More On Mitch Marner’s Negotiation
Mitch Marner is back at the Toronto Maple Leafs training camp after signing a six-year deal worth more than $65MM last week. The young forward was one of the biggest stories of the offseason as his representatives and the team went back and forth on term and salary, threatening to miss time like his teammate William Nylander last year. This morning, Marner’s agent Darren Ferris told Sportsnet radio that two offer sheets were presented to his client during the offseason but that they never considered accepting them, instead wanting to get a deal done with the Maple Leafs. Marner himself confirmed it, explaining his decision to Kristen Shilton of TSN:
As soon as Darren mentioned [offer sheets], I told him right away I don’t want to explore that option. But I didn’t want to miss training camp…or any games this season, so that’s why I really forced the issue with Kyle [Dubas] to get something done and get me here.
While Marner may have immediately turned down the offer sheets, it does raise some questions about which teams tried them and how much they were willing to pay. Former NHL forward Matthew Barnaby believes they were from the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild, though Marner and Ferris obviously wouldn’t confirm. If they had been equivalent to the deal that Marner eventually got from the Maple Leafs, the teams would have had to give up the maximum RFA compensation of four first-round picks. That’s a tough price for any team to pay, and one that would have forced the Maple Leafs to at least consider the option.
Now though, Toronto can focus on their upcoming preseason schedule with the whole group signed and in training camp. Marner, Auston Matthews and John Tavares now make up three of the seven highest-paid forwards in the league and will need to prove they can have more than just regular season success. With players like Jake Muzzin and Tyson Barrie coming off the books or demanding raises next summer as unrestricted free agents, this season may be one of the team’s only shots with the current group.
2007 NHL Draft Take Two: Sixteenth Overall Pick
Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.” Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.
We’re looking back at the 2007 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now. Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?
Here are the results of the redraft so far, with their original draft position in parentheses:
1st Overall: Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks (1)
2nd Overall: Jamie Benn, Philadelphia Flyers (129)
3rd Overall: P.K. Subban, Phoenix Coyotes (43)
4th Overall: Logan Couture, Los Angeles Kings (9)
5th Overall: Max Pacioretty, Washington Capitals (22)
6th Overall: Jakub Voracek, Edmonton Oilers (7)
7th Overall: Ryan McDonagh, Columbus Blue Jackets (12)
8th Overall: James van Riemsdyk, Boston Bruins (2)
9th Overall: Wayne Simmonds, San Jose Sharks (61)
10th Overall: Kevin Shattenkirk, Florida Panthers (14)
11th Overall: Jake Muzzin, Carolina Hurricanes (141)
12th Overall: Kyle Turris, Montreal Canadiens (3)
13th Overall: David Perron, St. Louis Blues (26)
14th Overall: Mikael Backlund, Colorado Avalanche (24)
15th Overall: Evgenii Dadonov, Edmonton Oilers (71)
Another mid-round pick jumps into the top half of our first round as Dadonov is the Oilers selection. They would certainly like him more than Alex Plante who they actually took in that spot 12 years ago, but Dadonov comes with his fair share of frustrations as well. Picked out of Russia after making his debut at the highest level there, Dadonov wouldn’t suit up for a North American team until 2009. That year he showed exactly why the Florida Panthers spent the 71st pick on him by scoring 40 points in 76 games at the AHL level and making his NHL debut, but it wasn’t all followed by roses.
After bouncing back and forth between the two leagues for most of the next two seasons, Dadonov was actually traded to the Carolina Hurricanes in a minor deal in January of 2012. He would never suit up for the Hurricanes, instead spending the rest of the season with the Charlotte Checkers, before deciding the minor leagues weren’t for him. Dadonov returned to Russia and the KHL where he would spend the next five seasons, eventually becoming one of the league’s most consistent offensive producers. After a 66-point season with St. Petersburg in 2016-17, the Panthers decided to pursue their old flame once again and brought him back to North America. This time, there would be no minors.
Over the last two seasons Dadonov has proven to be one of the increasingly rare success stories to come back from the KHL and produce, scoring 56 goals and 135 points in 156 games. Finding immediate chemistry with some of the other talented forwards in Florida, he’s now actually closing in on a potentially large contract in free agency. Dadonov’s current deal expires after this season and if he decides to stay in North America there will be plenty of suitors who believe he could give their team an offensive punch.
