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QMJHL Hoping To Start 2020-21 Season In October

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While the hockey world’s focus has been on the NHL and whether or not it will be able to resume the 2019-20 season this summer, other leagues have had to look forward and plan for the future. It was hard to know how a major junior league like the QMJHL would continue given its reliance on ticket sales to generate revenue, but today commissioner Gilles Courteau announced that they are targeting October 1st as a start date for the 2020-21 season.

A statement released by the Halifax Mooseheads (and mirrored by several other organizations) explained:

Although this is a positive announcement for all of us that are looking forward to getting back in the Scotiabank Centre, we fully understand that there are still a number of factors to be determined and approved by our Provincial Government and public health authorities before we can begin selling ticket packages.

The league is hoping for a full 68-game season, which would start just a few weeks after the originally scheduled opening day. Obviously as with any announcements like this, things could change in an instant. But they have at least circled a date to work towards.

Alexis Lafreniere Considers Possibility Of Playing In Europe

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The NHL draft lottery is scheduled for Friday, June 26, which likely will determine where top draft prospect Alexis Lafreniere will end up in the future. However, will that future begin in the 2020-21 season? With the NHL focused on the 24-team playoff format at the moment, little is known about when next season might get underway, although a long delay is expected before Lafreniere can start his NHL career.

With the playoffs likely to start in late July or August, it’s entirely possible that the 2020-21 season may not start until November or even later. With that being the case, TSN’s Bob McKenzie reported recently on Insider Trading, that Lafreniere is likely to look into every possible option to get his season started on time. One possibility would be to sign a deal to play in Europe for a season (assuming that hockey starts in Europe on time).

“When is the National Hockey League going to begin the 2020-21 season? October? November? December? Even January? We don’t know,” said McKenzie. “On top of all that, where’s Alexis Lafreniere going to play this fall if the NHL season isn’t happening until January and the draft isn’t until October or November? Is the CHL going to be playing? Is the American Hockey League an option? We don’t know at this point. But one thing I can tell you – Emilie Castonguay for Alexis Lafreniere is looking at all the options on the table and that will include seeing if the European club teams are up and operating in September and October.”

Lafreniere, barring an unforeseen circumstance, is expected to be the first-overall pick in the 2020 NHL draft, but the draft is expected to be delayed until after the conclusion of the NHL playoffs, which could be in September or October. NHL.com’s Mike Morreale revealed that Lafreniere won the CHL’s Top Draft Prospect Award on Friday, his fourth award since his season with Rimouski Oceanic ended due to COVID-19. He also won the Jean Beliveau Trophy as the leading scorer in the QMJHL with 112 points, the Paul Dumont Trophy for the QHJHL’s top personality and the Michel Briere Trophy as the QMJHL’s top player.

The only notable comparison for such a move might be Auston Matthews, who played in the NLA. However, that was the year before he was drafted. Regardless, it still seems like a longshot that Lafreniere would pass up his first NHL season over a few months. The Detroit Red Wings have the best chances of winning the draft lottery at 18.5 percent.

OHL, WHL, QMJHL Announce Most Outstanding Players

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The three leagues that make up the CHL have each announced the winner of their respective Most Outstanding/Valuable Player award, with Alexis Lafreniere grabbing the headlines once again. The expected first-overall pick has taken home the award for the second straight season in the QMJHL, joining only Sidney Crosby and Mathieu Chouinard as the only repeat winners.

Obviously Lafreniere is hoping for a hockey career that comes a little closer to the former than the latter, given that Chouinard played exactly one NHL game and was out of professional hockey after just six years. After scoring 297 points in 173 career games for the Rimouski Oceanic, Lafreniere is a near-lock as the first-overall pick whenever the 2020 NHL draft takes place.

In the WHL, it is Adam Beckman that takes home the Four Broncos Memorial Trophy after scoring a whopping 107 points in 63 games for the Spokane Chiefs. Beckman was picked in the third round by the Minnesota Wild and still has another year of junior hockey before he’s eligible for the AHL. It’s hard to top a year where you lead the league in goals, points and win the top award, but he’ll certainly be trying.

