Canadiens Re-Sign Lukas Vejdemo
On their off-day between Games 3 and 4 in their Stanley Cup semifinal, the Canadiens have taken care of one of their pending free agents, announcing the re-signing of center Lukas Vejdemo to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal is worth the NHL league minimum salary of $750K with a $175K AHL salary and a total guarantee of $215K.
The 25-year-old was a third-round pick of Montreal back in 2015 (85th overall) and has been a depth option for them in recent years. While he played in seven NHL games in 2019-20 (scoring once), he didn’t see any action with the Canadiens this season. He started off the year on loan to Sodertalje in Sweden’s Allsvenskan before returning for training camp. Vejdemo played in 27 games with AHL Laval this season, notching seven goals and six assists and was among Montreal’s list of Black Ace recalls heading into training camp.
Vejdemo was eligible to test the open market this summer as a Group Six unrestricted free agent but instead will likely play a similar role for the Canadiens next season as a depth option to recall if injuries strike. He will be eligible for waivers for the first time next season but with his limited NHL experience, it seems likely that he will pass through unclaimed in training camp.
Dominique Ducharme Tests Positive For COVID-19
The league has made the official announcement concerning Montreal Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme, who has tested positive for COVID-19 and is now in isolation. The press release indicates that all tests done on players have returned negative, meaning there will not be any other unforeseen absences in tonight’s game.
The full statement:
This morning, we became aware that a test administered yesterday in Las Vegas on Montreal Canadiens Head Coach Dominique Ducharme indicated a presumptive positive result for the COVID-19 virus that was confirmed on further testing today. Coach Ducharme has been partially vaccinated with his second shot administered less than two weeks ago, on June 9. Per NHL COVID Protocols, Coach Ducharme was immediately isolated from the team. All tests administered to the Players, other coaches and hockey staff from both yesterday and today have returned uniformly negative results. The Canadiens organization has, and will continue to follow, all guidelines aimed at protecting the health and safety of its Players, staff and community at large as set by the NHL, the Canadian Federal Government, the Quebec Provincial Government, and national and provincial health agencies.
While it is obviously a good thing that the Canadiens will have their full complement of players, losing their coach at this important juncture is not ideal. Ducharme will now miss the rest of the series, which is scheduled to go through June 26 if taken to seven games.
This is Ducharme’s first time as an NHL head coach in the playoffs, after taking over from Claude Julien earlier in the year. The team will turn to Luke Richardson to run the bench tonight, assisted by Alexandre Burrows and Sean Burke, according to GM Marc Bergevin. He also indicated that Ducharme is feeling well and will still be involved in preparing the game plan.
Dominique Ducharme Sent Home With COVID Testing “Irregularities”
2:40pm: Darren Dreger of TSN tweets that it is believed Ducharme has indeed tested positive for COVID-19 and will be kept away from the team for at least ten days. There has not yet been official confirmation from the team, but it appears as though Montreal will have to try and get through the Golden Knights without their head coach.
9:40am: The Montreal Canadiens were without their head coach at morning skate today, as Dominique Ducharme was sent home after COVID testing “irregularities.” This is the same situation that happened to Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar during their second-round series. Bednar was eventually allowed to coach that evening after further testing came back negative.
As Mike Zeisberger of NHL.com points out, Ducharme is fully vaccinated. That doesn’t necessarily discard the possibility of a positive test result, as there have been breakthrough infections previously. The coach is currently isolating at home, waiting for further testing results.
Montreal will take on the Vegas Golden Knights in game three tonight after tying the series on Wednesday. They obviously would rather do it with their head coach behind the bench, but the game will go on with or without him. At this point, there does not seem to be any irregularities with the player testing.
2021 Jim Gregory Award Finalists Announced
Most of the major NHL awards are voted on just after the regular season concludes before any playoff implications can really affect the outcome. The Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award though is voted on following the second round of the playoffs, meaning it often includes several of those that make it to the final four.
This year is no different, as the three finalists are Marc Bergevin of the Montreal Canadiens, Lou Lamoriello of the New York Islanders, and Bill Zito of the Florida Panthers. The voting is done by NHL general managers, a panel of league executives, and both print and broadcast media.
Bergevin has twice been a finalist for the award previously, but not since 2014. His Montreal club shocked the North Division by beating the top-seeded Toronto Maple Leafs in seven and then sweeping the Winnipeg Jets in order to move to the Stanley Cup semi-finals. Among Bergevin’s biggest moves last summer was a trade sending Max Domi to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for Josh Anderson and bringing in championship pedigree in the form of Joel Edmundson, Jake Allen, Tyler Toffoli, and Corey Perry, then acquiring Eric Staal during the regular season.
