Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Snapshots

Snapshots: Blackhawks, Larmi, Poulin, Boychuk

at CDT | by 1 Comment

While many teams will be getting players back for when the play-in round gets underway, the Blackhawks may still be down a few players for their series against Edmonton.  Speaking with reporters yesterday, including Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago, GM Stan Bowman indicated that blueliners Calvin de Haan and Adam Boqvist plus winger Drake Caggiula will all be ready to play.  However, winger Andrew Shaw (concussion), center Zack Smith (back), and defenseman Brent Seabrook (shoulder, hips) may not be ready.  Smith and Seabrook are recovering from their respective surgeries but are likely to be out for a while yet.  As for Shaw, he last played in late November and Bowman didn’t have an update on his status.

Elsewhere around the NHL:

  • Penguins goaltending prospect Emil Larmi has been recalled to join the team in Pittsburgh as they continue preparations for their play-in series against Montreal, reports Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The rookie posted identical 3.55 GAA’s with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (nine games) and ECHL Wheeling (11 games) this season.  While it’s expected that there will be a cap on the number of skaters that teams can carry when play resumes, there may not be one for goaltenders.  With that in mind, it appears that Pittsburgh will carry at least four as Casey DeSmith is a safe bet to be brought up as well.
  • Still with Pittsburgh, Louis Jean of TVA Sports reports (Twitter link) that prospect Samuel Poulin will be among their recalls as well. The Penguins took the 19-year-old 21st overall last June and he is coming off of a dominant season in the QMJHL.  After picking up 76 points in 67 games last season, he had 77 points in just 46 contests this year with Sherbrooke.  Poulin has already signed his entry-level deal.
  • Islanders defenseman Johnny Boychuk told Newsday’s Andrew Gross that his eye is close to being fully recovered. Boychuk was cut by the skate blade of Montreal winger Artturi Lehkonen in early March which required 90 stitches and plastic surgery to repair.  While Boychuk’s ice time decreased again this season for the fifth straight year, he was still a regular fixture on their third pairing and should play a similar role for them in their play-in series against Florida.  Although the Islanders have opened up their practice facility, Boychuk will remain in his native Edmonton and skate there for the time being.

Snapshots: Carter, Sorokin, Hoefenmayer

at CDT | by 2 Comments

The Los Angeles Kings won’t be taking part in the 24-team playoffs this summer, so it’s time to get healthy and prepare for 2020-21. With that in mind, the team announced that Jeff Carter underwent surgery on June 4 to repair a core muscle injury. Carter is expected to be fully recovered for the next season.

Carter could very well be 36 when the next season starts and the front-loaded nature of his contract means he won’t be making very much (relatively speaking) when he does get back on the ice. With two years left on his deal but only $4MM in salary, he would be a potential option to trade out of Los Angeles in order to free up some playing time for some of their young talent. Carter does not have a no-trade clause in his deal, though there have been rumors in the past that he may decide to simply retire if sent to a destination he did not approve of.

  • Reports surfaced recently that New York Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin had restarted preliminary talks with his KHL team on a potential new contract, though absolutely nothing was decided at that point. Today, Darren Dreger of TSN reports that Sorokin has changed his North American representation, hiring Dan Milstein of Gold Star Hockey as his new agent. Interestingly enough, Kirill Kaprizov, another high-profile KHL prospect (and teammate of Sorokin with CSKA Moscow) hoping to come to North America, recently parted ways with Milstein.
  • Noel Hoefenmayer has added another trophy to his cabinet after being named the CHL Defenseman of the Year today. The Arizona Coyotes draft pick led all OHL defensemen in scoring with 82 points in 56 games for the Ottawa 67’s. Unfortunately, Hoefenmayer never signed with the Coyotes and instead had to settle for an AHL contract with the Toronto Marlies a few months ago.

Snapshots: NHL Rosters, Howard, Devils Draft

at CDT | by 4 Comments

While many NHL teams will begin open up their training facilities on Monday and the league is slowly moving towards getting back into action, there still remains quite a bit to negotiate. One thing that is still being debated is how many players each of the 24 teams will carry once play resumes.

The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun notes that while the NHL has suggested 28 skaters, plus goaltenders, that number still must be negotiated with the NHLPA. However, that number isn’t necessarily needed until either Phase 3 or even Phase 4, which gives the two sides time to come up with a proper number.

  • Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News writes that Detroit Red Wings veteran goaltender Jimmy Howard wants to play another one or two seasons before he retires, although he does admit that it might not be with the Red Wings. The 36-year-old would prefer to finish out his career in Detroit, the team that drafted him, but that seems somewhat unlikely to return to a rebuilding team after a career-worst season with a 2-23-2 record with a 4.20 GAA and a .882 save percentage. “I want to keep playing,” said Howard. “This year left such a bitter taste in my mouth. I want to go out there and show people I can still play in this league — I know I’m capable … I personally don’t believe I represent those number (statistics), but I was a big part of the program (losing). I got in my own way a lot instead of letting the play to come. I was overthinking things.”
  • The Athetic’s Corey Masisak (subscription required) writes that he believes that with three first-round picks (and two potential lottery picks) in a strong upcoming 2020 draft, the New Jersey Devils are a team that would be strong candidates to grab highly-touted goaltender Yaroslav Askarov with one of those picks. The 17-year-old is one of the highest-rated goaltenders in years, but after a poor showing at the World Juniors this past year, many have watched as his stock has dropped somewhat and with teams generally shying away from taking goaltenders in the first round, there is no clear indication where the young netminder might be taken. Regardless, he has been rated as a lottery pick by many scouts. The scribe adds that even though they have a young netminder in MacKenzie Blackwood, the team should still consider taking the goalie, especially since they have three first-rounders. The Devils already have the sixth-best chance to win the lottery with their own pick, but the team also has the Arizona Coyotes’ first-rounder (acquired in the Taylor Hall trade), but the pick depends on how Arizona fares in the post-season and is top-three protected. New Jersey has a third first-round pick, acquired from Tampa Bay in the Blake Coleman trade (via Vancouver), but that pick is lottery-protected based on Vancouver’s performance in the play-in game.

Snapshots: Sorokin, Phase 3, Future Schedule

at CDT | by 3 Comments

The New York Islanders have been waiting years for goaltending prospect Ilya Sorokin to come to North America, since drafting him in 2014. The KHL star seemed poised to finally cross the pond before the coronavirus put things on hold, and now may be reconsidering his options.

As KHL reporter Gillian Kemmerer translates, the president of CSKA Moscow tweeted today that Sorokin is in “early talks” with the club to return to the KHL. This doesn’t mean Sorokin isn’t coming to the Islanders (take these kinds of statements with a grain of salt), but the NHL’s decision to not allow new contracts for the 2019-20 season, combined with the fact that next season may not start until January 2021 has certainly complicated things for top KHL players. As Kemmerer notes, CSKA admits that Kirill Kaprizov does intend to come to North America.

  • Even though the NHL has released the format for a return to play, there is still a lot of work to be done before teams actually take the ice. Eric Francis of Sportsnet tweets that the talk around hockey circles last night was that the Phase 3 target start date to open training camps will be pushed to August 1st. Commissioner Gary Bettman had explained previously that camps would open no sooner than July 10th, but that may turn out to be quite an optimistic threshold.
  • James Mirtle of The Athletic (subscription required) explains that hockey fans may want to get used to this kind of a summer schedule, as there are conversations happening about keeping an altered league calendar moving forward. There have been rumblings about shifting the season in the past to avoid some of the other top sports, including the NFL.

Snapshots: Williams, Drysdale, Nesterov

at CDT | by 1 Comment

The Carolina Hurricanes are scheduled to play the New York Rangers in a qualifying round if the NHL resumes this summer, meaning they could potentially only have a handful of games remaining in the 2019-20 season. Does that mean that Justin Williams is closing in on retirement? Not so fast says Hurricanes GM Don Waddell, who told Sportsnet radio to not write off his team leader just yet.

Williams, 38, took the first part of this season off to spend with his family but returned to the Hurricanes lineup on January 19th. While he was held pointless in 12 of his first 15 games, Williams was actually on a five-game goal streak when the season was paused in mid-March. The 19-year veteran has 101 points in 155 career playoff games, winning the Stanley Cup three times.

  • If you want to know a little more about the top-rated defenseman in this year’s draft, Craig Button of TSN breaks down Jamie Drysdale’s potential. The smooth-skating Drysdale gets a 5/5 rating in both hockey sense and competitiveness from Button, with a comparison to Hall of Fame defender Sergei Zubov. Drysdale was ranked third among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting and is expected to be off the board in the first few picks.
  • Rick Dhaliwal of TSN is hearing that Nikita Nesterov may actually leave CSKA Moscow after all, despite reports earlier in the year that he was planning on signing a long-term deal with the KHL organization. Back in March, Nesterov reportedly turned down a hefty offer from the Los Angeles Kings, the same team Dhaliwal has heard linked to the free agent defender now. In the three seasons since he left the NHL, Nesterov has recorded 60 points in 136 games for CSKA.

