Maple Leafs Working On Nick Ritchie Trade
While there hasn’t been a formal trade request, the Maple Leafs are working on trying to find a new home for Nick Ritchie, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported in the latest 32 Thoughts segment (video link). While nothing is imminent, he notes that there has been some traction on trying to find a taker for the winger.
Ritchie was non-tendered by Boston last summer and quickly signed a two-year, $5MM deal with Toronto. It’s a move that hasn’t panned out well as the 26-year-old has just two goals and seven assists in 33 games which resulted in him clearing waivers last month. Once the taxi squads were dissolved following the All-Star break, he was sent to Toronto of the AHL although he has yet to suit up with the Marlies.
With a $2.5MM AAV for next season as well, the Maple Leafs will almost certainly have to either retain money or take a contract back since teams passed up on taking him for free recently. A complicating factor will be next year’s buyout cost. Because Toronto back-loaded the contract, the cost of a buyout would only be $300K next season (although it jumps to $1.1MM for 2023-24). Friedman notes that Toronto would be hesitant to retain more than $300K in a trade as a result.
The Maple Leafs have more than $74MM in commitments for next season to just 14 players, per CapFriendly, a figure that includes Ritchie’s $1.375MM revised cap hit when he’s in the minors. The salary cap is only going to go up to $82.5MM at most and even that may be optimistic so that doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room for them to round out their roster, especially with goaltender Jack Campbell among the players eligible for unrestricted free agency this summer. As a result, finding a way to free up any sort of extra cap room would go a long way. Ritchie won’t carry much trade value but if they can find a way to save even a little bit of cap space, it’s an option that GM Kyle Dubas will need to seriously consider.
Snapshots: Vanecek, Rierden, Brassard, Scandella
Although the Capitals find themselves comfortably in a playoff spot, goaltending has been an issue for them at times this season. Both Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov have had chances at starting and at other times, they’ve platooned when both are healthy. Speaking with J.J. Regan of NBC Sports Washington, head coach Peter Laviolette indicated that he’d like to give Vanecek a chance to run with the number one job when he returns from his upper-body injury with the hope of solidifying their netminding before the playoffs. While Washington has very limited cap space to work with, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them keep tabs on the goalie market for the time being in case Vanecek isn’t able to play with consistency which was an issue for him in the first half of the season.
More from the around the NHL:
- Penguins assistant coach Todd Rierden is out indefinitely after suffering a knee injury when he slipped on ice while shoveling during the All-Star break, notes Johnny McGonigal of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He is set to undergo surgery on Monday. Matt Cullen, who works in Pittsburgh’s player development department, will join up with the team on Monday to help with their power play.
- Flyers center Derick Brassard missed today’s game due to soreness, relays Giana Han of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link). The veteran has dealt with lingering hip issues all season long that has caused him to miss time on three separate occasions. Head coach Mike Yeo indicated that the decision to give him the game off was so that he wouldn’t have to “go through all that” again so it appears they’re taking some precautions to avoid another extended absence. When healthy, Brassard has done well this season with 11 points in 20 games.
- Blues defenseman Marco Scandella has a lower-body injury that will keep him out either day-to-day or week-to-week, notes team reporter Chris Pinkert. The injury was sustained on Thursday against New Jersey. Scandella had played in every game this season although his 17:29 ATOI is the lowest of any of his full seasons. With that strange of a designation, it seems reasonable to suggest that he’ll miss at least a couple of games.
Salary Cap Deep Dive: Anaheim Ducks
Navigating the salary cap is one of the more important tasks for any GM. Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.
PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation for the 2021-22 season and beyond with contract statuses as of the beginning of the year. This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.
