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Snapshots: McCabe, Couture, Shattenkirk, Kaprizov, Sorokin

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The Maple Leafs have begun initial talks with defenseman Jake McCabe on a contract extension, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet on today’s “32 Thoughts” podcast. He’s entering the final season of a four-year, $16MM deal with a $4MM cap hit, but the Leafs are only on the hook for half of it thanks to the Blackhawks retaining $2MM per season on his deal when they traded him to Toronto before the 2023 trade deadline.

McCabe, 31 in October, has fit in seamlessly on the Toronto blue line, averaging 20:39 per game in his first entire season there last year. It wasn’t quite a career-high in ice time, but it was a career-best year for McCabe in nearly every other category, including goals (8), points (28), rating (+20), and hits (219).

While a passable puck-mover, McCabe is primarily effective as a stay-at-home piece. He averaged 2:12 per game on the penalty kill and kept his head above water in terms of controlling expected goals at even strength, the first time he’s done so in his career after toiling on rebuilders in Buffalo and Chicago. He’ll still feature heavily on a new-look Toronto defense next season featuring Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Chris Tanev.

More from around the league:

  • There’s still uncertainty about Sharks captain Logan Couture’s availability to begin the season, but Friedman said that he doesn’t get the sense Couture is considering hanging up his skates. The 35-year-old played just six games in 2023-24 due to osteitis pubis, a rare type of joint inflammation that causes pain and swelling in the groin and lower abdomen (from the Cleveland Clinic). With three seasons left on his contract at an $8MM cap hit, the 15-year veteran still hopes to be a core piece and guide San Jose’s new crop of young players through their ongoing rebuild.
  • Free agent defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk still fully intends on returning for his 15th NHL season in 2024-25, his agent, George Bazos, tells Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. Bazos said his camp is in discussions with a few teams regarding his client but didn’t say whether they were regarding guaranteed deals or professional tryout agreements. Shattenkirk, 35, had 24 points in 61 games with the Bruins last season in bottom-pairing minutes after signing a one-year, $1.05MM deal in Boston in free agency.
  • Leon Draisaitl’s recent eight-year mega-deal likely has positive implications for Kirill Kaprizov as he kicks off extension negotiations with the Wild, Friedman posits. Kaprizov’s deal runs for two more seasons, and he isn’t eligible to sign an extension until July 1, 2025, but there’s already a sentiment building around the league that Draisaitl’s $14MM cap hit is a “needle-mover” for contracts handed out to superstars, Friedman said. After winning the Calder Trophy during the shortened 2020-21 season, Kaprizov has emerged as one of the league’s most consistent scorers, topping the 40-goal mark for three years in a row. He’s still owed $17.5MM on the five-year, $45MM deal he signed as a restricted free agent in 2021.
  • An undisclosed injury may have had something to do with Ilya Sorokin’s slight regression in play for the Islanders last season, Friedman said. The 29-year-old netminder still managed to finish eighth in Vezina Trophy voting, but his .908 SV%, 3.01 GAA, and two shutouts were all career-lows. He’s about to kick off the eight-year, $66MM extension he signed to stay on Long Island last summer, and Friedman said whether Sorokin checks in at 100% when training camp begins later this month will be one of the bigger storylines to watch for the Isles.

Maple Leafs Sign Marshall Rifai To Two-Year Extension

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The Maple Leafs have extended defenseman Marshall Rifai on a two-year contract, the team announced today. The deal will pay him up to $1.55MM in total ($775K per season) if he’s on the NHL roster – the league minimum.  PuckPedia adds that it’s a one-way agreement in both years.

Rifai, 26, signed an AHL contract with the Maple Leafs’ affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, after completing his collegiate career at Harvard in 2022. He landed a two-year, two-way NHL deal with the Maple Leafs the following summer after recording 16 points, a +3 rating, and a team-high 118 PIMs in 69 games with the Marlies in his first professional season.

The left-shot defender’s first year under an NHL contract also saw him make his NHL debut. Rifai suited up twice for the Leafs last season, posting a +1 rating, one shot, and four hits while averaging 11:40 of ice time across the pair of February contests. He also improved offensively on the farm, upping his production to 17 assists and 19 points in 57 games with the Marlies while posting 71 PIMs and a +14 rating.

