Latest On Laurent Brossoit
When the Vegas Golden Knights acquired Adin Hill late last month via trade, it raised some questions about how long goalie Laurent Brossoit would be out to start the season after having surgery.
Head coach Bruce Cassidy‘s comments added to that uncertainty today. While he did say Brossoit was healing well from his surgery, Cassidy wasn’t sure if Brossoit would return just weeks into the season or closer to the end of the calendar year instead. However, he did still reaffirm that Brossoit is tracking to be a healthy member of the Golden Knights this season.
Brossoit had a tough 2021-22 campaign, as did much of the Golden Knights team, but he’ll need to rebound in his second season in Vegas in the season-long absence of Robin Lehner. Brossoit does have some of the pressure taken off him with Hill’s acquisition, but the’s still the most experienced of Vegas’ now trio of NHL goalies.
In the meantime, Vegas hopes that Thompson’s strong end to the 2021-22 season, nearly miraculously getting them back into the playoffs despite anemic offensive play, carries over through training camp into the start of this season. They’ll also hope for Hill’s strong start to last season before going down with injury repeats itself as well.
Brossoit is entering the second season of a two-year deal worth $2.325MM per season. He finished last year with a 10-9-3 record in 24 games, just the second time in his career that he’s played more than 20 games in a season. He struggled statistically with a .895 save percentage and a 2.90 goals-against average, both worse than his career average numbers.
Brett Connolly Signs In Switzerland
Another NHL veteran has opted to sign in Europe to continue his professional career. Swiss club HC Lugano announced today that the team has signed winger Brett Connolly to a one-year contract for the 2022-23 season.
Connolly spent the last season and a half in the Chicago Blackhawks organization, where he ended up playing just 19 NHL games compared to 37 AHL games for the Rockford IceHogs. Connolly had just a goal and two assists in those 19 games across the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons, while faring much better in the AHL with 35 points in 37 games in 2021-22 for Rockford.
This past season, Connolly’s NHL time was limited in part due to a four-game suspension for interfering with Dallas Stars forward Tanner Kero. With his bloated seven-figure cap hit, Connolly also cleared waivers multiple times. Connolly was bought out this summer with one season remaining on a four-year, $3.5MM AAV deal signed prior to the 2019-20 season.
At the age of 30, this could very well be the last we’ve seen of Connolly in the NHL. The sixth overall pick in 2010 currently has a career total of 101 goals, 94 assists, and 195 points in 536 games.
He’ll be strong offensive reinforcement for Lugano, who also fortified their goaltending by bringing former Edmonton Oilers goalie Mikko Koskinen back to Europe. They’ll look to make it out of the National League quarterfinals for the first time since losing the championship series in 2018.
2008 NHL Draft Take Two: Seventh Overall Pick
Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.” Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science, and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.
We’re looking back at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now. Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?
The results of our redraft so far are as follows with their original draft position in parentheses:
1st Overall: Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
2nd Overall: Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings (2)
3rd Overall: Roman Josi, Atlanta Thrashers (38)
4th Overall: Alex Pietrangelo, St. Louis Blues (4)
5th Overall: Erik Karlsson, Toronto Maple Leafs (15)
6th Overall: John Carlson, Columbus Blue Jackets (27)
Instead of the underwhelming Nikita Filatov, the Blue Jackets grab one of the best offensive defensemen of the last decade. Carlson has posted at least 70 points in three of the past four years and reached his career-high of 75 in the COVID-shortened 2019-20 campaign, earning him a second-place finish in the Norris Trophy voting. He logged nearly 26 minutes a night in his 2018 Stanley Cup run and is on track to hit 600 career points early this season. It’s not often that a draft has five defensemen this capable that can dominate the early board but the Blue Jackets have followed the trend and picked their own franchise blueliner.
We now move on to the seventh selection and the first of two first-round selections by the Nashville Predators.
There was always a chance that the Predators could change the direction of their franchise with the 2008 draft, though few would expect it to come from the second round, when Josi was selected 38th. Instead, one would have thought it was either the seventh or 18th pick that would become the franchise-altering talent down the road.
