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Overseas Notes: Kiselevich, Mitchell, Rybar, McNeill

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As expected, Bogdan Kiselevich has returned home to Russia as soon as he could. The 29-year-old defenseman is back with CSKA Moscow after just one year in the NHL, as the team announced a new three-year deal. Kiselevich was clearly not impressed by his usage in North America, as word got out quickly after the season that he would return to the KHL, before even testing the NHL market. In his “rookie” season, Kiselevich played in 32 games with the Florida Panthers and contributed eight assists. Although some of his other underlying numbers suggested that Kiselevich was being underutilized in Florida, he worked mostly as the team’s No. 7. He was then traded to the Winnipeg Jets at the NHL Trade Deadline, slotting even lower in their depth chart, and did not play a single game in the regular season or postseason. Seeing as a fully healthy Kiselevich played just one game after January, it’s understandable that he was happy to return to a top role for an elite KHL club loaded with former NHLers.

  • Count Zack Mitchell as another NHL castoff looking for a larger role in the KHL. After skating in 34 NHL games between two seasons with the Minnesota Wild in 2016-17/2017-18, Mitchell was relegated to the AHL for this entire past campaign after signing with the Los Angeles Kings last summer. Still a relatively young player at 26 who also has consistent AHL production and NHL experience, Mitchell likely felt he could do better. As a result, Mitchell has signed a one-year contract with Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk of the KHL, the team announced. A team that missed the playoffs last season and has few elite players or familiar NHL faces, Neftekhimik needs a elite addition and hopes Mitchell can fill that role. If he can lead them back to the Gagarin Cup stage behind a highly productive season, Mitchell will likely be able to find a deal back in North America next year.
  • The Detroit Red Wings took a shot on young Slovakian goaltender Patrik Rybar last season after he had dominated the Slovakian and Czech pro ranks for several years. However, he ended up not getting much use as the fourth-string keeper in the organization. Rybar played in 37 AHL games and did not see any NHL action. In his minor league appearances, he also failed to put up the stupendous numbers that may have attracted another NHL suitor, posting a .908 save percentage and 2.49 GAA. Fortunately, those numbers were enough to turn heads in other major European leagues. Rybar has opted to sign with Karpat of the Finnish Liiga, the team announced. Karpat was the top team in the Liiga last year through the regular season and their play in net from Columbus Blue Jackets prospect Veini Vehvilainen and former NHLer Jussi Rynnas played no small role. With both of those keepers now gone, the Karpat net looks to belong to Rybar, with promising young goalie Justus Annunen, a Colorado Avalanche draft pick, as backup.
  • Mark McNeill’s precipitous drop from relevance continued last season and he is taking a drastic measure to rediscover his game. A 2011 first-round pick, McNeill was considered the top prospect of the Chicago Blackhawks for many years. Yet, to date he has just two NHL appearances to his credit. However, the heavy forward still put up good numbers in the minors in the Blackhawks’ and Dallas Stars’ systems. That is, until the past two years, when McNeill bounced around from Dallas to Nashville to Boston and posted back-to-back career lows of 25 points. Now, he must repair his image and show he can be a reliable scorer and has chosen Austria as the place to do just that. McNeill has signed with EHC Linz of the EBEL, the Black Wings announced. Linz counts Bracken Kearns and Justin Florek as their only other NHL veterans, so the opportunity will be there for McNeill to be the teams’s best player next season.

New Jersey Adds Tennyson, Mermis, Street

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The New Jersey Devils have made some major additions this summer in the likes of No. 1 overall pick Jack Hughes, superstar defenseman P.K. Subban, and today’s big free agency addition, forward Wayne Simmonds. It’s now time to fill out the organizational depth chart, and the team has done just that. The Devils have announced the signings of three veteran fringe players, defensemen Matt Tennyson and Dakota Mermis and forward Ben Street. The trio all signed two-way deals, with Tennyson signing on for two years while Mermis and Street will be under contract for just one.

