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Zack Kassian

Zack Kassian Wants To Stay With Edmonton Oilers

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Just recently, a report surfaced that Edmonton Oilers forward Zack Kassian had requested permission to seek a trade in order to get back into game action. The Oilers have scratched Kassian several times this season, and has seen his ice time dropped significantly even when he is in the lineup. Today, Kassian wanted to clarify what exactly happened and told Ryan Rishaug of TSN that he didn’t directly ask for a trade. Instead, his agent spoke with the Oilers front office about potential interest from other teams, but Kassian has told teammates he wants to stay with them if possible.

Kassian got back into the lineup on Sunday night and scored his first goal of the season, though he was still given fewer than 10 minutes of ice time. The 27-year old forward is in the second of a three-year contract that carries a $1.95MM cap hit.

There’s certainly reason to want to be a part of the Oilers right now as they work on their three game winning streak and charge forward towards a return to the playoffs, but Kassian doesn’t appear to have a big part in that. Even as he struggled to find a permanent fit in Buffalo and Vancouver he never averaged such little time on ice, and now in Edmonton there is still the looming shadow of Jesse Puljujarvi who is trying to fight his way back into the lineup. Without much chance at an increased role there’s plenty of reason that Kassian’s agent would be poking around the league to see if there was interest in his client. His physical style and previous results—Kassian was once a 14-goal forward for the Canucks—could be intriguing to teams that need to add some grit to their bottom six.

The Oilers meanwhile are still in a tricky cap situation even with the added flexibility from Andrej Sekera’s long-term injury status, and could use the relief provided by a Kassian trade. They’re obviously not desperate, but if there is real interest from around the league and they don’t plan on increasing his role any time soon, they would need to at least consider it.

For now, it seems as though Kassian is happy to be with the team and fight for a return to the playoffs, but would like to see a more consistent role on the roster. If there is a return to the press box in the next few games, you can be sure there will be more smoke coming out of Edmonton.

Brandon Dubinsky Out 6-8 Weeks With Fractured Orbital Bone

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Don’t get in a fight with Zack Kassian. Brandon Dubinsky learned that the hard way last night, and will now be out six to eight weeks with a fractured orbital bone. Dubinsky and Kassian got into it at the end of the game, but after taking one hard shot the Columbus Blue Jackets’ forward doubled over and had to slowly leave the ice. Dubinsky has already been placed on injured reserve, while the team has recalled Jordan Schroeder from the AHL.

Brandon DubinskyBlue Jackets’ GM Jarmo Kekalainen on the situation:

At this time, the damage has not affected the function of his eye and long-term vision. He will continue to be monitored closely by our medical team.

While it is good news that Dubinsky’s vision and long-term health doesn’t seem at risk, the short-term effect on Columbus could be devastating. Though he isn’t performing up to his standards offensively, Dubinsky takes a huge number of draws for the Blue Jackets, especially in their own end. He also logs the most short-handed time by any forward, and is a physical force on the ice. The Blue Jackets haven’t been able to get their powerplay working, and with a weakened center group could face even more troubles scoring 5-on-5.

It seems likely that Nick Foligno could return to the center position, something he did at length during the beginning of the season when other players were injured for the Blue Jackets. They’ll now need to rely even more heavily on Pierre-Luc Dubois, who has gone from an uncertain roster spot to the top-line pivot in a matter of months. The 19-year old Dubois has played nearly 18 minutes a night during the last ten games, a number that could increase even further with Dubinsky on the shelf.

The injury also could accelerate the Blue Jackets’ plan on the trade market, as the team has previously been linked to available centers. They wanted to add one even when Dubinsky was healthy, knowing they had precarious depth at the position. Whether this forces their hand somewhat won’t be known until Kekalainen makes a deal, but you can bet teams in the Metropolitan are licking their chops at the chance to unseat Columbus from the top of the standings.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Zach Kassian Re-Signs With Edmonton Oilers

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The Edmonton Oilers have locked up a key forward, signing Zack Kassian to a three-year deal worth a total of $5.85MM. Paying him $1.95MM per season, the deal buys out two of Kassian’s unrestricted free agent years, but gives him some stability as he continues to get his career back on track. He will be a UFA in the summer of 2020.

Kassian, 26, has had a long difficult road through the professional ranks since being selected 13th-overall in 2009. Stung by inconsistency and addiction—Kassian has been open about his battle with alcohol following a stint in the NHL’s substance abuse facility—the big winger finally found a home in Edmonton this year, scoring 24 points and generally being an impossible pest on the ice. His play (and facial hair) drew rave reviews in the playoffs, even if it did result in only three goals.

