Anze Kopitar Wins 2022 Mark Messier Leadership Award
Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar is the recipient of the 2022 Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award. Per the league, the trophy is awarded “to the player who exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team, on and off the ice during the regular season.”
The team had the following to say with Kopitar’s victory:
As a spokesperson and contributor in several team fundraising events, Kopitar strives to represent the organization at every opportunity, including local institutions such as the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Make a Wish Foundation, Wags and Walks and Kings Care Foundation. Kopitar also hosts a hockey academy yearly in his native Slovenia, which serves aspiring youth players who may not have access to similar programs. Typically attracting nearly 200 players per year, the academy has drawn players from more than 15 countries.
The winner of the award is chosen by Messier himself, and he announced the selection live during ESPN’s broadcast of Game 1 of the 2022 Eastern Conference Final.
Given out since the 2006-07 season, Kopitar becomes the second King to win this award. Former Kings captain and fresh retiree Dustin Brown won the trophy back in 2014 after guiding the Kings to their second Stanley Cup in three seasons. The Slovenian veteran forward has worn a letter on his jersey for Los Angeles since 2008 and has been the captain since replacing Brown in 2016. With two Stanley Cups under his belt, Kopitar’s 1,210 games are second in Kings history. He’s also just one of four players to register at least 1,000 points as a King.
The 34-year-old remains under contract with the Kings until 2024.
Coaching Notes: DeBoer, Vigneault, Boucher
With just four teams left vying for Lord Stanley’s Cup, the focus is strong on building next season’s roster for most NHL teams. That includes the coaching carousel, which will be active with many big names available this offseason. The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun took a wide-angle lens look around the list of coaching free agents to examine where each could end up moving forward.
One of the coaches named is Peter DeBoer, fired by the Vegas Golden Knights last month after the team missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. However, LeBrun notes that while he’s one of the biggest names available, it’s not a sure thing he’ll start the season behind an NHL bench. DeBoer is still owed money for the last year of his Vegas contract, something LeBrun says will allow him the flexibility to take his time on deciding. He surmises that a mid-season hire could be likely for a team looking to make a change after a poor start, but stops short of counting out DeBoer signing full-on with a team before the start of the 2022-23 season.
- LeBrun says that the “odds are” Alain Vigneault‘s NHL coaching career is done. Vigneault will still be paid by the Flyers through June of 2024, so finances aren’t a factor for Vigneault in the short term. LeBrun notes that he’ll be 63 when that contract is over. With 1,363 games under his belt as a head coach and no Stanley Cup, it’s unclear how many offers he’ll get anyways.
- One wild card name mentioned by LeBrun as a potential offseason hire is Guy Boucher. While he’s been out of a job since 2019, he has a “get rich quick” reputation around the league as a coach who brings short, but immediate success to his new team (2011 Tampa Bay Lightning, 2017 Ottawa Senators). Boucher had been holding out on taking NHL jobs for family reasons, but LeBrun says he’s now ready to get back in the picture.
NHL Announces Conference Final Schedule Scenarios
After one-half of the conference finalists have been set, the NHL has released the potential schedule matrix for the 2022 Eastern and Western Conference Finals.
No matter what, the Eastern Conference Final will start June 1, whether it be in Raleigh or Manhattan. The Tampa Bay Lightning will be the visitor after sweeping the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Florida Panthers in the Second Round. The Lightning actually finished with the same point total as the New York Rangers (110), but surrender the tiebreaker, so it’s impossible for them to start the series at home. They would also start on the road against the Metropolitan Division champion Carolina Hurricanes. The Eastern Conference Final will be televised on ESPN in the United States.
For the Western Conference, the schedule depends on the result of tonight’s Game 6 between the Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues. If Colorado is victorious tonight, the series will start on May 31st in Denver. If it goes to a Game 7, the Edmonton Oilers will travel to either Denver or St. Louis for Game 1 on June 2. In the United States, the Western Conference Final will be on TNT.
The last possible day for Conference Final action is June 15, with a potential Western Conference Final Game 7 between the Oilers and either the Avalanche or Blues.
Brad Marchand Undergoes Hip Surgery
There’s some significant injury news in Beantown after the team was eliminated in the First Round a couple of weeks ago. The Boston Bruins announced today that star forward Brad Marchand underwent successful hip arthroscopy and labral repair on both of his hips. The recovery process is slated to take six months, making it likely Marchand is out for nearly the first two months of the 2022-23 regular season.
Marchand’s projected unavailability next season only adds to what’s bound to be an offseason of chaos for the Bruins. With the future of captain Patrice Bergeron up in the air, the team can’t really have a plan yet of how to attack the offseason and free agency.
On the ice, losing Marchand for any amount of time is a staggering blow for this Bruins team. Not only does Marchand bring all the intangibles that he’s so well known for, but he also remains one of the most offensively skilled left-wingers in the league. He scored 80 points in 70 games last season for his sixth straight season above a point per game pace.
