Connor Bedard Signs Entry-Level Contract With Blackhawks
9:08 a.m.: Chicago has now made the deal official, confirming the maximum cap hit of $950K for Bedard on his three-year ELC. CapFriendly provides the full breakdown of the deal, which carries the same structure in all three seasons: an NHL salary of $855K, a $95K signing bonus, a Schedule ‘A’ performance bonus worth $1MM, and a Schedule ‘B’ performance bonus worth $2.5MM.
8:09 a.m.: 2023 first-overall pick Connor Bedard has agreed to terms with the Chicago Blackhawks on his three-year entry-level contract today, The Athletic’s Scott Powers reports.
The surely multi-million dollar commitment from Chicago to Bedard on his 18th birthday is quite the present. Signing Bedard to his ELC officially paves the way for him to suit up in a Blackhawks uniform on opening night in a few months, as expected.
Labeled the best prospect since Connor McDavid in 2015 and Auston Matthews in 2016, Bedard will look to make a splash with the Blackhawks next season after dominating the WHL with the Regina Pats, notching 71 goals and 72 assists for 143 points in just 57 games. His 2.51 points per game tied him for the highest rate in a single season for a 17-year-old with former Pittsburgh Penguins forward Rob Brown, who had 173 points in 69 games with Kamloops in 1985-86.
With that in mind, Bedard is expected to assume a first-line center role in the Windy City out of the gate, a glimpse into the team’s long-term future after an aggressive roster restructuring. The Blackhawks made multiple roster moves this offseason with Bedard in mind, acquiring a former Hart Trophy winner in Taylor Hall and retaining some skill for the top-six in Andreas Athanasiou to give Bedard at least some talent to play with in a Chicago forward group devoid of much to write home about.
Bedard’s six-figure cap hit could be the biggest bargain bin deal in the league by its conclusion in 2025-26, at which point he’ll be able to sign quite a lucrative second deal with the salary cap expected to rise north of $92MM by that point.
Among U-25 forwards in Chicago’s top-six next season, he’ll likely be joined by 2020 17th overall pick Lukas Reichel, who’s coming off a pair of excellent campaigns in the minors with the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs and added 15 points in 23 games with the Blackhawks last year. Those two are the shining stars at forward of a prospect pool that’s quickly grown into one of the league’s best, including a pair of top-20 picks in Frank Nazar and Oliver Moore still to come.
Winnipeg Jets Sign Morgan Barron
The Winnipeg Jets signed restricted free agent forward Morgan Barron to a two-year contract today, the team announced via press release. The contract is worth $2.7MM and carries a cap hit and average annual value of $1.35MM.
It’s a nice bit of work for the two sides, who avoid arbitration with the two-year pact. The Jets still have quite a bit of work to do with Gabriel Vilardi, Rasmus Kupari and Logan Stanley needing new deals, but it’s a good dent in their remaining offseason work.
The 24-year-old forward is coming off a career year in 2022-23, setting career-highs in goals (eight), assists (13) and points (21) while transforming into an everyday NHLer for the first time, skating in 70 regular season games for the Jets. As part of the trade return for Andrew Copp at the 2022 trade deadline from the Rangers, Barron looks to develop into a solid bottom-six forward who could have staying power in Winnipeg. He also appeared in all five games of Winnipeg’s first-round playoff loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.
Barron will look to build on those offensive totals next season, although he’s likely to start the campaign in a fourth-line role. A healthy Cole Perfetti, plus full seasons from depth players like Mason Appleton and Nino Niederreiter, likely push him down the depth chart slightly, although he’s shown the ability to be effective in a limited role.
Boston Bruins Sign Three Players
The Boston Bruins signed a trio of restricted free agents to one-year, two-way contracts today, per a team announcement. Goaltender Michael DiPietro, defenseman Alec Regula and defenseman Reilly Walsh all agreed to deals with $775K cap hits.
In doing so, the Bruins have retained some notable depth pieces for the AHL’s Providence Bruins, and they’ve also taken care of business with all their restricted free agents aside from their two pending arbitration cases – forward Trent Frederic and goalie Jeremy Swayman.
DiPietro will get another shot at trying to work his way up the organizational ladder after coming over from the Vancouver Canucks via trade last year. Once regarded as one of the better goalie prospects in the league, some perceived rushed development on Vancouver’s part, as well as limited play during the COVID-19 pandemic, significantly stunted the 24-year-old’s development. Boston decided to assign DiPietro to the ECHL’s Maine Mariners for most of last season, where he regained some confidence by compiling a 19-9-0 record with a 2.61 goals-against average and .918 save percentage in 29 games. PuckPedia later added DiPietro’s minor-league salary will be $80K.
