Lightning Haven’t Spoken To Stamkos About Contract Extension
Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos had a frank interview with reporters that appeared on Sportsnet today. In the interview, Stamkos tells reporters that he and the team have yet to start discussions on an extension to his expiring contract. The interview created a buzz and even led Lightning General Manager Julien BriseBois to respond with an interview of his own.
The 33-year-old Stamkos is set to begin his 16th season with the club and is coming off back-to-back productive seasons after he was slowed by injuries for a few years. Stamkos posted 34 goals and 50 assists last season in 81 games and was even better the year before posting 42 goals and 64 assists in 81 games.
It’s no surprise that Stamkos is looking for long-term security after taking a big discount on his last contract to remain in Tampa Bay. Back in June 2016 Stamkos signed an eight-year $68MM extension to remain in Tampa Bay and opted to forego unrestricted free agency. The contract turned out to be a win-win as Stamkos was able to raise the Stanley Cup twice with the Lightning and the team was able to keep their captain at a bargain.
Also of little surprise are Stamkos’ feelings about the situation, Tampa Bay typically engages the players they want to extend well before the completion of their existing deals. This has been modus operandi in the past, and it begs the question as to whether or not they want to extend Stamkos at all.
From Tampa’s perspective, BriseBois was frank with Tampa Bay beat reporter Chris Krenn saying that he wanted to see the season play out before making a decision on Stamkos’ future. He also added that after the season he would work with Stamkos and his agent to hammer out a deal that works for all parties involved.
It should be an interesting season in Tampa Bay as the Lightning are coming off a season in which they took a big step back and were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Lightning looked tired at times after three straight runs to the Stanley Cup final, but should be rested this season after a long summer.
Arizona Coyotes Extend Jan Jenik
The Arizona Coyotes announced today that they signed forward Jan Jenik to a one-year contract for the upcoming season. This marks a drastic turn from what seemed likely a month ago. At the time it was reported that Jenik was seeking a trade after not accepting his qualifying offer, but for now, it appears that his trade request is on hold, although nothing has been reported.
The native of Nymburk, Czech Republic was drafted by the Coyotes in the third round of the 2018 NHL entry draft and has yet to make much of a mark on the NHL. In 17 career games with the Coyotes the 23-year-old has posted just four goals and a single assist while posting a -3. While those numbers don’t jump off the page, context is important as he has a very small sample size and has started almost 61% of his shifts in the defensive zone.
As you would expect, Jenik has had far more success in the AHL as last year he registered seven goals and 16 assists in 30 games with the Tucson Roadrunners. Over the course of his AHL career, Jenik has posted 30 goals and 54 assists in 110 games all with the Roadrunners.
No financial details of the contract have been released and the deal appears to be of the two-way variety. This contract probably wasn’t Jenik’s first choice, but he has stated previously that his dream is to play in the NHL, and this will allow him to become a restricted free agent once again next summer.
Paul Byron Announces Retirement
The Montreal Canadiens have announced that former forward Paul Byron is retiring from playing hockey. Byron won’t be out of work long though as the club has also named him a Player Development Consultant with the team. The Ottawa, Ontario native spent seven years with the Canadiens after starting his career with the Buffalo Sabres and having a four-year run with the Calgary Flames.
Byron’s best season came in 2016-17 as a member of the Canadiens when he posted 22 goals and 21 assists in 81 games. He followed that up with a pair of strong seasons before injuries began to derail his career in 2019-20. Byron played for a number of years with a severe hip injury even taking cortisone injections at times to try and get through the pain of the ailment.
Byron eventually had surgery on his left hip and missed half of the 2021-22 season. He returned to play his 500th career NHL game and even scored a goal during the milestone event. Last season the Canadiens placed Byron on LTIR, and he did not return, missing the final season of his four-year contract.
It’s an unfortunate end for Byron, but it is a positive to see him still involved with hockey and the Canadiens. One can only hope that Byron’s injury is able to heal over time as his body will no longer take the physical toll that comes with being an NHL player. He will finish his NHL career with 98 career goals to go along with 110 assists in 521 career games.
Leafs Notes: Murray, Muzzin, Nylander
In an interview before training camp, Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving revealed that Matt Murray would need “significant” surgery that would take months to recover from. No other details were provided, in an effort to maintain Murray’s privacy.
