Panthers Activate Barkov And Huberdeau
After a trying first half, the Panthers are finally getting some claws.
Florida has activated Sasha Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau from Injured Reserve. Both men are expected to return to the lineup for tonight’s game versus Anaheim, according to TSN.
Barkov has been out of the lineup since the end of December with a back injury. In 36 games played, he has nine goals and 18 assists for 27 points. His return will be a big boost for the Panthers. While he was out of action, Vincent Trocheck filled in admirably as the top-line center, leading the Panthers in scoring, but below him either left winger Jussi Jokinen filled in or injury-plagued Nick Bjugstad moved up. Jokinen has 13 points in 41 games while Bjugstad has just one goal and three points in 23 games this season. Barkov is in the first year of a six-year, $35.4MM contract.
Menawhile, Friday’s game versus Anaheim will be the season debut for Huberdeau. He suffered an achilles injury in a pre-season game (Twitter link via @myregularface). Huberdeau was part of a very successful first line last season, alongside Barkov and the legendary Jaromir Jagr. Huberdeau set career highs with 20 goals and 59 points as the Panthers finished first in the Atlantic Division. In his absence, Jon Marchessault and Jokinen filled in.
Despite missing two-thirds of their top line for much of the year and the turmoil surrounding their front office, Florida sits just four points back of Philadelphia for the final wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference. The 22-19-10 Panthers have a game in hand on the Flyers, and will need Barkov and Huberdeau to make hay as they try to get back in the playoff race.
Blues Fire Head Coach Ken Hitchcock
The St. Louis Blues’ season has not gone off without a hitch, and now it will continue without Hitch.
Head coach Ken Hitchcock has been relieved of his duties, and will be replaced by assistant coach Mike Yeo. In addition, Lou Korac of NHL.com believes that goaltending coach Jim Corsi has also been let go. Hitchcock was in his seventh season as coach of the Blues. The team made the playoffs in each year of his tenure, but only made it to the Western Finals once, in 2015-16. Nick Cotsonika, also of NHL.com, writes that the Blues have the third-highest point-percentage (0.644) since Hitchcock took over in 2011-12.
Yeo was hired last summer as an assistant coach with the expectation that he would be named head coach following the 2016-17 season, when Hitchcock’s contract was up. Yeo’s work will now begin a few months earlier than expected. Yeo was hired after five seasons coaching the Minnesota Wild. The Wild made the playoffs three times under Yeo, but were never able to get past the Chicago Blackhawks. Funnily enough, Yeo was fired last year as the Wild tried to spark their team; they rallied and made the playoffs. Now Yeo is being promoted to spark a team to rally and make the playoffs.
It’s been a tough season for the Blues; in the summer, they lost captain and leader David Backes, Troy Brouwer, and goaltender Brian Elliott for a total of a second round pick. Elliott was part of a successful tandem with Jake Allen, but without Elliott as his platoon partner, Allen has fallen off a cliff. His save percentage has dropped from a 0.920 last season to a 0.897 this season. The most important task for Yeo is getting Allen back on track; the struggling netminder is set to begin a four-year extension worth $4.35MM per season. No coach, no matter how good, can out-coach an 0.897 SV%. However, it’s not as though the Blues would be saved had they not traded Elliott, as he has just nine wins in 24 appearances and a 0.892 SV% in his first season in Calgary.
The Blues are currently in the second wildcard spot in the Western Conference. However, there’s no margin for error, as the six teams competing for the two wildcard spots are within two points of each other. The Blues lost to one of those teams, the Winnipeg Jets, on Tuesday night.
Yeo will go for his first win as head coach of the Blues on Thursday night when the Toronto Maple Leafs visit St. Louis.
Rangers Extend Alain Vigneault
The New York Rangers announced (Twitter link) that they have agreed on a two year contract extension with head coach Alain Vigneault. Vigneault was in the fourth season of a five year deal signed back in 2013 and this extension will keep him with the team through the 2019-20 season. The contract also carries a considerable raise from the $2MM he’s currently receiving. ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun notes (Twitter link) that the final year of his existing contract has been ripped up and that he will now receive $4MM for 2017-18. He’ll also earn that amount in 2018-19 and $4.25MM in 2019-20. That will make him the third highest paid coach in the league behind Toronto’s Mike Babcock and Chicago’s Joel Quenneville.
