Snapshots: Pipeline Rankings, Strome, Gaunce
The big news over the past few days was top goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov heading to the Sharks in a blockbuster trade and immediately signing a two-year, $4MM extension. The move has massively shifted the prospect pool of both teams, but neither find themselves in the basement of Corey Pronman’s ranking of each team’s current crop of under-23 players for The Athletic.
Predictably, his initial installment of the bottom eight is filled with recent championship contenders. The Lightning are beginning to feel the effects of trading away nearly all of their impact futures for win-now pieces in pursuit of their three straight Stanley Cup Final appearances and back-to-back championships earlier this decade, checking in at No. 32. Their biggest fish is a new addition – center Conor Geekie, acquired from the Utah Hockey Club in the Mikhail Sergachev trade at the draft. But he’s the only player in their system that Pronman feels confident will be a top-nine fixture, although he also feels confident in 2023 second-rounder Ethan Gauthier, 2021 seventh-rounder Niko Huuhtanen, and 2022 first-rounder Isaac Howard to at least be everyday NHLers. But after that, especially on defense, it’s slim pickings for Tampa as they’re still trying to extend their championship window in the post-Steven Stamkos era.
Rounding out the bottom are many other teams who have reached the Cup Final in the past few seasons, namely the Avalanche (No. 31), Oilers (No. 30), and the Golden Knights (No. 27). But some other clubs without any conference championships to claim since the pandemic, such as the Bruins (No. 29), Canucks (No. 28), Islanders (No. 25), and Penguins (No. 26), find themselves with some soul-searching to do without a ton of help coming from inside the house.
Other tidbits from around the NHL to start the week:
- Players are slowly beginning to roll into their team’s home cities ahead of training camps next month. Capitals forward Dylan Strome is one of them, taking part in informal skates after an offseason of change in Washington (per Sammi Silber of The Hockey News). The 27-year-old enters camp intending to maintain his role as Washington’s first-line center, a job he’ll likely face a challenge for from trade acquisition Pierre-Luc Dubois. Strome has flourished in a top-six role since arriving with the Caps two years ago, setting career-highs last season with 27 goals and 67 points.
- Defenseman Cameron Gaunce is heading overseas for the first time after a 14-year pro career split between the NHL and the AHL. He signed a one-year contract today with Hungary’s Fehérvár AV19, per a team announcement. The 34-year-old was a second-round pick of the Avalanche all the way back in 2008 and has 37 NHL games under his belt with four different teams, last appearing with the Lightning in 2019-20. The vast majority of his playing time has come in the AHL, where he racked up 51 goals, 255 assists and 306 points in 823 games. The strong two-way left-shot defender spent last season on an AHL contract with the Toronto Marlies after waiting until December to sign, posting eight points in 40 appearances. He now heads to AV19, the lone Hungarian club in Austria’s ICE Hockey League.
Minor Transactions: 8/23/24
We’ve seen a trade of note in the NHL today but there has been some transaction activity elsewhere as well. Here’s a rundown of the ones with an NHL connection.
- Former Buffalo blueliner Victor Antipin is on the move in the KHL as Barys Astana announced that they’ve signed the 31-year-old to a one-year deal. Antipin played in 47 games with Buffalo back in 2017-18 (notching ten assists while logging 15:17 per night) but elected to return to Russia early in free agency the following year. Last season, Antipin played in 57 games with Traktor Chelyabinsk, recording 17 points.
- Jets prospect Markus Loponen has, as expected, signed a contract with WHL Victoria, per a team release. The 18-year-old forward was a fifth-round pick by Winnipeg two months ago, going 155th overall. Loponen had 25 goals and 29 assists in 45 games last season for Karpat’s under-20 team, resulting in him being picked in the first round of the CHL Import Draft this summer. Loponen requested and was granted his release by Karpat earlier this week, paving the way for him to join the Royals.
- Sharks prospect Leo Sahlin Wallenius has been loaned to Nybro in Sweden’s second-tier Allsvenskan, the team announced. The blueliner was the 53rd overall pick back in June following a strong showing in Vaxjo’s junior system. Sahlin Wallenius had 42 points in 43 regular season games at the Under-20 level while also picking up three assists for Sweden at the World Under-18s in the spring.
