Wild To Play Blackhawks In Prospect Series
- The Minnesota Wild announced today that they will play two games against the Chicago Blackhawks in this year’s Tom Kurvers Prospect Showcase. The games will be on September 17th and 18th in Chicago, and the team says that rosters and additional information will be made available at a later date. The Wild have the third-ranked prospect pool in the NHL, per The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler (subscription link), so those two dates are definitely ones to circle on the calendar for fans of the Wild, Blackhawks, and prospects in general.
Vancouver Canucks Sign Filip Johansson
The Vancouver Canucks have nabbed one of the more interesting European free agents on the market this offseason. The team today announced the signing of defenseman Filip Johansson, a first-round pick of the Minnesota Wild, to a two-year, entry-level contract. Financial terms are unavailable at this time.
Drafted 24th overall in 2018 by Minnesota, the now-22-year-old’s development in the SHL had stalled over the past few seasons, leading the Wild to the decision to not offer Johansson an entry-level contract as his exclusive signing rights expired on June 1. The 6′ 1″, 176 lb defenseman’s best hockey came in the 2022 postseason, notching five goals and two assists in just nine games with Frölunda HC.
Vancouver general manager Patrik Allvin evidently disagrees with the Wild’s assessment of the player, saying in the team’s release that Johansson “plays a solid defensive game and has shown consistent improvement over the past three seasons.” Allvin also noted that the team will loan Johansson back to Frölunda for the 2022-23 season, meaning Canucks fans won’t get a chance to see their new prospect on North American ice just yet. However, Johansson will attend Canucks development camp next month.
Johansson joins a Canucks prospect pool on defense that lacks much to be truly excited about other than Jack Rathbone and Jett Woo, and he’ll become a giant wild card for the organization. If Johansson can regain his development and reach the defensive ceiling he had when the Wild drafted him, it’ll be a gamble worth taking for the Canucks. If not, Vancouver gave up no assets to obtain the player other than a contract slot. It’s a solid bet from Allvin and the Canucks organization to take a chance on the Swedish defenseman.
Jon Merrill Undergoes Surgery
- While Minnesota has provided injury updates on some of their players, they haven’t done so yet for defenseman Jon Merrill who has undergone surgery for an upper-body injury sustained during his first game (and shift) at the Worlds. However, Michael Russo of The Athletic believes (subscription link) that the blueliner is expected to be out longer than the six-week period given for winger Mats Zuccarello and defender Jared Spurgeon for their surgeries. Merrill had a good first year for the Wild in a depth role, picking up 20 points in 69 games, earning himself a three-year extension midseason as a reward.
Coaching Notes: DeBoer, Vigneault, Boucher
With just four teams left vying for Lord Stanley’s Cup, the focus is strong on building next season’s roster for most NHL teams. That includes the coaching carousel, which will be active with many big names available this offseason. The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun took a wide-angle lens look around the list of coaching free agents to examine where each could end up moving forward.
One of the coaches named is Peter DeBoer, fired by the Vegas Golden Knights last month after the team missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. However, LeBrun notes that while he’s one of the biggest names available, it’s not a sure thing he’ll start the season behind an NHL bench. DeBoer is still owed money for the last year of his Vegas contract, something LeBrun says will allow him the flexibility to take his time on deciding. He surmises that a mid-season hire could be likely for a team looking to make a change after a poor start, but stops short of counting out DeBoer signing full-on with a team before the start of the 2022-23 season.
- LeBrun says that the “odds are” Alain Vigneault‘s NHL coaching career is done. Vigneault will still be paid by the Flyers through June of 2024, so finances aren’t a factor for Vigneault in the short term. LeBrun notes that he’ll be 63 when that contract is over. With 1,363 games under his belt as a head coach and no Stanley Cup, it’s unclear how many offers he’ll get anyways.
- One wild card name mentioned by LeBrun as a potential offseason hire is Guy Boucher. While he’s been out of a job since 2019, he has a “get rich quick” reputation around the league as a coach who brings short, but immediate success to his new team (2011 Tampa Bay Lightning, 2017 Ottawa Senators). Boucher had been holding out on taking NHL jobs for family reasons, but LeBrun says he’s now ready to get back in the picture.
Minnesota Wild Not Expected To Sign Filip Johansson
Though it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise with the deadline set for tomorrow, Michael Russo of The Athletic has confirmed that the Minnesota Wild are not going to sign Filip Johnasson. The 2018 first-round pick will become an unrestricted free agent and the Wild will receive a compensatory pick in this year’s draft, which will be 56th overall.
