Vancouver Canucks Fire Jim Benning
The changes in Vancouver weren’t limited to just the coaches as GM Jim Benning and assistant GM John Weisbrod have also been relieved of their duties. Stan Smyl will serve as interim general manager and be joined by Abbotsford Canucks general manager Ryan Johnson who will serve as interim assistant general manager for Vancouver. Owner Francesco Aquilini released a long statement, which in part reads:
These are difficult decisions, but we believed we would have a competitive group this year. As a result, I’m extremely disappointed in how the team has performed so far. I’m making these changes because we want to build a team that competes for championships and it’s time for new leadership to help take us there.
Our search for new leadership is underway. In the interim, Stan Smyl will lead our Hockey Operations team with the strong support of Ryan Johnson, Chris Gear, Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Doug Jarvis and others on the team to ensure day-to-day continuity. Stan has been a very loyal and committed member of our Hockey Operations Senior Management structure for many years and is someone whose experience and leadership we value greatly.
Benning joined the Canucks back in 2014 after serving as an assistant GM with Boston for seven seasons. Over his tenure with Vancouver, they’ve only reached the playoffs twice, winning just one round which came back in his first season. His initial coaching hire in Willie Desjardins only last three seasons while Travis Green made it into his fifth year before being ousted today.
Benning has made several questionable decisions on the contract front over his tenure. Loui Eriksson received a six-year, $36MM contract back in 2016 which has not worked out well; he has scored just 38 times in 274 games since then. Tyler Myers received a five-year, $30MM contract in 2019 to bolster Vancouver’s back end and that move hasn’t gone as well as they hoped.
His penchant for handing out bigger contracts to bottom-six role players also proved costly as Antoine Roussel, Brandon Sutter, Jay Beagle, and Micheal Ferland all received deals well above market value and provided middling returns at best.
Benning also missed on two of his three highest picks as well. While he got Elias Pettersson fifth overall in 2018, he whiffed on selecting Olli Juolevi fifth overall a year earlier while Jake Virtanen never lived up to the hype of his six-overall selection in 2014. Fortunately for Vancouver, Benning’s other two top-10 picks have shown some promise; Quinn Hughes is already one of the more dominant offensive blueliners in the league while Vasily Podkolzin hasn’t looked out of place in his rookie season.
This past summer, he took a big swing on the trade front, acquiring Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Conor Garland from Arizona for a package involving a first-round pick while also offloading Eriksson, Roussel, and Beagle’s contracts. However, Ekman-Larsson is signed through 2026-27 and even with the Coyotes retaining part of that deal, the Canucks are still stuck with a $7.26MM cap charge while Garland received a five-year, $25MM pact, one that at least looks decent so far.
As a result, Vancouver will continue to be battling the salary cap for the foreseeable future. They have over $70MM in commitments already for next season per CapFriendly with Brock Boeser owed a $7.5MM qualifying offer this summer. Bo Horvat and J.T. Miller are UFAs in 2024 while Pettersson will once again need a new contract in 2025 so more big-ticket signings will be on the horizon over the coming years while the new GM looks to try to improve the existing core at the same time.
As for Weisbrod, he also joined the Canucks in 2014 and previously had worked with Dallas, Boston, and Calgary. Prior to those stints, he had been the GM of the NBA’s Orlando Magic before resigning in his second year to join the Stars. Vancouver has one other assistant GM on their staff in Chris Gear who also serves as their chief legal officer.
Aquilini, Smyl, and Boudreau will each meet with the media on Monday afternoon.
The firings were first reported by Irfaan Gafaar of The Fourth Period (Twitter link).
Vancouver Canucks Fire Travis Green, Hire Bruce Boudreau
12:45am: The Canucks have officially announced the change, relieving Green and assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner of their duties. Boudreau has been installed as head coach and he’ll be joined by new assistant coach Scott Walker.
7:10pm: It appears another coaching change is on the horizon in the NHL. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that the Canucks are expected to hire Bruce Boudreau as their new head coach which suggests that Travis Green‘s time behind Vancouver’s bench is set to come to an end. Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and The Athletic adds (Twitter link) that no move to replace GM Jim Benning has been made at this time.
