Snapshots: Training Camp Start Date, Rask Free Agency, 2020 Young Stars Classic, Lindblom Recovery
Phase 2 of the NHL’s return to play initiative is well underway, but the rest of the timeline is still being finalized. Phase 3, originally planned for July 10, is being pushed back a couple of days to July 13th, per Greg Joyce of the New York Post. Teams already are looking into cutting the number of exhibition games from 2 to 1 given the shortened timetable and increased risk with each passing day, per Louis Jean of TVA Sports. Phase 3 marks the official start to training camp for the 24-team playoff that will determine the Stanley Cup winner for the 2019-2020 season. Team facilities have largely opened up as players have begun to arrive early to get into game shape. But that’s not all that’s happening in the NHL…
- The Boston Bruins and goaltender Tuukka Rask are close to embarking on a classic game of free agent chicken. Both Rask and his partner between the pipes Jaroslav Halak will be free agents at the end of the 2020-2021 season. We chronicled earlier today the deal that brought Task to Boston fourteen years ago, but if the Bruins are going to lock up their 33-year-old goalie, it’s likely going to cost – Rask’s current $7MM price tag makes him the fifth highest-paid goaltender this season, behind Carey Price, Sergei Bobrovsky, Henrik Lundqvist, and Marc-Andre Fleury, writes Joe Haggerty of NBC Sports. Rask has a legitimate shot at winning his second Vezina Trophy, and the tandem of Rask and Halak already secured the Jennings Trophy for the year. On the other hand, depending on how next season goes, Rask could take a pay cut, given that he’ll be entering his age-35 season.
- The 2020 Young Stars Classic has officially been postponed because of coronavirus, per Mark Scheig of The Hockey Writers. The four-team, round-robin tournament would have featured prospects from four of the NHL’s Canadian franchises: Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg. The tournament had been scheduled for mid-September, but it’s now officially postponed. There’s no telling at this stage if the tournament will ultimately be canceled or just pushed back.
- In a bit of good news: Philadelphia Flyers’ winger Oskar Lindblom recently underwent radiation treatments to treat Ewing’s sarcoma, per Dan Gelston of The Associated Press. The rare form of bone cancer ended Lindblom’s season early and put his life in danger, but the treatments went as planned and he appears to be on the road to recovery. Not only that, but he’s already targeting a return to the NHL, tweets The Athletic’s Charlie O’Connor. Lindblom, 23, looked to build on his strong rookie season when he posted 33 points with 13:45 ATOI for the Flyers in 2018-2019. He potted 11 goals with 7 assists in just 30 games before his life-threatening diagnosis. There is zero chance that Lindblom returns this season, but that he’s already eyeing a return to the ice at all is a big win for Lindblom and the Flyers.
Blackhawks Notes: Mitchell, Dach, De Haan, Crawford
Sooner or later, Ian Mitchell will join the Chicago Blackhawks. Whether he’ll suit up for the Stanley Cup Qualifier against the Edmonton Oilers remains to be seen. Until coronavirus ended the college season, Mitchell had banked 32 points in his junior year with the University of Denver, and his availability for the tail end of the NHL season was largely going to be dictated by how far of a run Denver could make in their own playoffs. Though the details of the proposed return-to-play plan between the NHL and NHLPA aren’t finalized, it’s assumed that players in Mitchell’s situation – those who have signed their entry-level deals but haven’t debuted – won’t be allowed to join their clubs for the playoff, per TSN’s Bob McKenzie. Regardless, Mitchell isn’t likely to join the defensive rotation this season, not with Duncan Keith and Adam Boqvist, Calvin de Haan and Connor Murphy, and Olli Maatta and Slater Koekkoek likely making up the top three line pairings, writes The Athletic’s Scott Powers If Mitchell isn’t able to sign with the Blackhawks this season, that probably suits Chicago just fine, as they could gain an extra year of cost control for Mitchell. If he is allowed to sign, not only might Chicago burn a year of Mitchell’s entry-level deal, but it’d also align his first year of restricted free agency with Boqvist and Kirby Dach. The Hawks know all too well how difficult it can be to build a contender when a team’s best young players become expensive at the same time.
