Predators Loan Connor Ingram To Allsvenskan
Nashville has found a place for goaltending prospect Connor Ingram to play while waiting for training camps in North America to begin. IK Bjorkloven of the Allsvenskan in Sweden announced that they’ve reached a loan agreement with the Predators that is valid for the entire 2020-21 season but that the Preds have the right to recall him at any time.
The 23-year-old was originally drafted by Tampa Bay in the third round back in 2016 but was dealt to the Predators back in 2019 for a 2021 seventh-round pick to give him a change of scenery. It certainly made a difference. Last season, Ingram played in 33 games with AHL Milwaukee, posting a .933 SV% along with a 1.93 GAA, numbers that were the third-best in the league among qualifying goalies.
That was enough for Nashville to hand Ingram a three-year extension back in March, one that converts to a one-way deal in its final season. It’s possible that he’s up with them before then, however, as both Pekka Rinne (UFA) and Juuse Saros (RFA) are in the final year of their respective deals. With that in mind, Ingram is almost certain to start next season back with the Admirals but he’ll be first in line to be recalled if injuries strike regardless of how he performs on this loan agreement.
Korbinian Holzer Signs With Automobilist Yekaterinburg
Defenseman Korbinian Holzer is done with waiting for the NHL free agent market to heat back up. In an in-depth interview with Eishockey News in his native Germany, Holzer reveals that he has signed a contract for the remainder of the 2020-21 season with Automobilist Yekaterunburg of the KHL. He also discusses training in Germany and what it would take to get him back to North America.
Holzer, 32, is a big, physical defenseman who has made a career in the NHL of being a reliable depth option. In fact, he actually set a career high in games played this past season, combining for 49 games between the Anaheim Ducks and Nashville Predators. His previous high was just 34 games, but he has played in at least 16 NHL games in seven of the past eight seasons. He has always been an effective plug-and-play option who can be relied on for decent minutes, a penalty kill role, and a lot of hits.
However, in the flat cap market, a career depth player has no guarantees. Holzer states that there has been some interest from NHL teams, but nothing concrete. He says that teams are “very cautious” of using up cap space. Rather than wait and hope, Holzer has decided to move on. After a career high in NHL games, as well as over 16 minutes per game for a second straight season, Holzer’s priority at this point in his career is to have a core role and guaranteed ice time. It sounds as though he will require an NHL offer with those parameters in order to make a return.
Automobilist seems to have met those demands. The KHL club, who currently sits in fourth overall in the league standings and fourth in the Eastern Conference, is billed as a “top team” by Holzer. His soon-to-be teammates include former NHL great Pavel Datsyuk, former Toronto Maple Leafs teammate Peter Holland, and fellow countryman Brooks Macek. The team is also coached by an established NHL mind in Bill Peters. One thing that Yekaterinburg lacks is a top defenseman, with only former NHLer Nikita Tryamkin standing out. Holzer should indeed step into a major role with the club and could find himself as a top defenseman in Europe for several years if he chooses to stick with that path to continue his career.
Holzer is set to join Automobilist on November 12. In the meantime, he will finish fulfilling his obligations to Tolzer Lowen, his hometown team who plays in Germany’s tier two league, the DEL2. Holzer has been skating with the team and participating in exhibition games, but will now join the club officially for an upcoming preseason tournament. After that, he will make the trip to Yekaterinburg to begin the next stage of his career.
Latest On Mike Hoffman
Mike Hoffman, ranked No. 4 among PHR’s Top 50 UFA’s this off-season, is undoubtedly the best player still available on the open market. The topic of almost daily speculation, everyone wants to know where the top goal scorer on the free agent market will end up. Well, the waiting may continue for a quite a while longer. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that Hoffman and his camp are willing to be patient and wait for a deal that measures up to the veteran forward’s ability. Just how long will they wait? Potentially until after the season begins, currently projected for early January.
LeBrun notes that there are a number of potential suitors for Hoffman’s services who may “circle back” on Hoffman once they are able to place current players on Long-Term Injured Reserve. That would allow for teams to open up the cap space required to add Hoffman. Among the teams mentioned as potential landing spots in this scenario are the Boston Bruins, Edmonton Oilers, and St. Louis Blues. The Blues and Oilers do not have nearly the space to afford Hoffman currently, but will gain space with Vladimir Tarasenko and Oscar Klefbom, respectively, potentially out for the year. The Bruins have the room to sign Hoffman right now, but still need to re-sign restricted free agent forward Jake DeBrusk and may still address the left side of the blue line. However, they can open up more space and start accruing some cap savings with David Pastrnak likely to miss a month or two.