This season certainly hasn’t gone as well as Vancouver had hoped. After making a big splash to add defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and winger Conor Garland from Arizona while shoring up their backup goalie position with the signing of Jaroslav Halak. Benning’s hope was that those additions, coupled with continued development from their young core, would be enough to get them back into playoff contention. Instead, they sit at the bottom of the Pacific Division with 18 points in 22 games, tied with Chicago for the second-fewest points in the Western Conference.
Several key Vancouver forwards have scuffled offensively this season, highlighted by Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson both sitting at four goals, hardly the ideal output for two of their top forwards. This is where Boudreau’s reported hiring could pay dividends as his teams have typically been higher scoring and his system could jumpstart Vancouver’s attack. At least, that’s what the team is hoping for. Of course, their defense corps still isn’t the strongest even with Ekman-Larsson in the fold and getting more out of that group will also be high on Boudreau’s priority list.
Boudreau is no stranger to being behind an NHL bench as he sits just 16 regular season games shy of 1,000 for his coaching career which includes stints in Washington, Anaheim, and Minnesota, putting him 29th in NHL history in that regard. His .635 points percentage sits seventh all-time among those who have coached at least 200 games. The 66-year-old last coached in the 2019-20 season although he was set to be on Canada’s staff as an assistant coach for some upcoming international tournaments later this month.
Green will become the second coach to be fired this season and third departure overall (the others being Jeremy Colliton and Joel Quenneville who resigned from Florida). He was in his fifth season behind the bench and had a 133-147-34 record along with only one playoff appearance in 2020 where they fell in the second round to Vegas. He signed a two-year contract extension back in May but won’t be making it to the end of that deal. Meanwhile, Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre notes (Twitter link) that Boudreau will receive the same term which means he’ll be under contract with the Canucks through 2022-23.
Boudreau will be joined by Scott Walker as an assistant coach, reports TSN’s Darren Dreger (Twitter link). This would be Walker’s second stint with the Canucks having worked with them for three seasons in player development before moving onto Arizona. The veteran of over 800 NHL games as a player is currently the President of Hockey Operations for Guelph of the OHL and was expected to coach alongside Boudreau as an assistant in those upcoming international tournaments for Canada.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Brendan Lemieux Suspended Five Games For Biting
The NHL Department of Player Safety today suspended Los Angeles Kings forward Brendan Lemieux for five games for biting Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk.
The incident occurred in a game Saturday, a 4-2 Los Angeles victory. Lemieux was originally assessed a match penalty and two roughing penalties on the play, which occurred with 6:09 left in regulation.
The Department of Player Safety’s argument for the suspension revolves mainly around the clear and evident biting motion of Lemieux, as demonstrated by video evidence. Their video explanation of the ruling states as follows:
Tkachuk spins and drops his gloves to immediately engage with the player who has grabbed him. Lemieux drops his gloves and the two grab a hold of each other, wrestling briefly before Tkachuk takes Lemieux down to the ice. While on the ice, Lemieux, feeling Tkachuk’s hands on his face as they wrestle, bites Tkachuk on his bare left hand and does so with a substantial amount of force.
While circumstantial evidence supports the argument that Lemieux may have bitten Tkachuk multiple times during this fight, we are limiting our review of this incident to the bite that occurs almost immediately after the players fall to the ice… due to a lack of evidence, this decision does not include an analysis of how Tkachuk ended up bleeding from his right hand. We have heard Lemieux’s argument that the puncture may have been caused in this moment by Tkachuk punching him on the tooth with force sufficient to cause a puncture wound. The video evidence does not support this version of events. This is not a hockey play.
Lemieux has already been fined once and suspended twice, adding to the gravity of the suspension.
New Jersey Devils Extend Jack Hughes
The New Jersey Devils have locked up the potential face of their franchise, signing Jack Hughes to an eight-year extension that will kick in next season. The deal comes just as Hughes is set to return to the lineup tonight after a long injury layoff. The $64MM contract will carry an average annual value of $8MM, making him the team’s highest-paid forward and locking him up through the 2029-30 season. Hughes was set to become a restricted free agent for the first time next summer.