- Speaking of Dach, the Blackhawks’ rookie center isn’t quite as gung-ho to return to the ice as NHL players are “supposed” to be, but that shouldn’t be a knock on the young center’s character, writes The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus. On the contrary, Dach displayed remarkable self-awareness and maturity in his comments about returning to play: “As a young guy in my first year, I feel like I’ve got a lot of potential to grow and learn in this league, and to become the player I want to be. I know I’m a few steps away from that. At the same time, this could be a health risk for many young guys’ careers. We’re high-intensity athletes, where our hearts and lungs are pumping extremely fast, and (COVID-19) could be damaging to us, even past our careers. That’s something you’ve got to take into consideration when you go back.” Dach, 19, showed enough in his first season to excite the Chicago faithful, scoring 23 points in 14:16 ATOI. Despite his concerns, Dach plans on joining his teammates for their Stanley Cup Qualifier against the Edmonton Oilers, which, if nothing else, will provide Dach an early brush with playoff-adjacent hockey.
- Calvin de Haan, meanwhile, is back on the ice as of today, per Carter Baum of NHL.com. In his first season with the Blackhawks, the former Islanders and Hurricanes blueliner appeared in 29 games before right shoulder surgery knocked him out for the year – or so we thought. When healthy, de Haan was a penalty killer for Chicago, and he’ll likely slot back into the second pair or defenseman with Connor Murphy if he’s fully back up to speed. Baum provides this quote from Coach Jeremy Colliton: “Obviously we’ve got to get him on the ice and go through camp and hopefully everything continues to progress as far as his health.”
- The Blackhawks have an uphill climb ahead of them if they hope to survive the Stanley Cup Qualifier. Taking on the star-studded Edmonton Oilers on their home ice (without fans) presents a challenge for the Hawks, but it’s still a better deal than they were likely to get had the season finished on time. Chicago wasn’t likely to scratch their way back into the playoff hunt, but now youngsters like Dach, Boqvist, and Alex DeBrincat can garner some experience playing games of consequence against some of the best players in the game. The Blackhawks have the experience to upset Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and the Oilers, but to do so will likely require goaltender Corey Crawford to quickly get on top of his game, per Tracey Myers of NHL.com. After trading Robin Lehner to the Golden Knights, Chicago has no viable Plan B should the 35-year-old Crawford struggle to hit his stride. Not to pile on in the stakes department, but Crawford is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
July 1st Retrospective: 2017
It’s July 1st which means today should be filled with hundreds of millions committed to contracts signed in the early hours of free agency. However, this is no ordinary year and as a result, the UFA market is on hold for a while yet with the Stanley Cup on pace to be awarded sometime in October with the official offseason beginning after that. So instead of there being plenty of new deals to talk about, let’s take a look back at the frenzy from recent years. We begin with 2017; 2018 will appear on Thursday and 2019 on Friday.
This group of free agents wasn’t the strongest overall and teams were showing a bit more restraint after a dreadful 2016 UFA market that saw quite a few brutal contracts handed out. Nevertheless, there were still some notable deals handed out including several that haven’t worked out as well as intended.
For the purpose of this exercise, we’re limiting our scope to the deals handed out on July 1st itself which means players like Alexander Radulov and Patrick Marleau who signed soon after are not considered here.
Key Re-Signings
Cam Fowler (ANA) – 8 years, $52MM – Fowler signed this extension coming off of what was his best offensive showing since his rookie season while logging nearly 25 minutes a night. A $6.5MM cap hit for a potential top pairing defenseman was reasonable and while injuries have hit him every year since then, it’s still not a bad deal for someone that has settled in as their second or third defender most nights. All in all, the deal has held up pretty well.
