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Daniel Sprong

Devils Recall Daniel Sprong, Assign Seamus Casey To AHL

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The Devils have done some roster shuffling in advance of their game on Sunday against Philadelphia.  The team announced that they’ve recalled recently-acquired winger Daniel Sprong from AHL Utica while they’ve also assigned defenseman Seamus Casey to Utica.

Sprong is joining his third NHL team of the season.  He started with Vancouver after inking a one-year, $975K contract over the summer but after struggling in limited action to start the season, he was flipped to Seattle in November for future considerations.   Things weren’t much better there either and in early January, he passed through waivers unclaimed and had been in the minors since.

On the season, the 27-year-old has two goals and three assists in 19 NHL outings while averaging just over 12 minutes a night.  Sprong has been much more productive in the minors, however, tallying 11 goals and 14 assists in 19 games with AHL Coachella Valley.  New Jersey will now get to see if that can translate to being more of a contributor for them down the stretch.

As for Casey, the team’s release indicates that his demotion came before Friday’s trade deadline, keeping him eligible to play down the stretch for the Comets.  He has played in 10 games with the Devils this season and has been productive in limited minutes, notching four goals and an assist in a little under 12 minutes a night of playing time.  He also has 15 points in 22 appearances with Utica and should go back to playing a prominent role for them for their stretch run as they look to try to make a late run to sneak into a playoff spot in the North Division.

Devils Acquire Daniel Sprong From Kraken

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The Devils have acquired depth winger Daniel Sprong from the Kraken, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Seattle is receiving a seventh-round pick in return, according to Tim Booth of the Seattle Times.

A minimal return will be all Seattle lands for scoring winger Sprong, who they acquired for future considerations from the Vancouver Canucks in November. Sprong went unclaimed on waivers two months later, and the Kraken used that chance to assign him to the minor leagues. He’s been absolutely red-hot ever since, with 11 goals and 25 points in 19 games with the Coachella Valley Firebirds. That’s exorbitantly more than the five points Sprong scored in 19 NHL games to start the season, split between time in Vancouver and Seattle.

Despite minimal NHL scoring this year, Sprong has shown flashed of bringing his hot touch to the NHL. He scored 21 goals and 46 points with the Kraken in the 2022-23 season, then followed it with 18 goals and 43 points in 76 games with Detroit last year. The pair of seasons seemed to finally push Sprong onto the track of strong goal-scoring – and Vancouver took the upside bet by signing him to a one-year contract last summer.

Sprong didn’t find his spark in Vancouver, or in a return to Seattle – but he could find it as the New Jersey Devils search for more scoring options. The Devils rank 14th in the league with 2.98 goals-per-game on average, a step above both Vancouver (26th, 2.74) and Seattle (16th, 2.94). That could set Sprong up for a more welcome committee as he takes on the remaining season on a playoff contender. Sprong should step in as a depth-winger for the Devils lineup – and his ice time could be largely dependent on how well he’s able to rediscover his scoring.

Kraken’s Daniel Sprong Clears Waivers

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Jan. 9: Sprong has cleared waivers, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. He must be assigned to Coachella Valley within 30 days before needing to clear waivers again.

Jan. 8: The Kraken placed winger Daniel Sprong on waivers Tuesday, intending to assign him to AHL Coachella Valley, according to a team announcement.

Seattle picked up Sprong, 27, in a trade with the Canucks in November in exchange for future considerations. The Kraken were hoping to get the kind of production out of Sprong they got two years ago when he posted a career-best 21 goals and 46 points in only 66 appearances, but things haven’t gone to plan.

Sprong’s tumultuous season thus far comes after a turbulent summer during which, despite recording 43 points in 76 games for the Red Wings last season, Detroit opted not to qualify him and let him become an unrestricted free agent. The Amsterdam native unexpectedly had to wait nearly three weeks to land a deal, eventually signing a one-year, $975K commitment with the Canucks.

