Snapshots: Senators, Hagel, Boeser
The Ottawa Senators don’t want to be sellers anymore. General manager Pierre Dorion spoke with Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, explaining that he hopes this is the last deadline for his club to move pieces out, instead of bringing them in. Nick Paul is the player who sticks out as a featured trade candidate, given his expiring, inexpensive contract, though there are certainly others.
Chris Tierney, Zach Sanford, Tyler Ennis, and others are also on expiring deals and headed for UFA status, though Dorion doesn’t even know exactly how much they’ll sell at all.
- Among the top few names on Daily Faceoff’s trade targets board is one that wouldn’t normally be expected; Chicago Blackhawks’ Brandon Hagel is listed fourth, with Frank Seravalli noting that the Florida Panthers, Toronto Maple Leafs, New Jersey Devils, and Calgary Flames have all looked into the young forward. With two more years on his contract at a very inexpensive $1.5MM cap hit, Hagel’s price tag would likely be extremely high.
- The pair of Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman discussed several Vancouver Canucks forwards on the latest 32 Thoughts podcast for Sportsnet, including pending restricted free agent Brock Boeser. Marek suggests once again that the New Jersey Devils would be a good fit for the sniper, given the big qualifying offer he’s owed after this season.
Jesse Puljujarvi Out Four Weeks With Lower-Body Injury
The Edmonton Oilers are starting to move in the right direction but they’ll have to do it without Jesse Puljujarvi for the next little while. Head coach Jay Woodcroft told reporters today that Puljujarvi’s lower-body injury will keep him out about four weeks.
Since Woodcroft took over four games ago, Puljujarvi already had three points before exiting last night’s match against the Anaheim Ducks early. The fourth-overall pick from 2016 was finally starting to come into his own this season, racking up 12 goals and 28 points through 46 games while playing a career-high in minutes. A frustrating case of mismanagement early in his career, it appears as though the Oilers and the young forward have finally figured out how to best use his rare blend of speed, size, and skill.
Losing him now will also throw a wrench in the lines for Edmonton, which had finally seemed like a cohesive four-unit group the last few games. Jason Gregor of TSN believes that Ryan McLeod might be bumped up the lineup, giving him a huge opportunity to establish himself further at the NHL level. The team also has Brendan Perlini, who hasn’t played since January 25, as an option to re-enter the lineup.
In a season like a roller coaster, the Oilers are currently on a four-game winning streak and now have retaken the third spot in the Pacific Division playoff race. That streak will be tested soon enough though, as after tomorrow’s game against the Winnipeg Jets, the team has a brutal stretch with games against the Minnesota Wild, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, and Carolina Hurricanes, all teams positioning themselves as Stanley Cup contenders. They’ll have to go through those matches without Puljujarvi.
Winnipeg Jets Claim Adam Brooks
The Brooks-go-round continues. Adam Brooks has now been claimed by the Winnipeg Jets off waivers from the Toronto Maple Leafs, following Cole Perfetti‘s injury last night. The Jets, who are ahead of the Maple Leafs in the waiver order, would have had to pass on him just a day prior when the forward was claimed from the Golden Knights. This is the fourth time Brooks has been claimed this season and he still cannot be assigned to the minor leagues.
The path so far for Brooks has been Toronto to Montreal to Vegas to Toronto to Winnipeg, all while playing in just 11 games at the NHL level. A conditioning stint sent him to Henderson to play for the Silver Knights as well, meaning it’s five different clubs in what must be a frustrating year. At least now he is returning to his hometown in Winnipeg, where there could be some playing time finally awaiting.
Perfetti may be out longer than day-to-day according to Jets head coach Dave Lowry, who spoke with reporters including Murat Ates of The Athletic today. Andrew Copp is also out day-to-day with an upper-body injury and Nikolaj Ehlers was among several others already on the sideline. It means that Brooks, who has experience at both center and on the wing, could immediately be needed in the Winnipeg lineup when they take on the Edmonton Oilers tomorrow. Unfortunately, the 25-year-old forward himself has been on injured reserve since January 20 so it is unclear if he’ll be ready to step directly into the action.
In terms of what the Maple Leafs were trying to do, this isn’t actually the worst outcome. The team will now have a chance to grab Brooks back at some point later in the season if the Jets decide to waive him. Had the Golden Knights claimed him (and been the only club to do so), he could have gone directly to the minor leagues and likely been out of their grasp completely.