Justin Schultz (PIT) – 3 years, $16.5MM – Schultz’s first full season with the Penguins was the best of his career as he looked as if he had finally lived up to his potential as a highly-touted blueliner. The deal represented a reasonable price tag for a capable top-four defender with some offensive upside while allowing him another opportunity to hit the open market while still somewhat in his prime. Instead, injuries have been an issue each year and while he had 51 points in 2016-17, he was only able to muster up that many points combined on this contract.
Sharks – San Jose gets their own section here. Marc-Edouard Vlasic (8 years, $56MM) inked an extension that looked pricey at the time and even worse now. He has slowed down considerably over the last couple of years and still has six seasons left on his deal. Martin Jones’ (6 years, $34.5MM) extension hasn’t looked great either. He has posted .896 save percentages in each of the two years of the contract, numbers that are below average for a backup let alone a starter. Both of those contracts are hurting their salary structure and will be tough to get out from under. Meanwhile, Joe Thornton agreed to another one-year extension worth $6.5MM. Injuries limited him to just 47 games that year but he still managed 36 points.
Top AAV Free Agent Signings
(Players changing teams)
Kevin Shattenkirk (NYR) – 4 years, $26.6MM – Shattenkirk was the top prize to get to the open market. It was known that he wanted to go to the Rangers and there were bigger deals that he left on the table to sign with New York. At the time, it seemed like a fortunate turn of events for the Rangers. It wasn’t. He struggled considerably in his two seasons with the team before being bought out where they will incur a $6.083MM cap charge next season for having done so.
Karl Alzner (MTL) – 5 years, $23.125MM – This was the longest contract handed out to a free agent changing teams on day one of free agency in 2017. It looked questionable at the time and worse now. After holding down a regular role with the Canadiens in his first year with them, he has spent the majority of his time since then in the minors. If he’s not bought out this offseason, he’ll likely be back there next season as well.
Justin Williams (CAR) – 2 years, $9MM – While he was 36 in his first season back with the team, the multi-year pact was a good one for both sides. Williams had 51 and 53 points over his two seasons on that deal and served as their captain in 2018-19. That performance wasn’t a huge bargain but as far as comparing it to the other notable deals signed on this day three years ago, it was one of the better contracts signed.
Ones To Forget
Martin Hanzal (DAL) – 3 years, $14.25MM – On the surface, this seemed a little pricey but not too much. At the time, Hanzal was a capable third line center that could move up when injuries arose and overpaying for that was understandable. Unfortunately, back issues have basically made the last two years a write-off (seven games last year, zero this season) while he missed more than half of 2017-18 as well. In the end, they got six goals and six assists out of him for their money.
Dmitry Kulikov (WPG) – 3 years, $13MM – Kulikov’s 2016-17 season was a disaster, to put it gently. Despite that, the Jets went off of his reputation from his time in Florida and handed him a three-year deal that didn’t make any sense from the moment it was signed. Injuries were an issue in the first two years while being in a sheltered role when he did play. Injuries were also a problem this season but he was better, logging 20 minutes a night for the first time with them. The deal ends on a better note than it started but it was still a bad one.
Sam Gagner (VAN) – 3 years, $9.45MM – Gagner had a career year with Columbus heading into free agency with 50 points so from an AAV perspective, this didn’t seem excessive. He was passable in his first year with the Canucks but then spent most of the second season of the deal in the minors. He was dealt to Edmonton during that second season and hung around on the NHL roster for most of it this year but the output was minimal; all told, he had a combined 26 points over the final two seasons which is far from a good return.
Steve Mason (WPG) – 2 years, $8.2MM – He was brought in to mentor/push youngster Connor Hellebuyck but only played in 13 games in the first season of the contract and didn’t fare all that well. With the Jets in a cap crunch the following summer, they had to part with Joel Armia to offload Mason’s contract on Montreal (and they immediately bought him out). The deal worked out well for Mason as he made nearly $7MM to play those 13 games but it’s one to forget for Winnipeg.
