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Juuso Valimaki

Players Who Could Start The Season On LTIR

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While only a handful of teams project to need cap relief via long-term injured reserve to open the season, multiple candidates across the league might technically qualify for a placement. Doing so would bar the player from returning until Oct. 31 at the earliest – 24 days from the season start date of Oct. 7.

Avalanche: Logan O’Connor

O’Connor underwent hip surgery in early June. Given the five-to-six-month projected recovery window, he won’t be available until early November at best, putting him past the 10-game/24-day threshold required for LTIR. Colorado, which has $2.10MM in current cap space, will likely place O’Connor on standard IR if they don’t make any other cap-affecting moves between now and October. If they need the relief, though, they could create up to O’Connor’s $2.5MM cap hit in cushion for the first few weeks of the season if they need it.

Blues: Torey Krug

St. Louis general manager Doug Armstrong announced in May that Krug’s career is done because of pre-arthritic conditions in his left ankle that surgical intervention only slowly corrected. Since the Blues only have around $625K in cap space, Krug and his $6.5MM cap hit will be going on LTIR as soon as they need the flexibility for a call-up.

Canadiens: Carey Price

What’s certain is that Price won’t play this season or ever again. He’s entering the final season of his contract at a $10.5MM cap hit after confirming nearly two years ago that his knee injury would prohibit him from suiting up again. What’s uncertain is whether or not he’ll begin the season on LTIR. Montreal isn’t in a great position to optimize its LTIR relief, either by matching his cap hit in excess or getting down to $0 in space before placing him on the list. That’s made his contract a trade chip for teams who might need the relief more.

Devils: Johnathan Kovacevic

Kovacevic underwent knee surgery in early May and won’t be ready for training camp and likely opening night as well. Whether that stretches past Oct. 31 and makes him eligible for an LTIR placement if New Jersey needs cap relief early on remains to be seen.

Flyers: Ryan Ellis, Rasmus Ristolainen

Ellis’ career is over after sustaining a wide-ranging muscular injury in his pelvis just four games into his Flyers tenure in 2021. Ristolainen underwent a procedure on his right triceps tendon on March 26 with a six-month recovery time, putting him right on the edge of potential LTIR eligibility. Philly will have a better idea of the latter’s LTIR deployment potential after he undergoes his training camp physical. With $370K in cap space, they’re in a good position for near-max LTIR capture and will almost certainly at least place Ellis there to begin the year to give them call-up flexibility.

Golden Knights: Alex Pietrangelo

Pietrangelo is already on offseason LTIR, meaning the Knights actually still have to add an additional $1.2MM to their roster before opening night to optimize his capture and unlock his full $8.8MM cap hit’s worth of relief for this season. The team confirmed he requires multiple undisclosed but significant surgeries that will likely mark the end of his playing career, but it’s unclear if he’s actually had them done yet.

Jets: Adam Lowry

Lowry underwent hip surgery in late May and won’t be available until after Thanksgiving at the earliest. Winnipeg likely won’t be formalizing an LTIR placement with nearly $4MM in cap space, though.

Mammoth: Juuso Välimäki

Välimäki underwent ACL surgery in early March. He likely won’t end up on LTIR given Utah’s current cap flexibility ($6.68MM), but he’ll be out until at least early November so he’ll be there as an early-season option in case they need relief for whatever reason.

Oilers: Zach Hyman

Hyman’s inclusion here is on the speculative side. The winger could very well be ready for the start of the season. However, there hasn’t been much clarity on how much recovery he still needs after undergoing surgery to repair a severe wrist injury that kept him out of the Stanley Cup Final. A report in early June indicated there was uncertainty about his status for training camp, with no meaningful updates since then.

Panthers: Matthew Tkachuk

Tkachuk told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski earlier this month that he’s still deciding whether he wants to undergo surgery to address the adductor issue that hampered him down the stretch and in the playoffs after sustaining it at the 4 Nations Face-Off. All signs point to him opting for it and spending the next two to three months on the shelf as a result, though. Placing him on LTIR is the only way the Panthers, who currently have a cap exceedance of $3.725MM, can be compliant to start the season without shedding a significant contract, something they aren’t keen to do.