Brooks is on the second season of a two-year deal that carries a cap hit of just $725K.
AHL Shuffle: 02/18/22
Just four games grace the NHL schedule this evening but all of them have playoff implications. The most important in terms of trade deadline preparation? Perhaps that’s the Dallas Stars heading to Chicago in what feels like a must-win game. The Stars are still barely outside of a playoff spot in the Western Conference and can’t afford to be losing gams against struggling teams like the Blackhawks if they want to make an impact this year. As those teams and others prepare, we’ll keep track of all the minor league shuffling.
Atlantic Division
- The Detroit Red Wings have sent Joseph Veleno back to the AHL, as they hit pause for a few days. The team won’t play again until the 23rd, meaning Veleno can get into some more action with the Grand Rapids Griffins in the meantime.
Metropolitan Division
- The Philadelphia Flyers have activated Tanner Laczynski from injured reserve, sending him to the minor leagues in the process. Laczynski hasn’t played at all this season, meaning he’ll certainly have to get some games at the AHL level before seeing time with Philadelphia.
Central Division
- The Winnipeg Jets have activated David Gustafsson from injured reserve and assigned him to the AHL, where he can continue his season with the Manitoba Moose. Gustafsson, 21, has played in just two games for Winnipeg this season and 23 for the Moose, scoring 16 points in those AHL contests.
- The Chicago Blackhawks have recalled top prospect Lukas Reichel, while moving Jonathan Toews to injured reserve retroactive to January 26. Toews was on the ice today skating but is still in the concussion protocol for the time being. Jujhar Khaira has been placed on long-term injured reserve, according to Charlie Roumeliotis of NBCS Chicago.
Pacific Division
This page will be updated throughout the day
Toronto Maple Leafs Sign Dmitry Ovchinnikov
The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed one of their more interesting prospects, inking Dmitry Ovchinnikov to a three-year entry-level contract. The young forward will immediately join the Toronto Marlies once his work permits are issued.
Ovchinnikov, 19, was a fifth-round pick in 2020, falling all the way to 137th overall despite having already made his KHL debut and starring at the MHL level in 2019-20. The speedy forward has spent the two seasons since bouncing up and down between the KHL and MHL clubs, finding most of his success at the lower level.
Still, the fact that he has already decided to bring his game to North America is a big win for the Maple Leafs. His KHL contract was terminated earlier today despite Sibir still being in the playoff picture, suggesting he’s ready to completely commit to Toronto’s minor league development plan. While there’s still plenty of work to do before he should be considered a top prospect, the steps he’s taken since his draft should be encouraging for Maple Leafs fans.
As Toronto continues to trade away high picks to try and contend at the NHL level, it will be mid-round selections like Ovchinnikov that will need to emerge. With half a season still remaining for the Marlies, he’ll get a chance right away.
Montreal Canadiens Hire Vincent Lecavalier
After a few weeks of “will they, won’t they” reporting, the Montreal Canadiens have officially announced Vincent Lecavalier as a special advisor to hockey operations. Perhaps more importantly, the team has also announced that Nick Bobrov has been hired as co-director of amateur scouting, where he will work alongside Martin Lapointe.
Lecavalier obviously is the big name, and one that has been linked to the Canadiens for a very, very long time. The big center was a legendary junior hockey player in the QMJHL, starring with the Rimouski Oceanic for two years before going first overall to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft. A long, successful career followed that included 1,212 regular season games, 949 regular season points, and a Stanley Cup championship alongside new Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis in 2004. Throughout his playing career, Lecavalier was represented by Kent Hughes, now GM of the Canadiens, and rumored to be on the move to Montreal seemingly every summer.
He never did suit up for the Canadiens as a player, instead seeing time with the Lightning, Philadelphia Flyers, and Los Angeles Kings, but Montreal will finally get their man. He’ll join a front office that looks wildly different than just a few months ago.
One of those important changes will be Bobrov, who is joining his former boss in Jeff Gorton. The scout worked as the director of European scouting for several years under Gorton in New York and was also with him during his years with the Boston Bruins. The Canadiens are about to go through a franchise-altering draft, with 12 picks in their pocket already and more to come before next month’s trade deadline. Hosting the draft in Montreal, they have a chance to really pump the prospect pool full of talent in one quick sweep.
