Max Pacioretty To Undergo Surgery
Max Pacioretty‘s debut with the Hurricanes is going to have to wait a while. The team announced today that the veteran winger is set to undergo surgery to repair a torn Achilles on Wednesday and will be out for six months.
The 33-year-old was acquired from Vegas last month along with defenseman Dylan Coghlan in exchange for future considerations in a trade that was solely done to free up cap space. Pacioretty is coming off an injury-plagued year that saw him miss time due to four separate injuries but when he was in the lineup, he was quite productive, notching 19 goals and 18 assists in just 37 games.
His addition was expected to help offset some of their losses up front with Vincent Trocheck going to the Rangers in free agency while Nino Niederreiter landed with the Predators. Instead, Carolina won’t have Pacioretty in their lineup until sometime in February which is close to the trade deadline. He would have been a capable veteran to help youngsters Seth Jarvis, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and Martin Necas but now, those three will have a little more pressure to produce on their shoulders as things stand.
In the short term, this news eliminates Carolina’s cap problems for most of the season. When Necas signed earlier today, that put them more than $1MM over the $82.5MM Upper Limit of the salary cap and with defenseman Jake Gardiner cleared to return, they weren’t going to have the ability to put him on LTIR. Now, Pacioretty will go there, allowing the Hurricanes to spend up to his $7MM AAV over the cap. The fact that he’ll return later in the season will make it difficult for them to go out and acquire a replacement but at a minimum, they won’t have any compliance issues for the first few months and will be able to carry a full-sized roster without any concerns.
Of course, that’s only a small consolation as they’d much rather have Pacioretty, a player who has produced at nearly a point per game pace over the past three seasons with 154 points in 158 games. But now, they’ll have to wait more than half of the season before their top offseason acquisition up front will be able to make his debut. And with Pacioretty entering a contract year, missing 50 games or more won’t help his market value next summer when he goes in search of his next deal.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Snapshots: Larkin, Kolesar, Luypen
After changing agents earlier this offseason, it felt like Dylan Larkin and the Red Wings would be able to work out a long-term contract extension to keep the captain with his hometown team. However, it has yet to happen so far. In his latest mailbag for The Athletic (subscription link), Max Bultman tried to peg where a new deal should fall for the 26-year-old, suggesting Mika Zibanejad and Evgeny Kuznetsov as viable comparables. Those players took up a little more than 10% at the time their deals would sign which would peg Larkin’s price tag around the $8.6MM range. That would certainly represent a sizable increase on his current $6.1MM AAV and it doesn’t hurt that Larkin is coming off a 69-point season, the second-most of his career. There’s still plenty of time to get a deal done but it’s a bit surprising that an agreement isn’t yet in place.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- Although he underwent offseason surgery after missing the final three games of the season due to a lower-body injury, Golden Knights winger Keegan Kolesar told reporters, including Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal (Twitter link) that he will be ready to return by training camp next month. The 25-year-old had 24 points in 77 games last season which helped him to earn a three-year, $4.2MM contract last week to avoid salary arbitration. With Max Pacioretty and Mattias Janmark moving on this summer, Kolesar could be in line for a bit more playing time next season.
- After signing his entry-level deal earlier this month, Blackhawks prospect Jalen Luypen is on the move in the WHL. Tri-City announced that they’ve acquired the 20-year-old from Edmonton in a swap that included multiple conditional draft picks that are likely dependent on where the forward plays next season. Chicago could turn Luypen pro with AHL Rockford or send him back to junior for an overage year where he’d try to improve on the 64 points in the 66 games he played last season.
Poll: Who Will Win The Gold At The World Juniors?
The 2022 World Junior Hockey Championship is far from a usual one. The tournament usually runs just after Christmas but it had to be rescheduled for August and runs from today through the 20th.
This is often a tournament where we get to see many of the NHL’s top prospects in the same setting. That isn’t exactly the case this time around with many teams asking their top youngsters not to participate with rookie camps a little more than a month away. However, there are still plenty of quality prospects throughout the lineups for this summer event which will help bridge the gap between a slow month of NHL activity and the start of camps next month.
