Snapshots: Gronborg, Oligny, Meier
It’s not often you see a team that has won back-to-back league titles change their coach, but this decision was made long ago for Tappara Tampere of the Finnish Liiga. Back in October it was reported that Rikard Gronborg would not be returning to the ZSC Lions after this season, already agreeing to a multi-year contract with Tampere.
Gronborg was introduced today, taking over just a week after the club took home the 2023 title. Interestingly enough, when the commitment was initially reported, it included the note that Gronborg’s contract contains an out clause should the NHL come calling. For years, the decorated international coach has been linked to vacant NHL positions without anything ever materializing.
- Jimmy Oligny is your Yanick Dupré Memorial Award winner for 2022-23, named AHL Man of the Year. The award is given to a minor league player for outstanding contributions to his local community and charitable organizations. Among his many involvements, the Manitoba Moose captain worked with the Kinship and Foster Family Network to host a foster family at every Moose home game.
- Timo Meier was “okay” today, according to New Jersey Devils head coach Lindy Ruff, as the forward continues to recover from a massive hit suffered last round. Mike Morreale of NHL.com relays that Meier is still day-to-day and that the team will know more tomorrow. Without Meier in game one of their second-round series, the Devils were dismantled by the Carolina Hurricanes and will have to try to even things up tomorrow night.
Columbus Blue Jackets Sign Dmitri Voronkov
After waiting several years for his contracts overseas to expire, the Columbus Blue Jackets have finally signed Dmitri Voronkov to a two-year entry-level deal. The Russian forward has been approved for a work visa, according to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic, though it is still unclear when he will travel to Columbus.
Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen released a statement on the signing:
Dmitri is a big, strong forward who can play at center ice or on the wing and is coming off an outstanding season in the KHL. He is a skilled player that has shown an ability to score goals while playing a physical two-way game. We believe he has tremendous upside and are looking forward to his joining our group and continuing his development as a Blue Jacket.
Voronkov, 22, was the 114th overall pick in 2019 but quickly shot up prospect lists with a solid showing in the KHL as a rookie and an outstanding performance in the 2020 World Juniors. While his offensive output (and playing time) has wavered at times at the Russian professional level, there were flashes of a potential breakout on the horizon.
That breakout happened this season, when Voronkov scored 18 goals and 31 points in 54 games for Ak-Bars Kazan before adding eight goals and 12 points in 24 postseason matches—barely missing out on a league championship.
A member of the 2022 Olympic team, he is coming to the Blue Jackets as a potential day-one option for their 2023-24 roster. He can contribute in a variety of ways and should give Columbus another piece to try and fit into their rebuild.
USA Hockey Announces First 22 Players For 2023 Worlds
The first 22 players that will compete for Team USA at the upcoming IIHF World Hockey Championship have been named, with an interesting mix of NHL experience and college excitement.
Lane Hutson is the youngest player in the group at just 19 years old, and he’ll be sharing the ice with 35-year-old Nick Bonino, the oldest. General manager Chris Clark released the following:
The depth of our player pool is reflected with our team and we’re excited about the group we have to represent our country at the world championship. We’ve got a great mix of experience and youth and most of our players have represented the U.S. before and know what it takes to be successful at a world championship.
The team will start training on Saturday in Munich, before a pre-tournament game on Tuesday. The tournament schedule for the U.S. begins next Friday, against Finland.
Here’s a look at the 22 players that have made the team so far:
G Casey DeSmith
G Drew Commesso
G Cal Petersen
D Henry Thrun
D Connor Mackey
D Ronnie Attard
D Dylan Samberg
D Scott Perunovich
D Lane Hutson
D Nick Perbix
F Samuel Walker
F Drew O’Connor
F Luke Tuch
F Nick Bonino
F T.J. Tynan
F Cutter Gauthier
F Sean Farrell
F Anders Bjork
F Matthew Coronato
F Conor Garland
F Alex Tuch
F Carter Mazur
New Jersey Devils Sign Daniil Misyul
The New Jersey Devils are still battling in this year’s playoffs, but the front office is hard at work securing the future. The team has announced a two-year entry-level contract for Daniil Misyul, which starts in 2023-24. While the original release indicated a three-year deal, it has been updated, given the 22-year-old is only eligible for two years.
