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Nick Ritchie

Nick Ritchie Suspended One Game For Slashing

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The NHL Department of Player Safety announced Saturday night that they suspended Arizona Coyotes forward Nick Ritchie for one game for slashing Anaheim Ducks defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk during last night’s game.

The incident occurred in the waning seconds of the first period, with the Ducks already commanding a 3-0 lead in the contest. Ritchie, who had pulled away from Shattenkirk after a clean check into the boards, raised his stick and, in the eyes of Player Safety, purposefully whacked the side of Shattenkirk’s helmet/face with his stick.

NHL DoPS’ rationale for the decision is as follows:

It is important to note that this is not a reckless or careless use of the stick, rather, this is a controlled and purposeful slash directed toward the head of an opponent that hits its intended target. And while the slash was delivered without substantial force, it is only because of the lack of force that this play is not met with more severe discipline. 

Additionally, Ritchie has already been disciplined by DoPS four separate times during his seven-year, 400-game career, including one suspension and three fines.

Despite a tough start to 2021-22 after signing this offseason with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ritchie has eight goals and two assists for 10 points in 17 games since donning a Coyotes uniform for the first time. He’s one of their better offensive contributors at the moment, leaving a hole in the lineup, albeit just for one game.

Nick Ritchie To Have Hearing With Department Of Player Safety

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Something from Friday’s game involving Arizona and Anaheim has caught the eye of the Department of Player Safety although it doesn’t involve the late-game incident that saw Jay Beagle ejected for his actions.  Instead, the department announced that Coyotes winger Nick Ritchie will have a hearing today for a slash on Ducks defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk.

The incident occurred at the end of the first period and no penalty was assessed on that particular play although Ritchie received a roughing minor for an incident with Dominik Simon at the end of the period.

Ritchie has one previous suspension from 2017 for roughing while he has been fined on three other occasions by the league.  Arizona is next in action on Sunday in Chicago so a ruling will need to be made by then.

Toronto Maple Leafs Acquire Ilya Lyubushkin, Ryan Dzingel

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have added a pair of players tonight while moving out one frustrated winger. Ilya Lyubushkin and Ryan Dzingel are on their way to Toronto from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for Nick Ritchie and a conditional draft pick. The Coyotes can select whether to receive Toronto’s third-round pick in 2023 or second-round pick in 2025. No salary is retained in the deal from either side.

Lyubushkin was referenced at the intermission of tonight’s Maple Leafs game by Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, and now just after the loss to the St. Louis Blues, Toronto has made their move. The big defenseman would bring something that the team doesn’t have much of, size and physicality on the back end. Now 27, Lyubushkin has racked up nearly 500 hits in a 180-game career, including 94 already this season. That number would easily lead the Maple Leafs, who currently have Jake Muzzin on top of that list with 81. It’s beside Muzzin that Lyubushkin could even potentially play, giving the team some extra length in something of a shutdown pair. Toronto has been looking to add depth on the right side for some time, as Justin Holl has taken a step backward this year and Timothy Liljegren is still very early in his career.

In fact, this addition could spell trouble for Holl, who played the fewest minutes of any Toronto defenseman tonight and has struggled to fill the top-four role he had with Muzzin in years past. By bringing in another penalty-killing defenseman, it’s unclear what his role will be, though there will have to be a roster spot of some sort by the Maple Leafs tomorrow to create enough cap space. When the team recently acquired Adam Brooks off waivers it was Liljegren who went down for the day.

There is also the addition of Dzingel, however, who adds another forward to the mix for Toronto. A 26-goal scorer in 2018-19, he has just four goals and seven points in 26 games this season for the Coyotes playing in a bottom-six role. Even those four goals are more than Ritchie, who had just two in 33 games for the Maple Leafs despite starting the season with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. The 26-year-old Ritchie had played his way right off the Toronto roster, recently having cleared waivers and been assigned to the minor leagues. From a Maple Leafs perspective, getting out from under Ritchie’s two-year deal may have been the most important part of the deal. He was set to earn $2.5MM against the cap again next year, something that a team working in the margins of the salary cap cannot afford if he’s not contributing.

