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Latest On Availability Of Sean Couturier, Cam Atkinson, Ryan Ellis

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Philadelphia Flyers president of hockey operations Keith Jones addressed the health and availability of three of his organization’s bigger-name players to NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman today. He spoke on Flyers number-one center Sean Couturier, veteran goal scorer Cam Atkinson, and defenseman Ryan Ellis.

On Couturier and Atkinson, Jones said that both are expected to be healthy and on the ice for the start of Flyers training camp next month. That’s not only major news for each player but also the Flyers organization at large, as the team’s offensive attack has suffered tremendously in the absence of two of the team’s most experienced players.

Couturier, 30, is arguably the Flyers’ best player. Couturier hasn’t played an NHL game since December 2021 and has had two back surgeries since that point.

Kimelman notes that Couturier “Couturier was practicing before the end of last season and had been hoping to get into a game,” but the Flyers made the decision not to rush Couturier back into what was a lost season, preferring to afford him the more extended timeline of a full offseason of training leading up to his first game back.

When healthy, Couturier is a top-of-the-line two-way center who is capable of scoring at a near-point-per-game rate. (he has crossed the 75-point plateau twice in his career) The 2019-20 Selke Trophy winner could very well compete for more Selke trophies when healthy, especially now that Patrice Bergeron has retired.

With the Flyers intensely interested in developing their young talent and providing young players with prime opportunities to succeed in the NHL, having Couturier healthy is a huge asset. For young wingers such as Tyson Foerster or Bobby Brink, players the Flyers desperately want to succeed in the NHL, having the chance to play on a line centered by Couturier could do wonders in easing their adjustment to the NHL.

As for Atkinson, as a 34-year-old under contract only through the 2024-25 season he is unlikely to be with the Flyers by the time they enter their next competitive phase. That’s unlike Couturier, who is signed to a long-term, $7.75MM AAV contract through the end of the decade. Atkinson is a favorite of head coach John Tortorella but missed all of last season after undergoing neck surgery.

The fact that the Flyers’ next playoff run will likely happen outside of Atkinson’s contract doesn’t mean he can’t provide value to the Flyers for the rest of his deal. The former 41-goal scorer returning to full health could improve the developmental environment in Philadelphia, just as having a healthy Couturier would.

Atkinson is a widely respected veteran who can capably score 20 goals and 50 points in a full season. For a young center the Flyers wish to see continue to develop, such as Morgan Frost or Noah Cates, having an accomplished veteran winger to play with and help the line succeed offensively could be genuinely helpful.

The key to the right developmental environment for a rebuilding club is to provide the right mix of young players and established talent, rather than just stocking a roster with as many unproven youngsters as possible. The issue for the Flyers has been that so many of the team’s key veteran forwards have been injured (such as Couturier and Atkinson) or a poor fit with Tortorella. (Kevin Hayes)

Getting both Atkinson and Couturier back from their season-long injuries not only helps the Flyers win more games in the immediate term, but it should also yield real benefits for the development of the Flyers’ young talent.

As for Ellis, Jones told Kimelman that the defenseman is unlikely to “be able to continue his playing career because of a torn psoas muscle in his back.” Jones added that Ellis is “exhausting everything that he can in order to play” but that the injury is simply making his return to the ice impossible.

Ellis, 32, was a high-end defenseman for the Nashville Predators for 562 games before he was dealt to Philadelphia in the summer of 2021 in exchange for Philippe Myers and 2017 number-two pick Nolan Patrick.

Ellis only managed to play in four games for the Flyers, scoring five points, before injuries knocked him out of the lineup. As long as this injury keeps Ellis from being able to play he will likely remain on the Flyers’ long-term injured reserve list in order for the team to receive cap relief for Ellis’ $6.25MM AAV contract, a deal that runs through 2026-27.

While Ellis appears to have every desire to return to the ice and continue his career, based on Jones comments it appears that expecting Ellis to ever suit up for another NHL game would be a mistake. While the organization must be happy to have Atkinson and Couturier back for training camp, the seemingly permanent absence of Ellis is undoubtedly unfortunate for both the Flyers and Ellis himself.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. 

New York Rangers, Brandon Scanlin Reach Pre-Arbitration Settlement

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08/02/23: The Rangers have now officially announced the signing of Scanlin to a one-year contract extension.

08/01/23: According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the New York Rangers and defenseman Brandon Scanlin have reached a pre-arbitration settlement on a new contract.

Scanlin’s representatives and the Rangers have agreed on a one-year, $775k contract carrying a $100k AHL salary. Scanlin’s arbitration hearing was scheduled for August 4th, and will obviously now be taking not take place.

Scanlin is a 24-year-old undrafted right-shot blueliner who signed an entry-level contract at the conclusion of his NCAA career at the University of Nebraska Omaha. That deal carried a $925k NHL AAV and an $80k AHL salary, the latter being the more important number as Scanlin was always unlikely to see games for the Rangers so quickly after leaving college. Scanlin’s camp has secured a pay raise to $100k in the AHL for next season, though at the cost of cutting the NHL AAV down to the league minimum.

