Taylor Leier, Jack Rodewald Sign In Czech Republic
A pair of former NHL players have decided to take their services overseas as NHL.com’ Brennan Klak reports that former Philadelphia Flyers forward Taylor Leier and former Ottawa Senators forward Jack Rodewald have signed with HC Ocelari Trinec of the Czech Republic.
Neither player saw NHL action last season. Leier hasn’t made an NHL appearance since the 2017-18 season when he played in 39 games for the Flyers. He scored one goal and tallied five points that year, but spent 2018-19 with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the AHL and then was swapped to Buffalo at midseason for Justin Bailey. The 26-year-old never played for the Sabres, however, spending the next year and half with the Rochester Americans. He appeared in just 27 games for the Americans last season, posting 11 goals and 17 points.
The 26-year-old Rodewald played with the Senators more recently, getting into six games in 2018-19, but has only appeared in 10 total NHL games. He signed with Ottawa in 2017 and showed well in his stints with the Belleville Senators of the AHL, scoring 23 goals in 2018-19, prompting his call-up to Ottawa. However, the Senators decided to trade Rodewald to Florida last season for collegiate forward Chris Wilkie. However, Rodewald struggled with the Panthers’ AHL affiliate, posting just five goals in 43 games.
Senators Notes: Captains, Camp Roster, Brassard, Brannstrom
The Senators have wasted little time determining their leadership group, announcing (via Twitter) that they will go without a captain and go with three alternates again this season. It’s a brand-new trio from the ones that started the season in that role last year as all three departed either via trade or free agency. Wearing the ‘A’ this season will be defensemen Thomas Chabot and Erik Gudbranson as well as winger Brady Tkachuk. Chabot and Tkachuk are core pieces of Ottawa’s rebuild while Gudbranson, an Ottawa native, was acquired from Anaheim in the offseason. The team has not had a full-time captain since trading Erik Karlsson to San Jose back in 2018.
More from Ottawa:
- The Sens announced their training camp roster with some notable omissions. Recently-acquired veterans Derek Stepan, Cedric Paquette, and Braydon Coburn are all not on the max-sized roster nor is top prospect Tim Stuetzle who is still at the World Juniors. Stepan is still in Arizona with his wife recently gave birth to their third child while Paquette and Coburn are currently quarantining and won’t be able to join the team for on-ice drills for another week. Stuetzle will eventually make his way to camp as well but will also need to go through an isolation period which will eat up most of the remaining training camp time.
- Ottawa has one player in camp on a PTO deal in goaltender Francois Brassard. The 26-year-old was actually drafted by the Sens back in 2012 but never signed with the team. He spent last season with ECHL Maine, putting up a 2.76 GAA with a .908 SV% in 14 appearances. He is likely hoping to land an AHL contract with a successful tryout as the Senators already have five netminders on NHL deals.
- Defenseman Erik Brannstrom had requested that Ottawa allow him to try to play his off-side on defense but that request was denied, relays TSN 1200’s Shawn Simpson (Twitter link). The Sens prefer him to stay on his natural side although there is likelier an easier path to playing time if he was to switch.
Ridly Greig Signs Entry-Level Contract
Ridly Greig may have missed out on his World Junior experience, but he won’t finish 2020 empty-handed. The Ottawa Senators have signed Greig to a three-year, entry-level contract, his first professional deal after being the 28th overall pick in this fall’s draft. Senators GM Pierre Dorion released a short statement on the deal:
Ridly plays with an edge in all facets of the game. He’s a highly competitive centre with strong character who is difficult to play against, driven and especially motivated. We’re looking forward to monitoring his development.
Greig, 18, tested positive for COVID-19 in early November, just before joining the Canadian World Junior selection camp. That positive test ultimately ended any possibility of him making the team, though it would have been a battle anyway given how deep the forward group is. A star for the Brandon Wheat Kings of the WHL, Greig scored 26 goals and 60 points in 56 games last season while also often being asked to check the opponent’s top forwards.
Just like many top prospects, Greig is now waiting to see what happens to him this season. It’s been nearly ten months since his last competitive action and the WHL has not yet set a return date. If the junior league is canceled he could potentially go to the AHL, though that minor league has also not officially announced any schedule yet either. Ottawa’s ECHL affiliate, the Brampton Beast, will not be playing this season after opting out of the 2020-21 campaign with the other North Division teams. Greig likely isn’t ready for NHL action, but could potentially be a taxi squad player to keep his development pointed in the right direction unless an overseas assignment could be found.
At any rate, he’s now under contract with his first professional organization, the first step to becoming an NHL player. Should he play in fewer than seven NHL games this season, his deal will slide forward at least one year.
