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Paul Fenton

Florida Panthers Announce Changes To Hockey Operations

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The Florida Panthers have made sweeping changes to their front office and coaching staff as they search for a new direction under GM Bill Zito. The team has named Rick Dudley and Paul Fenton senior advisors to the GM, Gregory Campbell vice president of player personnel and development, Blake Geoffrion the assistant to the general manager and added P.J. Fenton to the team’s scouting staff.

They have also announced that Mike Kitchen will not return as assistant coach, which follows a report earlier today that Kitchen allegedly physically assaulted a player on the bench in January. The team did not comment on the report. AHL assistant coach Doug Janik will not be joining the new affiliation in Charlotte.

Fenton’s name had surfaced in connection with the Panthers previously and he has a history with Zito from their time with the Columbus Blue Jackets. The former Minnesota Wild GM was perceived as a strong talent evaluator during his time in Nashville, though the stint in Minnesota obviously didn’t go well.

Dudley meanwhile has been serving as senior vice president of hockey operations with the Carolina Hurricanes and has nearly a half-century of experience in professional hockey.

Campbell, 36, only ended his playing career in 2016 but has served as a development coach since then with the Blue Jackets. His familiarity with Zito obviously led him to this position with the Panthers and given his 803 career NHL games as a depth forward, he should have a unique perspective to add to the development side.

The Panthers made a clear change when they parted ways with legendary executive Dale Tallon earlier this year and installed rookie GM Zito in the position.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Fenton, Hamonic

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The NHL has released the Three Stars for last week, and to no one’s surprise Elvis Merzlikins has received the top honor. The Columbus Blue Jackets’ goaltender went nearly 180 consecutive minutes without allowing a goal, posting two shutouts and a minuscule 0.67 goals against average. The 25-year old rookie now has a .930 save percentage on the season.

Second and third place go to more familiar faces, as Kyle Connor and Andrei Vasilevskiy take home the honors. The Winnipeg Jets forward had eight points last week and now is just two goals away from his third consecutive 30-goal season. Tampa Bay meanwhile has been on fire with the reigning Vezina Trophy winner showing exactly why he should never be counted out. Vasilevskiy now leads the league in wins with 29 after a slow start to the season and is all the way back up to a .918 save percentage.

  • After being fired by the Minnesota Wild just 14 months into his tenure as general manager, Paul Fenton has found a new home. The long-time Nashville Predators assistant GM is working his way through the turn of the century expansion clubs, now taking a job with the Columbus Blue Jackets’ scouting department according to Michael Russo of The Athletic. Fenton has always been known as a strong judge of talent, but things quickly went south when he was put in charge of the Wild.
  • Travis Hamonic has left the Flames and returned to Calgary for further testing according to Wes Gilberton of Postmedia. The defenseman left Saturday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks, complicating the upcoming trade deadline even further for the Flames’ front office. Hamonic was one of several defensemen that are on expiring contracts and could have been moved, but with captain Mark Giordano already out it will be hard to subtract from the Flames’ blue line at this point. The team has recalled Alexander Yelesin from the minor leagues.

Jason Zucker Likely Safe Following Paul Fenton’s Firing

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Former Minnesota Wild GM Paul Fenton managed to trade away Nino Niederreiter, Charlie Coyle, and Mikael Granlund in 14 months on the job and was shopping Zach Parise prior to his dismissal. Yet, the name that has come up most often in trade rumors of the last year has been another core forward, Jason Zucker. Shortly after signing a new five-year, $27.5MM extension with the team last summer, Zucker’s name seemingly took a permanent spot on the trade block and was seemingly close to being dealt on several occasions, including a nixed deal to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Phil Kessel earlier this off-season.

With Fenton’s departure now comes piece of mind for Zucker, writes NHL.com’s Jessi Pierce. Zucker received a personal call from Minnesota owner Craig Leipold when the decision to move on from Fenton was officially made, with Leipold clearly feeling that Zucker was one of the players most ill-affected by Fenton’s reign and was a long-term key player who deserved better. Zucker tells Pierce that he is glad none of the rumored trades ever came to fruition, as he is happy to be in Minnesota and is ready for a fresh start but relieved it didn’t require a move to a different team. Zucker says that he and his teammates are not worried about the new GM, but are eager to see what comes next for the club:

You earn the respect by the moves you make, the teams you build, and the championships you win, and that’s what it comes down to. For us, we’re excited to see who comes in and the direction he’s going to take this organization.

