Minor Transactions: 04/02/22
The NHL Trade Deadline has passed, but key transactions continue to occur. The college free agent market is still going strong with NCAA standouts landing NHL and AHL contracts, while many leagues in Europe are already deep into the postseason with eliminated teams signing extensions and conversely allowing some notable names to become free agents. So while it may seem like the deadline puts an end to all important transactions until the offseason, there are still plenty of “minor” moves worth paying attention to:
- The Boston Bruins have been busy in the college free agent market, signing Boston College captain Marc McLaughlin to an entry-level contract (he scored in his NHL debut on Thursday), as well as Western Michigan goaltender Brandon Bussi and inking Ohio State defenseman Grant Gabriele to an AHL contract. They are back at it again, announcing a one-year AHL contract for 2022-23 and interim PTO for Omaha forward Joseph Abate. Abate, 23, is leaving college a year early to pursue his pro career. A defensive specialist, Abate only produced 32 points in 85 NCAA games but plays a physical checking game, excelled at the faceoff dot this season, and brings deceptive speed. A project for the Bruins, Abate will be groomed in Providence to potentially play a fourth line role down the road. Interestingly, Abate played junior hockey with the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms with fellow Bruins prospects Curtis Hall, Trevor Kuntar, and Riley Duran.
- The Vegas Golden Knights have dipped into the college free agent pool, as their Silver counterparts in AHL Henderson announced a PTO and 2022-23 AHL contract for North Dakota forward Connor Ford. A highly sought-after graduate transfer out of Bowling Green, where he played with fellow Knights prospect Brandon Kruse, Ford joined the Fighting Hawks this season and continued to produce. An incredibly consistent scorer through five NCAA season, the 24-year-old Ford appears to have the mature game that will translate to the pros. Ford finished second in scoring for North Dakota behind only Riese Gaber. Vegas certainly won’t mind if signing Ford help to convince the undrafted sophomore sensation Gaber to turn pro and sign with the Knights this year or even down the road.
- Another NCAA addition is arriving in Lehigh Valley, as the Philadelphia Flyers’ affiliate announced a PTO and 2022-23 AHL contract with Notre Dame captain Adam Karashik. Karashik, 24, actually played in his first season with the Fighting Irish this season as a graduate transfer, but was named captain based on his veteran leadership and experience and the ability he displayed in four years at UConn. Karashik had always played a sound defensive game on the blue line, but took his offensive game to new heights this season with 16 points, matching his previous three seasons combined. A two-way, right-handed defenseman with a well-developed game, Karashik is a nice piece for the Flyers’ pipeline.
- Moving overseas, NHL veteran Joakim Ryan isn’t rushing back to the NHL after a year away in Sweden. Instead, the 28-year-old has signed a one-year extension with the SHL’s Malmo Redhawks, the team announced. While Ryan was on an NHL contract for all six of his first pro seasons, including playing 41+ NHL games twice, his value had tailed off before he departed for his native Sweden this past offseason. While he could likely still find a depth role in the NHL, no one will blame him for sticking with Malmo for another year after he emerged as a star for the team in 2021-22. Ryan recorded 31 points in 52 games, second on the team and a top-five mark among SHL defensemen.
More to come…
Pittsburgh Penguins Sign Ty Glover
The Pittsburgh Penguins continue to aggressively pursue undrafted college free agents, a strategy that they’ve used for years now to supplement their prospect pipeline that is often bereft of draft picks. The next college player to join Pittsburgh will be Western Michigan University sophomore Ty Glover, who has agreed to a three-year entry-level contract.
The deal will start in 2022-23 and carries an average annual value of $859K at the NHL level. He will now report to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on an amateur tryout for the rest of the season.
Glover, 21, recorded eight goals and 21 points in 39 games this season for the Broncos, whose season ended with a loss to Minnesota over the weekend. It’s been a winding road for the young forward, who failed to make the OHL–he was drafted by the Flint Firebirds in the 15th round–played two seasons of Junior B, a year in the OJHL, and a year in the USHL before heading to college. Despite landing 215th on NHL Central Scouting’s list of available prospects in 2019 he went undrafted but has now obviously done enough in two years of collegiate hockey to earn an entry-level deal.