Tennyson, 29, may be best known for his constant dance between the minor leagues and NHL the last several seasons. He was involved in 15 separate transactions last season for the Buffalo Sabres, popping back and forth from the Rochester Americans but only actually suiting up four times in the NHL. He may not get a lot more opportunity than that in New Jersey, but at least he’ll get some stability with a two-year contract.

Mermis meanwhile would likely kill for even that opportunity in the NHL. The 25-year old has played just ten games with the Arizona Coyotes and instead spent the rest of his professional career in the minor leagues. In 62 games for the Tucson Roadrunners last season the defenseman recorded 24 points, but ended up a Group VI unrestricted free agent looking for work this summer. He too will likely report to the Binghamton Devils to start the year.

Street, 32, had the most NHL experience last year out of the group, suiting up for 21 contests with the Anaheim Ducks when they found themselves lacking any semblance of center depth. The veteran minor league forward has been a top scoring threat for years in the AHL but has just eight points in 56 career NHL games. That likely won’t change much next season with the Devils, but he will be there in case they face any injury troubles throughout the year.

Flames Sign Brandon Davidson, Byron Froese

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After adding goalie Cam Talbot earlier, the Calgary Flames have addressed their depth at the other two positions, signing defenseman Brandon Davidson and forward Byron Froese, per team releases. Both veteran players have signed one-year, two-way contracts with NHL AAV’s of $700K.

Both Davidson, 27, and Froese, 28, have bounced around the hockey world of late and are hoping to find more stability by landing in Calgary. Davidson, an Alberta native, has spent two stints with the Edmonton Oilers, as well as time with the Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, and Chicago Blackhawks in the last four years alone. Davidson has struggled to score at the NHL level, but has shown that he can be a dominant physical force at times. Froese, from nearby Manitoba, did not see any NHL action last year, but was traded nonetheless from the Montreal Canadiens to the Philadelphia Flyers. It was the second time in three years he had been traded and Philly became his fourth team in that span, joining Montreal, Tampa Bay, and Toronto. Like Davidson, Froese has really never been more than a part-time player at the highest level due to concerns about his offensive ability. However, he has established himself as a solid two-way forward.

Given the depth that the Flames have on both the blue line and up front, the odds are the Davidson and Froese will spend much of next season with the AHL’s Stockton Heat. However, their NHL experience and reliable defensive ability should make them top call-up options for Calgary when injuries strike.

Detroit Red Wings Sign Valtteri Filppula

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The Detroit Red Wings have brought back a familiar face, signing Valtteri Filppula to a two-year contract. New GM Steve Yzerman also has a history with the veteran forward from their days with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Filppula played in Detroit for the first eight years of his career. MLive’s Ansar Khan reports the deal is for $3MM per season.

Filppula may be 35, but he continues to put up solid numbers as a bottom-six defenseman and played a major part of the New York Islanders turnaround last season. For a Barry Trotz team that focused more on defense this year, Filppula posted impressive numbers, scoring 17 goals, his most since the 2013-14 season and finished with 31 points.

With Detroit, Filppula gets a slight raise as he made $2.75MM last season. He will try and find a role somewhere on the third or fourth line and adds to a group of veterans that now have slipped to the bottom-six, including Frans Nielsen, Justin Abdelkader and Luke Glendening. He also could have been brought in to prevent too many young players being vaulted into roles they aren’t ready for as the team now has a number of prospects who are close to being NHL ready, including Filip Zadina and Joe Veleno.

Ryan Carpenter Signs With Chicago Blackhawks

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The Chicago Blackhawks have added a depth forward, signing Ryan Carpenter to a three-year deal. The contract carries just a $1MM average annual value, giving the team an inexpensive center to plug into the bottom-six.

