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Ryan Murphy Signs In KHL

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After spending seven years trying to break his way into an NHL lineup, Ryan Murphy, has decided to leave North America. The defenseman has decided to head over to the KHL as Igor Eronko of NHL.com reports that the 26-year-old has agreed to a one-year pact with Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk.

Murphy, who was the 12th overall pick in the 2011 draft by the Carolina Hurricanes, has never managed to earn himself a full-time NHL role. Murphy has only played in 175 NHL contests in his seven years in the league, the most being with Carolina, where he was a part-time player, but always spent a large chunk of his seasons in the AHL. However, he had a rough season this past year after signing a one-year, two-way deal with the Minnesota Wild. Murphy started his season with the Iowa Wild in the AHL and did make two appearances with Minnesota, but was traded after the all-star break to New Jersey. Minnesota, who was desperately looking for defensive depth at this point in the year, didn’t think that Murphy was part of their solution and went out and acquired a number of depth defensemen, including Brad Hunt and Anthony Bitetto, prompting the team to ship out Murphy. He didn’t fare much better in New Jersey. He played just one game for the Devils before sent back to the AHL where he played 23 games for Binghamton, He finished the season there with 10 assists there and a career-worst minus-16 plus-minus rating.

In the KHL, he will join former Iowa Wild teammate Zack Mitchell, who signed with Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk earlier this summer, and will hope to play regular minutes for a team that missed out on the playoffs last season.

 

Alex Tanguay Takes Coaching Role With Iowa Wild

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The NHL Network won’t have Alex Tanguay back for their coverage during the 2019-20 season, as the former star forward has been hired by the Iowa Wild as an assistant coach. Tanguay joins Tim Army’s coaching staff just three years after his playing career ended.

A veteran of 1,186 NHL games, Tanguay retired following the 2015-16 season. He finished with 922 career points including 59 in 98 playoff games and won the Stanley Cup in 2001 as a member of the Colorado Avalanche. A strong offensive force, he suited up for the Avalanche, Calgary Flames, Montreal Canadiens, Tampa Bay Lightning, Calgary Flames and Arizona Coyotes over his 16-year playing career. Army happened to be an assistant coach during Tanguay’s final stint with the Avalanche, giving the two some obvious familiarity.

Iowa made it to the Calder Cup playoffs for the first time last season under Army and will try to orchestrate a return in 2020. The release did not specify what responsibilities he’ll have for the Wild, but his more than 250 career powerplay points would suggest he can be an asset on that side of the puck.

Central Notes: Strome, Fabbro, Fiala, Schenn, Pietrangelo

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It might be tough for Dylan Strome to duplicate his performance with the Chicago Blackhawks this season. The under-performing center found his game once he was traded to Chicago and posted 51 points in 58 games. However, Strome could be in line for another breakout season as the Blackhawks have concentrated their focus of Strome’s offseason workouts on strengthening his lower-body, which the team feels is his biggest weakness, according to Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Because the 6-foot-3 Strome uses a short stick which forces him to play leaning slightly forward. The down side to him doing that is that his vision is limited as his head is leaning downwards towards the ice. The team’s plan is to develop his lower-body and core, so he can play more upright and increase his vision.

“He has all the potential to be able to do exactly what he wants to do,” said Paul Goodman, the Hawks’ strength and conditioning coach. “But physically, [he’s] just going through a maturation process and understanding how his body can actually be pushed further and also be able to translate into better speed, better power, better change of direction, better vision.”

  • Of course it’s still quite early to decide who any team might be losing to Seattle in the upcoming expansion draft in 2021, The Athletic’s Adam Vingan (subscription required) writes that quite a bit has already changed for the Nashville Predators as the team now must protect defenseman Dante Fabbro, which complicates matters for the team. Nashville was hoping to only have to protect Roman Josi (with the assumption that he re-signs with Nashville), Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm. That would have allowed the team to protect seven forwards. Instead, the team will be forced to protect Fabbro and will only be able to protect four forwards instead, thereby exposing an extra three forwards to Seattle.
  • The Athletic’s Michael Russo (subscription required) writes that with the recent signing of Ryan Donato to a two-year deal at $1.9MM, the Minnesota Wild’s top priority is to ink restricted free agent Kevin Fiala now. While Donato opted to sign a two-year bridge deal to prove his value to the franchise, Russo believes that with general manager Paul Fenton’s familiarity with Fiala, the GM might consider trying to lock up Fiala to a much longer deal and hope to get a bargain out of him down the road. Evolving Hockey’s contract projections suggest that it would cost Minnesota about $4.97 AAV to lock him up for five years, but is the team willing to gamble on him is the real question.
  • The St. Louis Blues have had a relatively quiet offseason this summer, but that could change next season as the team has two key players who will be unrestricted free agents next season, including center Brayden Schenn and defenseman Alex Pietrangelo. Both are critical to the team, but St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Tom Timmermann writes that keeping both will be challenging as they are both still quite young and should garner quite a bit of attention on the open market next summer unless general manager Doug Armstrong can find a way to lock them up early.

