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Johan Larsson

Minor Transactions: 04/18/23

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It’s a busy day across the hockey world, with a group of first-round NHL playoff series set to begin tonight and a few European leagues playing finals games. In the NHL, the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils are beginning what is likely to be a heated series between two rivals, while the Seattle Kraken are making their playoff debut in a game against the Colorado Avalanche — with former Colorado netminder Philipp Grubauer in the crease.

In Europe, Djurgarden defeated MoDo in a significant matchup in their battle for promotion to the top-tier SHL, while in Germany ERC Ingolstadt made a crucial late push to defeat EHC Red Bull Munchen and avoid falling into a 3-0 hole in the DEL finals. In Austria, HC Bolzano managed a 4-3 victory over Red Bull Salzburg to force a deciding seventh game in the ICEHL’s finals. As fans all around the world enjoy the important games on the schedule today, many offseason moves are being made by teams whose seasons have ended. We’ll keep track of those transactions here.

  • 739-game NHL veteran Justin Abdelkader will not return to EV Zug, the team he played 2022-23 for, according to a team social media post. The 36-year-old played 24 games in his second tour with Zug, having skated nine games for them before in 2020-21. Abdelkader scored two goals and five points this season and added three points in five playoff games. Without a team at the moment for next season, it doesn’t seem out of the question that Abdelkader could end up retiring, though it’s also certainly possible that he decides to continue his pro career. In any case,  should Abdelkader choose to keep playing his next season won’t be with EV Zug.
  • Brynas IF has secured a major contract extension for their quest to be promoted back to the SHL. The team announced a three-year contract for former NHLer Johan Larsson, who ranked second among forwards in team scoring with 31 points in 45 games. (Former Toronto Maple Leaf Dmytro Timashov led the team with 33 points) It’s a significant signing for Brynas, who were relegated just recently. It’s also interesting to note that Larsson will be playing second-division hockey in Sweden just a year after he was traded to the Washington Capitals in exchange for a third-round pick. A third-round pick is what the Carolina Hurricanes paid this deadline to acquire Shayne Gostisbehere, a 40-point NHL defenseman, highlighting how recently the 30-year-old Larsson was viewed as a valuable NHL rental. It also illustrates how loyal Larsson seems to be to the club he won the Swedish championship with in 2011-12, as he’s willing to play in his country’s second tier of hockey and likely forgo greater outside offers in order to help the Brynas earn promotion back to the SHL.
  • Former top prospect David Rundblad is among the players who will not be returning to Karpat next season, per an announcement from the Liiga side. The 32-year-old, who is perhaps best known for bringing Vladimir Tarasenko to the St. Louis Blues and Kyle Turris to the Ottawa Senators via trade, had a solid first season in Finland after six seasons in the KHL. Rundblad scored 26 points in 60 games this season and helped Karpat reach the playoff qualifiers.
  • Former New Jersey Devil Janne Kuokkanen is headed to Sweden to continue his pro career. The 24-year-old 2016 second-rounder made a strong impression in his return to European pro hockey, scoring 31 points in 42 games for Switzerland’s HC Fribourg-Gotteron. He’s a major addition for Malmo, who just barely staved off relegation to HockeyAllsvenskan this season by defeating Brynas.
  • The KHL’s Ufa Salavat Yulayev have re-signed 29-year-old Sergei Shmelev to a two-year contract extension. Shmelev ranked 16th in the entire KHL in scoring this season, leading Ufa in points with 51. He showed chemistry with former San Jose Shark Sasha Chmelevski and now is rewarded with a contract extension with the hope of helping lead Ufa back to the KHL’s playoffs next season.
  • Longtime KHL star and former Ottawa Senator Stephane Da Costa signed a two-year contract extension with the KHL’s Automobilist Yekaterinburg. The 33-year-old scored 20 goals and 56 points in 54 games this season, leading the team in scoring and to the playoffs. The three-time KHL All-Star last played in North America in 2013-14, when he scored 58 points in 56 games for the Binghamton Senators in the AHL.
