Kraken Re-Assign Tyson Jugnauth To AHL
Earlier today, it was announced that Portland Winterhawks forward, Nate Danielson, would be joining the AHL affiliate of the Detroit Red Wings, the Grand Rapids Griffins, in their pursuit of the 2024 Calder Cup. Like Danielson, another player from the Winterhawks will be moving to the AHL, as beat writer for Portland, Joshua Critzer, reports that Tyson Jugnauth will be joining the AHL affiliate of the Seattle Kraken, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, for the postseason.
Jugnauth was drafted one year before Danielson, being selected by the Kraken with the 100th overall selection of the 2022 NHL Draft. Originally, the young defenseman had committed to the University of Wisconsin after his draft year before finally joining the Winterhawks partway through the 2023-24 season.
In Wisconsin, Jugnauth’s footwork was never shown on full display, putting up five goals and 17 points in 45 games over two years spent in the NCAA. However, once Jugnauth landed in Portland, his offensive prowess and foot speed came to the front stage, scoring seven goals and 34 assists in only 41 games.
During their run through the 2024 WHL playoffs, Jugnauth was once again relied on for his play creation, scoring four goals and 16 points during the Winterhawks’ 18-game playoff run. Although he currently remains unsigned by the Kraken organization, Jugnauth’s play in the WHL has led them to give him this opportunity.
After defeating the Calgary Wranglers in four games during the Pacific Division semifinals, the Firebirds already find themselves up two games to none in their Western Conference Division Final matchup against the Ontario Reign. Much like Danielson, it is no guarantee that Jugnauth will factor into any games during the AHL postseason, but practicing on a playoff-caliber roster will be a valuable experience in its own right.
Aleksander Barkov Wins 2024 Selke Trophy
Continuing on with the slow drip of announcing award winners from the 2023-24 regular season, the National Hockey League has announced this year’s winner of the Frank J. Selke Trophy, given to the player who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game. The league announced this year’s winner as captain of the Florida Panthers, Aleksander Barkov, who will win the award for the second time in his career.
Barkov, who last won the award over the 2020-21 season, will end the two-year run of former Boston Bruins captain, Patrice Bergeron. Now earning his second Selke Trophy victory, Barkov is tied with the captain of the Los Angeles Kings, Anze Kopitar, with the most Selke Trophies among active players.
There is little doubt about Barkov’s case for the win, as he has regularly been one of the league’s top defensive forwards for the last several years. This season in particular, Barkov finished with a +33 rating, a +31 takeaway-to-giveaway ratio, and kept the puck in the offensive zone 46.3% of the time at even strength, putting him in the 97th percentile in the NHL.
Although being an individual award, Barkov’s defensive capabilities are certainly boosted by the rest of his teammates on the Panthers roster, as they tied for first in the league this season with 2.41 GA/G. Not only did Barkov help Florida excel at limiting goals against, but the team finished with the third-fewest shots against, as well as sustaining the league’s sixth-best penalty kill.
San Jose Sharks Linked To Jeff Blashill
Since losing in the 2019 Western Conference Finals to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions, St. Louis Blues, the San Jose Sharks have failed to make a postseason appearance, and have produced a dismal regular season record of 123-199-50 under three different head coaches. At the end of this season, General Manager of the Sharks, Mike Grier, announced that the team would be parting ways with head coach David Quinn after two years behind the bench.
After winning the NHL Draft Lottery last week, San Jose has the opportunity to select forward Macklin Celebrini with the first overall selection, allowing them to take one leap forward in their ongoing rebuild. However, another integral part of the organization’s development and future success will be the choice of the next head coach of the organization.
Following up on a report from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman in his recurring ’32 Thoughts’ podcast, Sheng Peng of SJ Hockey Now confirms that the Sharks organization has an interest in naming Jeff Blashill as the team’s next head coach. Currently, Blashill has been serving as an assistant coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning since the beginning of the 2022-23 NHL season.
Before his career led him to western Florida, Blashill had experienced a good amount of success in the NCAA and the AHL. After serving as an assistant coach with Ferris State University and Miami University (Ohio) for several years, Blashill got his first opportunity as a head coach in the NCAA with Western Michigan University for the 2010-11 season.
