Dmitri Samorukov Signs AHL Contract In Penguins Organization
The AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have signed former Edmonton Oilers and St. Louis Blues defenseman Dmitri Samorukov to a contract for the 2023-24 season, per a team announcement today. The move does make him a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins organization on contract with their AHL affiliate. However, without an NHL contract, any NHL team can still place offers for (and sign) Samorukov.
A 2017 third-round selection of the Oilers, Samorukov was once viewed as one of their organization’s more intriguing defensive prospects. After a 2021-22 season in which he only appeared in one NHL contest for the Oilers, however, they dealt him to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for young forward Klim Kostin, a swap of young prospects who both needed fresh starts on new teams.
While Kostin panned out into a solid depth forward for Edmonton last year, the same can’t be said for Samorukov, who spent most of the season in the minors again. St. Louis only iced the 24-year-old in two games, in which he was held off the scoresheet and averaged 14:53 of ice time. He did, however, post a career-high four goals and 20 points in 69 games with the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds, with whom he played a top-four role.
Samorukov is only the second defender Wilkes-Barre/Scranton has under AHL contract. However, he’ll now need to compete with a bevy of Penguins prospects who will be given priority for ice time and development purposes. While he should still be an everyday player at the AHL level, he likely won’t receive as much opportunity as he did last season in Springfield while under contract with the Blues.
Minnesota Wild, Filip Gustavsson Agree On Multi-Year Deal
11:49 AM: Minnesota has officially signed Gustavsson to a three-year, $11.25MM contract, per a team announcement. The deal carries a cap hit of $3.75MM and will carry him to unrestricted free agent status in 2026. Per CapFriendly’s projections, the Wild now have $1.64MM in cap space with a minimum roster of 20 players, and they still have RFA defenseman Calen Addison to sign. The full breakdown of the deal is as follows, according to PuckPedia:
2023-24: $4.25MM
2024-25: $4MM
2025-26: $3MM (five-team no-trade list)
10:12 AM: The Minnesota Wild are nearing a multi-year settlement with young goaltender Filip Gustavsson ahead of their planned arbitration hearing on Friday, The Athletic’s Joe Smith reports.
It’s hard to argue with locking down Gustavsson long-term after the season he just had. Operating in tandem with veteran Marc-Andre Fleury, the 25-year-old netminder finished atop many goaltending stat categories and even got end-of-season All-Star team consideration. His .931 save percentage in 39 games played trailed only Boston Bruins netminder Linus Ullmark, who took home this year’s Vezina Trophy. He also stopped 24.2 goals above expected, according to MoneyPuck’s model, meaning he stopped about 0.63 goals per game more than the average goalie based on the shot quality he faced.
This isn’t out of nowhere, either. Despite being in his third NHL organization already, Gustavsson has been a rather highly-touted prospect since the Pittsburgh Penguins selected him 55th overall in 2016. While a performance like this may have seemed unlikely, Gustavsson has always had the potential to turn into a starting netminder. Considering the delayed age curve that’s in effect for many goalies, his arrival into NHL relevancy is right on time.
He’ll undoubtedly push for more games next season, and it seems it’s only a matter of time until he’s anointed the Wild’s first long-term full-time starter since Devan Dubnyk. It’s a scenario that seemed unlikely when the Wild acquired him in a one-for-one swap with the Ottawa Senators last summer for veteran Cam Talbot, who had a rather disappointing season in the nation’s capital and has since moved on to the Los Angeles Kings via free agency.
Gustavsson’s strong play continued in the postseason, too, posting a .921 save percentage in five games during the Wild’s first-round loss to the Dallas Stars.
Financial certainty for the Wild on their own terms, not from an arbitrator, is also an extremely desirable outcome here for general manager Bill Guerin. The team’s incredibly tight salary cap situation is no secret – with $14.75MM in dead cap dedicated to the Ryan Suter and Zach Parise buyouts, every dollar (and every signing) is extremely consequential for the team’s ability to manage their day-to-day roster. The team likely will not be able to carry a full 23-player roster this season, limiting themselves to just one or two healthy scratches depending upon their injury situation.
