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David Pastrnak

Snapshots: Sharks, Domi, Bruins

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It appears that the Sharks have determined their list of untouchables and it’s a pretty small one.  In the latest TSN Insider Trading segment, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reported that San Jose’s list of players that they’re not open to considering trading starts and ends with Tomas Hertl who is just beginning an eight-year, $65.1MM contract.  GM Mike Grier made one notable shakeup trade last summer with the move of Brent Burns to Carolina and will certainly be looking to continue to reshape his roster.  As we start to see a bit of trade activity around the league, the Sharks could be a team to watch for over the next little while on that front.

Elsewhere around the NHL:

  • While Max Domi joined the Blackhawks early in free agency on a one-year deal, it appears as if that wasn’t his original preference. In his latest column for the Toronto Star, Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos reports that Domi’s camp had approached the Maple Leafs to gauge their interest in a one-year deal at a significantly lower price than the $3MM he received from Chicago.  Obviously, Toronto opted to go in a different direction, adding Nicolas Aube-Kubel on the opening day of free agency and Calle Jarnkrok two days later as forwards signing for more than the minimum.
  • Bruins GM Don Sweeney met with the media (video link) on Thursday following their trade with Vancouver. Sweeney acknowledged that discussions with winger David Pastrnak about a contract extension continue on a regular basis but that they have not yet “found the endpoint”.  The 26-year-old is off to a hot start with 15 points in eight games to start the season and is set to land a significant raise on his current $6.667MM AAV, one that could push his cap hit near or past the $10MM mark.
  • Sweeney also indicated that they’ve not yet worked out where they will send goaltender Michael DiPietro who was acquired in yesterday’s swap. They have two netminders with AHL Providence already – Keith Kinkaid and Kyle Keyser – while they have Brandon Bussi at the ECHL level as well.  As DiPietro is past his entry-level contract, he has the ability to block an assignment to the ECHL.  Speculatively, if DiPietro wants to stay in the AHL, a short-term loan to another AHL squad could be a possible outcome with Sweeney suggesting they have a couple of options in the works for their new goalie at the moment.

Salary Cap Could Increase More Than Expected In 2023

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Speaking with the media today, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said there’s a “good probability” that the remaining COVID-related escrow balance could be paid by the players this season, and remains optimistic about revenues. If the escrow balance gets paid off, the salary cap could jump more than the predicted $1MM incremental increase, two years sooner than originally expected coming out of the pandemic.

Bettman did note that it would be a close call, but if the revenue numbers hit, the cap could jump roughly $4MM to a figure of around $86.5MM for the 2023-24 season. The league’s cap growth would then mirror pre-pandemic trends, if not more.

This is gigantic news for a number of teams, especially those who have big-name free agents due for contracts by July 1 of next year. It also bodes well for teams tight to the salary cap to be able to have more roster flexibility in the offseason.

That list of big-name unrestricted free agents next summer is no joke, and a ~$4MM salary cap increase would have a massive effect on many negotiations. Ryan O’Reilly in St. Louis, David Pastrnak in Boston, Dylan Larkin in Detroit, Bo Horvat in Vancouver, and Frederik Andersen in Carolina are some notables who could re-sign with their current teams for a big payday.

It also makes life easier for teams like the Vegas Golden Knights, who are poised to get a healthy Robin Lehner back but already remain well over the currently projected $83.5MM salary cap for 2023-24.

Latest On David Pastrnak

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The NHL saw a number of high-priced extensions this summer, with players like Nathan MacKinnon, J.T. Miller, and Jonathan Huberdeau, all signing long-term deals since the beginning of August to keep them away from unrestricted free agency. As the names started ticking off the list, the focus narrowed to a handful of names that still don’t have deals for 2023-24.

Chief among them is David Pastrnak, the Boston Bruins superstar that could hit the open market at the age of 27 in a little over eight months from now. Pastrnak is one of the most consistent offensive players in the league, with at least 34 goals in each of the last five full-length seasons (and 20 in the shortened 2020-21 campaign).

Coming off a 77-point season, he started things off on the right foot last night by posting four points against the Washington Capitals to take the early NHL lead. Friend and teammate David Krejci told Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic after the game, that Pastrnak “has no ceiling” and “just keeps getting better.”

With that in mind, the extension negotiations between Pastrnak and the Bruins could lead to quite a contract. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweets that talks continue between the two sides, and notes that the star forward is a “Panarin-level player on the open market.”

That, of course, is referring to New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin, who secured one of the biggest contracts in the league when he reached the open market in 2019. The Rangers handed Panarin a seven-year, $81.5MM deal that carries a cap hit of $11.64MM, making him the highest-paid winger in the league and second only to Connor McDavid in terms of overall cap. Both have since been eclipsed by MacKinnon’s whopping eight-year, $100.8MM deal.

