Phil Di Giuseppe

Canucks Sign Phillip Di Giuseppe To Two-Year Extension

March 12, 2023 at 2:16 pm CDT | by Brennan McClain 1 Comment

The Vancouver Canucks have announced via a press release that the team has signed forward Phillip Di Giuseppe to a two-year, two-way contract extension. Di Giuseppe will make $775K in the NHL and $500K at the AHL level. General Manager Patrik Allvin was very happy to report the signing as he described Di Giuseppe by saying, “He has been a reliable forward when called upon in Vancouver this year and has been an impactful player and leader with Abbotsford each of the past two seasons.”

In his second season within the Canucks organization, Di Giuseppe has only received playing time in Vancouver this season. In 13 games this year, he has registered two goals and two assists. In his limited time in Vancouver, Di Giuseppe has also spent time on the penalty kill as well. With a league-worst 68.75% penalty kill percentage, the Canucks have used a rotating door when establishing who will be on the ice when they are a man down this year.

In the minor leagues, Di Giuseppe has been far more productive. Combined over the last two years, Di Giuseppe has played 69 games for the Abbotsford Canucks, registering a total of 25 goals and 43 assists. As Vancouver begins to establish more prospect depth in the minor leagues, and Abbotsford competes for a playoff position, Di Giuseppe will be a valuable part of the Canucks organization for the next two seasons.

Vancouver Canucks Recall Aatu Raty, Guillaume Brisebois

February 22, 2023 at 2:04 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson Leave a Comment

The Vancouver Canucks announced Wednesday that they’ve recalled forward Aatu Raty and defenseman Guillaume Brisebois from their AHL affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks, also assigning forward Phillip Di Giuseppe to Abbotsford.

This could be Canucks fans’ first look at Raty in the NHL. Raty, still just 20 years old, was the centerpiece of the trade return for captain Bo Horvat when he was dealt to the New York Islanders late last month. After a strong start with the Islanders’ farm team in Bridgeport, though, it’s been a tough adjustment for Raty in Abbotsford. He has just one assist in eight games since joining the AHL Canucks.

It’s likely best not to read too much into Raty’s offensive struggles post-trade. A mid-season, coast-to-coast move across country borders would be understandably taxing on the young Finn. He’ll now get his second chance in the NHL this season after recording two goals in 12 games with the Islanders before the trade.

Raty and Brisebois will join the Canucks in St. Louis as they wrap up a road swing through the Central Division. Brisebois, a 25-year-old defenseman, has posted a goal and five assists in 36 games with Abbotsford this season. He saw time up with Vancouver in late October 2022, recording his first NHL point in a brief three-game stint.

Di Giuseppe, who signed a one-year, two-way contract to return to the Canucks last July, has recorded two goals and an assist in nine games with Vancouver this season. The 29-year-old will look to continue his strong offensive pace in Abbotsford, where he’s combined for 25 goals and 41 assists in 75 games since 2021.

Canucks Recall Three Players From AHL Abbotsford

February 4, 2023 at 2:34 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

With the Canucks set to return to action on Monday against New Jersey, they’ve made a trio of roster moves, announcing (Twitter link) the recalls of forwards Vasily Podkolzin, Phillip Di Giuseppe, and Nils Aman from Abbotsford of the AHL.

Podkolzin is the headliner of the three. The 21-year-old was a regular last season in Vancouver, picking up 14 goals and 12 assists in 79 games in his rookie campaign and the 2019 first-rounder was expected to take a step forward this year. However, he struggled out of the gate, notching just three assists in 16 games, resulting in him being sent to the AHL back in November. While Podkolzin didn’t light up the scoresheet by any stretch, he still fared reasonably well with Abbotsford, picking up seven goals and 11 helpers in 28 contests prior to the recall. Vancouver had just ten forwards on their roster before the recall so there’s a good chance that Podkolzkin will be in the lineup against the Devils.

This will be the third recall of the year for Di Giuseppe who had been sent back down when Vancouver hit the bye week. The 29-year-old has played just one game with Vancouver so far, his first appearance at the top level since 2020-21. Di Giuseppe has been quite productive in the minors, however, picking up 30 points in 33 games. He has seen NHL action in seven of the last eight seasons, tallying 16 goals and 37 assists in 202 appearances.

