Coyotes Sign Montana Onyebuchi
Jul 11: Arizona has confirmed the two-year agreement over a week later.
Jul 2: The Coyotes are set to add to their prospect pool as TSN’s Darren Dreger reports (Twitter link) that Arizona is signing defenseman Montana Onyebuchi to an entry-level deal. As a 23-year-old, that should be a two-year agreement for Onyebuchi; financial terms are not yet known.
The blueliner went undrafted after a five-year WHL career between Everett and Kamloops but landed in San Jose’s system in 2021 on an AHL contract. After splitting the season between the Barracuda and Orlando of the ECHL, Onyebuchi again inked a one-year AHL pact with the Barracuda. Last season, he put up three goals and seven assists in 35 games while picking up 73 penalty minutes.
Since the start of free agency yesterday, we’ve seen a handful of players that were on minor league contracts earn NHL entry-level deals with new organizations and it appears that Onyebuchi will be the next to do so. He’ll push for playing time with AHL Tucson, Arizona’s affiliate, next season in the hopes of moving up their depth chart.
Offseason Notes: Johnson, Svechnikov, Yakupov, World Juniors
Continuing to round out their bench, the Anaheim Ducks have announced that they have hired Brent Johnson as an assistant coach. Much like their approach with hiring Greg Cronin as head coach, Thompson is another coaching veteran with over 20 years of experience behind the bench.
Primarily serving as the head coach of the New York Islanders AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Islanders, for the last nine seasons, Thompson brings an all-time 328-286-73 coaching record in 687 games at the AHL level. Unfortunately for Thompson and the Islanders, the team only qualified for the playoffs in three of those seasons, never managing to get past the second round. The most coaching success Thompson has ever seen came back in the 2010-11 season in the ECHL, coaching the Alaska Aces to a Kelly Cup Championship, as well as the ECHL Coach of the Year award.
Over the course of his coaching career, Thompson has primarily spent it developing players into NHL talents, and the Ducks have no shortage of those players. The team did sign several veterans this offseason, but the team is clearly building around young talents such as Trevor Zegras, Troy Terry, and Jamie Drysdale.
Other notes:
- A convincing argument can be made that the Carolina Hurricanes have had the best offseason of all 32 clubs in the NHL, and they received more positive news today. Chip Alexander of Raleigh News & Observer reported today that forward Andrei Svechnikov will resume skating for the first time this Friday. Shortly before the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, Svechnikov went under the knife to repair his knee, which kept him out for the remainder of the season. Before the injury, Svechnikov was well on his way to recording another 30-goal season, something the Hurricanes will be looking forward to again next season.
- Spending the last five seasons in the KHL, former-first overall pick, Nail Yakupov is on the move once again. The press service of the KHL announced today that Yakupov has reached a one-year agreement with HC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk. Last season, Yakupov played for Avangard Omsk, scoring 10 points in 16 games. Avangard Omsk would make it all the way to the Conference Finals in pursuit of the Continental Cup in 2023 but were quickly dispatched by Ak Bars Kazan in five games.
- It appears the IIHF World Juniors Championship will be returning to the United States in 2026. Gord Miller of TSN reports that Seattle, Tampa Bay, and Las Vegas have all inquired about potentially hosting the tournament. The next one will take place in Gothenburg, Sweden, followed by Ottawa, Canada in 2025. The last time the United States hosted the tournament came back in 2018, as it took place in Buffalo, NY.
Boston Bruins Sign Marc McLaughlin
After the conclusion of the 2021-22 NCAA season, Marc McLaughlin signed out of college with his hometown team, the Boston Bruins, on a two-year, $1.85MM contract. Becoming a restricted free agent this offseason, the team has announced a one-year, $775K contract for next season.
Playing in the solid Hockey East division throughout his time in the NCAA, McLaughlin suited up for four seasons with the Boston College Eagles. In the entirety of its history, Boston College has regularly produced a solid club but was only able to reach the Frozen Four Tournament once with McLaughlin on the roster.