While this will hurt Scanlin’s earning potential in the NHL, that isn’t of major consequence looking at the Rangers’ defensive depth chart. The hulking six-foot-three, 223-pound defenseman isn’t going to threaten Ryan Lindgren or K’Andre Miller for either of the two top slots on the Rangers’ defensive depth chart.

While the left-side spot on the team’s third pairing next to Braden Schneider will likely be up for grabs in training camp and preseason, Scanlin faces a tall task to earn that role over holdover Rangers players such as Zachary Jones (who the Rangers would need to expose to waivers to send to AHL Hartford) and Ben Harpur, or veteran free agent signings such as Erik Gustafsson (42 points last season) and Connor Mackey.

As a result, he’s overwhelmingly likely to be ticketed for a role back in the AHL with the Hartford Wolf Pack, where he played his rookie professional season in 2022-23. Scanlin played in 61 games for Hartford in 2022-23, scoring four goals and 15 points while racking up 30 penalty minutes. Although Scanlin had to contend with more established players such as Jones, Libor Hájek, and Matthew Robertson soaking up regular minutes in Hartford he still managed to play in nearly 85% of the Wolf Pack’s games and the team’s full slate of nine playoff games.

That puts him in a decent position to maintain a regular role for the Wolf Pack next season, although the additions of Gustafsson and Mackey could make things more difficult. Assuming Gustafsson earns the third-pairing role next to Schneider and the Rangers opt to stash Jones in the press box as a seventh defenseman rather than expose him to waivers, Mackey, should he clear waivers, is in line to be the Wolf Pack’s number-one left-shot defenseman with Harpur and Robertson likely to be behind him.

That lineup picture could make it harder for Scanlin to see regular time in Hartford, especially as more accomplished AHLers such as Mac Hollowell and Nikolas Brouillard stand ahead of him on the right side.

Still, Scanlin appears to be one injury or waiver claim from resuming his regular role on head coach Kris Knoblauch’s defense, and should he manage to hold down a regular role he will be afforded a solid opportunity to continue his development and make a more concerted push for NHL call-up consideration.

Jeremy Swayman Contract Settled Via Arbitration

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Boston Bruins netminder Jeremy Swayman has been awarded a $3.475MM one-year contract in arbitration, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

This news comes just a few hours after the team reached an agreement on a two-year contract with their other pending RFA, Trent Frederic. They now have cost certainty on their roster for next season, although CapFriendly projects them to have just over $3.1MM in cap space before this award is factored in, meaning they stand just over $600k above the $83.5MM salary cap with a full roster.

In our more detailed breakdown of Swayman’s arbitration case, we projected an award between $3.55MM and $3.75MM. This award comes in just below that projection, although it is ever so slightly above the mid-point between the two parties’ filings. Swayman had filed for a $4.8MM AAV while the Bruins filed for $2MM, making the mid-point $3.4MM.

Swayman gets a little bit more than that, and although that’s far from the $4.8MM he filed for it still represents a significant pay raise from the $925k against the cap he cost in 2022-23.

He fully earned that hefty pay raise with his play last season, as well. In his age-24 season, Swayman played in 37 games and went 24-6-4 with a .920 save percentage and 2.27 goals-against-average.

While those numbers were undoubtedly aided by the Bruins’ historic regular season dominance and their exceptional group of defensemen, Swayman’s 2021-22 (.914 save percentage in 41 games) and 2020-21 (.945 save percentage in 10 games) beef up his resume.

Swayman was also an accomplished starter in his college days at the University of Maine, and looking at his performance at every level of hockey it’s hard to argue he’s not worth the $3.475MM he’s been awarded today. Where this leaves Boston, though, is in a curious spot.

Although some might assume that the Bruins would be interested in trading Swayman since they already have Vezina Trophy winner Linus Ullmark entrenched as a starter, that’s highly unlikely to happen. As The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa noted in his recent mailbag, the Bruins believe an Ullmark-Swayman tandem “will be their position of strength for 2023-24” and help them return to the playoffs despite losing some high-end talent in Patrice Bergeron, Dmitry Orlov, and Tyler Bertuzzi. (subscription link)

Although Brandon Bussi is waiting in the wings playing for the AHL’s Providence Bruins and could be ready to handle backup duty, Ullmark does have a history of injuries earlier in his career and the safety Swayman provides to the Bruins’ goaltending depth is legitimately valuable.

That being said, one has to believe that Swayman will eventually want to be a true number-one goalie, as his talent certainly merits receiving that chance. Whether that chance will come in Boston remains to be seen.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Latest On Mike Hoffman

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Two years into his career as a Montreal Canadien, it’s abundantly clear that Mike Hoffman’s three-year, $4.5MM AAV contract from the 2021 free agent cycle hasn’t quite worked out as planned for both parties.

