Roman Polak Retires, Joins Columbus As A Scout
Long-time NHL defenseman Roman Polak has decided to call it a career but he will be sticking around the game as Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that the Blue Jackets have hired him as a European scout. Polak will replace Milan Tichy who has joined Edmonton’s scouting department.
The 36-year-old spent the last two seasons playing back home with Vitkovice of the Czech Extraliga where he was the team captain. He had a limited role in 2021-22 and evidently decided that the time was right to hang up his skates rather than pursue another season on the ice.
Polak played in parts of 14 NHL seasons, spanning 806 career games between St. Louis, Toronto, San Jose, and Dallas. His offensive numbers were quite limited – just 26 goals and 114 assists – but he was best known for playing a physical defensive game. He had over 1,400 blocked shots and nearly 2,000 hits which helped him to earn seven contracts and over $24MM in his career before heading back overseas. Now, he will begin his second NHL stint working under GM Jarmo Kekalainen, the then-scout who played a big role in him being drafted by St. Louis back in 2004.
Five Key Stories: 9/5/22 – 9/12/22
With training camps quickly approaching, there is a push from teams to get some contracts in place. Several of those highlight the key stories of the week.
Canadiens Re-Sign Two: Montreal was one of only three teams to still have multiple restricted free agents heading into September but they dealt with both of those soon after. First, Kirby Dach received a rare four-year bridge contract that carries an AAV of $3.3625MM; he will still be a restricted free agent at its conclusion with a $4MM qualifying offer. Acquired at the draft from Chicago, the 2019 third-overall pick will get a chance for a fresh start with Montreal. The following day, Cayden Primeau inked a three-year, one-way deal with a cap hit of $890K. With the team approaching the offseason cap ceiling (10% over the salary cap), Carey Price was moved to LTIR to allow the team to stay in compliance. At this point, the veteran isn’t expected to play this coming season.
Bernier Unlikely To Start Season: Devils goaltender Jonathan Bernier was hoping to be ready for training camp after missing the second half of last season due to hip surgery but that will not be the case. The 34-year-old has made just 34 appearances over the last two years due to injuries and now won’t be starting the final year of his contract on a high note. New Jersey was more prepared for this scenario this time as they added Vitek Vanecek from Washington earlier this summer. He and Mackenzie Blackwood will serve as their goalie tandem until Bernier comes back (if he’s able to).
Eight For Stutzle: Through his first two NHL seasons, Senators forward Tim Stutzle has shown some offensive promise while also transitioning to playing center. The team clearly believes there is much more to come as they handed the 20-year-old an eight-year extension that has a cap hit of $8.35MM. The deal will begin in the 2023-24 campaign. The third-overall pick in 2020, he had 58 points in 79 games last season and with Ottawa adding some impact forwards this summer in Claude Giroux and Alex DeBrincat, Stutzle should be primed for a big jump this coming season. The Senators have done quite well getting their young core to bypass bridge deals in favor of signing long-term contracts as Stutzle joins Brady Tkachuk, Joshua Norris, Drake Batherson, and Thomas Chabot as key players that have done so.
Talking Extension: Earlier this offseason, the Blues signed Robert Thomas to an eight-year extension. Now, they’ve apparently shifted their focus towards another key youngster entering the final year of his contract as the team has started extension discussions with winger Jordan Kyrou. The 24-year-old is coming off a career year that saw him put up 75 points in 74 games to finish fourth on the team in scoring, making his $2.8MM cap hit for 2022-23 quite a bargain. When Thomas signed his extension, it carried a cap hit of $8.125MM and it’s likely that Kyrou’s will come in fairly close to that number if it winds up being a max-term agreement as well.
