Snapshots: Caufield, Dunn, Kindl
After finishing last in the NHL in 2021-22, the Montreal Canadiens have gotten off to a surprisingly strong start this season. Martin St. Louis has his squad sitting above .500 with a 12-10-1 record, and that early success has come in large part thanks to his team’s dynamic top line. Captain Nick Suzuki is leading the way with 25 points in 23 games, while offseason acquisition Kirby Dach looks like he could be beginning a breakout year with 17 points in 23 games. Leading the Canadiens in goals is 21-year-old sniper Cole Caufield, who happens to be playing in the final year of his entry-level contract.
Caufield’s agent, Pat Brisson, confirmed to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun that “preliminary” conversations with the Canadiens on a contract extension have begun. (subscription link) LeBrun writes that his “sense is that [the Canadiens] have entered this negotiation willing to be flexible and do whatever ends up being the best combination of cap hit and term.” Seeing as Caufield has played like an elite scorer since the moment St. Louis stepped behind Montreal’s bench, it seems like pulling the trigger on a long-term pact might be in the Canadiens’ best interests.
Some other notes from across the NHL:
- As part of his larger piece looking at potential RFAs, LeBrun also dove into the contract situation regarding Vince Dunn and the Seattle Kraken. The 26-year-old blueliner is currently scoring at a 57-point pace and is playing over 23 minutes per night. Dunn is currently playing on a $4MM cap hit, and will be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent before being able to hit unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2024. While the Kraken already have significant dollars pledged to their 2023-24 team, they should have the room on their books to be able to sign Dunn to the sort of major extension his play warrants.
- Former NHL defenseman Jakub Kindl has found a team for the 2022-23 season. Per a team announcement, the 35-year-old veteran of over 33o NHL games has signed with Storhamar, a club in Norway. Kindl spent last season captaining HC Plzen in the Czech league, scoring 10 points in 43 games.
Kieffer Bellows Clears Waivers; Travis Konecny Activated
Dec 2: In what should be considered a win for the Flyers, Bellows has cleared and can now be assigned to the minor leagues. The team can take a longer look at him there, hoping to turn some of that potential into production.
Dec 1: The Philadelphia Flyers took a chance when claiming Kieffer Bellows off waivers earlier this season but it didn’t pay off. After 11 scoreless games with the team, Bellows is back on waivers today, available for claim by the rest of the league. The team has activated Travis Konecny in his place.
Bellows, 24, doesn’t have a point all season after playing in 45 rather promising games last year. The 2016 first-round pick seemed to find a bit of a niche as a physical option that could contribute lower down in the lineup but all of that has disappeared this time around. Even with a strong opportunity in Philadelphia – he saw more than 19 minutes last week against the Pittsburgh Penguins – he couldn’t generate much of anything, and now finds himself on the edge of the minor leagues once again.
The difficult part now is Bellows’ contract situation. The one-year, $1.2MM deal he signed in the offseason could end up leading to him being cut loose at the end of this season by the Flyers, or New York Islanders, if they reclaim him. As an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent due a qualifying offer of the same $1.2MM, he will likely end up non-qualified if his season continues like this. It would be hard for any team to justify another deal at that price for a player that can’t contribute at the NHL level.
In his place comes Konecny, though he is still a game-time decision for tonight’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The 25-year-old forward is still the team’s second-leading scorer, despite leaving a game on November 17 early. His 19 points in 17 games represent a pace that would have him setting career highs, and head coach John Tortorella obviously sees him as a top option.
Konecny has played more than 19 minutes in 12 of the 16 games he finished, contributing on both the powerplay and penalty kill. If the Flyers are going to turn things around, he’ll be a big part of it.
Jakub Voracek Out Indefinitely Due To Concussion
The Columbus Blue Jackets have issued updates on several players, the most concerning of which has to do with Jakub Voracek. The veteran forward has not been medically cleared to resume hockey activities and is out indefinitely following a concussion last month. General manager Jarmo Kekalainen released the following:
Jake has had a number of head injuries during his career, and after the most recent was advised by doctors to take some time off to see if his ongoing symptoms subside to the point that will allow him to come back and play. We don’t expect a resolution in the near future and will give Jake as much time as he needs as his long-term health is the most important factor here.
Meanwhile, Jake Bean underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder and will miss four to six months. Zach Werenski, who had already been ruled out for the season, also underwent surgery on a torn labrum.
