Arizona Coyotes Stripped Of Two Draft Picks
The Arizona Coyotes have been hammered with a stiff penalty for violating the NHL’s Combine Testing Policy. The team will forfeit their 2020 second-round pick along with their 2021 first-round pick. The sanctions were handed out because the Coyotes violated the policy by conducting physical testing on 2020 draft-eligible players prior to the combine. The team will not face any financial penalties and the staff members involved will not receive individual discipline. Commissioner Gary Bettman released a decision, which included the following explanation:
As for the Club personnel who participated in, or may have contributed to, the Club’s violation of the Policy, I have decided that no discipline shall be imposed on these individuals. While I conclude that certain Club personnel acted in a grossly negligent manner at best, which was conceded by the Club, I ultimately conclude that the record does not establish—to a standard with which I am comfortable—that those individuals engaged in intentional wrongdoing, as opposed to grossly negligent behavior.
The Coyotes already didn’t have their 2020 first-round pick or 2021 third-round because of the Taylor Hall trade or their 2020 third-round pick because of the Carl Soderberg trade. Add those moves to this penalty and the Coyotes won’t be walking up to the podium very often over the next two seasons. For a team that is still trying to build its reputation and market after another recent ownership change, this is brutal news.
Arizona released the following statement in response to the punishment:
We were advised today of the NHL’s ruling regarding the allegations of physical fitness testing of draft prospects and respect the League’s ruling. Under new leadership, we have added thorough internal controls and compliance measures to prevent this type of occurrence from happening again in the future. We will have no further comment.
Mike Green Announces Retirement
Though there were rumblings about it a few weeks ago, today it became official. Mike Green has announced he will retire from a long professional playing career, telling Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic that he is set to hang up his skates and focus on other parts of his life. Green, who spent 15 years in the NHL, is focused still providing a positive impact on those around him:
A lot of people are hurting, and I want to help. I want to use my voice in a different way. I want to focus my energy differently, ground myself in the community, in family. But I also want to become a change agent for good.
A veteran of 880 regular season games, Green was once one of the finest offensive defensemen in the entire NHL. During the 2008-09 season, he tallied 31 goals in just 68 games, a threshold that not many defensemen have ever reached. In fact, only four defensemen have ever scored more goals in a single season—Paul Coffey, Bobby Orr, Doug Wilson, and Kevin Hatcher. Green was the first to complete the feat since Hatcher in 1993, and no one else has done it in the decade since.
But Green was more than just a goal-scorer for the Washington Capitals. He recorded back-to-back seasons of at least 73 points and routinely averaged more than 25 minutes of ice time a night. He finished second in Norris Trophy voting twice, losing to Zdeno Chara and Duncan Keith, while also receiving votes for the Hart. In the second part of his career, he transitioned to the Detroit Red Wings, where he was still an excellent puck-mover and actually improved the defensive side of his game. By the time he ended up in Edmonton at this year’s trade deadline, however, he wasn’t anywhere near the high-flying Green from the Capitals.
Green likely won’t go into the Hall of Fame, but he’s certainly in the mix for the Hall-of-Very-Good. The 34-year-old will retired with 501 points, putting him 69th on the all-time list among defensemen.
Toronto Maple Leafs Trade Kasperi Kapanen
The Toronto Maple Leafs are sending Kasperi Kapanen back to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the organization that drafted him. As Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reported a few weeks ago, the teams eliminated from postseason contention can already complete trades without waiting on the playoffs to finish. The Maple Leafs will send Kapanen, Jesper Lindgren and Pontus Aberg to Pittsburgh, while receiving the Penguins’ 2020 first-round pick (15th overall), Evan Rodrigues, Filip Hallander and David Warsofsky.
It wasn’t so long ago that Kapanen was a budding young first-round pick in the Penguins organization. Selected 22nd overall in 2014, he was actually Pittsburgh GM Jim Rutherford‘s first draft pick with the organization after coming over from the Carolina Hurricanes. Rutherford knew the name well, given Kapanen’s father Sami played for both Hartford and Carolina under the executive. The younger Finn was traded just a year later when the Penguins acquired Phil Kessel from the Maple Leafs, where he has blossomed into a strong middle-six winger.
Kapanen’s best attribute is his speed, which he uses routinely on the penalty kill to create shorthanded chances for himself and his teammates. Over the last two seasons, he’s totaled 33 goals and 80 points in 157 games but hasn’t quite been able to develop into the top-line player that some imagined when he was dominating the minor leagues.