Snapshots: Stralman, Draft Rankings, Tourigny

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The NHL has announced its return to play format and hopes to get players back on the ice in groups soon, but that doesn’t mean that the season is guaranteed to resume this summer. Some players are still worried about how safe it would be to gather teams in hub cities, including Anton Stralman who spoke with Joe Smith of The Athletic (subscription required):

I think you should be concerned. There are so many ways to look at this thing. I know everybody wants hockey back, but safety has to come first. And it’s a little bit worrisome, I can’t deny that. Even though most players are young and healthy, I’m sure there are players like me that have underlying health issues. I don’t know how my body will react if I get this virus.

According to Smith, Stralman dealt with bronchiectasis in the past and only recently stopped taking medication for it. While he is the one speaking out about it, Stralman isn’t the only player who feels this way as James Mirtle of The Athletic points out on Twitter.

  • For those who are looking forward to the draft instead, Scott Wheeler of The Athletic (subscription required) has published his final top-100 ranking of 2020 draft prospects. That includes Alexis Lafreniere at the top where he has been on every list so far, but also has some surprises a little further down the first round. Wheeler gives a detailed scouting report on each of the first 50 prospects and breaks them down into draft tiers.
  • The CHL has named Andre Tourigny the Brian Kilrea Coach of the Year for 2019-20 after leading the Ottawa 67’s to a 50-11-1 record. Tourigny was also an assistant with the gold medal-winning Team Canada at the World Juniors and has now put up consecutive 50-win seasons with Ottawa. Amazingly, despite winning coach of the year in the QMJHL, OHL and now CHL, Tourigny has still not been able to capture a league title.

Snapshots: Patrick, Kalynuk, Panthers, Granlund

at CDT | by 8 Comments

The Philadelphia Flyers are expected to be quite healthy whenever the league begins their 24-team tournament. The team is expected to get back James van Riemsdyk (fractured right index finger) and Philippe Myers (fractured right kneecap). However, the news remains grim for young center Nolan Patrick, who has missed the entire 2019-20 season with migraine issues.

Philadelphia Inquirer’s Sam Carchidi notes that the second-overall pick in the 2017 NHL draft hasn’t seen much improvement and seriously doubts the team would be willing to put the 21-year-old out on the ice if he could re-injure himself during the 24-team playoffs. It’s much more likely the Flyers will allow him to heal throughout the summer and hope that he is ready to go whenever training camp gets underway for the 2020-21 season, which could be anywhere between November to January.

Even if Philadelphia believed Patrick was ready to contribute, Carchidi points out that it doesn’t make much sense to break up the team’s chemistry that led them to a first-round bye in the playoffs. Throwing a player who hasn’t played since Apr. 2, 2019 isn’t necessarily a good way to hold onto that chemistry.

  • In a separate article, Carchidi writes that the Philadelphia Flyers are in negotiations with their 2017 seventh-round pick, Wyatt Kalynuk, who decided to forego his senior season at Wisconsin and can become a free agent later this summer. The 23-year-old offensive defenseman was an all-Big Ten selection after scoring seven goals and 28 points.
  • NHL.com’s Jameson Olive interviewed Florida Panthers general manager Dale Tallon, who states that along with regular players on the team’s roster, the Panthers expect to add several prospects to the playoff roster, including forwards Owen Tippett, Henrik Borgstrom and defenseman Brady Keeper. Tippett could be an interesting player, who was a first-round pick back in 2017 and appeared in seven games back in the 2017-18 season, but was returned to junior. He scored 19 goals in 46 games with Springfield this year in the AHL. Borgstrom struggled this year, mainly playing in the AHL after playing 50 games with Florida in 2018-19, but still has the potential to become a solid NHL forward, while Keeper finished out his rookie season in the AHL, faring well. “I’m sure we’ll have a few of our top prospects there,” Tallon said. “We’ll narrow it down to see how many [Joel Quenneville] wants. We still have to wait for the league [to give] an exact number.”
  • Edmonton Journal’s Kurt Leavins reports that while forward Markus Granlund has already signed a contract with Ufa Salavat Yulaev in the KHL for next season, expect the forward to be part of the Edmonton Oilers’ “Black Aces” taxi squad when the 24-team playoffs begin later this summer. Granlund remains under contract with the Oilers until the season is over and should be able to provide veteran depth for the team in case of injuries. Granlund played in 34 games with the Oilers this season with three goals and four points, but did spend quite a bit of time in the AHL this year, something he hadn’t been forced to do in years.

