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.
Arizona Coyotes Sign Nathan Smith
April 11: The Coyotes have officially announced the contract, with general manager Bill Armstrong releasing the following statement:
We are very pleased to sign Nate to a two-year contract. Nate was one of the best forwards in the NCAA this season and helped lead Minnesota State to the Frozen Four championship game. We are very excited to have him join our organization.
April 10: Back at the trade deadline, the Coyotes received a promising prospect in exchange for taking on the remainder of Bryan Little‘s contract. That prospect was center Nathan Smith and CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that Smith has decided to turn pro and has signed a two-year, entry-level deal that will begin this season. The deal carries an AAV of $1.35MM with bonuses and breaks down as follows:
- 2021-22: $750K salary, $92.5K signing bonus, $82.5K games played bonus
- 2022-23: $832.5K salary, $92.5K signing bonus, $850K Class ‘A’ bonuses
The 23-year-old was a third-round pick of Winnipeg back in 2018 (91st overall) but had recently informed the Jets that he didn’t want to sign him which is why he was moved at the deadline. Smith had quite an impressive season with Minnesota State, leading the Mavericks in scoring with 19 goals and 31 assists in 50 games. He would have had a chance at the NCAA scoring title had it not been for the Olympics as he suited up for the United States in that event, recording a goal and an assist in four games.
Smith was actually eligible to opt for free agency this summer even though he had only completed his junior year of college as he stayed in the USHL in his post-draft season, meaning four years had elapsed since he was picked. That gave him enough leverage to get the Coyotes to burn the first year of his deal now so he will have an opportunity to get his feet wet at the NHL level and make a push for a full-time spot with Arizona for next season.
Five Key Stories: 4/4/22 – 4/10/22
The calendar has turned to April but with three weeks left in the regular season, some of the expected mid-April offseason decisions will likely trickle over into May. However, there was still some notable news over the past seven days which are recapped in our top stories of the week.
Michigan Exodus: Once Michigan was eliminated from the NCAA tournament, it was expected that the Wolverines would be losing several players in a hurry. That’s exactly what happened. Buffalo signed the top pick from 2021, inking Owen Power to an entry-level contract. The AAV is $1.85MM which is low for a number one pick but he was ineligible for ‘A’ bonuses this season having signed so late and since there are limits on how quickly the bonuses can increase on a year-to-year basis, the 19-year-old wasn’t able to max out his bonus potential.
Meanwhile, Columbus got into the mix as well. As expected, they signed Kent Johnson to his entry-level deal with the 2021 fifth-overall pick landing nearly the identical contract as Power did. They also landed undrafted defenseman Nick Blankenburg on a one-year, entry-level deal. Both his deal and Johnson’s begin this season so Blankenburg will hit restricted free agency this summer. Seattle then signed Matty Beniers on Sunday as expected with the same terms as Power and Johnson. The second pick from 2021, he led the Wolverines in scoring with 43 points in 37 games while also playing at the Olympics.
Done For The Year: The Devils are playing out the stretch as they sit at the bottom of the Metropolitan Division and now they’ll be without a trio of important players. Top center Jack Hughes is out for the season with a sprained MCL, a tough end to what has been a very strong year as he had 56 points in just 49 games, providing the production that was expected with his top draft slot in 2019. Meanwhile, New Jersey also opted to shut down winger Miles Wood after just three games for precautionary reasons after he missed most of the year following early-season hip surgery while defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler is also out due to a broken hand.
Calling It A Career: Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf acknowledged last month that he had yet to decide his plans for next year. That decision has now been made as the veteran has decided that this season will be his last. The 36-year-old was the 19th pick back in 2003 and has spent his entire 17-year career in Anaheim. In his prime, Getzlaf was a feared number one center who could play in all situations and he recently surpassed 1,000 career points, becoming just the 93rd player in NHL history to reach that particular milestone. This season, Getzlaf has been limited to just 49 games but still sits third on the Ducks in assists, showing that even as he’s about to hang up his skates, he’s still a pretty strong playmaker.
