Conor Sheary

Capitals Notes: Laviolette, Oshie, Sheary, Smith

April 11, 2023 at 12:51 pm CDT | by Josh Cybulski 4 Comments

Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic is reporting that the Washington Capitals are preparing for a potentially big offseason in which a lot of personnel decisions will need to be made. The Capitals missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2013-14 season and while much of their 2018 Stanley Cup championship roster has moved on, some very important pieces remain.

El-Bashir reports that there is no update on the status of head coach Peter Laviolette. The veteran coach is a free agent at the end of this season and would still be in demand should he or the Capitals elect to part ways and start fresh next season. It is believed that Laviolette still has the support of many of the veterans in the Washington dressing room, but the recent stretch of games would give anyone pause as the Capitals have seemed indifferent at times. Laviolette is in his third season as the Capitals head coach and is the eighth winningest coach in NHL history. The 58-year-old has led three different organizations to the Stanley Cup final in his career, including a Stanley Cup victory in 2005-06 with the Carolina Hurricanes. However, in Washington he hasn’t been able to get the Capitals back over the hump and out of the first round.

In other Washington notes:

T.J. Oshie was shut down earlier this week with the same back injury that has caused him problems all season. Oshie missed a total of 22 games this year after dressing in just 44 games last season. El-Bashir writes in The Athletic that he is being told that Oshie shouldn’t require surgery on his ailing back and that he should be able to recover with rest and rehab. For his part the 36-year-old Oshie has seen his offensive production slide the last two seasons. He’s failed to reach 40 points two years in a row now after missing that number just once in the previous 12 seasons. Oshie can still score, evidenced by his 19 goals this season in 58 games, but Washington will be counting on him to stay healthy going forward, especially with two years left on his contract.
El-Bashir also writes in The Athletic that he expects the Capitals to move on from Conor Sheary and Craig Smith. Sheary is in his third season with Washington and has been a good depth scoring option with 37 points in 80 games. His scoring is down from last year, but the 30-year-old two-time cup winner should find an NHL job for next season as a depth forward with speed who can chip in on offence.
Craig Smith will also be looking for a new job this summer. The former Nashville Predator has seen his numbers fall off a cliff this season as he bounced between the Boston Bruins and Washington. The 2009 fourth round pick had topped 30 points in five straight seasons as a dependable third liner but hasn’t been able to duplicate that success this season. He is in the final year of a three-year contract he originally signed with Boston and will likely be forced to take a one-year deal around league minimum to secure an NHL job in 2023-24.

East Notes: Capitals, Puljujarvi, Bertuzzi

March 4, 2023 at 11:51 am CDT | by Brian La Rose 6 Comments

WonWhile the Capitals moved some of their pending unrestricted free agents and extended others, two players that are eligible to hit the open market didn’t move in winger Conor Sheary and defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk. Speaking with reporters after yesterday’s deadline including NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti (Twitter link), GM Brian MacLellan indicated that they’d rather have the opportunity to try to re-sign the two moving forward compared to what they would have received for them in a trade. Sheary has 30 points in 63 games this season while van Riemsdyk has a career-high 18 points while logging nearly 19 minutes a night on Washington’s back end.

Elsewhere in the East:

Hurricanes winger Jesse Puljujarvi will have to wait a little longer to make his Carolina debut. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that the 24-year-old has an appointment for his work visa on Monday which means the earliest he’ll be able to suit up for his new team is Tuesday against Montreal. Puljujarvi has 14 points in 58 games this season and the Hurricanes are hoping that a change of scenery will make him more of a consistent contributor for the stretch run.
Prior to moving him to Boston, the Red Wings touched base with Tyler Bertuzzi’s camp about a contract extension, GM Steve Yzerman told reporters including Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now. However, those discussions didn’t go anywhere and with Detroit not wanting to run the risk of losing him in unrestricted free agency this summer, they turned around and dealt him, picking up a first-round pick in return.