For the Maple Leafs, this deal is all about balancing their roster. The team has so much salary tied up in their forward group, they needed to move some of it out in order to address the defense. In the meantime though, they’ll restock their prospect capital with a first-round pick (remember, the Maple Leafs didn’t have one this year because of the Patrick Marleau trade) and Hallander, who was one of the Penguins’ top prospects. The 20-year old center has played the last two seasons in the SHL, recording 35 points in 72 games.
While the Maple Leafs say goodbye to Kapanen’s $3.2MM cap hit, the Penguins will gladly welcome it into the mix for the next few seasons. The 24-year old is under contract through the 2021-22 campaign and will still only be a restricted free agent at the expiry of his current deal. His speed and goal-scoring ability will give the team a dimension they have had success with in the past with players like Carl Hagelin, but also gives them some more youth to build around.
As for the rest of the deal, Aberg and Warsofsky both spent the year in the minor leagues and are unlikely to have huge impacts on their new teams. The former is a restricted free agent and coming off a $700K cap hit, while the latter is signed for that amount through 2020-21. Rodrigues perhaps brings the most intrigue, but appears destined to go unqualified this fall. His current cap hit of $2M means the Maple Leafs would have to extend him the same amount in a qualifying offer to retain his rights, something that doesn’t seem justified after he recorded just 6 goals and 10 points in 45 games this season.
Detroit Red Wings Sign Robby Fabbri
The Detroit Red Wings have signed Robby Fabbri to a two-year contract extension, avoiding restricted free agency with the young forward. The announcement did not include financial details, but Craig Custance of The Athletic reports it will carry a $2.95MM average annual value. Fabbri is coming off a one-year $900K contract he signed with the St. Louis Blues before getting dealt to Detroit in November.
The 24-year old forward has had quite the rollercoaster career so far. Selected 21st overall in 2014, it only took the former Guelph Storm center a year before he was a full-time player in the NHL. Fabbri looked like a star early, scoring 18 goals and 37 points in his first season with the Blues, before leading the team in scoring during a long playoff run. Still just a teenager, he was on a path to becoming a household name and a core piece for St. Louis.
Unfortunately, in February 2017 everything changed. Fabbri tore his ACL and would miss the second half of his sophomore season, starting a brutal stretch that seemed at one point like it would end his career. He re-injured the knee that summer and ended up missing the entire 2017-18 season, meaning there was a 20-month stretch between games for the young forward. After returning to the Blues in 2018 he was a shadow of the player they once knew, and in another season dealing with injuries he managed to score just six points in 32 games.
By the time the 2019-20 season rolled around, the Blues had basically moved on with several other young players taking up full-time roles on the roster. After nine games he was sent to Detroit, where things have turned completely around.
In his first game with the Red Wings, Fabbri scored two powerplay goals after finally finding himself back in the top-six of an NHL lineup. He’d put up eight points in his first seven games with Detroit and finished with 31 in just 52 games following the trade. The fact that the Red Wings got him in exchange for Jacob de La Rose, who has just 37 points in 229 career NHL games, is an impressive feat for GM Steve Yzerman and the Detroit front office. After showing he is still capable of the production he showed early in his career, a nice two-year contract will afford Fabbri some stability financially while he continues to build himself back up.
Washington Capitals Relieve Todd Reirden Of Coaching Duties
The Washington Capitals announced they have fired head coach Todd Reirden after just two years as head coach of the team after another disappointing playoff finish.
“We have higher expectations for our team, and we felt a fresh approach in leadership was necessary,” said general manager Brian MacLellan. “We would like to thank Todd for all of his hard work and efforts with our organization. Todd has been a big part of our team for more than half a decade, including our Stanley Cup run in 2018, and we wish him and his family all the best moving forward.”
The move tells a tale of two coaches and is a basic admission that the Capitals made the wrong decision two years ago. The team won the 2018 Stanley Cup Championship under Barry Trotz, with Reirden as its main assistant. However, with Trotz’ contract up, Washington had to decide whether to pay up or let Trotz walk and bring in Reirden to replace him. The team, which has hired first-year coaches in five of its last six hires, decided to go that way with Reirden as well.