In 130 career games for the Eagles, McLaughlin scored 40 goals and 36 assists, really catching some offensive fire in his later years with the team. Initially after signing his contract out of college, McLaughlin suited up in 11 games for the Bruins down the stretch, scoring three goals, the first of which coming in his first-ever game in the professional league.
This past season, with the Bruins having some of the best depth in the league, McLaughlin spent the majority of the year playing for the team’s AHL affiliate, the Providence Bruins. In 66 games for the baby Bruins, McLaughlin scored 13 goals and 17 assists, finishing 10th on the team in scoring. Overall, Providence had a great year in the AHL, finishing first in the Atlantic Division, but was quickly dispatched by the Hartford Wolf Pack in the division semi-finals.
Rangers Sign K’Andre Miller
The New York Rangers have already had quite a busy offseason, bringing in veteran talents such as Blake Wheeler, Jonathan Quick, and Nick Bonino among others, yet they still have some important contracts left to sign. Both defenseman K’Andre Miller and forward Alexis Lafreniere were sitting without contracts for the 2023-24 NHL season, but the Rangers now have half of that list taken care of.
The team announced via a press release that Miller has signed a two-year, $7.74MM contract, paying him an AAV of $3.872MM. This seems like a fair deal for both sides, factoring in that Colorado Avalanche defenseman, Bowen Byram, signed a similar bridge deal last week.
In his first full season in New York, Miller became quite the positive force on the team’s back end. Playing in all 82 games for the 2021-22 season, Miller scored seven goals and 13 assists, playing just over 20 minutes a night. Miller also has a physical edge to his game, supplying the team with 151 hits in that same year. To add, Miller was one of a limited number of defensemen to have more takeaways than giveaways and also produced an oiSV% of 92.4%.
This past year, Miller’s offensive capabilities became much more of a factor in his game. Receiving much more time on the power play, Miller doubled his offensive output from the previous season, scoring nine goals and 34 assists in 79 games. His underlying defensive metrics did take a small dip but were still positive nonetheless.
Although signing Miller to an affordable bridge deal is great news for the Rangers, there are some negative externalities to this deal as well. Before the contract is officially added to their ledger, New York had around $6.18MM in cap space. Now that Miller has signed with an AAV of $3.872MM, this only leaves just under $2.4MM left in space to sign Lafreniere. Thankfully for the Rangers, Lafreniere does not yet have arbitration rights, so the team will still have a little bit of control on his next deal.
Nashville Predators Sign Denis Gurianov
Already producing one of the most interesting free agency tactics by any team so far this offseason, the Nashville Predators continue to add depth to their lineup. This time, the team has announced a one-year, $850K contract for forward Denis Gurianov.
Nashville should be very familiar with what Gurianov brings to the table, as he previously skated with their division rival, the Dallas Stars, for the last six seasons. Struggling in Dallas last year, the team shipped Gurianov to the Montreal Canadiens for forward Evgenii Dadonov.
It wasn’t that long ago that Gurianov was considered one of the top prospects in the Stars’ organization, as he was drafted 12th overall in the 2015 NHL Draft. Taking a couple of seasons to crack the NHL roster, Gurianov strung together three solid seasons in Dallas, scoring 43 goals and 47 assists in 192 games between 2019-2022.
Unfortunately, the production didn’t ramp up at all during the 2022-23 season, and Gurianov saw his ice time slashed by the Stars, losing about two minutes on average with time on ice. After the trade to Montreal, Gurianov had a much larger opportunity on offense, as he was able to get around 15 minutes a night with the Canadiens. In his small sample size in Quebec, Gurianov scored eight points in 23 games.
Now transitioning back to the NHL’s Central Division, Gurianov should once again have plenty of opportunity in Nashville. Given how the team’s roster is currently constructed, Gurianov should have no problem slotting into the team’s middle six.
Ottawa Senators Re-Sign Kevin Mandolese
The Ottawa Senators have re-signed restricted free agent netminder Kevin Mandolese to a one-year, two-way contract, PuckPedia reports Tuesday. The 22-year-old’s new deal will carry a $775K cap hit and NHL salary and pay him $110K in the minors.
