Year In Review 2021

2021 has certainly been another eventful year, both on and off the rink.  Over the coming days, PHR will take a look back at the top stories from around the game on a month-by-month basis.  Next up is a look at February.

New Front Office For Penguins: When Jim Rutherford resigned in January, the expectation was that Pittsburgh would hire a replacement GM and that would be that.  Instead, they went a step beyond that, bringing in a new team president as well.  That resulted in Ron Hextall being appointed as GM and Brian Burke taking over as president.  Hextall made a name for himself with their cross-town rival in Philadelphia both on and off the ice having been their goalie and GM in the past and his patient approach is a stark contrast to Rutherford’s previous wheeling and dealing style.  Burke, meanwhile, had last worked in the presidency role with Calgary in 2018 and had worked in the media since then.

Koivu Retires: After Minnesota opted to not retain long-time captain Mikko Koivu, the center signed with Columbus in free agency.  However, after struggling early on with the Blue Jackets, he decided that the time was right to hang up his skates, announcing his retirement.  He played in 1,035 games over parts of 17 NHL seasons with all but seven of those contests coming with the Wild.  He holds Minnesota’s franchise record for games played, assists, points, shots on goal, and plus/minus.  Aside from that last one, the other four records should stand for a while.

Julien Fired: After a hot start to the season, the Canadiens started to struggle and then-GM Marc Bergevin decided to make a change behind the bench, firing head coach Claude Julien and associate coach Kirk Muller.  Julien’s second stint with Montreal lasted parts of five seasons with the team posting a 129-113-35 record over 277 games with him at the helm.  Julien’s contract runs through the end of this season with the team paying him $5MM not to coach for them.  Meanwhile, Muller was also in his second stint with the team after joining them in 2016 and he has since moved on to Calgary.  Dominique Ducharme was promoted to head coach on an interim basis for the rest of the season.

Babcock’s New Coaching Job: Mike Babcock found his next coaching job but it’s not a route many NHL coaches decide to take.  Instead of coaching in the minors or in the NCAA, Babcock went back to where he once played, joining the University of Saskatchewan as their head coach on a volunteer basis.  The veteran bench boss is still under contract with Toronto through the end of next season and is still receiving his full salary not to work for them.  The Huskies have a 9-3-0 record this season, good for third place in U Sports’ Canada West conference.

Panarin Leave Of Absence: Rangers star Artemi Panarin took a leave of absence from the team following allegations that he beat up an 18-year-old girl back in 2011.  Those allegations came from former NHL tough guy Andrei Nazarov who was Panarin’s coach back in Russia at the time.  Many felt there was a political element to the allegation given Panarin’s public support of opposition leader Alexi Navalny.  Panarin vehemently denied the report and former teammates stepped forward to state that there was nothing to Nazarov’s claims.  While it was termed as an indefinite leave, the winger was able to return to the lineup two weeks later and finished with 41 assists and 58 points in 42 games.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

2021 has certainly been another eventful year both on and off the rink.  Over the coming days, PHR will take a look back at the top stories from around the game on a month-by-month basis.  We begin with the month of January.

Barzal Bridge: Throughout the entire COVID delay to the start of the 2020-21 season, the expectation was that the Islanders would be forced to do a bridge deal with their top center in Mathew Barzal.  In the end, it’s exactly what happened as the two sides agreed to a three-year, $21MM contract that will carry a qualifying offer of $8.4MM in 2023.  While a longer-term contract was preferable for both sides, the shorter term gave New York a little bit more wiggle room to work with which they used to officially complete contracts for veterans Matt Martin, Tom Kuhnhackl, Andy Greene, and Cory Schneider.  Barzal hasn’t been able to match the production from his Calder-winning season in 2017-18 when he averaged over a point per game but he is still an offensive weapon on a team that is best known for being a low-scoring squad.

Crawford Retires: It was somewhat surprising when Corey Crawford left Chicago and signed a two-year, $7.8MM contract with the Devils.  In the end, Crawford decided not to go through with it, instead announcing his retirement.  He hung up his skates with a 260-162-53 record with a 2.45 GAA, .918 SV%, and 26 shutouts along with a pair of Stanley Cup titles in 2013 and 2015, all coming with the Blackhawks.  Meanwhile, with no other veteran netminders available that close to the start of the season, New Jersey opted to have Scott Wedgewood serve as the backup last season with Aaron Dell and Eric Comrie also seeing limited action with the team.

Swapping Young Stars: Pierre-Luc Dubois didn’t exactly hide his desire to leave Columbus while Patrik Laine and Jack Roslovic were certainly amenable to leaving Winnipeg.  In the end, the three were all swapped for each other with the Jets picking up a third-round pick along with Dubois.  Columbus retained enough of Dubois’ salary to make it a match with Laine while Roslovic quickly signed a two-year, $3.8MM bridge deal after being acquired.  Interestingly enough, it was Roslovic who had the best season of the three as he picked up 34 points in 48 games with his new team.  This season, however, Dubois has gotten off to a particularly strong start, notching more points than Laine and Roslovic combined (although Laine has been limited to just 10 games due to an oblique injury).

Big Extensions: After a promising rookie season, Penguins GM Jim Rutherford was quite impressed with John Marino and handed him a six-year, $24.4MM extension that bought out the remainder of his RFA-eligible years plus three UFA seasons.  At the time, it looked like the deal had the potential to be a big bargain for them down the road if he was able to build on his rookie performance although there was some risk considering how inexperienced he was.  The early returns have been inconsistent as he took a bit of a step back last season although Marino has bounced back this season, logging 22 minutes a game while chipping in with 12 points in 30 games.  That’s the type of performance that could make this a team-friendly deal in the near future.

Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets were able to lock up one of their top young talents, inking Oliver Bjorkstrand to a five-year, $27MM extension.  He has become a reliable top-six piece for Columbus and has become fairly consistent in the scoring department, ranging between 0.32 and 0.4 goals per game (between 26 and 33 over an 82-game season) in each of the last four years.  The contract more than doubled his AAV at the time and bought out four seasons of UFA eligibility.

Rutherford Resigns: Just weeks after signing Marino, Rutherford abruptly resigned as GM of the Penguins, citing personal reasons for why he decided to leave.  He was at the helm of Pittsburgh since 2014 with the team winning a pair of Stanley Cups during his tenure with them.  Of course, this won’t be the last time that Rutherford finds himself in one of these Month in Review columns over the coming days with him now being in Vancouver.  Patrik Allvin took over as interim GM and has been speculatively linked as a candidate to join Rutherford with the Canucks in the coming weeks.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.