Latest On Shane Pinto
Failing to clear the adequate cap space throughout the offseason, the Ottawa Senators are still unable to sign restricted free agent forward Shane Pinto. Throughout the last several weeks, Mathieu Joseph and his $2.95MM cap hit have popped up in the rumor mill, listed as a viable cap-clearing candidate for the Senators to afford Pinto’s new deal. Even recently, former first-round pick, Erik Brannstrom has also seen his name appear in trade negotiations.
Nevertheless, without an apparent end in sight to the contract negotiations, and simply too much attention on the entire ordeal, both Darren Dreger and Bruce Garrioch of TSN are reporting that Pinto has left Ottawa for the time being, and has returned home to the United States to continue his training. With only a handful of teams being able to comfortably fit in either contract of Joseph or Brannstrom at this point of the season, the unfortunate stalemate between the Senators and Pinto may continue for the next couple of weeks, if not longer.
If Ottawa is expecting to compete for a playoff spot in the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference, they may need to pull the trigger on a trade sooner, rather than later. In Pinto’s absence, and with Joshua Norris still working his way back from a shoulder injury, the Senators now have to deploy Rourke Chartier as one of their centermen, a 27-year-old veteran of only 20 NHL games.
Last season for the Senators, in a rather explosive breakout season for the organization, Pinto would play in all 82 games, scoring 20 goals and 15 assists. Even down the middle of the ice specifically, he did well with a 52.1% faceoff percentage, although 56.9% of those opportunities were in the team’s offensive zone. In the meantime, Pinto will continue training at home in an effort to be game-ready once there is a resolution on a new contract.
Devon Toews Signs Seven Year Extension In Colorado
4:46 p.m.: PuckPedia has the full breakdown of Toews’ deal, which reads as follows. Toews has a full no-movement clause in 2024-25 and 2025-26, which downgrades to a 12-team no-trade list in 2026-27 and remains in place for the life of the deal.
2024-25: $7.75MM salary
2025-26: $7.75MM salary
2026-27: $5.25MM salary, $1MM signing bonus
2027-28: $7.75MM salary
2028-29: $7.75MM salary
2029-30: $7.5MM salary
2030-31: $6MM salary
11:16 a.m.: Devon Toews has signed a seven-year contract extension with the Colorado Avalanche. The contract will start in the 2024-25 season and end following the 2030-31 season. The new deal carries an annual cap hit of $7.25MM, per The Athletic’s Peter Baugh, or a $50.75MM total value. The deal starts in Toews’ age-30 season and ends following his age-37 year. This likely means that Toews will spend the rest of his career with the Avalanche, something he expressed interest in before the season started. Toews joined the Avalanche via trade ahead of the 2020-21 season, when Colorado sent two second-round picks to the Islanders for him.
Since then, Toews has played in an even 200 games with the Avalanche, recording 139 points along the way. He’s become a featured piece of the Avalanche roster, averaging around 25 minutes of ice time each night through his first three seasons with the club. He was also a major piece of the Avalanche’s 2022 Stanley Cup run, playing in 20 games and netting 15 points while averaging nearly 26 minutes of ice time through the postseason.
Despite multiple 50-point seasons and a track record of success with the Avalanche, Toews didn’t make the NHL until he was 24. The defender was drafted in the fourth round of the 2014 NHL Draft, following his freshman year at Quinnipiac University. He would go on to play through his junior year, before moving to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the AHL for the 2016-17 season. Toews recorded 45 points in 76 AHL games that year – his first season of pro hockey. He would go on to play in 54 more AHL games over the next two seasons, before playing his rookie season in the NHL in 2018-19. He appeared in 116 games with the Islanders over two seasons, scoring 47 points, before being dealt to Colorado.
Toews has one assist and a +2 rating in one game this season.
Sharks To Place Mikael Granlund On Injured Reserve
San Jose Sharks center Mikael Granlund will be placed on injured reserve after re-aggravating a lower-body injury in last night’s season opener against the Vegas Golden Knights, Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News reports. Granlund logged 15:36 of ice time before leaving early in the third period. No corresponding recall has been made yet, nor has the IR placement been registered with the league.
Granlund is still listed as day-to-day, and it’s unclear whether he’ll miss more than the seven days (and three games, in this case) required to land on IR. Head coach David Quinn told reporters (including The Hockey News’ Max Miller) that Granlund is “not feeling great today” and that he noticed the previous injury rearing its head early in the game. The summer trade acquisition from the Pittsburgh Penguins as part of the Erik Karlsson deal missed a significant chunk of preseason with the injury.
