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Snapshots: Blackhawks, Kane, Wedin

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It is a quick COVID Protocol turnaround for a few Chicago Blackhawks, well at least two of the three. After missing practice yesterday due to compliance with league protocol, Ryan Carpenter and Erik Gustafsson were back on the ice at morning skate today ahead of their game against the Detroit Red Wings. However, remaining absent was star Patrick Kane, who was also among the protocol group yesterday. The Athletic’s Scott Powers has confirmed suspicions, relaying word from the Blackhawks that Carpeneter and Gustafsson have been removed from the COVID Protocol, but Kane has not. There is no word as to why the trio were initially subject nor why Kane remains, but regardless Chicago will get some reinforcements back but could still be missing their best player tonight. Off to a frustrating 0-4-1 start, the Blackhawks can ill afford to be without Kane for very long. Interestingly, head coach Jeremy Colliton stopped short of ruling Kane out against Detroit, but there will have to be a change to his COVID status within a matter of hours.

  • Another team missing a Kane is the San Jose Sharks. Last season’s leading scorer, Evander Kane, is serving a 21-game suspension for violating COVID Protocol by using a fake vaccination card. Given all of the controversy surrounding Kane over the past year though, a 21-game absence is unlikely what the Sharks expected to result from multiple investigations. The big winger will in fact be eligible to return to the team before the end of November. So where does San Jose go from here? The team is off to an incredible and unexpected 5-0-0 start and is playing well, perhaps without Kane’s distraction in the locker room. However, they have little recourse to prevent him from returning to the club. TSN’s Chris Johnston reports that the Sharks cannot terminate Kane’s contract due to the lengthy suspension nor can they do so as an internal form of punishment due to the findings that led to his league suspension. The CBA does not allow either form of double punishment and the NHLPA would not let it fly. They would be supported by a recent report from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, which stated the league never considered termination as a punishment for Kane. While the Sharks may be opne to a reunion with Kane, both Johnston and Friedman note that the team’s reaction has been a mixed bag of support and disdain for the situation and Kane’s coaches and teammates have been non-committal about whether or not they want him back. The team has just over a month to decide how to handle his return.
  • Interestingly, a former Chicago Blackhawk and a player once linked to the San Jose Sharks was back on the market this week, albeit briefly. Forward Anton Wedin, who spent the 2019-20 season in the Blackhawks organization, terminated his contract with the KHL’s Sibir Novosibirsk earlier this week. This sparked some speculation that perhaps he would return to North America, even if only on an AHL deal. After all, Wedin made the jump from Sweden to Chicago at 26 and played in four NHL games and recorded 17 points in 31 AHL games. It was by no means a poor season. Wedin, who was only on a one-year deal with the Blackhawks, drew some NHL interest in the 2020 off-season, but ultimately decided to say home in Sweden during the pandemic, totaling 16 goals and 30 points in 39 games with HV71 in his best SHL season to date. Wedin’s name did not appear in any NHL rumors this summer and he signed in the KHL, but after just two points in 14 with Sibir he has moved on. Instead of exploring a return overseas though, Wedin will play out the season in the KHL after signing with Dynamo Moscow for the remainder of the year. Still just 28 and with NHL experience and ability, perhaps Wedin could return to the league in the future.

AHL Shuffle: 10/24/21

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After 26 teams suited up for NHL action on Saturday, just eight will do so on Sunday. Starting off the action today are the Boston Bruins and San Jose Sharks, two teams with seemingly little in common but are in fact the two most successful regular season teams in the salary cap era. Even with a relatively quiet slate, just as many teams could be making moves in response to yesterday’s games as are preparing for their games today, so be on the lookout for a number of roster tweaks throughout the day:

Atlantic Division

  • The Ottawa Senators have made a roster swap, reassigning forward Parker Kelly to AHL Belleville and recalling goaltender Filip Gustavsson in his place. Ottawa starter Matt Murray left Saturday’s game with an injury and Gustavsson is the next man up for the Sens. Gustavsson was actually the goaltender protected by Ottawa in this summer’s NHL Expansion Draft and the team’s future in net, so this could be the opportunity he needs for a to secure a permanent role at the top level. The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch expects Murray to land on injured reserve.
  • With Nick Foligno landing on IR and Craig Smith and Anton Blidh also sidelined with injuries, the Bruins are in need of reinforcements up front. They have recalled Jack Studnicka and Oskar Steen from AHL Providence while sending down defenseman John Moore in order to bring in that extra help. Studnicka, considered one of Boston’s top prospects, was a standout in the preseason and will try to make the most of this chance to stick in the NHL.

