Zdeno Chara Signs With Washington Capitals
In perhaps the most shocking turn of events in an already bizarre offseason, Zdeno Chara will not be re-signing with the Boston Bruins. Chara confirmed his departure with a long, emotional message to Boston fans on his Instagram. Instead, the 43-year-old will be joining the fourth team of his decades-long career, signing a one-year contract with the Washington Capitals worth $795K. CapFriendly adds that the deal also includes an additional $730K in bonuses: $230K for ten games played, $250K if the Capitals make the playoffs, and $250K if the Capitals win the Stanley Cup.
Chara will once again be the oldest player in the NHL, continuing his climb up the all-time games played leaderboard. The gigantic defenseman currently sits 15th with 1,553 regular season matches, trailing only Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton among active players. That career, which started in 1997-98 with the New York Islanders, has also included nearly 200 playoff games and a Stanley Cup championship in 2011 with the Bruins.
Even though the writing seemed to be on the wall—including some recent comments from team president Cam Neely—Chara’s departure from Boston seems unthinkable at this point. Though he didn’t arrive in Boston until 2006, more than 500 games into his NHL career, he will be forever linked to the historic franchise as one of its greatest and most memorable players of all-time. Even now into his forties, Chara is still an exceptional penalty killer and can perform well in the defensive end, though his foot speed and offensive ability have greatly diminished.
In Washington, he would be able to provide leadership, physicality, and depth to a team that is looking to get back to the Stanley Cup Finals. The team is getting a lot closer to the end of their championship window and had already tried to bring a legend from a rival Eastern Conference team when they signed Henrik Lundqvist. Though Lundqvist won’t play for the Capitals this season, Washington will get to enjoy Chara on the ice every night.
Where he fits into the Capitals lineup is not clear, though the team’s defensive group was leaning to the right side as the season approached. John Carlson, Justin Schultz, Nick Jensen, and Trevor van Riemsdyk are all right-handed options, meaning Chara can perhaps give some balance to the left side alongside Brenden Dillon, Dmitry Orlov, and Jonas Siegenthaler.
Amazingly, in this unique season, Chara will actually be battling the Bruins on a regular basis. Washington and Boston are both part of the East Division and will play each other eight times in the 56-game season. Even if the veteran isn’t in the lineup every night for the Capitals, it seems likely he’ll be on the ice for each of those occasions.
Of course, not only is Chara a big leadership add for the Capitals, but he also comes at a very reasonable price. He’ll come in with a lower cap hit than both van Riemsdyk and Siegenthaler, meaning anything he brings to the table is a positive. His low price could even mean that Washington moves someone else out, though depth will be even more important this season.
For the Bruins meanwhile, they’ve now watched both Chara and Torey Krug leave in one offseason, dramatically changing the look of their defense. Sure, Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo, and Matt Grzelcyk are very strong players that perhaps can handle even more responsibility, but Chara and Krug were the obvious leaders on Boston’s blueline. They’ll also now have to decide on a new captain, with Patrice Bergeron the obvious choice.
Washington wasn’t the only team after the veteran, once the chance of him leaving Boston became a reality. Frank Seravalli of TSN reports that two-thirds of the league checked in on Chara, while Eric Engels of Sportsnet tweets that he was told the Montreal Canadiens had an interest. That doesn’t come as much of a surprise, especially from teams that have had to try and deal with the 6’9″ legend.
Ken Campbell of The Hockey News was first to report that Chara was headed to Washington.
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AHL Approves Structure For February Start
The AHL has made a huge announcement today, indicating that the league’s board of governors has approved the structural framework that would see the minor league season begin on February 5, 2021. Included in the statement:
Details are still being worked out, but this step allows our teams and their National Hockey League partners to better determine their plans for the coming season. We look forward to dropping the puck on Feb. 5.
The release did not include any specifics on how exactly the games will be played, rosters structured or revenue generated, but it is still obviously great news for hockey fans across North America.
If the AHL succeeds in their plan to kick things off in February, it would likely mean that minor league training camps could start as the NHL season is getting underway in mid-January. The question now becomes how many teams will be able to justify a full AHL season, especially those franchises located in Canada. There had been worry before about whether it was possible to have an “All-Canadian” division like the NHL given there are only four teams based north of the border—the Toronto Marlies, Belleville Senators, Manitoba Moose, and Laval Rocket—though NHL insider John Shannon believes that is exactly what will happen. The other three Canadian NHL franchises, Calgary, Vancouver, and Edmonton, all have AHL affiliates based in the U.S. That poses some challenges for calling players up and down, but perhaps it can be worked out with the taxi squad the NHL has instituted.
