Morning Notes: Ekblad, Street, McCarron
Aaron Ekblad will return to the lineup for the Florida Panthers tonight, according to Craig Davis of the Sun Sentinel. The Panthers superstar suffered his third concussion—not including the bout of “whiplash” he suffered at the World Cup—ten days ago, and apparently has cleared all the procedures to return to the lineup. With the Panthers now eight points back of the Maple Leafs for the final playoff spot, they hopefully wouldn’t have rushed Ekblad back at all.
As Matt Larkin of The Hockey News wrote a week ago, the Panthers have to play this carefully or risk Ekblad’s career before it has even truly begun. The 21-year old looks like he will be a force in the game for a very long time, but has now already suffered multiple concussions early on. In comparing him to Eric Lindros, who suffered several head blows within a short time frame, Larkin pleaded with the Panthers to shut him down for the rest of the season to make sure he wasn’t at risk. None of this is to say that the Panthers medical staff is mistreating the situation, but with just 11 games left and four teams between them and a playoff spot, it does seem a bit unnecessary to bring him back at all. Here’s hoping for some continued health for one of the game’s brightest young stars.
- With Ekblad returning, the Panthers have sent MacKenzie Weegar back down to the Springfield Thunderbirds of the AHL. Weegar never did actually get into a game, with Florida playing Jakub Kindl in the vacant defense position. Weegar will return to the Thunderbirds where he was having an excellent season, scoring 12 goals and 29 points in 51 games.
- The Detroit Red Wings have called up Ben Street on emergency basis after last night’s loss to the Buffalo Sabres. Detroit lost Darren Helm to an injury on Saturday, though perhaps someone else suffered a minor wound last night. The 30-year old Street is having another excellent season at the AHL level, with 51 points in 57 games this year. The undrafted forward has found much success at the lower level since starting his pro career in 2010, though has only seen an NHL contest 29 times. Held to just two points in those games, he’ll look to make an impact with this chance.
- Steve Ott will draw back into the lineup for the Montreal Canadiens tonight, meaning oft-scratched Michael McCarron will be back in the press box according to Renaud Levoie of TVA Sports. The former first-round pick has played just 26 games for the Canadiens this season, registering five points in less than 10 minutes per night. The 22-year old can’t seem to impress either coaching staff enough to stay in the lineup, despite bringing a physical presence. In 32 games in the AHL this year, McCarron has 19 points.
Pittsburgh Penguins Re-Assign Pouliot; Recall Corrado, Sundqvist
Despite winning 4-0 on Sunday, the Pittsburgh Penguins have decided to make a change prior to their game against the Buffalo Sabres tonight. Struggling young defender Derrick Pouliot has been sent back down, while Frank Corrado and Oskar Sundqvist have been called up from the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. The team will still be without stars Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Olli Maattaa and several others for tonight’s game.
Pouliot, 23, continues to squander chances with the NHL club with lax defensive play and positioning errors. There is no doubt he has the talent to play at the highest level with the puck on his stick, but his coverage in front of the net and battle along the boards is still not good enough for a team looking for another championship. The former eighth-overall pick will go back down and try to find another gear in his game before the next opportunity presents itself.
Meanwhile, Corrado will get his first chance with the NHL team since coming over in a deadline deal with Toronto that saw Eric Fehr go the other way. Corrado’s lack of opportunity was well documented in Toronto, as he floundered somewhere between leagues for months at a time. The 23-year old has played seven games for the WBS Penguins since the deal, registering just one point. Pittsburgh will see if he can bring some level of defensive responsibility as they look to find a partner for Mark Streit until someone returns from injury.
Sundqvist has dominated the AHL while he’s been there this season, scoring 40 points in 55 games. The big forward has bounced up and down this season and gotten into four games with Pittsburgh, held pointless throughout. The 22-year old third-round pick looks like he’s developing nicely into a bottom-six player capable of some secondary scoring and adding a physical element to the game.
Recapping Today’s NHL College Free Agent Signings
Today was a busy day for NHL GMs as three teams signed a total of four NCAA college hockey free agents.
Tim Clifton – San Jose Sharks
The San Jose Sharks officially signed forward Tim Clifton to a two-year, two-way deal today. Clifton just finished his fourth season with Quinnipiac University, and put up 13G and 12A in 39 games. Clifton is expected to join the San Jose Barracuda—the Sharks’ AHL affiliate—to finish out the rest on the season.
