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Talks Break Off Between Blues And Alex Pietrangelo

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While progress on a long-term deal between the Blues and defenseman Alex Pietrangelo wasn’t being made, some still expected that the two sides would find a way to get a deal done in spite of their salary cap situation.  However, that doesn’t appear to be the case now as TSN’s Darren Dreger reports (Twitter link) that talks have broken off between the two sides and that the team has advised their captain to test free agency next month.

The 30-year-old is coming off of another fine year that saw him collect 16 goals (a career high) and 36 assists in 70 games before the pandemic shut down the rest of the regular season.  Had the season played out, he easily would have set a new benchmark in points as well as he was two shy of his 54-point campaign in 2017-18.  He logged over 24 minutes a game for the ninth straight year and was a fixture on both special teams units.  In a league where there aren’t many all-around number one defensemen, Pietrangelo is one of them.

It’s that fact that still makes it surprising that he’s set to head to the open market.  While the Blues don’t have the cap space to keep him without making other moves first, they’re the ones that put themselves in that situation after handing Justin Faulk a seven-year, $45.5MM extension upon acquiring him last September while Marco Scandella received a four-year, $13.1MM deal in the early weeks of the pandemic.  Had they not made those moves, they would have had more flexibility in talks with Pietrangelo, albeit with multiple important roster spots to fill.  Now, they have more than $76MM in commitments for 2020-21 already.

While the salary cap will remain flat next season at $81.5MM, it shouldn’t affect Pietrangelo’s market all that much.  Top players are still expected to receive big-ticket contracts and defensemen of his caliber rarely make it to the open market.  Accordingly, there will be plenty of suitors for his services (even if puts them into cap trouble) and he’ll be well-positioned to get significantly more than the $6.5MM he has played under for the last seven years.  Earlier this week, it was reported that Toronto, Vegas, and Florida could all be in the mix although each of those teams would be hard-pressed to make a deal work under their respective salary cap situations.

Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that the last offer from St. Louis to Pietrangelo’s camp carried a $7.7MM AAV but did not provide any breakdown with regards to salary/signing bonus structure.  While that’s still a decent-sized raise and would make him the highest-paid player on the team, it’s seemingly well below what he could get in free agency.  That price tag wouldn’t even put him among the top ten in cap hits for blueliners league-wide.  It’s safe to assume that whatever deal he signs will put him among that group.

For St. Louis, their focus will now have to turn to the trade market.  While there can be no conditions attached to a trade contingent on them signing a contract, a team can still trade something for Pietrangelo’s negotiating rights, similar to what Montreal did for Joel Edmundson last weekend.  While a draft pick or prospect is far below his actual value, it’s still better than nothing which is where things appear to be headed now following this news.  In the meantime, other teams will be very intrigued as it looks like a number one defender is set to reach the open market next month.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Pittsburgh Penguins Extend Jared McCann

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have come to terms on a new contract with one of their pending restricted free agents. The team has announced that forward Jared McCann has signed a two-year extension with a $2.94MM AAV. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman adds that the contract carries a $2.5MM salary in year one and a $3.38MM salary in year two. McCann will be a restricted free agent again when the deal expires after the 2021-22 season.

McCann, 24, is coming off of a career year and appears to have finally found a long-term NHL home. A 2014 first-round pick, McCann was traded first by the Vancouver Canucks after his first pro season and then again by the Florida Panthers midway through his fourth pro season. While those teams felt McCann was falling short of high expectations, the Penguins have gotten the most out of him. Since arriving in Pittsburgh in February 2019, McCann has recorded 52 points in 98 games, including 35 points this season, a career-high in points per game. McCann also ranks sixth among Penguins skaters in points during that span. If he continues to improve offensively and scores at a top-six level for the club, McCann’s extension will prove to be a major bargain for the Penguins.

The challenge though is where to place McCann in the lineup. While he has the versatility to play both wing and center, the Penguins have been unhappy with his performance when slotted down the middle. McCann’s record at the face-off dot leaves much to be desired, as does his ability to drive offense down the middle of the ice. If McCann is not a fit as the Penguins’ third line center, that position remains a major hole in their lineup while McCann becomes yet another of the team’s numerous wingers. Pittsburgh is unlikely to have re-signed McCann if they also planned to move him, but this deal makes it even more likely that the team could look to move another winger in order to improve elsewhere.

