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Evening Notes: Bowman, Armstrong, Stone

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Edmonton Oilers general manager Stan Bowman didn’t close the door on adding to his roster between now and the start of the regular season. The Oilers have been busy this week making multiple trades and dealing with the fallout of the offer sheet saga with the St. Louis Blues. Bowman didn’t get into any specifics as far as adding to the Oilers lineup but did comment that they have the capability to do so if there is a player out there that makes sense.

Edmonton is pretty set at forward, but their defense leaves a lot to be desired outside of their top pairing. There are a lot of question marks on the bottom two pairings and one could argue they don’t have another top-four defenseman beyond Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm. The Oilers won’t find a second-pairing defenseman in free agency but could look at Kevin Shattenkirk as an option to fill the void. Shattenkirk was just fine last season for the Bruins in a depth role and averaged nearly 20 minutes a game just two seasons ago. He isn’t an ideal second-pairing defenseman, but he is probably a better option than what the Oilers are currently looking to deploy on the right side of their second unit.

In other evening notes:

  • St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong spoke today about offer sheets and said he isn’t aware of any GM code regarding the little-used tactic. Armstrong used two offer sheets last week to pry Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg away from the Edmonton Oilers and poured water on the notion that he wouldn’t have done so if former Oilers general manager Ken Holland was still on the job. Armstrong added that he would have tendered the offer sheets to Edmonton even if his own mother was in charge of the team. Offer sheets remain rare in the NHL, and a team using two of them in the same summer is unheard of.
  • Vegas Golden Knights writer Gary Lawless spoke with captain Mark Stone recently to discuss the upcoming season. Stone told Lawless that he expects to play 82 games next season after a spleen injury limited him to just 56 games last season. Those 56 games marked a high mark in games played for the 32-year-old since the 2019-20 season when he dressed in 65 games. Stone also added that he’s hoping to make Team Canada for the upcoming 4 Nations Face-off as well as the next Olympics which is certainly a possibility if the Winnipeg, Manitoba native can stay healthy. Stone was terrific in limited time last season, posting 16 goals and 37 assists in the aforementioned 56 games.

Latest On Ryan Johansen

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Ryan Johansen was placed on unconditional waivers this morning by the Philadelphia Flyers for the purposes of terminating his contract. Since the initial reporting more news has come out regarding the 32-year-old’s contract situation with the Flyers. Anthony DiMarco of Daily Faceoff tweeted that he’s hearing that Philadelphia feels that they have grounds to terminate the deal based on the alleged hip injury that Johansen reported after he cleared waivers in March and was sent to the AHL.

Johansen initially flew in to join Lehigh Valley shortly after the trade to the Flyers from the Colorado Avalanche in March and met with Phantoms doctors (as per Kevin Kurz of The Athletic). Not much is known about what was discussed at that time, but Johansen never dressed after that initial meeting. The injury caught Philadelphia off guard because Johansen had played in all of Colorado’s games leading up to the trade and was part of the Avalanche’s morning skate the day of the trade to Philadelphia.

Johansen’s agent Kurt Overhardt added to the intrigue by tweeting that Johansen has a severe hockey injury that will require surgery and the procedure is already scheduled for a future date. He also added that he was disappointed in Philadelphia’s decision and would work with the NHLPA to defend Johansen.

The Flyers reportedly intend to use the cap space if Johansen’s money comes off the books (as per DiMarco) but would need to keep that money available should Johansen’s grievance prove successful.

Golden Knights Sign Tanner Pearson To PTO

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The Vegas Golden Knights have signed forward Tanner Pearson to a professional tryout agreement. The deal gives Pearson a chance to fight for one of Vegas’ remaining bottom-six positions – a battle already being fought by Victor Olofsson, Keegan Kolesar, Brendan Brisson, and Jonas Rondbjerg.

Pearson, 32, recently completed a one-year stint with the Montreal Canadiens. He was the return for Casey DeSmith in a pre-season swap with the Vancouver Canucks, though upper-body injuries and healthy scratches limited him to just 54 appearances. He scored 13 points in those outings – a career-low in years he played in more than 20 games. The move to Montreal ended Pearson’s stretch of five years with the Canucks, where he managed 114 points across 221 games. The bulk of that scoring came in his first year in Vancouver, when Pearson managed a career-high 45 points in 69 games. It continued the streak of 40-point scoring that he carried through six years with the Los Angeles Kings. But he’d lose that streak quickly after, with 34 points in 2021-22 marking the only time that Pearson has exceeded 20 points in the last four seasons.

