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Los Angeles Kings Looking For Top-Six Forwards

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The Los Angeles Kings missed the playoffs again in 2020-21, finishing with a 21-28-7 record in the West Division. Once again, they had trouble scoring enough to keep up with the rest of the playoff opponents, finishing 27th in the league with just 142 goals in 56 games. Anze Kopitar once again led the team in scoring with a strong 50-point season but no other forward had more than 31.

It makes sense then that they will be looking for more offense this summer, and today Darren Dreger of TSN tweets that the team is hoping to add two top-six forwards through trade or free agency.

The first player that many minds will go to is Jack Eichel, who has been linked—however thinly—to the Kings for weeks. That is more speculative and based on how many young assets that Los Angeles has, but with teams calling the Buffalo Sabres recently it wouldn’t be surprising to hear the Kings were one of them.

There’s more than just Eichel out there though, and the Kings are going into the offseason with more than $20MM in cap space after moving some pricey contracts in recent years. The team only retained just over $2.6MM on Jeff Carter’s contract when they sent him to Pittsburgh and Alex Iafallo’s extension only increases his cap hit to $4MM. There’s still concerning term on deals for the 33-year old Kopitar and 31-year-old Drew Doughty, but GM Rob Blake still has a little flexibility to use this summer.

Of course, there is also the possibility that the Kings already have their top-six options on the roster. Gabriel Vilardi averaged fewer than 15 minutes of ice time in his first full season and could be given more responsibility next season. Quinton Byfield also should take a step forward if given more than just six games to show his skills at the NHL level. Rasmus Kupari, Arthur Kaliyev, and Jaret Anderson-Dolan are all high picks who could take developmental steps as well.

The excitement for Blake though is if he doesn’t have to move those high-potential players in order to acquire these so-called top-six forwards, the Kings could turn from one of the league’s worst offensive teams to one of its best in short order.

Filip Lindberg Could Test Free Agency

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UMass goaltender Filip Lindberg has been unable to reach a contract with the Minnesota Wild according to Michael Russo of The Athletic and could become an unrestricted free agent later this summer. Despite being drafted in 2019 and playing only three seasons of college hockey, the 22-year-old Lindberg’s exclusive draft rights will expire after his agent submitted a letter informing Minnesota of his intention to forego his senior season, leave the NCAA and turn pro. As Russo states, the goaltender will be eligible to sign with any team when free agency opens on July 28.

Lindberg was a seventh-round pick in 2019 as a 20-year-old, a lottery ticket based on only 17 (albeit excellent) games of college hockey. The .934 he posted as a freshman was proven to be no fluke, however, as he returned with two more outstanding seasons for the Minutemen, including a national championship this year. In 50 total games for UMass, Lindberg posted a 29-10-6 record, a .937 save percentage, and a 1.58 goals-against average. Sure, those numbers are boosted by a strong team in front of him, but he has turned from a seventh-round lottery ticket into a legitimate NHL prospect in short order.

When he does sign, Lindberg will be limited to inking a two-year, entry-level contract. In Minnesota, he could potentially see his path to the NHL blocked by fellow top prospect Kaapo Kahkonen, given veteran Cam Talbot’s remaining two years under contract. It’s unclear at this point which team would be the frontrunner to sign him, but make no mistake there will be interest in the college star if he hits the open market.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Jacob De La Rose Returning To Sweden

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It certainly hasn’t been the NHL career that many envisioned for Jacob de La Rose when the Montreal Canadiens selected him 34th overall in 2013. A big, physical center that had already played at a high level in Sweden as a teenager, de La Rose’s offensive game was supposed to mature and develop in North America. It never did, with his best offensive year coming in the AHL when he scored 31 points in 62 games for the St. John’s IceCaps. In his 242 NHL games, split between the Canadiens, Detroit Red Wings, and St. Louis Blues, the 6’3″ forward registered just 38 points. Now, as restricted free agency approaches for the final time, de La Rose is going back home.

