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Bob McKenzie

Edmonton To Sign Eric Gryba To One-Year Deal

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October 12, 11:05am: The Oilers have confirmed the signing, and announced that Gryba has been placed on waivers for purpose of assignment to the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL.

October 11, 1:55pm: Gryba will earn $950K in the NHL and $250K in the AHL but comes with a guarantee of $450K, as McKenzie tweets.

According to Bob McKenzie of TSN, the Edmonton Oilers are about to re-sign defenseman Eric Gryba to a one-year, two-way deal.

Gryba played last season with the Oilers and suited up for 53 games, but was only brought in on a PTO this summer. Still just 28 years old, Gryba hasn’t seen the AHL since 2012-13, but may have to prove that he can still be effective by leading Bakersfield instead of Edmonton.

After the signing of Kris Russell, the team had given Gryba a chance to talk to other teams and see if there was an NHL deal to be had somewhere. Evidently, he hasn’t found a better option than staying in the City of Champions for another year, and waiting for an injury for his chance with the big club.

Nikita Kucherov Signs Three-Year Deal With Lightning

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Restricted free agent Nikita Kucherov has signed a three year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning that will pay him $4.766MM per season. The two sides completed a ’bridge-deal’, after discussing long-term options. Yesterday, Bob McKenzie reported that Kucherov was on his way back to North America to sign a deal, and today we get the details on the contract. Nikita Kucherov

At $4.766MM for three years, Kucherov will remain a restricted free agent at the end of the deal. Both sides will have to get together and see if they can then work out a longer-term extension, one that would likely see the winger paid handsomely for his free agent seasons.

In the past two seasons, Kucherov has proven himself as an elite goal-scoring winger with seasons of 28 and 30 markers. His real impact though has come in the playoffs, where he has put up 41 points in 43 games, en route to multiple series victories. At just 23-years old, Kucherov looks like he’ll be able to put up 30+ goals for the next decade, though perhaps they won’t all be in Tampa.

The Lightning likely were exploring every avenue to open up more cap space, since this deal takes them right up to it as the season begins. The team now has under $800K, meaning they couldn’t afford to buy out any of Kucherov’s free agent years, which would have pushed the cap hit above $6MM.

This summer has been a great one for GM Steve Yzerman, who now has his top three players locked up long-term in Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman and Kucherov. While Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Jonathan Drouin are all restricted free agents next summer, at least now he has some cost certainty (and cap savings, it seems) to work with.  All three deals have come in slightly below the expected rate, with each saying that playing in Tampa Bay together is a big part of why they signed. If they can build a core who want to stay together long-term, the Lightning will be a force to be reckoned with for the next while.

Ducks Expected To Make Trade Once Rakell, Lindholm Sign

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According to Bob McKenzie of TSN, the Anaheim Ducks are going to have to make a deal after completing contracts with their currently pending restricted free agents Rickard Rakell and Hampus Lindholm.  As discussed on this site yesterday, Rakell isn’t any closer to a deal with the Ducks, however McKenzie does hear that the two sides are close on money and term and that it’s something else holding up the deal.

Either way, when Rakell and Lindholm come in for something around $9MM combined, the Ducks will be way over the cap and need to shed some salary. McKenzie says as much in a tweet today, in which he suggests that Cam Fowler will be the odd man out in Anaheim and be on the move while the ink is still drying.

If it is Fowler, one would imagine many teams would be after the 24-year old. The former first-round pick will have over 450 games in the NHL before his 25th birthday, bringing a mixture of youth and experience to whichever team lands him. Fowler is owed $8MM over the next two seasons, a fine number for a player who many would consider a top-4 defenseman. He’ll become an unrestricted free agent following the 2017-18 season, and be looking for a long-term deal.

The Ducks seemingly have painted themselves into a corner this summer, with the addition of Jonathan Bernier’s deal. If Frederik Andersen being shipped to Toronto was a cost-saving measure, it has been completely undone by taking the former Leafs goaltender back. The Ducks are expected to start John Gibson for the majority of their games this season, despite making almost $2MM less than Bernier.