Aman, meanwhile, somewhat surprisingly cracked Vancouver’s opening roster out of training camp in his first season in North America. He got into 35 games with the team, logging just over 12 minutes a night but managed just a goal and four assists. That resulted him in him being sent down in late December and the demotion seemed to help him a bit offensively as he was more productive with Abbotsford, collecting four goals and five helpers in 17 contests.

With these moves, Vancouver’s roster now sits at the maximum size of 23 players.

Ilya Mikheyev Undergoes Season-Ending Surgery

February 2, 2023 at 2:05 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 1 Comment

Feb 2: The Canucks have announced Mikheyev underwent successful knee surgery today, though still did not give a concrete timeline for his recovery.

Jan 28: Although Canucks winger Ilya Mikheyev scored the game-winner in last night’s victory over Columbus, it will be his last goal (and game) for a while. Following the contest, the team announced (video link) that Mikheyev will miss the remainder of the season and will undergo knee surgery. An exact timeline for his recovery is not yet known. However, the expectation is that he will be ready for the start of training camp.

The injury actually occurred back in the preseason when he partially tore his ACL. At the time, the team opted to classify it as a lower-body injury but the 28-year-old only missed the first three games of the year before returning on October 18th. To his credit, Mikheyev did pretty well under the circumstances, collecting 13 goals and 15 assists (tying his career high) in 46 games despite being slowed down due to the tear. Those numbers were fairly close to the ones he had with Toronto the year before that helped him land a four-year $19MM contract this summer.

Since he will be out for the year, Vancouver will be able to put Mikheyev and his $4.75MM AAV on LTIR, giving them some extra flexibility to navigate the salary cap for the stretch run. While the Canucks aren’t likely to be buyers (they sit sixth in the Pacific Division and are a dozen points out of a Wild Card spot), this will give them a chance to be a bit more creative when it comes to salary retention or taking an expiring contract back to facilitate a trade.

Although Vancouver was only carrying 13 healthy forwards on their roster for Friday’s game (including Mikheyev), the team also revealed postgame (Twitter link) that winger Phillip Di Giuseppe was assigned to AHL Abbotsford. The 28-year-old was a healthy scratch against Columbus and has just one NHL appearance under his belt this season. With now just 11 forwards on their roster, more roster moves will be expected once their schedule resumes after the All-Star break.

Dryden Hunt, Phil Di Giuseppe Placed On Waivers

October 19, 2022 at 1:11 pm CDT | by Gavin Lee Leave a Comment

Two more players have graced the waiver wire today, as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that Dryden Hunt of the New York Rangers and Phillip Di Giuseppe of the Vancouver Canucks are available for claim.

Di Giuseppe is coming off season-opening injured reserve, suggesting he is ready to return to action now that he’s found himself on waivers. If he clears, he’ll likely join the Abbotsford Canucks where he spent all of last season. The 29-year-old does have 201 NHL games under his belt, but with the recent injury it seems unlikely that he’ll be claimed.

Hunt on the other hand is more of an interesting story. The 26-year-old undrafted forward plays a physical game and never seems to be out of energy, attacking defenders and tracking down the puck every time he hits the ice. In 76 games with the Rangers last season he scored six goals and 17 points while delivering 153 hits and racking up 52 penalty minutes.

While there might not be a lot of offensive upside there, it’s easy to see why another team might want to add Hunt to the bottom-six mix, especially given the fact that he comes with a cap hit of just $762.5K. That number could fit into basically any team’s cap structure and even with some poor results in limited minutes this year, there are signs that he could be a benefit to clubs struggling to find a good mix on the fourth line.

With Sammy Blais returning, the Rangers needed to clear some space, and might end up losing Hunt in the process.

Canucks Notes: DiPietro, Dermott, Di Giuseppe

October 8, 2022 at 9:34 am CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

Back in the offseason, it was revealed that Canucks prospect Michael DiPietro had requested a trade. To this point, there hasn’t been a move made but as president Jim Rutherford told Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province (Twitter link), it wasn’t for a lack of effort on their end:

We were open to it and when a player like that requests it, Patrik made teams aware that we would be willing to give him a chance (with) someone else, but nothing came along.

