Cole Perfetti Among Those Making Waves At Hlinka-Gretzky
Even less than two months after watching Jack Hughes selected first overall by the New Jersey Devils, scouts and prospect evaluators are already hard at work putting together their boards for the 2020 draft class. One of the premier tournaments for the following year’s prospects is the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup, an international tournament that happens in August before junior seasons get underway. Tomorrow will mark the gold medal game between Canada and Russia after the two countries have had perfect records so far.
To get the Canadians there, top 2020 prospect Cole Perfetti put on a show against Sweden. The 17-year old forward scored twice on breakaways during regulation and then converted three times in the shootout including the game-winning goal. In international play the shootout winner is credited with a goal, meaning Perfetti’s hat-trick takes him to eight goals on the tournament—tying the record set by Vancouver Canucks draft pick Vasily Podkolzin last year. Playing for the Saginaw Spirit of the OHL in 2018-19, Perfetti recorded 37 goals and 74 points as a rookie which already had him at the top of many early rankings. His performance at the tournament will only help his cause and put him among the first few names selected next spring.
Canada has also received outstanding performances from Jamie Drysdale—who may end up as the top available defenseman next June—and Hendrix Lapierre, and looks like it will have an impressive wave of prospects coming through in the next few years. This team doesn’t even include Alexis Lafreniere, who currently projects as the top overall pick. Lafreniere captained the Canadians at the tournament last summer and recorded 11 points in five games.
For Russia, the scoring has been driven by Alexander Pashin who has five goals in four games but the real story has been goaltending. Yaroslav Askarov has allowed just three goals on 87 shots and continues his absolute dominance on the international stage. Following Spencer Knight‘s selection 13th overall in June, Askarov may well be the next goaltender to go in the top half of the first round.
Elsewhere around the tournament have been solid performances by undersized Finnish forward Roni Hirvonen who had five points in four games and Swedish star Daniel Ljungman who also scored twice in the shootout against Canada and has four goals in four games.
USA Hockey had quite the disappointing tournament, especially after all the international success the program has experienced over the last several years. The team lost to the Czech Republic in overtime today to finish sixth.
Submit Your Questions For The #PHRMailbag
The NHL offseason is nearly half over and preseason games are just a month away. Still though the restricted free agent market is at a deadlock and names like Jake Gardiner and Ben Hutton remain unsigned. There is work to be done this summer even if things have slowed down considerably, though fans may have already resorted to watching an old VHS copy of the original Mighty Ducks to quench their hockey thirst.
Good news! It’s time to run another edition of our mailbag. You can submit your query by using #PHRMailbag on Twitter or by leaving a comment down below. Make sure you get your questions in early and we’ll try to get through as many as possible when the mailbag runs this weekend.
If you missed our last edition it was split into two parts you can read here and here. In the first part Brian examined the New York Rangers previous cap situation and pointed out that while Brendan Smith may have seemed like the easier buyout to pitch to fans, Kevin Shattenkirk likely made more sense given his no-movement clause prevented him from being waived and sent to the minors. The second goes a little deeper into the arbitration process and what happens when a salary is decided upon, while also giving his prediction on which high profile RFA would sign next—Zach Werenski for the record.
Pro Football Rumors Seeking Part-Time Writers
We’re looking to add part-time contributors to the Pro Football Rumors Rumors writing team. The position pays on an hourly basis. Applicants must meet ALL of the following criteria:
- Exceptional knowledge of all 32 NFL teams, with no discernible bias.
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- At least some college education.
- Extensive writing experience, with professional experience and a background in journalism both strongly preferred.
- Keen understanding of journalistic principles, ethics and procedures. Completion of basic college-level journalism classes is strongly preferred.
- Attention to detail — absolutely no spelling errors, especially for player and journalist names.
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- Ability to analyze articles and craft intelligent, well-written posts summing up the news in a few paragraphs. We need someone who can balance quick writing with thoughtful analysis. You must be able to add value to breaking news with your own insight, numbers or links to other relevant articles.
- Ability to use an RSS feed reader. Ability to use Twitter. Both of these are crucial.
- Strong weekend availability is crucial. You must be available to work between 1pm-5pm central time on Sundays and frequently be available to work between 5-11 pm CT on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
- Flexibility. You must be available to work on short notice.
If you’re interested, email pfrapplications@gmail.com by August 12 (11:00pm central time) and take a couple of paragraphs to explain why you qualify and stand out. Many will apply, so unfortunately we cannot respond to every applicant.
Minnesota Wild Sign Hunter Warner
The Minnesota Wild have signed restricted free agent Hunter Warner to a one-year two-way contract. The deal will carry a $700K salary in the NHL. Warner was not eligible for salary arbitration.
