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Kyle Capobianco

Evening Notes: Quenneville, Warmups, Ehlers, DeMelo

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To describe the last year or so for the reigning President’s Trophy winners, in part, as a “coaching carousel” would certainly surprise those not following too closely along, but that is more or less a fair description for the Florida Panthers. It was just over a year ago that the then 7-0-0 Panthers fired head coach Joel Quenneville amidst the fallout of the Chicago Blackhawks scandal. Replacing Quenneville would be assistant coach Andrew Brunette, who lead the team to a 51-18-6 record under his watch, as well as a first round win over the Washington Capitals. Brunette would go on to be a Jack Adams Award finalist, but ultimately replaced by now head coach Paul Maurice. Brunette ultimately took an assistant job on Lindy Ruff’s staff with the New Jersey Devils, and many wondered if Quenneville might try to jump back into the mix, if he even could.

On today’s installment of TSN’s Insider Trading, Darren Dreger reported that Quenneville is hoping to return “sooner rather than later,” but how soon that could be is unclear. For one, Dreger says, the team hiring him would have to go through the Florida Panthers first. That may not be much of an issue, however Quenneville himself would also have to go through the NHL Commissioner’s Office to be cleared to coach in the league again. According to Dreger, some believe that might not happen until next season. Although that might be a while to wait for Quenneville, considering there had been speculation he may never return to the NHL, a return as soon as next season, just about two years after Florida let him go, may very well be a best case outcome for the coach.

  • Also from today’s Insider Trading, TSN’s Chris Johnston broke the news of an interesting new rule change: effective immediately, players must wear their helmets during warmups. The rule does come with a grandfather clause, allowing any player who made their debut prior to the 2019-20 season to continue to make that decision for themselves, however all players who debuted in that season or later, and all future players, must abide by the rule. Johnston adds that this rule was a recommendation from the NHL/NHLPA Committee on Concussions. While warmups are far from an injury magnet, it’s not unheard of for players to get hurt.
  • The Winnipeg Jets have been off to an impressive start this season, going 9-4-1 early on. However, behind the success have been some troubling injury concerns. Star winger Nikolaj Ehlers, who was originally expected to only miss a few games, is still not an option for the team, and surgery is a possibility, added Dreger on Insider Trading. Dreger cautioned that nothing was decided yet, but Ehlers had had a few consultations with different doctors and that surgery could possibly be an option. That wouldn’t necessarily be a devastating blow to Winnipeg or Ehlers, depending on the circumstances behind it, but is far removed from the short-term injury it appeared to be at first. Dreger adds that Winnipeg, who is without forwards Mason Appleton, Morgan Barron, and Ehlers, are hoping to fill the gaps internally, but could be considering some trade options.
  • Sticking with those Winnipeg Jets, defenseman Dylan DeMelo did not take warmups tonight and was instead replaced in the lineup by Kyle Capobianco. Swapping out one player for another is usually no big deal, but Scott Billeck of The Winnipeg Sun adds that while the circumstances are unknown, DeMelo is not playing nor is he healthy scratch tonight. That doesn’t necessarily guarantee DeMelo is hurt, but it is a point of concern worth following.

Snapshots: Coyotes, Canucks, Kuzmenko, Pillar

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The Coyotes are set to get their top defenseman back in the lineup as Jakob Chychrun has cleared COVID protocol, relays Jose M. Romero of the Arizona Republic.  Chychrun had been out with an upper-body injury sustained back in December and was close to returning before testing positive.  Head coach Andre Tourigny, defensemen Anton Stralman and Kyle Capobianco, and goalie Scott Wedgewood all also cleared protocols and are with Arizona on their road trip.  However, they will be without winger Antoine Roussel who entered COVID protocol today and will miss at least the next five days.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • While the attendance restrictions in Vancouver have been extended through the middle of February, the Canucks will not be having any games on their upcoming three-game homestand rescheduled, mentions Postmedia’s Ben Kuzma (Twitter link). Vancouver already has seven games that need to be rescheduled with at least some of those changes expected to be announced very soon.
  • Free agent winger Andrei Kuzmenko won’t be deciding on which NHL team he’ll sign with anytime soon. TSN’s Darren Dreger reports in the latest Insider Trading segment that the 25-year-old will wait until the end of his season in Russia before choosing where to sign with.  Kuzmenko is on Russia’s training camp list for the upcoming Olympics and as the second-leading scorer in the KHL, it’s quite likely that he’ll make it.  Ottawa is among the teams known to be interested although Dreger relays that almost every team has at least reached out to his agent (Gold Star’s Dan Milstein) to inquire about Kuzmenko.
  • Wild prospect Josh Pillar was traded from Kamloops to Saskatoon at the WHL trade deadline on Monday. The 2021 fourth-round pick has averaged just over a point per game for the second straight season with 11 goals and 20 assists in 29 games.  However, the two picks the Blazers are receiving are conditional as the winger is currently dealing with a private medical situation and the move was made to allow Pillar to recover closer to home.

