Matt Stajan Hired As WHL Assistant Coach
Matt Stajan is on his way back to Calgary. The WHL’s Calgary Hitmen have announced that Stajan will serve as an assistant coach this season, starting the next chapter in his hockey career after retiring as a player two years ago. He is replacing former assistant Joel Otto, who is dealing with a hip injury and can no longer provide on-ice instruction. Hitmen GM Jeff Chynoweth released a statement on the hire:
We are so pleased to be able to add a well-respected former player such as Matt Stajan to our coaching staff; his NHL playing experience is innumerable and will be a great asset to our club. At the same time, we want to thank Joel for his many years of service with the Hitmen.
After spending the early part of his career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Stajan played nine seasons with the Calgary Flames, reaching the 1,000 games played mark for his career in 2017-18. He spent one last year playing overseas, where he racked up 33 points in 52 games for EHC Munchen, but then announced his retirement in 2019.
An extremely well-respected teammate during his playing days, Stajan hit a career-high of 19 goals and 57 points in the 2009-10 season but carved out a role as a valuable two-way center for nearly a decade afterward. Now 37, he’ll start a coaching career that always seemed likely, given the way he carried himself during his days on the ice in the NHL. It is important to note that the Hitmen are actually owned by the same group as the Flames, and have been a proving ground for future Flames coaches in the past. Dave Lowry, for instance, worked his way up from assistant, to associate, to head coach of the Hitmen before making the jump back to the Flames bench in 2009. There’s obviously no guarantee that Stajan will follow the same path, but it certainly seems possible.
Minor Transactions: 09/09/21
September keeps creeping along, inching closer to official training camps across the NHL. Minor league players are taking part in pre-camp skates and others are still finding homes for the 2021-22 season. As always, we’ll keep track of all the notable minor contracts right here.
- The Stockton Heat have signed four players to AHL contracts. Alex Gallant, Reid Perepeluk, Mark Simpson and Koletrane Wilson will all be with the club this season. Gallant, 28, played with the heat in each of the last two years, racking up 171 penalty minutes in 61 games. The undrafted forward certainly isn’t known for his offense, which has produced just 18 points in 202 AHL games, but has still been invited to Calgary Flames training camp later this month.
- The Iowa Wild have signed Nate Sucese to a one-year AHL contract, bringing him over from the Tucson Roadrunners where he spent last season. The former Penn State standout had 13 points in 36 games during his first professional season in Tucson, but was not given a qualifying offer by the Arizona Coyotes this offseason.
- After being non-tendered by the Kings this summer, forward Drake Rymsha has inked a one-year contract with Fort Wayne of the ECHL. This will be Rymsha’s second stint with the Komets as he notched 17 points in 24 games with them back in 2019-20. The 23-year-old was limited to just two games last season but one of them came with Los Angeles as he logged more than 13 minutes in their final game of the year.
This page will be updated with any further transactions.
Nikita Scherbak Signs In Slovakia
It appears as though Nikita Scherbak‘s stay in North America could be over. The free agent forward has signed with HC Banska Bystrica in Slovakia for the upcoming season after spending the last year with the Texas Stars of the AHL.
Scherbak, 25, reached 196 games played in the AHL last season, and when added with his experience in the NHL and KHL, is now classified as a veteran for the minor league. AHL teams must dress at least 13 “development players” in each game, 12 of which must have played in 260 or fewer professional games (the other must be fewer than 320). In the release from his new team, it is explained that Scherbak’s status–no longer a development player–made it more difficult for him to find a job in North America, though he did try.
It’s a rapid fall for a player who was in the NHL as recently as the 2018-19 season, though Scherbak has never lived up to the promise that made him the 26th overall pick in 2014. He played 39 games with the Montreal Canadiens, the team that selected him, before being claimed off waivers by the Los Angeles Kings in late 2018. Eight more games for the Kings that season would be his last chance at the highest level, as the Kings failed to issue Scherbak a qualifying offer that offseason and he ended up signing in the KHL.
After one more kick at the can with Texas, where he scored 15 points in 28 games, the still relatively young forward is on his way back to Europe.
Snapshots: Hall Of Fame, Montoya, Rangers
The U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame has announced the class of 2021, which will include Stan Fischler, Paul Holmgren, and Peter McNab. The trio will be inducted along with the 2020 class, which included Dean Blais, Tony Granato, Jenny Potter, and Jerry York, at an event scheduled for December of this year.
The three men from the 2021 class have all had a huge impact on hockey in the United States, spending decades with the game and bringing it to fans across the country. Even without McNab’s decades as a broadcaster for the New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche, his playing career likely should have been enough to enshrine him in the U.S. Hall. In 955 games, mostly with the Boston Bruins, he recorded 363 goals and 813 points, ranking 19th among all American players.
- The Dallas Stars have hired former NHL goaltender Al Montoya as the club’s new director of community outreach, a position created to focus on helping grow the game among underrepresented fans. Montoya, 36, last played in the NHL during the 2017-18 season with the Edmonton Oilers and totaled 168 games over his full career. Originally selected by the New York Rangers with the sixth overall pick in 2004, he finished his NHL career with a 67-49-24 record and .908 save percentage.
