Week In Review

While NHL arenas continue to be shuttered and will remain that way for the foreseeable future, a big step was taken towards the resumption of play which is among the top stories of the past seven days.

3ICE Coaches Named: Next summer is pegged to be the launch of a new three-on-three league called 3ICE.  It will be a travelling series with eight teams playing a tournament each Saturday night.  The head coaches for the inaugural season were revealed and it’s a notable list as Guy Carbonneau, Grant Fuhr, Eddie Johnston, John LeClair, Joe Mullen, Larry Murphy, Angela Ruggiero, and Bryan Trottier will run the teams.  Six of those are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.  56 players will eventually join the league although we’re a long way from learning who will participate.

Short-Term Extensions Coming: In a normal year, the league season ends on June 30th with unrestricted free agency beginning the next day.  However, with play not set to resume until likely July, that throws a wrinkle into that timetable.  Instead, uniform contract slides are expected for the players which will solve that issue.  However, such an agreement isn’t guaranteed for coaches or front-office staff.  While teams that are returning would want their coaches on expiring deals to be extended, those that aren’t finished may not require that.  Scouts often change teams in the summer and with the draft date being uncertain, extensions may be needed for those as well.  The players will be covered at least but more work here is still required.

Boedker To Switzerland: It has been a tough season for Mikkel Boedker.  After being a regular with Ottawa last season where he had a respectable 35 points in 71 games, his role was reduced considerably this year as he played in just 20 contests, averaging less than ten minutes a night in those.  Instead of trying to find a new NHL home on the open market, he decided to head overseas, inking a two-year deal with HC Lugano of the Swiss NLA.  The 30-year-old has spent a dozen seasons in the NHL, recording 327 points along the way but barring an offensive resurgence in Switzerland, it appears as if his NHL time has come to an end.

AHL Awards: With the AHL season now officially done, the league announced their end-of-season All-Star teams as well as the All-Rookie team.  There were two players who appeared on both squads as Senators center Josh Norris made the First All-Star Team while Canucks defensive prospect Brogan Rafferty was on the Second All-Star squad.  Wild winger Gerald Mayhew led the league in goals scored with 39 in just 49 games but wasn’t able to land on the first team but three other Minnesota representatives were able to in goalie Kaapo Kahkonen, defenseman Brennan Menell, and winger Sam Anas, who led the league in points with 70 in 67 games.

NHLPA Votes For 24-Team Return: While we are still a long way from resuming games, it appears that it will be a 24-team format if and when they do.  The NHLPA voted 29-2 in favor of continuing discussions on that format assuming that other logistical, financial, and player safety issues can also be worked out.  (Tampa Bay and Carolina were the two ‘no’ votes.)  The effective expansion of the playoffs by eight teams (although the play-in round appears to be technically classified as not part of the postseason) certainly carries a wide variety of opinions but it at least provides a roadmap for how games could resume over the next couple of months.

While there is still no set timetable on when (or if) the NHL will resume play this season, there was some news from around the hockey world which is featured in the top stories of the week.

Hlinka-Gretzky Cup Cancelled: There have been many cancellations over the past couple of months pertaining to the current hockey season but until now, there hadn’t been any for the upcoming year.  The first tournament of note to kick off next year’s hockey calendar, the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup, has been cancelled.  This event is a popular one for scouts as it represents the first chance to get a look at the upcoming draft class but they won’t get that chance now.  The decision isn’t too surprising for a couple of reasons.  Fans likely won’t be allowed to attend games during the time period it was scheduled for (August 3-8) while the location of the event – Edmonton – is vying to be one of the centralized hub cities if NHL action resumes.

Latest On Return Plans: Speaking of the potential for games getting back underway, the NHL and NHLPA released a joint memo with an update on their current plans.  While there remains no firm timetable for play to resume, there appears to be some that team workouts could resume at some point this month.  Meanwhile, the league sent another memo to teams to discuss their reasoning for wanting to move the NHL draft up and hold it in early June.  There doesn’t seem to be much support from teams for the idea but the league will have the final say, one that should come early in the week ahead.

Extension For Halak: One of the top backup goalies in the upcoming unrestricted free agent class is off the market at the Bruins signed Jaroslav Halak to a one-year contract extension.  The deal will give him the opportunity to earn more than his current $2.75MM AAV although it is structured in a way to give Boston some short-term cap flexibility as it carries a base salary of $2.25MM with a $1.25MM bonus to be paid out if he plays in ten games.  Considering how Halak has been used in his two years as Tuukka Rask’s backup/tandem partner, that’s pretty much a guarantee barring injury.  By putting some of the money as bonuses, it gives the Bruins the ability to defer the cap charge for that by a year by using the bonus cushion.  With the salary cap expected to level out or potentially even decrease, that may prove to be quite important while Halak gets a raise for his efforts.

