Snapshots: Hertl, Allen, Byron
The San Jose Sharks’ unexpected rise back to relevancy this season has answered a lot of questions, but the Tomas Hertl situation still hangs over the team’s heads. On TSN’s Insider Trading program today, Pierre LeBrun says he expects the Sharks to “circle back” with Hertl and give him an extension offer. The pending unrestricted free agent has 31 points in 37 games this season. The team’s lone 20-goal scorer so far is in the final year of a four-year, $22.5MM contract. In the case that Hertl doesn’t agree to an extension prior to the trade deadline, though, LeBrun notes the trade front is still an option. Hertl has a modified no-trade clause that allows him to submit a list of three teams to which he’ll accept a trade. LeBrun believes the New York Rangers would be an option, a team that would obviously be heavily interested in some added forward depth.
Some other notes, this time out of Montreal:
- After leaving last night’s loss against Boston, Canadiens goalie Jake Allen will be out of the lineup for at least a week, per coach Dominique Ducharme. It’s been a really tough season for Allen, who’s faced injuries and COVID that have limited him to 24 games. He’s Montreal’s undisputed starter, still posting a save percentage above .900 on the worst team in the league. The team has a compressed schedule in the near future, meaning Allen could miss three or four games before he’s ready to dress again.
- Montreal could be getting a name back from injury soon, though, as forward Paul Byron, who hasn’t played all year due to offseason hip surgery, could be cleared from COVID protocol by the weekend and could join the team on the road. Byron had six points in 22 games last year during Montreal’s playoff run. He’s one of the bigger voices in the room for the Habs, and his leadership presence will be greatly appreciated during this tough season.
Chris Wideman Suspended One Game
The Department of Player Safety has issued the second suspension of 2022, banning Montreal Canadiens defenseman Chris Wideman for one game. The head-butting incident that earned Wideman a suspension came in the third period of last night’s game against Erik Haula of the Boston Bruins. As the accompanying video explains:
It is important to note that Wideman’s helmet makes clear, intentional, and direct contact with Haula’s face and head. This is not an occasion where two players accidentally or inadvertently collide in a scrum. Rather, this is an unacceptable and intentional head-butt delivered to an opponent’s face with some force.
Notably, Wideman has not been fined or suspended previously, leading to a bit of leniency on behalf of the DoPS. Haula also did not suffer a serious injury like some other suspendable plays, meaning a one-game ban was always the likely outcome for the Canadiens defenseman.
This incident will be included on Wideman’s record moving forward, however, meaning any further supplementary discipline could come with a higher penalty. For now, he’ll forfeit $3,750 and have to miss Montreal’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks this evening.
Chris Wideman To Have Hearing With Department Of Player Safety
The Montreal Canadiens are already down more than half their roster due to injuries and illnesses but are about to lose someone else. Chris Wideman will have a hearing today with the Department of Player Safety regarding the incident with Boston Bruins forward Erik Haula last night.
In a scrum during the third period of a 5-1 blowout, while both players were being restrained by officials, Wideman appeared to deliver a head-butt to Haula’s face. He ended up with two penalties on the play, though both were listed for actions against Brandon Carlo, not Haula.
Recently, the 32-year-old Wideman was actually listed as a potential All-Star candidate by writers from NHL.com, after his relatively strong start to the season. The veteran defenseman returned after a year in the KHL to record nine points in 23 games for the Canadiens so far, but still only plays under 15 minutes a night for the struggling club. If he receives a suspension, he’ll be taken out of a lineup that is already missing wide swaths of talent, including seven players that are in the COVID protocol.
Goaltender Jake Allen also suffered an injury last night, leading to several Canadiens transactions. Cayden Primeau has been recalled from the taxi squad under emergency conditions, while Michael McNiven is up from Laval to take his spot on the taxi. Brandon Baddock and Louis Belpedio have been loaned back to Laval, while Kale Clague has exited the protocol and will rejoin the team.
Montreal Canadiens Claim Rem Pitlick
The Montreal Canadiens have added a little bit of forward depth, claiming Rem Pitlick off waivers from the Minnesota Wild. It’s the second time that Pitlick has been claimed this season, after the Wild took him from the Nashville Predators at the beginning of the year.
It’s certainly an interesting claim for the Canadiens, who have been ravaged by injuries this season and don’t have a lot to play for down the stretch. Pitlick, 24, is a capable offensive player with 11 points in 20 games for the Wild this season but wasn’t being used very much in the more competitive matchups. In fact, in three of his last four games for Minnesota, Pitlick had seen less than seven minutes of ice time.
That likely won’t be the case in Montreal, where he’ll suddenly be among many other forwards that have as little NHL experience as him.
It’s also a familiar name for the Canadiens organization, given they selected his brother Rhett Pitlick in the fifth round of the 2019 draft. That Pitlick, still just 20 years old, is in his freshman season for the University of Minnesota.