Metropolitan Notes: Kuraly, Penguins, Sheary, MacEwen

April 9, 2022 at 12:44 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

The Blue Jackets announced (Twitter link) that they have placed center Sean Kuraly in COVID protocol which means he will not play tonight against Detroit. The team has been dealing with the virus lately with both head coach Brad Larsen and assistant coach Steve McCarthy entering the protocol late last month (they have since returned) while associate coach Pascal Vincent entered on Monday. Kuraly has had a good first season with his hometown team, posting career highs in goals (12), points (28), faceoff wins (580), and hits (216) over 72 games.

COVID Notes: Halak, Sabres, Connolly, Sheary, Oilers, Stutzle, Sillinger

January 15, 2022 at 1:54 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

The Canucks announced (Twitter link) that goaltender Jaroslav Halak has been placed into COVID protocol. The veteran was set to get the start for today’s game against Carolina but instead, that will go to Thatcher Demko with Spencer Martin coming up from the taxi squad. Halak has made just eight appearances this season and has a $1.25MM bonus pending when he gets to his tenth. He’ll now have to wait a little longer to get that bonus, one that has recently landed himself in trade speculation as well.

More COVID news from around the NHL:

Sabres winger Tage Thompson and center Peyton Krebs have both cleared COVID protocol, notes Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald. Thompson will suit up tonight in Detroit while they will take it a little slower with Krebs and re-assess his status on Sunday.
Blackhawks winger Brett Connolly has entered COVID protocol, relays John Dietz of the Daily Herald (Twitter link). The veteran has only played in four games with Chicago this season and has spent most of the year in the minors. Defenseman Ian Mitchell was recalled from AHL Rockford just a day after being sent down.
The Capitals announced (Twitter link) that winger Conor Sheary has been placed in COVID protocol. The 29-year-old has impressed in his second season in Washington, notching ten goals and nine assists in 31 games, good for third on the team in goals.
The Oilers have taken wingers Warren Foegele and Tyler Benson plus defenseman Slater Koekkoek out of COVID protocol, mentions Sportsnet’s Jack Michaels (Twitter link). With those activations, Edmonton – who last played on January 5th – will be able to dress 18 skaters against Ottawa tonight.
The Senators announced (Twitter link) that they have removed winger Tim Stutzle from COVID protocol. The just-turned 20-year-old has had a bit of a quieter sophomore season than expected, collecting five goals and ten assists in 29 games.
The Blue Jackets have placed center Cole Sillinger in COVID protocol, per a team release. The rookie has held down a regular spot in the lineup with Columbus this season, notching 13 points in 35 games. Liam Foudy has been recalled from the taxi squad to take Sillinger’s place on the roster.

Washington Capitals Extend Conor Sheary

April 14, 2021 at 3:03 pm CDT | by Gavin Lee 2 Comments

The Washington Capitals have signed Conor Sheary to a two-year extension, keeping him in the organization after a strong season. The deal will carry an average annual value of $1.5MM. Sheary is a pending unrestricted free agent after signing a one-year, $735K deal with the Capitals in late December.

It’s been a very interesting career for the 28-year-old winger. Undrafted despite dominating the Massachusetts prep scene, the 5’9″ forward went to UMass-Amherst and just never stopped scoring. In 138 NCAA games he scored 38 goals and 104 points, but was still overlooked and ended up signing an AHL deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins affiliate for the 2014-15 season. When he dominated the minor leagues, there was no overlooking him anymore. Sheary signed his entry-level deal with the Penguins in 2015 and quickly became a regular, impact player on a team that won back-to-back Stanley Cup titles.

Then, in 2018 he was traded to the Buffalo Sabres as part of a salary dump and basically forgotten, watching his production decline like so many others for the struggling franchise. By the time he reached unrestricted free agency again last offseason, the $3MM salary he had been earning seemed like a huge overpay. Enter the Capitals, who brought him in for just a little over the league minimum and guaranteed very little to the undersized forward. As Washington head coach Peter Laviolette told reporters including Tom Gulitti of NHL.com just today, Sheary has been an excellent addition to the team:

I think everybody really admires & respects the way he went about his work this year. He doesn’t make any noise. He just competes really hard out on the ice and put himself in a position where you want him out there a lot in different situations.

