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Latest On Evan Rodrigues

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The free agent market is still filled with legitimate NHL talent, even as the calendar turns to September and players start arriving to begin group workouts. Training camp is starting soon, and some talent is still waiting to find out where they will be skating this season.

One of those players is Evan Rodrigues, who broke out by playing with Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins last season, scoring 19 goals and 43 points in 82 games. Those numbers would usually be more than enough for a player to land a healthy contract in the first few days of free agency but Rodrigues remains unsigned as August comes to a close.

While his name has been connected to several clubs over the last few weeks, including the Calgary Flames and the Vancouver Canucks, there are a number of teams in the mix. According to his agent Darren Ferris, who spoke with ESPN, “a good seven or eight” teams are having discussions with Rodrigues’ camp. Ferris went on to explain that while there appear to be a few good fits for his client, teams are dealing with difficult cap restraints and trying to move money out.

Greg Wyshynski of ESPN suggests a reunion with the Penguins could be one of those fits, but after re-signing the likes of Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Bryan Rust, and Kasperi Kapanen (not to mention acquiring Jeff Petry) there isn’t much money left in Pittsburgh.

Rodrigues, 29, had never scored more than nine goals in a season previously, but still did show flashes of offensive upside in his early career with the Buffalo Sabres. The undrafted forward became a star at Boston University and is at least good enough to secure a deal somewhere in the NHL.

How expensive and for how long that deal will be remains to be seen but with dwindling cap space around the league, the forward may be better off taking a one-year deal in a good situation and trying again next summer.

Jonathan Dahlen Signs In SHL

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It’s not often that a player becomes a full-time NHLer for the first time at a young age, only to immediately go overseas to continue his career. But that’s what has happened with Jonathan Dahlen, who has signed a five-year contract with Timra IK in the SHL, the club team that developed him.

The 24-year-old forward played in 61 games with the San Jose Sharks last season, scoring 12 goals and 22 points but will return to the club he captained in 2020-21 and has twice helped reach the SHL level. In European hockey there is a relegation/promotion system, and Timra has bounced back and forth between the SHL and the Allsvenskan over the last few years.

Dahlen, who has played in the Timra system since 2014, helped them to promotions in 2018 and 2021 but has never actually played in the SHL.

Perhaps his desire to return home was part of the reason why the Sharks decided not to qualify him his summer – a possible arbitration award another potential explanation – as a five-year deal would have allowed his RFA rights to expire anyway.

An unrestricted free agent again when this deal expires, Dahlen will be an interesting name to keep an eye on down the road, as he will still be only 29.

Minor Transactions: 08/29/22

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The calendar is about to turn to September and training camp is right around the corner. Still, there are several NHL free agents still available and AHL rosters to fill out. As always, we’ll keep track of any notable minor transactions that take place, even in the dog days of summer.

  • The Cleveland Monsters have signed Justin Richards to a one-year, AHL contract. The undrafted forward played one game for the New York Rangers in 2020-21 but has been stuck in the minor leagues ever since. In 67 appearances last year with the Hartford Wolf Pack, he scored 14 points.
  • Nikolai Chebykin, who still appears on the Toronto Maple Leafs’ reserve list, was traded in the KHL and will play for Vladivostok this season. The 25-year-old was a seventh-round pick in 2016 who never came to North America, meaning his NHL rights will be held indefinitely.
  • The Calgary Wranglers have signed three forwards to two-way, AHL/ECHL deals, getting Matt Marcinew, Lucas Feuk, and Calder Brooks inked. Marcinew spent last season overseas playing in Finland and Sweden, while Brooks was mostly with the Rapid City Rush. Feuk, by far the youngest of the three, was a fourth-round pick of the Flames in 2019 and will be entering his first professional season in North America.

San Jose Sharks Sign Jonah Gadjovich

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After reporters last week indicated that talks were getting close between the San Jose Sharks and Jonah Gadjovich, the restricted free agent has apparently come to terms with the club. The two sides have agreed to a one-year, two-way contract; CapFriendly reports it will pay the young forward $750K in the NHL, $120K in the AHL, and includes a $150K minor league guarantee.

Gadjovich, 23, was claimed off waivers at the start of last season by the Sharks, after failing to make the Vancouver Canucks roster out of camp. The 2017 second-round pick provided basically no offense, scoring just one goal and three points in 43 games but still managed to become something of a fan favorite due to his incredibly physical game.

The 6’2″ winger racked up 104 hits and 74 penalty minutes despite averaging fewer than nine minutes of ice time a night, racking up ten fighting majors in the process.

It’s that physicality, combined with some sneaky-good goal-scoring ability that made Gadjovich such a high pick, though he hasn’t shown any of the latter so far at the NHL level. In his last AHL season, however, the big winger did have 15 goals in 19 games, continuing to put the puck in the net at a high rate.

If the Sharks can coax any of that ability out of him in the coming years, they could have a valuable contributor for their bottom six. Otherwise, they’ll have to decide if a dressing pseudo-enforcer is possible in today’s NHL.

