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Blues, Penguins Interested In Jeff Skinner

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The Penguins and Blues are among the teams that are interested in acquiring Hurricanes winger Jeff Skinner, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link).  Skinner has been frequently speculated as a trade candidate in recent months as he gets set to enter the final year of his contract, one that carries a salary cap hit of $5.725MM and also a full no-move clause.

St. Louis has been looking for help in their top six dating back to last season and Skinner would certainly give them some more scoring punch as he has averaged 28 goals over the last five years.  The Blues also have a deep group of prospects up front including winger Klim Kostin and Jordan Kyrou as well as center Robert Thomas that Carolina will certainly be asking about as a possible return.

The fit in Pittsburgh is a little more curious.  There’s no doubt that Skinner would fit in nicely alongside one of Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin inside their top six but they lack the cap space to add Skinner in; while they have just over $9MM in room per CapFriendly, they still have as many as six players to sign for their NHL roster.  While they could presumably deal a winger or two the other way to help offset the money, Carolina will be looking for a more significant return and the Pens also don’t have their first-round pick having dealt it for center Derick Brassard back before the trade deadline.

Meanwhile, LeBrun notes that the Kings, who have been interested in Skinner for a while, have turned their focus to UFA winger Ilya Kovalchuk.  They are one of the teams that are known to have already made a contract offer and they lack the cap space to add both him and Skinner.  Kovalchuk isn’t allowed to sign until July 1st but could make a verbal commitment before then.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Sergey Tolchinsky Signs A Tryout Deal With CSKA Moscow

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  • Hurricanes pending RFA winger Sergey Tolchinsky has signed a tryout contract with CSKA Moscow, the KHL team announced (link in Russian). The 23-year-old spent all of this past year with Carolina’s AHL affiliate in Charlotte where he collected 26 points in 43 games.  With him eyeing a return home, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the team decide to give him a qualifying offer so that they can retain his NHL rights if he decides he wants to come back in the next few years.  The deadline to do so is Monday at 4 PM CST.

Flames Have Shown Interest In Elias Lindholm

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The Flames have expressed interest in Hurricanes center Elias Lindholm, reports Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic (video link).  He notes that the talks took place a couple of weeks ago and may not be on the front burner for the time being, however.  The 23-year-old has been a consistent secondary producer over the past four years for Carolina, notching between 39 and 45 points each season.  While he has mostly played down the middle, he has spent some time on the wing as well and Calgary head coach Bill Peters is certainly familiar with Lindholm’s game having coached him in Carolina until he resigned earlier this offseason.

In the meantime, LeBrun notes that the Hurricanes plan to resume contract talks with Lindholm’s agent in the coming days as he is slated to become a restricted free agent with arbitration rights on July 1st.

Carolina Hurricanes Put Jeff Skinner’s Name “Out There”

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The Carolina Hurricanes are a very interesting team to watch as we approach the draft on Friday night, armed with the second-overall pick and looking to make a splash in the trade market. Today, GM Don Waddell was on Sportsnet radio and spoke about scoring winger Jeff Skinner and where his future may take him:

Jeff Skinner has been with this franchise, he’s a 30 goal scorer, proven 30 goal scorer. We don’t score a lot of goals. Saying that we did, you know it’s no secret we put his name out there and we’ve gotten a lot of interest. Again though, when you’re trading that type of player you have to be careful because if you just want to move a player along, certainly there is lots of teams that would love to have that player. But he’s a big asset for us, and we’ve got to make sure that we get some kind of assets that we feel are gonna help us either today or in the future for a guy like Jeff.

Waddell goes on to downplay the idea that Noah Hanifin is available, but his comments about Skinner will do nothing to cool the hot stove over the coming weeks. Obviously there’s no guarantee that Skinner will get moved before next season, but there is an appetite there from the Hurricanes especially given that he’ll be an unrestricted free agent next offseason. Skinner is coming off a 24-goal campaign in 2017-18, but has proven that he can register even more than that in a good season, racking up 30 or more goals three times. The 26-year old is still in the prime of his career and would be a lethal offensive mercenary for a team to plug into their attack, if even only for a single season.

