Arizona Coyotes Hire Alan Hepple
The Arizona Coyotes have hired a new director of pro scouting, announcing Alan Hepple today. Hepple comes from the Colorado Avalanche, where he served as the director of amateur scouting and was responsible for selections including Cale Makar, Bowen Byram, and Alex Newhook over the last few years. Coyotes GM Bill Armstrong released a statement on the hire:
We are very pleased to welcome Alan to our organization. Alan is extremely knowledgeable and is an excellent talent evaluator. He played a very important role in building the current Colorado Avalanche roster and we are thrilled to have him lead our professional scouting department.
The Coyotes are rebuilding a scouting department that has been embroiled in several scandals recently. In August 2020, the team was stripped of a 2020 second-round pick and a 2021 first-round pick for scouting violations that included physical testing of prospects prior to the combine. The 11th overall pick later this month will be skipped because of those sanctions.
Just a few months after that discipline was handed out, the Coyotes used their first 2020 draft choice (111th overall) on Mitchell Miller, a defenseman out of the USHL. Miller’s assault conviction for bullying and abusing a Black, developmentally disabled classmate, which had been made known to every NHL team prior to the draft, quickly made international headlines, leading to the team eventually renouncing his draft rights entirely.
Those mistakes were made under the previous management regime (or during the period when Armstrong could not interfere, based on his prior commitments to the St. Louis Blues), but will still cast a dark shadow over the Coyotes for the years to come. They basically missed an entire draft class in 2020, with Carson Bantle now their highest-selected player last year (142nd overall).
Armstrong is working diligently to bring in new faces to the department, and Hepple is the newest hire that comes with an impeccable resume. Though he will now work with the pro scouts, it’s hard to imagine he won’t have a positive impact on the organization overall.
Scott Wedgewood Re-Signs With New Jersey Devils
The New Jersey Devils have signed depth goaltender Scott Wedgewood to a one-year, two-way contract for 2021-22. The deal will carry an NHL salary of $825K, while paying the veteran netminder $375K in the minor leagues.
Not only does this give the Devils a capable third-string option for next season, but it also takes care of an expansion requirement. If the team wants to protect Mackenzie Blackwood from Seattle, they needed to have at least one more goaltender under contract for next season, or at least extend a qualifying offer to Evan Cormier. Now, with Wedgewood signed, they can leave him exposed to fulfill that goaltending requirement.
Of course, the 28-year-old Wedgewood is more than just expansion draft fodder. Selected 84th overall by the Devils in 2010, he has been a capable minor league netminder for many years. This season, he ended up being needed for 16 NHL games, where he posted a .900 save percentage despite a 3-8-3 record.
Those aren’t numbers you’d want to be penciling into the net every day, but they’re certainly not anything to complain about from your third or fourth-string option. Wedgewood will almost certainly not be the full-time backup for Blackwood next year, though that spot is not yet filled.
If the team does decide to try and stash him in Utica, he will need to clear waivers again. The extra bit of NHL money—league minimum is $750K next season—could actually be a tactic to try and avoid a claim, since the acquiring team would be required to keep him on the roster.
Seattle Kraken Hire Paul McFarland
Not only have the Seattle Kraken hired Jay Leach as reported yesterday, but Paul McFarland will also be joining Dave Hakstol‘s bench as an assistant coach for the expansion team. Both men were officially introduced today, and Hakstol released a short statement:
We’re very excited to add two talented hockey minds in Paul and Jay to our inaugural staff.
Paul’s work ethic and ability to communicate with players to give them the tools to be at their best, along with Jay’s leadership and ability to coach and develop NHL talent, will be great additions to our team.
Leach will be responsible for the team’s defense corps, while McFarland will focus on the forwards and powerplay. McFarland specifically has recent experience working alongside Hakstol, as both were assistants with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He also has a history with the Florida Panthers and most recently served as the GM and head coach of the Kingston Frontenacs.
The staff that Seattle has built has some experience but is also filled with up-and-coming coaching prospects. McFarland is only 35, and has just three seasons at the NHL level, while Leach is 41 and will be entering his first opportunity in the NHL. The latter of course has some playing experience, having suited up for 70 NHL games, but they are joining a head coach in Hakstol that is also relatively new to professional ranks.
Because the OHL didn’t play last season, McFarland’s latest stint with the Frontenacs actually didn’t include coaching a single game. In the Kingston front office, he will be replaced as GM by Kory Cooper, who had served as assistant GM since September 2020.
