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Metropolitan Notes: Berube, Rangers, Del Zotto, Carey

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Islanders head coach Jack Capuano and GM Garth Snow plan to meet regarding finding some playing time for goaltender Jean-Francois Berube, reports NHL.com’s Brian Compton (Twitter link).  Berube has been with the Isles all season but has yet to appear in a single game.

This is the second straight year he has been in this situation as a third string goalie after he was claimed off of waivers back in October of 2015.  Clearly the team thinks highly enough of him to keep him around but with Jaroslav Halak and Thomas Greiss both ahead of him on the depth chart, finding playing time for him has been a challenge; he made only seven NHL appearances last year.  It’s clear that New York believes Berube would be claimed if he were to be made available via the waiver wire once again.

The Islanders have put Halak on the trade block but have yet to find a suitable return for him while Greiss is a pending unrestricted free agent.  As a result, it seems quite plausible that they may want to protect Berube in next June’s expansion draft in which case they will likely stick with three goalies for the rest of the season which means that Berube will be in limbo for a while longer, even if they do get him into a game or two sooner than later.

[Related: Islanders Depth Chart]

More from the Metropolitan:

  • Rangers GM Jeff Gorton is riding quite the hot streak when it comes to his acquisitions since the offseason, suggests Newsday’s Steve Zipay. Of their eight pickups, only Nathan Gerbe (who was brought in to battle for one of the final couple of forwards spots) hasn’t panned out.  Considering his contract was mutually terminated last month, there were no real repercussions from that signing either.  Meanwhile, players like Mika Zibanejad, Michael Grabner (who is among the league leaders in scoring), Brandon Pirri, Nick Holden, and rookie Jimmy Vesey are all playing key roles for New York and in all but Zibanejad’s case, were brought in via free agency or for a nominal price.
  • Flyers defenseman Michael Del Zotto will return to the lineup tonight, notes CSN Philly’s Tim Panaccio. He has been a healthy scratch for the past three games after head coach Dave Hakstol wasn’t pleased with his defensive play.  He’s expected to take the place of Brandon Manning, who is believed to have a concussion.  Philadelphia is also making some lineup changes up front, moving Michael Raffl onto the front line with Brayden Schenn dropping down into a checking role.
  • Washington has re-assigned left winger Paul Carey to Hershey of the AHL, the team announced. He has played in just one game with the Caps so far this season but has 14 points (5-9-14) in 16 minor league contests.  The Capitals are off until Thursday so they’ll free up a bit of cap space by sending him down for a few days.

The 2016 All UFA Bargain Team

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Organizations generally wait until around the quarter mark of the campaign before making determinations on their team. Are they contenders or pretenders? Do they anticipate being buyers or sellers at the deadline? These are among the questions teams begin to ponder at this point in the season. Subsequently, now seems like a good time to look back at the summer’s free agent signings to see which are outperforming expectations and can safely be called free agent bargains.

Forward

Eric Staal (Minnesota) – Three years, $10.5MM: After a down season in 2015-16 split between Carolina and the New York Rangers, questions surfaced about whether Staal was a legitimate top-line center or if his decline in production was representative of a player past his prime. Staal recorded 10 consecutive seasons – 2005-06 through 2014-15 – in which he recorded at least 53 points but stumbled to a 39-point output last season. Those concerns led to a discounted contract which compensates Staal at the level of a well-paid third liner as opposed to a top-line player.

Staal has rebounded this season and through 20 games with the Wild, the 13-year veteran has registered 15 points. Perhaps a better sign his early-season production may be based more on ability than on luck, Staal is back to averaging close to three shots per game. Last season he averaged just 2.4 shots per contest and for his career he is at 3.3. Staal is currently tied for 57th among forwards in points-per-game; a rank perfectly in line with that of a top-line forward.

Jonathan Marchessault (Florida) – Two years, $1.5MM: Marchessault could prove to be the steal of the summer. He signed a two-year deal with the Panthers worth just $1.5MM this summer after failing to find a permanent role in either Columbus or Tampa Bay. Through 20 games in South Florida, the 25-year-old forward has nine goals and seven helpers and is on pace for a 65-point campaign.

While Marchessault struggled to earn regular NHL work prior to this season, he has an excellent junior and minor league track record. In 306 AHL games, the 5-foot-9, 174-pound wing tallied 98 goals and 262 points. That success at least suggests Marchessault can continue to produce at the level of a top-six forward. That’s a steal for $750K.

Michael Grabner (New York Rangers) – Two years, $3.3MM: Grabner was a solid producer while with the Islanders, averaging 0.30 goals-per-game over parts of five seasons. But after registering just nine goals and 18 points in 80 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 2015-16 campaign, Grabner was available at a bargain price for the Rangers.