The United States come into the event as the defending Gold Medallists after beating Canada in the 2021 event. They’ll have a whole new goalie tandem with Spencer Knight now in the NHL while Trevor Zegras was the leading scorer in that event and he is now in the NHL as well. The Americans have four first-round picks on their roster while forward Thomas Bordeleau is someone with a bit of NHL experience after playing the last few weeks with San Jose last season.
Canada, the host team for the event, has seen quite a bit of turnover from the initial event in December as there are nine new faces on the roster. However, they’ll be led by returnees Mason McTavish and Kent Johnson up front along with the expected first-overall pick in 2023, Connor Bedard. In total, they have eight first-round picks on their roster.
Finland took home the bronze back in 2021 and they have seven returnees from that squad. Topi Niemela leads the way defensively while Joakim Kemell and Brad Lambert, a pair of first-round picks last month, will help pace the attack. While most of their team remains intact from December, one notable absentee is Penguins goalie prospect Joel Blomqvist who had a dominant year in Finland’s professional league and is getting ready for his next season with them.
Sweden is a team that could have plenty of firepower with five forwards picked in the first round headlined by Isak Rosen and Jonathan Lekkerimaki. On the back end, Simon Edvinsson is poised to have a big tournament that could help propel him into a battle for a roster spot with the Red Wings in training camp while Jesper Wallstedt is a highly-touted goalie prospect. Overall, all but three of their 25 players are NHL prospects.
Slovakia looked to have an opportunity to make an impression at this event but most of their NHL prospects, including Juraj Slafkovsky and Simon Nemec (the top two picks in the draft last month), are taking a pass on the recommendations of their NHL teams but they still have a trio of drafted players plus a projected top-ten 2023 pick in Dalibor Dvorsky.
Meanwhile, Czechia has a dozen NHL prospects on its roster headlined by the sixth pick last month in defenseman David Jiricek. If their matchup today was any indication, both of those teams could be capable of pulling off an upset or two as the tournament progresses.
Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Latvia round out the field, one that will remain intact for the 2023 event that begins in December as there will be no relegation or promotions from this event.
Who do you think will take home the gold? Will it be one of the favorites, or will one of the lesser-known teams pull off some upsets and go all the way? Make your prediction in the poll below.
Who will win the gold at the World Juniors?
-
Canada 49% (333)
-
USA 27% (179)
-
Sweden 11% (74)
-
Finland 9% (64)
-
Slovakia 2% (14)
-
Other 1% (8)
-
Czechia 0% (3)
Total votes: 675
App users, click here to vote.
West Notes: McLeod, Jets, Lambert
The Oilers have one remaining restricted free agent to re-sign in Ryan McLeod. Speaking with 630 CHED (audio link), GM Ken Holland indicated that they expect to have the center signed by training camp on either a one-year or two-year deal. The 22-year-old spent most of last season with Edmonton, picking up 21 points in 71 games plus four more in 16 playoff contests. McLeod didn’t have salary arbitration rights so these talks could drag out closer to training camp. With the Oilers being pretty tight to the cap even after factoring in their LTIR-eligible players, getting McLeod signed for cheap will be critical so it wouldn’t be surprising if he ultimately settles for a one-year pact to keep the AAV as low as possible next season.
More from the Western Conference:
- The Jets showed interest in forward Calle Jarnkrok earlier this summer, even offering him more money than he ultimately accepted from Toronto, reports Sportsnet’s Ken Wiebe. The 30-year-old is coming off a quiet finish to his season with Calgary but his track record of being a capable and versatile third-liner would have helped him fit in quite well with Winnipeg. The Jets are one of the few teams that still have some money to spend this offseason – they have over $6MM in cap space per CapFriendly – so while they didn’t add Jarnkrok, they will certainly be adding a player or two in the coming weeks.
