NHL Announces First And Second All-Star Teams, All-Rookie Team
Following the announcements of the final five NHL regular season awards, the league also revealed their three all-league rosters: the First-Team All-Stars, the Second-Team All-Stars, and the All-Rookie Team. Below are the 2019-20 honorees:
First All-Star Team (link)
G: Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg Jets
D: Roman Josi, Nashville Predators
D: John Carlson, Washington Capitals
LW: Artemi Panarin, New York Rangers
C: Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton Oilers
RW: David Pastrnak, Boston Bruins
The 2020 First-Team All-Stars are a historic group, the first time since the inaugural all-league honors in 1930-31 that all six honorees are first-time members of the team. Unsurprisingly, this team also covers most of the league’s major awards with Draisaitl taking home the Hart, Ted Lindsay, and Art Ross, Josi winning the Norris, Hellebuyck winning the Vezina, and Pastrnak earning the Rocket Richard.
Second All-Star Team (link)
G: Tuukka Rask, Boston Bruins
D: Alex Pietrangelo, St. Louis Blues
D: Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay Lightning
LW: Brad Marchand, Boston Bruins
C: Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche
RW: Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning
The President’s Trophy-winning Boston Bruins finish with a league-best three players on All-Star rosters. Their division rival, and current Stanley Cup finalist, the Tampa Bay Lightning are the only other team with more than one inclusion on the all-star rosters. Noticeably absent from either all-star teams are future Hall of Famers Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals. This is just the third time since 2005-06 that at least one of the pair have not been on a postseason All-Star team, while they have both have been selected in the same year eight times in the past 15 years.
All-Rookie Team (link)
G: Elvis Merzlikins, Columbus Blue Jackets
D: Cale Makar, Colorado Avalanche
D: Quinn Hughes, Vancouver Canucks
F: Victor Olofsson, Buffalo Sabres
F: Dominik Kubalik, Chicago Blackhawks
F: Nick Suzuki, Montreal Canadiens
The rookie elite, led by Calder Trophy-winner Makar, is an older group than usual. Merzlikins, Olofsson, and Kubalik, all 25 or older, played in Europe for a considerable amount of time before jumping to North America as a polished product, while Makar and Hughes each played a pair of seasons in the NCAA and Suzuki aged out of juniors before turning pro. Nevertheless, the first-year pros were all impressive and still have many quality years ahead of them.
Otto Somppi, Oskari Laaksonen Loaned To Lahti
Two more young players will spend the next several months playing overseas, as Otto Somppi of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Oskari Laaksonen of the Buffalo Sabres have been loaned to the Lahti Pelicans in Finland. Both players can be recalled when NHL training camps open.
Somppi, 22, is another one of Tampa Bay’s late-round draft picks that the organization has committed to developing. The 206th overall pick in 2016, Somppi has now been in their minor league system for two seasons, scoring 18 points in 45 games for the Syracuse Crunch this year. A 6’2″ center that exploded with 83 points in his final year of junior for the Halifax Mooseheads, he’ll be a restricted free agent after the 2020-21 season when his entry-level deal expires.
Laaksonen meanwhile has no experience on North American ice, having played the last three seasons with Ilves in Finland after his 2017 selection by Buffalo. The 21-year-old defenseman was a third-round pick and competed for Finland at the 2019 World Juniors, winning a gold medal alongside other talented defenders like Henri Jokiharju, Urho Vaakanainen and Ville Heinola.
Unlike Somppi, Laaksonen still has plenty of time under contract with the Sabres after only inking his entry-level deal a few months ago. It would be a lot less surprising to see him spend the entire 2020-21 season overseas, though at some point the Buffalo organization would likely want to see him compete in the AHL. That was likely the plan for this season, though Laaksonen was actually signed to his entry-level deal just a day before the team fired GM Jason Botterill.
Free Agent Focus: Buffalo Sabres
With free agency now less than a month away, many teams are already looking ahead to when it opens up. There will be several prominent players set to hit the open market while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign. New Buffalo GM Kevyn Adams will certainly have his work cut out for him as more than half of their players are in need of new contracts in the coming weeks.