Regula recently came over to the Bruins from the Chicago Blackhawks as part of the trade return for winger Taylor Hall. The 22-year-old is now in his third NHL organization after being selected 67th overall by the Detroit Red Wings in 2018, but he’s shown good defensive upside during his time in the minors and has 22 NHL games under his belt with the Blackhawks. The 6-foot-4, 218-pound right-shot defender put up five goals, 16 assists and 21 points in 51 games for the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs last year.
Walsh also arrived in Boston via trade this summer, coming over from the New Jersey Devils in a minor swap nearly a month ago. At 24, Walsh immediately became one of the more promising young defenders in the Bruins’ system, and he’ll be one of Boston’s first call-up options (along with Regula) if injuries strike. He’s displayed solid two-way skills in the minors, recording nine goals, 32 assists and 41 points in 71 games with the AHL’s Utica Comets last year. He does have one NHL game under his belt, recording an assist in his lone appearance with the Devils in 2021-22.
All three players are slated to become restricted free agents with arbitration rights at the season’s end.
Buffalo Sabres Sign Linus Weissbach
The Buffalo Sabres signed left wing Linus Weissbach to a one-year, two-way contract today, the team said in a release. Weissbach’s new deal carries a $775K cap hit; however, the team did not disclose the complete structure of his contract.
With no pending arbitration cases, Weissbach was Buffalo’s last unsigned restricted free agent. Weissbach was eligible for arbitration but chose not to file.
The Swedish winger had quite a solid sophomore campaign with the AHL’s Rochester Americans, finishing fourth on the team with 47 points in 69 regular-season games last season and recording his first 20-goal campaign in the pros. He added on three goals, seven assists and ten points in 12 games of postseason play as the Americans advanced to the Eastern Conference Final, losing to the eventual Calder Cup champion, the Hershey Bears.
At 25 years old, Weissbach is a bonafide top-six AHL winger. How much farther he can rise from there remains to be seen. Still, his high-energy play and consistent forechecking earned him a qualifying offer last month and at least one more season of action in the Sabres organization.
Getting any games played within the organization out of a seventh-round pick is generally a victory for a team’s scouting department, and it’s fair to say the Sabres’ scouts can be happy with their choice after selecting Weissbach 192nd overall in 2017. The 5-foot-10 winger has gathered 84 points in 136 games over two seasons in Rochester after a successful four-year stay at the University of Wisconsin, where he earned Big Ten All-Rookie honors in 2017-18 and an All-Star team nod in 2020-21.
Free Agent Profile: Tomas Tatar
Since the NHL’s salary cap upper limit has remained relatively flat in the last few years, salary cap space has been extremely scarce across the league. The type of player perhaps most negatively impacted by the leaguewide lack of cap space is the NHL’s “middle-class” of free agents. The are the sort of complementary players who don’t necessarily define a lineup, but nonetheless regularly contribute to one.
Tomas Tatar is maybe the best example of a player whose earning power has been decreased by the tight financial situation of most contending teams.
As a scoring winger with a consistent track record of potting 20-30 goals and 45-55 points per season, Tatar is exactly the kind of player who would have likely sparked a significant bidding war on the free agent market.
That’s especially true when one considers the fact that Tatar has the upside to score even more, as he did in 2020-21 when he led the Montreal Canadiens with 61 points in 68 games. That’s a 73-point 82-game pace, and the type of production that’s rare to find on the open market.
But with cap space at an absolute premium, those types of bidding wars became reserved for only the cream-of-the-crop free agents.
That leaves players such as Tatar unable to secure the pricey contracts lasting a half-decade or longer free agents in earlier cycles (such as James Neal or Andrew Ladd) were able to receive.
In his most recent trip to free agency, Tatar ended up signing a two-year, $4.5MM AAV contract with a rebuilding New Jersey Devils team.
It wasn’t exactly an unfair yearly price tag for Tatar’s services, but it also wasn’t the career-defining cash-in with a contending club that many free agents in earlier cycles had been able to land.
Fast forward two years, Tatar has once again hit free agency and he remains unsigned more than two weeks after the market opened. Next to Vladimir Tarasenko he’s one of the few goal scorers and proven NHL commodities left on the market, though there are certain elements of his profile that could give contending teams pause.
