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PHR Mailbag: Blackhawks-Oilers, Eichel, TV, Ruff

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Topics in this edition of the PHR Mailbag include the Chicago-Edmonton series, Jack Eichel’s future in Buffalo, forecasting the television picture for the NHL’s Return to Play, and Lindy Ruff’s hiring in New Jersey.  If your question doesn’t appear here, watch for it in next week’s mailbag.

Mark L: When play stopped, the Oilers offense was looking very strong while the Blackhawks defense was a mess. Because of the long suspension of play, Chicago will have Calvin de Haan back for sure and could have Brent Seabrook back as well.

They also have some younger, talented players who won’t have played a gruelling campaign before jumping into a playoff. If Corey Crawford can stay healthy and in net, what are the chances this is a more competitive series, perhaps one Chicago can steal, than it looks to be at first glance?

With teams being off for as long as they have been, every series has a chance to be more competitive than it may seem on paper.  Good teams can come out of the gate slow in the regular season and this is a longer layoff than a typical summer so there are bound to be some surprises along the way.

It’s interesting that you mention Crawford as I think goaltending will be a huge part of this series but it’s Edmonton’s goaltending that could very well dictate the outcome.  When he’s on his game, Mikko Koskinen can be a real difference-maker.  On the flip side, when he’s off, he’s really off.  If he’s not sharp out of the gate, that’s one area that Chicago can exploit.  Mike Smith is a capable backup that can steady things in that instance but he’s probably not going to steal games at this point of his career.

Crawford’s top level isn’t as good as Koskinen’s but the inconsistency isn’t as sharp either (which is good as turning to Malcolm Subban wouldn’t be ideal given the year he had).  If Chicago can get the better goaltending, they’ll have a decent chance in this series unless Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl steal the show and with how they performed during the regular season, they can win games on their own even if Crawford outperforms Koskinen.

Getting de Haan back will certainly help defensively and on the penalty kill but I don’t know if they’d want to risk putting Seabrook back in.  He’s just starting to skate now after being off since mid-December and he was struggling before being taken out.  Even if Seabrook does play, it’s hard to see him getting more than a spot on the third pairing which will limit his chances of making any sort of tangible impact in this series.

Baji Kimran: Do you think Buffalo is considering moving Jack Eichel? If so, what would they want in return, High-end talent that is already in the NHL or a slew of draft picks (#1’s, #2’s)? Finally, if they were open to moving Eichel, don’t you think the team that wins the Alexis Lafreniere sweepstakes would be smart to try to acquire Eichel?

Eichel’s comments back in May where he indicated that he is “fed up with losing” certainly raised some eyebrows around the league and evidently caught the attention of Sabres ownership as they decided to change course with the firing of Jason Botterill as GM with Kevyn Adams taking over as his replacement.  I think Adams’ mandate is now to change things up while still building around Eichel, not moving him out though.

With all due respect to Adams who has clearly done enough to impress ownership to give him the nod, this will be his first crack at being a part of management.  Having a raw rookie in the GM role is risky enough let alone asking him to try to find the right trade for your franchise player, disgruntled as he may be at the moment.  It’s not a good time to move him, especially with his AAV of $10MM being near the top of the league at a time where teams are going to be in tough for cap space.

But for the sake of discussion, let’s say Adams was considering it.  Moving him for another established top talent doesn’t really move the needle much – now you’d have a different top player with a supporting cast that still needs some work.  So about the only way moving Eichel would make some sense is if Buffalo decided to do yet another rebuild with the target return being two or three core assets (top draft pick, top prospects, or young NHL players with top-half potential) plus some veteran salary ballast similar to what Patrik Berglund and Vladimir Sobotka were in the Ryan O’Reilly trade with St. Louis.  That doesn’t seem like a particularly appealing route for the Sabres to take at the moment so I’d be very surprised if Eichel is on the move.

M34: Are all the remaining games going to be nationally televised?

This is something that is being discussed now that the ratification is done with a schedule being set and an answer is expected in the very near future.  So with the risk of this being proven incorrect in a hurry, here is my prediction.

Exhibition games, the play-in round, and the round-robin games for the top four teams in each conference will be shown regionally with national networks being allowed to convert a handful to the wider coverage level.  The league has gone out of its way to call these games non-playoff contests and I suspect part of the reason is that they want to use this for inventory for regional sports networks to make up for some of the lost games as a result of the effective cancellation of the rest of the regular season.  (Of course, the stats are counting as playoff stats which goes against their long-stated assertion that these aren’t playoff games but let’s play along with the league here anyway.)

I also wouldn’t be shocked if some RSNs will get the ability to show games in the first round to also help make up the lost game inventory.  I could also see those games getting national coverage and while that seems somewhat redundant, it wouldn’t be that hard to do.  A world feed will be produced with individual networks doing their own graphics.  Accordingly, it would be easy enough for NBC (in the United States) or Sportsnet (in Canada) to have their own commentators doing the game nationally while the RSN has the same video feed but with the local broadcast team.  It’s a bit of a compromise and there has been plenty of that lately with the CBA MOU and Return to Play protocols getting finalized.

MoneyBallJustWorks: Thoughts on the Lindy Ruff signing by NJ and where do you think some of the more prominent names could end up going?

I was a bit surprised by the hire as I figured he’d be behind some of the more prominent names but I don’t mind it.  Ruff is not the long-term coach that’s going to steer New Jersey out of their rebuild, into contention, and onto a Stanley Cup championship.  Instead, he’s what I call a ‘transitional coach’.

Ruff’s reputation is that he gets the best offensively out of teams although the defensive play leaves something to be desired.  But right now, that’s okay.  I’d rather have that than the opposite even though that would normally be the smarter route for a team in their situation.

The strong point of this roster is their offense.  They have a pair of top picks in Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes who have plenty of skill but have been hit or miss at times in their early NHL careers.  Their top priority in a coaching search should have been finding someone who is best equipped to help these two develop.  Ruff should be able to help do that.

Are they going to struggle defensively?  Sure.  But that was going to be the case no matter who they installed as head coach unless they went to a pure trapping system and tried to win games 2-1.  That wouldn’t have been ideal for their two hopeful franchise cornerstones though.  The Devils have some talent on their back end but some of those defenders are more offensive-minded than defensive-minded so a change to a more up-tempo style may benefit them as well.

A few years from now, Hughes and Hischier have established themselves as offensive stars in an ideal world and the focus can then shift towards really shoring up the back end.  (By then, they’ll also hope to have their goaltending situation figured out as either Mackenzie Blackwood has established himself as a starter or someone else will be in that role.)  By then, they should be back in the mix for a playoff spot and will probably have made it once or twice.  That will be the time to look for the longer-term coaching option but by then, Ruff should have helped steer the franchise in the right direction.

