Evening Notes: Toews, Hurricanes, Mechura
Adrian Dater wrote on X today that the Colorado Avalanche and Devon Toews have made some progress toward a contract extension for the pending free-agent defenseman, but he is hearing that they aren’t nearing a deal yet. Dater added that he isn’t sure if Toews will negotiate into the regular season, but his sense is that both sides will continue talking.
Toews has been widely regarded as one of the NHL’s best bargains over the last few seasons since joining the Avalanche in 2020. He is in the final season of a four-year contract that carries an AAV of $4.1MM and could come close to doubling his cap hit on a long-term deal. The 29-year-old has posted 29 goals and 109 assists in 199 games as a member of the Avalanche and has received Norris Trophy consideration in each of the past three seasons.
In other evening notes:
- Cory Lavalette of The Athletic tweeted today that Carolina Hurricanes General Manager Don Waddell has said that the team is not actively shopping any of their defensemen. The Hurricanes currently have four defensemen who are pending unrestricted free agents in Tony DeAngelo, Brett Pesce, Brady Skjei, and Jalen Chatfield, and appear uninterested in moving out any of their depth. While Waddell said the team isn’t actively trying to move out anyone, he didn’t close the door on a trade should a team come along with a good offer for one of the team’s rearguards.
- Mark Divver of NHL.com is reporting that the Providence Bruins have signed 20-year-old undrafted center Adam Mechura to a two-year AHL contract. The native of Pisek, Czech Republic played for the Bruins at the Prospects Challenge before he was invited to the Providence training camp. The 6’4” 208-pounder spent last season in the WHL with the Tri-City Americans where he posted 26 goals and 26 assists in 58 games. The Bruins are looking for creative ways to build depth after spending many years moving out future assets, with this move they essentially get a young player with size into their AHL lineup without giving up an asset.
Buffalo Sabres Sign Owen Power To Seven-Year Extension
The Buffalo Sabres have signed 2021 first-overall pick Owen Power to a seven-year contract extension carrying an $8.35MM cap hit, the team announced Wednesday night. Per PuckPedia, Power’s total compensation equals $8.35MM in all seven seasons of the contract, which begins in 2024-25, except that he’s due a $2MM signing bonus when the contract begins next summer. He is only eligible for trade protection in the final two seasons of the deal, during which he’ll have a five-team no-trade list.
Buffalo’s cornerstone defenders are now locked up together through the 2030-31 season. Rasmus Dahlin signed an eight-year, $88MM extension two days ago that takes him through the 2031-32 campaign, one season past Power. Power’s agent, Pat Brisson, tells TSN’s Pierre LeBrun that extension talks accelerated over the past few days “with a mutual desire to get it done before opening night.”
It’s quite a significant long-term commitment for a player with just one full NHL season under their belt, but it’s a trend we’re seeing quickly come into view with young defensemen. The Ottawa Senators signed a similar eight-year, $64MM extension with rising sophomore defender Jake Sanderson over a month ago.
Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams has not been shy about getting his core locked up long-term. Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens and Mattias Samuelsson are also all signed through at least the 2029-30 campaign.
Power, 20, finished third in Calder Trophy voting last season behind Edmonton Oilers netminder Stuart Skinner and former University of Michigan teammate and Kraken center Matthew Beniers. He notched 35 points in 79 contests and posted solid possession metrics, showing some room for improvement defensively but displayed the elite play-driving senses and 6-foot-6 frame that earned him the first-overall choice over two years ago.
Those numbers are even more impressive considering the role he was able to carve out for himself, still managing to average nearly 24 minutes per game despite playing second fiddle to Dahlin. His 23:48 average places him fifth all-time among defenders in their rookie season and the highest since Drew Doughty averaged 23:50 for the Kings in his rookie campaign, 2008-09.
The contract keeps Dahlin and Power anchoring the Sabres’ top two defense pairings for the better part of the next decade for a combined cost of $19.35MM per season. CapFriendly now projects the Sabres with $25MM in cap space next season with a roster size of 12. Their most notable unsigned talent for next season is center Casey Mittelstadt, who is a pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights.
On that note, this extension offers Power a direct path to unrestricted free agency after just his rookie season. The contract buys out two UFA seasons.
