AHL Approves Schedule Unification For 2022-23
For years, AHL clubs have been playing various schedule lengths depending on which division they were in. In the 2018-19 season, for instance, the Pacific Division played just 68 games while the other three divisions hit the ice 76 times. Before that, even Pacific teams were playing in different amounts, with points percentage being used to determine standings. Now, the AHL has approved a plan for schedule unification by the 2022-23 season. All teams will follow a 72-game schedule at that point in a plan that league president Scott Howson called “fair and equitable.”
This upcoming season, the schedule will still be unbalanced, with the Pacific still playing just 68 games, while the other teams were given the option of 72 or 76-game schedules. The decisions were made as follows:
76 Games:
Chicago Wolves
Cleveland Monsters
Grand Rapids Griffins
Hershey Bears
Lehigh Valley Phantoms
Milwaukee Admirals
Rochester Americans
Springfield Thunderbirds
Syracuse Crunch
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
72 Games:
Belleville Senators
Bridgeport Islanders
Charlotte Checkers
Hartford Wolf Pack
Iowa Wild
Laval Rocket
Manitoba Moose
Providence Bruins
Rockford IceHogs
Texas Stars
Toronto Marlies
Utica Comets
68 Games:
Abbotsford (team name not yet released)
Bakersfield Condors
Colorado Eagles
Henderson Silver Knights
Ontario Reign
San Diego Gulls
San Jose Barracuda
Stockton Heat
Tucson Roadrunners
The league has also announced the divisional alignment, which will be similar to the 2019-20 format but include Abbotsford and Henderson in the Pacific.
The number of teams qualifying for the Calder Cup Playoffs will also be increasing at some point, though the details on that have not yet been finalized or released.
Sean Farrell Named USHL Player Of The Year
Montreal Canadiens fans have a lot to be happy about right now with their team up 3-0 in the second round, but even more good news came out today. One of their 2020 draft picks, Sean Farrell, was named USHL Player of the Year after becoming just the second player in league history to break the 100-point threshold. In 53 games with the Chicago Steel, Farrell recorded 29 goals and 101 points. Steel head coach Brock Sheahan had more to say about the young man’s character than his performance:
Sean had one of the best, if not the best season in USHL history and is much deserving of this award. Sean is an amazing hockey player and an even better person. We have been so lucky to have Sean as a part of this group the last two seasons and I couldn’t be more proud of the player and person he is. He had a great Junior career and I know that he will continue to develop and grow as a player moving forward and I am excited to follow the rest of his career.
Farrell, 19, was picked 124th overall in 2020 by the Canadiens, slipping mostly because of his size. For Montreal though, a height of 5’9″ for a talented offensive player should certainly not close any doors, especially after watching the immediate success of 5’7″ Cole Caufield at the NHL level. In fact, Farrell is set to follow a similar path as Caufield. The young forward is set to head to college and join Harvard next season where he can continue his development as an NHL prospect.
He’ll be joined at Harvard by Matt Coronato, his Steel teammate who today was named the USHL Forward of the Year. Coronato is eligible for selection in the 2021 draft and led the USHL in goals with 48 this season. His 16-goal lead over second place was the largest gap in league history and Coronato also set the Steel record for scoring in a season and career. The 18-year-old forward was ranked ninth among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting.
Anton Lundell Signs Entry-Level Contract
After starring at the World Championship but coming up just short, Anton Lundell is ready to move to the next level. The Florida Panthers prospect has agreed to terms on his three-year entry-level contract, which will kick in for the 2021-22 season. Panthers GM Bill Zito released a statement on the impressive young forward:
Anton is a cerebral, skilled and dynamic young player who continuously established himself in Finland’s top league and played a pivotal role on Finland’s national teams at all levels. Anton’s maturity, compete level and sound two-way ability are exciting qualities to add to our organization. We are thrilled to have signed Anton and look forward to his future with the Florida Panthers for years to come.
