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Too Many Defenders Will Force New York Rangers Into A Move

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The New York Rangers’ main goal this offseason was to bulk up its defense, which failed them late last season, but the team may have gone too far. After signing Kevin Shattenkirk, re-signing Brendan Smith and trading for youngster Anthony DeAngelo, suddenly the team is overloaded with blueliners. While a team may envision six full-time defenders and a seventh for depth purposes on the team, the Rangers currently have nine legitimate players who belong on their roster and someone has to go.

According to New York Posts’ Larry Brooks, the team’s starting four consists of Ryan McDonagh and Brady Skjei on the left side and Shattenkirk and Smith on the right side. That leaves five players for the final three spots on the NHL roster, including veterans Marc Staal and Nick Holden, DeAngelo, KHL import Alexei Bereglazov and University of Minnesota-Duluth signee Neal Pionk. Brooks admits the team could potentially keep eight defensemen to start the season as forward Jesper Fast is expected to begin the season on injured reserve, but that wouldn’t last long. In the end, two players would have to find themselves with the Hartford Wolf Pack in the AHL or the team must get rid of someone.

The most obvious solution to the problem would be to have Staal and Holden man the third defensive line, despite the fact that those two played together on the second line and struggled mightily last season. If the team did that, nonetheless, the team could keep one of the remaining three as the seventh defenseman and send the other two to the AHL. The only problem is who? Brooks writes that Bereglazov has an out-clause that would allow him to go back to the KHL if he is sent to the AHL, so he is a likely candidate to remain with the Rangers as the seventh man at minimum. However, the team gave up a lot to get DeAngelo and they would likely prefer not to have him sit on the bench in New York or play meaningless minutes in Hartford. Pionk, is also believed to be NHL ready.

So, the most likely scenario would be to look into trading Holden or buying out the contract of Staal. Would the Rangers want to do that? They already bought out fellow veteran Dan Girardi earlier this year. Staal, unfortunately, still has $17.2MM remaining on his contract over the next four years. Although they would open up $3.57MM to their cap this year in a buyout, the team would have to spread it over the next eight years like they did for Girardi. That’s a long time to pay two players who will never play for your team. The Rangers might want to wait one more year before buying out Staal. Regardless, that decision is expected to be made before the end of this week.

That leaves Holden, who has been previously mentioned in trade rumors, but little has come out of them. He is the best candidate to be moved. The 30-year-old, who came over from the Colorado Avalanche for a fourth-round pick, had a great first half last year and is on a cheap deal with just one year remaining. However, it seems that the market has temporarily dried up as many teams want to wait and see what they have before making a deal, so any move is likely not to be made before the start of training camp.

Columbus’ Tortorella Is Next Coach In Need of Payday

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The Columbus Blue Jackets may find themselves in some coaching trouble as head coach John Tortorella is entering the final year of his contract and if the team doesn’t ante up soon, he could walk at the end of the season next year. However, the problem is that coaches are making a lot more money than they used to and a team like Columbus has never paid a coach more than $1.5MM a year, which went to Ken Hitchcock. According to Yahoo Sports’ Greg Wyshynski, the team may be forced to offer up at least $3.5MM to keep the veteran coach in Columbus.

Wyshynski writes that in the last few years, teams have been spending when it comes to coaches with Toronto’s Mike Babcock starting the process after the Maple Leafs gave him a $6.25MM per year deal. From that point on, Joel Quenneville cashed in with the Blackhawks at $6MM and Montreal gave Claude Julien $5MM to take over the Canadiens. It could be this new trend that has also spilled over into many teams hiring first-time coaches like this offseason when the Arizona Coyotes (Rick Tocchet, Florida Panthers (Bob Boughner), Vancouver Canucks (Travis Green) and the Buffalo Sabres (Phil Housley) all grabbed young coaches that wouldn’t demand big paychecks.

Could Tortorella be the next coach to break the bank? Currently, according to Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch, Tortorella makes $2MM per year, but the Blue Jackets only pay $750,000 of that as he is still receiving money from his one-year stint in Vancouver. However, the two-time Jack Adams Awards winner, which goes to the NHL’s best coach, deserves a major raise and if the Blue Jackets don’t offer that, they could lose him.

Reilly Smith Gamble Could Pay Off For Golden Knights

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Usually when you hear of a team giving up a prospect of young player, there is a reason behind it, often another bloated contract of a veteran who is making too much money on the decline of his career. Yet, for the Vegas Golden Knights, the team was able to make a deal with the Florida Panthers in which they got 26-year-old Jon Marchessault, a 30-goal scorer last year. The cost? Not a bloated contract of a 30-something player, but the contract of 26-year-old Reilly Smith, who himself is only a year from putting up 25 goals.

