The Latest In The Jimmy Vesey Saga
The story of highly-sought-after pending UFA Jimmy Vesey has taken a few twists and turns in the last few months: Vesey allegedly told the Predators he would sign with them, then didn’t and denied ever saying he would. He was traded to Buffalo, where he would have the chance to play with good friend Jack Eichel. Despite the opportunity in Buffalo, Vesey has remained firm about getting to free agency on August 15.
It’s believed the Bruins, Maple Leafs, and Sabres are among the frontrunners to land Vesey; he played in Harvard, his dad and brother are currently in Toronto as a scout and draft pick respectively, and the Sabres have his friend Eichel and paid a third round pick to acquire him. However, Vesey’s agent Peter Donatelli told Powers his camp won’t “pigeonhole” themselves by making a decision before speaking to teams. Now it appears that a new team has entered the sweepstakes: the powerhouse Chicago Blackhawks.
Donatelli told The Athletic’s Scott Powers that Chicago “will be a team we want to talk to on August 15”.
On the surface, there appears to be a great fit with Chicago on the top line with Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa. The pairing played with several different players last season after Brandon Saad was traded to Columbus last summer. The Blackhawks can offer him a big chance to play with two of the best players in the game and a chance to win now, whereas the other teams believed to be on the list are all in various states of rebuilding or re-tooling. Vesey would also give the Blackhawks a cheap young talent to help offset the recent losses of Teuvo Teravainen and Andrew Shaw.
With the power squarely in Vesey’s hands to choose his destination, Donatelli said it will be up to each team to sell their program to Vesey.
Snapshots: Predators Defense, Elliott, Yakimov
The Nashville Predators bolstered their already-impressive defense on Wednesday with the Matt Carle signing. While Carle is no longer the top-four defenseman he once was, he remains a decent bottom-pairing option. His time in Tampa Bay came to an end after he was passed by younger and cheaper players. Carle said he’s excited by the chance to play under coach Peter Laviolette, with whom Carle enjoyed his best seasons in Philadelphia. He’ll play with younger pros like Petter Granberg on the third pairing of what very well could be the best defense in hockey:
Roman Josi – P.K. Subban
Mattias Ekholm – Ryan Ellis
Carle – Petter Granberg/ Yannick Weber
The top pairing consists of a Norris Trophy-winner and Josi, who has been as good or better than former partner Shea Weber for the last couple seasons. Dynamic offensive defenseman Ellis and the two-way Ekholm form a dependable and competent second pairing, and now the veteran Carle will anchor a third pairing.
In other news from around pro hockey:
- The Calgary Flames introduced new starting goalie Brian Elliott today. Elliott said he’s looking forward to getting settled and playing in front of a young and skilled Flames team on the rise. He went 23-8-2 in 41 appearances with St. Louis last season, posting a 0.930 save percentage and a 2.07 GAA. Elliott will wear number one in Calgary.
- The Edmonton Oilers have loaned prospect Bogdan Yakimov to HC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk of the KHL. The monster center (6’5, 203 lbs) appeared in one NHL game (October 2014 versus Los Angeles) in two pro seasons in North America. He posted 43 points in 93 AHL games in that time, which included an 11-game stint in with Nizhnekamsk last season before returning to the AHL. Yakimov has one year remaining on his entry-level contract. It’s not yet known what the Oilers will do with Yakimov; in the past they retained the rights to KHL-bound Roman Horak and Philip Larsen, but terminated Toni Rajala‘s contract for wanting to play in Europe.
Predators Sign Matt Carle For $700K
The Nashville Predators have dipped into the free agent market Wednesday, signing UFA Matt Carle to a one-year, $700K contract. Recently bought out by the Tampa Bay Lightning, we profiled Carle’s free agency and projected a contract between $750K-$1MM. Obviously, this comes in below that and with it the Predators get a veteran blueliner with over 700 games experience.
After signing a huge six-year, $33MM contract with Tampa Bay before the 2012-13 season, Carle was never able to replicate the strong two-way play he provided for Philadelphia. Last season, he only contributed 9 points (2-7) in 64 games, though he did chip in five assists in the playoffs.
The Predators came to an agreement with Petter Granberg the other day, avoiding arbitration and seemingly putting him in contention for a bottom-pairing spot; this Carle deal may throw a wrench in those plans, unless Nashville decides to start him in the AHL to try and rediscover his game.
Only 31, Carle has two 40+ point seasons under his belt and was once considered an excellent puck-moving defenseman. With P.K. Subban, Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm already locked into the top-four in Nashville, all Carle would have to do is provide solid bottom-pairing minutes against team’s third or fourth lines. For a player who once logged over 23 minutes a night on a consistent basis, this is a low-risk, fairly high-reward move for the Predators.
