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Latest On Barry Trotz

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1:45pm: Darren Dreger of TSN reports that Trotz has turned down the job in Winnipeg, deciding instead to not jump back into the coaching ring at all. The veteran coach will instead spend time with his family, meaning the Jets will need to look elsewhere.

8:25am: The coaching carousel is chugging along, with new hires in Dallas, Florida, Philadelphia, and Vegas over the last few days. The name that still hasn’t come off the board, Barry Trotz, appears to be running out of options, though four teams still remain without head coaches. Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet reports that the latest meeting between Trotz and the Winnipeg Jets happened earlier this week and it is now up to the veteran coach on whether to accept the job.

Winner of the 2018 Stanley Cup, Trotz is sometimes even more lauded for his work with the New York Islanders, turning them from one of the worst defensive teams in the NHL to one of the best over the course of a single offseason. Even if that kind of improvement isn’t entirely because of a coaching or system change, there are few who doubt Trotz can have a positive impact no matter what kind of situation he ends up in.

Interestingly enough, Wiebe also notes that the deal Winnipeg is offering includes a succession plan that would have him move to the front office at some point down the line. That kind of management role has been speculated about since Trotz hit the market, fired by the Islanders after his fourth year there.

After all, the two-time Jack Adams winner has now coached more than 1,800 regular season games in a long career, trailing only Scotty Bowman on the all-time list. At some point, a transition out from behind the bench seems inevitable, and what better place than his hometown club.

Still, there are some other attractive openings. The Detroit Red Wings, for instance, have a young impressive group that looks like it will be contending in a few years, and might be ripe for a veteran coach to push them over the edge. Whether Detroit, Boston, or Chicago have a realistic chance (or interest) in Trotz at this point isn’t clear but Winnipeg has made him a top priority from the beginning. Now it’s up to him to decide whether he’s going back home.

Chris Kreider Undergoes Wrist Surgery

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Chris Kreider certainly didn’t seem injured as he racked up ten goals and 16 points in 20 playoff games but apparently he was. The New York Rangers announced today that Kreider underwent successful wrist surgery to remove a small bone fragment. Luckily, he won’t be forced to miss any important time, as full recovery is expected in two to four weeks.

Kreider, 31, was one of the most impressive goal-scorers in the entire league this season, racking up 52 tallies in 81 games. Twenty-six of those came on the powerplay and an incredible 11 of them were game-winners, as the veteran forward continued to prove he is one of the most clutch performers in the sport. From the moment he entered the league, Kreider has been a playoff force, racking up 34 postseason goals in 100 contests. His three game-winners this year still lead all players in the playoffs, and if the Rangers expect to have any more success in the next few years, he’ll be a huge part of it.

Hopefully, this surgery doesn’t affect Kreider’s ability to shoot the puck next season, and he’ll be able to continue playing at the high bar he set this year. His mix of speed, power, and finishing ability is rare around the league, and the Rangers would certainly not have reached the Eastern Conference Finals without him.

Kreider is signed through the 2026-27 season and carries a cap hit of $6.5MM.

Snapshots: Bergeron, Kostopoulos, Novak

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The hockey world exploded last night when a report surfaced from Joe McDonald of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette indicating that Patrice Bergeron had decided to return for one more year with the Boston Bruins. While nothing has been announced yet, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic and Matt Porter of the Boston Globe reported that Bruins general manager Don Sweeney will meet with Bergeron next week.

There’s no doubt that getting the five-time Selke Trophy winner back would improve the Bruins chances of contending next season, though they will still be starting the year without key players like Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy after recent surgeries. The team also needs a head coach in the meantime, with Porter writing that David Quinn, Jim Montgomery, and Jay Leach are currently the leading candidates.

  • The Pittsburgh Penguins have promoted Tom Kostopoulos to director of player development, following the departure of Scott Young to the Vancouver Canucks earlier today. Kostopoulos has been with the organization as a development coach for the past four seasons and had previously played in the system as captain of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The team also promoted Madison Nikkel to video coach.
  • Minnesota Wild prospect Pavel Novak has announced that he was recently diagnosed with an oncological disease and will begin treatment soon, pushing back any of his offseason training. The 20-year-old forward had a great season for the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL and would have likely been part of the Czech World Junior roster this summer, after being named to it in December before the tournament was postponed. Selected 146th overall in 2020, Novak is confident that he will be able to resume his playing career at some point.

