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Dominik Kahun

Minor Transactions: 08/02/22

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It’s been a long, slow grind since the craziness of free agency opening on July 13, with a good number of high-end free agents remaining unsigned. With many other leagues than just the NHL looking to get their rosters set for next season, though, that hasn’t been the case everywhere. Minor-league teams and overseas leagues are making moves and transactions to their squads every day, giving hockey fans something else to look at. We’ll keep track of today’s transactions right here.

  • 2012 first-round pick Jordan Schmaltz is switching leagues. After heading overseas for 2021-22 in order to play for HIFK Helsinki in the Finnish Liiga, and now he’s headed to Switzerland for 2022-23. Per an official team announcement, Swiss club EHC Kloten has signed Schmaltz to a contract for next season. Schmaltz had a successful European debut, leading all HIFK blueliners with 33 points in 55 games last season. His offense-first, pace-pushing style should excite fans in Kloten and help improve their offense. The five-time Swiss champions are making their return to the top-tier of Swiss hockey after being relegated in 2017-18, and their signing of Schmaltz should help them compete next season.
  • After a four-season run in the NHL that saw him suit up for four different NHL teams, Dominik Kahun made the choice to return to Europe to continue his professional career. Kahun signed a deal with SC Bern in Switzerland, and after an extraordinarily successful debut in the Swiss league that saw him score 16 goals and 44 points in just 42 games, Kahun has gotten that deal extended. Kahun’s initial contract ran through 2024, and now Bern has announced that they have extended the contract by three more seasons, through 2026-2027. This is an understandable move for both the team and for Kahun. For Kahun, his experience switching teams every year in order to stick in the NHL may have taken a toll on him, and he could prefer stability at this point in his career, which is what he’s gotten from Bern. For Bern, they keep an in-his-prime player who has shown himself to be an offensive force in their league for many seasons to come.
  • Alexei Lipanov, a 2017 third-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning, is headed back to Russia. Per a team announcement, Lipanov has signed a one-year, two-way contract with Spartak Moscow of the KHL. Lipanov spent 2021-22 playing for three teams: the Syracuse Crunch and Texas Stars of the AHL, and the Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL. He got into 16 total games last season and had one assist. He heads to Russia to jump-start his pro career closer to home.
  • Daniel Sylwander, the captain of MODO Hockey in Ornskoldsvik, is changing teams. Tingsryds IF, a rival Allsvenskan club, has announced the signing of Sylwander to a one-year deal. Sylwander has served as captain of MODO for the past two seasons and brings experience and leadership to a Tingsryds club looking to improve upon a tenth place finish in 2021-22.
  • Former NHLer Mark Flood is hanging up his skates. Flood, who served as captain of French Ligue Magnus side Rouen last season, has made the decision to retire and join the Ottawa Senators organization, per a team announcement. Flood last played in the NHL in 2011-12 and has played across Europe for the past eight seasons, playing in France, Austria, Russia, and Croatia. Flood, a sixth-round pick of the Montreal Canadiens at the 2003 draft, had 32 points in 43 games last season and captained Rouen to a third-place finish in Ligue Magnus.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Germany Announces 2022 Olympic Roster

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With less than three weeks until the 2022 Winter Olympic men’s hockey tournament gets underway, rosters are being finalized by all the participating countries. Germany is the latest to reveal who will represent their country in Beijing next month, announcing a roster that will try to follow up their silver medal performance from 2018. It’s not a group that is very familiar to NHL fans, though there are a few names that will ring a bell from their time in North America.

The full roster:

G Danny Aus den Birken
G Felix Bruckmann
G Mathias Niederberger

D Konrad Abeltshauser
D Dominik Bittner
D Marcel Brandt
D Korbinian Holzer
D Jonas Muller
D Moritz Muller
D Marco Nowak
D Fabio Wagner

F Lean Bergmann
F Yasin Ehliz
F Patrick Hager
F Dominik Kahun
F Nicolas Krammer
F Tom Kuhnhackl
F Stefan Loibl
F Marcel Noebels
F Daniel Pietta
F Matthias Plachta
F Leonhard Pfoderl
F Tobias Rieder
F Frederik Tiffles
F David Wolf

Once again this is a very veteran roster, with no young players really involved. Most of the European countries have gone this route, while the U.S. and Canada have both included some of the country’s top college and junior players. For Germany, who currently sit fifth in IIHF World Ranking, ahead of Czechia and Sweden, this is an important tournament and another chance to show what their homegrown talent and systems can do when the NHL is not participating.

