Defensive Notes: Karlsson, Nemeth, Schlemko
The Ottawa Senators will welcome back their captain and best player tomorrow night against the Vancouver Canucks, according to head coach Guy Boucher (via Ian Mendes of TSN). That’s a huge step for the Senators, though they haven’t seemed to need it yet. Ottawa is still undefeated in regulation, and have won their last two games with a combined score of 12-1.
Still, Karlsson is among the top handful of players in the league and will really stabilize a defense corps that has had some moving parts throughout the first few games. Nine different defensemen have already suited up for at least one game, with a ton of responsibility being heaped on the trio of Dion Phaneuf, Cody Ceci and Fredrik Claesson. Each of them are averaging at least 21 minutes a night, something that will likely change with as Karlsson gets his legs under him. Last year the captain averaged almost 27 minutes while finishing second in Norris voting.
- Patrik Nemeth has left the Colorado Avalanche on their road trip and flown back to Denver for more tests according to Adrian Dater of BSN Denver. Nemeth suffered a shoulder injury while fighting former teammate Tyler Seguin in a game on Saturday night. Nemeth, who was claimed off waivers just before the season started, has been one of the Avalanche’s best defensemen in the early going.
- David Schlemko was expected back in the Montreal lineup this week, but is not with the team in San Jose according to Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports. The Canadiens take on the Sharks tomorrow night and then will head to Anaheim and Los Angeles before returning home. The 30-year old played one game on a conditioning stint in Laval and was immediately recalled to the team, but still hasn’t suited up for the Canadiens this season.
Minor Transactions: 10/15/17
The Ottawa Senators announced they are sending defenseman Thomas Chabot to the Belleville Senators of the AHL and are returning Alex Formenton to London of the OHL. That means that Erik Karlsson‘s return is close and Bruce Garrioch of The Ottawa Sun writes that head coach Guy Boucher said Saturday that Karlsson could be back for Tuesday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks.
Karlsson’s return will be welcome in Ottawa, who have been without him since last year. The team leader and quarterback of their power play, the 27-year-old defenseman scored 71 points last year and averaged 26:50 minutes of ice time. However with his return, the team freed up some roster space.
Chabot was called up last week, due to multiple defensive injuries, and fared well. In two games, the 2015 first-round pick picked up an assist and had a plus/minus rating of +3. The defense had been an issue without Karlsson, who had foot surgery this offseason. Both Johnny Oduya and callup Ben Harpur were also injured prompting Chabot’s call-up. However, the team has made it clear they want Chabot to get as many minutes as possible and Belleville will provide that for the time being.
Formenton, a surprise keeper after training camp, will be returned to his junior team, the London Knights, who he played with last year before Ottawa made him the 47th pick in the draft this year. He could have played up to nine games in the NHL before his entry-level contract started, but played in just one game and only for 4:54, picking up no points. Instead his contract will slide another year.
- The Minnesota Wild also made a few transactions today, sending forwards Zach Mitchell, Christoph Bertschy, Landon Ferraro and Luke Kunin back to the Iowa Wild. All the forwards were recalled within the last day or two to help fill in holes in their lineup for their game against the Blue Jackets last night due to multiple injuries. Neither Mitchell, Bertschy or Ferraro, who formed the team’s fourth line last night, played more than six minutes in the game, but Ferraro, nonetheless, got on the scoreboard with a second-period goal assisted by Mitchell. Kunin, the team’s 2016 first-round pick, played 13:53 in his first game, but had no points. The Wild also promoted Mike Reilly, who had been demoted Saturday when Minnesota added Kunin to their roster. Reilly, played one game while in Iowa and scored a goal.
Christian Jaros Sent To Belleville, Johnny Oduya Ready To Return
- The Senators announced (via Twitter) that they have returned blueliner Christian Jaros to Belleville of the AHL. The 21-year-old is in his first season in North America and got into a pair of games with Ottawa in his first NHL stint, averaging 7:58 per night. He also has an assist in two contests at the minor league level. His spot on the roster will be filled by defenseman Johnny Oduya, who is set to return to the lineup.
