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Pavel Zacha

Minor Transactions: 11/13/18

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Another busy Tuesday night in the NHL as nine games are scheduled to take place, with the Minnesota Wild welcoming in the Stanley Cup champions, and the Nashville Predators battling the San Jose Sharks. It’s a busy night, but teams are already working to finalize their rosters and make small changes. We’ll be here to keep track of all of them.

  • Erik Cernak has been recalled by the Tampa Bay Lightning, as Anton Stralman deals with an injury. Cernak, another one of the interesting prospects in the Lightning system, has seven points in nine games for the Syracuse Crunch this season. The talented defenseman combines both size and skill to get by, and could make his NHL debut this week if the team inserts him into the lineup.
  • Micheal Haley has been dealing with personal issues and entered the player assistance earlier this season but will now get a chance to get back on the ice. The Florida Panthers have assigned the veteran forward to the minor leagues on a conditioning loan, in order to get him back into game shape. Haley, 32, played 75 games for the Panthers last season, the most in any single season of his career. He recorded 212 penalty minutes in those 75 games, which easily led the league.
  • Pavel Zacha is back in the NHL, recalled by the New Jersey Devils after they placed Brian Boyle on injured reserve. Zacha had recently been sent down to the minor leagues to regain his confidence and scoring touch, which he seemed to do with five points in four games for the Binghamton Devils. The 21-year old forward is still without a point this season in the NHL, and will be a key part of any turnaround the Devils have in store this year.
  • The Chicago Blackhawks have recalled Gustav Forsling from the minor leagues, while placing Marcus Kruger on injured reserve retroactive to November 9th. Forsling comes into a defense corps that is without Brandon Davidson for the time being as he deals with a leg injury, and one that has struggled recently to keep the puck out of their net. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that Forsling is on his way up to join forces with new Chicago head coach Jeremy Colliton, but it is still to be seen whether he can help the Blackhawks break their current eight-game losing streak.
  • The Colorado Avalanche have continued to send players back to the minors during homestands, today assigning A.J. Greer to the AHL. That’s the benefit of having an affiliate so close, something the Avalanche are now experiencing with the Colorado Eagles entering the AHL. Greer has played just a single game for the Avalanche this season.
  • Ben Gleason almost scored his first NHL goal in his first NHL game this past weekend, but after it was tipped by a player in the slot he was forced to settle for just his first point. Now, after two games with the Dallas Stars, Gleason will need to wait for his next opportunity to score that elusive goal. He has been sent down to the Texas Stars.

Eastern Notes: Zacha, Dahlin, Neuvirth, Hagg, Martin

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While there were a number of people that were shocked when the New Jersey Devils assigned Pavel Zacha to Binghamton of the AHL, head coach John Hynes felt that the team needed to do something that would have an impact on the 21-year-old first-rounder. Despite having already played 150 NHL games in his career, Zacha was pointless in 10 games and Hynes felt just scratching him wasn’t going to be enough to spark him, according to Chris Ryan of NJ.com.

“To scratch him one game and put him back in, we’re still not in a position right now where we could rely on him in key situations, and that’s what we need from him,” Hynes said. “We think it’s important that it’s not, ’Hey, sit in the stands for one game and watch.’ That is effective in some situations, but we need him to go down and play, and play a lot of minutes and play in situations and earn his confidence back and get his game back.”

The sixth-overall pick in 2015, Zacha hasn’t developed into the franchise player the team thought they were getting when they drafted him. He has so far only managed to total eight goals in two straight seasons, suggesting the team may have needed to give him time in the AHL before bringing him to the NHL. Zacha, who has played in just three AHL games in his career, needs to have time to regain his confidence while playing lots of minutes, something that he wasn’t going to get with the Devils.

  • While there is no official word on the injury, Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin, who was forced to leave Saturday’s game against Ottawa in the second period after taking a shot off his leg, is expected to travel with the team to New York, suggesting that his injury may not be too serious, according to the Buffalo News’ Mike Harrington. There is swelling, which means the team won’t be able to determine his status until tomorrow, according to The Athletic’s Jon Vogl. The team plays the Rangers on Sunday.
  • The Philadelphia Flyers announced that goaltender Michal Neuvirth has left the team and returned to Philadelphia to be checked out by doctors and could soon find himself back on injured reserve. The 30-year-old injury-prone goalie played in one game since being recalled from a conditioning stint on Oct. 25th, but allowed six goals in that lone start to the Islanders two days later, and now currently holds a .727 save percentage.
  • Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic (subscription required) writes that one interesting development in Philadelphia is the offensive improvement surrounding Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Robert Hagg. The 23-year-old sophomore currently leads all defenseman, including Shayne Gostisbehere and Ivan Provorov, with seven points (just two points shy of his totals last year). The scribe says that Hagg has seemed more comfortable joining the rush and going deeper into the offensive zone than he was willing last season.
  • New York Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said fourth-line forward Matt Martin remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury, according to Newsday’s Andrew Gross. The 29-year-old has combined with Cal Clutterbuck and Casey Cizikas to form an impressive energy line for the Islanders. Martin already has equaled last year’s goal total of three in just 11 games.