- Still with the Jets, after missing pre-tournament games for Finland, prospect Brad Lambert will be available for the start of the World Juniors, reports Corey Pronman of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 18-year-old slipped to 30th overall in the draft last month after being touted as a likely top-ten selection not all that long ago. Meanwhile, Lambert told Petteri Ikonen of Helsingin Sanomat that a decision on where he will play next season will be made next month during training camp. His contract with Pelicans in Finland is now up although he could sign a new one there. Alternatively, the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL hold his major junior rights while Lambert is eligible to play in the minors as well.
Minor Transactions: 08/08/22
While there has been a fair bit of signing activity around the NHL today, there have been some smaller moves that have been made as well. Here’s a rundown of those transactions.
- Peterborough of the OHL announced the acquisition of Canucks prospect Connor Lockhart from Erie. The 19-year-old forward was a sixth-round pick by Vancouver back in 2021 (178th overall) after not playing at all in 2020-21 due to the OHL shutting down for the season. He’s coming off a 23-goal and 25-assist campaign with the Otters but will likely need a sizable uptick in production if he wants to have a chance at signing an entry-level deal before the June 1, 2023 deadline.
- Minnesota has added some depth in the lower minors as their ECHL affiliate in Iowa announced the signing of forward C.J. Yakimowicz to a one-year deal. The 26-year-old was a draft pick of St. Louis back in 2014 but didn’t sign with the Blues. After wrapping up his junior career in 2017, Yakimowicz spent the last five years in the Canadian college ranks with Dalhousie.
- Free agent defenseman Teemu Kivihalme has signed a one-year deal with TPS in Finland, per a team release. The 27-year-old spent the past three seasons in Toronto’s farm system, getting into 107 games with the Marlies but while he had a handful of NHL recalls during his time with them, he didn’t see any NHL action. Kivihalme had seven points in 32 AHL games last season.
Five Key Stories: 8/1/22 – 8/7/22
With the UFA market slowing to basically a halt, most of the news around the league from the past seven days has come from restricted free agency although there was a significant contract extension as well.
Four For Ferraro: It’s not very often that a player coming off an entry-level deal signs a medium-term contract but that’s exactly what the Sharks and defenseman Mario Ferraro did with the two sides agreeing to a four-year deal that carries a $3.25MM AAV. The 23-year-old has become a key cog on their back end and averaged 23 minutes a game last season. The most notable part about this contract might be that it walks Ferraro right to UFA eligibility while not buying any extra years of team control. Cap space is limited in San Jose which likely took a long-term agreement off the table but it’s still a little surprising that new GM Mike Grier preferred this route. At any rate, the Sharks have a key defender locked up for four years at an affordable rate.
Devils Settle: New Jersey had a pair of wingers that were set to make it to an arbitration hearing and while both cases got to the point of making their filings, both were settled soon after. First, the Devils worked out a one-year, $5.45MM contract with winger Jesper Bratt. It was a well-earned significant raise for the 24-year-old who nearly doubled the AAV of his bridge deal after leading the team in scoring with 73 points in 76 games. He’ll once again be arbitration-eligible next summer. Meanwhile, after opting for club-elected arbitration with winger Miles Wood, the two sides settled on a one-year, $3.2MM agreement. The 26-year-old was limited to just three games last season after undergoing hip surgery but was valued enough by New Jersey to still be qualified last month. Wood actually took a $300K pay cut compared to his salary from last season and will be an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Huberdeau Extension: While Brady Tkachuk wasn’t willing to sign a long-term extension with Calgary, one of the players he was traded for was open to doing so. Jonathan Huberdeau opted to not test free agency next summer, instead signing an eight-year, $84MM extension that will begin in 2023-24. The 29-year-old is coming off a career season that saw him put up 115 points, 85 of which were assists to set an NHL record for assists by a left winger. More than 73% of the money is paid out in the form of signing bonuses while Huberdeau receives a full no-move clause for all eight years with a 19-team no-trade clause in the final two seasons. The contract could very well be an overpayment in the final few seasons but it ensures Calgary will have a premier playmaker in the fold for the long haul.
