Snapshots: Kaprizov, Elias, Robert Morris
While no one wants to see dynamic and entertaining talent Kirill Kaprizov leave the NHL after just one year, especially after waiting so long for his arrival, the ongoing negotiations between he, the Minnesota Wild, and allegedly the KHL’s CSKA Moscow has been an intriguing storyline to say the least. However, the recent report that CKSA has an eight-figure offer out to Kaprizov is almost certainly a farce. As first pointed out by Bally Sports’ Andy Strickland, the KHL salary cap is equivalent to about $12MM, making an eight-figure offer one that eats up at least 83% of the team’s payroll on just one player. Even if they did want to make that kind of unrealistic commitment to Kaprizov, the perennial contenders are already flush with talent, including recent NHLers Joakim Nordstrom, Lucas Wallmark, Mikhail Grigorenko, Nikita Nesterov, and several others. There is no possible way that CSKA can afford Kaprizov for anything more than Minnesota’s best offer, leading Strickland to call this “one of the worst bluffs in sports history.” So, rest easy Wild fans. Minnesota maintains all of the leverage in this negotiation and isn’t about to lose Kaprizov and certainly not to an imaginary KHL offer.
- Following a strong performance at the recent Hlinka-Gretzky Cup, Sports Illustrated’s Steven Ellis reports that talented young Slovakian goalkeeper Rastislav Elias has decided to make the move to North America and will play in the USHL this season. Unlike the past few draft classes, which have featured elite goaltending prospects that were long considered first-round picks, the title for top goalie prospect in the 2022 NHL Draft is still up for grabs. Elias hopes that by joining the Green Bay Gamblers and testing himself in a new league, having only played in Slovakian juniors to this point, will earn him some consideration for that label. The spotlight will be on Elias in 2021-22, who is already considered one of the top prospects in net alongside Canadian Tyler Brennan and Russian Sergei Ivanov in particular. Not only will NHL teams be eying Elias, but NCAA programs will also be heavily scouting the talented prospect, who is still eligible to go the college route if he so chooses.
- Robert Morris University made waves this spring – and not the good kind – when they shockingly terminated their men’s and women’s hockey programs. The decision spurned numerous outside efforts to raise money to bring the programs back before the coming season, but there had been no update as to whether those attempts had been successful. That official word came down today, as the Pittsburgh-area university announced that they will not be icing hockey teams in 2021-22. Robert Morris reports that they have raised $1.34MM in contributions and pledges, but would require $1.4MM in immediate contributions and another $1.4MM in future pledges in order to reinstate the programs. The school notes that it is “eyeing [a] comeback in 2022-23” if fundraising continues, but by then the players from both teams likely will have transferred and the program will be starting from scratch. It is a disappointing result and seeming lack of dedication and effort on the part of Robert Morris, especially as schools around the country are adding Division I hockey programs, not subtracting them.
Minnesota Wild Sign Will Bitten
Aug 8: Bitten’s contract has been announced by the Wild, confirming the reported details.
Aug 7: The Minnesota Wild have signed Will Bitten to a one-year, two-way contract, according to CapFriendly. The restricted free agent forward accepted his qualifying offer, meaning he’ll earn $840K in the NHL and $75K in the AHL next season.
Bitten, 23, was the 70th overall pick in the 2016 draft, selected by the Montreal Canadiens. He never played a single game (outside of exhibitions) for that organization though, as he was flipped to the Wild in a 2018 trade for Gustav Olofsson. With his new club, he has spent three seasons in the AHL, scoring 69 points in 145 games. Though not a big player, Bitten is a ball of energy, willing to chase down defenders with a relentless forecheck. His offensive ability wasn’t what got him drafted, but he was a pretty strong contributor this season with 19 points in 31 games for Iowa, numbers that obviously earned him a qualifying offer.
The fact that he doesn’t rely on high-skill plays to contribute may actually help Bitten in his quest to reach the NHL, given his ability to slot in on a fourth line without a problem. Minnesota doesn’t actually have a ton of NHL locks at the forward position compared to some other clubs, meaning there may actually be some competition in camp for the last few spots. While his ceiling isn’t as high as some of the team’s other prospects, Bitten may get a chance to play some games as an injury replacement in the near future, even if it is limited minutes available at the bottom of the lineup.
