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Washington Capitals Extend Sonny Milano

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UPDATE: Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the contract breakdown is $2.35MM in 2023-24, $1.9MM in 2024-25, and $1.45MM in 2025-26. The low actual salary in the final year of the contract makes it a more appealing sell at the trade deadline or pre-season if Washington opts to move on from Milano at the end of his contract.

The Washington Capitals have extended an offseason acquisition for the second day in a row. NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti reports the team re-signed forward Sonny Milano to a three-year contract extension today, with an average annual value of $1.9MM.

Milano had a long and winding road to joining the Capitals for 2022-23, but it’s a shrewd move for general manager Brian MacLellan that’s paid off so far. The 26-year-old American has been a productive depth piece, scoring eight goals and 22 points in 40 games.

The news comes after Washington signed fellow newcomer Dylan Strome to a five-year, $25MM extension yesterday.

It’s a good bit of financial security for Milano, who cycled through a first-line role with the Anaheim Ducks, a failed professional tryout with the Calgary Flames, and now an almost $6MM commitment from the Capitals in less than a calendar year. He signed a one-year, league-minimum one-way contract with Washington on October 15, 2022, after he was cut from Flames camp and subsequently cleared waivers.

Milano was set to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

West Notes: Tarasenko, Kane, Brossoit

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Winger Vladimir Tarasenko is representing the Blues at the All-Star Game but with him being in the final year of his contract, it’s fair to wonder how much longer he’ll be a part of the team.  Speaking with Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic (subscription link), the 31-year-old declined to comment if his trade request dating back to last season has been rescinded while also indicating that there have been no recent discussions about a possible contract extension.  Tarasenko has 10 goals and 19 assists in 38 games so far this season and is expected to be one of the more sought-after rentals for next month’s trade deadline if the Blues are willing to pay down up to half of his $7.5MM AAV.

More from the Western Conference:

  • Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane has long been viewed as one of the likely big deals at the trade deadline but The Athletic’s Arthur Staple suggests (subscription link) that there’s an expectation around the league that Kane needs hip surgery which is going to limit his market. If that’s the case, if he opts to play through the injury and wait to have the procedure in the offseason, there’s a good chance he’d miss the start of next season which could hurt his value in free agency.  With that in mind, it’s possible that Kane could decide to have the surgery now which would take a big name off the trade market in the coming weeks.
  • Golden Knights goaltender Laurent Brossoit admitted to Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Sun that he sometimes feels frustrated that he hasn’t had a chance to get back up to Vegas. He cleared waivers back in November after being cleared to return from his hip injury and he has been down with the Silver Knights ever since.  The 29-year-old has a 2.77 GAA with a .906 SV% in 22 games with Henderson and is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer so a return to the top level would certainly help his case on the open market.

Canucks Recall Three Players From AHL Abbotsford

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With the Canucks set to return to action on Monday against New Jersey, they’ve made a trio of roster moves, announcing (Twitter link) the recalls of forwards Vasily Podkolzin, Phillip Di Giuseppe, and Nils Aman from Abbotsford of the AHL.

Podkolzin is the headliner of the three.  The 21-year-old was a regular last season in Vancouver, picking up 14 goals and 12 assists in 79 games in his rookie campaign and the 2019 first-rounder was expected to take a step forward this year.  However, he struggled out of the gate, notching just three assists in 16 games, resulting in him being sent to the AHL back in November.  While Podkolzin didn’t light up the scoresheet by any stretch, he still fared reasonably well with Abbotsford, picking up seven goals and 11 helpers in 28 contests prior to the recall.  Vancouver had just ten forwards on their roster before the recall so there’s a good chance that Podkolzkin will be in the lineup against the Devils.

This will be the third recall of the year for Di Giuseppe who had been sent back down when Vancouver hit the bye week.  The 29-year-old has played just one game with Vancouver so far, his first appearance at the top level since 2020-21.  Di Giuseppe has been quite productive in the minors, however, picking up 30 points in 33 games.  He has seen NHL action in seven of the last eight seasons, tallying 16 goals and 37 assists in 202 appearances.

Aman, meanwhile, somewhat surprisingly cracked Vancouver’s opening roster out of training camp in his first season in North America.  He got into 35 games with the team, logging just over 12 minutes a night but managed just a goal and four assists.  That resulted him in him being sent down in late December and the demotion seemed to help him a bit offensively as he was more productive with Abbotsford, collecting four goals and five helpers in 17 contests.

With these moves, Vancouver’s roster now sits at the maximum size of 23 players.

Red Wings Place Adam Erne On Waivers

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While the Red Wings are off until Tuesday, they have made a roster move today as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that they’ve placed winger Adam Erne on waivers.

The 27-year-old has played in 43 games with Detroit so far this season, picking up six goals and eight assists while logging just shy of 14 minutes a night.  Those numbers are actually better than a year ago on a per-game basis while he has a chance of setting a career high in points if he stays in the NHL and produces at a similar pace the rest of the way.  Erne also has recorded 122 hits; his 2.84 per game average is a career best.

