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Snapshots: Three Stars, Vegas’ Pick, Marleau, Sheahan, Archibald

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The NHL announced its Three Stars for last week with Colorado Avalanche goaltender Pavel Francouz getting the top honors. Francouz, filling in for the injured Philipp Grubauer went 3-0-1 for the week, posting a 1.46 GAA and a .941 save percentage along with a 1-0 shutout over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday. Francouz is in his first full season with the Avalanche and had done an exceptional job as their emergency starter where he ranks fifth in the league with a 2.27 GAA and tied for fourth in the league with a .927 save percentage.

Mika Zibanejad of the New York Rangers received the second star, scoring three goals and five assists over three games for the Rangers. He helped lead New York to three victories as the rebuilding franchise suddenly is within four points of a playoff spot. Calgary Flames forward Andrew Mangiapane takes the third star honors with five goals and six points in three games, which includes his first-career hat trick against Anaheim on Feb. 17.

  • The Vegas Golden Knights have been quiet so far on Monday, but the team still managed to pick up a fifth-round pick in 2021 from the Carolina Hurricanes, a condition of the Erik Haula deal this offseason, according to Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston. Haula was traded earlier today to Florida as part of a package for Vincent Trocheck, which enacted a condition in the Golden Knights trade which stated that the Hurricanes would send a fifth-round pick to Vegas if Haula was traded to another team for a player.
  • The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz adds that even though the San Jose Sharks have traded away veteran forward Patrick Marleau to Pittsburgh earlier today, the veteran is expected to be welcome back next year to San Jose if he is interested. The 40-year-old is just 53 games away from breaking Gordie Howe’s all-time games played mark. A reunion would allow him to do it in a Sharks sweater next season.
  • The Athletic’s Daniel Nugent-Bowman reports that the Edmonton Oilers are currently working on getting extensions worked out for forwards Riley Sheahan and Josh Archibald, both who will be unrestricted free agents at the end of the season. Both players are key players on the team’s penalty kill with Sheahan logging the second-most minutes on the PK, while Archibald is fourth. Both players have fared well after singing one-year pacts this summer. Sheahan has seven goals and 14 points in 57 games, while Archibald has with 10 goals and 17 points in 53 games.

Igor Shesterkin Out With Rib Fracture

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The New York Rangers made a huge move to lock up Chris Kreider today, but they’ll lose one of their other top players for a while. Igor Shesterkin and Pavel Buchnevich were involved in a car accident yesterday, and the goaltender will be out for at least two weeks with a broken rib. Buchnevich is listed as day-to-day.

Given that Shesterkin could miss up to a month with the injury, the Rangers’ goaltending situation is back to normal for the next little while. Henrik Lundqvist and Alexandar Georgiev will assume the duties for now, likely ending any speculation on a deadline deal.

Shesterkin has been outstanding since arriving in the NHL, posting a .940 save percentage through ten appearances. The Rangers will have to obviously play this very carefully as the protect their potential new franchise netminder.

Rangers Sign Chris Kreider To A Seven-Year Extension

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While it wasn’t looking likely on Sunday that the Rangers would reach an extension with Chris Kreider, that has changed.  The Rangers announced (Twitter link) that they’ve agreed to a seven-year extension with the winger.  Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman adds (via Twitter) that the deal carries a $6.5MM AAV.

For most of the season, it was believed that extension talks were virtually non-existent but that changed in recent days with the trade deadline fast approaching.  GM Jeff Gorton was still fielding offers throughout the process and evidently decided that a new deal was preferable to whatever the top offer was from elsewhere.

The 28-year-old has spent the entirety of his eight-year career with the Rangers who drafted him 19th overall back in 2009.  He has emerged as one of the better power forwards in the league over that time and is on pace to set new career highs offensively.  This season, he has 24 goals and 21 assists in 60 games while averaging 17:33 per night, the highest average of his career.

The seven-year term certainly carries some risk as players that play a physical style that Kreider does tend to wear down towards the end of their career.  Yesterday, it was believed that New York only wanted to go six years but they have relented on that desire.  On the other hand, it ensures that his prime years will be spent in New York where he will continue to be part of their core.  The deal represents a nice raise on his current $4.625MM AAV.

GM Jeff Gorton will soon need to free up some cap space for next season and beyond.  The Rangers now have more than $72MM tied up in 16 players for next season with Ryan Strome, Anthony DeAngelo, Alexandar Georgiev, and Brendan Lemieux all restricted free agents next summer.  That means there is likely more movement to come by next season but the cap-clearing move may have to come over the offseason.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

TSN’s Darren Dreger was the first to report that an extension was close.