Notably on Dzingel, if he fails to contribute anything, the Maple Leafs could bury his entire $1.1MM salary in the minor leagues. He would need to clear waivers to do it but that allows the team to not be stuck with any dead money if he isn’t a good fit. Lyubushkin meanwhile makes just $1.35MM against the cap, a reasonable number for a defenseman if he’s playing regularly and less than both Holl ($2MM) and Travis Dermott ($1.5MM) who was scratched again tonight.

As a member of the Coyotes, Ritchie certainly isn’t destined for the minor leagues. General manager Bill Armstrong explained that he was “excited” to add Ritchie to the roster, noting that he can give the team some more size and toughness. He also is a player signed for next season, something you can’t say about many other Coyotes. In fact, only Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, Andrew Ladd, Jakob Chychrun, Conor Timmins, and Shayne Gostisbehere are on one-way contracts through next season, and several of them may find their way to other teams by the trade deadline. Ritchie, who did score 15 goals in 56 games for the Boston Bruins last season, could find his way to top-six minutes once again in the rebuilding Coyotes lineup.

For them, the big thing is adding another draft pick for expiring contracts. The Coyotes are hoarding selections in their rebuild and will be bringing a huge number of prospects into the system over the next few years.

East Notes: Chiarot, Lyubushkin, Poulin

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There’s a gigantic Saturday night rumors dump, courtesy of Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on Sportsnet’s Hockey Night in Canada. It starts with maybe the most-discussed name on the trade bait list in recent days in Montreal Canadiens defender Ben Chiarot. Talks are reportedly heating up, with Friedman singling the St. Louis Blues on the program as a team interested in Chiarot’s services. It’s entirely likely that Chiarot is another name gone before the deadline, as the Habs certainly don’t seem to be afraid to get out ahead of the action. Chiarot would give the Blues three options with considerable NHL experience at left defense, as Niko Mikkola, Jake Walman, and the injured Scott Perunovich have competed for ice time there this season as well. But none of them have the games played and playoff experience at the NHL level that Chiarot has.

More notes from the Eastern Conference today:

  • The Arizona Coyotes are holding Ilya Lyubushkin out of the lineup as a healthy scratch, and Friedman names the Toronto Maple Leafs as one of the top teams interested in the Russian defender’s services. With Nick Ritchie falling out of favor in Toronto, and Arizona’s willingness to take on buried contracts, the fit seems logical as Friedman suggests. Lyubushkin would be a spectacular depth add for Toronto’s right side defensively, who, aside from T.J. Brodie, has faced inconsistency this season.
  • Jeff Marek reports that prior to the commencement of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the Montreal Canadiens reached out to the representatives of Canadian women’s forward Marie-Philip Poulin about what her career plans were after the games, suggesting Montreal had an interest in having Poulin within the organization. While no official job offer was ever made, all indications point to Poulin wanting to continue her on-ice career. The 30-year-old forward still has multiple opportunities to represent Canada on the international stage.

Maple Leafs Working On Nick Ritchie Trade

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While there hasn’t been a formal trade request, the Maple Leafs are working on trying to find a new home for Nick Ritchie, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported in the latest 32 Thoughts segment (video link).  While nothing is imminent, he notes that there has been some traction on trying to find a taker for the winger.

Ritchie was non-tendered by Boston last summer and quickly signed a two-year, $5MM deal with Toronto.  It’s a move that hasn’t panned out well as the 26-year-old has just two goals and seven assists in 33 games which resulted in him clearing waivers last month.  Once the taxi squads were dissolved following the All-Star break, he was sent to Toronto of the AHL although he has yet to suit up with the Marlies.

With a $2.5MM AAV for next season as well, the Maple Leafs will almost certainly have to either retain money or take a contract back since teams passed up on taking him for free recently.  A complicating factor will be next year’s buyout cost.  Because Toronto back-loaded the contract, the cost of a buyout would only be $300K next season (although it jumps to $1.1MM for 2023-24).  Friedman notes that Toronto would be hesitant to retain more than $300K in a trade as a result.

