Snapshots: Ducks Prospects, Ruggiero, Duhamel, Viveiros
It’s been more than a half-decade since the Anaheim Ducks made it to the NHL’s postseason, and despite acquiring some talented players this offseason they remain likelier to finish the season outside of the playoff picture looking in. But even though Pat Verbeek’s rebuilding team may not be ready to earnestly compete for a Stanley Cup in 2023-24, Anaheim may not be far away. That’s at least according to The Athletic’s Corey Pronman, who ranked the Ducks’ prospect pool as the NHL’s best. (subscription link) Headlined by a trio of highly talented pivots in ascending star Trevor Zegras, 2023 second-overall pick Leo Carlsson, and 2021 third-overall pick Mason McTavish, the Ducks have the sort of foundation down the middle that most true contenders boast.
But even beyond those three centers is a deep group of high-upside players, including a glut of talented defensemen. Pavel Mintyukov, Olen Zellweger, and Tristan Luneau each scored at high rates in the CHL last season and all three would be in the conversation for best prospect in several other NHL systems. In Anaheim, they rank fifth, sixth, and ninth, according to Pronman. So regardless of how the Ducks ultimately perform in the standings next season, it appears fans in Orange County will have plenty to look forward to.
Some other notes from across the NHL:
- The New York Rangers are hiring Hockey Hall of Famer Angela Ruggiero as a hockey operations advisor, according to Mollie Walker of the New York Post. Ruggiero is one of the most accomplished women’s hockey players of all time, winning four Olympic medals (one gold), four IIHF Women’s World Championships gold medals, and numerous All-Star and top defender honors. Her playing career ended in 2011-12 and since her retirement Ruggiero has built up an impressive off-ice resume, serving on the board of the IIHF and the executive board of the IOC. She’ll join Rangers GM Chris Drury’s front office in New York and have a voice in shaping the team’s quest for its first Stanley Cup since 1994.
- The Arizona Coyotes have officially confirmed that assistant coach Mario Duhamel has been signed to a multi-year contract extension. Duhamel’s relationship with Tourigny stretches back all the way to 2005-06, when Duhamel joined Tourigny’s staff with the QMJHL’s Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. Duhamel oversees the Coyotes’ defense, and a recent breakout season for waiver claim Juuso Välimäki, the rapid rise of J.J. Moser, and the near-resurrection of Shayne Gostisbehere‘s career after a trade from Philadelphia all speak to the value Duhamel brings to Tourigny’s squad.
- The WHL’s Vancouver Giants have hired Manny Viveiros to be the team’s next head coach, according to a team announcement on X. Viveiros, 57, served as the head coach for the Henderson Silver Knights, the Vegas Golden Knights’ AHL affiliate, for the last three seasons. Although he didn’t produce overwhelming on-ice results this past season with the Silver Knights, Viveiros does have valuable WHL experience, such as from 2017-18 when he won a league title with the Swift Current Broncos and was named WHL Coach of the Year. Viveiros’ one-year stint in 2019-20 with the Spokane Chiefs was also highly successful (he went 41-18-5 in 64 games before the WHL season was scuttled by the COVID-19 pandemic) and it’s likely that the Giants are hoping for big things from Viveiros and his potential partnership with 2023 Calgary Flames first-rounder Samuel Honzek.
Extension Candidate: Mark Scheifele
The Winnipeg Jets are approaching a potentially franchise-altering season. Two of the organization’s key players, former Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck and team number-one center Mark Scheifele are each on expiring contracts that stand to walk them straight to the unrestricted free agent market next summer.
The Jets are intent on remaining competitive with key players such as Kyle Connor, Josh Morrissey, Nikolaj Ehlers, and recent acquisition Gabriel Vilardi still on their roster. So it stands to reason that the team would be interested in retaining Scheifele, the player with the most goals in Jets history since they arrived from Atlanta.
But seeing as his name has come up in trade rumors this summer, it’s also a very real possibility that he ends up on a different team next season. A poor campaign by Winnipeg could finally catalyze the type of re-tool that seems off the table at this current moment entering 2023-24.
The likeliest scenario that would result in Winnipeg engaging in serious discussions about a long-term contract with Scheifele next season would be if the team sprints out of the gate at the start of the regular season and looks like a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.
If that ends up happening, the Jets finding a way to retain their number-one center would likely become an organizational top priority. Should the Jets make a determined effort to extend Scheifele — assuming they haven’t already — what might that contract look like?