It’s scary news for Voracek, who despite declining goal totals has remained one of the best powerplay passers in the league. Last season he had six goals and 56 assists for 62 points in 79 games, 23 of those helpers with the man advantage. He also crossed the 1,000-game threshold last year, and reached 800 points for his career.
Now 33, it sounds like the team won’t rush him back this season even if he does start seeing some improvement over the next few months. The team is unlikely to challenge for the playoffs thanks to a long list of injuries, meaning there’s not much for the veteran forward to fight for. He’s already signed through next season and will earn $7.5MM ($8.25MM cap hit), meaning he can just focus on his day-to-day quality of life at this point.
For Bean this surgery likely means his season is also over. Despite the suggestion that a four-month recovery is possible, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to rush him back either. The Blue Jackets signed him to a three-year contract in 2021, which takes him through the 2023-24 season at a $2.33MM cap hit. He’ll be an arbitration-eligible RFA after that, so returning to pile up some counting stats may be beneficial for his future negotiation, but if there is any risk of re-injury they might as well wait until the summer to ramp things up.
Columbus has been ravaged by injuries and sit dead last in the Eastern Conference, only ahead of the Anaheim Ducks league-wide. They have a real chance at landing the first-overall pick or at least being one of the two lottery winners, adding another top offensive talent to the pipeline.
Vancouver Canucks Recall Collin Delia
Things are going from bad to worse for the Vancouver Canucks. After Thatcher Demko suffered an injury in last night’s game, the team recalled Collin Delia from the AHL. The recall is under emergency conditions, meaning there is an injury of some sort preventing the team from icing two healthy goaltenders.
So far, no update has been given on Demko’s status. But he was helped off the ice last night holding his right leg and was ruled out soon after.
While Demko hasn’t been good this season, losing him won’t help the Canucks turn things around. Spencer Martin hasn’t been much better and Delia has an .884 save percentage in the minor leagues this season.
The Canucks are now 9-12-3 on the year and it’s hard to imagine them getting back into the race without elite goaltending. Demko is their best chance at that, even with his struggles so far.
St. Louis Blues Return Jake Neighbours To AHL
The St. Louis Blues have sent Jake Neighbours back to the AHL after his most recent call-up. The young forward played in two games, recording two shots, two blocks, and a hit while failing to record a point.
Neighbours, 20, like so many other prospects, needs to play. He wasn’t going to see much ice time with the big club, getting just 13 shifts in last night’s loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. At the AHL level, he can touch the puck a lot more and get his confidence up, something that must be waning after so many scoreless appearances as a pro. Neighbours has two goals and three points in 22 career NHL games and has yet to score an AHL goal in seven games.
There’s still plenty of optimism about the 2020 first-round pick, but it’s hard to see how playing fewer than ten minutes a night on an NHL fourth line is the right development path. He may be up again at some point but the focus should be on getting him rolling in the minor leagues.
The struggle of course is that the Blues aren’t winning, either, so head coach Craig Berube needs to do anything he can to turn the ship around. The club is 11-12 on the year and has lost their last two after a strong stretch. Balancing Neighbours’ long-term development with the short-term team needs is a difficult task, especially if they believe he is one of the 12 best forwards in the organization.
Calle Jarnkrok Out At Least Two Weeks
The Toronto Maple Leafs will be without Calle Jarnkrok for the next two weeks at least, head coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters including Luke Fox of Sportsnet. The utility forward is dealing with a groin injury suffered on Wednesday night. T.J. Brodie, who is also out with an injury, will accompany the team on their upcoming road trip but is not expected to play.
Jarnkrok, 31, signed a four-year deal with the Maple Leafs in the offseason and has done a little bit of everything for them this season. Recently, he had been lining up on his off-wing next to John Tavares and Mitch Marner, benefiting from the talented forwards for a handful of points. He likely hasn’t been quite the presence that the front office was hoping for, though, as through 25 games he has scored just nine points.
A two-week absence will open the door for someone else like Nicholas Robertson to play with the Tavares line, as the Maple Leafs try to keep their winning streak alive. The team has won five in a row and is now 8-0-2 in their last ten, one of the hottest groups in the league. Even so, they sit three points behind the Boston Bruins in the Atlantic Division chase, despite having played three more games.
With Jake Muzzin and Morgan Rielly both on long-term injured reserve, the team has plenty of cap flexibility to recall a player in Jarnkrok’s absence if they choose.
Detroit Red Wings Place Tyler Bertuzzi On Injured Reserve
Dec 2: Bertuzzi underwent successful surgery this morning and will be out for six weeks.
