Vancouver Canucks Buy Out Oliver Ekman-Larsson
The Vancouver Canucks have made the first buyout of the summer, announcing that they have bought out defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Ekman-Larsson had four years left on an eight-year $66MM contract he signed with the Arizona Coyotes in July of 2018, but with the buyout it will allow the 31-year-old to become an unrestricted free agent where he will be free to start fresh with any team he chooses. Ekman-Larsson posted two goals and 20 assists this past season in 54 games with the Canucks while averaging 20 minutes of ice time a night.
Vancouver will free up some desperately needed cap space as they head into a summer where they will be trying to sign star forward Elias Pettersson to a long-term contract extension. The Canucks will save $7.1MM in cap space this season with the buyout and $4.9MM next year. They will save $2.5MM the two years after that and then have a cap charge of $2.13MM for four years.
While it is an expensive penalty to pay, it was a necessary move for the Canucks. Ekman-Larsson’s play has fallen off a cliff in recent years as the once elite defender has struggled since the 2019-20 season. There was a time when it was a given that he would play 25 minutes a night, put up 40-50 points a season and post terrific underlying numbers. But those days are long gone and his play as of late is more in line with that of a third pairing defenseman. The Karlskrona, Sweden native hasn’t posted 30 points since the 2019-20 season and hasn’t posted much in the way of positive analytics since that time.
Ekman-Larsson’s fall from elite status is surprising, but the buyout may not be the worst thing in the world for him. His salary forced him to play up in the lineup in a spot that was probably asking too much given where his skillset is at. With the buyout he could find a situation where he is paid like a 5-6 defenseman and deployed like one too. This could ultimately lead to a bit of a resurgence for Ekman-Larsson. However, if another team offers to pay him like a 3-4 defenseman based on name recognition, they may be disappointed with the results that they see, not unlike the Ryan Suter situation with the Dallas Stars.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the buyout.
New York Rangers Extend Zac Jones
The New York Rangers have agreed to terms with defenseman Zac Jones on a two-year contract extension, the team said today. The New York Post’s Mollie Walker reports the deal carries an $812,500 average annual value and is a one-way deal in both seasons.
Getting Jones under contract early into June takes care of one of many depth defenders the Rangers have to give new deals. An early third-round pick of the team in 2019, Jones signed his entry-level contract after just two seasons of college hockey at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and has seen NHL ice in each of the past three campaigns, including a goal and an assist in 16 appearances this year.
He’s still looking to secure a full-time role, but extended time in the minors has been kind to him. Jones has recorded 66 points in 106 games with the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack since 2021, making significant strides in his defensive game this year as well.
Jones’ cap hit comes in lower than the $874,125 qualifying offer he was due, but a one-way deal over the course of two seasons guarantees him quite a bit more money. It’ll also help his chances for a recall or even making the team out of camp – every dollar against the cap counts in a tight situation like the Rangers’, and they’ll be looking for offensive contributions from more mobile defenders like Jones. Signing him to a one-way deal reflects that, and it should be a safe bet to see Jones play a career-high in NHL games during the upcoming campaign.
Calgary Flames Will Likely Trade Noah Hanifin
The 2023 offseason has been a monumental one for the Calgary Flames, and we’re still weeks away from the draft and free agency. New general manager Craig Conroy has a tough contract situation to deal with on his hands, with six important players currently headed for unrestricted free agency in 2024. A decision on what to do with one of those players has been made for him, though, as Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports defenseman Noah Hanifin is unwilling to sign an extension with the team and is likely destined for a trade.
Now 26, the top-flight defender has just shy of 600 NHL games under his belt and is entering the final season of a six-year, $4.95MM average annual value contract signed with Calgary in 2018. He’s had some very solid seasons in Alberta, including three 30-point campaigns and a firmly cemented top-four role throughout his time there. Historically a positive two-way force, Hanifin had some significant defensive struggles for the first time in 2022-23, seeing his advanced metrics dip slightly below the league average.
At his age and with his experience, though, that’s likely an outlier. Whichever team Hanifin ends up with can expect to pay him north of $6MM on a long-term deal and get their money’s worth. He’s one of the more consistent players from year to year in the league, really never having huge offensive or defensive lapses and maintaining solid (but not elite) numbers in heavy usage. His 0.48 points per game are tied for 47th among defensemen with at least 100 games played over the last three seasons, and his 21:32 average time on ice is 57th using the same parameters.
Competent on both the power play and penalty kill, the left-shot defender is not a true number-one defenseman but still a high-end, first-pairing caliber player. He may not fetch as much in a trade with the Flames as he would if he were a right-shot defenseman, but the Flames should still expect (and receive) at least a first-round pick for his services on the trade market – even if he makes it to the trade deadline and is sold as a rental.
