Ryane Clowe

Snapshots: Johnson, Clowe, Jiricek, Karpovich

July 11, 2024 at 5:09 pm CDT | by Gabriel Foley 1 Comment

Veteran NHL defenseman Erik Johnson is gearing up for his 18th season in the NHL, continuing his streak of playing in every season since his first-overall selection in 2007. And despite a career accoladed by a Stanley Cup win and medals at both the Olympic Games and World Championship, the 36-year-old Johnson told Jonathan Bailey of Philly Hockey Now that he hasn’t considered retirement. Johnson emphasized that he’s ready to fill any role that’d benefit the Philadelphia Flyers, even if it means limited appearances in the lineup. He said, “I’m here to help these guys on and off the ice, whether it’s 20, 30, 40, 50 games, or whatever it is. My days of 25, 26 minutes a night are behind me, and I know that, and I’m comfortable with it.”

Johnson will continue on with the Flyers, after joining the team at the 2023 Trade Deadline and re-signing to a one-year, $1MM contract this summer. He managed three points in 16 appearances with Philadelphia after the move, bringing his season totals to six points in 67 games. Those measly totals might have pushed Johnson out of a routine lineup spot, but his veteran leadership is keeping him around the league. He’ll enter next season competing with fellow vets Nick Seeler and Rasmus Ristolainen for ice time, and mentoring top young defenders Jamie Drysdale and Cameron York.

Other quick notes from around the hockey world:

Former NHL forward Ryane Clowe made a big step in his managerial career this summer, stepping into the San Jose Sharks’ assistant general manager role and moving up from a special advisory role with the New York Rangers. Clowe detailed the move to Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now, sharing that he wasn’t eager to leave New York but was allured by the daily role San Jose promised. Clowe will now return to the club he spent eight years of his decade-long playing career with – serving as the gritty, high-event punch behind legendary Sharks like Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton – who now both support San Jose’s front office as advisors.
Top St. Louis Blues prospect Adam Jiricek is expected to move to the OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs next season, per Andy Strickland of Bally Sports Midwest. It will be a make-or-break year for Jiricek, who missed the majority of the 2023-24 season with a lower-body injury suffered in December. He was among the most acclaimed defenders in the 2024 class during his age-17 season – a value vindicated by his 17th-overall selection in this year’s draft. His long-term outlook should become clearer as he looks to adjust to both a return from injury and North American hockey next season.
New Jersey Devils defense prospect Daniil Karpovich has signed a one-year contract with Avtomobilist of the KHL, shares James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now. Nichols adds that Karpovich will report to the VHL, Russia’s second-tier league. This news returns Karpovich to Russia, after spending last season in his home country of Belarus. Karpovich spent one year of juniors hockey in Russia, recording 35 points in 47 MHL games with Avto during the 2022-23 season. That scoring dipped to just 11 points in 49 games in Belarus’ top league last season – a trend he’ll look to buck with a return east.

San Jose Sharks Announce Full Coaching Staff

July 3, 2024 at 7:19 pm CDT | by Brennan McClain 1 Comment

The San Jose Sharks have announced their full coaching staff for the 2024-25 NHL season as well as a few new hires. Assistant coach Brian Wiseman, goaltending coach Thomas Speer, video coach Nick Gialdini, and assistant video coach Cody Ward will all return to the organization as the team has hired Doug Houda and Jeff Ulmer as assistant coaches.

Houda joins the Sharks organization after spending the last two years in the same role with the New York Islanders. It is interesting to see Houda earn a job as quickly as he has considering his lackluster performance with the Islanders’ penalty kill over the last two seasons. Before being hired in New York to serve as the team’s penalty kill coach, the team sat fourth in the NHL in the 2021-22 season with an 84.19% penalty kill. Since Houda’s hire, the team fell to ninth place in the 2022-23 season with an 82.19% success rate and even further to the league’s worst last year with a 71.49% success rate.

Ulmer earns his first role on an NHL bench after spending the last three years with the AHL affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks, the Abbotsford Canucks. Focused primarily on the team’s powerplay and forward group, the AHL Canucks finished sixth in scoring in the AHL while sitting second in their division with a 23.0% clip on the powerplay.

In the front office, the Sharks also announced the hire of former power forward Ryane Clowe as the team’s new assistant general manager. Clowe assumes his new role after being a special advisor to general manager Chris Drury of the New York Rangers last year. The former player has vast experience with the Sharks organization already as he suited up in 432 games for San Jose between 2005-2013 and scored 101 goals and 217 points in the process.