There is also the impending expansion draft, in which one of the Ducks young defenders is sure to be at risk, as the picture stands currently. If the team was to start moving pieces like Fowler out however, perhaps they’ll be able to keep their whole pipeline intact.

Nikita Kucherov Closing In On Bridge Deal With Tampa Bay

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According to Bob McKenzie of TSN, restricted free agent Nikita Kucherov is en route to North America from Russia to sign a bridge deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning.  While the team has been trying to lock the winger up long-term, it doesn’t look like that kind of a deal will get done before the season starts; instead, the two sides will agree to a shorter term and re-evaluate in two or three years.

Kucherov is coming off back-to-back all-star seasons, scoring 65 and 66 points over the last two. Leading a team in scoring that includes Steven Stamkos is no small feat, though the winger did just that in 2015-16. Already a 30-goal scorer at 23, Kucherov will eventually be given a huge contract to play in this league.

After re-signing Stamkos, Victor Hedman and others this summer, the Lightning have to be careful with their cap space going forward, having just $5.5MM at the moment for this season. Though a bridge deal would likely come in just shy of that for Kucherov, a long-term deal that bought out any free agent years would have seen that rate jump quite a bit.  Johnny Gaudreau recently signed for $6.75MM, and only gave up a single year on the open market.

Boston Offers Christian Ehrhoff Professional Tryout

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According to Bob McKenzie via Twitter, the Boston Bruins have offered defenseman Christian Ehrhoff a professional tryout. After an impressive performance with Team Europe, Ehrhoff was given the chance to extend his NHL career with the Bruins. During the World Cup of Hockey, Ehrhoff had three assists in six games.

Last season, Ehrhoff signed a one-year, $1.5MM contract with the Kings but the move never panned out. Instead, he was dealt to Chicago for Rob Scuderi and played sparingly with the Blackhawks. In 40 games with the Kings, he had 10 points (2-8) while with Chicago he had 2 assists in 8 games. He did not appear in any playoff games during the Hawks’ seven game series loss to the Blues.

NBC’s Cam Tucker points out that while Ehrhoff is on the wrong side of 30, and has seen his skill set steadily decline, he has a chance to work in with a “seasoned” group of defenseman that include Zdeno Chara, and John-Michael Liles.

Latest On Rickard Rakell

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In a series of tweets Wednesday evening, Bob McKenzie shed some light on the status of restricted free agent Rickard Rakell.  Still unsigned, Rakell has been rehabbing from appendectomy surgery performed in September, and is still unable to skate or work out, though he’s expected to get back on the ice in another week.

While the young forward is rehabbing, McKenzie reports that there is an ongoing dialogue between his camp and the Ducks; a promising sign to be sure. From the player side, a contract like the one Victor Rask of Carolina received, $4MM per season for six years, is a starting point though Anaheim does not want to commit that much money to a player who has only 165 games under his belt.

Last season was a breakout for the Swedish centerman, as he increased his goal total from nine to twenty, and estabilished himself as a legitimate top-six player.  While Anaheim doesn’t have any interest in a bridge deal, McKenzie speculates that a six-year deal paying Rakell under $4MM per season is what it will ultimately come down to.

If Anaheim can get him for that much, it would be quite beneficial to both sides.  The Ducks would have their young second-line center locked up long term for a reasonable hit, and would be ecstatic if he developed into the 60+ point player his potential shows. Rakell, on the other hand, would guarantee himself a big paycheck even if 2015-16 was a career high in goals.

Rakell was never the biggest scorer in junior (though he did have very solid numbers), and he was thought of coming into the draft as a respectable player at all facets.  At 23, if he can solidify himself as a perennial 20-25 goal man, he’d hit the open market at 29 with the chance for another big contract.

Snapshots: Cowen, Werenski, Heatherington

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The long and contentious Jared Cowen saga seems to finally have an end date put in place, as the arbitration hearing has been set to determine whether the Toronto Maple Leafs were actually able to buy out the defenseman. Toronto successfully bought Cowen out earlier this summer, but the NHLPA has filed a grievance and contends that they were not allowed to do so, due to Cowen’s continuing injured status.

