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West Notes: Second Round Schedule, Blues, Glendening

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Even with so many Game 7s on the calendar this weekend, we’re starting to receive some clarity on the upcoming Second Round schedule. NHL.com writer Lou Korac reports that it “sounds like” the Second Round matchup between the Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues will start Tuesday, May 17.

With that said, there’s a strong potential we could see an off day with no games on Monday. The only series that could begin on Monday without a team playing back-to-back is the matchups between the Florida Panthers and the winner of tonight’s Game 7 between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning. With the league strictly using an alternating schedule of games during the First Round, it’s not outlandish to say that it’s either two games or no games on Monday night.

Darcy Kuemper Available For The Start Of The Second Round

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It appears as though the Colorado Avalanche will have goaltender Darcy Kuemper back between the pipes when they host either the St. Louis Blues or Minnesota Wild to start the second round next week (link). Kuemper was back at practice today, and while it’s unclear if he would have been able to play had Colorado’s series against the Nashville Predators continued, he will have a few more days to get ready and continue to recover. St. Louis hosts Minnesota tonight in Game 6 of the first round, the Blues holding a 3-2 series lead.

Kuemper was injured late in the first period of Game 3 of round one when Predators forward Ryan Johansen appeared to get his stick blade caught inside of Kuemper’s mask. The goaltender would leave the game, replaced by Pavel Francouz, who started in net for the Avalanche in their series-clinching win in Game 4. An impending UFA, the Avalanche acquired Kuemper this past offseason in a win-now move to give them a star goaltender for this season, perhaps their best chance at a Stanley Cup. Kuemper compiled another strong season in 2021-22, his first with Colorado, posting a .921 save-percentage and 2.54 goals-against average.

Avalanche, Predators Send Several Players To AHL

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Now that they have been eliminated from the playoffs, the 2021-22 season is over for most of the Nashville Predators. Not so for at least three, as Cody Glass, Connor Ingram, and Mathieu Olivier have all been reassigned to the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals to join their Calder Cup run.

Ingram, 25, ended up starting the Predators final three games, despite having just three NHL appearances heading into the playoffs. The young netminder held his own, recording a .913 save percentage and coming oh-so-close to stealing a win from the Colorado Avalanche in game two. Ingram made 49 stops in that overtime loss, easily the highest of his short NHL career to this point. Signed to a one-way contract for next season, he is a candidate to serve as the team’s full-time backup after the strong performance.

Glass, 23, came up at the end of the season and played in two of the four playoff games for Nashville, averaging fewer than ten minutes of ice time and failing to record a point. It was a difficult year for the top prospect, who was forced down to the minor leagues for most of the year after a trade from the Vegas Golden Knights. Instead of complaining though, Glass became a star for the Admirals, scoring 62 points in 66 games to lead the club. With a restricted free agency negotiation upcoming, a good showing in the AHL playoffs would certainly help.

Olivier, 25, played in three of the four playoff games for the Predators, also recording zero points but racking up 12 penalty minutes. The undrafted forward doesn’t do much scoring but can bring a level of physicality to the Admirals series. In 46 games for them this year, he had 11 points and 76 penalty minutes.

Meanwhile, the Avalanche have sent their own reinforcements down as they await the results of the other series. Justus Annunen and Hunter Miska have both been returned to the Colorado Eagles, who start a series against the Ontario Reign tomorrow night. Neither goaltender was ever really expected to play for Colorado, though Darcy Kuemper’s eye injury certainly made it a possibility.

2022 Norris Trophy Finalists Announced

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The NHL has started to release their award finalists, this time announcing the three nominees for the Norris Trophy. The award is given out to the top defenseman “who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position.” Last year’s winner was Adam Fox of the New York Rangers, but he won’t be defending his title this time around.

This year’s finalists are Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators, Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche, and Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Josi, winner of the award in 2020, nearly reached an unfathomable offensive level this season when he scored 23 goals and 96 points for the Predators. He became the highest-scoring defenseman in nearly three decades and joined a group of Hall of Fame defensemen with at least 96 points in a single season. Only Bobby Orr, Paul Coffey, Al MacInnis, Brian Leetch, Denis Potvin, Phil Housley, and Ray Bourque have ever reached those heights previously, nearly a Mount Rushmore of offensive NHL defensemen. It is the second time he has been named a finalist, following his win two years ago.

