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Evening Notes: Zadorov, Vlasic, Poehling

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Elliotte Friedman reported today that Vancouver Canucks recent trade acquisition Nikita Zadorov never received a formal contract extension offer from the Calgary Flames. Friedman went on to add that Calgary and Zadorov had different opinions on the length of a potential extension as the Flames wanted to be cautious while Zadorov was looking for long-term security.

It’s an understandable position from both sides given the circumstance they both find themselves in. Calgary has several undesirable long-term contracts on the books and was likely hesitant to add another one, while Zadorov has never had more than two years of security on a contract (outside of his ELD). The differences were too much for both sides to overcome which led to the Flames dealing the pending unrestricted free agent to Vancouver.

In other evening notes:

  • Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News is reporting that San Jose Sharks defenseman Marc-Édouard Vlasic is unlikely to be traded anytime soon. While that news isn’t surprising, the timing is interesting given that Vlasic was re-inserted into the Sharks lineup two nights ago after being a healthy scratch for a stretch. It seems that for the right price any contract in the NHL can be moved, however, there hasn’t been a contract situation quite like Vlasic’s. The 36-year-old has no points in 15 games this season and is playing under a $7MM cap hit for this season, and two more years after that. He has a modified no-trade clause that allows him to submit a list of three teams in which he would accept a trade. The other wrinkle in a potential trade is that if the Sharks were to retain salary, it would represent the final time they can do that until one of the current retained contracts expires.
  • The Philadelphia Flyers announced tonight that center Ryan Poehling would miss their game against the Arizona Coyotes due to an illness. No word yet on whether Poehling is expected to be out of Flyers lineup for any length of time. Poehling has already missed three games this season as a healthy scratch as the 24-year-old has struggled during his first season in Philadelphia. Poehling has had a far more advantageous deployment in Philadelphia than he did in Pittsburgh last year, but his analytics and defensive metrics aren’t what they were despite being given more offensive opportunities.

Elias Lindholm Returns To Practice

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Los Angeles Kings writer Zach Dooley reported today that Kings forward Blake Lizotte has progressed to a regular practice jersey today as he moves closer to the returning to the lineup. The 25-year-old missed his sixth straight game this evening but could return on Thursday night when the Kings take on the Montreal Canadiens. Kings head coach Todd McLellan told reporters today that the plan is to see how Lizotte feels after practice tomorrow before making any decisions on a potential return later this week.

Lizotte has been sidelined with an undisclosed injury he suffered in a game against the St. Louis Blues back on November 18th. He took a hard open-ice hit from Blues defenseman Robert Bortuzzo and immediately went to the bench and up the tunnel with the training staff. He did not return to the game.

In 16 games this season, the Lindstrom, Minnesota native has four goals and three assists and is +7.

In other West notes:

  • TSN’s Salim Nadim Valji is reporting that Calgary Flames center Elias Lindholm was back at practice today after missing yesterday’s practice due to an illness. All signs point to the 29-year-old dressing in the Flames game tonight against the Minnesota Wild as Calgary tries to get back to .500 after starting the season 2-7-1. Lindholm has played fine this season with seven goals and 10 assists in 24 games, but he has struggled to score goals with a shooting percentage of just 10.9%, well off his career average of 12.5%.
  • Winnipeg Jets analyst Mitchell Clinton is reporting that Winnipeg Jets forward Vladislav Namestnikov will join the team on their upcoming road trip but is unlikely to play in Thursday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche. The 31-year-old has missed the Jets’ last two games after suffering a lower-body injury during a puck battle with Darnell Nurse in the Jets’ 3-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers last Thursday. Namestnikov signed a two-year deal with the Jets in the summer and has had a decent start to the season with two goals and nine assists in his first 22 games.

Jacob Markström Out Week-To-Week With Fractured Finger

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Calgary Flames starting netminder Jacob Markström is out week-to-week with a fractured finger, the team announced this morning. The injury won’t require surgery, and as a replacement for Markström on the team’s roster Calgary has recalled Dustin Wolf from its AHL affiliate.