Granlund is coming off a brutal end to the 2022-23 season, during which he scored just one goal and five points in 21 contests with the Penguins after they acquired him via trade from the Nashville Predators in March. The 31-year-old never lived up to expectations in Nashville after they acquired him from the Minnesota Wild for then-youngster Kevin Fiala, only eclipsing the 50-point mark once after doing so thrice with the Wild. Last season was also one of the worst of his career defensively, posting a -15 rating and 48.2% Corsi share at even strength.
His injury leaves the Sharks with 12 healthy forwards, meaning a recall is necessary for the Sharks to have an extra on the roster. Most of their likely recall options – namely Ryan Carpenter, Oskar Lindblom or Jacob Peterson – are not waiver-exempt and would need to clear again should they play more than ten games or stay on the roster for 30 days. For now, Luke Kunin is likely to shift to center after playing on Granlund’s wing last night, and Kevin Labanc will likely make his season debut tomorrow against the Colorado Avalanche after sitting against Vegas.
Oilers Sign Adam Erne To Two-Way Deal
4:28 p.m.: Erne’s contract carries a $250K salary in the AHL and a $300K guarantee, per PuckPedia.
3:33 p.m.: The Edmonton Oilers signed veteran winger Adam Erne to a one-year, two-way deal, per a team announcement. Erne, 28, will earn $775K at the NHL level after spending camp with the Oilers on a professional tryout.
This contract likely won’t be officially registered until tomorrow after defenseman Markus Niemeläinen is off the roster one way or another – he was placed on waivers today. The Oilers currently have just $395K in cap space with a roster of 11 forwards and eight defensemen, per CapFriendly, and two of their defenders (Niemeläinen and Mattias Ekholm) were out with short-term injuries that prohibited them from dressing in Wednesday’s season opener. Putting Niemeläinen’s $762.5K cap hit in the minors – or on another team, if claimed – will afford the Oilers space to put Erne’s new deal on the books, giving them 12 forwards.
Signing Erne will also give them an extra skater for tomorrow’s game against Vancouver, as Ekholm is now expected to play after missing all of camp and the team’s first game of the season with a nagging hip injury. One of Philip Broberg or Vincent Desharnais will likely come out of the lineup to give Edmonton 12 forwards and six defensemen.
Erne is coming off a 2022-23 season in which he scored eight goals, ten assists and 18 points with 21 penalty minutes and a -12 rating in 61 games for the Detroit Red Wings. It was the type of production we’ve come to expect from the bottom-six winger, who’s amassed 40 goals, 49 assists and 89 points in 355 games over seven NHL seasons. Erne, a typical grinder and an early second-round pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, will likely slot in alongside Mattias Janmark and Derek Ryan on the Oilers’ fourth line.
Kings Place Viktor Arvidsson On LTIR
Oct 13, 3:10 p.m.: The Kings reversed the AHL swaps today, per CapFriendly’s transactions log. Kaliyev is back up on the active roster to serve the final game of his suspension tomorrow, while Laferriere is also joined by Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Jordan Spence, who were brought up with the cap space afforded by Arvidsson’s LTIR placement. This move affords the Kings an extra skater on the roster for the time being, a number that will increase to two when Kaliyev is eligible to play.
Oct 12, 2:33 p.m.: The Los Angeles Kings have placed winger Viktor Arvidsson on long-term injured reserve. This will require him to miss at least 10 games or 24 days of action. The Kings have coupled this with a pair of AHL swaps – sending Arthur Kaliyev and Alex Laferriere to the AHL and recalling Alex Turcotte and Brandt Clarke.
Arvidsson, 30, originally suffered this lower-body injury at a team practice and was originally listed as day-to-day. He now finds himself on LTIR and will miss the rest of October. This is a major blow for a player who was slowly working his way back from bouts with the injury bug. Arvidsson played in 77 games last season, the most he’s played in one year since the 2017-18 season. He tallied 26 goals and 59 points in those games, ranking third on the team in goals and fourth in points.
The Kings now turn towards a pair of rookie talents in Turcotte and Clarke – two high-end prospects that have yet to find their way into consistent NHL playing time. Turcotte has seen 12 career NHL games over the last two seasons but has yet to record a point. This is contrary to the scoring he’s managed in the AHL, where he’s tallied 35 points through 59 games since 2021-22. Brandt Clarke appeared in nine games for the Kings last year, netting two points and recording six penalty minutes. This was an exciting cap to a journeyman season for Clarke; a year that saw him play in the OHL, AHL, and NHL. Both players are former top-10 draftees (Turcotte #5 in 2019, Clarke #8 in 2021) and will look to prove their worth as new members of the 2023-24 Kings roster.
