Blue Jackets Officially Name Mike Babcock As Their Head Coach
The final NHL head coaching vacancy has officially been filled. Prior to the opening of free agency today, the Blue Jackets announced that they have named Mike Babcock as their new head coach, signing him to a two-year deal. Earlier this week, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reported (subscription link) that the contract will pay Babcock $4MM per season. GM Jarmo Kekalainen released the following statement:
Our goal at the outset of this process was to find a coach to give our players the best chance to succeed through structure, discipline and experience as we continue to build a team that can compete for a Stanley Cup championship. After a very thorough and lengthy process we are pleased to welcome Mike Babcock as the next head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
It was reported last month that Babcock was set to take over as the new bench boss for Columbus. However, since he was still under contract with Toronto until yesterday, the team waited until today to make the hire to ensure that the Maple Leafs alone were the only team paying out the remainder of his record-breaking eight-year, $50MM contract.
Babcock hasn’t been behind an NHL bench for a while as he last coached during the 2019-20 campaign before being let go by Toronto after an underwhelming 9-10-4 start to their season. Since then, his coaching experience has been limited to one season as a volunteer coach at the University of Saskatchewan. However, the Blue Jackets believe that he’s the right fit to turn things around after they finished dead last in the Eastern Conference last season.
Babcock has a 700-418-183 record over parts of 17 NHL seasons between Anaheim, Detroit, and Toronto. Internationally, he is the only member of the ‘Triple Gold’ club among coaches (Olympics, World Championships, and a Stanley Cup). That experience comes in stark contrast to former head coach Brad Larsen who was a first-time NHL bench boss before being let go after the season.
Columbus has certainly been active this offseason already, looking to augment its roster. On the back end, they’ve acquired Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson, giving them two proven top-four pieces to help take some of the pressure off Zach Werenski who should be ready to go after missing most of last season due to injury. Up front, they picked up Adam Fantilli in the draft this week and are encouraging him to turn pro right away; TSN’s Darren Dreger suggests (Twitter link) that his signing could occur today. With nearly $5MM in cap space, per CapFriendly, they could still try to add another piece or two in free agency or on the trade front.
Kekalainen clearly believes last year’s showing was an aberration with the hiring of Babcock, a win-now coach, and his defensive upgrades. The Blue Jackets play in a tight Metropolitan Division that has only one team (Philadelphia) looking to bottom out so even with these moves, their work to get back to the playoffs is going to be cut out for them.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Red Wings Re-Sign Matt Luff
Detroit’s busy free agent morning continues. After agreeing to new deals with Klim Kostin and Gustav Lindstrom, the Red Wings announced (Twitter link) that they’ve re-signed winger Matt Luff to a one-year, two-way contract. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that Luff will make $775K in the NHL and $400K in the AHL, while the contract has a guaranteed payout of $450K.
The Red Wings opted to non-tender the 26-year-old yesterday, taking away the potential that he could file for salary arbitration and potentially wind up with an award that’s worth more than they were comfortable paying. Quietly, Luff has seen NHL action in each of the last five seasons, spanning a little more than 100 games which could have presented enough of a case for him to be awarded more than the minimum. Clearly, the two sides were able to find common ground soon after.
Luff split last season between Detroit and AHL Grand Rapids. He got into 19 games with the Red Wings, picking up two goals and two assists while logging just under ten minutes a night of playing time. Meanwhile, with the Griffins, Luff was much more productive, notching eight goals and 17 helpers in just 28 contests.
It’s likely that Luff will have a similar role next season, one that sees him start the year as a key scorer for Grand Rapids but when injuries arise, he becomes one of their first recalls.
Senators Re-Sign Erik Brannstrom
Saturday: The Senators announced that they’ve signed Brannstrom to a one-year, $2MM contract. GM Pierre Dorion released the following statement:
Erik took a big step forward last season. Over the year’s second half of games especially, he demonstrated a strong ability to raise his game to the level where he’s using his confidence as an asset. We’re happy to have him under contract for another year.
Friday: Earlier today, the Senators tendered defenseman Erik Brannstrom a qualifying offer to retain his rights. While that makes him a restricted free agent, he might not be one for long as Chris Johnston of NorthStar Bets and TSN reports (Twitter link) that the two sides are making progress on a new deal.
The 23-year-old was acquired by Ottawa as one of the centerpieces of the Mark Stone trade back in 2019 with the hopes that he’d be able to become an impact offensive defender in the NHL. That hasn’t exactly played out as planned, however, as Brannstrom had just two goals and 21 points over his first 116 career games as of the end of 2021-22. Unsurprisingly, that yielded a low-cost one-year bridge deal worth $900K back in September.