Markström, 33, last played in a December 2nd loss to the Vancouver Canucks. He’s played in a total of 16 games this season for Calgary and has an .896 save percentage. That’s only a slight improvement off of last season’s form, as he posted an .892 in 59 games in 2022-23.

The year before, Markström was an elite goalie, posting a .922 save percentage in 63 games, a performance that made him the Vezina Trophy runner-up. When he plays at that level, the Flames appear to be a genuine Stanley Cup contender, but as he’s struggled to match that form in recent years the team’s overall trajectory has fallen.

Now Markström faces a setback in returning to his elite form in 2023-24, though he does have some runway to work with. Making $6MM per year through 2025-26, Markström has some time to figure things out and will hope to return from this injury fresh and ready to play as well as he did earlier in his career.

Replacing Markström on the Flames’ active roster is Wolf, who is one of the best goalie prospects in the sport. The 22-year-old 2019 seventh-round pick is an undersized, highly athletic puck-stopper who has won just about everything a goalie could hope to win before he makes it tot the NHL. Wolf is a two-time AHL Goalie of the Year, the reigning AHL MVP, a World Junior Championship gold medal-winner, a two-time WHL goalie of the year and a one-time CHL goalie of the year.

So far this season, Wolf has a .920 save percentage in 13 games with the Wranglers. He has a career save percentage of .927 in 118 AHL games. In the NHL, he has made two career starts and has a .919 save percentage. With  Markström now out for an extended period, Wolf is lined up for the most extensive NHL opportunity he’s ever received to this point in his young career.

Markstrom Potentially Out With Injury

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  • During practice today, Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet reported that the starting goaltender of the Calgary Flames, Jacob Markstrom, left practice early, and is being evaluated for a hand injury. At this time, there have been no other updates to the injury status of Markstrom, but the team may look to recall top prospect Dustin Wolf, since their AHL affiliate, the Calgary Wranglers, do not play until the end of the week.
  • Sticking in Southern Alberta, one member of the Flames who missed the entirety of the team’s practice today was forward Elias Lindholm. The team announced that Lindholm was out with an illness for today’s practice, and his status is unknown as to whether or not he will be in the team’s lineup tomorrow night.

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Coyotes Have Shown Interest In Noah Hanifin

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The Coyotes are among the teams that have demonstrated interest in acquiring Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Monday’s 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link). With Arizona now sitting first in the Western Conference wild-card race and just two points back of the Winnipeg Jets for third in the Central Division, it appears GM Bill Armstrong is gearing up to shift out of rebuild mode and begin spending assets to acquire more veteran talent.

A 6-3-1 surge in their last ten games has the Flames still in the playoff hunt, but a report last month from Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic indicates it hasn’t changed the Flames’ plans of selling off most of their pending unrestricted free agents. The first in-season move to get a value pack for a pending free agent came last week, dealing defenseman Nikita Zadorov to the Canucks for a pair of draft picks. More recently, LeBrun indicated the Flames could look to move Hanifin with an extension in place after previously offering him an eight-year deal worth roughly $60MM – a $7.5MM cap hit – before talks ended due to the team’s early-season slide.

While teams are still calling on Hanifin’s defense partner, Chris Tanev, the former is the top trade chip the Flames have to offer from their blue line. His value among Calgary’s pending UFAs is eclipsed only by top-line center Elias Lindholm.

Through his first five seasons in Calgary, after they acquired him from the Hurricanes during the 2018 offseason, Hanifin notched 31 goals, 125 assists, 156 points, and a +33 rating in 359 games. That works out to 0.43 points per game, a mark he’s outpacing so far this year with five goals and 12 points in 24 contests. He’s averaging a career-high 22:53 and is on pace for an even-strength Corsi share above 50% for his ninth straight campaign. For now, his services come at a financial bargain, costing just $4.95MM against the cap – significantly under market value for a first-pair-caliber defenseman.

