Pacific Notes: Oilers, Donato, Comtois
The Edmonton Oilers are in a deep slide, exacerbated by a 3-2 overtime loss today to the New York Islanders. Now, Sportsnet’s Mark Spector reports two pieces of bad news on the injury front. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins returned to Edmonton to get his undisclosed injury looked at, and Spector says to assume he’s “out a while.” Additionally, he notes that goalie Mike Smith, who just returned from injury, is now day-to-day with an upper-body injury separate from the one that just kept him out for over two months. Smith’s struggled this year, the first of a two-year extension he signed this summer, posting a .897 save percentage in five games. It’ll mean more action for the 23-year-old Stuart Skinner, who’s helped buoy the team with a .916 save percentage through 10 games. They’ll also be in tough with Nugent-Hopkins for the next little bit, who only has three goals but is still on a great pace with 26 points in 30 games.
Other rumblings from around the Pacific Division on New Years Day:
- Seattle Kraken forward Ryan Donato will return tonight after being activated from COVID-19 protocol. Donato last played December 18 against Edmonton, and he’s been a decent contributor for the expansion Kraken with eight goals and 13 points in 27 games. He’ll likely get back in on the team’s third line, playing left wing with Alexander Wennberg and Joonas Donskoi.
- Some good news injury-wise — Anaheim Ducks forward Max Comtois is expected to make his return to the lineup tonight against Colorado. Comtois has played just once since suffering a hand injury on November 11. It’s been a tough year for him with just one assist through 14 games, but after his 16-goal, 33-point season last year, expect some bad shooting luck to turn around for him in a short manner.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Placed In COVID Protocol
The Edmonton Oilers have added another forward to the COVID protocol, but this time it’s someone with a little more responsibility. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins joins Ryan McLeod and Devin Shore on the sidelines, unavailable for tomorrow night’s game against the Seattle Kraken.
Notably, Nugent-Hopkins played nearly 20 minutes last night against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
It’s a crucial time for the Oilers, who got back in the win column with a strong performance against Columbus but are still just 4-6 over their last ten games. The team has slipped out of the divisional playoff spots in the Pacific, two points behind the surging Vegas Golden Knights and struggling Calgary Flames. With the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks, and even the suddenly red-hot Vancouver Canucks nipping at their heels, losing a key player like Nugent-Hopkins certainly isn’t an ideal situation.
The 28-year-old forward is having a great season, at least in terms of point totals. Though he’s recorded just three goals, Nugent-Hopkins is among the league leaders with 22 assists in 28 games. With Edmonton struggling to score of late, someone else will have to step into that offensive role if they want to get back on track.
Edmonton Oilers Re-Sign Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
The Edmonton Oilers have worked things out with one of their key unrestricted free agents, signing Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to a new eight-year contract. The deal will total $41MM, meaning Nugent-Hopkins will actually see his cap hit decrease to $5.125MM for 2021-22 and beyond. The deal also includes a full no-movement clause, meaning the Oilers will be required to protected Nugent-Hopkins in the expansion draft. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweets out the full breakdown:
- 2021-22: $5.0MM salary
- 2022-23: $5.25MM salary
- 2023-24: $6.25MM salary
- 2024-25: $6.25MM salary
- 2025-26: $4.0MM salary + $2.0MM signing bonus
- 2026-27: $2.25MM salary + $2.5MM signing bonus
- 2027-28: $2.5MM salary + $1.25MM signing bonus
- 2028-29: $ 3.75MM salary
There was an obvious compromise in these negotiations, with the Oilers handing out a maximum-term contract in exchange for a smaller cap hit. There’s no doubt that Nugent-Hopkins could have secured a higher AAV on the open market, but with a deal like this, he’ll be able to spend most, if not all of his career in Edmonton.
The 28-year-old forward was the first-overall pick in 2011, selected just ahead of Gabriel Landeskog and Jonathan Huberdeau in what has turned out to be quite the impressive draft class. While other names like Nikita Kucherov and Johnny Gaudreau from outside the first round have found a little more success, it’s certainly not like Nugent-Hopkins was a bust. In 656 NHL games, all played with the Oilers, he has scored 185 goals and registered 478 points. A 20-goal, 60-point season has become routine, even if his ceiling has never been as high as some hoped.
