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Snapshots: Maroon, Rantanen, Ryczek, Puutio

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Defending Stanley Cup champion Patrick Maroon tells NHL.com’s Lou Korac that “it’s tough right now” for veterans to find a contract. Given the meager increase of the salary cap and the immense number of restricted free agents still unsigned, there has been a considerable break in unrestricted free agent signings over the past week or two. 14 of PHR’s Top 50 Unrestricted Free Agents still remain available, including Maroon, with little chatter pertaining to any of them. Maroon at least offers a glimmer of hope for his own situation, also informing Korac that he has had discussions with GM Doug Armstrong about a return to his hometown St. Louis Blues, saying that they’ve “had good conversations.” However, the Blues still have four RFA’s to sign, including three potential arbitration cases in Joel Edmundson, Oskar Sundqvist, and Ville Husso. Maroon will also be looking for fair value from St. Louis after taking a hometown discount last summer and becoming a key contributor for the team down the stretch and in the postseason. An extension won’t come easy for either side, but both parties and fans would surely like to see Maroon back in town next season. He and other unsigned veterans may just have to wait a while longer for offers to finally come through.

  • On the off chance that RFA Mikko Rantanen and the Colorado Avalanche cannot come to terms on an extension this summer, his KHL rights holder is preparing their pursuit. However, it’s not exactly a Godfather offer. Sport Express’ Igor Eronko reports that Ak Bars Kazan is willing to offer Rantanen a one-year, $4MM contract. While Eronko notes the lower tax rate in Russia and lack of escrow concerns, it’s still a very underwhelming number for a 22-year-old star forward coming off back-to-back 80+ point seasons. The Avalanche would be happy to top that salary, even taking the differences in tax and escrow into consideration. Rantanen is well within his right to be seeking a long-term contract with an AAV of $10MM+ or at least a bridge deal in the $8MM range, so Ak Bars’ offer is unlikely to move the needle toward a return to Europe.
  • Chicago Blackhawks prospect Jake Ryczek will have to prove himself in the AHL before earning an entry-level contract. The 21-year-old defenseman has signed a one-year deal with Chicago’s affiliate, the Rockford Ice Hogs, the team announced. Ryczek was a 2016 seventh-round pick, expected to be a long-term project developing at Providence College. Instead, Ryczek left the Friars midway through his freshman year and joined the QMJHL’s Halifax Mooseheads. The problem now is that Ryczek has aged out of the junior level with just a year and half of QMJHL experience and is still a raw prospect. Rather than use a limited roster spot to sign an unproven commodity, the Blackhawks will see what he can do in the AHL for the time being. Ryczek remains Chicago’s exclusive property until June 1st of next year.
  • The first overall pick in the CHL Import Draft has signed. Finnish defenseman Kasper Puutio, taken at No. 1 by the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos in June, has officially joined the team. Puutio began turning heads this past season when he was called up to the top level of Finland’s junior ranks at the age of 16 and performed well to boot. Draft source Future Considerations ranks Puutio as the No. 67 prospect for the 2020 NHL Draft in their early initial rankings, but some have called him a first-round caliber player, and that was before he joined the Canadian junior ranks. If he can continue to grow and produce in the more competitive WHL as a very young prospect, he could easily climb into the top 31 picks next year. Either way, the Broncos hope that they can take advantage of his puck-moving ability and competent defensive game for several years to come.

Poll: How Many Unresolved Arbitration Cases Will Require An Award?

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In the NHL, the salary arbitration process is more often used as a negotiating tool – an incentive to get a deal done before the uncomfortable setting of a hearing and the unknown of an arbitrator’s decision – than it is for its actual purpose. A vast majority of players who file for arbitration end up settling before their hearing or even at the last moment before an award is handed down. Last year, 44 players filed for arbitration and 40 settled prior to their hearing. The year before, all 30 cases were resolved before an arbitration award could be made.

So what about this year? There were initially 40 cases of player-elected arbitration and one case of team-elected arbitration (the St. Louis Blues and goalie Ville Husso), but that number is now down to 25 open cases. That’s a substantial drop-off, but time is running out for some RFA’s and their teams to come to terms, as the first scheduled hearing is set to take place on Saturday, July 20th. Listed below are all of the remaining cases:

