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Anaheim, Toronto Swap 23rd And 31st Overall Picks

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The Anaheim Ducks have acquired the 23rd overall pick of the 2024 NHL Draft from the Toronto Maple Leafs for the 31st and 58th overall picks (X Link).

After making a surprise selection of Beckett Sennecke with the third overall selection, the Ducks used the 23rd overall pick to select defenseman Stian Solberg out of Vålerenga in Norway. Stolberg is a quality shutdown defenseman and represents one of the most physical defensemen in the draft. Not only does Solberg effectively shut down offensive pressure from opponents, he makes sure to punish them if they ever touch the puck.

In Vålerenga this season, Stolberg scored five goals and 15 points in 42 games while collecting 47 PIMs in the process. At the international level, Solberg scored one goal and one assist in five games during the 2024 World Junior Championships and added two goals and one assist over seven games for Team Norway in the 2024 World Championships.

In Toronto, the team moves back eight spots while adding some draft capital in the second round of the 2024 NHL Draft. Heading into this evening’s festivities, the Maple Leafs did not have a second-round pick as they had moved theirs to the St. Louis Blues in the deal that landed Ryan O’Reilly with the Maple Leafs. Without factoring in any other moves for Toronto, the Maple Leafs will now only be without choices in the third and sixth rounds of this weekend’s draft.

Daniel Winnik Announces Retirement

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Versatile forward Daniel Winnik has retired, as he announced on his personal X page this morning. A veteran of 11 NHL seasons, Winnik had a respectable journeyman career, suiting up for eight major league teams after being taken in the ninth round of the 2004 draft by the Coyotes. The 39-year-old last suited up in the NHL in 2018 before heading to Genève-Servette HC of the Swiss National League, where he’s spent the last six seasons.

“For the past 19 years, I have lived a dream, from signing my first contract with the Phoenix Coyotes to my last with Geneva Servette,” Winnik wrote in his announcement. “Some experiences I thought would only remain dreams became reality: being coached by Wayne Gretzky, playing for my hometown team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and representing Canada at the Olympic Games.”

As expected for a late-round pick, Winnik took a few years to break into the NHL. But unexpectedly, he wasn’t a depth piece or a fringe player subject to endless recalls and reassignments. Instead, he immediately cemented himself as a full-time piece for Phoenix upon making his debut in 2007-08, making 79 appearances in his rookie season while contributing 11 goals and 26 points in 14:06 of ice time per game, a good portion of which came on the penalty kill. Winnik spent the first three years of his NHL career with the Coyotes, recording 52 points (18 goals, 34 assists) in 202 games before they traded him to the Avalanche for a fourth-round pick in the 2010 offseason.

In 2010-11, Winnik rediscovered his valuable depth-scoring contributions from his rookie season, matching his 11 goals and 26 points in 80 games for the Avs while averaging 16:33 per game, the most he’d played at that point in his career. He was also one of Colorado’s most-used forwards in shorthanded situations that season, averaging 2:44 per game while down a man. Unfortunately, he was slugging it out on an Avs team that finished with only 68 points, earning them the right to select future captain Gabriel Landeskog with the second-overall pick in that summer’s draft.

Winnik was dealt again to the Sharks midway through the 2011-12 season, beginning a run of playing for seven different teams in the final seven seasons of his NHL career, including two separate stints with the Maple Leafs. He would also end up logging action for the Capitals, Ducks, Penguins and Wild, although he only managed to play more than 150 games for one team, the Coyotes. His career-defining season was split between Toronto and Pittsburgh in 2014-15, recording a career-high 34 points (nine goals, 25 assists) in 79 games and a +23 rating, earning him a second- and fifth-place vote in Selke Trophy polling.

However, after completing a one-year, $660K contract with the Wild in 2017-18, which saw him produce six goals and 23 points in 81 games, there wasn’t much interest in his services stateside. That led him to head to Geneva, where he broke out immediately as one of the best two-way threats in the top-flight Swiss league. Over six seasons with the club, he recorded 91 goals and 234 points in 270 games, winning three major trophies – a Spengler Cup in 2020, an NL championship in 2023, and a Champions Hockey League title this season. He also represented Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics, contributing a goal and an assist in five appearances.

