Offseason Checklist: New Jersey Devils
The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that aren’t playoff-bound plus some that were eliminated early in the playoffs. It’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at New Jersey.
While the Devils made a big splash last summer when they handed Dougie Hamilton the biggest UFA contract, they weren’t picked by many to contend for a playoff spot this season. That said, not many expected them to struggle as much as they did either. They’re a team that’s viewed as being on the rise with a good young nucleus so the focus now needs to be on strengthening their squad to get back into postseason contention which is a big part of their summer checklist.
Defensive Decisions
GM Tom Fitzgerald has a few decisions to make this summer when it comes to his back end. For starters, Damon Severson and Ryan Graves will be entering the final year of their respective contracts next season and both will be UFA-eligible next summer. Severson had a career year this season and was their top defender in terms of production and playing time. That has him in line for a sizable raise on his current $4.167MM AAV. But with Hamilton (another right-shot rearguard) locked up at $9MM per year through 2027-28, can they afford another high-priced blueliner on that side? If a deal can’t be reached, then he becomes a trade candidate.
Graves’ situation is a little trickier. He quietly had a career year offensively and didn’t look out of place in his first season with New Jersey. But his track record is a lot smaller; he has just three full NHL seasons under his belt and two of those were shortened due to COVID. He’s trending towards a raise on his $3.33MM AAV but has he shown enough to be part of their long-term plans? If so, Fitzgerald will likely want to try to work on an extension once he’s eligible to sign one in July.
The other decision they’ll need to make pertains to P.K. Subban. While it’s likely that he won’t be retained, how are they going to redistribute his $9MM cap hit across the roster? They have the ability to try to swing big and add another impact blueliner or try to use some of that to cover extensions for one or both of Severson and Graves. Alternatively, if Fitzgerald opted to reallocate the bulk of that money to his forward group, that could bolster their forward unit. With the team being near the middle of the pack in that regard this season, a big boost up front could propel them closer to the top ten in that department.
Re-Sign Bratt
If someone was to ask who New Jersey’s top scorer was this season, it’d be understandable the first name that came to mind was either Jack Hughes or Nico Hischier, their core building blocks down the middle. But that wouldn’t be the right answer. No, the leading scorer was winger Jesper Bratt, a player who more than doubled his previous career-high in points while putting up 26 goals and 47 assists in 76 games. He picked a perfect time to do so as he’s set to be a restricted free agent this summer with arbitration eligibility. As a result, a new deal for the 23-year-old will be high on Fitzgerald’s to-do list.
It won’t be an easy task, however, when it comes to finding the right number for a contract. Is his 73-point season a sign of things to come or an outlier considering his other four NHL seasons had point totals between 30 and 35? Bratt’s camp will certainly argue the former while the Devils will want to hedge against the latter. Fitzgerald has stated his intention to get Bratt signed to a long-term contract and with only two RFA years remaining, it’s going to take a big number to get the winger to lock down the prime years of his career. He’s coming off a deal that carried a $2.75MM AAV and a long-term deal that buys out some UFA seasons will almost certainly cost double that or more.
Add A Goalie
Two years ago, the Devils thought they had the right veteran partner for Mackenzie Blackwood when they signed Corey Crawford to a two-year deal. However, he had a last-minute change of heart, retiring before training camp. New Jersey went down a similar path last summer, inking Jonathan Bernier to a two-year deal. But a hip injury limited him to just ten games this season and he may not be ready to start 2022-23. In the meantime, Blackwood’s stock has fallen considerably from a goalie on the rise to one that couldn’t crack the top 50 in the NHL in SV% among qualifying goaltenders this season.
Generally speaking, carrying three goaltenders isn’t a desirable situation. But for the Devils, it’s basically a necessity to hedge against Bernier’s injury and Blackwood’s struggles. Nico Daws was okay in his first taste of NHL duty but he needs to be in the minors for another season or two so they’ll need to look outside the organization for that third netminder.
