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Canucks Recall Nils Aman And Arshdeep Bains

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The Canucks have been quite busy on the transactions front over the last couple of weeks, shuffling players back and forth to save cap space and, in some cases, pause the waiver clock of certain players.  But with Friday’s trade of Daniel Sprong, they had a roster spot to try to fill on top of the usual paper moves.  They’ve done so by announcing (Twitter link) the recalls of center Nils Aman and winger Arshdeep Bains from AHL Abbotsford.

Aman cleared waivers last weekend after spending the first few weeks of the season in the NHL.  The 24-year-old had a very limited role over that stretch, however, only getting into four games and being scratched for the rest.  He had two assists in those outings on the fourth line but is more known for being a defensive player than a point producer at the top level.  Aman got into two games with Abbotsford following the demotion, picking up a pair of helpers there as well.

As for Bains, he has been no stranger to the shuffle as this is his fifth recall of the season already.  The 23-year-old has a goal in seven games so far this season while collecting 12 hits and averaging 11:40 per night.  Despite the frequent assignments to Abbotsford, Bains has played for them just once so far; he had a goal and two helpers in that contest.

With the promotions, Vancouver is now back to a full 23-player roster.  That said, with the frequency of their moves over the first few weeks of the season, that’s unlikely to be the case for too long.

Penguins Recall Tristan Jarry, Assign Matt Nieto To AHL On Conditioning Loan

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Two weeks ago, the Penguins opted to send goaltender Tristan Jarry to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on a conditioning loan.  That loan has a two-week limit which has now expired.  Accordingly, the team announced (Twitter link) that he has been recalled from the minors.  Jarry remained on Pittsburgh’s active roster while in the AHL so no corresponding move was needed.  Meanwhile, the team has also sent winger Matt Nieto to the AHL on a conditioning loan.

Jarry got off to a particularly rocky start to his season, posting a 5.47 GAA and a .836 SV% in his first three starts.  While that’s a small sample size, it was certainly cause for some concern.  Accordingly, when Alex Nedeljkovic returned, Pittsburgh elected not to send youngster Joel Blomqvist back to the minors, instead keeping three goalies.

After doing that briefly, the Penguins sent Jarry back from their road trip to work with their goalie coach away from the rest of the team.  After a couple of days of that, the sides decided that a stint in the minors made sense.  Jarry certainly made the most of it, getting into five minor league contests, putting up a 2.16 GAA and a .926 SV% in those outings.

It will be interesting to see how Pittsburgh opts to deploy Jarry.  They might be inclined to give him another NHL start relatively quickly to see if he can continue his improved performance but a three-goalie rotation is often difficult to work with.  Blomqvist has impressed in his first taste of NHL action and doesn’t deserve to lose much time or be sent down while Nedeljkovic is in the first season of a two-year deal signed a few months ago to keep him in the fold.  For now, at least, it looks like they’ll carry three netminders and try to make it work.

As for Nieto, it has been more than 11 months since he last saw game action.  The 32-year-old is coming back from a knee injury and is on LTIR.  This means that his conditioning loan carries a shorter timeline than Jarry as the standard one is capped at three games and six days although two games can be added to that with league permission if it’s necessary.  Nieto had four points in 22 games with Pittsburgh last season and is in the final year of his deal which carries a $900K AAV.

Lightning Assign Gage Goncalves To AHL

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Gage Goncalves’ first NHL stint of the season was a short-lived one.  The Lightning announced today that they’ve reassigned the forward to AHL Syracuse.

The 23-year-old was recalled earlier this week and got into two games with Tampa Bay.  He was held off the scoresheet in those outings while logging a little over ten minutes per game.  Goncalves had a big year offensively with the Crunch last season, collecting 58 points in 69 games and was off to a good start prior to his recall this year, notching four assists and four appearances thus far.

While Goncalves was recalled to take Brayden Point’s spot in the lineup due to his lower-body injury, this assignment shouldn’t be interpreted as Point being ready to return yet; he didn’t participate in practice today.  However, Tampa Bay is off until Thursday so this assignment will free up a bit more cap space at a minimum while giving Goncalves a chance to play with the Crunch.  If Point isn’t ready to return by Thursday’s game, Goncalves will probably be promoted once again.