New Jersey Devils Send Pavel Zacha To AHL

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The New Jersey Devils have reacted to their loss at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings last night by making several roster changes. Pavel Zacha and Kevin Rooney have been sent to the minor leagues, replaced by Kurtis Gabriel and Brett Seney.

Zacha, 21, is the surprising name here as he hasn’t played a game in the minor leagues for the Devils since the end of the 2015-16 season. In fact he’s played 149 NHL games since then, plus five playoff contests last spring. The sixth-overall pick in 2015, Zach looked like he may be in line for a breakout season this year but has struggled mightily in the offensive end through ten games. Scoreless, he has only generated ten shots on goal during that time and obviously needed a change of some sort. Though many expected him to just sit for a few games, heading down to the AHL is likely an even better move for his career development. Zacha needs to rediscover the offensive touch he had in junior, and the AHL is the only place he’ll be able to experience that.

There’s no telling how long Zacha will be with Binghamton, but in the meantime Seney will try to make an impression on the organization. An undersized forward that fell all the way to the sixth round in 2015—his second year of draft eligibility—he nevertheless found plenty of success at the collegiate level and has 18 points through his first 22 games in the AHL since signing last spring. If he can find anywhere near that kind of production at the NHL level, the Devils will have another offensive weapon to roll out alongside the rest of their young roster.

Atlantic Notes: Senators’ Youth, Walker, Howard, Nelson

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The Ottawa Senators seem to have little go right over the last year or so, whether it was the unhappiness of their star defenseman Erik Karlsson to the Matt Duchene trade in which the team traded away their No. 1 overall pick for next season to Colorado. With the team shipping off players left and right, that pick could be a costly one for the team.

However, the Ottawa Sun’s Ken Warren writes that who the Senators need to look at the success of the New Jersey Devils last season had when they opted to add a struggling team with youth. Just a season ago, the Devils had a 28-40-14 season and just 70 points. However, New Jersey brought in an infusion of youth, including Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Will Butcher, as well as second-year players like Miles Wood and Pavel Zacha. That group altered the makeup of the struggling franchise and turned last season into a 44-29-9 season for 97 points, an increase of 27 points on the year. The team even qualified for the playoffs.

The Senators, who are actually loaded with quality prospects within their system, could get a similar infusion from their prospects. That possibility might start with 2018 first-rounder Brady Tkachuk, who opted to turn pro last week and has a chance to walk right into the Senators lineup. The team has other young players who are ready for full seasons this year, including Colin White, Logan Brown, Thomas Chabot, Filip Chlapik and Drake Batherson. The team also has last year’s second-round pick Alex Formenton, who made the Senators squad out of training camp last year, who could also make the jump this year. Some success from some of those kids could make people forget a little about some of the franchise’s struggles.

  • Former Toronto Maple Leafs enforcer Kurt Walker passed away Friday night at the age of 64 after a brief illness, according to the Toronto Sun’s Lance Hornby. Walker, who might have been better known after his short NHL career, was an advocate for retired NHL players. His efforts nearly a decade ago helped retired players and opened doors for affordable health care, concussion research on NHL retired players and stem-cell research. Walker played three seasons in the NHL, all for the Maple Leafs, playing in 71 games, tallying four goals, five assists and 152 penalty minutes.
  • Mlive’s Ansar Khan writes that the Detroit Red Wings need a solid year out of 34-year-old goaltender Jimmy Howard, who has one year remaining on his contract. Howard started the 2017-18 season strong, but struggled in the second-half of the season, finishing the year with a 2.85 GAA and a .910 save percentage in 60 games. The team may have to lighten his workload now that the team added Jonathan Bernier, but if Howard will have to have a better year to earn another contract with the team. Khan writes the team might want to give him a two-year extension as they lack goalie prospects in their system.
  • The Buffalo News’ Mike Harrington writes that Buffalo Sabres defensive prospect Casey Nelson has a good chance at breaking camp with the Sabres this year because he now requires Buffalo to pass him through waivers to send him to the AHL. Nelson, has played 55 games for Buffalo over the past three years and showed some promise last year, putting up three goals and eight assists in 37 games. However, because the team could conceivably lose him if they attempt to pass him through waivers, they may be more likely to hold onto him and send other prospects like Brendan Guhle to the AHL since he doesn’t require waivers.

