Injury Notes: Marchment, Sprong, Walker
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports Dallas Stars forward Mason Marchment will play in tonight’s Game 6 against the Seattle Kraken. Marchment was hit in the head by an inadvertent elbow from Kraken forward Alex Wennberg in Game 4. He missed most of that game and sat out Game 5 with the injury that resulted from that hit.
The Stars winger is playing the first year of a four-year contract that pays him $4.5MM per season. The physical winger stands at 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds and also adds some scoring punch to the Stars lineup. He put up 12 goals and 31 points in 68 regular season games with the Stars and added five points in ten playoff games before being injured. He will add some depth to the forward group that is looking to eliminate the Kraken in Game 6 and move on to the Western Conference Final.
- While the Kraken will look to stay alive tonight, they will have to do so without one of their depth forwards. According to Alison Lukan of NHL.com, Seattle will not have the services of Daniel Sprong tonight. Head Coach Dave Hakstol says although Sprong skated and is listed as day-to-day, he does not expect the 26-year-old winger to play again in this series. Sprong scored 21 goals and 46 points in 66 regular season games, but left Game 3 of this series with an upper-body injury and remains out of the lineup.
- Michael Russo of The Athletic reports Minnesota Wild forward Samuel Walker was injured at the World Championships and is out for the remainder of the tournament. Russo goes on to explain that Walker injured his shoulder in USA’s first game of the tournament and though he is already on his way home, he will be ready for training camp in September. Walker just wrapped up his first pro season, scoring two points in nine games for the Wild while piling up 27 goals and 48 points in 56 games for the Iowa Wild of the AHL.
Snapshots: Brossoit, Boedker, McCabe Trade Conditions
After helping the Vegas Golden Knights to a comfortable first-round series win over the Winnipeg Jets, the expectation was that Laurent Brossoit would be between the pipes for Vegas during their playoff run, their Stanley Cup hopes resting on his shoulders. Brossoit suffered a lower-body injury stopping an Edmonton Oilers scoring chance in Game Two of the second round, though, scuttling those plans. With Vegas now on the brink of qualifying once again for the Western Conference final, it does not seem as though Brossoit’s return is imminent.
As relayed by The Athletic’s Jesse Granger, Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy said that Brossoit wouldn’t be traveling with the team to Edmonton for Game Six. This has left Vegas in the hands of Adin Hill, who the team acquired from the San Jose Sharks over the summer in exchange for a fourth-round pick. While Hill is a capable goalie, one might presume that Vegas would feel more comfortable backstopped by the netminder who helped them win their series against Winnipeg. In any case, it’s looking as though Vegas will have to attempt to fend off Edmonton without Brossoit in their crease.
Some other notes from across the hockey world:
- The SHL’s HV71 announced today that Mikkel Boedker, a veteran of over 700 games in the NHL, would not be returning to the club for next season. It’s a disappointing if entirely unsurprising result for the 33-year-old, as he struggled in his return to Sweden’s top flight, a league he hasn’t played in since he skated in two contests for Frolunda HC way back in 2006-07. A former 50-point scorer in the NHL, Boedker managed just 11 points in 41 games for HV71 and could not help them make noise in the league standings as the team finished 11th. Now he’ll have to look for a new opportunity to continue his pro career, and perhaps a return to the Swiss league could be in the cards as he played for Lugano from 2020-2022.
- While the storylines involving the franchise’s general direction might draw more attention, Maple Leafs’ elimination last night also made some more minor news. One of the conditions of the Maple Leafs’ trade for Jake McCabe and Sam Lafferty was finalized as McCabe played in more than 50% of Toronto’s playoff games. As a result, all McCabe must do is play in more than 25% of the Maple Leafs’ regular-season games next year, and Toronto will receive a 2025 fifth-round pick as part of the deal. Should McCabe play in less than 25% of games, the Maple Leafs will instead receive Chicago’s 2025 third-round pick.
Offseason Checklist: St. Louis Blues
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 St. Louis.
