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Snapshots: Weegar, Nash, Keith

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Last week, we covered reports on the Calgary Flames’ attempts to sign defenseman Mackenzie Weegar to an extension. Now, we have some more details on the deal being discussed. Per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet on the 32 Thoughts Podcast, the “general area” that the Flames are “looking at” with a Weegar extension is eight years, $6.5MM AAV, which some might remember as the parameters of Hampus Lindholm’s contract extension with the Boston Bruins.

For the Flames, an extension at around that number would represent solid value, especially when the potential rise of the salary cap in the near future is factored in. Weegar, who will turn 29 in January, had 44 points in 80 games last season and has blossomed into a top-pairing defenseman. If we consider the costs of comparable defensemen, such as Darnell Nurse ($9.25MM) or Jacob Trouba ($8MM), a cap hit at around $6.5MM would represent solid value for the Flames, especially since it could be argued that Weegar is a better defenseman than either Nurse or Trouba. If this deal indeed gets signed at around this number, it will be another big move in what could go down as a summer for the ages for Flames GM Brad Treliving.

Now, for some other notes from across the NHL:

  • Veteran forward Riley Nash has signed a two-year AHL contract with the Charlotte Checkers, per a team announcement. Nash, 33, saw time with three different NHL teams last season, and he also played 17 games for the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. In his 17 games with the Crunch, Nash scored 10 goals and 18 points, and should add some experience and veteran leadership to the Checkers’ top-six.
  • Per Sportsnet’s Mark Spector, legendary defenseman Duncan Keith is joining the Oilers’ hockey operations department in a player development role. Keith recently ended his NHL career and will bring his over 1,200 games of NHL experience to the table as he helps develop the Oilers’ promising crop of young players.

Anaheim Ducks Sign Nathan Beaulieu To PTO

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We have another PTO signing for today. Defenseman Nathan Beaulieu has signed a professional tryout agreement with the Anaheim Ducks, per CapFriendly.

Beaulieu, 29, arrives in Anaheim coming from the Pittsburgh Penguins. Beaulieu didn’t actually suit up in a game for Pittsburgh, but he was acquired by the team at the 2022 deadline.

Beaulieu played 24 games last season, all for the Winnipeg Jets, averaging a career-low 10:46 time-on-ice per game. Beaulieu has over 400 games of NHL experience, and has operated in a seventh-defenseman role for the past four seasons as a member of the Penguins, Jets, and Buffalo Sabres.

In Anaheim, Beaulieu will join the competition for one of the open spots on the Ducks’ blueline, a competition that is getting relatively expansive. John Klingberg, Cam Fowler, Kevin Shattenkirk, Dmitry Kulikov, and Jamie Drysdale are all locks to be in the NHL, which means Beaulieu will be competing with Josh Mahura, Urho Vaakanainen, Simon Benoit, Colton White, and Olli Juolevi for one of the final two spots on the Ducks’ blueline, should the team choose to carry seven defensemen on their roster.

Given the state of the Ducks as a rebuilding club, it’s more likely that the team would prefer to run younger defensemen with more upside in those open roles. But even as he faces that reality entering camp, Beaulieu can still earn a spot and showcase his value to the Ducks. Should Beaulieu play well in the preseason while some of the younger defenseman struggle, he could earn an NHL contract to serve as the team’s seventh defenseman, just as he has for other NHL teams these past few seasons.

Snapshots: Media Rules, Panthers, Senators PTO

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The media’s access to NHL players has been limited over these past two seasons, in large part thanks to restrictions placed on locker room access in order to mitigate the risk of COVID transmission to players. Per the Professional Hockey Writers Association, as relayed by Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, those restrictions are ending. Per Thomas, NHL clubs were informed via email that “locker rooms must be open following all games and practices and all active players must be made available” to the media.

While the lifting of these media restrictions doesn’t have any direct impact on transactions or things such as the salary cap, it does serve as another piece of evidence pointing to a return to normalcy for the NHL. Given what deputy commissioner Bill Daly said last month, — that a rise to the salary cap could be coming earlier than anticipated, perhaps even as soon as the end of the 2023-24 season — the return of the media to NHL locker rooms is another indication that things are getting back to normal in the world of hockey.

