Florida Panthers Announce Changes To Hockey Operations
The Florida Panthers have made sweeping changes to their front office and coaching staff as they search for a new direction under GM Bill Zito. The team has named Rick Dudley and Paul Fenton senior advisors to the GM, Gregory Campbell vice president of player personnel and development, Blake Geoffrion the assistant to the general manager and added P.J. Fenton to the team’s scouting staff.
They have also announced that Mike Kitchen will not return as assistant coach, which follows a report earlier today that Kitchen allegedly physically assaulted a player on the bench in January. The team did not comment on the report. AHL assistant coach Doug Janik will not be joining the new affiliation in Charlotte.
Fenton’s name had surfaced in connection with the Panthers previously and he has a history with Zito from their time with the Columbus Blue Jackets. The former Minnesota Wild GM was perceived as a strong talent evaluator during his time in Nashville, though the stint in Minnesota obviously didn’t go well.
Dudley meanwhile has been serving as senior vice president of hockey operations with the Carolina Hurricanes and has nearly a half-century of experience in professional hockey.
Campbell, 36, only ended his playing career in 2016 but has served as a development coach since then with the Blue Jackets. His familiarity with Zito obviously led him to this position with the Panthers and given his 803 career NHL games as a depth forward, he should have a unique perspective to add to the development side.
The Panthers made a clear change when they parted ways with legendary executive Dale Tallon earlier this year and installed rookie GM Zito in the position.
Mutual Terminations And Their Value To Players
Over the last three seasons in particular, we’ve seen a number of so-called “mutual terminations”. In fact, we’ve seen more mutual terminations over this period than buyouts. They are just as they sound – when a player and team decide their prior arrangement is no longer agreeable, the teams cut ties entirely. The benefit for the team is that the cap hit of the player is cancelled out entirely. The benefit for the player is that they then have the opportunity to seek employment with a different franchise or a different league. Unfortunately for players, such an agreement may not be totally in their favor.
In the 2016-17 season, there were exactly 10 mutual terminations. Most of them flew under the radar, even for the most avid of hockey fans. The players concerned were David Rundblad (Chicago), Ben Johnson (New Jersey), Mason Raymond (Anaheim), Calle Andersson (New York Rangers), Nicklas Grossmann (Calgary), Axel Blomqvist (Winnipeg), Matt Carle (Nashville), Matia Marcantuoni (Arizona), Gregory Campbell (Columbus), and Jonathan-Ismael Diaby (Nashville). Not a single one of these players competed in another NHL game last season. That’s a success rate of exactly 0% on the player end. Regardless of one’s opinions of these particular players’ hockey abilities, the likelihood of them seeing game action prior to termination was much higher. (It should be noted that Carle announced his retirement, while Johnson was incarcerated, so it’s more like 0-for-8)
Rundblad was forced to return to the Swiss-A League, where he found moderate success with Zurich HC. Andersson also made a return appearance in the Swiss League, playing 26 games as a depth forward. Grossman played 28 games in the Swedish Hockey League with the lowly Orebro, while Blomqvist played only 7 contests for the SHL’s Sodertalje. Campbell, luckily, was employed by the Jackets as a player development coach. Raymond was an interesting case, as he refused to report to the San Diego Gulls due to family issues, which made the arrangement less “mutual” than the others. He signed a contract with SC Bern in June.
Each of these players struggled to find meaningful employment elsewhere while two didn’t find any whatsoever (Marcantuoni & Diaby). It’s understandable as to why a player would want to stay in game action, considering that every player subject to mutual termination is necessarily under the age of 35. Maintaining the physical standards of a pro hockey player is difficult, and being benched for the majority of a season can be crippling to future success. Still, there are solid hockey players on this list who saw marginal benefits from negating the remainder of their contracts. Seven contests for Sodertalje doesn’t really qualify as meaningful. And the story from past seasons is much the same. If you look through the 2015-16 list, most are essentially out of hockey at this point. None have played over 40 contests in a season for a serious foreign league outside of Petr Zamorsky for the SHL. Most terminated players don’t even see over 20 games total after this arrangement.
