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Pacific Notes: Burns, Kings, Coyotes, Flames

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There is plenty of time until the next expansion draft, which is expected to occur at some point after the 2020-21 season (whenever finishes), but teams are paying attention to it and how to avoid a major loss. The San Jose Sharks were well prepared three years ago when the team didn’t give Vegas many options with the Golden Knights eventually selecting defenseman David Schlemko, who them later flipped to Montreal for a 2019 fifth-round pick.

However, this time around, general manager Doug Wilson may have some much tougher decisions to make. The team only has two players that will have no-movement clauses before the expansion draft in Erik Karlsson and, unfortunately, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who at 33 years old, has six more years at $7MM per year. With cap room challenging in the future, Wilson may have to make a drastic move, and according to The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz (subscription required), the team may opt to expose veteran defenseman Brent Burns to the Seattle franchise.

While Burns’ numbers took a bit of a hit last season and he will be 36 years old when the expansion draft comes about, he still remains a solid top-four defenseman and is a candidate to age well considering his workout history. His salary still carries five more years at $8MM AAV, but he could be a valuable veteran piece for an expansion team and could help out the Sharks as well.

  • After having drafted centers in the first round of the past three drafts, (Gabriel Vilardi, Rasmus Kupari and Alex Turcotte) the Los Angeles Kings are lined up to likely select a fourth center in four years with the No. 2 overall pick, which is expected to be either OHL’s Quinton Byfield or German center Tim Stutzle. Regardless, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman in his most recent 31 Thoughts column, writes that won’t stop general manager Rob Blake from taking a fourth center. “No,” Blake said. “You mention those three, we’ll take four centres like that.”
  • Former Coyotes’ reporter Craig Morgan reports that the Arizona Coyotes are expecting to have their entire roster in town by Monday. Several teams are already trying to get their entire rosters in town with plenty of time to get comfortable before training camp starts for the upcoming 24-team tournament and Arizona will be one of the first.
  • The Calgary Flames are also working on getting their team together as quickly as possible. TSN reported that Flames’ general manager Brad Treliving said that the team already has 18 players in Calgary, although several are still undergoing quarantine. However, the GM also said that he expects the rest of the team to be in Calgary by early next week.

Coyotes Evaluating If Year-To-Year Strategy With Glendale Is Ideal

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The Coyotes have been looking for some stability for a new arena for years now and while they’ve seemingly come close to finding a long-term solution, nothing has materialized and they are now playing out of a year-to-year lease in Glendale.  Recently-hired team president Xavier Gutierrez told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan that this is his top issue after team owner Alex Meruelo called it “priority one through 10”.  Arizona has already agreed to play out of Glendale for next season but Gutierrez indicated that they are evaluating whether or not that’s the best approach or if a mid-term agreement would be more beneficial while they pursue a more feasible arena location.

More from the Pacific Division:

  • Oilers defenseman William Lagesson is expected to be part of their expanded postseason roster, notes Postmedia’s Derek van Diest. The 24-year-old made his NHL debut this season, getting into eight games with Edmonton over five separate stints with the team.  However, he only got into 25 games at the minor league level with AHL Bakersfield where he picked up 10 points.  With a fully-healthy back end to start, it’s unlikely that he’ll be part of their top six against Chicago but injuries strike, he can hold down a limited role on the third pairing after averaging nearly 12 minutes a game in his NHL action this season.
  • The Flames announced details about the construction of their new facility. We’re still more than a year away from construction getting underway and a target completion date has been set for May 2024.  HOK, a global design firm, is among the groups that will be assisting in the process and they have recent NHL arena construction experience after being involved in the new arenas for Detroit and Edmonton.

Ivan Prosvetov's KHL Rights Traded

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Veteran winger Martin Erat has spent the past five seasons playing overseas after a 13-year NHL stint but he told Zdenek Janda of iSport that he has decided to call it a career.  Injuries limited the 38-year-old to just 16 games with HC Kometa Brno this season but he had been close to a point per game player in the previous three years in the Czech Extraliga.