Pacific Notes: Kaliyev, Gibson, Walman, Stone

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Kings winger Arthur Kaliyev ramped up his participation in practice today, albeit in a non-contact jersey, relays Andrew Knoll of the LA Daily News.  The 23-year-old has yet to play this season after suffering a broken collarbone during a scrimmage in the opening days of training camp.  Kaliyev is coming off a rough year that saw him record just seven goals and eight assists in 51 games after putting up 27 and 28 points in his previous two years.  While he requested a trade, one never came to fruition over the summer and the sides settled on a one-year, $825K deal just before camp; he was injured just a few days later.  Originally targeted for a late-November/early-December return, it’s possible that Kaliyev is a little ahead of schedule in terms of his recovery.

More from the Pacific:

  • The Ducks have activated goaltender John Gibson from injured reserve, relays Derek Lee of The Hockey News (Twitter link). The 31-year-old has yet to play this season after undergoing an appendectomy during the preseason.  After being a top performer early in his career, Gibson has struggled considerably in recent years and posted a 3.54 GAA with a career-low .888 SV% in 46 games last season.  Anaheim now has three goalies on its active roster with the others being Lukas Dostal and James Reimer.  Reimer was claimed off waivers last month and unless the Ducks want to carry three goalies for a while, he could be back on the wire soon.
  • While he missed Thursday’s game due to an upper-body injury, Sharks defenseman Jake Walman is with the team on their road trip that begins on Sunday, relays Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News. There has been some confusion about whether Walman’s absence was initially injury-related or just being a scratch but it’s clear he isn’t fully healthy at the time being.  The 28-year-old was acquired in a cap-clearing move from Detroit over the offseason and has been a big boost to San Jose’s back end.  Through 13 games this season, he leads their blueline group with nine points (including eight assists, one off his career-high) and an ATOI of 22:42 so whenever he’s cleared to return, he’ll be a welcome addition to their lineup.
  • The Golden Knights announced (Twitter link) that winger Mark Stone is listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. The injury explains the earlier recall of winger Jonas Rondbjerg from the minors.  Stone is off to a terrific start to the season, recording six goals and 15 assists in 13 games so far to lead the team in scoring while logging over 19 minutes a night so his absence will certainly be felt.

Golden Knights Recall Jonas Rondbjerg, Place Nic Hague On IR

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The Golden Knights have placed defenseman Nic Hague on IR, per the NHL’s media site.  With the open roster spot, the team announced (Twitter link) that forward Jonas Rondbjerg has been recalled from AHL Henderson.

Rondbjerg is no stranger to the NHL-AHL shuttle in recent years as he has played in at least 13 games with Vegas in each of the last three seasons.  In 2023-24, the 25-year-old got into 20 games with the Golden Knights, recording two goals and an assist while averaging 11:17 per night.  Overall, he has three goals and seven helpers in 63 career appearances in Vegas.

While he hasn’t been a big point producer in the NHL, Rondbjerg has been much more effective offensively in the minors.  Last season, he had nine goals and 16 assists in 48 appearances with the Silver Knights and is off to a decent start this year with two goals and two assists in his first seven games, helping to earn this recall.

As for Hague, the 25-year-old last played on Saturday and has been out with an undisclosed injury since then.  He’s off to a quiet start to his season, notching just one goal in nine games along with 12 blocks and 13 hits while averaging just over 16 minutes a night, a number that skews a bit low due to missing time due to injury in two straight games.  Assuming they back-dated the IR placement to Sunday, Hague will be available to return as soon as Monday against Seattle.

While Rondbjerg’s cap hit actually comes in slightly below the league minimum salary, his recall does push Vegas into using LTIR, meaning they’ll stop banking cap space for the time being.  Accordingly, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him at least papered back to the minors on Saturday to get them back under the $88MM Upper Limit again.