Of interest, this is a scenario that seemed extremely unlikely just one week ago. Smith had reported earlier that the two sides were likely headed to arbitration and were not close to a pre-hearing settlement. Evidently, Gustavsson and the Wild made up a lot of ground in negotiations over the last seven days. It was also reported earlier this summer that the Wild preferred a three-year term on a Gustavsson extension, buying one year of unrestricted free agency in the process.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Minor Transactions: 07/31/23
NHL action is heating up today with a trio of depth signings this morning, followed by a potentially consequential agreement between the Minnesota Wild and promising netminder Filip Gustavsson. Transactions continue to flow in from around the minors and Europe as 2023-24 draws closer, too, so let’s take a look at today’s most notable non-NHL moves from around the hockey world:
- Former New York Rangers, Ottawa Senators and Vegas Golden Knights forward Oscar Lindberg has signed a one-year contract with the SHL’s Skellefteå AIK, per a team release today. The move marks a return to his native Sweden for the first time since 2012-13, when he notched 44 points in 52 Elitserien (now SHL) games for Skellefteå before heading to North America the following year with the Rangers organization. Since last suiting up in the NHL for Ottawa in 2019, Lindberg has bounced around Europe, playing for EV Zug and SC Bern in the NL and Dynamo Moscow in the KHL. He’s been quite productive, too, often posting point totals close to a point-per-game pace and continuing solid defensive play. He now joins a Skellefteå team ripe with NHL prospects, including Detroit Red Wings 2023 first-round pick Axel Sandin Pellikka on defense.
- After two years of service as an alternate captain for Czech Extraliga club HC Sparta Praha, defenseman Adam Polasek is staying in the Extraliga on a one-year deal with HC Ocelari Trinec, per the team. Polasek is a former Vancouver Canucks prospect, selected 145th overall in the 2010 NHL Draft. After spending the 2010-11 campaign in juniors with the QMJHL’s Prince Edward Island Rocket, Polasek signed his entry-level contract with the Canucks. He wouldn’t play out his deal, though, failing to find his footing in the minors and eventually having his contract terminated during its final season so that he could return home to Czechia. He’s spent most of his time in the Sparta Praha organization since then, save for a few short stints in Russia and Finland. The 32-year-old, 6-foot-3 defender now looks to bolster Trinec’s blueline, one that includes former NHLers Jakub Jerabek and Martin Marincin.
- Liiga club Kärpät was active this morning, signing a pair of North American forwards, Connor Bunnaman and Trevor Mingoia, to one-year contracts. Bunnaman, 25, was a fourth-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers in 2016 and has since amassed over 50 NHL games and over 200 AHL games in the Flyers and Florida Panthers organizations. He spent last season solely with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers, posting his second-most productive season ever in the minors with 16 goals and seven assists for 23 points in 61 games. Mingoia, who’s spent the last five years in Europe after a short-lived North American minor pro career, previously had two productive seasons in the Liiga with KooKoo, recording 64 points in 73 games between 2019 and 2021. Undrafted, the 5-foot-11 winger spent the last two seasons with the DEL’s Grizzlys Wolfsburg.
This page will be updated throughout the day.
Toronto Maple Leafs Re-Sign Nicholas Abruzzese
The Toronto Maple Leafs have re-signed forward Nicholas Abruzzese to a two-year, two-way contract extension, per a team announcement Monday morning. The deal’s average annual value is $775K, and PuckPedia confirms the full breakdown of his contract:
2023-24: $775K NHL salary, $175K minors salary
2024-25: $775K NHL salary, $250K minors salary, $350K guaranteed salary
This is Abruzzese’s second NHL contract after signing a two-year entry-level pact with the Leafs in March last year. The 24-year-old was a restricted free agent, Toronto’s last remaining unsigned player of the type.
