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Antoine Vermette

Anaheim Signs Antoine Vermette

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Mar 12, 2016; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; Arizona Coyotes center Antoine Vermette (50) celebrates his goal against the Edmonton Oilers during the third period at Rexall Place. Arizona Coyotes won 4-0. Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY SportsThe Anaheim Ducks have added some depth to their bottom six, announcing that they have inked Antoine Vermette to a two year contract.  TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie reports the deal carries a cap hit of $1.75MM.

Vermette was bought out of the final year of his contract by Arizona earlier this month despite collecting 17 goals and 21 assists to go along with a 55.9% success rate at the faceoff dot in 76 games with the Coyotes last season.  As a result of doing so, Vermette will also collect $1.25MM from his former team for each of the next two years.  That means instead of being guaranteed $3.75MM for 2015-16 and being unrestricted afterwards (his original contract), he is now guaranteed $6MM over the next two seasons so being bought out certainly worked out in his favor.

This will mark Vermette’s fifth team in his career as he has also suited up with Ottawa, Columbus, and Chicago.  Overall, he has played in 910 career NHL contests, scoring 211 goals while adding 260 assists.  He also has been a strong player on faceoffs throughout his career as he has won over 56% of the greater than 12,000 draws he has taken.

Vermette should likely slot in as the third or fourth center for the Ducks and also has played the left wing at times throughout his career, giving Anaheim some much needed flexibility inside their bottom six.  He joins Mason Raymond and Jared Boll as new acquisitions up front for Anaheim this summer.

[Related: Updated Ducks’ Depth Chart]

The Ducks now have a little over $6.65MM in cap space to work with this offseason according to Cap Friendly.  They have two of the 20 remaining restricted free agents in defenseman Hampus Lindholm and center Rickard Rakell.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Five Teams Interested In Antoine Vermette

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It appears that it won’t be much longer before free agent center Antoine Vermette finds his new home.  On Saturday morning, his agent Allan Walsh tweeted that the 34 year old has received offers from five NHL teams (none were specified) and will make a decision on which of those to take no later than Monday.

Vermette posted his second straight 38 point season in 2015-16, recording 17 goals and 21 assists in 76 games while averaging 16:39 per night, his lowest ATOI since 2006-07.  He also continued his strong play at the faceoff dot, winning 55.8% of the 1,351 draws he took.

Despite that, the Coyotes opted to buy him out at the beginning of the month when a second window opened up following the pre-arbitration settlement with defenseman Michael Stone.  It’s believed that Arizona intends to use Vermette’s old roster spot for top prospects Dylan Strome or Christian Dvorak next season.

Arizona is paying Vermette $1.25MM in each of the next two years (with an equal salary cap charge) and will not receive any relief from those amounts when he signs with his new team.

2015 Free Agent Signings That Didn’t Pan Out

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A few of last year’s free agent signings defied the odds and actually turned into either steals for their team or at least, proved to be a solid value. A lesson taught in physics is that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The same can possibly be said for free agent signings, evidently, as for every signing that worked out there was one that didn’t. Here’s a quick rundown on a few of 2015’s free agent busts.