Most expected Vancouver to have Sprong factor in as a complementary top-nine piece, potentially even on Elias Pettersson’s wing, but that experiment didn’t last very long. He also bounced around lines with Pius Suter and Aatu Räty down the middle, averaging 11:39 per game and recording three points until the Canucks decided to cut bait after just nine games and traded him back to Seattle.

Sprong likely desired the move – he would have gotten a bit more playing time in a familiar environment where he’s had success before. He’s barely been utilized by new head coach Dan Bylsma, though, sitting in the press box for most of his second stint in the Emerald City. He’s logged only 10 appearances since the trade, including just four since the beginning of December, posting a goal and an assist with a plus-one rating.

Playing time became more scarce for Sprong last month when the Kraken acquired winger Kaapo Kakko from the Rangers. He’s sat in the press box for four straight now and hasn’t landed a job ahead of the newcomer or depth players like Tye Kartye. His inability to play down the middle has left him on the outside looking in, even with Yanni Gourde on injured reserve.

This season may not be pretty for Sprong, with five points through a combined 19 games, but teams should be willing to take a flyer based on his recent history of depth scoring. Despite averaging fewer than 12 minutes per game across the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, he managed 39 goals and 89 points in 142 games for Seattle and Detroit – good for 0.63 per game.

Snapshots: Avalanche, Olofsson, Bennett, Sprong

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The Avalanche could be close to getting a pair of veteran wingers back in their lineup.  Evan Rawal of The Denver Gazette relays that Miles Wood and Jonathan Drouin both took part in practice today with a regular jersey, not a non-contact one.  Wood has missed the last two weeks with an upper-body injury while Drouin sustained an upper-body injury in the season opener last month and hasn’t played since.  Wood has struggled this season with just one goal in ten games while Drouin is coming off a career year that saw him record 56 points in 79 games.  Head coach Jared Bednar was unsure about their availability for Wednesday but it appears they’re back soon; those two along with Valeri Nichushkin (returning on Friday) will give their forward group a sizable boost.

Elsewhere around the NHL:

  • Golden Knights winger Victor Olofsson has turned a corner in his recovery, head coach Bruce Cassidy told reporters including Jesse Granger of The Athletic (Twitter link). However, he won’t suit up on their two-game road trip that begins on Wednesday.  Olofsson has been dealing with a lower-body injury for the last four weeks, pausing what was a strong start to his first season with Vegas as he had three goals in his first four games.
  • The Panthers announced (Twitter link) that forward Sam Bennett missed tonight’s game against New Jersey due to an upper-body injury. The 28-year-old is having a very strong start to his walk year, collecting nine goals and six assists through the first 15 games of the season, a pace that would have him easily eclipse his career bests of 28 tallies and 24 helpers respectively.  The two sides reportedly began extension talks last month.
  • Recently acquired winger Daniel Sprong has not yet reported to the Kraken as he works through visa issues, notes Kate Shefte of the Seattle Times (Twitter link). While he counts against their salary cap while waiting to be cleared, he is not currently taking up an active roster spot.  Sprong has a goal and two assists in nine games this season, those coming with Vancouver before his trade last week.

Kraken Acquire Daniel Sprong From Canucks

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It appears Daniel Sprong will be returning to a team he’s already familiar with.  The Canucks announced that they have dealt the winger to the Kraken in exchange for future considerations.

Sprong has been a productive player over the last couple of seasons but it hasn’t resulted in him getting much stability.  In 2022-23, he had a breakout year in Seattle, notching 21 goals and 25 assists in 66 games.  Before that, his previous career-high in points was 23.  However, despite only being owed a qualifying offer of $787.5K, Seattle opted to non-tender him, getting out of a potential arbitration hearing in the process.

Still, the 27-year-old was able to do relatively well in free agency in 2023, landing a one-year, $2MM deal with Detroit.  He showed that his production the year before wasn’t a one-off, as he collected 18 goals and 25 assists in 76 games while only averaging 12 minutes a night of action.  But once again, he was non-tendered as the Red Wings opted to avoid the risk of arbitration as well.