Warner, 23, was signed as an undrafted free agent out of the USHL in 2014 where he was a menace on defense. Racking up 125 penalty minutes in just 43 games for the Fargo Force, that physicality has continued through the rest of his junior career and into the minor leagues. Playing for the Iowa Wild the last few years Warner has totaled just 18 points in 165 games but was a core piece in 2018-19 when the team made the Calder Cup playoffs for the first time.
With Warner signed the Wild now have just three restricted free agents left to sign. At least two of them, Kevin Fiala and Joel Eriksson Ek are important pieces of the NHL roster and will hopefully find some common ground with the front office over the next month. That front office of course is without a leader at the moment after Paul Fenton‘s early dismissal.
Poll: Which 35+ Free Agent Would You Rather Sign?
Despite the lingering availability of Jake Gardiner on the market, most teams are just about done with their unrestricted free agent shopping. We saw Kevin Shattenkirk snapped up quickly as soon as he became available, but Michael Stone hasn’t had the same luck so far. Younger players like Ben Hutton may have to wait until the restricted free agent situations around the league are solved, just like some of the older names out there.
Like every year, August brings a lot of questions surrounding the future of long-time NHL skaters. Is it time to hang up their blades, or will there be a team offering a chance at one more kick at the can? In the NHL, multi-year contracts given out to players over the age of 35 come with some added risk. If that player decides to retire at any point, the full average annual value is still applied to his team’s salary cap and he becomes a burden on the books. That only really affects teams that give out expensive deals to aging players though, and one-year contracts for those veterans can actually be quite beneficial to both sides. One-year contracts signed by players over 35 are eligible to include performance bonuses, something that cannot be given to most other players during their NHL careers. We’ve seen plenty of these contracts handed out in the past, and they can be a perfect blend of low risk for the club and high reward for the player.
The group of 35+ skaters this year still without a contract is quite impressive. While last summer our community thought Scott Hartnell was the best “old guy” available late into free agency, this year has some names that could still provide quite an impact. Joe Thornton is one of those names that sticks out, though he is still expected to re-sign with the San Jose Sharks at some point. The (literal) graybeard has made it clear he wants to play again but only for the Sharks, though he’ll likely have to take a pay cut to do it.
Thornton doesn’t even lead the way in terms of 2018-19 production even though he had 51 points last season. Justin Williams takes the cake in that department after his impressive 23-goal, 53-point year with the Carolina Hurricanes. Williams is a respected leader and can still add some offense, but is still making his decision on whether to come back for another year.
Those two aren’t the only useful players in the group however, meaning there might be several 35+ deals handed out over the next month. If you could get one of them on a one-year deal for your team, who would it be? Cast your vote below and make sure to explain why in the comment section.
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New York Rangers Expect Chris Kreider In Camp
Since the New York Rangers used their second buyout window to say goodbye to Kevin Shattenkirk, the question on every fan’s lips has been “what will happen with Chris Kreider?” The team now has some cap flexibility after ridding themselves of the Shattenkirk contract, but with Anthony DeAngelo and Brendan Lemieux still to sign that flexibility could disappear in an instant. Among the names most commonly thrown around in trade speculation is Kreider and Vladislav Namestnikov who are both heading into their final seasons before unrestricted free agency and each carry cap hits of at least $4MM.
Trading Kreider has seemed inevitable at points this offseason, especially when the Rangers decided to sign Artemi Panarin to a seven-year, $81.5MM deal. Not only do the two players play the same wing, but Panarin’s contract (along with Jacob Trouba‘s) really put New York on a different path financially. Re-signing Kreider would be difficult now, though not impossible. Dan Rosen of NHL.com caught up with Rangers president John Davidson and GM Jeff Gorton recently, who both expect the big left winger to be in training camp. They wouldn’t however go into detail on any possible extension, with Gorton even stating that they’ll “figure it out” after Kreider starts the season.
With the Rangers suddenly armed with a glut of young talent there are obvious reasons to move on from Kreider, one of the last remaining veterans from their previous core. Opening up playing time in the top-six for some of their younger players is one thing, but his value on the trade market may be the bigger draw. There’s little doubt that Kreider would draw interest as a trade deadline acquisition, adding speed and physicality to any lineup. He matched a career-high with 28 goals last season and has been a possession monster for his entire career.
Still, if New York starts the season on a hot streak and Kreider is a real part of that, they’re going to have to consider an extension. One of the biggest issues with that is Shattenkirk, ironically. While the buyout opened enough room this season to potentially keep the winger, the Rangers will deal with a $6.08MM cap hit from Shattenkirk next season, a huge number for any team to carry in dead money.
For now, it seems as though there is nothing imminent on the Kreider front. There will be a couple of other pressure points when DeAngelo and Lemieux sign however, meaning there is still opportunity for the Rangers front office to change their minds and another team to make them an offer they can’t refuse.