The Canadiens went from Stanley Cup finalist the season before Hoffman’s arrival to NHL basement-dweller after his signing, kicking off an organizational rebuild that saw the departure of the GM who inked Hoffman to his deal, Marc Bergevin.

Hoffman, who is set to turn 34 in November, saw his production decline as he went from scoring at a 27-goal, 57-point 82-game pace with the St. Louis Blues to an 18-goal, 42-point 82-game scoring rate in Montreal.

It’s likely that Montreal is feeling some buyer’s remorse after sinking $4.5MM AAV into a player who had six consecutive seasons of 20 or more goals from 2014 to 2020 and has only scored 15 in each of his two seasons with the Canadiens.

That price tag is made all the more regrettable given the flat-cap environment the NHL still finds itself navigating, where cap space is held at an absolute premium.

Now, despite serving as a rare veteran scorer in Montreal who has been relatively healthy over the past two years, it appears Hoffman’s grip on an NHL job in Montreal could be weakening. In a mailbag completed by The Athletic’s Arpon Basu, Basu writes that “there’s a very real possibility [Hoffman] gets waived and assigned to Laval.” (subscription link)

Basu’s rationale is that the Canadiens have a growing group of young forwards the Canadiens will want to offer prime player development opportunities at the NHL level, and he doesn’t think “Canadiens management is willing to allow a development opportunity pass them by with the slight hope that playing Hoffman could lead to a trade at the deadline.”

It would certainly be a bit of a drastic step to see Hoffman waived and playing in Laval (it’s extremely unlikely he would be claimed at a $4.5MM cap hit), though it’s not without precedent in Montreal. Another former marquee Canadiens UFA signing, Karl Alzner, spent two seasons in Laval after the value he provided on his $4.625MM AAV free agent contract went up in flames due to on-ice regression.

Hoffman is a pure goal scorer who despite improved underlying metrics from last season offers little in the way of defensive value and a highly limited ability to play in a role on a checking line. Unless an injury hits before opening night, the Canadiens are highly likely to reserve top-nine forward roles for Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, Josh Anderson, Alex Newhook, Kirby Dach, Brendan Gallagher, Juraj Slafkovský, and Sean Monahan.

That would leave Hoffman battling for one final top-nine slot against Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, who matched Hoffman’s goal total last season despite playing just 34 games, Jesse Ylönen, who flashed some offensive potential late last season and is waiver-eligible for the first time in his career, and prospects such as Sean Farrell, Josh Roy, and Emil Heineman.

One has to believe that with player development being of paramount importance to the Canadiens’ plans under head coach Martin St. Louis, one of those names will end up the Canadiens’ preference for that last top-nine spot over Hoffman.

Montreal could then keep Hoffman in the press box as a 13th forward, though that would require placing Christian Dvorak on injured reserve or exposing fan favorite Michael Pezzetta to waivers. And even if the club keeps Hoffman on the NHL roster in Dvorak’s absence, he’s expected to return to full health relatively early in the season anyway which could force the club to choose between waiving Hoffman or Pezzetta.

Taking this whole roster picture into account, it appears, as Basu suggests, that there is a very real path for Hoffman to be placed on waivers and play in the AHL next season. One injury could, of course, change all of that, and given the Canadiens’ injury luck during Hoffman’s tenure, it’s far from a certainty that the team remains healthy through the training camp and preseason process.

But if that doesn’t happen, we could see a former 36-goal, 70-point scorer with over 200 NHL goals on his resume exposed to waivers and playing minor-league hockey early in the 2023-24 campaign.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Carl Söderberg Announces Retirement

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Swedish forward Carl Söderberg, who played in nearly 600 NHL games, has made the decision to end his playing career at the age of 37.

Söderberg’s retirement announcement, made via SportExpressen’s Johan Svensson, comes after the player’s second season playing SHL hockey with the Malmö Redhawks and two seasons removed from his last NHL campaign.

Söderberg was selected by the St. Louis Blues in the second round of the 2004 draft, 49th overall. He was seen as a toolsy six-foot-three forward who impressed at the junior level for Malmö, scoring 48 points in 27 games, and even managed to play in 24 games for Malmö’s first-team squad.

Söderberg struggled the following season, scoring just five points in 38 games as Malmö were relegated to the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan.

In the Allsvenskan is where Söderberg took the first developmental leap of his career, scoring 39 points in 39 games and leading Malmö to promotion back to the top tier of Swedish hockey. Söderberg looked poised to keep the good times rolling the following season in 2006-07, scoring 30 points in 31 games at a significantly increased competition level compared to the Allsvenskan, before he was thrown a potentially career-threatening challenge.

After an opposing player’s attempted stick lift went awry, Söderberg was left with a detached retina and forced to undergo what he estimates was between eight to ten surgeries on his left eye. Söderberg missed quite a bit of time as a result and became legally blind in one eye, but ultimately returned to the ice for Malmö and became a top scorer for the club for the next four seasons, all played at the Allsvenskan level.