DiPietro was once a fairly highly-touted goalie prospect after a strong junior career but that has yet to translate into much success in the pros. Last year, he posted a .901 SV% along with a 2.95 GAA in 34 games with AHL Abbotsford, numbers that don’t scream NHL-ready by any stretch. He accepted his qualifying offer this summer and he’ll be battling for the backup job in the minors as things stand this season.

Free Agent Focus: New York Rangers

July 11, 2021 at 3:58 pm CDT | by Zach Leach 12 Comments

Free agency is now just under a month away and many teams are already looking ahead to when it opens up. There will be several prominent players set to hit the open market in late July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well. The Rangers are more concerned with the latter than the former, with few impending UFAs of note but quite a few impact RFAs.

Key Restricted Free Agents

F Pavel Buchnevich – Buchnevich is one of four of the Rangers’ top-twelve scoring forwards without a contract for next season, alongside Chytil, Gauthier, and Di Giuseppe, but is by far the most important. Buchnevich finished third in per-game scoring for New York this year, behind only stars Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad. His 48 points were two more than his 2019-20 total, but in 14 fewer games. Buchnevich’s consistent scoring paired with his defensive improvements and success on both special teams units led to an increase in ice time to 18:44 per game, top line minutes again behind only Zibanejad and Panarin. Buchnevich timed this breakout year well; the 26-year-old forward is now a restricted free agent with arbitration rights. This is not an aberration either, as Buchnevich has shown steady improvement throughout his career and is firmly established as a top-six forward with 20-goal and 50-point regularity. The Rangers will have no choice but to pay up, short-term or long-term, with an unfavorable arbitration decision, not to mention the animosity created by the process, as a looming threat.

G Igor Shesterkin – The Rangers may have two young goaltenders in the pros and a multitude of talented prospects in the pipeline, but make no mistake: Shesterkin is invaluable. The 25-year-old netminder has only played in 47 games across two seasons since coming over from the KHL, but has been superb with a .921 save percentage, 2.59 GAA, and a .611 points percentage in his decisions for a team that has played at a .552 clip over the past two years. Shesterkin is the best of the bunch in net in New York and the Rangers need to lock him up on a multi-year deal, regardless of his lack of NHL experience. Shesterkin’s arbitration eligibility ensures that they will have to pay him fairly as well. Shesterkin is close to unrestricted free agency and the worst thing the team could do is sign what looks to be a solid NHL starter to a short-term deal (or settle for an arbitration decision) only to see him continue to perform or even improve and then price himself out of town.

Other RFAs: F Filip Chytil, D Brandon Crawley, F Gabriel Fontaine, F Julien Gauthier, F Tim Gettinger, D Libor Hajek, G Adam Huska, F Patrick Newell, F Ty Ronning, D Yegor Rykov

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

D Brendan Smith – It wasn’t long ago that Smith’s contract was one of the most criticized in the NHL as he was buried in the minors in the first season of a four-year, $17.4MM deal with the Rangers. In the years since, he has somewhat recovered to become a good albeit still overpaid depth defenseman for New York. Smith has played in over 80% of the Rangers’ games over the past three seasons since his abysmal debut season, providing physicality and defensive stability and, for the first time in 2020-21, more secure puck-handling and a hint more offense. With a deep stable of talented young defensemen, the Rangers don’t need Smith. However, they could do far worse than someone with versatility, checking ability, and veteran experience as a depth option. He would come much cheaper this time around as well, as Smith is unlikely to have a competitive market as a free agent.

F Phil Di Giuseppe – At 27 years old with only 201 career games and 53 career points, Di Giuseppe has not much more than a depth option during his time in the NHL and likely won’t be. However, he proved to be valuable in that role in two seasons with New York, playing a gritty checking game and contributing some modest offense. Di Giuseppe’s success as a plug-and-play bottom-six forward is not limited to his time with the Rangers either, as some of his best seasons were playing the same role with the Carolina Hurricanes. As an affordable extra man, Di Giuseppe has value to the Rangers as an extension candidate, but he may be on the lookout for more opportunity rather than staying on a New York roster that is deep in young players in need of ice time and hoping to add more veterans this off-season.

