Rangers Expected To Sign Madison Bowey To PTO
Rick Dhaliwal of The Athletic reports the New York Rangers have signed defenseman Madison Bowey to a professional tryout agreement. However, no confirmation has come from the team at the time of writing.
Bowey spent the first eight years of his professional career in North America before heading for the Kontinental Hockey League last season. He was drafted with the 53rd overall pick of the 2013 NHL Draft by the Washington Capitals and joined their AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears, three years later.
He quickly demonstrated his talents as a two-way defenseman in the NHL as he posted four goals and 29 points in 70 games during his rookie season with a +22 rating. He went on to tally six assists through 21 postseason games that year as he helped the Bears to the Calder Cup finals before losing to the Lake Erie Monsters in a sweep. Bowey quickly became the top defensive prospect in the Capitals’ pipeline and was projected to become a top-four fixture on the blue line.
Injuries limited his availability the following season as he only appeared in 34 games for Hershey. He did not make Washington’s opening night roster the following season but was recalled rather quickly when defenseman Matt Niskanen went down with an injury early in the season. Bowey suited up in 51 games for the Capitals in the 2017-18 scoring 12 assists in total. The 2018-19 season did not do much to inspire Washington any further after Bowey scored one goal and six points in 33 games to start the year and the team included him in a trade package to the Detroit Red Wings for Nick Jensen.
The most successful season of his career came in Detroit during the 2019-20 NHL season as he scored three goals and 17 points in 53 games which was good for second on the team in scoring amongst a weak Red Wings’ blue line. Detroit decided not to extend a qualifying offer to Bowey that summer and he surprisingly went unsigned throughout the summer which led to a PTO with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls.
Bowey spent the next three years bouncing from the Chicago Blackhawks, Vancouver Canucks, and Montreal Canadiens organization before eventually trying his luck overseas. His lone KHL season was split between three organizations with Bowey scoring four goals and 14 points collectively.
He has an outside chance of cracking New York’s opening roster, to say the least, with other players already firmly cemented on the blue line. There may be an opening on the bottom-pairing but the Rangers will likely look to one of their prospects to fill the void rather than Bowey. Even if he does perform well at camp his ceiling will be landing a two-way contract and should see most of his playing time at the AHL level.
Avalanche Sign Pierre-Édouard Bellemare To PTO
3:51 PM: The Avalanche have confirmed the professional tryout agreement with Bellemare per a team announcement.
10:21 AM: The Avalanche and center Pierre-Édouard Bellemare are in agreement on a professional tryout, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The French veteran will try to land a guaranteed deal during training camp for his second stint in Colorado.
Bellemare told French media last month that he intended to continue his NHL career this season and was training with Skellefteå AIK of the Swedish Hockey League while waiting for an offer to come to fruition. The 39-year-old has served as a capable bottom-six defensive pivot in the NHL for a decade but is coming off a difficult 2023-24 season that saw him fall out of an everyday role.
A UFA last summer after two seasons in Tampa Bay, Bellemare signed a league minimum one-way pact with the Kraken roughly a week into free agency. But a leg injury cost him over a month and a half from late December to mid-February.
Even when healthy, he was a healthy scratch for over a quarter of the season and only got into 40 games on the year. His offense was roughly in line with his limited career averages, posting four goals and seven points, but he averaged a career-low 9:50 of ice time per game.
He won 53.5% of his draws, though, and did have a positive possession impact in his limited role with a 54.9 CF% and 57.4 xGF% while having 60.3% of his even-strength zone starts come in the defensive end.
Bellemare’s defensive impact is more cerebral than physical, especially in recent seasons – he had only 20 hits and 22 blocks for Seattle last year, both career-lows. But he has been extremely solid in the faceoff dot after a rough few years in that regard to begin his NHL career with the Flyers. Even though he’ll be 40 by season’s end, he’s still a perfectly capable fourth-line center, even if his limited offense means he may not be an 82-game option in an increasingly scoring-oriented league.