As for Zucker’s job security moving forward, a new GM is unlikely to trade away any more core players from Minnesota, at least not any time soon. He will likely take some time this upcoming season to evaluate the team before restructuring. Even then, Zucker’s $5.5MM cap hit over the next four years is a bargain deal if he can get back to the 64-point form he showed in 2017-18. However, after a drop-off to just 42 points last season, he’ll need to bounce back to remain safe moving forward. Additionally, Zucker’s limited No-Trade Clause – a ten-team no-trade list – will help him stay in Minnesota if it comes to that, but the 27-year-old would rather prove his worth through his player rather than have to use his contract. As the team looks to move on from Fenton and repair their culture, a well-respected player like Zucker feeling comfortable, playing up to par, and buying into the team’s long-term plan could be invaluable for Minnesota.

Minnesota Begins Search For Paul Fenton’s Replacement At GM

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Saturday: TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie reports that Minnesota has asked permission to interview Canadiens assistant GM Scott Mellanby.  He has served in that role with Montreal for the past five years after spending two seasons as their Director of Player Personnel.

Friday: The firing of GM Paul Fenton by the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday certainly came as a surprise to many, but not those within the organization, writes The Athletic’s Michael Russo. Fenton was dismissed after little more than a year on the job after a tenure that Russo describes as “death by a thousand cuts.” There was no one thing that caused Fenton to lose his job, but rather mounting evidence that he was a poor fit in the organization. Sources within the team stated that Fenton’s dysfunctional style of running the club caused a negative shift in the culture, both in the locker room and in the front office, and an overall drop-off in morale. Owner Craig Leipold and company were left cleaning up after Fenton’s messes as a lack of trust and communication permeated the entire organization. Whether it was Fenton’s dismissal of analytics, his disrespect for incumbent Wild executives, his mismanagement of the coaching staff, or his failure to maximize trade assets, the GM was constantly at odds with everyone around him, including his owner. As such, many Wild staffers were not shocked that Fenton was fired, even at a strange time in the middle of the off-season, as Russo writes that Leipold has been distressed about the situation “for months” and action became inevitable.

So, now in early August and following a draft and free agent frenzy run by Fenton, the Wild are in search for a new leader for their organization. Given the struggles under Fenton, a first-time GM, Minnesota is understandably seeking someone with experience on the job. Among the early candidates to emerge were former GM’s John Ferguson Jr., now with the Boston Bruins, and Dave Nonis, now with the Anaheim Ducks, and experienced assistants Bill Zito of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Tom Fitzgerald of the New Jersey Devils. However, Russo reports that the team has chosen two free agent former GM’s as the first to interview for the position. Peter Chiarelli and Ron Hextall, both of whom were fired themselves during this past season, have already met with Leipold, president Matt Majka, and executive adviser Mike Modano about the opening, per Russo.

Chiarelli, fired by the Edmonton Oilers in January, has a Stanley Cup title on his resume with the Boston Bruins, but struggled greatly during his time with the Oilers. Chiarelli has also ended up on the wrong side of major trades and long-term contracts too often during his time in both Boston and Edmonton. There is no doubt that Chiarelli is an intelligent hockey mind, but there is some question as to whether he should be rushed right back into a top decision-making role. The Wild saw too many poor trade returns under Fenton, as well as a questionable free agent contract handed out to aging forward Mats Zuccarello, to put someone in control who they can’t trust not to continue that trend, so Chiarelli will have to convince the team that he has changed his approach.

As for Hextall, fired in November by the Philadelphia Flyers, some felt the former star goalie deserved a longer leash as GM. On paper, he left the team in good shape – ironically for replacement Chuck Fletcher, who preceded Fenton as Minnesota’s GM – but received criticism for his slow approach. Hextall may be a fine option in terms of hockey knowledge and ability as a GM, but Russo notes that, like Fenton, he has gained the reputation of being difficult to work with. An “intense” and “hard” boss, the fragile morale in Minnesota may not be ready for Hextall unless the team trusts that he will handle himself differently.

