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Michal Kempny

Michal Kempny Signs In Czechia

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When Seattle ran defenseman Michal Kempny through unconditional waivers to terminate his contract, it seemed reasonable to think that the veteran had his next destination figured out already.  That is indeed the case as Sparta Praha of the Czech Extraliga announced that they’ve signed Kempny to a two-year deal plus an option.

The 32-year-old split last season between Washington and their AHL affiliate in Hershey.  He got into 15 games with the Capitals where he picked up a goal and an assist but logged less than 16 minutes a night, his lowest ATOI since his rookie year back in 2016-27.  Kempny was a bit more productive in 24 minor league contests, recording seven assists.

A veteran of 247 career NHL regular season games, that was enough to help Kempny land a one-way deal from the Kraken this past summer, albeit at the league minimum.  However, he suffered a concussion in his season preseason game and cleared waivers at the end of training camp which saw him then sent to Coachella Valley.

Instead of sticking around there in the hopes of getting recalled at some point, Kempny has instead decided to head home.  The term of this contract makes it unlikely that he’ll return to the NHL down the road but if it is the end of the line for him at the top level, he still had a pretty successful career, playing in five NHL seasons which isn’t too bad for an undrafted player.

Andrej Sustr And Michal Kempny Clear Waivers

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Saturday: Sustr has cleared waivers, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports.  No one was placed on waivers today.

Friday: With Jon Merrill set to get back into the Minnesota Wild lineup, the team has placed Andrej Sustr on waivers. Michal Kempny, who was placed on unconditional waivers yesterday, has cleared and will have his contract terminated.

Sustr, 31, hasn’t even played a game yet for the Wild, but is no longer even needed for insurance purposes. Merrill is expected to take Alex Goligoski’s spot in the lineup tomorrow, after the veteran defenseman played in his 1,000th game yesterday. Goligoski will become the player that rotates in when needed, and Sustr can report to the minor leagues.

That is, of course, if he clears waivers, which isn’t necessarily guaranteed. Just last season he was claimed by the Anaheim Ducks when the Tampa Bay Lightning tried to sneak him through, and he ended up playing in 23 games down the stretch. The 6’7″ behemoth has played in 361 regular season NHL games, and is a useful veteran to have on the roster as a seventh option.

For teams that might be dealing with injuries on the back end, Sustr and his one-year, two-way contract might not be a bad option. Still, he doesn’t offer much upside, so if he slips through the Wild will be able to keep him in the organization as an injury replacement. Sustr played in the minor leagues without complaint last season, registering 12 points in 25 games for the Syracuse Crunch. Because the team has designated him for assignment already, they’ll be able to activate Merrill even before his waivers resolve tomorrow afternoon.

Michal Kempny Placed On Unconditional Waivers

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Playing for the Coachella Valley Firebirds of the AHL is apparently not what Michal Kempny had in mind when he signed a one-year, one-way contract with the Seattle Kraken. The defenseman is on unconditional waivers for the purpose of a contract termination, opening him up to sign somewhere else.

That usually means a player is going overseas, though Kempny would be eligible to sign a new deal with any other NHL team. The 32-year-old defenseman spent most of last season in the minor leagues as well, playing 24 games for the Hershey Bears and just 15 for the Washington Capitals.

Remembered as one of the key pieces that the Capitals acquired in 2018 en route to their Stanley Cup championship, Kempny has never seemed to fully recover from the Achilles surgery he had in 2020. That was preceded by surgery to repair a torn hamstring in 2019, an injury history that has robbed any chance of seeing him play at that high level again.

If this is it for his NHL career, he’ll finish with 247 games in the league and 63 regular season points. The undrafted Czech-born defender became a star overseas before signing with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2016, and reached his peak with that short run with the Capitals. His best season – the year after winning the Cup – Kempny had 25 points in 71 games while averaging more than 19 minutes a night in Washington.

Seattle Kraken Sign Michal Kempny

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July 25: Seattle has officially announced the contract, adding Kempny to the organization.

July 24: The Seattle Kraken have added another player, signing defenseman Michal Kempny to a one-year, one-way $750K deal, according to CapFriendly.