All he’s done for the Blue Shirts is register 12 goals, all at even strength, and 16 points in 22 games with the Rangers. He ranks third overall in goals scored while his total at even strength leads the league. He’s also tops in the NHL in plus-minus with a rating of +20. His penalty-killing ability has also been welcome on Manhattan. Perhaps he won’t continue to produce at this level but even then, he’s well on his way to a 20-goal campaign which would be a tremendous return on a $1.65MM investment.

Defense

Brian Campbell (Chicago) – One year, $1.5MM: Campbell was dead set on returning to Chicago as a free agent this summer and he did, at a rate the cap-strapped Hawks could afford. Campbell has eight points in 22 games this season, despite seeing nearly four fewer minutes of ice time per contest than he averaged in 2014-15. Currently, the 37-year-old blue liner is on pace for a 29-point campaign, which is pretty good value relative to Chicago’s minimal commitment.

Patrick Wiercioch (Colorado) – One year, $800K: Wiercioch inked a one-year contract with Colorado after his previous employer, the Ottawa Senators, elected not to submit a qualifying offer to the restricted free agent. Wiercioch has been a good fit on the Avalanche blue line, ranking fifth on the team in scoring with eight points and leading the club with a +2 plus-minus rating. The 26-year-old has been utilized primarily as a third-pair defender and is fifth among the team’s blue liners in average ice time at 17:27 per game.

Goaltender

Chad Johnson (Calgary) – One year, $1.7MM: Johnson was signed by Calgary to ostensibly serve as the understudy to summer trade acquisition Brian Elliott. But while Elliot has struggled in his new surroundings – 3.43 GAA and a 0.882 Save % – Johnson has provided the Flames with steady play between the pipes. In 11 starts this season, Johnson has a GAA of just 1.98 and a Save % of 0.928. Only five goalies who have appeared in at least 10 games have a better GAA than Johnson.

 

Kings Activate Marian Gaborik From IR

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The Los Angeles Kings have activated right wing Marian Gaborik from IR, according to Jon Rosen of LA Kings Insider. Gaborik is expected to take the ice for warm-ups and head coach Darryl Sutter will make the decision of whether the Slovakian forward will make his 2016-17 season debut tonight. A broken foot suffered during the World Cup of Hockey kept sidelined Gaborik all season.

No announcement of a corresponding move has been made but the Kings don’t need to clear a roster spot to accommodate Gaborik. With the 34-year-old winger back in the lineup, the Kings have 21 skaters – 14 forwards and seven defensemen – and two goaltenders.

Currently tied for 15th in the NHL in scoring, the Kings could certainly use the infusion of skill Gaborik brings to the table. A seven-time 30-goal scorer, Gabroik’s production has tailed off in recent seasons, however. He tallied just 12 goals in 54 contests during the 2014-15 campaign but netted 27 in 69 the season before, suggesting he still has something left to offer.

Now entering his 16th NHL season, the 34-year-old Gaborik has scored 386 regular season goals in 933 games. He was originally drafted third overall in the 2000 entry draft by the Minnesota Wild and has also spent time with the New York Rangers and the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Allen’s Latest: Hamilton, Kane, Shattenkirk, Hanzal, Murphy

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The USA Today’s Kevin Allen is more than happy to suggest a holiday wish list for a handful of NHL teams. Allen offers advice to the follow clubs:

  • New York Rangers: Allen suggests that the Rangers could snap up Dougie Hamilton from the Calgary Flames should they be willing to give up J.T. Miller. But just as quickly as he suggests it, he provides rationale as to why it might be far fetched. First, the financials wouldn’t work with Hamilton’s $5.75MM cap hit. Second, Miller is playing well with 18 points in 21 games while Hamilton has been struggling. For the deal to work, Allen believes the Rangers would have to shed another contract to either Calgary or another team in need of a defenseman (Allen suggests Kevin Klein).
  • New York Islanders: The team in Brooklyn is Allen’s next focus and he suggests Evander Kane to the Isles. The losses of Kyle Okposo, Matt Martin, and Frans Nielsen coupled with the poor production from pricey free agent pickup Andrew Ladd makes Kane a reasonable target. However, Allen points out that the Isles do not have the cap room to add Kane’s bulky contract and would have to do some “juggling” in order to make it work. Allen adds that a defenseman would help out Buffalo’s cause if they were willing to talk about Kane.
  • Boston Bruins: How many people have suggested Kevin Shattenkirk to Boston? Allen chimes in here as well, believing that the right handed defenseman would be the perfect addition to the blue line. Further, Allen writes that if Boston can convince Shattenkirk to re-sign with them, overpaying a bit would be well worth it.
  • Montreal Canadiens: Arizona’s Martin Hanzal would be a great target for the Habs, who Allen feels could use another scorer to make a Stanley Cup run. What would it take? Allen believes a young player and a draft pick.
  • Detroit Red Wings: It hasn’t been easy to fill the enormous hole that Nicklas Lidstrom left four seasons ago, and the Wings have struggled to find any solutions. Allen believes the Carolina Hurricanes could provide some help in the way of defenseman Ryan Murphy. Allen predicts that the Red Wings could trade a young forward to land him, but also sees a number of potential suitors for Murphy, namely the Colorado Avalanche, Arizona Coyotes and Vancouver Canucks.