With a steep trade market this offseason, though, moving him now is likely to get Calgary some good value with more time for their trade partner to negotiate an extension. And, given the Flames have pointed playoff aspirations next season, it would behoove them to free up Hanifin’s cap hit so he could be replaced via free agency or a separate trade later in the summer.
In 81 games this season, Hanifin registered seven goals and 38 points in 81 contests, recording a career-high average ice time of 22:39 in the process.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Snapshots: Winnipeg, Hayes, Sharangovich
The WHL’s Winnipeg Ice are on the move again after spending just four years in the city, TSN’s Darren Dreger reports Friday. After moving from Cranbrook in the Kootenay region of British Columbia in 2019, a condition of the sale to new owners in Winnipeg was a new facility for the team. The condition was never met, and now the team has been sold to former 2017 BCHL executive of the year David White, who will move them to Wenatchee, Washington, a town with a population of about 35,000 people in the center of the state. For now, it seems the new Wenatchee WHL squad will share the ice with White’s BCHL team, the Wenatchee Wild, at the Town Toyota Center with a capacity of 4,300 people.
Winnipeg lost in this year’s WHL championship series and boasts an eye-popping record of 110-20-6 over the past two seasons combined. The franchise’s debut season in Wenatchee could include Buffalo Sabres prospect Matthew Savoie and Arizona Coyotes prospect Conor Geekie, both first-round picks in the 2022 NHL Draft.
Other notes from around the hockey world today:
- On today’s episode of Sportsnet’s 32 Thoughts, Elliotte Friedman dumped some cold water on the rumors of a Kevin Hayes trade between the Philadelphia Flyers and Columbus Blue Jackets. After the two teams were involved in a three-way deal that saw Ivan Provorov head from the Flyers to the Jackets, reports said the move didn’t eliminate the possibility of the long-rumored Hayes deal coming to fruition. However, the Blue Jackets now have under $6MM in projected cap space for 2023-24 (CapFriendly) after getting defender Damon Severson from the New Jersey Devils in a sign-and-trade, which would force the Flyers to retain a high amount of Hayes’ $7.14MM cap hit through 2025-26. While Columbus remains in desperate need of centers, general manager Jarmo Kekalainen now has seven defensemen on the roster that cost more than $2MM against the cap, including a combined $6.75MM wrapped up in Erik Gudbranson and Andrew Peeke, who both had very disappointing campaigns last season.
- Another name mentioned by Friedman was that of New Jersey Devils forward Yegor Sharangovich, who Friedman believes could hit the trade market this offseason. The 25-year-old Belarusian is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights after completing a two-year, $4MM contract signed in August of 2021 and has registered at least 30 points in all three of his NHL campaigns. He is a decent depth scorer, but he’s not of much value defensively and posted the lowest point-per-game output of his NHL career (0.40) last season. He was a healthy scratch for most of New Jersey’s playoff run, appearing in three out of 12 games.
East Notes: Granlund, Matthews, Leafs Assistant Vacancy
The NHL’s first buyout window opens today, and teams have until 4 p.m. CT on June 30 to use them to create space ahead of free agency. If the Pittsburgh Penguins decide to pursue one, keep your eye on forward Mikael Granlund, The Athletic’s Rob Rossi said this morning.
Rossi notes that buyouts weren’t encouraged by previous ownership, but now, under Fenway Sports Group, interim general manager Kyle Dubas will have the freedom to pursue one if he so chooses. Pittsburgh acquired Granlund in a March 1 trade with the Nashville Predators and would essentially be throwing the 46th overall pick they gave up for him (and the cap hit of his buyout) down the drain. Granlund, who has two seasons remaining at $5MM per season, had just one goal and four assists in 21 games with Pittsburgh after the trade, as they missed the playoffs for the first time in nearly two decades. Per CapFriendly, a buyout would provide $4.17MM in savings next season and $3.17MM in 2024-25. Pittsburgh would then be hit with a $1.83MM penalty in 2025-26 and 2026-27.
Heading further north in the Eastern Conference:
- Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said on today’s 32 Thoughts podcast that the Toronto Maple Leafs’ preference with Auston Matthews is to get him locked into a max-term extension rather than a short-term payday. While Friedman couldn’t comment on the likelihood of that happening, he did say there’s been a heightened sense of urgency from both Matthews and the Leafs to get an extension done so the team can move on to other offseason business. Friedman said that after Matthews had a successful meeting with new general manager Brad Treliving in Arizona last week, he’s “even more confident” a deal will get done this summer.
