Requests Coming Quickly For Vegas AGM
The Vegas Golden Knights organization is probably still reeling from an incredible loss in game seven to the San Jose Sharks, but before long they’ll have to start thinking about their future. One person who will quickly have interested parties calling on him is assistant general manager Kelly McCrimmon, who has been linked to the GM searches of both the Edmonton Oilers and expansion Seattle team in the past. Today, Darren Dreger of TSN tweets that the Oilers will send a request for permission to speak with McCrimmon in the coming days.
It’s good fortune for the Oilers that the Golden Knights were eliminated by the Sharks last night, given that the team has been open with the fact that they want their front office search done in the next few weeks. The Golden Knights looked like they were sailing straight through to the second round before a five-minute major penalty was assessed to Cody Eakin in the third period. That penalty changed the course of the game and very well could change the course of the Oilers search, given how highly regarded McCrimmon is around the league.
After running the Brandon Wheat Kings organization for decades, McCrimmon came to the Golden Knights as they were preparing for their own expansion draft and has been credited with many of the strategies the team took to build a winner right away. Not only did Vegas put together an excellent NHL team, but their excellent draft class in 2017 allowed them to pull off some of the biggest trades of the last year. Names like Erik Brannstrom and Nick Suzuki were used as bait to land Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty, two players who will lead the Golden Knights for some time.
Those kinds of trades may be exactly what the Oilers are looking for. The team can’t wait around to draft and rebuild their team while Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are in prime years of production. There needs to be an improvement around them, and whoever is hired as GM will be tasked to start that immediately.
Minor Transactions: 04/23/19
As the final games of the first round wrap up this evening and tomorrow, teams are still looking to make sure the fringes of their rosters are set. With that in mind, we’ll keep track of a few minor moves right here:
- The San Jose Sharks have recalled Dylan Gambrell and Antoine Bibeau, likely just as extra practice bodies as they prepared for game seven tonight. The two will be back with the San Jose Barracuda tomorrow for their game four matchup with the rival San Diego Gulls.
- Alec Regula, a third round pick of the Detroit Red Wings last June, was signed to an amateur tryout by the Grand Rapids Griffins today. He’ll join the group for the playoffs after his London Knights were surprisingly knocked out of the OHL postseason.
Mikey Anderson Signs Entry-Level Contract
The Los Angeles Kings have signed Mikey Anderson to a three-year, entry-level contract, ending his college career. Anderson recently won the NCAA Championship with the University of Minnesota-Duluth, but will start his professional career in 2019-20.
Anderson, 19, knows winning and little else at the collegiate level after taking home the title two years in a row. Originally selected in the fourth round of the 2017 draft, he has quickly become a top prospect in the Kings system and one of the most effective defensemen in the country at his level. Not only did he put up 27 points in 40 games for the Bulldogs, but Anderson also captained Team USA at the most recent World Juniors where he recorded five points in seven games en route to a silver medal.
There’s still plenty for the 6’0″ 196-lbs defenseman to work on before suiting up in the NHL, but the fact that both sides think he’s ready for professional hockey is a testament to how hard he has worked to develop over the last two seasons. The Kings are beginning a rebuild that may take a while, but Anderson should feature prominently in it over the next few years.
2018-19 King Clancy Finalists Announced
The NHL has released the finalists for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy. The award is given to “the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community.” Last season was the first time it was awarded to a pair of players, as the Vancouver Canucks’ Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin took home the trophy for their long history of helping the Vancouver community.
Each team nominated one player for the award. The finalists are:
Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Arizona Coyotes
Jason Zucker, Minnesota Wild
Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers
Jesperi Kotkaniemi Undergoes Arthroscopic Knee Surgery
The Montreal Canadiens have announced that rookie center Jesperi Kotkaniemi underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee today. GM Marc Bergevin released a short statement following the procedure:
With regards to Jesperi, it was a chronic, minor injury that did not stop him from playing this past season. Jesperi will remain in Montreal for the coming weeks to complete his rehabilitation program with our team’s medical staff. We have been told by our medical group that there should be no delay in starting his offseason training.
While it is good news that Kotkaniemi won’t miss any training time, this is something to watch moving forward. After a brilliant start to the season there was obviously something slowing the 18-year old down in the second half of the season, and the team drastically reduced his minutes. In fact, on three occasions during the Canadiens playoff hunt head coach Claude Julien deployed his young center for fewer than 10 minutes in a game, something seemingly unthinkable at the start of the year when he made such an impact.