It’s difficult to forecast where some of the other prominent names will end up as right now, there aren’t any vacancies.  With cash flows being much more limited in the short term, it’s quite possible that there aren’t any openings for coaches like Gerard Gallant, Mike Babcock, and Peter Laviolette to pursue until sometime in 2021.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Offseason Keys: Ottawa Senators

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The offseason has arrived for at least seven teams that were not invited to take part in the play-in round that’s slated to begin in early August.  With that in mind, our Offseason Keys series is underway for the teams that are on the outside looking in.  Next up is a look at Ottawa.

The Senators committed to a full-scale rebuild over the last couple of years when they dealt away the majority of their top players.  Not surprisingly, the corresponding performance this season wasn’t particularly strong.  The good news is that they have built up a strong prospect pool and are set to add to that with two picks in the top five in October.  But hitting on those two selections is only a small part of what they will be looking to do this offseason.

Spend, Spend, Spend

For a team that, let’s face it, has shown a reluctance to spend towards the Upper Limit of the salary cap, this may seem like a strange header.  In normal times, they likely wouldn’t be going out of their way to take on contracts but this isn’t anywhere close to being normal times.  The cap isn’t going up and that means there are going to be plenty more motivated sellers this offseason than we’ve been accustomed to seeing.

Ottawa has a strong stockpile of picks and prospects already but there is always room for more at this stage of their rebuilding phase.  The more options they have, the better.  Those will likely be the currency getting used to make those deals and GM Pierre Dorion should be quite interested as a result.

The Senators would likely be shopping at a different end of the market though and it actually may wind up being to their advantage.  While higher-spending teams will be shopping for the best talent available and trying to drive a hard bargain to get the best deal possible, Ottawa’s previous willingness to take on high AAV deals that carry a lower salary is going to be appealing to teams looking to cut money.  (Their past trades for Marian Gaborik and Ryan Callahan – both injured players – provide another pathway to pursue if it’s a short-term deal as well.)  Rather than lose an impact player, parting with a decent sweetener to pawn off an inflated AAV is a much better alternative and Dorion should be poised to take advantage of that, perhaps better than any other team.

Duclair Deal

Last summer, the Senators played it safe with Anthony Duclair, a move that was certainly understandable given his past performance.  Instead of looking for a long-term deal, they opted for a one-year, $1.65MM pact which the winger certainly lived up to and then some this year.  While his production was still streaky at times, he finished up his year with 23 goals (a career high) and 40 points while his point-per-game rate of 0.61 was better than any other season in his career.

With salary arbitration rights, Duclair is looking at a nice raise this offseason even with the salary cap flattening out.  But will it be a long-term contract this time around or a short-term one?  He’s two years away from UFA eligibility so it’s at the typical point where the bridge contract is now done and a long-term deal is worked out.

That still doesn’t seem like an automatic outcome here, however.  As some of Ottawa’s prospects work their way up the system, is there going to be a spot for Duclair in their top six a few years from now?  If they think the answer is yes, then this is probably the best spot to buy out a UFA year or two at the very least.  But if not, another short-term pact (perhaps even another one-year contract) may be the better way to go even though it runs the risk of getting him to a point next summer where he opts for a one-year arbitration award to expedite a shot at the open market (for the second time after he was non-tendered in 2018).  This will be one of the trickier decisions that Dorion will have to contend with in the coming months.

Add A Top-Six Center

Part of the reason that Jean-Gabriel Pageau was in the middle of a career year before being shipped out at the trade deadline was that he was effectively Ottawa’s number one center by default which allowed him to average more than 19 minutes per game.  That’s not an ideal amount of ice time for him but in head coach D.J. Smith’s defense, he didn’t really have any other options.  Colin White struggled mightily in the first year of his new deal, Chris Tierney is best used on the third line, while Artem Anisimov and Nick Paul should be in even lesser roles.  It got to the point where Brady Tkachuk was tried in the middle at times and while he held his own, his willingness and ability to engage physically makes him a better candidate to stay on the wing.

Granted, Ottawa does have high hopes for Josh Norris but despite a stellar rookie campaign in the minors, he’s not stepping into that role right away.  Neither is Logan Brown, a player who hasn’t been able to put it all together just yet.  There’s a good chance that they’ll wind up with at least one center with one of those early selections but throwing them to the wolves right away with a spot on the number one line is asking for trouble.

It’s not an area that Ottawa is realistically going to be able to address in free agency as quite frankly, the UFA market for centers isn’t the greatest.  It’s also unlikely that they’d be the top bidder if there was one out there.  Instead, this is one spot they’ll likely have to make a trade to improve.  A number one pivot is doubtful but as teams are looking to free up money, some quality second liners should be out there.  Even that would represent a considerable upgrade on what their current options are and would allow their up-and-coming youngsters to ease into their roles which, from a long-term development perspective, would be ideal.   Someone with three or four years left on their contract would fit in relatively well and would be a nice addition for Dorion to make.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Offseason Keys: Detroit Red Wings

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The offseason has arrived for at least seven teams that were not invited to take part in the play-in round that’s slated to begin in early August.  With that in mind, it’s time to kick off our Offseason Keys series for the teams that are on the outside looking in.  Next up is a look at Detroit.

It hasn’t been a good last twelve months for the Red Wings.  After finishing 28th in points in 2018-19, they took a step backwards and had a terrible season, one that saw them allow the most goals and score the fewest.  Not surprisingly, that particular combination saw them in last place when the regular season was called.  Things weren’t better in the Draft Lottery either as they fell as far as they were allowed to, dropping from first to fourth in the order.  With that negativity out of the way, here is what Detroit will need to accomplish to have a successful offseason.

Find A Long-Term Goaltending Solution

For years, Jimmy Howard has been entrenched between the pipes in Detroit.  But that time has all but certainly come to an end after posting a 4.20 GAA with a .882 SV% in 27 starts this season.  He lost all but two of those games.  If that type of performance somehow isn’t enough to scare GM Steve Yzerman off, Howard is also now 36.  On a rebuilding team, a goalie that age can’t be part of the long-term solution.

Neither can Jonathan Bernier even though he had a pretty good year all things considered with a 2.95 GAA and a .907 SV% in his 46 appearances.  Those numbers aren’t great but given the team in front of him, he did okay.  He’ll turn 32 next month and while he’s signed for next season to fill part of their goaltending tandem, he is more of a platoon option at this stage of his career instead of a full-time starter.  He can be a piece of the puzzle but not the key one.

