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Eastern Notes: Zacha, Dahlin, Neuvirth, Hagg, Martin

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While there were a number of people that were shocked when the New Jersey Devils assigned Pavel Zacha to Binghamton of the AHL, head coach John Hynes felt that the team needed to do something that would have an impact on the 21-year-old first-rounder. Despite having already played 150 NHL games in his career, Zacha was pointless in 10 games and Hynes felt just scratching him wasn’t going to be enough to spark him, according to Chris Ryan of NJ.com.

“To scratch him one game and put him back in, we’re still not in a position right now where we could rely on him in key situations, and that’s what we need from him,” Hynes said. “We think it’s important that it’s not, ’Hey, sit in the stands for one game and watch.’ That is effective in some situations, but we need him to go down and play, and play a lot of minutes and play in situations and earn his confidence back and get his game back.”

The sixth-overall pick in 2015, Zacha hasn’t developed into the franchise player the team thought they were getting when they drafted him. He has so far only managed to total eight goals in two straight seasons, suggesting the team may have needed to give him time in the AHL before bringing him to the NHL. Zacha, who has played in just three AHL games in his career, needs to have time to regain his confidence while playing lots of minutes, something that he wasn’t going to get with the Devils.

  • While there is no official word on the injury, Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin, who was forced to leave Saturday’s game against Ottawa in the second period after taking a shot off his leg, is expected to travel with the team to New York, suggesting that his injury may not be too serious, according to the Buffalo News’ Mike Harrington. There is swelling, which means the team won’t be able to determine his status until tomorrow, according to The Athletic’s Jon Vogl. The team plays the Rangers on Sunday.
  • The Philadelphia Flyers announced that goaltender Michal Neuvirth has left the team and returned to Philadelphia to be checked out by doctors and could soon find himself back on injured reserve. The 30-year-old injury-prone goalie played in one game since being recalled from a conditioning stint on Oct. 25th, but allowed six goals in that lone start to the Islanders two days later, and now currently holds a .727 save percentage.
  • Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic (subscription required) writes that one interesting development in Philadelphia is the offensive improvement surrounding Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Robert Hagg. The 23-year-old sophomore currently leads all defenseman, including Shayne Gostisbehere and Ivan Provorov, with seven points (just two points shy of his totals last year). The scribe says that Hagg has seemed more comfortable joining the rush and going deeper into the offensive zone than he was willing last season.
  • New York Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said fourth-line forward Matt Martin remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury, according to Newsday’s Andrew Gross. The 29-year-old has combined with Cal Clutterbuck and Casey Cizikas to form an impressive energy line for the Islanders. Martin already has equaled last year’s goal total of three in just 11 games.

The Contract Each Team Would Most Like To Trade: Part II

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Nearly every team has one of those players: a top talent they were excited to sign and never thought could do anything but help them. In hindsight, history shows that more often than not, expensive, long-term free agent contracts don’t work out. It may look good at first (or it may look bad right away to the outside observer), but players struggle to make their value last throughout a lengthy contract. Those contracts come back to bite teams and are hard to get rid of. As teams begin to finalize their rosters at this point in the off-season, many are struggling to make everyone fit under the salary cap and are regretting these past signings that exasperate a cap crunch that can be tough for even a mistake-free club. We already took a look at the first third of the league; here are the contracts that each team would most like to trade, from Detroit to Ottawa:

