Kris Versteeg Joining Oilers On PTO
After returning from Switzerland due to apparent insurance issues, the Edmonton Oilers announced that they have inked veteran winger Kris Versteeg to a professional try-out deal. TSN’s Darren Dreger was first to report that Versteeg was heading to Edmonton.
Versteeg scored 15 goals and 38 points in 77 games split between Carolina and Los Angeles. He plays a gritty game, despite being on the small side for the current NHL at 5’11, 176 lbs.
The two-time Stanley Cup champion (both with Chicago) slots in behind only Jordan Eberle on the Oilers’ right wing depth chart, and would give fourth overall pick Jesse Puljujärvi a challenge to make the team out of camp. The Oilers are often criticized for rushing young players to fill gaping holes in their roster, like Justin Schultz and Leon Draisaitl. While Draisaitl turned it around with 51 points in his sophomore year, Schultz is now a bottom-pairing or depth defenseman after entering the league with much higher expectations. Starting Puljujärvi in the AHL would help him get acquainted with the North American game.
Related: Edmonton Oilers’ depth chart at Roster Resource
Looking at the players Versteeg will be competing with on the starboard side: Eberle and Puljujärvi are likely the top two guys on the depth chart for the better part of the next decade. Both have three years left on their contracts. Other than them, Nail Yakupov, Zack Kassian, and Iiro Pakarinen each are entering contract years, but none scored more than Yakupov’s 8 goals and 23 points in 2015-16. Versteeg also is comfortable on the left side, which would give the Oilers some flexibility to move lines around throughout the year.
The Oilers will also have Connor McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Draisaitl away at the World Cup for the beginning of training camp, so Versteeg will help fill out the pre-season roster veteran quota.
Snapshots: Gaudreau, Benson, McGrattan
Time is running short for the Flames to ink star forward Johnny Gaudreau prior to the start of the 2016-17 campaign and it appears as if the two sides are still quite far apart in talks, according to Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun. Francis reports that Gaudreau’s camp is seeking $8MM annually while the Flames are countering with a figure somewhere in between what Sean Monahan‘s recent extension pays out ($6.375MM) and what captain Mark Giordano earns on an annual basis ($6.75MM).
An unnamed source Francis spoke with stated: “He wants unrestricted money but he’s restricted.” The source would go on to point out that other players with track records similar in both length and production have signed for less, including Filip Forsberg ($6MM) and Nathan MacKinnon ($6.3MM). He also questions whether Gaudreau, while a terrific young talent, is better than than the two players he mentioned.
For his part, Gaudreau is leaving the heavy lifting to his agent, Lewis Gross, at least until after the World Cup has concluded at which point he has said he would become more involved.
Gauedreau is certainly a talented young player and one the Flames want to build around but the reality is he only has two seasons of NHL experience and almost no leverage to exercise in these negotiations. He could choose to sit out until he gets a deal to his liking or sign in the KHL but it’s unlikely he’d receive a comparable salary overseas to what the Flames are offering him today. The smart money is the deal gets wrapped up soon after he returns from the World Cup and that the AAV is closer to what Monahan received than what Gaudreau is said to be asking for at the moment.
- According to the Elite Prospects website (via tweet) tough guy forward Brian McGrattan has left North America and accepted a deal to play for the Nottingham Panthers of the EIHL in England. The nine-year veteran who turned 35 just last week, did not see any action at the NHL level and instead suited up for 58 games for the Anaheim Ducks AHL affiliate in San Diego. McGrattan tallied nine goals and 17 points along with his usually high number of penalty minutes (144) for the Gulls. Anaheim loaded up yesterday on organizational depth, agreeing to deals with seven players to minor league deals. That McGrattan was not among them suggested a move elsewhere might be in the offing. McGrattan leaves North America (for now at least) having scored just 27 career points in 317 games and 609 minutes in penalties.
