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Sebastian Aho

Eastern Notes: Nylander, Elliott, Hedman, Rask

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are running out of time to sign restricted free agent William Nylander and as each day passes, general manager Kyle Dubas may be more and more inclined to look to deal Nylander before they lose him for the season.

In Saturday’s Hockey Night in Canada segment, Elliotte Friedman said that if/when the Maple Leafs decide to move Nylander, expect the Carolina Hurricanes to be ready to make a deal.

“When the time does come — if the time does come that Toronto decides they are going to deal [Nylander] — Carolina has made it very clear that they are all in,” said Friedman.

Carolina has a number of key assets that might interest Toronto, including defensemen Justin Faulk and Brett Pesce. Nylander would be another key piece for the Hurricanes to build up their forward core that already includes Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov.

  • The Philadelphia Flyers lost one of their goalies Saturday when Michal Neuvirth was sent back home to Philadelphia for medical reasons. Now, Sam Carchidi of Philly.com writes that Brian Elliott left practice early today after he collided with teammate Travis Konecny. The injury-prone goalie left holding his head, but there is no update, nor is it known if he can play in Monday’s game against Arizona. If not, Calvin Pickard will fill in for him and the team may have to recall Alex Lyon from Lehigh Valley of the AHL. The 33-year-old Elliott has been adequate at best so far in 10 appearances this year. He has a 3.10 GAA and an .893 save percentage.
  • The Athletic’s Joe Smith (subscription required) reports that Tampa Bay Lightning head coach said defenseman Victor Hedman, who has been out since Oct. 26 when he collided with Vegas’ Ryan Reaves will be out on Tuesday, but could be ready to return later this week.
  • With lots of mailbag questions about Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask, NBC Sports Joe Hagerty writes that he doubts the team would be able to trade the struggling Rask in any upcoming deal. The 31-year-old Rask, who has been outplayed by free agent Jaroslav Halak so far this season, has a 3.15 GAA and a .902 save percentage in six appearances. However, his contract ($7MM AAV for two more years after this one), but more particularly his no-trade clause will prevent Boston from moving him. While many teams might want to give Rask a new opportunity, Haggerty writes he doesn’t believe that Rask has any interest in leaving Boston and wouldn’t be willing to waive his no-trade clause.

Hurricanes Making Progress In Contract Talks With Sebastian Aho

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The Hurricanes have made progress towards locking up star winger Sebastian Aho to a long-term deal, reports Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News and Observer.  GM Don Waddell acknowledged that he’s hopeful a deal can be reached by the end of the season.  If he’s unsigned at that point, he will become a restricted free agent this summer but will not have salary arbitration rights.

The 21-year-old is off to a prolific start to his year, setting a franchise record for a consecutive point streak to start a season while also equalling an NHL record for the most consecutive games with an assist to start a season.  While negotiations have been ongoing since the start of the year, it’s reasonable to suspect that this has boosted the asking price as talks progress.

Waddell provided a little insight into the talks, noting that there are roughly 20 reasonably-comparable players to the winger.  Aho and agent Gerry Johansson have three outliers on the high end of that scale while the team has three on the low end.  The two sides are looking to find a middle ground between the remainder of those comparables with Waddell stating that “The amount of money we’re talking, there’s not a crazy difference”.

One of the outliers on Aho and Johansson’s end is believed to be Sabres center Jack Eichel who is in the first season of an eight-year, $80MM contract.  Alexander notes that a deal like that is not on the table for Aho.

Some potential comparable players that aren’t on quite as expensive of a contract would include Winnipeg center Mark Scheifele, Colorado pivot Nathan MacKinnon, Calgary center Sean Monahan plus winger Johnny Gaudreau, and Boston winger David Pastrnak.  All of those players are top-line options on their respective clubs and carry cap hits between $6.125MM and $6.75MM.  With the Upper Limit increasing in recent years, the equivalent salary cap percentage could realistically stretch Aho’s next contract over the $7MM mark.

Carolina won’t have any issue fitting Aho’s next deal onto their books as they have just shy of $47MM committed to 13 players for next season, per CapFriendly.  He’s one of their lowest-paid players this season with a base salary of just $925K (the entry-level maximum) but by this time one year from now, Aho will almost assuredly be the top-paid player on the Hurricanes, surpassing center Jordan Staal ($6MM) for that title.

