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Canadian Notes: Matthews, Konyushkov, Lekkerimäki

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The Toronto Maple Leafs began discussions of changing captains around the time of this season’s exit interviews, following the team’s perennial first-round loss to the Boston Bruins, shared TSN’s Chris Johnston on SportsCentre. Johnston added that conversations continued through the summer until John Tavares reached a point where he was comfortable handing off the leadership role to Auston Matthews. A formal announcement is expected to come on Wednesday morning.

Matthews – the undisputed star of the modern Leafs – will adorn the ’C’ after serving five seasons as one of the team’s alternate captains. He received that honor ahead of his fourth season in the NHL, after posting 111 goals and 205 points through his first 212 career games, including the NHL’s first 40-goal rookie season since Alex Ovechkin managed 52 in 2006. He’s reached even greater heights since donning a letter, scoring 60 goals in 2021-22 and 69 goals this season – becoming just the eighth NHLer to break the 60-goal ceiling more than once. He’ll look to continue stamping his place among the NHL’s legends with another boost of confidence from the Toronto brass – taking over the chair of leader in a year of changes for the Leafs, headlined by Craig Berube’s hiring as head coach.

Other notes from across the Great North:

  • The Montreal Canadiens haven’t had much contact with defense prospect Bogdan Konyushkov since his fourth-round selection in the 2023 NHL Draft, instead leaving him in the capable hands of Igor Larionov, a three-time Stanley Cup winner and the head coach of the KHL’s HC Torpedo, where Konyushkov has played since 2022. The player summed up his current state of affairs to Daria Tuboltseva of Russian news outlet Responsible Gaming, saying, “We don’t communicate with Montreal very often. I spoke with the Russian scout after the season once, we just chatted, and they asked me how my season went.” He continued by speaking on a shoulder injury that required surgery after the season. Konyushkov still managed a commendable 28 points in 65 games despite injury and even served as Torpedo’s captain, despite being only 21-years-old. He’s a promising player with exciting years ahead, though he’s shared he’ll first play out the remaining two years on his KHL contract.
  • Vancouver Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin had a productive sit down with David Quadrelli of the Canucks Army where he, among other things, shared that the team doesn’t want to rush top propsect Jonathan Lekkerimäki. Allvin said, “It will be interesting to see [Lekkerimäki] at camp when everything kicks off. After that, it’s up to him where he will end up… We need to respect his age and experience as well, so there’s no rush—when he is physically and mentally ready, Jonathan will show where he wants to be.” Lekkerimäki will be one of many Canucks prospects vying for a top role after winning the SHL’s ’Rookie of the Year’ award last season with 31 points in 46 games.

Canucks Will Likely Target Right-Handed Center At Trade Deadline

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  • In an article last week from Thomas Drance of The Athletic (Subscription Required), he opines that the Vancouver Canucks will undoubtedly be looking for a right-handed center at next year’s trade deadline. Depending on how the season plays out, that could put Vancouver in the market for veteran Claude Giroux who is set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of next season. Giroux has a full no-movement clause from the Ottawa Senators on his current contract so he will need to green-light any move out of the organization. If Giroux is unwilling to head out West, the Canucks could look to go after Nick Bjugstad of the Utah Hockey Club or Jake Evans of the Montreal Canadiens.

    [SOURCE LINK]

What Will Brock Boeser’s Next Contract Look Like?

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The looming contract of Brock Boeser of the Vancouver Canucks was recently analyzed by Patrick Johnston of The Province. Johnston argues that Boeser is almost certainly set to get a raise from his current $6.65MM salary but it shouldn’t be an unpalatable one from the Canucks’ perspective.

Like many members of the 2023-24 Canucks, Boeser is coming off one of the best statistical seasons of his career. He cracked the 40-goal mark for the first time while finishing third on the team in scoring among forwards with 73 points. Boeser also finished third among forwards in ice time while averaging 18:36 a game and played the most out of any forwards when Vancouver was tied, or leading by one or two goals.

As much as he’s relied upon by head coach Rick Tocchet, Boeser will have a hard time arguing he is more than the third-most important forward on the roster. Because of this, he will almost certainly not crack J.T. Miller’s salary of $8MM per season in Vancouver, and he must also prove that last season was not a flash in the pan. From 2017-23, Boeser averaged a 12.7% shooting percentage while being a solid secondary scorer, and his 19.6% mark this past season leads to assumptions that regression towards his mean will soon follow.