After spending two fruitful collegiate campaigns with Harvard, Abruzzese had a solid first full pro season last year. Toronto’s fourth-round pick in 2019 has also gotten a cup of coffee in the NHL over the previous year and a half, posting a goal and two assists in 11 games (including two assists in two games to finish the 2022-23 campaign). His AHL stats were strong, posting 16 goals and 48 points in 69 games with the Toronto Marlies before going on a tear in the postseason, when he registered seven points in seven outings.
Abruzzese seems unlikely to make Toronto’s opening night roster, however. Pontus Holmberg has more experience in the NHL (he played 37 games last year) and likely has a leg up on a fourth-line center role to start the season. That’s not to say Abruzzese won’t get any NHL looks, though. It wouldn’t surprise many to see him get more than the two games he received last season, and he’ll be in the first tier of potential call-ups to the Maple Leafs from the Marlies, along with other prospects in their early 20s such as Alex Steeves and Nicholas Robertson (if he doesn’t make the Leafs out of camp).
The New York-born center will still have a year remaining before he’s eligible for unrestricted free agency when his deal expires in 2025, meaning he’ll still be an RFA in two years. Unlike this summer, he’ll be eligible for arbitration at that time.
New Jersey Devils Re-Sign Kevin Bahl
The New Jersey Devils re-signed defenseman Kevin Bahl today to a two-year contract worth $2.1MM with an annual average value of $1.05MM, according to a team release. Bahl will earn $900K in actual salary in 2023-24 and $1.2MM in 2024-25 under the terms of the deal. After signing Bahl, the Devils have re-signed all their restricted free agents this offseason.
A 23-year-old left-shot defender out of New Westminster, British Columbia, Bahl played a career-high 42 games with the Devils last season and largely avoided AHL assignment, skating in only three games in the minors with the Utica Comets. Playing a physical, two-way game by trade, Bahl improved significantly on his previous short NHL stints in 2022-23, continually working his way up the team’s depth chart and playing in 11 of 12 postseason games for the Devils. He finished the regular season with two goals, six assists, eight points, a +4 rating, and 35 penalty minutes.
The hulking 6-foot-6 Bahl now looks to keep his pace and stay in the Devils’ lineup full-time, even with promising prospects like Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec ready (or close to ready) for full-time NHL duties. New Jersey will likely bet on Bahl to replace some of the grit and defensive acumen they lost when Ryan Graves departed for the Pittsburgh Penguins in free agency earlier this month, and they’ll likely increase his ice time from last year’s 14:01 per game in the process. Giving Bahl a seven-figure cap hit certainly demonstrates an organizational belief in the player.
After signing Bahl, CapFriendly projects the Devils to be comfortably cap-compliant with $1.92MM in projected space, assuming a full 23-player roster. This projection assumes youngsters like Hughes and Nolan Foote make the team but not 2020 seventh-overall pick Alexander Holtz. The Devils have $2.575MM in dead cap this season thanks to $2MM wrapped up in the Cory Schneider buyout, a $325K penalty from the Janne Kuokkanen buyout, and the nearly-finished yearly $250K recapture penalty for terminating Ilya Kovalchuk‘s supermassive 15-year, $100MM contract in 2013.
When this contract concludes in 2025, Bahl will still be a restricted free agent. He’ll also be eligible for arbitration at that time.
Montreal Canadiens Sign Jesse Ylönen
The Montreal Canadiens have agreed to terms on a one-year, two-way contract with restricted free agent forward Jesse Ylönen, per a release issued Monday morning. TVA’s Renaud Lavoie reports Ylönen’s NHL salary is $775K, while he’ll earn $200K in the AHL with a $275K minimum salary guarantee.
An early second-round selection of the Canadiens in 2018, the 23-year-old Finn played a career-high 37 games in a Canadiens jersey last season and looks well on his way to becoming a full-timer in the NHL. 2022-23 was a major offensive breakthrough for Ylönen at the NHL and AHL levels. He recorded six goals and 16 points with the Habs and a career-best points pace of 32 in 39 games with the Laval Rocket.