Lamoriello meanwhile is no stranger to the award, having just won it in 2020 after taking the Islanders deep in the bubble playoffs. Well, his Islanders are back in the third round again, with the legendary executive continuing to push the right buttons at the right time. His acquisition of Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac was one of the most successful deadline acquisitions in the league, giving the team even more depth upfront for their four-line attack.
Zito is the lone manager that didn’t make it to the final four, with his Panthers ousted in the first round by the defending Stanley Cup champions. Even making it that far was an impressive feat though, as the first-time manager took hold of an organization that had been spinning its wheels and got it pointed in the right direction. Zito overhauled the group since arriving, bringing in names like Patric Hornqvist, Sam Bennett, Alexander Wennberg, Anthony Duclair, Nikita Gusev, Brandon Montour, Markus Nutivaara and Radko Gudas through trade or free agency, while letting former important contributors like Mike Hoffman and Evgenii Dadonov walk.
Otto Leskinen And Kalle Kossila Sign In KHL
A pair of pending free agents have decided to not wait to test NHL free agency and have instead opted to sign overseas. Jokerit of the KHL announced today that they’ve signed defenseman Otto Leskinen and center Kalle Kossila to two-year contracts.
Leskinen signed with Montreal as an undrafted free agent back in 2019 and has spent the majority of his two seasons with them at the AHL level, only getting into six NHL games along the way. However, the 24-year-old had 17 points in just 33 games with Laval which was enough to earn a recall to their reserve squad for the playoffs. The Canadiens will be able to retain his NHL rights with a qualifying offer and considering that Leskinen won’t be UFA-eligible until 2024 (a year after this contract expires), they likely will do so.
As for Kossila, he last saw NHL action back in 2018-19 when he was with Anaheim and he has 19 career NHL contests under his belt. While he hasn’t been able to lock down an NHL job, the 28-year-old has been quite productive in the minors which was enough to earn a two-year deal from Toronto back in 2020 with this season being a one-way deal. While he led the Marlies in scoring this season, he may not have been able to command another one-way deal so he’ll instead try his hand back home with Finland’s lone KHL squad. He was set to be an unrestricted free agent late next month.
Jake Evans Improving, Could Return In Semifinals For Montreal
Sometimes “indefinitely” really does just mean unknown and not extended. The term is never intended to imply a long injury absence, but has taken on that ominous message when included in NHL injury timelines. Case in point: Montreal Canadiens’ forward Jake Evans. Just ten days after being ruled out “indefinitely” with a concussion and only four days since an update indicated there was still no timeline for a return, Evans is reportedly making progress in his recovery and traveling with the team to Las Vegas to open up their semifinal series with the Vegas Golden Knights, per TSN.
When Evans took a massive, long-distance hit from Winnipeg Jets forward Mark Scheifele at the end of Game One of the North Division finals, it certainly didn’t look good. Evans was stretched off the ice following the bone-rattling check and there was great concern for a player with a history of concussions. The play ended up ending Scheifele’s season, as his suspension outlasted the end of the Jets’ postseason efforts, but it was also expected to end Evans’ as well. Yet, TSN reports that Evans has been working out off-ice for several days without issue, skated on Saturday, and overall is making great progress while also going through the league’s concussion protocol. Evans will join the traveling party for the team’s trip to Vegas for Games One and Two, something that would definitely not be happening if he was still experiencing concussion symptoms and likely would not be happening if there wasn’t at least a chance that he might play.
With all that said, Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme has stated that is “not very confident” that Evans will play in Game One. It’s unclear if Evans is simply not healthy to play yet, or if this is a roster decision based on the bottom-six forward not being at full strength. Ducharme applied the same label to injured defensemen Jeff Petry and Jon Merrill as well, providing not added insight. However, Ducharme did say that he believes Evans could be “ready” in three-to-four days, which could put him in line for a Game Two start on Wednesday. If Evans returns at any point in this series, or even this postseason, it will be a surprise to many who saw his injury occur and expected the worst.
Gabriel Bourque Signs AHL Contract With Laval
After a year off from hockey, Gabriel Bourque is back. The Montreal Canadiens may still be focused on their Stanley Cup pursuit, but GM Marc Bergevin and company know opportunity when they see it and have locked in the NHL veteran and Quebec native for the 2021-22 season. Locked him into an AHL contract that is. It is the Laval Rocket who have announced the signing of Bourque to a one-year deal. After a year away from the game, Bourque will have to prove that he can still be an impact player by at least starting the season in the minors.