Joel Farabee Undergoes Surgery

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The Philadelphia Flyers could be without Joel Farabee for the first part of the 2022-23 season after the young forward underwent successful disc replacement surgery in his cervical region this morning. The procedure was completed at Penn Medicine, and Farabee is expected to make a full recovery in three to four months.

Neck or spinal surgery is certainly not what Flyers fans want to hear about their young star, who struggled along with the rest of the roster this season. The 22-year-old forward had just 17 goals and 34 points in 63 games, numbers that didn’t even match his shortened 2020-21 sophomore campaign. Signed long-term to a contract that carries a $5MM cap hit, Farabee is meant to be one of the pillars that the Flyers build around moving forward.

A three-month timeline would allow him to be ready for the start of the regular season but obviously, that is still in jeopardy at this point. An injury like this is not something a player would want to rush back from, even if the team expects to try and contend for the Metropolitan Division playoff spots after a poor year.

With the team also looking to clear salary this summer by moving James van Riemsdyk, according to The Fourth Period, there could be quite a different look upfront to start the year. Those two finished fourth and fifth in team scoring during the 2021-22 campaign, just behind Claude Giroux, who is an unrestricted free agent after a deadline trade.

Vancouver Canucks Announce Hockey Ops Changes

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The Vancouver Canucks have announced several changes to the hockey operations department, as general manager Patrik Allvin continues to overhaul the front office. Ryan Johnson has been promoted to assistant to the general manager, but retains his status as GM of the Abbotsford Canucks. Scott Young will now be director of player personnel, while Frank Golden has joined as a college free agent scout.

The big addition that will grab headlines is Dale Tallon, who is joining the organization as a senior advisor and professional scout. Notably, he is returning to where it all began, as Tallon was the Canucks’ very first draft selection, second overall in 1970. The 71-year-old executive has several decades of experience in high-leverage front office roles, including most recently as general manager of the Florida Panthers.

Johnson, who continues to rise up the organizational depth chart, has been praised at length by Allvin and team president Jim Rutherford at every chance for his work with the AHL squad and other duties. A clear candidate to become an NHL general manager at some point in the future, he’ll take on this new role that works “closely with Allvin on all hockey-related matters.”

Young is coming over from the Penguins, where he worked with Allvin and Rutherford previously as the director of player development. He has extensive international experience, having played in three Olympics and coached in the past two for Team USA. Young also hoisted the Stanley Cup twice during his long playing career, which spanned more than 1,100 games at the NHL level.

The organization continues to expand and change the front office, as they look to turn the page on the last group and start a new chapter of Canucks success.

Ryan Kuffner Signs In Germany

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Sometimes a college free agent signing turns out well but very often, it doesn’t. When the Detroit Red Wings inked Ryan Kuffner out of Princeton University in 2019, it appeared as though they had added a talented offensive piece to the depth chart for little more than a contract slot and some bonus money.

After all, he had put up 152 points in four NCAA seasons, scoring at a 1.15 point-per-game rate. Kuffner quickly entered the Red Wings lineup, playing in ten games down the stretch. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to record a point in those games–a sign of what would come at the professional level. Kuffner struggled the next season in the AHL, recording just six goals and nine points in 32 games with the Grand Rapids Griffins, before ending up with the Edmonton Oilers organization as part of the Sam Gagner–Andreas Athanasiou deal.

The Oilers decided not to qualify him at the end of the year (the same decision they made with Athanasiou, leaving them completely empty-handed from that transaction), making him a free agent. After a year in Germany during the 2020-21 season, Kuffner played this year in the ECHL, putting up huge numbers for the Iowa Heartlanders. He’s parlayed that into another opportunity in Germany, this time with Augsburger of the DEL.

Now 26, any dream of returning to the NHL is likely over for Kuffner, who leaves North America with just 11 points in 41 AHL games. The ECHL meanwhile is losing a star, a player who was right near the top of the leaderboard with 1.56 points per game this season.

Offseason Checklist: Los Angeles Kings

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With the offseason in full swing aside from the two teams in the Stanley Cup Final, it’s time to examine what each squad will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at the Los Angeles Kings.