July 20: Brock McGinn, Carolina Hurricanes
July 21: Andrew Copp, Winnipeg Jets
July 22: MacKenzie Weegar, Florida Panthers; Zach Aston-Reese, Pittsburgh Penguins; Ville Husso, St. Louis Blues; Christian Djoos, Washington Capitals
July 23: Evan Rodrigues, Buffalo Sabres
July 24: Oskar Sundqvist, St. Louis Blues; Neal Pionk, Winnipeg Jets
July 25: Jacob Trouba, New York Rangers
July 26: Colton Sissons, Nashville Predators
July 27: Sam Bennett, Calgary Flames
July 28: Mirco Mueller, New Jersey Devils
July 29: David Rittich, Calgary Flames; Pavel Buchnevich, New York Rangers
August 1: Remi Elie, Buffalo Sabres; Chandler Stephenson, Washington Capitals
August 2: Linus Ullmark, Buffalo Sabres; Charles Hudon, Montreal Canadiens; Will Butcher, New Jersey Devils
August 4: Jake McCabe, Buffalo Sabres; Anton Forsberg, Carolina Hurricanes; Sheldon Dries, Colorado Avalanche; Rocco Grimaldi, Nashville Predators; Joel Edmundson, St. Louis Blues

Given the time constraints and the complexity of each of these cases, how many will feel forced to go to hearing? Will Trouba be one of that select group, as he was last year? Will the Sabres struggle to settle four cases before their scheduled hearing dates? Will the Blues see through their team-elected case with Husso? Will other goalies prove to be difficult negotiations? And will polarizing players like Bennett and Buchnevich fail to find common ground with their teams? Or will it be under-the-radar players like Gemel Smith and Brett Kulak last year who go through the full process?

There are many questions left about this group of restricted free agents and time is running out before we know the answers. So the choice is yours: will we see an unprecedented class of arbitration awards or will all or most cases reach a resolution in the coming weeks?

[Mobile users click here to vote]

Blues Prospect Dominik Bokk To Remain In Sweden For 2019-20

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The Blues will be waiting another year before their top pick in 2018 makes his debut in North America.  Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes that Dominik Bokk is expected to return to the SHL for 2019-20 and that he intends to then play in St. Louis’ system starting in 2020-21.

The winger has already signed an entry-level deal and because he was a first-round selection, St. Louis could have elected to put him with their AHL team and superseded his contract in Sweden.  However, Bokk indicated that his preference was to continue to develop in the SHL where he spent last season.  He had some success last year with Vaxjo, picking up a respectable 23 points (8-15-23) in 47 games and also led Germany in scoring at the D1A level for the World Juniors, helping lead them back into the top group for the upcoming tournament in December.

Bokk has seen his SHL rights loaned to Rogle for the upcoming season and then is expected to make the jump to North America for 2020-21.  As a result of staying overseas, his contract will slide in 2019-20 and still have three years remaining on it afterwards with a small reduction on his cap hit.

St. Louis Blues Sign Jordan Binnington To Two-Year Deal

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The St. Louis Blues continue to lock up their players. A day after signing Robby Fabbri and Mitch Reinke Friday, St. Louis has come to terms with one of the stars of their Stanley Cup run as the Blues announced they have signed goaltender Jordan Binnington to a two-year deal with a $4.4MM AAV, avoiding arbitration with him. That deal gives him a slightly higher AAV than backup Jake Allen, who has a 4.35MM AAV.

“We are pleased to have Jordan signed for two more years,” added Blues General Manager Doug Armstrong. “His play was outstanding and we look forward to seeing him continue to be a major contributor for our team.”

Binnington may have been the difference for a team that was in 31st place on Jan. 2 and then finished one of the most remarkable runs in NHL history by winning the Stanley Cup. The team recalled Binnington from the AHL on Jan. 7 and the then-25-year-old posted an immediate shutout in his first start. The rookie then went 24-5-1 over the remainder of the season, putting up a 1.89 GAA and a .927 save percentage, seizing the No. 1 goalie job from Allen. Binnington continued that success throughout the playoffs, putting up a 16-10 playoff record, including a 2.46 GAA and a .914 save percentage, including one shutout.

While he’s been with the Blues organization for years, up until this year, he has been sitting in the AHL with no clear-cut shot at a job with the Blues. In fact, St. Louis didn’t have an AHL affiliate last year after the Vegas Golden Knights took their affiliate, the Chicago Wolves, and the Blues were forced to loan out their prospects to a pair of different affiliates. St. Louis actually loaned Binnington out to the Providence Bruins as they couldn’t find a place to put him. Regardless, he put up good numbers that year and was dominant in the first half of the season this year with their new affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage, putting up a .927 save percentage in 16 starts.

Considering that he had made one NHL appearanIce in his career until now, many wondered what kind of contract that Binnington would receive as many people felt that he would have to prove he could repeat that string of success before he could earn a long-term contract. That proved to be true as Binnington will be betting on himself this year. The two years will take him to unrestricted free agency, which likely means that if Binnington can produce similar success next season, the Blues would likely want to sign the goaltender to an extension on July 1 next season so that Binnington wouldn’t end up on the open market in 2021.

