Week In Review

As the calendar flipped to May, there was quite a bit of news around the hockey world.  The top ones are covered here in our key stories of the week.

McCrimmon Named Vegas GM: Multiple teams were believed to be interested in Vegas assistant GM Kelly McCrimmon but it turns out he won’t be leaving after all.  Instead, the team announced that McCrimmon has been promoted to the GM role with the Golden Knights with George McPhee shifting his focus to his role as president of hockey operations effective September 1st.  This means that Edmonton will be turning to a different direction in their GM search as will Seattle, who was believed to have McCrimmon high on their list.

Johnsson Turned Down Extension Offers: The Maple Leafs are going to be an interesting team to follow this summer as they navigate through a tricky salary cap situation.  It turns out that Toronto GM Kyle Dubas was trying to get some cost certainty with one of his younger players as he offered a pair of different extensions to winger Andreas Johnsson but both were rejected.  The offers were two years at a $2.1MM AAV and four years at a $2.6MM AAV.  Johnsson opted to take his qualifying offer last summer in the hopes of landing a larger payday this offseason and after collecting 43 points in 73 games, he will certainly do so.  He has been a speculative target for a potential offer sheet given the cap issues the Leafs face and with the various threshold levels being revealed, that’s likely going to continue until a deal ultimately gets done.

Rangers Get Fox: After Adam Fox had indicated that he had no intention of signing with Carolina, there was plenty of speculation that he was going to wind up with the Rangers.  That wound up being the case as New York acquired him in exchange for their 2019 second-round pick plus a conditional 2020 third-round selection.  That pick will upgrade by a round if Fox plays in 30 NHL games in 2019-20.  The Rangers then quickly signed him to a three-year, entry-level contract.  The deal will carry the maximum base salary ($925K including a 10% signing bonus) as well as $850K in performance bonuses in each season, the type of contract that is often handed to players selected in the middle of the first round.

Kelly Passes Away: Hall of Famer Red Kelly passed away at the age of 91.  He split his career between Detroit and Toronto and his story was particularly interesting.  After winning four Stanley Cups with the Red Wings as a defenseman, he wound up briefly retiring before joining the Maple Leafs where he won four more titles while playing as a center.  Overall, he wound up playing in 20 NHL seasons and won four Lady Byng Trophies along the way.  Upon retiring, he quickly transitioned to coaching and spent ten seasons behind the bench for three different teams, wrapping up with Toronto in 1977.

Women’s Boycott: Following the surprising folding of the CWHL, more than 200 of the top female hockey players announced they will be boycotting leagues in North America this season until they “get the resources that professional hockey demands and deserves”.  In the short-term, that has put the viability of the NWHL into serious question after they had plans to expand into Montreal and Toronto, a pair of cities that previously had CWHL franchises.  From a broader perspective, it would appear that the players are hoping that the NHL steps up and invests in a more lucrative league, similar to what the NBA does with the WNBA.  That could at least create the potential for a livable wage and insurance, elements that weren’t available in either of the North American leagues.

The completion of the first round of the playoffs created plenty of headlines on the ice.  There were several notable pieces of news off the ice as well which are highlighted in our top stories of the week.

Long-Term Injuries: The Sabres won’t likely have defenseman Zach Bogosian available to them at the start of next season after the veteran underwent hip surgery.  The procedure carries a recovery period of five-to-six months.  Bogosian had been a potential buyout candidate in June but that option is no longer on the table as a result of the procedure.  Meanwhile, Maple Leafs winger Zach Hyman will miss roughly the next six months after tearing his ACL midway through Toronto’s first-round series against Boston.  Hyman played three games with the injury, averaging over 18 minutes a night in those contests.

Two Teams Interested In Martin: Veteran coach Jacques Martin hasn’t come up in too many head coaching searches but that’s not the case now as both the Sabres and Senators are considering him for their current vacancies.  Both teams are looking for some structure after disappointing seasons which has been a hallmark of Martin’s teams over the years.  Interestingly enough, Martin and the Senators have some history together as the 66-year-old spent parts of nine seasons with Ottawa from 1995-96 through 2003-04.  Martin has been an assistant in Pittsburgh since 2013-14.