Kraken Acquire Daniel Sprong From Canucks

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It appears Daniel Sprong will be returning to a team he’s already familiar with.  The Canucks announced that they have dealt the winger to the Kraken in exchange for future considerations.

Sprong has been a productive player over the last couple of seasons but it hasn’t resulted in him getting much stability.  In 2022-23, he had a breakout year in Seattle, notching 21 goals and 25 assists in 66 games.  Before that, his previous career-high in points was 23.  However, despite only being owed a qualifying offer of $787.5K, Seattle opted to non-tender him, getting out of a potential arbitration hearing in the process.

Still, the 27-year-old was able to do relatively well in free agency in 2023, landing a one-year, $2MM deal with Detroit.  He showed that his production the year before wasn’t a one-off, as he collected 18 goals and 25 assists in 76 games while only averaging 12 minutes a night of action.  But once again, he was non-tendered as the Red Wings opted to avoid the risk of arbitration as well.

Unfortunately for Sprong, the market wasn’t as strong this time around.  It took nearly three weeks into free agency before he found a contract when Vancouver signed him to a one-year, $975K contract, cutting his pay from the year before by more than half in the process.  It looked like a relatively shrewd pickup for a Canucks franchise that didn’t have much salary cap flexibility but wanted to add more offensive depth.

But things didn’t go as planned.  Sprong has been healthy scratched three times already this season and when he has played, he hasn’t been able to produce at the same level, tallying just one goal and two assists in nine games while averaging 11:39 per night.  Clearly, Vancouver had seen enough and decided the time was right to move on.

The Canucks are expected to welcome Dakota Joshua back to the lineup soon and it appears that this move will open up the roster spot to do so.  In the meantime, they’ve upped their cap space to over $1.9MM per PuckPedia, giving them much more in-season flexibility than they’ve had in recent years.  As for Seattle, they’re presently in LTIR and this move will push them a little deeper into it.  However, they’re still close enough to the $88MM cap that it shouldn’t be too difficult to get back under that amount when Vince Dunn is able to return.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the trade.

Five Key Stories: 10/28/24 – 11/3/24

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As we approach the one-month mark of the 2024-25 season, we saw some activity pick up around the NHL with a couple of trades and a notable contract extension.  Those are among the topics recapped in our key stories.

Scorers On The Shelf: Three teams lost key offensive contributors to injuries over the past few days.  Edmonton will be without star center Connor McDavid for two to three weeks with an ankle injury.  The defending Western Conference champs have been slow out of the gate against this season and missing a high-end scorer won’t help on that front.  Meanwhile, Colorado will miss Ross Colton for six to eight weeks due to a broken foot.  Not known as a key goal-getter (he only has reached 20 goals once before), Colton was off to a strong start on that front, leading the Avs with eight tallies before the injury.  Lastly, offense has been hard to come by for the Islanders this season and it will be harder now with Mathew Barzal landing on LTIR with an upper-body injury.  The forward is expected to miss four to six weeks.

Liljegren To Sharks: With Timothy Liljegren barely playing this season and Toronto needing to open up some cap space, it was only a matter of time before he was on the move.  That swap came this week with the Maple Leafs moving him to San Jose in exchange for a 2025 third-round pick, a 2026 sixth-rounder, and defenseman Matt Benning (who they’re already looking to flip elsewhere).  Liljegren was a first-round pick by Toronto in 2017 but spent a lot of his time with the team in a third-pairing role.  Still just 25, it’s a low-cost pickup for the Sharks who will get to see how he fares in a new environment with potentially a bigger role as they look to reshape their back end in their rebuild.

Five For McCabe: The Liljegren trade wasn’t the only move Toronto made with their back end.  The Maple Leafs also signed defenseman Jake McCabe to a five-year extension worth $23.5MM.  However, thanks to some deferred money in the second and third years of the deal, the cap hit will check in at $4.51MM instead of the $4.7MM face value per season.  The 31-year-old is a veteran of 12 NHL seasons and is in his third season with Toronto after being acquired in 2022 from Chicago with the Blackhawks paying down half of his $4MM contract.  McCabe has emerged as a key cog in Toronto’s top four defensively and this price tag for someone in that role is a fair one while giving him some long-term stability as he’ll be 36 when this deal ends.

