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Snapshots: Flyers, Escrow, Murray, Despres

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While the Flyers are receiving some good news on the injury front, it will be a while before they can actually benefit from it, writes Dave Isaac of the Courier-Post.  Center Scott Laughton has been skating since Friday and is hoping to be ready in the next seven to ten days to return to the lineup from a knee injury.  As for Michael Del Zotto, he skated for the first time on Sunday after suffering a knee injury of his own.

On the surface, that might sound promising that both are nearing returns to the lineup but there is one hiccup they have to deal with.  At the start of the season, the Flyers placed both players on long-term injury reserve (LTIR), allowing them to have replacement players while remaining cap compliant.  As a result, both players must miss at least 10 games and 24 days of action.  Even though both players may be ready to go before the 24 days are up, neither will be able to return to playing until their November 5th game against Montreal.

Other news from around the league:

  • The NHL and NHLPA have agreed to set the first quarter escrow rate on pay at 15.5%, notes TSN’s Frank Seravalli. Teams withhold the escrow amounts in order to maintain an equal 50/50 split of revenues as listed in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.  While the 15.5% represents a reduction compared to last year (17%), it’s still unlikely that the players will receive a lot of that money back.  In 2014-15 – the last season where total revenues have been finalized – the players had 15% withheld as escrow and only received 2.05% of it back.  The large gap will likely continue to be a problem as league revenues begin to flat line with the NHLPA exercising at least some part of their cap escalator each offseason.
  • Columbus defenseman Ryan Murray is not currently with the team on their road trip but could join them at some point this week, reports Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch. Murray missed Saturday’s game in Dallas with a head injury after a collision with Chicago’s Brent Seabrook on Friday night.
  • The Ducks have placed blueliner Simon Despres on LTIR, TSN’s Bob McKenzie notes (Twitter link). The move gives Anaheim some more financial flexibility in the short-term as they look to re-sign RFA defenseman Hampus Lindholm.  Despres is currently out with an upper body injury that is believed to be concussion-like symptoms.

Latest On Vladimir Sobotka

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Vladimir Sobotka is continuing to try to get out of his KHL contract in the hopes of rejoining St. Louis at some point this season, reports Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  However, a major hurdle to clear at this time appears to be the disappearance of the out clause from his KHL deal.

GM Doug Armstrong noted that Sobotka signed a renegotiated contract at the time of the collapse of the Russian ruble to guarantee him more money.  The new deal did not contain an NHL out clause, something that may not have been communicated to him when he signed it.

For the time being, Sobotka has reported to Avangard Omsk after representing the Czech Republic at the World Cup of Hockey and is skating with the team although he has yet to suit up in a game.

The potential still exists for the 29 year old center to buy his way out of the final year of his contract but doing so would basically mean that he would be playing for free this season.  Sobotka is earning $4MM with Omsk but the team is requesting a two-thirds buyout, meaning that he would have to pay them $2.68MM to get out of the deal.  His NHL salary with the Blues would be $2.725MM (based on an arbitration award from 2014), meaning that he’d effectively be playing for a salary of $45K if he were to return to St. Louis this year.  To put that in perspective, the NHL minimum salary this season is $575K; the AHL minimum is also $45K.

The NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement does not permit the Blues to pay any portion of the buyout while they are also not allowed to renegotiate his current contract to pay him a higher salary to offset the buyout either.  One option that could exist in a few months would be a contract extension as an enticement to leave Omsk midseason.  However, as Sobotka is on a one year deal, the CBA blocks teams and players from signing extensions until January 1st.

In the meantime, the Blues are left with a hole to fill in their roster as they had kept a spot open for Sobotka, who had 33 points in just 61 games in his last NHL season.  They have just shy of $4MM in cap space to work with according to Cap Friendly which gives them some wiggle room although they will need to conserve some of that if they do manage to bring him back later on in the year.

