Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Drake Caggiula

Drake Caggiula Undergoes Surgery

at CDT | by 2 Comments

It’s the end of the season for Buffalo Sabres forward Drake Caggiula, who will be undergoing fusion surgery on a herniated disk today. Caggiula has been given a recovery timeline of six to eight months, according to Heather Engel of NHL.com.

Not only does that mean that Caggiula’s season ends with just 18 games played, but given his status as a pending unrestricted free agent, this surgery will also affect offseason negotiations. With no clear picture of when he will be back on the ice training, it’s hard to imagine him getting anything but a one-year, two-way contract at this point.

That’s a steep fall for the 27-year-old who once looked like he was going to be a bottom-six force for years to come. In 2017-18, his sophomore season, Caggiula scored 13 goals in 67 games for the Edmonton Oilers, racking up 147 hits with his fearless playstyle. He followed that up with another 12-goal campaign the next year, with time split between Edmonton and the Chicago Blackhawks, but hasn’t been able to crack double digits in the years since. This season, he had just two goals and five points in the 18 games, while recording just 17 hits.

It’s not to say his career is over but it will be a long recovery for a player that was already having trouble impacting the game at the NHL level. Caggiula’s future is very unclear at this point.

Drake Caggiula Placed On Injured Reserve

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Buffalo Sabres today placed forward Drake Caggiula on injured reserve, per a tweet from the team’s public relations account. Caggiula is week-to-week with an upper-body injury after missing Buffalo’s last game, a 5-1 home loss to the Boston Bruins on Wednesday.

The team recalled forward Brett Murray from the AHL’s Rochester Americans today in his place. Buffalo has shuffled Murray up and down multiple times this season as they’ve faced injuries, but he’s only played one game this season (no points in 11:06 of ice time). Murray’s gotten into nine games with Rochester, however, tallying six goals and one assist.

Caggiula signed a one-year, $750,000 extension with the Sabres this offseason after the team claimed him off waivers from the Arizona Coyotes near the end of the 2020-21 campaign. He’d played in all 18 games this season for which he was healthy, scoring two goals and three assists while averaging nearly 15 minutes a night (a career-high).

At even strength, Caggiula’s line with Dylan Cozens and Vinnie Hinostroza has seen the most ice time of any forward grouping for Buffalo in 2021-22. It looks like Sabres head coach Don Granato will do some line shuffling in Caggiula’s absence, getting Arttu Ruotsalainen back into the lineup.

Buffalo Sabres Limited By Salary Cap Floor

at CDT | by 25 Comments

The Buffalo Sabres will be over the NHL’s salary cap floor by the start of the season, that much is obvious. While CapFriendly currently has the club sitting $2.3MM below the $60.2MM benchmark, that is with a 22-man roster that does not include unsigned RFA defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. While the 2018 first overall pick is not quite yet proven himself worthy of the considerable long-term deals signed by other top defenseman this off-season, he will surely make more than $2.3MM AAV on his next contract.

Yet, that does not end the Sabres’ battle with the cap floor. Just because they begin the season over the floor, does not mean that they will remain as such all season – or at least not if they wish to have flexibility with their transactions. Buffalo is again expected to be among the NHL’s worst teams this season and will be open to selling current members of the roster. Of course, Jack Eichel is the biggest name who could be available. However, at $10MM AAV it has been brought up numerous times that an Eichel trade is not as easy as it may seem. A team may offer a plethora of top picks, prospects, and entry-level players, but the Sabres would not be able to make that deal alone, as it would leave the team well below the salary cap floor regardless of Dahlin’s contract. Buffalo would have to acquire a nearly equal amount of salary back in the deal or else be prepared to quickly turn and add that salary in another deal. As a rebuilding team, the Sabres also won’t eager to add high-priced veterans who serve little purpose to a team with no title hopes. It makes an already difficult situation with Eichel all that much more tricky.

Even if Eichel begins the season with Buffalo, which seems increasingly likely, and even plays out the year with the team, the cap floor will still come into play. As the trade deadline approaches, the Sabres want to be in position to take full advantage of their valuable trade assets. The team has four forwards, four defensemen, and two goalies who are impending UFA’s and whose expiring contracts would be worth far more to another team. Colin Miller ($3.875MM), Will Butcher ($2.823MM), Cody Eakin ($2.25MM) and Vinnie Hinostroza ($1.05MM) stand out as potentially popular trade candidates at the deadline. Depending on Dahlin’s contract, could they move Hinostroza or maybe even Eakin or Butcher without going below the floor? Probably. But Miller? Or multiple moves? Likely not. The deadline is also not a place that is likely to offer even salary swaps.

