Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Alex DeBrincat

List Of Players Getting Trade Protection On July 1st

at CDT | by 4 Comments

In the current Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL and NHLPA, the league players can procure three types of No-Move Clauses in their contracts. The only stipulations to these clauses are that the player in question must be 27 years of age or older and must have accrued seven years of service time at the NHL level. The three types of No-Move Clauses are as follows: No Movement Clause (NMC), No Trade Clause (NTC), and Modified NMC or NTC.

Per the current CBA, an NMC means that a player cannot be waived, assigned to minors, or traded without their consent, and they also must be protected in the event of an Expansion Draft. An NTC is straightforward — giving the player protection from being traded without their approval. Lastly, a modified NMC or NTC sets an arbitrary number of teams and a time frame when a player can use this protection. In just over a week, an assortment of players will receive trade protection on their current contracts, and CapFriendly has broken it down.

 

No Movement Clauses
D Charlie McAvoy (Boston)
F Sebastian Aho (Carolina)
D Devon Toews (Colorado)
F Roope Hintz (Dallas)
D Gustav Forsling (Florida)
F Kirill Kaprizov (Minnesota)
F Joel Eriksson Ek (Minnesota)
F Jesper Bratt (New Jersey)
F Timo Meier (New Jersey)
G Ilya Sorokin (NY Islanders)
F Pierre-Luc Dubois (Washington)

No Trade Clauses
F Ross Colton (Colorado)
D Nick Seeler (Philadelphia)
D Vince Dunn (Seattle)
F Clayton Keller (Utah)
D Erik Cernak (Tampa Bay)
D Mikhail Sergachev (Tampa Bay)

Modified No Trade Clauses
F Jordan Greenway (Buffalo) – eight-team no-trade list
F Tage Thompson (Buffal0) – five-team no-trade list
D Rasmus Andersson (Calgary) – six-team no-trade list
D Samuel Girard (Colorado) – nine-team no-trade list
F Miles Wood (Colorado) – six-team no-trade list
F Alex DeBrincat (Detroit) – 16-team no-trade list
F Adrian Kempe (Los Angeles) – 10-team no-trade list
F Nico Hischier (New Jersey) – 10-team no-trade list
D John Marino (New Jersey) – eight-team no-trade list
D Jonas Siegenthaler (New Jersey) – 10-team no-trade list
F Mathew Barzal (NY Islanders) – 22-team no-trade list
D Thomas Chabot (Ottawa) – 10-team no-trade list
F Tanner Jeannot (Tampa Bay) – 16-team no-trade list
F Kyle Connor (Winnipeg) – 10-team no-trade list

NHL Names Eastern Conference All-Stars

at CDT | by 11 Comments

Sportsnet is reporting that the NHL has named the first 16 selections from the Eastern Conference. These players will appear in the NHL All-Star Game that will take place February 3rd in Toronto.

The game will be held in Canada for the first time since 2012 when it was held in Ottawa. Toronto hasn’t hosted the game since 2000 and it will be highlighted by Toronto Maple Leafs superstar Auston Matthews who was named alongside 15 other Eastern Conference players.

The league names one player to represent each team at the game, all of whom will be named this evening. After which the final 12 players will be decided by a fan vote on NHL.com as well as several of the NHL’s social media platforms.

The initial Eastern Conference players are as follows:

Atlantic Division

Boston: RW David Pastrnak (3rd appearance)
Buffalo: D Rasmus Dahlin  (1st appearance)
Detroit: RW Alex DeBrincat (1st appearance)
Florida: C Sam Reinhart (1st appearance)
Montreal: C Nick Suzuki (3rd appearance)
Ottawa: LW Brady Tkachuk (4th appearance)
Tampa Bay: RW Nikita Kucherov (5th appearance)
Toronto: C Auston Matthews (3rd appearance)

Metropolitan Division

Carolina: F Sebastian Aho (1st appearance)
Columbus: C Boone Jenner (1st appearance)
New Jersey: C Jack Hughes (3rd appearance)
NY Islanders: C Mathew Barzal (1st appearance)
NY Rangers: G Igor Shesterkin (2nd appearance)
Philadelphia: C Travis Konecny (1st appearance)
Pittsburgh: C Sidney Crosby (6th appearance)
Washington: LW Tom Wilson (1st appearance)

The first 16 Western Conference all-stars will be named during the first intermission of tonight’s matchup between the Boston Bruins and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

More to come…

Ryan Hartman To Have Player Safety Hearing

at CDT | by 6 Comments

Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman will have a hearing with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety on Monday regarding a slew-foot against Detroit Red Wings winger Alex DeBrincat during today’s loss, per a league announcement.

