Andre Burakovsky Signs With Colorado Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche have inked one of their restricted free agents, signing Andre Burakovsky to a one-year contract. Burakovsky decided not to file for arbitration earlier this month after being issued a $3.25MM qualifying offer, for which the deadline to accept was today. The young forward will still be a restricted free agent at the end of the contract in 2020.
Burakovsky, 24, was acquired by the Avalanche earlier this offseason after playing the last five years with the Washington Capitals. The 23rd-overall pick from 2013 has already amassed 328 regular season games with the Capitals, recording 145 points. Those total include consecutive seasons of 25 points, a disappointing drop that made the talented Austrian available. The Capitals couldn’t afford to keep Burakovsky around for that $3.25MM price tag, but the Avalanche are happy to take a shot on a player that had previously looked like a top-six winger in the making.
It’s difficult to find players with Burakovsky’s skill and size combination, but unfortunately that mix still hasn’t been able to produce a huge offensive season to this point. With a career-high of 38 points now several years behind him, Burakovsky will have to find a different level of success in order to deserve this contract and avoid going non-qualified next summer. Even the Avalanche, who have plenty of cap space at the moment, won’t be able to pay $3.25MM for a 12-goal winger, the total he has reached in each of the past three seasons.
It certainly appears as though he’ll the the opportunity to show he is better than that. The Avalanche have been reliant on their top line for a huge amount of their offense the past few years, but worked hard this summer to expand their attack and bring in some more secondary scoring options. Burakovsky joins Nazem Kadri and Joonas Donskoi as potential options for the second line, though each of them will have to prove their worth in new surroundings.
At the very worst, Burakovsky is a lottery ticket that doesn’t pay out and only cost the Avalanche a pair of draft picks. At best, he finally breaks out and becomes the dominant offensive piece he was in junior. Not a bad gamble for a team looking to make a splash in the Western Conference playoffs this season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Anaheim Ducks Hire Kevin Dineen As AHL Coach
The Anaheim Ducks recently promoted their AHL head coach Dallas Eakins to the NHL, leaving a vacancy behind the bench for the San Diego Gulls. That vacancy has been filled today with the announcement of Kevin Dineen as the team’s next head coach. GM Bob Murray released a short statement on the hiring:
Kevin brings more than 30 years of valuable experience as a player and coach in professional hockey. We are committed to continue a winning tradition in San Diego, and Kevin will help the organization achieve those goals.
Dineen, 55, played 19 seasons in the NHL and amassed 760 points in 1,188 regular season games. A two-time 40-goal scorer, he was also a strong defensive forward that would never back down from a physical engagement—he recorded 2,229 penalty minutes over his long playing career. Immediately joining the Columbus Blue Jackets front office after his retirement, Dineen was quickly promoted to assistant general manager before eventually taking on the head coaching job for the Portland Pirates of the AHL.
After spending several years in the minor league coaching ranks, Dineen was given his first chance at the NHL level when he was hired as head coach of the FLorida Panthers in 2011. He led the Panthers to a 38-26-18 record and their first playoff appearance in more than a decade in his first season with the team, but things didn’t go so smoothly in the following year and just 17 games into his third season he was fired. Dineen would end up coaching the Canadian women’s team at the 2014 Olympics, winning gold.
He had served as an assistant coach with the Chicago Blackhawks for the last several seasons, but was fired along with head coach Joel Quenneville last November.
Islanders Agree To Terms With Simon Holmstrom
The New York Islanders have agreed to terms with Simon Holmstrom on a three-year entry-level contract. Holmstrom was the team’s first pick, 23rd overall, in this June’s draft.
As with many players taken in the back half of the first round, Holmstrom comes to the Islanders as a prospect with widely different potential outcomes. An excellent skater with and without the puck, he can dance through the competition or catch the opposition on the backcheck. He has had tons of success in the Swedish junior leagues, but has played only a pair of games in the SHL and is still quite raw.
Part of that is due to several injuries that took him off the ice for long chunks of the 2018-19 season, but those setbacks may also be the only reason he was available for the Islanders so late in the first round. Expected to stay in Sweden for the 2019-20 season, if he can get some experience and success at a higher level there could be a quick path to the NHL for the 18-year old.
Ottawa Senators Sign Michael Carcone
The Ottawa Senators have signed another player who spent much of last season with the Toronto Maple Leafs organization. Michael Carcone has inked a two-year two-way deal with the Senators after coming over as part of the Nikita Zaitsev–Cody Ceci trade. Carcone was a restricted free agent, and will now have a $700K salary in the NHL.
