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Matthew Tkachuk

Snapshots: Canadiens Staff Changes, Vladar, Tkachuk

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The Montreal Canadiens aren’t done re-shaping their organization under the new management of Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes. Today the Canadiens announced that longtime video coach Mario Leblanc is stepping down from his role, and the video coach of the AHL Laval Rocket, Daniel Harvey, has been promoted to Leblanc’s former role. The Canadiens did also say that Leblanc would “remain involved” in the organization, continuing to work within the scope of hockey operations. His specific responsibilities are unclear. Leblanc has worked in the role of video coach for a quarter of a century and is one of the longest-tenured faces in their organization.

In a move that came a bit more quietly, former Florida Panthers scout Billy Ryan was named Director of Player Evaluation in Montreal, as reported by Arpon Basu and Marc-Antoine Godin of The Athletic. (subscription link) Ryan has worked as an amateur scout for the Panthers since 2015-16. Per Basu and Godin’s reporting, Ryan ran the Panthers’ 2020 draft when they were between scouting directors, guiding them to the selections of center Anton Lundell 12th overall and current Canadiens prospect Emil Heineman in the second round.

Now, for some other notes from across the NHL:

  • Calgary Flames goalie Daniel Vladar has changed representation. Agent Dan Milstein announced today that Vladar is now being represented by his agency, Gold Star Hockey. Vladar will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights next season, and this agency change could be Vladar’s way of preparing for next summer. Vladar performed decently well in his 23-game stint as Jacob Markstrom’s backup, posting a .906 save percentage and 2.75 goals-against-average.
  • Matthew Tkachuk ended up traded to the Florida Panthers, but that trade didn’t come without attempts from other teams to secure his services. One of those teams, per Andy Strickland of Bally Sports Midwest, is the New York Islanders. Strickland reports that the Islanders showed “significant interest” in Tkachuk but ultimately could not or did not complete a deal. The Islanders have been highly secretive in recent years when it comes to their offseason plans, something that should be expected of any team run by legendary GM Lou Lamoriello. But if his reported interest in Tkachuk is any indication, the Islanders are going hunting for a big-name addition this summer. Could free agent center Nazem Kadri be in their plans?

Snapshots: Texier, Panthers, Devils, Wise

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After missing the end of last season due to personal reasons, Blue Jackets forward Alexandre Texier is expected to be back with the team in training camp, GM Jarmo Kekalainen indicated in a press conference today (video link).  The 22-year-old had a strong first half of the season, picking up 20 points (a new career-high) in 36 games before suffering a fractured finger in late January and then being granted an indefinite leave of absence back in March.  Texier will be entering the final year of his contract next season and will be a restricted free agent next summer with a qualifying offer of $1.75MM so there will be a lot riding on his performance in 2022-23.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • The Panthers are set to hire Jamie Kompon as an assistant coach, reports Fox Sports Midwest’s Andy Strickland (Twitter link). The 55-year-old is no stranger to working behind an NHL bench having been an NHL assistant for all but two years dating back to 1997; those two years when he wasn’t in the NHL came when he was the head coach of WHL Portland.  Kompon had spent the last six seasons with Winnipeg, working with Paul Maurice for most of that time so Maurice will have someone he’s quite familiar with as he embarks on his first season at the helm in Florida.
  • The Devils were among the teams aggressively pursuing Matthew Tkachuk before he was eventually traded to Florida late Friday, notes TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie (Twitter link). New Jersey was expected to once again make a big splash this summer a year after handing out the biggest UFA contract to Dougie Hamilton but instead, they’ve largely opted to go with trades to add to their roster, making a trio of deals so far while Ondrej Palat received a five-year contract in free agency.
  • Blackhawks prospect Jake Wise has opted to return to Ohio State for his fifth and final college season, relays Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times. As a result, Chicago will retain the rights to the 22-year-old center.  Wise, a 2018 third-round selection, had more points with Ohio State last season (28) than his first three with Boston University combined (17), and a similarly strong showing in 2022-23 might be enough to help him earn an entry-level deal.

