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Predators Hire Mitch Korn As Director Of Goaltending

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The Predators have hired Mitch Korn to be their new director of goaltending, the team said in a statement Wednesday. Korn, the team’s goalie coach for its first 15 seasons from 1998 to 2014, had been working as the Islanders’ director of goaltending and was previously expected back with the team next season.

Korn, 66, began his coaching career at the low collegiate level with Kent State University in 1979. He worked his way up the ranks over the next decade before being named the Sabres’ goalie coach in 1990. After being hired by the expansion Predators under head coach Barry Trotz in 1998, Korn and Trotz were nearly inseparable. He’s followed him to subsequent coaching jobs with the Capitals and Islanders, winning a Stanley Cup in Washington in 2018. He re-joins Trotz, now the Preds’ general manager, in Nashville.

The New York native is arguably one of the best goalie specialists in league history despite not having played professionally. He played a significant role in the development and success of all-time great Dominik Hašek in Buffalo before doing the same with All-Stars Pekka Rinne and Tomáš Vokoun in Nashville. He also presided over the best years of Braden Holtby’s career in Washington and helped Ilya Sorokin become one of the best goalies in the league with New York.

Predators fans hope Korn can have the same effect with 2020 11th-overall pick Yaroslav Askarov, who’s set to challenge for full-time NHL duties after back-to-back All-Star seasons with AHL Milwaukee. Korn will have direct reports in Preds goalie coach Ben Vanderklok, who’s held the role since 2014, goaltending development coach Jason Barron, and Rinne, their European development coach and scout.

Anders Lee Wins 2024 King Clancy Memorial Trophy

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As the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs continue, more and more award winners from the 2023-24 NHL season are announced. Today, the league announced that this year’s winner of the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, an award given to the player that “best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community” would be given to New York Islanders captain Anders Lee.

Lee is no stranger to making noteworthy humanitarian contributions in his community, as much of his time off the ice has been spent fighting against cancer. In 2017, Lee created a bond with Islanders fan Fenov Pierre-Louis, who unfortunately lost their battle with cancer in the same year.

Since Pierre-Louis’ passing in 2017, Lee has set up the ’Fenov Scholars Scholarship’, annually awarded to a handful of high school students who have aided a peer in their fight against cancer. Outside of the scholarship, Lee regularly hosts cancer victims at Islanders’ home games by giving them tickets, and gifts, and participating in a meet and greet after the game.

In honor of the award, the National Hockey League will award Lee a donation of $25K, and subsequently to the charity of his choice. The league will also gift a $20K donation to the Islanders, helping create a special activity for the humanitarian cause of Lee’s choosing.

Morning Notes: Islanders, Paquette, Leonard

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Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News writes that the New York Islanders’ recent trade of draft picks with the Chicago Blackhawks could be a prelude to a bigger move. Rosner wonders if the extra second-round draft pick the Islanders acquired might be used to clear salary cap space in a similar fashion to the trade the Islanders made last summer in which they traded Josh Bailey and his $5MM cap hit a second-round pick to the Chicago Blackhawks for future considerations.

The Islanders have several contracts on the books that they would love to move to acquire additional help in the top 6, but most of those contracts would require a sweetener to facilitate a trade. The Islanders are slated to have just over $6MM in cap space available heading into the summer.

In other morning notes:

  • Former Tampa Bay Lightning forward Cedric Paquette has reportedly signed a two-year extension with Dynamo Moskva of the KHL (as per KHL). Paquette is a veteran of 448 NHL games and last played in the league back in 2021-22 with the Montreal Canadiens tallying two assists in 24 games. The 30-year-old won a Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2020, before eventually moving on to play for Ottawa, Carolina, and eventually Montreal. Paquette spent his final season in North America split between the NHL and AHL before signing in the KHL in 2022 with Dinamo Minsk. Since making the move overseas, the Gaspe, Quebec native has seen his offensive numbers trend upwards as he enjoyed his best offensive season in a decade last year with 22 goals and 13 assists in 57 games.
  • Sean Shapiro of EP Rinkside is reporting that if Boston College forward Will Smith signs his entry-level contract with the San Jose Sharks as expected, it could create a ripple effect that might see his teammate Ryan Leonard move to sign his ELC as well. A report surfaced a few weeks ago that the Washington Capitals would re-engage in contract talks this summer with the 19-year-old in the hopes of having him turn pro, but now with the possibility of his teammate leaving the NCAA, it seems more likely that Leonard would move on as well. The Amherst, Massachusetts native had a terrific freshman year posting 31 goals and 29 assists in 41 games with the Eagles.