- Bruce McCurdy of the Edmonton Journal wonders if 2016 second-round pick, Tyler Benson, can beat the odds and become an important contributor for the Oilers. McCurdy lists the 10 players the club has selected in the second round since 2007 and only two, Justin Schultz (266) and Anton Lander (193) has appeared in more than 27 NHL games to date. Second-round picks are still considered valuable choices and teams generally expect to land one quality NHL talent for every three players chosen in the round. It’s hard to say the Oilers have even developed one quality NHL player from their group as Schultz wasn’t even drafted by the Oilers and was dealt away to Pittsburgh at the 2016 trade deadline after failing to live up to expectations in Edmonton. Lander has yet to land a full-time role and it’s been suggested current management is not particularly high on the Swedish pivot.
- Former Devils forward Stephen Gionta might be under consideration from the Islanders for a PTO, according to Arthur Staple of Newday (via tweet). Gionta doesn’t bring much offense to the table – just one goal last season and a career-best of five in 2014-15 – but would add energy to the team’s fourth line. He can also contribute on the penalty kill. The Islanders have boasted one of the game’s best fourth lines but they will undoubtedly have someone new skating with Casey Cizikas and Cal Clutterbuck after Matt Martin departed New York as a free agent. Gionta could provide another option for head coach Jack Capuano.
Connor McDavid Named Team North America Captain
19 year-old Edmonton Oiler forward Connor McDavid was named Captain of Team North America in the World Cup of Hockey. Philadelphia Flyers’ Sean Couturier and Florida Panthers’ Aaron Ekblad were named Alternates.
McDavid leapfrogs older players on the roster such as Ryan Murray, Morgan Rielly, and Mark Scheifele, which speaks volumes about the faith GM Peter Chiarelli has with the young phenom. It is worth nothing that McDavid plays for Chiarelli’s Oilers in the NHL, and the Oilers are currently captain-less. If McDavid handles the captaincy well, there should be no doubt that he’ll be handed the ‘C’ when he returns to Edmonton.
Team North America features the best American and Canadian players under 24 on the same team in the World Cup of Hockey. Alongside McDavid is 2016 1st overall pick Auston Matthews, as well as still-unsigned RFAs Jacob Trouba and Johnny Gaudreau.
Jets Notes: Setoguchi, Trouba, Heritage Classic
In a heartbreaking (but wonderful) piece by David Pollak of The Hockey News yesterday, Devin Setoguchi comes clean about his history with alcoholism and how it almost destroyed his career. The former 8th overall pick was a thirty goal scorer in the NHL once upon a time, but yesterday signed a professional tryout with the Los Angeles Kings after spending last season in Switzerland.
It’s been six years since he last scored 20 goals in an NHL season, but is still only 29 years old and feels he has enough left to help a team on the ice – even if it’s at the AHL level or in Europe.
Today, on the Hustler and Lawless show on TSN 1290, Setoguchi related a story about how Evander Kane came to his house once while they were teammates on the Winnipeg Jets, and poured out all his alcohol in an attempt to help him break his addiction. Ironically, some may say, because of Kane’s own troubled history, it may have been a turning point in his battle and he now is working towards helping younger players understand the risks involved.
- Also on TSN 1290, former NHL executive Bill Watters opined that the Jacob Trouba camp “wants out of Winnipeg”. While Watters isn’t close enough to either side to have any particular insight past what his hockey sense tells him, it does continue the narrative that has been going on. Both Matt Larkin of The Hockey News and Darren Dreger of TSN spoke recently on the station about a possible Trouba deal, with Larkin going so far as saying “I’m seeing a trade in Trouba’s future, because the two camps seem to be so far apart in terms of how they value what Trouba has done in the NHL so far.” Indeed, Trouba is currently playing at the World Cup without a deal, and both sides seem just as far apart as ever on the future of the young defenseman.
- The final rosters for the legends game at the Heritage Classic were announced today, after having their first group presented last month. Among the final few additions were Curtis Joseph for the Edmonton Oilers, and Eddie Olczyk for the Winnipeg Jets. The game will take place on October 22nd, with Dale Hawerchuk leading the hometown Jets against a star-studded Oilers squad captained by Wayne Gretzky.
Oilers Notes: McDavid, Klefbom, Expansion
Will Connor McDavid be named captain twice in the next month? That’s entirely possible, with both Team North America and the Edmonton Oilers needing a captain.
