Winnipeg Jets Sign Laurent Brossoit
The Winnipeg Jets needed to add some goaltending depth after the trade of Steve Mason, and have found it in Laurent Brossoit. Darren Dreger of TSN reports the former Edmonton Oilers goaltender has signed a one-year one-way $650K contract with the Jets. Brossoit will have to battle Eric Comrie for the right to back up Connor Hellebuyck next season.
Brossoit, 25, reached free agent status through Group VI eligibility this summer after failing to appear in enough games with the Edmonton Oilers. He did get into 28 games over his career in Edmonton, but since only 23 of them were of 30 minutes or greater, didn’t meet the threshold to stay under team control. That’s Winnipeg’s gain, as they needed to add to their goaltending group after Mason’s exit and Michael Hutchinson‘s decision to head for Florida in free agency.
The young goaltender hasn’t shown much in the NHL, but does have good numbers in the minor leagues. Whether he’ll be asked to start for the Manitoba Moose or sit on the end of the bench in the NHL most nights isn’t clear, but he’s ready to do both. If Brossoit does land the Jets backup job, he’ll have to be well prepared. Connor Hellebuyck has faced injury before, and is coming off a season with a huge workload thanks to Mason’s inconsistency and injury trouble.
Washington Capitals Sign Michael Sgarbossa, Jayson Megna
The Washington Capitals have added some depth to the Hershey Bears, signing minor league veterans Michael Sgarbossa and Jayson Megna to one-year, two-way contracts.
Sgarbossa gives Washington a center to likely replace Travis Boyd who was one of Hershey’s top centers there a season ago. Sgarbossa spent last year with the Winnipeg’s Jets AHL affiliate and put up solid numbers, including 16 goals and 40 points. The 25-year-old was not promoted. Regardless, however, Sgarbossa has 48 games of NHL experience and also provides the Capitals depth options in case of injuries. Sgarbossa did get 29 NHL games in the 2016-17 season with the Florida Panthers, posting two goals and seven points.
The 28-year-old Megna also provides much needed center depth and has even more experience than Sgarbossa. Megna has played in 113 NHL games, but spent much of the season with the Utica Comets, the Vancouver Canucks AHL affiliate. In 25 games there, he scored four goals and 13 points and played in one game for Vancouver.
Vegas Golden Knights To Sign Paul Stastny
11:20 AM: TSN’s Darren Dreger reports (Twitter link) that Stastny has agreed to sign a three-year contract with Vegas, while McKenzie later adds that the deal will carry an average annual value of $6.5MM.
8:13 AM: Even though there was a ton of speculation that Paul Stastny was headed back to Winnipeg—especially after the Jets cleared room by moving out Steve Mason‘s $4.1MM cap hit—it seems there is a new contender for the veteran center. Bob McKenzie of TSN reports that the Vegas Golden Knights are the frontrunners for Stastny, who is one of the top free agents set to hit the open market.
Stastny, 32, is hitting free agency at a perfect time as he’s one of the few real top-six center options available behind John Tavares. That earned him a third-place finish on our Top 50 Free Agent list, and should provide a huge contract that will likely take him close to retirement. After being acquired midseason by the Jets, Stastny showed why he was well respected around the league with a solid 15 points in 17 playoff games. The veteran pivot anchored the team’s second line, and provided a boost to their special teams units. If he does end up in Vegas, he’ll be asked to do much of the same and replace some of the offense that the team seems set to lose with David Perron and James Neal.
With 53 points in 2017-18, Stastny actually registered a better offensive season than he’d had in several years, which may give pause to someone offering him a multi-year contract. There is a solid argument that Stastny will never hit the 50-point or 20-goal mark again, which adds some doubt to his effectiveness for Vegas or any other team going forward. The Golden Knights though shouldn’t be doubted, as under head coach Gerard Gallant last season almost every player on the roster achieved new heights in terms of offensive performance.
