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Edmundson, Price Won’t Be Ready For Start Of Season

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The Montreal Canadiens will be without two key pieces when the season begins next week, as head coach Dominique Ducharme confirmed today that Carey Price and Joel Edmundson will not be with the team for the October 13 opener. Price, who is still recovering from offseason knee surgery, came down with a non-COVID illness and hasn’t been able to practice with the team. Edmundson meanwhile has not progressed from an undisclosed injury and will be out another two to three weeks, as Eric Engels of Sportsnet relays.

Though Price’s absence is obviously important, Canadiens fans shouldn’t panic just yet. The star goaltender won’t be able to practice with the team before the season begins, but still shouldn’t be out long-term. Montreal claimed Sam Montembeault off waivers from the Florida Panthers to serve as backup while Jake Allen takes the net through the early going. Allen posted a .907 save percentage in 29 appearances last season, while Montembeault has an .892 in 25 career NHL games.

Edmundson meanwhile is more concerning, if only because of the lack of clarity on when he will return. The team did add depth on the blue line this offseason by bringing in David Savard, Chris Wideman, and Sami Niku, but they are also without captain Shea Weber. Losing Edmundson, one of their most reliable defensive options, will leave a hole on the left side for the time being.

Speculation immediately goes to young defenseman Kaiden Guhle, who could play up to nine games with the Canadiens before burning the first year of his entry-level contract. There’s a chance that he could get a taste of the NHL while filling in for Edmundson through the first few games, before going back to the Prince Albert Raiders for his regular junior season. One thing not available to Guhle is the AHL, as he played only three games there last season and doesn’t meet the criteria for this year’s one-time exception.

Without Price or Edmundson, the Canadiens will take on the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first game of the season.

Los Angeles Kings Recall Four Players

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4:05pm: The Kings have actually recalled three more players for tonight’s game, bringing Samuel Fagemo, Jordan Spence and Jacob Ingham up. The team also announced that Byfield will be out week to week, but further evaluations are still underway.

11:40am: Though they were already sent to the AHL and likely won’t be making the opening night roster, four young players are back up with the Los Angeles Kings for the time being. The team recalled Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Arthur Kaliyev, Rasmus Kupari, and Alex Turcotte ahead of their preseason game against the Anaheim Ducks tonight.

The recalls do follow an unfortunate injury to Quinton Byfield, who was caught up in an awkward hit with Arizona Coyotes forward Christian Fischer last night. He was helped off the ice and the Kings are expected to release an update on his status today. It wasn’t certain that Byfield would make the team, but he was making a great impression this preseason with his improved all-around play.

The four recalled today represent the prospect tier just under Byfield for the Kings, all players who have a legitimate shot at long NHL careers. Each should see some time with Los Angeles this season but it is unlikely that their performance tonight would propel them into a roster spot right away. That is of course unless the team suffers any further injuries; this group will likely be the first few names recalled in that case.

Brett Connolly Assigned To AHL

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The Chicago Blackhawks have opened up a bit of cap space by assigning veteran forward Brett Connolly to the AHL today according to Mark Lazerus of The Athletic. The move comes after Connolly cleared waivers earlier today and will mean $1.125MM ($375K + the league minimum of $750K) of his $3.5MM cap hit will come off the books.

That still means the Blackhawks now have a cap penalty of $2.375MM for a player not even on their roster, obviously not an ideal situation for a team pushing the upper limit. Chicago has some flexibility thanks to Andrew Shaw’s LTIR status, but that means they will not accrue additional cap space through the season for a potential deadline acquisition.

For Connolly, it’s hard to imagine how quickly things have declined. In 2018 he was a Stanley Cup champion with the Washington Capitals, playing a key role for the team and scoring six goals in the postseason. The next season he would score a career-high 22 goals with the Capitals, setting him up for a nice payday in free agency. It came from the Florida Panthers, who gave him $14MM over four years on July 1, 2019. With that in hand, he got off to a nice start in Sunrise, scoring 19 goals and 33 points in 69 games before the season was shut down.

This year though was a completely different story. Connolly had just two goals and four points in 21 games with the Panthers before a deadline deal took him to Chicago. The Blackhawks took on his entire salary while also getting Riley Stillman and Henrik Borgstrom in the deal, but Connolly couldn’t find his way down the stretch. He scored one goal and two points in ten games for Chicago, and now finds himself assigned to the AHL.

