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Archives for February 2019

Minor Transactions: 02/05/2019

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You know it’s been a slow day across the NHL when it’s late at night before multiple minor transactions have occurred. Apart from the historic Auston Matthews extension, it seems as if most front offices have taken the day off today. Nevertheless, there have been a couple notable moves, including a flurry of activity out of Arizona and an injury placement in Colorado:

  • The Arizona Coyotes have shuffled their roster slightly, sending one player down and calling up two. The team announced that goaltender Adin Hill and defenseman Dakota Mermis are on their way up to the ’Yotes, while forward Michael Bunting has been reassigned to the AHL’s Tuscon Roadrunners. All three have suited up for Arizona this season, but it is Hill who has had the greatest impact and thus unsurprising that he is on his way back up. Hill’s 13 games played is second among the five keepers to appear for the Coyotes this season. However, veteran backup Calvin Pickard played well in his one showing with Arizona thus far and it is curious that the team has refrained from giving him more opportunity behind Darcy Kuemper. Mermis has only skated in one game for the ’Yotes this year, but could see a start on this recall for a blue line that is without Jakob Chychrun. On the flip side, Bunting scored in his NHL debut earlier this season, but was scoreless in the following three games and has not seen the ice in Arizona since.
  • Defenseman Mark Barberio is headed to the injured reserve. CapFriendly reported tonight that the Colorado Avalanche have placed Barberio on the IR after he missed the team’s last game with a head injury. Barberio, in the first of a two-year, $2.9MM contract, has only played in twelve games this season but his -6 rating is the worst among all Avs defenders. The team has not yet made a corresponding move, but are expected to do so. Barberio’s loss on its own is not problematic for Colorado, but their defensive depth is a concern and extended absence for Barberio will add even more pressure for GM Joe Sakic to add another blue liner before the NHL Trade Deadline.

Korbinian Holzer Leaves Ducks For Personal Reasons

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Korbinian Holzer had only just played his first few games of the season, but now the Anaheim Ducks will have move on to another defenseman for the time being. Holzer has left the team to return home for personal reasons, explaining why Jaycob Megna is in the lineup tonight against the Montreal Canadiens.

It seems as though everything is going wrong all at once for the Ducks, who have lost four in a row by a combined score of 23-5 and are already down to the Canadiens in the first period. Holzer, 30, had only played in the last two games after dealing with injury through the first part of the season, and it’s not clear how long he will be away from the team now.

The veteran defenseman was re-signed to a two-year, $1.8MM contract in the summer of 2017 and is now scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. In 137 career NHL games split between the Ducks and Toronto Maple Leafs, he has recorded 20 points and 94 penalty minutes. Hopefully whatever is keeping him away from the team is a positive situation and will see him return before long.

Detroit Red Wings Trying To Extend Nick Jensen

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Just a month ago, a report surfaced that the Detroit Red Wings had not started extension talks with pending free agent defenseman Nick Jensen. That news was notable because of Jensen’s breakout season, in which the 28-year old is playing more than 20 minutes per night for the first time in his career. Because of that, Jensen immediately represented a potential rental option for a team looking for right-handed help on the blue line. Now though, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet notes in his latest 31 Thoughts column that the Red Wings are in fact attempting to sign Jensen to an extension and suggests that the team wants to keep a few veterans around their wave of young players.

Jensen actually has always been a relatively effective defenseman. Though he has just 182 games under his belt at the NHL level, that’s not because of some journeyman career in the minor leagues bouncing around different organizations. In fact, Detroit is the only franchise that the fifth-round pick has ever known, signing with them in 2013 after three seasons at St. Cloud State. There’s not a lot of flash or headlines in Jensen’s game, and he doesn’t provide the measurables to stand out when watching him on the ice. But he has quietly registered solid possession numbers and this year has taken another step to carry more responsibility than every before.

That kind of under the radar improvement is likely why Detroit is interested in retaining him. Jensen has never made more than the $825K he is taking home this season, meaning he represents one of the best right-handed bargains available at the moment. If he’s not asking for a huge raise there is good reason to keep him around as a stabilizing option while the team brings along younger defensemen like Dennis Cholowski and Filip Hronek. Niklas Kronwall is set to become an unrestricted free agent and is now 38, though Friedman also notes the respect the organization has for their long-time blue liner.

Jensen’s low salary though might bring about quite a few buyers at deadline time. A team pushed to the edge of the salary cap could still likely afford to add him to the mix as a depth option, and his play this season has shown that he can handle increased responsibility if an injury were to happen. The Red Wings will have to make a decision quickly, as the deadline is fewer than three weeks away and teams will be making decisions on their blue line sooner rather than later.

