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Patrik Laine Exits NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program

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Blue Jackets forward Patrik Laine has been released from the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program after being cleared by its doctors today, reports Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch.

The news comes amid a trade request from Laine that’s stood since at least June, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reported at the time. As Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman points out, Laine is still recovering from clavicle/shoulder surgery that ended his 2023-24 season back in December. The Finnish winger entered the Player Assistance Program about five weeks after sustaining the injury.

Trade talks couldn’t progress with Laine in the program. It was widely reported that interested parties wanted to speak with Laine before acquiring him, which was prohibited before he was cleared. Now that he’s been released from the program, those talks with other teams can now commence. Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell declined to comment on Laine’s clearance and future trade talks today, per The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline.

Among potential landing spots for the 26-year-old, Friedman named the Kraken as a team to watch last month. The Athletic’s Michael Russo and Joe Smith later reported the Wild had engaged in preliminary discussions for the sniper as well.

Laine’s numerous injuries last season, including an upper-body ailment, limited him to just six goals and three assists in 18 games. But in the two preceding years, the 2016 second-overall pick had been a force for Columbus, averaging nearly a point per game (108 in 111 GP) while logging an ATOI of 18:58. When healthy, he remains a top-line winger, but the first part of this sentence is a large caveat. He hasn’t played more than 60 games in a season since before the pandemic.

Even with Laine out of the program, those injury concerns will remain. That’ll likely force Waddell to retain a solid chunk of his $8.7MM cap hit in a prospective trade to make it an appealing swap for both sides financially. Laine remains under contract through 2025-26, and he’ll be a UFA upon expiry. He can block a trade to 10 teams with his modified no-trade clause, per PuckPedia.

Outside of the trade discussions, it’s always good news to see a player cleared to return to action from the program. All of us at PHR wish Laine the best as he continues his NHL career.

Latest On Kirill Marchenko’s Contract Situation

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Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell believes that a one or two-year contract will make the most sense for restricted free agent forward Kirill Marchenko (as per Jason Newland of The Hockey News). Waddell had some comments today regarding the contract status of the 24-year-old saying that they’d do a longer-term deal if they could, but the concern is that one of the two sides could be burned by a long-term deal if Marchenko fails to produce, or if he has a breakout next season.

Waddell added that if Marchenko develops into the player that he feels he will become, then he will get paid down the road and the Blue Jackets would have no issues with handing out a lucrative contract in that case. Waddell is new to the Blue Jackets and given his comments, it appears that he would like to see Marchenko prove his worth before handing out a long-term deal.

One look at Marchenko’s numbers and it is easy to see why it would be a difficult contract to negotiate from either side. On one hand, the former second-round pick has topped 20 goals in both of his first two seasons in the NHL and boasts a large frame, solid puck skills and good skating. On the other hand, he struggles against tougher competition and has shot the lights out thus far in his career. Add to that the fact that he was a healthy scratch in March, and you have a very complicated contract negotiation.

Marchenko has spoken publicly about his frustration with the process, stating that he has yet to receive an offer that he deems worthy. He has also stated that he isn’t keen on going to arbitration with the Blue Jackets, something that is slated to happen one week from today in Toronto.

Blue Jackets Notes: Coaching Staff, Sillinger, Johnson

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Aaron Portzline of The Athletic tweeted that Columbus Blue Jackets’ new head coach Dean Evason is expected to meet with current assistant coaches Mark Recchi, Jared Boll and Steve McCarthy in the coming days. The news comes from Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell who added that it is possible there could be changes to the current Columbus coaching staff, but the changes will not be a complete overhaul. All three assistant coaches are under contract through the 2024-25 season.

The three men haven’t been behind the Blue Jackets bench for any great length of time. Recchi has been with Columbus for less than a year after he was hired by the Blue Jackets last September. Boll joined the team as an assistant development coach back in September of 2018 and worked through the ranks to become an assistant coach. McCarthy joined the Blue Jackets as an assistant coach in September 2021 after spending five seasons as an assistant coach with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters.