At any rate, getting the AHL playing again is a huge step for prospect development all across the league. With so much uncertainty surrounding the CHL seasons, the AHL has become a potential landing spot for many top young prospects that don’t have anywhere else to play. It also means a lot more job openings for veteran players looking for a place to play in North America, though it will certainly be a race given how many spots will already be accounted for with NHL prospects.
There is lots of work left to do and lots of details still to come, but this appears to be a step in the right direction for getting the AHL up and running this season.
Henrik Lundqvist Will Not Play This Season
Dec 28: Lundqvist announced on Twitter that he will undergo open-heart surgery to try and fix his health issues. The procedure will include an aortic valve, aortic root, and ascending aortic replacement.
Dec 17: The Washington Capitals’ big offseason acquisition won’t actually get to play for them this season. Henrik Lundqvist announced in an emotional tweet that he will not be able to suit up for the Capitals due to a heart condition. The full letter to fans:
It breaks my heart (literally) to share this news: I will not be joining the Capitals this upcoming season. After many weeks of tests and conversations with specialists around the country, it’s been determined that a heart condition will prevent me from taking the ice. Together, we have decided that the risk of playing before remedying my condition is too high, so I will spend the coming months figuring out the best course of action.
For the past two months I’ve been so inspired by the opportunity to play in DC and committed to my game, spending every day at the rink to prepare for the upcoming season. The news was very difficult to process but after the last test result earlier this week we knew there was only one way to go from here.
I want to thank the entire Capitals organization for not only giving me this opportunity but also for their support throughout this challenging time. I will take the next few weeks to be with my family and I’ll be back to share the next steps.
This is such disappointing news for one of the great players of the last generation. Lundqvist, who will turn 39 in March, sits sixth on the all-time wins list with 459, every one of them recorded with the New York Rangers. That era came to an end when the veteran goaltender signed a one-year, $1.5MM contract with the Capitals in October to replace Braden Holtby as the new backup for phenom Ilya Samsonov.
Often considered among the greatest players to never win the Stanley Cup, Lundqvist finished at least sixth in Vezina Trophy voting in each of his first ten seasons, winning the award in 2012 when he posted a .930 save percentage in 62 games. While he hasn’t actually won the thing, Lundqvist’s playoff performances have been among legend, with a .921 through 130 postseason appearances. In Sweden, perhaps he is even better known for his international exploits, which include Olympic and World Championship gold and silver medals.
For those wondering how this affects the Capitals salary cap situation, the team’s best course of action would likely be to place Lundqvist on unconditional waivers and terminate the deal. Though 35-plus contracts usually count regardless of what happens, that is only in the case of multi-year agreements, which Lundqvist was obviously not. If his contract is terminated, it will come off the books completely.
Regardless, the focus now should be on Lundqvist’s health and future. Here’s hoping we haven’t seen the last of the King on an NHL ice surface.
Blues Sign Mike Hoffman To PTO Agreement
Dec 28: According to Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic, Hoffman is believed to have a one-year contract in place worth between $3.5MM and $4.5MM. The two sides are waiting to make it official to help maximize their salary cap flexibility.
Dec 27: Mike Hoffman is certainly taking a different route to securing a contract for the upcoming season. The Blues announced that they have signed the winger to a PTO agreement with an invitation to training camp. Back when free agency opened up, this certainly wasn’t the expected outcome for the player ranked fourth on our Top 50 UFA list.
The 31-year-old is coming off of another productive season that saw him put up 29 goals and 30 assists in 69 games with the Panthers. It was the fifth time in the last six seasons that he had at least 27 goals and he’s tied for 16th in goals scored by any player over the past six seasons. Hoffman is particularly adept when it comes to power play production and has scored 28 times with the man advantage over the past two years, tied for the fifth-most in the league.
So how has it come to this? The UFA market wasn’t kind to wingers seeking long-term, big-money agreements; Taylor Hall had to settle for a one-year, $8MM deal with Buffalo while Tyler Toffoli opted for a multi-year agreement but had to take a pay cut to do so with Montreal. Hoffman indicated a willingness to do like Hall and sign for one year but the higher-priced offers never really materialized.
Having said that, this isn’t a typical PTO agreement. The Blues will have some salary cap flexibility with Alex Steen (out for the year) and Vladimir Tarasenko (out for several more months) heading for LTIR but for St. Louis to best utilize the cap space that those placements will provide, they will want to wait to move them there until the start of the season. Hoffman will presumably sign a one-year agreement once the season starts for a much higher price tag than a deal that’s close to the league minimum as players who earn deals off of PTOs typically get.