The 55 year old is in his fourth season with the Rangers, who presently sit fourth in the Metropolitan Division with a 31-17-1 record through 49 games. That mark currently gives them the first Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Through 295 games behind the New York Bench, Vigneault has a 175-97-23 record with a Presidents’ Trophy in 2014-15 and a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2014. In that span, the Rangers have the fifth most points in the NHL and the third most in the East behind only the Capitals and Penguins. His 175 victories are the fourth most in franchise history; he’ll likely hit third place later this season as he’s just six wins behind Frank Boucher.
The Rangers are the third team Vigneault has coached in his NHL career having had spans with Montreal from 1997-2001 and Vancouver from 2006-2013. The Canucks finished first in points during the regular season twice during his tenure there while also making a Stanley Cup Final appearance back in 2011. His 597 career victories rank 15th in NHL history.
Larry Brooks of the New York Post was first to report the deal.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Thomas Greiss Signs Three Year Extension
Update 6:38pm: Newsday Sports’ Arther Staple reports that the deal is a three-year contract worth $10MM.
The New York Islanders signed goaltender Thomas Greiss to a three-year contract extension today. Islanders beat writer Arthur Staple of Newsday Sports first reported the deal on Twitter. The Islanders have not released any contractual details besides term as of yet.
Greiss was on the final year of his two-year, $1.5MM a year contract. Mired in a goaltender controversy caused by the Islanders holding three goaltenders at the NHL level, Greiss is currently posting a career best .928 SV% and a 2.28 GAA in 25 games. With Jaroslav Halak in the AHL, Greiss looks to be the Islanders’ starting goaltender going forward. Greiss’s numbers dwarf both Halak’s and prospect-goalie Jean-Francois Berube’s.
The extension, however, does not solve the Islanders goaltending conundrum. Halak has another year left on his contract worth $4.5MM a year, and Berube is an RFA after this season. The organization will have to figure out what to do with Halak before the club maintains goaltending stability.
The signing comes as a welcome reprieve to the organization after word leaked today that the Barclays Center—where the Islanders play—may not house the hockey team after 2018-19. Either party may terminate the lease, and it seems that the Barclays Center wants to proceed without the New York Islanders as tenants going forward.
NHL Stars Support Going To Olympics In 2018
Alexander Ovechkin, Connor McDavid, Jonathan Toews, and Sidney Crosby all agree. The NHL should go to the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018.
Now it’s just up to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and IOC President Rene Fasel to hammer out a deal.
Toews told TSN’s Frank Seravalli “quite frankly, to turn on the Olympics next year and watch the hockey teams and the players representing their country — if it’s not the best in the world, I don’t know, I feel like we’re misrepresenting our sport on a pretty huge scale, on a pretty huge level.”
Toews is part of select group, including Crosby, Shea Weber, and coach Mike Babcock, who could win their third-straight Olympic gold medal in Pyeongchang. Toews believes the Olympics are on a “whole other level” than the World Cup and World Championships.
Pyeongchang would be the first chance for McDavid to represent Canada at the professional level. He told Seravalli that, after playing for Team North America at the World Cup, having a chance to represent his country “would be everything.”
“Just to get a chance to chase down a spot on the team and have that opportunity, it would be very special. But we’re very fortunate in Canada to have a long list of great Canadian players. It’d be a tough team to make.”
While the players appear to be a united front, as evidenced by the chatter at the All-Star Game, the NHL’s board of governors and owners are not in agreement. Many owners are not interested in taking a two-week break in the schedule with the potential for their superstars to come back hurt, like John Tavares did in 2014. Despite this, some owners are clearly supportive, like Ted Leonsis. The Capitals’ owner has be vocal about the players going, even saying he would allow Ovechkin to go regardless of official NHL participation.
Negotiations have not gone smoothly so far. The IOC initially said it wouldn’t cover insurance and travel costs for NHL players, but then found funds to do so. That didn’t go over well with Bettman, who said the IOC “opened a can of worms” with the NHL board of governors by appearing to not value the NHL’s participation, according to Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston.
Earlier this season, the NHL offered the Olympics to the PA as part of a deal that would see the current CBA extended by three years, but that was shot down without much consideration. The subject reportedly came up again at the board of governors’ meeting over the weekend, but talk lasted “just ten seconds.”
The NHL, it seems, would prefer to skip 2018 but return for 2022 in China. The league is already looking at hosting games in China as it looks to expand its presence in Asia.
Time is becoming an issue, as the Games are already just a year away. However, this wasn’t a problem in Turino or Sochi, writes CBC’s Tim Wharnsby, as the NHL didn’t officially agree to go until the summer before.