Metropolitan Division

  • The Philadelphia Flyers have returned defenseman Nick Seeler to the minors, per CapFriendly.  The 28-year-old was recalled on an emergency basis on Saturday and logged just under 15 minutes of ice time in their loss to Florida.  Seeler has been held off the scoresheet in three games so far this season.

Central Division

Pacific Division

This post will be updated throughout the day

AHL Shuffle: 10/23/21

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There’s no rest on the weekend for NHL clubs, especially early in the season when teams are still constantly tweaking lineups. With 13 games on the docket, all but six teams are preparing their rosters for game day as well. Follow along with all of the back-and-forth of minor league transactions throughout the day:

Atlantic Division

  • The Buffalo Sabres have recalled forward Brett Murray from the AHL’s Rochester Americans. The upstart Sabres suffered their first loss of the season last night and are right back in action today, hoping that adding Murray to the mix can help get them back on their surprising early track. Murray recorded nine goals and 20 points in 27 AHL games last year and got into two NHL games as well, so he is ready to take the next step this season.
  • The Tampa Bay Lightning recalled defenseman Fredrik Claesson from the Syracuse Crunch, per a team press release. As young defenseman Cal Foote sits with Syracuse currently on a conditioning stint, the Lightning were only carrying 19 players on the active roster. The reacquired Alex Barre-Boulet was the only extra man. Claesson comes back up to the big squad, serving as an extra body and veteran presence at 28 years old.

Metropolitan Division

  • Nick Seeler should be earning frequent Flyer miles for all of these moves. The veteran defenseman has been swapped between the NHL and AHL more than any other player early this season and is on his way back up to Philadelphia yet again. The team has announced that Seeler has been recalled from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, likely as insurance with Ryan Ellis still sidelined with a minor injury.
  • The Penguins announced the recall of defenseman Juuso Riikola from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL.  His promotion was needed with Kris Letang entering COVID protocol.  Riikola has 75 career games played in the NHL but only two were last season as he spent most of the year on Pittsburgh’s taxi squad.

Central Division

  • Brandon Cain of On Tap Sports reports that the Chicago Blackhawks have recalled Reese Johnson from the AHL. The 23-year-old forward is off to a good start with AHL Rockford, recording a goal and an assist in the team’s first three games. Johnson played in five games with the Blackhawks last season while notching eight points in 18 games with the Ice Hogs. Chicago needs a spark – maybe Johnson can provide. The team has since confirmed the move.

Pacific Division

  • CapFriendly reports the Los Angeles Kings have recalled defenseman Austin Strand from AHL Ontario. Strand will serve as the team’s seventh defenseman for the time being after Drew Doughty was injured in a game against the Dallas Stars Friday night. Strand got into 13 games with the Kings last season, notching his first NHL point in the form of an assist.

This post will be updated throughout the day

Latest On Dylan Strome

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After being a healthy scratch the first few games of the season, Dylan Strome got back into the Chicago Blackhawks lineup last night. Head coach Jeremy Colliton said after the game that Strome worked hard, but the young forward still found himself skating lower and lower in the lineup throughout the game. He ended up playing 13:12, ninth among Chicago forwards in another loss. The Blackhawks have not held a lead through any of their first five games and have been outscored 21-9 so far.

It’s easy to see why Strome is the subject of much speculation these days, given his current role on the team and cap hit. The Blackhawks are using $3MM of their precious cap space on a player who has been a healthy scratch for the first several games, not exactly the best use of assets. So a trade seems the most likely outcome, and Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet included his opinion on the latest 32 Thoughts:

I think there is a certain price that they’re looking for. This is a little bit of guessing on my part just based on the conversations I’ve had. I think they’re looking for as high a draft pick as they can get. I’m not talking about a first-rounder, but probably as close to that as they can get. I just don’t think at this point in time anybody’s there. 

Strome, 24, would be heading to his third team if he is traded, after originally starting his career with the Arizona Coyotes. Selected third overall in 2015 after Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel (just ahead of Mitch Marner), he has been one of the most inconsistent talents in the league over the last few years. A 20-goal, 57-point player in 2018-19, Strome looked like he would be a core piece in Chicago for a long time. But a 38-point effort followed that, and last season brought just nine goals and 17 points as he basically played himself out of the Blackhawks plans entirely.

