Snapshots: Hronek, Bratt, Michkov
The Vancouver Canucks paid a handsome price to the Detroit Red Wings last season in order to acquire defenseman Filip Hronek, surrendering a first and second-round pick. Part of their rationale in acquiring Hronek was that ascending right-shot blueliners capable of scoring at or above a 40-point pace are exceedingly rare, and by acquiring Hronek the team managed to add a defenseman who would arguably slot in as their best behind franchise blueliner Quinn Hughes.
But with just four total games under his belt and a contract set to expire at the end of the season (he’ll be an RFA, one season away from UFA status) the 2023-24 season is shaping up to be a massive one in determining whether the Canucks’ investment in Hronek will be a lasting one. As TSN’s Travis Yost writes, Vancouver is “betting on” Hronek emerging as a capable, reliable top-four defenseman and building on the development he showed over the last two years in Detroit. If he can shore up a spot as the Canucks’ number-two defenseman, a long-term extension in Vancouver could come before the end of the season.
Some other notes from across the NHL:
- New Jersey Devils winger Jesper Bratt had put off settling down and signing a long-term contract extension until this past summer, and that patience paid off as his back-to-back 73-point seasons earned him a $7.875MM AAV deal that stretches through the 2030-31 season. Despite now earning that guaranteed financial security, Bratt explained to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on the 32 Thoughts podcast that the removal of the pressure of playing on a one-year deal won’t impact his preparation or motivation for the seasons to come. Bratt said “Now that the eight-year deal has come around, I know what it means,” adding that “work that has to be put in every day” so that he can live up to the lofty price tag. The Devils have grand designs for their era of contention led by Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier, and if the team ends up achieving those lofty goals next season it’s highly likely Bratt will be a major reason why.
- Philadelphia Flyers top prospect Matvei Michkov was a healthy scratch for his KHL club’s season-opening game today, according to NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jordan Hall. The 2023 seventh-overall pick is beginning the first of three seasons left on his KHL contract and scored 20 points in 27 games on loan with HK Sochi last season. His success as a scorer last season raises questions as to why Michkov has been scratched, especially seeing as the move was not, per Hall, injury-related. While Michkov has a long runway to develop his game before he’ll have to hit the ice for the Flyers, it’s certainly not a positive for either Michkov or Flyers fans that he’s not drawing into SKA St. Petersburg’s lineup.
Snapshots: Parayko, Norfolk Admirals, Penguins TV Deal
When a team in the NHL takes a step back and performs below expectations, typically there will also be a few key players on that team who have taken individual steps back, steps back that help contribute to the larger decline. The St. Louis Blues had a difficult 2022-23 season, one that saw them finish outside the playoffs. That’s been a rarity during the Blues’ current competitive run, one that yielded the franchise’s first-ever Stanley Cup championship in 2019, and one of the bigger reasons for that step back was the decline of key defenseman Colton Parayko.
Parayko, 30, is making $6.5MM AAV through 2029-30 but saw his all-around results decline from 2021-22 to 2022-23. He went from 35 points scored to 27, his ice time went down a tick, and his defensive play was not up to his usually high standards. That led to speculation that the Blues and Parayko could seek out a change of scenery in the offseason, though that didn’t end up coming to pass. Those trade rumors haven’t deterred Parayko, either, who told The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford that he plans on remaining a Blue “for a long time.” (subscription link) As the owner of a full no-trade clause, it’s going to be up to him whether that actually happens, and it appears moving forward both parties view a bounce-back season as the optimal solution to Parayko’s decline rather than a trade.
Some other notes from across the NHL:
- The Carolina Hurricanes have announced a working agreement with the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals that will allow the Hurricanes to assign prospects to the ECHL club. The Admirals are the official affiliates of the Winnipeg Jets, but per this agreement, they’ll share the ability to send prospects to Norfolk alongside Winnipeg. The ECHL is typically not where NHL teams send most of their prospects, but in the case that the Hurricanes find they need to send a prospect to North America’s third-tier league they now have a clear path to do so.
- The Pittsburgh Penguins announced “SportsNet Pittsburgh” today, finalizing the home of Penguins hockey for all regionally televised games. Per the announcement, the Penguins “entered into an agreement to acquire and re-brand the existing AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh network,” the Penguins’ regional sports network from last season. There has been significant uncertainty in the regional sports broadcasting market in recent months, but with this announcement Penguins fans get some clarity as to what entity will broadcast their team’s games moving forward.
