Coyotes Notes: Bolland, Rieder, Tryouts
It will be a long time before Arizona gets to see Dave Bolland suit up for the team, writes Craig Morgan of Arizona Sports. Bolland is dealing with a pair of significant injuries, one to his ankle and the other his back. The ankle injury was sustained during his time with Toronto in 2013 but requires a lot of daily maintenance and the back issue is preventing that maintenance from happening. Bolland’s agent, Anton Thun, commented about the process:
“There is a vertebra that is pinching a nerve so it’s not sending an electrical signal down to the ankle to provide that impulse to activate. Until his back is fully healed, it’s difficult to rehab the ankle. There’s nothing nefarious about this. It’s just a long process.”
While the Coyotes have assumed the remaining three years of Bolland’s deal which carries a cap hit of $5.5MM as part of their acquisition of prospect Lawson Crouse, he will be placed on Long-Term Injury Reserve to start the season; as a result, they will only wind up being responsible for 20% of his actual salary.
More Coyotes notes from Morgan’s column:
- RFA winger Tobias Rieder will participate in the World Cup after securing an alternative form of insurance. (Other RFA’s such as Johnny Gaudreau and Jacob Trouba are also expected to do so in order to play.) While the impasse has led some to wonder if GM John Chayka may wind up moving the 23 year old, a league source tells Morgan that there is no chance that they trade him. Rieder is currently participating in an Olympic qualification tournament and had a goal and an assist in a 5-0 victory for Germany over Japan earlier today.
- Arizona has added six people to their hockey operations department recently, including a trio of scouts and a new Director of Statistical Science.
- While many teams are expected to bring in players on tryout deals for training camp, the Coyotes aren’t planning to add anyone via that route at this time. You can keep track of who is trying out where with our Invite Tracker.
Jets Expected To Name Wheeler Captain
The Winnipeg Jets have announced a press conference to take place at 1pm EST, according to a tweet from Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun, where it is expected they will name F Blake Wheeler as the team’s next captain. The Jets dealt former team captain Andrew Ladd to the Chicago Blackhawks at last year’s trade deadline and played the rest of the campaign without naming a replacement. Wheeler, along with D Mark Stuart, were both assistants with the club last season.
Wheeler has spent five-plus seasons as a member of the Winnipeg/Atlanta franchise following a 2011 trade deadline deal with Boston. The speedy forward has been a consistent point-producer since joining the franchise, tallying a total of 123 goals and 207 assists in 394 games. Over the last three seasons, Wheeler has scored 26, 26 and 28 goals, respectively.
Wheeler was originally the fifth overall selection in the 2004 entry draft, chosen by the then Phoenix Coyotes. After playing three seasons at the University of Minnesota, Wheeler turned pro and exercised his right to become a free agent should he not agree to terms by July 1, 2008. Ultimately, a deal could not be reached with the Coyotes and Boston was able to swoop in and secure Wheeler’s services. At that time, the rules governing college free agents were quite different than they are today.
‘Yotes Notes: Front Office, Prospects, Braid
The Arizona Coyotes have had a busy offseason, between hiring the youngest GM in NHL history, the first full-time female coach and using their cap-space to build a great young pool of players. Today, they announced that they’d done some more hiring, this time to beef up their scouting staff. The team has brought on Jim Hammett, Rick Beckfeld and Sergei Kuznetsov as amateur scouts, Brett Stewart as a development coach, Brad Rossen as Director of Statistical Science and Al Ambrosia as the Hockey Operations Coordinator.
Other news from the desert:
- ESPN released their annual top 120 prospect rankings (subscription needed), and the Coyotes fared very well coming in with four players in the top 40 and nine players in total. Dylan Strome and Clayton Keller led the list at #4 and #6 respectively, while Jakob Chychrun and Lawson Crouse, both acquired through the use of cap space, came in at #32 and #37. Solid drafting, combined with a shrewd use of every advantage has led the Coyotes to have one of the best young crops in the league, and this list even excludes players like Max Domi and Anthony Duclair.
- After all the fanfare that has surrounded the hiring of Dawn Braid as the first full-time female coach in the NHL, she’s quick to heap praise on other people. In a piece by Alex Prewitt of Sports Illustrated today, Braid admits it’s “a little bit overwhelming”, and quickly lists other skating coaches Barbara Underhill (Toronto) and Tracy Tutton (Colorado) as deserved of the same praise. It was her father who had pushed her into helping hockey teams, and Braid continues to remember why she started: “It’s the opportunity to honor my father again. Every day I teach or I coach or I consult I think about him. It is part of what drives me on the ice to do what I do. He’s always in the back of my head.”