The incident occurred about halfway through the third period, with the Wild already trailing by multiple goals. As DeBrincat attempted to shield teammate Michael Rasmussen by the Wild bench as he carried the puck up the ice, Hartman approached DeBrincat from behind. Hartman’s foot made contact with the back of DeBrincat’s skates and continued to follow through as DeBrincat fell backward to the ice.

NHL Player Safety will likely determine whether Hartman intended to injure DeBrincat on the play, the principal factor in the length of a potential suspension. Because this is not an in-person hearing, a suspension would be five games or less.

Hartman has been among the few Wild players performing up to expectations this season. His seven goals rank second on the team behind Joel Eriksson Ek, and the natural winger continues to take a heavy amount of faceoffs and is averaging nearly 17 minutes per game. Hartman’s possession numbers are some of the best on the team, boasting a 52.5% Corsi share at even strength through 17 games. His lone absence this season came in the Wild’s Global Series game against the Ottawa Senators last weekend in Stockholm due to illness.

The 29-year-old is in the final season of a three-year contract carrying a bargain-bin cap hit of $1.7MM. He signed a three-year, $12MM extension with the Wild in October and will avoid unrestricted free agency next summer.

Patrick Kane Talking With Four Eastern Conference Teams

at CDT | by 13 Comments

Chris Johnston reported on TSN Insider Trading today that unrestricted free agent forward Patrick Kane and his agent Pat Brisson have formally opened discussions with teams about the 34-year-old’s next contract. It is believed that Kane is talking to at least four Eastern Conference teams and possibly even a fifth.

Kane opted to have offseason hip surgery after dealing with a nagging injury for most of last season. He had the procedure on June 1st and was expected to have a 4–6-month recovery period. He appears to be on track to return to the NHL within that timeline. The injury likely hindered the three-time Stanley Cup Champion’s play last season as Kane had a down year offensively, registering just 21 goals and 36 assists in 73 games split between the Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers.

Johnston believes that the clubs Kane is talking to are the Rangers, Buffalo Sabres, Florida Panthers, and the Detroit Red Wings. Each of those teams makes sense, given Kane’s circumstances. Kane played with the Rangers last year and has a certain level of familiarity with the group. He is from Buffalo, and the Sabres are a team that is on the rise and could certainly use another scoring forward. Florida went to the Stanley Cup finals last year and often seems to be a popular destination for free agents. And finally, the Red Wings acquired one of Kane’s favorite players to play with, Alex DeBrincat.

Kane’s signing could certainly shift the balance in a very strong Eastern Conference if he can return to being even a fraction of the player he once was. He is just two years removed from a 92-point season and was a point-a-game player in 12 of 13 seasons before last year.

The biggest concern with Kane is that the hip resurfacing surgery he had is a tough one to recover from. Nicklas Backstrom has struggled to return from the procedure after having it last year, and Ryan Kesler was never able to return after having it in 2019. Mike Sillinger and Ed Jovanovski are two other players who had the same surgery, and neither was able to return for a significant period, although Jovanovski was able to play 37 games during the 2013-14 season. The surgery is typically for people in their 50s and is not commonly done for people under the age of 40. It is not without success in athletes, though, as tennis star Andy Murray has had the procedure and had a successful return to the court.

Latest On Alex DeBrincat

at CDT | by 7 Comments

On paper, it seemed somewhat curious that Detroit Red Wings forward Alex DeBrincat would forgo a likely highly lucrative contract extension with the Ottawa Senators in order to play elsewhere. But not long after DeBrincat concluded his season in Canada’s capital, it became clear that the 2022-23 campaign would be DeBrincat’s only one in Ottawa.

Yesterday, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch shed some light on why DeBrincat decided to push for an exit from the Senators, writing: “sources say [DeBrincat] didn’t like his role as a second-line winger” behind Senators captain and face of the franchise Brady Tkachuk.

It’s not difficult to see why, going into the 2022-23 season, DeBrincat may have expected to receive top-line billing in Ottawa. The Senators surrendered the seventh-overall pick alongside second and third-round selections to acquire DeBrincat, who was coming off of a 41-goal, 78-point season.

Those numbers exceeded Tkachuk’s from 2021-22 (30 goals, 67 points) by a fair margin, and it’s understandable that DeBrincat may have viewed himself as the best fit for the coveted left wing spot next to number-one center Tim Stützle.