Wild: Jonas Brodin

Minnesota has $9.41MM in cap space, but that number will shrink once they re-sign restricted free agent Marco Rossi (or add salary while trading his signing rights). Neither scenario will likely push them into a situation where they need to use LTIR relief, but they might have Brodin and his $6MM cap hit as an option for some short-term flexibility if required. He underwent an upper-body procedure in early June and is questionable for the beginning of the season, so it’s not yet clear if he’ll miss enough time to qualify.

Utah’s Juuso Välimäki Undergoes ACL Surgery, Out 8-9 Months

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Utah announced today defenseman Juuso Välimäki underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL and will need eight to nine months for recovery. As a result, the 26-year-old’s season is over. He’ll also miss the first one to two months of the 2025-26 campaign.

It’s a brutal end to a forgettable season for the Finnish defenseman. He hasn’t been on the NHL roster since Feb. 24, when he cleared waivers and was subsequently sent to AHL Tucson for his first minor-league assignment since the 2021-22 campaign. Välimäki sustained the ACL tear in his first game with Tucson on Feb. 28.

While the 2017 first-rounder has finally emerged as a fringe top-four option on the Coyotes’ blue line before the team was sold and moved operations to Salt Lake City, he’s tumbled down the depth chart in Utah despite early-season injuries to Sean Durzi and John Marino creating additional opportunities for depth players for much of the campaign. Touted as an offensive defenseman, the 6’2″ lefty has just 2-3–5 in 43 NHL showings this year. That’s down considerably from the heights of his 34-point campaign in 78 games for Arizona two years ago, when he featured heavily on their power play and led Coyotes defenders with 30 assists (19 EV, 11 PP).

Välimäki’s role this season was naturally going to decrease with their offseason pickups of Marino, Ian Cole, and Mikhail Sergachev, and his role was further reduced when Utah acquired (and now extended) countryman Olli Määttä early in the season. Not being available during training camp next season also doesn’t bode well for his hopes of re-emerging as a regular. Signed through next year at a $2MM cap hit, Välimäki is already the seventh defenseman under contract on a one-way deal next year after the Club recently extended Määttä and Cole. While veterans Nick DeSimone and Robert Bortuzzo are pending UFAs and questionable to return, they’ve also got 2022 first-rounder Maveric Lamoureux in the system who should be pushing for an opening-night roster spot after skating in 15 games earlier this year.

Thus, Välimäki may not have an NHL job waiting for him when he returns to health next year. He costs $850K against Utah’s cap when buried in the minors. He’s destined for unrestricted free agency when his deal expires in 2026 and, save for an unexpected resurgence in 2025-26, won’t be re-signing unless he desires a minor-league role.

More concerning is the Finn’s history with ACL tears and lower-body issues. He missed significant chunks of his early development in the Flames organization, including the first half of the 2018-19 campaign with a lower-body injury and all of the 2019-20 season after undergoing ACL surgery during training camp. He’s managed to stay mostly healthy since then, though. It’s not known whether the tears occurred in the same knee.

Central Notes: Brossoit, Hintz, Lundkvist, Stankoven, Lamoureux, Bortuzzo

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Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Laurent Brossoit will need to wait at least six more weeks to make his team debut, after undergoing a second surgery on his knee per Scott Powers of The Athletic. Brossoit signed a two-year, $6.6MM contract with the Blackhawks this summer, but began the year on season-opening injured reserve after a late-summer surgery on his right meniscus. He didn’t return to skating until late October, and hasn’t had a clear timeline until today.

Brossoit moved to Chicago with sights on challenging Petr Mrazek for the starting role. He had built plenty of momentum over the last two seasons – stepping up as a playoff starter for the Stanley Cup-winning Vegas Golden Knights in 2023, and partnering with Connor Hellebuyck to win the Winnipeg Jets last year’s William M. Jennings Trophy for the highest save percentage. Brossoit set a .927 save percentage in 34 games across the pair of years, bringing his career totals up to a .911 save percentage in 140 games, and 10 seasons, in the NHL. But he’s still yet to play 25 or more games in a season despite performing consistently well.

Mrazek has performed surprisingly well in Chicago’s starting role this season, recording a .912 save percentage in 16 games. He’s played in 72 percent of the team’s games this season, putting him on pace for 60 starts. All other ice time has gone to Arvid Soderblom, who’s posted an impressive .926 in six starts. The pair will have at least a month and a half to further plant their feet in the Hawks’ lineup, giving Brossoit a steep hill to overcome when he’s back to full health.