Blashill led the Broncos to a 20-13-10 record in his first season at the helm, coaching Western Michigan to an appearance in that season’s NCAA Frozen Four Tournament. After only one year, the Detroit Red Wings brought Blashill on as an assistant coach for the 2011-12 NHL season, before naming head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, a role he held for three years.
Coaching the Griffins to a Calder Cup Championship in 2013, Blashill quickly became the heir-apparent behind the bench to longtime Red Wings coach, Mike Babcock. When Babcock eventually left for the head coaching position with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2015-16, Blashill was named the next head coach for Detroit.
Ultimately, Blashill was not put in a position to succeed with the Red Wings, as the roster began deteriorating quickly after he became head coach, with the organization’s last playoff appearance coming in the 2015-16 NHL season. After producing a 204-261-72 record with Detroit from 2015-2022, the Red Wings decided to move forward in their rebuild without Blashill, relieving him of his duties after the 2021-22 season.
With plenty of available head coach candidates this offseason, the Sharks will have their work cut out to find the correct candidate. In Blashill, he has shown the ability to work well with younger talent at all levels of the game but has not yet had the opportunity to coach an up-and-coming roster at the NHL level.
Los Angeles Kings Extend David Rittich
With three of their goaltenders on the active roster headed for unrestricted free agency this summer, the Los Angeles Kings have decided to preliminary take one off the market. The organization announced a one-year, $1MM contract extension for backup goaltender David Rittich.
After a quality season serving as the backup to Connor Hellebuyck with the Winnipeg Jets organization in 2022-23, the Kings quickly signed Rittich to a one-year, $875K contract on the first day of free agency last summer. Originally positioned as Los Angeles’ third-string goaltender at the beginning of the 2023-24 NHL season, Rittich would get the opportunity to serve as the Kings’ primary backup option after Pheonix Copley lost his season to a torn ACL in early December.
Putting together one of the best individual seasons of his career, Rittich appeared in 24 games for Los Angeles down the stretch, securing a 16-6-3 record while posting a .921 save percentage and 2.15 GAA. Although the starting role for the Kings is up in the air headed into the offseason, Rittich should already be penciled in as the team’s backup to start the 2024-25 NHL season.
With Rittich now off the board, the already lackluster talent available at the goaltending position in free agency has continued to thin out. Not in any order, the top available unrestricted free agents in the crease has been whittled down to Anthony Stolarz, Cam Talbot, Kevin Lankinen, Alex Nedeljkovic, Ilya Samsonov, and Laurent Brossoit.
Buffalo Sabres Not Expected To Re-Sign Zemgus Girgensons, Victor Olofsson
After failing to make the playoffs for the 13th consecutive season, the Buffalo Sabres are expected to change their secondary scoring options this summer. According to David Pagnotta of TheFourthPeriod, the Sabres are not expected to offer contracts to pending unrestricted free agents Victor Olofsson or Zemgus Girgensons.
The reported news surrounding Olofsson does not come as a surprise, as the forward has seen his ice time steadily cut since the end of the 2019-20 NHL season. A reliable scoring option in years past, Olofsson has reached the 20-goal mark three separate times in six years with the Sabres organization, but has been known for poor defensive play as well as his play away from the puck. Suiting up in 314 games for Buffalo, Olofsson has scored 90 goals and 92 assists, with 33.5% of his production coming on the Sabres powerplay.
Girgensons, on the other hand, has been a consistent defensively minded forward in Buffalo for the last decade. Drafted by the Sabres organization with the 12th overall pick of the 2012 NHL Draft, Girgensons has played in nearly 700 games for Buffalo, scoring 89 goals and 188 points while being a quality penalty killer to boot.
Throughout his tenure with the Sabres, Girgensons has been through several ups and downs, playing under five different head coaches since his rookie season. On the open market, Girgensons will be hard-pressed to earn more than his current $2.5MM AAV but should be able to find a spot on nearly every team’s fourth line.
Letting Girgensons and Olofsson pursue greener pastures this summer, coupled with the Sabres moving on from Casey Mittelstadt and Kyle Okposo at this year’s trade deadline, it is apparent that Buffalo is looking to redesign its forward core. The organization has plenty of prospect talent at the forward position, and should now have the flexibility to fill in the holes in any manner.
