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Minor Transactions: 02/05/18

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After a light Sunday schedule because of the Super Bowl, the NHL has just four games on tap for Monday night. Despite the lack of on-ice action, there will be plenty of minor moves around the league. As always, we’ll keep track of all of them right here.

Prospects Begin To Feature In Trade Speculation

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The NHL’s trade deadline is just a month away, and any game-changing deals are yet to come. Though there were two big trades already this season—featuring Matt Duchene, Kyle Turris, Sami Vatanen and Adam Henrique—the market has been relatively quiet for nearly two months. Minor league deals, and the swap of Anthony Duclair not withstanding, fans are ready to land the big fish and take a run at the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Jordan KyrouFor some time now names like Max Pacioretty, Mike Hoffman, Patrick Maroon and Evander Kane have graced the Trade Bait board on TSN, but with today’s update Frank Seravalli gives us a few interesting additions. One, Ryan McDonagh, is very much like those previously mentioned, a very good player heading towards the free agent market (in the summer of 2019 in this case) that could be moved when his value is still near its highest point.

But there are a couple of other new entries, including St. Louis Blues prospect Jordan Kyrou. While McDonagh and most of the other players are in or past their prime, Kyrou hasn’t even begun his NHL career. Selected 35th-overall in 2016, the smooth skating forward has blossomed into one of the very top prospects in the entire league. In fact, Corey Pronman of The Athletic (subscription required) recently ranked him 19th among those already drafted. Five of the players ahead of him have already made their NHL debuts, including the likes of Kasperi Kapanen and Dylan Strome.

Seravalli speculates that Kyrou could be in a package to land Kane, one that according to Buffalo might need to include a first-round pick, conditional pick and an additional roster player. Kyrou’s potential shouldn’t be downgraded by the fact he fell out of the first round in his draft year, as he’s shown over and over how dynamic his offense and skating ability can be. At the recent World Juniors, he led Team Canada with ten points in seven games and was a threat every time he touched the puck. Even with the absence to attend the tournament, he still leads the OHL in points with 73 in just 35 games and has a real shot at winning the league’s Most Outstanding Player.

If a prospect like Kyrou is moved, it could be a trade deadline to remember for the ages. While there is no guarantee he or any other top name ever turns out to be an impact player in the NHL, the rental-for-prospect deals are often the ones looked back on years later with frustration. The Blues—and other teams like the Winnipeg Jets, from whom Seravalli mentions young players Nic Petan and Jack Roslovic as potential pieces—are looking for an impact player this season. They might just have to give up a future one in return.

Morning Moves: Kloos, Petan, Cracknell

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The Minnesota Wild have sent Justin Kloos back to the minor leagues after getting Mikael Granlund back last night. Kloos also played in the game but received fewer than nine minutes of ice time. The 23-year old forward will certainly get another chance eventually at the NHL level, after excelling at the University of Minnesota.

Kloos is a homegrown talent, born in Lakeville, Minnesota and developed in the state high school ranks before heading to Iowa and the USHL. Undrafted, he would eventually find his way back to star as a Golden Gopher, even captaining the UMN team in his final two years. Kloos signed a two-year entry-level deal this spring, and will continue to try and beat the odds to become the latest undersized forward to go from overlooked prospect to NHL contributor.

  • The Winnipeg Jets have activated Matt Hendricks from injured reserve, and assigned Nic Petan to the Manitoba Moose. Hendricks is expected to be back in the Jets’ lineup when they take on the Pittsburgh Penguins tomorrow night. The 36-year old forward is in his first year with Winnipeg, after spending the previous few season with Edmonton. Though he can’t be relied upon for much offense, he is tough to play against and has always been excellent in the faceoff dot. He’ll likely work his way onto a penalty kill for the Jets, something he’s done relatively well throughout his career.
  • Adam Cracknell has cleared waivers for the New York Rangers, something the Dallas Stars couldn’t accomplish earlier this month. The Rangers snagged him and inserted him into the bottom-six, but his role there wasn’t long-lived. After a relatively excellent season a year ago, Cracknell has been held scoreless through the first five games of the season (one for Dallas, four for New York) and now finds himself in limbo. Assigned to the AHL, he’ll join a Hartford Wolf Pack team that is spinning their wheels with a 3-3-1 record.

Winnipeg’s Pending Roster Decisions

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The Winnipeg Jets will be facing a roster crunch when the roster freeze lifts.  With center Shawn Matthias and right winger Joel Armia both recently returning to the lineup, their roster now stands at 25 players, meaning two moves will need to be made to get back in compliance on December 28th.