Given that Lafreniere is locked into a top spot for the draft, the most interesting award today may be the one given to Marco Rossi of the Ottawa 67’s. The Austrian-born forward spent his minor hockey years in Switzerland but absolutely dominated the OHL this season, scoring 120 points in 56 games. Rossi is eligible for the 2020 draft and was ranked sixth among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting.

Prospect Notes: Kaprizov, CHL Defensemen, Draft

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The Minnesota Wild and their fans are still waiting to see Kirill Kaprizov hit the ice with the team five years after they drafted him. The 23-year old forward is widely regarded as one of the best players outside the NHL, but for years there was little indication he wanted to come to North America. Now that there is—Kaprizov has made it clear that he is ready to sign with the Wild—the current league pause is getting in the way.

Despite being on the reserve list of the Wild, Kaprizov (and other players like him in similar situations around the league) isn’t being allowed to sign with the team for the 2019-20 season because of the current pause. Minnesota GM Bill Guerin is still holding out hope that the league will change their mind, telling Dan Myers of NHL.com that both sides are just taking it “day-by-day” and not jumping into an agreement for 2020-21 until it is necessary. As Michael Russo of The Athletic (subscription required) has explained several times, a delayed start to 2020-21 could pose a threat for the Wild should Kaprizov decide he doesn’t want to wait around for the season to begin, but it does seem like finally, both sides are on the same page.

  • Each of the three leagues that make up the CHL have announced their Defenseman of the Year awards. Ty Smith repeats for the WHL, taking home the award for the second consecutive season and joining Kris Russell, Dion Phaneuf and Nolan Baumgartner as the only back-to-back winners. The New Jersey Devils prospect recorded 59 points in 46 games for the Spokane Chiefs and looks ready to make the jump to the NHL in short order. Noel Hoefenmayer doesn’t have quite the same name recognition as Smith, given that he was a fourth-round pick in 2017 and failed to sign with the Arizona Coyotes, but he was just as impressive this year in the OHL. Hoefenmayer recorded 82 points in 58 games for the Ottawa 67’s, an incredible total even if he was playing his over-age season. Hoefenmayer recently signed an AHL contract with the Toronto Marlies, his hometown minor league team. Jordan Spence takes home the award for the QMJHL, more exciting news for the Los Angeles Kings whose prospect pool is bursting at the seams with talent. As Scott Wheeler of The Athletic points out on Twitter, Spence now has a QMJHL Rookie of the Year and Defenseman of the Year award in his cabinet, but still isn’t even one of the very best prospects in the Kings’ system.
  • Everyone is waiting to see when the draft will be for this season, but the push to have it take place in June before finishing the season has seemingly come to an end. In fact, Bob McKenzie of TSN asked some general manager around the league yesterday, who told him they have “no clue” on when it will be. McKenzie reports that the entire focus is on returning to play right now and that the decision on when to hold the draft “won’t be made anytime soon.”

Snapshots: Gudas, CHL Lawsuit, Miller

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The NHL has been clear about their desire to resume and complete the 2019-20 season at some point this summer, but that’s not shared by every player in the league. Radko Gudas was interviewed in the Czech Republic about his concerns for a restart, and Alexandra Petakova of Russian Machine Never Breaks translated it to English. Never one to hide his feelings, Gudas doesn’t think restarting the season is a good idea:

If one guy is infected, basically the whole league has it in a week, given how they are planning to have everyone play against everyone. One stupid stumble and you can cancel it all again.

Perhaps more interesting from the interview however are Gudas’ comments on his future with the Washington Capitals. The veteran defenseman explained that the team is facing a difficult salary cap situation and believes that he and “a lot of the guys with contracts about to expire” will end up leaving the Capitals this offseason. Washington has four players on the NHL roster who are scheduled for unrestricted free agency: Gudas, Ilya Kovalchuk, Brenden Dillon and, perhaps most importantly, Braden Holtby.