West Second Round Notes: Hintz, Tanev, Smith, Toews, Black Aces
After not issuing an update in yesterday’s media availability, it is now confirmed that the Dallas Stars will be without Roope Hintz for Game 5, according to the team’s radio analyst, Bruce LeVine. Taking Hintz’s spot in the lineup will be veteran forward Radek Faksa, who has scored one goal in four games so far in this year’s playoffs.
Currently dealing with an upper-body injury, Hintz only managed to skate in 6:35 during the Stars’ Game 4 victory on Monday night, leaving the ice early into the second period. In his shift before leaving the game, Hintz was cross-checked on the right side by forward Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche. Seemingly laboring through the rest of the shift, Hintz would end up blocking a shot and then was once again cross-checked by Avalanche defenseman Sean Walker.
Although losing out on Hintz for Game 5 is a significant blow to their lineup, the team will not be without defenseman Chris Tanev or forward Craig Smith, as both were cleared to play this evening per LeVine (X Link). Similarly to Hintz, both Tanev and Smith sustained injuries in Game 4, with Tanev also joining Hintz in the locker room before the conclusion of the contest.
Other second-round notes:
- On the flip side of the series, the Avalanche are expected to see defenseman Devon Toews return to the lineup tonight, according to Emily Kaplan of ESPN. Toews will return to the active roster after missing Game 4 due to an illness, and will now help Colorado stave off elimination for the first time this postseason. In eight playoff games so far this spring, Toews has once again been heavily utilized by the Avalanche, scoring one goal and five assists while averaging 23:46 of ice time per game.
- Lastly, the Stars organization has recalled a trio from their AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, after they were eliminated from the 2024 Calder Cup playoffs this past Sunday. Forward Mavrik Bourque, as well as defensemen Alex Petrovic and Lian Bichsel, will be joining Dallas as depth options for the time being. If the team sustains any more injuries in the coming days, Bourque is the most likely to enter the lineup as the 22-year-old is the recent recipient of the John B. Sollenberger Trophy as the AHL’s leading scorer.
Maple Leafs Interested In Extending Tyler Bertuzzi
From the start of the 2020-21 NHL season, forward Tyler Bertuzzi had been generally inconsistent, due in large part to his inability to stay healthy for an entire season. Over a possible 220 regular season games, Bertuzzi was only able to suit up in 127 games with the Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins.
Because of this, Bertuzzi failed to secure a multi-year contract in last year’s offseason, choosing to sign a one-year, $5.5MM contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Even though he brought the grit that the Maple Leafs were coveting over the offseason, Bertuzzi failed to reach his expectations on the score sheet for quite some time in Toronto, scoring six goals and 21 points through his first 50 games with the organization.
Nevertheless, Bertuzzi finally picked up his offensive output towards the end of the regular season, scoring 15 goals and 22 points in his last 30 games. Seemingly enjoying his time in Toronto, it was reported only two weeks ago that Bertuzzi would be open to signing an extension with the Maple Leafs, with David Pagnotta of TheFourthPeriod now reporting that the feeling is mutual between the two parties.
With Toronto once again failing to deliver on lofty postseason expectations, there is wide belief throughout the league that major changes will be coming to the roster this summer. Although rumors have been floating around in years past about breaking up the ‘Core Four’, the current speculation appears to have much more veracity than in years past.
Outside of Bertuzzi’s pending unrestricted free agency, the Maple Leafs still need to find a head coach, develop a quality defensive core, and iron out their goaltending situation. Assuming that Bertuzzi is hoping to garner a multi-year contract this summer, he may need to settle for a lower AAV than expected, unless Toronto can free up additional cap space in their expected flurry of moves this offseason.
No Extension Talks Between Los Angeles Kings, Matt Roy
After defeating the New York Rangers in the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals, the Los Angeles Kings have had to re-establish their footing in the Western Conference, setting forth on a multi-year re-tool while still holding on to veterans Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty. However, since the Kings’ Cup victory in 2014, even after the recent retooling of the roster, they have failed to make it beyond the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Already going through a coaching change during the regular season, Los Angeles has some major decisions to make during the upcoming offseason, decisions that will influence the future success of the organization. One of those decisions will come on the blue line, as the Kings debate whether or not to retain the services of Matt Roy.