Russo points out that the Wild expect this to be a long, meticulous process and he does not believe that Chiarelli and Hextall interviewing first necessarily makes them the front-runners. In fact, it could very well have to do with the fact that neither has an affiliation with another NHL team at this moment. In addition to the other aforementioned names, Russo adds Dean Lombardi, Garth Snow, Bill Guerin, Chris Drury, Mark Hunter, Brian Lawton, Mike Gillis, and even reigning GM of the Year candidate Don Waddell, whose contract with the Carolina Hurricanes has yet to be renewed, as possible candidates. It is a long list of options with many different backgrounds and experience levels and it will take some time for Minnesota to sort it all out. For now, Chiarelli and Hextall are the only names to interview, but that group will expand as the summer wears on before the team makes a decision possibly months from now.

Paul Fenton Fired By Minnesota Wild

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The Minnesota Wild have fired GM Paul Fenton after just one season according to Michael Russo of The Athletic (subscription required). The move is obviously a stunning development this far into the offseason, especially after Fenton has made sweeping changes to the roster by trading players like Nino Niederreiter, Mikael Granlund and Charlie Coyle while also committing a long-term contract to Mats Zuccarello this offseason. Russo expects assistant GM Tom Kurvers to take over in the interim as the team conducts a search for Fenton’s replacement.

Fenton’s time with Minnesota ends 14 months after it started when he was hired away from the Nashville Predators in May, 2018. The decision was made after a lengthy interview process by Wild owner Craig Leipold which included other highly touted assistants like Tom Fitzgerald and Bill Zito as well as more experienced names like John Ferguson Jr. and Dave Nonis. Fenton had been with the Predators since the beginning of their franchise, working with Leipold who was the team’s original owner. He was heralded as a solid replacement for the outgoing Chuck Fletcher, who had taken the Wild to the playoffs consistently but struggled to get them deep into the tournament.

Amazingly, the biggest free agent contract given out by Fenton was completed just a few weeks ago when he signed Zuccarello to a five-year, $30MM deal. That matched the extension he’d handed Mathew Dumba in 2018 and just eclipsed the one he signed Jason Zucker to. Less than a year after signing Zucker to that five-year extension, Fenton tried to trade the speedy winger multiple times, first to Calgary at the deadline and recently to the Pittsburgh Penguins in an eventually nixed Phil Kessel deal.

Very recently, team leader Zach Parise spoke out about how at his age he isn’t ready for a rebuild and has started to wonder about his decision all those years ago to sign with the Wild—though he stated clearly that he didn’t regret it. That kind of an interview, in which Russo also reported that Fenton had explored if teams had interest in Parise, likely only stoked the flames for Leipold, who needs to get the organization back on track. He has a huge task before him now to find the right man for the job and quickly get the Wild back to a playoff contender or commit to a rebuild.

Minnesota Wild Have Explored Trading Zach Parise

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While the Minnesota Wild are hardly calling it a rebuilding project, it’s been quite obvious of late that they have been doing just that. Afterall, the team has traded away Charlie Coyle, Nino Niederreiter and Mikael Granlund in the second half of the season last year and continue to look like they are getting younger and younger.

In an in-depth piece about Wild forward Zach Parise, The Athletic’s Michael Russo (subscription required) writes that The Athletic has learned that general manager Paul Fenton has discussed the possibility of trading Parise at the draft and in the weeks since then in hopes of finding a trade partner. That would be a tall challenge for the GM as the 34-year-old Parise still has six years remaining on his contract at $7.53MM AAV (he originally signed a 13-year, $98MM contract back in 2012). Regardless, the scribe believes the team is seriously considering it, although there would be some obstacles.

First on the list, is whether Parise, who has a full no-movement clause, would be willing to accept a trade. While from Minneapolis and stating quite clearly that he loves it in Minnesota, the veteran also revealed that he’s concerned about the fact that the Wild seem to be looking toward a rebuild, something a veteran of 15 years isn’t likely to want to go through.

“I think I want to win. I want to win here, and I do love everything away from the rink. We’ve got so many friends through the kids away from the rink, away from hockey. It’s so great. It is great, so that’s the hard part,” Parise said, when asked if he’d be willing to accept a trade. “But you get to that point where you want to win. That’s all you want to do. Trust me, we’d all love to win here. I think this place would be absolute insanity if we won here. So that’s the goal. I mean, I just don’t know. Let’s put it this way, they haven’t come to me asking if I want to get traded somewhere.”