  • Defenseman Eero Teravainen, the brother of Carolina Hurricanes star Teuvo Teravainen, signed a contract extension with Liiga’ KooKoo Kouvola. The 24-year-old spent two seasons playing in North America for the USHL’s Lincoln Stars from 2016 to 2018 before heading back to his native Finland. He’s recently established himself as a regular in Finland’s top league, and helped KooKoo win the Liiga bronze medal last season.
  • Ludvig Larsson, a solid middle-of-the-lineup scorer for Rogle BK, has signed a two-year contract to transfer to SHL rival Orebro. The 27-year-old spent the last two seasons with Rogle, scoring 15 goals this season and helping the team win the Champions Hockey League last year. The 27-year-old last played in North America in 2019-20, when he split time between the AHL’s Binghamton Devils and ECHL’s Adirondack Thunder.
  • A former First-Team All-Star in Finland’s second division (Mestis) will join his fourth Liiga club in two seasons. Samuel Salonen, 23, scored 34 points in 29 games for Jokipojat Joensuu in 2020-21, earning him a chance in Liiga for the following season. The right winger scored seven points in 29 games for Tappara Tampere and played several games on loan for two other Liiga clubs: Lukko and JYP. He spent this season with JYP and scored just nine points in 40 games, paving the way for a transfer to Jukurit that was announced today.
  • The SHL’s HV71 has signed a two-year contract with Olle Strandell, a standout defenseman for Mora IK in HockeyAllsvenskan this year. He scored 28 points in 51 games and helped bring Mora to the brink of the promotion finals before they were eliminated by MoDo. HV71 sign this deal hoping Strandell can help infuse some youthful energy into their blueline and bring them back to the SHL’s playoffs after finishing near the bottom of the standings this season.
  • Daniel Fischbuch, a veteran of over 500 games at the top level of German hockey, is transferring after three seasons with Dusseldorf. The 29-year-old has signed a two-year deal to play for Adler Mannheim, who just recently lost to Ingolstadt in the DEL semifinals. Fischbuch scored 16 goals and 37 points for Dusseldorf this season and will join a strong Manneheim team that boasted several former NHLers this season, including Korbinian Holzer, Nigel Dawes, Joseph Cramarossa, and Jordan Szwarz.
  • Switzerland’s HC Lugano signed point-per-game QMJHL overage Cole Cormier to an entry-level deal. Cormier scored 71 points in 66 games this season but was passed over in each NHL draft he was eligible for. Now, he’ll begin his professional career with Lugano, who ranked 10th in the Swiss National League this season.
  • Former St. Louis Blues prospect Niklas Lundstrom will not return to HockeyAllsvenskan’s AIK for next season. The 30-year-old played in 38 combined regular-season and playoff games for the club, posting an .899 save percentage in the regular season and a grisly .873 mark in the playoffs. Lundstrom has spent the last two seasons with AIK, and before then he had a stop in Austria, struggled in 2020-21 as an SHL starter for Linkopings HC, and saw time in North America in the AHL and ECHL.
  • Former Colorado Avalanche prospect Michael Clarke is transferring from the DEL’s Augsburg Panthers to the Straubing Tigers, per a team announcement. The 28-year-old 2012 fifth-rounder has played the last three season with Ausburg and the last five in the DEL, compiling a total of 71 points in 201 games. With this move, Clarke moves from one of the worst-performing teams in the top division of German hockey to one of the strongest, as Straubing placed fourth in the regular-season standings while Augsburg were on the brink of relegation in 14th.
  • Hungary’s ICEHL team, Fehervar AV19, made two major moves today. First, they locked up starting netminder Olivier Roy (a 2009 Edmonton Oilers draft pick) to a contract extension. Roy posted a strong .918 save percentage and 2.32 goals-against-average in the regular season and a .909 in six playoff games. Before this year, Roy spent five seasons with Augsburg in the DEL. In their second major move, Fehervar brought defenseman Josh Atkinson back to the team after a year spent in Germany with the Bietigheim Steelers, who were the club relegated to the second-division DEL2. Atkinson spent 2021-22 in Hungary and posted 38 points in 44 regular-season games and an impressive 11 points in 13 playoff contests.