Mitch Hults – Anaheim Ducks
The Anaheim Ducks dipped into the college free agent market by signing Lake Superior State University forward Mitch Hults. Hults had 11G and 23A in 36 games for his school. Hults signed a two-year entry-level deal with the Ducks, and will report to the San Diego Gulls for the rest of the AHL season
Austin Ortega – Anaheim Ducks
The Ducks continued raiding the college free agent market by signing University of Nebraska-Omaha forward Austin Ortega to what looks to be an amateur try-out agreement with the San Diego Gulls. Ortega had an excellent season, scoring 20G and 27A in 38 games for his school.
Alex Kile – Buffalo Sabres
The Buffalo Sabres AHL affiliate Rochester Americans signed University of Michigan forward Alex Kile. Kile captained the Michigan Wolverines to a disappointing 13-19-3 record and scoring just 7G and 7A in 28 games.
Rochester Americans Sign Alex Kile To AHL Deal
The Rochester Americans—and thus the Buffalo Sabres—have signed Alex Kile to an AHL deal for 2017-18, and an amateur tryout for the rest of this season. Kile has spent the last four seasons at the University of Michigan, and was a very interesting name last spring after a huge junior season. He’ll look to try and regain that momentum from last year with a solid professional debut for the Americans.
Serving as the captain for the Michigan Wolverines, Kile had a very lackluster senior year in which he scored just 14 points in 28 games. The 22-year old winger was coming off a 34 point junior season that had scouts around the NHL paying attention, but failed to repeat on his offensive performance. To be fair to Kile the entire Michigan team struggled this season to a 13-19-3 record, and their leading scorer had just 21 points.
Standing 6’0″ 190-lbs, Kile was known for his excellent skating ability and improving shot, but wasn’t able to utilize either much this season after an ankle injury robbed him of three weeks in the middle of the year. The former linemate of both Dylan Larkin and Zach Hyman will now head to the AHL to try and rebuild his value and prove that an NHL future is still a possibility.
Buffalo Sabres Recall Casey Nelson, Brady Austin From AHL
It was clear they needed some reinforcements, and the Buffalo Sabres have received them. The team has recalled both Casey Nelson and Brady Austin from the Rochester Americans, according to Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News. The team recently lost both Taylor Fedun and Cody Franson, making it a quartet of injured defensemen when including Justin Falk and Dmitry Kulikov. They’ve decided to go in two interesting directions with the recalls of Nelson and Austin.
Expected to be next in line, Nelson been with the team on two other occasions this season, playing nine NHL games. The former NCAA signing made his NHL debut at the end of last season, after completing an outstanding three-year stint at Minnesota State University. In his rookie season with the Rochester Americans this year, Nelson has 13 points in 45 games and has had some trouble adapting to the speed of the professional game. He’ll get a chance to prove that he has made the necessary adjustments over the next few games.
Austin on the other hand will be making his NHL debut should he make it into a game. The seventh-round pick from 2012 has been a minor league soldier for the Sabres organization for the past three seasons and is likely being rewarded for all his hard work. While he’s not expected to make much of an impact at the NHL level, perhaps he can be one of those rare prospects that elevates his game even further on the bigger stage. A native of Bobcaygeon, Ontario, Austin is a big defender who isn’t afraid to drop the gloves and protect a teammate if he’s needed. He should at least infuse some nastiness into the Sabres lineup when (and if) he gets into a game.
Sabres Need Defensive Reinforcements
Bill Hoppe of the Times Herald pointed out that the Buffalo Sabres are down to four defenseman after Friday’s game against the Anaheim Ducks. The Sabres lost defencemen Taylor Fedun and Cody Franson to injuries—Fedun with a foot injury and Franson with an unspecified injury.
Fedun and Franson join Justin Falk (calf) and Dmitry Kulikov (upper body), leaving the Sabres with only Rasmus Ristolainen, Zach Bogosian, Josh Gorges, and Jake McCabe. The Sabres play the Detroit Red Wings on Monday night and coach Dan Bylsma was quoted as saying that none of the injured defensemen could play in that game.
That leaves the Sabres in need of at least two call-ups from the AHL Rochester Americans (Amerks). The leading candidates include newly acquired Mat Bodie, Erik Burgdoerfer, and Casey Nelson.