Rifai would have become an unrestricted free agent next summer, a fate avoided with today’s extension. He’ll now be eligible to test the open market when his new deal expires in 2027. Attaching two additional years of term to his contract now makes it highly unlikely that a team will claim Rifai off waivers when Toronto attempts to assign him to the Marlies to begin the season.

Atlantic Notes: Peterka, Kostadinski, McCue

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The NHL has ramped up its visits overseas coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, they often make an effort to reunite foreign-born NHLers with their home countries and, even in some cases, their former teams.

That’ll be the case for emerging Sabres winger John-Jason Peterka, who spoke to NHL.com’s Nick Cotsonika about getting the chance to suit up in his native Germany and play a preseason game against EHC Munich of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, where he played in 2019-20 and 2020-21.

“I was always there with my parents cheering for the team,” Peterka told Cotsonika. “We were in the stands all the time. It was so special for me to play for Munich because I’m from there [and grew] up there. Yeah, having the chance now to go back there, play against them, play in front of all the fans again, yeah, it’s going to be really special.”

After their exhibition game in Munich, the Sabres will open the regular season with a back-to-back against the Devils in Prague, Czechia. It’s the start of a crucial campaign for Peterka, who’s entering the final season of his entry-level contract after scoring a career-high 28 goals and 50 points last season.

Other items of note from around the Atlantic:

  • Bruins defense prospect Kristian Kostadinski has committed to Boston College, reports Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal and NHL.com. Boston drafted the 6’6″, 220-lb stay-at-home defender in the seventh round of the 2023 draft. The Gothenburg, Sweden native spent last season at home with Frölunda HC’s U20 club and will touch down in the North American juniors circuit this season with the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the United States Hockey League. The 19-year-old will head to BC for his freshman campaign in 2025-26.
  • Maple Leafs seventh-rounder Sam McCue has a real chance to outperform his draft slot, opines Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff for The Leafs Nation. McCue, 19 next month, was taken 216th overall a few months ago after posting 37 points in 68 games with the Ontario Hockey League’s Peterborough Petes and Owen Sound Attack last year. But despite those conservative point totals, Ellis believes McCue has NHL upside in his game as a “high-motor winger.”

Maple Leafs Sign Steven Lorentz To PTO

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Sep. 4: The Maple Leafs have officially invited Lorentz to camp on a PTO, per a team announcement Wednesday.

Sep. 3: Free agent center Steven Lorentz is expected to join the Maple Leafs on a professional tryout, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports.

Lorentz, 28, remains unsigned over two months into free agency after playing a depth role in the Panthers’ Stanley Cup win last June. He suited up in 16 of their 24 playoff games, scoring twice and adding an assist while averaging a meager 7:07 per game.

The Ontario native played a more limited role in the regular season when he was a frequent healthy scratch. The depth pivot saw some spot duty on the penalty kill and had only one goal and two assists in 38 games.

It was Lorentz’s first and only season in Florida. The Panthers acquired him from the Sharks in a trade last summer that sent scoring winger Anthony Duclair to the Bay Area. He’s coming off a two-year, $2.1MM deal he signed with San Jose in 2022 after being acquired from the Hurricanes in the Brent Burns trade, potentially making Toronto his fourth team in the past four years.

The 6’4″, 205-lb forward will look to prove valuable in a depth role for the Leafs during training camp in hopes of a deal, likely a league-minimum one with a one-way structure. He hasn’t been assigned to the minors since before the COVID-19 pandemic, suiting up with Carolina’s AHL affiliate (then in Charlotte) from 2017 to 2020.

The Leafs aren’t teeming with salary cap space, but they have room for a potential league-minimum pickup like Lorentz. They have $1.275MM in projected space with two open roster spots, per PuckPedia.

In 230 NHL games over the past four seasons, Lorentz has 21 goals, 22 assists, 43 points, and a -26 rating, averaging 10:47 per game. He can play both center and left-wing and has posted a respectable 48.7% win rate in the dot through nearly 1,100 faceoffs.

Lorentz will compete with more veteran depth pieces like Alex Steeves and prospects like Easton Cowan and Fraser Minten for a spot on Toronto’s opening night roster.

Maple Leafs Prospect Timofei Obvintsev Has A Lot Of Upside

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Max Bultman of The Athletic believes that the length of the Detroit Red Wings contract negotiations with Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider may have cost the Red Wings some money in the long run. Raymond and Seider remain unsigned as training camps are quickly approaching and Bultman believes that comparable contract extensions signed this summer may have only increased the asking price for both unsigned Red Wings.