Key Restricted Free Agents
F Sam Reinhart – Two years ago, the Sabres elected for a bridge contract to see if Reinhart had another gear in him. While he hasn’t quite reached a point per game level, he has emerged as a capable and consistent top liner. He has reached at least 50 points in three straight seasons and had an outside shot at 60 had it not been for the pandemic which will help his arbitration case as will his increase in usage to over 20 minutes a night. He’s two years away from unrestricted free agency so this is the time where a long-term pact should be the focus for both sides. There aren’t a lot of core forwards in Buffalo right now beyond Jack Eichel and Jeff Skinner but Reinhart is certainly one of them.
F Victor Olofsson – It was a breakout season for the 25-year-old who went from being predominantly a minor leaguer to one of the top rookie scorers in the league with 22 goals and 20 assists in just 54 games. His lack of NHL track record makes it difficult to find possible comparables which could make his arbitration case a little more interesting. Normally, a bridge deal for a player in this situation coming off his entry-level deal would make sense but because he’s an older rookie, a two-year pact would walk him right to unrestricted free agency. There’s no doubt that Olofsson will get a substantial raise on his salary from this season which was less than $800K but Adams is going to have to decide if he’s ready to commit to a long-term deal or if a one-year contract is the better way to go.
G Linus Ullmark – Ullmark has been Buffalo’s possible goalie of the future for a while but it has yet to materialize into a goalie of the present situation. Even with Carter Hutton struggling mightily, head coach Ralph Krueger saw fit to platoon the two so Ullmark only played in 34 games and while he has played in five separate NHL seasons, he still doesn’t have 100 games under his belt. At 27, he’s a year away from UFA eligibility so another one-year contract that kicks the can down the road isn’t an option anymore. They may not be ready to commit a long-term deal but a two or three-year pact that buys a bit of team control and has a price tag around the $3MM mark might be palatable for both sides; it’d more than double his salary from this season without pricing themselves out of bidding for a starter down the road.
D Brandon Montour – It wasn’t that long ago that Montour appeared to be a part of their long-term plans to the point where Buffalo gave up a first-rounder for him. However, he struggled a bit under Krueger and his ice time fell as a result. Add that to the flattened salary cap and there are questions about whether or not they should be tendering him his $3.525MM qualifying offer. He’s also a year away from UFA eligibility but it’s at least possible that he hits the open market earlier than originally planned. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him in trade discussions in the coming weeks as a result.
Other RFAs: F Remi Elie, D Brandon Hickey, G Jonas Johansson, F Dominik Kahun, F Curtis Lazar, F Andrew Oglevie, D Matthew Spencer, F Tage Thompson
10.2(c) Players: F Casey Mittelstadt (ineligible for arbitration or an offer sheet)
Key Unrestricted Free Agents
F Wayne Simmonds – The decision to take a one-year deal came with mixed results for Simmonds. While he landed more than he would have on a multi-year contract, he didn’t rebound like he or New Jersey had hoped for and didn’t improve upon being moved to Buffalo. While he’s only 32, he has shown signs of slowing down considerably the last couple of years and should now be looked as more of a depth player than the top-six option he has been for most of his career. He should still have no difficulty landing a contract this offseason but it will be much cheaper than the $5MM he made this season.
F Jimmy Vesey – Last summer’s trade to the Sabres didn’t kick-start his offense. Instead, his production took a nosedive as his nine goals and 20 points were both career lows; even had the pandemic not hit, that still likely would have been the case. So instead of entering the market as a possible second liner, he’s going to have to seek out an opportunity where he can play on an offensive-minded third line and hope to play his way up the lineup. At 27, there should be a fair bit of interest but the flattened cap may limit his chances of beating his $2.35MM salary from this season.
F Zemgus Girgensons/F Johan Larsson – I’ve lumped these two together as they’ve followed somewhat similar trajectories thus far aside from Girgensons’ voted in All-Star Game appearance. They even are coming off of near-identical contracts, $1.6MM for Girgensons and $1.55MM for Larsson. Both have spent seven years in Buffalo and have done well at times defensively but their offensive games haven’t progressed much along the way. There is a spot on the fourth line either with Buffalo or elsewhere but it may be hard to justify Adams bringing both of them back at a similar price tag but one of them re-signing could certainly happen.