The Maple Leafs have more than $74MM in commitments for next season to just 14 players, per CapFriendly, a figure that includes Ritchie’s $1.375MM revised cap hit when he’s in the minors.  The salary cap is only going to go up to $82.5MM at most and even that may be optimistic so that doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room for them to round out their roster, especially with goaltender Jack Campbell among the players eligible for unrestricted free agency this summer.  As a result, finding a way to free up any sort of extra cap room would go a long way.  Ritchie won’t carry much trade value but if they can find a way to save even a little bit of cap space, it’s an option that GM Kyle Dubas will need to seriously consider.

Maple Leafs Notes: Deadline Plan, Cap Room, Trade Preference, AHL Conversions

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Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas met with reporters today (video link) and indicated that with their limited salary cap space, he wants to wait as long as possible before trying to make a move to bolster his team before the trade deadline.  Toronto, like several contenders, will probably only have enough cap room to make one addition of note and with them not being in LTIR (unlike several contenders), there’s a direct benefit to waiting until closer to deadline day on March 21st when they will have been able to bank more room and there will be less money to take on.

More from Dubas regarding the Maple Leafs:

  • To help create some of that cap space, veterans Nick Ritchie and Kyle Clifford will report to AHL Toronto now with the taxi squads gone. While they can clear Clifford’s $1MM price tag entirely, they won’t be able to clear all of Ritchie’s $2.5MM AAV and will carry a pro-rated $1.375MM charge while he’s with the Marlies.  It’s also likely that they’ll try to go with a minimum-sized roster or close to it when they can; both Timothy Liljegren and Rasmus Sandin can be moved back and forth without requiring waivers.
  • Dubas also reiterated his desire to trade for someone signed beyond this season although fitting that player in next year may be tricky with Morgan Rielly’s extension kicking in and the Upper Limit expected to only be slightly above the $81.5MM mark that it’s currently at. Toronto has over $74MM in commitments for next season to just 14 players, per CapFriendly, with starting goalie Jack Campbell eligible for unrestricted free agency this summer.
  • Dubas was non-committal about whether or not he’d convert Josh Ho-Sang to an NHL deal following the Olympics. There were reports that such a move was being considered but it was put on hold once it was clear that Ho-Sang would be suiting up for Canada in that event.  Dubas referenced former NHL forwards Antti Suomela and Joseph Blandisi plus winger Curtis Douglas as others they’re monitoring to see whether or not they’re worth converting to NHL contracts.

Maple Leafs Add Three To COVID Protocol

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The Toronto Maple Leafs had some reinforcements at practice today as Mitch Marner and Pierre Engvall joined the team on the road after spending the last week in the COVID protocol. Unfortunately, their return came with some bad news as well, as Justin Holl, Ondrej Kase, and Nick Ritchie have all been placed in the protocol.

It’s tough timing for Kase, who had just returned from injury and received an opportunity to play with Auston Matthews on the team’s top line. He has played more than 20 minutes in each of the last two games, and though Marner’s return would have cut into that time, his performance for the Maple Leafs this season has been strong enough to command an increased role. In 30 games, the oft-injured Kase has eight goals and 17 points.

For Holl, missing any time could have disastrous implications should the coaching staff decide his replacement can handle the top-four role. The 29-year-old defenseman has had a tumultuous season, including a period as a healthy scratch and trade rumors swirling around his future in Toronto. In 29 games, he has just three points, a far cry from the player who registered 20 last season as part of a shutdown pair with Jake Muzzin.

Ritchie meanwhile was just struggling to stay in the lineup for Toronto and has been a disappointment from game one. His two-year, $5MM contract appears to be a mistake at this point with just two goals and nine points in 33 games. Ritchie’s ice time has been slashed dramatically–he started the year on the first line–to the point of being a healthy scratch earlier this month.

According to David Alter of The Hockey News, Matthews and Michael Bunting are the only two Maple Leafs regulars to not test positive for COVID-19 over the last month.

Nick Ritchie Clears Waivers

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Jan 7: Ritchie has cleared waivers according to TSN’s Chris Johnston. With Mitch Marner and Pierre Engvall entering the COVID protocol, the forward will likely remain on the active roster for the time being.

Jan 6: According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Toronto Maple Leafs placed forward Nick Ritchie on waivers today.

Many of Toronto’s offseason gambles have worked out perfectly for them, but that hasn’t been the case with Ritchie. He has just a goal and seven assists through 30 games.