Detroit Red Wings: Frans Nielsen – four years, $21MM remaining

As speculated by some readers in the comments section, it was no mistake that Part I ended with Dallas. Detroit deserved both some extra consideration and to lead off an article about poor contracts. There is an argument to be made that almost every single player age 28 and over on the Red Wings roster is signed to a bad contract for one reason or another. Detroit is a team that ranks towards the bottom of the standings and towards the top of the salary cap and that is not just bad luck. However, some are much worse than others and they are so bad that it is tough to choose between them. Take this scenario: Player A scored 35 points in 75 games last season. It was 14 points more than the season prior, including six more goals, and Player A also led the team in hits. He is 31 years old and signed for five more years at $4.25MM per. Player B scored 33 points in 79 games last season. It was eight points less than the season prior, and Player B also had the worst face-off percentage among the team’s centers. He is 34 years old and signed for four more years at $5.25MM per. Still undecided about which contract the team would rather trade? Player A is a Michigan native and career Red Wing and Player B is entering only his third year after signing a lucrative free agent contract. Player A of course is perennial whipping boy Justin Abdelkader. Yes, the Abdelkader contract is terrible. At no point in his career has he been worth his current contract value. Yet, he improved last season, is younger and brings a defensive element to his game, and is also loyal to the current administration – the call of the question after all is which contract the team would most like to trade. That would instead be Player B, Frans Nielsen, who at 34 is predictably declining and last year made more than Abdelkader for less production and there is no reason to believe that trend won’t continue. The team rewarded Adbelkader for years of service, whereas they took a gamble on Nielsen that hasn’t paid off. One of those moves is far more regrettable. Nielsen is the guy, but he only narrowly edged out Abdelkader and defenseman Danny DeKeyser, who also has relative age and Detroit roots to his advantage.

Edmonton Oilers: Milan Lucic – five years, $30MM remaining

The Oilers can refute trade rumors surrounding Milan Lucic all they want. The truth of the matter is that GM Peter Chiarelli signed Lucic hoping that he could both produce with and protect Connor McDavid in Edmonton as he did for David Krejci in Boston. The only problem is that the 30-year-old power forward can no longer keep up with a player of McDavid’s caliber. Lucic managed to score 34 points last season, tied for fourth on the team, but that is nowhere near what is expected of a $6MM player, especially when he scored 50 in year one with the Oilers and topped that mark many times with the Bruins. Edmonton still may be holding out hope that Lucic can turn it around and be just as much of a scoring threat as he is a physical threat, but make no mistake that the team would be quick to get rid of his contract if the right deal came along. In contrast, the team would be far more hesitant to move a hefty contract like defenseman Andrej Sekera who has been good and injury-prone, rather than healthy and underwhelming.

Florida Panthers: Roberto Luongo – four years, $18.13MM remaining

Florida is a tough one. Dale Tallon has done a good job of locking up his core long-term and, despite being right up against the cap, there are few egregious contracts on the roster right now. Give it a few years and maybe Michael Matheson will hold this title, but for now it goes to Roberto Luongo by default. Of course, Luongo is beloved in Florida and the team doesn’t even have to carry the whole of his cap hit, with the Vancouver Canucks retaining $800K each year. However, the reality is that Luongo will turn 40 this season and it will be only the first of four years left on his deal. The Panthers have almost $8MM committed to two goalies for the next few years and the other, James Reimer, is younger and outplayed Luongo in 2016-17 and in more games to boot. While they both fought injuries this past season, it was Luongo back on top performance-wise, but the impressive numbers he did post came in just 35 appearances versus Reimer’s 44. Florida paying over $4.5MM per year to a backup goalie in his forties just doesn’t make sense and the team would be better off moving forward with just Reimer and Michael Hutchinson if they could find a way to trade Luongo. Another reason this contract is bad: both the Panthers and Canucks will be hit with cap recapture penalties if Luongo retires prior to 2022.

Los Angeles Kings: Dustin Brown – four years, $23.5MM remaining

For the first time in years, Kings fans are feeling good about Dustin Brown. That is why now is the perfect time to trade him. Brown had been the bane of L.A.’s existence for four years, registering no more than 36 points each year while eating up $5.875MM in cap space, when he finally broke out of his funk in 2017-18 with a massive 61-point season and one of the league’s best plus/minus ratings. The question now is whether the past four years were an aberration with this season setting a new baseline or will Brown regress back to his bottom-six production. With a cap-strapped roster full of expensive contracts for older players, L.A. can’t take the risk of keeping Brown around if the right opportunity presents itself. They would be forced to trade the career King if a taker came forward rather than hold out hope that he doesn’t revert back to his old ways of being drastically overpaid.

