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Snapshots: Coach’s Challenge Penalty, Russell

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The NHL is looking at a rule change that would certainly add a new wrinkle to things.  TSN’s Elliotte Friedman tweets that the NHL is kicking around the idea to assess two minute minor penalties to coaches who lose a challenge. Colleague Frank Saravelli tweets that it would be for challenges on offside calls, replace the loss of a timeout, and according to Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell, makes coaches “careful” about when they challenge. The Scores’s Josh Wegman writes that the league is looking for a way to cut down on the number of challenges, as it would make coaches more timid in using that challenge. However, before any rules are changed, both the board of governors and competition committee would have to agree.

  • TSN’s Bob McKenzie reports that a deal between defenseman Kris Russell and the Edmonton Oilers could be finalized as soon as tomorrow. He adds that Russell could get close to $4MM AAV for four years. This confirms what was reported earlier in the day, but now includes a duration and dollar amount. Russell played in 68 games for Edmonton and notched a goal and 13 points for them. The 30-year-old defenseman is known less for his statistical contribution and more for his shot blocking abilities.

Snapshots: Eakin, Gusev, Kane

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The rumblings over who will be selected in tonight’s expansion draft are coming fast and furious, and though many are highly speculative Jim Toth of TSN 1290 is reporting that Cody Eakin will be the selection from the Dallas Stars. While it’s not clear who Toth’s sources are, Eakin would make sense as the Dallas selection. Not only did he show that he’s capable of putting up 35-40 points before this season but he’s only 26-years old and was drafted by new Vegas GM George McPhee back in Washington.

We projected Eakin as the selection out of Dallas in our mock expansion draft, mostly because of the lack of exciting options available among their exposed players. Eakin is coming off a disastrous season in which he scored just 12 points despite spending substantial time with the Stars’ big guns up front. His faceoffs improved and he could still be a valuable piece, but there is no guarantee he’ll ever get back to the highs earlier in his career.

  • Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times thinks that Nikita Gusev may be part of any trade with the Vegas Golden Knights to either protect young defensemen or move Jason Garrison’s hefty contract. Gusev was a linemate of Vadim Shipachyov last season in the KHL and has shown that he can be an incredible offensive performer despite his relatively small stature. The 24-year old still has one year remaining on his contract with SKA St. Petersburg, meaning it would just be a deal of negotiating rights to the Golden Knights. Gusev could also work out a mutual termination or buyout of his KHL contract and come to North America right away, though the interest in that option is unclear.
  • Darren Dreger of TSN gave us an update on Evander Kane trade talks amid all the expansion news, reporting that there are still ongoing discussions with teams in “win now” mode. While those teams aren’t clear, there is likely quite a bit of interest in the 28-goal man who may have turned a corner after his recent legal drama. Kane was by all accounts a much more consistent teammate this season, and showed it on the scoresheet with his best season since 2011-12. Amazingly still just 25-years old, Kane has one year left on his contract and could be among next summer’s top free agents with a repeat performance.

Snapshots: Pokka, Wichita, Kostin

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The Chicago Blackhawks are in negotiations with Ville Pokka on a new contract, according to Scott Powers of The Athletic. The young defenseman has still yet to make his NHL debut, but with the Blackhawks facing cap problems once again and Trevor van Riemsdyk likely headed for the Vegas Golden Knights, it might be time for Pokka to make an impact this season.

The 23-year old was selected 34th overall in the 2012 draft by the New York Islanders and is a restricted free agent this summer. It’s not often you see high draft picks make it all the way through their entry-level contract without a sniff of the NHL, but because of it Pokka should be relatively inexpensive on his next deal. That said, he’s a candidate for Group VI free agency should the Blackhawks not get him into 80 games by the summer after his 25th birthday, meaning he’s probably unwilling to sign anything longer than two years without any guarantees at playing time. After three up-and-down seasons in the AHL that showed both his potential and deficiencies, it will be tough to put him right into the NHL to start next year.

  • The Edmonton Oilers have announced their partnership with the Wichita Thunder of the ECHL as a new minor-league affiliate. The Bakersfield Condors, Edmonton’s AHL affiliate will work closely with the Thunder to develop their prospects. Though Bakersfield and Wichita are still quite a distance from each other, the Oilers had been affiliated with the Norfolk Admirals last season on the east coast. That team is now working with the Nashville Predators while the Thunder will indeed be much closer geographically.
  • Klim Kostin is clear that he wants to play in North America next season, and he will likely get a mutual termination with his KHL club in order to do so. In a recent translated article with Sovsport, Kostin—a top prospect for the 2017 entry draft, expected to go sometime in the first round—says that even though he has two years remaining on his current deal, their is a good chance the team will “understand me and let me go.” Kostin has previously said he doesn’t want to play in the WHL where the Kootenay Ice hold his junior rights. He instead could go directly to the NHL or AHL if he were to sign an entry-level contract right away.