Other UFAs: F Michael Frolik, D John Gilmour, G Andrew Hammond, D Matt Hunwick, F Taylor Leier, D Casey Nelson, F Vladimir Sobotka, F Scott Wilson
Projected Cap Space
With so many players needing new deals, there isn’t much on the books right now; they have about $47MM tied up in 10 players, per CapFriendly. That gives them plenty of flexibility to work with if ownership is willing to spend to the $81.5MM Upper Limit. After they re-sign their restricted free agents, they’ll have enough left to be players in free agency in the coming weeks.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Snapshots: Rochester, Dubnyk, Danault
The Rochester Americans have added a new pair of assistant coaches, and Buffalo Sabres fans will certainly be familiar with them. Mike Weber and Adam Mair, who suited up for a combined 839 regular season games for the Sabres in their playing careers, will join Seth Appert‘s staff in the AHL this season.
Mair is moving over from the development side with the Sabres where he has served for the past five years, while Weber is making the jump to pro coaching from the OHL. Appert, who will be coaching a pro team for the first time, has decades of experience at the collegiate level and with the USNTDP.
- Devan Dubyk’s name has come up lately in the rumor mill, as the Minnesota Wild continue to reshape their roster heading into next season. Michael Russo of The Athletic touched on the goaltender in his latest piece, explaining that he has heard the Wild will not be buying out Dubnyk this offseason. That suggestion has surfaced because of the $4.33MM cap hit that the veteran goaltender carries this year despite losing the crease to Alex Stalock and posting a .890 save percentage in 2019-20. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet noted today that the Montreal Canadiens did consider Dubnyk before eventually trading for Jake Allen earlier this summer.
- Speaking of the Canadiens, Friedman also wrote today that Phillip Danault‘s name is “out there” generating interest, though there is still uncertainty about whether he’s actually available. The 27-year-old center is heading into his final year under contract before reaching unrestricted free agency for the first time. The Canadiens currently have only three NHL forwards signed past the 2020-21 season (Jonathan Drouin, Paul Byron and Nick Suzuki), meaning GM Marc Bergevin can pretty much do whatever he wants to shape this group for the years to come.
Buffalo Sabres Acquire Eric Staal
The Buffalo Sabres have traded Marcus Johansson to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Eric Staal. No salary will be retained by either team. Though both players hold partial no-trade clauses, Michael Russo of The Athletic reports that neither one had their new team blocked.
This deal represents a swap of two players scheduled for free agency in 2021, though Johansson is nearly six years younger than Staal. The former Buffalo forward heads to Minnesota after experiencing arguably the worst offensive season of his career, scoring just nine goals and 30 points in 60 games. Johansson never really found his footing in Buffalo and couldn’t manage the move back to center ice, a position he hadn’t routinely played since his second season in the NHL. If he stays in Minnesota, it will be interesting to see where he fits into the lineup since the Wild have made it clear they are looking for an upgrade down the middle. They recently acquired Nick Bjugstad who can also play center, though he wasn’t used there full-time in Pittsburgh.
For Staal, this trade apparently took him by surprise. Russo tweets that the veteran forward is “stunned” though he’ll have some familiar faces in Buffalo to greet him. Kevyn Adams, who will mark his first trade as Sabres GM with this deal, was a teammate of Staal’s with the Carolina Hurricanes, winning a Stanley Cup together in 2006. Perhaps more notably though is the connection with Sabres forward Jeff Skinner, who played several years with Staal in Carolina and is coming off a dreadful 23-point season after signing a huge $72MM extension.
There’s no doubt that Staal represents an upgrade down the middle for the Sabres, as even at the age of 35 he was still effective this season. In 66 regular season games with Minnesota, he recorded 47 points, a total that would have put him third on the Sabres behind only Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart. The fact that he comes at a discount—Staal is owed just $3MM and carries a cap hit of $3.25MM for next season, compared to $4MM and $4.5MM for Johansson—makes this seem like an easy win for the Sabres, as long as his play doesn’t drop off a cliff next year.
