Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Expansion

The Edmonton Oilers’ Backup Situation

at CDT | by 7 Comments

Following the Oilers spectacular 6-5 loss on Thursday night, much digital ink has been spilled about their backup goaltending. Jonas Gustavsson allowed six goals on 31 shots as the Oilers blew a pair of two-goal leads.

GM Peter Chiarelli signed Gustavsson on July 1 to a one-year, $800K contract to serve as backup to Cam Talbot. While Gustavsson is thought to be a good guy on the bench, his career numbers (0.902 SV%, 2.87 GAA) are well below league-average. His numbers through six appearances this season are even worse: his 0.893 SV% and 2.90 GAA rank fifth-last among goaltenders who have played at least six games. Gustavsson has just one win this year, back in early November in his first start with the club.

OilersNation writer Jonathan Willis wrote that the Oilers should quickly move on from Gustavsson, pointing out that “if he’d made one extra save last night—and given the number of bad goals he surrendered, it’s easy to imagine that… That would work out to [his career] save percentage of 0.902.”

Based on his usage of Talbot and Gustavsson, it’s clear that coach Todd McLellan has little faith in his backup. Talbot has played two more games than any other goalie in the NHL at 26. He’s on pace to start 71 games, which would be the highest since Braden Holtby started 73 back in 2014-15. Meanwhile Gustavsson has only started four games, all of which were part of back-to-back situations.

Willis wrote that the best defense of the signing was that the Oilers have faith in their minor league starter, Laurent Brossoit. Brossoit has progressed very well in his three seasons as their AHL starter. His save percentage has risen from 0.918 to 0.920 to a sparkling 0.927 this season. The only concern that the Oilers may have about Brossoit is the expansion draft. Because Brossoit is eligible to be selected, bringing him to the NHL and showing him off may prompt Vegas to pick him. However, this would mean the Oilers would be able to keep Brandon Davidson, the most likely player to be taken by the Golden Knights. As well, the Oilers have another AHL goalie, Nick Ellis, who has played very well in his eight games with a 0.931 SV% to take over the mantle in Bakersfield.

If not Brossoit, the Oilers could possibly take a look at Reto Berra, who’s buried behind Roberto Luongo and James Reimer in Florida, or even swap struggling backups with Leafs and see if a change of scenery helps Jhonas Enroth.

The 2016 All UFA Bust Team

at CDT | by 2 Comments

Last week we presented our 2016 All UFA Bargain team, highlighted by Jonathan Marchessault and Chad Johnson, each of whom has provided results well in excess of any expectations based on the contracts they signed this summer. Of course for every free agent bargain in the NHL there is likely at least one free agent signing that will rate as a bust. Strangely enough, only a handful of UFA blue liners inked multiyear pacts this summer with two of the biggest names, Keith Yandle and Alex Goligoski, traded by their previous employers before agreeing to lucrative deals prior to reaching unrestricted free agency. Subsequently, finding two defensemen who have severely under-performed their new contracts was not as easy as expected.

Without further ado, here is Pro Hockey Rumors 2016 All UFA Bust Team.

Forwards

Andrew Ladd (New York Islanders) – Seven years, $38.5MM: The Islanders, needing to replace the scoring tough of Kyle Okposo, reached a lucrative agreement July 1st with veteran left wing Andrew Ladd. It was expected that in addition to 25-goal, 50-point production, Ladd would also add leadership to a relatively young squad. But Ladd has just five points in 23 contests with his new club and has struggled despite seeing a lot of early-season ice time with John Tavares.

Many were critical of the Ladd contract, primarily due to the seven-year term. Ladd, soon to turn 31, already has nearly 800 regular season games under his belt and likely won’t remain productive into his mid-to-late-30’s. However it was at least expected that Ladd would maintain his 20-goal plus production through the first half of his deal.

Mikkel Boedker (San Jose Sharks) – Four years, $16MM: After falling to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Final last June, the San Jose Sharks decided they needed to add some speed to help keep up against the league’s quicker clubs. Enter Boedker, who had tied his career-high in points, tallying 51 while splitting the 2015-16 campaign between Arizona and Colorado. Boedker was supposed to help allow the Sharks to ice four quality lines with skill and add some more speed to the lineup. Unfortunately the production – two goals and four points – simply doesn’t measure up to the lofty contract he received.

