Snapshots: Niemelainen, Goloubef, Debunked Rumors
The wallet of Edmonton Oilers defenseman Markus Niemelainen is a little lighter today. The NHL Department of Player Safety announced today that Niemelainen has been fined $2043.75 for cross-checking, the maximum fine allowed under the terms of the CBA. The incident in question occurred during the Oilers’ match-up with the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday. Niemelainen cross-checked Jets forward and fellow Finn Kristian Vesalainen in the third period as he cut toward the net on a scoring chance. Despite what in retrospect was an obvious and vicious cross-check to Vesalainen’s face, no penalty was called on the play. Niemelainen is somewhat fortunate to have escaped with only a fine in this situation.
- Following multiple PTO’s with the AHL’s Belleville Senators this season, including suiting up for 11 games, veteran defenseman Cody Goloubef finally has a contract – except it isn’t with Belleville nor with Ottawa. Instead, the 32-year-old has signed a contract with SC Bern of the Swiss National League for the remainder of the season. Goloubef undoubtedly had his sights set on a return to Ottawa, having played in 29 games with the club over the last three seasons, but for whatever reason that did not come to fruition. An alternate captain for Belleville last season, Goloubef clearly still has strong ties to the Senators organization but it is unknown if he was offered a contract with the AHL Sens and opted to go to Switzerland instead. Bern gains a two-way defender with 160 NHL games to his credit as they fight to earn a playoff berth.
- The nearer to the trade deadline, the more rumors begin to emerge and, of course, not all rumors are grounded in truth. Two such whispers that were put to rest this weekend revolved around Ottawa Senators defenseman Artem Zub and Chicago Blackhawks forward Brandon Hagel. While both the Sens and the Hawks are struggling again this season expect to be sellers at the deadline, they aren’t eager to move cost-controlled assets that are actually contributing on a regular basis. The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch reports rather definitively that Zub will not be moved this season, which makes perfect sense. The 26-year-old is signed through next season at $2.5MM and while he will be an unrestricted free agent at that time, possibly making him a deadline target next season, the Senators don’t want to move on too quickly from a blue liner playing top pair minutes while also leading the team in plus/minus. In Chicago, the Blackhawks have even less reason to trade young winger Hagel, signed on for just $1.5MM AAV for two more years and still a restricted free agent after that. The 23-year-old is fourth on the team in scoring and second in goals, shooting percentage, and Corsi. While Chicago is understandably receiving interest in Hagel, The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus reports that they have zero interest in moving him.
Snapshots: Dzingel, Rask, Matteau
After acquiring him from the Arizona Coyotes last night, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe announced that forward Ryan Dzingel will be placed on waivers today, reports David Alter of The Leafs Nation (Tweet). If he clears, Dzingel will be assigned to the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, adds Alter. Dzingel, who has four goals and three assists in 26 games this season for the Coyotes, was acquired last night along with defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin in exchange for a conditional draft pick and forward Nick Ritchie. While it may seem odd to acquire Dzingel to immediately waive him, the move allows the Leafs to potentially keep the forward in the minors, alleviating them of his $1.1MM cap hit, and retain him as a useful depth player down the stretch. Also out of Maple Leafs’ camp, defenseman Rasmus Sandin has been sent down, purely for salary cap flexibility, and is expected to be recalled and rejoin the team Monday, reports the Athletic’s Jonas Siegel (link to tweet).
- Victor Rask, who cleared waivers for the Minnesota Wild yesterday, is expected to report to the AHL’s Iowa Wild in the coming days, reports the Athletic’s Michael Russo (link to tweet). Russo adds that while this process has been tough for Rask, he is expected to report to the AHL, and the Wild organization will give him several days. It’s been a difficult stretch for Rask, as this wasn’t his first time on waivers this season. The forward was placed on waivers and cleared in early January as well. Rask has five goals and eight assists in 29 games this season for Minnesota and is in the final year of a six-year, $24MM contract he signed in 2016, then with the Carolina Hurricanes. While Rask has not been terrible for Minnesota this season, placing his $4MM cap hit in the AHL could provide the Wild with flexibility heading into the trade deadline, where they are expected to be buyers on the market.
- Also of note, forward Stefan Matteau has been activated off of long-term injured reserve and has been assigned to the AHL’s Colorado Eagles. The 27-year-old forward has played in just one game this season with the Colorado Avalanche back on October 16 before being placed on long-term injured reserve.
Snapshots: Benn, Kuzmenko, Kinnunen, Carlo
The Department of Player Safety announced that Stars winger Jamie Benn has been fined $5K for unsportsmanlike conduct in Friday’s game against Chicago. The incident occurred after Blackhawks winger Mackenzie Entwistle was hit into the stanchion early in the third period and had to head off for concussion protocol. While skating to the Dallas bench to leave the ice, Benn squirted Entwistle with his water bottle. The fine is the maximum allowable under the CBA.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- The Blackhawks are expected to be among the teams interested in Russian free agent winger Andrei Kuzmenko, reports Scott Powers of The Athletic (subscription link). Chicago has had some success with players coming over from overseas with the likes of Artemi Panarin, Pius Suter, and Dominik Kubalik among those that have signed and made the jump to the NHL which could be appealing to the 26-year-old who finished second in KHL scoring this season. Powers adds that Kuzmenko is expected to interview with teams after the KHL playoffs come to an end so a decision on where he ultimately signs is still a fairly long way out.
- Panthers prospect Santtu Kinnunen has signed a one-year contract extension with Tappara of the SM-liiga, the Finnish team announced. The 22-year-old defenseman was a seventh-round pick of Florida (207th overall) back in 2018 and they have until June 1st to sign him to an NHL entry-level contract. This extension doesn’t prohibit Kinnunen from signing with Florida but if he does sign and doesn’t make the NHL roster, he’d have to go back to his Finnish team. Kinnunen has equaled his 2020-21 output of 19 points in 20 fewer games this season with four goals and 15 assists in 39 contests.
- The Bruins announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Brandon Carlo is listed as questionable for tonight. He took a skate blade to the face in the morning skate from goaltender Linus Ullmark. Boston has seven defensemen on their active roster so they don’t need to make a roster move to bring someone up as insurance in case Carlo is unable to suit up.
Snapshots: Senators, Hagel, Boeser
The Ottawa Senators don’t want to be sellers anymore. General manager Pierre Dorion spoke with Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, explaining that he hopes this is the last deadline for his club to move pieces out, instead of bringing them in. Nick Paul is the player who sticks out as a featured trade candidate, given his expiring, inexpensive contract, though there are certainly others.
Chris Tierney, Zach Sanford, Tyler Ennis, and others are also on expiring deals and headed for UFA status, though Dorion doesn’t even know exactly how much they’ll sell at all.
- Among the top few names on Daily Faceoff’s trade targets board is one that wouldn’t normally be expected; Chicago Blackhawks’ Brandon Hagel is listed fourth, with Frank Seravalli noting that the Florida Panthers, Toronto Maple Leafs, New Jersey Devils, and Calgary Flames have all looked into the young forward. With two more years on his contract at a very inexpensive $1.5MM cap hit, Hagel’s price tag would likely be extremely high.
- The pair of Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman discussed several Vancouver Canucks forwards on the latest 32 Thoughts podcast for Sportsnet, including pending restricted free agent Brock Boeser. Marek suggests once again that the New Jersey Devils would be a good fit for the sniper, given the big qualifying offer he’s owed after this season.
Snapshots: Nemeth, Fines, Boeser
The New York Rangers have moved Patrik Nemeth to injured reserve, and Mollie Walker of the New York Post reports that it is believed to be due to lingering effects from COVID-19. Nemeth has not played since January 22, missing six games during his current absence. He dealt with a symptomatic bout of COVID in December.
The 30-year-old defenseman signed a three-year, $7.5MM contract last July and has suited up 38 times for the Rangers this season. Always known as a stay-at-home option, he has just two points during that time and is averaging just over 17 minutes a night. It is not clear when he will be ready to return to action and the team has not confirmed Walker’s report.
- The NHL has handed out a pair of fines today, one to a player and one to a coach. Nashville Predators head coach John Hynes was fined $25K for “inappropriate conduct” following Tuesday’s game against the Washington Capitals. The league did not release any specifics about the incident, though there have been other fines handed out to coaches including Rod Brind’Amour of the Carolina Hurricanes and Rick Bowness of the Dallas Stars. While Hynes is out $25K, Calgary Flames forward Adam Ruzicka will have to pay $2,004.17 for his elbow on Kevin Shattenkirk last night. That is the maximum allowable by the current CBA based on Ruzicka’s salary.
- Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff has added Brock Boeser to his board of trade targets, even wondering if the New Jersey Devils could be a fit for the Vancouver Canucks sniper. Notably, Boeser is due a $7.5MM qualifying offer this summer as a restricted free agent, a salary that outpaces his production from this season. Still, since Bruce Boudreau took over in Vancouver there has been a noticeable improvement from the sniper, including four goals and eight points in his last seven games.
Snapshots: Islanders, Blackhawks, Korpisalo
The New York Islanders are starting to catch up in terms of games played but that doesn’t mean they’re any closer to a playoff spot, as they keep losing and now sit 17-20-6 on the season. With that, rumors of them as deadline sellers are starting to emerge, with James Nichols of The Fourth Period suggesting that long-time Islander Cal Clutterbuck could be on the move.
Clutterbuck, 34, is in the final season of a five-year, $17.5MM contract extension he signed in 2016 and has more than 900 games of NHL experience. The bang-and-crash forward isn’t a particularly effective offensive player but is a fearless, physical forward that could add a playoff-style option for many contenders around the league.
- The Chicago Blackhawks continue to interview candidates from outside of the hockey world for their vacant general manager position. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet connects the Blackhawks to Teresa Resch, currently the Toronto Raptors vice president of basketball operations & player development. The Blackhawks already interviewed Chicago Cubs assistant GM Jeff Greenberg, along with several more traditional hockey candidates.
- When the Columbus Blue Jackets recalled Jean-Francois Berube under emergency conditions, alarm bells went up for some fans as it wasn’t clear what had happened to their normal goaltenders. Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch reports that Joonas Korpisalo is considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury. That’s something to keep an eye on as the trade deadline approaches given Korpisalo’s status as a potential rental, though his play this season has obviously had a bigger impact on his value than any minor injury. In 18 appearances, Korpisalo has an .887 save percentage and hasn’t seen game action since January.
Snapshots: Three Stars, Halak, Coyotes
The NHL has released the Three Stars for last week and unsurprisingly, Jacob Markstrom takes the top spot. The Calgary Flames goaltender earned his league-leading eighth shutout, made 46 saves against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and then backstopped the Flames to another win against the New York Islanders. With a career-best .926 save percentage on the season, Markstrom has catapulted himself directly into the Vezina Trophy conversation in recent weeks and is one of the biggest reasons that Calgary has turned into a Stanley Cup contender.
The second and third spots went to Patrik Laine and Nico Hischier respectively, both coming off six-point weeks. Laine, who is heading into the summer as a pending restricted free agent once again, now has 27 points in 27 games for the Blue Jackets this season. His game-winning goal with just a few seconds left against the Montreal Canadiens was a perfect example of the incredible power he can generate, and why he’s such a feared goal scorer when playing his best. Hischier meanwhile had five goals of his own, taking him to 13 on the season. While he doesn’t generate the same kind of press that some other first-overall picks have, Hischier has quietly been an excellent performer for the Devils since entering the league in 2017, racking up 176 points in 273 career games while providing strong defensive play down the middle.
- Vancouver Canucks goaltender Jaroslav Halak has been clear that he doesn’t want to be traded, according to Elliotte Friedman who joined Rick Dhaliwal on CHEK TV today. While Halak’s name continues to be in the rumor mill, the goaltender holds full control of his future with a no-movement clause and will not be traded without his approval. The 36-year-old has a .903 save percentage in ten appearances and will earn a substantial performance bonus for his next start.
- If you want to get an idea of what Arizona Coyotes games will look like next season inside Arizona State University’s rather small facility, Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports was tweeting out photos of the construction. The small arena is expected to have a capacity somewhere between 3,000-5,000 when it is completed and will house both the ASU Sun Devils and Coyotes for the next several seasons.
Snapshots: Vanecek, Rierden, Brassard, Scandella
Although the Capitals find themselves comfortably in a playoff spot, goaltending has been an issue for them at times this season. Both Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov have had chances at starting and at other times, they’ve platooned when both are healthy. Speaking with J.J. Regan of NBC Sports Washington, head coach Peter Laviolette indicated that he’d like to give Vanecek a chance to run with the number one job when he returns from his upper-body injury with the hope of solidifying their netminding before the playoffs. While Washington has very limited cap space to work with, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them keep tabs on the goalie market for the time being in case Vanecek isn’t able to play with consistency which was an issue for him in the first half of the season.
More from the around the NHL:
- Penguins assistant coach Todd Rierden is out indefinitely after suffering a knee injury when he slipped on ice while shoveling during the All-Star break, notes Johnny McGonigal of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He is set to undergo surgery on Monday. Matt Cullen, who works in Pittsburgh’s player development department, will join up with the team on Monday to help with their power play.
- Flyers center Derick Brassard missed today’s game due to soreness, relays Giana Han of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link). The veteran has dealt with lingering hip issues all season long that has caused him to miss time on three separate occasions. Head coach Mike Yeo indicated that the decision to give him the game off was so that he wouldn’t have to “go through all that” again so it appears they’re taking some precautions to avoid another extended absence. When healthy, Brassard has done well this season with 11 points in 20 games.
- Blues defenseman Marco Scandella has a lower-body injury that will keep him out either day-to-day or week-to-week, notes team reporter Chris Pinkert. The injury was sustained on Thursday against New Jersey. Scandella had played in every game this season although his 17:29 ATOI is the lowest of any of his full seasons. With that strange of a designation, it seems reasonable to suggest that he’ll miss at least a couple of games.
Snapshots: Trade Bait, Giordano, Halak
The trade deadline is now just over five weeks away and the stove is heating up. TSN’s Chris Johnston has released his first Trade Bait board, with Arizona Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun firmly planted at the top of the list. An interesting mix of youth, upside, and contract status that rarely appears as an in-season trade candidate, Chychrun’s market likely encompasses most of the league.
The rest of the board includes the usual names, Ben Chiarot from Montreal, John Klingberg from Dallas, but also some that perhaps aren’t talked about as much, like Mark Pysyk of the Buffalo Sabres and Chris Tierney of the Ottawa Senators. In all, there are 24 names among the targets listed by Johnston, plus the extra cap space that the Coyotes have learned to weaponize in order to make asset additions.
- One of the other names on the list is Mark Giordano, appearing near the top as he did on The Athletic’s version last month. Giordano spoke with Ryan S. Clark of The Athletic for a piece released today and indicated that he still hasn’t spoken to Seattle Kraken general manager Ron Francis about the impending deadline decision. Giordano doesn’t actually have full control of that process as his no-trade clause only lists 19 teams he can be traded to, but as a respected veteran and the first captain in team history, he’ll be consulted along the way. Giordano admits to Clark that he doesn’t exactly want to be traded, but understands that there is “a business side to this sport.”
- There was a misunderstanding in the performance bonus clause for Vancouver Canucks goaltender Jaroslav Halak, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. It was widely reported that Halak had reached the 10-game threshold to earn a $1.25MM bonus the other night but that clause is actually for 10 starts not appearances. Halak has started just nine games so far this season.
Snapshots: Laine, Bozak, Giroux
Columbus Blue Jackets forward Carson Meyer was supposed to make his NHL debut tonight, but it’ll have to wait for another day. Patrik Laine took warmups with the team and is playing for Columbus in tonight’s game against Buffalo, per team reporter Jeff Svoboda. Laine was dealing with an undisclosed issue in between games, but it turned out that he wouldn’t miss any time. That’s good for the team, as he’s already missed plenty this season. Through just 25 games, he’s still having a very good season in Columbus, posting 12 goals and 24 points. The pending restricted free agent is quietly producing at the highest rate of his NHL career.
More notes from around the league on this Thursday night:
- Tyler Bozak isn’t a go tonight for the St. Louis Blues, per NHL.com’s Lou Korac. He wasn’t at morning skate, either, so it’s likely an undisclosed injury keeping Bozak out of the lineup. Returning to the Blues on a one-year deal this offseason, the veteran center has three goals and nine points in 37 games while taking on a fourth-line center role. Dakota Joshua will draw in against the New Jersey Devils.
- Ahead of the trade deadline, rumours around Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux will continue to swirl. Colorado Hockey Now’s Adrian Dater reports that Flyers scouts are present at tonight’s game between the Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning, fuelling the fire that the Avalanche have interest in the prized forward. Giroux is in the final year of his contract and tied for the lead in points among Flyers with 36 points. His leadership and all-around acumen would become immediately invaluable to the Avalanche, presumably back as a winger in the top-six. It would give the already stacked Avalanche forward core options galore, potentially allowing head coach Jared Bednar to have Nathan MacKinnon and captain Gabriel Landeskog on separate lines.