Ultimately, Winnik ended his NHL career with 82 goals, 169 assists, 251 points and a +52 rating in 798 games. We all at PHR congratulate Winnik on such a lengthy stint in the pros, especially for a ninth-round pick.

Toronto May Retain Pending Unrestricted Free Agent Defensemen

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  • There is no question that the Toronto Maple Leafs will be looking to add to their defensive core this offseason. However, as Pierre LeBrun reports, the team has not ruled out extending some of their current defensemen who are set to hit unrestricted free agency next Monday. That list would include Joel Edmundson, Ilya Lyubushkin, Mark Giordano, and T.J. Brodie although all signs indicate that the latter’s time in Toronto has ended. Edmundson and Lyubushkin are both physical defensemen who like to play with an edge while Giordano is a stabilizing presence on the back end. Depending on the cost, the Maple Leafs may decide to keep some of their current pieces around for next season.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Sergei Berezin Passes Away At Age 52

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Earlier today, the NHL Alumni Association announced the passing of former player Sergei Berezin at age 52. Berezin, born in Voskresensk in 1971, spent seven seasons in the National Hockey League from 1996-2003.

Berezin started his professional career in his home town of Voskresensk in the early 1990s while playing for Khimik Voskresensk of the Soviet Hockey Championship league. Joining the league as a professional talent shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Berezin was able to play with Vyacheslav Kozlov who was born in the same town as Berezin a year later. Although several former Soviet players defected to the NHL before the collapse of the state; many players still faced harsh difficulties in pursuing a professional career in North America.

Berezin’s time would come, as he was drafted in the 10th round (256th overall) by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1994 NHL Draft after becoming a point-per-game player in Voskresensk in the now-defunct International Hockey League. After a brief stint in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga from 1994-1996, Berezin finally made his professional debut for the Maple Leafs for the 1996-97 NHL season.

Typically playing in the middle six of Toront’s forward core; Berezin quickly became a key secondary scorer. In his rookie campaign, Berezin scored 25 goals and 41 points in 73 games earning him seventh place in Calder Trophy voting. In the following four years, all with the Maple Leafs, Berezin would score 101 goals and 179 points in total over 284 regular season games. He contributed well for Toronto in the playoffs with 12 goals and 27 points over 40 postseason contests.

Following his tenure with the Maple Leafs, Berezin bounced around through four organizations over the next two seasons. He experienced some revival during his time with the Chicago Blackhawks during the 2001-02 season with 18 goals and 31 points in 66 games — but was largely ineffective during his time with the Phoenix Coyotes, Montreal Canadiens, and Washington Capitals.

Berezin retired from the NHL after the 2002-03 NHL season and spent one more in the Russian Superleague with CSKA Moscow. The Russian forward played in 502 games throughout his NHL tenure and scored 160 goals and 286 points. PHR sends its condolences to Berezin’s family and friends.

Artur Akhtyamov Will Spend Next Season In North America

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  • Maple Leafs goaltending prospect Artur Akhtyamov will play next season in their farm system, his agent Dan Milstein confirmed to Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun. The 22-year-old Russian was a fourth-round pick of Toronto back in 2020 and has put up great numbers in his native country since, culminating in a .921 SV% and 2.51 GAA in 17 games for KHL side Ak Bars Kazan this season. He was signed to his entry-level contract last summer and is projected to compete for time with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies in 2024-25.

Maple Leafs Among Teams Expected To Pursue Chris Tanev

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  • The Stars are continuing discussions with pending UFA blueliner Chris Tanev, relays Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic (Twitter link). The 34-year-old proved to be a strong pickup at the trade deadline, helping to anchor their back end through a run to the Western Conference Final.  Tanev finished the season with 19 points and a career-best 207 blocks in 75 games between Calgary and Dallas and will have strong interest next week; LeBrun puts the Maple Leafs as one of his likely suitors.

Maple Leafs Hire Marc Savard As Assistant Coach

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have hired Marc Savard as an assistant coach (Twitter link). This news vindicates rumors about Savard’s connection with the team and reunites him with head coach Craig Berube, who Savard supported with the St. Louis Blues in 2019-20. The two will rekindle in Toronto, with Savard expected to assume his usual role as power-play coach.