Notes From The Calgary-Florida Trade

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Friday’s trade that saw the Flames send winger Matthew Tkachuk to Florida along with a 2025 conditional fourth-round pick for Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt, and a lottery-protected 2025 first-round pick certainly was a blockbuster one that dramatically shakes things up for both teams.  Here are some additional news and notes from the swap.

  • The swap was completed as a sign-and-trade which meant Tkachuk re-signed with Calgary before being traded to Florida. That means that Florida doesn’t get the second buyout window that they would have received had Tkachuk signed with the Panthers.  That said, had Florida signed him, they’d have been limited to a seven-year term because he wasn’t on their reserve list at the trade deadline.  Calgary will still get their second buyout window once RFAs Matthew Phillips, Andrew Mangiapane, and Oliver Kylington re-sign.
  • Per CapFriendly (Twitter link), the condition on the fourth-round pick that Florida is receiving is tied to the lottery protections on the 2025 first-round selection. If the Panthers’ pick in 2025 is in the lottery and thus doesn’t convey until 2026, the fourth-round pick will also be moved to 2026.
  • According to TSN’s StatsCentre (Twitter link), this swap is only the second one in NHL history that sees a pair of 100-point players from the previous season being traded for each other. The other was the move that saw Wayne Gretzky go to Los Angeles back in 1988 with Jimmy Carson going to Edmonton as part of the swap.
  • Prior to the trade, the Panthers had held extension talks with Huberdeau, reports George Richards of Florida Hockey Now. There had been an expectation he’d sign a long-term agreement close to the $10MM that Aleksander Barkov is receiving next season as his new deal kicks in but clearly, GM Bill Zito preferred to allocate that money to Tkachuk instead.

Florida Panthers Acquire, Extend Matthew Tkachuk

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The Florida Panthers and Calgary Flames have completed a massive, blockbuster trade.

The teams have each announced the swap: Matthew Tkachuk and a conditional fourth-round pick are going to the Florida Panthers, while Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt, and a lottery-protected 2025 first-round pick will head to Calgary.

With the trade completed, the Panthers announced that Tkachuk has agreed to an eight-year extension carrying a $9.5MM average annual value. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that the breakdown of Tkachuk’s contract each season is uniform – a base salary of $1MM and a signing bonus of $8.5MM.

That settles the Tkachuk contract situation and closes off any talk of Tkachuk joining the St. Louis Blues, which had been heavily rumored in the days leading up to this trade.

Overall, this is the sort of trade that we just don’t see all that often. It involves three superstar players, two wingers who crossed the 100-point threshold last season and one late-blooming defenseman who has blossomed into a true top-pairing, all-situations minutes-eater. A trade involving three stars doesn’t happen very often, making this swap all the more interesting to unpack.

For the Flames, the rationale for making this deal was quite simple. The team had barely any time to recover from the loss of Johnny Gaudreau to the Columbus Blue Jackets before Tkachuk informed them of his intentions to test free agency in a year’s time. GM Brad Treliving was backed into a corner, and he needed to find a way to revive his team’s competitive prospects despite his leverage decreasing and assets’ values dwindling. This trade is Treliving’s way of jump-starting the Flames’ hopes for next season after a nightmarish start to their offseason.

One could very easily argue that, on a player-for-player basis, the Flames got significantly better through this trade. Yes, Tkachuk is a superstar, combining incredible skill with physicality and peskiness to provide a package of tools few players can rival. On a line with Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm, Tkachuk smashed past his career highs in 2021-22, scoring 42 goals and 104 points. But in exchange for Tkachuk, the Flames are getting a player who also blew past his career highs and reached new heights in production – Huberdeau. In 80 games, Huberdeau scored 30 goals and 115 points, helping power a Panthers offense that scored at will. And it’s not just offense with him either, Huberdeau also saw nearly two minutes of short-handed ice time per game and has made great strides in refining his 200-foot game.