The Leafs shared that Murray would begin the season on long-term injured reserve back in July and have been preparing for Ilya Samsonov to take the starter’s net ever since. Little detail was provided for why Murray would be on LTIR at the time and, while this update isn’t entirely telling in its own right, it seems fans now have a sense of what to expect with one of the newest Leafs goalies.
Murray posted a .903 save percentage and 14-8-2 record in only 26 games last season, his first with the Maple Leafs. The 29-year-old goalie carries a $4.6875MM cap hit this season and is set to become an unrestricted free agent next summer.
More Leafs Notes:
- Treliving also shared that defender Jake Muzzin won’t play this season. Muzzin suffered a cervical spine fracture in November of 2022 that’s put his entire playing career into doubt. This latest announcement doesn’t add much optimism either. Muzzin is also on an expiring contract, carrying a $5.625MM cap hit through the season.
- Treliving also provided an update on top winger William Nylander, sharing that getting Nylander signed to an extension was a priority for the team. This update falls in line with what fans have been hearing recently, but getting it emphasized from the general manager is good assurance to those worried that the Leafs may lose their 40-goal scorer.
Brad Marchand Named 27th Captain In Boston History
The Boston Bruins have named Brad Marchand the 27th captain in franchise history. He succeeds long-time linemate Patrice Bergeron in the role. Marchand has worn an ‘A’ for the club since the 2018-19 campaign, when Zdeno Chara was still captain.
And maybe because of that long-running assistant captain role, Brad Marchand felt like the obvious choice to wear the ‘C’ next. That’s despite all Marchand did to put off the topic, previously saying that the captaincy was one of the last things he wanted to focus on. He also said that, regardless of who the captain ended up being, this Bruins lineup was going to have to lift themselves up as a unit if they wanted to be successful.
That certainly makes sense when you look at the Boston roster. The team is coming off a historic 2022-23 campaign where they went 65-12-5. But they’ve experienced major turnover in the summer since, losing Bergeron and David Krejci to retirement from the NHL. They also suffered significant losses in Dmitry Orlov, Taylor Hall, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Nick Foligno. While the sextet had varying roles with last year’s Boston lineup, each of them leave a big hole to be filled.
Marchand will look to lead the new-look Bruins this season – his 14th with the club. The winger has spent his entire career with the Bruins after they drafted him in the Third Round of the 2006 NHL Draft. And despite finding success on the scoresheet, Marchand has struggled with riding out a full season, failing to appear in 80 or more games since 2016-17. With a new letter on his chest, and a new lineup looking up to him, Marchand’s surely hoping newfound responsibility brings better luck.
Carolina Takes Brett Pesce Off Of Trade Block
In his recent 32 Thoughts article, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shared that Brett Pesce is no longer available to teams – at least, for the time being. The veteran defender, and soon-to-be free agent, was given permission to talk to other teams during the summer but Carolina is going all-in this season, and that includes Pesce’s help.
Above all else, this decision provides clarity to the Hurricanes’ back end. The team is full of defensive talent, with their depth including Caleb Jones, Jalen Chatfield, Domenick Fensore, Dylan Coghlan, and recent PTO-signee Nathan Beaulieu. That’s a lot of competition for six blue-line spots that already seem occupied. And the list doesn’t even include top prospect Alexander Nikishin, who’s started the KHL season with SKA St. Petersburg rather than attending training camp.
But despite the potential for a logjam, Carolina remains invested in Pesce. And that’s certainly not a surprise; Pesce has played over 20 minutes per night since his sophomore season way back in 2016-17. He’s become an integral piece of the team’s top four, serving a responsible, defense-focused role. And though Pesce himself has never been much of a scorer, he did record a career-high 30 points last season, marked by 25 assists.
While Pesce’s contract negotiations haven’t resulted in an extension yet, Friedman didn’t rule it out given Carolina’s renewed investment. The team is projected to enter next summer with a staggering $31.65MM in cap space and 13 free agents to work with. This includes anchors of the Canes top-six in Teuvo Teravainen and Seth Jarvis. Carolina will also be faced with what to do with their defense, with only Dmitry Orlov, Burns, and Jaccob Slavin on contract beyond this year. It’ll be an interesting summer, and extending Pesce early would certainly make it an easier one to navigate. But for Carolina, all sights are set on this season – one they’re hoping ends with some hardware.