Predators Sign Calle Jarnkrok To $12MM Deal
In an interesting move, the Nashville Predators have signed Calle Jarnkrok to a six-year, $12MM deal, according to a team release. Jarnkrok was set to head to arbitration on August 4th, but will now not only avoid it this summer but for his entire career; he’ll become an unrestricted free agent at the completion of this deal.
Not often (if ever) do you see a player commit to such a low salary for so long, but Jarnkrok must have appreciated the security of a long-term deal. He’ll earn just $2MM per season through 2021-22, making his offensive development almost irrelevant.
The Swedish centerman scored 16 goals and 30 points last season and saw his ice-time skyrocket to over 16 minutes a night. He was used in all situations, seeing time on both the powerplay and penalty kill, and is regarded as a building block for the Predators going forward.
His deal represents almost no risk to the Preds, as $2MM is a number given out regularly to third and fourth line players in today’s NHL – not to mention if the cap goes up over the next few seasons. If Jarnkrok can build on his performance from last season, and continue to put up 15-20 goals, he’ll be one of the best bargains in the league as he approaches his 30th birthday.
After signing Jarnkrok and Petter Granberg, Nashville has now avoided arbitration with both of their players, earning them an additional 48-hour buyout window that would start on Monday.
Just three players who filed for arbitration remain unsigned, with none actually taking part in a hearing thus far.
Predators Avoid Arbitration With Petter Granberg
According to Tim Wharnsby of CBC, the Nashville Predators have signed Petter Granberg to a two-year, two-way deal worth a total of $1.225MM. Granberg was set to go to an arbitration hearing on August 3rd, but will avoid the process now that he’s under contract.
Granberg, 23, was claimed by the Predators off waivers from the Toronto Maple Leafs last season after rehabbing a torn Achilles tendon suffered in training camp. He played 27 games for the Predators last season, providing solid depth to an already incredibly talented blueline. Selected in the fourth round of the 2010 draft, Granberg is known for a stay-at-home defensive game that isn’t overly physical.
For the Predators, they’ll hope they can turn Granberg into a sound positional defenseman capable of logging some minutes on the bottom pairing, and perhaps some time on the penalty kill. He’ll go to camp battling fellow right-handed defenseman and recent signee Yannick Weber for a spot with the Preds to start the season.
Snapshots: Lightning, Subban, Patrick, Coyotes
The Bleacher Report’s Adrian Dater answered Twitter questions today, and when asked which team won the off-season, he went with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Dater’s reasoning is popular, that GM Steve Yzerman managed to convince his biggest name player, Steven Stamkos, to stay at a price lower than many expected, he was able to re-sign Victor Hedman a year before free agency, and extended Alex Killorn as well, while leaving more than enough cap space to re-sign Nikita Kucherov long-term.
With respect to Dater, and he’s far from alone in saying this, it’s not really as thrilling as the names involved would imply. Yzerman carries a sort of reverence through the hockey world, and will be praised profusely with little effort, despite the fact that his accomplishments this off-season are mostly things contending team GMs do with little problem. Dallas Stars’ forward Jamie Benn also signed a long term contract a year out from free agency, and the Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews have never really come close to the open market. Stamkos getting as far as speaking to other teams is an anomaly itself. After Yzerman’s messy situation with Stamkos’ mentor Martin St. Louis, his re-upping of a coach who Stamkos reportedly dislikes, and who played him out of position, his offer which was well below what others were willing to pay, and the trade demand by the team’s best young player in Jonathan Drouin, it’s fair to wonder if this was really a wooing by Yzerman, or if he Stamkos signed because he looked around at the other options and couldn’t find a fit. Yzerman has done some great work in Tampa, but Stamkos staying rather than taking more money from his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs, or close to home Detroit Red Wings or Buffalo Sabres, is likely the result of the work Yzerman did years ago in making the Lightning a team a player wouldn’t want to leave to begin with. Yzerman’s best move of 2016 may just be not giving into Drouin’s trade demand, understanding the leverage he held, the attractiveness of the Lightning situation, and the fickleness of the typical 21 year old.
More snapshots from around the hockey world:
- NHL.com has some quotes on PK Subban today from around the Predators’ organization. Subban touches on the lack of distraction in Nasvhille, and GM David Poile responds to talk about Subban’s personality saying that while some would prefer a more homogeneous group, the Predators “don’t want that. We can’t win with 20 players that are exactly the same, either skill-wise or personality-wise. I want different types of players, and I want different personalities.”