Metro Notes: Ho-Sang, Aho, Goalies

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The selection of Josh Ho-Sang in 2014 hasn’t worked out very well for the New York Islanders. The 28th-overall pick has played in just 43 games in the NHL, and failed to make the Islanders out of camp once again. Now, in a new piece from Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post, Ho-Sang doesn’t believe he even had much of a chance. Detailing how he rarely played in the preseason and was quickly cut, Ho-Sang also doesn’t feel as though he’s getting a very good opportunity in the minor leagues with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

This isn’t the first time the talented forward has spoken out about his treatment in the Islanders organization, as just last March he pointed out that they wanted him to work on his defensive game while the NHL team was giving up the most goals in the league. The 22-year old has just four assists and zero goals in his first nine games with the Sound Tigers this year, and might be getting close to the point of needing a fresh start in a different organization. There’s no indication that the Islanders are looking to trade him, but there is obviously a frustration between the two sides.

  • You won’t find that kind of divide between the Carolina Hurricanes and their own talented young forward, as Sebastian Aho is very happy to explore long-term deals with the club. Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer details the latest in contract negotiations, noting that both sides are looking for a long-term contract extension and believe it will get done before the end of the year. The two sides are relatively close in terms of salary, but are just working out where exactly the talented youngster will land among his contemporaries. Aho is off to an excellent start with 16 points in his first 11 games, and could easily surpass his career-high of 65 set last season. The 21-year old is in the final year of his entry-level contract, and looks like a budding superstar after making the move to center this season.
  • Meanwhile, Carolina also has some tough decisions to make when it comes to their current roster. The team still has three goaltenders with them after activating Scott Darling from injured reserve, and are obviously loath to lose one on waivers. Curtis McElhinney and Petr Mrazek have not been very good this season despite the Hurricanes strong start, but it’s not obvious which of the three goaltenders would provide the least value at the NHL level. For now, they’ll work with three on the roster according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, at least for their upcoming road trip.

Metropolitan Notes: Johnson, Ferland, Boyd, Mayfield

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Ever since the injury to defenseman Justin Schultz, there have been rumors that the Pittsburgh Penguins may have to upgrade their defense if they wanted to make a serious run for a Stanley Cup. Regardless, Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford stated that the team has enough depth to fill the hole in their defense from within.

Yet rumors continued, especially after defenseman Jack Johnson was found to be on the ice for five goals against in their 6-5 overtime victory Tuesday against the Edmonton Oilers. Again, fans began clamoring to get help to lessen the role of Johnson, after he signed a questionable five-year, $16.25MM deal in the offseason. However, head coach Mike Sullivan was quick to come to Johnson’s defense, according to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

“The reality is when you break down the involvement of those goals, he had no responsibility for any of those goals-against,” Sullivan said of Johnson’s performance against the Oilers. “He just happened to be on the ice for them. We try to look at the game a whole lot closer than the fact that guy is on the ice when a goal is scored because a lot can happen in a team game.”

Rutherford furthered that notion by reiterating that the team intends to stand pat with regards to adding more defense.

“I certainly don’t see us having to go get another defenseman with the group of guys we have,” Rutherford said. “We have guys in Wilkes-Barre who can come in and play on top of who we have here.”

  • While the Carolina Hurricanes made a number of moves this offseason, the team may be most happy with the play of Micheal Ferland, who came over in the trade with the Calgary Flames during the offseason. While the team’s main reason to bringing Ferland in was to add some toughness to a team that lacked it a year ago, the team seems to be getting quite a bit more than that out of him, according to Chip Alexander of the News & Observer. Ferland has found a place on the team’s top line with Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen, and has a team-high six goals, along with 10 points. If Ferland keeps that up, he could break his career-high of 21 goals this season.
  • NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti writes Washington Capitals head coach Todd Reirden said that Travis Boyd will have some tests tomorrow to determine the progress of his injury when he sustained a lower-body injury during training camp and was placed on LTIR. Because he was placed on LTIR, he was forced to miss 10 games, meaning he can be activated now if he’s healthy. “We’ll have him checked out again tomorrow and then see how close he is to being able to play as soon as Thursday,” Reirden said (via NBC Sports J.J. Regan). “But we still need to get some tests done and see exactly where he’s at. He’s been coming along and for the most part seems to be fairly pain-free.” Boyd made eight appearances with the Capitals last year and was battling with Nic Dowd for the fourth-line center position, but lost that job after getting injured.
  • New York Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said that perhaps the biggest surprise on the roster has been the play of defenseman Scott Mayfield, according to Newsday’s Andrew Gross. The 26-year-old has a goal and five points in seven games this season, but has really impressed the coach with his play even though Trotz admitted that he got off to a slow start at training camp.

Snapshots: Foster, Aho, Rantanen

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One of the legendary moments from the 2017-18 season aside from the Vegas Golden Knights setting a new standard for expansion franchises, and Alex Ovechkin finally hoisting the cup above his head (and, alternately hoisting his head above the cup), was made on an otherwise unexceptional night in Chicago. With their regular goaltenders injured, the Chicago Blackhawks started minor league netminder Collin Delia for the first time in his career. Everything was set up for a normal debut by a budding prospect, but went awry in the third period.