- Staying in Toronto, Treliving and head coach Sheldon Keefe are deep in the process of interviewing candidates to replace former assistant Spencer Carbery, TSN’s Darren Dreger said today. Carbery had spent the past two seasons on Toronto’s bench before the Washington Capitals named him their next head coach earlier this spring. Dreger also mentioned that although Treliving and Keefe have spent time getting to know each other since the former’s hiring, no extension talks have begun yet for Keefe, who’s entering the final season of his contract.
Latest On Timo Meier, Mackenzie Blackwood
The New Jersey Devils got their first key piece of offseason business done yesterday, signing Jesper Bratt to an eight-year, $63MM extension. It’s a team-friendly $7.875MM cap hit (in the short-term, at least), which leaves the team still with upwards of $25MM of space this offseason, per CapFriendly. A good chunk of that will end up going to the team’s other star RFA, Timo Meier, who general manager Tom Fitzgerald said today wants to stay with the Devils long-term. While the Devils did file for team-elected salary arbitration yesterday, it’s a safety net more than anything else – Fitzgerald has requested Meier’s agent to hammer out the framework of a max-term, eight-year extension.
Now with seven NHL seasons and nearly 500 games under his belt, the 26-year-old Swiss winger is coming off a four-year, $6MM average annual value deal signed with the San Jose Sharks in 2019. He’s scored 35 and 40 goals in the last two seasons, and he’ll look to get paid like one of the premier goal-scorers in the league on a long-term deal.
While the Devils would prefer to keep a salary hierarchy among forwards under Jack Hughes‘ $8MM cap hit, that’s not likely on a long-term deal with Meier. While he won’t earn the eight figures due to him on a one-year qualifying offer, his cap hit across eight years could creep into the high $8MM range.
Another player the Devils have on their offseason list is netminder Mackenzie Blackwood, on whom Fitzgerald says the team will explore all options. Another restricted free agent, Fitzgerald wasn’t sure the team will opt to qualify him, negotiate a contract lower than his $3.36MM qualifying offer, or cut ties with the 26-year-old altogether and trade him.
After another injury-plagued season which saw him post a .893 save percentage in 22 games, he’s decidedly slipped to third on the team’s goalie depth chart behind Vitek Vanecek and Akira Schmid. A trade seems like the most pragmatic scenario here, likely for a draft pick. The team has a well-stocked prospect pool in the crease with names like Nico Daws and others.
It’s been an unfortunate turn of the tide for Blackwood, who a few seasons ago seemed the organization’s goalie of the future – especially in 2019-20 when he posted a .915 mark in 47 games behind a rather weak squad.
Minor Transactions: 06/15/23
With the Stanley Cup Final now concluded there remains just one major hockey competition left to be completed before the offseason can truly begin. The AHL’s Calder Cup Finals continue tonight as the Seattle Kraken’s affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds take on the Hershey Bears, affiliates of the Washington Capitals. After Joey Daccord‘s back-to-back shutout performances brought Coachella Valley to a 2-0 lead, Hershey managed to weather a late comeback and take a massive overtime victory on home ice, tightening the series considerably.
As these two teams battle for AHL supremacy clubs across the hockey world are working on assembling a roster they hope can bring them a championship by this time next year. We’ll keep track of notable transactions here.
- Three-time Liiga champion Mikko Niemela has had his contract with Karpat terminated by mutual agreement. Niemela had been with Karpat since he was a youth player, with his first games on record coming in 2005-06 at the U16 level. Save for a few loan spells to other clubs he’s been a consistent presence on their blueline and in total has played over 500 games at Finland’s highest level of hockey across 13 seasons. He finished this past season with Brynas IF in the SHL where he was unable to help them avoid relegation to the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. Now, at 32 years old, Niemela will look for a new opportunity to continue his long European pro career.
- Connor McCarthy, an ECAC First-Team All-Star at Clarkson University is heading overseas for the first time in his professional career. The massive six-foot-seven blueliner tried his hand at North American pro hockey in the New York Islanders’ minor league system, serving as a regular for their ECHL affiliate, the Worcester Railers, for the past two seasons. While he managed to get into 10 AHL games in 2021-22 he only got into two this past campaign and has now decided to sign with HC Banska Bystrica of Slovakia’s Tipos Extraliga.
- The SHL’s IK Oskarshamn have announced a two-year contract extension with blueliner Niclas Burstrom, a veteran of 543 games in Sweden’s top tier of hockey. The five-foot-eight defenseman won the SHL’s Salming Trophy, awarded to Swedish defenseman of the year, in 2015-16 and just recently finished his first campaign in Oskarshamn. He scored one goal and 12 points in 46 games and will now hope to help his club return to the SHL playoffs after a seventh-place 2022-23 finish.