Adding relatively young talent through whatever means is necessary for the Canadiens as they look to turn around a franchise that hit rock bottom this season. Even if Pitlick doesn’t turn out to be more than he has shown to this point, he is still an asset that they grabbed for nothing more than the low cost of a waiver claim.
Unfortunately, despite him being 24, Pitlick is likely headed for unrestricted free agency in the summer. With just 31 games played to this point in his career, he’ll qualify for Group VI UFA status should he fail to play in 49 more this season (the Canadiens have 48 remaining).
Price To See Specialist Soon, Four Players Listed As Day-To-Day
Canadiens goaltender Carey Price is expected to soon meet with the surgeon who performed his knee surgery over the summer to determine the next step in his rehab, notes Sportsnet’s Eric Engels. The veteran has yet to play this season after spending time in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program and had resumed on-ice drills until about three weeks ago. There remains no timetable for his return for now but that should change soon following that meeting.
Los Angeles Kings Hire Marc Bergevin
The Los Angeles Kings have hired Marc Bergevin as senior advisor to the general manager, a role that will represent the next step for the former Montreal Canadiens executive. Rob Blake, general manager of the Kings, released this statement about the hire:
Marc brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our hockey operations staff and will be a valuable addition to our group. We look forward to his contributions.
Bergevin, 56, spent nearly a decade at the helm of the Canadiens but was let go in November after a brutal start to the season. He previously worked with the Chicago Blackhawks in various roles, including scout, director of player personnel, and assistant general manager. His playing career, which included nearly 1,200 regular season games, spanned basically the same period as Kings’ president Luc Robitaille and all three–Blake included–were teammates at the 1994 World Championship, where they earned a gold medal.
It’s his time in Montreal’s front office that will color this hire, however, as Bergevin’s tenure with the Canadiens was at best a rollercoaster of success and failure. The team did reach the Stanley Cup Final last year under his watch, but returned this season with a roster that has won just seven of 34 games, sits 31st in the NHL, and has long-term commitments to several underperforming players. Overall, the Canadiens reached the playoffs in six of the nine full seasons that Bergevin was in charge.
In an advisory role, Bergevin can help a Kings team loaded with youthful potential build into a contender while also keeping his eyes open for a new opportunity. Unemployed for just over a month, it’s obvious that his perceived public relations mistakes–which include selecting Logan Mailloux in the first round despite the young defenseman trying to renounce himself from the draft–will not keep him from landing another high profile job in an NHL front office.
Nine Canadiens Placed In COVID Protocol
Jan. 7: The hits just keep coming. Today, forward Alex Belzile and defenseman Kale Clague entered COVID protocol, per the team. Overall on the list, there are now a staggering 24 Canadiens players on COVID protocol.
Jan. 5: Forwards Cameron Hillis and Michael Pezzetta were added to the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol today, according to the team, making it seven Canadiens who have entered protocol in the last two days. It’s another hit to the list of depth forwards Montreal had called up to fill in gaps this season.
Jan. 4: The Montreal Canadiens added forwards Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Jesse Ylonen, defenseman David Savard, goalie Sam Montembeault, and assistant coach Trevor Letowski to the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol on Tuesday, per a team tweet.
Montreal and their AHL affiliate in Laval are already in the middle of a five-day pause in team activities that lasts through January 6. The team isn’t scheduled to return to play until January 12.
That pause is certainly necessary for the Canadiens, who really don’t have an NHL team to ice right now. Quite literally, they don’t have enough players under NHL contracts to field 18 skaters and two goalies. Only Jean-Sebastien Dea and Xavier Ouellet remained in the minors.
Montembeault has a .893 save percentage in 11 games with Montreal this season after he was claimed on waivers from the Florida Panthers early in the season. He’s the team’s backup to Jake Allen with Carey Price currently out of the picture.
Harvey-Pinard and Ylonen, both callups from Laval, had combined for three points through a combined 10 games played. Savard, the team’s big addition on defense in free agency, has a goal and eight assists through 34 games and is averaging 20:32 per game.
Canadiens Extend Pause For Two More Days; Prospect Arber Xhekaj Traded In OHL
- As a result of seven more players entering COVID protocols in recent days, the Canadiens announced that they are extending their pause for two more days through Saturday. Montreal recently had a game next week against New Jersey postponed and now have nine games that need to be rescheduled. They’re next scheduled to play on Wednesday against Boston.
- Still with Montreal, defensive prospect Arber Xhekaj was traded in the OHL as the Hamilton Bulldogs announced his acquisition in exchange for five draft picks along with winger Navrin Mutter. Xhekaj was undrafted in both the OHL and NHL but turned a rookie camp tryout into an entry-level contract with the Canadiens late in the preseason. Meanwhile, Mutter got into three games with Calgary’s farm team in Stockton last season but no team holds his NHL rights.