- James O’Brien at NBC Pro Hockey Talk profiles the Brandon Wheat Kings’ Nolan Patrick today. Patrick, the son of former NHLer Steve Patrick, and newphew of former NHLer James Patrick, is expected to be taken with the first pick in the 2017 NHL entry draft.
- Craig Morgan of Arizona Sports quotes on Twitter Coyotes GM Jonathan Chayka suggesting that today’s signing of former Kings’ defenseman Luke Schenn could open up room for the team to offload an extra defenseman.
Arbitration Tracker
Ten days ago, the NHLPA released the schedule for player and team-elected arbitration hearings. Since then, four hearing dates have come and gone with no hearings, with eight players agreeing to contracts to avoid the unpleasant process.
Here’s an updated list of all 24 players who were scheduled for an arbitration hearing:
Player Elected Filings:
Arizona Coyotes
Michael Stone – Stone and the tough-negotiating Coyotes have a hearing set for August 4.
Colorado Avalanche
Tyson Barrie – Hearing set for July 29. Barrie has been the subject of near-constant trade rumors this summer.
Mikhail Grigorenko – Agreed to a one-year, $1.3MM contract on July 20, just two days before the scheduled hearing.
Detroit Red Wings
Jared Coreau – Agreed to a two-year, $1.25MM contract on July 6, well before any hearings were scheduled.
Danny DeKeyser – Signed a six-year deal on July 26th, locking him up long-term for the Red Wings.
Minnesota Wild
Jordan Schroeder – The Wild signed Schroeder to a one-year, two-way deal on July 23rd worth $675K in the NHL and $275K in the AHL.
Nashville Predators
Petter Granberg – Signed a two-year, two-way deal worth $575K / $175K (300K guaranteed) in the first year, and $650K / $175K in the second.
Calle Jarnkrok – Signed a six-year, $12MM deal July 27th.
New York Rangers
Kevin Hayes – Signed a two-year, $5.2MM deal Friday afternoon, hours after Kreider.
Chris Kreider – The Rangers and Kreider agreed to a four-year, $18.5MM contract Friday morning, beating the scheduled 9am arbitration meeting.
Dylan McIlrath – The massive defender signed a one-year, $800k contract last week, beating his hearing by a week.
J.T. Miller – World Cup-bound Miller and the Rangers settled on a two-year, $2.75MM contract on July 13.
Ottawa Senators
Mike Hoffman – After a long negotiation, the Senators and Hoffman agreed to a four-year, $20.75MM deal on July 27th.
Philadelphia Flyers
Brandon Manning – Manning got an unexpected second year in his two-year, $1.95MM deal he signed on July 26th.
Brayden Schenn – Schenn and the Flyers agreed to a four-year deal worth $5.125MM AAV.
Jordan Weal – Acquired by the Flyers in the Vincent Lecavalier trade, Weal signed a one-year, two-way, $650K contract the day the arbitration schedule was released.
St. Louis Blues
Jaden Schwartz – The Blues signed their young star to a five-year, $5.5MM contract last week.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Alex Killorn – The clutch playoff performer signed a long-term extension over the weekend, agreeing to $4.45MM per year for seven seasons.
Vladislav Namestnikov – World Cup-bound forward signed a two-year deal worth $1.9375MM on July 26th, three days before arbitration hearing.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Frank Corrado – Toronto signed Corrado to a one-year, one-way deal worth $600K on July 25.
Peter Holland – Holland signed a one-year deal worth $1.3MM on July 25.
Martin Marincin – The promising young shut-down defenseman is scheduled for arbitration on August 2.
Washington Capitals
Marcus Johansson – Johansson agreed to a three-year, $4.58MM contract just minutes before his hearing was set to begin.
CLUB ELECTED FILINGS:
Detroit Red Wings
Petr Mrazek – Just before his hearing on July 27th, Mrazek and the Red Wings inked a two-year, $8MM deal. With Jimmy Howard still earning $5.3MM for next season, the duo is one of the more expensive in the league.
We’ve previously explained the arbitration process as part of our Capology 101 series. Check out our Mike Furlano’s articles on eligibility and the arbitration process.
Snapshots: Nashville’s Expectations, Weber
Nashville finds itself in some unfamiliar territory writes NHL.com’s Cutler Klein. Expectations are high after the Preds’ trade for P.K. Subban, which ratcheted up Nashville’s chances of competing for the Stanley Cup. Add in a young nucleus of players, and the Preds could be staring contention in the face. Klein reports that while the Preds boast some formidable young players, it will be crucial that they step up to their projected ceilings. Klein believes that despite having Filip Forsberg, and Ryan Johansen among others, the Preds still need depth scoring to break through to the next leve.
