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Eastern Notes: Miller vs. Miller, Koivula

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The Boston Bruins look to be in good shape when it comes to the upcoming expansion draft. However, the biggest decision that the club must make is who to protect as their third defenseman, according to Joseph Ochs of The Hockey Writers. He writes that forwards are basically set with Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, David Krejci, David Pastrnak, David Backes, Riley Nash and Ryan Spooner. While Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug are obvious keepers on defense, the team will have to make a decision on the two Millers: Kevan Miller and Colin Miller. Ochs states that while they may share the same team and same name, they are totally different players.

The 29-year-old Kevan Miller just finished his fourth season. The rugged, defensive punisher has played more than 200 games, but also has missed a lot of time on injured reserve. While he only tallied three goals and 10 assists on the year, he is one of the team’s top penalty killers and teamed with Chara to make a solid second defensive unit. His improvements, despite missing the first 19 games due to injury, have been evident and is awareness and confidence have turned him into a top defenseman. The veteran defenseman is locked up until 2019-20 at $2.5MM.

However, the 24-year-old Colin Miller had developed quickly for Boston. He is younger with a higher upside and finished his second season with six goals and seven assists in 61 games. He is more of a well-rounded defenseman and set an AHL All-Star record in 2015 with a 104 mph slapshot. On top of that, he is only owed $1.0MM next year and then hits restricted free agency, so he will be under team control for several more years.

The Bruins may have it easier than many other NHL teams, but they will have to make a decision on the two blueliners soon.

  • New York Islanders prospect Otto Koivula was named Rookie of the Year in the Finnish Liiga, playing with Ilves. The fourth-round draft pick in 2016 had a breakout year in the Finland veteran league with a 10 goal and 20 assist season in 50 games. Koivula, the 120th pick in last year’s draft, was actually acquired by the Islanders in a trade on draft day when they traded a 2017 fourth-round pick to the Philadelphia Flyers to acquire the pick to select the left wing. The 18-year-old was playing for the Finnish junior league when he was drafted and had just finished a season in which he scored 26 goals and 32 assists for 58 points.

Capitals Have Four Of Top Eight Unrestricted Free Agents

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The 2017 free agency class may not be the strongest, but the Washington Capitals have the most to gain (or more likely lose) if free agency doesn’t go their way. The Capitals, currently on the ropes, down 3-1, to the Pittsburgh Penguins (Game 5 tonight), have four of the top eight unrestricted free agents, according to Matt Larkin of the Hockey News, as he posts his Top-30 unrestricted free agents this summer.

Unlike previous years, Larkin writes that this year’s class falls short of firepower, which the scribe points out is bad news for the expansion Las Vegas Golden Knights, who get a 48-hour window to negotiate with any free agents before any other teams. Regardless, it’s the Capitals who will find themselves on the clock as defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk is listed as the number one free agent on the list, while winger T.J. Oshie is third. Defenseman Karl Alzner is ranked fifth, while veteran wing Justin Williams is eighth on their list.

Larkin adds that he believes the Capitals will only be able to ink two of those players and will be forced to let two go. Shattenkirk, who was acquired in a February trade from the St. Louis Blues for their playoff run, has struggled in the playoffs this year, but is listed first due to the fact that blueliners in the prime of their careers, who can play 20 minutes a night, are always rewarded. Whether Washington can keep him at a high price tag is the tough question.

The team is likely to do everything to sign Oshie, however. The 30-year-old winger has had a breakout season with Washington on the first line with Alex Ovechkin and Niklas Backstrom. He has tallied 59 regular-season goals in the two seasons he has played for the Capitals since being acquired by trade from the Blues.

The Capitals then have to look at Alzner, a rugged blueliner who at age 28, could get a large contract in a weak year of free agent defensemen, while Williams playoff success could make him a well-paid second-liner as well. The Capitals have to decide what priorities they have as it’s unlikely they can afford to keep all four players.

Montreal Canadiens veteran winger Alexander Radulov, who returned to the NHL last year after a long stint in the KHL, is ranked second on the list, although he has said he would like to resign with the Canadiens. Goaltender Ben Bishop is listed fourth on that free agent list and the 30-year-old netminder should be in high demand. Veterans Martin Hanzal (No. 6), Joe Thornton (No. 7), Radim Vrbata (No. 9) and Patrick Eaves (No. 10) round out the first ten on that list.

 

Ilya Kovalchuk Wants Sign-And-Trade To NYC Or Florida

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As reported last week, Russian veteran forward Ilya Kovalchuk, who has played the last four years in the KHL, wants to return to the NHL next year. The 34-year-old wing now says he would like a sign-and-trade out of New Jersey, according to the New York Post’s Larry Brooks. It was also tweeted by Russian reporter Slava Malamud that Kovalchuk would prefer to stay in New York City or move to Florida.

