Vancouver Canucks “Checked In” On Nikita Zaitsev
The Vancouver Canucks were recently linked to pending free agent defensemen Tyler Myers and Jake Gardiner, but have also been rumored to be interested in a trade to address their blue line. That idea popped up again today when Rick Dhaliwal of Sportsnet tweeted the Canucks are “busy working [the] phones” on the trade market. Dhaliwal specifically notes that the team has inquired on Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Nikita Zaitsev, who is apparently generating plenty of interest.
Zaitsev recently requested a trade from the Maple Leafs for personal reasons, something the GM Kyle Dubas is trying to facilitate. The 27-year old defenseman has five years left on his current deal however, which has made some speculate that Toronto may have to sweeten any deal to get him out of town. Zaitsev’s contract carries a $4.5MM cap hit, an amount that the Maple Leafs could certainly do without as they try to re-sign restricted free agents Mitch Marner, Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson, or even find some way to fit Gardiner back into the fold.
For the Canucks though, the cap situation is in a very different place. Vancouver currently projects to have more than $30MM in cap space (via CapFriendly), with twenty players already on the roster. That’s an incredible amount of room for the team even if some of it is about to be snapped up by a new Brock Boeser contract, among other restricted free agents. Spending $4.5MM on Zaitsev would hardly make a dent, even though he would immediately become their highest-paid defender—pending a new deal for Alexander Edler, who is a free agent and even though there has been positive talks between the two sides, nothing is done yet.
It would also provide some stability on the right side for the Canucks, who may find themselves in a situation where they need to trade Chris Tanev this season. The veteran defenseman is on the final year of his deal and has been unable to stay healthy throughout his career. While he is an excellent shutdown option when on the ice, the team just hasn’t been able to rely on him to that point. If Tanev doesn’t get an extension, he would become an excellent trade deadline asset for the Canucks if he was healthy at that point in the season. Behind Tanev and the younger Troy Stecher, there isn’t a ton of proven right-handed options in Vancouver.
Still, checking in on a player certainly doesn’t mean something is going to get done. Zaitsev’s deal comes with plenty of risk, and the Canucks may feel like they can address their defensive issues in other ways. What it does signal is that they aren’t going to be waiting around this summer, and are willing to make a deal to improve the club for this season. With a young core led by Boeser, Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes, it certainly makes sense to push a little harder to improve the squad this offseason.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Chicago Blackhawks Hire Marc Crawford
Marc Crawford won’t be staying in Ottawa, as the veteran coach has been hired on by the Chicago Blackhawks as an assistant coach. Crawford joins a very young group led by head coach Jeremy Colliton, giving them plenty of experience to lean on this season. Crawford’s son Dylan Crawford serves as the team’s assistant video coach.
Crawford, 58, brings nearly two decades of head coaching experience to the side of Colliton, including a Stanley Cup title with the Colorado Avalanche in 1996. He had taken over as head coach of the Ottawa Senators when Guy Boucher was fired during the season, but after D.J. Smith was brought in as the next bench boss, Crawford needed a new gig. That will be in the Central Division, a place Crawford will feel quite familiar with given his time in Colorado and Dallas. He’ll come in under a head coach which he has already spoken highly of:
Jeremy has an extremely bright and innovative mind and I am totally impressed by his presence and enthusiasm. I know we will have a terrific relationship and my experience should benefit the entire coaching staff.
Not only has Crawford “seen it all” in terms of success and failure in the NHL, he also will be able to relate to the 34-year old Colliton as he tries to turn things around in Chicago. Crawford was the youngest head coach to ever win the Jack Adams Trophy when he took it home in 1995—the same age Colliton is now. He had just taken a Quebec Nordiques team that finished with 76 points the year previous to the playoffs, and won the Stanley Cup just a year later. While that kind of turnaround will be difficult to replicate, his experience in the same situation will be invaluable to the young Blackhawks head coach.
Nashville Predators Hire Dan Lambert
The Nashville Predators have hired Dan Lambert as an assistant coach, adding him to Peter Laviolette‘s group for the 2019-20 season. Lambert spent the last two seasons as head coach of the Spokane Chiefs of the WHL, where he amassed a record of 81-46-13. Predators GM David Poile had this to say about his new coach:
Dan is an experienced, passionate coach and will nicely round out our coaching staff in 2019-20 and beyond. Having enjoyed a lengthy career as a player and now a coach, he has had success at every level running the power play, and we look forward to adding his knowledge and insight in this area to the organization.