Penguins Likely To Trade A Defenseman: Big changes are expected in Pittsburgh this offseason after an early exit at the hands of the Islanders in the postseason.  It appears that at least one of those changes will come on the back end as GM Jim Rutherford acknowledged that the Penguins will likely have to move at least one defenseman this summer.  Over the last year, they’ve added Jack Johnson in free agency plus Erik Gudbranson and Marcus Pettersson via trades which has given them a fair amount of depth at the position.  In the postseason, it was Olli Maatta who was the odd man out and with three more years left on his contract with a $4.083MM AAV, it stands to reason that the 24-year-old could very well be involved in trade talks in the near future.

Karlsson Seeking A Long-Term Deal: Vegas has plenty of extra money on their books for next season as a result of several extensions they’ve handed out over the past several months.  Despite that, they have one more core forward left to re-sign in William Karlsson, who indicated that he’s hoping to sign a long-term deal this summer and that preliminary talks have already started.  Karlsson was a revelation in 2017-18, going from a depth player in Columbus to one of the top scorers in the league.  Given that major change, the two sides were only able to settle on a one-year, $5.25MM pact last offseason.  While Karlsson’s numbers took a bit of a step back this season, he still posted 56 points and should be still in line for a nice raise, especially since he once again has salary arbitration eligibility.

Hart Trophy Finalists Announced: The daily reveals for the award finalists came to an end on Sunday with the nominees for the Hart Trophy being announced.  The finalists are Connor McDavid (Edmonton), Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay), and Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh).  The trophy is awarded annually to the player deemed to be most valuable to his team.  The NHLPA also has a similar trophy in the Ted Lindsay Award for the most outstanding player in the league.  McDavid and Kucherov made the final three while Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane is the third finalist for that one.

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The first week of the postseason has created quite a few headlines both on and off the ice, some of which are highlighted in the top stories of the week.

Panthers Hire Quenneville: The Panthers are expected to make a splash this summer in free agency but they also have made one behind the bench with the hiring of Joel Quenneville.  The 60-year-old was considered by many to be the best coach available this offseason after Chicago let him go early in the regular season.  He inked a five-year deal at a rate that could be greater than the $6MM he was making with the Blackhawks depending on team performance incentives.  GM Dale Tallon is quite familiar with Quenneville having worked with him during his own time in Chicago and the two will now look to get Florida back into the playoffs.

Devils Win Again: It wasn’t a particularly successful season on the ice for the Devils after a surprising playoff appearance in 2017-18, they had the third-worst record in the league.  However, they did get some good news as they won the Draft Lottery and will select first overall in June.  They weren’t the only team moving up as the Rangers gained four spots to move up to the number two spot while Chicago jumped nine spots to pick third.  US NTDP center Jack Hughes and TPS Turku winger Kaapo Kakko are the top two prospects in this draft class.

Voynov Suspended For 2019-20: While defenseman Slava Voynov is looking to make a return to the NHL, he’ll have to wait a while yet for his opportunity to do so after the league announced that he has been suspended for the entire 2019-20 season (including the playoffs).  This stems from a domestic violence incident back in 2014, one that saw him jailed and suspended indefinitely by the league while the Kings terminated his contract.  He successfully petitioned to dismiss his conviction last summer, paving the way for him to at least attempt to get back into the NHL although Los Angeles still holds his rights.  That will have to wait at least one more year, pending a decision from an independent arbitrator after the NHLPA filed an appeal on his behalf.

Bouwmeester Stays In St. Louis: It wasn’t a great start to the season for Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester.  He battled hip issues and even spent some time as a healthy scratch and it looked as if his days with the team could be numbered.  However, he had a strong second half and was rewarded for his efforts as St. Louis signed the 35-year-old to a one-year, $3.25MM contract extension.  The deal represents a sizable drop from his current $5.4MM deal but is a better reflection of his expected role moving forward.  Instead of being a top-pairing player as he was several seasons ago, he’s likely best suited to play a second pairing position next season.

Late Additions: It’s rare that teams in the playoffs can add players that could very well get into the lineup but it happened on three separate occasions.  First, the Blue Jackets signed defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov to a two-year deal and with three defenders currently out of the lineup, he could suit up quickly once he joins the team.  Colorado then added top prospect Cale Makar to a three-year, entry-level deal after his college season came to an end and he could play as soon as Monday night.  Lastly, Vegas inked the top scorer in the KHL, Nikita Gusev, to a one-year ELC and he will likely play at some point in the first round.  The fact that these players were on the Reserve List of their respective teams at the trade deadline is what makes them eligible to play in the postseason and at least a couple of them could make an immediate impact.