Colorado Avalanche Had Interest In Mikael Backlund
The Colorado Avalanche contacted the Calgary Flames about trading for veteran two-way center Mikael Backlund earlier this summer, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported in his 32 Thoughts written column Tuesday.
Friedman notes these discussions took place before Colorado eventually filled their center vacancies by acquiring Ryan Johansen and the rights to Ross Colton in trades with the Nashville Predators and Tampa Bay Lightning, respectively. Colorado was in need of center depth after it became apparent they weren’t going to keep J.T. Compher, who filled in at second-line center after Nazem Kadri departed during the 2022 free agency period. Compher would sign a rather rich five-year deal with the Detroit Red Wings on July 1.
The Flames were likely less open to moving Backlund at the time than they might be now. This was before Backlund said in multiple interviews that his willingness to re-sign with the only NHL organization he’s ever known was contingent on the team’s success this season. He’s just one of many high-end pending UFAs on the Flames roster, a list that also notably includes Noah Hanifin, Elias Lindholm and Chris Tanev.
Backlund, while he’ll be 35 before next season ends, can still shoulder second-line minutes and would’ve been an ideal fit on a team with as much high-end wing depth in the top six as Colorado. He would’ve gotten to play with at least one out of a pair of extremely formidable two-way wingers in Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin, potentially forming one of the deadliest dual-threat trios in the league. However, his stock is at an all-time high after registering a career-high 56 points last season and averaging over 18 minutes per game. For comparison, they acquired Johansen and Colton for a combined return of the signing rights to Alex Galchenyuk and a second-round pick – it likely would’ve cost much more to pry Backlund away from Calgary.
Ducks Remain Far Apart In Negotiations With Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale
The hopes of eleventh-hour deals to get a couple of Anaheim Ducks’ future mainstays on the ice for training camp Thursday are quickly dwindling. They are not close to new deals for either franchise center Trevor Zegras or young defender Jamie Drysdale, despite camp opening in less than 48 hours, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun said Tuesday night on Insider Trading.
As echoed by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman tonight, this is quite a puzzling saga that few expected when the summer began. The Ducks have the most projected cap space of anyone in the league by a significant margin, per CapFriendly. Their $16.64MM in flexibility is nearly $4MM more than the Chicago Blackhawks, who have the second-most with $12.86MM. To put that into context – 24 of the NHL’s 32 teams have less cap space than the gap between Anaheim and Chicago.
Ducks assistant general manager Jeff Solomon is known in NHL circles as one of the tougher negotiators in the league, and it could be that Drysdale and Zegras’s camps are truly asking for more than the Ducks feel they’re worth. With short-term deals likely for both in a window where the team won’t be fully exiting their rebuild, however, the team arguably has more to lose by creating off-ice animosity than opting for a perceived overpay on the two contracts.
LeBrun adds that, in a small glimmer of hope, the Ducks and Zegras have both settled on a three-year term. He did say, however, that a “tangible gap” remains between the two sides’ wants on an average annual value. No such specifics were given for Drysdale’s negotiations aside from a deal not being close to fruition, although his agent, David Gagner, is in Anaheim for talks, reports The Sporting Tribune’s Derek Lee.
Neither Drysdale nor Zegras were eligible for arbitration, giving the Ducks most of the leverage in negotiations. That’s especially the case with Drysdale, who was additionally ineligible to sign an offer sheet. It’s fair to wonder if Anaheim is overplaying their hand by letting things drag out this long, though.
While Zegras is already a household name across the league thanks to his incredible puck skills and flashy dekes, the Ducks need him to take a step forward defensively in order to maintain his status as a true number-one center on a championship-caliber team. That’s something they’re hoping to achieve by bringing in first-year NHL head coach Greg Cronin, who Zegras said he had a positive meeting with earlier this summer and shares in Cronin’s philosophy of improving his all-around game. They’re now extremely close to losing valuable time together during camp and getting a pivotal development season for Zegras off to a rocky start. The 22-year-old center has rattled off at least 20 goals and 60 points in his first two full NHL seasons.
