Matt Moulson Joins Maple Leafs Front Office, Signaling Retirement
Longtime NHL and AHL forward Matt Moulson has joined the Toronto Maple Leafs as a pro scout, per the team’s website. The move to scouting signals that Moulson has retired from hockey after a 16-year professional career that included 605 NHL games.
Moulson hasn’t played in the NHL since 2017-18 with the Buffalo Sabres, but he’s been floating around the AHL with the Ontario Reign and Hershey Bears since then, maintaining a solid professional career, although falling short of a Calder Cup. A three-time 30-goal scorer, Moulson did his best work with the New York Islanders alongside current Maple Leafs captain John Tavares.
The point production burnt out quickly after turning 30, though, notching no more than 14 goals or 41 points in a season during his four NHL seasons spent in Buffalo after departing the Islanders during the 2013-14 season. Waived and loaned to Ontario in 2017-18, Moulson made a home for himself tutoring youngsters in the minors, aiding both Los Angeles’ and Washington’s development systems along the way.
Moulson finished a strong AHL career with 424 games played, 159 goals, and 350 points, including a trio of seasons spent with the Manchester Monarchs early in his career, back when he was the property of the Kings in the mid-2000s. Now 38, Moulson will make a swift transition to scouting with the Leafs.
New York Islanders Hire Doug Houda, Brian Wiseman
The day of hirings continues, this time with the New York Islanders introducing two new assistant coaches. Brian Wiseman and Doug Houda will join Lane Lambert‘s staff for the upcoming season, coming over from the Detroit Red Wings and Edmonton Oilers respectively.
Wiseman, 50, served for three years with the Oilers after nearly a decade with the University of Michigan, and now joins the new Islanders coaching staff that needed to be built from the ground up. With Lambert taking over from the dismissed Barry Trotz, the team is going in a very different direction following their poor performance this season.
It’s Houda that will draw many headlines though, given his connection with the organization. The long-time NHL defenseman played parts of two seasons with the team in the late nineties, racking up 13 points and 146 penalty minutes in 101 games. He served on the Detroit bench for the last six seasons and previously spend more than a decade with the Boston Bruins.
Given the fact that this will be Lambert’s first NHL head coaching gig, he’ll have to rely heavily on his two new assistants in the early going. Adding someone like Houda, that not only comes with a long history in the league but some familiarity–the two were teammates way back in 1985-86–will certainly help.
New York Islanders Hire Scout Jim Paliafito
- Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that scout Jim Paliafito, formerly of the Toronto Maple Leafs, was hired by the New York Islanders. Paliafito, Friedman writes, is known for his expertise with the European free agent market. One of the most notable free agents Paliafito helped the Maple Leafs recruit was undrafted forward Ilya Mikheyev, who scored 21 goals in just 53 games for Toronto this season.
Looking Ahead At The Islanders’ Offseason Plans
The New York Islanders began their offseason work while they were still playing games, signing two players thought to be trade-bait, Cal Clutterbuck and Zach Parise, to extensions on trade deadline day. After the conclusion of the season, the team announced the firing of legendary Head Coach Barry Trotz and soon after, the hiring of new Head Coach Lane Lambert, Trotz’s longtime assistant. Since then, things on Long Island have been rather quiet, perhaps due in part to General Manager Lou Lamoriello’s tight-lipped approach and partly due to the Islanders only having one major contract to workout this offseason: an extension for RFA defenseman Noah Dobson.
In his latest 32 Thoughts article, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman touches on the Islanders’ offseason plans, keying in on three players that have been tossed around as possible trade candidates: goaltender Semyon Varlamov and forwards Anthony Beauvillier and Josh Bailey. On Varlamov, Friedman believes the team prefers to keep the veteran goaltender, who is heading into the final year of a four-year, $20MM contract. Seeing the Islanders lean towards keeping Varlamov is a bit surprising, given his status as a trade deadline target this year, and a goaltending market that seems to have unusually high demand as compared to its supply. But, seen at a different angle, the Islanders presumably still view themselves as a playoff team, so having a complimentary piece to Ilya Sorokin in net may be more valuable than any return they could get.