With McCann signed, the Penguins have just over $6MM in cap space with their situation in net still to resolve – Matt Murray and Tristan Jarry are both unsigned RFA’s – and two other RFA forwards in Dominik Simon and Sam Lafferty in need of new deals. This doesn’t leave GM Jim Rutherford much room to explore the free agent market unless another trade is still on the way.

Montreal Canadiens Sign Joel Edmundson

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The Montreal Canadiens took a chance when they traded a fifth-round pick for the negotiating rights of Joel Edmundson, but it has worked out the way they hoped. Today, the Canadiens have signed Edmundson to a four-year contract that will carry a $3.5MM average annual value. Edmunson will also receive a 10-team no-trade clause in the deal, according to Chris Johnston of Sportsnet.

Edmundson, 27, is coming off the best offensive season of his career, scoring 20 points in 68 games with the Carolina Hurricanes. That followed his arrival from the St. Louis Blues as part of the package that landed Justin Faulk, just a few months after Edmundson won the Stanley Cup. While he certainly should not be considered an offensive defenseman, he has logged big minutes in the past and was a big contributor to Carolina’s penalty kill. That defensive acumen was obviously coveted enough by Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin for him to go out and use an asset to acquire Edmundson before he hit the open market, while also handing out a long-term contract.

Montreal of course has star defensemen Shea Weber and Jeff Petry manning the blueline, but the latter is heading into his final year under contract. The team has now shored up the group with another capable defender, though it’s unclear exactly how the playing time will now shake out. Alexander Romanov was expected to challenge for a spot on the NHL roster immediately, but Edmundson’s addition actually gives the Canadiens a glut of left-handed options. Still, having defensive depth was always going to be required for the Canadiens to compete in the Eastern Conference and the team had plenty of cap space to work with this offseason.

For Edmundson, this contract represents the first real long-term stability he has had in his NHL career. He’d previously been playing on short-term deals, including just a one-year $3.1MM contract awarded through arbitration in 2019-20. While this doesn’t represent much of a salary increase on his last two contracts, he does get some financial security and is now locked in through the 2023-24 season.

Buffalo Sabres Acquire Eric Staal

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The Buffalo Sabres have traded Marcus Johansson to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Eric Staal. No salary will be retained by either team. Though both players hold partial no-trade clauses, Michael Russo of The Athletic reports that neither one had their new team blocked.

This deal represents a swap of two players scheduled for free agency in 2021, though Johansson is nearly six years younger than Staal. The former Buffalo forward heads to Minnesota after experiencing arguably the worst offensive season of his career, scoring just nine goals and 30 points in 60 games. Johansson never really found his footing in Buffalo and couldn’t manage the move back to center ice, a position he hadn’t routinely played since his second season in the NHL. If he stays in Minnesota, it will be interesting to see where he fits into the lineup since the Wild have made it clear they are looking for an upgrade down the middle. They recently acquired Nick Bjugstad who can also play center, though he wasn’t used there full-time in Pittsburgh.

For Staal, this trade apparently took him by surprise. Russo tweets that the veteran forward is “stunned” though he’ll have some familiar faces in Buffalo to greet him. Kevyn Adams, who will mark his first trade as Sabres GM with this deal, was a teammate of Staal’s with the Carolina Hurricanes, winning a Stanley Cup together in 2006. Perhaps more notably though is the connection with Sabres forward Jeff Skinner, who played several years with Staal in Carolina and is coming off a dreadful 23-point season after signing a huge $72MM extension.

There’s no doubt that Staal represents an upgrade down the middle for the Sabres, as even at the age of 35 he was still effective this season. In 66 regular season games with Minnesota, he recorded 47 points, a total that would have put him third on the Sabres behind only Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart. The fact that he comes at a discount—Staal is owed just $3MM and carries a cap hit of $3.25MM for next season, compared to $4MM and $4.5MM for Johansson—makes this seem like an easy win for the Sabres, as long as his play doesn’t drop off a cliff next year.

Still, there is a chance that Johansson can find his “MoJo” in Minnesota. Remember that this is a player who scored 24 goals and 58 points as recently as 2016-17 and will only turn 30 next month. He also played quite well for the Boston Bruins in last year’s playoffs, scoring 11 points in 22 games as a depth option. That postseason performance is exactly what earned him the two-year $9MM deal with the Sabres last summer.