Vancouver Canucks Recall Michael DiPietro Under Emergency Conditions

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The Vancouver Canucks have recalled junior goaltender Michael DiPietro from the Ottawa 67’s on an emergency basis after Thatcher Demko suffered an injury in warm-up yesterday. DiPietro will join the team in Washington for tonight’s game, while Guillaume Brisbois has also been recalled to replace the injured Alexander Edler. The team has moved Edler and Sven Baertschi to injured reserve to make room.

DiPietro of course is already a star in Vancouver after his strong performance at the recent World Juniors, where he posted a tournament-best 1.23 goals against average. Originally selected in the third round during the 2017 draft, DiPietro has had quite the amateur career. Winning a Memorial Cup in 2017 with the Windsor Spitfires and even being invited to serve as the third goaltender for Canada at the World Championships last year, many believe he is a future NHL star in the making.

Still, the 19-year old has a long way to go before suiting up on a regular basis for the Canucks and has Demko to battle with for the opportunity to be the team’s long-term starter. He’ll likely head back to junior in a few days and continue his quest for an OHL Championship, before jumping to the AHL level next season.

Edler, who suffered a gruesome injury in yesterday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers, is expected to be out for at least a week while he deals with a concussion. Fortunately there were no facial fractures or major damage after he fell face first into the ice and was knocked unconscious. Demko meanwhile is undergoing an MRI to see the extent of his injury.

Oscar Klefbom Activated From Injured Reserve

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If the Edmonton Oilers have any chance of making the playoffs this season, they need to start winning and winning a lot. The team is currently on a five-game losing streak, but somehow are still within striking distance of a wild card spot in the Western Conference thanks to the struggles of several other teams. Today they got some of the best news they could hope for, as Oscar Klefbom has been activated from injured reserve and will return to the lineup tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Klefbom is arguably the most important defenseman on the Oilers, and his injuries this season have had a drastic effect on the team success. The 25-year old hasn’t played since leaving a game against the Colorado Avalanche on December 11th, and the team has gone 6-12-3 without him. Obviously not all of those struggles can be traced back to the absence of the 6’3″ defenseman, but there is a reason that he had been playing more than 25 minutes a game.

If Klefbom can get back up to speed quickly, the Oilers still have a legitimate chance at the playoffs. Improbable as it may be, the team sits just three points behind the Vancouver Canucks for the second wild card spot and five points behind the Minnesota Wild for the first. That’s a difficult gap to cover over the last third of the season, especially given that they’ll need to leap over teams like the Colorado Avalanche, St. Louis Blues and Arizona Coyotes to do it, but not an impossible one. Klefbom may very well be the key to the Oilers play, and if the team can make an addition of some sort at the deadline to give him some help they may not end up wasting another year of Connor McDavid by missing the playoffs entirely.

Auston Matthews Signs Five-Year Extension

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed their young superstar to a huge contract, inking a five-year extension with Auston Matthews. The deal will carry an annual average value of $11.634MM, and be paid almost entirely in signing bonuses. Bob McKenzie of TSN provides the yearly breakdown:

  • 2019-20: $700K salary, $15.2MM signing bonus
  • 2020-21: $700K salary, $15.2MM signing bonus
  • 2021-22: $750K salary, $9.7MM signing bonus
  • 2022-23: $750K salary, $7.2MM signing bonus
  • 2023-24: $750K salary, $7.2MM signing bonus

A deal with a cap hit of this magnitude is almost unprecedented for a player coming out of his entry-level contract, and Matthews is now in line to start next season with the second-highest hit in the entire league (pending any other contracts/extensions). Only Connor McDavid’s $12.5MM will eclipse the Toronto center, and his eight-year deal bought out four years of unrestricted free agency. Matthews is giving up just a single year of UFA status with this contract, meaning he is now scheduled to hit the open market as a 26-year old in the prime of his career. The Maple Leafs will try to avoid that with another huge extension, but there is little doubt that Matthews has set himself up to be one of the highest earners in NHL history.

There’s good reason for this huge contract. Matthews came into the league after being selected first overall in 2016 and immediately established himself as one of the best goal scorers in the NHL. With four goals in his rookie debut, the 6’3″ center put the league on notice and carried it all the way to a 40-goal, Calder Trophy-winning season in 2016-17. His 32 even-strength tallies led the league that year, and he received votes for the Lady Byng, Selke and Hart trophies. Last year was a bit different, as the Maple Leafs forward dealt with injuries that limited him to just 62 games. Still, he racked up 34 goals and 63 points while still only seeing 18 minutes of ice time a night.