Connolly is still only 29, but with another year on his deal after this one, it will be hard to trade him without sweetening the pot for a rebuilding team. Teams like the Ottawa Senators or Buffalo Sabres who are flirting with the cap floor (pending a Jack Eichel trade for the latter) seem like ideal fits, but it’s not clear at all if they are interested at this point.

AHL Exception Coming Into Play For CHL Talent

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Back in July, Darren Dreger of TSN reported that the finishing touches were being put on an agreement between the AHL and CHL that would allow some ineligible players to spend the 2021-22 season in the professional ranks. Normally, players drafted out of the CHL are not eligible to play in the AHL until they are 20 years old. This one-time exception would only come into effect for those players who took part in at least 20 AHL contests during 2020-21 when their respective CHL teams were not operating.

While there has been no official announcement of the rule, the last few days have seen several transactions that suggest it is now in effect.

This week, the Anaheim Ducks and Colorado Avalanche assigned Jacob Perreault and Jean-Luc Foudy respectively to their AHL affiliates. Neither player would normally be able to report, given their OHL seasons are about to start. In fact, Perreault’s Sarnia Sting and Foudy’s Windsor Spitfires are set to play each other tomorrow evening on the league’s opening night. The junior league won’t have the talented forwards as both played more than 25 games in the AHL last season and will head back there to continue their development.

Today, the Philadelphia Flyers have completed a similar move, sending 19-year-old forward Tyson Foerster to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Foerster played 24 games or the AHL last season, while his Barrie Colts were stuck in limbo like the rest of the OHL. The Flyers will be able to do the same thing with Zayde Wisdom who played 28 games for Lehigh Valley last season, though he is still out following his recent shoulder surgery and has not been reassigned yet.

These are all huge losses for the CHL, but pretty substantial gains for the AHL. Each young player has found success early on at the professional level, once again suggesting that there should be an exemption of some sort for those deemed exceptional moving forward. There’s obviously a reason why the Flyers, Ducks, and Avalanche feel the best thing for their development is playing at the AHL level, as they still did have the option to send them back to junior. One thing to point out is that those players loaned back to their junior clubs are ineligible for recall to the NHL all season except under emergency conditions, but one can assume that these expected players would be eligible for a call-up if necessary as they play in the AHL.

There are several other names that could find themselves in the AHL ahead of time, including Cole Perfetti of the Winnipeg Jets, Quinton Byfield of the Los Angeles Kings, and Donovan Sebrango of the Detroit Red Wings. Jan Mysak, who was also eligible for the AHL according to this exemption, was loaned back to the Hamilton Bulldogs of the OHL earlier this month while Ryan O’Rourke was sent back to the Soo Greyhounds early in Minnesota Wild camp.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Alex Galchenyuk Signs With Arizona Coyotes

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After taking a professional tryout to attend training camp, Alex Galchenyuk has earned himself another chance with the Arizona Coyotes. Late last night Darren Dreger of TSN reported that the Coyotes have signed the enigmatic forward to a one-year, $750K contract for the 2021-22 season. The team officially announced the signing in the early afternoon, releasing this statement from GM Bill Armstong:

We are very pleased to sign Alex. He is a versatile, skilled forward who works hard and has earned a spot on our roster. He will be a good addition to our team.

Galchenyuk, 27, seemed to reinvent himself last season with the Toronto Maple Leafs, scoring 12 points in 26 games down the stretch and four more in six playoff games. While he still is frustratingly inconsistent at times, this is a player with more scoring upside than most of the Coyotes’ current roster. Arizona, which is going through another drastic rebuilding phase under Armstrong, look to be going into the season with aging veterans like Loui Eriksson, Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel, and Andrew Ladd in the nightly lineup.

Even though he’s making quite a bit less than those players, Galchenyuk offers something they don’t at the offensive end of the rink and should get some looks playing alongside Arizona’s more talented forwards. The last time he played for the Coyotes was the last time he had a strong season, scoring 19 goals and 41 points in 2018-19. If he can even repeat that he would be easily worth the league-minimum salary he earned, and would likely play himself into a trade deadline deal once again.

Whether he can really get his career back on track is completely unclear, but Galchenyuk is still young enough to earn a multi-year deal next offseason if he can prove to be a valuable top-six and powerplay option. There aren’t many spots around the NHL where he would receive a better opportunity at those minutes than in Arizona.