Snapshots: Methot, Karlsson, Marchessault

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The Ottawa Senators were put in a rough predicament when Dion Phaneuf turned down the team’s request to waive his no-trade clause. The organization is very high on Cody Ceci, and considering the depth of forwards they needed to protect, they were forced to expose Marc Methot. Many mock drafts have the veteran defender headed to Vegas, including our own. Some have even contemplated whether Methot could find himself in a captaincy position in Nevada. Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun explains how difficult a decision that was for Pierre Dorion and his staff, and how they tried to trade Phaneuf up until the last minute. Ottawa could theoretically try to bribe Vegas with the #28 pick, but considering that the team only has 4 picks overall, that seems unlikely. The more probable scenario is that Ottawa merely takes the blow and moves on.

  • The Blue Jackets truly want to hang onto their youngest talents, according to Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch. They are supposedly surrendering their 1st round selection to Vegas in order to keep Josh Anderson and Joonas Korpisalo. What makes nearly no sense is the apparent fact that this deal also warns the Knights off of veteran defenseman Jack Johnson. Johnson is an average defender, and with the rise of Zach Werenski and others he doesn’t seem to be a pivotal piece any longer. Vegas will probably choose William Karlsson or Ryan Murray as low-risk claims and run away happy from this deal. The valuation of a first-rounder is probably the lowest in ages, and the anxiety surrounding the protection lists has seemingly reduced their value even further.
  • Harvey Fialkov of the Sun Sentinel has Jonathan Marchessault headed to Vegas, based on the reports he’s been hearing. Defenders Jason Demers and young forward Reilly Smith are also available as high-value options for the Knights. According to Marchessault himself in an interview on TVA Sports, Tallon wasn’t able to negotiate a protection deal with Vegas. He was certainly being shopped in the lead up to Sunday. The entire Florida protection list was confusing, but Marchessault’s exposure was a truly unforced error by GM Dale Tallon. The 30-goal scorer will almost certainly find a home in Vegas’ top six, and the loss of this quality of player for absolutely nothing is perplexing the entire league. It’s certainly possible Marchessault has a down year after a career one, but asset management was completely blown in this case, and Vegas looks to reap that reward.

Snapshots: Schedule, Rapid City, Samsonov

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The full 2017-18 NHL schedule will be released on a special television production on the NHL Network on Thursday at 2pm CDT, and with it will likely come the end of any last hope for the league to go to the 2018 Winter Olympics. Anyone holding out hope that the league would change their staunch position and find common ground with the IIHF should drop it when the schedule is finalized and released.

Already, the league has announced that the All-Star game will be in Tampa Bay, and there will be regular season games played in Stockholm, Sweden. With several outdoor games also on the docket and the Vegas Golden Knights entering the league, it should be an interesting season to be sure.

  • The Rapid City Rush have come to an agreement with the Minnesota Wild to be their new ECHL affiliate, after the Quad City Mallards left the Minnesota organization to partner with the Golden Knights. The Rush were previously the affiliate of the Arizona Coyotes, but are much closer geographically to both St. Paul and Des Moines, where the Minnesota and Iowa Wild respectively play. Though there is (very) rarely movement from the ECHL to the NHL, Iowa and Rapid City will be working closely together to develop the young Wild prospects.
  • In speaking with Tarik El-Bashir of CSN, Washington Capitals Assistant General Manager Ross Mahoney said that he thinks prospect Ilya Samsonov is still a year away from coming to North America, and that they’re happy to wait for him. Samsonov was the first goalie off the board in 2014, and had an outstanding season with Magnitogorsk this year, registering a .936 save percentage in 27 games. It’s tough to find a better goaltending prospect than Samsonov, who has the size and mobility to be a starter in the NHL should he keep developing.

Snapshots: Top-93, Healy, Vegas Deals

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TSN has released their final ranking for the 2017 Entry Draft, and Nico Hischier has finally overtaken Nolan Patrick at the very top. Bob McKenzie who compiles the list based on a survey of 10 working scouts, writes that Patrick now only received four votes for the top spot, with Cale Makar even getting a single #1 vote.

That’s a much different ranking than earlier in the season when Patrick was the unanimous selection, and shows the volatility this year’s draft board. Even at #1 there is no consensus, and there are dozens of players who could go in the top-10. With such different boards around the league, there may be quite a bit of movement in the first round as teams target who they want.