With the Oilers focused on re-signing Leon Draisaitl and extending Connor McDavid for the next eight years, getting Kassian under contract for such a reasonable price will help fill in the bottom six with a known commodity. If he can repeat or even improve on his scoring numbers from last season, he’ll be one of the better depth scoring options in the league relative to his contract. The fact that Edmonton took a chance on him and helped him get his life back on track likely played a part in keeping him there, and he’ll now try to take the next step and help the team get back into the playoffs.

Bob McKenzie of TSN broke the signing and provided details on the financials of the deal.

Free Agent Focus: Edmonton Oilers

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The free agent period is now less than one week away from opening up and there are several prominent players set to hit the open market while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign.  Here is a breakdown of the Edmonton Oilers’ free agent situation.

Key Restricted Free Agents: F Leon Draisaitl. At 21 years old and coming off a 29-goal season (along with 77 total points), Draisaitl would likely be the most important restricted free agent in the entire NHL. The Oilers have already come out and stated they will match any offer, no matter how high to retain one of the franchise’s cornerstone pieces on their team and it will prove costly. The third overall pick in the 2014 draft has been unstoppable in just three short years and he’s nowhere close to his prime. Extending the young German forward is critical for the team and a big reason the team just traded Jordan Eberle to the Islanders to free as much cap space as it can to lock up Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, who they hope to extend this year as well.

Other RFA’s: F Zack Kassian, D Joey Laleggia, D David Musil, F Zachary Pochiro, F Henrik Samuelsson, D Dillon Simpson.

Key Unrestricted Free Agents: F Tyler Pitlick. A few days ago, veteran defender Kris Russell would have been in this spot, but the defender signed a four-year, $4MM per year deal to stay with the Oilers. That leaves very little to worry about on the unrestricted free agent front. However, if you really look, Pitlick still has a lot of potential. The only problem is the 25-year-old center is quite injury prone. In the last three years, he has not played in more than 37 games a season due to various injuries with the most recent being a torn ACL back in December. Although, he was having a strong season before that, scoring eight goals in those first 31 games. However, considering the Oilers may be looking for cheap players with potential, they might consider giving Pitlick one more chance.

Other UFA’s: F David Desharnais, F Justin Fontaine, D Mark Fraser, F Matt Hendricks, D Eric Gryba, D Jordan Oesterle.

Projected Cap Space: With the Eberle contract now off the books and Russell signed long-term, that allows Edmonton almost $20MM in cap space to work with and they will likely need a lot of that to give extensions to Draisaitl and McDavid. While McDavid is not a restricted free agent until next year, the team can lock him up starting this summer and would be smart to do so. With what’s left, the team may look to add a few veterans to fill out the lineup and help guide this young team even further next year.

 

 

Oilers Likely To Wait To Trade Eberle Until After Expansion Draft

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Edmonton Oilers’ forward Jordan Eberle’s name seems to come up in trade talks quite often. He recently appeared at No. 6 on TSN’s first edition of “Trade Bait,” and the belief is that moving the 20-goal scorer this season makes the most sense as the Oilers must free up cap space to eventually lock up both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to extensions. The hope is they can use Eberle to acquire a top-four defenseman the team needs. Several key defensemen are on TSN’s list, including Anaheim’s Sami Vatanen, Minnesota’s Jonas Brodin and Mathew Dumba, and New York Islanders’ Travis Hamonic – all right-handed defenseman, exactly what the Oilers need.

However, while Edmonton Journal’s David Staples believes that while moving Eberle will be inevitable, trading him before the expansion draft is a big mistake. If the team trades Eberle for a defender, that would force Edmonton to switch from a 7-3-1 protection scheme to a 4-4-1 scheme, meaning the Oilers would have to sacrifice one extra forward to the Las Vegas Golden Knights. The Oilers then would be only be able to protect Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Draisaitl, Milan Lucic and Patrick Maroon (McDavid is exempt). The team would then have to protect four defensemen, including the new acquisition, Andrej Sekera, Oscar Klefbom and Adam Larsson.

That would likely expose veteran enforcer Zack Kassian to the Golden Knights, something that they wouldn’t have done in a 7-3-1 scheme. Kassian was critical to the team in the playoffs as he stood up for his teammates and protected the likes of McDavid and Draisaitl. Staples believes that general manager Peter Chiarelli would prefer to keep him as he’s playing the best hockey of his career. A loss at wing of Kassian and Eberle might also force Draisaitl to stay at the wing, rather than move to center like the Oilers want.