The Hurricanes have built an intriguing group of young players through the draft and trade, but still haven’t been able to put it all together. Much of that is due to poor goaltending, something that Waddell has promised to resolve this summer. If Skinner is moved out, there could be even more opportunity for their younger players to step into prominent roles, with names like Martin Necas and Janne Kuokkanen just waiting for an opportunity to prove themselves.

Top Contenders For Paul Stastny Emerging

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If and when John Tavares re-signs with the New York Islanders this off-season, there will be a lot of teams left in need of a center with few options to turn to. The trade route is an option, although a costly one when searching for a top-six pivot. Not many teams are openly shopping their top centers either. The draft is no help in a class largely devoid of pro-ready talent down the middle. The restricted free agent offer sheet has all but gone extinct. For those teams in need of center help, this leaves the free agent market as the most realistic choice and, behind Tavares, pickings are slim. Tyler Bozak, Riley Nash, and Derek Ryan are all top-five scorers among free agent centers despite all being two-way focused forwards best suited for third-line roles. Joe Thornton, Valtteri Filppula, and Tomas Plekanec are all well past their primes and their recent production proves it. There are simply very few good options.

For these reasons, it is no surprise that teams are already lining up for the services of Paul Stastny. Easily the top UFA center behind Tavares, Stastny is coming off a 53-point season with St. Louis and Winnipeg. Add in a dominant 15-point postseason with the Jets, and Stastny has greatly improved his stock heading into the open market. Both an offensive threat and a defensively responsible player, Stastny is a complete, two-way player. He is also a twelve-year veteran who dismissed talks of being past his prime this season and seems capable of high-end play over the course of another long-term contract.

In fact, the 2017-18 season was Stastny’s best offensively since his early days with the Colorado Avalanche. Ironically, the Avs reportedly would like to see if he still has that 70-point potential he showed as a younger player in Denver. Both Fox Sports’ Andy Strickland and BSN Denver’s Adrian Dater believe that Colorado is the leader in the chase for Stastny. As a team with which he has chemistry, as well as a young, exciting roster in need of a leader, it would be easy to see why a return to the Avalanche could be appealing to Stastny. Strickland also names the Winnipeg Jets as a top suitor. After acquiring Stastny at the deadline and seeing him fit in so well down the stretch and in the playoffs, it is no wonder that they would like to retain him. However, the Jets are inundated with valuable restricted free agents in need of extensions and may run out of the cap flexibility needed to compete for one of the market’s biggest names. Dater hears that the Montreal Canadiens, one of the more desperate center-needy teams in the league, is also in the hunt for Stastny. The Canadiens would be able to keep up with any bid the Avalanche could make and it would likely come down to which team Stastny feels is the best fit.

While these three teams are surely not the exclusive list of contenders, they are three teams that are logical fits for Stastny. Two teams that whose absences are noteworthy though are the St. Louis Blues and Carolina Hurricanes. Yes, the Blues traded away Stastny and when they had him it wasn’t enough to be a true Stanley Cup contender. However, a healthy St. Louis team would have been much more competitive this season and one of the holes they now need to fill to return to that place is at center. Bringing back Stastny is an idea that no one would dismiss, yet Strickland – a Blues beat writer – makes no mention of them. The Hurricanes, like the Canadiens, are simply a team in drastic need of a top center. While Stastny may not put them over the top, he would be yet another piece to a roster that has the potential to turn things around next year. Carolina also has near limitless cap space to contend for the rising price of Stastny’s services. At the end of the day, Strickland states that Stastny just wants to go somewhere where he will have a “chance to win”. Winnipeg and Colorado fit the bill, while Montreal, St. Louis, and Carolina may not. Others are sure to enter the fray too in a free agency market that may end up being defined by the choice made by Paul Stastny.

Snapshots: Buffalo’s Other Picks, Faulk, Draisaitl, Honka

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While their first-round pick in next week’s NHL Entry Draft is a no-brainer, there is still a lot of decision-making in Buffalo. One key change that Buffalo Sabres general manager Jason Botterill has said he needs to make is the improvement of their drafting, most particularly, the drafting of players later in the draft, especially from the third-round and on, according to the Buffalo News’ Mike Harrington.