Standing 6’3″ he represents another big body for the Penguins to try and develop, even if there likely isn’t a huge offensive upside available at the next level. The team has continually squeezed NHL minutes out of players who were otherwise overlooked, and Glover represents another one of those opportunities for Pittsburgh.
Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald broke news of the deal on Twitter.
David Jiricek Not Part Of Czechia Training Camp Roster
March 28: Unfortunately, after additional testing, Jiricek will not be able to take part in the camp. He has been ruled out for health reasons and replaced on the camp roster by David Kvasnicka. That chance to show what he can do on the international stage will have to wait.
March 25: Among the top prospects for the 2022 draft, there are really only two defensemen that stand out as candidates to go in the top ten. One of them is Simon Nemec, the Slovakian standout who would have played in the U18 Worlds, U20 World Juniors, and the Olympics all in the same season, had COVID restrictions not put some of that action on pause. Nemec is a star in the Slovakian league already and will likely suit up for his country at the World Championships, as he did last year.
The other is David Jiricek, whose draft stock was relatively uncertain after an early injury at the World Juniors. He hasn’t played since then, meaning it wasn’t clear at all whether scouts would get another chance to see him playing at a high level before this summer’s draft. Good news, Jiricek was named today to Czechia’s training camp roster for the World Championships, suggesting he could be ready to play in the May tournament, well ahead of the July draft.
The first thing you’ll notice about Jiricek, 18, is how mobile he is for a 6’3″ defenseman, seemingly floating around the ice both with the puck and without it. In 29 games at the highest level in Czechia, he recorded five goals and 11 points, his second full season with HC Skoda Plzen, even as a teenager. While some will undoubtedly prefer Nemec when it’s all said and done, Jiricek has ranked ahead of him at several stages. At the mid-season rankings, NHL Central Scouting had Jiricek fourth among all European skaters, with Nemec sixth. Bob McKenzie’s TSN mid-season scout poll published in January also had Jiricek as the top defenseman, this time seventh (Nemec ranked ninth).
While other defensemen may still make late pushes (Pavel Mintyukov and Denton Mateychuk come to mind), Jiricek and Nemec appear to be battling for the honor of being the first blueliner off the board in July. An appearance at the World Championship, where he could be on the ice against NHL talent, would certainly give the former a chance to impress.
Of course, NHL talent that is eliminated will also be joining the group, and other more veteran names from Europe. David Krejci, for instance, is expected to join the Czechia team a week or two before the tournament.
Canada Notes: World Juniors, Coronato, Knies, Senators
After the 2022 Men’s U20 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship (WJC) was cancelled amid an outbreak of COVID-19 in late December, the IIHF announced that it would hold the tournament in August, 2022 in Alberta, Canada. While this was certainly great news for Hockey Canada and the country itself, Hockey Canada may stay busy. In the wake of the IIHF pulling the 2023 WJC out of Russia, the organization has asked Hockey Canada if it would be able to host the 2023 tournament, reports Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek on Saturday night’s Hockey Night in Canada.
Currently, the IIHF is awaiting a response from Hockey Canada, but Marek adds that the belief is the tournament could be hosted in Ontario or to the east, perhaps somewhere in the Maritimes. Ontario has seen a World Juniors as recently as 2017, when the tournament was split between Toronto and Montreal (and consequently, Ontario and Quebec), but the tournament has not been held to the east since 2003, when it was held in Nova Scotia, split between Halifax and Sydney.
- With Harvard University’s season coming to an end after a 4-3 loss to Minnesota State on Thursday, attention turned to Harvard forward and Calgary Flames prospect Matthew Coronato, to see if he may turn professional and sign with Calgary. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that the Flames are going to talk to the forward, but the belief is that he will ultimately return to Harvard for another season. Friedman mentions the concern Flames fans may have with talented Harvard prospects after their experience with Adam Fox, but cautions that Coronato shouldn’t be an issue for Calgary. Coronato, the 13th overall selection in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, had 18 goals and 18 assists in 34 games this season for Harvard.
- Friedman also touched on another big-time NCAA prospect while speaking on Hockey Night in Canada: Matthew Knies. Knies has been the focus of recent discussion after being named in alleged trade discussions between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Chicago Blackhawks. When asked about Knies, Friedman made it abundantly clear that there was an important distinction in these discussions, which is that Toronto was not shopping Knies, but instead that he was simply a demand of the Blackhawks in those discussions. After the discussions involving Knies and then-Blackhawks goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury were made public, attention was brought on the top prospect, drawing the ire of Toronto GM Kyle Dubas.