Other UFAs: D Jack Johnson, D Darren Raddysh

Projected Cap Space

While Buchnevich and Shesterkin will earn considerable deals this summer and Chytil is deserving of a sizeable raise as well, the Rangers remain in good shape with the salary cap. They currently project to have $22.89MM in cap space with 18 players on the NHL roster, but that includes third-string goaltender Keith Kinkaid and cap charge for defenseman Anthony DeAngelo, who will be traded or at worst bought out in the off-season. A more accurate projection is closer to $25.5MM with 17 players on the roster. New deals for Gauthier, Hajek, and possibly Smith or Di Giuseppe (or replacements) should come cheap, leaving plenty of room to re-sign the key trio of RFA’s with room to spare to add another impact forward or two.

Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.

Trade Deadline Primer: New York Rangers

April 1, 2021 at 9:13 pm CDT | by Zach Leach 5 Comments

We are now less than two weeks away from the NHL Trade Deadline and talks are heating up. Where does each team stand and what moves should they be looking to make? We continue our look around the league with the New York Rangers.

The New York Rangers are a rebuilding team with a large assortment of promising, young pieces to build around. The team has been competitive this season, but is still a few pieces away from rounding out into a contender.

This is the description of a seller. The problem this poses to the Rangers: who are they supposed to sell? The roster is completely devoid of valuable impending free agents. Not one of New York’s UFA’s-to-be is at the top or even the middle of any buyer’s wish list. In a cap-strapped, expansion-affected, in-season trade market, the Rangers are also not going to make any major moves right now to shake up their roster or look to add those missing core pieces. The Rangers should be sellers; they simply have nothing to sell at this moment.

Record

16-15-4, .514, 6th in East Division

Deadline Status

Stand Pat (By Default)

Deadline Cap Space

$4.01MM in full-season space ($17.87MM at the deadline), 0/3 retention slots used, 44/50 contracts used per CapFriendly

Upcoming Draft Picks

2021: NYR 1st, BUF 3rd, NYR 3rd, OTT 4th, LAK 4th, NYR 4th, NYR 5th, NYR 6th, NYR 7th
2022: NYR 1st, NYR 2nd, NYR 3rd, NYR 4th, NYR 5th, NYR 6th, NYR 7th

Trade Chips

A warning for the following: the word “chips” should be taken with a grain of salt – and nothing is worse than chips without enough salt. The Rangers’ trade chips are either under-seasoned or old and stale. New York could deal the whole bag for the trade capital equivalent of 99 cents. There is nothing to see here.

The most recognizable rentals on the New York roster are veteran defensemen Jack Johnson and Brandon Smith, two of the most maligned defenders in the NHL in recent years. Johnson has already cleared waivers without any takers, while Smith’s $4.35MM contract means he is unlikely to move.

Phil Di Giuseppe is the Ranger’s lone impending free agent forward on the NHL roster and their best available rental. The 27-year-old winger has eight points in 25 games, which isn’t anything special, but puts him on a 26-point full-season pace – a good value at just $700K. Di Giuseppe may not be a household name, but he has nearly 200 NHL games to his credit as well. Contenders could do worse for a cheap depth rental.

As for players with some term on their contracts, the Rangers could listen on forwards Colin Blackwell and Kevin Rooney, defenseman Anthony Bitetto, or veteran goaltender Keith Kinkaid. However, they have to be wary of the Expansion Draft exposure requirements and the repercussions that moving any of these players would have. Especially at forward, where the team already dealt away Brendan Lemieux, moving another term forward is a shaky proposition.

Of course, the big name on the block in New York is defenseman Anthony DeAngelo. With more than enough talent to command a nice trade return on ability alone, the fact is that if a DeAngelo trade was going to happen, it likely would have already. Some teams are wary of his character concerns, while others are not comfortable with adding his $4.8MM cap hit to their 2021-22 payroll. Either way, DeAngelo seems likely to stay put in New York through the season until he can be used as Expansion Draft fodder and then bought out. DeAngelo is too good not to play in the NHL again, but it won’t be this year.

Others to Watch For: F Jonny Brodzinski ($700K, UFA), F Anthony Greco ($737.5K, 2022 UFA), F Patrick Newell ($792.5K, RFA), D Darren Raddysh ($700K, Group 6 UFA), D Mason Geertsen ($725K, 2022 UFA)

Team Needs

1) Draft Picks and Prospects – Read: Mid-to-late-round draft picks and C- or D-level prospects. Sorry, Rangers fans. This is not going to be an exciting deadline. This is the best you can hope for. Hold tight until the off-season and wait for GM Jeff Gorton to try to swing a blockbuster for a top-six center.