Boston Bruins Sign Dominic Moore, Three Others To One-Year Deals
According to a team release, the Boston Bruins have signed Dominic Moore, Chris Casto, Brian Ferlin and Alex Grant to one year deals. Moore will earn $900K on a one-way deal, while the other three will be on two-way deals earning $650K, $725K, and $600K respectively. Moore will also earn a $100K bonus if he plays in at least 42 games and the Bruins make the playoffs, reports Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports.
Moore, a veteran of 765 NHL games, played last season with the New York Rangers and provided another season of solid bottom-six play. While his offensive production dropped to a career low of 15 points, the 35-year old was still an excellent penalty killer and face-off man for the Rangers, winning a career high 55.3% of his draws.
A former Bill Masterson Trophy winner for perseverance and sportsmanship, Moore has always been regarded as a near-perfect teammate and will a big part of the leadership group on the team next year. He’s heading back to the area he played his college hockey in, graduating from Harvard in 2003.
Casto, 24, has been in the Bruins system since signing in 2013 out of the University of Minnesota. The defenseman had his best season as a professional last year, scoring seven goals and 23 points in 68 games for the Providence Bruins of the AHL. A right-handed shot, Casto will keep working towards a possible NHL debut in the near future, a long way from going undrafted out of the USHL.
[Related: Updated Boston Bruins Depth Chart]
Having already made his NHL debut in 2014-15, Ferlin re-signs with the team who drafted him in the fourth round in 2011 and will try to reestablish himself after missing most of last year to injury. The winger got into just 23 games in the AHL after suffering an injury opening night, but was able to put up 14 points in that short time. A former Big Red member at Cornell University, Ferlin now has 35 points in 83 games in his professional career.
Grant, 27, is another newcomer to the organization, having spent last year with the Arizona organization. A long-time point producer from the blueline in the AHL, Grant has seven games of experience in the NHL, with five of those coming last year with the Coyotes. His career total of 174 points in the AHL was helped by his best year in 2015-16, when he racked up 42 in just 69 games. Another right handed shot, he’ll try to prove that his puck moving ability can be effective at the next level.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Pacific Division Notes: Coyotes, Daly, Marleau, Goldobin
After acquiring Dave Bolland and Pavel Datsyuk in separate trades this summer, the Arizona Coyotes could be in a position to conceivably carry nearly $18MM – once Chris Pronger‘s $4.935MM cap hit is added – on their salary cap for three players who won’t be suiting up for the this year. All told, the Coyotes will pay out just $1.675 in actual salary for those players (Pronger is set to earn $575K in the final season of a long-term arrangement he originally signed with Philadelphia, while the insurance policy on Bolland’s contract will cover all but $1.1MM once he is placed on LTIR). These maneuverings have allowed Arizona to easily cross the salary cap floor while at the same time limiting the actual salary obligations; not an unimportant factor for a small market, budget team.
In a piece appearing on Today’s Slapshot, Craig Morgan asked NHL deputy commissioner if Arizona’s handling of the salary cap was a growing concern for the league. Surprisingly, Daly indicated the league did not feel the Coyotes were exploiting a “loophole,” in the CBA while still leaving open the possibility the NHL could look to address the matter in future bargaining with the player’s union.
“I would say that it’s a matter that we monitor, like all other areas of the CBA (collective bargaining agreement), and if we believe it starts to be abused in a way that is inconsistent with how the system is designed to work, at that point, we would try to correct it in collective bargaining with the union. I would say we aren’t at that point on this issue — we do not view it as the loophole that some describe it as.”
While most teams utilize their available cap space to sign or trade for players from other organizations, or to extend their own players, Coyotes GM John Chayka is using Arizona’s as a method to add more quality young talent to what is already considered a strong group of prospects. It’s simply good business and soon enough Chayka’s talent-acquisition strategies will start paying off on the ice for the Coyotes.
Elsewhere in the Pacific Division…
- Patrick Marleau has spent the entirety of his excellent 18-year NHL career with the San Jose Sharks; a career which has seen the forward tally 481 regular season goals and 1,036 points. Marleau’s name has shown up in trade rumors on more than one occasion during his time in the Bay Area, most recently last season, but nothing has ever come of it. Yet, as Joey Alfieri of Pro Hockey Talk writes, the 2016-17 campaign will, in all probability, be the final one of Marleau’s storied Sharks career. As Alfieri points out, Marleau is in the final year of his contract and the team has several younger options on the LW – Mikkel Boedker, Tomas Hertl and Nikolay Goldobin – under team control for the next several seasons. Even if Marleau is willing to take a discount on the $6.66MM he is earning this season, the Sharks are far more likely to prioritize re-signing Brent Burns and Joe Thornton, both of whom are also scheduled to reach free agency next summer.
