Panthers Place Olli Juolevi On Waivers
When Florida acquired defenseman Olli Juolevi from Vancouver at the beginning of the season in exchange for defenseman Noah Juulsen and center Juho Lammikko, they were hoping they’d be able to unlock some of the potential that made him the fifth-overall pick in 2016. That hasn’t happened and they’ve decided to try someone else in that roster spot as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that the Panthers have placed the 23-year-old on waivers.
Juolevi has been limited to just 10 NHL games this season, only one of which has come in the last six weeks. As has often been the case throughout his career, injuries have been an issue as he has missed 29 games due to injury plus three more for a stint in COVID protocol. When he has been in Florida’s lineup, he hasn’t done a whole lot, averaging just 12:27 per game while not recording any points.
The Panthers recently signed Petteri Lindbohm after his deal overseas ended when Jokerit pulled out of the KHL and it’s likely that he will get a look in that seventh defenseman role in the short term while Florida has been looking to add to their back end between now and the trade deadline.
As for Juolevi, it’s certainly possible he gets claimed. With a league-minimum contract, it’s one that most teams would be able to afford and a rebuilding team may be inclined to take a look at him with the pressure off. He’s set to become a restricted free agent this summer with arbitration eligibility.
Atlantic Notes: Paul, Vrana, Sabres
The Senators and pending UFA forward Nick Paul are not believed to be close on a contract extension, reports Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli. Ottawa’s last offer was reportedly a three-year deal with a $2MM AAV, a bit of a raise on his current $1.35MM cap hit. However, with him being on pace for a career year and the market for players that can play down the middle being strong, that isn’t the type of offer that’s going to make it worth not testing free agency. Seravalli adds that there has been little contact between the two camps in recent weeks. If they can’t reach an extension, the 26-year-old should be on the move by March 21st.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic:
- While Red Wings winger Jakub Vrana was a full participant in the morning skate today, there remains no timetable for his return, notes Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. Head coach Jeff Blashill has expressed optimism that the 26-year-old will be able to make his season debut soon as he continues to work his way back from shoulder surgery back in October. Detroit currently has a full roster and will need to make a move in order to activate Vrana off IR in the coming days.
- Sabres forward Zemgus Girgensons returned to practice today for the first time in nearly six weeks after re-aggravating a lower-body injury, relays Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald. However, he will miss at least the next two home games for Buffalo next week. Meanwhile, Hoppe adds that winger Vinnie Hinostroza could return at some point next week from his lower-body injury. The pending UFA could be of interest as a depth addition so him being able to get back in the lineup before the March 21st trade deadline is of particular importance for Buffalo.
Trade Candidate: Max Domi
With the trade deadline now less than a month away, we continue our look at some of the players who have a good chance of being on the move between now and March 21st.
Last season wasn’t a great one for Max Domi. He struggled to fit in with the Blue Jackets in his first year with the team and certainly didn’t live up to his contract. Then he suffered a long-term injury and the combination of that was enough to cause Seattle to pass on him for free in expansion (where they instead picked someone that went back to Columbus days later as a free agent). However, this season has gone a bit better for him which may be enough to help him land a new home with a playoff-bound team in the near future.
Contract
Domi is in the final season of a contract that carries a $5.3MM AAV. He has a $6MM salary and will be an unrestricted free agent in July. As his deal only covered RFA-eligible years, he wasn’t eligible for any type of trade protection.
2021-22
Domi went through a bit of a roller coaster in the early going this season. He came back from shoulder surgery much earlier than expected and was in the lineup on opening night, collecting three points. Then he had a fractured rib and soon after returning from that, he landed in COVID protocol, missing another three weeks.
Since then, Domi has managed to stay in the lineup, albeit not quite in the role GM Jarmo Kekalainen envisioned when he acquired the 27-year-old from Montreal in 2020. He has played exclusively on the wing this season instead of filling a spot down the middle as originally planned. Domi has also spent time on all four lines without really being able to settle into one spot.
Domi has also been very unproductive on the power play. He has played over 56 minutes on the man advantage this season and has one assist to show for it. That’s the negative slant. The positive slant is that all but one of his points have come at five-on-five and the role that contending teams will want him to fill is one that even strength production is more important than producing on the power play.
Season Stats
44 GP, 9 goals, 16 assists, 25 points, -1 rating, 30 PIMS, 65 shots, 13:24 TOI, 47.4 CF%
Potential Suitors
While Domi can play in the top six if needed (he has at times throughout his career), that’s not the role teams should be eyeing him to play. With that in mind, his suitors should be those that want him for more of a depth spot in their lineup. That said, Domi’s price tag for that role will limit the number of teams who could realistically fit him in without having to move a roster player the other way.
