PHR Chatter: Expanding On Expansion
As we near the beginning of the 2023-24 season, PHR is excited to announce the return of a feature to encourage discourse between reader and writer. On Friday mornings, we’ll post a topic of discussion that we think will draw out varied and interesting perspectives from both our commenters and the other staff writers.
For too long, there have only been a couple of outlets for our readers to interact with the PHR staff. Live chats and mailbags offer a chance at some discussion but also run the risk of being too crowded or even outdated by the time the answer arrives. With PHR Chatter, we’re hoping to get weekly talks going on a topic that normally would have to be brought into the spotlight by a reader before even being discussed.
To kick this series off for the first time in almost a year and a half, let’s focus on one of the most engaging topics we had on the site this week: the possibility of Atlanta as an NHL market for a third time. The pros and cons of such a move could be a post in and of itself, but let’s open up the topic of discussion to adding a 33rd (or even 34th team) in general. Is the talent pool too diluted as it stands? Would a rumored $2B price tag from TSN’s Darren Dreger help kickstart the league into a new era and mean good things for players and teams alike? Would adding further teams necessitate another divisional realignment and potentially reopen the conversation around modifying the playoff format? What markets would you like to see get a team? Feel free to chime in about anything expansion-related in the comment section below and check in regularly, as we aim to keep this a rather open-ended platform.
Josh Leivo Signs With KHL’s Salavat Yulaev Ufa
Salavat Yulaev Ufa of Russia’s KHL announced today they’ve signed winger Josh Leivo for the 2023-24 season. Reports out of Sweden emerged earlier this month that Leivo was close to signing with SHL club MoDo Hockey, but those discussions obviously fell through.
This will be Leivo’s first season overseas after appearing in NHL games in each of the last ten seasons. Now 30, the Ontario native has seen a fair bit of playing time in both the NHL and AHL since the Toronto Maple Leafs selected him in the third round of the 2011 NHL Draft. He would turn pro full-time with the Maple Leafs and AHL Marlies in 2013-14 and was a highly productive AHL player for three seasons before becoming more of a mainstay on the NHL roster – although, famously, that didn’t translate into much playing time. Under then-head coach Mike Babcock, Leivo would play in just 56 games for Toronto over the course of three seasons from 2016 to 2019 despite rarely seeing any AHL assignments, spending most of his time sitting as a healthy scratch.
After finding himself in the minors for nearly all of 2021-22, Leivo once again returned to the NHL ranks on a more consistent basis last season with the St. Louis Blues. He made 51 appearances in a bottom-six role compared to just two games for AHL Springfield. Leivo gave the Blues some solid production in the process, recording four goals and 12 assists for 16 points – his highest total since he notched 19 points in 36 games with the Vancouver Canucks in 2019-20.
The Blues didn’t offer Leivo a contract at season’s end, however, and he hit the unrestricted free-agent market on July 1. They looked to replace his role internally, giving more playing time to younger talents such as Nikita Alexandrov and Alexey Toropchenko while also bringing back some familiar faces via free agency in Mackenzie MacEachern and Oskar Sundqvist.
He now makes the jump to Ufa, where he could line up alongside one-time teammate Nikolai Kulemin, whose last season in Toronto was 2013-14 – the same year Leivo made his NHL debut. Ufa is off to a 3-2-0 start to their season thanks to four goals and six points from San Jose Sharks prospect Sasha Chmelevski. They also are playing with heavy hearts this season after retiring Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Rodion Amirov‘s number 27 at the beginning of the season – he passed away from a brain tumor this summer at the age of 21.
Poll: Which Team Is The Most Improved This Offseason?
This offseason, there were some teams that made quite a few large-scale moves. The New Jersey Devils inked contract extensions with forwards Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt, as their Metropolitan division rival, the New York Islanders, handed out an eight-year contract to arguably the best goaltender in the NHL, Ilya Sorokin.
Although those contract extensions are important deals in their own right, this poll is specifically about which team is most ‘improved’ after this offseason, not necessarily which team had the ‘best’ offseason.
