Bruins Begin Extension Talks With Patrice Bergeron
Patrice Bergeron has been a fixture in Boston’s lineup for the past 17 seasons and if they have their way, that stint will be extended beyond the upcoming 18th year in 2021-22. Speaking with reporters including NHL.com’s Tracey Myers, Bruins GM Don Sweeney indicated that discussions regarding a contract extension for Bergeron have been started:
Patrice and Kent Hughes, his representative, and I have had discussions about where Patrice is at. We’ll keep those private as we do all the others and let him decide what path he wants to take. Obviously, it’s a completely open door for how long Patrice wants to play the game for us, and we’ll leave it at that.
The 36-year-old sits third in franchise history in games played and fourth in points and remains one of the premier two-way players in the league. He’s a four-time Selke Trophy winner for the top defensive forward in the NHL and has been a top-three finalist for that award in ten straight years. Over that stretch, he has averaged at least 0.76 points per game and over the past four seasons combined, he has been a bit better than a point per game player. That has made him an extremely valuable part of their core and after Zdeno Chara left last fall, Bergeron became their captain.
Considering that Bergeron hasn’t really slowed down much over the last few years, it’s more than understandable that Boston would love to keep him around. It’s also a situation where they almost have to keep him. David Krejci opted to go back home to the Czech Republic (though Sweeney wouldn’t rule out a return down the road) which took away the other half of their long-standing center duo. Internally, they’ll rely on Charlie Coyle to shift back down the middle and there is no top-line center prospect in the pipeline. Basically, there isn’t anyone ready to take Bergeron’s place, emphasizing the need to keep him around.
Bergeron is entering the final year of his contract that carries a $6.875MM AAV and assuming he has a similar season to 2020-21, he could get more money on the open market if he wanted to go somewhere else. However, the likelier scenario is that he would leave some money on the table and would sign for something close to what he’s making now. With talks underway and a mutual desire to get something done, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before Bergeron’s stay with the Bruins is extended even further.
Free Agent Profile: Tyler Bozak
It wasn’t a particularly strong free agent market down the middle this summer and most of the notable ones signed within the first couple of days of the market opening up. One of the exceptions is Tyler Bozak and as a result, he finds himself in good shape in terms of trying to find his next home.
The 35-year-old has seen his production dip over the past few years as he has gone from someone logging more than 20 minutes per night with Toronto to playing more of a third line role which is where he best fits at this stage of his career. He’s also now coming off a season that saw him miss 21 games due to a concussion which certainly doesn’t help his value.
But what does help his value is his two-way ability. He can log a regular shift on the penalty kill and consistently is well above average at the faceoff dot which is always appealing to coaches. On the offensive front, he has averaged at least 0.4 points per game in each season throughout his career and actually is coming off his best year in that stat since 2016-17 although with him playing the fewest games in a single season of his career, it’s a bit of a small sample size.
Nevertheless, Bozak can still be counted on to contribute a bit offensively, kill penalties, and take some key situational faceoffs. That’s not a $5MM profile anymore like his last contract was but there is definitely a role for him to still fill.
Stats
2020-21: 31 GP, 5-12-17, -3 rating, 10 PIMS, 35 shots, 42.8 CF%, 14:55 ATOI, 56.8% faceoffs
Career: 764 GP, 167-282-449, -84 rating, 222 PIMS, 1,268 shots, 48.9 CF%, 17:47 ATOI, 53.8% faceoffs
Potential Suitors
Teams looking for an upgrade on the third line or a veteran to insulate some younger options should have some interest in Bozak. That’s a relatively specific role to fill but one that makes sense for prospective contenders as well as rebuilding teams that could use him for a few months and then flip him to a contender closer to the trade deadline.
In the East, Montreal lost Phillip Danault to Los Angeles in free agency, their two top centers are currently 21 years old, and their likely third line pivot in Jake Evans has less than a full year of NHL games under his belt including playoffs. Bozak would fit as some veteran insurance for the youngsters while replacing Danault’s situational faceoff role. Boston hasn’t replaced David Krejci down the middle and while Bozak wouldn’t be a direct replacement, he’d give them some depth but making it work on the salary cap would be a challenge. The Rangers could opt to put Filip Chytil back on the wing which would open up a spot on the third line for Bozak and a one-year term fits with the pricey contracts that are on the horizon a year from now. Florida makes some sense as well with Bozak filling the role vacated by Alexander Wennberg but they need to get Sam Reinhart re-signed first to see what money they have left.