By recalling Turcotte and Clarke prior to placing Arvidsson on LTIR, the Kings made enough cap space to afford the duo’s performance bonuses. They can send the pair down, and recall Kaliyev and Laferriere, prior to their Saturday game with Carolina if they would like.
Blue Jackets Place Zach Werenski On Injured Reserve, Recall David Jiricek
The Columbus Blue Jackets announced a pair of roster moves this morning, placing defenseman Zach Werenski on injured reserve after sustaining a quad contusion in last night’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers on a hit from forward Garnet Hathaway, which resulted in a minor penalty and $5,000 fine. Werenski will miss between one and two weeks. In response, the team recalled top defense prospect David Jiricek from AHL Cleveland.
This continues to be a tough stretch of injury luck for Werenski, who missed the last 69 games of last season with a shoulder injury. Werenski skated 13:43 last night and recorded a -1 rating before exiting the game, which ended up being a 4-2 loss for Columbus in their home opener. It was the start of a four-game homestand for the Jackets, who don’t play on the road until October 21st at Minnesota.
It opens the door for Jiricek, the sixth-overall pick in 2022, to force his way onto the roster over the next few games. The Blue Jackets are reportedly shopping a defenseman to make room for Jiricek on the active roster, but a trade might now wait until later in the month with Werenski on the sidelines. Jiricek was one of the best rookies in the AHL last season, logging 38 points in 55 games for the Cleveland Monsters and earning a look in four NHL games with Columbus. He’s still looking for his first NHL point, however.
Columbus head coach Pascal Vincent confirmed earlier this morning that it wasn’t likely to be a long-term absence for Werenski, the team’s undisputed number-one defender. However, Jiricek, a right-shot defenseman, won’t be able to directly replace the role of Werenski, who plays on the left side. While Jiricek could get some significant minutes over the next few weeks, the most direct effect of this injury will be on offseason addition Ivan Provorov, who will now likely slide up to the top pairing alongside Damon Severson. Provorov had a tough outing against his former team last night, recording just two shot attempts and a -2 rating in over 25 minutes of ice time.
Snapshots: Team Canada, Kings, Carolina Injuries, Fabbri
Team Canada’s U20 roster has announced that Alan Letang will serve as the team’s head coach, while Pete Anholt and Brent Seabrook will serve in management roles.
TSN’s Gord Miller quips that Letang has been a “gold medal magnet” in recent years, leading Canada to gold at the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Cup this August and serving as an assistant coach for the championship-winning Canadians at the 2020 and 2023 World Junior Championship. Pete Anholt has served as the Lethbridge Hurricanes’ general manager since 2015. He also served as a head coach in the WHL for 15 seasons between 1989 and 2007.
This will be Brent Seabrook’s first involvement with the Canada U20 team since he played for them in 2004 and 2005, appearing at the World Junior Championship in both years. Since his NHL career ended in 2019-20, Seabrook has served as an assistant and development coach with the Vancouver Giants.
Other notes from around the league:
- The Los Angeles Kings have sent Alex Turcotte and Brandt Clarke to the AHL and recalled Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Arthur Kaliyev, Alex Laferriere, and Jordan Spence. The Kings previously swapped Turcotte and Clarke for Kaliyev and Laferriere, in an effort to make cap space for Turcotte and Clarke’s performance bonuses. Along with this news, Spence has shared that he will be changing his number from 53 to 21.
- The Carolina Hurricanes have shared an update on Vasily Ponomarev and Ryan Suzuki‘s injuries, with head coach Rod Brind’Amour saying that both players are, “still a ways away.” Suzuki is recovering from a shoulder injury, while Ponomarev is nursing a knee injury.
- Robby Fabbri has been announced as day-to-day and won’t play in the Red Wings’ Saturday game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Detroit will need to recall a player in the wake of Fabbri’s absence, although if they’ll opt to ice 12 forwards and six defensemen versus 11 forwards and seven defensemen is yet to be seen.
Daniel Alfredsson Returns To Ottawa In Coaching Role
Daniel Alfredsson has returned to the Ottawa Senators organization, this time in a key development and coaching role, per the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch. Alfredsson took the ice with the Senators during their Friday morning practice – fans’ first look at Alfredsson in his new role. The exact details of Alfredsson’s role, or his job title, aren’t known yet, although President of Senators Hockey Operations Steve Staios said, “He’s going to be with our players, our coaches, he’s going to be around the room and he’s going to help them out. It’s player development, but also coaching Certainly D.J. was thrilled with the possibility of Alfie being part of this.”
