Hurricanes Tender Offer Sheet To Canadiens’ Jesperi Kotkaniemi
The old adage surrounding offer sheets is that if one team messes with another team’s restricted free agents, they open themselves up to attack as well. After the Montreal Canadiens tendered an offer sheet to Carolina Hurricanes star Sebastian Aho two years ago, they are now facing the consequences. The ‘Canes have returned the favor, announcing (in French at that) they have extended an offer sheet to Habs’ center Jesperi Kotkaniemi, which he has signed. The offer is for one year and $6,100,015. If you thought this wasn’t all about retribution, here is the kicker: the deal also includes a $20 signing bonus – Aho’s jersey number. Also this. The Canadiens have seven days to respond. They would receive first- and third-round picks if they elect not to match.
There are of course salary cap implication aplenty with this offer sheet. Kotkaniemi’s $6.1MM AAV would put Montreal approximately $8.38MM over the salary cap for 22 players with their expected LTIR relief from Shea Weber only coming in at $7.86MM. In order to match the offer sheet, the Canadiens will have to shed salary this season, enough to fit the overage and another player to round out the roster. Perhaps even more importantly, their starting number for negotiations with Kotkaniemi again next off-season begins with a $6.1MM qualifying offer. For a team with numerous expensive, long-term contracts, that simply may not be palatable. Of course, the Hurricanes face these same risks. The team would go approximately $1.52MM over the salary cap by adding Kotkaniemi, albeit with a full 23-man roster. They also could easily open up the space if they opt to again waive defenseman Jake Gardiner and his $4.05MM cap hit. The more pressing question then is whether Kotkaniemi lives up to his cap hit, which will also serve as his new QO. At the cost of a first and a third, Carolina will want to make sure Kotkaniemi is not just a one-year rental.
This all boils down to how much the Habs value Kotkaniemi, as the Hurricanes – while they had ulterior motives – clearly felt that the $6.1MM cap hit was warranted for the 21-year-old forward. Kotkaniemi, the third overall pick in 2018, has certainly shown flashes of star power. While his regular season numbers are unspectacular with 62 points in 171 NHL games, his playoff production has been stellar with nine goals and twelve points in 29 games. And while Kotkaniemi is still working on some of the fundamentals of the center position, he is a phenomenal possession player and is starting to fill out his frame and become a more physical presence. Kotkaniemi’s value is all about upside at his age. Both teams certainly see it, but only one team has ponied up the cost thus far (at least for one year). All but one offer sheet has been matched since the turn of the century. Will Montreal follow suit?
Though one of the most entertaining stories in roster building in recent memory, and not just in hockey, Carolina’s vicious response to Montreal’s attempted poaching of Aho two years ago is only likely to further deplete the likelihood of offer sheets, which are already considered a MacGuffin to most. Enjoy this while it last, it could be the final one for some time.
Philadelphia Flyers Extend Sean Couturier
The Philadelphia Flyers have signed star center Sean Couturier to an eight-year contract extension that will start in the 2022-23 season. Couturier has one more season on his current deal and would have been an unrestricted free agent next summer. The new extension will carry an average annual value of $7.75MM and runs through 2029-30. Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press reports that it will include a full no-movement clause in the first seven years, and a Couturier will be required to submit a 10-team trade list in the final season. Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher released a statement on the deal:
We are excited to announce Sean’s long term extension with the Flyers today. As one of the premier two-way centers in the NHL, Sean has the rare talent to shut down opposing team’s top players while also contributing at a high offensive level. Throughout his 10 year career with the Flyers, he has proven to be the ultimate teammate. He carries an enormous presence inside our dressing room due to his preparation, determination and drive to win.
CapFriendly provides the full contract breakdown:
- 2022-23: $1.75MM salary + $6.0MM signing bonus
- 2023-24: $4.0MM salary + $5.0MM signing bonus
- 2024-25: $4.0MM salary + $5.0MM signing bonus
- 2025-26: $4.0MM salary + $5.0MM signing bonus
- 2026-27: $1.75MM salary + $6.0MM signing bonus
- 2027-28: $1.5MM salary + $5.0MM signing bonus
- 2028-29: $1.5MM salary + $5.0MM signing bonus
- 2029-30: $1.5MM salary + $5.0MM signing bonus
There’s absolutely no doubt that Couturier is one of the Flyers’ most important (if not the most important) players, and every day that passed was getting him closer to unrestricted free agency. Still, this is a huge commitment for the Philadelphia front office, given that he’ll turn 30 just a few months into the first year of the extension.