  • Andrej Sekera – Edmonton (six years, $5.5MM AAV) – Sekera was pursued and ultimately signed by the Oilers, a team with plenty of offensive firepower but one in desperate need of defensive help. The hope was Sekera could fill a role on the club’s top pair while providing experience and stability to a defense corps short on both. While Sekera wasn’t terrible – he did net 30 points for the Oilers – he had no positive effect on the team’s possession numbers and while they did cut their GAA from 3.45 in 2014-15 to 3.0 this past season, Edmonton still ranked just 27th in goals allowed overall. It might be unfair to pin the blame on Sekera alone but his cap hit is tied for 24th highest among defensemen, suggesting he is compensated at the level of a #1 blue liner. The Oilers are paying for a top-pair defender but Sekera performed more at the level of a #4.
  • Zbynek Michalek – Arizona (two years, $3.2MM AAV) – Michalek had several good seasons over two stints in the desert and after hitting free agency following a 2015 deadline deal from the Coyotes to St. Louis, Arizona elected to bring the veteran back for another tour of duty. Like Sekera, Michalek was expected to add experience and leadership to a blue line that was populated primarily by younger players. Unlike Sekera, however, Michalek wasn’t expected to be a top pair defender. Unfortunately, Michalek had a down year, one not good enough even for a bottom pair defender. He placed among the absolute worst defensemen in the NHL in CF% (Corsi For %). His 43.9% CF% was 3.7% lower than the team average, indicating he was a significant drag on his teammates while he was on the ice. Even if a $3.2MM AAV isn’t a cap killer, it isn’t good business for a budget team like the Coyotes to pay that price for poor production.
  • Antoine Vermette – Arizona (two years, $3.75MM AAV) – Not singling the Coyotes out but it’s signings like this one and the Michalek contract that likely played a role in Arizona’s offseason organizational changes. At first, re-signing Vermette after a brief stint with Chicago where the veteran pivot won the Stanley Cup, made a lot of sense. He’d had a couple of productive seasons in the desert prior to the trade and on a two-year deal, the consistent 40-point production seemed well worth the investment. However, Vermette’s play nosedived last season resulting in the team buying out the final year of his contract. On the surface, Vermette’s 38 points in 76 games falls in line with his past level of production. However, his even strength scoring rate dropped to a career low 1.04 Pts/60; a figure that ranked 315th in the NHL among forwards. Vermette also struggled in the puck possession department finishing with a CF% of just 46.3%. Vermette still can be a useful NHL player but it made sense for the Coyotes to move on from that expensive contract.
  • Alexander Semin – Montreal (one year, $1.1MM) – Semin has always been a divisive figure between the traditional hockey folks and the analytically minded. Traditionalists saw Semin as a supremely talented but unmotivated player who rarely played to his potential while stat guys based his value on the terrific possession and scoring rates. Regardless, after Carolina bought him out of that ill-advised, five-year, $35MM deal last summer, nearly everyone agreed Montreal’s signing of Semin to a cheap, one-year contract was a smart move. At the least the Canadiens would get middling production for low cost. At best Semin would play up to his 40-goal ability and the Canadiens would have the steal of the summer. Semin would only make it two months into the season, scoring one goal and four points in 15 games, before Montreal decided they’d seen enough. On December 10th, both sides agreed to mutually terminate the agreement and Semin returned to Russia to finish out the year. Granted, the actual financial investment was limited, but the Canadiens desperately needed a quality scorer on the wing and counted on Semin to provide that. In hindsight, Montreal would have been better off looking elsewhere for offense.

Roster Crunch: Pacific Division

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While the NHL season is still more than two months away, it seems as though most teams have finished their free agent shopping and are now focused internally on roster decisions they’ll have to make. We’ll take a look at some of the options teams will have this fall, starting with the Pacific Division.

Anaheim Ducks – 2015-16 division winners Anaheim were discussed at length last weekend, with seemingly way too many bodies than roster spots on their blueline. With between seven and ten players who deserve to be in the NHL next season (depending on how you feel about youngsters Shea Theodore and Andy Welinski), the team is still expected to make a move to shore up their forward group.

Los Angeles Kings – Like the Ducks, the Kings have quite a few options on their back-end after signing Tom Gilbert to a one-year contract.  With four spots locked up between Drew Doughty, Jake Muzzin, Alec Martinez and Brayden McNabb, the last two will be some combination of Gilbert, veteran Rob Scuderi and Matt Greene. That’s to say nothing of NCAA transplant Paul LaDue who will figure into the Kings’ plans before long.

San Jose Sharks – It’s said that depth down the middle is a key to success in the NHL, and the Sharks have that in spades.  It looks like they’ll go into next season with at least six forwards who are capable of playing center. Often last season the top line was made up of three of them, with Joe Thornton between Tomas Hertl and Joe Pavelski. If the team wants to move the young Hertl back to his natural position (as they did at points last season), they’ll have to find ice-time for him behind Thornton and Logan Couture.

Arizona Coyotes – The crunch has already started to affect Arizona, as the team bought out veteran Antoine Vermette recently to open up a spot for one of their young forwards. With Dylan Strome and Christian Dvorak both leaving junior after huge seasons, they’ll look to make the jump to the NHL this season. The Coyotes may ice one of the youngest lines in the league this year, if Strome ends up between Max Domi and Anthony Duclair like many have speculated. Another spot could open up if RFA Tobias Rieder ends up overseas next season, as has been rumored lately.