Reirden’s regular season record was quite good with a 89-46-16 record in 151 games. However, the team couldn’t win in the playoffs with the team falling in the first round in 2019 to the Carolina Hurricanes in seven games and then the team’s dismal performance this year against the Islanders, which included winning just one game of their round-robin matchup in the East, leaving the team facing a quality first-round matchup in New York.
So, it seemed almost fitting that Reirden’s last series was against Trotz, who was paid by the New York Islanders and the head coach has turned the inconsistent franchise around. The Islanders dominated their series with Washington and made it quite clear to the Capitals organization that they made a mistake two years ago.
The team now will have to find a new head coach and with their team aging and little time remaining for their star, Alex Ovechkin, who will be turning 35 in three weeks. The team will likely be forced to pay up and bring in a veteran coach and the team has quite a few options available to them, including Gerard Gallant, Peter Laviolette, Bruce Boudreau and Mike Babcock. If the team doesn’t want to pay that price, there are other former head coaches available as well, including Mike Yeo, John Stevens and Kirk Muller. With a win-now roster, the Capitals could be the prime job opening for those coaches.
As for Reirden, the coach is known to be an excellent special teams coach and likely will return to that role quickly as several teams will be looking to upgrade there. Reirden, who spent four years in Pittsburgh with Sidney Crosby, could be a candidate to return there considering their urgency to win next year as well. He had two years remaining on his contract with the Capitals.
Tuukka Rask Opts Out Of The Remainder Of The Postseason
The Bruins are now without their starting goaltender as the team announced (Twitter link) that Tuukka Rask has opted out of the rest of the playoffs. His statement is as follows:
I want to be with my teammates competing, but at this moment there are things more important than hockey in my life, and that is being with my family.
I want to thank the Bruins and my teammates for their support and wish them success.
The decision comes just days after Rask commented about the atmosphere in the bubble following Game Two against Carolina when he told reporters, including Joe Haggerty of NBC Sports Boston, that it doesn’t feel like playoff hockey and with there being no fans, he equated the situation to that of an exhibition atmosphere. On a Zoom call with the media, including Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston, before today’s game, GM Don Sweeney suggested that these comments weren’t a factor in his decision to leave. Instead, he indicated that Rask has a newborn child and two other young children at home and that being away from them proved to be too much of a mental strain on him though he also noted that Rask’s family is safe and healthy. Sweeney also stated that the organization is fully supportive of this decision.
Rask made both starts in the series against the Hurricanes as well as two appearances in the Round Robin and wasn’t at his sharpest, posting just a .904 SV% in those four contests. However, he was coming off one of the best regular seasons of his career, one that saw him with a .929 SV% and a 2.12 GAA in 41 games in the shortened campaign. Rask was also a key part of Boston’s run to the Stanley Cup Final last year as he won all 15 of their games while compiling a 2.02 GAA with a .934 SV%.
With Rask gone, Jaroslav Halak becomes Boston’s undisputed starter for the rest of their postseason run. He’s certainly a strong backup option to have and has been a big part of their regular season success over the past couple of seasons where he appeared in over 45% of their games. Accordingly, it wasn’t unreasonable to think that he’d be making an appearance or two in the playoffs even if Rask remained with the team.
Halak is no stranger to the playoffs as he has appeared in five different postseasons before this year. His best showing came back in 2010 when he helped lead Montreal to two significant upsets before they bowed out. It was his performance there that helped get him an opportunity as a starting goalie, a role he has held for several seasons over his career so he shouldn’t have too much of an issue adjusting to the higher workload. Including his round robin appearance which counts in playoff stats this season, Halak has a .922 SV% with a 2.45 GAA in 31 games.
Boston’s goaltending depth has certainly taken a hit as the other two goalies they have in the bubble with them have limited experience. Maxime Lagace made a name for himself in Vegas during their inaugural season by getting the starting role by default for a while due to injuries but since then, he has almost played exclusively in the minors. Meanwhile, the other goalie on their roster is Dan Vladar, a 22-year-old who posted a stellar 1.79 GAA and a .936 SV% in 25 games with AHL Providence this season but does not have any NHL experience under his belt.