Lambert, 49, was named to the Hockey Canada Program of Excellence last month and was set to serve as head coach for the 2019 Hlinka-Gretzky Cup. It’s not clear if he’ll still take on that role, but it goes to show just how he is perceived as an up-and-coming coach in the hockey world. Finishing a long professional career in 2009, he jumped right onto the bench of the Kelowna Rockets as an assistant, only to take over as head coach a few years later and win a WHL Championship. He jumped to the NHL after that with the Buffalo Sabres, and took over as head coach of the Rochester Americans of the AHL in 2016-17.
As a player, Lambert put up huge point totals in his career including a 102-point season in the WHL and an 87-point season in the IHL. As a coach with the Rockets, he helped develop NHL defensemen like Damon Severson, Madison Bowey, Josh Morrissey, and Tyson Barrie. That’s the exact type of development he’ll likely be asked to accomplish in Nashville, where the team already has an incredible defense corps but also a player like Dante Fabbro who the organization expects big things of. Lambert is also known as a powerplay specialist, something the Predators have struggled with for some time.
Minor Notes: Woods, Virta, McKenzie
Even though the Stanley Cup Final and draft preparation is taking up most of the hockey world at the moment, there are things still happening behind the scenes and in the minor leagues. As always, we’ll keep track of the happenings in the AHL and other leagues around the world right here:
- The Toronto Marlies have signed Riley Woods to a one-year AHL contract, giving the WHL forward a place to play next season. Woods finished his junior career this season with the Spokane Chiefs, recording 75 points in 65 regular season games and being named a second team All-Star. The Maple Leafs have built quite the development system in Toronto, and have now started bringing in late-blooming CHL stars to try and shore up their ranks in the minor leagues.
- CapFriendly confirmed today that the New York Rangers have also lost the draft rights to Patrik Virta, their seventh-round pick from 2017, because they didn’t sign him by June 1. There was some confusion of Virta due to the fact that he played in the KHL for part of the 2018-19 season—which has no transfer agreement and therefor would have extended the rights indefinitely—but given his transfer to the SHL they have indeed expired. Virta was a top scorer in the Finnish league in 2017-18 but struggled in the KHL and Sweden this season. He is an unrestricted free agent now, and can sign with anyone.
- Curtis McKenzie received 27 minutes of penalties at the end of game two of the Calder Cup Final, and will now see even more discipline. The Chicago Wolves forward has been suspended for game three after attacking a prone Steven Lortenz with 0.8 seconds left in the game. McKenzie has now amassed 51 penalty minutes in 19 playoff games for the Wolves, after leading them with 112 in the regular season. If that makes you think he’s only out there to fight you’d be wrong, as the former Dallas Stars forward also recorded 54 points in the regular season and has another 14 in the postseason. His loss is a big blow to Chicago after the series was tied 1-1.
Columbus Blue Jackets Sign Veini Vehvilainen
That didn’t take long. After reports this morning out of Finland that Veini Vehvilainen would soon be signing, the Columbus Blue Jackets have made it official. The goaltender has inked his two-year entry-level contract.
Vehvilainen, 22, has been an absolute star in Finland’s Liiga the past two seasons, posting .925 and .933 save percentages for Karpat. Both seasons his squad made it to the league final thanks to some incredible performances by the young goaltender, winning once. Vehvilainen added a World Championship gold medal recently, to go along with the World Junior medal he had from 2016. There’s little he hasn’t accomplished at this point in his career overseas, meaning his next step may be the professional ranks in North America.
Incredibly, Vehvilainen was only drafted in the sixth round last year at the age of 21. Every team in the league passed on him numerous times throughout his three years of draft eligibility, something Columbus will thank the stars for after watching him develop so quickly. The question now becomes where he fits in next season, given the glut of young goaltenders in the Blue Jackets system.
While Sergei Bobrovsky may be moving on from Columbus, the long-term future in net may not be so dire. The team signed Elvis Merzlikins at the end of the season and still has Joonas Korpisalo as a restricted free agent. Those are the old hands at 25 years old, while Vehvilainen (22), Matiss Kivlenieks (22) and Daniil Tarasov (20) are also now under contract. How everything shakes out is still unclear, but there is obviously opportunity to be seized in Columbus.