  • The CHL has settled a class-action lawsuit that was originally filed in 2014. The legal battle was to determine whether junior players were employees or student-athletes, and the settlement will result in OHL, WHL and QMJHL franchises paying approximately $30MM. These settlement discussions were actually held before the COVID-19 shutdown. As Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet writes, the approximately $250,000 that each franchise will need to pay is not insignificant for some. This follows recent news that the Portland Winterhawks parent company filed for bankruptcy and are looking for new ownership to take over the franchise.
  • Kevan Miller hasn’t played in an NHL game for more than a year, and revealed yesterday that he is eight weeks removed from another surgical procedure on his right knee. A fractured kneecap ended his 2018-19 season and kept him out for all of this year, but he is still working to be ready for the start of the 2020-21 campaign. If he is ready to play again, where he hits the ice isn’t clear. The veteran defenseman’s contract is expiring and though the Boston Bruins have admitted they will “entertain the opportunity” of bringing him back, a tightening salary cap won’t make it easy.

Samuel Bolduc Agrees To Terms With New York Islanders

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The New York Islanders will soon be signing one of their top draft picks after agreeing to terms with Samuel Bolduc today on a three-year entry-level contract. Bolduc recently finished his third season in the QMJHL, suiting up for both the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada and Sherbrooke Phoenix.

Bolduc, 19, was selected 57th overall last year and had another strong junior season. The 6’4″ defenseman recorded 43 points combined over his time with the two organizations, including a very strong 27-in-29 following the trade to Sherbrooke.

While there’s still a long way to go before Bolduc is challenging for an NHL roster spot, his mixture of size and puck-moving ability should translate well to the next level.

Florida Panthers Expected To Sign KHL’s Artyom Sergeyev

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The Florida Panthers might get a chance to boost their play on the blueline as Igor Eronko of Sport-Express reports that KHL defenseman Artyom Sergeyev has informed his team, Salavat Yulaev Ufa, that he intends to sign with the Panthers when his KHL contract expires on May 1.

The 27-year-old defensive defenseman has played in the KHL for the past five years. He has played the last two years for Salaat Yulaev Ufa, where he has scored eight goals and 21 points in 110 games. He’s also no stranger to North America as he played three years in the QMJHL with the Val-d’Or Foreurs and then played two seasons with the Syracuse Crunch in the Tampa Bay Lightning system from 2013-15. Unfortunately, Sergeyev never got a chance at the NHL while there and was even sent to the Florida Everblades of the ECHL at one point in 2015, before opting to return to Russia.

The Panthers struggled defensively last season as they were tied for third in the league with the most goals allowed per game, 3.25, while allowing the 10th most shots in the league at 32.3. That didn’t help newly signed goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who struggled in his first season after signing a seven-year, $70MM contract. He finished the season with a career worst 3.23 GAA and a .900 save percentage. The hope is that Sergeyev can take some of the pressure off Bobrovsky.

Ottawa Senators Sign Kevin Mandolese

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The Ottawa Senators have added another interesting goaltending prospect to the organization, signing Kevin Mandolese to a three-year entry-level contract. Senators GM Pierre Dorion gave his thoughts on the new goaltender:

Kevin worked hard this past season to become one of the top goaltenders in the QMJHL. He’s positionally sound, has good lateral mobility and has proven adept at reading the play. Since being drafted, he’s been diligent about understanding what he needs to do both on and off the ice to be ready to be a pro goaltender. He’s shown an ability to make timely saves and, with more seasoning, should have an opportunity to secure wins for this team in the future.

Mandolese, a sixth-round draft pick from 2018, could have become an unrestricted free agent this summer but instead will sign with the organization that drafted him. The 19-year old recently completed an incredible season with the Cape Breton Eagles, posting a 26-8-1 record and a .925 save percentage that led all qualified QMJHL goalies.

The huge step forward that Mandolese took this season is promising for his professional future, which will likely start next season with the Senators organization. Ottawa is creating quite the pipeline of goalie prospects, with Marcus Hogberg, Filip Gustavsson, Joey Daccord now Mandolese all having bright futures.