Söderberg would then move on from Malmö and spend two years with IK Oskarshamn in Sweden’s top league, finishing the 2012-13 season leading the league in goals with 31 to go alongside 60 total points. At that point he was 27 and decided he would try his luck in the NHL, signing a deal with the Boston Bruins. Although Söderberg’s career technically began poorly, as the Bruins suffered a heartbreaking loss in the 2013 Stanley Cup Final, Söderberg himself would go on to provide a major return on investment for the Bruins.

He scored 16 goals and 48 points in his rookie 2013-14 season and followed that up with 44 points as a sophomore. That earned Söderberg a hefty five-year, $4.75MM AAV contract with the Colorado Avalanche, where he would immediately set a career-high of 51 points and in 2018-19 hit the 20-goal plateau for the first time in his career.

In 2019 Söderberg was dealt to the Arizona Coyotes for what would be the final productive season of his career. After a 2020-21 season spent largely in depth roles for the Chicago Blackhawks and Avalanche, Söderberg returned to where it all started, to the SHL and Malmö. He would lead the team in scoring in 2021-22 and although his numbers declined this past season his 14 goals and 26 points played a crucial role in the club avoiding relegation and maintaining its spot in the SHL.

Although the Avalanche would go on to finally win the Stanley Cup championship they’d been building towards in 2021-22, Söderberg’s first away from the NHL, the leadership and the guidance Söderberg provided for younger players during the early days of the careers of players such as Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon means his contributions to the team’s eventual championship are undoubtable.

Beyond club hockey, Söderberg represented Sweden at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey and 2017 IIHF Men’s World Championships, winning a gold medal at the latter event. He finishes his career with quite a bit to be proud of, especially considering the major adversity he faced early in his career.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Boston Bruins, Trent Frederic Reach Pre-Arbitration Settlement

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11:00 AM: The Bruins have now officially announced the agreement, confirming the terms that were first reported by Friedman.

9:00 AM: The Boston Bruins have reached an agreement on a new contract with RFA forward Trent Frederic before today’s scheduled arbitration hearing. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Bruins have agreed with Frederic on a two-year, $2.3MM AAV contract extension. According to Bally Sports Midwest’s Andy Strickland, the deal has a $250k signing bonus in its first year.

The contract comes closer to Frederic’s desired AAV (he had filed for a one-year, $2.9MM deal) at the cost of an extra year of term, something the Bruins filed for albeit at a $1.4MM AAV.

In our more detailed breakdown of Frederic’s arbitration case, we projected “Frederic’s likely award very near to but likely slightly above the midpoint of $2.15MM,” which is exactly where this settlement came in.

At a $150k higher rate than the midpoint of the two parties’ filings, the Bruins have rewarded their second 2016 first-round pick for his breakout 2022-23 campaign. Frederic flew past his career highs to register 17 goals and 31 points in 79 games last season even while averaging just under 12 minutes of ice time per night.

As mentioned in our breakdown, Frederic’s possession-based metrics indicate his production this season isn’t likely to be that of a one-year wonder, although one does wonder how he’d hold up if exposed to a more demanding role requiring him to handle more substantial minutes.

Frederic doesn’t boast a ton of offensive skill but as a six-foot-three, 214-pound forward with the versatility to play center or along the wing Frederic is the sort of forward who plays with an edge and provides enough scoring touch to be coveted by many clubs. This settlement marches Frederic to the unrestricted free agent market in two year’s time, and if he can seize the significant opportunity in front of him he could be lined up for a major payday at that point.

With Boston’s top two centers from last season in Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci out the door, Frederic could potentially get the opportunity to play center for one of Boston’s scoring lines, potentially slotting next to a star such as David Pastrnak or Brad Marchand. Although players such as Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle are undoubtedly going to be first in line for those opportunities, Frederic could get his chance, which would be a potentially career-defining opportunity.

This two-year contract provides Frederic with a significant opportunity, but also heightened expectations. Now paid more than double the $1.05MM cap hit he played last season on, Frederic can no longer be the physical fourth-line presence he was earlier in his career. He’ll need to be more, and if he can do so he could stand to make quite a bit of money in two year’s time thanks to this new contract.

As for where this leaves the Bruins, they now have just over $3.1MM in cap space left over, and still await an arbitration award in netminder Jeremy Swayman’s case. Swayman had his arbitration hearing on July 30th and therefore should have his award come in today, meaning the Bruins are close to reaching cost certainty for the team’s expected 2023-24 roster.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. 

Minor Transactions: 08/01/23

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As the calendar turns to August, more and more clubs across the hockey world are putting the finishing touches on the roster they’ll bring into their training camps for next season. Most major European pro leagues begin in early to mid-September, including Liiga, the DEL, the Swiss NL, and the SHL. Liiga preseason actually begins on Friday, meaning we’re quickly reaching the point when the 2023-24 season truly begins overseas. As always, we’ll keep track of notable player movement in minor and foreign leagues here.