Bultman cites Brock Faber’s eight-year, $8.5 million AAV contract as a potential floor for Seider’s new deal and adds that he believes both players will sign new deals before training camp and that should ease any tensions that might exist. However, Bultman does note that having two young core pieces unsigned this late in the summer might not be great for team morale.

In other evening notes:

  • Jim Matheson of The Edmonton Journal tweeted that he believes Edmonton Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard could get a $10MM AAV on his next deal with the Oilers. The 24-year-old is set to count just $3.9MM against the cap next season in the second year of a two-year deal and is coming off a year in which he registered 18 goals and 64 assists in 81 games. The 10th overall pick in 2018 has matured into one of the most prolific puck-movers in the NHL in just five seasons and has not only produced in the regular season but has been elite in the playoffs as well with 13 goals and 45 assists in 53 career playoff games. If Bouchard does indeed get an AAV at that rate, it will make for a tight salary cap for the Oilers who will also have to consider a Connor McDavid extension.
  • Steven Ellis of Leafs Nation wonders if the Toronto Maple Leafs might have drafted a hidden gem in goaltender Timofei Obvintsev. The Maple Leafs selected the 6’4” Russian 157th overall in this year’s NHL entry draft and it may have been a shrewd move given that NHL teams hold Russian players’ rights indefinitely and goaltenders tend to develop slower. The 19-year-old hasn’t seen a ton of action the last two seasons, dressing in just 28 games, but scouts are raving about his quick hands and ability to direct pucks with his blocker out of harm’s way. As Ellis points out, Obvintsev is likely years away from being NHL-ready, but the team can be patient with him and give him time to develop his game.

Canadian Notes: Robertson, Perfetti, Demko

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Toronto Maple Leafs winger Nicholas Robertson has emerged as a top name on the trade market headed into training camp, following reports that he’s still hoping to start the year on a new team. But Sportsnet’s Luke Fox shared he isn’t expecting the recent momentum to spark a trade before the Leafs kick off camp, citing Robertson’s lack of much negotiating power.

Robertson’s name has floated around trade rumors since last season’s Trade Deadline and peaked with a formal trade request at the start of free agency. But nothing has come together yet, placing Robertson in a mix of young, shoot-first wingers on the trade market, alongside the likes of Arthur Kaliyev (link) and Connor McMichael (link).

Robertson played in his first full NHL season this year, though it only resulted in 56 games and a third-line role. He showed flashes of strong play, ultimately scoring 14 goals and 27 points. That brings his career totals up to 34 points, split evenly, in 87 games – commendable production for a former second-round pick and in line with Kaliyev and McMichael. That lack of distinction might make Robertson a tougher sale so close to the season. That is if the Leafs even choose to fulfill his trade request – which seems growingly unlikely as the team’s brass continues sharing excitement over Robertson’s potential in a growing role.

More notes from around the league:

  • The Winnipeg Jets are one of many teams still negotiating with top RFAs, needing to work out a deal for winger Cole Perfetti after he managed a stout 29 goals and 75 points in 140 NHL games on his entry-level contract. The Athletic’s Murat Ates took to projecting what Perfetti’s next deal could look like given his minimal experience in Winnipeg’s top-six. Ates drew a strong comparison to Ottawa’s negotiations with Shane Pinto, which ultimately ended in a two-year, $7.5MM bridge contract. Pinto also has 140 games of NHL experience and 70 total points, earned while planting his feet as Ottawa’s third-line center. That’s proven a more reliable role than Perfetti’s earned up to this point, though Ates reasoned that the two are comparable enough to earn Perfetti a similar bridge deal.
  • Vancouver Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko has reportedly returned to the ice, shares CHEK Sports’ Rick Dhaliwal, who added that the starting goaltender could be healthy enough to participate in training camp. The Canucks were previously prepared for Demko to sit out of the team’s opening camp as he recovered from a groin injury taking longer than expected to heal. That’s certainly a timely update, with Vancouver recently sharing that Arturs Silovs – Demko’s presumed backup – is also bearing through a lower-body injury. The Canucks have been connected to free agent goaltenders like Kevin Lankinen but could be waiting out Demko’s early steps back before they make any signings official.

