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Sabres Sign Oskari Laaksonen To Three-Year, Entry-Level Deal

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The Buffalo Sabres announced the signing of defenseman Oskari Laaksonen to a three-year contract, per the team. Laaksonen joins Buffalo on an entry-level contract after the team made him a third-round pick in the 2017 draft.

Since being drafted 89th overall by the Sabres, Laaksonen, 20, has spent the past three seasons with Ilves of the Finnish Elite League. Laaksonen recorded 12 points for the Ilves over 46 games this past season. He also won a gold medal with Team Finland at the 2019 World Junior Championship while skating alongside another Sabres’ youngster, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. 

Laaksonen’s stock jumped shortly after the draft, and the young puck-mover has continued to impress during his time in his native Finland. He had signed a two-year deal with the Ilves, putting doubt into whether he’d be ready to make the jump to the NHL. But evidently, he’s ready.

The deal comes on the heels of the Sabres learning that they’d lost defenseman Lawrence Pilut to the KHL. Pilut, 24, looked like a potential building block for the Sabres, who instead now transition the future of their defence to Laaksonen. Included in the press release announcing the signing was a comment from Sabres’ GM Jason Botterill, who said, “The work Oskari has put in to improve his game has paid off during his last two seasons. His success on the international stage and what he’s done as a 19- and 20-year-old playing in a professional league is impressive.”

The Sabres finished the year in sixth place of the Atlantic Division, on the outside looking in for the upcoming 24-team playoff. Buffalo hasn’t made the playoffs since the 2010-2011 season, the second of back-to-back losses in the quarterfinals to the Flyers and Bruins, respectively.

Roman Polak May Not Return To Stars, Signs With HC Vitkovice

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The rest of the 2019-2020 NHL season remains in limbo – at least for the time being – but that hasn’t stopped Roman Polak of the Dallas Stars from planning his future. Polak has agreed to a contract with HC Vitkovice of the Czech league, per the team’s website. The deal with his hometown team does not technically begin until next season. The agreement exists in principle only until his contract with the Dallas Stars runs out at the end of the season.

Theoretically, Polak would be available for a playoff run with the Stars, though the blueliner doesn’t appear all that motivated to finish out the season under the current circumstances. If Polak does return for the remainder of the NHL season, it would likely require significant pressure from the Stars. Given his druthers, Polak pretty plainly prefers to move along to the next phase of his hockey career.

The Athletic’s Sean Shapiro shares a quote from Polak, originally captured by sport.c.z, where Polak said, “I am already determined to stay at home … If I really had to finish the NHL, I would go. But I will do everything to make it unnecessary. I will definitely be here next season.”  

The soundbites from Polak paint a picture of someone steering clear of the remaining 2019-2020 season. Polak was set to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, so the 34-year-old is in a position to control his own destiny. How hard the Stars push Polak to return remains to be seen, but there’s a good chance Polak has played his last game in the NHL. The bruising defenseman appeared in 41 games this season for the Stars – his second in Dallas – recording four assists without scoring a goal in 16:40 ATOI. He missed roughly six weeks early in the season after fracturing his sternum while attempting a hit against the Bruins in early October.

From an aerial view, Polak’s decision to make a move for the future of his hockey life is certainly interesting in the context of the coronavirus shutdown. There’s a possibility that he’s not going to be the only player that prefers not to return for the 24-team playoff.

As for the Stars, they’re in a good position to withstand the potential loss of Polak. As one of the top four teams in the Western Conference, the Stars will ease back into play via a round-robin with the Blues, Avalance, and Golden Knights to determine the seeding for the top four spots heading into the postseason. Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas News provides comment from Stars GM Jim Nill, who said, “We can’t make someone come back under their wishes. If anyone wants to stay home, that is their decision.”

Snapshots: Players Work Visas, Bruins, Coyotes

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The NHL has informed players who require work visas have been advised to return to Canada or the United States by June 21 in order to address those issues in time for the upcoming 24-team playoff.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman writes that with the league’s calendar ending on June 30th, so do players work visas. The league has sent a memo to players that it is “strongly recommended” they return to their home team’s country to extend their work visas due to the possible delays in getting those work visa extensions during COVID-19. There are concerns that players who don’t return in the next week might have trouble returning to North America in time for mandatory training camps, which is currently slated to start on July 10.