Minnesota Wild: Zach Parise – seven years, $52.77MM remaining

When the Wild signed 28-year-old’s Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to matching 13-year contracts worth almost $100MM apiece, they knew that those deals would have dark days at some point in the future. However, they never could have imagined that Parise’s decline would come so soon. Parise remains one of the most popular players on the team, but injuries have kept him off the ice and affected his play when on the ice over the ice and his stock is falling quickly. Parise has never been able to reach the peaks he enjoyed in New Jersey, but he still produced at a high level over his first four seasons with the team. The past two years have been a different story and Parise appears to be trending in the wrong direction. Now 33, Parise isn’t totally beyond help and could turn it around. If back at 100%, Parise has enough natural ability and enough talent around him to still be a $7.5MM player. However, it would be nearly impossible for Minnesota to ever move the behemoth that is his contract so, if somehow they received an offer, they would take it without a second thought. Fan favorite or not, there is too much risk associated with Parise moving forward.

Montreal Canadiens: Shea Weber – seven years, $55MM remaining

I know what you’re thinking and yes, the Carey Price contract doesn’t look great right now. However, an extension of any length and value for any player coming off an injury-riddled season would bring a skewed perception. Price has been one of the best goalies in the league for years and one bad season doesn’t change that. Will he lose that title in the next eight years? For sure, but it would be a shock to see the Canadiens move their poster boy any time soon. Their #1 defenseman is another question though. When Montreal acquired Shea Weber for P.K. Subban, they never could have anticipated that his body would break down so soon after. Injuries cost Weber all but 26 games last season and he will miss the beginning of 2018-19 as well. Weber doesn’t seem like the type of player who will retire early, but there is no guarantee that these injuries won’t slow him down significantly for the remainder of his contract. In fact, the only guarantee is that he will slow down over the next seven years. At $7.86MM, the Canadiens need Weber to be his dynamic two-way self. The team already has one overpaid stay-at-home defenseman in Karl Alzner and can’t afford another. If they could move Weber, they would.

Nashville Predators: None

GM David Poile flat out doesn’t sign bad contracts. Criticize the deals for Ryan Johansen and Kyle Turris if you like, but the bargain contracts throughout the rest of the lineup have allowed Poile to overpay for reliable centers and that is a team-building model that anyone can get behind.

New Jersey Devils: Corey Schneider – four years, $24MM remaining

The easy answer is that the Devils don’t feel any pressure to trade anyone on the roster. They currently have the lowest payroll in the league with nearly every player signed to a fair deal. Those who are overpriced – Travis Zajac and Andy Greene – play important leadership role and the only player signed to a substantially long-term deal is electric young blue liner Damon Severson. The one and only player that sticks out as a potential long-term cap problem is starting goaltender Corey Schneider. This may surprises some; after all Schneider trails only Tuukka Rask among active save percentage leaders. Schneider had been elite since arriving in New Jersey, but something started to change in 2016-17. His SV% fell to .908 and his GAA inflated to 2.82 and then things only got worse last season with a SV% of .907 and a GAA of 2.93. He was also limited to just 40 appearances this year and was outplayed by journeyman Keith Kinkaid. The Devils can’t count on Kinkaid to repeat his 2017-18 performance moving forward and if Schneider’s back-to-back bad years are more than a fluke, they can’t depend on him for four more years either. He’s not going to be a $6MM backup either. New Jersey will give Schneider the time he needs to return to form, but they may not hesitate if the right trade comes their way as well.

New York Islanders: Andrew Ladd – five years, $27.5MM remaining

The Islanders without John Tavares are a totally different animal. A six-year, $30MM extension for Josh Bailey now looks bad. A $5.75MM cap hit this season for free agents Leo Komarov and Valtteri Filppula signed to make up for Tavares’ lost production looks bad. The likes of Cal Clutterbuck, Casey Cizikas, and Matt Martin now look worse on a team that needs more offense and less grit. However, the one contract that looked miserable well before Tavares bolted to Toronto is Andrew Ladd and it is only going to get much worse. The veteran forward was intended to find chemistry with Tavares when he was signed to a seven-year, $38.5MM contract two years ago. Instead, Ladd has just 60 points over the past two seasons combined and has by all accounts been relegated to a bottom-six role. The 32-year-old will now be asked to take a bigger role in Tavares’ stead and that is a scary proposition. The Islanders aren’t in any cap trouble, but the team should be thinking rebuild and would likely take any offer at all to rid themselves of Ladd.