Top Prospect Logan Cooley Commits To University Of Minnesota
After previously committing to the University of Notre Dame, top 2022 NHL Draft prospect Logan Cooley is changing Big 10 schools, as the USA Hockey National Development Team Program announced today that he’s committed to the University of Minnesota for his collegiate career.
Cooley is a consensus top-five selection for the upcoming draft, with Daily Faceoff’s Chris Peters even ranking him first in the class ahead of Shane Wright in his midseason rankings.
A product of Pittsburgh and the Penguins’ youth system, Cooley has been money in the bank since joining the U.S. National Team in 2020. During the 2021-22 campaign, Cooley is dominating with 20 goals and 36 assists for 56 points in 41 games. He was also a part of the USA’s World Juniors roster, netting an assist in a singular game prior to the tournament’s abrupt cancellation.
With him and Wright making noise as the likely two best centers in this draft class (although Matthew Savoie would like some words as well), Cooley is a giant get for a Minnesota program that already includes prominent NHL prospects such as Brock Faber, Matthew Knies, Chaz Lucius, and Ryan Johnson. It’s somewhat likely that Cooley’s stay only lasts a year, however, as the highly-touted prospect likely isn’t too far away from making an NHL impact.
Maple Leafs, Others Showing Interest In Justin Braun
The market for defensively sound depth defensemen is always a hot one, especially around the Trade Deadline as teams assess their deficiencies as they prepare for playoff runs. While Ben Chiarot discourse has been steamrolling its way through the public lately, he won’t be the only defensive specialist with playoff experience available at the Deadline. He’s not the biggest piece the Philadelphia Flyers may have for sale, but it looks like veteran defenseman Justin Braun could be a rental for a team looking to win this Spring.
On the latest edition of TSN’s Insider Trading, Pierre LeBrun suggests that multiple teams are interested in Braun’s services, but specifically lists the Toronto Maple Leafs as one of those teams.
Braun, now 35 years old, has exactly 100 games of playoff experience under his belt, 84 of which came with the San Jose Sharks. Since arriving in Philadelphia in 2019, even as his offense began to decline with age, he’s maintained his status as a stellar defensive specialist in a bottom-four role.
The price to acquire Braun shouldn’t be nearly as astronomical as the rumored first-round pick for Chiarot, as recency bias tends to reign supreme on Deadline day. It could be a very solid value acquisition for any team, though, as a mid-round pick spent on Braun seems like a much smarter move than a high-round pick or prospect spent on Chiarot.
Specifically for Toronto, Braun seems like an extremely logical replacement in the lineup for Justin Holl, who’s also a right-shot defenseman. Holl has struggled mightily this season, getting consistently outshined by Toronto’s young pair of D-men in Rasmus Sandin and Timothy Liljegren. Adding Braun to the mix would create incredible depth and injury insurance at defense for Toronto in the playoffs, as defensive depth issues caused by injury have exposed them in recent years.
Vancouver Canucks Remove Quinn Hughes From COVID Protocol
The Vancouver Canucks are getting a big boost to their lineup in the form of defenseman Quinn Hughes, who the team activated from COVID protocol today.
Hughes and his brother, Jack Hughes, found themselves on the league’s list after testing positive on arrival to their respective teams after the NHL All-Star break in Las Vegas. Because of the break, Hughes hasn’t suited up for the Canucks in two and a half weeks, missing the team’s first three games post-All-Star break. Vancouver’s last game was a 3-2 win this past Saturday against Toronto.
The 22-year-old defenseman has been Vancouver’s best player this season not named Thatcher Demko. With two goals and 32 assists this season, Hughes’ 34 points are best by far among Canucks defensemen and second on the entire team behind J.T. Miller‘s 48 points. While Hughes isn’t exactly a defensive defenseman, he’s continually improving and developing in his own end, a trend that’s continued into this season.
Hughes will slide back into the Vancouver lineup tonight against the San Jose Sharks, likely alongside Luke Schenn considering usual partner Tucker Poolman remains out with an undisclosed injury.
PHR Live Chat Transcript: 02/17/22
Click here to read a transcript of this week’s live chat with PHR’s Gavin Lee.