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Snapshots: Barrie, Nemirovsky, Suspensions

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Leading up to the trade deadline yesterday there was plenty of speculation about the future of Tyson Barrie. Several teams had inquired on the defenseman, but when it was all said and done he was still part of the Toronto Maple Leafs and ready to try and get them to the playoffs. Chris Johnston of Sportsnet reports that Barrie was only told he wasn’t going to be traded shortly before the deadline, confirming that he was available if the right package came along.

Bob McKenzie was on TSN radio in Vancouver today, explaining just how that package didn’t materialize. The insider explained that the Maple Leafs set a price for Barrie comparable to the Kevin Shattenkirk trade from a few years ago, but only received offers similar to the ones that landed Sami Vatanen and Erik Gustafsson.

Minor Transactions: 10/27/18

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Rivalries are set to renew tonight, with the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens set to square off for the first time this season and the St. Louis Blues looking to bounce back from two early losses to the Chicago Blackhawks. Teams in action tonight as well as teams adjusting from a particularly painful slate of games last night will be making roster moves throughout the day. Keep up with the changes here:

  • One of those aforementioned injuries last night was sustained by the Ottawa Senators’ Zack Smith, who sustained a facial fracture in a loss to the Colorado Avalanche. With the Sens currently on a road trip and set to face the Vegas Golden Knights tomorrow, the team has worked quickly to replace Smith’s roster spot. The team announced the recall of forward Jack Rodewald from their AHL affiliate in Belleville. Rodewald skated in four games with Ottawa last season and was held scoreless, but is off to a hot start in the minors with seven points in eight games.
  • The Edmonton Oilers have activated defenseman Matt Benning from the injured reserve. Benning was placed on the IR last week with an undisclosed injury and has returned as soon as possible from the mysterious ailment. In a corresponding move, the Oilers have returned Kevin Gravel to the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors. Gravel had been called up to replace Benning, but saw very limited ice time in two games with Edmonton. The free agent addition will have to return to the minors, where he had played well, and continue to show that he is worthy of an NHL roster spot.
  • Veteran forward Ryan White has signed a PTO with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets, the team announced. White, spent the entire 2017-18 season outside the NHL – split between the AHL’s San Diego Gulls and Iowa Wild – for the first time since his first pro season in the Montreal Canadiens’s system in 2008-09. The experienced grinder has had trouble locking down a job at all for this season, attending camp with the Minnesota Wild and then returning to Iowa, but to no avail. The owner of 313 NHL games (and 447 penalty minutes) could bring leadership and grit to Manitoba if he can prove that he can still skate at a pro level. White is the type of player who could even earn a pro-rated NHL contract late in the year with Winnipeg as fourth line depth. Only time will tell how this latest stop works out for the veteran.
  • The Jets have recalled defenseman Tucker Poolman from Manitoba, who makes his return to the Winnipeg lineup. The 25-year-old skated in 25 games with the Jets last year in his first pro season, but failed to break camp this year. The University of North Dakota stalwart is a more than capable defender, but suffers from playing in a deep organization. Blocked by Jacob Trouba, Dustin Byfuglien, and Tyler Myers on the right side of the blue line, Poolman is not guaranteed to see the ice on this recall, but will make the most of the opportunity if he does.
  • The Tampa Bay Lightning decided to go with a veteran minor league defenseman to replace Victor Hedman in the lineup for the next week until he is re-evaluated while the all-star is forced to sit out with an upper-body injury. The Lightning announced they have recalled Cameron Gaunce from Syracuse of the AHL who likely will be used as an extra defender for the team. The 28-year-old has already played eight full seasons in the AHL, while only having appeared in 32 NHL games during that span. He currently has a goal and an assist in six games with the Crunch.

Minor Transactions: 02/09/18

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As always, we’ll keep track of all the league’s minor transactions right here. Check back often throughout the day for updates.