Of course, it’s the lack of playoff success that will haunt everyone in Edmonton if this group can’t make significant progress in the next few years. In his decade with the team, Nugent-Hopkins has played in just 21 postseason games, and four of those came in last year’s bubble qualification round. He has just three goals in those 21 matches and has won just a single round.
That’s exactly why the lowered AAV was a desirable outcome for the Oilers, even if it does take Nugent-Hopkins deep into his thirties. The Oilers need to immediately surround Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl with as much talent as they can, something that will be a little easier now. Nugent-Hopkins’ last contract carried a cap hit of $6MM over seven seasons, meaning even the total of this one is slightly lower.
Overall, it’s a nice contract for both parties and will likely keep one of the team’s key forwards in Edmonton for the better part of his career. Oilers GM Ken Holland now has several other extensions to work on, including pending UFA defenseman Adam Larsson.
Ryan Rishaug of TSN broke the details of the contract earlier today.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Negotiations Break Down Between Oilers, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
After a stunning first-round sweep at the hands of the Winnipeg Jets, the bad could soon get worse for the Edmonton Oilers. Appearing on Sportsnet 960 in Calgary today, insider Elliotte Friedman dropped a bomb: “That’s a negotiation that went sideways… It fell apart.” He’s of course referring to the Oilers’ negotiations with impending free agent Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, easily the third-best forward on a top-heavy Edmonton roster. After a decade of consistent production, the Oilers could now potentially watch the 2011 first overall pick walk out the door.
According to Friedman, the two sides were close to terms of an extension early in the season. He is unsure when or how things starting to break down, but Friedman adds that whatever imminent deal was once on the table is no longer there. ” I believe it was always the plan that Nugent-Hopkins was going to stay and they wanted to keep him,” Friedman stated, “And now I don’t know… it got mangled.”
While the Oilers could certainly use the added cap flexibility that an RNH departure would afford them, they would have a hard time making up his production, even with multiple additions. A career .73 per-game scorer, Nugent-Hopkins has notched 60+ point seasons in two of the past three years and in an 82-game season this year would have surpassed 50 points for the sixth time in his ten-year career. That kind of production, especially to a team that sees Nugent-Hopkins as a center rather than wing, could be invaluable this off-season. Among impending UFA forwards, RNH ranked sixth this season in points per game and many of those players around him – Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog, Washington’s Alex Ovechkin, Toronto’s Zach Hyman, and Boston’s David Krejci and Taylor Hall – are expected by most to re-sign with their current squads. Nugent-Hopkins could realistically enter the open market as the most coveted forward available. If the Oilers allow RNH to test the market, the odds that they will be able to afford to re-sign him diminish greatly.
Talks will certainly continue between the two sides. Friedman notes that there have been attempts to rebuild a mutually acceptable offer, but it obviously hasn’t happened yet. Edmonton’s early playoff exit may have changed the mindset of the player or the team, but assuming there is still interest in an extension, negotiations will probably come down to the last minute. However, generally when a deal is in place and then breaks down to this extent, it doesn’t bode well for a continued relationship. Will the 2021 free agent market become the summer of RNH?
Still No Talks Between Oilers, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
The Edmonton Oilers really only have three forwards they can count on to produce offense right now. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Those three have combined for 24 of the team’s 60 goals this season, with the rest of the forward group only accounting for 23 (the defense has totaled 13, led by Darnell Nurse‘s six).
The first two of that trio are locked up long-term, earning huge salaries and winning plenty of individual awards. But Nugent-Hopkins, he’s on the final year of his current contract and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. That contract was actually a seven-year extension worth $42MM, signed in the fall of 2013 before his entry-level deal had even expired. Since it kicked in, the 2011 first-overall pick has recorded 324 points in 439 games, making the playoffs just once.