Blackhawks, Islanders Swap 2024 First-Round Picks

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The Blackhawks and Islanders are making an unusually early pick swap ahead of the 2024 draft. Chicago has acquired the Islanders’ first- and second-round picks (18th and 50th overall), while the Islanders receive the 20th overall selection (originally owned by the Lightning) and a pair of second-round picks (54th and 61st overall, previously acquired from the Kings and Canucks).

It’s unclear whether this is a precursor to a bigger move for either club. The Blackhawks had acquired the 20th overall pick from Tampa back in March 2022 as part of the return for winger Brandon Hagel. The 54th overall pick, originally slated for the Kings, was transferred to the Flyers in last year’s Ivan Provorov three-team deal before being flipped to the Blackhawks in a pick swap a few weeks later at the 2023 draft. Meanwhile, Chicago acquired the 61st pick along with center Jason Dickinson from the Canucks in exchange for defenseman Riley Stillman in October 2022.

All in all, the Hawks will move up two spots in the first round and four spots in the second at the expense of the 61st overall pick.

Chicago also owns the second overall selection in next month’s draft after winning the second lottery draw to retain the pick. After picking up Calder Trophy finalist Connor Bedard with the first-overall selection last year, they’re expected to select either Russian winger Ivan Demidov or Belarusian defenseman Artyom Levshunov with their lottery pick this year.

The full draft order won’t be locked in until after the Stanley Cup Final ends, but Chicago drops to eight total selections from nine with today’s trade. They now own two first-rounders (2nd, 18th), two second-rounders (34th, 50th), two third-rounders (67th, 72nd), a fifth (138th) and a sixth-round pick (163rd). The Islanders move up to six total selections from five, now boasting the 20th, 54th, 61st, 115th, 147th, and 179th overall picks.

Islanders Sign Maxim Tsyplakov To Entry-Level Contract

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May 17, 7:48 a.m.: It’s actually the maximum $950K entry-level cap hit for Tsyplakov, per CapFriendly. He’ll earn a base salary of $885K and a $95K signing bonus, plus up to $1MM in potential performance bonuses. If assigned to the minors, he’ll earn an $82.5K salary.

May 16, 2:07 p.m.: Tsyplakov’s deal will carry a $925K cap hit, Sears reports.

May 16, 1:50 p.m.: This summer’s top international free agent is off the board early. The Islanders will be Maxim Tsyplakov’s NHL home next season, announcing Thursday that they’ve signed him to a one-year, entry-level contract. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Tspylakov, 25, was drawing interest from the majority of the league. However, the Islanders weren’t one of the teams specifically linked to the Russian forward. As recently as this week, it was expected the Canadiens would make a strong pitch for his services. The Maple Leafs were also connected to Tsyplakov during the season.

It doesn’t appear to be a rushed or out-of-left-field signing, though. Islanders European scout Jim Paliafito has been talking to Tsypalakov’s camp as far back as February, reports Ethan Sears of the New York Post. Sears adds the Islanders weren’t the only New York team with interest – the Rangers were also in talks with Tsyplakov as well as Montreal and Toronto.

The 6’3″ winger has spent parts of seven seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League with Spartak Moscow but was an extremely late bloomer. Tsyplakov, a Moscow native, didn’t even lock down a top-six role until this season.

It was a defining campaign for Tsyplakov, though, one that made him the top international UFA on the market with months to go in the season. The gifted sniper served as an alternate captain for Spartak and scored 31 goals in 65 games, ranking fourth in the KHL in goals and second on his team behind former Canucks and Sharks winger Nikolay Goldobin.

As he’s such a late bloomer, though, there will be rightful concerns about how well his offense can translate to North America, especially with no previous experience on this side of the Pacific. His season ended somewhat unceremoniously as well, limited to two goals and two assists in 11 postseason games as Spartak was dispatched by eventual champion Metallurg Magnitogorsk in the second round of the Gagarin Cup Playoffs.

Tsyplakov had also only recorded double-digit goal totals in a KHL season once before, scoring 10 times in 63 games last season. The Islanders will hope his size helps translate his scoring success last season to the NHL somewhat, although he really shouldn’t be counted upon for more than 20-30 points next year if he makes the team out of camp.

With so much interest elsewhere, it’s hard to imagine Tsyplakov accepting an assignment to AHL Bridgeport if he doesn’t crack the opening night roster. In that event, expect him to end up on the trade block or on waivers for a mutual contract termination to head back to Russia or get a shot from another NHL team.