Johan Larsson Signs In Sweden

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August 12: Larsson has indeed opted to return to Brynas, per a team release today. Brynas has Larsson locked in for three seasons, making him 33 years old at the end of the deal. Considering how effective Larsson still was this past season, though, an NHL return at that point shouldn’t be out of the question.

August 10: It appears as though Johan Larsson is heading home, as reports out of Sweden have the free agent forward signing with Brynas, the organization that developed him. Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports tweets that Larsson, who played for the Arizona Coyotes and Washington Capitals last season, had offers from several NHL teams but wanted a bigger role.

He actually received that bigger role in Arizona, where he averaged nearly 18 minutes a night for the 29 games he played. That resulted in 15 points during his time in the desert, and the continued excellent defensive play that he has brought his entire career. Even in Washington, where he saw a dramatically reduced role, he added six points in 14 games, and entered the summer as an interesting option for teams looking to increase their center depth.

Now 30, Larsson has always been an excellent defensive presence and has nearly 500 games of NHL experience. His previous career-high was 18 points, set in the 2019-20 season but he broke that in just 43 games this year. Going unsigned is rather surprising, even if it is because he was looking for a bigger role. Heading back to the SHL now could very well end his NHL career.

Of course, it’s not just role. Larsson played years for Brynas before coming to the NHL, winning U18, U20, and Elite League titles with the organization during his time there. If he does return, it will be the homecoming of a legendary club player, even if his North American career wasn’t everything he had hoped. In 488 career regular season games, Larsson scored 53 goals and 132 points.

East Notes: Senators, Capitals, Johnson

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While the Senators made a big splash yesterday with the acquisition of winger Alex DeBrincat, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch relays (Twitter links) that there are still a pair of priorities for Ottawa – adding a defenseman and moving Matt Murray with talks intensifying on that front.  He adds that winger Connor Brown and blueliner Nikita Zaitsev could be players on the move.

Brown isn’t likely to sign an extension after suggesting he’d like to test free agency when he’s eligible next summer and at $3.6MM, he’d carry some trade value after being a key two-way player.  Zaitsev, meanwhile, has two years left at a $4.5MM AAV and might be used to match salaries in a move for a defender.  Murray blocked a trade to Buffalo on Thursday but the Senators are still looking to get out from the two years at $6.25MM per season left on his deal but will almost certainly need to pay down a fair-sized portion of that to facilitate a move.

More from the Eastern Conference:

  • The Capitals have interest in retaining pending unrestricted free agents Justin Schultz, Marcus Johansson, and Johan Larsson, notes Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic (subscription link). With Schultz, however, the 32-year-old blueliner would need to take a pay cut from the $4MM he made over each of the last two years for a deal to be done.  Schultz is coming off a bit of a quiet year by his standards where he notched 23 points in 74 games.  The other two forwards were trade deadline acquisitions and fit in well with El-Bashir highlighting that the possibility of Larsson returning could be tied to Carl Hagelin’s situation with his availability for next season up in the air.
  • Sabres prospect defenseman Ryan Johnson will make his decision on whether or not to turn pro following their upcoming Development Camp, reports Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News. The 2019 first-round pick has one more year of college eligibility remaining and the team could interpret him staying at the University of Minnesota as an indication that he may be interested in testing free agency next summer.  If that’s the case, Buffalo could look to move his rights in the coming weeks.  If Johnson opts for free agency next August and his rights aren’t traded, the Sabres would receive the 64th pick in the 2024 draft as compensation.

Washington Capitals Acquire Johan Larsson

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The Washington Capitals have added even more depth up front, acquiring Johan Larsson from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for a 2023 third-round pick. The Coyotes will also be retaining 50 percent of Larsson’s remaining contract.

Larsson, 29, hasn’t played since January 25 for the Coyotes but isn’t expected to be out the entire season. He underwent surgery on a sports hernia in early February and was given an eight-week timeline, meaning he’ll be an option for the Capitals at some point.