Maple Leafs Name Steve Sullivan AHL Assistant Coach

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The Maple Leafs have hired NHL veteran Steve Sullivan as an assistant coach for their AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, per a team announcement.

Sullivan, 50, already has a bit of a front-office track record. Soon after finishing his playing career in 2013, Sullivan joined the Coyotes as a development coach. By 2016, he’d been named their director of player development, and one year later, he was promoted to assistant general manager.

Sullivan remained in the role, making him GM of Arizona’s AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners, through Feb. 2021, when his contract was terminated. He briefly served as the Coyotes’ interim GM in 2020 after John Chayka abruptly resigned.

Since then, Sullivan has stayed in the Phoenix area, serving in coaching roles with the U-16 and U-18 Jr. Coyotes programs for the past four years. But today’s news marks Sullivan’s first time behind a bench at the professional level.

Sullivan was a unicorn as a player, succeeding in the dead puck era as a high-end two-way winger despite being just 5’9″ and 165 lbs. He played 1,011 regular-season games over 16 NHL seasons for the Predators, Blackhawks, Maple Leafs, Devils, Penguins, and Coyotes, scoring 290 goals and 457 assists for 747 points.

Toronto acquired Sullivan in a swap with New Jersey in 1997 – he was part of the return that sent franchise cornerstone Doug Gilmour south of the border. He was pretty effective in a middle-six role with the Leafs, posting 85 points in 154 games, but inexplicably ended up on waivers near the beginning of the 1999-00 campaign. He was claimed by the Blackhawks, where he emerged as a genuine first-line threat and set career-highs in goals (34) and points (75) the following year.

Sullivan joins a Marlies coaching staff headed by John Gruden, who’s entering his second year in the role. Behind the bench, they’re joined by assistant Michael Dyck, goalie coach Hannu Toivonen and video coach Troy Paquette. Gruden guided the Marlies to a 34-26-12 record last season, finishing fifth in the North Division and bowing out in the first round of the Calder Cup Playoffs.

Maple Leafs Linked To Max Pacioretty

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The Maple Leafs are among the teams in discussions to sign free-agent sniper Max Pacioretty, sources tell David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. The two sides are working on a standard contract, not a professional tryout, per Pagnotta.

A 2007 first-round pick and former captain of the rival Canadiens, the 35-year-old American has played just 91 games over the past three seasons due to a laundry list of injuries, but mainly due to two Achilles tendon tears sustained during the 2022-23 league year. Pacioretty has bounced around quite a bit since being traded to the Golden Knights by Montreal in 2018, playing four seasons in Nevada before being dealt to the Hurricanes for his ill-fated 2022-23 campaign. He became a free agent last summer and inked a one-year deal with the Capitals.

While Pacioretty didn’t debut with Washington until January, still recovering from his second Achilles injury, he managed to stay healthy upon his return. However, his previous 30-goal form had vanished, limited to four goals and 19 assists for 23 points in 47 games. It wasn’t awful production overall for middle-six minutes, though, and his atrocious 4.2% shooting percentage is due for positive regression this season.

Pacioretty was a money-in-the-bank scorer during his prime in Montreal, averaging 30 goals and 59 points over an 82-game season there while earning Selke Trophy votes on two occasions (2015, 2016). He was even better in Vegas, averaging 36 goals and 71 points per 82 games, but injuries and COVID limited him to 224 games over his four-season run with the Knights.

His decent rebound in Washington was enough to generate interest in his services at the trade deadline, but he had a no-trade clause in his pact with the Capitals that he opted not to waive. The Rangers were one of the teams linked to him at the time, but it’s unclear if they’re one of the teams competing with Toronto to land him now.

With Jani Hakanpää expected not to sign and RFA forward Nicholas Robertson still hoping to have his signing rights traded, the Leafs confidently have $1.275MM in projected cap space with a roster size of 21, per PuckPedia. That should be enough to land Pacioretty, who’s eligible to structure his contract with performance bonuses to keep his initial cap hit low as a UFA over 35 years old.

Pacioretty could be a direct replacement for Robertson, who mainly operated as Toronto’s third-line left winger when in the lineup last season alongside Max Domi and Calle Järnkrok.