The 26-year-old has signed a three-year contract with Farjestad BK in the SHL, meaning that even if the Blues qualify him this summer, he’ll be an unrestricted free agent by the time this deal expires. It’s hard to even envision him returning to the NHL at this point, given how rarely he was given more than fourth-line minutes throughout his career. Through those 242 games he has averaged fewer than 12 minutes a night, and that is skewed heavily by his usage early on. Unless an offensive explosion happens in Sweden, this may be the last you hear of de La Rose on this side of the pond.

If that’s the case, it is just another poor outcome for a player selected high by the Canadiens in the mid-2010s. de La Rose followed first-round pick Michael McCarron in 2013, with Zach Fucale coming two picks later. In 2014 it was Nikita Scherbak and Brett Lernout with the first two picks, and in 2015 Noah Juulsen and Lukas Vejdemo were the team’s top two selections. Amazingly, it’s perhaps 2014 seventh-round pick Jake Evans that will make the biggest impact from those three classes (honorable mention to Artturi Lehkonen), after his strong performance as a two-way player this season.

Kenny Agostino Signs In KHL

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have a long list of forwards hitting unrestricted free agency this summer, but at least one of them won’t be returning. Kenny Agostino has signed a contract with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of the KHL after spending most of the last two seasons in the minor leagues.

Agostino, 29, signed a two-year, two-way contract with the Maple Leafs in 2019, likely believing he’d be an often-used injury replacement after playing 63 NHL games the previous year. Instead, he spent the entire 2019-20 campaign in the AHL, racking up 49 points with the Toronto Marlies. This season was much of the same, though Agostino did receive one game with the Maple Leafs where he went scoreless. In 22 AHL contests, he continued his career point-per-game pace, scoring nine goals and 22 points.

With 30 points in 85 career NHL games and a 30th birthday that doesn’t come until next year, one might have expected Agostino to search for another job in North America. Instead, he’ll head overseas to test himself at the KHL level. While obviously nothing is guaranteed, the veteran forward is certainly talented enough to be a star in Russia.

Latest On Seth Jones

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have been unable to retain their stars in recent years, with names like Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Matt Duchene all leaving in free agency. The next big name on that list is Seth Jones, who will enter the final season of his six-year, $32.4MM contract in 2021-22 with unrestricted free agency right around the corner. Though the Blue Jackets would obviously love to sign the Norris contender to a long-term contract to keep him in Columbus, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported on Hockey Night In Canada that the 26-year-old will not sign an extension with the team at this point.

We can tell you that sometime in the last week or so, Seth Jones informed the Columbus Blue Jackets that he will not be re-signing. I’m saying ’for now’ at this point because I don’t like to deal in absolutes. But it does appear as if he is prepared to test free agency and we’ll see how Columbus decides to handle this over the next little while.

If Jones has told the team he intends to go to the open market, it means the Blue Jackets will be forced to at least test the market to see what kind of return would be available with one year remaining on his deal. The team is coming off a brutal season that saw them fall to the very bottom of the Central Division standings at 18-26-12, parted ways with their head coach, and traded away their captain Nick Foligno.

Moving Jones would be a huge transaction, but it wouldn’t be the first time the star defender was traded. He arrived in Columbus in a blockbuster five years ago, swapped for up-and-coming center Ryan Johansen. Since then he has turned into one of the very best all-around defensemen in the league, able to contribute offensively while also matching the other team’s best on any given night.

Of course, the Blue Jackets could decide to( and have suggested in the past that they will) keep him and use the next 12 months to attempt to change his mind. Jones’ next contract will likely make him one of the highest-paid defenders in the entire league and as long as the Blue Jackets are willing to pay market value, any growth this summer and next season should be seen as positives.

The Jones situation in Columbus will be one of the most interesting to keep an eye on through the summer and up to the 2022 trade deadline.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Arizona Coyotes Executive Brian Daccord Resigns

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The Arizona Coyotes and GM Bill Armstrong sure have their work cut out for them this summer. With just a dozen 2020-21 regulars under contract beyond this season – eight forwards, three defenseman, and a goalie, no first-round pick due to forfeiture, and the impending NHL Expansion Draft, there was already more than enough for the team to handle as they look to improve ahead of next season. Now, there will be one less mind to help out. As confirmed by Coyotes beat writer Craig Morgan, Special Assistant to the GM and Director of Goaltending Personnel Brian Daccord has resigned from his position. He follows Assistant GM’s Lindsay Hofford and Steve Sullivan out the door, all in the past nine months, leaving behind a desolate front office.