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The final week of the regular season didn’t feature many significant headlines from NHL players but several college stars made some headlines of their own while there was plenty of coaching news around the league as well.

Schuldt To Vegas: Jimmy Schuldt, the top college defenseman made his decision, signing a one-year, entry-level deal with the Golden Knights.  The deal is worth the maximum base salary, setting up his qualifying offer this summer at just under $875K.  Schuldt, one of three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, had 10 goals and 25 assists in 39 games with St. Cloud this past season and is viewed as a player that isn’t far away from being able to step into an NHL lineup.  However, he is not eligible to suit up for Vegas in the postseason.

Coach Firings: Three teams wasted little time making a decision to change coaches.  The Panthers let Bob Boughner go after two seasons with the team while the Sabres did the same with Phil Housley.  Meanwhile, the Kings decided to not give interim coach Willie Desjardins the full-time job.  Early speculation is that Florida is trying to get veteran bench boss Joel Quenneville as their next head coach while Los Angeles has their sights set on Todd McLellan.

Blashill Staying Put: The Red Wings will not be among the teams making a coaching change.  Instead, the team has given bench boss a two-year extension to ensure he’ll be back behind the bench in October.  While Detroit hasn’t had much success in the standings in recent seasons (they’ve missed the playoffs for three years in a row), GM Ken Holland has continually stated that he is pleased with the development of some of their younger players.  Their top four scorers to finish the season are all 24 years old or younger so there is clearly progress being made with their young core.  That said, the two-year term suggests that there is a short-term expectation for getting back into postseason contention.

Sturm Signs With Minnesota: The Wild dipped their toes into the college free agent market, landing the most coveted forward in center Nico Sturm who signed a one-year, entry-level deal.  Like Schuldt, the deal is worth the maximum base salary, setting up an offseason qualifying offer of roughly $875K.  Despite a big season with Clarkson that saw him post 45 points in 39 games, Sturm isn’t believed to be a big scorer at the NHL level but is pegged as someone that could be a regular in their bottom six group before too long.

Fox Won’t Sign With Carolina: Harvard defenseman Adam Fox was a key part of the significant draft day trade that saw Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm go to Calgary with Dougie Hamilton and Micheal Ferland join Carolina.  However, it appears that Fox isn’t likely to sign with the Hurricanes and the focus has shifted towards trading his rights.  He has one year of college eligibility remaining so it will be interesting to see if a team can work out a trade and convince him to sign early or if he’ll be intent on becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2020.

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With some top college teams getting eliminated, the activity on the NCAA free agent market should pick up shortly.  In the meantime, there were some other newsworthy events in the NHL over the past seven days.

Ladd Out Long-Term: Andrew Ladd’s tough season came to a premature conclusion as the Islanders winger will miss the next four-to-five months with a torn ACL.  He now has had significant injuries to both knees which certainly won’t help his mobility moving forward.  Ladd played in just 26 games this season, picking up just three goals and eight assists.  That’s hardly the return they were expecting on his $5.5MM contract, one that carries four more years after this one.

Cooper To Stay With Tampa: It took a while but the Lightning and head coach Jon Cooper were able to agree on a multi-year contract extension, ensuring he’ll be sticking around in Tampa Bay for a while yet.  He has been quite successful over his first six years with the team, compiling a 302-158-44 record with a win percentage that is only bested by legend Scotty Bowman.  The Lightning have been the class of the league by a considerable margin this season which should have Cooper in the mix for the Jack Adams Award for Coach of the Year.

Coyotes Lock Up Schmaltz: Arizona made a notable trade early in the season that saw them bring in center Nick Schmaltz from Chicago.  Clearly, they liked what they saw from him before suffering a season-ending lower-body injury in late December as they signed the 23-year-old to a seven-year, $40.95MM contract extension.  At the time of the deal, GM John Chayka believed that Schmaltz could be a long-term top-six center for them and he was certainly heading in that direction with 14 points in 17 games with the team before the injury.  Arizona has very quickly reshaped their group down the middle and they have committed to spending at that position as their top three pivots (Derek Stepan, Schmaltz, and Christian Dvorak) will cost a combined $16.8MM next year, more than double their combined cost this season ($8.26MM).