League News: Olympics, World Cup, Lockout, Gretzky, Outdoor Games

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Dan Rosen of NHL.com spoke with deputy commissioner Bill Daly, who said that there has been little progress in talks about the league sending players to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, but that a decision will be made by November or December. The league is trying to speed up the decision-making process, Daly said, as the end of the year will be too late for schedule-makers who are trying to set up the 2017-18 season. Whether or not the NHL sends it’s players to the next Olympics will greatly impact the structure and length of next season. The reported hold up in those negotiations has been cost issues facing the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as the NHL is looking for fair value in putting a halt to their season and exposing their players to injury risks only for exposure in a non-traditional hockey country. While players, like Alex Ovechkin, have already committed to playing in the Olympics, regardless of the NHL’s stance, Daly has said that it would be a “club issue” for those players that choose to leave. As far as the league goes, Daly feels more negatively toward the situation now than he did just a few weeks ago, and the NHL skipping out on Pyeongchang is becoming a real possibility. However, it has been reported by multiple sources that not competing in 2018 might not signal the absolute end of NHL participation in the Winter Games. The 2022 Olympics are scheduled to take place in Beijing, and China is a very populous country that has just begun to embrace the sport of hockey, as shown by the establishment of KHL team Kunlun Red Star, who are currently taking part in their inaugural season. In 2026, Calgary, Canada, Stockholm, Sweden, and multiple cities in both the United States and Switzerland have been confirmed as potential bids for the Games, all of which would be strong markets for NHL hockey. Whether the NHL will (or should) take part in the 2018 games will be decided shortly, but regardless the NHL and the Olympic Games have a future together.

In other league news:

  • Continued participation in the Winter Olympics will not deter the extended existence of the World Cup of Hockey. ESPN’s Pierre Lebrun reports that the NHL and NHLPA have agreed that the World Cup is “here to stay”. Although the structure of the tournament could change, the games will continue to be played every fourth year. Building off the successes – and failures – of this World Cup, decision-makers moving forward will have to evaluate the viability of teams like Europe and North America, as well as consider many different locations and formats for the tournament. One way or another, expect the World Cup of Hockey to become a regular event in the future of the sport.
  • While the NHL and the Player’s Association agree on the World Cup, that may be where their good terms end. At least one insider believes that another lockout is a “foregone conclusion” in 2020. Octagon Sports player agent Allan Walsh stated as much in a recent tweet, though no further evidence was provided to support it. With recent labor struggles having put a prominent stain on the league’s reputation, one has to think the commissioner Gary Bettman will do all that he can to avoid yet another lockout, which would be the third since the turn of the century.
  • In happier news for hockey fans, the game’s most legendary player has returned to a role with the NHL. The league announced that it’s ambassador for it’s centennial celebration in 2017 will be none other than “The Great One”, Wayne Gretzky. The legendary player will make a multitude of appearances throughout the year, trying to bring together generations of fans for the league’s 100-year celebration.
  • Part of that celebration is the addition of a second outdoor game around the holidays. The Winter Classic, between the host Blues and the Blackhawks will take place on January 2nd of 2017, as opposed to it’s regular date of January 1st, as New Year’s Day will be reserved for the Centennial Classic in Toronto between the Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings. Later in the month, the Penguins and Flyers will also face-off in an outdoor showdown. The league released the logos for both the Centennial Classic and Stadium Series game today, as the PR machine is already running for the year-long celebration that’s on the horizon. Additionally, the league is reportedly looking to schedule yet another outdoor game, in Montreal, for the beginning of the 2017-18 season.

Snapshots: Cap Overages, Strachan, Rinaldo, Stransky

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CapFriendly released a series of tweets today outlining the teams that suffered cap overages in 2015-16 and will thus feel the effect in 2016-17. Overage penalties are incurred when players with bonus-laden contracts meet the contractual criteria to receive those bonuses. The resulting payout is attributed to the prior season, in which the bonuses were earned, but if the increases put the team over the salary cap for that year, the overage carries over as a cap penalty in the following season. The following teams had players earn bonuses that put the team’s salary cap payroll over the 2015-16 salary cap limit, and CapFriendly has calculated rough estimates of the accompanying penalty against the 2016-17 cap:

Florida Panthers – $1.42MM

San Jose Sharks – $617K

Detroit Red Wings – $550K

Toronto Maple Leafs – $512K

Edmonton Oilers – $322K

Vancouver Canucks – $315K

Tampa Bay Lightning – $314K

St. Louis Blues – $190K

Unfortunately, but also predictably, many of these teams are already struggling with the off-season salary cap crunch, and must also take these overage penalties into account. The Red Wings are currently further over the cap (about $4.24MM) than any other team in the league and already must be considering trading away a significant piece to become cap compliant. The Leafs and Sharks are also right up against the cap, and overage penalties give them even less cap flexibility to maintain compliance. The Lightning currently have over $6MM in cap space, but have yet to re-sign key restricted free agents Nikita Kucherov and Nikita Nesterov, and the last thing they need is yet another reason why they can’t afford to meet the asking price of the pair.