The Pittsburgh Penguins, who already had two former MVP winners in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, as well as a defenseman who has received plenty of Norris votes throughout his career in Kris Letang, went for the big fish and acquired Erik Karlsson in a three-team trade. There are certainly some defensive issues that come into question in this deal, but it’s hard to see how acquiring not only the reigning Norris Trophy winner but a defenseman who scored over 100 points only a season ago, as anything other an improvement.
Even after winning their first playoff series in quite some time, the Toronto Maple Leafs 2023 playoff run was still considered a failure in many ways. In an attempt to get even deeper into the playoffs next spring, the Maple Leafs brought in John Klingberg, Ryan Reaves, Max Domi, and Tyler Bertuzzi just to name a few. At the very least, both Bertuzzi and Domi had solid playoff performances last season, and add extra grit to Toronto’s lineup.
Not considered even a fringe playoff team for this season, there is an argument to be made that the Chicago Blackhawks are actually the most improved team this summer. No other team in the NHL was able to select Connor Bedard, and if everything goes as expected, will make even Connor McDavid look human. After an early summer trade with the Boston Bruins, the team will also be able to position Taylor Hall on Bedard’s wing, as well as adding Nick Foligno and Corey Perry as extra forward depth.
There are even more teams than these three alone that could have been considered as the most improved. That is why we ask, who do you think is the most improved team after this offseason?
Which Team Is The Most Improved This Offseason?
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Other (Comment Below) 35% (383)
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Chicago Blackhawks 29% (309)
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Pittsburgh Penguins 22% (242)
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Toronto Maple Leafs 14% (147)
Total votes: 1,081
Peter Abbandonato Expected To Join Penguins On PTO
The Pittsburgh Penguins are expected to add forward Peter Abbandonato to their training camp roster under a PTO contract according to Tony Androckitis. In early July, Abbandonato reached a one-year AHL agreement with the Chicago Wolves organization for the 2023-24 AHL season.
Although a seemingly unrecognizable player to most, Abbandonato was one of the biggest names in major junior hockey not all that long ago. During the 2018-19 QMJHL season, Abbandonato was a part of the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies organization, leading not only his team but the entire league in points. The Huskies would end up defeating the Eastern Conference champion Halifax Mooseheads in the President Cup Finals in six games. Rouyn-Noranda would continue their playoff momentum, winning the 2019 Memorial Cup, with Abbandonato leading the way scoring six goals and 21 assists in 15 games.
Unfortunately, Abbandonato’s junior league success did not transfer into the semi-professional leagues of North American hockey, as while being split between the AHL and ECHL for much of his career up to this point, had been unable to score more than 25 points over a full season in either league.
Last season, playing in his first full year with the Laval Rocket, Abbandonato had one of his best seasons since his famed 2018-19 QMJHL year. Playing in 66 games for the Rocket, Abbandonato would score 11 goals and 35 assists, finishing second on the team in total scoring. Although he has already committed to the Wolves for the upcoming season, if Abbandonato impresses in camp with the Penguins, and builds on his best year in the AHL to this date, he may be in line for some surprise NHL minutes in his future.
Ottawa Senators Sign Josh Bailey To PTO
The Ottawa Senators have signed veteran forward Josh Bailey to a PTO, the team announced today.
This signing marks the first time in Bailey’s professional career that he’ll be part of an NHL organization other than the New York Islanders. The 33-year-old was drafted by New York with the ninth-overall pick at the 2008 NHL draft and has played over 1,000 games for the franchise. In his time with the Islanders, he helped end the team’s 23-year wait without a single playoff series win. 
He became a dependable top-six forward in New York, and in his best years (just after his career-high 71-point 2017-18 season) he helped turn the Islanders into a regular season and playoff juggernaut in the aftermath of franchise face John Tavares‘ free agency departure.
Bailey’s playoff performances helped the Islanders come within a razor-thin margin away from the Stanley Cup Final in back-to-back years. He scored a combined 33 points in 41 games across those two runs, by far the best playoff performances of his career.