PHR Panel: Prospect Pontificating

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We’re now several weeks into an NHL postponement and there is still no clear timeline on when professional hockey will return. While fans of the sport have received small tidbits of news over that time, including college signings and contract extensions, the thirst for discussion has rarely been quenched.

With that in mind, we’re happy to continue our new feature: The PHR Panel. Three times a week, our writing staff will give our individual takes on a question many hockey fans have been wondering about. If you’d ever like to submit a subject for us to discuss, be sure to put it in the comments. This series will run each Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

To catch up on the previous edition, click here.

Today, we’ll each give our thoughts on a prospect that hasn’t yet made his NHL debut.

Q: Which already-drafted prospect outside of the NHL excites you the most?

Brian La Rose:

The question of when Wild winger Kirill Kaprizov will sign with Minnesota has been ongoing for a while. The first season PHR covered was the 2016-17 campaign where his contract in the KHL was expiring and there were questions as to whether or not he’d come to North America. Fast forward to today. His contract in the KHL is expiring and there is hope that he’ll finally cross the pond. I’m excited to see if he lives up to the hype.

There is plenty of reason for optimism. In recent years, he has progressed from being a good KHL winger to a legitimate star and actually led the KHL in goals (33) and points per game (1.09) this season. A few years ago, the thought was that he could come in and play right away. Now, the hope is that he can come in and play on the Wild’s top line right away.

Over the last few years, Minnesota has been a decent team but is missing that key piece or two to prop them up from being a bubble team. Kaprizov has the ability to help them do just that. Assuming he plays next season (even this year is a possibility if regular season games resume), he could be the player to help spark their turnaround. It seems we’ll soon find out if he winds up being well worth the wait.

Holger Stolzenberg: 

I find myself quite intrigued by the prospects in this upcoming draft, but that doesn’t answer today’s question. Considering that I’m German, I’ve always been fascinated by German prospects and with the continuing improvement in German-born players that last few years (very interested to see how Tim Stuetzle develops), I’m always watching prospects ready to come to the U.S closely.

The guy I’ve been most interested in the last couple of years is Carolina Hurricanes prospect Dominik Bokk. He was originally drafted 25th overall in 2018 by the Blues and was a key part of the trade which brought Justin Faulk to St. Louis. Bokk is considered to be quite the talent, joining the SHL at age 18, but has struggled to play among men, scoring nine goals in two seasons with Vaxjo. He then went over to top-ranked Rogle where he struggled even more, but after a dominating performance for Germany at the World Juniors this last year took off, scoring 10 goals since returning, while only averaging 12-13 minutes per game.

He’s expected to arrive and spend a season in the AHL where the Hurricanes already moved out a bunch of prospects out of their AHL system, including Julien Gauthier, Janne Kuokkanen and Eetu Luostarinen to give some playing time for incoming players, including Bokk. I wouldn’t be surprised if he dominates in his first AHL year and we’ll see how he develops, but I just get excited about Bokk as a prospect.

Zach Leach:

There are a number of talented future stars among the selections from the past couple of years—and even more in the upcoming draft class—but in my opinion “excitement” for a prospect peaks the closer he is to making an NHL impact.

For that reason, to me Kaprizov has to be the most exciting prospect outside of the NHL. The 2015 Minnesota Wild pick has been teasing North American fans for years with stunning numbers in the KHL for such a young player. The 22-year-old could be the second coming of Artemi Panarin and I believe he finally makes the jump this summer and takes on a top-six role for the Wild right away next year. Kaprizov is simply a dynamic offensive talent and gifted scorer who I would be surprised to see struggle with translating his penchant for points to the NHL. He would be my 2020-21 Calder Trophy favorite the minute he signs in Minny.

As for more recent picks, I continue to be impressed by Buffalo Sabres prospect Dylan Cozens. A player that I was high on when he was drafted last year, I feel Cozens was an outstanding value at No. 7 overall. For the sake of development, he was better off back in the WHL this season, where he again proved to be one of the league’s best players, rather than with a struggling Sabres squad. However, I expect the well-rounded power forward to break camp in Buffalo next season and make an impact for a team desperate for more talent, compete, and IQ in their forward corps.