Friedman says he believes the Islanders could also be a “stealth candidate” for impending UFA Johnny Gaudreau, but adds that if they want Gaudreau and an extension with Dobson, they would have to perform cap surgery to make it happen. The sorts of moves it might take to create the amount of cap room to add an impact forward like Gaudreau and extend Dobson, not to mention add one or two defensemen, with just three under contract for next year plus Dobson, could be difficult. For one, the team has already shed the contract of Andrew Ladd, which cost significant assets and merely allowed them to sign forward Kyle Palmieri and traded steady defenseman Nick Leddy away to create more space. Further, the offseason prior, they traded Devon Toews to the Colorado Avalanche for cap reasons, but suffered the consequence of Toews breaking out into a Norris-caliber defenseman.
The most likely options for the Islanders to make room would be to deal at least one of Varlamov, Beauvillier, or Bailey. Considering the likelihood, or lack thereof, of the team moving Varlamov, that leaves Beauvillier and Bailey. Beauvillier carries a $4.15MM cap hit for the next two seasons, but brings with him an inconsistent track record. Just 25 years old, if the team were to move on from Beauvillier, they may be able to obtain an asset for the forward, but the deal could be more akin to the trade of Toews as opposed to Ladd or Leddy if Beauvillier turns a corner with his new franchise.
Bailey may fall into the category of a salary-cap-dump with two years at $5MM per season left on his contract and soon to be 33-years-old, however the veteran has been a productive player, compiling a 14 goal and 30 assist 2021-22 campaign, spread over 74 games and has had as many as 71 points in a season, coming back in 2017-18. Still, Bailey sits at 993 career games played, all with the Islanders, and given Lamoriello’s track record of loyalty towards his players, a trade of the longest-tenured Islander, especially this close to a milestone like that, may be unlikely.
Beyond the names Friedman mentions, there isn’t much room to move for the Islanders. Palmieri, Anders Lee, Brock Nelson, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Ryan Pulock, and Adam Pelech, all of whom are signed for multiple years at reasonably significant cap hits, represent the franchise’s core players. Though Dobson is the only major piece to be signed this offseason, looking ahead to next offseason, the team also needs to extend dynamic center Mathew Barzal and reliable defenseman Scott Mayfield, who is currently making a team-friendly $1.5MM in 2022-23.
Saint John Sea Dogs Win 2022 Memorial Cup
For the first time since 2019, the CHL’s Memorial Cup has been awarded, this time to the tournament-host Saint John Sea Dogs, who defeated the Hamilton Bulldogs by a score of 6-3 this evening to win the 2022 Memorial Cup. Saint John’s run was one of the more interesting ones, the team taking an impressive 44-17-4 regular season record into the playoffs, falling to the Rimouski Oceanic in the first round. As the host, Saint John was nonetheless awarded a spot in the final four of the Memorial Cup, along with the OHL Champion Hamilton Bulldogs, the QMJHL Champion Shawinigan Cataractes, and the WHL Champion Edmonton Oil Kings.
However, after the impressive season, Saint John and GM Trevor Georgie made the decision to fire Head Coach Gordie Dwyer, hiring University of New Brunswick coach Gardiner MacDougall. That choice, met with some question marks, ended up paying dividends for Saint John, who have taken the CHL’s ultimate prize, the first host team to win the tournament since the Windsor Spitfires did so in 2017.
The Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy for the tournament’s Most Valuable Player was awarded to Saint John’s William Dufour, who’s seven goals lead the tournament and was one shy for most all-time in a single tournament. This wasn’t Dufour’s first MVP this season, having won the QMJHL’s MVP award for the 2021-22 regular season as well after putting up an incredible 56 goals and 60 assists in just 66 games. A fifth-round pick of the New York Islanders in 2020, Dufour has elevated his prospect status this season and could be destined for a pro debut in the Islanders organization next season after signing his ELC in April.
