Snapshots: QMJHL, Balcers, Niemela, Highmore
The QMJHL announced that they have extended their holiday break through to January 14th with the season set to restart no earlier than January 17th. With most teams not permitted to have any fans plus an increase in positive COVID tests, the move doesn’t come as much of a surprise. With several games in the OHL and WHL being postponed as well plus more restrictions on attendance in recent days, it wouldn’t be surprising to see those major junior leagues hit the pause button on their seasons as well.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- The Sharks are hoping to have winger Rudolfs Balcers back in the lineup on Sunday against Pittsburgh, relays Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News. The 24-year-old has missed the last three weeks due to a lower-body injury after getting off to a decent start with 10 points in 24 games (a career high in points per game) while also averaging nearly 16 minutes a game, a mark that would also be a career best if maintained.
- While it was a disappointing day for players at the World Juniors following their cancellation yesterday, there was a silver lining for Finnish defenseman Topi Niemela. Karpat of the SM-liiga announced that the Maple Leafs prospect has signed a one-year extension through the end of next season, meaning his arrival in North America will have to wait. The 2020 third-rounder (64th overall) leads all Liiga blueliners in scoring with 24 points in 31 games this season.
- The Canucks announced (Twitter link) that they have activated winger Matthew Highmore off long-term injured reserve. The 25-year-old had missed the last 23 games due to an upper-body injury. Highmore had two assists in eight games before being injured and is in his first full season with Vancouver after they acquired him back at the trade deadline in April.
2021 Year In Review: March
2021 has certainly been another eventful year, both on and off the rink. Over the coming days, PHR will take a look back at the top stories from around the game on a month-by-month basis. Next up is a look at March.
New TV Partner: After a lengthy run with NBC that dated back to 2004, the primary television rights holder in the United States changed following the announcement of a seven-year rights agreement with ESPN. The deal is believed to be worth around $400MM per year which is double what they were receiving on their last contract (and that’s not even factoring in the secondary rights which were announced later on). The increased revenue is subject to HRR calculations (which set the salary cap) and will go a long way towards stabilizing league-wide revenues which have been reduced during the pandemic.
Seabrook Hangs Them Up: Then-Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook had attempted to come back at the beginning of the 2020-21 season from hip and shoulder injuries but was unable to do so. In the end, after consulting with doctors, he announced the end of his playing career, a way of retiring without formally filing the paperwork as he’s under contract through the 2023-24 season with a $6.875MM AAV. Seabrook’s career ended with 1,114 career games (all with Chicago) with 464 points and three Stanley Cup championships. He was traded to Tampa Bay in the offseason and will sit on LTIR with them for the duration of his contract.
Binnington Extension: The Blues didn’t let their starting goalie test unrestricted free agency in the summer as they agreed to a six-year, $36MM contract extension with Jordan Binnington. The $6MM AAV is a small raise on the $4.4MM AAV he had on his bridge deal and ties him for the eighth-highest cap hit in the league among goaltenders. Binnington was a significant part of St. Louis’ Stanley Cup run in 2019 and while he hasn’t been able to quite back to that level of performance since then, posting a .911 SV% with a 2.64 GAA (including games from this season), numbers that are around the league average for starters. However, the deal gives them some certainty on the cap front and ensures that an important position is locked up for years to come.
Coaching Changes: With March representing close to the midway point of the abbreviated regular season, a pair of teams opted to shake up their coaching staffs. First, Calgary fired Geoff Ward, a move that had been speculated as a possibility for a while so it may not have come as a big surprise. On the other hand, his replacement was a big surprise as Darryl Sutter was brought on as their new bench boss. It’s Sutter’s second stint in Calgary after coaching there from 2002 through 2006 and as he had last worked in the NHL back in 2017 with Los Angeles, his name wasn’t really on the radar as a potential coaching candidate.
Meanwhile, not even two weeks later, Buffalo shook things up as well, dismissing Ralph Krueger with the team mired in a 12-game losing streak. Assistant coach Don Granato took over on an interim basis for the rest of the season. While that losing streak lasted another six games, the Sabres were much more competitive with Granato running things with the team hovering close to a .500 points percentage after that streak came to an end.
Peel Out: Following a ‘hot-mic’ incident that had referee Tim Peel caught indicating he had wanted to assess a make-up penalty to Nashville, the league announced that he would “no longer will be working NHL games now or in the future”. Peel worked over 1,400 games between the regular season and the playoffs in a career that spanned more than 20 years and was in his final season before retirement. However, this incident meant that his career came to an end a little sooner than he planned.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Blue Jackets Activate Patrik Laine And Adam Boqvist
The Blue Jackets will have some help in the lineup tonight against Nashville as the team announced that winger Patrik Laine and defenseman Adam Boqvist have both been activated off injured reserve.