Despite the negativity surrounding negotiations, Crosby remains optimistic, telling ESPN’s Craig Custance that “you have to trust at the end of the day, everyone is going to work hard to make sure it can happen.”
It’s hard to imagine the NHL not going, especially with its biggest stars being so passionate about attending. Either way, the decision is approaching.
Montreal Canadiens Acquire Nikita Nesterov From Tampa Bay Lightning
The Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning have completed a trade Thursday evening, which will see defenseman Nikita Nesterov head to Montreal in return for Jonathan Racine and a 6th round pick.
The 23-year old Nesterov signed a one-year deal with the Lightning this summer as a restricted free agent after playing in 57 games with the team last season. In 35 games this year he’s put up 12 points in 35 games playing on the team’s bottom pairing. After playing for Russia at the World Cup, he hasn’t quite been able to show that he’s deserved of big minutes at this point in his career.
Montreal has been looking for someone to add some depth to the back end of their defense corps for a while, which Nesterov will now do admirably. Racine had been one of the players they hoped could make the leap this year after acquiring him for Tim Bozon from the Florida Panthers this summer. He hasn’t made much of an impact at the AHL level and is slowly falling away from prospect status. The former third-round pick will turn 24 in May and has played in just one NHL game, back in 2013-14.
For Tampa, they had a tough summer ahead of them with no less than 20 RFAs to sign (though the minor league veterans aren’t really a problem). Nesterov likely would have needed a slight upgrade from the $725,000 he is earning this season, money which the Lightning simply won’t have.
As we wrote the other day, the team has some issues in front of them going into the expansion draft, so consider this the first move of a possible series before next month’s trade deadline. With some forwards at risk of selection, the team might still be open to moving a player off their top few lines.
Semyon Varlamov Set To Undergo Season-Ending Surgery
A tough season is only getting worse for the Colorado Avalanche. Earlier today a report surfaced indicating that star center Matt Duchene would be open to a trade from Colorado. On the heels of that news, The Denver Post’s Terry Frei is reporting that Semyon Varlamov will undergo season-ending surgery to solve the groin issues that have plagued the team’s #1 goalie this season.
Varlamov has struggled to stay on the ice this season due to the groin issues and the team’s medical staff finally decided the best course of action would be surgery. The hope, according to Avalanche GM Joe Sakic, is to have Varlamov fully healthy and ready to go for training camp next summer.
“After further evaluation from our team doctors, it was determined that the best road to recovery was surgery. Doing this procedure at this time ensures that Semyon will be fully healthy for the start of training camp.”
The 28-year-old netminder was in the midst of the worst statistical season of his career, winning just six of his 23 starts while posting a GAA of 3.38 and a S% of 0.898. Varlamov has battled inconsistency throughout his nine-year NHL career but when he is on he has shown he can be one of the better goalies in the league. As recently as the 2013-14 campaign, the Russian backstop finished second in Vezina trophy voting after winning 41 games while registering a GAA of 2.41 and a S% of 0.927. He has two seasons remaining on a contract that calls for a $5.9MM cap charge.
In the interim, Frei suggests the team will stick with Pickard and current backup, Spencer Martin, for the balance of the current season. It wouldn’t make sense for the team to sacrifice assets for a stopgap alternative in the midst of a lost season. However, if a long-term option were to be made available, it wouldn’t be entirely surprising to see the Avalanche entertain a move in that direction; especially if they harbor doubts about both Varlamov and Pickard as reliable starting goalies moving forward.
The Avalanche will have an interesting decision to make ahead of the June expansion draft. They will have to expose one goalie under contract for the 2017-18 season and it’s likely that netminder will be Varlamov. However, Calvin Pickard, who has taken over between the pipes in Varlamov’s absence, hasn’t exactly grabbed the starting job with his play this season. He has posted a S% of 0.906 with a GAA of more than three in 23 appearances in 2016-17. At this point it seems unlikely that the Vegas Golden Knights would gamble on Varlamov and his cap hit but it’s too early to dismiss the possibility altogether.
Devils Claim Stefan Noesen On Waivers
The New Jersey Devils continue to be active on the waiver wire this season.
The Devils claimed Ducks prospect Stefan Noesen off waivers this morning, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Noesen was placed on waivers for the second time this season yesterday. He has just two points in 12 games (both goals) for the Ducks this season; he’s also played 22 games for the San Diego Gulls of the AHL, where he has 15 points. Overall he has 63 points in 116 games at the AHL level. Noesen has been shuffled back and forth between the NHL and AHL to preserve salary space, but finally cracked 10 NHL games, meaning he needed to clear waivers again.