New York Rangers: Brendan Smith – three years, $13.05MM remaining

Has any free agent contract in recent memory soured as quickly as Brendan Smith’s? Smith signed a four-year deal with the Rangers last June and was expected to play a top-four role for the team for years to come. By February, he had been placed on waivers and buried in the AHL. Smith played in only 44 games with New York and saw less and less ice time as the season wore on and he continued to turn the puck over at an alarming rate and cost his team goals. Now what? One would assume that Smith will be given a second chance this season, but the relationship between he and the team may be beyond repair. There is no doubt that the Rangers would take a re-do on that deal and would move him if possible. Marc Staal is another player that New York wouldn’t mind moving, but as a player who can eat minutes and provide solid play most of the time, his $5.7MM contract seems like nothing next to Smith’s $4.35MM deal.

Ottawa Senators: Bobby Ryan – four years, $29MM remaining

No contract in the league has become as notorious for being labeled a “bad deal” that the team is desperate to trade like Bobby Ryan’s. The Senators are so determined to move on from Ryan that they are trying to force Erik Karlsson trade suitors to take the overpaid forward as well. At one point in time, $7.25MM per year for Ryan seemed like a fair deal. At 23 years old he was a 71-point player with the Anaheim Ducks and even after moving to Ottawa, Ryan started his tenure with three straight seasons in the 50-point range. However, the last two years have been very different. Ryan has only suited up for 62 games in each campaign and has looked like a different player on offense. At his best, he looks disinterested and lucky to be in the right place at the right time and at his worst he costs his team goals. Ryan has managed to register only 58 points combined over the past two years; he had 56 alone in 2015-16. Ryan may just need a change of scenery to jump start what used to be dynamic goal-scoring game, but the Senators don’t care about that. All he is to them is a waste of cap space and of owner Eugene Melnyk’s dwindling wealth. They want him gone at any cost.

Look out for Part III of this three-part series early next week…

 

Islanders Must Focus On Moving Forward After Tavares

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When the New York Islanders lost John Tavares, the franchise found itself in a worse situation than it had hoped. The team that struggled a year ago on defense and in goal now lost their top scorer and seem to lack identity (except in the front office). The team will likely make Calder Trophy winner Mathew Barzal the new face of the franchise, but without Tavares, there remains a significant hole in their lineup.

While it seems likely Barzal will replace Tavares as the team’s top center, the real question is who will take over as the team’s No. 2 center? One positive note for New York is that the team has almost $20MM in available cap space after Tavares opted to go to Toronto and that’s after the signings of Valtteri Filppula, Leo Komarov, Robin Lehner and Tom Kuhnhackl as well as trading for Matt Martin. Regardless, none of those players are candidates to fill that No. 2 center position. The team does have restricted free agent Brock Nelson as a candidate to fill that role, but his status is up in the air.

The Athletic’s Shayna Goldman (subscription required) suggests if the Islanders want to make some type of impact move to suggest to their fan base that they are ready to move on (because bringing in Filppula, Komorov, Kuhnhackl, Lehner and Martin didn’t accomplish that), they must look to the trade market where there are a number of interesting names that the team could look to acquire, especially at the center position to show they are moving forward.

The top name is interesting enough as Goldman suggests that New York looks at the Ottawa Senators who are looking to cast off players left and right. Already having moved on from Mike Hoffman and in current trade talks with Erik Karlsson, the scribe writes the Islanders could attempt to make an offer to pry centers Matt Duchene or Jean-Gabriel Pageau away.