Carpenter signed with the San Jose Sharks after three years at Bowling Green State University and had trouble cracking the San Jose Sharks’ lineup, playing just 27 NHL games for them over three seasons before the Sharks opted to place him on waivers. He was claimed back in 2017 by the Vegas Golden Knights in their inaugural season and his physicality and offensive ability earned him a spot on the team’s bottom six as he scored nine goals in 36 games and returned for a full season last year. Carpenter played in a career-high 68 games, but found himself often scratched late in the season as Vegas was rotating him and a number of other forwards in and out of their third line, including Brandon Pirri, Tomas Nosek and Valentin Zykov, although Carpenter also was able to fill in on the team’s fourth line as well. With the addition of Nikita Gusev, Carpenter was expendable.

In Chicago, the 28-year-old should find a more permanent home on the Blackhawks’ fourth line. The team just added forward Andrew Shaw, who will likely center that line. Carpenter should add that combination of physical play with some offensive ability. Regardless, he’ll have to hold off a number of players who will be looking for playing time, including John Quenneville, Dylan Sikura, Dominik Kubalik, Anton Wedin.

Timo Meier Signs Extension With San Jose Sharks

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The San Jose Sharks might not be huge players in the unrestricted free agent market this year, but they are keeping another one of their excellent young players. Timo Meier has signed a four-year contract extension with the Sharks that will carry a $6MM average annual value. Meier will still be a restricted free agent at the end of the deal, and will be eligible for salary arbitration. GM Doug Wilson released a statement on his young forward:

Timo is one of only a few young, dominant power forwards in the NHL and we’re extremely pleased that he stepped forward to make this commitment to the Sharks. Timo has elevated himself into a core part of our hockey team and his play last season was a huge part of our success. We feel that his best hockey is still ahead of him.

With numbers rolling around for some of the top restricted free agents that sometimes approaches eight digits, the Sharks look like they got a steal of a deal with Meier. The 22-year-old had a breakout season and keeps showing marked improvement in each year, which the team was hoping for when they made him the ninth-overall pick in 2015. Meier tallied three goals and six points in 34 games during his rookie season, but took that to a new level in his sophomore campaign when he tallied 21 goals and 36 points. While solid, Meier took his game to a whole new level this year as he became a major component to the Sharks’ offense, scoring 30 goals and 66 points.

With a better than expected $6MM deal, the Sharks should have some extra money to add depth to their team. The team has lost a number of key players from last season as they recently allowed captain Joe Pavelski as well as winger Joonas Donskoi to walk away in free agency. The team also traded away defenseman Justin Braun on defense and have quite a few holes to fill.

Penguins To Sign Brandon Tanev To Long-Term Contract

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The Pittsburgh Penguins were not expected to be major players in free agency, but have apparently fallen in love with one particular two-way forward. TSN’s Darren Dreger initially reported the deal, and the Penguins have now confirmed the signing of Brandon Tanev to a six-year contract with a $3.5MM AAV.

That’s a significant commitment to a player who made just $1.15MM last season and whose best season was 14 goals and 29 points, but the 27-year-old provides more than offense on the ice as Tanev finished with a career-high in hits with 278. That physicality, to go with the ability to show some offense and the fact that Tanev continues to improve every year suggests that Pittsburgh believes that his best years are still to come. The hope is that Tanev can provide the team with an energy booster in the bottom-six, but who can also help those lines add some offense.

Pittsburgh likely wouldn’t have been able to make a deal like that work, but general manager Jim Rutherford freed up quite a bit of cap room in the last week by trading off defenseman Olli Maatta as well as finding a trade partner for Phil Kessel and his $8MM salary.

The Jets were thrilled with the 27-year-old’s play, but with Tanev having received quite a bit of attention on the open market, Winnipeg realized early on that they wouldn’t have enough money to keep him in the fold considering the team would already be up against the cap once the team re-signs some of their core, including Patrik Laine, Kyle Connor and Neal Pionk.

Free Agent Focus: Florida Panthers

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Free agency is now just a few days away and there are quite a few prominent players set to hit the open market while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign. The Florida Panthers have quite a few restricted free agents to acquire although no young players worthy of significant deals, while the team has few important unrestricted free agents to worry about, which gives the franchise the opportunity to focus completely on the free-agent market that opens on Monday.

