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Mikkel Boedker

World Cup Notes: Gaborik, Getzlaf, Babcock

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After Marian Gaborik was given a timeline of eight weeks to rehab his leg injury, sustained in Team Europe’s semi-final victory, head coach Ralph Krueger has replaced him with Mikkel Boedker in the lineup. While Boedker can be an effective player and has speed to burn, Krueger admits to Helene Elliott of the LA Times that it’ll be a step down from one of their leaders:

We’re losing some leadership and smarts on the puck that were exemplary.

Gaborik obviously is one of the most important players on Europe, with 933 games and 773 points under his belt in the NHL. The three-time forty-goal man put up his worst season last year while fighting injury, only scoring 12 goals in 54 games. The 34-year old will not be ready for the start of the season, making it even harder to bounce back after the career-worst campaign.

  • Team Canada hit the ice this morning before the first game of the finals versus Team Europe, and every player was present including Ryan Getzlaf, who according to Pierre LeBrun missed practice yesterday. The Ducks forward was given a “maintenance day” in preparation for the three-game series, as he’s battling a few small nagging injuries. Now 31, the big center doesn’t bounce back as easily as he did when he was young, but has still played in 77 games in each of the last three seasons. While he’s a big part of Team Canada, the Ducks are hoping he comes back fully healthy, as a bounce-back year from him and Corey Perry is integral for a successful season.
  • While the talk swirls about the NHL not heading to the Olympics in 2018, especially now that the World Cup has been a success, one influential voice sounds unconvinced. When asked about the difference between the two events, Team Canada head coach Mike Babcock said “The World Cup is great, but it’s not the Olympics. Let’s not get confused.” As Chris Johnston of Sportsnet reports, the Maple Leafs coach would like to see the event spread across two cities so that only night games were played, while having only countries compete.  These changes would make it more like the Olympics, and would seem to be a future plan for the NHL’s tournament. If the league doesn’t go in 2018 (which it doesn’t look likely to), the World Cup will have to become the preeminent international event. Having Team North America and Team Europe prevents it from ever fully replacing the Olympics, despite their success as individual story lines.

Potential 2016-17 Impact Rookies: Puljujarvi, Kempe, Goldobin, Tkachuk

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It’s rare for players to debut in the NHL and make a significant impact for their teams in the same year they are drafted. In 2015-16, just three players selected in the prior June’s draft – Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin – appeared in more than 18 NHL contests as rookies. However, we could see as many as five 2016 draftees all earn regular shifts with their clubs during the 2016-17 season, two of whom appear in this post.

Jesse Puljujarvi (Edmonton) – Expected to go in the top-three of the draft, Puljujarvi surprisingly dropped to #4 after Columbus elected to take C Pierre-Luc Dubois at #3 instead of the Finnish winger. Edmonton happily grabbed Puljujarvi with their choice and this stroke of good fortune may have played a role in the June 29th trade of Taylor Hall to New Jersey for Adam Larsson. Having Puljujarvi in the fold provided Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli the knowledge he had enough depth on the wings to cash in a player of Hall’s caliber to address their weakness on the blue line.

Puljujarvi combines NHL size at 6-foot-3 and 203 pounds with excellent skating ability. He starred for the Finns helping his home country win the gold medal in the World Junior Championships. He also captured the tourney’s MVP award and finished tops among all participants in both assists (12) and points (17).

The Oilers already have one of the top young superstars in the game in MacDavid and saw 2014 first-round pick Leon Draisaitl bust out with a 51-point campaign in 2016-17. Joining that dangerous duo up front is former top overall selection Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Edmonton boasts plenty of talented high-end forwards which virtually assures Puljujarvi will have a chance to skate with some good players. Don’t be surprised if he ends up as a Calder Trophy finalist and the leading scorer among all 2016 draftees.

Adrian Kempe (Los Angeles) – After losing forwards Milan Lucic and Kris Versteeg to free agency and with Dustin Brown’s offense regressing to a level where he has no business in the top-nine, the Kings could turn to Kempe to provide additional scoring. Kempe, the team’s first-round choice in 2014, already has 55 games of pro experience in North America after suiting up this past season for the Kings AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign. The Swedish winger tallied 11 goals and recorded 28 points during the regular season and another four goals and five points in 13 postseason contests.

Since Kempe doesn’t turn 20 until later this month and given he didn’t exactly dominate at the AHL level, it wouldn’t be a bad idea if the Kings sent him back to Ontario to start the 2016-17 campaign and get some more seasoning. But with Kyle Clifford (nine points in 56 games) and Brown (28 points in 82 games) currently expected to hold top-nine spots, according to Roster Resource, Los Angeles might decide they need to inject more offense into the lineup and Kempe could be the source of that offense.