If Stastny does turn down Winnipeg and head to the desert, it will be interesting to see where the Jets move next. While they have plenty of cap space, they also have a huge amount of restricted free agents to sign this year and next. It’s possible they jump in on one of the other top free agent names, or potentially get involved in some of the high level trade discussions. Make no mistake, the Jets are in a win-now mode after their young team came together in 2017-18. Even without any additions they should be considered contenders, and with the prospect pool and cap space they still have, would be a tough team to write-off in any negotiation.
Free Agent Focus: Winnipeg Jets
Free agency is now just hours from opening up and there are quite a few prominent players set to hit the open market while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign. Here is a breakdown of Winnipeg’s free agent situation.
Key Restricted Free Agents: G Connor Hellebuyck – After a mediocre 2016-17 season, Hellebuyck and the Jets opted to settle on a one-year contract rather than work out a long-term pact. That’s a decision that turned out quite well for the netminder as he led the league in wins and games played while posting a very strong 2.36 GAA and a .924 SV% before following that up with nearly identical numbers in the postseason. That has him in line for a big raise from the $2.25MM he made this past season.
Unlike last summer, the 25-year-old is eligible for salary arbitration this time around as well. He’s two years away from UFA eligibility so this will be the time to get a long-term pact done as they won’t want to risk giving Hellebuyck the option to simply file for a hearing next summer, take another one-year deal, and head for free agency in 2020. He doesn’t have the long-term success to get top dollar but his numbers at this time in his career are pretty close to San Jose’s Martin Jones before 2017-18 when he signed a six-year, $34.5MM contract (7.67% of the salary cap). A new deal for Hellebuyck could check in at that amount as well.
D Jacob Trouba – It took a long time to get a deal done last time around as discussions wound up lasting into the 2016-17 season. It shouldn’t take as long this summer as Trouba has arbitration rights so if he wants to ensure a contract is done well before training camp, he can simply file for a hearing and then there won’t be a holdout situation.
Finding the right value is going to be a challenge, however. Two years ago, the 24-year-old had a career year despite the contract squabble. He wound up with 33 points in 60 games and averaged nearly 25 minutes a night. Things didn’t go as well in 2017-18 though. He had trouble staying healthy (playing in just 55 contests), his point total dropped to 23, while his ATOI was the lowest of any of his five NHL seasons (21:54). Trouba may very well want to be paid like a top pairing defender but his output was more of a second pairing player. That’s the gap they’re going to need to bridge in negotiations.
Other RFAs: G Eric Comrie, F Marko Dano, F Nicolas Kerdiles, F J.C. Lipon, F Adam Lowry, D Josh Morrissey, F Nic Petan, D Tucker Poolman, F Brandon Tanev
Key Unrestricted Free Agent: F Paul Stastny – The veteran fit in quite well with the Jets who acquired him at the deadline. He wasn’t counted on to be the number one center like he was in St. Louis and the lesser role fit him quite well. He was quite productive for them down the stretch and in the postseason and there is mutual interest in him returning. On the other hand, he is the second best center available on the open market and is bound to receive several big offers. Winnipeg made a move on Saturday to free up cap room to help give them a shot at bringing Stastny back but with all of their other players to re-sign, they may still be in tough to do so. Early indications are that they still aren’t in agreement on terms and that Vegas is now the front-runner for his services.
Other UFAs: D Toby Enstrom, F Matt Hendricks, G Michael Hutchinson, D Jan Kostalek, F Jimmy Lodge, F Shawn Matthias, D Julian Melchiori, G Jamie Phillips, F Buddy Robinson, D Cameron Schilling, F Michael Sgarbossa
Projected Cap Space: The good news is that Winnipeg has plenty of cap room to work with as they sit nearly $28.2MM below the cap, per CapFriendly. They have a lot of core players to sign though and by the time they do that and fill out the rest of their roster, it’s doubtful that they’ll have enough to be players in free agency or the trade market unless they free up some more funds first.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Western Notes: Winnipeg Goalies, Seguin, Lehtonen, Fehr, Beagle
With the trade of goaltender Steve Mason this morning to open up some cap space, the Winnipeg Jets find themselves with a sudden hole in their lineup as the team no longer has a viable backup goaltender behind starter Connor Hellybuyck. Their top goalie out of the AHL, Michael Hutchinson, is already an unrestricted free agent and likely to move on, while the next in line is Eric Comrie, who has a total of four NHL games to his name.