It is interesting though that the 30-year old winger comes in this high. Because of his time away from the NHL he ranks 24th in points among players selected in 2007, and has still only played 211 games in the league. Obviously his skill and production over the last two seasons have swayed voters enough to believe he was the right choice at 15th overall.
He certainly could have been the right pick for the Minnesota Wild, who held selected 16. After the Carolina Hurricanes wagered on NHL bloodlines by picking Brandon Sutter earlier in the round, the Wild followed suit by snapping up Colton Gillies, a big winger out of the Western Hockey League. Gillies had only scored 13 goals and 30 points that season for the Saksatoon Blades, but he was the nephew of Hall of Fame forward Clarke Gillies who had won four Stanley Cups with the New York Islanders. The younger Gillies had shown his physicality even as a young player in the WHL, and the Wild must have hoped they could pull out some of his family’s offensive history.
Unfortunately, that never happened. In 154 NHL contests, Gillies recorded just six goals and 18 points. He left for the Slovakian league in 2015 and ended up in the KHL where he plays to this day. The 16th overall pick is still not much of a scorer, making him another first-round bust from 2007. If Minnesota had the chance again they may have taken someone else, but who?
With the sixteenth pick of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, who should the Minnesota Wild select? Cast your vote below!
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*Tragically, 17th overall pick Alexei Cherepanov died at the age of 19 and would never get a chance to suit up in the NHL. He has not been included in this vote.
Snapshots: Mangiapane, DeAngelo, Sharks
The Calgary Flames are still working towards a deal with Matthew Tkachuk, but he’s not the only unsigned restricted free agent they have. Andrew Mangiapane is now missing time at training camp as well, but Eric Francis of Sportsnet reports that’s not what he wants. Francis tweeted today that Mangiapane has made a $200K concession in negotiations, bringing his ask down to $850K in order to get into camp and prove himself. Unfortunately, that’s still more than his $715K qualifying offer that the team can wait for him to accept.
The Flames don’t have any excess cap space to be handing out, even though there is now such a small gap between the two sides. Tkachuk is going to get a huge raise and could very well become the highest paid player on the team—eclipsing Johnny Gaudreau and Mark Giordano at $6.75MM—meaning the team needs to save every penny in negotiations. Already with just 21 players on the roster, CapFriendly projects the Flames to have just barely over $7MM in cap space.
- Anthony DeAngelo, another restricted free agent that isn’t getting many headlines, also remains without a contract with the New York Rangers. Larry Brooks of the New York Post reports that there is still a “wide gulf” between the two sides, and notes that the Rangers don’t want to go higher than the $925K they recently signed Brendan Lemieux for. DeAngelo broke out last season for the Rangers with 30 points in 61 games and was one of the team’s better defensemen by year’s end. The 23-year old doesn’t have a lot of leverage without arbitration eligibility however and will have to make a decision soon if he wants to take part in any of training camp.
- The San Jose Sharks have already made some training camp cuts, sending six players back to junior. Mitchell Brewer, Zach Emond, Zach Gallant, Jake Gricius, Jake Lee and Hudson Wilson have all been returned, leaving 57 players for the NHL training camp.
Latest On Brayden Point’s Negotiations
Mitch Marner has been stealing all the headlines lately when it comes to restricted free agent contract negotiations, but there is another Atlantic Division forward that is still without a deal and perhaps even more important to his team’s hopes this season. Many people believed Brayden Point would be one of the first high-profile names to come off the board this summer given the record of the Tampa Bay Lightning in past negotiations. Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonagh and many others have all signed long-term deals to stay in Tampa Bay, almost all at a perceived discount. Point however is still without a deal as training camp starts, and Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweets that it is “not remotely close.”
Point, 23, has developed from third-round pick into one of the most valuable players in the NHL and is coming off a 41-goal, 92-point season last year. The undersized center is also one of the best defensive forwards in the league, earning Selke Trophy votes in both his sophomore and junior seasons in the league. That resume led many to believe that he may actually be young forward who should “set the market,” though Marner has grabbed significantly more headlines thus far.