He mostly played a bottom-six scoring role with the Habs last season, sometimes seeing under 10 minutes of ice time per game. However, he did elevate into the team’s top six at times later in the season when injuries struck, actually seeing a fair bit of playing time alongside number-one center Nick Suzuki in the absence of star sniper Cole Caufield, who missed the latter half of the season thanks to shoulder surgery.
Unfortunately for Ylönen, he’s a good prospect on a team with several other youngsters that arguably have higher ceilings. For that reason, he may find himself on the outside looking in on Montreal’s opening night roster, and he could begin the season in the minors with Laval again. He’ll have to battle for ice time with former first-round picks such as Alex Newhook and Juraj Slafkovsky, a race he won’t likely win. However, Ylönen could still unseat a veteran like Joel Armia in the team’s bottom six if he forces the team’s attention at training camp.
Ylönen will be a restricted free agent again in 2024. He will be eligible for arbitration after not being eligible this offseason.
Free Agent Profile: Caleb Jones
It’s hard to believe it, but the NHL season starts in just over two months. For some NHLers they will soon be making plans to return to their respective cities to begin the upcoming season, for others like defenseman Caleb Jones, his plan is to try to find an NHL job in the next nine weeks.
It was surprising to see Jones go unqualified, as the Chicago Blackhawks elected to let him become a free agent rather than offer him a qualifying offer. Chicago needed to tender the 26-year-old at $1.35MM, but he was made a free agent when Chicago didn’t make the offer. Now, almost a month into free agency Jones remains unsigned, a somewhat surprising development for a player who has shown promise in his young career.
Jones, the younger brother of Blackhawks defenseman Seth Jones, was originally drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in the fourth round back in 2015 and played 93 games over parts of three seasons with the club before he was traded to Chicago in July 2021 as part of the Duncan Keith trade. Jones then dressed in 124 games over the past two years with the Blackhawks, putting up 9 goals and 22 assists.
Last year was a career year for Jones, as he had four goals and 12 assists in 73 games while playing over 19 minutes a night. Jones was tasked with playing second-pairing minutes on a very bad Chicago team and faired well despite not contributing much offensively. Jones led the defense core in many analytical categories and did a decent job controlling the play when he was on the ice.
Jones has typically demonstrated a good ability to move the puck well, utilizing his skating to push the puck up the ice and can keep himself mobile in the defensive zone to be a disruptive force on both the penalty kill and at even strength. However, he is not his older brother and doesn’t possess nearly the offensive acumen that Seth has displayed throughout his career.
The issue that Jones may face when trying to lock down an NHL job is that there is a bit of a surplus of left-shot depth defensemen in the NHL. Pittsburgh has Ty Smith and Pierre-Olivier Joseph competing for one spot on their third pairing, as do the Calgary Flames, with Oliver Kylington now returning after a one-year absence. The Ottawa Senators have several solid left-shot options throughout their NHL lineup, as do many other teams. For Jones, he could offer a solid third-pairing option, but there are very few teams who need that right now.
Stats
2022-23: 73 GP, 4-14-16, -19 rating, 40 PIMS, 86 shots, 48.9% CF, 19:13 ATOI
Career: 217 GP, 14-36-50, -39 rating, 80 PIMS, 225 shots, 48.1% CF, 16:49 ATOI
Potential Suitors
Jones would have teams lining up for his services if he was a right-shot defenseman, but he shoots left and typically plays the left side. While his market will be small, there are sure to be teams that could find a role for the younger Jones brother.
In the East, the Buffalo Sabres have Ilya Lyubushkin slated to play as a third bottom-pair left-side defenseman, and while he offers a physical element and does a good job suppressing scoring chances, he is not a good puck mover and isn’t particularly adept at much else. Jones could push Lyubushkin and create healthy competition for playing time in the Sabres defense core. The one barrier for Jones to Buffalo could be that the Sabres have already brought in Erik Johnson and Connor Clifton in free agency, and management may feel that they’ve already brought in enough competition on their back end.