That didn’t happen, though, and DeBrincat ended up falling behind Tkachuk both on the depth chart and in terms of production. Although DeBrincat actually averaged slightly higher ice time per game than Tkachuk, Tkachuk is the one who got the bulk of time next to Stützle (a breakout number-one center) on the team’s first line.

According to Natural Stat Trick, Stützle had DeBrincat as his left-wing running mate for a total of 97:49 TOI and had Tkachuk in that role for 915:25 TOI in total. The trio only played 30:58 TOI together.

Part of the success DeBrincat had in Chicago was due to the fact that he got to play next to one of the most talented offensive generators in recent NHL history, Patrick Kane. This isn’t to say that DeBrincat isn’t a capable offensive generator in his own right, (one doesn’t hit 40 goals multiple times in a career without being an elite talent in his own right) just to note that DeBrincat is clearly at his best when his lethal finishing abilities are fed into by a strong playmaking partner.

Without someone of those capabilities to play next to full-time, DeBrincat’s production declined, and he scored 27 goals and 66 points. With Josh Norris locked in as the Senators’ second-line center thanks to a $7.95MM AAV contract extension through 2029-30, DeBrincat was staring down a future playing next to Norris were he to sign a long-term extension in Ottawa.

Norris is a quality player who scored 35 goals in 2021-22, but not someone regarded as a high-end playmaker and passer. With Tkachuk seemingly untouchable as Stützle’s running mate and the Senators’ first-line left winger, it’s unsurprising that DeBrincat began to more heavily consider a future elsewhere.

Detroit is where DeBrincat’s future, at least for the next few seasons, lies. There doesn’t appear to be a top-end playmaker on the Red Wings’ roster who can compare to Stützle, but captain Dylan Larkin (79 points last season) isn’t too far behind. But looking ahead to training camp and the preseason, it’s imperative that the Red Wings find a way to make a DeBrincat – Larkin pairing work.

Neither Andrew Copp or J.T. Compher profile as the type of play-driving passer that DeBrincat has excelled with in the past, so for DeBrincat to be able to reach the heights in Detroit that he reached in Chicago, he’ll likely need what he couldn’t have in Ottawa: a firm grip on the first-line left winger job next to his team’s number-one center.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Detroit Red Wings Acquire Alex DeBrincat

at CDT | by 85 Comments

Much of the recent speculation surrounding Alex DeBrincat and the Ottawa Senators largely centered around the New York Islanders and Anaheim Ducks as being the most likely suitors in any trade. At the beginning of the offseason, once news broke that DeBrincat may find his way out of Ottawa, the Detroit Red Wings were deemed the likeliest landing spot, but seemed to have fallen out of the running.

In a surprising turn of events, the Red Wings eventually came out on top, trading Dominik Kubalik, Donovan Sebrango, a conditional first-round pick in 2024, and a fourth-round pick in 2024. Furthermore, Detroit also announced a four-year, $31.5MM contract with DeBrincat, paying him an AAV of $7.785MM. The Farmington Hills, MI native is now officially a part of his childhood team.

By acquiring DeBrincat, Detroit immediately addresses one of the major problems that has plagued them the last several seasons, their offense. Two seasons ago, playing for the Chicago Blackhawks at the time, DeBrincat scored 41 goals and 37 assists in 82 games. This past season with the Senators, DeBrincat scored 27 goals and 39 assists in 82 games. Interestingly enough, DeBrincat has also been extremely good all-time against his new team, scoring 11 goals and 30 points in 23 games against the Red Wings in his career.

In context to the condition attached to the first-round pick headed to the Senators, Detroit will have the option to send either their own 2024 first-round selection or the Bruins’ 2024 first-round selection. On Boston’s draft pick, if the pick falls within the top ten of the 2024 draft, the pick will convey to the Bruins’ 2025 first-round selection. At that time, the Red Wings will have the option of sending their own 2024 first-round selection, or the 2025 first-round selection originally owned by Boston.

The contract for DeBrincat will place him second among Red Wings’ earners, sitting behind the eight-year, $69.6MM extension the team handed out to captain Dylan Larkin last season. Given that the 2023-24 season would have been DeBrincat’s last as a restricted free agent, the contract also buys out three years of unrestricted free agency, putting DeBrincat at 29 years for the first time he hits the open market.

