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Clay Stevenson

Snapshots: Three Stars, Krejci, Stevenson

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The NHL released its Three Stars for last week, with Connor McDavid taking the top spot. The Edmonton Oilers superstar had eight points which, incredibly, all came on goals that either tied the game or gave his team the lead. McDavid seems poised to win the Art Ross once again as the league’s top scorer, and the Rocket Richard is now well within his reach after such an outstanding start.

Second and third went to Jesper Bratt and Marc-Andre Fleury respectively, after their own strong performances. Bratt continues to be one of the most underrated offensive players in the league and now has 15 points in nine games this season. Fleury, meanwhile, rebounded from an iffy start and had a .927 in three appearances last week. His numbers aren’t very inspiring, but Fleury has gone 4-1-1 to start the year.

  • Boston Bruins forward David Krejci will miss at least the next few days with an upper-body injury. He now appears on the Bruins injured reserve list, meaning he’ll miss seven days since his last game. Still, head coach Jim Montgomery said that his veteran center will be traveling with the club and shouldn’t be out too long.
  • The Washington Capitals have assigned Clay Stevenson to the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, suggesting he has recovered enough to start getting back into game action. The 23-year-old was a free agent signing out of Dartmouth and underwent hand surgery at the beginning of October. Given a timeline of four to six weeks from then, his recovery seems to be right on track.

East Notes: Maple Leafs, Rangers, Penguins Injuries, Stevenson

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When Toronto lost of a pair of depth defensemen to injuries earlier this week (one of them a long-term injury), the team started calling around the league to inquire about of some of the veterans currently on PTOs, TSN’s Darren Dreger reports in the latest Insider Trading segment.  The Maple Leafs could sign one of those players on a tryout elsewhere as teams rarely stand in the way of someone getting a guaranteed contract but their search for extra depth could also have them monitoring the waiver wire over the next couple of weeks.  The re-signing of Rasmus Sandin will help but with Jake Muzzin and Timothy Liljegren already out on top of Wednesday’s two injuries, Toronto could certainly still use some depth on the back end.

More from the Eastern Conference:

  • It is believed that the Rangers have reached out to the representatives for winger Alexis Lafreniere and defenseman K’Andre Miller in the hopes of beginning discussions on contract extensions, notes Larry Brooks of the New York Post. Both players will be finishing their entry-level deals this season and with New York’s cap situation, they may have to work out short-term bridge agreements with both of them.  Lafreniere had 19 goals and 31 points in 79 games last season while Miller had 20 points in 2021-22 while logging over 20 minutes a night for the second straight year.
  • The Penguins are listing centers Jeff Carter and Teddy Blueger as day-to-day, relays Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Carter suffered an upper-body injury in an intrasquad scrimmage last weekend while Blueger was injured in a scrimmage on Tuesday.  Meanwhile, prospect forward John Gruden and veteran blueliner Taylor Fedun are also listed as day-to-day with undisclosed ailments.
  • The Capitals announced (Twitter link) that goaltender Clay Stevenson underwent surgery to repair an injury on his right hand. The procedure carries a recovery time of four-to-six weeks.  The 23-year-old will begin his professional career this season after spending the 2021-22 campaign with Dartmouth where he posted a .922 SV% in 23 games.

Washington Capitals Sign Clay Stevenson

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March 28: Stevenson has now officially signed his two-year entry-level deal, though it will begin in 2022-23, not this season. The contract carries an average annual value of $885K.

March 24: The Washington Capitals are expected to add some goaltending depth to the organization, as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet tweets that Clay Stevenson will join the organization now that his college season at Dartmouth is over. Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK TV adds that Stevenson met with both the Capitals and New York Rangers, while drawing interest from the Vancouver Canucks and Seattle Kraken.

Stevenson, 22, would normally have been in his sophomore season, but missed all of 2020-21 when the Ivy League schools decided to cancel men’s hockey. Instead, this was his first season of college hockey, and he ended up posting a .922 save percentage in 23 games. Even more impressive is that Dartmouth was not a strong team, leading to a 6-14-2 record on the year despite his solid numbers. Two of those six wins (the team had seven total) were even shutouts, likely instances that impressed scouts even more.