The battle for ice time among Vegas’ bottom-six now grows thicker, as the team looks to make up for off-season departures of lineup fixtures like William Carrier, Chandler Stephenson, Jonathan Marchessault, and Michael Amadio. Those absences open plenty of minutes on Vegas’ bottom lines, though new signee Olofsson, and young prospects like Brisson and Pavel Dorofeyev, are likely to earn precedent – unless Pearson impresses enough to earn a contract of his own in Vegas’ training camp.

Afternoon Snapshots: Couture, Chernyshov, Draft Location

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San Jose Sharks captain Logan Couture has been ramping up his training in San Jose this summer, new head coach Ryan Warsofsky shared with Sirius XM. Warsofsky added, “He’s working extremely hard. He’s in San Jose. He’s been in San Jose. He’s training. He’s working out. I know he’s feeling good, and I know when Logan is feeling good, we will let him play.”

Warsofsky’s comments continue the sentiment laid out by his predecessor, David Quinn, who emphasized that the team had a plan for Couture’s path back to the ice. It seems the next big step hinges on when Couture feels ready to return to the lineup, though where he’ll slot in when he’s back will also be a big question. The Sharks recently signed star prospects Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith to their entry-level contracts. Both players project confidently as centerman at the top level, though they may need a bit of support as they find their footing. That could be where Couture comes in – playing on the rookie’s wing and supporting them on faceoffs or in the defensive end. It’d be a well-timed move to the flanks – after all, Couture hasn’t posted a faceoff percentage above 50 percent in a decade. A new role next to high-upside prospects should be enough to maintain Couture’s other stats, though, adding a player with 25-goal and 50-point upside into a Sharks lineup desperate for offense.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Sticking in San Jose – Sharks forward prospect Igor Chernyshov has undergone a shoulder repair surgery known as a Latarjet Procedure, per his agent Dan Milstein. Chernyshov is slated to join the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit for next season, though his debut in the league will likely be delayed by the one-to-two months it takes to recover from surgery. Chernyshov was the first pick of this year’s second round, after a confident season with Russia’s Dynamo Moscow – where he recorded 28 points in 22 juniors game and four points in 34 KHL games. He’s a hefty and responsible forechecker who’s strong both on and off of the puck. The Sharks will hope those traits hold strong through shoulder surgery. If they do, Chernyshov could be on a fast track to the pros, having signed his entry-level contract at the beginning of this month.
  • The NHL is looking to keep the excitement around the NHL Draft, eyeing Los Angeles as the frontrunner to host the 2025 Draft and NHL Awards ceremonies, shares David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. 2025 will mark the first time that the draft is decentralized, allowing team staff to stay in their local market rather than populating the draft floor. That will certainly change the back-end approach for teams, though the front-facing structure is likely to be largely maintained – with players greeting commissioner Gary Bettman on stage after their selection. That’s the format of both the NFL and NBA Drafts, which both succeed the NHL in annual viewership despite being decentralized for years.

Canucks Testing Goalie Market Amid Thatcher Demko’s Injury

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The Canucks are on the hunt for some short-term goalie help on the trade and UFA market, CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal said on Sportsnet 650 Tuesday. That’s because star starter Thatcher Demko is healing slower than expected from the knee injury he sustained early in their first-round series against the Predators and still isn’t 100%, per Dhaliwal.

Dhaliwal said it’s unclear if Demko has undergone surgery to address the knee injury, and Vancouver has been concerned about the pace of his rehab as far back as the draft in June.

This storyline comes after information about Demko’s return timeline varied wildly throughout the postseason. Multiple reports stated he’d only be out for one series, while others said he would be shut down for the season. The team never officially ruled him out, instead continuously listing him as week-to-week, but he never did return to the lineup after recording a win in Game 1 against the Predators.

The Canucks were also rumored to be sniffing around for a veteran name to supplement their crease and provide competition for emerging youngster Arturs Silovs around the draft and free agency, but that never came to fruition. Last year’s No. 2 option, Casey DeSmith, wasn’t brought back and signed a three-year deal with the Stars. Vancouver’s only notable offseason addition between the pipes was former Golden Knights prospect Jiri Patera, who’s meant as a No. 3/4 option behind Silovs.

Those rumblings will get louder now with Demko’s status uncertain. The most clear-cut addition for the Canucks would be Kevin Lankinen, the top goalie left on the UFA market. His time as a Predator ended at the hands of Vancouver last season, and he remains unsigned after Nashville opted to sign Scott Wedgewood to replace him as Juuse Saros’ backup. The 29-year-old Finn was an above-average backup during his two years in Tennessee but was sparsely used, posting a 20-14-1 record and .912 SV% in 35 starts and eight relief appearances. Still, he’d be a cheap pickup, certainly not more than the $2MM he made last year after waiting for this late into August to sign.

