St. Louis Blues Make Changes To Coaching Staff
St. Louis Blues assistant coaches Craig MacTavish and Mike Van Ryn will not be returning to the team for the 2023-24 season, the Blues said in a release Friday. Head coach Craig Berube‘s position has not been affected.
Assistant coach Steve Ott and goaltending coach David Alexander will remain on the team’s coaching staff, along with video coach Darryl Seward and video coordinator Elliott Mondou.
MacTavish had joined the Blues coaching staff for the 2022-23 season. Before that, he had finished a 17-year playing career with the Blues in 1997 before going on to become an assistant coach with the New York Rangers and head coach of the Edmonton Oilers between 2000 and 2009.
Van Ryn, on the other hand, had spent five seasons as an assistant coach with the Blues after the team hired him in May 2018. He played for the Blues for the first three of his eight seasons as a defenseman in the NHL. He then coached for eight years between the OHL and AHL before joining the Blues ahead of their Stanley Cup-winning season in 2018-19.
The Blues finished their disappointing 2022-23 season with a record of 37-38-7 and 81 points, missing the playoffs for the second time since 2012.
It remains to be seen who will fill the vacant positions left by MacTavish and Van Ryn. With the team looking to retool quickly in the offseason after selling off major assets at the trade deadline, the coaching staff will play a crucial role in ensuring the Blues can be competitive next season.
Anaheim Ducks Won’t Bring Back Dallas Eakins
The Anaheim Ducks won’t renew the expiring contract of head coach Dallas Eakins, the team announced in a release Friday morning.
Eakins has been at the helm of the team since the start of the 2019-20 season. Anaheim made the decision following a season that finished beneath already low expectations, finishing last in the NHL with 58 points.
Under Eakins’ leadership, the Ducks were one of the worst defensive teams of the post-lockout era in 2022-23. Their 4.09 goals against per game were the highest in a single season since the 1995-96 San Jose Sharks.
“This was a very difficult decision, one that comes after careful and considerable deliberation,” said Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek. “At the end of the day, I simply feel that a fresh perspective and new voice will be beneficial for the team. Dallas has handled himself with class and character through a difficult season, and we wish him the best in the future.”
Eakins previously served as head coach of the Edmonton Oilers from 2013 to 2015. This was his eighth season with the Ducks organization, having served as the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the San Diego Gulls, from 2015 to 2019.
The Ducks have not announced an interim or permanent replacement for Eakins. This is the first NHL head coaching vacancy of the 2023 offseason, with other expiring contracts including Washington’s Peter Laviolette and New Jersey’s Lindy Ruff, as noted by Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic.
Despite their recent struggles, Anaheim’s next head coach will be leading with a stronger, more developed foundation in place. They’ll have the benefit of a more experienced Trevor Zegras, who led the Ducks with 65 points in 81 games this season.
The Ducks will also have defenseman Jamie Drysdale returning from injury next season. The team’s first-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft played just eight games in 2022-23 before a shoulder injury ended his campaign.
Their talented young core will also receive a big boost this offseason, with the team now guaranteed a top-three pick in the stacked 2023 draft thanks to their last-place finish. With a new head coach in place, the Ducks will look to return to competitiveness in the near future. For this offseason, though, the focus rests on finding the right voice to lead the third generation of Ducks stars after Paul Kariya, Teemu Selanne, Ryan Getzlaf, and Corey Perry in the right direction.
Pittsburgh Penguins Fire Ron Hextall, Brian Burke
The Pittsburgh Penguins have relieved president of hockey operations Brian Burke, general manager Ron Hextall, and assistant general manager Chris Pryor of their duties, the team said in a release Friday morning.
Pittsburgh’s changes in leadership come after the team missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2006, done in by a 5-2 loss to the rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks in their final game on home ice this season. The firings come as no surprise, given the team’s questionable approach to the trade deadline and their status as the oldest team in the league.
The search for new leadership in Pittsburgh will begin immediately, the team said. The interim management group will consist of director of hockey operations Alec Schall, AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton general manager Erik Heasley, and hockey operations analyst Andy Saucier. Head coach Mike Sullivan will also be involved, per the team.