Kempny, 31, won the Stanley Cup in 2018 with the Washington Capitals, playing a decently-sized role on their veteran defense. Since that point, Kempny has struggled in larger roles and fallen down the depth chart in Washington, to the point where he split time between the Capitals and their AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears, in 2021-22.

The 31-year-old native of Czechia is an undrafted player who once looked like a potential middle-of-the-lineup NHL defenseman. Nowadays, though, he’s more of a depth player, and he’ll likely battle with Cale Fleury and Gustav Olofsson for the seventh defenseman slot in Kraken training camp. In Washington this year, Kempny skated in 15 games and notched two points, playing just under 16 minutes of ice time per game and just over a minute on the penalty kill. In the AHL, Kempny was able to handle a larger role and acted as the Bears’ number-one defenseman in the games he played. In Hershey, Kempny led the Bears in time-on-ice per game and saw significant minutes on their penalty kill.

In Seattle, Kempny will either win a training-camp battle and make the opening night roster, or the Kraken will hope he clears waivers and is able to be sent to their AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds. If the latter scenario comes about, Kempny will likely play as a top-pairing defenseman in the AHL and be one of the team’s first call-ups if injuries hit their blueline. At a $750k cap hit, Kempny is a wise signing for a Kraken team looking to improve upon a dismal first season.

Two Washington Capitals Defensemen Head To World Championship

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A pair of Washington Capitals defensemen are heading to Helsinki and Tampere, Finland, to participate in the 2022 IIHF World Championship. Youngster Martin Fehervary is joining Team Slovakia in Group A in Helsinki, while Michal Kempny will head to Team Czechia in Group B in Tampere.

Fehervary immediately becomes the only Slovak defenseman affiliated with an NHL team. While the team does also have projected 2022 top-five draft choice Simon Nemec, the team’s blue line is largely constructed of players from the Czech and Slovak Extraligas. Slovakia is off to a 1-1 start after defeating France 4-2 and losing to Germany 2-1. Their next game is tomorrow against the Canadians, a tough test for this squad.

The 22-year-old, who Washington selected 46th overall in 2018, forced his way into a full-time NHL role this season for the first time. Playing in 79 games, Fehervary worked his way up to the team’s top pairing alongside John Carlson, showing he could play against top competition. While neither his point totals (eight goals, nine assists, 17 points) nor his defensive metrics were particularly impressive, he did log some penalty-killing minutes as well and showed vast potential for improvement. The two-way defender will look at this tournament as a chance to continue his development on the international stage.

Kempny, now 31, got into only 15 games with the Capitals this season after missing all of 2020-21 with an injury to his Achilles tendon. He never found his way back into the lineup full-time, garnering a goal and assist in those 15 games, and spent 24 games with the AHL’s Hershey Bears. He will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. He’ll join a Czech defense core highlighted by NHLers Filip Hronek, Radim Simek, and another projected top pick in 2022 in David Jiricek. Like the Slovaks, the Czechs have also split their opening games at the tournament, defeating Great Britain 5-1 before losing to Sweden 5-3.

Washington Capitals Announce COVID Absences

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The Washington Capitals have made a number of transactions in response to several players entering the COVID protocol. The team has announced that Daniel Sprong, Justin Schultz, Nick Jensen, Vitek Vanecek, Dennis Cholowski, and Martin Fehervary are all unavailable due to COVID protocol. Pheonix Copley and Michal Kempny have been recalled to the active roster, while Lucas Johansen, Alex Alexeyev, and Brett Leason have all been assigned to the taxi squad.

The Capitals are scheduled to play on Wednesday night against the Nashville Predators, but now are now without a good chunk of their roster. Evgeni Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstrom were on the ice for practice, according to J.J. Regan of NBCS Washington, a good sign that they will be eligible to return for the upcoming game.

With the COVID absences continuing across the league, however, the schedule is certainly not written in ink. The Capitals, like any other team, will have to wait and see whether their upcoming games are affected.

14 Players Clear Waivers

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Sunday: Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that all 14 names from yesterday have cleared waivers.