Compared to his peers around the league, Boeser’s $6.65MM cap hit ranks 30th among wingers in the NHL, and he will once again have difficulty arguing that he is worth more to the Canucks than Jason Robertson is to the Dallas Stars who gave him an AAV of $7.75MM for four years. According to HockeyReference, Boeser shows a near-identical similarity score to Clayton Keller of the Utah Hockey Club who makes a salary of $7.15MM.

A modest $500K salary increase over a presumably longer-term deal may feel like a slap in the face to Boeser which could seriously hinder the extension negotiations. However, especially with all the data available to teams, it’s hard to envision Boeser landing more on the open market. There may be a scenario where he could earn closer to $7.75MM with the cap set to rise considerably over the next few years but that will likely be the cutoff point for many teams.

A contract in the $7.15MM-$7.75MM over the next four to six years shouldn’t be unpalatable to Vancouver either. The team will be laser-like focused on the upcoming contracts for Quinn Hughes and Thatcher Demko, but a hypothetical contract in that range for Boeser shouldn’t prohibit any long-term plans. This team will only go as far as their core can take them and given Boeser’s importance to the organization’s turnaround last season, he should be a player they envision on the team moving forward.

Podkolzin Was Surprised To Get Contract Extension In April

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  • In an interview with Cherkas Atlant (video link), Canucks winger Vasily Podkolzin admitted that he was surprised to receive his two-year, $2MM contract extension in mid-April. The 23-year-old spent the bulk of last season in the minors with AHL Abbotsford and wasn’t overly productive when in Vancouver, collecting just two assists in 19 games.  That had the 2019 first-round pick expecting to be traded at some point but instead, he’ll get a chance to lock down a full-time roster spot in the fall.  Notably, Podkolzin is now waiver-eligible so it seems likely he’ll at least stick at the back of their roster after training camp.

Snapshots: NCAA Recruitment, Colorado, Lekkerimäki

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The NCAA commitment window opened to the 2008 birth year on August 1st, bringing another wave of top young players to the collegiate level. International recruits have so far headlined this year’s class, with five Europeans and 13 Canadians already announcing their commitments. Among the notable international commits is hefty centerman Caleb Malhotra, who went eighth overall to Kingston in this year’s OHL Draft, but solidified his plans to play outside of the OHL with a commitment to Boston University. Malhotra is emerging as a top Canadian in the 2008 birth year – even despite battles with injury this season. He played in just 48 games, though he still did enough to score at a point-per-game pace and earn a five-star rating from PuckPreps, who praised his mobility and puck skills.

Malhotra – the son of longtime Vancouver Canucks center Manny Malhotra – is a cerebral playmaker, who knows how to use his frame and stickhandling to create space. With a college commitment out of the way, he’s now set for the Chilliwack Chiefs of the BCHL. Malhotra is undeniably one of the BCHL’s top recruits and will now look to vindicate the expectations around him, and quickly bounce back from injury, by finding scoring quickly at the juniors level. If all goes well, he’ll enter BU with the same lofty expectations.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The AHL’s Colorado Eagles have announced they’ve hired Kim Weiss as a video coach and Matt Zaba as a goalie coach. Weiss moves to the pro level after becoming the first female coach in D-III history this season, serving behind the bench of her alma mater Trinity College. Trinity won their conference championship under Weiss’ guard – earning her a ring after losing in the NAHL’s 2023 Robertson Cup semifinals with the Maryland Black Bears. Zaba is also moving from American juniors, having spent the last seven seasons as the goalie coach for the USHL’s Tri-City Storm. He’s built up multiple NHL prospects over that span, including Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Filip Larson, Calgary Flames prospect Arseni Sergeyev, and Vegas Golden Knights prospect Isaiah Saville. He’ll now join that trio at the AHL level – coaching in familiar territory after starting his career at Colorado College. Zaba is also an alum of one NHL game, 66 AHL games, and 31 ECHL games – though much of his personal playing career was spent in Austria and Italy.
  • The Vancouver Canucks are facing a list of lineup questions as training camp approaches, shares Thomas Drance of The Athletic, who highlighted the right-wing role next to Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson as the team’s most glaring hole. Drance mentioned Nils Hoglander as an early favorite for the role, though he’ll face pressure from new signee Daniel Sprong. However, Drance also noted that star prospect Jonathan Lekkerimäki could be a dark horse to round out what should be Vancouver’s scoring line. Lekkerimäki won the SHL’s ’Rookie of the Year’ award last season, after posting 19 goals and 31 points in 46 games with Örebro HK. He signed his entry-level contract and moved to the AHL after Örebro’s early playoff exit – adding two points in six more games with the Abbotsford Canucks. Lekkerimäki is an effective scorer, with an eye for the offensive zone and hard snapshot – though his size has some worried about how he’ll adjust to the next step. It seems he’ll have a chance to answer that bell at training camp, as he fights for a significant role out of the gates.