While Duchene would probably cost the Islanders quite a bit, he could potentially be a reasonable replacement for Tavares. Even though Ottawa gave up a lot to acquire Duchene less than a year ago, they may be ready to move on from him as he will be a free agent after this season and he might not want to return after having to endure the many problems that Ottawa has dealt with in the past year. However in New York, the team could match him with players like Anders Lee, Jordan Eberle or Josh Bailey and get solid production from him and the team would have the cap room to lock him up. The only downside to acquiring Duchene (despite the likely high cost) would be the team would have to sign him as well as Lee and Eberle next season as all three would be unrestricted free agents for the 2019-20 season. Pageau would be a much cheaper option, but lacks much upside if they want to use him as a second-line center.

One other option would be to pry Tyler Johnson away from the Tampa Bay Lightning, especially with the team attempting to clear out cap space to accommodate Karlsson. Johnson would provide significant value as a second-line center as well, but is locked up for six years at $5MM AAV, so they would be able to hold onto him for a long time.

While finding a replacement for Tavares, the team must also attempt to fix their other issues as they’ve done little to address their defense or goaltending. Adding Robin Lehner helps a little, but after the 26-year-old suffered through a disastrous season (3.01 GAA and a .908 save percentage), a Lehner-Thomas Greiss combination doesn’t sound particularly thrilling. The defense also needs help. The team lost Calvin de Haan to Carolina, although they did bring back Thomas Hickey. Although the team has high hopes that Ryan Pulock is ready to move into a top-four role immediately, his defense has always been suspect, so he isn’t likely to improve the Islanders defensive deficiencies. Andrew Gross of Newsday writes that the team should consider looking into acquiring Justin Faulk from the Carolina Hurricanes as he would provide that stability and would look good as the No. 1 piece along with Hickey, Pulock, Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy.

Regardless, with few quality options available to them on the free agent market, the team likely has little choice to make a deal.

 

 

Matt Martin Traded To New York Islanders

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The New York Islanders have acquired Matt Martin from the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for goaltending prospect Eamon McAdam. No salary was retained in the transaction, meaning the Islanders will have to carry the full $2.5MM cap hit for the next two seasons. Interestingly though, Martin was paid a $1.5MM signing bonus on July 1st for what was already a front-loaded contract, meaning New York will actually only pay $2.5MM in actual cash for Martin’s work through 2019-20.

Martin, 29, was pushed out of the Maple Leafs lineup this season due to the emergence of Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson, playing in only 50 games and watching through the entire first round of the playoffs. Though he was extremely well-liked in the dressing room, there was simply no spot for Martin on Toronto’s roster going forward, and the team desperately needed cap relief for next season when Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander will all be on their next contracts. $2.5MM in cap space isn’t insignificant, especially when the team didn’t have to give up a single asset to rid themselves of it.

In fact they acquired McAdam, who was originally picked in the third round by the Islanders but hasn’t been able to secure a job even at the AHL level. Coming to Toronto he may have a similar problem, as the team already has Garret Sparks, Calvin Pickard and Kasimir Kaskisuo under contract. One of the first two may be moved up to the NHL should the team believe they can help more than current backup Curtis McElhinney, but there isn’t a lot of room on the Toronto Marlies either way. Beyond this year, the team also owns the rights to NCAA goaltender Joseph Woll, who is headed back to Boston College but could be ready for professional action in 2019-20. It’s not clear where McAdam lands in that group, though he could be loaned to another AHL team like Kaskisuo was last season.

With this deal the Islanders will be able to reunite a line of Martin, Casey Cizikas and Cal Clutterbuck that was once considered the “best fourth line in the NHL” though that is certainly not guaranteed. Over the last few days the team has also signed bottom-six forwards Leo Komarov and Tom Kuhnhackl, while they still have Ross Johnston and others that could compete for spots. If that trio is put back together, it will be interesting to see if they can be as effective as they once were at pinning defenders in with physicality.

Martin struggled to find ice time in Toronto this season so the move makes sense, and opens up another roster spot for a young player or free agent acquisition. The Maple Leafs currently have some openings on their fourth line, though new faces like Josh Jooris or Par Lindholm could fill those roles. Either way, it does seem like fresh-faced GM Kyle Dubas has a clear plan for the Maple Leafs going forward—one that no longer included Martin.