Drysdale’s negotiations were always going to be a complex prediction. While an incredibly high-ceiling defender, he registered no points in the first eight games of last season before a torn labrum sidelined him for the remainder of the campaign. The sixth overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, Drysdale notched 32 points in 81 games in his only full NHL season to date in 2021-22 while averaging nearly 20 minutes per game. When he does get a deal done, he’s projected to assume a top-pairing role to the right of Cam Fowler.
It’s worth noting that if Zegras’ absence stretches into the regular season, Anaheim will be down two of its usual four centers. Developing shutdown man Isac Lundeström is sidelined through January after injuring his Achilles tendon during offseason training.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Detroit Red Wings Sign Artem Anisimov, Michael Hutchinson To PTOs
The Detroit Red Wings have signed veteran center Artem Anisimov and netminder Michael Hutchinson to PTOs, according to CapFriendly. The two former full-time NHLers will now look to earn prospective two-way deals in Hockeytown.
Anisimov, 35, hasn’t suited up in an NHL game since 2020-21 as a member of the Ottawa Senators. The Russian forward departed for the KHL’s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl on a one-year deal in 2021-22 before attempting an NHL comeback by signing a PTO with the Philadelphia Flyers last September. While he looked to be on his way to earning a contract, an injury during preseason sidelined him and kept him from earning a deal. Once healthy in November, he signed an AHL tryout with the team’s affiliate in Lehigh Valley before earning a full-fledged deal for the rest of the season. He finished the campaign with 19 goals, 17 assists and 36 points in 55 games.
He could look to earn a similar top-six role for Detroit’s minor-league club in Grand Rapids, replacing the void left by free-agent center Danny O’Regan. The path to an NHL roster spot for Anisimov is slim after two years away from the game’s top level, plus a roster crunch of younger Red Wings forwards that includes Jonatan Berggren, Marco Kasper, Elmer Soderblom, and Joe Veleno, among others.
Hutchinson, 33, played 16 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets last season, his most in a single NHL season since splitting 2019-20 with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche. His days as a full-time tandem netminder with the Winnipeg Jets in the mid-2010s are long gone. He’s posted a save percentage below .900 in back-to-back AHL seasons and put up a far below-average .877 save percentage and 4.29 goals-against average with Columbus, although a good portion of that could be attributed to the team’s patchwork defense.
Nonetheless, it’s debatable whether or not Hutchinson is even an AHL starter at this stage in his career, although that’s not a role he’d be expected to fill anyway after Detroit signed Alex Lyon to fill that role in Grand Rapids earlier this summer. He’s likely an insurance option to become Grand Rapids’ backup if 2021 first-round pick Sebastian Cossa, who had a tough showing in Detroit’s rookie tournament games last week, needs another season in the ECHL with Toledo.
Ottawa Senators Sign Egor Sokolov To Two-Way Contract
The Ottawa Senators have signed winger Egor Sokolov to a one-year, two-way contract, according to a team release. Sokolov will earn the league minimum $775K NHL salary while earning $120K in the minors.
Sokolov was one of two remaining unsigned Ottawa RFAs alongside Shane Pinto and one of just six remaining leaguewide after the Minnesota Wild came to terms with defenseman Calen Addison today. He was on Ottawa’s training camp roster announced earlier today, hinting the two sides would reach a deal before camps kick off Thursday. The 23-year-old will now turn his focus to gearing up for his fourth season playing pro in the Sens organization after they selected him in the late second round of the 2020 NHL Draft. He spent nearly all of last season in the minors, leading AHL Belleville in scoring with 59 points (21 goals, 38 assists) in 70 games.
That continued a trend of strong minor-league production since joining Belleville three years ago, although it’s only led to a total of 13 NHL appearances thus far. He’ll look to at least double that number this season as he battles for a fourth-line role during training camp and, even if he doesn’t make the team, will be one of Ottawa’s first call-up options.
Sokolov not making the opening night roster is a tough scenario to envision despite his limited experience, however. He’s now lost his waiver exemption, meaning any NHL team could snag him on the waiver wire if the Sens attempt to assign him to the minors pre-season. With a cheap one-year, two-way commitment, it’s extremely likely the strong-shooting winger would get claimed.
He’ll be a restricted free agent once again next summer, but this time he’ll have arbitration rights. With Pinto still unsigned, the Senators now have just north of $120K in cap space with a roster of 12 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies, according to CapFriendly.