Valeri Nichushkin Hopes To Return To Stars In 2018-19
Russian forward Valeri Nichushkin expects to play for the Dallas Stars in 2018-19, reports Mike Heika of the Dallas News. He currently plays for CSKA Moscow in the KHL and will finish out the final year of his contract with the Russian club.
The Stars still retain Nichushkin’s rights as he left for the KHL after finishing his ELC contract, so he is still considered an RFA by the NHL. Nichushkin is valued enough by the Stars that they protected him in this summer’s expansion draft.
This season, Nichushkin scored 11G and 13A in 36 games for CSKA Moscow, and an additional 1G and 4A in the playoffs. In his last season with the Stars (2015-16), Nichushkin netted 9G and 20A in 79 games. The Stars obviously value him enough to protect him, and if he returns as a more-developed version of himself, it is a win-win for both player and organization. The player receives more playing time in his native country rather than limited NHL minutes—or riding the bus in the AHL—and the team has its asset develop without incurring salary expenditures or a salary cap hit.
Return To NHL For Valeri Nichushkin Still Up In The Air
Despite having a year left on his contract with CSKA Moscow of the KHL, Mike Morreale of NHL.com relays from Joe McDonnell, the Stars director of amateur scouting that it is still “50/50” if Valeri Nichushkin returns to the NHL for next season. Any return would need a buyout or mutual termination of the final year of his contract in Russia, because of the unwritten agreement between the two leagues to respect each other’s contracts.
Nichuchkin would be a big bonus to the Stars if he found a way to return, as they try to bounce back from a disappointing season and compete again. The 22-year old winger put up 24 points in 36 games in the KHL this season and is starting to really take advantage of his huge 6’4″ frame. After selecting him 10th overall in the 2013 entry draft, Nichuchkin left for Russia last summer after perceived tension with head coach Lindy Ruff. Ruff is gone, Ken Hitchcock is the bench boss now, and the Stars have room up front to hand out some important minutes.
In the upcoming expansion draft, it is almost a given that the Stars will decide to protect the young Russian whether he has plans on returning now or in a year’s time. Meanwhile, CSKA will be trying as hard as they can to extend him and keep him in the KHL long-term. Nichushkin is a restricted free agent in the NHL, and should he come back would need a new contract with Dallas. Even if he doesn’t return this summer, you can bet he’ll be a topic of conversation if the Stars are headed for the playoffs next spring, just as Vladimir Sobotka was this year.
Stars Notes: Nichushkin, Expansion, Honka
When Valeri Nichushkin left for the KHL last summer after having trouble with Dallas Stars head coach Lindy Ruff, the team lost one of its best young assets to a rival league. The former 10th-overall draft pick had put up 34 points in his rookie season, then missed most of the next year after hip surgery but came back with another solid 29 point season as a 20-year old last year. He looked like a star (pun intended) in the making in Dallas, ready to break out over the next few seasons.
Well, breakout he did, just on the wrong continent. With 24 points in 36 games, Nichushkin was outstanding for CSKA Moscow when he was healthy. He is under contract for one more season with the Russian team, but Jim Nill was on the radio today saying (via Mark Stepneski of NHL.com) that he would like to bring him back to North America eventually. The now 22-year old would be a nice addition if they could get him under contract, as they’re likely losing Ales Hemsky, Patrick Sharp and Jiri Hudler this year—not to mention Patrick Eaves and Lauri Korpikoski, who they dealt at the deadline.
- According to Stepneski, Nill also said that he likely will protect Nichushkin in the upcoming expansion draft, something that would complicate things quite a bit. Protecting Nichushkin would leave one of Antoine Roussel, Brett Ritchie, Radek Faksa or Cody Eakin exposed, none of whom the Stars could afford losing for nothing. While leaving Nichushkin exposed isn’t perfect, it would be hard to see Vegas taking a swing at him not knowing for sure if he’d ever come back to the NHL. Perhaps the Stars will work out a deal with the Golden Knights on who to take, as they currently look like they’ll lose an effective player in the draft.
- Julius Honka will be back up with the NHL team at some point, to play another 8-10 games with the big club before the end of the season. The top prospect played 10 games earlier in the season for the team, and has thrived at the AHL level for three straight years. There will be no playoff run for the Texas Stars of the AHL this season, as they currently sit in seventh place in their division with a 27-29-4 record.
Quotable: Stars GM On Eight Defensemen, Injuries, Nichushkin, Goalies
Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill sat down for an interview with Mike Heika of the Dallas News over the weekend. The full interview is certainly worth a read but here are some of the highlights.