- The Calgary Flames recently reached agreement with one of their top players, Sean Monahan, inking the restricted free agent to a monster seven-year deal worth $44.6MM. That’s quite an investment for a player just coming off his ELC but as the Calgary Sun’s Kristen Odland writes, Monahan is already well worth the financial commitment. She points out that he has produced more offense than other pivots comparable in age and who have also recently signed extensions. As good as Monahan is he may not even be the best player on his team. That distinction might belong to winger Johnny Gaudreau, a restricted free agent who remains unsigned. Inevitably the Flames will also get Gaudreau under contract but it will be interesting to see how his contract compares to that of Monahan’s.
Week In Review: 8/22/16 – 8/28/16
With the World Cup of Hockey and NHL training camps both set to start next month, teams are actively trying to wrap up the last of their offseason business and finalizing their rosters. This week saw a couple of late unrestricted free agent signings that look to be bargains at first glance and a major trade completed by two of the league’s more analytically inclined organizations. We’ve got that and more in this installment of Week In Review.
Notable UFA Signings
Jiri Hudler (Dallas) – Hudler’s presence on the open market this late into the summer has been a bit of a mystery. He’s averaged at least 0.64 points-per-game in each of his last three seasons; a rate good enough to prorate into a 50-point campaign in a full schedule. With plenty of clubs looking to add scoring depth this summer it is somewhat surprising that it was the league’s most prolific offensive team that added Hudler on a one-year, $2MM deal. If Hudler remains healthy and in the lineup and reaches the 40-point mark, the deal will go down as a steal for Dallas.
Brandon Pirri (New York Rangers) – Pirri, like Hudler, has been a strong offensive player who surprisingly drew little interest this summer. Based on the last three seasons, Pirri places tied for 30th in goals-per-game averaging 0.33. But concerns about his defensive play may have limited his market. Ultimately the Rangers took a calculated risk and signed Pirri to a one-year pact worth $1.1MM.
Jhonas Enroth (Toronto Maple Leafs) – Toronto finalized their one-year agreement with the veteran backstop weeks after it was initially reported to be close. Enroth should provide a reliable backup to the newly-acquired Frederik Andersen at a great rate relative to other quality #2 goalies in the league.
Notable RFA Signings
Cody Ceci (Ottawa) – The Senators finally locked up RFA defenseman Cody Ceci, signing the three-year veteran to a two-year bridge deal with an AAV of $2.8MM. He will earn $2.25MM in 2016-17 and $3.35MM in year two of the agreement. Ceci tallied a career-high 10 goals and 26 points this past season and believes he has more to offer, particularly on the power play.
Notable ELC Signings
Max Jones (Anaheim) – The Ducks agreed to terms with Jones on an ELC that will pay the 24th overall selection in June $925K at the NHL level and $70K while suiting up in the AHL. As noted, the agreement does not contain any performance bonuses; a relative rarity for first-round picks.
Trades
The Arizona Coyotes continued to convert available cap space into young talent by agreeing to take on the remaining three years and $16.5MM of Dave Bolland‘s contract while also adding Florida’s first-round pick in the 2015 draft, Lawson Crouse, in the transaction. In return, the Panthers acquired a conditional second in 2018 and a 2017 third-round choice.
Bolland is unlikely to suit up for Arizona this year and his injuries could actually spell the end of the road for the veteran forward. Consequently, the Coyotes will inevitably place Bolland on LTIR, subtracting his cap hit from their books. Meanwhile, since the contract is insured, the Coyotes will only have to pay Bolland $1.1MM in actual cash this season.
Opinions are mixed on Crouse’s potential with some thinking he profiles only as a bottom-six player who acquiring is not worth also absorbing Bolland’s deal. Others think he has top-six, power forward potential. Count Coyotes GM John Chayka among the latter as he feels players who share Crouse’s skill set are “rare to find, difficult to obtain.”
Florida, meanwhile, gains salary relief which can be reinvested in the 2016-17 product and two draft picks to help add to the team’s diminishing prospect pool.
PTOs
Rene Bourque – Bourque has been invited to attend camp with Colorado.
Brandon Prust – After a down year in Vancouver, Prust looks to latch on with the Leafs as a 4th liner who adds toughness.
