Winnipeg Jets, Dustin Byfuglien Terminate Contract
The Winnipeg Jets and Dustin Byfuglien have finally officially parted ways, with the league announcing that his contract has been terminated. The two sides have “mutually resolved” the grievance filed by Byfuglien that followed his team suspension earlier this year. Effective immediately, Byfuglien is now an unrestricted free agent.
Frank Seravalli of TSN reports that Byfuglien will not receive any of the $14MM he was owed for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, while Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic notes that he will not be allowed to sign with a team should this season resume. Though it is hard to know exactly what the future holds for Byfuglien, John Shannon tweets that several of his sources are suggesting that the veteran defenseman’s career is over and that he “has no interest in playing.” His entire $7.6MM cap hit will be removed for the Jets.
Notably, Byfuglien decided—without consulting the Jets organization—to get ankle surgery in late October. That injury was the basis of his grievance, as his camp argued that it was hockey related and would have allowed him to be placed on long-term injured reserve. In that case he would have still been able to collect his remaining salary, though that outcome is obviously off the table now.
It’s hard to really encapsulate what kind of impact Byfuglien had on the ice when healthy. As the game continued to move towards smaller skilled players, the Jets defenseman was a throwback to a much more physical brand of hockey. Basically always the biggest and strongest player on the ice, fans will remember countless times “Big Buff” would throw around smaller opponents with ease.
But his physical prowess wasn’t the whole story with Byfuglien. An eighth-round pick by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2003, he played both defense and forward with that organization and won the Stanley Cup in 2010. A talented offensive player, he recorded at least 45 points in seven different seasons and currently has 525 points in 869 career games.
Now 35, you can bet Byfuglien’s name will still come up in the future as a potential addition for a contender looking to shore up their defensive group. Whether he ever plays again is up to him, but it won’t be in Winnipeg.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Marco Scandella Agrees To Four-Year Extension
The St. Louis Blues are taking care of business. After extending Sammy Blais yesterday, the team has announced another new contract, this time for Marco Scandella. The veteran defenseman has signed a four-year extension that will carry an average annual value of $3.275MM. Scandella was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season after being acquired from the Montreal Canadiens earlier this year.
Because of the extension, the Canadiens will receive an additional draft pick—the Blues’ 2021 fourth-round selection—from the trade to go with the original 2020 second-round pick St. Louis gave up. That deal came just a few weeks after sending a 2020 fourth-round pick to the Buffalo Sabres for Scandella, making this flip quite the impressive transaction for Montreal GM Marc Bergevin.
Scandella, 30, is coming off a five-year, $20MM deal he signed with the Minnesota Wild in 2014. At that point he was considered a rock-solid defensive partner that could play in a lot of situations, but his stock fell considerably over the last few years in Buffalo. In St. Louis, that kind of stay-at-home presence is exactly what will be asked of him after he spent most of his short stint alongside young star Colton Parayko. At a $3.275MM cap hit he essentially replaces Jay Bouwmeester, who is still contemplating his playing future after his cardiac episode but is scheduled for unrestricted free agency.
Any extension for a defenseman in St. Louis will come with other questions though, as free agency also looms for captain Alex Pietrangelo. The team now has five NHL defensemen locked up through next season, for a total of more than $18MM. Pietrangelo would increase that total quite substantially, something that might not be possible given the expected salary cap stagnation coming from the current pause.
Andrei Markov Announces Retirement
Andrei Markov never will get the chance to reach 1,000 games played in the NHL. The 41-year old defenseman has announced his retirement today, his agent reaching out to various reporters including Richard Labbe of La Presse. Markov hasn’t played in the NHL since 2017 when he left for the KHL, but had been reportedly interested in a return to North America and the Montreal Canadiens as recently as last summer.
It’s hard to climb up the mountain of elite NHL players that have come through Montreal in the history of the Canadiens, but Markov certainly tried. The sixth-round pick from 1998 played his entire career with the organization, racking up 990 games played–second to only Larry Robinson among Montreal defensemen. His 572 career points for Montreal ties him with Guy Lapointe for second (also behind Robinson) and his 119 goals come in third.
Sure, Markov didn’t have anywhere near the postseason success of those two—Lapointe and Robinson each raised the Stanley Cup six times as Canadiens—but he’ll still be remembered as one of the most impactful blueliners the franchise has ever had.
His exploits extended further than the NHL however. Markov suited up at three different Olympics, five World Championships and two World Cups for Russia over his long career. He also won the Russian league title three times, including the KHL’s Gagarin Cup in 2018, the first year back following his return from the NHL.