Utah Adds A Blueliner: With Utah HC missing both John Marino and Sean Durzi due to long-term injuries, they wanted to add some help on the back end.  They did just that, acquiring Olli Maatta from Detroit in exchange for a 2025 third-round pick (from the Rangers, previously acquired).  The 30-year-old has nearly 700 career games of NHL experience under his belt and while he’s not known for his offensive skill-set, he’s capable of logging some minutes in a shutdown role and will be asked to do just that to try to help stabilize things.  Maatta is in the final year of his contract, one that carries a $3MM cap charge with Utah picking up the full cost of that, giving the Red Wings some extra cap flexibility for potential in-season trade activity.

Toropchenko Gets A Raise: Rather than wait to see what contract might await him in restricted free agency, Blues winger Alexey Toropchenko opted to sign early, inking a one-year, $1.7MM extension.  The deal gives the 25-year-old a $450K raise while also walking him directly to unrestricted free agency in 2026.  Toropchenko has reached the double-digit goal mark in the last two seasons and averaged more than two hits per game last season.  For a useful bottom-six contributor, this is certainly a reasonable price for St. Louis, especially since Toropchenko would have had arbitration eligibility this summer.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Salary Cap Deep Dive: Edmonton Oilers

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Navigating the salary cap is one of the most important tasks for a front office.  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 often see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation for the 2024-25 season.  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 PuckPedia.  We’re currently covering the Pacific Division, next up is the Flames.

Edmonton Oilers

Current Cap Hit: $88,224,659 (above the $88MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

None on the active roster.

Signed Through 2024-25, Non-Entry-Level

D Evan Bouchard ($3.9MM, RFA)
F Connor Brown ($1MM, UFA)
D Travis Dermott ($775K, UFA)
D Ty Emberson ($950K, RFA)
F Corey Perry ($1.15MM, UFA)
F Derek Ryan ($900K, UFA)
F Jeff Skinner ($3MM, UFA)

Potential Bonuses
Perry: $250K

Skinner was somewhat of a surprising late entrant to the market after Buffalo elected to buy him out.  He found what should be a good landing spot for a pillow deal, as long as he can stay in the top six.  If he does, he could push past $4MM on a multi-year deal, closer to $5MM if he’s able to reach the 50-point mark.  Perry fit in well after joining the team midseason, earning this agreement to stick around.  At 39, it’s safe to say he’ll be going year-to-year from here on out.  Bonus-wise, he’ll make $150K at the 15-game mark while $50K depends on Edmonton winning at least two playoff rounds and playing at least half the playoff games.  The other $50K is if Edmonton makes it to the Stanley Cup Final while playing in half the games.

Brown’s cost this season is a bit misleading as the Oilers are also eating the $3.225MM in bonuses he earned last year.  But for what he’s making in salary this year, he provides good value as a depth player who showed in the playoffs that he can be a key piece.  Ryan has seen his role and production decline in recent years and he’ll be 38 before the end of 2024.  This is a roster spot they’ll need to keep cheap so it’s possible they ask him to stay on a small cut in pay.  If not, he could be a candidate for a PTO next summer.

Former GM Ken Holland really only had one option with Bouchard last summer, they had to do a bridge deal to fit within their cap structure at the time and no offer sheet materialized while he wasn’t arbitration-eligible.  The result is that Bouchard spent last season on a below-market deal and it’s the same thing this season.  However, the pendulum is about to swing the other way in a big way.  Bouchard had a breakout effort last season, averaging just over a point per game and did even better in the playoffs.  His qualifying offer will be $4.3MM next summer but it’s widely expected he’ll double that and then some, especially if the sides are able to work out a long-term deal.

Emberson was picked up from San Jose as part of the Cody Ceci deal, one that netted Edmonton some cap savings and an intriguing blueliner.  Now 24, he only made his NHL debut last season and he’ll need to get into 50 games this year for the Oilers to retain his RFA rights.  It’s possible arbitration eligibility makes him a non-tender option but failing that, a small raise into the $1.3MM range could be doable.  Dermott had to go the PTO route this year and if he stays in a reserve role, it’s quite likely he’ll stay at the minimum moving forward.