For the Wild, the acquisitions of Johansson and Bjugstad over the last few days have added a pair of players on expiring deals that will both be looking to rebuild their value before free agency. Either one could be potential trade chips at the deadline should the 2020-21 season go sideways, or potential extension candidates if they can get back on track. For Buffalo on the other hand, Staal’s acquisition is much more about starting to turn the team in the right direction and providing some backup for Eichel upfront. Saving $1MM in salary may also be important for a team that has been rumored to be looking at an internal budget this season due to reduced revenues.

Darren Dreger of TSN was first to break that Johansson had been traded from Buffalo, while Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported it is a one-for-one deal. 

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Jonas Brodin Signs Seven-Year Extension

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The Minnesota Wild have taken care of some pressing business, locking up a key member of their roster for the next several years. Jonas Brodin has signed a seven-year extension with the team that will carry an average annual value of $6MM. Since he still has one year left on his current deal, Brodin will now be under contract through the 2027-28 season. The full salary breakdown is as follows (via Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic):

  • 2021-22: $4.0MM
  • 2022-23: $5.0MM
  • 2023-24: $8.0MM
  • 2024-25: $8.0MM
  • 2025-26: $7.5MM
  • 2026-27: $5.5MM
  • 2027-28: $4.0MM

First and foremost, this locks up one of the best pure defenders in the league for the better part of a decade at a reasonable cap hit. But that won’t stop the speculation machine from exploding in coming weeks and months, given that Minnesota now has four defensemen scheduled to earn at least $6MM in the 2021-22 season. The quartet of Brodin, Jared Spurgeon, Ryan Suter and Mathew Dumba will combine for a cap hit of more than $27.1MM that season, though obviously things can change rapidly before then.

For now, this is just a move from GM Bill Guerin to retain the services of an exceptional defenseman in Brodin. The 27-year-old had 28 points this season in 69 games but made his money on the other side of the puck, constantly shutting down the opponent’s best forwards and logging big minutes on the penalty kill. He finished the year with an average ice time of 21:33 and led the team with 112 blocked shots. His 23 even-strength assists actually put him second on the entire roster, behind only Ryan Suter’s 24.

There’s little doubt that the Wild believe Brodin to be a key part of the future, but this extension does bring up countless questions about the future of Dumba, who now seems likely to depart in one fashion or another. Not only are the cap implications of four players earning that much difficult to deal with, but the Seattle Kraken expansion draft is also right around the corner. Both Spurgeon and Suter have no-movement clauses in their contracts meaning they have to be protected (unless they decide to waive those clauses for the draft) and you are only allowed to protect three defensemen in the regular format. The Wild could potentially choose the eight-skater protection route if they wanted to include all four star defensemen, but that would leave several names at risk upfront. (UPDATE: Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports that Brodin’s contract also includes a no-movement clause that kicks in immediately, meaning he will also require automatic protection in the expansion process.)

Dumba’s name has been in the rumor mill for years and has just three years left on his current deal. The youngest of the four, he also could potentially represent the easiest name to trade off the back end should the Wild decide to go in that direction.

For Brodin, he now will tie several other players for the 26th highest cap hit among defensemen in 2021-22 and could have even more responsibility heaped upon him as the years go on.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Peter Laviolette Hired By Washington Capitals

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The Washington Capitals wanted an experienced head coach to lead them next season, and they’ll have it. The team has announced the hiring of Peter Laviolette, who will take over the bench from Todd Reirden who was let go earlier this summer. Laviolette has signed a three-year contract worth just under $15MM total according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, which will include the full $2.5MM he was still owed by the Nashville Predators.

Capitals GM Brian MacLellan released a statement on his new coach:

Peter is a successful NHL head coach who has won a Stanley Cup and brings a wealth of experience to our team. We feel he is a great communicator who will motivate our players to play with passion, structure and discipline, while helping our young players reach their potential. In addition, he is a high-character individual who is highly respected for his coaching pedigree, all of which make him the ideal person to lead our team to compete for the Stanley Cup.

Laviolette, 55, has been a head coach in the NHL for two decades, recording a 637-425-25-123 record in his 1,210 regular season games. Those 1,200 games put him 20th on the all-time list and he has taken his club to the Stanley Cup Finals three times, winning in 2006 with the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Capitals had shown interest in other experienced names like Gerard Gallant and Mike Babcock, but will move forward with a coach that had a .616 winning percentage at his last stop but still got fired after a mediocre start to 2019-20. Laviolette and the Predators were 19-15-7 when they made the move to hire John Hynes, leaving him looking for another opportunity.