The UFA market would be the easiest way to go with players like Jack Campbell and Ville Husso representing upside buys, albeit risky ones with their limited track records. Veterans like Marc-Andre Fleury and Braden Holtby are shorter-term options if their intention is to just shore the position up for now and look for the big fix later. (Darcy Kuemper is also available but it’s hard to see the Devils being the winner for his services.) With where New Jersey is in terms of still emerging from its rebuild though, will they be appealing to those free agents if they’re looking to win sooner than later?
The trade market is another option although that market won’t materialize for a while. Alexandar Georgiev should be available but is he much of an upgrade (and would the Rangers move him to their rival)? Washington may move one of their goalies if they can land a more proven veteran but again, they come with question marks. Others will come available over the coming months but will they be considerable upgrades? That’s far from a guarantee.
There aren’t any truly obvious choices here for New Jersey other than the fact they’ll need to add a goalie at some point over the next couple of months.
Add Win-Now Talent
While New Jersey opted to keep Lindy Ruff behind the bench (instead opting to make a couple of changes to their assistants), it’s fair to surmise he’ll be on a short leash to start next season. At some point, they need to go from rebuilding to pushing for a playoff spot; they’ve only made the playoffs once in the last decade. That switch should be flipped this summer.
They have a little over $25MM in cap space this summer with Bratt’s deal being the only one that will be a high-priced contract. While they also need to re-sign Miles Wood and Pavel Zacha, they’ll have well above $10MM to spend on the open market or in trades which puts them in a much better position than most of the league. While it’s understandable if they want to leave themselves a bit of a cap cushion heading into the season, they should be within a few million of the Upper Limit so there is definitely room to work with.
They have the ability to outbid teams in free agency as they did for Hamilton last summer. They can take on a bad contract for cheap in a trade that would double as an upgrade on their roster. The options are plentiful but by the time October rolls around, Fitzgerald needs to find a way to add multiple impact veteran players if the Devils are going to have a realistic shot of trying to get into the Wild Card hunt next season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Salary figures courtesy of CapFriendly.
International Notes: Semin, Leskinen, Wingerli
Long-time NHL winger Alexander Semin has decided to soon hang up his skates, as the VHL in Russia announced that he’ll be retiring after playing in an All-Star game next month. The 38-year-old had 517 points in 650 career NHL games over parts of 11 seasons, the last of which came in 2015-16 with Montreal who terminated his deal midseason. Since then, the 38-year-old has played in Russia and had 19 points in 40 games with Vityaz Podolsk this season. Semin will now begin his front office career as he has been named an advisor to Sokol Krasnoyarsk of the VHL.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- Canadiens defenseman Otto Leskinen has signed a two-year deal with Frolunda, the SHL team announced. The 25-year-old opted to return overseas this season, signing with Jokerit in the KHL but left when the team suspended operations, signing with Tappara for the stretch run. He’ll now try his hand in Sweden where he’ll effectively take the place of another Montreal prospect in Mattias Norlinder with Frolunda. The Canadiens will retain Leskinen’s RFA rights through 2024 which is when his deal in Sweden expires so if he wants to try his hand again in North America at that time, he’ll be an unrestricted free agent.
- Avalanche winger Andreas Wingerli is expected to return to Skelleftea of the SHL next season, reports Expressen’s Johan Svensson. Colorado signed the 24-year-old last June with an eye on giving him a chance to push for a spot at the back of the roster or play an impact role in the minors. Neither really happened as Wingerli had just 22 points in 64 games with AHL Colorado this season, a performance that won’t have him pushing for an NHL spot next season. The Avs can retain Wingerli’s NHL rights with a qualifying offer this summer.
Five Key Stories: 5/9/22 – 5/15/22
It was an eventful week around the NHL with plenty of seventh games, some notable coaching news, a lottery winner, and more. We recap some of the biggest off-ice news in our key stories.
Trotz Fired: Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello has quite a history when it comes to his coaching decisions with a knack for some surprising ones. He added to that reputation after he dismissed head coach Barry Trotz in a move that hardly anyone saw coming. While New York missed the playoffs this season, Trotz had led the Isles to the Eastern Conference Final the two previous years which led to an expectation he’d be back for 2022-23 and the final year of his contract. Instead, Lamoriello indicated he felt the team needs a new voice and he’ll now set out to hire a new coach or promote associate coach Lane Lambert to the top job. Meanwhile, Trotz will become a contender for the rest of the coaching vacancies out there if he wants to be back behind an NHL bench next season.