So even though there may be quite a few defensemen available over the next two weeks, there are few scenarios in which trading Eberle for one makes any sense until after the expansion draft. Staples even hints that Las Vegas is likely to be overloaded in defenders after the expansion draft and looking there for a top-six defenseman would make more sense, although that does not solve the problem of unloading Eberle’s $6MM contract.

Trade Candidates: Shane Doan

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Shane Doan is in his 21st season in the NHL, every single one spent with the Winnipeg Jets/Phoenix-Arizona Coyotes franchise. During that time he has appeared in more than 1,500 regular season games and potted 400 goals. His resume is certainly impressive, however Doan hasn’t been part of a Stanley Cup championship team and if he has designs on winning one he may have to finally move on from the only organization he has ever known.

Arizona’s season is all but officially over. With just 38 standings points, the Coyotes rank 29th in the league, ahead of only Colorado and are 17 points out of a wild card spot. Essentially, they have no chance to make the playoffs and along with the aforementioned Avalanche are one of the only obvious trade deadline sellers in the NHL. Clubs in this situation generally look to deal proven veterans, particularly ones that are pending free agents, for futures and Doan perfectly fits the mold of player often traded at the deadline. But given his standing within and commitment to the organization, it’s possible Doan remains in the desert.

Contract

As mentioned above, the 40-year-old Doan is on an expiring contract and comes with a cap hit of $3.876MM this year and $1M worth of games-played bonuses which will count against next year’s cap. Presumably a team acquiring Doan would assume a prorated portion of the cap charge resulting from any bonuses met.

2016-17

Doan has struggled this year, netting just four goals a season after finding the back of the net 28 times in 2015-16. A huge decrease in shooting percentage – 3.8% in 2016-17 versus 16.5 the prior season – and less ice time have been factors for his suffering goal scoring production. He tallied 12 man-advantage goals and 17 points in 2015-16 while averaging better than three minutes per game on the power play. That average is down to 1:24 this season and unsurprisingly he has netted one goal and three points with the man-advantage.

Season Stats

50 GP – 4 goals, 12 assists, 16 points, -5 plus-minus rating, 36 PIM, 105 SOG, 15:15 ATOI

Potential Suitors

It might be easier to list the teams who wouldn’t have some level of interest in Doan. Anyone looking for size and bite on the wing and a veteran presence in the room would love to have the longtime Coyotes captain on their roster. A young team like Edmonton could use some additional experience, perhaps, but already boasts plenty of size on the wing in the persons of Milan Lucic, Patrick Maroon and Zack Kassian. The Blackhawks are known to be looking at top-six wingers and while Doan’s lackluster production wouldn’t seem to address that need, the opportunity to play with Jonathan Toews could spark the veteran winger. Montreal is also believed to be interested in adding size to the lineup and have already been linked to Doan’s teammate, Martin Hanzal.

Likelihood of Trade

Doan holds a NMC in his contract and it’s going to be entirely up to him if he wants to leave the desert. In the past he’s resisted overtures from other clubs, both via trade and as a free agent, due to family reasons but this may well be his final NHL season and subsequently his last shot to win a Cup. However, Doan’s role has decreased this season and it’s clear the Coyotes are looking toward the future. It may well be time for Doan to accept a trade to a team with a reasonable chance to win a championship. At this point it’s probably a coin toss whether he is traded or sticks with Arizona.

 

Pacific Notes: Fowler, Oilers/Coyotes, Kassian, Gaborik

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After being the subject of trade rumors for a big portion of the offseason, Anaheim defenseman Cam Fowler used the motivation of those talks into honing his game even further and as a result, is easily off to the best start to a season of his career, writes Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register.  His 22 points leads all Ducks blueliners while sitting seventh among all NHL defendes.

During the summer, Fowler worked with former Washington winger Pat Peake who is now a skills coach.  Among the areas that they worked on was his shot and there have been immediate dividends as not only is his nine goals just one shy of his career high from his rookie season, it also ranks second overall among NHL defensemen only behind San Jose’s Brent Burns.  Fowler also gives a lot of credit for his success this year to head coach Randy Carlyle, who coached Fowler during his first stint behind the bench:

“It’s his approach to me. The way he handles me as a player. He knows that if I make a mistake, there’s nobody that understands it better than me. He knows maybe if it’s needed to kind of light a fire underneath me. Or he knows that I made a mistake (but) this game’s all about mistakes so I trust him. I’m going to use him in all situations.”

Although Fowler’s play has quieted the trade speculation for now, it’s almost certain to come back up in the offseason where he will be entering the final year of his contract before being eligible for unrestricted free agency.  As things stand, he’s playing himself into quite the handsome raise come the summer of 2018.

