Connor McDavid Tests Positive For COVID-19
The Edmonton Oilers have announced that earlier today, Connor McDavid tested positive for COVID-19. The superstar forward has entered into voluntary self-quarantine at his home and is experiencing mild symptoms.
The team did not include any information about where McDavid was tested, but NHL facilities are not yet open for groups to train together. Those changes are scheduled for October 15, when facilities will follow similar protocols to the return to play phase 2, limiting on-ice groups to 12 people at a time.
Obviously this isn’t an ideal situation, but the Oilers say McDavid is “doing well.” This will likely not be the last player to test positive for the virus as offseason training continues.
Arizona Coyotes Sign Kyle Capobianco, Ilya Lyubushkin
According to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, the Arizona Coyotes have taken care of a pair of restricted free agents, signing Kyle Capobianco and Ilya Lyubushkin. The former has signed a two-year contract that will carry an average annual value of $775K, while the latter has inked just a one-year deal worth $1MM.
Capobianco, 23, was the 63rd overall pick in 2015 but has spent almost his entire professional career in the minor leagues to this point. Since leaving the junior ranks in 2017, the puck-moving defenseman has played just 12 games at the NHL level, recording a single point. In the AHL though, Capobianco has been a star, registering 88 points in 135 games and twice taking part in the league’s All-Star festivities. The question now will be whether he can ever translate that minor league success to the NHL, but he’ll get two years to try before his next contract negotiation.
It’s Lyubushkin that is the more interesting signing, after his second year in North America finished much like the first. The 26-year-old defenseman was signed out of the KHL in 2018 and has now played in 92 NHL games without registering a single goal. In fact, Lyubushkin has scored just four points in each of his two seasons for Arizona. Despite those paltry offensive numbers, the big defenseman is still a positive player for the team thanks to strong defensive instincts and a physical presence that is unmatched on their roster. The 6’2″ Lyubushkin easily led all Arizona defenders in hits with 151 this season, despite playing in only 51 of the team’s 70 games.
Unlike Capobianco, who will still be a restricted free agent when his new contract expires, Lyubushkin will be able to test the UFA waters next offseason. His one-year deal takes him to age-27, at which point he’ll be able to hit the open market if he chooses. Amazingly, that lines up with four other Arizona defenders, meaning that new GM Bill Armstrong can reshape his blue line however he wants before the 2021-22 season. Lyubushkin joins Alex Goligoski, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Jason Demers, and Jordan Oesterle as pending 2021 unrestricted free agents.
Buffalo Sabres Sign Tage Thompson
The Buffalo Sabres have reached a deal with one of their restricted free agents, signing Tage Thompson to a three-year contract. The deal will carry an average annual value of $1.4MM.
Thompson, 22, was a big part of the trade that saw Ryan O’Reilly head to the St. Louis Blues in 2018, but failed to make an immediate impact in Buffalo. In 65 NHL games during the 2018-19 season, Thompson was held to just 12 points, struggling at times to be effective in any way for the Sabres. Starting at the minor league level in 2019-20 he looked to have an extra step, resulting in 12 points in 16 games with the Rochester Americans, but was injured almost immediately after earning a call-up. That injury resulted in season-ending shoulder surgery in early January, basically costing the young forward an entire development year.
With that inconsistent history, it’s easy to ask how he deserves a multi-year deal. The thing is, Thompson still has immense potential as a secondary scoring option in Buffalo. The Sabres and his camp both know that, but a three-year deal works as a nice middle-ground for both sides. The Sabres lock him in at a very reasonable price should he break out in 2020-21, while Thompson receives a nice salary bump and some security as he tries to work his way back from injury and show what he can do at the NHL level.
Standing 6’5″ with strong offensive instincts, Thompson does have 14 goals and 23 points in 24 games for Rochester over the last two seasons. He looked like a real difference-maker at the start of last season, and if that can carry over to give captain Jack Eichel and newly acquired Eric Staal another top-six option on the wing the deal will look like a steal. There’s no guarantee that happens, but the Sabres are looking for any way to climb out of their cycle of losing and taking a chance on a 22-year old first-round pick—instead of a veteran free agent—seems like a good bet.
San Jose Sharks Acquire Devan Dubnyk
In their second trade of the day, the San Jose Sharks and Minnesota Wild have announced that Devan Dubnyk is heading to California. The Wild will receive a 2022 fifth-round pick in return, while the Sharks will receive a 2022 seventh-round selection in addition to the veteran goaltender. Minnesota will also be retaining half of Dubnyk’s remaining $4.33MM cap hit for the 2020-21 season.
The two teams completed an earlier trade that saw Ryan Donato go to San Jose in exchange for a 2021 third-round pick. Sharks GM Doug Wilson released a statement on the latest deal:
Devan has been one of the League’s top goaltenders for many years and after playing so many years in the Western Conference, is someone our hockey staff is very familiar with. As we head into what will surely be a unique season, his acquisition gives us a high-quality and experienced tandem of netminders.
