Ryan Merkley Requests Trade From San Jose Sharks
The San Jose Sharks have made former top prospect Ryan Merkley available, according to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, after the young defenseman recently requested a trade.
Merkley, 22, is in the final season of his entry-level contract, is still waiver-exempt, and will be a restricted free agent without arbitration rights this summer.
Selected 21st overall in 2018, the OHL star had a brilliant offensive profile but several question marks surrounding his defensive ability and commitment. There were some who believed that Merkley wasn’t willing to “play the right way” in his own end, a problem that has followed him to the professional level.
Curtis Pashelka of the Bay Area News Group points out that Merkley was benched for a part of the San Jose Barracuda game on December 27. The AHL club is where he has spent this entire season, scoring 14 points in 30 games so far.
That follows a 2021-22 campaign that saw Merkley make his NHL debut and play 39 games for the Sharks, averaging a little more than 15 minutes a night. He scored six points, and that’s where his career total sits as he now looks for a fresh start somewhere else.
Make no mistake, Merkley still has some elite playmaking ability from the offensive blueline. The right-shot forward can find passing seams that few others even consider. Unfortunately, many of those lanes are also risky at the professional level, and his play away from the puck still leaves a lot to be desired.
Any acquiring team would need a plan for how to best develop Merkley into an NHL asset, because currently, he is just a fringe player with serious holes in his game. Seravalli does not suggest a price tag for the disgruntled defenseman, but one would have to figure that his value is at an all-time low.
Florida Panthers Recall Givani Smith
The Florida Panthers have brought Givani Smith back to the NHL, after sending him down just before Christmas. The move comes ahead of their game against the Arizona Coyotes this evening.
Smith, 24, has played just one game since arriving in Florida but managed to rack up seven penalty minutes in it. The big physical forward will give the team a little more bite after two straight losses against Metropolitan Division clubs.
After tonight, the Panthers will hit the road for a four-game trip that takes them through Detroit, Dallas, Colorado, and Vegas – a tough part of the schedule that includes time zone changes and an afternoon game against some top teams.
Whether he goes right into the lineup remains to be seen, but the Panthers have had trouble getting much consistency from the bottom part of the lineup this season, and could perhaps use a rotation on the road. Smith does have 86 games of NHL experience under his belt, with 145 penalty minutes to show for it. The second-round pick has scored seven goals and 14 points in his career.
Snapshots: Domi, Kraken Prospects, Vrana, Wotherspoon
As soon as Max Domi signed with Chicago just minutes into free agency last summer, the expectation was that he’d be traded at the deadline when there wasn’t much money left on his one-year, $3MM contract. However, in a recent 32 Thoughts appearance, Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek reports (video link) that it’s not a guarantee that Domi moves. He’s enjoying a nice bounce-back year with the Blackhawks, collecting 11 goals and 13 assists in 36 games so far, good for second on the team in scoring. He’s also winning draws at a career-best clip of 56.3%. If he’s happy in his role and having some success, it may make more sense for Chicago to try to extend the 27-year-old. That’s a discussion GM Kyle Davidson is expected to have with Domi’s representation in the coming weeks.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- A pair of Kraken prospects are on the move in the CHL. OHL London announced that they’ve acquired forward Ryan Winterton from Hamilton as part of a four-player trade. The 19-year-old was a third-round pick (67th overall) in 2021 and has 46 points in 37 games so far this season. Meanwhile, Sherbrooke of the QMJHL announced the acquisition of winger Jacob Melanson from Acadie-Bathurst. The 19-year-old has 25 goals in just 27 games this season. Both prospects have already signed their entry-level contracts with Seattle.
- The Red Wings will extend Jakub Vrana’s conditioning stint by three more games, relays MLive’s Ansar Khan (Twitter link). The 26-year-old has already played in three games and was held off the scoresheet and the team feels he could benefit from a longer stretch in the minors. This is the only extension that Detroit can give Vrana; he’ll have to be recalled once these three games are up.
- The Devils announced (Twitter link) that they’ve assigned defenseman Tyler Wotherspoon to AHL Utica. He was recalled last week for his second stint with the big club this season but didn’t get into a game with New Jersey; his last NHL appearance came back in January 2017. So far this season, the 29-year-old has two goals and seven assists in 23 games with the Comets.
Senators Assign Jacob Bernard-Docker To AHL
Jacob Bernard-Docker just returned to Ottawa’s lineup last week after being on injured reserve for more than a month. However, his time with the Senators has come to an end for the time being as the team announced (Twitter link) that he has been sent to AHL Belleville.
