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Snapshots: 2021 Schedule, USNTDP, Podell

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The NHL and NHLPA continue to work through plans for the upcoming season but as Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweets today, if January 1 is still the target, things will have to be finalized before the end of November. Training camps will need to open partway through December—remember, the seven teams not included in this summer’s playoff format are expected to get an extra week of camp—meaning players will have to soon start returning from around the world to serve out any potential mandated quarantines.

LeBrun also reports that the focus is on a schedule that includes at least 60 regular season games, but would see the Stanley Cup awarded by July 15 at the latest. That would give the league enough time to reset the clock for 2021-22 when the Seattle Kraken are scheduled to come into play, hopefully under a regular NHL schedule. Obviously, there are huge hurdles still to work through, including the idea of pro-rating player salaries given the reduced schedule.

  • The challenging year for NHL scouts continues as Corey Pronman of The Athletic reports that teams will not be allowed to scout U.S. National Team Development Program home games in person for “some time.” That comes after news that a similar restriction has been placed on University of Michigan games through the end of the calendar year. While video scouting has come a long way, teams obviously still would rather have a person in the building seeing these prospects up close throughout the season.
  • The St. Louis Blues have hired Ryan Podell as their new Director of Performance, working on the strength and conditioning of the team’s players. Podell has a long and varied resume including time with the Philadelphia Flyers, Indianapolis Colts, and Portland Trail Blazers. He’ll have to navigate a very different world just like everyone else, working with the Blues athletes while still abiding by the league’s COVID-19 protocols.

Snapshots: Next Season, Overseas Prospects, Hajek

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Yesterday’s call with the NHL board of governors didn’t result in any sweeping announcements about next season, but insiders around the game have gleaned a bit of information about what was discussed and what is still on the table. Frank Seravalli puts many of those information nuggets into his latest piece for TSN, including the fact that preference now seems to be moving away from hybrid bubbles or “hubs” as commissioner Gary Bettman recently called them, and towards teams playing in their home arenas. Seravalli suggests that regional realignment would be required, but that teams would play a baseball-like series of two or three games to reduce travel.

He also reports that there is “no concept on the table that includes a full-length regular season.” That seemed clear when Bettman publicly spoke about a reduced schedule, something the league was obviously hoping to avoid but is now inevitable. There are no formal proposals on the table yet, but with the January 1 target date getting closer every day, there will need to be a decision at some point in the near future—even if it is just another delay.

  • With the hockey offseason moving at a snail’s pace in November, fans have started to scour overseas boxscores to see how their favorite prospects are doing. Mike Shulman of Sportsnet published a piece today going over many of the most interesting names, including several 2021 draft prospects that are still trying to raise their stock. Among the group of already drafted players is Yaroslav Askarov once again, who continues to turn heads every time he hits the ice. Even Shulman sold him a bit short, without updated statistics from the KHL. Askarov returned to the SKA St. Petersburg crease yesterday after dominating at the Kajala Cup and put on another show, stopping 24 of 25 shots in a huge victory over HC Vityaz. Askarov is now toting a .960 save percentage in five KHL games, allowing only five goals on 125 shots.
  • Speaking of overseas prospects, the New York Rangers will have another one to keep an eye on as Libor Hajek joins HC Kometa Brno on loan for the time being. Hajek was loaned to Brno originally, then switched to Olomouc, but is now apparently heading back to where he started. The 22-year-old has struggled during his time in the NHL over the last two seasons and will need to take another step in his development before the Rangers can really rely on him as a full-time option.

Ivy League Schools Cancel Hockey Season

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While other NCAA hockey conferences have been busy announcing their schedules for the 2020-21 season, delayed and shortened but a season nonetheless, the Ivy League schools have decided to go in a different direction. In a joint announcement between the eight member institutions, the Ivy League announced that they will forego all winter sports this year as a result of the continuing Coronavirus pandemic. While the conference itself does not sponsor hockey, six of its members participate in the the ECAC: Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. All will sit out the season following this decisions.