  • 27-year-old defenseman Bobby Nardella has found success pretty much everywhere he’s played over the last decade, from being a star USHLer to a second-team All-American at Notre Dame to now a Calder Cup Champion in the AHL in just his fourth season of pro hockey. But despite his strong play in the AHL regular season with the Hershey Bears, the undersized left-shot blueliner hasn’t yet earned his first NHL game, and now he’s guaranteed that he won’t receive that chance at least until 2024-25. Nardella signed a one-year contract with HV71 in the SHL. Nardella heads to Jönköping with 47 games of SHL experience already under his belt, as he played there on loan during the COVID-19-impacted 2020-21 campaign. He led Djurgårdens IF in scoring with 33 points in 47 games and will likely be a key player next year for HV71.
  • Like Nardella, Sami Lepistö played a key role as a defenseman during a Hershey Bears Calder Cup championship, scoring 42 points in 70 games during the team’s championship season in 2008-09. Unlike Nardella, Lepistö played in 14 career NHL games by the end of that season and the following season he broke into the NHL full-time with the Coyotes. Lepistö would ultimately play in 176 NHL games before embarking on a long and extremely successful career in Europe that would see him win two Olympic medals and be named to three consecutive KHL All-Star games. Today, Lepistö, 38, announced his retirement due to medical considerations, ending his storied career that saw him last play for the SCL Tigers in the Swiss NL, where he helped the club avoid relegation.
  • A stunning goal from 32-year-old defenseman Miks Indrašis sent the home crowd in Riga into a frenzy earlier this summer, lifting Latvia to an upset victory over heavily-favored Sweden in the quarterfinals of the IIHF Men’s World Championships, one of the biggest wins in the history of Latvian hockey. Now, Indrašis is headed to the country he upset to continue his pro career. He’s signed a one-year contract with Brynäs IF in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of Swedish hockey. Indrašis is a lanky six-foot-four blueliner who scored 29 points in 53 games for the DEL’s Schwenningen Wild Wings and is likely to play a regular role for Brynäs during what will be his first campaign playing in Scandinavia.
  • 2007 Nashville Predators second-round pick and former ECHL Kelly Cup Playoffs MVP Jeremy Smith has signed a three-year contract extension to remain with the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star through his age-36 season.  The American netminder has played for Kunlun since 2019-20 and is the franchise’s all-time leader in wins and saves. Smith represented China at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and is coming off of a strong bounce-back season as Kunlun’s number-one goalie, posting an impressive .914 save percentage despite a grisly 10-24-2 overall record.
  • Veteran DEL defenseman Jonas Müller, a regular representative of Germany in IIHF play, has signed an early four-year contract extension to remain with his club Eisbären Berlin. Although Berlin endured a difficult 2022-23 season, Müller ended his campaign on a highly positive note as he played a role in Germany taking home a silver medal at the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championships. Müller also has a silver medal from the 2018 Winter Olympics and despite being just 27 years old already has over 400 DEL games on his resume and two league championships. Müller averaged the most nightly minutes of any Berlin player and this contract ensures he’ll be the team’s defensive centerpiece moving forward.
  • Former Montreal Canadiens prospect Martin Réway finished his 2022-23 campaign on a high note, scoring 12 points in 13 playoff games for Slovakia’s HK Spisska Nova Ves. Per a social media announcement from the club, Réway has signed a contract for next season with HK 32 Liptovský Mikuláš. Réway, 28, was a 2013 fourth-round pick who starred in the QMJHL but only managed five games playing in the AHL for the Canadiens’ affiliate. Réway’s last few years have been among the most productive in his career and this signing with Liptovský Mikuláš will potentially help the club avoid relegation to the second tier of Slovak hockey.

This page may be updated throughout the day.

Snapshots: Gauthier, Kessel, Lindberg

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Philadelphia Flyers prospect Cutter Gauthier made some headlines earlier this summer when he was absent for the Flyers’ development camp shortly after the 2023 NHL draft. Gauthier offered some explanation for his choice today, telling NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman that he had played “a little bit too much hockey” after his college season and representing the United States at the IIHF Men’s World Championships. Gauthier added that he “wanted time with the family,” and although it wasn’t Flyers GM Danny Briere’s “favorite thing” Gauthier felt it was the right option.

Although Gauthier is no longer the Flyers’ number-one prospect due to the team drafting Matvei Michkov seventh overall at this year’s draft, Gauthier remains their best prospect who has a chance to play center. His absence at development camp shouldn’t be cause for any Flyers fan to worry that Gauthier will play out his college eligibility and hit free agency as other players, such as Adam Fox, have in the past, though. Gauthier told Kimelman that it’s “definitely the plan” to play for Philadelphia at the end of Boston College’s upcoming season, and after scoring 16 goals and 37 points last season Gauthier is expected to be one of college hockey’s top players on a Boston team that is set to see significant talent arrive in the fall, such as top 2023 picks Will Smith, Ryan Leonard, and Gabe Perreault.