Coyotes Notes: Beagle, Capobianco, Ladd, Moser

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The Arizona Coyotes have officially announced that Jay Beagle underwent successful core muscle surgery and will be out indefinitely. Yesterday, general manager Bill Armstrong indicated that the veteran forward could miss anywhere from eight weeks to the rest of the season, a disappointing result for someone just trying to stay active in the NHL.

Beagle, 36, has suited up 21 times for the Coyotes this season and has one goal. The four-year, $12MM contract he signed in 2018 with the Vancouver Canucks will expire at the end of this year, meaning if he does miss the rest of 2021-22 it could be the last we see of the undrafted forward in the NHL. If it is, he had quite the career, playing 634 regular season games to this point and winning the Stanley Cup with the Washington Capitals in 2018.

  • The team also announced that Kyle Capobianco and assistant coach Mario Duhamel have entered the league’s COVID protocol. Capobianco, 24, has played in 15 games for the Coyotes this season and has five points. That takes his career totals to 29 games and six points, as he has received a rare opportunity during this Arizona rebuild to play at the NHL level more regularly. The third-round pick has spent the last several years in the minor leagues, putting up big point totals for the Tucson Roadrunners.
  • With Andrew Ladd still finding regular ice time with the Coyotes, it certainly appears as though the team may not get the extra 2023 third-round pick that was included in last summer’s trade from the New York Islanders. Remember, CapFriendly reported an update on the conditions a few days after the trade, indicating that if Ladd plays in just a single professional game (assumed to mean NHL or AHL) in 2022-23 while under his current contract or if he retires prior to the end of that season, the pick would not be sent to Arizona. That basically means it would only transfer if Ladd ends up on LTIR for the entire season, or the team finds out another way around the condition (it is not clear, for instance, whether a buyout of this deal would secure the pick for them, should Ladd decide not to retire).
  • Of course, that may not matter given how well the trade has paid off so far for the Coyotes. With the 2021 second-round pick they received in the deal, the team picked overaged defenseman Janis Moser, who has recently stepped into the NHL and made an impact as a 21-year-old. The Swiss defender has three points in his first five games while averaging close to 20 minutes and is one of just four players–and the only one from outside the first round–from the 2021 draft to play in the NHL so far.

Kyle Capobianco, Marian Studenic Clear Waivers

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Nov 8: Both players have cleared waivers and can now be assigned to the minor leagues.

Nov 7: Two names are appearing on NHL waivers Sunday, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The Arizona Coyotes placed defenseman Kyle Capobianco there, while the New Jersey Devils waived forward Marian Studenic.

Capobianco, a 24-year-old who was expected to possibly steal a lineup spot this season, hasn’t played this season as a knee injury has sidelined him. Capobianco was activated from injured reserve today in order to permit the Coyotes to waive him. It appears as though recent call-ups Dysin Mayo and Cam Dineen have now surpassed Capobianco on the team’s depth chart.

The Devils have utilized Studenic in five games this season, but the 23-year-old Slovakian has yet to register a point. He was technically the team’s only extra healthy forward, but they’ve also played Mason Geertsen at forward instead of his usual defense at some points this season. Studenic’s averaged just 11:33 of ice time in those five games.

Both Capobianco and Studenic were younger players that appeared to have the inside track on roster spots heading into the season. It’s entirely possible that a team could choose to take a chance on either one of Capobianco or Studenic.

West Notes: Coyotes, Nylander, Svechnikov

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While it was a successful tryout for Coyotes forward Alex Galchenyuk who inked a one-year deal for the league minimum salary earlier this week, the news got worse fairly quickly.  Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports reports (Twitter link) that the 27-year-old is listed as week-to-week with an upper-body injury.  Galchenyuk split last season between Ottawa and Toronto, notching 13 points in 34 games and was pushing for a regular spot in Arizona’s lineup to start the season.

Meanwhile, in that same report, Morgan adds that blueliner Kyle Capobianco is also listed as week-to-week due to a lower-body injury.  The 24-year-old had a chance at landing a spot on the opening roster for the Coyotes after spending most of last season in the minors where he had 13 points in 20 games with AHL Tucson.  Instead, Capobianco will also be starting the year on injured reserve.

More from the Western Conference:

  • Alexander Nylander’s stock has certainly fallen since the 23-year-old was selected eighth overall by Buffalo back in 2016 but it could be dipping even more as Scott Powers of The Athletic suggests (subscription link) that Nylander is a likely candidate to be waived by the Blackhawks after a disappointing training camp. Powers suggests that Arizona is a team that could have interest in Nylander, who missed all of last season due to knee surgery after recording 10 goals and 16 assists in 65 games in 2019-20.
  • While he has an AHL contract in hand, Jets winger Evgeny Svechnikov is expected to be converted to an NHL two-way deal in the coming days, reports Sportsnet’s Ken Wiebe. The 24-year-old impressed in the preseason with four points in five games – good for third on Winnipeg – which still has him in the mix to earn a spot at the end of the roster to start the regular season.  Svechnikov had eight points in 21 games with Detroit last season before clearing waivers in early April.