Still, with his relative youth and obvious upside, it certainly wouldn’t be surprising to see someone take another shot on Strome. One thing that could make them hesitate though is the fact that his contract is structured in such a way that he will be owed a $3.6MM qualifying offer next offseason, a price some may not want to pay. He’s also eligible for salary arbitration, and does have some interesting point totals that he could present in the hearing. Those factors could make many teams essentially see him as a pending unrestricted free agent, should they not want to qualify him at that level. The trade price in that case wouldn’t be as high, and could even turn some rebuilding clubs off altogether.

Jeremy Colliton On Hot Seat After Bad Start

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  • After three games and three losses, the Chicago Blackhawks find themselves in trouble to start the season and already there have been calls to change the coaching staff. Mark Lazerus of The Athletic examines the bad start and notes that head coach Jeremy Colliton’s seat is getting hot, while Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports writes about how the “urgency is building” despite it being so early in the season. The Blackhawks have allowed 13 goals in their first three games, tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning for the most in the NHL so far.

Chicago Blackhawks Trying To Trade Andrew Shaw’s Contract

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The Chicago Blackhawks are currently over the salary cap, using the relief pool created from placing Caleb Jones and Andrew Shaw on long-term injured reserve this week. That may not last for long though, as Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports that the team is “actively” trying to trade Shaw’s contract. The veteran forward is not expected to play again.

By moving it, as PuckPedia explains on Twitter, the team could get under the cap once Jones is healthy enough to return and start accruing cap space for a potential move later in the season. That was the risk of acquiring high-priced talent like Seth Jones, Marc-Andre Fleury, and Tyler Johnson in the offseason, the team is not currently set up to make a big splash partway through the year if they feel this group is good enough to go on a playoff run (first-game performance notwithstanding).

Seravalli tweets that the Shaw contract, which had a $1MM signing bonus and $1.9MM salary this season, is insured, meaning it likely wouldn’t cost an acquiring team much in actual dollars. A team that is already in LTIR could add it without much trouble, or a team that is nowhere near the ceiling could accept it without putting them in a difficult situation.

The Blackhawks of course will have to use an asset to rid themselves of Shaw’s deal, as other teams have done in the past, but it shouldn’t be too expensive. It very well could even become something of a reverse bidding war, with rebuilding teams offering their services for less and less of a return, just to secure something. Regardless, the Blackhawks obviously don’t want to sit in LTIR relief for the entire season as so many of the other teams around the league are currently doing.

That could have been guessed from the way they already jettisoned Brent Seabrook’s deal, though that contract stretched beyond this season and would have had ramifications down the road. Seabrook was sent to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the offseason–who some would say are the kings of operating in long-term injured reserve–but by taking Johnson’s contract back the Blackhawks actually ended up acquiring a second-round pick in the deal.

Mikko Lehtonen Suspended; One Of Four Players On Waivers

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Oct 13: MacEwen was claimed by the Philadelphia Flyers, but the other three have cleared.

Oct 12: The Columbus Blue Jackets have suspended Mikko Lehtonen for failing to report to the AHL after he was assigned to the Cleveland Monsters this week. The team has also placed him on unconditional waivers and will terminate his contract. Lehtonen isn’t alone though, as the Chicago Blackhawks have also placed Matej Chalupa on unconditional waivers according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Zack MacEwen of the Vancouver Canucks and C.J. Suess of the Winnipeg Jets are also on regular waivers.

Lehtonen, 27, was expected to make a big impact at the NHL level after putting up strong numbers in the KHL, even winning that league’s Defenseman of the Year award in 2020. Instead, he struggled to crack the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup on a regular basis and then was sent to Columbus, where he signed a new one-year, $900K deal this offseason but still failed to make the team out of camp. Instead of going to the AHL, he’ll likely head back overseas where he can once again star as a top-four puck-mover. His NHL career could very well end with just 26 games and six points.

Chalupa meanwhile is just 23, but apparently isn’t going to spend another year in the minors trying to establish himself as a call-up option for Chicago. He played 27 games for the Rockford IceHogs last season and scored seven points, but he too is likely headed back overseas. Both contracts will come entirely off the books for the Blue Jackets and Blackhawks.

MacEwen, 25, will lose his spot to Alex Chiasson, who the Canucks signed today to a one-year deal. The depth forward has actually played in 55 games for the Canucks over the last three seasons, but isn’t much of an offensive contributor at the NHL level and is unlikely to be claimed.