  • The Chicago Blackhawks have recalled Carl Dahlstrom from the minor leagues, moving Jan Rutta to injured reserve retroactive to February 6th. Should Dahlstrom get into a game, it would be his NHL debut after spending the last few seasons in Rockford. This year, the 23-year old defenseman has 23 points in 47 AHL games.
  • Ryan White has been signed to a professional tryout by the Iowa Wild, after being released by the San Diego Gulls a few days ago. White finished last season with the Minnesota Wild after a trade from Arizona, and had nine points in 21 games with the Gulls this season. The 29-year old forward is fighting for another chance at an NHL contract, after playing 313 games in the league since being drafted in 2006.
  • Minnesota has also officially recalled Viktor Loov after acquiring him yesterday. Loov can serve as sort of insurance as the team deals with an injury to Jonas Brodin, though doesn’t offer a ton of upside. The 25-year old defenseman has just four NHL contests under his belt, all coming in 2015-16 with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
  • The Ottawa Senators have assigned Mike Blunden and Max McCormick to the minor leagues, as both Mark Stone and Derick Brassard are expected to play tomorrow night against the Maple Leafs. The Senators are on a two-game winning streak, and will look to keep it going if only to build some momentum towards next season.
  • Jason Garrison is heading back to the AHL, where he’s spent most of the season. The 33-year old veteran defenseman has suited up 35 times for the Chicago Wolves, compared to just eight matches for the Vegas Golden Knights. As he heads towards free agency this summer, it seems like he’ll be fighting just for a spot on an NHL roster in 2018-19.
  • The Anaheim Ducks have returned goaltender Reto Berra to San Diego of the AHL, freeing up the roster spot for John Gibson to be activated off injured reserve.  Anaheim also sent winger Nicolas Kerdiles back to San Diego, just a day after they originally recalled him.

Boston Recalls Heinen, Signs White To PTO

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The Boston Bruins continue to make minor moves to tweak their lineup. Today, the team has recalled Danton Heinen from the Providence Bruins of the AHL, while signing Ryan White to a professional tryout. White had previously been on a PTO with the Vancouver Canucks this fall.

Yesterday, with the return of Torey Krug the Bruins sent Matt Grzelcyk back down to Providence, which opened a potential roster spot. They’ll add Heinen to lengthen out their forward depth, especially in the wake of their 4-0 loss at the hands of Colorado yesterday. The team was out of sorts offensively, really feeling the absence of Patrice Bergeron on their top line.

While Heinen isn’t a Bergeron replacement by any means, he does have youth and skill on his side. The fourth-round pick put up 44 points as an AHL rookie last season, and will help to provide some center depth. While there is no word on whether he’ll be inserted into the lineup, he could potentially take Austin Czarnik’s spot should head coach Bruce Cassidy so choose.

White on the other hand will just try to fight to earn a two-way contract with the club. The bang-and-crash forward split last season between the Arizona Coyotes and Minnesota Wild, recording 16 points and 187 hits. The 29-year old forward can contribute in a fourth line role, but could also just have been brought in as a motivating tactic for Cassidy’s team.

Wild Re-Sign Kurtis Gabriel

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The Minnesota Wild have reportedly come to terms on a new deal with gritty forward Kurtis Gabriel. While the team has yet to make the contract official, TVA’s Renaud Lavoie believes that the ink has dried on a one-year, two-way contract worth $715K at the NHL level for the restricted free agent. With several frequent fourth liners in 2016-17 now gone – Tyler Graovac (traded to Washington), Erik Haula (selected by Vegas), Jordan Schroeder (traded to Columbus), Ryan White (will not be re-signed) – Gabriel will be given every chance to earn a regular spot in the lineup next season.

