Wayne Simmonds Confirms Retirement
March 18: Simmonds has officially announced his retirement and will sign a one-day contract with the Flyers, per a team release. He’ll sign the contract and be honored by the team on April 13, the second-to-last home game of Philadelphia’s season.
Jan. 26: Free agent winger Wayne Simmonds told Joshua Clipperton of The Canadian Press on Friday that he won’t continue his 15-season NHL career. The 35-year-old has yet to file retirement paperwork with the league but confirmed he will not attempt a comeback.
Simmonds last suited up in 2022-23, making 18 appearances with the Maple Leafs. The Scarborough, Ontario native reached UFA status after completing a two-year, $1.8MM extension signed with Toronto in June 2021.
He played for six NHL clubs during his career. The first of those was the Kings, who selected him with the final pick of the second round in the 2007 draft from the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack after racking up 49 points and 112 PIMs in 66 games.
Simmonds spent the following season back in junior hockey, breaking out for his first point-per-game campaign and winning gold with Canada at the 2008 World Junior Championship. That was enough of a development jump for the Kings, who named Simmonds to their opening-night roster in 2008-09.
The Kings struggled that season, finishing three games below .500 and scoring only 2.46 goals per game, but Simmonds’ rookie performance was promising. He didn’t earn Calder Trophy consideration, but he played in all 82 games while posting 23 points in a bottom-six role.
His sophomore season wasn’t his defining campaign, but it was a large step forward. The Kings offense went from 28th to seventh in 2009-10, and Simmonds’ 16 goals and 40 points (along with 116 PIMs) helped kickstart the jump. He finished with a team-high +22 rating, too, earning him a handful of Selke Trophy votes.
He took a small step back in the third and final season of his entry-level contract, though, seeing his goal and point output drop to 14 and 30, respectively. With the Kings exiting their late 2000s rebuild and looking to build a more veteran core around Anže Kopitar and Drew Doughty, they decided to cut bait with Simmonds and ship him, along with center prospect Brayden Schenn, to the Flyers in the 2011 offseason in exchange for established top-six threat Mike Richards.
The trade worked out well for the Kings, who won two Stanley Cups over the next three seasons with Richards anchoring their second line. It also worked out quite well for Simmonds, who scored 28 goals in his first season with Philadelphia and spent parts of eight years in the City of Brotherly Love.
With the Flyers, Simmonds became one of the most visible power forwards in the league, inking a six-year, $23.85MM extension within two years of the trade and eventually eclipsing the 30-goal mark twice. He racked up 203 goals, 175 assists and 378 points over his 584 games for the Flyers, consistently logging top-six minutes and serving an important leadership role, as evidenced by his Mark Messier Leadership Award win in his final season with the team.
As the extension wrapped up, though, it was clear Simmonds was in an early decline. His totals had steadily dropped since his 32-goal, 60-point season in 2015-16, and the Flyers decided to part ways with the fan-favorite near the 2019 trade deadline. They dealt him to the Predators, who were two years removed from a Stanley Cup Final appearance, but his play outside of Philadelphia stagnated further. He recorded one goal and three points in 17 games with Nashville after the trade and played in two of six games during their first-round loss to the Stars.
Simmonds spent the following four seasons playing for the Devils, Sabres and Maple Leafs in a reduced role, seeing his ice time dip below 10 minutes per game by the 2021-22 season. He was waived twice over the course of the 2022-23 campaign, recording two assists in 18 games to close out his career.
He ends his time in the NHL with 263 goals, 263 assists and 526 points, along with 1,313 PIMs, over the course of 1,037 games. He also added 22 points in 53 career playoff games.
PHR extends its best wishes to Simmonds in his post-hockey career and congratulations him on a lengthy and impactful NHL stint.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Canadiens Reassign David Reinbacher To AHL
The Canadiens reassigned 2023 fifth-overall pick David Reinbacher to the AHL’s Laval Rocket on Monday, per the minor league’s transactions log. The organization’s highest-drafted defense prospect will get his first taste of North American pro hockey to close out the 2023-24 season.
Reinbacher spent this season on loan to EHC Kloten of the Swiss National League, where he’s played since making his professional debut in 2021-22. The 19-year-old logged major minutes on one of the worst teams in the league, finishing second among Kloten defensemen with a goal and 11 points in 35 games with a -15 rating. It was a downturn in production compared to last season from the Austrian defender, although it’s excusable given the state of Kloten, which cycled through multiple head coaches and posted a -69 goal differential in 56 games. Once one of the best teams in the country before the turn of the century, Kloten was relegated to the second-tier Swiss League in 2018 before gaining promotion back to the NL in 2022.