Other notes from the Pacific:

  • While a mid-December game between the Oilers and Coyotes wouldn’t be the most noteworthy on the surface, Edmonton’s 3-2 victory last night was their first regulation win against Phoenix/Arizona in 26 tries. As Sarah McLellan of the Arizona Republic notes, not only did this streak last nearly six calendar years, it was the sixth longest streak like that in NHL history and the longest in over 30 years (the Flyers had a 33 game streak against the Kings from 1974-1983).  Also from that game, Oilers right winger Zack Kassian will not face any disciplinary action from the league after being issued a match penalty in the final minute of the third period, a league spokesman confirmed to NBC Sports’ Mike Halford.
  • Kings left winger Marian Gaborik has long had the reputation of being a pure goal scorer after three seasons of more than 40 goals. The last of those came back in 2011-12 and at the age of 34, it doesn’t seem likely that he’ll reach that mark again.  As a result, head coach Darryl Sutter is looking for Gaborik to bring a more defined role to the table than just being a natural goal scorer, he told Jon Rosen of LA Kings Insider.  The Slovak winger has just one goal through 10 games this year after returning to the lineup from a broken foot sustained in the World Cup and was a healthy scratch last weekend for the first since joining Los Angeles back in 2014.

Previous Post-Roster Freeze Trades

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As of 11:59pm last night (Eastern time), the NHL’s annual holiday roster freeze kicked in.

While there were some rumors kicking around prior to the freeze, there wasn’t anything that seemed imminent. However, we have seen trades made within days of the roster freeze ending. Here are the previous post-roster freeze trades of past few years.

2015-16: On December 28, 2015, the Edmonton Oilers traded former starter Ben Scrivens to the Montreal Canadiens for Zack Kassian. Both teams were looking for a comeback story: Scrivens had fallen to fourth on the Oilers depth chart, while Kassian had just cleared waivers after completing the NHL’s substance abuse program. Scrivens played 15 games in Montreal, winning just five times. While one of those was a 5-1 win for Scrivens over his former team, the Oilers have likely won this trade. Kassian has gotten his act together and is a solid bottom six energy forward/ penalty killer with 15 points in 67 games so far. Scrivens is now playing in the KHL.

2014-15: Just a day after the roster freeze ended, the Oilers acquired Derek Roy from Nashville for Mark Arcobello. Roy had just cleared waivers and had 10 points in 26 games with the Predators. He found immediate success with the Oilers, scoring 22 points in 46 games. He remains one of the few centers to ever get consistent results from Nail Yakupov, who scored 25 points in 35 games with Roy as his center. Arcobello had 12 points in 36 games for an Oilers team with almost no depth at the center position: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Boyd Gordon were the only legitimate NHL centers on the roster, with Leon Draisaitl just days away from being sent to the WHL. Arcobello played just four games in Nashville before bouncing around to Pittsburgh and Arizona before the end of the season.

2013-14: On December 30, 2013, the Calgary Flames traded former OHL scorer Greg Nemisz to the Carolina Hurricanes for tough guy Kevin Westgarth. Nemisz, a former first-round pick of the Flames and double Memorial Cup champion with the Windsor Spitfires, played parts of two seasons for the Hurricanes’ AHL affiliate. However, after suffering three season-ending injuries in as many seasons, Nemisz retired. He’s now an assistant coach for the OHL’s Oshawa Generals. Westgarth played 36 games for the Flames, which were his last in the NHL. He failed to stick with the Oilers on a PTO the following year, and ended up playing his last year of hockey for the Belfast Giants of the Elite Ice Hockey League in the U.K.

Interestingly enough, only one of the six players (Kassian) is still in the NHL. Scrivens and Roy are now in the KHL, Arcobello is playing in the Swiss League, and Westgarth and Nemisz are retired.

If you’re handicapping this year’s post-roster freeze movements, expect the Oilers to make a minor trade and for both players to be out of the NHL within two years.

Injury Updates: Oilers, Tkachuk, Hammond, Kings, Avalanche, Perreault

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The Edmonton Oilers haven’t had much good news on the injury front.  Although Zack Kassian may be ready to return on Sunday, they won’t be getting any more help from the infirmary for the next little while, reports Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Sun.

Defenseman Brandon Davidson and Matt Hendricks, who both have missed over a month with lower body injuries, skated yesterday but head coach Todd McLellan noted neither are close to returning.