With their first selection, general manager David Poile (who has been well connected to USA hockey for a very long time) decided to dip into the college ranks and take freshman standout, Colin Wilson, from Boston University. Wilson had absolutely dominated the U18s, scored six goals in six games at the World Juniors and had NHL pedigree. His father, Carey Wilson, had scored over 400 points at the NHL level and competed in the Olympics (for Canada), his uncle Geoff Wilson was a draft pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and his grandfather Jerry Wilson played three games for the Montreal Canadiens in 1956-57. In fact, Carey had been acquired by the Calgary Flames just months after Poile had left his role there as AGM, making the selection of Colin a kind of odd family circle.
This wasn’t some nepotistic pick, though. Wilson was a powerhouse for BU, scoring 12 goals and 35 points in 37 games as a freshman, making him the ninth-ranked North American skater by NHL Central Scouting and a sure bet to be an impact player at the professional level. When he won the Jim Johannson Award as the USA Hockey College Player of the Year the following season and led BU to a national championship, it was clear he was ready to make the jump. He played in the World Championship that spring against NHL talent (where Poile was AGM for the U.S. team) and then transitioned to professional hockey in 2009-10.
While he may not be the best player selected that year, Wilson had a solid career, scoring 113 goals and 286 points in 632 games. He was a versatile middle-six forward for many years with the Predators, reaching a career-high 20 goals and 42 points in 2014-15.
After announcing his retirement in early 2021, Wilson continued to have a positive impact in a very different way. He released an emotional piece in The Players’ Tribune that detailed his struggles with a diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder, his battle to keep a career on the rails, and his hopes that others facing similar difficulties would open up about them in the future.
I played in the NHL. I lived my dream. And I fought through hell to make a career for myself. My name might not be on the Stanley Cup, and that’s fine. Because I know there is an opportunity ahead of me to not just leave my mark on the game of hockey, but also on lives all across the world.
When Jimmy Hayes tragically died in the summer of 2021 because of an apparent drug overdose, Wilson took to the Tribune’s pages again, to go even deeper into his own history of drug abuse. It was an attempt to come clean with himself and perhaps shine a bit brighter spotlight on the growing overdose epidemic, and how it affects people with mental health disorders.
Unlike some of the other players that were picked in the first round, Wilson wasn’t a bust. He sits 18th in points among all players from the draft class. But With the advantage of hindsight, the Predators can pick a different talent, someone that would have had an even greater effect on the organization.
With the seventh overall pick in the 2008 NHL Draft, who will the Nashville Predators select? Cast your vote below.
2008 Redraft: Seventh Overall
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Jacob Markstrom 28% (301)
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Jordan Eberle 16% (172)
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Braden Holtby 15% (165)
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Jared Spurgeon 10% (112)
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Cam Atkinson 9% (102)
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T.J. Brodie 3% (31)
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Josh Bailey 3% (29)
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Gustav Nyquist 2% (22)
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Derek Stepan 2% (21)
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Adam Henrique 2% (20)
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Tyler Myers 2% (19)
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Colin Wilson 2% (18)
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Zach Bogosian 1% (13)
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Michael Del Zotto 1% (9)
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Luke Schenn 1% (8)
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Jake Allen 1% (8)
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Justin Schultz 1% (7)
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Jake Gardiner 1% (6)
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Tyler Ennis 1% (6)
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Marco Scandella 0% (5)
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Travis Hamonic 0% (4)
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Mikkel Boedker 0% (3)
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Matt Martin 0% (2)
Total votes: 1,083
[Mobile users click here to vote!]
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Mikael Hakkarainen Retires Due To Heart Condition
Mikael Hakkarainen will always have the honor of being traded straight up for the reigning Vezina Trophy winner. He was the sole return for the Vegas Golden Knights when they sent Marc-Andre Fleury to the Chicago Blackhawks last year in a salary dump. Unfortunately, he will no longer get a chance to further his hockey story. Hakkarainen has announced his retirement due to a heart condition that could threaten his life if he continued to play.