But that’s not all the Flames are getting. They’re also receiving Mackenzie Weegar, a 28-year-old former seventh-round pick who’s quickly risen to be one of the most reliable, impactful, underrated two-way defensemen in hockey. Weegar scored 44 points this season and averaged 2:46 in short-handed ice-time per game. When Aaron Ekblad was struggling to stay in the lineup, Weegar became a true number-one defenseman on the best regular-season team in hockey, a true feat. It’s fair to call Weegar a number-one defenseman and he should instantly be expected to slot into that role on an already talented Flames blueline.

In addition to Weegar, the Flames are getting prospect center, Schwindt. Schwindt is 21 years old and was drafted 81st overall at the 2019 draft. The former Mississauga Steelheads star has adjusted well to professional hockey, and had 40 points in 70 games as a rookie in the AHL. Schwindt represents the future-oriented part of the return, along with the lottery-protected 2025 first-round pick the Flames also received from the Panthers.

So, for Calgary, this trade works on two levels. On one level, it helps them recover from the loss of Gaudreau and compete for a Stanley Cup next season. They are adding an MVP-level, line-driving, 100-plus point winger to replace their lost 100-point winger. They’re also adding a minute-munching, all-situations number-one defenseman as well. Instantly, their team is better. They also receive a solid prospect to develop at their new Calgary-based AHL affiliate, and a nice first-round pick as well.

The true beauty of this trade for Calgary, though, is on its second level. See, this trade gives Treliving something that is all too rare in today’s flat cap world: flexibility. Let’s say, for whatever reason, Huberdeau and Weegar aren’t great fits. The team could struggle out the gate, and it could become clear that expecting the 2022-23 Flames to compete for a Stanley Cup is unrealistic. Well, if that ends up happening, Treliving will have Huberdeau and Weegar on expiring contracts. He will be able to immediately pivot to a rebuilding planfor his club and jump-start it with two players who will likely be the most coveted assets on the deadline trade market.

Treliving would be able to, essentially, orchestrate an auction for Huberdeau and Weegar’s services next season and accumulate a significant stockpile of draft picks and prospects in the process. When added on to the prospect and draft pick already received in this deal, it’s not a bad way to begin an organizational reset, especially when it comes at the cost of a player who had already communicated his intentions to leave in free agency. So for Treliving, this trade gives him and the entire Flames organization the flexibility to be able to effectively pursue either a cup-or-bust competitive window or a future-oriented reset.

Yes, there is some risk for the Flames, there’s no doubt about that. If a rebuild is, in fact, off the table, then adding two players with just a single year of team control each as the main return for Tkachuk is a gamble. If Weegar and Huberdeau both leave as free agents next summer, and the Flames don’t win a Stanley Cup, the initial good feelings generated from this trade could evaporate. But for a Calgary team that badly needed optimism and direction after such a bad month, this is the sort of gamble they’re prepared to make.

From the Panthers’ side of the equation, the motivations behind making this trade are a bit less immediately clear. This is a team that just won the President’s Trophy, so swapping one superstar winger for another at the cost of a top-pairing defenseman might not seem like the wisest choice, especially when they need to surrender a talented prospect and a first-rounder for their trouble. But one look at the Panthers’ cap sheet can give a bit more insight into why GM Bill Zito and the Panthers made this swap.

With major cap hits for Aleksander Barkov, Sergei Bobrovsky, Ekblad, and Sam Reinhart already on the books, the Panthers were looking at a very realistic scenario that either Huberdeau, Weegar, or even both would leave as free agents next summer. That was seen as a necessary risk for a team intent on winning the Stanley Cup, of course, but Zito seemingly decided that that risk was too much to bear. So, he decided to trade both Huberdeau and Weegar at a time when they were still extremely valuable assets in order to secure a younger superstar winger who he can lock into a long-term deal.