Before the season began, not many people were picking the Kings to make the playoffs, let alone push Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers to a deciding game seven. The club had brought in valuable veteran players like Viktor Arvidsson and Phillip Danault but was still considered to be in the early stages of a rebuild, focusing on Quinton Byfield and the rest of the young talent in a deep prospect pool. Not only did the team as a whole exceed expectations but mid-twenties players like Trevor Moore, Adrian Kempe, and Sean Durzi emerged as legitimate difference-makers that could quickly give the Kings depth that will make them a real contender in the Pacific Division.

With that in mind, this offseason could be time for general manager Rob Blake to push some of the chips to the middle and accelerate the plan.

Lock Up The RFAs

Before anything huge can happen, there is a lot of work to be done on the restricted free agent front. Kempe, Durzi, Lias Andersson, Carl Grundstrom, Brendan Lemieux, Gabriel Vilardi, and Mikey Anderson are all without contracts for next season, with at least some of those names deserving of long-term extensions. How much cap space Blake and company have to work with will be directly tied to how many years they include on these RFA contracts, buying out UFA years wherever possible.

Kempe, for instance, is coming off a breakout 35-goal campaign and would qualify for unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2024. Any long-term extension will be expensive, and drastically affect the spending limits in free agency. Durzi and Anderson are two other key negotiations after having outstanding runs this year, but are ineligible for arbitration at this point and could be extended on short-term deals that keep costs low.

Decide If The Defense Needs A Big Addition

From the moment his name hit the hot stove, Jakob Chychrun has been speculatively linked to the Kings as a “perfect fit.” The question now though is whether Los Angeles even needs to go out and get that kind of impact name, or just allow their young players to develop and grow into bigger roles. Anderson and Durzi have proven they can play at a high level, while Tobias Bjornfot and Jordan Spence still appear to have legitimate upside. Names like Brandt Clarke and Helge Grans are on their way in a couple of years, meaning if they wait, the Kings could have a stable of capable options without making any moves at all.

Still, the temptation will be there to cash in one or two of those prospects to improve the club for the start of next season and add another experienced, effective option to the top four. There will be names outside of Chychrun that appear on the block this summer, ones that can provide improvement now and still be good enough to contribute for years to come.

Sign Moore To An Extension

Unless you think it was a mirage, Moore is going to be an important player in the NHL for a long time, with his enviable brand of speed, energy, and tenacity. He showed exactly what kind of player he can be in the playoffs, adding five points in seven games while being given brutal defensive deployment against some of the best players in the world.

He’ll also be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, meaning an extension could be in line before he even gets close to the open market. The Kings have plenty of young players coming but it’s difficult to replace a heart-and-soul player like Moore at the best of times, and his exit would likely be felt even more dramatically now that Dustin Brown is out of the picture.

Fix Cal Petersen

The saying “goalies are voodoo” was felt nowhere more than Los Angeles this season, when their two netminders both experienced the complete opposite of what was expected of them. While Jonathan Quick had a rebound year that saw him post his best save percentage since 2018, Cal Petersen crumbled and made his three-year, $15MM extension that kicks in next season look extremely worrying. An .895 save percentage and nearly -12 goals saved above average was a huge dip for a goaltender who was expected to take over the lion’s share of the work, and now it’s unclear what the Kings will have in net once the 36-year-old Quick is out of the picture.

If he has another down season it will be almost impossible to get rid of his $5MM cap hit, making this an interesting summer for the Kings in regards to goaltending. Do they move one or the other and get another netminder capable of stepping into the starter role on a long-term basis? Do they put faith in Petersen to bounce back, and hope Quick can stave off father time a little longer?

It’s a tricky situation and one that could drag down a potential Stanley Cup contender over the next few years. They only have to look at the team that beat them for an example of young talent being held back by inconsistent goaltending. It’s not an experiment they will want to test.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Latest On Filip Forsberg

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If you were to list all of the pending free agents in terms of earning potential, Filip Forsberg would be right near the top. The 27-year-old winger is coming off an incredible season in which he scored 42 goals and 84 points in just 69 games, setting career-highs in both categories at the perfect time. Thirty-two of those goals came at even-strength, putting him ninth in the entire league, and setting him up for a massive payday this summer.