Boudreau Returns: One coach that won’t be going anywhere is Vancouver’s Bruce Boudreau. While there was some uncertainty about his future with the Canucks after management indicated there wouldn’t be a contract extension forthcoming, the team confirmed that the 67-year-old will return for next season. Boudreau took over from Travis Green midseason and led the team to an improbable second half run with a 32-15-10 record that got them within striking distance of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. He’s just one regular season win away from 600 for his career while he’s 19 away from landing in the top 20 in NHL history.
Hanging Them Up: Free agent forward Patrick Marleau wasn’t able to catch on with a team this season and has decided to officially call it a career as he announced his retirement. The 42-year-old had a very impressive 23-year NHL career with the majority of that coming with San Jose. Although Marleau never won the Stanley Cup, he leaves with his name in the record books after he passed Gordie Howe last season for the most regular season games played in NHL history with 1,779. While Marleau only averaged more than a point per game in a season three times, his longevity helped him amass 1,197 points, good for 50th all-time.
Draft Lottery: This was the first year of the new draft lottery format, restricting teams from moving up no more than 10 spots with a victory which gave Montreal basically a one-in-four chance of holding onto the top pick. They were able to do as they won the draw for the top selection while New Jersey’s good fortune in the lottery continued as they were victorious for the second spot, dropping Arizona, Seattle, and Philadelphia all down a spot. Shane Wright is widely expected to be the pick for the Canadiens who will pick first in the draft that they’re hosting in July; it will be the first time since 1985 that the host city also had the number one selection.
Sharks Sign Two: Interim Sharks GM Joe Will indicated after the season that he wanted to re-sign winger Alexander Barabanov and defenseman Jaycob Megna. He was able to do exactly that, signing both players to two-year deals. Barabanov received a nice raise on his $1MM AAV from this season as this contract carries a $2.5MM cap hit on the heels of recording 10 goals and 29 assists in 70 games. Megna, meanwhile, received the league minimum for both years (a cap hit of just over $762K) but managed to secure a one-way salary for the first time in his career after playing on two-way pacts for each of his first four NHL contracts.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
East Notes: Backstrom, Panthers, Johansson, Nedeljkovic
Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom missed the first two months of the season with a hip injury and while he played the rest of the way, he wasn’t fully healthy. Speaking to reporters at today’s end-of-season press conference, the veteran told reporters, including Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press, that his injured hip will never fully recover while GM Brian MacLellan indicated that Backstrom continuing to play through the injury in its current form will not be sustainable moving forward. As a result, MacLellan indicated that the 34-year-old will be exploring his options. The uncertainty surrounding Backstrom’s availability will make Washington’s offseason planning that much more difficult as a result.
Other news from the Eastern Conference:
- Panthers winger Mason Marchment is unlikely to be available for the start of their series-opener against Tampa Bay, relays David Wilson of the Miami Herald. The 26-year-old had a career year as a secondary scorer, notching 18 goals and 29 assists in just 54 games while also averaging two hits per game which made him a key part of Florida’s bottom six. He missed the last two games with an unspecified injury and there’s no word on how much longer he might be out. Meanwhile, interim head coach Andrew Brunette indicated that defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Ben Chiarot will be ready to start the season after being banged up in the final game of the Washington series.
- After playing on loan in the SHL this season, Red Wings prospect Albert Johansson confirmed to Expressen in Sweden that he will play in North America next season. The 21-year-old defenseman had 25 points in 52 games this season with Farjestad while chipping in with eight points in 19 playoff contests as he won the SHL title. Johansson also indicated that he won’t ask to be loaned back home if he doesn’t crack Detroit’s roster after training camp in the fall.