Signed Through 2025-26

F Viktor Arvidsson ($4MM, UFA)
D Mattias Ekholm ($6MM, UFA)*
F Adam Henrique ($3MM, UFA)
F Evander Kane ($5.125MM, UFA)
D Brett Kulak ($2.75MM, UFA)
F Connor McDavid ($12.5MM, UFA)
G Calvin Pickard ($1MM, UFA)
F Vasily Podkolzin ($1MM, UFA)
G Stuart Skinner ($2.6MM, UFA)
D Troy Stecher ($787.5K, UFA)

*-Nashville is retaining an additional $250K of Ekholm’s contract.

McDavid’s next contract is one that has been speculated about for several years now and discussion on that front will only pick up with him becoming extension-eligible this summer.  His current contract was a record-breaker at the time for the highest AAV.  His next one will set a new benchmark on that front and possibly could overtake Alex Ovechkin for the richest deal in league history ($124MM total over 13 years) despite the maximum length now only being eight seasons.  That would bring the cap hit to $15.5MM and while that’s a very high price tag, McDavid has led the NHL in scoring in five of the last eight years.  If Edmonton doesn’t give that type of money to him, someone will.

Kane has been effective when healthy since joining the Oilers, playing a legitimate top-six role.  Considering he’s a power forward (those players often cost a premium), the cap charge is reasonable, as long as he’s in the lineup.  He’s on LTIR right now, allowing Edmonton to exceed the cap for the time being.  Arvidsson was Edmonton’s biggest commitment in free agency, a move that came as a bit of a surprise as the veteran was a candidate for a one-year pillow deal to try to rebuild his value after an injury-riddled 2023-24 campaign.  Instead, the Oilers got him at a bit of a below-market rate assuming he’s able to produce at the second-line level he has before.  He hasn’t done that early on but they’re probably not worried about that at this point.

Henrique was expected to just be a rental pickup for Edmonton but they were able to get him to take less than he was being offered elsewhere to stick around.  Given his track record, it’s a good value contract as long as he can at least hold down a spot on the third line.  That said, that role will also hinder his open-market value two years from now.  Podkolzin was brought in to essentially fill Dylan Holloway’s roster spot following his offer sheet in St. Louis.  At this point of his career, he’s unlikely to live up to his draft billing (tenth overall in 2019) but if he can emerge as a regular in the bottom six, Edmonton will get good value from the contract and acquisition if nothing else.  He’ll be arbitration-eligible when this deal expires and depth pieces with that eligibility tend to be non-tender candidates.  On a cap-strapped team like the Oilers, they’ll need to keep this roster spot around this price tag whether it’s Podkolzin or someone else.

Ekholm has been a terrific addition to their back end since being acquired near the 2022 trade deadline.  He has helped stabilize things defensively while also showing more in the offensive zone than he did with Nashville.  That said, he’ll be 36 when his current deal expires; players that age don’t tend to get significant raises.  Instead, it wouldn’t be surprising if a three or four-year deal around this price point was the end result.

Kulak has seemingly been on speculative thin ice for a couple of years now with their cap crunch but he has remained each time.  As a third-pairing blueliner, this contract is a bit on the expensive side but with them being comfortable moving him into the top four when injuries arise, it has held up okay so far.  It wouldn’t be shocking to see him land another deal in this range (both term and price) in 2026.  Stecher has been a serviceable depth defender for several years now but as long as he’s still in more of a limited role, his price tag should continue to be around the league minimum.

It would be fair to say that Skinner has been hit or miss while on this contract with not a lot in between.  Nevertheless, at the price point of a decent backup, his overall success rate has been better than that despite a slow start this season so they’ve received good value so far.  If he can improve and play more consistently, it’s possible that he could double this price point but if he continues to be on the extreme ends of hot or cold, it’d be hard to see enough of a market emerge for him to get starter money.  Pickard had primarily been a third-string option until partway through last year which is why his contract was still quite low for a backup.  If he holds that down and is somewhat consistent, he could also possibly double this price point although Edmonton would be hard-pressed to pay that much for their second goalie.