The right-shot blueliner inked a lucrative three-year entry-level contract which could pay him up to $6.35MM shortly after last summer’s draft, but his European Assignment Clause meant he needed to return to his Swiss club after not making the Montreal roster out of training camp. However, by all accounts, that was the plan as early as draft day. If Reinbacher doesn’t get a recall to the Canadiens and remains under 10 NHL games played on the season, his ELC will not go into effect this year and will slide to 2024-25. If that occurs, he will be an RFA in 2027.
Laval is in a fight for a playoff berth in the North Division, trailing the Toronto Marlies by three points with two more games played for the final berth. The Canadiens hope Reinbacher can slot into a defense that’s allowed a division-worst 209 goals this year and play major minutes during their 12 remaining regular-season games in preparation for a battle for a roster spot during next season’s training camp.
Flyers Recall Olle Lycksell, Adam Ginning
The Flyers have recalled forward Olle Lycksell and defenseman Adam Ginning from the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, per a team announcement Monday. The 24-year-old Swedes and longtime teammates will serve as reinforcements for their Tuesday home game against the Maple Leafs. CapFriendly reflects that both recalls are emergency loans, meaning the Flyers still have two of their four post-trade deadline standard recalls remaining. As such, injuries or illnesses likely have the status of multiple players in doubt ahead of tomorrow’s game.
Philadelphia last recalled Lycksell in late February, keeping him on the roster for a five-game stretch before returning him to the Phantoms the day before the trade deadline. A sixth-round Flyers pick in 2017, Lycksell has been recalled three times this season, his second playing pro hockey in North America. After slowly developing into a top-six producer over a half-decade in the Swedish Hockey League, Lycksell has been highly productive since arriving in Lehigh Valley last season, recording 83 points in 89 games.
Lycksell has been especially hot lately despite sporadic playing time. He has three goals and seven assists in his last three games for the Phantoms and is now over a point per game on the season, putting himself in “too good for the minors” territory. Despite playing 17 NHL games over the past two seasons, he’s still searching for his first NHL goal and has four assists with a -4 rating while averaging 10:09 per game. He’s been a volume shooter in his limited minutes, recording 13 shots in nine appearances this season. He also has decent possession metrics (51.7 CF%, 65.4 xGF% per Hockey Reference) after a disastrous showing with Philly in 2022-23 in that department.
Ginning has suited up for the Flyers more recently, making his lone appearance of the season on March 7 against the Panthers. The blue liner was recalled again under emergency conditions before last Tuesday’s game against the Sharks, but he was scratched and returned to the Phantoms the next day. The 2018 second-round pick had a rough showing against Florida in his second career NHL game, recording a -1 rating, 43.8 CF% and 16.2 xGF% (per MoneyPuck) in over 18 minutes of ice time while paired with Ronald Attard at even strength. A developing shutdown prospect with good size at 6-foot-4 and over 200 pounds, Ginning has 13 points, a -7 rating, and 82 PIMs in 56 games with the Phantoms this year.
Lycksell is in the first season of a two-year, two-way deal with a $787.5K cap hit. He’ll be an RFA with arbitration rights upon expiry in 2025. Ginning is still on his entry-level contract with a $883.75K cap hit, although the deal expires this summer, making him an RFA with arbitration rights if the Flyers issue him a qualifying offer.
The Flyers now have four extra skaters on the active roster, not including the forcibly reinstated Ryan Johansen. As CapFriendly notes, adding Ginning and Lycksell’s combined $1.67MM cap hit puts them over the $83.5MM Upper Limit, meaning they’ve likely transferred de facto retired blue-liner Ryan Ellis‘ $6.25MM cap hit to long-term injured reserve unless a corresponding transaction is pending.
Morning Notes: Rempe, Capitals, Ducks
Rangers forward Matt Rempe has served his four-game suspension and is eligible to return Tuesday against the Jets. Last week, the NHL Department of Player Safety handed down the first supplemental discipline of Rempe’s brief career after he illegally elbowed Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler in the head in the second period of last Monday’s game. Devils interim head coach Travis Green said Siegenthaler sustained a concussion on the play and is out indefinitely.