- Still with Detroit, goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic is out for the remainder of the World Championship due to an injury, reports ESPN’s Kevin Weekes (Twitter link). He was named to the team earlier this month but had yet to be registered by Team USA, a decision that certainly was the right one now. As he wasn’t officially registered to the team, they will be able to find a replacement. Devils goalie Jon Gillies and Sharks prospect Strauss Mann are the other netminders on the roster so far.
Offseason Checklist: Philadelphia Flyers
The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that aren’t playoff-bound plus some that were eliminated early in the playoffs. It’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at Philadelphia.
Things went off the rails early and often for the Flyers this season. The team had high internal expectations and didn’t come close to meeting them. Injuries hurt them considerably throughout the year, a coaching change did nothing to turn the tide, and Carter Hart put forth a second straight tough year. Despite all that, they’re showing no signs of a rebuild so their checklist this summer may seem counterintuitive to the direction that many believe they should take.
Thread The Needle
GM Chuck Fletcher has talked about what he terms an aggressive retool. On the surface, it appears that the intention there would be to shake up the core again, moving veterans for other veterans in the hopes that the new mix will result in better success. They tried that last summer with the additions of Cam Atkinson and Ryan Ellis but while Atkinson had a decent season with 23 goals and 27 assists, Ellis was limited to just four games due to injury. In the end, it didn’t really change their fortunes.
Fletcher now needs to find a way to make more of those swaps to make the team more competitive now while also not throwing away parts of his future as he did in the Rasmus Ristolainen trade. While there will be teams open to those types of swaps since many will have salary cap challenges and will be limited to those types of trades involving impact players, finding the right combination of moves to spark the team isn’t going to be easy as the success rate around the league on those is nowhere near 100%.
Only one team scored fewer goals than the Flyers this season (Arizona) and only five allowed more goals so clearly, notable changes need to be made both up front and on the back end. Full seasons from Sean Couturier and Ellis will help but that alone won’t be enough. To borrow terms from other sports, Fletcher will need to thread the needle on a pretty significant sequence of moves and knock a few acquisitions out of the park. They have their work cut out for them as a result.
Free Up Cap Space
Just when you might be thinking that the above seems pretty daunting in itself, let’s bring the salary cap into play now. Philadelphia has less than $6MM in cap space this summer with Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, and Zack MacEwen needing new deals up front and a replacement for Keith Yandle on the back end. Even if that number is a little inflated with some of their end-of-season recalls, there isn’t much in the way of flexibility in terms of trying to make a splash in free agency. Unless, of course, they can clear some money up first.
The obvious candidate on that front is James van Riemsdyk. The 33-year-old has provided the Flyers with some decent secondary scoring in his second stint with the franchise, scoring at least 17 goals in each of his four years since returning (and that low mark came in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign). However, his effectiveness has waned as he ages and $7MM is an expensive price tag for someone who is best utilized as a middle-six winger. It’s unlikely he’s going to turn things around next season and get back to the 30-goal mark so he’s someone that stands out as a trade candidate. The question will be how much of an offset will be needed (either by retention or by taking a player back) or how much of an incentive they’ll need to provide to get a team to take the contract without sending any money back. What happens with van Riemsdyk will go a long way towards determining what they can or can’t do this summer.
While they didn’t really get a chance to evaluate their full back end due to Ellis missing 78 games, it also seems likely that they will move a defender as part of their aggressive retool. It won’t be Ellis as his value is down after missing almost the entire year and they just committed five years at $5.1MM per to Ristolainen; clearly, he’s not moving either. That leaves Ivan Provorov ($6.75MM through 2024-25) and Travis Sanheim ($4.675MM in 2022-23, then becomes a UFA). Provorov is coming off an underwhelming year so while moving him would save money, his trade value certainly isn’t at its best. Sanheim is easier to move but yields less in cap savings. But if they want to shake up the back end again, one of those two may need to be on the move as a result.
Hire A New Head Coach
After the decision to fire Alain Vigneault early in the season didn’t yield the results Fletcher was hoping for, the Flyers decided not to continue with Mike Yeo as their head coach for next season. That puts finding a new bench boss very high on the priority list over the coming weeks.