Dominik Kahun Signs In Swiss League

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September 6th: Kahun’s three-year deal with SC Bern was made official by the team this morning. Oilers reporter Jim Matheson reports that Kahun’s deal includes an out clause every offseason if Kahun wishes to return to the NHL.

August 26th: After his rookie season, free agent forward Dominik Kahun looked like he’d be a decent secondary player in the NHL but things haven’t gone well for him since then.  As a result, it appears that he could be heading overseas as a report from Blick in Switzerland has the 26-year-old nearing a three-year deal with SC Bern of the Swiss NLA.

Kahun was somewhat surprisingly non-tendered by Buffalo last fall after the Sabres acquired him from Pittsburgh at the trade deadline.  After waiting the market out, he was able to catch on with Edmonton who eyed reuniting him with fellow countryman Leon Draisaitl in the hopes of having Kahun provide some depth scoring for a low cost.

Unfortunately for Kahun and the Oilers, that didn’t exactly happen.  He managed just nine goals and six assists in 48 games (after notching more than 30 points in each of his first two years) and wound up working his way down the lineup and eventually in the press box as he only suited up in two of their four playoff games.

With the year he had, Kahun may have been hard-pressed to land a one-way NHL contract on the open market this time around – a PTO may have been his likeliest scenario – so opting to head overseas certainly makes sense and if he’s able to land a three-year deal, that’s a lot more security than he’d have received going year-to-year in North America.

Oilers Unlikely To Qualify Dominik Kahun And Jujhar Khaira

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Oilers GM Ken Holland spoke with the media today to discuss the upcoming offseason; the full transcript is available on their team website.  Among the topics that he addressed were his upcoming free agents where he indicated that he is unlikely to be tendering qualifying offers to forwards Dominik Kahun and Jujhar Khaira.

Kahun came to Edmonton back in the fall after being somewhat of a surprising non-tender by Buffalo considering he had two seasons of more than 30 points under his belt.  Instead, they opted to avoid the risk of an arbitration award that was too high for their liking.  The Oilers added the 26-year-old for just under a million dollars with the hopes that he’d rediscover some chemistry with countryman Leon Draisaitl but that didn’t happen.  Instead, he wasn’t able to hold down a spot in the top six for an extended period of time and wound up notching just 15 points in 48 games.  His qualifying offer checks in at an even million dollars but his previous production could be used in arbitration which would push the award higher than what Edmonton wanted to pay.

As for Khaira, he has been a regular in their lineup for most of the last four seasons, giving them some physicality and penalty killing from the fourth line.  However, the 26-year-old hasn’t been able to do much offensively, scoring just 24 goals in 258 career games with the Oilers.  With spending on role players expected to drop again this summer in an effort to cut costs, his $1.3MM qualifying offer with arbitration rights was clearly too much for them to commit to.

Having said that, it’s quite possible that Edmonton looks into trying to bring them back at lower rates that better fit their salary structure for next season though at this point, both players will likely want to see what’s out there on the open market.  They won’t have to wait too long to get there with free agency opening up on Wednesday.

Pacific Notes: Kahun, Canucks, Curran

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Quite a few players set their sights high in free agency and have had to settle for less than they were expected.  Postmedia’s Kurt Leavins reports that Dominik Kahun was one of them as he turned down bigger offers early on than the $975K for one year that he ultimately received from the Oilers.  However, he notes that the short-term arrangement wasn’t the only option Kahun and Edmonton discussed as talks initially were for a multi-year deal.  Clearly, that didn’t come to fruition but Kahun will be eligible to sign an extension in-season if he so desires.  That window typically opens up on January 1st but it seems quite likely that it will be pushed back depending on when the 2020-21 season actually gets underway.