Perhaps the most significant red flag in Tatar’s profile is for how consistent his regular-season production has been, a lack of productivity in the playoffs has been similarly consistent. Tatar only scored one goal in 12 playoff games for the Devils, sat as a healthy scratch for most of the Montreal Canadiens’ 2021 Stanley Cup Final run, and has just 13 points in 52 career playoff games.
Set to turn 33 in December, it’s not exactly likely that the inability to contribute in the playoffs that has been consistent throughout his career will end up changing. So while Tatar is still searching for his first-ever Stanley Cup, he might be a better fit for a team looking to escape its rebuild with the goal of reaching the playoffs, rather than a club with true Stanley Cup aspirations.
Stats
2022-23: 82 GP, 20-28-48, +41 rating, 30 PIMs, 153 shots on goal, 60.2% CF, 15:07 ATOI
Career: 783 GP, 211-244-455, +42 rating, 276 PIMs, 1,636 shots on goal, 60.6% CF, 15:29 ATOI
Potential Suitors
Tatar is an interesting case because what sort of contending team wouldn’t jump at the chance to add a consistent 20-25 goal, 45-50 point scorer to its lineup? But as previously mentioned, the pattern Tatar has clearly established throughout his career of struggling mightily to produce in the postseason should give many contending teams pause.
At this point, combining the realities of Tatar’s profile with the realities of the leaguewide financial picture, Tatar’s most optimal suitors are franchises more concerned with escaping a rebuild and reaching the postseason rather than the ones worried about immediately competing for the Stanley Cup.
A team such as the Buffalo Sabres, who own the NHL’s longest playoff drought, could be a good fit. While they already boast quite a bit of talent along the wings, Jack Quinn recently underwent surgery to repair an Achilles injury and is expected to miss the start of next season. They’re currently projected to have around $6.7MM in cap space, so fitting Tatar on a one-year contract would be no issue.
Not only would signing Tatar insulate them against any further health complications in their forward corps, it would also protect their playoff chances in the case a player such as J.J. Peterka gets hit with a sophomore slump.
Another team that could fit is the Sabres’ Atlantic Division rival, the Ottawa Senators. They too have the cap space to fit a Tatar contract, and similar to Buffalo they are desperate to return to the playoffs after a long absence.
Ottawa just dealt Alex DeBrincat away and while they received Dominik Kubalik in return, Tatar would be a powerful addition to their third line. He could greatly help the development of a young winger such as Ridly Greig, who could end up playing on Tatar’s line.
Projected Contract
At this point, it seems unlikely Tatar’s next deal will match the two-year, $4.5MM AAV pact he signed in his last trip to free agency. A one-year deal seems the most likely outcome, and the ultimate price could very well depend on what Tarasenko signs for. Should Tarasenko end up receiving under $5MM, for example, Tatar’s argument to receive a guarantee around that number weakens.
Tatar could very well end up earning a one-year deal at a mid-range AAV, but seeing as players such as Blake Wheeler have taken contracts below even $1MM overall, attempting to project what Tatar will earn on his next deal is something of a guessing game. The most important thing to know, then, is that at this stage of the market, the race to secure Tatar’s services is unlikely to be extremely competitive and pricey.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Seattle Kraken Sign Eduard Sale
07/16/23: The Kraken have now officially announced their signing of Sale, confirming the $950k AAV that was reported earlier.
07/15/23: The Seattle Kraken are reportedly close to signing their first-round pick of the 2023 NHL Draft, Eduard Sale, to a three-year entry-level contract. The contract will reportedly have an AAV of $950K each season, and pay Sale a base salary of $855K (Tweet Link).
At the time of the 2022 NHL Draft, Sale had already made some noise as a potential top-10 selection this year. During that year, Sale primarily played with HC Kometa Brno of the Czechia U20 league, and flat-out dominated, scoring 42 goals and 47 assists in only 39 games.
This past season, finally moving up to the professional leagues for HC Kometa Brno, Sale could only manage seven goals and seven assists in 43 games. Although the transition to professional hockey did not go as smoothly as desired for Sale, he still played well in international tournaments for Czechia, scoring 11 goals and eight assists in 18 games played for their U18 team, as well as three goals and seven assists in 11 games for their U20 team.
Sale is primarily an offensive talent at this point, still needing a bit of development on the defensive side of the puck. Next season, Sale is set to join the Barrie Colts of the OHL. The Colts originally drafted Sale with the 29th overall selection at the OHL’s Import Draft last summer.