Smith is a former third-rounder who has flashed a ton of potential, but has failed to be consistent throughout his career. After putting up a great season in 2015-16, which included 25 goals and 25 assists and being the team’s top scorer that year in the playoffs, Smith was rewarded with a five year, $25MM extension just last year. Unfortunately, he only scored 15 goals last year and struggled just the like the team did. When the Panthers new administration came in, Smith was no longer in their plans and getting rid of his new contract to open up cap space to focus on more important players became a priority.

However, Smith could easily prove to be more than just a throw-in player. At 26 years old, Smith has plenty of more hockey left and he returns to his old coach, Gerard Gallant, who coached him during his 25-goal season. Now on an expansion team, Smith could easily pick up big minutes with few veterans on the team and the possibility that any of those veterans could be traded at any minute.

If Smith could return to form with Gallant’s help and put up a 50-point season like he did two years ago or in 2013-14, he could become a key piece to the team’s offense for years or, more likely, become a quality trade candidate in the future. If Smith can put up big numbers again this year, he could be moved much easier in a year or two when he has just three or four years remaining on his contract.

Could Tampa Bay Package Johnson, Palat For Tavares?

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Don’t be surprised if the Tampa Bay Lightning attempt to flip their recently signed restricted free agents within the next year. At least that’s what the New York Post’s Larry Brooks believes will happen. He writes the long-term signings of Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat are likely going to be part of a package the Lightning will eventually make for New York Islanders’ John Tavares at some point next season if the Islanders can’t sign him.

While the Islanders have said they are not trading the veteran, there is growing concern that the 26-year-old is not happy with the franchise and might be ready to move on. The Islanders’ center is coming off a 28-goal season last year with 38 assists for 66 points. While the Islanders should get credit for doing everything they can to keep one of their stars after losing former star Kyle Okposo to Buffalo for nothing, Brooks believes they will be sellers near the trade deadline to avoid another major loss. He compares the situation to Tampa Bay’s worries about losing Steven Stamkos a year ago. In that situation, the Lightning were able to lock up their star to an eight-year deal, but this isn’t the same. The Lightning were a successful franchise and were loaded with talent. That’s not really the case with the Islanders. With stadium issues and a team that has struggled off and on, it wouldn’t be surprising if Tavares was looking at better options.

The undrafted Johnson has shown quite a bit of promise over the years although his numbers have dropped in the last couple of years. The 26-year-old center put up a 29-goal season two years ago, but finished this year with 19 goals and 26 assists in 66 games. Johnson’s seven-year, $35MM deal ($5MM AAV) could keep him in New York for a long time. Palat has quite a bit of similarities to Johnson as he is 26 as well and was not expected to be a top prospect as he was just a seventh-round pick in 2011. The left wing also started strong and has taken a step back from there, putting up 23 goals in his first full season with the Lightning. He still put up solid numbers last year, scoring 17 goals and 35 assists for 52 points. His five-year, $26.5MM deal is worth $5.3MM annually.

Although Tampa Bay might even have to offer more to get a player like Tavares, the deal would also work because both Johnson and Palat have no trade clauses that will kick in next July, so if the plan may be to package them for a star player, this next year will be their best opportunity to make a deal like that happen. On top of that, moving the two of them for Tavares could be a wash, salary-wise as the Islanders star could be asking for a contract in the $10MM range next year.

Brandon Pirri Signs With Swiss Team

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Two days after former New York Rangers’ Kevin Klein signed with the ZSC Lions in Switzerland, another former Ranger has agreed to sign with the Swiss club as well. According to the Swiss Hockey News, forward Brandon Pirri has signed with the club as well, although terms have not been announced.

Pirri, who did not receive a qualifying offer from the Rangers, has bounced around from one NHL team to the next. He has played for four teams over the last four years and while he’s considered to be a highly-skilled goal scorer, has struggled to accomplish that feat at the NHL level. He did score 22 goals in the 2014-15 season with the Florida Panthers, but followed that up with an 11-goal season the following year and was eventually traded to Anaheim for a six.

The Ducks chose not to extend him a qualifying offer and Pirri then signed with the Rangers a year ago. He played in 60 games last year, putting up eight goals and 10 assists.

 

How Much Should Jack Eichel Get?

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Many publications discuss Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel in the same sentence. That’s because the two have been linked together for years as they went No. 1 and No. 2 overall in the 2015 draft. They both were considered franchise changing centers and neither has disappointed. However four days into the offseason, the Edmonton Oilers locked up their franchise center, agreeing to an eight-year, $100MM contract, giving him an AAV of $12.5MM. Is Eichel next and how much will he command?

