Montreal Canadiens Extend Luke Richardson
A day after signing head coach Dominique Ducharme to an extension, the Montreal Canadiens are at it again. This time it’s top assistant Luke Richardson who gets the three-year deal, keeping him in the organization through the 2023-24 season.
Richardson, 52, took over for Ducharme in the playoffs after the head coach tested positive for COVID and impressed many around the league with his calm demeanor. There was some speculation that the former NHL defenseman would be given an opportunity to lead another team, but since all of the vacancies have been filled up, it made a lot of sense for him to return to Montreal, if he wasn’t already planning on doing so.
The Canadiens were lauded this postseason for the physical play of their defense corps, using their size to quickly shut down rush opportunities and punish attackers whenever they got close to Carey Price. One might compare it to the way that the 6’3″ Richardson played throughout his 1,417 game NHL career, which came with more than 2,000 penalty minutes.
Those 1,400+ games put him among the all-time leaders in the spot, sitting just one spot ahead of Hall of Fame defenseman Al MacInnis. While Richardson certainly never had a chance at the Hall—his career-high of 21 points saw to that—the sheer number of games played will command respect in any room. With four years of head coaching experience in the AHL and now even a taste of it at the NHL level, you can be sure that Richardson’s name will come up over the next few seasons as a top candidate for any vacant jobs.
Kevan Miller Announces Retirement
After countless major injuries, Kevan Miller has decided to call it quits. The Boston Bruins defenseman announced on Instagram that he will be retiring from professional hockey. His explanation:
Although my spirit for the game is there, unfortunately my body isn’t. My overall health and my family are now the priority. This was not an easy decision to make but it’s time to hang up my skates.
Miller, 33, played in 28 games for the Bruins this season and was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent. A warrior for Boston through the early part of his career, he earned a four-year, $10MM contract from the team in 2016 as a core piece of their defense. Unfortunately, he would never manage to play more than 68 games in a single season again. Since 2018-19 he has played in just 67 regular season contests, missing the entire 2019-20 season due to injury. Though he worked desperately to return, the toll his body has taken over the years was obviously too much.
The Bruins will now have to look elsewhere for a replacement, though it seemed unlikely that they would commit any substantial resources to him for next season anyway. The team has five defensemen under contract already and has a contract negotiation with Brandon Carlo coming up. The team transitioned to a younger group this season after letting names like Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug go, so Miller was really the last vestige of the previous defense corps.
In 352 career regular season games, Miller recorded 13 goals and 71 points. He also suited up 33 times in the postseason for the Bruins, averaging more than 20 minutes a night and scoring seven points.
Jeff Skinner Waives No-Movement Clause For Expansion Draft
The Buffalo Sabres will get an extra protection slot at this month’s expansion draft after Jeff Skinner agreed to waive his no-movement clause according to John Vogl of The Athletic. Sabres GM Kevyn Adams requested it on Tuesday morning and Skinner agreed, allowing the team to protect an extra forward.
Skinner, 29, is an unlikely target for the Seattle Kraken, given his high price and poor production the last two seasons. Since signing an eight-year, $72MM contract in 2019, the winger has scored just 21 goals and 37 points in 112 games. He had just 14 points this past season, spending much of it on the fourth line. His no-movement clause would have forced the Sabres to protect him over a player like Rasmus Asplund, who is a more likely target for expansion.
This is a pretty big gesture of good faith from Skinner, who certainly didn’t need to waive a clause that the Sabres knowingly gave him just two years ago. The move does not waive the clause for the purpose of a trade, only to stop the automatic protection in the draft. But still, selfishly, it may have benefitted Skinner to see the Sabres lose a younger player like Asplund or Anders Bjork who could be battling for the same top-six ice time next season.
The Sabres already had plenty of options to fill the exposure requirements at forward, but Skinner will now be added to that group. It is interesting to wonder about the connection between the forward and Kraken GM Ron Francis from their time together in Carolina, but it still seems unlikely that the expansion club would want to take on his $9MM cap hit. That deal has proven to be one of the worst in the entire NHL, though there is obviously production still in there if the team finds a way to unlock it.