This will be Halak’s net for the rest of the way and he’ll be thrown into the fire quickly with the third game of their series against the Hurricanes less than two hours away.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
New York Rangers Win The First-Overall Pick
Phase two of the NHL Draft Lottery took place this evening, and the New York Rangers were the big winners. The first-overall pick and the right to draft Alexis Lafreniere was on the line after the first part of the lottery ended up in a “TBA” team winning, which then went to one of the eliminated qualification round teams. Lafreniere, the consensus top prospect in this year’s field, will get a chance to join Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad on October 9th when the draft is held virtually and is expected to make an impact in the 2020-21 season.
The rest of the qualification losers will be dropped in based on regular season points percentage. That means the top-15 selections will look like this:
- New York Rangers
- Los Angeles Kings
- Ottawa Senators (via San Jose Sharks)
- Detroit Red Wings
- Ottawa Senators
- Anaheim Ducks
- New Jersey Devils
- Buffalo Sabres
- Minnesota Wild
- Winnipeg Jets
- Nashville Predators
- Florida Panthers
- Carolina Hurricanes (via Toronto Maple Leafs)
- Edmonton Oilers
- Pittsburgh Penguins
Lafreniere is quite the prize for the Rangers. The 18-year old forward is coming off his second consecutive CHL Player of the Year award after dominating for the Rimouski Oceanic of the QMJHL. In 173 regular season games across three years for the club, Lafreniere recorded 297 points to go along with Hlinka-Gretzky and World Junior gold medals. There is very little he can’t do offensively, and he’ll get to join what is turning into a loaded forward group in New York. Remember, the Rangers won the second-overall pick in last year’s lottery and ended up selecting Kaapo Kakko, another extremely talented winger (who admittedly didn’t have an excellent rookie season).
Another change from the lottery includes the Hurricanes picking up a top-15 pick of their own. The Maple Leafs had sent them that pick to get Carolina to buyout Patrick Marleau, but it was lottery protected and would have stayed with Toronto had they won tonight. The Hurricanes will actually give up their own pick to the Rangers as part of the Brady Skjei deal, but still have a chance of picking a top prospect.
Undoubtedly though, the Rangers front office will come out of tonight with huge smiles on their faces. Though they didn’t get the chance to advance in the playoffs, their time is coming as a contender in the Eastern Conference.
Florida Panthers Part Ways With GM Dale Tallon
Aug 10: The Panthers have officially parted ways with Tallon, announcing that a search for their next GM has begun. In a short statement, owner Vinnie Viola explained what Tallon has meant for the club and why they were now moving on:
For the last decade, Dale raised the team’s profile, attracted key players to South Florida and brought character and class to our franchise. When we purchased the Panthers in 2013, we did so with a singular goal–to win a Stanley Cup. We have not seen our efforts come to fruition. We will now begin an organizational search for the next general manager.
Aug 7: The Florida Panthers were very unlikely to have made the playoffs this season under the standard format and few gave them a chance of an upset over the stout defense of the New York Islanders in the qualifying round. Yet, the organization is still not taking their elimination earlier today lightly. Fox Sports’ Andy Strickland reports that the hammer is set to drop on long-time executive Dale Tallon. The team is expected to move on from their GM shortly.
Tallon, hired as GM in Florida in 2010, had previously served in the same role with the Chicago Blackhawks and had a hand in the team’s Stanley Cup win the season prior to his departure. Tallon served as GM for the Panthers until 2016, when he was elevated to President of Hockey Operations. He then resumed GM duties as well in 2018. Having been around for a decade, Tallon’s influence can be found in every corner of the roster, even in long-time homegrown stars Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, and Aaron Ekblad, who were all drafted by Tallon.
However, Tallon’s mistakes have also made a lasting impression on the roster. This past off-season in particular, Tallon gambled with the Panthers’ salary cap space, spending big on goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, forward Brett Connolly, and defenseman Anton Stralman. It is hard to argue that any of the three have lived up to expectations in yet another disappointing season for the franchise, which has not won a playoff series since 1996. Yet, they are all multi-year deals and will continue to impact the team for seasons still to come. With little cap space heading into this off-season, top scorers like Mike Hoffman and Evgenii Dadonov could prove difficult to re-sign and the club could take another step backward next season. Other lasting mistakes have included a botched Expansion Draft strategy that saw the team give away Reilly Smith in order to ensure Jonathan Marchessault was selected by the Vegas Golden Knights, only to see both become reliable top-six forwards, not getting enough for forward Vincent Trocheck from the Carolina Hurricanes at the trade deadline this year, and simply flip-flopping on their organizational strategy too frequently.