That injury history does make the third-round pick seem like a bit of a risk, but Larsson was playing well before he went down. With 15 points in 29 games he was going to blow past his previous career-high of 18, and he is still a strong defensive contributor. In Washington, he likely won’t be asked to play in very many offensive situations but does give the team some added depth down the middle.

At a $1.4MM cap hit he comes at a relatively inexpensive contract, and since it expires at the end of the season it won’t affect the Capitals moving forward. This is a go-for-it type trade, with Washington knowing they needed some added depth up front if they want to compete in the Eastern Conference playoffs–or even just the Metropolitan race.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet first reported the trade. 

Snapshots: Bertuzzi, Larsson, Bergeron, White, Chara

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While Red Wings winger Tyler Bertuzzi has been in some trade speculation as of late, he told reporters including MLive’s Ansar Khan that his desire is to stay with Detroit, the team that drafted him back in the second round in 2013.  The 27-year-old has one year left on his deal with a $4.75MM AAV and will become an unrestricted free agent in the 2023 offseason.  He sits second on the team in scoring this season with 49 points in 51 games which means GM Steve Yzerman would be placing a very high price tag if a contender wants to take a run at adding Bertuzzi today.

Other news and notes around the league:

  • The Coyotes have made some progress on a trade involving center Johan Larsson, reports PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan (Twitter link). The 29-year-old has been out for nearly two months with a lower-body injury but is nearing a return. Larsson has 15 points in 29 games this season but has been a checker for most of his career which is the role contending teams would have in mind for him.  With a $1.4MM AAV, he’s someone several teams will be able to afford.
  • Boston is hoping that center Patrice Bergeron will be able to return from his arm injury for Thursday’s game against Tampa Bay, note Elaine Cavalieri and Eric Russo of the Bruins’ team site. The veteran will miss his third straight game tonight against Montreal and has 45 points in 56 games this season.
  • Senators center Colin White is someone that a couple of league executives believes in play, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. The 25-year-old recently returned to the lineup after missing the first 50 games of the year with a shoulder injury.  He has six points in a dozen contests but with three years remaining on his deal with a $4.75MM AAV, it would be surprising to see him moved unless Ottawa is willing to take a similar-sized deal in return.
  • The Oilers are among the teams to check in on Islanders defenseman Zdeno Chara, Chris Johnston reports in his latest Toronto Star column. The 45-year-old is still averaging more than 18 minutes a night and with a base cap hit of just the league minimum of $750K, he’s someone that they should be able to afford with their limited cap space.  Chara also has another $750K in undisclosed performance bonuses which an acquiring team may become responsible for absorbing although that can roll over to next year’s cap if necessary.

Johan Larsson Undergoes Surgery

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One of the interesting trade chips that the Arizona Coyotes held this season was center Johan Larsson, who is actually having a pretty strong year with the rebuilding club. The 29-year-old had 15 points in 29 games and was holding his own in heavy defensive minutes once again. Unfortunately for the Coyotes, he won’t get a chance to showcase those skills much further. Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports reports that Larsson has undergone surgery for a sports hernia and notes that the early projection would have him missing eight weeks.

An eight-week timetable would mean Larsson won’t be back before the trade deadline, and given the notorious nature of hernia surgeries having a lasting effect on a player’s performance even after they’re cleared to return, it’ll be hard for a team to bet on him in any deal. Morgan does suggest on Twitter that there was some interest in Larsson, interest that could remain if he’s on track to return at some point.

Last season there was actually a deal that could be considered comparable, even if Larsson’s recovery will take a little longer than initially expected. The Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Riley Nash from the Columbus Blue Jackets for a conditional draft pick, despite Nash being on long-term injured reserve and not expected back until the playoffs. The depth center ended up playing in two postseason games for Toronto, meaning the Blue Jackets landed a sixth-round pick. If there is a reasonable case to keep Larsson sidelined until the playoffs, any number of contenders that are using LTIR by the deadline could add him simply as another depth piece for later.