Now 23, the undrafted Carcone has played three seasons in the AHL after signing with the Vancouver Canucks in 2016. Sent to Toronto in exchange for Josh Leivo partway through the 2018-19 season, he ended up as a key offensive piece for the Toronto Marlies on another long Calder Cup playoff run. Carcone set career-highs with 20 goals and 44 points in the regular season, before adding ten more in 13 playoff contests.
A late-bloomer that only played two seasons in the QMJHL, Carcone will serve as forward depth for the Senators and another name to throw into the roster battles this fall. Ottawa’s lineup is wide open for players like this to make a name for themselves, and it seems likely that Carcone will get to make his NHL debut at some point over the duration of this two-year deal. At the very least he’ll be a solid addition for the Belleville Senators next season.
Snapshots: Blue Jackets, Marner, Boqvist
The Columbus Blue Jackets have made several changes in their front office, adding Craig Hartsburg, Troy Dumville, Mikko Makela and Lukas Suter to their scouting department while hiring Niklas Backstrom as a European goaltending coach, Zac Urback as a hockey analyst and Jon Hamre as a video coach. Danny Flynn, Dave Peters and Jared Boll have all been promoted to full-time. Chris Morehouse, Marshall Davidson, Derek Ginnell and Austin Powell have all left the organization.
One name that might stick out is Backstrom, who had a long NHL career with the Minnesota Wild. The 41-year old goaltender actually played in Finland the last three seasons, even going 11-2-1 with a .920 save percentage for Tappara Tampere in 2018-19. Backstrom appeared in 413 NHL games over his career (just four of which were with a team other than the Wild) but will now transition into the next chapter of his hockey story.
- Speaking of the Blue Jackets, Aaron Portzline of The Athletic tweeted today that Columbus did indeed speak with Mitch Marner‘s camp at some point this summer about a potential offer sheet, but he sees “no indication” that the young forward wants to leave the Toronto Maple Leafs. Marner’s name has been brought up in offer sheet speculation for months, but no team has yet convinced him to actually sign one. The Blue Jackets can only sign an offer sheet in the highest or lowest compensation tiers (either over $10.57MM or under $1.4MM AAV) because of their current draft pick situation.
- New Jersey Devils assistant GM Tom Fitzgerald spoke with Corey Masisak of The Athletic today, and explained that prospect Jesper Boqvist will either be playing in New Jersey or Sweden next season. The 20-year old center just scored 35 points in 51 games for Brynas in the SHL, but won’t be spending any time in the AHL this year. A second-round pick from 2017, Boqvist is a talented offensive player who signed his entry-level contract last month with the Devils but also had his contract with Brynas extended in February.
Scott Laughton Agrees To Terms With Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers have taken care of one of their pending restricted free agents, agreeing to terms with Scott Laughton on a two-year contract. Laughton had filed for salary arbitration and had a hearing scheduled for the end of the month, but instead will sign a deal with an average annual value of $2.3MM.
A first round pick by the Flyers seven years ago, Laughton has slowly but surely grown into a valuable NHL player. The 25-year old set career-highs last season with 12 goals and 32 points while playing in all 82 games for the first time. Winning more than 54% of his draws and recording more hits than any other Philadelphia forward gave him a clear role on the team, especially when you consider his regular spot on the penalty kill.
Philadelphia has added some center depth this summer by signing Kevin Hayes to a long-term deal, which likely pushes everyone else down a peg for the upcoming season. That is an important thing to consider for Laughton’s future, given the Flyers’ group of prospects that will be pushing for a spot on the roster before long. Morgan Frost, arguably the team’s top prospect at this point is also a center, though the team could obviously start him on the wing at the NHL level whenever he gets there. They could also move Laughton over, but the term of this new contract is quite telling.
In two years Laughton will be an unrestricted free agent, giving the team and player a point at which they can choose to part ways if there is no longer any opportunity for him in Philadelphia. With Hayes under contract and both Nolan Patrick and Sean Couturier presumably in the team’s long-term plans, the Flyers are set down the middle for some time. These next two seasons will be a billboard for his eventual case as a center, or a chance for him to show he can be just as effective playing full-time on the wing.
St. Louis Blues Acquire, Sign Dakota Joshua
The St. Louis Blues have acquired the rights to 23-year old forward Dakota Joshua from the Toronto Maple Leafs, and quickly agreed to a two-year entry-level contract with him. The deal is only for future considerations, likely meaning that Joshua was not going to sign a contract with the Maple Leafs for one reason or another and would have become an unrestricted free agent in August.