Currently 28, Couturier is one of the most effective two-way centers in the entire league and took home the Selke Trophy as the league’s best defensive player in 2020. He has received votes for the award in nine of ten seasons and has been a finalist in the past. When his offense took a huge step forward in 2017 it turned him from a strong checking forward to a true top-line center, capable of near point-per-game production. He has hit the 30+ goal mark twice, posted a career-high of 76 points in two seasons, and registered 41 points in 45 games this year. There are only a handful of players in the league who can impact the game as much as Couturier, given how effective he is in all three zones.
Still, while this deal may be a bargain in the next few years, it’s hard to expect Couturier to keep up his level of play throughout. He’s now signed for the entire decade and already has more than 700 NHL games under his belt playing a relatively physical style of hockey. There’s no telling what his decline phase will look like, but a deal of this length could become an issue if his offensive production falters even a little bit.
That’s a problem for the future though, as the Flyers try to capitalize on this core and compete for the Stanley Cup. The team went out and revamped the defensive group, bringing in Ryan Ellis, Rasmus Ristolainen and Keith Yandle this offseason, and swapped a pair of veteran forwards by sending Jakub Voracek to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Cam Atkinson. With Claude Giroux signed for just one more season, James Van Riemsdyk under contract for just two, the time is now for the Flyers to strike.
The $7.75MM cap hit ties him with young Andrei Svechnikov, who signed a deal with the Carolina Hurricanes earlier today, for the 49th highest in the league for 2022-23. He will likely be knocked a few spots down by other extensions and contracts, but that’s likely a number that Couturier could have eclipsed on the open market, had he waited. That obviously wouldn’t have come with the eight-year term though, something that likely gives him security through the end of his career.
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Carolina Hurricanes Sign Andrei Svechnikov
The Carolina Hurricanes have worked out a deal with one of their most important players. Andrei Svechnikov, a restricted free agent this summer, has signed an eight-year contract with the Hurricanes that will carry an average annual value of $7.75MM. GM Don Waddell released a statement on the deal:
Andrei is one of the cornerstones of this organization, and we are thrilled to reach a long-term commitment to keep him here. He is one of the brightest rising stars in our sport, and will play a key role in our efforts to bring the Stanley Cup to the Triangle this decade.
The contract contains a modified no-trade clause (Svechnikov will submit a list of ten teams he can be traded to) in the four unrestricted free agent years that it buys out, and the full salary breakdown is as follows:
- 2021-22: $2.0MM salary + $4.0MM signing bonus
- 2022-23: $7.0MM salary
- 2023-24: $9.0MM salary
- 2024-25: $9.0MM salary
- 2025-26: $10.0MM salary
- 2026-27: $7.0MM salary
- 2027-28: $6.0MM salary
- 2028-29: $8.0MM salary
Since being the second-overall pick in 2018, Svechnikov has done what he always does–score. The 21-year-old forward has 59 goals and 140 points in 205 career games, including a strong 42-point effort in the shortened 2020-21 campaign. His size, skill, and skating ability make him a threat all over the ice, carrying the puck through the neutral zone or battling in front of the net for space. It’s hard to find many more well-rounded wingers in the league, and Svechnikov appears to be just scratching the surface of his offensive upside.
While this may seem like a huge salary for a player coming out of his entry-level contract (and it is), the deal represents a ton of security for the Hurricanes. They now have their young star locked in through basically all of his prime years at a relatively reasonable price. Skipping a bridge deal means that they won’t get any savings over the next two or three seasons, but buying out four UFA seasons is a big win for the Hurricanes. They can now move forward knowing exactly how much their top forwards cost. Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen both have three years left on their respective deals.
Not that Svechnikov is missing out. The young forward will have the 49th highest cap hit in the NHL this season, and though that will drop down a few pegs as he moves forward and other players ink more expensive deals, he’s still being paid quite handsomely. If he does turn into the 40-goal, MVP-type that some believe he can be, it will be a steal for the Hurricanes. But more likely is that he’s paid appropriately for his impact and the team can build around him as the salary cap gets back on track.