Why The 2022 Trade Deadline Could Be A Seller’s Market

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The 2022 NHL Trade Deadline is not exactly imminent. The delayed March 21 date this season is 11 weeks away and a lot can change in that amount of time. However, the end of the holiday trade freeze is the unofficial start to trade season leading up to the deadline. In the first few months of the season there have been ten trades completed, but outside of the Jack Eichel deal there have been very few moves of any substance. That may not change any time soon either.

An active trade deadline requires there to be identifiable buyers and sellers and they must be willing and able to deal. Buyers should not be an issue this season; the eight teams currently in a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference may be locked in, as nearly 100 percentage points separate the eighth and ninth team in the conference standings, while the Western Conference includes 13 teams with .500+ records. Therein begins the sellers problem though. Only three teams out west look like potential sellers right now, while there could be more teams willing to sell in the east but many are in a rebuild and don’t have much to offer, while others are merely lacking impact rentals. There are also a number of fringe teams that probably should be sellers, but are close enough to a playoff berth that would mean so much to their players and fan base that they may hold out.

The Athletic’s Eric Duhatschek notes another wrinkle that could limit sellers: five teams are currently operating with an interim GM. The Montreal Canadiens and Vancouver Canucks have hired new heads of their respective front offices in Jeff Gorton and Jim Rutherford, but neither has in turn hired his GM yet and seem unlikely to make major moves independently. This could take Gorton’s Canadiens, one of the most obvious sellers on paper, off the market. Rutherford’s Canucks hope to be in the playoff race, but he has already vowed that the team will either sell or stand pat this season and the longer it takes to hire a GM, the more likely it will be the latter. The Chicago Blackhawks, Anaheim Ducks, and San Jose Sharks are all operating with temporary GMs, all of whom have limited experience. Chicago and Anaheim fired their most recent GMs and have internal replacements for the time being, while San Jose GM Doug Wilson is currently away from the team for medical reasons. As Duhatschek points out, the likes of Kyle Davidson, Jeff Solomon, and Joe Will are not only new to the GM position, but lack the relationships around the league to make impact moves. So while the Blackhawks look like bona fide sellers and the Sharks and possibly the Ducks could get to that point, will they actually be willing to make trades?

The Seattle Kraken also fall into a category all their own. The NHL’s newest team was just put together in its entirety this off-season. Although they struggled mightily all season and do possess a number of expiring contracts, it remains to be seen if GM Ron Francis is ready to blow it up.

On top of all of this, the rental market among potential sellers is not strong. Of the top 20 impending UFA’s in per-game scoring this season, zero are on teams with sub-.500 records and just three are on teams not currently in a playoff spot. Expand that to the top 50, and only ten players are on sub-.500 teams: Phil Kessel, Travis Boyd, and Johan Larsson for Arizona, Vinnie Hinostroza for Buffalo, Chris Wideman for Montreal, P.K. Subban for New Jersey, Tyler Ennis for Ottawa, and Calle Jarnkrok, Colin Blackwell, and Mark Giordano for Seattle. Even if valuable defensemen like Ben Chiarot and Colin Miller or even a future Hall of Fame goaltender like Marc-Andre Fleury are considered, it’s not exactly an inspiring list for teams adding at the deadline. More importantly, it’s a short list for a potentially large group of buyers.

For those teams looking to make a meaningful trade this season, the conundrum is when to make a move. On one hand, with a small group of exciting targets it may be beneficial to make a trade early and possibly avoid the high prices of deadline bidding wars. On the other hand, the pool of sellers could also expand closer to the deadline and prices could drop if there is a flood of supply to meet the demand. Until that happens though – if it even does – there will be few moves to make early on and quite possibly right up to the deadline. Serious contenders should be prepared to pay up or sit tight this season.