As for Kris Russell, who was supposed to just miss a bit of time with a lower body injury, is now weeks away from returning, Tychkowski notes.  The veteran has logged significant minutes for the Oilers so far this season (over 21 minutes per game) while blocking nearly three shots per night.

Center Drake Caggiula, who had a strong preseason and was making a push for a roster spot, suffered a setback during the recovery from his lower body issue.  McLellan expects the 22 year old to casually start skating in the next 7-10 days.

[Related: Oilers Depth Chart]

Other injury notes from around the league:

  • The Calgary Flames will be without left winger Matthew Tkachuk for tonight’s game against the Rangers due to a wrist injury, the team announced via Twitter. The sixth overall pick back in June has spent most of the season in a bottom six role but still has scored three goals and three assists in 12 games so far.  In a related move, the team announced that they have recalled right winger Garnet Hathaway from their AHL affiliate in Stockton; Hathaway is not expected to play tonight, however.
  • Senators goaltender Andrew Hammond is nearly 100% recovered from his lower body injury, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun notes (Twitter link). When he returns, that would give Ottawa three goaltenders but based on Mike Condon’s start so far and Craig Anderson taking leaves of absence to be with his wife as she battles cancer, it would seem likely that the Sens will carry three netminders for the foreseeable future.
  • Despite pulling himself after the second period of yesterday’s game with a lower body issue, Kings goaltender Jeff Zatkoff did travel with the team to Winnipeg, reports Lindsay Czarnecki of LA Kings Insider. Zatkoff was making his first appearance since October 18th after suffering a groin injury in practice but Fox Sports West’ Patrick O’Neal adds on Twitter that this was a groin spasm but the two injuries are not related.  The team is likely to recall goaltender Jack Campbell from the minors.  Still with Los Angeles, captain Anze Kopitar (upper body) also was injured on Friday night.  O’Neal reports that Kopitar is day-to-day.
  • On top of Avalanche forward Matt Duchene getting pulled from Friday’s game by a concussion spotter, defenseman Fedor Tyutin suffered an arm injury and is out day-to-day, the team reported on Twitter. Blake Comeau skated on Saturday and is nearly ready to return to the lineup, the team added in a separate tweet.  Comeau has missed the last three games with a groin injury.
  • The Jets announced that they have placed center Mathieu Perreault on injured reserve retroactive to November 4th with an upper body injury.  The 28 year old has already missed enough time to be activated at any time moving forward but the placement allowed them to bring up a replacement player in Quinton Howden.

Snapshots: Top Rookies, Tougher Oilers, McKeown

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It’s been a good start to the season for rookies in the NHL. Auston Matthews scored a stunning four goals in his debut and Finnish top picks Patrik Laine and Jesse Puljujärvi also scored in their debuts. William Nylander had two assists.

However, two of the more impressive rookies to TSN’s Bob McKenzie are the Flyers’ Travis Konecny and Ivan Provorov. McKenzie appeared on TSN 1260 in Edmonton, saying it’s “ridiculous how good [Provorov] is” and saying Konecny was their “maybe their best player” in their first game.

Despite their early success, McKenzie didn’t see either of them being in the Calder Trophy conversation, because neither will post the offensive numbers. He also joked that “everybody knows they already awarded the Calder the other night after the first game. People didn’t see that presentation afterwards, but Auston Matthews was presented with it after the game.”

McKenzie compared the style of play over the first two nights to Team North America in the World Cup, saying hopefully “the kids … will triumph because the first two nights of this season have been a joy to watch.”

In other new from around the hockey world:

  • David Staples of the Edmonton Journal took a look at how GM Peter Chiarelli turned the formerly soft Oilers into a much tougher team. The Oilers have added four tough and dependable NHLers in Eric Gryba, Zack Kassian, Patrick Maroon, and Milan Lucic for a total cost of two fourth round picks and three players who had no future in Edmonton: former starter Ben Scrivens who was toiling in the AHL, and fringe minor leaguers Travis Ewanyk and Martin Gernat. Scrivens and Gernat are now overseas, and Ewanyk signed with the Idaho Steelheads of the ECHL. Staples writes that the new-look Oilers are able to “[answer] the bell if it comes to clobberin’ time, as it surely will.”
  • The Carolina Hurricanes have assigned defenseman Roland McKeown to the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL. McKeown was a healthy scratch in the Hurricanes season opening loss in Winnipeg. McKeown is a former second round pick of the Los Angeles Kings, acquired in the Andrej Sekera trade back at the 2015 trade deadline. The Raleigh News & Observer Chip Alexander believes the team is expecting newly-acquired defenseman Jakub Nakladal to be available for Sunday night’s game in Vancouver.

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