Just one year ago, Bailey was still widely viewed as a strong middle-six forward. He scored 14 goals and 44 points in 2021-22, but this past season his play declined. He scored just eight goals and 25 points and was at times kept in the press box as a healthy scratch by first-year head coach Lane Lambert.
Seeing as Bailey has signed a PTO rather than a full-time NHL contract, it appears NHL teams may collectively view Bailey’s decline as not a momentary lapse of form, but rather a sign of things to come for his career. The Senators are hoping Bailey will prove them otherwise, and he’ll have the chance to do just that in Ottawa during the training camp and preseason process.
On paper, Bailey stands a decent chance of earning an NHL deal in Ottawa just by virtue of the fact that he has significantly more experience than most players slated to play in the team’s bottom six.
He’ll be competing for a role on the wing against players such as Zack MacEwen, Jiri Smejkal, Parker Kelly, Egor Sokolov, Ridly Greig, Roby Jarventie, and Matthew Highmore. Bailey has more NHL experience than that group of players has combined, so if head coach D.J. Smith wants a veteran player in his bottom six, Bailey could be his best option.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Carolina Hurricanes Sign Zach Aston-Reese To PTO
The Carolina Hurricanes have signed a seventh, and according to team reporter Walt Ruff, final player to a PTO for this preseason and training camp: Zach Aston-Reese.
Aston-Reese, 29, arrives in Carolina after one season spent playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs. A former college hockey star, Aston-Reese has settled into a role as a fourth-line defensive and penalty-killing specialist in the NHL. While his gaudy offensive numbers from Northeastern University never translated to the pro game, Aston-Reese remains a well-regarded player thanks to his defensive contributions.
Last season, Aston-Reese scored 10 goals and 14 points in 77 games while playing 10:55 per night, including just under a minute per night on the penalty kill. Given Aston-Reese’s positive defensive contributions, it’s been somewhat surprising that he’s lingered on the open market for consecutive offseasons. It could be that NHL teams may prefer free agent fourth-liners with more of a physical dimension to their game than Aston-Reese is known for.
In any case, he’ll head to Carolina to compete with their other PTO additions along with incumbent players for a fourth-line role and NHL deal.
The club’s PTO haul includes five other forwards: Kieffer Bellows, Cory Conacher, Brendan Perlini, Nick Shore, and Jayden Halbgewachs, meaning Aston-Reese will have quite a few players to compete with for a job on head coach Rod Brind’Amour’s opening-night lineup.
Snapshots: Coyotes, Penguins, Recchi
The Arizona Coyotes have been arguably the busiest team in their preseason preparation process, in large part thanks to the team’s trip to Australia to play exhibition contests against the Los Angeles Kings. The team signed a collection of players to PTO’s yesterday, and today they have confirmed their 2023 training camp roster. Per the announcement, the players traveling to Australia are:
Forwards: Nick Bjugstad, Travis Boyd, Michael Carcone, Logan Cooley, Lawson Crouse, Dylan Guenther, Barrett Hayton, Alex Kerfoot, Clayton Keller, Matias Maccelli, Jack McBain, Liam O’Brien, Nick Schmaltz, Jason Zucker
Defensemen: Josh Brown, Travis Dermott, Matt Dumba, Sean Durzi, J.J. Moser, Victor Soderstrom, Troy Stecher, Juuso Valimaki
Goaltenders: Connor Ingram, Andrew Oke, Karel Vejmelka
The rest of the team’s 74-man training camp roster will remain in the United States to play the rest of the Coyotes’ slate of preseason contests.
- The Pittsburgh Penguins have announced a slew of new hires today, adding people to positions in their equipment, high performance, and player development departments. Some of the new hires have prior experience working with Penguins president of hockey operations and GM Kyle Dubas, including new director of goaltending Jon Elkin. These hires continue the process of re-shaping the Penguins under relatively new owners Fenway Sports Group and Dubas, who FSG hired earlier this offseason.