From Ottawa’s standpoint, it is hard to imagine this as a positive return. Kubalik has shown offensive skill in the past but struggled mightily down the stretch for the Red Wings last season. In 81 games played for Detroit last year, Kubalik scored 20 goals and 25 assists in 80 games, something that should play well in the Senators’ middle-six forward group. The other player in the deal, Sebrango, was a former 63rd overall pick of the Red Wings back in the 2020 NHL Draft, and split time between the Grand Rapids Griffins and Toledo Walleye last year.

Unfortunately for Ottawa, they were unable to recoup the draft capital they once spent to acquire DeBrincat in the first place. At last year’s draft, the Senators sent their first-round pick, second-round pick, and a third-round selection in 2024 to acquire DeBrincat from the Chicago Blackhawks. That first-round selection would be seventh overall, allowing the Blackhawks to select defenseman Kevin Korchinski. Given the condition of the first-round pick going to Ottawa in this deal, it is unlikely that it will get even close to seventh overall in whichever year the condition is met.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was the first to report that DeBrincat had been traded, and the first to report he would land with Detroit. 

David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period was the first to report the contract details between the Red Wings and DeBrincat. 

PuckPedia was the first to report the conditions of the first-round pick going to the Senators in the deal. 

Snapshots: DeBrincat, Belleville Senators, Kaszczij

at CDT | by 6 Comments

Yesterday, we covered reports coming out of Ottawa that stated that Senators forward Alex DeBrincat and his representation’s lofty demands for his next contract extension have been a significant barrier to a DeBrincat trade getting over the finish line. Today, DeBrincat’s agent, Jeff Jackson, spoke on those reports telling The Athletic’s Ian Mendes that the report is “entirely false and without merit,” and that “there has been no agreement of any kind on an actual trade involving Alex.” (subscription link)

Addressing whether DeBrincat’s contract demands were holding up the possibility of his client being traded out of Ottawa, Jackson wrote quite firmly: “Agents and players don’t make trades … that’s the GM’s job.” DeBrincat, 25, has already made it clear that he’s not interested in signing long-term with the Senators, making a trade the preferred outcome for all involved in the process. With an arbitration date looming later this offseason, it appears there could be a growing level of hostility between the involved sides, one that could make reaching a final trade agreement all the more challenging.

More notes from across the NHL:

  • In other news coming out of the Senators organization, the team has announced the hire of Nathan McIver as an assistant coach on David Bell’s Belleville Senators staff. He’ll join Ottawa’s AHL affiliate as Bell’s second assistant coach, and joins from the Newfoundland Growlers of the ECHL. McIver is a former AHL defenseman who played in 36 career NHL games, and he’s had a fantastic two-season run with the Growlers on Eric Wellwood’s staff.
  • The Vancouver Canucks announced today that Roman Kaszczij has been named the team’s Head Athletic Therapist, earning this major role after five seasons in the Canucks organization. The team wrote that Kaszczij “played an instrumental role in establishing” their AHL affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks’s medical department, and now he’ll play a similarly important role on the off-ice staff in Vancouver.

More On Alex DeBrincat, Vladimir Tarasenko

at CDT | by 20 Comments

Ottawa Senators winger Alex DeBrincat was expected to be one of the hottest commodities on the offseason trade front for the second season in a row. After heading over to the Sens by way of Chicago last season, his offensive production took a small step back in 2022-23, and he then informed Ottawa he wasn’t willing to sign a long-term extension with them – or anywhere in Canada. Yesterday, general manager Pierre Dorion admitted to Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch that he’d granted DeBrincat’s camp permission to speak to teams about an extension on “multiple occasions,” but that proposed deals had fallen through at that point.

Garrioch was able to independently confirm that today, saying that DeBrincat’s desired contract extension is what’s holding up a trade going through – not the offers Ottawa is receiving for trade returns.

DeBrincat’s agent, Jeff Jackson, has been granted permission by the Senators to engage in contract extension talks with at least three different teams, Garrioch said. He’s reportedly seeking an eight-year, $70.2MM deal, coming in just under the $70.4MM extension Timo Meier signed with the New Jersey Devils last month. That would be an $8.775MM cap hit for DeBrincat, with Garrioch saying teams are trying to get him signed to a contract closer to the $8MM mark.

Obviously, the ongoing delay in resolving DeBrincat’s contract situation is hampering other important business for the Senators. Clearing his $9MM cap hit for the upcoming season would free up significant cap space, enabling the team to sign other players ahead of a 2023-24 season where the expectation is to unequivocally turn a corner in their rebuild – including, potentially, Vladimir Tarasenko, who The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta says is nearing a decision on where to sign. Ottawa remains in the running for his services, as do the Carolina Hurricanes (who’ve already added Dmitry Orlov and Michael Bunting as UFAs).