Trade Rumors: Kreider, Barrie, Green, Frolik, Coyotes

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The New York Rangers are working on two fronts with Chris Kreider as the trade deadline nears on Monday. The Rangers are negotiating with Kreider and his agent on a potential contract extension, but at the same time, are preparing for the possibility they will have to trade him if a deal can’t be worked out.

Now TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that hopes for a contract extension between the two sides are fading. That could make the trade deadline on Monday even more interesting as it is quite clear that the Rangers will trade him if the two sides cannot get negotiations to shift. The likely sticking point is term as New York doesn’t want to find itself stuck with a major contract headache in a few years and if Kreider, who is likely heading for his last big contract, is looking for a seven or eight-year deal, that could be the sticking point. New York may have some cap room to work with now, but with a number of young players likely needing big raises in the next few years, the team must be careful with asset management.

  • The Toronto Maple Leafs got a scare Saturday when Tyson Barrie went down with an apparent shoulder injury in the first period against Carolina. Many thought that might be the end of rumors that the Maple Leafs were planning to trade the gifted offensive defenseman for a more defensive-minded blueliner. However, Barrie returned and finished the game. Now, The Province’s Patrick Johnston reports that the Vancouver Canucks are very much in the mix for Barrie, which would likely be a package built on defenseman Troy Stecher. TSN’s Rick Dhaliwal confirms that the two teams are deep in talks. Barrie would provide the Canucks an offensive playmaker, but Johnston adds that isn’t what the team truly needs on their defense, making the trade a confusing one.
  • Kurt Leavins of the Edmonton Journal writes that the Edmonton Oilers are a likely destination for Detroit Red Wings defenseman Mike Green. The scribe writes that Green’s no-movement clause turned into a 10-team modified no-trade clause on Feb. 1 and he believes that Edmonton is not on that 10-team list. Considering the familiarity between general manager Ken Holland and Green, the two teams might be a perfect match and Detroit is likely very willing to retain half of Green’s $5.375MM AAV.
  • The Athletic’s Ken Wiebe wonders whether whether the Buffalo Sabres might be willing to move forward Michael Frolik. The 32-year-old has six goals and 13 points in 54 games, but more importantly, is a efficient penalty killer, something that playoff teams are often interested in. Throw in the fact that Frolik will be an unrestricted free agent, meaning he won’t count against any team’s cap long-term. Frolik does have a $4.3MM AAV, but Buffalo could consider retaining some of that to add to make a deal work.
  • The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta writes that the Arizona Coyotes are likely entering the trade deadline with a need for a defenseman after Jakob Chychrun went down with a lower-body injury, who currently has no timetable for a return. However, with little cap room to work with, if the team attempts to acquire a player with a significant salary, Arizona may be forced to trade off a current roster player to make that work.

East Notes: Pageau, Hurricanes, Martinook, Palmieri, Eichel

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Earlier reports have the Ottawa Senators holding two of their top trade chips out of their lineup Saturday as the team have made both Tyler Ennis and Vladislav Namestnikov healthy scratches. However, one player who isn’t going to be a healthy scratch Saturday is center Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who is considered to be one of the top three trade candidates at the moment.

That could change, however, as TVA’s Renaud Lavoie reports that Pageau and the Ottawa Senators are still negotiating a contract extension and the center will continue to play for the team. After failing to lock up any of their pending free agents last year at the trade deadline as they lost Mark Stone, Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel, the team is hoping they can convince the 27-year-old to remain with the team. Pageau is having a career year with 24 goals and 40 points, both career highs. The team hopes to come to terms with the forward before being forced to move him on Monday.

