Ottawa Senators Sign Oskar Pettersson
The Ottawa Senators have signed forward Oskar Pettersson to a three-year, entry-level contract, the team announced today. Financial details were not disclosed.
The 19-year-old Swedish prospect had a strong season in his home country. A cerebral and speedy winger, Pettersson tallied two points and 33 penalty minutes in 29 regular-season games with Rogle BK of the SHL, his first pro experience. In Sweden’s U20 league with Rogle’s top junior team, Pettersson led his team in points per game among players with at least 10 games, recording 23 goals and 10 assists in 24 games.
Senators general manager Pierre Dorion gave a statement on Pettersson’s signing:
Oskar has quickly become one of the organization’s top prospects. He had a strong first pro season and showcases a similar maturity level to players who are much older than he. A north/south winger who has demonstrated that he’s capable of playing in all situations, he routinely utilizes his speed to effectively cycle the puck. He’s a smart player with good habits; his work ethic alone is certain to be of considerable value to him as he strives to take the next step.
Selected by the Senators with the 72nd overall pick in the third round of the 2022 NHL Draft, Pettersson joins two other players from the team’s draft class who Ottawa has already signed: defensemen Tomas Hamara (87th overall) and Jorian Donovan. Pettersson is expected to attend the Senators’ upcoming annual development camp before returning to Rogle for the next season, the team said.
Given his age, Pettersson is eligible for a one-year slide on this deal if he plays less than 10 NHL games. With Pettersson not expected to see NHL ice in 2023-24, his three-year contract will likely kick in for the 2024-25 campaign.
Aaron Ekblad Will Have Shoulder Surgery
For the second straight day, the Florida Panthers announced a member of their defense corps will undergo shoulder surgery. Aaron Ekblad will have a procedure done after sustaining two separate shoulder dislocations during the team’s playoff run, he told reporters including Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press today.
Ekblad’s recovery time will stretch into next season’s training camp. It’s unclear whether he’ll be ready for the start of the 2023-24 regular season.
One of his shoulder dislocations occurred during the Eastern Conference Final, Ekblad said. He didn’t register a point at even strength in the team’s four-game sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes and averaged 21 minutes per game – not including Game 1’s four-overtime win.
As head coach Paul Maurice said yesterday, Ekblad broke his foot during Game 2 of the team’s first-round win against the Boston Bruins. Ekblad said today he didn’t find out about the injury until the downtime between the second and third rounds.
That second-round series on a broken foot against the Toronto Maple Leafs was Ekblad’s best of the postseason. The 27-year-old defender clicked at a point per game against Toronto after failing to get on the scoresheet in six games against the Bruins.
Maurice added more clarity to Florida’s injury report today, too, saying forward Eetu Luostarinen‘s absence in the Stanley Cup Final was due to a broken tibia sustained in the series-clinching Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final. Unlike Ekblad and Brandon Montour, Luostarinen will not require off-season surgery.
Luostarinen skated multiple times during Panthers practices after the injury and attempted to return. The 2017 second-round pick of the Hurricanes had a breakout season for Florida in 2022-23, averaging nearly 16 minutes per game in the regular season and scoring 17 goals and 43 points while playing in all 82 games. He added five points in 16 playoff games while seeing an uptick in ice time.
Philadelphia Flyers Hire John LeClair
The Philadelphia Flyers are accumulating quite a group of former players in the front office. After announcing Patrick Sharp‘s addition yesterday, they have now named John LeClair Special Advisor to Hockey Operations.
LeClair will work alongside Sharp and report to general manager Daniel Briere. President of hockey operations Keith Jones released the following statement:
Adding in John LeClair to work in conjunction with Patrick Sharp and the rest of our hockey operations group will be a powerful combination with their vast hockey knowledge and a ‘team-first’ mentality.
John has been around the NHL and the game for a long time and knows what it takes to bring the core ethics of our foundation to the Philadelphia Flyers.
LeClair, 53, played parts of ten seasons for the Flyers during his playing career, forming one-third of the legendary “Legion of Doom” line with Eric Lindros and Mikael Renberg. The three power forwards dominated the league for several years, with LeClair scoring 50+ goals in three straight seasons between 1995-1998.
In terms of hockey operations, however, LeClair is a rookie. He coaches in 3ICE, the three-on-three league in which many current and former pros participate over the summer.
Between LeClair, Sharp, and Jones, the Flyers have added nearly 1,700 NHL points in the front office in recent weeks.