With Philadelphia committed to trying to retool instead of rebuild, that could push them in the direction of a veteran coach over a first-timer in that role. While long-time Flyer Rick Tocchet is viewed as a popular option, someone like Barry Trotz – who led quick turnarounds for the Capitals and Islanders – could stand out for that reason as well. Paul Maurice is also a possible fit if he wanted to get back behind a bench so quickly after stepping away from Winnipeg.
Among the first-time head coaching options, Lane Lambert has long been speculated as a candidate but he could be promoted to the top spot for the Islanders after Trotz’s departure. Nate Leaman is always an option to make the jump from the college ranks while Rikard Gronborg and Roger Ronnberg are international coaches that always come up at this time of year. But again, a first-time NHL bench boss would be a bit surprising given their win-now intentions. Regardless, it will be a crucial hire for Fletcher as with the way the last couple of seasons have gone, he may not get another one.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Salary figures courtesy of CapFriendly.
Dmitrij Jaskin Receiving KHL Interest
After two very strong seasons with Dynamo Moscow in the KHL, winger Dmitrij Jaskin decided to give the NHL another shot in 2021-22 as he inked a one-year deal with Arizona worth $3.2MM, a surprisingly high sum given his performance in his first NHL stint. Unfortunately, things didn’t go too well and his agent Gleb Chistyakov told Sport-Express in Russia that four KHL teams are showing interest in bringing the pending unrestricted free agent back to Russia.
The 29-year-old got off to a slow start this season with the Coyotes, notching just a single assist in 12 games despite averaging nearly 15 minutes a night. That’s a far cry from being better than a point-per-game player as he was in his two seasons overseas when he finished second and fourth in league scoring. Unfortunately for him and Arizona, Jaskin then suffered a season-ending injury in a knee-on-knee collision with Nashville’s Mark Borowiecki in a game in mid-November.
As a result of his early struggles, the injury, and his limited production in his first NHL stint between St. Louis and Washington, it’s hard to envision Jaskin receiving NHL offers that are anywhere close to what he received from the Coyotes this season. As a result, a return to the KHL where he’d command a top salary makes a lot of sense for him even though it will probably close the door on his NHL career in the process.
Offseason Checklist: Seattle Kraken
The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that aren’t playoff-bound. It’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at Seattle.
After the Golden Knights went to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season, expectations were unrealistically high for the Kraken heading into their first year. But even if they had the expectations of a typical expansion franchise, they still would have underachieved relative to those. As a result, Seattle finds itself trying to build on multiple fronts this summer which is a certainly a tall task.
Find A New Goalie Coach
There was only one coaching casualty from their tough year and that was goalie coach Andrew Allen. That move was understandable as, heading into the season, goaltending was believed to be their best strength with a tandem of Philipp Grubauer and Chris Driedger. Instead, they had the lowest team save percentage in the NHL (.880) while sitting in the bottom ten in goals allowed despite allowing the fourth-fewest shots on goal. Seattle will need to find a replacement coach and when it comes to their netminders, things can only go up from here.
Expand Young Core
Part of building an organization from scratch is trying to pick up some young core pieces. They got one in the draft in Matthew Beniers and picked one in expansion in Jared McCann with the 25-year-old having a career year and quickly inking a long-term extension. Beyond that, there isn’t that much of a young core. That’s perfectly understandable after just one year of existence but this will be the top priority for GM Ron Francis this summer.
They’ll be able to add some key pieces at the draft. They have the fourth pick in July’s draft plus four second-rounders that can be dangled in an effort to move up. That should yield some nice long-term additions although most of those players will be several years away.
Back when the team was being assembled, cap flexibility was stated as a critical element of what they were doing. This is something that the Kraken can use to their advantage this summer if they’re willing to take a bad contract or two while adding some more picks (or preferably prospects) like Arizona did last summer. If the aim is to build a long-term contender, Seattle needs to have more than two long-term core pieces heading into next season.
Expand Current Core
Most general managers don’t lay out a road map for their planning but at his end-of-season news conference, Francis indicated a desire to add a top-six forward, a top-nine forward, and a puck-moving defenseman to his current group. The forwards, in particular, could be added in free agency where the Kraken will have the ability to outbid most teams as they have nearly $23MM in cap room, per CapFriendly. The UFA market for puck-moving blueliners isn’t as deep so going that route for that spot may be tougher so the trade front might be the better way for them there.