Morning Notes: Toews, Mehta, Stuetzle
The Chicago Blackhawks will already miss Kirby Dach for a good chunk (if not all) of the season and might be without their captain as well. Jonathan Toews will miss training camp and the start of the season due to an illness according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic and Darren Dreger of TSN, with an official statement from the team expected at some point today.
The Blackhawks are off to a horrible start to the upcoming season if Toews is held out for any serious length of time and it leaves them scrambling for center depth. Dylan Strome, the likely candidate to step into the top-line role, isn’t even signed yet and remains a restricted free agent with just a few days until camp starts. Hopefully, Toews can return before long.
- The Florida Panthers have hired Sunny Mehta as Vice President of Hockey Strategy & Intelligence, bringing in one of the forefathers of hockey analytics. Mehta was one of the first real leaders in the analytics space, serving as Director of Hockey Analytics for the New Jersey Devils from 2014-2018. An interesting resume also includes time as a professional poker player and consultant for several MLB organizations.
- Though it shouldn’t come into play this season, the entry-level contract for Tim Stuetzle does include a European Assignment Clause that could send him back to Mannheim in Germany if he doesn’t crack the Ottawa Senators roster. Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia reports that the DEL squad asked for it to be included and waited to make sure the NHL would actually play before releasing the young forward. Stuetzle, who is logging huge minutes for the shorthanded German team at the World Juniors, is expected to step directly onto the NHL roster when the tournament concludes.
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.
Senators Sign Tim Stuetzle
Ottawa now has top pick from October’s NHL Entry Draft under contract as the team announced that they’ve signed forward Tim Stuetzle to a three-year, entry-level contract. CapFriendly reports that the deal carries a maximum base salary of $925K (including a 10% signing bonus) as well as $2.5MM per year in performance incentives. GM Pierre Dorion released the following statement about the deal:
Tim possesses an exceptional blend of both speed and skill and a playmaking ability that our fans are going to enjoy watching for several years to come. He’s a dynamic forward who we expect to become a key piece of our roster as we continue trending towards icing an eventual elite-level team.
The 18-year-old was the third-overall selection following a strong season with Mannheim of the DEL that saw him collect seven goals and 27 assists in just 41 games, impressive production for a teenager in a men’s league where he was the youngest player. The plan was for him to play there to start this season as well but a hand injury that required surgery put an end to those plans. Stuetzle also had a good showing at the World Juniors with five helpers in as many contests and currently finds himself there again as the 2021 event is now underway.
Once that tournament comes to an end, Stuetzle will report to training camp with Ottawa and should make a push to crack their lineup right away. Even with a slew of additions up front (including Derek Stepan, Evgenii Dadonov, Alex Galchenyuk, and Austin Watson), Stuetzle could force his way into the lineup fairly quickly and will be competing with the likes of Drake Batherson and Joshua Norris to earn one of the spots that is likely going to be earmarked for a young player. He’ll be eligible to play in six games before burning the first year of his entry-level deal (it’s usually nine but that has been prorated for the shortened season). The Sens believe that he can be a centerpiece of their rebuild and if he’s able to step in and play right away, he should become a core player for them in the not too distant future.
Snapshots: Voluntary Opt-Out, Senators, Stepan, Schneider
The first significant day of the NHL’s new calendar for the upcoming 2021 season is upon us as today is the deadline for NHL players to voluntarily opt-out of the season, according to TSN’s Frank Seravalli.
If a player wants to opt-out of the season, they must provide written notice to the league seven days before training camp starts, which means that the deadline has already passed for the seven non-playoff teams which start their training camps on Thursday. However, the rest of the league has until the end of the day today, if they don’t want to participate in the upcoming season.
Waivers are next, with it beginning Monday for the new season.
- With many teams struggling to move out salary this year without requiring to include a sweetener to get the deal done, there were quite a few people surprised when the Ottawa Senators took on the contract of Derek Stepan last night and instead of receiving some type of sweetener, sent a second-round pick to Arizona instead. Quite a high price to pay. However, Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch points out that the move is very Ottawa-like as Stepan might have a $6.5MM cap hit for the upcoming season, but is only due $2MM in salary, as the Coyotes have already paid Stepan a $3MM salary bonus. The Senators have been well known to take on players who have less salary to be paid out than their cap hit. This trade is one of them.
- Speaking of Stepan, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun notes that there is going to be a bit of a delay for Stepan to report to training camp in Ottawa. Besides the 14-day quarantine that will require him to miss part of training camp, Stepan is also waiting for the pending birth of his child, meaning that the 30-year-old could very well miss the start of the regular season. LeBrun reports, however, that Stepan’s agent, Matt Oates, says that the veteran is excited about joining Ottawa’s team as a team leader and is eager to arrive.