Saturday: As expected, it’s another busy day on the waiver wire with opening rosters being submitted to the NHL on Monday.  Chris Johnston of the Toronto Star and TSN reports (Twitter links) that the following 14 players are on waivers today:

D John Moore (BOS)
F Chris Wagner (BOS)
F Byron Froese (CGY)
F Justin Kirkland (CGY)
G Calvin Pickard (DET)
D Thomas Hickey (NYI)
F Richard Panik (NYI)
F Anthony Angello (PIT)
F Dylan Gambrell (SJ)
F Logan Brown (STL)
F Mackenzie MacEachern (STL)
D Alex Biega (TOR)
F Kurtis Gabriel (TOR)
D Michal Kempny (WSH)

As expected, today’s list is a little more interesting as teams get closer to making their final cuts with more notable players.  Several veterans are on the wire today, headlined by Kempny and Moore on the back end.  Both players are coming off injury-plagued seasons (Achilles for Kempny, hip for Moore) and could benefit from some regular action in the minors to get back into playing shape.  If they clear, Washington and Boston would only receive $1.125MM in cap relief; Kempny carries a $2.5MM AAV for this season while Moore is at $2.75MM for the next two seasons.

Up front, Panik and Wagner are a pair of veterans that have considerable NHL experience.  Panik split last season between the Capitals and Red Wings, picking up 13 points in 48 games.  Detroit is retaining half of his $2.75MM AAV, meaning that if he was claimed, the team that picks him up would only be carrying him at $1.375MM.  Wagner is in the second season of a three-year deal with a $1.35MM AAV and while his production tumbled last season to just five points in 41 games with the Bruins, he has been one of the more physical players in the league in recent years.  Again, if they clear, those teams would only get $1.125MM in cap space.

Brown’s stint with his hometown team didn’t go particularly well evidently with him being on waivers so quickly.  As part of the trade from Ottawa, the Senators will send a fourth-round pick to the Blues if the 2016 first-round pick doesn’t play in 30 games with St. Louis.  All of a sudden, that pick looks a lot likelier to transfer.

Among the other forwards, Angello and Gambrell are somewhat interesting as well.  Angello played in 19 games on the fourth line with the Penguins last season, picking up four points along with 51 hits and actually carries a cap hit that’s $25K below the league minimum which could be appealing to cap-strapped teams.  As for Gambrell, he has played in 99 games with the Sharks over the last two seasons and logged over 16 minutes a game for them last season.  He was a highly-speculated candidate to be selected by Seattle in expansion although they went with Alexander True instead.  Gambrell makes $1.1MM this season and is controllable through arbitration through 2024.

Injury Notes: Zary, Samberg, Kempny

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Connor Zary, one of the players who found immediate success in the AHL last season despite being too young to normally play there, had a good news-bad news kind of day. The good news is that he won’t require surgery on the ankle he injured this week, the bad news is that he did suffer a fracture in it and will be out on a week-to-week basis.

If you wondered how the Flames are going to add more scoring punch in the years to come, the answer may be Zary, the 24th overall pick from 2020. The 19-year-old center had seven points in nine games with the Stockton Heat before the WHL started up again, and then went back to the Kamloops Blazers to record 24 points in just 15 games down the stretch. This time around, Zary won’t be forced back to the junior level when he returns. He’ll turn 20 tomorrow, meaning he is now eligible for the AHL this season and can report right to the Heat after recovering from this injury.

  • Speaking of AHL players on the cusp of a roster spot, Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dylan Samberg has lost any chance of breaking camp with the NHL team after suffering a high ankle sprain. The young defenseman will be out six to eight weeks, according to GM Kevin Cheveldayoff, who spoke to reporters including Murat Ates of The Athletic today. Given the newcomers to the Jets blue line Samberg likely still had only an outside shot of landing an NHL spot to start the season, but now he’ll be playing catchup all season to try and get back on the strong development path he has shown thus far. The 22-year-old second-round pick was a star at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, and fit right in at the AHL level in 2020-21.
  • Michal Kempny is finally pain-free after a brutal two-year stretch of injuries. The Washington Capitals defenseman confirmed to reporters including Samantha Pell of the Washington Post that all three of his recent injuries–a torn hamstring in 2019, torn Achilles in 2020 and MCL sprain in 2021–were to his left leg. Incredibly, that MCL sprain that happened last season came when a member of the Hershey Bears ice crew collided with him during his conditioning stint. Kempny ended up playing just two games during the 2020-21 campaign, both at the AHL level, but is ready to resume his career with a Capitals team that he played so well for during the 2018 Stanley Cup run.