West Notes: Desharnais, Rossi, Rehkopf

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The Canucks may slot in UFA signing Vincent Desharnais on their top defense pairing alongside Quinn Hughes in spot duty next season, opines Thomas Drance of The Athletic.

Doing so would allow Filip Hronek, who spent all of last season stapled to Hughes and is fresh off signing an eight-year, $58MM deal, to drive his own pairing against easier competition. That’s something head coach Rick Tocchet said he’d consider doing, telling Drance that Hronek can “tend to defer too much” at times when playing with Hughes and that he’d “like to see him be more forceful with his decisions.”

It would be a big jump for Desharnais, though. The 28-year-old only established himself as a full-time NHLer last year with the Oilers. He was a bottom-pairing presence for Edmonton, averaging 15:44 per game through 78 contests. He did post 11 points and a +3 rating with average possession metrics, but playing alongside Hughes with any consistency would be a tough task for a player who’s seen most of his professional career unfold in the AHL to date. Desharnais inked a two-year, $4MM contract with Vancouver when free agency opened on July 1.

There’s more out of the Western Conference:

  • Austria will be without perhaps its best player in this summer’s qualifying tournament for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Wild forward Marco Rossi is skipping the event to begin training in Minnesota later this month, notes Michael Russo of The Athletic. Rossi, 22, is coming off a career-high 21 goals and 40 points last season while playing in all 82 games and could open the season as the Wild’s first-line center alongside Kirill Kaprizov. The 2020 ninth-overall pick had one assist in three games during the 2022 qualifiers with Austria failing to earn one of the three available spots. This year, they’ll be competing for one of the open spots in a round-robin tournament with Hungary, Kazakhstan and Slovakia.
  • Kraken prospect Carson Rehkopf has been traded in the Ontario Hockey League, heading from the Kitchener Rangers to the Brampton Steelheads, sources tell Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News. Rehkopf, 19, has spent the last three seasons in Kitchener, where the 6’2″ forward led the team in scoring last season with 95 points (52 goals, 43 assists) in 60 games. The 2023 second-round pick will be returned to Brampton out of training camp this fall, but a strong post-draft season puts him in line to compete for a roster spot in Seattle in next year’s training camp.

Vancouver Canucks Hoping To Address Offense In Three-Day Summit

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  • Rick Tocchet and his fellow members of the Vancouver Canucks coaching staff are preparing for a three-day summit as referenced in an article from Thomas Drance of The Athletic (Subscription Article). The group’s primary focus is to address the Canucks offense for the 2024-25 NHL season and how best to score on the rush and make in-game counter adjustments. Opposing teams caught on to the fact that Vancouver’s offense was being run from the back by Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek, limiting their productivity for the rest of the season. Although the Canucks will still look for a fair bit of offense from their defensive core, Tocchet is looking to engage the entire group rather than having a one-dimensional scoring system.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Rick Tocchet Named Assistant Coach For Team Canada

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Team Canada is already making significant preparations for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament that is set to take place in mid-February next year. The organization announced four assistant coaches who will be on the bench with the head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Jon Cooper. Bruce Cassidy of the Vegas Golden Knights, Peter DeBoer of the Dallas Stars, Rick Tocchet of the Vancouver Canucks, and Misha Donskov of the Stars will all represent their native Canada in next season’s tournament.

[SOURCE LINK]

  • Former depth forward for the Colorado Avalanche and Vancouver Canucks, Borna Rendulic, has decided to extend his stay with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL. According to EliteProspects, Rendulic is in agreement with St. Petersburg on an extension that will keep him with the organization for the 2024-25 KHL season. Rendulic was acquired from HC Sochi last year and 11 goals and 27 points in 51 games to close out the season.

How Long Is The Vancouver Canucks’ Competitive Window?

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In an article today from Harman Dayal of The Athletic (Subscription Required), he analyzes the Vancouver Canucks competitive window with their current salary cap structure. The Canucks experienced a 26-point jump in the standings last season while winning the Pacific Division for the first time since the division was created ahead of the 2013-14 NHL season. Additionally, Vancouver qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs for the third time in 11 seasons before being ousted in Round Two by the eventual Western Conference Champions, the Edmonton Oilers.

The Canucks have high-priced players at the top of their salary cap table with $11.6MM and $8MM contracts for forwards Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller, respectively. The organization has just over $15K available in salary cap space according to PuckPedia but has done a nice job in parsing out the rest of their roster. Vancouver arguably has two of the better bargain contracts in the league with defenseman Quinn Hughes ($7.85MM until 2026-27) and goaltender Thatcher Demko ($5MM until 2025-26).

