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Archives for August 2019

Mike Vellucci Named Wilkes-Barre/Scranton GM

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After Bill Guerin decided to take a job with the Minnesota Wild earlier this month, the Pittsburgh Penguins were not only left without an assistant GM but the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL were without a GM at all. No longer, as the organization has named Mike Vellucci GM of the AHL club in addition to his head coaching role. Vellucci performed the same double-duty with the Charlotte Checkers previously.

Last season in Charlotte, Vellucci and the Checkers took home the Calder Cup as league champions after slowly building to become one of the most stable and successful franchises in the league. The affiliate for the Carolina Hurricanes has produced near countless NHL players over the last several years, thanks at least in part to Vellucci’s work on the development side as well as behind the bench.

When he left the Hurricanes organization earlier this year it came as no surprise that Vellucci returned to an organization led by Jim Rutherford, given the two have history going back decades. Vellucci will now attempt to get the WBS Penguins back to the playoffs after the franchise missed the postseason for the first time in more than 15 years.

Morning Notes: CBA, Markov, CTE

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The NHLPA Executive Board will meet on Wednesday to discuss the upcoming September 15th opt-out deadline for the current Collective Bargaining Agreement according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, who adds that there should be an announcement from the league on their own clause by the end of the weekend. Both sides could choose to terminate the current CBA early, though the entire 2019-20 season would still be played under it.

There has been positive reports for months coming out of CBA negotiations between the two sides, but nothing has been officially announced yet on whether they will continue to work under it, end it early or sign a potential extension. The agreement is currently set to expire in 2022.

  • Andrei Markov’s new representation is hard at work trying to sell the 40-year old defenseman, and Eric Engels of Sportsnet reports that there have been around five teams who have already checked in. Allan Walsh of Octagon Hockey told Engels that his new client is looking for a one-year deal and is willing to play anywhere in the NHL, even if he does admit to wanting to finish his career with the Montreal Canadiens. Markov has spent the last two years in the KHL where he recorded 14 points in 49 games last season.
  • With Ben Lovejoy deciding to retire today, Rick Westhead of TSN reminds us that the veteran defenseman was the first active NHL player to pledge his brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation for study after his death. No other active NHL player has followed suit, though several former players have made the pledge. Lovejoy made the pledge without ever having been diagnosed with a concussion, noting that he is “a believer in science” and wants “to do anything [he] can to help.”

Minor Transactions: 08/29/19

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Many prominent free agents, restricted and unrestricted, remain unsigned but the NHL markets largely remain relatively quiet. However, minor league teams, foreign clubs, and college programs continue to make make moves in preparation for the coming season. Keep up with all of those minor transactions here:

  • The Binghamton Devils have signed Michael Paliotta to a one-year AHL contract, giving the well-traveled defenseman a home for 2019-20. Paliotta has only been playing professional hockey for four seasons but has already suited up with seven different teams, including the Stockton Heat in 2018-19. Originally selected in the third round of the 2011 draft, Paliotta went on to star at the University of Vermont before playing two games in the NHL early in his career.
  • The Rochester Americans have signed Michael Houser, Pascal Aquin and Mason Mitchell to one-year AHL contracts according to Brayton J. Wilson of WGR550 in Buffalo, giving the team some more depth. Rochester looks like they’ll be a strong team again this season though all three of these signings could very well spend more time in the ECHL.
  • The Bridgeport Sound Tigers have signed Colin McDonald, Tanner Pond, J.D. Dudek and Evan Buitenhuis to one-year AHL contracts. McDonald comes with the most obvious success of the bunch, having been a three-time AHL All-Star in the past and playing 148 games in the NHL. Dudek is another interesting name however, after only graduating from Boston College earlier this year. Dudek’s rights were traded to the Edmonton Oilers in 2018 as part of a deal for Patrick Maroon, but he failed to sign with the team and became an unrestricted free agent earlier this month.

Ben Lovejoy Announces Retirement

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Another veteran free agent is off the market, but it isn’t because of a new contract. Ben Lovejoy has decided to announce his retirement as a player after 11 NHL seasons.

