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Eastern Notes: Cole, Vrana, Djoos, Lightning

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Tight up against the salary cap for the next few years, Josh Yohe of The Athletic (subscription required) answers a number of mailbag questions about the Pittsburgh Penguins present and future. Among the tidbits of information is the scribe’s opinion that the team is likely to allow defenseman Ian Cole to depart via free agency this offseason.

Yohe writes that Cole, who is one of the team’s better defenseman is more likely of all their unrestricted free agents next year to be wearing a different sweater in the 2018-19 season. As Pittsburgh is already loaded with four defensemen making at least $4MM per year next season, Cole would likely be the odd man out for the Penguins, especially since there will likely be many teams offering big money to the blueliner. The  27-year-old has been a solid defender and likely could play a major position on another team’s top-four if given the opportunity.

  • NBC Sports Tarik El-Bashir writes that Washington Capitals wing Jakub Vrana, who was a healthy scratch for the first time this year on Thursday, will return to the lineup today against the Minnesota Wild on the Capitals third line. He had just two points (both goals) in his previous 13 games. “I’m putting him back where he was … and I want to see him play really well tonight,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said.
  • El-Bashir adds that Washington Capitals defenseman Christian Djoos, who suffered an upper-body injury Tuesday against the Nashville Predators and missed Thursday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche, did not skate today. “I don’t know exactly when he’s going to skate yet,” Trotz said. “He’s still day-to-day with the trainers. Once they tell me he can skate, he’ll be out there.”
  • Roger Mooney of the Tampa Bay Times writes that with the Tampa Bay Lightning off to their best start in team history as they lead the league with a 15-2-2 record and 32 points, the team has a number of players who are also leading the NHL, including Nikita Kucherov, who leads the NHL in goals scored with 17; Steven Stamkos, who leads the league in assists with 25 and points with 35; and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy leads the NHL in wins with 14.

Rutherford: In-Season Extension For Hornqvist Unlikely

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Cam Atkinson’s new seven-year, $41.125MM contract with the Blue Jackets gives him a full no-trade clause from now until June 15th, 2020, reports Steve Gorten of the Columbus Dispatch.  After that time, he can block a trade to ten teams until the end of his deal in 2025.  He joins Brandon Dubinsky, Nick Foligno, and Sergei Bobrovsky (who all have no-move clauses) as players with trade protection.  GM Jarmo Kekalainen acknowledged that if they weren’t able to reach an extension with Atkinson, they likely would have wound up trading him to avoid the risk of losing him for nothing.

Elsewhere in the Metropolitan Division:

  • Winger Patric Hornqvist is the most prominent of Pittsburgh’s pending unrestricted free agents this summer but despite that, GM Jim Rutherford told Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that it’s unlikely that they will work on an extension during the season: “That would be something that’s a little uncharacteristic for me.  For the most part, I wait until the end of the season.”  Hornqvist is off to a good start to the season with 12 points (7-5-12) in 18 games and has scored 21 or more goals in each of the last four seasons; that type of consistency is something that will be coveted if he makes it to the open market.
  • Although he is waiver-exempt and is a healthy scratch for the fourth game of the last five, the Devils have not discussed sending center Pavel Zacha to their AHL affiliate in Binghamton, reports North Jersey’s Andrew Gross (Twitter link). The 20-year-old is off to a quiet start this season with five points (2-3-5) in 15 games and with Travis Zajac now back in the lineup, finding ice time at a fairly-crowded center position may be tough to do for Zacha in the short-term.
  • The Flyers announced that winger Jordan Weal is dealing with an upper-body injury and is listed as day-to-day. This marks the second time he has had an upper-body issue this season.  In his first full NHL campaign, Weal has recorded two goals and four assists in 17 contests while averaging just under 14 minutes per game of playing time.

Penguins Not Actively Seeking Veteran Backup To Replace Jarry

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The Penguins currently find themselves in a situation where top prospect Tristan Jarry is backing up in the NHL instead of playing a starting role in the minors.  Generally, teams would rather see a young and waiver-exempt netminder play as many games as possible in the AHL over making 15-20 appearances in the NHL.  Accordingly, it has been expected that GM Jim Rutherford would be on the lookout for more of a veteran backup that could push Jarry back to the minors.

However, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette suggests that while Rutherford is keeping tabs on what’s out there, he’s not actively pursuing another goalie at the moment.  Jarry is off to a decent start with the Penguins this season so it’s not as if his performance is dictating that they need to make a move just yet.  As the weeks progress though, that could change if he’s only starting once every four or five games.

