Nick Bjugstad Re-Signs With Minnesota Wild
The Minnesota Wild have re-signed another big-bodied forward, inking Nick Bjugstad to a one-year contract. The deal will carry just a $900K salary and keeps Bjugstad from unrestricted free agency.
Given that the 28-year-old forward is coming off a six-year, $24.6MM contract, getting him signed for just $900K seems like a huge win for the Wild. Even if he has struggled to produce the kind of numbers he put up early in his career with the Florida Panthers, he is still a reasonably effective option that has experience at both center and wing. In 44 games this season with Minnesota, he scored six goals and 17 points, adding in one goal in six playoff matches.
That’s a pretty nice value for the Wild, especially since it carries basically no risk as a one-year deal. The entire cap hit could be buried in the minor leagues if necessary, but that seems unlikely given his history in the NHL. As a 22-year-old for the Panthers, the 6’6″ center scored 24 goals, leading to the big extension. A few years later he was moved to Pittsburgh, before eventually coming to Minnesota last fall for, well, nothing. Bjugstad was traded for a conditional seventh-round pick that the Penguins did not receive because he did not meet the conditions.
Now, on such a low-cost deal, Bjugstad can fill a bottom-six role for Minnesota without the pressure or expectations that come with such an expensive contract. Perhaps that leads him to his past success, but at worst, it’ll just cost the Wild a few hundred thousand wasted dollars.
Free Agent Focus: Los Angeles Kings
Free agency is now just under a month 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. The Kings have already done a lot of their offseason work, unrestricted free agency isn’t really even an issue for them in the coming weeks.
Key Restricted Free Agents
F Andreas Athanasiou – What the heck is Athanasiou? Is he the 30-goal scorer from 2018-19, the mess that went unqualified in Edmonton, or the 40-point-pace utility knife that he showed this season? If the Kings want to find out, they could be taking the risk of arbitration awarding Athanasiou a hefty contract. The 26-year-old could settle for a one-year deal in the arbitration process and head to unrestricted free agency a year from now if the Kings decide to issue him a qualifying offer. If he were to sign a multi-year extension, it would be something new for Athanasiou, who has only ever played on one- or two-year deals since his entry-level contract expired.
F Trevor Moore – Talk about work ethic. Moore has climbed all the way from undrafted college free agent to full-time NHL forward, setting career-highs in goals (10), points (23), and games played (56) this season. Coming off a two-year deal that carried an average annual value of just $775K, the 26-year-old winger is looking at a raise, even if it won’t be a huge one.
F Lias Andersson – Signing a 22-year-old restricted free agent with just 89 NHL games to his name usually isn’t a big issue, but nothing has ever come simply with Andersson. The seventh-overall pick from the 2017 draft, Andersson exercised his European Assignment Clause for the New York Rangers in his first season and left North America altogether during the 2019-20 season. This year he split time between HV71, the Kings, and the Ontario Reign, but does look like he should have an inside track for a full-time roster spot come next season. Andersson isn’t arbitration-eligible, meaning the Kings could wait and force him to sign his qualifying offer (or an offer sheet) if he wants to play in the NHL this season, meaning the only leverage he really has is the threat of another return to Europe.
Other RFAs: F Matt Luff, F Bokondji Imama, F Michael Eyssimont, F Drake Rymsha, D Kale Clague, D Jacob Moverare, D Austin Strand
Key Unrestricted Free Agents:
D Christian Wolanin – Impressively, the Kings have just four UFAs left to sign, and Wolanin is the only one that played more than two games for Los Angeles this season. He played three. There’s not really much to say about the Group VI UFA, other than he could be a potential depth piece for the Kings next season. He played 15 games with the Senators before being traded at the end of March. During his three games with the Kings, he failed to record a point.
G Troy Grosenick – Grosenick certainly isn’t a must-sign goaltender, but like any team, the Kings will have to address their depth at the position this summer. They do have a pair of interesting prospects, but a veteran third-stringer like Grosenick should probably be brought in just for emergency situations. The 31-year-old did play two games this season, posting a .922 save percentage. That took his career total to four appearances.