Sure, Skinner was given this contract after a career year where he scored 40 goals, but it’s not like he hadn’t come close to those numbers before. He reached the 30-goal mark on three other occasions and even scored 37 in the 2016-17 season. A brilliant skater and talented finisher, if the Sabres can find a way to mitigate his weaknesses while promoting his strengths, there is still time to get some value back.
Minor Transactions: 07/13/21
The NHL offseason exploded into action over the past few days, with a Duncan Keith trade, Pekka Rinne‘s retirement and the buyout of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. While those headlines are certainly attention-grabbing, other leagues are also doing their best to fill out rosters and prepare for the upcoming season. As always, we’ll keep track of any notable minor moves right here:
- The Rockford IceHogs and Bakersfield Condors completed a trade yesterday, which very well could be connected to the Keith deal. The move sees minor league forward Liam Folkes head to the IceHogs in exchange for future considerations, giving the team a replacement for the outgoing Tim Soderlund. Because Folkes is signed to an AHL contract, he couldn’t be officially included in the NHL trade.
- The Manitoba Moose have signed forward Todd Burgess to a one-year AHL contract. Now 25, Burgess is actually still on the Ottawa Senators reserve list through August 15, but obviously wasn’t going to sign with the team. A fourth-round selection in 2016, Burgess never could replicate the success he had in the NAHL in college, and scored just 14 points in 25 games this season for Minnesota State.
- Tory Dello has signed a one-year AHL contract with the Laval Rocket after spending last season with the Grand Rapids Griffins. The 24-year-old defenseman played four years at Notre Dame before joining the Griffins and was once a Clark Cup champion with the Tri-City Storm of the USHL. Undrafted, Dello recorded two points in 19 games for Grand Rapids in 2020-21.
Anaheim Ducks Sign Three Players
The Anaheim Ducks have signed three minor league players to contract extensions. Sam Carrick has signed a one-year, one-way extension, while Trevor Carrick and Vinni Lettieri have signed one-year two-way contracts. PuckPedia reports that Sam Carrick will earn $750K on his one-way deal, while Trevor Carrick will have a $750K NHL salary and a $325K minor league guarantee.
Even though Sam Carrick is getting a one-way deal, he’s certainly not guaranteed a ton of playing time with the Ducks next season. In 13 games during the 2020-21 campaign he scored six points, but served as captain for the San Diego Gulls. He’s likely to return to that role with San Diego, where he has played his majority of games since arriving in the 2016-17 season. The 29-year-old forward has 11 points in 47 career NHL games.
His younger brother Trevor Carrick meanwhile only arrived in San Diego for this past season, but quickly found a home as one of the team’s most reliable defenders. The 27-year-old recorded 12 points in 39 games while leading the club in penalty minutes with 53. He’ll be back and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him wear an “A” as an alternate captain as he did in Charlotte for several seasons. Over his pro career, he has played just seven NHL games.
Lettieri, 26, scored at an exceptional rate for the Gulls, registering 14 goals and 26 points in just 22 games. He also spent a good amount of time with the NHL club, getting into five games. The former University of Minnesota star has just eight points in 51 career NHL games, but could be used again as an injury replacement in the right circumstances.
All three of the players will be eligible for selection in the upcoming expansion draft, but none of them meet the exposure requirements for the Ducks. These deals are all about securing valuable minor league depth for their AHL affiliate, while giving the team some passable replacements in injury situations.
San Jose Sharks Re-Sign Josef Korenar
The San Jose Sharks have re-signed goaltender Josef Korenar to a one-year contract, keeping him in North America after making his NHL debut this season. Curtis Pashelka of the Mercury News reports that the two-way contract carries a $750K salary at the NHL level, an $85K salary at the AHL level and a minor league guarantee of $125K. Sharks GM Doug Wilson released a statement explaining the move:
Josef took a big step in his development last season, showing his athleticism and awareness in net while appearing in the NHL for the first time. He also delivered a strong performance in the AHL’s Pacific Division playoffs, leading AHL goaltenders in goals-against average and helped the Barracuda to the semifinals.
Korenar, 23, was an undrafted free agent signing in 2017 and has become an interesting NHL prospect for the Sharks. The Czech goaltender posted an .899 save percentage in ten NHL appearances this season, while also spending time in the AHL and overseas. While he may not be ready to take over the net full-time, he does have an interesting case to be the backup this season, especially if the team doesn’t add another goaltender through free agency. The Sharks still have Martin Jones on the books for now, but the 31-year-old is a prime buyout candidate after three terrible seasons.