Tsyplakov’s signing continues an active offseason already for the Isles, who have scoured the international market. They picked up Swedish goalie Marcus Högberg to serve as improved depth behind Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov next season, and they’re also expected to bring over Swiss defenseman Andrea Glauser from the National League.

NHL-Affiliated Prospects Playing In 2024 Memorial Cup

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The field for the 2024 Memorial Cup, the top club tournament in junior hockey, is set. The QMJHL’s Drummondville Voltigeurs, the OHL’s London Knights and the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors all swept their respective league championship series within the last two days to advance to the CHL championship tournament, joining the host Saginaw Spirit of the OHL.

This year marks the first Memorial Cup held in the United States since 1998, which was hosted by the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs. The Spirit will attempt to become the first U.S.-based team to win since the Chiefs in 2008, and they have a strong chance. They’re stronger than a typical host team, finishing second in the league in the regular season with a 50-16-2 record and trailing London by just two points. They were eliminated by London in six games in the Western Conference Final.

The Knights lead the way with 10 NHL-affiliated prospects on their roster, including two first-round picks in Flyers defenseman Oliver Bonk and Maple Leafs forward Easton Cowan. The latter was named the OHL playoffs MVP after leading the Knights in scoring with 10 goals, 24 assists and 34 points in just 18 games. He had 15 points in four games in their championship sweep over the Oshawa Generals.

If you’re looking for some non-Stanley Cup Playoff hockey to watch, check to see if your favorite NHL team has prospects suiting up in the tournament, which begins May 24:

Drummondville Voltigeurs (QMJHL champion)

D Mikaël Diotte (Devils, free agent signing)
RW Ethan Gauthier (Lightning, 2023, 37th overall)
RW Alexis Gendron (Flyers, 2022, 220th overall)
D Vsevolod Komarov (Sabres, 2022, 134th overall)

NHL Utah 2022 first-round pick D Maveric Lamoureux is out for the season after undergoing shoulder surgery in March.

London Knights (OHL champion)

C Denver Barkey (Flyers, 2023, 95th overall)
D Oliver Bonk (Flyers, 2023, 22nd overall)
C Easton Cowan (Maple Leafs, 2023, 28th overall)
D Jackson Edward (Bruins, 2022, 200th overall)
D Isaiah George (Islanders, 2022, 98th overall)
RW Kasper Halttunen (Sharks, 2023, 36th overall)
C Jacob Julien (Jets, 2023, 146th overall)
C Kaleb Lawrence (Kings, 2022, 215th overall)
C Max McCue (Blue Jackets, free agent signing)
C Landon Sim (Blues, 2022, 184th overall)

Moose Jaw Warriors (WHL champion)

RW Jagger Firkus (Kraken, 2022, 35th overall)
D Denton Mateychuk (Blue Jackets, 2022, 12th overall)
D Kalem Parker (Wild, 2023, 181st overall)
D Vojtech Port (Ducks, 2023, 161st overall)
LW Martin Rysavy (Blue Jackets, 2021, 197th overall)
C Matthew Savoie (Sabres, 2022, 9th overall)
C Brayden Yager (Penguins, 2023, 14th overall)

Saginaw Spirit (host)

C Owen Beck (Canadiens, 2022, 33rd overall)
LW Josh Bloom (Canucks, acquired from Sabres in 2023 trade for Riley Stillman)
D Rodwin Dionicio (Ducks, 2023, 129th overall)
D Jorian Donovan (Senators, 2022, 136th overall)
C Hunter Haight (Wild, 2022, 47th overall)
C Ethan Hay (Lightning, 2023, 211th overall)
G Nolan Lalonde (Blue Jackets, free agent signing)
C Matyas Sapovaliv (Golden Knights, 2022, 48th overall)
C Joseph Willis (Predators, 2023, 111th overall)

Mike Reilly Interested In Extension With Islanders

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Joe Smith of The Athletic writes that Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois plans to re-sign defenseman Victor Hedman before the end of his current contract which expires on July 1st, 2025. The Lightning reportedly started engaging in contract talks with the 33-year-old last week but can’t officially sign a new deal until July 1st, 2024.

Hedman remains one of the NHL’s elite defensemen coming off another strong season in which he posted 13 goals and 63 assists in 78 games while averaging just a tick under 25 minutes of ice time per game.