Other UFAs: D Mark Alt, D Daniel Brickley
Projected Cap Space
After acquiring Viktor Arvidsson earlier this month, the Kings now have just under $15.5MM in cap space heading into the summer. With so few players to re-sign that’s a good amount for the free agent market, but it doesn’t mean the team can spend it haphazardly. If their young players develop as expected, there will be big extensions to come down the pipe in the next few years, meaning they’ll need cap space to fit everyone in. Remember, the trio of Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick still combine for a cap hit of nearly $27MM the next two seasons (with Doughty’s deal stretching much further than that). Adding free agents makes sense, adding long-term money might not.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.
Snapshots: Ventura, Eklund, Canadiens
The Buffalo Sabres are adding another talented executive to the front office, as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that they will hire Sam Ventura as VP of hockey strategy and research. Ventura will be leaving his position with the Pittsburgh Penguins and rejoining former colleague Jason Karmanos, who was hired by the Sabres earlier this year.
As Greg Wyshynski of ESPN points out, Ventura comes from the hockey analytics world and has long been considered as a candidate for a future GM position in the NHL. For now, he’ll join a Sabres organization that has struggled to find any success in recent years, last making the playoffs in 2011.
- William Eklund, who continues to creep up draft boards, has been announced as the winner of the E.J. McGuire Award of Excellence by the NHL. The award is given out by NHL Central Scouting to “the candidate who best exemplifies commitment to excellence through strength of character, competitiveness and athleticism” in the upcoming draft class. Eklund is ranked as the top international skater even after a tumultuous 2020-21 campaign that included an emergency appendectomy, a positive COVID-19 test and a pre-tournament injury that kept him out of the World Championship.
- The Montreal Canadiens will make several lineup changes as they try to stave off elimination in the Stanley Cup Finals. Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Erik Gustafsson, and Jon Merrill will all be scratched in favor of Jake Evans, Alexander Romanov, and Brett Kulak for tonight’s game four. When asked by Wyshynski why Tomas Tatar hasn’t made an appearance during the season, Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme explained that it is “just a matter of combinations and playing at that time of year.” Tatar is an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Sergei Mozyakin Announces Retirement
One of the greatest players to never try his hand at the NHL is hanging up his skates. Sergei Mozyakin, among the most decorated Russian players of all time, has retired at the age of 40.
Name an award in the KHL, personal or team-based, and Mozyakin has likely won it. The legendary forward is the league’s all-time leader in goals, points and games played, has two Gagarin Cup championships, and has been named league MVP four times. He has Olympic gold, World Championship gold and several other medals on the international stage, sometimes serving as captain of the Russian team.
In fact, it is not quite accurate that he never tried to play in North America. Selected 58th overall in the 1998 CHL Import Draft, Mozyakin left his club team in Russia and was going to follow the same junior route many other talented international players did, playing in Canada. After just four games with the Val-d’Or Foreurs though, a contract dispute landed him back in Russia, never to leave again. He registered one assist for the Foreurs, his only point while playing for a North American club.
Somewhat hilariously, Mozyakin’s NHL draft rights were still owned by the Columbus Blue Jackets, who selected him 263rd overall in 2002. Because the KHL and NHL do not have a transfer agreement, those rights were carried indefinitely.
In 842 combined regular season and playoff games in the KHL, Mozyakin scored 419 goals and 928 points. He has served as captain for Metallurg Magnitogorsk for nearly a decade and had 21 points in 38 games this season. Even though his regular season totals were depressed, the old Mozyakin showed up one last time in the postseason, scoring 10 points in 11 games.
It’s not clear if Mozyakin ever would have found success in the NHL, but perhaps the decision to stay in Russia was the right one anyway. He will now go into retirement as one of the greatest to ever play in that league.
Oscar Dansk Signs in KHL
The Vegas Golden Knights made it clear recently that Oscar Dansk wouldn’t be returning to the organization in 2021-22, but it wasn’t immediately apparent where he would be going. That question is now answered, with Dansk signing a two-year contract with Spartak Moscow of the KHL.