Last summer, Francis surprisingly handed a five-year contract to Jaden Schwartz in a move that didn’t work out too well with the oft-injured 29-year-old missing more than half of the season due to injuries. That should serve as a cautionary tale for their free agent this time around when it comes to adding secondary scorers.
It wouldn’t be advisable to hand out similar long-term deals at this time to fill those roster spots. Anything beyond a medium-term contract carries some risk of being a burden at the time that their young core will be ready to really try to contend. A five-year deal for a 25-year-old (McCann) makes sense as he’ll still be young enough to be part of their plans and productive at the end of it. A five-year deal for a 29-year-old UFA this summer probably won’t hold up as well. They’d be wise to stick with shorter-term contracts that will be easier to move closer to their expiration.
Of course, that caveat doesn’t apply if they happen to entice one of the top free agents to join them. In that case, you don’t say no to top talent and that player becomes a part of their current and future core. But beyond that, playing it safe with the veterans they choose to add should be the path they choose to take.
Fill Out Farm Team
This season, Seattle didn’t have its own AHL affiliate which isn’t particularly unusual for an expansion franchise as they simply don’t have the organizational depth that more established teams do. Instead, they teamed up with the Hurricanes, sharing their affiliate in Charlotte. That allowed the Kraken to carry a pretty short group of contracts with only a handful of recallable players from the Checkers as the season went on.
That won’t be the case next season as Seattle will be operating the Coachella Valley Firebirds. They certainly have plenty of work to do before the puck drops on their inaugural season in October.
At the moment, Seattle has basically the equivalent of one line signed for the Firebirds for next season (with three of those being on future deals that only start in 2022-23). They also have goaltender Joey Daccord if they can get him through waivers in training camp. In terms of on-ice personnel, that’s it. Aside from those few players signed, they basically have to fill an entire team. As a result, expect them to be very active in minor league free agency, both in terms of signing AHL free agents to AHL deals at the beginning of July and in handing out several NHL two-way deals when that market opens up near mid-July.
On top of that, they’ll need to round out their front office and coaching staff. The Kraken added former NHL bench boss Dan Bylsma as an assistant with Charlotte and he’s a contender to be the coach in Palm Springs next season. Francis will be building on multiple fronts this summer so expect a busy summer in Seattle.
Oilers Sign Carter Savoie
After signing him to an AHL tryout deal last month to allow him to finish off the year with AHL Bakersfield, it was only a matter of time before the Oilers worked out an entry-level contract with prospect winger Carter Savoie. As CapFriendly reports (Twitter link), that has now happened as the team has agreed to a three-year deal that begins this season. The pact carries a $925K AAV and does not contain any signing bonuses.
The 20-year-old was a fourth-round pick of Edmonton back in 2020 (100th overall) and it’s safe to say that he has outperformed that selection since then. Savoie was quite productive in his sophomore season with the University of Denver, finishing second on the Pioneers in scoring with 23 goals and 22 assists in just 39 games. After they won a national title, he decided to forego his remaining college eligibility and turned pro, getting into two games during the regular season but has yet to suit up in the playoffs.
Savoie has worked his way into being one of Edmonton’s more promising prospects over the last couple of years and while the Oilers will need some low-cost players to round out their roster next season, it’s unlikely that he will be able to make the jump right away on a full-time basis although the decision to start the deal this season makes him eligible to play in the playoffs now. Savoie has played in just a total of 65 games combined over the last two years so he’ll almost certainly need some time to adjust to the rigors of a full professional campaign. But if he continues to build on his performance this season, he’ll be worth waiting for.
Five Key Stories: 5/2/22 – 5/8/22
The first full week of May yielded some coaching news around the league as well as plenty of salary cap penalties; those are among the headlines in the top stories of the week.