Anaheim Ducks
Current Cap Hit: $70,352,981 (under the $81.5MM Upper Limit)
Entry-Level Contracts
D Simon Benoit ($809K this season)
D Jamie Drysdale ($925K through 2022-23)
F Trevor Zegras ($925K through 2022-23)
Potential Bonuses:
Benoit: $82.5K
Drysdale: $850K
Zegras: $850K
Total: $1.7825MM
Zegras has certainly outperformed his entry-level deal. While they’re still sheltering him a little, he’s effectively Anaheim’s top offensive center now and a centerpiece to build around for the future. We’ve seen teams move quickly to try to sign these players to max-term contracts and it stands to reason that new GM Pat Verbeek will be doing so here. Montreal’s recent extension for Nick Suzuki (eight years at just under $8MM per season) is one that will inevitably come up in those discussions. As for the incentives, he has a chance at reaching all four of his ‘A’ bonuses but other than time on ice, the other ones should come down to the wire.
Drysdale’s first full NHL season has had some ups and downs but more of the former than the latter which is good for a 19-year-old blueliner. He’s another player Verbeek may want to sign to a long-term contract but unless Drysdale takes a big step forward next season, it may be difficult to find a price point where both sides are content with the risk (paying too much too soon for Anaheim and giving up on potentially higher earnings for Drysdale). A short-term bridge deal could fall in the $4MM range while a long-term pact could be double that. The youngster has a chance of getting two or three of his ‘A’ bonuses. As for Benoit, he’s logging light minutes in a depth role and players like that often sign their second contract for a fairly low AAV in exchange for one-way money. He’s a strong candidate for that type of deal.
Signed Through 2021-22, Non-Entry-Level
F Sam Carrick ($750K, UFA)
F Nicolas Deslauriers ($1MM, UFA)
F Ryan Getzlaf ($3MM, UFA)
F Ryan Kesler ($6.875MM, UFA)
D Jacob Larsson ($1.2MM, RFA)
D Hampus Lindholm ($5.206MM, UFA)
F Isac Lundestrom ($874K, RFA)
D Josh Manson ($4.1MM, UFA)
F Sonny Milano ($1.7MM, RFA)
F Rickard Rakell ($3.789MM, UFA)
F Buddy Robinson ($750K, UFA)
F Sam Steel ($874K, RFA)
Potential Bonuses:
Getzlaf: $1.5MM
Let’s get Kesler out of the way first. He’s on injured reserve but is eligible for LTIR since he isn’t coming back and his playing days are over. They don’t need to make that placement unless they’re in need of cap space and they’re not going to need that. There has been some talk that a team already in LTIR may be interested in him to expand their LTIR pool so that’s something to keep an eye on.
Getzlaf has had a nice bounce-back season. He still isn’t scoring much but his playmaking is still making him one of their better offensive contributors. He’ll be 37 in the spring and will likely be going year-to-year from here on out which will keep him eligible for incentives as he has now. A similar contract for him in the summer is certainly reasonable. Rakell is an interesting pending UFA when it comes to the trade deadline. He has two 30-goal seasons under his belt but 2017-18 was the last time he scored that many times; it’s also the last time he scored 20. That makes his value a little difficult to pin down. His career numbers say he’s a scoring winger that’s owed a nice raise but his more recent ones have him more of a second-line player in line for a smaller raise to around $4.5MM or so.
Despite suffering an upper-body injury that has kept him out for nearly a month, Milano already is having a career year despite his role not changing all that much. He’s eligible for salary arbitration with a $1.8MM qualifying offer. His track record isn’t the best which should limit an award but an extra million or so should be achievable. Deslauriers is one of the last true enforcers in the league. The need for them is dying down but he plays well enough to log a regular shift which should allow him to get a similar contract this summer. Robinson and Carrick are serviceable role players but neither have done enough to command much more than the minimum at the NHL level.
Steel and Lundestrom both signed their qualifying offers as bridge contracts to try to prove themselves. It has worked well for Lundestrom as he has become a regular in the middle six while playing full-time down the middle. He isn’t producing a lot so he’s not going to want a long-term contract this summer but with arbitration eligibility, doubling his AAV is a realistic goal. It hasn’t worked well for Steel, however. He hasn’t produced enough to move into a more prominent role and he’s not the type of player that thrives in a limited role. He’ll get a small raise but probably not much more than that.