Snapshots: Brackett, UAH, Voronkov

at CDT | by 1 Comment

The Vancouver Canucks will not be bringing back amateur scouting director Judd Brackett after failing to come to a new agreement. Brackett’s name has been in the news the last few months after reports surfaced that there was a dispute over how much control he had in Vancouver, something that Canucks GM Jim Benning confirmed today to Thomas Drance of The Athletic:

I believe in a chain of command… I don’t know too many places where a team is going to give a head scout total autonomy to make all the picks without collaborating with people higher up..

Brackett has been with the Canucks for more than a decade and is credited–at least partially–for the team’s relatively strong draft record.

  • Amazingly, a GoFundMe to try and save the University of Alabama-Huntsville hockey program has reached its goal of $500,000. The program was cut due to financial concerns last week, but immediately fans of the team (and one famous alumnus) rallied to try and keep the Chargers from disappearing. No word yet on whether the plan has worked, but it was an impressive campaign nonetheless.
  • The Columbus Blue Jackets will have to wait quite some time to get Dmitri Voronkov into the organization after the prospect forward signed a new three-year contract in the KHL today. Selected 114th overall in 2019, the 6’4″ center was a standout at the World Juniors for Russia, scoring seven points in seven games. His new contract will keep him in the KHL through the 2022-23 season.

Snapshots: Phase 3, Draft Pick Deadline, Ristolainen

at CDT | by 7 Comments

According to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, the NHL has informed players that Phase 3 of the league’s return to play plan, a three-week training camp, will not start before July 10. Phase 2, small group workouts, is expected to begin as early as next week.

Though a mid-July start for training camp shouldn’t surprise anyone at this point, it does mean that the Stanley Cup will not be awarded for quite some time. James Mirtle of The Athletic suggests it could be October before a 2019-20 champion is crowned.

  • There was some confusion today when reports from several sources including Darren Dreger of TSN surfaced, explaining that the league is pushing the June 1 entry-level contract deadline back a month. As CapFriendly tweets, this is not referring to the deadline for players like Winnipeg Jets draft pick Declan Chisholm, who still needs a contract by Monday or will become an unrestricted free agent. Instead, this is referring to the initial period (between March 1 and July 1) when entry-level contracts can be signed for the following season. Basically, this extended deadline will give the NHLPA more time to negotiate against the league’s decision to not allow players like Kirill Kaprizov and Alexander Romanov to sign for the 2019-20 campaign without risk of being late to file a 2020-21 contract. Though the league was clear about not wanting these players jumping right into the playoffs, the union and their individual representatives are still fighting.
  • Several Buffalo Sabres players were obviously frustrated today when speaking to reporters about another failed season, and like always Rasmus Ristolainen provided some juicy quotes. As John Vogl of The Athletic tweets, Ristolainen believes he’ll be “one of the first ones that’s probably going to get traded” if the Sabres decide to make sweeping changes to the roster. It’s not the first time that Ristolainen has implied he feels like he could be on the way out of Buffalo, but just yesterday GM Jason Botterill referred to him as a “core player.” Ristolainen has two years remaining on his current contract which carries a $5.4MM cap hit.

Snapshots: Blashill, Pilut, Canadiens

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Detroit Red Wings season has come to an end following the announcement of the return to play format, meaning they’ll go down as one of the worst teams in history (at least in terms of points percentage). The club finished 17-49-5 and missed the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season, leading many to question the future of Jeff Blashill.

Steve Yzerman, Detroit GM, is not one of those questioning his head coach. On a conference call with reporters today including Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press, Yzerman explained that he has “no plans on making a coaching change at this time.” Blashill signed a two-year contract extension in 2019 that carries him through the 2020-21 season but now has a 153-194-52 record as head coach of the Red Wings.

  • A report out of Russia has Buffalo Sabres defenseman Lawrence Pilut heading to the KHL next season, though it has not been confirmed at this point. Lance Lysowski of the Buffalo News reports that the Sabres are inquiring with Pilut to see if he has indeed signed or agreed to terms with Traktor Chelyabinsk. Pilut is scheduled to become a restricted free agent later this summer, but with the Sabres already eliminated from play he could be looking for a new opportunity already. The 24-year old Pilut ended up playing just 46 games over two seasons for Buffalo, despite being excellent in the minor leagues and showing he could handle NHL duty. Should he decide to pursue a contract overseas, the Sabres could temporarily retain his rights by issuing him a qualifying offer.
  • With just a few days left to sign them, Montreal Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin explained to reporters including Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports that they will not be issuing contract offers to a few prospects. Allan McShane, Cole Fonstad and Samuel Houde–all players that will see their draft rights expire on June 1st–will not receive contracts from the Canadiens.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

scroll to top