14 Players Clear Waivers

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Oct 6: All 14 players have cleared waivers and can be assigned to the minor leagues.

Oct 5: Training camp continues to move along and every day brings more cuts. Many of those sent to the minor leagues need to clear waivers, and Chris Johnston of the Toronto Star tweets out today’s full list of 14.

Buddy Robinson (ANA)
Bokondji Imama (ARI)
Cameron Hughes (BOS)
Joona Koppanen (BOS)
Tyler Lewington (BOS)
Ryan MacInnis (BUF)
Sean Malone (BUF)
Ethan Prow (BUF)
Brett Connolly (CHI)
Joseph Gambardella (NJD)
Michael Hutchinson (TOR)
Brian Pinho (WSH)
Michael Sgarbossa (WSH)
Mike Vecchione (WSH)

The big name today is Connolly, who carries a $3.5MM cap hit this year and next. The 29-year-old scored just three goals and six points in 31 games split between the Florida Panthers and Chicago Blackhawks last season, a far cry from the consistent 15-20 goals he had recorded each of the previous four years. A team with extra cap space could certainly take the chance of him rebounding to those numbers, or if he clears, the Blackhawks could send him to the minor leagues. If they did, $1.125MM of his cap hit would be buried.

Latest On Jack Eichel

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The Jack Eichel saga has been the unfortunate headline all summer. Nothing has happened other than public frustration coming out of both the star player and the Buffalo Sabres, as they look for a solution to their failing marriage. Eichel disagrees with the Buffalo medical staff for his next treatment option, and an entire offseason was wasted without him getting any closer to getting back on the ice.

That could be changing though, as Darren Dreger of TSN tweets this morning that “both sides are hopeful” they can reach an agreement soon to trade Eichel to an interested team. Dreger notes that there has been additional access given to Eichel’s medical file, one of the biggest hurdles in any negotiation this summer. Teams that have interest simply can’t trade for a player of Eichel’s stature (and cost) without knowing exactly what his medicals say and making a decision on how they will move forward.

Remember, a trade doesn’t guarantee that Eichel gets to have the surgery he wants. His new team would then have the final decision just like Buffalo, though it follows logically that no one would spend the assets to acquire him without first knowing they can reach an agreement one way or the other. A $10MM cap hit is a tricky trade to pull off when the player is healthy, even tougher when he’s embroiled in a complicated medical battle.

One thing to note with any potential trade is that the Sabres must take back some salary of their own. The team would be under the salary cap floor without Eichel’s $10MM hit, meaning it can’t just be prospects and picks coming back. That would likely be the case anyway given there aren’t many teams who can slide in a cap hit as high as Eichel’s, but it is another complication to work through for the Sabres. Hopefully, this latest update will actually result in a trade of some sort, allowing both the player and the franchise to move forward.

Training Camp Cuts: 10/06/21

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With minor league camps underway many more cuts will be made today in the NHL. The regular season is right around the corner and final decisions will have to be made soon. As always, we’ll keep track of the cuts right here.

Boston Bruins (via press release)

F Samuel Asselin (to Providence, AHL)
F Matt Filipe (to Providence, AHL)
F Jesper Froden (to Providence, AHL)
F Curtis Hall (to Providence, AHL)
F Cameron Hughes (to Providence, AHL)
F Joona Koppanen (to Providence, AHL)
F Jakub Lauko (to Providence, AHL)
F Oskar Steen (to Providence, AHL)
D Jack Ahcan (to Providence, AHL)
D Tyler Lewington(to Providence, AHL)
D Brady Lyle (to Providence, AHL)
D Zachary Senyshyn (to Providence, AHL)
D Nick Wolff (to Providence, AHL)
G Kyle Keyser (to Providence, AHL)

Chicago Blackhawks (via press release)

F Andrei Altybarmakian (to Rockford, AHL)
F Brett Connolly (to Rockford, AHL)
F Jakub Pour (to Rockford, AHL)
F Lukas Reichel (to Rockford, AHL)
F Josiah Slavin (to Rockford, AHL)
F Michal Teply (to Rockford, AHL)
D Louis Crevier (to Rockford, AHL)
D Michael Krutil (to Rockford, AHL)
D Isaak Phillips (to Rockford, AHL)

Dallas Stars (via press release)

F Riley Damiani (to Texas, AHL)
F Rhett Gardner (to Texas, AHL)