Lindholm remains an under the radar number two defender. His offensive numbers rarely stand out but he’s no slouch at that end while being very strong defensively. At 28, he’s still young enough to command a max-term deal and with the role he plays, he can add a couple of million on his current price tag. Manson is another significant rental on the back end. However, he hasn’t been able to duplicate the offensive output he had in 2017-18; he basically has as many points in parts of four seasons combined since then. That will limit his market somewhat. He’s still physical, strong in his own end, and a right-shot defender so there will be plenty of interest but it would be surprising to see his price tag go much larger than $5MM. Larsson has spent most of the season in the minors but gets a mention here as Anaheim can’t clear his full contract off the books when he’s with San Diego. They may attempt to get him to sign for less than his qualifying offer to keep him around but otherwise, he’s a non-tender candidate.
Signed Through 2022-23
F Max Comtois ($2.0375MM, RFA)
F Derek Grant ($1.5MM, UFA)
D Josh Mahura ($750K, RFA)
D Kevin Shattenkirk ($3.9MM, UFA)
G Anthony Stolarz ($950K, UFA)
F Troy Terry ($1.45MM, RFA)
A year ago, Comtois was in the middle of a career year and led the Ducks in scoring. It looked like he had established himself as a capable top-six power forward but the bridge deal showed some uncertainty as to whether he could play like that on a long-term basis. That hesitance proved to be accurate as Comtois has struggled mightily this season and has gone back to more of a reserve role. Lots can change but for now, a long-term contract in 2023 seems unlikely. Instead, a one-year deal or a medium-term pact that buys out one or two UFA years may make more sense. Grant is a serviceable depth center that’s making too much for the role he fills. He should be able to get another contract after this one but it should be closer to the $1MM mark. As for Terry, he has clearly impressed this season and is Anaheim’s leading scorer by a considerable margin. All of a sudden, he has gone from a role player to a top liner and if he can keep this up, a long-term contract in the $6MM to $7MM range would become a serious option.
Shattenkirk has had a much better second season in Anaheim than his first, leading their defensemen in points while logging his usual 20 minutes per game. He’ll be 34 at the end of this deal and will be able to sign a multi-year deal without any 35+ risk. Another three-year pact could be done around this price point with the expectation that he will need to play a bit of a lesser role by the end of it. Mahura is a low-cost depth piece and will need to play his way into a regular spot in the lineup to have a chance to earn a bigger deal even with salary arbitration rights at that time.
Stolarz had been more of a depth goalie in the past which made it understandable that he took a low-cost two-year deal to give him some stability. However, he has done pretty well this season and should have himself positioned for a bigger deal in 2023. His path is somewhat similar to Laurent Brossoit who inked a contract with a $2.325MM AAV last summer.
Signed Through 2023-24
F Adam Henrique ($5.85MM, UFA)
F Max Jones ($1.295MM, RFA)
F Jakob Silfverberg ($5.25MM, UFA)
Henrique has had a nice bounce-back year after clearing waivers at one point last season. He has adapted well to playing on the wing and has become a quality part of Anaheim’s top six. He’s still not providing a great return on his cap hit and his next contract will undoubtedly be considerably less than this one but compared to how things looked last season, this is a nice step in the right direction. The same can’t be said for Silfverberg. He’s struggling to score despite heavy minutes and even his possession numbers aren’t pretty. The 31-year-old is better off as a bottom-six piece at this point and that’s a pretty high price tag for someone that is best suited now to be a checker. Jones is in the first season of a three-year bridge deal but has played just twice due to a torn pectoral muscle. That makes this season a write-off but there’s still enough time for him to outperform this deal. He’ll be owed a $1.5MM qualifier in 2024.
Austin Watson To Have Hearing With Department Of Player Safety
Senators winger Austin Watson will have a disciplinary hearing on Sunday, the Department of Player Safety announced (Twitter link). The play in question is an interference penalty he had on Bruins defenseman Jack Ahcan in Saturday’s game, one that saw him receive a two-minute minor. Conor Ryan of the Boston Sports Journal has the clip of the hit here.