Unfortunately for Sprong, the market wasn’t as strong this time around.  It took nearly three weeks into free agency before he found a contract when Vancouver signed him to a one-year, $975K contract, cutting his pay from the year before by more than half in the process.  It looked like a relatively shrewd pickup for a Canucks franchise that didn’t have much salary cap flexibility but wanted to add more offensive depth.

But things didn’t go as planned.  Sprong has been healthy scratched three times already this season and when he has played, he hasn’t been able to produce at the same level, tallying just one goal and two assists in nine games while averaging 11:39 per night.  Clearly, Vancouver had seen enough and decided the time was right to move on.

The Canucks are expected to welcome Dakota Joshua back to the lineup soon and it appears that this move will open up the roster spot to do so.  In the meantime, they’ve upped their cap space to over $1.9MM per PuckPedia, giving them much more in-season flexibility than they’ve had in recent years.  As for Seattle, they’re presently in LTIR and this move will push them a little deeper into it.  However, they’re still close enough to the $88MM cap that it shouldn’t be too difficult to get back under that amount when Vince Dunn is able to return.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the trade.

Snapshots: NCAA Recruitment, Colorado, Lekkerimäki

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The NCAA commitment window opened to the 2008 birth year on August 1st, bringing another wave of top young players to the collegiate level. International recruits have so far headlined this year’s class, with five Europeans and 13 Canadians already announcing their commitments. Among the notable international commits is hefty centerman Caleb Malhotra, who went eighth overall to Kingston in this year’s OHL Draft, but solidified his plans to play outside of the OHL with a commitment to Boston University. Malhotra is emerging as a top Canadian in the 2008 birth year – even despite battles with injury this season. He played in just 48 games, though he still did enough to score at a point-per-game pace and earn a five-star rating from PuckPreps, who praised his mobility and puck skills.

Malhotra – the son of longtime Vancouver Canucks center Manny Malhotra – is a cerebral playmaker, who knows how to use his frame and stickhandling to create space. With a college commitment out of the way, he’s now set for the Chilliwack Chiefs of the BCHL. Malhotra is undeniably one of the BCHL’s top recruits and will now look to vindicate the expectations around him, and quickly bounce back from injury, by finding scoring quickly at the juniors level. If all goes well, he’ll enter BU with the same lofty expectations.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The AHL’s Colorado Eagles have announced they’ve hired Kim Weiss as a video coach and Matt Zaba as a goalie coach. Weiss moves to the pro level after becoming the first female coach in D-III history this season, serving behind the bench of her alma mater Trinity College. Trinity won their conference championship under Weiss’ guard – earning her a ring after losing in the NAHL’s 2023 Robertson Cup semifinals with the Maryland Black Bears. Zaba is also moving from American juniors, having spent the last seven seasons as the goalie coach for the USHL’s Tri-City Storm. He’s built up multiple NHL prospects over that span, including Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Filip Larson, Calgary Flames prospect Arseni Sergeyev, and Vegas Golden Knights prospect Isaiah Saville. He’ll now join that trio at the AHL level – coaching in familiar territory after starting his career at Colorado College. Zaba is also an alum of one NHL game, 66 AHL games, and 31 ECHL games – though much of his personal playing career was spent in Austria and Italy.
  • The Vancouver Canucks are facing a list of lineup questions as training camp approaches, shares Thomas Drance of The Athletic, who highlighted the right-wing role next to Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson as the team’s most glaring hole. Drance mentioned Nils Hoglander as an early favorite for the role, though he’ll face pressure from new signee Daniel Sprong. However, Drance also noted that star prospect Jonathan Lekkerimäki could be a dark horse to round out what should be Vancouver’s scoring line. Lekkerimäki won the SHL’s ’Rookie of the Year’ award last season, after posting 19 goals and 31 points in 46 games with Örebro HK. He signed his entry-level contract and moved to the AHL after Örebro’s early playoff exit – adding two points in six more games with the Abbotsford Canucks. Lekkerimäki is an effective scorer, with an eye for the offensive zone and hard snapshot – though his size has some worried about how he’ll adjust to the next step. It seems he’ll have a chance to answer that bell at training camp, as he fights for a significant role out of the gates.