This deal will be used as a comparable by other restricted free agents around the league, though the player agents may not be very excited about it. Brady Tkachuk, for instance, who was drafted just two spots after Svechnikov in 2018 and has similar offensive numbers through the first part of his career, is also an RFA with the Ottawa Senators.
The Hurricanes though are now finished with their RFA negotiations, meaning they have certainty over their cap situation for 2021-22. They currently project to have a little more than $4.5MM, meaning they could potentially go after another UFA or target a bigger contract in trade.
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Flyers Agree To Terms With Travis Sanheim
There won’t be an arbitration hearing this year after all. Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim was the last arbitration-bound player without a contract but that has changed as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that the blueliner has agreed to a two-year deal with a $4.675MM AAV. PuckPedia reports that the structure of the deal is as follows:
2021-22: $4MM salary
2022-23: $5.35MM salary
The 25-year-old inked a two-year bridge contract two summers ago coming off a career-best 35-point season and at the time, it was expected that he’d continue his ascent and ideally become a top-pairing-caliber blueliner for Philadelphia. That didn’t exactly happen, however. In particular, Sanheim struggled last season, notching just 15 points in 55 games despite logging 21:53 per game (also a career-high) with some struggles in his own end. There is no doubt that Sanheim is still a big part of their future but the exact role isn’t as certain as it appeared to be.
That’s where this deal comes in. The two-year term basically amounts to a second bridge deal, allowing both the Flyers and Sanheim more time to assess his long-term value and role. Notably, it also walks him to unrestricted free agency in 2023. That’s hardly an ideal scenario for Philadelphia but when they elected to take him to arbitration earlier this month, it created the situation for this to happen as Sanheim simply could have elected the two-year term and taken his chances with the arbitrator. They get to avoid the hearing with this contract but he’ll still be able to hit the open market in his first eligible year.
Sanheim should remain behind Ivan Provorov on the left side of a new-look Philadelphia back end that now features Ryan Ellis who was brought in from Nashville plus veteran Keith Yandle to replace the offense that Shayne Gostisbehere provided as he was moved in a cap-clearing move to Arizona.
There won’t be any more shakeups coming for the Flyers, however, at least not without matching money. This move basically eats up all of their remaining cap space and will likely see them carrying less than the maximum of 23 skaters to start the season. But with the changes on the back end and the addition of Cam Atkinson up front, GM Chuck Fletcher got the core shakeup he wanted and with Sanheim signing, has his full roster under contract. Will it be enough to get back to the playoffs in what projects to be a tight Metropolitan Division? We’ll find out soon enough once the season gets underway.
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Nashville Predators, Juuse Saros Avoid Arbitration
The Nashville Predators and starting goaltender Juuse Saros have reached a new agreement, signing a four-year, $20MM contract. The two sides had an arbitration hearing set for Wednesday, which will no longer be required. Adam Vingan of The Athletic provides the full breakdown:
- 2021-22: $4.0MM
- 2022-23: $5.0MM
- 2023-24: $6.0MM
- 2025-26: $5.0MM
The contract does not have any trade protection, despite buying out three years of unrestricted free agency for the 26-year-old goaltender. Saros experienced a real breakout this season, showing he could be the team’s full-time starter by appearing in 36 games and posting a .927 save percentage. He finished sixth in voting for the Vezina Trophy and even received some Hart Trophy consideration. Predators GM David Poile released a statement on the contract:
Juuse has proven himself as one of the best young goaltenders in the NHL, and we are very pleased to have him remain our No. 1 goaltender for years to come. While being mentored by Pekka Rinne, he has spent the last several seasons growing and taking steps physically and mentally to become a top goalie in this League, as evident by his spot on the NHL’s All-Rookie Team in 2017-18 to finishing near the top of Vezina Trophy voting this past season. Juuse gives our team a chance to win in every game he plays, and we feel confident that with him leading the tandem we’ve established with David Rittich, our goaltenders will be a large part of our success in 2021-22.