Still, Nugent-Hopkins is a huge part of this Oilers team. His transition to wing and budding chemistry with Connor McDavid makes him a valuable piece, but as Ryan Rishaug of TSN reports there have still not been any contract talks between Edmonton and the Nugent-Hopkins camp since before the season began. Rishaug does note that both player and organization have expressed a desire to stay together long-term, but so far, nothing has been worked out.
As much as it seems like the Oilers are a high-powered offense that just can’t defend enough, it’s not really the case. In both 2017-18 and 2018-19, they finished 20th in goals for. In the shortened season last year, they were 15th on a per-game rate. This season they’re off to a better start, though the North Division defense might have something to do with that jump. Instead of a high-powered offense, it’s really just a few outstanding players.
The question the Oilers will have to face is whether re-signing Nugent-Hopkins helps or hurts in the quest to change that. He certainly is a strong third option, but tying even more money up at the top of the roster could be difficult for a team that needs to improve throughout. Even in a depressed market, Nugent-Hopkins will likely secure more than $6MM per season, given he has 74 points in his last 82 games and will reach free agency at the age of 28.
Rishaug notes that “this is not an asset the organization would want to lose for nothing,” implying that Nugent-Hopkins could be a trade candidate in the coming months if there’s not a path to a new contract. It’s certainly premature at this point to think he’s on the way out, but it’s a situation to keep an eye on as the April 12 trade deadline approaches.
Oilers, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Put Extension Talks On Hold
While the Oilers were believed to be making progress on a long-term extension with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in the days leading up to the opening of free agency in October, those talks instead appear to have been shelved. GM Ken Holland spoke with reporters on Monday (video link), and indicated that those discussions are on the back burner for now:
His agent Rick Valette and I had many conversations during the two weeks around free agency in October. But the marketplace has changed so much that basically our conversations have ended, and I would hope at some point once we get up and running, we can pick back up and see if we can find a solution to keep Nuge in an Oilers uniform. Certainly, that’s my goal, but the deal’s got to work for Ryan and for the Oilers.
The 27-year-old has been a mainstay in Edmonton’s lineup since they selected him with the first-overall pick back in 2011. While he hasn’t quite lived up to the offensive expectations associated with that selection, Nugent-Hopkins has certainly been a core piece and in recent years, his production has improved as he has spent more time on the wing alongside one of Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl. Last season, he had the highest point-per-game mark of his career (0.94), notching 22 goals and 39 assists in 65 games while averaging 20:28 per night in ice time.
It’s that uptick in production that makes his deal a little trickier to finalize right now. His current contract carries a $6MM AAV and salary. Had he continued to hover around the 50-point mark as he had before the 2018-19 campaign, he likely would have only been in line for a small raise. However, if his production stays at that level, the asking price is only going to go higher. While Edmonton will have some cap flexibility next offseason (around $28MM), they still have half a roster to fill out with that money and taking a quarter of that or more for Nugent-Hopkins will certainly take a big chunk out of it.
For his part, Nugent-Hopkins doesn’t seem to be too worried about the step back in discussions, telling 630 CHED’s Reid Wilkins (audio link) that his focus now is simply on the upcoming season.
Obviously a weird, different time to be talking contracts. Right now, I’m just focused on getting the season started. In my mind, I know it’s there, but I’m going to put it on the back burner and just really focus on getting the season going and getting started the right way.
As things stand, Nugent-Hopkins will be one of the top forwards available if he makes it to the open market next summer. Whether it comes from Edmonton or someone else, he should be able to still land a raise, even in a UFA market that should largely resemble this one with very limited cap space to go around.
Oilers Notes: Ekman-Larsson, Nugent-Hopkins, Wings
Update 1:40pm: Darren Dreger of TSN reports that the Oilers are not on the shortlist of teams that Ekman-Larsson would waive his no-movement clause to go to.
The Edmonton Oilers are a team to watch in the coming days and Frank Seravalli of TSN has some inside information on their plans as we head into the first part of the NHL offseason. On his latest Trade Bait board, Seravalli lists Arizona Coyotes captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson first and explains that the Oilers have had “preliminary discussions” on the star defenseman. Edmonton would need Arizona to retain some of Ekman-Larsson’s salary, while Seravalli suggests that top prospect Evan Bouchard and a first-round selection could be involved in any deal.
