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Dryden Hunt, Phil Di Giuseppe Placed On Waivers

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Two more players have graced the waiver wire today, as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that Dryden Hunt of the New York Rangers and Phillip Di Giuseppe of the Vancouver Canucks are available for claim.

Di Giuseppe is coming off season-opening injured reserve, suggesting he is ready to return to action now that he’s found himself on waivers. If he clears, he’ll likely join the Abbotsford Canucks where he spent all of last season. The 29-year-old does have 201 NHL games under his belt, but with the recent injury it seems unlikely that he’ll be claimed.

Hunt on the other hand is more of an interesting story. The 26-year-old undrafted forward plays a physical game and never seems to be out of energy, attacking defenders and tracking down the puck every time he hits the ice. In 76 games with the Rangers last season he scored six goals and 17 points while delivering 153 hits and racking up 52 penalty minutes.

While there might not be a lot of offensive upside there, it’s easy to see why another team might want to add Hunt to the bottom-six mix, especially given the fact that he comes with a cap hit of just $762.5K. That number could fit into basically any team’s cap structure and even with some poor results in limited minutes this year, there are signs that he could be a benefit to clubs struggling to find a good mix on the fourth line.

With Sammy Blais returning, the Rangers needed to clear some space, and might end up losing Hunt in the process.

Philadelphia Flyers Claim Lukas Sedlak

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The Philadelphia Flyers have nabbed another forward, claiming Lukas Sedlak off waivers from the Colorado Avalanche, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. To make room, they’ve loaned Olle Lycksell to the AHL.

Sedlak, it should be noted, has quite a bit of familiarity with head coach John Tortorella from their time with the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was under Tortorella that the versatile Czech forward ascended to the NHL, and under whom he played more than 160 games.

The 29-year-old signed with the Avalanche after playing the last three years in the KHL (where he was a star) but hadn’t found any consistency playing a handful of minutes on the fourth line. He’ll now join a Flyers team that has gotten off to a 3-0 start, defeating the Devils, Canucks, and Lightning to begin the year. Given his ability to play all three forward positions and familiarity with the coaching staff, Sedlak should be able to slide directly into the lineup whenever he joins the Flyers on the road.

Philadelphia is set to take on the Florida Panthers this evening, before heading to Nashville for a Saturday night matchup.

Sedlak will avoid the minor leagues again with the claim; he hasn’t played in the AHL since the 2015-16 season with the Lake Erie Monsters, going out on top by winning the Calder Cup that year. He’ll now be kept on the Flyers roster, at least for the time being, and try to find some more consistent playing time in Philadelphia.

Lukas Sedlak Placed On Waivers; Anders Bjork Clears

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Despite no clear timeline on Gabriel Landeskog and Darren Helm, the Colorado Avalanche appear to be clearing some room on the roster. The team has placed Lukas Sedlak on waivers, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Anders Bjork of the Buffalo Sabres has cleared and will be assigned to the AHL.

Sedlak, 29, has played in all three of the team’s games so far this season, seeing fewer than nine minutes in each. During last night’s match against the Minnesota wild, he played just nine shifts and lost all four of the faceoffs he took. Helm, who would normally slot into that fourth-line center role, was on the ice today at Colorado’s option skate but was still wearing a non-contact sweater and does not appear ready to return at this point.

While they don’t need to recall someone else now that they are headed home from a road trip, the team is already at a roster of 20, meaning they can’t re-assign Sedlak without calling someone else up or activating one of their injured players. That player might be Jacob MacDonald, who has been skating as a forward with the club for the last few days after starting the year on season-opening injured reserve.

Sedlak meanwhile is an interesting waiver case, given his recent history. The sixth-round pick has starred in the KHL the last three seasons, and signed a one-year, two-way contract to return to North America this summer. His deal includes a massive $500K AHL salary, meaning he will still be making a good buck if he ends up playing with the Colorado Eagles.

