The Canucks announced (Twitter link) that goaltender Jaroslav Halak has been placed into COVID protocol. The veteran was set to get the start for today’s game against Carolina but instead, that will go to Thatcher Demko with Spencer Martin coming up from the taxi squad. Halak has made just eight appearances this season and has a $1.25MM bonus pending when he gets to his tenth. He’ll now have to wait a little longer to get that bonus, one that has recently landed himself in trade speculation as well.
Canucks Rumors
Canucks Open To Moving Jaroslav Halak
Jaroslav Halak has played well in limited action for Vancouver this season. However, in his latest column for the Toronto Star, Chris Johnston reports that the Canucks are open to moving the veteran netminder.
Through his first eight appearances this season, the 36-year-old has posted a 2.59 GAA along with a .915 SV%, numbers that are better than the league average in both categories. But if you’re thinking that his games played total is awfully low for someone with those numbers – he hasn’t been injured – there’s a reason for that.
It’s that reason that seemingly has him on the trade block. As part of his contract for this season, Halak is owed a $1.25MM bonus when he reaches his tenth game plus another $250K for maintaining a save percentage of .905 or higher which he’s clearly above at the moment. Placing those incentives in there helped the $1.5MM AAV of Halak’s deal become more affordable for them on the salary cap this season. However, with Vancouver deep into LTIR with Micheal Ferland’s contract, they won’t have any unused cap space to offset those bonuses against, meaning that they’d face a $1.5MM overage for Halak when his incentives are met which would come off their 2022-23 cap room.
Under new management, it appears as if that’s a price they’d prefer not to pay, both in money spent and the corresponding cap penalty. On the other hand, that type of upcoming payment could also scare off potentially interested teams as they’d be on the hook for the full bonus amount plus the remaining balance of Halak’s salary.
It’s a little early for the trade market for a backup goaltender to really materialize with the deadline still more than two months away but Halak’s games played total acts as a shorter-term pressure point. He has placed just twice in the last six weeks which has allowed them to stretch this out for the time being but Thatcher Demko can’t play basically every game in the second half of the season. At some point, Halak will have to play if he isn’t traded. As a result, his situation will be one to watch over the next couple of weeks.
Snapshots: Malkin, Canucks, Robertson
Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan spoke to reporters today, saying that injured center Evgeni Malkin is taking line rushes in his normal second-line center spot and is taking scrimmages on the top power play. He’ll officially be listed as a game-time decision for tomorrow’s game against Anaheim. If Malkin is healthy enough to go, it’ll be his first NHL game since May 26, 2021, his first in six and a half months. Malkin was expected to be out indefinitely after undergoing knee surgery in June 2021. Now, after missing Pittsburgh’s first 34 games of the season, he’s hopefully fully healthy and ready to go for the stretch run.
Other notes from around the league:
- Three Vancouver Canucks forwards who were previously in COVID protocol – Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, and Jason Dickinson – are likely to return when the Canucks kick off a road trip on Tuesday against Florida, per NHL.com’s Kevin Woodley. All three exited protocol today and practiced with the team. It will be Vancouver’s first game since New Years Day, a 5-2 win against Seattle.
- Top Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Nick Robertson is recovering from a leg injury that’s sidelined him since mid-October 2021, and their AHL head coach, Greg Moore, says Robertson is skating with the Toronto Marlies again and could play in a “couple of weeks.” It’s great news for Robertson, who’s been taken out of the lineup by long-term injuries each of the past two seasons. He has 19 points in 29 games between the NHL and AHL since the beginning of 2020-21.
Canucks Recall Four To Taxi Squad
- The Canucks announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled goaltender Spencer Martin, defenseman Ashton Sautner, and forwards Justin Bailey and Sheldon Rempal to the taxi squad. Vancouver didn’t have anyone on the taxi squad before now but with the team set to resume their road trip with five more games starting next week, the extra reinforcements were needed.