The second problem is that no playoff teams are going to be willing to pay $7.53MM for six straight years at his age, which will mean that Minnesota almost assuredly would have to retain some of his salary, perhaps even half of it. And if the club does that, would they be able to get a quality return even then? Parise did post 28 goals last season and could prove to be a valuable asset to many teams, but would a team be willing to take on six more years of him and hand over a major asset or two as well? After all, he’ll be 35 when the season starts and will be still be paid that amount when he turns 40. That’s a tall order even if they only have to pay $3.77MM per season.

Obviously moving Parise would quicken the pace of a rebuild as Parise’s contract (along with Ryan Suter who signed the same contract alongside Parise back in 2012) are definitely holding the team back from a complete rebuild. Of course, Parise also was the team’s leading scorer last year on a team that struggled to put the puck into the net and the team could get quite a negative reaction from fans if the team sends him off, especially if the return is a meager one. However, this might be the best time to move on from Parise after his 28-goal season as he is only getting older and even fewer teams will have interest in trading for him in the future if he struggles next season.

 

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 Hope To Extend Jared Spurgeon

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Of all names in trade speculation coming out regarding the Minnesota Wild, Jared Spurgeon’s was perhaps the most surprising. While the 29-year old defenseman has just one year remaining on his current contract, he is also one of the most consistent two-way defensemen in the league and is coming off a career-high 43 points for the Wild. Spurgeon was forced to carry more of the offensive load after Matthew Dumba went down with injury, and ended up averaging more than 24 minutes a night for the third consecutive season. That kind of player is extremely hard to come by, which made it curious why his name was coming up in any speculation. Wild GM Paul Fenton put an end to that today while speaking to reporters including Michael Russo of The Athletic, indicating that he does not plan on trading Spurgeon and instead wants to sign him to an extension.

The Wild have made their fair share of trades over the last few months as Fenton tries to put his signature on the club, but trading Spurgeon may be the limit he’s unwilling to cross. After sending Nino Niederreiter, Charlie Coyle and Mikael Granlund packing in three separate trades, Jason Zucker has also been included in talks and is expected to be dealt at some point. Part of the rationale behind those moves was clearing long-term salary off the books, probably in order to do something like extend Spurgeon. Minnesota is still hamstrung by the massive contracts of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise—even if both are still fine players—and already have multi-year commitments to several other players.

It’s not just Spurgeon who will need a new deal soon however, as fellow defenseman Jonas Brodin will be looking for a raise after his current deal ends in 2021. Kevin Fiala and Joel Eriksson Ek are already restricted free agents this summer, and a decision will have to be made at some point down the road on Devan Dubnyk’s future. Locking up Spurgeon to a long-term deal certainly keeps around a great player, but also makes everything a little tighter in terms of cap dollars available. Any extension will likely represent a big increase on the $5.19MM cap hit he carries currently, and may even push Suter and Parise for the team’s most expensive contract.

Snapshots: Kessel, Malmquist, Vladar

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It’s been confirmed by many sources now that Pittsburgh Penguins forward Phil Kessel himself nixed the proposed deal that would have sent him to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Jason Zucker, among other pieces. What was unclear is exactly why. Kessel is a native of nearby Wisconsin and played his college hockey for the University of Minnesota. It would seem that the Wild would have been a nice fit for the veteran scorer. However, as noted by the Athletic’s Michael Russo, Kessel’s reasoning for turning down the destination is quite simple: he doesn’t think the team is a contender. In fact, after talking to those close to Kessel, Russo phrases it as Kessel didn’t think the team was even “close to contending”. GM Paul Fenton certainly left a mark in his first season at the helm, trading away established veterans Charlie Coyle, Mikael Granlund, and Nino Niederreiter and on paper the team does look to be in more of a rebuild than a title window. Fenton reportedly called Kessel to try to change his mind, but to no avail. Kessel will be 32 next season and has already showed signs of slowing down, so the star winger apparently has his sights set on competing for more Stanley Cups before his playing days are over. That could make the prospect of dealing him that much harder for Penguins GM Jim Rutherford, further limiting Kessel’s trade options to contenders on his eight-team trade list that have both the means and interest in acquiring him. Meanwhile, Fenton and the Wild have to hope that other prominent players, free agents or trade targets, don’t share in Kessel’s pessimistic outlook on the team’s chances or they may have a hard time improving this off-season.