It would be fair to say that the 2022-23 season didn’t go as planned for St. Louis. A veteran-laden squad, there was an expectation that they’d be squarely in the playoff mix. That didn’t happen. Instead, St. Louis was one of the bigger sellers leading up to the trade deadline before going and doing some of their summer shopping early with the acquisitions of Jakub Vrana and Kasperi Kapanen. While those pickups suggest they aren’t intending to bottom out next season, they’ll have some work to do this offseason to try to move back up in the standings.
Round Out Coaching Staff
Following a disappointing season like this one, some had wondered if there would be big changes behind the bench. That wasn’t the case as Craig Berube remains as head coach but he’s in need of a pair of assistants as Craig MacTavish and Mike Van Ryn were both dismissed the day after the season. MacTavish had been brought in to replace Jim Montgomery (who became the bench boss in Boston) while van Ryn had been on the staff for the past five seasons.
MacTavish was responsible for the penalty kill early on in the season before Van Ryn, who also ran the defense, took over. In the end, the penalty kill had a success rate of just 72.4%, good for 30th in the league. The Blues could opt to promote from within to fill those vacancies with AHL Springfield head coach Drew Bannister and associate coach Daniel Tkaczuk being the top options to move up. Otherwise, they’ll look outside the organization to round out their staff. This one isn’t a very high priority but it’s something GM Doug Armstrong will have to work on in the coming weeks.
Move Scandella
The optics for Marco Scandella’s time in St. Louis haven’t been great. The Blues acquired him from Montreal back in 2020 for a second-round pick and a conditional fourth-rounder. On the surface, that seems fine but the Canadiens had acquired him for a fourth-rounder alone just six weeks earlier. Yes, salary retention was a factor but it seemed like a high price to pay nonetheless. The four-year, $13.1MM extension he signed less than two months later also seemed on the high side. That deal has one season left heading into 2023-24 and it’s going to be a problematic one.
It isn’t that Scandella is a particularly poor defender. He’s a bit more of an older-fashioned rearguard who doesn’t jump into the play; he’s a stay-at-home player. Those aren’t in high demand anymore but he’s a situational player that can play on the penalty kill. There’s still a use for that type of player, just not at $3.275MM. With St. Louis having minimal cap space (less than $7MM per CapFriendly), that’s a premium for a sixth defender that they can no longer afford.
Of course, there aren’t many other teams that can afford that premium either. As a result, the Blues will have to incentivize a team to trade for him, further adding to those poor optics. Alternatively, they may have to look into buying out the final year of his contract. Such a move would save them $2.75MM next season but add $1MM to the books in 2024-25. In theory, they could waive Scandella and send him down in October which would free up $1.15MM in room but most of that would have to go towards a replacement body, making that scenario not a great one either. Frankly, none of them are ideal but if Armstrong needs some extra flexibility this summer, this is their best chance to get it and a move involving Scandella will need to be made.
Add Forward Help
One of the things that St. Louis will need cap space for is to add help offensively. The team parted with long-time veterans Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly prior to the trade deadline and while both players were potentially on their way out the door anyway as free agents, they didn’t exactly acquire impact pieces in those swaps, instead opting for futures-based returns. They were a mid-pack scoring team this season and with those two gone (plus Ivan Barbashev), there are some holes to fill offensively. They can hope for bounce-back years for Vrana and Kapanen but those two alone aren’t going to fill the void.
It’s not a great free agent market this summer for teams looking to add impact pieces up front but St. Louis does have three first-round picks at their disposal after acquiring top-rounders in both the Tarasenko and O’Reilly swaps. The period leading up to the draft in June could therefore be an ideal opportunity for them to acquire a top-six piece that’s either signed or under team control for several more years that can help replace the production from the veterans that were moved out.
Additionally, the Blues could also stand to add some help down the middle. They experimented with Pavel Buchnevich and Kapanen playing at center down the stretch to mixed results. It’s one thing to try these things when you’re just playing out the stretch but it’s unlikely that they view those two as full-season options at the position. Even among bottom-six options, those players would take up the bulk of the remaining cap space that currently exists.