However, things went a little better for Brannstrom this past season. He played in a career-high 74 games with the Sens, picking up a career-best 18 points along the way while averaging just over 16 minutes a night. Clearly, it’s not the type of production they were hoping for when they got him a few years ago but he has at least now shown he can handle a full-time workload which is an important step for a young blueliner to take.
Brannstrom’s qualifier checked in at $945K but he should be able to land more than that this summer. He’s eligible for arbitration for the first time and the fact that he has nearly 200 NHL appearances under his belt now along with 49 points should be enough to get at least a small raise from an arbitrator if it was to come to that. Based on this report, however, it’s unlikely to get to that point.
Maple Leafs Expected To Sign Ryan Reaves
It appears that the Maple Leafs will be adding some toughness to their roster once the UFA market opens up in less than three hours. Last night, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported (Twitter link) that Toronto will be signing rugged winger Ryan Reaves to a multi-year contract. Today, TSN’s Darren Dreger adds (Twitter link) that the AAV for that deal should be around $1.3MM and that it remains to be seen if it will be a two-year agreement or a three-year one.
The 36-year-old started the season with the Rangers but asked to be moved early on after having a very limited role in New York. He got his wish and was moved to Minnesota in late November, becoming a regular in the lineup for the Wild for the rest of the way. Reaves was relatively productive in his role, collecting five goals and ten assists in 61 contests with his new team; his 15 points matched the second-best point total of his career.
Of course, Toronto isn’t bringing in Reaves for his point-producing ability. He has been one of the more physical wingers in the league for more than a decade and while he doesn’t drop the gloves often anymore, that ability remains part of his game. New GM Brad Treliving evidently would like to see his club get a little more physical up front and bringing in Reaves will certainly help to make his fourth line that much tougher.
PHR 2023 Free Agent Frenzy Live Chat
The best day of the year for hockey fans is here, and PHR is gearing up for all-day coverage of the first day of the 2023-24 league season. Click here to read the transcript of this morning’s live chat with PHR’s Josh Erickson.
Red Wings Re-Sign Gustav Lindstrom
For the second time in less than an hour, the Red Wings have re-signed one of their non-tendered players. This time, it’s defenseman Gustav Lindstrom as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve signed him to a one-year, $950K contract.
Detroit opted not to tender the 24-year-old an offer of just under $1MM yesterday that also would have given him salary arbitration eligibility. That proved to be a wise move considering they were able to get him for less than the qualifier by matching the salary he received last season. Lindstrom will once again be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent next summer.
Lindstrom played in just 36 games last season, dealing with a couple of injuries while also spending time as a healthy scratch. He picked up a goal and seven assists in those appearances but saw his ice time dip to a career-low 14:10 per night.
At the moment, Detroit has just five blueliners under contract for next season but with more than $27MM in cap space at their disposal per CapFriendly, that’s likely to change before too long. Assuming they add a capable veteran or two, it’s likely that Lindstrom will remain in a depth role for 2023-24.
Red Wings Sign Klim Kostin
A day after non-tendering him, the Red Wings have agreed to terms with winger Klim Kostin, announcing (Twitter link) that they’ve signed him to a two-year contract. The deal will carry an AAV of $2MM.
The 24-year-old was acquired at the draft from Edmonton along with Kailer Yamamoto (who was later bought out) in exchange for future considerations. The move allowed Detroit to get a head start on contract negotiations and while it might have taken a little longer than they would have liked, they were able to get a deal in place. By non-tendering Kostin, the Red Wings eliminated the risk of a higher-than-desired salary arbitration award.
Last season was an interesting one for the 24-year-old. After failing to crack St. Louis’s roster in training camp, Kostin was placed on waivers and went unclaimed, allowing him to be sent to the minors. That actually upped his trade value and the next day, Edmonton moved blueliner Dmitri Samorukov (who had also just gone unclaimed) to the Blues to pick up Kostin.
It took a month before Kostin got his first NHL opportunity but when he did, he didn’t look back. He wound up being a capable bottom-six winger for Edmonton, notching 11 goals and 10 assists in 57 games while averaging a little under three hits per game in just over ten minutes a night. Kostin also was a good contributor in limited playoff playing time, recording five points despite seeing ATOI dip to less than eight minutes per contest.
While Edmonton certainly would have liked to keep Kostin for themselves, the threat of salary arbitration was too much for them to take the chance, resulting in them giving him away to Detroit. Clearly, with this contract, the Red Wings feel that Kostin will be capable of playing at least a bigger role for them next season and if he has a performance similar to his 2022-23 campaign, they should get at least a decent return on this deal.