Off the ice, moving Marchand to long-term injured reserve for the start of the regular season could buy the Bruins some time. The team has under $3MM in cap space this offseason, and while they have few roster spots to replace, the aging team needs to modify their roster to stay competitive in a tough Atlantic Division. Most importantly, there’s the matter of re-signing or replacing Bergeron, and the latter option will likely be much more costly. If the Bruins can buy some more cap space for the start of the season, it would allow them a few months into the year to figure out some trade scenarios for players to free up space.
Regardless, at 34 years old, the Bruins just hope Marchand is able to rebound to his previous level of play after what was a decently intensive surgery.
Looking At Claude Giroux’s Impending Free Agency
With the Florida Panthers now swept out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, many questions will arise this offseason about the future of this year’s Presidents’ Trophy winners. One of those questions will be the future of forward Claude Giroux, who the Panthers acquired at the Trade Deadline. The longtime captain of the Philadelphia Flyers was moved for what many viewed as an underwhelming return, and despite Florida’s early elimination, Giroux performed with renewed vigor on a better team. He had eight points in 10 playoff games but piled up assists in the regular season, notching 20 in 18 games with the Panthers. He still managed 42 points in 57 games with the Flyers prior to the trade on a massively struggling team, too. His eight-year extension that kicked in prior to 2014-15 is now expiring, and Giroux could hit unrestricted free agency for the first time in his 15-year career.
Giroux has already stated his desire to return to South Florida if the opportunity arises. However, with the worst year of the Keith Yandle buyout hitting the Panthers next season, the team has just under $4MM in projected cap space for the 2022-23 season, according to CapFriendly. That’s already an impossible number to sign Giroux unless he takes a serious old-man discount, but the team also has a handful of roster spots to fill on both forward and defense. The team could likely opt to trade Patric Hornqvist (with a limited no-trade clause) and the final year of his $5.3MM cap hit, though, which could seriously open the door for a Giroux return.
If Giroux can’t work out a return to the Panthers organization, though, teams will come prepared with serious offers for his services. The 34-year-old can still be counted on for at least 20 goals and 65/70 points in a full season, and he remains a very good defensive presence and faceoff man. Giroux is still boasting a streak of five seasons above a 55 percent mark in the faceoff circle, and although his skill set is now best used on the wing, he’s still valuable as a faceoff specialist. It’s hard to imagine Giroux receiving less than $6MM or $7MM, although a four-year term is likely an extreme maximum for Giroux at this point.
His hometown Ottawa Senators have been constantly linked to Giroux over the past few years, and the team hasn’t been quiet about their desire to improve this offseason drastically. With the team boasting nearly $25MM in cap space this offseason, they have the room and then some to make that sort of acquisition.
Is a return to the Flyers in the cards? It’s doubtful. Giroux hasn’t made a Stanley Cup Final in 12 years and he doesn’t have a ring. It’s that fact that makes it seem like a discount to stay in a team on the rise in Florida would make the most sense for Giroux. However, if the Senators play their cards right and their prospects develop properly, they could be in a position to win Cups by the end of a Giroux contract as well. Other teams in contending positions may not have the cap space to afford Giroux’s services, but it’s much too early to eliminate that scenario.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Atlantic Notes: St. Louis, Giroux, Senators
The Montreal Canadiens made waves earlier this season when the most storied franchise in NHL history replaced a head coach that had just guided them to their first Stanley Cup Final appearance in nearly 30 years with someone who had no professional coaching experience to speak of. However, under Laval native Martin St. Louis, the Canadiens, despite being battered and bruised, looked rejuvenated and carried much more of the same energy that had taken them through four rounds in 2021.
Now, it appears that St. Louis has done enough to impress the team’s front office and guide them through what’s likely to be a tumultuous next few seasons in terms of roster construction. TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that he expects the Canadiens to announce an extension for St. Louis “in the near future”, although there’s no timeline given for this. The Canadiens finished the season 14-19-4 under St. Louis, a marked improvement over the team’s abysmal 8-30-7 record under Ducharme.
- After being swept out of the Second Round by the Tampa Bay Lightning, Claude Giroux expressed interest today in returning to the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Florida Panthers. How the team manages to make that work under the salary cap, though, is a gigantic mystery. While the Panthers don’t have any significant pieces to re-sign aside from Giroux and Mason Marchment, the team is greatly restricted in salary space next year by the combined $6.575MM cap hit from the Keith Yandle and Scott Darling buyouts. With that, the team will have just $4MM in cap space this offseason with depth roster spots to fill. Giroux would need to take a steeply discounted deal, which could be unlikely given the much more rich offers he’ll receive elsewhere. Giroux had 23 points in 18 games down the stretch for the Panthers in the regular season and eight points in 10 playoff games.