COVID Protocol Related Absences: 03/25/21

March 25, 2021 at 4:16 pm CDT | by Gavin Lee Leave a Comment

Each day, the NHL will publicly release the list of players that are unavailable to their respective teams due to being in COVID-19 Protocol. Here is the list for today so far:

Anaheim – Alexander Volkov*
Boston – Jake DeBrusk, Sean Kuraly
Minnesota – Zach Parise
Montreal – Joel Armia, Jesperi Kotkaniemi
NY Rangers – Brett Howden (plus part of the coaching staff)
Ottawa – TBA
Vancouver – Travis Boyd

As a reminder, inclusion on this list does not mean that a player has tested positive for Coronavirus or even that they have been confirmed as a close contact to another positive person. Included in the NHL’s list of possible reasons for someone being on the list is are the following:

(1) an initial positive test which remains unconfirmed until confirmatory testing is completed pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (2) mandated isolation for symptomatic individuals pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (3) required quarantine as a high-risk close contact in accordance with the Positive Test Protocol; (4) isolation based on a confirmed positive test result and/or; (5) quarantine for travel or other reasons as outlined in the COVID-19 Protocol

Players removed today: Danton Heinen, Anaheim Ducks; Ben Hutton, Anaheim Ducks; Jacob Larsson, Anaheim Ducks; Anthony Stolarz, Anaheim Ducks; Phil Di Giuseppe, New York Rangers

All four players that were added recently for the Ducks have found their way off, though Volkov has been added as he moves from one team to another. After being acquired late last night, the young forward will need to face a short quarantine period before he can join Anaheim.

For the Rangers, Di Giuseppe has exited the protocol along with assistant coaches Jacques Martin and Greg Brown. They have joined the team in Philadelphia and can take over their regular duties once again.

Unfortunately, they aren’t the only coaches facing an issue like this. The Buffalo Sabres have announced that interim head coach Don Granato and assistant Matt Ellis are self-isolating and will be unavailable for tonight’s game against the Penguins. Sabres GM Kevyn Adams will be being the bench as head coach instead.

*denotes new addition

COVID Protocol Related Absences: 03/24/21

March 24, 2021 at 4:13 pm CDT | by Gavin Lee Leave a Comment

Each day, the NHL will publicly release the list of players that are unavailable to their respective teams due to being in COVID-19 Protocol. Here is the list for today so far:

Anaheim – Danton Heinen, Ben Hutton, Jacob Larsson, Anthony Stolarz
Boston – Jake DeBrusk, Sean Kuraly
Calgary – TBA
Minnesota – Zach Parise*
Montreal – Joel Armia, Jesperi Kotkaniemi
NY Rangers – Phil Di Giuseppe, Brett Howden (plus their coaching staff)
Ottawa – TBA
Vancouver – Travis Boyd
Winnipeg – TBA

(1) an initial positive test which remains unconfirmed until confirmatory testing is completed pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (2) mandated isolation for symptomatic individuals pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (3) required quarantine as a high-risk close contact in accordance with the Positive Test Protocol; (4) isolation based on a confirmed positive test result and/or; (5) quarantine for travel or other reasons as outlined in the COVID-19 Protocol

Players removed today: David Krejci, Boston Bruins; David Pastrnak, Boston Bruins; Craig Smith, Boston Bruins; Noah Dobson, New York Islanders

Minnesota had actually announced Andrew Hammond entered the protocol yesterday, but his name did not appear on the report. Now only Parise is present, with the team recalling Joseph Cramarossa under emergency conditions for tonight’s game. It’s unclear what has happened to Hammond, but perhaps the team is not including him on the list while he remains on the taxi squad.

The Bruins will practice this evening after three names came off the list, the same day that the NHL had hoped they would return to normal when things were first shut down. Still, DeBrusk and Kuraly remain in the protocol for now and will be unavailable until they exit.

It’s great news that it remains just two names for the Canadiens, who had four games postponed out of an abundance of caution. Hopefully, things will stay contained for the team and they can get back to normal next week.

After briefly appearing when the list was released, Dobson has also been removed. The Islanders defenseman will not be traveling with the team for their next three games but is eligible to return whenever ready to play.

*denotes new addition

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