This season is the third and final one of his entry-level contract, meaning his services will come at the cost of just $917K against the cap for another year before the massive extension kicks in. He’s projected to reprise his role on the team’s second pairing behind Dahlin, likely flanked by Henri Jokiharju on his right.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Brett Howden Suspended Two Games For Illegal Check To The Head
Vegas Golden Knights winger Brett Howden was issued a two-game suspension today for an illegal check to the head of Seattle Kraken winger Brandon Tanev in last night’s game, per the NHL Department of Player Safety.
In the short term, expect a domino effect for the Golden Knights. With winger William Carrier also injured in their season-opening win, head coach Bruce Cassidy said earlier today that Pavel Dorofeyev will draw into the lineup tomorrow against the San Jose Sharks after serving as a healthy scratch last night. With Howden suspended, Cassidy also said the team will recall forward Jonas Røndbjerg from AHL Henderson.
Howden was assessed a match penalty by officials on the play. NHL DoPS ruled that Howden made the head the principal point of contact “on a hit where such head contact was avoidable.” The 25-year-old forward has no previous fines or suspensions on record with DoPS.
Howden skated 11:57 before being removed from the game, recording the primary assist on Chandler Stephenson‘s game-opening goal. The 25-year-old signed a two-year, $3.8MM contract to remain a Golden Knight this summer after notching 10 points in 22 postseason games on the team’s run to the 2023 Stanley Cup.
Blue Jackets Notes: Boumedienne, Boll, McCarthy
A day before they kick off their 2023-24 schedule, the Columbus Blue Jackets have filled the assistant coaching vacancy on their bench. The team hired Josef Boumedienne today to fill the role vacated by Pascal Vincent’s sudden recent promotion to head coach, per a team announcement.
It’s a nice promotion for the former NHL defenseman, who has been a member of the Blue Jackets since retiring from his playing career a decade ago. First joining the squad as a European scout for the 2013-14 season, he was promoted to the team’s Director of European Scouting three years later. He jumped up the ladder again in 2021 to serve as their Director of Professional Scouting, and now, two seasons later, he’ll be behind an NHL bench for the first time.
This is not Boumedienne’s first coaching experience, although his previous résumé in coaching roles is limited. He briefly served as the head coach for SHL club Brynäs IF for the league’s play-out round in 2021, and he held a coaching role within the Blue Jackets’ youth program last season. Now 45, Boumedienne skated in 47 NHL contests between 2001 and 2004 with the Capitals, Devils and Lightning.
Some other coaching news out of Columbus today:
- Columbus also announced one-year extensions for their other assistants, starting with longtime Blue Jackets enforcer Jared Boll. The 37-year-old has been a member of the Blue Jackets coaching staff since 2018. He initially started as an assistant development coach before transitioning into the role of an assistant coach for this season. Between playing in Columbus and shortly in Anaheim, Boll accumulated 28 goals, 38 assists, and 66 points, along with 1,298 penalty minutes, over the course of 579 games played during his 11-year tenure in the NHL.
- Steve McCarthy, also once an NHLer, received a one-year extension to match Boll. The 42-year-old has been in the Columbus organization since 2016 when he was brought on as an assistant coach for the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters. He was promoted to the NHL bench in 2021. The 42-year-old was once a first-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks and skated in over 300 NHL games across eight seasons.
West Notes: Hintz, Mikheyev, Winnipeg
Before their opening night matchup tomorrow night, Lia Assimakopoulos of the Dallas Morning News gives some clarification on the status of Dallas Stars’ forward Roope Hintz, sharing that he will be a game-time decision. Since September 27th, during training camp, Hintz has been out of the Stars’ lineup due to an upper-body injury, and Dallas does not seem keen to rush him back for the start of the regular season.
Starting off the first year of an eight-year, $67.6MM extension signed last season, Hintz will surely be a key missing part of the Stars’ lineup if he is unable to play. Dallas will be able to survive for the time being with him out of the lineup but would have a hard time replacing a player of his caliber in the lineup if it is more long-term.
At the very least, with the addition of Matt Duchene this summer and an incredibly affordable one-year, $3MM deal, the Stars appear to have added appropriate depth in case something such as this transpired. Not only do the Stars appear headed for a war with the Colorado Avalanche for the Central Division, but they are also looking to compete as the top team in the Western Conference, and potentially the entire league.