McDonough Fired: Shortly after the stoppage in the schedule began, Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz gave a vote of confidence to his front office (president/CEO John McDonough, GM Stan Bowman, and head coach Jeremy Colliton).  Evidently, he has changed his mind as the team fired McDonough after thirteen years with the team.  A search has already started for his replacement with Wirtz’s son Daniel taking over on an interim basis.  The move also presents some questions about Bowman and Colliton’s status with the team although it’s possible that Bowman could move up after spending more than a decade in his current role.

New Transfer Agreements: The NHL reached an agreement on one-year extensions on its agreements with a dozen countries (including Sweden, Finland, and the Czech Republic), paving the way for a wave of international signings over the past few days.  They also reached an agreement with Switzerland after not having one for the past several years which means players drafted from there this summer won’t see their NHL rights be held indefinitely by the team that picks them.  On top of that, they also extended their agreement with the Canadian Hockey League, consisting of the OHL, QMJHL, and WHL.  Of note, that means that players from that league under the age of 20 will continue to be ineligible to play in the minors.

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While there aren’t any games going on at the moment, there was still a fair bit of news around the hockey world over the past seven days.

Barabanov To Toronto: Russian winger Alexander Barabanov had been fielding interest from numerous NHL teams in recent weeks and he made his choice on where to sign, inking a one-year deal with Toronto for 2020-21.  The deal is worth the entry-level maximum of $925K and does not contain any performance bonuses.  The 25-year-old had been playing with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL in recent years and had 46 points in 58 games in 2018-19.  Those numbers dipped this season (20 points in 43 contests) but that still didn’t stop the Maple Leafs among others from pursuing him.  It’s the second year in a row that Toronto has turned to this route to fill a roster spot after signing winger Ilya Mikheyev last offseason.

Another Positive Test: The Avalanche announced that another one of their players has tested positive for COVID-19.  They did not identify the player.  This is the third Colorado player to test positive while the Senators have had five players get the virus, all of whom have since recovered.  These are the only known cases among current NHLers.

Cave Passes Away: Tragedy struck this week as Oilers center Colby Cave passed away on Saturday at the age of 25.  He had been hospitalized earlier in the week and placed in a medically-induced coma after suffering a brain bleed.  He then underwent emergency surgery to remove a colloid cyst that was causing pressure on his brain soon after but remained in a coma until his passing.  At the time of his hospitalization, his agent indicated that this was not related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  Cave played in 67 career NHL games over parts of three seasons with Boston and Edmonton.  We join many in the hockey world in offering our condolences to Cave’s family and friends.

History Made In Switzerland: Florence Schelling had a stellar career in women’s hockey, representing Switzerland in ten World Championships and four Olympics while playing professionally in Canada, Sweden, and of course Switzerland.  Now she’s set to make her mark at the executive level and is making history in the process.  SC Bern of the Swiss NLA has hired the 31-year-old as their new sports director and general manager, making her the first female to be named GM of a top-tier men’s professional team.

Final Draft Rankings: While there is no word yet on when the 2020 NHL Entry Draft will be held after the event that was originally scheduled for late June was recently postponed, that hasn’t stopped NHL Central Scouting from releasing their final rankings.  As usual, players were grouped into four categories – North American Skaters, North American Goalies, International Skaters, and International Goalies.  The top-ranked players in each category are Alexis Lafreniere (Rimouski, QMJHL), Nico Daws (Guelph, OHL), Tim Stuetzle (Mannheim, DEL), and Yaroslav Askarov (St. Petersburg, VHL).

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With almost the hockey world shuttered for the foreseeable future, a big chunk of the top stories of the week revolved around cancellations and postponements.

KHL Shuts Down: One league that was hoping to quickly resume their postseason was the KHL.  Even in the aftermath of two teams withdrawing from the second round of the playoffs, the original plan was to take a week off to make changes to the six-team field and then get back underway.  Instead, they’ve changed their mind and cancelled the remainder of the playoffs while announcing they won’t aware the Gagarin Cup.  Now, their focus shifts to starting next season on time which is a different approach to the NHL who has basically acknowledged that the start of 2020-21 will be delayed if play resumes in the coming weeks and months.