2022-23
For quite a while now, the question of Scheifele’s true on-ice value has been a hotly debated one. He’s a divisive player, and that’s not even a reference to the vicious hit he laid on an unsuspecting Jake Evans during the 2021 playoffs — one that got him suspended for the team’s final three games as well as Winnipeg’s season-opener the following campaign — but rather a reference to the way in which Scheifele approaches the game.
Scheifele places a premium on offensive creation and offensive production, something that is certainly admirable, but often comes at the detriment of his all-around value. His fixation on always maximizing his and his linemates’ offensive production has made him something of a lightning rod for criticism as the Jets franchise has declined since their 2018 run to the Western Conference Final.
Scheifele’s approach to the game has at times attracted harsh criticism from those who would like to see him take a more committed approach to the defensive side of the game. A lot is typically asked of elite centers in the NHL, and nothing Scheifele has shown in recent seasons has suggested he is able to capably manage the sort of defensive commitment many coaches want to see out of top pivots. Jets coach Rick Bowness even appeared to show some frustration at Scheifele during last season, per The Athletic’s Murat Ates, suggesting that many fans’ frustration with Scheifele’s offensive focus could be shared, to a certain extent, by figures within the Jets organization.
But on the flip side of those negatives is the undeniable reality that Scheifele is among the most offensively gifted centers in the NHL. He scored a career-high 42 goals last season and has frequently been an at-or-above point-per-game scorer. He’s a two-time NHL All-Star and has even been productive in the playoffs, with 32 points in 37 career games. He undoubtedly has the numbers of a true first-line center, and first-line centers are extremely rare. But then the question becomes, he has number-one center numbers, but does he play like one?
Statistics
2022-23: 81 GP, 42 G, 26 A, 68 pts, -16 rating, 43 PIMs, 206 shots, 20:29 ATOI, 58.5% CF
Career: 723 GP, 272 G, 373 A, 645 pts, +46 rating, 303 PIMs, 1,620 shots, 19:59 ATOI, 55.7% CF
The Market
Centers who put up the kind of numbers Scheifele has throughout his career don’t come cheap. While Scheifele is undoubtedly a cut below the dynamic, league-defining centers such as Nathan MacKinnon that are at the top of the financial leaderboard, he nonetheless has the profile of a player who merits a franchise-defining contract.
It’s very rare for a point-per-game top-line center to hit the open market, and while it’s certainly up for debate if Scheifele truly fits that mold, he’d certainly end up the best center on the open market assuming both Auston Matthews and Steven Stamkos re-sign with their current clubs.
That would likely aid Scheifele significantly should he be seeking the highest AAV mark possible on his next deal, as it’s probable that teams desperate for a true scoring center (such as the Boston Bruins, who lost David Krejci and Patrice Bergeron to retirement) would be ready to open their wallets for Scheifele.
The Jets have the sort of cap space to afford a hefty raise for Scheifele, in large part thanks to the nearly $7MM set to come off their books at the expiration of Brenden Dillon and Dylan DeMelo‘s contracts. The team shifting to a cheaper goaltender should Hellebuyck depart could also make fitting a pricey Scheifele extension all that much easier for Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff.
Comparable Contracts
Dylan Larkin (Detroit Red Wings) – Detroit invested an $8.7MM AAV in Larkin’s next contract, and although Scheifele is three years older he has a decent argument to have earned more than that number. Scheifele has a more extensive track record of offensive production than Larkin, though Larkin’s defensive game certainly surpasses Scheifele’s. It’s also worth noting that Larkin was signing with his hometown team and the club he captains, and although Scheifele has spent his entire pro career with the Jets it’s unlikely he has ties as deep, long-lasting ties as Larkin had, the sort of ties that would make a player particularly motivated to re-sign.
Bo Horvat (New York Islanders) Horvat has posted numbers far below Scheifele’s career standards for much of his time in the NHL, and he earned an $8.5MM AAV from the New York Islanders. Horvat’s commitment to defense far surpasses Scheifele’s and he is two years younger. But NHL teams first and foremost pay for production when it comes to scoring forwards, and as a result, it’s difficult to imagine Scheifele earning less than Horvat on his next deal, at least on an average annual value basis.