Leafs’ Nicholas Robertson Still Hoping To Be Moved

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Toronto Maple Leafs winger Nicholas Robertson is still pushing for a move before the season starts, even despite the chance at a growing role in the lineup, The Athletic’s Chris Johnston shared on the latest  ’First Up’ podcast with Aaron Korolnek and Carlo Colaiacovo. Robertson has been in trade talks since early February, though it doesn’t seem any discussions have made it far down the line.

Robertson will be entering his fifth professional season in the upcoming year; impressive experience for someone still a few weeks away from age 23. He’s garnered 87 games of NHL experience in that span – and while his performances haven’t been very inspiring, his 14 goals and 27 points in 56 games last season suggested Robertson’s goal-scoring days weren’t all behind him.

His junior career – three years with the Peterborough Petes from 2017 to 2020 – was defined by a dazzling shooting ability. Robertson posted 27 goals and 55 points in 54 games during his draft year, good enough to land 53rd overall in the 2019 NHL Draft, even amid concerns about his skating and drive. Robertson quieted critics quickly with an outstanding 55 goals and 86 points in just 46 games in the following season. He’s shown flashes of that scoring ability at the top level, most notably scoring 16 goals and 28 points in 28 games during the 2021-22 AHL season, but the production has been far from consistent.

Part of that can be chalked up to Robertson’s minimal role in the lineup. The 2023-24 campaign was the first time that Robertson averaged over 11 minutes of ice time and the first time that he managed a point on special teams. The Leafs have had the privilege of icing wingers like Michael Bunting and Matthew Knies ahead of Robertson but still haven’t provided their young prospect any favors in his competition for bottom-six minutes. That could be attributed to former head coach Sheldon Keefe, who moved on to the New Jersey Devils. His successor, Craig Berube, could prove a more supportive option after leading the initial success of shoot-first winger Jake Neighbours’ last season – but only if Robertson can hold his own.

Should he return to Toronto, Robertson will step back into competition with players like Knies, Max Domi, and Pontus Holmberg for space on the team’s left wing. That position battle could lead to promising minutes next to Auston Matthews or John Tavares, though Domi and Knies had the advantage of building chemistry with their centers last season. Should Robertson instead be on the move, he’ll be one of the trade market’s only active names entering September and could offer tantalizing upside for teams unhappy with their scoring depth.

17 goals and 34 points in 87 career games should be enough to sway interested teams, especially with the Leafs not in a position to ask for much for a former second-rounder who’s yet to pay off. With Patrik Laine recently traded, it seems Robertson will become the market’s next shoot-first winger looking for greener pastures.

Maple Leafs Unlikely To Register Jani Hakanpää’s Contract

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It doesn’t appear that the Maple Leafs will be signing defenseman Jani Hakanpää after all. After nearly two months without registering his reported two-year, $3MM agreement, TSN’s Chris Johnston said on First Up 1050 on Tuesday that “the writing doesn’t appear to be too encouraging” on the Leafs getting Hakanpää to ink a deal.

Hakanpää, 32, was still recovering from the knee injury that truncated his 2023-24 campaign with the Stars when his deal with Toronto was reported on July 1. It was his first time on the open market since 2021 when he inked a three-year, $4.5MM deal to join Dallas. The Finnish veteran still thinks he can play through the injury, which Johnston says has left his knee “basically bone on bone.” The Leafs’ medical team and some other outside medical opinions contradict that sentiment, leading to his continued free agency.

Even if he doesn’t sign with Toronto, Hakanpää’s options will likely be limited if he elects to play through the injury. Only a few, if any, teams will sign him if he can’t pass a physical. The 6’6″, 225-lb right-shot defender was a valuable presence on the Dallas blue line for the past few seasons, averaging north of 18 minutes per game and totaling 40 points, a +29 rating, 136 PIMs, 363 blocks and 668 hits in 226 games. He had decent possession quality numbers, controlling 47.7% of expected goals at even strength despite being used heavily in shutdown situations.

It’s a tough break for the Leafs, who were hoping to either utilize Hakanpää as a defensive anchor on a pairing with Morgan Rielly or Oliver Ekman-Larsson, or potentially even in a stay-at-home pair with Jake McCabe. They would have needed to clear cap space to add him to the roster, though. Toronto has just over $1.25MM in projected cap space with a roster size of 21, not enough to fit Hakanpää in at his reported $1.5MM cap hit.

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