Vancouver Canucks Place Elias Pettersson, Alex Chiasson In COVID Protocol
Jan. 7: After initially testing positive yesterday, the Vancouver Canucks officially placed forward Alex Chiasson in COVID protocol on Friday. There are now six Canucks on the COVID list.
Jan. 5: The Vancouver Canucks announced Wednesday night that forward Elias Pettersson entered the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol, marking yet another star player that was placed on the list today.
Pettersson is the fifth Canuck and fifth Canucks forward to be on the COVID list at the moment. He joins Brock Boeser, Jason Dickinson, Phillip Di Giuseppe, and Justin Dowling.
The 23-year-old Swedish center is really struggling on the scoresheet this season, but his all-around play has seen a bump under new head coach Bruce Boudreau. Still, just 17 points through 34 games are simply not good enough from Pettersson.
With him and Boeser out of the lineup for the short-term future, the Canucks face a big hurdle on offense. They’ll rely heavily on J.T. Miller, who leads them in both goals (11) and points (36) this year.
NHL Postpones Two More Ottawa Senators Games
Two more games for the Ottawa Senators have been officially postponed due to attendance restrictions in certain Canadian cities. The games will be rescheduled for later in the season, with the hope of full attendance being possible. The following will not be played:
- Saturday, Jan. 8
Ottawa @ Vancouver - Saturday, Jan. 15
Ottawa @ Winnipeg
That leaves the Senators playing the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames next week, games that were meant to be bookended by these matches in Vancouver and Winnipeg. Ottawa has had many of their games to this point rescheduled and currently sit with only 29 played, second to only the New York Islanders for the fewest in the league.
For the Canucks, this means that they will have no games between January 1 and January 11, which is now their next match and scheduled against the Florida Panthers. The Jets, meanwhile, played yesterday but won’t hit the ice again until January 13.
Why The 2022 Trade Deadline Could Be A Seller’s Market
The 2022 NHL Trade Deadline is not exactly imminent. The delayed March 21 date this season is 11 weeks away and a lot can change in that amount of time. However, the end of the holiday trade freeze is the unofficial start to trade season leading up to the deadline. In the first few months of the season there have been ten trades completed, but outside of the Jack Eichel deal there have been very few moves of any substance. That may not change any time soon either.
An active trade deadline requires there to be identifiable buyers and sellers and they must be willing and able to deal. Buyers should not be an issue this season; the eight teams currently in a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference may be locked in, as nearly 100 percentage points separate the eighth and ninth team in the conference standings, while the Western Conference includes 13 teams with .500+ records. Therein begins the sellers problem though. Only three teams out west look like potential sellers right now, while there could be more teams willing to sell in the east but many are in a rebuild and don’t have much to offer, while others are merely lacking impact rentals. There are also a number of fringe teams that probably should be sellers, but are close enough to a playoff berth that would mean so much to their players and fan base that they may hold out.
The Athletic’s Eric Duhatschek notes another wrinkle that could limit sellers: five teams are currently operating with an interim GM. The Montreal Canadiens and Vancouver Canucks have hired new heads of their respective front offices in Jeff Gorton and Jim Rutherford, but neither has in turn hired his GM yet and seem unlikely to make major moves independently. This could take Gorton’s Canadiens, one of the most obvious sellers on paper, off the market. Rutherford’s Canucks hope to be in the playoff race, but he has already vowed that the team will either sell or stand pat this season and the longer it takes to hire a GM, the more likely it will be the latter. The Chicago Blackhawks, Anaheim Ducks, and San Jose Sharks are all operating with temporary GMs, all of whom have limited experience. Chicago and Anaheim fired their most recent GMs and have internal replacements for the time being, while San Jose GM Doug Wilson is currently away from the team for medical reasons. As Duhatschek points out, the likes of Kyle Davidson, Jeff Solomon, and Joe Will are not only new to the GM position, but lack the relationships around the league to make impact moves. So while the Blackhawks look like bona fide sellers and the Sharks and possibly the Ducks could get to that point, will they actually be willing to make trades?