West Notes: Stastney, Sprong, Lorentz

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Predators RFA defenseman Spencer Stastney is indeed having his arbitration hearing today, Nick Kieser of the team’s radio network confirms. The NHLPA is deviating from past tradition this year by not releasing a calendar of hearing dates, but arbitration figures are always exchanged two days before the hearing. When Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported the filings on Saturday, it was clear Stastney’s hearing was slated for Monday.

The Preds are down to $595K in projected cap space with a bare-minimum roster of 12 forwards, six defensemen and two goalies, per PuckPedia. Even though Stastney’s cap hit will come in under $1MM after arbitration (the player filed at $950K), a league-minimum $775K deal would still put Nashville slightly over the cap for now.

Even without Stastney’s arbitration hearing, a cap-clearing move would likely be coming for the Preds this offseason for the sake of roster flexibility. One has to think a cap dump would come from the blue line, where none of Nashville’s six rostered defensemen cost less than $2MM against the cap. Dante Fabbro is the only pending UFA of the bunch, and his $2.5MM cap hit is fair value for his services. He’ll be a likely trade candidate, given his cap hit could be replaced by three league-minimum players – Stastney being one of them.

They’ll get exact clarity on Stastney’s cap hit next season within the next 48 hours.

Elsewhere out West:

  • In his latest for The Athletic, Thomas Drance took a deep dive into the Canucks’ signing of Daniel Sprong over the weekend. Among other points, Drance articulates that Sprong is likely viewed internally as a lower-cost replacement for Andrei Kuzmenko, who was dealt to the Flames in last season’s Elias Lindholm blockbuster. If so, it seems the Canucks will be more willing to utilize Sprong in top-six spot duty, likely on Elias Pettersson’s right flank, than his recent homes. His offensive success with the Kraken and Red Wings the past two seasons has come despite receiving solidly bottom-six minutes.
  • It’s bottom-of-the-barrel time for teams still looking to add depth from the UFA market. Thus, the next few weeks will be the time for cap-strapped teams who were rather quiet around July 1 to shine. The Avalanche are one of those squads, and if they’re looking to replenish some fourth-line depth, it’ll need to be a league-minimum pact. Colorado Hockey Now’s Evan Rawal names ex-Panther Steven Lorentz as a candidate who fits that bill. Lorentz, 28, had three points in 16 playoff games for the Cats in their run to the 2024 Stanley Cup and would provide competition for veteran Chris Wagner and youngster Jean-Luc Foudy for fourth-line center duties in Denver.

Canucks Sign Daniel Sprong

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A day after it was reported that the Canucks had interest in free agent winger Daniel Sprong, they have indeed agreed to terms with him. The team announced that the two sides have agreed to a one-year contract.  PuckPedia adds (Twitter link) that the deal will pay $975K.  GM Patrik Allvin released the following statement on the signing:

Bringing in another solid winger will be a boost for our club this season. Daniel has matured a lot as a player and has shown he can contribute offensively when called upon. His addition up front will give us better depth and should help with more balanced scoring throughout our forward group.

The 27-year-old has bounced around throughout his eight-year NHL career, having played for five teams already with Vancouver set to be his sixth.

After putting up limited numbers in his first three stops spanning six seasons, Sprong had a breakout year in his second year with Seattle in 2022-23, one that saw him record 21 goals and 25 assists in 66 games despite averaging just 11:25 of playing time per game.  However, their concern about his arbitration eligibility led to him being non-tendered where he quickly signed a one-year, $2MM deal with Detroit on the opening day of free agency.

While Sprong didn’t quite produce at the same rate last season, he came relatively close, coming up three goals short of his 2022-23 performance while matching his assist totals.  And again, he didn’t play in the top six while surpassing 30 even-strength points for the second year in a row.  But that wasn’t enough to earn an extension with the Red Wings who opted to shake up their roster a bit, nor did it help him get a deal early in free agency.

With two good offensive years under his belt, Sprong landed 35th on our Top 50 UFA list last month.  With that came a projection of him earning a raise and a multi-year agreement but clearly, that didn’t come to fruition as instead of a raise, his salary has been cut by more than half.