Jeff Glass – With Toronto’s expected starter and backup, Frederik Andersen and Jhonas Enroth respectively, participating in the World Cup, Toronto decided to add a body to the training camp roster. Theoretically, Glass could earn a job somewhere in the Maple Leafs organization with a solid training cap performance.
Paul Bissonette – Bissonette will attempt to earn a job with the Kings but seems most likely destined for their AHL affiliate in Ontario, California.
Five Questions With USA Today’s Kevin Allen
The USA Today’s Kevin Allen was kind enough to sit down with PHR and survey the hockey landscape as the season is just under a month away from starting. Allen takes a look at early contenders, whether the Red Wings are in as much as trouble as some think, and of course, some insights on Jimmy Vesey.
Allen has written for the USA Today since 1986, and won the Lester Patrick Award in 2013 and the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award in 2014. He was also inducted into the USA Hockey Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2014. Make sure to give Kevin a follow on Twitter @bykevinallen. You can also catch up on Allen’s coverage here.
PHR: Very early predictions: Who do you see as contenders for the upcoming season, barring any unforeseen injuries?
Allen: The Tampa Bay Lightning are my early pick to win it all. With Steven Stamkos now healthy and not worrying about his future, I foresee him uncorking a monster season. This team has all the necessary ingredients to win it all, and Jonathan Drouin will make the Lightning stronger by having a breakthrough season. Don’t be surprised if Andrei Vasilevskiy becomes the No. 1 goalie. That might allow GM Steve Yzerman the opportunity to deal Ben Bishop at the trade deadline to add another piece for his puzzle. I’m also not discounting the Pittsburgh Penguins, although we all know how challenging it is to repeat. Also, the Washington Capitals will be right there again. The Montreal Canadiens, with a healthy Carey Price, and the addition of Andrew Shaw, Alexander Radulov and Shea Weber, will be much improved. Radulov is not Alexander Semin.
In the West, I like the Chicago Blackhawks because Brian Campbell will make their defense whole again. The erosion of their depth does, however, concern me. I have the high-scoring Dallas Stars number two because I believe they will deal for a goalie near the trade deadline. Wouldn’t Bishop be a good fit for them? I have the Nashville Predators and San Jose Sharks in my next grouping. The Predators’ have more potential than fans seem to realize. P.K. Subban is a much better fit for coach Peter Laviolette’s attacking offensive system than Weber was. The Sharks will be the same force they were last May and June.
PHR: Concern seems to be rising about the Detroit Red Wings–everything from contract terms, direction, and what seems to be an aversion to invest in the youth of the team. Do you think that concern is warranted?
Allen: Yes, only because we simply have no idea how effective their younger players are going to be. The Red Wings are a hard read because there are too many variables. Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist seemed to take a step back last season, and it’s anybody’s guess whether Anthony Mantha will be an impact player. How sharp will Petr Mrazek be this season? The Thomas Vanek signing was a good roll of the dice, and Frans Nielsen will be a quality No. 2 center. But the Red Wings are the league’s mystery team. It wouldn’t be surprising if they missed the playoffs by 10 points, and it wouldn’t be shocking if they were the No. 4 or No. 5 team in the Eastern Conference.
PHR: Who do you feel had the best offseason?
- New York Rangers: Jeff Gorton improved the team speed with the addition of Michael Grabner. Nathan Gerbe is also quick. He signed skillful Pavel Buchnevich out of the Kontinental Hockey League. They stunned plenty of people by landing Jimmy Vesey and they changed their look by trading finesse center Derick Brassard for bigger and younger center Mika Zibanejad; Defenseman Nick Holden also wasn’t a bad pick-up.
- Montreal Canadiens: Addressed many problems. They will be more difficult to play against now because of the addition of Andrew Shaw and Shea Weber. In the long-term, the Canadiens will lose the Subban-for-Weber trade. But in the short term, Weber is the perfect fit for this team.
- Arizona Coyotes: Young GM John Chayka added Alex Goligoski, Jamie McGinn, Radim Vrbata and a few prime prospects. I like the addition of Lawson Crouse and Jakob Chychrun.
PHR: How will Jiri Hudler fit in with Dallas? Do you see a season closer to 2014-15 or 2015-16?
Allen: It’s a nifty pick-up by GM Jim Nill who knows Hudler well from their days together in Detroit. This merely adds to the team’s already strong offense. He still has magic in his hands. He should be a 55 to 60-point guy.
PHR: After all the hoopla with Jimmy Vesey, how do you see him fitting in with the Rangers?
Allen: He may play on a line with his buddy Kevin Hayes. Obviously, there are several examples of major college free agents not panning out. But scouts believe Vesey will be a quality NHL scorer. Depending upon whether he receives power play time, he might be a 20-goal guy this season.