Zdeno Chara To Decide On Playing Future In September
It will take a while before we find out whether or not pending UFA defenseman Zdeno Chara will return for another NHL season. His agent Matt Keator told Matt Porter of the Boston Globe that the veteran intends to take his time before deciding about his playing future:
He’s going to take the summer with his family and assess where he’s at physically, where his family’s at, and make a decision in September. No rush.
The 45-year-old completed his 24th NHL season in 2021-22, returning to the Islanders who originally drafted him back in 1996. Chara played in 72 games this past season, recording 14 points while adding 125 hits and 90 blocked shots. Notably, he logged 18:44 per game, good for fifth among New York blueliners while still taking a regular turn on the penalty kill. All in all, it was a decent return on the $750K base salary plus $750K in performance incentives for the Islanders.
Of course, that type of role is a far cry from being the top blueliner on a team (and even the league with his Norris Trophy win in 2008-09). At this stage of his career, Chara is more of a depth player than an impact one but could still help the right team in a limited defensive role. He sits 20 games shy of being the seventh player in NHL history to reach 1,700 but is still 99 appearances behind Patrick Marleau’s all-time games played record so it’s not as if one more year would give him a chance at setting that new benchmark.
There’s no real risk for Chara to wait out the market and see where things stand in September. Contracts like the one he’d be getting (likely a minimum salary with games played incentives once again) aren’t that difficult to get in the days leading up to training camp so he will have the chance to be selective to see if there’s a good fit for him. If not, he can hang up his skates after quite an impressive career.
Free Agent Focus: New York Islanders
Free agency is now less than a month away and many teams are already looking ahead to when it opens up. There will be several prominent players set to hit the open market in mid-July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well. Next up is a look at the Islanders.
Key Restricted Free Agents:
F Kieffer Bellows – The 2016 first-round pick has had a slow start to his career, putting up just 25 points in 67 career games thus far, spread over three seasons. After his ELC expired last offseason, Bellows signed a one-year, $750K contract to stay with the Islanders for 2021-22, where he had a modest breakout with the club, recording a career-high six goals and 13 assists in 45 games. That performance was enough to turn some heads and prove Bellows may be able to make a career for himself in the NHL after all, but it likely won’t earn him much of a raise. Considering the Islanders issues with scoring, an aging roster, and limited cap space, Bellows could be in a strong position to see more regular ice-time, both in games played and time-on-ice, as a young and affordable piece who was drafted for, and has shown flashes of, his ability to put the puck in the back of the net.
D Noah Dobson – A 13 game roadtrip to start the season, a major COVID-19 outbreak in the locker room, and a several key injuries contributed to the Islanders missing the playoffs for the first time since 2017-18. Frustrating as the season may have been, one major bright-spot was the emergence of Dobson, who’s 13 goals and 38 assists for 51 points in 80 games all represented career-highs. Those 51 points were also good enough to place Dobson third on the team in scoring, not far behind Mathew Barzal and Brock Nelson‘s 59 points, and his 21:28 of average time-on-ice, also a career-high, was enough to lead the team. Having established himself as one of the best and most important players for the team, and at the expiration of his ELC, Dobson is in line for a significant raise. Both team and player could have varying ideas of how to approach his next contract, perhaps opting for a long-term deal that would still bring him to UFA status at a relatively young age (an eight-year contract depositing him on the market at age 30), or perhaps a shorter bridge-deal that would keep Dobson a RFA or expiring right at the start of his UFA eligibility. Looking at the rest of the team, the two highest salaries come from Barzal and Anders Lee, each earning $7MM, and the team’s two top defensemen, Ryan Pulock and Adam Pelech, earn $6.15MM and $5.75MM respectively. However, all but Barzal signed as or as soon-to-be UFAs. One interesting comparable could be Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks, who signed a four year, $47.1MM contract at the expiration of his ELC, though he was coming off two consecutive years of production similar to Dobson’s single platform-year at this rate of production.