With that in mind, it might be a bit surprising to see him on waivers.  However, it’s not the riskiest of moves for GM Steve Yzerman as Erne carries a $2.1MM cap hit while he’s eligible for unrestricted free agency for the first time this summer.  While Erne would fit on quite a few teams in terms of roster needs, not many of them have enough cap room to try to add him.  Filip Zadina is currently on a conditioning loan with AHL Grand Rapids and it’s possible that he’d come back to take Erne’s place in the lineup.

Assuming he clears on Sunday, Erne would be the third veteran Red Wing to be buried in the minors in recent weeks.  Jakub Vrana cleared waivers a month ago today while Alex Nedeljkovic was unclaimed two weeks later.  Even with those players in the AHL where they still mostly count against Detroit’s salary cap, they project to finish the season with more than $6.5MM in cap space, per CapFriendly so it’s safe to say these moves aren’t cap-related.  The Red Wings have some good depth and as their team gets healthier, the roster crunch is starting to be felt.  Erne appears to be the next casualty of that.

Penguins Recall Dustin Tokarski On An Emergency Basis

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It appears that Tristan Jarry won’t be able to return after the All-Star break as the Penguins announced that they’ve recalled goaltender Dustin Tokarski from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on an emergency basis.  He had been sent down late last month when Pittsburgh hit their bye week.

The 33-year-old has made two appearances with Pittsburgh this season, posting a 2.67 GAA and a .915 SV%.  While it’s a small sample size, both marks are better than his career averages of 3.12 and .902 respectively in 78 appearances over nine seasons.  Tokarski has spent the bulk of the campaign in the AHL and has done well with a 2.31 GAA and a .920 SV% in 21 games, numbers that put him in the top eight in both categories.

The Penguins were hoping that Jarry would be able to return from the upper-body injury that has kept him out for the last couple of weeks but that’s unlikely to be the case now.  Instead, it will continue to be Casey DeSmith’s net for the time being as he tries to keep them in the playoff mix.  At the moment, Pittsburgh holds a one-point lead on Buffalo for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.  Their schedule resumes on Tuesday with a matchup against Colorado.

Sean Couturier Could Return This Season

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It has been a tough season for Flyers center Sean Couturier.  After it looked like he’d be able to return earlier than expected from a back injury, he suffered a setback in October and eventually required surgery.  However, it appears he’ll have a chance of getting back late in the season as GM Chuck Fletcher confirmed to Sam Carchidi of Philly Hockey Now that they haven’t ruled out the veteran returning to the lineup:

He’s been progressing well. I know the surgeon is happy with the progress he’s made. As you ramp up the intensity of the on- and off-ice workouts, hopefully things continue to go as expected, and in that case, it would be great for him to come back this year and get some games.”

We’ll just have to see if there are things that slow down the recovery or not. That’s hard to predict, but right now he’s doing well. We’re certainly not on a fast-track with him. We do things very methodically. At the end of the day, it’s about the long-term and not this year.

When the 30-year-old underwent surgery in late October, the anticipated recovery timeline was three-to-four months so Couturier appears to be on track.  But with Philadelphia struggling for most of the year (they currently sit seventh in the Metropolitan Division), it was also a strong possibility that they just held him out for the season to err on the side of caution to avoid any concern about him sustaining another injury.

When healthy, Couturier has been one of the stronger two-way centers in the league and was rewarded for his efforts in 2021 with an eight-year, $62MM contract with 2022-23 being the first year of that deal.  Getting him back to top form would go a long way toward boosting Philadelphia’s lineup although that type of performance isn’t likely to come this season after being off for so long.  Even so, just getting him back and Couturier showing that he’s healthy would certainly be a welcome sign heading into the offseason.

Snapshots: Skills Results, International Games, Kastelic

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The All-Star festivities kicked off on Friday night with the annual Skills Competition which featured some staple events as well as some new outdoor ones.  Here is a listing of the winners for each event:

Tendy Tandem
Connor Hellebuyck, WPG/Juuse Saros, NSH (Central Division) – 13 points

Fastest Skater
Andrei Svechnikov, CAR – 13.699 seconds

NHL Pitch ‘n Puck
Nick Suzuki, MTL – 3

Splash Shot
Cale Makar/Mikko Rantanen, COL – 18.7 seconds

Hardest Shot
Elias Pettersson, VAN – 103.2 mph

Breakaway Challenge
Sidney Crosby, PIT/Alex Ovechkin, WSH – 40

Accuracy Shooting
Brock Nelson, NYI – 12.419 seconds

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • It appears that Australia will be where next season gets underway as David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports (Twitter link) that it’s all but a lock that the NHL will have games there to kick things off. He suggests that Boston and Los Angeles are among the teams in the mix to go although the full details won’t be announced until everything is finalized.  Games were played in Prague to start this season while there were a pair of games in Tampere as well back in November.
  • While there were plenty of players who were sent to the minors during the All-Star break, at least one regular player won’t be getting recalled right away. Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch relays that the Senators’ plan for Mark Kastelic is to keep the forward in the minors once the schedule resumes.  The 23-year-old has played in 43 games for Ottawa this season but has been out with a back issue for the last couple of weeks and will get some time to get back into form with AHL Belleville before potentially coming back up later on.