Selected in the fifth round of the 2014 draft, Joshua first played a year in the USHL before attending Ohio State University for four seasons. The 6’3″ forward amassed 100 points in 128 games at Ohio State and will make the leap to professional hockey with a well-rounded game. It’s hard to imagine him winning an NHL job at training camp, but a strong showing with the San Antonio Rampage could have him on track to make an impact in the near future. That impact would likely come as a bottom-six forward, but there is still time for him to grow even more into his power game on offense.
For the Maple Leafs, any number of reasons could have led to the team not being able to sign Joshua. One of the considerations would have likely been their number of contracts, which currently sits at 45 even with Mitch Marner still to sign. Though the Maple Leafs could have used one of those slots for Joshua, they are often involved in other college and international free agents throughout the year and would need room to sign them.
Obviously this move is low-risk for the Blues, since the team has given up basically nothing to add another depth piece. It’s not clear what considerations they will afford Toronto in the future.
Washington Capitals Re-Sign Colby Williams
Not only have the Washington Capitals signed their top three draft picks, they can also now cross one of their minor league restricted free agents off the to-do list. Colby Williams has signed a one-year, two-way contract with the team that will carry a $700K salary at the NHL level. Williams was eligible for salary arbitration but chose not to file.
Williams, 24, has played for the Hershey Bears for the last three seasons, suiting up 171 times for the Capitals’ AHL affiliate and recording 44 points. The physical defenseman was originally a sixth-round pick in 2015, but has quickly established himself as an asset at the professional level. He will actually be eligible for Group VI unrestricted free agency next summer unless he plays in 80 games with the Capitals this season.
Washington still has work to do over the next few weeks if they want to avoid any arbitration hearings, as both Chandler Stephenson and Christian Djoos filed. Jakub Vrana, the team’s most important RFA was not eligible but is also in line for a substantial raise after an excellent season.
Robby Fabbri Re-Signs With St. Louis
The St. Louis Blues have brought back another one of their restricted free agent forwards, re-signing Robby Fabbri to a one-year, $900K contract. Fabbri was not eligible for salary arbitration and will still be a restricted free agent at the end of this deal.
It wasn’t so long ago that Fabbri was one of the brightest young forwards in the NHL, poised to have a great career with the Blues after a rookie season that saw him score 18 goals in the regular season and star in a long playoff run. At just 20 years old he had 15 points in 20 playoff games and started the 2016-17 season well with 29 points in 51 games before a knee injury turned his whole career upside down. Fabbri would suffer a setback and miss the entire 2017-18 season, only to finally return to the Blues’ lineup last November.
By then, things had changed for St. Louis and for the young forward. In 32 games in 2018-19 Fabbri was only able to register six points, often playing a depth role and receiving an average of just 12:39 of ice time. In the playoffs that dropped even further to the point where if he wasn’t in the press box watching as a scratch, he was seeing just over eight minutes a night. Fabbri registered just a single point in ten postseason games, though the Blues went all the way to a Stanley Cup victory.
Now, with other young players pushing for more and more playing time it is unclear where Fabbri sits on the St. Louis depth chart. The team still has basically the entire core that took them to the promised land this year (save for hometown hero Pat Maroon, who remains a free agent) and more forwards like Jordan Kyrou, Dominik Bokk and Klim Kostin all on their way. Fabbri, 23, is obviously still young enough to get back on that star track, but it will take a lot of work and some opportunity that might not be available in St. Louis.
Submit Your Questions For The #PHRMailbag
Free agent frenzy has come and gone, though several interesting names remain available. The market is being held up by a huge crop of outstanding restricted free agents, ready to demand expensive contracts that will eat up cap dollars and limit other opportunities to spend. The dog days of summer are almost here, and hockey fans are starting to put away their favorite sweater only to find out their local baseball team is already 90 games into the MLB season.
Still, there are minor signings happening daily and trade rumors still bubbling up now and again. The most hardcore fan may be dissecting the cap to find out just how much their team can offer Jake Gardiner and Micheal Ferland (update: apparently the answer is $14MM), while also figuring out a young player to target with their leftover draft capital. There are still teams that will improve over the coming weeks and set themselves up for a run at the Stanley Cup in 2020.
With that in mind, 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 that you can read here and here. The first tackled issues like Jacob Trouba‘s next contract and predicted trades for both Phil Kessel and Cody Ceci, which each happened within just a few days. The second took a look at the free agent market and examined how the New York Rangers could be a good fit for Artemi Panarin.