Some other notes from across the NHL:

  • Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas is no stranger to working with elite women’s hockey players, such as Hall of Famer Hayley Wickenheiser who worked as senior director of player development with the Toronto Maple Leafs during Dubas’ tenure there. Now, Dubas is adding another top name to his staff in Pittsburgh. Amanda Kessel, an Olympic gold medalist and the sister of former Penguins star Phil Kessel has reportedly been promoted to a role titled “special assistant to president of hockey operations and general manager” according to Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Although it’s unclear what her exact responsibilities will be this reported promotion means Kessel will have a hand in shaping the Penguins’ future as they chase one last Stanley Cup with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang.
  • Former Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Tobias Lindberg, once a star OHLer with the Oshawa Generals, has signed a contract in Germany with the Crimmitschau Ice Pirates. The 28-year-old 2013 fourth-round pick has played the last two seasons in Czechia, but struggled to produce. He’s been most productive in the past at the HockeyAllsvenskan level in his native Sweden, so perhaps this move to the second tier of German hockey will see him score at a rate closer to what he posted in his junior hockey days.

Examining An Upcoming Winnipeg Jets Roster Crunch

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Despite seeing some high-profile players depart their franchise this offseason, including former captain Blake Wheeler and second-line center Pierre-Luc Dubois, the Winnipeg Jets have every intention of returning to the playoffs in 2023-24.

Although netminder Connor Hellebuyck’s name has appeared in trade rumors this summer, he currently appears more likely than not to begin the season in Winnipeg, meaning head coach Rick Bowness and his staff will have an elite goaltender behind them as they begin another contention-oriented season.

One area the Jets may still have to resolve this offseason is their defense. As things currently stand, the Jets not only have a point-per-game blueliner in Josh Morrissey leading their group, they also boast some impressive depth. The Jets have ten defensemen under legitimate consideration for an NHL job in the fall, but are likely to only be able to staff seven or eight on their 23-man active roster.

This isn’t a situation for some of the Jets’ defensemen to worry about. Morrissey’s spot at the top of their lineup, for example, is assured. Seeing as they each make nearly $6MM annually on their contracts, Nate Schmidt and Neal Pionk are unlikely to go anywhere given how hard it is to move money in today’s flat-cap environment.

The two 2024 unrestricted free agents, veterans Brenden Dillon and Dylan DeMelo, are each possible candidates to be moved in theory, but in reality are likely staying put.

Each played an important role in the Jets’ 2022-23 success and it’s likely that if the Jets had designs on trading one of those two veterans the deal would have been completed already.

That makes five slots on the roster already spoken for, leaving two or three roster spots left to be claimed.

In contention for those spots is 24-year-old Dylan Samberg, who broke into the NHL and played 63 games last season, six-foot-seven 2016 first-round pick Logan Stanley, AHL star Declan Chisholm, veteran Kyle Capobianco, and 2019 first-rounder Ville Heinola. At the outset, Samberg looks to be the overwhelming favorite to claim the sixth and final spot in Bowness’ opening-night lineup.

The Jets invested a second-round pick to draft Samberg in 2017 and he has developed at a steady rate since that point. He played three seasons of college hockey at the University of Minnesota-Duluth before turning pro in 2020-21.

He spent his rookie pro season as an AHL regular, the next year on the NHL/AHL bubble, and finally last season fully on the NHL roster. Samberg played as a penalty-killing specialist number-six defenseman last season, averaging just 14:55 TOI per game overall but 1:59 on the penalty kill, third-most among Jets blueliners.

With Samberg playing quite a bit short-handed the Jets had a top-ten penalty kill league-wide, so it stands to reason that the Jets would be interested in Samberg maintaining his regular role there in order to help ensure similar short-handed success next season. That leaves Heinola, Stanley, Capobianco, and Chisholm battling in training camp for one or two spots as a press box regular in Winnipeg.

That’s a position Capobianco, 25, occupied for all of last season. He only played in 14 games for Winnipeg but didn’t see a single minute in the AHL. He spent most of the season a healthy scratch, which suggests the Jets are more comfortable with a player like Capobianco regularly sitting out games than a higher-upside blueliner whose development the team may be more invested in. That could give Capobianco a leg up in retaining his NHL status for next season, though there are complicating factors.

One complicating factor is the presence of Stanley, a player who reportedly made a trade request back in March. Stanley’s requested trade has not materialized, and he could be in line to see his role on the Jets decline even further than it did in 2022-23. Stanley played 58 NHL games in 2021-22 but saw that number decline to just 19 this past season. Stanley hasn’t played in the AHL since 2019-20 and would need to clear waivers to be sent to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose.

As a player who offers rare size and has first-round pedigree, the Jets would not be blamed for hesitating to expose Stanley to waivers and risk losing him for nothing. But seeing as he has seemingly fallen out of favor in Winnipeg and may no longer be in their future plans, can the franchise justify Stanley claiming one of the NHL roster spots above another defenseman such as Heinola, Capobianco, or Chisholm?

