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Snapshots: Snow, Flames, Morozov

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Former Islanders GM Garth Snow hasn’t been officially on the job since 2018 but is only now officially a free agent with his payout from the team ending last month.  Now that he’s allowed to speak publicly, he told Kevin Kurz of The Athletic (subscription link) that he is hoping to join another franchise in some sort of front-office capacity.  Snow had a rather strange journey to the front office, going from being New York’s backup goalie to their GM in a matter of weeks.  The team didn’t have a lot of playoff success under his watch (they got past the first round just once) but several players he drafted during his tenure are playing key roles for the Isles.  While a GM job doesn’t seem likely, it’s possible that Snow could land a different role in someone’s front office in the coming months.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Speaking with reporters today including Ryan Pike of Flames Nation (Twitter link), Calgary GM Craig Conroy stated that he’s hoping to have a new AHL head coach in place within the next week or so. Mitch Love was the reigning two-time Louis AR Pieri Memorial Award winner for Coach of the Year but after being passed up for the top job in Calgary, he accepted an assistant coaching role with Washington earlier this summer.
  • Vegas’ AHL team in Henderson announced that they have loaned winger Ivan Morozov to Spartak of the KHL for next season. The 23-year-old played his first full season in North America last season, picking up six goals and 11 assists in 57 games.  Morozov has one year left on his contract with the Golden Knights and considering that he’ll be spending next season overseas, it seems safe to infer that he’s unlikely to be re-signed at this point in time.  If that’s the case, it won’t be a great return on a late second-round selection from back in 2018 (61st overall).

Snapshots: Pettersson, Blackhawks, Draper, Rangers

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In an appearance on CHEK’s Donnie and Dhali (video link), J.P. Barry, the agent for center Elias Pettersson, indicated that he doesn’t expect to have any discussions about a possible contract extension for his client until the end of the summer.  It’s not a matter of early discussions not going well but rather a decision to just take a break for the summer and reassess closer to training camp.  The 24-year-old is eligible to put pen to paper on a new deal now and is certainly coming off a great showing in 2022-23, notching 39 goals and 63 assists (both career highs) while finishing tenth in league scoring.  The Canucks owe him a qualifying offer of $8.82MM next summer and his performance last year coupled with an anticipated jump in the salary cap could have his camp looking to surpass $10MM on his next agreement.  That’s a deal that is going to take some time to put together.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Speaking with reporters today including Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago, Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson indicated he feels that the bulk of the heavy lifting this summer is done although they will need to finalize a deal with RFA Philipp Kurashev who filed for arbitration today. Chicago has been active this summer, adding veterans Taylor Hall, Nick Foligno, Corey Perry, and Ryan Donato up front to augment an offense that has also added top pick Connor Bedard (who also needs to sign his entry-level deal).  They still have ample cap space so if the opportunity presents itself to utilize it over the coming weeks, it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Blackhawks make another move at some point.
  • After spending the last four seasons as Detroit’s Director of Amateur Scouting, the team announced that Kris Draper has been named as the Red Wings’ new Assistant GM; Draper will retain his old position as well. As a player, Draper spent 17 seasons with the Red Wings as a key checking center, helping them win four Stanley Cup titles.  He retired in 2011 and immediately joined Detroit’s front office, working his way up from Special Assistant to the GM.
  • The Rangers have a new affiliate team as the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones announced that they have affiliated with the organization. Previously, the Cyclones had been with Buffalo for the past six seasons while New York had been with Jacksonville since 2021.

Snapshots: Granlund, Wheeler, Canadiens

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Taylor Haase of DKPittsburghSports is reporting that the Pittsburgh Penguins are not going to buyout Mikael Granlund before the 5pm buyout window later today. Granlund has had his name thrown around for weeks as a player that was likely to bought out, but it appears he will remain with the Penguins barring a trade, or a buyout in the second buyout window should one open for Pittsburgh.

Granlund was acquired on trade deadline day by previous Penguins general manager Ron Hextall and did not fit in well with the club. After posting 36 points in 58 games with the Nashville Predators, Granlund was traded to Pittsburgh for a second-round pick and put up just a goal and four assists in 21 games as the Penguins failed to qualify for the playoffs. If he does remain with the Penguins, it’ll be interesting to see how head coach Mike Sullivan deploys the 31-year-old as he was not a fit in the Penguins bottom-6 and the recently acquired Reilly Smith is expected to take their vacant left-wing spot on the second line.