In the West, The Anaheim Ducks have brought in a few NHL veterans to try and give guidance to their young stars. While Radko Gudas will bring some leadership and physicality on the back end, the Ducks could use a few more veterans who can teach their young players to become good pros. Jones could be a solid fit for the role as he has already played on a young, bad, rebuilding team and knows the challenges and tribulations that come with the growing pains of a rebuild.
Sticking with the West, another rebuilding club that could use some help on the backend is the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks aren’t pushing to make the playoffs this year, but that doesn’t mean they should stop looking for improvements. At the moment, the Sharks have 30-year-old journeyman Jacob MacDonald penciled in as their third pairing left side defenseman and Marc-Édouard Vlasic on their second pair. Vlasic was a terrific shutdown defender for a long time, but he has seen notable declines in his game for the past five years or so. Jones would likely offer an upgrade on both men while not costing San Jose much in the way of assets.
Projected Contract
Unfortunately for Jones, he is most likely going to be taking a pay cut from the $1.35MM he made last season. There should be a small market for his services as the season nears, but the native of Arlington, Texas, might have to sign a professional try-out to get teams interested in his services. Matt Dumba and Ethan Bear are both still unrestricted and might attract more interest as they are right-shot defensemen and have better track records. Jones should ultimately be able to find an NHL deal, but when he does, it will likely come in around the league minimum or a tick above it. There were many NHL defensemen who found deals late in the summer last year, and it seems that could happen again this summer with Jones.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Philadelphia Flyers Submit Ivan Fedotov’s Contract Should Be Tolled
TSN hockey insider Darren Dreger is reporting that the Philadelphia Flyers and the NHL have submitted to the International Ice Hockey Federation that goaltender Ivan Fedotov’s contract with the Flyers should be tolled since he missed this past season to complete military service in Russia. The Flyers along with the league are arguing that because he missed the entire season, the original one-year contract he signed in May 2022 should not be considered expired until next July, since he never fulfilled the agreement. The IIHF is presently considering the submission. The word tolled is a legal term written into many sports contracts that allows for the pausing or delaying of the running of the period of time set forth by a contract.
It’s been quite the saga for the 26-year-old netminder that began over a year ago. Fedotov was arrested in Russia two months after signing his contract with the Flyers. He served a year of military service and on June 14th of this year, the Flyers announced that the one-year deal would be applied this upcoming season and they would retain his NHL rights. Shortly after that in early July, the KHL announced a two-year deal for the netminder with CSKA that was recognized by the league because they believed that Fedotov did not have a valid and binding contract with an NHL club for next year.
While Fedotov is stuck between two leagues wondering what his future will be, CAA Sports’ JP Barry issued a statement today saying that he had spoken with Fedotov and that the young netminder would abide by the IIHF’s ruling that will decide which of the two contracts is valid. It’s an unusual and difficult situation for a player that has said that he just wants to get back to playing hockey. Fedotov has stated publicly that he was able to play hockey twice a week during his military service, but that the hockey in the army wasn’t very good. Fedotov has also defended his decision to sign was CSKA saying that they are a top club and would give him an opportunity to return to form before fulfilling his dream of playing in the NHL.
From the Flyers’ perspective, they would obviously welcome the addition of Fedotov to their goaltending depth chart. The club made Fedotov their seventh-round pick back in 2015, and while it has been almost a decade since they drafted him, they’d seen enough from him to warrant an entry-level contract last year. Now, the Flyers and the league are in a battle that could set a precedent going forward since the KHL and NHL don’t currently have any kind of Memorandum of Understanding. The two leagues did have such an agreement up until last year which kept teams from poaching signed players out of the other league, however, the NHL suspended the agreement.
Snapshots: Gauthier, Kessel, Lindberg
Philadelphia Flyers prospect Cutter Gauthier made some headlines earlier this summer when he was absent for the Flyers’ development camp shortly after the 2023 NHL draft. Gauthier offered some explanation for his choice today, telling NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman that he had played “a little bit too much hockey” after his college season and representing the United States at the IIHF Men’s World Championships. Gauthier added that he “wanted time with the family,” and although it wasn’t Flyers GM Danny Briere’s “favorite thing” Gauthier felt it was the right option.