Wilson Resigns: After missing the majority of the season while being on medical leave, long-time Sharks general manager Doug Wilson has tendered his resignation to focus on his health and recovery. Wilson had been at the helm in San Jose since 2003 with the team making 14 playoff appearances during that time. In the meantime, interim GM Joe Will will continue in that role until a permanent GM is hired. The organization has committed to waiting for all prospective candidates to be available to be interviewed which suggests that Wilson’s replacement won’t be hired in the near future.
NCAA Champions: The University of Denver is the 2022 NCAA National Champions after beating Minnesota St. on Saturday night in the final game of the Frozen Four tournament. It’s their ninth-ever title, tying them with Michigan for the most ever. Flyers prospect Bobby Brink led the Pioneers in scoring this season with 57 points in 41 games which also made him the NCAA’s scoring leader. He was rewarded for his efforts with a three-year, entry-level deal that begins this season, meaning that the 34th pick in 2019 should be making his NHL debut in the coming days.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Coyotes Linked To Milos Kelemen
It appears as if the Coyotes will be soon adding to their prospect pool as Jakub Hromada of iDNES in Czechia reports that Arizona has agreed to terms with winger Milos Kelemen on a two-year, entry-level contract. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The 22-year-old transferred to the Czech Extraliga this season and fared relatively well, notching five goals and 13 assists in 44 regular season games with BK Mlada Boleslav. However, he was much more productive in the playoffs, picking up nine goals and three assists in just 14 contests which certainly helped his case for an NHL deal.
Kelemen has also received some exposure on the international stage. Two years ago, he represented Slovakia at the World Juniors before suiting up for them at the World Championships last spring. Back in February, he played for them in the Olympics where he had an assist in seven games while averaging 10:39 per contest with the Slovaks picking up the bronze in the tournament. It’s likely he’ll represent his country again at the Worlds next month.
It seems unlikely that Kelemen will push for a spot in Arizona’s lineup next season and that he’ll likely be heading for AHL Tucson in the fall if a deal does indeed get finalized. But with some international seasons under his belt and an NHL-ready frame at 6’2 and 212 lbs, he could get an opportunity in a fourth line role at some point during this contract.
Snapshots: Bowness, Power, Wheeler, LaCombe
Earlier this month, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggested that Stars head coach Rick Bowness had a team option for next season on his contract. However, in his latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link), Friedman clarified that this is not the case; instead, his contract is simply expiring following this season. Dallas finds itself right in the thick of the battle for one of the last playoff spots in the Western Conference and how they fare on that front will likely go a long way in shaping what direction the team wants to go. That said, Bowness is 67 so there is a chance that he may not want to continue on in a top role anyway. With no team option on his deal, there’s a real possibility that whatever direction they go winds up being a mutual decision.
Elsewhere around the NHL:
- While Owen Power wasn’t in the lineup for the Sabres, the team plans to have the 2021 top pick make his NHL debut on Tuesday on Tuesday against Toronto, notes Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News. That will allow the defenseman to get a full practice in with the team instead of going directly from Michigan to Buffalo’s lineup. Power suggested he might get an opportunity to see some time on his off-side over their final few games as they will evaluate his ability to play on the right.
- Jets winger Blake Wheeler won’t play in tonight’s game in Ottawa and is listed as doubtful for tomorrow in Montreal due to his upper-body injury, relays Jeff Hamilton of the Winnipeg Free Press (Twitter link). The captain has been quite productive since the start of February, collecting 34 points in 30 games and his absence certainly isn’t helping Winnipeg’s quickly-decreasing chances of getting into the final playoff spot in the West.
- While the Ducks signed a key college prospect today when they inked Blake McLaughin, another of their NCAA prospects is still deciding whether he should turn pro or stay in school. Eric Stephens of The Athletic reports that defenseman Jackson LaCombe will likely need a few more days to decide if he’s going to return for his senior season with Minnesota. The 21-year-old was a second-round pick of Anaheim back in 2019 (39th overall) and had 30 points in 39 games with the Golden Gophers this season.