There are going to be a handful of starting goalies that hit the open market in November, barring any extensions to stick around.  Yzerman has ample cap space at his disposal with just over $46MM in commitments for next season to 11 players so there is plenty of wiggle room to work with.  They should be showing considerable interest in each of those options.

Detroit could also take a look at Yaroslav Askarov in the draft in October.  He’s widely considered to be the top goalie available and one of the better ones to be available for a while.  However, drafting goalies early is often considered a risk and selecting him fourth would be well above where his rankings suggest he should go.  However, the Red Wings went ‘off the board’ a bit last year with defenseman Moritz Seider so taking their guy earlier than expected is something they could certainly do which would free them up to look a veteran platoon option to hold things down while Askarov works his way into being NHL-ready.

New Deal For Mantha

Two years ago, Anthony Mantha signed a bridge contract coming off his entry-level deal.  The decision made sense as he hadn’t quite established himself as a consistent top liner.  There were flashes of him living up to his potential but other times where he wasn’t making a big impact.

That started to change last season as he became a bigger threat, matching his career high offensively from the season before despite missing 15 games due to injury.  He was on pace for an even better performance this season except that knee and lung issues limited him to just 43 games before the pandemic hit.  That’s not the best leverage heading into talks for his next deal even with salary arbitration rights.

The salary landscape certainly doesn’t help either.  The freezing of the salary cap is not conducive to handing out the big-money deal that Mantha was certainly hoping to get and with his platform year being basically cut in half, this feels like a situation where there is a lot of work to do.

From Mantha’s standpoint, another short-term deal may be desired.  If he does that, stays healthy, and is able to continue his offensive improvement, he’ll be well-positioned a year from now to cash in, even with the cap limitations still in effect.  In the end, he’d probably come out with more money than he’d get by signing a long-term deal now.  Of course, a deal that buys out several UFA-eligible years is certainly Yzerman’s preference to help ensure that one of their pillars will stick around.  Getting this done should be at the top of his to-do list in the coming months.

Rebuild The Back End

Of the eight defensemen that were on Detroit’s roster to end the season, three are unrestricted free agents that almost certainly won’t be back in Jonathan Ericsson, Trevor Daley, and Cody Goloubef (who was added on waivers less than three weeks before their season ended).  Mike Green (traded to Edmonton) is already gone.  Needless to say, there are some vacancies that need to be filled.

Filip Hronek looks like a long-term piece and Seider, though not yet ready to play in their top four, should get there eventually as well.  After that, there are some question marks.  Dennis Cholowski and Gustav Lindstrom have shown some promise but aren’t ready to take on a big role yet either while projected returnees Patrik Nemeth, Alex Biega, and Madison Bowey (RFA) are role players, not impact ones either.  There are some other prospects on the horizon but none that are ready to step in and play right away.

As a result, there are a few spots up for grabs and they can’t all be filled internally.  Whether it’s the free agent market, trades, or both, the Red Wings need to make a splash or two to give their defense corps a significant boost.  If they can’t accomplish that, it may not matter who they have between the pipes in the end.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Offseason Keys: New Jersey Devils

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The offseason has arrived for at least seven teams that were not invited to take part in the play-in round that’s slated to begin in early August.  With that in mind, it’s time to kick off our Offseason Keys series.  There was one team that wasn’t covered in our Stretch Run Storylines series as New Jersey had already been ruled out of returning to play.  Accordingly, let’s begin this series with a closer look at the Devils.

After finishing last in the Metropolitan Division in 2018-19, the hope in New Jersey was that they’d start to turn things around.  They added P.K. Subban and Wayne Simmonds to give them a boost and a good finish to that year from Cory Schneider was cause for optimism that he had fully recovered from his lingering injury woes.  That didn’t happen.  Schneider struggled as did just about everyone else and as a result, New Jersey finds themselves in the same spot now as they were a year ago – hoping things can only go up from here.  Here’s what to watch for them this offseason.

Determine Coach And GM

New Jersey has been taking advantage of this extended time off to do a thorough coaching search.  On the surface, this makes a lot of sense but interim GM Tom Fitzgerald is heading that up while ownership has been interviewing candidates for Fitzgerald’s role.  Normally, it would make sense to have a permanent GM in place before deciding on the coach but it seems like the opposite may happen here which suggests that even if Fitzgerald isn’t the GM when all is said and done, he’ll still have a prominent front role in the front office.

That certainly wouldn’t be a bad idea on their part.  He has certainly worked his way up the ranks slowly but surely and has been an assistant GM since 2009 so he has paid his dues.  On top of that, he has navigated the trade market well, garnering an impressive return for Blake Coleman (essentially two first-round picks) that few saw coming.

As for their coaching situation, they are down to five candidates including interim bench boss Alain Nasreddine who the team performed reasonably well in front of (19-16-8) after he took over compared to their start to the season.  Veterans Gerard Gallant, Peter Laviolette, Lindy Ruff, and John Stevens are believed to be the others in the mix.

They have plenty of time as we’re still basically three months away from free agency so this isn’t a situation that needs to be rushed.  They’re effectively the only team with a vacancy although, at the end of the day, it’s quite possible that there winds up being no vacancy at all if the team decides to stick with their current options in the end.

Palmieri Resolution

Since joining New Jersey, winger Kyle Palmieri has blossomed into an underrated consistent scoring threat, tallying at least 24 goals in each of his five seasons with the team.  The Devils have been benefitting from one of the more under the radar bargains over that time as he has carried a $4.65MM AAV over the past four seasons and will for 2020-21 as well whenever it gets up and running.  However, next season will be the final year of his contract and he’ll be slated for unrestricted free agency after that.

It usually takes until players are officially in the final league year of their contracts to be able to sign an extension.  Normally, by now, we’re in that situation but that has changed due to the pandemic.  However, instead of making those players wait until November (the projected start of the 2020-21 league year), players like Palmieri will be in a position where they can officially sign an extension as early as next week.  Accordingly, contract talks should soon be on the horizon.

The Devils shouldn’t put themselves into a position where Palmieri’s fate is unknown heading into next season.  Barring a seismic turnaround of fortunes, they seem likely to be outside the playoff picture again next season which presents a potential trade as a rental situation.  However, the tightening salary cap picture is going to make it even more difficult than usual to move money in-season.  Normally, Palmieri would garner a significant return as a rental player but so many teams are going to be cap-strapped next year to the point where attempting to go that way will be risky.  Plan A from New Jersey’s standpoint should be an extension.  If they can’t agree on one in the coming months though, Plan B – a trade – should get early consideration as well.