The Lightning are no longer the perennial Stanley Cup contender of a few years ago but they remain a strong team with a very good core and have been aggressive in extending their group long term having locked up six regulars to contracts beyond the 2028-29 season.

In other afternoon notes:

  • Ryan Boulding of NHL.com tweeted that Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar told reporters that forward Gabriel Landeskog is increasing the time he’s on the ice, and increasing the repetition in his workouts but he isn’t close to practicing with the team. Landeskog had knee cartilage surgery exactly one year ago today, and while the projected recovery time for that type of procedure is usually one year, it doesn’t appear as though he will return anytime soon. Bednar remained non-committal when pressed by reporters, simply saying that the team doesn’t know a timeline for a return.
  • Stefan Rosner of The Hockey News writes that New York Islanders defenseman Mike Reilly is hoping to sign an extension with the team before his contract expires on July 1st. Reilly has played with six different NHL teams in his short career and it’s not surprising to see him looking for the stability of an extension. Reilly was bought out last summer by the Boston Bruins but then signed a one-year, $1MM contract with the Florida Panthers before he was acquired off waivers in November by the Islanders. He played 50 games for New York, notching five goals and 14 assists during that time and providing the Islanders with a lot of good work in their transition game. The Islanders don’t have much in the way of cap space this summer but would have room to fit Reilly in, should they want to keep him with the team.

Islanders Sign Marcus Högberg To Two-Year Deal

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May 7: The Islanders confirmed Högberg’s signing today, announcing a two-year deal for the veteran netminder. Per PuckPedia, the contract carries a $775K cap hit and is a two-way agreement in 2024-25 before converting to a one-way deal in 2025-26. Next season, he’ll earn a minor salary of $425K with a $550K guarantee.

April 29: In recent weeks, the Islanders have already been heavily linked to one international free agent, and it appears GM Lou Lamoriello isn’t done bringing in talent from overseas. They’re expected to bring in 29-year-old goalie Marcus Högberg from the Swedish Hockey League’s Linköping HC to bolster their depth at the position, Expressen’s Johan Svensson reports. A statement from Linköping last week confirming that Högberg was leaving for the NHL indicates it’s a two-year deal.

Högberg does have 35 NHL starts and seven relief appearances under his belt, all coming with the Senators between 2018-19 and 2020-21. The 6’5″ Swede was an Ottawa third-round pick in 2013 out of the Linköping organization but remained there for four seasons, finally signing his entry-level deal in March 2017. He spent his first season in North America entirely in the minors, splitting the campaign between AHL Belleville and ECHL Brampton.

The following season saw Högberg emerge as a full-time AHL netminder, holding the starting role with Belleville (.917 SV%, 2.32 GAA, 2 SO in 39 GP). With injuries piling up in the Ottawa crease around New Year’s Day in 2019, Högberg got his first NHL chance. He made four starts around the turn of the calendar, struggling with a .884 SV%, 4.09 GAA and 0-2-1 record.

Nonetheless, his strong showing with the B-Sens left the door open for more starts over the next two seasons, with goalie injuries a common occurrence in the Canadian capital. After inking a two-year, $1.4MM extension in June 2019, Högberg was the primary backup to starter Craig Anderson in the latter half of the 2019-20 campaign while veteran Anders Nilsson was out with a concussion that would ultimately end his career. He made a career-high 21 starts and three relief appearances in Nilsson’s absence, posting a serviceable .904 SV% and 3.12 GAA while compiling a 5-8-8 record.

While still below average, Högberg actually had the best results of any Sens netminder that year, saving 4.8 goals below expected compared to Anderson’s 6.7 and Nilsson’s 7.5, per MoneyPuck. That won him the backup job behind offseason trade acquisition Matt Murray heading into the shortened 2020-21 campaign, but he was unable to replicate the previous season’s performance. He only made 10 starts and four relief appearances, limited in part by a lower-body injury that cost him 15 games, but was one of the worst goalies in the league on a per-game basis. After logging a .876 SV%, 3.74 GAA and a whopping 11.9 goals saved below expected in only 642 minutes of action, the Senators didn’t issue him a qualifying offer when his contract was up and let him walk to unrestricted free agency.

He’d actually left Ottawa before qualifying offers were due, signing a four-year deal to return to Linköping in mid-June 2021. He’s held down the starting role ever since, posting solid but not elite numbers behind a middling team. 2023-24 was his best season since returning to Sweden, posting a .914 SV%, 2.51 GAA, four shutouts and a 21-18-0 record in 40 games as Linköping made the playoffs for the first time since 2018.