Yeo Out: The Flyers will have a new head coach behind the bench season when they announced that Mike Yeo would not be retained in that role. After serving as an assistant on Alain Vigneault’s staff, Yeo was elevated to the interim role when Vigneault was let go but the coaching change didn’t spark the team as they went 17-36-7 following the move while finishing behind everyone but Arizona in goals scored. Philadelphia is keeping the door open for Yeo to remain with the team in a different role although they certainly won’t be stopping him from interviewing for other opportunities around the league.
Another Coaching Search: The Jets were another team that had a midseason coaching change, though it came due to Paul Maurice’s resignation instead of his firing. Dave Lowry took over but the team wasn’t able to turn things around under him, posting a 26-22-6 record and missing the playoffs. That has resulted in some changes as well with assistant coaches Charlie Huddy and Jamie Kompon being let go. As for Lowry, he will be granted the opportunity to interview for the full-time coaching job but that’s as far as GM Kevin Cheveldayoff is willing to go at this time so they will be going through a full coaching search as well.
Surgery For DeSmith: Generally speaking, a backup goaltender undergoing surgery wouldn’t be big news. However, it certainly is for the Penguins as they’ll be without Casey DeSmith for the rest of the playoffs after he underwent core muscle surgery. With Tristan Jarry still unavailable as he works his way back from a broken bone in his foot, journeyman Louis Domingue has become Pittsburgh’s starter by default. It’s a tough blow on multiple fronts – the Penguins are now dressing their AHL goalie tandem while the 30-year-old also loses a prime opportunity to showcase himself before he hits the open market for the first time this summer.
Morin’s Career Ends Early: It has been a tough last few years for Philadelphia defenseman Samuel Morin. He has had several significant knee injuries derail what looked to be a promising career and his latest one – which kept him out for all of this season – has now ended his career at the age of 26. Morin was a first-round pick back in 2013 (11th overall) as a big, physical, stay-at-home blueliner. But when the injuries started, they just kept on coming. Morin was able to get into 20 games last season but some of those came as a winger. In the end, he hangs up his skates with just 29 career NHL contests with one goal, 45 penalty minutes, and 66 hits. The Flyers have indicated that they may look to find another role for him to keep him in the organization in some capacity.
Cap Penalties: The salary cap is only increasing by $1MM next season to $82.5MM so many teams will be feeling the squeeze once again. On top of that, nearly half the league will face a bonus carryover penalty from this season with 14 teams set to receive one. Colorado finds itself at the low end of that with just a $25K overage while at the other end, three teams (Montreal, Vancouver, and St. Louis) are all at $1MM or more with the Blues potentially on the hook for another $250K depending on how deep they go in the playoffs which will certainly affect their offseason spending plans.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
PHR Mailbag: Golden Knights, Buyout Candidates, Gibson, Forsberg, Red Wings, NCAA
Topics in this edition of the PHR Mailbag include the disappointing season for the Golden Knights, possible buyout candidates this summer, Filip Forsberg’s pending free agency, and more. If your question doesn’t appear here, check back in last weekend’s mailbag.
dayvisferreras: How big will the changes be in Vegas?? Vegas should be making big changes and stop creating greener pastures for shiny new toys. I appreciate Bill Foley’s vision but he shouldn’t add more salary to a team with no cap.
Gbear: Simply put, have you ever seen a team choke down the stretch as badly as Vegas did and do you see DeBoer getting fired after this season?
DirtbagBlues: Is Robin Lehner with the Golden Knights next season?
Let’s dig right in with some Vegas talk.
I don’t expect anywhere near the amount of change for next season for the Golden Knights that some do. Part of that is the salary cap as obviously, they need to clear some money. Evgenii Dadonov is probably going somewhere and Reilly Smith is a potential cap casualty as a pending UFA. Mattias Janmark likely isn’t back as well. If they can avoid taking a contract back in a Dadonov trade, that’s $5MM in savings from next year’s commitments, most of which can be allocated to the three forwards needed to fill those roster spots with a bit left over to apply to Nicolas Roy’s next contract.