- The Ottawa Senators will not face any subsequent fines or discipline for any role they may have played with the issues surrounding Evgenii Dadonov‘s no-trade clause, reports Friedman, appearing to finally close the book on the non-trade. There had been speculation that the Ottawa Senators could be fined for the role they played in the matter, dating back to their trade of Dadonov to Vegas this offseason.
League Notes: World Cup, Combine, Trade Lists
Although the trade deadline has passed and the draft and free agency are still months away, it hasn’t stopped TSN’s best from breaking significant news. In the latest “Insider Trading” segment, the group had plenty to say about upcoming events and changes for the NHL. Though down the road quite a ways, Darren Dreger reports that there could soon be a more concrete plan for the proposed 2024 and 2028 World Cups of Hockey. The NHL, NHLPA, IIHF, and individual national federations are meeting in Paris this week to discuss how the NHL-operated international tournament could look. One major issue at hand is the possibility of a play-in tournament to determine the eight participants in each World Cup. There are many questions as to who might automatically qualify for the World Cup versus who might take part in the play-in, but Dreger at least notes that the play-ins would be held during the summer prior to the tournament, which could mean August 2023 would mark the start of the selection process.
Dreger does not believe that Canada and the United States would be taking part in play-ins (and does not make mention of Team North America, a novel and entertaining concept from the 2016 World Cup but one that appears to be dead all the same). Whether all European nations or just those lower on the IIHF rankings would participate in play-ins remains to be seen, as does the viability of a Russian entry given the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and resulting IIHF sanctions. The most recent IIHF rankings have Finland and Russia among the top four hockey countries in the world with Canada and the U.S., with Germany, Czechia, Sweden, and Switzerland rounding out the top eight. The question becomes how many of these nations should earn automatic bids to the World Cup and how many spots should otherwise stay open for play-in winners. Slovakia, Latvia, Norway, and Denmark would certainly like a fair shot at qualification, especially given that each has NHL representation, while it might also be entertaining to see an expanded play-in field featuring some less established hockey countries like France and Great Britain, both of whom are currently within the top 16 globally. Dreger does not note the possibility of a return of Team Europe, encompassing players from non-qualifying nations, but that concept is likely to go the way of Team North America. There is still plenty to figure out, but this week’s meetings in Paris could be a very productive step toward clarifying the return of the World Cup.
- Dreger adds that another NHL-sponsored event making its return is the NHL Draft Combine. After being cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the league will again host the pre-draft evaluation event this year, returning to Buffalo. The combine will be held from May 29 to June 4, giving teams plenty of time to assess results before the 2022 NHL Draft on July 7-8. As usual, the NHL playoffs will still be ongoing during the combine, but active teams can manage. More concerning though is that the CHL playoffs will also still be underway, which has not typically been the case. Due to COVID delays to the regular season schedule, the OHL and WHL will not kick off their postseasons until late April while the QMJHL will not get started until early May, making crossover with the combine a month later impossible to avoid. Dreger notes that the NHL wanted to hold an in-person combine at all costs in an effort to get the draft process back to normal, even if that meant some prospects could not participate. The CHL leagues will have to determine for themselves whether they will allow players to leave their teams or potentially pause postseason action during the combine. Scheduling flexibility is limited with the Memorial Cup dates already set for June 20-29. However, the junior leagues and teams have stock in the draft success of their players and know that those top prospects still playing and unable to attend the combine could be put them at a disadvantage.
- As the ripples of the Evgenii Dadonov saga continue to be felt far beyond Las Vegas and Anaheim, Pierre LeBrun reports that changes to how trade lists are documented appear likely. As the NHL GM’s prepare to meet this week, with the Dadonov fiasco still fresh in their minds, it is not only LTIR management that they will discuss. LeBrun notes that they will also recommend that the complete terms of trade protection be shared with the NHL Central Registry and the NHLPA. Currently, only teams and player agents know the full contents of trade and no-trade lists and are the only ones monitoring when and if those lists are submitted. Seeing how well that worked out in Dadonov’s case, having extra eyes on that process from both the team and player side only serves to benefit the entire process. Though there is concern about a higher likelihood of these lists becoming public, this is outweighed by the procedural positives of trade protection.