Morning Notes: Super 16, Blackhawks, Whynot
NHL.com’s writers have released their Super 16 pre-training camp power rankings, and the defending champion Vegas Golden Knights sit atop the list. Despite a lack of a clear-cut starting goalie and depth concerns, the league website’s voters still consider the Golden Knights the team to beat, with NHL.com’s senior editorial director Shawn P. Roarke claiming there’s “no reason they can’t overcome [those issues] again.” The Carolina Hurricanes come in at number two as the top Eastern Conference team after reaching the Conference Finals last season and bolstering their roster with several key free-agent signings, such as Michael Bunting and Dmitry Orlov. A pair of Central Division powerhouses in the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche round out the top four, while the New Jersey Devils land at number five after their young core broke out to lead the team to a 112-point performance in the 2022-23 season. Two non-playoff teams from last season broke into their rankings, both in the Eastern Conference: the Buffalo Sabres at 16 and the Pittsburgh Penguins at 14. The New York Islanders and Winnipeg Jets didn’t make the cut after earning wild-card berths in their respective conferences last season.
Elsewhere from around the hockey world this morning:
- According to The Athletic’s Scott Powers, the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs have hired Matt Smith as their goalie development coach. At 33 years old, Smith has already had coaching stints with the Soo Greyhounds and Guelph Storm of the OHL, but he hasn’t been on any team’s staff since the 2017-18 season with Guelph. Nonetheless, the Blackhawks will look to Smith to play a crucial role in developing a pair of promising goalies within the Blackhawks organization slated to form Rockford’s tandem next season: Drew Commesso and Jaxson Stauber.
- After the Calgary Flames conceded the exclusive signing rights to defense prospect Cameron Whynot, the 20-year-old will now suit up for Acadia University in Canada instead of turning pro, according to SaltWire’s Willy Palov. The Flames opted not to sign the 2021 third-round pick to an entry-level contract earlier this summer after a pair of disappointing post-draft seasons with the QMJHL’s Halifax Mooseheads, during which he failed to eclipse the 0.68 points per game and the +13 rating he posted during his draft year. It’ll be at least another summer before Whynot attempts to make the jump to pro hockey, likely by signing an AHL or ECHL contract (or heading overseas).
Snapshots: Kuznetsov, Tocchet, Bochek
In his ongoing series throughout the summer, Adam Proteau of The Hockey News touched on Washington Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov and explained that he is on the hottest seat for the Capitals entering into the upcoming season. Although Washington and Kuznetsov seem intent on starting the 2023-24 season together, the Russian forward has not officially rescinded his trade request from last summer.
Following up on one of the most disappointing seasons of his career, Kuznetsov has a lot to prove this year. Last season, playing in 81 games, Kuznetsov scored 12 goals and 43 assists with a -26 rating, not quite living up to his $7.8MM salary. If the Capitals hope to move Kuznetsov for something substantive, or even hope to make the playoffs in a loaded Metropolitan division, they will need Kuznetsov to find his old form in the top six.
Washington might be best served in transferring Kuznetsov to the wing and allowing Nicklas Backstrom and Dylan Strome to take the top two center positions on the roster. Both Backstrom and Strome play significantly better defensively, and Kuznetsov would likely fit in nicely on the second-line left-wing role. Nevertheless, new head coach Spencer Carbery and the entire organization will have to do much better in getting the maximum potential out of Kuznetsov next year.
Other snapshots:
- In an interview with Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet, head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, Rick Tocchet, touched on several topics, including the pending restricted free agency of Elias Pettersson, and the ceiling of the Canucks headed into next season. Tocchet notes that if Vancouver can’t make the playoffs next year, the organization will need to “check most of the boxes” to entice him to stay, such as improvements from the coaching & development staff, as well as team cohesion throughout the season. Tocchet also said that the team is “capable of success”, but would not elaborate entirely on his use of the word ‘success’.
- General Manager of the Arizona Coyotes, Bill Armstrong, announced a multi-year contract extension with Development Skills Coach, Kyle Bochek. It is unclear how long the contract will be for, but Bochek will be entering his third season in the Coyotes organization, having worked with both NHL and AHL talent. Arizona must have some trust in Bochek, as the team has graduated players such as Matias Maccelli and Dylan Guenther under his watch.