In the negotiations for a new CBA, this sort of maneuvering might become an issue of contention. Management loves this loophole, as it allows cap and total contract space with no repercussions to the organization. Still, there is an element of strong-arming to this arrangement, one in which the player rarely, if ever, comes out on top. Unless the player has a prior arrangement already in place, it’s a risky proposition. It will be interesting to see how often this strategy will be utilized in 2017-18.
Gregory Campbell Retires, Joins Columbus Coaching Staff
After spending this season without a team, Gregory Campbell has accepted his retirement and will join the Columbus Blue Jackets as an assistant player development coach according to Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch. The 33-year old veteran center lost his role with the Blue Jackets last fall, and after refusing a minor-league assignment, would see his contract terminated. It was somewhat surprising that no one took a chance on the veteran, as he’d been a regular in an NHL lineup for more than a decade.
In 803 career games, Campbell scored 116 points but was relied on as a solid defensive presence and contributor to the 2011 Boston Bruins Stanley Cup. His career-high in points came with Florida when he scored 32, also the year he saw the most ice time. Drafted in the third round, he made quite a nice career for himself and has now joined the development team in order to usher in the next wave of Blue Jackets prospects.
Campbell’s father Colin is the Executive Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations for the NHL, and has been with the league in some capacity for nearly twenty years. Though there is no clear path for the younger Campbell to follow in this way, there is surely a future for him in the hockey world somewhere if he wants to stay.
Predicting The Next “Bartkowski Deal”
The genius that was the Matt Bartkowski signing should not be understated. By now, the extension for the purpose of Expansion Draft exposure has become commonplace, but what GM Brad Treliving and the Calgary Flames did was unique. They went outside the organization to sign a player to a multi-year deal who fulfilled the criteria of having played in 40 games this season or 70 games over the past two years. Except Bartkowski hadn’t played a single NHL game this season; he had been on a minor league contract with the AHL’s Providence Bruins. What that means is Bartkowski had to have played in over 70 games last season alone, and indeed he had skated in 80 games with the Vancouver Canucks in 2015-16. In fact, Bartkowksi was the only defenseman on the planet who played in over 70 games last season yet was not signed to an NHL contract this season. Therein lies the genius that was the unassuming signing of Bartkowski. The Flames picked up the only player on the market who could automatically fill their need for an exposure-eligible defenseman.
With a reportedly quiet trade market this season, there are bound to be teams facing expansion protection problems after the March 1st Trade Deadline comes and goes, whether it’s on the blue line or up front. Will someone follow in Treliving’s footsteps and scoop up a player who played in 70 or so games last season but remains unsigned as of now? The short answer is probably not.
Looking at the short list of players who meet the games played criteria, it very well could be that Bartkowski stands alone as an unsigned player looking to continue playing hockey, even if that means signing a two-year, two-way contract and likely logging major AHL minutes. Especially on defense, a team like the Carolina Hurricanes is likely out of luck if they want to replicate the Bartkowksi maneuver. The only unsigned player who qualifies for exposure is Matt Carle, who played in 64 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning last year and six earlier this year with the Nashville Predators. However, Carle announced his retirement in November when he cleared waivers and was likely going to be moved to the AHL. Carle seems content with collecting buyout checks from the Lightning and almost certainly would have no interest is returning to hockey with a two-year, two-way deal. There are really no other defensemen that even have a reasonable chance of meeting the 40/70 criteria. Bartkowski was essentially it.
Canada’s Spengler Cup Roster Announced
Each year Canada fields a team for the Spengler Cup—an invitational tournament hosted by HC Davos—made up of Canadians playing overseas and in non-NHL/AHL leagues. Last year the Canadian entry won the tournament so this year’s team has some pressure built-in before they have even taken the ice.