Tryout Time: In recent years, there has been an influx of veteran players that need to settle for a training camp tryout with the hopes of landing a contract from there. This is shaping up to be no exception as six veterans all agreed to training camp PTOs. On the back end, Danny DeKeyser joined Vancouver, Calvin de Haan is with Carolina for a second stint, Scott Harrington will try to crack the lineup in San Jose, while Nathan Beaulieu tries to do the same in Anaheim. Meanwhile, forward Zach Aston-Reese will look to land a spot on Toronto’s fourth line while Calgary brought in Cody Eakin. Expect several more veteran players to go this route over the coming week.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Flames Sign Cody Eakin To Tryout Deal
PTO season is in full force with training camps roughly a week and a half away and we’ve already seen several veterans ink tryout agreements. The latest to get in on the fun is Calgary as the Flames announced (Twitter link) that they have inked center Cody Eakin to a tryout deal.
The 31-year-old spent the last two seasons in Buffalo while playing in their bottom six. Last season, Eakin recorded four goals and eight assists in 69 games with the Sabres while averaging 13:35 per game. He took a regular turn on the penalty kill and that’s likely the role that Calgary would be wanting him to play if he’s able to crack their roster. Eakin also won 56% of his faceoffs last season which was a single-season career-high.
Eakin has 701 career NHL games under his belt across five different organizations with 110 goals and 146 assists to show for it. While he isn’t the 40-point player he was with Vegas in 2018-19, he can still contribute on a fourth line and there’s a pretty good fit with the Flames; on the surface, it would appear as if there’s a decent chance that he could land a contract from this. He’d be signing for the minimum of $750K or close to it and CapFriendly pegs Calgary as having a little over $2.1MM in cap room so they wouldn’t have to move anyone out to sign him.
It’s worth noting that the Flames are one of the teams that still have a restricted free agent to re-sign in middleman Adam Ruzicka. Eakin’s addition to their camp roster will put him in direct competition with the spot that Ruzicka would be battling for. This is the type of addition that might serve as a motivator for Rucizka’s camp to put pen to paper on an agreement to ensure that he won’t be playing catch-up when the preseason gets underway later this month.
CapFriendly was the first to report that Eakin was signing a PTO with the Flames.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Waiver Watching: Sizing Up The Goaltender Market
With training camps on the horizon, there are still some goaltending situations around the NHL that are unsettled. Accordingly, those teams may be planning on picking up a second goaltender on waivers during the preseason as Montreal did with Samuel Montembeault last season. With that in mind, let’s examine who might be looking for a goalie and which teams have a netminder that could be of interest.
Potentially Looking
Arizona: The Coyotes have one of their two goalies locked up for three years in Karel Vejmelka but after that, there is nothing but question marks. Farmhands Jon Gillies and Ivan Prosvetov have some NHL experience but Gillies struggled last season with New Jersey and Prosvetov hasn’t posted a .900 SV% in the last two seasons in the minors. Cap space isn’t an issue for them so they can look at any of the options available on waivers or take on a bad contract for additional compensation.
Chicago: Right now, Alex Stalock is their backup goalie. He has missed most of the last two seasons battling his way back from myocarditis and struggled considerably in the minors last year. Granted, the Blackhawks certainly aren’t in win-now mode but in a perfect world, they’d like Arvid Soderblom to have an uninterrupted year with AHL Rockford. Currently, he’s third on the depth chart but if there’s a chance to bring in a low-cost second-stringer and push Stalock into the spot of being the one to be recalled if an injury arises, they might want to take it. The waiver wire could be the chance to add that.
Philadelphia: With Ivan Fedotov being blocked from going to North America this season due to a military commitment, the Flyers are going to have to turn to Plan B. Felix Sandstrom is currently their second option but he has just five career NHL appearances under his belt. They’re looking to be more competitive this season so this could be a spot for an upgrade. Granted, Sandstrom would then need to be waived to be sent back to Lehigh Valley but that would have been the case if Fedotov had been able to play so it’s a risk they might be comfortable with.
Of course, an injury or two during the preseason could add to the list of suitors in the coming weeks as well.
Teams That Could Lose A Goalie
For the purpose of this exercise, the focus is going to be on either young goalies that could be appealing or veterans with some recent NHL experience that could fill a gap.