On October 19th, according to Bob McKenzie, an arbitrator will decide whether to uphold or reverse the buyout. If Cowen wins, he would be due his $4.5MM salary, where as if the buyout was upheld, he’d earn just $750K this season and next.

For the Maple Leafs, that $3.75MM in savings would help the rebuild even further, as they’ve used their financial power to gain assets (or, usually, rid themselves of burdens) over the past few seasons. Cowen underwent hip surgery this summer and won’t be ready for any kind of hockey until February at the earliest.

  • For the Blue Jackets, this season holds a lot of promise. One of the biggest stories will be the debut of Zach Werenski, the team’s top prospect (outside of perhaps Pierre-Luc Dubois). As Werenski gets ready to make his preseason debut on Thursday, he wrote a piece for NHL.com describing the journey he’s taken so far. “I’m trying to make the NHL. It’s a little nerve-wracking, I won’t lie, but I feel confident that I can make it happen,” he writes, being honest with himself and the reader instead of spouting bravado. Werenski certainly seems ready; he joined the Lake Erie Monsters late last season, and led them with 14 points in the playoffs en route to a Calder Cup victory.
  • Still with Columbus, Tom Reed of the Columbus Dispatch reports that Dillon Heatherington has suffered a fractured wrist and will be out 6-8 weeks. A second-round pick in 2013, he was set to continue his development at the AHL level this season.  Aaron Portzline, also of the Dispatch, adds that fellow prospect Keegan Kolesar has undergone hernia surgery and will be out at least six weeks. Kolesar scored 61 points in 64 games with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL last season, and will head back for one more year.

RFA Notes

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It’s been an unusual off-season in the NHL, with seven high profile Restricted Free Agents (RFAs) remaining a week into training camp. Compared to last off-season, when teams moved quickly to sign or trade players to avoid the threat of offer sheets.

In a series of tweets, TSN’s Bob McKenzie sent out the latest in negotiations from across the league.

Anaheim Ducks – Hampus Lindholm and Rickard Rakell – The Ducks are using Morgan Rielly and Seth Jones as comparable contracts, while Lindholm’s camp is pointing to Aaron Ekblad’s $7.5MM AAV. McKenzie clarifies that Lindholm isn’t asking for $7.5MM, more in the $6MM-plus range. McKenzie hasn’t been able to determine the range of numbers from the Rakell negotiations yet.

Arizona Coyotes – Tobias Rieder – The two sides are less than $500K apart. Rieder is currently looking for two years at $2.5MM per season, while the Coyotes aren’t budging on their offer of two years in the low $2MM range. Rieder does have KHL offers to consider, or McKenzie suggests he could ask for a trade or hold out.

Buffalo Sabres – Rasmus Ristolainen – The Sabres and Ristolainen are in the same situation as the Ducks and Lindholm, according to McKenzie. The two sides are at least $1MM apart, with each side standing firm with their comparables.

Calgary Flames – Johnny Gaudreau – This is likely the most fascinating case, as Gaudreau isn’t technically an RFA because he falls under the 10.2(c) CBA clause. Because Gaudreau hasn’t accrued three years experience, he isn’t eligible for an offer sheet and therefore has basically no power, other than holding out. McKenzie believes the Flames want Gaudreau to sign in the same range as Sean Monahan (six-years, $6.375MM per) and no higher than captain Mark Giordano ($6.75MM per), while Gauderau is looking for more than $8MM per season. The two sides have not negotiated recently, according to McKenzie, who called the situation “bit of a Cold War”.

Tampa Bay Lightning – Nikita Kucherov – If not Gaudreau, then Kucherov is definitely the most complex RFA situation due to the Lightning’s cap issues. While Kucherov has a long list of comparable contracts in the six-year, $36MM range, that’s not possible in the Lightning’s current state. They’ll need to move someone to accommodate another $6MM; McKenzie believes Ben Bishop will be traded sometime this season, but expects he’ll start the season in Tampa.

Winnipeg Jets – Jacob Trouba – There has been plenty of digital ink spilled on Trouba’s trade request, but the only new information from McKenzie was that Trouba is not interested in signing an offer sheet, because the Jets would not be allowed to trade him for a calendar year, should they match. That defeats the purpose of wanting to be traded.

It is still early in the season, but there is a firm deadline coming up: December 1st. Should an RFA not be signed by then, then he will be ineligible to play for the remainder of the season.

This is likely only a consideration for Trouba, with the Jets’ habit of slow-playing trade requests and waiting out poor trade offers.

Snapshots: World Cup Buzz, Shaw, Trouba

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Team Canada is one game away from winning the World Cup of Hockey after defeating Team Europe in Game One of the Finals on Tuesday night, but there was something noticeably missing in Toronto: a loud crowd.

Canada won 3-1 against Team Europe’s “best game of the tournament”, despite playing “nonchalant” according to TSN’s Frank Seravalli. However, the lack of a natural rivalry between them and a mixture of eight smaller European countries, combined with the relative ease with which Canada has rolled through this tournament lead to empty seats and a less-than-enthusiastic atmosphere.

Canadian defenseman Alex Pietrangelo told Greg Wyshnyski that “once the game got going, the excitement was there. But you play against the Americans, you play against the Russians, and it’s obviously different.”

Steven Stamkos noticed it too, saying the team’s other games had “away fans that were creating some noise. This was probably the team that had the least amount of support, just because of the makeup of the team in the tournament to start with.”

It’s unfortunate to see the relative lack of interest surrounding the final, especially after the buzz generated by Team North America earlier in the tournament.

In other news from around the hockey world:

  • Newly-acquired Montreal Canadiens forward Andrew Shaw has only played one game for his new team, and is already garnering attention from the NHL Department of Player Safety. Shaw hit Capitals’ rookie Connor Hobbs from behind after feeling he was slew-footed by Caps forward Jay Beagle. Shaw subsequently fought another rookie in Nathan Walker, and tried to pump up crowd mid-fight before landing the decisive blow.
  • With the news that Jacob Trouba has wanted out of Winnipeg since May, many analysts have wondered why the Oilers didn’t move Taylor Hall for Trouba, instead of Adam Larsson. However, Bob McKenzie gave TSN 1050 two reasons why a trade centered around Hall for Trouba didn’t materialize (transcribed by Chris Nichols from Today’s Slapshot). First, the Jets weren’t interesting in spending $6MM on Hall when they knew they would have Nik Ehlers, Patrik Laine, and Kyle Connor patrolling the port side for a considerably lower cost. Secondly, McKenzie believes the Oilers like Trouba, but doesn’t believe they are one of the frontrunners for his services. He points to Oilers coach Todd McLellan’s usage of Trouba at the World Cup for the U-24 team; Trouba didn’t crack the lineup until Aaron Ekblad was injured. The Oilers clearly rank Larsson as a better NHL defenseman today.

Bruins Sign Brad Marchand To Long-Term Extension

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It’s been a great week for Brad Marchand.

He’s playing on Canada’s top line at the World Cup, and now the Boston Bruins forward has some contract security.

According to TSN’s Bob McKenzie, Marchand has signed an 8-year, $49MM extension. That works out to $6.125MM per season, a notable increase from Marchand’s current AAV of $4.5MM.

ESPN’s Craig Custance reports Marchand will have a full no-move for the first five seasons on the deal, before changing to a limited no-trade clause. As well, $24MM of the contract is paid via signing bonuses, according to CapFriendly.

Contract-wise, recent comparable players include Mark Scheifele, Sean Monahan, Nathan MacKinnon, Milan Lucic, Andrew Ladd, and Kyle Okposo. Marchand is entering the prime of his career, and looks to live up to his new deal.

Marchand scored 37 goals and 61 points in 77 games last season, playing on the Bruins top line with Patrice Bergeron and now former-Bruin Loui Eriksson.

 

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