John Henry and Tom Werner of Pittsburgh’s ownership, Fenway Sports Group, had this to say:
We are grateful to Brian, Ron, and Chris for their contributions to the organization over the past two seasons, but we feel that the team will benefit from new hockey operations leadership. While this season has been disappointing, we believe in our core group of players and the goal of contending for the Stanley Cup has not changed.
Pittsburgh’s next general manager will be given an important task: guiding the team through the twilight years of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang. All three are signed through at least 2025, and given they’re all still playing at elite levels, the team will undoubtedly do whatever it can to surround them with talent. It’s unlikely the team enters a rebuild before at least two out of their core three retire.
While the team does have some undesirable anchor contracts, they have a fair amount of roster flexibility to retool in free agency this off-season. The team has $17.15MM coming off the books in unrestricted free agents, including Jason Zucker and Brian Dumoulin, but they’ll also need to either extend Tristan Jarry or decide to let him walk. While he’s posted solid numbers in recent years, injuries continue to plague a promising career, and the team could opt to shop for a different starting goalie in free agency or on the trade market.
Those are the types of dilemmas the new regime in Pittsburgh will have to solve, aiming to inject some life into a team that’s grown stagnant over the past few seasons. Pittsburgh has not advanced past the first round of the playoffs since 2018 when they defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in six games. It’s a trend growing reminiscent of the mid-2010s Detroit Red Wings, who sustained three consecutive first-round losses to end a 25-year postseason streak.
Hextall departs his post as GM after just two and a half seasons. He and Burke were hired to replace Jim Rutherford on February 9, 2021.
Andre Burakovsky To Miss Start Of Playoffs
Seattle Kraken winger Andre Burakovsky won’t be available next week when the team plays their first-ever postseason games, the team announced early Friday morning.
Burakovsky, 28, underwent a surgical procedure to address a recurring lower-body injury, the team said. He has not played since February 7, when he sustained the injury after playing just 21 seconds in a game against the New York Islanders.
While Seattle doesn’t know their first-round opponent yet, it will be one of the Colorado Avalanche or Dallas Stars, both well-rounded teams with playoff experience. Burakovsky’s offense is a major loss, as his 39 points in 49 games ranked second on the team in points per game this season (0.80).
If there is a team built to withstand the loss of a top-six forward, though, it’s Seattle. Depth scoring has been their hallmark this year, with only one of their 12 regular forwards (Morgan Geekie) failing to pot 10 goals this season. Even then, Geekie scored nine in 69 games.
It’s a tough pill to swallow for Burakovsky as well, who might miss a chance to play a series against the team he won a Stanley Cup with just last season. After a career-high 61 points with Colorado last year, Burakovsky signed a five-year, $27.5MM contract with Seattle in free agency.
Seattle didn’t issue a timeline for his return, but it seems unlikely they’ll have his services at any time during the first round. If Burakovsky is to play again this season, he’ll likely need to have his teammates rally for a major upset.
Senators Notes: DeBrincat, Holden, Smith, Watson, Hamonic
With the Ottawa Senators’ post-season press conference occurring this morning, many players gave insights into their futures with the team. The most followed offseason storyline will undoubtedly be Alex DeBrincat, as the 25-year-old gifted sniper is a restricted free agent come July 1. The Michigan-born winger told reporters this morning he’d be “open” to a long-term extension but also noted he wants to take a few months to discuss his future with his agent and his family.
DeBrincat is due a $9MM qualifying offer this summer thanks to the backloaded structure of his previous contract, a three-year deal signed with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2019. If Ottawa and DeBrincat reach a long-term extension, the number wouldn’t seem likely to be much higher (if any higher at all) than that. DeBrincat took a step back offensively during his first season with the Senators, recording 66 points in 82 games after hovering at a point-per-game pace during the previous two seasons.
More from the Senators news cycle this morning:
- The team has informed defenseman Nick Holden he won’t be back next season, says Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. Holden told reporters this morning he plans to test free agency after completing the 10th full season of his NHL career. The 35-year-old played 141 games with the Senators after Ottawa acquired him via trade in 2021, recording seven goals and 28 assists for 35 points while averaging 18:24 per game. With the emergence of rookie Jake Sanderson and the late-season addition of Jakob Chychrun, there was little opportunity remaining for Holden in Ottawa after his role decreased significantly this season.