San Jose Sharks Acquire, Extend Yaroslav Askarov
The Nashville Predators’ number one goaltending prospect seems to have gotten his wish for a move outside of the Predators organization as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman is reporting that the San Jose Sharks are close to acquiring Yaroslav Askarov. According to a press release from Nashville, the Sharks will acquire Askarov, forward Nolan Burke, and Colorado’s third-round pick of the 2025 NHL Draft while sending away forward David Edstrom, goalie Magnus Chrona, and Vegas’ first-round pick in 2025.
It’s a major get for a rebuilding Sharks organization that was missing a true impact talent between the pipes. Over the past few years, San Jose has built up a nice young core of Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, Sam Dickinson, Filip Bystedt, and Shakir Mukhamadullin but has since failed to procure a long-term goaltender. With Askarov now in the fold, the Sharks have a 22-year-old goalie who has done nothing but dominate in the American Hockey League over the last two years.
With his entry-level contract set to expire at the end of the 2024-25 campaign, the Sharks moved quickly on an extension for Askarov with his agent Dan Milstein announcing a two-year deal for the young goaltender. Shortly thereafter PuckPedia relayed that Askarov will earn a $1.7MM salary with a $200K signing bonus in 2025-26 and a $2.1MM salary in 2026-27 with an AAV of $2M.
Askarov’s rise to stardom didn’t happen overnight. He was ranked as the highest available European goaltender in the 2020 NHL Draft leading to him being the first one taken off the board with the 11th overall pick by the Predators. In his draft year, Askarov suited up in 18 games for the VHL’s SKA-Neva St. Petersburg where he produced a 12-3-3 record along with a .920 save percentage and 2.45 goals-against average.
The young Russian netminder spent a few more years playing in Russia’s junior league before signing his entry-level contract with Nashville in 2022 and joining the organization for the 2022-23 season. In his rookie season with the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL, Askarov put up a 26-16-5 record in 48 contests coupled with a .911 SV% and 2.69 GAA which immediately put him on the map as a legitimate high-end goaltending prospect.
Askarov gave the Predators a decision to make. Over nearly the last two decades, Nashville has had the privilege of high-end goaltending with the organization seamlessly transferring from Pekka Rinne to Juuse Saros. The Predators quickly began receiving trade calls for both Askarov and Saros before signing Saros to an eight-year extension earlier this summer.
Despite the trade chatter, Askarov dominated in the AHL once again this past season with a 30-13-1 record in 44 games with a duplicated save percentage. Despite another year of solid play between the pipes, the Predators signed goalie Scott Wedgewood to serve as Saros’ backup next year, leading to Askarov requesting a trade from the organization.
He may not get the starting minutes right away with the Sharks as the team already deploys Mackenzie Blackwood and Vitek Vanecek as their current options. Given the current competitive status of the team, however, Askarov will have every opportunity to earn the starting minutes down the stretch and could even be the Sharks undisputed starter by season’s end.
Heading back to Nashville is a nearly identical package that the Sharks received for forward Tomas Hertl at this past year’s trade deadline. Edstrom was originally drafted with the 32nd overall pick of the 2023 NHL Draft by the Vegas Golden Knights and has been working his way through the SHL with Frölunda HC on loan. The young two-way center brings solid awareness to both sides of the puck and should be a decent middle-six option for the Predators down the road.
Chrona will likely be deployed as a serviceable third-string goaltender for Nashville with a majority of his starts coming with the team’s AHL affiliate in Milwaukee. The University of Denver alum helped the Pioneers to their ninth National Championship in program history during the 2022 Frozen Four tournament. He finished his senior year with a 22-9-0 record in 31 games. Chrona signed with the Sharks as a collegiate free agent and made his debut with the team last year toward the end of the season where he collected one win in nine games on the heels of a .859 SV%.
The first-round pick, also acquired by San Jose in the Hertl trade, will be top-10 protected according to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. If the draft choice were to fall in the top 10 of the 2025 NHL Draft, the Sharks would have the option of sending their pick or Vegas’ to Nashville.
Although Edstrom has decent upside as a forward prospect, he may not necessarily have the prospect pedigree that Nashville was originally looking for in exchange for Askarov to start the summer. However, the team still got much better in free agency with the acquisitions of Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, and Brady Skjei and now have three first-round picks for the 2025 NHL Draft.
Blues Sign Quinton Burns To Entry-Level Deal
The Blues have signed defenseman Quinton Burns to a three-year entry-level contract, per a team release. Financial terms were not disclosed by the team but PuckPedia reports that the deal has a cap hit of $870K and an AAV of $950K including games played bonuses.