Johansson, 22, has spent the last three seasons playing in the SHL, where his offensive numbers have never really improved. In 47 games this season the young defenseman had just three goals and 11 points. Not only that but he hasn’t been included in any major international events for Sweden since the U18 World Juniors in 2018 and signed a two-year extension with Leksands in December, which keeps him under contract through the 2023-24 season.
All that adds up to a player that didn’t hold a ton of upside for the Wild, and given the fact that they can now get a solid compensatory pick, leaving him unsigned makes at least some sense.
Still, when looking back at the 2018 draft it is easy to think about what could have been. Just as the Wild’s pick was approaching, the New York Rangers traded up four spots and selected St. Paul native and NHL regular K’Andre Miller with the 22nd selection. While it’s certainly no guarantee that the team would have gone with the 6’4″ Miller, who was committed to the University of Wisconsin, he or one of the many other defensemen that followed (Rasmus Sandin, Mattias Samuelsson, and Alexander Romanov are among the group taken soon after) could have been a difference-maker for the Wild already.
Now, though a second-round pick does hold value, the team will likely have to wait several other years for that player to mature and develop–if he makes it at all. This unfortunate result is just another oddity in the whirlwind 14-month tenure of former Minnesota general manager Paul Fenton.
Jared Spurgeon, Mats Zuccarello Out With Core Muscle Injuries
Every year, veteran players on playoff teams end up having to go under the knife at the end of the season. The Minnesota Wild are no different, as both Jared Spurgeon and Mats Zuccarello will face recovery timelines of six weeks after core muscle surgery. Michael Russo of The Athletic reports that Spurgeon has already undergone the procedure, while Zuccarello is scheduled for it. The latter also dealt with a fracture in his leg which will not require surgery.
For Spurgeon, the injury goes back to before the January 1 Winter Classic according to Russo. That means he played at least 50 games while dealing with it, including six playoff matches against the St. Louis Blues. It’s easy to understand that he was dealing with something (or perhaps several things), as the team captain’s ice time dropped dramatically in the postseason. Spurgeon averaged just over 20 minutes, and actually didn’t even reach that threshold in three of the six games. Still, he finished the regular season with a strong 40 points in 65 matches.
Zuccarello meanwhile had the best offensive season of his career, putting up 79 points in 70 games. He did have four points in six playoff games as well, but the Wild were outscored 6-5 while he was on the ice, a huge change from the regular season (Minnesota outscored their opponent 77-54 with him at even-strength) and a big reason why they were eventually eliminated.
A six-week timeline certainly isn’t the end of the world, given how far away the 2022-23 season is, but core muscle surgeries are notorious for impacting performance long after the player is cleared to hit the ice. Hopefully, for the Wild’s sake at least, both players will be at full strength when the season kicks off and ready to challenge for the playoffs once again.
Andrei Svetlakov Re-Signs In KHL
Usually, a team’s reserve list is limited to young prospects, waiting to sign their first entry-level contract in the years following their draft. Sometimes though, because of the lack of transfer agreement between the NHL and certain other leagues (the KHL and NL most notably), a reserve list also includes a player that is no longer considered a prospect. The rights of these players are held indefinitely if they never attempt a career in North America, and one example is Andrei Svetlakov.
Selected by the Minnesota Wild in the sixth round in 2017, when he was already an overage prospect, Svetlakov remains on the team’s reserve list, with his exclusive rights wrapped up forever. Now 26, Svetlakov has never attempted a North American run, despite plenty of success at the KHL level. That is only going to continue, as the veteran forward has signed a new two-year contract, staying with CSKA in the KHL.
A two-time winner of the Gagarin Cup as a member of the powerhouse CSKA program, Svetlakov was a strong contributor in this year’s playoffs with four goals and nine points in 22 games. Though not usually much of an offensive weapon, he has nevertheless been a reliable two-way option, receiving somewhere between 14 and 16 minutes a night. At this point, an NHL career seems extremely unlikely. If it never happens, he’ll stay on the Wild reserve list until retirement–but he isn’t alone in that category.
The Wild also have 35-year-old Julian Walker on their reserve list, selected in the sixth round of the 2006 draft. He’s spent his entire career in Switzerland and is still signed through next season.
Minor Transactions: 05/25/22
While the North American focus on hockey remains starkly on the Stanley Cup Playoffs, most European seasons have wrapped up by now. That means a lot of players with NHL pedigrees are involved in some foreign transactions. We’ll keep track of those here today:
- Defenseman Andrey Pedan, a 2011 third-round pick of the New York Islanders and 13-game NHL veteran with the Vancouver Canucks, is on the move in the KHL. SKA St. Petersburg acquired him via trade today from Dynamo Moskva, meaning Pedan will suit up for his third different KHL team since returning to Russia in 2018. Born in Lithuania, Pedan has Russian citizenship but underwent the majority of his development in North America. He came to join the OHL in 2010 and played professionally exclusively in North America through 2018.