- New York Rangers GM Chris Drury once again indicated that the team needs a captain this season when speaking with media including Dan Rosen of NHL.com today. The front office executive is giving new head coach Gerard Gallant time to get to know the players before they make a decision, but expect someone on the team to wear a “C” this season. Rosen speculates on who the candidates would be, listing Jacob Trouba, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and Adam Fox as potential options.
David Backes Signs One-Day Contract, Retires As Member Of St. Louis Blues
The St. Louis Blues have brought David Backes home. The veteran forward has signed a ceremonial one-day contract with the team, just to announce his retirement from hockey. Backes released a long letter to the organization and the fans of St. Louis, including an explanation of just why he has chosen to hang up the skates at this point:
The game got faster and younger and I haven’t been associated with either of those adjectives in a long time.
My final goal was to play 1,000 games, but I came up 35 short.
In the end, it’s not that all these numbers don’t matter – they do, and I am damn proud of them. But the metrics that mean the most to me are the countless experiences and everlasting relationships that the game provided me.
That’s what I find is beyond measure.
Backes, 37, played a decade in St. Louis to start his career, ascending to the captaincy of the Blues by 2011. He scored 206 goals and 460 points in 727 regular season games with the team, but. was unable to find much success in the postseason. In his time there the Blues reached the Conference Finals just once, and by then he was already slowing down. In 2016 he was one of several high-profile free agents that signed expensive, long-term deals that failed to pan out as the league underwent a transformation toward youth and speed.
That second chapter of his career came in Boston, where he managed just 39 goals over 217 games, his declining footspeed slowly moving him further and further down the lineup. Always aware of his waning effectiveness, Backes decided to embrace a new role as a sort of enforcer for the Bruins by 2019, adding physicality and toughness to the fourth line.
When he was scratched more often than not during the first part of the 2019-20 season, the Bruins ended up trading Backes to the Anaheim Ducks, where he finished out his career with 21 appearances. That would take the veteran forward to 965, 35 short as he explained in his letter today. Though he failed to win any major awards, Backes was a Selke Trophy finalist in 2012 and finished in the top five for that award four years in a row. A fan favorite in St. Louis, he’ll now be able to say he finished his career where it started.
Colorado Avalanche Sign Artem Anisimov To PTO
The Colorado Avalanche are bringing another veteran to training camp, signing Artem Anisimov to a professional tryout according to CapFriendly. Anisimov joins Jack Johnson who will also be in camp on a PTO, battling for an NHL contract.
Anisimov, 33, has been in limbo for several years, burdened by a cap hit much higher than his on-ice value. Once a consistent 20-goal, 40-point center, he has registered a total of 17 goals and 29 points over the last two seasons combined while playing for the Ottawa Senators. He happened to have a cap hit of $4.55MM during that time, making him a difficult player to target for any contender at the deadline, despite his history of success at the NHL level.
Given he only played 19 games this season with the Senators, who had obviously moved on to younger options, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise to see Anisimov have to accept a PTO. It’s completely unclear what his value is at the NHL level at this point, though his possession statistics actually point to a player who could still be of some use in a limited role.
For Colorado, who were forced to watch Philipp Grubauer walk out the door in free agency because of their cap situation, signing veteran depth to professional tryouts is about the only way they can really add at this point. CapFriendly projects the team to have just under $2.4MM in cap space right now, but that is with just 12 forwards penciled into the roster. In reality, it’s even lower than that, and potential performance bonuses for Bowen Byram could result in cap overages for next season if they push right up to the $81.5MM upper limit this year.
That means whoever comes in to fill out the roster will have to be at or near the league minimum, something that may be realistic for a player like Anisimov. In fact, there actually could be some value here in a veteran of 771 NHL games. Remember that PTOs are not necessarily only for the team that signs them; Anisimov will be showcasing himself for the entire league, and can still sign an NHL deal with any team.
Sidney Crosby Undergoes Wrist Surgery
The Pittsburgh Penguins will be without captain Sidney Crosby when training camp opens in a few weeks, as he underwent wrist surgery today. Crosby is expected to miss six weeks, likely meaning he will not be ready for the start of the season. Penguins GM Ron Hextall released a statement explaining why the surgery was done now:
This is not a new injury for Sid. It is something that he has played through for years. After exhausting all minimally-invasive options and much discussion, it was decided that surgery was in his best interest.
Crosby, 34, is no stranger to injury, having played in all 82 games just once in his storied career. Despite that, and whatever discomfort this wrist problem was causing him, the Penguins star has maintained a streak of at least a point-per-game rate in each of his 16 seasons. In 2020-21, he registered 62 points in 55 games, finishing tenth in league scoring and first on the Penguins. That earned him a fourth-place finish in the Hart Trophy voting, with 11 voters actually putting him second behind the unanimous selection of Connor McDavid.
While obviously getting this surgery earlier in the summer would have been better for the Penguins regular season hopes, Crosby still shouldn’t miss much time. Should he return six weeks from today, he would be absent for just four games to start the year, certainly not something that would put a season in jeopardy.