Other RFAs: F Michael Dal Colle, F Arnaud Durandeau, F Otto Koivula, D Robin Salo, D Parker Wotherspoon
Key Unrestricted Free Agents:
D Sebastian Aho – The other half of the NHL’s Sebastian Aho‘s, the Islanders’ Aho is set to hit UFA after just his third NHL season as a Group 6 UFA. Aho brings with him 18 points in 61 games of NHL experience, with 12 of those points coming in 36 games this season, both career-highs. Interestingly, the 2017 fifth-round pick made his debut and played 22 games for the Islanders in 2017-18, but was limited to just one game of NHL action since before this season under the Lou Lamoriello front office. The situation would seem ripe for Aho to test free agency on his own to find an offering of regular ice-time with another organization, but the Islanders have just one left-handed defenseman under contract for next season (Pelech), a position that was a sore-spot for the team this year. Considering Aho’s strong season, which saw regular work down the stretch while the team was trying to make a push for the playoffs, Aho may have an opportunity for a regular job on Long Island.
D Zdeno Chara and D Andy Greene – The two veteran defensemen were brought in to bolster the team’s depth on the left side defensively, but both would end up struggling to a degree, showing their age. Chara, 45, and Greene, who will be 40 in October, may be destined for retirement at this point in their careers but both, being well-respected and long-tenured NHLers, should have no problem staying in the league in off-ice roles if they want to. Greene, an undrafted free-agent signed by Lou Lamoriello with the New Jersey Devils, then acquired by Lamoriello from New Jersey in February 2020, may have a chance to stick around as the team looks for affordable pieces to round out its roster, especially considering Lamoriello’s well-known loyalty to his players.
Other UFAs: F Andy Andreoff, F Austin Czarnik, D Thomas Hickey, D Grant Hutton, D Paul Ladue, D Mitch Vande Sompel, G Kenneth Appleby, G Cory Schneider
Projected Cap Space:
According to CapFriendly, the Islanders head into the offseason with just a tick over $12MM in cap space. On one hand, $12MM is plenty to work with when compared to other teams’ sticky situations and the team only has one pending free agent, Dobson, likely to eat up a significant amount of that. On the other hand, after the tough season on Long Island, they will certainly need to make improvements throughout the roster, with their cap space perhaps not being that amenable. Additionally, Lamoriello made several deals to help alleviate any cap issues the team had or was going to have, including trades of Devon Toews, Nick Leddy, and Andrew Ladd. These trades cost the team some depth, though bringing in three second-round picks altogether, but who may not be ready to make an impact just yet. If the veteran Islanders executive can find a way to move out an expensive veteran contract, such as that of Josh Bailey or the considerably younger Anthony Beauvillier, he could create some additional cap flexibility to make the necessary changes the team has to make.
Mikko Koskinen Heading Overseas For 2022-23
June 13: With the Edmonton Oilers now out of the playoffs and their season over, it’s now confirmed that Koskinen will be heading to Switzerland next season. HC Lugano has signed the veteran netminder to a two-year contract, keeping him in Switzerland until age 35. Koskinen joins a Lugano team with Carolina reserve list defenseman Oliwer Kaski, former NHLers Mirco Mueller, Mark Arcobello and Daniel Carr, as well as Columbus Blue Jackets prospect Calvin Thurkauf.
May 20: Despite currently serving as the backup for the Edmonton Oilers and even seeing game action in Game 1 of the Second Round, there appears to already be some clarity on goalie Mikko Koskinen‘s future for next season. Former NHL head coach Bob Hartley spoke today, saying that Koskinen has already accepted an offer to play for HC Lugano in the Swiss National League next season.
If true, it will likely mark the end of Koskinen’s second and final stint in North America. The Finnish netminder, drafted 31st overall by the New York Islanders in 2009, had one stint in North America from 2009-2012 in the Islanders organization, playing in four NHL games. He returned to the NHL as a free agent with Edmonton in 2018, serving as a solid tandem netminder for them for the past four seasons. As uncertainty mounts in the Oilers crease moving forward, though, it looks like Koskinen has opted to take himself out of the picture for their second goalie next season.