A 2013 third-round pick, Gabriel has not been able to come close to the offense he showed with the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack in his three years of pro experience. Gabriel has just one point in 16 NHL games over two seasons and 40 points in 190 career AHL games. The value that Gabriel does bring to the table is his toughness and two-way ability. Gabriel averaged two hits per game in his brief NHL stints in 2016-17 and racked up more than two penalty minutes per game. That was in just about 5 minutes of ice time per game too. At 6’4″, 211-lbs., the big winger is a force to reckon and, given the proper amount of ice time, could be one of the most ferocious checkers in the NHL. He also wins battles along the boards and is an above-average shot blocker. Increasing his offensive output or at least working on a horrendous possession game would help Gabriel’s chances of sticking with the Wild next season, but fourth-line opportunity and physical domination often go hand-in-hand regardless.

Gabriel is locked up for next year, but the off-season is far from over for GM Chuck Fletcher and the Minnesota front office. They still have major restricted free agents to sign in Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter, and Marcus Foligno, as well as competition for Gabriel on the checking line in Zack Mitchell, not to mention an ongoing search for a reliable back-up goalie behind Devan Dubnyk. It’s nice to have one box checked off, but the Wild brass have their work cut out for them this summer.

Wild Notes: Dubnyk, Vezina Finalists, Yeo

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It was a tough day for the Wild’s Devan Dubnyk tweets Sportsnet’s John Shannon, who allowed the game-winning overtime goal to Magnus Paajarvi in today’s Game 5. The veteran goaltender, who is coming off a great 2016-17 season, yielded four goals in what turned out to be their season-ending game. To make matters worse, Dubnyk, who was a candidate to be a finalist for the Vezina Trophy this year, was not selected. The NHL announced their finalists today as Washington Capitals’ Braden Holtby, Columbus Blue Jackets’ Sergei Bobrovsky and Montreal Canadiens’ Carey Price.

Still, the 30-year-old Dubnyk remains a cornerstone for the franchise after finishing the season, having played 65 games with a 2.25 GAA and a .925 save percentage. He is also locked up contractually until the 2020-21 season.

The team should be expected to contend for another few years as they also have the core of their team locked up for the next few years behind veterans Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise, Jason Pominville and defenseman Ryan Suter. The team’s youth is also ripening with solid seasons from Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter and defenders Jared Spurgeon, Mathew Dumba and Jonas Brodin.

The team may have some tough decisions for the upcoming expansion draft. The veteran team is sure to lose a quality player, and must contend with the No Movement Clauses of Koivu, Pominville, Parise and Suter. That leaves only a handful of spots left, depending on which path the Wild chooses to take. Tough decisions will have to be made about several players, including Jason Zucker, Erik Haula, Chris Stewart as well as veteran Eric Staal, who went down during Game 5. Even young defensemen like Brodin and Dumba could be exposed as well.

The team only has a handful of unrestricted free agents, namely Martin Hanzal and Ryan White, both acquired at the trade deadline from Arizona to help with their playoff run. The team must decide if they want or able to being one or both veterans back to the team next season.

  • One consequence to the Wild’s ouster in the playoffs will benefit the Arizona Coyotes. When Minnesota traded for Hanzal and White at the trade deadline, the team sent their 2017 first-round pick, a 2018 second-round pick and a conditional fourth-round pick in 2019 as well as prospect Grayson Downing. To the Wild’s benefit, that 2019 conditional fourth-rounder will remain a fourth-rounder. However, the series loss will allow the Coyotes to get a better pick than they had expected. The Wild at the time of the trade had the top record in the Western Conference and many figured that the pick would land in the high 20’s. Now the Wild could be handing a pick as early as No. 23 to the Coyotes for Hanzal and White, who are both unrestricted free agents in the offseason.
  • Blues head coach Mike Yeo said he has no special feelings about beating the Wild, the team that fired him during the 2015-16 season. “It’s not about me. I’ve been sincere when I’ve said that. I don’t think that what I’m feeling right now would be any different if it was any other team.”

Snapshots: Doan, Graovac, Hellberg

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Shane Doan will be on all the blooper reels for the next while. The Arizona Coyotes captain is fine after colliding hard with Jakob Chychrun in warm up last night, and missing most of the first period. According to Dave Vest of NHL.com, he team had checked him for a concussion, but ruled that he had just had the wind knocked out of him.