Instead, Sprong is taking a very team-friendly deal to land in what should be a favorable environment in Vancouver.  The Canucks finished seventh in the NHL in scoring last season and while they lost Elias Lindholm in free agency and moved out Ilya Mikheyev in a cap-clearing move, they were able to bring in Jake DeBrusk and Danton Heinen from Boston while retaining Dakota Joshua after his breakout showing.  With Vancouver, Sprong should have the same type of role that he has become accustomed to, one that should see him playing in the bottom six at five-on-five with some secondary power play time.

With the move, the Canucks are effectively capped out.  Per PuckPedia, they now have less than $16K in cap room at their disposal with a full-sized roster.  Notably, that does not include Tucker Poolman being on LTIR so if they want to put him back on there, they will have some more flexibility to work with.  However, it would put them in a position of being unable to bank in-season cap space.  Alternatively, they could opt to not carry a full-sized roster to start the season, allowing them to have closer to $800K in room (with Poolman only on regular IR), giving them a shot to bank some space heading into the trade deadline.

If Sprong can have the same type of success with the Canucks in that role that he had with Seattle and Detroit, this contract has the potential to be one of the best bargains of the summer.  And if that happens, perhaps next summer will be when Sprong can land a bit of job security that he has been seeking for several years now.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston was the first to report that an agreement between the two sides was in place.

Snapshots: Sprong, Misiak, Julien

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The Vancouver Canucks are among the teams interested in free agent winger Daniel Sprong, shares Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK News (Twitter link). Sprong is the top remaining free agent from PHR’s Top 50 Unrestricted Free Agents.

Sprong has fought his way into NHL legitimacy over the last two seasons, kicked off with a breakout 2022-23 with the Seattle Kraken. He recorded career-highs across the board – netting 21 goals, 25 assists, and 46 points in 66 games despite a measly role on Seattle’s third line. It was a flash-in-the-pan season for the veteran Sprong, who had only managed 70 points in 202 career games up to that point. And he held onto the scoring through a move to the Detroit Red Wings last summer, netting 18 goals and 43 points despite averaging just 12 minutes of ice time. He’s seemingly proven his ability to produce in a depth role, though it’s hard to ignore the long streak of struggles that started his career. Now 28, Sprong doesn’t seem destine for a long-term deal, though he could prove a valuable late-market add for a Canucks team in need of boost down their wings.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Chicago Blackhawks prospect Martin Misiak is expected to return to the OHL next season shares Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times (Twitter link). Misiak played through his first year in the OHL this season, netting 23 goals and 47 points in 60 games with the Erie Otters. He signed his entry-level contract with the Hawks at the end of Erie’s season, coupling the deal with an amateur try-out in the AHL. But it seems he’s now quite ready to jump to the pros, instead focused on finding another layer of scoring after a meager debut in the OHL.
  • The St. Louis Blues are sitting happy with their addition of long-time NHL head coach Claude Julien, who joined the team as an assistant coach last June. Blues general manager Doug Armstrong compared the hire to when Larry Robinson, an NHL Hall-of-Famer, joined Craig Berube’s coaching staff ahead of the team’s 2019 Stanley Cup win, telling Lou Korac of NHL.com that he hopes this move will have similar long-term ramifications. He said, “The experience Larry Robinson showed a young staff, it was really impressive. I think Claude’s at a portion of his life now where I think accepting this is easier and seeing the joy of working with young coaches and making them better, sharing his experiences, sharing his experiences with players.” Julien, a 19-year veteran of NHL head coaching, seems set on maintaining his mentoring role in St. Louis, as the team promotes up-and-coming coaches in Drew Bannister and Steve Ott.

Free Agent Profile: Daniel Sprong

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How some NHL players are deployed is a topic of much debate and, sometimes, confusion. Coaches will often ice certain veterans for more minutes than they’re suited for at that stage in their career, while others will keep flawed but skilled players buried in the lineup despite producing numbers that can’t be ignored. Daniel Sprong fits squarely in the latter category.