40-year-old Mike Smith is (somehow) still under contract with the team for next season, and they do have a solid internal option in Stuart Skinner as the backup. However, with such a gigantic question mark with Smith as a 41-year-old starter, Edmonton will surely attempt to make a significant acquisition in free agency to shore up the crease.
New York Islanders Fire John Gruden, Jim Hiller
The New York Islanders have continued to change their coaching staff, this time relieving assistants John Gruden and Jim Hiller of their duties. That leaves the full run of assistant roles open after Lane Lambert was promoted to head coach, taking the spot of the dismissed Barry Trotz. No replacements have been named at this point.
Gruden, 52, had been with the Islanders since 2018, following stints as the head coach of both the Flint Firebirds and Hamilton Bulldogs in the OHL. He was also part of the USNTDP for several years, and has plenty of experience developing young players. Notably, he’s also the father of Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Jonathan Gruden, who played had 27 points for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins this season and is heading into the final year of his entry-level contract.
Hiller, meanwhile, spent three seasons with the Islanders following stints with both the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs. He too was a CHL head coach before that, leading the Tri-City Americans for five seasons and the Chilliwack Bruins before that.
With these moves, the Islanders will have quite a few new voices behind the bench next season to support Lambert as he makes the transition from associate to head coach. The team did not list director of goaltending Mitch Korn–a long-time collaborator with Trotz–nor goaltending coach Piero Greco as part of the changes and still have them on the official website.
Offseason Checklist: New York Islanders
The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that weren’t playoff-bound plus those who were eliminated in the first two rounds. It’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at the Islanders.
This past season was a tough one for New York. They were forced to start with a 13-game road trip to ensure their new arena was ready to go and got hit hard with COVID-related absences soon after. That put them in too much of a hole to climb out of. Despite making the Eastern Conference Final the previous two years, GM Lou Lamoriello opted for a coaching change, dismissing Barry Trotz and elevating Lane Lambert to the top role. However, that can’t be the only thing they do this summer if they want to get back into contention; Lamoriello has a few other items on his to-do list in the coming months.
Add Scoring Help
Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. Scoring has been an issue for this team for a while as they haven’t averaged three goals per game since the 2017-18 season. Part of that can be attributed to Trotz’s defense-first system but there isn’t a lot of firepower on this team. Only Brock Nelson and Anders Lee cracked the 20-goal plateau this season and over the final two months of the year, Mathew Barzal was regularly playing with Zach Parise and Oliver Wahlstrom; with all due respect to those players, that’s probably not the optimal combination for their most skilled forward.
Back at the trade deadline when the Isles were very quiet, Lamoriello opted not to make any changes, stating that his focus was on ‘hockey trades’ to bring in pieces that better fit his roster.
With the team having barely $12MM in cap space and several roster spots to fill with that money, they don’t have the financial flexibility to be aggressive bidders on the free agent market. Accordingly, this is one of those situations where Lamoriello will make a hockey trade and move out an underachiever for someone that’s a better fit. Wingers Josh Bailey (two years, $5MM AAV) and Anthony Beauvillier (two years, $4.15MM) are candidates to move from their existing forward group while veteran goaltender Semyon Varlamov (one year, $5MM) could also make sense if they find a trade that’s acceptable to the 34-year-old who has a 16-team no-trade clause. Either way, whether it’s one of them moving or someone else, New York will need more offensive production to get back into the playoff picture.
Re-Sign Dobson
A good chunk of their cap space is going to be heading towards defenseman Noah Dobson who is set to become a restricted free agent this summer. After his first two NHL seasons were relatively quiet, 2021-22 was a breakout year that allowed the 22-year-old to finish third on the team in points with 51 including 13 goals. For perspective, the rest of their blueliners combined for 19. Not surprisingly, Dobson’s ATOI jumped up by more than five minutes a night from his sophomore campaign. In other words, he had quite the platform year.