A savvy, cerebral player that could set up a teammate in the blink of an eye, he received Norris Trophy votes on six different occasions.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Shane Pinto Will Return For Sophomore Season
Though it may come as no surprise to those who have followed him this season, Shane Pinto has officially informed the Ottawa Senators that he will be returning to the University of North Dakota for his sophomore season, according to Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald. Pinto, like several other high profile college players that have decided to return in recent weeks, indicated that abrupt ending to the season was “the biggest thing” affecting his decision.
The 19-year old Pinto was the 32nd overall pick in 2019 and a player that could have easily climbed into the first round. The 6’2″ center had just scored at more than a point-per-game pace in the USHL and has obvious NHL upside. He showed off that upside at the World Juniors where he recorded seven points (trailing only Trevor Zegras for the Team USA lead) and at UND where he scored 16 goals and 28 points as a freshman. He was named the NCHC Rookie of the Year for his efforts.
Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia chimed in on Twitter, indicating that the Senators had expected Pinto to return and further his development at UND. With that in mind, he’ll be a name to watch next spring when the college season is over as a potential early signing.
Zach Hyman Hopes To Stay In Toronto Long-Term
The Toronto Maple Leafs, perhaps more than many other teams, could be in trouble thanks to a stagnant or even declining salary cap next season. Depending on what happens with the playoffs this year and how the NHL and NHLPA decide to go about things, a team like Toronto that has so much money tied up in their core forwards could be looking to cut costs on the fringes of the roster. Moving forward, re-signing other players may be even more difficult, especially if they are performing well enough to deserve a raise.
Enter Zach Hyman, the hometown boy who is on a contract that ends after the 2020-21 season. Hyman signed a four-year, $9MM deal in the summer of 2017 after his first full season in the NHL. He had scored just 10 goals and 28 points that year but quickly become a fan and Mike Babcock favorite thanks to his tireless work ethic and impressive forechecking ability. That four-year deal has paid off in spades for the Maple Leafs, as Hyman jumped up to 40 points in his second full season, 21 goals in his third and had already scored 21 in just 51 games this year.
That pace was good enough for 33 goals over a full 82-game season, quite the performance for a player earning just $2.25MM against the cap. It’s also a player that the Maple Leafs would obviously be interested in bringing back, especially since he will be only 29 when his current deal expires.
If the team does want to extend the bang-and-crash winger, he’s open to it. On a conference call with reporters today including Mike Zeisberger of NHL.com, Hyman explained that he would “love to stay in Toronto” and would “love to be a long-time Leaf.”
That should come as no surprise, given Hyman’s roots in the city, but it also will instantly perk up fan’s ears in hopes of a “hometown discount.” A 30-goal winger (if he ever gets there) with Hyman’s kind of penalty-killing prowess would go for a lot more than $2.25MM per season on the open market, a number that the Maple Leafs may not be able to afford if they have any plans on investing more into their defensive group, or re-signing Frederik Andersen beyond the 2020-21 campaign.
Even if that contract negotiation is a little down the road, Hyman had other good news for Maple Leafs’ fans. The suspended season has given him even more time to rest a knee that needed ACL surgery last summer.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
PHR Panel: Taylor Hall’s Future
We’re now several weeks into an NHL postponement and there is still no clear timeline on when professional hockey will return. While fans of the sport have received small tidbits of news over that time, including college signings and contract extensions, the thirst for discussion has rarely been quenched.
With that in mind, we’re happy to continue our new feature: The PHR Panel. Three times a week, our writing staff will give our individual takes on a question many hockey fans have been wondering about. If you’d ever like to submit a subject for us to discuss, be sure to put it in the comments. This series will run each Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
To catch up on the previous edition, click here.
Today, we’ll each give our thoughts on the future of a pending free agent.
Q: Which team is the best fit for Taylor Hall in 2020-21?
Brian La Rose:
Hall has not done himself any favors this season when it comes to helping his market value. It wasn’t crazy to think that a big year could have had him thinking about a deal similar to the one Artemi Panarin received but now, he’ll come well short of that and has managed just 27 goals in 98 games over the last two seasons.
At this stage, Hall could still fit in on a number one line but is better off as a matchup-beating second liner and that’s where his best fit is. But the teams where he’d be in that role are largely cap-strapped and a flattened or reduced salary cap will only make that more challenging; even Arizona is going to have a hard time keeping him around unless they find a way to get some cap relief.