Lovejoy, 35, finished last season with the Dallas Stars after coming over as a trade deadline acquisition from the New Jersey Devils. The undrafted defenseman played well enough down the stretch to find himself among our Top 50 Unrestricted Free Agents, but instead of grinding through another contract as a depth piece he’ll hang up his skates. Lovejoy carved out quite the career for himself through the years, suiting up 544 times in the NHL with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Anaheim Ducks, Devils and Stars and recording 101 points. In 2016 he took home the Stanley Cup with the Penguins, playing in all 24 postseason contests and recording six points.

Though many undrafted college free agents never find their way in the NHL, Lovejoy is an example of how an organization can prop up their depth charts with overlooked talent. The Penguins, who inked Lovejoy in 2008, are one of the best examples of this around the league and continue to find NHL talent in unexpected places.

Free Agent Profile: Scott Darling

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Veteran goaltender Cam Ward called it a career today, signing a one-day contract with the Carolina Hurricanes, who he served for 13 seasons to begin his NHL career. The 35-year-old finally moved on from the Hurricanes last season, but struggled in a backup role with the Chicago Blackhawks. With his numbers slipping and age catching up with him, Ward decided now was the time to retire.

Interestingly enough, Ward’s failed replacement in Carolina, Scott Darling, also remains an unsigned free agent, waiting for a market to develop. Just two UFA goaltenders – Anthony Stolarz and Jared Coreau – have signed an NHL contract since July 2nd and no goalie has been inked in 50 days. The market is dead quiet, but Ward’s exit leaves Darling as the obvious top name if a team does come calling. Darling, 30, is just hoping at this point that he too doesn’t have to consider retirement.

It was not long ago that Darling was actually considered one of the best backup goaltenders in the NHL. A 2007 draft pick, Darling was a slow-developing prospect who played another year of juniors, two years in college, and four years bouncing around the minors before he ever saw NHL action. However, when he broke through in 2014-15 with the Chicago Blackhawks, he immediately impressed. Darling spent three seasons as the backup to Corey Crawford, with his role increasing each year, and in total posted 39 wins, a .923 save percentage, and a 2.37 GAA in 75 appearances.

The Hurricanes believed they were getting a bargain when they acquired Darling for a third-round pick in the summer of 2017 and signed him to a four-year, $16.6MM contract. However, it quickly became clear that the star backup was not cut out to be a starter. Darling was unable to overtake Ward despite ample opportunity, posting an .888 save percentage and 3.18 GAA in 43 appearances. Darling made 40 starts to Ward’s 42 and was outplayed by the aging veteran, which is not what either he nor Carolina had hoped for.

The ‘Canes essentially cleaned house last summer, letting Ward walk in free agency and burying Darling in the AHL, replacing them with the far more effective duo of Petr Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney. Darling did make eight spot starts for Carolina this past season, but somehow performed even worse than he did the year prior. In the minors, Darling sat behind lauded prospect Alex Nedeljkovic and when he did get a chance to play – he made just 14 appearances – the results were just as bad if not worse than his NHL performance. Not wanting to be weighed down by Darling’s $4.15MM cap hit any longer, the team traded him to the Florida Panthers this off-season along with a sixth-round draft pick for a new backup in James Reimer. The Panthers quickly bought out Darling, making him a free agent.

Potential Suitors

It has now been more than two years since anyone has been impressed by Darling’s efforts on the ice. With that said, the free agent market at goalie is slim pickings, with Darling easily headlining a group that includes Michal Neuvirth – who has signed a PTO with the Toronto Maple Leafs – Chad Johnson, Al Montoya, and Michael Leighton. Each of those players is both older than Darling and was last considered a legitimate NHL option far prior to Darling’s downfall. Darling is simply the best of a poor group, but is looking for redemption. Unlike Ward, Darling will have no expectations of any role or guaranteed play time. He will instead be looking for an opportunity to show that he can still be an effective NHL backup, likely by seeking a third-string role with the chance to battle for play time at the top level.

Accepting a role such as this could open some opportunities for Darling, especially once training camp begins. Injuries to starters or backups can shift the paradigm for an NHL team and leave them searching or an experienced option. The Vegas Golden Knights, Anaheim Ducks, and Philadelphia Flyers are examples of teams with shallow depth in net and injury concerns who could turn to Darling in the even of an incident.