Buffalo: Malcolm Subban was brought back to be the veteran to partner with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in AHL Rochester but he has 86 games of NHL experience under his belt and a deal that’s only $100K above the league minimum. He has been a full-time backup going back to his time with Vegas which would also bolster his chances of potentially being claimed.
Dallas: Right now, Anton Khudobin appears to be the odd one out again with Jake Oettinger and Scott Wedgewood set to be the goalie duo for the Stars. Khudobin is now in the final year of his deal that carries a $3.33MM AAV. It wouldn’t be shocking if he cleared waivers but if Dallas wants to free up a bit of extra money for Jason Robertson’s contract, they’ll be calling Arizona to see what it would cost for them to take that contract on.
Los Angeles: Pheonix Copley has cleared waivers without any concerns the last couple of years but also was on a pricey contract for a third-string option. Now, he’s on a much more palatable deal ($825K) and is coming off an impressive season in AHL Hershey. The 30-year-old was the backup for the Capitals back in 2018-19.
Nashville: This is the most interesting one to keep an eye on. Although Connor Ingram held his own in the playoffs for the Preds, they still went and brought in Kevin Lankinen on a one-year, $1.5MM deal. That’s a lot to pay a third-string option so it could put Ingram in jeopardy. However, if they try to sneak Ingram through, there’s a very good chance he’ll be claimed, especially with an AAV that’s below the minimum. Carrying three goalies is a possibility but generally not ideal so something might have to give here.
New York (R): The Rangers went and brought in Louis Domingue on a two-year contract to be their insurance policy but he might appeal to some other teams as well. He did alright in the playoffs for Pittsburgh and has 142 games of NHL experience over parts of two seasons. Both years are one-way which was likely to try to deter other teams from claiming him but with an AAV of just $775K, he may attract some interest.
Seattle: With Martin Jones joining the Kraken as their backup, that’s going to push both Joey Daccord and Magnus Hellberg to the waiver wire. Daccord was viewed as a possible NHL option not long ago and at 26, there could still be some upside after a strong season with AHL Charlotte. Hellberg, meanwhile, has been dominant in the KHL the last few years which prompted Detroit to give him a brief look down the stretch last season. Other teams might want to take a look as well depending on how things go over the next few weeks.
Winnipeg: Mikhail Berdin is the one goalie on this list that doesn’t have any NHL experience but at 24, he’s also the youngest in this group. If a rebuilding team wants to take a look at a younger backup to see if there’s something there, this is the type of goalie they’d probably want to go for.
Of course, there will be other goalies that will hit the waiver wire in the coming weeks that could be of interest to teams as well depending on what transpires over the preseason. There won’t be a ton of waiver activity between the pipes – there rarely is – but one or two of these players could be changing teams in the coming weeks.
West Notes: Labanc, Jets, Weegar
Sharks winger Kevin Labanc has fully recovered from the shoulder woes that plagued him last season and he will be ready for training camp later this month, notes Corey Masisak of The Athletic (Twitter link). He originally suffered the injury back in December and while it looked like he might be able to return late in the year, that didn’t wind up happening. The 26-year-old had just three goals and three assists in 21 games before the injury, leading to some speculation that he could have been a buyout candidate for San Jose this summer although they obviously didn’t go that route. With two years left on his contract that carries a $4.725MM AAV, the Sharks will be counting on a bounce-back year from their second-highest-paid winger.
More from around the Western Conference:
- With both Ville Heinola and Dylan Samberg potentially being ready for full-time NHL duty, Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun suggests that one of Dylan DeMelo or Brenden Dillon could be a possible trade candidate for Winnipeg over the coming weeks. The Jets are one of the few teams that still has ample cap space at their disposal – more than $5.5MM, per CapFriendly – providing them with an opportunity to still add to their forward group. DeMelo and Dillon are on affordable contracts ($3MM and $3.9MM, respectively) so swapping one for a forward of note could create a spot for one of those youngsters and give them a boost up front, a win-win situation for them.