Bargains
Evgenii Dadonov (FLA) – 3 years, $12MM – This deal carried plenty of risk since Dadonov’s first tour through the NHL (with the Panthers, no less) wasn’t good. But he lit up the KHL to earn a second chance and has made the most of it, posting 81 goals and 101 assists over the life of the deal in 225 games. He’s shaping up to be one of the more coveted wingers in the upcoming free agent class and even in a weaker market, he’s looking at a nice raise.
There really isn’t another big bargain out of this class as a lot of the signings early on were short-term deals for veterans or role players/minor leaguers signing quickly to get some certainty for the upcoming year. Here are a couple of the veteran deals that panned out relatively well at least.
Ron Hainsey (TOR) – 2 years, $6MM – He wore down towards the end of the contract but he gave the Maple Leafs a little more than 21 minutes a night over the two years while chipping in with a respectable 46 points. The team also praised the impact of his leadership at several times throughout his stint as well. Paying $3MM a year for someone that spent a lot of time on the top pairing is a pretty good return even if he struggled by the end of it.
Ryan Miller (ANA) – 2 years, $4MM – Brought in to be an insurance policy for John Gibson, Miller wound up finishing fifth in the NHL in save percentage (.928) in his first season while posting a Goals Saved Above Average rate of 11.86 in just 28 games, his best mark in nearly a decade. Miller’s performance was more average in his second season but with the backup goalie market going up considerably in price over the last few years, he still gave Anaheim some extra value overall.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Coyotes Sign Dysin Mayo To One-Year, Two-Way Contract
The Arizona Coyotes signed Dysin Mayo to a one-year, two-way contract, the team announced today. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Mayo could prove to be an important depth signing for the Coyotes in future seasons.
Mayo, 23, was a fifth-round pick in 2014. The Canadian-born defenseman spent the past three full seasons with the Tucson Roadrunners of the AHL. In 58 games this past season, Mayo was plus-24 while putting up 12 points (4 goals). That’s a promising showing from the blueliner, and the top plus/minus numbers on the Roadrunners this season.
Arizona is well-equipped on the defensive end, allowing 2.47 goals per game, the fourth-best mark in the league. That said, they have a number of blueliners facing unrestricted free agency following the 2020-2021 season. Niklas Hjalmarsson, Alex Goligoski, Aaron Ness, Jason Demers and Jordan Oesterle could all leave as free agents after next season. Keeping Mayo in the fold gives Arizona valuable insurance and cost efficiency as they look to build out their defensive unit in an uncertain environment. The salary cap isn’t likely to go up for at least two seasons, though the final numbers won’t be finalized until the NHL and NHLPA officially come to a return-to-play agreement.
Snapshots: Hub Announcement Not Coming Today, Draft Lottery, Blackhawks
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly put the kibosh on any expectation that the final announcement about the postseason’s hub locations would be revealed today, per TSN’s Pierre LeBrun. There was hope bordering on expectation that the chosen cities would be announced today, but there’s evidently much still to consider. In the meantime, let’s see what else is going on around the NHL…
- Tonight’s draft lottery will decide who gets the top three picks in next year’s draft – assuming the winners of those picks fall in the bottom seven by record, writes The Athletic’s Sean McIndoe. Otherwise, we might be facing a second lottery once the play-in round decides the other eight teams of the lottery field. The Detroit Red Wings have the night’s best odds, but the top pick has only gone to the team with the best odds 30% of the time over the past decade. After the Red Wings, the Ottawa Senators hold each of the next best slots, one for their own pick, and one for the Sharks pick they acquired in the Erik Karlsson deal.
- Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman hasn’t engaged with their impending free agents, a list largely comprised of arbitration-eligible restricted free agents, per The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus. Goaltender Corey Crawford is their highest-issue unrestricted free agent, as the 35-year-old netminder held sway between the pipes for two Chicago championships. Restricted free agent Drake Caggiula also presents an interesting case, writes Lazerus, as the speedster expected that his broken hand would be the end of his season. The long layoff and expanded playoff pool has presented Caggiula with an opportunity to build his case ahead of what’s expected to be a rather tepid free agency.