Projected Contract
In our preview of the 2024 free agent class, we projected a $9.4MM AAV on Scheifele’s next contract, on a seven-year term. That’s certainly a fair number looking at Scheifele’s offensive production, but one wonders if teams would give pause to committing that kind of money to a player with Scheifele’s defensive warts now that he’s past the age of 30.
That being said, the type of bidding war that would be likely to take place should Scheifele hit the open market would almost undoubtedly see Scheifele offered a contract at that AAV, if not higher. Quite simply, centers of his caliber are among the rarest commodities in the NHL, and almost never hit unrestricted free agency.
If the Jets want to motivate Scheifele to forgo a likely highly lucrative trip to the free agent market, they’ll likely need to pony up, potentially giving him a maximum-term deal above the $10MM mark.
Similarly, for a team to prevail in what is likely to be a hotly contested battle for his signature in any potential Scheifele unrestricted free agency, they’ll likely need to cross that $10MM threshold as well.
It’s far from a given we reach that point since Scheifele still needs to have a productive 2023-24 season, but if he has another near or above-point-per-game season he could very well end up the star of next summer’s free agent frenzy. Though if he does, there will undoubtedly be quite a bit of debate over whether he truly merits the contract he’ll receive.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Tampa Bay Lightning Sign Brandon Hagel To Eight-Year Extension
11:50 AM: CapFriendly has provided the financial breakdown of Hagel’s extension:
2024-25: $1.82MM + $7.18M SB
2025-26: $2.5MM + $6.5M SB
2026-27: $6.75MM
2027-28: $5.45MM
2028-29: $4.45MM + $1M SB
2029-30: $4.45MM + $1M SB
2030-31: $4.45MM + $1M SB
2031-32: $4.45MM + $1M SB
8:30 AM: The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed forward Brandon Hagel to an eight-year contract extension, carrying an AAV of $6.5MM. The deal will start in the 2024-25 season, at the expiry of Hagel’s current $1.5MM AAV deal. Hagel, who will turn 25 on Sunday, was set to become a restricted free agent next summer.
This contract is a significant one for both Hagel and the Lightning franchise. For Hagel, he’s committing himself to Tampa Bay for what is likely to be the prime of his playing career. The deal will stretch from his age-26 season (2024-25) through 2031-32, Hagel’s age-33 season.
For Tampa Bay, the team has now invested a significant portion of their available cap space for the rest of the decade into Hagel, betting that his strong form from 2022-23 will not only be maintained into future seasons, but built upon.
Hagel was originally a late-round draft choice by the Buffalo Sabres at the 2016 draft but was not tendered an entry-level contract by the team. He signed with the Chicago Blackhawks at the conclusion of his WHL career and made an instant impact with the team’s AHL affiliate in 2019-20, leading the team in goals with 19.
In 2020-21 Hagel became a full-time NHLer, scoring at a decent clip, 24 points in 52 games. In August 2021, the Blackhawks made the prudent choice to sign Hagel to a three-year, $1.5MM AAV contract extension, a deal that paid immediate dividends.
Hagel’s scoring numbers in the NHL began to look quite a bit more like what one would expect from a former WHL star, and in 55 games with the team, he scored 21 goals and 37 points. Heading into a rebuild, the Blackhawks chose to cash in on Hagel’s breakout as well as the immense surplus value he provided on a $1.5MM AAV deal and traded him to the Lightning, a cap-strapped team specifically targeting players who could outperform their cap hit by multiple degrees of magnitude.
Hagel had a slow start in Tampa, scoring just seven points in 22 regular-season games and six points in the team’s run to the 2022 Stanley Cup Final. But this past season, Hagel’s first full campaign in Tampa, he showed exactly why the Lightning surrendered two first-round picks and two young players in order to acquire him. He scored 30 goals and 64 points in 81 games, delivering consistent offensive quality in a top-six role.
He averaged 18:38 time-on-ice per game, a career-high, which ranked him fourth among Lightning forwards. Beyond just delivering offensive consistency and top-line production, Hagel’s two-way game also took a step forward. He averaged just a shade under two minutes per game on Tampa’s penalty kill, and even got a fifth-place Selke Trophy vote for the NHL’s best defensive forward.
While this contract certainly carries some risk — Hagel has only been a true top-line forward in the NHL for one, maybe two sesons — it’s easy to see why Tampa has gambled on Hagel as a key party of their future. He’s been a healthy, productive, generally consistent all-around player who still has room to improve. The team isn’t buying any seasons in Hagel’s mid-to-late thirties with this deal, minimizing the room for this deal to age poorly in its later years.