Dayal argues that the Canucks are similar to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the late 2010s and the early 2020s as they captured two Stanley Cup Championships while paying Andrei Vasilevskiy, Mikhail Sergachev, Anthony Cirelli, Brayden Point, and Blake Coleman well-below market value. Because of this, Tampa Bay was able to fill out the rest of the roster and create one of the better dynasties in the league since the Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings.

The argument seems a little off-base as the Canucks core is a little bit further ahead in their contractual lives than the comparables from the Lightning. Tampa Bay does have the benefit of being in a no-tax state which keeps contracts lower on average but the players listed were not as far into their careers at that point. Once the chickens came home to roost, the Lightning have been bounced from Round One in back-to-back years and the organization has had to make tough decisions to stay salary cap compliant.

This is why Vancouver’s contention window largely comes down to the contracts of Hughes, Demko, and Brock Boeser. The latter becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of next season and could earn nearly $9MM if he comes close to repeating his 40-goal campaign from the 2023-24 season. Boeser’s shooting percentage (19.6%) throughout last year was more than seven points higher than his career average which points to regression next season. If Boeser comes back down to earth near the 20-30 goal range, his asking price should come down substantially.

Hughes and Demko will be much tougher to absorb for Vancouver especially if the former continues to play at a Norris Trophy-level pace. This year’s award winner finished with 92 points in 82 games and could be in line for a contract near the $12MM average on his next deal. Regardless of the salary cap projections over the next three years, this would be a pricey contract for any team let alone the Canucks.

Demko may provide an easier contract situation to resolve as his injury history continues to mount. He did play in 51 games for the Canucks this past season while maintaining a .918 save percentage but was absent from the team for much of this year’s playoff run. If Demko can stay healthy, this may cause a financial hurdle for Vancouver if he continues to post one of the better save percentages in the league compared to his peers.

All in all, Vancouver’s contention window is at least over the next two years with Demko and Hughes signed to team-friendly contracts. If general manager Patrik Allvin can continue to be crafty on the trade market like he was last season, the Canucks should be well poised to make a run soon. However, much like Tampa Bay’s recent history, Vancouver could be positioned to make some difficult decisions regarding their roster in only a few short years.

NHL Teams Facing Fall Cap Crunches

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There’s still plenty of time for NHL teams to sort out their active rosters and salary cap pictures this summer. After all, teams can exceed the $88MM upper limit by up to 10% during the offseason, and training camps are still nearly two months away.

Still, this year’s early July rush means that all the notable contracts for this season, at least in terms of salary cap impact, have likely already been handed out. It’s left a handful of teams with projected rosters that sit over the cap or, in one very peculiar case, right at it.

These teams must use a mix of long-term injured reserve placements, trades, and waivers to become cap-compliant before opening night. Per PuckPedia, here are the teams currently pacing to boast a projected cap hit above $88MM.

Washington Capitals

($98.27MM projected cap hit, $10.27MM above upper limit)

The Capitals have been one of the league’s most active teams this summer, making a pair of impact additions up front with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Andrew Mangiapane. They also reshaped their blue line, shipping out serviceable veteran Nick Jensen as part of a package to the Senators to pick up the younger, higher-upside Jakob Chychrun while also replacing Jensen’s shutdown role in free agency with the signing of Matt Roy.

They also went for cost-effectiveness with their goaltending duo, shipping out Darcy Kuemper and his $5.25MM cap hit to the Kings in the Dubois trade before acquiring serviceable tandem netminder Logan Thompson from the Golden Knights, who carries a cap hit of just $767K.

These moves have still left them with a handful of bloated deals for their veterans. But the biggest one of them all won’t be an issue. 36-year-old Nicklas Bäckström is entering the final season of his five-year, $46MM deal with a $9.2MM cap hit, but he’s not expected to play again due to lingering hip issues.

While many teams will look to avoid using LTIR to be cap-compliant to start the season, the Caps won’t be one of them. Bäckström will remain there as he did last season, but placing him on LTIR won’t be enough on its own to bring Washington’s total projected cap hit back under $88MM.

They’d still need to clear a little over $1MM in space, which begs the question of T.J. Oshie’s health. The 37-year-old winger is also entering the final season of his contract at a $5.75MM cap hit, and a wide variety of injuries limited him to 52 games last season. As of earlier this month, Oshie said he hasn’t found a long-term solution to his recurring back issues that would allow him to comfortably play in 2024-25.