Burns, 19, has done well in tough minutes on a mediocre Kingston Frontenacs team in the Ontario Hockey League the past couple of years. A St. Louis third-round pick in 2023, Burns recorded six goals, 29 assists, 35 points, and 120 PIMs in 58 games for Kingston in 2023-24, all career highs.
The left-shooting Burns is entering what he hopes will be his first full training camp with the team. He attended as an unsigned prospect in 2023, but his viewings were limited after he sustained a lower-body injury early in the preseason against the Coyotes.
He still needs a few years of development before he’s ready to bring his stay-at-home game to the NHL. Burns isn’t yet old enough for a full-time AHL assignment, so the Blues will return him to the Frontenacs for his final season of junior hockey when cutting him from their camp roster in the next few weeks. Doing so will defer the first season of his deal to 2025-26, making him a restricted free agent upon expiry in 2028.
Burns didn’t quite crack The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler’s list of the Blues’ top 15 prospects back in February, but he was mentioned as falling just short of the cut. St. Louis can be patient with the Ontario native, who they hope will be the next in a string of defensively-minded blue liners that they’ve been able to turn into NHL-caliber players, joining the likes of Matthew Kessel and Tyler Tucker.
DEL’s Dusseldorfer EG Signs Tyler Angle
Düsseldorfer EG of Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga have signed center/left winger Tyler Angle, per Tobias Kemberg of D.Sports. It’s a one-year deal for the Niagara Falls native, who heads overseas early in his career.
Angle, 23, had spent the last four years playing in the Blue Jackets organization. He played mostly for their AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters, but he did log two games with Columbus in each of the past two seasons.
Early on, Angle looked like he might be a gem after falling to the seventh round of the 2019 draft, selected on the heels of a strong season with the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires. With the OHL pausing its operations for 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Angle turned pro early on an amateur tryout with the Monsters. He immediately made an impact, posting 11 goals and 24 points in 23 games, leading the team in scoring during the shortened campaign.
Angle’s entry-level contract with the Blue Jackets went into effect in 2021-22, but the 5’10”, 172-lb forward never regained his scoring touch. His point-per-game production nearly halved, limited to 11 goals and 37 points in 71 contests the following year. By last season, Angle was no longer a fixture in the Cleveland lineup, only playing in 40 of 72 games and recording 16 points (eight goals, eight assists) with a -11 rating. On the heels of that performance, the Jackets opted not to issue him a qualifying offer when his ELC expired this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent.
His brief NHL usage did yield a goal, coming against the Sabres on April 14, 2023. He posted a -3 rating across his four appearances, five shots on goal, and an average of 9:54 per game while going 11-for-27 in the dot (40.7%).
Angle joins a Düsseldorf club headlined by former Avalanche defenseman Kyle Cumiskey on the back end. He’ll reunite with center Justin Richards, who played out 2022-23 with the Monsters on a two-way deal with Columbus and signed a deal with the German side earlier this month.
Vancouver Canucks Sign Samuel Blais To PTO
Forward Sammy Blais will look to play for the third NHL team of his career as the Vancouver Canucks announced he has signed a contract with their AHL affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks, as well as a professional tryout agreement with Vancouver. The one-time Stanley Cup champion bottom-six forward will have a chance to crack the Canucks’ opening night roster in training camp or land a two-way deal to start the regular season.
The physical forward recently wrapped up his second stint with the St. Louis Blues after being re-acquired from the New York Rangers in a 2023 trade that sent Vladimir Tarasenko to the Big Apple. The Rangers acquired Blais for another Russian forward in the 2021 trade that landed Pavel Buchnevich with the Blues.
Blais cracked the Blues’ roster four years after being drafted by the team in the sixth round of the 2014 NHL Draft and he immediately became a force to be reckoned with in the team’s bottom six. He quickly became one of the more physical players on the team by collecting 366 hits in 119 games during his first run in St. Louis. Aside from scoring 17 goals and 35 points in total, Blais helped the Blues secure their first Stanley Cup championship during the 2019 playoffs by collecting one goal and three points in 15 postseason contests.
He never got much opportunity with the Rangers organization as injuries limited him to only 14 regular season contests. New York re-signed Blais to a one-year, $1.53MM deal for the 2022-23 NHL season but only gave him 9:38 of ice time during the regular season which made him expendable at the trade deadline. Heading back to St. Louis, Blais experienced his best stretch of hockey at the NHL level as he scored nine goals and 20 points in 31 games to end the season.
His play at the end of the 2022-23 campaign earned him a one-year, $1MM extension with the Blues organization but he was unable to score at the same rate. He finished last year with one goal and seven points in 53 games and will now look to force his way into a crowded Canucks forward core.