Rempe, 21, has played 10 games for the Rangers since they recalled him in mid-February. The 2020 sixth-round pick stuck in the lineup after fighting Islanders heavyweight Matt Martin less than two minutes into his first NHL game, last month’s Stadium Series event at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. While a decent bottom-six checking forward at the minor-league level, Rempe has dialed it up to full-on enforcer status in the majors, posting nearly as many PIMs (54) as he has total time on ice (56). Despite logging double-digit ice time in a game just once thus far, the Calgary native has logged a goal, an assist, and eight shots. If he draws back into the lineup against Winnipeg, Jonny Brodzinski, who was a healthy scratch in two straight before Rempe’s suspension, would likely come out.
Other updates to kick off the week:
- The Eastern Conference wild-card race is heating up like a game of hot potato. The two leading contenders for the final playoff spot, the Islanders and Red Wings, are both on significant skids. The Isles have lost four straight, and the Red Wings have only won two out of their last 10. That’s paved the way for the Capitals to take advantage despite their remarkable -30 goal differential. With a point against the Flames on Monday on a two-game slate, they can move into the second wild-card spot in earnest, surpassing the Red Wings. They’ve already moved into the spot based on points percentage, as they trail Detroit by one point with two games in hand entering Monday night’s action.
- On the other side of the coin, the Ducks became the third team to be mathematically eliminated from playoff contention after losing 4-2 to the Blues on Sunday night. Sitting with a 23-42-3 record (49 points) through 68 games, they trail the current second wild card, the Golden Knights, by 30 points but can only earn 28 if they win out. This marks the sixth straight season without playoff hockey in Anaheim, last cracking the field in 2018, when the Sharks swept them in the first round. Only four players who suited up in regular-season games for the team that season remain in SoCal – forwards Jakob Silfverberg and Troy Terry, defenseman Cam Fowler, and goaltender John Gibson.
Dmitry Kulikov To Have Player Safety Hearing
Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov will have a hearing Monday for an illegal check to the head of Lightning winger Conor Sheary, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced.
Early in the second period of yesterday’s 5-3 loss, Kulikov pinched to join a net-front scrum that resulted in a Florida goal, although it was disallowed due to the penalty on the play. While entering the slot, Kulikov leaned to lay a check on Sheary, who was slightly bent over in an attempt to play the puck. Kulikov’s principal and only point of contact on the hit was Sheary’s head and shoulder. Kulikov did not leave his feet or extend his elbow on the hit, leading into the check with his upper arm (video link).
Kulikov was assessed a match penalty on the play by on-ice officials and missed over half the contest, which could factor into the length of a potential suspension. He’s been suspended once in his 15-year, 936-game NHL career, receiving four games for clipping Stars forward Tyler Seguin during his first stint with the Panthers in 2015. However, since the discipline occurred nearly a decade ago, he will not be considered a repeat offender by the Department of Player Safety.
The 33-year-old has 16 assists and a +9 rating in 64 games for the Panthers this season, averaging 16:22 per game. Now on his sixth team in the past four years, he inked a one-year, $1MM deal last summer to return to the team that selected him 14th overall in 2009.
Ryan Johansen’s AHL Assignment Reversed Due To Injury
The hip injury keeping Flyers forward Ryan Johansen out of the lineup is already inhibiting their roster flexibility. The ailment, which may prevent the Flyers from executing a buyout on his contract this summer if not healed, has now reversed the team’s attempt to assign him to the minors after he cleared waivers earlier this month, GM Daniel Brière told Jonathan Bailey of Philly Hockey Now.
Brière told Bailey that the Flyers were surprised by Johansen’s injury at the time of his acquisition. He was included as part of the return from the Avalanche for defenseman Sean Walker a few days before the deadline. Johansen, who has a reduced $4MM cap hit and was limited to 23 points in 63 games with Colorado, landed on waivers the same days. Brière stated shortly after the deal that he didn’t expect Johansen to ever suit up in an NHL game for Philadelphia, and he was only included in the trade for salary cap management on Colorado’s end.
According to Brière, Johansen informed the Flyers directly after the trade that he was dealing with a hip injury, which did not keep him out of the lineup for any period of time in Colorado. Philadelphia’s team doctors then confirmed the injury. While the initial plan was for Johansen to rehab with their AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the league reversed the reassignment because an injured player cannot be sent down on a non-conditioning loan. Per Brière, the team does not have a timeline for Johansen’s return to health. If he remains on the roster for under 30 days, he won’t need to clear waivers again to head to Lehigh Valley.
If the Flyers can provide documentation that Johansen’s injury healed before this summer’s buyout window, they may buy out the final season of his eight-year, $64MM contract. They would only be responsible for half of the buyout cost — the Predators, who retained half of Johansen’s salary in last summer’s trade that sent him to Colorado, would shoulder the other half.