Watson has one prior suspension for an on-ice incident when he was suspended for two games back in 2017 for boarding. While that won’t factor into how much money he’d forfeit if he was to be suspended (the repeat offender tag for that lasts 24 months), it could be taken into consideration for any discipline here.
Ottawa wraps up what has been a very busy week for them on Sunday when they host Washington Sunday afternoon for their fifth game in seven days. Accordingly, a decision on any further penalty to Watson will need to be made quickly following the hearing.
Colorado Has Shown Interest In Marc-Andre Fleury And Claude Giroux
With several key veterans heading towards unrestricted free agency and a strong roster that’s already one of the top offensive teams in the league, expectations are high in Colorado with the belief that they will look to make a big splash to cement their contender status. As part of his trade bait list released earlier today, TSN’s Chris Johnston reported in a separate segment (video link) that they’ve shown interest in a pair of prominent veterans in Blackhawks goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and Flyers center Claude Giroux.
Fleury has had a quiet year with Chicago compared to his Vezina-winning campaign last season but has still managed a respectable .910 SV% and a 2.88 GAA in 34 starts. For context, starter Darcy Kuemper’s numbers are only a little better at a .916 SV% and a 2.54 GAA. Pavel Francouz has been even better in limited action but missed all of last season and most of this one due to injury so some quality insurance between the pipes would make some sense.
As for Giroux, he has continually made it clear that he has not yet decided whether or not he’ll waive his trade protection to facilitate a trade. It’s a decision that seems likely to come close to the March 21st trade deadline but it’s easy to see why the Avs would be interested. He’s on pace for close to 30 goals and 70 points and would make a strong attack much deeper. He’d also be a big boost for them at the faceoff dot as Colorado’s team success rate is only 47.3% while Giroux is one of the league leaders at 60.6% and with greater emphasis placed on situational draws in the postseason, that’s an element that will be of interest to many contenders, not just the Avs.
However, while Colorado may want these players, finding a way to fit them in on the cap will be tricky. They project to have less than $1MM in cap space at the deadline, per CapFriendly while Fleury carries a $7MM AAV and Giroux checks in at $8.25MM. Clearly, the Avalanche would need at least 50% retention on either player if they were to get one of them and would either need to send some sort of salary offset the other way or involve a third team to hold back another 25% of their contract to make the money work. The fact GM Joe Sakic is showing interest in some of the top talents suggests that this is their year to go all-in and if there’s a way to get another top veteran, they’ll find a way to make the money work.
Atlantic Notes: Panthers, Stecher, Mittelstadt
The Panthers will have some reinforcements up front for their first game after the All-Star break. Team reporter Jameson Olive relays that wingers Patric Hornqvist and Maxim Mamin plus center Noel Acciari should all be ready to suit up on Wednesday against Carolina. Hornqvist has been out for close to a month with an upper-body injury while Mamin has missed close to three weeks with an undisclosed injury. As for Acciari, he hasn’t played with Florida all season due to a pectoral injury suffered back in the preseason that required surgery although he did get in a couple of games on a conditioning stint last week. The Panthers only have one open roster spot at the moment so they will need to make a couple of moves to activate the trio of forwards off IR.
Elsewhere around the Atlantic:
- The Red Wings should have defenseman Troy Stecher back in their lineup on Saturday against Philadelphia, notes MLive’s Ansar Khan. The veteran has missed more than three months due to a wrist injury, a disappointing outcome in a year where he’s going to hit unrestricted free agency this summer. His return will help offset the absences of Filip Hronek (COVID protocol) and Nick Leddy (upper-body injury) and if he’s able to play well over the next month, he could be an interesting trade candidate for Detroit heading into the trade deadline.