It is worth noting that despite his limited minutes, Gadjovich did actually still attempt 69 shots but only hit the net on 36 of those and then had an incredibly low shooting percentage of just 2.8%. If that happens to be more unlucky than skill-based, there may be some upside if given a bigger opportunity in the lineup this season.

2008 NHL Draft Take Two: Fourth Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.”  Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science, and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now.  Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

The results of our redraft so far are as follows with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall: Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
2nd Overall: Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings (2)
3rd Overall: Roman Josi, Atlanta Thrashers (38)

The 2020 Norris Trophy winner was able to edge out a couple of other elite defensemen, as more than 46% of our readers felt Josi was the right choice at third overall. Comparing him to the Zach Bogosian pick that the Thrashers actually went with will certainly drive Winnipeg Jets fans crazy, as Josi has spent his entire career to this point with the team that picked him and is coming off a 96-point campaign that puts him at the very top of the list for offensive seasons by defensemen in the salary cap era.

After Stamkos, Doughty, and Josi come off the board, we move to fourth overall which was held by the St. Louis Blues.

Despite his name not coming up in the first three picks of our redraft, the Blues have never regretted their selection of Alex Pietrangelo. After watching Doughty and Bogosian go off the board, the Blues decided to go another defenseman and selected the King City, Ontario native who had just put up 13 goals and 53 points with the Niagara IceDogs.

Pietrangelo, who actually played with Stamkos on the same summer league minor hockey team, had been a top prospect in the Toronto area for a long time and was seen as a much more well-rounded option than some of the other defensemen available at that point. He had been ranked fifth among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting and seemed like a potential franchise defenseman that would have been in the running for an even higher pick in some weaker years.

That’s exactly what the Blues got, though it did take a little bit of time for Pietrangelo to actually get there. Unlike Doughty and Bogosian, who both went to the NHL as teenage defensemen, Pietrangelo would only play a handful of games before being sent back to the OHL in both 2008-09 and 2009-10. By the time he arrived full-time in 2010-11, he was pretty much a finished product and scored 11 goals and 43 points while logging 22 minutes a night.

He would have an “A” on his sweater by his fourth season (the same year he won an Olympic gold medal) and would eventually take over as captain of the Blues in 2016.

One of the most consistent two-way defenders in the league, Pietrangelo has 517 points in 879 career regular season games and has averaged nearly 25 minutes. He led the Blues to the Stanley Cup in 2019, even scoring the championship-clinching goal.

Because of that Cup, St. Louis likely wouldn’t trade that pick for anything. But would they have been better off with someone else? Would that Blues team have been even more dangerous with another player?

With the fourth pick in the 2008 NHL Draft, who should the St. Louis Blues select? Cast your vote below.

2008 Redraft: Fourth Overall
Alex Pietrangelo 46.63% (657 votes)
Erik Karlsson 32.65% (460 votes)
John Carlson 10.57% (149 votes)
Jacob Markstrom 2.91% (41 votes)
Braden Holtby 1.56% (22 votes)
Jared Spurgeon 0.92% (13 votes)
Jordan Eberle 0.78% (11 votes)
Cam Atkinson 0.64% (9 votes)
T.J. Brodie 0.50% (7 votes)
Derek Stepan 0.50% (7 votes)
Zach Bogosian 0.35% (5 votes)
Matt Martin 0.35% (5 votes)
Adam Henrique 0.28% (4 votes)
Tyler Ennis 0.28% (4 votes)
Josh Bailey 0.21% (3 votes)
Justin Schultz 0.14% (2 votes)
Michael Del Zotto 0.14% (2 votes)
Jake Gardiner 0.14% (2 votes)
Jake Allen 0.07% (1 votes)
Colin Wilson 0.07% (1 votes)
Marco Scandella 0.07% (1 votes)
Tyler Myers 0.07% (1 votes)
Mikkel Boedker 0.07% (1 votes)
Gustav Nyquist 0.07% (1 votes)
Travis Hamonic 0.00% (0 votes)
Total Votes: 1,409

Philadelphia Flyers Sign Hayden Hodgson

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After working his way up from the low minors to earn an NHL contract last season, Hayden Hodgson has cashed in again. The Philadelphia Flyers have signed Hodgson to a two-year contract that will carry an average annual value of $800K in the NHL. The deal is two-way in 2022-23, meaning he will earn a lower number when playing in the AHL, and one-way in 2023-24.

If you want a story of perseverance, look no further than the 26-year-old Hodgson, who was a third-round pick in his OHL draft, went undrafted by NHL teams, and spent parts of four seasons in the ECHL before becoming an AHL regular in 2021-22.

Because of his outstanding play for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, he earned an NHL contract in March and played six games with the Flyers down the stretch, scoring three points and racking up 11 penalty minutes.

The 6’2″ winger blends skill, work ethic, and physicality to provide a pretty interesting late-blooming package, one that has a chance to play more regular minutes with the Flyers this season.

