Snap Shots: Vermette, Havlat, Oilers, Vegas
Yesterday, Arizona Coyotes GM John Chayka made the somewhat surprising decision to place veteran center Antoine Vermette on waivers for the purpose of buying out the final year of his contract. By all accounts Vermette didn’t have his best season in 2015-16 but still netted 38 points, including 16 on the power play, in 76 games. But in the club’s release announcing the move, Chayka cited the desire to give opportunities to some of the organization’s young players, including perhaps top prospects Christian Dvorak and Dylan Strome.
Regardless of why he’s now available, a player with Vermette’s track record is likely going to draw a fair amount of interest from other clubs. However, the Boston Bruins should not be among those teams, at least that’s the opinion of Joe Haggerty writing for CSNNE.com.
Haggerty argues that signing the 34-year-old Vermette doesn’t mesh with the Bruins’ desire to get younger. I’d argue there isn’t much of a fit in Bean Town since the Bruins already boast Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci at the center position. The team also added David Backes as a free agent and he comes with plenty of experience in the middle. Even if they decided to play Backes on the wing, Boston lists 24-year-old Ryan Spooner as a center and he is coming off a career high 49-point season. There just doesn’t seem to be room for Vermette on this roster.
Now, more from around the league.
- The list of available free agents may increase by one as Allan Walsh, the agent for former NHLer Martin Havlat, has indicated via tweet his client is currently training with HC Kometa Brno in the Czech League with the intent of returning to the NHL next season. Havlat appeared in just two contests for the St. Louis Blues in 2015-16 before leaving the club for “personal reasons.” He had earned a job with the team after signing a PTO in October. Prior to his abbreviated stint with St. Louis, Havlat had skated in 788 NHL games, spending time with Ottawa, Chicago, Minnesota, San Jose and New Jersey. At one point Havlat was one of the league’s top young offensive players, tallying 31 goals and 37 assists for the Senators in 2003-04, playing most of the season as a 22-year-old. Those prolific scoring days are long gone and in recent seasons Havlat has produced roughly 0.5 Pts/Game. That doesn’t mean a team won’t take a flier on the talented Czech in hopes he can produce even at that level and hold down a regular spot in their top-nine on the cheap.
- The expansion Las Vegas franchise continues to assemble its front office staff with the club announcing the hiring of Kelly McCrimmon as assistant general manager. McCrimmon, has been the majority owner, GM and head coach of the Brandon Wheat Kings of the WHL. He has won the WHL’s Executive of the Year award three times since 1995. It was reported earlier this summer that Las Vegas had requested permission from Washington to interview their assistant GM, Ross Mahoney, for the same role. Of course GM George McPhee knows Mahoney well from their days together in the Capitals front office so the potential fit was obvious. It’s not known whether Washington refused permission for Vegas to speak with Mahoney or if the club just elected to go in a different direction.
- In other management news, the Edmonton Oilers are expected to name Keith Gretzky as an assistant GM, a recent rumor all but confirmed via tweet from Bob McKenzie of TSN. Gretzky is of course the brother of Wayne and has served as the director of amateur scouting for the Boston Bruins, where he worked under current Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli. Obviously Gretzky made a good impression on Chiarelli during their time together in Boston.
Minor Transactions: 8/1/16
Here is where we’ll keep track of today’s minor transactions:
- Former NHL’er Sergei Kostitsyn, who was seeking an NHL deal this summer, has signed a contract with Dinamo Minsk of the KHL, the Russian team announced (link in Russian). This marks the fourth different KHL squad in as many years for the 29 year old Belarusian. Kostitsyn spent time with both Nashville and Montreal from 2007-08 to 2012-13, picking up 67 goals and 109 assists in 353 games.
- New Jersey UFA defenseman Marc-Andre Gragnani is also joining Dynamo Minsk on a one year deal, the team announced (link in Russian). Gragnani spent most of last year with the Devils’ AHL affiliate in Albany, collecting a goal and 30 assists in 57 games. He also skated in four games with New Jersey, being held pointless while averaging 14:22 per game. Gragnani has played in 78 career NHL contests with the Sabres, Canucks, Hurricanes, and Devils, scoring three goals and 15 assists.