That could cause some concern for players who have already been told they don’t have to report to their NHL team until training camp and now are expected to show up 19 days earlier with no guarantee that play will resume due to the always-developing coronavirus.

  • The Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont writes that the Boston Bruins announced that a Bruins’ player has tested positive for COVID-19. According to general manager Don Sweeney, an unnamed player was tested three times, testing positive the first time, but negative the next two. The player has been asymptomatic since appearing at the team’s local practice facility for league-approved voluntary workouts. That player is now no longer allowed to train at the facility until a further test later this week. “I think everyone is learning how we properly interact and distance and react to the original test results,” said Sweeney. “This [workout] phase is a voluntary phase, but I think we are learning and we’ll continue to learn throughout, as the players go through it and, really, however everybody interacts.”
  • On a similar note, Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston reports that the Arizona Coyotes have indicated that a staff member has tested positive for COVID-19 and remains asymptomatic. The team reports that no other player or staff member has tested positive during the Phase 2 testing protocol.

League Notes: Hub Cities, 2020-21, CBA

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The “hub city” question now has an end date. Ever since the NHL began the process of creating an expanded playoff format for this year, the question of where these tournaments will take place has been a hot topic. Early on in this process, it was believed that non-NHL cities like Grand Forks, North Dakota and Manchester, New Hampshire could be the targets, but that plan fell by the wayside in favor of more familiar locales. The league made it clear when releasing formal details of the postseason plan that the two hub cities would be NHL homes and revealed that Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Vancouver were the finalists. The province of British Columbia recently submitted an official proposal for Vancouver to be one of the two cities selected and each of these finalists is believed to have made a similar pitch. So, when will know what the choice is? John Katsilometes of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the NHL will announce the hub cities for the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs on June 22. He also adds that MGM Resorts is preparing as if Las Vegas will be one of the two choices. This would align with a rumor that Las Vegas and Los Angeles were the favorites to be selected as hub cities, likely with the Golden Knights and their Western Conference competitors going to L.A. as to avoid a hometown bias and the Eastern Conference moving in in Vegas. We will know the definite answer in just ten days, before training camps open on July 10 and well before the hopeful start date of actual game play on August 1.

  • The Canadian cities included in the list of “hub city” finalists – Edmonton, Toronto, and Vancouver – are seen by some as long shots to be selected due to the tighter restrictions on quarantining in Canada. The federal government currently has a 14-day mandatory quarantine in place for anyone entering the country and there had previously been no sign that they would waive this for NHL players and personnel. However, TSN’s Darren Dreger notes that British Columbia and Manitoba have lightened their rules, allowing anyone who has already quarantined for 14 days elsewhere in Canada to avoid doing so again when entering the province. If they were to allow that same policy to extend to teams coming from the U.S., that would make Vancouver and Edmonton into more attractive destinations. As for Ontario, the province has not been as lenient and although Toronto is considered a great option as a host, the NHL cannot afford a strict quarantine policy if there are other cities that do not require such a time commitment. The city Dreger feels is the front-runner to host? He too says Las Vegas.
  • As for another impact of the current COVID crisis, Montreal Canadiens owner Geoff Molson told the press in a long conference call on Thursday that the league may not be done playing in front of empty seats after the 2020 postseason. Molson stated that the NHL has not ruled out the possibility that they might have to at least begin the 2020-21 without fans. While the hope is that by the time the new regular season starts, likely to be somewhere between late November to perhaps January 1, this will not be an issue, the league has discussed empty buildings or limited capacities. Molson himself said that he would be “very surprised” to see full capacities when the new season begins later this year.
  • TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that CBA negotiations continue to move forward between the NHL and NHLPA. A sign of good progress could be that the two sides are reportedly discussing the term of the CBA extension right now, rather than arguing over actual aspects of the agreement. LeBrun reports that the new deal is expected to land at either four or five years. He believes that the players’ association prefers four while the league would like five. With two years remaining on the current CBA, a length of five year would maintain labor piece through the 2026-27 season.