While $6.5MM places Hagel in the financial company of players such as Evgeni Malkin, Chris Kreider, Sam Reinhardt, Claude Giroux, and William Nylander, forwards who have all reached higher offensive heights than Hagel, the cap hit should look more appropriate as the league’s upper limit rises in the near future.
Additionally, seeing as the Lightning likely believe Hagel still has room to grow offensively, there is always the possibility that Hagel makes this $6.5MM price tag look like a steal down the line. If he can get even more regular time on the powerplay next to stars like Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point, Hagel could potentially score 40 goals or 70 points in the future. But even if that doesn’t come to pass, as the cap rises this $6.5MM cap hit is an eminently reasonable price to pay for the prime years of a player like Hagel.
Adding this contract extension to the extensions signed by other ascending Lightning players, such as Erik Cernak, Mikhail Sergachev, and Anthony Cirelli, it’s clear that Tampa Bay is working towards building a core group of players for the rest of the decade and beyond.
The team is intent on continuing to compete even as franchise icons such as Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman advance deeper into their thirties, and now with all of these extensions signed Tampa Bay has made sure that if those veterans ever get their names etched into the Stanley Cup for a third time, it will be alongside new core players, such as Hagel.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Examining An Upcoming New York Rangers Roster Crunch
The New York Rangers are intent on earnestly competing for the team’s first Stanley Cup championship since 1994 next season. With precious little cap space to augment their roster this summer, the team made the decision to focus on signing an experienced group of players to occupy roles lower in their lineup and bolster the organization’s depth.
Although the Rangers’ 2023 free agent class is headlined by a star winger in Blake Wheeler, it is populated mostly with players likely to win jobs in the team’s third or fourth forward line and third defensive pairing. The structure of the Rangers’ cap sheet warrants these kinds of signings, as the team has most of its available cap space locked away in its impressive core of star players, such as Adam Fox, Artemi Panarin, and Mika Zibanejad.
Understanding that the team wouldn’t be able to invest much money to sign top-of-the-line role players (especially seeing as the team already did exactly that in the summer of 2022, signing Barclay Goodrow to a $3.6MM AAV deal), Rangers GM Chris Drury seems to have bought into the idea that assembling a group of experienced depth players who will have to compete with one another for the few open NHL jobs available on the team is the best way for his Rangers club to build impressive lineup depth.
As we approach Rangers training camp next month, these free agent signings have set the stage for what will likely be some intense, highly competitive battles for the few roster spots up for grabs on new head coach Peter Laviolette’s opening-night roster. One of the most important spots set to be fought over in camp and the preseason is on the team’s defense, where a spot on the third pairing next to 2020 first-rounder Braden Schneider as well as the role as the team’s seventh defenseman needs to be filled. 
Looking at the Rangers’ defensive depth chart, offseason signing Erik Gustafsson likely enters the preseason with the best chance of securing the third-pairing role next to Schneider.
The 31-year-old Swede is an offensive defenseman who played under Laviolette with the Washington Capitals last season. He scored a total of 42 points in 70 games last season, and it was a surprise to see him receive only a $825k guarantee from the Rangers earlier this summer.
Experienced 42-point defensemen who also have a 60-point season on their resume typically go at far higher prices, but it’s likely that the bouts of inconsistency Gustafsson has had throughout his career have lowered his price tag. In 2021-22, Gustafsson only managed 18 points in 59 games for the Chicago Blackhawks and even began the season on a PTO with the New York Islanders.
His stock leaguewide has fluctuated to an extreme degree since he arrived in North America from the SHL’s Frölunda HC nearly a decade ago, so while Gustafsson likely has the early lead for a regular role next to Schneider, he’s far from a certainty to ultimately see his name listed on the Rangers’ opening-night lineup.
Gustafsson will have to compete with a group of other blueliners for one of those roster spots, including 22-year-old 2019 third-round pick Zac Jones. Jones has been a difference-maker at the AHL level (31 points in 54 games last season) but hasn’t quite made his mark in the NHL.
He’s no longer waiver-exempt and would be a likely candidate to get claimed on season-opening waivers, so the Rangers will have to factor that into their roster-making calculus and that could give him a leg up over other, more experienced players.