I didn’t know it was him that hit me. I was looking back at [Oliver Ekman-Larsson] and got hit. I had no idea who it was that hit me … I haven’t been hit that hard in a long, long time.

The Coyotes ended up winning a 1-0 game over the Colorado Avalanche in a battle between the worst teams in the NHL. It couldn’t have started in a way more fitting to what was to come, with the next wave of the Coyotes literally checking the old guard out of the way.

  • As expected, the Minnesota Wild have officially recalled Tyler Graovac from Iowa of the AHL. After Michael Russo of the Star Tribune reported yesterday that Martin Hanzal was sick with the flu and wouldn’t be with the team for the next two games, Graovac was the easy call up. As Russo points out, it will be interesting to see if Graovac figures into the lineup immediately for one of Jordan Schroeder or Ryan White or if he’s just there for insurance.
  • The New York Rangers have sent Magnus Hellberg back to the AHL despite not having two healthy goaltenders at the NHL level. With Henrik Lundqvist out two to three weeks, Hellberg is expected to be the backup behind Antti Raanta for the next little while. The Rangers are off until Friday, but so are the Hartford Wolfpack which makes this move very interesting. It may be just a paper transaction to save Hellberg’s NHL salary for a few days, but either way it will be answered later this week when they make a move to bring someone up.

Latest From Garrioch: Julien, Doan, Coyotes, Shattenkirk, Duchene

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While many are wondering if the Bruins will opt to replace Claude Julien as head coach, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun suggests that team owner Jeremy Jacobs has played a big role in keeping him around.  On the flip side, he notes that team president Cam Neely wouldn’t mind a change being made.  Julien is the longest-tenured coach in the NHL and is in his tenth season behind Boston’s bench.  The Bruins currently find themselves in a playoff spot but they sit just one point ahead of Toronto who have five games in hand so it likely won’t be long before they’re on the outside looking in.

Garrioch also covered several league-wide topics in his Insider Trading column.  Here are some of the highlights although the full column is worth a read:

  • While it’s far from a guarantee that Arizona right winger Shane Doan decides to agree to a deal, it sounds like he may be staying in the Pacific Division if he does move as he would prefer to not have to go too far. Anaheim, San Jose, and Los Angeles are believed to have interest in the 40 year old.  After a 28 goal 2015-16 campaign, Doan’s offensive production has slowed down considerably this year as he has just five goals and 12 assists in 51 games.  Accordingly, he would be a bottom six forward if he does eventually agree to a move.
  • While it’s well-known that the asking price for Coyotes center Martin Hanzal is quite high, GM John Chayka has also put a very high price tag on some of their other rental players including right winger Radim Vrbata, center Ryan White, and defenseman Michael Stone. As of yet, no one’s willing to meet the prices and it’s worth remembering that the playoff bonuses in Vrbata’s contract will be absorbed by whoever acquires him which should affect his value.  Stone’s likely to fetch a decent return as one of the better rental blueliners but the price for White, a fourth line center, shouldn’t be too high.
  • One team in the Eastern Conference received permission over the last two weeks to talk to St. Louis defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk regarding a contract extension. However, that deal fell through.  It has been suggested over the past few weeks that it’s much more likely that Shattenkirk will have to be dealt as a rental and not in a sign-and-trade deal which would undoubtedly yield a better return for the Blues.
  • The Lightning are among the teams to express an interest in Matt Duchene. Given who they have to re-sign this summer (including forwards Jonathan Drouin, Tyler Johnson, and Ondrej Palat), it seems difficult to imagine that they’d be able to keep them and add Duchene’s $6MM cap hit although it’s also possible that one of those players could be of interest to Colorado GM Joe Sakic in a possible deal.

Pacific Notes: Sharks, White, Shaw, Frolik

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Although there’s a good chance that the Sharks will lose a defenseman by next year, either via the Las Vegas expansion draft or a trade, it’s unlikely that they will opt to move that defender now, suggests CSN Bay Area’s Kevin Kurz.