Daccord was in fact Armstrong’s first hire after he landed the Arizona GM job in September. Morgan describes Daccord as Armstrong’s “right-hand man” and someone who held many different responsibilities. Many of those duties involved goaltending, which was a bright spot this season in the desert with Darcy Kuemper’s continued strong play and Adin Hill taking a step forward. However, it could quickly become an area of concern with Kuemper a fixture in the trade rumor mill, Hill potentially exposed to expansion, and veteran Antti Raanta heading for free agency, without much in the way of high-end talent in the pipeline. Perhaps even more important though is that Morgan notes that Daccord was also heavily involved in recommending front office hires to Armstrong. Not only must the GM replace his two departed assistants, but he now must replace the man who was supposed to help him with the selection process. Entering his first full off-season, this could already be a do-or-die summer for Armstrong with so many major decisions on his plate and not much support.

As for Daccord, the respected hockey mind is sure to find work elsewhere, if he hasn’t already. A professional goalie in Switzerland during his playing career, Daccord has worked his way up the coaching ranks from assistant coach at his alma mater, Merrimack College, to goalie coach positions with the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, and in Germany, and finally to a front office position overseeing goaltending personnel, among other things. One possible landing spot could be with the Ottawa Senators, where son Joey Daccord is himself a goaltender.

Negotiations Break Down Between Oilers, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

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After a stunning first-round sweep at the hands of the Winnipeg Jets, the bad could soon get worse for the Edmonton Oilers. Appearing on Sportsnet 960 in Calgary today, insider Elliotte Friedman dropped a bomb: “That’s a negotiation that went sideways… It fell apart.” He’s of course referring to the Oilers’ negotiations with impending free agent Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, easily the third-best forward on a top-heavy Edmonton roster. After a decade of consistent production, the Oilers could now potentially watch the 2011 first overall pick walk out the door.

According to Friedman, the two sides were close to terms of an extension early in the season. He is unsure when or how things starting to break down, but Friedman adds that whatever imminent deal was once on the table is no longer there. ” I believe it was always the plan that Nugent-Hopkins was going to stay and they wanted to keep him,” Friedman stated, “And now I don’t know… it got mangled.”

While the Oilers could certainly use the added cap flexibility that an RNH departure would afford them, they would have a hard time making up his production, even with multiple additions. A career .73 per-game scorer, Nugent-Hopkins has notched 60+ point seasons in two of the past three years and in an 82-game season this year would have surpassed 50 points for the sixth time in his ten-year career. That kind of production, especially to a team that sees Nugent-Hopkins as a center rather than wing, could be invaluable this off-season. Among impending UFA forwards, RNH ranked sixth this season in points per game and many of those players around him – Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog, Washington’s Alex Ovechkin, Toronto’s Zach Hyman, and Boston’s David Krejci and Taylor Hall – are expected by most to re-sign with their current squads. Nugent-Hopkins could realistically enter the open market as the most coveted forward available. If the Oilers allow RNH to test the market, the odds that they will be able to afford to re-sign him diminish greatly.

Talks will certainly continue between the two sides. Friedman notes that there have been attempts to rebuild a mutually acceptable offer, but it obviously hasn’t happened yet. Edmonton’s early playoff exit may have changed the mindset of the player or the team, but assuming there is still interest in an extension, negotiations will probably come down to the last minute. However, generally when a deal is in place and then breaks down to this extent, it doesn’t bode well for a continued relationship. Will the 2021 free agent market become the summer of RNH?

Matt Tomkins Signs In SHL

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The Chicago Blackhawks will bid farewell to one of their depth goaltenders, as Matt Tomkins has signed a one-year contract with Frolunda of the SHL. Tomkins was scheduled for unrestricted free agency this summer as his two-year contract came to an end. Frolunda’s goaltending coach released a statement (via Google translate):

Matt is a big and structured goalkeeper with a European style and a clear game idea. We have scouted him properly and he has made a good impression on us. It will be really fun to work with him next season and he is excited to come here.  