Blues’ Beau Bennett Reassigned To AHL

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When Beau Bennett signed with the St. Louis Blues as a free agent this summer, he saw it as a fresh start in a career that has been marred by injury and missed opportunity. After an impressive rookie campaign with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2012-13, following his surprise early departure from the University of Denver, Bennett looked lay he may be a long-term option for the Eastern Conference dynasty. Yet, in three more seasons with Pittsburgh, Bennett would never play a full-time role for the team nor top his 14-point total from his first campaign. A move to New Jersey last season in exchange for a third-round pick – showing that the league still believed in the 25-year-old’s ability and potential – was supposed to be a new start for Bennett. However, even in a career-high 65 games, Bennett only managed 19 points and was not qualified for the Devils.

Cue the Blues, who signed Bennett right away when free agency opened on July 1st. While the contract was only for the league minimum of $650K, it looked like the young winger still had a shot at a depth role in St. Louis. Those dreams were deterred early on, as Bennett was loaned to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves before even the end of September. Yet, Bennett was recalled to the NHL squad three weeks ago and since had been given six games to prove he could stick in St. Louis. In those six contests, Bennett failed to record a point and took only six shots. He may have seen only 11 minutes or so of ice time per game, but Bennett was still invisible in that sample size.

Unsurprisingly, the once-promising forward is now back in the AHL, according to the Wolves. Bennett had three points in five games for AHL Chicago prior to his call-up, so he may have found a fit with the minor league team. However, when he’ll get his next chance with the Blues and just how many chances he has left in the NHL have now become legitimate questions.

Metropolitan Notes: Santini, Ho-Sang, Hunwick, Niskanen, Vesey

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The New Jersey Devils got back into the win column Saturday after failing to win their previous four games. Despite that fact, New Jersey remains in first place with a 10-4-2 record in a tough Metropolitan Division. Yet, the team’s 2-1 victory Saturday against the Florida Panthers was a defensive effort in which many players praised the play of unheralded defenseman Steven Santini, according to The Record’s Andrew Gross.

The physical 22-year-old defenseman only played in 38 games a year ago, but is a mainstay on the team’s defense this year. The former second-round pick from 2013, showed off his physicality against Florida with big hits, most notably a hit in which he dumped the Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov into his team’s own bench in the second period. Santini got plenty of ice time with 23:42, was credited with four hits and was smart enough to avoid a penalty when challenged by Panthers’ enforcer Micheal Haley in the third period.

  • New York Islanders Joshua Ho-Sang made the most of his emergency recall Saturday when he scored a goal against the St. Louis Blues last night, according to Arthur Staple of Newsday. Ho-Sang, the team’s first-round pick in 2014, had played six games with the Islanders to start the season, but was sent down to work on improving his in-game mentality — knowing when to drive to the net and when to dump the puck. Ho-Sang had put up two goals and four assists in six games during that span with the AHL Bridgeport Sound Tigers, but with Anthony Beauvillier day-to-day, Ho-Sang got his chance to redeem himself. He can stay up on an emergency basis for 30 days or 10 games, but the team could always officially recall him as well.
  • Jonathan Bombulie of The Trib Live writes that Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Matt Hunwick, who has already missed 12 games due to a concussion diagnosed on Oct. 17, has hit a plateau in his recovery and will be held off the ice for a few more days. “He’s been having a tough time getting over that last hurdle, and so they want to take a little bit of a different approach to try to get him over that last hump,” coach Mike Sullivan said.
  • NBC Sports Tarik El-Bashir writes that Washington Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen will travel on the team’s upcoming road trip to Nashville and Colorado, according to head coach Barry Trotz. Niskanen, who has been on LTIR since Oct. 14 due to an upper-body injury, will not suit up tonight against the Edmonton Oilers, but could be ready to suit up for one or both of the away games this week. The Washington Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan tweets that Niskanen has been cleared for contact, but is not “full go” and may or may not be ready for games this week. A key veteran defender, the team’s defense would get a big boost upon his return.
  • New York Rangers forward Jimmy Vesey went straight to the dentist after Saturday’s victory over the Edmonton Oilers, according to Newsday’s Steve Zipay. The 24-year-old wing took a Zack Kassian skate to the mouth in the second period. Two of Vesey’s teeth had to be removed from his lip. Despite the injury, Vesey returned for a shift in the third period and wore a protective plastic cage attached to the lower part of his helmet. He is day-to-day.