Matt Martin “In Demand” As Maple Leafs Try To Trade Him

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The Toronto Maple Leafs added a whopping seven-year, $77MM contract to the books when they landed top free agent John Tavares yesterday, and will have to be careful how they spend their cap space going forward. One of the players who is taking up a good chunk without giving much back to the team is Matt Martin, who became a healthy scratch part way through the 2017-18 season and doesn’t look to have a role on the team going forward. Yesterday, in a piece talking about how the Maple Leafs can fit Tavares in with their other young stars, James Mirtle of The Athletic (subscription required) wrote that the team was trying to move Martin’s contract and he’d heard the New York Rangers in connection with it.

Today Larry Brooks of the New York Post tweets that Martin is actually “in demand” on the trade market, after the Maple Leafs paid out a $1.5MM signing bonus. That drops Martin’s salary this season to just $750K, while next season would cost $1.75MM for any acquiring team. The cap hit involved with Martin is $2.5MM, an obvious contract to shed if the Maple Leafs are trying to save cap space.

Martin, 29, has been a fixture on the fourth line with the New York Islanders and Maple Leafs for years, leading the league in hits several times. While he’s never recorded 20 points in a single campaign, he was well-regarded as an on and off-ice leader and valuable asset to have on the bench. Unfortunately as the Maple Leafs gave more and more ice time to young wingers like Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson, Martin’s role on the team was almost completely eradicated. If Toronto is really looking to move him at this point, it could signify that they have even more plans for their forward group in free agency, since he’s one of only 10 NHL forward currently under contract.

Eastern Notes: Backstrom, Bjork, Vinik, Mantha

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While considered to be a game-time decision, the news doesn’t look good for the Washington Capitals who have been without Nicklas Backstrom for the past two games with a hand injury. The center did participate in the morning skate for the first time since being injured during Game 5 of the Capitals second playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

However, while he did skate with the team, NHL.com’s Dan Rosen reports that Backstrom did not participate in line rushes or work with the power play unit during practice, suggesting that he will miss likely his third-straight game today against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Washington Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan reports that he didn’t take too many shots during practice, but considers it an encouraging sign that he could be ready in the near future.

While the team has been without Backstrom for the past two games, it hasn’t had a major effect on the team. The team knocked off Pittsburgh in Game 6 against the Penguins and then followed that up with a Game 1 win of the Eastern Conference Finals Friday.

  • The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa (subscription required) writes that Boston Bruins rookie Anders Bjork needs to regain his top prospect status after an injury-plagued season this year. Considered to be one of the Bruins’ top rookies entering the 2017-18 season, the speedy Bjork won a spot out of training camp on the team’s first line, matched with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron, but suffered a concussion on Nov. 11 via a hit from Toronto’s Matt Martin and never was able to full recover. After sitting out for three week, Bjork struggled upon returning to the lineup and began to find himself as the team’s healthy scratch before eventually being assigned to the Providence Bruins of the AHL. A labral tear in his left shoulder on Jan. 30 put an end to his season. Now that Jake DeBrusk, Danton Heinen and Ryan Donato have passed him on the depth chart, the rookie must come back and show that he belongs in the Bruins rotation as well next year.
  • Sports Illustrated’s Alex Pruitt interviews Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik about the step-by-step process of buying the franchise and how he turned the struggling franchise around, ranging from why he chose Tampa Bay, to the hiring of Steve Yzerman, to the delicate free agent negotiations with Steven Stamkos.
  • While handing out big free agent contracts with no-trade clauses didn’t stop, the Detroit Red Wings did begin drafting for the future back in 2013. The Detroit Free Press’ Helene St. James looks back and breaks down the team’s entire draft in which the franchise began to restock their barren farm system, starting with first-round pick Anthony Mantha, who looks to be on his way to being a core player with the potential to put up 30 goals.