Marco Rossi To Play In Olympic Qualifiers
Last year was tough for many prospects, but perhaps none quite as much as Marco Rossi. Dealing with complications from COVID-19, Rossi was not only held off the ice but told he couldn’t even train, allowed on only short walks. His account of the situation is absolutely harrowing, as he told Michael Russo of The Athletic that “every time before I went to sleep, I was so scared that I won’t wake up anymore.” For a 19-year-old kid who was selected ninth overall and could have potentially made the jump immediately to the NHL, it was devastating.
Now, after a long recovery period, Rossi is ready to return to action. Russo and colleague Scott Wheeler both report that the young forward will take part in the Olympic qualifiers later this month, suiting up for Austria. The games take place between August 26-29, while the training camp will open on August 16 and include two exhibition matches.
It’s a huge deal for Rossi to get back on the ice in a game situation before Minnesota Wild training camp later this year. After posting 120 points in his draft year with the Ottawa 67’s, there were many who believed he could potentially step directly into the NHL for the 2020-21 season. A polished, two-way center, his upside for the Wild seemed limitless, even if there were still some concerns about his durability. Rossi stands just 5’9″ and will still have to show he can handle the grind of a professional season in North America.
Still, it’s incredible to hear that Rossi is back. Expectations may have to be lowered after missing an entire year—a crucial development one at that—but just getting him on the ice and playing is enough for excitement to build in Minnesota. Already signed to his entry-level contract, the first year slid forward, meaning he’s signed through 2023-24. It can actually slide again, depending on where he spends this season.
Rochester Americans Hire Mike Peca
The Rochester Americans are bringing in a face that’s familiar to many Buffalo Sabres fans, hiring Michael Peca as an assistant coach for the AHL club. Peca will replace Adam Mair, who has been named director of player development for the Sabres. Jason Karmanos, GM of the Americans, released a short statement on the hire:
Michael brings a wealth of experience as both a player and coach and will be a tremendous addition to our coaching staff in Rochester. He will play an integral role in the development of our prospects, and we look forward to him making an immediate impact for our organization.
Peca, 47, spent last season with the Washington Capitals as a development coach, but before that was part of the Buffalo Jr. Sabres program. A veteran of nearly 1,000 NHL games, he served as captain of the Sabres for four years, leading them to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1999. An Olympic gold medalist and two-time Selke Trophy winner, there’s plenty of knowledge and experience that Peca can impact on the young Sabres prospects.
That player development is key for a Sabres team that needs more than just the top picks to become NHL players. If they want to reach a level of contention, some of the team’s mid-round or even undrafted prospects will have to start providing value at the highest level. Peca’s job will now be to help guide those young players along the pipeline, showing them the path he took from the second round to the NHL.
Minor Transactions: 08/02/21
After a number of busy days on the free agent market, NHL transactions are starting to show signs of cooling down. Those big-league deals will continue throughout the summer, but now the minor deals will increase in frequency as some NHL hopefuls settle for minor league deals or make the jump overseas. Follow along with those contracts here:
- The San Jose Barracuda announced that they have signed veteran defenseman Mark Alt to a one-year AHL contract. Alt, 29, is entering his ninth NHL season, having previously spent time with the Philadelphia Flyers, Colorado Avalanche, and Los Angeles Kings, as well as their respective affiliates. Alt has logged over 400 AHL games and 20 NHL games. What he may lack in high-end ability, Alt makes up for in dependability as a big, defensively sound blue liner. The former Colorado Eagles captain and Ontario Reign alternate also brings leadership and experience to the AHL ranks, something that the San Jose Sharks will value as they groom their prospects.
- Goaltender Evan Fitzpatrick has inked a two-year deal with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers, the team announced. The St. Louis Blues opted not to extend a qualifying offer to the 23-year-old Fitzpatrick, a somewhat surprising move for a formerly well-regarded second-round prospect. It is equally strange to see him settle for a minor league deal. While Fitzpatrick had struggled in the pros leading up to this past season, he did nothing to damage his stock in a brief 2020-21 showing. In three appearances, Fitzpatrick recorded a 2-0-0 record with a 1.65 GAA and .930 save percentage. While a very small sample size, it also could have marked the beginning of Fitzpatrick meeting his potential. If so, the Checkers stand to gain for not one but two years, unless an NHL competitor swoops in. Charlotte also signed former Florida Panthers prospect Karch Bachman, who spent his first pro season in the ECHL after a standout career at Miami University.