Other notes out of the Midwest:

  • The Dallas Stars will see the return of both forward Roope Hintz (undisclosed) and defenseman Nils Lundkvist (lower-body) on Friday night per NHL.com’s Mike Heika. Hintz sat out of Dallas’ Wednesday loss to Chicago, while Lundkvist has missed the last three games. Lundkvist will replace Brendan Smith, while Hintz will tag out with Logan Stankoven, who’s injured with “a little thing from last game,” per Heika. Hintz has eight goals and 13 points in 20 games this season, two fewer points than Stankoven has managed in 21 games. While they swap out in the top six, Lundkvist will search for his first goal of the season – currently boasting just one assist in 15 games.
  • The Utah Hockey Club is also making some injury-related swaps, with Maveric Lamoureux out four-to-six weeks with an upper-body injury, per a team announcement.  Meanwhile, Belle Fraser of the Salt Lake Tribune shares that Juuso Valimaki will step into Lamoureux’s absence, and that Robert Bortuzzo will reenter the lineup after leaving Tuesday’s game early with injury. Lamoureux has one goal and three points in 15 games this season – the first of his NHL career. He’s also recorded a team-leading 42 penalty minutes. That’s a bleak stat line, but still more than Bortuzzo or Valimaki have managed – with both vets still without a point through nine and 16 games respectively. They’ll each get another chance to find the scoresheet on Friday.

Utah Signs Juuso Valimaki To Two-Year Extension

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7:50 PM: TSN’s Chris Johnston reports Valimaki will earn an AAV of $2MM on his new deal.

5:09 PM: Continuing with a busy day on the blue line, the Utah Hockey Club has agreed to a two-year contract with pending restricted free-agent defenseman Juuso Valimaki. The team did not disclose any financial terms regarding the deal.

Even with Valimaki likely sliding down the depth chart today with the team’s addition of Mikhail Sergachev from the Tampa Bay Lightning and John Marino from the New Jersey Devils, the young defenseman may excel in a more limited role. During the 2022-23 NHL season, Valimaki scored four goals and 34 points in 78 games while averaging 18:11 of ice time per night, and saw his production slip to two goals and 17 points in 10 fewer games played while averaging more than a minute more of ice time per game.

Although it is unlikely, if all things stay the same on the blue line for Utah, Valimaki should be able to partake in a top-four role on the left side of the defensive core. However, there are rumblings that even after the trades today, Utah is still interested in Brandon Montour once he hits the free-agent market on Monday (X Link). If the organization can land Montour, they would likely shift Sean Durzi to the left side while demoting Valimaki to a bottom-pairing role.

Whatever the case may be, Utah has dramatically improved its defensive core over the last 24 hours. Despite the probable demotion coming to Valimaki on the depth chart, he is a flexible defenseman with the ability to play in nearly any situation.

Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports was the first to report that Utah and Valimaki had agreed on an extension. 

Juuso Valimaki Fined For Slashing

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The NHL Department of Player Safety fined Arizona Coyotes defenseman Juuso Valimaki $4,189.19 on Wednesday, the maximum allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), for slashing Anaheim Ducks forward Max Jones. The announcement came from the department’s Twitter account.

Valimaki’s infraction occurred in last night’s 5-2 home loss to the Ducks. Officials gave him a five-minute major for slashing and game misconduct on the play, which occurred 3:34 into the second period.

Jones initiated contact between the two players, and Valimaki was primarily penalized for the retaliatory nature of the slash, which was to Jones’ lower back and caused him to fall to the ice.

The fine means Valimaki, who’s appeared in 44 of 48 Coyotes games this season, won’t miss any further game action. The small financial blow is softened even further by the fact that the Coyotes signed him to a one-year contract extension before the game yesterday.

In his first season with Arizona, Valimaki has already set a career-high in points with 12. He’s well on his way to shattering his previous games played high of 49 with Calgary in 2020-21.

Arizona Coyotes Extend Juuso Valimaki

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The Arizona Coyotes have signed Juuso Valimaki to a one-year contract extension, avoiding restricted free agency this summer. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that the deal will be worth $1MM. Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong released a statement:

We are very pleased to sign Juuso to a one-year extension. He is a big, strong, two-way defenseman who has been a great addition to our defensive corps. We look forward to having him on our roster next season.