The Avs will hope he can prove that in camp. They’re familiar with his game – he scored 18 goals, 15 assists and 33 points with a +8 rating in 122 games there across the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons while averaging 12:31 per contest.
If his PTO turns into a contract, he’d be competing for a fourth-line center role in Colorado that’s up for grabs. Chris Wagner is currently projected to fill the role after getting limited reps near the end of last season, playing double-digit games in an NHL campaign for the first time since 2020-21. 22-year-old Jean-Luc Foudy could also make an outside run for the role after playing 13 games for the Avs over the last two seasons, and there could be some other roster shuffling if 2023 first-round pick Calum Ritchie lands a spot on the opening night roster.
But Bellemare has far more experience in that role than any of them, with exactly 700 NHL games under his belt. Even if he ends up splitting time in the role with Foudy, Wagner, or others, he projects as a well-rounded upgrade in limited usage.
Utah Signs Kailer Yamamoto To PTO
Kailer Yamamoto has found a home, at least for training camp. The unrestricted free-agent winger has inked a professional tryout with Utah, the team announced today.
Yamamoto, 26 later this month, was drafted 22nd overall by the Oilers in 2017. The 5’8″, 152-lb forward played spot duty in Edmonton in his first two post-draft seasons, mainly sticking in juniors with the Western Hockey League’s Spokane Chiefs and in the minors with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors.
He cemented himself as a full-time NHLer after a mid-season recall in 2019-20, closing the COVID-truncated season with 26 points (11 G, 15 A) in 27 games while fitting in on a line with star forwards Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. But during the rest of his time in Edmonton, he couldn’t sniff the near point-per-game rate he flashed in his first real NHL chance.
Yamamoto hit 20 goals once, adding 21 assists for 41 points in 81 games during a career-best showing in 2021-22, but otherwise was a perfectly average middle-six scoring presence with average possession numbers. That career-best year landed him a two-year, $6.2MM contract in restricted free agency the following summer, but he regressed to 25 points (10 G, 15 A) in 58 games the following season.
The Oilers had seen enough, trading him to the Red Wings the following summer. Detroit promptly bought out the last year of his $3.1MM cap hit deal, making him an unrestricted free agent.
Yamamoto took the opportunity to return to his native Washington, inking a one-year, $1.5MM pact with the Kraken for last season. Unfortunately for both sides, it was a failed reclamation project.
The Spokane-born winger slipped to a fourth-line role, posting just eight goals and eight assists for 16 points in 59 contests with a -9 rating and averaging a career-low 11:59 per contest. A frequent healthy scratch, he was non-tendered in June and became a UFA for the second straight summer.
Without any guaranteed offers, he’ll look to land his next NHL contract in Utah. The club has plenty of cap space to sign him to a deal – $9.92MM, per PuckPedia.
But they have a full roster, especially on offense. With 14 forward spots accounted for, competition will be stiff for Yamamoto to land a one-way deal or a spot on the opening night roster. He’d need to unseat someone like Michael Carcone, who was one of the best depth shooters in the league last season with 21 goals in 74 games while averaging 11:16 per night, or 22-year-old winger Josh Doan, who finished last year with nine points in 11 games in his first NHL shot with the Coyotes.
That makes a two-way deal most likely for Yamamoto if he sticks within the Utah organization following his PTO. He’d need to clear waivers to be assigned to their AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners. In that case, it would be Yamamoto’s first minor-league action in five years.
Maple Leafs Sign Max Pacioretty To PTO
The Maple Leafs have signed unrestricted free agent winger Max Pacioretty to a professional tryout, the team announced Wednesday.
It’s far from unexpected. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported the Leafs were in discussions to sign Pacioretty late last month, and Darren Dreger of TSN said yesterday that coming to an agreement with Pacioretty was one of Toronto’s top priorities after resolving a stalemate with restricted free agent forward Nicholas Robertson.