In other Blue Jackets notes:

  • Aaron Portzline spoke on the Front and Nationwide podcast about Blue Jackets forward Cole Sillinger. The 21-year-old is a restricted free agent and Portzline said that Sillinger could be looking at a multi-year contract extension this summer. The former 12th overall pick set a career-high with 32 points (13 goals and 19 assists) last season and improved his overall play rebounding nicely from a very difficult 2022-23 season. Sillinger could be on the verge of a breakout next season and Waddell might want to lock him down for a few seasons before those years become more expensive.
  • Portzline also spoke about restricted free agent forward Kent Johnson saying that he believes the 21-year-old will sign a one-year deal this summer. Portzline added that Johnson is hoping for the short-term deal so he can re-enter contract negotiations next summer under better circumstances. The former fifth-overall pick is coming off a very frustrating season in which he posted just six goals and 10 assists in 42 games. Johnson dealt with inconsistency and injuries, including a season-ending shoulder injury in late February that cut his season short.

Blue Jackets’ Martin Rysavy Signs In Czech Extraliga

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Blue Jackets left wing prospect Martin Rysavy has signed a two-year deal with Bílí Tygři Liberec of the Czech Extraliga, per a team release. It’s a significant return home for the 2021 seventh-round pick, who will see his exclusive signing rights with Columbus expire next summer should he honor the second year of his deal.

Rysavy, 21, spent most of his development in the Czech system and was drafted out of HC Vítkovice, although he spent most of the 2020-21 season on loan to second-tier club HC Přerov. After his selection, Rysavy took his talents to North America, but not under contract with Columbus. He’s spent the last three seasons in junior hockey, suiting up for the Western Hockey League’s Moose Jaw Warriors.

In Moose Jaw, the 6’3″, 210-lb winger was a solid secondary scorer with good size but not a game-breaking talent. His best year offensively came in 2023-24, finishing seventh on the club in scoring with 44 points (25 goals, 19 assists) in 63 games. He added a more respectable 16 points in 20 playoff games as the Warriors took home their first WHL championship in franchise history, also sending them to the Memorial Cup for the first time.

Unless Rysavy has a major breakout in Liberec, his draft rights will likely expire on June 1 next year, and he will become unaffiliated with the Blue Jackets. He does have an intriguing blend of physicality and goal-scoring ability that could have him resurface on the international free-agent market eventually, though. It’s a small damper on an otherwise strong 2021 class for the Jackets, who’ve already had four players (Kent Johnson, James Malatesta, Cole Sillinger, Stanislav Svozil) log NHL minutes.

Blue Jackets Name Dean Evason Head Coach

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At long last, the Blue Jackets have found their next head coach. Dean Evason is heading to Columbus on a multi-year deal to fill the league’s last remaining vacancy at the position this summer, the team announced.

Technically, there were no head coaching vacancies in the league for a few days earlier this summer after the Sharks promoted Ryan Warsofsky. But Columbus, which had been without a full-time general manager for months until hiring Don Waddell in late May, fired Pascal Vincent after one season behind the bench on June 17. Vincent has since landed a new job as the head coach of the Canadiens’ AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket.

Evason, 59, lands his second NHL head coaching gig after being fired by the Wild less than two months into last season. He was one of two reported finalists for the Columbus vacancy alongside ex-Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft, both of whom interviewed last week, per The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline. The Blue Jackets also had documented interest in former Kings, Oilers, and Sharks bench boss Todd McLellan, but McLellan’s still being under contract with L.A. next season caused complications that led Columbus to back away.

Evason’s ousting in Minnesota around Thanksgiving wasn’t much of a surprise. The Wild had limped out of the gate while hampered by injuries and poor goaltending, posting a 5-10-4 record through 19 games before firing Evason and replacing him with John Hynes. It was a damper on an otherwise successful tenure in the State of Hockey for Evason, who guided the Wild to a 147-77-27 regular-season record (.639 points percentage) in parts of five seasons behind the bench.

Playoff success was a different story, though, much like throughout the Wild’s existence. Following a franchise record of 53 wins and 113 points in 2021-22, Minnesota was dispatched by the Blues in six games in the first round. Evason’s Wild made the postseason in all four attempts, but they never won a series and went a combined 8-15.

He’ll now get his second chance behind an NHL bench, joining Minnesota’s expansion brother as their third head coach in the past three seasons (and fourth if you count Mike Babcock, who was slated to replace Brad Larsen before last season but resigned during training camp). The Blue Jackets haven’t made the playoffs since John Tortorella was at the helm, a streak that’s expected to continue next spring.