  • Kessel’s home of Madison, Wisconsin is set to see another promising player make his way into town in a couple of years. Liam Malmquist, a standout high school forward from Edina, Minnesota, has announced his commitment to play his college hockey for the University of Wisconsin. However, Malmquist will not join the Badgers until 2020-21 and will play next season for the BCHL’s Penticton Vees, the team announced today. Malmquist, 18, is an undersized scoring forward, whose lack of stature and relatively weak competition level likely kept him off the radar of NHL team’s in his first time through the draft last year. However, after recording 52 points in 24 games this year, he’s entered the conversation as a possible late-round overage waiver this June. Malmquist’s older brother, Dylan Malmquist, remains unsigned but just wrapped up a strong collegiate career at the University of Notre Dame. Even if Malmquist is not drafted, he can stay in the pro picture if he is able to replicate or top his brother’s numbers while at Wisconsin. He should be surrounded by plenty of talent too, as Malmquist joins a talented Badgers team that will add top 2019 prospects Alex Turcotte, Cole Caufield, Ryder Donovan, and Owen Lindmark, as well as intriguing 2020 name Dylan Holloway next season and another top 2020 prospect in Tanner Latsch the year after.
  • The Boston Bruins have already lost forward Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson and defenseman Emil Johansson to Europe this off-season – even though the team’s off-season has yet to begin – and for the good of their minor league depth hope to avoid any other such losses. However, it is worth noting that AHL goaltender Dan Vladar was the subject of a recent trade in the KHL. Vladar’s rights were acquired by contender Lokomotiv Yaroslavl from HK Sochi in exchange for 22-year-old active KHL forward Alexander Polunin, a somewhat hefty price for just a player’s rights. There has been no word as to whether Vladar has talked about jumping overseas, prompting the trade, but it certainly shouldn’t be ruled out. Vladar, a 2015 third-round pick of the Bruins, is still only 21 but has yet to make an NHL appearance in three pro seasons. Vladar played as the Providence Bruins’ backup this season, making 31 appearances to starter Zane McIntyre’s 47. Both goalies put up just pedestrian numbers and McIntyre, a pending unrestricted free agent, is not a lock to return. With NHL backup Jaroslav Halak also signed for just one more season, it could be that Vladar remains on the fast track to start for Providence next season and one day back up Tuukka Rask. One would think that position would keep the young net minder stateside. However, he now faces a challenge from other promising young goalies in the pipeline like Kyle Keyser and Jeremy Swayman and may no longer feel that he is guaranteed to ever see time with the Bruins. Such a mindset could see Vladar off to Russia this summer.

Bruce Boudreau To Return As Minnesota Head Coach

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The Minnesota Wild made some big changes in the front office recently, but won’t be doing the same behind the bench. GM Paul Fenton spoke with reporters today and made it very clear that Bruce Boudreau will be back next season despite missing the playoffs this year. Fenton also explained that he will try to “fix this on the fly” instead of trying a full rebuild, and noted that players like Matt Dumba, Mikko Koivu and Zach Parise will be ready for training camp.

Boudreau, 64, has been with the Wild for three seasons and failed to get them past the first round of the playoffs in each of the first two. Missing completely led some to believe that he may be on his way out, given he wasn’t even hired by Fenton, but there are few with his history of success available. The former Washington and Anaheim bench boss trails only Scott Bowman and Jon Cooper in winning percentage among coaches with at least 500 games, and has still never had a season under .500 in his career. His resume also includes championships at both the ECHL and AHL level, and this season marks just the second time his NHL club has missed the playoffs. He won the Jack Adams award as Coach of the Year in 2008.

Even with all of that, the seat is certainly still hot in Minnesota. The team won’t be tearing down the walls to rebuild a roster that hasn’t been able to eclipse mediocrity, and if they don’t find success soon there will have to be changes. Fenton did already alter the look of the core group of players by trading away Nino Niederreiter, Charlie Coyle and Mikael Granlund, and will likely have some more moves coming this summer. Boudreau’s task will now be putting all those new pieces together and getting back in the race in the Western Conference, and will do it on the last year of his current contract.

Perhaps some luck will come Boudreau’s way this evening when the draft lottery results are announced, and he’ll have a new star to set into his line up. Even if it doesn’t, he’ll have to find a way to get more production out of young forwards like Luke Kunin, Joel Eriksson Ek and Jordan Greenway.

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