In other league news:

  • Veteran journeyman defenseman Tyson Strachan has signed an AHL deal with the Rochester Americans, the affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres, the team announced today. Strachan has bounced around the NHL and AHL throughout his career, never finding a permanent home at the big league level. The soon-to-be 32-year-old had his best season in 2014-15 though, with five points in 46 games for none other than the Sabres. Buffalo does not have much depth on the blue line at the AHL level, and Strachan seems likely to earn an upgrade to a two-way deal with his former team should the injury bug strike the defense corp in 2016-17.
  • Another player looking to get back to the NHL is the Bruins’ Zac Rinaldo. WEEI’s D.J. Bean caught up with Rinaldo’s agent, Todd Reynolds, who says he hopes to see Rinaldo given another chance this season. After trading a 3rd-round pick to the Philadelphia Flyers last summer to get Rinaldo, Boston was happy with his grit and intensity early in the year. However, as young players pushed for ice time and the Bruins focused more on scoring and fighting for a playoff spot, Rinaldo got into fewer and fewer games. Eventually, he was put on waiver, went unclaimed, and was optioned to AHL Providence in February. Rinaldo was not recalled for the remainder of the season, and now questions what his role is in the organization. While Rinaldo is likely to get the chance to earn a spot in Boston during training camp and the pre-season, the Bruins have several young grinders like Noel Acciari and Tyler Randell who played well last year, as well as young scorers like Seth Griffith, Danton Heinen, and Jake DeBrusk who will look to earn NHL spots. Factor in the additions of Riley Nash and Dominic Moore, and there appears to be very few energy line spots up for grabs. Rinaldo’s NHL future is very much in doubt right now.
  • The Bruins are giving another player whose future was once in doubt a fighting chance, as 2016 NHL Draft pass-over Simon Stransky has been invited to rookie camp. The biggest surprise left on the board in June, Stransky was a point-per-game player in juniors this past season, and is considered by many to be an elite offensive talent who is held back by his mediocre defensive game. However, if an organization that emphasizes the two-way game, like the Bruins, can work on developing his defensive game, his scoring and play-making skill could make him a great value find.

Snapshots: World Cup Camps Update, Daly

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Tyler Seguin and Jonathan Drouin are both feeling it Tuesday morning, with Seguin missing Team Canada’s practice due to an unspecified illness and Drouin possibly hurting his arm after being hit into an open bench door by Team North America teammate Jacob Trouba.

To replace Seguin, who Canadian officials told to stay at the hotel, Steven Stamkos is now on right wing with center Jonathan Toews and center-turned-left-winger Logan Couture, bumping Corey Perry up from extra forward to the third line right wing with John Tavares on left wing and Ryan Getzlaf at center.

Over at Team North America, Drouin is sticking it out and staying on the ice. Toronto Maple Leafs’ first overall pick Auston Matthews moved out of the extra forward slot to the third line with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nathan MacKinnon. Red Wings sophomore Dylan Larkin is also taking rushes with Nugent-Hopkins and MacKinnon.

Mark Spector tweeted out the North American first unit PP, and it should compete with its Canadian counterpart for most dangerous in the tournament. The under-23 team will roll out Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Mark Scheifele, Brandon Saad, and Aaron Ekblad; Team Canada has Sidney Crosby, Getzlaf, Stamkos, Tavares, and Drew Doughty.

Elsewhere in the hockey world:

  • NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly appeared on Sirius XM NHL on Tuesday morning, where he expressed satisfaction with the current Collective Bargaining Agreement. Daly talked about the potential premature end to the agreement in 2020, when both the league and Players Association have the right to opt out. Despite some talk about how bonus laden contracts (designed to ensure players would be payed during a potential lockout) could actually lead to a lockout. Daly says there is “general satisfaction” with how the current system works. With the qualifier that it’s still early, the deputy commissioner doesn’t see “any storm clouds on the horizen – at least yet”.