Other notes from the Western Conference:
- One player who is confirmed to not be playing opening night is Ilya Mikheyev of the Vancouver Canucks. Relaying on the news from the head coach of the Canucks, Rick Tocchet, Brendan Batchelor of Sportsnet announces Mikheyev will indeed miss the season opener. Mikheyev is still rehabbing from an ACL injury sustained last season in January, an injury that would prematurely end his season.
- Murat Ates of The Athletic shares that the Winnipeg Jets have sent Simon Kubicek, Mark Liwiski, and Thomas Milic to their ECHL affiliate, the Norfolk Admirals. Last year, Kubicek also played in the AHL for the Manitoba Moose, while Liwiski spent his entire season in the ECHL for the Wichita Thunder. Milic, on the other hand, was the 151st overall selection for the Jets in the 2023 NHL Draft, coming out of the Seattle Thunderbirds organization of the WHL.
Montreal Canadiens To Assign Joel Armia To AHL, Recall Arber Xhekaj
Although an official team announcement is pending at this time, CapFriendly reports that the Montreal Canadiens will send down forward Joel Armia to their AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket, as well as recall defenseman Arber Xhekaj in a corresponding move.
In this move, it will be the first time since the 2015-16 season, then under contract with the Winnipeg Jets organization, that Armia will spend some time in the American Hockey League. Acquired from the Canadiens in 2018, Armia was actually included as a sweetener in a deal that would see Montreal absorb the contract of goaltender Steve Mason. After a couple of solid seasons in Montreal, mostly due to injuries, Armia’s production has continued to slip, losing him a spot on the roster for the foreseeable future.
On the positive side of the coin to this deal, the Canadiens will see the return of one of their more imposing defenseman from last season. Due to a shoulder injury in February that would derail the remainder of his season, Xhekaj would play in 51 total games, scoring five goals and eight assists. More importantly, given his style of play on the blue line, Xhekaj would throw a total of 159 hits during his rookie campaign, as well as nine fights.
With cap space being a bit of an afterthought this season in their rebuilding efforts, the Canadiens will accrue a $2.25MM buried penalty for sending Armia to the AHL. The new-look cast in Montreal will start their season off this evening against their long-time rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Sharks Notes: Simek, MacDonald, Okhotiuk, Couture, Bailey, Kaspick
Before their opening night matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights tomorrow night, Curtis Pashelka of Bay Area News relayed some injury information from the San Jose Sharks. Pashelka notes that defensemen Radim Simek, Jacob MacDonald, and Nikita Okhotiuk are all returning from injury.
There wasn’t any further information regarding their status for tomorrow night. Still, the fact that they are now all back skating gives some optimism that San Jose could see the return of several important blueliners in the coming days. For the time being, Simek and MacDonald are currently on injured reserve, while Okhotiuk finds himself on the season-opening injured reserve.
Throughout this year, the Sharks will give Simek plenty of opportunity and ice time, as he would be a prime trade deadline candidate on a contending team to shore up the bottom six of a defensive core. Okhotiuk on the other hand, a former second-round selection of the New Jersey Devils back in 2019, is a potential building block on defense in San Jose, after being acquired at last season’s trade deadline.
Other Sharks notes:
- In a bit more negative injury information, Pashelka also relays on that Sharks’ captain, Logan Couture, did not skate today, and has had some sort of setback in his lower-body injury. Being placed on injured reserve on September 21st during training camp, the going notion was that Couture would be evaluated on a week-to-week basis. Given that tomorrow will mark three weeks on injured reserve for the veteran forward, there may be some pessimism surrounding Couture’s availability tomorrow night.
- Still coming from Pashelka, and moving away from injuries, he announces that the AHL affiliate of the Sharks, the San Jose Barracuda, are planning on signing forwards Justin Bailey and Tanner Kaspick to AHL contracts for the upcoming season. Of the two, Bailey is the only one with NHL experience, playing a total of 82 games over seven years, scoring five goals and four assists.
Lightning Recall Zach Bogosian
The Tampa Bay Lightning recalled veteran defenseman Zach Bogosian from the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch today, according to CapFriendly. A spot opened up on the roster after forward Alex Barré-Boulet cleared waivers today, and he was assigned to Syracuse in a corresponding transaction.
