Central Notes: Johnson, Suter, Coyotes
Tyler Johnson was acquired by Chicago earlier in the week as a cap dump from Tampa Bay but as he recounted to reporters, including Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times, he was nearly a member of the Blackhawks long before now. Johnson was never drafted and said that it was “almost a coin flip” between signing with them or the Lightning back in 2011. The 31-year-old certainly made the wise choice as he won two Stanley Cups with Tampa Bay and has picked up 361 career NHL points. After being more of a role player the last couple of seasons, Johnson could have a shot at a top-six spot with Chicago next season and could slot into the spot vacated by Pius Suter who was non-tendered at the beginning of the week and has since signed with Detroit.
More from the Central Division:
- The four-year contract that the Stars gave Ryan Suter may have raised some eyebrows considering the defenseman is already 36 but if he has his way, he’ll be playing long past this deal. Speaking with reporters including NHL.com’s Tracey Myers, Suter indicated that he believes he can play in the NHL until he’s 45. That would certainly be an impressive feat, one that hasn’t been done since Chris Chelios (although if Zdeno Chara plays next year, he’ll accomplish that as well). Suter has logged heavy minutes throughout his career but with the depth that Dallas has in front of him, he shouldn’t have to play as much which would certainly help his chances of playing beyond this contract.
- While the Coyotes quickly signed veteran goaltender Carter Hutton following their trade of Darcy Kuemper to Colorado, Arizona GM Bill Armstrong told reporters including Arizona Sports’ Austin Nicholson that they will continue to be on the lookout for goalie depth. Alexandar Georgiev of the Rangers and one of the Blue Jackets’ two goalies in Joonas Korpisalo or Elvis Merzlikins are speculative trade targets if they want to make a move to bring in a new starter while Devan Dubnyk and Curtis McElhinney are the best of the healthy UFAs that remain on the open market.
Canadiens Re-Sign Artturi Lehkonen
The Canadiens have re-signed one of their pending restricted free agents, announcing the re-signing of winger Artturi Lehkonen to a one-year, $2.3MM contract. He was eligible to file for salary arbitration on Sunday.
The 26-year-old has spent his entire five-year NHL career with Montreal who selected him in the second round (55th overall) back in 2013. He recorded 18 goals in his rookie campaign but hasn’t been able to duplicate that mark and was only able to tally seven goals and six assists in 47 games last season while spending some time as a healthy scratch. That continued at the start of the playoffs although he managed to get into 17 contests where he added three goals and an assist with one of those tallies being the overtime winner to send the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup Final.
The deal actually represents a lower AAV for Lehkonen whose previous cap hit was $2.4MM. However, it’s still a small boost on his $2.2MM qualifying offer which was also his salary in 2020-21. Lehkonen will still be eligible for restricted free agency next summer and while he has shown himself to be a capable checker, he’ll need a bounce-back season offensively to have a shot at cashing in with a bigger deal next summer.
Montreal now has just one NHL restricted free agent remaining in Jesperi Kotkaniemi who is coming off his entry-level contract and isn’t eligible for salary arbitration. They currently sit roughly $2.3MM over the salary cap, per CapFriendly, but with Shea Weber out for the season and Paul Byron out for the start of the year after hip surgery yesterday, they’ll be able to get back in compliance by placing them on LTIR.
Jets Sign Riley Nash
The Jets have added some veteran depth down the middle as they announced that they’ve signed Riley Nash to a one-year contract. The one-way deal is worth the league minimum salary of $750K.
Nash split last season between the Blue Jackets and Maple Leafs. He suited up in 37 regular season games – all with Columbus – picking up just two goals and five assists while winning 49.7% of his faceoffs and averaging 12:46 per game. It looked like his season had come to an end in early April after suffering a knee injury. However, Toronto flipped a 2022 seventh-rounder to acquire him, transferring him to LTIR in the process to expand their LTIR pool. He was able to return for the playoffs although he only suited up in two of their seven games in their first-round loss to Montreal.
The Jets saw several veteran role players head elsewhere in free agency with Trevor Lewis going to Calgary, Nate Thompson signing in Philadelphia, and Mathieu Perreault inking a deal in Montreal and Nash will serve as a replacement for Thompson and should anchor their fourth line. With 578 career NHL games under his belt, he’ll serve as a veteran penalty killer and will allow David Gustafsson to have a bit more time with AHL Manitoba before making the jump to the NHL on a full-time basis.
Sportsnet’s Ken Wiebe was the first to report that Nash was signing with the Jets.
Canucks Acquire Spencer Martin
The Canucks have acquired some extra goaltending depth, announcing the acquisition of Spencer Martin from the Lightning in exchange for future considerations. There was no mention of what the future consideration could be or what is required for it to transfer.
