Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Archives for June 2019

Chicago Blackhawks Hire Marc Crawford

at CDT | by 2 Comments

Marc Crawford won’t be staying in Ottawa, as the veteran coach has been hired on by the Chicago Blackhawks as an assistant coach. Crawford joins a very young group led by head coach Jeremy Colliton, giving them plenty of experience to lean on this season. Crawford’s son Dylan Crawford serves as the team’s assistant video coach.

Crawford, 58, brings nearly two decades of head coaching experience to the side of Colliton, including a Stanley Cup title with the Colorado Avalanche in 1996. He had taken over as head coach of the Ottawa Senators when Guy Boucher was fired during the season, but after D.J. Smith was brought in as the next bench boss, Crawford needed a new gig. That will be in the Central Division, a place Crawford will feel quite familiar with given his time in Colorado and Dallas. He’ll come in under a head coach which he has already spoken highly of:

Jeremy has an extremely bright and innovative mind and I am totally impressed by his presence and enthusiasm. I know we will have a terrific relationship and my experience should benefit the entire coaching staff.

Not only has Crawford “seen it all” in terms of success and failure in the NHL, he also will be able to relate to the 34-year old Colliton as he tries to turn things around in Chicago. Crawford was the youngest head coach to ever win the Jack Adams Trophy when he took it home in 1995—the same age Colliton is now. He had just taken a Quebec Nordiques team that finished with 76 points the year previous to the playoffs, and won the Stanley Cup just a year later. While that kind of turnaround will be difficult to replicate, his experience in the same situation will be invaluable to the young Blackhawks head coach.

Nashville Predators Hire Dan Lambert

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Nashville Predators have hired Dan Lambert as an assistant coach, adding him to Peter Laviolette’s group for the 2019-20 season. Lambert spent the last two seasons as head coach of the Spokane Chiefs of the WHL, where he amassed a record of 81-46-13. Predators GM David Poile had this to say about his new coach:

Dan is an experienced, passionate coach and will nicely round out our coaching staff in 2019-20 and beyond. Having enjoyed a lengthy career as a player and now a coach, he has had success at every level running the power play, and we look forward to adding his knowledge and insight in this area to the organization.

Lambert, 49, was named to the Hockey Canada Program of Excellence last month and was set to serve as head coach for the 2019 Hlinka-Gretzky Cup. It’s not clear if he’ll still take on that role, but it goes to show just how he is perceived as an up-and-coming coach in the hockey world. Finishing a long professional career in 2009, he jumped right onto the bench of the Kelowna Rockets as an assistant, only to take over as head coach a few years later and win a WHL Championship. He jumped to the NHL after that with the Buffalo Sabres, and took over as head coach of the Rochester Americans of the AHL in 2016-17.

As a player, Lambert put up huge point totals in his career including a 102-point season in the WHL and an 87-point season in the IHL. As a coach with the Rockets, he helped develop NHL defensemen like Damon Severson, Madison Bowey, Josh Morrissey, and Tyson Barrie. That’s the exact type of development he’ll likely be asked to accomplish in Nashville, where the team already has an incredible defense corps but also a player like Dante Fabbro who the organization expects big things of. Lambert is also known as a powerplay specialist, something the Predators have struggled with for some time.

Minor Notes: Woods, Virta, McKenzie

at CDT | by 2 Comments

Even though the Stanley Cup Final and draft preparation is taking up most of the hockey world at the moment, there are things still happening behind the scenes and in the minor leagues. As always, we’ll keep track of the happenings in the AHL and other leagues around the world right here:

  • The Toronto Marlies have signed Riley Woods to a one-year AHL contract, giving the WHL forward a place to play next season. Woods finished his junior career this season with the Spokane Chiefs, recording 75 points in 65 regular season games and being named a second team All-Star. The Maple Leafs have built quite the development system in Toronto, and have now started bringing in late-blooming CHL stars to try and shore up their ranks in the minor leagues.
  • CapFriendly confirmed today that the New York Rangers have also lost the draft rights to Patrik Virta, their seventh-round pick from 2017, because they didn’t sign him by June 1. There was some confusion of Virta due to the fact that he played in the KHL for part of the 2018-19 season—which has no transfer agreement and therefor would have extended the rights indefinitely—but given his transfer to the SHL they have indeed expired. Virta was a top scorer in the Finnish league in 2017-18 but struggled in the KHL and Sweden this season. He is an unrestricted free agent now, and can sign with anyone.
  • Curtis McKenzie received 27 minutes of penalties at the end of game two of the Calder Cup Final, and will now see even more discipline. The Chicago Wolves forward has been suspended for game three after attacking a prone Steven Lortenz with 0.8 seconds left in the game. McKenzie has now amassed 51 penalty minutes in 19 playoff games for the Wolves, after leading them with 112 in the regular season. If that makes you think he’s only out there to fight you’d be wrong, as the former Dallas Stars forward also recorded 54 points in the regular season and has another 14 in the postseason. His loss is a big blow to Chicago after the series was tied 1-1.