With the signing, the Blues now have $7.12MM in projected cap space with a roster of 22 players. The team still has a number of restricted free agents, including Ivan Barbashev, Oskar Sundqvist, Joel Edmundson and Ville Husso.

 

 

Central Notes: Wild Physicality, Heinola, Boqvist

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Paul Fenton and the Minnesota Wild have made a lot of moves since the trade deadline last year and the general manager has started to put his mark on the franchise after taking over more than a year ago. However, one thing that many have noted is that the Wild have gotten much smaller over the last year with many wondering if that could affect the team’s success down the road.

The Athletic’s Michael Russo (subscription required) was asked that exact question in his most recent mailbag as the scribe notes that the Wild have traded off Charlie Coyle (6-foot-3) and Nino Niederreiter (6-foot-2), while getting back smaller, more finesse players in Kevin Fiala and Ryan Donato as the team seems to be without that physical edge that most teams feel they need to survive a 82-game season, something that the Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues had an abundance of this past year.

Russo admits it’s a concern, but the team does have a number of smaller players, who are physical, including newly acquired Ryan Hartman, Luke Kunin and the team’s hopes that Jordan Greenway will begin to use his size to be more physical.

  • While the Winnipeg Jets’ trade of Jacob Trouba has been panned by almost everyone, the Winnipeg Free Press’ Mike McIntyre writes that one aspect of the trade that many haven’t thought of is the value of the 2019 first-round pick they got along with unheralded defenseman Neal Pionk. The team selected defenseman Ville Heinola with the 20th pick in the draft as part of the deal. The blueliner almost immediately moves to the top of Winnipeg’s prospect list and could develop into a top-four option for years, although it could take a year or two until he arrives. Regardless, if Heinola does become a top-four regular and Pionk becomes a reliable option on defense as well, the deal doesn’t look that bad after all.
  • With the trade of Henri Jokiharju, the Chicago Blackhawks could find themselves with the potential need of a young player to step up for the team this season. NBC Sports Chicago’s Charlie Roumeliotis writes that  Adam Boqvist is expected to turn pro this year and is expected to play for the Rockford Ice Hogs in the AHL if he doesn’t make the Blackhawks’ team out of training camp. That’s good news for Chicago as Boqvist could have returned to the OHL for another year. The team’s first-round pick in 2018 (eighth-overall) scored 20 goals and 60 points in 54 games for the London Knights in his only season there.

Blues Re-Sign Mitch Reinke

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After re-signing Robby Fabbri earlier in the day, the Blues have agreed to terms with another one of their restricted free agents.  CapFriendly reports that St. Louis has re-signed defenseman Mitch Reinke to a one-year, two-way contract.  The deal will pay $750K in the NHL and $100K in the NHL.

The 23-year-old signed with St. Louis as an undrafted free agent in 2018 and made his NHL debut before the end of that season.  In 2018-19, his first full professional campaign, he spent the year with AHL San Antonio where he was one of the better offensive blueliners in the league, putting up 12 goals and 33 assists in 76 games.  Considering he wasn’t a top-end point producer with Michigan at the college level, that output came as somewhat of a surprise.

With the Blues being set to return their entire back end from their Stanley Cup run (once RFA Joel Edmundson re-signs), it’s unlikely that Reinke will be able to push for a roster spot in training camp.  However, if he can maintain that level of production next season, he’ll be among the top options for a recall when injuries arise.

St. Louis Blues Acquire, Sign Dakota Joshua

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The St. Louis Blues have acquired the rights to 23-year old forward Dakota Joshua from the Toronto Maple Leafs, and quickly agreed to a two-year entry-level contract with him. The deal is only for future considerations, likely meaning that Joshua was not going to sign a contract with the Maple Leafs for one reason or another and would have become an unrestricted free agent in August.

Selected in the fifth round of the 2014 draft, Joshua first played a year in the USHL before attending Ohio State University for four seasons. The 6’3″ forward amassed 100 points in 128 games at Ohio State and will make the leap to professional hockey with a well-rounded game. It’s hard to imagine him winning an NHL job at training camp, but a strong showing with the San Antonio Rampage could have him on track to make an impact in the near future. That impact would likely come as a bottom-six forward, but there is still time for him to grow even more into his power game on offense.

For the Maple Leafs, any number of reasons could have led to the team not being able to sign Joshua. One of the considerations would have likely been their number of contracts, which currently sits at 45 even with Mitch Marner still to sign. Though the Maple Leafs could have used one of those slots for Joshua, they are often involved in other college and international free agents throughout the year and would need room to sign them.