Noesen was a highly-touted prospect as a junior player. He had 100 goals and 220 points in 215 games with the now-defunct Plymouth Whalers of the OHL. He was a first round pick of the Ottawa Senators back in 2011 but was traded before ever playing a game in the Senators organization. Noesen was traded alongside Jakob Silfverberg and a first round pick to the Ducks for Bobby Ryan back in July 2013.
Senators Acquire Tommy Wingels From Sharks
The Ottawa Senators announced that they have acquired center/right winger Tommy Wingels from San Jose in exchange for minor league wingers Zack Stortini, Buddy Robinson, and a 2017 7th round pick.
Wingels has struggled so far this season with the Sharks, spending most of the season mired on the fourth line or as a healthy scratch. In 37 games this year, he has five goals and three assists while recording 61 hits (he has had at least 200 in each of the last three seasons). He is averaging just 10:03 of ice time per game, his lowest in any full NHL season.
The 28 year old had spent his entire career with San Jose after being selected by the Sharks in the sixth round (177th overall) in 2008. In 337 games, he has 122 points (51-71-122), 197 penalty minutes, and 968 hits. Wingels is in the final year of his contract and is slated to become an unrestricted free agent in July. The Sharks will retain 30% of his $2.475MM cap hit and $2.6MM salary as part of the deal.
Robinson, a 25 year old left winger, has spent the majority of the season with Ottawa’s AHL affiliate in Binghamton. In 33 games with the Baby Sens, he has seven goals, five assists, and 18 penalty minutes. He has also got into four games with Ottawa this year, being held off the scoresheet while averaging just under seven minutes of ice time per game. He carries a cap hit of $750K in the NHL with a minor league salary of $75K and is heading for Group VI unrestricted free agency this summer as he will have less than 80 career NHL games played at the end of the season and has the required number of professional seasons to qualify.
Stortini is a veteran of 257 NHL games with Edmonton and Nashville but last saw NHL action back in 2011-12. The 31 year old enforcer has 41 points (14-27-41) in that span while recording 725 penalty minutes. Since then, he has bounced around with several minor league teams and was in his second season with Binghamton. In 22 AHL games this season, he has two goals and an assist to go along with 20 penalty minutes. He has a $600K cap hit at the NHL level and is earning $200K in the minors. Both he and Robinson have been sent to the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda.
While Wingels isn’t exactly a top six forward at this stretch of his career, he’ll add some grit and some depth to Ottawa’s bottom six while providing some insurance in case of injury at a very small acquisition cost. He’s only a couple of years removed from pair of 35+ point seasons so perhaps a change in scenery will give him a boost for the stretch run which would go a long way towards restoring some of his value heading into free agency.
As for the Sharks, this clears up a roster spot and a little over $730K in cap space per CapFriendly (Twitter link) which should come in handy with winger Tomas Hertl nearing a return to the lineup from his knee injury. CSN Bay Area’s Kevin Kurz reports (Twitter link) that there’s a very good chance that Hertl will be ready to return to the lineup on Thursday against Edmonton.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Senators Sign Zack Smith To Four Year Extension
The Ottawa Senators announced that they have signed center Zack Smith to a four year contract extension. The deal will carry a cap hit of $3.25MM and will pay that amount in each year of the deal which runs through the 2020-21 season. Smith also receives a limited no-trade clause, ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun adds (Twitter link).
The contract represents a sizable jump in pay as he’s currently earning a $2.3MM salary (with a cap hit of $1.88MM) this season. He was slated to become an unrestricted free agent in July.
Smith has spent his entire career with Ottawa after being drafted in the third round (79th overall) back in 2008. After spending the early part of his career as a bottom six grinder, he has shown more offensive upside as of late.
This season, Smith has 11 goals and 11 assists in 22 games while averaging a career best 16:13 of ice time per game. This comes on the heels of a career-best 25 goal and 36 point campaign in 2015-16.
In his career, the 28 year old has played in 443 NHL games, scoring 75 goals and 61 assists while adding 530 penalty minutes. He has turned himself into a reliable player at the faceoff dot as well, winning more than half of his draws in four of the last five seasons, including a 52.8% clip this year.
The contract ensures that their top three centers are locked up for next season; Kyle Turris has one year left on his deal after this season while Derick Brassard is inked for two more years. Overall, the Sens have seven forwards signed for 2017-18 at a combined cap hit of $32.3MM, per Cap Friendly.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.