Even though this may have been the first year Saros was recognized on a national scale, Predators fans will know just how good he’s been since entering the league. As a 21-year-old rookie he posted a .923 in 21 games and has continued at a high level while playing backup to Nashville legend Pekka Rinne. Among goaltenders with at least 150 NHL appearances, he sits sixth all-time with a .920 save percentage.
With Rinne now retired and completely out of the picture, Saros will be asked to carry a heavy load. The team brought in David Rittich on a one-year, $1.25MM deal to serve as the primary backup, but there’s little doubt the newly extended Saros will get the bulk of the work.
The contract actually appears to be quite the bargain for the Predators, considering some of the other goalie deals that have been handed out recently. Linus Ullmark received the same four years and $20MM, for instance, but also negotiated a full no-movement clause in the first two seasons and a modified no-trade clause in the final two. While Ullmark was a UFA already, a year ahead of Saros, his numbers are also nowhere near as strong or as established.
Igor Shesterkin actually got a much higher contract, despite being two years away from UFA status and having just 47 games under his belt. While the Rangers netminder has been outstanding in the early going, his four-year, $22.67MM deal shows the haircut that Saros accepted on this new contract.
There are other extenuating circumstances to all of these negotiations, but this one seems like a win for the Predators, who have no shot of competing without high-level goaltending. The team has struggled to score for years now and has several bloated, underperforming, high-priced contracts on the books upfront. With Saros signed for $5MM, the team can allocate some extra money elsewhere to try and round out the roster.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet broke the contract terms.
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Minnesota Wild, Kevin Fiala Avoid Arbitration
With an arbitration hearing just a day away, the Minnesota Wild and Kevin Fiala have come to an agreement. The two sides have settled on a one-year, $5.1MM contract almost exactly the midpoint between their two arbitration filings. Fiala had asked for a one-year, $6.25MM contract, while the team had countered with a $4MM deal. The two sides will no longer need the hearing tomorrow.
The 25-year-old Fiala will still be a restricted free agent next summer, but will require a qualifying offer equal to this $5.1MM salary in order for the Wild to retain his rights. He will also be arbitration-eligible once again, meaning a raise is actually a possibility. It was a bet on himself to sign a one-year deal, after becoming one of the most important players on the Wild roster. Over the past two seasons, Fiala has 43 goals and 94 points in 114 games while continuing to post outstanding possession numbers. Though some of that offensive success is due to the deployment the team has offered, there’s no doubting Fiala’s raw talent.
It was Paul Fenton, the oft-ridiculed former GM of the Wild who brought Fiala to Minnesota in a trade for Mikael Granlund a little over two years ago. In terms of offensive contribution, Fiala has been much more effective, yet the two will now head into next season earning almost the same salary. Granlund signed a new four-year, $20MM deal with the Nashville Predators this offseason to continue his strong two-way play, while Fiala will be relied on as the “game-breaker” that Fenton called him when defending the move.
With Kirill Kaprizov still to sign, the Wild have plenty of work to do, but they can now be certain in their financial structure. The team still has more than $13MM in cap space this season, and though things will get tight in the future when the harsh penalties from Zach Parise and Ryan Suter‘s buyouts kick in, they at least know they can fit everyone in for 2021-22. A long-term deal for Fiala would have made that more difficult, as buying out UFA years would have sent the average annual value of Fiala’s deal skyrocketing. Despite only turning 25 last month, Fiala has five seasons under his belt already, meaning he’ll be an unrestricted free agent after the 2022-23 season.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet broke the news on Twitter
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Sam Reinhart Signs With Florida Panthers
The Florida Panthers have worked out a deal with newly acquired Sam Reinhart, inking the restricted free agent to a three-year contract. Reinhart was acquired last month from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for a 2022 first-round pick and prospect Devon Levi. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that the deal will carry an average annual value of $6.5MM. GM Bill Zito released a statement on the deal:
Sam is a gifted and versatile talent that will play a key role for our team in the coming seasons. One of several players to commit to our organization with a multi-year contract this offseason, we are excited to see how these players come together and continue to build a foundation for success in South Florida.
The three-year deal buys out two seasons of unrestricted free agency for the 25-year-old Reinhart, who already has six full campaigns under his belt in the NHL. Selected second overall in the 2014 draft (right behind teammate Aaron Ekblad and two spots ahead of teammate Sam Bennett), he has been one of the most consistent players for the Sabres over the years even as the team failed to have any success.