Nikolay Goldobin (San Jose) – The Sharks addressed any need they may have had for a scoring line LW by signing Mikkel Boedker as a free agent this summer. With Tomas Hertl and Patrick Marleau also listed as LW’s on the team’s depth chart, it’s likely the highly skilled Goldobin begins the season with the San Jose Barracudas of the AHL to gain more experience. But in the event of injury, Goldobin could be among the team’s first choices for a promotion to the big club.

Goldobin is said to have an excellent shot and release and is a creative offensive player. He can use some work on his defensive game, as do many young players, which is another reason he might find himself in the AHL to start the 2016-17 campaign. But with Marleau entering the final year of his contract, Goldobin is in line to land a job with the Sharks soon enough; perhaps as early as this year.

Matthew Tkachuk (Calgary) – The Flames already possess several skilled young players, but as mentioned in an earlier installment of this series, if they do have an opening it would be for a scoring line LW with size. Hunter Shinkaruk might get the first crack to fill that role though he doesn’t possess the size the Flames would seem to need. If Shinkaruk isn’t ready for regular NHL action, Tkachuk could be an option for Calgary up front.

Tkachuk, the son of former NHL power forward Keith Tkachuk, was drafted by the Flames with the sixth overall selection of the 2016 draft following an impressive 107-point season with the London Knights of the OHL. While his dad was noted for playing a physical game (2,219 PIM in 1,201 NHL games), as well as being a terrific goal scorer, Matthew is more of a complete, two-way player who is also a good skater with high-end offensive instincts. He helped Team USA to a bronze medal at the 2016 WJC U20 tournament, tallying 11 points in seven contests.

Tkachuk might be better off returning to junior to gain more experience. He will certainly have to prove to the Flames that he is truly ready to play at the NHL level but he has the talent and the skill to provide some offense if he earns a role in Calgary.

 

 

Pacific Division Notes: Coyotes, Daly, Marleau, Goldobin

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After acquiring Dave Bolland and Pavel Datsyuk in separate trades this summer, the Arizona Coyotes could be in a position to conceivably carry nearly $18MM – once Chris Pronger’s $4.935MM cap hit is added – on their salary cap for three players who won’t be suiting up for the this year. All told, the Coyotes will pay out just $1.675 in actual salary for those players (Pronger is set to earn $575K in the final season of a long-term arrangement he originally signed with Philadelphia, while the insurance policy on Bolland’s contract will cover all but $1.1MM once he is placed on LTIR). These maneuverings have allowed Arizona to easily cross the salary cap floor while at the same time limiting the actual salary obligations; not an unimportant factor for a small market, budget team.

In a piece appearing on Today’s Slapshot, Craig Morgan asked NHL deputy commissioner if Arizona’s handling of the salary cap was a growing concern for the league. Surprisingly, Daly indicated the league did not feel the Coyotes were exploiting a “loophole,” in the CBA while still leaving open the possibility the NHL could look to address the matter in future bargaining with the player’s union.

“I would say that it’s a matter that we monitor, like all other areas of the CBA (collective bargaining agreement), and if we believe it starts to be abused in a way that is inconsistent with how the system is designed to work, at that point, we would try to correct it in collective bargaining with the union. I would say we aren’t at that point on this issue — we do not view it as the loophole that‎ some describe it as.”

While most teams utilize their available cap space to sign or trade for players from other organizations, or to extend their own players, Coyotes GM John Chayka is using Arizona’s as a method to add more quality young talent to what is already considered a strong group of prospects. It’s simply good business and soon enough Chayka’s talent-acquisition strategies will start paying off on the ice for the Coyotes.

Elsewhere in the Pacific Division…

  • Patrick Marleau has spent the entirety of his excellent 18-year NHL career with the San Jose Sharks; a career which has seen the forward tally 481 regular season goals and 1,036 points. Marleau’s name has shown up in trade rumors on more than one occasion during his time in the Bay Area, most recently last season, but nothing has ever come of it. Yet, as Joey Alfieri of Pro Hockey Talk writes, the 2016-17 campaign will, in all probability, be the final one of Marleau’s storied Sharks career. As Alfieri points out, Marleau is in the final year of his contract and the team has several younger options on the LW – Mikkel Boedker, Tomas Hertl and Nikolay Goldobin – under team control for the next several seasons. Even if Marleau is willing to take a discount on the $6.66MM he is earning this season, the Sharks are far more likely to prioritize re-signing Brent Burns and Joe Thornton, both of whom are also scheduled to reach free agency next summer.
  • The Calgary Flames recently reached agreement with one of their top players, Sean Monahan, inking the restricted free agent to a monster seven-year deal worth $44.6MM. That’s quite an investment for a player just coming off his ELC but as the Calgary Sun’s Kristen Odland writes, Monahan is already well worth the financial commitment. She points out that he has produced more offense than other pivots comparable in age and who have also recently signed extensions. As good as Monahan is he may not even be the best player on his team. That distinction might belong to winger Johnny Gaudreau, a restricted free agent who remains unsigned. Inevitably the Flames will also get Gaudreau under contract but it will be interesting to see how his contract compares to that of Monahan’s.