- The IIHF will have a disciplinary committee hearing regarding the illegal hit to the head by Team Canada’s Braden Schneider vs. Germany’s Jan-Luca Schumacher, according to TSN’s Bob McKenzie. A decision is expected before Canada’s game vs. Slovakia later today. Schneider, a 2020 first-round pick of the New York Rangers, could be suspended, considering the IIHF has a no-tolerance policy on hits to the head. He was issued a game misconduct after the incident. McKenzie adds that Austria’s Philipp Wimmer is also expected to receive a hearing after his hit against USA’s Patrick Moynihan. UPDATE: Schneider received a one-game suspension for the hit, according to the IIHF.
Washington Capitals Sign Craig Anderson To Professional Tryout
With rumors that the team might be looking for a veteran netminder after the team lost veteran Henrik Lundqvist to injury, the Washington Capitals announced they have signed longtime Ottawa Senators goaltender Craig Anderson to a professional tryout.
Washington had high expectations for their goaltending when they signed Lundqvist to help share the workload with young phenom Ilya Samsonov. However, when Lundqvist backed out due to a heart condition, the team was left with very little cap room and two AHL goaltenders, Vitek Vanecek and Pheonix Copley, to fill that void.
That prompted the team to bring in the 39-year-old Anderson to see whether he can fill the void in net for Lundqvist and give the two AHL goaltenders another season to develop. Anderson, who spent the last 10 years in Ottawa, has struggled the last few years with the Senators, albeit behind a terrible defense. He finished last season with a 11-17-2 record with a 3.25 GAA and a .902 save percentage.
His biggest competition will likely be Vancek, who many people feel is ready to take on the backup job after two impressive seasons with the Hershey Bears, including one as an AHL all-star. The 24-year-old Vanecek, however, has no NHL experience (despite being Braden Holtby‘s backup in the bubble last year) and with the expectation of many back-to-back games coming this season, it could be a tough situation to put an untested goalie in. However, Anderson will have to prove that he still has it after Ottawa informed the veteran that it wanted to move on from him after his contract expired this past offseason and no other team came calling until now.
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.
Minor Transactions: 12/21/20
The countdown has begun to the start of the NHL season and as expected there is no shortage of moves being made in response. Combine a slew of recalls from loans with the usual moves from the junior, collegiate, and European levels and there was plenty going on across the hockey world on Monday:
- The Chicago Blackhawks have recalled Pius Suter from Switzerland’s ZSC Lions, the club announced. Suter was signed as a free agent by the Blackhawks this summer after a career year in the NLA. The Swiss forward stayed home when the NHL season was delayed but is finally ready to make his move to Chicago to show that he has what it takes to play in the NHL. The Blackhawks also recalled Swiss prospect Philipp Kurashev from the NLA’s HC Lugano. Kurashev played well in his first AHL season, but Chicago hopes the dynamic forward can take another step forward this year.
- The Pittsburgh Penguins have recalled a recent free agent addition of their own in Radim Zohorna. The big power forward had returned to his Czech club, BK Mlada Boleslav, while awaiting the NHL season but will now report to Penguins camp, the team announced. Zohorna faces an uphill battle to crack the NHL roster but the Penguins are excited to see what he can do in the AHL.
- After returning to his former KHL club Dinamo Minsk on loan, Yegor Sharangovich has been recalled by the New Jersey Devils, the team announced. The young forward has played well in the AHL over the past two seasons, but took his game to a new level during his brief stay in Belarus. The Devils hope that is the game that will show up in training camp and at whichever level Sharangovich ends up this season.
- Goaltender Jacob Ingham‘s stint in the ECHL didn’t last long, as the league’s transactions indicate that he has been recalled by the Los Angeles Kings after two games with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits. Ingham didn’t exactly impress in the minors either, but he is still a top prospect who will look to impress in training camp and win the top role in the AHL this season.
- Forward Max Veronneau will not be among the second wave of NHL free agent signings. After just one season in the NHL with the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs, the Princeton product has signed in Sweden. The SHL’s IK Oskarshamn has announced a one-year deal with the skilled forward, who seemingly feels he has a better chance of impressing future NHL suitors overseas than with a season in the AHL.
- QMJHL standout Nathan Legare, a prospect of the Pittsburgh Penguins, is on the move. On the first day that the QMJHL has re-opened trading, Baie-Comeau Drakkar has traded their captain and last season’s leading scorer to the Val-d’Or Foreurs. It’s a hefty return for the prized prospect: a future first-, third-, and a trio of fourth-round picks, as well as rookie forward Justin Sullivan.
- The fallout of the Ivy League’s cancelled winter season extends beyond just this year. Ivy League schools do not use graduate student-athletes, meaning current seniors missing their seasons cannot use their fifth and final year of NCAA eligibility at their current schools. UMass has reaped the benefits with a pair of additions today, as Cornell’s Cam Donaldson and Dartmouth’s Matthew Baker have committed to transferring to Amherst next year, reports Jeff Cox of the New England Hockey Journal.