In five of his six seasons, Reinhart has recorded at least 22 goals and matched his career-high with 25 even in this shortened 2020-21 campaign. That 25-goal, 40-point performance is even more spectacular given the fact that Jack Eichel missed most of the year, meaning Reinhart was able to create that kind of offense almost on his own in Buffalo. The next highest goal total on the Sabres was Victor Olofsson‘s 13, not offering a ton of opportunity for Reinhart to rack up assists.
That will certainly change in Florida, where he could very well line up beside Aleksander Barkov for parts of the year. That is of course unless they use him as a full-time center, something he never really did in Buffalo. Either way, the number of talented forwards that will surround Reinhart will be in stark contrast to what he had with the Sabres, which could very well lead to a career year.
He’s certainly getting paid for that upside though, as Reinhart is suddenly earning more than any other forward–including Barkov–on the Panthers. That would have likely been the case even if he went through the arbitration process though, as he was due a $5.2MM qualifying offer and had an outstanding case given his consistent offensive numbers. Even if it’s a bit weird for him to be the most expensive forward on the team, it likely will only be for one season. Barkov is scheduled for unrestricted free agency in 2022 and will need a huge extension, while Jonathan Huberdeau is also only signed for two years.
With all of their restricted free agents now signed, Florida is still nearly $2MM under the cap ceiling. The team could potentially even add more depth, or continue to accrue room to make a splash at the deadline.
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Winnipeg Jets, Neal Pionk Avoid Arbitration
The Winnipeg Jets and Neal Pionk won’t need their upcoming arbitration hearing after all, as they’ve agreed on a long-term contract instead. The RFA defenseman has signed a four-year deal that will carry an average annual value of $5.875MM. Pionk’s hearing had been scheduled for Friday. PuckPedia reports the full breakdown:
- 2021-22: $3.5MM
- 2022-23: $6.5MM
- 2023-24: $7.5MM + 6-team no-trade
- 2024-25: $6.0MM + 6-team no-trade
It’s easy to underestimate just how strong a player Pionk has become because of the market he plays in and the high-profile player he was traded for. Acquired as part of the package for Jacob Trouba, the 26-year-old defenseman has become one of the most reliable offensive defensemen in the league. In fact, since joining the Jets in 2019, Pionk ranks 13th among all NHL defensemen in scoring with 77 points in 125 games. That’s more than twice as many as Trouba, who signed a seven-year, $56MM deal with the Rangers upon arrival.
That’s not to say the two are directly comparable, but is just evidence to show how valuable Pionk has become in Winnipeg. He has averaged nearly 23 minutes a night since arriving, contributing to both the powerplay and penalty kill. When the Jets’ need for a defenseman was discussed at length this season it was to find Pionk some help, but his place on this team will continue to be a leading one.
By buying out two years of unrestricted free agency, the Jets have locked up Pionk through his prime, but it didn’t come at much of a bargain. After acquiring Nate Schmidt and Brenden Dillon this offseason, the team now has five defensemen making at least $3MM for the next three seasons. Winnipeg now sits just barely under the salary cap ceiling but still has a lot of work to do, with an arbitration case for Andrew Copp on the horizon. The team does have some wiggle room as Bryan Little will be placed on long-term injured reserve again, but it isn’t a lot considering they have just nine forwards signed to one-way deals at the moment.
Committing so much to the defense is not usually a bad plan, but it’s unclear exactly how the Jets expect to give their young options playing time now. Logan Stanley, Ville Heinola, Sami Niku, and Dylan Samberg are all ready to contribute, but the route to the roster is pretty much blocked through 2023-24. There will be one regular spot to fight over when the season begins (injuries notwithstanding), with Stanley obviously having the inside track after his performance this year.
For Pionk, this contract is basically perfect, giving him a huge raise through the next several years while still letting him test free agency at a young enough age to land another multi-year deal.