- Former NHL blueliner Andrej Meszaros has signed a one year deal with Bratislava of the KHL, the Slovak team announced (link in Slovak). Meszaros played last season with Sibir Novosibirsk of the KHL but before that, he spent parts of ten seasons in the NHL. He has 238 points (63 goals and 175 assists) in 645 career NHL contests with Ottawa, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, Boston, and Buffalo.
- Linus Omark, who last played in the NHL with Buffalo in 2014, has inked a two year extension with Salavat Yulaev of the KHL, the Russian team announced (link in Russian). Omark has long been thought of as one of the more talented players outside the NHL but has failed to produce in a couple of different NHL stints. He finished fifth in KHL scoring last season with 57 points in 60 games.
- Group 6 Free Agent Danny Kristo agreed to terms with the St. Louis Blues, inking a one year, two-way contrack worth $575K (NHL) / $175K (AHL). The American forward scored 25G and 23A in 75 games for the AHL Chicago Wolves.
- Stu Bickel agreed to a Professional Tryout with the Anaheim Ducks, according to Globe and Mail’s James Mirtle. Bickel spent last season with Anaheim’s AHL Affiliate San Diego Gulls, scoring 1G and 6A in 59 games.
- Arizona Coyotes’ first round draft pick Jakob Chychrun’s contract details were released today. The defenseman will receive the league maximum $925K a year for the length of his ELC, and up to $425K in Schedule A bonuses. The Coyotes moved up in the draft to select Chychrun with the 16th overall selection by taking on Pavel Datysuk’s contract from Detroit in exchange for the higher draft pick.
Snapshots: Predators, Strome, Athanasiou
The Nashville Predators are gearing up for an exciting season writes Adam Vingan of the Tennessean. Vingan makes his case for a trio of predictions as the season approaches. He writes that the over/under should be set at 35 goals for Filip Forsberg, but sees him falling short of 40. As for newly acquired defenseman P.K. Subban, Vingan bets that Subban will easily break 60 points. Vingan sees Pekka Rinne‘s as playing better than last season, but cautions that it may not be significant enough to warrant a dramatic improvement. He also points out that it was Rinne’s up and down play that made the Predators inconsistent.
In other NHL news:
- Arizona Coyotes forward Dylan Strome says he’s done with junior hockey and the timing couldn’t be more impeccable. With the Coyotes buying out the contract of Antoine Vermette earlier today, the path seems clear for the 19-year-old forward. Craig Hagerman writes that the 2015 third overall pick is ready for the next step in his career after posting consecutive 100+ point seasons in the OHL. One of the final roster cuts last Fall, Hagerman reports that another year of seasoning and strong performance has Strome hopeful for a shot with the big club.
- Speedy Detroit Red Wings forward Andreas Athanasiou isn’t concerned about his starting place this fall the Detroit Free Press’ Helene St. James reports. Despite dazzling when given some ice time late in the regular season and then the playoffs, Athanasiou might be an odd man out when the Red Wings head into the 2016-17 season. With the addition of forwards Thomas Vanek, Frans Nielsen, and Steve Ott, roster space is limited, but Athanasiou says that he won’t let if affect him. St. James writes that along with Anthony Mantha, Athanasiou cannot be claimed on waivers. While this may not prove popular with the Red Wings fanbase, Athanasiou seems more concerned about building on last year’s successes.
What’s Next For Antoine Vermette?
After the shocking news today that the Coyotes bought out Antoine Vermette‘s contract, hockey insiders and analysts deconstructed the transaction. The big question now is if Vermette will find another team to land with before the start of the 2016-17 season.
Puck Daddy’s Greg Wyshynski sees this as a logical move for both sides. A deep dive shows the wisdom in Wyshynski’s words.
The Eye Test
Vermette was owed $3.75MM over the next two seasons. He previously made the same amount when he inked a five-year, $18.75MM deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2010. Thanks to a career year during the 2009-10 season that saw a 65 point campaign, Vermette cashed in. He never reached that total again, but still had productive seasons.