New York Rangers Add To Hockey Operations Department

August 25, 2023 at 11:47 am CDT | by Brennan McClain 1 Comment

This morning, the General Manager of the New York Rangers, Chris Drury, announced several promotions and hires to the team’s hockey operations department. The totality of the announcement is as follows:

Ryane Clowe has been promoted to Co-Senior Advisor to President and General Manager
Angela Ruggiero has been hired as a Hockey Operations Advisor
Christian Hmura has been hired as a Skills and Performance Development Coach
Mark Ciacco has been named Prospect Development Skills Coach
Paul Mara has been hired as a Player Development Assistant
Andy Hosler has been named Head Athletic Trainer
Brandon Rodgers has been named Senior Sports Therapist
Kayla McAvoy has been hired as an Assistant Sports Scientist
Kathryn Yates has been hired as a Manager of Performance Data Insights

Jumping off the page, the most notable promotion and hire are represented by the top two announcements. Clowe is now in his third season with the Rangers organization, who had previously been serving as a Hockey Operations Advisor since 2022. Aside from spending 10 seasons in the NHL for the San Jose Sharks, New Jersey Devils, and Rangers, Clowe spent two seasons as an Assistant Coach for the Devils, before spending just under one season as the Head Coach of the Newfoundland Growlers of the ECHL.

Ruggiero, on the other hand, will begin her first position for a team in the National Hockey League. She is best known for her time spent with the United States Women’s Ice Hockey Olympic team, helping the team win their first gold medal in the 1998 Winter Olympics. She would go on to win two silver medals in 2002 and 2010, while acquiring a bronze medal in the 2006 Winter Olympics. A member of both the Hockey Fall of Fame, and the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, Ruggiero will replace Clowe in her new role with New York.

Ryane Clowe Hired As ECHL Head Coach

June 20, 2018 at 8:09 am CDT | by Gavin Lee 2 Comments

The New Jersey Devils have finally rid themselves of Ryane Clowe’s contract, but they’ll now lose any experience and guidance that he could bring to the team. Clowe had been operating as an assistant coach while his contract was put on long-term injured reserve, but is now headed back to Newfoundland as the first head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs new ECHL affiliate. Clowe will take over as head coach of the Newfoundland Growlers, and really begin the second part of his hockey career.

Clowe, 35, saw his career ended abruptly by concussions, as he was advised by doctors in 2015 not to continue playing. At that point, he was in the middle of a five-year, $24.25MM contract he signed with the Devils in 2013, and would have to wait out the rest of it on the sidelines. The big, bruising winger had been a force in the NHL, scoring 45 or more points four times and collecting 618 penalty minutes in just 491 games. Though his signature was his physical play, his offensive game was underrated at times and he’ll try to pass on that knowledge to the next wave of Maple Leafs prospects.

Toronto has built a three-tiered development system with their ECHL club, using it to work with players who may have a glaring weakness or need to improve their physical fitness. Clowe will try to help raw players get off on the right foot in their professional careers, and maybe one day even make it to the NHL.

Salary Cap Deep Dive: New Jersey Devils

September 2, 2017 at 8:55 pm CDT | by Holger Stolzenberg 1 Comment

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

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

New Jersey Devils

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

Entry-Level Contracts

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

Potential Bonuses

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

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

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

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

One Year Remaining, Non-Entry-Level

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

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

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

Two Years Remaining

F Marcus Johansson ($4.58MM, UFA)
F Adam Henrique ($4MM, UFA)
F Brian Boyle ($2.75MM, UFA)
D Ben Lovejoy ($2.67MM, UFA)
G Keith Kinkaid ($1.25MM, UFA)

The team picked up some much-needed scoring in Johansson from the division rival Capitals for a second and a third round pick, but the 26-year-old winger scored 24 goals last year, albeit on a offensive juggernaut. The former first-round pick in 2009 has averaged 20 goals in the past three seasons and he should get even more ice time in New Jersey than he saw in Washington. The team has two years to see whether the forward is worth holding onto as a future piece or as future trade bait.

The Devils have a much better knowledge on what Henrique can do. The 27-year-old center has had a 30-goal season (in the 2015-16 season) and has put up nice scoring numbers, but assists have been few, especially for a center. He had a down year last year, putting up 20 goals, but only had 20 assists to go with that. For a top-six center, those numbers are a little disappointing. The Devils still have two more years to see if he can develop, otherwise it’s more likely the two teams could part ways.

As for Boyle, the Devils brought the 32-year-old in on a two-year deal to provide veteran leadership and a person who can center one of the bottom two lines and the team was praised for that signing. Lovejoy provides the team with a strong defensive presence, but like most of the defense, he is very one-sided. He is great on defense, but can’t produce much on offense, finishing last year with seven points in 82 games. At 33, this is likely his last contract with the Devils. Kinkaid returns as a quality backup to Schneider and should provide good value for the next two years.

Three Years Remaining

F Taylor Hall ($6MM, UFA)
D Andy Greene ($5MM, UFA)

Two players heading in opposite directions of their career, but both are valuable to the franchise. Hall, despite coming off a down year (almost all Devils had down years), has two 25-goal seasons to his resume and still had 20 goals last year. The 25-year-old wing is one of the team’s top scorers and many believe that the team’s success will ride on his play. With three years left on his deal, the Devils again have time to decide whether he is worth a big payday down the road. Greene, a 34-year-old aging defenseman, is also a defensive-first player and has always been. As the team focuses its future attention on their defense, Greene playing time may drop over the next few years.