- While the Flames and Jonathan Huberdeau quickly reached an agreement on an extension after their summer trade with Florida, the same hasn’t happened yet with the other Calgary newcomer in MacKenzie Weegar. However, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports in the latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link) that the two sides are indeed quietly talking about a new deal. The 28-year-old is coming off a career year that saw him put up 44 points in 80 games while logging over 23 minutes per night, numbers that will give him a chance at doubling his current $3.25MM AAV on his next contract.
Kings Re-Sign Mikey Anderson
The Kings had two remaining restricted free agents to deal with but that has been cut to one as they announced the re-signing of defenseman Mikey Anderson to a one-year contract. The deal is worth $1MM.
The 23-year-old has quickly become an important part of the back end for Los Angeles over the last two seasons, logging over 20 minutes a night. Last season, he played in 57 games (missing the rest of them due to an upper-body injury and a brief stint in COVID protocol), collecting eight points while taking only four minor penalties. Anderson also took a regular turn on the penalty kill and led all Kings rearguards in hits. All in all, he has quickly become an unheralded top-four defender for them.
Anderson is coming off his entry-level deal with a required qualifying offer of $874,125 and didn’t have salary arbitration rights this summer. Between that, his limited offensive production, and their salary cap situation, that would have made a multi-year agreement hard to work out. By going this route, Los Angeles gets Anderson at a bargain rate which will help from a cap-management perspective. However, Anderson will qualify for salary arbitration next summer which will help pave the way for a bigger increase at that time. He’ll be owed a $1MM qualifying offer at that time.
GM Rob Blake will now turn his focus to their other unsigned blueliner in Sean Durzi. He’s in the same situation as Anderson was as he has completed his entry-level pact but didn’t qualify for arbitration eligibility this summer. The team has a little over $1.37MM in cap space to work with to get that contract done, per CapFriendly.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that Anderson was nearing a one-year agreement.
Minor Transactions: 09/10/22
With training camps on the horizon, we saw an influx of players signing PTO agreements on Friday and many more will wind up doing so in the coming days. Meanwhile, other players will be scrambling to lock down contracts overseas as those seasons get underway. Here’s a rundown of the recent minor moves around the hockey world.
- Veteran defenseman Stefan Elliott won’t try to catch on with a team in North America as instead, Djurgarden in Sweden’s Allsvenskan announced they’ve signed the blueliner to a one-year deal. The 31-year-old spent the last two years with Frolunda of the SHL. Elliott has played in 87 career NHL games over parts of six seasons plus another 298 AHL contests spanning seven campaigns but it appears his preference at this point of his career is playing overseas.
- Former Flyers defenseman Oskars Bartulis has announced his retirement at the age of 35, notes Sporta Centrs in Latvia. He was part of Philadelphia’s system for five seasons at the beginning of his career, getting into 66 games with the team. Since returning overseas, he spent most of his time in the KHL with brief stints in Austria and his native Latvia.
This post will be updated throughout the day.
Salary Cap Deep Dive: Vegas Golden Knights
Navigating the salary cap is one of the more important tasks for any GM. Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.
PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2022-23 season. This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.
Vegas Golden Knights
Current Cap Hit: $92,736,310 (over the $82.5MM Upper Limit)
Entry-Level Contracts
None
Signed Through 2022-23, Non-Entry-Level
G Laurent Brossoit ($2.325MM, UFA)
G Adin Hill ($2.175MM, UFA)
F Brett Howden ($1.5MM, RFA)
F Phil Kessel ($1.5MM, UFA)
F Nolan Patrick ($1.2MM, RFA)
F Sakari Manninen ($750K, UFA)
Kessel was brought in a couple of weeks ago once the Golden Knights learned that they had some extra LTIR flexibility. He’s not the high-end sniper he was in the prime of his career but he still finished third on the Coyotes in scoring last season and should be a low-cost secondary scoring option on a team that doesn’t have a lot of value contracts. Howden was limited last season due to injuries and often was on the fourth line when he was in the lineup. Despite that, he received this contract back in July to avoid any possibility of arbitration but he’ll need to take on a bigger role to justify getting qualifying him with arbitration rights next summer.
