Flames Sign Ilya Nikolaev
The Flames have agreed to a contract with one of their prospects as agent Dan Milstein of Gold Star announced (Twitter link) that Calgary has signed center Ilya Nikolaev to a three-year, entry-level contract. Financial terms of the deal, which has since been confirmed by the club, were not disclosed.
The 20-year-old was a third-round pick of the Flames back in 2019 (88th overall) out of the Russian junior league. Last season, Nikolaev split the year between Russia’s MHL and VHL, their junior and second-tier pro leagues but he decided to try his hand in North America this year. Undrafted in either the CHL or USHL, he opted to sign with the latter, joining Tri-City. He did quite well at that level this season, recording 23 goals and 49 assists in 58 games and tied for the team lead in playoff scoring with five goals and three helpers in five contests.
Nikolaev will now turn pro with the Flames and will need some time in the minors. Calgary is expected to move their AHL affiliate from Stockton to somewhere in the Calgary area for next season so they’ll have a good opportunity to keep close tabs on Nikolaev’s development over the next three years.
2022 Jack Adams Finalists Announced
The NHL continues to release the finalists for their major regular season award, this time naming the three men that are in contention for the Jack Adams Award, presented to the coach who has “contributed the most to his team’s success” and voted on by the NHL Broadcasters Association. Last year’s winner was Rod Brind’Amour of the Carolina Hurricanes, but we’ll have a new name engraved this season.
The finalists for the 2021-22 season are Andrew Brunette of the Florida Panthers, Gerard Gallant of the New York Rangers, and Darryl Sutter of the Calgary Flames.
Brunette could win the award without actually even having any job security, as he is still technically only an interim head coach. Taking over from Joel Quenneville, when the Panthers were in first place, he didn’t miss a beat and took the team to an incredible 51-18-6 record under his watch, winning the Presidents’ Trophy. A huge number of Florida players experienced career-best seasons under the rookie head coach, as his high-flying style led to almost unstoppable offensive pressure.
Often, this award goes to the coach who takes a team to the largest gap between expectation and result. That might be the case for Gallant, whose young Rangers were expected to challenge for the playoffs but have become so much more than that. With a 52-24-6 record on the year, New York finished eighth in the entire NHL, their best season since 2014-15. It shouldn’t surprise anyone at this point that Gallant can get outstanding results out of an overlooked roster, after taking the Vegas Golden Knights all the way to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season. Even in that year–when Gallant won the Jack Adams–the Golden Knights had a worse winning percentage than these Rangers.
For all the success that Sutter has had behind the bench, this trophy has eluded him over the years. The two-time Stanley Cup-winning coach has nearly 800 total wins under his belt but has only ever been a finalist for the award once before, way back in 2004 during his first go-round in Calgary. The Flames experienced a huge turnaround under his watch, going from a .491 winning percentage last season, to a .677 and first place in the division this year. Despite having some high-flying offensive talent, it was the buy-in on the defensive end that Sutter is so known for, and resulted in the Flames allowing just 206 goals against, third best in the league.
Tomorrow, the league will continue their announcements with the three finalists for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy.
Calgary Flames Recall Juuso Valimaki
The Stockton Heat don’t start their third-round playoff series until Monday, meaning at least for the next few days, the Calgary Flames can have another extra body around. Juuso Valimaki has been recalled from the AHL, and was on the ice with the Flames today as they prepare for their opening game against the Edmonton Oilers.
The Flames’ Chris Tanev has been dealing with an injury but was also on the ice today according to Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet, meaning Valimaki’s recall might be nothing more than a little insurance for the next few games. The team will do battle tonight, Friday, and Sunday before the young defenseman is needed back with Stockton, where the Heat are going for their own championship.
It’s been a difficult road for the 2017 first-round pick, who missed the entire 2019-20 season due to injury just as his career was starting to take off. This season he played most of the year with the AHL club, appearing in 35 games with Stockton compared to just nine for Calgary. Set to turn 24 before the start of next season, he’s signed for the 2022-23 campaign at a $1.55MM cap hit but has obviously not proven himself enough to be a regular in the lineup.
Because of that contract though, any chance he does receive will be an important showcase for the young defenseman. The Flames will see Nikita Zadorov, Erik Gudbranson, and Michael Stone all hit unrestricted free agency this summer, meaning there will be room for someone like Valimaki to step into a full-time NHL role if necessary.
2022 Selke Trophy Finalists Announced
The NHL has announced the finalists for yet another of its end-of-year awards, the Frank J. Selke Trophy. Always a hotly-contested and highly-debated award, the Selke Trophy is voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association on the basis of “the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.”
This year’s finalists are Aleksander Barkov of the Florida Panthers, Elias Lindholm of the Calgary Flames, and Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins.
Barkov took home the award last season after previous top-five finishes and is one of the best two-way players in the league. His offensive numbers took another step forward this season, while his defensive play stayed quite high. Paired at times with rookie Anton Lundell on the penalty kill (a player who might find himself on the Selke ballot eventually), Barkov averaged more than two minutes of short-handed time a night for the Panthers, and was once again one of the most dominant faceoff men in the NHL. His 56.9% win percentage in the dot was the best of his career and continued a five-year trend of improvement in that area.
Lindholm, meanwhile, is a Selke finalist for the first time after anchoring the best even-strength line in the NHL this season. When he was on the ice alongside Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk, the Flames were nearly unstoppable, scoring more than twice as often as the opponents. The trio finished 1-2-3 in +/- rating, with Lindholm dragging his career number back into the black with a +61. While his linemates have a lot of impact on that overall success, the 27-year-old came into his own as a shutdown center, and also logged more short-handed ice time than any other Flames forward.
It always comes back to Bergeron though, who is now a Selke finalist for the 11th season in a row. Now 36, some would have expected his game to take a step backward at some point, but that wasn’t this season. The Bruins captain had one of the (if not the) best defensive seasons of his career, completely smothering the opponent whenever he was on the ice. Winning more than 60% of his draws for the fifth time in his career, dominating possession even more than in previous years, and actually setting a career-high with 78 hits, Bergeron will be tough to beat again this season.
With four Selke wins in the past, Bergeron has a chance to pass Bob Gainey and become the all-time leader with five trophies should he take it home this year. Barkov could become just the tenth player to win more than one.
Calgary Flames Sign Adam Klapka
While the Calgary Flames are preparing for a high-stakes second-round playoff series against their historic rivals, the Edmonton Oilers, that hasn’t stopped the Flames’ front office from conducting business in the interest of improving the team. Today, that work comes in the form of a two-year entry-level contract for Czech winger Adam Klapka.
Klapka, 21, is an undrafted player who has experience playing in North America. He spent two seasons playing for the Tri-City Storm of the USHL, where he had 15 goals and 25 points in 57 games from 2019-20 to 2020-21. Klapka has spent this past season playing for Bílí Tygři Liberec in the Czech Extraliga. There, he was a teammate of former Flames defenseman Ladislav Smid, and scored six goals and 18 points to go along with 72 penalty minutes. He added four points in ten playoff games for the team as well.
Klapka is an intriguing player due to his size more than anything else. Standing at six-foot-seven, 245 pounds, Klapka offers rare size and physical tools that set him apart from the rest of the Flames’ prospects. Coach Darryl Sutter has constructed his Flames to be among the NHL’s biggest teams, ranking fifth in average height and sixth in average weight. The signing of Klapka, should he end up making the NHL in the future, will help the Flames maintain that position when the team’s current heavyweights such as Milan Lucic eventually age out of the roster.
Nikita Zadorov Avoids Suspension
4:58 pm: The Department of Player Safety, as a result of the hearing, has determined to not issue a suspension to Zadorov. They gave the following explanation via Twitter:
While there was significant head contact on this play, Zadorov took a proper angle of approach, did not extend outward or upward, and hit through Glendening’s core. Therefore, under Rule 48.1 (i), the head contact was determined to be unavoidable.
10:42 am: The Calgary Flames have to try and stave off elimination at home tomorrow night, and they might be without one of their big, intimidating defensemen. Nikita Zadorov will have a hearing with the Department of Player Safety regarding the check to the head of Dallas Stars forward Luke Glendening last night.
Zadorov ended up taking 14 minutes in penalties last night, but none of them were assessed on the hit that knocked Glendening out of the game. Viewers could clearly see Stars head coach Rick Bowness yelling at the officials that it was a “head shot,” after the forward slumped to the ice in a scary position. Glendening played just over four minutes in the game.
A suspension would obviously take Zadorov out of the mix for game seven tomorrow, a player that has come into his own for the Flames this year. Perhaps more importantly, is the fact that Chris Tanev also exited the game early with an injury, meaning two of the team’s more reliable options might not be available for head coach Darryl Sutter.
The 6’6″ Zadorov is an incredibly intimidating presence on the ice as one of the league’s most powerful open-ice hitters. He also racked up 22 points, a career high, in 74 games this season, while averaging just under 17 minutes a night. His possession statistics were by far the best he’s ever posted, while he still managed to rack up 181 hits on the year, trailing only Milan Lucic among Flames.
Calgary already did dress seven defensemen last night, but that group will be stretched quite thin if both Zadorov and Tanev are unavailable. Connor Mackey, who didn’t dress, is also up with the team at the moment.
2022 Vezina Finalists Announced
Over the next week, the NHL will be releasing the finalists for all of the major regular season awards. After yesterday’s Norris announcement, next up is the Vezina Trophy, which is given to the best goaltender in the NHL and is voted on by the league’s general managers.
This year’s finalists are Jacob Markstrom of the Calgary Flames, Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers, and Juuse Saros of the Nashville Predators.
Markstrom, 32, is a finalist for the first time, following his best and most consistent season to date. Appearing in 63 games for the Pacific Division-winning Flames, the big netminder won 37 games, posted a .922 save percentage, and led the league with nine shutouts. The backbone for his team all season long, Markstrom was a huge part of the stingy Flames team that turned from a high-flying circus into a controlled, defensive team under head coach Darryl Sutter.
Shesterkin, 26, is the odds-on favorite to win the award, despite his recent struggles in the playoffs. The Rangers would have been absolutely lost without him this season, and he led the league in both save percentage and person goals-against average. That .935 mark was ten points higher than his nearest competitor and raised Shesterkin’s career number to something of legends. Among goaltenders with at least 100 NHL appearances (he has exactly that), his .928 career save percentage is well ahead of Dominik Hasek‘s .922 for first place. It will obviously be hard to maintain that over a whole career, but the Russian netminder is off to a historic start.
Saros meanwhile shouldn’t be forgotten. The 27-year-old netminder appeared in 67 games for the Predators, more than any other goaltender in the league, despite being injured in the final week. Last year’s sixth-place finisher, he posted a strong .918 save percentage and dragged Nashville into a playoff spot. One of the smallest goaltenders in the league at 5’11”, Saros continues to show why the Predators were so excited about his development even when they still had Pekka Rinne in place as the starter. Since his rookie season in 2016-17, Saros hasn’t posted a save percentage under .914 and now has a career mark of .920 in 222 appearances, good for seventh on the all-time list.
Morning Notes: Barzal, Sabres, Yelesin
After the now-infamous departure of John Tavares from the New York Islanders via free agency, all eyes on Long Island turned to promising young center Mathew Barzal to fill the void and lead the team’s offense to continued success. Needless to say, he’s succeeded, notching 311 points in 362 games so far in his young career. This season is the first time the team won’t win a playoff round since Barzal took over the no. 1 center role, and it’ll also be the first time they won’t make the playoffs at all.
As all eyes turn toward the future, though, fans will notice Barzal has one season left on his three-year, $21MM bridge deal he signed prior to 2020-21. With him once again being a restricted free agent, Barzal left the door open on a long-term extension after exit interviews, via James Nichols of The Fourth Period. While he’s yet to replicate his 85-point rookie season, he’s still chugged along at a 60+ point pace every season since then. Knowing general manager Lou Lamoriello, a long-term extension is likely something he’s interested in as well. But it’s unclear how much Barzal’s cap hit will change, considering the lack of significant offensive development during his bridge deal – does he still project to hit the 80-90 point plateau again, or is he an extremely strong no. 2 center on a Cup winner as his recent point totals suggest?
- A report out of Sweden via HockeyNews.se today says that Buffalo Sabres forward Rasmus Asplund plans to join the team for the upcoming 2022 IIHF World Championship. Asplund played in 80 out of 82 games this season in Buffalo, setting new career highs with eight goals, 19 assists, and 27 points. He also took leaps and bounds defensively this season, showing signs he can develop into a true shutdown forward for the Sabres. Defenseman Henri Jokiharju also announced he’ll be joining Finland at the same tournament.
- A former Calgary Flames prospect is staying in Russia for two more seasons. Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL announced today they’ve reached a two-year extension with defenseman Alexander Yelesin, who appeared in four games with the Flames during 2019-20, recording no points. An undrafted free agent, the defensive defenseman played just two seasons in North America before the Flames opted to leave him unsigned. The team still retains his rights if he ever decides to return to the NHL, but that won’t come until 2024-25 at the soonest when he’ll be 28 years old.
Dustin Wolf, Jakob Pelletier Named To AHL All-Rookie Team
G Dustin Wolf, Stockton Heat (Calgary Flames)
F Jakob Pelletier, Stockton Heat (Calgary Flames)
Dustin Wolf Recalled From Stockton
- The Flames announced (Twitter link) that they’ve brought up goaltender Dustin Wolf from AHL Stockton. This is an emergency recall with Jacob Markstrom unavailable being unavailable for tonight’s game against Vancouver. Wolf has done quite well in his first full AHL season, posting a 2.33 GAA along with a .924 SV% in 46 games.