Dale Weise (Philadelphia Flyers) – Four years, $9.4MM: Weise parlayed an excellent platform season – 14 goals, 27 points – into a nice, multiyear deal with the Flyers this summer despite his late-season struggles following a trade from Montreal to Chicago. The physical winger tallied just one assist in 15 games with the Blackhawks down the stretch. Yet the AAV of $2.35MM is in line with Weise’s full-season production in both 2014-15 and 2015-16. The problem is, Weise has just two goals and four points in 22 game so far on the campaign and that’s not nearly enough to justify his contract.

Defense

Dan Hamhuis (Dallas Stars) – Two years, $7.5MM: The Stars pursued Hamhuis at last season’s trade deadline but the veteran defender elected to exercise his NTC to block a proposed deal to Dallas as he didn’t want to uproot his family at that time. After losing Kris Russell, Jason Demers and Alex Goligoski from last year’s blue line, it seemed only natural that the Stars would turn again to Hamhuis for help. The 13-year-vet has long been a steady performer and the two-year term is reasonable, but he has just five points in 24 games and has been a healthy scratch at times this season. Surely the Stars expected a little more from their investment.

Jason Demers (Florida Panthers) – Five years, $22.5MM: It’s not that Demers is having a terrible year as he is on pace for around 10 goals and 29 points. But Florida remade their blue line in the offseason, moving on from tough, physical defenders Erik Gudbranson and Dmitry Kulikov in favor of better puck movers like Demers. To say that plan hasn’t worked out would be an understatement. Defensively the team is allowing 2.44 goals-per-game, exactly the same as last year. However on offense, the team is averaging 0.51 fewer goals per game. Yes, some of that likely has to do with the injuries to Jonathan Huberdeau and Nick Bjugstad, but the bottom line is the season has been a bitter disappointment for the Panthers and Demers shares in some of the responsibility.

Goalie

James Reimer (Florida Panthers) – Five years, $17MM: With Roberto Luongo now 37, and the upcoming expansion draft at least providing the Panthers with the possibility of getting out from under the final five years of his onerous contract, the Panthers elected to buy the best goalie on the free agent market this summer to provide a competent fallback option. After eight starts this season, Reimer has a Save % under 0.900 and a GAA above 3.0. While a $3.4MM AAV may not be on par with most of the league’s starters, it is excellent money for a backup and Reimer is currently not even playing to that modest level.

 

Central Division Snapshots: Lehtera, Parise, Avalanche

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

In his latest chat feature appearing in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jeremy Rutherford tackles an array of reader questions yesterday. A popular topic for Blues fans are the ongoing struggles of center Jori Lehtera, who St. Louis made a healthy scratch for this evening’s game against Winnipeg.

Lehtera posted a strong rookie campaign in 2014-15, finishing with 14 goals and 44 points in 75 games. He followed that up with a 34-point campaign last season, a noticeable drop off in output but still enough to convince the Blues to ink the 28-year-old Finnish pivot to a three-year deal with an AAV of $4.7MM. As Rutherford noted, the Blues might have been better off waiting another year to prove himself but the team decided to get that deal done so as to allow themselves to focus on re-signing David Backes and Jaden Schwartz. With just seven points in 20 games this season it’s looking like that extension may have indeed been premature.

Rutherford also believes it’s more likely now that the team will leave Lehtera unprotected and available to be taken by the Vegas Golden Knights in next June’s expansion draft. He projects the Blues will choose to protect 10 skaters – seven forwards and three blue liners – but has Lehtera and Ty Rattie as two the team will leave unprotected.

Elsewhere in the Central Division:

  •  Mike Russo of the Star Tribune reports that Zach Parise is indeed healthy, according to the team’s bench boss, Bruce Boudreau. There was concern after the veteran winger blocked a shot in the first period of Minnesota’s recent loss to Calgary. Boudreau described Parise’s skating as “sluggish” and “methodical,” in post-game remarks, which led to the questions pertaining to Parise’s health status. The long-time NHL coach did sit down with Parise along with winger Charlie Coyle, and plans to do the same with center Eric Staal to discuss the line’s recent struggles. As Russo notes, the line is pointless in its last two contests and the trio combined for just two even-strength shots in the Calgary game.
  • Lastly, Colorado GM Joe Sakic is sticking by the team’s core group despite a rough start to the 2016-17 campaign, writes Terry Frei of The Denver Post. The Avalanche are currently tied with Arizona for last place in the Western Conference and are seven points out of a playoff berth. With their season on the verge of slipping away, Sakic still expresses faith in his core – Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog, Semyon Varlamov, Tyson Barrie, Erik Johnson and Nathan MacKinnon – and feels the team needs to play with more urgency in order to get their season back on track: “I have faith in them. But to me, the start is not a core thing; it’s a team thing. I think you see we’re trying to hold people accountable. We know we have certain guys who can give more, and those guys know they can give more, but it’s not like it’s a whole thing. We’re not as consistent as we need to be. We didn’t win two straight Cups and have that leeway. We have to play with that urgency every night on a consistent basis to be successful.” Sakic’s reluctance to break up the team’s core played at least some part in the division between the GM and former head coach Patrick Roy. Unless the Avalanche can turn things around relatively quickly, it’s going to look like Roy, and not Sakic, was correct in his assessment.

