Mikhail Berdin To Spend 2022-23 In KHL
It was interesting, earlier this week, when the Winnipeg Jets recalled Arvid Holm from the minor leagues to serve as an extra goaltender. That third-string spot would have presumably gone to Mikhail Berdin under normal circumstances but he was away from the team.
Now, the Jets have explained where Berdin is. In a release, the team has indicated that per a recommendation from the NHL/NHLPA Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program, the young goaltender will not be with the organization this season. His agent Dan Milstein tweets that Berdin will return to Russia to be closer to his family and will play in the KHL this season.
The Jets will not incur a cap charge and Berdin will not be paid by the team. Instead, he will be allowed to sign a one-year deal in the KHL for this season. His NHL rights will stay with Winnipeg for the time being.
Now 24, Berdin was a sixth-round pick of the Jets back in 2016 and has been away from Russia for years. He spent two full seasons in the USHL following his draft, and has been in the minor league system for the past four. There was a short 14-game stint with St. Petersburg SKA in 2020-21 when the AHL season was postponed, but beyond that, he has been competing in North America for six years.
Hopefully, whatever has caused him to need this split from the organization will be resolved and he can continue his pro career here in the future. The young netminder has a lot of upside and posted a .902 save percentage in 32 games with the Manitoba Moose last season.
Interestingly, because of his age and contract status, Berdin should actually qualify for Group VI unrestricted free agency next summer. That means the two sides could be parting ways permanently, though since this is a special circumstance there could be other factors at play. Even if he does qualify for UFA status, the Jets would be free to sign him to another contract next offseason.
Jake Virtanen Released From PTO
The Edmonton Oilers have released Jake Virtanen from his professional tryout contract, according to Darren Dreger of TSN.
Now 26, Virtanen hasn’t played in the NHL since being put on leave by the Vancouver Canucks in 2021 after allegations of sexual assault were raised. He was eventually bought out by the team in the offseason and spent 2021-22 in the KHL, scoring nine goals and 16 points in 36 games.
After being found not guilty earlier this summer, Virtanen is attempting an NHL comeback, but he’ll have to do it somewhere other than Edmonton now that his PTO has been terminated. The sixth-overall pick from 2014 is a free agent again and it is unclear what kind of other opportunities await him in North America.
While a year away from the league certainly didn’t help things, Virtanen was already struggling to keep a spot in an NHL lineup. In 2020-21 he had just five goals in 38 games (zero assists) and has never been a consistent offensive threat.
His size and skating ability suggest he could be an effective player, but there have been too many games where his presence has been absent. To change that perception and keep his career afloat, he may have to work his way back up from the minor leagues, especially given how close it is to the regular season without a contract in hand.
Waivers: 10/06/22
Another day, another set of players on waivers as the regular season approaches. Everyone from yesterday cleared, while today’s group looks like this:
Boston Bruins
Vinni Lettieri
Joona Koppanen
Dan Renouf
Keith Kinkaid
Colorado Avalanche
Edmonton Oilers
Calvin Pickard
Slater Koekkoek
Los Angeles Kings
New York Rangers
Sonny Milano, Cody Eakin Released From PTOs
One of the most interesting cases of the offseason was Sonny Milano, an offensive-minded player that scored 14 goals and 34 points in 66 games last season. After failing to land a deal in the early part of free agency, Milano signed a PTO with the Calgary Flames.
Today, both Milano and fellow PTO Cody Eakin have been released from those tryouts, putting them both on the open market with just a few days to go before the regular season schedule begins.
It’s already a numbers game in Calgary, where they have several players who already may be exposed to the waiver wire in the next few days. After claiming Radim Zohorna recently, a player that fits much better than Milano in the bottom six, these releases seemed inevitable.
There’s no one who doubts Milano’s skill, it’s just his consistency that comes into question. Is the player who found instant chemistry with Trevor Zegras in Anaheim and scored 29 points through his first 39 games, or the one who had just five in his last 27. There have been far too many of those disappearing acts throughout his career for a team to offer a multi-year deal, and now he hasn’t even been able to land a one-year contract as a free agent.
Eakin, meanwhile, is the kind of player that could have fit into Calgary’s fourth-line mix but there are already too many other options that work in that spot. Had an injury or two happened, it might have resulted in a contract for the 31-year-old, but now he’ll have to try and find a new place to continue his 701-game NHL career.
Edmonton Oilers Hire Steve Staios
The Edmonton Oilers have nabbed one of junior hockey’s most successful executives, hiring former NHL defenseman Steve Staios as a special advisor to the hockey operations staff. Staios will report to general manager Ken Holland and work closely with the team’s prospects.