East Notes: Martin, Islanders, Nyquist

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Maple Leafs winger Matt Martin is slated to be a healthy scratch for the eighth straight game on Saturday and unsurprisingly, there are questions as to whether he is part of Toronto’s future plans.  Accordingly, Postmedia’s Lance Hornby mentions that there have been rumblings about the Leafs offering Martin to the Islanders, his former team.  He adds that they would likely have to retain some of his $2.5MM cap hit to facilitate a trade.  It’s worth noting that the 28-year-old has two years remaining on his contract beyond this season and that Toronto already has one of their three retained salary slots tied up through 2021-22 in Phil Kessel.  However, with the team having plenty of depth on the wing already and a quickly-diminishing role, it still may be worthwhile for GM Lou Lamoriello to consider holding back some of Martin’s contract to get a deal done.

More from the East:

  • While the Islanders won’t be trading captain John Tavares before the deadline, it doesn’t appear that they will be overly active in trying to add notable rental players to try to make a run for the playoffs either. Speaking with Newsday’s Steven Marcus, GM Garth Snow stated that they won’t be moving their top draft picks for pending free agents, stating that doing so wouldn’t make sense for them at this time.  New York currently is tied for the last Wild Card spot in the East and could use help both on their back end and in goal in the coming weeks.
  • The Red Wings have received some interest in winger Gustav Nyquist, reports Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. However, a move may still be depending on whether or not Detroit is willing to retain part of his $4.75MM contract through next season.  The 28-year-old is on pace for his lowest point total in any of his five NHL seasons as he has just 24 (15-9-24) through 52 games so far this season.  Nyquist also has a no-trade clause that he would have to waive in order to be dealt.

Morning Notes: Maple Leafs, Rangers, Prospects

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are comfortably in a playoff spot in the Atlantic Division, sitting fifteen points up on the Florida Panthers. As they try to catch Boston or Tampa Bay down the stretch for home ice advantage, head coach Mike Babcock clearly wants some help at the trade deadline. As Chris Johnston of Sportsnet reports, Babcock has let “the people who need to know, know” what he’d like to see added.

In his latest 31 Thoughts column for Sportsnet, Elliotte Friedman mentions three names on the Maple Leafs that could easily be removed in the next few weeks instead. Josh Leivo, who has asked for a trade after being passed over again for playing time, Nikita Soshnikov, who will force the Maple Leafs into a roster move once he completes his conditioning stint, and Matt Martin. Martin has two more years on his contract at $2.5MM per season, but hasn’t been able to crack the lineup recently and could be moved to create some roster flexibility.

  • As the New York Rangers prepare to sell off some assets at the trade deadline, they got some good news on the injury front today. While Marc Staal was absent from practice due to a neck injury, Jimmy Vesey (concussion), Pavel Buchnevich (concussion) and Chris Kreider (blood clot) all skated. Kevin Shattenkirk, who underwent knee surgery a few weeks ago, is now off crutches. Amazingly, the Rangers are still just three points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, and with some returning players and new blood there is no telling what could happen in the latter part of the season.
  • Craig Button and TSN have released their ranking of the top-50 prospects that have already been drafted, with Elias Pettersson coming in at the very top. The Vancouver Canucks first-round pick has been arguably the best player in the SHL this season with 45 points through 35 games and looks poised to make an impact in North America as soon as next season. Beyond that is Eeli Tolvanen at #2, despite falling nearly out of the first round entirely last June. Tolvanen turned a disappointing decision at Boston College into an opportunity, and has broken nearly every record for an 18-year old player in the KHL. The entire list is interesting, and is quite different than Corey Pronman’s ranking at The Athletic (subscription required) which had Casey Mittelstadt in the top spot.

Matthew Tkachuk Suspended One Game

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2:20pm: Tkachuk has been suspended for one game according to John Shannon of Sportsnet. The Flames play tonight in Montreal. This is Tkachuk’s third suspension of his young career. As the accompanying video explains:

While the spear itself is not forceful or malicious enough to merit supplemental discipline on its own, two factors caused this play to rise to the level of a suspension. First, Tkachuk is on the bench when he intentionally strikes a player on the playing surface…second, Tkachuk is a repeat offender, having been suspended for a similar incident just ten games ago.