If GM Kevyn Adams and the Sabres want to enter the 2021-22 season with the confidence that they can make any move they want without limitation, they need to find a way to sensibly add salary to the roster. For a rebuilding team, it may be difficult to think about adding salary to a team that won’t contend, but it would be a short-term sacrifice to ensure their long-term plans are not affected. The team could explore the trade market for a veteran or two that can help to develop the young roster or perhaps a young, but overpaid reclamation project. Or maybe they could entertain adding a legitimate starting goalie. They could also explore the free agent market which, even late in the summer, still has some attractive names available. With the Sabres pegged to give roster spots to minimum-salary fourth-liners like Drake Caggiula and John Hayden, it might make more sense to give those slots and more importantly more salary to a high-upside project like Ryan Donato, Alex Galchenyuk, or Nikita Gusev or a veteran leader like Tyler Bozak, James Neal, or Jason Demers. 

The Sabres have plenty of options to solve their salary cap floor conundrum beyond just re-signing Dahlin. However, those options could disappear if they don’t act quickly, and with it their transactional flexibility this season.

Buffalo Sabres Re-Sign Drake Caggiula

at CDT | by 2 Comments

The Buffalo Sabres aren’t letting Drake Caggiula go that fast. The team has re-signed the depth forward to a one-year, $750K contract, keeping him from the free agent market.

Claimed off waivers from the Arizona Coyotes in early April, Caggiula played just 11 games for the Sabres down the stretch but obviously made an impact on the front office or coaching staff. The energetic winger scored two goals and three points during that 11-game stint, bringing his total to 10 points for the 2020-21 season. That’s certainly not production that will make you leap out of your chair, but for the league minimum, it doesn’t have to be.

Since entering the league as an undrafted free agent in 2016, Caggiula has always had a high work ethic and no fear, routinely throwing his 5’10” frame into the corners against bigger defenders. That kind of scratch-and-claw attitude is exactly what the Sabres need more of at the bottom of their roster, and his speed can be a versatile fit on various lines. It may not feel like it, but Caggiula has already carved out a 260-game NHL career and only just turned 27. Not bad for a player who was passed over several times by every team in the league and spent four years at the University of North Dakota.

Buffalo Sabres Claim Drake Caggiula

at CDT | by 1 Comment

According to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, the Buffalo Sabres have claimed Drake Caggiula off waivers, seeing the obvious value in an experienced forward that makes the league minimum.

Caggiula, 26, scored 41 goals and 76 points through the first 222 games of his career, playing an energy role in the bottom-six for Edmonton and Chicago. Unfortunately, that production didn’t follow him to Arizona, where he had just one goal and seven points in 27 games this season.

Though he could never really find a fit in the desert, Caggiula comes to a Buffalo team that is desperate for some work ethic and fresh energy. Not only will he likely receive more responsibility and ice time, but this will be a great way for Caggiula to audition for his next contract. He settled for a one-year deal at the league minimum of $700K in late December and hasn’t had a great showing so far. A good few weeks with the struggling Sabres could change all that and send him to unrestricted free agency with something to build on.

There is also potentially a chance that Buffalo flips him by the deadline, especially if they know that another team was going to claim him. Being in last place, the Sabres would have had waiver priority over every other team in the league, meaning Caggiula never even had a chance to go anywhere else.

Drake Caggiula Placed On Waivers

at CDT | by 6 Comments

The Arizona Coyotes have placed Drake Caggiula on waivers according to Chris Johnston of Sportsnet. He has played just once since March 27, receiving fewer than 10 minutes of ice time in Monday’s game against the Los Angeles Kings.

It wasn’t so long ago that Caggiula was proving to be a capable bottom-six scoring threat, able to manufacture even-strength offense in limited minutes. Over the first four seasons of his career, he recorded 41 goals in 222 games, an 82-game pace of 15 despite averaging just 13 minutes of ice time a night. For a player that was seemingly never outworked and played with a physical edge, those numbers were more than good enough.

Unfortunately this season that offense has dried up completely, with Caggiula scoring just a single goal in 27 games for the Coyotes. His possession numbers have fallen off a cliff in the desert and despite still managing 49 hits on the year, hasn’t been the energy machine he had in years past.

Still, with an expiring $700K contract, perhaps someone feels that Caggiula can be a valuable depth add just ahead of the deadline. He does have 249 games of NHL experience, not something often found so cheaply on the waiver wire.