Earlier this month, we covered how Jones could be a preseason trade candidate if he falls behind in the training camp battle against the Rangers’ other defensemen, so in the mix of all of the Rangers’ new arrivals on their blueline as well as incumbent players Jones could be the name to watch.
The Rangers also signed 26-year-old Connor Mackey, a player who got the most extensive NHL look in his pro career down the stretch with the Arizona Coyotes last season. Arizona head coach André Tourigny played Mackey an average of nearly 16 minutes of ice time per night last season, including nearly two minutes per night on his penalty kill.
While Mackey has far from an extensive NHL track record, he offers a more well-rounded set of tools than Gustafsson and quite a bit more size than Jones, potentially making him the safest choice to play next to Schneider should those two struggle in the preseason.
198-game NHL veteran Ben Harpur is also in the mix for one of the likely two open roster spots on the Rangers blueline. A combination of factors, namely his service to the team last season, his $787.5k contract for the next two campaigns, and his measurables (six-foot-six, 231 pounds) give him a healthy shot to win a roster spot.
As the Rangers struggled with injuries to their defense and a lack of cap space after their acquisition of Patrick Kane last season, Harpur stepped up and weathered some difficult minutes for the team, including a late February contest that saw him register 28:04 time on ice.
If the Rangers want a physical, stay-at-home presence in their opening-night lineup, among this group of depth defensemen Harpur likely best fits that profile. But seeing as Harpur’s toolkit is relatively limited (he’s a big, physical stay-at-home defenseman) and he offers little in the way of puck-moving utility or two-way value, he does seem to be a more likely candidate to hit the waiver wire and begin the season with the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack.
In any case, with these players each waiver-eligible, it’s likely that, barring a Jones trade the Rangers will have to expose at least two competent, NHL-relevant defensemen to the league’s 31 other clubs before opening night.
While the many long-term deals on the Rangers’ books dictate that most of the roster Laviolette inherits from former coach Gerard Gallant is set in stone, the leeway Drury’s extensive group of depth signings has afforded his new coach to construct the lower parts of the Rangers’ lineup should make for an intriguing storyline to track in the NHL preseason.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Minor Transactions: 08/22/23
The start of the season for teams in many overseas professional leagues is rapidly approaching, and many top clubs in Europe are already well underway playing preseason games. For example, the SHL’s Malmö Redhawks and Linköping HC have a preseason match scheduled for later today, as do Rouen Dragons, the reigning French champions. As we inch ever closer to the full start of the season in minor and foreign professional leagues, many teams are still making moves to add players and finalize their plans for the year. As always, we’ll keep track of those transactions here.
- Veteran forward Niklas Olausson is set to sign with Linköping, according to SportExpressen’s Johan Svensson. The signing would put the 37-year-old forward in a position to eventually play his 500th game at the top level of Swedish hockey, assuming he can stay healthy and in head coach Klas Östman’s nightly lineup. Olausson has played in Linköping before, skating in a total of 64 games across two seasons, 2006-07 and 2007-08. It could be a season of milestones for Olausson, as on top of potentially playing in his 500th game in the SHL, Olausson can also reach other milestones such as his 100th career goal at that level (he currently has 97) and 200th assist (he has 199). At the very least, this signing could give him more stability than he had last year, as he began 2022-23 in the Swiss second division with EHC Basel before transferring to the ICEHL’s Graz99ers in Austria and then finishing the year as a reinforcement for the SHL playoffs with Luleå.
- 28-year-old defenseman Kyle Pouncy completed his second consecutive season as a regular ECHL player at the end of 2022-23, establishing himself in North America’s third-tier league. Now, he’s off to Scotland to continue his professional career. The six-foot-three Kamloops, BC native has signed with the Dundee Stars of the EIHL, the top tier of professional hockey in the United Kingdom. Pouncy joins former Cincinnati Cyclones defenseman Sean Allen, who signed in Dundee yesterday, as ECHL imports brought to head coach Marc LeFebvre’s squad. In the team release, LeFebvre said Pouncy “skates very well and his game is going to be a great fit for the Olympic ice sheet.” The hope will be that Pouncy can help LeFebvre lead a bounce-back season for Dundee, who finished with just 13 wins in 54 league games last season.