The departures of Eric Nystrom and Paul Gaustad will give some of the younger players the chance to step up and contribute. Klein also adds that Preds reaching the next level is contingent on Pekka Rinne‘s performance between the pipes. Klein writes that should Rinne return to the elite status that buoyed the Predators for many seasons, they will certainly be in the running for a Stanley Cup. Klein notes that while Rinne slipped a bit in performance last season, he is still one of the best in the league.
In other NHL news:
- Puck Daddy’s Greg Wyshynski wades into the great Shea Weber for Subban trade debate after yesterday’s news that former Canadiens analyst Matt Pfeffer called Weber “average.” Wyshynski brought visuals in, as well as the written word, to break down the trade even further. Employing graphs from Micah Blake McCurdy, McCurdy indicates (via Twitter) that while calling Weber average may be too simplified, Weber has certainly reached his ceiling in terms of performance. Further on in the article, Wyshynski addressed Pfeffer’s claim that analytics are being scared off in NHL circles. Wyshynski concludes, after speaking with other analytic consultants in the league, that this is a subjective in nature. Some organizations are more comfortable with an integration of analytics while others prefer and old schools approach. What Wyshynski did find was an “ideological gap” between general managers and coaches regarding analytics. Regardless, Wyshynski believes that Weber is more than “average” in 2016-17 and that analytics are an organizational preference.
Subban “Head-Over-Heels Excited” To Play In Nashville
The Nashville Predators unveiled newly-acquired superstar defenseman P.K. Subban to their fans and local media on Monday. According to the Canadian Press, Subban had lunch with new teammates Mike Fisher and Ryan Ellis as part of his tour of the city prior to the press conference, where he sang Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues”.
Subban told reporters he will always have fond memories of and connections to Montreal, but that he’s ready to move on, saying “coming here [Nashville] is not a popularity contest. Coming here is about helping this team to win and win a championship”.
Predators General Manager David Poile called his new acquisition a “superstar, game-changing defenseman and one of the most electrifying players in the game”. Poile was hopeful that the trade would help his team score more goals and spend less time in the defensive zone.
The Predators paid a big price to acquire the former Norris trophy winner, trading their captain Shea Weber to Montreal in a rare one-for-one trade. The June 29 trade is still a highly controversial topic; the Canadiens recently let go analytics consultant Matt Pfeffer after he submitted a “passionate” report in defence of Subban prior to the trade, in which he reportedly called Weber an “average player”. Earlier this afternoon, Pfeffer tweeted some context to the “average” remark, saying it was specifically with regards to one advanced stat category.
Subban and Weber each put up 51 points last season, however Weber scored more goals (20-6) in 10 more games (78-68). However, Subban has outscored Weber by 22 points (202-180) since 2012-13. Subban drives the play more than Weber, who is a more steady defensive defenseman. According to an analysis by Jonathan Willis, Weber relied on partner Roman Josi to make outlet passes, something that Subban excels at. Subban is also four year younger than Weber and just reaching the prime of his career.
Contract-wise, Subban is the highest-paid defenseman in the NHL. He earns an average of $9MM per year until 2022, while Weber’s cap hit is slightly lower at $7.86MM but doesn’t expire until 2026. Subban will be just 32 when his deal is up, only two years older than Weber is today. Weber will be 41 when his contract expires, which could lead to some nasty cap-recapture penalties for Nashville if he retires before then. Poile obviously feels the risk is worth it to acquire Subban, giving them possibly the best top four defense in the league with Subban, Josi, Ellis, and Mattias Ekholm.
League-Wide Notes: Haggarty, Vegas, Martin, Vesey
Harley Haggarty writes in the Player’s Tribune today about his role as a fighter in junior and the AHL. His knowledge of his expiration date is fairly interesting, and generally speaking, the difference between this and what players in the big leagues say, NHL players tend to have more optimistic views and tend to want more to stay in the NHL for longer, is interesting in terms of analyzing players who choose to keep playing in the AHL once they realize they won’t be NHL stars.
More links from around the league:
- Gord Miller of TSN reports on Twitter that the Las Vegas NHL franchise will be named the Knights.
- Sportsnet’s Eric Engels writes today about the PK Subban trade, saying at one point that Mat Pfeffer, an analytics consultant for the Canadiens, likely lost his job because of his opposition to the trade.
- Draglikepull at The Leafs Nation writes statistically about the Matt Martin signing. His analysis seems to suggest that Martin struggles to create offense.
- Todd Cordell of HockeyBuzz reports that the Devils stand a shot at signing Harvard forward Jimmy Vesey. Cordell reports that they’re on Vesey’s short list. Vesey, who was drafted by Nashville, had 24 goals and 22 assists playing for Harvard last year.