Columbus Blue Jackets Sign Veini Vehvilainen

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

That didn’t take long. After reports this morning out of Finland that Veini Vehvilainen would soon be signing, the Columbus Blue Jackets have made it official. The goaltender has inked his two-year entry-level contract.

Vehvilainen, 22, has been an absolute star in Finland’s Liiga the past two seasons, posting .925 and .933 save percentages for Karpat. Both seasons his squad made it to the league final thanks to some incredible performances by the young goaltender, winning once. Vehvilainen added a World Championship gold medal recently, to go along with the World Junior medal he had from 2016. There’s little he hasn’t accomplished at this point in his career overseas, meaning his next step may be the professional ranks in North America.

Incredibly, Vehvilainen was only drafted in the sixth round last year at the age of 21. Every team in the league passed on him numerous times throughout his three years of draft eligibility, something Columbus will thank the stars for after watching him develop so quickly. The question now becomes where he fits in next season, given the glut of young goaltenders in the Blue Jackets system.

While Sergei Bobrovsky may be moving on from Columbus, the long-term future in net may not be so dire. The team signed Elvis Merzlikins at the end of the season and still has Joonas Korpisalo as a restricted free agent. Those are the old hands at 25 years old, while Vehvilainen (22), Matiss Kivlenieks (22) and Daniil Tarasov (20) are also now under contract. How everything shakes out is still unclear, but there is obviously opportunity to be seized in Columbus.

Libor Sulak Heading To KHL

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Detroit Red Wings took a shot when they signed Libor Sulak to a two-year contract in 2017, inking the undrafted Czech defender to an entry-level deal. They even allowed him to play in Finland that season to continue his development, before bringing him to North America this year to play in the minor leagues. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear like that will continue, as Sulak has signed with HC Severstal in the KHL. Scheduled to become a restricted free agent this summer, Sulak’s rights can be retained by the Red Wings if they issue him a qualifying offer.

Sulak, 25, ended up playing in six NHL games with the Red Wings this season but was held scoreless. He contributed 14 points in 61 contests with the Grand Rapids Griffins, but that apparently wasn’t enough to keep him in North America. An experienced international player, Sulak never did seem to click on this side of the pond and couldn’t get his offensive game to match the production he had in Europe.

His departure leaves the Red Wings with even fewer options for the blue line in 2019-20, as they have just five players signed to one-way deals. That means there is plenty of room for competition between some of the other young players, including the recently signed Oliwer Kaski and prospects like Dennis Cholowski and Filip Hronek. Looking even further, all three of Mike Green, Jonathan Ericsson and Trevor Daley are unrestricted free agents in the summer of 2020, meaning the Red Wings’ defense corps could look very different in the coming years.

Early Notes: Karlsson, Hall, Vehvilainen

at CDT | by 11 Comments

When the end of the San Jose Sharks season came, the biggest question immediately became ’what would happen to Erik Karlsson?’ The star defenseman is a free agent this summer, but was limited by injury at the end of the year and comes with plenty of question marks, including the draft pick compensation San Jose would need to send Ottawa if he re-signed. Karlsson tweeted out a cryptic thank you to the San Jose area, and immediately many started speculating that it would be the end of his time there. Speculation erupted, with landing spots like New York and Tampa Bay seeming the most likely.

Now in a new column, Don Brennan of the Ottawa Sun suggests the unthinkable—a return to the Senators. Brennan reports that a source tells him Karlsson “hopes to receive competitive offers” from the Senators and Montreal Canadiens, in order to get closer to his wife Melinda’s family who are in Ottawa. That would certainly be a shocking development, given how Karlsson exited the Senators organization last summer and the way they have failed to sign any top talent over the years.