- Garrioch also says to expect Senators head coach D.J. Smith to join Team Canada’s coaching staff for the upcoming IIHF Men’s World Championship. This will be two years in a row for Smith on the national team’s coaching staff, also serving as an assistant at last year’s tournament. Before that, Smith’s only international coaching experience with Canada came as an assistant at the 2013 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup.
- Forward Austin Watson says he played games in March on a broken foot before the team shut him down for the season last week. The 31-year-old grinder amassed nine goals but just two assists in 75 games this season. Watson, an unrestricted free agent this summer, also told reporters “the door isn’t closed” on a reunion with the Senators, although the multi-year contract he desires may not be palatable to the team given his career trajectory.
- Defender Travis Hamonic clarified that his season-ending injury sustained at the end of March was a knee issue, and he would have attempted a return if Ottawa made it to the playoffs. Hamonic, who is also a pending UFA, finished fourth in scoring among Senators defenders with 21 points in 75 games and recorded a -5 rating.
Minnesota Wild Sign Frederick Gaudreau To Extension
The Minnesota Wild announced that they’ve taken care of some offseason business early as they have inked forward Frederick Gaudreau to a five year $10.5MM extension. Gaudreau was set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st, but his extension will keep him with the Wild for the next five seasons.
Gaudreau originally signed a two year $2.4MM contract with the Wild in July 2021 after spending a single season with the Pittsburgh Penguins. While that contract carried some risk, it turned out to be an absolute bargain for Minnesota. The 29-year-old has put up 80 points in 157 games for Minnesota and added some cheap depth scoring.
While getting the Gaudreau contract done early is a tidy piece of business for the Wild, they do have some other pending free agents who will be much more difficult to extend and just $6.8MM in cap space to do it. John Klingberg, Matt Dumba, Gustav Nyquist and Oskar Sundqvist are all unrestricted, while defenseman Calen Addison and goaltender Filip Gustavsson are restricted free agents. Minnesota will likely have to make some tough decisions this summer, but with one of the best farm systems in the NHL, they should be able to remain competitive while getting younger and cheaper.
Patrice Bergeron Leaves Game For Precautionary Reasons
The Boston Bruins have announced that Patrice Bergeron will not be returning to tonight’s game against the Montreal Canadiens. Bergeron left the game in the first period with an apparent upper body issue. The Bruins stopped short of calling the issue an injury and the team’s official Twitter account tweeted that he would not return for precautionary reasons. The move makes sense given the fact that Boston has very little to play for at this point. The Bruins have already locked up the Presidents Trophy and will have home ice advantage throughout the playoffs. CBS Sports is reporting that they don’t expect his absence to affect his availability in the playoffs.
The Bruins have had to try and strike a delicate balance these last few weeks between resting players and staying sharp for the playoffs. Bergeron was recently quoted by Boston Hockey Now saying, “as we got closer to the playoffs, we thought maybe it was a good idea to play some games. Get involved in some of those because it’s a quick turnaround and you want to stay sharp.” While it makes sense to stay sharp, there will be a lot of criticism if Bergeron misses any of the playoffs with the ailment.
The Bruins have had very little to play for the last little while after a historic season. It’s rare to see a team display such utter dominance for an entire season. But the Bruins don’t have to look back far to find a 60+ win team that faltered in the playoffs. The 2019 Tampa Bay Lightning won 62 regular season games and were swept in the first round by the Columbus Blue Jackets. One might wonder if that playoff debacle for the Lightning played into Boston’s decision to dress their stars for meaningless games down the stretch.
Arizona Coyotes Recall Michael Kesselring
The Arizona Coyotes have recalled defenseman Michael Kesselring from their AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners. The Coyotes finish their season with a game against the Vancouver Canucks tonight, so Kesselring will have the chance to tack on one last NHL appearance before likely heading back to play for the Roadrunners tomorrow against the San Jose Barracuda.
Kesselring, 23, last played in the NHL in a March 26th loss to the Colorado Avalanche. He registered an assist and just under 16 minutes of ice time in that game, and overall this year has just that one point in eight NHL games. Kesselring has spent most of this season with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors, having been acquired from the Edmonton Oilers in the Nick Bjugstad trade.