Utilize Cap Space

The salary cap first came to the NHL back in 2005.  Since then, there has been an annually-increasing usage of the phrase ‘cap space is a weapon’ or something similar to that.  Prepare to see it a lot more over the coming months as more teams than ever will be in situations where they need to clear out money in a hurry.  For teams that have cap room and are willing to spend it, they’ll be in great shape.

It just so happens that New Jersey has cap space.  Plenty of it.  They’ve also shown a willingness to try to spend in past years but haven’t had a lot of success trying to lure players on the open market.  The stretch between mid-October and the beginning of November presents them with a terrific opportunity to leverage that room to add some players that can help now and add assets for down the road.

Just how much space do the Devils have?  They have just over $55MM in commitments for next season, per CapFriendly with 13 players signed.  There are no prominent players in need of a new deal – RFA defenseman Mirco Mueller has the biggest qualifying offer at just $1.4MM while goalie Mackenzie Blackwood is arguably the most notable.  That leaves them some space to add some impact players.

Even if the trade market falls short, they should have more success in free agency this time around as the big-money deals are going to be few and far between beyond the top players at each position.  A one-year pillow contract similar to the one that Simmonds signed last summer is something that more players may be considering this time around.  Fortunately for New Jersey, if that’s what it comes to, they’re in the best position to hand them out and whoever is the one signing the deals – Fitzgerald or someone else – will be poised to benefit.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

July 1st Retrospective: 2019

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July 1st is typically filled with hundreds of millions committed to contracts signed in the early hours of free agency.  However, this is no ordinary year and as a result, the UFA market is on hold for a while yet with the Stanley Cup on pace to be awarded sometime in October with the official offseason expected to start in November.  So instead of there being plenty of new deals to talk about, let’s take a look back at the free agent frenzy from recent years.  Last up in our series is 2019 with 2017 and 2018 being covered earlier in the week.

The previous two openings of the free agent period featured a lot of prominent re-signings without a big flurry of notable players heading elsewhere; there were a few but only a few.  That changed last summer as several significant players opted to head for new teams.

For the purpose of this exercise, we’re limiting our scope to the deals handed out on July 1st itself which means players like Jake Gardiner and Marcus Johansson who were in the top-15 of our UFA list but signed later are not considered here.

Key Re-Signings

Anders Lee (NYI) – 7 years, $49MM – While not the biggest point producer, Lee had 104 goals to his name over the past three seasons which helped him garner considerable interest around the league but his focus was staying in New York and remaining as their captain.  His numbers this season weren’t terrible but he was at his lowest goal-per-game pace since 2015-16 when the pandemic hit while he was hovering around a 50-point pace as well.  They need more than that from Lee to get good value on this deal.

Sebastian Aho (CAR) – 5 years, $42.27MM – Okay, technically, this wasn’t a re-signing as the Canadiens tendered him an offer sheet to get to this point.  But it may as well have been as the potential compensation to the Hurricanes wasn’t enough to give them any pause to match it.  While being more of a playmaker early in his career, Aho showed his scoring touch more often this season, finishing tied for sixth in the league in that department while averaging nearly a point per game.  He looks like he’ll live up to the deal without any issue but this contract does take him to UFA eligibility while he’s in the prime of his career and by the time he hits the open market, the current salary cap concerns should largely be mitigated.

Timo Meier (SJ) – 4 years, $24MM – This one makes it on here for the structure of the deal.  The fourth and final season of the contract carries a $10MM salary which then represents his required qualifying offer in June of 2023 which, given the new salary cap picture, looks potentially even more worrisome.  Meier’s performance this year was lower than 2018-19 but that’s something that could be said for just about everyone in San Jose.  He should provide some value on his current $6MM AAV but that qualifying offer already looms large.

Top AAV Free Agent Signings

(Players changing teams)

Artemi Panarin (NYR) – 7 years, $81.5MM – Everyone knew Panarin was heading for a big payday and yet this deal still raised some eyebrows as it made him the highest-paid winger in NHL history.  Accordingly, at no point will this be viewed as a bargain contract but he lived up to it this season, finishing tied for third in team scoring with 95 points and was only behind Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in assists with 63.  That’s pretty good company to be in.

Sergei Bobrovsky (FLA) – 7 years, $70MM – He was handed the richest deal ever given to a goalie on the open market (Carey Price’s contract with Montreal was an early extension, not a free agent deal) and the results were anything but pretty.  Bobrovsky struggled pretty much all season long and posted a GAA of 3.23 and a .900 SV%, numbers that aren’t good for a backup let alone a starter.  His contract means he’ll be afforded plenty of opportunities to turn things around but this could be a real problem down the road.

Matt Duchene (NSH) – 7 years, $56MM – His offensive struggles with Columbus after being acquired from Ottawa wound up being a precursor to this season as things did not go well for him this season.  His 13 goals were the lowest of his career while 42 points in 66 games is not the type of production that an $8MM price tag should yield.  The Predators have done plenty to add to their center depth in recent years with the addition of Duchene, Kyle Turris, and Nick Bonino.  Despite all of the money invested in them, it’s still a weak spot.

Joe Pavelski (DAL) – 3 years, $21MM – It came as a bit of a shock that he was willing to leave San Jose after 14 seasons with the team but getting three guaranteed years just 10 days before turning 35 was pretty good on his end.  Unfortunately, the Stars haven’t got much of a reward for that deal just yet as Pavelski turned in basically the worst offensive season of his career in 2019-20 with just 14 goals and 17 assists in 67 games.  There was a risk that he wouldn’t be a top line player by the time the deal was done but not many expected that to happen within the first few months of the contract.

Ones To Forget

Tyler Myers (VAN) – 5 years, $30MM – For all of the flak he takes, Myers has carved out a solid 11-year career so far.  But $6MM for a player that is best used as a fourth defender or lower isn’t a great deal, nor was the five-year term that takes him into his mid-30s.  His point per game average (0.31) was his lowest since his age-22 season in Buffalo in 2012-13.  It’s an overpay in both money and term and that’s not an ideal combination.

Mats Zuccarello (MIN) – 5 years, $30MM – Over the last four years, Zuccarello had reached the 50-point mark three times and played at a 68-point pace in the one he didn’t get there due to injury.  That made him seem like a relatively safe bet on the open market as someone that could come in and provide Minnesota with some consistent production from the second line.  It didn’t happen this season, however, as he had just 15 goals and 22 assists in 65 games while seeing his ice time drop from nearly 20 minutes a night the year before to not even 16 per game in 2019-20.