League game reports show that Johansen was reinstated to the NHL roster sometime between Tuesday’s 3-2 win over the Sharks and Thursday’s 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. As such, his cap impact for the Flyers is now $4MM instead of the reduced $2.85MM they have as a buried penalty while Johansen is in the minors. Per CapFriendly, this reversal leaves Philadelphia just over $500K in cap space.
Golden Knights Activate Alec Martinez From Injured Reserve
The Golden Knights have taken left-shot defenseman Alec Martinez off injured reserve, per the NHL’s media site. As Martinez was not on long-term injured reserve, his $5.25MM cap hit continued to count toward their salary pool usage, so no corresponding transaction is necessary.
Martinez, 36, was placed on IR on March 6 with a lower-body injury. Failing to place him on LTIR ahead of the March 8 trade deadline suggested that he wouldn’t miss too much time, and that has held true. GM Kelly McCrimmon told Jesse Granger of The Athletic that Martinez underwent an undisclosed procedure earlier this month to address the injury.
Prior to this IR stint, Martinez had landed on the list twice this season due to upper and lower-body injuries. As such, the once-premier shutdown defender had his worst showing in the possession quality control department in quite some time, posting a negative expected rating (-5.3) for the first time since he was traded to Vegas in 2020. His 42.6 CF% at even strength is also a career-low, although his four goals in 16 points in 45 games is double the rate of offensive production he offered last season.
The veteran routinely finishes atop the league leaderboard in shot blocks, averaging 3.15 per game since joining the Golden Knights, which have taken an immense toll on his ability to stay in the lineup. He’s played over 70 games in a season just once over the past six years.
With his return, Vegas has a fully healthy defense corps after needing to cycle through their minor-league depth for most of the season. In addition to Martinez, Shea Theodore and Zach Whitecloud have each missed significant time this year, including a 34-game absence for an upper-body injury in Theodore’s case. They’ve gotten solid fill-in performances from depth blue-liner Ben Hutton and AHL call-up Kaedan Korczak in the interim, and the deadline pickup of Noah Hanifin for the Flames adds yet another premier name to what’s arguably the league’s deepest defense.
Hanifin has replaced Martinez’s longtime spot on the team’s top pairing with Alex Pietrangelo, so he’s expected to slide down to a third-pairing role alongside Whitecloud in his return to the lineup against the Devils today. Nicolas Hague is expected to be a healthy scratch for the first time this season.
The Golden Knights hope Martinez can help stabilize a team that’s suddenly failed to live up to their stingy reputation. The defending Stanley Cup champions are 3-7-1 in their last 11 games, surrendering three or more goals in 10 of those outings. They remain with a three-point cushion on the second wild-card spot in the West with two games in hand on the ninth-place Wild, but they’ll need to return to .500-plus hockey the rest of the way to ensure they don’t miss the playoffs for only the second time in franchise history.
Wild Reassign Vladislav Firstov To AHL
The Wild reassigned forward prospect Vladislav Firstov to AHL Iowa on Sunday, per a team announcement. The 22-year-old returns to North America after spending most of the last two seasons on loan to Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League.
Firstov inked his entry-level contract with the Wild in March 2022, nearly three years after they selected him in the second round of the 2019 draft. The left winger had a highly unusual development path, playing his youth hockey with his local Russian club before heading to North America to suit up for the USHL’s Waterloo Black Hawks in his draft year. Firstov then headed to the University of Connecticut for three seasons after being drafted, also suiting up for Russia at the 2021 World Juniors. The 6-foot-1, 181-lb winger barely played for the Wild organization inking his ELC, however. He logged two assists in eight games for AHL Iowa to close out the 2021-22 season after signing and played just one game to kick off 2022-23 before the Wild loaned him to the KHL at the player’s request.
The move has proven beneficial for the speedy forward, who’s emerged as a top-six threat for Torpedo. Over the past two seasons, Firstov logged 28 goals, 33 assists, 61 points, and a +12 rating in 114 games, routinely averaging north of 15 minutes per game. His 17 goals and 35 points ranked third on Nizhny Novgorod this season. The Yaroslavl native also recorded a team-high 68 PIMs in 2023-24 and has overall displayed upside as a bottom-six grinder with strong possession numbers overseas.
Firstov now gets a shot down the stretch to show if he can translate his strengths to North American ice with Iowa. Unfortunately for the Wild, they likely won’t see him in postseason action – Iowa ranks last in the AHL’s Central Division with a 20-33-5 record and is nine points back of a playoff spot.