Ottawa Senators Expected To Take Alex DeBrincat To Arbitration
“He doesn’t want to sign here.”
That’s how blunt Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia was today, when discussing Alex DeBrincat‘s future with the Ottawa Senators. Garrioch reports that the Senators have elected to take DeBrincat to arbitration, attempting to get the possible 15% reduction on his $9MM qualifying offer.
That does not mean they will necessarily receive it. As suggested by the name, an arbitrator will decide what DeBrincat’s salary in 2023-24 will be, based on his previous contracts and performance.
It was always a risky play, going after the young forward. Ottawa sent the seventh and 39th overall picks in 2022 (plus a 2024 third-rounder) to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for DeBrincat last July, with only one season remaining on his contract. The three-year, $19.2MM deal was heavily back-loaded, forcing any RFA qualifying offer to skyrocket to $9MM.
If DeBrincat doesn’t want to play in Ottawa, he could simply take the one-year arbitration decision and hit unrestricted free agency in 2024 as a 26-year-old with two 41-goal seasons under his belt.
The Senators could get up to 15% off that $9MM, meaning the award could be as low as $7.65MM.
Of course, that doesn’t mean he’ll actually be playing in Ottawa next season. The club is in active trade talks to move the young winger and recoup some of the draft capital they spent last year.
Though he didn’t put up 40 goals, DeBrincat still showed off his scoring touch with the Senators. In 82 games, he lit the lamp 27 times and racked up 66 total points, good enough for fourth on the team behind Tim Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk, and Claude Giroux. In a 450-game NHL career, he now has 187 goals and 373 points.
Latest On Klim Kostin
The Edmonton Oilers have some interesting moves to make this offseason as they (once again) look to rebuild a roster that wasn’t good enough to get it done in the playoffs. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have shown they can only carry the group so far in the postseason, meaning the rest need to be more competitive.
One bright spot from this season was the emergence of Klim Kostin, a 2017 first-round pick of the St. Louis Blues who had struggled to make an impact at the NHL level. In Edmonton, he scored 11 goals and 21 points in 57 games, while racking up 157 hits and 66 penalty minutes. That kind of well-rounded depth player is valuable for a club like the Oilers, especially given that he is just 24 years old.
Unfortunately for general manager Ken Holland, Kostin is also eligible for arbitration, a process that could result in a much higher contract than the $750K he played under this year. With every dollar meaning so much to Edmonton, getting to a hearing might not be ideal.
Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic suggests that a two-year bridge contract with a cap hit no higher than $1.5MM could be an ideal compromise but also throws some chum in the water for frustrated Oilers fans. The scribe writes there “could be some interest in the 24-year-old winger from KHL teams.”
Given that Holland has already confirmed he will qualify Kostin, the Oilers won’t lose his rights either way. But watching him head to Russia after a breakout season (however limited) would be disappointing. Even if he played ten minutes a night, he made an impact for Edmonton—something not many role players have done over the last few years.
Offseason Checklist: New York Rangers
The offseason is now fully underway after Vegas took home the Stanley Cup which means that it’s time to examine what each team will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at the Rangers.
Expectations were high for New York heading into the playoffs. They had a solid regular season and loaded up for the playoffs, adding wingers Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane while also getting Niko Mikkola to help on the back end. Instead of their firepower carrying the day though, they struggled to score with consistency which played a big role in their early exit at the hand of New Jersey. One big change has already been made behind the bench but GM Chris Drury still has some work cut out for him in the coming weeks.
Finalize Coaching Staff
After a long search, the Rangers have figured out who their head coach is going to be following yesterday’s hiring of Peter Laviolette on a three-year deal worth just under $5MM per season. Now, the team will need to finalize the rest of their staff. Mike Kelly and Jim Midgley were let go last month along with former bench boss Gerard Gallant while Gord Murphy will now also not return. That means the only holdover from last year’s staff is goalie coach Benoit Allaire.
It’s not entirely uncommon for a head coach to come in with a clean slate. Two of Laviolette’s assistants from last season in Washington, Kevin McCarthy and Blaine Forsythe, also departed the Capitals and possibly resurface in similar roles with the Rangers. It’s also possible that AHL Hartford head coach Kris Knoblauch could be promoted after four years with the Wolf Pack. He does have two seasons as an NHL assistant under his belt in 2017-18 and 2018-19 with Philadelphia.
Having the assistants in place by free agency isn’t a necessity since Laviolette is in place but it wouldn’t be surprising to see this one get checked off within the next couple of weeks.