Of course for the Penguins, every game matters as they try to battle for standing in the Metropolitan Division. With Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang now all in their mid-thirties, the challenge of competing for a Stanley Cup seems even greater. With the captain out, it seems likely that Jeff Carter, a trade deadline acquisition last season, and Teddy Blueger, will slide into the top-six center positions for the first few games given Malkin’s own injury concerns. The 35-year-old Malkin underwent knee surgery in June and was not given a definitive timeline other than he will not be available for training camp.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Calgary Flames Sign Brad Richardson
The Calgary Flames have made another addition, signing veteran forward Brad Richardson to a one-year contract. The deal will carry a salary of $800K.
Richardson, 36, has 825 games to his name in the NHL and will join a Flames forward group that is suddenly full of experienced bottom-six options. Trevor Lewis, Tyler Pitlick and Blake Coleman were all brought in this offseason, giving head coach Darryl Sutter several physical, veteran options to fill out the lineup. Richardson represents the latest example of that trend towards hard-nosed, defensively responsible forwards, and adds another center to the mix for Sutter to work with.
In fact, Sutter should know exactly what he can get out of Richardson, since they were together with the Los Angeles Kings in 2012, winning the Stanley Cup after the coach took over partway through the year. While he wasn’t even a playoff regular–Richardson played just 13 games that postseason–the veteran forward will understand what he’s getting himself into with the defensive-minded coach.
Richardson could serve as a replacement for Derek Ryan on the penalty kill this season, but shouldn’t see a ton of ice time at even-strength whenever he does get into the lineup. Though he did score 19 goals in the 2018-19 season with Arizona, that was an obvious outlier for a player who has just 107 in his long career. He won’t be asked to score, but Sutter teams have always relied on the bottom six to check more than contribute offensively. Given he took just 18 shots on goal in 17 games last season, that shouldn’t be much of a problem.
Connor Mackey Signs With Calgary Flames
The Calgary Flames have inked their final restricted free agent, signing Connor Mackey to a two-year contract. The deal will carry an average annual value of $912,500. Mackey was eligible for salary arbitration but decided not to file. CapFriendly reports that both years of the contract are actually two-way, with Mackey earning $150K at the AHL level in 2021-22 and $175K in 2022-23.
Mackey, 24, was an undrafted free agent signing by the Flames out of Minnesota State-Mankato in 2020, after several NHL teams showed interest in him. He made his NHL debut in 2020-21, playing six games, but spent most of the year at the AHL level with the Stockton Heat. In 27 games for the Heat, he registered 16 points, the exact kind of offensive production that made him so intriguing coming out of college.
Standing 6’2″ with good skating ability, there’s reason to believe that Mackey could secure a full-time spot on the bottom pairing in Calgary this season. The team has bid farewell to captain Mark Giordano, opening up plenty of minutes to be spread around. While he’s certainly not guaranteed any playing time, Mackey’s direct competition is players like Oliver Kylington and Andy Welinski, not players that have done anything to lock up the job so far.
Interestingly enough though, Mackey’s waiver status may actually end up leaving him on the outside looking in when the season begins. Of the defensemen in contention for the last few spots, he’s the only one that is still waiver-exempt and can go to the minor leagues without issue. Kylington and Welinski have both cleared in the past, but depending on how the Flames want to deal with their cap situation, Mackey could end up being bounced up and down through much of this season.
Snapshots: Jonsson, Seguin, Schedule
Patrik Jonsson, an amateur scout for the Vancouver Canucks, has passed away from cancer according to Rick Dhaliwal of The Athletic. Jonsson was the biggest reason why Nils Hoglander, a longtime family friend, found his way to the Canucks in the second round of the 2019 draft. As Dhaliwal and Thomas Drance wrote earlier this year, Jonsson was thrilled to stay up late in Sweden to watch Hoglander score his first NHL goal, even while battling prostate cancer and going through chemotherapy.
The PHR writing staff offer our condolences to Jonsson’s family and all who knew him.
- According to Saad Yousuf of The Athletic, Tyler Seguin is almost back to full strength after a bout with COVID-19 this summer that kept him off the ice for two weeks. When he returned to training, his nose and lungs were “on fire” and he was dealing with constant cramping. Those issues have subsided, and though there are still a few noticeable limitations on certain exercises, the star forward feels “pretty much back to normal.” Seguin of course missed almost the entire 2020-21 season, playing just three games for the Stars. The 29-year-old is a key part of a team that hopes to get back to the postseason and once again push for a berth in the Stanley Cup Finals. In 2018-19, the last time Seguin played a full uninterrupted season, he recorded 33 goals and 80 points in 82 games.
- The NHL has announced some minor schedule changes for 2021-22, mostly regarding games in mid-April. Now that the league has made the commitment to the 2022 Winter Olympics, there will be a break for most of February when players will be traveling to Beijing for the Games. That means it’s a condensed schedule once again, and teams will have to make sure their depth chart is in order at all times. Backup goaltending, extra skaters and injury call-ups will all be extremely important once again.