Makar, still just 23 years old, has now been a finalist in back-to-back seasons after finishing second in voting last year. The Avalanche phenom led all defensemen with 28 goals and racked up 86 points, pushing his career total just over a point-per-game through three seasons. It’s hard to fathom the ceiling for the 2017 fourth-overall pick, who also took strides defensively this year and once again was one of the most valuable players in the league by many metrics. Makar averaged nearly 26 minutes a game and set highs in more traditional defensive statistics like +/- (+48), blocks (110), and hits (95).

Hedman is probably used to this by now, after being a finalist in each of the last five seasons previous. He won the award in 2018, a season that paled in comparison (at least offensively) to this year. The big Tampa Bay blueliner racked up his first 20-goal season and pied on a career-best 85 points, while playing in all 82 games for the first time in his 13-year career. Averaging more than 25 minutes a night in all situations, Hedman is carving out a career that will have him considered among the very best the game has ever produced when it is all said and done.

Tomorrow, the award announcements will continue with the three finalists for the Vezina Trophy.

Avalanche Recall Justus Annunen

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The Colorado Avalanche have announced that they have recalled goaltender Justus Annunen from their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles. This move comes in the wake of the eye injury starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper suffered in game three against the Nashville Predators.

Although coach Jared Bednar said after the game that Kuemper was “doing better” and had a chance to play in game four, the recall of Annunen indicates that Kuemper is not 100% certain to return for tomorrow’s contest. That hypothesis is further supported by the scenes at the Avalanche’s practice today, as NHL.com’s Nick Cotsonika reports that “two goalies” were on the ice and “Kuemper [was] not one of them.” Cotsonika also relayed comments from Bednar, who said that Kuemper’s “eye is fine” but that there is “swelling” and that he will play only “if the swelling goes down.” So, in the case that Kuemper’s eye does not fully recover by tomorrow’s game, the team has Annunen ready to backup Pavel Francouz, who would start.

Annunen, 22, was the 64th overall pick in the 2018 draft and has been the team’s AHL starting goalie for most of this season. He has a .893 save percentage in 48 games at the AHL level and has gotten into two NHL games this season, where he has a .863 mark. Assuming Francouz stays healthy, it’s unlikely that the still-developing Annunen will need to see playoff action for the Avalanche, so his callup is more about protecting Kuemper than anything else.

Darcy Kuemper Leaves Game With Apparent Facial Injury

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6:39 pm: From Adrian Dater of the Denver Post, Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said postgame that Kuemper did in fact suffer an eye injury (link). The good news, however, is Bednar noted that Kuemper could actually play in Game Four for Colorado on Monday.

6:06 pm: The Colorado Avalanche announced that goaltender Darcy Kuemper left today’s game and would not return (link). It was late in the first period when Nashville Predators forward Ryan Johansen appeared to accidentally get his stick blade caught in Kuemper’s mask, forcing him to leave the game. He was replaced by Pavel Francouz and later confirmed not to be returning.

Losing Kuemper is nothing short of a major concern for the Avalanche, who acquired him this offseason from the Arizona Coyotes in order to bolster themselves in net ahead of another run at the Stanley Cup. Of course, it’s not yet clear what exactly the nature of Kuemper’s injury is or whether or not he will have to miss any additional time, however an injury near the eye, especially of a goaltender, is concerning.

Kuemper has had some ups and downs for Colorado this season, but ultimately posted a strong .921 save-percentage and 2.54 goals-against average in 57 games. Should Colorado have to go forward with Francouz, they would still be in good hands. The Czech netminder posted nearly identical numbers to Kuemper this season in 21 games, recording a .916 save-percentage and 2.55 goals-against average. Colorado’s situation is one their opponent can empathize with; Nashville lost their starting goaltender, Juuse Saros, ahead of the series, having to rely on a tandem of David Rittich and Connor Ingram.

Hunter Miska Recalled To Serve As Emergency Goaltender

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  • The Avalanche have brought up goaltender Hunter Miska, per the AHL’s transactions log. With Colorado on the road, he’ll serve as the emergency backup.  The 26-year-old played in 17 games with the Colorado Eagles of the AHL this season, posting a 3.04 GAA with a save percentage of just .889, the worst numbers of his career.