Patrick saw very limited action last season as his concussion issues continued and he might be another LTIR candidate for the upcoming season. Unless something changes, he’ll be non-tendered in June. Manninen’s strong showing at both the Olympics and the Worlds earned him his first NHL contract at the age of 30 on a one-way agreement and will have a good chance to earn a roster spot, especially if they have enough LTIR flexibility to carry more than the minimum-sized roster.
Brossoit was brought in last summer to serve as the backup goaltender and continued his trend of alternating good and bad years with 2021-22 landing in the latter category. His availability for the start of this coming season is in question due to hip surgery so he is going to have a limited window to show that he’s worthy of a similar contract next summer. Hill was recently acquired using part of their extra LTIR space and should get a good opportunity to boost his stock heading into free agency next summer, especially if he could lock down the starting role at some point. Even if not, he could get a small boost as the backup market continues to improve.
Signed Through 2023-24
F Michael Amadio ($763K, UFA)
F William Carrier ($1.4MM, UFA)
D Ben Hutton ($850K, UFA)
F Jonathan Marchessault ($5MM, UFA)
D Alec Martinez ($5.25MM, UFA)
F Chandler Stephenson ($2.75MM, UFA)
Marchessault is one of the few remaining original Golden Knights and is the leading scorer in franchise history after five strong seasons. He’ll be 33 on his next deal and if he can maintain the type of production he has provided Vegas, he could get a multi-year agreement around this rate again. Stephenson has become quite the bargain after Washington couldn’t find a regular role for him in the lineup. He has quickly become a top-six center that makes third-line money and at this point, him doubling his current AAV is definitely doable on the open market in 2024.
Carrier isn’t a significant scorer although he produces more than most fourth-liners do while providing them with plenty of physicality. This is a bit of an above-market deal for someone in that role compared to a lot of fourth-liners signing for around $1MM or less but Vegas is getting more out of him than other teams will from their depth pieces. Amadio was brought in off waivers last year and was a decent depth contributor, earning himself a one-way deal but he’ll need to become an everyday regular to do much better than that in 2024.
Martinez likely left money on the table when he signed an extension last summer but injuries really limited him last season which has hurt his value. He’ll be 37 when his next contract starts and at that point, he might have to go year-to-year at a lower rate than this one. Hutton turned a PTO into a one-year deal, then did well enough to get this extension. He has been in a fringe role for a few years now so his market isn’t likely to change much over the next couple of seasons.
Signed Through 2024-25
F Keegan Kolesar ($1.4MM, UFA)
G Robin Lehner ($5MM, UFA)
F Jake Leschyshyn ($767K, UFA)
D Brayden McNabb ($2.85MM, UFA)
F Jonas Rondbjerg ($767K, UFA)
F Reilly Smith ($5MM, UFA)
D Shea Theodore ($5.2MM, UFA)
G Logan Thompson ($767K, UFA)
Smith hasn’t been able to produce at the level he did early on in his time with Vegas but he continues to be a reliable secondary option that can play in all situations so the team opted to hand him a new three-year deal in July at the same rate of his last one. If the downtick in production continues though, he’ll be hard-pressed to get another $5MM deal in 2025. Kolesar avoided arbitration with his deal last month and did well with this agreement following his only full NHL season. Clearly, Vegas believes he has another level he can get to which would make this a team-friendly deal if he can step into a regular role on the third line. Leschyshyn and Rondbjerg were both up and down last season but are now waiver-eligible which could help them stick at the end of the roster and could boost their stock by securing a regular spot in the lineup at some point during their contracts.