The Coyotes were likely intrigued by the upside Kesselring might have, as he’s an ever-valuable right-shot defenseman and stands six-foot-four, 190 pounds. Offensively, Kesselring’s had an interesting season as he’s scored 14 goals and 14 assists in 59 games.
It’s not often that you see defensemen scoring the same amount of goals and assists, though it’s worth noting that before this year Kesselring had only scored single-digit goals in each prior season of his prospect career.
The Roadrunners have clinched their playoff spot, so it’s likely that Kesselring heads back there after tonight’s game. Kesselring plays a top-pairing role in Tucson, meaning if the Roadrunners go on any sort of run in the Calder Cup playoffs, it’s likely that he’ll be a major reason why.
Montreal Canadiens Recall Lucas Condotta On Emergency Basis
The Montreal Canadiens are rewarding a hard-working AHLer during the final game of their season. 25-year-old undrafted forward Lucas Condotta has been recalled on an emergency basis, allowing him to make his NHL debut tonight against the Boston Bruins.
Condotta signed with the Canadiens last March, inking a one-year entry-level deal. He earned the contract after a strong final season at UMass-Lowell, a year where he captained the team and scored 10 goals and 23 points in 33 games. Condotta had scored 10 points in his previous two seasons of college hockey and just nine points his freshman year, meaning his senior campaign represented a significant increase in both responsibility and production.
He made his pro debut last season with the Laval Rocket and skated in seven regular-season contests and 10 playoff games. While he struggled early and failed to leave a mark in the regular season, Condotta’s three points in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Springfield Thunderbirds nearly helped lift the Rocket to their first-ever Calder Cup Final.
This year was Condotta’s first full year as a professional, and he’s carried the momentum he built against Springfield to the Rocket’s regular season. He’s scored 16 goals and 30 points in 71 games, tied for fourth on the team in goal scoring with surprise standout Rafael Harvey-Pinard. Condotta stands six-foot-one, 223-pounds and brings the type of energy and physicality to the ice that quickly endears him to coaches.
While Condotta’s stay in the NHL might be brief, this recall serves as a concrete recognition of how well his debut pro season has gone. Should the Rocket make the playoffs this season, it’s likely that Condotta will be a forward to watch.
Winnipeg Jets Recall Dominic Toninato
The Winnipeg Jets have recalled forward Dominic Toninato from their AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose. After playing 77 games last season, Toninato has spent most of this season in the AHL, save for a run of four games in November that he spent with the Jets.
The move puts the veteran forward back on the Jets’ roster in advance of tonight’s regular-season finale against the Colorado Avalanche, and serves as a nice reward for the quality season he’s turned in with the Jets’ farm squad. In 49 AHL contests this season Toninato has scored 19 goals and 33 points, and he’s helped the Moose land comfortably as the third seed in the AHL’s Central Division.
At the NHL level, Toninato registered one assist in the four-game run he had in November, although he played under seven minutes of ice time in three of the four games he drew into. Last season, Toninato spent almost the entire season at the NHL level and ended up playing in 77 games, registering 14 points.
He did average about a minute and a half of short-handed ice-time per game, but seeing as the Jets had the fourth-worst penalty kill last season it’s understandable that Winnipeg’s new coaching staff under Rick Bowness didn’t see Toninato occupying the same role this season.
Toninato’s stay on the Jets’ active roster could extend into the team’s first-round playoff series, assuming the organization prefers keeping him around as a reserve player for their NHL squad rather than having him return to the Moose to play in their AHL playoffs.
For what it’s worth, the Moose added two forwards to their roster today (Thomas Caron via recall from the ECHL’s Trois-Rivieres Lions and Carson Golden via an ATO from the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets) though those additions should not be seen as any sort of barrier to Toninato being sent back down for the AHL playoffs.
Assuming Toninato draws into the lineup tonight against the Avalanche, his game and any minutes he plays in the playoffs represent an important opportunity for his playing future. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent in a few months after the expiry of his league-minimum two-way deal, and any quality games he has from this point forward will help him earn his next NHL contract.