 

Metro Division Snapshots: Raanta, Calvert, Capitals

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New York Rangers backup net minder Antti Raanta is 5 – 0 – 0 in six starts this season after besting the Penguins 5 – 2 Monday night and since joining the Blueshirts in 2015, the Finnish goalie 16 – 6 – 2 with a GAA of 2.20 and a Save % of 92.4%. While he isn’t a threat to the job of longtime Rangers starter Henrik Lundqvist, his superb play at the bargain basement price of $1M this year and next does give the Blueshirts one of the best backup bargains in the league, writes Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post.

Raanta was acquired from Chicago in the summer of 2015 in exchange for minor league forward Ryan Haggerty to replace Cam Talbot as Lundqvist’s understudy. He spent two seasons with the Blackhawks and saw action in 39 games. Raanta was originally inked by Chicago as an undrafted free agent in 2013.

Even though “King” Henrik is the unquestioned starter in New York, the plan is for the Rangers to limit his usage somewhat in order to keep him fresh for the playoffs. As such, Raanta is expected to see action in around 25 games this season. His stellar play means there is little to no drop off  from Lundqvist when Raanta is in goal.

Even though Raanta is under contract for one more season, it’s quite possible he won’t be with the Rangers beyond the 2016-17 campaign. With the Rangers required to protect Lundqvist in the expansion draft, the new Vegas Golden Knights franchise will have the option of selecting the 27-year-old Raanta. At the very least he would be an excellent #2 goalie at an inexpensive price for the Golden Knights in their inaugural season.

More from the Metro Division:

  • The Columbus Blue Jackets announced via their official Twitter account that Matt Calvert would miss tonight’s game against Calgary with an upper-body-injury. To take his place the team recalled forward Markus Hannikainen from Cleveland of the AHL. Calvert, who was hit by a shot in a recent game against the Rangers which ultimately required 36 stitches to his forehead, has two goals in 17 games this season. Hannikainen, 23, made his NHL debut tonight and was held scoreless in 9:47 of ice itme. He has five goals and eight points in 14 games for the Monsters.
  • With just more than $700K in salary cap space, the Washington Capitals have had to be creative managing their roster as injuries have begun to pile up, as Isabelle Khurshudyan of The Washington Post writes. After forward Paul Carey was reassigned to the AHL following Sunday’s game, the Caps were left with just 11 healthy forwards. Subsequently, reserve defenseman Nate Schmidt skated as a forward at practice. It’s an option head coach Barry Trotz may need to employ in an actual game should the situation warrant it. The piece gives an interesting insight into the complexities of roster management in the salary cap era. Every day the Capitals can avoid having to call up a minor league player such as Carey adds to the amount of salary cap space the team banks for use later in the campaign. While they may need to recall a player to play in a game, there is no sense carrying him on the roster during breaks in the schedule.

 

Vegas Notes: Exempt List, Salary Retention, Minority Owners

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Earlier today, the full list of players who require protection from the expansion draft due to no-movement clauses was released, and it’s an interesting study to be sure. Out of the 66 names on the list, four teams are fully unhindered by the clauses. Calgary, San Jose, St. Louis and Washington are free to protect their full compliment of players, having not given out a single NMC that would fall under automatic protection. Even Brent Burns’ new mega-deal doesn’t contain the clause, even though he would already be an obvious protection candidate.

While some of the information may be news to fans, each individual franchise likely had a good understanding of who would be on this list and shouldn’t be shocked by the release today. That doesn’t stop the speculation however, that teams like the Anaheim Ducks and New York Rangers will be looking to make a move to ensure they get something in return a young player instead of exposing him to the draft.

  • Alex Prewitt of SI gave some interesting info today about the possibility of salary retention on selected players. Though the new franchise will be able to include salary in pre and post draft trades like any other club, they will not be able to reach a salary retention agreement with any selected player. This likely could have been used as a loophole to make deals with the Vegas club, something that the NHL wants to stop as much as possible. This draft is supposed to be as above-board as possible, with the league even saying everything will have to “pass the smell test”.
  • Despite rumors circulating today that MLB free agent Jose Bautista and NFL star Rob Gronkowski were among those who held a minority stake in the Vegas hockey club, Prewitt reports that there is in fact no investors of any kind other than Bill Foley and the Maloof family. While Prewitt admits that there is a group of investors looking to form an LLC to invest in the Golden Knights, nothing has been submitted or approved by league offices, a required step for any investment.