Drake Caggiula Signs With Arizona Coyotes

at CDT | by 3 Comments

6:15pm: The Coyotes  have made the deal official, announcing the signing of Caggiula. The team also confirmed the reported one-year and one-way terms, but did not disclose financial details. New Coyotes GM Bill Armstrong called his latest addition a “hard-working, versatile forward and a strong skater” in the team’s release.

4:00pm: The Arizona Coyotes are expected to sign unrestricted free agent Drake Caggiula to a one-year deal according to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet adds that the deal will likely be for $700K, a nice bargain for a useful depth player.

Caggiula, 26, was left unqualified by the Chicago Blackhawks this offseason, making him a UFA. He scored just 15 points in 40 games during the 2019-20 season, but nine of those were goals. The undrafted forward has shown a knack for scoring despite limited minutes, registering seasons of 13 and 12 goals previously.

A $700K salary will be less than half of what Caggiula made last year, another example of how the COVID-19 financial climate is affecting players on the fringes of NHL rosters. Where Caggiula really fits in Arizona isn’t clear, but with taxi squads, he is a perfect depth option for the league minimum.

Drake Caggiula Suspended One Game

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Chicago Blackhawks will be without Drake Caggiula for their next qualification round game. The forward has been given a one-game suspension by the Department of Player Safety for the hit on Edmonton Oilers forward Tyler Ennis yesterday.

As the accompanying video explains:

It is important to note that the head is the main point of contact on this hit. While Caggiula does make some contact with Ennis’ arm, the brunt of the impact on this play is absorbed by Ennis’ head. It is also important to note that the head contact on this play is avoidable. While we acknowledge that Ennis’ body moves slightly while making a play on the puck, he does not materially change the position of his head or body in a way that substantially contributes to the head being the main point of contact. 

Caggiula has never previously been fined or suspended, though this one-game ban is especially relevant in a short best-of-five series. He was not penalized on the play, but he’ll have to miss an entire game now as the Blackhawks attempt to upset the Oilers.

Mark Lazerus of The Athletic notes that Dylan Sikura is the likeliest candidate to replace Caggiula in the Blackhawks lineup.

Drake Caggiula To Have Hearing With Department Of Player Safety

at CDT | by 1 Comment

We have our first potential suspension of the NHL playoffs, as the Department of Player Safety has announced Drake Caggiula of the Chicago Blackhawks will have a hearing today. Caggiula hit Edmonton Oilers forward Tyler Ennis during the second period of their game yesterday, appearing to contact the head. Caggiula was not penalized on the play.

There have been several incidents already in the exhibition and early playoff games that could have warranted review from the DoPS, with almost every team trying to engage physically early to get the tempo of games up. Fights have already erupted between players that rarely drop the gloves and huge collisions have become standard, at least early in games.

Caggiula, who came to the Blackhawks from the Oilers last season, recorded nine goals and 15 points in 40 games for Chicago this year. He played a little over 11 minutes yesterday, recording four hits and a blocked shot.

Snapshots: Hub Announcement Not Coming Today, Draft Lottery, Blackhawks

at CDT | by 4 Comments

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly put the kibosh on any expectation that the final announcement about the postseason’s hub locations would be revealed today, per TSN’s Pierre LeBrun. There was hope bordering on expectation that the chosen cities would be announced today, but there’s evidently much still to consider. In the meantime, let’s see what else is going on around the NHL…

  • Tonight’s draft lottery will decide who gets the top three picks in next year’s draft – assuming the winners of those picks fall in the bottom seven by record, writes The Athletic’s Sean McIndoe. Otherwise, we might be facing a second lottery once the play-in round decides the other eight teams of the lottery field. The Detroit Red Wings have the night’s best odds, but the top pick has only gone to the team with the best odds 30% of the time over the past decade. After the Red Wings, the Ottawa Senators hold each of the next best slots, one for their own pick, and one for the Sharks pick they acquired in the Erik Karlsson deal.
  • Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman hasn’t engaged with their impending free agents, a list largely comprised of arbitration-eligible restricted free agents, per The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus. Goaltender Corey Crawford is their highest-issue unrestricted free agent, as the 35-year-old netminder held sway between the pipes for two Chicago championships. Restricted free agent Drake Caggiula also presents an interesting case, writes Lazerus, as the speedster expected that his broken hand would be the end of his season. The long layoff and expanded playoff pool has presented Caggiula with an opportunity to build his case ahead of what’s expected to be a rather tepid free agency.
AJAX Loader
Load More Posts

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

scroll to top