Savard has become a popular coaching candidate despite just two years as an NHL assistant. But he proved plenty successful in both opportunities, leading the Blues to a 24.2 percent success rate on the power-play in 2019-20, good for third-best in the league. Savard stepped away from St. Louis after one season, moving to a head coaching role with the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires. Savard would spend two years in Windsor, leading the team to 44 wins in both seasons, and a run to the OHL championship in 2022. He kept his tenure brief, though, taking his talent behind the Calgary Flames bench in the 2023-24 season, where he found significantly less success than in St. Louis. Savard led the Flames power-play to a a 17.9 percent success rate, the seventh-worst in the league.

But for all of his coaching prowess, Savard is still remembered most fondly as a player. Originally selected in the fourth round of the 1995 NHL Draft, Savard won an OHL championship before making the jump to the AHL, and then NHL in the three years following his draft – finding a way to emerge as a top scorer at every step. Savard would move through appearances with the Calgary Flames and Atlanta Thrashers, consistently showcasing plenty of promising scoring and plenty tenacity, though he wasn’t able to play every game of a season until 2005-06. He performed well when fully healthy, recording 28 goals and 97 points and vindicating it with 96 points in 82 more games the next year. The pair of high-scoring seasons, which overlapped Savard’s move to the Boston Bruins, established him as one of the league’s top wingers. He’d carry that title through five years with the Bruins, though repeated injuries eventually caught up to Savard. He famously retired in 2011, citing concussions-related symptoms. He totaled 807 career games across 13 seasons in the league and retired just ahead of Boston’s 2011 Stanley Cup win, which would have been the first of his career. He’ll now look to chase that title as a coach, taking over a power-play unit featuring Auston Matthews and William Nylander, among plenty of other star offensive talent.

Maple Leafs Have Interest In Jake DeBrusk

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Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times expects the Tampa Bay Lightning to make a trade in the near future to cut costs as they try to find room to sign pending free agent captain Steven Stamkos to a contract extension. The Lightning are up against the cap with just $5.335MM in cap space and have just 18 active roster players signed for next season.

Encina looks at the contracts of Tanner Jeannot and Erik Cernak as possibilities to move on from. Jeannot has struggled since coming over from Nashville for five draft picks and Callan Foote and is slated to make $2.665MM next year, while Cernak is owed $5.2MM. Jeannot seems like the likelier of the two to be moved as he has just a year left on his contract at half the cost and has already been linked to multiple teams.

In other Eastern Conference notes:

  • Nick Kypreos speculates in the Toronto Star that the Toronto Maple Leafs have interest in pending free agent forward Jake DeBrusk. The 27-year-old has haunted the Maple Leafs in the playoffs could slide into the team’s top six if they don’t bring back Max Domi or Tyler Bertuzzi. DeBrusk is coming off a disappointing season with the Boston Bruins, tallying just 19 goals and 21 assists in 80 games. However, the Edmonton, Alberta native is just a year removed from a 27-goal season and has surpassed 25 goals on three separate occasions.
  • Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on 32 Thoughts that he believes that a big holdup on the Linus Ullmark trade is a potential contract extension being worked out. Friedman points out that a lot of teams aren’t interested in paying the Bruins high asking price for a goaltender that would only be a rental and would like an extension in place before making the deal. Friedman also notes that in the case of a team like the Ottawa Senators, he would have to waive his no-trade clause and likely work out an extension with the team to make the trade happen. Boston has held firm on their asking price in recent weeks but might have to adjust it as some teams that were in on Ullmark have already addressed their goaltending situation, and there are other potential available options on the market.

Mark Giordano Intends To Play Next Season

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Mark Giordano could reach unrestricted free agency in less than two weeks. The veteran defenseman is coming off his second full season in a Maple Leafs sweater but fell out of the regular lineup early on in the season, battled injuries, and was a healthy scratch for the whole of Toronto’s first-round loss to the Bruins.

However, the 2019 Norris Trophy winner has no intentions of retiring and hopes to return to the NHL for what would be his age 41 season, his agent Rich Winter tells Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star. A potential 19th NHL season may not be his final one, either.

“Mark has made the decision that he’s playing for a few more years,” Winter told McGran. “He feels very confident. He’s been talking to a lot of people who tell him: Don’t quit until they make you.”