Four Or More Years Remaining

G Cory Schneider ($6MM through 2021-22)
F Travis Zajac ($5.75MM through 2020-21)
F Kyle Palmieri ($4.65MM through 2020-21)

Schneider is locked up for the longest on this team and until last year, that deal looked like a great one. The 31-year-old goaltender has been golden throughout most of his career, but the team’s poor defensive play finally got to Schneider, who struggled in his 60 games played. His 2.82 GAA and .908 save percentages were career lows and the team believes he will bounce back even though the team has done very little to improve their defense this offseason.

To make matters worse, the team also lost Zajac to injury this offseason. The veteran center will be out for four to six months after he had surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle, which he sustained during offseason training. While he may be back late in the season, the injury will force others like Henrique to step up and take a larger role this season. Zajac, who has spent his entire career in New Jersey, had 14 goals and 31 assists last year. But the fact that he’ll be 36 when is contract ends, this contract is likely to be one they want to get out of at some point in the future.

Palmieri, like Hall, is the present day future of the Devils. The 26-year-old wing has scored 56 goals in the past two seasons and has been one of their most dominant players. At $4.65MM, that’s pretty good value for the forward.

Buyouts

F Mike Cammalleri ($1.67MM through 2020-21)
F Devante Smith-Pelly ($175K in 2017-18, $225K in 2018-19)
F Ilya Kovalchuk (not a buyout, but a recapture penalty will cost the team $250K through 2024-25 after retiring three years into a 15-year, $100MM deal)

Retained Salary Transactions

None

Still To Sign

D Damon Severson

Best Value: Palmieri
Worst Value: Clowe

Looking Ahead

The Devils look to be in a better situation after a solid offseason. Striking the lottery and getting Hischier is a huge stroke of luck, one the organization needs after several years of struggles. The team’s defense also got a boost recently when they signed Butcher from the college ranks. Both prospects should provide long-term value, and the team is not clogged up with too many expensive contracts. Most general managers would be happy to pay Schneider just $6MM over the next five years. What the team needs to do is continue to improve and develop their prospects. Players like Pamieri, Hall, Henrique and Severson must continue to improve and take their games up a notch this season. But with a low cap number and some young prospects on the horizon, the Devils should continue to improve over the next few years.

Full List Of Mandatory-Protection Players In Expansion Draft

November 23, 2016 at 3:41 pm CDT | by Gavin Lee 2 Comments

Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston has published the full list of players who, due to no-movement clauses in their current contracts, must be protected in the upcoming expansion draft for the new Vegas Golden Knights. These are players who will count against the protection limits should they choose not to waive their NMC rights prior to the draft.

Each team has the right to protect either:

A) Seven forwards, three defenders, one goaltender

B) Eight skaters, one goaltender

These players will count against those numbers, and as Johnston points out, there are some notable inclusions and omissions from this group. Players like Jordan Staal, Rick Nash and Bobby Ryan all had incorrect information spread about their contracts. The former two will now need protection, while the latter will not, due to his deal only having a no-movement to the minors clause.

The Chicago Blackhawks, with eight players listed, will have little flexibility at the draft, with only four forward spots (or one defenseman) left to use. Many others, according to Johnston, including Toronto’s Nathan Horton, are likely to be made exempt if they are still on LTIR as the draft approaches.

Ryane Clowe To Join Devils Coaching Staff

July 12, 2016 at 4:26 pm CDT | by Glen Miller Leave a Comment

According to a release from the New Jersey Devils, Ryane Clowe has been named an assistant under head coach John Hynes. Clowe, a rugged power forward in his playing days, hasn’t suited up for the Devils since November 6th, 2014 due to complications stemming from the several concussions he sustained during his playing career.

Clowe spent the first seven-plus seasons of his NHL career as a member of the San Jose Sharks and tallied 101 goals along with 170 assists. He also found time to rack up 567 PIMs while with the Sharks.

The New York Rangers acquired Clowe ahead of the 2013 trade deadline in exchange for multiple draft picks. He would see action in 12 regular season contests and another two in the playoffs before leaving the team in the summer as a free agent to sign with the Devils.

Because Clowe has not officially retired, his $4.85MM cap hit will remain on the books for salary cap purposes, helping the club reach the salary floor. The team can clear that cap hit by placing the player on LTIR prior to the season starting. It seems strange a player’s cap hit can remain on the books while he’s working in a non-playing capacity for the organization but the current NHL CBA allows it. In fact, while still a member of the Flyers prior to his cap hit being dealt to Arizona, Chris Pronger held a position in Philadelphia’s front office.

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