Anton Stralman (FLA) – 3 years, $16.5MM – While Stralman was brought in to provide some much-needed stability to Florida’s defense (which he did), this was still a hefty price to pay for a veteran boost on the second pairing.  The Panthers found themselves in cost-cutting mode towards the end of the season and a big part of that was this deal along with Bobrovsky’s.  The shorter term makes this a little more palatable but it’s still a big overpayment in terms of AAV.

Wayne Simmonds (NJ) – 1 year, $5MM – After a tough showing in 2018-19 including a poor performance in Nashville, Simmonds opted for a pillow contract with the hopes of cashing in this coming offseason instead.  It’s safe to say that’s not going to happen.  The veteran struggled mightily on a bad New Jersey team and didn’t look much better in Buffalo either where the Devils had to retain half of the remainder of the contract simply to get a 2021 fifth-round pick.

Bargains

Tyler Ennis (OTT) – 1 year, $800K – After having a minimal role with Toronto the year before, Ennis signed with the Senators in the hopes of getting more of an opportunity to play in an offensive role and he responded with 33 points in 61 games before being moved to Calgary at the trade deadline.  He was relatively productive with the Flames as well.  Overall, getting 16 goals and 21 assists for just over the league minimum in a shortened season is one of the better UFA bargains in recent years.

Joakim Ryan (LA) – 1 year, $725K – After playing a limited role in San Jose, Ryan sought a bigger opportunity when he signed with the Kings.  He certainly got that as his average ice time went up by more than six minutes a game while he wound up being voted as the team’s best defenseman and Unsung Hero.  While that is partially an indictment on how much Los Angeles struggled this season, it’s also a sign that Ryan has taken a step forward in his development.  To get that for barely over the minimum was a nice piece of business by GM Rob Blake even if it went under the radar.

Jason Spezza (TOR) – 1 year, $700K – No, Spezza isn’t the player he was in his prime but his true value on the open market was for more than the minimum salary.  However, he wanted to play in his hometown which the Maple Leafs used to their advantage.  To his credit, while his ice time dipped considerably (from 13:16 per game to 10:50), his point per game average was actually higher than his final two seasons in Dallas while he was once again strong at the faceoff dot.  Playing at a 35-point pace from the fourth line is something a lot of players can’t do, let alone ones at the absolute bottom of the salary scale.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Vancouver’s Looming Cap Crunch

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When you think of teams that are going to be hit hard by the anticipated flattening of the salary cap, Toronto and Tampa Bay typically come to mind and justifiably so.  They have top-heavy rosters and are going to have to clear some salary in the near future.  If St. Louis re-signs Alex Pietrangelo, they’ll be in that mix as well.

One team that doesn’t come to mind as quickly is Vancouver.  But the recent reports that the salary cap will remain unchanged for the next two seasons at $81.5MM is going to cause some problems for them both in the short term and long term.

On the surface, things don’t look too bad.  Per CapFriendly, they have nearly $63.5MM in commitments for next season to 14 players.  Having roughly $18MM left to fill out the roster isn’t great but it’s not terrible either.

But let’s chip away at that a little.  By virtue of needing LTIR for basically the entire season, they ended the season with minimal cap space which means any achieved bonuses from this season will be charged against the 2020-21 cap.  Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston provides some details about what was reached in that regard this season.  Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes both hit all of their $850K in ‘A’ bonuses so there’s an extra $1.7MM right there.  Now that cap space is down to $16.3MM.

The Canucks have three prominent unrestricted free agents this offseason that they’ll be looking to retain or replace.  Chief among those is Jacob Markstrom who has established himself as a capable starting goalie by making 160 starts over the past three seasons, compiling a 2.74 GAA with a ..914 save percentage over that span.  Accordingly, he’s going to get a raise on his current $3.67MM price tag even in this depressed marketplace whether it’s with Vancouver or another team on the lookout for a new starting netminder.  If they don’t re-sign him, they’ll still have to spend a similar amount to replace him with another starter so it’s safe to budget a sizable amount of their cap room for Markstrom or someone else.

Chris Tanev is a key part of Vancouver’s back end after spending the last decade there.  Given his injury history and limited production, he may not be able to get his current $4.45MM AAV on his next deal but it will take a few million to re-sign him as well.  Tyler Toffoli fit in quite well after being acquired from the Kings and they’d love to keep him around but with it not being the deepest of UFA classes up front, he may command at or more than his $4.6MM cap hit on his next deal.

Without even getting into their class of RFAs (highlighted by Jake Virtanen), the Canucks may have to chip away from their roster just to keep their team intact.  But that will be easier said than done.  With a lot of teams wanting or needing to do the same, the price to offload a contract should be steep and in Vancouver’s case, the deals they’d want to peddle (Sven Baertschi, Jay Beagle, Loui Eriksson, and Brandon Sutter) are ones that likely already carry negative value.  Micheal Ferland doesn’t have much value either after concussions cost him most of the season and if he’s healthy, they won’t have the ability to put him on LTIR.  They’re also not able to trade off their salary cap recapture penalty on Roberto Luongo’s deal which runs through 2021-22 at a tick over $3MM per year.

Fast forward to the 2021 offseason.  Pettersson and Hughes will be at the end of their entry-level deals and both project to land substantial raises based on how they’ve performed so far.  That will eat up the savings from their expiring contracts (headlined by Alex Edler, Sutter, and Tanner Pearson) quite quickly before even factoring in what it will cost to retain or replace the others.  That will have to be in the back of GM Jim Benning’s mind as he tries to navigate through the November free agent period and decide who to keep or let go from his current group.

Many teams are going to face some tough decisions as a result of this new marketplace but while Vancouver may not be the first team that comes to mind when you think of teams that may be in cap trouble soon, they’re certainly about to be a part of that group.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

July 1st Retrospective: 2018

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July 1st is typically filled with hundreds of millions committed to contracts signed in the early hours of free agency.  However, this is no ordinary year and as a result, the UFA market is on hold for a while yet with the Stanley Cup on pace to be awarded sometime in October with the official offseason beginning after that.  So instead of there being plenty of new deals to talk about, let’s take a look back at the free agent frenzy from recent years.  Next up is 2018 while 2019 will run on Friday.  Click here for the 2017 retrospective.

Once again, the biggest deals of the day were contract extensions with the majority of the UFA market being three years or lower.  However, there were a handful of longer-term deals handed out with the results being somewhat of a mixed bag.

For the purpose of this exercise, we’re limiting our scope to the deals handed out on July 1st itself which means players like James Neal and Calvin de Haan who were in the top-10 of our UFA list but signed later are not considered here.