Valimaki, 24, was claimed off waivers from the Calgary Flames in October and has found a home in Arizona. Playing a depth role, he has 12 points in 43 games and looks to have put his injury troubles behind him. This extension is a nice piece of work by Armstrong and the Coyotes front office, given that Valimaki would have been due a qualifying offer substantially higher in the offseason, or else hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent.

Signed to a two-year deal by Calgary in 2021, he currently carries a $1.55MM cap hit. The qualifying offer would have been $1.86MM, and Valimaki has arbitration rights. With a $1MM deal in place, he’ll not only come in below that but remain under team control and on schedule to become an RFA in the summer of 2024 once again.

The 16th overall pick of 2017, Valimaki suffered a torn ACL in 2019 that cost him an entire season of development. The young defenseman has struggled to live up to the early hype since, and now looks more like he’ll settle into a bottom-pairing or seventh-defenseman role in the NHL. While that is still relatively valuable, the $1MM contract points to the lack of real upside that is present in his game today.

Valimaki becomes the fifth defenseman in Arizona signed to a one-way deal for 2023-24, joining Jakob Chychrun, Patrik Nemeth, Josh Brown, and Dysin Mayo (currently in the AHL). The team is likely going fill its ranks with youngsters in the years to come, as they start to turn from rebuilding to more competitive status. It remains to be seen whether Valimaki can continue to hold down a regular role once that transition takes place, but his age certainly fits into the timeline.

Snapshots: Ruff, Valimaki, Segafredo

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In today’s edition of their 32 Thoughts Podcast, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek name New Jersey Devils head coach Lindy Ruff as being one of the early names on the hot seat to start the year. The Devils have dropped both their opening games to the Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings.

Although they’ve played well overall in both outings, they’ve gotten just a .804 save percentage from Vitek Vanecek and Mackenzie Blackwood, goaltending that doesn’t exactly permit you to win many games. Firing Ruff may not fix that, but some of his usage decisions have admittedly been puzzling as well. Forward Jesper Bratt, who has three points in those two games and has been extremely strong analytically to start the year, ranks sixth among Devils forwards in average ice time to start the year, behind players like Ondrej Palat, who has a -5 rating and is pointless through two games.

  • PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan notes that Arizona Coyotes defenseman Juuso Valimaki will make his team debut tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs after being claimed off waivers last week from the Calgary Flames. Valimaki has been unable to play with the team due to work visa issues in the US, which still aren’t resolved, but he can play in Canada on the team’s three-game road trip through the eastern part of the country. He’s looking to secure a full-time NHL role again after playing just nine games for the Flames last year.
  • The WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders today released forward Alessandro Segafredo, who will be returning home to Europe. The Italian-born forward was technically eligible for last year’s draft but was born on the cutoff date of September 15, so he’s hardly an overage prospect. He raised some eyebrows in his first North American appearance, registering 10 points in 19 games last year for the Seattle Thunderbirds, but has scored just five points in 25 games split between the Raiders and Winnipeg Ice since. Segafredo has a Swiss player license and will likely return there to continue his junior career.

Arizona Coyotes Claim Juuso Valimaki

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According to TSN’s Chris Johnston, the Arizona Coyotes have claimed defenseman Juuso Valimaki off waivers from the Calgary Flames. He is the only player from yesterday’s waivers complement that failed to clear.

Valimaki is the second player from the 2017 NHL Draft’s first round to get moved today after the St. Louis Blues dealt Klim Kostin to the Edmonton Oilers. Valimaki was the 16th overall selection.

It’s hard to classify Valimaki’s career at this point. If you’d consider him a bust, it’s certainly not his fault – he’s missed considerable time to injuries over the course of his development, including the entire 2019-20 season. Valimaki played in just nine NHL games with the Flames in 2021-22 after being a full-time player in 2020-21, though, and he had 18 points in 35 games with the AHL’s Stockton Heat. His role within the organization was slipping under the new Darryl Sutter regime.

Now, he gets his second shot at a regular lineup spot, this time with the Coyotes. With Jakob Chychrun injured to start the season, Valimaki could conceivably even earn a top-four spot, slotting in on the second pairing behind Shayne Gostisbehere at left defense. He was passable as a full-time player in that 2020-21 season, notching 11 points in 46 games and holding his own during what was a tough season for the Flames overall.