His playoff totals also helped his stock with the Coyotes in 2011-12, and then scored some timely goals during the Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup run in 2014-15. He found his way back to the desert the following season, registering 38 points (17-21) in 76 games.
Though he did see his ice time decrease with the Blackhawks, Vermette was still viewed as a valuable commodity. The value certainly was there, and the Coyotes simply re-signed a player they were comfortable with.
Other factors
Puck Daddy’s Josh Cooper shared a tweet that honed in on the advanced stats attached to Vermette. The results revealed a player with declining performance. Vermette was not justifying the $3.75MM he was costing the Coyotes. This is a team being rebuilt by an analytics strategist with young talent waiting in the wings. There wasn’t a lot of motivation for general manager John Chayka to take ice time away from players he purportedly would rather see out there. The full reasoning was laid out in Chayka’s team release.
Where will he go?
Vermette still has value, it’s just a matter of what he would want financially and in terms of ice time. He’s still only 34 years old, and presumably has at least 2-3 years of hockey left in him. Though teams wouldn’t acquire him via trade, that was when he held a nearly $4MM cap hit. Now a free agent, acquiring a 40 point player at a significant discount is certainly an attractive option. Craig Morgan tweets that he expects Vermette to generate some interest.
In terms of compatibles, 26-year-old Sam Gagner fetched just $650K on the open market. Sure, he had a significant drop off in terms of production (41 points to 16), but he’s still younger. Compared to his past performance, it appeared an anomaly to his normally consistent self. But that anomaly cost him financially.
Expect Vermette to be plucked off the free agent heap–just at a more cap friendly price.
Coyotes Buy Out Antoine Vermette
The Coyotes announced that they have bought out center Antoine Vermette. The announcement came less that two hours after it was reported that the team had placed him on unconditional waivers as first reported by AZSports’ Craig Morgan.
Vermette is able to be bought out as a result of the second buyout window that opened up after the Coyotes re-signed Michael Stone, who had filed for arbitration last month. In a separate tweet, Morgan notes that GM John Chayka did try to trade Vermette before proceeding with this move.
The veteran had a decent year with the Coyotes last season, posting 17 goals and 21 assists, matching his 38 point output from the previous season. His role with Arizona was reduced last season as his ice time dropped from 18:59 per game to 16:39 in 2015-16.
Presumably, the decision to let Vermette go was likely made to help free up a spot for some of their top prospects such as Dylan Strome and Christian Dvorak. The 34 year old has one season left on a two year pact signed last offseason worth $3.75MM per year.
From a salary cap perspective, the buyout costs Arizona $1.25MM in both salary and cap hit for both 2016-17 and 2017-18. That will free up $2.5MM on this season’s cap. The Coyotes are no stranger to having cap charges for players who aren’t playing for them as Pavel Datsyuk, Chris Pronger, and Mike Ribeiro are all on their cap for 2016-17 despite the fact that none of them will suit up for the team. Add in Vermette’s $1.25MM buyout charge and the Coyotes will have a cap charge of over $15.1MM for players who won’t actually play for them next year.
Coyotes Sign Jakob Chychrun To Entry Level Contract
Craig Morgan of AZSports tweeted that the Arizona Coyotes have inked the second of their two, 2016 first-round draft choices, defenseman Jakob Chychrun, to a three-year ELC. Chychrun, selected 16th overall in last month’s draft, likely has only an outside chance at cracking the Coyotes roster on opening night as the club already has eight blue liners with NHL experience under contract. It’s far more likely the team will elect to return him to his junior club for more seasoning.
Originally slated to select 20th overall, the Coyotes moved up four slots in a deal with Detroit that also saw Arizona absorb Pavel Datyuk‘s $7.5MM cap charge. The trade allowed the Wings to clear significant cap space from their books while moving back just a few positions in the draft. Detroit also picked up a second-round choice, 53rd overall, which the team used on defenseman Filip Hronek. Meanwhile, Arizona put themselves in position to take a player they liked tremendously and had even considered drafting with the seventh overall selection.