How much interest Giordano receives coming off the worst season of his career when the market opens July 1 remains to be seen, though, nor is it clear whether there’s a path for him to return to the Leafs. Limited to 46 appearances, he had three goals and nine points with a +10 rating while averaging 16:37 per contest, his lowest usage since 2008-09. He had a significant finger injury that cost him nearly all of December and a concussion that held him out for most of March.

While his possession numbers were still strong, even relative to his teammates, he spent most of his time in the lineup alongside Timothy Liljegren, who routinely has strong advanced metrics despite some rather visible defensive gaffes. Giordano’s lack of offense and, correspondingly, lack of power play time make him a far different player than the one who had double-digit goals in six straight seasons for the Flames, including a 21-goal, 74-point monster performance that earned him his Norris.

To say Giordano is an offensive specialist is a mischaracterization, though. He’s always boasted strong possession numbers, even dating back to his early days as a fresh undrafted free agent signing in Calgary, and he’s continually deployed in penalty-killing situations. Even this season, Giordano averaged 2:16 per game shorthanded, fifth on the Leafs. There was still NHL value in his game this season, but teams will wonder how much longer it sticks around as he remains the league’s oldest active player.

Giordano is wrapping up a two-year, $800K AAV extension he signed in May 2022. He likely won’t cost any more than that and would even likely take a slight pay cut to earn the $775K league minimum.

Evening Notes: Maple Leafs Defense, Goligoski, Mikheyev

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The Toronto Maple Leafs will be prioritizing size as they gauge potential additions to their defense, shares David Pagnotta and The Fourth Period.

That news comes as no surprise from a Toronto team that acquired 6’4” Joel Edmundson and 6’2” Ilya Lyubushkin at the Trade Deadline, sending a third-round pick for each defender. Neither seemed to make much of a splash in the year’s second half, with Lyubushkin potting just four assists in 19 regular-season games, while Edmundson went pointless through nine games while battling injury. The duo were two of many vying for ice time on Toronto’s bottom pairing, competing with the likes of Simon Benoit, William Lagesson, Conor Timmins, and Maxim Lajoie. Nobody on the list was able to push into routine top-four minutes, though the Leafs found reasons for optimism, with Pagnotta adding that the team is interested in re-signing Edmundson – at least ahead of other pending free agents Lyubushkin and Lajoie. That deal would return Edmundson to a crowded Toronto depth chart, though his stout defense on both sides of the ice could provide nice flexibility for a Leafs team that always seems to face nagging injuries.

In that way, Edmundson’s role would mirror former St. Louis Blues teammate Robert Bortuzzo, who’s stood strong in spot starts with the Blues and New York Islanders. In fact, Toronto may be drawing a lot of interest from the Blues defense, also showing renewed interest in trading for veteran big-man Colton Parayko, shares Pagnotta. Toronto has been tied to Parayko for many years, though he becomes a more palatable trade chip with the more time he spends on his pricey eight-year, $52MM contract. That deal is set to carry Parayko through the 2029-30 season – posing a major hurdle to any interested buyers. Parayko scored 10 goals and 26 points in 82 games this season – with strong goal-scoring lifting up an otherwise slowed season. Now 31 and on a very pricey deal, Parayko certainly isn’t an ideal trade target – though his veteran presence and Stanley Cup precedent could make him a strong acquisition with salary retention.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The Minnesota Wild aren’t expecting aging defenseman Alex Goligoski to return next season, shares Anthony Di Marco of The Fourth Period (Twitter link). Goligoski became a routine healthy scratch in the second half of the season, ceding ice time to Dakota Mermis and Declan Chisholm. The 38-year-old veteran ultimately appeared in just 36 games, recording 10 points, all assists. Now set for the free market, he’ll face the question of if now is the right time to retire, having accumulated 1,078 games, 475 points, and one Stanley Cup across 17 seasons in the NHL. Meanwhile, Di Marco adds that Minnesota could look externally for a new depth defenseman.
  • The Vancouver Canucks have granted player agent Dan Milstein permission to find a trade for client Ilya Mikheyev, shares Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK News (Twitter link). Mikheyev has muddled through the last two seasons with the Canucks, with untimely injuries making it hard to find a comfortable role. He ultimately totaled 59 points in 124 games with the club, and will now look to find a spark with a change of scenery. Mikheyev has two seasons left on a contract carrying a $4.75MM cap hit.

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