Atlantic Notes: Sabres, Knies, Pezzetta
After signing Owen Power on Friday, the Sabres were hoping to get two other key college prospects signed soon. GM Kevyn Adams told Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News on Friday that he had reached out to Michigan goalie Erik Portillo and Minnesota defenseman Ryan Johnson to discuss the possibility of both of them turning pro. However, as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link), Portillo has since decided to return to the Wolverines next season. A 2019 third-round pick by Buffalo, Portillo had a 2.14 GAA along with a .926 SV% in 42 games in his sophomore year.
Meanwhile, Johnson, a first-rounder that same year, had 19 points in 39 games with the Golden Gophers. If the Sabres wanted to do so, they could offer to burn the first year of his entry-level deal as they did with Power to help entice Johnson to sign.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division:
- While Minnesota has been eliminated from the Frozen Four tournament, TSN’s Darren Dreger reports (Twitter link) that Matthew Knies will take a few days to decide whether or not to turn pro. The Maple Leafs drafted the 19-year-old forward 57th overall last summer and opted to hold a contract slot available for him over converting an AHL player to an NHL deal at the trade deadline. He averaged a point per game in 33 contests with the Golden Gophers this season while also suiting up at the Olympics. If Knies isn’t going to play in the NHL right away, staying in college for his sophomore year would make more sense from a development perspective. It’s believed that Knies is leaning towards staying in school at this time.
- The Canadiens announced (Twitter link) that winger Michael Pezzetta will return to the lineup tonight after missing the last couple of weeks with an upper-body injury. The 24-year-old has played in 44 games in his rookie season, collecting eight points along with 68 penalty minutes and 132 hits. Jesse Ylonen will be scratched to make room in the lineup for Pezzetta.
PHR Mailbag: Trophy Predictions, Kraken, UFAs, Kadri, Kings, Projections, Draft, Blue Jackets, Red Wings, Blues
Topics in this edition of the PHR Mailbag include early award predictions, an assessment of Nazem Kadri’s pending free agency, surplus depth for the Kings, and much more. If your question doesn’t appear here, check back for it in last weekend’s mailbag.
NHATrang: How about some predictions for the major trophies: Hart, Norris, Vezina, Selke?
Hart Trophy – Auston Matthews (Toronto) – With there being several quality candidates, a strong finish could give someone the boost to get the award. Right now, Matthews is having quite the strong finish to his season and has a good chance at hitting 60 goals. That should make him the front-runner.
Norris Trophy – Roman Josi (Nashville) – There’s a very good case to make for Colorado’s Cale Makar but Josi has the better offensive numbers and whether we like it or not, that will stand out to some voters. I think what also will help Josi is that the Predators weren’t expected to be a playoff threat while the Avs have been viewed as contenders all season. Josi helping lead Nashville into the thick of the playoff race will carry some weight.
Vezina Trophy – Igor Shesterkin (NY Rangers) – He’s first in the NHL in save percentage (.935) and second in goals against average (2.10) and while he hasn’t had quite as high of a workload as some other starters, he has played enough that it won’t be held against him. It’s his to lose down the stretch.
Selke Trophy – Patrice Bergeron (Boston) – He still is elite at faceoffs, his possession numbers are elite, he kills penalties, and still contributes at a top-line level. He hasn’t won in four years but has been a finalist each time and there’s no reason to think he won’t be in the mix. If some writers think this could be his final year as some have speculated, that could garner him a few first-place votes as well from those who may want to send him off on top.
Tim Wilson: Much has been made of the poor performance of Seattle’s goaltending tandem in their first season. I’m wondering how the Kraken’s team defensive stats such as shots allowed compare to Grubauer and Driedger’s 20/21 teams, Colorado and Florida.