East Notes: Östlund, Reinbacher, Gomez, Bochner
The Buffalo Sabres confirmed today they’ll be loaning 2022 first-round pick Noah Östlund to the Växjö Lakers of the Swedish Hockey League. It’s unclear what the delay was in Buffalo announcing the move – Växjö confirmed it in early June. Regardless, it presents a step up for Östlund, as the 19-year-old center spent last season in the second-tier Allsvenskan with Djurgårdens IF, where he recorded a respectable 26 points in 37 games. He’ll aim to carve out a top-nine (potentially even top-six) role in Växjö, who is coming off two SHL championships in the span of three years. This is expected to be his last season in Sweden before coming to North America to play for either the Sabres or AHL’s Rochester Americans in 2024-25.
Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:
- In some other loan news, CapFriendly reports the Montreal Canadiens have recalled 2023 fifth-overall pick David Reinbacher from EHC Kloten of the Swiss National League ahead of rookie camp next month. Reinbacher will not suit up for them this season, however – they’re expected to return him to Switzerland when training camp is over, and he’ll lace up the skates in a top-four role for Kloten. The 6-foot-2, 194-pound right-shot Austrian defender could see full-time NHL action as soon as the 2024-25 season.
- Former New Jersey Devils forward Scott Gomez has found a new post-hockey home with the BCHL’s Surrey Eagles, the junior A club with which he posted 124 points in just 56 games with during the 1996-97 season. Gomez, a Calder Trophy winner and two-time Stanley Cup champion with New Jersey, will be an assistant coach next season. Gomez has not worked behind a bench in nearly five years, last serving as an assistant coach with the New York Islanders from 2017 to 2019.
- The Carolina Hurricanes have hired Daniel Bochner as a development coach, according to a team release. The 38-year-old has spent the last five seasons on staff with the KHL’s SKA St. Petersburg in a player development role, graduating to an assistant coach job in 2020-21. Born in Toronto, the former pro defenseman carries Israeli nationality and represented them at multiple low-level World Championship tournaments throughout the 2000s.
Goalie Notes: Forsberg, Leinonen, Schwab
Ottawa Senators goaltender Anton Forsberg is geared up for the upcoming training camp, telling The Athletic’s Ian Mendes he’s fully recovered from a double MCL tear sustained during a goalmouth collision in February.
“I’ve been back to 100 percent for a long time,” Forsberg told Mendes. “I would have been back last year if we made the playoffs.” He’ll be entering next season as part of what Ottawa hopes is a more fortified goalie tandem, with Joonas Korpisalo replacing Cam Talbot as Forsberg’s partner in the crease. Forsberg has given Ottawa some solid play since once again breaking out as a full-time NHLer in Canada’s capital, accumulating a 33-28-6 record, .912 save percentage, 2.98 goals-against average, and three shutouts over the past two seasons. He says he can return to that level of play, as he told Mendes he doesn’t feel any lingering effects from the major knee injuries – a remarkable statement given they occurred just six months ago. If he can maintain the solid numbers and challenge Korpisalo for the lion’s share of the starts, Ottawa does have a true shot at breaking through into the postseason for the first time since losing in the 2017 Eastern Conference Final.
Some other goalie-related items of interest:
- Buffalo Sabres goalie prospect Topias Leinonen will miss the beginning of 2023-24 due to injury, The Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski relays. Buffalo selected the massive 6-foot-5, 234-pound netminder in the second round of the 2022 NHL Draft, but he struggled last season with just a .885 save percentage in the Finnish junior circuit. He’ll miss around the first two months of the Liiga season, although he’s expected to take on a backup role for JYP once he returns.
- The Arizona Coyotes have confirmed the last of their remaining extensions for their assistant coaches, signing goalie coach Corey Schwab to a multi-year deal. Schwab is one of the Coyotes’ longest-tenured organizational members at this point, serving with the team as a coach in some capacity since 2015. While the team hasn’t had much success during his tenure, goaltending has been far from an issue – names like Adin Hill, Darcy Kuemper, Antti Raanta, and Karel Vejmelka have all churned out solid performances under Schwab’s tutelage.
Snapshots: McDavid, Kuznetsov, Matthews
Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews will always be inextricably linked. They were selected with back-to-back first-overall picks by, as of now, the two best Canadian teams in the league. Therefore, it’s not surprising public discourse has shifted once again to McDavid’s future in Edmonton after Matthews signed his four-year, $53MM extension in Toronto yesterday.
Speaking with Sportsnet’s Mark Spector, when asked about a contract extension, McDavid said, “We’re super comfortable [in Edmonton],” but an extension is also “three years down the road. We’ve got to kind of see where our lives are at and kind of go from there.” He went on to re-avow his commitment to winning a championship with Edmonton’s core. While the tonality of McDavid’s statement may raise some eyebrows, it really shouldn’t – the Oilers’ superstar isn’t exactly known for his unfiltered approach to interviews. While there is always the chance McDavid departs in free agency should things in Edmonton go horribly wrong over the next few seasons, it’s far from becoming a likely scenario, at least at this stage.
More from the NHL today:
- One surprisingly quiet storyline throughout the offseason has been that of Washington Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov, who the team confirmed had requested a trade earlier this summer. In an interview with NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti earlier this week, Capitals incoming head coach Spencer Carbery said he’s spoken with Kuznetsov multiple times this summer and “it sounds like there’s a real focus to his preparation for next season.” While it’s far from a confirmation he’s rescinded his trade request, Kuznetsov staying in the nation’s capital and returning to form could very well thrust Washington back into the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race, something captain Alex Ovechkin would certainly love to see while he chases the NHL’s all-time goals record.
- Matthews’ extension may be the richest per season of the salary cap era, but it still hasn’t surpassed McDavid’s deal as taking up the highest percentage of the salary cap when signed, Sportsnet’s Sonny Sachdeva points out. McDavid’s eight-year, $100MM deal, which kicked in for the 2018-19 campaign, took up a record 16.67% of the cap’s Upper Limit when it was signed in July 2017. Matthews’ deal, on the other hand, which carries an average annual value of $750K higher than McDavid’s, takes up 15.87% of the cap at the time of signing.
Senators Notes: Pinto, Arena, Korpisalo
There doesn’t appear to have been progress on contract talks between the Ottawa Senators and restricted free agent forward Shane Pinto, says The Athletic’s Ian Mendes. Pinto’s agent, Lewis Gross, declined to comment when Mendes reached out to him for an update last week, and Mendes anticipates “radio silence” in the near future. While the Senators would certainly love to have Pinto under contract when training camps kick off a month from today, they technically have until December 1 to sign Pinto to a deal for him to maintain eligibility to play in the NHL this season.
Drafted 32nd overall in 2019, Pinto’s stock rose sharply this season after he shouldered some top-six minutes at times with Joshua Norris limited to just eight games with a shoulder injury. That being said, his production didn’t jump off the page. He did score 20 goals, finishing sixth on the team, but he added just 15 assists to finish with 35 points in 82 games. He likely won’t command a significant number on a short-term extension, but anything above the league minimum is incredibly tough for the Senators to make work at the moment. After signing Vladimir Tarasenko to a one-year, $5MM pact earlier this month, CapFriendly projects the Senators with just $895K assuming a bare-minimum roster of 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
More on the Sens:
- Mendes also mentioned another area of interest for Senators fans, the status of a potential new arena, which remains in flux with Michael Andlauer set to take over as the team’s majority owner. Ottawa mayor Mark Sutcliffe had spoken to Mendes earlier in the summer, referencing a Canadian Department of National Defense building downtown as another potential site as compared to the long-rumored LeBreton Flats plot. However, with the government’s lease on the building slated to run through 2035, construction could take quite a while to start before the Sens see their new home. That’s not to say a solution won’t be found sooner, but Mendes believes Andlauer’s initial priorities will lie with the team on the ice, putting discussions on a new, more centrally located home on the back burner for the time being.
- Free agent addition Joonas Korpisalo spoke to NHL.com’s Mike Zeisberger over the weekend, saying he’s excited to get to work in Ottawa with an old friend in goalie tandem partner Anton Forsberg. The two netminders have won a pro championship together already, winning the 2016 Calder Cup while members of the AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters in the Columbus Blue Jackets organization. Korpisalo arguably had the best season of his career in 2022-23, starting a career-high 37 games while putting up a very respectable .914 save percentage, given he played the majority of the year on a Blue Jackets team with a rather hapless defense thanks to a score of injuries. On a more competitive team in Los Angeles after a late-season trade, Korpisalo excelled with a .921 mark down the stretch. That being said, the five-year, $20MM contract Ottawa signed him to this summer is widely viewed as a serious gamble, and rightly so – Korpisalo has just a .904 career average across more than 200 games of NHL experience and has no experience starting the majority of his team’s games.
