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Sabres Re-Sign RFA Forward Danny O’Regan

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The Buffalo Sabres continue to work through a substantial list of restricted free agents. While it was reported yesterday that they had agreed to terms with forward Nicholas Baptiste, the team this morning both confirmed that deal and announced the signing of fellow RFA forward Danny O’Regan. With the deadline for accepting a qualifying offer arriving later today, O’Regan accepted his offer of $874,125 at the NHL level and $70K at the AHL level.

O’Regan was acquired by the Sabres at the NHL Trade Deadline in the deal that sent Evander Kane to the San Jose Sharks. The 2012 fifth-round pick had recorded four assists through 19 games with Sharks prior to the deal and saw action in two contests with Buffalo down the stretch, but was held scoreless. While his NHL offensive efforts to date – five points in 22 games – are underwhelming, O’Regan has not yet been put in a position to succeed, seeing limited ice time in an energy role. That could change in Buffalo, where he joins former Boston University teammates Jack Eichel and Evan Rodrigues up front for the Sabres. O’Regan displayed strong offensive instincts and scoring ability at BU and in his only full season at the AHL level, scoring at a point-per-game pace over the three campaigns. If given proper opportunity up in Buffalo, O’Regan could prove to be an exciting addition.

With O’Regan and Baptiste officially in the books, that still leaves Justin Bailey, C.J. Smith, and most importantly Sam Reinhart as remaining restricted free agents for GM Jason Botterill and the Sabres to sort out. Perhaps before the deadline today, new deals can be hammered out with Bailey and Smith – both of whom could be bound for the AHL for much of next season – but work on Reinhart’s extension is slow and steady.

Poll: Where Will Max Pacioretty End Up?

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The Montreal Canadiens are looking to move Max Pacioretty as soon as possible. The captain’s contract expires at the end of the coming season and there will not be an extension. The Habs are also unlikely to be contenders this year. As such, Pacioretty is on the trade block and probably on the move soon.

Where could he end up? The first thought is the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks were reportedly close to a deal for Pacioretty at the NHL Draft but couldn’t get it done. Since then, they missed out on John Tavares and are still in need of scoring with cap space to spare.

San Jose was not alone in losing out in the Tavares sweepstakes. Assuming the Boston Bruins are an unlikely destination given their status as Montreal’s biggest rivals, that still leaves teams like the Dallas Stars and New York Islanders as possibilities. The Islanders in particular are in major need of a boost up front and have the young assets to make a deal.

Teams that have previously shown interest in Pacioretty include the Florida Panthers and Nashville Predators. The Panthers already landed Mike Hoffman this off-season and are lacking cap space, but could still potentially make it work. The Predators have significantly more space and some intriguing young pieces to offer and would be a team that Pacioretty certainly wouldn’t mind ending up with long-term.

As always, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks cannot be ruled out. Their respective GM’s are always in on the action and both teams are known to be looking for offensive depth. Would Pittsburgh consider swapping Derick Brassard in a deal for Pacioretty? Could Chicago use their newfound cap space from the Hossa trade to bring in a similar scorer? The answer to both of these questions is a definitive maybe.

Who do you think needs Pacioretty most or can put together the best offer?

Where Will Max Pacioretty End Up?
Chicago 22.60% (817 votes)
NY Islanders 16.40% (593 votes)
San Jose 12.75% (461 votes)
Pittsburgh 12.37% (447 votes)
Other - comment below 11.89% (430 votes)
Dallas 10.26% (371 votes)
Florida 9.05% (327 votes)
Nashville 4.67% (169 votes)
Total Votes: 3,615

San Jose Sharks Promote Tim Burke To Assistant GM

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The San Jose Sharks announced changes to their front office today with several moves coming in their scouting department. Highlighting these changes was the promotion of Tim Burke to Assistant General Manager. Burke joins long-time Assistant GM Joe Will working under GM Doug Wilson. It is a well-earned recognition for Burke, who has spent the past 20 years with the franchise.

Burke had previously served as the team’s Director of Scouting prior to his new promotion. As the Sharks pointed out in their press release, the team has owned the lowest average draft slot in the league over the past 15 years, but Burke and his staff have managed to uncover gems like Joe Pavelski, Logan Couture, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic. Burke’s primary responsibility will continue to be evaluating amateur talent and orchestrating the draft for the Sharks, but he will also take a larger role in the evaluation of professional talent at all levels as well.

Replacing Burke as Director of Scouting is none other than Doug Wilson Jr., the GM’s son. Wilson Jr. is entering his seventh season with the team, most recently as the Sharks’ Director of Hockey Operations, and will continue his previous duties relating to the NHL Draft. Working with Burke, Wilson Jr. will hope to continue San Jose’s success of finding strong players in both the draft and undrafted free agency.