For the Sharks, this means the team will have an experienced tandem, but one that will need drastic performance improvements next season. The team’s starter Martin Jones has now posted back-to-back seasons with an .896 save percentage, allowing 394 goals in 103 appearances. That save percentage was third-worst in the NHL last season among goaltenders with at least 30 appearances, ahead of Pekka Rinne and, unfortunately, Dubnyk. The Minnesota netminder posted a dreadful .890 in his 30 games for the Wild, though does at least have several recent strong seasons to fall back on. In 2018-19, when Jones was still struggling, Dubnyk posted a .913 save percentage in a league-leading 67 appearances for Minnesota.
Amazingly, these two goaltenders finished fifth and sixth in Vezina Trophy voting in 2017. While it seems unlikely they can get back to that level in 2020, it’s not necessarily out of the question. With Jones signed for four more seasons at a $5.75MM cap hit, the Sharks will try everything to get him back to playing at a high level. Dubnyk meanwhile comes in at a relatively inexpensive $2.17MM cap hit after the salary retention, plus is actually set to earn even less in actual salary.
The Sharks also paid a very low price for the acquisition, swapping a pick two rounds up for the chance to see what Dubnyk can do in San Jose. That’s almost nothing, though given the overflowing goaltending market this offseason this acquisition certainly won’t excite many fans.
For Minnesota, moving on from Dubnyk was an obvious move for GM Bill Guerin. The team wants to get younger and provide opportunities for some of their prospects, which could include reigning AHL Goaltender of the Year Kaapo Kahkonen. The Wild also still have Alex Stalock under contract for two seasons at just a $785K cap hit. Kahkonen, who is just 24 and coming off an outstanding season in the AHL in which he posted a .927 save percentage, is an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent in need of a new deal. Whether he can handle the starting job isn’t clear, but with Dubnyk out of the way, there is a clear path to the net.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
New York Islanders Announce Qualifying Offers
The New York Islanders have tendered qualifying offers to several players ahead of the upcoming free agent period. Mathew Barzal, Kyle Burroughs, Joshua Ho-Sang, Grant Hutton, Ryan Pulock, Devon Toews, Mitch Vande Sompel, and Parker Wotherspoon have all received qualifying offers. After re-signing Sebastian Aho to a two-year deal, that leaves just Linus Soderstrom unqualified. Soderstrom will become an unrestricted free agent on Friday.
While Soderstrom’s exclusion may raise some eyebrows, the most surprising decision here may be to qualify Ho-Sang. The Islanders and their enigmatic prospect have never really seen eye-to-eye and it appeared as though the two sides were going to finally have a chance to part ways. Instead, Arthur Staple of The Athletic reported last week that New York actually would be qualifying the 24-year-old, keeping him in the organization that drafted him six years ago.
It’s not just that Ho-Sang hasn’t made an impact at the NHL level, it’s that he has constantly clashed with the Islanders coaching staff and management teams on his career path. The first-round pick has believed he deserved more time in the NHL to show what he could do and this year even officially requested a trade and was told not to report to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Ho-Sang ended up playing six games for the San Antonio Rampage, the AHL affiliate of the St. Louis Blues before the season was canceled.
Obviously, it is difficult to see a path forward between the two sides, but that doesn’t mean Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello is going to throw away an asset (regardless of value).
Los Angeles Kings Sign Matt Luff, Mikey Eyssimont
The Los Angeles Kings have completed some business, re-signing Matt Luff and Mikey Eyssimont to one-year deals. Both contracts are two-way deals and will carry NHL salaries of $700K. Both players were pending restricted free agents.
Luff, 23, has played 51 games for the Kings over the last two seasons but failed to really establish himself as an NHL force. The undrafted free agent signing out of the OHL has nine goals and 16 points in those games, but has shown a little more offensive upside at the minor league level. While Luff may receive some more opportunity in the Kings lineup there are certainly other prospects in the system on paths that will quickly overtake him on the depth chart.
Eyssimont, 24, isn’t really one of those prospects. Though he did record 12 goals and 28 points in 56 games this season with the Ontario Reign, he’s at the point where becoming an impact NHL forward is likely out of reach. He does represent some more depth for the organization and a strong player for the AHL team, but that point-per-game output at the college level does not seem to have traveled with Eyssimont to professional hockey.
There are several more minor league RFAs for the Kings to sign, along with Nikolai Prokhorkin at the NHL level. Prokhorkin, of course, has already returned to the KHL and signed a two-year deal with Magnitogorsk, meaning that though the Kings can retain his rights temporarily with a qualifying offer, he won’t be signing a new deal with them anytime soon.
Minnesota Wild Sign Carson Soucy
Oct 5: The Soucy contract is now official, with the Wild announcing the three-year, $8.25MM deal.
Oct 2: The Minnesota Wild have been working hard to find a new contract with pending free agent defenseman Carson Soucy, and have finally found some common ground. The team is closing in on a three-year extension that will pay Soucy an average of $2.75MM per year according to Frank Seravalli of TSN. Soucy was set to become a Group VI unrestricted free agent next week and had been drawing plenty of interest.