Vegas can more or less force their way into a one-year deal for Nicolas Hague as the blueliner doesn’t have arbitration rights. Accordingly, they don’t necessarily have to make a move on the back end. I expect they’ll try to move Laurent Brossoit in order to give Logan Thompson the full-time backup job, saving another $1.55MM in cap room. That’s enough to cover the one-year/no-leverage contract for Hague with the rest going to Roy. Ben Hutton ($850K) can be waived in a pinch and when all is said and done, that’s a team with no flexibility once again but it’d be cap-compliant. This is the path they’ve chosen to go and I don’t think they’ll deviate from it even after a tough end to their season.
I hesitate to put the word ‘choke’ on their collapse. Yes, it’s substantial and over the last few seasons, I can’t think of another team that prominent falling out like that. But they were also missing a lot of players. Yes, some of that was by design but Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone being injured wasn’t part of the plan and both of them were far from 100% down the stretch. They basically had their regular goalie tandem either out or playing at less than 100%. You take two top-line forwards and a goalie tandem out of a lineup and most of the time, it’s not going to end well. The Golden Knights created some of their misfortune, no doubt, but they had a lot out of their control go against them as well which is why I can’t call it a choke job.
To be honest, I was a bit underwhelmed when Vegas brought Peter DeBoer in to replace Gerard Gallant. He doesn’t have a long track record of playoff success but on the other hand, who out there is demonstrably better to lead a win-now, veteran-laden team? I’d be surprised if he was let go although he’ll also be viewed as someone squarely on the hot seat heading into next season. Again, they did have some bad luck at the end of the season from a health perspective (and were missing some key pieces throughout the year). To drastically shake things up based on how things ended this year seems a bit premature as a result.
I do think Lehner returns next season. The optics surrounding that whole fiasco of him being out for the season but still dressing as backup and being expected at practice was bizarre. But where else is Vegas going to find a good starting goaltender making $5MM or less for multiple years? It’s not as if they have a deep prospect pool or extra high draft picks at their disposal either that they could use to trade for someone that’s making a bit less. If Thompson makes a push for more minutes next season and gets closer to a 50-50 split in terms of playing time, then perhaps at that time Lehner might become available. But at this moment, I think he’s their starter on opening night.
wreckage: Who is the most likely offseason buyout candidate?
The first name that comes to mind is Predators defenseman Philippe Myers. His season was nothing short of a disaster and it was telling that after he cleared waivers before the trade deadline (a scenario that seemed unfathomable in the offseason), he was sent to Toronto’s farm team instead of their own. That’s a pretty clear sign that he’s not in their future plans. As he’s 25, he’s only subject to a one-third payout instead of the standard two-thirds while the heavily backloaded nature of the contract makes for a rather unique situation. A buyout of the final season that carries a $2.55MM AAV would give Nashville a cap credit of $617K next season with a cap hit of $633K the following year. I’m not sure the Predators are the ones that buy him out – perhaps a cap-strapped team views that buyout structure and cap credit as a short-term solution – but I’d be surprised if he’s playing under his current contract next season.
Colin White (three years left, $4.75MM AAV) also quickly came to mind when I saw this question. We know Montreal had serious trade talks for him at the trade deadline but I can’t help but wonder if it was with the intention of sending a player the other way and then turning around and buying White out in the summer. He’s also 25 and is thus subject to the one-third cost. Paying him over six years isn’t ideal but the cap hit for five of those is $875K while the other is a cap credit of $625K. Whether it’s the Canadiens or someone else, is it worth moving, say, a $3.5MM player to Ottawa for White and then executing the buyout to open up $2.625MM in cap room? There are a few teams that I suspect would give that some serious thought.
It’s rare that we see a trade and buy out combo (Steve Mason was a somewhat recent example back in 2018) but I think it’s a serious option for those two which puts them at the top of my buyout list.
As for others that could be options under the standard costs, Toronto’s Petr Mrazek (two years remaining, $3.8MM) is certainly an option after the tough year he had. Even with 50% retention, there may not be any trade takers which could force their hand. Zack Kassian (two years left, $3.2MM) could be an option if they need to free up money for some of their pending RFAs (more on them shortly). I’m sure there will be others that get bought out as well once that window opens up after the season.