Now 29, Ekman-Larsson is under contract through the 2026-27 season and carries a cap hit of $8.25MM. He also holds a full no-movement clause but has been in the rumor mill for weeks now as the Coyotes are expected to have to cut payroll. Though some of the shine has come off his game over the last few years, Ekman-Larsson is still one of the most effective goal-scoring defensemen in the league, with 125 over his career and double-digit totals in seven of his ten partial seasons.
- Speaking of goal-scoring, the Oilers are also making progress on a long-term contract extension for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins according to Seravalli. The 2011 first-overall pick is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent following the upcoming season and currently carries a $6MM cap hit. Though he has settled into more of a support role behind Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in Edmonton, Nugent-Hopkins is coming off his most effective season to date with 61 points in 65 games and is only 27. Just to set the Twitter machine alight, Seravalli also suggests that if a deal can’t be done with Nugent-Hopkins, the Oilers might look at bringing back Taylor Hall.
- Yesterday’s news of a repairing relationship between the Oilers and Jesse Puljujarvi puts the team into a bit of a bind on the right side, with too many right-wing options to fit into the lineup. Seravalli reports that the team has tried to make some wing swaps to balance out their lineup, including a potential Alex Chiasson-for-Anders Bjork deal. With so many balls up in the air at the moment, there’s no telling what will happen in Edmonton, but it will be a busy week to be sure.
Minor Transactions: 12/08/19
Goals were not exactly hard to come by on Saturday, as 10 of 11 contests featured 5+ goals, including five games with 8+ goals. While there are only five games on the docket on Sunday, there is a good chance of at least one more high-scoring affair, as the Panthers host the Sharks in a match-up of the two teams tied for 29th in goals against average. While you follow along with the action today – five games starting over a span of five hours – keep an eye on the transactions made by those teams out of action today, preparing for the week ahead. Judging by the number of early moves, it could be a busy day:
- After last night’s win, the Carolina Hurricanes returned forwards Brian Gibbons and Clark Bishop to the AHL, as announced by the Charlotte Checkers. The duo have been on the move frequently this season and that is unlikely to change soon. With both being sent down, the Canes currently have just 12 forwards and 19 skaters on the active roster and are about to embark on a long, five-game road trip on Tuesday. They are unlikely to depart before filling at least one of their two remaining roster spots with another forward, highly likely to be either Gibbons or Bishop, if not both.
- Rookie forward J.C. Beaudin is headed back to the minors, as the Ottawa Senators announced that he has been reassigned to AHL Belleville. Beaudin, 22, has played in 15 games with Ottawa this season but has recorded one lone point. In five games with Belleville, he has also been held to just one point. The Senators would likely like to see him rediscover his scoring touch before bringing him back up.
- Joseph Blandisi is another player being demoted, as the Pittsburgh Penguins announced that the two-way veteran has been sent down to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Blandisi has split his season evenly between the NHL and AHL, but with double the scoring in the minors, unsurprisingly. Now in his fifth pro season, Blandisi has grown accustomed to splitting his time between the two levels and playing very different roles depending on the locale. A top-six forward in the AHL, Blandisi has been almost exclusively asked to play a bottom-six role in Pittsburgh, as well as with previous teams.
- The Chicago Blackhawks have made a swap, sending Anton Wedin down to the AHL and recalling Dylan Sikura. Sikura, the former Northeastern University standout, has not played in the NHL this season after skating in 33 games last year. However, he has finally earned the call as he leads the Rockford Ice Hogs with nine goals and 16 points in 22 games. Wedin, a rookie in his first season in North America, also has a nice 4-7-11 line in 17 games with Rockford but was held off the scoresheet in four games with Chicago, prompting his return.
- Austin Poganski has been reassigned to the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage, the St. Louis Blues announced. The move comes more than a week after Poganski was recalled, yet the young forward did not make an appearance in that time with the Blues. Poganski is still searching for his NHL debut, two years removed from a strong run at the University of North Dakota.