- The Ottawa Senators appear to be ready to take aggressive steps in exiting their rebuild, with general manager Pierre Dorion saying that the team’s seventh overall pick at the 2022 NHL Draft is on the table for trade. Dorion also said that he’s focused on acquiring a top-four defenseman or a high-end forward, if possible. While the Senators do have a strong pool to deal from, they’re also a core that has proven very little with the team staying stagnant in the standings this season. With the team sitting on over $20MM worth of cap space again this offseason, though, they have the roster flexibility to make moves.
Minor Transactions: 05/25/22
While the North American focus on hockey remains starkly on the Stanley Cup Playoffs, most European seasons have wrapped up by now. That means a lot of players with NHL pedigrees are involved in some foreign transactions. We’ll keep track of those here today:
- Defenseman Andrey Pedan, a 2011 third-round pick of the New York Islanders and 13-game NHL veteran with the Vancouver Canucks, is on the move in the KHL. SKA St. Petersburg acquired him via trade today from Dynamo Moskva, meaning Pedan will suit up for his third different KHL team since returning to Russia in 2018. Born in Lithuania, Pedan has Russian citizenship but underwent the majority of his development in North America. He came to join the OHL in 2010 and played professionally exclusively in North America through 2018.
- Former Minnesota Wild and Washington Capital Casey Wellman announced his retirement today via Instagram. The California native was never drafted but made the jump to the NHL after the Wild picked him as a free agent from UMass in 2010. Before beginning a professional career in Europe in 2015, Wellman appeared in 54 NHL games, scoring six goals, 10 assists and 16 points.
Pittsburgh Penguins Extend Taylor Fedun
It turns out there’s a second piece of news regarding a Pittsburgh Penguins depth defenseman today. The team announced Wednesday morning that Taylor Fedun has agreed to a two-year, two-way contract extension that runs through the 2023-24 season and carries an average annual value of $762,500.
The news comes after news broke that Juuso Riikola had left the organization as an unrestricted free agent, opting to play in Sweden for 2022-23.
Fedun, now 33, last played in the NHL during the Dallas Stars’ run to the 2020 Stanley Cup Final. After he ended up spending the entire 2020-21 season with the Stars either on the taxi squad or in the AHL (only two games), Fedun signed as an unrestricted free agent with Pittsburgh this past offseason. He spent the entirety of 2021-22 with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, serving as captain and tallying five goals, 11 assists, and 16 points in 44 games.
The Edmonton-born defender will stick around in the AHL as a valuable mentor for up-and-coming Penguins defensemen, and he can still be a decent call-up option in the case of injury.
Undrafted, Fedun first broke into the league as a 25-year-old with the Edmonton Oilers in 2013-14. Since then, he’s appeared in NHL games for the Stars, San Jose Sharks, Vancouver Canucks, and Buffalo Sabres. Over seven separate seasons, Fedun has 127 NHL games under his belt with eight goals, 27 assists, and 35 points. He’s seen limited usage in those games, averaging a career number of 13:56 per game.
Juuso Riikola Signs In Sweden
The Pittsburgh Penguins won’t be getting at least one depth defenseman back next season. IK Oskarshamn of the SHL has announced the signing of Juuso Riikola for the 2022-23 season.
Riikola spent four years in the Penguins organization but spent most of his time in the AHL for the first time this year. He signed with the team in 2018 as a free agent after a six-year stint in the Finnish Liiga with KalPa. However, Riikola had played just seven NHL games over the past two seasons combined, playing just two in 2020-21 while spending the entire season on the taxi squad.
Over the past four NHL seasons, the 28-year-old Riikola played 80 games, tallying three goals, 10 assists and 13 points. While a reasonable option to slide into the lineup in case of injury, at his age, Riikola will likely opt to stay in Europe long-term, playing out his prime years in a more sizeable role.
Tempe Set To Discuss Coyotes Arena Plan Next Month
There could be some potential clarity coming on the post-Arizona State University living situation for the Arizona Coyotes. The City Council of Tempe, AZ is set to discuss the team’s proposed arena and entertainment district plan in a June 2 meeting, according to PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan.
Earlier this year, the Coyotes closed on a multi-year agreement to play their home games at the new multipurpose arena at ASU. With the capacity at this arena expected to be under 5,000 fans, it’s painstakingly obvious that this isn’t a long-term solution. The team, however, still doesn’t have a solid future after the agreement with the school ends.
Enter Tempe, where the Coyotes have been trying to forge a home for years. The entire point of the ASU agreement is to hopefully build a relationship with the Tempe community, demonstrating to the city that the struggling team is worth housing.
The team is locked into ASU for three seasons with the option for a fourth. If the team wants to ensure they’ll be able to stay in the desert at the end of that deal, time is starting to tick on the Coyotes to get the city of Tempe to approve an arena deal.