The main reason for that is the team’s inability to get players drafted in the third round or later to contribute to the Sabres’ team. Since 2010, the Sabres have had seven goals from any player drafted in the third round or later — all from 2013 third-round pick Nicholas Baptiste.

“Those later picks show the importance of having a strong organization across the board,” Botterill said. “When you’re dealing with mid-round picks and later-round picks, it’s making sure your amateur staff brings in the right people and then having a strong developmental model.”

The team has already seen some success in Botterill’s first draft last season when he selected Casey Mittlestadt in the first round, which looks to be a solid pick. However, it’s some of their other picks that already seem to be working out as second-rounder Marcus Davidsson and third-round pick Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen are getting solid reviews after their first season since being drafted.

  • While Carolina Hurricanes’ defenseman Justin Faulk has been linked to the Edmonton Oilers many times since the NHL season ended, the Edmonton Journal’s David Staples writes that his value shouldn’t be as high as many project Faulk to hold.  The scribe writes that while the Oilers would be interested in acquiring the 26-year-old blueliner, his minus-26 rating and 12 even-strength points don’t suggest that the Oilers should be giving up a top talent or a high draft pick for him.
  • Sticking with the Oilers, rumors suggesting that the Oilers are considering trading center Leon Draisaitl are erroneous, according to Edmonton Journal’s Jim Matheson. The scribe writes there is no way Edmonton would trade Draisaitl, who the team signed to an eight-year, $68MM contract a year ago, not even for Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson. The 21-year-old has scored 54 goals and 147 points in the past two seasons.
  • In a separate tweet, Matheson writes that the Oilers could be interested in acquiring Dallas Stars defenseman Julius Honka, who could find himself without a spot in Dallas’ crowded defense. However, the scribe writes that Honka isn’t worth the No. 10 pick in next week’s draft. He suggests the team offer their second-round pick in hopes of acquiring the 22-year-old right-shot defenseman. Despite looking early in training camp last season as a key youngster to make the team, Honka found himself on the outside looking in as he had trouble breaking in to the team’s lineup. In 42 games last season with the Stars, the 2014 first-rounder played 13:01 of ATOI and posted just four points in limited action.

Carolina Hurricanes Sign Michael Fora To Two-Year Deal

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The Carolina Hurricanes must have been paying attention at the most recent IIHF World Championship, as they’ve signed Michael Fora to a two-year entry-level contract. Fora was a big part of Switzerland’s silver medal run at the Worlds, playing in a pure shutdown role against some of the best players in the world. Speaking about his newest defenseman, GM Don Waddell had this to say:

Michael is a good-sized defenseman who had a strong season in Ambri and was used in a top-pairing shutdown role during Switzerland’s run at the World Championship. He adds depth to our defensive corps on the right side.

Fora, 22, should be plenty familiar with life in North America, as he spent a year playing for the Kamloops Blazers of the WHL when he was younger. He recorded 32 points that season but went undrafted, and needed to prove that he could continue to grow and develop in the defensive end. He’s now a solid all-around player who could compete for an NHL job in the future. He’ll likely be headed for the Charlotte Checkers for the time being.

Carolina is working hard to solidify their minor league squad, already re-signing several key members over the last month. The team is rumored to be preparing for big changes to the NHL club around the draft, and with the second-overall pick could be ready to move in a different direction around different players. Jeff Skinner, Justin Faulk and Noah Hanifin have all been the most talked about names, but almost anyone on the roster seems available for the right price. Bringing in low-risk talent like Fora is just one way for the team to reinforce their entire organization while looking to move out some of the top names.

Bruins To Meet With Ilya Kovalchuk

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The Boston Bruins have already been linked to Russian free agent and former NHL superstar Ilya Kovalchuk this off-season, but GM Don Sweeney confirmed the interest today, telling NHL.com’s Amalie Benjamin that he will speak with Kovalchuk and his camp in the coming days. The Bruins are seeking to add a veteran scoring winger to their top six for next season and, if they don’t resign trade deadline acquisition Rick Nash, Kovalchuk could be a suitable replacement. Kovalchuk has already met with the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks, while the Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers, and Dallas Stars are among others who would like to outbid the Bruins for the big-name import.