The same can be said about Suess, who has just one NHL game under his belt and is likely headed to the Manitoba Moose. Suess has been dealing with an undisclosed injury throughout training camp and won’t even be the first call-up option for the Jets this season.

Snapshots: Strome, Ekholm, Giroux

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The inevitable departure of Sabres star Jack Eichel? The sudden availability of young Ranger Vitali Kravtsov? A victim of one of a number of unresolved roster crunches? Any of these situations could provide the first trade of the 2021-22 season, but at least one insider believes the first deal of the year could come elsewhere. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that the Chicago Blackhawks are quietly shopping center Dylan Strome as they look to manage their surplus at center. With Jonathan Toews healthy and back in the lineup, the off-season acquisition of Tyler Johnson, and the presence down the middle of top prospect Kirby Dach as well as fellow youngsters Henrik Borgstrom and Mackenzie Entwistle, the Blackhawks suddenly find themselves with centers to spare and LeBrun notes that Strome appears to be the odd man out. At just 24 years old and still clinging to the draft pedigree of being the No. 3 overall pick in 2015, Strome has shown flashes of NHL greatness, but not enough consistency to establish himself as a concrete top-six player. Strome is on an expiring contract and will be a restricted free agent this summer and it looks as if his next contract will not be in Chicago. Interested teams have incentive to add Strome sooner rather than later to get a full-season look prior to negotiating that next deal, while LeBrun notes that the Blackhawks also want to make a move as soon as possible. The result could be a trade in a matter of days rather than weeks. The real question is whether Chicago will land a return commensurate with the Strome who recorded 51 points in 58 games in 2019-20 or if instead the lucky buyer can buy low on the skilled pivot given his 17 points in 40 games last year.

  • Who might be the first major impending UFA to sign a long-term extension this season? The Nashville Predators sure hope that the answer will be Mattias Ekholm. The Predators spurned trade offers for Ekholm last season and doubled down on their loyalty and reliance on the two-way defender when they moved Ryan Ellis this off-season, yet Ekholm is still playing on an expiring contract. Ekholm’s camp has stated that they will not negotiate a new deal during the season, so the clock is ticking for GM David Poile and company to come to terms on a critical contract. Fortunately for the Predators, LeBrun reports that both sides have been working hard over the past few days to hammer out the details of an extension. With Nashville beginning their season on Thursday, Ekholm will either re-sign in the next 48 hours or possibly not at all. It will be a long season for the Predators if the future of the top defender is in doubt all year.
  • Claude Giroux is in a similar situation with the Philadelphia Flyers as a career member of the franchise playing on an expiring deal. However, no contract is imminent for the Philly captain. LeBrun states that both sides have come to a mutual agreement to wait on extension talks until after the season, quite possibly setting up a separation between the veteran and his squad. It is hard to argue that Giroux is not still a star even at 33; he has scored at just about a point-per-game clip over the past four years and has only missed two games in that span as well. Yet, the Flyers could see his salary cap space as better used on younger assets as they continue to remake their roster. How both Giroux and Philadelphia perform this season will dictate their relationship moving forward.

Erik Gustafsson Signs With Chicago Blackhawks

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Oct 11: The Blackhawks have made it official, signing Gustafsson to a one-year, $800K deal.

Oct 10: Defenseman Erik Gustafsson was released from his professional tryout by the New York Islanders and is expected to sign with the Chicago Blackhawks, per Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports Gustafsson signed a one-year deal worth $800K.

Chicago brings Gustafsson into the fold after a slew of recent injuries on the blueline, including Wyatt Kalynuk and Caleb Jones. The team was down to just six defensemen with any notable NHL experience on the active roster, having already assigned Nicolas Beaudin to Rockford in the AHL.

Gustafsson is mostly a power-play specialist with weak defensive analytics, but is still valuable in a reduced even-strength context. He has 250 games of NHL experience, 214 of which came previously with the Blackhawks.

He likely starts the season as the team’s seventh defenseman as he works himself back into the fold, but could eventually reacclimate himself in the team’s top-four group where he’s done extremely well in the past. 2018-19 saw Gustafsson have a massive career year, scoring 14 goals and 60 points in just 79 games. He’s seen his ice time dwindle considerably since that point, but he could very well approach 18, 19, possibly even 20 minutes a game again with Chicago this year if he can rediscover his previous production.

Gustafsson is best suited to play with one of Chicago’s more defensively responsible defenders, a list that includes Jake McCabe, Calvin de Haan, and Connor Murphy. Gustafsson has experience playing both the left and right side, making him a versatile asset when creating lineups.

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