Elias Lindholm Generating Interest For Carolina Hurricanes
Friday: LeBrun reports that the meeting between Lindholm and the Hurricanes front office today did not go well, leaving the two sides still far apart on a contract decision. The 23-year old forward is now a real possibility according to LeBrun.
Thursday: Though most eyes are on Jeff Skinner and Justin Faulk, the player generating the most interest in Carolina is Elias Lindholm according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic (subscription required). LeBrun qualifies the trade speculation by saying the Hurricanes’ first priority is to re-sign the restricted free agent, but that his name continues to be brought up in negotiations with other teams. Yesterday LeBrun mentioned talks between the Calgary Flames and Carolina, and today he expands on that notion saying that even Noah Hanifin and Dougie Hamilton were discussed before things went south.
Lindholm, 23, has been an exemplary player for the Hurricanes since being drafted fifth overall in 2013, Spending time at both center and wing, he has at least 39 points in each of his four full seasons and should be in for another raise on the $2.7MM cap hit he carried the last two years. While not an elite offensive player, he continues to be a positive in the faceoff circle and a reliable two-way player capable of anchoring a middle-six group. With teams so desperate for help at center, it’s no surprise that his name continues to be brought up.
While Skinner has just one season remaining on his contract and Faulk two, Lindholm is a restricted free agent this summer and could be signed to a long-term deal. There are hurdles to jump to do that though, as even his youth won’t keep the price tag down on a multi-year contract. Lindholm already has five seasons under his belt in the NHL, and is scheduled to hit unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2020 at the age of 25. That means any long-term deal is buying out several free agent seasons and likely driving the price upwards. It also means that a two-year bridge deal is no longer an option, as that would take him right into the waiting arms of the open market as one of the youngest players to ever reach free agency.
Any acquiring team would have to consider this, and likely discuss the contract with Lindholm’s representatives first. If they can get him signed long-term for a reasonable cap hit, he would bring back a considerable package to the Hurricanes. If not, it might not be worth it for Carolina to send out one of their more reliable young players before his 24th birthday.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Jeff Skinner Discussions Heating Up
One of the biggest prizes on the trade market as we inch closer to the start of the 2018 Entry Draft is Jeff Skinner, who could inject instant offense into almost any team in the league. The three-time 30-goal man has been confirmed available by his GM Don Waddell, and recently linked to the St. Louis Blues, Pittsburgh Penguins and Los Angeles Kings. Well now Darren Dreger of TSN reports that the Carolina Hurricanes are “inching closer” to a deal for Skinner, and adds that three teams—but not necessarily the ones listed above—are in the “late stages of discussions.” Luke DeCock of the Raleigh News & Observer doesn’t believe things are as close, and notes that the team has not asked Skinner to waive his no-trade clause for a specific team as of yet.
Skinner, 26, scored 24 goals and 49 points in what many consider a down year for the winger, but still provides tantalizing offensive potential for an acquiring team. The fact that he is basically plug-and-play 20-goal scorer with upside for much more, as well as being one of the most dynamic skaters in the league, should leave no one wondering why there are several teams after him down to the wire. With just a single year left on his current contract before unrestricted free agency though, he’s doesn’t provide a long-term option without agreeing to an extension. That’s something he can’t technically sign until July 1st, and something that’s not clear Skinner even wants at this point.
Scheduled to hit the open market at just 27, Skinner could position himself as one of the very best forwards available in free agency next summer. Though currently the group looks like a “Superclass” there could be plenty of extensions waiting for July 1st for players like Tyler Seguin, Logan Couture and Blake Wheeler. Even if there isn’t, Skinner still has one of the best resumes of any offensive player in the league, starting with his 31-goal rookie campaign in 2010-11.
It will be interesting to see what he costs as a rental option before the draft, if an extension isn’t agreed upon. The Hurricanes aren’t exactly in a position to rebuild, meaning they could target NHL-level players in return. Pittsburgh for instance had reportedly made Bryan Rust, Conor Sheary and Dominik Simon available to the Arizona Coyotes in negotiations over Max Domi. Perhaps Carolina would be interested in adding proven NHL talent like that in exchange for their expiring asset.
Philipp Grubauer Generating Plenty Of Interest
Washington Capitals GM Brian MacLellan was very clear after the season that he would try to give Philipp Grubauer a chance to be a starting goaltender. That chance won’t be with the Capitals though, as MacLellan admitted he’d explore the trade market to try and find Grubauer an opportunity where he could step into a bigger role. In doing so, several sets of ears perked up around the league and speculation started swirling around who could afford to acquire the 26-year old goaltender.
Grubauer is a restricted free agent this summer, meaning a trade is the best outcome for the Capitals as well. Even with the increase in the salary cap from $75MM to $79.5MM, Washington doesn’t have a ton of room. Unrestricted free agent John Carlson may take half of their projected $15.7MM in cap space should they re-sign him, while Tom Wilson and others are also restricted free agents looking for raises. Grubauer, with all his success as the backup to Braden Holtby, is a luxury the team may not be able to afford.
He does have a successful resume though, which is likely why several teams have been calling with interest. Bob McKenzie of TSN was on the radio this morning reporting that there is plenty of interest in acquiring Grubauer, and listed the New York Islanders, Carolina Hurricanes, Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks and Colorado Avalanche as teams that are “in” on the RFA goaltender. McKenzie suggests that teams may be willing to part with a first or second round pick if they believe Grubauer can step into a starting role, or at least a tandem with one of their current options. That goes along with the reports from Craig Custance of The Athletic (subscription required) and Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post that the Capitals are looking for—or perhaps expecting—a late first or early second-round pick in exchange for their backup goaltender.
None of this means that the team will definitely trade Grubauer at the draft this weekend, but a draft pick today is worth more than one down the line in terms of development. The Capitals are looking to compete for a second consecutive Stanley Cup in 2018-19, but are also committed to building a program that can continue contending long-term. They are one of the few contending teams that did not give up their first-round pick at this year’s trade deadline, and are in good shape to keep adding prospects to a pipeline that has produced several key players over the years. If they can procure a pick in tonight’s first round, it would by default be higher than their first selection and allow them some more currency to try and work with as they strengthen their roster for another run.
Blues, Penguins Interested In Jeff Skinner
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
- 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
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”
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
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
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
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.