  • Rumors have surfaced lately that Taylor Hall isn’t interested in signing an extension with the New Jersey Devils, but his agent Darren Ferris threw some cold water on that when speaking with Mike Morreale of NHL.com. Ferris called the report “fictitious” while Devils GM Ray Shero also doesn’t know where it came from, given his recent conversations with the Hall camp. Still, both admit that there is no rush to sign a deal despite their regular communication and that Hall won’t feel pressure when he is eligible for a deal on July 1.
  • A report out of Finland from Sasha Huttunen has the Columbus Blue Jackets signing Veini Vehvilainen in the coming days, though obviously nothing is official just yet. Vehvilainen is a 22-year old goaltending prospect that the Blue Jackets drafted last year with a sixth-round pick, who dominated Finland’s Liiga for the second straight season. The report notes that the young goaltender could return to Finland to continue his development on a loan from the Blue Jackets, which makes sense given the number of netminders already under contract with the team in the minor leagues.

Florida Panthers Announce Full Coaching Staff

at CDT | by 2 Comments

The Florida Panthers will have a new group behind the bench next season, led by legendary coach Joel Quenneville. Beside him will be some familiar faces, as the team announced today that Mike Kitchen, Andrew Brunette and Derek MacKenzie will serve as assistants in 2019-20. Robb Tallas will continue as Panthers goaltending coach.

This group is a bit of old and new for Quenneville, as he brings back long-time assistant Kitchen who worked with him both in St. Louis and Chicago, while also adding two newcomers to the coaching world.

Brunette, 45, spent several years in the Minnesota Wild organization after retirement, filling various roles including coach for a very short period. His stint in Florida though will represent his real first test as he tries to transition fully into the coaching circuit. A veteran player with more than 1,100 games of NHL experience, Brunette played for Quenneville on more than one occasion and developed a friendship that has lasted since his retirement. Quenneville called him a “bright, young hockey mind” in the press release today.

MacKenzie meanwhile will move directly into coaching after retiring just this year. The 37-year old served as captain of the Panthers for several years before finally giving up the “C” to Aleksander Barkov this season, due to an injury that would end his career. He played just a single game for Florida in 2018-19, and will finish with 611 in his career. Still, MacKenzie has long been ticketed for the bench. The veteran forward has been lauded for his leadership abilities throughout his career and can help young players as they transition from top scorers in junior to role players in the NHL, as he did so many years ago.

Free Agent Focus: Vancouver Canucks

at CDT | by 3 Comments

Free agency is now a little less than a month away 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.  Vancouver has one of the better forwards in the RFA class and one of the better defenders among the unrestricted free agents.  Here’s a closer look at their free agent situation.

Key Restricted Free Agents: F Brock Boeser – The 22-year-old had a nearly identical sophomore season compared to his rookie year.  While some stagnation can be cause for concern, that’s not the case with Boeser.  He has already established himself as a legitimate top line winger and will be looking to be paid accordingly this summer.  Unlike the players at the top of the RFA class though, Boeser doesn’t have quite as much of a track record.  The first year of his contract was burned with just nine games and between that and injuries, he doesn’t have two full NHL seasons of games under his belt.  While that could make a short-term deal more palatable from Boeser’s perspective, it’s still expected that a long-term contract will get done.

D Ben Hutton – A year ago, it looked rather unlikely that Hutton would still be in Vancouver and even less likely that they’d be entertaining the idea of tendering him a $2.8MM qualifying offer.  However, he had a much-improved 2018-19 season, working his way from being in and out of the lineup a fixture in Vancouver’s top four.  While the presence of Quinn Hughes could ultimately cut into Hutton’s ice time next season, he should still be an important part of their back end for next season.  The 26-year-old is a year away from UFA eligibility and is eligible for salary arbitration.

Other RFAs: F Reid Boucher, F Brendan Gaunce, F Nikolay Goldobin, F Markus Granlund, F Yan-Pavel Laplante, F Josh Leivo, F Tyler Motte, D Derrick Pouliot, D Brogan Rafferty, D Josh Teves

Key Unrestricted Free Agents: D Alex Edler – Edler is near the top of the list in terms of left-shot defensemen available.  Normally, this would bode well for his market value but by all accounts, he’d rather not make it to July 1st and would simply rather remain with the only NHL organization he’s ever known after being a third-rounder of the Canucks back in 2004.  However, at this point, it appears that the hold-up is at least in part due to his preference to receive a no-move clause in his contract.  While that may not seem like a big deal on the surface, we are just a couple of years away from the Seattle expansion draft and if he’s not interested in leaving Vancouver now, he likely wouldn’t be open to waiving no-move protection down the road.