Winnipeg has no fewer than six forwards who have waiver exemption but there’s a case to be made for all of them to stay up.  Rookie right winger Patrik Laine is among the league leaders in goals and there’s no way he goes down.  Left winger Nikolaj Ehlers has 29 points to sit third in team scoring so he’s another player guaranteed to stay up.

Rookie winger Brandon Tanev has been up with the team all season and while he hasn’t produced much offensively from the fourth line, he brings some grit to the lineup as he’s tied for the team lead in hits.  He did, however, miss the last game with an unspecified injury.  If he’s going to be out for a few more days, they could place him on injured reserve retroactive to the 22nd to buy them some time but that’s only a temporary solution.

As for the other three, center Nic Petan has spent the bulk of the season in the minors but has put up an impressive eight points in only 15 games and was flirting with top six ice time before he went down in late November.  Left winger Marko Dano also didn’t start with the Jets but has been a regular since early November and sits tied for seventh in team scoring.   That leaves center Andrew Copp who, like Dano, wasn’t up until early November and has played the bulk of the season; he also was a regular last year, playing in 77 games.

If they don’t want to send anyone down, there is also the trade route although as we’ve seen all season, finding the right fit in terms of players and salary cap hit is easier said than done.

One player who is believed to be on the block that could stand to benefit from a change of scenery is center Alexander Burmistrov.  Last week, he voiced his frustration over his lack of playing time to Jason Bell of the Winnipeg Free Press:

“It’s tough, tough for me because I do not know why I’m not playing, you know. I never have a conversation with the coach, so he never tell[s] me why I’m not playing.”

While head coach Paul Maurice disagreed with the assertion that he doesn’t speak with Burmistrov, it’s hard to see the 25 year old staying with the team much longer.  Last month, it was reported that the Jets were gauging interest for his services around the league and considering he has been scratched for the last three weeks despite the injuries, it doesn’t appear that there’s a spot for him to play anytime soon.  He carries a cap hit of $1.55MM, high enough that the Jets would likely have to take a similar contract back or retain money to get a deal done.  Given their current roster situation, perhaps it may help to facilitate a move sooner rather than later.

Whether it’s via a trade or a minor league demotion, the Jets are going to have to make a tough decision shortly on who to remove from their active roster.  It’s a ‘problem’ that a lot of teams would probably like to have right now but it will be something to watch for when the roster freeze lifts on Wednesday.

Injury Updates: Staal, Jets, Lazar, Bennett, Neal

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The Carolina Hurricanes got some bad news on the injury front as Jordan Staal’s skating session on Monday did not go as well as expected and as a result, he is not expected to accompany the team on their West Coast trip, reports Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News and Observer.

Staal has been out of the lineup since November 27th because of a concussion.  He’s in his fifth season with the Hurricanes and has nine points (5-4-9) through 21 games so far this season.  In the meantime, Teuvo Teravainen will continue to fill Staal’s role as the second line center having shifted over from the left wing.

Still with Carolina, forward Elias Lindholm, who has missed the last two games with a lower body injury, practiced with a non-contact jersey today.  Although he likely won’t be ready for their next game, he is expected to play at some point on the road trip.

Other injury news from around the league:

  • In a series of four tweets, Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun provided updates on several injured Winnipeg Jets. Leading scorer Mark Scheifele (lower body) won’t play tonight against Detroit but skated today and is progressing well.  Defenseman Tyler Myers skated for the first time today since suffering a lower body injury nearly four weeks ago but their remains no timetable for his return.  Center Nic Petan, who has seven points in 13 games since being recalled, is out for another couple of weeks for his lower body issue.  As for right winger Joel Armia (knee), he’s expected to return sometime in mid-to-late December while center Shawn Matthias (lower body) will be out a little longer as his tentative return date is closer to early January.
  • Senators forward Curtis Lazar is out indefinitely with an upper body injury suffered last night against the Penguins, notes Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen. The team announced via Twitter that Phil Varone has been recalled from their AHL affiliate in Binghamton to take his place.  (Also recalled was goalie Andrew Hammond as Craig Anderson is taking another leave of absence.)  Varone has 13 points in 18 minor league games this season and led all forwards in the league in preseason scoring.  TSN’s Darren Dreger adds (Twitter link) that the injury isn’t believed to be too serious.
  • The Devils announced (via Twitter) that they have activated right winger Beau Bennett off of injured reserve. He has missed the last three games due to a right leg laceration.  To make room for him on the roster, the team assigned center John Quenneville back to Albany of the AHL.
  • Predators left winger James Neal skated with teammates for the first time since suffering an upper body injury on November 25th against Winnipeg, writes Adam Vingan of The Tennessean. Evidently, everything checked out well as Vingan tweets that the team has activated him off of IR and that he is expected to play tonight against Colorado.

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