Sergei Plotnikov Re-Signs In KHL
After terminating his contract with Metallurg Magnitogorsk yesterday, Sergei Plotnikov has found a new KHL home. The veteran forward has signed a one-year contract with CSKA Moscow for the 2021-22 season.
Plotnikov, 31, played one season in the NHL, splitting time between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Arizona Coyotes in 2015-16. Despite strong offensive numbers overseas and internationally, he managed just three points (all assists) in his 45 NHL games.
Like his former teammate Sergei Mozyakin, who retired yesterday, this is a career spent almost entirely in Russia. Plotnikov has amassed 325 points in 568 career KHL games, which actually puts him 23rd all-time. He actually just had his best season with 43 points in 2020-21, which could have easily drawn some new NHL interest. For now, at least, that doesn’t matter, but it will be interesting to see if his name comes up again in a year’s time.
Seattle Kraken To Hire Jay Leach As Assistant Coach
Seattle Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol is not wasting any time with filling out his staff. Less than two weeks since he was named the expansion team’s first ever head coach, Hakstol has reportedly decided on who will become Seattle’s first assistant coach. Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal reports that Jay Leach has accepted the assistant position with the Kraken, leaving behind his post as head coach of the AHL’s Providence Bruins.
Although this will be Leach’s first experience at the NHL level, he is far from an outside-the-box hire. Leach, 41, is in fact considered one of the top up-and-coming coaches in the pro game and just recently was a finalist for the Arizona Coyotes’ head coach vacancy. The head coach for Providence for the past four seasons and an assistant with the AHL Bruins and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins prior, Leach has learned under the likes of Mike Sullivan, Bruce Cassidy, and Kevin Dean. A former pro defensemen with 70 NHL games played over 12 seasons, Leach also brings that playing experience and a deft knowledge of the defensive aspects of the game to his coaching resume.
In his time leading Providence, Leach has helped to develop current Bruins such as Matt Grzelcyk, Jeremy Lauzon, Jakub Zboril, Connor Clifton, Trent Frederic, Karson Kuhlman, Jack Studnicka, Jeremy Swayman and more, as well as other NHLers like Jordan Binnington, Anders Bjork, Danton Heinen, Ryan Donato, and Gemel Smith. With the upcoming Expansion Draft likely to yield a number of young, fringe NHLers among those exposed, Seattle could very well end up selecting more than a few players with high potential but room to grow. Having a coach experienced in winning with young players while improving those individuals could prove to be invaluable. Leach’s connection to Lauzon, Zboril, Clifton, and Kuhlman, all of whom are expected to exposed by the Bruins, makes it even more likely that Seattle selects a young player off the Boston roster.
As for the Bruins, this is their second major coaching loss in less than a week. Assistant coach Jay Pandolfo was announced as the new Associate Head Coach at Boston University on Friday and now Leach is gone just a few days later. Leach had been an ideal candidate to replace Pandolfo on Boston’s bench alongside mentors Cassidy and Dean, but the organization will have to look elsewhere. Even though former players-turned-staffers Trent Whitfield, Chris Kelly, and P.J. Axelsson are also internal candidates for one job or the other, the Bruins now seem very likely to go outside of the organization to address at least one of their two key vacancies.
Steven Kampfer Signs With KHL’s Ak Bars Kazan
Steven Kampfer‘s NHL playing days may very well be over. The veteran defenseman has decided not to wait for the NHL market to open later this month, opting to make the move overseas. The KHL’s Ak Bars Kazan have announced a one-year contract with Kampfer, who will be playing outside of North America for the first time. Kampfer, who is set to turn 33 in September, has served as a depth player for much of his career and may find it difficult to earn another NHL contract following this move.
Kampfer is best known for his two stints with the Boston Bruins, both to begin his NHL career and now likely to end it as well. The University of Michigan product played nine years in the league with four teams, but was never better than in his rookie season with Boston in 2010-11, when he recorded career highs in points and time on ice in 38 games. Kampfer was traded to the Minnesota Wild the following season, the first of five trades in his career that led to stints with the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers (twice) as well. The most recent trade came in 2018, when he returned to Boston from the Rangers as part of a package for former teammate Adam McQuaid. Kampfer played well in his depth role over the last three years, proving leadership in the AHL but performing when called upon in the NHL as well.
However, Kampfer’s departure from the Bruins is not at all unexpected. It was in the midst of Boston’s playoff run this season that it was first leaked that Kampfer was negotiating with Ak Bars and seemed likely to sign with the team. Ironically (or perhaps not so ironically), just a few days later the team announced that Kampfer would undergo season-ending hand surgery. With Kampfer missing his second consecutive postseason, when Boston has needed blue line depth both years, combined with his early planning to depart, it all but guaranteed that he would not return to the Bruins.