  • Speaking of contract extensions, the New York Rangers are also in discussions with their top trade target, Chris Kreider, about a contract extension. However, there are plenty of teams that have been discussed that might be willing to pay big to bring Kreider aboard for their playoff run, including the Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues. The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reports that the Carolina Hurricanes have also expressed interest in adding Kreider. The Hurricanes, who are still battling to even get into the playoffs (they are one point out of a playoff spot at the moment), do have one of the best prospect systems in the league and have the picks and prospects to make an enticing offer if they want.
  • Speaking of the Hurricanes, TSN’s Mark Masters reports that Carolina will get back forward Jordan Martinook tonight after being out since Feb. 4 with an upper-body injury. The 27-year-old has two goals and 11 points in 37 games with Carolina this season.
  • New Jersey Devils forward Kyle Palmieri isn’t worried about trade rumors. The 29-year-old has been traded before and understands how the trade deadline works, according to Abby Mastrocco of northjersey.com. “It’s just a lot of noise,” Palmieri said this week at Prudential Center. “It’s not something I can control. There are plenty of Twitter GMs out there but right now, I’m staying focused on the game and the guys in this room. Until someone tells me otherwise, that’s what my focus is on.” Palmieri could fetch the Devils quite a return if they are willing to move him. He has 22 goals and 42 points in 57 games for New Jersey, but more importantly has one more year on his contract after this one, which many teams might be attracted to.
  • Buffalo Sabres center Jack Eichel didn’t take any faceoffs during Saturday’s game and The Athletic’s John Vogl found a source who said that Eichel suffered a midsection ailment and the team didn’t want their star to bend over for faceoffs Saturday. It doesn’t look like the injury will keep him out of the lineup, however, as the 23-year-old still potted two goals Saturday against the Penguins in the 5-2 victory.

New York Rangers Acquire Jean-Francois Berube

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In a late-night move, the New York Rangers added even more goaltending depth to their organization, acquiring Jean-Francois Berube from the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers will receive future considerations. Berube will stay in the minor leagues, giving the Hartford Wolf Pack another option with Igor Shesterkin staying in the NHL.

As expected, those future considerations are actually an AHL trade between the two organizations. The Hartford Wolf Pack have sent Tom McCollum and Lewis Zerter-Gossage to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Players on AHL deals cannot be including in an NHL trade, meaning the teams needed to use the “future” tag.

For the Flyers, this will open up some playing time for prospect Kirill Ustimenko while still giving their lower minors an established professional goaltender in McCollum. As we mentioned recently in their deadline primer, Ustimenko has some impressive upside and is regarded well as a goaltending prospect. In 31 games for the Reading Royals of the ECHL he has a .919 save percentage.

Latest On Chris Kreider

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  • Frank Seravalli of TSN reports that the Colorado Avalanche and Boston Bruins have emerged as front-runners for Chris Kreider, who is still a member of the New York Rangers at the moment. The speedy winger is arguably the top rental available, and after the Rangers acquired another big scoring winger in prospect Julien Gauthier perhaps they are more inclined to move him out than re-sign him. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet also writes that he believes Boston and Colorado are interested, though also listed the New York Islanders and St. Louis Blues as potential suitors.
  • Darren Dreger of TSN reports that the Ottawa Senators are getting calls on Vladislav Namestnikov, another one of their expiring contracts. The team already sent Dylan DeMelo to the Winnipeg Jets earlier today for a third-round pick and have several other potential trade pieces on the market. Namestnikov never really has fulfilled his potential as a top-line player, but does have 12 goals and 24 points since coming over from the Rangers in early October.

Carolina Hurricanes Trade Julien Gauthier To New York Rangers

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The Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers have decided to swap prospects, trading Julien Gauthier for Joey Keane. The Rangers will acquire the young forward in Gauthier, while Carolina adds another defensive option to their pipeline in Keane.

As we wrote yesterday, the Rangers’ biggest need as they move to the next phase in their rebuild was young forwards that are close to being NHL ready. That’s exactly what they’ve received in Gauthier, who is currently fourth in AHL scoring with 26 goals through 44 games after putting up 27 a year ago for the Charlotte Checkers. The 22-year old forward has size—6’4″ 227-lbs—and a nose for the net that made him the 21st overall pick in 2016. He has only seen five games in the NHL to this point, but the Rangers obviously believe he can make an impact at that level for their organization.

Their belief in Gauthier’s NHL upside must be real, because Keane has already shown in his first season of professional hockey that he is on the path to becoming an impact player. Selected 88th overall in 2018, Keane has eight goals and 30 points in 49 games for the Hartford Wolf Pack. He spent a day on the NHL roster last week, but so far hasn’t seen any action for the Rangers. Whether he’ll get into any for the Hurricanes right away isn’t clear, but the team had been looking for some more depth on defense after losing Dougie Hamilton for the season. The fact that he is still only 20 and has two more years on his entry-level contract only makes Keane more appealing to a team like Carolina who will need to spend every dollar wisely to compete in the tough Metropolitan Division.

Gauthier too has another year on his entry-level contract, something the Rangers can use as they try to really contend for the playoffs next season. The team already has a lot of cash allocated to names like Artemi Panarin, Jacob Trouba and Henrik Lundqvist, making the margins of the roster even more important. They have a number of young defensemen that hold similar value and upside to Keane, meaning they could deal from a position of strength to acquire a player like Gauthier.