Arizona Adds Three Players On AHL Deals
Amid all the news about the Arizona Coyotes and their acquisition of Dave Bolland, Lawson Crouse and skating coach Dawn Braid, comes another announcement that the organization has signed three more players to minor-league deals with the AHL. Hunter Fejes, Mark Cooper and Austin Lotz have all agreed to two-way AHL deals.
Fejes, the most well-known out of the bunch, was drafted by the Coyotes in the sixth round in 2012 before heading to Colorado College for four seasons. He began his professional career last year when he got into 10 games for the Springfield Falcons (the former affiliate of Arizona, now known as the Tucson Roadrunners) down the stretch. The former high school stand out took a while to get his feet under him in college, but put up 22 points in 36 games in his senior year. Now 22-years old, he’ll have to work extremely hard if he’s to ever crack an NHL roster.
Cooper, 24, is coming off a more successful college career that saw him put up 91 points across four years at Bowling Green. Undrafted out of Scarborough, Ontario the big winger will add some leadership and a two-way presence for the Roadrunners this season.
The last signee was goaltender Austin Lotz out of the WHL. Lotz played four seasons for the Everett Silvertips before joining the Medicine Hat Tigers as an over-ager last year. Overall, he’s put up a 75-63-17 record with a 2.96 GAA and .902 save percentage in the Western Hockey League, and will fight for starts in the AHL or ECHL this season.
Chayka Speaks About Lawson Crouse, Dawn Braid
Arizona Coyotes GM John Chayka joined Jeff Blair on Sportsnet 590 yesterday to talk about his coaching hires and the big trade from yesterday. The 27-year old hired three coaches including the NHL’s first full-time female coach, and dealt two draft picks for Dave Bolland and Lawson Crouse.
On why he decided to make the deal:
It’s about Lawson Crouse. It’s about a guy who we think is a rare asset. Usually when you acquire a power forward like this you’re giving up something in terms of speed or skill. We think that not only is he speedy and skilled, he’s going to enhance that for our group as well.
Usually these guys (power forwards) when they’re at the caliber Lawson is, they’re hard to find. Usually they don’t become available until they’re in their thirties. At that point you’re paying a premium for a guy who is not on the right side of his career, and we didn’t want to do that.
Panthers Trade Bolland, Crouse To Arizona
In another shrewd move by Arizona GM John Chayka today, the Coyotes have acquired Dave Bolland and Lawson Crouse in exchange for two draft picks, a 2017 third rounder and a 2018 second rounder. When combined with the deal that Chayka pulled at the draft to take on the Pavel Datsyuk cap hit, essentially in return for the right to draft Jakob Chychrun, the Arizona GM is using his cap space to build a system without paying out much actual cash.
Bolland, meanwhile, is still trying to come back from a variety of injuries and is just an empty cap-hit until he’s fit to play again (at which point he’d presumably be bought out, as Florida tried earlier this summer). He’s owed $16.5MM over the next three years, but is expected to be placed on long-term injured reserve when the season starts, making much of his deal covered by insurance.
The former Blackhawks has found nothing but pain since he left the windy city, playing in 101 total games in the three years since. His point totals have dropped to almost negligible amounts, and it seems as though his days as an effective third-liner that could perform at both ends of the rink are behind him.
In Crouse, the Coyotes snatch a player who was drafted 11th overall in 2015 and has future NHLer written all over him. The Kingston Frontenacs forward is coming off another solid junior season where he scored 62 points in just 49 games before making his professional debut with the Portland Pirates of the AHL at the end of the year. Crouse was regarded in his draft year as a prototypical power forward, capable of scoring double-digit goals while using the full effect of 6’4″, 212-pound frame.
While he may never become a top-line player, he fits in perfectly with the Arizona system as it’s currently constructed. With players like Dylan Strome, Max Domi and Christian Dvorak headed for the top-six, even if Crouse never fully reaches his potential he’ll have a place on the third line.
The draft picks are both conditional, with the third rounder being the higher of the two Arizona currently owns (their own, and Detroit’s) and the second rounder turning to a third if Crouse does not burn a year of his entry level contract (to do so, he’d need to play in at least ten NHL games).
The Coyotes have built an excellent group of prospects over the past few years, using high draft picks and smart moves to add talent wherever they can. With Strome and Dvorak set to make their debuts this season, it might not be long before we start seeing banners being raised to the Gila River Arena rafters.
Elliotte Friedman was the first to break the trade on Twitter, while Craig Custance provided the conditional details on the picks headed back.
Image courtesy of USA Today Images.