Snapshots: Lottery, Hischier, Brown, Bruins

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The NHL Draft Lottery is scheduled for this Saturday, but it won’t happen all at once. According to Bob McKenzie of TSN, picks 4-15 are set to be revealed between 6:30-7:00pm CT, while the last three will be unveiled during the first intermission of the Vegas Golden Knights-San Jose Sharks game.

Remember that three teams are picked in the draft lottery, and can potentially move up all the way from 15th to 1st. The full odds have the Buffalo Sabres as the most likely to select first overall, and the Florida Panthers the least likely. Though the first pick will get the right to draft Rasmus Dahlin, there are still exceptional players available in the next few slots.

  • Nico Hischier played all season with a left wrist/hand injury according to the New Jersey Devils, who announced that he would not need surgery but won’t be heading to Denmark to take part in the World Championships. Both Hischier and Pavel Zacha were invited, but will be nursing injuries for the next two to four weeks. The pair of young forwards are integral to the Devils progression from playoff surprise to Stanley Cup hopeful, and will be expected to take on an even heavier load in 2018-19.
  • Speaking of injuries, Dustin Brown of the Los Angeles Kings had shoulder surgery today but is expected to be ready for the regular season according to Jonathan Davis of NHL Network. Brown was one of the many Kings players shut out in the postseason, assisting on just one of the team’s three goals in their first round series. The 33-year old nevertheless had an outstanding bounce back campaign that saw him record 28 goals and 61 points (a career-high) in 81 games. The physical forward is under contract for another four seasons, but has turned himself from a buyout candidate to an important piece for the Kings once again.
  • When the Boston Bruins defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs last night, it meant that the conditional fifth-round pick that they sent to Chicago for Tommy Wingels was converted into a fourth-round selection in 2019. That’s a small price to pay for success in the postseason, but will help Chicago (if only slightly) restock their cupboards even more.

Eastern Notes: Zajac, Nyquist, Toronto’s Motivation

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It’s alarming enough that the New Jersey Devils have lost 10 out of the last 12 games. They have lost their standing for a solid playoff spot and now are hanging on to one of the wildcard spots in a wildly competitive Metropolitan Division. To make matters worse, the Devils most recent four-game slide has come with little offense as well as the team has combined for three goals in those four games.

Andrew Gross of NorthJersey.com writes that the team hasn’t been able to compensate for the Taylor Hall injury who has missed the past three games and had to give up his spot in today’s all-star game due to a thumb injury. The scribe points to the play of Travis Zajac, who missed the first 17 games of the season after having offseason surgery to repair a torn left pectoral muscle. Zajac has just five goals and two assists in 31 games since returning and despite his struggles remains a top-six forward and is still on the power play. His defensive play has also cost the team some goals as well.

“I’ve got to make better plays and better decisions at key moments,” Zajac said. “We’ll find a way to work ourselves out of it. We’ve done it all year and it’s the only way to get out of it.”

  • Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press writes the team has to come to a conclusion that their chances of a playoff spot are so remote they must sell off as much as they can. While defenseman Mike Green is an obvious option in Detroit, she believes the team needs to free up a top-six forward spot for some of the team’s younger forwards, citing the contract of winger Gustav Nyquist as their best bet to unload one of them. Nyquist has another year on his contract of $4.75MM which might force Detroit to retain part of his salary and they still would have to get him to sign off on his no-trade clause. However, with 14 goals in 48 games, he is having a solid season and has already passed his total from last year and is closing in on his goal totals from the 2015-16 season as well. That might give the team an opportunity to promote prospect Evgeny Svechnikov, the team’s first-round pick in 2015.
  • The Toronto Sun’s Steve Simmons wonders how the Toronto Maple Leafs will stay motivated in the final third of the season. The scribe writes that the Maple Leafs have basically locked up a playoff spot (albeit, unofficially) as they are entrenched in the Atlantic Division’s third playoff spot with a 28-18-5 record. They are unlikely to move up as Boston is five points ahead of them and surging and Tampa Bay 10 points ahead of them in the standings. They are also not likely to fall out of the playoffs as the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens are 15 points behind them. Simmons believes that coach Mike Babcock will have his hands full for the remainder of the season and hopes when the time comes, the team will be ready for the playoffs.