While both players have been talked about together and both have performed admirally, McDavid’s exorbitant contact makes sense. The two-year veteran has scored 46 goals and 102 assists in that span and he actually missed almost half of his rookie season. His 100-point season is a rarity in hockey, but it was a season that captured him the Hart Memorial Trophy as the MVP of the league, the Art Ross Trophy for having the most points in a season, the Ted Lindsay Award, voted on by players and given to the most outstanding player during the regular season. He made his first all-star appearance and was named to the NHL First All-Star Team all in this past year. And at age 20, there is plenty of optimism that he could take his game to new levels.

After awarding that contract to McDavid, Eichel’s turn to sign on the dotted line should be approaching. The question is what is he going to ask for. The 20-year-old, who was the second-overall pick in 2015, might be a nudge ahead of McDavid on goals scored with 48, but Eichel has also played 15 more games than McDavid. Eichel has put up great numbers, scoring 24 goals in both his first two seasons, but his playmaking skills haven’t been as impressive as McDavid. He finished with 56 points in his rookie season and 57 points in his sophomore campaign, although he played 20 games less this past year. He could be holding out for a bigger contract, assuming he will have a breakout year that might garner a similar contract to McDavids.

However, it’s unlikely Eichel will ever garner a contract in the same realm as McDavid. So far, he has proven to be a solid 25-goal scorer and while those numbers could improve quite a bit, he’s hardly accomplished anything that compares to McDavid. His numbers would suggest something in the range of $7MM to $10MM if he holds out to the last moment, but hopefully the young center will not hold out for McDavid money. Buffalo continues to negotiate, but it far more likely that an extension is still a year away.

What do you think he deserves?

Canadiens Likely To Part Ways With Markov

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Andrei Markov is, without a doubt, the best defensive free agent still on the market. Just recently, PHR’s Brian La Rose profiled the veteran free agent. He is coming off another productive season with the Montreal Canadiens, putting up six goals and 36 assists in 62 games this past season, but has been at an impasse with the Canadiens after the 38-year-old blueliner has demanded a two-year deal. Two weeks ago, the Canadiens made it quite clear that they had made their final offers to both Markov and Alexander Radulov, who not long after opted to sign with Dallas. That just leaves Markov.

According to Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette, the longer the process takes, the less likely that Markov will return to Montreal. In fact, the scribe says that would be the norm for long-time Canadiens as very few of them have finished their careers in Montreal. The last Canadiens’ captain to finish their career in Montreal was Bob Gainey in 1989. He cites that Markov is currently tied for second on the Canadiens’ list for all-time points as a defenseman with Guy Lapointe with 572 career points. Only Larry Robinson is ahead of him with an unreachable 833 points. However, in both their cases, neither finished their careers in Montreal. LaPointe played for both St. Louis and Boston, while Robinson ended his career in Los Angeles.

Cowan spoke to former NHL player Sergei Berezin, who is Markov’s offseason trainer, who says that even though Markov got married recently, he only took four days off and went back to work training. The veteran hopes to play longer than two years, but his asking price is too much and while his numbers remain good, his numbers have been in decline over the last few years. Only two years ago, he put up 50 points, only to see those numbers decline each year.

Markov who is representing himself in negotiations, is asking for $6MM per year for two more seasons. According to CapFriendly, the Canadiens have more than $9MM in cap space remaining and could use some defensive depth after losing Alexei Emelin and Nathan Beaulieu this offseason and Markov says he would like to remain in Montreal. But, Cowan says that Markov’s time may be up unless Markov drops some of his demands.

Johnson, Palat Signings Likely To Factor In Rangers Negotiations With Zibanejad

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With Mika Zibanejad’s arbitration hearing scheduled just nine days from now, the real question is whether the New York Rangers plan on locking up their young center before that time. With the loss of center Derek Stepan and the lack of depth at the center position, the need for Zibanejad is even more evident and locking up the 24-year-old to a long-term deal would be important as his value should only increase if he goes through arbitration and accepts a one-year deal.

Zibanejad was the key piece to the trade that the Rangers received for trading veteran center Derick Brassard one year ago to Ottawa. The promising playmaker had two solid seasons with Ottawa before New York acquired the former 2011 sixth-overall pick. Had it not been for a broken leg, Zibanejad would have easily duplicated his performance this year in his first season for New York. He managed to play 56 games and score 14 goals and add 23 assists on the season.