In the East, I had the Bruins pegged as a possible suitor for Domi at the beginning of the season where his positional flexibility can be useful. He won’t be their top target but he would add some scoring to their bottom six. The same can basically be said for the Panthers if some of their stronger targets go elsewhere. The Rangers have the cap room to add a few pieces and they’re a team that would benefit from adding some offensive skill to their bottom six while still trying to fill other areas. The Maple Leafs have come up as a speculative fit as of late but depth scoring isn’t their top need; they’d need to strike out on filling those and have Jake Muzzin stay on LTIR for the rest of the season for that to really be an option.
Out West, the Kings may be more inclined to do a smaller deal or two that doesn’t involve giving up any longer-term assets and play it safe. That’s more of the range that Domi should fit in as he won’t command a significant price in return. The Predators also have ample cap space and could stand to upgrade their bottom six. They’re another team where it doesn’t seem likely that they’ll make a big splash so some smaller, safer moves like this may be more in their wheelhouse.
Likelihood Of A Trade
At this point, it doesn’t seem like Domi is a strong candidate to return to the Blue Jackets. While Columbus has been on a bit of a nice run as of late, they’re still longshots to reach the playoffs. As long as they’re willing to retain on the contract, there’s a very good chance that Domi is in another uniform after the deadline.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Metropolitan Notes: Yandle, Hayes, Boqvist, Matheson
Flyers defenseman Keith Yandle has had a rough season. While he has set the new ironman record for the most consecutive regular season games played (975 and counting), his offensive numbers have been underwhelming with a goal and 14 assists in 52 games. He has a full no-move clause in his one-year, $900K contract and told reporters, including NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jordan Hall, that he hasn’t given any consideration as to whether or not he’d be willing to waive that trade protection. Yandle could have an opportunity to be a depth option for a contender or two but he almost certainly wouldn’t play regularly, meaning his ironman streak would end. On the flip side, with Philadelphia out of contention, they may agree to keep him in their lineup and allow that streak to continue. The 35-year-old has a couple more weeks to make his decision.
More from the Metropolitan:
- Still with the Flyers, they’re set to welcome back center Kevin Hayes from injured reserve on Saturday, relays Olivia Reiner of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The 29-year-old has missed the last 16 games after needing to undergo surgery to remove an infection in his groin. Hayes has been limited to just 20 games so far this season where he has collected nine points.
- The Blue Jackets announced that they’ve placed defenseman Adam Boqvist on injured reserve due to an upper-body injury. The injury was sustained back on Sunday against Pittsburgh and the placement was back-dated to that point. As a result, Boqvist could be activated as soon as Monday for their game against Toronto.
- The Penguins have moved defenseman Mike Matheson to injured reserve, relays Mike DeFabo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link). The blueliner has been out with an upper-body injury that was sustained back on February 24th and the placement has been back-dated so he’s eligible to come off at any time. The purpose of the move is to free up a roster spot for them to bring someone up from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for the time being.
Snapshots: Canucks, Johnson, Canadiens, Nugent-Hopkins
The Canucks announced (Twitter link) that they’ve placed defenseman Kyle Burroughs on injured reserve while transferring blueliner Tucker Poolman to LTIR. Burroughs has had his first taste of extended NHL action this season, playing in 36 games while collecting five points and was injured last weekend against Anaheim. The move was made to open up the roster spot for yesterday’s recall of Phillip Di Giuseppe. As for Poolman, he will be eligible to return at any time if the placement is retroactive to his injury in late January but it temporarily adds his $2.5MM to their LTIR pool, enabling them to recall other players if there are more injuries in the near future.
Elsewhere around the NHL:
- The Blackhawks are expected to get center Tyler Johnson back in the lineup on Thursday against Edmonton, notes Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago (Twitter link). Johnson underwent artificial disk replacement surgery back in December, the same neck surgery Jack Eichel had. The veteran last played in late October and has a goal and two assists in eight games this season, his first with Chicago.
- The Canadiens are expected to hire Adam Nicholas in a player development role, reports Sportsnet’s Eric Engels. Nicholas has worked as a skills consultant with Toronto since 2019 and is the founder of a player development company called Stride Envy.
- Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins left today’s game with an upper-body injury with Sportsnet’s Mark Spector suggesting (via Twitter) that it looks like a shoulder issue. He took a hit from Florida’s Ryan Lomberg in the first period. Nugent-Hopkins only has seven goals in 45 games this season but still sits third on Edmonton in points thanks to his 30 assists.
This Day In Transactions History: Lightning Acquire Ryan McDonagh And J.T. Miller
Four years ago today was the 2018 NHL trade deadline, one that featured several notable swaps, including Evander Kane to the Sharks, Tomas Tatar to the Golden Knights, and Paul Stastny to the Jets. But the biggest one of all came from the Lightning and Rangers. New York had released their letter committing to rebuilding their franchise earlier in the month and had already made some moves to shore up their future. This was their biggest one with Tampa Bay moving out several future assets in an effort to win now.