That will force the cap-saving Jets to find a cheap solution on the free agent market. A few days behind in the recruiting market, many of those backup options are already off the board, such as Carter Hutton (Buffalo), Jonathan Bernier (Detroit) and Cam Ward (Chicago).
The Winnipeg Sun’s Ken Wiebe writes there are options out there, suggesting the team look at some under-the-radar goaltenders who struggled a year ago. Tops on his list is former Buffalo Sabres netminder Chad Johnson, who struggled last year in Buffalo with a 3.55 and a .891 save percentage. However, the 32-year-old was behind one of the worst defenses in the league, while the Jets’ offense could easily protect Johnson better.
- Sean Shapiro of The Athletic writes that extension talks between the Dallas Stars and Tyler Seguin can’t even start until after John Tavares signs a contract and sets the market. Whatever Tavares gets will be the starting point for negotiations between the two parties. Seguin, who is eligible to sign an extension starting tomorrow, put up a career-high 40 goals for the Stars. However, the 26-year-old can also opt to become a free agency next year in a similar fashion to what Tavares is doing now. Dallas has made it clear they want to lock the center up long-term.
- Former Dallas Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen and current unrestricted free agent could be an interesting watch, according to Fox Sports Andy Strickland. The 34-year-old backup was interested in joining the Boston Bruins as a backup to Tuuka Rask, but now doesn’t seem likely. While there has been some interest from some Western Conference teams, he could choose to retire if the right opportunity doesn’t present itself. Lehtonen finished last season with a pedestrian 2.56 GAA and a .912 save percentage as a backup for the Stars.
- The Athletic’s Michael Russo writes the Minnesota Wild have had conversations with free agent center Eric Fehr. The 32-year-old veteran had trouble cracking the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup this year and was eventually traded to the San Jose Sharks for a 2020 seventh-round pick, but made an impression centering the team’s fourth line. He put up three goals in 14 games and played in 10 playoff games. The scribe also writes that he doubts Fehr ends up in Minnesota.
- Despite rumors that the Vancouver Canucks were closing in on an agreement with unrestricted free agent center Jay Beagle yesterday, Rick Dhaliwal of Sportsnet reports that the market for Beagle is increasing and driving up his pricetag. Vancouver remains quite interested in signing the veteran and are very, very much in the race to acquire him.
Winnipeg Jets, Anaheim Ducks Swap AHL Forwards
The Winnipeg Jets and Anaheim Ducks swapped a pair of minor-league forwards as the Jets traded Chase De Leo to the Ducks for Nicolas Kerdiles, according to the Ducks. The even swap should give both forwards a fresh start for next season as both are restricted free agents and each were given qualifying offers earlier this week.
For Anaheim, the acquisition of De Leo, is another sign of bringing in a hometown player to the franchise. Born in La Mirada, Calif., the 22-year-old fourth-round pick in 2014 has struggled to improve in the last three years. After posting solid junior numbers, he scored 19 goals as a rookie with the Manitoba Moose of the AHL in the 2015-16 season which included a two-game promotion to the Jets. However, De Leo then wasn’t able to improve on that. His goal output then decreased from 14 the following year and then to 12 this year. Lost in the shuffle of all the young talent in Winnipeg, a move to Anaheim might be exactly what the forward needs. De Leo just finished out his entry-level deal where he made $875K last year.
Kerdiles will provide Winnipeg with a bigger player for their AHL team next year. The 6-foot-2 Kerdiles posted 15 goals last season and had a career-high 34 points last season, but seems to but hasn’t made major improvements in the last few years and he also has a history of being injury-prone as he’s never played a full season of professional hockey. However, after four years in the AHL and just two games in the NHL, a new home might be the answer. The 24-year-old made $650K on a one-year deal last season.