If nothing changes between now and September, Oshie could also land on LTIR, making them cap-compliant for opening night. But Washington would need to be reasonably confident that he’ll miss the entire campaign to avoid making any other cap-shedding moves, as they’d need to have space to activate him off LTIR if he becomes healthy enough to return to play.

Vegas Golden Knights

($91.64MM projected cap hit, $3.64MM above upper limit)

Unlike the Capitals, the Golden Knights were conservative in their offseason moves. Their cap crunch forced them to walk away from key offensive contributors Jonathan Marchessault and Chandler Stephenson, among others, and their UFA pickups were limited to reclamation project-type pickups such as Victor Olofsson and Ilya Samsonov.

But like Washington, LTIR is Vegas’ only clear path to cap compliance in September. The status of 33-year-old netminder Robin Lehner remains a relative mystery as he enters the final season of his contract with a $5MM cap hit. He hasn’t played the last two seasons after undergoing hip surgery and hasn’t been seen with the team during that time.

General manager Kelly McCrimmon said in May that it’s likely Lehner will return to LTIR this fall. This would give the Knights about $1.36MM in space in an LTIR pool with a full 23-man roster, as projected by PuckPedia.

Philadelphia Flyers

($88.83MM projected cap hit, $830K above upper limit)

LTIR is a good safeguard for teams who need it to be cap-compliant, but it’s not ideal. Teams who utilize it don’t accrue cap space throughout the season, significantly limiting their flexibility come deadline day.

The Flyers have one LTIR-eligible contract in defenseman Ryan Ellis ($6.25MM cap hit through 2027). They also have Ryan Johansen signed at a $4MM cap hit next season, and his playing status is in doubt due to a hip injury that surfaced after they acquired him from the Avalanche at last year’s deadline. Unfortunately for them, if Johansen remains injured, they also can’t send him to the minors to knock $1.15MM off his cap hit. They attempted to do so last year, but it was reversed by the league after his injury came to light.

But notably, they don’t have any league-minimum contracts projected on their active roster to start the campaign, per PuckPedia. Their cheapest one is Tyson Foerster’s entry-level contract, which boasts a cap hit of $863K. Thus, just one AHL assignment would be enough to make them cap-compliant without placing either Ellis or Johansen on LTIR. There aren’t any obvious candidates, though, as Foerster is coming off a 20-goal campaign and was one of their top two-way forwards last season.

The trade of a depth forward, such as 25-year-old pivot Ryan Poehling ($1.9MM cap hit through 2026), could be something to watch for if general manager Daniel Brière decides he wants to stay out of LTIR.

Edmonton Oilers

($88.35MM projected cap hit, $354K above upper limit)

Unlike the other teams on this list, the Oilers still have some offseason business to handle. RFAs Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway need new deals, meaning this projected cap hit is artificially low.

Also unlike the others, Edmonton doesn’t have an LTIR-bound contract next season. Considering PuckPedia’s projection above uses a roster size of 21, warranting them only one extra skater, a cap-clearing trade is coming for Edmonton sometime before the puck drops in October.

The most obvious candidate to move is defenseman Cody Ceci, who’s on an expiring contract with a $3.25MM cap hit. It would cost fewer assets to ship out than oft-injured winger Evander Kane, who’s locked in at a $5.125MM price tag for two more years. And with Ceci averaging north of 20 minutes per game for the last three seasons in Edmonton, they might be able to dump him for future considerations without attaching a draft pick to get out of his deal.

Others to watch

  • The Islanders are currently at the $88MM upper limit after settling on a one-year, $1MM contract with Oliver Wahlstrom yesterday, PuckPedia projects. That figure comes using a roster size of 22, forcing international free agent signing Maxim Tsyplakov and his $950K cap hit on an entry-level deal to the minors.
  • The Canucks are within just $16K of the cap after signing Daniel Sprong to a one-year, $975K contract last weekend. But that figure comes with a full 23-player roster projection, giving them a decent amount of flexibility in the case of short-term injuries. They can also place the final season of defenseman Tucker Poolman’s $2.5MM cap hit contract on LTIR if necessary.
  • The Predators are within $600K of the cap with a bare minimum 20-player roster and still have RFAs Juuso Pärssinen and Philip Tomasino to sign. After their big UFA spending spree, they’ll likely move out one of their depth defenders to open up space for an expanded roster, potentially 26-year-old Dante Fabbro (signed at $2.5MM through this season).
  • The Lightning have $730K in projected cap space with one open roster spot. That’s tight, but with room for two healthy extras, they’ll probably start the season with no changes to their projected roster.
  • The same can be said about the defending champion Panthers, who have $767K in space with a roster size of 22.

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