Key Restricted Free Agent: D MacKenzie Weegar – The Florida Panthers have brought the 25-year-old blueliner slowly and he’s starting to provide some value as bottom-tier defenseman. Weegar almost doubled his offensive output, putting up four goals and 15 points last season, while seeing his ATOI increase by more than two minutes to 16:58. Injuries kept him out of 18 games, but Weegar is slowly developing into a reliable player the team needs as defense remains one of the team’s biggest weakpoints. His minus-three rating isn’t too bad, but could be improved upon.

F Denis Malgin – The team has gotten some output out of the 22-year-old Malgin, but the forward has failed to play more than 51 games in any of his three seasons so far with the Panthers as he has dealt with numerous injuries. Regardless, Malgin has showed some potential to put up some points, although he is never likely to be more than a third-line option at best for the Panthers. He tallied seven goals and 16 points, a little less than the 11 goals and 22 points he put up in 2017-18. While he’s shown to be a serviceable depth option for Florida, he likely will never be a 20-goal scorer.

G – Sam Montembeault – With a need for a starting goaltender and the fact that Florida traded James Reimer earlier this morning, the team doesn’t even have a legitimate backup on the roster. The 22-year-old Montembeault did get some NHL playing time this season and might be ready for a permanent back-up role. He played 11 games for the Panthers last season, posting a 3.04 GAA and a .894 save percentage. His numbers weren’t much better in Springfield, suggesting that he probably needs more seasoning, but the youngster is likely the heir apparent to the backup sometime in the future.

Other RFAs: F Anthony Greco, F Jayce Hawryluk, F Dryden Hunt, F Juho Lammikko, F Maxim Mamin, D Ian McCoshen, D Thomas Schemitsch, F Dominic Toninato

Key Unrestricted Free Agents: F Riley Sheahan – A former first-round pick with the ability to play center, the 27-year-old has now found himself with three teams already and it could be a fourth. Sheahan was acquired in February as part of the deal that saw Florida trade off Jared McCann and Nick Bjugstad, but didn’t do much to impress with the Panthers. He scored just two goals in 33 games for Florida and finished the season with nine goals and 19 points. However, the main reason that the Panthers took on Sheahan was that his contract was expiring, which the team wanted in hopes of bringing in a big-game free-agent.

Other UFAs: F Troy Brouwer, D Ludwig Bystrom, D Michael Downing, F Henrik Haapala, F Jamie McGinn, D Julian Melchiori, F Vincent Proplan,

Projected Cap Space: The Panthers currently sit a little more than $25.23MM under the cap ceiling, according to CapFriendly, which should give them plenty of maneuvering room to sign multiple big-name free agents. The team is well-known for being interested in signing both of Columbus’ top free agents in Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky and, if the team can convince both to sign, they have ample cap room to lock up both to long-term deals. If they can only sign one, that still leaves them with Plan B options as well, although their top priority is to add a goaltender, their most desperate need.

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Andrej Sekera, David Schlemko To Be Bought Out

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Two players have been placed on unconditional waivers today as the Edmonton Oilers announced they have placed veteran defenseman Andrej Sekera on unconditional waivers for the purposes of a buyout, while the Philadelphia Flyers also reported the same about defenseman David Schlemko.

Sekera had two years remaining on his six-year, $33MM deal ($5.5MM AAV) he signed in 2015 when he was the team’s No. 1 defenseman. However, major injuries have derailed his career since then as the 33-year-0ld has played just 60 games combined over the past two seasons. He played 24 games last season, putting up just four assists. While the team was hoping that Sekera might work his way back into his old form, the team decided they would rather move forward. The team is loaded with a number of young defenseman who the team wants to give a chance to on the ice, including Evan Bouchard, Ethan Bear, William Lagesson, Caleb Jones, Joel Persson, Dmitri Samorukov as well as their unsigned 2019 first-round pick, Philip Broberg. The team had been trying to find a trade partner to take Sekera off their hands, but failed even though the Oilers were willing to retain half his salary. Thus, with no trade partner available, Edmonton opted to buy him out.