Selected in the fifth round of the 2018 draft, his story is one of unrealized potential, after starring in Finland minor hockey and then playing well at the USHL level for several years. After just one game with Providence College, he decided to leave the NCAA circuit, which could have potentially helped his development far more than the path he chose. After another year in the USHL, he entered professional hockey and barely played, suiting up just 14 total times in the AHL and another nine in the ECHL.
After the Fleury trade, the Golden Knights eventually terminated Hakkarainen’s contract to allow him a return to Europe. He played last season for Vasteras IK in the Swedish second tier, where he had 14 points in 26 games.
The 24-year-old hopes to continue in the hockey community in some way but can’t yet say what he’ll do next.
Ottawa Senators Sign Erik Brannstrom
The Ottawa Senators have some Labor Day news, announcing that Erik Brannstrom has agreed to a one-year, $900K contract. Brannstrom was a restricted free agent without arbitration eligibility. Senators general manager Pierre Dorion spoke about his young defenseman:
Erik is among our group of young players who we’re looking upon to take another step forward next season. He’s competitive, has an ability to efficiently move the puck and showed well when asked to take on an increased role last season. We’re hopeful that experience pays dividends for him in the year ahead.
As the main piece acquired from the Vegas Golden Knights in the Mark Stone trade of 2019, Brannstrom was expected to become a legitimate difference-maker for the Senators’ defense. Instead, he has struggled to stay in the lineup while not showcasing the elite offensive skill that many believed he had. In 116 NHL games since the trade, he has just two goals and 31 points.
Still, as Dorion notes, Brannstrom did receive a bigger role last season when he averaged close to 20 minutes a night for his 53 appearances. That included a regular shift on the second powerplay unit and even some penalty kill time, as he tries to carve out a role for himself in Ottawa. Remember, this is a team that will now have Jake Sanderson in the mix, a player who is expected to immediately receive a good chunk of minutes on the back end.
If Brannstrom is going to ever reach his potential, this is the year to do it. With a contract of just $900K, he has the chance to provide incredible value for the team and set himself up to be a long-term piece. Travis Hamonic, Artem Zub, and Nick Holden are all scheduled for unrestricted free agency next summer. If he struggles again with his consistency, there will be other young defensemen pushing for his spot on the roster.
Still just barely 23 (his birthday was three days ago), there is still time for Brannstrom. But a one-year “prove it” deal means things haven’t gone according to plan – for either side – to this point. With a club that should be much improved, after some big offseason additions, finding his place in the pecking order and remaining indispensable will give him a chance at a much bigger contract next summer.
Five Key Stories: 8/29/22 – 9/4/22
As the calendar has flipped to September, activity has started to pick up around the league with training camps on the horizon as some notable signings headline our key stories.
Vegas Adds A Goalie: With Robin Lehner out for the year, Vegas was looking at entering the season with a tandem of Logan Thompson and Laurent Brossoit, who is coming back from hip trouble. GM Kelly McCrimmon spent some of his increased flexibility to add Phil Kessel earlier and then used most of what was left this past week to add another option between the pipes, acquiring Adin Hill from San Jose in exchange for a fourth-round pick. The 26-year-old had an okay first season with the Sharks, posting a 2.66 GAA with a .906 SV% in 25 games in an injury-riddled year. He has one year left on his contract with a $2.175MM AAV and while he has just 74 career NHL games under his belt, he’ll give the Golden Knights another viable option as they look to get back to the playoffs without a true number one netminder.
Keeping Their Coach: Mike Sullivan had two more years left on his contract so there was no immediate need to work on a new deal. However, that didn’t stop the Penguins from locking up their bench boss as they handed him a three-year extension to keep him under contract through the 2026-27 campaign. Sullivan has been behind the bench since December 2015, making him the second-longest tenured coach in the NHL behind Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper. In that time, Pittsburgh has a 297-156-54 record (.639 points percentage) while winning a pair of Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017. The Penguins have had stability behind the bench for a while and with this move, that won’t be changing anytime soon.