With Weegar gone and Tkachuk swapped for Huberdeau, it’s difficult to say that the Panthers are an improved team for next season. But if this trade as well as the departure of interim head coach Andrew Brunette tells us anything, it’s that the Panthers were extremely displeased with their second-round loss at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Panthers clearly believe that they need a change in how their group plays, to play with more physicality, fire, and passion. There are few 100-point wingers who offer those three attributes more plentifully than Tkachuk, and even at this steep price, it’s easy to understand why Zito wanted him in Sunrise. If his presence in the lineup and locker room can help augment their team’s identity, it’ll be assets well spent.

This trade will be an extremely interesting one to track, and the storylines it creates could dominate the hockey headlines for months to come. Tkachuk is now in the same division as his brother, Brady, who captains the Ottawa Senators. The Flames have recently had to deal with questions over their ability to retain star players, and they’ve now added two star players who will, in just a year’s time, be free agents. Will the Flames be able to keep them? Will the new-look Flames be as good as last year’s club? Will Zito’s no-holds-barred chase of superstar talent, at the cost of the team’s first-round picks for the next three seasons, result in a Stanley Cup victory for the Panthers?

Those are definitely questions to ponder, and it’ll be extremely interesting to see how they end up answered.

Sportsnet’s Eric Francis was first on the trade. Pictures courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Poll: Who Does Matthew Tkachuk Get Traded To?

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Calgary Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk’s arbitration date on August 11 looms, but we know now that it’s only a matter of time before he suits up for another NHL team. Tkachuk told the Flames this week that he won’t re-sign long-term, either forcing a trade now or letting him walk for nothing as an unrestricted free agent next summer. With teams having spent a lot already during the free agency period, though, does a good Tkachuk trade exist with a team that he’s willing to stay with?

It’s a rarity that a restricted free agent is able to force a change of scenery like this, especially one of Tkachuk’s caliber. Easily one of the top wingers in the league (and top forwards in general), his unique fiery brand and 100+ point scoring potential is an incredibly valuable package. He finished the 2021-22 campaign with 42 goals, 62 points, and 104 points, all career highs, and received votes for the Hart and Selke Trophies.

He’ll be on his way out of Calgary, though, joining ex-teammate Johnny Gaudreau as marquee players to leave the team this summer. Having grown up in St. Louis, and with his father Keith still working for the team, a potential union between the Blues and Tkachuk has been a long-standing open secret. The Blues have been reported to be in talks with Calgary about Tkachuk, and it was also reported that St. Louis was on the small list of teams Tkachuk would accept a trade to.

While the report was contested and isn’t verified, Vegas, Florida, Nashville, and Dallas were also all teams that Tkachuk would sign a long-term deal with. While the cap situation for most of those teams isn’t favorable, Nashville and Dallas do have some more wiggle room than the rest in terms of tradeable assets that would head the other way.

So, PHR readers — where does Tkachuk end up to begin the 2021-22 season? Does he finally head home to St. Louis, does a dark horse team sweep him up, or is the relationship between him and Calgary somehow salvaged?

Mobile users, click here to vote!

Matthew Tkachuk Tells Flames He Won’t Sign Long-Term

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6:12 pm: Sportsnet’s Eric Francis contested the reported list of teams that Tkachuk will sign a long-term extension with, saying the trade list of St. Louis, Vegas, Florida, Nashville, and Dallas is “not accurate”.

1:16 pm: What has been apparent for a while is now official, as Matthew Tkachuk has told the Calgary Flames that he will not sign a long-term contract, according to Jeremy Rutherford and Hailey Salvian of The Athletic. The report indicates that a trade is “likely to happen soon” and that Tkachuk has provided the team with a list of where he would agree to a long-term extension.

According to The Athletic, that list includes the St. Louis Blues, Vegas Golden Knights, Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators, and Dallas Stars, with the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers also expressing interest in the past.

The Flames filed for salary arbitration earlier this week, taking the threat of an offer sheet off the table and giving them some time to potentially work out an extension, or trade the restricted free agent before he accepted his $9.0MM qualifying offer. It appears to be the latter, as an arbitration award would only take Tkachuk directly to unrestricted free agency a year from now, allowing him to take his services wherever he wanted without the Flames receiving anything in return.