“I don’t play hockey for money, man,” said Pastrnak in 2019 when discussing his last deal, a contract that put him at a very team-friendly $6.67MM cap hit for six years. It has become one of the most valuable deals in the league, with the Czech winger far outpacing his salary in terms of on-ice production.

Now, as the next contract approaches, it will be interesting to see if Pastrnak again gives Boston a discount. LeBrun notably said that he would be Panarin-level on the open market, but suggested that re-signing with the Bruins is a different story. Currently, Boston’s highest-paid player is Charlie McAvoy, who signed an eight-year, $76MM extension almost exactly a year ago.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Snapshots: Kravtsov, Pastrnak, Flames

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The New York Rangers and winger Vitali Kravtsov were both hoping that the former top prospect could finally make an NHL impact this season in a top-six role. Unfortunately for Kravtsov, his season has gotten off to a rough start. After taking a hit early in the first period of tonight’s season opener from Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman, the Rangers said that Kravtsov would not return to the game with an upper-body injury.

The ninth overall pick in 2018 returned to North America this season after spending last year with Traktor Chelyabinsk in the KHL, recording 13 points in 19 games. He made his season debut tonight skating on a line with Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck. Kravtsov played just 1:28 before leaving the game.

  • Talks remain amicable between the Boston Bruins and David Pastrnak on an extension. Still, TSN’s Darren Dreger reported today that the Bruins have yet to make a specific offer to Pastrnak’s camp. It makes sense, all things considered, as Pastrnak has publically said multiple times since he was eligible for an extension that his main focus is on starting the season strong. The team will need to rely on him heavily, of course, with Brad Marchand out of the lineup. Dreger cited Jonathan Huberdeau’s recent eight-year, $84MM extension as a reasonable comparison.
  • Speaking of the Calgary Flames, head coach Darryl Sutter said today that the team has “no need” to name a captain ahead of the 2022-23 season. The Flames have not had a captain since the 2021 offseason when Mark Giordano was claimed in the expansion draft by the Seattle Kraken. New acquisition Huberdeau was a commonly discussed candidate for the role, as well as longtime Flame, Mikael Backlund.

Snapshots: Canadiens Injuries, Pastrnak, Rangers Leadership Group, Blais

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After heading all the way to the Stanley Cup Final in 2020-21, only to finish dead last in the NHL standings in 2021-22, it’s unclear exactly what is to be expected from the Montreal Canadiens this year. Injuries were a large part of what plagued the team last season, and heading into this season, they’re still a part of the headline. Of course, legendary goaltender Carey Price will be on LTIR and is unlikely to play this season, and it’s unclear if he’ll ever return. Still, there are some shorter-term updates available out of Montreal today.

For one, veteran defenseman Joel Edmundson, who is recovering from a back injury, was able to skate this morning and though his rehab is progressing, the team is still unable to provide a timetable for his return. Forwards Joel Armia and Emil Heineman will both be out with injury, Armia out one to two weeks with an upper-body injury and Heineman six weeks with a thumb injury. Defenseman Mike Matheson, who the team acquired in the Jeff Petry deal, is continuing to rehab a lower-body injury and is considered day-to-day. Finally, forwards and expected key contributors Nick Suzuki, Mike Hoffman, and Christian Dvorak, who had all been dealing with separate ailments, were back at practice this morning.

  • Boston Bruins GM Don Sweeney spoke to the media this morning, including Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub, where he discussed a number of Bruins-related topics. Most notably, he touched on extension talks between the team and pending UFA forward David Pastrnak. While many teams and players, in hockey as well as other sports, generally put off contract talks once the season starts, that doesn’t appear to be the case here. Sweeney says the Bruins and Pastrnak have been talking almost every day and are comfortable talking into the regular season. While a deal isn’t done yet of course, the continued dialogue is clearly a good sign for the Bruins and their fans, showing Pastrnak presumably has interest in staying with the team.
  • Earlier this summer, the New York Rangers announced defenseman Jacob Trouba would be their next captain, remarkably their first since previous captain Ryan McDonagh was dealt to the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2018. In the interim, the team has relied on a group of alternate captains to fill their leadership group until they found the perfect fit for the vacant captaincy. Having now chosen Trouba as their man, the Rangers still have their contingent of alternates to go along with him, formally announcing them today. This season, the team will run with veterans Barclay Goodrow, Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin, and Mika Zibanejad as alternates.
  • Tough news for Rangers forward Sammy Blais, who had been out with injury since last November, as he’s still dealing with the aftermath of an upper-body injury suffered after taking a hit from New York Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov in their Saturday evening preseason contest. According to NHL.com’s Dan Rosen, the Rangers have said the forward will not practice today and is doubtful for tomorrow’s season opener against the, Tampa Bay Lightning.