For the next few weeks, the Nashville Predators are the only team that can offer him an eight-year deal, meaning they likely have the ability to offer the most total money on a new contract. General manager David Poile even confirmed this morning when speaking to reporters including John Glennon of NHL.com that they have offered Forsberg a deal of that length, though wouldn’t clarify the proposed salary.

Despite that, the two sides remain far apart, according to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, who notably reports that both the dollar amount and type of contract structure are in dispute. Poile is notorious for having very hard lines on contract structure, including things like no-trade clauses. Currently, captain Roman Josi is the only Predator who holds any trade protection (though Pekka Rinne did also negotiate some in the past).

While expecting 40-goal seasons moving forward might be a stretch, Forsberg has been one of the most consistent offensive players in the league for basically his entire time in the NHL. As a rookie in 2014-15, he had 26 goals and 63 points, numbers that he’s hovered around up until this year’s outlying performance. Even taking out this season his career averages are 29 goals and 64 points per 82 games, someone who would fit into basically every top-six in the entire league.

There’s no way of knowing how many teams would be seriously interested in signing him but little doubt that he would be able to secure a seven-year contract on the open market.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Latest On Alexandar Georgiev

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Because of all the (deserved) attention that Igor Shesterkin gets in New York, it’s easy to forget that the Rangers have another 26-year-old netminder that has shown flashes of brilliance over the last few years. Alexandar Georgiev sits with a .909 save percentage over 131 career appearances and is coming off a two-year contract that carried a cap hit of $2.45MM.

It’s that cap hit that makes things difficult for the Rangers, as arbitration looms this summer should the team issue the $2.65MM qualifying offer that Georgiev is owed, a total that isn’t all that appealing for a team that is going to be pushed right to the salary cap ceiling with some of the other extensions they will try to pull off. Georgiev may well end up unqualified altogether, which would make him an unrestricted free agent instead.

Because of that issue, Arthur Staple of The Athletic writes that Rangers general manager Chris Drury is “trying hard to find a trade partner” for Georgiev (who he refers to as “disgruntled”). Staple notes that the team was previously looking for a first-round pick in return, though that ask is now likely much lower now, as the offseason begins.

Undrafted, Georgiev made his NHL debut during the 2017-18 season after signing an entry-level contract and quickly showed that he could handle himself at that level. Unfortunately, the .918 save percentage he posted that first year has been steadily decreasing every season since and reached a career-low .898 in 2021-22. Giving up a draft pick or other asset just for the right to sign an .898 goaltender doesn’t sound very appealing, though with the relative lack of options on the market this summer, perhaps it will still be necessary for one of the teams looking at a goaltending change.

If they do trade him–or even if they just let him leave unqualified–it would open a spot for a more veteran option behind Shesterkin in a more traditional backup role. While there may not be a ton of starting options, there are several pending free agent backups that could be had for much less than that $2.65MM qualifying offer.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Philadelphia Flyers Extend Felix Sandstrom

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The Philadelphia Flyers have finished a bit of offseason work, signing Felix Sandstrom to a new two-year contract. The deal is two-way in 2022-23 and one-way in 2023-24, and includes an average annual value of $775K at the NHL level. The minor league netminder was set to become a Group VI unrestricted free agent this summer, had he not signed a new deal by July 13.

Perhaps it is unfair to call Sandstrom a minor league goalie now that he has made his NHL debut, entering five games for the Flyers this season. He, unfortunately, lost all five of those behind the struggling Flyers, but posted a reasonable .910 save percentage in the process and showed that he could be in contention for a backup role at some point in the near future.

That future could even come as soon as next season, depending on how things shake out this summer. Ivan Fedotov was recently signed out of the KHL but has no North American experience, and the team may want to go with a more veteran option given Carter Hart’s inconsistencies to this point. At very worst, Sandstrom is now an inexpensive depth option that has shown he can handle spot starts if necessary.

Notably, he is no longer waiver-exempt and will need to pass through them in order to be assigned to the minor leagues. That’s not something the team has dealt with previously, meaning if another club has their eyes on Sandstrom, he could be at risk if they want him in the AHL.

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