Most expected Pacioretty’s eventual agreement with the Leafs to be a guaranteed contract instead of a PTO, but with Toronto tight to the salary cap, it’ll take some time to work out – likely into training camp. Pacioretty inking a PTO likely indicates he has a deal in place that will be signed once the Maple Leafs have the financial flexibility to do, a sentiment echoed by Chris Johnston of The Athletic and TSN. His agent, Octagon’s Allan Walsh, confirms this.
Pacioretty, 36 in November, will compete to land a job in the Leafs’ top nine as a depth scorer with loads of NHL experience – 902 games, to be exact. After recovering from a pair of Achilles tendon tears, Pacioretty struggled to reclaim his pre-injury form with just four goals in 47 games after working his way back to a regular NHL role with the Capitals last season.
But the 2007 first-round pick of the Canadiens is no stranger to bouncing back from serious injuries. Pacioretty won the Masterton Trophy in 2012 with Montreal, emerging as a top-line scoring threat that year after a C4 vertebrae fracture and Grade 2 concussion sustained on a hit from then-Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chára the year prior nearly ended his career.
Even as the dreaded aging curve declines his overall effectiveness, there’s a reasonable expectation for him to return to at least being a double-digit goal contributor in Toronto if he stays healthy. The Connecticut native shot just 4.2% last season, the second-worst in the league among forwards with at least 90 shots on goal. That’s an incredulous stat from a six-time 30-goal scorer with a career average shooting percentage north of 11%.
Given his age, Pacioretty is eligible to sign a bonus-laden 35+ contract. That will allow the Maple Leafs to keep his initial cap hit low, likely the league minimum $775K, while allowing him to earn more cash if he stays healthy and becomes a regular contributor. Any performance bonuses he earns that Toronto can’t fit under the cap will be applied to next season’s books as a bonus overage penalty.
Pacioretty is likely set to fill the role that Robertson did last season. After inking a one-year, $875K deal yesterday, Robertson is still on the trade block following his late June request. If the Leafs find a trade partner before opening night, Pacioretty and Bobby McMann will likely compete for left-wing duties on the second line with John Tavares and William Nylander, with the other dropping to third-line minutes.
Pacioretty has 330 goals and 668 points over his 16-year career, averaging 30 goals and 61 points per 82 games. Those are high benchmarks for an aging veteran who’s played just 91 games over the past three seasons, but a healthy season could at least result in ‘Patches’ hovering around the 15-goal, 30-point territory.
International Notes: Nogier, Masin, Kallionkieli
After some notable international signings earlier today, there’s more to cover. One is former Jets defenseman Nelson Nogier, who’s sticking in Europe for the third straight season after signing a one-year deal with Germany’s Straubing Tigers yesterday.
Nogier, 28, was a fourth-round pick of Winnipeg in 2014. He logged brief action with the Jets in the 2016-17 and 2018-19 campaigns, amounting to 11 total games of NHL experience with no points, a -1 rating and 5 PIMs. The 6’3″, 207-lb right-shot defenseman spent most of his time with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, where he posted 41 points in 242 games across six seasons with the organization.
After being traded to the Kings in a minor swap late in 2021-22, Nogier posted four points in 13 games for their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, before reaching unrestricted free agency that summer. He immediately headed overseas, heading to Kazakhstan with Barys Astana of the Kontinental Hockey League. That’s where he spent the last two seasons, amassing 20 points and a -14 rating in 117 appearances. Late in the European transfer period, with regular seasons about to get underway, he’ll look to make an impact in Straubing alongside former NHLers Justin Braun, Taylor Leier, and others.