The Lightning picked up defenseman Ryan McDonagh along with winger J.T. Miller in exchange for winger Vladislav Namestnikov, center Brett Howden, defenseman Libor Hajek, plus a first-round pick in 2018 and a second-rounder in 2019. It has only been four years but it’s safe to say it worked out a whole lot better for Tampa Bay than it did for New York.
McDonagh immediately became a stabilizing force on the back end for the Lightning. They didn’t need him to play upwards of 24 minutes a night as he was with the Rangers but gave them someone beyond Victor Hedman and Anton Stralman that was capable of shouldering a key load on the back end. Then-GM Steve Yzerman wasted little time working on an extension with McDonagh and as soon as he became eligible to sign one in July, McDonagh inked a seven-year, $47.25MM deal to ensure he’ll be sticking around for the long haul.
Miller didn’t exactly have the same fate. He was quite productive down the stretch for Tampa Bay, averaging nearly a point per game after the trade but struggled in the playoffs and didn’t produce as much the following year. That resulted in him being traded to Vancouver for a pair of draft picks, including the 2020 first-round selection that they ultimately flipped to New Jersey in 2020 as part of the Blake Coleman trade. Coleman, of course, played an important role on Tampa Bay’s Cup-winning teams in 2020 and 2021 so even though Miller didn’t have the type of impact they were hoping for, they still ultimately got a good return out of his inclusion in the trade.
As for what the Rangers got, things haven’t gone quite so well. Namestnikov was quiet down the stretch but his performance with Tampa Bay before the trade was still good enough to land him a two-year, $8MM contract that would take him to unrestricted free agency. One year later after a quiet season, he was flipped in a cap-clearing trade for minor league blueliner Nick Ebert and a fourth-round pick in 2021 that was used on Kalle Vaisanen. Not a great return on the impact forward they were hoping Namestnikov would be. He’s now in Detroit and is a candidate to be moved by March 21st.
Howden was a first-round pick of the Lightning back in 2016 (27th overall) and profiled as a key two-way center after putting up some impressive numbers in junior. However, that offensive output didn’t materialize in the pros and after scoring just 16 goals in 178 games over parts of three seasons with the Rangers, they gave up on him, sending him to Vegas for a 2022 fourth-round pick. Howden has actually done fairly well this season with 18 points in 39 games for the Golden Knights despite spending a lot of time on the fourth line.
Hajek was another player who impressed at the junior level and it looked as if he’d become a quality NHL defenseman before too long. While he was a regular for a lot of last season, he was a fixture on the third pairing with sheltered minutes and this year, he has been a frequent healthy scratch. They don’t want to lose him for nothing on waivers but this is a situation where if they move him, the return will almost certainly be as underwhelming as Howden’s was.
As for the draft picks, it’s a bit too early to make any significant conclusions on those. The first-rounder yielded defenseman Nils Lundkvist and while he has been fairly quiet in his first season in North America, his track record of offensive success in Sweden is promising. The second-rounder turned into center Karl Henriksson who isn’t putting up big numbers in Frolunda of the SHL but is holding down a regular spot in the lineup. Both could certainly be part of New York’s future with Lundkvist getting a sniff of NHL action earlier this season.
For New York to have any chance of salvaging any sort of value from this trade, they’ll need those prospects to become impact players. They’re down to Vaisanen, Lundkvist, Henriksson, a fourth-round pick, and Hajek (or whatever limited return they get for him). That’s not a great return from a trade that they were hoping would give them several long-term building blocks for the future, a cautionary tale for how even trading for players that appear to be quality prospects can still not work out as well as intended. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay has won a couple of Stanley Cup titles since then and while McDonagh’s contract may not age great considering he’s signed through 2026, he’s still playing an important role for them. The biggest swap of the 2018 deadline looks like a clear-cut victory for them as a result.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Metropolitan Notes: Texier, Flyers, Capitals
While Blue Jackets forward Alexandre Texier was originally expected to miss four weeks with a finger injury (a time period that has come and gone), Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch reports (Twitter link) that the 22-year-old is still a few weeks away from returning. Texier is having the best season of his career so far with 11 goals and nine assists in 36 games but this injury will have taken away that momentum.
Texier has found his name in recent trade speculation with teams calling about him but the injury won’t help things on that front either. On that front, Hedger adds in a follow-up tweet that the team has no interest in moving him. He has long been viewed as a future building block for the Blue Jackets and since he has shown some promising signs in his development this season, it’s understandable that they’d want to keep him around.