Canadiens Acquire Steve Mason, Joel Armia From Winnipeg
The Jets needed to clear out some cap room if they wanted to re-sign Paul Stastny and they have taken a step towards doing so, dealing goalie Steve Mason, winger Joel Armia, a 2019 seventh-round pick, and a 2020 fourth-round pick to Montreal for prospect defenseman Simon Bourque. Both teams have announced the deal.
Mason struggled considerably in his first and only season in Winnipeg, suffering multiple concussions that saw him limited to just 13 games, where he posted a below average 3.24 GAA and a .906 SV%. He has one year remaining on his contract with a $4.1MM salary cap hit; Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston reports (Twitter link) that there is no salary retention in the swap. Assuming Mason remains with the Canadiens, he will battle veteran Antti Niemi and prospect Charlie Lindgren for the backup role behind Carey Price. However, Johnston adds in a follow-up tweet that Montreal is already shopping Mason and could retain some money to facilitate a deal.
Armia is the key to the deal from Montreal’s side. The 25-year-old is coming off of his best season in the NHL where he posted 12 goals and 17 assists in 79 games despite averaging just 12:36 of playing time. The pending RFA received a $1MM qualifying offer earlier this week and is eligible for salary arbitration. He will likely slot into Montreal’s bottom six group of forwards.
For the Jets, freeing up more than $4MM in cap room will be crucial in their pursuit to re-sign Stastny. It has been suggested over the last few days that the 32-year-old wanted to remain in Winnipeg but the Jets, who still have goalie Connor Hellebuyck, defenseman Jacob Trouba, and several others to re-sign so more short-term flexibility was certainly needed. They have just over $28MM to work with, per CapFriendly, but have as many as nine roster spots to fill.
As for Bourque, he struggled considerably in his first year at the professional level. He was a frequent healthy scratch with AHL Laval this past season and tallied just three assists in 46 games. However, he posted nearly a point per game in his final junior campaign so there is still some potential for him to take some steps forward.
Offseason Keys: Winnipeg Jets
The offseason is now in full swing with the draft now complete and free agency on the horizon. What storylines lie ahead around the league in the weeks to come? Our Offseason Keys series continues with a look at the Winnipeg Jets.
The Jets had quite the turnaround in 2017-18. After missing the postseason the year before, everything started to come together nicely which pushed them back towards the playoff picture. GM Kevin Cheveldayoff then added center Paul Stastny at the deadline to make a run. They did just that as they made it all the way to the Western Conference Final before being ousted by Vegas. Don’t expect them to be too active on the free agent market, however, as the keys to their offseason all pertain to dealing with their current roster.
Extension Talks
There aren’t many teams that have more prominent players than Winnipeg does when it comes to signing early extensions. The Jets have no fewer than three core forwards that will be entering the final year of their contracts on July 1st and it’s reasonable to think that the team is going to want to have some talks with all three to at the very least get a sense of how much they need to set aside in the budget moving forward. (And this doesn’t even factor in defenseman Tyler Myers, who also is set to enter the final year of his deal.)
Winger Blake Wheeler is the lone unrestricted free agent of the three and is going to have quite the leverage to work with. He led the team in points this past season with 91, good for ninth overall in the league while his 68 assists tied for the league lead. He has logged heavy minutes on their top line for years now and he’s also their captain. Put that all together and Wheeler is a player that will be one of the most sought-after wingers if he makes it to the open market next summer. He’ll be 33 when that contract begins so a max-term deal is unlikely but five or six years at a rate considerably higher than his current $5.6MM cap hit is likely.
Fellow winger Kyle Connor didn’t see a lot of NHL time in his rookie year but became a key contributor pretty quickly in his sophomore campaign as he posted 31 goals and 26 assists in 76 games. If the team believes this is a sign of things to come, they may want to act now…at least in theory. Depending on what happens with some of their other pending free agents, Winnipeg may be forced to hand him a bridge deal to free up some extra cap room for 2019-20. If that is indeed the case, that could wind up deferring any substantial talks as it’s quite rare for a player to sign a bridge contract a year earlier than they need to.