With all of that said, I think Columbus could be the best fit among teams that can afford him in free agency. Their cap situation is pretty clean and they have some sizable deals coming off the books in 2021 that would allow them to mitigate some of the risk of a long-term deal that Hall will likely still get. The Blue Jackets are a team on the rise with some young talent that could push Hall into more of a secondary role as his contract progresses while in the short term, he’d be an offensive upgrade to a team that has struggled to score this year.
Holger Stolzenberg:
Usually when a team goes out and acquires a star player just before that player hits free agency, I assume that the player, this time Taylor Hall, will sign a long-term deal. Or at least that’s how it feels. The only recent exception I can think of is Matt Duchene when he got traded to Columbus. However, that move seemed more like a gamble and when neither Panarin, nor Sergei Bobrovsky re-signed, Duchene opted not to.
However, I get a similar feeling from Hall. While the situation is quite different for an Arizona Coyotes team that does seem to be up-and-coming, the team struggled once acquiring Hall with a 14-17-4 record—although much of those struggles had to do with their goaltending injury issues.
Hall has been on losing teams throughout almost his entire career and likely is getting tired of it. He has appeared in just one playoff series, losing four of the five games that he played. He might be more interested at this point in his career to sign with a top playoff team because of that.
The best option might be the Colorado Avalanche. While they have a lot of money invested in Mikko Rantanen as well as Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog, the team should have the cap space to lock Hall up as a top-six winger who could turn the Avalanche into Stanley Cup frontrunners for many years to come.
Zach Leach:
Every team in the NHL can and will try to make a case that Hall is a fit on their roster. But which team is the best fit for Hall? At this point in his career, Hall deserves to paid his fair value and to compete in the postseason year in and year out. At first glance, the only team with the cap space and the talent level to make that happen is the Colorado Avalanche. They are the likely favorites to land Hall this summer.
However, you can never rule out the hometown team. While Hall moved to Ontario as a teen, he spent most of his childhood in Calgary. The Flames have a surprising amount of cap space this off-season for a team with a considerable amount of talent. Most expect that they could use that room to replace the potential losses of defensemen T.J. Brodie and Travis Hamonic, they could opt to go in a different direction and supplement their scoring, especially after down years from many of their top-six forwards. Consider the possibility of compliance buyouts and the removal of Milan Lucic‘s contract and Calgary could have even more spending power. Hall would be able to land the contract he has earned and play for a winning team with the added comfort of a familiar city, no less. The Flames are a dark horse option, but a good fit.
Gavin Lee:
You can bet that Hall will have his eyes set on a playoff team in free agency, but how many playoff teams will have their eyes set on him? The Blue Jackets, Avalanche and Flames are all good fits if they can make the money work, but I have an outside-the-box idea that may just be my favorite fit of them all.
In 2007, long before he was the Hart Trophy winner, a World Championship gold medalist or the first-overall NHL draft pick, he was selected in a different kind of draft. Hall was the second pick in the OHL priority draft, nabbed by the Windsor Spitfires who had gone 18-43-7 the previous year. Hall would burst onto the junior scene in 2007-08 as a rookie, scoring 45 goals and 84 points in just 63 games with Windsor. He, along with a second-year head coach that had only recently retired from the NHL, turned the Spitfires into a powerhouse that would go on to win consecutive Memorial Cups in 2009 and 2010. Hall was named the tournament’s MVP both times.
That coach, who had struggled so mightily in his first year leading the Spitfires, was none other than Bob Boughner. Boughner was given the reins of the San Jose Sharks this season after Peter DeBoer was let go and now has the “upper hand” to land the full-time job moving forward. If he is hired, what better player to try and bring the Sharks back to contention than his old prodigy from the OHL?
Sure, the Sharks aren’t in a great financial situation moving forward because of some hefty contracts they have previously given out, but it’s clear that they won’t be rebuilding next year. GM Doug Wilson has always been willing to go after the big fish and perhaps bringing in another top-flight winger (along with some improved health from Erik Karlsson) could jump the Sharks right back into the playoff hunt next season.
Jets Notes: Woodcroft, Moose, Heinola
The Winnipeg Jets will likely be looking for a new assistant coach next season, as John Buccigross of ESPN reports that Todd Woodcroft has been offered the head coaching position at the University of Vermont. Murat Ates of The Athletic believes Woodcroft will take the position and notes how much time the coach spent practicing with the younger Jets players.
Woodcroft has been part of several organizations around the NHL, spending time as a video coach, scout, director of scouting and assistant coach. He has also been part of several different World Championship coaching staffs, but will now get his chance to lead a college program.