Now, for some other notes from across the NHL:

  • The Florida Panthers made some additions to their Performance Department today, announcing the hires of Chris McLellan, Mike Joyce, and Mark Gaydos. McLellan was named vice president of sports performance, Joyce was named head strength and conditioning coach, and Gaydos was named assistant strength and conditioning coach. The Panthers have big plans for this season, and these three hires beef up the off-ice support they’re offering to their players as they hope to achieve their lofty goals in 2022-23.
  • Four players have signed professional tryout agreements (PTO’s) today, and there are likely a few more on the horizon. As relayed by Ian Mendes of The Athletic, Ottawa Senators GM Pierre Dorion strongly indicated that he’d be signing a skater to a PTO, saying “there is a contract to be had and there’s a spot to be had.” (subscription link) There are quite a few veteran players still on the market, such as P.K. Subban and Sonny Milano, and it looks like Dorion will be adding someone from that market for the preseason.

San Jose Sharks Sign Scott Harrington To PTO

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The number of PTO agreements signed today grows to four. The San Jose Sharks have announced the signing of defenseman Scott Harrington to a professional tryout agreement.

The Sharks have undergone a significant roster transformation in new GM Mike Grier’s first offseason, seeing a franchise face in Brent Burns depart and new NHL-quality players such as Matt Benning, Luke Kunin, and Oskar Lindblom enter the fold. With this PTO, Harrington joins the competition for a job on new coach David Quinn’s blueline.

Harrington, 29, was a second-round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins at the 2011 draft and has over 200 games of NHL experience, almost entirely with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Harrington spent most of last season with the Blue Jackets’ AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters, although he did get into seven NHL contests averaging 14 and a half minutes per game.

The six-foot-two Harrington doesn’t have much offense to his game, but he did see extensive time on the Monsters’ penalty kill and has experience as a defensive specialist. He’ll head to the Sharks camp to compete with Jaycob Megna, Radim Simek, and Markus Nutivaara for a spot on the lower end of the team’s defensive lineup.

 

West Notes: Oilers UFA Possibilities, McLeod, Rookie Faceoff

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The Edmonton Oilers added a quality AHL scorer in Justin Bailey to their organization, bringing him in on a PTO and an AHL deal. That doesn’t mean they’re done adding, though, and The Athletic’s Daniel Nugent-Bowman reports via a team source that the Oilers are considering adding a forward on a league-minimum deal, similar to the contract Ryan Murray recently signed. (subscription link) Per Nugent-Bowman, the Oilers are discussing three players: Zach Aston-Reese, Riley Nash, and Jake Virtanen.

Aston-Reese, 28, is likely the name Oilers fans would most want to see on their roster out of that group of three. Aston-Reese, whose free agency our John Gilroy profiled last month, is a capable defensive winger and someone who could chip in as a safe, reliable bottom-six option. Nash, 33, represents the most experienced option, as he has over 600 NHL games under his belt. Nash split time between the Syracuse Crunch, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Arizona Coyotes last season, and managed to get into eight playoff games on the Lightning’s run to the Stanley Cup Final. The recent not guilty verdict in Virtanen’s sexual assault trial could be the reason why Virtanen’s name is coming up again for NHL opportunities after a year in the KHL. Virtanen, a former top prospect who scored 18 goals in 2019-20, is the player of the three who would likely present the most on-ice upside to the Oilers but also come with his fair share of baggage and controversy.

Now, for some other news from across the Western Conference:

  • The Oilers still have restricted free agent Ryan McLeod left to sign, and Nugent-Bowman reports that the deal should come around a $975K cap hit. That’s a relatively small cost, but since the Oilers have little cap space to work with the deal hasn’t been completed yet. Per Nugent-Bowman, the “inability to make a trade” involving one of the Oilers’ higher-priced players such as Tyson Barrie, Jesse Puljujarvi, or Warren Foegele has held up the progress on finalizing McLeod’s deal.
  • We recently covered how the San Jose Sharks would be hosting a tournament for prospects from six NHL teams. Today, each of those six teams (the Sharks, Kings, Ducks, Coyotes, Avalanche, and Golden Knights) announced their rosters for the camp. There are quite a few notable names to look forward to at that tournament, including first-round picks Quinton Byfield, Mason McTavish, William Eklund, Conor Geekie, Oskar Olausson, and Brendan Brisson, among others.

Offseason Notes: Hurricanes, Lundqvist, Doan

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Although player transactions rightfully take up most of the attention in the offseason, a team’s additions to their coaching staff and hockey operations department can also play a significant role in whether the organization finds success. Today, the Carolina Hurricanes made three additions to their hockey operations department. The team hired Earl Schwartz as a compliance assistant, and Ellen Etchingham and Sidney Morin were named professional scouts.