Yet now, some key decision-making must be made by Rangers’ brass as to what to offer the young playmaker. The New York Posts’ Larry Brooks writes that the team should look to the recent contracts that the Tampa Bay Lightning handed out to Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat. Johnson just signed a seven-year deal that pays him $5MM annually and Palat was locked up to a five-year contract, worth $5.3MM per year. That’s a starting point. And according to Brooks, both Johnson and Palat are slightly more productive players. Palat has averaged .71 points per game, while Johnson .68 points per game. Zibanejad has averaged just .56 points per game in his career and has been less successful in playoff games as well. Therefore, Brooks suggests that he should be receiving somewhat less money than the Tampa Bay duo, perhaps at $4.8MM per season. The general belief is the Rangers may play it tough in negotiations with Zibanejad since he left respected Newport Sports Agency to use his half-brother to negotiate with.

The key to the negotiations will most likely come down to how many years they can get Zibanejad to sign for. The general belief is that he wants as short of a deal that he can get, because even an average season or two should produce an even better contract in a year or two. Toss in the possibility that with newly signed free agent Kevin Shattenkirk on board, the defense should contribute even more on offense and be more of a benefit to Zibanejad’s play. However, the Rangers will be far more interested in locking him up for five years. So how much more will New York have to offer him to get this deal done. Afterall, no Ranger has reached arbitration since 2007 when Sean Avery and Nikolai Zherdev.

 

Vegas Still Has To Deal Multiple Defensemen

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The Vegas Golden Knights still have a lot of work left for them as the offseason continues. The team was heavily commended for focusing on drafting defense in the expansion draft several weeks ago and from there flipping those players for picks as Golden Knights general manager George McPhee has stated numerous times that they are building for the next five years. The team has stockpiled a large number of draft picks since then and still have a number of players to trade, whether that will be now or at the trade deadline next season.

However, they seem to have one issue that they must address before the season starts. Despite trading a bunch of defenseman for picks, the team still has a surplus of defensemen on its roster and the market is beginning to dry up. The team has already traded Trevor van Riemsdyk to Carolina, David Schlemko to Montreal and Marc Methot to Dallas for picks. Just last week, the team moved Alexei Emelin to Nashville, but they had to retain $1.1MM of his salary in order to make the deal work.

The team currently has 11 defensemen with NHL experience on its roster, which is about four or five defensemen too many. The team has made it clear that it doesn’t want to trade its young defensemen, so it’s the veterans they want to trade. The last thing the Golden Knights want to do is be forced to play veterans like Jason Garrison, Clayton Stoner and Luca Sbisa over their younger, but more than ready defensemen. The problem is that Garrison, Stoner and Sbisi are struggling players on expensive contracts. While all three players have only one year on their contracts remaining, Garrison will get $4.6MM, Stoner receives $3.25MM and Sbisi will make $3.6MM next season.

Garrison, 32, has lost a step and found himself being demoted to the bottom of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s depth chart. His salary forced Tampa Bay to offer Vegas two draft picks and Russian prospect Nikita Gusev to take him in the expansion draft. Stoner has dealt with numerous injuries in the last few years and Anaheim had to offer Shea Theodore to make Vegas take Stoner, but after playing just 14 games for the Ducks last year and a declining game, who would want him and that salary? Sbisi is just 27, but he struggled with Vancouver and with his salary may not have much trade value either, but he might be their best hope to make a deal.

The point, of course, is that Vegas will want to play their young defensemen like Theodore, Nate Schmidt, Colin Miller, Brayden McNabb, Jonathon Merrill and maybe even Griffin Reinhart. So, the team must do something to avoid the logjam. There are other options as well. Like Emelin, they could retain some of these players’ salaries in hopes a team would take some of them off their hands. They could wait till training camp and watch for teams that still have holes or suffer injuries that need filling. Another option would be to buy them out or even just sit them in favor of their younger players. However, one would hope Vegas has a plan in place.

KHL Confirms Kovalchuk Will Stay In Russia

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The KHL tweeted today that Ilya Kovalchuk officially will stay in Russia for one more season and play for his current team, SKA St. Petersburg. As reported last week by PHR, Larry Brooks of the New York Post and Andrew Gross of The Record both reported that Kovalchuk had decided to stay one more year in Russia and come back to the United States next year when he can become an unrestricted free agent and negotiate with anyone.

Kovalchuk was still property of the New Jersey Devils and any way of playing in the NHL this season would have been reliant on the Devils trading him to another team. However, it doesn’t necessarily get easier for Kovalchuk now that he will be a free agent at age 35. Any contract he signs stays on a team’s cap regardless if he retires or is bought out. Therefore, a long-term deal is unlikely, although Kovalchuk’s asking price for this year was a three-year, $6.5MM per year deal.

The 34-year-old former first-overall pick in 2001 has played in the KHL for the past four years, putting up his best-ever season in the KHL last year when he scored 32 goals and 46 assists for 78 points. Several teams had expressed interest in the veteran, including the New York Rangers, the Florida Panthers and the Columbus Blue Jackets.

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