Mandolese made his NHL debut last season, posting a .916 save percentage in three games when injuries struck both Anton Forsberg and Cam Talbot near the end of the year. The 6-foot-5, 200-pound netminder now has three pro seasons under his belt, mostly bouncing between the AHL’s Belleville Senators and ECHL’s Atlanta Gladiators and Allen Americans.
After posting strong numbers in limited ECHL time, Mandolese should compete for a true full-time role in Belleville next season. He’ll face some tough competition, though – 2019 second-round pick Mads Sogaard and 20-year-old Leevi Merilainen are also gunning for development time in the AHL and have higher ceilings than Mandolese.
In 43 games with Belleville over the past three seasons, Mandolese has an 18-19-3 record, a 3.40 goals-against average, and a .893 save percentage. Ottawa selected him 157th overall in the 2018 NHL Draft.
The deal comes in under his qualifying offer of $840K in the NHL, but his AHL salary is above the $70K he was due. He’ll be a restricted free agent next season, and he’ll be eligible for arbitration this time around.
AHL Transaction Ledger: 07/11/23
The AHL continues making moves in one of its busiest periods of the year. These signings include both promising young players and experienced veterans, as AHL teams aim to bolster their rosters and provide valuable support to their NHL affiliated-players. Today continues to be a flurry of activity in the league, adding to the numerous acquisitions made over the past few days. Here’s a comprehensive list of all the moves that took place today as teams continue to shape their squads for the upcoming season:
- The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have signed hulking 6-foot-7 center Austin Rueschhoff for the 2023-24 season. Rueschhoff has played 134 AHL games thus far in his pro career, accumulating 24 goals and 28 assists for 52 points. Starting out with the Hartford Wolf Pack in 2020-21 after signing an entry-level deal with the New York Rangers, he then led the team’s rookies with 14 goals in 2021-22 and then joined the Milwaukee Admirals late this season as part of a minor swap between the Rangers and Nashville Predators. In the Calder Cup Playoffs, Rueschhoff contributed five points (three goals, two assists) in 15 games for Milwaukee.
- While the Penguins organization gained one player today, they also lost one to the Rockford IceHogs, as they’ve signed defenseman Josh Maniscalco to a one-year contract. The 24-year-old from Perkiomenville, Pennsylvania, set a career-high in games played with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last season, recording four points (two goals, two assists) and a +4 rating. He spent most of the season with the Wheeling Nailers in the ECHL, though, where he’s truly excelled the past two seasons. In 2021-22, Maniscalco earned ECHL All-Rookie Team and ECHL Second All-Star Team honors after tallying 53 points (17 goals, 36 assists) in 64 games and contributing seven points (three goals, four assists) en route to a Division Final loss in the Kelly Cup Playoffs.
This page will be updated throughout the day.
Carolina Hurricanes Sign Brendan Lemieux
1:35 PM: The Hurricanes have confirmed the signing via a press release.
9:49 AM: Unrestricted free agent forward Brendan Lemieux is preparing to sign with the Carolina Hurricanes on a one-year contract worth $800K, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports Tuesday.
Lemieux, 27, split last season between the Los Angeles Kings and Philadelphia Flyers after a deadline day trade sent him cross-country. The 6-foot-1, 213-pound troublemaking winger scored twice in 18 games for the Flyers after the trade and amassed a total of nine points and 74 penalty minutes in 45 games throughout last season.
Carolina will be Lemieux’s fifth NHL organization, and this is his first time switching teams via free agency. The son of four-time Stanley Cup champion Claude Lemieux had been traded four times in nine years since the Buffalo Sabres selected him with the 31st overall pick in 2014.
This isn’t the roster move most Hurricanes fans were bracing for. With the team linked to higher-profile names such as Erik Karlsson and Vladimir Tarasenko in recent days, as well as a rumored trade for Anthony DeAngelo (a former teammate of Lemieux’s with the New York Rangers), many thought the Hurricanes were in a holding pattern until they were able to fit in one more big move, one that will require some creative money management with the team boasting just $3.3MM in projected cap space, per CapFriendly.