Laine has been out of the lineup for nearly two months with an oblique strain. Prior to the injury, he was off to a nice start to his season with ten points in nine games. With Laine being eligible for one more trip through salary arbitration in July, a big year would go a long way towards giving him a raise and potentially a long-term contract but missing 19 games won’t help his chances of that.
Meanwhile, Boqvist returns after missing three games due to an upper-body injury. It has been an interesting first year for him in Columbus; after being one of the centerpieces of the Seth Jones trade, the 21-year-old has been held out of the lineup at times and is logging just 15:59 per game. Despite that, he has done relatively well offensively, notching nine points in 18 contests.
Columbus had one roster spot available before these activations while defenseman Gavin Bayreuther was officially designated as non-roster due to his recent placement in COVID protocol to free up the other.
Devils Remove Five From COVID Protocol, Add Two Others
Dec 29: Jimmy Vesey has joined Tatar and Gillies in the protocol. The Devils have recalled Jesper Boqvist and Marian Studenic from the taxi squad to fill the empty roster spots.
Dec 26: The Devils got some good news and bad news on the COVID front as they returned from the holiday break. The team announced that winger Tomas Tatar and goaltender Jon Gillies have been placed in protocols but they were able to activate centers Nico Hischier and Jesper Boqvist plus defensemen Ryan Graves, P.K. Subban, and Christian Jaros from the COVID list. Tatar and Gillies will be out for the next ten days.
Tatar is in his first season with New Jersey after signing a two-year deal with them in the offseason and is off to a quiet start offensively with just six goals in 30 games although his possession stats are once again well above the league average which was also the case when he played with Montreal previously. Meanwhile, Gillies was just acquired from St. Louis to give them another option between the pipes with both Mackenzie Blackwood and Jonathan Bernier injured. Fortunately for the Devils, Blackwood has returned to practice and should be ready to play soon.
As for those returning, Hischier sits second on the Devils in assists with 13 in 25 games although his three goals are underwhelming for the 2017 first-overall pick. Boqvist has been up and down with the team this season and has suited up in eight NHL contests so far. They’ll get a nice boost on their back end with the returns of Graves and Subban who sit third and fifth respectively in ATOI among New Jersey blueliners while Jaros has had a very limited reserve role.
New Jersey is set to play against Buffalo on Wednesday in their first game back from the break barring any further changes or postponements.
Pacific Notes: Golden Knights, Henrique, Pitlick, Oilers, Brisebois
The Golden Knights could be down several key regulars for tomorrow game against Los Angeles. Jesse Granger of The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that wingers Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone along with goaltender Robin Lehner all missed practice today due to what’s being termed as bumps and bruises and are all listed as game-time decisions for tomorrow. Pacioretty sits second on Vegas in goals despite missing more than half the season while Stone joins Pacioretty in being the only Golden Knights averaging more than a point per game so far. Lehner missed last Tuesday’s contest with an undisclosed issue so his injury has lingered for a little bit. Vegas will, however, have defenceman Nicolas Hague back after missing last Tuesday’s game.
More from the Pacific Division:
- While the Ducks were hoping at one point that Adam Henrique could return before the holiday break, the center hasn’t yet resumed skating, relays Elliott Teaford of the Orange County Register (Twitter link). The veteran suffered a lower-body injury three weeks ago, derailing what had been a strong start to his season with 16 points in 24 games.
- It was almost a full group of players for the Flames at practice today as all of their players that were in COVID protocol have returned. However, Sportsnet’s Eric Francis notes that winger Tyler Pitlick cleared protocol but is dealing with an undisclosed injury that kept him off the ice today. The 30-year-old has two assists in 21 games in his first season with Calgary after being acquired from Seattle following their expansion draft.
- The Oilers could be getting some help on the injury front soon as Postmedia’s Jim Matheson mentions that goaltender Mike Smith is likely to go on their upcoming three-game road trip. The 40-year-old has missed more than two months with a lower-body injury and would be a welcome addition to a goalie group that has had some ups and downs in the first two months of the season. Meanwhile, defenseman Duncan Keith is expected to practice and could return on Wednesday against St. Louis. He has missed a little more than a month due to a back injury.
- The Canucks announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Guillaume Brisebois has been placed on injured reserve. The placement is effective as of today which means he’ll miss at least the next 10 days. The 24-year-old made his NHL season debut back on December 16th but also has suited up in six games for AHL Abbotsford.
2021 Year In Review: February
2021 has certainly been another eventful year, both on and off the rink. Over the coming days, PHR will take a look back at the top stories from around the game on a month-by-month basis. Next up is a look at February.