Kovalchuk, whose rights are still owned by the New Jersey Devils, would need a sign-and-trade deal to get him to one of those locations as he has made it clear that his family is a top priority on where he plays next season. It’s quite clear the Devils, who finished near the bottom of the NHL this past season, are not on his wishlist.

The veteran is coming off his best season in the last four years for St. Petersburg SKA, tallying 32 goals and 46 assists for 78 points in 60 games. He put up 11 goals and 20 assists for the Devils in the shortened 2012-13 season. In 2011-12, Kovalchuk put up 37 goals and 46 assists. So, while his production is not at issue, his contract is. His contract still had 12 years and $77MM remaining when he left the Devils for the KHL.

 

No Deal In Sight Between Colorado, Butcher

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With just a few months to go before the Aug. 15 deadline, the Colorado Avalanche and Will Butcher have made no progress to agreeing to a deal, according to Adrian Dater of BSN Denver. The University of Denver defenseman and the winner of this year’s Hobey Baker Award, given to the best player in college hockey, has still not accepted a contract from the Avalanche, who drafted him in the fifth round of the 2013 NHL Draft.

If the 5-foot-10 defenseman waits until the Aug. 15 deadline, Colorado loses their exclusive rights to sign him and Butcher can negotiate with any club, leading to speculation that he might be interested in signing with a different team. This has nothing to do with money, however, as league rules dictate that the 22-year-old Butcher can only sign a two-year entry-level deal of no more than $925,000 base salary. This comes down to Butcher being allowed to pick which team he wants to play for.

A similar situation happened last year when Harvard’s Jimmy Vesey, the previous year’s Hobey Baker Award winner, was the property of the Nashville Predators. They were unable to sign him and traded his rights to the Buffalo Sabres before the deadline for a third round pick. Despite the Sabres’ attempts, they failed to sign him and Vesey eventually inked a deal with the New York Rangers.

Butcher finished his season at the University of Denver last year with seven goals and 30 assists.

 

Tampa Bay Wants To Move Jonathan Drouin For A Top-4 Defenseman

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New York Post’s Larry Brooks reports that the Tampa Bay Lightning are focusing on moving forward Jonathan Drouin this offseason for a top-four defenseman. He continues to say that the Anaheim Ducks is the likely trade partner for the Lightning. The 22-year-old Drouin is coming off a breakout season for the Lightning in which he scored 21 goals and 32 assists for 53 points. Despite his success, Tampa Bay is overloaded in quality forwards and could use a trade like this to balance out their rosters, especially with the NHL Expansion Draft approaching.

The team already has Steven Stamkos, Ryan Callahan, Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson, Alex Killorn, Brayden Point and Vladislav Namestnikov. While Point is exempt from the expansion draft, the rest are not and if the team wants to protect all of their forwards, the team might be better off moving the highly-regarded Drouin for blueline help. The team only has two defenders that stand out in Victor Hedman and Anton Stralman. So, another defender would make a lot of sense.

The Ducks could be a prime target as they are overloaded on defense, while they continue to look for consistent scoring. The team has multiple defensemen, including Hampus Lindholm, Cam Fowler, Sami Vatanen, Josh Manson and veteran Kevin Bieksa as their core, but still have promising youngsters Shea Theodore and Brandon Montour, who have also played well for the team in the playoffs. Brooks writes that there may be six or more teams seeking a top-four defenseman this offseason, but Tampa Bay’s willingness to include Drouin gives them the best opportunity of netting one.

 

Snapshots: Las Vegas Lottery, Buffalo’s GM Search

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Yesterday’s NHL draft lottery was a disaster for most of the worst teams in the NHL as three teams, not in the bottom three, ended up winning the lottery, pushing the teams that most need talent back three slots. With New Jersey (fourth-worst record), Philadelphia (13th worst record) and Dallas (seventh-worst record) winning the top three spots in the 2017 NHL Draft this year, teams like Colorado and Vancouver end up with their worst-case scenarios. The Avalanche will draft fourth and the Canucks fifth.

The new team, the expansion Las Vegas Golden Knights got no luck either. The team, which had an 88 percent chance of a top-five pick, ended up sixth. The team had hopes of drafting the face of their franchise if they could get high enough. The hope was the team could snag either Nolan Patrick or Nico Hischier. Instead the team will now need to look at the second-tier of options, according to Las Vegas Sun’s Jesse Granger.

While Las Vegas will look at multiple players at No. 6, it is believed the Golden Knights will focus on forwards in the first-round of the draft as they are expected to collect lots of defense and goaltending in the expansion draft and be desperate for scoring.