Pacific Division Notes: Coyotes, Daly, Marleau, Goldobin

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After acquiring Dave Bolland and Pavel Datsyuk in separate trades this summer, the Arizona Coyotes could be in a position to conceivably carry nearly $18MM – once Chris Pronger’s $4.935MM cap hit is added – on their salary cap for three players who won’t be suiting up for the this year. All told, the Coyotes will pay out just $1.675 in actual salary for those players (Pronger is set to earn $575K in the final season of a long-term arrangement he originally signed with Philadelphia, while the insurance policy on Bolland’s contract will cover all but $1.1MM once he is placed on LTIR). These maneuverings have allowed Arizona to easily cross the salary cap floor while at the same time limiting the actual salary obligations; not an unimportant factor for a small market, budget team.

In a piece appearing on Today’s Slapshot, Craig Morgan asked NHL deputy commissioner if Arizona’s handling of the salary cap was a growing concern for the league. Surprisingly, Daly indicated the league did not feel the Coyotes were exploiting a “loophole,” in the CBA while still leaving open the possibility the NHL could look to address the matter in future bargaining with the player’s union.

“I would say that it’s a matter that we monitor, like all other areas of the CBA (collective bargaining agreement), and if we believe it starts to be abused in a way that is inconsistent with how the system is designed to work, at that point, we would try to correct it in collective bargaining with the union. I would say we aren’t at that point on this issue — we do not view it as the loophole that‎ some describe it as.”

While most teams utilize their available cap space to sign or trade for players from other organizations, or to extend their own players, Coyotes GM John Chayka is using Arizona’s as a method to add more quality young talent to what is already considered a strong group of prospects. It’s simply good business and soon enough Chayka’s talent-acquisition strategies will start paying off on the ice for the Coyotes.

Elsewhere in the Pacific Division…

  • Patrick Marleau has spent the entirety of his excellent 18-year NHL career with the San Jose Sharks; a career which has seen the forward tally 481 regular season goals and 1,036 points. Marleau’s name has shown up in trade rumors on more than one occasion during his time in the Bay Area, most recently last season, but nothing has ever come of it. Yet, as Joey Alfieri of Pro Hockey Talk writes, the 2016-17 campaign will, in all probability, be the final one of Marleau’s storied Sharks career. As Alfieri points out, Marleau is in the final year of his contract and the team has several younger options on the LW – Mikkel Boedker, Tomas Hertl and Nikolay Goldobin – under team control for the next several seasons. Even if Marleau is willing to take a discount on the $6.66MM he is earning this season, the Sharks are far more likely to prioritize re-signing Brent Burns and Joe Thornton, both of whom are also scheduled to reach free agency next summer.
  • The Calgary Flames recently reached agreement with one of their top players, Sean Monahan, inking the restricted free agent to a monster seven-year deal worth $44.6MM. That’s quite an investment for a player just coming off his ELC but as the Calgary Sun’s Kristen Odland writes, Monahan is already well worth the financial commitment. She points out that he has produced more offense than other pivots comparable in age and who have also recently signed extensions. As good as Monahan is he may not even be the best player on his team. That distinction might belong to winger Johnny Gaudreau, a restricted free agent who remains unsigned. Inevitably the Flames will also get Gaudreau under contract but it will be interesting to see how his contract compares to that of Monahan’s.

Offer Sheets And The Remaining RFAs

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Training camps open soon and valuable restricted free agents (RFAs) remain unsigned. An RFA has two options if he cannot reach a deal with his current team: sit out or sign with another club via an offer sheet. There are rules and restrictions regarding offer sheets, and the following guide should help navigate the thicket before training camp starts.

Offer Sheets are governed by Section 10.3 and 10.4 of the CBA. The basic premise is that an RFA can sign a contract with any club, but the RFAs prior club has seven days to match the principal terms—salary, bonuses, and length. If a prior club matches, then they are bound to the contract. If the prior club declines to match, however, they get compensated with draft picks from the RFA’s new club. The draft pick compensation is commensurate with the average annual value (AAV) of the RFA’s new contract. The prior club gets better (and more) draft picks the higher the contract value.

Determining draft pick compensation is easy. Take the full salary offered and divide it by the contract term, but only up to five years. Even if a player signed a seven year contract, the CBA dictates that the salary only be divided by five. The resulting number determines the draft picks a prior club receives from the new club. The CBA breaks the compensation down into tiers, and CapFriendly published a convenient guide:

Offer Sheet Chart

The draft pick compensation mechanism limits the teams that can submit offer sheets. A team must only use its own draft picks—not picks previously owned by another team—and must have them available for the next draft. General Fanager has a great resource that keeps track of which teams can submit offer sheets at each value tier. If a team owes two picks in the same round, both picks must be available in the next three drafts. If they owe four, then they must be available in the next five drafts.