Two Colorado Players Test Positive: Until this week, the only team with a known positive test for COVID-19 was Ottawa.  That changed when Colorado announced that an unnamed player had tested positive but had since recovered.  They then revealed over the weekend that a second unnamed player has tested positive and is in self-isolation.  That brings the number of confirmed positive tests of NHL players to four.

CHL Cancellations: Although the CHL had cancelled their regular seasons already (with leagues having different plans regarding how to handle the variance in games played), their hope was to get the playoffs underway at a later date.  That’s no longer the case as the league has cancelled the postseason as well as the annual Memorial Cup, a tournament involving the winners of each league plus the host team.  It will be the first time in the 101-year history of the Memorial Cup that it won’t be awarded.  There was one other notable development from junior hockey during the week as the WHL granted 14-year-old forward Connor Bedard exceptional player status, allowing him to enter the league next season, one year earlier than he normally would have been able to.  It’s the first time in WHL history that they’ve given someone this designation.  Bedard will be eligible for the 2023 NHL Entry Draft.

Zegras Turns Pro: After Kings prospect Alex Turcotte decided to forego the final three years of his college eligibility, Ducks prospect Trevor Zegras, another top-ten pick from last June, did the same.  The center had a strong freshman campaign at Boston University, picking up 36 points in 33 games while also leading the World Juniors in assists with nine in five games for Team USA.  Zegras will try to push for a spot on Anaheim’s roster next season but may need some time at the minor league level as well.

More Postponements: With there being no immediate end in sight to the pandemic, the NHL unsurprisingly has started to postpone some of their upcoming events.  The Draft Lottery was slated to be held early next month at the conclusion of the regular season but with their plan being to resume the season later on, that being delayed was inevitable.  The same could be said for the NHL Awards as those are dependent on the regular season which may not finish for a while and they too were postponed.  Not surprisingly, the draft has also been put on hold with the results of the regular season and playoffs shaping the order of selection so obviously, the draft can’t be held until everything is finished.  There’s a good chance that the event will be a slimmed-down version whenever it is held.

While there was no hockey being played this past week, there were still some newsworthy events over the past seven days which are highlighted in our key stories.

Roster Freeze: Although players can sign contracts for next season, free agents can’t sign deals for the 2019-20 campaign.  That’s because the NHL has put a roster freeze in place, one that will presumably be in place until games are closer to resuming if things get to that point.  A total of 16 players were assigned to the minors including Anaheim’s Kiefer Sherwood who was the only one to clear waivers.  Winnipeg was the only team to recall a player as Mark Letestu was brought back from his conditioning stint with AHL Manitoba without ever actually getting into a game.

Testing Positive: It was only a matter of time before an NHL player tested positive for the COVID-19 virus and that has come to fruition as the Senators announced that one of their players has the virus but did not identify who had it.  As it turns out, they had a second player test positive over the weekend.  Prior to the shutdown, Ottawa was on the road in California, one of the states that have been hardest by the pandemic.  In their second announcement, it was noted that six other members of the organization (not necessarily players) were also exhibiting symptoms and that they were waiting for testing results.

Thornton Hoping To Play Next Season: After he wasn’t dealt at the trade deadline, Sharks center Joe Thornton expressed some disappointment that he wouldn’t be able to get another shot at a Stanley Cup title.  Perhaps with that in mind, he indicated that his intention is to continue playing into next season which would be his 23rd in the league.  The 41-year-old has seen his production taper off considerably this year with seven goals and 31 points in 71 games, numbers that are well below his career averages.  He has shown a willingness to take cheaper deals lately and is making $2MM this season but he may have to take another pay cut to get a look next year with San Jose or another team.

Hobey Baker Finalists: The list of Hobey Baker candidates has been dropped from 78 midseason nominees to a group of ten finalists, headlined by Vegas prospect Jack Dugan who led the NCAA in scoring.  There are three players in that group that haven’t been drafted or signed by an NHL team – centers Jason Cotton and Jordan Kawaguchi plus goaltender Dryden McKay.  This group of ten players will be whittled down to three by a selection committee plus a fan vote with voting set to end on March 29th.

World Championship Cancelled: It was a move that had been expected for quite some time but has now been made official – the IIHF has cancelled the 2020 Men’s World Hockey Championship.  The tournament was slated to run in Switzerland in May but given all of the uncertainty and travel restrictions with the current pandemic, it was unrealistic to think that it could have been played as scheduled.  The 2021 event is slated to take place in Belarus and Latvia.