Notably, the announcement also ends Staios’ time with the Hamilton Bulldogs of the OHL, a team he led to the league championship earlier this year. He joined the Bulldogs in 2016 after spending several years in the Toronto Maple Leafs player development department, a role that followed his long playing career.
That playing career included parts of eight seasons in Edmonton, where he played 573 regular season games for the Oilers, more than half of his career total. The physical defenseman racked up 743 penalty minutes and 146 points during those games and wore an “A” as alternate captain at times. In 2011-12, Staios eclipsed the 1,000-game mark for his career while playing in his final season with the New York Islanders, before retiring at the age of 38.
As general manager and president of the Bulldogs, he twice took home the OHL Championship, while also winning the GM of the Year award this past season. Many of the top contributors to the recent Hamilton squad were undrafted talents that were helped along and put in prime positions for success, something that the Oilers could certainly use some of as they continue to try and surround Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl with depth.
If Staios can help set up a pipeline of junior talent to the Oilers, his presence will certainly be worth it.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Training Camp Cuts: 10/06/22
Would you believe that NHL regular season hockey is just one sleep away? Things kick off tomorrow in Czechia, while we wait for the North American launch next week. With that in mind, there will be plenty of final cuts over the next few days as the exhibition schedule finishes up. Here are today’s:
Boston Bruins (via team release)
F John Beecher (to Providence, AHL)
F Fabian Lysell (to Providence, AHL)
F Marc McLaughlin (to Providence, AHL)
D Jack Ahcan (to Providence, AHL)
G Kyle Keyser (to Providence, AHL)
F Vinni Lettieri (to Providence, AHL)*
F Joona Koppanen (to Providence, AHL)*
D Dan Renouf (to Providence, AHL)*
G Keith Kinkaid (to Providence, AHL)*
Calgary Flames (via team release)
G Dustin Wolf (to Calgary, AHL)
F Sonny Milano (released from PTO)
F Cody Eakin (released from PTO)
Carolina Hurricanes (via team release)
F Ryan Dzingel (to Chicago, AHL)
F Mackenzie MacEachern (to Chicago, AHL)
F Stelio Mattheos (to Chicago, AHL)
F Lane Pederson (to Chicago, AHL)
D Maxime Lajoie (to Chicago, AHL)
Dallas Stars (via team release)
F Oskar Back (to Texas, AHL)
F Mavrik Bourque (to Texas, AHL)
F Fredrik Karlstrom (to Texas, AHL)
F Fredrik Olofsson (to Texas, AHL)
D Ryan Shea (to Texas, AHL)
New York Rangers (via team release)
F Gustav Rydahl (to Hartford, AHL)
This page will be updated throughout the day
Florida Panthers Recall Zac Dalpe
With a pair of preseason games remaining against their cross-state rivals, the Florida Panthers have recalled Zac Dalpe from the minor leagues. The team plays the Tampa Bay Lightning at home tonight and then on the road on Saturday afternoon, with the regular season just around the corner.
Dalpe, 32, played just a single NHL game for the team last season but was an awesome (if hilarious) contributor in the minor leagues. The veteran forward had 30 goals in 68 games but managed to register just nine assists. That was the opposite stat line of prospect Aleksi Heponiemi, who also had 39 points for the minor Charlotte Checkers.
Bouncing back and forth between the AHL and NHL is nothing new for Dalpe, who has 154 appearances at the highest level over a 12-year career. He has 28 points in those games and likely won’t be playing a regular role for the Panthers this season, even if they suffer several injuries. Instead, he is the kind of player who can jump into a game and quickly understand the team’s system, while posing no risk of claim on waivers when he needs to go back down. Checkers fans will have a much better chance of seeing him, as he continues to serve as the team’s captain this season.
Winnipeg Jets Recall Arvid Holm
Oct 6: Holm has been returned to the minor leagues.
Oct 5: With just two games left in their preseason schedule, the Winnipeg Jets have brought some goaltending back up from the minor leagues. Arvid Holm has been recalled, after being cut a few days ago.
It’s an interesting one, given that Connor Hellebuyck and David Rittich are both still scheduled to dress for tonight’s game against the Calgary Flames. Likely just precautionary, it does highlight the lack of depth at the moment for the Jets. Mikhail Berdin, who would normally be considered the third-string option, is away from the team because of personal reasons. If Hellebuyck or Rittich were to suffer an injury, the 23-year-old Holm certainly doesn’t bring much experience to the table.
A sixth-round pick in 2017, the Swedish netminder has just 24 appearances in North America, all of them in the AHL. He posted an .877 save percentage in that league last year and is still quite a distance from being a legitimate backup option for the Jets. Hopefully, this recall is nothing more than an emergency backup and the two NHL options get through the last two games intact.