Some other notable veteran UFA options include Martin Jones and Antti Raanta, but both are significantly older than Lankinen and have a much higher potential for age-related regression. Jones is coming off a resurgent year as the third-stringer for the Maple Leafs, but Raanta’s typically strong but injury-plagued play collapsed last season with a .872 SV% in 24 games for the Hurricanes.

On the trade market, funnily enough, Nashville might be one of their first calls. Top goaltending prospect Yaroslav Askarov has reportedly submitted a trade request to the club, but it’s a situation that could potentially be resolved if they decided to flip Scott Wedgewood, who signed a two-year, $3MM contract with the club on July 1st. He’s spent the last three seasons in the Dallas Stars organization, though he sat out much of the 2021-22 campaign. Wedgewood has played in 53 games over the two seasons since, posting 15 wins and a collective .907 save percentage behind Jake Oettinger. He’s poised to fill the same role in Nashville – ceding a majority of starts to a proven starter and limiting Askarov’s chance at the NHL ice time he’s searching for. With Nashville facing a formal trade request from one of the league’s top goalie prospects, the Canucks could benefit from timing, and reel in another hardy backup to help fill time before Demko’s return – a situation akin to the Tampa Bay Lightning’s platooning while Andrei Vasilevskiy missed time last season.

The Canucks may be able to offer that upside in the short-term, but it’ll be hard to move too far from Demko, who’s risen to prominency as he’s taken over Vancouver’s top role. That growth peaked this season, with Demko ranking second in Vezina Trophy after posting a .918 through 51 appearances. He’s signed at a $5MM cap hit through the next two seasons and is likely to hang onto Vancouver’s starting crease through any new additions. That strings out a tight-rope the Canucks will need to walk, as they make the decision between a lofty goalie trade, a free agent signing, or leaning on unproven backups.

Kraken Re-Sign Matthew Beniers To Seven-Year Deal

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The Kraken have agreed to terms with top RFA center Matthew Beniers on a seven-year contract, the team announced Tuesday. It’s worth $50MM, working out to a $7.14MM cap hit through the 2030-31 season. Per PuckPedia, the deal carries a total salary of $7.15MM in every season except its last, where it decreases to $7.1MM. $5MM worth of his annual salary will be paid out via signing bonuses in 2024-25 and 2025-26.

Beniers, who turns 22 in November, has spent his brief NHL career as the expected future face of the Kraken. He wasn’t just the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 draft; he was the first selection in Kraken history. Coming off his entry-level contract, Beniers was a free agent for the first time this summer, and the length of negotiations to this point implied the two sides were likely hammering out a complex long-term commitment. Talks on Beniers’ next contract have been ongoing since early June, per a report from David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period at the time.

The Massachusetts native is coming off quite a questionable 2023-24 season at first glance, however. Expectations were high after Beniers was thrust into first-line minutes in his rookie season, posting 24 goals, 57 points, and excellent possession quality numbers en route to taking home the Calder Trophy. While his two-way impact remained positive last year, his offense fell off a cliff. In 77 contests, the 6’2″ pivot was good for only 15 goals and 37 points despite a slight uptick in ice time. Among forwards who averaged at least 17:30 per game last season, his 0.48 points per game were tied for fourth-lowest.

But there were some silver linings. He improved significantly in the dot, bumping his FOW% to 47.4 after a brutal 42.2% showing in 2022-23. He also attempted more total shots, but fewer got on goal. When they did reach the netminder, his shooting percentage dropped to a more projectable 11.3%, down from 16.2% the year before.

However, concerns about Beniers’ ceiling as a true first-line center have followed him since his draft year with the University of Michigan. His two-way game appears to have arrived as promised, but his offensive showing thus far suggests he’s likely better suited as a high-end second-line center long-term.

The Kraken likely agree with that assessment, seeing as a $7MM AAV is fair value for an above-average 2C, especially as the salary cap continues to rise. Rather than signing Beniers to a bridge deal and giving him a chance to prove them wrong with a significant offensive breakout in the next couple of years, general manager Ron Francis has opted to follow the trend of long-term commitments for core pieces early on and get him signed through most of his prime.

It’s still a gamble that Beniers can consistently produce 15-25 goals and 55-65 points, more in line with his rookie year totals. Seattle improving their power play, which has ranked 28th in the league since the franchise’s inception three years ago, should help boost his totals. 75 of Beniers’ 103 career points have come at even strength.