So Evason’s poor playoff track record won’t be a major factor in Columbus, at least not early on. Instead, he’ll be tasked with guiding Columbus’ young core of Adam Fantilli, Kent Johnson and David Jiříček, among others, to new heights next season and demonstrate evidence that they’re close to exiting their rebuild.

Evason’s other professional coaching roles include serving as an assistant with the Wild from 2018 to 2020, head coach of the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals from 2012 to 2018, and an assistant with the Capitals from 2005 to 2012. A fifth-round pick of the Caps in 1982, Evason’s NHL career as a player spanned 803 games from 1983 to 1996, posting 139 goals and 372 points for Washington, Hartford, San Jose, Dallas and Calgary.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

The Athletic: Blue Jackets Have League's Worst Goaltending Situation

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The Athletic’s Jesse Granger, Sean McIndoe and Scott Wheeler are taking a deep dive into each team’s goaltending situation league-wide, ranking clubs’ “current and future goaltending outlooks” via a combination of current aptitude, prospect strength, and the effectiveness of their NHL tandem’s contracts. In their first installment, detailing the bottom 10 teams in their ranking, the Blue Jackets took home the honor of having the worst overall situation between the pipes.

Snapshots: Blue Jackets Coaching, Laine, Ekman-Larsson

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The Columbus Blue Jackets should be nearing the end of their head coaching search, per Aaron Portzline of The Athletic, who shares that he expects a decision to be made before August 1st (Twitter link). Portzline later added that Dean Evason and Jay Woodcroft seem to be the final sparring pair and that the team is running out of time to handle the logistics of hiring a new leader.

Woodcroft and Evason are both coming off midseason dismissals last year. Woodcroft was replaced in Edmonton by rookie head coach Kris Knoblauch, who proceeded to carry the Oilers to the Stanley Cup Finals. John Hynes, Evanson’s successor, didn’t have as much success in taking over the Minnesota Wild – though still improving on Evason’s 5-10-4 start to the season. But aside from that similarity, the two candidates couldn’t be more different. Woodcroft, 47, is just three years into his NHL head coaching career, after leading the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors to a championship in 2021. He’s shown off a sharp and strategic eye, while Evason has proven more grizzled and old-school – traits he honed over a 13-year playing career in the NHL. They’ll take Columbus’ young and promising lineup down very different paths, leaving general manager Don Waddell with a tough choice on what he sees working best for his new roster.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Don Waddell will also face the imposing trade of high-scoring winger Patrik Laine before the start of next season. But the process is currently at a standstill, shares Portzline, as interested teams wait for Laine to clear the NHL Player’s Association before they meet with him. The team is still expected to part ways with Laine before the start of next season, but the timeline of a move will remain murky until he’s fully available.
  • Reigning Stanley Cup-winning defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson called his decision to sign with the Toronto Maple Leafs a “gut feeling” in an interview with Craig Morgan of GoPHNX.com, adding “I’ve always liked coming in there as an away team, playing in that building. It’s always special,” the blue-liner continued. “Obviously, there’s a lot of history in the organization and I feel like they have a really good team that has a chance to do something special as well.” Ekman-Larsson is coming off a resurgent year with the Panthers, posting 32 points across 80 games and looking much more reliable than in his pair of seasons with the Vancouver Canucks. His best years are certainly behind him, but Ekman-Larsson should offer stout puck-moving ability out of a third-pair role in Toronto – hopefully boosting much-needed consistency out of the team’s depth options.

Blue Jackets RFA Kirill Marchenko Still Awaiting Offer

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The Columbus Blue Jackets are entering the dog days of July with a long list of chores still not done, including four remaining restricted free agents. New general manager Don Waddell has shared that the team is solely focused on finding their next head coach, but the dragging negotiations have started to get to forward Kirill Marchenko, who voiced his unease to Daria Tuboltseva of Responsible Gambling. Marchenko said he hasn’t yet spoken with Waddell, adding, “I haven’t received any worthy offers yet, so I can’t say for sure… I’m considering both a long-term and a bridge contract, but I prefer the process to move faster.”

Marchenko went on to describe the 2023-24 season as up-and-down, both in his feelings with the Blue Jackets and his performance on the ice. He managed a career year despite the mixed feelings, recording a team-leading 23 goals and a third-ranked 42 points in 78 games. It was his first full year with the Blue Jackets, after spending last season – his first year in North America – split between the NHL and AHL lineups. He showed off unusually high goal-scoring as a rookie as well, potting 21 goals and just four assists through his first 59 NHL games.