Three Teams Showing Strong Interest In Andreas Athanasiou
The Canadiens, Kings, and Senators are among the teams showing the most interest in unsigned Detroit winger Andreas Athanasiou, reports Ken Campbell of The Hockey News. All three make some sense as potential fits as Montreal is in need of scoring help, Ottawa has been looking for more depth up front since training camp when Clarke MacArthur failed his physical, while Los Angeles is looking to play a faster pace this year and the 23-year-old is one of the speedier players in the league.
Darren Ferris, Athanasiou’s agent, noted to Campbell that this situation will be resolved within the next week. How it gets resolved remains to be seen. Obviously, he could re-sign with the Red Wings but there has been little movement on Detroit’s offers or his asking price over the past several weeks. An offer sheet at this point is unlikely considering it hasn’t been done already. That leaves signing with an international team with the potential for an NHL out-clause by December 1st, his NHL signing deadline.
Campbell adds that although the offer that Athanasiou had received from Ak Bars Kazan of the KHL has now been withdrawn, Avangard Omsk (also of the KHL) has put an offer on the table believed to be worth $2.5MM, the amount he’s seeking from Detroit. He has Swiss NLA offers from HC Lugano (where he’s currently skating), Lausanne HC, and one other team but from a financial standpoint, those teams won’t be able to offer close to that type of money.
MLive’s Ansar Khan suggests that part of the current stalemate may have something to do with his role with the team. Last season, Athanasiou was up and down in the lineup and also found himself a healthy scratch at one point. He averaged 13:28 per night in 2016-17 which is fairly low for a player who had 18 goals in 64 games. GM Ken Holland has reportedly assured him of a top-nine role with some power play time but that’s not really anything beyond the role he had last year.
If Ferris’ expectation that Athanasiou’s situation will be sorted out within the next week holds true, there should be an end to the standoff soon but there are a lot of different ways that this still can go in the coming days.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Overseas Notes: Da Costa, Streit, Steen
Yet another NHL veteran who was trying to hold out for a new contract in North America is now close to settling for European employment. The Swiss Hockey News reports that Stephane Da Costa is nearing an agreement with Geneve-Servette of the Swiss NLA. Da Costa, 28, was a superstar at Merrimack College from 2009 to 2011 and looked to be the next great story in the NHL after signing with the Ottawa Senators – an undrafted player coming from a non-traditional hockey country of France. While Da Costa proved to be a lethal producer in the AHL, he could never quite stick in Ottawa and left the NHL in 2012. Da Costa spent the past three years with CSKA Moscow of the KHL, putting up solid numbers, but it has been his international play on the part of France that has really turned heads. Beginning with a stellar 10-point performance at the World Championships last spring, Da Costa had reportedly been drawing interest from NHL teams and fully planned on playing with the world’s best this season. Yet, with the new season underway, those offers never came and it seems Da Costa is now ready to move on. While Geneve-Servette is off to a tough start in the NLA – second-to-last currently – they are not without considerable talent up front, including NHL veterans Nathan Gerbe, Nick Spaling, and Cody Almond, as well as San Jose Sharks prospect Noah Rod. Da Costa could help kick start a team that typically performs near the top of the NLA and made it to the final of the 2017 Swiss Cup tournament.