D Luke Schenn – His acquisition in mid-January was largely for salary-matching purposes but Schenn wound up filling a useful role for Vancouver down the stretch after his recall from AHL Utica.  He logged just shy of 15 minutes per night over 18 games with the Canucks and there is already talk that the team is interested in bringing him back for next season.  Schenn made $800K in 2018-19 and it’s unlikely that it would cost much more than that to keep him in the fold considering he played in more AHL than NHL games this past season.

Other UFAs: F Derek Dorsett (already retired), F Tanner Kero, G Michael Leighton, D Evan McEneny, F Tom Pyatt

Projected Cap Space: Vancouver currently has just shy of $52.5MM committed for next season, per CapFriendly.  While re-signing Boeser and Edler won’t be cheap, they’ll have some room to shop at the top of the free agent market if they so desire.  However, knowing that Hughes and Elias Pettersson are two years away from what will likely be very pricey second contracts, expect GM Jim Benning to be somewhat tempered in his spending and will likely prefer to add some shorter-term deals this summer.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Flyers Acquire The Negotiating Rights To Kevin Hayes From Jets

at CDT | by 5 Comments

It’s safe to say that the Flyers would like to sign pending unrestricted free agent Kevin Hayes.  The team announced that they have acquired the negotiating rights to the center from the Jets in exchange for a 2019 fifth-round pick.

In the team release, GM Chuck Fletcher explained the rationale behind the move:

By gaining the rights to Kevin at this time, it provides us with an opportunity to negotiate with him prior to July 1 when he is due to become an unrestricted free agent.

Hayes is coming off of a career season in 2018-19.  He spent most of the season with the Rangers before joining Winnipeg as a deadline day acquisition in exchange for a first-round pick along with winger Brendan Lemieux.  The Jets were hoping that Hayes would have a similar impact as Paul Stastny did the year before but that wasn’t the case as his playing time dwindled in the postseason.

Despite the poor showing in the playoffs, Hayes wound up with 19 goals and 36 assists in 71 games between the two teams; his assist and point totals were career highs.  The 27-year-old is expected to be one of the top centers available in free agency and with other teams already being reported to have interest in him, Fletcher obviously felt it was worth parting with a later draft pick to give themselves a few weeks to talk to him before the UFA interview period opens up after the draft.  New head coach Alain Vigneault is also quite familiar with Hayes from their time with the Rangers.

Hayes would certainly fill a useful role with Philadelphia.  Sean Couturier has established himself as a legitimate top liner but Nolan Patrick, the second overall pick in 2017, isn’t ready to take on a full-time spot in the top six just yet.  While Claude Giroux can play down the middle, he has taken off offensively since being shifted to the wing so moving him back to that spot isn’t optimal.  Hayes, if signed, would slot in nicely between Couturier and Patrick, allowing the latter to continue to develop before potentially flipping roles down the road.

The big question will be how much it will cost to get Hayes signed.  He made $5.175MM this past season on a one-year deal to avoid salary arbitration.  Presumably, it will take a fair bit more than that to lock him up this early.  Winnipeg, with several other prominent players to re-sign this summer, knew that they wouldn’t be able to afford to keep Hayes in the fold so the move allows them to recoup at least a small asset in return over losing him for nothing and considering they only had three 2019 draft picks before the move, adding a pick in this draft is also a nice pickup, especially since it prohibits the selection from being contingent on Hayes signing with Philadelphia.

Offseason Keys: Winnipeg Jets

at CDT | by 1 Comment

With the postseason down to just two teams, most squads are now well into their offseason planning.  What storylines lie ahead around the league in what is shaping up to be a likely busy NHL offseason?  Next up in our Offseason Keys series is a look at the Winnipeg Jets.