The Lightning have worked hard this summer to clear enough cap room to sign Point, trading away J.T. Miller and Ryan Callahan‘s contract while only adding bounce-back bargains like Kevin Shattenkirk and Patrick Maroon. The team has almost $8.5MM in cap space currently, but the real issues may come further down the line. With Andrei Vasilievskiy’s extension kicking in next season and all three of Anthony Cirelli, Mikhail Sergachev and Erik Cernak hitting RFA status the Lightning will be in a very tight cap situation once again.
Tampa Bay has done bridge deals before for their top talent, but it’s unclear what exactly Point is looking for. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet wrote earlier this week that he expected the team to go the three-year contract route, but if there is really as big of a gap as LeBrun suggests, it’s hard to bet on anything at this point.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Vladislav Kolyachonok Signs Entry-Level Contract
The Florida Panthers have signed Vladislav Kolyachonok to a three-year entry-level contract according to his agent Dan Milstein of Gold Star Hockey. The 18-year old spent last season in the OHL and was selected 52nd overall in June’s entry draft.
Not necessarily the biggest defenseman on the ice, you’ll nevertheless want to know exactly where Kolyachonok is when playing against him. Coming over from Belarus for his first taste of North American hockey, he made quite an impact with the Flint Firebirds by playing an aggressive, physical style in his own end and moving the puck quickly up to his forwards. Tallying 29 points while being one of the more responsible defenders on the team, he also captained his country’s team at the U18 World Juniors, the second time he’d been part of the tournament.
Kolyachonok is expected to return to Flint this season but he’s obviously already done enough to deserve an NHL deal with the Panthers. Florida has been slowly building up quite the prospect pool the last several seasons and will need players like this to fuel them as contenders in the Eastern Conference.
Minor Transactions: 09/13/19
Training camp is upon us and initial practices are underway for all players under contract. Yet, many NHL clubs still have work to do, with prominent restricted and unrestricted free agents still without deals for the 2019-20 season. Minor league affiliates, European teams, and college programs are also still making moves to finalize their plans for the coming season. Keep track of those minor transactions right here:
- Emile Poirier has signed a professional tryout with the Winnipeg Jets, looking to find a contract with the team once again. Poirier was originally selected 22nd overall by the Calgary Flames in 2013 but has just a handful of NHL games under his belt. In 24 contests last season for the Manitoba Moose he scored eight points, and at this point should be considered a long-shot to ever become an impact player.
- Brett Neumann will be attending training camp with the New York Islanders this season as he tries to prove that his size shouldn’t stop a team from taking a chance on him. The 5’9″ forward scored 45 goals and 79 points in the OHL last season between the Kingston Frontenacs and Oshawa Generals and is an undrafted free agent. Neumann will likely be heading back to the OHL, but could be a name to keep in mind down the road.
- The Vegas Golden Knights announced a pair of training camp cuts, returning goalie Jordan Kooy to London of the OHL and netminder Jiri Patera to Brandon of the WHL. Both players are unsigned draft picks with Kooy needing to sign an entry-level deal by June 2020 or else Vegas would lose his rights.
Erik Foley Fails Physical
The St. Louis Blues will be down at least one young forward prospect in training camp this year. GM Doug Armstrong told reporters including Lou Korac of NHL.com today that Erik Foley failed his physical as he tries to return from his concussion symptoms and isn’t close to getting back on the ice. In a a depressing quote, Armstrong told Korac there is “no light at the end of the tunnel” for Foley right now.
The 22-year old winger was acquired from the Winnipeg Jets in February 2018 as part of the return for Paul Stastny, and ended up signing his three-year entry-level contract a month later. The plan was for him to leave Providence College and jump into the professional system, but after suffering a concussion at the team’s rookie tournament last summer was unable to play in a single game during the 2018-19 season. The fact that he hasn’t even gotten back on the ice is an extremely disappointing outcome at this point.
Selected in the third round four years ago, Foley developed nicely with the Friars and was a gold medalist with Team USA at the World Juniors. A talented offensive player that can bring some physicality and agitation, he seemed perfectly suited to the style that head coach Craig Berube has brought to the Blues. Hopefully at one point down the road he can get back onto his development track and help the team, though it obviously won’t be anytime soon.
Training Camp Notes: Byfuglien, Dach, Perry
The Winnipeg Jets today announced that Dustin Byfuglien has been granted a leave of absence from the team and will not be participating at the start of training camp. Head coach Paul Maurice and GM Kevin Cheveldayoff both explained that it is not injury related and that it is “nothing sinister.” There is no timetable for his return, but hopefully he can get whatever it is sorted out quickly.