Seattle is only allowing 29.1 shots per game this season, the fourth-fewest in the entire league and second-fewest in the Western Conference. They’re trying to play a defensively responsible style knowing that they don’t have the firepower to win and have done a decent job at doing so. For comparison, Colorado last year was tops in the league at just 25.4 while Florida was in the middle of the pack at 30.0.
A lot of their struggles simply stem from poor goaltending. Philipp Grubauer is dead last among qualifying goaltenders at -29.9 goals saved above expected, per Moneypuck. That’s just in 50 games too, or 0.6 extra per game on average than he should be allowing. How many more wins would Seattle have if he was strictly middle of the pack hovering around the zero mark in that stat? They wouldn’t be a playoff team but they wouldn’t be battling for the top draft lottery odds either. Chris Driedger has done better at -1.1 goals saved above expected so he’s basically average on that front.
If you’re looking for some reason for optimism, Grubauer has been a good goalie for a while now and it’s not as if he somehow forgot how to play the position upon signing with Seattle. I’m confident he’ll be a lot better next season. Probably not enough to get them into the playoffs – they have a long way to go before that happens – but their goaltending shouldn’t be anywhere near this level in 2022-23.
Y2KAK: Early top FA predictions please!!!
This is a tough one to answer right now in that the season isn’t over yet so there’s still the potential for some fluctuation in players’ values. Personally, I don’t dig in too much into the UFA group in terms of fits and potential contracts until we start working on our annual Top 50 UFA post which is still more than two months away. But here’s a very quick overview of some of the bigger names.
Johnny Gaudreau – Re-signs in Calgary. Matthew Tkachuk’s pending RFA contract will definitely make this a tough squeeze but there’s a way to make it work if they go with a lot of minimum-salary players to round out the roster.
Nazem Kadri – I’ll look at him in more detail shortly but I don’t see him staying with Colorado.
Filip Forsberg – Re-signs with Nashville. There’s mutual interest in getting a deal done and while it’s going to contain elements the Predators don’t like (signing bonuses and trade protection), they won’t let that ultimately nix a new contract.
Penguins – Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang re-sign, Bryan Rust moves on. Malkin winds up a little lower than his current AAV while Letang is a bit higher. If they could find a way to move Jason Zucker without taking salary back, they might be able to take a late run at Rust as well.
Patrice Bergeron – Re-signs with Boston. I wouldn’t be surprised if they go year-to-year from here on out, allowing for some creativity in terms of salary and performance bonus structure.
Claude Giroux – He’s not re-signing with Florida, that’s pretty much a given. There seems to be a bit of smoke with his hometown Senators and that would make a lot of sense as that team needs an impact veteran to really round out their improving forward group.
John Klingberg – I wouldn’t be shocked if Dallas eventually worked out a deal with him but for now, I’ll say he moves on. If Detroit is ready to flip the switch and go for it, I think they’ll be seriously in the mix at least.
Ville Husso – I pegged him to New Jersey in a hypothetical scenario in last weekend’s mailbag so I’ll stick with them.
M34: What are Kadri’s next contract terms and which team gives it to him?
Boy, did Kadri ever pick a good time for a career year. He sits 13th in league scoring heading into today’s action and, perhaps more notably, sixth above centers. What better way to argue that he’s capable of being a top pivot than by being among the top-scoring middlemen in the league.
That said, I don’t he’s going to be able to command the type of deal that a top-producing center typically would. He’ll be 32 when next season starts so there will be concern about a drop-off occurring sooner than later. His previous career high in points is 61 so it’s not as if there’s a track record of him scoring like this. Plus, there’s his lengthy suspension history – six in total. At this point, the suspensions are getting more severe each time to the point where his next one could be in the double-digits. That will make some teams hesitant.
In spite of all that, he’s heading for a nice contract. His maximum term, assuming it’s not Colorado that re-signs him, is seven years and while teams may not want to sign him for that long, that final year or two could be used to smooth out the AAV a little bit. So I’ll say he gets the max-term with a seven-year deal with an AAV around $8MM. I don’t think he’ll be worth that contract in the end but he plays a premium position which will help to mitigate some of the aforementioned concerns.