San Jose finds themselves in the bottom half of the league in goals per game, which is something they’d like to improve upon.  Their strength so far this season has been on the defensive side of things where they allow the third fewest shots per game.   Accordingly, moving one of their defenders such as Justin Braun to bring in that scoring help would just trade one hole on the roster for another.

More from the Pacific Division:

  • The Coyotes are hopeful that center Ryan White can return to the lineup tonight against the Wild, notes Sarah McLellan of the Arizona Republic. The 28 year old last suited up on December 21st and has missed the last 11 games with a lower body injury.  While White won’t bring much in the way of offense to the table when he returns (he has just seven points in 30 games this season), he’ll give them a physical presence in their bottom six.  Arizona is carrying a full 23-man roster so a move will need to be made in order to activate him off injured reserve.
  • After passing through waivers earlier this season with the Panthers, center Logan Shaw is carving out a niche for himself with the Ducks, writes Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register. Shaw is taking a regular turn on their penalty kill as he helps to fill the void left by Nate Thompson (who has missed the entire year with an Achilles injury) and in doing so, has taken a bit of the workload off of Ryan Kesler as well.  Head coach Randy Carlyle would like to see Shaw become a threat at the faceoff dot but he’s a career 35% on the draw so it may take a little while for him to develop that element of his game.
  • Calgary left winger Michael Frolik has never been a big scorer at the NHL level (his career high in points came in his rookie campaign in 2008-09) but that hasn’t stopped him from being linked to one of the leading scorers in NHL history, notes Wes Gilbertson of the Calgary Sun. Frolik was born in Kladno of the Czech Republic, birthplace of Jaromir Jagr and accordingly, his nickname growing up was ‘Baby Jagr’.  While he was a top offensive threat at the junior level, he has evolved into more of a two-way forward in recent years.  Although reliable two-way threats can carve out a long career in the NHL, Frolik doesn’t anticipate having anywhere near the staying power of Jagr, who’s set to turn 45 next week.

Coyotes Notes: Hanzal, White, Burmistrov

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There are currently no contract talks between the Arizona Coyotes and center Martin Hanzal at the moment, reports Sarah McLellan of the Arizona Republic.  Hanzal is set to become an unrestricted free agent in July if no deal is reached and he has commonly been suggested as one of the top rental players available on the trade market.  Despite the fact the sides aren’t currently talking, there have been talks dating back to before the season started and Hanzal himself is on record saying he would like to stay and that he remains open to further discussions on a new deal.

The 29 year old Hanzal is having a quiet ‘walk’ year with just eight goals and six assists through 33 games this season.  However, he’s coming off a career-best 41 point campaign in 2015-16 and at 6’5, he is the type of big presence down the middle many teams would covet for their middle six.  It also helps that Hanzal is a consistently strong player at the faceoff dot, winning at least 54% of his draws the last four seasons.

GM John Chayka told McLellan that so far he has yet to receive a serious offer for Hanzal and provided an update on the situation.

“There’s not a lot going on. But at the same time, it’s one of those things where we kind of know where the player is at. The player knows where we’re at. If there was an opportunity to do something, I don’t think it would take too long. But still collecting information and working through the process.”

More from Arizona:

  • Also from McLellan, injured center Ryan White skated on Tuesday but is now expected to rest for a few days and has not accompanied the team on their road trip. Head coach Dave Tippett acknowledged that the lower body injury he suffered over two weeks ago is not healing as quickly as they anticipated.  White has five points (2-3-5) in 30 games this year while sitting fifth among NHL forwards in hits per game at 3.3.
  • Center Alexander Burmistrov, who was claimed on waivers by the Coyotes earlier this week, is someone that their entire scouting staff was pushing for them to add, Chayka told Dave Lozo on the Coyotes’ team website. Burmistrov has struggled this season but is still just 25 and was a former top ten pick back in 2010.  As he deals with visa issues, he’s not expected to play through the weekend.

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