Some more overseas moves:
- Former Lightning second-round pick Dominik Masin has signed in his native Czechia for the first time in his professional career, inking a three-year deal with HC Sparta Prague. Masin, now 28, logged 58 points in 273 appearances from the blue line for the Lightning’s AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, from 2016 to 2020. He never received a call-up, though, and headed overseas upon becoming a restricted free agent during the pandemic. The Lightning still held his signing rights up until February of last year. Masin spent parts of the last three years playing for Ilves in Finland, helping them to a third-place finish in Liiga in 2022.
- Former Golden Knights prospect Marcus Kallionkieli is returning to Poland, inking a one-year deal with GKS Katowice. The 23-year-old winger has had quite the peculiar ride, plagued by injuries for much of his time under contract with Vegas. Last year, the final one of his entry-level contract, the organization loaned him to Poland’s STS Sanok before reassigning him to Finland’s Kiekko-Espoo and then placing him on unconditional waivers for mutual contract termination in February. A fifth-round pick in 2019, the Finnish-Brazilian national had two goals in six games with their AHL affiliate in Henderson in 2020-21 and one goal in five games with the ECHL’s Savannah Ghost Pirates during an injury-truncated 2022-23 campaign.
Kraken Extend Adam Larsson On Four-Year Deal
Sep. 10: The Kraken made Larsson’s extension official as reported Tuesday morning.
Sep. 9: The Seattle Kraken are working on a deal to keep defenseman Adam Larsson in the Pacific Northwest for the next four years per reports from Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman included in a follow-up report that Larsson’s salary will be $5.25MM each season making it a four-year, $21MM extension.
The fourth-overall pick of the 2011 NHL Draft originally came to the Kraken organization during the 2021 Expansion Draft from the Edmonton Oilers. Seattle quickly signed Larsson to a four-year, $16MM contract and he has been with the organization ever since.
Larsson has excelled during his time with the Kraken as he’s garnered more responsibility in his career than at any point with the Oilers or New Jersey Devils. He’s only missed one regular season game (which came this past season) and has averaged 22:57 of ice time in 245 games with the young franchise. His consistency and availability alone would have earned him an extension in Seattle but Larsson has also chipped in adequately offensively with 20 goals and 76 points overall.
He led the team in blocked shots and hits during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons while dropping to second and fourth this past year, respectively. The only major drawback to Larsson’s game is his possession quality which largely falls below a 50% CorsiFor%. Much of that can be attributed to the fact that he’s averaged a 55.4% Defensive Zone Start % in All Situations during his time with Seattle.
The $5.25MM salary over the next four years is just a notch below Evolving-Hockey’s prediction of a $5.5MM salary on a four-year pact. The deal will keep Larsson in place until the 2028-29 regular season and keep Seattle’s defensive core largely intact before Vince Dunn‘s current contract ends after the 2027-28 campaign. There won’t be any problems on the right side of their defense for quite some time with the team adding Brandon Montour on a seven-year deal earlier in the offseason.
Not only have the Kraken ironed out their blue line for the next three to five years but the team has also taken a major potential trade chip off the market for next year’s trade deadline. Larsson would have been an ideal candidate to market at next year’s trade season if Seattle found themselves outside of contention.
International Notes: Team Canada, Cracknell, Day
St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong will have his hands full for the first half of the 2024-25 NHL season. Armstrong recently took part in an interview with The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun where the two spoke at length about Team Canada’s roster for the 4 Nations Faceoff in 2025 and the announcement that teams will need rosters in place by December 2nd, 2024.
The first six players of Canada’s roster were already announced on June 28th, 2024 as Sidney Crosby, Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Brad Marchand, Connor McDavid, and Brayden Point have already made the team. Canada ices the majority of players in the NHL (41.7% of opening night rosters in 2023-24) which makes Armstrong’s job in scouting that much more difficult in determining the next 17 players and three goaltenders in three months.
LeBrun adds that goaltending is the biggest question mark facing Team Canada as the team no longer has access to Carey Price, Martin Brodeur, or Roberto Luongo. Armstrong isn’t as worried about the goaltending situation for Canada as he said, “The only goalies to win a Stanley Cup over the last decade have been Russian or Canadian. So we’re in pretty good shape if you’re using that as a barometer“.