Meanwhile, LeBrun states that the Florida Panthers, Hoffman’s most recent club, and the Nashville Predators continue to call about Hoffman. It would seem that neither team has been willing to ante up to land the six-time 20-goal scorer, otherwise a deal would be done. If they were to up their offers, Hoffman could certainly sign sooner than January.
Suspiciously absent from LeBrun’s report are the Columbus Blue Jackets, who cleared cap space earlier this off-season and stated their intent to add a top free agent forward. So far, they have not done that. Columbus could be waiting until new contracts are sorted out with RFA’s Pierre-Luc Dubois and Vladislav Gavrikov, but one would think that the team will jump into the mix for Hoffman at some point if they have not done so already.
For now, Hoffman is content to wait out the market. The 30-year-old may wind up settling for a one-year deal and hitting the market again next summer, but he does not seem willing to take a discount on his next contract, regardless of the term. In an off-season that has been filled with team-friendly deals given the ramifications of the flat cap, Hoffman is hoping to be an exception.
Central Notes: Heiskanen, Tolvanen, Wallmark
The Dallas Stars have been working to improve their team this offseason in hopes of getting back to the Stanley Cup Finals once again. However, the team has also had another focus this offseason, which is to free up enough cap room for the 2021-22 offseason when the entry-level contract of defenseman Miro Heiskanen is up and the 21-year-old will be a restricted free-agent who the Stars would like to lock-up long-term.
Heiskanen has been a key reason for the dominant defense that the Stars have used to push their way to the top. The 21-year-old may have only posted 35 points in 68 games last season, but his defense is what makes him special and it is critical to get the blueliner signed to a long-term deal. To free up cap room, the Stars absorbed the full amount of their cap overages ($3.05MM) for next year as opposed to splitting it between the next two years, saving them $1.52MM in cap room for 2021-22 and chose not to buy out any players to keep extra cap penalties away from that year.
Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News writes that assuming the plan is to sign Heiskanen to a long-term deal, it likely will cost them somewhere between $8-9MM if you compare his deal to that of Ottawa Senators’ defenseman Thomas Chabot, who signed his long-term deal a year ago with an $8MM AAV. Now with newer contracts such as Vegas’ Alex Pietrangelo and Nashville’s Roman Josi, the market seems set for Heiskanen when the two sides can begin negotiating at the start of the 2020-21 season.
- With the Nashville Predators having moved out quite a few veteran players during the offseason including Mikael Granlund, Kyle Turris, Nick Bonino and Craig Smith, the team looks likely to be forced to insert a number of young players into their lineup to fill it out. While The Athletic’s Adam Vingan (subscription required) writes the team is still working on trying to bring in Mike Hoffman or Anthony Duclair to fill one of those roles, the Predators will be putting quite a bit on the shoulders of Eeli Tolvanen this year. The 2017 first-rounder is a likely candidate to take on a top-six role with the team after sitting in the AHL for the past two seasons. Tolvanen has only appeared in seven NHL games during that time, but after a 21-goal campaign with Milwaukee last season, he is the most likely candidate to step into the lineup, although it isn’t out of the question that 2019 first-rounder Philip Tomasino could also make the team with a strong camp.
- While he hasn’t been loaned out to a European team, newly signed Lucas Wallmark is training overseas with Bjorkloven of the Allsvenskan, who play in his hometown of Umea in Sweden, according to a report in HockeyNews.se (translation required). Wallmark will practice and train with the team until the NHL season starts. The 25-year-old joined his third time in a year after being traded at the trade deadline to the Florida Panthers as part of the Vincent Trocheck trade and then was not issued a qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free-agent. He opted to sign with the Blackhawks.
Free Agent Profile: Mikael Granlund
There are just two free agents left unsigned among the top ten of PHR’s Top 50 UFA’s. One of them, Mike Hoffman, has been a fixture on the rumor mill since the market opened, with as much discussion and speculation as anyone. The other is Mikael Granlund and things have been stunningly quiet surrounding the two-time 60+ point player.
Granlund, 28, is relatively young for a traditional UFA and has over 500 NHL games to his credit, recording over 100 career goals and over 350 career points. He is a proven asset on the power play and penalty kill, an efficient shooter, a strong possession player, and can play major minutes. Granlund may not be a household name, but he has been everything one would expect from a first-round draft pick. So why the apparent lack of interest?