Whatever line he goes to, I think he helps make it a better line. Right now, he’s in a real good place with regard to his game and confidence and it shows by the way he’s playing.

With 11 goals and 19 points in 40 games, Sheary has been the ideal role player for the Capitals. The fact that he brings a wealth of playoff experience—61 games already in his five-season career to this point—only adds to the value he holds for Washington. The team obviously believes so as well, inking him to a reasonable multi-year extension well before he hits the open market.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet broke news of the contract on Twitter.

More to come…

Washington Capitals Sign Conor Sheary

December 22, 2020 at 3:11 pm CDT | by Gavin Lee 3 Comments

The Washington Capitals have added another former rival to the lineup, signing Conor Sheary to a one-year deal worth $735K. The former Pittsburgh Penguins forward was an unrestricted free agent.

Sheary’s 23-goal season with the Penguins in 2016-17 may seem like a long time ago, but he can still provide useful depth on a reasonable contract. The Capitals should be very familiar with him, having met three times in the playoffs in the past and watching him lift the Stanley Cup above his head twice.

There’s value in playoff experience, but it’s certainly not clear exactly where Sheary can fit into the Capitals lineup right away. The team has ten forwards making at least $1.5MM this season and penciled into the lineup, with others like Nic Dowd and Daniel Sprong both on multi-year one-way deals. Then there are the young players, like Connor McMichael who could push for a roster spot when he returns from the World Juniors.

Still, with taxi squads confirmed for the season, many teams will need to carry extra depth forwards like Sheary who don’t need any additional development and can step into a top-six role in a pinch.

Though the exact salary cap rules for the taxi squad isn’t clear, it does appear to have opened up some more flexibility for teams like the Capitals who are technically over the cap ceiling at the moment. The $82.5MM estimate that CapFriendly lists does still include Henrik Lundqvist’s $1.5MM, but even if he is removed, his replacement will still take up a good chunk of that amount.

Sheary meanwhile likely sees a contract with the Capitals as an opportunity to get his career back on track after a stumble in Buffalo. The undersized winger had 45 goals in his first 184 games with the Penguins but has scored just 24 in 141 since.

Free Agent Focus: Pittsburgh Penguins

October 4, 2020 at 3:44 pm CDT | by Holger Stolzenberg 2 Comments

With free agency now just a few days away, teams are preparing for a frenzy of action. There will be several prominent players set to hit the open market while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign. The Penguins have some key decisions to make, but with a plan to keep their cap number down and their overall goals of making changes to keep their team in the playoff picture for the next few years, they may have to let some players go.

Key Restricted Free Agents

G Matt Murray – With the signing of Tristan Jarry on Saturday to a three-year deal, the Penguins are basically making it clear that they have chosen Jarry over Murray in net. While they could conceivably keep both as it is expected that the team will tender a qualifying offer, it still is more likely that Murray will be traded shortly. That’s a far fall for the “goalie of the future” three years back when they allowed Marc-Andre Fleury move on. Many teams are waiting for the huge free-agent goalie market to disseminate in the next week as Murray sounds like a cheaper option, but the 26-year-old’s lack of consistency likely worries plenty of teams. Murray finished the season with a 2.87 GAA and a .899 save percentage in 38 games, although the netminder did fare better in three postseason games as he had a 2.50 GAA and a .914 save percentage in three games.

F Dominik Simon – Hardly a top-six player, but the versatile Simon suddenly looks like he could be a cap casualty as The Athletic’s Rob Rossi reports that he could make as much as $1.25MM, a high price for a capped-strapped team. The 26-year-old played all over the lineup, but has never managed to post more than 30 points in his career. He tallied seven goals and 22 points last season in 64 games. The forward is also recovering from shoulder surgery in late April, which was expected to keep him out six to seven months.