San Jose Sharks Sign Dylan DeMelo To Two-Year Deal

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5:25: The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz reports it’s actually a two-year deal. The Associated Press’ Stephen Whyno adds that it’s two years for $1.8MM with a $900K AAV.

4:48: The San Jose Sharks have signed defenseman Dylan DeMelo to a one-year, $900K deal to stay with the Sharks after the team did not offer him a qualifying offer two weeks ago, according to TVA’s Renaud Lavoie. It is a one-way deal.

“Dylan proved last season that he’s ready to be a full time NHL player and really blossomed towards the end of the year and into the playoffs,” said San Jose general manager Doug Wilson. “His skating ability and strong play in both ends make him a valuable part of our blue line. He’s extremely popular with his teammates and we’re excited to have him back with our team.”

The Sharks surprised a few when they opted not to offer a qualifying offer to the 25-year-old blueliner, making him an unrestricted free agent. He showed promise this past year when he played in a career-high 63 games and more than doubled his points total on the season when he tallied 20 assists. He was a regular in the team’s 10 playoff games as well. Regardless, his playing time actually dropped as he averaged just 14:12 of ATOI this season playing on the team’s third defensive pairing. He will likely battle Tim Heed for the final defensive spot in the rotation. However, The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz suggests this could be the end for Heed as the team may opt to trade him as he will be an unrestricted free agent in the 2019-20 season.

When San Jose chose not to offer DeMelo a qualifying offer, it was believed the team didn’t want to pay him the $735K that the offer was worth. By not qualifying him and making him an unrestricted free agent, the Sharks could sign him for less, but instead offered him more in the end. With the new contract in place, San Jose has less than $8MM in salary cap space to make more deals. The team still has one remaining restricted free agent in forward Chris Tierney.

Antti Suomela Had NHL Interest From Roughly A Dozen Other Teams

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  • Although his signing largely went under the radar, new Sharks center Antti Suomela was one of the more sought-after players so far this offseason.  Paul Gackle of the Bay Area News Group notes that San Jose beat out roughly a dozen teams to secure the services of the 24-year-old which may result in them ensuring that he receives an NHL spot to start next season.  Suomela is coming off a strong season in Finland where he led the SM-liiga in scoring with 60 points in 59 games.

San Jose Signs Undrafted Forward Vladislav Kotkov

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The San Jose Sharks have employed the window to sign undrafted first-year draft eligible players by inking a promising forward prospect. The team announced this evening that they signed Vladislav Kotkov to an entry-level contract. Kotkov has been attending development camp with the Sharks this past week and did enough to earn a deal.

Kotkov, 18, was ranked 81st among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting heading into the 2018 NHL Draft and was one of the biggest surprises among undrafted players. Kotkov was a first-round pick in the CHL Import Draft last year and enjoyed success in his first season playing major junior, posting 49 points in 61 games for the Chicoutimi Sagueneens of the QMJHL.

The hulking winger stands 6’4″, 205 lbs. and plays a heavy power forward game that matches his frame. Kotkov also developed a surprising finesse game given his stature while developing in his native Russia. Kotkov’s skating concerns likely drove down his draft stock this year, but he was clearly a priority undrafted free agent for the Sharks and can now return to Chicoutimi for another year or two now with some additional guidance from his NHL squad. Kotkov is out to prove to the rest of the league that he was worthy of a draft pick. That chip on his shoulder and size that you can’t teach could mean that Kotkov could one day see NHL action.

San Jose Sharks Sign Tomas Hertl To Four-Year Extension

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After just locking up veteran Joe Thornton only a few minutes ago, the San Jose Sharks followed that up by announcing they have signed restricted free agent Tomas Hertl to a four-year contract extension. The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz writes the deal is worth $5.625MM per year.

Hertl has been plagued with knee injuries throughout his career, but put together his best season ever last year when he tallied 22 goals and 26 points. They are similar numbers to his 2015-16 campaign, but knee injuries persisted the season after when he was forced to undergo surgery after re-injuring his knee during the Stanley Cup Finals that year, which forced him to miss all but 33 games that year. One reason for his success this season was due to a positional change. The 24-year-old moved from center position to the wing alongside Logan Couture, which made a big difference to the success of the team’s top line.

Hertl, a first-round pick back in 2012, has started to show leadership abilites and that showed in the playoffs when he posted nine points in 10 games and was a steady force against the Golden Knights in the second round of the playoffs.

San Jose Sharks Re-Sign Joe Thornton To One-Year Deal

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The San Jose Sharks have re-signed center Joe Thornton to a one-year deal, according to TSN’s Frank Seravalli. The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz reports the deal is for $5MM and carries a no-trade clause. With Thornton now back in the fold, the Sharks still have $13.8MM in projected cap space with just a few restricted free agents left to sign, suggesting the team could still make another move.