And while Marchenko improved that imbalance this year, he’s still hard to project beyond next season. On the one hand, he’s managed two 20-goal seasons in the first two years of his career – impressive for any rookie, especially one on the desolate Blue Jackets. But he’s also shooting at a gaudy 13.6 percent through 137 career games, tied with Patrik Laine for the highest of any active Blue Jacket. Columbus signed a heap of prospects to entry-level deals at the end of the season, including Gavin Brindley and Luca Del Bel Belluz, who received their NHL debuts. That burgeoning prospect pool gives Waddell a unique challenge ahead – with plenty of young and promising forwards deserving ice time and core pieces Kent Johnson, Cole Sillinger, and Marchenko still left unsigned.

Blue Jackets Expected To Part Ways With Assistant Coach Josef Boumedienne

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The Blue Jackets will not be renewing the contract of assistant coach Josef Boumedienne, sources tell The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline.

It’s a little late in the offseason to make coaching changes, especially for a club still looking to lock down its head coach. Columbus has seen a lot of personnel turnover this offseason, naming Don Waddell as their general manager in late May before firing head coach Pascal Vincent after all previous head coaching vacancies created this offseason had been filled.

They’re reportedly nearing a resolution on that front. Portzline indicated last weekend that they’re down to former Wild bench boss Dean Evason and ex-Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft as finalists, with a decision expected by the end of the month. But after today’s news, they have another vacancy to deal with.

Boumedienne had served behind the Blue Jackets bench for just one season, his first in an NHL coaching capacity. Before stepping into the role, the former NHL defender had spent 10 years with Columbus in scouting roles. He began as a European scout in 2013-14 before being promoted to their director of European scouting in 2016-17 and again to their director of professional scouting in 2021-22.

The Swede was added as an assistant coach just before last season began, part of the domino effect that saw Vincent promoted from associate to head coach after Mike Babcock resigned from the helm at the beginning of training camp. He’s also been active in the Blue Jackets’ youth hockey programs, serving at the helm of their U-14 club as late as last season.

Whether the Blue Jackets will move to replace Boumedienne for next season remains to be seen, and any decision will undoubtedly wait until after their head coach hire is announced. Their new bench boss will still be walking into a staff of three assistants – Jared Boll, Steve McCarthy and Mark Recchi – plus goaltending coach Niklas Bäckström. That’s enough of a coaching roster to replace Boumedienne’s duties by committee if they so choose.

Kirill Marchenko Arbitration Hearing Scheduled For July 31st

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The Utica Comets have signed defenseman Will MacKinnon and goaltender Jeremy Brodeur to one-year, one-way AHL contracts. MacKinnon has spent the bulk of his three professional seasons in the ECHL but dressed in 40 AHL games last season with the Comets, posting three goals, three assists, and a +7 rating. The 24-year-old is the son of Comets general manager Dan MacKinnon, who is also the assistant general manager of the New Jersey Devils.

Brodeur has dressed in just five AHL games across his seven-year professional career and played in one AHL game last season. He has never won an AHL game, but the 27-year-old did have a career year last year in the ECHL going 18-9-3 with a .918 save percentage and a 2.56 goals-against average. The son of NHL Hall-of-Famer Martin Brodeur might not see a lot of AHL time as the Comets have goaltenders Isaac Poulter and Nico Daws ahead of him on the depth chart.

In other evening notes:

  • Aaron Portzline of The Athletic is reporting that the Columbus Blue Jackets and forward Kirill Marchenko will go to arbitration on July 31st. It was reported earlier this week that the Jackets and the 23-year-old had discussed both a short-term and long-term contract, but at this point, it appears likely that Marchenko’s next deal could be decided by an intermediary. The 2018 second-round pick has 44 goals and 23 assists in 137 NHL games over two seasons and was reportedly looking for a long-term deal this summer.
  • Max Miller of The Hockey News is reporting that recently retired Joe Pavelski spoke with the San Jose Sharks about a potential return to the organization where he spent the first 13 years of his NHL career. The 40-year-old played 963 games for the Sharks before departing in free agency to join the Dallas Stars in July 2019. Pavelski played five seasons in Dallas and ultimately never won a Stanley Cup during his playing career, although he was a big-time playoff performer during runs to the Stanley Cup Final with San Jose and Dallas.

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