- Liiga club SaiPa and forward Tino Metsavainio have mutually agreed to terminate the player’s contract, per a team announcement. Metsavainio enjoyed a breakout season in Liiga’s top league quickly after signing with SaiPa, scoring a career-high 20 points in 49 games. His production declined steeply this year, though, and he finished with eight points in 55 games – less than half of his prior total. With that disappointing campaign now in his rear-view mirror Metsavainio is now a free agent and able to sign elsewhere for a fresh start.
- Just one year after he led the DEL in scoring by players under 23 years old, German forward Tim Wohlgemuth has had his contract terminated with Adler Mannheim by mutual agreement. Wohlgemuth’s offensive production declined from 35 points in 2021-22 to 24 this past season, and it seems a change of scenery is in order as a result. Wohlgemuth’s playoff performance was particularly disappointing as he only managed one point in 10 games, a solid decline from his prior performances when he was a consistent contributor. Now he’ll likely land with another DEL team and look to revive the momentum he had been building in past years.
- Anrei Hakulinen, captain of Liiga’s Lukko for the past two seasons, has signed with the DEL’s Augsburger Panther. It’s a major signing for the German side as Hakulinen ranked second in scoring for Lukko this past year and helped them reach third place on Liiga’s regular-season table. Now he’ll join a DEL side that ranked second-to-last in 2022-23 and will likely serve as a major boost to their odds of avoiding relegation once again.
- The club that got relegated instead of Augsburg, the Bietigheim Steelers, have lost another player to a surviving DEL team: 21-year-old Robert Kneisler. Kneisler joins Grizzlys Wolfsburg, semifinalists these past playoffs. He only managed seven points in 53 games for the Steelers in 2022-23 but should help round out the depth of Wolfsburg’s roster as they hope to take the next step in the playoffs in 2023-24.
- While MoDo Hockey Ornskoldsvik were promoted to the SHL this spring with a dramatic seven-game victory over Djurgarden, 28-year-old defenseman Josef Ingman won’t be following them into Sweden’s top pro hockey league. Ingman has signed with HockeyAllsvenskan’s Ostersunds IK, a club that ranked among the worst teams in Sweden’s second tier. He’ll likely play a major role on their blueline and hope to repeat the strong form he displayed in 2022-23, a year he finished with a two-assist performance in Game Seven against Djurgarden.
- The reigning Slovak champions, HC Kosice, have gotten a bit stronger, poaching forward Filip Krivosik from HK Nitra. Krivosik has played quite well since returning to Slovakia after a half-decade in Finland, scoring 50 points across two seasons and 18 points in 27 combined playoff games. The big six-foot-three forward, 24, will be afforded a significant opportunity in Kosice and has been signed to help the club win a tenth Extraliga title.
- Austin Farley, once among the top first-year scorers in college hockey, has signed a one-year contract extension with Slovakia’s HC Nove Zamsky. The former University of Minnesota-Duluth winger enjoyed a breakout campaign in Czechia, scoring 15 goals and 45 points in 48 games. Farley last played in North America in 2020-21, as he got into 19 games with the ECHL’s Kansas City Mavericks but only managed three points. He’s had more success on European ice and now is extending his stay in Europe for another season with this contract extension.
Trade Notes: Karlsson, DeBrincat, Pesce
It’s not often that a defenseman is traded the summer after a Norris Trophy-winning, 101-point season, but that’s exactly what might happen with Erik Karlsson and the San Jose Sharks. With San Jose looking to rebuild and Karlsson’s historic regular season unable to lift the team out of the NHL’s basement, this summer could bring the second trade of Karlsson’s career. The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported on TSN’s Insider Trading program that Karlsson’s representatives and the Sharks had a meeting last week about the player’s future, and the outcome of the meeting was a unified focus between team and player to “try and get a trade done” for next season.
Karlsson, 33, is in possession of a full no-movement clause in his contract meaning he would have final control over any destination. The largest barrier to any potential move isn’t expected to be that clause, though. Instead, it’s likely to be Karlsson’s $11.5MM cap hit, and whether interested teams will be willing to take on the full weight of that hit. (or whether the Sharks will need to retain a portion of the contract) In any case, it appears the Sharks and Karlsson’s camp share a motivation to find a trade outcome before the start of next season.