AHL Notes: Burke, Mara, Jackson, Giroux
The AHL affiliate of the New York Rangers, the Hartford Wolf Pack, rounded out their coaching staff today as they announced the hire of Brendan Burke as the team’s goaltending coach and Paul Mara as one of the team’s assistant coaches. Burke is replacing Jeff Malcolm as the team’s full-time goaltending coach who was promoted to the Rangers’ goaltending coach yesterday.
It will be Burke’s first professional opportunity to coach after spending the last two years with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks. In Portland, Burke would teach goaltenders Jan Spunar and Dante Giannuzzi during his two-year tenure with Spunar collecting a .908 SV% and .913% each year, respectively. Hartford will have several young options to compete for the backup role with Louis Domingue set to take on the starting minutes next season.
The Wolf Pack also decided to remove the interim tag from Mara after being brought to the organization in early December last year. Mara has already collected significant hardware as a coach as he previously served as the head coach of the Boston Pride in the NWHL and PHF. He coached the Pride to back-to-back championships in 2021 and 2022 while also collecting a gold medal as an assistant coach with Team USA’s Women’s team during the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
Other AHL notes:
- The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have brought in an ECHL standout from last season as they announced an AHL contract for forward Kyle Jackson earlier today. After wrapping up his OHL career with the North Bay Battalion in 2022-23, Jackson spent all last year with the Kansas City Mavericks of the ECHL which saw him collect 14 goals and 44 points in 53 games. Jackson’s final two years in the OHL were extremely productive as he scored 61 goals and 145 points in 112 games leading to him being selected by the Seattle Kraken in the seventh round of the 2022 NHL Draft although he would not sign.
- The two-time defending Western Conference champion, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, have also entered the free agent market as the team has signed forward Damien Giroux to an AHL contract for the 2024-25 season. Giroux served in three seasons with the Iowa Wild as a playmaking option on the team’s bottom six before making his NHL debut with the Minnesota Wild on April 13, 2023. The young forward spent last year split between the AHL and ECHL with the Buffalo Sabres organization and will likely serve in a similar capacity with the Firebirds.
Pittsburgh Penguins Sign Nikolai Knyzhov To PTO
The Pittsburgh Penguins are allowing a former prospect of the San Jose Sharks to crack the roster as the team announced they have agreed to a professional tryout agreement with defenseman Nikolai Knyzhov. The news comes nearly two months after the Sharks placed Knyzhov on unconditional waivers to terminate his contract.
After a strong season in the Russian VHL with SKA-Neva St. Petersburg in 2018-19, the Sharks poached Knyzhov out of his home country as an undrafted free agent. Knyzhov transitioned nicely to North American hockey in the AHL the following season on the San Jose Barracuda scoring one goal and five points in 33 games while collecting a +4 rating and making his NHL debut. With the 2019-20 season marking the beginning of the downfall in San Jose, Knyzhov had the opportunity to become a full-time NHLer the following season.
He suited up in all 56 games for the Sharks in the COVID-shortened campaign. Knyzhov was not given a significant amount of responsibility out of the gate as he averaged 16:45 of ice time per game which allowed him to put up two goals and 10 points. He wasn’t a liability on the back end either as he earned a 48.5% CorsiFor% and a 90.6% on-ice save percentage which were good for fourth and third on the team, respectively.
Knyzhov’s strong rookie showcase was overshadowed by a groin injury that would keep him out of the 2021-22 season and a subsequent Achilles injury shelved his 2022-23 season until January. Although the Sharks committed to Knyzhov on the heels of a two-year, $2.5MM extension that season, he was never fully able to recover his value in the organization leading to a termination of his contract earlier this offseason.
The Russian defenseman has opted to continue his career in the NHL — this time on the other side of the United States. The Penguins’ top four is relatively set heading into the 2024-25 season (assuming no injuries), allowing Knyzhov to compete for a bottom-pairing or depth defenseman role. In training camp, Knyzhov will be battling it out with defenseman Ryan Shea and Sebastian Aho for one of these roles with one of the trio inevitably being sent down to start the year.
Maple Leafs Re-Sign Alex Steeves To Two-Way Contract
The Maple Leafs have re-signed RFA forward Alex Steeves to a one-year, two-way contract, the team announced.
Steeves will count $775K against the cap if he’s on the NHL roster during the 2024-25 season. PuckPedia reports he’ll make a $300K salary in the AHL with a $350K guarantee.