Seven For Thompson: Tage Thompson was one of the biggest surprises in the NHL last season. After recording just 18 goals and 17 assists in his first 145 games, he exploded offensively in 2021-22 with 38 goals and 30 assists in 68 contests to lead the Sabres in scoring. While Buffalo could have waited to see if he could sustain those numbers this coming season, they’ve instead given him a significant vote of confidence, handing him a seven-year, $50MM extension that will begin in 2023-24 and buys out five seasons of UFA eligibility. It’s a deal that certainly carries some risk if the 24-year-old takes a step back offensively, but if his performance is a sign of things to come, the Sabres will have their top a big piece of the puzzle locked up for the long haul.
Bridge For Oettinger: With Dallas not having a ton of cap space at their disposal and the fact that Jake Oettinger only had just 77 career NHL appearances, a bridge deal was the expected outcome for the restricted free agent. In the end, that’s exactly what happened as the two sides agreed to a three-year, $12MM agreement that will keep the 23-year-old RFA eligible at its expiration with a $4.8MM qualifying offer. Oettinger started last season in the minors but quickly ascended to the starting role after being recalled in November, posting a 2.53 GAA along with a .914 SV% before a stellar performance against Calgary in the playoffs which nearly allowed them to pull off the seven-game upset. With this deal done, the Stars will now turn their focus to RFA winger Jason Robertson.
Sticking Around: For the better part of a year, Canucks center J.T. Miller had been the subject of trade speculation with the team believed to have gone fairly deep into discussions with other teams. But the whole time, both parties said they wanted to find a way to get an extension in place and they were able to do just that as the veteran signed a seven-year, $56MM deal that will begin in 2023-24. The 29-year-old is coming off a dominant season that saw him record 99 points, good for ninth in the league. $8MM for a top center isn’t overly expensive from an AAV perspective if Miller is able to maintain close to that level of production although signing him through his age-37 season will carry some risk. Even so, Vancouver has their top pivot locked up for the long haul as they look to get back to playoff contention.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Snapshots: McLeod, Red Wings, Boudreau
With the Oilers having minimal cap flexibility (as it is, they likely need to clear money), Kurt Leavins of the Edmonton Journal believes that RFA center Ryan McLeod will ultimately be forced to take a one-year contract. The 22-year-old had 21 points in 71 games last season but doesn’t have much leverage on his side as it’s unlikely he’ll be offer-sheeted while the bulk of his NHL experience is from 2021-22. Accordingly, Leavins posits that a one-year agreement might check in just above the league minimum which would help Edmonton’s cap situation but also give him arbitration rights next summer.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- The Red Wings have invited prospect Ivan Ivan to rookie camp, the youngster confirmed to Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now. The 20-year-old went undrafted back in July despite a strong season with Cape Breton of the QMJHL where he had 31 goals and 34 assists in 65 games. Ivan most recently suited up for the Czechs at the World Juniors last month and is eligible to play in the pros this season so even if he can’t earn an entry-level contract with Detroit, an AHL deal could still be a possibility.
- Last season, Bruce Boudreau was the toast of the town in Vancouver as the new bench boss nearly led the Canucks to an improbable playoff appearance. Despite that, Adam Proteau of The Hockey News posits that the head coach is squarely on the hot seat for 2022-23. The team is clearly in win-now mode and has returned its core from last season with a couple of additions and he wasn’t picked by current management as he was installed behind the bench before Patrik Allvin took over as GM. Allvin declined to offer a contract extension after the season so Boudreau instead will coach on the final year of his deal. Those factors will certainly put pressure on him early and often.
Taylor Heise Named 2022 Women’s World Championship MVP
Despite losing 2-1 in the gold medal game to Canada today, a breakout member for Team USA has taken home the MVP award for the 2022 IIHF Women’s World Championship. Taylor Heise, a collegiate player from the University of Minnesota, won the award after leading the tournament in scoring with 18 points in seven games.