Clear Cap Space
At first glance, New York’s cap situation doesn’t look terrible as they project to have a little over $11.7MM in space, per CapFriendly. However, when you consider that they have to sign eight or nine players with that money, including second contracts for a pair of core youngsters, it doesn’t take long to realize that this is going to be a problem. They need to open up some cap room which isn’t necessarily going to be easy in an environment where many others will be looking to do the same.
At first glance, forward Barclay Goodrow seems like a possible cap casualty. The 30-year-old has certainly come as advertised in his first two seasons with the team, providing his two best offensive seasons while still providing the grit and defensive play that endeared him to Drury in the first place. The problem is that he carries a cap hit of just over $3.64MM. For a bottom-six forward, that’s an above-market rate and one they can’t afford. On top of that, he has four years left on his contract. That will make it difficult to move him but he’s the logical one to try to trade.
If a trade involving him can’t be reached, then it gets tough. Defenseman Ryan Lindgren and forward Filip Chytil are on either side of Goodrow on New York’s salary scale but both are important parts of their younger core. Moving anyone making less than that isn’t going to move the needle much in terms of cap savings and going above Chytil’s contract lands you with six skaters that have full no-move clauses.
There are definitely things that are easier said than done and when it comes to opening up cap room, this is certainly one of those for the Rangers. However, they’re going to have to bite the bullet at some point over the next few weeks; whether it’s the one they likely want to move (Goodrow) or one they don’t remains to be seen.
Re-Sign Key RFAs
A good chunk of the cap space that they have is going to go to two of their prominent restricted free agents, players that are pegged to be significant pieces of both the present roster and the future one. Accordingly, the Rangers would like to avoid having to move either defenseman K’Andre Miller or forward Alexis Lafreniere to alleviate their cap challenges.
Miller has the better track record of the two and established himself as a fixture in the top four in his sophomore year. This season, he was even better, more than doubling his point total from 20 to 43 while taking a bigger role in the lineup, finishing second to only Adam Fox in ice time. As a result, even a short-term bridge contract is going to be on the pricey side, likely somewhere in the $3.5MM to $4MM range. Meanwhile, a longer-term agreement that buys out some UFA time is likely to creep past the $6MM mark based on the year he just had. The Rangers would undoubtedly love to give Miller that long-term contract but unless they find a way to free up significant cap room (by moving one of those six high-paid players with NMCs), they’ll be forced to go the bridge route with him, giving them some short-term flexibility with a higher price point to come when it’s up.
As for Lafreniere, the 2020 first-overall pick has yet to become a top offensive threat. However, his production has increased over the last couple of years and with it, his playing time. Still just 21, there’s still plenty of time to live up to his potential or at least carve out a bigger role in the lineup. The fact that he has underachieved so far along with their cap situation completely takes a long-term contract off the table. Lafreniere will be getting a short-term bridge deal, an arrangement both sides will be content with. A two-year deal should check in around the $2.75MM mark while a three-year pact would push his AAV past $3MM. It could also be suggested that if they can’t move Goodrow or clear out salary otherwise, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Lafreniere could become a cap casualty although that clearly wouldn’t be their preference.
Sign A Backup Goalie
Last summer, the Rangers decided to cut some costs in goal, moving out Alexandar Georgiev to Colorado for a trio of draft picks and signing Jaroslav Halak for less than half of what Georgiev received from the Avs. The decision was certainly understandable; with one of the top starters in the league in Igor Shesterkin (coming off a Vezina-winning campaign) and a tight salary cap picture, going cheaper on a second-stringer made sense.
Halak worked out reasonably well for New York, posting a 2.73 GAA with a .903 SV% in 25 games and in a year that saw goal rates go up, his numbers wound up being a bit better than league average. In the end, they got good value on their $1.5MM investment.
But Halak is 38, making him one of the oldest goaltenders in the league. Does he have another season like that in him? Do they want to look at other options, perhaps ones that are a bit cheaper to try to free up more room? Internally, veteran third-stringer Louis Domingue is in the fold and is signed for the league minimum which would help from a cap standpoint but the 31-year-old hasn’t had double-digit NHL appearances since 2019-20. The goalie market moves fast in free agency with the annual game of musical chairs often starting and ending on July 1st so Drury has a few weeks to figure out his plan and wish list on this front.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Canadiens Notes: Gurianov, Belzile, Draft
The Canadiens are not expected to tender winger Denis Gurianov a qualifying offer this summer, reports Arpon Basu of The Athletic (subscription link). The 26-year-old was acquired from Dallas just before the trade deadline with the hopes that a change of scenery could help him rediscover his scoring touch. While Gurianov did manage five goals in 23 games following the swap (after scoring just twice in 43 games in Dallas), he was held without a point in his final ten games which isn’t the best result when you’re trying to earn a qualifying offer. That offer is worth $2.9MM and salary arbitration eligibility and it appears that Montreal won’t be giving him that opportunity. However, Basu adds that they are open to bringing him back at a discounted rate if there isn’t strong interest in him in free agency, similar to what they did with Rem Pitlick last summer, non-tendering him before handing him a two-year contract days later.