With their season coming to an end two weeks ago, there have reportedly been no extension talks between Los Angeles and Roy’s camp. However, Dennis Bernstein of TheFourthPeriod reports that the Kings organization is expecting extension talks to progress closer to June, a short time before Roy would have the opportunity to discuss a potential contract with the 31 other teams across the league.
Heading into the offseason, Los Angeles will have approximately $23.25MM of cap space to work with, but will notably need to address the contractual futures of up-and-coming talents Quinton Byfield and Jordan Spence with both become restricted free agents this summer. Beyond those two, the Kings are highly expected to make a splash in the goaltending market, which will take its chunk out of the available cap space.
Earning only $3.15MM a year on his current contract, Roy’s play over the last three years may have priced him out of Los Angeles’ lineup next season. Since the start of the 2021-22 NHL season, Roy has suited up in 230 regular season games for the Kings, scoring 16 goals and 72 points in total while averaging over 130 hits and 150 blocks a year in the process.
East Notes: Marchand, Sjalin, Rochester
As expected, Boston Bruins’ captain Brad Marchand was not an option for the team tonight against the Florida Panthers, as he continues to work his way back from an upper-body injury (X Link). It will be the second straight game that Marchand has not been able to suit up, and he will not be able to help the Bruins stave off elimination this evening.
Although Marchand’s injury has been classified as an upper-body injury, it is more than likely he is dealing with a head injury. In the first period of Game 3, Marchand attempted to deliver a hit to Panthers’ forward Sam Bennett in between the benches and quickly fell to the ice. Slowly getting back to Boston’s bench, alternate footage of the incident showed that during the play in question, Bennett appeared to throw a punch, making contact with Marchand’s head.
Currently battling in an elimination game, the play in question could potentially mark an unceremonious end to Marchand’s season. Throughout the first two rounds of this year’s playoffs, Marchand has led the Bruins in scoring, putting up three goals and 10 points in 10 games played.
Other East notes:
- As previously rumored, Buffalo Sabres’ prospect, Calle Sjalin, has decided to sign with Rögle BK of the Swedish Hockey League (X Link). Despite being a solid contributor during his last season in the SHL, Sjalin never got much of an opportunity throughout his time in North America, appearing in only 70 AHL games over two seasons. Without much productivity throughout his tenure in the Panthers organization, Sjalin was traded to the Sabres organization this past deadline in a deal that sent team captain Kyle Okposo to the Sunshine State.
- Staying in the Sabres organization, Buffalo beat writer Bill Hoppe reports that Rochester Americans assistant coaches Vinny Prospal and Nathan Paetsch will be staying in the organization, and one may even become the next head coach. The team’s most recent head coach, Seth Appert, has been named an assistant coach for the Sabres for the 2024-25 NHL season, leading to the vacancy behind the bench.
Jacob Trouba Wins 2024 Mark Messier Leadership Award
As the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs continue, the National Hockey League has steadily released the names of award winners, this time announcing New York Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba as the 2023-24 Mark Messier Leadership Award winner. The award is given “to the player who exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team, on and off the ice, during the regular season and who plays a leading role in his community growing the game of hockey”.
While the players or the media vote on most awards in the NHL, this award is given by Messier himself, after taking suggestions from NHL organizations and their personnel. Messier, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007, is viewed as one of the more prominent leaders in league history with the NHL creating this award in the same year as his Hall of Fame induction.
Prior to the 2020-21 NHL season, Trouba was named the 28th captain in the history of the Rangers organization; becoming the fourth-straight American-born captain for the club. This season, Trouba captained New York to a franchise record for wins and points in a single season, while being an integral part of a top-five penalty kill. Off the ice, Trouba has been a focal member of the youth hockey community, while also becoming a leading member in the Garden of Dreams, Epilepsy Foundation, and Hockey Fights Cancer. Trouba becomes the first member of the Rangers to win the award, as well as the first defenseman since Mark Giordano in 2020.