He isn’t the team’s highest-paid player after this deal. That honor still goes to defenseman Vince Dunn and his $7.35MM cap hit. But it is tied for the largest total value contract the Kraken have doled out since entering the league, joining recent UFA signing Brandon Montour.

Beniers will have a 12-team no-trade list during the last two years of the contract, per PuckPedia. It’s the only period he was eligible to receive trade protection.

Cap-wise, the Kraken now find themselves in a bit of a pickle. The team checks in with a projected cap hit of $88.77MM with a roster size of 22, per PuckPedia, over the $88MM upper limit. They can become cap-compliant by assigning a player with a league-minimum salary to the minors, such as UFA additions Josh Mahura or Ben Meyers. Still, they’d only have room for one extra player on the roster with less than $10K in daily flexibility to open the season. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Seattle pursue a cap-clearing move before training camps get underway.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report Beniers was re-signing in Seattle.

East Notes: Laine, Makiniemi, Sutter

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Patrik Laine has no reservations about his ability to return to being an impact player following yesterday’s trade to the Canadiens. “I don’t want to come back as a 30-goal-scorer. I want to come back as a 40, 50- (goal-scorer). I’ve done that previously and it’s not by accident,” he told reporters (including NHL.com’s Tracey Myers).

“But it’s not just all about that,” Laine continued. “I want to come in and do whatever it takes to contribute to the team and help the team win, whether it’s me scoring 50 or scoring 20, as long as the team wins. I’m getting to that age, I’m not 19 years old anymore. I just want to win.”

Regardless of what exact number he produces, Laine’s career-average 14.7% shooting rate should be a boon to a Montreal offense that’s finished in the league’s basement the last few years. He’s only hit the 40-goal plateau once in his sophomore season with Winnipeg in 2017-18, but he’s hit or been on pace for 30 goals five other times, often limited by injuries.

Elsewhere from the Eastern Conference:

  • Team official site contributor Bill Meltzer relays that the Flyers are interested in bringing in free-agent netminder Eetu Mäkiniemi for a professional tryout. Philadelphia already has a pair of netminders under contract slated for minor-league action this season in Alexei Kolosov and buried veteran Calvin Petersen. However, the former’s availability is uncertain amid his reported preference to return to Belarus’ Dinamo Minsk on loan. Mäkiniemi, 25, became a Group VI unrestricted free agent this summer after spending the last two seasons in the Sharks organization. He split last year between the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda and the ECHL’s Wichita Thunder, posting a .900 SV% in 18 AHL contests and a .907 SV% in three ECHL games. The Finn was a fourth-round pick of the Hurricanes in 2017 and found his way to San Jose in the 2022 Brent Burns trade.
  • The Rangers have hired Shaun Sutter as an amateur scout, Arthur Staple of The Athletic reports. His familiar last name isn’t a coincidence – he’s the son of former Blues captain Brian Sutter and the nephew of Stanley Cup-winning head coach Darryl Sutter. The 44-year-old has spent the last 13 years with the Red Deer Rebels of the Western Hockey League, including the last 10 as an assistant/associate general manager. He’ll presumably stick to scouting the region he’s developed an innate familiarity with over the past decade-plus.

Oscar Klefbom Confirms Retirement

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Aug. 20: According to the NHL Alumni Association, Klefbom officially filed retirement paperwork today.

Aug. 8: Former Oilers defenseman Oscar Klefbom, who hasn’t played a game since August 2020 due to a shoulder injury, has confirmed his retirement, via Rasmus Kagstrom of Hockey Sverige.

“It is as it is. I wasn’t quite done with hockey as a sport. But now it’s over,” Klefbom said (translated from Swedish). “I am very happy with my career. I’m just grateful that I got the chance to play as many games as I did – even though it was as an injury. I gained a lot of trust, got to take part in a fantastic journey. There are really two sides to the coin – because although I am grateful, I would have liked to be here today. On the ice. As a player.”

Klefbom also confirmed he played with his eventual career-ending shoulder injury throughout nearly all of his seven-year NHL career. Regarding the wait to officially announce his retirement, the 31-year-old said: “It was a choice I made. I talked to Edmonton that I wanted to lay very low with what was going to happen and what the situation is. They were perfectly ’fine’ with that. From my side, it was also because I thought it was so difficult to talk about it.”

For a brief time, Klefbom was one of the league’s premier two-way defenders. Selected 19th overall in 2011 out of Sweden’s Farjestad BK, Klefbom remained in his home country for two more seasons before making the jump to North America in 2013-14.