Full List Of Mandatory-Protection Players In Expansion Draft

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Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston has published the full list of players who, due to no-movement clauses in their current contracts, must be protected in the upcoming expansion draft for the new Vegas Golden Knights. These are players who will count against the protection limits should they choose not to waive their NMC rights prior to the draft.

Each team has the right to protect either:

A) Seven forwards, three defenders, one goaltender

or

B) Eight skaters, one goaltender

These players will count against those numbers, and as Johnston points out, there are some notable inclusions and omissions from this group. Players like Jordan Staal, Rick Nash and Bobby Ryan all had incorrect information spread about their contracts. The former two will now need protection, while the latter will not, due to his deal only having a no-movement to the minors clause.

The Chicago Blackhawks, with eight players listed, will have little flexibility at the draft, with only four forward spots (or one defenseman) left to use. Many others, according to Johnston, including Toronto’s Nathan Horton, are likely to be made exempt if they are still on LTIR as the draft approaches.

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Snapshots: Buchnevich, Palmieri, Guentzel

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News and notes from around the NHL this evening:

  • The New York Rangers announced that forward Pavel Buchnevich will be out for two to three weeks with back spasms. The Russian prospect missed the past three games with back issues and underwent an MRI today to discern the problem. The MRI showed no structural damage, reports the New York Post’s Larry Brooks, but Buchnevich will need at least two weeks to strengthen his core. This injury—coupled with Mika Zibanejad’s broken fibula last night—continues to deplete the Rangers’ roster. The team claimed Matt Puempel today in an effort to staunch the bleeding.
  • The New Jersey Devils may be without forward Kyle Palmieri tonight against the San Jose Sharks, reports Andrew Gross of the North Jersey Record. Palmieri suffers from upper-body soreness and only briefly took part in today’s morning skate. The American winger has 3G and 4A in 17 games for the Devils, and the team hopes that Palmieri can eventually find the magic he harnessed last year.
  • Jake Guentzel, the Pittsburgh Penguins 2013-third round pick, scored on his first shift in his first NHL game tonight against the New York Rangers. Guentzel was called up from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton after potting 7G and 10A in 16 games. Guentzel then went on to score a second goal in the first period. The last Penguin to do that was Luca Caputi back in 2009. Part-owner Mario Lemieux also scored his first goal on his first NHL shift.

Matt Puempel Claimed Off Waivers By Rangers

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The New York Rangers have claimed Matt Puempel off waiver from the Ottawa Senators, according to Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston.

Puempel was the Senators first round pick in 2011, but has not been able to find consistent scoring in the NHL. He has played 13 games this season, but has not scored a point. He has six points in 52 NHL games over the last three seasons. Puempel has been a prolific scorer in the OHL and AHL, so perhaps a change of scenery will do him good. His contract is worth $900K and expires after this season.

Read more: Senators Place Matt Puempel On Waivers, Andrew Hammond Clears

The Rangers received some bad injury news on Monday morning, with former Senator Mika Zibanejad out for 6-8 weeks after breaking his fibula on Sunday night. New York will be hoping that Puempel can re-discover his scoring touch to help replace some of Zibanejad’s offence.

Mika Zibanejad Out 6-8 Weeks

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For the second time in four days, an NHL player has broken his fibula.

On Thursday night, Arizona Coyotes forward Brad Richardson broke his fibula (and tibia) after being awkwardly fallen on by the 6’7, 265 lb Nikita Tryamkin.

Four days later, New York Rangers center Mika Zibanejad went hard into the end boards during the overtime period of Sunday night’s shootout loss to the Panthers (Streamable link of injury). As Zibanejad, who scored one of the Rangers goals in the third period, chased Panthers winger Reilly Smith around the Rangers net, his left skate became tangled with Smith’s feet and he crashed foot-first into the boards. He was down for several moments before being helped off the ice.

According to Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault, Zibanejad will miss 6-8 weeks with a broken fibula. The Rangers will not make any roster moves before Monday night’s game versus the Penguins, but Vigneault isn’t ruling out a call-up in the future. Oscar Lindberg was a healthy scratch against the Panthers, and will likely draw in against Pittsburgh. Lindberg has just one assist in seven games this season after scoring 28 points in 68 games last season. Vigneault is confident that “whoever [he] decide[s] to put in that spot will do the job for us.”

Zibanejad has been a good addition to the Rangers, who are sitting third in the NHL standings. He was acquired in a July trade with the Ottawa Senators that saw Derick Brassard and a 7th round pick sent away for Zibanejad and a 2nd round pick. While Brassard has just two goals and seven points in 18 games, Zibanejad has acclimated nicely to New York and has 15 points in 19 games.

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