In came Scott Foster, emergency goaltender extraordinaire, signed to an amateur tryout deal in order to fill in. Foster entered with 14 minutes remaining in the third period and made seven stops to secure the win for the Blackhawks. The former Western Michigan University backup goaltender became an instant folk hero in his local recreational league, and now has even more to tell his friends when they gather at the pub. The Blackhawks announced that Foster will serve as the third goaltender at optional skates this season, continuing to add more pages to the brief chapter of his NHL life.

  • There’s not much about the Carolina Hurricanes attack that doesn’t run through Sebastian Aho, the third-year forward with 14 points in his first nine games. Aho recorded 65 last season to lead the Hurricanes, and after Jeff Skinner and Elias Lindholm were jettisoned this summer there’s little reason to think he won’t lead them for years to come. That’s what owner Tom Dundon believes, and what he told Craig Custance of The Athletic (subscription required). Dundon was effusive in his praise of Aho’s game, and all but guaranteed that the Finnish forward would be in Carolina for a long time: “He’s going to play here. This is where he’s going to play. We’ll figure it out.” Aho is in the final season of his entry-level contract, and will be looking for a huge raise on his next deal. Custance suggests that the 21-year old is watching the William Nylander negotiation closely, as it could be a direct comparable for his own next summer.
  • Speaking of big second contracts, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet notes that Mike Liut, the agent for both Mikko Rantanen and Patrik Laine, likes to wait until after his clients’ third season to sign their next big deal, instead of looking for an early extension. He’s done that with Vladimir Tarasenko, Rasmus Ristolainen and Leon Draisaitl, and Friedman implies that a similar path might be taken by Rantanen and Laine. The former is off to an incredible start in Colorado, while Laine is bound to take off at any moment.

Carolina Intends To Make Signing Sebastian Aho A Top Priority

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Now that the team has moved forward Jeff Skinner, the Carolina Hurricanes have made it clear that they intend to make forward Sebastian Aho the face of the franchise going forward. It’s a good choice as the 21-year-old has been nothing but dazzling in the two years that he’s been with the team and posted an impressive 29 goals and 65 points last year.

In a state of the franchise press conference today, new team owner Tom Dundon even went so far as to say today that locking up Aho to a long-term extension is a high priority, according to Chip Alexander of the News & Observer.

Aho, who is in the final year of a three-year entry-level deal that pays him $925K, should be in line for a big payday next season, especially if Aho takes his game another notch, regardless if he signs a bridge deal or a long-term one. Aho was a second-round pick in 2015 (35th overall) and opted to spend one year longer in the Liiga before coming over in the 2016-17 season, posting 24 goals and 49 points as a rookie. He is expected to be on the team’s top line as the season begins.

East Notes: Aho, Brassard, Green

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The Hurricanes are expected to pick up extension discussions with winger Sebastian Aho in the coming days, GM Don Waddell acknowledged to NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti.  While the two sides aren’t setting the beginning of the regular season as a deadline to get something done, Waddell stated that the team is hopeful to have an agreement in place by then.

Aho has quickly established himself as one of Carolina’s top offensive weapons, leading the team in scoring last season with 65 points in 78 games.  He’s entering the final year of his entry-level contract that carries a cap hit of just $925K in base pay (with an extra $850K in potential performance bonuses).  Needless to say, the Hurricanes will have to give Aho considerably more than that to get him to put pen to paper on a new contract.

Elsewhere out East:

  • Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan confirmed to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that they will experiment with using center Derick Brassard on the wing in the preseason. Brassard stated at the end-of-season exit meetings that he had difficulty adapting to playing in the bottom six; moving him to the wing would allow the team to put him on a higher line.  If the experiment works, that would also help alleviate the small logjam the team has down the middle after re-signing Riley Sheahan as well as adding Derek Grant and Matt Cullen in free agency this summer and lessen the likelihood that they would deal from their surplus.
  • Red Wings defenseman Mike Green will meet with the doctor that performed his neck surgery five months ago in the hopes of getting clearance to participate in training camp, notes MLive’s Ansar Khan. Even if that happens, Detroit may limit him in preseason action as a precaution.  Green tried to play through the injury last season but struggled before the team shut him down in March.  That didn’t seem to affect his free agency, however, as he still inked a two-year, $10.75MM deal late in June.

Hurricanes Have Started Extension Discussions With Sebastian Aho

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The Hurricanes have started discussions on a contract extension for forward Sebastian Aho, notes NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti.  Aho acknowledged that he’s hopeful that his agent Gerry Johansson can get a long-term deal done but that he has “nothing to say yet”.