Minor Transactions: 07/16/23
As free agent activity in the NHL slows down, most of the player-movement focus in the world’s top league revolves around upcoming arbitration cases for restricted free agents. Just as those prominent players and their representatives are hard at work negotiating terms of new contracts or preparing cases for the arbitration process, teams across the hockey world are hard at work signing players and adding players to their rosters for next season. As always, we’ll keep track of notable transactions from around the world of professional hockey here.
- Zachary Senyshyn, a player perhaps best known for being part of the Boston Bruins’ infamous trio of consecutive first-round picks at the 2015 draft, has decided to continue his pro career overseas. The speedy 26-year-old forward has signed a contract with the Schwenninger Wild Wings of the DEL. The move comes after Senyshyn’s most recent season in North America, a year where he struggled to make much of an impact and ended up traded for future considerations mid-season. While Senyshyn scored 19 goals and earned an NHL call-up in 2021-22 he only managed 18 points in 62 games in 2022-23. Senyshyn already crossed the 260 professional games threshold last season and this year crossed the 320 game threshold, meaning per the AHL’s development rule he no longer qualifies as a “development player” under any of those two limits. That would make earning another shot in the AHL even more difficult and has likely contributed to his choice to take his services to Germany.
- The AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins have re-signed forward Trenton Bliss to a one-year contract extension. Bliss is fresh off a stellar campaign in the ECHL for the Griffins’ affiliate, the Toledo Walleye. He scored 40 points in 38 regular-season games and 14 points in 13 playoff contests. The 25-year-old former Michigan Tech All-Star was the ECHL’s Rookie of the Month for January and clearly impressed in the third-tier league. While he struggled to make much of an impact in his extensive AHL exposure (he scored just four points in 30 games for Grand Rapids) this extension gives him another chance to compete for an AHL job or potentially return as a leading scorer for the Walleye.
- 24-year-old Nicholas Guay has earned a one-year contract extension from his club, the Trois-Rivieres Lions, after a solid first season in the ECHL. Guay is a former captain of two QMJHL teams and was a top scorer at the Major Junior level. He dipped his toes into the world of professional hockey in 2021-22 but had more success playing University hockey, scoring 25 points in 18 games. He potted 12 goals and 47 points for the Lions last season, tied for third-most on the team, and will now be able to return to their lineup and make a push for consideration for an AHL call-up/
- Former ECHL scorer Matthew Alfaro is off to Germany after his first campaign as a relatively regular AHLer. The 26-year-old Calgary Native played his way into the AHL relatively quickly after making a strong start to his pro career in 2020-21. He scored 41 points in 61 games for the Wheeling Nailers and the following season managed to skate in a total of 36 AHL games, notching 12 points. That combined with his point-per-game production with the Nailers earned him a more regular job in the AHL with the Abbotsford Canucks, though he only managed nine points in 37 games of combined regular-season and postseason action. Now, he’s off to play for the Ravensburg Townstars of the DEL2, one of the oldest clubs in German hockey.
- Vladislav Kodola, a middle-six center in the KHL, has signed a two-year contract with Dynamo Minsk after a recent trade landed him back in his home country. Once an import player for the OHL’s Sarnia Sting, Kodola developed into a quality professional player with Cherepovets Severstal in the KHL, eventually becoming one of the team’s top forwards. He scored a career-high 32 points in 54 games in 2020-21 and even earned the right to represent Belarus at the 2021 IIHF Men’s World Championships. He was traded to Dynamo Moscow last summer and his production declined, which likely contributed to Moscow dealing him to Minsk, where signed this two-year deal.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Snapshots: Blues, Lightning, Coyotes
Settling with Alexey Toropchenko today gave the St. Louis Blues come salary cap flexibility, says CapFriendly. Much like the Philadelphia Flyers did with Anthony DeAngelo, settling with Toropchenko, the Blues’ last remaining player who had filed for arbitration, opens a second buyout window for the team, which will open in three days and last for 48 hours. The rules for this unique buyout are limited, though – a player must have been on their reserve list at the trade deadline and must carry a cap hit of at least $4MM.
The Blues are cap-compliant but barely – CapFriendly projects them with roughly $290K in space with a full 23-player roster. They’ve expressed a clear desire to move out one of their aging top-four defensemen via trade, but nothing’s manifested yet, and it’s becoming less and less likely as the offseason trods on. It’s entirely possible general manager Doug Armstrong could choose to execute a buyout for someone like Nick Leddy, who’s struggled during his time in St. Louis and carries a $4MM cap hit through 2026. It would be a hefty buyout, running through 2028-29, but it wouldn’t carry a cap penalty of more than $2MM in any of the six seasons – it might be appealing.
