Edmonton Oilers Facing Salary Cap Overage
With the conclusion of the regular season, we can now begin to see the final numbers on performance bonuses in player contracts from the 2021-22 season. Two of these bonus figures will end up posing a small issue for the Edmonton Oilers, who owe $896K in performance bonuses to Evan Bouchard and Ryan McLeod (link). Bouchard, who just finished the second year of his three-year entry-level contract, earned $850K in performance bonuses this year for goals, assists, points, and points-per-game. McLeod, who is in the final year of his entry-level contract, earned $46K out of a maximum $57.5K games played bonus. Altogether, Edmonton owes an additional $896K, which counts against the salary cap.
Because the Oilers finished over the salary cap by using LTIR, the entire $896K will now count against next season’s salary cap for Edmonton. While this number may not seem like much at all, the NHL is currently in a flat salary cap period, and therefore every dollar counts. With the salary cap for the 2022-23 season at $82.5MM, Edmonton has already committed just over $70.2MM in salary for next season, and just under $4.3MM of it belongs to James Neal, Andrej Sekera, and Milan Lucic – none of whom play for the team any longer.
The $12MM Edmonton has in remaining cap space may also seem like a comfortable margin, but factoring in their six UFAs, including defensemen Kris Russell and Brett Kulak, who have become key pieces that could each earn a raise next season over their $1.25MM and $925K cap hits respectively, and forward Evander Kane who has rebounded nicely since signing with the club in January, their situation becomes a bit more tight. The Oilers also have three pending RFAs in Jesse Puljujarvi, Kailer Yamamoto, and McLeod, each likely due at least a modest raise (the two former each made $1.175MM this season).
Edmonton is not exactly in a dire cap situation this offseason, having their core, including two of the best players of their generation, signed long-term for the most part. However, their situation, especially in a flat-cap, is an example of how even the most seemingly harmless of concerns, like an $896K bonus overage, can have a ripple effect for the organization and its offseason planning.
Nashville Predators Reassign Jeremy Davies
The Nashville Predators announced that they have reassigned defenseman Jeremy Davies to the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL (link). Davies had been with Nashville since being recalled on March 26th, playing in four of his six NHL games this season in that span. No corresponding move has been announced.
The 25-year-old defenseman spent a majority of this season with Milwaukee in the AHL, playing in 54 games, tallying six goals and 25 assists. The bulk of Davies’ time in the NHL this season was spent on the taxi squad in January, drawing into one game, and after his March 26th call-up. Because Davies was in the AHL on March 21st, he is eligible to play for Milwaukee in the Calder Cup playoffs.
Milwaukee, the third seed in the AHL’s Central Division, will begin its quest for the Calder Cup on Friday as they take on the Manitoba Moose, the 2nd seed in the AHL’s Central Division. While Davies can certainly fill in if Nashville needed it, sending him to Milwaukee gives the AHL club one of its more important defenseman for its playoff run, one which could be rather valuable in terms of development for some of Nashville’s prospects.
Originally a seventh-round selection of the New Jersey Devils in 2016, Davies was a standout with the Bloomington Thunder of the USHL before heading to Northeastern University, where he would spend three seasons. The defenseman would turn pro by signing with New Jersey in the spring of 2019, but was quickly traded to Nashville in the trade that sent P.K. Subban to the Devils in June of 2019.
Ryan Lindgren, Brian Dumoulin Out For Game 2
Both the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers will be missing a top-four defenseman for tonight’s Game 2. Brian Dumoulin is out for the Penguins, while Ryan Lindgren is out for the Rangers.
Dumoulin nearly hit 50 shifts in Game 1’s triple-overtime win, logging 36:35 of ice time, two shots, one hit, and one blocked shot. Making a name for himself as the longtime defense partner to Kris Letang, it’s likely Mike Matheson will slot in Dumoulin’s place on the top pair. Both Mark Friedman and Nathan Beaulieu took warmups for the Penguins, and one of them is expected to draw into the lineup.
Lindgren was banged up in the last game and was called a game-time decision with a lower-body injury this morning. He serves a very similar role as Dumoulin does in Pittsburgh, serving as the more defensively-inclined partner to Adam Fox. He didn’t quite hit 30 minutes of ice time in Game 1, struggling with the injury during the game. Justin Braun is drawing into the lineup, but it’s unclear how the pairs will look.
Two-time Stanley Cup champion Barclay Goodrow is also missing for the Rangers.
East Notes: Zucker, Pandolfo, Devils
Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jason Zucker has struggled with injuries all season long, as the 30-year-old was limited to just 41 games during the regular season. Despite that, it looks like Zucker will be healthy enough to slot into the Penguins’ lineup for Game 2 tonight against the New York Rangers, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Mike DeFabo. Zucker could replace Rickard Rakell in the lineup, who was injured in Game 1’s triple-overtime win.