The buyout will last four years with the following cap hit (according to CapFriendly):

2019-20: $2.5M
2020-21: $2.5M
2021-22: $1.5M
2022-23: $1.5M

With Sekera’s contract cleared, the Oilers should have an extra $3MM to spend as they now should have $11.3MM in projected cap space this summer with a roster of 17, including nine forwards and seven defensemen.

Schlmeko, on the other hand, has bounced around over the last few years and the 32-year-old never took the ice for Philadelphia. He was acquired along with Byron Froese in February of this year in a trade with Montreal for Christian Folin and Dale Weise. Schlemko spent the rest of his season playing for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the AHL, where he played 18 games, tallying four assists in the process.

The veteran was going into the final year of a four-year, $8.4MM deal ($2.1MM AAV) he signed with the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks, however, chose to expose Schlemko to the expansion draft in 2017 and the Golden Knights selected him and then flipped him to Montreal for a fifth-round pick in this year’s draft. Although he’s dealt with numerous injuries, he spent most of his time in Montreal as the seventh defenseman, playing just 55 games over those two years.

The buyout will last just two years with the following cap hit (according to CapFriendly):

2019-20: $900K
2020-21: $600K

The team will now have $16.3MM in projected salary cap space for the offseason with 18 players on their roster, including nine forwards, six defensemen and three goaltenders.

 

Latest On Phil Kessel, Pittsburgh Penguins

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Saturday: While he can’t get confirmation from either team, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that the Penguins and the Arizona Coyotes are are currently working on a Kessel deal. No word on what the deal might consist of, but Arizona is one team that Kessel would be interested in playing for as he is close to Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet, who was an assistant coach for the Penguins before taking the Arizona job.

Friday: The Pittsburgh Penguins had a trade worked out earlier this month that would have seen Phil Kessel head to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Jason Zucker. It didn’t happen because of a no-trade clause that Kessel refused to waive, something he had negotiated into his contract years ago when he first signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Exercising his clause to block a trade was well within his right, and it seemed to quiet things down for a while in regards to the Penguins. GM Jim Rutherford admitted that a Kessel trade this offseason was now unlikely, but that hasn’t stopped reports surfacing on consecutive days that the team is still trying to unload their enigmatic star.

Yesterday, Josh Yohe of The Athletic (subscription required) reported that trade talks for the Penguins were “heating up” though it wasn’t clear exactly what Rutherford was trying to accomplish, other than dealing Kessel while making the team younger and faster. Today, another detailed piece was released by Rob Rossi of The Athletic that examines exactly what has gone wrong in Pittsburgh between Kessel and the organization and how the star player is currently holding the rest of their offseason “hostage.” Rossi quotes multiple sources that feel a Kessel trade was priority number one this offseason, in order to accomplish a sort of culture reset in Pittsburgh.

The 31-year old Kessel has three years remaining on his current contract and carries a $6.8MM cap hit thanks to a portion being retained by the Maple Leafs from an earlier trade. The deal owes him even less in actual salary, and Kessel is coming off another outstanding offensive season with 82 points in 82 games. He’s also currently on an iron man streak that hasn’t seen him miss a game since the 2009-10 season. Point-per-game wingers don’t get traded very often, but a deal this summer would be the third time Kessel is traded in his career.

Still, there is the problem of a no-trade clause that lists just eight teams that the Penguins can send Kessel to without his permission. Players in that situation usually list teams that would have little interest or that would hesitate to deal in-division. Teams like Philadelphia, Washington, Toronto and Boston all seem unlikely to get into real discussions for one reason or another, meaning his list could basically be limited to just a handful of potential destinations. With Rutherford after a “hockey trade” that brings back a player (or players) that can help the Penguins immediately, a deal might be extremely hard to find.

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