Some more snapshots from around the league:

  • Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet tweeted that recent buyout recipient Blake Wheeler would prefer to play for an Eastern Conference team to have a new experience and less travel. The news comes from Wheeler’s agent Matt Keator and it makes sense given Wheeler’s age and his family considerations. The former Winnipeg Jets captain is a free agent for the first time and should have several teams to consider given that is coming off a season in which he posted 16 goals and 39 assists in 72 games.
  • Eric Engels of Sportsnet is reporting that he expects the Montreal Canadiens to be quiet in free agency as the team has a lot of players that they would like to move to open roster spots for their younger prospects. While Engels jokes about Canadiens’ general manager Kent Hughes putting his phone on silent, he does concede that the Canadiens could add a player if they fit into both the short-term and long-term parts of their rebuild plan. He mentions Mike Hoffman, Joel Edmundson, and Christian Dvorak as players Montreal would like to move on from and given that all three are veterans on expensive cap hits it does seem unlikely for the Canadiens to acquire more of that through free agency.

Snapshots: Dubois, Lucic, Galchenyuk

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The Los Angeles Kings and Winnipeg Jets appeared close to a Pierre-Luc Dubois trade over the weekend, but things haven’t progressed as quickly as expected. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports that there is “still work to be done” and that the Jets haven’t even given Los Angeles permission to discuss an extension with the center.

Arpon Basu of The Athletic, meanwhile, tweets that the Montreal Canadiens are still open to finding a way to make it work, if the Kings aren’t able to close the deal. Darren Dreger of TSN adds that the Canadiens have re-engaged, making it unclear where Dubois will actually end up.

  • One landing spot has been ruled out for Milan Lucic, as Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK TV reports that the Vancouver Canucks are no longer in the mix. The Canucks had reportedly expressed interest in the pending free agent forward, who will be leaving the Calgary Flames after three seasons. Now 35, there is no longer much offensive upside in the veteran forward, but he can still be an imposing physical presence on the ice.
  • Alex Galchenyuk, the player acquired by the Nashville Predators in yesterday’s Ryan Johansen deal, will not be re-signed by the team according to LeBrun. His inclusion was simply to clear a contract slot off the books for the Colorado Avalanche. The 29-year-old Galchenyuk played just 11 games in the NHL this season, failing to record a single point.

Snapshots: Lyon, Love, Hockeyville

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Sergei Bobrovsky’s magical run for the Florida Panthers throughout most of the playoffs erased a lot of memories of the netminder who got them there in the first place. 30-year-old Alex Lyon, who started the season as the team’s third-string netminder, recorded a 6-2-1 record and .930 save percentage while playing in nine of the team’s final 12 games of the regular season, helping them snag a playoff spot after sitting on the outside looking in for much of the season.

Yesterday, Lyon’s agent, Pete Rutili of Wasserman Hockey, told Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic that his client’s preference is to stay in the Sunshine State, but there have been no talks between the Panthers and their pending unrestricted free agent. Florida expects youngster Spencer Knight back in the fold next season after taking time in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program, so Lyon wouldn’t have a likely NHL role if he returns. After seven seasons and more than 200 games of AHL action, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if Lyon went elsewhere to find an easier path to more NHL action in 2023-24.

More from the NHL news cycle today:

  • The head coach of the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers, Mitch Love, hasn’t completely cut ties with the Flames after being passed over for their head coaching vacancy in favor of his predecessor in the minors, Ryan Huska. TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that while Love is still looking elsewhere for jobs on an NHL bench, he’s had discussions with the Flames about joining Huska’s staff as an assistant. Love has won AHL Coach of the Year honors in both of his two campaigns behind the Wranglers (formerly Stockton Heat) bench and guided them to a Pacific Division Final loss against the Coachella Valley Firebirds, who are now just one win away from the Calder Cup.
  • Next year’s Canadian Kraft Hockeyville preseason matchups will honor both the 2022 and 2023 winners of the award, seeing the NHL head to West Lorne, Ontario, on September 27 and Sydney, Nova Scotia, on October 1. Atlantic Division teams will comprise both matchups, with the Buffalo Sabres and Toronto Maple Leafs facing off in West Lorne before the Florida Panthers and Ottawa Senators play in the Sydney showcase.

Snapshots: Willander, Steen, Sheahan

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The vast majority of high-end draft prospects that head to American collegiate hockey after their draft year do so after playing prominent roles either with the United States National Development Team Program or excelling in the USHL. Swedish defenseman Tom Willander, a likely first-round selection in next week’s 2023 NHL Draft, will buck that trend. He told NHL.com last weekend he’s now committed to spending 2023-24 at Boston University after spending all of last season with Rogle BK J20 in the J20 Nationell, Sweden’s top junior league.

Willander’s strong performance at the 2023 IIHF U18 World Championship with Sweden saw him rocket up most public draft boards, displaying his high-energy two-way play en route to scoring eight points in seven games and posting a +6 rating. The 6-foot-1, 179-pound defender is ranked 12th among European skaters by NHL Central Scouting but has been rumored as an option some teams are considering in the early teens of the first round. Willander dressed for two SHL games with Rogle early in the season, but he didn’t ever touch the ice – maintaining his collegiate eligibility in the process.

