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Poll: Which GM Will Be Fired Next?

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Despite missing the playoffs in each of the last four seasons, the Vancouver Canucks decided to extend GM Jim Benning today. The reasons for that are complicated—and obviously do not hinge entirely on his postseason record—just as they were when the Minnesota Wild made the decision to fire Paul Fenton just 14 months into his tenure with the team. The inner workings of an NHL front office are almost never made public (unless there is an intrepid reporter like Michael Russo of The Athletic who gets the incredible story), and it is hard to see why some decisions are made.

Still, even the most casual fan can see the seat of specific executives and coaches heating up. When the Edmonton Oilers decided to move on from Peter Chiarelli during another disappointing season, it didn’t come as much of a surprise. On the other hand, it was easy to see why the Carolina Hurricanes recently locked up Don Waddell after he interviewed for another job.

Looking around the league, who is next? Which GM will be let go, either this year or next summer?

It might be easy to look at the teams that have struggled recently, but many of them have replaced their top hockey operations executive over the last few seasons. The Oilers brought in Ken Holland to change the culture in Edmonton, while Steve Yzerman returned to the Detroit Red Wings to bring a new voice to a stagnant team. Florida has gone through quite a bit of turmoil in the front office since their ownership changed but Dale Tallon now seems to be entrenched as a veteran leader.

There are others though that may not be so lucky. The Ottawa Senators are heading in a new direction after shedding their previous core, but if the young talent doesn’t develop as hoped Pierre Dorion could be held responsible. John Chayka was the youngest GM in history when he took over the Arizona Coyotes in 2016, but they still haven’t made the playoffs under his watch and now have new ownership of their own. Jason Botterill was expected to have success in Buffalo after finding so much of it in Pittsburgh, but the Sabres haven’t been able to build a full roster around Jack Eichel despite some outstanding individual players.

Nothing is certain when it comes to front offices however. Cast your vote below and explain just why you think they’ll be the first to go!

[Mobile users click here to vote]

*We’ve used Kelly McCrimmon as the Vegas GM, though he won’t officially take that title from George McPhee until September

Minor Transactions: 08/15/19

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As August continues and we get further into contract negotiations, teams continue to fill our their organizational depth charts. Here are some minor moves from around the league. We’ll keep updating as more come in:

  • The Toronto Marlies have re-signed Nicholas Baptiste to an AHL contract, giving them some firepower for next season. Baptiste was originally a third-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres but after 47 games in the NHL has been traded twice in the last ten months. The Toronto Maple Leafs decided not to offer Baptiste a qualifying offer this offseason which made him an unrestricted free agent, but he’ll stay with the Marlies for the time being.
  • The Brandon Wheat Kings have convinced Vegas Golden Knights prospect Marcus Kallionkieli to sign in the CHL, something we suggested when the NHL club signed him to an entry-level contract earlier this summer. The Wheat Kings are owned by Vegas executive Kelly McCrimmon, who picked Kallionkieli in both the NHL draft and CHL Import Draft within just a few days in June.

Vegas’ William Karlsson Signs Eight-Year Extension

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Monday: The terms first reported by The Athletic’s Jesse Granger of an eight-year pact at a $5.9MM AAV has now been confirmed by the Golden Knights. Karlsson is now locked up through the 2026-27 season at what will be a bargain rate for Vegas if his production remains steady. In the meantime though, CapFriendly estimates that the signing puts the Knights $1.5MM over the off-season salary cap with several restricted free agents still in need of contracts. Vegas fans can celebrate the Karlsson contract now, but cost-cutting measures are coming soon.

Sunday: One of the most important offseason tasks that the Vegas Golden Knights and new general manager Kelly McCrimmon must deal with is trying to lock up restricted free agent forward William Karlsson to a new contract. It looks like that task is close to complete as TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that Karlsson is expected to sign an extension later this week and it is believed to be for eight years. TSN’s Bob McKenzie reports that the deal will be for just under $6MM.

LeBrun adds that while Karlsson was pushing for an eight-year deal, the Golden Knights were pushing to keep his AAV under $6MM.

The Golden Knights will have to find a way to unload some cap room as they are over the new $81.5MM cap, however for a period during the offseason, a team can exceed the cap by 10 percent, allowing them to go to $89.65MM if they need to. Regardless, they must unload some salary in order to lock up their own free agents, including Karlsson, KHL star Nikita Gusev, Tomas Nosek, Malcolm Subban and likely Deryk Engelland. The team has discussed moving several players to free up some cap space, including defenseman Colin Miller ($3.88MM AAV), center Cody Eakin ($3.85MM AAV), injured forward David Clarkson’s contract ($5.25MM AAV) and potentially moving Gusev as well.

Karlsson, who could have become an unrestricted free-agent had he opted to force arbitration and take a one-year deal, had made it clear that he has wanted to remain in Vegas, where he loves it. According to LeBrun, the eight-year term was the most important part of the deal. While it’s been clear that Vegas was just as interested in bringing back their top-line center, much of the issue of signing the 26-year-old to a long-term deal was how much to pay him.

Known as one of the Golden Misfits after Columbus left him exposed to the expansion draft after he tallied just 15 goals in two full seasons with the Blue Jackets, Vegas picked him up and he rewarded them by posting a 43-goal, 78-point season in the Golden Knights inaugural season that led them to the Stanley Cup Finals. However, the team was leery of those numbers, however, as Karlsson shot an unbelievable 23.4 percent, a number that wasn’t considered likely to be repeated. The team expected a drop off this year and it came as Karlsson’s numbers dropped to 24 goals and 56 points as his shooting percentage dropped as expected to 14.2 percent.

Regardless, Karlsson has become one of the key faces to the franchise and remains the team’s top center partnered with Jon Marchessault and Reilly Smith for two straight seasons and has always been considered a must-sign, although there has been little doubt that Vegas and Karlsson would get a deal done.

West Notes: Canucks, Wheat Kings, Perry

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The Vancouver Canucks will not be signing Linus Karlsson or Toni Utunen this summer, according to Rick Dhaliwal of Sportsnet. Both prospects will stay in Europe for at least one more season to continue their development. Karlsson, acquired from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Jonathan Dahlen, was a third-round pick last June and spent this season in the Swedish second league, where he put up 18 points in 52 games. Utunen meanwhile played the season in Finland’s top league after being a fifth-round selection by the Canucks last year. Vancouver will retain both their exclusive draft rights.

Dhaliwal also notes that the team may re-sign restricted free agent Reid Boucher, but no decision has been made at this point. Boucher played just a single game with the Canucks last season, but was a force at the minor league level with 62 points in 56 games. The 25-year old is arbitration eligible however, meaning that if the team issues him a qualifying offer he could file and force a potential one-way deal. Boucher has 42 points through 133 NHL games.

  • If you thought your job was complicated, imagine what it must be like for Kelly McCrimmon. The newly promoted Vegas Golden Knights GM is also still the owner of the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings, and today announced that the team will not be bringing back head coach David Anning. This comes after McCrimmon also relieved Wheat Kings’ GM Grant Armstrong of his duties last month, leaving huge gaps in management for next season. While his junior club is searching for a coach and GM, McCrimmon also has to navigate the upcoming NHL draft in which the Golden Knights hold five picks in the first three rounds.
  • Darren Dreger was on TSN radio today discussing potential buyout candidates, and noted that Corey Perry will have a market around the league if he finds himself an unrestricted free agent suddenly later this month. Perry looks like he will be leaving the Anaheim Ducks one way or another this offseason, and Dreger suggests the Edmonton Oilers as a team that may kick the tires on him as a veteran leader to help Connor McDavid turn things around. Perry currently has two years remaining on his current contract that carries a $8.625MM cap hit, but could be an attractive option at a much lower number if he happens to be bought out.

Golden Knights Notes: Salary Cap, Gusev, Gambling

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Trusted salary cap database CapFriendly has rolled over their site to the 2019-20 season already and one of the most eye-grabbing results is just how much trouble the Vegas Golden Knights are already in. Using a projected salary cap ceiling of $83MM, up $3.5MM from this season, at the top of the projected salary list is Vegas, who are already $125K over the cap with more than $83MM committed to just 19 players. A further inspection reveals that the Knights have just one goaltender, Marc-Andre Fleury, and six defensemen signed as of now, with no room to make any further additions. GM Kelly McCrimmon and company will have no choice but to shed salary this summer, at the very least just to re-sign restricted free agents like William Karlsson, Nikita Gusev, Jimmy Schuldt, and Malcolm Subban. Any free agent signings beyond that will require further sacrifice. Despite being just two years into their existence, Vegas has already accumulated an incredible amount of salary, mostly due to major contracts handed out to the likes of Mark Stone, Nate Schmidt, Alex Tuch, Shea Theodore, Max Pacioretty, Paul Stastny, and Fleury, all signed since this time last year. Golden Knights fans should be prepared for some tough moves, as solving this problem won’t be as easy as simply placing David Clarkson on the injured reserve. Inaugural Knights like Jonathan Marchessault, Reilly Smith, Cody Eakin, and Colin Miller are among the most likely casualties.

  • Even in the midst of his new team’s cap crunch, Nikita Gusev is expecting and hoping to re-sign with Vegas. Gusev, whose rights were acquired from the Tampa Bay Lightning at the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft, finally jumped to the NHL late this season after a decorated career in the KHL. The 26-year-old forward burned his one-year entry-level contract, despite not playing, and is now a restricted free agent. He tells Russian hockey source Sport-Express, as translated by The Sin Bin, that he likes Las Vegas and feels he owes it to the team to re-sign with them if made a reasonable offer. Gusev acknowledges that he will likely receive other offers, either from KHL clubs overseas or in the form of an NHL offer sheet, but he will wait for Vegas’ initial offer before making any decisions. What might it cost the Knights to retain their newfound weapon? The interviewer suggested to Gusev that a $4MM AAV could be the ballpark price and he did not disagree. He would only confirm that he expects a one-way deal, but did not talk specific finances. Overall, Gusev sounded very flexible about getting a deal done and even acknowledged that he would be open to playing in the AHL if that is what is asked of him. That seems like an unlikely route for Vegas to take, but Gusev’s attitude at least implies that this negotiation process and first full year in North America should go smoother than it did for Vadim Shipachyov. If (when) the Golden Knights are forced to sell off scoring this off-season, Gusev could be an ideal candidate to take on a major role next season.
  • Speaking at a conference today, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman projected the successful growth of betting on hockey by using the Golden Knights as an example, per TSN’s Rick Westhead. In Nevada, where sports gambling is legalized, hockey bets grew by 60% in Vegas’ inaugural season and again by 40% this season. While Nevada, and Las Vegas in particular, is the unofficial gambling capital of the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Murphy v. NCAA last summer allows all states to decide for themselves whether or not to allow for legalized gambling. Many states already have sports books up and running and many more will soon follow. If the growth exhibited in Nevada in regards to betting on hockey is replicated by other states, it will be a key growth factor for the game and the NHL and one that Bettman will surely try to take advantage of as best he can.

Seattle Willing To Wait For General Manager Candidates

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The Vegas Golden Knights had a valuable asset, and they knew it. When the team promoted Kelly McCrimmon to general manager yesterday, teams around the league had to change course on their own front office searches. The Edmonton Oilers were interested in McCrimmon, but according to Ryan Rishaug of TSN are now looking at either Keith Gretzky or Mark Hunter for the job. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic adds that the Seattle expansion franchise is “willing to be patient” now that McCrimmon is off the market. The Seattle group “would have gone hard” this summer to hire McCrimmon, but could now wait until next year.

It was always a possibility that the new team wouldn’t have a GM until 2020. The Vegas Golden Knights hired George McPhee to lead their expansion preparation in July 2016, less than a year before they had to make their selections in the expansion draft. The Seattle team won’t be doing that until 2021, meaning there is still plenty of time to get the management group in order.

Still, McCrimmon seemed like a perfect candidate given his success with Vegas in the first draft. The Seattle team will try to emulate the Golden Knights’ success, but may not have quite so many opportunities to pull good young players away now that team’s have experience preparing for a draft of this nature. LeBrun notes that Ken Holland may still be of “serious interest” to the Seattle group, but the Red Wings executive is taking his time to decide what is next.

Of note is the recent report that Dave Tippett has interviewed for the Buffalo Sabres coaching position. The veteran coach was serving in an advisory role for the Seattle organization and some had speculated that he would join their front office in some capacity. It appears as though the coaching bug has bitten Tippett again however, leaving it unclear whether or not he will be part of the organization for much longer.

Kelly McCrimmon Promoted To Vegas GM

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The Edmonton Oilers will not be hiring Vegas Golden Knights assistant general manger Kelly McCrimmon. That’s because the Golden Knights have promoted him to GM, while George McPhee will remain as President of Hockey Operations. Team owner Bill Foley released a statement:

This is a very exciting announcement for our club and Vegas Golden Knights fans around the world. George and Kelly are a fantastic team. From the mock draft exercises and preparation leading up to the Expansion Draft, building out our coaching staff, and continually improving our team through the draft, trades, signings and free agency, the work they have done over the last three years has been remarkable. Together they have constructed a championship-caliber team in a very short time. This personnel move ensures that our hockey operations group stays intact and positions our organization for long term success.

The Golden Knights have experienced unprecedented success for an expansion team, and a huge part of that has been the work that McCrimmon did as assistant GM. McPhee and McCrimmon were almost flawless in their execution of the expansion draft strategy that netted them players like Jon Marchessault, Shea Theodore and Nate Schmidt, and turned that strategy into a Stanley Cup Final appearance in their first season.

A promotion like this ensures that McCrimmon stays with the Golden Knights, something that wasn’t so clear before the announcement.  Edmonton who were reportedly interested in hiring McCrimmon for their front office vacancy, will now shift their focus somewhere else and perhaps back to interim GM Keith Gretzky. The team had wanted to interview several candidates for the opening, and have had at least two with former Toronto Maple Leafs assistant GM Mark Hunter. Hunter’s name is exactly who Darren Dreger of TSN suggests in a tweet, while also listing Gretzky and former NHL goaltender and Arizona Coyotes executive Sean Burke.

The next expansion franchise in Seattle will also have to cross McCrimmon’s name off the list, as they were another team with reported interest in bringing him aboard. That made a lot of sense given his experience in the process, but the new organization will have to find another way to navigate their expansion draft and inaugural season.

Requests Coming Quickly For Vegas AGM

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The Vegas Golden Knights organization is probably still reeling from an incredible loss in game seven to the San Jose Sharks, but before long they’ll have to start thinking about their future. One person who will quickly have interested parties calling on him is assistant general manager Kelly McCrimmon, who has been linked to the GM searches of both the Edmonton Oilers and expansion Seattle team in the past. Today, Darren Dreger of TSN tweets that the Oilers will send a request for permission to speak with McCrimmon in the coming days.

It’s good fortune for the Oilers that the Golden Knights were eliminated by the Sharks last night, given that the team has been open with the fact that they want their front office search done in the next few weeks. The Golden Knights looked like they were sailing straight through to the second round before a five-minute major penalty was assessed to Cody Eakin in the third period. That penalty changed the course of the game and very well could change the course of the Oilers search, given how highly regarded McCrimmon is around the league.

After running the Brandon Wheat Kings organization for decades, McCrimmon came to the Golden Knights as they were preparing for their own expansion draft and has been credited with many of the strategies the team took to build a winner right away. Not only did Vegas put together an excellent NHL team, but their excellent draft class in 2017 allowed them to pull off some of the biggest trades of the last year. Names like Erik Brannstrom and Nick Suzuki were used as bait to land Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty, two players who will lead the Golden Knights for some time.

Those kinds of trades may be exactly what the Oilers are looking for. The team can’t wait around to draft and rebuild their team while Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are in prime years of production. There needs to be an improvement around them, and whoever is hired as GM will be tasked to start that immediately.

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