St. Louis still has to re-sign RFA defenseman Vince Dunn but the approach for him could very well be the same, to wait for the LTIR placements to be made official and then sign the contract into that space.
It has been an interesting free agent market for Hoffman but it appears he will eventually get his one-year deal with St. Louis being the team to give it to him. He’ll just have to wait a few more weeks for it to happen.
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Senators Acquire Braydon Coburn And Cedric Paquette
It was only a matter of time before the Lightning made a move to get cap compliant for the upcoming season. That move has now been made as they shipped defenseman Braydon Coburn, center Cedric Paquette, and a 2022 second-round pick to Ottawa in exchange for Marian Gaborik and Anders Nilsson. Both teams have announced the move.
Recent contracts to Mikhail Sergachev, Erik Cernak, and Anthony Cirelli pushed Tampa Bay well above the $81.5MM cap ceiling, even with winger Nikita Kucherov being ruled out for the entire regular season due to a hip injury. While Gaborik and Nilsson carry combined cap hits of $7.475MM, both have been ruled out for the season and can be added to their LTIR pool which now stands at $16.975MM with Kucherov’s deal included. By clearing out Coburn ($1.7MM) and Paquette ($1.65MM), the Lightning sit $15.816MM over the salary cap. With that amount being lower than their LTIR pool, they’re now back in cap compliance.
Meanwhile, the Senators pick up a pair of veterans for two players they weren’t going to be able to use this season anyway while recouping a second-rounder to replace the one they parted with yesterday to acquire Derek Stepan from Arizona.
Coburn becomes the elder statesman of Ottawa’s back end. The 35-year-old played in 40 games for Tampa Bay last season, picking up a goal and three assists while averaging 14:03 per game. He had a limited role in their Stanley Cup run, suiting up just three times. The pending unrestricted free agent will likely have a depth role in Ottawa though he will serve as injury insurance.
As for Paquette, the 27-year-old has been an effective fourth-line energy player for the Lightning the last several years. In 2019-20, he had one of his better offensive seasons, notching seven goals and 11 assists in 61 games; his assist total was a new career-high. He will bring some more physicality to Ottawa’s lineup, an element they have brought in quite a bit of this offseason in winger Austin Watson plus blueliners Erik Gudbranson and Josh Brown. Paquette is also slated to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
Tampa Bay’s clear preference this offseason was to try to clear Tyler Johnson‘s $5MM price tag as evidenced by the fact they put him on waivers back in October after they couldn’t find a taker for him in a trade. While that one fell through, this is a pretty good Plan B for Julien BriseBois who was able to get the team back to compliance without having to trade a core player away due to Kucherov’s injury. There will still be work to be done as with $85MM in commitments for 2021-22 already, they’re already over the expected cap for 2021-22 which should be at or very close to the current $81.5MM Upper Limit. But that’s a problem for another day; for now, they’re good to go.
Ottawa Senators Acquire Derek Stepan
The Arizona Coyotes have shipped out one of their veteran leaders, sending Derek Stepan to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for a 2021 second-round pick (originally belonging to the Columbus Blue Jackets). Ottawa will take on the entire $6.5MM cap hit for the final season of Stepan’s contract, though notably, the forward is owed just $2MM in actual salary this season.
Stepan, 30, was one of the big moves that former Coyotes GM John Chayka pulled off in the 2017 offseason, coming to Arizona from the New York Rangers along with Antti Raanta in exchange for Tony DeAngelo and the seventh-overall pick (which turned out to be Lias Andersson). In an attempt to get more competitive that summer the Coyotes added the two Rangers, Nick Cousins, Niklas Hjalmarsson, and Jason Demers. Though it won’t be remembered as a supremely successful summer, it’s not like Stepan didn’t do exactly what he was brought in for. In his first year in Arizona, Stepan scored 56 points, trailing only Clayton Keller for the team lead. His consistent presence in the middle of the ice is valuable and it’s exactly what the Senators were after.
Stepan is just the latest move by Ottawa GM Pierre Dorion to try and surround his young core with more veteran names. Evgenii Dadonov, Alex Galchenyuk, Erik Gudbranson, and Matt Murray all have plenty of NHL experience and could make the Senators a sneaky competitive team in the All-Canadian division. That said, it’s not clear exactly where Stepan fits into a lineup that already had several options down the middle.