They will look at several prospects in that second tier, including Windsor Spitfire’s center Gabriel Vilardi from the OHL, Mississauga Steelheads wing Owen Tippett of the OHL, Eden Prairie (Minn.) High School’s Casey Mittelstadt and Tri-City Americans center Michael Rasmussen of the WHL. Vilardi is a 6-foot-3, 200-pound center who uses his size advantage to dominate. He is coming off a season in which he had 29 goals and 32 assists in just 49 contests this season. His lack of penalty minutes signal that he knows how to use his size to his advantage. Tippett is coming off a big year in which he scored 44 goals in 62 games and is known to be exceptionally quick. However, defense is an issue. Mittelstadt won Mr. Hockey in Minnesota, but is tough to judge after playing against lower-level competition. Rasmussen is the biggest of the four as he is 6-foot-5 and tallied 32 goals in the WHL.

  • The Buffalo Sabres interviewed Columbus Blue Jackets’ assistant general manager Bill Zito Saturday, as reported by TSN’s Pierre LeBrun. Zito has been the Blue Jackets’ AGM since August of 2013. According to the team’s website, Zito helps manage contract negotiations, scouting and player evaluation and salary cap management and is also the general manager of the AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters. The team has also shown interest in Los Angeles Kings’ assistant GM Mike Futa.

 

Eastern Notes: Shattenkirk’s Struggles, Shalunov

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While the Washington Capitals have received nothing but praise from the press since they made their trade deadline deal to acquire veteran defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, his presence during the playoffs so far have been far from impressive. The veteran defenseman, who was picked up from the playoff-bound St. Louis Blues for a host of picks and players, including their 2017 first-round pick, has struggled in the playoffs with no goals and three assists in eight games this season. He also has a minus-seven rating in that span. Yesterday, he lost a race to 40-year-old Matt Cullen, which allowed the veteran to score a short-handed goal against the Capitals. Later, he took a delay of game penalty to allow Phil Kessel to score in the third period.

Coach Barry Trotz was also disappointed in the 28-year-old blueliner’s performance as he called him out this morning. “That’s not good enough for what we need in that third pairing right now. Minus-7 is hard to recover from,” Trotz said. Shattenkirk and defensive partner Brooks Orpik have struggled together as that third defensive line. In the first series against the Maple Leafs, the two allowed five goals in the series, the most of all the defensive pairings.

These mistakes have been costly enough with the Capitals now down two games and having to travel to Pittsburgh for the next two, but it also may not help him in the offseason when he is an unrestricted free agent, according to Adam Gretz of NBC Sports. While he will undoubtedly will receive a raise from his $2.592MM contract that ends this year, a good playoff performance or a long playoff run by Washington could have improved his value in the free-agency market. However, his struggles will likely not help him if things continue to stay the course.

So, if things don’t continue to improve, could Washington let Shattenkirk walk in free agency? Only time will tell.

  • Chicago Blackhawks prospect Maxim Shalunov will not be coming to the NHL any time soon as the 24-year-old wing will sign a three-year contract with Sibir Novosbibitsk of the KHL, according to his agent Shumi Babayev yesterday, according to Scott Powers of The Athletic. That means the Blackhawks’ couldn’t bring Shalunov over to the U.S. before the 2020-21 season. He will, however, remain a Blackhawk as long as he stays on their resevered list. The fourth-round pick from the 2011  NHL draft is coming off a season in which he scored 19 goals for Sibir Novosbibitsk this past year. Babayev warned that Shalunov would cut off negotiations with the NHL a few weeks ago after the NHL announced that it would not restructure its season around the 2018 Olympic Games.

Capitals Notes: Williams, Beagle, OT

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Everybody in Washington is happy about forward Justin Williams playoff success this year. The 35-year-old veteran has come up big in the series with Toronto, including two goals in Game 1 of the series and then Game 5’s overtime winner Friday. He now has two overtime playoff goals to his credit and since 2010-11, Williams is fourth behind Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith with his 24 points in playoff games 5-7, according to Sports Illustrated’s Alex Prewitt.

Williams’ success, however, may increase the veteran forward’s price tag as he enters unrestricted free agency this offseason. Williams currently makes $3.25MM, but despite his age, could demand even more next season. He is coming off another solid year in which he scored 24 goals and 24 assists for 48 points, which mirrors last year when he scored 22 goals and 30 assists. The Capitals may have no choice but to pay up to retain the clutch winger.