- Da Costa hasn’t yet signed with Geneve-Servette, but by the time he does he may no longer be the biggest name in terms of recent additions. With Mark Streit being placed on waivers by the Montreal Canadiens yesterday (with a very good chance of clearing today), it seems more likely that the veteran defenseman will ask for his release than be assigned to the AHL but the Canadiens. Given that the soon-to-be-40-year-old could have simply rode off into the sunset after winning the Stanley Cup last season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, it is clear that he wants to keep playing. That opportunity will likely come in his native country of Switzerland, where Streit has suited up for the NLA’s HC Davos, ZSC Lions, and SC Bern over his career. A return home to much fanfare and a chance to play in the Olympics seems like much more fitting end for Streit than playing in the minors
- A seemingly minor move in the KHL could be of some interest to Boston Bruins fans. In a round-up of their minor transaction over the past few days, the league revealed that the rights to forward Oskar Steen, Boston’s sixth-round pick in 2016, had been acquired by SKA St. Petersburg. While Steen has been playing for Farjestad of the SHL for three years now, an opportunity to play for SKA may be tough for the young Swede forward to pass up. Farjestad is no slouch, but SKA has been wildly successful in recent years, winning two of the past three KHL titles and again tearing up the league with a 17-point lead over the next-best team. SKA graduated players like Vadim Shipachyov and Evgeni Dadonov to the NHL this off-season, but still carry top prospects like Nikita Gusev and Igor Shestyorkin and talented veterans like Ilya Kovalchuk, Viktor Tikhonov, Sergei Plotnikov, and even long-time defenseman Maxim Chudinov, former property of the Bruins. Joining that mix could be a good career-move for the under-utilized Steen, could give SKA a further boost, and could help round out yet another promising prospect to add to the Bruins’ ranks.
Karlsson Hoping To Play Next Week
While the Senators were hoping that defenseman Erik Karlsson would be able to return to the lineup this weekend, GM Pierre Dorion told reporters, including Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch, that he will not be able to do so and that they’re hopeful that he will be able to suit up at some point next week. Dorion was quick to add that Karlsson had not suffered any setback.
The 27-year-old has yet to play this season after undergoing tendon surgery on his foot back in June on an injury he sustained in the Senators’ postseason run. Garrioch adds that Ottawa could get one of their other defenders back this weekend as Johnny Oduya may be ready to play on Saturday in Calgary. He suffered a lower-body injury in the season opener last Thursday.
“No Panic” In Kyle Turris Extension Talks
Recently the Ottawa Senators were thrust into the rumor mill when Darren Dreger of TSN speculated on a possible trade. The fire was only stoked when Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet spoke about a potential gap in terms of contract length for the new deal, but now Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia spoke directly to Senators GM Pierre Dorion on the matter.
“No panic” is the quote Garrioch shared, reporting that Dorion believes something can get done between the two sides. Turris is clearly an important part to the Senators and is averaging 21 minutes a night through the first three games of the season. He’s set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, but could reach a long-term deal to center the Senators’ top line for some time.
An interesting factor in the Senators’ decision may be the long-term health of Clarke MacArthur. The forward’s contract is fully insured, meaning that if he can’t return to the NHL after his latest bout with post-concussion symptoms, not only will the team get potential cap relief but also likely remove a financial burden. That $4.75MM in salary per season would go a long way in helping an internal budget team like Ottawa afford to keep Turris around.
They also have to worry about new contracts for Mark Stone and Cody Ceci this summer, when the pair reaches restricted free agency, and the pending massive deal Erik Karlsson will be signing for the 2019-20 season. Still, watching a 28-year old top line center walk in free agency is almost unheard of, making this a case of extension or trade by the end of the season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Snapshots: Matheson, Harpur, Three Stars
Michael Matheson might not be the definition of a household name, but the Florida Panthers clearly understand what he can bring to the table. The team inked him to an eight-year extension yesterday, which was officially announced earlier today. Panthers’ GM Dale Tallon was complimentary of the young defenseman, and how he went about the negotiating process.
He’s going to skate, carry the puck and log a lot of minutes for us for a long time. The fact that he wanted to be a Panther for life, for us, was really impressive.
Matheson is an elite skater, but hasn’t yet take the next step to being an offensive force for the Panthers. They’ll hope he can find that next level after registering 17 points last season. The 23-year old will see his eight-year, $39MM contract ($4.88MM AAV) kick in next year.