With his GM and coach from Edmonton being among those in charge of the team, and the support of his teammates, it’d be a surprise if anyone else was named captain.
So far, McDavid has been lining up alongside Jonathan Drouin and Mark Scheifele on the North American first line in practice, as well as headlining the first unit powerplay.
Meanwhile, Oilers veteran forward Matt Hendricks was on Edmonton radio on Tuesday. According to Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot, Hendricks told Oilers insider Bob Staufffer that McDavid would make an excellent captain, as “it’s going to be Connor’s team and we want him to be the leader, because … he’s the best player definitely here in Edmonton, if not the best player in the game right now.”
- Hendricks also talked about skating with Oilers new top pairing, Oscar Klefbom and Adam Larsson, saying they both looked good. Klefbom missed 52 games last season with a broken hand and multiple Staph Infections, and was being fitted with a custom skate this summer, but according to Hendricks “Klef is feeling good and has that big smile on his face, so that was nice to see for sure.”
- Over at OilersNation, TSN host Jason Gregor went through all 30 teams to examine who could be exposed in next summer’s expansion draft. He doesn’t believe the Oilers have many tough decisions, with McDavid and Nurse not needing protection. Gregor has the Oilers protecting Milan Lucic, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl, Andrej Sekera, Klefbom, Larsson, Brandon Davidson and Cam Talbot. That would leave Benoit Pouliot, Patrick Maroon, Nail Yakupov, and Griffin Reinhart exposed. Unless Maroon plays like he did at the end of last season with McDavid, or Yakupov finally breaks out, then the Oilers won’t be too fussed about the expansion draft. Pouliot is a solid NHLer, and scores at a much higher rate than you would expect (equal with Jonathan Toews and higher than Johnny Gaudreau), but Gregor believes it’s likely Vegas will look to add defense over forwards. A young, former 4th overall pick like Reinhart could be a serious consideration for Vegas. Reinhart was added at great cost at the 2015 draft, but hasn’t managed to crack the Oilers full time yet.
Behind The Scenes Of The Busiest Day Of The Summer
The Oilers decided Taylor Hall would be the one to go shortly before the NHL draft, according a great new article by Elliotte Friedman about those crazy 23 minutes on June 29.
A couple of members of the Oilers told Friedman that they believed the team wanted to make it easier for Connor McDavid to become the guy in the dressing room, calling Hall a “dominant personality”.
Ultimately, while avoiding putting down Hall, Friedman’s sources seem to suggest the Oilers made the trade for reasons other than hockey, similar to the last time Peter Chiarelli traded a top-two pick from 2010. It makes you wonder what we don’t know, because making a trade to remove Hall’s big locker room presence, only to replace him with Milan Lucic’s even bigger presence, doesn’t make a lot of sense at face value.
Meanwhile, Chiarelli told Friedman that he knew he would be parting with a significant player because “everyone knew we were looking for a defenseman”.
The trade talks between Edmonton and New Jersey picked up steam two days before the trade was finalized. The two teams had been talking since the trade deadline, initially regarding Eric Gelinas who was later traded to Colorado. According to Friedman, “at some point, Adam Larsson became central to the conversation, but no deal was ever close until the very end.”
Chiarelli asked for more than just Larsson, but Devils GM Ray Shero said they couldn’t add anyone else for cap reasons. Which seems odd, because the Devils are still hovering around the cap floor.
As suggested previously, there were other trades looked at by the Oilers leading up to the draft. Friedman suggests Kevin Shattenkirk, Justin Faulk, Tyson Barrie, and Matt Dumba were all explored, but Chiarelli insists they “weren’t close on anything”. Edmonton was also kicking around a three-way trade with Columbus and Calgary, with the Oilers moving down to 6th overall to select Matthew Tkachuk or Mikhail Sergachev. Ultimately, the Oilers realized that Jesse Puljujärvi would fall to them and that would give them some flexibility to trade a winger.
As far as his post-trade phone call with Hall, Chiarelli refused to share details of the “private” conversation, but would say “there was a lot of dead air.”
