Pontus Holmberg Assigned To AHL
The Toronto Marlies are getting a pretty impressive reinforcement, as Pontus Holmberg has been assigned to the AHL club by the Toronto Maple Leafs now that his SHL season is over. Signed to an entry-level contract last June, the young forward was loaned back to Sweden for most of this year.
Holmberg, 23, was a sixth-round pick (156th overall) of the Maple Leafs back in 2018 and for the first few years after his draft, appeared to be nothing special. That changed during last year’s SHL playoffs though, when the Vaxjo forward scored seven goals and 14 points in 14 games, winning the championship and being named playoff MVP. He was then named Swedish Forward of the Year, earned a place on the World Championship squad, and suddenly was a rising star. The Maple Leafs signed him to an entry-level contract and sent him back to the SHL to continue his development, with a much bigger role on Vaxjo.
This season, his progression continued, with 41 points in 46 games and a place on Sweden’s Olympic team. That was a big accomplishment, given that the rest of the roster was made up of veterans. In fact, Holmberg was the only player in the entire group that could be considered an NHL prospect and was several years younger than everyone else.
While he still has much to prove on this side of the ocean, the Maple Leafs have certainly done well with some of their late-round Swedish picks in the past. Andreas Johnsson (202nd overall), and Pierre Engvall (188th overall) both took a similar path to the organization and became NHL regulars within a few years of coming over. If they can pull off the same trick with Holmberg, it’s another low-cost forward to support the high-priced talent at the top of their roster.
AHL Shuffle: 04/19/22
Another ten games, another set of huge playoff implications across the NHL landscape tonight. The Vancouver Canucks have a chance to climb ahead of the Vegas Golden Knights if they can dispatch the pesky Ottawa Senators, while the Minnesota Wild could make it ten in a row if they beat the Montreal Canadiens. The schedule is full and like always, we’ll keep track of all the minor league shuffling throughout the day.
Atlantic Division
Metropolitan Division
- The New York Islanders have recalled forward Otto Koivula on an emergency basis. The big 23-year-old power forward has played in five games with the Islanders this season, recording one point, but is enjoying a career year in the AHL with 47 points through 56 games.
Central Division
- Matias Maccelli has been returned to the AHL by the Arizona Coyotes after a tough stretch for the young forward. Brimming with confidence when he first arrived, Maccelli has just a single point in his last 16 games and has only registered 19 shots on goal during that stretch. Still just 21, he can return to the AHL and build his game back up before getting another chance at the NHL level.
- The Chicago Blackhawks returned top prospect, Lukas Reichel, to the Rockford IceHogs today, per the team. Still just 19, Reichel’s seen multiple looks at the NHL level this season because of his wonderful point-per-game season in Rockford. He’s tallied just one assist in 11 games with the big club this year, though, likely signifying a little bit more seasoning in the minors is required for him. That’s certainly no cause for concern, though, as he’s looking very much worth the 17th overall pick.
- Eyebrows raised when it was announced Eric Comrie would start tonight against the Rangers, and now we seem to know why. The Winnipeg jets recalled netminder Mikhail Berdin from the Manitoba Moose on an emergency basis, likely meaning something is up with starter Connor Hellebuyck. Berdin has a .901 save percentage in 29 games with the Moose this year.
Pacific Division
This page is updated throughout the day
Jakob Chychrun, Christian Fischer Will Not Return This Season
The Arizona Coyotes have six games remaining in the regular season to secure last place and the top odds for the 2022 draft lottery. They sit two points behind the Montreal Canadiens and have lost seven in a row, though at least part of those struggles has been because of a swathe of injuries. Two more players have now been ruled out for the rest of the year, as Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports tweets that both Jakob Chychrun and Christian Fischer will not return in 2021-22. Among the Coyotes’ injured players, only Antoine Roussel and Liam O’Brien have a chance of returning, according to Morgan.
Chychrun, 24, will once again be a target of headline writers across the hockey world this summer. The young defenseman was on the trading block for most of the year, but the Coyotes decided to hold on after not getting the offers they were looking for. His last game of the season was on March 12, when he exited a match against the Boston Bruins after less than six minutes of ice time.