While this had been a fear of many since the conference canceled all sports in the fall semester, eliminating the possibility of hockey until late December at the earliest, there was hope that with other conferences opting to face the challenge and spare the season that the Ivy League’s would fall in line as well. After all, hockey is the most high-profile sport for those six schools who sponsor the sport at the Division I level. However, they stated that they felt that canceling all winter sports was the best decision “with the health & wellbeing of student-athletes & the greater campus community in mind.”

On an overall NCAA hockey scale, the loss of the Ivy League removes perennial contenders such as Cornell and Harvard from the mix this season. It also leaves the ECAC with just six other active teams; the conference has yet to announce a schedule for the coming season but will have very few options outside of repeated match-ups between their remaining teams.

On an individual basis, the loss of this season will have a major effect on a number of NHL prospect. While some opted not to wait for the Ivy League’s to make this decision – presumptive 2021 first-round pick Matthew Beniers and recent Boston Bruins draft pick Trevor Kuntar are among those who transferred to other schools this summer, while some incoming freshmen deferred, and some upperclassmen turned pro early – many others are left without a collegiate season. They will have to decide if they want to stay at school and perhaps try to find a local junior team to play with or if instead they will search for a landing spot in the USHL or elsewhere. Seniors and even some others could still opt to sign their entry-level contracts as well. The NCAA has granted an extra year of eligibility to all winter athletes, but that means little to those with NHL dreams who are not looking to put off turning pro for an extra year. Fortunately, many of those affected have already begun playing elsewhere or have plans to do so and hopefully all will be able to find a suitable locale for the season. Below is a list of all of the drafted NHL prospects left without a collegiate season in light of the Ivy League’s winter sports cancellation:

Cornell: D Misha Song, Jr. (NYI); F Matt Stienburg, So. (COL)*

Harvard: F Nick Abruzzese, So. (TOR); F John Farinacci, So. (ARI)**; G Mitchell Gibson, So. (WSH); F Alex Laferriere, Fr. (LAK)***; D Henry Thrun, So. (ANA)****; F Austin Wong, So. (WPG)*****

Princeton: F Liam Gorman, So. (PIT)

Yale: F Curtis Hall, Jr. (BOS); D Phil Kemp, Sr. (EDM); D Jack St. Ivany, Jr. (PHI)

*Stienberg is expected to play with the West Kelowna Warriors of the BCHL this season
**Farinacci will play with the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the USHL this season
***Laferriere is expected to play with the Des Moines Buccaneers of the USHL this season
****Thrun will play with the Dubuque Fightning Saints of the USHL this season
*****Wong is expected to play with the Fargo Force of the USHL this season

East Notes: Tampa Bay, Weegar, Islanders Arena

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Back in the summer, Tampa Bay was ruled out as a possible host for one of the hub cities as the NHL worked to return to hold their playoffs.  That may not be the case when it comes to next season, however, as Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times that the city will garner consideration this time around if the NHL opts to use bubble cities for at least part of next season:

In terms of the boxes that need to be checked and the things that we’re looking for, certainly Tampa is an attractive possibility on a host of levels, including the fact that I think players would enjoy Tampa as a base for operations as opposed to some other cities.

Certainly, if we went that direction — and I’m not suggesting that we’re going that direction — but if we end up deciding to go that direction, certainly Tampa would be strongly considered.

As things stand, there are no firm plans in place for next season’s schedule but the possibility of using short-term hubs where a team plays several games in a short stretch before returning home for a little while has been discussed.  It certainly seems like Tampa Bay will be looked at more favorably than it was for the playoff hubs.

More from the East:

  • While the Panthers were able to avoid arbitration with defenseman MacKenzie Weegar last week, things weren’t always headed in that direction. Speaking with reporters today including David Dwork of WPLG (Twitter link), the blueliner acknowledged that he had heard from his agent a couple of times to advise that a trade may be in the works.  Weegar had acknowledged his frustration with the status of talks although in the end, they were able to agree on a three-year deal worth $9.75MM in total that bought out two years of UFA eligibility.
  • The new arena for the Islanders remains on track to open for the 2021-22 season despite a two-month delay due to the pandemic, notes Allan Kreda of the New York Times. Despite everything going on and the fact that puck drop is at least another year away, the facility has already sold roughly half of its inventory for club seats and suites.