In finding Tallon’s replacement, the Panthers need to find someone with a long-term outlook on the position and a concrete plan on how they will rebuild the club. Having made just three playoff appearances in the past ten years, Florida fans will likely be happy to miss the postseason for another year or two if it means sustained success down the road. That could start with some lottery luck in the form of the No. 1 overall pick and Alexis Lafreniere. Maximizing their four picks in the first three rounds one way or another will also be imperative for the new GM in his first draft. Finding a way to shed some dead weight salary and to add much-needed depth at all positions will also be key.
Not all of Tallon’s tenure in Florida has been bad – including the aforementioned homegrown standouts and a pair of division titles – but at the end of the day the Panthers have had no postseason success and they have their work cut out for them to change that any time soon. Tallon’s replacement will have plenty of work to do to undo some of the GM’s mistakes and to reverse the curse on the Florida franchise.
32nd NHL Franchise Named Seattle Kraken
Say hello to the Seattle Kraken. The new expansion franchise and 32nd NHL team has officially announced its name after months of anticipation. The team will go with a blue and teal color scheme as they prepare to join the league for the 2021-22 season. They will play at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, where a full reconstruction of the old KeyArena is taking place.
After the success of the Vegas Golden Knights, it quickly became apparent that the league would be looking for another strong ownership group to bring the 32nd franchise into play. When high-profile financial backers like David Bonderman and Jerry Bruckheimer partnered with sports executive Tod Leiweke, that group was an obvious choice. Seattle as a market had been explored in the past and when the arena work was started it was obvious that an NHL team would follow.
The Kraken are expected to join the Pacific Division for the 2021-22 season, with the Arizona Coyotes switching to the Central at that time. There is an obvious geographical rivalry with the Vancouver Canucks that will likely be pushed by the league, but it’s hard to know just how well Seattle will navigate the expansion process.
The Golden Knights were one of the greatest expansion stories in sports history, making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals in their inaugural season. That’s thanks to the exceptional roster they built through savvy expansion draft maneuvers, something that may not be quite as easy for Seattle to accomplish.
Teams will have plenty of time to prepare their rosters for the draft—which will have the same rules, although Vegas will not take part—in order to not hand over the same kind of leverage to the Kraken. That said, with the flat salary cap there may be even more cash-strapped teams looking for help, something that Seattle GM Ron Francis could take advantage of.
According to Leiweke in today’s press conference, Seattle has already received over 10,000 season-ticket deposits and has more than 40,000 people on the waiting list.
Oskar Lindblom Signs Three-Year Extension
The Philadelphia Flyers aren’t going to quit on Oskar Lindblom. The Masterton Trophy finalist has inked a new three-year contract extension, keeping him in Philadelphia through the 2022-23 season. The deal will carry a $3MM average annual value. Lindblom released a heartfelt message to his fans:
I am very excited to be a part of the Flyers for the next three seasons. The support that the organization, the fans, and the entire NHL has given me has been quite overwhelming. I can’t wait to get back skating with the boys and being the professional hockey player I know I can be. I want to thank the Flyers for giving me this opportunity and I look forward to the day I’m back and contributing to the team’s success.
Lindblom, 23, was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in December, a rare form of bone cancer that ended his season prematurely. After inspiring endless support from the Philadelphia community and hockey world at large, he was later able to ring the bell at Abramson Cancer Center, indicating his treatment had completed.
While he will not play this summer for the Flyers, Lindblom’s extension means he can get right back to where he left off as an up-and-coming star in the league. The fifth-round pick had already scored 11 goals in the first 30 games this season after putting up 17 in his first full year, creating plenty of hype that he could be a big threat for the Flyers for years to come.
If he does grow into that top-six 30-goal scoring threat, the Flyers will be getting a lot more than just $3MM in value. The deal gives Lindblom some financial security, while also taking him dangerously close to unrestricted free agency. He’ll still be a restricted free agent at the end of the deal, but with arbitration rights that could get him to the open market at 27 should he decide to forego a long-term deal.
In terms of what it means for the Flyers next season, a $3MM cap hit won’t bankrupt them but does mean they have even less maneuverability going forward. The team now has more than $72.5MM committed to just 15 players and still need to sign names like Nolan Patrick and Robert Hagg, while also finding a capable backup goaltender for young Carter Hart. There is work to be done, but they’ll at least know Lindblom is going to be a part of it.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images