While there’s not much to play for in the desert and losing is actually arguably more beneficial at the moment, Chychrun’s recent absence will do nothing to change the perception of him as an oft-injured risk. Through six full seasons in the NHL he has played just 337 game, an average of just over 56 per year (two of those seasons have been shortened by COVID-19) and he will finish with just 47 this time around. He actually had been playing the best hockey of the season just before going down, recording five goals and ten points in the six games preceding his injury.
Now he enters an uncertain offseason with three more years on his contract, and an organization that seems committed to a long rebuild. As one of the team’s biggest assets, Chychrun could still bring back a number of future pieces, but it’s unclear who exactly will be willing to pay the high price that general manager Bill Armstrong has set. Earlier this season reporting surfaced that the team was looking for three top assets–obviously, a price that was never met.
Fischer too faces an uncertain future in the desert. The 25-year-old forward has never been able to replicate the 15-goal, 33-point rookie season he had in 2017-18 and finishes this year with just five goals and ten points in 53 appearances. He now has just 43 goals in his 318-game career, and has settled into a depth role in the bottom six. A restricted free agent this offseason he will be eligible for salary arbitration and could be another piece moved out of town, should the team feel as though he’s not part of the long-term future.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Jimmy Lambert Signs AHL Contract
April 19: Lambert has now agreed to an AHL contract for 2022-23. Trevor Cosgrove and Koby Bender, who are also with the Islanders on tryout contracts, have also agreed to minor league deals for next season.
April 18: After a successful four-year career at the University of Michigan, Jimmy Lambert has turned pro, signing a tryout contract with the Bridgeport Islanders of the AHL. The undrafted forward will be able to test the waters of professional hockey, before finding a full-time contract for next season.
Lambert, 25, already has ties to the organization through his uncle Lane Lambert, who serves as associate coach of the New York Islanders. He’s been the right-hand man of head coach Barry Trotz for years now, going back to their days with the Nashville Predators. Bringing in his nephew is a nice reward for the family, one that will be involved in some more headlines later this summer.
That’s because Jimmy’s cousin (and another Lane nephew) is Brad Lambert, a top prospect for the 2022 draft. The Finnish-born forward was ranked fifth among international skaters by NHL Central Scouting and has been considered a first-round talent for quite some time. The Islanders, who were eliminated last night in a loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, will be in the draft lottery this season as they try to put a disappointing campaign behind them.
Meanwhile, Jimmy Lambert is coming to the Islanders after his best offensive season, though that was still just six goals and 14 points in 39 games. The hard-working forward did wear an “A” as alternate captain and racked up 42 penalty minutes, but doesn’t figure to be an impact player at the next level.
Aatu Raty Assigned To AHL
The New York Islanders have brought over a very interesting prospect, assigning Aatu Raty to the Bridgeport Islanders of the AHL after his season overseas came to an end.
Raty, 19, was selected with the 52nd pick in 2021, a far fall from where he was once expected to go. As a junior player, some believed he could challenge for the very top of his draft class, but after some poor results in his first taste of Liiga and a development path that appeared stalled, he dropped all the way to the bottom of the second round.
That pick looks brilliant now, as Raty exploded this season in Finland after a move to Jukurit, scoring 13 goals and 40 points in 41 games. Adding in the one point he had for Karpat before the trade has his 41-point season ranked 14th in the entire league, with his point-per-game rate even higher than that. It was a very impressive performance from a player that had so recently been written off–at least somewhat.
The next step will be transitioning that offensive performance to the AHL where things are a lot different, but Raty certainly is back on track to becoming an impact player in North America. Signed to his three-year entry-level deal last August, it will slide this season and keep him under contract through 2024-25.
East Notes: Bruins Injuries, Barzal, Matthews, Kotkaniemi
The Bruins have had a bit of tough luck on the injury front lately with several key regulars going down. Today, the team provided a handful of updates on those players. Winger David Pastrnak and defenseman Hampus Lindholm skated today but won’t be with the team for their two-game road trip. Head coach Bruce Cassidy indicated he expects both will be back before the end of the season and could play this weekend. Meanwhile, goaltender Linus Ullmark didn’t skate today but they believe he’ll be able to return over the weekend. Winger Jesper Froden suffered a lower-body injury on Saturday and won’t be on the road trip either with no word yet on how long he might be out.
Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:
- The Department of Player Safety issued a fine of $2.5K to Islanders center Mathew Barzal for unsportsmanlike conduct. The incident occurred late in the third period on Sunday when he grabbed onto Mitch Marner’s jersey from the bench. No penalty was issued on the play.