Theodore has emerged as a strong top-pairing blueliner over the last few seasons which makes his deal one of the biggest bargains they have as they’re getting top production at a second-pair rate. He’ll be 30 at the end of this agreement so a max-term contract could be coming his way at a considerably higher price tag than this one. McNabb, meanwhile, isn’t a big point-producer and provides most of his value on the defensive side of things. As long as he can continue to hover around the 20-minute mark, the Golden Knights will get a good return on this contract.
Lehner was the undisputed starter for Vegas last season with Marc-Andre Fleury being traded away last summer in a straight salary cap dump move. However, injuries limited him to just 44 games while he battled inconsistency which is hardly the outcome they were hoping for when they picked Lehner to be the starter. To make matters worse, they recently revealed that he will need hip surgery that will keep him out for all of the upcoming season. While that created the LTIR room for them to add Kessel and Hill, Lehner’s absence certainly also creates a big question between the pipes not only for the upcoming season but beyond as well since hip issues can often be a lingering issue.
Thompson will get an opportunity to be at least the short-term answer to the goaltending question as he will get a long look at being the starter this season. If he can lock down that role, his contract will become one of the top bargains in the league. If things don’t go well, however, he’s a candidate to be sent down when Brossoit is cleared to return; Thompson remains waiver-exempt for the upcoming season.
Atlantic Notes: Zub, Allen, Bertuzzi
With the Senators recently getting a long-term deal done with Tim Stutzle, the logical next choice for an extension would seemingly be winger Alex DeBrincat who was acquired from Chicago at the draft. However, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports in the latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link) that defenseman Artem Zub is the one that Ottawa will be shifting its focus to. The 26-year-old is entering the final season of a two-year, $5MM contract and will be an unrestricted free agent next summer if a new agreement isn’t in place by then. Zub has quickly cracked Ottawa’s top four and has 36 points in his first 128 NHL contests. That smaller track record could make a long-term extension tougher to navigate but it’s likely that it will need to come in higher than the $3.25MM in salary he’s set to receive this season.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic:
- Earlier this week, ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reported (Twitter link) that the Canadiens had opened up extension discussions with goaltender Jake Allen. Friedman clarified in his podcast that those discussions are still in the preliminary stage and that nothing is close while the team wants to get a sense of Allen’s intentions sooner than later. The 32-year-old is entering the final year of his contract that carries a $2.875MM AAV and with Carey Price likely done for the season already, he’ll once again be their projected starter. Between that and the recent market for veteran goalies, Allen could push closer to the $4MM range on a new deal with Montreal.
- Dylan Larkin isn’t the only notable Red Wings forward that’s entering the final year of his contract as winger Tyler Bertuzzi is also in that situation. MLive’s Ansar Khan posits that a long-term agreement for the 27-year-old should check in somewhere between $6MM and $7MM per season. Bertuzzi is coming off his best season with 30 goals and 32 assists in 68 games after missing almost all of 2020-21 due to injury and even with a more limited market compared to most free agents since he wasn’t able to play in Canada last season, he’ll be one of the more sought-after players if he gets to free agency next summer.
Dominik Simon Signs In Czechia
After seeing NHL action in each of the last seven seasons, Dominik Simon is heading home to where it all began as Sparta Praha of the Czech Extraliga announced that they’ve signed the 28-year-old to a two-year contract.
Simon played in a career-high 72 games last season split between the Penguins and Ducks after he was included in the Rickard Rakell swap just before the trade deadline. He picked up three goals and ten assists in those contests while averaging a little over ten minutes a night, numbers that put him in line with plenty of fourth liners. For his career, he has 22 goals and 55 assists in 256 games, most of which came during a pair of stints with Pittsburgh.
However, while he had a PTO offer from Pittsburgh this summer to possibly land a third opportunity with the team, he has instead decided to go for a guaranteed role back home. Simon should have a chance to play a much bigger role than the fourth line spot he has become accustomed to so a good showing overseas could get him back on the NHL radar for 2024.