Once considered a contender for the top few picks in the 2020 draft, Lundell eventually slipped to the Panthers at 12th overall after scouting concerns about his offensive ceiling. The 19-year-old forward has put those concerns to bed after an outstanding season in Finland where he recorded 16 goals and 25 points in 26 games, followed by a World Championship where he was one of the best forwards in the tournament. Lundell scored six goals and recorded ten points in seven games for the silver medal-winning Finns.
A force at both ends of the rink, Lundell could quickly establish himself as a difference-maker behind top center Aleksander Barkov. As Scott Wheeler of The Athletic wrote in February:
He’s not going to be the kind of player who puts up 80-90 points in a season during his prime, but Lundell should comfortably fit into the 60-75 range (depending on linemates) while providing significant two-way value.
If that ends up being the case, the Panthers will have mined quite the player out of the middle of the first round and provided their already deep forward group with even more talent. Zito has his work cut out for him over the next few years as the entire Panthers team (save for Sergei Bobrovsky and Aaron Ekblad) will hit some form of free agency by 2023, but adding and developing options like Lundell should keep things rolling in the right direction. If he can provide value on his entry-level contract it makes it even easier to re-sign players like newcomer Sam Bennett without running into cap trouble.
Five Key Stories: 05/31/21 – 06/06/21
The second round is flying by with incredible playoff action in each of the four series, but that didn’t stop big news being made off the ice as well.
Playoff Suspensions For Everyone: The week kicked off with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman upholding Nazem Kadri‘s eight-game suspension, making the Avalanche center now move his appeal to a neutral arbitrator. He wasn’t the only player sat down for playoff games though, as both Ryan Reaves and Mark Scheifele were given suspensions. Scheifele may not even be able to serve his entire four-game suspension in this playoffs given the Winnipeg Jets’ current situation, down 3-0 to the Montreal Canadiens in the second round.
Trophy Finalists Announced: With the regular season in the rearview, the NHL began to release the finalists for its major awards. The Vezina, Ted Lindsay, Calder, King Clancy, Lady Byng, and Selke nominees were all announced, leading to a healthy debate over the merits of each player (and award). Finalists will continue to be released for the next several days, with the Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award nominees coming out on Monday morning.
Buffalo All Powered Up?: The Buffalo Sabres took home the top spot at Wednesday’s draft lottery, giving them the opportunity to take Michigan defenseman Owen Power with the first-overall selection. While Power isn’t guaranteed to go at the very top, his performance at the World Championship, helping Team Canada to a gold medal will certainly help his case. The team’s seventh defenseman at the start of the tournament, Power quickly proved his worth to head coach Gerard Gallant and ended up playing more than 24 minutes in the gold medal-clinching game against Finland. The Seattle Kraken will be picking second, with plenty of talent up for grabs at the top of the board.
Dollar Dollar Bill Kirill: While getting a finalist nod for the Calder Trophy should be enough to make it a good week, Kirill Kaprizov has much more to smile about. The Minnesota Wild have reportedly offered Kaprizov an eight-year contract extension that carries an average annual value around $8MM, meaning the young forward is about to cash in. The 24-year-old scored 51 points in 55 games and breathed new life into a Wild franchise that hadn’t had much to get excited about in recent years.
Border Exemption Officially Approved: Though it had been rumored for a few weeks, today the Canadian government officially announced there will be a travel exemption for the team that comes out of the North Division and their opponent. The agreement comes with some strict protocols that will limit all interaction with the general public, but at least allows the North champs to host playoff games at their home rink.
Teams Asking About Vince Dunn
The St. Louis Blues have a very busy offseason coming up after a first-round sweep at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche. Jaden Schwartz, Tyler Bozak, and Mike Hoffman are all unrestricted free agents, while Zach Sanford, Ivan Barbashev, Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou are all set to become restricted free agents. One other name without a contract for next season is pending RFA defenseman Vince Dunn, who has been on and off the trade block all season.
Tonight, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet indicated that Dunn’s name is once again coming up in preliminary trade talks:
One of the players I think some teams are beginning to ask about is Vince Dunn of the St. Louis Blues.