Still, there is a chance that Johansson can find his “MoJo” in Minnesota. Remember that this is a player who scored 24 goals and 58 points as recently as 2016-17 and will only turn 30 next month. He also played quite well for the Boston Bruins in last year’s playoffs, scoring 11 points in 22 games as a depth option. That postseason performance is exactly what earned him the two-year $9MM deal with the Sabres last summer.
For the Wild, the acquisitions of Johansson and Bjugstad over the last few days have added a pair of players on expiring deals that will both be looking to rebuild their value before free agency. Either one could be potential trade chips at the deadline should the 2020-21 season go sideways, or potential extension candidates if they can get back on track. For Buffalo on the other hand, Staal’s acquisition is much more about starting to turn the team in the right direction and providing some backup for Eichel upfront. Saving $1MM in salary may also be important for a team that has been rumored to be looking at an internal budget this season due to reduced revenues.
Darren Dreger of TSN was first to break that Johansson had been traded from Buffalo, while Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported it is a one-for-one deal.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Rasmus Asplund Loaned To Vasteras IK
The Buffalo Sabres have loaned one of their young forwards overseas, sending Rasmus Asplund to Vasteras IK of the Swedish second league. Asplund had been training with the team for months but is now officially allowed to play in games until NHL training camps start.
Asplund, 22, played in 29 games for the Sabres this season, recording his first three NHL points. The 33rd overall pick in 2016, he has 69 points in 108 AHL games over the past two years and is a real candidate to grab a full-time roster spot in Buffalo for 2020-21. Getting some more development time in Sweden will only help that goal, given the uncertainty around the upcoming AHL season.
The young forward is heading into the final year of his entry-level contract, meaning he’ll need a new deal next summer when he becomes a restricted free agent for the first time. You can bet he’d like some more NHL experience to use in those negotiations, though Asplund will not be arbitration-eligible. For now, he’ll play in a league he skipped entirely when he moved from the junior ranks directly to the SHL as a teenager.
Sabres Coaches Declined Pay Cut, Team Considering Internal Salary Cap
It should not surprise anyone that NHL teams across the league are hurting financially. A shortened regular season, a postseason without any ticket revenue, and no idea when fans may be able to return to games has every franchise scrambling to cut costs wherever possible. For some, that has included asking coaches and staff members to take pay cuts or forego bonuses. For others, it means reduced spending on player salaries this coming season – an internal salary cap. As TSN’s Frank Seravalli writes, these difficult decisions do not lie only with the NHL’s small or non-traditional markets either. The Pittsburgh Penguins are reportedly considering a lower internal salary cap for 2020-21, while the Jack Adams-winning head coach of the Boston Bruins, Bruce Cassidy, and his staff declined playoff bonuses. In total, Seravalli reports that 17 teams have made some sort of meaningful pay cut to their coaching or front office staffs, while several others will be forced to cut player salaries this off-season.
However, a team can only ask so much and now the Buffalo Sabres and owners Terry and Kim Pegula are getting push-back from key members of their club. The Pegulas did not pull any punches when it came to cost cutting earlier this summer. The team fired 22 hockey operations staffers back in June, including then-GM Jason Botterill, and reduced their front office staff to a skeleton crew. Yet, even before that they had cut the pay of head coach Ralph Krueger and his staff by 20% from April 1 to July 13. Seravalli reports that at the end of that period, the team requested that the coaches take a 25% pay reduction for another extended period of time; they declined. While most coaching staffs have been willing to take a pay cut to prevent other personnel losses in the front office, Krueger and company sat and watched as their hockey operations staff was decimated even as they sacrificed a significant portion of their pay. As a result, they refused to do it a second time, perhaps knowing there were no more hockey jobs left for the Pegulas to cut. Seravalli notes that this is the first reported instance of a coaching staff rejecting a voluntary pay cut.