Erat’s NHL time ended on a relatively quiet note (aside from being part of a trade that Washington would like to forget) but in his prime, he was a reliable and consistent top-six winger, collecting at least 49 points in a stretch of eight consecutive seasons, all with Nashville.  Overall, his career winds up with a total of 163 goals and 318 assists in 723 games between the Predators, Capitals, and Coyotes.

Elsewhere around the international hockey world:

  • A pair of NHL prospect goaltenders have seen their rights traded in the KHL. HK Sochi announced that they’ve acquired the rights to Jets youngster Mikhail Berdin from CSKA Moscow in exchange for Coyotes prospect Ivan Prosvetov.  Both netminders are already under contract to their respective NHL teams for next season but with the start of the 2020-21 AHL campaign certainly in question as long as there are restrictions in terms of allowable attendance, it’s a real possibility that players that are a little lower down the depth chart (Berdin and Prosetov played exclusively in the minors this year) are loaned to the KHL to ensure a full season of development.
  • Although he signed his entry-level contract back on Monday, don’t expect Bruins prospect Victor Berglund to play in North America next season. Reporter Mark Divver notes (Twitter link) that Berglund is expected to fulfill his previous commitment to play in Lulea of the SHL for the 2020-21 campaign and then come to North America after.  It will be his first taste of action at the top level in Sweden after previously playing in their second-tier Allsvenskan.
  • Earlier this week, Germany extended its ban on public events through the end of October due to the ongoing pandemic. Accordingly, as Szymon Szemberg of the Alliance of European Hockey Clubs notes (Twitter link), that places the start of the DEL in jeopardy and will also have an impact on other international events such as the Champions Hockey League which is set to begin its 2020-21 schedule in early October.  A handful of NHL free agents (often those who have been in the minors for most of the year) sign in the DEL each year but that now may be one opportunity that they opt not to pursue this offseason.

Multiple Coyotes Reportedly Test Positive For COVID-19

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Earlier today, reports surfaced that Tampa Bay wasn’t the only team that had a player test positive for COVID-19.  It appears that is indeed the case as Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun reports that Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews has tested positive for the virus and has gone into quarantine at his home in Arizona.  The team later released the following statement:

Per the National Hockey League protocol with respect to COVID-19, the Toronto Maple Leafs will not be commenting on reports surrounds testing for any of the club’s players or staff. A person’s medical information in this regard is private. The club will defer to the NHL’s policy on handling the disclosure of positive tests results, in that the league will provide updates on a regular basis with aggregate totals of the numbers of tests conducted and number of positive tests reported without disclosing either the identities of affected clubs or players.

Simmons notes that Matthews has been skating with several Coyotes players, some of which have tested positive as well although the names of those have not yet been released.  Maple Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen had been living with Matthews for part of this extended break in the schedule but is no longer in Arizona; Simmons adds that he has not tested positive.

There has been a spike in positive COVID-19 tests in several states in recent days and while NHL teams are able to resume training, there are no quarantine restrictions in place at this time as there will be if play resumes as planned later this summer.

Brad Richardson Underwent Procedure To Fix Nagging Injury Issue

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Near the trade deadline, the Sabres waived and sent Zach Bogosian to the AHL.  However, instead of reporting, Bogosian opted for a contract termination with an eye on resuming his NHL career and wound up in Tampa Bay shortly thereafter.  Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre posits that the Canucks may attempt to go down a similar path with winger Loui Eriksson.  Part of that ill-fated group of big free agent signings in 2016, Eriksson’s numbers went down as soon as he signed with Vancouver and had 72 points in his first three years combined after putting up 63 in Boston in his final year with them.  His output dipped even further this year to just six goals and seven assists in 49 games, hardly a good return on his $6MM price tag.  Once his upcoming $3MM signing bonus is paid, Eriksson will be owed just $5MM in salary over the final two years of the deal which might be enough to walk away from if he thinks he can land an opportunity with a bigger role elsewhere.