Minnesota Wild Sign Three Players

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The Minnesota Wild have announced new contracts for three different players, signing Carson Soucy, Nico Sturm and Ryan Donato. Soucy has inked a one-year two-way contract worth $750K at the NHL level, while Sturm is also on a one-year two-way deal but will earn $874K in the NHL. Donato meanwhile has signed a two-year contract worth a total of $3.8MM.

Donato is obviously the most important of the three as the Wild have huge hopes for the former Boston Bruins forward. Acquired in exchange for Charlie Coyle at the deadline, Donato had 16 points in 22 games down the stretch in Minnesota and should figure into their second or third line this season. The former Harvard standout and Hobey Baker finalist has 34 points in his short 68-game NHL career and an even an Olympic appearance with Team USA at the 2018 Games. With a real scoring ability and upside as a top-six forward, Donato’s deal will serve as a chance for him to prove his worth at the NHL level before signing a long-term deal with the Wild. He’ll be a restricted free agent at the end of this contract.

Soucy, 24, is a depth defenseman for the Wild that has spent the last two seasons playing the majority of his games in the AHL. After a four-year career at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, he joined the Wild organization in 2017 and has played just seven NHL games. He’ll be waiver-exempt for another season meaning he’s likely headed back to Iowa at least until the team needs an injury replacement.

Sturm though may not be ticketed for the minor leagues so quickly. The 24-year old forward was one of the top college free agents this year and signed with the Wild after an outstanding junior season with Clarkson University. He got into two games down the stretch for Minnesota and could start on the NHL roster right away. The 6’3″ Sturm is an option for the bottom half of their roster, as he plays a polished two-way game that made him a Hobey Baker finalist and the Best Defensive Forward award in the NCAA last year.

Central Notes: Wild Physicality, Heinola, Boqvist

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Paul Fenton and the Minnesota Wild have made a lot of moves since the trade deadline last year and the general manager has started to put his mark on the franchise after taking over more than a year ago. However, one thing that many have noted is that the Wild have gotten much smaller over the last year with many wondering if that could affect the team’s success down the road.

The Athletic’s Michael Russo (subscription required) was asked that exact question in his most recent mailbag as the scribe notes that the Wild have traded off Charlie Coyle (6-foot-3) and Nino Niederreiter (6-foot-2), while getting back smaller, more finesse players in Kevin Fiala and Ryan Donato as the team seems to be without that physical edge that most teams feel they need to survive a 82-game season, something that the Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues had an abundance of this past year.

Russo admits it’s a concern, but the team does have a number of smaller players, who are physical, including newly acquired Ryan Hartman, Luke Kunin and the team’s hopes that Jordan Greenway will begin to use his size to be more physical.

  • While the Winnipeg Jets’ trade of Jacob Trouba has been panned by almost everyone, the Winnipeg Free Press’ Mike McIntyre writes that one aspect of the trade that many haven’t thought of is the value of the 2019 first-round pick they got along with unheralded defenseman Neal Pionk. The team selected defenseman Ville Heinola with the 20th pick in the draft as part of the deal. The blueliner almost immediately moves to the top of Winnipeg’s prospect list and could develop into a top-four option for years, although it could take a year or two until he arrives. Regardless, if Heinola does become a top-four regular and Pionk becomes a reliable option on defense as well, the deal doesn’t look that bad after all.
  • With the trade of Henri Jokiharju, the Chicago Blackhawks could find themselves with the potential need of a young player to step up for the team this season. NBC Sports Chicago’s Charlie Roumeliotis writes that  Adam Boqvist is expected to turn pro this year and is expected to play for the Rockford Ice Hogs in the AHL if he doesn’t make the Blackhawks’ team out of training camp. That’s good news for Chicago as Boqvist could have returned to the OHL for another year. The team’s first-round pick in 2018 (eighth-overall) scored 20 goals and 60 points in 54 games for the London Knights in his only season there.

Minnesota’s Andrei Svetlakov Signs Long-Term In KHL

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The Minnesota Wild’s issues with bringing over Russian prospects are well-documented. Young star forward Kirill Kaprizov remains with the KHL’s CSKA Moscow despite the team’s best efforts for years to convince him to make the jump. Now make that two forwards without plans to cross the Atlantic and suit up for Minnesota any time soon. Kaprizov’s CSKA teammate Andrei Svetlakov has signed a three-year extension to remain in Moscow until 2022, the team announced. At 23 year’s old, Svetlakov may have signed a deal that ends his chances at ever playing for the Wild.

The Wild used a sixth-round pick in 2017 on Svetlakov as an overage prospect in his last go-round in the NHL Draft. The young center had been promoted to the KHL and had proven that he was a valuable asset at the top pro level, even if he hadn’t produced at a high level. Over the past two seasons, Svetlakov’s scoring has not changed much but he has grown as a two-way player and looked at the top of his game in the 2019 Gagarin Cup playoffs, recording eight points and a +10 rating in 18 games. Moscow clearly saw something they liked in the pivot’s game to sign him long-term, as the perennial contender is known for having a keen eye for talent.

Svetlakov is not nearly the prospect that Kaprizov is, but could develop into a useful player even by NHL standards. If he had been interested in playing for the Wild, it also may have helped to convince Kaprizov to do the same. Instead, Svetlakov is locked in for three more years with CSKA and will be 26 by the time his contract expires. Minnesota owns Svetlakov’s rights indefinitely, so he may still prove to be a valuable asset for the team, but will hardly be considered a “prospect” by the time he can make the jump. It’s another tough blow for the Wild and their international image and the team must continue to hold out hope that Kaprizov will not follow suit and stay in Russia for years still to come.

Minnesota Has Tried To Trade Greg Pateryn

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Earlier this week, Wild GM Paul Fenton acknowledged that he’s probably done making moves this summer but it appears there’s at least one player he’d still likely to try to move.  In a recent podcast with TalkNorth (audio link), Michael Russo of The Athletic noted that Minnesota has tried to move defenseman Greg Pateryn.

The 29-year-old played his first season with Minnesota in 2018-19 and took a bit of a step back from his performance with Dallas the year before.  After looking like a potential fourth defender towards the end of his tenure with the Stars, Pateryn was a near-permanent fixture on the third pairing last season.  His ice time dropped by 2:30 per night to an average of 17:07 per game though he was among the team leaders in hits and blocked shots.

Part of the idea of trying to move Pateryn likely stems from his contract which has two years remaining on it with a $2.25MM AAV.  That’s a little on the expensive end for a third-pairing option.  Nonetheless, with nearly 250 career NHL games under his belt between Montreal, Dallas, and Minnesota, he’s pretty much a known commodity at this point and as the UFA market for right-shot blueliners dries up, a team that doesn’t land one could certainly circle back to Fenton and the Wild down the road.

Central Notes: Kulikov, Jets Defense, Rask, Timmins

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The Winnipeg Jets have already lost quite a bit of their talent on their blueline as the team has already lost Tyler Myers, Jacob Trouba and Ben Chiarot this offseason with little in return other than Neal Pionk. However, because Pionk filed for arbitration (along with Andrew Copp) on Friday, the Jets could lose another defenseman off their roster.

The Athletic’s Murat Ates (subscription required) points out that Pionk and Copp filing for arbitration opens up a second buyout window for Winnipeg in three weeks, which might suggest that the Jets could consider buying out defenseman Dmitry Kulikov when that happens. The 28-year-old defenseman, who has one year remaining on his deal at $4.33MM, has not worked out like the team had hoped and there are questions whether he could fulfill the role of a top-four defenseman now that the team has holes to fill.

Kulikov has played just 119 games over two seasons, often sitting as a healthy scratch and has just three goals and 17 points in those two seasons. The team may want to consider letting Kulikov, which would save the team $2.89MM in cap savings for this year, something that could be used towards acquiring another defenseman. Of course, the Jets could just as easily decide that he can play in their top four and keep him, but it’s a legitimate option Winnipeg can consider over the next three weeks.

  • Staying with the Jets, the Winnipeg Sun’s Paul Friesen writes that the losses Brandon Tanev (to Pittsburgh) and Chiarot (to Montreal) are more critical losses than people think. Those two players were ranked first and second, respectively on the Jets’ squad last year in hits. Tanev led the team with 278 hits, while Chiarot finished with 171. That’s a significant amount of physicality the team lost. Blocked shots aren’t any better as the team’s top two leaders in that category were lost as well, including Trouba (to New York Rangers) who had 171 blocks, while Chiarot was second on the team with 139. That could be a bad sign for the team’s overall defense.
  • The Athletic’s Tony Abbott (subscription required) projects the Minnesota Wild’s early depth chart after the Wild went out and signed forwards Mats Zuccarello and Ryan Hartman. The team possesses quite a bit of depth and the one player that could find himself without a job is Victor Rask. The 26-year-old forward, who was acquired in the unpopular trade involving Nino Niederreiter with Carolina, could find himself outside the team’s top 12 next season and he will be making $4MM next season. Rask struggled mightily when he got to Minnesota, posting just two goals and three points in 23 games.
  • The Colorado Avalanche had high expectations for prospect Connor Timmins at the start of the season. Unfortunately, the team lost him to a concussion for the entire season. While he’s shown some signs of practicing with the team during the playoffs in a non-contact jersey, The Athletic’s Ryan S. Clark (subscription required) reports that Timmins was a full participant at the team’s development camp recently and was, in fact, was one of the standouts there. The next step is to see how he performs in the preseason. Timmins, the team’s 2017 second-round pick, will likely play a full season in with the Colorado Eagles of the AHL next season.

Zucker Trade Less Likely As Fenton Believes Wild Are Done Making Moves

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Jason Zucker’s name has been in trade speculation for several months with word leaking out twice about trades falling through.  It may be time to put that to rest for the time being, however.  Wild GM Paul Fenton told Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press that after bringing in wingers Mats Zuccarello and Ryan Hartman in free agency, he’s likely done making moves this summer.  He believes that the additions plus the return to health of blueliner Mathew Dumba should be enough to vault Minnesota back into postseason contention.

Overseas Notes: Kiselevich, Mitchell, Rybar, McNeill

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As expected, Bogdan Kiselevich has returned home to Russia as soon as he could. The 29-year-old defenseman is back with CSKA Moscow after just one year in the NHL, as the team announced a new three-year deal. Kiselevich was clearly not impressed by his usage in North America, as word got out quickly after the season that he would return to the KHL, before even testing the NHL market. In his “rookie” season, Kiselevich played in 32 games with the Florida Panthers and contributed eight assists. Although some of his other underlying numbers suggested that Kiselevich was being underutilized in Florida, he worked mostly as the team’s No. 7. He was then traded to the Winnipeg Jets at the NHL Trade Deadline, slotting even lower in their depth chart, and did not play a single game in the regular season or postseason. Seeing as a fully healthy Kiselevich played just one game after January, it’s understandable that he was happy to return to a top role for an elite KHL club loaded with former NHLers.

  • Count Zack Mitchell as another NHL castoff looking for a larger role in the KHL. After skating in 34 NHL games between two seasons with the Minnesota Wild in 2016-17/2017-18, Mitchell was relegated to the AHL for this entire past campaign after signing with the Los Angeles Kings last summer. Still a relatively young player at 26 who also has consistent AHL production and NHL experience, Mitchell likely felt he could do better. As a result, Mitchell has signed a one-year contract with Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk of the KHL, the team announced. A team that missed the playoffs last season and has few elite players or familiar NHL faces, Neftekhimik needs a elite addition and hopes Mitchell can fill that role. If he can lead them back to the Gagarin Cup stage behind a highly productive season, Mitchell will likely be able to find a deal back in North America next year.
  • The Detroit Red Wings took a shot on young Slovakian goaltender Patrik Rybar last season after he had dominated the Slovakian and Czech pro ranks for several years. However, he ended up not getting much use as the fourth-string keeper in the organization. Rybar played in 37 AHL games and did not see any NHL action. In his minor league appearances, he also failed to put up the stupendous numbers that may have attracted another NHL suitor, posting a .908 save percentage and 2.49 GAA. Fortunately, those numbers were enough to turn heads in other major European leagues. Rybar has opted to sign with Karpat of the Finnish Liiga, the team announced. Karpat was the top team in the Liiga last year through the regular season and their play in net from Columbus Blue Jackets prospect Veini Vehvilainen and former NHLer Jussi Rynnas played no small role. With both of those keepers now gone, the Karpat net looks to belong to Rybar, with promising young goalie Justus Annunen, a Colorado Avalanche draft pick, as backup.
  • Mark McNeill’s precipitous drop from relevance continued last season and he is taking a drastic measure to rediscover his game. A 2011 first-round pick, McNeill was considered the top prospect of the Chicago Blackhawks for many years. Yet, to date he has just two NHL appearances to his credit. However, the heavy forward still put up good numbers in the minors in the Blackhawks’ and Dallas Stars’ systems. That is, until the past two years, when McNeill bounced around from Dallas to Nashville to Boston and posted back-to-back career lows of 25 points. Now, he must repair his image and show he can be a reliable scorer and has chosen Austria as the place to do just that. McNeill has signed with EHC Linz of the EBEL, the Black Wings announced. Linz counts Bracken Kearns and Justin Florek as their only other NHL veterans, so the opportunity will be there for McNeill to be the teams’s best player next season.

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