After starting the season with the chance to shine alongside Auston Matthews, he floundered in that role and was soon demoted to the fourth line. He was far more effective there playing with veterans Jason Spezza and Wayne Simmonds, but with Ilya Mikheyev returning to the lineup and the Leafs now with a fully healthy roster, the team needed space and cap relief.

Ritchie and his $2.5MM cap hit was the odd man out. He’s signed through 2022-23 as well, so it’s extremely unlikely another team stakes a claim on the 26-year-old forward.

Maple Leafs Sign Nick Ritchie

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For the second straight day, the Maple Leafs have added a former Bruin winger to their team, announcing the signing of Nick Ritchie to a two-year contract.  The deal will carry a cap hit of $2.5MM.

The 25-year-old was the tenth-overall pick back in 2014 with Anaheim hoping he’d become an impact power forward but that didn’t really happen; while he brought plenty of physicality, his offensive production was hot and cold.  That made him expendable and in 2020, Ritchie was flipped to Boston in exchange for Danton Heinen with the hopes that the Bruins could help unlock that offensive consistency.

To his credit, Ritchie did manage a career-high 15 goals last season despite the shortened schedule while chipping in with four points in 11 playoff contests but the Bruins opted to not tender him a $2MM qualifying offer earlier this week which made him an unrestricted free agent; Heinen suffered the same fate with Anaheim.  Ritchie did pretty well on the open market, landing more than that offer would have been for from Toronto while getting a second year.

With the Maple Leafs, Ritchie should have an opportunity to compete for a spot in the top six with both Zach Hyman and Nick Foligno moving on in free agency.  He’s someone that both head coach Sheldon Keefe and GM Kyle Dubas are somewhat familiar with from their days with OHL Sault Ste. Marie as Ritchie spent a partial season there to wrap up his major junior career.

This may very well be it for signings from the Maple Leafs; CapFriendly now has Toronto at roughly $1.4MM over the $81.5MM Upper Limit of the salary cap.  However, that’s with a projected full 23-man roster and as we saw last season, they’re likely to carry closer to the minimum of 20 skaters.  Even after removing some potentially AHL-bound players (pending waivers), they’ll still basically be in a spot where they will be just about at the cap ceiling so any other moves to add to their roster from here on out will require offsetting money.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the signing.

Ondrej Kase, Nick Ritchie Do Not Receive Qualifying Offers

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The Boston Bruins indicated earlier this week that qualifying offers would be extended to restricted free agents Ondrej Kase and Nick Ritchie, but that decision changed at some point. Both players did not receive offers by today’s deadline, meaning they will become unrestricted free agents on Wednesday. The team did however sign Nick Wolff to a one-year, two-way contract for the 2021-22 season, and extended qualifying offers to Callum Booth and Zachary Senyshyn.

It seemed like a bigger surprise that Kase was originally going to be tendered an offer, given his Bruins career to this point. The 25-year-old winger has played just nine regular season games since arriving in Boston during the 2019-20 season, failing to score a single goal. The former 20-goal man has dealt with serious injuries and is at a crossroads in his career. Once a play-driving middle-six option, he’ll now hit the free agent market looking to find a way back onto an NHL roster. He’s played just 88 games since the beginning of the 2018-19 season.

Ritchie on the other hand is coming off his best offensive season, with 15 goals in 56 games for the Bruins. Five of those game on the powerplay, where he used his large frame to clean up pucks in front of the net, a role that he could perhaps now fill for some other team around the league. The 10th overall pick in 2014, Ritchie has only totaled 59 career goals, but brings a high level of physicality to the bottom-six and won’t turn 26 until December.

There will certainly be teams interested in that production, and failing to receive a qualifying offer doesn’t actually close the door completely on a return to Boston. The two sides could still work out a deal, but the Bruins obviously didn’t feel comfortable issuing the qualifying offer and risking an arbitration award.

For Wolff, this is his second NHL contract after signing out of Minnesota-Duluth in 2020. The 25-year-old defenseman had just two assists in 24 games with the Providence Bruins, but stands 6’5″ and adds plenty of length to the minor league team’s blueline. He’ll be ticketed for the AHL once again, where he can continue to provide stable defensive play and hope for an NHL call-up.

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