Heinola remains waivers-exempt for another season, so despite headlines devoted to the player’s dissatisfaction with how scarce his chances to establish himself as an NHLer have been he remains the likeliest candidate to remain in the AHL to start another season.

Heinola is clearly an accomplished talent at that level (he scored 37 points in 48 games last season) but one wonders if yet another season playing AHL hockey is best for his development compared to being able to test himself against the fires of NHL competition.

Regardless, since Heinola is waivers-exempt it would in all likelihood take a trade or a stunning performance in preseason for Heinola to make the NHL roster out of camp, since Winnipeg would be promoting him at the cost of waiving another player.

That leaves Chisholm, 23, in the best position to threaten Capobianco and/or Stanley’s position in the NHL. Chisholm is no longer waivers-exempt and given his exemplary performance in the AHL (43 points in 59 games) he is a genuine candidate to be of interest to clubs high in the waiver priority.

The Jets drafted Chisholm in 2018 and have developed him in Manitoba for three seasons, meaning it would definitely sting to put all that work into growing a player only to see another NHL club reap the fruits of that labor during 2023-24.

The sting they’d feel would be almost identical to what the organization must have felt watching Johnathan Kovacevic carve out a spot as an NHL regular with the Montreal Canadiens last season. The Jets spent a 2017 third-round pick to draft Kovacevic and oversaw his development both in college and in the AHL for a half-decade.

The Jets’ extensive effort developing Kovacevic culminated in the franchise receiving two NHL games from Kovacevic before losing him on waivers. Because the team opted to roster other defencemen over Kovacevic, the Canadiens appear to have a quality defensive defensemen on their hands at a remarkably affordable $766k cap charge through 2024-25.

That’s a genuinely valuable asset to have, and the Jets are unlikely to want to put themselves in that position again, possibly handing another club a valuable defenseman for a second consecutive year. As a result, it seems the likeliest outcome is Capobianco is waived, Heinola is sent to the AHL, and both Stanley and Chisholm are rostered in the NHL.

But unless a trade is completed before opening night, the uncertainty of waivers will hang above the heads of Jets decision-makers as they ponder how to construct their NHL roster. If nothing else, the success of Chisholm and the presence of waivers will make the battle for the Jets’ final one or two defensive roster spots one of the most intriguing storylines to watch in the NHL preseason process.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Minor Transactions: 07/28/23

at CDT | by 2 Comments

Today’s been quite a busy day for player movement around the world of pro hockey, as numerous teams in the many pro leagues are looking to secure quality players for next season. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable moves made in those minor and foreign leagues.