Peter Laviolette Considered Favorite For Devils Head Coach

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Just yesterday it was reported that the New Jersey Devils had trimmed the list of candidates for their vacant head coach position to just four names. Given the long off-season awaiting the club, it seemed curious that they were moving quickly on the search, especially as they have yet to finalize their GM position as well. Yet, the Devils don’t seem to be slowing down. Only 24 hours later, a four-man list that included interim head coach Alain Nasreddine and three unknowns has now produced a favorite. TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that Peter Laviolette has emerged as the favorite for the position.

Laviolette, 55, should not come as surprise as the top candidate on the Devils’ list, as he is arguably the best coach on the open market right now. Laviolette was most recently the head coach of the Nashville Predators, fired to the surprise of many back in January despite a winning record on the year and having led the Predators to the playoffs in each of his five full seasons with the team. Should Laviolette be the selection for New Jersey, it would become the fifth NHL franchise that he has led, joining the Predators, New York Islanders, Carolina Hurricanes, and Philadelphia Flyers. Laviolette has been a head coach in the league in 18 seasons dating all the way back to 2001-02, when he was the youngest bench boss in the league at 36. Laviolette has totaled more than 1200 games in his NHL coaching career and holds a .588 regular season points percentage, a Stanley Cup title with the Hurricanes in 2005-06, three Finals appearances, and 11 playoff appearances. The Boston native also won a Calder Cup and AHL Coach of the Year honors with the Providence Bruins, which ignited his NHL career.

Beyond the accolades, Laviolette’s style may also explain his top position among the Devils’ candidates. An intense personality, it shows in Laviolette’s fast-paced style and aggressive offensive game plans. Meanwhile, New Jersey has a young, skilled roster of players who can keep up with the taxing style that Laviolette prefers. The problem is that they have looked slow, disorganized, and unmotivated too often over the past few years. Former Predator P.K. Subban especially would likely enjoy being back in Laviolette’s system. Laviolette could help to turn the team around in a hurry, especially if his presence can also help the cap-comfortable Devils recruit some top free agents this summer.

Laviolette’s hiring is not set in stone. Dreger even admits that the uncertain status of interim GM Tom Fitzgerald could keep an official hire from happening soon. However, Laviolette certainly makes sense as the Devils’ top pick and would be an exciting addition to a franchise that desperately needs to take a step forward next season.

Training Camps Will Open July 10th

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As the NHL tries to work its way towards resuming play, they have come to an agreement on when training camps will begin.  The league announced that those camps will begin on Friday, July 10th after reaching an agreement with the NHLPA.  The full release is as follows:

The National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) and the National Hockey League (NHL) announced today that formal training camps (Phase 3) for the 24 teams resuming play will open on Friday, July 10, provided that medical and safety conditions allow and the parties have reached an overall agreement on resuming play. The length of training camp and, therefore, the start date for formal resumption of play (Phase 4) will be determined at a future date.

Recently, teams were allowed to open their practice facilities although not all of them have taken advantage of that so far.  Some are in the process of getting their rinks compliant with new safety protocols while others have encouraged their players to remain where they are outside of the club city as long as they’re able to skate and work out.

While no set date for the resumption of play (the play-in round to the playoffs plus the round robin for the top four teams in each conference) has been set, it’s likely that a few weeks will be needed in order to get players back into playing shape, lines and strategies set, and perhaps even an exhibition game or two to work off the rust.  With that in mind, today’s news suggests that play will resume in early August if agreements can be reached with the NHLPA on all of the return protocols and that it is medically safe to do so.

West Notes: Canucks, Kaprizov, Karlsson

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While many NHL teams will be opening up their practice facilities to players as part of Phase 2 in small groups as soon as Monday, the Vancouver Canucks will not be doing that. Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre reports that with just three Canucks’ players in the area, each who has access to their own independent ice rinks, there is no reason to open up their training facilities, at least until Canada’s 14-day quarantine for foreigners is solved.

The three Canucks’ players, defensemen Alexander Edler, Chris Tanev and Troy Stecher all choose to stay in Vancouver during the shutdown along with injured forward Josh Leivo. More than half the roster reside outside of Canada. Of course, Phase 2 is voluntary and the Canucks cannot order their players back at this point, so most of their players aren’t necessarily eager to return to Canada yet.