Shop More Defense
Moving out Scandella fixes a short-term problem but St. Louis still has a particularly pricey back end. Their top-four defenders (Justin Faulk, Torey Krug, Colton Parayko, and Nick Leddy) are all signed through at least 2025-26 at a combined cap hit of $23.5MM. That’s a lot of money, especially when you add in a minimum of three other blueliners to round out the roster. While those four are certainly capable players, it would be fair to suggest that they’re not exactly getting the best bang for their buck.
On top of that, the Blues do have some promising youngsters that are on the cusp. Scott Perunovich dealt with injuries for most of the season but should be ready to be a regular next season. Tyler Tucker didn’t look out of place in his first taste of NHL action either and could be ready to be a full-timer on the roster a year from now. Finding room for them would be ideal, giving St. Louis another reason to explore a swap.
The easiest of the four to move is likely Leddy. It’s unlikely that they’ll want to move Faulk, Parayko’s term remaining on his deal hurts his value, and Krug is coming off a year to forget which would make it very difficult to move him for fair value. Leddy is the one on the shortest deal (through 2025-26) at the lowest cost ($4MM) which would make him the logical choice if Armstrong decides to try to funnel more money into his forward group to tackle the needs up front. There might be a short-term dip while Perunovich and/or Tucker get accustomed to a full-time spot but in the end, such an approach might be better for them in the long run.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
East Notes: Haula, Hurricanes, Teravainen, Bertuzzi
Center Erik Haula is among the list of pending unrestricted free agents that the Devils will have to re-sign or replace this summer but if he has his way, he won’t be going anywhere. Speaking at his end-of-season media scrum (video link), the 32-year-old indicated that he doesn’t want to play for another team and relayed that in his meeting with GM Tom Fitzgerald earlier today. Haula came over in an offseason swap last year with Boston and was a capable secondary producer, notching 14 goals and a career-high 27 assists during the regular season before adding six more points in their 12 playoff contests. Haula should be in line for a raise from the $2.375MM AAV on his expiring contract, especially with the UFA market being weak down the middle.
Elsewhere in the East:
- CapFriendly clarified (Twitter link) that the conditional third-round pick that the Hurricanes will receive from the Flyers this year as part of the Anthony DeAngelo trade is the best of Philadelphia’s three third-round selections, not the lowest as originally believed. Accordingly, Carolina will pick up Philadelphia’s own pick, slotted 71st overall. The Flyers still owe the Hurricanes one more selection as part of the swap, their 2024 second-round choice.
- Hurricanes winger Teuvo Teravainen was at practice today as Carolina prepares for the Eastern Conference Final. However, as Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer notes (Twitter link), the 28-year-old remains in a non-contact jersey. Teravainen has been out for nearly a month since undergoing wrist surgery and is coming up on the early part of the four-to-eight-week recovery timeline. With him skating, it’s possible that he could be back at some point in this series which would be a big boost to their attack even with him having a quieter regular season than usual when he had 37 points in 68 games.
- While Detroit was able to lock up Dylan Larkin to a max-term extension before the trade deadline, they weren’t able to do so with Tyler Bertuzzi, resulting in him being moved to Boston. MLive’s Ansar Khan notes that the Red Wings only were willing to offer the pending UFA a four-year extension. However, in a thin free agent market and on the heels of a strong showing in the playoffs with 10 points in seven games, it’s quite likely that the 28-year-old will be able to get a longer-term contract in July (or earlier, if the Bruins able to free up cap space to re-sign him).
Flames Reportedly Denying Teams Permission To Speak To Brad Treliving
When the Flames and Brad Treliving parted ways at the end of the regular season, it seemed likely that his name would surface in the rumor mill before too long, especially with there being a vacancy in Pittsburgh while other teams have been looking to add to their front offices. However, that hasn’t been the case.
That said, there appears to be a reason why Treliving’s name hasn’t come up as Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports (Twitter link) that the Flames do not want to grant other organizations permission to speak to Treliving until his contract expires. Even though the announcement that he wouldn’t be back with Calgary came in mid-April, his deal technically doesn’t come to an end until June 30th.