Snapshots: Kempny, Dach, Danforth

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The Washington Capitals have sent Michal Kempny to the AHL Hershey Bears on a long-term injury conditioning stint, suggesting that the defenseman is closing in on a return. In October, Kempny underwent surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon suffered in offseason training and was given a six to eight-month recovery timeline. He has been skating with the Capitals for the last little while, but it was still unclear if he would actually play this season.

A conditioning stint would indicate that the 30-year-old Kempny may actually be able to play for Washington, at least once the playoffs start. The team does not have the cap space to activate him from LTIR right now, but that issue would go away in the postseason when the salary cap ceiling is lifted. Where he fits into the lineup at this point isn’t clear, especially coming off such a long injury, but adding depth at the position for the playoffs is never a bad thing.

  • Speaking of coming off a long injury, Chicago Blackhawks’ Kirby Dach won’t play again this season after reaggravating the problem in his wrist. Dach “continues to have some post-operative discomfort” according to team physician Dr. Michael Terry and he will be held out the final three games of the year. The 20-year old forward didn’t make his season debut until March 27, but that was much earlier than his initial timeline suggested. The team didn’t hold him back, letting Dach play more than 20 minutes in each of his first two games of the year. While there’s no guarantee this situation could have been avoided, it is a frustrating end to a disappointing season for the young forward. After scoring 23 points in 64 games as a rookie, Dach will finish this year with two goals and 10 points in 18 games.
  • Interested in seeing what all the fuss is about with new Columbus Blue Jackets forward Justin Danforth? Tune into the IIHF World Championship later this month, where Danforth is expected to represent Canada according to Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch. The undrafted 28-year-old signed his first NHL deal just a few days ago after three dominant seasons overseas. Danforth recorded 23 goals and 55 games in the KHL and will get to test his skills alongside some other NHL players at the tournament.

Michal Kempny Undergoes Achilles Surgery, Capitals Re-Sign Dillon

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The Washington Capitals offseason has started off poorly, with the team announcing today that Michal Kempny has suffered an Achilles tendon injury. The defenseman has undergone surgery and is expected to miss six to eight months. Kempny suffered the injury during his offseason training in the Czech Republic.

This is brutal news for Kempny, who spent all of last season trying to get back to full-strength after surgery to repair a torn hamstring in April 2019. The fleet-footed defenseman was only able to record 18 points in 58 games and just didn’t make the same impact he had the year prior. Now with another long rehab in front of him, he’ll have to hope that he can get back during the 2020-21 season at all.

Perhaps on cue however, the Capitals have re-signed Brenden Dillon to a new four-year contract with an average annual value of $3.9MM. Dillon was scheduled for unrestricted free agency on Friday and the Capitals had been reportedly trying to move some money out in order to fit his salary in. With Kempny likely headed for long-term injured reserve, that flexibility is now available without trading out an asset.

Still, given the season isn’t set to start until January, Kempny could be back at some point and taken of LTIR. That means the Capitals still can’t go overboard in free agency and are still in a rather precarious salary cap position. Radko Gudas, who was the team’s other pending UFA defenseman, is expected to reach free agency.

Dillon, 29, came to the Capitals in a February trade with the San Jose Sharks that saw two relatively high draft picks go the other way. After using that much draft capital to acquire him and seeing him fit in so well, it made sense for Washington to try and retain Dillon’s services this offseason.

Though he will never be expected to put up big offensive numbers, the veteran defenseman has shown an ability to skate beside some of the league’s best and lock down his own end. His possession numbers have always been strong and he brings a physical element that is becoming rarer in the NHL.

Even with Dillon back in the fold, the Capitals could have to rely more heavily on their young prospect pipeline this season. Several high draft picks are pushing for an opportunity at the NHL level and with Kempny headed for a long stint on the injured list, it may just be available.

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