The 22-year-old has played in nine NHL games so far this season, including seeing action in Ottawa’s last three. In those contests, he had an assist along with 14 blocked shots while averaging over 17 minutes per night which isn’t bad for a rookie. However, he’ll have an opportunity to log a lot more minutes at the minor league level; he played in eight games with Belleville back in October, picking up an assist.
At the moment, the Senators have just six defensemen on their active roster and one of those is Erik Brannstrom who hasn’t played in nearly two weeks due to a leg injury. Bernard-Docker’s assignment suggests that Brannstrom should be ready to return for Tuesday’s contest against Columbus. Brannstrom has three assists in 32 games so far this season.
Metropolitan Notes: Carlson, Vesey, Clutterbuck
The Capitals will be without defenseman John Carlson for an extended period of time as Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic reports (subscription link) that his recovery timeline is a matter of months, not weeks. He took a slap shot to the side of the head just before the holiday break and was subsequently moved to injured reserve. Notably, the extended absence will allow them to place Carlson on LTIR which will make it considerably easier to activate Nicklas Backstrom when the veteran center is ready to return. However, Carlson is expected to return this season which means that Washington won’t be able to spend any of his cap hit on external replacements as they’ll need to get back into cap compliance when he’s cleared to return. His loss will be a big one for the Caps as Carlson has 21 points in 30 games this season while logging more than 23 minutes a night, a role that’s difficult to fill internally.
More from the Metropolitan:
- It took a PTO for Jimmy Vesey to eventually land a contract with the Rangers but now that he’s eligible to sign an extension, Larry Brooks of the New York Post suggests that they’d be wise to try to sign the winger to a new deal now. The 29-year-old has six goals and six assists in 37 games this season and has largely played on the top three lines for the bulk of the year. Knowing that Vesey has gone through the PTO route for two straight years, it’s possible that he’d be amenable to an early extension, one that would give him a bit of stability at a price tag that likely wouldn’t be much higher than the league minimum.
- The Islanders are hopeful that winger Cal Clutterbuck will be able to return to the lineup tomorrow against Vancouver, relays Newsday’s Andrew Gross (Twitter link). The 35-year-old returned from an upper-body injury last month only to sustain another upper-body issue soon after as he landed on injured reserve once again a week later. Clutterbuck has five points and 98 hits in 26 games so far this season.
St. Louis Blues Recall Nikita Alexandrov
It’s been a busy day in St. Louis. After placing two star players on injured reserve, recalling a top prospect, and extending a goalie, the team has now made another move: forward Nikita Alexandrov has been recalled from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds.
The Blues noted that Alexandrov’s recall came after forward Logan Brown suffered an upper-body injury at today’s practice. Per the team, Brown won’t travel on their upcoming road trip.
Alexandrov, 22, heads back to the Blues roster having played in nine games for the big club this year. He has just one NHL point on his resume, although it should be noted that he didn’t exactly get a ton of ice time in the NHL games he played.
In the AHL, Alexandrov has been far more effective. Playing a major role for the Thunderbirds, Alexandrov has scored eleven goals and 18 points in 22 games. He scored 30 points in 67 games last season, and scored eight in 18 playoff games as the Thunderbirds made a run to the Calder Cup final.
A second-round pick in 2019, Alexandrov has developed into a nice prospect for the Blues. While he hasn’t yet gotten a major chance to make an impact in the NHL, his AHL form so far this year has been highly encouraging.
If he gets into the lineup during the absence of Tarasenko, O’Reilly, and Brown, he’ll potentially have a greater chance to land on an NHL scoresheet than he’s had in the past.
St. Louis Blues Extend Joel Hofer
The St. Louis Blues have announced that they have signed a contract extension with their organization’s number-three goalie, Joel Hofer.
The deal is a two-year, one-way contract that carries a $775k average annual value. Hofer’s current contract holds a $795k cap hit, but since he’s been largely an AHL player the actual financial value Hofer receives is quite a bit less. Consequently, this extension’s $775k AAV actually represents a significant pay raise for Hofer in actual dollars received, thanks to it being a one-way deal.
This extension paves the way for Hofer, who will be 23 next season, to assume the role of backup goalie in St. Louis. Incumbent backup Thomas Greiss is on an expiring contract, and since he’s 36 years old the Blues are likely looking to get younger (and cheaper) at that position.
Hofer’s AHL play certainly indicates that he’s ready for the NHL. Alongside current Washington Capitals backup netminder Charlie Lindgren, Hofer led the Blues’ AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds, to the Calder Cup final last season.
This year, Hofer has played in 22 AHL games. He’s gone 10-8-1, with a 2.39 goals-against average and a strong .922 save percentage. While Greiss’ presence behind Binnington means Hofer may not receive any NHL action this year barring injury-related absences, this extension cements his place in the Blues’ long-term plans for their crease.