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This past week was a rather unique one not only in hockey but the entire sporting landscape.  Naturally, those events dominate the headlines of the past seven days.

Season Suspended: Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first.  As a result of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, the NHL has put the season on pause for the time being.  Players have been told to self-quarantine for a six-day period and it’s expected that things will be re-assessed at that time in a week or so to determine next steps depending on what other government decrees come into play between now and then.  Unlike the NBA which has committed to a 30-day shutdown at a minimum, the NHL hasn’t put any firm timelines in place.  The remaining schedule will likely be determined based on when they’re able to get everything back up and running while there is still some potential that games will be played in empty arenas even when play resumes.  In the interim, the players will still be paid their salaries at the regular intervals (though there will probably have to be some escrow adjustments) while some teams have made arrangements to pay their game day staff during this stoppage.

Other Leagues Follow Suit: Not surprisingly, other leagues have followed suit.  The AHL and CHL have opted to do like the NHL for the time being and temporarily suspend their seasons, allowing for the possibility to return down the road.  While the AHL still has a little more than a month left on their regular season schedule, the CHL playoffs were just about to get underway.  Other leagues have decided to cancel the rest of the season/playoffs outright, including the ECHL, SHL, and NCAA.  The latter, in particular, will have an interesting effect on the transaction front in the weeks to come as the college free agent market can pick up at any time instead of teams having to wait for college squads to be eliminated from the postseason.

Simek Extension: Sharks defenseman Radek Simek officially signed his four-year, $9MM extension.  The 27-year-old got a late start to his NHL career as he only debuted with San Jose last season but he has become an important part of their back end.  Injuries have limited him to just 48 games this season where he has nine points while logging over 17 minutes a night.  Given his overall lack of NHL experience, the deal does carry some risk but clearly, San Jose is also banking on Simek taking another step or two forward in his development as well.  The Sharks now have $28.75MM committed to their top four defensemen through the 2023-24 campaign so it’s likely that they will be rounding out that group with players on entry-level deals or low-cost veterans to give them more room to spend elsewhere.

Wisconsin Departures: A pair of top NHL prospects decided to forego the rest of their NCAA eligibility at Wisconsin.  First, the Kings inked 2019 first-rounder (fifth overall) Alex Turcotte to a three-year, entry-level deal that begins in the 2020-21 season.  The center had 26 points in 29 games in his freshman year with the Badgers and was slated to join AHL Ontario before the season was suspended.  Meanwhile, the Rangers agreed to terms on a deal with blueliner K’Andre Miller on an entry-level pact as well.  Miller, the 22nd pick in 2018, saw his offensive numbers dip a bit in his sophomore campaign but he still posted a respectable 18 points in 36 contests.  While Turcotte isn’t quite NHL ready yet, Miller could contend for a spot on New York’s back end as soon as next season.

Lemieux Suspended: The NHL has decided to suspend Rangers winger Brendan Lemieux for his hit on Colorado winger Joonas Donskoi back on Wednesday.  However, the number of games he will miss has not yet been determined and will be dependent on what the schedule situation turns out to be.  This will be Lemieux’s second suspension of his young career after receiving a two-game ban back in November of 2018 for an illegal hit to the head.

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While the time for trades has come and gone, there were still quite a few newsworthy stories from around the NHL which are highlighted in the key stories of the week.  (Among the top non-NHL stories was the cancellation of the Women’s World Hockey Championships.)

Metropolitan Injuries: Carolina has been hit hard by injuries on the back end this season.  Already without Dougie Hamilton, they will now be missing Brett Pesce for the rest of the year as he is out four to six months after undergoing shoulder surgery.  To make matters worse, Sami Vatanen, one of their deadline acquisitions, suffered a setback in his recovery and is out indefinitely.  The injuries weren’t just limited to the Hurricanes though as Blue Jackets winger Josh Anderson was also ruled out for the rest of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery that carries a recovery timeline of four to six months.  The speculative trade candidate will become a restricted free agent this summer.

Cap Projections: One of the annual traditions at the GM meetings is a rough projection of next year’s salary cap.  It always tends to be on the optimistic side and this time is no exception.  NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly indicated that the projected range is from $84MM to $88.2MM with the number requiring negotiation with the NHLPA when it comes to their inflator that they can exercise.  Even at the low end, that represents a $2.5MM increase but it probably isn’t realistic to expect much more than that as the higher the Upper Limit is, the more escrow that will be withheld.  In recent years, the NHLPA has used less than the maximum inflator (5%) to try to help curtail that and this will likely be the case again this offseason.