PuckPedia reports that the deal will include a 10-team no-trade clause in the last four years of the deal. The full breakdown is as follows:
- 2022-23: $7.0MM salary + $2.0MM signing bonus
- 2023-24: $8.5MM salary
- 2024-25: $8.5MM salary
- 2025-26: $8.5MM salary
- 2026-27: $8.0MM salary
- 2027-28: $7.5MM salary
- 2028-29: $7.0MM salary
- 2029-30: $7.0MM salary
General manager Tom Fitzgerald released a statement explaining his excitement over the contract:
Today is a big day for the New Jersey Devils. This contract shows the commitment Jack and his family have made to us, and how the organization- myself, David Blitzer and Josh Harris- are in turn committed to them. We are building something unique and special here, with Jack being a core piece of that. This is just the start of where we believe we can go with this organization, as we work towards sustained success for years to come.
Selected first overall in 2019, Hughes has slowly developed through his first two years in the league, surrounded by a young, inexperienced roster and seeing his fair share of struggles. There was little doubt he entered this season as an improved player, however, and he showed it with his two-goal performance (including the overtime winner) in the Devils season opener. He had another assist in his second game before injuring his shoulder, which has kept him out since October 19 and limited him to just 26 minutes of ice time so far this season.
That all changes tonight when Hughes returns, now with not only the burden of draft expectations but now with those of a huge contract as well.
A member of one of an incredibly popular hockey family, which includes older brother Quinn Hughes, a star defenseman for the Vancouver Canucks, and younger brother Luke Hughes, who was selected fourth overall by the Devils this year and is currently playing at the University of Michigan, Jack Hughes has a skillset that could lead to huge results for the Devils in the long run. While he had just 21 points in his rookie season, he came back as a teenager last year to put up 31 points in 56 games, including 10 in his last 14.
While the projection of his ceiling is still sky-high, there’s obviously also a ton of risk in a contract like this for the Devils. Yes, Hughes could outperform an $8MM ticket as soon as next season, but he also could very well settle in below the true top-line options in the league and suddenly be a bit of an overpayment. The fact is that he hasn’t delivered that kind of production yet, even if his talent and upside are so obvious.
For a team like the Devils though, who only really have two other long-term commitments–captain Nico Hischier and free agent signing Dougie Hamilton–a deal like this isn’t going to cripple them even if he struggles moving forward. They’re paying for what should be Hughes’ entire prime and locking it in to avoid any distractions in the future. If the league’s revenue recovers to a point where the cap ceiling increases down the road, this deal could look like even more of a bargain, given it keeps Hughes in New Jersey for four unrestricted free agent years.
The pressure is on now for Hughes, who will start on the wing this evening but is still projected to be a center long-term for the Devils. That positional decision could be a huge factor in whether this is deal ends up a bargain or a blunder, as Hughes would hold so much more value if he can continue to line up in the middle of the ice.
This move also clears the deck for the Devils front office to focus on some of the other restricted free agents this summer, without having to wonder how much Hughes’ deal will come in at. Jesper Bratt, Pavel Zacha, Miles Wood, and several others are set to hit RFA status, meaning some more multi-year deals may be coming down the pipe. A team that’s just turning the corner on their rebuild, New Jersey is now 9-6-4 and focused on competing all season long in the Metropolitan Division.
Kevin Weekes of ESPN was first to report that a deal was close between Hughes and the Devils.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Jake DeBrusk Requests Trade
The Boston Bruins made Jake DeBrusk a healthy scratch again over the weekend, and it appears as though there is finally a split coming between the two sides. Ryan Rishaug of TSN confirmed with DeBrusk’s agent that he has requested a trade out of Boston, and Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet notes that the two are working to find him a fresh start.
DeBrusk, 25, is one of the infamous three first-round draft picks the Bruins made in 2015 and for quite some time, was regarded as the only one that had “worked out.” While Jakub Zboril and Zachary Senyshyn toiled in the minor leagues, DeBrusk was playing in the NHL, recording 62 goals over his first three seasons in the league.