Hopefully this procedure will let him get back to full strength for the 2019-20 season when the Canadiens will once again try to climb their way into the postseason. The team surprised many by taking it right down to the wire this year, and should be improved next season with players like Kotkaniemi taking a step forward in their development. With just 11 goals and 34 points on the year, he’ll be asked to provide a little more offense while still offering solid two-way play down the middle.
Poll: What Happens To Kyle Turris?
The Nashville Predators will bow out of the playoffs earlier than they expected for the second consecutive season, and this time have plenty of question marks heading into the offseason. The team scored just 12 goals in six playoff games against the Dallas Stars, and have to find a way to get more offense from basically every forward not named Filip Forsberg, Viktor Arvidsson or Ryan Johansen. Other than that top line, the Predators didn’t have a single forward with even 40 points on the season.
One of the biggest disappointments in that category was Kyle Turris. The 29-year old was supposed to solidify the team’s second-line center position and provide a healthy amount of secondary scoring, but was completely lifeless at times this season. He finished with just seven goals and 23 points in 55 games, and saw his ice time drastically limited in the postseason.
Turris was acquired from the Ottawa Senators during the 2017-18 campaign and got off to a blistering start with Nashville, scoring 17 points in 17 games following the trade. After breaking out of a slump near the end of the season though, he was a no-show in the 2018 playoffs and recorded just three assists (no goals) in 13 games. That kind of production is just unacceptable from a player the team spent so heavily on, especially in the six-year, $36MM extension he signed quickly after arriving in Nashville. There are five years left on that deal.
Notably, GM David Poile doesn’t hand out no-trade protection. Turris’ contract is also evenly distributed and contains no signing bonuses. If the team wanted to trade him, there would be teams interested given his history as a solid contributor, but there would also likely be some wary of his propensity to disappear at key times. The biggest question would be do the Predators have a replacement for him if they did decide to move on?
This season Poile decided to spend some future assets to load up for a long playoff run, and acquired two pending unrestricted free agents in Wayne Simmonds and Brian Boyle. It seems unlikely that Simmonds will be retained, given the almost non-existent role he was given under head coach Peter Laviolette. Boyle is a useful player but wouldn’t be able to provide the same kind of secondary scoring the team expected from Turris. There was however another forward acquired at the deadline, this time with another year under contract. Mikael Granlund was pulled from Minnesota in exchange for Kevin Fiala, but also struggled to make a huge impact with the team down the stretch. There’s reason to believe that he could fill that role though, despite spending the last few years on the wing.
Still, that would only put a short-term fix on the problem. Turris was supposed to be the long-term answer, and still could be if they give him the chance to bounce back from this dreadful season. What do you think they should do with him? Is it time for a fresh start elsewhere, or does the team come back with him in 2019-20 and hope for better results?
Cast your vote below and make sure to leave your thoughts in the comments.
What should the Predators do with Kyle Turris?
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Trade him, whatever you can get. 68% (671)
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Keep him, hope he turns it around. 31% (305)
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Other (leave in comments) 2% (15)
Total votes: 991
[Mobile users click here to vote]
Snapshots: Kings, Checkers, Hornqvist
In 2017-18, the Los Angeles Kings finished with 98 points, were a playoff team and had both a Norris Trophy and Hart Trophy finalist (and Selke winner) on their roster. Dustin Brown had found his edge again and recorded a 60-point season, while Jonathan Quick took home the Jennings Trophy as the goaltender for the team with the lowest goals against average in the NHL. Then, it all came crashing down. The club finished 30th in the NHL in 2018-19, fired their coach and traded away several assets. Things looked grim.
As Todd McLellan comes in to try and turn the team around, he spoke with Mark Spector of Sportsnet and was clear that it won’t be a quick process. The Kings aren’t expecting to be back competing for the Stanley Cup next season, and are just “at the beginning of the process.” The question now becomes what happens with the other veteran assets on Los Angeles, as names like Brown, Quick, Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Jeff Carter aren’t getting any younger. If “it’s not going to be an overnight thing” as McLellan says, where does that leave the aging stars?