Snapshots: Extension Talks, Sutter, Border Mandates

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There are several players around the league that have been involved in extension talks over the summer, including the likes of MacKenzie Weegar and Bo Horvat. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet touches on several of these situations in the latest 32 Thoughts podcast, giving his thoughts on whether in-season negotiation will be an option.

In Weegar’s case, Friedman notes that there is a feeling that once the season begins, extension talks will be shelved to the end of the year. The 28-year-old defenseman is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and is coming off a career-best 44 points last season. While Horvat’s situation is a bit murkier, Friedman believes that David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins is open to talking throughout the year.

  • Another important member of the Calgary Flames is in the final year of his contract but he isn’t a player. Friedman believes that Darryl Sutter will likely be extended at some point, as his three-year deal approaches expiry. Sutter was hired in 2021, making the first year of his deal the end of the 2020-21 season, and has had a strong effect since returning to Calgary. Under his leadership, the team went from missing the playoffs with a sub .500 record in 2020-21 to winning the Pacific Division and reaching the second round.
  • The Canadian government is dropping all vaccine requirements for non-citizens entering the country as of October 1, meaning that unvaccinated players in leagues like the NHL, NBA, and MLB should now be able to travel with their teams for games in Canada. Last season, for instance, the Detroit Red Wings were forced to leave Tyler Bertuzzi behind when they went on road trips north of the border, something that may well have cost him the team lead in scoring, given the pace he produced at through 68 games. Hopefully, the league will not need to deal with these limitations in the future, as health officials continue to reduce restrictions.

Snapshots: Hague, Pastrnak, Jets

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When Vegas Golden Knights training camp opens tomorrow morning, defenseman Nicolas Hague won’t be there as he awaits a new contract. The Athletic’s Jesse Granger reports that he isn’t expected to be on the ice with his teammates Thursday morning at City National Arena, the team’s practice facility.

Hague is one of the few remaining restricted free agents in the NHL, alongside Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Rasmus Sandin and Dallas Stars forward Jason Robertson as the marquee names. Granger expertly notes that Hague missing camp is more detrimental than in previous seasons, as new head coach Bruce Cassidy will be installing a completely foreign defensive system from what the Knights have been used to in past seasons. Hague, the 34th overall pick in 2017, had 14 points in 52 games last season.

  • Speaking today during preseason media availability, Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney says it’s a priority for him to get pending free agent winger David Pastrnak signed as soon as possible. Pastrnak, while he’s expressed a strong desire to stay in Boston, hasn’t shared the same urgency in negotiations in previous reporting. Pastrnak, who’s notched 40 or more goals in his last two full seasons, will be in line for a substantial raise, and it may behoove Sweeney to get a deal done before his value rises even further.
  • The Winnipeg Jets have made three scouting hires, including the first woman scout in team history, Sydney Daniels. Daniels joins the team as an NCAA scout, having previously served as the assistant coach for the women’s team at Harvard. The team also brought on Jari Kekalainen, brother of Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, as a European scout, and former Toronto Maple Leafs scout Tony Martino as a USHL scout.

Preseason Notes: Pastrnak, Eklund, Canucks Centers

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One of the biggest stories that could play out this upcoming season is the contract situation between the Boston Bruins and their star goal-scoring winger, David Pastrnak. Pastrnak, a Rocket Richard trophy winner, will play the 2022-23 season on the final year of his $6.66MM AAV deal, and is undoubtedly in line to receive a significant raise on his next contract. He will be eligible for  unrestricted free agency at the end of this season, which has led many to speculate that he could leave Boston in a similar fashion to the way other star wingers, such as Johnny Gaudreau and Artemi Panarin, have left their teams as free agents.

According to Pastrnak, though, that’s not the ideal way for things to turn out. When asked today whether he was optimistic about an extension being finalized with the Bruins, Pastrnak answered yes, and added that he is “extremely happy” in Boston and that it’s an “honor” to wear the Bruins’ sweater. For the Bruins, getting Pastrnak signed to an extension has to be their number-one off-ice priority for next season. Pastrnak has scored at or above a point-per-game rate for the past four seasons and at 26 years old should have many prime years ahead of him. If the Bruins want to have any hope of remaining competitive in the next several years, they’ll need to find a way to keep Pastrnak around.