Those numbers have dropped considerably since the start of 2020-21 though, with just eight goals and 20 points in 58 games over the last two seasons. With that decreased production the winger has also found inconsistent playing time, moving up and down the lineup.
On the second season of a two-year, $7.35MM ($4.675MM AAV) deal signed in November 2020, DeBrusk can become a restricted free agent once again next summer. It’s just a “could” because whatever team owns his rights at that point would need to issue him a $4.41MM qualifying offer just to retain them as an RFA. That’s certainly not a slam dunk given the way he’s played recently, especially when it would also come with the risk of arbitration.
Still, it’s easy to see how a team would think they can squeeze a top-six player out of DeBrusk. He has all the skills to score at a high level, as shown by his 27-goal season in 2018-19, he can be a physical presence when he wants to be, and there’s powerplay upside if deployed properly. If the asking price isn’t prohibitive, both contending teams and those that are rebuilding could be interested in the winger.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Montreal Canadiens Fire Marc Bergevin And Others, Hire Jeff Gorton
The Montreal Canadiens have made another front-office change following Scott Mellanby‘s resignation yesterday. Per the team, they’ve fired general manager Marc Bergevin as well as assistant GM Trevor Timmins and senior VP of public affairs Paul Wilson.
Bergevin’s been the GM and executive VP of hockey operations for the Canadiens since 2012-13. Under his term, the team made the playoffs six out of nine seasons.
Timmins was named assistant GM in 2017 but had been with the organization in various capacities since 2002.
Jeff Gorton has been hired as executive vice president of hockey operations. Bergevin is expected to be replaced by another French-speaking general manager, as the release states. Gorton will oversee operations on a day-to-day basis while the search for a new general manager continues.
Gorton, 53, was the GM in New York from 2015-2021 and had previously worked with the Rangers and Boston Bruins in several different roles, including scout, director of scouting, director of player personnel, and assistant general manager. His multiple decades in NHL front offices have now led him to one of the most coveted positions in the NHL, but also one with some of the highest pressures.
The Canadiens, the league’s most historic franchise with 23 Stanley Cup championships, made it all the way back to the finals last season but were unable to capture their first title since 1993. Just months later and the organization has collapsed, losing 17 of its first 23 games and owning the league’s second-worst goal differential. The absences of Phillip Danault, Shea Weber, and Carey Price from last year’s playoff team have been catastrophic, with almost no one playing up to their potential on an already underwhelming roster.
Yet, this move comes a day after the Canadiens won their sixth game of the season, defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-3. It needed a 47-save performance from Jake Allen to do it though, and three of the goals were of the empty-net variety, meaning the final score was not indicative of how the game played out. Still, Gorton walks into a fan base that has at least been temporarily subdued, despite some season-long failure.
One of the decisions that Gorton will have to make in this newly announced position is on the future of head coach Dominique Ducharme, who signed a three-year contract extension earlier this summer. Ducharme now has a 21-31-9 record in the regular season as head coach of the Canadiens, a dreadful number that is only partially masked by his playoff success. Yes, he is the coach that led Montreal to the Stanley Cup Finals (though even then, he was replaced for a short period by assistant Luke Richardson), but there have been clear signs that Ducharme either does not know how to properly deploy the roster he has or that the roster is unwilling to accept that deployment.
Mellanby, meanwhile, left the organization after initially believing he would be the next general manager of the team. Marc-Antoine Godin of The Athletic examines the way that team president Geoff Molson handled the situation, including “deep talks” with Mellanby to become Bergevin’s successor. When things pivoted to a president of hockey operations and Gorton, Mellanby’s “trust was broken” according to Godin. That means Gorton will not only need to replace Bergevin but also Mellanby’s position of assistant GM.
The focus of incoming front office members will be interesting, as it is unclear whether the Canadiens brass believes the team to still be in a contending window. There are talented youngsters like Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Alexander Romanov, but also too many bloated contracts for players that have not shown an ability to be true difference-makers. The roster should be better than 6-15-2, but it was always going to be a challenge to make the playoffs after some of the key offseason departures.