This year has also seen him miss some time with a shoulder injury, but Matthews is playing at an even higher level than the past. With 46 points in 38 games he has a chance to set a career-high and will likely post the third consecutive 30+ goal campaign of his young career. That kind of goal production puts him in elite company, and is a huge part of why he was given the biggest deal possible.

This is, undoubtedly, the biggest deal the Maple Leafs could offer. An eight-year extension would have pushed Matthews’ cap hit into a place that made the rest of their roster unmanageable, given the huge contracts already handed out to John Tavares and William Nylander and upcoming negotiation with Mitch Marner—not to mention Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson. Matthews’ likely eight-year ask was north of McDavid’s $12.5MM mark, which would have left the team in an almost untenable situation. In order to avoid that, they had to deal with the fact that Matthews could very well walk away in free agency a few years sooner.

Still, this has dramatic positives for the team. For one, the Maple Leafs now have a much clearer picture of where they stand financially moving forward, and have that knowledge well ahead of this year’s trade deadline. If the team is still interested in adding to this group, they can understand much more accurately the picture going forward. Second, after a long and public negotiation with Nylander dragged well into the season, the team can now cross the first name on their list off and focus on Marner’s next deal. That negotiation isn’t expected to start until after the season at the player’s request.

The Maple Leafs have a clear window for success. Signing Tavares last offseason likely shortened it, given the ramifications that it caused like shortening Matthews’ contract. GM Kyle Dubas and the rest of the organization are betting that bringing in the $11MM forward from the New York Islanders improves their chances in that shortened window and will hopefully result in their first Stanley Cup in decades. They just doubled down on that bet, and now have six years (including this one) to find some success in the playoffs before dealing with another Matthews contract.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Detroit Red Wings Sign Turner Elson

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After impressing at the AHL level all season, Turner Elson has earned himself an NHL contract. The Detroit Red Wings have signed Elson to a two-year contract that will start immediately and run through the 2019-20 season. The 26-year old forward is on waivers today, a necessary step after signing the contract.

Elson was originally signed by the Calgary Flames in 2011 after playing well for the Red Deer Rebels of the WHL, and was part of that origination for several years. In 2015-16 he played a single NHL game, recording an assist only to never suit up again for the Flames. After bouncing around for the past two seasons, Elson is having the best season of his professional career with 28 points in 44 games for the Grand Rapids Griffins.

This deal would suggest that the Red Wings plan on using Elson as NHL depth, perhaps as an injury call-up at some point. To do that they needed to get him on an NHL contract, and a two-year deal will give the forward some security for his playing future.

Tyler Pitlick Out At Least Eight Weeks Following Surgery

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The Dallas Stars will be without forward Tyler Pitlick for quite some time after he underwent surgery on his left wrist. Team reporter Mark Stepneski tweets that Pitlick’s status will be re-evaluated in eight weeks.

Pitlick, 27, is no stranger to major injuries having had several seasons in his short career end prematurely due to surgery. Last year saw him play 80 games for the Stars, a virtual miracle that resulted in a solid 14-goal, 27-point season. This year was supposed to be much of the same, but Pitlick could very well finish with just 43 games played and ten points. Eight weeks puts Pitlick out until almost the end of the season, at which point he would only be able to return if the Stars make the playoffs.

The fragile forward has one year remaining on his contract with a $1MM cap hit, but could find himself fighting for a job again next fall. The Stars need to find some more scoring from their bottom-six, and even with Pitlick’s physical contributions he just wasn’t putting the puck in the net often enough.

Alex Chiasson Wants To Re-Sign In Edmonton

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The Edmonton Oilers haven’t received much production from the majority of their forward group this season, with a few stark exceptions. Obviously the play of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has been good enough, but there is another forward who has impressed for most of the year. Alex Chiasson, who signed to a one-year minimum salary contract after settling for a professional tryout in the offseason, has 17 goals in 43 games and has set himself up to land a new deal in the summer. Today, he told Rob Tychkowski of the Edmonton Sun that he hopes that contract comes with the Oilers. Tychkowski notes that Chiasson’s desire to stay will make it “much easier to keep him past the trade deadline.”