While the Islanders would undoubtedly like to lock Dobson up on a long-term deal, that would go against Lamoriello’s tendencies as he has continually opted for bridge contracts for his core RFAs including Barzal and defenseman Ryan Pulock in recent years. A short-term pact would also allow them some extra cap flexibility to try to upgrade their roster. That makes the bridge deal the likeliest scenario.
The extremes between Dobson’s first two seasons and this one will make it tricky to find the right number and without arbitration eligibility, the Islanders hold more of the leverage. A two-year deal with an AAV around the $3MM range which is more than what Pulock and Adam Pelech received on their second contracts while a third season could push it closer to the $4MM range. Anything longer than that would walk Dobson to unrestricted free agency so it’s likely that three years is the maximum term that New York will want to go. It may take a while – Dobson’s only leverage is to delay signing in the hopes of getting a better offer later – but eventually, the two sides will come together on a short-term pact.
Rebuild The Defense
Over the past few years, the NHL has started to shift towards a more mobile back end. The Islanders have been one of the exceptions but now as they work to retool things under a new head coach, this is the right time to try to kickstart that change.
Zdeno Chara and Andy Greene have been successful defensemen in the league for quite a while but mobility has been an issue for both of them while their offensive games are also quite limited. Both are pending unrestricted free agents and should be replaced with younger, better fits. Sebastian Aho is more of a mobile blueliner but has struggled in his own end in limited NHL action. He’s also a pending UFA and will need to be retained or replaced. That’s three roster spots that they’ll need to try to fill within their limited cap space and in terms of in-house options, only Robin Salo might be able to push for a spot at the end of the roster.
It’s also worth noting that Scott Mayfield is a year away from UFA eligibility as well and will be eyeing a sizable raise from the $1.45MM cap hit he’s on now. Any multi-year commitments they make this summer will offset how much they can give to Mayfield a year from now so that’s something Lamoriello will have to weigh as he navigates the open market this summer.
With Pelech, Pulock, and Dobson, the Isles have a strong core back end that is either signed or under club control for at least the next four years. That’s a strong foundation to work with. Now, improvements will need to be made at the bottom end within a very tight cap situation to start moving towards a younger, more mobile defensive group.
Work On Barzal Extension
Three years ago, the Islanders and Barzal eventually worked out a three-year bridge deal, one that will be expiring next summer. That means once the calendar flips to the start of the 2022-23 league year in mid-July, the two sides will be able to work on a contract extension. After the season, Barzal stated that he wants to work out a long-term contract and is hopeful to remain with New York for his full career, a proclamation that is certainly encouraging from the team’s standpoint.
Barzal will be owed a qualifying offer of $8.4MM which is 120% of his current AAV; that’s the lower number between it and his salary for next season ($10MM). He’ll also have arbitration eligibility at that time. That qualifying number, therefore, serves as the absolute minimum starting point for negotiations as if the 25-year-old doesn’t like what the long-term offers look like, he can simply accept the qualifier in 2023 and become UFA-eligible a year later.
The potential challenge here is that Barzal hasn’t exactly produced at a level that’s worthy of offering considerably more than the qualifier. While he averaged more than a point per game in his rookie season, the most he has gotten since then is 62 points. He’s undoubtedly their most gifted offensive player but in a more defensive environment under Trotz, his numbers have suffered. If Barzal thinks things will open up under Lambert, it may make more sense for him to play out next season and see what happens from there knowing the qualifying offer will still be on the table at that time. But if Lamoriello comes in with a long-term offer in the $9MM range, it might be enough to give Barzal a chance to play for the Islanders for a long time to come.
They may not get a deal done this summer but both sides seem likely to give it a shot. It isn’t as pressing as some of the other elements that will affect their plans for next season but as the offseason goes on and things slow down, that would be an optimal time to get to work on Barzal’s file.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.