New Front Office For Penguins: When Jim Rutherford resigned in January, the expectation was that Pittsburgh would hire a replacement GM and that would be that. Instead, they went a step beyond that, bringing in a new team president as well. That resulted in Ron Hextall being appointed as GM and Brian Burke taking over as president. Hextall made a name for himself with their cross-town rival in Philadelphia both on and off the ice having been their goalie and GM in the past and his patient approach is a stark contrast to Rutherford’s previous wheeling and dealing style. Burke, meanwhile, had last worked in the presidency role with Calgary in 2018 and had worked in the media since then.
Koivu Retires: After Minnesota opted to not retain long-time captain Mikko Koivu, the center signed with Columbus in free agency. However, after struggling early on with the Blue Jackets, he decided that the time was right to hang up his skates, announcing his retirement. He played in 1,035 games over parts of 17 NHL seasons with all but seven of those contests coming with the Wild. He holds Minnesota’s franchise record for games played, assists, points, shots on goal, and plus/minus. Aside from that last one, the other four records should stand for a while.
Julien Fired: After a hot start to the season, the Canadiens started to struggle and then-GM Marc Bergevin decided to make a change behind the bench, firing head coach Claude Julien and associate coach Kirk Muller. Julien’s second stint with Montreal lasted parts of five seasons with the team posting a 129-113-35 record over 277 games with him at the helm. Julien’s contract runs through the end of this season with the team paying him $5MM not to coach for them. Meanwhile, Muller was also in his second stint with the team after joining them in 2016 and he has since moved on to Calgary. Dominique Ducharme was promoted to head coach on an interim basis for the rest of the season.
Babcock’s New Coaching Job: Mike Babcock found his next coaching job but it’s not a route many NHL coaches decide to take. Instead of coaching in the minors or in the NCAA, Babcock went back to where he once played, joining the University of Saskatchewan as their head coach on a volunteer basis. The veteran bench boss is still under contract with Toronto through the end of next season and is still receiving his full salary not to work for them. The Huskies have a 9-3-0 record this season, good for third place in U Sports’ Canada West conference.
Panarin Leave Of Absence: Rangers star Artemi Panarin took a leave of absence from the team following allegations that he beat up an 18-year-old girl back in 2011. Those allegations came from former NHL tough guy Andrei Nazarov who was Panarin’s coach back in Russia at the time. Many felt there was a political element to the allegation given Panarin’s public support of opposition leader Alexi Navalny. Panarin vehemently denied the report and former teammates stepped forward to state that there was nothing to Nazarov’s claims. While it was termed as an indefinite leave, the winger was able to return to the lineup two weeks later and finished with 41 assists and 58 points in 42 games.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Predators Place Three In COVID Protocol, Activate Eight
There was plenty of COVID-related activity for the Predators on Monday. The team announced that defenseman Roman Josi, center Tommy Novak, and winger Colton Sissons have all been placed in COVID protocol. However, they also got several players back from protocol in wingers Nick Cousins and Philip Tomasino, center Mikael Granlund and Ryan Johansen, and defensemen Mark Borowiecki and Ben Harpur. Josi, Novak, and Sissons will be out for at least the next ten days as a result; today’s announcement from the CDC that cuts the quarantine period from ten days to five doesn’t automatically apply to the NHL.
Josi is easily the biggest loss of the three for the Predators as he’s their leading scorer with 29 points in 30 games while averaging just shy of 25 minutes per game. Sissons isn’t a minor loss either as he’s logging nearly 16 minutes a night on the wing while chipping in with 13 points in 29 contests.
The returns of Granlund and Johansen should certainly help Nashville’s offense. Granlund is averaging just shy of a point per game with 27 in 28 games, sitting second behind Josi in team scoring. As for Johansen, he is having a nice bounce-back campaign with 24 points in 27 contests.
On top of these moves, the Predators assigned wingers Matt Luff and Michael McCarron to the taxi squad. Both players had been up in recent weeks to cover for injuries and absences before hitting COVID protocol themselves but with more players returning than leaving today, there wasn’t room on the NHL roster for them to be placed back there.
NHL Prospects Moved At The 2021 KHL Trade Deadline
The NHL’s trade deadline is still nearly three months away but in the KHL, the deadline for player movement was today. There were several deals completed including a few involving players whose rights are held by NHL teams. Here’s a rundown of those moves.
- Senators RFA winger Vitali Abramov was moved from Traktor Chelyabinsk to CSKA Moscow. The 23-year-old has five career NHL games under his belt but opted to head back home in the summer. He has 17 points in 41 KHL contests this season and his contract overseas runs through the 2022-23 season. Ottawa retains his RFA rights through the 2024-25 season.