Now 26, the seventh-round pick never did get to the NHL, playing his entire career thus far in the minor leagues. In 15 appearances with the Rockford IceHogs this season he posted a .907 save percentage, but he never did really seem to be in the plans for the Blackhawks as they went with other, younger, netminders at the NHL level.

Frolunda meanwhile recently lost their starting goalie when Erik Kallgren signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs, meaning Tomkins should have a good opportunity to play overseas. Unless he takes a huge developmental step though, the now-former Blackhawks goaltender likely won’t be considered for another NHL contract down the road.

Rask, Bruins Table Talks Until After Playoffs

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The Boston Bruins are focused on the next round and a long playoff run, meaning contract talks can wait for pending free agent goaltender Tuukka Rask. Bruins president Cam Neely told reporters today including Amalie Benjamin of NHL.com that Rask and the team have agreed to push off any negotiations until after the season.

Though he is unquestionably their starting goaltender right now and just posted a .941 save percentage in the first round, it will be interesting to see how the two sides come together this offseason. The Bruins have a young goaltender in Jeremy Swayman who looks ready for the job and Daniel Vladar who has dominated the minor leagues. The 34-year-old Rask and longtime tandem partner Jaroslav Halak are pending free agents, meaning if the Bruins wanted to, they could make a pretty drastic shift in net next season and reinvest the cap space elsewhere.

There is very little that Rask has failed to accomplish at the NHL level. A Stanley Cup, a Vezina Trophy, a Jennings Trophy, a First All-Star team selection, nearly 100 playoff appearances—the list goes on for one of the most successful goaltenders of his generation. Rask’s .921 regular season save percentage puts him third all-time behind only Dominik Hasek and Johnny Bower; his .927 in the playoffs close to the top as well.

Still, there has been a faction of Bruins supporters that have had a near-constant call for change in the Bruins crease thanks to perceived aloofness or inconsistency from the Finnish netminder. Now, as the offseason approaches, there will be a difficult decision to be made. Bruins GM Don Sweeney is used to those; he let franchise icons Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug leave in free agency last summer, noting a need to give more ice time to their young defensemen. The same could be said about the goaltending position after Swayman, who has two more years on his entry-level contract, burst onto the scene and recorded a .945 save percentage in 10 appearances.

Boston carried a $9.25MM cap hit this season between Rask and Halak, a number that could drop dramatically next year if they handed the reins to Swayman. That kind of financial capital would be more than enough to reinforce other parts of the lineup or perhaps even help to retain the services of deadline addition Taylor Hall.

Of course, handing the crease to a relatively unproven goaltender as key members of the team continue to age out of their prime is a risky proposition. There’s no reason the decision has to be made now, in fact, what happens over the next several weeks in the playoffs should hold weight. But there is a tough call coming in Boston when the talks between Rask and the Bruins resume.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Ottawa Senators Extend Clark Bishop

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The Ottawa Senators have signed Clark Bishop to a one-year, two-way contract extension. The 25-year-old forward was set to become a Group VI unrestricted free agent this offseason after failing to reach the required number of games played for restricted free agency. That won’t matter now, as the Senators have brought him back on a deal that will carry an $800K salary in the NHL and a 200K salary in the AHL.

Senators GM Pierre Dorion released the following statement:

Clark proved to be a versatile player for us this past season. He possesses good speed, has a great work ethic and showcases a continuous willingness to play in hard areas. We’re pleased to reach agreement with him.

Bishop came to the Senators in a trade just before the season began and ended up playing 13 games for the team. He failed to score a goal, but did register three assists and generally held his own. That short audition has obviously impressed the team enough to bring him back, though the two-way deal suggests he isn’t guaranteed a roster spot next season.

Instead, Bishop will likely serve a similar role, sitting somewhere between 14-16 on the forward depth chart. A handful of NHL games should be expected, but it’s hard to see him locking down a full-time roster spot with so many young prospects pushing for playing time. If the Senators want to move him to the minor leagues Bishop will have to clear waivers, but that shouldn’t be much of an issue. He cleared twice this season.

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