Ottawa Senators Sign Philippe Daoust
6:43 pm: Daoust’s three-year entry-level contract carries a $821,667 cap hit, per CapFriendly. Each year, he’ll see a $55,000 signing bonus, with a $750,000 base salary in 2022-23 and a $775,000 base salary in 2023-24 and 2024-25.
1:08 pm: The Ottawa Senators have signed prospect Philippe Daoust to a three-year entry-level contract that will start in 2022-23. The QMJHL forward currently plays with the Saint John Sea Dogs, where he will remain for the rest of this season. Senators general manager Pierre Dorion released a statement:
We’ve been very pleased with Philippe’s progress. He’s a highly skilled forward who displays good offensive instincts and creativity. With Saint John serving as Memorial Cup host this spring, we expect him to play an important role throughout the Sea Dogs’ post-season.
Daoust, 20, actually started this year with the Belleville Senators, playing 15 games at the AHL level before a trade brought his junior rights from the Moncton Wildcats to the Memorial Cup host Sea Dogs. In the 17 games he’s played since returning, Daoust has 11 goals and 22 points.
It’s an extremely uncommon path for a sixth-round pick, especially one that went completely undrafted in his first year of eligibility. But Daoust is an uncommon prospect, with even his junior career taking winding a very unusual road. From Barrie, Ontario, the young forward was completely passed over in the OHL draft and ended up playing in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League for 2018-19. That earned some interest, which took him away from the OHL and into the QMJHL, where he signed with Moncton.
As fate would have it, that decision would end up being a very good one for Daoust, who instead of missing an entire development season like the other OHL prospects in 2020-21, was able to play in 21 games with Moncton and show his game had reached an entirely different level. Overlooked for years, Daoust now has an NHL contract in hand and a future in the Senators organization.
Interest Rising For Jack McBain
One of the more interesting stories around this season’s trade deadline is unsigned college prospect, Jack McBain. The rights to the Minnesota Wild draft pick are expected to be traded in the next few days, as McBain has apparently made it clear he will not be signing with Minnesota and would instead test free agency this summer. He could reach unrestricted free agency in the middle of August, at which point the Wild would receive no compensation and essentially lose the third-round pick they used on McBain in 2018.
Now 22, the Boston College star could sign and play with a team this season, adding an impressive 6’4″ forward into the mix. In 24 games at BC this season he scored 19 goals and 33 points, while also attending the Olympics with Team Canada. The asking price was believed to be a second-round pick, though Darren Dreger of TSN suggests it could even be climbing as multiple teams join the hunt to try and get him signed.
Selected 63rd overall in 2018, McBain was the first pick of the third round and could quickly become one of the steals of the draft should his college production carry over to the professional ranks. Big, two-way centers aren’t easy to come by, and given the sneaky amount of skill that McBain possesses, there may even be more than the bottom-six pivot he still projects as. If he can carve out a role similar to Joel Eriksson Ek, for instance, he would obviously be worth even more than a second-round pick.
That’s obviously not a guarantee though, and as contenders load up on rentals, McBain’s future may lie with a team not quite as close to the top. Prospects in a situation like this often chase the best opportunity, not necessarily the best team, as they hope to make an impact early on. Given that he’s already 22, McBain will be signing a two-year entry-level contract, meaning he’ll be set to reach restricted free agency by the end of 2022-23. If he wants to have NHL stats to take into a negotiation, finding a home with a less impressive depth chart may be the way to go.
Chicago Blackhawks Sign Alex Vlasic To Entry-Level Deal
Adding to today’s growing list of NCAA players signing their entry-level contracts, Alex Vlasic has signed a three-year entry-level deal with the Chicago Blackhawks. Per the team, the deal will carry an $824,167 cap hit. Vlasic was drafted by the Blackhawks 43rd overall in the 2019 draft, only just before another of today’s signings, Drew Helleson.