Snapshots: Kane, Valimaki, Has

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It seems it’s no longer an “if,” but instead a “when and where” that the Chicago Blackhawks trade franchise-great Patrick Kane. With Chicago escalating its rebuilding efforts this offseason, lead by the trade of Alex DeBrincat to the Ottawa Senators, it seemed Kane was as good as gone this summer too. However, the veteran has a full no-movement clause in his contract and appears keen on taking a wait-and-see approach this season with where he would want to be dealt. Still, given the tight squeeze on the salary cap for many teams, the forward’s impending free agency, and the fact that he’s still playing near the top of his game, finding a match on his shortlist of teams could prove to be a challenge nonetheless. One team that could be a fit is the Boston Bruins, but those challenges mentioned above pose as much of an issue to them as anyone else. The Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont acknowledges those challenges, but looks to find a path to a deal between the two Original Six squads.

Given Kane’s $10.5MM cap hit, of which the Blackhawks can retain 50% in a trade, and Boston being $1.44MM over the salary cap ceiling, Chicago would certainly have to take some salary back from Boston. This might not be an issue, Dupont says, as the team could realistically craft a package around one or both of forward Jake DeBrusk and defenseman Brandon Carlo, who carry cap hits of $4MM and $4.1MM respectively. These two aren’t the sort of young prospects or premier draft picks Chicago would hope to acquire, but could represent a collection of young talent that would help get things moving forward more quickly for the Blackhawks. Dupont also points to youngsters Jakub Zboril or Jack Studnicka as an additional sweetener if needed, but does raise concern if a first-round draft pick was needed on top of this package.

  • It’s once again that time of year where we’ll see at least a dozen players, if not more, hit the waiver wire each day, with some very intriguing names as part of that. Today’s crop of waiver-wire finds includes a pair of former top Avalanche prospects in Martin Kaut and Shane Bowers, who may still have room to grow, an intriguing defenseman in Mark Friedman, as well as another young 2017 first round pick like Bowers in that of Calgary Flames defenseman Juuso Valimaki. Considering the amount of players on waivers and teams needing to trim their rosters, many players that would be claimed any other time of the year, are able to be snuck through. However, Hailey Salvian of The Athletic believes Valimaki might not be able to sneak through so easily. Losing someone like Valimaki, who still has some upside, for nothing wouldn’t be ideal for Calgary, but for Valimaki, Salvian points out, it could be a fresh start, perhaps with an opportunity to once again establish himself as an everyday NHLer.
  • The Hershey Bears, the AHL affiliate of the Washington Capitals, have signed defenseman Martin Has to a one-year AHL deal, the team announced. That news alone doesn’t seem to make it much different from any other AHL signing, however it does carry with it the caveat that Has is a Capitals draft pick who has not signed an ELC, but is still eligible for one. Has was a fifth-round selection of the Capitals back in 2019, but has seen limited game action prior to last season. The 21-year-old defenseman did put together a solid year in 2021-22 though, getting into 57 games as a member of the Shawinigan Cataractes in the QMJHL, recording 20 points. The Capitals have one year remaining in order to decide whether or not they would like to offer Has his ELC, otherwise he will become a free agent next summer.

Minor Transactions: 05/21/22

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Most of the day-to-day roster shuffling is now complete but there have been a handful of moves made.  We’ll keep track of those here.

  • A day after sending him back down, the Flames have recalled defenseman Juuso Valimaki from AHL Stockton, per the AHL’s transactions log. It’s the third time this week that the 23-year-old has been recalled although he hasn’t seen any game action.  With the Heat set to start their next series on Monday, there’s a good chance that Valimaki – who played in just nine games with Calgary this season – will be sent back down soon.
  • The Avalanche have brought up goaltender Hunter Miska from AHL Colorado and had him at practice today, relays Peter Baugh of The Athletic (Twitter link). Miska will serve as the emergency goalie for the Avs for the time being although with their next series in the minors starting on Monday (against Calgary’s affiliate), he could be shuffled back and forth over the next few days.  At the moment, both Miska and AHL starter Justus Annunen are up with the big club.
  • A year after deciding to try his hand overseas, John Quenneville is looking for a new home after Zurich of the Swiss NLA announced in their transactions log that he has been released. The 26-year-old has played in 42 NHL games over parts of four seasons and could be a candidate to return to North America on a two-way deal this summer after a decent season with the Lions that saw him collect 20 goals and 17 assists in 46 games.

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