Other tidbits from the NHL news cycle today:

  • 2019 Stanley Cup champion Alexander Steen could return to NHL work in some capacity, surmises Bally Sports Midwest’s Andy Strickland. The 2002 first-round selection of the Toronto Maple Leafs would go on to play just over 1,000 NHL games, 765 of which came in a St. Louis Blues jersey. A revered versatile two-way forward, Steen retired 18 months after lifting the Stanley Cup for the first time in his career. If he is to join the ranks of NHLers to keep working in the league in front-office roles, it’s hard to imagine it being with another team than the Blues.
  • NHL coaching hopeful Brock Sheahan will have to wait a little longer for his first role on an NHL bench, as he’s rejoined the University of Notre Dame in an associate head coaching role. Sheahan, 39, rose to prominence behind the bench of the USHL’s Chicago Steel, guiding them to a Clark Cup in 2021 and coaching many high-end NHL prospects, including 2023 draft-eligible center Adam Fantilli, Calgary Flames winger Matthew Coronato, Montreal Canadiens center Sean Farrell, and Florida Panthers winger Mackie Samoskevich. He joined the Carolina Hurricanes in 2022-23, taking over as head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. With the Wolves deciding to operate independently of an NHL organization next season, Sheahan found himself on the open market after just one year there. He returns to Notre Dame, where he played four seasons from 2004 to 2008 and spent the 2013-14 campaign as an assistant coach.

Snapshots: Michkov, Coyotes, Canucks

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Earlier today, we relayed a report from TSN’s Bob McKenzie that prized but risky Russian 2023 NHL Draft prospect Matvei Michkov has multiple interviews scheduled with NHL teams after arriving in Nashville for next week’s big day. In terms of which teams are expected to meet with him, mark the Washington Capitals down as an absolute.

Per The Hockey News’ Sammi Silber, relaying a report from Russian outlet Match.TV, the Capitals are quite high on potentially the best Russian prospect since Alex Ovechkin and are aiming to select him eighth overall – if he falls there. Michkov’s exceptional skill and potential obviously make him an attractive candidate for any team, but it’s still unclear how teams will weigh the political factors at play that could impede his ability to come to play in the NHL. As part of Silber’s report, it’s noted that Michkov was instructed not to meet with NHL representatives while still in Russia, explaining last week’s reported dodging of interviews on his part.

The Capitals seem willing to take the risk, considering their history of success in getting KHL talents to terminate their deals and sign with Washington.

Also in the NHL landscape today:

  • The oft-reported Fiesta Mall site in Mesa, Arizona, is not a leading candidate for the next home of the Arizona Coyotes, PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan says. The team is still exploring various sites for a new arena, with potential other locations in Mesa, Phoenix, Scottsdale, and on Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community land. They’re again aiming to choose a site that caters to their season-ticket holder base, which is predominantly located on the east side of the city, but as Morgan says, are doing everything in their power to avoid another public vote determining the team’s future in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
  • After using a massive buyout on defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, the Canucks are still undecided on how they want to use their newfound cap space, says Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Speaking on CHEK TV’s Donnie and Dhali show, Friedman reports the Canucks were simply seeking flexibility with the buyout and are looking to upgrade every skater position. The team has at least $6.4MM of space to work with this offseason, per CapFriendly, which could end up being as high as the $15MM neighborhood depending on the injury and contract statuses of forward Tanner Pearson and defensemen Ethan Bear and Tucker Poolman.

Snapshots: Panthers, Nichushkin, Canucks

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While teams will be busy on July 1st trying to add free agents, some will also be trying to lock up their own players to early extensions.  In the latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link), Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggests that the Panthers will be one trying to do the latter when it comes to defensemen Brandon Montour and Gustav Forsling, believing they’ll take a run at trying to lock both of them up early.  Montour had a breakout campaign this past season, picking up 73 points in 80 games.  His previous career-best in points came in 2021-22 when he had 37.  As for Forsling, he also set new benchmarks offensively across the board, picking up 41 points in 82 games while logging over 23 minutes a night.  The two players will make just under $6.2MM combined next season; it might cost more than twice that much to keep them around after that.

Elsewhere around the NHL:

  • Colorado winger Valeri Nichushkin will return to the team next season, a team spokesman confirmed to Kyle Frederickson of The Denver Gazette. The 28-year-old left the Avalanche during their first-round series against Colorado for what the team called personal reasons following an incident where a severely intoxicated woman was found in his hotel room.  He did not return during the rest of the series.  Nichushkin is not under police investigation for the incident.  After the season, GM Chris MacFarland indicated that he hoped that Nichushkin would be “a very important part of our team in the future” and with seven years remaining on his contract, they’ll be expecting him to be a core piece moving forward after picking up 99 points in 115 games over the last two seasons.
  • Following their buyout of Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Thomas Drance of The Athletic suggests (subscription link) that the move could impact Vancouver’s upcoming first-round pick. In order for the Canucks to get through the tough years of the buyout (2025-26 and 2026-27), they’re going to need some value contracts on the books.  Vancouver has the 11th-overall pick in the draft later this month and if they’re able to get someone that projects to be NHL-ready within two seasons, that would help ease the burden of the higher buyout cost.  It also might make them disinclined to consider trading down or out for win-now help that won’t be around (or as affordable) two years from now.