West Notes: Canucks, Coyotes Injuries, Ducks

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Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini and interim GM Stan Smyl held a press conference today following the sweeping changes that were made late Sunday.  Aquilini told reporters, including Thomas Drance of The Athletic (Twitter link) that there is no timeline to try to find a replacement and that they will conduct “a thorough and exhaustive search” to find the right candidate.  It’s a similar line to what Chicago and Anaheim have used following their vacancies being created and it would suggest that Vancouver may wait until the offseason when they’re able to speak to candidates currently employed with other teams.

Meanwhile, earlier today, Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News reported (Twitter link) that former Montreal GM Marc Bergevin is someone the Canucks are very interested in.  When asked about that, Aquilini acknowledged (via Drance) that he hasn’t approached Bergevin about whether or not he’d be interested in the position.

More from the Western Conference:

  • The Coyotes should be getting some help on the injury front soon. PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan reports (Twitter link) that centers Nick Schmaltz (upper body) and Jay Beagle (lower body) could return from their respective injuries this weekend while center Johan Larsson (lower body) is a couple of weeks away after being re-injured on Friday.  Meanwhile, goaltender Carter Hutton has cleared COVID protocol but isn’t yet fully recovered from his ankle injury; with Karel Vejmelka and Scott Wedgewood providing decent goaltending in his absence, they’re in a spot where they can afford to be cautious in bringing him back.
  • Ducks centers Adam Henrique and Ryan Getzlaf could rejoin the team at some point on their five-game road trip, relays Elliott Teaford of the Orange County Register. The veterans are having strong bounce-back seasons; Henrique is only five points shy of his total from 2020-21 while Getzlaf has already surpassed his total from last season and sits second in team scoring.  Both are dealing with lower-body injuries.

Johan Larsson, Andrew Ladd Exit COVID Protocol

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The Arizona Coyotes will have two reinforcements at practice today, as Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports reports that Johan Larsson and Andrew Ladd are out of the COVID protocol. Ladd actually came out of the protocol on Wednesday, Morgan notes, but he didn’t play for the team that night.

After a short winning streak, the Coyotes were once again outclassed in that game by the Edmonton Oilers, allowing 43 shots and five goals against. There are going to be a lot of nights like those even after Larsson and Ladd get back into the lineup.

Neither one is a real impact player at the NHL level at this point, though Larsson should be an interesting trade candidate later this season after carrying such a heavy load for the Coyotes. The 29-year-old forward is on an expiring, $1.4MM contract and has averaged nearly 18 minutes of ice time through his first 15 games. He has failed to score during that time, but was never known for his offensive abilities anyway. As a depth center that can be deployed heavily in the defensive zone, the Coyotes may be able to secure another mid-round draft pick or prospect.

Ladd meanwhile is likely just happy to be back in the NHL after a long absence, playing out the rest of that seven-year, $38.5MM deal he signed in 2016. With one more year on the deal after this one, it would be a hard sale at the deadline for the Coyotes even if the veteran forward showed he can still contribute at the highest level.

Johan Larsson Placed In COVID Protocol

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The Arizona Coyotes have placed Johan Larsson in the COVID protocol, making him unavailable for the time being. That comes just minutes after the team placed both Christian Fischer and Dmitrij Jaskin on injured reserve, recalling Hudson Fasching, Jan Jenik, and Ben McCartney in their place.

Larsson joins Andrew Ladd in the protocol, who was placed there over the weekend. The team did not confirm whether or not Larsson has tested positive, or given any indication of how long he will be out. Jaskin meanwhile is expected to miss the rest of the season, while Fischer was last listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury. He’ll have to miss at least a week with the IR designation.

For any Arizona fans hoping for a high draft pick to build the organization around, it appears they will get their wish. The team is 1-13-1 on the season and seems destined to finish in last place in the Central Division. Losing veteran players for any length of time will only provide an opportunity for younger options, though it seems unlikely that they will be able to right the ship and help the Coyotes become a competitive team. For a franchise that has seen draft picks stripped away and others flame out quickly, a strong class in 2022 is imperative.

Luckily, the team currently holds eight picks in the first two rounds, including three first-round selections, meaning there’s at least something to look forward to on the horizon.

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