Moving to the P.K. Subban blockbuster, Friedman said rumours about Subban being moved intensified in February after Canadiens coach Michel Therrien singled out Subban for a give-away that lead to a game-winning goal versus the Avalanche. Despite GM Marc Bergevin’s best effort to put a damper on media speculation around the draft, talk was running wild at the time, even drawing Canucks GM Jim Benning in, resulting in a tampering fine. Vancouver had an advantage of a high pick in play, but once it became clear that Pierre-Luc Dubois would not make it past Columbus, they were out. Colorado was unable to accept Subban’s $9MM salary, and apparently so was Edmonton. Chiarelli was unwilling to add the $9MM price tag to whatever McDavid will be making in two years.
Then Nashville offered Shea Weber. The older Weber was not what the Canadiens had been asking for – previously it had been Subban’s peers or packages of younger players. The enormity of the deal was not lost on the two teams, with one front office member saying “I think both teams had moments where they couldn’t believe what they were considering.”
Predators GM David Poile said the trade was tough, considering the major community presence of Weber. Poile said he wants to have a sit-down with Weber in the near future to tell him “how much he meant to us. It’s important he recognizes that. When a player hears he’s been traded, he doesn’t hear anything else you have to say.”
As far as the Steven Stamkos signing, Friedman revealed that the Lightning were close to moving him last summer before his no-trade clause kicked in, similar to Subban this summer. However, the front runners were the Buffalo Sabres who were unwilling to move the 2nd overall pick that would become Jack Eichel and talks died down.
Stamkos met with the Maple Leafs but decided that he didn’t want to leave, and ultimately agreed to the number proposed by GM Steve Yzerman back in the spring. Like Hall, Subban, and Weber have said post-trade, moving on is hard to take. As Friedman put it, “no doubt those same thoughts entered Stamkos’ mind too”.
Interestingly, Friedman spoke with nearly all involved in the day: Chiarelli, Poile, Hall, Subban, Yzerman, and Stamkos. Only Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin declined to speak, with one of his fellow GMs suggesting if Bergevin could have his way, “he’d never talk discuss this trade again”.
Snapshots: Oilers, Blue Jackets, Tortorella
In two posts over the weekend (here and here), David Staples of the Edmonton Journal pondered whether the organization’s minor league coaches “thwart the development of their prospects,” by assigning more ice time in key situations to veteran players as opposed to the kids. It’s an important question to ask as developing prospects is the key to sustaining success at the NHL level. But as Staples points out, there are two sides to this discussion.
First, and most obviously, prospects need to be on the ice in meaningful games and playing important minutes to best advance their development. Practice time is important but it’s during games that players can implement what they’re being taught in practice. Essentially, prospects learn by doing better than they would by watching.
Staples also argues that it often does benefit younger players to play with established pros. He cites the example of Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall each having the opportunity to skate with veteran pivot Shawn Horcoff during their first season in the league. Seeing how Horcoff went about his business day-to-day helped the youngsters learn what it took to become a solid pro player.
On the other hand, most organizations want their prospects to experience success, both individually and as part of the team, while in the minors as a way to better prepare them for potential playoff races in the NHL. Carrying a handful of veteran pros and giving them significant ice time improves the team’s odds for regular season success and subsequently to earn a playoff berth. The experience of postseason games is valuable in the development of a team’s prospects.
It’s a fine line minor league coaches have to walk. Their first obligation is to develop the parent club’s prospects, turning talented kids into quality NHL players. The ideal way to do so is by bringing them through a winning culture. That’s to say nothing of the pressure the coaches feel to win simply to keep their jobs. Just like at the NHL level, if you’re not winning much, you won’t be coaching long.
Ultimately, after analyzing a handful of previously successful AHL coaches who have gone on to earn NHL jobs – including: Jon Cooper, Dallas Eakins, Willie Desjardins, Jeff Blashill, Mike Sullivan, Jared Bednar, John Hynes and Jack Capuano – Staples concludes that Edmonton’s AHL head coaches – Todd Nelson and Gerry Fleming – have distributed ice time in roughly the same proportions as the successful coaches suggesting they have not thwarted the development of the team’s prospects. All together, it’s an interesting read and offers insight into what the thought process is for organizations assembling their minor league teams.
- Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch writes about the struggle head coach John Tortorella faces dividing his time between the Blue Jackets and Team USA. Due to his commitment to coach the US team at the World Cup of Hockey tournament, Tortorella will miss 10 days of Columbus’ training camp and half of their eight exhibition games. It’s especially difficult for Tortorella, who was hired seven games into the 2015-16 campaign, since this would be his first training camp with the team and the club is expected to integrate several young players to the roster. Columbus has traditionally started the season slowly and if they again struggle out of the gate, it would be fair to wonder how much of a role Tortorella’s absence played. However, on the positive side, many assistant coaches who have designs of one day running their own bench get valuable experience running training camp while their team’s head coach is in Toronto for the World Cup. In the case of the Blue Jackets, the responsibility of taking over the team falls to assistant Brad Larsen. Tortorella also discusses that representing his home country has taken on even more significance with the knowledge his son, 26-year-old U.S. Army Ranger Nick Tortorella, is serving his country and currently deployed in the Middle East.
“I know these are hockey games … but I do look at it like it’s for my country. What Nick is doing by far dwarfs what we do. We’re entertainers; we’re playing a sport.”
“But with my son over there — this might sound selfish — I want to team up with him and help my country. I get pretty caught up in representing my country. There’s nothing like it.”
Tortorella is one of the league’s most polarizing coaches. His intensity and brutal honesty can turn off some players. But, as this piece demonstrates, there is more to Torts than just the firebrand head coach.
Quotable: Crosby, Wheeler, McDavid
Sidney Crosby didn’t start 2015-16 the way he wanted. Through his first 30 games, the Pittsburgh Penguins captain had only 19 points, and was struggling to a -7 rating. Crosby had never finished a season with fewer points than games played, but it looked like he was in danger of putting up the worst season of his career. It wouldn’t happen, as Crosby would remind the world why he is one of the best players in the world, finishing with 85 points on the season and trailing just Patrick Kane and Jamie Benn for the league lead.
In an enlightening article for SI.com yesterday, Crosby writes about his struggles last season and how much the media and fan reaction got to him.
…when the media repeats the same questions — particularly when the team isn’t winning consistently — you already know that whatever is being said out there, it isn’t good. You can feel the atmosphere in the arena and see the look in people’s eyes. It’s hard not to hold the stick a little bit tighter. It’s hard not to want to fix it all with one big game. It’s hard not to over-think and over-work and try to make perfect plays instead of just playing.
Snapshots: PTO’s, Minnesota, Florida, Hall, Larsson
The closer we get to training camp, the less likely veteran players still without one are to receive a guaranteed contract for 2016-17. Indeed, a lot of quality NHL-caliber players will have to earn a job by way of a professional tryout (PTO). Several players have already gone that route as our PTO tracker shows, while some teams are still discussing their available options and determining who they may extend invites to.
On that front, Mike Russo writes that Minnesota’s brain trust is considering adding “one or two forwards to professional tryouts.” He points out that the Wild only have 10 forwards signed to one-way contracts giving the club room to add more competition to the group if they are so inclined. Russo adds that head coach Bruce Boudreau has already communicated to Chuck Fletcher, Minnesota’s GM, that he would like to “get bigger and tougher and stronger.”
Russo lists Paul Gaustad, Steve Downie, Lauri Korpikoski and R.J Umberger as possible PTO targets for the Wild. Although it appears we can dismiss the possibility of Gaustad joining Minnesota, or anyone else for that matter, as it has been said the veteran center is set to announce his retirement. Kyle Chipchura, David Legwand and Tuomo Ruutu could also fit Boudreau’s criteria but those options are purely speculative at this point.
- Count Florida among the teams giving serious consideration to adding more veteran talent via PTO to compete for jobs. According to Harvey Fialkov of the Sun Sentinel, Panthers GM Tom Rowe told him Florida’s management team is “discussing possible veterans to bring in to camp.” Fialkov later added that head coach Gerard Gallant would prefer to add a veteran depth defenseman prior to the preseason. Florida was one of the summer’s most active teams and is aiming to compete for the Stanley Cup this season. It makes sense they would continue to try to add depth to bolster their chances and further guard against injury. The Panthers of course invested heavily in their defense corps this summer and still have rookie Michael Matheson – who we profiled here – and veteran Steve Kampfer to complement the top-six. Yet adding additional competition does make sense, particularly on a no-risk PTO. One wonders whether Jakub Nakladal – PHR analyzed his free agent case here – would be an option given he is a favorite of the analytics community and considering Florida’s recent shift to a more analytically-inclined front office but again, that’s just conjecture.