More from the Metropolitan:
- Prior to their game this afternoon against Washington, the Flyers announced (Twitter link) that they’ve activated winger Joel Farabee and center Derick Brassard off injured reserve. Farabee has missed a little more than a month due to an upper-body injury but is still tied for third on Philadelphia in goals with 11 in 33 games. Brassard, meanwhile, has been battling hip issues all season long but has managed to pick up 11 points in 20 games. If Brassard can stay healthy, he could be a trade candidate for a team looking to add some depth before the trade deadline. Meanwhile, Sam Carchidi of Philly Hockey Now adds that center Kevin Hayes could return late next week after being out for more than a month with an adductor injury.
- While Washington has very limited cap space that’s entirely based on Anthony Mantha’s LTIR placement, both J.J. Regan and Andrew Gillis of NBC Sports Washington believe that the Capitals need to find a way to add an impact goaltender by next month’s trade deadline. Vitek Vanecek is currently injured and while Ilya Samsonov was able to play this afternoon despite appearing to suffer an injury in the warmup, he has struggled with inconsistency this season. They’ve been previously linked to Chicago’s Marc-Andre Fleury but would likely need to get Chicago to retain half of his $7MM contract plus a third-party facilitator to take on another 25% of the contract to have a chance at fitting him into their cap structure.
AHL Shuffle: 02/26/22
It’s another busy Saturday in the NHL with 20 teams in action including Tampa Bay and Nashville who face off in the latest installment of the Stadium Series. There should be plenty of roster movement throughout the day which we’ll keep track of here.
Atlantic Division
TBD
Metropolitan Division
- The Blue Jackets announced (Twitter link) that they’ve sent defenseman Jake Christiansen back to AHL Cleveland. The 22-year-old was recently brought up as extra depth with Zach Werenski injured although he didn’t see any NHL action on this recall. He has 26 points in 38 AHL contests this season.
Central Division
- Just one day after being recalled, the Blackhawks have sent defenseman Jakub Galvas back to Rockford of the AHL, reports Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago (Twitter link). The 22-year-old has played in six NHL contests this season plus 32 more in the minors. Also rejoining the IceHogs is forward Lukas Reichel as Chicago continues to manage his games played to not burn the first year of his entry-level deal. Taking their place on Chicago’s roster will be winger Josiah Slavin and defenseman Isaak Phillips, per the AHL’s transactions log.
Pacific Division
TBD
This post will be updated throughout the day.
Injury Updates: White, Sundqvist, Jokiharju, De Haan
Senators center Colin White will return to the lineup tonight against Montreal, relays Ian Mendes of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 25-year-old suffered a dislocated shoulder at the end of training camp and has yet to play this season as a result. Now three seasons removed from his 41-point campaign in 2018-19, White will likely spend time at both center and the wing as Ottawa looks to find what his ideal role for next season and beyond will be.
More injury news from around the NHL:
- Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist suffered a lower-body injury in last night’s game against Buffalo, Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes. The good news for St. Louis is that head coach Craig Berube indicated that the injury isn’t related to the hip or knee that he had recent surgery done on. Sundqvist has 15 points in 35 games this season – the highest point per game average of his career – and is set to be re-evaluated later today.
- After missing last night’s game against St. Louis, Sabres defenseman Henri Jokiharju is listed as doubtful for Sunday’s contest in Colorado, reports Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News (Twitter link). The 22-year-old suffered a lower-body injury in Wednesday’s loss in Montreal. The good news for Buffalo is that Jokiharju – who is logging more than 21 minutes a night – should be able to return early next week.
- Blackhawks defenseman Calvin de Haan missed last night’s game due to a right groin strain, the team announced (Twitter link). The veteran is in the final year of his contract and is a strong candidate to be moved between now and next month’s trade deadline as someone that can provide some shot blocking and physicality.
West Notes: Karlsson, Lafferty, MacLellan
Although Erik Karlsson got off to a very strong start to his season, the defenseman told reporters, including Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News, that he actually suffered the forearm injury that has him out of the lineup now back in September. The veteran had 26 points in 33 games for the Sharks before the pain became too much to overcome. Karlsson has since undergone surgery and is believed to be roughly two weeks away from returning to the lineup and will certainly be a welcome addition to a San Jose squad that is trying to climb their way back into the postseason picture.
More from the Western Conference:
- While his time with Chicago has been limited having only been traded there last month, winger Sam Lafferty told reporters, including NBC Sports Chicago’s Charlie Roumeliotis, that he’s hoping to re-sign with the Blackhawks. The pending UFA has averaged nearly 15 minutes a game after being acquired from Pittsburgh and while he has only scored once, he has been praised by interim head coach Derek King for his energy and penalty killing ability. Lafferty is a pending unrestricted free agent with an AAV of $750K and could earn a small boost on that on the open market in July.
- The Kings were without head coach Todd McLellan last night as he was placed into COVID protocol, the team announced (Twitter link). Trent Yawney was the acting head coach for their win in Anaheim and should stay in that role until McLellan is cleared to return which should be in five days from now.