The New York Islanders and Anaheim Ducks have shown interest in acquiring DeBrincat, Garrioch reiterates, with offers likely to include a roster player that can contribute immediately.

Latest On Alex DeBrincat

at CDT | by 10 Comments

With Senators winger Alex DeBrincat making it known that he does not intend to sign a long-term deal with Ottawa, there has been an expectation of a trade for several weeks.  However, the draft came and went without any move and after yesterday’s flurry of signings, there aren’t many teams left that can cover the full cost of a long-term agreement.

Speaking with reporters yesterday including Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch, GM Pierre Dorion provided some updates on the status of trade talks.  He noted that on multiple occasions, they seemed to be close on a trade but once his agent (Wasserman’s Jeff Jackson) received permission to speak to the acquiring team about working out a new contract, they weren’t able to come to terms, scuttling the swap.

On Saturday, Dorion provided Jackson with permission to speak to multiple teams about a new contract for DeBrincat but again, nothing to this point has materialized.  The GM attempted to explain the reasoning:

There’s varying degrees of interest. Teams call, we get close to a deal, I give them permission, and sometimes they’re not ready to pay maybe the term that we’re ready to pay.  He’s 25 years old, so he’s looking for something in particular, and I can talk about it because we own his rights, so I think the degrees (of interest) vary.

DeBrincat is coming off a quieter year by his standards but he still put up 27 goals and 39 assists last season in his first year with Ottawa.  But with two 41-goal seasons under his belt from his time with Chicago, it would appear that Jackson is seeking a contract for his client that’s more commensurate with his historical production.  Evidently, teams aren’t giving into that just yet.

The Senators filed for club-elected salary arbitration with DeBrincat in the first window last month, taking the $9MM qualifying offer off the table.  Instead, that allows them to come in with an offer as low as $7.65MM.  Arbitration hearings don’t start until late July and roll into early August so that represents the next hard pressure point, so to speak.

However, it’s still in Ottawa’s best interest to try to get a trade done before then as this situation is likely holding up some of their offseason spending plans.  Until they know who they’re getting back for DeBrincat – it almost certainly won’t just be a futures-based return – they won’t know exactly how much more money they have left to work with.  Right now, there are still several quality players available on the open market.  By the time arbitration hearings being, that’s unlikely to be the case.  But at this point, the hold-up appears to be on DeBrincat’s end in terms of his asking price on a contract, not Ottawa’s asking price in a trade.

Atlantic Notes: DeBrincat, Maple Leafs, Hornqvist

at CDT | by 4 Comments

While many expected that the Senators would try to move pending RFA winger Alex DeBrincat at the draft with the hopes of getting a first-round pick, that clearly didn’t come to fruition with nary a single trade involving a first-round selection occurring.  However, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that Ottawa is trying to get someone that can help the team win now instead of a futures-based package.  The 25-year-old had 27 goals and 66 points in his first season with the Sens in 2022-23 and was owed a qualifying offer of $9MM.  However, the team got around that by filing for club-elected arbitration earlier this month, allowing them to offer just 85% of that amount ($7.65MM).  DeBrincat is not believed to have asked for a trade from Ottawa but has indicated that he is not interested in signing a long-term agreement to remain with the team.

More from the Atlantic Division:

  • The Maple Leafs don’t plan to execute a buyout before the window closes on Friday, GM Brad Treliving told reporters including Sportsnet’s Luke Fox. Veteran goaltender Matt Murray has long been a speculative candidate to be bought out, a move that would free up $4MM in flexibility to work this summer but they won’t go that route.  At least, they won’t for now.  Treliving noted that there is a second window to be made available as long as they have an arbitration filing.  Toronto has three arbitration-eligible players in goalie Ilya Samsonov plus defensemen Victor Mete and Mac Hollowell with the former being the most likely to file.  If that happens, Treliving and the Maple Leafs could re-assess Murray’s situation later in the summer.
  • It appears that winger Patric Hornqvist has indeed played his final NHL game as Panthers GM Bill Zito told George Richards of Florida Hockey Now that the veteran has now moved his family back to Sweden. The 36-year-old was shut down in early December after taking an elbow to the head but remained with the team during their run to the Stanley Cup Final.  Zito indicated that there are discussions underway about Hornqvist remaining with the team in some capacity.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

scroll to top