NHL Still Targeting January 1st Start

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With the news yesterday that the NBPA approved a December 22nd start for the 2020-21 NBA season, questions immediately followed as to whether the NHL would be following suit in getting their next campaign underway around then as well.  While there has been some recent skepticism that the league would be able to meet their target start date of January 1st, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic (Twitter link) that their objective remains to start at that time. 

However, LeBrun notes that the joint Return to Play committee (involving the league and the NHLPA) has yet to formally meet.  Considering the logistics in getting a schedule together and some of the concerns surrounding the pandemic (not to mention settling on the length of the season), it’s seemingly getting to be crunch time in terms of getting something down that would provide enough notice to start next season when the calendar flips to the new year.

With that in mind, TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie adds (via Twitter) that the league is hoping to make an announcement as soon as possible with a lot of work to be done in the next seven to ten days.  Speculatively, that would seemingly be a soft deadline to get a schedule in place knowing that players will need ample time to return to their club cities and go through quarantining protocols while the seven teams that didn’t return this summer are expected to receive extra training camp time.  With all of that in mind, a five-to-six-week lead time for that plus training camps and exhibition games seems reasonable so the clock is ticking on getting things settled and get that process underway by then.

Of course, there are other factors to consider such as cross-border travel between Canada and the United States.  If there are doubts about teams having that ability, the potential exists for temporary divisional re-alignment to create an all-Canadian division which would then shake up the rest of the divisions as well.  While things can certainly change in a hurry, there certainly doesn’t appear to be a lot of momentum towards seeing that border open up and while exceptions can be made, there’s no guarantee that the Canadian government will be willing to do so here.  Some decisions on that front would have to be made very soon for January 1st to remain a realistic option.

Time hasn’t run out just yet on the NHL starting up when 2021 begins but with all of the various challenges and extra things to navigate in terms of setting up the schedule for next season, there will need to be some significant progress before much longer.  Discussions may be cooling off in free agency for now but talks about this will certainly be picking up soon.

2020 Arbitration Tracker

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Originally published on Oct 13

The dates for the upcoming arbitration hearings have been set, with the first three being held on October 20. Hearings will continue through November 8. It is important to remember that this offseason, once a hearing begins, teams are no longer allowed to negotiate with the player in question while the arbitrator deliberates.

The full schedule is:

October 20

Andrew Mangiapane – Settled, 2 years $2.43MM AAV
Anthony DeAngelo – Settled, 2 years $4.8MM AAV
Matt Grzelcyk – Settled, 4 years, $3.69MM AAV

October 21

Ilya Mikheyev – Settled, 2 years $1.65MM AAV

October 22

Connor Brown – Settled, 3 years, $3.6MM AAV

October 25

Tyler Bertuzzi – Player filing: $4.25MM – Team filing: $3.15MM – Awarded: $3.5MM

October 26

Linus Ullmark – Settled, 1 year, $2.6MM AAV

October 27

Sam Reinhart – Settled, 1 year, $5.2MM AAV

October 28

Jake Virtanen* – Settled, 2 years, $2.55MM AAV

October 30

Joshua Ho-Sang – Settled, 1 year, $700K AAV (two-way)

October 31

Devon Toews – Settled, 4 years, $4.1MM AAV
Alexandar Georgiev – Settled, 2 years, $2.43MM AAV

November 1

Nick Paul – Settled, 2 years, $1.35MM AAV

November 2

Gustav Forsling  – Settled, 1 year, $700K AAV (two-way)

November 4

Victor Olofsson – Settled, 2 years, $3.05MM AAV
Warren Foegele – Settled, 1 year, $2.14MM AAV