Other RFAs: F Pontus Aberg, F Anthony Angello, F Graham Knott, F Sam Lafferty, F Sam Miletic, D John Nyberg.

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

D – Justin Schultz – The blueliner was singled out last month by general manger Jim Rutherford as one of the problems on the Pittsburgh blueline. That likely means that the team will allow Schultz to explore other offers around the league. The team did get an impressive year out of John Marino, suggesting the team can get along without him and $5.5MM cap hit that came with him. It’s highly unlikely he will get anything like that on the market anyway, but Schultz definitely struggled since signing that three-year, $16.5MM contract. Since posting a 51-point season with the Penguins and signing that deal, he has posted just 54 points combined in those three seasons and has dealt with a number of injuries that has affected his overall game.

F Conor Sheary – The Penguins re-acquired Sheary at the trade deadline from Buffalo after trading him there back in 2018. The 28-year-old winger scored 23 goals in his second year with the Penguins back in 2016-17. Those goals, however, have declined every year to 18 to 14 to 10 last season. The team has made it clear it doesn’t want to put Sidney Crosby next to lesser players like Sheary has, meaning if they held onto him, they would more likely move him down to the third line. The question is whether Sheary is affordable enough to bring back to the team.

F Patrick Marleau – The Penguins picked up the legendary winger from the Sharks for their playoff run, but he managed to scored just one goal and two points in eight games before the shutdown and was scoreless in four playoff games. It isn’t likely that the 41-year-old will return to Pittsburgh, although a return to the Sharks for one final season isn’t necessarily out of the question.

Other UFAs: F Riley Barber, F Thomas Di Pauli, F Adam Johnson, F Kevin Roy, F Phil Varone.

Projected Cap Space

Rutherford vowed to change up his roster this offseason in hopes of giving Crosby and Evgeni Malkin every opportunity to win another Stanley Cup before their time in the NHL is up. That will require some major decisions in both free agency and through trades, something that Rutherford is an expert on. The biggest problem remains the salary cap where the team has just $2.6MM in available cap space to make all these moves.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Pittsburgh Penguins Pick Up Conor Sheary, Evan Rodrigues

February 24, 2020 at 1:32 pm CDT | by Holger Stolzenberg 11 Comments

The Pittsburgh Penguins have picked up a pair of players as the Buffalo Sabres have sent forwards Conor Sheary and Evan Rodrigues to the Penguins for Dominik Kahun, according to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun.

Sheary returns to the only other team he’s ever played for. The 27-year-old played for the Penguins for three years, but was traded back in 2018 with Matt Hunwick for a 2019 fourth-round pick. Sheary has 23 goals over a season and a half, including nine goals and 19 points this season through 55 games. The winger should add some much-needed depth for the team, which has been riddled with injuries up until now.

Rodrigues asked the Sabres for a trade back on Dec. 31 due to his lack of playing time, who has appeared in just 38 games for the team and has been a healthy scratch off an on this season. Rodrigues has five goals and nine points this season and should add some more depth, alongside Sheary, for a team that has been riddled with injuries all season.

Kahun arrives in Buffalo with some more potential and may be the best player in the trade. The 24-year-old has nine goals and 27 points this year after arriving in a trade last summer in Chicago where he had 10 goals and 37 points. He originally signed with the Blackhawks out of Germany. He should give the Sabres a helpful third-line option. Kahun will be a restricted free agent this summer.

Trade Candidate: Conor Sheary

February 21, 2020 at 6:53 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 4 Comments

With the trade deadline quickly approaching, we continue to profile players that have a good chance to be dealt by February 24th.

It was only a few years ago that it looked like Conor Sheary could be another homegrown key player in Pittsburgh’s program. However, salary cap issues necessitated a trade to Buffalo back in the 2018 offseason. While he hasn’t been able to come close to the 53-point campaign he had back in 2016-17, Sheary could still be an intriguing under the radar acquisition for a team looking to boost their depth on the wing. Two Stanley Cup titles with the Penguins will only make him more interesting to prospective buyers.