  • Former NHL goaltender Glenn Healy has been named Executive Director of the NHL Alumni Association. Healy has worked with the NHLPA in the past and had been working as the interim Director for the NHLAA. He’ll lose the interim tag now and got a ringing endorsement from Wayne Gretzky himself, saying that Healy “is the right guy to lead us into the future.”
  • Scott Cullen of TSN believes there is at least seven side deals completed with Vegas in order to protect extra players or have a particular player selected. That would explain some of the interesting choices in yesterday’s protection list reveal, such as Minnesota and Anaheim leaving top flight defenders available. The Islanders, Penguins, Blackhawks, and Blue Jackets are also expected to have deals already in place, though nothing will be official until the expansion selections come out on Wednesday night.

Snapshots: Enstrom, Bystrom, Zettler, Despres

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Winnipeg blueliner Toby Enstrom has decided to waive his no-move clause for the purposes of the looming Expansion Draft, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link).  That should allow the Jets to turn around and use the 7/3/1 protection scheme, allowing them to keep several extra forwards away from the Golden Knights.

Enstrom has spent his entire 10 year career with the Atlanta/Winnipeg franchise and has indicated that he doesn’t want to leave.   However, he’s coming off a down season where he had just a single goal and 13 assists in 60 games and carries a $5.75MM cap hit for one more year.  That’s not likely a contract that Vegas would willingly take on so he’s not at too great of a risk of being selected even though he’ll be exposed.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The Stars put pen to paper with one of their defensive prospects on Saturday, announcing the re-signing of Ludvig Bystrom to a one year, two-way deal. Financial terms were not disclosed.  Bystrom was a second round pick of the Stars back in 2012 but has yet to play at the NHL level.  He spent the season with their AHL affiliate in Texas, recording 16 points (2-14-16) in 55 games.
  • The Sharks are leaning towards hiring long-time assistant Rob Zettler to replace Bob Boughner, who left the team to take the head coaching job in Florida, reports TSN’s Darren Dreger (Twitter link). Zettler is no stranger to the organization having served as an assistant for them from 2002-03 to 2007-08 while also playing for them from 1991-92 through 1993-94.  His last coaching duty was with AHL Syracuse from 2012-13 through 2015-16, primarily as their head coach.
  • As expected defenseman Simon Despres cleared release waivers and is now eligible to be bought out, CapFriendly notes on Twitter. Although he missed all but one game due to concussion trouble, Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register confirmed with the NHL and NHLPA that there is a “conceptual agreement on treatment” per Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly that will allow Despres’ deal to be bought out.  It’s worth noting that the blueliner was activated off injured reserve during the postseason although he didn’t get into game action.

Snapshots: Despres, Shero, Hextall, Flames

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Anaheim general manager Bob Murray released a statement regarding the buyout of defenseman Simon Despres. The 25-year-old was placed on waivers earlier in the day with the intention of being bought out. Murray said the following from Anaheim’s twitter account:

“Simon Despres is a good hockey player and a good person. But, at this point, we feel it is the best interests of both Simon and the organization to part ways. We wish him the very best in the future.”

Despres responded as well on Twitter, writing:

“I’d like to thank the for a wonderful 2 and a half years. I wish my teammates all the best moving forward.”

  • Ray Shero still has the #1 pick with a week to go before the draft writes the AP’s Tom Canavan. Shero isn’t denying that he could still trade the pick away, but for all intents and purposes, he told his staff to prepare for taking someone with the first overall choice. The next question: who would they take? Shero told Canavan that the draft reminds him of 2013, where there were four very good players in Nathan MacKinnon, Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Drouin, and Seth Jones. Canavan writes that the Devils need a goal scorer, which would definitely be found in either Nolan Patrick or Nico Hischier, both believed to be the top two prospects in the draft.
  • Flyers general manager Ron Hextall might still make a move writes Philadelphia Inquirer’s  Sam Carchidi. Saying there was a 25-75% chance he makes a move, Hextall is going with the 7-3-1 format and has to decide between Michal Neuvirth and Anthony Stolarz when choosing the one goaltender to protect. Hextall calls it a more “philosophical” decision than a “difficult” one since it essentially comes down to picking a veteran or a rookie. Carchidi also writes that Hextall may still re-sign Steve Mason while saying that he will not be buying out any contracts. Sitting behind New Jersey with the second pick, Hextall also professes to having “no idea” what the Devils will do with the first overall pick.
  • Postmedia’s Kristen Odland reports that the process of an expansion draft is especially taxing to players who have no idea what to expect. She quotes assistant general manager Craig Conroy, who survived an expansion draft with the St.Louis Blues in both 1998 and 2000. Conroy likened it to the trade deadline, saying there’s nothing players can do about it and that they “signed up for this.” Odland lists netminder Brian Elliott as a question mark, wondering if he’ll be protected as free agency looms. With a goalie market that isn’t exactly full of options, she believes that he could be protected, but his struggles during the playoffs may be a reason he’s left off the list.