Getting Korenar under contract at least keeps him in the organization instead of allowing him to return to Europe, meaning at worst he’ll be with the San Jose Barracuda in 2021-22. Still waiver-exempt, he can come up and down whenever necessary to help the goaltending group at the NHL level while continuing his development by getting starts whenever possible in the AHL.
In the expansion draft later this month, it seems likely that the Sharks protect Korenar over Jones if the latter isn’t bought out. If he is though, the team needed a goalie under contract for 2021-22 to leave exposed in order to meet the requirements–Korenar can now be that goalie.
Free Agent Focus: Philadelphia Flyers
Free agency is now just a few weeks away and many teams are already looking ahead to when it opens up. There will be several prominent players set to hit the open market in late July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well. Things aren’t completely off the rails in Philadelphia after a disappointing season, but there are some big decisions to be made on the direction of the franchise.
Key Restricted Free Agents
F Nolan Patrick – Can Patrick overcome his injury issues and become a core piece for the Flyers? Some have already labeled the 2017 second-overall pick as a bust and have written him off completely, while others believe with time and patience he could still become a valuable asset. Philadelphia’s front office is going to need to make that decision this summer as Patrick enters restricted free agency once again, this time coming off a brutal performance. Last summer, the young forward was negotiating a deal after missing the entire 2019-20 season due to a migraine issue and ended up signing for his qualifying offer amount. Given that he’s still ineligible for arbitration and scored just nine points in 52 games, it’s hard to see him getting much more than that. If anything, it seems like a change of scenery might benefit both parties, as long as the Flyers received something valuable in return. There’s a lot of work to do for the 22-year-old forward to prove he can still be even a middle-six center at the NHL level, let alone the star he was supposed to be.
D Travis Sanheim – There’s a trend in these RFA cases for the Flyers, as all of them are players that were supposed to be key contributors this season but ended up having down years. Sanheim was supposed to step into a bigger role for the team in his fourth season and build off the success he had in the past. Instead, he recorded just 15 points in 55 games and registered the worst possession stats of his career. That’s not to say Sanheim is playing his way off the team, quite the opposite, as he has established a spot on the second pair, but the breakout that was expected never came. His last deal, a two-year contract in 2019 worth $6.5MM total, was supposed to be a bridge to a big RFA deal this summer. But how big can the Flyers really go for a player that, while valuable, hasn’t improved much over the last two seasons. An interesting option for both sides might even be arbitration, giving Sanheim a one-year deal at a slightly higher number. It would leave him just a year from unrestricted free agency, but also give him a chance to show he still does have some of that top-pairing upside left in him.
G Carter Hart – Speaking of players coming off down years, it’s hard to know just how much money Hart cost himself this season. The 22-year-old goaltender is still the future in Philadelphia, but after posting an .877 save percentage in 27 appearances, just nine of them wins, he’s suddenly a risky investment. If the Flyers try to get a multi-year contract done with the young netminder, it will have to be on a contract that makes sense even if he fails to take back the workhorse role. There’s no way they can invest starter money in Hart after a season like that, and they won’t have to, given he’s not yet eligible for arbitration. Philadelphia could slow play this if they want, and force Hart to accept a short-term deal around his qualifying offer, but they could also try to lock him in for a few years at a depressed price, betting on a rebound. It’s a tough situation for the player side too, not wanting to throw away too much earning potential, but also knowing that his role in the organization could be in jeopardy with another bad season or two.
Other RFAs: F Pascal Laberge, F Connor Bunnaman, F David Kase
Key Unrestricted Free Agents:
F Samuel Morin – It’s tough to watch Morin now, knowing that there was so much potential in that 6’6″ frame when the Flyers selected him 11th overall in 2013. Though his size and physicality were always the focus, the drastically improved skating of Morin was supposed to translate into a true shutdown defender for Philadelphia. Multiple major knee surgeries later and Morin was forced to make the switch to forward, claiming he wanted to be the next Matt Martin, offering a simple game but adding physicality to the lineup every night. It didn’t pan out, and Morin played just 20 games this season, recording a single goal (his NHL first) and 38 hits. A positionless part-time enforcer is not what 11th overall picks usually turn out to be, and now Morin hits Group VI UFA status with no clear future.