Reirden, the Capitals outgoing coach, has already found work with his old team the Pittsburgh Penguins as an assistant. That experiment didn’t work out nearly as well as the Capitals hoped when they let Barry Trotz leave months after winning the first Stanley Cup in franchise history, only to hand the reins to a rookie head coach. Reirden lasted just two seasons behind the bench while Trotz is now in the Eastern Conference Finals with the New York Islanders.

Hiring Laviolette will serve as an attempt to fix that mistake, but the Capitals core is now two years older and Alex Ovechkin is heading into the final year of his deal. There are certainly young exciting players in Washington like goaltending phenom Ilya Samsonov, but the last two years seem like wasted opportunities for this group now that they’ve paid up for an experienced head coach after all.

Geoff Ward Named Calgary Flames Head Coach

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The Calgary Flames have decided to remove the interim tag from Geoff Ward’s position, officially naming him the 20th head coach in franchise history. Ward took over behind the bench when Bill Peters resigned earlier this season, moving from his previous position of associate coach.

Ward, 58, commanded the Flames to a 24-15-3 record in the regular season, landing them in the postseason tournament and defeating the Winnipeg Jets in the qualification round. The team wasn’t able to change their disappointing recent playoff history though, bowing out timidly to the Dallas Stars in the first round. Still, Ward will get a chance to really impose his style and leadership on the team moving forward. He certainly got more out of the team than Peters early on, as the Flames were 12-12-4 when the switch was made.

A longtime NHL assistant, Ward has had stops with the Edmonton Oilers, Boston Bruins, and New Jersey Devils before coming to Calgary in 2018. Interestingly, his coaching career has also taken him overseas several times as a head coach in Germany, most recently with Adler Mannheim of the DEL (where he won the league title and Coach of the Year). That experience was enough to get him a role with the German national team, where he served as an assistant at four World Championships and some Olympic qualifying matches.

Ward has signed a new two-year contract with the Flames, according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic.

Minnesota Wild Acquire Nick Bjugstad

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8:00pm CT: The terms of this trade have now been revealed by Sarah McLellan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and certainly seem to tilt the favor even more toward Minnesota. First, the Penguins will retain half of Bjugstad’s salary this year, the final season of a six-year, $24.6MM deal. As a result, Pittsburgh will only dump $2.05MM in cap salary while the Wild get a full year of Bjugstad at a bargain price. Second, the Penguins will only receive the conditional seventh-round pick if Bjugstad plays in at least 70 games or scores at least 35 points this season. Otherwise, the team does not receive any return. If this trade is indication, shedding salary this off-season is going to be easier said than done.

7:00pm CT: Nick Bjugstad, one of the most well-regarded prospects to come out of the Minnesota high school ranks this century, is headed home. The Minnesota Wild announced that they have acquired the 28-year-old center from the Pittsburgh Penguins. In what is all but a salary cap dump, the Penguins only received a conditional 2021 seventh-round draft pick.

Bjugstad is a polarizing player, but certainly one worth risking a late pick and one year of term on. Named Mr. Hockey in 2010 as the best player in Minnesota high school, Bjugstad went on to be drafted in the first round by the Florida Panthers later that year. After starring for the of Minnesota for three years, Bjugstad joined Florida and  immediately became a contributor. He recorded 38 points as a rookie, even garnering Calder Trophy votes, and totaled 191 points in 394 games with the Panthers over parts of seven seasons. While these were solid numbers, they weren’t exactly what Florida was hoping for from one of their core players. In 2018-19, Bjugtad was traded alongside Jared McCann to the Penguins for Derick Brassard, Riley Sheahan, and three draft picks. His time in Pittsburgh has been forgettable, marred by injury and inconsistency that left him with just 16 points in 45 games to show for a season and a half.

Yet, Bjugstad is healed and expected to be fully healthy for the start of the 2020-21 season for Minnesota. No one will blame Pittsburgh for dumping Bjugstad’s $4.1MM cap hit (and $5.25MM salary) as they face a stiff cap crunch, but the Wild could easily wind up with the better side of this deal if Bjugstad can return to form back at home in the Twin Cities and produce 40-50 points as he has several times before. As the Wild look to replace the experience and two-way ability of Mikko Koivu down the middle this season – and quite possibly Eric Staal next season – Bjugstad is a prime candidate. At 6’6″ and 215 lbs., Bjugstad is a menacing presence on the ice and has the proven ability to take the puck with both brute force and finesse. After a pair of down seasons, Bjugstad may not be the most exciting name, but he could be primed for a major comeback this year with the Wild and could potentially earn himself a long-term extension with his hometown team in the process.