14 Teams Face Bonus Overages For 2022-23

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In the flat cap world, nearly every team in the league is dealing with situations that require every last dollar under the ceiling. More than half the league was using long-term injured reserve relief at some point this season, a decision that sometimes comes with some attached risk. One of those risks is the performance bonuses from entry-level contracts, which can cause overage penalties if achieved by the end of the season, should the team not have the cap space to fit them in. Those penalties are then applied to the following season’s cap, meaning they have less room to work with moving forward.

CapFriendly has calculated the overage penalties for the entire league, finding 14 of 32 teams that will face them next year. Notably, these penalties lower the cap ceiling for a team and therefore cannot be covered up by going into long-term injured relief again. The penalties are as follows:

Carolina Hurricanes: $112,500
Chicago Blackhawks: $237,500
Colorado Avalanche: $25,000
Dallas Stars: $675,000
Edmonton Oilers: $896,000
Florida Panthers: $637,500
Los Angeles Kings: $637,500
Montreal Canadiens: $1,132,500
New York Islanders $245,796
Philadelphia Flyers: $295,000
St. Louis Blues: $1,000,000*
Toronto Maple Leafs: $212,500
Vancouver Canucks: $1,250,000
Washington Capitals: $100,000

*Can still increase

Details on how each number was reached can be found on CapFriendly’s Twitter thread but the vast majority are from Schedule A performance bonuses for time on ice and games played. While some would argue that it is worth the penalty, as it means a young player has been a strong contributor, it can also be quite impactful moving forward. The Oilers, for instance, are facing a cap charge of nearly $900K, significantly more than the league minimum salary. It could very well mean they aren’t able to carry the maximum of 23 skaters for at least parts of next season while they are still trying to compete, thanks to the bonuses owed to Evan Bouchard this year.

It’s the Islanders that are perhaps the most interesting case since they did not finish in LTIR relief and in fact, were more than $2MM under the $81.5MM ceiling at the end of the year. While most of the other bonuses were on entry-level contracts, theirs included games played bonuses for Zach Parise, Zdeno Chara, and Andy Greene. That means despite being well out of the race, the Islanders will have a little less room to work with next season.

The Blues meanwhile could still face an additional overage, as their penalty is based on the bonuses given to Tyler Bozak. He can still earn $100K if the Blues win the first round and another $150K if they win the second round, which each would also be applied to next year’s cap.

Colorado Avalanche Sign Danila Zhuravlyov

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The Colorado Avalanche have joined in on the signing spree, inking one of their own Russian draft picks. The team has announced that Danila Zhuravlyov has signed his two-year entry-level contract.

It’s been four years since the Avalanche selected Zhuravlyov in the fifth round of the NHL draft, but after another full season in the KHL, they’ve finally added him to the organization. The 22-year-old left-shot defenseman had six points in 43 games for Ak Bars Kazan this season in a limited role, but saw that playing time increase significantly in the playoffs.

For a system that is set to lose several minor league veterans–Roland McKeown, Dennis Gilbert, Jordan Gross, and Jacob MacDonald are all scheduled for unrestricted free agency–there perhaps will be an opening for a player like Zhuravlyov to quickly make an impact. Whether his play can translate, or even improve, at the AHL level remains to be seen, though the young defenseman will come with three full seasons of KHL action under his belt.

Nazem Kadri Misses Practice With Non-COVID Illness; Expected To Play Tuesday

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There was concern earlier today out of Colorado Avalanche camp, as forward Nazem Kadri was notably missing from practice with an undisclosed illness. Those concerns were calmed a bit with the confirmation that the illness was not in fact COVID-19, says Peter Baugh of The Athletic (link). According to Kyle Fredrickson of the Denver Post, who spoke to Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar, Kadri is still expected to be ready for Game 1 on Tuesday night (link).

Keeping Kadri in the lineup is key for the Avalanche as they head into the playoffs with eyes set on the Stanley Cup. As strong as their lineup is, Kadri plays a pivotal role as their second-line center, playing a 200-foot game and contributing plenty offensively. The forward just finished his best season to date, in which he compiled 28 goals and 59 assists in 71 games. Colorado is set to take on the Nashville Predators at home Tuesday night in Game 1 of the first round.

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