Sharks Sign Thomas Bordeleau
Earlier this week, San Jose signed center Thomas Bordeleau to an AHL tryout agreement, allowing them to get his start in the pros with the Barracuda. He made quite the impression over his first two games as the Sharks announced that they’ve converted Bordeleau to a three-year, entry-level contract. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Interim GM Joe Will released the following statement:
Thomas is a skilled playmaker with a high hockey IQ at both ends of the ice. He consistently shows up in high-level competition and has a history of playing his best in crucial moments.
The 20-year-old was a second-round pick of the Sharks (38th overall) back in 2020 and he certainly impressed in his two seasons at Michigan. This year, he played in 37 games for the Wolverines, finishing tied for fourth on the team in scoring with 12 goals and 25 assists. Bordeleau played an important role as Michigan made it to the Frozen Four before falling to Denver, the eventual champion.
The timing of this deal is a little intriguing in that had Bordeleau stayed on his AHL tryout for the rest of the year and then signed his entry-level contract, San Jose would have had him for three years under entry-level restrictions. Instead, by converting him now (he’s on his way to Minnesota to meet up with the team tomorrow), he’ll burn the first year now but won’t accrue a season of service time towards UFA eligibility. San Jose is certainly battling injury issues – they’re expected to dress just 16 skaters tonight against Dallas, per Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News (Twitter link) – so Bordeleau should have a chance to see a lot of playing time over the final two weeks of the season.
West Notes: Gaudreau, Hynes, Perunovich
The Flames are facing an interesting cap crunch for next season. Matthew Tkachuk is owed a $9MM qualifying offer, Andrew Mangiapane’s 31 goals plus arbitration eligibility has him looking at a sizable raise, and top scorer Johnny Gaudreau is set to become an unrestricted free agent. Sportsnet’s Rory Boylen tried to peg where Gaudreau’s price tag should be on his next deal, suggesting an $8.5MM AAV could be the right fit for him and Calgary which would represent a $1.75MM jump on his current cap hit. The 28-year-old is in the middle of a career year that sees him with 101 points in 74 games but with only mild salary cap increases coming over the next couple of seasons, it’s possible that it limits Gaudreau’s leverage if he tries to aim closer to the $10MM mark.
More from the West:
- Discussions on a new contract for Predators head coach John Hynes won’t begin until the season is over, reports Adam Vingan of The Athletic (subscription link). Nashville has played to an 89-61-8 record since he took over partway through the 2019-20 season so there’s little reason to think a coaching change is on the horizon. The Preds have a team option for next season which would likely be exercised if the two sides are unable to reach an agreement on a longer-term deal.
- Blues defenseman Scott Perunovich has resumed skating, relays Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The youngster underwent wrist surgery in early March and is expected to be re-evaluated at the eight-week mark. We’re still a little more than two weeks away from that point so he’s still a long way from being cleared to return to the lineup for the playoffs. In 19 games this season, the rookie has six assists while averaging 15:27 of ice time per contest.
Tyler Motte Out For The Rest Of The Regular Season
Not long before the trade deadline hit, the Rangers sent a 2023 fourth-round draft pick to Vancouver to pick up winger Tyler Motte with an eye on deepening their bottom six and adding some more grit to their roster. Unfortunately for them, they haven’t been able to use Motte much so far due to injury, one that head coach Gerard Gallant acknowledged to Mollie Walker of the New York Post will keep him out at least for the rest of the regular season. A return for the playoffs is far from a guarantee either as Gallant indicated that “I just heard he’s out for quite a while”.
The 27-year-old played in nine games before suffering an upper-body injury last month and while he was held without a point, he averaged three hits a game while playing primarily on the fourth line while taking a regular turn shorthanded as well. With Vancouver, Motte had 15 points and 90 hits in 49 games and was in the middle of making a case for a decent-sized raise on his $1.225MM AAV as he gets set to reach the open market for the first time this summer.
Fortunately for the Rangers, they have a surplus of forwards at the moment as evidenced by the 16 healthy ones they have on their active roster. Alexis Lafreniere got the night off on Wednesday and Gallant indicated they’d be looking to get some regulars some rest over the final couple of weeks of the season (Ryan Reaves is sitting today). But most of those 16 don’t play the type of role that Motte does and New York will undoubtedly be hoping that he’ll be able to return at some point in the playoffs.
Blackhawks To Burn First Year Of Lukas Reichel’s Entry-Level Contract
Generally speaking, the nine-game threshold for junior-aged players only comes into effect at the beginning of the year when teams need to decide what to do with their prospects that are pushing to make the team out of training camp and can’t go to the minors. That wasn’t the case for the Blackhawks and winger Lukas Reichel as he was able to play in the AHL and has spent most of the season there.