- Ottawa Senators defenseman Ben Harpur has been placed on injured reserve with a shoulder injury according to Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia. The Senators have nine defensemen on the roster after the call-up of Thomas Chabot, but both Erik Karlsson and Johnny Oduya are still not locks to get back into the lineup. The team may have to go with seven defensemen anyway in their next game, as they look to rebound from consecutive shootout losses to open the season.
- The NHL released its first “Three Stars of the Week” for the 2017-18 season, and who else but Alex Ovechkin could be number one. Ovechkin scored an incredible seven goals in his first two games, almost as a direct response to all those who doubted his place on the Capitals going forward. After so much was written about how the Capitals may have to break up their core in order to win, Ovechkin came storming out of the gate and helped the club to two wins to start the season. Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, and Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds were the second and third stars respectively.
NHL Snapshots: Kadri, Sanheim, Matheson, Jaros
Toronto Maple Leafs center Nazem Kadri is entering his ninth season of playing NHL hockey and for the first time ever, the 27-year-old broke the 30-goal plateau last year. Yet the center who feeds Patrick Marleau and Leo Komarov, believes he can do it again, according to Jonas Siegel of The Athletic (subscription required).
Siegel analyzes whether Kadri can, in fact, accomplish his boast. He writes that Kadri has one major asset that’s in his favor — to have a key role on one of the best power play units in the league, which he does. He scored 12 of his 32 goals last year on the power play, which was eighth in the league. Now with Marleau around added to the team’s arsenal, Kadri could very likely accomplish that feat.
However, one other thing that Siegel points out is that Kadri has learned a lot after having played in more than 400 games. His experience has taught him where to set up in front of the net, how to anticipate a scoring opportunity and quick reactions.
- Sam Cardichi of Philly.com writes that Philadelphia Flyers’ Travis Sanheim will likely stick with the Flyers for the time being after a bounce-back game against the Anaheim Ducks. Unfortunately, that means that 22-year-old defenseman Samuel Morin will likely be sent down to Lehigh Valley soon, despite a strong preseason and receiving three healthy scratches in the team’s first three games.
- NBC Sports Adam Gretz breaks down the Florida Panthers future salary cap situation after the team locked up defenseman Michael Matheson to an eight-year, $39MM contract Saturday. He writes the team now has nine players who are signed through the next four seasons, of which six are 25 years or under and they total $47.3MM combined. The group of Aaron Ekblad, Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov, Vincent Trocheck, and Nick Bjugstad lead their youth movement, while they also have Keith Yandle, Roberto Luongo and James Reimer locked up. However, Gretz writes that since the team doesn’t have any upcoming big contracts to hand out, the team will have a significant amount of cap space to fill out their roster with even more talent, suggesting that the Panthers are heading in the right direction.
- Along with the recall of Thomas Chabot, the Ottawa Senators also recalled defenseman Christian Jaros on Sunday. The 21-year-old defenseman came over from Sweden just this year and has played in just two games for the Belleville Senators, picking up one assist. He and Chabot will fill in for all the team’s defensive injuries.
Chabot Recalled To Fill In For Injured Defensemen
- CBS Sports reports that Ottawa Senators have recalled top defensive prospect Thomas Chabot Sunday to help fill in for their many defensive injuries. The team is currently without Erik Karlsson, who is still out after foot surgery this offseason, as well as Johnny Oduya, who is out with a lower-body injury. The team attempted to fulfil their defensive needs a couple days ago when they promoted Ben Harpur, who has two years of AHL experience, unlike Chabot who has just two games of AHL experience, but Harpur suffered an upper-body injury in last night’s game against the Detroit Red Wings. The 20-year-old Chabot had a goal and an assist in his first two games with the Belleville Senators. The 2015 first-rounder was one of the team’s final cuts, which surprised many, but he was held responsible for a poor preseason performance, a 9-2 drubbing to the Montreal Canadiens, in which he finished the game with a plus/minus rating of -5.