W H Twittle: What can the L.A. Kings be expected to do with their prospects who are mostly RDs or Cs? Cs can be moved to the wings if they can score. But moving defensemen to their wrong side is seldom a good move. Do they start looking to trade a few prospects this summer or before the draft for the players they feel will help them next year?
While it isn’t ideal to have defensemen on their wrong side, it’s quite common. Most NHL teams have at least one blueliner on his off-side in each game. It’s usually a lefty on the right but it’s not implausible that a righty can go on the left if need be. I’m also not convinced it’s a logjam they need to deal with right now. Jordan Spence could plausibly be back in the minors, leaving Drew Doughty, Matt Roy, and Sean Durzi as the three that break camp. It’s not a situation that necessarily has to be dealt with in the near future.
As for their center situation, I agree that some can move to the wing but that is a short-term solution. Potential impact centers are always in high demand but the Kings could run the risk of devaluing them if they stay on the wing for too long. If they’re shifting towards win-now mode, yes, moving some of that surplus could make sense. The question is who to move. They probably don’t want to move Alex Turcotte while Gabriel Vilardi and Lias Andersson have seen their value dip; Rasmus Kupari has had a nice year in a depth role but his value isn’t sky-high. If they think Turcotte still could be a top center a few years from now, that could make Quinton Byfield the one to watch for if they want to move a promising youngster for a shorter-term difference-maker.
The Duke: All-knowing and -seeing MB Crystal Ball, please weigh in on the following queries: 1. How do the SJS and Preds’ goaltending shake out next season and the next few years? 2. Career trajectories for Mssrs Zadina & Sandin (are either on new teams soon)? 3. And finally, what team does John Gibson suit up for next season? As always, much thanks.
1) Let’s look at San Jose first. Obviously, they need to move a goalie this summer. My guess is that it’s James Reimer as whoever is GM at that time will likely want to give the two younger goals (Adin Hill and Kaapo Kahkonen) a longer look. They’re both 25 at the moment and in a perfect world, that’s their tandem for the foreseeable future. They don’t have a top goalie prospect in their system and as they have several high-priced contracts for a while, they need to go with cheaper options. A platoon costing somewhere between $6MM to $7MM combined would help so I expect those two will be given a chance to be longer-term options.
As for Nashville, theirs is a little easier to predict. I don’t see anyone supplanting Juuse Saros as the starter as long as Saros is under contract which is through the 2024-25 season. By then, Yaroslav Askarov should be NHL-ready. They’ll need a bridge backup for a couple of years – someone like Reimer would make a lot of sense, to be honest – but there will be several of those available in free agency each year so they could just look to go year-to-year with low-cost options.
2) Filip Zadina – I have my doubts that he’ll be able to live up to his draft billing and become the top-line winger many felt he had the potential to be. That said, he certainly has some offensive talent which will keep him in the league for a while. I could see him being a player who hovers around 40-50 points most years (slightly higher at times) and bounces between the second and third lines. That’s a pretty good career trajectory overall even if it’s a bit underwhelming relative to where he was picked. As for being on a new team in the somewhat near future, I think there’s a good chance that happens.
Rasmus Sandin – I’ve talked about him in the past and I don’t see him being a high-end point-getter in the NHL. To me, he projects as a secondary offensive threat, someone that will have a floor of 25 points every year and could creep up over 40 in a good year. I also see no reason why Toronto would want to move him anytime soon, they need cost-controllable blueliners and he’ll be that for a little while yet, even through his first (and possibly second) trip through restricted free agency.
3) Unless Gibson wants out and makes it known, I have no reason to think it won’t be Anaheim. If you go back and look at the trade market for good goalies, the word underwhelming comes to mind. When was the last time an above average goalie that was signed for several more seasons was moved for a return that made you think ‘wow, that’s a really good trade’? Certainly not lately. If the options are either take an underwhelming return or hold onto Gibson, the latter path is the right way to go for them.