Flyers Re-Sign Raffl: Philadelphia winger Michael Raffl had some trade interest at the deadline so it was a little bit of a surprise that he wasn’t dealt.  That decision is more understandable now after he agreed to a two-year, $3.2MM extension.  The deal actually represents a bit of a decrease on his current $2.35MM AAV but considering that Raffl has spent a lot of time this season on the fourth line, it’s not too surprising.  The Flyers are the only NHL organization that the 30-year-old has played for and he has suited up for more than 400 games over his six seasons with the team.

Masterton Nominees Announced: The first finalists for an offseason award have been revealed as each team submitted their nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.  The award goes to a player who is judged to exemplify perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.  Predators center Brian Boyle won the award last season.  The field will be whittled down to the usual three finalists in advance of the NHL Awards show in June.

College free agency is underway and some quality players have come off the board already.  However, there was some other notable news around the league as well which are noted in our top stories of the week.

Red Wings Active In College Free Agency: Detroit made a big splash in the NCAA free agent market, inking Taro Hirose to a two-year, entry-level deal.  The 22-year-old was the top college scorer this season with an impressive 50 points in 36 games and will get a chance to make an early impression on the Red Wings as he’ll be up with the team for the rest of the season.  Hirose wasn’t the only notable college addition Detroit made though as they also added Ryan Kuffner on a similar two-year ELC.  While his numbers dipped in his senior year, the 22-year-old still picked up 22 goals and 22 assists in just 31 games with Princeton this season.  He’s also sticking around in Detroit for the stretch run.

Extension Talks Coming For Blashill: Still with Detroit, it appears that head coach Jeff Blashill is still in the plans despite a tough year in the standings.  Talks regarding a contract extension for the bench boss are expected to pick up in the coming days.  He’s in the final season of a four-year contract and with his salary of $800K is believed to be among the lowest in the league.  The Red Wings haven’t had a ton of success under Blashill with a record of 129-142-47 but some positive strides have been made in terms of player development and with their roster expected to be even younger next year, GM Ken Holland appears to believe that Blashill is the right fit to continue to lead them through their rebuild.

Voracek Files Suspension Appeal: A player appealing a suspension isn’t entirely uncommon in the NHL.  However, appealing a two-game ban as Flyers winger Jakub Voracek did is much rarer.  Under the CBA, there is no option to go to an independent arbitrator for suspensions of five games or less which usually represents the threshold for potential appeals.  As a result, league commissioner Gary Bettman was tasked with deciding Voracek’s fate.  He ultimately upheld the initial suspension levied by the Department of Player Safety but the fact Voracek went through the process is certainly interesting and it will be worth watching to see if anyone else decides to try to appeal a short suspension now that it has been tried.

Draft Lottery Odds Set: With the end of the season now just a few weeks away, the NHL officially set the odds for the end-of-season Draft Lottery.  They’ve decided to keep the odds the same as last year, meaning the team that finishes last will have an 18.5% chance of getting the top pick.  Currently, Ottawa is in the basement in the standings but that pick belongs to Colorado following the Matt Duchene trade last season.  The league also opted to revert to the traditional format of announcing the results in one pregame segment instead of during two separate intermissions as they did last year.  Teams (and fans) won’t have to wait as long to find out where they’re picking either as the lottery will be held on Tuesday, April 9th.

Zuccarello, Point To Wait To Talk Extension: A pair of notable free agents are opting to wait until the dust settles on the season before beginning contract talks.  Stars winger Mats Zuccarello is currently rehabbing his broken arm but GM Jim Nill indicated that they haven’t started talks yet and want to wait until the season ends to discuss a deal.  It’s worth noting that locking him up would result in Dallas ceding their 2020 first-round pick to the Rangers as part of the deal to acquire him at the deadline.  Meanwhile, Lightning star Brayden Point hasn’t changed his tune on wanting to wait for the summer to discuss his next deal.  The RFA market figures to be fascinating to follow with so many prominent players in need of new contracts and it appears that Point wants to wait to see what some of the other pacts will be before putting pen to paper on his.

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The first full week past the trade deadline featured some headlines both on and off the ice.  Unfortunately, they weren’t all happy ones.

Landeskog’s Season Done: Colorado’s hopes of getting back into a Wild Card spot took a huge blow with the announcement that captain Gabriel Landeskog will miss the next four-to-six weeks with an upper-body injury, essentially ending his regular season barring a faster than expected recovery.  The 26-year-old was in the midst of a career year with 69 points in 68 games and was a big part of the success of their vaunted top line.  Trade deadline acquisition Derick Brassard will get to see some time on the top line in Landeskog’s absence, giving him a chance to potentially restore some value heading into free agency.