- The Manitoba Moose, AHL affiliate of the Jets, have signed two forwards to minor league deals for 2021-22. Westin Michaud and Biagio Lerario have both agreed to AHL contracts, giving them a chance to move to the professional ranks. Michaud recently finished his fourth NCAA season and first at the University of North Dakota, where he recorded 28 points in 35 games. The 24-year old had previously transferred from Colorado College. Lerario meanwhile played four seasons at Northeastern University, occupying a bottom-six role to support the more flashy offensive players the program has seen come and go. In 122 NCAA games, the 24-year old Lerario scored 29 points and recorded 173 PIM.
- When you look at the Jets depth chart for next season it’s easy to pencil in Ville Heinola as a full-time roster player, given the fact that Dmitry Kulikov, Nathan Beaulieu, Dylan DeMelo, Luca Sbisa and Anthony Bitetto are all headed for unrestricted free agency. Heinola was impressive in his debut at the beginning of the season before returning to Finland, but GM Kevin Cheveldayoff cautioned against making any assumptions when speaking with Ken Wiebe of The Athletic (subscription required). The then-18-year-old defenseman recorded five points in eight games with the Jets at the beginning of the year, before starring once again for Finland at the World Juniors. He’ll have to perform just as well at next season’s training camp to secure his spot. Selected 20th overall in 2019, even if they have to wait another year, it seems as though the Jets found another steal in the latter part of the first round.
Nashville Predators Extend Alexandre Carrier
The Nashville Predators have handed out a multi-year contract extension to a player still unproven at the NHL level, signing Alexandre Carrier to a three-year deal. The two-way contract will kick in for the 2020-21 season, and carries an average annual value of $733K. Adam Vingan of The Athletic tweets the full breakdown:
- 2020-21: $700K NHL/$125K AHL
- 2021-22: $750K NHL/$175K AHL
- 2022-23: $750K NHL/$200K AHL
Carrier, 23, was a fourth-round pick of the Predators in 2015 but quickly became one of the more interesting defensive prospects in their system. With seasons of 39, 28, 37 and 37 points, his offensive ability has never been contained at the minor league level, and his continued development in his own end makes him a potential candidate for an NHL job next season.
How he’ll perform at the higher level however is still completely undetermined, given that he has played in only five NHL games thus far in his career. The 6’0″ defenseman was set to become a restricted free agent this summer after his entry-level contract expired, but instead of taking a one-year qualifying offer to see how he might perform next season, Carrier will lock into the security of a three-year deal.
That kind of multi-year commitment is par for the course with Predators GM David Poile, who is always looking for ways to maximize value in young players. Should Carrier prove to be an NHL option he will actually come with a cap hit lower than the league minimum in 2021-22, when it increases to $750K.
Though technically this contract is currently scheduled to leave him an RFA again at its conclusion, if Carrier doesn’t receive a legitimate NHL opportunity over the next three years he would become a UFA instead. Should he fail to play in 77 more NHL games, he would qualify for Group VI UFA status as a 26-year old.
Pittsburgh Penguins Sign William Reilly
The Pittsburgh Penguins have convinced one of their college draft picks to sign a two-year entry-level contract, inking William Reilly before he had the opportunity to become an unrestricted free agent later this summer. Reilly recently finished his senior season at RPI, where he served as captain. Penguins GM Jim Rutherford released a short statement on his newest defenseman:
Will had an impressive year in 2019-20 after continuing to improve during his four years at RPI. His commitment to working hard and improving his conditioning has paid off. We are happy to add another young player, increasing our organizational depth on defense.
Originally selected in the seventh round of the 2017 draft, Reilly has steadily developed through his four years at college and now stands as a legitimate prospect. In 2019-20 the 22-year old defenseman recorded 22 points in 34 games, while also being a leader in his own end.
Named a finalist for the ECAC Best Defensive Defenseman this season, Reilly shouldn’t be overlooked as a potential option down the line for the Penguins. The team has perhaps the most impressive history in the league of working with late-round or undrafted college players and turning them into NHL assets, something they’ll try to do again with Reilly.
Bill Peters Hired In KHL
After Bill Peters‘ resignation was accepted by the Calgary Flames, following their investigation into racial slurs he used in the past against former player Akim Aliu, it was hard to see a way for him to return to coaching in the NHL. That doesn’t mean Peters’ career behind the bench is over however, as he has been hired by Avtomobilist in the KHL.
The team announced a two-year deal for the former head coach of the Flames and Carolina Hurricanes, who has also led Team Canada at the World Championship. The incident with Aliu took place when Peters was head coach of the Rockford IceHogs in the 2009-10 season.
In six seasons as an NHL head coach, Peters had a 199-175-64 record and made the playoffs only once.