More from the Pacific Division:

  • While the Golden Knights managed to get Ryan Reaves to take a pay cut with his two-year extension earlier this week, SinBin.vegas’ Ken Boehlke argues that the team didn’t do enough to take advantage of their leverage. The winger has grown to enjoy playing in Vegas and didn’t seem to have much interest in looking elsewhere while his on-ice production isn’t the strongest either with most of his contributions coming on the physical side.  With the team being right up against the Upper Limit of the salary cap and the belief that the cap won’t be going much if at all for a few years, he suggests that they may have been better off dragging this out in the hopes of saving a bit more money in the end.
  • Coyotes center Brad Richardson told Richard Morin of the Arizona Republic that he underwent a procedure to fix a nagging injury that bothered him down the stretch. The veteran estimated that the issue prevented him from practicing over the final two months of the regular season.  While he didn’t suggest that it affected his offensive numbers, it likely was a detriment to his production as well as he dipped from 27 points in 66 games in 2018-19 to just 11 points in 59 contests this season.

West Notes: Tarasenko, Canucks UFAs, Coyotes Black Aces

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Many may have forgotten already, but when the NHL 24-team tournament hits the ice later this summer, the St. Louis Blues would be doing everything it can to defend their Stanley Cup title and try to win a second straight. That might have been somewhat more challenging for the Blues who played much of the season without star scorer Vladimir Tarasenko who underwent shoulder surgery on Oct. 29.

While he was close to coming back before the NHL season was suspended from COVID-19, there was no guarantee how ready Tarasenko would be for the upcoming playoffs. However, with the delay of the playoffs due to the pandemic, Tarasenko should be more than ready to help the Blues this summer, according to head coach Craig Berube on The Athletic’s We Went Blues podcast with Jeremy Rutherford (subscription required).

“He’s good,” said Berube. “Before we stopped, he was ready to come back the next week and play, so, he did a great job of getting himself back. He did a great job with his rehab, along with the training staff, and he kept himself in great shape. He actually came back in better shape than he came to camp (in September) … He’s been on the ice and doing things right now, so he’s ready to go.”

A healthy Tarasenko would be a huge boost to the team’s playoff chances. The team was faring quite well without him though as they have the second-best record in the league and sit at the top of the Western Conference with a 42-29-10 record. The 28-year-old Tarasenko appeared in just 10 games before being injured, posting three goals and 10 points. He was given a five month timetable, which should make him more than prepared to take on a major role whenever play resumes.

Martin Hanzal Considering Retirement

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Dallas Stars forward Martin Hanzal reportedly is considering retirement from the NHL after several injury-plagued years with serious back issues, according to Czech website hokej.cz (translation required).  However, with his contract technically still on the books for the Stars, it’s likely any official announcement won’t be made until the 2019-20 season is complete. Craig Morgan, formerly of The Athletic, notes that he spoke to Hanzal several months ago and the veteran admitted that retirement was a likely option, but he would wait until his contract has officially expired before making a final decision.

The 33-year-old forward signed a three-year, $14.25MM contract in July of 2017 with Dallas, but it has been one of the team’s most disappointing contracts over those three years. Hanzal has played in just 45 games over those three years, scoring six goals and 12 points and hasn’t appeared in a game since Dec. 23 of 2018.

Hanzal had been quite successful up until his agreement with Dallas. He played most of his career with the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes, playing in 608 games with the franchise for 10 seasons before the team traded the pending UFA to Minnesota for the 2017 playoff run, which turned out to be a first-round exit. Regardless, the forward was coming off a 20-goal season and at 30 years old was considered one of the top free agents.

In total, Hanzal has played in 673 games with 127 goals and 338 points. His best season was in 2015-16 when he scored 13 goals and 41 points.

Snapshots: Players Work Visas, Bruins, Coyotes

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The NHL has informed players who require work visas have been advised to return to Canada or the United States by June 21 in order to address those issues in time for the upcoming 24-team playoff.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman writes that with the league’s calendar ending on June 30th, so do players work visas. The league has sent a memo to players that it is “strongly recommended” they return to their home team’s country to extend their work visas due to the possible delays in getting those work visa extensions during COVID-19. There are concerns that players who don’t return in the next week might have trouble returning to North America in time for mandatory training camps, which is currently slated to start on July 10.