- Former Minnesota Wild and Washington Capital Casey Wellman announced his retirement today via Instagram. The California native was never drafted but made the jump to the NHL after the Wild picked him as a free agent from UMass in 2010. Before beginning a professional career in Europe in 2015, Wellman appeared in 54 NHL games, scoring six goals, 10 assists and 16 points.
2022 Lady Byng Finalists Announced
The NHL continues its daily revealing of award finalists and today’s is the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy. The award is voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association and is given “to the player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability.”
This year’s finalists are Kyle Connor of the Winnipeg Jets, Jared Spurgeon of the Minnesota Wild, and Jaccob Slavin of the Carolina Hurricanes.
Connor, a finalist for the first time, put together an incredible season even as the Jets struggled to take off. The 25-year-old sniper potted 47 goals and 93 points in 79 games, and, perhaps most impressively, recorded just four minutes in penalties. Two minutes in November for slashing, and two minutes in March for hooking were the only times Connor was forced to spend in the sin bin, an eye-popping feat given he played nearly 22 minutes a night for Winnipeg.
If the Winnipeg forward wants to win, though, he’ll have to go through a pair of defensemen that are certainly not new to the award.
Spurgeon, last year’s runner-up, put together another season that seems to boggle the mind, recording just ten penalty minutes despite playing more than 21 minutes a night on defense. In 772 NHL games, Spurgeon has amassed just 130 penalty minutes, and has been nominated for the Byng on eight different occasions. Add in his ten-goal, 40-point campaign, and you certainly have a player who combined gentlemanly conduct and a high standard of play during the regular season. Remember, those who want to point out his playoff cross-check, that this voting is done before the postseason commences.
Slavin, last year’s winner after taking just two minutes in penalties all season, decided to goon-it-up this year with a total of ten in 79 games. The Hurricanes defenseman is the perfect blend of mobility, positioning, and stick checking ability, ending countless plays without ever losing ground. He reached a new high in points with 42, while once again logging more than 23 minutes a night for Carolina. Nominated for the Lady Byng in each of the last five seasons, he could become the first player to win the award in consecutive years since Martin St. Louis.
Who should win the 2022 Lady Byng?
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Kyle Connor 51% (265)
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Jared Spurgeon 26% (132)
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Jaccob Slavin 23% (119)
Total votes: 516
Wild Notes: Goaltending, Johansson, Free Agency
The Minnesota Wild look set to begin an offseason where major decisions will have to be made. One of the biggest question marks for this Wild offseason has been their goaltending situation, with much discussion devoted to the feasibility of a Cam Talbot–Marc-Andre Fleury tandem for next season. But yesterday, Fleury spoke on that possibility, stating that a return to Minnesota would be “very appealing,” and it seems that Wild GM Bill Guerin agrees with that sentiment. He was very straightforward when addressing the goaltending, saying that they “want both back,” and that the team “likes both goalies.”
While the Wild’s precarious salary cap situation thanks to the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts will likely be the determining factor in whether or not a reunion actually comes to fruition, it’s clear that all parties involved are interested in getting it done. Playoffs aside, both Fleury and Talbot were great this season, combining for a 41-14-4 record, leading the Wild to one of their most impressive regular seasons in franchise history. It remains to be seen if a Fleury-Talbot tandem can be sustainable for an entire playoff run, of course, but it seems given today’s comments that they will likely get another chance to prove it can work.
Now, for some other notes regarding the Wild:
- The Wild have a decision to make regarding defenseman Filip Johansson, the team’s first-round pick from the 2018 draft. The team can either sign Johansson to an entry-level contract before July 1st or see their exclusive rights to sign him expire. Johansson, 22, has been getting regular minutes for SHL club Frolunda HC for the past two seasons, and just five months ago signed a two-year extension to stay there. What makes this choice interesting is the fact that the Wild stand to gain a second-round pick, 56th overall, as compensation should they choose not to sign him. Michael Russo of The Athletic reports that “they’re not” signing Johansson, meaning the team has chosen the pick over the prospect.
- As previously mentioned, the cost of the Suter and Parise buyouts will cast a shadow on everything the Wild plan on doing this summer. Naturally, the team’s approach to free agency would also be altered, and today Guerin shed some light on his strategy regarding this summer’s open market. Guerin said: “Honestly, we’re pretty set. I don’t know how active we’ll be in the free-agent market.” So, with Kevin Fiala a potential cap casualty, it seems Wild fans should not expect Guerin to target any major free agents when the market opens.