Schwartz’s title may not make his role on the Hurricanes immediately clear, but based on the team’s description, it seems his work will revolve around the salary cap. The two new professional scouts the team hired, Etchingham and Morin, both have extensive experience in hockey. Etchingham, who Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek called “one of the smartest people” he’s ever met, has written about hockey since 2007, while Morin is a player for the Minnesota Whitecaps of the PHF and an Olympic Gold Medalist.

Now, for some other news from across the NHL:

  • It wasn’t long ago that Henrik Lundqvist was the on-ice face of the New York Rangers, and now in retirement, he’s positioned himself to be the off-ice face of the franchise. Today the Rangers announced that Lundqvist has joined Madison Square Garden in a “unique new role that helps support business operations for each company.” Lundqvist will continue his work as a studio analyst for Rangers broadcasts on MSG Network, as well as work in various roles across Madison Square Garden ranging from alumni relations to the Garden of Dreams Foundation.
  • While the Rangers’ franchise icon is doubling down on his involvement with the organization, the Arizona Coyotes’ face of their franchise is heading in a different direction. Per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, Shane Doan is taking a “step back” from his role as Chief Hockey Development Officer for the Coyotes. Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports added some context to this move, stating that Doan still “wants to be in hockey ops somewhere” but it likely won’t be with the Coyotes. Of note is the fact that Doan’s son, Josh Doan, was drafted 37th overall by Arizona at the 2021 NHL draft and is currently the captain of the Arizona State Sun Devils hockey team.

Edmonton Oilers Sign Justin Bailey To Professional Tryout

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9/8/22: While CapFriendly reported that Bailey signed a PTO with the Oilers, we now have some more clarity on where Bailey will be playing hockey full-time next season.

Per a team announcement, Bailey has signed a one-year AHL contract with the Oilers’ American League affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors. So, even if Bailey is unable to earn an NHL deal out of training camp, he will remain within the larger Oilers organization and factor in likely as a scoring-line player for the Condors.

9/7/22: The Edmonton Oilers have added some veteran talent to their training camp roster, signing forward Justin Bailey to a PTO, per CapFriendly.

This move comes after we covered how the Oilers were looking for some additional depth pieces at this stage of the offseason market. After signing Ryan Murray to a one-year league-minimum deal, they have added to their forward depth by getting Bailey into the mix for a job in the preseason.

Bailey, 27, was a second-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres at the 2013 NHL draft and has spent the past three seasons in the Vancouver Canucks organization. Last year, Bailey split time between the Canucks and their AHL affiliate in Abbotsford. For Vancouver, Bailey got into 14 games and registered 12 hits, six penalty minutes, and six blocked shots in just over nine minutes of ice time per game. Bailey also spent time as a healthy scratch for the Canucks.

At the AHL level, Bailey had more success, scoring 15 goals and 27 points in just 30 games. Bailey has long been a quality AHL scorer, ever since he scored 20 goals and 45 points in his first professional season with the Rochester Americans. In 296 career AHL games Bailey has scored 111 goals and 198 points.

In Edmonton, Bailey will have a chance to compete for a spot at the bottom of the team’s lineup. He’ll likely compete with Tyler Benson, Greg McKegg, and Brad Malone for a depth role. With a strong performance in camp and in the preseason, Bailey could earn himself a two-way deal and a chance to get into games for the Oilers this season. Even if Bailey struggles, though, it’s still overwhelmingly likely that he’d have strong interest on an AHL deal.

Minor Transactions 09/07/22

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We are less than three weeks away from preseason action around the league and just over a month away from the 2022-23 regular season. NHL teams have a few things left to do before getting started and minor league clubs a few more still. As always, we’ll keep track of all the minor transactions from around the hockey world.