Snapshots: Vegas, Russell, Stars Injury Update

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

In his latest Rumblings, ESPN analyst Pierre LeBrun wonders about retained-salary transactions between the Vegas Golden Knights and the rest of the NHL around the Expansion Draft.

Vegas GM George McPhee recently asked the NHL if other teams would be allowed to retain salary on players exposed in the Expansion Draft.

For example, the Los Angeles Kings are likely going to expose former captain Dustin Brown. Brown signed an eight-year deal back in 2013, when he was coming off a 52-point pace in the lockout shortened season. Brown’s play fell off a cliff the year before the extension took effect, and has not scored more than 28 points in a season since. The now-third-line-forward has five seasons remaining after this one at a whopping $5.875MM per.

McPhee wanted to know if he could offer to take Brown in the Expansion Draft, as long as Kings GM Dean Lombardi retained some of Brown’s salary. This would make Brown a more palatable pick for the Golden Knights, while the Kings would be able to move on from Brown without the high cost of buying him out.

LeBrun reports that Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told McPhee that retaining salary would not be allowed with expansion picks. He goes on to write that Vegas will be able to make trades shortly after the final expansion fee payment is made on March 1. This gives Vegas an advantage over previous NHL expansion franchises, because they weren’t allowed to make trades until the Expansion Draft to make trades.

NHL fans (and the league head office) will be watching for GMs to start finding loopholes. While teams won’t be allowed to retain salary for exposed players, McPhee could make an arrangement with a fellow GM to select an agreed upon lesser player and then trade a late round pick in the NHL Entry Draft for a high-priced player with salary retained. In theory, the Golden Knights could take Michael Latta from the Kings, instead of a more notable exposed-player, and then trade a 5th round pick to Los Angeles for Brown with salary retained.

With the NHL watching closely to make sure every transaction passes the smell test, it will be interesting to see if this loophole gets taken advantage of, or if it’s closed before McPhee and the Golden Knights take advantage of it.

  • After the Oilers 6-3 win over the Jets on Thursday night, Postmedia’s Jim Matheson argued that the Oilers should try and make a handshake deal with Kris Russell to sign after the expansion draft, which would likely prevent McPhee and the Golden Knights selecting Russell. While Matheson called Russell the Oilers “third-best defenseman” who “really solidified their back-end,” Russell is a divisive figure between the analytics world and the old hockey mindset. He gets poor results based on most analytics metrics, but he’s a well-liked, shot-blocking defenseman. Sportsnet analytics writer Stephen Burtch took a deeper look at Russell’s advanced stats, and found that only two Oilers actually get better results when Russell is on the ice: Benoit Pouliot and Zack Kassian. Meanwhile, Connor McDavid, perhaps the best player in the NHL and its leading scorer, performs markedly worse when Russell is on the ice. McDavid’s expected goals-for goes down nearly 20% when he plays with Russell. Burtch argued that Russell is not the Oilers third-best defenseman, and his skill-set of lowering his team’s goals-against is decent, but also largely based on luck.
  • Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News updated the condition of several injured Dallas Stars on Friday morning. While Ales Hemsky and Mattias Janmark are both out until April with hip surgery and knee surgery respectively, Johnny Oduya (lower body) could be back sometime next week. As we reported on Thursday, the pending UFA Oduya may be on the trade block. Meanwhile Jiri Hudler has been out of the lineup with an unknown virus for a month, and remains out with no timeline for his return. The Stars could use some help, as they have a 9-10-6 record and sit in fifth in the Central Division.