Toronto signed Steeves, now 24, as an undrafted free agent out of Notre Dame in March 2021. Since then, the Bedford, New Hampshire native has become a fixture in the top six of their AHL club, the Toronto Marlies.
With the Marlies, Steeves has 69 goals, 85 assists, 154 points, and a -11 rating in 188 games over the past three seasons. His point-per-game rates have varied minimally, peaking at 0.88 last season and bottoming out at 0.78 in 2022-23. Amid a career-high 27 goals and 57 points last year, Steeves represented the North Division at the AHL All-Star Game.
However, NHL appearances have been hard to come by for the versatile forward. Steeves, who can play center and both wings, has just one point and a -4 rating in seven career appearances over his three professional seasons. He’s averaged just 8:14 per game.
While Steeves is an acceptable plug-and-play bottom-six option if needed, the Leafs’ salary cap crunch likely means he won’t have a spot on their opening-night roster. He’ll need to clear waivers to head back to the Marlies. He’ll remain high on their list of call-up options in case of injuries, although likely only on a short-term basis. Players can stay on an NHL roster for up to 30 days or play up to 10 games after clearing waivers before needing to pass through them again to return to the minors.
As PuckPedia points out, Steeves is on track to meet the requirements to hit the open market early next summer via Group VI unrestricted free agency. The Maple Leafs would need to utilize Steeves in at least 73 games this season to maintain control over his rights as an RFA next summer, an improbable scenario.
With Steeves signing, winger Nicholas Robertson is Toronto’s lone remaining unsigned RFA. He still has an active trade request dating back to June.
Flyers Place Ryan Johansen On Unconditional Waivers For Contract Termination
Aug. 21: Johansen has cleared waivers, and the Flyers may terminate his contract, per Friedman. Johansen’s camp has up to 60 days to file a grievance.
Aug. 20: The Flyers announced they’ve placed center Ryan Johansen on unconditional waivers to terminate his contract following a “material breach.” Johansen is expected to clear waivers and file a grievance with the NHLPA following his termination, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.
Philadelphia acquired Johansen from the Avalanche before the trade deadline, taking on his reduced $4MM cap hit to provide relief in the deal that sent defenseman Sean Walker to Colorado. From the start, it was clear the Flyers never intended for Johansen to play a game for the club. The Flyers promptly waived Johansen after the trade in an attempt to send him to the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms and potentially flip him before the deadline passed. But there were no takers, and days later, the league reversed Johansen’s AHL assignment after he failed his physical following the trade due to a nagging hip injury.
Johansen’s injury prevented him from being bought out by the Flyers in June, giving them a bit of a salary cap headache. That will be solved after he clears waivers tomorrow, and his termination will at least temporarily wipe his $4MM cap charge from Philly’s books. However, the Flyers may still be hit with a cap charge if his expected grievance proves successful.
His contract termination will also have an immense cap benefit for the Predators, who had retained 50% of his initial $8MM cap hit when they traded him to the Avalanche last summer. Their $4MM cap penalty for the retention will be wiped out, just as the Capitals’ $3.9MM cap charge for retaining money on Evgeny Kuznetsov was wiped out when the Hurricanes mutually terminated his contract a few weeks ago.
Johansen, 32, would have become an unrestricted free agent after next season upon completing the eight-year, $64MM deal he signed with Nashville in 2017.
The 2010 fourth-overall pick has struggled with inconsistency in the latter stages of his career, and Nashville decided to get out of half of his deal after he was limited to 12 goals, 16 assists, and 28 points with a -13 rating in 55 games in the 2022-23 season. The Avs, who had been struggling to fill their second-line center vacancy after Nazem Kadri departed in free agency following their Stanley Cup win in 2022, took him off Nashville’s hands.
Unfortunately for the Avalanche and Johansen alike, his play faltered even more in Denver. His offensive production dropped to 13 goals and 23 points in 63 games, with his 0.37 points per game marking his worst output in over a decade. He averaged 13:39 per game, his lowest figure since his rookie season. While he was still effective in the faceoff dot, winning 53.1% of his draws, he wasn’t the answer in Colorado.
The now-revealed injury likely contributed to his overall struggles. Friedman adds that his delay in reporting it is the source of the breach mentioned above.
Johansen will become an unrestricted free agent tomorrow after clearing waivers. He’ll technically be eligible to sign with any team, but he won’t be able to until he can pass a physical.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report Johansen had landed on waivers.