Chychrun played his junior hockey with the Sarnia Sting of the OHL. In 62 OHL contests, Chychrun tallied 49 points and boasted a +23 plus-minus rating. His father, Jeff, appeared in 262 NHL games, spending time with Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Edmonton and Pittsburgh in a career spanning parts of eight seasons.
First year GM John Chayka has been among the league’s busiest executives this summer. Chayka added D Alex Goligoski via trade and LW Jamie McGinn and D Luke Schenn as free agents to bolster a young but talented roster. He also re-signed team captain Shane Doan and restricted free agent defenders Michael Stone and Connor Murphy to new contracts. Whether these additions will help get the Coyotes back into the postseason or not remains to be seen but Chayka has shown he is unafraid to make impact moves so far.
Snapshots: Coyotes; Gagner; Barrie
News and notes around the NHL:
- With the recent signings of Connor Murphy and Michael Stone, the Arizona Coyotes now have eight defensemen signed to NHL deals—and that’s not even including top draft prospect Jake Chychrun, whom the Coyotes moved up for in the 2016 NHL Draft. As Craig Morgan of AZSports writes, the backlog of NHL-ready defensemen poses both problem and prosperity for the team. It creates a logjam of defensemen and little opportunity for prospects like Chychrun to get playing time, but it also gives them expendable pieces to upgrade other areas. The Coyotes may have to look elsewhere for offensive help if they cannot re-sign RFA Tobias Rieder before the season starts. Trading from a position of strength to obtain a forward kills two birds with one stone. Take a look at Arizona’s depth chart at Roster Resource.
- UFA Sam Gagner is close to signing a deal with an NHL team, according to his agent. Gagner last played for the Philadelphia Flyers where he scored 8G and 8A in 53 games. The Canadian center held much promise as a member of the Edmonton Oilers from 2007-2014, including netting eight points in one game, but never fulfilled the potential scouts thought he had. Gagner will probably take a one-year “prove it” deal to try and revitalize his career.
- RFA Tyson Barrie completed his arbitration hearing today, and the arbitrator will issue her decision within 48 hours. Because Colorado offered a $4MM contract, and Barrie offered a $6MM contract, the arbitrator’s decision will most likely meet the threshold ($3.9MM) to open up Colorado’s walk-away rights. If Colorado chooses to invoke those rights, they will be stuck with the arbitrator’s decision for one year before Barrie becomes a free agent. When a team elects a two-year term decision for any player-elected salary arbitration, using walk away rights reduces the arbitrator’s decision down to one year, and then the player becomes a UFA.
Snapshots: NHLPA, Boston’s Prospects, Murphy
Ian McLaren writes that the NHLPA has hired Bruce Meyer as the senior director of collective bargaining, policy, and legal. NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr commented that the hiring brings someone in who has over three decades of legal experience. The current collective bargaining agreement is set to expire on September 15, 2022. However, the league or the player’s union can opt out of the current early, just at different dates. As long as it is delivered in writing, the NHL can opt out on September 1, 2019. The NHLPA can opt out on September 15, 2019.
The addition of Meyer brings more talent into the NHLPA’s fold as many analysts felt the NHL “won” the last round of labor war. There have been work stoppages in each of the last three negotiations which included an entire season wiped out in 2004-05. Both the 1994-95 and 2012-13 were shortened as a result of the league and player’s union’s negotiations.
In other NHL news:
- Joe Haggerty writes that prospects Ryan Donato and Ryan Fitzgerald are on their way in terms of development. Both are currently playing college hockey, Donato with Harvard and Fitzgerald with Boston College. While Donato is entering his sophomore season that is full of promise, Fitzgerald is gearing up for what will be his final season playing college hockey. Haggerty reports that Fitzgerald, coming off a 47 point (27-20) campaign in 2015-16, seems to be saying the right things in terms of joining the Bruins upon graduation. However, as Haggerty points out, anything is possible should Fitzgerald have a dominant senior season.