The Avalanche have also sent Ben Meyers to the minor leagues, another sign that there may be changes coming to the fourth line. Meyers does not require waivers and can be recalled as soon as Sedlak is sent down, if needed.

Sonny Milano Signs With Washington Capitals

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10/16/22: The Capitals have now officially announced the deal. Per the announcement, it’s a one-year, $750k deal, and it was confirmed that Milano will be hitting waivers today for the purpose of assigning him to AHL Hershey.

10/15/22: The Washington Capitals are expected to sign Sonny Milano, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The deal will be a one-year, one-way $750K contract but Friedman notes that Milano will be starting in the AHL. That would require him to clear waivers, meaning there’s at least a chance that another team could claim him for their NHL roster right away.

Milano, 26, failed to earn an NHL contract the summer or with his professional tryout this fall. That was with the Calgary Flames, where he struggled to fit into the team’s system or provide much offensive spark.

That’s the key with Milano, who has always been exceptionally skilled but has struggled to play a consistent role in the NHL. The 16th overall pick in 2014, he has 197 games under his belt, 66 of them coming last season with the Anaheim Ducks. That was easily his best season, finding early chemistry with Trevor Zegras and racking up 14 goals and 34 points.

Notably though, that included just five points in his final 27 games, the kind of inconsistency that has plagued him his whole career.

Perhaps the Capitals will be able to coax that out of him, though there appears to be no guarantee of playing time if he’s starting in the minor leagues. Washington has lost some serious forward depth in recent days, with Axel Jonsson Fjallby and Brett Leason both claimed on waivers.

Those two combined for 59 games for the Capitals last season, moving up and down when needed.

Hayden Hodgson, Anthony Angello Clear Waivers

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Saturday: Both Hodgson and Angello cleared waivers, Friedman reports.  They have both been assigned to the minors.  No one was placed on waivers today.

Friday: Two players hit the wire today, as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that Hayden Hodgson of the Philadelphia Flyers and Anthony Angello of the St. Louis Blues have been placed on waivers.

Earlier today, Flyers head coach John Tortorella didn’t hold back with his comments, telling reporters including Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic that he didn’t think Hodgson had a good camp, and that he wasn’t ready to play last night.

Even in a game where the team lost Owen Tippett early, Tortorella gave Hodgson fewer than five minutes of ice time. Placement on waivers shouldn’t surprise anyone, though it is a little disappointing after such a great story last year.

Undrafted, the 26-year-old Hodgson grinded his way through several years in the ECHL and then was outstanding for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, earning himself an NHL call-up. He scored three points in six games and looked like a classic late-blooming bottom-sixer. Unfortunately, that run won’t continue just yet, as he’ll be heading to the minor leagues if he clears.

Angello, meanwhile, was always expected to start in the AHL but had been injured and started the year on season-opening injured reserve. A waiver placement suggests that he’s ready to resume playing, and will head to the Springfield Thunderbirds should he clear. The 6’5″ forward has just 31 games of NHL experience under his belt, four of which came last season with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Philadelphia Flyers Sign Travis Sanheim

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5:30 PM: CapFriendly has detailed the full structure of Sanheim’s deal. It runs as follows:

Year 1: $5.125MM + $3MM signing bonus
Year 2: $5.125MM + $3MM signing bonus
Year 3: $5.125MM + $3MM signing bonus
Year 4: $6.125MM
Year 5: $1.875MM + $3MM signing bonus
Year 6: $1.875MM + $3MM signing bonus
Year 7: $4.875MM
Year 8: $4.875MM

Of note is also that Sanheim will have a full no-trade clause for the first four years of the deal, and then the clause will become a twelve-team no-trade for year five through year eight.