Notably, the Capitals went from having two young potential starters to lots of question marks in net over the past year, with Ilya Samsonov’s struggles the most surprising turn of events. Both Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek are restricted free agents at the end of the year (arbitration-eligible), meaning there could eventually be a path to the NHL in Washington for a player like Stevenson. Undrafted, the 6’4″ netminder became a star in the BCHL–recording a 30-2-2 record with a .936 in his final season–before heading to college.

As he is already 23, he’ll be signing a two-year entry-level contract.

Capitals Notes: Johansson, Stevenson, Van Riemsdyk, Defense Target

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The Capitals are among the teams that have shown interest in Kraken winger Marcus Johansson, reports TSN’s Chris Johnston (Twitter link).  The 31-year-old has had a bit of a quiet year in Seattle with six goals and 17 assists in 51 games but is someone that Washington is certainly familiar with as Johansson spent his first seven NHL seasons with the Caps.  Cap space is next to non-existent for them, however (just $63K per CapFriendly) so finding a way to fit in Johansson’s $1.5MM cap hit will be a bit tricky and Seattle has already used two of their three retention slots in the Calle Jarnkrok and Mark Giordano trades.

More from Washington:

  • The Capitals are among the teams interested in college free agent goaltender Clay Stevenson, relays Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 23-year-old technically just wrapped up his freshman year at Dartmouth and did well, posting a 2.70 GAA along with a .922 SV% in 23 games.  El-Bashir adds that several NHL teams are interested in the netminder.  Dartmouth isn’t among the teams in the NCAA tournament so Stevenson is someone that can sign at any time.
  • Washington has placed defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk on injured reserve, notes Roman Stubbs of the Washington Post. He suffered an upper-body injury on Friday against Carolina and will be eligible to return on Saturday against New Jersey.  The 30-year-old has played in 58 games this season, collecting 14 points while averaging nearly 18 minutes per game.
  • Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press suggests (Twitter link) that a low-cost left-shot defenseman is something Washington would like to add. Michal Kempny is up with the big club but carries a $2.5MM AAV; bringing in a lower-cost depth option could allow them to send Kempny back to the minors (pending waivers) which would help free up a little bit of cap space.

Clay Stevenson Drawing NHL Interest

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At the collegiate level, there are times when a player bursts onto the scene without a ton of prior hype. Sometimes it can even lead to the attention of NHL scouts or even an NHL entry-level contract. It appears that’s the case with Clay Stevenson, a goaltender from Dartmouth College who may end up earning a deal in the coming weeks.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet writes that NHL teams are already making pitches to the undrafted free agent, whose final regular season game is this weekend. Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK TV goes a step further, reporting that the Vancouver Canucks have an interest in the Chilliwack, British Columbia native.

Perhaps burst onto the scene is a bit hyperbolic in Stevenson’s case, given how well he played in the BCHL before leaving for college. For the Coquitlam Express in 2019-20, the big goaltender posted a 30-2-2 record with a .936 save percentage, taking home the BCHL Top Goaltender award but missing a chance to win the Fred Page Cup after the league was shut down because of COVID-19 concerns. It was COVID issues that stole what would have been Stevenson’s regular freshman season in 2020-21 as well when Dartmouth and the other Ivy League hockey programs decided not to play.

The NCAA ruled that he would not lose a season of eligibility though, so this year is technically an impressive freshman campaign for the 22-year-old, even on a team without much success. His record is just 5-10-2 on the year, but Stevenson has produced a .925 save percentage as the primary starter. He’s even posted a pair of shutouts, two of the program’s six total wins. One of those came just a few days ago against Princeton, likely piquing the interest of scouts even further as the Dartmouth season comes to an end.

On March 1, teams will be eligible to sign entry-level contracts that begin in the 2022-23 season. It will be interesting to see whether or not Stevenson goes that route and then inks an amateur tryout to join a minor league club for the stretch run, as he’ll be limited to a two-year entry-level contract either way because of his age. A bargaining chip some teams may use to try and secure his services is having an ELC start for 2021-22, allowing him to enter the professional ranks right away and reach restricted free agency a little earlier.

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