You’re likely not winning a championship with Hanifin as your number-one defenseman, but he has a track record of handling heavy minutes while still displaying two-way prowess. The Coyotes’ most significant weakness is far and away their blue line depth, and adding Hanifin to a growing group that’s seen strong performances from Sean Durzi and J.J. Moser this season could boost their playoff chances by a significant margin. MoneyPuck currently lists the Coyotes with 68.4% odds to make just their second postseason appearance since losing in the 2012 Western Conference Final to the Kings.

If Armstrong does move to acquire Hanifin, the 26-year-old would end up playing the role the Coyotes envisioned Mathew Dumba would hold this season. Signed to a one-year, $3.9MM contract late in the summer, Dumba has floundered in the desert, posting just four points in 22 games and a -8 rating, the worst among Arizona defenders. His ice time has steadily decreased since the beginning of the season, and he’ll soon be averaging below 20 minutes per game for the first time since the 2015-16 season.

Hanifin is also a left-handed shot, an area of need for the Coyotes. They currently have a surplus of right-shooting defensemen, which has forced players like Dumba and Troy Stecher to play on their off-side.

His acquisition cost won’t be cheap, especially if there’s an extension in place as part of the trade. The Coyotes have plenty of draft capital, though, owning a jaw-dropping ten second-round selections over the next three years. They’ve also retained all their first-round picks for the next three seasons. They also have a quickly-growing forward prospect pool, including 23-year-old Jan Jeník, who had 47 points in 51 games with AHL Tucson two seasons ago and reportedly sought trade options last summer.

Flames Sign Mark Pysyk To A One-Year Contract, Assign Him To AHL

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12/3/23: Pysyk has cleared waivers and has been officially assigned to the Calgary Wranglers.

12/2/23: Mark Pysyk wasn’t a free agent for long.  After being released by AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton earlier this week, he has found a new organization as the Flames announced that they’ve signed the blueliner to a one-year, two-way contract.  They listed his AAV at $725K which is below the league minimum ($775K) although it’s possible that this is the net money he’ll receive after proration.  GM Craig Conroy released the following statement about the signing:

Mark is a right shot defenceman who provides depth on the blueline for our organization. He is a versatile player with significant NHL experience.

The 31-year-old missed all of last season due to a torn Achilles tendon, resulting in him needing to go the PTO route this past summer.  He signed a tryout deal with Pittsburgh and then subsequently suffered a significant injury in his first game.  He was eventually cleared to return, getting into eight AHL contests prior to his release.  It was Pysyk’s first action in the minors since the 2015-16 campaign.

Pysyk is a veteran of 521 games over parts of ten NHL seasons between Buffalo (two stints), Dallas, and Florida.  He has 104 points to his credit along with 576 blocks and 512 hits while averaging just over 17 minutes a night.  With the Flames recently moving Nikita Zadorov and having Noah Hanifin and Chris Tanev on expiring contracts, adding someone who can play on the third pairing makes a lot of sense for Calgary.

While Calgary has an open roster spot, it won’t be used on Pysyk right away as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that Pysyk has been placed on waivers for the purpose of AHL assignment.  If he clears on Sunday, he can be assigned to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers.

Kylington Skates But Still Not Close To Returning

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Flames defenseman Oliver Kylington skated with a small group today but head coach Ryan Huska cautioned (video link) that the blueliner is still a long way away from returning.  Kylington signed a two-year, $5MM deal in August 2022 but has yet to play a game on that agreement, missing all of last season and the first seven weeks of this one for personal reasons.  Huska noted that Kylington has skated on his own a bit so this wasn’t the first time he hit the ice but there is no timetable for when he might be able to return.  Kylington is currently on LTIR but with Calgary recently moving Nikita Zadorov to Vancouver, they now have some flexibility to work with when the time comes to welcome him back to the active roster.