Although Gauthier is no longer the Flyers’ number-one prospect due to the team drafting Matvei Michkov seventh overall at this year’s draft, Gauthier remains their best prospect who has a chance to play center. His absence at development camp shouldn’t be cause for any Flyers fan to worry that Gauthier will play out his college eligibility and hit free agency as other players, such as Adam Fox, have in the past, though. Gauthier told Kimelman that it’s “definitely the plan” to play for Philadelphia at the end of Boston College’s upcoming season, and after scoring 16 goals and 37 points last season Gauthier is expected to be one of college hockey’s top players on a Boston team that is set to see significant talent arrive in the fall, such as top 2023 picks Will Smith, Ryan Leonard, and Gabe Perreault.
Some other notes from across the NHL:
- Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas is no stranger to working with elite women’s hockey players, such as Hall of Famer Hayley Wickenheiser who worked as senior director of player development with the Toronto Maple Leafs during Dubas’ tenure there. Now, Dubas is adding another top name to his staff in Pittsburgh. Amanda Kessel, an Olympic gold medalist and the sister of former Penguins star Phil Kessel has reportedly been promoted to a role titled “special assistant to president of hockey operations and general manager” according to Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Although it’s unclear what her exact responsibilities will be this reported promotion means Kessel will have a hand in shaping the Penguins’ future as they chase one last Stanley Cup with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang.
- Former Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Tobias Lindberg, once a star OHLer with the Oshawa Generals, has signed a contract in Germany with the Crimmitschau Ice Pirates. The 28-year-old 2013 fourth-round pick has played the last two seasons in Czechia, but struggled to produce. He’s been most productive in the past at the HockeyAllsvenskan level in his native Sweden, so perhaps this move to the second tier of German hockey will see him score at a rate closer to what he posted in his junior hockey days.
Examining An Upcoming Winnipeg Jets Roster Crunch
Despite seeing some high-profile players depart their franchise this offseason, including former captain Blake Wheeler and second-line center Pierre-Luc Dubois, the Winnipeg Jets have every intention of returning to the playoffs in 2023-24.
Although netminder Connor Hellebuyck‘s name has appeared in trade rumors this summer, he currently appears more likely than not to begin the season in Winnipeg, meaning head coach Rick Bowness and his staff will have an elite goaltender behind them as they begin another contention-oriented season.
One area the Jets may still have to resolve this offseason is their defense. As things currently stand, the Jets not only have a point-per-game blueliner in Josh Morrissey leading their group, they also boast some impressive depth. The Jets have ten defensemen under legitimate consideration for an NHL job in the fall, but are likely to only be able to staff seven or eight on their 23-man active roster.
This isn’t a situation for some of the Jets’ defensemen to worry about. Morrissey’s spot at the top of their lineup, for example, is assured. Seeing as they each make nearly $6MM annually on their contracts, Nate Schmidt and Neal Pionk are unlikely to go anywhere given how hard it is to move money in today’s flat-cap environment.
The two 2024 unrestricted free agents, veterans Brenden Dillon and Dylan DeMelo, are each possible candidates to be moved in theory, but in reality are likely staying put.
Each played an important role in the Jets’ 2022-23 success and it’s likely that if the Jets had designs on trading one of those two veterans the deal would have been completed already.
That makes five slots on the roster already spoken for, leaving two or three roster spots left to be claimed.
In contention for those spots is 24-year-old Dylan Samberg, who broke into the NHL and played 63 games last season, six-foot-seven 2016 first-round pick Logan Stanley, AHL star Declan Chisholm, veteran Kyle Capobianco, and 2019 first-rounder Ville Heinola. At the outset, Samberg looks to be the overwhelming favorite to claim the sixth and final spot in Bowness’ opening-night lineup.
The Jets invested a second-round pick to draft Samberg in 2017 and he has developed at a steady rate since that point. He played three seasons of college hockey at the University of Minnesota-Duluth before turning pro in 2020-21.