Game 2 will be a tougher outing for the Penguins, as NHL journeyman Louis Domingue, third on the team’s goalie depth chart, looks to start his first career playoff game. Zucker last played on April 26 before leaving that game with a lower-body injury. If Zucker can’t play, it’s likely youngster Drew O’Connor will make his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut.
- While the Boston Bruins struggle in the First Round against the Carolina Hurricanes, a former coach is getting put in the spotlight today. Longtime NHLer Jay Pandolfo was named as the 13th head coach of the Boston University Terriers today, just one season after he departed the Bruins organization as an assistant coach. Pandolfo was a member of Boston’s coaching staff from 2014-2021, reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2019. Now, after one season as the associate head coach at BU, he’ll get the chance to lead the team himself. In Pandolfo’s final season as a player at BU, 1995-96, he torched the college circuit as the team’s captain with 38 goals and 67 points in just 39 games.
- New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald today left the door open on trading the team’s 2022 first-round draft choice, specifically to upgrade the team’s goaltending situation. The Devils were a much better team than their record indicated this season, largely because of injuries in the crease to both Mackenzie Blackwood and Jonathan Bernier. With Bernier’s playing future uncertain and Blackwood not emerging as a true no. 1 goalie just yet, the team will look to add an established body to the crease to help propel them toward a playoff spot. A weak free-agent market leaves the Devils with few choices there, so a trade is the most likely option for the Devils to be able to upgrade.
Philadelphia Flyers Hire Sami Kapanen, Kyle Shero In Front Office Roles
The Philadelphia Flyers today announced the hirings of two former players in front office roles today. NHL and Flyers veteran Sami Kapanen was named Head of European Player Development & Pro Scout, while fresh-out-of-college Kyle Shero was added as an amateur scout.
Kapanen, who played 311 games for the Flyers between 2003 and 2008, will head a region he’s certainly familiar with. Kapanen spent his junior career in Finland and played five seasons of pro hockey there after leaving the Flyers.
Kapanen, who owned KalPa in the Finnish Liiga from 2003 to 2020, served as the team’s general manager in 2010-11 during a one-year break from playing. He was the head coach of KalPa’s U20 team in 2015-16 before coaching the big club for the following three seasons (assistant in 2016-17, head coach from 2017-19). He most recently served as the head coach of HC Lugano in the NL for the first half of the 2019-20 season before being relieved of his duties.
Shero, just 23 years old, is the grandson of Flyers coaching great Fred Shero and the son of Stanley Cup-winning general manager Ray Shero. After four years of Division III hockey at Connecticut College, he’ll begin his front office career with the Flyers.
Anaheim Ducks Sign Calle Clang
After acquiring his rights at the deadline, the Anaheim Ducks have signed Calle Clang to a three-year entry-level contract. The young netminder spent this year with Rogle of the Swedish Hockey League, where he’ll likely return next season.
Clang, 19, was part of the return for Rickard Rakell from the Pittsburgh Penguins, who drafted him 77th overall in 2020. The 6’2″ netminder was excellent in his first real taste of SHL action, posting a .914 save percentage in the regular season and helping Rogle win a Champions League title by going 5-1. He’s also been at each of the last two World Junior tournaments, though he has still yet to see a minute of action at the event. Still, he certainly should be in the mix for the rescheduled tournament this summer, and now has his NHL future locked up with Anaheim as well.
Another Swedish netminder who plays deep in his crease, Clang has all the measurables and upside to become a legitimate NHL option down the road. While that’s still a way off, it could raise some interesting questions for the Anaheim organization.
The team already has John Gibson in place and signed through 2026-27 and Lukas Dostal as its presumptive goaltender of the future. With high hopes for Clang, things could get interesting for the new front office led by Pat Verbeek in the coming years. It’s the fact that they targeted a goaltending prospect at all that could raise eyebrows, especially given the lottery ticket options they already have in Olle Eriksson Ek and Roman Durny. Both of those prospects are scheduled for restricted free agency, however, with Durny especially a potential non-tender candidate after missing nearly the entire season with a groin injury.
Regardless of what comes down the road, getting Clang signed was obviously a priority for this administration, as they held his rights until January 2024. As he was selected outside of the first round and is still signed for Rogle next season, he’ll have to be returned to Sweden unless he somehow makes the Ducks roster out of camp.
Brad Marchand, Derek Forbort Earn Fines
The Boston Bruins are down two games in their first-round series against the Carolina Hurricanes, and now a pair of their players are down a few more dollars. Derek Forbort and Brad Marchand have both been issued $5,000 fines for actions in last night’s game.