Joining Kazan, Kampfer will undoubtedly play in a greater role than he did with Boston and perhaps at any time in his NHL career. However, it is unknown if he will be able to top his expiring two-year, one-way 1.6MM contract. Nevertheless, he joins a talented roster that includes recent Bruins teammate Par Lindholm and other former NHLers and NHL prospects, while Montreal Canadiens forward Jordan Weal is also expected to officially sign once his season is over. Ak Bars has Gagarin Cup hopes this season and could look to Kampfer as their veteran leader to show them the way.
Minor Transactions: 07/05/21
All eyes are on Montreal tonight as the Canadiens try to hold off the Tampa Bay Lightning and stay alive in the Stanley Cup Finals. Beyond that series though, the rest of the hockey world continues to get work done in a shortened offseason. We’ll keep track of all the notable minor moves right here.
- Linus Omark, one of the most dynamic stick handlers in the world, is heading back to Sweden for the 2021-22 season. The 34-year-old has signed a three-year contract (technically one plus two option years) with Lulea HF in the SHL for next season, following his outstanding stop in Switzerland. During the 2020-21 season, Omark recorded 22 goals and 61 points in just 49 games for Genève-Servette HC. If you don’t remember his time in the NHL, there was nothing quite like his shootout winner in the first game of his career.
- Josh Atkinson, who has spent the last two seasons with the Iowa Wild, will replace the retiring Paul Geiger on Fehérvár AV19 in the ICEHL. The 28-year-old Atkinson went undrafted before attending the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, where he caught the eye of several professional teams. In his first season in the ECHL with the Atlanta Gladiators, the skilled defenseman scored 50 points in 66 games.
- Rinat Valiev, who played 12 games in the NHL several years ago, has signed with Ak Bars Kazan of the KHL. Valiev sat out the 2020-21 season, last playing with the Stockton Heat in 2019-20. Still just 26, the 2014 third-round pick has plenty of playing years left, even if they aren’t coming in North America.
- Quebec native and former QMJHL standout Alexandre Fortin is returning home, signing a one-year deal with the AHL’s Laval Rocket per a team release. Fortin got off to a hot start in his pro career with a strong AHL debut season with the Rockford Ice Hogs followed by 24 games with the Chicago Blackhawks the following year. However, Fortin has since not seen any more NHL action and when his entry-level contract expired last off-season, Chicago chose not to extend a qualifying offer. He played for the AHL’s Colorado Eagles this past season but failed to make much of an impact. Fortin is hoping to rediscover his scoring touch back home in Quebec.
Nick Bjugstad Re-Signs With Minnesota Wild
The Minnesota Wild have re-signed another big-bodied forward, inking Nick Bjugstad to a one-year contract. The deal will carry just a $900K salary and keeps Bjugstad from unrestricted free agency.
Given that the 28-year-old forward is coming off a six-year, $24.6MM contract, getting him signed for just $900K seems like a huge win for the Wild. Even if he has struggled to produce the kind of numbers he put up early in his career with the Florida Panthers, he is still a reasonably effective option that has experience at both center and wing. In 44 games this season with Minnesota, he scored six goals and 17 points, adding in one goal in six playoff matches.
That’s a pretty nice value for the Wild, especially since it carries basically no risk as a one-year deal. The entire cap hit could be buried in the minor leagues if necessary, but that seems unlikely given his history in the NHL. As a 22-year-old for the Panthers, the 6’6″ center scored 24 goals, leading to the big extension. A few years later he was moved to Pittsburgh, before eventually coming to Minnesota last fall for, well, nothing. Bjugstad was traded for a conditional seventh-round pick that the Penguins did not receive because he did not meet the conditions.
Now, on such a low-cost deal, Bjugstad can fill a bottom-six role for Minnesota without the pressure or expectations that come with such an expensive contract. Perhaps that leads him to his past success, but at worst, it’ll just cost the Wild a few hundred thousand wasted dollars.
Free Agent Focus: Los Angeles Kings
Free agency is now just under a month away and many teams are already looking ahead to when it opens up. There will be several prominent players set to hit the open market in late July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well. The Kings have already done a lot of their offseason work, unrestricted free agency isn’t really even an issue for them in the coming weeks.
Key Restricted Free Agents
F Andreas Athanasiou – What the heck is Athanasiou? Is he the 30-goal scorer from 2018-19, the mess that went unqualified in Edmonton, or the 40-point-pace utility knife that he showed this season? If the Kings want to find out, they could be taking the risk of arbitration awarding Athanasiou a hefty contract. The 26-year-old could settle for a one-year deal in the arbitration process and head to unrestricted free agency a year from now if the Kings decide to issue him a qualifying offer. If he were to sign a multi-year extension, it would be something new for Athanasiou, who has only ever played on one- or two-year deals since his entry-level contract expired.
F Trevor Moore – Talk about work ethic. Moore has climbed all the way from undrafted college free agent to full-time NHL forward, setting career-highs in goals (10), points (23), and games played (56) this season. Coming off a two-year deal that carried an average annual value of just $775K, the 26-year-old winger is looking at a raise, even if it won’t be a huge one.
F Lias Andersson – Signing a 22-year-old restricted free agent with just 89 NHL games to his name usually isn’t a big issue, but nothing has ever come simply with Andersson. The seventh-overall pick from the 2017 draft, Andersson exercised his European Assignment Clause for the New York Rangers in his first season and left North America altogether during the 2019-20 season. This year he split time between HV71, the Kings, and the Ontario Reign, but does look like he should have an inside track for a full-time roster spot come next season. Andersson isn’t arbitration-eligible, meaning the Kings could wait and force him to sign his qualifying offer (or an offer sheet) if he wants to play in the NHL this season, meaning the only leverage he really has is the threat of another return to Europe.
Other RFAs: F Matt Luff, F Bokondji Imama, F Michael Eyssimont, F Drake Rymsha, D Kale Clague, D Jacob Moverare, D Austin Strand
Key Unrestricted Free Agents:
D Christian Wolanin – Impressively, the Kings have just four UFAs left to sign, and Wolanin is the only one that played more than two games for Los Angeles this season. He played three. There’s not really much to say about the Group VI UFA, other than he could be a potential depth piece for the Kings next season. He played 15 games with the Senators before being traded at the end of March. During his three games with the Kings, he failed to record a point.
G Troy Grosenick – Grosenick certainly isn’t a must-sign goaltender, but like any team, the Kings will have to address their depth at the position this summer. They do have a pair of interesting prospects, but a veteran third-stringer like Grosenick should probably be brought in just for emergency situations. The 31-year-old did play two games this season, posting a .922 save percentage. That took his career total to four appearances.
Other UFAs: D Mark Alt, D Daniel Brickley
Projected Cap Space
After acquiring Viktor Arvidsson earlier this month, the Kings now have just under $15.5MM in cap space heading into the summer. With so few players to re-sign that’s a good amount for the free agent market, but it doesn’t mean the team can spend it haphazardly. If their young players develop as expected, there will be big extensions to come down the pipe in the next few years, meaning they’ll need cap space to fit everyone in. Remember, the trio of Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick still combine for a cap hit of nearly $27MM the next two seasons (with Doughty’s deal stretching much further than that). Adding free agents makes sense, adding long-term money might not.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.
Snapshots: Ventura, Eklund, Canadiens
The Buffalo Sabres are adding another talented executive to the front office, as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that they will hire Sam Ventura as VP of hockey strategy and research. Ventura will be leaving his position with the Pittsburgh Penguins and rejoining former colleague Jason Karmanos, who was hired by the Sabres earlier this year.
As Greg Wyshynski of ESPN points out, Ventura comes from the hockey analytics world and has long been considered as a candidate for a future GM position in the NHL. For now, he’ll join a Sabres organization that has struggled to find any success in recent years, last making the playoffs in 2011.
- William Eklund, who continues to creep up draft boards, has been announced as the winner of the E.J. McGuire Award of Excellence by the NHL. The award is given out by NHL Central Scouting to “the candidate who best exemplifies commitment to excellence through strength of character, competitiveness and athleticism” in the upcoming draft class. Eklund is ranked as the top international skater even after a tumultuous 2020-21 campaign that included an emergency appendectomy, a positive COVID-19 test and a pre-tournament injury that kept him out of the World Championship.
- The Montreal Canadiens will make several lineup changes as they try to stave off elimination in the Stanley Cup Finals. Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Erik Gustafsson, and Jon Merrill will all be scratched in favor of Jake Evans, Alexander Romanov, and Brett Kulak for tonight’s game four. When asked by Wyshynski why Tomas Tatar hasn’t made an appearance during the season, Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme explained that it is “just a matter of combinations and playing at that time of year.” Tatar is an unrestricted free agent this summer.