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Jakub Vrana, Detroit Red Wings Avoid Arbitration
It was getting close to the wire, but the Detroit Red Wings and Jakub Vrana won’t need their arbitration hearing tomorrow after all. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that the two sides have agreed upon a three-year contract, avoiding the rest of the arbitration process. The deal will carry an average annual value of $5.25MM and CapFriendly reports the deal breaks down as follows:
2021-22: $4.75MM
2022-23: $5.25MM
2023-24: $5.75MM
Vrana had filed for $5.7MM. while the Red Wings had countered with $3.65MM, but neither one of those would have represented a three-year contract. With this new deal, Vrana will actually be giving up one year of unrestricted free agency, something that can’t be awarded through arbitration.
For $5.25MM, he gets a healthy raise from the $3.35MM cap hit he carried over the last two seasons. He will tie Frans Nielsen as the team’s second-highest-paid forward, just below Dylan Larkin‘s $6.1MM. That represents his place in the lineup, as Vrana is arguably the team’s most exciting forward heading into this season after lighting it up following a midseason trade. Acquired from the Washington Capitals as part of a package for Anthony Mantha, Vrana scored eight goals and 11 points in 11 games down the stretch.
That kind of production hasn’t been common in Detroit recently, but it actually shouldn’t be all that surprising from the 25-year-old Czech. In the 2019-20 season, he had 25 goals and 52 points in 69 games for the Capitals. His playoff performance left something to be desired though, which likely factored into the decision to move him for a bigger Mantha. Still, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Vrana outproduce Mantha during the regular season at least, and he now comes in at a cheaper price tag. The big forward in Washington is on a four-year deal that carries a $5.7MM cap hit.
With the Red Wings in the early stages of a rebuild still, it will be interesting to see if Vrana even plays out this deal in Detroit. Though he’s not old by any means, he is quite a few years older than the rest of the talent that GM Steve Yzerman is collecting. There’s certainly no guarantee that the Red Wings will be competitive by the time Vrana’s entering the final year of this deal, meaning he could become a rental down the road. For now, he’ll be getting a huge opportunity in the team’s top-six to play big minutes and show what his offensive ceiling really is.
Now that Vrana has settled, Neal Pionk is next on the arbitration list. His hearing is scheduled for Friday.
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New York Rangers Agree To Terms With Igor Shesterkin
The New York Rangers have agreed to terms with starting goaltender Igor Shesterkin to a four-year contract. According to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, the deal will carry an average annual value of $5.65MM. Shesterkin had been eligible to file for arbitration but decided not to this offseason. CapFriendly reports that the deal breaks down as follows:
2021-22: $2MM, $1MM signing bonus
2022-23: $6MM
2023-24: $5MM, $2MM signing bonus, 10-team NTC
2024-25: $6.667MM base, 10-team NTC
As Seravalli notes, this is the largest second contract for a goaltender in league history. Shesterkin is signing away two UFA years with the deal given he is already 25, meaning it was never going to come cheap. The Rangers goaltender finished fifth in Calder Trophy voting this year after posting a .916 save percentage in 35 games, dropping his overall number to .921 in 47 career NHL appearances. That career number is an outstanding one for a young goaltender, and one that if it continues, will have him in the race for other awards in the future.
Success in the NHL shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, given Shesterkin’s history at the professional level. In his 117 KHL games before coming to North America, which included three full seasons, he posted an 88-19-15 record, 1.68 goals-against average and .935 save percentage. In his short stint with the Hartford Wolf Pack during the 2019-20 season, he posted a .934 in 25 appearances, going 17-4-3. It’s hard to see anything but stardom in the future for Shesterkin, and the Rangers are betting on it with this huge early contract.
Of course, a commitment like this will raise questions about the other young netminder in New York, as Alexandar Georgiev approaches the end of his own contract. The 25-year-old will be an RFA for the final time next summer, coming off his two-year deal signed in 2020. There have been flashes of brilliance from Georgiev too, and with the starting role now blocked for the Rangers, it will be interesting to see if he even entertains a long-term deal, tries to reach free agency as quickly as possible, or if GM Chris Drury trades him before the decision needs to be made.
The Rangers have exited their rebuild and are now intending on competing for the playoffs and the Stanley Cup. Shesterkin was obviously their best chance at that, and he’ll now be locked up through 2024-25. That doesn’t represent the biggest window, given he could potentially leave as a UFA after that, but at least gives the team a goaltender they can feel confident in at a workable (though not inexpensive) price.