- Sarah McLellan reports that with the signings of Connor Murphy and Michael Stone, the defensive corps are all but solidified. Though McLellan points out more moves could happen, she writes that the Coyotes are happy with the long term deal with Murphy, who appeared to take the next step in his development last season. Stone, who suffered a season ending knee injury, expressed his desire to put in the work to earn a long term deal down the road.
Arizona Stays Busy, Lock Up Stone To One-Year Deal
Immediately on the heels of the Connor Murphy signing, the Arizona Coyotes have inked fellow blue liner Michael Stone to a one-year, $4MM contract, according to AZSports’ Craig Morgan. Stone and the Coyotes had been scheduled to go to arbitration on August 4th but the two parties obviously found common ground and thus avoided a hearing.
Stone blossomed in his fourth full season in the desert, averaging nearly 22:30 of ice time per game. He ranked second among Arizona defensemen behind Oliver Ekman-Larsson, tallying 36 points in 2015-16. The Coyotes drafted the 26-year-old in the third-round (69th overall) of the 2008 draft.
After accounting for Stone’s deal, Arizona is left with more than $6MM in cap space and only RFA Tobias Rieder left unsigned. That figure is a bit surprising given how busy the Coyotes have been this summer upgrading their roster. In addition to locking up their own RFA’s, Arizona has re-upped with Shane Doan (one-year, $3.88MM), signed UFA winger Jamie McGinn to a multi-year deal worth $10MM over three seasons, and acquired pending free agent Alex Goligoski via trade before extending his contract for five years with an AAV of nearly $5.5MM. That doesn’t even include Pavel Datsyuk‘s $7.5MM cap hit which Arizona absorbed as part of a deal to move up four slots in the first round of the recent draft. To still be $6MM under the cap ceiling is an impressive bit of work from John Chayka.
Given the offseason work and the young talent already on the roster, it’s conceivable the Coyotes could force their way into a playoff spot in 2016-17. That’s especially true if goaltender Mike Smith, who missed three months of action last season due to a core muscle injury, returns to form as a quality netminder.
Coyotes, Connor Murphy Agree To Six-Year Pact
The Arizona Coyotes and first-year GM John Chayka continue to put the finishing touches on what has been a busy offseason in the desert. Today the club has agreed to a six-year deal with RFA defenseman Connor Murphy that comes with an AAV of $3.85MM. It appears the deal covers Murphy’s remaining RFA seasons along with at least one unrestricted year.
The player’s agent, Brian Bartlett, first indicated that the two sides were nearing an agreement yesterday.
Murphy, who turned 23 in March, finished third among Coyotes blue liners in points (17) and tied for 2nd in goals with six. Arizona is clearly buying into Murphy’s upside as despite his relatively modest offensive contributions to date, his new contract places him in the company of some more accomplished defenseman. Comparable contracts, according to General Fanager, include: Roman Josi ($4MM AAV), Travis Hamonic ($3.857MM AAV), Jake Muzzin ($4MM AAV) and Mattias Ekholm ($3.75MM AAV). Each of those players posted superior offensive numbers in their platform years.
Chayka recently explained the organization’s defensive philosophy in an interview with Dan Rosen of NHL.com when discussing the acquisitions of Luke Schenn and Alex Goligoski, stating: “Defense isn’t about defending, it’s about getting the puck in the forwards’ hands and getting the puck moving into the offensive zone. It’s about transitioning. That’s the philosophy and that’s been the theme behind the moves that we’re making, let’s get players who can get pucks back and get pucks up to forwards in an efficient and effective manner.”
It would seem then given the length commitment that Chayka and his staff view Murphy as an up-and-comer and someone who can help in the transition game both now and well into the future.
The six-foot-four, 212-pound Murphy was the Coyotes first-round selection (20th overall) in the 2011 Entry Draft. He’s appeared in 181 NHL regular season contests, tallying 11 goals and 32 points while also accumulating 100 minutes in penalties.
Chayka now can cross off another item on his to-do list but still has work to do before calling it a summer. The Coyotes are still working on new deals with RFA’s Michael Stone and Tobias Reider. The Reider negotiations could drag on through the summer as the two sides are evidently not close to agreeing on the forward’s market value.