- The USHL’s Lincoln Stars are looking to make a competitive push for 2023-24 after losing in the league semifinals last spring, and to do so they’ve plucked a solid forward from the Youngstown Phantoms, the reigning USHL champions. The Stars announced their acquisition of forward Justin Varner and a draft pick in exchange for two draft choices. Varner, 19, has spent the last two seasons playing for Youngstown, and has collected 27 points in each campaign. Varner had committed to Michigan State University in November 2022, though he’ll instead now play a third USHL season and spend 2023-24 in Lincoln.
- Joonas Lohisalo and Sisu Yliniemi, two top-30 scorers in Finland’s premier junior hockey league (U20 SM-Sarja) have been loaned to Hermes Kokkola in Mestis, Finland’s second-tier men’s league, for the 2023-24 campaign. The two 20-year-old prospects belong to Liiga side Kärpät and ranked second and third in scoring, respectively, on the club’s U20 team. Lohisalo is a six-foot-two left winger who played seven games for Hermes last season, scoring three goals and four points. Yliniemi is a five-foot-nine center who scored four points in his five-game run with Hermes last season and even got a one-game Liiga call-up to Kärpät as well.
- The ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears have signed two second-year players to one-year ECHL contracts: Ryan Cox and Chris Perna. Cox, 25, dipped his toes in the ECHL last spring, playing in 12 games with the Toledo Walleye after the conclusion of his collegiate career with Niagara University. Cox got off to a fast start, scoring 11 points in 12 games, including a six-points-in-three-games performance that earned him ECHL Player of the Week honors. Seeing as he’s leaving a juggernaut Walleye squad for a Solar Bears team that missed the playoffs last season, it’s unlikely that Cox will maintain near point-per-game production next season, though his fast start to his pro career does give hope that he can become a difference-maker for Orlando and help them return to the postseason. As for Perna, he’s a 25-year-old right-shot blueliner who skated in 54 games for the Utah Grizzlies last season, scoring eight points in what was his rookie professional campaign. He played the fourth-most games of any Grizzlies defenseman last season and will be in the mix for a regular role in Orlando this fall.
- The ECHL’s Iowa Heartlanders have acquired forward Will Calverley from the Florida Everblades in a trade announced today, sending the playing rights to defenseman Riese Zmolek to Florida in return. The 25-year-old Calverley signed with the Everblades at the conclusion of his collegiate career with Merrimack College last season, and the former Rochester Institute of Technology captain turned that amateur tryout agreement into a full-time contract. He scored five points in 12 playoff games en route to Florida’s Kelly Cup title, and will now join the Heartlanders, who send their captain, Zmolek to Florida in return. Zmolek, 26, captained the Heartlanders last season and has skated in 78 total regular-season games in Iowa. He earned 12 AHL games last season as part of call-ups and could play a big role for the Everblades should he sign there.
- Veteran forward Tanner Sorenson has signed an ECHL contract with the Kalamazoo Wings, returning to North America’s third-tier league after a season spent overseas playing in England. The former ECHL All-Star has played all but three games of his 291-game ECHL career with the Wings, and has scored a total of 218 points. He’s been an above-point-per-game scorer before in the ECHL, and he registered 15 goals and 31 points in 49 games for the EIHL’s Nottingham Panthers last season. He stands a good chance at returning to the top-six role he long occupied in Kalamazoo, and will hope to help them return to the postseason for the first time since 2019.
- The KHL’s Lada Togliatti acquired netminder Vladislav Podyapolsky from SKA St. Petersburg in a trade today, sending monetary compensation to SKA in return. It’s another big change for Podyapolsky, the one-time KHL All-Star whose struggles last season cost him his role as the starting goalie for Cherepovets Severstal. Podyapolsky posted a .920 save percentage in 2021-22 and for two seasons before that was Severstal’s number-one goalie, but he managed only a .900 save percentage for SKA last season and will now look to get a fresh start with Lada.
- Slovenian forward Rok Ticar, a regular representative of his country at international tournaments (including the IIHF Men’s World Championships earlier this summer) has signed a contract with the ICEHL’s Vienna Capitals. It’s a major move for Vienna, as they’re securing the services of Austrian rivals EC-KAC’s top scorer from the last two seasons. Ticar, 34, scored 15 goals and 40 points in 43 games last season and brings championship experience, having won the ICEHL in 2020-21.