PHR Originals: 11/20/16 – 11/26/16

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

While we already looked at the five key hockey stories of the week, here’s some of the original material produced by Pro Hockey Rumors from last week:

  • Glen Miller took a look at the 2016 UFA all bargain team, a list that included the likes of Eric Staal, Jonathan Marchessault, Brian Campbell, and Chad Johnson. 
  • Brian La Rose investigated some defenseman who could garner attention in the trade market, which of course, included Kevin Shattenkirk.
  • Gavin Lee compiled a list of goaltenders who would be great additions to the Vegas Golden Knights roster should they be available during the expansion draft.
  • Zach Leach conducted a deep dive into the post-Brent Burns free agent market heading into the 2017 offseason.
  • Finally, I was able to interview the Athletic’s Scott Powers who gave us his thoughts on Chicago’s play with a quarter of the season in the books.

How Will The Expansion Draft Impact Canadian Teams?

at CDT | by 8 Comments

Continuing our look at different expansion draft angles,  CBC’s Amy Cleveland examines how the draft will affect the seven teams in Canada. Laying out the rules for the draft, Cleveland looks further and prognosticates who she sees as “potentially protected” versus those players who would be “intriguing” in being exposed. She further writes that all seven Canadian teams will be able to protect the bulk of their important players. The Flames sit prettiest without any non-movement clauses in contracts while the Leafs and Senators have only one player with an NMC (Nathan Horton, and Dion Phaneuf respectively).

Below are Cleveland’s picks for each team. Going to CBC’s page with the story includes in depth reasoning behind each of Cleveland’s choices.

Calgary Flames
NMC protected players: None.

Potentially protected: 

Intriguing exposed:

Edmonton Oilers
NMC protected players: Milan Lucic (F), Andrej Sekera (D), Cam Talbot (G)

Potentially protected: 

Intriguing exposed:

Montreal Canadiens
NMC protected players: Carey Price (G), Jeff Petry (D)

Potentially protected: 

Intriguing exposed: 

Ottawa Senators
NMC protected players: Dion Phaneuf (D)

Potentially protected: 

Intriguing exposed: 

Toronto Maple Leafs
NMC protected players: Nathan Horton (F)

Potentially protected: 

Vancouver Canucks
NMC protected players: Loui Eriksson (F), Daniel Sedin (F), Henrik Sedin (F)

Potentially protected: 

​Intriguing exposed: 

Winnipeg Jets
NMC protected players: Dustin Byfuglien (D), Toby Enstrom (D)

Potentially protected: 

Intriguing exposed:

 

Possible Goaltending Options For Vegas Golden Knights

at CDT | by 18 Comments

When the expansion draft comes around this June, George McPhee and Kelly McCrimmon will have some tough decisions to make all over their team. They are having mock-drafts each month to prepare for the event, but there is one position that shouldn’t cause any headaches over how many solid options there are.

With each team only able to protect one goaltender, front offices around the league will have to either move a netminder before the draft, or risk losing one for nothing. While that would protect them from losing anyone else, it’s been clear this year more than maybe any other that an all-world goaltender can make your team special right from day one.  Here are a few options for Vegas in net come the summer.

Pittsburgh – Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Murray

In what will be the most interesting situation around the league, the Pittsburgh Penguins are currently required to protect Fleury over Murray due to his no-movement clause. While they’ve said time and again that they’re fine with keeping both through the year, Murray’s play at such a young age makes him a mouth-wateringly attractive asset.

It’s in Fleury’s court at this point, as he’ll have the option to waive his clause for any trade before the deadline or prior to the draft to make him eligible. If he does, it’s not certain that the Vegas team would select him, but he’d obviously be an elite option. At 31, Fleury is having one of the worst seasons of his career, but is still a two-time Stanley Cup champion with an impressive life-time record.

The Penguins must find a way to protect Murray, or he’ll surely be the pick to start in game one at the T-Mobile Center in Las Vegas.

Read more

Metro Division Snapshots: Raanta, Calvert, Capitals

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

New York Rangers backup net minder Antti Raanta is 5 – 0 – 0 in six starts this season after besting the Penguins 5 – 2 Monday night and since joining the Blueshirts in 2015, the Finnish goalie 16 – 6 – 2 with a GAA of 2.20 and a Save % of 92.4%. While he isn’t a threat to the job of longtime Rangers starter Henrik Lundqvist, his superb play at the bargain basement price of $1M this year and next does give the Blueshirts one of the best backup bargains in the league, writes Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post.

Raanta was acquired from Chicago in the summer of 2015 in exchange for minor league forward Ryan Haggerty to replace Cam Talbot as Lundqvist’s understudy. He spent two seasons with the Blackhawks and saw action in 39 games. Raanta was originally inked by Chicago as an undrafted free agent in 2013.