Fourteen RFAs remain unsigned as of writing, and with NHL training camp only two weeks away, time is ticking for both players and teams. The following players still have yet to sign, in order of last season’s scoring:

  1. Johnny Gaudreau – Calgary Flames
  2. Nikita Kucherov – Tampa Bay Lightning
  3. Rickard Rakell – Anaheim Ducks
  4. Rasmus Ristolainen – Buffalo Sabres
  5. Tobias Rieder – Arizona Coyotes
  6. Dmitry Orlov – Washington Capitals
  7. Valeri Nichushkin – Dallas Stars
  8. Hampus Lindholm – Anaheim Ducks
  9. Ryan Strome – New York Islanders
  10. Jacob Trouba – Winnipeg Jets
  11. Zemgus Girgensons – Buffalo Sabres
  12. Nikita Nesterov – Tampa Bay Lightning
  13. Stefan Elliott – Nashville Predators
  14. Freddie Hamilton – Calgary Flames

Some teams are close to signing their RFAs—like the Flames and Gaudreau—but others, like Arizona and Rieder, are far apart. The next two weeks should bring a wave of signings, but for now offer sheet speculation ramps up as fans ponder what a player is worth and whether a team is better off receiving draft picks or matching value.

Snapshots: Fehr, NHLPA, Vegas, Lucic, Pietrangelo

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The head of the NHLPA, Donald Fehr, recently sat down with the Canadian media to discuss the upcoming World Cup of Hockey while also touching on other subjects of note. An edited and condensed version of the interview was posted by Jonas Siegel on The Globe And Mail. As usual, the entire piece is worth a read but here are some of the highlights.

When asked whether or not the union was on board with the timing of the tournament, Fehr said, “it’s not that pre-season is the best time, but it probably is, at the moment, better than the others.”

He would go on to state: “There has been some informal discussions, for purposes of this World Cup that never rose to the level of serious consideration, that maybe we ought to do it in February. And it’s conceivable that that would be considered going forward.”

There is no perfect time to hold an event like this. Any way you look at it, a tournament held at any point in the year is going to prolong the season and shorten the summer for the players. While teams would probably prefer their players not to participate due in large part to the risk of injury, both owners and union members have a vested interest in successfully pulling off events of this nature since the added revenue will be divided by the players and the league.

Fehr also addressed the idea of European expansion from the players’ perspective. He indicated at least a few players have taken note of the KHL’s presence on the continent and the fact that so many players are European born. While making it clear these conversations were of the internal variety and did not involve the NHL in any way, Fehr did seem to suggest the players would be open to the idea and it was something that would merit further study.

Finally, on the subject of the potential of another lockout, Fehr pointed out that baseball has been the only sport to experience prolonged labor peace over the last two decades. He also mentions, probably not coincidentally, that baseball is the only major sports league without a salary cap.

In terms of possibly avoiding another work stoppage following the 2018-19 campaign when both parties will have the option of opting out of the current CBA, Fehr referenced just how far off that point in time is relative to the average player’s career by saying: “our membership will turn over more than 50 per cent between now and then.”

More from around the NHL:

  • The Las Vegas expansion franchise today announced yet another addition to their front office/operations staff. The club has hired Mike Levine for a scouting/player development position. Levine spent the last three years as an assistant coach at Brown University. According to the release on the Vegas Is Hockey website, Levine comes with a solid reputation as a recruiter both at the collegiate and prep levels.
  • Not surprisingly, Milan Lucic said as many as 10 teams expressed serious interest in signing the big winger before he inked a seven-year contract with Edmonton, according to Chris Nichols writing for Today’s Slap Shot. Lucic was one of the top players available on July 1st and was guaranteed to generate a lot of interest on the free agent market. It’s not certain how many of Lucic’s suitors were willing to extend themselves as far as the Oilers did, either financially or with a seven-year term, but his status as a coveted free agent was never in doubt. He would ultimately choose Edmonton, saying, “I went with my heart and my loyalty to Peter and chose the Edmonton Oilers.”
  • Sportsnet’s John Shannon tweeted earlier today that the St. Louis Blues will announce Alex Pietrangelo as the team’s new captain tomorrow. He will replace David Backes, who left St. Louis in free agency after accepting a five-year deal with the Boston Bruins. The choice of Pietrangelo makes a lot of sense given he is one of the team’s best players, has been with the organization his entire pro career and is under long-term contract ensuring he will be a Blue for the foreseeable future.