Out West, St. Louis still makes plenty of sense for Bozak aside from their cap situation. If they can find a taker for Vladimir Tarasenko, the move would likely free up enough space to bring back Bozak to fill the same role on the depth chart he had last season. If Colorado is opening to spending right to the Upper Limit in the offseason, Bozak would certainly fit on their third line although there’s definitely risk to being capped out that early. Just ask Vegas about that; they could use Bozak and have LTIR room to add him into although getting back into compliance when Alex Tuch is ready to return would put them right back where they were last season in terms of dancing around the cap. Nashville certainly has the cap space and an opening to add Bozak but if they’re heading towards something resembling a rebuild, it may not be the best fit.
Projected Contract
Bozak ranked 35th on our Top 50 UFA list with a projected one-year deal with a base salary of $2.5MM and $1MM in performance bonuses. (As Bozak is 35, he’s eligible for a contract with incentives as long as it’s a one-year agreement.) There are enough spots for him to command that price tag but if he wants to go to a contender, he may have to take a lesser deal or at least push more of the guaranteed money into incentives to give the signing team the flexibility to get a deal done. At this point in free agency, Bozak is the best option left among middlemen and unless he plans to wait out the Tarasenko situation, he should sign his next contract fairly soon.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Oilers Sign Brendan Perlini
The Oilers have added some forward depth, announcing that they have signed winger Brendan Perlini to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal will pay the NHL minimum of $750K while the AHL salary was not released.
It has been a bit of an odd journey for the 25-year-old so far. Drafted 12th overall by Arizona in 2014, Perlini showed some offensive upside early in his career, notching 14 goals in his rookie season and 17 in his sophomore campaign. A sluggish start in 2018-19 resulted in a trade to Chicago where he picked up a dozen more tallies in 46 games.
He was never really able to lock down a spot though and early in 2019-20, he was flipped to Detroit where the production dried up entirely as Perlini had just one goal and three helpers in 39 games, numbers that led to a non-tender last fall. Rather than accept a two-way deal, Perlini went overseas and signed with Ambri-Piotta in Switzerland where he had a decent campaign with nine goals and seven assists in 21 games, good enough for seventh in team scoring despite missing more than half the season.
Perlini is an interesting fit for Edmonton. The Oilers are a team that will need to fill out their roster with some cheaper contracts while having more on hand in the minors for recalls. There’s definitely enough a track record to suggest that Perlini could rebound offensively and be a serviceable contributor in the bottom six but with how things went in Detroit, it’s possible he rarely sees the ice for him. Still, there is rarely a bad two-way contract and this one certainly will carry a little bit of upside for Edmonton.
Central Notes: Copp, Pleau, Fiala
The Jets are a team that projects to be quite tight to the Upper Limit of the salary cap. Per CapFriendly, they have just over $6MM in cap room which amounts to roughly $11.35MM once Bryan Little’s LTIR is factored in but they still have to re-sign defenseman Neal Pionk and center Andrew Copp as well, both of whom have arbitration hearings later this month. Accordingly, Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun suggests that with the strong platform season Copp had – one that saw him notch career highs in goals (15), assists (24), and points (39) – could wind up pushing him out of town. GM Kevin Cheveldayoff spent nearly $10MM last month to shore up their back end with the acquisitions of Nate Schmidt and Brenden Dillon but if Pionk and Copp wind up getting more than they anticipated, it certainly could force their hand into trading someone and selling high on Copp would certainly make some sense for Winnipeg.
More from the Central:
- The Coyotes have added some experience to their front office as they announced the hiring of Larry Pleau as Senior Advisor to the General Manager. The 74-year-old spent the last 23 years with St. Louis with the first 12 of those being as their GM and the last 11 in an advisory role similar to the one he will have with Arizona. GM Bill Armstrong certainly has a long-standing connection with Pleau having worked under him for 16 seasons with the Blues before coming to the desert last year.
- The Wild’s decision to elect salary arbitration for winger Kevin Fiala earlier this week raised some eyebrows as it’s a move that’s rarely made. Michael Russo of The Athletic posits (subscription link) that the team wants to ensure Fiala is at training camp at the start which wasn’t the case two years ago when talks dragged out longer than either side would have liked. While a deal will be done within the next two weeks – his hearing is August 17th – there is certainly some risk that Minnesota is taking as Fiala could simply elect for a two-year award to take him to UFA eligibility in 2023, a move that certainly would hurt his trade value as well if it gets to that point.
Minor Transactions: 08/07/21
While there have been plenty of players accepting their qualifying offers lately, there has been some activity on the AHL front as well. We’ll keep tabs on those and other small moves of note here.
- The Stars are reuniting with Curtis McKenzie as their AHL affiliate in Texas announced a two-year deal for the winger. The 30-year-old played in 99 games with Dallas over parts of four different seasons but spent last season on a two-way deal with St. Louis, posting 13 points in 26 games with AHL Utica.