Kevan Miller Not Considering Retirement
Kevan Miller is a free agent at the end of the season, but despite being out due to injury since April of 2019, the 32-year-old defender isn’t ready to pack it in, per Amalie Benjamin of NHL.com.
Miller, currently employed by the Boston Bruins, went under the knife for the fourth time with the most recent procedure on his kneecap. With all that he’s been through, a return to the ice would be a remarkable story. Signed originally by the Bruins six years ago as an undrafted free agent, Miller made a role for himself in Boston – when healthy. The Bruins missed Miller’s presence in the Stanley Cup Final last year, writes Joe Haggerty of NBC Sports, and if he’s able to get himself back on the ice, he could be helpful to a team again.
Still, given the financial implications of the pandemic and Miller’s long history of knee troubles, it would be surprising to see Miller drum up much interest in free agency. That said, there’s absolutely a team out there that should be willing to give him a look – especially at the price point that he’s likely to command. Step one, however, will be for Miller to finish his rehab and get back to life as usual.
Miller had to fight his way onto an NHL team, and that kind of grit extended onto the ice where he’s succeeded as a physical, bruising defender. But that’s the kind of player he is, writes The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa. The intensity is a double-edged sword, helping Miller fight to make himself a role on the ice, while playing a role in the injuries that have kept him from it. Shinzawa provided a quote from Miller, commenting on his style of play: “I don’t have another identity, to be honest with you, especially on the ice. That’s who I am. Who I am on the ice is who I am off the ice. Maybe a little softer off the ice. That’s my bread and butter. I don’t think I’m going to go out there and score 50 goals.”
Justin Kloos Signs In KHL
The season is over for the Anaheim Ducks, who didn’t qualify for the 2020 playoffs. For one of there minor league players, that means it is time to pursue other opportunities. Justin Kloos has agreed to sign in the KHL for the 2020-21 season, joining Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod.
Kloos, 26, played this season for the San Diego Gulls fo the AHL, recording 11 goals and 30 points in 53 games. A standout at the University of Minnesota, Kloos was an undrafted free agent signing by the Minnesota Wild in 2017 but has only played two NHL games to this point.
His contract, a one-year two-way deal signed in 2019, would have normally left him a restricted free agent given his age. But Kloos is eligible for Group VI unrestricted free agency since he has been given such little opportunity in the NHL, meaning he can choose his next destination without any restrictions.
Anaheim Ducks Sign SHL MVP Kodie Curran
The Anaheim Ducks have made an intriguing free agency splash by signing defenseman Kodie Curran, the reigning MVP of the Swedish Hockey League. Curran has inked a two-year, one-way contract with the Ducks that carries a $1MM AAV, reports numerous sources including the OC Register.
To say that Curran has had an unconventional path to the NHL would be an understatement. The 30-year-old was never drafted after playing his developmental years with AJHL and USports. He played two seasons in the minors in North America before embarking on a career in Europe in 2016. Over the past four years, he has played in Demark, Norway, and Sweden, dominating in all three countries. He won a championship in each of his single seasons in the top Danish and Norse leagues and was an All-Star and top defenseman each year as well. The highlight of his career came this past season in the SHL, when he recorded 49 points in 48 games for Rogle BK to lead all defensemen in assists and points, to lead all imports in points, and to take home the honors of Defenseman of the Year and MVP.
His greatest challenge will now come in the NHL though and he will face an uphill battle to make the Anaheim roster before he even has a chance at regular action at the top level. The Ducks have six defensemen on one-way contracts already signed for next season, including four making $4MM or more against the cap. This does not include RFA defender Jacob Larsson, who will also be back with the team. They also have young blue liners like Brendan Guhle and Josh Mahura who will push for opportunity. Curran will need to be at his best to make the Opening Night roster and to stick in Anaheim. However, he has shown an impeccable ability to rise to the occasion in recent years and it will be exciting to see if he does so again in his newest venture.