While the Buffalo coaches and front office may be safe, the need for further budget cuts is likely to affect how much talent they have to work with next season. Seravalli reports that the team is now planning to enforce an internal salary cap in the low $70MM range, potentially putting payroll $10MM under the $81.5MM salary cap ceiling. On paper, this may not seem too bad for the Sabres, who have just over $48MM committed to their 2020-21 roster. However, that amount covers just ten players, as Buffalo counts seven unrestricted free agents and six restricted free agents among their regulars from this past season. The team is looking at as little as $22MM or so on their internal salary cap to fill 13 roster spots, and new contracts for RFA’s Sam Reinhart, Victor Olofsson, Brandon Montour, and Linus Ullmark are bound to eat up the vast majority of that space. While every team in the NHL is struggling due to the impact of COVID-19, the Sabres had already been struggling for a lot longer than most and there does not appear to be an end in sight.
Coaching Notes: Reirden, Ellis, Kim
Todd Reirden may not have to wait very long for his next coaching gig after being fired by the Washington Capitals. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet wrote over the weekend that Reirden is a possibility for both the Pittsburgh Penguins and Florida Panthers as an assistant.
Reirden, of course, spent several years as an assistant with the Penguins before joining Washington after being the head coach of their AHL affiliate. His familiarity with the organization is obviously a factor, though Friedman notes that taking an assistant role would be “pending any head coaching jobs he pursues.” Reirden posted an 89-46-16 record over his two years behind the Capitals bench but was ousted in the first round of the playoffs both times.
- Former Buffalo Sabres forward Matt Ellis has been hired by the organization as their new director of player development. Ellis has been a head coach of the Buffalo Jr. Sabres and played 286 of his 356 career NHL games for the franchise. Undrafted, Ellis became one of the most respected leaders in the minor leagues, serving as captain on three different teams.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs have hired Sam Kim as their new video and coaching coordinator, taking him away from the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL. Kim has previously served as a video coach for South Korea’s national team, as well as—amazingly—the New York Islanders mascot. The Maple Leafs have retained the services of Jordan Bean, but changed his title from video coordinator to statistical analyst.
Buffalo’s Rasmus Asplund Expected To Be Loaned To Allsvenskan
The Sabres are in talks with Vasteras of the Allsvenskan in Sweden regarding a loan agreement forward Rasmus Asplund, notes Henrik Sjoberg of HockeyNews.se. If completed, the loan would be until NHL training camps get underway which, as things stand, is projected to be sometime in November.
It was a tale of two seasons for the 22-year-old who was a high second-round pick back in 2016. He was reasonably productive with AHL Rochester where he had 19 points (3-16-19) in 33 games. That helped him earn a couple of stints in Buffalo but he struggled offensively, collecting just a single goal with two assists in 29 contests. He did, however, take a regular turn on the penalty kill at the very least, averaging 1:46 per game in that situation.
On the surface, it may seem odd that someone with aspirations of landing a full-time NHL roster spot would opt to go to a second-division team in Sweden but doing so would allow him to play a bigger role offensively. A good start over there could help him carry some momentum into Buffalo’s training camp which might be enough to help him earn a spot. Otherwise, a return to Rochester would be in the cards for 2020-21 as Asplund remains exempt from waivers.
Buffalo has already taken advantage of the opportunity to loan out some of their prospects as goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (TPS Turku) and center Arttu Ruotsalainen (Ilves) have both found places to start next season. It looks as if Asplund will be the next one from the Sabres to go that route.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen Will Start Season In Finland
The Buffalo Sabres have an obvious goaltender of the future. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has all the skills to become one of the very elite goaltenders in the NHL, but he’s not quite ready yet.
In 2018-19, his first season in North America, Luukkonen put up a .920 save percentage in 53 games for the Subury Wolves and won the OHL Most Outstanding Player award. He also backstopped Finland to a World Junior gold medal, posting a .932 save percentage in the process. While 2019-20 didn’t go quite as smoothly, Luukkonen was still a star for the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones as he continued his development at the professional level.
Now, with the start of the minor league season uncertain, Luukkonen will return to Finland and begin the year with TPS. The Sabres have loaned him to the Liiga club, though the announcement from TPS indicates it is only for the four to six weeks they will be without Rasmus Tirronen as he deals with an injury.
The 21-year old Finn has the size (6’4″), control and athleticism to be a star in the NHL, but we’ll have to wait a little longer before seeing him suit up for the Sabres.