Dec 1: Despite being activated less than a month ago, Detroit Red Wings forward Tyler Bertuzzi is headed back to the injured reserve list. Detroit announced today that they have placed their star forward on injured reserve.
In a corresponding move, they have recalled forward Austin Czarnik from their AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins.
This is not Bertuzzi’s first run-in with injury struggles. A back injury caused Bertuzzi to miss most of the 2020-21 season. Earlier this year, Bertuzzi was sidelined with a broken hand, one that he sustained after just two games played.
During Wednesday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres, Bertuzzi’s left hand was struck by a point shot from teammate Ben Chiarot. It’s another moment of poor luck for the 27-year-old power forward, and one that will come as bad news for the Red Wings overall.
When healthy, Bertuzzi is an important part of Detroit’s offensive attack. He scored 30 goals and 62 points in 68 games last season and has four points in nine games so far this year.
Bertuzzi’s replacement on the roster, Czarnik, is also a centerpiece offensive contributor, albeit for AHL Grand Rapids. So far this year Czarnik has 14 points in 12 AHL games, and he has 46 points in 146 career NHL games.
With Bertuzzi out of the picture, Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde will have to decide whether to deploy Czarnik in Bertuzzi’s vacated spot on Michael Rasmussen and David Perron‘s line or to give that opportunity to someone lower on the depth chart.
Despite their injury troubles, the Red Wings are off to a strong start this season and will look to weather Bertuzzi’s absence as they build toward a possible playoff berth.
What Your Team Is Thankful For: Florida Panthers
As American Thanksgiving and the holiday season are upon us, PHR is taking a look at what teams are thankful for in 2022-23. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Florida Panthers.
Who are the Panthers thankful for?
You might think the easy answer here is Matthew Tkachuk. The newcomer is leading the team in points by a wide mile and has established himself as the new face of the franchise next to Aleksander Barkov. But given how Sergei Bobrovsky has played so far this year, the Panthers would be absolutely lost without Knight’s performance.
The 21-year-old netminder has posted a .919 save percentage in 13 games, essentially taking over of late. With a win last night, he became the fastest goaltender in franchise history to 30 wins, reaching that number in just 42 starts. A .919 isn’t world-beating, but when compared to the .878 that Bobrovsky has recorded, it seems like an entirely different class of performance. The veteran netminder – who is still set to earn $10MM in each of the next three seasons – has allowed five or more goals in three of his last five appearances, and the only reason it isn’t worse is that he was pulled after allowing four in the first period a few weeks ago.
Bobrovsky has gone through these bad stretches before and rebounded nicely. Last season he led the entire league with 39 wins and had a solid .913 save percentage. But the stinkers are coming more frequently now, and without Knight’s emergence, the Panthers would be stuck without an answer.
What are the Panthers thankful for?
The impatience of other teams.
When you take a look at how the Panthers were built, it really is impressive how many reclamation projects or fringe players they have found success with. Carter Verhaeghe was a minor league forward that had 13 points for the Tampa Bay Lightning in his only NHL experience before coming to Florida. He is now the team’s second-leading scorer with 20 points in 24 games.
Brandon Montour was acquired for a third-round pick from the Buffalo Sabres, who were fed up with his inconsistent play. He too has 20 points in his first 22 games this season, and is averaging close to 25 minutes a night. Sam Bennett, the playoff-only performer from the Calgary Flames, has turned into a consistent two-way player with the Panthers – even playing center again. Gustav Forsling, probably the team’s most consistent defensive presence, was claimed off waivers. Colin White, nabbed after a buyout.
That’s not even counting Anthony Duclair, who hasn’t played yet this season as he rehabs a torn Achilles.
The Panthers aren’t really built through the draft like so many other good teams. Outside of Barkov, Knight, Anton Lundell, and Aaron Ekblad, the rest of their team has been put together by taking advantage of specific situations. The question now will be whether they can pull off another couple of moves to vault them back into real Stanley Cup contention this season.
What would the Panthers be even more thankful for?
Continued health for Ekblad.
It’s been a long time since Aaron Ekblad was consistently healthy. The 26-year-old’s 61 games last season felt a full year compared to the nightmare 2020-21 season, and he showed what he could do. Fifty-seven points in 61 games and sixth place in the Norris Trophy voting led to high expectations for this year. But he has missed half the season already due to injury, only making his return recently.