Snapshots: Keith Gretzky, Quebec Expansion, Couture

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In an article appearing on Today’s Slapshot – a division of The FanRag Sports Network – Craig Morgan, who also covers Arizona for AZSports.com, discusses several topics that relate in some way to the Coyotes. Interestingly, Morgan writes about Keith Gretzky, who was recently hired as an assistant GM in Edmonton and who was the director of amateur scouting for the Coyotes from 2007 – 2011 and oversaw the team’s drafts during that time. Gretzky was hired by the Oilers in part due to his scouting experience and success running the drafts for Arizona and more recently Boston. But Morgan says Gretzky’s successes at the draft may be overstated.

Despite success in the first round, where the Coyotes selected the likes of Kyle Turris, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Mikkel Boedker and Connor Murphy, the team has struggled to find NHL talent in the lower rounds. According to Morgan, new Coyotes GM John Chayka has said a team’s ability to draft is measured in the later rounds. Clubs need to be able to identify and develop prospects outside of the draft’s first round in order to sustain on-ice success.

During his tenure with the Coyotes, the team selected 29 players in rounds two through seven, according to the article. Of that group, only four have made it to the NHL and just two are still in the Coyotes organization.

Teams typically need to draft and develop two or three NHL contributors every year in order to keep the pipeline of affordable young talent flowing. Even if your first-round pick pans out, clubs need at least one more of their selections to hit for the draft to be considered fruitful. If you aren’t hitting on your draft choices then it’s likely the team will have to go the free agent route to flesh out its roster and consequently put themselves in a salary cap bind. Teams like the Coyotes simply can’t afford to do that.

Now Morgan does go on to say Gretzky’s track record with Arizona does not necessarily have anything to do with the job he did in Boston. Nor is it an indicator of how he’ll perform as the assistant GM in Edmonton.

For more from Morgan and elsewhere in the NHL:

  • Even though they were not awarded an expansion franchise for 2017-18, the group behind the Quebec bid is not giving up on bringing an NHL franchise to Quebec City. Quebec likely will eventually get a franchise, though it may not be via expansion. I believe the league wants to also place a team in Seattle and that would probably be through expansion. Quebec would then be in a position to take in a club looking to relocate. Most of the teams that have been recently linked to relocation currently reside in the East. In order to gain balance between the two conferences, expanding from 15 – 16 clubs in the West is the simplest solution, while keeping Quebec as a fallback in the event of relocation.
  • In a piece for The Players Tribune, San Jose forward Logan Couture lists the six defensive players he considers the toughest to match-up against. Not surprisingly, all of his choices reside with him in the Western Conference, including one who also suits up for the Sharks. It’s hard to argue with any of his choices and it’s easy to understand the apparent western bias since he sees the guys in his own conference at least two times more often during the regular season, to say nothing of the playoffs. Brent Burns and Duncan Keith are elite players who impact the game in all three zones. Roman Josi is rapidly developing into one of the top blue liners in the NHL. Mark Giordano – Couture has a funny story about the Flames standout – might be a late-bloomer but he is undoubtedly a quality player. Finally, Anze Kopitar and Jonathan Toews may well be the best two-way pivots in the game today.

Mikkel Boedker Signs With San Jose

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According to ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun, the San Jose Sharks have signed free agent forward Mikkel Boedker to a four-year, $16MM deal. The 26-year old was one of the youngest free agents available this season, and represented a chance to sign a top-six player through his prime seasons.

Boedker has always been regarded as one of the fastest players in the league, and the Sharks realized they were lacking in that area when they were out-skated handily in the Stanley Cup finals by the team speed of the Pittsburgh Penguins.  Now, with the addition of Boedker and the re-signing of Tomas Hertl, the Sharks have locked up two speedsters to play on the top two lines for the immediate future.

San Jose is looking ahead to 2017, when long-time superstars Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau are both set to hit free agency. Boedker’s age lines up well with captain Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture to keep the Sharks relevant through 2020. With a solid, deep defense corps – that added underrated David Schlemko earlier today – they’ll be able to continue their regular season dominance for at least another few seasons.

Free Agent Profile: Mikkel Boedker

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Mikkel Boedker’s name doesn’t quickly come up when discussing the top unrestricted free agents available but he is one of the more intriguing players on the market.

At just 26 years of age, Boedker is one of the youngest free agents on the market and the youngest of the impact (top six) forwards.  It’s safe to say he’s entering the prime of his career which isn’t often the case when dealing with UFA’s.  He also has the ability to play both wings, making him one of the more versatile players available.