Morning Notes: Drouin, Spezza, Duchene

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As usual, the Hockey Night In Canada Headlines segment last night was one to watch if you’re interested in rumors and speculation going on around the league. With a panel of Nick Kypreos, Chris Johnston and Elliotte Friedman, you knew there was going to be a few interesting nuggets of information.

Johnston relayed an interesting situation surrounding Jonathan Drouin and the Tampa Bay Lightning. The two sides have finished an arbitration over a performance bonus from last season, that Drouin missed by less than a tenth of a point per game. Because of all the work Steve Yzerman did at the trade deadline last season, the Lightning don’t have any carryover from their entry-level bonuses, meaning the settlement (which will pay Drouin 90% of the bonus) will not affect this year’s cap number.

  • The panel also discussed Jason Spezza and the idea that his name is starting to surface in trade speculation. Spezza is obviously not as big a part of the Dallas Stars as he once was, taken away from the center ice position and moved down in the lineup. The interesting note that Friedman reported is that Spezza has a full no-movement clause during the season, instead of the 10-team no-trade list that had been previously recorded. That clause and the $7.5MM cap hit for this year and next make a move extremely unlikely even if Dallas wanted to part ways.
  • Though the Matt Duchene saga is over, the panel did relay that the Pittsburgh Penguins made a last-ditch effort to acquire the center from the Colorado Avalanche. That would imply that the Penguins are not comfortable with the team they have right now, and few would be surprised by that. Pittsburgh lost again last night and are now 9-7-3 on the year. Though no one is expecting them to miss the playoffs, GM Jim Rutherford is a known horse trader as the deadline approaches, and will likely be involved in another big move this season.

Penguins Notes: Hornqvist, Hunwick, Sprong

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With the Penguins being fairly tight to the salary cap beyond this year, Sam Werner of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette suggests that winger Patric Hornqvist is probably playing his final season in Pittsburgh.  The pending UFA has scored at least 20 goals in each of the past four seasons and is on pace to do so again in 2017-18 while he has the reputation of producing when it counts in the playoffs.  Between that and a pair of Stanley Cup titles, he should be him in line for a nice raise on the open market from the $4.25MM cap hit he currently has unless he chooses to sign for below-market value to try to keep the full core of the team together.

More from Pittsburgh:

  • Defenseman Matt Hunwick has been skating with the team for more than a week but has yet to be cleared to return by team doctors. Head coach Mike Sullivan was quick to put an end to any speculation that he may have suffered a setback, telling Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that they’re still just going through the process of trying to get him back into the lineup.  When he does play, he’ll be the second defender to return in a short period of time after Justin Schultz made his return from a concussion on Tuesday.
  • Even though his shot is one of his best weapons, the team is working closely with top prospect winger Daniel Sprong on his shooting, notes Jason Mackey, also of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. While he is off to a strong start in the minors with eight goals through ten games, the organization is concerned with the number of times he has missed the net, suggesting he hasn’t hit the net on a similar number of occasions as his 43 shots on goal.  With the Penguins scuffling a bit offensively as of late, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Sprong in the discussion for a recall before too long and if he can make strides in his accuracy, that time may come sooner rather than later.

Letang Struggles Defensively Again

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  • The Pittsburgh Penguins defensive combination of Kris Letang and Olli Matta had to be broken up Saturday in their 4-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks as the pair struggled together. In fact, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette’s Jason Mackey, Letang struggled immensely in the game and was on the ice for all four goals against. He now has a minus-16 plus/minus rating this season, which is way below average for the 30-year-old veteran. Maatta is at minus-five.

Hagelin's Low Numbers Starting To Stand Out

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  • Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post Gazzette writes that Pittsburgh Penguins’ fourth-line wing Carl Hagelin is well aware that his offense needs to step up. The recently scratched wing has struggled this year offensively. While he’s never been an offensive juggernaut, the 29-year-old has struggled with just a goal and an assist in 14 games. Add that to the $4MM the team owes his this year and next year, his struggles even stand out more. Mackey writes that it’s his shooting percentage that has fallen off a cliff since last year. His 4.4 percent shooting percentage is way down from his earlier career averages of 9.4 percent.

Matt Hunwick Skates For The First Time Since Sustaining Concussion

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  • Penguins defenseman Matt Hunwick skated for the first time today since being diagnosed with a concussion two weeks ago, notes Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. However, he’s still likely to be out for a little while yet as he has still not been given clearance to practice with contact by team doctors.  Hunwick has played in six games with Pittsburgh this season after signing a three-year, $6.75MM deal with them early in free agency back in July.

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