There was a time during the year where the Blues were thinking about maybe moving him, they were asking for a first-round pick in return. I’m hearing some chatter around him right now, we’ll see what his future is.
Dunn, 24, settled for a one-year $1.875MM contract just a few days before Blues camp opened this season but will have the advantage of salary arbitration this time around. Despite being a healthy scratch early in the season and seeing his name in trade rumors all year, Dunn actually ended up averaging more minutes this season than any of his previous campaigns and scored at a strong rate. His 20 points in 43 games put him on a per-game pace ahead of teammate Justin Faulk, and continued the strong offensive performance he’s had through the first four years of his career.
Since he came into the NHL in 2017-18, Dunn’s 32 goals actually tie him for 27th among all defensemen. His 102 points put him 60th among NHL defenders over the same period, certainly someone that many teams around the league could use. An excellent puck-mover and powerplay quarterback, his defensive consistency has gotten him in trouble with head coach Craig Berube at times. That certainly doesn’t mean the Blues will just throw him away though, as seen by the first-round asking price they had earlier this season.
The question really is whether the team wants to commit more cap space to the back end, which already has nearly $22MM tied up in the quartet of Faulk, Torey Krug, Colton Parayko, and Marco Scandella. Of that group, three are signed long-term and Parayko, who perhaps is the most important of all, is a pending unrestricted free agent after next season.
Blues GM Doug Armstrong has never been one to shy away from making a trade to improve the club, sending out players like Jake Allen, Robby Fabbri, Joel Edmundson, Paul Stastny, and Kevin Shattenkirk over the last several years. If he finds a deal for Dunn that makes sense, it seems likely that the team would move on from the young defenseman.
Gabriel Gagne Signs In Norway
The minor league grind for Gabriel Gagne is over, at least for now. The young forward has signed a contract with Stjernen Hockey in Norway, quite a change from Rockford where he spent the 2020-21 season.
Gagne, 24, was originally selected 36th overall by the Ottawa Senators in 2015 after an outstanding second season with the Victoriaville Tigres of the QMJHL. The 6’5″ center had scored 35 goals that season and was the intriguing mix of size and skill that scouts dream of. In his second year in the AHL he showed off that goal-scoring prowess, potting 20 with the Belleville Senators. Unfortunately, that 20-goal season came with just five assists as Gagne failed to create any offense for his teammates.
A trade to Toronto brought free agency after the Maple Leafs decided not to qualify him in 2019 and then came only minor league contracts. In seven games for the Rockford IceHogs this season, he had just a single goal. That will be the last AHL hockey he plays for a while as the next chapter of his hockey career will take him to Norway.
COVID Protocol Related Absences: 06/04/21
Each day, the NHL will publicly release the list of players that are unavailable to their respective teams due to being in the COVID-19 Protocol. Here is today’s list:
Colorado – Jayson Megna
Vegas – Brayden McNabb
As a reminder, inclusion on this list does not mean that a player has tested positive for Coronavirus or even that they have been confirmed as a close contact to another positive person. Included in the NHL’s list of possible reasons for someone being on the list is are the following:
(1) an initial positive test which remains unconfirmed until confirmatory testing is completed pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (2) mandated isolation for symptomatic individuals pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (3) required quarantine as a high-risk close contact in accordance with the Positive Test Protocol; (4) isolation based on a confirmed positive test result and/or; (5) quarantine for travel or other reasons as outlined in the COVID-19 Protocol
Players removed today: None
Still no McNabb for the Golden Knights, who will try to climb back into their second-round series against the Avalanche tonight. Vegas could be on the brink of elimination before the veteran defenseman returns, and given how long he’s been out it’s hard to imagine him making a difference anytime soon.
Kasimir Kaskisuo, Justin Kloos Sign In Sweden
Two more veteran minor league players have decided to take their talents to Sweden, as Kasimir Kaskisuo and Justin Kloos have signed with Leksands IF of the SHL. Both players have signed two-year contracts through the 2022-23 season.