Even though “King” Henrik is the unquestioned starter in New York, the plan is for the Rangers to limit his usage somewhat in order to keep him fresh for the playoffs. As such, Raanta is expected to see action in around 25 games this season. His stellar play means there is little to no drop off  from Lundqvist when Raanta is in goal.

Even though Raanta is under contract for one more season, it’s quite possible he won’t be with the Rangers beyond the 2016-17 campaign. With the Rangers required to protect Lundqvist in the expansion draft, the new Vegas Golden Knights franchise will have the option of selecting the 27-year-old Raanta. At the very least he would be an excellent #2 goalie at an inexpensive price for the Golden Knights in their inaugural season.

More from the Metro Division:

  • The Columbus Blue Jackets announced via their official Twitter account that Matt Calvert would miss tonight’s game against Calgary with an upper-body-injury. To take his place the team recalled forward Markus Hannikainen from Cleveland of the AHL. Calvert, who was hit by a shot in a recent game against the Rangers which ultimately required 36 stitches to his forehead, has two goals in 17 games this season. Hannikainen, 23, made his NHL debut tonight and was held scoreless in 9:47 of ice itme. He has five goals and eight points in 14 games for the Monsters.
  • With just more than $700K in salary cap space, the Washington Capitals have had to be creative managing their roster as injuries have begun to pile up, as Isabelle Khurshudyan of The Washington Post writes. After forward Paul Carey was reassigned to the AHL following Sunday’s game, the Caps were left with just 11 healthy forwards. Subsequently, reserve defenseman Nate Schmidt skated as a forward at practice. It’s an option head coach Barry Trotz may need to employ in an actual game should the situation warrant it. The piece gives an interesting insight into the complexities of roster management in the salary cap era. Every day the Capitals can avoid having to call up a minor league player such as Carey adds to the amount of salary cap space the team banks for use later in the campaign. While they may need to recall a player to play in a game, there is no sense carrying him on the roster during breaks in the schedule.

 

Vegas Notes: Exempt List, Salary Retention, Minority Owners

at CDT | by 4 Comments

Earlier today, the full list of players who require protection from the expansion draft due to no-movement clauses was released, and it’s an interesting study to be sure. Out of the 66 names on the list, four teams are fully unhindered by the clauses. Calgary, San Jose, St. Louis and Washington are free to protect their full compliment of players, having not given out a single NMC that would fall under automatic protection. Even Brent Burns’ new mega-deal doesn’t contain the clause, even though he would already be an obvious protection candidate.

While some of the information may be news to fans, each individual franchise likely had a good understanding of who would be on this list and shouldn’t be shocked by the release today. That doesn’t stop the speculation however, that teams like the Anaheim Ducks and New York Rangers will be looking to make a move to ensure they get something in return a young player instead of exposing him to the draft.

  • Alex Prewitt of SI gave some interesting info today about the possibility of salary retention on selected players. Though the new franchise will be able to include salary in pre and post draft trades like any other club, they will not be able to reach a salary retention agreement with any selected player. This likely could have been used as a loophole to make deals with the Vegas club, something that the NHL wants to stop as much as possible. This draft is supposed to be as above-board as possible, with the league even saying everything will have to “pass the smell test”.
  • Despite rumors circulating today that MLB free agent Jose Bautista and NFL star Rob Gronkowski were among those who held a minority stake in the Vegas hockey club, Prewitt reports that there is in fact no investors of any kind other than Bill Foley and the Maloof family. While Prewitt admits that there is a group of investors looking to form an LLC to invest in the Golden Knights, nothing has been submitted or approved by league offices, a required step for any investment.

Full List Of Mandatory-Protection Players In Expansion Draft

at CDT | by 2 Comments

Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston has published the full list of players who, due to no-movement clauses in their current contracts, must be protected in the upcoming expansion draft for the new Vegas Golden Knights. These are players who will count against the protection limits should they choose not to waive their NMC rights prior to the draft.

Each team has the right to protect either:

A) Seven forwards, three defenders, one goaltender

or

B) Eight skaters, one goaltender

These players will count against those numbers, and as Johnston points out, there are some notable inclusions and omissions from this group. Players like Jordan Staal, Rick Nash and Bobby Ryan all had incorrect information spread about their contracts. The former two will now need protection, while the latter will not, due to his deal only having a no-movement to the minors clause.

The Chicago Blackhawks, with eight players listed, will have little flexibility at the draft, with only four forward spots (or one defenseman) left to use. Many others, according to Johnston, including Toronto’s Nathan Horton, are likely to be made exempt if they are still on LTIR as the draft approaches.

Read more

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

scroll to top