Dallas Stars Sign Jason Robertson
There’s nothing like a little nighttime news breaking. The Dallas Stars have reached an agreement with restricted free agent Jason Robertson, signing the breakout star to a four-year contract that carries an average annual value of $7.75MM. The deal ends a standoff that had kept Robertson out of the majority of training camp but should have him ready to go in time for the start of the regular season next week.
Stars general manager Jim Nill released this statement:
Jason is an integral part of the present and future of our team and we’re thrilled to have him for the next four years. Since he was drafted by our organization, he has worked tirelessly to become a better player every day. His knack for scoring goals and seeing plays develop on the ice are just some of the tremendous assets that he brings to our team. He is one of the best young players in the NHL and we look forward to seeing him continue to progress.
PuckPedia provides the full breakdown of the deal, which is heavily back-loaded:
- 2022-23: $1.5MM salary + $3.0MM signing bonus
- 2023-24: $8.0MM salary
- 2024-25: $9.2MM salary
- 2025-26: $9.3MM salary
The contract will leave Robertson a restricted free agent in the summer of 2026 but one with arbitration rights. It will also mean he is due a $9.3MM qualifying offer that offseason, something that could walk him directly to UFA status in 2027.
It’s hard to explain quite how impressive Robertson has been since entering the league in 2020. The second-round pick has 125 points in 128 career games and is coming off a season with 41 goals. He sits 30th among players with over 100 appearances during that period in points-per-game, and he has done it while averaging fewer than 18 minutes a night – a number lower than every single player ahead of him on that list.
That kind of offensive production is rewarded no matter how hard a team tries to avoid it, and Robertson has landed an incredibly lucrative deal with this contract. As Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News points out, there are only two active RFA contracts in the NHL that are four years or fewer, with an average annual value of at least $7.75MM: Robertson’s new deal and Patrik Laine‘s four-year, $34.8MM deal signed earlier this summer. Laine’s contract of course is buying out mostly UFA years, while Robertson will still be under (some) team control at the expiry of this deal.
The key for Dallas, is that even if Robertson continues his meteoric rise and demands a massive extension in four years, they will have quite a bit of money to work with. Not only is the salary cap expected to rise significantly by then, but Jamie Benn‘s $9.5MM cap hit will also be off the books, along with Ryan Suter‘s $3.65MM. Even Esa Lindell, Mason Marchment, and Radek Faksa could all be gone, leaving the Stars with plenty of flexibility to build a roster around Robertson, Miro Heiskanen, Roope Hintz (who is now eligible for an extension), and Jake Oettinger.
A deal like this cuts into the surplus value that they received from Robertson since his debut but doesn’t limit it entirely. A $7.75MM cap hit is reasonable enough that the team doesn’t need to move out significant pieces to accommodate it, while four years is long enough to really see whether Robertson is a true superstar or just a top-end player. The 23-year-old can now focus entirely on what remains of training camp and getting ready for the regular season in a few days.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Pacific Notes: Oilers, Benson, Wright
The presence of Dylan Holloway is what ultimately might be the final push for the Oilers to part ways with Jesse Puljujarvi, suggests Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic (subscription link). However, when that happens remains to be seen. Nugent-Bowman notes that Edmonton isn’t interested in a futures-based return for Puljujarvi which doesn’t help an already-thin trade market since a lot of teams can’t take on his $3MM AAV. However, while moving Puljujarvi would free up some needed cap space, they’d be taking a risk with promoting Holloway into a prominent role considering he has basically half a pro season under his belt with their AHL affiliate. Long-term, they should take comfort that Holloway could fill Puljujarvi’s spot but it might be a case of later rather than sooner that the youngster pushes Puljujarvi out.
More from the Pacific:
- Still with the Oilers, they’ll be without winger Tyler Benson for a little while with the team not sure how much time he’ll miss, notes Daily Faceoff’s Jason Gregor (Twitter link). On its own, a player on the fringes of the roster missing time isn’t typically notable in itself but as PuckPedia points out (Twitter link), Benson was on Edmonton’s roster long enough last season to have his cap hit count in full instead of being prorated through season-opening IR. With cap space at a premium for Edmonton, having Benson count in full to start the year if he’s only going to miss a couple of weeks certainly won’t help things.
- While it’s not set in stone just yet, Kraken GM Ron Francis told Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic (subscription link) that he believes Shane Wright will spend the full season in the NHL. Seattle took the center fourth overall back in July which came as a surprise to many as he was viewed as the projected top selection for most of the season. With Matthew Beniers, Yanni Gourde, and Jared McCann all ahead of him down the middle on the depth chart, Wright might not get a lot of playing time early on but that will also allow him to be eased in from a development perspective which, in the long run, might be ideal for the 18-year-old.