Poor play from several previously reliable defensive options–including Jeff Petry and newcomer David Savard–may have to be at the top of the list of concerns for the Canadiens. The team got through the playoffs with stingy defense and timely counterattacks, neither of which appear likely on any given night this season. With several long-term deals on the books, including more than $70MM committed to 2023-24 (though that’s counting Shea Weber‘s LTIR-bound deal), there is a lot of work to do for a new front office.
Matt Murray Clears Waivers, Assigned To Belleville
November 28: Murray has cleared waivers, per Bruce Garrioch of TSN and The Ottawa Sun. The team’s assigned him to the Belleville Senators.
November 27: On Friday, Senators goaltender Matt Murray was a healthy scratch against Anaheim. One day later, he has been placed on waivers for the purpose of assignment to AHL Belleville.
The 27-year-old is in his second season with Ottawa after they flipped a second-round pick and prospect Jonathan Gruden to Pittsburgh to get him back at the 2020 draft. At the time, they felt they had their starting goalie of the foreseeable future, quickly inking him to a four-year, $25MM contract; his $6.25MM AAV is the sixth-highest in the league among goaltenders this season.
What have they received in return for that money? Not a whole lot. Murray struggled considerably last season, posting a 3.38 GAA with a .893 SV% in 27 games, the worst numbers of his career. This season, those numbers aren’t any better – a 3.26 GAA and a save percentage of .890 in six games. Those numbers are below average for a backup let alone a starter.
Ottawa’s decision to dress Anton Forsberg and Filip Gustavsson against the Ducks was a strong message from head coach D.J. Smith that he has lost faith in Murray. At this point, getting him down to Belleville for a stint to try to give him an opportunity to find his game again against lower-level competition certainly makes some sense.
Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch suggests the Sabres and Coyotes could be teams to keep an eye on with regards to a potential claim. Both teams have a need for a goaltender but with two years still left on his contract and both teams operating as lower budget squads, it’s hard to imagine they’d be willing to take him off waivers with how poor he has performed in Ottawa. A trade with retention after he clears and maybe some games in the minors would be a likelier scenario.
Assuming he does indeed clear on Sunday, the Sens will get a small bit of cap relief as $1.125MM of Murray’s AAV will come off their books when he’s sent down. Of course, with Ottawa being a team that’s closer to the Lower Limit of the cap than the Upper Limit, that relief won’t be worth a whole lot to them but they’ll be able to move forward with a Forsberg-Gustavsson tandem for at least the time being while giving Murray an opportunity to get back to form in the minors.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that Murray would be waived.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Evander Kane Placed On Waivers
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman confirms that San Jose Sharks forward Evander Kane was placed on waivers Sunday for the purpose of assignment to the AHL.
After scoring 22 goals and 49 points in 56 games last season, Kane has yet to suit up for the Sharks after he was suspended without pay for 21 games for a violation of the league’s COVID protocols after the start of the season.
Kane’s had off-ice issues that have persisted for much of the last calendar year. A bankruptcy filing shadowed over his 2020-21 campaign, while multiple investigations into allegations of gambling and domestic abuse by the league occurred over the offseason. Contrary to the result of the suspension, he was cleared by the league on both of those allegations.
A veteran of 769 NHL games, Kane will be assigned to the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda if he clears waivers. If he reports, it would be Kane’s first time playing in the AHL. He made the jump straight to the Atlanta Thrashers from the WHL’s Vancouver Giants in 2009.
Whether Kane will ever return to the Sharks organization at the NHL level remains unclear. Multiple reports surfaced this offseason that many players couldn’t get along with Kane, and the team may not want to jeopardize what seems to be a positive developing culture as the younger team gets off to a hot start. Still, it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility that Kane returns and suits up for the Sharks again.
His AHL assignment could be an effort to allow teams an opportunity to scout him and see him back in action before making a trade to acquire him. The Sharks have let it be known that they’re willing to retain salary in a trade.
Kane has four seasons remaining on a contract with a $7MM cap hit.
Curtis Pashelka of The San Jose Mercury News was the first to report this story.