Potential 2016-17 Impact Rookies: Aho, Bjorkstrand, Werenski, Buchnevich

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It seems we’ve spent most of the offseason talking about Jimmy Vesey and pondering which of his many suitors would ultimately be fortunate enough to add him to their ranks. That chase is finally over with the New York Rangers coming out on top in their efforts to land the prized UFA forward from Harvard. Whether or not Vesey performs up to the high expectations all of the summer hype would suggest remains to be seen, of course, but this saga serves as a reminder of just how much teams value young talent on entry-level deals.

With the salary cap – or in some cases, internal budgets – forcing teams to allow quality veteran pieces to depart each summer in search of a bigger pay day, teams need young players to step in and fill roles vacated by experienced players. The CBA limits how much a player can earn on their ELC thus allowing clubs more freedom to spend lavishly on star players as long as they have enough young talent to balance out their budgets. By virtue of his status as an UFA limited to signing an ELC, Vesey has understandably garnered an unusually high level of attention for a soon-to-be first year player but he won’t be the only rookie expected to make a near immediate impact with his team in 2016-17.

In a series of posts, Pro Hockey Rumors will profile first-year players who will have an opportunity to step in right away and fill a potentially critical role for their team. Today we start in the Metro Division. (Note: In an effort to keep these posts relatively short, some divisions may be covered in multiple posts).

Sebastian Aho (Carolina) – Aho was the Hurricanes second-round choice in the 2015 draft out of Finland and signed his ELC with the club in June. He led his Liiga team (Finland’s top professional league), Karpat, in scoring in 2015-16 tallying 20 goals and 45 points in 45 games. Aho also has achieved remarkable success representing his home country at both the 2016 IIHF World Championships and the 2016 World Juniors. He recorded seven points for the silver medal winning Finns at the World Championships while averaging two points per game – 14 in seven contests – in helping Finland win gold at the Juniors tournament.

It would seem given his performances on some of the biggest stages in the sport that Aho should be ready for the NHL game. Count Hurricanes GM Ron Francis among those who believe Aho can contribute in Carolina immediately.

“Sebastian is regarded as one of the top prospects in hockey and is ready to begin his North American career. He had a tremendous season as an 18-year-old playing against men in Finland’s top league, and was outstanding in international competitions including the recent World Championship. He will play an important role for the Hurricanes moving forward.”

Carolina’s depth chart on Roster Resource lists Aho as the team’s third right wing and given Francis’ quotes, it seems probable he will be given every opportunity to become a key contributor right out of the gate. The Hurricanes have an excellent young blue line but need help up front if they wish to challenge for the playoffs. Aho’s skills and playmaking abilities would be a welcome addition to Carolina’s forward ranks.

Oliver Bjorkstrand (Columbus) – Danish forward Oliver Bjorkstrand proved he was ready for a prime time role with the Blue Jackets during an impressive playoff run as a member of the Lake Erie Monsters, Columbus’ AHL affiliate. The Monsters lost just one game en route to winning a Calder Cup and Bjorkstrand helped pave the way tallying 10 postseason goals. He was even more prolific in the Calder Cup Finals scoring five times, with three proving to be of the game-winning variety.

His head coach with the Monsters, Jared Bednar, had this to say about Bjorkstrand:

“He has a will to win that’s unparalleled, and that’s why he has always been successful, no matter where he’s been.”

The Blue Jackets have several quality young players that will soon be ready to challenge for NHL roles but Bjorkstrand’s determination and recent postseason success should give him an advantage over his peers at cracking the Columbus lineup. Columbus could theoretically compete for a playoff spot, assuming a return to health and form from goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, along with an improved defense corps. Bjorkstrand should add more skilled depth to the forward group and he could enjoy a productive season if he finds chemistry with the right players.

Zach Werenski (Columbus) – Possibly joining Bjorkstrand in Columbus in time for the 2016-17 season is D Zach Werenski. Werenski, the team’s first round pick in 2015, eighth overall, played two seasons at the University of Michigan prior to signing his ELC last spring. He would see action in seven AHL regular season games, scoring one goal, before embarking on an excellent playoff run. In 17 postseason contests, Werenski tallied five goals and 14 points in helping the Monsters to the Calder Cup.