  • The Athletic’s Michael Russo (subscription required) writes that while the NHL has been insistent that unsigned players like Kirill Kaprizov will not be eligible for the upcoming tournament, the NHLPA is working on that issue since the league is technically changing a long-standing collective bargaining rule. That could be a big bonus for the Minnesota Wild if the NHLPA can reverse the NHL’s stance on that. The scribe writes that if the team feels Kaprizov could help immediately, he could push someone like Victor Rask or Ryan Donato out the lineup and make Minnesota’s squad even more interesting. “If we feel that (Kaprizov’s) ready to go then I don’t think it’ll be an issue whatsoever,” interim coach Dean Evason said. “It’s no different than a player popping in and out or sitting out or coming in and taking over for an injured guy. So no, we don’t feel that would be a problem at all and obviously (it’d) be very exciting for us in the organization if we can get him going right away.”
  • Kevin Kurz of The Athletic (subscription required) writes that the team has a number of interesting free agents coming up this offseason, but perhaps the most interesting situation to watch will be that of forward Melker Karlsson, who is an unrestricted free agent and hasn’t always been a fan favorite of Sharks’ fans. While he has proven to be a solid fourth-line player and a quality penalty killer, many of his advanced metric statistics aren’t that impressive. However, after already losing a top penalty killer in Barclay Goodrow recently, losing a second player on a top-rated unit might not be the way to go, making it a very interesting scenario. The scribe writes that Karlsson’s agent said there was mutual interest in getting a deal done, but there have been no talks since play was suspended. His $2MM contact for the past three seasons might require him to accept a pay cut if he wants to stay.

Snapshots: NHL Rosters, Howard, Devils Draft

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While many NHL teams will begin open up their training facilities on Monday and the league is slowly moving towards getting back into action, there still remains quite a bit to negotiate. One thing that is still being debated is how many players each of the 24 teams will carry once play resumes.

The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun notes that while the NHL has suggested 28 skaters, plus goaltenders, that number still must be negotiated with the NHLPA. However, that number isn’t necessarily needed until either Phase 3 or even Phase 4, which gives the two sides time to come up with a proper number.

  • Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News writes that Detroit Red Wings veteran goaltender Jimmy Howard wants to play another one or two seasons before he retires, although he does admit that it might not be with the Red Wings. The 36-year-old would prefer to finish out his career in Detroit, the team that drafted him, but that seems somewhat unlikely to return to a rebuilding team after a career-worst season with a 2-23-2 record with a 4.20 GAA and a .882 save percentage. “I want to keep playing,” said Howard. “This year left such a bitter taste in my mouth. I want to go out there and show people I can still play in this league — I know I’m capable … I personally don’t believe I represent those number (statistics), but I was a big part of the program (losing). I got in my own way a lot instead of letting the play to come. I was overthinking things.”
  • The Athetic’s Corey Masisak (subscription required) writes that he believes that with three first-round picks (and two potential lottery picks) in a strong upcoming 2020 draft, the New Jersey Devils are a team that would be strong candidates to grab highly-touted goaltender Yaroslav Askarov with one of those picks. The 17-year-old is one of the highest-rated goaltenders in years, but after a poor showing at the World Juniors this past year, many have watched as his stock has dropped somewhat and with teams generally shying away from taking goaltenders in the first round, there is no clear indication where the young netminder might be taken. Regardless, he has been rated as a lottery pick by many scouts. The scribe adds that even though they have a young netminder in MacKenzie Blackwood, the team should still consider taking the goalie, especially since they have three first-rounders. The Devils already have the sixth-best chance to win the lottery with their own pick, but the team also has the Arizona Coyotes’ first-rounder (acquired in the Taylor Hall trade), but the pick depends on how Arizona fares in the post-season and is top-three protected. New Jersey has a third first-round pick, acquired from Tampa Bay in the Blake Coleman trade (via Vancouver), but that pick is lottery-protected based on Vancouver’s performance in the play-in game.