Signed Through 2026-27

F Mattias Janmark ($1.45MM, UFA)

Janmark struggled considerably during the regular season and it looked as if they’d be moving on from him.  However, he wound up playing a key supporting role during their playoff run, giving him a boost in value heading to the open market which allowed him to get a small raise, some job security, and even some trade protection.  Assuming he stays in the same role as he has been lately, it’s hard to foresee him getting much more than this three years from now.

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Maple Leafs Looking To Move Matt Benning

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Earlier this week, the Maple Leafs acquired veteran blueliner Matt Benning as part of the return in the trade that saw blueliner Timothy Liljegren move to San Jose.  However, it doesn’t appear as if he’s in Toronto’s plans.  Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (video link) that teams around the league know that Benning is available as the Maple Leafs look to “do right” by the defender.

Essentially, Benning was picked up in the swap as a salary offset more than a piece that they were looking to add from a depth perspective.  He is signed through next season at a $1.25MM AAV.

The 30-year-old has played in seven games this season, all coming prior to the swap.  He had a limited role in those outings, averaging just 13:02 per game.  While that ATOI is a career low, the role he had with the Sharks largely lines up with his usage over his nine-year NHL career, spanning 464 games.

Right now, Toronto can get away with carrying Benning along with Philippe Myers as extra blueliners on their 23-man roster.  They’re also cap-compliant with them on there thanks to a rather sizable LTIR pool.

However, that LTIR pool should be shrinking rather soon.  Connor Dewar and Jani Hakanpaa are both on a conditioning assignment with AHL Toronto and if there aren’t any issues, they will be getting activated in the near future.  Accordingly, the Maple Leafs will have to shed a bit of money to remain compliant on the cap and also open up two roster spots for them.

Speculatively, those two spots will be opened up by clearing Benning and Myers off the roster, moves that would also keep them compliant within their LTIR pool.  With that in mind, if Toronto is going to find another NHL home for Benning, they’ll need to do so sooner than later.  Otherwise, he (and likely Myers) could find themselves on the waiver wire in the near future.  But with other teams knowing the crunch in terms of timeline to get this done, any return the Maple Leafs might get will probably be very limited overall.

Canucks’ Nils Aman Clears Waivers, Assigned To AHL

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11/3: Aman has cleared waivers and been assigned to the AHL, per a team release.

11/2: With Dakota Joshua nearing a return to the lineup, the Canucks need to open up a roster spot for him.  It appears that Nils Aman will be the one losing his spot as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve placed him on waivers for the purpose of assigning him to AHL Abbotsford.

The 24-year-old has taken an interesting route to the NHL.  Originally drafted in the sixth round by Colorado in 2020, Aman didn’t sign with them and then signed with Vancouver two years later.  After a short stint in the minors to start 2022-23, he was up with the big club the rest of the way, getting into 68 games.  Aman also spent time in the AHL last season, collecting 15 points in as many games while also getting into 43 NHL contests, tallying four goals and three assists while his waiver exemption expired.

He signed a two-year, $1.65MM extension in late November, ensuring that he’d remain a low-cost option for Vancouver for a little while longer.  However, Aman has only played in four of their first nine games this season, although he does have a pair of assists but it evidently wasn’t enough to keep his roster spot secure.

As far as waiver placements go, this is one of the more intriguing ones.  Aman already has 115 career NHL games (and 25 points) under his belt and with a cap hit only $50K above the league minimum, he’s a player most teams could afford if they’re looking to either add a depth piece or shake up the back end of their forward group so he’s far from a guarantee to clear.

Interestingly, this isn’t a move that Vancouver necessarily had to make.  They’ve been sending two players back and forth from Abbotsford in recent days with one of them being winger Arshdeep Bains.  The Canucks could have simply elected to send Bains down when Joshua returns to create the roster spot.  Instead, it appears Bains will have a bit more of an opportunity to try to secure a full-time spot in the lineup.

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