- Sabres center Casey Mittelstadt has been cleared for contact as he works his way towards coming from his latest upper-body injury, reports Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News. Head coach Don Granato indicated that the 23-year-old can now be classified as being out day-to-day but that they will err on the side of caution since he has hardly played this season; Mittelstadt has played just seven times due to multiple injuries.
Metropolitan Notes: Zacha, Hartsburg, Malkin
The Devils are receiving some interest in forward Pavel Zacha, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports in his latest 32 Thoughts column. The 24-year-old is on pace for a career season offensively and has 22 points in 45 games this season while splitting time between center and the wing. New Jersey’s top two spots down the middle are more or less set for the better part of the next decade so it’s certainly understandable why some teams may be sniffing around. Zacha has one season of RFA eligibility remaining and will be able to file for arbitration this summer. He’s subject to the old rule for qualifying offers which means his $3MM salary is what he’ll need to be offered to maintain his rights.
More from the Metropolitan:
- The Blue Jackets have brought back Craig Hartsburg, he revealed in a podcast for the team’s website (audio link). Hartsburg spent parts of six seasons in Columbus over two separate stints, spending time as both an assistant coach and a scout. Now, he’ll work with the team roughly once a month for a week at a time. The 62-year-old has plenty of NHL coaching experience and has stints as the head coach in Chicago, Anaheim, and Ottawa in the past.
- Penguins center Evgeni Malkin is officially listed as a game-time decision for Sunday’s game against New Jersey but he is expected to return, notes Mike DeFabo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He was placed in COVID protocol just after the All-Star break and it appears he won’t be missing any more time than the minimum five days. Between that and injuries, the pending UFA has played in just a dozen games this season although he has been productive when he has played, notching 13 points.
Rangers Have An Opportunity To Strike Early In Trade Market
The concept of the time value of money is a very common one in investing. Your money is worth a certain amount today but ideally grows over time. A similar philosophy applies in the NHL when it comes to cap space – $1MM at the start of the season can be worth around $4MM at the trade deadline so teams wisely try to save what they have, hope for minimal injuries, and that would put them in a position to add a useful piece or two for the stretch run.
The end result of such a philosophy is a trade market that has basically resembled that of Major League Baseball since the start of December, notwithstanding a couple of minor AHL swaps last week. (If you don’t follow MLB, they’ve been in a lockout since then with no trades allowed.) For the most part, that’s probably not going to change over the next few weeks as many contenders have cap space ranging from none to minimal with a hope that between now and the deadline, it could improve to a level that could be considered as slightly better than nothing. Such is life in a league where half the teams are technically over the cap and are using LTIR to get into compliance.
That provides an opportunity for a contender that’s fortunate to have cap space to make a move now to get a leg up on their competition. Only one such team in the top seven in the NHL standings heading into Monday’s games is in that situation and that’s the New York Rangers.
So far, they’ve been linked to many different players with former Ranger J.T. Miller being the headliner. Some of the others are on expiring contracts and there needs to at least be a mixture as new contracts for Mika Zibanejad and Adam Fox add $11.725MM to next season’s payroll compared to what they’re making now. With nearly $71MM in commitments to 16 players per CapFriendly, there is some room for a longer-term addition but some of their pickups will need to be rentals as well.
Right now, they’re pegged to finish the season with $7.056MM in cap space, an amount that’s equivalent to $17.2MM today and $35.2M at the trade deadline. Yes, they have some bonuses to factor in but the struggles of Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko limit that somewhat. Fox will reach his $850K but his bonuses should be the only ones of any sort of consequence. So if you’re working backward, New York needs to have at least $850K in room at the end of the season. Even if you add a few hundred thousand as a safety net for some of their other youngsters and factor in that they’re just carrying the minimum-sized roster due to the All-Star break, we’re only looking at holding back around 15-20% of their end-of-season cap room and a few million off the present value of contracts they can acquire right now.
That means that New York could add comfortably more than $10MM in salaries today to their roster. That’s enough to add an impact player up front and some depth in the bottom six which is an area of concern for the Rangers at the moment with even perhaps having enough left over to shore up their back end. There’s a reasonable chance that will be about all of the spending they’re going to do between now and the deadline; no one should be expecting GM Chris Drury to bring in five or six new players between now and March 21st. That would be asking a lot of any team.