Libor Sulak Heading To KHL
The Detroit Red Wings took a shot when they signed Libor Sulak to a two-year contract in 2017, inking the undrafted Czech defender to an entry-level deal. They even allowed him to play in Finland that season to continue his development, before bringing him to North America this year to play in the minor leagues. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear like that will continue, as Sulak has signed with HC Severstal in the KHL. Scheduled to become a restricted free agent this summer, Sulak’s rights can be retained by the Red Wings if they issue him a qualifying offer.
Sulak, 25, ended up playing in six NHL games with the Red Wings this season but was held scoreless. He contributed 14 points in 61 contests with the Grand Rapids Griffins, but that apparently wasn’t enough to keep him in North America. An experienced international player, Sulak never did seem to click on this side of the pond and couldn’t get his offensive game to match the production he had in Europe.
His departure leaves the Red Wings with even fewer options for the blue line in 2019-20, as they have just five players signed to one-way deals. That means there is plenty of room for competition between some of the other young players, including the recently signed Oliwer Kaski and prospects like Dennis Cholowski and Filip Hronek. Looking even further, all three of Mike Green, Jonathan Ericsson and Trevor Daley are unrestricted free agents in the summer of 2020, meaning the Red Wings’ defense corps could look very different in the coming years.
Early Notes: Karlsson, Hall, Vehvilainen
When the end of the San Jose Sharks season came, the biggest question immediately became ‘what would happen to Erik Karlsson?’ The star defenseman is a free agent this summer, but was limited by injury at the end of the year and comes with plenty of question marks, including the draft pick compensation San Jose would need to send Ottawa if he re-signed. Karlsson tweeted out a cryptic thank you to the San Jose area, and immediately many started speculating that it would be the end of his time there. Speculation erupted, with landing spots like New York and Tampa Bay seeming the most likely.
Now in a new column, Don Brennan of the Ottawa Sun suggests the unthinkable—a return to the Senators. Brennan reports that a source tells him Karlsson “hopes to receive competitive offers” from the Senators and Montreal Canadiens, in order to get closer to his wife Melinda’s family who are in Ottawa. That would certainly be a shocking development, given how Karlsson exited the Senators organization last summer and the way they have failed to sign any top talent over the years.
- Rumors have surfaced lately that Taylor Hall isn’t interested in signing an extension with the New Jersey Devils, but his agent Darren Ferris threw some cold water on that when speaking with Mike Morreale of NHL.com. Ferris called the report “fictitious” while Devils GM Ray Shero also doesn’t know where it came from, given his recent conversations with the Hall camp. Still, both admit that there is no rush to sign a deal despite their regular communication and that Hall won’t feel pressure when he is eligible for a deal on July 1.
- A report out of Finland from Sasha Huttunen has the Columbus Blue Jackets signing Veini Vehvilainen in the coming days, though obviously nothing is official just yet. Vehvilainen is a 22-year old goaltending prospect that the Blue Jackets drafted last year with a sixth-round pick, who dominated Finland’s Liiga for the second straight season. The report notes that the young goaltender could return to Finland to continue his development on a loan from the Blue Jackets, which makes sense given the number of netminders already under contract with the team in the minor leagues.
Florida Panthers Announce Full Coaching Staff
The Florida Panthers will have a new group behind the bench next season, led by legendary coach Joel Quenneville. Beside him will be some familiar faces, as the team announced today that Mike Kitchen, Andrew Brunette and Derek MacKenzie will serve as assistants in 2019-20. Robb Tallas will continue as Panthers goaltending coach.
This group is a bit of old and new for Quenneville, as he brings back long-time assistant Kitchen who worked with him both in St. Louis and Chicago, while also adding two newcomers to the coaching world.
Brunette, 45, spent several years in the Minnesota Wild organization after retirement, filling various roles including coach for a very short period. His stint in Florida though will represent his real first test as he tries to transition fully into the coaching circuit. A veteran player with more than 1,100 games of NHL experience, Brunette played for Quenneville on more than one occasion and developed a friendship that has lasted since his retirement. Quenneville called him a “bright, young hockey mind” in the press release today.