For both clubs, this is a nice move, as the Coyotes desperately needed some cap room and the Senators are just hoping to start turning a few losses into wins. Arizona now figures to have a little more than $3MM in space even before moving Marian Hossa to long-term injured reserve and could potentially have more moves coming. In Ottawa, after several years of turmoil, a respected leader like Stepan can provide some stability not only on the ice but in the locker room as well.
Nikita Kucherov To Undergo Hip Surgery
The Tampa Bay Lightning may have solved their cap problem, but it’s at the expense of one of the best players in the world. GM Julien Brisbois told reporters including Joe Smith of The Athletic that Nikita Kucherov will need hip surgery and will not play in this regular season. Kucherov can now be moved to long-term injured reserve to give the team more cap flexibility and return in the playoffs (if healthy) when there is no salary cap.
Still, this is certainly not an ideal situation for the Lightning as they look to defend their Stanley Cup championship. Kucherov is without a doubt a difference-maker on the ice and easily could have been awarded the Conn Smythe after leading the playoffs in scoring with 34 points in 25 games. The 2019 Hart, Lindsey, and Art Ross winner, the Russian winger had a career-high 128 points two seasons ago before returning with 85 in 68 during a pandemic-shortened 2019-20.
Moving his $9.5MM cap hit to LTIR though can open some interesting scenarios for the Lightning. Steven Stamkos, the team’s other injured superstar, is expected to be ready for opening day, meaning the team may actually have a few more moves to come. Even with the added flexibility of putting Kucherov on reserve, the team still only has about $3.5MM in space to sign breakout checking center Anthony Cirelli, who remains a restricted free agent. Though Cirelli doesn’t have a ton of leverage right now if he wants to play this season, it still seems unlikely that he signs for less than that unless it is an extremely short-term deal.
More likely, the team is still going to have to pursue other opportunities to shed one of their high-priced forwards. Tyler Johnson was the obvious option earlier this summer when he agreed to give the team a short list of trade destinations, but nothing was worked out and even when the Lightning placed him on waivers, he went unclaimed. Johnson, Ondrej Palat, and Yanni Gourde all count for at least $5MM against the cap this season and all have full no-trade clauses. Alex Killorn, who is the next highest-paid forward behind those three at $4.45MM has a 16-team no-trade clause.
Of course, there may be some other more creative ways around the cap given this year’s taxi squad rules. In any case, the team will have to secure a playoff spot without their most dangerous offensive weapon—not a great situation in an anything-can-happen shortened season.
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Nashville Predators Sign Mikael Granlund
Dec 23: The Predators have officially announced the one-year contract, confirming the $3.75MM salary.
Dec 22: It turns out that Mikael Granlund’s time with Nashville may not be coming to an end after all. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that the forward will return to the Predators on a one-year contract worth around $3.75MM. He was rated ninth on our Top 50 UFA list back in October.
Last season was a tale of two campaigns for the 28-year-old. After tallying just six goals in 36 games under former head coach Peter Laviolette, he performed much better under new bench boss John Hynes, picking up 11 tallies in 27 games to lead the team in that span while seeing his ice time jump to over 19 minutes per night. Nevertheless, putting up just 30 points in 63 games last season didn’t send him into free agency on a high note considering his point per game average was the lowest of any of his seven full NHL campaigns.
While he’s certainly coming off of a down season, Granlund is only two years removed from back-to-back 20-plus goal/65-plus point seasons and at his age, it’s quite possible that he could get back to those numbers in the right environment. Given his success and role under Hynes, there’s some cause for optimism that his output should improve in 2021.
Even if it doesn’t, this is a low-risk proposition for the Preds. They’ll get another opportunity with a player they paid a fairly high price for (Kevin Fiala) and will do so at a considerably cheaper rate than his previous deal which carried a $5.75MM AAV. While Nashville’s depth players have changed considerably, the core of the team remains intact from last season so Granlund should have an opportunity to reprise his top-six role and will hope for a better year that will bolster his opportunities on the open market next summer.
GM David Poile still has some work to do this offseason with RFA Luke Kunin (who was acquired back at the draft) still in need of a new deal. Even if Granlund signs at this price tag, they’ll have a little more than $9MM in cap room at their disposal so there is still a chance that Nashville adds to their roster in the days leading up to the start of training camp next month.
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Alex Steen Announces Retirement
The St. Louis Blues will not have Alex Steen on the ice for them this season, announcing today that the veteran forward has been forced to retire due to a back injury. The release indicates that he has “multiple levels of degenerative herniated discs of his lumbar spine.” Though he is retiring, Steen’s contract won’t actually be coming off the books entirely.
Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic confirms that he will be treated as an injured player for this, the last season of his contract, meaning he will earn his full $3.5MM salary and the Blues will still have to deal with his $5.75MM cap hit. That cap hit can be moved to long-term injured reserve for cap relief, though it is still a more complicated process than the complete relief that actual retirement would bring.
Steen, 36, started his NHL journey back in 2002 when he was selected 24th overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs, though he wouldn’t actually make it to North America until 2005. When he did, he was already a polished professional from his years in the Swedish Elite League and stepped into the Maple Leafs lineup immediately. With 18 goals and 45 points in his rookie season, there were high hopes that he could be a superstar in Toronto. After a few more solid, if unspectacular seasons, the Maple Leafs made one of their patented (at the time) moves to secure a more veteran talent, trading Steen and fellow first-round pick Carlo Colaiacovo to the Blues for Lee Stempniak.
His Maple Leaf career in the rearview, Steen started the real meat of his hockey journey with St. Louis, a team that he would play 12 seasons and more than 850 games for. Seven different times he earned votes for the Selke Trophy as one of the league’s best defensive forwards, while also reaching new career highs in goals (33) and points (64). His career finishes with 622 points in 1,018 games, and at long last, he got to lift the Stanley Cup in 2019.
Steen isn’t a hall of fame candidate, but he will go down as half of one of the best father-son duos to play in the NHL. His father, Thomas Steen, played 950 games with the Winnipeg Jets and tallied 817 points of his own while also earning Selke votes for that focus on defense. When Alex Steen scored his 600th point during the 2018-19 season, they became just the fourth father-son duo to each record at least that number, behind Gordie Howe/Mark Howe, Bobby Hull/Brett Hull, and Peter Stastny/Paul Stastny. Quite the great company to be in.
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Mikhail Sergachev Re-Signs With Tampa Bay Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning have locked up one of their incredible young talents for another few years, signing Mikhail Sergachev to a three-year contract. The deal will carry an average annual value of $4.8MM. Sergachev was a restricted free agent without arbitration rights. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports the full breakdown:
- 2020-21: $2.4MM
- 2021-22: $4.8MM
- 2022-23: $7.2MM
Technically, this move takes the Lightning about $2MM over the $81.5MM salary cap ceiling for the upcoming season, with Anthony Cirelli and Erik Cernak still to sign. Still, getting Sergachev under contract for a reasonable amount was imperative, especially with the threat of an offer sheet still theoretically out there.
Make no mistake, even at $4.8MM, Sergachev still represents some excess value for the Lightning. The 22-year-old defenseman, who the Lightning acquired in exchange for Jonathan Drouin in 2017, would likely be a top-pairing player already on many of the teams around the league. That hasn’t been required in Tampa Bay where Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh continue to soak up huge minutes on the blue line, but Sergachev has still seen substantial increases in playing time each season. This year, his third with the Lightning, he recorded a career-high 10 goals in 70 games, racking up 34 points and logging more than 20 minutes a night. That performance carried over to the postseason where he was even more effective, averaging more ice time than any Tampa player not named Hedman or McDonagh en route to a Stanley Cup victory.
Not only could Sergachev probably shoulder a heavier offensive load, but his defensive game has also improved enough to believe he could be an all-situations star. He became a legitimate option on the penalty kill this season, producing excellent results whenever trusted to be out there short-handed, while still playing a strong second fiddle to Hedman on the team’s powerplay units. Financially, he’ll now slot in behind Hedman ($7.875MM cap hit) and McDonagh ($6.75MM) in a tricky cap puzzle for GM Julien BriseBois.
That puzzle has a few extra pieces right now, making it even more challenging to finish. The team will have to at some point move out one or more of their expensive contracts like Tyler Johnson, who was shopped and placed on waivers earlier this summer. There is of course the chance that a player could be injured and placed on long-term injured reserve to help them become compliant, but with Cirelli and Cernak to come the team simply can’t afford everyone.
Sergachev will still be a restricted free agent when this contract expires, though he’ll be just one year away from UFA status and arbitration-eligible. If his career continues down its current path, he’ll have an incredible amount of leverage in his next negotiation. One would have thought the offer sheet scenario would have been extremely enticing to a player like him, who could have certainly made more elsewhere, but Joe Smith of The Athletic reports that Sergachev actually agreed to a three-year structure with the Lightning shortly after the season ended and wanted to “give it another go” with the Cup champions in Tampa.
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