Now 27, Dansk was an unrestricted free agent, but still didn’t have much NHL experience to leverage in negotiations. Despite being selected 31st overall in 2012 by the Columbus Blue Jackets, he failed to ever play a game for them at the NHL level. After some middling minor league numbers and a two-year return to Sweden, he signed with the Golden Knights in 2017 as one of their first non-expansion additions. He would sign two more contracts with the Golden Knights over the last few seasons, but managed just six NHL appearances.
There is still enough upside left in Dansk that he could potentially return after showcasing his skills overseas, but this very well could be the end of his NHL career. In his six appearances, he went 4-1 with a .906 save percentage.
Matiss Kivlenieks Passes Away At 24
The hockey world is in mourning today, as a member of the NHL fraternity has passed away far too early. Columbus Blue Jackets netminder Matiss Kivlenieks passed away last night. Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press reports that an autopsy revealed that Kivlenieks died of chest trauma due to a fireworks mortar blast, not the head injury that was originally reported. He was 24.
Blue Jackets president of hockey operations John Davidson released a statement:
We are shocked and saddened by the loss of Matiss Kivlenieks, and we extend our deepest sympathies to his mother, Astrida, his family and friends during this devastating time. Kivi was an outstanding young man who greeted every day and everyone with a smile and the impact he had during his four years with our organization will not be forgotten.
Kivlenieks, an undrafted goaltender from Latvia, played in six games for the Blue Jackets over the past two years, posting an .899 save percentage and a 2-2-2 record. He reached a new level of renown when he earned a shutout against Team Canada at the recent World Championships, the first time Latvia had ever defeated the hockey powerhouse at the event.
The staff here at PHR joins in the rest of the hockey community, sending our condolences to the Kivlenieks family.
An earlier version of this story included comments from Novi, Michigan police that indicated Kivlenieks died because of a head injury from a fall while exiting a hot tub.
Minor Transactions: 07/04/21
The Stanley Cup could be awarded as early as tomorrow, meaning the true NHL offseason is just around the corner. Other leagues around the world are already there though, and while those transactions create fewer headlines, we’ll keep track of all the notable ones right here.
- The Laval Rocket have signed Charles-David Beaudoin to a two-way AHL contract, bringing him back from Austria where he spent the 2020-21 season. Beaudoin, 27, was once the captain of his hometown Drummondville Voltigeurs, but never has reached the NHL during his professional career In 2018-19 he spent the entire season with the Manitoba Moose of the AHL, recording seven points in 57 games.
- Another former CHL captain, Jesse Graham, who spent the 2018-19 season with the Utica Comets, has signed a new contract with the Augsburger Panther of the DEL. Graham played for KalPa in the Finnish Liiga last season, racking up 26 points in 53 games from the back end. The 27-year-old was a sixth-round pick of the New York Islanders in 2012, but never played a game in the NHL.
- Just a few years ago Matt Carey was putting up a 21-goal season for the Hartford Wolf Pack, but the 29-year-old forward is going to continue his European career next season. He’s signed a new contract with Lowen Frankfurt in the German second tier, after playing for Dusseldorf last season.
Free Agent Focus: Florida Panthers
Free agency is now just under a month 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. No one would have expected that one of the most interesting UFA in Florida would be a goalie, but after more struggles from their expensive starter, that’s exactly what has happened.
Key Restricted Free Agents
F Sam Bennett – The Panthers’ big trade deadline addition fit in perfectly after moving to the east coast. Bennett scored more goals and points in 10 games for the Panthers than he did in 38 for the Calgary Flames, and then was once again added his strong postseason performance. The 25-year-old now has 12 goals and 24 points in 35 career playoff games, scoring at a near 30-goal pace despite never totaling more than 18 in a single regular season. One reason for the added point production in Florida? Bennett saw his average ice time increase by nearly five minutes per night as he plugged into the top-six immediately. There’s no doubt he will be looking for a raise on the $2.55MM cap hit he has carried for the last two seasons, but the Panthers are actually in an interesting position. Bennett’s counting stats were so poor in Calgary—he averaged just 25 points over his first five seasons—that his arbitration case wouldn’t be very strong. If Florida wanted to, they could go that route and try to squeeze as much excess value as they can on a short-term deal.