Vlasic, 20, is perhaps best known for being among the biggest players in his draft class. Standing at six-foot-six, Vlasic’s size has made him an intriguing prospect as he’s developed in the NCAA. There’s not a lot of offense to his game, as he has only 20 points in his 82-game career at Boston University, but his aforementioned size, which is highly coveted and difficult for teams to find, has made it so that lack of offense hasn’t tarnished much of his shine as a top prospect. Just by being as big as he is, Vlasic offers high defensive upside thanks to his reach and potential to be a menace along the boards. He’s the cousin of Marc-Edouard Vlasic, and while that has little bearing on his actual play on the ice it should excite fans who know the connection and remember Vlasic in his prime when he was among the NHL’s most fearsome defensive defenders. Even if Vlasic’s offensive game never comes along, he should be able to carve out an NHL career as a defensive specialist.
Speaking of his potential ability to carve out an NHL career, his doing so could be closer than many would think. Vlasic is heading straight to Chicago to be with the Blackhawks team, according to Bartlett Hockey, Vlasic’s representation. While it is not confirmed if Vlasic will make his NHL debut this soon after signing, the Blackhawks getting him into Chicago and with the team this quickly should signal their excitement over his upside and their confidence that he is ready for the rigors of NHL hockey. Given the uncertainty NHL fanbases often wrestle with when it comes to NCAA prospects and their signability, seeing Vlasic fast-tracked to the NHL like this should relieve and excite a Blackhawks fanbase that looks headed into uncharted waters under new GM Kyle Davidson.
Corey Andonovski Signs With Pittsburgh Penguins
March 10: Dreger reports that Andonovski has chosen the Pittsburgh Penguins for his NHL home. The Penguins are notorious for bringing players out of the college ranks and giving them a real opportunity at the NHL level. The team has officially announced the two-year contract, noting that it will begin in the 2022-23 season. He’ll join the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on an amateur tryout for the time being.
March 7: As the NCAA season comes to a close for many programs, NHL teams will be desperately trying to sell their organization as the best place for an undrafted talent to take the next step. That’s what is happening in the case of Corey Andonovski, who according to Darren Dreger of TSN “continues to mull over multiple NHL offers” and could make a decision this week.
Andonovski, 22, just finished his third season (and fourth year) at Princeton, scoring 22 points in 31 games. Technically he could go back as he had an extra year of eligibility due to the lost 2020-21 season–when Ivy League schools did not participate in hockey due to COVID restrictions–but that appears not to be the case. Princeton was ousted from the ECAC first round by Union over the weekend, with Andonovski scoring the lone goal for the Tigers in the deciding game.
Since the beginning of this month, NHL teams have been able to sign undrafted prospects to entry-level contracts that start in 2022-23, though that may not necessarily be the case here. Andonovski would be signing a two-year deal either way, meaning if a team really wants to win the battle for his services, they could offer him a contract that starts in 2021-22 instead, get him directly into professional hockey and closer to restricted free agency.
Signing his first NHL contract will be a big step for the former BCHL forward, but there’s potentially another big moment coming up soon as well. On March 16, the Hobey Baker Top-Ten Finalists will be announced, and Andonovski was one of the original nominees. His is a long shot, given how many other outstanding college players there are around the country, but even being nominated is obviously a nice honor in his final season with Princeton.
Ivan Miroshnichenko Could Miss 2022-23 Season
One of the top prospects for the 2022 draft–at least before the recent invasion of Ukraine poured doubt onto the futures of all Russian prospects–was Ivan Miroshnichenko, a brilliant skater that combines good size with uncanny offensive instincts. The 18-year-old was expected to go right near the top of the board, with one scout even putting him first overall in Bob McKenzie’s midseason poll for TSN. Now, it’s unclear when Miroshnichenko will even play hockey again.
The Russian Ice Hockey Federation announced this morning that the young forward has been diagnosed with a serious health issue and could miss the entire 2022-23 season. He is currently receiving medical treatment in Germany, and Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet has confirmed that Miroshnichenko has been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The disease is “the most common form” according to Friedman, and is curable.
At this point, it’s completely unclear how this will affect Miroshnichenko’s draft position, though it seems very likely that he will drop out of the first few selections. Those choices are so valuable to teams that even with his unique blend of skills–skills that could potentially give him the highest upside in the entire draft–it’s likely too much of a risk to use one on him unless there is more clear progress in the coming months. The NHL draft is set for July 7 this year.
This isn’t the first time a young Russian forward has received some bad medical news recently. Rodion Amirov of the Toronto Maple Leafs is also receiving treatment in Germany after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.