Snapshots: Toews, Norway, Andrae
A few days ago, speaking on NHL Tonight, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period spoke in great length about some of the options that the Boston Bruins had been looking at to start their offseason. He mentioned that the Bruins had kicked the tires in July on potentially landing Mark Scheifele from the Winnipeg Jets, and had also mildly looked into the price tag of both Elias Lindholm and Mikael Backlund from the Calgary Flames.
Pagnotta also noted the potential fit between the Bruins and NHL veteran Jonathan Toews. Even though Toews had primarily been working on getting healthy and recovering from the effects of Long Covid, the Bruins were on Toews’ radar dating back to last year as a potential destination. Only a day later from that interview, we would learn that Toews has decided he will forego the entirety of the 2023-24 NHL season, and look to make a comeback for the 2024-25 campaign.
If Boston starts the season with Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha as their top two centermen heading into the season, being unable to replace the void left by the retirements of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, it will not be from lack of trying. Without much in the way of draft capital for the next two seasons, and the lack of cap flexibility, the Bruins will largely have to look to trade from their NHL roster if they have any hope of acquiring a high-end talent to man the middle of the ice.
Other snapshots:
- In an article from Matthis Karlsson of Sport Bladet, the Norwegian National Team has been shut down for the time being. After losing $9MM in 2022, all but the country’s J20 National Team will cease operations moving forward. Not only will the team be shut down, but Karlsson also mentions that five members of the team’s union have been let go in an effort to cut costs. It is more bad news for the National club, as the team has finished in 13th place in the last three consecutive World Championships, and was unable to qualify for the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
- Emil Andrae, a second-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2020 NHL Draft will reportedly be coming to North America for the 2023-24 season (X Link). Playing for HV71 of the SHL last season, Andrae put up an impressive six goals and 20 assists in 51 games as a 21-year-old. Rising through the ranks of the Flyers’ prospect pool, it is unlikely that Andrae will make the team out of training camp, and will likely spend the majority of next season playing for the team’s AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Snapshots: Avalanche Depth, Senators, Weegar
In an article today from Peter Baugh of The Athletic, he takes a look at some of the internal options available to the Colorado Avalanche in terms of their bottom-sixth depth. Baugh argues, that when the season begins, given a clean bill of health, there are 10 forwards that should already have their names penciled in for opening night of 2023-24.
The most oft-mentioned names that Baugh believes will fill out the depth of the Avalanche will be forwards Fredrik Olofsson, who was acquired in a mid-June trade with the Dallas Stars, and Ben Meyers, who was signed out of the University of Minnesota during the 2021-22 regular season. Given the overall youth of some of the players that Colorado could use to fill out their roster, both Olofsson and Meyers seem to be solid projections.
Unfortunately for the Avalanche, and albeit holding a very small sample size, neither player has played particularly well in their short careers. The team still has just over $2MM available in cap space when factoring in the LTIR placement of captain Gabriel Landeskog, and could seek other relatively cheap options still left in unrestricted free agency to fill out their roster. Players such as Paul Stastny, Phil Kessel, Josh Bailey, and Nick Ritchie are still without homes for the 2023-24 regular season, and would likely be seeking contracts that would fit in nicely with Colorado’s current cap situation.
Other snapshots:
- Adam Proteau of The Hockey News writes that he believes both D.J. Smith and Pierre Dorion are on the hot seat for the Ottawa Senators heading into the 2023-24 NHL season. Over the last several years, the Senators have made a serious attempt in transitioning out of their relatively short rebuild, looking to compete at the game’s highest level once again. With aggressive trading, wise approaches at multiple drafts, and bringing in marquee free agents such as Claude Giroux and Vladimir Tarasenko, the team has only inched toward the playoffs, rather than leaped. As the organization transitions to a new principal owner in September, the pressure might be increased on the head coach and General Manager this season.
- Speaking on ‘Flames Talk’ with Pat Steinberg and Ryan Pike, Calgary Flames defenseman, MacKenzie Weegar spoke in great length on the importance of having a captain heading into next season, and that he would even be thrilled to accept the role if presented with the opportunity. Calgary has some other solid options for the role, such as Mikael Backlund and Elias Lindholm, but with being one of only three members in the organization signed beyond 2026-27, Weegar would be a solid choice to wear the much colder ‘C’ on his jersey with the Flames.