Sprong has been a strong volume scorer dating back to his junior days, but NHL coaches have kept him buried in their lineups, routinely averaging fourth-line minutes and occasional second power-play duties. A second-round pick of the Penguins in 2015, Sprong unexpectedly found his way into NHL action at age 18 the following season, scoring twice in an 18-game stint. He returned to junior hockey the following season, and despite recording a point per game in his first full professional season with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in 2017-18, he didn’t have much of a future in the Pens organization. He made Pittsburgh out of camp in 2018-19 but averaged a measly 8:34 per game through 16 contests, producing four assists, before he was traded to the Ducks in exchange for developing defenseman Marcus Pettersson.

In Anaheim, Sprong showed flashes, recording 14 goals and 19 points in 47 games after the swap. But he played only eight games the following year, spending most of it in the AHL, before being traded again to the Capitals. And after another unstable year and a half in D.C., it took yet another trade to the Kraken for the Dutchman to truly find his stride.

Sprong was one of many breakout forwards on Seattle in their 2022-23 campaign, managing to score 21 goals and 46 points with a +13 rating in only 66 appearances. That was good enough for a 26-goal, 57-point pace had he played in all 82 games – ridiculous numbers considering he’d again averaged just 11:25 per game. It yielded some pretty incredible numbers. At even strength, his 3.09 points per 60 minutes were third in the league, only behind Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon and then-Sabre Jeff Skinner.

But that was in a contract year, and he could have landed a semi-rich short-term deal had he taken Seattle to salary arbitration that summer as he was eligible to do. With money needed elsewhere in the lineup, the Kraken opted to walk away, relinquishing his signing rights by not issuing him a qualifying offer. He landed on the open market, signing a one-year, $2MM pact with the Red Wings.

Sprong was still effective as a depth scorer in Hockeytown, but his production took a small step back to 18 goals and 43 points in 76 games. Part of that was due to some puzzling deployment from head coach Derek Lalonde, who deployed him in far more defensive situations at even strength than he’d dealt with in Seattle. That caused his possession numbers to tank, too, seeing his even-strength shot attempt share dive by nearly nine percent from the year before and his expected goals share dive to a career-worst 45%, per Hockey Reference.

Now, aside from the de facto retired Joe Pavelski, Sprong remains the top offensive talent remaining in the second week of free agency. In fact, he and Pavelski are the only two names left unsigned from our Top 50 UFAs list released less than two weeks ago.

Stats

2023-24: 76 GP, 18 G, 25 A, 43 P, -5, 22 PIMs, 12:00 ATOI, 46.4 CF%
Career: 344 GP, 85 G, 74 A, 159 P, -2, 66 PIMs, 11:57 ATOI, 50.3 CF%

Potential Suitors

The Sharks have been active in adding veteran talent this summer to support a forward core led by rookies Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith beginning next season. Most of it has come via bottom-six checking depth, though, with Ty Dellandrea and Barclay Goodrow the notable additions there. Tyler Toffoli was also picked up for some more serious scoring reinforcements, but there is still likely a vacancy for a top-nine forward – especially if captain Logan Couture isn’t healthy to start the season.

Still in California, the Kings could also use a depth winger to replace Arthur Kaliyev, who remains under team control after being qualified last month but isn’t likely to sign a new deal in LA. Sprong has plenty more experience and consistency on his résumé in the bottom-six role that Kaliyev’s filled and carries more upside for a marginal increase in cash.

The Bruins still have some cap space to burn as well and need a more offensively-inclined name to take responsibility away from checking wingers like Justin Brazeau, Trent Frederic and new addition Max Jones. He’d have a decent shot at playing top-nine minutes in Boston at even strength, too, giving him an attractive destination to land more minutes and increase his market value.

Projected Contract

Most players who make it past the initial wave of UFA craziness usually have to settle for one-year deals. Evolving Hockey had predicted a three-year deal in the $3.3MM AAV range to begin with, but it’s unlikely he’ll receive that kind of term with the dust settled on pretty much everyone’s long-term planning. He could still very well land something around that cap hit, but likely on a one-year deal as he had in Detroit last year.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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