While Firstov signed his ELC in March 2022, the contract didn’t begin immediately, instead deferring to the 2022-23 campaign. The deal, which carries a cap hit of $925K, still has one season remaining and makes him an RFA in 2025. As such, Firstov will likely remain in Iowa next season and has an outside shot to compete for an NHL spot out of camp later this year.
Flames Activate A.J. Greer From Injured Reserve
The Flames have activated winger A.J. Greer from injured reserve ahead of tonight’s game against the Canadiens, Wes Gilbertson of Postmedia reports. Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg relays that Greer is skating in warmups ahead of the contest, but it’s unclear if he’ll draw into the lineup.
Greer missed the last 18 games with a foot fracture sustained in a Jan. 25 contest against the Blue Jackets. He had only missed one prior game due to a healthy scratch after Calgary claimed him off waivers from the Bruins just before the start of the season.
The 27-year-old didn’t play a significant role, averaging only 8:44 per game, but he has continued his solid run of play in limited minutes after breaking into the league full-time with Boston last year. Previously a minor-league farmhand with nearly 300 games of AHL experience, Greer recorded career-highs across the board with the Bruins in 2022-23, logging five goals, seven assists, 12 points, a +9 rating, and 144 PIMs in 61 contests. He’s set a new career-high in goals with the Flames, lighting the lamp six times and adding four assists in his 47 showings this season.
His possession impacts remain suboptimal, recording a 47.5 CF% at even strength that’s around 3% worse than the team average. His expected rating has also dipped to -2.2 after posting a +1.7 with the Bruins.
Initially a second-round pick of the Avalanche in 2015, the Flames are Greer’s fifth NHL organization. Between Colorado and Boston, Greer also spent time on the farm with the Devils and Islanders. Now in the back half of a two-year, $1.525MM deal, he’ll be a UFA this summer.
East Notes: Teräväinen, Oshie, Jeannot
Hurricanes winger Teuvo Teräväinen didn’t travel with the team on their road trip and will be out for Saturday’s contest against the Maple Leafs, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said. He’s listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
The playmaking winger didn’t appear to sustain anything serious during his last showing, a win over the Panthers on Thursday. He logged a +1 rating and three shots on goal in the game, playing 16:01 – normal usage for the top-six fixture. A pending UFA nearing completion of his five-year, $27MM extension signed with the Canes in 2019, Teräväinen has reached the 20-goal plateau for the fourth time in his career and has 47 points in 66 games on the season, right around his career-average pace. He’s back on the upswing after a 2022-23 season where he struggled to produce, recording 12 goals and 25 assists for 37 points in 68 games. It was his worst scoring pace since the 2016-17 campaign, his first in Carolina.
With Teräväinen sidelined, Jesper Fast took line rushes in a first-line role alongside Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov and will likely occupy that role tonight with youngster Jack Drury also dealing with a lower-body injury. Fast, 32, has six goals and 17 points in 63 games this season and still carries solid value as a competent defensive winger.
Elsewhere out East:
- Capitals veteran T.J. Oshie‘s 1,000th game in the league may be on hold. The 37-year-old sustained an upper-body injury in practice on Saturday morning and will be a game-time decision tonight against the Canucks, head coach Spencer Carbery said (via Bailey Johnson of The Washington Post). The 2018 Stanley Cup champion has been plagued by injuries this season, missing 24 of Washington’s 65 games with lower and upper-body injuries. When in the lineup, they’ve dragged down his ability to contribute on the scoresheet. His 11 goals and 19 points in 41 games work out to 0.46 points per game, the lowest rate of his remarkably consistent 16-year career. Possession control has been an issue this season as well – his 46.4 CF% at even strength is also a career-low. Despite that, he’s still logging consistent top-six usage, averaging 16:33 per game.
- The Lightning will again be without Tanner Jeannot as they exercise caution in his return from a lower-body injury that’s kept him out for most of the last two months, head coach Jon Cooper said (via Chris Krenn of the team’s official site). Indications pointed toward Jeannot returning from his absence earlier this week, but his return has now been delayed twice ahead of a rivalry matchup with the Panthers tonight. Cooper said they’re aiming for Jeannot to return at some point over their West Coast road trip, meaning there’s no guarantee he’ll be ready for Tuesday’s matchup in Vegas, either. Jeannot attempted to return from the injury, which he sustained early in January, during a Feb. 13 contest against the Bruins but played less than six minutes before sustaining an aggravation. When in the lineup, the 26-year-old has been limited to six goals and 12 points in 42 games with a -11 rating.