Soucy, 26, is one of those rare Group VI UFAs that actually demands attention on the open market, after playing 55 games for the Wild this season. He was on track to pass the 80-game threshold that would have kept him a restricted free agent this offseason until he suffered an injury and the season was suspended, leaving the Wild vulnerable to his departure.
It’s still impossible to know exactly what the 6’5″ is in the NHL with so little actual experience, but the Wild are betting that his history of success at the collegiate and minor league level will carry over to the big leagues. It certainly seemed to this season, but it’s worth noting that Soucy didn’t play a big role on either the penalty kill or powerplay. He did however look strong when paired with the recently extended Jonas Brodin, suggesting that he could take on a bigger role next season.
Of course, a deal like this will only strengthen the voices that are suggesting the Wild would consider moving Matt Dumba, given how much money is now tied up on the Minnesota blue line. The team already had nearly $28MM locked into Brodin, Dumba, Jared Spurgeon, Ryan Suter, and Greg Pateryn, meaning Soucy would push the group over $30MM. While that’s not completely debilitating, it doesn’t give you a lot of wiggle room to improve the rest of the roster, especially when big tickets like Kevin Fiala will need new contracts fairly soon.
Still, getting Soucy under contract now doesn’t necessarily mean even he will be suiting up for the Wild next season. GM Bill Guerin has already shown a willingness to move out pieces when he doesn’t believe they fit any longer and it’s hard to imagine there aren’t some more changes coming in Minnesota.
New York Islanders Re-Sign Sebastian Aho
The New York Islanders have reached an agreement on a new two-year contract with Sebastian Aho, according to Arthur Staple of The Athletic. No, the Carolina Hurricanes star forward has not somehow signed another offer sheet. The Islanders have signed their own Aho, a restricted free agent defenseman that has spent the last two seasons in the AHL.
Aho, 24, was a fifth-round pick of the Islanders back in 2017 and actually played in 22 NHL games during the 2017-18 season. Since then he has been manning the Bridgeport Sound Tigers blue line, racking up points as one of the minor league’s most effective offensive defensemen. This season, Aho scored 30 points in 49 games and was included on the Islanders 52-man travelling party for the return to play postseason.
Aho’s deal will be a two-way contract in 2020-21 and a one-way in 2021-22 according to Staple, avoiding restricted free agency. He will qualify for Group VI unrestricted free agency at the expiration of the contract if he fails to play in 58 NHL games over the next two seasons.
Justin Braun Signs With Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers will be without Matt Niskanen after the veteran defenseman decided to retire a year before his contract expired, but they are bringing back some more experience on the backend. Justin Braun has signed a new two-year contract with the Flyers that will carry an average annual value of $1.8MM. Braun was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on Friday.
Even though he can’t fill the same skates as Niskanen, this deal represents quite the bargain for the Flyers who will bring back Braun at a discount. The 33-year-old defenseman is coming off a five-year contract that carried a $3.8MM cap hit, meaning he’ll take quite the pay cut to remain in Philadelphia. The long-time San Jose Shark ended up playing in 62 games during his first year with the Flyers, recording 19 points and averaging just over 17 minutes a night.
That number could potentially increase in Niskanen’s absence, with Braun at least taking on a good amount of penalty killing work next season. He was actually statistically the team’s most effective option there, though Niskanen and Ivan Provorov logged much more short-handed time.
Regardless, Braun represents a fairly cheap option for a team looking to go on another deep playoff run next season. The Flyers were a game away from reaching the Eastern Conference Finals and could be targeting some big names with their new cap space.
Columbus Blue Jackets Issue Qualifying Offers
The Columbus Blue Jackets have announced which restricted free agents will receive qualifying offers, with few surprises. Josh Anderson, Gabriel Carlsson, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Vladislav Gavrikov, Matiss Kivlenieks, Ryan MacInnis, Kevin Stenlund and Calvin Thurkauf have all received qualifying offers from the team and will remain in the organization.
That means Devin Shore, Maxime Fortier, Justin Scott, Paul Bittner, Michael Prapavessis and Ryan Collins did not, making them unrestricted free agents on Friday.
The only real surprise is Shore, and only because the Blue Jackets acquired him this season in exchange for Sonny Milano. The 26-year-old Shore has not been particularly effective since the 2017-18 campaign, splitting the last two seasons between three teams and recording just 12 points in 2019-20. Add in the fact that he was due a $2.4MM qualifying offer in order to remain with the Blue Jackets and it’s not hard to see why the team decided to cut bait.
Still, Shore could represent a cheap depth signing for a team this offseason if they think he can be of use to a bottom-six. The 26-year-old forward has experience at center and on the wing and has scored double-digit goals in three different seasons.
Bittner and Collins may also bring a twinge of disappointment to Blue Jackets fans, given they were both second-round selections that never seemed to pan out. Bittner especially was hyped coming off a successful junior career but failed to score much in the AHL. Collins, the 47th pick in 2014, never added any offense to his defensive game and could only rely on his size for so long.