After losing Johnny Gaudreau last week, Calgary must cash in the Tkachuk chip before they run out of time. While that doesn’t necessarily need to be right now, allowing Tkachuk to work out a long-term deal with an acquiring club would likely maximize the return for the Flames.

Like Gaudreau, Tkachuk is coming off a massive career-best season, where he notched 42 goals and 104 points while playing in all 82 games. He received Hart and Selke trophy votes, was named a second-team All-Star, and finished eighth in league scoring. With Tkachuk part of arguably the best line in the NHL alongside Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm, the Flames outscored teams 108-49 with him on the ice at even-strength.

Still just 24, he is a year away from unrestricted free agency due to how quickly he entered the NHL. After being the sixth-overall pick in 2016, he jumped right into the league and scored 48 points as a rookie. Now through six seasons, he has 152 goals and 382 points in 431 games, with nearly 600 hits.

This is the kind of franchise-altering talent that almost never gets to the open market and one that is worth mortgaging some of your future for in a trade package. Tkachuk’s overall impact on the game can be felt in several ways, and he could help a contender looking for the edge, or a younger squad hoping to add some rocket fuel to their rebuild.

Where this leaves the Flames on that spectrum isn’t exactly clear. If they do part ways with Gaudreau and Tkachuk in the span of a few weeks, the entire core of their offensive attack has essentially disappeared. While Lindholm is an excellent player on an outstanding contract, Blake Coleman adds versatility and experience to the middle-six, and Andrew Mangiapane has expressed a desire to be part of the long-term solution, it’s hard to know if that is really enough to stay competitive.

A decision that front should inform any potential return, and whether the Flames would then dive into what’s left in free agency to try and give themselves a boost for next season. With only Coleman, Rasmus Andersson, and Jacob Markstrom signed for more than two years, there would at least be an opportunity for a rebuild, if the team wanted. But with so many complementary pieces in place on reasonable deals, it’s hard to see general manager Brad Treliving tearing it down at this point.

Either way, while Flames fans will be frustrated with Tkachuk’s unwillingness to stay, they can at least be happy that he told them early enough to still land a substantial trade package in return.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Snapshots: Tkachuk, Geekie, Kravtsov, Mikheyev

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In what has so far shaped up to be a nightmarish offseason for the Calgary Flames, there could be another high-profile departure yet to come. Matthew Tkachuk, the team’s remaining superstar winger, is headed for an arbitration battle with the Flames, as we found out yesterday. They may not even reach that point, though. Eric Francis of Sportsnet believes that the Flames and Tkachuk are “parting ways,” and that the club elected to pursue arbitration in order to “buy more time” to find an appropriate exit plan. Francis added on that he thinks the situation “will be wrapped up within the week,” and if he’s right the deal would cement this July as one of the most transformative months in Flames history.

The decision to potentially trade Tkachuk comes thanks to the reality of his contract situation. Tkachuk is in a position to hit unrestricted free agency next summer and looks poised to do so. The Flames have had every opportunity to extend Tkachuk on a long-term extension, and yet have failed to secure his signature on a deal to this point, indicating that Tkachuk’s heart may not be in Calgary long-term, just like Gaudreau. As a result, the Flames might be motivated to move Tkachuk now in order to avoid a situation where the team allows 100-point wingers to leave in free agency in two consecutive offseasons. The Flames asking price, should they be open to a Tkachuk trade, is likely to be sky-high, although the lack of cap space league-wide could limit them in their chase to get the largest return package possible.