It seems potential NHL suitors may be focused more on Granlund’s recent play rather than looking at the big picture. The versatile forward was traded by the Minnesota Wild to the Nashville Predators at the trade deadline in 2019. Since that time, his scoring rate dropped from .69 to .44 points per game. That is quite the decline and not what any impending free agent wants to see, but should it really be the death knell for Granlund’s prospects on the open market? In less than a season and a half in Nashville, Granlund played for two different head coaches with the Predators. He did not fit the system of former bench boss Peter Laviolette, who held the job through the end of 2018-19 and into early January of this past season. During that time, Granlund’s usage was severely limited compared to his time in Minnesota, both in overall ice time and special teams role. During that time his scoring suffered and he simply did not look like the same player. Once John Hynes took over, Granlund’s play recovered in a big way. He saw an uptick in ice time, began shooting more often and scoring more as a result, and finally won back a consistent power play role. Granlund even tied a career best in possession with a 52.4 Corsi For %.
Granlund’s play in the latter half of this past season more closely resembles his time with the Wild. A reliable top-six forward, Granlund was a pivotal player for Minnesota for over five years after taking on a full-time role at just 21. He topped 20 goals twice and 50 points three times, never finishing with less than 39 points. He also proved himself to be a durable player, missing only nine total games over his final four seasons with the team while skating over 18 minutes per game each year. He also adapted to a move from center to wing without missing a beat and still proved to be a capable pivot when needed.
In the right system, Granlund can still be the player he was in Minnesota and showed flashes of down the stretch this past year, rather than the one who struggled after moving to Nashville. That is why the lack of interest – at least based on close to nothing coming out the rumor mill – remains such a mystery.
Potential Suitors
Unfortunately for Granlund, one of the teams that could most use a player of his ability and has the cap space to sign him is none other than the Nashville Predators. Although Granlund did perform better once Hynes took over, it seems unlikely that he would be open to a return after his experience with the club was sour overall.
The Boston Bruins are also known to be looking for a forward. Granlund would have the opportunity to play with former Minnesota teammate Charlie Coyle and former Nashville teammate Craig Smith on a line that could have instant chemistry. However, the Bruins are lacking in cap space with Jake DeBrusk also in need of a new deal, so one of those two players would need to take a significant discount.
Perhaps the best fit is with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Columbus moved out considerable salary in hopes of landing at least one big time free agent forward, but so far have merely swapped Josh Anderson for Max Domi and signed aging Mikko Koivu, another former Granlund teammate. The team needs to make another splash and inject some more skill into their forward corps and Granlund makes a lot of sense.
By all accounts, the Predators, Bruins, and Blue Jackets are the finalists to sign the aforementioned Hoffman, who PHR has ranked ahead of Granlund among available UFA’s. At least one of these teams seems likely to turn to Granlund when they miss out on Hoffman, which may explain the lack of noise surrounding Granlund while the Hoffman sweepstakes continues.
If it is not one of these three, a rebuilding club like the Ottawa Senators, Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings or New Jersey Devils makes sense on a one-year “show me” deal. Don’t rule out a return to Minnesota, where Granlund found immense success, but only if the Wild can open up some space.
Projected Contract
PHR initially projected Granlund to land a four-year $20MM deal in free agency and even that $5MM AAV seemed low for a player nearly guaranteed to put up 50+ points for many years still to come. However, the flat cap has had an even bigger impact than anyone imagined on free agent deals and the odds of Granlund getting that term and value seems slim. This rings especially true after Tyler Toffoli and Evgenii Dadonov, both ranked ahead of Granlund, signed such measly deals recently. Based on those two contracts, Granlund is likely looking at an AAV closer to $4MM on a short-term deal.
While Granlund’s slip in production in 2019-20 landed him behind Dadonov and Toffoli in our rankings, he has a more proven history of NHL success than either one and would stand a better chance of making the most of a one-year deal and cashing in as a free agent again next summer. Especially given the forthcoming Expansions Draft next summer, a one-year deal has added value for interested teams. Whether he ultimately signs with a playoff hopeful or a rebuild, a one-year, $4MM contract sounds about right for Granlund at this point – and stands to be an incredible bargain for whoever signs it.
Nashville Predators Hire Todd Richards
The Nashville Predators have hired another assistant coach, adding Todd Richards to John Hynes‘ staff. Richards joins Dan Lambert and Dan Hinote as the other assistants in Nashville. Predators GM David Poile released a statement on the hire:
We are extremely pleased to be able to bring in Todd and his expansive coaching background to our staff. He not only has an experienced resume, but a winning one as well, and further added to it this past season by winning the Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay. He began his rise through the professional ranks in our organization with the Milwaukee Admirals, and we are happy to have him back with us to complete John Hynes’s coaching staff.