However, the 19-year-old is in his third stint with Chicago this season and has played in nine games so far. Interim head coach Derek King indicated to reporters including Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago that he will play in his tenth this afternoon against Nashville. Reichel, the 17th pick in 2020, hasn’t recorded a point yet in the NHL but has played quite well with AHL Rockford, recording 21 goals and 28 assists in 49 games. He’s expected to return to the IceHogs at some point over the next couple of weeks as well to help in their playoff run.
Roumeliotis suggests that burning the first year this season may actually be more beneficial to the Blackhawks from a longer-term planning perspective. When he’s up for a new deal in the 2024 offseason, he’ll only have at most two full NHL seasons under his belt which should keep the AAV lower, giving Chicago a bit more short-term cap flexibility. Chicago will have some pricey contracts expiring by then – particularly those of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane at $10.5MM each – but having a core piece on a cheaper second deal certainly can’t hurt.
It’s worth noting that Chicago will not lose a year of team control by doing this. In order to receive a year of service time, Reichel would have needed to have gotten to 40 games on the active roster and that’s clearly not going to happen with the Blackhawks already mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. As a result of this, Reichel will need his second contract a year sooner but Chicago will still have seven years of team control remaining.
Penguins Make Two Prospect Moves
Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton announced that they’ve signed goaltender Joel Blomqvist to a tryout agreement while also re-assigning defenseman Niclas Almari from Lukko in Finland to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
The 20-year-old Blomqvist was a second-round pick of the Penguins back in 2020 with the selection they acquired from Ottawa in exchange for Matt Murray. He recently wrapped up his season with Karpat in the SM-liiga where he led the league in GAA (1.32) and SV% (.940) in 20 games. He has not yet signed his entry-level deal with Pittsburgh and still is under contract for another year in Finland so this may not be an immediate precursor to him getting an entry-level pact but rather just a way to keep him playing for a little while longer.
As for Almari, the 23-year-old is in the final season of his entry-level deal. He played in 11 AHL games and six ECHL contests before being loaned back overseas a little over two months ago. The return home didn’t do much for his production as he had just two assists in 22 games between the regular season and playoffs so he will need to impress down the stretch if he wants to receive a qualifying offer this summer.
Pacific Notes: Kahkonen, Kolesar, Halak
The Sharks have a couple of decisions to make with their goaltending over the offseason. The first is deciding who of their three netminders will move and the second is how much to pay Kaapo Kahkonen (unless he’s the one they move which is an unlikely scenario). Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now provided an overview of what Kahkonen’s market could look like this summer. As a restricted free agent with arbitration eligibility, the 25-year-old is heading for a raise but with just 60 career NHL appearances under his belt, he won’t have a lot of leverage heading into talks. Accordingly, Kahkonen seems likely to slot in a tier or two below the top backups which would put him in the low-$2MM to $3MM range, depending on how long the deal is. Moving one of James Reimer or Adin Hill would free up the bulk of the cap room to give Kakhonen that type of deal.
More from the Pacific:
- Golden Knights winger Keegan Kolesar will not face any supplementary discipline from the league for his hit on Flames defenseman Christopher Tanev on Thursday, reports David Schoen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He was initially assessed a major penalty on the play but after review, it was overturned to a two-minute minor. The league is believed to have reviewed the incident but it was ruled that the head was not the principal point of contact so they’ve deemed that no further discipline is needed.
- Thomas Drance of The Athletic highlights (subscription link) an interesting factor for Vancouver’s decision-making between the pipes down the stretch. The Canucks will need a lot of help to make the playoffs but they have two back-to-back sets left and Thatcher Demko struggled the last time he played in a back-to-back. Jaroslav Halak has been better as of late but only needs to improve his save percentage by six points (from .899 to .905) to trigger a $250K performance bonus which, by virtue of Vancouver being in LTIR all season, will count against the cap in 2022-23. Demko could use the rest but it could come at a cost for next season.
Canucks Notes: Boudreau, Horvat, Karlsson
Bruce Boudreau’s future in Vancouver has been a frequent talking point in recent weeks with the Canucks holding a team option on his contract for next season and a different management group in place since the bench boss was hired. However, TSN’s Darren Dreger reports in the latest Insider Trading segment that there’s a strong chance the 67-year-old will be retained. He certainly has earned another opportunity with the team posting a 29-13-8 record since he took over to at least have an outside shot at making the playoffs. However, a final decision won’t come until after the season the team does a full organizational review so it will be a few more weeks at least before anything is made official on that front.
More from Vancouver:
- While center Bo Horvat left Thursday’s victory against Arizona after taking a shot off his leg, Boudreau told reporters including Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston that the decision to keep him out of the game was precautionary with Vancouver holding a lead at the time. However, Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre adds (Twitter link) that the captain isn’t expected to play in their next game on Monday and is listed as out day-to-day.