Key Re-Signings

Drew Doughty (LA) – 8 years, $88MM – Doughty’s signing had been speculated for a few days prior to this but July 1st was when it was made official, making him the highest-paid defenseman in NHL history at the time.  Doughty had plenty of leverage as he was going to be one of the top UFAs a year later and was coming off a career year but the early returns haven’t been great.  His production dipped in 2018-19 and again this season to his lowest point per game average since 2013-14 while struggling a bit more than usual at the defensive end.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson (ARI) – 8 years, $66MM – This was another move that had been rumored for quite a while but the Coyotes had to wait until this time to extend their captain to the richest deal in team history.  Like Doughty, there was no denying that he was one of the top players that could have potentially hit the open market a year later and while it’s a bit on the expensive side, losing him would have been disastrous.  Ekman-Larsson is coming off of a bit of a down year but he’s young enough that there are still several strong years left in him.

Logan Couture (SJ) – 8 year, $64MM – Yet another deal that was reported a few days beforehand but couldn’t be made official until the turning of the NHL calendar, Couture’s contract seemed a bit pricey at the time but it has held up well so far.  He was coming off of one of his better offensive years at the time and since then, he had a career season in 2018-19 before injuries derailed his 2019-20 campaign.  However, with six years left on the deal, he may very well slow down towards the end of it.

Ryan McDonagh (TB) – 7 years, $47.25MM – Several Tampa Bay players have taken a bit less than market value to stick around and McDonagh continued that trend as a $6.75MM AAV for someone that was a top-pairing defender at the time was cheaper than expected.  However, the seven-year term came as a surprise and could present some problems before too long as the 31-year-old had his worst offensive year since his rookie campaign while his ATOI has dropped nearly four minutes a night from three years ago.

Top AAV Free Agent Signings

(Players changing teams)

John Tavares (TOR) – 7 years, $77MM – This one came as a bit of a surprise given what Toronto had on the horizon for signing their top young stars but they still managed to find a way to bring him in.  At an $11MM AAV, the contract was never going to be a bargain at any stage but he has averaged over a point per game over his two years with the team while taking over as team captain.  He’s providing them with what they expected – a legitimate top center – but with the cap crunch coming as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, this deal along with those handed to their top youngsters could soon paint the Maple Leafs into a bit of a corner when it comes to trying to keep the core together; Morgan Rielly and Frederik Andersen aren’t that far away from being UFA-eligible themselves.

James van Riemsdyk (PHI) – 5 years, $35MM – Who says you can’t go back to a former team?  He did just that by signing with Philadelphia who initially drafted him second overall back in 2007.  He gave up a bit of term to take a bit higher of a salary relative to expectation and while he hasn’t quite produced at a $7MM level, he has been reasonably productive, tallying 46 goals over his first two years despite a dip in ice time compared to his average over his time with Toronto.  One area of some concern is van Riemsdyk’s drop in power play production – he had 39 points (17-22-39) with the man advantage over his last two seasons with Toronto but just 22 (12-10-22) with the Flyers.

Paul Stastny (VGK) – 3 years, $19.5MM – A late effort by Winnipeg to free up money to sign Stastny proved unfruitful as he moved on to Vegas where his production has taken a dip.  Injuries limited him to just 50 games over his first season while this year, he had the lowest point per game average of his career (0.54) over his 71 games.  The shorter term is certainly beneficial though; as much as the $6.5MM AAV isn’t an ideal price tag, they’ll be out of the contract a year from now while he still provides them with some quality depth down the middle.

Ones To Forget

Ilya Kovalchuk (LA) – 3 years, $18.75MM – Kovalchuk’s return to the NHL from Russia cost more than expected, especially for someone on a 35-plus contract.  The early returns were good too as he had 14 points over his first 14 games with the Kings before things went completely off the rails.  His ice time dropped quickly and he was told late in the year that he could skate with the team if he wanted to but wouldn’t play.  It didn’t get any better this year and he was eventually sent home to await a contract termination once a signing bonus instalment was paid.  Kovalchuk wound up with Montreal before he was shipped to Washington near the trade deadline while Los Angeles now has $6.25MM in dead cap space for next season because of the 35-plus distinction.

Jack Johnson (PIT) – 5 years, $16.25MM – Handing a 32-year old player that many viewed as a third pairing option a five-year deal raised a lot of eyebrows.  Johnson’s no longer the top pairing player he was in his prime but he’s still decent in a limited role.  However, for a team that’s cap-strapped as often as Pittsburgh is, having a player costing $3.25MM against the cap that is down to that type of role isn’t ideal.  It’s not a massive price tag but with the salary cap now flattening out, this could cause some problems in the near future.

John Moore (BOS) – 5 years, $13.75MM – The $2.75MM isn’t a terrible price tag on its own but the five-year term didn’t make much sense then and less now.  Yes, injuries cost him 30 games this season but he was still scratched on several occasions while his ice time dipped to 16:33 per night.  It’s fair to suggest he’s not a part of their top six now and with some youngsters on the cusp of making it, Moore may not make back into that group either.

Jay Beagle (VAN) – 4 years, $12MM – For years, Beagle has filled a specific role and done it well – he wins faceoffs and logs a lot of ice time shorthanded.  That role carries some value on a lot of teams but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s a fourth liner.  Giving a fourth liner $3MM per year carries some risk, especially for four years and even more so knowing that he was 33 in his first season with the Canucks.  Beagle still wins draws and kills penalties but he struggled considerably outside of those situations and two more years of that deal on the books isn’t ideal.

Leo Komarov (NYI) – 4 years, $12MM – Komarov’s at his best in a limited role where his physicality can make a difference.  The Islanders had several of those players when they signed him – they still do – and his effectiveness has waned over the first two years to the point where he was in the press box as a scratch on multiple occasions.  At $1MM, he would provide some value still but at three times that, it may become a problem deal over the next couple of years.

Bargains

David Perron (STL) – 4 years, $16MM – Going back to a former team isn’t rare but it’s still relatively uncommon.  Going back for a third stint with the same team is much rarer but that’s what happened here.  Perron had a career year in Vegas with 66 points so this was somewhat of a below-market deal and he has played quite well on it.  While his point per game average with Vegas was the best of his career, these last two seasons were his second and third highest.  $4MM doesn’t always get you a lot on the open market but a capable top-six forward is certainly better than most.

Jonathan Bernier (DET) – 3 years, $9MM – This begins the run on goalies as basically every other bargain deal was signed by a netminder.  Bernier essentially took over as the starter for the Red Wings this season while faring okay in the first year while in a platoon role.  The overall numbers don’t look great but considering how much Detroit has struggled, they weren’t going to be great.  If he winds up being the starter again this season, the value will go up even more.