Re-signing Chiasson may be a good idea, but the Oilers have to be careful with how they hand out funds. Not only do they not currently have a GM in place—Keith Gretzky is performing the duties in the interim—but the team already has more than $70MM committed to players next season. By re-signing Chiasson and giving out new contracts to restricted free agents like Jesse Puljujarvi and Jujhar Khaira—not to mention a potential extension for Cam Talbot that has apparently been discussed—there won’t be a ton of room for real upgrades to get Edmonton to the next level. Simply put, the group they have right now is not good enough.

Still, there’s something to be said about a winger who has found success with the Oilers top players. While that seems like it should be a role that any halfway decent NHL winger could do, that hasn’t been the case so far. Finding players to line up beside McDavid and Draisaitl has been a struggle, and given that Chiasson will still likely be relatively inexpensive re-signing him may be worth more than trading him at the deadline.

Inexpensive is the key here though, as overpaying for a player like Chiasson is exactly the opposite of progress for the Oilers. The 28-year old is working with a ridiculous 25% shooting percentage on the season and has just 15 even-strength points on the year. It absolutely must be a short-term deal with a low cap hit, or the team will be putting themselves even further from contention.

Deadline Primer: Vancouver Canucks

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With the trade deadline fast approaching, we will be taking a closer look at the situation for each team over the coming weeks.  Where do they stand, what do they need to do, and what assets do they have to fill those needs?  Next up is a look at the Vancouver Canucks.

This season hasn’t gone as many expected for Vancouver.  Fortunately for the Canucks, it’s not a case of failing to meet expectations but rather exceeding them.  Instead of being a team that’s hanging around the battle for the top draft pick, they’re right in the thick of the battle for a Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.  Accordingly, their plans for the upcoming trade deadline have likely changed.

Record

24-23-6, fourth in the Pacific Division

Deadline Status

Moderate Buyer

Deadline Cap Space

$46.364MM in a full-season cap hit, 2/3 used salary cap retention slots, 45/50 contracts per CapFriendly

Upcoming Draft Picks

2019: VAN 1st, VAN 2nd, VAN 3rd, VAN 4th, VAN 5th, OTT 6th, VAN 6th, WSH 6th, VAN 7th
2020: VAN 1st, VAN 2nd, VAN 3rd, VAN 4th, VAN 5th, VAN 6th, ANA 7th, VAN 7th

Trade Chips

One player that Vancouver is certain to get inquiries on is defenseman Alexander Edler.  The pending unrestricted free agent would be a significant upgrade on many contenders and the Canucks could land a fairly significant return if they were to move him.  However, Edler has indicated his preference is to remain in Vancouver and as long as they’re in the playoff hunt, they probably won’t be looking to move him.  He also suffered a serious-looking injury tonight against Philadelphia which could certainly wind up affecting things.

Instead, their likeliest trade chips lie on the fringes of the roster.  The most prominent of those is winger Nikolay Goldobin.  While it seems odd classifying someone that is fourth on the team in scoring as being on the fringe of the roster, it’s actually true here.  The 23-year-old was a healthy scratch recently for four straight games while his ice time has been erratic when he has been in the lineup.  The offensive upside is certainly there and he has been reasonable productive overall with 24 points in 45 games.  However, the lack of an all-around game has resulted in a quick hook when it comes to shuffling the lines up.  If they’re looking for more consistency, Goldobin could wind up being on the move.

Winger Tim Schaller hasn’t exactly lived up to his contract and it’s certainly conceivable that the Canucks could try to get out of the final year of his deal in a swap of underachieving players.  On the back end, Alex Biega is basically a full-time extra but with teams often looking to add defensive depth for the stretch run, this may be the time for them to get an asset for him, even if it’s a relatively minor one.

Five Players To Watch For: D Alex Biega, F Sam Gagner, F Nikolay Goldobin, F Markus Granlund, F Tim Schaller

Team Needs

1) Impact Defenseman: Behind Edler and Chris Tanev, Vancouver’s back end pretty much consists of players that would be best served in limited roles and right now, some of them are playing more than they’d like.  They have high hopes that prospects Quinn Hughes and Olli Juolevi will eventually become impact defenders but Hughes is still in college and Juolevi’s out for the season.  If they’re looking for more immediate help, they’ll have to turn to the trade market; even if Hughes signs late in the year, he probably won’t be stepping into a top-four role right away.

2) Scoring Winger: The top three of Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, and Bo Horvat are well-established.  However, they haven’t had much help behind them on a consistent basis.  Goldobin and Jake Virtanen have shown flashes but have also largely been invisible at times while Loui Eriksson is nowhere near the $6MM player that they’re paying him to be.  One more consistent winger could allow the Canucks to roll two quality offensive lines which would be a big boost to their middle of the pack offense.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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