Snapshots: Drouin, Moscow, Fleury

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Tampa Bay Lightning forward Jonathan Drouin is one of the most interesting names to follow this summer, as he has continued to be linked in trade speculation all around the league. The latest example comes from Conor McKenna of TSN who while admitting he isn’t a trade-breaker, relayed that he’s heard rumblings of a possible Alex Galchenyuk (plus a first-round pick) for Drouin swap. That would certainly be a substantial kickoff to the trade season, as both players are incredible talents who haven’t quite hit the highs predicted of them.

Drouin especially holds high value after breaking out this season with 21 goals and 53 points, while both former third-overall picks (2012 for Galchenyuk, 2013 for Drouin) are restricted free agents this summer and are candidates for long-term deals. Bob McKenzie chimed in earlier with some thoughts on the Montreal forward, saying that “it’s become clear Montreal doesn’t view [Galchenyuk] as a center.” Keep your eyes peeled for movement on both fronts, as even if they’re not traded for each other they could be moved to other teams around the league.

  • The KHL club Dynamo Moscow has been taken over by new ownership, but with it the players have gone on strike due to unpaid salary. The new owners, according to KHL reporter Slava Malamud are standing firm and saying they are not responsible for the debts. There were previous reports that players haven’t been paid in up to six months, and Jason Brough of NBC adds that the team was raided by anti-fraud police earlier this month. Among the players on Moscow last season was Klim Kostin, a top prospect for the upcoming expansion draft who has already said he plans on coming to North America immediately. After seeing first hand what happened to the more veteran players last season, it’s hard to blame him.
  • Marc-Andre Fleury waived his no-movement clause because it was the “right thing [to do] to help the team, to stay with the team, ” telling Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that it gave the team more flexibility. Always considered one of the very best teammates in the league, Fleury’s waiving of his NMC allowed the Penguins to keep him on the roster for their playoff run, something that certainly came in handy when Matt Murray went down in the warm up of the first game. Fleury would lead the team through the first few rounds putting up an incredible performance and allowing Murray to heal fully before returning. If he is now ticketed for Vegas as many have speculated, his final act in Pittsburgh is one for the ages.
  • The Chicago Blackhawks have hired Sheldon Brookbank as an assistant coach for their AHL affiliate, bringing the former defenseman back to an organization where he won a Stanley Cup in 2013. Brookbank was one of the defensemen that Joel Quenneville has played at forward over the years, but didn’t have a huge role on the team in any capacity. He’ll join new Rockford IceHogs head coach Jeremy Colliton behind the bench next season on what is shaping up to be a very young coaching staff.

Snapshots: Petersen, Kovalchuk, Neal

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The Buffalo Sabres are still patiently waiting on a decision from goaltender Cal Petersen on whether or not he’ll start his professional career with the team, or wait for free agency next month. After Petersen declared he would not be returning to school, the Sabres had a 30-day window in which to sign him. John Vogl of the Buffalo News writes that Petersen’s camp is still quiet on his upcoming decision.

The goaltender will become a free agent on July 1st with everyone else through coincidence, and would be highly sought after as a potential future starting goalie. He would be signing a two-year entry-level contract, but after three outstanding years at Notre Dame is considered more polished than many other goaltending prospects. There is a chance he could be in the NHL before that ELC expires, making him extremely valuable to any team that signs him.

  • New Jersey Devils GM Ray Shero joined TSN 1050 today and was asked a series of questions about Ilya Kovalchuk’s potential return. Shero told Pierre LeBrun and the other hosts plainly once again that it’s Jay Grossman (Kovalchuk’s agent) that is guiding the ship right now in terms of which teams are in contact with the Russian sniper. He’ll wait until they have a deal worked out before reaching out and seeing if there is a trade to be made with the interested team. Shero did confirm that Kovalchuk still does intend on returning, despite any rumors out of the KHL that he’s re-considering his position.
  • The Florida Panthers and New York Rangers have both given promotions to their player development staff. Florida has upgraded former captain Bryan McCabe from Director of Player Development to Director of Player Personnel, while New York has installed Jed Ortmeyer as Director of Player Development. The Rangers have also hired Steve Eminger as a Pro Scout after last playing in the AHL in 2015-16. Eminger spent three seasons for the Rangers during his playing career.
  • James Neal played most of the playoffs with a broken hand, according to Nashville Predators GM David Poile at the final team press conference (via Thomas Willis of the team site). The power forward broke it in game one of the Western Conference final, and came back to score the overtime winner that game. Neal has just one year left on his contract and could potentially be exposed by the Predators in the upcoming expansion draft, something Poile is trying his hardest to avoid.
  • Karl Stollery has decided to take his talents to the KHL, as the free agent defender has signed on with Dinamo Riga. Stollery played 11 games with the New Jersey Devils last season, registering just three points. The former Merrimack College standout has just 23 NHL games under his belt but will now try to take the next step in the Russian league.

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