Florida Panthers Loan Chris Tierney To AHL
The Florida Panthers have announced that forward Chris Tierney has been loaned to the team’s AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers.
The move frees another spot on the Panthers’ roster, and they now have two open spots for players should they choose to call up others from the AHL or activate one of their two players on long-term injured reserve.
Tierney, 28, has played five NHL games with the Panthers this season, scoring three points. He’s done so in an extremely limited role, having played just under eight minutes of ice time per night.
Those three points in five games is solid work for an AHL call-up, and Tierney’s quality play this year has extended to his time in the AHL. With the Checkers, Tierney has 16 points in 19 games, good for second-most on the team.
While this loan back to the AHL isn’t exactly good news for him, Tierney has given the Panthers exactly what they were hoping for when they signed him to a one-year, league-minimum two-way deal over the summer.
For just $750k against the cap, providing near point-per-game AHL production and chipping in some points on an NHL call-up is nothing to scoff at. His form is especially encouraging given the circumstances of his exit from his previous organization, the Ottawa Senators.
Once a 48-point scorer, Tierney went from being a potential long-term piece to a salary cap anchor. Injuries played their role, and Tierney’s time in Ottawa ended with an unceremonious 18 points in 70 games.
He seems to have now placed the frustration of his last few years behind him and is providing the Panthers with a nice return on their investment.
With this loan back to the AHL, Tierney will return to Charlotte and look to resume his role as one of the team’s top scorers, with the hope that his continued quality play can earn him another recall to the NHL roster.
Semyon Varlamov Activated From Injured Reserve
The New York Islanders once again have their Russian tandem back in place, activating Semyon Varlamov off injured reserve today. Cory Schneider, who had been up for the last few weeks, was returned to the minor leagues.
Varlamov, 34, hasn’t played since December 17, but holds a .919 save percentage on the season in 12 appearances. While he is now the clear backup to Ilya Sorokin, the veteran netminder gives the team an outstanding second option to rotate in when needed. His $5MM contract (which expires at the end of this season) is a tough one to carry on injured reserve, especially for a club so close to the cap ceiling thanks to several other injuries.
There are few tandems in the league as successful as Sorokin and Varlamov. The Islanders team save percentage of .915 is third in the NHL, only trailing the Boston Bruins and Winnipeg Jets, who, while having outstanding starters, have each had less reliable backups this year with Jeremy Swayman and David Rittich. Having Varlamov back is an advantage for New York, who can now afford to give Sorokin a bit of rest after he carried the entire load recently. Schneider has not appeared in an NHL game this season.
It’s just in time, given the back-to-back coming up at the end of the week when the Islanders travel through Edmonton and Calgary. They have two other back-to-back situations before the month is out, meaning New York will need to have two healthy goaltenders in place over the next few weeks.
Snapshots: Three Stars, Laine, Bear
The NHL released its Three Stars for last week, with Filip Forsberg leading the way. The Nashville Predators winger scored five goals and seven points in three games, extending his lead in the team scoring race. Forsberg now has 14 goals and 32 points in 35 games, not quite the same pace he set last season when looking for a new contract. Even with a Forsberg hat trick on New Year’s Eve, the Predators failed to secure two points against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Second and third went to Erik Karlsson and Antti Raanta, who each had outstanding weeks. Karlsson had seven assists in four games and now leads the entire NHL in that category with 40 through his first 39 games. The San Jose Sharks defenseman is having an incredible bounce-back campaign and will once again be a Norris candidate thanks to a huge point total. Raanta, meanwhile, stopped 67 of 71 shots across three wins, keeping the Carolina Hurricanes on their 11-game streak.
- Patrik Laine is out of COVID protocol and back with the Columbus Blue Jackets, according to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic. The star ginger will be back in the lineup tomorrow and is expected to skate with Kent Johnson and Jonny Gaudreau on the top line. Laine’s season has been constantly interrupted by injury and illness, resulting in just 20 games played so far. He has nine goals and 16 points in those appearances.
- Portzline adds that Nick Blankenburg, who has been out since November, will travel with the club for their game against the Ottawa Senators but is not expected to play. The 24-year-old was averaging more than 18 minutes a night in his seven appearances before going down to a broken ankle.
- Now that the calendar has been turned to 2023, players on one-year deals are eligible to sign extensions as Joe Pavelski did yesterday. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that Ethan Bear and the Vancouver Canucks are expected to talk this week about a potential deal, though there is no guarantee a contract is signed so quickly. Bear has played well for the Canucks since they acquired him at the end of October from the Carolina Hurricanes, and is currently scheduled to become a restricted free agent when his one-year, $2.2MM deal expires.