Bourque, 30, was unable to find an NHL contract last off-season and without much of a PTO market and a then-unknown future for the AHL in 2020-21, the experienced winger opted to take the season off rather than jump to Europe for the first time in his career in the midst of a pandemic. This is not as unusual as it may seem, as a number of players did the same thing. Included in that list is a fellow established NHL veteran in Brian Boyle, who after suiting up for Team USA at the IIHF World Championships is also hoping to make a comeback next season. Bourque also struggled through a lingering lower-body issue in 2019-20, so health may have played a part in his decision as well.
Don’t be surprised if Bourque pushes for more than just a full season spent in the minors, though. A veteran of over 400 NHL games who has also topped 100 points in that time, Bourque is a proven NHL commodity. Since turning pro in 2010-11, the versatile wing has played in at least half of his NHL team’s games in six of nine seasons, including 50+ games played in each of the three seasons leading up to his gap year. A two-way forward with a strong turnover differential and good checking ability, Bourque is an asset as a bottom-six forward. Both the Nashville Predators and Colorado Avalanche kept him around for several seasons as a result, before a one-and-done stay with the Winnipeg Jets. If the Canadiens find that they are impressed by his play in training camp or suffer a bottom-six injury during the season, it would not be a shock to see Bourque get bumped up to an NHL contract. There is also potential for a partnership beyond next season for the local product and the team.
Atlantic Notes: Ristolainen, Bergevin, Bruins
When the Stanley Cup Playoffs conclude later this summer, hockey fans everywhere will say goodbye to this season’s divisional structure. In 2021-22 the NHL will be going back to the Pacific, Central, Metropolitan, and Atlantic, albeit with a couple of tweaks. That means the Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins will be divisional rivals once again, so let’s check in on some notes from around the old-new Atlantic.
- Even the new divisions weren’t enough to help the Sabres, who have now missed the playoffs in ten straight seasons and face an offseason of change. Jack Eichel dominates the headlines coming out of Buffalo, but there are other players on the roster to keep an eye on this summer. In his latest mailbag, Buffalo News writer Lance Lysowski explains that he believes a Rasmus Ristolainen trade is “inevitable” at this point and it would make sense to do it before the upcoming expansion draft. The 26-year-old Ristolainen has just one year left on his contract before becoming an unrestricted free agent, so if Buffalo is going to try to turn him into any future assets, now is the time to do it.
- The Montreal Canadiens may not be very excited about going back to the Atlantic, given they just waltzed through the North en route to the third round. That playoff success has certainly turned some critics into champions of GM Marc Bergevin and as Eric Engels of Sportsnet writes, it seems to have reinvigorated the front office executive. In examining the future of Bergevin, who is under contract for just one more season in Montreal, Engels writes that he was recently offered a “lucrative, three-year deal.” Obviously, the focus right now is on the Canadiens’ quest for the Stanley Cup, but the Bergevin situation will need to be resolved at some point.
- When the Bruins come back to the Atlantic they could be a very different looking team, with names like Tuukka Rask, David Krejci, and Taylor Hall all scheduled for unrestricted free agency. In making a decision to re-sign those free agents or not, GM Don Sweeney has a little less cap space to work with. PuckPedia reports that because the Bruins decided to split their 2019-20 performance bonus overage and had another $1.05MM overage this season, they face a $2.02MM carryover penalty for the 2021-22 season. That’s certainly not a surprise to the Bruins front office, who would have been working with this knowledge all season, but it does tighten things even further in a flat cap world.
Jake Evans Out Indefinitely With Concussion
June 9: Ducharme announced today that Evans has resumed off-ice training, though there is still no timeline for his return to the Montreal lineup.
June 3: After being stretchered off the ice last night following a hit from Mark Scheifele, Jake Evans will be out indefinitely with a concussion. The Montreal Canadiens forward was knocked out as he scored the game-clinching empty-net goal, and laid on the ice as a scrum ensued around him. Scheifele has a hearing today with the Department of Player Safety, while Evans is now out dealing with a head injury.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that Evans has laid on the ice unconscious. In 2018 at the Canadiens prospect tournament, Evans was upended by Ottawa Senators defenseman Jonathan Aspirot and as he fell, hit his head hard on the ice. He was stretchered off in that incident as well, going to the hospital before being placed in the concussion protocol.
Speaking with the media today, head coach Dominique Ducharme explained that Evans is doing better and did not need to go to the hospital last night following an evaluation from team doctors. He did suffer a concussion though and will be out indefinitely.
Jeff Petry Will Not Need Surgery Until After Postseason
- After leaving last night’s game against the Winnipeg Jets, Montreal Canadiens defenseman Jeff Petry is listed as a game-time decision for tonight’s game four. Tony Marinaro of TSN690 tweets that Petry dislocated two fingers in his right hand, but won’t need surgery until after the playoffs. There was footage of Petry getting his hand caught in the camera hole in the glass last night.