- While Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews is still a couple of years away from hitting the open market, pondering what his next deal could cost has already become a discussion point. In his latest column for the Toronto Star, Chris Johnston opines that the 24-year-old could reach the $15MM mark, one that would significantly surpass Connor McDavid’s record-setting $12.5MM AAV. Matthews is in the midst of a career year with a league-high 58 goals along with 44 assists in 70 games this season.
- On top of updating the injury situation for goaltender Frederik Andersen, the Hurricanes also revealed that forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi has been nicked up again and is listed as day-to-day. The 21-year-old had just come back from missing eight games with a lower-body injury so it’s possible this absence is related to that one. Head coach Rod Brind’Amour stated that he doesn’t expect Kotkaniemi to be out for long.
Examining A Key Change In The NHL’s Transfer Agreement With Sweden
Earlier this month, the NHL and the Swedish Hockey Association reached a new Player Transfer Agreement. SportExpressen’s Gunnar Nordstrom has the details of the agreement, some of the highlights being as follows:
- A more than 45% increase in the money paid to Swedish teams whose player signs an NHL contract;
- The signing deadline for previously-drafted and free agent players is June 15th each year;
- The regular signing deadline for players drafted in the current year is July 15th with a $100K penalty being added if they wait until August 15th;
- It’s an eight-year agreement with both sides having an option to open it up after four years.
However, there is one significant change that warrants a closer look. Under the old agreement, players drafted in the second round or later that are also signed in Sweden had to be at least 21 before they could be sent to the AHL. If they were younger than that, they had to be returned to their Swedish team. In the new agreement, that threshold has been increased to 24. Any player from Sweden who signs an NHL contract will now be subject to the new agreement while anyone that signed before the announcement will be under the old rules.
The intention of this provision is to have players stay and play in Sweden until they’re ready to play in the NHL. It’s one thing for players to make the jump to the NHL and this agreement doesn’t prevent that from happening. But it has now become a bit more difficult to get those players into the minor leagues.
NHL teams understandably want to get their prospects into their farm system and work with their development coaches so this is something that probably isn’t going to sit well with teams as now, they will effectively be limited to development and rookie camps with the latter likely to be frowned upon as Sweden’s season gets underway at the time that NHL rookie camps are held in mid-September.
Also, as there is a signed transfer agreement in place, NHL teams have four years to sign players to an entry-level contract which hasn’t changed from before. If the drafted player is 18, that means he’d be 22 at the end of that stretch and signing a two-year contract. For the duration of that agreement, teams could effectively face an NHL or Sweden situation depending on the players’ contractual situation in Sweden and the deal will count against the 50-contract limit during that time even if they’re returned overseas.
It’s worth noting that there are no changes to the rule for first-round picks. If a Swedish player is picked in the first round, the NHL team can send the player to the minors without requiring the approval of his team in Sweden.
Now, with the extended restriction for those picked after the opening round, it will be interesting to see if that has any effect on the draft. Do teams consider slightly reaching for a player at the end of the first round that might be rated a bit lower on their list to the ability to have full control of their development? And as the draft progresses, might teams be more hesitant to draft players from Sweden knowing it will be more difficult to get them into their farm system? We’ll find out the answer to those questions three months from now.
Central Notes: Byram, Toews, Wild
Back in January, Avalanche defenseman Bowen Byram contemplated not returning this season or even hanging up his skates altogether, relays Mike Chambers of The Denver Post. He had recently returned to Colorado’s lineup before his concussion symptoms returned and had to shut things down at that time. The progress that the 20-year-old made in his recovery nudged him towards trying to come back this season which he did last week and he has gotten into six games since then. Byram’s playing time since then has been a bit limited relative to his early-season usage which is certainly understandable both in terms of allowing him to ease back into things plus Colorado’s top seed in the Western Conference. He could be an interesting wild card for the Avs heading into the postseason as he certainly has given their third pairing a lift.
More from the Central:
- Still with Colorado, defenseman Devon Toews won’t suit up tonight and won’t accompany the team on their upcoming three-game road trip, notes Peter Baugh of The Athletic (Twitter link). The good news for the Avalanche is that head coach Jared Bednar indicated that the injury isn’t cause for concern which means he should be good to go for the playoffs, if not a game or two before then. The 28-year-old is logging more than 25 minutes a game on the back end this season, second to only Cale Makar for Colorado.