He spent his rookie pro season as an AHL regular, the next year on the NHL/AHL bubble, and finally last season fully on the NHL roster. Samberg played as a penalty-killing specialist number-six defenseman last season, averaging just 14:55 TOI per game overall but 1:59 on the penalty kill, third-most among Jets blueliners.
With Samberg playing quite a bit short-handed the Jets had a top-ten penalty kill league-wide, so it stands to reason that the Jets would be interested in Samberg maintaining his regular role there in order to help ensure similar short-handed success next season. That leaves Heinola, Stanley, Capobianco, and Chisholm battling in training camp for one or two spots as a press box regular in Winnipeg.
That’s a position Capobianco, 25, occupied for all of last season. He only played in 14 games for Winnipeg but didn’t see a single minute in the AHL. He spent most of the season a healthy scratch, which suggests the Jets are more comfortable with a player like Capobianco regularly sitting out games than a higher-upside blueliner whose development the team may be more invested in. That could give Capobianco a leg up in retaining his NHL status for next season, though there are complicating factors.
One complicating factor is the presence of Stanley, a player who reportedly made a trade request back in March. Stanley’s requested trade has not materialized, and he could be in line to see his role on the Jets decline even further than it did in 2022-23. Stanley played 58 NHL games in 2021-22 but saw that number decline to just 19 this past season. Stanley hasn’t played in the AHL since 2019-20 and would need to clear waivers to be sent to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose.
As a player who offers rare size and has first-round pedigree, the Jets would not be blamed for hesitating to expose Stanley to waivers and risk losing him for nothing. But seeing as he has seemingly fallen out of favor in Winnipeg and may no longer be in their future plans, can the franchise justify Stanley claiming one of the NHL roster spots above another defenseman such as Heinola, Capobianco, or Chisholm?
Heinola remains waivers-exempt for another season, so despite headlines devoted to the player’s dissatisfaction with how scarce his chances to establish himself as an NHLer have been he remains the likeliest candidate to remain in the AHL to start another season.
Heinola is clearly an accomplished talent at that level (he scored 37 points in 48 games last season) but one wonders if yet another season playing AHL hockey is best for his development compared to being able to test himself against the fires of NHL competition.
Regardless, since Heinola is waivers-exempt it would in all likelihood take a trade or a stunning performance in preseason for Heinola to make the NHL roster out of camp, since Winnipeg would be promoting him at the cost of waiving another player.
That leaves Chisholm, 23, in the best position to threaten Capobianco and/or Stanley’s position in the NHL. Chisholm is no longer waivers-exempt and given his exemplary performance in the AHL (43 points in 59 games) he is a genuine candidate to be of interest to clubs high in the waiver priority.
The Jets drafted Chisholm in 2018 and have developed him in Manitoba for three seasons, meaning it would definitely sting to put all that work into growing a player only to see another NHL club reap the fruits of that labor during 2023-24.
The sting they’d feel would be almost identical to what the organization must have felt watching Johnathan Kovacevic carve out a spot as an NHL regular with the Montreal Canadiens last season. The Jets spent a 2017 third-round pick to draft Kovacevic and oversaw his development both in college and in the AHL for a half-decade.
The Jets’ extensive effort developing Kovacevic culminated in the franchise receiving two NHL games from Kovacevic before losing him on waivers. Because the team opted to roster other defencemen over Kovacevic, the Canadiens appear to have a quality defensive defensemen on their hands at a remarkably affordable $766k cap charge through 2024-25.
That’s a genuinely valuable asset to have, and the Jets are unlikely to want to put themselves in that position again, possibly handing another club a valuable defenseman for a second consecutive year. As a result, it seems the likeliest outcome is Capobianco is waived, Heinola is sent to the AHL, and both Stanley and Chisholm are rostered in the NHL.
But unless a trade is completed before opening night, the uncertainty of waivers will hang above the heads of Jets decision-makers as they ponder how to construct their NHL roster. If nothing else, the success of Chisholm and the presence of waivers will make the battle for the Jets’ final one or two defensive roster spots one of the most intriguing storylines to watch in the NHL preseason process.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images