Jaroslav Halak (BOS) – 2 years, $5.5MM – Getting someone who had started as much as Halak had for this price was impressive enough.  But the value he has given Boston is more than that as they have been able to lighten Tuukka Rask’s workload and the benefits have been significant as they’ve been among the top goaltending tandems in the league since then.  Halak has embraced the role and already has signed an extension for next season.

Anton Khudobin (DAL) – 2 years, $5MM – Rask’s old partner with Boston moved on to the Stars and the results were similar to Halak with the Bruins.  He picked up a significant share of the workload which helped keep Ben Bishop rested and both netminders responded with strong performances.  With more teams starting to see the value of a platoon, Khudobin should be well-positioned to earn a raise on the open market this summer even with it not being a great time to hit free agency.  Dallas will certainly make an effort to keep him as well.

Petr Mrazek (CAR) – 1 year, $1.5MM – After a rough 2017-18 campaign, Mrazek’s market was minimal so he joined the Hurricanes with the hopes of bouncing back.  He did exactly that, posting a 2.39 GAA with a .914 SV% during the regular season which helped propel the Hurricanes to a surprising Eastern Conference Final appearance.  At a time where the good backups were signing for a fair bit more than $1.5MM, they got someone who basically did just as well for a fraction of the price.  Mrazek was able to parlay that strong performance into some job security as he landed a two-year, $6.25MM deal last July.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

One Trade The Maple Leafs Would Like To Have Back

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In the summer of 2006, the Toronto Maple Leafs decided not to pick up a contract option on 41-year-old Ed Belfour. Totaling three seasons as resident netminder in Toronto, Belfour spent much of his final season in Toronto hampered by a balky back. He was limited to 49 games in 2005-2006 and a substandard .892 save percentage. GM-at-the-time John Ferguson Jr. probably made the right call moving on from Belfour (though Belfour would bounceback somewhat in his one and only season with the Florida Panthers before retiring) – where Ferguson and the Maple Leafs erred was in choosing Belfour’s successor.

Looking ahead, the Maple Leafs had two goalie prospects to dream on: Tuukka Rask and Justin Pogge. Unfortunately, neither Rask, 19, nor Pogge, 20, were ready to step between the pipes. Thus, Ferguson Jr. moved to deal from a position of future depth to secure a near-term solution. Toronto traded Rask to the Boston Bruins in a straight-up swap for 26-year-old goaltender Andrew Raycroft.

On its face, the deal made some sense for both sides: Rask had been a recent first-round pick, #21 overall of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, while Raycroft came to Toronto decorated as the 2003-2004 Calder Trophy winner as the league’s top rookie. The Bruins were run at the time by interim General Manager Jeff Gorton (now the GM of the New York Rangers), who said this of the deal: “We had an opportunity, with three good, solid goaltenders who are all number one goalies in the NHL, and they couldn’t all play for us. Andrew had some value and we were able to move him for a player we really like, who is along the lines of Hannu Toivonen.” 

Of course, Toivonen would be traded to St. Louis the following season for Carl Soderberg. He’d start 17 games for the Blues in 2007-2008 and never again appear in the NHL. So while the comparison wasn’t as apt as Gorton intended, his point was clear. Nevermind that it’s a little curious for Gorton to trade for a player in Rask whom he would describe as being, essentially, “similar to the other guy we already have,” so it’s possible Gorton knew more about the organization’s future intentions than he let on at the time.

More to the point, perhaps, was that the Bruins had made their choice about their starting goalie. A month before the Rask/Raycroft swap, Boston extended Tim Thomas with a three-year deal. The late-blossoming Thomas was primed to take over after 38 games and 2.77 GAA in 2005-2006.

Thomas was the Bruins’ chosen goalie moving forward, and he would take the heft of the timeshare as Rask came of age through the 2011-2012 season. Thomas was a four-time All-Star and two-time Vezina Trophy winner, including in 2011, when he took two-thirds of the timeshare en route to a Stanley Cup. Rask played a key role in getting that Bruins team through the regular season, but it was Thomas who steered the ship to the Cup. He took home the Conny Smythe Trophy as the oldest player ever to win the playoff MVP award. Unfortunately, his political views became a distraction in the following seasons – but Gorton’s trade with the Maple Leafs in the summer of 2006 provided Thomas’ heir apparent.

Rask took over as the primary goalie in 2013-2014, leading the league in shutouts and winning the Vezina Trophy. He’s been one of the top goaltenders in the league ever since. Fourteen years later, Rask and Jaroslav Halak will share the Jennings Trophy this year, combining to allow just 2.24 GAA for the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins. Rask has been a huge part of the Bruins’ success over the years in keeping Boston competitive. He put up a .934 save percentage in the postseason last year, helping the Bruins to the Stanley Cup Final. Rask has twice gotten the Bruins to the Stanley Cup since taking over as the primary goaltender, losing to the Blackhawks in 2013 and the Blues in 2019.

Back in Toronto, it’s been a long and winding road to current netminder Frederik Andersen. Andersen has settled in for Toronto, making his first all-star team in 2019-2020, his fourth season in Toronto. But even Andersen came at a cost: a 1st and 2nd round pick to Anaheim in the summer of 2016.

Raycroft, meanwhile, served up a league-high 205 goals in the 2006-2007 season for the Maple Leafs. His numbers would only get worse the year after, 3.92 GAA and a .876 save percentage. He left Toronto after a season and a half with a .890 save percentage and a 39-34-14 record. Pogge never developed to take the throne either. Six starts during the 2007-2008 season make up the entirety of his NHL career. He’d bounce around the AHL for a couple of seasons but never make it back to the NHL.

In the interim between Belfour and Andersen, the Leafs cycled through a number of unspectacular puck-stoppers: Jonas Gustavsson, Raycroft, Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Vesa Toskala, Garret Sparks, and Ben Scrivens each took a turn, but James Reimer and Jonathan Bernier had the most successful runs. Bernier made 140 mostly forgettable starts with a .915 save percentage from 2013 to 2016, and Reimer – who helped end Toronto’s playoff drought in 2012-2013 – took his office hours in the Toronto net for 196 starts and a .914 save percentage from 2011 to 2016.

But none quite rises to the level of Rask, who has stabilized the Boston goal for an entire era of Bruins’ hockey. For the Bruins, dealing for Rask was one of their better deals of the last twenty years. For the Maple Leafs, they’d probably like to have this one back.

That said, John Ferguson Jr., the GM who made the deal for Toronto, has probably made his peace with the deal: he’s currently the Executive Director of Player Personnel for – you guessed it – the Boston Bruins.