The Sabres acquired Mat Bodie from the New York Rangers in exchange for Daniel Catenacci. Bodie had 8G and 22A in 45 games for the AHL Hartford Wolf Pack, and 2G and 1A in 7 games for Rochester. He currently leads all Amerks defensemen in points. Second in points among active Amerks defensemen is Erik Burgdoerfer. The American native has 1G and 16A in 50 games for the Amerks, but went pointless in two games for the Sabres earlier this year. Finally, the Sabres could recall 24 year-old defenseman Casey Nelson. Nelson has 4 assists in 16 career NHL games over two years, and 4G and 9A in 45 AHL games this season.
Snapshots: Outdoor Game, Fedun, Bonuses
After a report yesterday that the 2018 Winter Classic would be played at Citi Field in New York, there is some more news about outdoor games next season. Tomorrow, according to a report from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen, the NHL will announce a game between the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens that will take place at TD Place, the home of the Canadian Football League’s Ottawa Redblacks. The stadium, which sits in Lansdowne Park right along the Rideau Canal, will host the CFL’s Grey Cup just a few weeks prior and will have expanded seating still installed.
This would be the Senators first time hosting an outdoor game, and just their second appearance in one. In 2014, they were part of the Heritage Classic in Vancouver (where the Sens won 4-2) but will obviously welcome a chance to host their own. Honoring the first NHL game played in Ottawa on December 19th, 1917—when the original Ottawa Senators were in existence—the game is expected to be played around the same date. It will be Montreal’s fourth appearance as a visitor in an outdoor game, though they’ve never hosted one themselves.
- As rumored yesterday, the Buffalo Sabres have brought up Taylor Fedun from the AHL today prior to their game in Los Angeles. The team is in the middle of a four-game rad trip, and will not have Justin Falk in the lineup tonight or tomorrow against the Anaheim Ducks. Fedun has 25 games with the NHL club this season, recording seven points. A prolific point producer at the AHL level, Fedun has just 37 games under his belt in the NHL and has never been able to find a consistent role.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs have used their cap space over the past two years as something of an asset, acquiring bad contracts and burying them in the minors in order to get better returns on transactions. Brooks Laich, Milan Michalek and Colin Greening were all examples of this, and they now find themselves right up against the cap. As Chris Johnston of Sportsnet writes, that may end up costing them at least a few million next season as the bonuses for their young players will be taken as a penalty. Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and Nikita Zaitsev will all likely max out their Schedule A bonuses this season, and Matthew may trigger a $2MM Schedule B if he finishes in the top 10 for goals. If they decide to be big players in free agency, that Matthews bonus could be a big factor.
Snapshots: Pastrnak, Sabres, Keenan, Wideman
The Bruins and representatives for winger David Pastrnak are interested in getting a long-term contract done instead of pursuing a bridge deal in the summer, reports CSN New England’s DJ Bean. Pastrnak is slated to become a restricted free agent in July and is poised to land a significant raise from the $925K he is receiving this season in the final year of his entry level deal.
Bean adds that Pastrnak’s agent, J.P. Barry, is viewing Sean Monahan (Calgary), Filip Forsberg (Nashville), and Mark Scheifele as suitable comparable players for negotiations. All of those players landed new deals worth at least $6MM last summer. The Bruins should have the room to accommodate a long-term deal on their cap moving forward as well; they have a little over $61MM already committed next year to 17 players per CapFriendly.
Other news from around the hockey world:
- The Sabres are planning to recall defenseman Taylor Fedun from Rochester of the AHL in time for Thursday’s game in Los Angeles, reports Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News. He’s expected to take the place of Justin Falk, who has been ruled out of the lineup for at least the next two games. Buffalo is also likely to have winger Hudson Fasching back in their lineup for the first time since late October. The 21 year old has spent the last two months in the AHL after recovering from a groin injury, collecting seven points in 23 games in that span.
- It appears Mike Keenan’s coaching career isn’t over just yet. The 67 year old is slated to become the new head coach of Kunlun of the KHL pending league approval of the contract, notes TSN’s Darren Dreger (Twitter link). The veteran of 1,440 career NHL games as a bench boss last coached back in 2015 with Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL and won a Gagarin Cup with them back in 2014. Keenan will have plenty of familiar with his team as he is currently serving as an advisor for them.