  • Veteran SHL defenseman Anton Myllari has chosen to swap leagues. Per a team announcement, Myllari signed a contract with the Lahden Pelicans of the Finnish Liiga. Myllari, 31, spent last season with Brynas of the SHL, getting into 51 games. Myllari has nearly 200 games of SHL experience under his belt and has also manned the blueline for teams in Denmark and Austria. He heads to a Pelicans team eager to improve after a mediocre 29-win 2021-22 campaign.
  • ECHL teams have been making some last-minute additions in advance of next season, and one of those teams is the Cincinnati Cyclones. The team announced today that they’ve signed 21-year-old forward Dakota Betts to a one-year contract. The deal is Betts’ first professional contract, and the 21-year-old is coming off of a solid final season in the OHL In 61 games the now-21-year-old Betts registered 33 points, which ranked fourth on a poor Niagara IceDogs team.
  • The Reading Royals announced that they’ve signed forward Kamerin Nault to a one-year contract. Nault, 27, has 99 games of ECHL experience on his resume and got into three AHL games in 2020-21 with the Manitoba Moose. Nault’s best ECHL season came in 2019-20 when he scored 16 goals and 32 points in 40 games for the Greenville Swamp Rabbits.
  • Former Belleville Senator Andrew Sturtz has signed a one-year deal with the Orlando Solar Bears, per a team announcement. Sturtz, 27. did not play during the 2021-22 season but had a solid 2020-21 campaign with the Rapid City Rush, scoring 28 points in 33 games. Sturtz was a top scorer for the Penn State Nittany Lions in his collegiate career and will look to help the Solar Bears improve upon a 2021-22 campaign where they just missed out on a playoff berth.

Minor Transactions: 09/04/22

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Just a few weeks from now, NHL teams will be taking the ice to do battle in the preseason. Meanwhile, minor league and European clubs continue to make additions to their own rosters in preparation for the regular season. As always, we’ll keep track of today’s notable minor moves right here.

  • Veteran defenseman Adam Almqvist, a 2009 seventh-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings, has signed a one-year deal with KHL club Traktor Chelyabinsk. Almqvist spent 2021-22 with another KHL club, Dinamo Minsk, and scored 26 points in 41 games. The Swedish blueliner has 2 games of NHL experience under his belt, both coming in 2013-14, and he played a major role for the 2012-13 Grand Rapids Griffins, who won the Calder Cup. By playing in the KHL, Almqvist, who has represented Sweden in international tournaments in the past, will be ineligible to be called up to the Swedish national team.
  • Minor-league fixture Arvin Atwal, who has served as an AHL/ECHL tweener defenseman for most of his professional career, is headed back to North America. After spending 2021-22 with HK Spisska Nova Ves of the Slovakian league, Atwal has chosen to sign a one-year deal with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones. The 26-year-old blueliner has 583 PIM’s in 177 career ECHL games and should bring some physicality to a Cyclones franchise he played for from 2016-17 through 2018-19.
  • Dominik Furch, a longtime starting netminder in European leagues, has signed closer to home. The 32-year-old Furch backstopped Farjestad BK to an SHL championship last season and has signed a three-year contract with HC Kometa Brno. Furch, who has spent much of his career as a quality starting goalie in the KHL, brings championship experience to a Brno club that had a mediocre 2021-22. Perhaps most notably from an NHL perspective, the addition of Furch could displace Matej Tomek as the team’s starting goalie, which would be a setback in the career of the Philadelphia Flyers 2015 third-round pick.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Leo Komarov Signs In Sweden

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In early August, we covered rumors that veteran NHL forward Leo Komarov would be spending the 2022-23 season in the SHL. While it turns out that Brynas won’t end up being the club that features Komarov next season, Komarov has ended up in the SHL after all. Per a team announcement, Lulea HF has signed Komarov to a one-year contract.

Komarov, 35, is a veteran of nearly 500 NHL games. He played for two teams in his NHL career, the New York Islanders and Toronto Maple Leafs, and has scored 170 points in his 491 career NHL games. Komarov’s most recent run was with the Islanders, where he played as a low-scoring bottom-sixer on a squad that went to back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals.

The best years of Komarov’s career came with the Toronto Maple Leafs, highlighted by a 2015-16 season where he scored 19 goals and 36 points and represented the Maple Leafs at the 2016 All-Star Game. A sixth-round pick in 2006, Komarov’s NHL career came after a long stretch of development in the KHL.

Komarov made his KHL return last season, skating in 18 regular-season contests and 16 playoff contests for SKA St. Petersburg, scoring a combined nine points. Komarov helped Finland win gold at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and joins a Lulea team that fell just short of winning the SHL championship last season.

While a return to the NHL for Komarov is likely out of the picture, it’s definitely possible that he spends the remainder of his playing days as a quality forward in European leagues while also featuring in international tournaments.

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