- Michael Russo of The Athletic outlines (subscription link) the tough decision the Wild are facing this summer. Their cap situation gets a lot worse with the increased dead cap charges on the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts and it appears they’ll be facing a situation where either winger Kevin Fiala or defenseman Mathew Dumba get traded. Minnesota wasn’t able to agree to a long-term deal with Fiala last summer and wound up taking him to salary arbitration. He has one year of RFA eligibility remaining and with 73 points in 75 games, he’ll be eyeing a big raise on his $5.1MM price tag while making it very difficult to justify moving him. Dumba is signed through next season at $6MM and would certainly have a strong trade market if they opted to move him to keep Fiala in the fold.
Snapshots: Three Stars, Andersen, Smith
The NHL has released its Three Stars for last week, with the top spot belonging to Vladimir Tarasenko of the St. Louis Blues. It’s been an incredible return to form for Tarasenko this season, after multiple shoulder surgeries had clouded his NHL future. After requesting a trade and going unclaimed by the expansion Seattle Kraken, he returned to the Blues with a renewed vigor and has posted the best offensive season of his career, with 76 points in 69 games. That includes 11 points just last week, as he continued what is now a six-game point streak.
Second and third went to Kevin Fiala and Mike Smith respectively, another two players whose futures with their current organizations looked murky not too long ago. The Minnesota Wild forward still might end up pricing himself out of the market given how well his season has gone since Matt Boldy‘s arrival. In his last 46 games, Fiala has 25 goals and 55 points, including ten last week. Smith meanwhile looked at one point like he would be out of the league entirely, but the 40-year-old netminder has turned things around of late, posting consecutive shutouts in his last two games to lengthen a personal win streak to six and raise his season save percentage to .911.
- Just as one veteran netminder turns things around, another may be out for a little while. Frederik Andersen has suffered an injury and will be re-evaluated in a week, according to Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour, who spoke to reporters including Sara Civian of The Athletic. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweets that Andersen’s MRI did come back negative and there is hope he’ll be ready for the playoffs, but a timeline is not clear at this point. Andersen has been one of the league’s very best this season, posting 35 wins and a .922 through 52 appearances.
- Speaking of being back in the playoffs, Vegas Golden Knights head coach Pete DeBoer told reporters including Jesse Granger of The Athletic that if they make the postseason, he would expect Reilly Smith to return at some point. The 31-year-old Smith hasn’t played since early March and was moved to long-term injured reserve a few weeks ago. The Golden Knights, however, are no sure thing to make the playoffs at this point, as they currently sit four points behind the Nashville Predators for the final wild card spot (but only three behind Los Angeles for a divisional position).
Claude Julien To Lead Team Canada At World Championship
4:30pm: The coaching staff has now been officially announced by Hockey Canada, along with the management staff consisting of Shane Doan, Rick Nash, and Scott Salmond. Doan and Nash won gold together at the event as players in 2007 and competed several other times together over the years.
10:40am: One way to get your name back into NHL coaching circles is to lead at an international tournament, and that appears to be the plan for Claude Julien. Darren Dreger of TSN reports that Julien will be named head coach of Team Canada for the upcoming IIHF World Championship, while Claire Hanna of TSN adds that D.J. Smith will be an assistant. The staff will be rounded out by Andre Tourigny, according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic.
Julien, 61, was also the head coach of the recent Olympic squad for Hockey Canada, though he did miss part of the tournament due to an injury of his own. The veteran coach has been the bench boss of three different NHL organizations, leading the Montreal Canadiens on multiple occasions, most recently in the 2020-21 season. He was fired partway through that year, and has been on the sidelines since, waiting for another opportunity.
He’ll be joined by Smith, the head coach of the Ottawa Senators, and Tourigny, the head coach of the Arizona Coyotes. Both have some experience coaching at international events, with Tourigny assisting at last year’s World Championship that saw Canada win gold.
You can expect several players from the Coyotes and Senators to be involved, when the tournament gets underway next month. Connor Brown led last year’s event in scoring with 16 points in 10 games and would be a lock if he chooses to attend. Jack McBain of the Coyotes played at the recent Olympics under Julien and could be another option, while Drake Batherson could be a lead figure.
The event begins for Team Canada on May 13 with a preliminary round game against Germany.