G Brian Elliott – Hart was bad and Elliott wasn’t much better this season, posting his second straight year with a save percentage under .900. It’s been a long career for the 36-year-old goaltender and from all accounts, he is beloved in Philadelphia, but the team desperately needs some consistency in net moving forward. There will be many other options for the team to go after this summer, even if the focus is still on Hart getting back to his early performance. If the team comes back with the same duo, it’s hard to expect different results at this point.
Other UFAs: F Andy Andreoff, D Matt Niskanen (retired), D Derrick Pouliot, D Tyler Wotherspoon, D Nate Prosser, D Chris Bigras, G Alex Lyon
Projected Cap Space
With more than $68.4MM committed to 17 players, the Flyers have just over $13MM left to work with this offseason. That could grow substantially if they can convince the Seattle Kraken to take Jakub Voracek or trade him elsewhere, but for now they don’t have a ton of money to work with. Remember, captain Claude Giroux and top center Sean Couturier are both pending unrestricted free agents after this season and will need extensions if the Flyers want to keep them around, meaning any long-term money they spend in free agency will have to be done with careful consideration.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.
Dominique Ducharme Loses Interim Tag, Signs Extension
The Montreal Canadiens have officially named Dominique Ducharme the 31st full-time head coach in franchise history. The team has removed the interim tag and signed Ducharme to a three-year contract extension through the 2023-24 season. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweets that the deal is believed to be worth $1.7MM per season. GM Marc Bergevin released a statement on his new coach:
Dominique has managed to set his system in place and establish himself as a head coach in a very unusual season with challenging circumstances. While our team has gone through its fair share of adversity, he has shown a lot of control over the situation as well as showing calm and great leadership. These are important qualities that we look for in a head coach and he fully deserves the chance to lead our team and take it to the next level.
The 48-year-old head coach took over from Claude Julien earlier this season after serving as an assistant since 2018 and ended up taking the Canadiens all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. Though he missed part of the playoffs due to a positive COVID test, the systems that Ducharme instituted in Montreal carried them throughout the playoffs as a strong defensive team that attacked opportunistically off turnovers. It got them past the North Division-leading Toronto Maple Leafs, swept the Winnipeg Jets, and defeated the hugely favored Vegas Golden Knights, before eventually breaking down against the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning. With that playoff success, it seemed obvious that Ducharme would be retained as head coach and today’s news makes it official.
Even though he did have all that postseason glory, it’s important to note that the Canadiens did go 15-16 under Ducharme in the regular season. There are countless factors that go into that record, including a tough schedule caused by a COVID shutout, but this isn’t a proven name that Montreal is going with. Still, there are reasons to believe that Ducharme can be a successful NHL head coach right away, starting with his strong history in the QMJHL. He won a league title in 2013, taking home the CHL Coach of the Year trophy for his efforts. He has led Team Canada to a gold medal at the Hlinka-Gretzky tournament and the World Juniors as well, though that 2018 team was loaded with NHL talent including Cale Makar, Robert Thomas, and Carter Hart.
With their coach locked up, the Canadiens can now focus on other offseason negotiations. Phillip Danault, Joel Armia, Corey Perry, Eric Staal, Tomas Tatar, Jon Merrill and Erik Gustafsson are all pending unrestricted free agents, while Artturi Lehkonen and Jesperi Kotkaniemi are both scheduled to become RFAs. There’s plenty of work left to do for Bergevin and his staff, but he won’t have to worry about who is behind the bench moving forward.
Minnesota Wild To Buy Out Zach Parise, Ryan Suter
In a shocking turn of events, the Minnesota Wild have begun the buyout process for both Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Because they have no-movement causes, they do not need to go through the unconditional waiver process. Both players are on identical 13-year, $98MM contracts that were signed in 2012; a buyout would cause cap penalties of the following for each player:
- 2021-22: $2,371,794
- 2022-23: $6,371,794
- 2023-24: $7,371,794
- 2024-25: $7,371,794
- 2025-26: $833,333
- 2026-27: $833,333
- 2027-28: $833,333
- 2028-29: $833,333
Amazingly, because of the way their contracts were so heavily front-loaded, each player will only receive $6,666,667 in actual salary over the eight years of the buyout. It clears more than $10MM of cap space for the upcoming season, though obviously creates a huge cap penalty in years 2-4 of the buyout.