PHR Live Chat Transcript: 08/08/19
Click here to read a transcript of this week’s live chat with PHR’s Gavin Lee.
Pittsburgh Penguins Sign John Marino
After acquiring him recently from the Edmonton Oilers, John Marino has signed a two-year entry-level contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Marino has decided not to return to Harvard for his senior season. Penguins GM Jim Rutherford released a short statement:
Adding a young defenseman like John to our organization will be very helpful. His development was accelerated last year and he became a top-10 defenseman in college hockey, giving himself a chance to play at the NHL level.
The Penguins will now send Edmonton a 2021 sixth-round pick to complete the trade. Marino could have become an unrestricted free agent next summer if he chose to return to the NCAA for his senior season. PuckPedia reported the details of the contract, tweeting that Marino can earn up to $850K in performance bonuses.
Selected in the sixth round back in 2015, Marino developed into one of the core leaders at Harvard and was set to wear the captain’s “C” this season. He’ll now jump right into the professional level and compete for a spot on the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins blueline—provided the team doesn’t make subsequent moves to open up a spot in the NHL right away. The 22-year old has plenty of time to become acclimated to the professional level before being thrust into the spotlight, but he does give the team another option to consider when deciding whether or not to extend Justin Schultz. The 29-year old Schultz is heading into the final year of his current contract and will be an unrestricted free agent in 2020.
Marino recorded 42 points in 101 games at the NCAA level and has a good mix of size and skating ability. He shouldn’t be limited by either at the next level, though his real upside is still to be determined. The Penguins have mined the collegiate ranks for years to boost their organizational depth and Marino is just the latest to be given a chance.
Minor Transactions: 08/08/19
As August continues and we get further into contract negotiations, teams continue to fill our their organizational depth charts. Here are some minor moves from around the hockey landscape. We’ll keep updating as more come in:
- Anthony Florentino has signed a one-year contract with the Worcester Railers of the ECHL, continuing his professional career after two seasons with the Cincinnati Cyclones. Originally selected in the fifth round by the Buffalo Sabres in 2013, Florentino stayed at Providence College for all four years and never did get an NHL contract. Last year saw the defenseman record eight points in 62 games for Cincinnati.
- The Kingston Frontenacs of the OHL have convinced one of their import selections to sign for the 2019-20 season, inking Vitali Pinchuk according to his agent Dan Milstein of Gold Star Hockey. Pinchuk was the 62nd pick in the CHL Import Draft earlier this year and will leave Belarus to start his North American career. The 17-year old is eligible for selection in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.
- Peter Worrell has been a member of the amateur and youth hockey community in Florida since his retirement more than a decade ago, and will now join the Panthers organization directly. The former NHL enforcer has been named the director of the Florida Panthers IceDen where he will continue to help build the hockey community in the state. Worrell played 342 games for the Panthers during his career, racking up 1,375 penalty minutes.
Columbus Blue Jackets Sign Marko Dano
The Columbus Blue Jackets have brought back a former top prospect, signing Marko Dano to a one-year two-way contract. Dano was originally selected 27th overall by the Blue Jackets in 2013, but has bounced around the league since. The 24-year old did not receive a qualifying offer from the Winnipeg Jets this summer and became an unrestricted free agent. Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports that the deal carries an $800K salary at the NHL level.
Dano came into the NHL with the Blue Jackets in 2014-15 with all the hype of a first-round selection and actually performed up to the expectations for a little while. In that first season he recorded 21 points in 35 games and looked like he was going to grow into a legitimate option for their top-six. That summer however the Blue Jackets were given an opportunity to acquire Brandon Saad from the Chicago Blackhawks—who had just put up 52 points in the regular season and been a dominant playoff force on the Stanley Cup winner—so off went Dano along with Artem Anisimov to the champions. His time in Chicago was brief and less than a year later he ended up in another trade to Winnipeg in order for the Blackhawks to reacquire Andrew Ladd.
The last several years in Winnipeg (and a short stint with the Colorado Avalanche between waiver claims) have not gone well, leaving Dano somewhere between prospect and player, looking for a fresh start. He won’t turn 25 until the end of November, but there is a long way to go for the Austrian forward before he becomes an impact NHL player. His 30 points in 51 AHL games last season was a good start—at least in terms of consistent playing time—but he’ll need to show more than that to turn his career around.
The Blue Jackets of course are looking for help up front following an offseason that saw Artemi Panarin, Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel all depart in unrestricted free agency. The team brought Gustav Nyquist in to replace some of that offense, but will certainly have opportunity for players like Dano to take advantage of. He’ll need to clear waivers again in order to be sent to the minor leagues.