Snapshots: Winnipeg, Hayes, Sharangovich

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The WHL’s Winnipeg Ice are on the move again after spending just four years in the city, TSN’s Darren Dreger reports Friday. After moving from Cranbrook in the Kootenay region of British Columbia in 2019, a condition of the sale to new owners in Winnipeg was a new facility for the team. The condition was never met, and now the team has been sold to former 2017 BCHL executive of the year David White, who will move them to Wenatchee, Washington, a town with a population of about 35,000 people in the center of the state. For now, it seems the new Wenatchee WHL squad will share the ice with White’s BCHL team, the Wenatchee Wild, at the Town Toyota Center with a capacity of 4,300 people.

Winnipeg lost in this year’s WHL championship series and boasts an eye-popping record of 110-20-6 over the past two seasons combined. The franchise’s debut season in Wenatchee could include Buffalo Sabres prospect Matthew Savoie and Arizona Coyotes prospect Conor Geekie, both first-round picks in the 2022 NHL Draft.

Other notes from around the hockey world today:

  • On today’s episode of Sportsnet’s 32 Thoughts, Elliotte Friedman dumped some cold water on the rumors of a Kevin Hayes trade between the Philadelphia Flyers and Columbus Blue Jackets. After the two teams were involved in a three-way deal that saw Ivan Provorov head from the Flyers to the Jackets, reports said the move didn’t eliminate the possibility of the long-rumored Hayes deal coming to fruition. However, the Blue Jackets now have under $6MM in projected cap space for 2023-24 (CapFriendly) after getting defender Damon Severson from the New Jersey Devils in a sign-and-trade, which would force the Flyers to retain a high amount of Hayes’ $7.14MM cap hit through 2025-26. While Columbus remains in desperate need of centers, general manager Jarmo Kekalainen now has seven defensemen on the roster that cost more than $2MM against the cap, including a combined $6.75MM wrapped up in Erik Gudbranson and Andrew Peeke, who both had very disappointing campaigns last season.
  • Another name mentioned by Friedman was that of New Jersey Devils forward Yegor Sharangovich, who Friedman believes could hit the trade market this offseason. The 25-year-old Belarusian is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights after completing a two-year, $4MM contract signed in August of 2021 and has registered at least 30 points in all three of his NHL campaigns. He is a decent depth scorer, but he’s not of much value defensively and posted the lowest point-per-game output of his NHL career (0.40) last season. He was a healthy scratch for most of New Jersey’s playoff run, appearing in three out of 12 games.

Snapshots: Blues, Gritsyuk, Watson

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The St. Louis Blues have filled out the rest of next season’s coaching staff, hiring Mike Weber as an assistant coach and Michael Babcock as a skills coach today. Late last week, we covered how the Blues were looking to replace their two coaching vacancies soon, in which the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Matthew DeFranks hinted at the possibility of a skills coach hire.

Weber, 35, played 351 NHL games across an eight-season career with the Buffalo Sabres and Washington Capitals. He’d since returned to the Sabres organization, spending the past three seasons as an assistant coach with the AHL’s Rochester Americans. Michael Babcock is the son of soon-to-be Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Mike Babcock, and despite being just 28 years old, this isn’t his first NHL job. He spent the 2022-23 campaign with the Ottawa Senators, doing work with pre-scouting and on-ice skill development, the Blues said.

The two incoming hires replace Mike Van Ryn and Craig MacTavish on the Blues bench, who the team let go of two months ago to the day.

  • New Jersey Devils winger prospect Arseni Gritsyuk won’t be heading to North America until 2025, his agent told NJ.com’s Ryan Novozinsky. Selected in the fifth round of the 2019 NHL Draft, Gritsyuk, now 22, broke out for 15 goals and 40 points in 66 KHL games this season with Avangard Omsk. The 5-foot-11, 192-pound Russian’s speed is his defining factor, and the Devils certainly hope that production transfers over in two seasons when Gritsyuk joins the team.
  • The Detroit Red Wings have named Dan Watson the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, the team said today. Watson had spent the past six years in the organization as the head coach of their ECHL affiliate, the Toledo Walleye, so he’ll have familiarity with a spattering of players already on the Griffins’ roster. Before that, he was an associate coach in Toledo alongside then-head coach Derek Lalonde, now behind Detroit’s NHL bench.

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