The 26-year-old signed a one-year contract with Tampa Bay with a cap hit of $800K in the NHL and $105K in the minors back in May but now won’t play a single game under that deal for them. He spent last season with their AHL affiliate in Syracuse, posting a 7-5-2 record with a 2.83 GAA and a .907 SV% in 15 games. His only NHL action came in three NHL appearances with Colorado back in 2017.
Tampa Bay had a bit of a logjam between the pipes after they signed Maxime Lagace at the beginning of free agency on Wednesday. He joins youngsters Hugo Alnefelt and Amir Miftakhov in their system so there was no room for Martin to play. He’ll have a better shot of seeing playing time in Vancouver as he’ll likely team up with Michael DiPietro in AHL Abbotsford with Arturs Silovs likely heading for the ECHL.
Golden Knights Sign Derrick Pouliot To AHL Contract
A few years ago, Derrick Pouliot was basically a regular on Vancouver’s defense corps but his stock has slipped since then. Now, the 27-year-old has opted to settle for a minor league contract as Henderson, Vegas’ affiliate, announced that they’ve inked him to a one-year deal.
It’s a bit surprising that Pouliot had to settle for a contract that doesn’t have an NHL portion as he was able to secure two-way pacts the last two seasons with a $425K guarantee. While financial terms of this contract weren’t disclosed, AHL-only contracts don’t typically approach that high of a price tag.
Pouliot spent last season in Philadelphia’s system, playing in 25 games with AHL Lehigh Valley where he recorded three goals and 11 assists, decent numbers for a defenseman. That helped earn him four separate recalls to the taxi squad during the year but it didn’t materialize into any NHL action, nor did it evidently help him to earn a two-way deal this time around in free agency.
Pouliot, the eighth-overall pick in 2012 to Pittsburgh, has played in 202 career NHL contests between the Penguins, Canucks, and Blues, notching eight goals and 40 assists. But if he wants to make it back to the top level, he’ll have to have his contract first converted to an NHL deal. Considering Vegas already has 47 out of 50 contracts on the books with Dylan Coghlan needing a deal as a restricted free agent, they will likely need to move out a player or two first to give themselves some wiggle room on that front. Accordingly, Pouliot’s stay with the Silver Knights may be a long one while Vegas adds a capable veteran defender on a no-risk contract.
Stars Re-Sign Joel Kiviranta And Ben Gleason
The Stars reached contract agreements with two of their restricted free agents. The team announced that winger Joel Kiviranta signed a two-year, $2.1MM deal while defenseman Ben Gleason inked a one-year, two-way deal. PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that Gleason will make $750K in the NHL and $95K in the minors.
It was a bit of a tough year for Kiviranta. He started the season on IR and after being activated, he was shuffled to and from the taxi squad on several occasions. The 25-year-old then missed more than a month due to a lower-body injury. In the end, he wound up playing in 26 games last season, notching six goals and five assists. He had just 11 career NHL regular season contests under his belt heading into the season but had gotten himself on the radar with five goals in 14 playoff contests in the bubble in 2020. Kiviranta was eligible for salary arbitration but instead will bypass that option and will now be eligible for unrestricted free agency two summers from now.
As for Gleason, he made four NHL appearances in his rookie professional season in 2018-19 but has exclusively played with AHL Texas since then. Last season, he had four goals and 13 assists in 37 minor league games and will now need to pass through waivers in order to return there in 2021-22.
Kiviranta was the last NHL regular on the Stars to need a new deal although they have a trio of minor leaguers that remain as restricted free agents. They now sit roughly $3MM above the cap ceiling per CapFriendly but with Ben Bishop appearing to be unable to play to start next season, they will be able to place him on LTIR and remain in cap compliance.
Oilers Re-Sign Warren Foegele
After acquiring Warren Foegele earlier this week, the Oilers wasted little time getting him signed, announcing that they’ve inked him to a three-year deal that carries a cap hit of $2.75MM. He was tendered a $2.25MM qualifying offer at the beginning of the week.
The 25-year-old was acquired from Carolina in exchange for defenseman Ethan Bear, a deal that opened up a spot for Edmonton to turn around and sign Cody Ceci while also giving them some grit on the wing. Last season, Foegele played in 53 games for the Hurricanes, notching 10 goals and 10 assists while averaging a career-high 14:09 per game. He was a little quieter in the playoffs, however, scoring just once while adding a single assist in their ten postseason contests.
Foegele had made it known that he was hoping to have a chance at playing a bigger role and he could get that opportunity with Edmonton. The Oilers have used Zack Kassian in the top six at times to add some grit on their scoring lines and Foegele could conceivably fill that role with a bit more consistency. If that happens, a $2.75MM price tag could turn into a team-friendly deal fairly quickly.