Werenski already boasts NHL size at 6-foot-2 and 209 pounds and adds tremendous skating ability as well as poise under pressure. Even after the addition of rising star Seth Jones via a mid-season trade with Nashville and the presence of Ryan Murray, Werenski has an excellent shot to break training camp with the big club. If Werenski develops as expected, the Blue Jackets could quickly transform their blue line from one of the league’s worst to one of the best in relatively short order.

Pavel Buchnevich (New York Rangers) – Vesey isn’t the only rookie the Rangers will likely be welcoming to the lineup for the 2016-17 season. Pavel Buchnevich, the team’s top prospect and a 2013 third round choice, elected to make the jump to North America and signed his ELC this past spring. While skating in the KHL, widely considered the second best league in the word behind the NHL, Buchnevich tallied a respectable 37 points in 58 regular season games.

To put those numbers in a bit of perspective, Rob Vollman in the Hockey Abstract has constructed a predictive chart to convert offensive numbers from one league to another based primarily on historical data involving players appearing in both leagues and how they’ve fared moving from one to the other. Buchnevich’s points-per-game ratio in the KHL projects to be roughly the equivalent of a 40-point campaign in the NHL based on Vollman’s chart. That’s pretty solid for a 20-year-old player.

The Rangers wouldn’t seem to need much of an offensive boost after finishing seventh in the NHL in goal scoring and returning much of their top-six forward talent – excepting of course the swap of Derick Brassard for Mika Zibanejad – but Alain Vigneault tends to use his third line as much or more than most NHL head coaches. That should allow for a rookie with the skill and ability of Buchnevich to earn quality ice time while also shielding him from the tougher match-ups.

 

The Vesey Watch Is Coming To An End

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This morning one of the most trusted names in hockey journalism finally gave us what we’ve been waiting for – an end.  Bob McKenzie of TSN chimed in on the Jimmy Vesey situation for the first time, to tell us that it is coming to and end today, probably. While McKenzie says it may stretch until Saturday, it will go no further than that. Andrew Gross of The Record also hears that it’ll end today, as does Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News.

Arthur Staple of Newsday gives us the latest update on the finalists; he’s heard that it’s down to the New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks, noting that the Islanders made a strong push but fell short.

An amazing amount of proverbial and literal ink has been spilled over the free agency of Vesey, more than most prospects get in their entire amateur careers. Now, with it coming to an end, Vesey will have to start performing immediately or risk the ire of an entire fanbase.

If the Harvard grad struggles, like many prospects before him, he’ll be met with songs of “all that for this guy?” at his home arena and “over-hyped” will be firmly entrenched beside his name in the program. But for all the hype that the media (including PHR) has created, Vesey is none to blame. He’s done nothing but exercise his rights under the current CBA, just as other players have done in the last few days.

Three things have made it into a media whirlwind though: the lack of other hockey news in August, the uncertainty of the level of college hockey in the USA when compared to other amateur leagues, and the relatively poor free agent market after its biggest name re-signed before July 1.

Obviously, as any other year, August is one of the slowest months for hockey news.  Teams have built their core, and are waiting for training camp to open. While many fringe free agents remain unsigned, the meat has been almost completely stripped from the bone.

The NCAA still proves to be a hard league to create equivalents from. Because the league has such a spread of talent, and has only started to become respected as a strong development option in the last couple of decades, fans and media alike aren’t sure exactly how to examine base statistics.

In the CHL, it’s common to see top prospects crack 100 points and dominate in their draft year. But the college ranks play less games, and require more of their athletes outside of hockey – indeed, Vesey will graduate with a degree from Harvard University, and to put it in his own words: “College is an ultrastressful environment — we’re balancing school, hockey, internships, our social lives and so many other things.” The fact is that the Frozen Four isn’t as well covered as the Memorial Cup (the CHL championship) is in Canada, and that many fans have never even seen a college hockey game, and they’re just not sure what Vesey really is.

What he isn’t, though, is Steven Stamkos. When Steve Yzerman pulled the unthinkable and re-signed his superstar centerman just prior to him becoming a free agent, the summer lost its biggest story. All of a sudden the best free agent in history was off the market, and we were left with an unspectacular group (despite the amount of money that was spent on it). Vesey represents the unknown, and for at least a handful of teams (a group similar to the ones reportedly “in” on Stamkos) another chance to land the summer’s biggest fish.

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