It’s the end of an era in Minnesota, as Suter and Parise have been the faces of the franchise for nearly a decade. Their signing in 2012 shocked the hockey world, as they decided to go to a relatively new team that had missed the playoffs in eight of its 11 years of existence. When they arrived, things immediately turned positive for Minnesota, reaching the playoffs in each of the next six seasons, but there was very little postseason success. Now, after another disappointing first-round exit, GM Bill Guerin has decided to do what was unthinkable until recently. He released a statement on the move, thanking both players for their contributions:
Zach and Ryan have been an integral part of the Wild’s success over the past nine years and we’ll always be grateful for their many contributions. There were numerous factors that entered into the difficult decision to buy out their contracts, but primarily these moves are a continuation of the transformation of our roster aimed at the eventual goal of winning a Stanley Cup.
Parise, 36, had been pushed almost entirely out of the lineup, dressing only occasionally down the stretch and playing in just four of the team’s seven postseason games. He managed to record three points in those four matches, but had just 18 in his 45 regular season games. His role moving forward was completely unclear, but now he’ll at least get the chance to test the open market. The New York Islanders and GM Lou Lamoriello had been interested in the past, but it remains to be seen whether they’ll pursue the veteran forward this time around.
For Suter, who also turned 36 in January, things are a little different. Though his offensive numbers fell off a cliff this season, recording just 19 points in 56 games, he is still a valuable top-four defenseman that likely could have helped the Wild next season. The key to both buyouts really is that it will open two protection slots in the upcoming expansion draft, which the Wild can use to block Seattle from some of their younger, more valuable assets. Suter and Parise each held a no-movement clause that would have forced Minnesota to protect them in the draft, meaning if this buyout was going to happen, it needed to be done before the protection lists are submitted later this week.
Looking at a cap penalty of nearly $15MM is daunting, but it is important to remember that their regular cap hits would have combined for more than that anyway. If the Wild believe that the two will not be regular contributors in two years, this actually frees up a (small) amount in those seasons as well. Had they waited another year, for instance, there would have been very little cap savings at all, meaning it was a now-or-never situation. The benefit here is opening up more than $10MM (and two expansion slots) at a time when the Wild are looking at key negotiations with Kirill Kaprizov and Kevin Fiala. The team has also been loosely connected to players like Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart, who could help fill out the center ice position that has been deemed so important to Kaprizov’s future with the team.
That does not mean it’s the end for Parise and Suter, who will enter the free agent market as attractive assets now that they can be had for a much lower cost. Just yesterday, the Edmonton Oilers for instance traded for Duncan Keith, who will likely cost more than Suter receives on the open market. Though he doesn’t have the kind of playoff success that Keith does, there’s certainly going to be a market for the 36-year-old defenseman. Parise’s might be a bit smaller, but remember he is still only a year removed from a 25-goal campaign and has more than 800 points in his NHL career. For a contender looking to add depth to the lineup for a reasonable price, there are worse gambles to make.
Michael Russo of The Athletic broke the news on Twitter.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Erik Johnson Waives No-Movement Clause For Expansion Draft
The Colorado Avalanche already may end up losing a good young defenseman, but it would have been even worse if they were forced to protect Erik Johnson. According to Peter Baugh of The Athletic, the veteran has officially waived his no-movement clause and will not require protection.
That does not mean that Johnson is exempt from selection, rather the opposite, but his high price tag of $6MM per season and his unclear injury situation will likely keep him away from Seattle. More specifically, the Avalanche will still likely have to expose a defenseman like Ryan Graves, who seems to be a much more appetizing selection given his relative youth and strong playoff performance. There is obviously still time to change things in order to protect Graves as well, but at least when it comes to expansion, the team won’t have to worry about Johnson’s NMC any longer.
Johnson, 33, played just four games this season and was held out most of the year with concussion symptoms. He was back skating with the team in the playoffs but never played, and it is now unclear where his future lies. If he’s unable to play again next season, that $6MM cap hit could be moved to long-term injured reserve, giving the Avalanche quite a bit more flexibility. There is also the possibility of a buyout, but the Avalanche would need to show that Johnson is healthy enough to continue playing, as injured players are ineligible.