Kaskisuo, 27, went undrafted out of the Finnish junior level and only signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs after two years at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. In his NHL debut with the Maple Leafs during the 2019-20 season, he was completely left out to dry by his teammates, who had seemingly given up on playing for their head coach. Mike Babcock was fired four days after Kaskisuo lost 6-1 to the Pittsburgh Penguins, not a great memory for the young goaltender. He got into a game this season for the Nashville Predators as well, stopping all three shots he faced in relief of Pekka Rinne, but those two appearances are the entirety of his NHL career thus far.
Two NHL games and a contract overseas is the same story for Kloos, who suited up once for the Minnesota Wild and once for the Anaheim Ducks before heading to the KHL last season. The 27-year-old was once a superstar in the Minnesota high school hockey scene, scoring 103 points in 31 games for Lakeville in 2011-12. That success continued at the University of Minnesota, where he captained the Golden Gophers and recorded 150 points in 155 games. Unfortunately, even with some legitimate minor league success, the 5’9″ forward failed to receive many opportunities at the NHL level and is likely going to finish his career with just those two games. In 48 KHL games last season he recorded 20 points.
Helge Grans Signs Entry-Level Contract
It wasn’t just Quinton Byfield that the Los Angeles Kings added in the 2020 draft. The team also had two second-round picks, the first of which they used to select Helge Grans at 35th overall. Today, the team has signed Grans to a three-year entry-level contract. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports the deal carries an average annual value of $925K.
Grans, 19, spent the season with the Malmo Redhawks of the SHL, recording 12 points in 43 games. Though simply playing a regular shift at his age is impressive enough, Grans’ 12 points actually put him third among defensemen on the team. Still, there were certainly rough patches for the young defenseman, as evidenced by his team-worst -21 rating, but those inconsistencies are certainly not going to derail the Kings’ belief in him as a future NHL option.
The 6’3″ defenseman has strong skating and can shut down rushes quickly when his gap is consistent, but still takes a few too many risks with the puck. At their draft in October, Corey Pronman of The Athletic wrote that he believes Grans has a solid chance to play NHL games down the line and subsequently ranked him the organization’s 12th-best prospect.
Because he is under contract with Malmo, is under 22, and is not a first-round pick, he will likely spend the 2021-22 season in Sweden. That is of course unless he makes the Kings out of camp, something that would be very surprising. If he does return to the SHL, he will not burn the first year of his entry-level deal.
Snapshots: Hyman, Tynan, Rantanen
Over the last 24 hours, a rumor emerged that Zach Hyman had been offered a long-term contract worth $5MM per season by the Toronto Maple Leafs only to turn it down. Hyman’s agent Todd Reynolds addressed it directly today, telling media members including Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun that it is “not accurate.”
The idea surfaced because of something Jason Gregor said on the DailyFaceoff Podcast, but even if the specifics of him turning down a deal aren’t true, Chris Johnston of Sportsnet still believes that the 28-year-old is going to get quite the free agent offer. Johnston suggests that Hyman could receive close to a $6MM annual average value, something the Maple Leafs would be hard-pressed to match given their tight cap situation.
- T.J. Tynan may only have 19 NHL games to his name, but that doesn’t mean his professional hockey career isn’t a glowing success. The 29-year-old was given the Les Cunningham Award today as the AHL’s Most Valuable Player for the 2020-21 season after scoring 35 points in 27 games for the Colorado Eagles. A third-round pick in 2011 by the Columbus Blue Jackets, Tynan now has 348 points in 436 AHL games. The pure playmaker, only 71 of those points have been goals.
- Earlier this season Mikko Rantanen was fined $2,000 for embellishment/diving after being dinged on two occasions by the league. According to a report out of Finland, Rantanen had the fine rescinded after sending an eight-point report to the league explaining why it looked like, but wasn’t, a dive. Of course, this was not the first time Rantanen had been fined for embellishment; he also took a $2,000 fine in the 2018-19 season.