If somehow, Ekblad can play in every game for the rest of the year, the Panthers will have an elite defenseman to lean on. But after Mackenzie Weegar’s departure, the depth chart is a lot less forgiving should he miss more time. Fans in Florida are dying to see what the 2014 first-overall pick could do with another 82-game season.
What should be on the Panthers’ holiday wish list?
Defensive depth.
Speaking of Weegar, the Panthers sure could use someone like him right now. The team has leaned heavily on the top three of Ekblad, Montour, and Forsling this year, to the point where all three are averaging close to 24 minutes a night. While Radko Gudas is a fine piece to include, and Marc Staal is doing as much as he’s capable of, the team needs another defenseman. Josh Mahura has been fine in that sixth spot, but there are nights the coaching staff doesn’t even trust him to play ten minutes.
The forward group will get a boost when Duclair comes back, and Barkov won’t be snake-bitten all year. But if that defense were to face two key injuries at the same time, it would likely mean any chance of contention is out the door. The Panthers need to reinforce the group, though maybe not in the same way they did a year ago.
At the deadline, Florida used a first-round pick to land Ben Chiarot, who didn’t exactly work out the way they had hoped. They are already missing a huge number of picks thanks to the Tkachuk deal, meaning they’ll have to get creative about how they add some talent to the back end.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
David Farrance Traded In AHL
The Chicago Wolves have completed a pair of minor league trades, sending David Farrance to the Colorado Eagles and acquiring Alex Green from the Laval Rocket. Both deals are for future considerations.
Farrance, 23, was a third-round pick of the Nashville Predators in 2017 and a Hobey Baker candidate at one point in college, but has fallen nearly completely off the map in the years since. He signed a two-year contract with the Predators in 2021, with the first year burning at the end of the 2020-21 season, and spent all of last year with the Milwaukee Admirals.
At the end of his entry-level deal, the Predators decided to leave him unqualified, making him a free agent. An AHL deal with the Wolves followed, but after 14 games he’s on his way out of that organization too.
That said, the Eagles do have a reputation for reclamation projects, especially defensemen. Perhaps they will be able to turn around his career and get it back on a track that one day leads to the NHL.
In 14 games this season, he had five points.
Snapshots: Kuzmenko, Anisimov, Monahan, Haight
Andrei Kuzmenko’s first season in North America has been a successful one as the winger enters play tonight sitting fourth on the Canucks in scoring with 11 goals and 10 assists in 22 games. He’s also set to be an unrestricted free agent this summer for the second straight year except this time, he won’t be capped on entry-level restrictions. While the two sides are eligible to work out an extension as early as January, it doesn’t appear that will be the case. Appearing on CHEK’s Donnie and Dhali (video link), Kuzmenko’s agent Dan Milstein indicated that there are no contract talks planned for the near future:
We are not going to be talking about an extension of any kind until probably the end of the season or close to that time.
While that’s the plan for now, it stands to reason that Vancouver will look to start discussions before the end of the year as if they can’t reach an agreement on a contract for next season, Kuzmenko could be a trade candidate leading up to the March 3rd trade deadline.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- Veteran center Artem Anisimov is off to a decent start with AHL Lehigh Valley with three points in his first five games with Philadelphia’s affiliate. In his latest 32 Thoughts column, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman notes that the Flyers would like to convert Anisimov’s contract to an NHL deal to add him to the roster. However, they’re currently unable to do so as they’re at the maximum 50 contracts so they’ll have to make a trade to open up a spot first unless someone claims Kieffer Bellows on waivers on Friday. Anisimov is a veteran of 771 career NHL contests and would give them someone else to try on the fourth line if they can open up a spot for him first.
- When the Canadiens acquired Sean Monahan this offseason, he seemed like a near-lock to be traded by the deadline with Montreal entrenched in a rebuild. However, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic relays that the team is now having internal discussions about the idea of trying to sign the 28-year-old to an extension instead of flipping him as an expiring deal at the deadline. Monahan has 14 points in 22 games this season while averaging over 17 minutes a night and appears to have recovered quite nicely from the hip surgeries he had in each of the past two years.
- Wild prospect Hunter Haight is on the move in the OHL as Barrie announced that they traded him to Saginaw in exchange for five draft picks. The 18-year-old was a second-round pick by Minnesota this past summer after putting up 22 goals and 41 points last season with the Colts. However, things haven’t gone as well this year as he managed just three goals and six helpers in 20 contests prior to the move. Minnesota has until June 1, 2024 to sign the center to an NHL contract.