- The Sabres have added some AHL depth as AHL Rochester announced the signings of forward Mason Jobst and defenseman Josh Teves to one-year deals. Jobst, 27, split last season between the farm teams for the Islanders and Devils after being included in the Kyle Palmieri trade and notched 10 points in 19 games between the two teams. As for Teves, the 26-year-old was a sought-after blueliner out of college and made his NHL debut soon after signing with Vancouver in 2019. However, he didn’t progress much and after spending most of his first full pro campaign in the ECHL, he had just four points in 23 games with Utica last season.
- Golden Knights prospect Jesper Vikman has decided to come to North America and has committed to play with Vancouver of the WHL next season. The 19-year-old goaltender was a fifth-round pick of Vegas (125th overall) back in 2020 and spent 2020-21 at three different levels in Sweden, getting as high as the Allsvenskan level. As he was picked out of Sweden, Vikman remains on the four-year timeline in terms of needing an entry-level contract so Vegas holds his rights through June 1, 2024.
Submit Your Questions For The #PHRMailbag
The end of July promised to be full of intrigue and activity and it certainly lived up to the hype. Seattle drafted their team in expansion, taking a much different approach than Vegas did when they selected their team. The Entry Draft came and went with some big trades being made along the way. The free agent frenzy lived up to its name as days later, many are still playing catchup to figure out who all went where.
With that in mind, it’s time to run another edition of the PHR Mailbag. If you missed the last one, it was broken into two pieces. In the first half, Vegas’ goaltending situation, Tampa Bay’s salary cap situation to finish the season, and what Chicago needed to do to get back in the playoff hunt, among many other topics. The second half included expansion, what Nathan MacKinnon’s next contract could look like, centers not named Jack Eichel that could be trade options, and more.
You can submit a question by using #PHRMailbag on Twitter or by leaving a comment down below.
West Notes: Zadorov, Kesler, Nurse, Khaira, Blackhawks Cap
The fact that Flames defenseman Nikita Zadorov was among the 17 players to file for salary arbitration on Sunday raised some eyebrows considering he has been with Calgary for all of a few days. However, his agent Dan Milstein of Gold Star released a statement via Twitter outlining that the short time since the move played a role in the filing:
We filed for arbitration on Nikita Zadorov’s behalf simply because the trade was recent and there wasn’t enough time to negotiate new contract with Calgary Flames. Discussions are ongoing and both sides are hopeful to have a contract in place soon.
The potential for an arbitration award that was too rich for Chicago’s liking played a role in Zadorov being traded and the Flames are certainly conscious of that. However, we’re still another week and a half away from hearings beginning so there is still ample time to get a deal done. Zadorov was qualified at $3.2MM and will get more than that on his next deal.
More from the Western Conference:
- After seeing Chicago pick up Tyler Johnson and a draft pick for Brent Seabrook’s whose playing days have come to an end, the Ducks have told teams they’re open to doing a deal like that involving Ryan Kesler who is in the same situation, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports in the latest 31 Thoughts podcast (audio link). Kesler is entering the final year of his contract that carries a $6.875MM AAV and could be acquired to add to a teams’ LTIR pool while sending out some sort of salary offset that ultimately frees up some cap space, allowing Anaheim to add something for someone that isn’t going to play for them.
- In the same podcast, Friedman reports that the Oilers are now focused on a max-term extension for defenseman Darnell Nurse. Previously, the expectation was a medium-term deal but with Dougie Hamilton’s contract with New Jersey setting the market, a long-term pact in the $9MM range appears to be the target for the 26-year-old who is coming off his top season that saw him collect 16 goals and 20 assists in 56 games while logging over 25 minutes a night.
- Blackhawks forward Jujhar Khaira told reporters, including John Dietz of the Daily Herald, that he had multiple teams show interest in him in free agency. Edmonton declined to tender a $1.3MM qualifying offer and the 26-year-old wasn’t able to get that on the open market, ultimately taking a two-year deal worth $975K. With just 21 points over the last two seasons, Khaira’s limited production limits him to a fourth-line role so a pay cut was likely for him though he managed to secure a second year at least.
- Still with Chicago, Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman spoke with the media today and told reporters, including Mark Lazerus of The Athletic (Twitter link) that they don’t have to make any salary-cap-related moves to open up some space. They still have to re-sign young forwards Brandon Hagel and Alex Nylander and are about $3MM below their LTIR ceiling, per CapFriendly, with goalies Malcolm Subban and Collin Delia presumed to be off the roster either by waivers or trade. That would lock in short-term deals for Nylander and Hagel to keep cap compliant but otherwise, it could be a quiet rest of the summer for them.
Slow-Developing Market For Vladimir Tarasenko
There has been an expectation over the past few months that the Blues and Vladimir Tarasenko would be parting ways. First came the news that he was being shopped which was followed up by Tarasenko’s trade request going public. The first opportunity came and went with expansion; although St. Louis left the winger unprotected, Seattle instead opted for RFA defenseman Vince Dunn. Then came the draft and the opening of free agency and still the veteran remains with the Blues.