Trade Deadline Primer: New York Rangers

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With the trade deadline now less than two weeks away, we will be taking a closer look at the situation for each team over the coming weeks.  Where do they stand, what do they need to do, and what assets do they have to fill those needs?  Next up is a look at the New York Rangers.

After landing the biggest fish in free agency and adding the second-overall pick, the New York Rangers were a team to watch this season. While things have gone relatively well, the murderer’s row that is the Metropolitan Division has the team well back of a playoff spot. Even with a winning record and positive goal differential the Rangers sit in seventh place in the packed Metro, meaning selling off expiring assets is the likely goal at the upcoming deadline.

Record

30-24-4, seventh in the Metropolitan Division

Deadline Status

Seller

Deadline Cap Space

$13.68MM in a full-season cap hit, 1/3 used salary cap retention slots, 46/50 contracts per CapFriendly

Upcoming Draft Picks

2020: NYR 1st, NYR 3rd, DAL 3rd, NYR 4th, NYR 5th, NYR 6th, NYR 7th, NSH 7th, VAN 7th
2021: NYR 1st, NYR 2nd, NYR 3rd, BUF 3rd, NYR 4th, OTT 4th, NYR 5th, NYR 6th, NYR 7th

Trade Chips

The name you have to mention first when discussing the Rangers is Chris Kreider, the top rental available this season and the subject of endless speculation. The speedy winger is having another excellent season with 23 goals and 42 points in 57 games while in the final year of his current contract. An unrestricted free agent at season’s end, Kreider still could potentially re-sign with the Rangers to act as a veteran option while the young kids develop, but is easily their best trade chip.

There are a few other interesting forwards on the team however, including heart-and-soul winger Jesper Fast. The 28-year old is also an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season but comes with a more reasonable cap hit of just $1.85MM and would likely draw a much lower price in trade. Fast has just eight goals and 24 points in 57 games, but is still versatile enough that he could be a nice addition to a contender down the stretch.

Pavel Buchnevich and Ryan Strome also may be available for the right price, even if they’re not headed toward UFA status. The former is signed for another season at a $3.25MM cap hit, while the latter will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights.

The defensive group also holds some interest. The team would likely love to get rid of Marc Staal and Brendan Smith’s contracts, but both would be difficult to move even if they didn’t have trade protection. Anthony DeAngelo could be a different story.

The 24-year old DeAngelo is having an outstanding offensive season with 13 goals and 43 points in 56 games, but had a tough negotiation last summer as an RFA that ended in him agreeing to a one-year contract in late September and will have arbitration rights this year. If the Rangers don’t believe they can sign him to a reasonable long-term deal, perhaps it is best to move on given the presence of Jacob Trouba and Adam Fox on the right side. With such a low cap hit $925K and huge upside, DeAngelo could be expensive in trade.

It would be wrong not to mention the team’s goaltending situation, which still consists of three netminders for the time being. Alexandar Georgiev has been in trade rumors all season long, but it appears as though the Rangers may be content to keep them all through the end of the season and deal with it after the fact.

Five Players To Watch For: F Chris Kreider, F Jesper Fast, F Ryan Strome, D Brady Skjei, D Anthony DeAngelo

Team Needs

1) Close-To-NHL Forwards: The Rangers are past the point of collecting a million draft picks and restocking their system. In fact, some of those young prospects could actually be traded out of the organization in the coming months and years to secure more big league talent. That’s likely what the team is looking for now as they enter a window of playoff contention, spearheaded by the signing of Artemi Panarin last summer. If names like Kreider, Fast and Strome are all moved out, the team will need some more legitimate NHL talent to replace them–though it will have to be young enough to grow with the group.

2) Long-term Cap Space: As referenced above, getting out from under Staal or Smith would be ideal but extremely difficult. That’s why a move of someone like Brady Skjei could instead be the option, freeing up room for some younger prospects and some cap space for the organization. The Rangers are okay right now, but will quickly be looking at a cap crunch as players age out of their entry-level deals. Panarin and Trouba combining for nearly $20MM per season will always put pressure on the front office to avoid bad contracts and find value in the margins.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Joey Keane Assigned Back To Hartford

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  • Joey Keane’s first NHL stint was a short one as the Rangers announced last night (Twitter link) that they had returned him to AHL Hartford.  He didn’t suit up against Columbus as the team opted to dress Brendan Smith instead.

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