- Blackhawks goaltender Ivan Nalimov is on the move from Admiral Vladivostok to Metallurg Magnitogorsk. The 27-year-old came to North America for the first time last season, getting in five games with AHL Rockford down the stretch on an AHL deal before returning to Russia this season. The 2014 sixth-rounder has a 3.50 GAA along with a .891 SV% in 10 games this season and Chicago holds his rights indefinitely since he never signed an NHL contract and there is no transfer agreement in place between Russia and the NHL.
- Golden Knights center prospect Ivan Morozov was dealt to HC Sochi from SKA St. Petersburg. The 21-year-old was a second-round pick (61st overall) back in 2018 but after spending all of last season in the KHL, he split this season between that league and their lower-tier VHL. The swap should allow him to play a larger role with Sochi. Vegas also holds Morozov’s rights indefinitely.
Other names of some note that were on the move were former Stars defenseman Julius Honka who went from Dinamo Minsk to Ak Bars Kazan, former Maple Leafs and Canadiens blueliner Rinat Valiev who went the other way in the Honka trade. Former Bruins prospect Pavel Shen was moved from HK Sochi to Admiral Vladivostok; his NHL deal was terminated back in May while former Jets winger J.C. Lipon was dealt from Sochi to Sibir Novosibirsk.
NHL And NHLPA Recreate Taxi Squads Through All-Star Break
6:00 pm: The NHL has officially reintroduced the taxi squad system through the All-Star Break, per CapFriendly. Like last season, there is a six-player maximum to the taxi squads. However, there are some slight changes. Non-emergency-recalled-players who were on an NHL active roster, injured reserve, or NHL non-rostered on December 22 aren’t eligible to go on the taxi squad. Waiver-exempt players aren’t eligible, either, and neither are players who’ve dressed in 16 of their team’s past 20 games. There are other minor stipulations as well.
1:15 pm: Amidst a rapidly escalating number of players being unavailable due to their placement in COVID protocols, the NHL and NHLPA are working on a few different short-term solutions, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link). Among those is the recreation of taxi squads which would be optional for teams to use and would run through the All-Star break in early February.
The taxi squads were in use for all of last season with a record number of daily transactions occurring as teams shuffled players back and forth. Some were to keep players fresh and seeing game action in the minors while many were simply to get players off the salary cap on days where they weren’t playing. Assuming those same rules were to apply this season, there will be considerable activity on that front once again.
Of course, there are other considerations at play. AHL teams are already starting to have their rosters stretched thin due to outbreaks and recalls for players either in COVID protocol or out due to injury. There would be short-term pressures at the lower minor league levels with many ECHL players signing AHL deals, creating holes for the ECHL teams to fill and so on.
Friedman notes that there are other options being discussed as well. Cap-exempt emergency recalls with a player making less than $1MM is apparently on the table and that price point – which sits $250K above the minimum salary – is high enough for most teams to be able to call players up without much issue. Meanwhile, with several teams having to turn to emergency backups on one-day contracts – commonly referred to as EBUG’s – Friedman reports that teams may soon be allowed to simply recall a replacement netminder rather than having to have an EBUG dress for a game first to trigger a cap-exempt recall situation.
An official announcement on the schedule, as well as any changes to protocols such as these, is expected later today.
East Notes: Rodrigues, Coyle, Marner, Blue Jackets
The Penguins have placed winger Evan Rodrigues in COVID protocol, a team spokesperson confirmed to Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The 28-year-old has been one of the biggest surprises around the league this season, going from someone who had previously been non-tendered to a regular spot on their top line and he has rewarded them with an impressive showing offensively, sitting second in team scoring with 10 goals and 13 assists in 30 games. He will now be out for at least the next ten days.
Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:
- The Bruins have lost a player to COVID protocol as the team announced that forward Charlie Coyle has been placed in protocols. The 29-year-old sits fifth in team scoring with seven goals and seven assists in 26 games. Coyle has been trying to fill David Krejci’s spot on Boston’s second line after the long-time Boston veteran decided to play back at home in the Czech Extraliga this season.
- Maple Leafs winger Mitch Marner returned to practice today for the first time since suffering an upper-body injury earlier this month, relays David Alter of The Hockey News (Twitter link). Worth noting is that while Marner is currently on LTIR (which has allowed Toronto to stay cap-compliant among other players being brought up) is that postponed games count towards the 10 games a player must miss while on there so Toronto’s postponements won’t automatically delay Marner’s return.
- The Blue Jackets welcomed a trio of players back to practice today as Aaron Portzline of The Athletic notes (Twitter link) that winger Patrik Laine plus defensemen Adam Boqvist and Dean Kukan have all resumed skating. Laine has been out with an oblique injury since early November after getting off to a good start to his final season of RFA eligibility with ten points in nine games. As for the blueliners, Boqvist suffered an upper-body injury two weeks ago while Kukan fractured his wrist in late October.