Richards comes to Nashville just a few weeks after raising the Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning, an organization he had been with for the last four seasons. Prior to that, he had served as head coach in both Columbus and Minnesota, where he reached the playoffs only once.
Even though his time running an NHL bench didn’t result in much postseason success, Richards did register a 204-183-37 record in parts of seven seasons as a head coach. He also took the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins deep in the playoffs twice, reaching the Calder Cup Final in 2008.
As a player, Richards spent almost his entire career in the minor leagues, suiting up just 19 times for the Hartford Whalers.
Predators Re-Sign Rem Pitlick
Oct 20: Nashville has officially announced the contract for Pitlick, at the same terms that CapFriendly reported.
Oct 18: The Predators have reached an agreement with one of their remaining restricted free agents as CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that forward Rem Pitlick has accepted his qualifying offer. It’s a one-year deal worth $874,125 in the NHL and $70K in the minors.
The 23-year-old was a third-round pick of Nashville (76th overall) back in 2016 and turned pro in 2018 following two seasons at the University of Minnesota. So far, his time in the pros has almost exclusively been with AHL Milwaukee except for one game with the Preds back in 2018-19. Last season, Pitlick had 20 goals and 16 assists in 63 games for the Admirals before the pandemic put an end to the rest of their season.
Pitlick is still exempt from waivers for the upcoming season and even though the Predators have freed up some roster spots for their prospects, it’s likely that he’ll return to Milwaukee for more development although he will be a candidate to be recalled when injuries arise.
The Predators now have one remaining restricted free agent to deal with in offseason acquisition Luke Kunin. The winger recently wrapped up his entry-level deal and is not eligible for salary arbitration.
Predators Holding Daily Talks With RFAs Kunin And Pitlick
- The Predators are involved in daily discussions with remaining restricted free agents Luke Kunin and Rem Pitlick, notes Brooks Bratten of their team website. Kunin was the centerpiece of the draft day trade that sent Nick Bonino to Minnesota and is coming off a 15-goal season while Pitlick had 36 points in 63 games with AHL Milwaukee. Neither player is eligible for salary arbitration and their qualifying offers will expire at 4:00 PM CST on Sunday.
Nashville Predators Still Considering Free Agents
The Nashville Predators made huge moves in the days preceding free agency, moving out Nick Bonino to the Minnesota Wild and buying out the remaining four years of Kyle Turris‘ contract. That freed up more than $8MM for the team, and since then they’ve only used a small portion of it. Mark Borowiecki, Nick Cousins and Matt Benning were all brought in as depth options, but the Predators still haven’t made the big splash that was expected.
Today, when speaking with the media including Adam Vingan of The Athletic, Predators GM David Poile explained that that may not be done yet:
I think we’re open and we have cap space. I think we’re going to look for opportunities.
Unlike normal years where free agency is essentially finished just a few days after it begins, there are still real difference-makers available right now. Three of our top-10 ranked unrestricted free agents are still unsigned, though Mikael Granlund is one of them and likely isn’t making a return to Nashville. The other two, Mike Hoffman and Evgenii Dadonov, are both high-powered offensive weapons that could change the look of the Predators upfront. Poile was quick to point out today that Nashville is one of only a handful of teams in the league that can already boast four 30-goal scorers, though none of the players he is referring to actually did that in 2019-20.
Matt Duchene, Filip Forsberg, Viktor Arvidsson and Ryan Johansen still make up the core of the forward group for Nashville, but all of them significantly trailed defenseman Roman Josi in points this season. In fact, only Forsberg scored more goals than the Norris winner with 21, the team’s only player to crack the 20-goal threshold. Even in the shortened season, Hoffman and Dadonov meanwhile scored 29 and 25 respectively and were 70-point players as recently as 2018-19.
There are more than just those two available, meaning the Predators have much to choose from over the next few days and weeks. With nearly $13MM in cap space and only Luke Kunin to sign among notable restricted free agents, there is also plenty of room to fit in more than one player if necessary.
Predators Among The Teams Interested In Mike Hoffman
Seravalli notes that at that price point and term, the Bruins, Blue Jackets, and the Predators are among the teams showing the most interest in Hoffman’s services. He added that the Canucks are looking for help on the wing and also have shown some interest in the veteran but that they would have to clear some cap space first to do so; he also pegs the Canadiens as a team in that situation but after their addition of Tyler Toffoli yesterday, the fit with them may not be as strong as it previously was.