Other international notes:
- Journeyman forward Adam Cracknell will take his talent overseas for the first time since the 2020-21 season as Slovakia’s HK Poprad announced a one-year contract for the veteran. Cracknell spent all last season with the AHL’s Henderson Silver Knights collecting 18 goals and 35 points in 53 games. He has 210 NHL games under his belt with the Blues, Columbus Blue Jackets, Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Dallas Stars, New York Rangers, and Anaheim Ducks but has not played in an NHL contest since the 2018-19 season.
- Former top prospect Sean Day is heading overseas as HV71 of the SHL has announced a two-year deal for the defenseman. Day became the fourth player to be granted ‘Exceptional Player Status’ by Hockey Canada behind John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad, and McDavid but floundered almost immediately upon joining the OHL’s Mississauga Steelheads in 2013-14. He was eventually drafted 81st overall by the Rangers in the 2016 NHL Draft and made his NHL debut with the Tampa Bay Lightning on December 28th, 2021.
Rangers Sign Adam Erne To PTO
TSN’s Darren Dreger reports the New York Rangers are bringing in forward Adam Erne to training camp on a professional tryout agreement. Erne had difficulty finding recurring playing time with the Edmonton Oilers last year and will now try his luck at the bottom of the Rangers’ forward core.
Erne was considered a mid-first-round talent heading into the 2013 NHL Draft but ultimately fell to the second round at 33rd overall to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Erne debuted with the Lightning in the 2016-17 season, collecting three goals in 29 contests. Most of his success early on in his professional career came with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch where Erne’s physicality and knack for goal-scoring made him an effective player in the NHL.
His “coming out party” came during the 2018-19 season when he scored seven goals and 20 points in 65 games. The Lightning iced one of the best teams in NHL history that season and Erne played an important role in the team’s bottom-six. Erne’s entry-level contract expired at the end of the season and with cap struggles beginning in Tampa Bay the team traded him to the Detroit Red Wings for a fourth-round pick in 2020.
Erne’s run in Detroit is the most successful stretch in his career. He had much larger access to ice time on a rebuilding Red Wings roster as he worked his way into the team’s middle-six. Erne skated in 241 games with Detroit scoring 27 goals and 62 points while earning a two-year, $4.2MM contract with the team from 2021-2023.
Almost a year ago today, Erne signed with the Oilers on a PTO and signed a one-year, league-minimum contract nearly a month later. He skated in 24 games for Edmonton throughout the 2023-24 regular season scoring one goal and two points overall. Much of his time was spent with the organization’s AHL affiliate in Bakersfield where he scored six goals and 12 points in 36 games.
The Rangers’ top three forward lines are effectively set heading into the 2024-25 NHL season but there could be some wiggle room on the bottom line. Erne will compete with Jimmy Vesey, Sam Carrick, and Matt Rempe for playing time on the team’s fourth line and will have nearly a month to prove his worth to the organization.
Flames Sign Jarred Tinordi To Two-Way Deal
The Flames have inked depth defenseman Jarred Tinordi to a two-way deal, per PuckPedia. He’ll earn $800K in the NHL, $350K in the minors, and an overall $425K guarantee this season, per a team announcement.
Tinordi, 32, has embarked on a journeyman career since being drafted 22nd overall by the Canadiens in 2010. The stay-at-home defender has suited up in minor league/seventh defensemen roles for seven NHL organizations over his 12-year run in the pros, also including the Coyotes, Penguins, Predators, Bruins, Rangers, and, most recently, the Blackhawks. He played NHL games in nine of those 12 seasons.
After spending most of his career as an NHL/AHL tweener or an outright minor-league option, Tinordi found some stability in Chicago after the Blackhawks claimed him off waivers from the Rangers on the eve of the 2022-23 regular season. The 6’6″, 229-lb enforcer has avoided an AHL assignment since arriving in the Windy City, making the past two years just the second and third seasons he’s spent solely in the majors after splitting the 2020-21 campaign between Nashville and Boston.