Flames Sign Two More: Huberdeau’s contract wasn’t the only contract the Flames finalized as they managed to avoid arbitration with a pair of players as well. Defenseman Oliver Kylington received a two-year deal with a $2.5MM AAV. He became a regular part of Calgary’s back end for the first time last season and he made the most of it, recording 31 points in 73 games. Notably, this contract only buys out his final years of RFA eligibility. Meanwhile, Andrew Mangiapane’s career year earned him quite a raise as well as he was given a three-year deal that carries a $5.8MM cap charge. After previously having a career-high of 32 points, the 26-year-old notched 35 goals last season, becoming a core producer for the Flames in the process. His deal covers this last RFA-eligible year plus two seasons of UFA eligibility.
Yamamoto Re-Signs: The Oilers were hoping to sign Kailer Yamamoto to a longer-term deal than the one-year contract they gave Jesse Puljujarvi. They were able to do that although not by much as the team signed the winger to a two-year deal that carries a $3.1MM AAV. The 23-year-old is coming off a nice 2021-22 campaign that saw him pick up 20 goals and 21 assists, both career highs which helped him more than double the $1.175MM price of his last deal and he’ll be owed a $3.2MM qualifying offer in 2024, his last summer of RFA eligibility. With this signing, GM Ken Holland now has Edmonton’s last ten first-round picks under contract (including prospects).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Snapshots: Samoskevich, Avalanche, Michigan
Some college prospects have a plan for when they want to turn pro. First-round picks, in particular, are often staying for just a year or two before making the jump. That was the case for several of Michigan’s players last season with one of the exceptions being Panthers prospect Mackie Samoskevich. The 19-year-old told NHL.com’s Alain Poupart that he doesn’t have a set time in mind for turning pro. He had 29 points in 40 games for the Wolverines in his freshman year and with several prominent players from 2021-22 making the jump to the pros already, Samoskevich will be in line for a bigger role next season. How he performs with that opportunity will go a long way towards helping Florida determine if they want him turning pro after that.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- While it’s understandable that Colorado wants to remain in the mix for free agent center Nazem Kadri, Paul Kiszla of the Denver Post suggests that the Avalanche should start to look at other options either by trade or by bringing back someone like Paul Stastny. The Avs don’t have enough money to bring back the 32-year-old at his desired asking price while a deal that might fit in better with their financial structure – the scribe suggests a $6.5MM AAV for four years – also would require some subtraction from their current roster. Colorado can afford some patience with Kadri’s camp while the market has basically come to a complete halt but at some point, they may need to start looking at alternate plans to fill out their roster for next season.
- After parting ways with Mel Pearson a few days ago, Michigan has decided to promote from within as they named Brandon Naurato as their interim coach for the upcoming season. The 37-year-old joined the Wolverines as an assistant coach last season after spending three years with Detroit as a Player Development consultant. Michigan has lost Owen Power, Matthew Beniers, Thomas Bordeleau, and several others but they still have seven NHL draft picks on the roster for next season.
Snapshots: Free Agents, Oesterle, Bolduc
Nearly a month into free agency, several notable UFAs remain unsigned. One agent suggested to Adam Proteau of The Hockey News that it might be a strategy on their part. At this point, not many teams have cap space to offer contracts that are well above the minimum salary. However, if they wait until training camp or even early in the season when injuries arise, those teams might be able to use LTIR and potentially offer a higher salary than they’d be able to now. That approach certainly carries some risk but in an open market that has been tighter than expected for some veterans this summer, it could work out in the end for one or two of them if that is the route they’re taking.
Elsewhere around the NHL:
- With Detroit adding Ben Chiarot, Olli Maatta, Robert Hagg, and the injured Mark Pysyk this offseason, Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News pegs blueliner Jordan Oesterle as someone whose roster spot for next season could be in question. The 30-year-old played a limited role last season as he had eight points in 45 games while averaging a little over 18 minutes a night. With a $1.35MM AAV, that’s on the more expensive end for depth defenders although if the Red Wings were to waive him and send him down if he cleared, they’d be able to clear all but $225K off their cap for next season.
- With the Blues having some openings at the bottom of their roster, Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic suggests (subscription link) that there’s a chance that Zachary Bolduc could break camp with St. Louis to start next season. The 2021 first-round pick is coming off a dominant year with Quebec of the QMJHL where he scored 55 goals and added 44 assists in 65 games. That could be enough to at least get him a nine-game look like Jake Neighbours received a year ago.
Oilers Still Hoping To Add Extra Depth
It has been a busy offseason for the Oilers. Jack Campbell is their new starting goalie while they parted ways with Duncan Keith (retirement) and Zack Kassian (trade). They were able to re-sign Evander Kane, got new deals done with RFAs Jesse Puljujarvi and Kailer Yamamoto, and had enough left over to add Mattias Janmark.
All in all, not a bad summer for GM Ken Holland. However, he told TSN 1260 (audio link) that he might not be done with his offseason work just yet:
There are some players out there that I’m still kind of looking at for the bottom part of the roster. Maybe would like to add someone on a one-year deal that is sort of undervalued because they didn’t get swept up over the first couple weeks of free agency.
Looking for late-summer bargains is becoming more of a common practice around the league especially as players continue to feel the squeeze of a leveled-out salary cap. There should be some quality players that have to settle for PTOs or low-cost one-year deals next month and Edmonton should be an appealing place for several of them.
However, how Holland plans to fit in another addition remains to be seen. Per CapFriendly, Edmonton is roughly $6MM over the Upper Limit right now while their two LTIR-bound players – Mike Smith and Oscar Klefbom – combine for $6.367MM. That only leaves a few hundred thousand to work with when the league minimum is $750K. For that matter, RFA Ryan McLeod is also in need of a new contract and after a 21-point season, he’ll almost certainly cost more than the minimum.
Accordingly, if Holland wants to make another addition – he specified his preference would be someone in their mid-to-late-20s – a trade will need to be made first. He has seen firsthand how difficult it is to move money this offseason after parting with a pair of draft picks (and sliding down in the first round) to move Kassian and with numerous teams in spots where they either have to clear money or want to clear money, he’s going to be hard-pressed to get fair value in any sort of cost-clearing swap.
Tyson Barrie had been speculated as a possible trade possibility earlier this offseason although the departure of Keith (even though they play different sides) could push Holland towards keeping the veteran around. Puljujarvi has been in trade speculation for months as well while Warren Foegele is another player who makes more than most bottom-six players do which could put him at risk of being moved.
If Holland has his way, there will be another newcomer on Edmonton’s roster in the fall. But to get there, someone else is going to need to be on the way out first.
Hurricanes Re-Sign Maxime Lajoie
The Hurricanes have reached an agreement with their final arbitration-eligible player as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that they’ve signed defenseman Maxime Lajoie to a one-year, two-way deal. The contract will pay $750K in the NHL, $125K in the AHL, and has a total guarantee of $200K.
The 24-year-old saw plenty of NHL action with Ottawa back in 2018-19 but has predominantly been in the minors since then. Last season, Lajoie played in 60 games with AHL Chicago, scoring four goals along with 29 assists. He also got into five games with Carolina where he was held off the scoresheet while averaging 12:32 per contest.
Looking ahead to next season, it’s likely that Lajoie will have a similar role with Carolina, one that sees him start in the minors (as long as he clears waivers in training camp) and then is recalled when injuries arise. He will need to play in 13 NHL games in 2022-23 for the Hurricanes to retain his RFA rights; if he plays fewer games than that, he’ll be eligible for Group Six unrestricted free agency.
Once Carolina officially announces the deal, the clock will begin to tick on their second buyout window which will open up three days after the deal is made official and last for 48 hours. The Hurricanes have roughly $1.8MM in cap space per CapFriendly and still need to re-sign Martin Necas who didn’t file for arbitration last month. Necas will undoubtedly make more than that which will create a bit of a cap crunch for the team so that window could be of interest to them. A player needs to make $4MM and have been in the organization at the trade deadline to be eligible to be bought out this route. Worth noting, defenseman Jake Gardiner – who missed all of last season with back and hip issues – makes $4.05MM and has been medically cleared to return for next season. On the surface, he could be a potential candidate to be bought out of the final year of his deal once the buyout window reopens for them.