8:16am: The Department of Player Safety must have Matthew Tkachuk on speed-dial by now. The Calgary Flames forward will receive another hearing with the disciplinary committee after spearing Toronto Maple Leafs forward Matt Martin from the bench in last night’s game. Tkachuk, who wasn’t involved in the scrum at all, stuck his stick into Martin’s ribs without the officials noticing on the ice.

Matthew TkachukIt’s not the first time Tkachuk has been caught for a stick infraction like this. Just recently, he was suspended one game for his part in the Flames-Red Wings brawl, when he used his stick to goad Luke Witkowski back onto the ice. Witkowski was given an automatic 10-game ban for coming back after being ejected.

To be clear, the hearing isn’t for the act of spearing itself. Tkachuk is instead receiving it for “unsportsmanlike conduct” which likely has more to do with his history with the league. The young forward also received a two-game ban for elbowing Drew Doughty last season, and has built quite the reputation for himself already. The league likely believes they can put a stop to this kind of behavior by handing out a suspension for a play that was relatively innocuous, letting Tkachuk know that he has a target on his back.

The pesky Calgary forward has become one of the best in the league at getting under opponents’ skin, and did so last night against the Maple Leafs. He drew a cross-checking penalty on Jake Gardiner, when the Toronto defender got a little frustrated with his play, and was in Frederik Andersen’s crease all night. Though Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock praised Tkachuk’s overall game, he called the spear “junior hockey stuff” and said that he’d learn not to do it eventually.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Atlantic Notes: Athanasiou, Canadiens, Kronwall, Marner

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Often when you have lengthy holdouts, fans have to wonder whether one of the big obstacles (besides money) is that the player doesn’t really want to play for the team he’s on, only creating a longer bridge towards finding a happy stalemate. Even after the holdout ends, often the player finds himself resenting the organization, which only creates more problems. Not so, however, with the Detroit Red Wings and recently signed forward Andreas Athanasiou, according to Craig Custance of The Athletic (subscription required).

The scribe writes that a conference call held earlier this week between Athanasiou, his agent Darren Ferris and Red Wings brass changed everything and was not just the critical step that helped end the stalemate, but helped show the 23-year-old center that the team really wanted him to return to the team, while the Red Wings understood Athanasiou’s reasons for asking for a trade.

“The philosophical stuff that was causing the desire to be traded was addressed,” Athanasiou’s agent Darren Ferris said. “I really think that call turned the bus around.”

After that phone call, the wheels of progress began to churn and a deal began to be chiseled out. Custance writes that Ferris said while only a one-year deal was struck, Athanasiou plans to prove himself to the Red Wings in hopes of getting a long-term deal with them for next year — in Detroit. Ferris says he wants to stay there.

  • Mitch Melnick of The Athletic writes his Good, Bad and Ugly column about the Montreal Canadiens 6-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks last night, pointing fingers to Paul Byron and Victor Mete as the team’s top players lately. While that was the good, Melnick points out how bad that is too if those two are your best players. The 19-year-old Mete, who no one expected to make the Canadiens’ roster this year, has thrived on the team’s defense in his rookie campaign, while Byron is a 28-year old, whose best season saw him score 22 goals last year. Neither was expected to make a major impact. Catch all of Melnick’s commentary as it’s a good read.
  • Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press writes that veteran defenseman Niklas Kronwall tried stem-cell treatment for his bad knee. The 36-year-old blueliner revealed the information today after having played in his 800th career NHL game yesterday. He has been playing on a permanently damaged knee for the past two years and has been told that surgery would not help him. St. James writes that Kronwall wouldn’t go into specifics about what procedure he had undergone. “It’s a long process,” he said. “It is for another time to discuss.”
  • Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, recently downgraded to the team’s fourth line, was quite positive about his demotion and has learned a lot from veteran Matt Martin, tweets Kristen Shilton of TSN. “You just want to go out there and help the team win,” Marner said. “If you don’t, then just be the guy on the bench that’s staying positive and helping the guys out. That’s what I’ve learned from Marty.”
  • CapFriendly tweets that the site has confirmed that Boston Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid has gone on LITR. The move gives the Bruins a $2.75MM salary relief pool. Boston can now exceed the cap by $2,654,209.

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