Those discussions haven’t stopped Carolina from making a depth add, evidently. Given the current state of Carolina’s wing depth, it seems unlikely Lemieux will be able to secure an everyday fourth-line role. It won’t be anything unusual for Lemieux, though, as he’s played more than 60 games in a season just once in his career.
He’ll battle for ice time with depth wingers like Jordan Martinook and Stefan Noesen, both of whom carry more scoring upside and played quite well for the Hurricanes down the stretch and into the playoffs for last season. He does provide an element of annoyance and tenacity that could give him an edge on getting into the lineup in some situations, though.
Lemieux will be an unrestricted free agent once again next summer.
Montreal Canadiens Sign Alex Newhook
The Montreal Canadiens have gotten a deal worked out for their big trade addition this offseason. After nabbing the signing rights to former first-round pick Alex Newhook via trade from the Colorado Avalanche last month, the team’s now inked him to a four-year contract with an average annual value of $2.9MM. CapFriendly reports the breakdown of the deal as follows:
2023-24: $3.5MM salary
2024-25: $3.3MM salary
2025-26: $2.7MM salary
2026-27: $2.1MM salary
Newhook will still be a restricted free agent at the end of this semi-long-term commitment, given he’s still just 22 years old and has only two full seasons of pro experience. This is the longest contract possible for Newhook without surrendering his signing rights at the end – a five-year deal would have walked him directly to unrestricted free agency in 2028.
While Newhook may not have taken the step forward most hoped for in Colorado last season, a $2.9MM cap hit is still fair value for his services, even if he doesn’t pan out as hoped with the Canadiens. The 2019 16th overall pick played in all 82 games for the Avalanche last season but posted just 14 goals, 16 assists, and 30 points despite being given top-six minutes to start the season. He’d later fall down the depth chart in favor of J.T. Compher, who earned himself a payday in free agency by signing a five-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings.
As it stands right now, Newhook is a fine third-line center whose game translates to the wing rather seamlessly. The contract may be a slight overpay based on last year’s performance, but it could be a significant bargain in a couple of years should he approach his ceiling – a bonafide top-six playmaking center.
Newhook projects to fit in somewhere among Montreal’s second or third lines, although predicting line combinations at this stage in the offseason isn’t a prudent exercise given the team’s backlog among forwards of depth veterans and up-and-comers alike. It does seem likely he’ll start the season on the wing, however, unless the team pursues trading someone like Christian Dvorak.
East Notes: Islanders, Amerks, Leblanc
The Islanders were one of the teams interested in winger Alex DeBrincat with Newsday’s Andrew Gross reporting that Jean-Gabriel Pageau and winger Oliver Wahlstrom were part of their pitch to Ottawa to try to get DeBrincat’s services. Presumably, the offer would have also featured a first-round pick and another younger element. Pageau is no stranger to Ottawa having spent parts of eight seasons with the team but the 30-year-old has three years left on his contract with a $5MM AAV, a price tag the Sens likely didn’t want to take on. The total salary in the trade they did make with Detroit was assuming the final year and $2.5MM of Dominik Kubalik’s contract.
Elsewhere in the East:
- The Sabres announced the hiring of two new assistant coaches for AHL Rochester, naming Nathan Paetsch and Vinny Prospal to the role. Paetsch has worked as a development coach for Buffalo for the last two seasons while Prospal most recently served as the head coach for HC Ceske Budejovice in the Czech Extraliga with that stint ending after the 2020-21 campaign. The two former NHL veterans will take the place of two other former veterans that have been promoted to jobs at the top level with Paetsch replacing Mike Weber (Blues) and Prospal filling the spot of Mike Peca (Rangers).
- Anthony Leblanc has stepped down as Ottawa’s President of Business Operations and Alternate Governor, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. Leblanc had held that role since 2020 and had previously spent time in the NHL with Arizona from 2013-2017. Changes shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise with Michael Andlauer set to take over soon as the new owner of the team. Andlauer was advised in his pursuit of the team by former Senators executive Cyril Leeder; Garrioch suggests that Leeder could return to the club once the purchase is officially finalized.