) and Paul Stastny (currently a UFA). If Minnesota would prefer Marco Rossi to get more time in the minors, a spot on the middle of their fourth line might be a fit as well.
As a player that will likely have a limited role to start wherever he winds up, Steel might be better off waiting until partway through training camp to sign when preseason injuries could open up playing time opportunities that aren’t presently there although that approach certainly carries some risk.
Projected Contract
At this point, with the year that Steel had and the fact he remains unsigned at this point, it’s hard to imagine him receiving more than the league minimum. He has two years of team control remaining through arbitration but, again, that can work against players that are lower on the depth chart. If a team wanted a two-year commitment to avoid that arbitration risk next summer, Steel might be able to get a bit more than the minimum but otherwise, he’s likely to sign for $750K wherever he winds up in the coming weeks.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Nikolai Knyzhov Undergoes Surgery, Out For Six Months
Sharks defenseman Nikolai Knyzhov has had nothing but bad luck on the injury front lately. He missed all of last season due to a core muscle injury and now the start of 2022-23 will be delayed as well as the team announced that the blueliner tore his right Achilles tendon in offseason training and underwent surgery on Wednesday. The procedure carries an estimated recovery time of six months.
Back in 2020-21, the 24-year-old established himself as a full-timer on San Jose’s back end as he played in all 56 games, picking up 10 points while logging a little under 17 minutes of playing time. Those numbers aren’t eye-popping by any stretch but for a team that was tight to the salary cap, having a regular player under contract for less than $800K was ideal from a cap management perspective.
The Sharks signed Knyzhov to a one-year, $850K one-way deal back in April with the hopes that he’d be able to reclaim his spot on the third pairing. Clearly, that won’t be the case now as he’ll be out for at least the first half of the season and probably longer. San Jose will be able to put Knyzhov on LTIR which will give them a little bit of extra cap flexibility, especially with the team already carrying some extra depth in goal, up front, and on the back end,