Exceptional Status For Wright: It had been a while since the OHL granted an exceptional player status to someone but they did so for forward Shane Wright, paving the way for him to join play at the Major Junior level at the age of 15.  The last OHL player to get the status was Rangers blueline prospect Sean Day for 2013-14 while the last CHL player to get the nod was Red Wings center Joe Veleno for the 2015-16 campaign.  Wright isn’t eligible to be drafted until 2022 but will certainly be an early contender to be the top pick for that draft class.

Stone’s Extension Official: It took a little longer than many expected given that it was agreed on in principle back at the trade deadline but the Golden Knights officially inked winger Mark Stone to an eight-year, $76MM extension.  The deal contains $48MM in signing bonuses plus a full no-movement clause, elements that GM George McPhee had suggested in the past that he didn’t want to hand out.  However, the deal ensures they’re locking up what would have been one of the top forwards (if not the best) to hit the open market while getting a cornerstone piece for their top line.  The 26-year-old has already beaten his career high in goals with 29 and points with 66.

Recommended Rule Changes: While some were hoping that the playoff format would be on the agenda at the GM meetings, that wasn’t the case.  Instead, the recommendations were to make some minor tweaks.  Their preference is to see the league adopt the international rule that says if a player loses his helmet during the play, he must immediately return to the bench.  On top of that, a pair of faceoff changes were suggested with teams getting the choice as to which side of the ice to start a power play and the location of the draw to start a power play following an icing.  The preseason experiment with clocks in the boards also drew approval.  The Competition Committee will decide whether to forward these to the Board of Governors who would then vote on them in June.

Lindsay Passes Away: Red Wings legend Ted Lindsay passed away at the age of 93.  Despite being just 5’8, he never backed down physically which helped him earn the nickname ‘Terrible Ted’.  He was a nine-time All-Star and led the league in scoring back in 1950 while being named to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1966.  However, that’s only part of the impact he had on the game as he was an instrumental figure in helping the NHLPA get off the ground which helped secure higher pay and better working conditions for the players.  For his efforts, the NHLPA renamed the Lester B. Pearson Award (most outstanding player as voted by the players) as the Ted Lindsay Award back in 2010.

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The trade deadline has come and gone and while deadline day itself was slow at times, there were still quite a few notable trades.  Those big swaps are highlighted in the top stories of the week.

Stone To Vegas, Agrees To Extension: The Senators tried to keep Mark Stone around but after not being able to agree on an extension with him, they shipped him to Vegas in exchange for blueline prospect Erik Brannstrom, center Oscar Lindberg, and a second-round pick in 2020.  The Golden Knights wasted little time working out an extension with him, one that will pay him $9.5MM per season for eight years when it’s made official.  In Stone, Vegas has added a legitimate top liner who could become the focal point of their attack before too long while his defensive game is also quite strong.  He was the best player to move on deadline day by a considerable margin.  Meanwhile, Brannstrom has emerged as one of the top defensive prospects in the league and will likely give Ottawa a very potent one-two punch alongside Thomas Chabot as soon as next season.

Jets Add Hayes: The Jets had made it known that their first-round pick was available for the second straight year and they found a willing taker in the Rangers as they shipped the pick along with winger Brendan Lemieux to New York in exchange for center Kevin Hayes, the top pivot available.  It’s the second straight season that Winnipeg opted to improve down the middle after picking up Paul Stastny last year.  Hayes along with Mark Scheifele and Bryan Little give the Jets a very strong top three center group and are now even deeper up front.  Meanwhile, the Rangers add another top pick to the fold plus a youngster in Lemieux who should be a fixture in their bottom six for the next several years.

Predators Pick Up A Pair: Seeing Winnipeg’s move, Nashville made two notable swaps to counter it and bolster their chances in the Central.  First, they swapped wingers with Minnesota, acquiring Mikael Granlund in exchange for Kevin Fiala.  Granlund has one year of team control left after this one while Fiala is just wrapping up his entry-level deal so it’s a deal that works reasonably well for both sides with the Preds getting the shorter-term boost while the Wild add another young winger to the stable.  They followed that up by adding rental winger Wayne Simmonds from the Flyers for winger Ryan Hartman and a conditional 2020 fourth-round pick (that upgrades a round if Nashville wins a playoff series).  Simmonds is having a quieter season, he still should reach the 20-goal mark while being a factor on a struggling power play.  Nashville has been a team near the middle of the pack in scoring this season but these moves should help them move up a few spots and give them a more balanced attack heading into the postseason.