The full roster is below:
Goaltenders
Drew MacIntyre
Jordon Cooke
Zach Fucale
Defensemen
Daniel Vukovic
Mark Flood
Chay Genoway
Brandon Gormley
Shaone Morrisonn
Shaun Heshka
Maxim Noreau
Blake Parlett
Forwards
James Sheppard
Chris DiDomenico
Cory Emmerton
Gregory Campbell
Andrew Ebbett
Colby Genoway
Dustin Jeffrey
David McIntyre
Jacob Micflikier
Marc-Antoine Pouliot
Mason Raymond
Nick Spaling
Many are former NHLers or junior players that either could not make the NHL, or could not stay in the NHL. Most notable are Gregory Campbell, Mason Raymond, and Nick Spaling. Campbell and the Columbus Blue Jackets parted ways on Sunday after the Blue Jackets placed Campbell on unconditional waivers before terminating his contract. Campbell had been sent down to the AHL in October but declined to report. Raymond made the Anaheim Ducks out of training camp but lasted just four games before being reassigned to the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. Like Campbell, Raymond refused to report, and the Ducks terminated his contract. Nick Spaling also played in the NHL last year (Toronto/Nashville) before joining Geneve-Servette HC of the Swiss hockey league NLA.
This post has been updated to reflect the five returning Spengler Cup players that were previously omitted from the original story.
Jackets Place Campbell On Unconditional Waivers
Today happens to be Gregory Campbell‘s 33rd birthday and the Columbus Blue Jackets may have just given him a welcome present. According to Aaron Portzline of The Columbus Dispatch (Twitter link), the Blue Jackets have placed the veteran center on unconditional waivers. Per Portzline, assuming Campbell clears, as he likely will, he would become an unrestricted free agent.
Earlier this season, Columbus waived Campbell with the intent of sending him down to their AHL affiliate in Cleveland. However, once he cleared waivers, the 12-year veteran informed the club he would not report to Cleveland and he was suspended by the Blue Jackets without pay. Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen had tried to trade Campbell prior to placing him on waivers but was unable to find a taker.
Since refusing assignment to Cleveland, Campbell has been working out on his own and waiting for his next opportunity. It now appears as if is that opportunity could be near at hand.
Campbell was in the final season of a two-year deal he inked with the Jackets in the summer of 2015. He was slated to make $1.3MM in salary and would have accounted for $1.5MM against Columbus’ cap had he not been suspended. If a team should place a claim on the 33-year-old center, they would assume the prorated portion of his salary.
Prior to joining Columbus, Campbell played five seasons for the Bruins, where he developed a reputation as a solid fourth-line pivot and quality penalty killer. It’s possible a club looking for depth in its bottom-six and/or some help on the penalty kill will take a chance on Campbell once he officially reaches free agency.
Campbell scored three goals and 11 points while suiting up for all 82 games with Columbus in 2015-16. For his career, he has registered 187 regular season points in 803 games and another 13 in 59 postseason contests. He won a Stanley Cup while with Boston in the 2010-11 campaign.
Gregory Campbell Will Not Report To The AHL
Columbus center Gregory Campbell has decided not to report to Cleveland of the AHL after clearing waivers, his agent Pat Morris told Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch. Morris noted that he will continue to skate on his own but does not want to take away a position from a prospect in the minors.
As a result, the Blue Jackets are likely to suspend Campbell which means he will not collect his $1.3MM salary. He’s in the second and final year of a two year contract that carries a cap hit of $1.5MM.
When asked, Morris also stated that Campbell has not requested a trade but that it is probably the best-case scenario for both sides:
“They’re going in a different direction in Columbus; I don’t think he’s wanted there. They want to help Gregory out (with a trade), but he hasn’t made any demands. “He’s not kicking and screaming and demanding a trade, but I’ll keep calling teams, like I have been. And if somebody who plays like Gregory Campbell gets hurt, then Gregory Campbell will be ready if they need somebody like him in the organization.”
Last season, Campbell played in all 82 games for the Blue Jackets but recorded just three goals and eight assists, his lowest point total since 2006-07. His faceoff percentage also took a notable dip from 54.2% down to 47.5% which isn’t ideal for a fourth line checking center. William Karlsson is taking Campbell’s spot on the fourth line to start the season.
[Related: Blue Jackets Depth Chart]
In his career, the 32 year old has played in 803 career games with Florida, Boston, and Columbus, scoring 71 goals while adding 116 assists and 696 penalty minutes.
While Campbell will now wait at home to see what options become available, Morris added that he is not considering playing in Europe at this time, something that would either require a loan from the team or a contract termination.