The contract buys out the remaining two years of RFA eligibility as well as Foegele’s first season of UFA eligibility. He was eligible to file for arbitration tomorrow but that won’t be needed now. Meanwhile, Edmonton is down to just one regular player as an RFA in winger Kailer Yamamoto who is not arbitration-eligible.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that the deal was close.
Lightning Re-Sign Boris Katchouk
The Lightning took care of one of their restricted free agents today, announcing the re-signing of Boris Katchouk to a three-year contract while also confirming the previously-reported three-year deal to Taylor Raddysh. Both players will have deals with a $758K AAV that is a two-way contract for next season and then converts to a one-way pact for the final two years. That means the NHL salary in each year of the deal will be the league minimum – $750K in 2021-22 and 2022-23 and $775K in 2023-24.
Katchouk, 23, was a second-round pick of Tampa Bay back in 2016 (44th overall) but he has yet to play in the NHL. Last season, he posted a career-best 34 points in just 29 games with AHL Syracuse, notable considering that his previous career-high of 32 points came in 60 games back in 2019-20. That has helped him secure two one-way seasons without even playing an NHL game which doesn’t often happen.
Of course, Tampa Bay’s cap situation plays a role in that. Katchouk, along with Raddysh and Alex Barre-Boulet whose identically structured deal was announced earlier in the week, figures to be a regular with the Lightning before long as they won’t be able to afford more than players making close to the minimum salary to round out their roster. To get that low-AAV guarantee for three years means they needed to guarantee an NHL salary for two of them as an incentive to sign now. As long as Katchouk and the others play reasonably well, it’ll be a low-cost gamble to make.
The Lightning now have just two players left to re-sign in AHL defenseman Sean Day plus center Ross Colton who is arbitration-eligible. The deadline for filing for a hearing is tomorrow so a decision will need to be made on that front soon.
Minor Transactions: 07/31/21
As the pace of NHL signings starts to slow down after a hectic start to free agency, there will start to be a higher number of minor signings as players look for AHL contracts or deals overseas. We’ll keep tabs on today’s moves like that here.
- Unrestricted free agent Zach Magwood has signed a one-year deal with HC Innsbruck in Austria, per a team announcement. The 23-year-old played in nine games with AHL Belleville last season after being acquired from Nashville but Ottawa declined to tender him a qualifying offer earlier this week.
- Quinton Howden’s international tour will continue. The 2010 first-round pick left North America in 2017, making stops in Belarus, Russia, and Sweden since then. Now he’s off to Germany as Kolner Haie of the DEL in Germany announced that they’ve signed the 29-year-old. He takes the place of former NHLer James Sheppard who requested and was granted his release.
- The Kings’ AHL affiliate in Ontario, California announced that they have signed a trio of players to minor-league deals in forwards Brett Kemp and Nikita Pavlychev plus goaltender John Lethemon. Kemp had 31 points in 23 games with WHL Medicine Hat in his overage junior season while Pavlychev made his pro debut last season, splitting time between AHL Syracuse (eight games) and ECHL Orlando (28 games). As for Lethemon, he was under contract with Ontario last season but didn’t play for them, instead suiting up in 25 games with ECHL Greenville.
- Turner Elson is returning to Grand Rapids of the AHL but not on an NHL contract this time around as the Griffins announced (Twitter link) that the 28-year-old has signed a minor-league deal. Elson, who had been on NHL two-way deals with Detroit since 2017, had 17 points in 31 games last season.
- Columbus inked a trio of players to AHL deals per an announcement from their affiliate in Cleveland. Forward Cole Cassels and defenseman Olivier LeBlanc each signed one-year deals while goaltender Jet Greaves inked a two-year pact. Cassels had 17 points in 31 games with AHL Belleville last season while Leblanc played a dozen contests with Belleville. As for Greaves, he didn’t play at all last year with the OHL being shut down but played in 60 career games with OHL Barrie, posting a 3.99 GAA with a SV% of .899.
Avalanche Signs Jordan Gross
Colorado has added some depth on the back end, announcing the signing of defenseman Jordan Gross to a one-year contract. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but Peter Baugh of The Athletic reports (Twitter links) that it’s a two-way agreement that pays $750K at the NHL level.
The 26-year-old was up with the Coyotes for all of last season but spent the majority of his time on the taxi squad before suffering a lower-body injury which cost him the final 14 games. As a result, he only got into seven games with Arizona where he managed to pick up three assists. With his age and lack of NHL experience (just nine career appearances), that qualified him for Group Six unrestricted free agency this summer.
Gross had been a productive piece from the back end with AHL Tucson in his first two professional campaigns, notching 25 and 27 points with the Roadrunners and it’s likely that element that drew interest from Colorado. He’s likely to start the season in the minors but since he does have a little bit of offensive upside, Gross will be a candidate to be recalled whenever injuries arise.