There were over 20 trades made in total on trade deadline day.  Click here for the full listing of deadline swaps.

Boucher Fired: Considering Ottawa’s struggles this year, a change behind the bench was likely to come but many expected it to happen after the season.  Instead, GM Pierre Dorion opted to make a change now, firing Boucher while promoting veteran coach Marc Crawford to take over as the head coach for the remainder of the year.  Boucher’s tenure in Ottawa got off to a strong start as they made it to Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Final but it went downhill quickly after that as they missed the playoffs by a considerable margin last year and have been even worse this season.  His tenure with the Sens wraps up with a 94-108-26 record; his 228 games coached rank fourth in franchise history.  Boucher is the seventh coach to lose his job in-season after no coaches were relieved of their duties in 2017-18.

Extension For Staal: Wild center Eric Staal had made it known that he wanted to stay with Minnesota but it was still a bit of a surprise that he didn’t move by the trade deadline.  Instead, it turns out that he had agreed to a two-year, $6.5MM extension to stick around.  The deal represents a small pay cut on his current $3.5MM AAV which was already viewed as somewhat of a team-friendly one.  The 34-year-old is having a down season relative to the 76 points he posted last season but he still should be able to reach the 50-point mark which is still top-six production.  Getting a top-six forward locked up for two more years at that rate is solid value for GM Paul Fenton.

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With the trade deadline almost upon us, there was plenty of notable news around the league over the past seven days.

Coyle To Bruins: Boston had been linked to forward Charlie Coyle since the beginning of the season and they now have secured their target, acquiring him from the Wild in exchange for prospect winger Ryan Donato and a conditional 2019 fifth-round pick that moves up a round if Boston moves past the first round of the playoffs.  Coyle has had a bit of a down year in Minnesota but gives the Bruins some flexibility in their middle six while being signed at a reasonable $3.2MM AAV through next season.   Meanwhile, Donato has made an early impact with Minnesota, picking up four points over his first three games with the Wild including the overtime winner on Sunday night.

Ottawa/Columbus Moves: The first major trade domino fell as Ottawa moved center Matt Duchene to Columbus (along with defensive prospect Julius Bergman) in exchange for winger prospects Jonathan Davidsson and Vitali Abramov plus their first-round pick in 2019.  In addition, the Blue Jackets will surrender their 2020 first-round selection if the pending UFA re-signs with the club.  Duchene was unable to come to terms on an extension with Ottawa and will now play out the season alongside a notable pending UFA in Artemi Panarin as the Blue Jackets appear to be set to try to make a deep postseason run.  Abramov was a dominant scorer in the QMJHL but hasn’t had much success yet this season in his first crack at the minors while Davidsson is having a strong season in the SHL and will likely make the jump to North America next season.  One day later, the Blue Jackets added Duchene’s winger in Ryan Dzingel along with Calgary’s 2019 seventh-rounder in exchange for winger Anthony Duclair plus second-round selections in 2020 and 2021.  Dzingel also turned down a long-term extension offer from Ottawa and is in the middle of a career year; his chemistry with Duchene should come in handy down the stretch.  Meanwhile, Duclair did not fare particularly well with Columbus and should get more of an opportunity in Ottawa with their forward group getting thinned out quickly.

Silfverberg To Stay Put: Anaheim’s most prominent rental player will be sticking with the Ducks after all.  He has agreed to terms on a five-year extension that’s believed to be worth roughly $5.25MM per year.  However, the deal can’t be made official until next month when the restrictions on the tagging rule are loosened; Anaheim will use the 10% cushion to make the deal official at that time.  Silfverberg’s point total is down considerably this season but he also leads the team in goals with 16 through 53 games.  As a result of the deal, the Ducks had over $78MM tied up in just 16 players for next season so a cost-cutting move was expected to be on the horizon (and it didn’t take too long for it to happen).