Some other notes about trade rumors from across the NHL:
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- Also on Insider Trading, TSN’s Chris Johnston reports that the Senators, by filing for arbitration with restricted free agent forward Alex DeBrincat, have “set the window for when they have to trade” the player. Johnston believes the Senators will make a push to get a DeBrincat trade finalized “by the draft this month” if possible. One might remember that DeBrincat was traded to Ottawa on draft day last year, and now based on Johnston’s report it seems he could get dealt on one of hockey’s most significant days once again, if not sooner.
- Like DeBrincat, Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce has the chance to become an unrestricted free agent next summer. On Insider Trading, LeBrun reported that while contract talks on an extension are continuing between Pesce and Carolina, the Hurricanes are “pretty resolute” that they’ll be trading him this summer if they can’t secure his signature on a new deal. LeBrun also adds that the Buffalo Sabres have already inquired about the possibility of trading for Pesce, potentially to be Owen Power‘s long-term partner. It’s likely that the widely-respected 28-year-old blueliner would garner significant trade interest if put on the market. He just finished a year where he made a major impact on both ends of the ice, setting a career-high of 30 points while also serving as a leading penalty killer for a Carolina shorthanded unit that consistently ranks among the best in the NHL.
Evening Notes: Sabres, Bezeau, USHL
Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News reported today that the Buffalo Sabres are in contract discussions with a pair of former first overall picks. The Sabres are trying to work out extensions with franchise defenseman Rasmus Dahlin as well as Owen Power who was a workhorse in his rookie season. Both men are eligible for to sign contract extensions on July 1st and have expressed interest in inking long-term with the Sabres. Lysowski acknowledges that the Sabres don’t have any rush to sign either man to an extension as they both still have a year left on their current deals, but if they were to get the new contracts done on July 1st it would give the Sabres some cost certainty as they head into free agency at what is a critical point in their rebuild.
Dahlin will be looking for a long-term contract and could get something in the range of $9MM to $10MM on a long-term deal. The Swedish defender is coming off a season in which he put up 15 goals and 58 assists in 78 games while playing almost 26 minutes a night. For Power, he could sign long term but may elect to sign a bridge deal in the hopes of maximizing his earnings when he is more established and the salary cap has gone up. In his rookie season he played almost 24 minutes a night and had four goals and 31 assists in 79 games.
In other evening notes:
- The Charlotte Checkers have announced that they have re-signed right winger Riley Bezeau to a two-year AHL contract. Bezeau spent this past season in the Queen City putting up five goals and three assists in 51 AHL games and finishing second on the team with 84PIM. The 21-year-old was previously an assistant captain of the Saint John Sea Dogs team that captured the Memorial Cup in 2021-22 in a season that saw him post 11 goals and 16 assists in 56 games.
- The USHL announced today that Glenn Hefferan has been selected as the 11th president and commissioner in league history. Heffernan will take over on July 1st and is familiar with USA hockey having been a board and committee member for several years in various capacities as well as a member of the USA Hockey Executive Committee since June 2021. Back in 2012 Heffernan was awarded the Dr. John J. McMullen Award for service to New Jersey Amateur Hockey, an award he was given by the New Jersey Devils.
Devils Expected To File For Arbitration With Timo Meier
The New Jersey Devils have been busy today, fresh off signing Jesper Bratt to an eight-year extension Sportnet’s Elliotte Friedman is reporting that the club will likely take forward Timo Meier to team elected arbitration. This doesn’t prevent either side from continuing to negotiate a long-term deal, but it does give the Devils some leverage as they head into conversations with the 26-year-old. The team elected arbitration could result in a salary that is 85% of Meier’s 2022-23 salary which came in at $10MM.
Meier came over to the Devils in late February after a blockbuster trade with the San Jose Sharks. He took some time to settle in with New Jersey and put up nine goals and five assists in 21 games with the Devils to finish out the regular season. He would ultimately finish his season with 40 goals and 26 assists in 78 games split between the two teams. In the playoffs Meier struggled mightily posting just two goals and two assists in 11 games and was largely a non-factor in the team’s series win over the New York Rangers going pointless in seven games and suffering a huge hit from Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba. Meier was much stronger in the team’s second round series against Carolina putting up four points in four games.
The Devils decision to file for arbitration isn’t all that surprising given that they are largely negotiating from a position of weakness as Meier holds the hammer in their contract discussion sitting just a year away from unrestricted free agency. He could simply just go to arbitration and walk away next summer.
As mentioned earlier, with the team elected arbitration Meier could see his salary reduced by as much as 15% depending on how the arbitration process plays out. While that won’t do much on a long-term contract, it could lead to an acceleration in the contract discussions with Meier’s camp which would allow New Jersey some clarity as they head into the draft and free agency in the upcoming weeks. The Devils have a busy summer ahead as they try to build on their first series win in over a decade.