  • Isabelle Khurshudyan writes that a lot of Game 5’s credit goes to Capitals’ fourth-line center Jay Beagle, who was brought in during overtime to take a critical faceoff. Coach Barry Trotz replaced Beagle for Williams and moved Evgeny Kuznetsov to the wing. The right-handed Beagle gave the Caps the advantage for the face-off and after winning, Beagle returned to the bench to allow Williams on the ice. “It’s a big draw because I don’t want to get scored on,” said Beagle, who finished the season with 13 goals and 17 assists. The play helped set up Williams’ overtime goal. The Capitals have fared better in the last three games with faceoffs, including winning 55 percent of the draws in Game 5 after winning less than 40 percent in the first two games of the series.
  • Boston’s OT game today marks the 17th overtime in the Stanley Cup’s first round of the playoffs this year. That ties the most in history from 2013. The Capitals have contributed with four overtime games so far in this series.

Prospect Snapshots: Vesalainen, Kopacka, Nosek

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Finland’s Kristian Vesalainen was named the MVP of the 2017 U18 IIHF Ice Hockey World Champions today despite the team’s 4-2 loss to Team USA in the gold medal game today . The 17-year-old forward is considered to be a first-round target in the upcoming 2017 NHL Draft and his stock could be rising after he scored six goals and 13 points in the tournament. NHL.com has him rated the seventh-ranked European skater in the draft.

Versalainen was also named the Best Forward in the Directorate Awards along with fellow countryman Miro Heiskanen for Best Defenseman and Russia’s Maxim Zhukov as the Best Goaltender. The United States had three players voted to the Media All-Star team, including goalie lan St. Cyr, defenseman Maxwell Gidon and forward Sean Dhooghe. Vesalainen, Heiskanen and Russian forward Ivan Chekhovich rounded out the voting.

  • The Anaheim Ducks announced they have signed 2016 fourth-round pick Jack Kopacka to a three-year entry-level contract today. The 19-year-old wing led his team, the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League with 30 goals this year. He also added 19 assists for 49 points. The 93rd overall pick in this past draft finished with 50 goals in two plus seasons with his OHL team. Kopacka is the second player from his team to sign an NHL deal today as Tampa Bay signed his teammate Boris Katchouk earlier today.
  • Detroit Red Wings Tomas Nosek continues his success in the AHL this year and, according to Detroit Free Press’ Helene St. James, is beginning to show that he belongs in the Red Wings lineup next season. The 24-year-old forward scored the overtime goal in the Grand Rapids Griffins Game 1 playoff series against the Milwaukee Admirals and has taken his game up a level from a year ago. Nosek played 11 games for the Red Wings this season, scoring one goal, but since this is his third season in the AHL, he will no longer by waiver exempt, so Detroit may have to look at him more closely.

NHL Notes: Seabrook, Keith, Katchouk

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Could the Chicago Blackhawks be heading in the wrong direction? That’s what Chicago Sun-Times’ Mark Potash suggests as he analyzes the failures of a quick playoff exit to the Nashville Predators this season. The writer speculates that general manager Stan Bowman has his work cut out for him. The team is loaded with No Movement Clauses and veterans wherever you look and the GM must look at his aging defense.

Brent Seabrook’s decline this year was noticeable. Potash claims the 32-year-old defender has lost a step on defense and his offense has declined as well. After a season in which he 14 goals in 2015-16, that number dropped to three goals this past year. Add to the fact that Seabrook only signed his 8-year, $55MM contract a year ago, the Blackhawks have to hope the blueliner can bounce back with a strong season next year. “I’ve got to be better. But I feel like I’ve got a lot of hockey left in me and a lot of good years ahead of me,” Seabrook said. “This summer’s going to be a tough summer. It’s going to be a battle to get ready to go and try and have a better year next year.”

Duncan Keith is another defender who struggled to stop the speed of the Predators in the playoffs. The 33-year-old still had a good year after scoring six goals and 45 assists, but he’s locked in until the 2022-23 season. “I want to have a good summer of training,” Keith said, “and doing my best to get to a point where I feel like when you train hard, you get confidence from that too your body feels good and you feel strong. That’s going to be my focus. I know I could have played better. I’m obviously a big part of this team, so when I don’t play my best, it’s going to affect my team. I know I need a good summer of training and I’ll be ready to do.”

If neither blueliner can bounce back, the Blackhawks will be weighed down by two large contracts for the very far future.

Potash also writes that Bowman must get center Jonathan Toews a proper power forward to work with. Toews in the three years previous teamed up with Brandon Saad, Bryan Bickell or Marian Hossa, who aided his success on the ice. With Saad and Bickell gone and Hossa’s demotion to the third line, Toews is struggling to score goals again, as he hasn’t scored one 5-on-5 goal in his last 11 playoff games.

  • The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed their 2016 second-round pick Boris Katchouk to a three-year entry level contract today. The 6-foot-1 forward has played for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in the Ontario Hockey League for the past three years, finishing a strong 2016-17 season in which he tallied 35 goals, 64 points and 48 penalty minutes. The 44th overall pick in the last draft finished second on his team in goals, and third in points. Katchouk has appeared in 141 OHL games.

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