On whether there are any challenges associated with carrying eight defensemen instead of the standard seven:
“I don’t think so. I think you look at the schedule and it’s going to be a grind, so I really feel we will need that depth. You look at last season, and we didn’t need that depth until the end of the season, but if we didn’t have that depth, we would have been in trouble. So it worked out for us. I think this year, somebody steps in and somebody steps out, and we’re seeing growth in those players. Jamie Oleksiak, I think we’re seeing growth in him. Esa Lindell, we’re seeing growth in him. That’s what we want.”
Jamie Oleksiak’s situation has been well documented as he has effectively been the eighth blueliner dating back to last season. He has played just 24 of a possible 98 regular season games since 2015-16, hardly an ideal scenario for a 23 year old former first round pick.
Regarding the decision to not utilize potential LTIR on right winger Ales Hemsky ($4MM cap hit) and Mattias Janmark ($800K cap hit), both of whom are out for at least several more months:
“It’s a complicated process, and that’s why we haven’t done it yet. But if we had to do that, we could and we could allow ourselves more spending space. To simplify it, I can just say we don’t anticipate any problems with the cap. We should be fine.”
The Stars currently have over $1.5MM in salary cap space according to Cap Friendly despite effectively carrying a 28-man roster due to all of the injuries they’re currently dealing with. As some players return to the lineup, that number should only increase, suggesting that they’ll be in good shape moving forward without needing to dip into LTIR.
On the decision to let Valeri Nichushkin go back to the KHL – given the injury woes the team has up front, does Nill believe he should have been more flexible in negotiations with the former first rounder?
“No, not at all. We’re comfortable with the offer we gave and we’re comfortable with the process. Every contract you sign can affect another contract, especially with younger players. We made a decision, and he made a decision, and that’s just negotiations. I think in the end, it could be good for him to go back there and maybe mature, and then maybe when he has the opportunity, he will better understand what he has here and want to come back.”
Regarding one contract possibly affecting another, Nill later added that the team is trying to follow a certain structure when it comes to restricted free agents and that consistency in that process is important. In recent years, the Stars have been pushing for shorter-term bridge deals with restricted free agents coming off their entry-level deals even though that goes against the current league-wide trend.
On the current struggles of goaltenders Antti Niemi and Kari Lehtonen:
“The numbers aren’t good, but at the same time I get back to the injuries and the team that’s in front of them. It’s a challenge for both of them, and I think there have been times when they have really stepped up. I think they both had great training camps, and they both have stepped up a times. We just need to strive to improve every game, but that’s the same for the whole team.”
The Stars currently have a team goals against average of 3.44, ranking 26th in the league and a team save percentage of .890, good for 27th. Those are hardly ideal numbers for a team that is spending more money on their goaltenders (a combined $10.4MM) than any other team in the NHL. In a follow-up question though, Nill noted that he isn’t worried about looking for an upgrade right now.
Stars RFA Nichushkin Signs In Russia
Sept. 20: CSKA Moscow has officially announced the signing (link in Russian). The Stars will retain his NHL rights.
Sept. 19: According to R-Sport correspondent Simon Galkevich, Dallas Stars forward Valeri Nichushkin is about to sign a two-year contract with CSKA Moscow of the KHL (link in Russian).
Galkevich tweeted CSKA acquired Nichushkin’s KHL rights from Dinamo for free. Igor Eronko, a writer for the Russian website Sport-Express, cited a source saying Nichushkin hopes to return to Dallas “someday”, but doesn’t want to play for Stars coach Lindy Ruff. Ruff’s contract expires in two years, coinciding with the end of Nichushkin’s KHL contract.
Back in March, Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News reported Nichushkin was frustrated with Ruff, quoting a Sport-Express article where Nichushkin compared Ruff’s lack of trust in him to “beating [my] forehead against the wall”.
Stars GM Jim Nill had previously stated that he didn’t expect Nichushkin to consider the KHL. The Stars drafted Nichushkin 10th overall back in the 2013 Entry Draft. He’s scored 23 goals and 64 points in 166 games since then, missing all but eight games of his sophomore season with a hip issue.
Nichushkin is one of several RFAs currently without an NHL contract, as discussed during PHR’s series on remaining RFAs.
Snapshots: Nichushkin, Strome, Sabres
News and notes around the NHL this evening:
- Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill said that losing Valeri Nichushkin to the KHL is “not the end of the world.” The unsigned RFA is rumored to be close to signing a two-year deal with CSKA Moscow instead of remaining with the Dallas Stars. Nill reasons that Nichushkin is still young and will continue to develop in the KHL—and return to the organization a better player. Nishushkin scored 9G and 20A in 79 games for the Stars, and was considered a promising prospect on the backend.