- Overage forward Simon Knak was drafted in his second go-round this year after another stellar year with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks, picked up by the Nashville Predators in the sixth round. However, he won’t make his pro debut in North America any time soon. The 19-year-old Swiss winger signed a two-year deal back home with the NLA’s HC Davos, the team he spent 25 games with on loan this past season. Knak will be under contract through the 2022-23 season, after which time the Predators hope he will be ready to return.
Senators Will Not Extend Qualifying Offers To Six RFA’s
The deadline to extend qualifying offers to restricted free agents arrives on Monday, but the Ottawa Senators have already made their plans clear. The young team has no shortage of restricted free agents, but that list is about to be trimmed substantially. As relayed by the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch, Senators GM Pierre Dorion has confirmed that forwards Michael Amadio, J.C. Beaudin, Jonathan Davidsson, and Jack Kopacka, defenseman Brandon Fortunato, and goaltender Marcus Hogberg will not receive qualifying offers. That group of six is nearly half of Ottawa’s current 14 restricted free agents.
The most notable name on the list is Hogberg, who served as the Senators’ primary backup goalie the past two seasons. However, he is also the least surprising inclusion on the list. The team informed the 26-year-old back in May that they would not qualify him and have stuck to that promise. Hogberg has struggled in the NHL and is expected to return to Sweden.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is Amadio, who would only require the minimum $750K salary to qualify. Acquired this season from the Los Angeles Kings for defenseman Christian Wolanin, Amadio has 173 NHL games on his resume including a 2018-19 campaign in which he scored at a full season pace of 12 goals and 25 points. One would think that this could be a useful player for the Senators to hold on to, at least for a full year, but instead they will move on quickly from the 25-year-old winger.
Kopacka was also new to Ottawa this season, acquired from the San Jose Sharks as part of the package for defenseman Christian Jaros, but has never played in the NHL and did little in the AHL to show he was worthy of a new contract. Beaudin, who saw 22 games with the Senators this season, seemingly did not do enough in his audition to stick with the club. Fortunato, the most expensive player to qualify despite having no NHL experience and unspectacular AHL numbers, and Davidsson, who is signed to a multi-year deal overseas, are not surprising inclusions on this list of soon-to-be former Senators.
If anything, this exodus of RFA’s from Ottawa implies that the Senators see better uses for their maximum 50 contract slots. With a deep pipeline of prospects, the team could be looking to bring younger, more exciting options into the fold this season in place of these aging, uninspiring players.
AHL Exemption Coming For Some CHL Prospects
In the 2020-21 season, with the OHL not playing at all and the other two CHL leagues playing shortened schedules, many prospects that would not normally be eligible for the AHL played in the minor leagues. According to the CHL-NHL agreement, many of those players would be forced back to junior for 2021-22, if they had not yet reached the age of 20. For a player like Cole Perfetti, it meant he would either have to make the Winnipeg Jets or return to the Saginaw Spirit, despite scoring 26 points in 32 games for the Manitoba Moose, clearly proving he can compete at the AHL level.
Special circumstances need special rules though, and Darren Dreger of TSN reports that the finishing touches are being put on an agreement that will allow junior eligible players who played 20 or more AHL games this season to return to the AHL in 2021-22. Perfetti, to stay with the same example, would not be required to go back to the OHL even though he is still just 19 years old.
The move would be a huge boost for the AHL, as the minor league could now have more young star power competing next season, but it is also a huge loss for the junior leagues, the OHL in particular. Players like Seth Jarvis or Connor Zary from the WHL didn’t have time to reach that 20-game threshold before their junior season started up again, even though they did play well in the short minor league stint.
One interesting case is Jamie Drysdale of the Anaheim Ducks. The 19-year-old defenseman played just 14 games at the AHL level, but that’s not because he went back to junior. Drysdale instead joined the NHL club for 24 games. Though he is likely to stay with the Ducks for next season, it is interesting to note that under the proposed rule, he would appear not to be eligible for AHL action if he struggles at all to start the year. Dreger does tweet that the eventual agreement will be a little more complicated, so perhaps there will be exceptions for players like Drysdale.
Snapshots: Baptiste, Letowski, Kalamazoo
Nicholas Baptiste found new life with the Texas Stars this season, getting his career back on track with 23 points in 34 AHL games. The 25-year-old forward will now head overseas to play for Ilves in Finland, where he could find even more offensive success. A third-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres in 2013, Baptiste played 47 games with the team between 2016-18, scoring ten points. He’s been stuck in the minor leagues ever since, suiting up for the Milwaukee Admirals, Toronto Marlies and Belleville Senators in addition to the Stars.