November 5

Ryan Strome – Player filing: $5.7MM, Team Filing: 3.6MM – Settled: 2 years, $4.5MM AAV

November 6

Brendan Lemieux – Player filing: $2MM, Team Filing: 2 years, $1.0125MM AAV – Settled: 2 years, $1.55MM AAV
Ryan Pulock – Settled, 2 years, $5.0MM AAV

November 7

Christian Jaros – Settled, 1 year, $750K (two-way)

November 8

Chris Tierney – Settled, 2 years, $3.5MM AAV
MacKenzie Weegar – Settled, 3 years $3.25MM AAV
Haydn Fleury – Settled, 2 years, $1.3MM AAV

*Virtanen was not included in the NHLPA’s announcement, but Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports he will have a hearing on the 28th. 

Ottawa Senators Extend Christian Jaros

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Nov 4: The Senators have officially announced the Jaros contract, confirming the details reported yesterday. Senators GM Pierre Dorion released a statement on the young defenseman:

Despite being limited by injury last season, Christian proved to be a reliable defensive defenceman. He’s a big body who’s rangy and who skates well. With his considerable professional experience, we’ll look for him to challenge for a roster spot in Ottawa when camp begins.

Nov 3: The Ottawa Senators have wrapped up their RFA class, coming to terms on a new contract with defenseman Christian Jaros. CapFriendly reports that Jaros has signed a one-year, two-way extension to avoid an arbitration hearing that had been scheduled for Saturday. The deal carries a $750K NHL salary and a $250K AHL salary.

Jaros, 24, may not have landed the one-way deal he might have hoped to land in arbitration, but accepted an offer that works out nicely for both sides. Coming off an entry-level deal that carried an $802K AAV including performance bonuses, Jaros takes a slight pay cut at the NHL level, but a major raise in the AHL. Whether he cracks the NHL roster or ends up spending the majority of the season in the AHL as he did last season, Jaros will walk away with a greater paycheck in 2020-21.

There is a path for Jaros to be a regular for the Senators this season. The club has only six defensemen signed to one-way deals, so there is at least one if not two positions open for their two-way players. Jaros has the most experience of that group, having played 76 NHL games, including 61 in 2018-19. With that said, top prospect Erik Brannstrom will certainly challenge for an NHL gig, while KHL import Artem Zub will also be expecting a chance at a spot in Ottawa.

New York Islanders Sign Ryan Pulock

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The New York Islanders have signed restricted free agent defenseman Ryan Pulock to a new two-year contract. The deal, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, will carry an average annual value of $5MM. Pulock had a salary arbitration hearing scheduled for later this week, which will no longer be necessary. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic provides the full breakdown:

  • 2020-21: $2.26MM salary + $740K signing bonus
  • 2021-22: $5.16MM salary + $1.5MM signing bonus

Because he is an unassuming piece of the Islanders defensive puzzle, you may not realize just how good Pulock has been over the last several years. Over the last three seasons, Pulock ranks 33rd in scoring among NHL defensemen with 104 points in 218 games, 21st in goals with 23. That already puts him in the upper-echelon of offensive blueliners, but given he also brings a steady defensive stick and physical presence it’s hard not to wonder why he gets so little league-wide praise.

With a $5MM price tag, perhaps he’ll start getting his due as one of the better defensemen in the league and a leader on the Islanders back end. The concerning part for New York fans, is how long he’ll stay a part of that Islanders back end.

A two-year contract means that Pulock will reach unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2022 when he is just 27 years old. If he’s not re-signed by then, he’ll be one of the youngest free agents on the market and likely able to command a huge, long-term offer. Should his offensive production continue, there’s a chance he even would be one of the very best free agents available at any position.

Still, for now he can provide strong play for a reasonable price and fits into an Islanders financial situation that will have a chance to reset itself in a few years. Pulock, Johnny Boychuk, Nick Leddy and Thomas Hickey are now all on contracts that expire following the 2021-22 season, meaning the team will have the option to build their defense around a different—and likely younger—core.