Julien To Stick Around: With the Canadiens set to miss the playoffs for the third straight season and fourth time in five years, some were wondering if Montreal would be making a coaching change.  GM Marc Bergevin quickly put an end to that speculation, announcing that head coach Claude Julien will return for the 2020-21 season.  Julien is in his fourth season with the team (his second stint with the Canadiens overall) and the results have been relatively mediocre overall with Montreal posting a .525 points percentage in that span.  However, he has done enough to earn the continued confidence of Bergevin who will be looking to tweak his roster this summer to help try to get them back into the playoff discussion.

Offside Changes Ahead? The offside rule has come under fire since the institution of the ability to challenge for it on goals.  The current rule is that a players’ skate must be on the line to be deemed onside.  That may soon be changing.  At the GM meetings, they voted to amend the rule to make it that the skate can simply be over the plane of the line to be onside.  That would simplify the review process and would eliminate quite a few of the offside challenges overall.  There are still two more hurdles to clear before it becomes official though as it still has to get through the Competition Committee and be ratified by the Board of Governors in the offseason.

Richard Passes Away: Hall of Fame winger Henri Richard passed away at the age of 84 after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s.  He spent his entire 20-year career with Montreal, playing in a franchise record 1,258 games.  His 1,046 points are the third most in team history behind only Guy Lafleur and the late Jean Beliveau.  On top of that, he won an NHL record 11 Stanley Cup titles as a player, a record that is almost assuredly going to stand the test of time.  In 2017, the ‘Pocket Rocket’ was named to the NHL’s All-Time Top 100 players and was one of the most revered players in the history of the Canadiens.

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The past week saw plenty of trades with one of the busier trade deadlines in recent memory.  A full recap of the activity can be found here while the biggest moves also warrant a mention in the top stories of the week.

Hurricanes Add Several Key Pieces: While Carolina opted to not make a move to add a goalie despite the injuries to Petr Mrazek and James Reimer, they were quite active on deadline day.  First, they picked up center Vincent Trocheck from Florida for center Erik Haula, forward Lucas Wallmark, and a pair of prospects.  Then, they added to their blueline with a pair of deals, acquiring Sami Vatanen from New Jersey for a conditional fourth rounder and prospect Janne Kuokkanen plus Brady Skjei from the Rangers for a first-round pick (the lesser of Carolina’s or Toronto’s).  Vatanen is still injured which lowered his market while Skjei has already stepped into a big role, logging more than 21 minutes a night over his first three games.

Kreider Stays In New York: Part of the reason that Skjei was moved to Carolina was a looming cap crunch for the Rangers.  A big part of that was the announcement that winger Chris Kreider had signed a seven-year contract extension that carries a $6.5MM AAV.  Talks didn’t progress much over the weekend but a last ditch effort proved to be enough to keep the power forward in the fold.  He was on pace for a career year offensively but that is no longer the case as he suffered a fractured foot early in their game on Friday.  He’s now out indefinitely.  (That wasn’t the only bad news on the injury front for them either as goalie Igor Shesterkin is out with a rib fracture that was sustained in a car crash.)

The Parise Non-Trade: With over 30 trades on deadline day, it’s hard to believe that one of the biggest stories from the deadline was a trade that didn’t happen but that’s indeed the case.  Zach Parise’s tenure with Minnesota has been underwhelming when it’s compared to the 12-year, $98MM deal that’s now outlawed in the CBA.  Injuries have been an issue and he hasn’t been a top scorer when he was in the lineup.  Nonetheless, there was progress in a trade that would have seen him join the Islanders in a deal that would have seen winger Andrew Ladd head to the Wild.  It got to the point that both veterans waived their trade protection to make a deal happen but in the end, it fell through.  It will be interesting to see if the deal gets revisited this summer when there’s less pressure in terms of time to get a deal done while the financial picture (including salary cap recapture) is a little easier to work with.

Muzzin Extension: It had long been speculated that the Maple Leafs and defenseman Jake Muzzin were making progress on a contract extension.  That indeed was the case as shortly after the trade deadline passed, he signed a four-year deal worth an average of $5.625MM per season.  The veteran has been a stabilizing force on Toronto’s back end after being acquired a little ahead of the 2019 trade deadline from Los Angeles.  However, the positivity around that was short-lived as he too was injured.  He broke his hand in the first game after the deadline and will be out for a month.