- High-flying Russian forward Kirill Tyutyayev signed a one-year contract extension with ECHL Toledo. Although Tyutyayev struggled in the AHL last season, scoring just five points in 30 games for the Grand Rapids Griffins, but he torched the ECHL in Toledo to the tune of 47 points in 31 regular-season games. The 23-year-old 2019 Red Wings draft pick emerged as a lethal offensive creator at the ECHL level and this extension will give him the platform to potentially have a monster campaign for the Walleye and even earn his way back to the ECHL.
- 2013 Nashville Predators seventh-round pick Wade Murphy signed a one-year contract extension in the ECHL with the Idaho Steelheads. Murphy, 29, had a breakout season in Idaho, emerging as a key scorer during their run to the Kelly Cup final. He potted 21 goals and 43 points in 54 regular-season games and added 12 goals and 20 points in 20 playoff games. That performance has secured him a second season in Idaho, and he’ll likely remain a crucial forward for the Steelheads.
This page will be updated throughout the day.
Edmonton Oilers Name Jeff Jackson CEO Of Hockey Operations
The Edmonton Oilers have named former player agent Jeff Jackson their CEO of hockey operations, according to a team release.
In his new role, Jackson will report directly to team owner Daryl Katz and serve as an alternate governor on the NHL Board of Governors. Regarding hockey operations specifics, Jackson ” will work closely with Ken Holland, who continues in his role as President of Hockey Operations and General Manager of the Edmonton Oilers and will report to Jackson.”
As Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman writes, Jackson’s hiring is “a big move in NHL business circles.” Jackson spent eight seasons playing pro hockey before joining the Toronto Maple Leafs organization in 2006 in an executive role. He served as a key hockey operations decision-maker for four seasons and played a significant role in the management of the AHL’s Toronto Marlies.
Fans more recently may recognize Jackson’s name as the agent for some of the league’s biggest names. According to PuckPedia, the total contract value of Jackson’s clients is over $218MM, including some high-profile clients such as Aaron Ekblad, Alex DeBrincat, and Quinton Byfield. Easily the biggest-name client under Jackson’s watch prior to this hiring was Connor McDavid, the best player in the game today and the person the Oilers’ franchise is built around.
While it’s too early to know the full implications of this hiring, it’s not difficult to see it as the Oilers deepening their commitment and ties to McDavid as the face of their franchise. They’re hiring someone with a strong pre-existing relationship with their most important player, who happens to be inching ever closer to unrestricted free agency in 2026. Having Jackson now installed as a key executive for the Oilers is sure to make the process of locking McDavid down to a contract extension easier.
Additionally, as the Edmonton Sun’s Terry Jones notes, this move could be seen as the Oilers succession planning for their next day-to-day manager of hockey operations decision-making after Ken Holland. There has been no indication that Holland, 67, has any plans on moving on from his role as Oilers GM (nor have there been indications of Edmonton’s desire to move on from him) but adding Jackson into the mix in his aforementioned role would likely put him in prime position to take over for Holland whenever the day comes that a replacement is needed.
At that point, Jackson’s background as executive vice president at Wasserman Hockey, one of the NHL’s largest agencies, will likely become a significant asset for the Oilers. This is a franchise desperate to capitalize on having two of the game’s greatest players under contract and finally win their first Stanley Cup since 1990. McDavid is the key to doing so, and now having Jackson in a major role only serves to deepen the organization’s commitment to a McDavid-centric future.
Minor Transactions: 08/03/23
It’ll likely be another busy day for player movement around the world of pro hockey as many clubs are still 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.
- Star AHL scorer Riley Barber is headed overseas for the first time in his pro career. The 29-year-old has signed a one-year deal with Barys Astana in the KHL, and heads to Kazakhstan after an extremely productive 2022-23 campaign. Barber scored 32 goals and 64 points last season, leading the AHL’s Texas Stars in scoring. Barber has hovered around the point-per-game mark in terms of scoring almost every season since his 55-point rookie campaign in 2015-16, but he didn’t get into any NHL games last season. Now he’ll join other former AHLers in Jeremy Bracco, Eddie Pasquale, and Pontus Åberg in the Kazakh capital.