Defense Notes: Hamonic, Hajek, Capobianco

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Training camp is well underway but the Vancouver Canucks are still awaiting the arrival of veteran defenseman Travis Hamonic. Now, with the deadline to opt out of the coming season arriving on Friday, the team is left to wait to see if they will have the reliable blue liner back after extending him this off-season. Yet, it appears that they will remain patient and calm with Hamonic, who has family concerns to take into account with his decision. Hamonic previously opted out of the 2020 playoff bubble due to his daughter’s respiratory infection and with the NHL returning to a full slate of travel this season, he may be concerned about potential exposure to the Coronavirus and bringing that home. GM Jim Benning tells Postmedia’s Ben Kuzma that he is “confident” that Hamonic will arrive to camp and play this season, but also notes that “he’s dealing with a personal issue and I think everybody should just leave it alone.” Benning did however speak to the team’s COVID vaccination status when discussing Hamonic, which may also imply that he is unvaccinated, adding another layer to his decision. Whatever the cause, time is running out for Hamonic to make his decision, but the Canucks hope the veteran defenseman will be back in the fold as soon as possible.

    • Just a few years after being one of the cornerstone prospects in the Ryan McDonagh trade return, Libor Hajek’s job with the New York Rangers could be in jeopardy. The New York Post’s Larry Brooks writes that sources believe Hajek has slid outside a starting job on the Rangers’ depth chart and possibly even outside of a roster spot. Behind established 23-year-old Ryan Lindgren, 21-year-old rising sophomore K’Andre Miller, and 20-year-old rookie Zac Jones, the 23-year-old Hajek has not done enough to assert himself as a roster lock and can no longer depend on his upside with so much talented youth around him. Lindgren and Miller both greatly outplayed Hajek last year and Jones came in late in the season, after a long college season that ended in a National Championship with UMass, and proceeded to match Hajek’s season point total in just ten games.  Beyond just the youngsters, Brooks reports that veteran free agent addition Patrik Nemeth is also above Hajek on the depth chart. With four lefties seemingly locked into roster spots, Hajek would have to unseat a righty to make the team – and that certainly won’t be Adam Fox or Jacob Trouba – or hope that New York opts to carry eight defenseman, five of which are lefties. Another promising rookie, Nils Lundkvist, is currently penciled in for the final spot on the right side, while a potential fifth lefty spot would also be open to competition from veterans Jarred Tinordi and Anthony Bitetto and promising prospect Matthew Robertson. This all goes to show that there are a lot of defensemen in the mix for the Rangers and Hajek no longer has the shine of a budding star. Even though the likes of Miller, Jones, Lundkvist, and Robertson are all waiver-exempt, don’t be surprised to see New York subject to Hajek to waivers anyhow in order to ensure the best players are on the NHL roster. Whether that decision ultimately means Hajek’s days in the Big Apple are numbered remains to be seen.
    • The Arizona Coyotes have announced that Kyle Capobianco is currently sidelined with a knee injury, which is exactly what the young defenseman did not want in training camp this year. Though PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan writes that he is only considered day-to-day, this is a critical preseason for Capobianco. The left side of the Coyotes blue line was obliterated this off-season with the trade of Oliver Ekman-Larsson, free agent departures of Alex Goligoski and Jordan Oesterle, and retirement of Niklas Hjalmarsson. Even with the addition of Shayne Gostisbehere to a left side now led by Jakob Chychrun, Capobianco flew up the depth chart into a top-three slot. This was his chance to finally secure an NHL starting job, but he risks missing out with a surplus of right-handed defensemen also jockeying for position. If youngsters like Victor Soderstrom, Conor Timmins, and Ty Emberson all prove they should be on the NHL roster while Capobianco sits out, he could lose his starting job, especially with veterans Ilya Lyubushkin and Anton Stralman able to play their off-side.

Coyotes Place Kyle Capobianco On Waivers

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Jan. 31: Friedman reports that Capobianco has cleared and will be assigned to the taxi squad.

Jan 30: The Coyotes have placed defenseman Kyle Capobianco on waivers, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link).  The move isn’t entirely unexpected with Ilya Lyubushkin now in Arizona after finally getting his work visa issue resolved so now with him being available, they can try to send Capobianco down.

The 23-year-old has played in two games with Arizona this season and has been held off the scoresheet while logging just over 14 minutes per game.  It’s actually the fourth straight season that Capobianco has seen NHL action but in that stretch, he has been limited to just 14 contests where he has a single goal while averaging just shy of 15 minutes per contest.

He has been much more productive in the minors though, notching at least 30 points in each of his first three AHL seasons despite not playing in more than 49 games in any of them.  2019-20 was his best performance when he had 10 goals and 27 assists in just 42 games with AHL Tucson.

It’s that type of offensive upside coupled with an affordable contract (a two-year, one-way deal with an AAV of just $775K) that could make Capobianco at least a bit intriguing to some teams, especially those who are in need of some defensive depth but don’t have the cap room to try to make a bigger splash.  They’ll have until 11 AM CT on Sunday to place a claim.

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