Snapshots: Gudas, CHL Lawsuit, Miller
The NHL has been clear about their desire to resume and complete the 2019-20 season at some point this summer, but that’s not shared by every player in the league. Radko Gudas was interviewed in the Czech Republic about his concerns for a restart, and Alexandra Petakova of Russian Machine Never Breaks translated it to English. Never one to hide his feelings, Gudas doesn’t think restarting the season is a good idea:
If one guy is infected, basically the whole league has it in a week, given how they are planning to have everyone play against everyone. One stupid stumble and you can cancel it all again.
Perhaps more interesting from the interview however are Gudas’ comments on his future with the Washington Capitals. The veteran defenseman explained that the team is facing a difficult salary cap situation and believes that he and “a lot of the guys with contracts about to expire” will end up leaving the Capitals this offseason. Washington has four players on the NHL roster who are scheduled for unrestricted free agency: Gudas, Ilya Kovalchuk, Brenden Dillon and, perhaps most importantly, Braden Holtby.
- The CHL has settled a class-action lawsuit that was originally filed in 2014. The legal battle was to determine whether junior players were employees or student-athletes, and the settlement will result in OHL, WHL and QMJHL franchises paying approximately $30MM. These settlement discussions were actually held before the COVID-19 shutdown. As Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet writes, the approximately $250,000 that each franchise will need to pay is not insignificant for some. This follows recent news that the Portland Winterhawks parent company filed for bankruptcy and are looking for new ownership to take over the franchise.
- Kevan Miller hasn’t played in an NHL game for more than a year, and revealed yesterday that he is eight weeks removed from another surgical procedure on his right knee. A fractured kneecap ended his 2018-19 season and kept him out for all of this year, but he is still working to be ready for the start of the 2020-21 campaign. If he is ready to play again, where he hits the ice isn’t clear. The veteran defenseman’s contract is expiring and though the Boston Bruins have admitted they will “entertain the opportunity” of bringing him back, a tightening salary cap won’t make it easy.
Snapshots: Markstrom, Vegas, Hartford
When the 2019-20 NHL season was paused, Vancouver Canucks were right on the edge of returning to the playoffs. It’s not somewhere they’ve been since 2015, so turning things around is an impressive accomplishment for this young group. One of the older players on the team that was around (however infrequently) for that 2014-15 season is Jacob Markstrom, who happens to be scheduled for unrestricted free agency this summer.
If you ask him though, this won’t be his last chance to help Vancouver reach the playoffs. Markstrom was on a conference call with reporters yesterday including Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet, and explained that he wants to “stay in Vancouver” and has “no plans of leaving.” Markstrom does understand the complicated situation that every team is in with regards to free agents and an uncertain salary cap, but is obviously hoping that he can stick around for a while longer. The 30-year old goaltender was having the best season of his career, posting a 23-16-4 record and .918 save percentage when the season was paused.
- If you’ve been wondering whether or not the Vegas Golden Knights would ever name a captain, Peter DeBoer has some answers for you. According to Ken Boehlke of SinBin.vegas, DeBoer discussed the captain question on a season ticket holder podcast, explaining that he believes a team should have one and that the Golden Knights have several candidates. For what it is worth, Boehlke expects Mark Stone to be the captain if one is named. Stone is currently the highest-paid player on the Golden Knights and is signed through 2026-27.
- The Hartford Wolf Pack are bringing back some experience for next season, signing Vincent LoVerde and Mason Geertsen to one-year AHL contracts for 2020-21. LoVerde, 31, is. two-time Calder Cup champion that scored 21 points in 62 games for the Wolf Pack this season. Geertsen, 25, won the ECHL’s Kelly Cup in 2017 before establishing himself as a full-time AHL player the last three years.