In that sense, there isn’t much of a need for them to wait. While many contenders will have to wait until more time elapses resulting in less salary to take on, the Rangers can go after their targets aggressively now. Waiting until closer to the deadline will bring in more contenders for their desired players which could drive the price tag higher. With that in mind, there’s a case to make that paying a little more now to get the player is worth doing, ensuring they get their targets and getting several weeks of extra games out of them in the process.
Patience is often a good characteristic but for New York, the time may be right to be aggressive and strike early on the trade front. With their cap situation, they’ll be a team to keep an eye on in the coming weeks.
Central Notes: Khudobin, Wild, Coyotes Goaltending
Earlier this season, Dallas was shopping goaltender Anton Khudobin and after they found no takers, they waived him and sent him to AHL Texas to try to get him back to his form from previous seasons. Now, while they could certainly benefit from shedding his $3.33MM cap hit that runs through 2022-23, GM Jim Nill indicated in an interview with Mike Heika of the Stars’ team site that they may elect to hold onto the netminder as injury insurance. If the Stars were willing to take a similarly-priced player back in a swap of bad contracts, it’s quite possible that they’d have been able to find a taker. Now, it appears that the 35-year-old will stick around and be a high-priced insurance policy in the minors.
More from the Central Division:
- Wild winger Marcus Foligno is expected to return to Minnesota’s lineup on Tuesday against Winnipeg, notes Michael Russo of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 30-year-old has missed the last two games with an upper-body injury, his first real blemish on an impressive season that has already seen him reach a career high in points with 27 in 39 games. Meanwhile, Russo adds in a separate tweet that the team is hopeful that defenseman Mathew Dumba will be able to play on Saturday after being placed on IR earlier today.
- Coyotes goaltender Scott Wedgewood was injured in practice today and did not accompany the team on their road trip to Vancouver, relays Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports (Twitter link). The veteran has done relatively well since joining Arizona, posting a .903 SV% in 18 games after being claimed on waivers early in the season. Ivan Prosvetov will be recalled from AHL Tucson with Carter Hutton not quite ready to return although he did skate before practice.
Injury Updates: Whitecloud, Dvorak, Batherson, Rask
The Golden Knights suffered a blow to their back end as head coach Peter DeBoer told reporters including Owen Krepps of Vegas Hockey Now that blueliner Zach Whitecloud has a broken bone in his foot and has been ruled out of their games this week at a minimum. The 25-year-old has quickly become an important part of the defense corps for Vegas as he is logging over 19 minutes a game while chipping in with a dozen points in 31 games. It’s the third time this season that Whitecloud has been injured after missing time with a wrist injury and back spasms.
Other injury news from around the NHL:
- The Canadiens announced (Twitter link) that center Christian Dvorak has been cleared to return from his upper-body injury and is expected to play on Tuesday against New Jersey. He sustained the injury against Minnesota two weeks ago and was placed on IR soon after. Montreal has two open roster spots at the moment but they also have wingers Cole Caufield and Joel Armia coming back from COVID protocol so they will need to make some sort of roster move in order to add Dvorak to the active roster.
- Senators winger Drake Batherson is targeting a return of either late March or early April from his ankle injury, notes Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. Batherson was injured on a hit from Buffalo goaltender Aaron Dell late last month. While normally, a return in early April would only bring a player back for a couple of games, the late finish to the regular season would still allow the 23-year-old to get into the final 15-20 games even with Ottawa extremely unlikely to make the playoffs.
- Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask won’t practice this week as he continues to battle a lingering lower-body injury, relays Conor Ryan of the Boston Sports Journal (Twitter link). The veteran has played in four games since signing with Boston last month but has posted a save percentage of just .844. There is no timetable for his return but it stands to reason that after not skating for at least two weeks once this week is finished, he’ll need some time to get back into game shape.