- Edmonton GM Peter Chiarelli continues his campaign to justify the team’s acquisition of D Adam Larsson in exchange for high-scoring LW Taylor Hall. Writing for Today’s Slap Shot, Chris Nichols provides several quotes from a recent interview Chiarelli did with 630 CHED radio in Edmonton. Chiarelli reiterated that the deal was simply the “cost of doing business,” as part of the club’s efforts to address their defensive shortcomings. He added: “Our fans, once they see Adam, they’ll see what we see in him. Any time you trade a player like Taylor, it’s going to have reverberations throughout the local hockey community through our fan base, and it did.” Credit to Chiarelli for sticking with his convictions. It isn’t easy to make a decision you already know will be an unpopular one but his job is to make the Edmonton Oilers a better team and to do so, the organization had to upgrade the blue line. Evidently Chiarelli and Co. felt this was the best deal they could make to accomplish that objective.
Free Agent Notes: Russell, Kaleta, Edmonton Tryouts, Gaustad, Richards
It may be a little while yet before unrestricted free agent defenseman Kris Russell lands with a new home. Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News reports that it may take a couple more weeks to get done as he has plenty of options to consider with regards to term, teams, and money. Training camps are still three weeks away so there is still plenty of time to get a deal done.
Russell is the highest rated remaining UFA on our top-50 list, slotting in at 12th overall. He has been one of the top shot blocking defenders in the league in recent seasons, however, not all teams interpret that as a positive as a high blocked shot total often correlates to being on the ice for a lot of shots against which is an indictment of a players’ defensive ability.
Last year, Russell played in 62 games between Calgary and Dallas, recording four goals and 15 assists to go along with 210 blocked shots, the second highest total in the league.
Earlier this offseason, he was believed to be seeking a long-term deal around $5MM per season (we had originally projected four years with a $4.5MM AAV). While it’s unlikely he’ll be able to get the big contract he desired, it would appear the 29 year old should still be able to land a solid deal, though perhaps at a shorter term than he originally hoped.
In other UFA news:
- Long-time Buffalo agitating winger Patrick Kaleta remains without a home for next season. In an interview with Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald, he noted that he has bulked up in advance of the season and is fully healthy for the first time in three years. He also recently switched player agencies, signing with Newport Sports. Unlike last season, Kaleta doesn’t appear to be interested in signing an AHL deal (he played in 26 games in 2015-16 with Buffalo’s AHL affiliate in Rochester) at this time though, telling Hoppe: “If the NHL opportunity comes approaching, I’ll be ready. If it doesn’t, I’ll be prepared for that, too.” Kaleta has played in 348 career NHL games, all with the Sabres, recording 27 goals, 27 assists, and 542 penalty minutes over that span.
- The Edmonton Oilers have offered a tryout deal to a UFA center, writes Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal although GM Peter Chiarelli declined to say who the player was. Chiarelli also didn’t rule out offering more PTO’s to centers as the team not only looks to improve their depth but also to cover for Connor McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Leon Draisaitl, who all will be suiting up at the World Cup. Chiarelli also acknowledged that the team has offered a tryout to defenseman Eric Gryba.
- Also from Matheson’s piece, free agent center Paul Gaustad is expected to announce his retirement in a couple of weeks. The 34 year old played in 63 games with Nashville last year, collecting only six points but won over 55% of his faceoffs.
- Still from Matheson, three teams have inquired about free agent center Mike Richards, according to his agent Pat Morris. Richards joined Washington partway through last season and while his offensive numbers are nothing to write home about (five points in 39 games), he led all Capitals forwards in shorthanded ice time per game, a unit that had the second best penalty kill percentage in the league. He’s a prime candidate to land a PTO.