More from the Pacific Division:

  • The Canucks were in the process of trying to make a cap-clearing trade before Tyler Toffoli decided to sign with Montreal, reports Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre. While they were still able to make an addition of note when they brought in Nate Schmidt from Vegas, it’s fair to wonder if GM Jim Benning may be willing to try to free up some cap room again to try to add one of the notable free agents that are still available.  Vancouver could get some in-season relief if winger Micheal Ferland is unable to return and winds up back on LTIR but at the moment, he is hoping to return for next season which would take that option off the table.
  • The Ducks weren’t the only team that showed interest in defenseman Kodie Curran this offseason, notes Scott Cruickshank of The Athletic (subscription link). However, as Anaheim had checked in on his over the previous couple of years, that was enough to sell the 30-year-old on signing his first NHL contract with them.  Curran spent time in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden over the past four years and inked a two-year, one-way deal this offseason with a $1MM AAV, signalling that the Ducks expect him to be a part of their back end next season.

Edmonton Oilers Sign Dominik Kahun

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Nov 5: The Oilers have officially announced the contract for Kahun, which will be for one year and worth $975K, as Friedman reported. With that deal in the books, Kahun has now been loaned to the DEL until the start of the NHL season. The Czech-born forward group up and developed in Germany, winning the DEL Championship three times before originally signing with the Blackhawks.

Nov 1: It has been a busy offseason for Edmonton with the additions of Tyson Barrie and Kyle Turris plus the return of Jesse Puljujarvi but it appears they’re not done yet.  Jiri Poner, the agent for forward Dominik Kahun, told Michael Bauer of Eishockey News in Germany, that his client has signed a one-year deal with the Oilers.  Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that the deal will be worth $975K.

Kahun was surprisingly non-tendered by Buffalo last month as the Sabres were looking to avoid salary arbitration with him but that shouldn’t be mistaken for them not wanting to keep him. Poner indicated that Buffalo was the other team showing considerable interest in Kahun’s services but that they’ve opted to go in a different direction.

The 25-year-old only has two NHL seasons under his belt but both have been productive.  He had 37 points in 82 games in his rookie season with Chicago before being moved to Pittsburgh as part of the Olli Maatta trade last summer.  He was producing at a better pace with the Penguins but they opted to move him to pick up Conor Sheary and Evan Rodrigues at the trade deadline and Kahun fared well with his new team, picking up two goals and two assists in six games before the pandemic hit.  Between the two spots, he had 12 goals and 19 helpers in 56 games and as a result of not being qualified, he was one of the more productive players to hit the open market.

Assuming the deal occurs, Kahun will be reunited with fellow countryman Leon Draisaitl.  The two played together in Mannheim’s junior system before coming to North America to play in the CHL; Draisaitl played in Prince Albert (WHL) while Kahun went to Sudbury (OHL).

Notably, while they added him on the open market, Edmonton will be able to retain Kahun’s rights as a restricted free agent next offseason if they so desire although he will be arbitration-eligible once again.  The minimum age for outright UFA eligibility is 27 and Kahun won’t be able to get there or have the required seven years of experience to become unrestricted in 2021.

The Oilers have just over $730K in cap space, per CapFriendly, though that number would go up a bit as Kahun’s presence would force someone else off the roster so they’ll still be in compliance after completing the signing.  They do have to re-sign RFA defenseman Ethan Bear as well but they will eventually have some extra flexibility on the cap with Oscar Klefbom expected to start next season on LTIR and they’ll need to dip into that to get his deal done.

Ten Notable Non-Tenders

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Lost in the shuffle on the marathon second day of the draft is that Wednesday also represented the deadline for qualifying offers to be tendered.  The flattening of the salary cap increased the concerns about salary arbitration which has certainly affected the quality of players that are now set to hit the open market on Friday.  As these players will not be a part of our annual Top-50 UFA Rankings, here’s a rundown of ten notables to keep tabs on over the coming days, listed in alphabetical order.

Andreas Athanasiou (Edmonton)

Back at the trade deadline, the Oilers dealt a pair of second-round picks and Sam Gagner to secure the speedster, one that GM Ken Holland had plenty of familiarity with from his own days with Detroit.  While the winger was having a tough season, he’s only a year removed from a 30-goal campaign.  In a normal salary cap world, his $3MM qualifier would have been tough to swallow but still would have happened.  Instead, he hits the open market with Edmonton not getting much return for those two fairly high picks while becoming an intriguing bounce-back target for some teams.  He won’t get paid like a 30-goal scorer but as a third-liner with upside, he’ll land one of the bigger contracts out of this group of players if not the biggest.