D – Gustav Forsling – Forsling played in 122 games for the Chicago Blackhawks between 2016-2019, recording just 27 points. He averaged just over 17 minutes a game during those years, moving in and out of the lineup as a depth option. Then in 2019-20 he played the entire season in the minor leagues, suiting up 57 times for the Charlotte Checkers. Why is he an important RFA? Because there was a real breakout this season for the 25-year-old defenseman, with 17 points in 43 games and an average TOI of nearly 20 minutes. In fact in the playoffs, Forsling averaged 21:29 in six games against the Tampa Bay Lightning, scoring a goal and two points in the process. With veteran defenders being phased in Florida, there will be a chance for Forsling to establish himself as a core piece over the next few seasons. A multi-year contract could be in order, to provide some security for player and team.
Other RFAs: F Anthony Duclair, F Lucas Wallmark, F Juho Lammikko, F Patrick Bajkov, F Brad Morrisson, D Noah Juulsen, D Jake Massie, D Lucas Carlsson, D Chase Priskie, D Alec Rauhauser, G Sam Montembeault, G Ryan Bednard
Key Unrestricted Free Agents:
F Alexander Wennberg – Speaking of having a career resurrected in Sunrise, Wennberg experienced an explosion in goal scoring in his first year for the Panthers. After racking up just 40 goals in 415 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets, the playmaking center scored 17 times in 56 games this season for Florida. No, his insane 20% shooting percentage won’t continue, but Wennberg and the Panthers were a perfect fit this season. GM Bill Zito obviously knows him very well from their time together in Columbus and an extension seems likely here if a reasonable number can be found. Still just 26, Wennberg’s representatives are surely patting themselves on the back for taking the one-year “rebound” deal in Florida before setting their sights on something longer this time around.
D Brandon Montour – The career shifts continued with Montour, who arrived in Florida through a trade with the Buffalo Sabres and immediately found more success when insulated by better teammates. It’s hard to know what his ceiling is at this point, given how drastically his performance has varied throughout the first few years of his career, but make no mistake there are many characteristics of Montour’s game that will be appealing to NHL teams this summer. He just turned 27, he’s right-handed, and has shown an ability to drive play and contribute to the powerplay in the past. Though he had just four points in 12 games with the Panthers, Montour’s possession numbers rebounded and he looked a lot closer to the player that racked up multiple 30+ point seasons in the past. Unfortunately, some of the downsides appeared again in the playoffs, when Montour was outmatched in his own end and saw his minutes reduced dramatically in several games. Is he a reliable top-four option moving forward? That certainly is still to be seen.
G Chris Driedger – The Panthers had two starting-level goaltenders on their team at the end of this season, and neither one was Sergei Bobrovsky. Driedger just simply outperformed Bobrovsky at every turn, racking up a .927 save percentage in 23 appearances, his second straight year of strong goaltending in backup/tandem role. That’s going to generate a lot of interest on the open market, given the fact that he’s just 27 and still likely won’t command a huge salary after playing the last two years on a two-way deal. There’s no guarantee that Driedger can continue to perform at this level on an increased workload (see: Scott Darling), but with Spencer Knight ready to contribute, it’s going to be near-impossible for the Panthers to bring the free agent goaltender back unless they somehow rid themselves of Bobrovsky’s $10MM cap hit.
Other UFAs: F Nikita Gusev, F Scott Wilson, D Tommy Cross, D Ethan Prow, D Brady Keeper, G Phillippe Desrosiers
Projected Cap Space
The Panthers have a lot of work to do and not that much cap space to do it. The team currently sits at just over $13.1MM of projected space, but if they were to part ways with veteran players like Keith Yandle or Anton Stralman, they could open up some extra room. Perhaps more important to note is the situation for next year, when Aleksander Barkov is scheduled for unrestricted free agency. The Panthers have been benefiting from his extremely undervalued $5.9MM cap hit the last several years but will have to give him a hefty raise to keep him in Florida. The open market awaits Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar just two years from now, meaning there will have to be a full plan in place by Zito and company this summer before they sign any long-term deals.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.
