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Training Camp Notes: Stone, Biakabutuka, Mangiapane

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Injury troubles plagued the Vegas Golden Knights last season, something they can ill-afford a repeat of in 2022-23. There’s some good news on that front regarding one of their star players, though, as right wing Mark Stone skated in a contact jersey today for the first time during training camp.

The Golden Knights will count on Stone to have a rebound year as their captain, especially with their offensive depth thinning. The 2021 Selke Trophy finalist and 2019 runner-up played in just 37 games due to injury last season, registering nine goals, 21 assists, and 30 points. Hopefully, the serious back injuries that plagued him last season don’t become a long-term issue for the 30-year-old.

  • Somewhat of a rarity these days, a player attending camp on an amateur tryout might do well enough to earn a contract within the organization. Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen notes that the Red Wings have been impressed with defenseman Jérémie Biakabutuka, with head coach Derek Lalonde complimenting his skating and compete level. The 20-year-old is set to return to the QMJHL’s Charlottetown Islanders next season but could receive an NHL entry-level contract from Detroit or receive an AHL offer from the Grand Rapids Griffins when his season is over.
  • Calgary Flames winger Andrew Mangiapane was a full participant in camp today after missing the first four days of group skates with what the team called a “minor lower-body injury.” He made his return to scrimmages skating on a line with newcomer Nazem Kadri, a role he’s likely to reprise in the regular season as well. Mangiapane is coming off a career-high 35 goals and 55 points.

Snapshots: Extension Talks, Sutter, Border Mandates

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There are several players around the league that have been involved in extension talks over the summer, including the likes of MacKenzie Weegar and Bo Horvat. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet touches on several of these situations in the latest 32 Thoughts podcast, giving his thoughts on whether in-season negotiation will be an option.

In Weegar’s case, Friedman notes that there is a feeling that once the season begins, extension talks will be shelved to the end of the year. The 28-year-old defenseman is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and is coming off a career-best 44 points last season. While Horvat’s situation is a bit murkier, Friedman believes that David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins is open to talking throughout the year.

  • Another important member of the Calgary Flames is in the final year of his contract but he isn’t a player. Friedman believes that Darryl Sutter will likely be extended at some point, as his three-year deal approaches expiry. Sutter was hired in 2021, making the first year of his deal the end of the 2020-21 season, and has had a strong effect since returning to Calgary. Under his leadership, the team went from missing the playoffs with a sub .500 record in 2020-21 to winning the Pacific Division and reaching the second round.
  • The Canadian government is dropping all vaccine requirements for non-citizens entering the country as of October 1, meaning that unvaccinated players in leagues like the NHL, NBA, and MLB should now be able to travel with their teams for games in Canada. Last season, for instance, the Detroit Red Wings were forced to leave Tyler Bertuzzi behind when they went on road trips north of the border, something that may well have cost him the team lead in scoring, given the pace he produced at through 68 games. Hopefully, the league will not need to deal with these limitations in the future, as health officials continue to reduce restrictions.

Calgary Flames Sign Brett Ritchie

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Sep 21, 3:59 pm: The Flames have made Ritchie’s signing official, bringing him back to Calgary for his third season with the team. The contract is a one-year, one-way deal with a cap hit of $750,000.

Sep 21, 10:00 am: Ritchie appears on the Flames training camp roster, though the team has not officially announced the deal yet.

Sep 19: Sportsnet’s Eric Francis reports that the Calgary Flames are close to bringing back winger Brett Ritchie on a one-year deal.

Ritchie will return to the Flames for a third straight season. This time, though, he won’t have to work his way in on a PTO as he did last season.

Since the 2020-21 season, Ritchie’s had seven goals, five assists, and 12 points in 73 games in a Flames uniform. The 29-year-old forward has a total of 72 points in 341 career games since debuting in 2014-15 as a member of the Dallas Stars.

He’s played sparingly in Calgary, but he’s the type of fourth-line energy forward that head coach Darryl Sutter loves. While he likely won’t be playing for more than 45 games per season, that’s fine given his very limited ice time. He’ll be competing for a bottom-six role shared by Trevor Lewis and PTO invite Cody Eakin.

For the Flames, it continues to show they’re not quite ready to have young players make the next step. They also brought Sonny Milano into camp on a PTO today, who should earn a spot in their top-nine forward group to add to their excellent depth. For players like Jakob Pelletier and Matthew Phillips, though, it’s likely another season of conditioning in the AHL.

Calgary Flames Sign Adam Ruzicka

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Another day, another RFA down. The Calgary Flames have signed Adam Ruzicka to a two-year contract. The deal will be a two-way contract in 2022-23, one-way in 2023-24, and carries a cap hit of $762.5K.

Ruzicka, 23, made it to the NHL as a part-time player last season, suiting up 28 times and scoring ten points. The fourth-round pick has been impressive in the minor leagues and comes with the size and strength that can make him a valuable part of the Darryl Sutter system. With the ability to play center or the wing, he could immediately find a spot with this Calgary team, filling out the bottom-six with some extra scoring ability.

In fact, should he fail to find a spot with the Flames in training camp, Ruzicka would be a prime candidate to be snatched off of waivers. Sending him back to the minor leagues would risk him to the rest of the league, meaning at worst he probably becomes the team’s 13th forward to start.

With Cody Eakin and Sonny Milano in camp on professional tryouts, however, that isn’t guaranteed, meaning he’ll have to perform up to standards in the preseason. The Flames will have a different look to their forward group this year without Matthew Tkachuk, Johnny Gaudreau, or Sean Monahan, but it’s not like those spots are up for grabs.