All but 68 games of Alfredsson’s Hall-of-Fame career were spent with the Senators, who drafted the forward in the sixth round of the 1994 NHL Draft. He made his debut with the club during the 1995-96 season, scoring 26 goals and 61 points. This earned him the Calder Trophy, given to the Rookie of the Year, beating out runner-ups Éric Dazé and Ed Jovanovski. Alfredsson would go on to become an integral piece of the Senators organization for 17 seasons, netting a 100-point season in 2005-06, winning the King Clancy Memorial Trophy in 2011-12, and the Mark Messier Leadership Award in 2012-13.
Garrioch points out that new Senators owner Michael Andlauer was a piece of returning Guy Lafleur to the Montreal Canadiens organization when he was a part-owner of the team. Alfredsson’s eyes apparently “lit up” when he was offered this new coaching and development role. On bringing him back, Staios said, “Never mind that he’s Daniel Alfredsson, I look at his character and his acumen, I was eager to get him in wherever he wanted… His role will grow, as we discussed, but he’s got a great deal of passion for the game. We wanted to get him on the ice and get him started.”
Morning Notes: Werenski, Johansson, Pietrangelo
As reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Columbus Blue Jackets franchise defenseman Zach Werenski exited last night’s game after suffering a quad contusion. Werenski was injured on an apparent knee-to-knee collision with Philadelphia Flyers forward Garnet Hathaway, and Blue Jackets head coach Pascal Vincent told reporters that Werenski’s injury is not believed to be one that will cause a long-term absence.
This development is extremely unfortunate, as Werenski, 26, was limited to just 13 games played last season due to injury. Although this injury may not keep Werenski out “long-term,” it is not clear exactly when he’ll be able to return to the ice for Columbus. That alone is a major blow for the club, as Werenski is the best player in an organization dripping with desperation to return to the playoffs after a nightmarish 2022-23 campaign. In what is expected to be a cutthroat Metropolitan Division playoff race, the Blue Jackets will have to hope Werenski can return to full health quickly so they can avoid falling behind.
- Minnesota Wild forward Marcus Johansson left last night’s season opener with an apparent injury after being “crumpled into the boards” by Florida Panthers rookie defenseman Uvis Balinskis. Per The Athletic’s Michael Russo, Wild head coach Dean Evason did not give any update on Johansson’s status postgame. Russo surmised that a Johansson absence might force the Wild to either run seven defensemen for their next game, swap Dakota Mermis off their roster for a cheap call-up from the AHL’s Iowa Wild, or play a man short.
- Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo had a scary moment during last night’s season-opening victory against the San Jose Sharks, one where he took a Nic Hague shot up high. The result, as reported by The Athletic’s Jesse Granger, was that Pietrangelo was bleeding “a lot.” Granger adds that Pietrangelo was able to “skate off” the ice and “seemed fine” given the circumstances, so perhaps that painful moment from last night’s game won’t end up having any more lasting implications for Pietrangelo’s health.
Senators Have Had Erik Brannstrom Trade Talks
As Ottawa looks to clear up cap space to sign Shane Pinto, a second trade option has emerged. While it’s well-known that the Senators have had discussions surrounding Mathieu Joseph, TSN’s Darren Dreger reports in the latest Insider Trading segment (video link) that the Sens have also had trade discussions involving defenseman Erik Brannstrom.
The 24-year-old was the centerpiece of the Mark Stone trade back in 2019 as Ottawa hoped that the 2017 first-rounder would become a key cog on their back end, particularly on the offensive side of the ice. That hasn’t exactly happened though as Brannstrom has just four goals in 191 career appearances at the top level. While he established himself as an every-game regular last season, he averaged just 16:07 per game, basically being their sixth defender.
On the surface, moving Brannstrom should be an easier task for GM Pierre Dorion than Joseph. While Joseph has three years left on his deal at a $2.95MM cap hit, Brannstrom is on a one-year agreement at a $2MM cost. With a lot of teams capped out or close to it, even $2MM isn’t the easiest for some clubs to take on but with a shorter-term agreement, a few teams might be more open to it.
That said, with Ottawa’s cap situation (they have less than $65K in room, per CapFriendly), moving out Brannstrom alone isn’t enough to get them enough money for Pinto as he’s expected to come in around the $2.5MM mark on his contract. In Brannstrom’s case, they’d need to bring a sixth defender back onto the roster if he was to be moved, eating into their cost savings. A follow-up move would need to be made – potentially via the waiver wire – in order for the money to fall into place.
On top of that, it’s worth noting that if Pinto gets a two-year bridge deal as expected, the cap hit for this season will be higher than the AAV (while next season would be lower). That gap from the AAV increases each day he goes unsigned, creating a bit more pressure for Dorion to find a suitable cap-clearing trade sooner than later whether it involves Brannstrom, Joseph, or someone else.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.