Landing a one-way contract is no joke for a player who had bounced around the ECHL up until a year ago, playing for the Florida Everblades, Manchester Monarchs, Wichita Thunder, Reading Royals, Wheeling Nailers, and Utah Grizzlies (not to mention Detva HC of the Slovak league) between stints in the AHL.

It also takes care of the last remaining RFA for the Flyers, who signed Wade Allison and Linus Hogberg yesterday.

Pacific Notes: Weegar, Flames, Stone

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The Calgary Flames quickly signed newcomer Jonathan Huberdeau to an extension after acquiring him from the Florida Panthers, and will now try to do the same with MacKenzie Weegar, according to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.

Weegar met with Flames general manager Brad Treliving last week and both sides apparently have had good discussions about a long-term extension. Calgary, says Pagnotta, hopes to have something done by training camp or at the very latest, the start of the regular season.

  • On the same NHL Network appearance, Pagnotta also noted that the Flames are still looking to add another free agent forward, mentioning Evan Rodrigues and Sonny Milano in particular. Rodrigues had 19 goals and 43 points in 82 games last season, while Milano racked up 14 goals and 34 points in 66 games.
  • When Jackie Spiegel’s latest piece came out for NHL.com, examining the health of Vegas Golden Knights star Jack Eichel, one line caught the attention of many fans. It read that Mark Stone would miss training camp as he continues to recover from back surgery in May. Golden Knights insider Gary Lawless tried to clarify, noting that just because the team has indicated that Stone would be ready for the start of the regular season, it doesn’t necessarily mean he will be missing training camp. A return to full health for Stone would be a huge boost for Vegas, after he was limited to just 37 games last season.

Prospect Notes: Dickinson, Hamara, Lindgren

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The Niagara IceDogs have had a tumultuous 12 months, and things aren’t slowing down. The OHL team will not have top pick Sam Dickinson in camp according to Jeff Marek of Sportsnet, confirming earlier reporting from Matt Young of OHL Tonight.

Dickinson, the fourth-overall pick in this year’s OHL draft, was also picked late by the Chicago Steel of the USHL and could see his CHL rights traded to the London Knights according to Young. Both powerhouse organizations are known for being able to recruit talented youngsters, given their elite development programs.

  • The Kitchener Rangers, meanwhile, announced some good news today by signing Tomas Hamara to a standard contract. The Ottawa Senators third-round pick was the 26th selection in the CHL Import Draft and will come over from Finland, where he has played the last several years. The Czech-born defenseman signed his entry-level contract with Ottawa in July.
  • Speaking of 2022 draft picks, Buffalo Sabres prospect Mats Lindgren (son of former NHL forward Mats Lindgren), has been traded from the Kamloops Blazers to the Red Deer Rebels for the upcoming WHL season. Lingren was the 106th player selected last month, joining a Sabres prospect pool that is loaded with young talent.

Arizona Coyotes Promote Lee Stempniak

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The Arizona Coyotes have promoted long-time NHL forward Lee Stempniak to director of player development, after he joined the front office last year as a hockey data strategist.

General manager Bill Armstrong released the following:

We are very pleased to name Lee as our new director of player development. Lee was a hard-working player who had a very good career. He understands what it takes to get to the NHL and we are confident that he will do an excellent job developing our players.

Stempniak, 39, ended his playing career in 2019 after more than 900 games at the NHL level, including parts of two seasons with the Coyotes. A deadline swap seemingly every year, he played on ten different squads over his 14-year career, most notably with the St. Louis Blues, where he reached a career-high 52 points in 2006-07.

In his new role, he will oversee the development of the team’s drafted prospects, along with those in the minor league system.

Hamilton Bulldogs Hire Laura Fortino

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The first female assistant coach in OHL history will be Laura Fortino, who was officially given a full-time position with the Hamilton Bulldogs today. Fortino will not only serve as an assistant coach but also as the team’s director of player development.

Bulldogs general manager Steve Staios released the following:

We are incredibly excited to welcome Laura to our Hamilton Bulldogs family. Laura exudes the passion, character and leadership that we covet in Hamilton. We have witnessed firsthand through our training and development camps over the years, her ability to coach and mentor players. Laura’s playing experience and success speaks for itself, she has been an instrumental part on many Championship teams and undoubtably will carry on that success as a Coach.

Fortino, 31, is a decorated athlete, with Olympic and World Championship gold medals, a CWHL title, and two nominations for the Patty Kazmaier Award. The Hamilton native has been part of the PWHPA for the last several seasons, and had been helping with the Bulldogs’ camps in the past.

The Bulldogs, led by head coach Jay McKee, reached the Memorial Cup final this season, after winning the OHL Championship. The powerhouse club, which included Anaheim Ducks prospect Mason McTavish, went 51-12-5 during the regular season.

While that success may be difficult to replicate next season, the program has celebrated two championships in four years and has done a great job preparing young players for the professional level.

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