  • Minor-league goalie Dylan Ferguson got his first real shot in the NHL last season, starting two games for the Ottawa Senators in March and posting a .940 save percentage. But despite that significant career achievement, Ferguson only played in a total of 15 games in 2022-23, and now he’s headed overseas likely with the hope of seeing more consistent time in the crease. He’s signed a contract with Dynamo Minsk in the KHL, where he will likely battle Philadelphia Flyers prospect Alexei Kolosov for starts next season.
  • Former AHL netminder Jussi Olkinoura has collected quite a few team accomplishments in his playing career such as a Champions Hockey League title, an Olympic gold medal, and two World Championship golds. 2022-23 wasn’t his best year, though, as his club team, Brynäs IF, were relegated from the SHL to Sweden’s second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. Olkinoura, 32, won’t remain with Brynäs as they seek promotion, as he’s signed a contract with the Lahti Pelicans of the Finnish Liiga. Olkinoura has played with the Pelicans before, posting a .910 save percentage in 39 games as their number-one starter in 2018-19. Despite making it all the way to Liiga’s finals the Pelicans were in need of a new starting goalie as their previous one, Patrik Bartošák, signed a two-year deal in Czechia. Now Olkinoura will join 23-year-old Jasper Patrikainen (.905 save percentage in 30 games in 2022-23) to form the Pelicans’ goalie tandem.
  • 2008 second-round pick and former Hobey Baker Award finalist Danny Kristo has signed with the EIHL’s Coventry Blaze. The contract completes a transfer from the Sheffield Steelers, an EIHL rival of the Blaze for whom Kristo played the 2022-23 campaign. Although the 33-year-old Minnesota native translated his scoring as a college hockey star at the University of North Dakota to the AHL level (he hit 20 goals in the AHL in three consecutive seasons from 2013-14 to 2015-16) he couldn’t quite do enough to break into the NHL, and he left to play overseas in late 2017. Kristo has since played in Latvia, Sweden, Switzerland, China, Germany, Czechia, and Slovakia, and has now settled in as a quality scorer in the United Kingdom’s top pro league. Kristo scored 12 goals and 30 points for the Steelers last season and will now head to Coventry hoping to help them make a more convincing run in the league’s playoffs.
  • Longtime minor league veteran Colton Saucerman’s return to North America proved to be short-lived, as the 31-year-old right-shot defenseman has signed a contract in England with Sheffield. After featuring in the ECHL since late 2016 and earning 41 total AHL games, Saucerman left for Europe in 2020 to sign with Austria’s HC Innsbruck of the ICEHL. He played well in Austria and earned a deal with HC Kosice in Slovakia, where he would also put together a strong campaign. That got him an ECHL contract with the Allen Americans for 2022-23, and he led their blueliners in scoring with 38 points in 63 games. Now, Saucerman is headed to England for the first time in his career to likely play a significant role on the Steelers’ defense.
  • Former San Jose Sharks netminder Alexei Melnichuk has signed a one-year contract with the KHL’s Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, the club he was traded to a little over a week ago. Melnichuk, 25, is an undrafted netminder who signed with the Sharks in 2020 and ended up playing nearly 50 games in the AHL for the San Jose Barracuda. He could only manage a .867 save percentage across that sample size in the AHL, meaning he eventually was sent down to the ECHL before heading back to Russia for 2022-23. Melnichuk played bounced between three KHL clubs last season and with this signing he’ll get the chance to fight for some stability, as he’ll battle with former New York Rangers netminder Adam Huska and incumbent starter Ivan Kulbakov (.926 save percentage in 42 KHL games in 2022-23) for time in the crease for Torpedo.
  • Former Quinnipac University blueliner and Sharks 2015 fifth-round pick Kārlis Čukste has signed a one-year contract to play in HockeyAllsvenskan with Brynäs IF. Čukste is fresh off of representing his home country of Latvia at the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championships, helping them on a historic run that earned the hockey-mad country their best-ever performance. The six-foot-three 26-year-old stay-at-home defenseman is entering the fourth season of his professional career, and spent last year earning regular minutes for HC Oceláři Třinec in the Czech Extraliga. Čukste also brings experience from Liiga, the KHL, AHL, and ECHL to the table and will hope to help Brynäs fend off other top HockeyAllsvenskan clubs such as Djurgårdens IF to earn instant promotion back to the SHL.
  • Danish international Niklas Andersen, who has represented his home country at two IIHF Men’s World Championships, has left the Fischtown Pinguins to sign with a rival DEL club, the Augsburg Panthers. The 25-year-old forward was a high scorer in two consecutive seasons in the Danish league for Esbjerg before earning his first shot in the DEL with Fischtown. Andersen’s debut season in Germany was exceptional, as he scored 14 goals and 27 points in just 34 games. He’s not matched that total in the past two seasons, though, scoring 11 goals and 22 points in 52 games in 2021-22 and 11 goals and 20 points in 41 games last season. With this signing, he joins an Augsburg team in need of competent veteran talent, as they only narrowly avoided relegation in 2022-23.
  • Recently-promoted Slovak Extraliga side HC 19 Humenne have signed former Colorado Avalanche prospect and four-time KHL All-Star Denis Parshin to a deal for the 2022-23 season. Parshin, 37, brings 658 games of KHL experience to the table as well as experience representing Russia in international play. He’s played 82 total games in the Slovak league across three different seasons, all for HC Kosice, including 2022-23 when he scored 28 points in 34 games.
  • Physical center James Phelan racked up over 100 penalty minutes in 62 ECHL games for the Trois-Rivières Lions last season, and now he’s headed to Scotland to continue his pro career. He’s signed with the Dundee Stars in the EIHL, bringing nearly 100 games of ECHL experience as well as 47 career AHL games. Phelan hasn’t been much of a scorer at the pro level, but the 26-year-old plays with an edge and has some history of scoring from his days playing major junior hockey in the QMJHL.
  • Liiga’s KalPa Kuopio have re-signed two regulars from 2022-23 to their 2023-24 roster: Matyáš Kantner and Anton Karlsson. Karlsson, 30, is a former AHLer with the Cleveland Monsters who logged 49 games for KalPa last season. He’s a former everyday SHLer who ranked eighth among KalPa blueliners averaging 13:41 TOI per game last season. Kantner, 25, is a big winger who transferred mid-season from the Czech Extraliga and scored nine points in 17 regular-season games and three points in KalPa’s playoff series loss to the Pelicans.
  • A three-player trade was completed in the ECHL today, with the Tulsa Oilers acquiring Max Kaufman and Tristan Thompson from the Savannah Ghost Pirates in exchange for Alex Gilmour. Gilmour, 27, is a six-foot-five power forward who scored 16 goals and 40 points for Tulsa as an ECHL rookie in 2021-22 but struggled as a sophomore and only scored 18 points in 56 games. The hope for Savannah will be that a change of scenery will unlock the potential Gilmour flashed as a rookie, while in exchange for him Tulsa is adding Kaufman, 27, a former Boston University Terrier who scored 20 points in 57 games last season, and Thompson, 26, an undersized offensive defenseman who led Ghost Pirates defensemen in scoring as a sophomore player with 42 points in 72 games.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

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