Misyul was selected 70th overall in 2019, and has spent the last several years playing full-time in the KHL for Yaroslavl Lokomotiv. The 6’3″ defenseman brings almost no offensive upside to the ice, with just 23 points in his 205-game professional career, but can defend well with his long reach and big frame. Just 13 even-strength goals were scored by the opposition when he was on the ice this season, though his minutes were still limited (just over 15 per game).
Still, given how many offensive puck-moving defensemen the Devils have in the system, adding a stay-at-home type could certainly pay off. The fact that he has so much professional experience at such a young age should help him transition to the AHL, and potentially push for an NHL call-up in short order.
Artyom Zagidulin Signs In KHL
In 2019, with the Calgary Flames desperately looking for an answer in net, they decided to look outside North America. A 23-year-old undrafted Artyom Zagidulin, fresh off a .924 save percentage in his first full season in the KHL, was the target, and he would sign an entry-level contract that offseason.
His time in the organization didn’t go well, with only 36 AHL games and a single NHL appearance, before leaving for greener pastures in 2021. After two years playing in Finland, Zagidulin won’t be trying his luck in North America again. According to Sport Express, the now 27-year-old goaltender will return to Metallurg Magnitogorsk in the KHL.
Zagidulin posted a .919 save percentage in 53 regular season games for Lukko Rauma this year, allowing a goals-against average of just 1.84. That was (incredibly) only good enough for a 24-16-13 record, but still got the club to the playoffs.
A new contract in the KHL at this point of his career (with his hometown team no less) likely ends any speculation of a North American return for Zagidulin.
Petr Klíma Passes Away At 58
Petr Klíma, a former NHL player who played for five different teams during his career, has passed away suddenly at the age of 58, the NHL announced Thursday. Klíma is most well-known for ending the longest game in Stanley Cup Final history, helping guide the Edmonton Oilers to the 1990 championship by scoring a triple-overtime winner in Game 3 against the Boston Bruins.
Klíma was born on December 23, 1964, in then-Czechoslovakia. He began his professional career playing for TJ Litvínov in his home country before being drafted by the Detroit Red Wings with the 86th overall pick in 1983. In 1985, Klíma became the first player from a country under Soviet control to defect to a United States-based team, leaving his team behind during a training camp in West Germany with the assistance of Red Wings officials and the U.S. government.
Klíma played for the Red Wings for seven seasons, followed by stints with the Oilers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Los Angeles Kings, and Pittsburgh Penguins.
During his time in the NHL, Klíma scored a total of 313 goals and 260 assists in 786 regular-season games. He also played in 95 playoff games, scoring 28 goals and 24 assists. Klíma’s only Stanley Cup win came with the Oilers in 1990.
The Red Wings released a statement on Klíma’s passing, offering condolences to his family. All of us at PHR extend the same to Klíma’s family.
Detroit Red Wings Prospect Albin Grewe Likely To Become Free Agent
Detroit Red Wings forward prospect Albin Grewe has signed a two-year contract with Djurgårdens IF of the Swedish second-tier league, HockeyAllvenskan; the team announced this morning. With Grewe’s exclusive draft rights set to expire on June 1, 2023, the news likely means Grewe will not be signing an entry-level contract with Detroit and will be a free agent when and if he does decide to come to North America.
Grewe, a 22-year-old who can play both wings, was selected in the third round (66th overall) of the 2019 NHL Draft by Detroit after a season where he racked up over a point per game and over 100 penalty minutes in just 25 Swedish junior games, also representing Sweden at the U18 Men’s World Junior Championship. In 2020-21, Grewe appeared in 11 games with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins on a tryout contract at the end of the season, registering two assists.
Upon expiration of his contract with Djurgården in 2025, Grewe will be able to sign an entry-level contract with any NHL team if there’s interest. Grewe previously spent five years in the Djurgården organization between 2016 and 2021 before bouncing around between the Allsvenkan’s Mora IK and the Liiga’s Ilves over the past two seasons.
Grewe’s offensive production has been inconsistent since his draft year, but the 2022-23 season was especially tough. He registered 11 points in 41 games with Mora IK, a step back from his previous season, and hasn’t been able to display a consistent development track since his draft year.
Nikolay Goldobin Looking To Return To North America
It’s fair to say that Nikolay Goldobin’s first stint in North America didn’t go according to plan which resulted in him deciding to head home in 2020. However, it appears he’d like to take one more crack at trying to play at the top level as Sport-Express’ Mikhail Zislis notes that the winger declined to sign a new deal with Metallurg of the KHL in order to pursue a contract in North America.