- Canucks prospect forward Linus Karlsson will be joining the Swedish National Team in preparation for the upcoming World Championships, notes Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and The Athletic (Twitter link). The 2018 third-rounder impressed in his first SHL season, tallying 26 goals and 20 assists in 52 games. He has to sign his entry-level deal by June 1st or Vancouver will lose his rights. Worth noting is that Karlsson is already under contract with Skelleftea for next season but that wouldn’t prevent him from signing an NHL contract.
Stars Prospect Ben Brinkman Transfers To Notre Dame
Dallas prospect Ben Brinkman has decided to take advantage of the fifth year of eligibility. However, it won’t be where he spent his first four seasons. In a move first reported by Jess Myers of The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead (Twitter link), the blueliner is off to the University of Notre Dame after recently entering the transfer portal.
The 21-year-old was a sixth-round pick (173rd overall) back in 2019 after his freshman year at the University of Minnesota. Brinkman had a minor role that season but the hope was that his role and ice time would increase over the years. That didn’t exactly materialize as he had just two goals over his four seasons with the Golden Gophers and while he had a career high in points this season, it was still a pretty low number at eight.
Brinkman is certainly hoping that an opportunity with a new school will give him a better chance to showcase himself to Dallas or another professional team as he will need a big year to have a shot at landing an entry-level deal.
Central Notes: Jets Injuries, Toews, Holtby
The Jets will get a key player back in the lineup tonight as Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun relays that winger Blake Wheeler will return after missing the last three games due to an upper-body injury. The veteran has overcome a tough start and has averaged more than a point per game in 2022. Winnipeg still has an outside shot at a playoff spot and getting him back won’t hurt their chances.
However, the injury news isn’t all good as center Mark Scheifele did not accompany the Jets on their four-game Eastern road trip. He sits second in scoring with 70 points and logs over 21 minutes a night so his absence will continue to be felt. Meanwhile, rookie forward Cole Perfetti has resumed skating as he works his way back from an upper-body injury sustained back in February, one that saw him suffer a setback the last time he tried to come back.
Elsewhere in the Central:
- Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews hasn’t exactly hidden his disappointment with Chicago’s decision to embrace a rebuild. While he hasn’t requested a trade, Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times wonders if it would be best for both sides to find a change of scenery for the center for next season. Toews has one year left with a $10.5MM AAV and holds a no-move clause which will give him the chance to pick his next organization if they do decide to seek a trade. Toews recently indicated he’d like to speak with GM Kyle Davidson on a regular basis to “know exactly what’s going on in some detail” which suggests he’s looking for some more concrete information about their plans before deciding what’s next for him.
- The Stars have been without goaltender Braden Holtby for more than a month due to a lower-body injury and Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News relays that the veteran has yet to resume skating. Accordingly, head coach Rick Bowness acknowledged that Holtby may wind up being out for the season. Scott Wedgewood has done well in his first five appearances since coming over to Dallas near the trade deadline and it appears that the backup job will continue to be his for a little while yet.
Red Wings Notes: Gagner, Greiss, Hellberg, Pickard
Red Wings center Sam Gagner is set to reach unrestricted free agency this summer but the 32-year-old told Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press that he’s hoping to re-sign with Detroit. Gagner has had a decent season with 12 goals and 16 assists in 73 contests despite averaging just over 13 minutes a game of playing time. That’s a pretty good return on a one-year, $850K contract, one that GM Steve Yzerman has given Gagner in each of the last two seasons. If the veteran – who is just 41 games shy of reaching the 1,000 mark for his career – is willing to make it three years in a row at that price tag, keeping him around would certainly make some sense for Detroit as a capable depth veteran.
More from Detroit:
- James suggests in a separate column that the Red Wings aren’t expected to offer Thomas Greiss a contract for next season. The 36-year-old netminder was brought in to be a stable platoon option between the pipes and while he did exactly that last year, that hasn’t been the case in 2021-22 as he has a SV% of just .892 along with a 3.56 GAA in 28 appearances. Greiss’ track record could still get him a look on a one-year deal this summer but it’ll be considerably lower than the $3.6MM AAV he has on his current contract.
- The timing of Magnus Hellberg’s one-year deal through the rest of this season seemed curious but fellow goalie Alex Nedeljkovic indicated to Max Bultman of The Athletic (subscription link) that there had been rumors of Hellberg signing for a little while and that visa issues were holding up the announcement. By the time Hellberg gets through the immigration process, he may only be available to dress for the final few games and if they were looking to sign him closer to the trade deadline as Nedeljkovic inferred, they’re likely to give the 31-year-old a few starts.
- The Red Wings also aren’t likely to bring back veteran goaltender Calvin Pickard next season, notes Ted Kulfan of The Detroit News. The 29-year-old (who is currently up with Detroit on emergency recall but is injured) is in his third season with the team and has seen NHL action in each of those years. This season, he has a 2.58 GAA along with a .918 SV% with AHL Grand Rapids but with top prospect Sebastian Cossa set to turn pro next season, the Red Wings will want to ensure he has ample game action with the Griffins which will likely push them to let Pickard hit the open market.