Minnesota Wild Sign Joel Eriksson Ek To Eight-Year Extension
The Minnesota Wild have plenty of work to do this offseason when it comes to restricted free agents, but the team has scratched one name off the list. The team announced that they’ve signed Joel Eriksson Ek to an eight-year contract extension with an average annual value of $5.25MM ($42MM total). PuckPedia reports that the deal contains a no-move clause with a ten-team no-trade clause in the final five years of the contract and breaks down as follows:
2021-22: $3MM salary
2022-23: $3MM salary
2023-24: $6MM salary
2024-25: $9MM salary
2025-26: $7.5MM salary
2026-27: $6MM salary
2027-28: $4.5MM salary
2028-29: $3MM salary
Eriksson Ek, 24, really took his game to a new level this season, scoring 19 goals and 30 points in 56 games. That offensive production, while still valuable, doesn’t compare to the defensive play that the young center brings to the table. Eriksson Ek finished fourth in Selke Trophy voting this season and played an important role on both special teams.
Interestingly, over the last few weeks, it had looked like the Wild would wait on extensions for Eriksson Ek and fellow restricted free agent Kevin Fiala until they knew what kind of number Kirill Kaprizov was going to come in at. But with no clarity coming on Kaprizov’s situation. they decided to move forward with their young center anyway.
This extension buys out six years of unrestricted free agency for Eriksson Ek, but with such pedestrian numbers in his previous three seasons, it still comes in at a reasonable cap hit for a top-six center. Before this year, he had never scored more than eight goals in a single season and had just 66 points in his first 210 NHL games. Those numbers would have also come into play had Eriksson Ek gone to arbitration, even though this recent breakout would carry more weight but instead, it won’t get to that point with this long-term deal.
Michael Russo of The Athletic was the first to report that a long-term extension was close.
Poll: Grading The Viktor Arvidsson Trade
The Los Angeles Kings made their first big splash of the summer yesterday, acquiring forward Viktor Arvidsson from the Nashville Predators in exchange for the 40th overall selection in this year’s draft and a 2022 third-round pick.
The deal came after two consecutive seasons where Arvidsson has come up short of expectations, with just 25 goals and 52 points over 107 combined games. That’s a big step backward for the player who racked up 34 tallies in just 58 games during the 2018-19 season, or the one that had posted back-to-back 61-point seasons the two years prior. Arvidsson has also failed to ever play in every scheduled game for the Predators, dealing with various minor injuries throughout the last several years.
Still, there’s lots of upside to the 28-year-old forward, something the Kings can take a chance on next season. Los Angeles has amassed one of the most impressive prospect groups in the NHL and didn’t have to forfeit a single one to land the talented winger. In fact, they still own a draft pick in each of the rounds they gave up, thanks to previous trades for Alec Martinez and Jeff Carter. There was an opportunity to add an established forward without drastically affecting the Kings future, and they took it.
Was Arvidsson the right choice though? That same draft capital could have been used to land someone else, and it’s not like he has provided much excess value on his $4.25MM deal the past two seasons. He immediately becomes the Kings’ third-highest paid forward and will contribute to a bit of a financial squeeze in the coming years. Even though Los Angeles has shed some of their highest-priced assets in recent years, they still have nearly $27MM tied up in the trio of Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick. As younger players start reaching restricted (or unrestricted, in the case of Calvin Petersen) free agency, they’ll need raises to keep them in the organization. Adding a $4.25MM hit doesn’t come without some risk in that regard, though if Arvidsson bounces back it won’t be much of an issue.
For Nashville, moving Arvidsson not only cleared a bit of cap, but also helped their expansion situation. Should the team decide to go the eight-skater protection route in order to keep all of their talented defensemen, the forward list is down to just a few names. Moving Arvidsson for some draft capital now allows them to protect someone else, a little extra value that should be taken into account when assessing the trade.
Filip Forsberg certainly didn’t like the deal, but how do you think each team did? Cast your vote for each side below and make sure to explain your thoughts in the comments.
[Links for mobile/app users: Predators, Kings]
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images