- Unsigned RFA Ryan Strome approaches the New York Islanders self-imposed deadline to sign a contract before the season starts. As Larry Brooks reports, the Isles have maintained the previous ownership’s policy of not negotiating during training camp. The Canadian forward scored 8G and 20A in 71 games for the Isles last season, and an additional 1G and 3A in 8 playoff games. The Isles have just over $3.6MM in cap space—more than enough to sign a player of Strome’s calibre to a short-term bridge deal.
- The Buffalo Sabres officially announced that they have changed their arena name from the First Niagara Center to the KeyBank Center. KeyBank’s parent company KeyCorp recently bought First Niagara, and with it came the arena’s naming rights. Both are mid-size banks with a concentrated upstate New York presence. The name change will take effect this season. The name change is also the team’s fourth in twenty years, after being called the Marine Midland Arena, HSBC Arena, and most recently the First Niagara Center.
Central Division: Remaining RFAs
We are less than a month away from the start of the World Cup and training camps. However, there are still 15 restricted free agents remaining, and many of them are not who you would expect to be unsigned at this point. Two NHL teams’ leading scorers, four top-four defensemen, and several other high quality players are still looking for new deals.
Let’s continue our break down of the remaining RFAs by taking a look at the Central Division:
Dallas Stars – $7.98MM in cap space, according to Cap Friendly – The Stars have yet to re-sign their first round pick from 2013, Valeri Nichushkin. As we reported yesterday, the Stars and Nichushkin are continuing to talk. A trip to the KHL was speculated earlier in the off-season after Nichushkin said he would “perhaps consider” leaving the NHL because he felt head coach Lindy Ruff didn’t trust him to play big minutes. Nichushkin scored 34 points in his rookie year, 2013-14, but has only posted 30 points in the two seasons since, having missed all but eight games of his sophomore season.
Winnipeg Jets – $9.37MM in cap space, according to Cap Friendly – The right-handed defenseman is one of the hottest commodities in the NHL these days, so the Winnipeg Jets have quite a nice problem on their hands. Jacob Trouba is a big, mobile, two-way defenseman who is right handed and should be making huge steps forward in the coming seasons. However, he’s blocked from playing big minutes by other big right-handed defensemen Dustin Byflugien and Tyler Myers. Trouba can play the left side, but performs better on his natural right side. According to Gary Lawless of TSN, Trouba feels he should be playing bigger minutes, and negotiations aren’t going well – the two sides are apart on “everything”. Despite all that, Lawless said a trade was unlikely; no team is likely to want to pay the asking price to acquire Trouba after a down season. Trouba will be playing for Team North America in the next month’s World Cup of Hockey, so like Johnny Gaudreau, expect both sides to try get this resolved before then.
Nashville Predators – $5.41MM in cap space, according to Cap Friendly – The Predators NHL roster appears to be set, but they still have one last minor league signing to go; Stefan Elliott is without a contract. The Predators acquired him from Arizona as part of a bizarre three-way trade that sent Pacific Division All Star Captain John Scott to Montreal. Elliott played 21 games in the big leagues last year, but figures to be a solid AHLer who can step in to the NHL if injuries arise.
Related: our reviews of remaining RFAs in the Pacific and Atlantic Divisions.
Snapshots: ELC Bonuses, Neal On Subban, Nichushkin
The contact of the newest member of the New York Rangers is now confirmed. Jimmy Vesey will make the maximum allowable salary for a rookie: a base salary of $925K with $2.85MM in signing and performance bonuses. Vesey is just the fifth college player to sign for the maximum amount, according to Cap Friendly. The other four are Tyler Bozak with the Maple Leafs in 2009, Justin Schultz with the Oilers in 2012, Corban Knight with the Flames in 2013, and Vesey’s soon-to-be teammate Kevin Hayes in 2014.
There are 22 total players who have signed the maximum rookie contract since the first salary cap was instituted more than a decade ago. In addition to the five college players, the list includes all 13 first overall picks since Alex Ovechkin, notable second overall picks Evgeni Malkin and Jack Eichel, and two players who came from the KHL in Evgeni Kuznetsov and Sergei Plotnikov.
Here are some other notes from around the NHL:
- Predators sniper James Neal is looking forward to playing with his new teammate P.K. Subban, instead of against him. Neal told the Predators website that Subban is “a guy that gets under your skin, and plays the game well when he’s under a guy’s skin.” Neal is entering his third season with the Predators, having scored 54 goals and 95 points in his first two seasons.
- Mark Stepneski, writer for the Dallas Stars official website, reports that negotiations between the team and restricted free agent (RFA) winger Valeri Nichushkin are continuing. Nichushkin has struggled to build on a decent rookie season; he tallied 14 goals and 34 points in 79 games, but has only posted 30 points in the next 87 games after missing all but eight games of his sophomore season.