Forbort’s incident came early in the third period when he rather recklessly swung his stick toward Teuvo Teravainen, hitting him directly in the face. It was given a four-minute double-minor from the on-ice officials, half of the eight minutes that Forbort would receive on the night in just 16 minutes of ice time. A key penalty killer for the Bruins, he’ll have to keep his stick in check, as a fine will lead the Department of Player Safety to keep a closer eye on his actions moving forward, and result in increased punishments for any further transgressions.
Marchand meanwhile is already under the watchful eye of the DoPS every time he steps on the ice. His fine stems from a slash on Hurricanes goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov after the two exchanged words in the second period. Both Marchand and Kochetkov were given penalties for slashing on the play, though it is Marchand who also receives the fine–likely due in part to his long history with the league’s supplementary discipline process.
Columbus Blue Jackets Sign Mikael Pyyhtia
The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed another young forward, this time inking Mikael Pyyhtia to a three-year, entry-level contract. Pyyhtia is coming off his second full season with TPS in Finland’s Liiga.
Selected 114th overall in 2020, the 20-year-old winger exploded offensively this season, scoring 21 goals and 35 points in just 56 games. That production didn’t slow down in the postseason, where he added eight goals and 13 points in 18 games for TPS. It’s performances like his that should give Blue Jackets fans so much hope, as they try to continue to build a supporting cast for some of their top young players.
There was actually no rush to getting him under contract, given that the Blue Jackets held his rights until June, 2024, meaning that general manager Jarmo Kekalainen must have seen enough to suggest that Pyyhtia could help the organization much sooner. His entry-level deal will kick in next season regardless of where he plays, making him a restricted free agent in the summer of 2025.
Pittsburgh Penguins Activate Nathan Beaulieu
The Pittsburgh Penguins don’t have Rickard Rakell for tonight’s matchup, but their other trade deadline acquisition is finally available. The team has activated Nathan Beaulieu off injured reserve and could potentially make his Penguins debut this evening.
After an exhausting triple overtime game one, the Penguins could get some fresh legs in the form of Beaulieu, who hasn’t played since March 4 when he was still with the Winnipeg Jets. The 29-year-old defenseman was acquired for nothing more than a conditional seventh-round pick at the deadline given the uncertainty that surrounded his injury at the time.
The conditions of that pick would have Winnipeg receive the seventh-round selection only if the Penguins win three rounds and Beaulieu plays in 50 percent of the games. That’s still certainly a tall task at this point, and means there’s no risk in putting Beaulieu into the lineup whenever he’s ready.
Of course, whether he can actually help is still up for debate. The left-shot defenseman was averaging fewer than 11 minutes over his 24 games with Winnipeg this season before the trade, and hasn’t played more than 40 games in a single season since 2018-19. Never much more than a third-pairing option, he can’t represent much more than that for the Penguins either.
Still, defensive depth is certainly important for the playoffs, and Penguins fans should know that as well as anyone. During the 2017 Stanley Cup run they dressed eight different defensemen–none of which were named Kris Letang–and iced a sort of mismatched group of journeymen and depth players. No one that year averaged even 22 minutes a night. You never know what will come about in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and having experienced options to insert into the lineup is never a bad thing.
Halifax, Moncton To Host 2023 World Juniors
After the 2023 IIHF World Junior tournament was stripped from Russia last month, a new host nation and city needed to be found quickly. The destination has been decided, as Hockey Canada officially announced today that Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Moncton, New Brunswick will hold the event next winter.
The tournament, which opens on December 26 every year, is one of the premier events for junior-aged prospects and draft-eligible players to showcase their skills to the world, helping impress NHL front offices and gain hockey fans from various markets. It was last held in Halifax in 2003, and hasn’t been in Atlantic Canada since.
Scott Smith, president of Hockey Canada, released the following statement:
Hosting the World Juniors twice in less than six months is a unique opportunity for our organization and Canadian hockey fans, and with the IIHF’s need to find a host, we were in the position to entertain bids from passionate hockey communities across the country. We appreciate the hard work and efforts put forth by the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and we strongly believe in the plans they have in place to host a successful event in Halifax and Moncton. We know the work of the host committees and volunteers will leave a lasting impression on each community, the competing teams and the fans who will travel to experience this best-on-best competition.
The 2022 event will be held in Edmonton this summer after the previous tournament was canceled due to a COVID-19 outbreak. That event will still allow players born in 2002 to participate, even if they have already turned 20 in the months that have passed since the original tournament was set to take place.
Many fans will remember the last time the event was in Halifax, though many Canadians will grimace with the thought. The Canadian squad lost in the finals to an Alex Ovechkin-led Russia despite the best efforts of goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who was named tournament MVP.
Twenty years later, the tournament returns to the east coast, and Canada is likely to be led by their own young goal-scoring phenom in Connor Bedard. The 16-year-old is already a lock to make the 2022 squad (again) and could very well be stitching a letter onto his sweater by the time the 2023 tournament rolls around.