 

Vladimir Tarasenko Undergoes Third Shoulder Surgery

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Sep 9: Andy Strickland of Fox Sports Midwest reports that Tarasenko has undergone successful surgery with no complications. Now the tough part begins as the Blues sniper will begin his rehab in an attempt to return to action.

Aug 26: The evaluation is complete and it’s not good news for Vladimir Tarasenko. The St. Louis Blues forward will undergo another shoulder surgery next week and will not be re-evaluated for five months.

Tarasenko, 28, missed almost the entire 2019-20 season after suffering a major shoulder injury at the end of October. He played just ten games, but was able to work hard enough to recover in time for the return to play format. Unfortunately, after just four scoreless games in the bubble, Tarasenko returned to St. Louis for examination. This result puts the start of the 2020-21 season into question and may raise even more about his playing future.

There’s no doubt that when healthy, Tarasenko is one of the league’s top goal-scorers. Over a five-year span before this season he tallied 182 goals in 395 games, a total topped by only Alex Ovechkin (236 goals) and John Tavares (183). His pure power and lethal wrist shot have made him one of the most feared players in the league when the puck is on his stick.

Tarasenko has three years remaining on his current contract which carries a $7.5MM cap hit through the end of the 2022-23 season. He has a full no-trade clause.

Montreal Canadiens Acquire Jake Allen

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The Montreal Canadiens have acquired another goaltender, nabbing Jake Allen from the St. Louis Blues. Allen comes to Montreal along with a 2022 seventh-round pick, while the Blues will receive a 2020 third-round selection (WSH) and a 2020 seventh-round pick (CHI). The Blues will not retain any of Allen’s $4.35MM cap hit for next season.

For the Blues, a deal like this immediately brings up speculation that the team is trying to clear cap space in order to re-sign Alex Pietrangelo. St. Louis carried nearly $9MM in cap hits from goaltenders this season after signing Jordan Binnington, a number that wasn’t tenable if they wanted to bring their superstar captain back. Pietrangelo is a pending UFA, but the team had already handed much of his $6.5MM salary off in extensions to Justin Faulk and Brayden Schenn.

Alternatively, the Canadiens will now have close to $15MM in cap hits from their goaltending tandem given Carey Price’s $10.5MM price tag. That is an incredibly high amount, though getting an experienced backup for Price seemed like a top priority this offseason. The Canadiens have relied so heavily on the star netminder for the last few years that some believe his play was being hindered by overuse—Price led all goaltenders with 58 appearances in the shortened 2019-20 season. A fully rested Price showed in the playoffs exactly why he is still considered one of the best in the game; in ten appearances he recorded a .936 save percentage and helped carry Montreal through the qualification round.

Allen himself experienced a resurgence in 2019-20 after two down years in St. Louis. Playing second fiddle to Binnington, he recorded a .927 save percentage in 24 appearances, the best performance of his career. By the time the playoffs rolled around, he ended up taking over in net and posted a .935 in five appearances.

The Canadiens also have cap space to spare as they rely more and more on their young talent to carry the roster. Max Domi and Victor Mete are the only pending restricted free agents that are set to get substantial raises and at least the former has had some trade speculation surrounding him lately anyway. There will be some bigger deals to be made with names like Brendan Gallagher and Phillip Danault to start the 2021-22 season, but by then Allen’s current cap hit will be off the books.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the deal is that one of the goaltenders expected to be on the market is now gone, meaning teams that are scrambling for a starter this summer will have one fewer to choose from. Allen could have been a replacement in places like Dallas or Edmonton who could see one half of their tandem leave in free agency. The Blues also add a third-round pick as they shed salary, a nice little prize even though it was unlikely Allen could stay.

The Blues will likely hand the crease back to Binnington for next season with Ville Husso a candidate to serve as backup, but it doesn’t come without risk. The 27-year old Binnington could not recapture the magic that helped lead St. Louis to a Stanley Cup in 2019 and recorded just a .912 save percentage in the regular season. His playoff performance was brutal, going 0-5 with an .851 before Allen took over. If he can’t find his game, the Blues may be in trouble next season. With that in mind, St. Louis could be a contender to bring in a more experienced backup this offseason, but they would have to come considerably cheaper than Allen’s current cap hit.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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