That could cause some concern for players who have already been told they don’t have to report to their NHL team until training camp and now are expected to show up 19 days earlier with no guarantee that play will resume due to the always-developing coronavirus.

  • The Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont writes that the Boston Bruins announced that a Bruins’ player has tested positive for COVID-19. According to general manager Don Sweeney, an unnamed player was tested three times, testing positive the first time, but negative the next two. The player has been asymptomatic since appearing at the team’s local practice facility for league-approved voluntary workouts. That player is now no longer allowed to train at the facility until a further test later this week. “I think everyone is learning how we properly interact and distance and react to the original test results,” said Sweeney. “This [workout] phase is a voluntary phase, but I think we are learning and we’ll continue to learn throughout, as the players go through it and, really, however everybody interacts.”
  • On a similar note, Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston reports that the Arizona Coyotes have indicated that a staff member has tested positive for COVID-19 and remains asymptomatic. The team reports that no other player or staff member has tested positive during the Phase 2 testing protocol.

Victor Soderstrom Will Be Among Arizona's Recalls To Expanded Roster

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Since last offseason, Oilers winger Jesse Puljujarvi has made it known that he wants to be dealt from the Oilers.  However, his stance may have softened ever so slightly as he told Kalena’s Janne Onnela to “never say never” about the possibility of him returning to Edmonton.  The 22-year-old opted to play this season in Karpat in the Finnish SM-liiga and finished fourth in the league in scoring with 24 goals and 29 assists in 56 games.  However, that probably hasn’t done much to move the needle on his trade value which is why some believe his best chance of being dealt is to go back to Edmonton first and get back to playing in the NHL.  It’s likely that Karpat would welcome him back for next season if Puljujarvi wanted to stay while Postmedia’s Jim Matheson reports that at least one KHL team has shown an interest in him as well.  He remains a restricted free agent in the NHL without salary arbitration rights.

More from the Western Conference:

  • The Coyotes are expected to have defenseman Victor Soderstrom as part of their expanded roster, notes Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman in his latest 31 Thoughts The 19-year-old was the 11th overall pick last June and spent the season with SHL Brynas where he had 16 points in 35 games and six more in seven contests at the World Juniors for Sweden.  He’s eligible to be recalled as he has already signed his entry-level deal.  If Soderstrom happens to play in ten games during this stretch, he’ll burn the first season of that contract.
  • In a podcast appearance with Michael Russo of The Athletic (audio link), Wild winger Marcus Foligno expressed a desire to work out an extension with Minnesota this offseason. The 28-year-old has spent the last three seasons with them after being acquired from Buffalo and set a new career high in points with 25 despite playing in just 59 games.  He also surpassed the 180-hit mark for the seventh straight year.  Foligno will be an unrestricted free agent next offseason and with the expected flattening of the salary cap, he may be hard-pressed to land a big raise on his current $2.85MM price tag.

Arizona Coyotes Hire Xavier A. Gutierrez

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The Arizona Coyotes have hired Xavier A. Gutierrez their new president, CEO, and alternate governor. The move comes after Ahron Cohen left the organization last month. Gutierrez becomes the first Latino president in NHL history. Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo explained why the move is so important:

I am very proud to name Xavier as the first Latino team President and CEO in NHL history. This is a historic day for the Coyotes and the entire NHL. I have known Xavier for over a decade, and he is a seasoned executive with over 20 years of business and investment experience. We share the same approach to business and his intellect, leadership skills, and strategic mindset made him the clear choice to be our new CEO. He is a leader with tremendous vision and integrity, and I have the utmost confidence that he can help the Coyotes become a world class organization on and off the ice.

Gutierrez comes with a long, impressive resume in financial services and investment, including a period working in the NFL offices. That expertise will be tested in the desert where the Coyotes have traditionally struggled, though things have been looking up since Meruelo took over.

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