This is a technicality that comes up many times when executives or coaches are no longer with a team (either by firing or, as has come up more recently, mutually parted ways). Any other team that wants to interview that person officially still has to get permission to speak to them from the organization they no longer work for. That generally happens without a hitch but as Calgary is still paying Treliving, the Flames are within their rights to do this.
It’s possible that this has to do with the fact that the draft is coming up next month. Having worked for the Flames throughout the season, Treliving would have been a part of scouting meetings and Calgary might not want to let any information about their strategy, scouting reports, or things they’ve learned about draft-eligible players get to another team this close to the draft.
While an inquiring team – Pittsburgh or otherwise – could make a request to interview with the caveat that Treliving wouldn’t begin in his new role until after the draft, that’s not necessarily the easiest promise to make with there being so little time between the end of the draft and the opening of the free agent market. The draft finishes up on June 29th and the new league year begins less than 48 hours later which doesn’t leave much time for Treliving to join an organization and be ready to have an influential role when the free agent frenzy begins. Similarly, another team could ask to interview Treliving with a promise that he won’t be involved in the draft but that’s quite difficult to enforce.
Accordingly, assuming that Flames ownership doesn’t have a change of heart in the coming weeks, Treliving won’t be able to pursue a new position until the 2023-24 league year opens up in July. At that point, it’s fair to wonder if there will be a spot for him to pursue at that time. Last month, his decision to leave Calgary raised some eyebrows. Now, the delayed process of that actually happening is also drawing some attention.
Devils Notes: Nemec, Blackwood, Schmid, Hischier
Devils defenseman Simon Nemec is expected to join Slovakia for the World Championship, reports Dennik Sports’ Tomas Prokop. The 19-year-old was the second-overall pick last year and had a strong post-draft campaign, picking up 12 goals and 22 assists in 65 games with AHL Utica. He also was Slovakia’s captain at the World Juniors while picking up five points in as many contests. Nemec was among New Jersey’s ‘Black Ace’ recalls once Utica’s season came to an end which prevented him from joining the Slovak roster early but now that they have been eliminated, he’s now free to participate in the tournament.
More from New Jersey:
- Goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood revealed in his end-of-season interview (video link) that he dealt with a groin and an MCL injury during the season. It was a disappointing year for the 26-year-old who was limited to 22 appearances where he struggled, posting a 3.20 GAA with a save percentage of just .893. The end result was him slipping to third on the depth chart down the stretch. Blackwood is a pending restricted free agent with arbitration eligibility while being owed a $3.36MM qualifying offer. With how his season ended, it’s hard to imagine New Jersey will make him that offer; if they don’t, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent this summer unless they can trade his rights to someone who will tender him at that price tag.
- Meanwhile, in his scrum (video link), goaltender Akira Schmid indicated that he hasn’t decided if he’ll join Switzerland at the Worlds. The 23-year-old posted a 2.13 GAA and a .922 SV% in 18 NHL appearances this season, moving him into the starting role for the playoffs (while pushing Blackwood to third-string status). He’s signed for one more year on his entry-level deal and as things stand, he should be a full-timer with New Jersey next season after splitting time between them and AHL Utica in 2022-23.
- While Schmid is uncertain about playing for Switzerland, captain Nico Hischier is less hesitant as NHL.com’s Mike Morreale relays (Twitter link) that the center is expected to join the Swiss squad once interviewing is finished in New Jersey. Hischier had a career year this season, reaching the 30-goal and 80-point marks for the first time. However, he was quieter in the playoffs, scoring just once in 12 games although he managed to collect six assists as well.
Islanders Expected To Offer Lou Lamoriello Contract Extension
With the contract of general manager Lou Lamoriello believed to be expiring at the end of next month, some had wondered if the time was right to make a change in the front office. However, Newsday’s Andrew Gross reports that after some deliberation, that will not be the case as the team has decided to offer the 80-year-old a three-year contract extension.
Lamoriello has been at the helm in New York for the last five seasons with the team making four playoff appearances during that stretch, highlighted by a trip to the Conference Final in the bubble in 2020. However, they’ve failed to win a playoff series the last two years so with his contract expiring, there was a logical jumping point to make a change if they wanted to.