Offensively, Boedker has shown signs of improvement the last several years.  Over the past three seasons, he has passed the 50 point mark twice and played at a 50 point pace in an injury-riddled 2014-15 campaign.  Last year, split between Arizona and Colorado, he picked up 17 goals and 34 assists in 80 games.  That put him in a tie for fifth in points amongst all remaining UFA forwards.

On top of his improving offensive ability, Boedker’s speed is his biggest weapon.  He’s one of the fastest skaters in the league and has the potential to be a big factor in transition wherever he winds up.

There are some concerns with his play though.  He’s not the most consistent defensive player nor is it a particular strength of his.  That limits where he can play in the lineup; for teams that run a two-way second line, he’s not really an option there nor is he strong enough to really be a top line player.

Potential Suitors

There haven’t been many teams linked to Boedker yet as most of the focus has been on the bigger names with a more proven track record.  There should be no shortage of options as he’s young enough to be considered a core piece on rebuilding teams while being enough of an impact player.

Vancouver is the only team that has publicly been linked to him at this point.  Other teams that could have varying degrees of interest are Toronto, Montreal, New Jersey, Buffalo, and Detroit among others.  A return to Arizona is certainly a possibility as well.  Those are all teams that have a young, emerging core that also have vacancies inside their top six.

Projected Contract

Boedker is ranked eighth on our Top 50 list of free agents.  We have him signing a 6 year, $31.5MM contract.  He may be wise to wait for some of the bigger names to go as that should increase the number of suitors he has as they will likely circle to him as a fallback option.

Free Agent Focus: Colorado Avalanche

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The 2015-16 season was a very disappointing step backwards for the Colorado Avalanche, who finished up 39-39-4 and missed the playoffs by 5 points. For a team that just two years prior had won the Central division with 112 points, it’s a steep two year decline. With a trio of elite forwards in Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon, the team should never be that far removed from another excellent season. With rumors swirling around their defense corps, it should be an interesting offseason.

Key RFAs: D Tyson Barrie and MacKinnon – One of the most discussed players already this summer, Barrie has been rumored to be on the block after another excellent offensive season which saw him put up 49 points from the back end.

Barrie was a third round pick out of Kelowna in 2009 and has quietly become one of the better point producers in the league from the blueline. With 140, he ranks 11th in the NHL over the last three years in points from defensemen, ahead of players like Drew Doughty, Ryan Suter and Alex Pietrangelo. Those rankings are going to make him awfully expensive as he comes off a two-year $5.2MM deal that he signed when he was just 22.

If they do re-sign him long-term, Colorado will be committing a lot of money to two defensemen as they already have Erik Johnson signed at $6MM/year until 2022-23.

With MacKinnon, Colorado basically is going to pay whatever it takes. The former first overall pick has put up exceptional numbers from the moment he stepped into the NHL as an 18 year old, netting 153 points (59-94) in 218 games, all before his 21st birthday.

If the Avalanche can’t get him signed to a long-term deal that buys out a few free agent seasons, look for him to sign a deal similar to the one Duchene signed coming out of his entry-level contract.  After putting up three seasons that look eerily similar to MacKinnon’s (150 points in 219 games), he inked a two-year $7MM deal before the 2012-13 season.

Colorado might play it the same way, as Duchene eventually re-signed for five more seasons at $6MM/year buying out a couple years of free agency along the way. Having MacKinnon and Duchene for under $15MM together in a few years would be an ideal situation for the Avs as they continue to play at an all-star level.

Other RFAs: C Mikhail Grigorenko, G Calvin Pickard, C Andreas Martinsen

Key UFA: W Mikkel Boedker – GM Joe Sakic is on record as saying the trade deadline acquisition will be allowed to test free agency come July 1, but the 26-year-old Dane has not ruled out a return to the Mile High City. Despite Boedker never having reached the 20-goal plateau, it’s expected his ask will be around the $5-6MM mark.

Other UFAs: C/L Shawn Matthias, D Zach Redmond, RW Jack Skille, D Andrew Bodnarchuk

Outlook: The Avalanche will look to improve their defence core this summer. However, Sakic will need to think twice about any defensive help, as the team must protect Johnson and 35-year-old Francois Beauchemin in the expansion draft. Tyson Barrie will also need to be protected, meaning as it is hulking prospect Nikita Zadorov will likely be exposed. Also interesting will be the Avalanche’s goalie situation, with both Semyon Varlamov and goalie-of-the-future Pickard needing to be protected.

Despite Barrie’s success and Sakic’s insistence otherwise, it’s widely believed that Barrie will be on the move soon. With many buyers and fewer sellers, the market for defensemen will certainly be interesting to watch.

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