The 27-year-old was a first-round pick by San Jose back in 2014 (27th overall) following a pair of strong seasons offensively with Sarnia of the OHL. However, that offensive success didn’t translate to the pros as Goldobin was limited to 19 goals and 27 assists in 125 NHL games over parts of five seasons between San Jose and Vancouver, who acquired him prior to the 2017 trade deadline. Goldobin fared a bit better at the AHL level where he had 50 points in 51 games in his final season in 2019-20 but it only earned him a single NHL appearance with a non-tender coming that offseason.
Over the past three seasons, Goldobin has played in the KHL, first with CSKA Moscow and then with Metallurg, who acquired him in late 2020. He’s coming off a decent showing in the regular season, finishing third on the team in scoring with 19 goals and 17 assists in 59 games although he wasn’t able to carry over that performance to the playoffs as he was limited to just two tallies in 11 postseason contests. Over the three years, he had 41 goals and 53 assists in 141 games.
Considering how long Goldobin has been away from North America and his level of production in the KHL, it’s hard to envision him receiving a one-way NHL contract. Instead, if he’s looking to shift leagues, he’ll likely have to settle for a two-way deal with the hopes that he can start strong in the minors and work his way back up to the top level and see his first NHL action since late November 2019.
Offseason Checklist: Montreal Canadiens
The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that aren’t taking part in the playoffs plus those that were eliminated early. It’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at Montreal.
After finishing last in the league a year ago, expectations were rather low for the Canadiens heading into the season. While they played better in the second half of 2021-22 under Martin St. Louis, how would the team fare in his first full campaign? The end result was not much better although Montreal had significant injuries throughout the year once again. They’re not at a point where they’re likely to push for a playoff spot but they will still have a few things to get through this offseason.
Decision On Gurianov
When the Canadiens opted to pick up winger Denis Gurianov at the trade deadline instead of a draft pick for Evgenii Dadonov, it looked like Montreal was hoping that they could get him going and that he’d be a multi-season asset for the team. Of course, with a $2.9MM qualifying offer due in June, they’d need to see some steady play to deem him worthy of that offer.
What they wound up getting, however, was a mixed bag. The 25-year-old had five goals and three assists in 23 games with his new team, a better performance than how he started the year in Dallas. Extrapolated over a full season, Gurianov’s numbers with the Canadiens would have been 18 goals and 11 assists; a player that gets close to 20 goals is probably worth that qualifying offer.
However, his game-to-game performance varied significantly to the point where it might be risky to tender him at that rate. If they feel that way, chances are that other teams will too which probably takes a trade off the table. At that point, the options are to try to negotiate a cheaper one-year agreement or just outright non-tender him.
Gurianov’s track record suggests there should be some interest in him if he makes it to free agency, just at a price tag below $2.9MM. He had three straight double-digit goal seasons before this one plus a strong playoff performance in the bubble in 2020. With that in mind, if the Canadiens go to him with an offer below his qualifier, would he be better off testing the open market anyway? They have just under a couple of months to figure out what will happen with Gurianov.
Re-Sign Caufield
Cole Caufield had a long-term stay on Montreal’s injured list this season as he missed nearly the final three months of the campaign after undergoing shoulder surgery. Despite that, he still finished tied for the team lead in goals with 26 in just 46 games. Even missing basically half the season, he still had a strong platform year heading into restricted free agency for the first time in his career.
Despite needing a new deal, Caufield doesn’t exactly have a lot of NHL experience under his belt, just 123 regular season contests, basically the equivalent of a year and a half worth of games. That makes it a little harder to find a range of comparables on a long-term contract although the seven-year, $49MM deal that Minnesota gave Matt Boldy earlier this season should provide a general floor of what such a move might cost. Having said that, it stands to reason that if that deal or something close to it was an option for Montreal, an agreement would be in place already. It also remains to be seen if they will want to use Nick Suzuki’s $7.85MM AAV as an internal cap in discussions.
At a time when many teams are considerably more aggressive than they used to be in terms of bypassing bridge contracts in favor of long-term pacts, it’s possible that the pendulum swings back the other way this summer. With the expectation that the increases to the salary cap should be more significant starting in 2024-25, Caufield might prefer to take a bridge deal and try to work out a long-term agreement in a couple of years when the cap will be higher.