Despite the lack of postseason success the last couple of seasons, that hasn’t stopped Lamoriello from acting like a win-now GM. Last year at the draft, he moved their first-round pick to Montreal to pick up defenseman Alexander Romanov. Then, back in February, he moved their first-rounder for next month’s draft along with Anthony Beauvillier and prospect Aatu Raty to Vancouver for Bo Horvat before signing the center to a long-term extension. Lamoriello also inked Mathew Barzal to an eight-year, $73.2MM extension that will kick in next season.
At the moment, the Islanders are a veteran-laden team that has been tight to the salary cap for the last few years, a trend that’s likely to continue next season as they have barely $6MM in cap room this summer, per CapFriendly. With that money, they need to sign a backup goalie as Semyon Varlamov is a pending UFA while they’d also likely want to bring wingers Zach Parise and Pierre Engvall back, along with blueliner Scott Mayfield. Those three are also set to hit the open market in July and clearly, the cap room they have is nowhere near enough to re-sign them all.
Accordingly, creating cap space will be at the top of Lamoriello’s to-do list this summer. Josh Bailey and his $5MM price tag is someone the team would likely want to move on from but doing so would require incentivizing a team to do so. However, their prospect pool has taken a hit lately while they only have one pick in the top 110 next month which doesn’t exactly give them a surplus of assets with which to use to try to entice someone to give them that cap room.
Based on Gross’ report, it appears that Lamoriello is going to get a vote of confidence from the team, one that will likely extend to first-year head coach Lane Lambert as well. But the veteran manager is going to have a lot to try to accomplish in terms of re-signing his free agents, creating cap room, and doing so while trying to get a little younger and quicker while trying to restock a dwindling prospect pool at the same time. That’s a tall task for any general manager but the Islanders feel that Lamoriello will be up to the challenge.
Panthers RFA Logan Hutsko Signs In Sweden
After a pair of seasons in the minors, Panthers prospect Logan Hutsko has opted for a change of scenery. The forward has signed a two-year contract with IK Oskarshamn of the SHL, per a team release.
The 24-year-old was a third-round pick by Florida back in 2018 (89th overall) but only has a couple of years of pro experience under his belt since he played a full four years at Boston College. Hutsko had a good first season in the minors last year with 38 points in 71 games but injuries limited him to just 43 appearances in 2022-23 where he was fairly productive with 27 points. That makes his decision to leave a little surprising but the fact that he wasn’t among Florida’s ‘Black Ace’ promotions earlier this month probably didn’t help things.
Florida can still control Hutsko through 2026 and with this deal running through the end of the 2024-25 campaign, it seems likely that they will still tender him a qualifying offer this summer to retain his rights. In the meantime, they’ll hope that Hutsko can take another step in his development in Sweden and then assess if he’s worth bringing back in a couple of years.
Golden Knights UFA Sakari Manninen Signs In Switzerland
A year ago, center Sakari Manninen was coming off an impressive season in the KHL plus a strong showing at the World Championship, helping him earn a one-year, one-way deal with Vegas with the hopes that he could push for some playing time with the Golden Knights this season. However, that didn’t happen and as a result, he’s heading back overseas as Geneve-Servette of the Swiss NLA announced that they’ve signed Manninen to a one-year deal.
The 31-year-old got a fairly long look with Vegas in the preseason, getting into four games before being one of their final cuts. The expectation was that he’d be back up once injuries arose but others got that opportunity instead. Manninen had a fairly successful season with the Silver Knights, picking up 40 points in 53 games to finish third on Henderson in scoring but somewhat surprisingly, he wasn’t among their list of ‘Black Ace’ recalls once the AHL campaign came to an end.
While Manninen could have waited for NHL free agency in July to see if another team might be interested in giving him an opportunity in North America, he’s instead opting to give the top division in Switzerland a try having already played in the top leagues in Finland, Sweden, and Russia. At his age and with him not getting into a game with Vegas this season, it seems unlikely that Manninen will find himself back on the NHL radar in the future.
Latest On Kyle Dubas, Sheldon Keefe
The Toronto Maple Leafs’ season ended last night, with the team eliminated five games into the second round thanks to an overtime goal from Florida Panthers forward Nick Cousins. Their elimination from Stanley Cup contention begins what is likely to be a franchise-defining offseason.