4:45 PM: The Flyers have now officially announced a contract extension for Sanheim. The deal is an eight-year pact with an average annual value of $6.25MM. Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher gave the following statement regarding the signing:

We’re extremely happy to have Travis under long-term contract and see him as a key piece of our team’s future. Travis has improved each season to become a highly reliable player and key contributor on our blueline. Furthermore, he is someone who has developed his entire career with us and has grown into a valuable leader for our team.

1:45 PM: The Philadelphia Flyers are once again showing that they have no interest in a rebuild. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that the team is making progress on an extension with Travis Sanheim, who is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. The long-term deal would pay Sanheim around $6MM per season, though Friedman can’t confirm the actual figure that is being discussed.

It’s been five seasons in the NHL now for Sanheim, the 17th overall pick from 2014, and while he didn’t turn into the superstar defenseman that some early returns suggested, he is arguably the team’s most consistent player on the back end. Averaging close to 23 minutes a night last season, almost exclusively next to Rasmus Ristolainen, Sanheim recorded seven goals and 31 points, racked up 142 blocks, and was one of three regulars who finished the year with a positive goal differential (+9, to lead the team).

An extension in this case makes sense for the 26-year-old, who likely is just entering his true prime as an NHL shutdown defenseman. He was given heavy defensive deployment last year and will likely get much of the same this time around as Ivan Provorov and Tony DeAngelo are given offensive touches and youngsters like Egor Zamula and Ronnie Attard are sheltered.

The biggest question, though, is whether or not the Flyers can actually turn things around without stripping down the roster first. Signing their players to big-money extensions only reduces the amount of surplus value they can offer, and a $6MM cap hit for Sanheim would mean the team has five defensemen over the $5MM mark for next year. One of those is Ryan Ellis, whose career is completely up in the air at this point, but even with him on the shelf it is a lot invested in a group that has struggled.

The Flyers were 27th in goals against last season with 294 and finished 29th in the overall standings. Over the summer they failed to really change the lineup very much, outside of adding DeAngelo and some toughness up front. While John Tortorella seems to have the group motivated for the upcoming challenge and players like Kevin Hayes are at a much better place health-wise, the question remains over whether the team would be better off trading away some of these expiring assets instead of extending them.

Regardless, Flyers fans should be excited about the fact they likely will get to watch Sanheim, a player they drafted and developed, for another several years. The big defenseman will start his season tonight against the New Jersey Devils, though partner Ristolainen is out with an injury for the season opener.

Toronto Maple Leafs Shopping Wayne Simmonds

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According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Toronto Maple Leafs sent a league-wide email informing teams that veteran forward Wayne Simmonds is available for trade ahead of tomorrow’s opening-day roster deadline.

Per the aforementioned email, the Maple Leafs and general manager Kyle Dubas are less concerned with the return rather than “doing right by the player,” a theme the organization has committed to multiple times in recent years. While it usually has to do with giving European import players a chance for more minutes elsewhere, whether it be Mikko Lehtonen’s trade to the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2020-21 or Kirill Semyonov’s contract termination last year, it’s become a philosophy that helps them attract free agent talent.

The 34-year-old Simmonds is a veteran of 1,019 NHL games, which on its own makes him a valuable asset to teams around the league. Simmonds had five goals and 11 assists for 16 points in 72 games last year, while his ice time was limited to a minuscule 9:20 per game. With players like Nicholas Robertson, Denis Malgin, and Zach Aston-Reese standing out in Leafs training camp, Simmonds no longer fits into the picture as one of the team’s 12 best forwards. Considering Toronto needs to clear salary and roster space fast, it was a foregone conclusion that they’d need to move someone out to make room.

Simmonds is still looking for his first Stanley Cup, surely a driving factor in his desire to keep playing. He has one season remaining on a two-year contract with a $900,000 cap hit, and he currently carries a 10-team no-trade list.