- The Charlotte Checkers will be without two key defenders for their next game, as both Trevor Carrick and Bobby Sanguinetti have been given suspensions. While Sanguinetti will serve just a single game for a check to the head, Carrick is out for three games after leaving the bench to join an on-ice altercation. The Checkers are tied 1-1 in their first-round series against the Providence Bruins, and will need to find a way to win without two of their veteran blue liners.
- Patric Hornqvist will suit up for Sweden at the upcoming IIHF World Championship, continuing his season after a disappointing exit with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Hornqvist joins a squad that needed some help up front, and could very well find himself skating beside rookie sensation Elias Pettersson. The 32-year old winger won a gold medal with Sweden last year, scoring two goals in five games. Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that teammate Marcus Pettersson will be an alternate for the Swedish squad.
Zach Bogosian Undergoes Hip Surgery
The Buffalo Sabres may be without one of their veteran defensemen when the 2019-20 season opens. The team announced today that Zach Bogosian has undergone successful hip surgery and will be out for five to six months.
Bogosian, 28, underwent another hip surgery last year and made it all the way back to actually have one of his most productive seasons in quite some time. The big blue liner recorded 19 points in 65 games for the Sabres while averaging nearly 22 minutes a night. He was listed as “day-to-day” for the end of the season, but apparently had something that needed correcting. This surgery will almost certainly cost him all of training camp, if not the first part of next season.
Notably, the injury will also remove any consideration of a buyout for the veteran. Bogosian has one year remaining on his contract with a cap hit of $5.14MM, and had been a buyout candidate in the past given his struggles to stay healthy and effective. As you cannot buy out injured players, the team will miss the window to do so if they had any intention to.
That means Bogosian will have to work hard to get himself back to game shape in time to prove he can still compete in the NHL. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent next summer and still just 29 years old, plenty young enough to secure a multi-year deal if he can show his effectiveness. After two major hip surgeries and several other injuries though that will be a tough ask.
Ilya Mikheyev Expected To Make Decision Soon
We heard a few days ago that KHL forward Ilya Mikheyev was being pursued by the Vegas Golden Knights, but they’re not the only team trying to get him under contract. Today, Igor Eronko of Sport-Express has heard that the Toronto Maple Leafs are among the final few teams, while Darren Dreger of TSN includes Vegas and the Chicago Blackhawks as well. Dreger notes that a majority of the league has shown interest, and that a decision is expected this weekend.
Mikheyev, 24, is a versatile forward that has played several seasons in the KHL with Avangard Omsk. This year he finished with 23 goals and 45 points, before putting up another 11 in his 13 playoff appearances. The 6’2″ winger is a great skater and plays his off-wing, allowing him to use his speed to drive the net and get shots away in tight. Whether that offense would translate to the NHL is still unclear, but teams are more than willing to take a chance.
He will be limited to a one-year entry-level contract whenever he does sign, likely with some sort of agreement to get a chance at the NHL in 2019-20. Teams courting him may well include a European Assignment Clause, allowing him to return to the KHL if they try to send him to the minor leagues. That is of course unless Mikheyev is committed to the long haul in North America and is willing to work with a development team to maximize his NHL potential.
Alexander Yelesin Linked To Calgary Flames
Calgary Flames head coach Bill Peters spoke to the media today as the team finished their year-end locker clean out, and mentioned a couple of players that the team had signed recently. Unfortunately Peters didn’t list them by name, but noted a Russian goaltender—likely Artyom Zagidulin, who was announced a few weeks ago—and a defenseman who is old enough to compete for a spot on the team next season. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet tweets that the “mystery defenseman” is likely Alexander Yelesin, who the Flames had been pursuing recently.
Yelesin, 23, played this season for Lokomotiv of the KHL and recorded 10 points in 55 games. He had been previously linked (however tenuously) to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Friedman actually wrote in 2018 that there was an agreement in place to bring him to the NHL. The defenseman’s KHL contract will expire at the end of April, meaning he is free to go wherever he chooses.
Though he’s not a big offensive contributor, Yelesin did average more than 17 minutes of ice time for Yaroslavl this season and increased that even further during their short playoff run. The young defenseman is right handed and could offer another depth option for the Flames who face plenty of tough decisions this summer after their early exit from the playoffs. The team currently has a wealth of defenders available to them, but T.J. Brodie, Travis Hamonic and Michael Stone—all options on the right side—are each heading into the final year of their contracts and will be unrestricted free agents in the summer of 2020.