Then there’s winger Patrik Laine. The second overall pick in 2016 has lived up to his billing and has already become one of the elite snipers in the league. After Buffalo’s Jack Eichel landed a $10MM AAV on an early extension last offseason, it’s safe to assume that his deal will be used for a benchmark. While Eichel plays the more premium position, the salary cap is higher now than it was a year ago so those two factors will largely offset. Is that a contract that the Jets are comfortable handing out after just 172 career games (regular season and playoffs combined)? Whether they do it now or a year from now, his salary is going to jump tenfold.
Determine Trouba’s Future
Two years ago, it looked like defenseman Jacob Trouba was on the outs in Winnipeg. Unhappy with being asked to play on the left side and seemingly unable to come to terms on a contract following the expiration of his entry-level deal, he asked for a trade. Eventually, the two sides agreed on a two-year bridge deal which expires on Saturday so a new deal needs to be worked out.
Trouba has arbitration eligibility this time around so unless he opts not to file and the team elects not to take him to a hearing, it can be said at the very least that there won’t be a holdout that lasts into the season this time around.
That said, this could still be a tricky negotiation. His platform season saw him miss 27 games due to injury while his ice time was cut by more than three minutes a night. Given his play the year before, Trouba is going to be looking to be paid as a number two or three defender but the logjam on the right side still exists. Myers still has a year left on his deal while Dustin Byfuglien is locked up through 2020-21. If they don’t want to shift one to the left on a full-time basis, then they’re going to be paying big money to a third pairing defender. Given what they’re up against contractually already this summer (goalie Connor Hellebuyck is a key player to re-up as well), that’s going to be tough.
A long-term deal is certainly the preferred way to go here for either side. If they can lock the 24-year-old up at a rate around Myers’ $5.5MM, I think both sides will be happy. If that doesn’t get it done though, then there’s a chance that they’ll pivot back to looking to lock up Myers instead and look to trade Trouba. His future with the Jets is certainly more stable than it was two summers ago but it’s not carved in stone just yet.
Clear Long-Term Cap Room
If you’ve been reading along and thinking to yourself that Winnipeg is going to have a tough time trying to keep this team together, you’re not the only one. Cheveldayoff has already acknowledged that they’re going to be tight to the cap…and that’s for the 2018-19 season as they look to find a way to keep Stastny in the fold. For the year after that, something has to give.
On the surface, forward Mathieu Perreault looks like a potential casualty. Talk of his potential departure dates back to the Expansion Draft when it wasn’t a guarantee that he’d be protected and with the young talent in their system, his presence is rather superfluous. He has a manageable $4.15MM cap hit through 2020-21 and would fit in nicely as a middle-six forward for a lot of teams and his positional flexibility is certainly an asset. Moving him would yield some assets in return and free up some wiggle room.
The question becomes what to do if that’s not enough, especially looking ahead a year? Beyond Perreault, only six other players are signed and the only other non-core piece is blueliner Dmitry Kulikov who looks to be untradeable at the moment following a rough injury-plagued first season in Winnipeg. If they have to slash more payroll, it’s going to have to be a core piece that moves out. They can probably get away with punting this decision for a little bit but any moves that the Jets make in the next year are going to have to be made with this situation in mind. In the meantime, finding a new home for Perreault may very well be on the immediate to-do list for Cheveldayoff.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Winnipeg Extends Defenseman Joe Morrow
Wednesday: The team has officially announced the contract, bringing back Morrow for one year at $1MM.
Tuesday: A team declined to extend a qualifying offer to a restricted free agent defenseman who had been a good fit, only to re-sign him to an affordable one-year deal. Sound familiar? Less than an hour after the Vancouver Canucks re-signed Derrick Pouliot to an extension, the Winnipeg Jets have followed suit with a new contract for Joe Morrow. TVA’s Renaud Lavoie reports that Morrow has signed a one-year, $1MM extension to remain in Winnipeg.