NHL Rules On Conditional Draft Picks

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With both the regular season and playoffs up in the air for quite some time, there had been many questions about conditional draft picks and how they might be conveyed. However, now with the establishment of a 24-team playoff format, The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun (subscription required) reports that the league has also clarified how conditional picks will change hands, meaning teams will have to reach the round of 16 in order to be considered a ’playoff team.’ The NHL doesn’t view the qualifying round as playoff hockey.

“More specifically, for Trade condition purposes, a Club will not be deemed to have qualified for the Playoffs unless or until they have progressed into the Round of 16, and ‘Playoff Games/Rounds’ will only include the games/rounds played in the Round of 16 or later. We believe this interpretation will best reflect the intentions of the parties at the time of the Trade,” the league stipulated.

There are several trades that fall into this category with the Vancouver Canucks pick being at the heart of the issue. The Canucks traded their 2020 first-round pick to Tampa Bay for J.T. Miller, conditional on the Canucks making the playoffs. That pick, in the meantime, was traded to New Jersey for Blake Coleman. With Vancouver in the 24-team playoff format, many believed that the Devils already had the Canucks’ first-round pick. However, this ruling indicates that the Canucks would have to win their play-in game against the Minnesota Wild first and reach the round of 16 before that picks transfers. If Vancouver loses in the first round, then they keep the lottery pick and will send a unconditional first-rounder in 2021 to New Jersey.

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Minnesota Wild are in a similar situation with the first-round pick that was sent from Pittsburgh to Minnesota for Jason Zucker (assuming the Penguins got into the playoffs). However, while that pick looked to be a lock, a play-in loss to the Montreal Canadiens would allow the Penguins to keep the pick and send an unconditional one in 2021, which Pittsburgh would be likely to do if they can get a lottery pick in a strong draft.

There are still a few conditional trades that the NHL will have to look deeper into, including the Edmonton/Calgary swap of Milan Lucic and James Neal as well as the New Jersey-Carolina swap of Sami Vatanen, which deals with a conditional fourth-round pick if Vatanen played in five regular season games for Carolina, which he didn’t do. However, the play-in games could constitute regular season games, depending on how the league rules on it.

Playoff Notes: Player Concerns, Round Robin, Tampa Bay

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It certainly seems like an NHL postseason is on the way, as the NHLPA approved continued talks of a 24-team playoff format on Friday. However, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun echoed the sentiment of the NHLPA’s statement when he reported that there are still concerns among the players. This initial vote was merely to continue making progress on the rough format of a 24-team structure, but there are details that still need to be hammered out. Specifically, LeBrun states that the players would prefer re-seeding after each round rather than the proposed bracket format. Further, the players were told that there is still indecision over whether that initial round of teams 5-12 in each conference would be a best-of-five or a best-of-seven series. The NHLPA will need to re-evaluate a final proposal before the league can make any official announcement.

  • The idea of re-seeding does seem to be a more balanced and fair system for implementing this playoff structure. As currently proposed, the top seed in each conference would play the No. 8 or No. 9 team in the second round, while any of the other three bye seeds could wind up with an easier match-up following a bye in the first round. Especially if the first round is a best-of-five series, which would be more prone to upsets, the bracket format creates equity concerns. As Sportsnet’s Luke Fox describes, it also de-values the proposed round robin games between the top-four bye teams in each conference. This format is also still to be finalized, but the proposal was that the results of this round robin tournament would determine the seeding of those four bye teams. As Fox notes, if there is no real advantage to having the top seed in the bracket structure then there is not much to fight for in the round robin.
  • One of the two teams who voted against the proposed 24-team playoff format was the Tampa Bay Lightning. Alex Killorn, the team’s NHLPA rep, spoke with The Athletic’s Joe Smith about the reasons why the team did not support the decision. Killorn stated that his team did not feel that it was fair for teams that likely would not have made the playoffs under the normal circumstances to not only have a shot in this expanded field, but also to have a better chance of moving on with a limited five-game series. Tampa also took issue with the preparedness of the teams who had earned byes, a point that would be emphasized further if – as LeBrun and Fox warn – the bracket system leads to a round robin for the first-round bye teams that lacks real meaning. These are fair points made by Killorn and the Lightning, but it seems that without the details of the playoff structure formalized yet, these concerns could be quelled by seven-game series in the first-round and re-seeding after the round rather than a bracket structure.

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