- The NHL lost its appeal in New York court to vacate an arbitrators’ ruling that dropped Dennis Wideman’s suspension from last season from 20 to 10 games, reports TSN’s Rick Westhead (Twitter link). The league had made its case back in June to try to have the remainder of his suspension reinstated. Wideman was suspended for hitting linesman Don Henderson but it was cut in half by arbitrator James Oldham last March. The NHL dismissed Oldham back in July.
2018 Winter Classic Likely To Be Held At Citi Field
According to Arthur Staple of Newsday, the Winter Classic will finally be coming to New York City. The report suggests the agreement is being finalized to have the New York Rangers face the Buffalo Sabres at Citi Field in Queens. The stadium is the home of the New York Mets, and would be the second New York state location to hold an outdoor game in a matter of days. Buffalo will be home to next winter’s World Junior Championships, where teams USA and Canada will meet for an outdoor contest on December 29th at New Era Stadium (home of the Buffalo Bills).
There have been two Stadium Series games played in NYC, both at Yankee Stadium and both in January of 2014. The Rangers took on the New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders in those two, and also appeared in a Winter Classic in Philadelphia back in 2012. Buffalo on the other hand appeared in the first Winter Classic in 2008, but has been held out of outdoor games since.
While some may lament two teams facing off that have already participated in Winter Classics, it will still be a incredible financial opportunity for the league and give a showcase to one of the league’s forgotten young talents in Jack Eichel. Between his injuries and lack of national spotlight put on the Sabres, Eichel has lagged behind the Connor McDavid–Auston Matthews hype despite putting up incredible numbers of his own when healthy.
Though this had been rumored as the matchup for a while, Staple notes that there had been talks of holding the game at Westpoint instead, though apparently that will not happen in 2017-18. Perhaps down the road another game will appear there. For now, the league continues to use the “traditional” hockey markets as venues for the Winter Classic, as the series has only included 11 teams to this point. The Chicago Blackhawks, participants (and losers) of three different games have drawn ire from fans that wish to see other teams given a chance at the game. Obviously difficult to accomplish in warmer climates, the game could still feature a more southern team as the opponent.
Morning Notes: Byron, Eichel, Kozun
The rich got richer yesterday, as the Pittsburgh Penguins signed Zach Aston-Reese, arguably the top college free agent in this year’s class. The Northeastern forward led the nation in scoring, and should follow nicely in the footsteps of other NCAA free agents to find success in Pittsburgh. That doesn’t sound like it will be the case for Blaine Byron though, as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports the University of Maine star will likely wait to become a free agent in August.
Byron was a sixth-round pick of the Penguins in 2013, and broke out this season as a senior for Maine. With 41 points in 36 games, the small center easily paced his team for the second straight year. Incredible vision off the rush is Byron’s calling card, though he will need to add strength to compete at the next level. He’ll likely have several teams after him in the summer, though it shouldn’t be as insane as last year’s Jimmy Vesey sweepstakes.
- As CapFriendly reports, Jack Eichel triggered a bonus last night when he scored his 20th goal. The Buffalo Sabres forward could receive a $2MM escalator should he finish the season in the top-10 of points per game. He currently sits ninth in the league, meaning the Sabres may face a overage penalty next season. They currently have just under $1.4MM in cap space remaining, meaning the other $600K would be applied as a penalty to next season. While that’s not crippling for a team, it is important to note as the Sabres go into this summer looking to compete next season.
- Brandon Kozun, a former Los Angeles Kings and Toronto Maple Leafs prospect, has re-signed with his KHL team according to Andrew Walker of Sportsnet. The diminutive forward has found immense success in Russia, scoring 56 points in 59 games this season for Yaroslavl Lokomotiv. A team featuring several former NHL players and prospects, Kozun easily led the squad this year.
- The United States Women’s National Hockey Team will boycott the upcoming World Championships, as they fight for equitable support. The team released a statement today through several players, including Megan Bozek, the NWHL’s reigning winner of Best Defender. The team simply wants better financial support for their players who dedicate years of training to the international competitions. According to ESPN, the women are given $1,000 for each of the six months of Olympic residency, and nothing during the remainder of the four years of training. If the US team were to not compete in the tournament, it would be a huge blow. The matchups between Canada and the United States are the big draw for the tournament, and without one of the two powerhouses it will likely be a romp for the Canadians through to the gold medal.