Now, for some other notes from across the league:

  • Conor Geekie scared quite a few Arizona Coyotes fans early in the team’s development camp when he went down with what looked to be a pretty grisly lower-body injury. Thankfully, though, the injury was not serious, and Geekie confirmed as much today to PHNX’s Craig Morgan. Per Morgan, Geekie “did not elaborate” on the nature of his injury or any timeline for a return to the ice, but he did note that he was still doing cardio and working out his upper body. With his entry-level deal already signed, Geekie has the chance to make the Coyotes’ opening-night roster, so he’ll want to ensure that this upper-body injury is fully recovered by this fall so he can hit the ground running at training camp.
  • There has been some nervousness from people across the NHL regarding Russian players and whether they’ll be able to easily return to North America from offseasons spent in Russia for training camps this fall. For the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks, they won’t need to worry much longer about two of their players. CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal has learned from agent Dan Milstein that the Canucks’ big offseason signing, Ilya Mikheyev, has arrived in North America in order to begin his preparations for the upcoming season. The New York Post’s Mollie Walker has also learned from Milstein that winger Vitali Kravtsov has arrived in New York City in advance of training camp.

Calgary Flames File For Salary Arbitration With Matthew Tkachuk

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The Calgary Flames announced via Twitter this evening that they have filed for salary arbitration with star forward and current RFA Matthew Tkachuk ahead of today’s 5:00 pm ET deadline for club-elected salary arbitration. Tkachuk had declined to file for salary arbitration prior to yesterday’s deadline for player-elected arbitration, with many expecting the Flames would decline to do so as well. Now, the two sides will have until Tkachuk’s hearing to negotiate an agreement on a new contract, otherwise the matter will be put in the hands of an arbitrator.

The decision to elect arbitration is an interesting one from Calgary’s perspective, but could realistically provide them with advantages in the negotiation process with Tkachuk. The main advantages for Calgary, as cited by PuckPedia, are to eliminate the possibility of an offer-sheet and to prevent Tkachuk from unilaterally accepting the $9MM qualifying-offer the Flames previously made in order to retain the forward’s rights. Though an offer-sheet could conceivably solve the negotiation issues for both sides were Calgary to match, it could also come in the form of a deal the Flames would strongly prefer not to make, but still not worth declining and taking the applicable draft picks. Removing Tkachuk’s ability to accept the qualifying offer also provides the Flames with leverage by preventing Tkachuk from simply ending the negotiation with a one-year deal that would take him straight to the UFA market next summer. Now, Calgary can continue negotiations with Tkachuk without the looming threat of another team forcing an offer on them or Tkachuk unilaterally ending it by accepting the qualifying-offer.

Although he elected not to pursue arbitration, there is still benefit to arbitration for Tkachuk. Now, Calgary must file, at the very least, at the $9MM qualifying-offer. Tkachuk will of course file at a higher number and while the arbitrator may rule in his favor, or for Calgary, or at some number in between, he will be guaranteed at least the same $9MM salary next season.

With the departure of fellow star winger Johnny Gaudreau and Tkachuk a UFA after this upcoming season, the Flames have been left in a difficult position with their future. The organization will need to decide if it wishes to continue as a contender and work to replace Gaudreau, or lean towards a rebuild, and if so, what that means for Tkachuk. At the same time, it forces the difficult decision onto Tkachuk, who must decide if he wants to commit to Calgary for the long haul or if he, like Gaudreau, wants to move on. Presumably, negotiations have been taking place and even if they have been amicable, the two sides may have hit an impasse where progress seems impossible. By filing for arbitration, both parties now have a hard and relatively immediate deadline to come to an agreement, which may move the needle.

No date and time is yet known for any specific arbitration hearings, but a schedule is expected shortly. Hearings will run between July 27th and August 11th. Thus, Tkachuk’s 2022-23 contract will be certain no later than August 12th.

Snapshots: Tkachuk, Alberta Hockey Hall Of Fame, DiPietro

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With Johnny Gaudreau’s departure from the Calgary Flames organization, all eyes have turned to superstar Matthew Tkachuk and his future with the team. Currently, Tkachuk sits on the RFA market after unsurprisingly receiving a $9MM qualifying-offer from the Flames last week. Not much update has come since then on the 24-year-old’s situation until now, when it was revealed that Tkachuk declined to file for player-elected arbitration ahead of today’s deadline.