One thing to note here is that Caufield still has five years of RFA eligibility remaining instead of four as he didn’t accrue a season towards free agency when he came out of college and finished up the 2020-21 campaign. That sets up a scenario where a bridge agreement could be as long as four years. In that situation, his camp might push for the type of deal that Dallas winger Jason Robertson received, a four-year contract with a $7.75MM AAV. Something that is also worth noting is that the two players share the same agent, Pat Brisson. Without salary arbitration rights, this negotiation could take a while.
Utilize Cap Space
The Canadiens have been capped out the last couple of years but have some pricey contracts coming off the books in Jonathan Drouin ($5.5MM) and Sean Monahan ($6.375MM) while Paul Byron and his $3.4MM will also be cleared after the winger was on LTIR all season long. While Caufield will take up a big chunk of those savings, he’s the only RFA of note that Montreal has.
That at least gives them the option to look to add a player or two in a trade or on the open market; it wouldn’t be surprising to see them try to bring Monahan back on a one-year deal as he had fit in rather well before injuries ended his year prematurely. Alternatively, they’re in a position to potentially look to do what they did with Monahan and take on a contract while being compensated with a draft pick or prospect for doing so. Assuming they’re willing to go deep into LTIR again with Carey Price’s $10.5MM deal, they might have a couple of opportunities to do so.
Clear Some Clutter
One thing that rebuilding teams typically like to do is create some opportunities for younger players but the Canadiens have quite a few veterans that it could be suggested are taking up some spots. Wingers Mike Hoffman (one year, $4.5MM) and Joel Armia (two years, $3.4MM) have underachieved while veteran blueliner Joel Edmundson (one year, $3.5MM) is coming off a down year and plays on the left side of the back end, a side that Montreal has a lot of depth at already.
Moving one or two of these players out would open up some roster spots, either for a prospect like Rafael Harvey-Pinard to push for a full-time spot or, if they do take on an unwanted contract, a spot will be needed for that player. There’s definitely some risk in moving out some depth on a team that has dealt with plenty of injuries the last two seasons but it’s still an avenue they’d be wise to look into.
Back at the trade deadline, GM Kent Hughes acknowledged that he purposely opted to keep one salary retention slot open to give them some more trade options at the draft. (Salary retention slots used on players on expiring contracts don’t clear until July 1st.) It stands to reason that this retention slot could be used to try to move out one of these veterans before free agency opens up in July. Accordingly, the Canadiens could be a team to keep an eye on when it comes to the trade market in the coming weeks.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
2023 Calder Trophy Finalists Announced
This week, the NHL is revealing the finalists for its end-of-season awards. On Wednesday, the Calder Trophy was front and center. The league revealed that the finalists for its top rookie are Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner, Sabres defenseman Owen Power, and Kraken center Matthew Beniers. The award is voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
Skinner came into this season as the presumptive backup behind Jack Campbell, Edmonton’s big summer signing to help shore up their goaltending. However, it didn’t take long for him to start pushing for playing time, eventually taking over as the starter. That helped him earn an All-Star nod midseason. Skinner led all rookie netminders in victories with 29 and games played with 50 while ranking second among qualifying rookies (who had at least 25 GP) with a 2.75 and a .914 SV%. While his playoff performance doesn’t count in voting which is done at the end of the season, he has started all six games for the Oilers who kick off their second-round series tonight against Vegas. He’s looking to become the first goalie to win the award since Steve Mason did so in 2008-09.
Power, the first-overall selection in 2021, got his feet wet in the NHL down the stretch last season but 2022-23 was his first full NHL campaign. It was an impressive one for the 20-year-old as he led all freshman rearguards in scoring with 35 points in 79 games. Power also logged nearly 24 minutes a night, ranking him second on the team behind Rasmus Dahlin and inside the top 20 league-wide among all players, not just rookies. Buffalo’s last winner of the Calder Trophy was defenseman Tyler Myers back in 2009-10.
As for Beniers, he was the second-overall pick in 2022 and followed the same path as Power, playing late last season but seeing his first full NHL campaign in 2022-23. The 20-year-old led all rookies in scoring with 24 goals and 33 assists in 80 games while ranking fourth among first-year forwards in ATOI at just over 17 minutes a night. Beniers only recorded one penalty all season, making him just the fourth player in NHL history to play in at least 80 games and have two penalty minutes or fewer. He’ll be looking to become the first player from an expansion franchise to win the Calder Trophy within his team’s first two seasons since Peter Stastny (Quebec) won back in 1980-81.
The winner of the award will be revealed at the NHL Awards ceremony on June 26th. Meanwhile, the finalists for the Norris Trophy are up next to be announced on Thursday.