Jared Bednar Signs Two-Year Extension With Avalanche
Jared Bednar will be sticking around behind the bench of the Avalanche for a little while longer as the team announced that they have signed their head coach to a two-year contract extension. The deal will run through the 2023-24 season. GM Joe Sakic released the following statement on the signing:
Jared has established himself as one of the top coaches in the NHL. He is a great leader who has the complete trust of our players and staff. Under his guidance our team has continued to make great strides and improve every year. We know he is the right person to help us take that next step and compete for a Stanley Cup.
Bednar is in his sixth season as Colorado’s bench boss after taking over in a somewhat unique fashion when he was hired late in the summer of 2015 following Patrick Roy’s abrupt resignation. His first year was a particularly rough one but since then, the Avs have been a consistently strong team, posting a points percentage of at least .549 and have made four straight postseason appearances with the last three resulting in second-round exits, helping lead him to the second-most coaching victories in Avalanche history (third in franchise history dating back to their time in Quebec).
Under Bednar’s tutelage, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen have become legitimate top-line stars and the two have anchored a top line alongside captain Gabriel Landeskog for long stretches during his tenure. They’ve also become one of the stronger defense corps in the league, anchored by young star Cale Makar along with younger veterans Devon Toews and Samuel Girard.
However, it hasn’t been a great start to the season for the Avalanche this season. They currently sit fifth in the Central Division with a 7-5-1 record although they’ve played the fewest games in the Western Conference so there is room for some improvement on their seeding as they make up their games in hand.
Some had wondered if the slow start coupled with their inability to get over the hump in the postseason would be enough for Sakic to consider a coaching change but clearly, that didn’t happen. That said, a two-year extension isn’t a significant vote of confidence either. But it’s enough to get rid of the storyline of being in a lame-duck situation and it should take the heat off for the time being as they look to move up the standings while Bednar takes aim at that Colorado wins record as he’s just two behind Bob Hartley for first.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Bob Murray Resigns As Ducks GM
A day after being placed on administrative leave, Ducks general manager Bob Murray has tendered his resignation and will enroll in an alcohol abuse program, per a team announcement. Jeff Solomon, who was named the interim GM yesterday pending an investigation into Murray, will retain that title for the time being. Murray released the following statement:
I want to apologize to anyone adversely affected by my behavior. I vow to make changes to my life, starting with enrolling in a treatment program. I want to thank Henry and Susan Samueli, and Michael Schulman, as working for them has been one of the highlights of my career. As I step away from the Ducks, I will focus my attention on where it should be: improving my life for the betterment of my family and friends.
Murray had been with the organization since 2005 when he joined them as their Senior VP of Hockey Operations and GM of their AHL affiliate which was in Portland at the time. The 66-year-old was promoted to GM midway through the 2008-09 campaign where he took over for Brian Burke, a role he had held ever since until today.
Over that stretch, Murray made a whopping 105 trades and signed 287 contracts, per CapFriendly. Among his notable signings were the eight-year deals handed to franchise mainstays Corey Perry ($69MM) and Ryan Getzlaf (66MM) which remain the richest contracts in franchise history plus the eight-year pacts that defenseman Cam Fowler ($52MM) and goaltender John Gibson ($51.2MM) are currently on, ones that have generally been viewed as team-friendly deals over the years. Anaheim made eight playoff appearances with Murray running the show, getting as far as the Western Conference Final in two of those years.
As for Solomon, he’s in his first year with Anaheim after being hired just a few months ago following 14 seasons in the front office for the Kings. It appears as if the interim GM title could very well be his through the end of the season; owners Henry and Susan Samueli indicated in a statement that they will now undergo a “methodical, extensive search” that they hope to complete no later than next summer. Accordingly, Solomon will have an opportunity to make a strong case for the full-time role; helping get Anaheim to the playoffs after missing three straight years would certainly help on that front; the Ducks are off to a good start with a 7-4-3 record early on, good enough for second in the Pacific Division and are definitely in the mix in the early going.
ESPN’s Emily Kaplan was the first to report Murray’s resignation.