NHL Postpones Three Games Due To Capacity Restrictions
The NHL announced Wednesday that they’ve postponed three games due to current capacity restrictions in Canada. The following games were postponed:
New Jersey Devils vs. Montreal Canadiens (originally scheduled for January 15)
New Jersey Devils vs. Toronto Maple Leafs (originally scheduled for January 17)
Chicago Blackhawks vs. Edmonton Oilers (originally scheduled for January 18)
The postponements leave a sizable gap in the schedule in terms of home games for all three Canadian teams affected. Montreal’s next home game is now scheduled for January 27 against Anaheim. They have seven road games scheduled prior to that point.
Toronto is actually playing host to the Oilers tonight, but it’ll be their last time hosting for a few weeks now. Their next home game is also against Anaheim on January 26, the day prior to Montreal’s game. Edmonton has a home game scheduled for January 10 against the Ottawa Senators, seemingly left unaffected as it’s two Canadian teams facing off against each other.
Why The 2022 Trade Deadline Could Be A Seller’s Market
The 2022 NHL Trade Deadline is not exactly imminent. The delayed March 21 date this season is 11 weeks away and a lot can change in that amount of time. However, the end of the holiday trade freeze is the unofficial start to trade season leading up to the deadline. In the first few months of the season there have been ten trades completed, but outside of the Jack Eichel deal there have been very few moves of any substance. That may not change any time soon either.
An active trade deadline requires there to be identifiable buyers and sellers and they must be willing and able to deal. Buyers should not be an issue this season; the eight teams currently in a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference may be locked in, as nearly 100 percentage points separate the eighth and ninth team in the conference standings, while the Western Conference includes 13 teams with .500+ records. Therein begins the sellers problem though. Only three teams out west look like potential sellers right now, while there could be more teams willing to sell in the east but many are in a rebuild and don’t have much to offer, while others are merely lacking impact rentals. There are also a number of fringe teams that probably should be sellers, but are close enough to a playoff berth that would mean so much to their players and fan base that they may hold out.
The Athletic’s Eric Duhatschek notes another wrinkle that could limit sellers: five teams are currently operating with an interim GM. The Montreal Canadiens and Vancouver Canucks have hired new heads of their respective front offices in Jeff Gorton and Jim Rutherford, but neither has in turn hired his GM yet and seem unlikely to make major moves independently. This could take Gorton’s Canadiens, one of the most obvious sellers on paper, off the market. Rutherford’s Canucks hope to be in the playoff race, but he has already vowed that the team will either sell or stand pat this season and the longer it takes to hire a GM, the more likely it will be the latter. The Chicago Blackhawks, Anaheim Ducks, and San Jose Sharks are all operating with temporary GMs, all of whom have limited experience. Chicago and Anaheim fired their most recent GMs and have internal replacements for the time being, while San Jose GM Doug Wilson is currently away from the team for medical reasons. As Duhatschek points out, the likes of Kyle Davidson, Jeff Solomon, and Joe Will are not only new to the GM position, but lack the relationships around the league to make impact moves. So while the Blackhawks look like bona fide sellers and the Sharks and possibly the Ducks could get to that point, will they actually be willing to make trades?
The Seattle Kraken also fall into a category all their own. The NHL’s newest team was just put together in its entirety this off-season. Although they struggled mightily all season and do possess a number of expiring contracts, it remains to be seen if GM Ron Francis is ready to blow it up.
On top of all of this, the rental market among potential sellers is not strong. Of the top 20 impending UFA’s in per-game scoring this season, zero are on teams with sub-.500 records and just three are on teams not currently in a playoff spot. Expand that to the top 50, and only ten players are on sub-.500 teams: Phil Kessel, Travis Boyd, and Johan Larsson for Arizona, Vinnie Hinostroza for Buffalo, Chris Wideman for Montreal, P.K. Subban for New Jersey, Tyler Ennis for Ottawa, and Calle Jarnkrok, Colin Blackwell, and Mark Giordano for Seattle. Even if valuable defensemen like Ben Chiarot and Colin Miller or even a future Hall of Fame goaltender like Marc-Andre Fleury are considered, it’s not exactly an inspiring list for teams adding at the deadline. More importantly, it’s a short list for a potentially large group of buyers.
For those teams looking to make a meaningful trade this season, the conundrum is when to make a move. On one hand, with a small group of exciting targets it may be beneficial to make a trade early and possibly avoid the high prices of deadline bidding wars. On the other hand, the pool of sellers could also expand closer to the deadline and prices could drop if there is a flood of supply to meet the demand. Until that happens though – if it even does – there will be few moves to make early on and quite possibly right up to the deadline. Serious contenders should be prepared to pay up or sit tight this season.