Snapshots: Price, Girard, Kane, Devils

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Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price has been out with a “minor” lower-body injury since Montreal’s Nov. 2 game against the Minnesota Wild. Two weeks later, Price hasn’t returned to the lineup. Last Tuesday, it was announced that he would sit out two days (Tuesday and Wednesday) as his injury wasn’t healing as suspected. Then he proceeded to sit out of practice Thursday, Friday and Saturday and the team didn’t practice Sunday. That led Montreal Gazette’s Stu Cowan to suggest that things don’t seem to be adding up in Montreal.

The scribe writes that this no longer seems like a “minor” injury at all and questions whether it ever was. When Cowan asked Canadiens’ coach Claude Julien about whether there was an update on Price’s condition, his response was, “No.”

No one has said what the specific injury is that Price has sustained and the goalie insists that it has nothing to do with the right knee injury in November two years ago that was also held secret for a large chunk of the season. Cowan suggests the lack of information the team has given out can only lead to speculation, suggesting that maybe the team might be looking to trade Price before his eight year, $84MM extension kicks in next year.

  • Mike Chambers of the Denver Post tweets that Colorado Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard is in the lineup against the Detroit Red Wings, meaning that he officially has entered into Year 1 of his entry-level deal. He played five games for the Nashville Predators, and after being dealt to Colorado in the Matt Duchene trade, has played five games for the Avalanche. He would have had to be returned to his junior team before he played in his 10th game had the team wanted to avoid burning the first year of his entry-level deal.
  • The Athletic’s Craig Custance (subscription required) did a Q&A on Buffalo Sabres winger Evander Kane and the forward was quick to say that he is well aware of the trade speculation that surrounds him and rather than block it out, he just chooses to focus on his on-ice play. “It’s not going to do you any good or help your case or your team. For me, I just embrace it. I enjoy it. It’s something that you have to be aware of,” Kane said.
  • Andrew Gross of The Record writes that the New Jersey Devils have shaken up their lines in practice today, which are expected to go into effect in their game Monday against Minnesota Wild. There will be several changes, but Pavel Zacha, who was a healthy scratch for four of the last five games, is expected to move into the top six, while Adam Henrique is expected to move down to the fourth line.

 

Metropolitan Notes: Atkinson, Hornqvist, Zacha, Weal

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Cam Atkinson’s new seven-year, $41.125MM contract with the Blue Jackets gives him a full no-trade clause from now until June 15th, 2020, reports Steve Gorten of the Columbus Dispatch.  After that time, he can block a trade to ten teams until the end of his deal in 2025.  He joins Brandon Dubinsky, Nick Foligno, and Sergei Bobrovsky (who all have no-move clauses) as players with trade protection.  GM Jarmo Kekalainen acknowledged that if they weren’t able to reach an extension with Atkinson, they likely would have wound up trading him to avoid the risk of losing him for nothing.

Elsewhere in the Metropolitan Division:

  • Winger Patric Hornqvist is the most prominent of Pittsburgh’s pending unrestricted free agents this summer but despite that, GM Jim Rutherford told Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that it’s unlikely that they will work on an extension during the season: “That would be something that’s a little uncharacteristic for me.  For the most part, I wait until the end of the season.”  Hornqvist is off to a good start to the season with 12 points (7-5-12) in 18 games and has scored 21 or more goals in each of the last four seasons; that type of consistency is something that will be coveted if he makes it to the open market.
  • Although he is waiver-exempt and is a healthy scratch for the fourth game of the last five, the Devils have not discussed sending center Pavel Zacha to their AHL affiliate in Binghamton, reports North Jersey’s Andrew Gross (Twitter link). The 20-year-old is off to a quiet start this season with five points (2-3-5) in 15 games and with Travis Zajac now back in the lineup, finding ice time at a fairly-crowded center position may be tough to do for Zacha in the short-term.
  • The Flyers announced that winger Jordan Weal is dealing with an upper-body injury and is listed as day-to-day. This marks the second time he has had an upper-body issue this season.  In his first full NHL campaign, Weal has recorded two goals and four assists in 17 contests while averaging just under 14 minutes per game of playing time.

Salary Cap Deep Dive: New Jersey Devils

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Navigating the Salary Cap is probably one of the more important tasks for any general manager to have. Teams that can avert total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2017-18 season. This will focus more on those players who are integral parts of the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.

New Jersey Devils

Current Cap Hit: $57,037,501 (under the $75MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

F Nico Hischier (Three years remaining, $925K)
D Will Butcher (Two years remaining, $925K)
D Michael Kapla (One year remaining, $925K)
F Pavel Zacha (Two years remaining, $894K)

Potential Bonuses

Hischier: $2.85MM
Butcher: $2.85MM
Zacha: $850K
Total: $6.55MM

It turned into a solid summer for the Devils as they won the draft lottery and used that first-overall pick to select Hischier, a talented Swiss center, who put up 38 goals and 86 points in 57 games for the Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL. He is expected to break camp with the team and have an immediate impact. With recent injuries, Hischier could take over as the second-line center and start his career in a great position. The hope is he will help lead this team to the playoffs sooner rather than later.