In light of the decision not to file, Flames Nation’s Ryan Pike believes the Flames will not elect arbitration on their end before tomorrow’s 5:00 pm ET deadline for teams to elect. Pike cites the fact that by doing so, the Flames would have to offer in arbitration, at the very least, the $9MM qualifying offer. Even still, the arbitrator in Tkachuk’s case could award a number higher than $9MM, perhaps the number Tkachuk were to file at, making arbitration all the more unpredictable at this point for Calgary. Not filing for arbitration will also keep the offer-sheet avenue open, which could pave the way to a long-term resolution for both player and team.

  • Two familiar names are set to be inducted into the Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame this evening. Former NHL Head Coach Ken Hitchcock and former NHL goaltender and current Columbus Blue Jackets President of Hockey Operations John Davidson will join alongside Cassie Campbell-Pascall, Bill Bucyk, Bob Clark, Dr. Randy Gregg, Jamie Macoun and the 1974-75 Lethbridge Native Sons.
  • According to CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal, the Vancouver Canucks have given goaltender Michael DiPietro and his agent, Darren Ferris, permission to talk with other teams to help facilitate a trade for the goaltender (link). Once a heralded goaltending prospect out of the OHL, DiPietro has yet to live up to the expectations set for him when Vancouver drafted him in the third-round in 2017. The goaltender had a strong 2019-20, his first full pro season, but dealt with injuries and limited playing time in 2020-21. He would rebound in 2021-22, but still hasn’t been able to pull himself back to the blue-chip status he once had. Even if DiPietro could make a full turnaround, he’ll find the net in Vancouver considerably blocked by that of 26-year-old star netminder Thatcher Demko, who is signed through 2025-26. A key distinction with this permission to talk to other teams is not to negotiate a contract, much like Anthony DeAngelo was allowed to do earlier this offseason, but to help find a trade to a destination that will work for DiPietro, with the goaltender having already accepted his qualifying offer yesterday.

24 Players Elect Salary Arbitration

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The National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA) announced that 24 players have filed for player-elected salary arbitration, the deadline for which came this afternoon. This list is not necessarily the final and complete list of players headed for arbitration, with clubs now eligible to elect salary arbitration until tomorrow, July 18th at 5:00 pm ET.

Mason Appleton (WPG)

Ethan Bear (CAR)

Jesper Bratt (NJD)

Lawson Crouse (ARI)

Morgan Geekie (SEA)

Mathieu Joseph (OTT)

Kaapo Kahkonen (SJS)

Kasperi Kapanen (PIT)

Keegan Kolesar (VGK)

Oliver Kylington (CGY)

Maxime Lajoie (CAR)

Steven Lorentz (SJS)

Isac Lundestrom (ANA)

Zack MacEwen (PHI)

Niko Mikkola (STL)

Andrew Mangiapane (CGY)

Matthew Phillips (CGY)

Jesse Puljujarvi (EDM)

Tyce Thompson (NJD)

Yakov Trenin (NSH)

Vitek Vanecek (NJD)

Jake Walman (DET)

Kailer Yamamoto (EDM)

Pavel Zacha (BOS)

Notably out of this list, Mikkola had previously filed for arbitration, but the two sides were able to settle on a one-year, $1.9MM contract that will leave the defenseman an UFA after next season.

A key distinction to add is that any player who has filed for arbitration is no longer eligible to sign an offer sheet, effectively taking the players on this list off the market. Three notable names that did not file for arbitration are Winnipeg Jets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois, Calgary Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk and Columbus Blue Jackets forward Patrik Laine. Though contract talks have been quiet on Dubois and Tkachuck, word of amicable discussions between Laine’s camp and Columbus has been made known. Once tomorrow’s club-elected salary arbitration deadline passes, teams and players will have time to prepare their cases before hearings begin, running from July 27th through August 11th.

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