For the young Ruzicka, a two-year deal at the league minimum provides some stability and actually represents the best way to get into the lineup. With the Flames right up close to the salary cap ceiling, they usually can’t afford to carry expensive extras. Being the cheapest player on the roster has some advantages, and if Ruzicka can establish himself as a full-time player, a bigger deal awaits in restricted free agency two years from now. Of course, if he fails to do so, he could qualify for Group VI unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2024 instead.

Calgary Flames Sign Sonny Milano To PTO

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After scoring a career-high 14 goals and 34 points, Sonny Milano finally has a training camp to attend. The Calgary Flames will bring Milano in on a professional tryout. As with any PTO, this doesn’t mean Milano is actually on the Flames, only that he will be attending camp. It is, however, an opportunity for the team to get comfortable with the player and for the player to showcase himself to the entire league.

Milano, 26, was left unqualified by the Anaheim Ducks this offseason, thanks to a breakout campaign that likely would have led to a large arbitration award. The young forward would have needed a qualifying offer of $1.8MM and would have secured much more than that given his strong offensive totals from last year.

Playing nearly the entire season on the wing of playmaker extraordinaire Trevor Zegras (and a good chunk more with solid offensive players like Rickard Rakell and Troy Terry), Milano made the best of his opportunities. Still averaging just over 15 minutes a night, he nearly doubled his career points total, and potted 14 goals, a number he had hit as a rookie in 2017-18 but come nowhere near since.

There have always been questions about Milano’s overall impact on a game, his tendency to try highlight-reel plays instead of more traditional options, and a habit of drifting to the perimeter, but there is no doubt that he has the skill to play at a high level. The fact that he hasn’t found a contract yet likely has more to do with him searching for a good fit than the phone not ringing.

Whether he can find that fit in Calgary is unclear. For a player that will need powerplay time and minutes with top-end players to be effective, the Flames roster looks awfully crowded. Even with the losses of Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk, Calgary can ice a top-six that includes Nazem Kadri, Jonathan Huberdeau, Andrew Mangiapane, Elias Lindholm, and Tyler Toffoli. Blake Coleman, Mikael Backlund, and Dillon Dube are all capable of moving into those roles as well, while the veterans like Milan Lucic and Trevor Lewis patrol the bottom six.

So while Milano may be deserving of an NHL contract, it will be interesting to see whether it ends up being the Flames that sign him. For now, he’ll attend training camp with the team, and get a chance to remind them of the skill that scored two goals in three games against Calgary last season.

Treliving: Flames Still Looking To Add Up Front

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The Flames have had a busy summer up front with Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri coming in to help replace Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk.  Even with that type of turnover at the top of their roster, GM Brad Treliving told Thomas Drance of The Athletic (subscription link) that the team is still looking to add to their forward group for next season.  Calgary is one of the few teams that still has a bit of salary cap flexibility with a little over $2MM in space, per CapFriendly with RFA center Adam Ruzicka still to re-sign and Cody Eakin already in on a tryout.  While Treliving won’t be able to add an impact forward with what space he has left, an upgrade to their bottom six should be on the table.

Snapshots: Weegar, Nash, Keith

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Last week, we covered reports on the Calgary Flames’ attempts to sign defenseman Mackenzie Weegar to an extension. Now, we have some more details on the deal being discussed. Per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet on the 32 Thoughts Podcast, the “general area” that the Flames are “looking at” with a Weegar extension is eight years, $6.5MM AAV, which some might remember as the parameters of Hampus Lindholm’s contract extension with the Boston Bruins.

For the Flames, an extension at around that number would represent solid value, especially when the potential rise of the salary cap in the near future is factored in. Weegar, who will turn 29 in January, had 44 points in 80 games last season and has blossomed into a top-pairing defenseman. If we consider the costs of comparable defensemen, such as Darnell Nurse ($9.25MM) or Jacob Trouba ($8MM), a cap hit at around $6.5MM would represent solid value for the Flames, especially since it could be argued that Weegar is a better defenseman than either Nurse or Trouba. If this deal indeed gets signed at around this number, it will be another big move in what could go down as a summer for the ages for Flames GM Brad Treliving.

Now, for some other notes from across the NHL:

  • Veteran forward Riley Nash has signed a two-year AHL contract with the Charlotte Checkers, per a team announcement. Nash, 33, saw time with three different NHL teams last season, and he also played 17 games for the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. In his 17 games with the Crunch, Nash scored 10 goals and 18 points, and should add some experience and veteran leadership to the Checkers’ top-six.
  • Per Sportsnet’s Mark Spector, legendary defenseman Duncan Keith is joining the Oilers’ hockey operations department in a player development role. Keith recently ended his NHL career and will bring his over 1,200 games of NHL experience to the table as he helps develop the Oilers’ promising crop of young players.

Chris Tanev Should Be Ready For Camp After Spring Shoulder Surgery

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  • Flames defenseman Chris Tanev should be ready to participate in training camp after undergoing labrum surgery in May, relays Postmedia’s Wes Gilbertson. The estimated timeline for recovery was up to six months so it’s clear that the 32-year-old is progressing a little ahead of schedule.  Tanev has logged over 20 minutes a night on Calgary’s back end in a key shutdown role so even with him expected to get a clean bill of health during medicals next week, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the veteran have a limited role in the preseason to ensure he’ll be fully ready for opening night.
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