July 1st Retrospective: 2017

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It’s July 1st which means today should be filled with hundreds of millions committed to contracts signed in the early hours of free agency.  However, this is no ordinary year and as a result, the UFA market is on hold for a while yet with the Stanley Cup on pace to be awarded sometime in October with the official offseason beginning after that.  So instead of there being plenty of new deals to talk about, let’s take a look back at the frenzy from recent years.  We begin with 2017; 2018 will appear on Thursday and 2019 on Friday.

This group of free agents wasn’t the strongest overall and teams were showing a bit more restraint after a dreadful 2016 UFA market that saw quite a few brutal contracts handed out.  Nevertheless, there were still some notable deals handed out including several that haven’t worked out as well as intended.

For the purpose of this exercise, we’re limiting our scope to the deals handed out on July 1st itself which means players like Alexander Radulov and Patrick Marleau who signed soon after are not considered here.

Key Re-Signings

Cam Fowler (ANA) – 8 years, $52MM – Fowler signed this extension coming off of what was his best offensive showing since his rookie season while logging nearly 25 minutes a night.  A $6.5MM cap hit for a potential top pairing defenseman was reasonable and while injuries have hit him every year since then, it’s still not a bad deal for someone that has settled in as their second or third defender most nights.  All in all, the deal has held up pretty well.

Justin Schultz (PIT) – 3 years, $16.5MM – Schultz’s first full season with the Penguins was the best of his career as he looked as if he had finally lived up to his potential as a highly-touted blueliner.  The deal represented a reasonable price tag for a capable top-four defender with some offensive upside while allowing him another opportunity to hit the open market while still somewhat in his prime.  Instead, injuries have been an issue each year and while he had 51 points in 2016-17, he was only able to muster up that many points combined on this contract.

Sharks – San Jose gets their own section here.  Marc-Edouard Vlasic (8 years, $56MM) inked an extension that looked pricey at the time and even worse now.  He has slowed down considerably over the last couple of years and still has six seasons left on his deal.  Martin Jones’ (6 years, $34.5MM) extension hasn’t looked great either.  He has posted .896 save percentages in each of the two years of the contract, numbers that are below average for a backup let alone a starter.  Both of those contracts are hurting their salary structure and will be tough to get out from under.  Meanwhile, Joe Thornton agreed to another one-year extension worth $6.5MM.  Injuries limited him to just 47 games that year but he still managed 36 points.

Top AAV Free Agent Signings

(Players changing teams)

Kevin Shattenkirk (NYR) – 4 years, $26.6MM – Shattenkirk was the top prize to get to the open market.  It was known that he wanted to go to the Rangers and there were bigger deals that he left on the table to sign with New York.  At the time, it seemed like a fortunate turn of events for the Rangers.  It wasn’t.  He struggled considerably in his two seasons with the team before being bought out where they will incur a $6.083MM cap charge next season for having done so.

Karl Alzner (MTL) – 5 years, $23.125MM – This was the longest contract handed out to a free agent changing teams on day one of free agency in 2017.  It looked questionable at the time and worse now.  After holding down a regular role with the Canadiens in his first year with them, he has spent the majority of his time since then in the minors.  If he’s not bought out this offseason, he’ll likely be back there next season as well.

Justin Williams (CAR) – 2 years, $9MM – While he was 36 in his first season back with the team, the multi-year pact was a good one for both sides.  Williams had 51 and 53 points over his two seasons on that deal and served as their captain in 2018-19.  That performance wasn’t a huge bargain but as far as comparing it to the other notable deals signed on this day three years ago, it was one of the better contracts signed.

Ones To Forget

Martin Hanzal (DAL) – 3 years, $14.25MM – On the surface, this seemed a little pricey but not too much.  At the time, Hanzal was a capable third line center that could move up when injuries arose and overpaying for that was understandable.  Unfortunately, back issues have basically made the last two years a write-off (seven games last year, zero this season) while he missed more than half of 2017-18 as well.  In the end, they got six goals and six assists out of him for their money.

Dmitry Kulikov (WPG) – 3 years, $13MM – Kulikov’s 2016-17 season was a disaster, to put it gently.  Despite that, the Jets went off of his reputation from his time in Florida and handed him a three-year deal that didn’t make any sense from the moment it was signed.  Injuries were an issue in the first two years while being in a sheltered role when he did play.  Injuries were also a problem this season but he was better, logging 20 minutes a night for the first time with them.  The deal ends on a better note than it started but it was still a bad one.

Sam Gagner (VAN) – 3 years, $9.45MM – Gagner had a career year with Columbus heading into free agency with 50 points so from an AAV perspective, this didn’t seem excessive.  He was passable in his first year with the Canucks but then spent most of the second season of the deal in the minors.  He was dealt to Edmonton during that second season and hung around on the NHL roster for most of it this year but the output was minimal; all told, he had a combined 26 points over the final two seasons which is far from a good return.

Steve Mason (WPG) – 2 years, $8.2MM – He was brought in to mentor/push youngster Connor Hellebuyck but only played in 13 games in the first season of the contract and didn’t fare all that well.  With the Jets in a cap crunch the following summer, they had to part with Joel Armia to offload Mason’s contract on Montreal (and they immediately bought him out).  The deal worked out well for Mason as he made nearly $7MM to play those 13 games but it’s one to forget for Winnipeg.

Bargains

Evgenii Dadonov (FLA) – 3 years, $12MM – This deal carried plenty of risk since Dadonov’s first tour through the NHL (with the Panthers, no less) wasn’t good.  But he lit up the KHL to earn a second chance and has made the most of it, posting 81 goals and 101 assists over the life of the deal in 225 games.  He’s shaping up to be one of the more coveted wingers in the upcoming free agent class and even in a weaker market, he’s looking at a nice raise.

There really isn’t another big bargain out of this class as a lot of the signings early on were short-term deals for veterans or role players/minor leaguers signing quickly to get some certainty for the upcoming year.  Here are a couple of the veteran deals that panned out relatively well at least.

Ron Hainsey (TOR) – 2 years, $6MM – He wore down towards the end of the contract but he gave the Maple Leafs a little more than 21 minutes a night over the two years while chipping in with a respectable 46 points.  The team also praised the impact of his leadership at several times throughout his stint as well.  Paying $3MM a year for someone that spent a lot of time on the top pairing is a pretty good return even if he struggled by the end of it.

Ryan Miller (ANA) – 2 years, $4MM – Brought in to be an insurance policy for John Gibson, Miller wound up finishing fifth in the NHL in save percentage (.928) in his first season while posting a Goals Saved Above Average rate of 11.86 in just 28 games, his best mark in nearly a decade.  Miller’s performance was more average in his second season but with the backup goalie market going up considerably in price over the last few years, he still gave Anaheim some extra value overall.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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