Montreal Canadiens (via team Twitter)

F Gabriel Bourque (to Laval, AHL)
D Gianni Fairbrother (to Laval, AHL)
F Rafael Harvey-Pinard (to Laval, AHL)
F Michael Pezzetta (to Laval, AHL)*

Philadelphia Flyers (via press release)

F Cal O’Reilly (to Lehigh Valley, AHL)
F Linus Sandin (to Lehigh Valley, AHL)
F Morgan Frost (to Lehigh Valley, AHL)
F Tyson Foerster (to Lehigh Valley, AHL)
F Isaac Ratcliffe (to Lehigh Valley, AHL)
D Linus Hogberg (to Lehigh Valley, AHL)
F Gerald Mayhew (to Lehigh Valley, AHL)*
F German Rubtsov (to Lehigh Valley, AHL)*
F Connor Bunnaman (to Lehigh Valley, AHL)*
D Adam Clendening (to Lehigh Valley, AHL)*

Vancouver Canucks (via press release)

F Danila Klimovich (to Abbotsford, AHL)
F Jonah Gadjovich (to Abbotsford, AHL)*

Vegas Golden Knights (via Henderson Twitter)

G Logan Thompson (to Henderson, AHL)

*Pending waivers

This page will be updated throughout the day

Dallas Stars Sign Artem Grushnikov

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6:57 pm: PuckPedia reports that Grushnikov’s deal carries a cap hit of $859,000. The structure of the deal is as follows:

2021-22: $750,000 salary, $92,500 signing bonus, $82,500 GP bonus, $80,000 minors salary
2022-23: $750,000 salary, $92,500 signing bonus, $82,500 GP bonus, $80,000 minors salary
2023-24: $800,000 salary, $92,500 signing bonus, $32,500 GP bonus, $80,000 minors salary

11:19 am: The Dallas Stars have signed another top draft pick, inking Artem Grushnikov to a three-year entry-level contract. Just yesterday, the young defenseman was loaned to the Hamilton Bulldogs for the upcoming season, but he isn’t leaving empty-handed.

Grushnikov, 18, was the 48th overall pick in this year’s draft, selected out of the MHL where he tallied five points in 29 games. The 6’2″ defenseman is not known for his offensive upside, but the transition to the OHL should provide him with a little more opportunity on that side of the puck. Selected 16th overall in the 2020 CHL Import Draft, his transition to North America and early entry-level deal bodes well for his future with the Stars organization.

A member of the Russian team that won the Hlinka-Gretzky in 2020, Grushnikov will be an interesting prospect to watch develop this season. The Bulldogs kick things off on Friday against the Oshawa Generals.

Dallas now has their top three draft picks from 2021 under contract, all of which were selected in the top-50. For a team that went all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2020, it was an impressive draft class to accumulate and add to the pipeline.

Wyatt Kalynuk Out A Few Weeks With Ankle Injury

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One of the more interesting things to watch at the start of the 2021-22 season will be the Chicago Blackhawks’ overhauled defensive group. Seth Jones and Jake McCabe are two new members of the team’s top-four, while it looked like youngsters Riley Stillman and Wyatt Kalynuk could be in the opening night lineup as the third pair. That won’t be true anymore, as Kalynuk is likely out a few weeks with an ankle injury according to head coach Jeremy Colliton, who spoke with reporters including Scott Powers of The Athletic today.

As Mark Lazerus of The Athletic points out, Kalynuk was expected to play his off-side to start the year, meaning there is now an opening on the right for one of the team’s other young defensemen. Ian Mitchell or Alec Regula seem the most likely candidates, though given both are waiver-exempt it could end up being a rotation of some sort. That is unless one of the other left-handed options–Calvin de Haan, Caleb Jones, or Stillman–move to the right side to start.

Either way, this is a disappointing start for Kalynuk, who showed last season that he’s far from the player that fell to the seventh round in 2017. After three seasons at the University of Wisconsin, the 24-year-old was a legitimate NHL defenseman in his rookie season, recording nine points in 21 games and strong possession statistics. Entering the second year of his entry-level contract, there was a good chance he will be a regular for the team when healthy. Of course, missing the start of the year is never ideal, and Kalynuk will now have to not only work to return from injury, but also overtake whoever gets the minutes in his place.

The Blackhawks kick off their regular season schedule on October 13 when they take on the Colorado Avalanche.

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