MacKenzie meanwhile will move directly into coaching after retiring just this year. The 37-year old served as captain of the Panthers for several years before finally giving up the “C” to Aleksander Barkov this season, due to an injury that would end his career. He played just a single game for Florida in 2018-19, and will finish with 611 in his career. Still, MacKenzie has long been ticketed for the bench. The veteran forward has been lauded for his leadership abilities throughout his career and can help young players as they transition from top scorers in junior to role players in the NHL, as he did so many years ago.
Snapshots: CBA, Johansson, Canucks
In September, both the NHL and NHLPA hold opt out clauses for the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, which could eventually lead to another work stoppage in 2020. A stoppage would be a nightmare for fans, but apparently is also not what either side is hoping for this time around. John Shannon of Sportsnet was on 630 CHED in Edmonton today discussing the upcoming negotiations, and told host Bob Stauffer that he is confident a deal will get done:
There will be no work stoppage. There will be no strike. There will be no lockout. Both sides have done too well with this last CBA. What we’re talking about now is tweaks, we’re talking about improving the plight of both sides—and I’m being a little facetious when I say “plight.” This is one where the owners would be thrilled to continue to have this CBA, but they realize that in order to get some harmony with the players they’re going to have to give up a little bit, and in turn the players are going to have to give up something.
Shannon goes on to explain that there will be no compliance buyouts in the next agreement, given that there will be no work stoppage this time. He also suggests the length of contracts may be limited even further, perhaps down to even a five-year cap. While none of this is certain at this point, we’ve been hearing for months that there has been good progress made towards a new agreement.
- Marcus Johansson has rebuilt his free agent value according to a new piece by Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic (subscription required) which examines the potential market for the Boston Bruins trade deadline addition. LeBrun notes that the Bruins have “begun to discuss the merits of bringing him back” and speaks to both Washington Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom and New Jersey Devils GM Ray Shero, who both explain that they love the person as much as the player. Johansson has played just 87 regular season games over the last two seasons thanks to injury, but has been a real contributor to the Bruins playoff success and is set to hit the open market at just 28 years old.
- The Vancouver Canucks have been rumored to be in the market for a defenseman this offseason, and now Rick Dhaliwal of Sportsnet tweets out a few potential options. The reporter has heard that the team will go after Jake Gardiner or Tyler Myers, obviously depending on what happens with the two over the next month. Gardiner and Myers are two of the top options available on the free agent market this season, but provide different skill sets. Myers is a huge right-handed blue liner who recorded his best offensive season—48 points—a decade ago and hasn’t come close since, while Gardiner is just one year removed from a 52 point season from the left side.
Edmonton Oilers Re-Sign Brad Malone, Shane Starrett
The Edmonton Oilers have inked a pair of minor league free agents, signing Brad Malone and Shane Starrett to one-year extensions. Malone was set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, while Starrett was headed for RFA status and was eligible for arbitration.
Malone, 30, has been part of the Edmonton organization for the past two seasons, spending the majority of his time in the AHL with the Bakersfield Condors. He has been an integral part of the AHL squad, and showed his experience with 13 points in 10 playoff contests this year. Though he amazingly has exactly zero points in 23 NHL games for the Oilers, Malone will serve as inexpensive center depth for the club while almost certainly seeing regular action in the minors.
Starrett meanwhile is a 24-year old goaltending prospect that joined the Oilers in 2017 after finishing his sophomore season at the Air Force Academy. The 6’5″ 220-lbs netminder posted a .918 save percentage in 42 appearances for Bakersfield, recording a tidy 27-12-2 record during the regular season. Starrett’s re-signing is a testament to the Edmonton development team, as he is an ECHL alumni finding success at the higher level.
Still, it is not exactly clear where Starrett will land when the season rolls around. The Oilers also have the younger Stuart Skinner and Dylan Wells in the organization, who both spent considerable time in the ECHL this season and may need a bigger challenge. Both represent mid-round picks that the team needs to continue to develop, while there is also the oncoming Olivier Rodrigue who will finish his junior career after the upcoming season. Edmonton is looking for an NHL upgrade instead of just a backup to Mikko Koskinen, meaning there is likely no room in the NHL for Starrett at this point. At the very least, the team can be happy they’ve created some legitimate prospect depth at the goaltending position.