General manager Kyle Dubas is on an expiring contract, while “core four” franchise faces such as Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander are eligible to receive contract extensions this summer. Those players will also see the trade restrictions tighten on their existing contracts, with Matthews and Marner receiving full no-move clauses on July 1st, while Nylander receives a 10-team no-trade list at the same time.
While past playoff disappointments did not catalyze any major organizational changes, it seems this offseason could be different. The Athletic’s James Mirtle shed some light on the challenges Toronto faces heading into their offseason, reporting that keeping Toronto’s front office together “will be far more complicated than simply coming up with a modest extension offer” for Dubas. (subscription link)
According to Mirtle, Dubas “will want to be paid handsomely,” especially if there are offers from competing franchises. Mirtle also writes that Dubas “will want greater job security and autonomy within whatever structure Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment settles on” for the future of the organization. It’s fair to wonder whether the Maple Leafs’ top decision-makers are ready to make that sort of commitment to Dubas after this disappointing playoff loss.
Tied to Dubas for the vast majority of his coaching career, Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe’s future is similarly up in the air. Mirtle reports that if the Maple Leafs do end up with a new general manager, “it’s hard to see [Keefe] retained, after four consecutive playoff losses.” But even if Dubas remains in place, Mirtle reports that “there will be a lot of pressure to make a change” behind the bench, especially given some of the high-profile names currently available to be hired as a team’s new head coach.
The reasoning behind Keefe’s departure seems to stem largely from his failure to win more than one playoff series at the helm of some extremely talented Maple Leafs teams. This is likely due to the fact that excluding the postseason, Keefe’s body of work behind the bench in Toronto has been stellar.
He originally rose to the role of head coach after the firing of Mike Babcock, when Toronto was in a relatively tenuous place. He immediately stabilized the Maple Leafs’ season and guided them to a 27-15-5 record in his first campaign behind the bench.
But that regular-season success would go largely forgotten as Toronto fell in the qualifying-round series to the Columbus Blue Jackets, a loss that would serve as a sign of things to come.
Keefe went 35-14-7 the following season but saw his team blow a 3-1 series lead to their arch-rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, in the first round of the playoffs. Over the past two years following that series, Keefe has amassed a 104-42-18 record, and his sterling track record of regular-season success is certainly not easily dismissed given how difficult consistent contention in the NHL can be. But Maple Leafs fans surely expected more from this star-studded era, and Keefe’s teams have failed to provide much of anything after the conclusion of the regular season.
It’s a similar story for Dubas, who has made quite a few excellent moves and rightfully earned a reputation as one of the league’s better general managers over the course of his tenure in Toronto. He has made several moves that have paid off wonderfully, such as the team’s buy-low acquisitions of Jack Campbell, Michael Bunting, Ilya Samsonov, and to a lesser extent Conor Timmins. But some larger bets have backfired. Both Matt Murray and Petr Mrazek proved to be salary cap anchors rather than saviors in the crease, while some trades have not aged as well as the team might have hoped, such as deals that sent away players such as Nazem Kadri, Mason Marchment, or Alexander Barabanov.
So, like anyone else who has ever been in charge of team-building for an NHL franchise, Dubas has made his fair share of mistakes. But are his mistakes, which have been largely outnumbered by shrewd moves, enough to punch his ticket out of Toronto? Or will any Dubas departure instead be more related to the inescapable reality that his plethora of savvy moves has not yet resulted in any sort of sustained playoff success?
This is the dilemma that the Maple Leafs face right now. They will have to navigate internal and/or external demands to make a change after such a disappointing string of early playoff exits with an understanding that there aren’t a whole lot of general managers who have won as consistently as Dubas, or head coaches with as many wins as Keefe.
As Mirtle indicates in his reporting, “ownership pressure” in Toronto “is sure to dial up to a new level, perhaps to the point they’re demanding substantive change rather than merely suggesting it,” as they may have in the past. So understanding that, could the first major change that gets made by Toronto be of the off-ice variety?
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images