Tinordi’s numbers have been ugly with the Hawks in bottom pairing minutes, but that’s to be expected for a veteran depth fixture logging semi-regular minutes on one of the league’s worst teams. He’s posted two goals and 15 assists for 17 points with a -44 rating and 104 PIMs in 96 games for the Blackhawks over the last two seasons. His 171 hits ranked second on the team last season behind Nick Foligno‘s 192, while his 64 PIMs led the club.
He was an unrestricted free agent this summer for the first time since signing a two-year deal in the Big Apple in 2021. Chicago signed him to a one-year, $1.25MM extension in April of last year, keeping him off the open market.
Tinordi shouldn’t be ruled out entirely from making the opening night roster, but it does seem unlikely if the organization decides to carry seven defensemen as compared to eight. The left-shot defender could be an extra option in the latter scenario, but he’s unlikely to unseat offseason acquisitions Kevin Bahl and Jake Bean for regular playing time on the left side of Calgary’s defense depth chart.
That makes Tinordi’s most likely destination this season the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers if he clears waivers, where he’ll play a mentor role to blue-line prospects like Hunter Brzustewicz, Artem Grushnikov and Yan Kuznetsov.
Maple Leafs Re-Sign Nicholas Robertson
The Maple Leafs have re-signed restricted free agent winger Nicholas Robertson to a one-year deal worth $875K, per a team announcement.
Robertson, who turns 23 tomorrow, has been the subject of trade rumors ever since a report from Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic on the eve of free agency indicated he’d requested out of Toronto and had “no plans to re-sign with the Leafs this summer.” His name was also briefly mentioned in trade talks last season after a February report that indicated the Leafs were willing to listen to offers for the winger, but he wasn’t moved by the deadline.
As late as two weeks ago, Johnston said Robertson was still hoping to be moved. But last week, Luke Fox of Sportsnet said he wasn’t expecting Robertson to be traded before camp, putting a little bit of cold water on public trade speculation.
There’s still time for that suspicion to be wrong before training camps kick off around the league next week. It’s likely now easier than ever for Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving to get a Robertson trade across the finish line, with interested teams now having certainty of his cap hit for 2024-25.
But Robertson could also very well still be a Maple Leaf when opening night rosters are due. Treliving has maintained a positive relationship with Robertson by keeping in contact with him while exploring potential moves this summer, Darren Dreger of TSN reports, adding that new bench boss Craig Berube will help give the young winger a fresh start.
If he does end up sticking around, Robertson has a legitimate chance at a breakout season. While he was no longer technically a rookie, 2023-24 was his first true full NHL campaign. The 2019 second-round pick answered the bell with 14 goals and 13 assists for 27 points in 56 games while averaging just 11:23 per game with minimal power play time.
At 5v5, those numbers made Robertson one of the league’s most efficient scorers last season. His 1.34 goals per 60 minutes ranked 17th in the league, putting him on par with stars like Boston’s David Pastrňák and Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor.
There will likely be some regression from last year’s 14.6 shooting percentage in 2024-25, but an increase in ice time and special teams usage under Berube should help negate a drop in point-per-game production. He was on pace for 40 points had he played all 82 games last season, a figure he could very well build upon if he begins to see spot duty in the top six. After Tyler Bertuzzi left for the Blackhawks in free agency and with Matthew Knies expected to get an early crack at first-line duties alongside Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, there’s a second-line spot up for grabs with William Nylander and John Tavares that could be Robertson’s for the taking.
A one-year pact makes Robertson an RFA again next summer, still without arbitration rights. The Maple Leafs now have just over $400K in projected cap space with one open roster spot, per PuckPedia.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report the Leafs were expected to announce a deal for Robertson today.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.