West Notes: Byram, Oilers, Milano
There is no timeline for Avalanche defenseman Bowen Byram to return from his leave of absence, notes Mike Chambers of the Denver Post. The blueliner was a late scratch on Tuesday and Peter Baugh of The Athletic recently reported (Twitter link) that Byram doesn’t have another concussion but is dealing with symptoms that are likely related to the previous ones he has suffered that have gotten to the point where he didn’t feel he could play. The 21-year-old has been a key part of Colorado’s lineup when he has been healthy, logging just shy of 20 minutes a game while chipping in with 11 points in 18 contests. However, given his concussion history, it’s quite possible that Byram will be out for a while.
More from the West:
- The Oilers are hoping that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins can resume skating next week, relays Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic (Twitter link). The center has been out since the start of the month with an undisclosed injury, a tough blow for an Edmonton team that has largely struggled for any consistent secondary scoring behind their two superstars. Meanwhile, defenseman Kris Russell isn’t expected to return against Saturday against Ottawa; the veteran has been out for more than a month with an upper-body injury.
- Ducks winger Sonny Milano left tonight’s game against Minnesota due to an upper-body injury, mentions Eric Stephens of The Athletic (Twitter link). He took an elbow to the face from Wild defenseman Jon Merrill and did not return. The 25-year-old recently set a new career high in points and is up to 25 this season in 35 games.
2021 Year In Review: September
2021 was certainly another eventful year, both on and off the rink. Over the coming days, PHR will take a look back at the top stories from around the game on a month-by-month basis. Next up is a look at September, another busy month on the NHL calendar last year when training camps got underway.
Successful Offer Sheet: It turns out the one-year, $6.1MM offer sheet that Carolina tendered to RFA center Jesperi Kotkaniemi was too much for Montreal’s comfort as they declined to match, sending the 21-year-old to the Hurricanes with the Canadiens in exchange for a pair of 2022 draft picks (first and third-rounders). They didn’t hold onto the first rounder for long, however, as about an hour later, they sent that pick along with a 2024 second-round selection to Arizona in exchange for Christian Dvorak who they hoped would help fill the vacancy from Kotkaniemi’s departure plus Phillip Danault leaving in free agency. The early return hasn’t been great as Dvorak has just a dozen points in 29 games this season, four fewer than Kotkaniemi.
Extensions Abound: While the window for contract extensions for players on expiring contracts opened up in July, many of those deals were instead signed in the days leading up to training camp. In goal, Elvis Merzlikins (five years, $27MM) ensured he’ll be the starter in Columbus for the foreseeable future while Calvin Petersen (three years, $15MM) intended to do the same with Los Angeles (although with Jonathan Quick turning back the clock this season, that hasn’t happened just yet). On the back end, Colton Parayko (eight years, $52MM) decided not to test free agency and could instead play his entire career with the Blues.
There were plenty more extensions as well. A pair of young wingers in Philadelphia’s Joel Farabee (six years, $30MM) and Ottawa’s Drake Batherson (six years, $29.85MM) bought out the rest of their RFA years and giving them a shot at hitting the open market still in their 20’s while giving their respective teams some extra control. Even some general managers got in on the fun as Ottawa’s Pierre Dorion and Tampa Bay’s Julien BriseBois inked extensions while Toronto GM Kyle Dubas handed head coach Sheldon Keefe a two-year extension.
Kaprizov Signs: It wasn’t four years of waiting like it was for Wild winger Kirill Kaprizov to finally come to North America but it felt like his contract talks had dragged on for quite a while. Eventually, the two sides were able to come to terms, agreeing to a five-year, $45MM contract. It was quite the payday for Kaprizov considering his NHL experience to that point was limited to the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 campaign where he took home the Calder Trophy for Rookie of the Year. The deal – which carries a no-move clause for the final two seasons – buys Minnesota two extra years of team control while allowing Kaprizov to get to unrestricted free agency at 29 when another long-term deal could still be feasible.
Bridge For Dahlin: After an up-and-down start to his NHL career, it was going to be interesting to see if Buffalo tried to work out a long-term contract with restricted free agent defenseman Rasmus Dahlin or opt for a bridge deal. They chose the latter, signing the 2018 top pick to a three-year, $18MM deal. The 21-year-old will still have one season of RFA eligibility remaining at that time and will be owed a qualifying offer of $7.2MM. That gives both sides time to see if the blueliner can fill the lofty expectations he had when he first came into the league.
Olympic Participation: September was also a promising month when it came to Olympic participation with the NHL and NHLPA reaching an agreement to send NHL players to the games in China. It was set to be the first best-on-best action since the 2016 World Cup. There was an option for the league to withdraw if the COVID situation around the league became an issue. Of course, that’s exactly what happened. In the span of three months, things completely turned around on that front.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Atlantic Notes: Kuzmenko, Boucher, Bruins, Allen
Free agent winger Andrei Kuzmenko appears to have narrowed his list of teams he’s considering signing with for next season and the Senators are on that list, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch (Twitter link). Ottawa GM Pierre Dorion indicated recently they were interested in the 25-year-old who sits second in KHL scoring this season with 20 goals and 33 assists in 45 games. Kuzmenko is expected to wait until after the season to sign, ensuring he’ll be capped at a one-year, entry-level pact while allowing him to be eligible for unrestricted free agency in the 2023 offseason.
More from the Atlantic Division:
- Still with Ottawa, Dorion mentioned in an appearance on 630 CHED (audio link) that winger Tyler Boucher won’t be playing right away with OHL Ottawa. The Senators recently signed the 2021 first-round pick, ending his college eligibility but he is dealing with a lingering injury that will take a week or two to recover.
- The Bruins announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Derek Forbort has cleared COVID protocol, missing only the minimum five days. His return will be a welcome one with John Moore being injured against Montreal on Wednesday and Matt Grzelcyk recently entering COVID protocol himself. Meanwhile, forward Trent Frederic isn’t ready to return yet from his upper-body injury while winger Nick Foligno has resumed skating as he works his way back from his lower-body issue.
- The Canadiens announced that goaltender Jake Allen has returned to Montreal to undergo further evaluation on an upper-body injury sustained on Wednesday in Boston. Allen was placed on injured reserve yesterday and will miss at least a week while the team won’t return back home until January 27th when their 10-game road trip (due to scheduling changes) comes to an end.
What Your Team Is Thankful For: Toronto Maple Leafs
In the spirit of the holiday season, PHR will take a look at what teams are thankful for as the season approaches the midway mark. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
What are the Maple Leafs thankful for?
All-Star goaltending.
The last time the Maple Leafs had a goaltender who stopped pucks at a better rate than Jack Campbell has this season, there were only 14 teams in the NHL. In 1970-71, Jacques Plante had a .944 save percentage, winning 24 of his 40 appearances at the age of 42. Since then, no one has really come anywhere close to the .935 save percentage that Campbell has posted through the first 27 games of this season. It’s been all the more important because Petr Mrazek has been injured for most of the year, limiting him to just four appearances.
Campbell was one of the goaltenders selected for the All-Star Game yesterday, but you have to wonder whether the Maple Leafs would be better off with him using the time to rest. The 30-year-old netminder has already matched his career-high in starts with 26 and will be relied on heavily as Toronto tries to chase down a divisional playoff spot.
Who are the Maple Leafs thankful for?
While Campbell’s play may be the biggest reason for success this season, there’s simply no other answer here than Matthews, one of the league’s superstars and most marketable icons. Once again in the thick of the league goal-scoring race, Matthews has tallied an incredible 223 goals through the first 366 games of his career. Among players with at least 350 games played, that puts him fifth in goals-per-game at 0.61, even ahead of Wayne Gretzky. Only Mike Bossy, Mario Lemieux, Pavel Bure, and Alex Ovechkin rank ahead of the Maple Leafs star at the moment.
While that number is obviously going to come down when he’s at the tail end of his career, that’s still way down the road for NHL fans watching a 24-year-old on a nightly basis. Given his ample defensive contributions, there aren’t many players in the entire world that can impact a game the way Matthews does. If the Maple Leafs ever win anything, it’ll probably be because of him.
What would the Maple Leafs be even more thankful for?
A return to form for Jake Muzzin.
One of the biggest changes this season for the Maple Leafs has been the decline of Muzzin, who went–seemingly over one summer–from a player capable of propping up a partner to one that needs someone else to cover his flaws It’s not that he’s been terrible, but no longer has he been able to carry a shutdown second pairing and go up against the league’s best with positive results. In fact, Muzzin has been on the ice for 29 goals against at five-on-five this season, the most on Toronto and tied for 19th-most among all league defensemen. Part of that is the heavy defensive deployment he’s given, but the 32-year-old has also looked a step slower this season, leading to more turnovers and odd-man rush attempts.
What should be on the Maple Leafs’ wish list?
A right-shot partner for Muzzin.
That’s why the most obvious thing the Maple Leafs need to do is find Muzzin a partner that he no longer has to prop up. Justin Holl benefited greatly from the partnership the last two seasons, but with Muzzin’s decline, it’s been him that sticks out the most. Overmatched at times and completely lost at others, if the Maple Leafs are going to go anywhere in the playoffs they need to find that elusive top-four, right-shot defenseman that they’ve been coveting for years.
With Holl now in the COVID protocol, young defenseman Timothy Liljegren will get a look beside Muzzin. If he shows he’s not quite ready for that elevated role, Toronto is risking another early playoff exit if they don’t address the second pairing.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Ross Johnston Suspended Three Games
The Department of Player Safety has handed out a stiff penalty to New York Islanders forward Ross Johnston, suspending him three games for his hit on New Jersey Devils forward A.J. Greer. As the accompanying video explains:
It is important to note that the head is the main point of contact on this hit as Johnston’s shoulder makes clear, forceful contact with the head of Greer, and the head absorbes the brunt of the force from the check. Further, the head contact on this play is avoidable. Greer’s head remains on a level and consistent plane throughout the play and he does not adjust his speed suddenly. While Greer does pivot while he collects the puck and moves his body as he shoots the puck, this movement does not happen immediately prior to, or simultaneous with the hit in a way that significantly contributes to the head being the main point of contact.
While he did not leave the game initially, Greer was under evaluation from the Devils’ medical team following the match. Today, head coach Lindy Ruff told team reporter Amanda Stein that Greer is doing okay, but that he is going to miss “serious time.” That injury is an important factor in the decision to suspend Johnston for three games, despite his clean history in the NHL. He has never been fined or suspended previously, though some will remember his 15-game suspension while still in the QMJHL.
Johnston will now miss games against the Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers as he serves his suspension. The forward will also now have a history of supplementary discipline in the NHL which will be considered in any future rulings.
Snapshots: Canadiens, Staal, Brown
The Montreal Canadiens are getting closer to naming a new general manager, as Eric Engels of Sportsnet reports they’ve narrowed their search to just three candidates. Engels believes that Daniel Briere and Mathieu Darche are two of those three, and notes that some of the other candidates interviewed could still land different positions with the organization.
Montreal has been without a GM since firing Marc Bergevin in November, but with Jeff Gorton in place as executive vice president of hockey operations, there was no rush to fill the position. Even the new hire isn’t expected to carry the same weight of responsibility that Bergevin did over the last decade and was always expected to be someone with less experience in NHL front offices. While Darche has been with the Tampa Bay Lightning since 2019, Briere has been serving as GM and president of the Maine Mariners of the ECHL the last several years.
- While Eric Staal is focused on the Olympics with Team Canada, he spoke to Michael Russo of The Athletic and indicated that he would gladly drop that dream to sign in the NHL immediately, if a team offered him a contract. It isn’t likely that contract is going to come with the Minnesota Wild, even though Staal is currently with their AHL affiliate on a professional tryout. Staal currently sits at 1,293 regular season games played and could become just the 64th player in NHL history to break 1,300 should he sign for the stretch run this year.
- Connor Brown played more than 19 minutes last night, scoring a goal and an assist in the Ottawa Senators win over the Calgary Flames. He did it all with a broken jaw, apparently, as head coach D.J. Smith told TSN radio today that the forward was hit with a puck in the warm-up that caused the injury. He’ll is considered out week-to-week now as he recovers. Brown has five goals and 19 points in 26 games this season.
Florida Panthers Sign Evan Fitzpatrick
The Florida Panthers have signed Evan Fitzpatrick to a one-year, two-way contract to give the team some additional goaltending depth. Fitzpatrick had been playing in the minor leagues on an AHL contract but will have that voided now to get an NHL deal. That allows the Panthers to bring him up to the taxi squad, which they have immediately done as they deal with absences at the NHL level.
Fitzpatrick, 23, was a second-round pick by the St. Louis Blues in 2016 but failed to receive a qualifying offer from them when his entry-level contract expired in 2021. That made him an unrestricted free agent and looking for a job, which he found with the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL. The young netminder signed a two-year AHL contract in August and had split this season between Charlotte and the Greenville Swamp Rabbits of the ECHL, seeing much more time in the low minors than the AHL.
Now, he’ll basically become a practice goaltender for the Panthers, who have recently been forced to navigate absences from Spencer Knight and Jonas Johansson due to COVID protocols. With Fitzpatrick in place, the team will at least always have a professional goaltender to go in as a backup, should the team run into any more last-minute absences.
While the release does not include the financial details, it is very likely that Fitzpatrick will carry a cap hit of just $750K at the NHL level–a cap hit that is completely buried while the waiver-exempt goaltender is on the taxi squad or in the minor leagues. Technically this will leave Fitzpatrick as a restricted free agent at the end of the season, though he would once again be a candidate to go unqualified.
Gregory Hofmann Placed On Unconditional Waivers
Jan 14: Hofmann has cleared waivers and will have his contract terminated.
Jan 13: A few days after informing the team that he would not be returning to North America, Gregory Hofmann has been placed on unconditional waivers according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The Blue Jackets had previously suspended Hofmann for not returning, with his Swiss team EV Zug announcing that he would rejoin them once the contract details in the NHL were dealt with.
Hofmann’s one-year, $900K contract with the Blue Jackets will be terminated tomorrow, technically making him an unrestricted free agent. He’ll be staying in Switzerland though, meaning his NHL journey will for now end at 24 games.
Those 24 games were actually relatively productive, as Hofmann recorded two goals and seven points for the Blue Jackets. He leaves as the current +/- leader on the team as well at +6. It’s an unfortunate situation for the Blue Jackets, especially after giving up so little to bring him over to North America in the first place. Last February, the team traded a 2022 seventh-round pick to the Carolina Hurricanes for Hofmann’s rights a decade after he was originally selected in the fourth round. The Hurricanes had never been able to sign him, but Columbus was able to bring him over now that he was no longer held to the entry-level system.
What remains on the $900K salary will not be paid out now that he’s gone, but Hofmann technically could sign a new deal with another NHL team at some point in the future. There’s not really any reason to believe he’ll do that though, as he is a star in the Swiss league he now returns to. A veteran of 11 seasons there, he had 41 points in 36 games for EV Zug in 2020-21 and scored the championship-clinching goal in the playoffs to take home his second career title.
Maple Leafs Add Three To COVID Protocol
The Toronto Maple Leafs had some reinforcements at practice today as Mitch Marner and Pierre Engvall joined the team on the road after spending the last week in the COVID protocol. Unfortunately, their return came with some bad news as well, as Justin Holl, Ondrej Kase, and Nick Ritchie have all been placed in the protocol.
It’s tough timing for Kase, who had just returned from injury and received an opportunity to play with Auston Matthews on the team’s top line. He has played more than 20 minutes in each of the last two games, and though Marner’s return would have cut into that time, his performance for the Maple Leafs this season has been strong enough to command an increased role. In 30 games, the oft-injured Kase has eight goals and 17 points.
For Holl, missing any time could have disastrous implications should the coaching staff decide his replacement can handle the top-four role. The 29-year-old defenseman has had a tumultuous season, including a period as a healthy scratch and trade rumors swirling around his future in Toronto. In 29 games, he has just three points, a far cry from the player who registered 20 last season as part of a shutdown pair with Jake Muzzin.
Ritchie meanwhile was just struggling to stay in the lineup for Toronto and has been a disappointment from game one. His two-year, $5MM contract appears to be a mistake at this point with just two goals and nine points in 33 games. Ritchie’s ice time has been slashed dramatically–he started the year on the first line–to the point of being a healthy scratch earlier this month.
According to David Alter of The Hockey News, Matthews and Michael Bunting are the only two Maple Leafs regulars to not test positive for COVID-19 over the last month.
Troy Terry, Andrej Sekera Placed In COVID Protocol
Two of the teams playing tonight will be doing so shorthanded, as the Anaheim Ducks and Dallas Stars have both announced COVID-related absences.
For the Stars, it’s Andrej Sekera who has been placed in the COVID protocol meaning Joel Hanley will enter the lineup according to Saad Yousuf of The Athletic. Sekera joins Alexander Radulov, Denis Gurianov, and Braden Holtby on the sideline for tonight’s game against the Florida Panthers. Jake Oettinger will be in net as the Stars try to build on their last game and get back into the Central Division playoff race.
Sekera is averaging just 14 minutes a night for the Stars in the second season of a two-year, $3MM deal signed in 2020. The 35-year-old will miss at least two games if he has tested positive, as he’ll face a minimum of five days in isolation.
For the Ducks, it is much worse, as Troy Terry is now in the COVID protocol. He joins Vinni Lettieri, Simon Benoit, and John Gibson on the sidelines. While the latter was expected out of the protocol soon, Elliott Teaford of the OC Register reports that Gibson is not with the team in Minnesota. Even just losing Terry is a problem though, given how important he’s been to the Ducks’ attack this season.
The 24-year-old is having one of the most incredible goal-scoring seasons in years, scoring on 24.4% of his shots so far this year. That’s resulted in 22 tallies, nearly twice as many as Terry had in his entire career to this point. Through 38 games he has 36 points, including six just since the start of the new year. If he’s tested positive, he’ll be out tonight, tomorrow against Chicago and potentially next Wednesday against the Colorado Avalanche.
The Ducks have recalled Jacob Larsson from the taxi squad to the active roster, while assigning Benoit-Olivier Groulx to the taxi squad from the AHL.