Bogosian, 33, was waived just a few days ago as a casualty of the Lightning’s moves to capture the highest possible accruable cap space limit before placing netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy on in-season LTIR. After Barré-Boulet sat as a scratch for yesterday’s season-opening win against the Nashville Predators, Bogosian will now return to the team moving forward.
Recalling the 226-pound right-shot defender gives Tampa eight defensemen on the active roster alongside 13 forwards, although only 12 of them are healthy. Tyler Motte sustained an undisclosed injury in the third period yesterday, and assistant coach Jeff Blashill informed reporters today that Motte is listed as day-to-day. Blashill also mentioned the possibility of recalling Barré-Boulet or Gabriel Fortier if they need another healthy forward, but that would require returning Bogosian to Syracuse as they’re up against the 23-player roster limit. Bogosian has 30 days or 10 games played before he requires waivers again to head to the minors.
Bogosian is in the final season of a three-year, $2.55MM deal signed with Tampa in the summer of 2021. The deal’s paid off, as Bogosian has provided some solid veteran duties but now finds himself slipping out of an everyday role. He hasn’t eclipsed the 60-game mark since 2018-19 with the Buffalo Sabres. He recorded five points in 46 games last season, recording a -4 rating and logging 42 penalty minutes.
Maple Leafs Recall Simon Benoit
10/12 – The Leafs have loaned Benoit back to the Toronto Marlies.
10/11 – The Toronto Maple Leafs have recalled defenseman Simon Benoit from the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, according to a team release Wednesday. In a corresponding transaction, they returned forward Bobby McMann to the Marlies after he cleared waivers earlier today.
Benoit will serve as the lone extra skater on the active roster and is not expected to play in tonight’s season-opening contest against the Montreal Canadiens. He can stay on the NHL roster for up to 30 days (or 10 games played) before he requires waivers to be returned to the minors.
The Maple Leafs signed Benoit, 25, to a one-year, league-minimum contract in August. The Laval, Québec, native played in a career-high 78 games last season for the Anaheim Ducks, notching ten points and a -29 rating whilst facing some tough minutes on a poor defensive squad.
Benoit is one of a trio of veteran blueliners signed to league-minimum deals Toronto has stashed in the minors, along with William Lagesson and Maxime Lajoie. Earlier in the preseason, few expected Benoit to be on the active roster for tonight’s game, given the team’s cap constraints, but defenseman Conor Timmins sustained a lower-body injury that has him on long-term injured reserve to start the campaign. He is out week-to-week, and while Benoit will likely remain up with the Leafs for a while, expect him to hit waivers again if needed upon Timmins’ return. Benoit was also sidelined with an injury of his own at one point, dealing with back spasms at the beginning of the preseason schedule.
Kings’ Viktor Arvidsson To Miss Season Opener, Arthur Kaliyev Recalled
1:46 p.m.: Kings head coach Todd McLellan informed reporters that Arvidsson’s timeline for return is “a bit longer than day-to-day” (via The Athletic’s Eric Stephens). Hence, an emergency recall to give the Kings a 12th forward for Saturday’s game is likely.
1:37 p.m.: Los Angeles Kings forward Viktor Arvidsson will miss tonight’s season opener against the Colorado Avalanche with a lower-body injury, team editorial content manager Zach Dooley relays. The Kings are expected to play down a forward and only dress 17 skaters due to cap constraints.
The team recalled forward Arthur Kaliyev from AHL Ontario today and assigned goaltender David Rittich there after clearing waivers. However, Kaliyev will miss the first two games of the season due to a four-game suspension doled out during preseason play for kneeing Anaheim Ducks forward Chase De Leo. Los Angeles does not have the cap space to recall an additional forward to replace Arvidsson.
Slotting in for the suspended Kaliyev, however, will be 21-year-old winger Alex Laferriere. The 83rd overall selection in the 2020 NHL Draft is expected to make his NHL debut on a line with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Kevin Fiala.
Playing short a forward creates the option of a $0 emergency recall for the Kings to execute before their second game of the season, which is Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes. Of course, that would be unnecessary if Arvidsson is ready to return. He’s listed as day-to-day and has not been ruled out for that contest. Arvidsson, 30, enjoyed quite a strong campaign with the Kings last season, recording 26 goals and 59 points in 77 games. He is entering the final season of a seven-year, $29.75MM contract initially signed with the Nashville Predators in 2017 and is slated for unrestricted free agency in the summer.