Gavin Lee:

There’s no doubt that Kaprizov will get the juices flowing again when he finally does come over, but the will-he-won’t-he of the last few years has me drained of any excitement.

A really good case could be made for Alex Newhook, who has just oozed top-line NHL potential while dominating his NCAA competition. The Colorado Avalanche draft pick—16th overall in 2019—scored 19 goals and 42 points in 34 games for Boston College and was just named the Tim Taylor Award winner as NCAA Rookie of the Year. Newhook was somehow left off the Canadian roster at the World Juniors this year (they won gold, so I guess it was the right choice?) but you can bet he’ll be at the next one, before making his mark at the NHL level down the road.

Still, as much as this may cause some chuckles in the back, the prospect that excites me the most is still Joe Veleno. The QMJHL star and Detroit Red Wings prospect jumped to the AHL last season and recorded just 23 points in 54 games, but that performance comes with a few caveats. First, and most importantly, Veleno played a good chunk of the season as a teenager—something that isn’t normally allowed for a player drafted out of the CHL. His case was different because of the exceptional status he was granted to enter the CHL a year early; five years of junior meant he was eligible to jump to professional hockey.

The other was the overall scoring ineptitude of the Grand Rapids Griffins. Amazingly, Veleno’s 11 goals actually tied him for third on the team, behind only AHL veterans Chris Terry and Matt Puempel. Five of those goals actually came in his final 16 games of the season, hopefully pointing to a higher level of production next year.

It’s hard to explain exactly why Veleno excites me when I watch him play, but he does. At the World Juniors I thought he was arguably the most well-rounded forward in the tournament, and perhaps that’s why I have such high hopes. I think he can be a star offensively in the NHL if he’s put in that role, but I also think he could be one of the league’s best shutdown forwards. What better organization to be in than one helmed by Steve Yzerman.

Snapshots: Laviolette, Darling, AHL Signings

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It’s been quite a while since former Nashville Predators head coach Peter Laviolette has coached a game. The 55-year-old coach was fired by Nashville on Jan. 6 and was later hired to coach the U.S. at the World Championships which was cancelled on Mar. 21. However, the head coach has made it clear that he wants to return to the NHL coaching ranks as soon as possible, according to Adam Kimmelman of NHL.com.

The coach has gone back and looked at his successes behind the bench in hopes of improving as a coach.

“Right now, I think I’m just focused on going back to what I found has worked for me as a coach and go back to that,” Laviolette said. “I don’t have a team, I don’t have any players, but what I can focus on is what happens when I can go to a team and I can start to get involved with the players and the identity of the team and building that team, building the organization.”

  • Former NHL goaltender Scott Darling spent the 2019-20 season in Austria, quite a step down from the NHL after he was bought out by the Florida Panthers at the start of the season. While his team Innsbruck struggled last season, his numbers didn’t project those of a former NHL player as he finished with a 3.34 GAA and a .898 save percentage in 33 games. However, the 31-year-old, who played with the Chicago Blackhawks and Carolina Hurricanes, made it clear that his primary goal is to return to North America and resume his career there, even if that means signing an AHL deal and working his way up from there, according to John Dietz of the Daily Herald. “This pandemic has kind of sidetracked everything,” Darling said. “I was talking to some teams here. Ideally I’m going to try and play here next year, whether it be starting in the (AHL) or whatever.”
  • Two junior players signed their first professional contracts as the Toronto Marlies announced they have signed defenseman Noel Hoefenmayer and forward Jeremy McKenna to two-year AHL contracts. the 21-year-old Hoefenmayer was the biggest prize after leading all OHL defensemen in scoring last season with 26 goals and 82 points last season for the Ottawa 67s. Hoefenmayer was originally a fourth-round pick in 2017 by the Arizona Coyotes, but was never offered a contract by the Coyotes. McKenna scored 40 goals and 82 points with the Moncton Wildcats of the QMJHL this season. Both will join the Marlies next season, a team well-known for developing their minor league players.

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