Kovalchuk, 35, has been one of if not the best player in the KHL since he bolted from the New Jersey Devils in 2013. Sweeney still believes that the veteran sniper has the ability to left to translate those numbers back to the NHL. A big, strong shooter, Kovalchuk would not only add more talent and some balance to the Bruins roster, but would also be a great stylistic role model for a player like Jake DeBrusk, who he would likely skate beside with center David Krejci. However, the Bruins also liked the chemistry that those two players shared with Nash prior to his concussion late in the regular season. Sweeney stated that they remain in communication with Nash and that financially a deal with one of Nash or Kovalchuk would all but rule out the signing of the other.

If the decision were left up to Ty Anderson of The Sports Hub, he would gladly take Kovalchuk. The Bruins beat writer believes that the Russian goal scorer is the exact kind of gamble that Boston should take this summer to add a difference-maker that can balance their top six. Anderson notes that the Kovalchuk played right wing alongside Zach Parise in New Jersey and found great success and could do the same in Boston. His scoring touch could be what it takes to bring together a Bruins’ second line that paled in comparison to the league’s best line – Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and David Pastrnak– last year.

Both Sweeney and Anderson note that the financial flexibility may be needed to sign Kovalchuk – or Nash – to his desired contract. TSN’s Darren Dreger and Pierre LeBrun said the same on “Insider Trading”  today, adding that the Bruins would like to move David Backes this summer and may even consider trading Krejci in the right move to free up space. The duo also bring up an interesting twist that the Kovalchuk sweepstakes is having on the trade market. They feel that the suitors for Carolina Hurricanes winger Jeff Skinner are largely the same as those talking to Kovalchuk. They name the Bruins, alongside the Kings and Sharks, as the teams that could look at Skinner if they were to miss out on Kovalchuk. Nash, Kovalchuk, Skinner, and the off-season is just getting started in Boston. A big move could be on the horizon for the Bruins.

Hurricanes Interested In Brandon Saad

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  • Among the pieces that the Hurricanes are interested in from Chicago in their trade talks regarding defenseman Justin Faulk and goaltender Scott Darling is winger Brandon Saad, reports Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times. The 25-year-old failed to have the type of impact the Blackhawks were hoping for when they reacquired him last year as part of the Artemi Panarin trade.  However, after averaging 51 points over the previous four seasons, it’s reasonable to expect that he will have a bounce-back campaign in 2018-19, something that Carolina likely believes as well.

Jeff Daniels Hired As Carolina Hurricanes Assistant Coach

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The Carolina Hurricanes are getting the band back together. The team announced today that Jeff Daniels has been hired as an assistant coach and will join Rod Brind’Amour behind the bench for the 2018-19 season. Daniels will be well known to Hurricanes fans that remember him from the coaching staff that won a Stanley Cup with Carolina in 2006 while Brind’Amour served as captain. GM Don Waddell included a statement in the announcement:

Jeff has served as a head coach in the American Hockey League, and of course won the ultimate prize as an assistant on the NHL level. Rod has played with and under Jeff, so he has a great understanding for the experience and knowledge that he brings to the table.

Daniels finished his playing career with the Hurricanes in 2003 and quickly transitioned to a coaching role, serving as an assistant for parts of four seasons. He was then given a head coaching job in the AHL where he spent the next seven seasons, guiding the Albany/Charlotte team to three playoff appearances. Known as a very knowledgeable offensive mind, he’ll join Brind’Amour and Steve Smith in trying to get the Hurricanes over the hump and back to the postseason.

Now that the coaching staff is filled out, all eyes in Carolina are fixated on Waddell and what he’ll do next with the roster. Jeff Skinner, Justin Faulk, Noah Hanifin and many others have been rumored to be available for the right price, and the team still needs a solution in goal. With the draft less than two weeks away and Carolina holding the second-overall pick, things could get interesting very quickly.

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