Högberg leaving for North America comes just a month and a half after he signed a three-year extension that would have kept him in Linköping through 2027-28. The NHL/SHL transfer agreement permits NHL clubs to buy players out of their existing SHL contracts, which the Islanders will need to do in this case.

While the Islanders have one of the better goalie tandems in the NHL in Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov, their minor-league depth is some of the worst. AHL Bridgeport was one of the worst clubs in the league this season, and poor play from New York third-stringer Jakub Skarek was a major factor. Skarek, 24, was a third-round pick of the Isles in 2018 but has consistently struggled since turning pro, failing to post an SV% above .900 in any of his five campaigns with Bridgeport. Högberg will provide a much better foundation between the pipes for the Islanders’ prospects in Bridgeport and will be the most reliable call-up option they’ve had behind Sorokin and Varlamov in the last few years.

Wahlstrom Non-Committal About Wanting To Return

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  • Islanders winger Oliver Wahlstrom was non-committal about the prospect of returning next season, notes Ethan Sears of the New York Post. It was a rough year for the 23-year-old who struggled out of the gate as he worked his way back from offseason knee surgery.  Once he did get up to speed, he struggled, finding himself a frequent healthy scratch down the stretch; he didn’t play at all during the playoffs.  The end result saw Wahlstrom collect just two goals and four assists in 32 games.  A pending restricted free agent owed a $917.8K qualifying offer next month with arbitration rights, a change of scenery might be best for him but his trade value will be at a low point coming off the year he just had.

Islanders Notes: Lamoriello, Roy, Mayfield, Bortuzzo, Martin, Clutterbuck

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The Islanders held their end-of-season press availability today after being eliminated in the first round in five games at the hands of the Hurricanes. Most notably, general manager Lou Lamoriello confirmed that he and Patrick Roy will be back in their respective roles with the team for 2024-25 (via NHL.com’s Stefen Rosner).

However, Lamoriello said (via Rosner) that no decision has been made other than retaining Roy on next year’s coaching staff. That leaves Benoit Desrosiers’s future, who was appointed by the Isles midseason after Roy was hired to replace the fired Lane Lambert and had worked with Roy on the bench for the QMJHL’s Québec Remparts for the past few years, up in the air. It’s also now unclear if assistants Doug Houda and John MacLean, as well as goaltending coach Piero Greco, will return to the club for 2024-25.

There will be immense pressure on the 81-year-old Lamoriello this offseason to add talent to a solid-structured existing core. The Isles are dangerously approaching permanent mediocrity territory, making the postseason in back-to-back seasons but never coming close to winning a round since their third-round appearance in 2021. He’s been at the helm of the Islanders since 2018, during which time the team has only missed the playoffs once (2022).

Other notable tidbits from the Isles today:

  • After undergoing season-ending surgery in late March, defenseman Scott Mayfield expects to be ready to go for training camp in the fall, he said today (via The Athletic’s Arthur Staple). The 31-year-old revealed he played through a broken ankle that he sustained in the season opener for most of the year, finally getting shut down and placed on LTIR with around six weeks left in the campaign. Playing in 41 games this season, he was limited to five assists and a -7 rating while averaging 18:46 per game, his lowest usage in five years. After inking him to a seven-year, $24.5MM extension last summer, the Islanders are hoping theirs and Mayfield’s decision to put off surgery doesn’t inhibit his skating ability long-term.
  • Pending unrestricted free agent defenseman Robert Bortuzzo would like to stay on Long Island this summer but doesn’t yet have an indication of where extension talks will go, he said today (via Newsday’s Andrew Gross). Lamoriello acquired the veteran shutdown blue liner from the Blues in early December for a 2024 seventh-round pick. After finishing the regular season with no points and a -2 rating in 23 games while averaging 14:19 per night, the 35-year-old isn’t in a position to earn a raise on his previous $950K AAV.
  • The Isles have a pair of much longer-tenured pending UFAs in fourth-line fixtures Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck. There had been existing speculation that the aging grinders would consider retirement, but they each said today that won’t be the case (Twitter/X links). Martin’s spent 13 of his 15 NHL seasons in an Islanders uniform, totaling 73 goals and 155 points in 823 games. The 34-year-old played only 9:19 per game this season, his lowest average as an Islander, and registered four goals and eight points in 57 games. Clutterbuck, 36, has appeared in 718 games with the team since 2013 but played in all 82 games this season for the first time, posting seven goals and 19 points while averaging 11:53 per game.

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