More from around the NHL this weekend:
- The Tampa Bay Lightning are also granted a second buyout window after settling with forward Tanner Jeannot before arbitration. The team has cut costs wherever possible, but they still have less than $1MM in cap space, even taking into account Brent Seabrook‘s long-term injured reserve relief. Unfortunately for them, there are no possible candidates here – all of their players carrying a cap hit of $4MM are core parts of the team and won’t be considered for a buyout. General manager Julien BriseBois is prepping for another long season of cap management on a day-to-day basis.
- PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan today offered updates on a pair of Arizona Coyotes RFA forwards – Jan Jenik and Jack McBain. Morgan notes that Jenik’s deadline to accept his qualifying offer passed yesterday, meaning the team now has to negotiate a new deal with him to return to the desert. The 22-year-old was a 2018 third-round pick and notched 23 points in 30 games with the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners last season. Morgan also notes that there hasn’t been any progress between the Coyotes and McBain on a new contract with his arbitration hearing looming at the end of the month, although they still have about two weeks to come to a deal before the hearing.
Arizona Coyotes Expected To Extend Matias Maccelli
Jul 16: PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan has obtained the terms of the deal, confirming Maccelli is signing for three years at a cap hit of $3.425MM. The contract breakdown is as follows, and will make him an RFA due a $4.11MM qualifying offer at the end:
2023-24: $3MM salary
2024-25: $3.025MM salary
2025-26: $4.25MM salary
Jul 15: The Arizona Coyotes have gotten a fair bit of work done over the last 24 hours, and now Kevin Weekes of ESPN reports they are not quite done. Weekes reports that the team is close to signing restricted free agent forward Matias Maccelli to a three-year contract extension. Maccelli experienced a breakout season last year, scoring 49 points in 64 games, finishing fourth in Calder Memorial Trophy voting.
Drafted 98th overall by the Coyotes back in the 2019 NHL Draft, he has surely exceeded expectations for the rebuilding club. In his draft year, Maccelli played for the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the USHL, and Maccelli had 31 goals and 41 assists in 62 games for the team. Arizona felt that Maccelli still needed some more development, and allowed him to travel back to his home country of Finland to play in the Liiga.
Upon joining Ilves of the Finish Liiga, Maccelli impressed even further and saw his name moving up on the Coyotes’ prospects list. In his two years spent overseas, Maccelli scored 28 goals and 41 assists in 94 games playing in the country’s top professional hockey league. Arizona was so impressed by what they saw in Maccelli’s time in Finland, they signed him to a three-year, $2.78MM entry-level contract.
Maccelli did play a few games with the Coyotes during the 2021-22 season but primarily featured on their AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners. Not only did Maccelli play well in his first season for the Roadrunners, he led the team in points, scoring 14 goals and 43 assists in 47 games.
Making the Coyotes out of training camp this past season, Maccelli became one of the top players on the team. Playing on a line with star player Clayton Keller, Maccelli put up 11 goals and 38 assists in 64 games. Maccelli likely would have added to that total, but a lower-body injury kept him out for six weeks during December and January. As Arizona continues to build its team from the ground up, finding diamonds in the rough similar to Maccelli is going to be important for the team.
Minnesota Wild Avoid Arbitration With Brandon Duhaime
It appears the Minnesota Wild and winger Brandon Duhaime have worked out a deal before their arbitration hearing, which was set for Thursday. The two sides have agreed to terms on a one-year deal worth $1.1MM, the team announced Sunday.
The one-year deal will walk Duhaime to unrestricted free agency next summer. A 2016 fourth-round pick of the Wild, Duhaime made his NHL debut early in 2021-22 and hasn’t looked back – he’s played 131 games over the past two seasons with the Wild and has avoided assignment to the minors. He’s demonstrated solid consistency and defensive awareness, leading to an everyday role in the lineup when healthy.
He gets some nice seven-figure compensation because of that, and the Wild get some much-needed financial certainty out of the way without risking an arbitration ruling that could upset their delicate dance with the salary cap’s Upper Limit. CapFriendly does list the Wild with just over $7MM in projected cap space after signing Duhaime, but that’s with just 11 forwards and new contracts needed for Filip Gustavsson and Calen Addison.
While it’ll be close, getting Duhaime locked in for next season under $1.5MM is a solid win for general manager Bill Guerin. It should spare him enough room to get the Gustavsson and Addison extensions done, albeit likely short-term, and keep a core together that’s gotten the Wild to the playoffs in four straight seasons.
Duhaime finished last season with nine goals and one assist in 56 games.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was first to report the Wild and Duhaime had reached a deal.