An unrestricted free agent that was playing under an AHL deal, Baptiste is still young enough to go to Europe, boost his value and potentially return on an NHL contract down the line. He’ll have to perform, obviously, but this may not be the last we’ve heard of Baptiste in North American pro hockey.
- The Montreal Canadiens have hired Trevor Letowski as an assistant coach for the upcoming season, adding him to Dominique Ducharme’s staff. Letowski, who played more than 600 games in the NHL, was the head coach of the Windsor Spitfires for four seasons before this new appointment, though he didn’t get to serve during the canceled 2020-21 OHL season. Letowski joins a staff that already had assistants Alexandre Burrows and Luke Richardson, the latter of which signed a new three-year contract recently.
- The Columbus Blue Jackets have reached an affiliation agreement with the Kalamazoo Wings of the ECHL, joining forces once again. The two were affiliates between 2014-16, but the Wings had other agreements with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Vancouver Canucks since then. For the 2021-22 season, after opting out of the ECHL season this year, they’ll be linked to the Blue Jackets, meaning they’ll receive some of their lower-end prospects. The ECHL is especially important for goaltending prospects, who need playing time above all else for their continued development.
Hockey Canada Names WJC Coaching Staff, Development Camp Roster
Hockey Canada has announced the coaching staff for this year’s National Junior Team, introducing Dave Cameron as the replacement for the outgoing Andre Tourigny. Tourigny of course recently took an NHL head coaching job with the Arizona Coyotes, meaning he would no longer be able to fulfil his duties to the national program. Cameron will be joined by assistants Michael Dyck, Louis Robitaille and Dennis Williams, along with goaltending consultant Olivier Michaud. Hockey Canada senior VP Scott Salmond released a statement on the new staff:
We are excited to welcome five experienced coaches to Canada’s National Junior Team for the 2021-22 season, all of whom bring a wealth of experience from the National Hockey League, Canadian Hockey League and internationally. We know these five men will represent our country with pride as they use their leadership and expertise to help Canada compete for a gold medal this December.
Cameron, who also replaced Tourigny as head coach of the Ottawa 67’s of the OHL, is returning to the WJC program for the first time since 2011. He led the team to a silver medal that year, coaching a group that included future NHL staples like Ryan Ellis, Tyson Barrie, Casey Cizikas, Sean Couturier, and Brayden Schenn. This time around he’ll have a new list of young stars to pick from, including top 2021 prospects like Brandt Clarke, Dylan Guenther and Mason McTavish.
The full list of players invited to development camp was also announced today:
Logan Mailloux Renounces Himself From 2021 NHL Draft
Any team that was struggling with the decision of whether or not to select Logan Mailloux in the upcoming draft has now been taken off the hook. The top prospect has renounced himself from the 2021 NHL Draft, asking teams not to select him.
Mailloux, 18, according to reports in The Athletic and Daily Faceoff, was charged in Sweden with taking and distributing an offensive photo without consent during a consensual sexual encounter last year. According to Katie Strang and Corey Pronman of The Athletic, at least nine teams had already completely dropped Mailloux off their draft list because of the incident. Now, the prospect is asking for the entire league to pass on him. In a Twitter post today, Mailloux wrote:
Being drafted into the NHL is an honour and a privilege that no one takes lightly. The NHL Draft should be one of the most exciting landmark moments in a player’s career, and given the circumstances I don’t feel I have demonstrated strong enough maturity or character to earn that privilege in the 2021 Draft. If I were to ever have the honour of being selected I would want a fanbase to be proud to welcome me to their organization. I know it will take time for society to build back the trust I have lost, and that is why I think it is best that I renounce myself from the 2021 NHL Draft and ask that no one select me this upcoming weekend. I feel that this would allow me the opportunity to demonstrate an adequate level of maturity and character next season with the London Knights in the OHL and provide all the NHL teams the opportunity to reassess my character towards the 2022 NHL Draft.
Should he go undrafted, Mailloux could return to the London Knights and continue his hockey career. When asked for comment by Strang, the Knights released a statement indicating that they would continue to work with the young defenseman to “help him better understand his actions, the ramifications of his actions and [ensure] that this does not happen again.” If undrafted, he would be eligible for the 2022 draft. Mailloux was ranked 23rd among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting.