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Offseason Notes: Johnson, Svechnikov, Yakupov, World Juniors

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Continuing to round out their bench, the Anaheim Ducks have announced that they have hired Brent Johnson as an assistant coach. Much like their approach with hiring Greg Cronin as head coach, Thompson is another coaching veteran with over 20 years of experience behind the bench.

Primarily serving as the head coach of the New York Islanders AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Islanders, for the last nine seasons, Thompson brings an all-time 328-286-73 coaching record in 687 games at the AHL level. Unfortunately for Thompson and the Islanders, the team only qualified for the playoffs in three of those seasons, never managing to get past the second round. The most coaching success Thompson has ever seen came back in the 2010-11 season in the ECHL, coaching the Alaska Aces to a Kelly Cup Championship, as well as the ECHL Coach of the Year award.

Over the course of his coaching career, Thompson has primarily spent it developing players into NHL talents, and the Ducks have no shortage of those players. The team did sign several veterans this offseason, but the team is clearly building around young talents such as Trevor Zegras, Troy Terry, and Jamie Drysdale.

Other notes:

  • A convincing argument can be made that the Carolina Hurricanes have had the best offseason of all 32 clubs in the NHL, and they received more positive news today. Chip Alexander of Raleigh News & Observer reported today that forward Andrei Svechnikov will resume skating for the first time this Friday. Shortly before the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, Svechnikov went under the knife to repair his knee, which kept him out for the remainder of the season. Before the injury, Svechnikov was well on his way to recording another 30-goal season, something the Hurricanes will be looking forward to again next season.
  • Spending the last five seasons in the KHL, former-first overall pick, Nail Yakupov is on the move once again. The press service of the KHL announced today that Yakupov has reached a one-year agreement with HC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk. Last season, Yakupov played for Avangard Omsk, scoring 10 points in 16 games. Avangard Omsk would make it all the way to the Conference Finals in pursuit of the Continental Cup in 2023 but were quickly dispatched by Ak Bars Kazan in five games.
  • It appears the IIHF World Juniors Championship will be returning to the United States in 2026. Gord Miller of TSN reports that Seattle, Tampa Bay, and Las Vegas have all inquired about potentially hosting the tournament. The next one will take place in Gothenburg, Sweden, followed by Ottawa, Canada in 2025. The last time the United States hosted the tournament came back in 2018, as it took place in Buffalo, NY.

Snapshots: Bjork, Simashev, World Juniors

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While former college hockey star Anders Bjork finished his season on a high note after a trade to the Chicago Blackhawks, scoring five points in his last four games and eight in 13 games overall, it seems Chicago won’t be issuing a qualifying offer. The Athletic’s Scott Powers reports that the Blackhawks “aren’t planning to give a qualifying offer,” though that “doesn’t mean the Blackhawks won’t necessarily re-sign” Bjork, just that they don’t want to issue a qualifying offer at a value of $1.8MM. (subscription link)

Set to turn 27 in August, Bjork spent most of last season in the AHL with the Rochester Americans, the longest stretch he’d spent in the minor leagues in his career. He’d previously been mostly an NHL option, with AHL stretches limited to just a handful of games. He didn’t overwhelm with Rochester, scoring 25 points in 42 games, and was eventually traded to Chicago for future considerations. Bjork showed some life under head coach Luke Richardson in Chicago, and that solid run of eight points in 13 games should serve him well heading into the open market, even if he may not receive a contract at the same value as his qualifying offer.

Some other notes from across the NHL:

  • Russian blueliner Dmitri Simashev was recently ranked 19th in Bob McKenzie’s final draft rankings of the cycle for TSN, though he could end up going even higher than that at the draft next week. As relayed by CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal, Simashev’s agent Dan Milstein says 24 of the NHL’s 32 teams have asked for a meeting with Simashev at the draft in Nashville. He’s a rangy six-foot-four blueliner currently under contract in the KHL through 2024-25. He’s widely regarded as a high-upside prospect with tantalizing physical tools, and in a draft thinner on defenseman compared to forwards, Simashev could be a fast-rising prospect.
  • Hockey Canada, the CHL, and the IIHF announced today that the 2025 World Junior Championships will be played in Ottawa, Ontario. The Senators’ home arena, Canadian Tire Centre, will serve as the event’s primary location with the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s’ TD Place as the secondary venue. Canada has won three of the last four WJC events and will hope to take home the gold medal on their home turf just as they’ve done the past two events.

Connor Bedard Wins IIHF Male Player Of The Year

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There’s a little over a week left in his amateur career, but Connor Bedard is still taking home awards. The 17-year-old forward is the inaugural recipient of the IIHF Male Player of the Year award.

Bedard has three IIHF gold medals (U18, U20, U20) and, as the release states, had “perhaps the greatest single World Junior Championship tournament” in history, with 23 points—nine more than his closest competitor.

The soon-to-be Chicago Blackhawks forward secured 31.8% of the votes for the award, with Latvian goaltender Arturs Silovs coming in second place at 19.6%. Silovs led Latvia on a historic bronze-medal run at the recent World Championships, posting a .921 save percentage in ten games.

It’s hard to have a more impressive draft year than Bedard. He won or was named:

  • CHL First All-Star Team
  • CHL Player of the Year
  • CHL Top Draft Prospect
  • CHL Top Scorer
  • U20 All-Star Team
  • U20 Best Forward
  • U20 Most Points
  • U20 Most Valuable Player
  • WHL First All-Star Team
  • WHL Most Points
  • WHL Player of the Year

The hype machine continues to be fueled by this latest award, and sets a precedent for future IIHF participants.

Hilary Knight Named IIHF Female Player Of The Year

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United States hockey superstar Hilary Knight has made history as the inaugural recipient of the IIHF’s Female Player of the Year award, the international body announced Thursday morning.

Knight, 33, is an absolute stalwart in the sport, trailing perhaps only Canada’s Marie-Philip Poulin as the best active women’s hockey player on this side of the Atlantic. Per the IIHF, she received an overwhelming 40.9% of the total votes for the award.

Knight expressed her gratitude for being named the award’s initial recipient:

I am honored to be the first recipient of such a prestigious award. There are many talented women at this level, and it is a privilege to be recognized as the IIHF Female Player of the Year. Reflecting on this year it’s hard to pinpoint one highlight, rather a collection of memories shared with my teammates. I am grateful to be a part of such an incredible group and share these special moments with my friends. The sport and the women who play it deserve the largest stage and biggest spotlight. My hope is that the sport continues to grow and reach greater heights. Although hockey is a team sport, having awards and accolades that acknowledge accomplishments help drive more visibility. Thank you, IIHF, for creating this award, as it is important to recognize outstanding athletic performances.

The voting process involved members of the media from 16 IIHF member countries. Knight’s outstanding performances throughout the year, including her display at the 2023 Women’s World Championship in Brampton, earned her the award. She led all players at the tournament with eight goals in seven games, the tournament-record fifth time she’s achieved the feat.

Three of those eight goals came in the gold medal game against Canada. Her second goal in that game was the game-winner and marked her third game-winning goal in an IIHF Women’s World Championship gold medal game, another tournament record.

Across her career, Knight is a nine-time gold medallist at the Women’s Worlds, a one-time gold medallist and three-time silver medallist at the Olympics, and an Isobel Cup champion with the Boston Pride in 2016.

Arturs Silovs Named MVP Of 2023 Men’s Worlds

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While Team Canada took home the gold medal at the IIHF 2023 Men’s World Championship a few hours ago, partial host country Latvia made waves earlier this morning by capturing the bronze, their first-ever medal at the tournament. Later today, after Canada’s win over Germany, the IIHF announced Vancouver Canucks netminder and Team Latvia starter Arturs Silovs was named the tournament’s most valuable player.

Silovs is the first Latvian to be named MVP since the IIHF began awarding the honor in 1999, and he’s the first Latvian in the history of the tournament to earn a single directorate award.

It’s been a quick rise up the prospect ranks for Silovs, who Vancouver selected in the sixth round of the 2019 NHL Draft. Still just 22, Silovs commanded a starting role with the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks this year and earned five NHL appearances, the first of his career.

With more action came more responsibility, and Silovs has stood up to the task over the last 18 months or so. He had a similarly stellar performance at last year’s Worlds, posting a .952 save percentage in four games, but didn’t get the full team effort that Latvia presented this year to earn the bronze.

This year with Abbotsford, Silovs posted four shutouts and a .909 save percentage in 44 games, adding in a respectable .908 save percentage in his NHL appearances. He finishes his second World Championship with a .921 save percentage in 10 games.

IIHF Notes: Hall of Fame, Latvia, Bear

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Earlier this morning, the IIHF officially inducted their 2023 Hall of Fame class, including former NHL stars such as Brian Leetch, Henrik Zetterberg, and Cristobal Huet. Also included in the induction: Sandra Dombrowski (official), Jimmy Foster (player), Kalervo Kummola (builder), Caroline Ouellette (player), Viktor Szelig (player), and Kimmo Leinonen (builder).

Although much is well known about their individual and team successes in the NHL, Leetch, Zetterberg, and Huet performed extremely well internationally as well. From 1987-2004, Leetch played in two World Championships, two World Cup of Hockey events, and three Olympic Games, scoring 41 points in 55 total games. In 1996, as he was captain of Team USA, Leetch helped the Americans to a gold medal in that year’s World Cup of Hockey.

Zetterberg, coming from Sweden, also played in quite a few international events, including four Olympic Games. In his second attempt in 2006, Zetterberg was able to help lead Team Sweden to a gold medal in the Turin, Italy Winter Olympics. Throughout his international career, spanning from 2001-2014 at the professional level, Zetterberg played in 73 international games, scoring 17 goals and 38 assists.

Going down as likely one of, if not the best hockey player to ever come out of France, Huet spent many years between the pipes for the French national team. Unfortunately, throughout his rather lengthy international career, Team France was only able to qualify for two Olympic Games, in 1998 and 2002. In 87 career games on the international scene, Huet racked up a total of 4,589 minutes played, adding six total shutouts for Team France.

Other notes:

  • Earlier this morning, winning their first IIHF tournament medal in their country’s history, Team Latvia beat Team USA in overtime. Kristians Rubins, who is currently playing for the Calgary Wranglers of the AHL, scored both the game-tying goal and the game-winning goal, awarding Latvia the bronze medal. In the championship, Team Canada will face off against Team Germany.
  • Rick Dhaliwal of the Vancouver Athletic reports that defenseman Ethan Bear has missed the last two games for Team Canada due to an upper-body injury. Bear, who will be a restricted free agent for the Vancouver Canucks this offseason, will return to Vancouver to be re-evaluated by team staff.

East Notes: Eyssimont, Talvitie, Pajuniemi

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Team USA will be without the services of forward Michael Eyssimont for Thursday’s quarterfinal matchup against Czechia as the IIHF announced that he has received a one-game suspension for a kneeing incident in Tuesday’s game against Sweden.  The 26-year-old was a late addition to the team after the Lightning were eliminated in the first round but had suited up all seven games so far.  Eyssimont had two assists in those contests along with 11 shots and 29 penalty minutes in just over 12 minutes per game.  Team USA has one extra forward on their roster, Montreal prospect Luke Tuch who will likely suit up as the extra forward in Eyssimont’s absence.

Elsewhere in the East:

  • Devils prospect Aarne Talvitie has decided to go back overseas as TPS of the Finnish SM-liiga announced that they’ve signed the forward to a two-year contract. The 24-year-old showed some promise at Penn State after being drafted and was quite effective at the World Juniors in 2020.  However, that didn’t translate to much success in the pros as he followed up a 12-goal, 24-point rookie campaign with a three-goal, 14-point sophomore season in 2022-23, resulting in him looking to head back home.  New Jersey can still retain Talvitie’s RFA rights with a qualifying offer in June and he isn’t UFA-eligible until 2026, they might still do so.
  • Pending Rangers RFA Lauri Pajuniemi has decided to try his hand in the SHL as he has joined Malmo on a one-year contract, per a team announcement. The 23-year-old winger had a good sophomore year with AHL Hartford, notching 19 goals (fourth-most on the team) and 38 points (sixth-most) in 68 games while chipping in with six points in nine playoff appearances.  However, Pajuniemi didn’t receive a recall at any point during the regular season.  New York can retain his rights through 2027 by still tendering him a qualifying offer next month.