The Seattle Kraken also fall into a category all their own. The NHL’s newest team was just put together in its entirety this off-season. Although they struggled mightily all season and do possess a number of expiring contracts, it remains to be seen if GM Ron Francis is ready to blow it up.
On top of all of this, the rental market among potential sellers is not strong. Of the top 20 impending UFA’s in per-game scoring this season, zero are on teams with sub-.500 records and just three are on teams not currently in a playoff spot. Expand that to the top 50, and only ten players are on sub-.500 teams: Phil Kessel, Travis Boyd, and Johan Larsson for Arizona, Vinnie Hinostroza for Buffalo, Chris Wideman for Montreal, P.K. Subban for New Jersey, Tyler Ennis for Ottawa, and Calle Jarnkrok, Colin Blackwell, and Mark Giordano for Seattle. Even if valuable defensemen like Ben Chiarot and Colin Miller or even a future Hall of Fame goaltender like Marc-Andre Fleury are considered, it’s not exactly an inspiring list for teams adding at the deadline. More importantly, it’s a short list for a potentially large group of buyers.
For those teams looking to make a meaningful trade this season, the conundrum is when to make a move. On one hand, with a small group of exciting targets it may be beneficial to make a trade early and possibly avoid the high prices of deadline bidding wars. On the other hand, the pool of sellers could also expand closer to the deadline and prices could drop if there is a flood of supply to meet the demand. Until that happens though – if it even does – there will be few moves to make early on and quite possibly right up to the deadline. Serious contenders should be prepared to pay up or sit tight this season.
Vancouver Canucks Place Jason Dickinson Into COVID Protocol
Late Saturday night, Vancouver Canucks forward Jason Dickinson entered the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol, per a team tweet.
With Dickinson out, a recall from the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks is likely coming. The team had no extra healthy forwards on the active roster prior to Dickinson entering protocol today.
Vancouver acquired Dickinson from Dallas this offseason and signed him to a three-year, $7.95MM extension in August. He’s really struggled to produce, however, notching only two goals and two assists in 31 games.
Despite the low production, however, he’s still been a really solid defensive presence who can play anywhere in the lineup. For that reason, he’s extremely well-liked by his coaches and the Canucks will miss him while he’s out of the lineup.
Rutherford: Plan Is To Trade For Picks And Young Players, New GM Likely To Be First-Time Hire
While Jim Rutherford has a tendency to swing big in trades, it doesn’t appear he’ll do that with the Canucks. In an appearance on Sportsnet 650 (audio link), the team president acknowledged that any trades they make will be for draft picks and younger players, suggesting he won’t try to add some veterans in an effort to aid Vancouver’s push to get back into the playoff picture (they sit three points out of the last Wild Card spot). Rutherford also mentioned that their new GM will likely be a first-timer in the role. There’s no timeline for when they want to get that spot filled.
NHL Postpones Nine More Games
As a result of attendance restrictions in Western Canada, the NHL has postponed eight more games. The games affected are as follows:
Monday, Jan. 3
Minnesota @ Ottawa
Wednesday, Jan. 5
New York Islanders @ Vancouver
Saturday, Jan. 8
New York Islanders @ Edmonton
Tuesday, Jan. 11
New York Islanders @ Calgary
Wednesday, Jan. 12
Minnesota @ Edmonton
Friday, Jan. 14
Vegas @ Edmonton
Saturday, Jan. 15
Vegas @ Calgary
Sunday, Jan. 16
Edmonton @ Winnipeg
In addition to those contests, the Islanders’ road game in Seattle on January 4th has also been postponed due to the other games on their West Coast road trip being postponed.
No make-up dates for any of the games were announced but in the release from the league, it was noted that the games “will be rescheduled for dates later in the season when such restrictions may be eased or lifted”. These postponements bring the running total to 90 games that the league will need to reschedule in the coming weeks and months.