MacKenzie Weegar Signs Extension With Calgary Flames

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The Calgary Flames have signed another one of their newcomers to a massive extension. The Flames and MacKenzie Weegar have agreed to an eight-year extension worth $50MM ($6.25MM AAV). Weegar was scheduled for unrestricted free agency after the upcoming season. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff adds that it has a full no-trade clause for the first four years of the deal and a partial no-trade for the final four. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic has the full breakdown:

  • 2023-24: $4.25MM salary + $2.0MM signing bonus
  • 2024-25: $4.25MM salary + $2.0MM signing bonus
  • 2025-26: $4.25MM salary + $2.0MM signing bonus
  • 2026-27: $4.25MM salary + $2.0MM signing bonus
  • 2027-28: $6.25MM salary
  • 2028-29: $6.25MM salary
  • 2029-30: $6.25MM salary
  • 2030-31: $6.25MM salary

Acquired along with Jonathan Huberdeau, Cole Schwindt, and a first-round pick this summer in exchange for Matthew Tkachuk (and a fourth-rounder), Weegar immediately publicized his desire to stay in Calgary long-term. It makes sense that a player who has climbed from being a seventh-round afterthought to a first-pairing star would be looking for some security, and the Flames are happy to oblige.

Still, given that Weegar will turn 29 this season, an eight-year extension is a rather risky commitment. He’ll be 37 by the time the contract ends, not exactly in the traditional prime of an NHL defenseman.

There is a real possibility for surplus value in the first few years, given how well Weegar has played the last few seasons, but even then he’ll already be getting paid like a top-pairing option. A $6.25MM cap hit will tie him with Jeff Petry, Ryan Ellis, Mattias Ekholm, and Josh Morrissey for the 34th highest-paid defenseman in the league.

A couple of those names should send a little bit of hesitation down the spine of Flames fans who don’t want to be stuck with an overpaid, underperforming veteran, but there are a few things in Calgary’s favor.

One, the salary cap is expected to increase significantly over the next few years, meaning Weegar’s contract will not be as significant as those other numbers have been. Second, the team is obviously focused on keeping their competitive window open right now, even after losing Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau in the offseason. Huberdeau’s massive eight-year, $84MM extension proves that. That contract will likely look terrible down the line but for now, the team has at least two years with this exceptional core in place.

Notably, both Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin, two of the most important players on the team, are scheduled for UFA status after 2023-24. They will both be looking for raises, and the Flames may have to make some tough decisions with the rest of their roster to keep them. If that means cutting talent elsewhere, they’ll at least have Huberdeau and Weegar (and Nazem Kadri, Blake Coleman, and Rasmus Andersson) locked in as leaders for the long term.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Arizona Coyotes Claim Jonas Johansson

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The Arizona Coyotes were waiting to see which goaltenders would end up on waivers at the end of training camp, and they’ve found one they like (for now). Jonas Johansson has been claimed off waivers from the Colorado Avalanche, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The other players from yesterday have all cleared.

Johansson, 27, had signed back with the Avalanche after playing this waiver merry-go-round last year, but will have to pack his things again. After being claimed by the Florida Panthers on December 13, 2021, he ended up playing in just two games for his new organization. He was being paid to stay in the NHL and serve as a backup, but the Panthers would routinely bring up Spencer Knight to actually play the games.

That’s sort of been the theme of Johansson’s career to this point. Since first being brought up in the 2019-20 season, he has just 32 appearances in the NHL, and no more than nine for a single team in a single season. Now, even as he goes to Arizona, he likely can’t unpack.

There’s no guarantee that Johansson is on the Coyotes’ roster by the time the season rolls around. As training camps close and roster crunches occur, they could just as easily select another netminder off of waivers. If he ends up back on, the Avalanche would have a chance to bring Johansson back and send him directly to the minor leagues, as long as they were the only team to put in a claim.

For now, he is part of the Coyotes organization and will potentially slot in as the team’s second NHL netminder. While many assumed Ivan Prosvetov would assume that role, he is still waiver-exempt and can play big minutes at the AHL level to continue his development, if they wish.

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.

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