Calgary Flames Recall Ilya Solovyov

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The Calgary Flames’ trade of Nikita Zadorov to the Vancouver Canucks opened a spot in their lineup for a younger blueliner to claim, and now it appears Ilya Solovyov will get the first chance to claim it. The team has recalled Solovyov from its AHL affiliate, the Calgary Wranglers.

The 23-year-old blueliner in somewhat similar to Zadorov in terms of profile. While he’s not quite as physically overwhelming as Zadorov, Solovyov still possesses above-average size (he’s six-foot-three, 208 pounds) and plays with a bit of an edge. He’s been a minutes-eating defenseman for one of the top teams in the AHL and made his NHL debut earlier this year.

Although Jérémie Poirier offers a more dynamic skill set than Solovyov, the blueliner underwent surgery earlier this year and is still out indefinitely. So while Poirier, who scored 41 points in his rookie professional season last year, may have gotten the call-up under normal circumstances his injury paves the way for a massive opportunity for Solovyov.

With Zadorov now on another team, the path for Solovyov to establish himself as an NHL player is now clear, he just has to seize it.

Nikita Zadorov Traded To The Vancouver Canucks

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The Calgary Flames have traded defenseman Nikita Zadorov to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a 2024 NHL Draft fifth-round pick and a 2026 NHL Draft third-round pick.

Zadorov’s move to Vancouver comes in response to a formal trade request submitted on November 11th, following a shootout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Zadorov has appeared in 21 games with the Flames this season, recording six points, 23 penalty minutes, and a -6. He was in his third season with the club after Calgary acquired him through a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks ahead of the 2021-22 season.

Calgary signed Zadorov to two contracts, including a two-year, $7.5MM contract signed in 2022 that Zadorov is in the final year of. The 28-year-old defenseman carries a $3.75MM cap hit through the remainder of the season and is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st.

Vancouver will become the fifth team that Zadorov has played for throughout his 11-year career. He was originally drafted 16th overall in the 2013 NHL Draft, making his NHL debut at the end of the 2013-14 season. The defender played his rookie season in 2014-15, notching 15 points, 51 penalty minutes, and a -10 in 60 games. The Sabres traded Zadorov to the Colorado Avalanche in 2015 alongside J.T. Compher and Mikhail Grigorenko, in the trade that brought Ryan O’Reilly to Buffalo.

The deal to Vancouver is the fifth trade that Zadorov has been a part of, including the trading of the draft pick used to select the defenseman – which was swapped between the Minnesota Wild and Buffalo in the deal that sent Jason Pominville to Minnesota. Zadorov has not joined a new team by any other means other than a trade.

Noah Hanifin May Be Signed And Traded

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TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun is reporting that sources have told him that Calgary Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin could be dealt this season with an extension in place beyond this year. If a situation like that were to happen, it would effectively be a sign-and-trade agreement between the Flames and an acquiring team, as the team trading for Hanifin would be able to acquire the 26-year-old as a player under contract beyond this season.

LeBrun previously reported a few weeks ago that Hanifin and the Flames were close to agreeing to an extension back in October that would have been valued at roughly $60MM over an eight-year term. However, the Flames pulled the deal after Hanifin opted to wait and see how the season developed.

The Flames have turned things around this season after stumbling early in the year and might be feeling less pressure to deal some of their pending unrestricted free agents as they are back in the thick of things. However, LeBrun points out that the Flames are unlikely to make a deep run in the playoffs should they get there and may opt to recoup some assets for a few of their upcoming free agents.

Hanifin is in his sixth year with Calgary after coming over in a trade from the Carolina Hurricanes and has four goals and six assists in 22 games thus far. If he is to hit the open market, there will be no shortage of teams looking to acquire the native of Boston, Massachusetts.

The Flames are one game into a six-game homestand that could dictate how they approach the rest of the season. If they struggle on home ice, it may incentivize them to move some of their other pending free agents, such as Chris Tanev, Elias Lindholm or Nikita Zadorov, who requested a trade just a few weeks ago.

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