- 2017 Carolina Hurricanes second-round pick Luke Martin has signed a contract with Liiga’s HIFK Helsinki, according to a team announcement. Martin spent four seasons playing college hockey at the University of Michigan after he was drafted before beginning his pro career in earnest in 2021-22. He spent most of the year in the ECHL with the Utah Grizzlies, scoring 43 points in 59 games and earning ECHL All-Rookie team honors. This past season Martin was an ECHL All-Star scoring 25 points in 25 games with the Jacksonville Icemen, a scoring pace that earned him a 28-game run in the AHL with the Colorado Eagles from January through March. Now 24, Martin will join HIFK looking to play a heavy dose of minutes in one of Europe’s best leagues likely with the hope that a strong performance there will earn him a look from an NHL club.
- HIFK have also signed former St. Louis Blues defenseman Petteri Lindbohm, adding another experienced name to their blueline. The 29-year-old is receiving a three-year contract to play in the Finnish capital, a deal that is commensurate with his status as a high-quality defenseman in European leagues. Lindbohm has 49 NHL games on his resume and won a gold medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics and 2019 IIHF Men’s World Championships. Lindbohm spent last season with Frölunda HC in the SHL, scoring 14 points in 58 games while averaging over 20 minutes of ice time per night. He’ll likely be a minutes-eating defenseman at HIFK as well, and he could be a major help to their efforts to go to return to Liiga’s semifinals next season or potentially beyond if things break right.
- Former Florida Panthers prospect Max Gildon has signed a one-year contract in the DEL with Adler Mannheim. The 24-year-old was the 66th overall pick at the 2017 draft, selected out of the U.S. National Team Development Program. He spent three seasons playing college hockey with the University of New Hampshire, culminating in a 2019-20 campaign that saw him post an impressive 29 points in 34 games. Gildon got off to a fast start to his pro career scoring 19 points in 32 games with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors, on a loan from the Panthers. That got him named to the AHL’s All-Rookie team for 2020-21, but he wouldn’t be able to build on that momentum and push for an NHL call-up. Injuries wiped out pretty much the entirety of Gildon’s sophomore AHL campaign and this past season he managed just 14 points in 47 games split between Bakersfield and the Charlotte Checkers. He was not issued a qualifying offer from Florida and will now try his luck with one of the DEL’s better teams rather than continue in North America.
- After helping his native Latvia make history winning a bronze medal at the IIHF Men’s World Championships a few months ago, former Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Mārtiņš Dzierkals has signed with Skellefteå AIK in the SHL. Dzierkals spent the last two seasons playing in Czechia for HC HC Plzeň in 2021-22 (30 points, 49 games) and HC Motor České Budějovice in 2022-23. (21 points, 52 games) Dzierkals last played in North America in 2017-18, when he scored 15 goals and 36 points in 51 games for the ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears. He then left for Dynamo Riga, then playing in the KHL, and was a nominee for the league’s rookie of the year award scoring 13 points in 42 games. Now 26 with some significant international experience under his belt (he also represented Latvia at the 2022 Winter Olympics and three other IIHF Men’s World Championships) he’ll join the SHL finalists looking to help Skellefteå go on another deep playoff run and achieve the kind of glory Latvia won earlier this summer.
- Former Western Michigan University captain Nolan LaPorte has signed with Ferencvárosi TC of Hungary’s Erste Liga. The 31-year-old will arrive in Budapest after splitting 2022-23 between the EIHL’s Glasgow Clan and Slovakia’s HK Spisska Nova Ves. LaPorte was a key player during his time in Scotland, amassing 41 goals and 92 points in 104 games there, helping Glasgow reach the playoffs in 2021-22. LaPorte has also been a solid contributor at the ECHL level, where he has a career-high of 44 points in a single season. Ferencvárosi are looking for a player who can get them over the hump after back-to-back losses in the league finals, and the hope is likely that LaPorte can be that sort of player.
- It’s been a quick fall from grace for former New York Islanders defense prospect Bode Wilde, who’s now signed a one-year deal with HC Banska Bystrica in Slovakia’s Extraliga. The 2018 second-round pick once looked to be on track to make a major NHL impact after he recorded 70 points in 62 games with the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit in 2018-19, but he never found his footing in the Islanders organization professionally and spent all of last season on assignment with the ECHL’s Atlanta Gladiators, where he recorded just 14 points in 56 games. The Islanders did not issue him a qualifying offer after his entry-level contract expired this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent. He heads to a Banska Bystrica team that’s fallen on tougher days after winning three straight Extraliga championships in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
This page will be updated throughout the day.
Latest On Availability Of Sean Couturier, Cam Atkinson, Ryan Ellis
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
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
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