The return of the 39-year-old Thornton was never in question, as the team was only waiting to see if they could convince superstar free agent John Tavares to sign with the team. Thornton was already told he would come back regardless of whether the team inked Tavares or not. Kurz adds that he heard from a source that Thornton was willing to take significantly less had the team managed to sign Tavares. He did receive some attention from other teams, but had little interest in leaving the Sharks.

“There were teams calling, but I told my agent-slash-brother, let’s keep it quiet this year,” Thornton said (via Kurz). I want to go back to San Jose.”

However, it so far looks like San Jose had hinged its offseason hopes of Tavares signing with them as the team did not sign any other significant free agents once it learned that Tavares was heading to the Maple Leafs. Although they did extend Evander Kane over a month ago, the team has spent much of its time moving out salary to accommodate a Tavares’ deal. With significant cap room remaining, there could be other moves coming, although the team must still deal with restricted free agents Tomas Hertl and Chris Tierney.

After putting up an 82-point season in the 2015-16 season, Thornton’s numbers have been on the decline, which shouldn’t be a surprise at his age. He put up 50 points in 2016-17 and looked to be ready to improve on that last season, but a knee injury limited the veteran center to just 47 games last year (36 points) and he was forced to miss the playoffs.

 

Sharks Agree To Eight-Year Extension With Logan Couture

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July 1: The Sharks have now made the deal official and confirmed the aforementioned terms.

June 30: The extension is worth $64MM over the eight years, report David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period (Twitter link) and Josh Dubow of the Associated Press.

June 27: The Sharks are closing in on an eight-year contract extension with forward Logan Couture, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (video link).  No financial terms are available at this time but he notes that the contract could be made official on Sunday, the first day that he’s eligible to sign the extension.

Signing players to early extensions is something GM Doug Wilson has done in the past.  Last summer, he inked defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic (eight years) and goaltender Martin Jones (six years) as soon as they were eligible to.

Couture has spent his entire career with the Sharks who drafted him in the first round (ninth overall) back in 2007.  He became a regular with the team three years later and has never looked back as he has emerged into a reliable two-way forward that has been fairly consistent offensively, averaging between 0.69 and 0.83 points per game over the last eight years.

The 29-year-old is coming off of one of his best seasons as he set a new career high in goals (34) which will certainly help his negotiating leverage.  He’s set to earn $6MM for 2018-19 and it’s quite likely that this new deal will exceed that amount.

As the contract won’t kick in until 2019-20, it won’t have any immediate bearing on their pursuit of soon-to-be UFA center John Tavares or any other players they’d look to add this summer.

Assuming this gets finalized as expected, it will be interesting to see how quickly Wilson and the Sharks turn their focus to center Joe Pavelski.  He’s also set to enter the final year of his contract next season and is eligible to sign a new contract as early as Sunday.  The 33-year-old has also spent his entire career in San Jose and is coming off another strong campaign where he posted 66 points in 82 games.  However, if they are able to land Tavares or another prominent addition up front, they may not have the long-term cap room to keep him around.  Accordingly, while the Sharks have acted quickly on extensions as of late, one for Pavelski may have to wait a little while yet.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Kings To Sign Drew Doughty To Eight-Year Extension

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July 1: The Kings have officially announced the contract, signing Doughty to an eight-year, $88MM contract extension. The deal will kick in for the 2018-19 season, and make Doughty the highest-paid defenseman in the league, barring an even bigger extension being signed before then.

June 29: A major impending free agent is about to be off the market, but it’s not a member of the 2018 class, but the 2019 class. When July 1st arrives and players with expiring contracts after next season are first eligible to sign extensions, Los Angeles defenseman Drew Doughty is expected to re-sign with the Kings. TSN Insider Pierre LeBrun reports that the two sides put the finishing touches on a max eight-year extension today that will be officially signed on Sunday. No financial terms have been disclosed.

The Kings are undoubtedly one of the teams that benefited the most from the massive salary cap spike this off-season. That added flexibility allowed L.A. to add much-needed scoring in the form of Ilya Kovalchuk without losing the breathing room needed to retain Doughty. For a time, many speculated that Doughty would test free agency next summer, but over the past few months the Norris Trophy-winner has made it clear that he would prefer to stay with the Kings. The team’s acquisition of Kovalchuk and continued search for talent this off-season was likely the very last boost of confidence that Doughty needed to re-up in L.A.

Doughty now joins fellow defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson of the Arizona Coyotes and center Logan Couture of the San Jose Sharks as potential superstar free agents who will instead sign on with their current teams as soon as possible. Doughty is the biggest name so far and, if previous reports prove true, will soon be the highest paid defenseman in hockey. Doughty has gone on the record as saying that he would like to be paid more than Nashville Predators blue liner P.K. Subban, who is currently the highest-paid defenseman in the league at $9MM AAV. LeBrun’s TSN colleague Darren Dreger is among many speculating that deal will land in the realm of $11MM per year over the eight years, which would make him the new top dog among defenders and the second-highest paid player in the league – at least until Erik Karlsson signs his next contract.

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