Contract

Sheary is in the final season of a three-year, $9MM contract signed back in 2017 while still with Pittsburgh, paying $3MM in salary each year. The contract does not contain any form of trade protection and he will be eligible for unrestricted free agency in July.

2019-20

This season has not gone well for most of Buffalo’s players and Sheary is no exception. He has managed to stay healthy for the most part (only missing four games to a minor upper-body issue) but he’s averaging his lowest point per game average over any of his four full NHL seasons. Secondary scoring has been an issue for the Sabres all season long and he is part of the reason.

Nonetheless, he can still play both wings and isn’t reliant on power play time to pad his stats as only three of his points this season have come with the man advantage. That follows the trend for his career as even when he was at his best with Pittsburgh, those points were few and far between. That should appeal to teams that are looking to add to their third line but don’t want to disrupt their power play units.

Season Stats

53 GP, 9 goals, 10 assists, 19 points, -3 rating, 8 PIMS, 86 shots, 12:58 TOI, 49.0 CF%

Potential Suitors

No one is going to be looking at Sheary as one of their top targets as they’ll be setting their sights higher at this stage. But as the more impact players come off the board (or no-trade clauses come into play), teams will eventually be pivoting to other plans and that is the tier that he fits in.

In the East, the Penguins could be a fit. GM Jim Rutherford recently indicated his interest in adding another forward for depth and the fact that he knows the system and has played with several of their key players in the past would certainly be beneficial. They’d need Buffalo to retain part of his deal though. The Islanders are in need of offensive upgrades throughout their lineup and while Sheary would be a lower-end one, he’d still represent an improvement nonetheless. The Blue Jackets may be shopping in the lower end of the market this year with an eye on an incremental upgrade and Sheary would fit in that price range. Losing Oliver Bjorkstrand for the rest of the year creates a vacancy on the wing that they’ll likely want to fill.

Out West, Arizona is still having issues scoring and with what they paid for Taylor Hall and Phil Kessel, they’re missing some of the assets they’d need to go after a top player. A depth upgrade is likely more up their alley. Nashville has worked their way from a likely seller to be right in the mix. However, GM David Poile may still want to shy away from the top of the market given that they’re still on the outside looking in at a playoff spot. An addition like Sheary could give them a small boost without moving a pick or prospect of too much significance.

Likelihood Of A Trade

This is a situation that will likely run right to the deadline. Teams that strike out on their top acquisitions could turn to Buffalo late in the day and offer up a mid-to-late round pick to try to salvage the day. If that’s enough for GM Jason Botterill, there’s a good chance that Sheary will be on the move.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Conor Sheary Out Week-To-Week

October 9, 2019 at 9:15 am CDT | by Gavin Lee Leave a Comment

After further evaluation, the Buffalo Sabres have announced that Conor Sheary will actually be out on a week-to-week basis with an upper-body injury. Sheary was listed as day-to-day just yesterday, but it seems he’ll miss more time than originally expected. Even with Sheary out, head coach Ralph Krueger told reporters including Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News that the team will not likely recall a forward from the AHL, at least through the weekend.

Sheary, 27, was off to a hot start with the Sabres this season, scoring two goals and three points through his first three games despite averaging just over 11 minutes of ice time. He’d been playing lower in the lineup than last season, but that may have changed at some point given his early success. The Sabres have a 2-0-1 record on the year so far and look much improved over the squads that have finished at or near the bottom of the NHL standings the last several seasons.

It is a very important season for the undrafted Sheary, as he heads towards unrestricted free agency. If he can get back to the level he showed in Pittsburgh as a young player, scoring 23 goals and 53 points, he’d be in for a substantial raise over his current $3MM cap hit. If he struggles with injury and inconsistency again, it’s not clear what kind of a market there will be for the 27-year old.

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