Now, for some other notes about preseason rumblings:

  • 2021 seventh-overall pick William Eklund spent most of last season playing in the SHL, but that won’t be where he’s playing in 2022-23. As relayed by Corey Masisiak of The Athletic, Eklund has said that he is “definitely” staying in North America and will either play for the Sharks in the NHL or the San Jose Barracuda in the AHL, wherever the organization deems he should be. Eklund endured a difficult campaign last year as his SHL club, Djurgardens, was relegated to the Allsvenskan. His choice to make the transition to North American hockey is wise, as he’ll have the chance to continue his development under the watchful eye of the Sharks’ development staff.
  • The Vancouver Canucks made headlines when they signed center J.T. Miller to a long-term extension, and the deal left many wondering if Elias Pettersson’s future was on the wing, since it was presumed that the Canucks would opt to keep Miller and Bo Horvat as centers. While that was a reasonable thing to wonder, it seems that the Canucks are planning to play Pettersson as a center for next season. Per Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre, Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau plans on deploying Miller, Horvat, and Pettersson as centers, believing that he is able to do so thanks to the team’s “upgraded top-nine.” Pettersson’s last two seasons have been rockier than he’d likely have hoped, so the Canucks are seemingly hoping that allowing Pettersson to center and drive his own line will help stabilize his game.

Recent Signings Bode Well For David Pastrnak’s Next Contract

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There are times when things just seem to fall in place for a player.  Bruins winger David Pastrnak is one who has had that happen to him.  His addition to the duo of Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron very quickly created one of the strongest lines in the league for years, helping him become one of the top-scoring wingers in the NHL.  Not too shabby for a late first-round pick, that’s for sure.

But Pastrnak is in line to benefit from things falling into place for a second time.  He’s a year away from unrestricted free agency and is in line for a substantial raise on the $6.67MM AAV he has on his current deal.  How much of an increase that will be remains to be seen but even though there aren’t any games being played right now, it’s certainly trending in an upwards direction.

Just a few months ago, Artemi Panarin’s seven-year contract that carries a cap hit of $11.643MM seemed like an outlier that would be unachievable.  Most of the biggest contracts in the league this coming season are for centers with veteran defensemen and a pair of goalies also up there.  But for the most part, wingers aren’t really in the mix; aside from Panarin, Mitch Marner and Patrick Kane are the only other two wingers in the top-15 in terms of cap hit for next season.

But things have started to change on that front.  Johnny Gaudreau just landed $9.75MM on a seven-year deal from Columbus.  His former teammate Matthew Tkachuk got $9.5MM per season for eight years in a sign-and-trade that saw him join Florida.  Meanwhile, one of the players he was traded for, Jonathan Huberdeau, received a $10.5MM AAV for eight seasons in Calgary.  All of a sudden, instead of it being a rarity that a winger gets a high-end contract, it’s becoming more commonplace.  That’s great news for Pastrnak when it comes to working on his next deal.

Over the past four seasons, only six wingers have recorded more points than the 301 that Pastrnak has put up.  Five of them (Kane, Huberdeau, Panarin, Marner, and Gaudreau) have contracts of at least $9.75MM in value.  If we look in terms of points per game, Pastrnak moves ahead of Gaudreau.  The other is his winger, Marchand, who has three years left on a very team-friendly deal with a $6.125MM AAV.  It’s safe to call that contract the outlier of the bunch, not the one that’s going to be used as a basis for comparison in extension discussions.

With there now being less hesitance to handing out top money to top wingers, things are lining up quite nicely for Pastrnak.  A contract between the ones that Gaudreau and Huberdeau received is a reasonable range and if he has another strong season and makes it to the open market, he could even get a bit more.  If Boston isn’t willing to pay that, someone else certainly will.

A couple of years ago, there was a hesitance to give top wingers comparable money to top centers but that’s certainly no longer the case as evidenced by these recent contracts.  Whether it’s in the coming weeks or months as an extension with Boston or next July in free agency, Pastrnak is certainly poised to benefit from this shift in philosophy with a significant raise soon coming his way.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Bruins Notes: Langenbrunner, Front Office, Pastrnak

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The Boston Bruins have given Jamie Langenbrunner a new title, naming him Assistant General Manager – Player Personnel today. The front office executive has been with the team for the past seven years, first joining as a player development coordinator and working his way up. A name to keep in mind for future general manager searches, he has rather quickly made his way through the Bruins system, having only been named director of player development in 2020.

He wasn’t the only one to receive a promotion today though. Here are more notes from the front office announcements:

  • Dennis Bonvie and Ryan Nadeau have been named directors of pro and amateur scouting respectively, while Darren Yopyk is now assistant director of amateur scouting. Brett Harkins is the head college scout, while Parker MacKay is now an amateur and college scout. The team has also named three skating and skills consultants, reformed their medical department, and named a handful of analytics additions.
  • Not to be overlooked was general manager Don Sweeney’s press conference discussing the new contracts for David Krejci and Patrice Bergeron. In it, he was asked about a potential extension for David Pastrnak, and explained that there is an ongoing conversation with the star winger. Sweeney wouldn’t discuss details, though did mention that the Bruins are comfortable going into the season without an extension in place. Pastrnak, 26, is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent next summer.

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