Montour To Buffalo: The Sabres likely will fall short of making the postseason this year but that hasn’t stopped them from making a splash as they’re added defenseman Brandon Montour from Anaheim in exchange for Brandon Guhle and a 2019 first-round pick (SJ or STL).  Montour still has three years of team control after this one and should be an important part of Buffalo’s core for a while.  Meanwhile, the Ducks free up some much-needed cap room for the next couple of years while adding a decent prospect in Guhle plus a high draft pick to jump-start their retooling.

Zuccarello To Dallas, Gets Injured: The Stars made a splash up front, acquiring winger Mats Zuccarello from the Rangers in exchange for a 2019 conditional second-round pick and a 2020 conditional third rounder.  The 2019 pick becomes a first-rounder if Dallas wins two playoff rounds while the 2020 pick will convert to a first if Zuccarello re-signs with them.  The optimism from the move was short-lived, however.  He picked up a pair of points in his Dallas debut but also suffered a significant arm injury that will keep him out for at least a point and could require surgery.

And with the flurry of weekend moves, here’s one more bonus story.

Nyquist To San Jose: Sharks GM Doug Wilson stated earlier in the year that he was open to acquiring another rental as they are clearly in win-now mode.  He stayed true to his word as San Jose picked up Gustav Nyquist from Detroit in exchange for a 2019 second-round pick and a conditional 2020 third-round selection (that upgrades to a second rounder if the winger re-signs).  Detroit is also retaining 30% of Nyquist’s $4.75MM cap hit.  The 29-year-old is just five points shy of his career high of 54 and will make an already deep attack even more potent.

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With the trade deadline quickly approaching, activity has started to pick up around the league.  Here are the top stories from the past seven days.

Predators Add Forward Depth: The Predators added some depth down the middle, acquiring veteran Brian Boyle from New Jersey in exchange for a second-round pick.  Boyle is in the midst of one of the best offensive seasons of his career with 13 goals under his belt already in 49 games while being above average at the faceoff dot once again.  He’ll give Nashville another strong option for their penalty kill as well.  The Preds weren’t done there as they brought back winger Cody McLeod from the Rangers for a 2020 seventh rounder.  McLeod will add some grit in the absence of Austin Watson who is currently under an indefinite suspension.

Capitals Extend Copley: Evidently, Washington likes what they’ve seen from backup goaltender Pheonix Copley this season, handing the first-year netminder a three-year, $3.3MM extension.  The 27-year-old has posted a 2.97 GAA with a .904 SV% in 20 appearances so far this season, numbers that are quite close to starter Braden Holtby.  Worth noting, the three-year term means he will be under contract for the Seattle expansion draft in 2021, meaning that the Capitals will be able to leave him unprotected, fulfilling the requirement of having one goalie under contract being available to be selected.

Matthews Extension: There will be one less player in the upcoming class of high-end restricted free agents as Toronto inked 2016 top pick Auston Matthews.  However, unlike some of the top youngsters in recent years, he opted to not sign a max-term, eight-year contract.  Instead, he put pen to paper on a five-year, $58.17MM contract, an AAV of $11.634MM which sits second overall in the league behind Edmonton’s Connor McDavid.  A whopping 93.7% of the deal will be paid out in annual signing bonuses on July 1st, meaning that his base salary will be the league minimum in each year of the contract.  Matthews sits second on the Maple Leafs in goals this season with 24 in just 39 games while he sits 11th in the league in points per game.  With this deal done, Toronto will now turn their focus to pending RFA winger Mitch Marner who is likely to command a somewhat comparable contract.

Kovalchuk Available: Less than a year ago, winger Ilya Kovalchuk was one of the more sought after unrestricted free agents on the open market.  He ultimately signed a three-year, $18.75MM contract with Los Angeles and the move hasn’t worked out as well as they had hoped as he has just 26 points in 44 games so far.  Accordingly, with the team clearly looking to sell before the trade deadline, the Kings have made the 35-year-old available for trade.  Kovalchuk has a full no-move clause so he will have control over where he goes if they’re able to find a taker for his contract.

Carlyle Fired: With Anaheim having lost 19 of 21 games (many of which weren’t close), something had to give.  GM Bob Murray had already tried tinkering with the fringes of the roster but clearly, that wasn’t enough and something more significant needed to happen.  It finally did as Murray relieved head coach Randy Carlyle of his duties.  Interestingly enough, instead of promoting AHL bench boss Dallas Eakins or one of the assistants in an interim role, Murray himself will take over behind the bench for the remainder of the season despite having no prior coaching experience.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.