Ryan O’Reilly And Luke Schenn Expected To Test The Market
The Maple Leafs were hoping to keep a pair of their pending unrestricted free agents in the fold but it may not play out that way. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that center Ryan O’Reilly will test the market today while Chris Johnston of NorthStar Bets and TSN adds (Twitter link) that defenseman Luke Schenn will do the same.
O’Reilly was one of Toronto’s key trade deadline acquisitions, coming over in a trade from St. Louis. The 32-year-old fit in well with his hometown team, picking up 11 points in 13 games down the stretch while winning 62% of his faceoffs. O’Reilly then put up nine points in 11 playoff contests, cementing himself as one of the top middlemen on the open market; he ranks seventh on our Top 50 UFA list.
LeBrun notes that the Maple Leafs had interest right to the end so it’s possible that the veteran circles back depending on how his market plays out today. That said, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that Detroit, Montreal, Nashville, and Vancouver are all linked to O’Reilly as well so there could be enough interest to push his price tag out of Toronto’s price range.
As for Schenn, Johnston reports that again, there was mutual interest in getting something done but the level of interest in the 33-year-old has yielded an offer from another team that’s too strong for the Maple Leafs to match. Schenn matched his career high in points with 22 last season and chipped in with a career-high 318 hits. After playing for the last four seasons on contracts worth less than $1MM, that seems sure to change today for the 37th-ranked UFA on our list.
Looking At Five 2023 Non-Qualified UFA Targets
The 2023 unrestricted free agent class may be disappointing, especially with some high-profile names like Stanley Cup champions Ivan Barbashev and Adin Hill coming off the board in recent days. However, the market did get a bit of a boost in the last 24 hours thanks to a slew of buyouts and the qualifying offer deadline, which saw over 100 restricted free agents get released by their teams to unrestricted status tomorrow. With that being said, it’s time to take a look at some of the more intriguing targets now available for teams to sign.
Each player’s former team is listed in parentheses. You can find the full list of RFAs that went unqualified here.
D Ethan Bear (VAN)
The summer will likely end with Bear re-signing in Vancouver, but there’s nothing stopping him from heading elsewhere if a team comes calling. He could last a bit into the summer as he recovers from a shoulder injury sustained while playing at the IIHF Men’s World Championship, though.
After not really finding a role in the Carolina Hurricanes lineup, Bear had a very solid season with the Canucks, posting 16 points in 61 games and providing high-end two-way play for a team that desperately needed it. Add in the fact he’s a right shot and still only 26 years old, and he makes for a rather appealing target that would have landed on our top 50 unrestricted free agents list for 2023.
He’s likely to earn a two-to-three-year deal, probably slightly under his $2.2MM qualifying offer. If so, all signs point to it being one of the better value signings of a summer poised to see some overpayments out of need in a weak UFA class.
F Denis Gurianov (MTL)
Things have been downhill for the 2015 12th overall pick since he logged 20 goals in his rookie season, a feat he hasn’t matched since. After sliding back out of a consistent top-nine role with the Dallas Stars, he was dealt to the Montreal Canadiens at the deadline in exchange for Evgenii Dadonov, a move that may have paid dividends for both sides. Gurianov did show a bit of a resurgence with the Habs, scoring five goals and eight points in 23 games, looking more engaged than he did with the Stars. The Habs will likely attempt to get a deal done here, but he wasn’t worth the $2.9MM qualifying offer he was due.
This is not a case of analytics suggesting a breakout, though, in fact, it’s the opposite. There are red flags nearly everywhere in his profile, suggesting he’s a liability in isolation. There is still some obvious raw skill with Gurianov, though, and for a cheap cost, he could put up some higher point totals with picture-perfect chemistry. It remains to be seen whether he’ll ever find that.
D Caleb Jones (CHI)
The counting stats here aren’t the prettiest, but advanced metrics have long tabbed Jones as an effective player for his role. Last season, Jones’ -19 rating may not have been pretty, but he also logged nearly 20 minutes a night on a lottery team. In fact, Jones logged a career-high relative Corsi for percentage at even strength of 4.8%, and his 16 points in 73 games were a career-high.
He’ll never break the bank offensively from the blue line, nor should you expect him to, but he’s got an underrated ability to drive play and proved this season he can take on more serious minutes against tougher competition. Add in the fact he can play both the left and right side, and he should be quite a good value signing for a team looking to bolster their third pair (or potentially second).