More notes from around training camp:
- The Chicago Blackhawks have given an update on the status of top prospect Kirby Dach after he was removed from a game during the prospect tournament recently. Dach is in the concussion protocol and will not be in the Blackhawks lineup when they start their exhibition schedule. Philipp Kurashev, who left the same game (along with two others), will not practice today with left knee and shoulder contusions. Calvin de Haan, who is still recovering from shoulder surgery, also now has a groin strain and is expected to be out for another two to three weeks.
- The Buffalo Sabres have officially announced that Zach Bogosian, Matt Hunwick, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Lawrence Pilut will not take part in training camp due to injury. These had been previously reported, but it is still disappointing for a player like Pilut who has a chance to make a big impact on the NHL club this season.
- Nolan Patrick wasn’t on the ice when the Philadelphia Flyers opened camp, sidelined with an upper-body injury according to Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer. After missing much of his draft season with various injuries, Patrick has battled minor ailments through each of his first two NHL seasons but still managed to play in 145 games. Still waiting for his breakout, missing camp would be a frustrating outcome for the 20-year old forward.
- Though all the questions were about Julis Honka’s trade request, the Dallas Stars also announced that Corey Perry has a small fracture in his foot and will be reevaluated in two weeks according to Sean Shapiro of The Athletic. That isn’t a good start for Perry in Dallas where he’s trying to revitalize his career following a buyout from the Anaheim Ducks.
Julius Honka Requests Trade
Like many of the other teams around the league, the Dallas Stars are currently dealing with an unsigned restricted free agent. Unlike many of those teams however, there seems to be no desire for either side to get something done with Julius Honka. In fact, Stars GM Jim Nill told media including Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas News that Honka has requested a trade. The 23-year old was issued a qualifying offer earlier this offseason so that the Stars would retain his exclusive RFA rights, but there doesn’t appear to be much opportunity in the NHL for him.
Nill was actually quite candid with DeFranks when discussing the trade talks:
Teams that I’ve talked to might have interest but until they know what they can do with their RFAs, they can’t make any moves. They’re capped out. We’ll play this out, see where it goes.
Originally selected 14th overall in 2014, Honka has been unable to ever really find a role with Dallas and saw more healthy scratches than games last season. A dominant presence in the minor leagues, he’s played just 87 games at the NHL level and has 13 points. The young defenseman can move the puck quickly and effectively, but has warts in his game that aren’t being fixed by sitting in the press box. Reaching a deal with Dallas seemed far-fetched all offseason, and Honka’s agent Todd Diamond made it clear today to Sean Shapiro of The Athletic:
We’ve known for a little while and Jim more recently have all come to the conclusion it wasn’t going to happen in Dallas for Julius.
There are certainly risks to acquiring a player like Honka that hasn’t been able to crack an NHL lineup, but there should also be no lack of interest. In the short times he has been on the ice there has been enough positive signs that a rebuilding team could take a chance on him, especially as a relatively cheap option. Honka has little leverage for a big contract and likely just wants a chance to get into the lineup on a regular basis. Diamond also explained that Europe is not an option at this point, meaning any acquiring team would be definitely getting his services.
Fredrik Claesson To Attend Carolina Training Camp
The Carolina Hurricanes will have Fredrik Claesson in training camp this year, signed to a professional tryout for the time being. Claesson was left unqualified by the New York Rangers earlier this summer and became an unrestricted free agent.
The 26-year old played just 37 games for the Rangers last year, a step backwards in his pursuit of being a full-time roster player. Claesson has now played 150 games at the NHL level, but will have to hope some other team likes what they see in preseason. That’s because the Hurricanes certainly don’t have room for him at the moment after signing Jake Gardiner. Even if the team moves on from Justin Faulk and doesn’t have Trevor van Riemsdyk ready for the start of the season, it’s hard to see Claesson jumping over the likes of Jake Bean, Chase Priskie and Roland McKeown for one of the final spots.
Still, he’ll provide some extra insurance should someone else suffer an injury. In those 150 contests the former Ottawa Senators prospect has 26 points and at times has looked the part of an NHL regular. He’ll certainly get the chance to play with a strong defensive group throughout the exhibition schedule, hopefully letting him catch on somewhere around the league.