Dallas Stars Notes: Niemi, Lehtonen, Nichushkin
The Dallas Stars surprised many by taking the Central Division crown and finishing with the most points in the Western Conference in 2016-17, just one season removed from missing the postseason entirely. Their success was driven primarily by the most prolific offense in the league as Jamie Benn (41), Tyler Seguin (33) and Jason Spezza (33) led the way with hugely productive seasons. However, while the team had no problem putting the puck in the opposition’s net, they did have plenty of issues keeping it out of their own. Along those lines, Jason Brough of Pro Hockey Talk writes that the club’s “biggest question mark” entering the new season remains between the pipes in Big D.
Antti Niemi and Kari Lehtonen combined to stop just 90.6% of the shots they faced during the regular season a year ago. Lehtonen (90.6%) ranked 38th and Niemi (90.5%) 40th overall among qualified net minders in that category. They were even worse come playoff time with neither goalie able to stop 90% of the shots against.
The Stars were thought to be considering the possibility of acquiring another goalie, with Ben Bishop named as one possibility but it’s not clear whether any substantive talks with the Lightning or any other club ever took place. Nevertheless, Jim Nill seems confident his goaltending tandem will rebound enough to give the club at least capable play between the pipes. Each has had success in the recent past and it wasn’t that long ago that Niemi backstopped the Chicago Blackhawks to a Stanley Cup so there is some reason for Nill’s optimism.
For more on the Stars…..
- In a separate piece for Pro Hockey Talk, Brough identifies Stars winger Valeri Nichushkin as being “under pressure.” Despite playing on the most prolific offensive team in the league, the 21-year-old Nichushkin struggled, netting just nine goals in 79 regular season contests. He followed that up with a lone point, an assist, in 10 playoff games. Nichushkin, the 10th overall selection in the 2013 entry draft, has a ton of ability and as veteran scorers Patrick Sharp and Ales Hemsky each enter the final years of their respective contracts, the club may well need the young Russian to step into one of those spots sooner rather than later.
- Revisiting the goaltending situation in Dallas, Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News addressed a reader’s question on the subject as part of a recent chat. Specifically, Heika was asked how much salary the Stars would need to retain in order to facilitate a trade of one of Niemi or Lehtonen. Heika speculated that any team that would look to acquire either goalie would want Dallas to keep 50% of the player’s salary on their books. On the other hand, Heika says that GM Jim Nill doesn’t seem too keen on the idea and would rather hang on to the duo in the hope that one or both can rebuild value with solid 2016-17 performances. At this point it seems most likely that the Stars will at least open the season with Niemi and Lehtonen manning the net. But should they again scuffle and with plenty of teams perhaps willing to move a goalie prior to the 2017 expansion draft, Dallas could look to upgrade the position ahead of the trade deadline.
Stars Notes: Oleksiak, Seguin, Nichushkin
Athletic ability really is a family matter. Stars’ defenseman Jamie Oleksiak may be the highest paid member of his family after he inked a new deal that will pay him almost $1MM next season, but he’ll have to take a supporting role in the family newsletter this month. Oleksiak’s 16-year old sister Penny won two Olympic medals over the weekend, capturing silver in the 100m butterfly and anchoring a team that was awarded bronze for their time in the 4x100m freestyle.
When Jamie was asked about his state of mind while watching Penny swim for their native Canada, sibling rivalry didn’t come into the equation: “It’s just surreal. I feel like the biggest super fan right now watching her and I’m screaming and losing my voice. She’s done such a great job and we’re all so proud of her. We’re all so proud to watch her represent Canada.”
Oleksiak will try to get his hockey career back on track this season after playing in only 19 games last year. His waiver eligibility and the acquisition of Kris Russell mid-season played the biggest parts in his time in the press box, and the former first-round pick will have to prove he’s deserved of more playing time in 2016-17.
- In a Q&A with media on Saturday afternoon, Tyler Seguin (via The Dallas News) answered questions about his injured Achilles tendon, but also shared some feelings on the Stars’ chances this season. “Our window really just opened and I think every team’s got kind of that window that opens where you can win a championship, and I think our time definitely has now, so that part’s exciting. Getting a veteran guy like Hamhuis, it makes you even more excited for the season to start here.” Seguin is referring to Dan Hamhuis, who signed a two-year, $7.5MM deal on July 1st.
- While the team quickly came to an agreement with Oleksiak for next season, Valeri Nichushkin remains unsigned. It was almost a month ago that GM Jim Nill reported that Nichushkin was training in North America and isn’t considering an exit to the KHL, but there has been no other news on the contract negotiations. Nichushkin is coming off a promising season that saw him contribute 29 points in limited minutes. Still just 21, the former 10th-overall pick will have to show some more goal scoring ability if he’s to cement his spot next to Jason Spezza on the second line.