At 26, though, Jones was nearing retirement age on a very youthful Chicago blueline, and they decided to cut ties to make room for more of their future talent. He shouldn’t cost much more than $2MM on a one-year offer.
F Daniel Sprong (SEA)
Sprong easily jumps out as the most tantalizing target here. Quickly overtaking Dale Weise for the “Dutch Gretzky” title (sorry, Canadiens fans), Sprong has grown into one of the most efficient per-minute scorers in the league. He’s notched at least 13 goals in four of the last five seasons, never averaging more than 13 minutes per game – in fact, he scored 21 goals (and 46 points) in just 66 games with the Kraken this year despite staying squarely in a fourth-line role, averaging 11:25 per game. He was 17th in the NHL in goals per 60 minutes this season among skaters with at least 25 games.
With that, he’s set himself up for more ice time and more money. He was eligible for arbitration and likely would’ve garnered a rich reward for his production – a number Seattle didn’t want to pay. That doesn’t mean another team won’t, although an underwhelming playoff performance may scare some teams off. For a fringe team looking to add a high-octane option to its top nine, though, look no further than the 26-year-old Sprong.
He could very well command above the $3MM mark on a short-term but multi-year deal, especially from a team slated toward the bottom of the league standings. He jumps out as an attractive option for teams like the Arizona Coyotes, who could bank on Sprong’s production maintaining (or even increasing) with a slight bump in minutes, parlaying it into a valuable trade at next year’s deadline. Signing him to a two- or three-year deal with cost certainty as the salary cap rises would only add to his trade value.
F Sam Steel (MIN)
Steel is the only unqualified RFA who can say they were a number-one center last year. However, it was by necessity – with the Minnesota Wild needing Joel Eriksson Ek to round out their top-six on their second line, it was an in-and-out swap all year between Steel and Ryan Hartman between their pair of star wings in Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello. Steel did have a career-high 10 goals and 28 points in 65 games, but you’d expect more for someone who spent over 350 minutes with Kaprizov and Zuccarello this season – especially from a former first-round pick.
That being said, you could do worse for a third-line center. Steel isn’t a liability defensively, and while he may not be able to translate his offensive acumen to the scoresheet in the NHL, he won’t take points away from those around him and can survive as a complementary player.
Still, with uninspiring production in Minnesota, he wasn’t a candidate to stick around, as the team needs every dollar available to them to stay in playoff contention. He’s flashed the least upside at the NHL level of any of the five players listed, although he does carry some certainty in terms of his defensive impacts and offensive production that others here don’t offer.
Other targets to watch: F Nathan Bastian (NJD), G Mackenzie Blackwood (SJS), F Max Comtois (ANA), F Morgan Geekie (SEA), F Tyson Jost (BUF), F Klim Kostin (DET), F Denis Malgin (COL), F Michael McLeod (NJD), F Jesse Puljujarvi (CAR)
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Sharks And Canucks Have Discussed Tyler Myers Trade
There has been an expectation for a while now that the Canucks will look to move the final year and $6MM that Tyler Myers has remaining on his contract in an effort to free up some cap space this summer. In a recent appearance on Sportsnet 650 (audio link), Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported that the Sharks are a team that’s believed to have discussed a Myers trade with Vancouver to the point that there has been a deal on the table for several weeks now.
It’s worth noting that Myers has a $5MM signing bonus that is payable in the new league year. For many players, the payment date for those bonuses is July 1st. However, Myers is one of the exceptions with his bonus believed to be payable in mid-September. With that in mind, it’s possible that this could be the hold-up in a swap although Seravalli suggested that this isn’t necessarily the case.
The 33-year-old looked to be a two-way threat when he first came to the NHL with his best two offensive seasons coming during his first two years with Buffalo. However, he has become more of a defense-only player, especially in recent years as he has managed just a single goal in each of the last two years with Vancouver.
However, he has logged more than 20 minutes per game throughout his career and while he may be better suited for a lower role at this point, the fact he can still cover tough minutes might be appealing to a team like San Jose which isn’t exactly loaded with proven blueliners and is trying to move their top one in Erik Karlsson. In-season, he’ll have a prorated salary of just $1MM which could only help from a trade value perspective.
Considering what the market has been for teams looking to dump salary, Vancouver shouldn’t be expecting much of a return, if any, to clear Myers off the books. But if they do have a viable option on the table to take on the contract, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them take it, either now or even if they have to wait until closer to training camp when the bonus is paid off. If a deal is either done or agreed on in principle, Vancouver could be a team to watch for when the market opens up less than 24 hours from now.