The 21-year-old is coming off of a very strong sophomore campaign that saw him improve his point total from his rookie season by 16.  His 65 points on the year led all Carolina players and he followed that up with a stellar showing at the World Championships where he finished second in the tournament in scoring with 18 points in just eight contests.

Aho could also be in line for a position change for next season.  After finishing the year as a center, new head coach Rod Brind’Amour noted that they will consider moving him back to the wing.  Despite losing both Elias Lindholm (trade) and Derek Ryan (free agency), Carolina still has some good options down the middle in Jordan Staal, Victor Rask, as well as youngster Martin Necas who is expected to be a regular in 2018-19.

Aho is already signed through the upcoming campaign with a $925K cap hit plus another $850K in Schedule ‘B’ bonuses that he should have a strong chance at achieving.  It’s safe to say that his next deal, whenever it’s signed, will vastly surpass that amount.  Fortunately for Carolina, they have plenty of room to work with under the salary cap so they shouldn’t have to move anyone out to accommodate his eventual new salary.

Young Talent Fills Finland’s World Championship Roster

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Finland has announced their final roster for the upcoming World Championship, and it is filled with young NHL talent. The Dallas Stars will be quite pleased with the results, as both Miro Heiskanen and Julius Honka will be present on defense. The entire group is as follows:

Affiliated NHL organization in parenthesis

Goaltenders:

Ville Husso (St. Louis Blues)
Eero Kilpelainen
Harri Sateri (Florida Panthers)

Defensemen:

Miro Heiskanen (Dallas Stars)
Julius Honka (Dallas Stars)
Niko Mikkola (St. Louis Blues)
Markus Nutivaara (Columbus Blue Jackets)
Tommi Kivisto
Miika Koivisto
Ville Pokka (Ottawa Senators)
Juuso Riikola

Forwards:

Sebastian Aho (Carolina Hurricanes)
Marko Anttila
Mikael Granlund (Minnesota Wild)
Pekka Jormakka
Kasperi Kapanen (Toronto Maple Leafs)
Sakari Manninen
Saku Maenalanen
Mika Niemi
Olli Palola
Janne Pesonen
Mikko Rantanen (Colorado Avalanche)
Veli-Matti Savinainen
Antti Suomela
Teuvo Teravainen (Carolina Hurricanes)

Heiskanen’s presence on the team is especially noteworthy given that he is only 18 years old still, and made it over other top young players like Olli Juolevi. The third pick in the 2017 draft, Heiskanen is an incredibly mobile two-way defender that should be an impact player in the NHL before long. The Stars will watch to see if he and Honka get any time together and can start to build chemistry, as the pair could be used together for years to come.

For Rantanen, a good performance at the Worlds would be just another feather in his cap for the 2017-18 season. After scoring 20 goals last season on a dreadful Colorado team, he and Nathan MacKinnon formed one of the league’s most dangerous duos this season and racked up the accolades. Rantanen finished with 84 points, a huge total for a 21-year old winger still learning how to best use his big frame in the NHL.

Carolina’s Sebastian Aho Out Indefinitely

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Sebastian Aho’s recent streak of good luck has come to an end. The Carolina Hurricanes star forward had posted 14 points in his past 10 games entering the team’s match-up against the Calgary Flames yesterday, but was unable to notch another point or even finish another game after taking a big hit from Flames captain Mark Giordano. While the hit was high –  and drew a match penalty – head coach Bill Peters indicated after the game that Aho may have suffered a knee injury in addition to his head injury.

While it remains unclear which injury is to blame (most likely  a combination of both), ’Canes beat writer Chip Alexander reports this evening that those initial post-game concerns were warranted. Carolina has revealed that Aho is out indefinitely with a concussion and lower-body injury. Alexander does add that the lower-body injury, suspected to be a knee injury, did not require Aho to undergo surgery, which could help him return to action sooner rather than later.

While the Hurricanes are fortunate enough to have activated veteran forwards Lee Stempniak and Marcus Kruger off of injured reserve last week, their presence alone won’t be enough to make up for the loss of Aho. The 20-year-old winger leads the team with both 16 goals and 37 points and has been especially effective of late as Carolina looks to stick around the playoff picture in the ultra-competitive Metropolitan Division. What may help to offset the Aho injury is the fact that the ’Canes have just begun their bye week, potentially lessening the impact of Aho’s absence if he returns within a relatively short amount of time. Only time will tell how long the team will be without Aho, but the longer “indefinitely” lasts and he remains sidelined, the less and less likely it is that Carolina makes the playoffs this season.

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