More from Montreal:
- Basu also reports that winger Alex Belzile appears set to test the market next month. The 31-year-old started the year in the minors but was brought up when injuries struck, giving him his first taste of NHL action. Belzile played in 31 games with Montreal this past season, picking up six goals and eight assists while averaging more than 12 minutes per game. As a result, Basu notes that he’s hoping to secure a one-way contract this summer which is an offer that the Canadiens are evidently not willing to make at this time.
- The team is aggressively trying to move up from the fifth selection, per Radio-Canada’s Alexandre Gascon. There seems to be a growing expectation that the first four selections later this month will all be centers with Russian winger Matvei Michkov sliding past that group. Accordingly, if Montreal wants to land one of those, they’ll need to get into the top four. Gascon suggests that San Jose’s selection at number four is the target while Basu adds in his piece that they’ve also reached out to Anaheim to inquire about the price of moving up to pick number two, a cost that would certainly be significant. The draft gets underway two weeks from today.
Maxime Lagace Signs In Sweden
Veteran goaltender Maxime Lagace has had no trouble getting contracts in recent summers, locking in one-year, two-way deals fairly early in free agency in each of the last five seasons. However, he has opted to go a different route this time around as Farjestad of the SHL announced that they’ve signed Lagace to contract for the 2023-24 season.
The 30-year-old has spent the last two seasons with Tampa Bay, primarily with their AHL affiliate. After being one of the stronger goalies at the minor league level in previous years, Lagace struggled this past season, notching a 3.34 GAA with a .888 SV%, his poorest numbers since the 2016-17 campaign. This was also just the second time in the last six seasons that Lagace didn’t see any NHL action; the bulk of his playing time at the top level came back with Vegas in their inaugural year.
Lagace’s signing amounts to a trade of sorts. Earlier this offseason, Tampa Bay lured away Matt Tomkins from his contract with Farjestad, inking him to a two-year, two-way contract. That move effectively pushed Lagace out of a job in Syracuse as Tomkins will work with prospect Hugo Alnefelt next season. In the end, it’s Lagace who winds up with Tomkins’ old job. If things go well for him in Sweden in 2023-24, it’s quite possible that Lagace could look to return to North America and resume his familiar third-string role if he wants to try to get another taste of NHL action.
Submit Your Questions For The #PHRMailbag
The Vegas Golden Knights ended the playoffs on Tuesday with a 9-3 win over Florida, giving them their first Stanley Cup in their short franchise history.
With the offseason now officially underway, it’s time for a final edition of the #PHRMailbag before the draft and free agency begin. Teams are already gearing up to participate in the trade market, and the news cycle is getting busier each day.
Our last mailbag covered what the Detroit Red Wings could do to push themselves over the hump next season, how the Edmonton Oilers move forward from here, and the Central Division trade market.
You can submit a question by using #PHRMailbag on Twitter or by leaving a comment down below.
Blue Jackets Re-Sign Joshua Dunne
The Blue Jackets have taken care of one of their pending restricted free agents early as CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that they’ve re-signed forward Joshua Dunne to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal will pay $775K in the NHL and $125K in the minors with a total guarantee of $175K.
The 24-year-old signed a two-year contract with Columbus as an undrafted college free agent back in 2021 and has seen NHL action in two of his three professional seasons including a career-high eight appearances with the Blue Jackets in 2022-23. However, he’s still looking for his first point at the top level. He did, however, have a strong season with AHL Cleveland, finishing second on the Monsters in goals with 20 and fourth in points with 37.
Dunne would have been owed a qualifying offer of nearly $918K this summer with an AHL salary of $80K. Instead, he has opted to take less than that in the NHL in exchange for the higher guaranteed salary. With Columbus trending toward being a team that spends close to the salary cap again next season, the lower cap charge should also help his chances of a recall. Dunne will once again be a restricted free agent with salary arbitration rights next summer.