Because Pulock was the Islanders final arbitration case, they will now receive a 24-hour buyout window that will open on Friday. They can only buy out players that have a cap hit of at least $4MM.

2020-21 Season Will Have Minimum Of 48 Games

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There is still no concrete plan for the 2020-21 NHL season and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly recently stated that to suggest the league is even leaning towards one plan or another is a stretch. All that is known so far is that the earliest the league will start is early January with the potential for that date to move back even further. With that in mind, as well as some conflict with American TV rights holder NBC, who has committed to airing the Summer Olympic Games in late July, the likelihood of a shortened NHL season is very high, even if the league and players would both prefer otherwise.

On the topic of a shortened season, the league appears to make at least one thing clear. ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski and Emily Kaplan report that leagues sources have claimed that the upcoming season will have a minimum 48-game schedule. The same number of games that were played in previous lockout-shortened seasons, 48 games is a number that the owners appear to be comfortable with in order to have a traditional 16-team postseason.

With that said, Wyshynski and Kaplan write that the season could be upwards of 65 games, a number that teams and players alike prefer. After an incomplete 2019-20 season, everyone wants to get as close to a normal season as possible, in terms of regular season length, postseason structure, and perhaps even fans in the stands. However, the league has stated that their greatest priority is to have the 2021-22 season start on time and be full-length, so this coming season will have to play into that plan.

 

OHL Will Not Allow Body Checking In 2020-21

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Oct 31: Ontario’s Premier, Doug Ford, tweeted this evening that the provincial government is “engaging” with the OHL to create a safe return to play plan, and specifically notes that he would like to see the league return with body checking. “To date no decisions have been made,” says the Premier.

Oct 30: The Ontario Hockey League had already made a major change to their season in response to the continued spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, delaying the start of the 2020-21 campaign until February and announcing a shortened 40-game schedule. Yet, due to another decision influenced by COVID-19, the league will look very different when it does return in a few months. Sportsnet reports that Ontario’s minister of sport, Lisa MacLeod, has announced that body checking will not be permitted in OHL games this season.

Of course, this is not as straightforward as it may seem. While MacLeod stated that she arrived at this decision based on the spread of COVID-19 in the QMJHL and that she felt “removing purposeful physical contact from the game was a necessary step to preventing the spread.” However, many in the media have already asked if this opinion was really backed up by any evidence or the opinion of any experts in the field. The use of the word “purposeful” also suggests that incidental contact will still be allowed. Or will it? Where will the league draw the line and what will the punishment be? There’s also the major issue of jurisdiction in this case. The OHL includes three American teams – two in Michigan and one in Pennsylvania – who do not have to abide by the health ordinances of Ontario. There is still a question as to whether the border will be open at that time to accommodate those clubs, but if they do participate this year, will body checking be allowed in their home games?

With so many questions still to be answered, it is no surprise that TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that the decision is not quite official with so many factor still needing to be discussed. Similarly, the OHL’s stance right now is more or less “no comment”, stating “Until such time as we arrive at an agreed upon Return to Play protocol with the Government of Ontario, the League will have no further comment on the matter of body contact.”

If body checking is completely removed from OHL competition this year, it will make the jobs of NHL Draft hopefuls and NHL scouts even more difficult. Without a 2020 postseason and given the shortened 2020-21 regular season, players will have less opportunity to display their talents for scouts ahead of the 2021 Draft. Now, the Ontario government is asking those players to play a completely different style of hockey in what will already be a small sample size. Without intentional contact, it will be immensely difficult to not only evaluate defensive ability, but also to get a frame of reference for offensive ability. Play will be much faster and much more offensive than normal, with defenseman and forecheckers limited in their ability, goalies exposed by a much more open game, and scoring forwards unable to show that they can produce even with opposing contact. The players hurt the most will be those who haven’t already been identified as elite, surefire first-rounders in next year’s draft. Those lucky few have already been seen by scouts, but the dozens of other OHLers who needed the season to prove they have NHL potential have just had their season length slashed and now their game fundamentally changed.

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