He was mostly an AHLer in his first season, suiting up in 48 contests for the Oklahoma City Barons. But he did get a taste of NHL action, posting three points in 17 appearances. It wasn’t much of an impact, but he’d make a large jump in his development in the 2014 offseason and became a staple of the Oilers’ top four in just his second season in the system.

Klefbom would go on to play 378 games in an Edmonton sweater, scoring 34 goals and 122 assists for 156 points (0.41 per game). He had a career -64 rating, understandable for a player routinely averaging north of 22 minutes per game on an Oilers club that only made the playoffs twice in his tenure. His even strength possession numbers on the whole were positive, logging a 1.4 relative CF% and 50.1 xGF% at even strength, per Hockey Reference. He was a major part of Edmonton’s power play and penalty kill units, especially near the end of his abbreviated career.

The Karlstad native has been a UFA for over a year after his seven-year, $29.17MM contract with the Oilers expired in 2023. He spent the final three seasons of the contract entirely on long-term injured reserve.

Klefbom made clear in his interview that he wants to return to hockey in some capacity, but whether that’s in the NHL or Sweden remains to be seen.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Notes From The Philip Broberg, Dylan Holloway Offer Sheet Fall-Out

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The Oilers were likely to lose Philip Broberg one way or another this month. The Blues were one of three teams preparing an offer sheet for the defenseman, Andy Strickland of Bally Sports Midwest reports.

It’s unclear if the two other offers were officially presented to Broberg’s camp. But, as a reminder, unsigned RFAs have no obligation to sign an offer sheet if they’re presented with one.

That means the Blues weren’t just competing with the Oilers’ offer to retain Broberg, which Strickland adds was likely a two-year deal with a $1.1MM average annual value, far less than the $4.58MM AAV at which they acquired him. They were competing with two other teams, partially explaining their inflated offer to the 2019 eighth-overall pick. Their offer to Broberg was also the maximum they could sign him for without being required to part with their 2025 first-round pick as compensation to Edmonton.

It’s also fair to infer that Broberg’s camp had an indication for some time that there was offer sheet interest. The deal from the Oilers was much closer to fair market value for a defender coming off a season spent mainly in the minors and less than an entire season’s worth of NHL experience under his belt.

Edmonton’s offer to Dylan Holloway was a three-year deal worth $1.05MM, per Strickland. That’s a much smaller gap to bridge to the two-year, $2.29MM AAV pact he signed with St. Louis. Still, a deal over the $2MM AAV threshold for a player with fewer than 10 NHL goals across nearly 90 games is challenging for a cap-strapped contender, regardless of his ceiling.

They’ve gone with a slightly older but cheaper player with a skillset to replace him by acquiring Vasily Podkolzin, who was selected two picks after Broberg in 2019, from the Canucks. His AAV is $1MM for the next two seasons, mirroring their offer to Holloway more closely.

Sacrificing short-term overpaid but high-ceiling young talent came to maintain in-season salary cap flexibility, posits Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. After declining to match the offer sheets, the Oilers have enough projected cap space to field a 22-player opening night roster without utilizing long-term injured reserve, allowing them to accumulate cap space throughout the season.

That will give general manager Stan Bowman free reign to add talent at the trade deadline as the Oilers attempt to make their second Stanley Cup Final in as many years. Per PuckPedia, maintaining their roughly $946K in season-opening cap space will snowball into $4.4MM available to spend on March 6.

Oilers Acquire Paul Fischer From Blues

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The Blues announced Tuesday that they’ve sent unsigned 2023 fifth-round pick Paul Fischer and a 2028 third-round pick to the Oilers in exchange for future considerations. The swap immediately follows the Blues’ successful acquisition of Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway from Edmonton via offer sheets.

Fischer, 19, is a solid pickup for the Oilers, who presumably acquired him as a sweetener not to match St. Louis’ offer for either player. The left-shot defenseman is decently sized at 6’1″ and 201 lbs and is coming off a promising freshman outing at Notre Dame, where he contributed more offense than expected with 16 points in 34 games.

While he projects as a stay-at-home defender if he ever cracks an NHL lineup, Fischer does have good instincts with the puck. Those were apparent with his 14 assists last year, which tied for third on the Fighting Irish.

Fischer was a solid value for the Blues with the No. 138 pick last year. TSN’s Craig Button had him inside the top 100 of his rankings, and NHL Central Scouting pegged him as the No. 58 North American skater in the class.

The Oilers have until Aug. 15, 2027, to sign Fischer to his entry-level contract before his exclusive signing rights expire. After Broberg’s departure, he immediately becomes one of the better options in a paper-thin pool of left-shot defense prospects in Edmonton.

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