Obviously this move is low-risk for the Blues, since the team has given up basically nothing to add another depth piece. It’s not clear what considerations they will afford Toronto in the future.

Robby Fabbri Re-Signs With St. Louis

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The St. Louis Blues have brought back another one of their restricted free agent forwards, re-signing Robby Fabbri to a one-year, $900K contract. Fabbri was not eligible for salary arbitration and will still be a restricted free agent at the end of this deal.

It wasn’t so long ago that Fabbri was one of the brightest young forwards in the NHL, poised to have a great career with the Blues after a rookie season that saw him score 18 goals in the regular season and star in a long playoff run. At just 20 years old he had 15 points in 20 playoff games and started the 2016-17 season well with 29 points in 51 games before a knee injury turned his whole career upside down. Fabbri would suffer a setback and miss the entire 2017-18 season, only to finally return to the Blues’ lineup last November.

By then, things had changed for St. Louis and for the young forward. In 32 games in 2018-19 Fabbri was only able to register six points, often playing a depth role and receiving an average of just 12:39 of ice time. In the playoffs that dropped even further to the point where if he wasn’t in the press box watching as a scratch, he was seeing just over eight minutes a night. Fabbri registered just a single point in ten postseason games, though the Blues went all the way to a Stanley Cup victory.

Now, with other young players pushing for more and more playing time it is unclear where Fabbri sits on the St. Louis depth chart. The team still has basically the entire core that took them to the promised land this year (save for hometown hero Pat Maroon, who remains a free agent) and more forwards like Jordan Kyrou, Dominik Bokk and Klim Kostin all on their way. Fabbri, 23, is obviously still young enough to get back on that star track, but it will take a lot of work and some opportunity that might not be available in St. Louis.

St. Louis Blues Sign Zach Sanford

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The St. Louis Blues won’t have to go through a messy arbitration hearing with Zach Sanford, instead re-signing the restricted free agent to a two-year deal. The contract will pay Sanford an average of $1.5MM.

Sanford, 24, came to the Blues several years ago in the deal that saw Kevin Shattenkirk join the Washington Capitals, but only really made an impact this season. Playing in 60 games during the regular season the 6’4″ power forward registered 20 points, and ended up making quite the impression during the Stanley Cup Final. Scoring four points in five games against the Boston Bruins including a goal in the deciding game seven, Sanford’s future looks bright as a bottom-six contributor.

In fact, Sanford’s presence may be exactly why the Blues don’t have a ton of interest in bringing back Pat Maroon on a new deal. Sanford can likely fill the same role as a big-bodied forward with some scoring upside, and is considerably younger. A $1.5MM cap hit doesn’t represent a very lucrative deal, but does give the young forward some sense of security in his NHL role moving forward. Sanford will actually be a restricted free agent when the deal ends.

The Blues now have just three restricted free agents scheduled for arbitration in Jordan Binnington, Joel Edmundson and Oskar Sundqvist. Those three may also end up signing deals before their respective hearings, something that happens with the vast majority of players who file for arbitration. Ivan Barbashev and Robby Fabbri, the team’s other two NHL RFAs, were not eligible to file this year.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Pat Maroon Looking For More Than One-Year Deal

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It seemed a good bet that Pat Maroon would re-sign with the St. Louis Blues for the 2018-19 season, after taking less money to be closer to his son last year. It worked out for everyone involved as the Blues would end up winning the Stanley Cup with Maroon in the lineup, but their interest hasn’t been clear in re-signing the veteran power forward. Now, Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic provides an update on Maroon’s free agency, indicating that he has several one-year offers from around the league but is waiting for the right fit and at least a “couple years.” Rutherford tweets that the Blues have limited interest.

Maroon, 31, finished the season with 28 points in 74 games for the Blues but was a key part of their Stanley Cup run. Scoring two game-winning goals against the Dallas Stars including the series-clinching effort in double overtime of game seven, the team may have never gotten past the second round without him. Still, his offensive production does seem to be on the decline after tallying just ten goals in the regular season, and at his size teams may be wary of his game completely falling off a cliff.

The 6’3″ 225-lbs forward is something of a throwback to a past era of NHL hockey, slower than many of his teammates but still talented and big enough to get to the right spots at the right times. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet quoted an NHL executive that explained Maroon is “a dinosaur, but there’s no one left who knows how to play against a dinosaur.”

In 449 career regular season games, Maroon has recorded 206 points. He scored 27 goals in 2016-17 with the Edmonton Oilers, and set a career-high in points with 43 the following year. If a team can get that kind of production out of the “Big Rig,” he would likely be worth whatever contract he has to settle for; whether that can realistically happen at this point is the question.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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