Accordingly, GM Doug Armstrong told reporters including Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he is changing his focus towards dealing with his restricted free agents and “as of now I don’t see anything changing for a while” when it comes to his roster which suggests there is no viable trade option on the horizon for Tarasenko.
There are a trio of restricted free agents to deal with in forwards Zach Sanford, Jordan Kyrou, and Robert Thomas. The Blues have a little over $6MM in cap room, per CapFriendly, which means they should be able to get those three locked up but they won’t have anything left to spend after that. That means that the delay in finding a Tarasenko trade is basically holding up the rest of their offseason planning.
Thomas notes that Tarasenko has expanded his list of teams he’s willing to go to and at this point, he’s willing to go pretty much anywhere to get the change of scenery he so desires. In terms of potential suitors, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period suggested in a recent appearance on the NHL Network (video link) that the Islanders, Rangers, and Devils are in the mix but others that had interest such as the Flyers have since dropped out. Of those three, New Jersey has the cleanest cap situation to make a move for Tarasenko without needing any sort of salary offset.
Tarasenko’s trade value is certainly at the lowest it has been in a while as the 29-year-old underachieved after coming back from yet another shoulder surgery (his third in two years), notching just four goals in 24 games last season and didn’t make much of an impact at the World Championships after joining Russia late in the tournament. With a $7.5MM cap hit for two more years and a $9.5MM salary, it’s a hefty price tag to take on and considering how he performed after coming back, it’s understandable that there is some hesitance to give up a return of significance.
While there is no firm timeline to necessarily get something done, the more that teams spend either on the open market or re-signing their own players makes it harder to get a Tarasenko trade done as cap space dries up so from that standpoint, the sooner a move gets done, the better. The old adage is that it only takes one phone call to get something going on the trade front. Armstrong is certainly hoping that call is coming soon.
Flyers Elect Salary Arbitration For Travis Sanheim
It’s rare that we see a team elect salary arbitration with a player but even rarer that it happens twice in the same year. That is indeed the case, however, as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that the Flyers have elected arbitration with defenseman Travis Sanheim. He joins Minnesota’s Kevin Fiala as those that were taken to arbitration today.
Sanheim is a particularly interesting case. Two years ago, he was coming off a breakout season that saw him collect 35 points in 82 games but with his limited track record at the time, the two sides agreed on a two-year bridge contract that carried a $3.25MM AAV. The expectation was that the deal would quickly become a bargain and that the now-25-year-old would be in line for a significant raise at its expiration.
However, that hasn’t exactly been the case. Sanheim is coming off somewhat of a disappointing season, one that saw him notch just three goals with a dozen assists in 55 games despite averaging a career-high 21:53 per game. When you factor in the 2019-20 campaign, he had 40 points in 124 games on his bridge deal. Those numbers aren’t poor by any stretch but they’re also not numbers that should land a player the significant raise that it seemed like he’d be headed for two years ago.
While the filing will guarantee that Sanheim will be signed by the end of the month, it also permits him the opportunity to select the term of the contract should it get to a hearing. Arbitration awards can only be one or two years so Sanheim could opt for the latter which would take him to UFA eligibility in the 2023 offseason. A hearing will now be scheduled between August 11th and 26th but a deal can be agreed upon up until the beginning of the hearing; it used to be that a settlement could be reached at any time but that rule was changed in the last CBA.
Coyotes Re-Sign Dysin Mayo And Blake Speers
The Coyotes have taken care of two more of their restricted free agents, announcing the re-signing of defenseman Dysin Mayo to a one-year, two-way contract and forward Blake Speers to a one-year, two-way deal. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed. The team also confirmed the previously reported re-signing of Cam Dineen.
The 24-year-old was a fifth-round pick of the Coyotes back in 2014 (133rd overall) but has spent the entirety of his professional career at the minor league level. Last season, Mayo played in 35 games with AHL Tucson, collecting a goal and three assists along with 22 PIMS. While those numbers don’t particularly stand out, he has done enough over his 256 career AHL contests to warrant being qualified last month.
Mayo is waiver-eligible but has cleared in training camp in each of the last two years so there’s a good chance he will pass through unclaimed once again in the fall. He will serve as depth with the Roadrunners once again and unless he manages to become a regular with the Coyotes in short order, he will be eligible for Group Six unrestricted free agency next summer.
As for Speers, he was acquired from New Jersey as part of the Taylor Hall trade but hasn’t seen any NHL action since his three-game stint in the 2016-17 campaign. Injuries limited the 24-year-old to just four games with the Roadrunners last season. He’s also waiver-eligible but a safe bet to clear and will be recallable injury depth for Arizona next season. Like Mayo, Speers can also become a Group Six UFA next summer.