- While the Boston Bruins placed defenseman Steven Kampfer on waivers earlier today, CapFriendly also noted that the Colorado Avalanche have put forward T.J. Tynan on waivers as well. The 27-year-old career minor-leaguer got an extended run with the Avalanche this year after only appearing in three NHL games prior to that. He got 14 games in Colorado, only picking up one assist in that span. Tynan has already appeared in 377 AHL games and would be an unlikely candidate to be claimed.
- The Edmonton Oilers announced they have activated forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins from injured reserve and have assigned forward Colby Cave to the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL. Nugent-Hopkins has missed the last six games with a hand injury, but will now return to the team and give their top-six a significant boost. Nugent-Hopkins has five goals and 16 points through the Oilers’ first 25 games before going down with the injury. Cave will return to Bakersfield where he has two goals and five points in 16 games.
- The Montreal Canadiens have recalled forward Riley Barber from the Laval Rocket of the AHL, according to Montreal Gazette’s Stu Cowan. The 25-year-old Barber, who signed with the Canadiens in the offseason after four years in the Washington Capitals system, leads Laval with 18 points, but has been much more impressive over the past two or three weeks and could help Montreal as a speedy fourth-line option.
- The Vancouver Canucks have returned goaltender Michael DiPietro to AHL Utica, notes TSN 1040’s Rick Dhaliwal. He had been up as the backup while Jacob Markstrom was away from the team but with Markstrom back, he’ll go back to the Comets to get some playing time.
Snapshots: Three Stars, Makar, Nugent-Hopkins
With another month having passed, the NHL revealed its Three Stars for the month of November and no surprise that Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid heads the list. The two-time Art Ross Trophy winner dominated November in 14 games, leading the league with 13 goals, 26 points, six power play goals and 11 power play points over the month. That performance has put Edmonton at the top of the Pacific Division with a 7-5-2 record in November.
The Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon and Chicago Blackhawks Patrick Kane round out the top three. MacKinnon ranked second in the NHL in points in November with 10 goals and 25 points in 14 games and did it while being without his two linemates, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog for most of that month. Kane, meanwhile, scored a point in all 15 games that he played, scoring 11 goals and 24 points.
- The NHL also announced the NHL ‘Rookie of the Month,’ handing the award to Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar, who dominated the month of November. The 21-year-old led all rookies with seven goals, 16 points, three game-winning goals, +10 plus/minus and ATOI, averaging 21:25. Makar became the fifth rookie to score seven or more goals in a month and the last to do it since Brian Leetch did it in 1989. Makar beat out New York Rangers’ Adam Fox, Vancouver Canucks’ Quinn Hughes, Carolina Hurricanes’ Martin Necas, Buffalo Sabres Victor Olofsson and Pittsburgh Penguins’ John Marino.
- The Edmonton Journal’s Kurt Leavins writes that despite rumors that Edmonton Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a surgical procedure last week on his hand, he did not. Instead, Nugent-Hopkins received an injection, suggesting that the injury is more pain-related than anything else. The Oilers hope to get the top-six forward back sometime later this week.
Oilers Notes: Nugent-Hopkins, Chiasson, Larsson
The Edmonton Oilers won’t have Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for this weekend as he underwent a “procedure” on his hand. He is expected to be back at some point next week however, a relatively good outcome after needing surgery.
Nugent-Hopkins hasn’t played since a game against the Vegas Golden Knights last week, and still hasn’t taken quite the step everyone has been waiting for since he was selected first overall in 2011. Undoubtedly a valuable player, the 26-year old has just 16 points in 25 games this season (an 82-game pace of 52 points) after setting career highs a year ago.
- The team will also be without Alex Chiasson indefinitely as he enters the concussion protocol. Chiasson was hit by Colorado Avalanche defenseman Ryan Graves last night and left the game. He too has been a disappointment this season after setting career highs a year ago, with only six points in 23 games so far in 2019-20.
- Though there was some speculation circulating that Adam Larsson would have a hearing and potentially be suspended for his hit on T.J. Tynan, that is not the case. Larsson told reporters including Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal that he has not yet been told there will be a hearing and the Department of Player Safety has not announced one.