Matt Benning (Edmonton)

There was a time that the Oilers hoped that Benning could step into a role on their second pairing but it didn’t come to fruition.  However, he has been a serviceable third-pairing player over the past few years but a cap-strapped Oilers team couldn’t justify qualifying him at $1.95MM.  Given that he’s a right-handed shot in a market that doesn’t have a lot of them, he should have interest from a few teams.

Nick Cousins (Vegas)

On the surface, a $1MM qualifying offer to a player who had 25 points in 65 games and got into 17 postseason contests doesn’t seem too pricey.  But this is a case where the potential for a higher award through arbitration is a risk that Vegas didn’t want to take with Cousins.  It’s the second-straight year that the 27-year-old was non-tendered for this reason after Arizona did the same thing a year ago.  A versatile depth player, he should be able to land somewhere for around the same contract as he played on this past season.

Anthony Duclair (Ottawa)

Despite finding an opportunity to play a bigger role than he had at any other point in his career, it seems as if Duclair may have overplayed his hand in contract talks.  After scoring 23 goals this season, he opted to represent himself in contract negotiations against the recommendation of GM Pierre Dorion who indicated that a sizable raise was offered before getting to this point.  Still just 25, Duclair becomes a very interesting addition to the open market but having bounced around the league already (he has played for five different teams in six NHL seasons), it’s hard to tell how strong his market may be.

Vinnie Hinostroza (Arizona)

A year ago, it looked like the 26-year-old was set to be a useful part of Arizona’s long-term plans.  He was coming off of a career-best 16-23-39 stat line and was pushing for a spot in their top six.  Things went sideways this year though as he potted just five goals in 68 games which made a $1.5MM qualifier untenable.  Hinostroza could fit on a third line for some teams and should have a fair bit of interest.

Dominik Kahun (Buffalo)

This was one of the more surprising non-tenders of the group.  Although Kahun has just two years of NHL experience, he’s arbitration-eligible since he’s 25.  He followed up a 37-point rookie campaign with 31 points this pandemic-shortened season (including four in six games with Buffalo after being acquired in a deadline day deal from Pittsburgh) while he also missed time with a concussion and a knee injury.  With his point per game average, he played at a 45-point full-season pace.  Buffalo GM Kevyn Adams has indicated they are interested in retaining the winger but if he makes it to the open market, he should be one of the most sought-after players from this list.

Mark Jankowski (Calgary)

While he had shown progress in his development over his first two full NHL seasons, things went off the rails in 2019-20.  Jankowski scored just five times in 56 games and while he wouldn’t have been able to get much more than his $1.75MM qualifier in arbitration, that was still too high of a price tag for Calgary’s liking.  Still just 26, Jankowski now heads to an open market that isn’t exactly loaded in available centers so while a pay cut is likely, he should have no issues finding a new team.

Dominik Simon (Pittsburgh)

A natural center, Simon has spent the majority of his time with Pittsburgh on the wing, playing on all four lines along the way.  While not a gifted point producer, he has surpassed 20 points in each of the last two seasons while posting above-average possession numbers.  Owed a qualifier of less than $800K, the fear of arbitration sealed Simon’s fate on a cap-strapped Penguins squad.

Troy Stecher (Vancouver)

In 2018-19, Stecher looked to be on the verge of securing a spot in Vancouver’s top four after averaging nearly 20 minutes a night and chipping in with 23 points.  But the return of a healthy Chris Tanev and the addition of Tyler Myers helped push the 26-year-old onto the third pairing and a much lower ATOI than usual.  A $2.325MM qualifier is a bit high for someone in that role but there should be a few teams that see him as a potential fourth or fifth option which makes him a notable addition to the UFA market.

Lucas Wallmark (Florida)

One of the notable parts of the Vincent Trocheck deal, Wallmark was coming off of a league-minimum salary which means this non-tender was solely arbitration related.  The 25-year-old only has two full NHL seasons under his belt, putting up 25 and 23 points in each while posting a faceoff percentage that’s a bit above the 50% mark each time.  There is still some upside with Wallmark and with a weak market down the middle, he’ll have no trouble generating interest.

While these players (among the others that were non-tendered) can become unrestricted free agents on Friday, some teams will still be negotiating with their players to try to get them at a lower salary than either their qualifying offer or their expected arbitration salary.  Usually, a handful wind up re-signing so at least for some of these players, their fates may not be completely sealed yet.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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