Like Pouliot, Morrow does not lose out on not getting a qualifying offer by yesterday’s deadline. The 25-year-old defender made the league minimum $650K last year, making a new million-dollar pact a substantial upgrade. In fact, it is almost a surprising raise for Morrow. The young journeyman, who was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins and traded to the Dallas Stars and then to the Boston Bruins before even making his NHL debut, was on his third team in two years when he finished the 2017-18 season with the Jets. Boston had declined to qualify Morrow last summer, only they intended to let him walk as a free agent. Morrow signed with the Montreal Canadiens and posted a career high in games played and points while also showing some defensive improvements. However, Morrow was still less than a full-time player and his move to Winnipeg was more of an afterthought depth addition at the time of the NHL Trade Deadline. Morrow was solid albeit unspectacular down the stretch for the Jets and was used only sparingly in the postseason. With that said, the Jets were vocal about how pleased they were with Morrow’s acquisition.
The Winnipeg front office and coaching staff clearly saw enough of the puck-moving defenseman to decide on using some of their precious cap space to bring him back. The Jets face a daunting number of restricted and unrestricted free agency conundrums this summer, but seemingly worked quickly to get a deal done with Morrow. With four veteran defenseman signed for next season and three more qualified as RFA’s, Winnipeg has plenty of depth on the blue line, but must have plans to use Morrow in some capacity next season.
Free Agency Notes: De Haan, Bernier, Stastny, Vanek
While early reports that quite a bit of interest has been directed towards John Tavares, another New York Islanders’ unrestricted free agent has garnered attention too. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports defenseman Calvin de Haan has received significant interest from upwards of 10 teams so far.
While Lou Lamoriello has made it clear that it is his mission to convince Tavares to stay with the Islanders, the team has two key defensive free agents to worry about as well, including de Haan and Thomas Hickey. De Haan, however, is an interesting situation as the blueliner has shown a lot of promise over the years since being drafted in the first round back in 2009, which includes some flashes of brilliance at times, but he’s never been able to put it all together in a full season for the Islanders. He did put up career highs in 2016-17 with five goals and 25 points and may well have been on his way to break that this year, but went down with a season-ending injury on Dec. 16. He posted one goal and 11 assists in 33 games.
Many teams feel that a change of scenery and the fact that the free agent is still just 27, would make him an ideal player who could become a quality top-four defenseman.
- The Athletic’s Craig Custance reports that unrestricted free agent goaltender Jonathan Bernier has indicated that he likes Colorado and would like to return to the Avalanche. However, after the team traded for Washington Capitals goaltender Philipp Grubauer Friday and the fact they still have Semyon Varlamov listed as their starter, that would cause an unusual logjam at the goaltending position. If Colorado would rather have a combination of Grubauer and Bernier, general manager Joe Sakic would have to make another roster move to rid himself of Varlamov, who will be an unrestricted free agent in 2019. There would almost undoubtedly be a market for Varlamov if Sakic made him available. Bernier had moments of brilliance last season, but finished the year with a 2.85 GAA and a .913 save percentage in 37 games.
- Fox Sports Andy Strickland reports that their is mutual interest for veteran center Paul Stastny to return to the Winnipeg Jets. Stastny thrived in Winnipeg’s offense alongside Patrik Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers, but the expected cost of retaining Stastny, who is the No. 2 center on the unrestricted free agent market, is not in the team’s financial plans. Custance writes the Jets are looking for a way to keep Stastny, which would require them to move out a contract to make a deal like that work. The 32-year-old put up 16 goals and 53 points between St. Louis and Winnipeg last year.
- Sportsnet’s Rick Dhaliwal writes that while former Vancouver Canucks forward Thomas Vanek has received some early interest from teams, the Canucks are not one of them. There had been some early talk that the team wanted to bring back the 34-year-old winger after they traded the veteran to Columbus at the trade deadline. The team liked the way he mentored the younger players. His 17 goals for Vancouver (24 total for the season) suggest he still has the ability to put the puck in the net.