Pageau To The Islanders: It was a soft trade market for impact centers with Jean-Gabriel Pageau representing the best option available.  That worked to Ottawa’s benefit as he was shipped to the Islanders for 2020 first and second-round picks as well as a conditional 2022 third rounder.  The Sens and Pageau’s camp had been talking about an extension but couldn’t come to an agreement.  That wasn’t the case with New York as just hours after the trade was announced, he inked a six-year, $30MM extension.  (And unlike Kreider and Muzzin, he wasn’t felled by an injury shortly thereafter and instead scored in two of his first three games.)

Stamkos Injured: All of the deadline day activity warrants having an extra key story for the week.  Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, it involves them as center Steven Stamkos is set to undergo core muscle surgery.  The expected timeline for his recovery is six-to-eight weeks which rules him out for the remainder of the regular season at a minimum and likely most, if not all of the first round as well.  That’s a tough blow for the Lightning who were swept in a shocking upset in the first round a year ago and will now have to deal without one of their top scorers to start the postseason.

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The week before the trade deadline is usually full of newsworthy events.  This past week was no exception although a lot of the news didn’t pertain to the trade market.

Bogosian Hits The Market, Then Joins Tampa: After making it through waivers unclaimed, defenseman Zach Bogosian refused to report to AHL Rochester, Buffalo’s affiliate.  He was promptly suspended without pay but instead of leaving it at that, the Sabres then placed him on unconditional waivers and after he went unclaimed, they terminated his contract without any lingering cap charges or money owed.  He wasn’t a free agent for long, however, as he has already reached an agreement with Tampa Bay on a one-year deal worth a pro-rated $1.3MM.  By going this route over reporting to the AHL, Bogosian is leaving quite a bit of money on the table but gets the chance to play for a playoff contender.

Martinez To Vegas: Tuesday and Wednesday represented a run on defensemen trades but only one of those involved a blueliner that’s signed through next season.  That player was Alec Martinez who the Kings traded to the Golden Knights in exchange for a pair of second-round picks.  While Martinez missed 18 games earlier this season due to a wrist laceration, he is still a capable defensive defender that should be able to come in and help stabilize the back end for Vegas while they maintain their track record of not adding rental players.  (Those that were added on expiring deals had extension agreements in place at the time they were acquired.)

Canucks Add Toffoli, Lose Boeser: The Canucks made an early splash on the trade front, acquiring Tyler Toffoli from the Kings in exchange for winger Tim Schaller, prospect Tyler Madden, a 2020 second-round pick, and a conditional 2022 fourth-rounder that’s contingent on Toffoli re-signing with Vancouver.  On the surface, it looked like a strong attack was getting even stronger but it was revealed soon after that winger Brock Boeser will miss the next eight weeks due to a rib injury, one that won’t acquire surgery.  Toffoli will serve as a capable replacement for Boeser to help try to keep Vancouver in the mix while in Madden, the Kings add a prospect that has vastly outperformed his draft status and is one of the top scorers in the NCAA this season.

Bruins Get Kase: The Bruins had been shopping for a right winger for a while.  They had also been shopping David Backes for a while.  Those two elements came together as Boston picked up Ondrej Kase from the Ducks in exchange for Backes, their 2020 first-round pick, and defense prospect Axel Andersson.  Boston also is retaining 25% of Backes’ $6MM AAV.  Kase has shown flashes of being a quality offensive threat in the past but has also battled bouts of inconsistency and injuries.  He’s signed through next season at a team-friendly $2.6MM AAV and will be a restricted free agent after that which means he could be around for a while which makes it easier to part with the first-rounder.  Meanwhile, the Ducks utilized their cap space to add an extra first-round selection plus a decent prospect while they should have a use for Backes who is signed through next season.

Bjorkstrand Out For A While: Despite losing several top players and a ridiculously long list of injuries to key players, the Blue Jackets are right in the thick of the playoff race in the ultra-tight Metropolitan Division.  That battle just got a lot harder when they announced that winger Oliver Bjorkstrand will miss the next eight-to-ten weeks due to a sprained and fractured ankle.  The 24-year-old is their leading goal-getter this season with 21 which is particularly notable considering that they’re in the bottom five in the league in goals scored.  That could force GM Jarmo Kekalainen to try to make at least a small move to try to replace some of that offense over the next few hours.

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