Blues Aren’t Expected To Re-Sign Ivan Barbashev

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While there are some notable forwards that have a shot at moving between now and the March 3rd trade deadline, some teams looking for upgrades might instead be aiming for someone a little lower in the lineup.  Those squads should be keeping tabs on the Blues as Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports that the team has informed Ivan Barbashev that he won’t be re-signed for next season and they expect to trade in the next few weeks.

2021-22 was a breakout season for the 27-year-old.  With his career highs being 14 goals, 15 assists, and 26 points (set over two years), he blew past those last year with 24 goals and 36 assists in 81 games, becoming a key part of their attack in the process.

However, Barbashev hasn’t been able to repeat those numbers this season.  That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise considering the jumps from a year ago.  But what bodes well for St. Louis in a potential swap is that the forward is on pace to post numbers that could beat those career bests before last season.  With 24 points in 51 games, he’s playing at a 39-point pace.

Barbashev is in the final season of his contract, one that has turned out to be quite a bargain at an AAV of $2.25MM.  Assuming that St. Louis is willing to retain up to the maximum 50% ($1.125MM), that would drop him to a price point that many teams – even the really cap-strapped ones – should be able to afford.

In an ideal world, St. Louis probably wouldn’t mind keeping Barbashev around.  However, their cap situation makes that idea basically impossible.  The team has over $69MM committed to just a dozen players for next season per CapFriendly and they need to either re-sign or replace Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly (replacing both seems to be the likeliest direction at this point) and fill out the rest of the roster.  By the time they do that, they won’t be able to afford Barbashev on a market-value contract.

As a player that can play both center and the wing, kill penalties in a pinch, and contribute some secondary scoring in a middle-six role, Barbashev can fill a useful role on several teams.  With what should be a fairly low price tag in terms of the impact on the salary cap, he’ll fit on the books of quite a few teams as well.  Accordingly, while Tarasenko and O’Reilly might be the headline names, Barbashev is likely to have a strong trade market of his own in the coming weeks.

Rangers Recall Sammy Blais

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It’s not too often we see transactions during All-Star weekend but the Rangers made a roster move today.  They brought back winger Sammy Blais from his conditioning loan, per the AHL’s transactions log.

It was a successful stint with AHL Hartford for the 26-year-old.  He had a two-goal effort last night against Utica and wound up with four goals in five games in his first minor league action since the 2018-19 season.  Unfortunately for both Blais and New York, that’s basically the only success that he has had this season as things simply haven’t gone well at the NHL level.  He has just five assists in 38 games on the fourth line which is hardly what they were expecting from him when they acquired him from St. Louis as part of the Pavel Buchnevich trade in 2021.  He actually hasn’t scored for the Rangers since being acquired as he missed most of last season with a knee injury.

Blais is in the final year of his contract which carries a $1.525MM cap hit; he will be eligible for unrestricted free agency for the first time this summer.  At this point, a return to New York seems unlikely and he’s a candidate to be moved at the trade deadline as a salary offset if GM Chris Drury is able to make a big splash on the trade front.  With his time in the minors going well, it’ll be interesting to see if Blais will be back in the lineup when their schedule resumes on Monday against Calgary in an effort to try to boost his value heading into next month’s trade deadline.

Evening Notes: Nyquist, Sasson, Salo

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The Columbus Blue Jackets got some bad news when it was announced on February 1st that veteran forward Gustav Nyquist would miss the rest of the regular season. Not only would Nyquist’s absence be felt by the Blue Jackets on the ice, but many were disappointed that Columbus would not have the opportunity to trade Nyquist in order to recoup some assets before his contract expires at the end of this season.

According to TSN’s Chris Johnston, a trade is still a possibility. On TSN’s Insider Trading segment, Johnston reports that because of Nyquist’s injury, the ability of teams to place Nyquist on long-term injured reserve to “stash” Nyquist until the playoffs (when the salary cap is no longer a consideration) he has actually become a more attractive trade candidate. Nyquist is a three-time 20-goal scorer and should be able to help a team looking to reinforce its scoring attack,

Some other notes from across the hockey world:

  • The Colorado Avalanche could be eyeing some potential college free agents. Dater on Hockey’s Adrian Dater reports that the Avalanche are interested in Western Michigan center Max Sasson. Sasson, 22, is an undrafted player who has scored 31 points in 28 games so far this season. Should Sasson sign in Colorado, he would add to the Avalanche’s record of picking from the college free agent ranks, something they did last year when they inked Olympian Ben Meyers to his entry-level deal.
  • The Connecticut Post’s Michael Fornabaio reports that New York Islanders defenseman Robin Salo is out day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Salo, 24, is currently with the Islanders’ AHL affiliate in Bridgeport, and has four points in 12 games. While it is unclear whether this injury has any long-term implications, it could impact his viability for a call-up should the Islanders wish to shake up their current defensive arrangement.

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