Butcher has been a more recent signing sensation as the Devils also won the offseason bidding for the Hobey Baker Award winner after he became a free agent several weeks ago. Butcher picked the Devils with the hopes of getting immediate playing time, since no one is truly sure if he is an NHL impact player. The 22-year-old blueliner put up outstanding numbers as a junior and senior at the University of Denver, but chose not to sign with the team that drafted him, the Colorado Avalanche. With the Devils biggest weakness being their defense, the team is thrilled to bring him on board.

Zacha, the sixth overall pick in the 2015 draft, finished his first full season in New Jersey, playing in 70 games, while putting up eight goals and 16 assists for the year. While those numbers look disappointing, he didn’t play a lot of minutes last year (14:18) and didn’t play with much talent next to him, although he looked good playing alongside Taylor Hall at points during the season. He should take that next step this year. Kapla, like Butcher arrives to join the team’s defense from college. He played four years for the University of Massachusetts – Lowell and signed a two year deal immediately after ending his senior year. That first year consisted of five games. Already on year two of his deal, Kapla must prove he is an NHL defenseman this year.

One Year Remaining, Non-Entry-Level

F Ryane Clowe ($4.85MM, UFA)
D John Moore ($1.67MM, UFA)
D Dalton Prout ($1.575MM, UFA)
F Drew Stafford ($800K, UFA)
F Stefan Noesen ($660K, RFA)

The group is not filled with impact players, so the Devils have little to worry about in the short term. They will likely rejoice once’s Clowe’s contract comes off the books. The veteran signed a five-year deal back in 2013 and only played two years, before being forced to retire due to concussion issues. Moore is an offensive defenseman (22 points in 63 games last year), but is totally inept on the defensive end. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the team went in a different direction on defense next year.

Prout, who the team picked up at the trade deadline for veteran Kyle Quincey, only played 14 games for the Devils and it might take all season to determine whether or not he has value. Stafford, who just signed recently to a one-year deal, could easily be a bargaining chip at the trade deadline. After putting up 21 goals two seasons ago while with the Winnipeg Jets, his value dropped as he scored just eight goals between the Jets and the Boston Bruins last season. The Devils, however, are counting on a bounce-back season, which could eventually net them some more young talent. Noesen, who signed a one-year, two-way contract will try to make the roster this year after scoring six goals in 32 games for New Jersey last season.

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New Jersey Notes: Schneider, Zacha, Henrique

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Up until this past year, the New Jersey Devils’ goalie Cory Schneider has been one of the top goaltenders in the NHL. Then with the help of one of the worst defenses in the league, Schneider saw his performances drop badly last year. The 31-year-old veteran posted a 1.97 GAA in 45 games in his first year in New Jersey in 2013-14. He followed that up with a 2.26 in 69 games and then a 2.15 GAA in 58 games in 2015-16. His play during those years was often what kept the Devils competitive.

Last year’s 2.82 GAA does not seem to be indicative of the career the netminder has had up to now. Yet, NBC Sports Adam Gretz writes that this will be a pivotal year for the goaltender who is under pressure to prove that last year was a fluke. His .908 save percentage was not only a career-worst, but also one of the worst in the league. There were even rumblings the Devils should trade the veteran goaltender, but even with their offensive additions of Marcus Johansson and first-overall pick Nico Hischier, the team is not likely to score enough goals.

A bounce-back season is needed to re-establish his identity, otherwise the $30MM the team still owes him over the next five years will likely haunt instead.

  • The Devils have high hopes that prospect Pavel Zacha is ready for a breakout season this year, writes Gretz in a separate piece. The 20-year-old wing who was the sixth-overall pick in 2015, is coming off his first full season in the NHL. While his eight goals and 16 assists were modest in his first year, the team believes Zacha could have a big year. After struggling in the first half of the season last year with just seven points in 37 games, he showed improvement in the second half, putting up 17 points in the final 33 games. And with the injury to Travis Zajac who is expected to miss the next four to six months, the team may look to Zacha to fill the void as the 20-year-old played both center and wing for the team last year.
  • While there was talk of possibly moving center Adam Henrique to the wing position to make room for some of the young centers like Hischier and Zacha, the injury to Zacha guarantees that Henrique will stay in the middle, writes Jesse Kinney of the Hockey Writers.

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