Calgary Flames – Will top pick Matthew Tkachuk break camp with the Flames, and where will he play? Many eyes will be focused on the second-generation NHLer this fall, as he tries to force his way onto the Flames roster. Otherwise, the Flames have some decisions to make on the blueline if Ladislav Smid declares himself healthy enough to start the season and Dennis Wideman remains on the roster. Jyrki Jokipakka hopes he did enough last season to deserve a spot, but if both veterans are around when October 12th roles around, he may find himself on the outside looking in.

Vancouver Canucks – The Canucks are one of the hardest teams to figure out in the league, as they seem caught somewhere between rebuilding and trying to contend. Outside of their top-four, it’ll be a battle for the defensemen in camp to lock up a spot.  Luca Sbisa has a contract that will probably guarantee him a spot, but his diminished play and injury history makes him a poor choice for the Canucks. If they decide to contend, icing him every night ahead of younger, more effective defensemen seems unwise.

Edmonton Oilers – It’s been long said that the Oilers don’t have any defensemen, and while it may still be figuratively true based on the overall skill, the team actually has too many bodies for their back end under contract. After trading for Adam Larsson, the team has eight defenders worthy of NHL time, including Jordan Oesterle who many believe proved his ability last season. One of them though, former captain Andrew Ference, may be on his own way out as he has stated more than once he’s heading to retirement if the Oilers’ buy him out.  They haven’t been able to yet because of Ference’s lingering injury, but the two sides should come to an agreement before camp.

Coyotes Notes: Rieder, Vermette, Strome

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Arizona restricted free agent winger Tobias Rieder is reportedly now seeking a two year contract with a cap hit of $2.75MM, reports Arizona Sports’ Craig Morgan.  Rieder’s agent, Darren Ferris, has also proposed a three year pact, also believed to be at $2.75MM each year and a four year offer with a cap hit of $3MM, one that would take the 23 year old to unrestricted free agency.

Meanwhile, the Coyotes are believed to be offering somewhere between $2MM and $2.3MM per season on a two year deal and would up the offer closer to $2.5MM on a three year deal.

Ferris has suggested recently that Rieder has received offers from overseas that are higher than what the Coyotes have offered so far.  The big question is would Rieder seriously consider signing elsewhere or is it just a negotiating ploy to get GM John Chayka to up their offer?  Morgan tweeted today that Ferris noted the start of the KHL season (August 22nd) won’t affect contract talks and that any decision to go to the Russian league would be made after the World Cup of Hockey.  Rieder will suit up for Team Europe in that tournament.

Last season, Rieder posted career numbers across the board, collecting 14 goals and 23 assists while playing in all 82 games.  He also saw his average ice time jump up to 17:18 per game, fourth highest among Coyote forwards.

Other news and notes from the Coyotes:

  • Chayka commented further on Monday’s surprising decision to buy out Antoine Vermette, telling Dave Vest on the team’s official website that it was a very difficult decision. “It’s the toughest day I’ve had so far in this role … Antoine was a class act for us, and on and off the ice he’s a great player and a great person, and he helped us grow this organization. We’re certainly thankful and grateful for that. For us, it just came down to a matter of we have to continue to improve our group and we need to move forward and get better as quickly as we can. With some of the young players that we have in the pipeline there’s some flexibility that this move creates. We felt it was necessary to do so to improve our group. It was a tough decision.”
  • Arizona has five prospects taking place in this week’s World Junior Summer Showcase, a development camp and tournament for prospects from Canada, the USA, Finland, and Sweden. Among those is 2015 third overall pick Dylan Strome with Team Canada.  While it’s anticipated that Vermette’s departure was made largely in part to create a roster spot for Strome with the Coyotes last season, Chayka wouldn’t go as far as confirming that he’ll play with Arizona in 2016-17 in that same interview.  He did suggest that he has higher expectations for Strome in training camp, saying that “As camp wears on and fatigue starts to set in and he’s playing up against bigger and stronger players, I think he’ll have that endurance this year to get himself through. Right now he’s doing everything that he can to make sure that’s the case and that’s a comforting thing as a manager to see.”

Snap Shots: Vermette, Havlat, Oilers, Vegas

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Yesterday, Arizona Coyotes GM John Chayka made the somewhat surprising decision to place veteran center Antoine Vermette on waivers for the purpose of buying out the final year of his contract. By all accounts Vermette didn’t have his best season in 2015-16 but still netted 38 points, including 16 on the power play, in 76 games. But in the club’s release announcing the move, Chayka cited the desire to give opportunities to some of the organization’s young players, including perhaps top prospects Christian Dvorak and Dylan Strome.

Regardless of why he’s now available, a player with Vermette’s track record is likely going to draw a fair amount of interest from other clubs. However, the Boston Bruins should not be among those teams, at least that’s the opinion of Joe Haggerty writing for CSNNE.com.

Haggerty argues that signing the 34-year-old Vermette doesn’t mesh with the Bruins’ desire to get younger. I’d argue there isn’t much of a fit in Bean Town since the Bruins already boast Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci at the center position. The team also added David Backes as a free agent and he comes with plenty of experience in the middle. Even if they decided to play Backes on the wing, Boston lists 24-year-old Ryan Spooner as a center and he is coming off a career high 49-point season. There just doesn’t seem to be room for Vermette on this roster.

Now, more from around the league.

  • The list of available free agents may increase by one as Allan Walsh, the agent for former NHLer Martin Havlat, has indicated via tweet his client is currently training with HC Kometa Brno in the Czech League with the intent of returning to the NHL next season. Havlat appeared in just two contests for the St. Louis Blues in 2015-16 before leaving the club for “personal reasons.” He had earned a job with the team after signing a PTO in October. Prior to his abbreviated stint with St. Louis, Havlat had skated in 788 NHL games, spending time with Ottawa, Chicago, Minnesota, San Jose and New Jersey. At one point Havlat was one of the league’s top young offensive players, tallying 31 goals and 37 assists for the Senators in 2003-04, playing most of the season as a 22-year-old. Those prolific scoring days are long gone and in recent seasons Havlat has produced roughly 0.5 Pts/Game. That doesn’t mean a team won’t take a flier on the talented Czech in hopes he can produce even at that level and hold down a regular spot in their top-nine on the cheap.
  • The expansion Las Vegas franchise continues to assemble its front office staff with the club announcing the hiring of Kelly McCrimmon as assistant general manager. McCrimmon, has been the majority owner, GM and head coach of the Brandon Wheat Kings of the WHL. He has won the WHL’s Executive of the Year award three times since 1995. It was reported earlier this summer that Las Vegas had requested permission from Washington to interview their assistant GM, Ross Mahoney, for the same role. Of course GM George McPhee knows Mahoney well from their days together in the Capitals front office so the potential fit was obvious. It’s not known whether Washington refused permission for Vegas to speak with Mahoney or if the club just elected to go in a different direction.
  • In other management news, the Edmonton Oilers are expected to name Keith Gretzky as an assistant GM, a recent rumor all but confirmed via tweet from Bob McKenzie of TSN. Gretzky is of course the brother of Wayne and has served as the director of amateur scouting for the Boston Bruins, where he worked under current Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli. Obviously Gretzky made a good impression on Chiarelli during their time together in Boston.

 

Snapshots: Predators, Strome, Athanasiou

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The Nashville Predators are gearing up for an exciting season writes Adam Vingan of the Tennessean. Vingan makes his case for a trio of predictions as the season approaches. He writes that the over/under should be set at 35 goals for Filip Forsberg, but sees him falling short of 40. As for newly acquired defenseman P.K. Subban, Vingan bets that Subban will easily break 60 points. Vingan sees Pekka Rinne’s as playing better than last season, but cautions that it may not be significant enough to warrant a dramatic improvement. He also points out that it was Rinne’s up and down play that made the Predators inconsistent.

In other NHL news:

  • Arizona Coyotes forward Dylan Strome says he’s done with junior hockey and the timing couldn’t be more impeccable. With the Coyotes buying out the contract of Antoine Vermette earlier today, the path seems clear for the 19-year-old forward. Craig Hagerman writes that the 2015 third overall pick is ready for the next step in his career after posting consecutive 100+ point seasons in the OHL. One of the final roster cuts last Fall, Hagerman reports that another year of seasoning and strong performance has Strome hopeful for a shot with the big club.
  • Speedy Detroit Red Wings forward Andreas Athanasiou isn’t concerned about his starting place this fall the Detroit Free Press’ Helene St. James reports.  Despite dazzling when given some ice time late in the regular season and then the playoffs, Athanasiou might be an odd man out when the Red Wings head into the 2016-17 season. With the addition of forwards Thomas Vanek, Frans Nielsen, and Steve Ott, roster space is limited, but Athanasiou says that he won’t let if affect him. St. James writes that along with Anthony Mantha, Athanasiou cannot be claimed on waivers. While this may not prove popular with the Red Wings fanbase, Athanasiou seems more concerned about building on last year’s successes.

 

What’s Next For Antoine Vermette?

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After the shocking news today that the Coyotes bought out Antoine Vermette’s contract, hockey insiders and analysts deconstructed the transaction.  The big question now is if Vermette will find another team to land with before the start of the 2016-17 season.

Puck Daddy’s Greg Wyshynski sees this as a logical move for both sides.  A deep dive shows the wisdom in Wyshynski’s words.

The Eye Test

Vermette was owed $3.75MM over the next two seasons. He previously made the same amount when he inked a five-year, $18.75MM deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2010. Thanks to a career year during the 2009-10 season that saw a 65 point campaign, Vermette cashed in. He never reached that total again, but still had productive seasons.

His playoff totals also helped his stock with the Coyotes in 2011-12, and then scored some timely goals during the Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup run in 2014-15.  He found his way back to the desert the following season, registering 38 points (17-21) in 76 games.

Though he did see his ice time decrease with the Blackhawks, Vermette was still viewed as a valuable commodity. The value certainly was there, and the Coyotes simply re-signed a player they were comfortable with.

Other factors

Puck Daddy’s Josh Cooper shared a tweet that honed in on the advanced stats attached to Vermette. The results revealed a player with declining performance. Vermette was not justifying the $3.75MM he was costing the Coyotes. This is a team being rebuilt by an analytics strategist with young talent waiting in the wings. There wasn’t a lot of motivation for general manager John Chayka to take ice time away from players he purportedly would rather see out there.  The full reasoning was laid out in Chayka’s team release.

Where will he go?

Vermette still has value, it’s just a matter of what he would want financially and in terms of ice time. He’s still only 34 years old, and presumably has at least 2-3 years of hockey left in him.  Though teams wouldn’t acquire him via trade, that was when he held a nearly $4MM cap hit. Now a free agent, acquiring a 40 point player at a significant discount is certainly an attractive option. Craig Morgan tweets that he expects Vermette to generate some interest.

In terms of compatibles, 26-year-old Sam Gagner fetched just $650K on the open market. Sure, he had a significant drop off in terms of production (41 points to 16), but he’s still younger. Compared to his past performance, it appeared an anomaly to his normally consistent self. But that anomaly cost him financially.

Expect Vermette to be plucked off the free agent heap–just at a more cap friendly price.

Coyotes Buy Out Antoine Vermette

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The Coyotes announced that they have bought out center Antoine Vermette.  The announcement came less that two hours after it was reported that the team had placed him on unconditional waivers as first reported by AZSports’ Craig Morgan.

Vermette is able to be bought out as a result of the second buyout window that opened up after the Coyotes re-signed Michael Stone, who had filed for arbitration last month.  In a separate tweet, Morgan notes that GM John Chayka did try to trade Vermette before proceeding with this move.

The veteran had a decent year with the Coyotes last season, posting 17 goals and 21 assists, matching his 38 point output from the previous season.  His role with Arizona was reduced last season as his ice time dropped from 18:59 per game to 16:39 in 2015-16.

Presumably, the decision to let Vermette go was likely made to help free up a spot for some of their top prospects such as Dylan Strome and Christian Dvorak.  The 34 year old has one season left on a two year pact signed last offseason worth $3.75MM per year.

From a salary cap perspective, the buyout costs Arizona $1.25MM in both salary and cap hit for both 2016-17 and 2017-18.  That will free up $2.5MM on this season’s cap.  The Coyotes are no stranger to having cap charges for players who aren’t playing for them as Pavel Datsyuk, Chris Pronger, and Mike Ribeiro are all on their cap for 2016-17 despite the fact that none of them will suit up for the team.  Add in Vermette’s $1.25MM buyout charge and the Coyotes will have a cap charge of over $15.1MM for players who won’t actually play for them next year.

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