Heise is returning to Minnesota next season for her fifth and final year in the program. As an alternate captain last season, Heise exploded for 29 goals, 37 assists, and 66 points in just 39 games. Minnesota was the number 2 ranked program in the country at season’s end but lost in the NCAA quarterfinals to state rival Duluth.
Heise also won the Directorate Award for best forward at the tournament. USA goaltender Nicole Hensley and Czech defender Daniela Pejsova won their respective positional awards. Hensley finished the tournament with a 4-1-0 record, .930 save percentage, and 1.08 goals-against average in five games, while Pesjova finished with five goals, four assists, and nine points in six games en route to Czechia earning their first medal at the tournament.
Team Canada Wins Gold At 2022 IIHF Women’s World Championships
Team Canada has completed their run at the 2022 IIHF Women’s World Championships, culminating today in a 2-1 win against the United States to take home the gold medal for the second straight season.
For the national Canadian women’s team, it’s a sweep of the three major international events — they won gold at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and at the U18 Women’s Worlds in June, also against the United States.
This year’s edition of the Women’s World Championships also saw Czechia take home the bronze, marking the first time that they’ve medalled at the tournament. It’s the first time there’s been a new medalist at the Women’s Worlds in over a decade, a hallmark of the constantly increasing parity in the game.
Canada was led in scoring by youngster Sarah Fillier, who tallied five goals and six assists for 11 points in seven games. Team captain and international legend Marie-Philip Poulin finished second in team scoring with ten points. Overall in the tournament, American Taylor Heise led the pack with seven goals, 11 assists, and 18 points in seven games.
The Women’s Worlds was the last major event of the 2022 IIHF season.
Examining The Buffalo Sabres’ Financial Future
When Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams signed center Tage Thompson to an admittedly massive seven-year contract extension earlier this week, it raised some eyebrows considering the lack of consistency from Thompson in his career. Speaking after the fact a few days ago, Adams told The Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski that “we’re also being strategic a little bit, to be honest, about the timeline knowing that there’s other guys potentially next summer where we’re going to be in this situation. We want to make sure we’re being strategic on when and how we put these deals together.”
So, given that Adams is envisioning more breakout campaigns from his young stars in 2022-23, how does the Sabres’ financial picture line up with their rise out of their years-long rebuild and the expected salary cap increases?
There are two players next summer who, depending on their campaigns, could demand significant pay raises over their sub-$1MM deals. Both Dylan Cozens and Rasmus Asplund are restricted free agents in 2023, although Cozens does not have arbitration rights.
Cozens is projected to slot right behind Thompson on the team’s depth chart, battling with Casey Mittelstadt for a spot centering their second line. If he wins that battle and sees increased playing time, Cozens’ offensive production is bound to take a step forward from his 38 points last season.
In any event, Cozens’ ceiling likely isn’t the 35+ goal season Thompson is coming off of, either. His development has been more linear, something that tracks well for the Sabres, at least in terms of certainty in contract negotiations. The team still currently has nearly $40MM in cap space to play with next offseason with the projected salary cap increase to $83.5MM, so any major contract the Sabres hand out now really doesn’t force their hand in the slightest.
It’s later on when things would get tricky, when the team is contending and their breakout stars want to capitalize on what should be a rapidly increasing salary cap at that point. From that point of view, betting on their players is a smart move from Adams at the moment. With the team still so far away from the salary cap, it can’t hurt to take a risk on what could be a team-friendly deal in five seasons. Even if the players don’t quite pan out as projected, those are deals that won’t be taking up nearly as much of their salary cap as they are now when they do become an issue.
Though Adams should be careful not to play with too much fire. Recent reports suggest that the first large salary cap jump could come in the 2024 offseason instead of 2025. That would be a boon to the Sabres, who have four major expiring contracts that offseason: Mittelstadt, Peyton Krebs, Rasmus Dahlin, and Owen Power. If everything goes as expected in terms of their development, that could very well be upwards of $30MM handed out just between those four players. If the Sabres put themselves in a position to give those contracts and still have some breathing room, they could finally construct a roster with the required depth to remain at the top of the Eastern Conference.