Slovenia, Hungary Relegated From Worlds For 2024

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It’s always a great story seeing countries work their way up from lower levels of international competition to gain the privilege of playing at the Men’s World Championship, something Poland and Great Britain have already earned the right to do so in 2024. Unfortunately, that involves relegation from teams in the current pool. Now that Slovenia and Hungary have clinched last-place finishes in their groups, they’ll be headed back to D1A, the second tier of the IIHF Men’s Worlds, for 2024.

They’ll join Italy, South Korea, and Romania in next year’s D1A tournament as both teams will try and earn re-promotion to the top level of competition for 2025. They’ll also be joined by Japan, who won promotion in the D1B tournament this year.

Slovenia is no stranger to this process. They bounced up and down between the D1A and top-tier play every year between 2010 and 2017 before failing to earn promotion from the D1A tournament in 2018 and 2019. With COVID pausing relegation (and canceling the next two D1A tournaments altogether), this was Slovenia’s first appearance with the top group in six years.

For the first time since 2008, though, Slovenia failed to secure a single point at the Worlds, losing all seven of their round-robin games in regulation. They had a 3-2 lead against Kazakhstan with 10 minutes left in today’s game, but the Kazakhs scored twice in five minutes to take the regulation win.

Former Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Jan Drozg tied for the Slovak lead in scoring at the tournament with three goals in seven games.

For Hungary, it was a tougher pill to swallow. They lost a do-or-die game against Austria today in a shootout, which, had they won, would have relegated Austria instead. The two teams ended up tied with a 0-5-1-1 record, but Hungary lost the goal differential tiebreaker by nine thanks to three 7-1 blowouts at the hands of the Americans, Swedes, and Finns.

IIHF Suspends Joe Veleno For Remainder Of World Championship

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The IIHF today suspended Team Canada and Detroit Red Wings forward Joe Veleno for five World Championship games, effectively ending his tournament. The suspension comes in response to Veleno appearing to intentionally step on the lower leg of Switzerland forward Nino Niederreiter during a puck battle in yesterday’s 3-2 win for the Swiss.

Veleno avoided a penalty on the play, and Niederreiter actually received a minor penalty for roughing Veleno later on in the sequence. Upon review, however, the IIHF undoubtedly made the right call, removing Veleno from the remainder of the tournament after one of the more dangerous plays in international hockey in recent memory.

It is a significant loss for Canada, which now sits third in Group B after the regulation loss. Veleno was second on the team in scoring, with two goals and three assists in five games.

Veleno, Detroit’s 30th overall selection in the 2018 NHL Draft, is a restricted free agent this offseason after the conclusion of his entry-level contract. He posted a career-high nine goals and 20 points in 81 games for the Red Wings this season.

William Nylander, Timothy Liljegren Reportedly Joining Sweden At Worlds

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According to a report from Swedish outlet Sportbladet, a pair of Toronto Maple Leafs are heading to the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championship after their elimination from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Winger William Nylander and defenseman Timothy Liljegren are joining the Swedish squad, while Sweden has reportedly sent defensemen Joel Persson and Christian Folin home from the tournament to create room on the roster.

After a disappointing loss to the Florida Panthers, Nylander and Liljegren are now set to bring their skills and experience to the international stage. The news bolsters a Swedish contingent that’s yet to lose through three games at the tournament, although they’ve struggled to produce offense outside of a 5-0 win against Austria.

Nylander should help with those scoring woes, coming off the first 40-goal season of his NHL career. He’s been money in the bank for Sweden at this tournament, recording 15 goals and 37 points in just 21 World Championship appearances across three tournaments (2017, 2019, 2022). It’s a significant boon to a Swedish team that has scored just three goals in two games against Germany and Finland, including a shootout marker.

Joining him is Liljegren, who’s made significant strides in his all-around ability since the last time he represented Sweden internationally at the 2018 IIHF Men’s World Junior Championship. One of the more intriguing young two-way defenders in the sport, Liljegren now gets a chance to add an additional spark to a Sweden defensive corps that’s excelled thus far at the tournament, one that includes former teammate and defense partner Rasmus Sandin.

Neither Persson nor Folin had suited up yet for Sweden in the tournament. While they’re both capable contributors to the Swedish lineup, and both have NHL experience, the swap for Nylander and Liljegren is a significant upgrade to a Swedish team with hopes of capturing the gold medal at this tournament.

Sweden can make it four games without a loss when they take on Hungary on Thursday.

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