Expectations were high for Winnipeg after making it to the Western Conference Final in 2018.  Most of the team was returning and then GM Kevin Cheveldayoff added Kevin Hayes at the trade deadline with the hopes that he’d have an impact like Paul Stastny did the year before.  Unfortunately for the Jets, they didn’t fare as well in the postseason this time around as they were ousted by St. Louis in the opening round.  While last summer was relatively quiet for Cheveldayoff, he’ll have plenty of heavy lifting to do this time around.  Here are the key parts of his to-do list for this summer.

Re-Sign Key RFA Forwards

Heading into the season, Patrik Laine looked like he was in line for a massive payday.  He was coming off a 44-goal campaign and had 80 through his first two seasons, establishing himself as one of the premier goal scorers in the league already.  He looked like he was heading in that direction once again with a fantastic month of November where he scored 18 times.  However, Laine struggled the rest of the season and wound up with only 50 points (30-20-50) on the entire season.

Accordingly, there are now questions about what type of contract he’ll ultimately wind up with.  The chances of him getting top dollar among the high-end group of RFAs is virtually nil now as his value has taken a hit.  If that’s the case, could a bridge contract wind up being the better way for Laine to go with the hopes of landing a bigger deal a year or two from now?

On top of getting a new deal done for Laine, they also have another key winger to re-sign in Kyle Connor, who very quietly out-produced his fellow RFA in 2018-19.  He’s a little different than some of the other top players of this class as he really only has two full NHL seasons under his belt after spending the bulk of his rookie year at the minor league level.  Even so, there’s a case to be made that his next deal should be comparable to the face value of William Nylander’s pact in Toronto – six years and $45MM.

Determine Trouba’s Future

On top of their two wingers, Winnipeg has one other key restricted free agent in defenseman Jacob Trouba.  But while new deals for Laine and Connor are basically a formality at this point, Trouba’s case is nowhere near as certain.

For starters, he’s only one year away from unrestricted free agency.  He already demonstrated that he’s okay with going through the salary arbitration process as he went that route last year, being awarded a $5.5MM salary which now stands as his qualifying offer.  If he wants to get to UFA status as soon as possible, it’s quite likely that he’ll merely file for arbitration early next month and go through the process once again.

On top of that, Trouba is coming off a career season.  He more than doubled his point output from 2017-18 and was a big factor on the power play for the first time.  That is certainly going to bolster his negotiating leverage and he’s well-positioned to land another sizable raise this summer.

There have been questions about Trouba’s willingness to sign long-term in Winnipeg, even after he rescinded his trade request back in 2016.  If the 25-year-old doesn’t show much of an inclination to consider a long-term extension, Cheveldayoff will need to seriously consider trading him.  The two weeks leading up to free agency have been the time where impact defenders have been swapped in the past before teams more or less finalize their roster with their moves on the open market.  As a result, Trouba’s case is something that will very likely be settled one way or the other over the next month or so.

Free Up Cap Room

Last summer, Winnipeg was forced to part with Joel Armia to offload the final year and $4MM of Steve Mason’s contract to Montreal.  There’s a good chance they’ll need to do something like that again in the coming weeks.

The Jets currently have roughly $56.7MM in cap commitments for next season, per CapFriendly.  New contracts for Laine, Connor, and Trouba will eat up most of that while they still have several depth players to re-sign or replace while Tyler Myers is a pending unrestricted free agent whose future with the team could ultimately be tied to what happens with Trouba.  They’re going to be hard-pressed to get everyone re-signed while staying under the Upper Limit, even if it gets a boost as expected.

Mathieu Perreault is someone that has been speculated as a potential cap casualty dating back to last summer.  He’s a capable secondary scorer that can play all three forward positions but at a $4.125MM AAV for two more years, that will be a tricky sell considering that his point-per-game rate was the lowest of his career in 2018-19.  (To be fair, his ice time dipped considerably as well.)  Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov ($4.33MM) has an expiring contract but doesn’t have the potential to make as much of an impact as Perreault does.  While Kulikov was once a top-four defender, he has been used in more of a depth role the last couple of years and the Jets would need to provide a fair bit of incentive if they want to offload that contract.  A buyout could be an option with him as well.

Whether it’s with Perreault, Kulikov, or someone else, Cheveldayoff will undoubtedly be calling around the league to see what opportunities will present themselves to alleviate some of their cap challenges.  With the buyout window closing at the end of June, it’s likely that any moves they make to clear up cap room will be done by then.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

scroll to top