- Hockey Hall of Famer Mark Recchi will be inducted into the Philadelphia Flyers team hall of fame, the Flyers announced today. Recchi will be honored in a pre-game ceremony before the Flyers’ January 27th contest against the Boston Bruins, another team Recchi played for. Recchi played parts of 10 seasons in Philadelphia, racking up 602 games played, 232 goals, and 627 points. Recchi had the most productive season of his career in Philadelphia when he scored 123 points in 1992-93.
Phil Kessel Wants To Continue Playing, Not Concerned About Ironman Streak
09/14/23: TSN’s Chris Johnston reports that there is “some percolating interest” from NHL teams in signing Kessel to a contract for this season. Johnston adds that Kessel “isn’t in PTO territory” at the moment, and could end up signing a full NHL contract with a team before the season.
08/31/23: UFA winger Phil Kessel has let potential suitors know he’s open to ending his league-record ironman streak to land a guaranteed deal for the 2023-24 campaign, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports.
Kessel’s consecutive regular-season games played streak of 1,064 set the all-time record this season, passing longtime NHL defender Keith Yandle. The last game Kessel missed was nearly 14 years ago on October 31, 2009, as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the last of 12 games he missed to open the season with a shoulder injury.
Set to turn 36 before next season, however, the end of Kessel’s days as an everyday NHLer is in sight. While he did skate in all 82 games for the Vegas Golden Knights last season, his ice time dropped below the 15-minute average mark for the first time since his rookie season, and he played in just four out of Vegas’ 22 playoff games en route to his third Stanley Cup win.
As Friedman notes, this could dramatically increase Kessel’s likelihood of landing a one-year deal before training camps start. Teams are looking to avoid what transpired between the Yandle and the Florida Panthers at the beginning of the 2020-21 season when the team kept him in the lineup to avoid drawing the ire of its players despite wanting to scratch him for performance-related reasons.
That said, you could do much worse for a 13th forward or even a fourth-line playmaking winger. Kessel still managed 14 goals and 22 assists last season despite a below-career-average 9.4 shooting percentage. He also recorded 44 assists the year prior on an Arizona Coyotes team which won just 25 games and finished dead last in the league in goals.
He’ll likely have to settle for a league minimum cap hit on a one-year deal, regardless. But his age now makes him eligible to sign a bonus-laden 35+ contract, as Friedman points out, allowing him to earn money via performance bonuses that, for cap purposes, would defer to the 2024-25 campaign for the team that signs him if they can’t fit said performance bonuses under the $83.5MM Upper Limit. Last year, he signed a one-year, $1.5MM pact with Vegas late into the summer on August 24.
Patrick Kane and Tomas Tatar are the only two unrestricted free agents left on the market who had more points than Kessel last season.
Injury Notes: Couturier, Atkinson, Boucher, Pickering
While there were a myriad of reasons why the Philadelphia Flyers as a franchise went on a significant downturn after their run to Game Seven of the second round in the 2019-20 playoffs, injuries have been among the biggest. The Flyers have simply lost too many players they planned on having as meaningful contributors to long-term injuries, and that has plunged the franchise into a rebuild as a result. Thankfully for Philadelphia, it seems two of their more significant players lost to injury may be ready to re-enter the lineup.
Charlie O’Connor of PHLY Sports reports that Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson were “very active” in today’s informal veteran skate before the start of rookie camp, adding that both players ” look ready for [training] camp. ” That’s a major development for the Flyers, who would be able to add a top-line center and a former 40-goal scorer back into their lineup after a full year missed for each player. While that likely won’t be enough to return head coach John Tortorella’s side back to the postseason, the presence of two accomplished veterans on the Flyers’ roster could help the development of the Flyers’ stable of young players and advance their rebuild.
More injury notes from across the NHL:
- Tyler Boucher has had his development derailed by injuries since he was selected 10th overall by the Ottawa Senators at the 2021 draft. He only played in 21 games last season and missed some time in 2021-22 as well. Boucher has yet again run into injury trouble, suffering a groin injury in his preparation for the Senators’ rookie tournament. Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that Boucher “won’t participate” in the rookie tournament, but “will be fine for camp.” While it’s certainly possible that this injury is just a one-off issue that won’t cost Boucher very much in the long term, (one hopes this is the case) the fact that Boucher has had such persistent trouble staying healthy is a cause for concern with his development. Boucher was always going to be more of a project pick, with the Senators hoping that after a few years of development, Boucher could learn to leverage his impressive physical tools into on-ice success. It’s unclear whether he’s been able to do that to this point, though in order to make 2023-24 a valuable season of development he’ll need to be able to get onto the ice as much as possible.
- Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review relays word from Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins head coach J.D. Forrest that 2022 first-round pick Owen Pickering is dealing with an undisclosed injury. Rorabaugh adds that he’s “hopefully ready by the start of training camp” though that is unclear at this time. Pickering is a bit of a long shot to make the Penguins out of camp, but did get into eight pro games last season and likely will spend one more year as a top-line defenseman in the WHL.
Minor Transactions: 09/14/23
The 2023-24 NHL season is coming into clearer view as each day passes, and today marks the start of the NHL Prospect Tournament in Traverse City, Michigan. Tomorrow, the Tom Kurvers Prospect Showcase begins, and can’t-miss prospect Connor Bedard was on the ice today preparing, already showcasing his impressive skills.
Overseas, today marks opening night for two major European leagues. The SHL kicks off today with seven games set to be played, highlighted by a battle between 2022 champions Färjestad BK and 2023 champions Växjö Lakers. In Germany, the DEL begins play today with defending champions EHC Red Bull München against Düsseldorfer EG.
With the hockey season finally re-starting in many places across the world, there is still some player movement as teams look to make some late additions to their lineup for the season. As always, we’ll keep track of notable transactions here.
- Former Minnesota Wild prospect and point-per-game ECHL scorer Shawn Boudrias has decided to head overseas to continue his professional career. The 24-year-old 2018 sixth-round pick signed with Kalmar HC, a club in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of Swedish hockey. Kalmar has the chance to add some serious firepower to their roster with this signing, as Boudrias scored 33 goals and 65 points for the Fort Wayne Komets in the ECHL last season. Although he faltered in the playoffs, Boudrias has put together a total of 106 points in 125 career games in the ECHL, and will now take his talents to Sweden.
- The ECHL’s Kalamazoo Wings have signed bruising winger Nico Blachman to a one-year contract. Blachman, 25, is a six-foot-two winger who spent time with three ECHL teams last season. He was at his best in the final stop of his campaign, an 18-game run with the Norfolk Admirals. There, the Florida native scored eight points and racked up a whopping 131 penalty minutes. He’ll bring energy and physicality to Kalamazoo, who are hoping to spark a return to the postseason having not qualified for the playoffs since 2018-19.
- Swiss forward Marc Marchon has played a big role for National League side EHC Kloten for the past few seasons now. He was with the club as they were relegated from the NL to the second-tier SL in 2017-18, and then spent four seasons playing second-division hockey with the team in an effort to push their promotion back to the NHL. Marchon’s 62 points in just 45 games powered Kloten to promotion in 2021-22, and his 22 points in 44 games (as well as leadership as the club’s captain) last season helped the club earn survival in the National League for another season. Now, it appears 2023-24 will be the end of Marchon’s current tenure in Kloten. The 28-year-old forward has signed a three-year contract with NL rivals SC Bern, a deal that contains an option for a fourth year. Marchon will play this season alongside Montreal Canadiens top prospect David Reinbacher (assuming Reinbacher doesn’t make the Canadiens out of training camp) before heading to Bern for 2024-25.
- Responding to an injury to club captain David Warsofsky, the DEL’s Augsburg Panthers have signed well-traveled defenseman Otso Rantakari to a contract. Rantakari, 29, was a quality blueliner for HIFK Helsinki in Liiga last season, leading their defensemen in scoring with 29 points in 53 games. Rantakari has been a regular in some of Europe’s top leagues for a while, ever since his 2014-15 campaign where he won Liiga’s Rookie of the Year award. Rantakari won a Liiga title with Tappara Tampere in 2016-17 and his high-level experience in many top leagues and the Champions Hockey League will certainly assist Augsburg in the absence of Warsofsky.
This page may be updated throughout the day.