It’s also very possible that several teams are already aware of their weaknesses in goal and simply waiting to see how their current keepers look in training camp and the preseason and potentially even early on the in the regular season. The Columbus Blue Jackets are the one team that everyone is focused on in net, as the team is set to have former backup Joonas Korpisalo and newly-signed European prospect Elvis Merzlikins begin the year as a young, unproven tandem. Early concerns could lead to Columbus looking for additional support, with Darling as the top option other than trade or waivers. The Colorado Avalanche are also in need of depth in net. Their top two of Philipp Grubauer and Pavel Francouz are likely to be fine this season, but the lack of any other experienced name behind them could be a cause for pause, especially given this will be Francouz’ first full NHL season.

Ironically, the Florida Panthers are one final team that could be in the goalie market and would have been a good fit for Darling. The team understandably bought out Darling’s hefty contract, but could’ve actually used a player of his experience. The Panthers spent big on Sergei Bobrovsky’s this summer and will likely ask him to start 65+ games this season, but young Samuel Montembeault is currently slated to be his backup with other untested prospects behind him. Montembeault’s performance in the backup role, as well as the effect on his development of sitting so often, could lead the Panthers to search for a veteran option. Darling won’t be the answer now, but one has to wonder if the two sides connected at all prior to what was clearly an orchestrated trade-and-dump.

Projected Contract

It’s nearly September and teams are getting ready for training camp, yet Darling still sits without a contract. At this point, he will receive a PTO or nothing. Even if he proves himself in camp, it will likely only result in a minimum $700K NHL cap hit on a one-year, two-way deal. If that’s what it takes to climb his back way into the NHL though, Darling will surely take it. After all, he’s receiving a nice pay check from the Panthers for four more years anyway.

Snapshots: Werenski, Kempny, Pominville

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Despite all that has happened over the past few month, Columbus Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen has no regrets. He tells ESPN’s Greg Wyshysnki that the team’s decision to go “all in” at the trade deadline, holding on to Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky and acquiring Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel, was a “calculated risk”. Even though all four have departed this summer via free agency, Kekalainen made his best effort to retain them and isn’t doing to dwell on the players’ decisions not to return. Instead, the bold executive is focused only on the coming season. Kekalainen answered Wyshynski confidently about a number of issues facing his team entering 2019-20, but paid extra attention to the stalled contract talks with RFA defenseman Zach Werenski:

The real frustration for me [is when it] drags on into training camp, because that’s a time for ‘team’… They start preparing and jelling and building that chemistry that we need as a team. When it goes to training camp time, it takes away from that preparation. It takes away from the team. That’s what I’m concerned about. And that’s where we’ve drawn the hard line before: We don’t believe in taking that preparation time away from the team. We think it should be resolved before the team gets together and gets ready for the season.

It seems that the Blue Jackets and Werenski are no closer to a resolution in contract talks and it is starting to impact the GM. With so much talent leaving Columbus this off-season and very few new faces arriving, Columbus needs their leaders and core players in training camp to get ready for what will likely be a more challenging season. Werenski is one of those key players and Kekalainen is clearly doing all that he can to get the talented young blue liner back under contract as soon as possible. As training camp draws closer, the question will be whether the Blue Jackets cave to Werenski’s demands to ensure that their valuable “preparation” is not adversely affected.

  • The division rival Washington Capitals may also be without a key defenseman in training camp and perhaps longer. Michal Kempny is still working his way back from a season-ending hamstring injury and The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir writes that there is no clear timeline for his return. Fortunately, after a summer spent rehabbing at home in the Czech Republic, Kempny has resumed skating back in D.C. and is working one-on-one with Capitals strength coach Mark Nemish. Kempny hopes to be ready for training camp, but truly has his sights set on simply being at full strength for the team’s regular season debut. “I’m getting there,” Kempny said, “I’m not 100 percent yet, for sure. I still need some time. If I’m going to make the (start of) training camp, that’s going to be great. But we’ll see… My goal is to be ready for the season.”
  • At one point this off-season, veteran forward Jason Pominville was also hoping to see another opening night of NHL action, but as the summer has drawn on without much interest in the free agent, his mindset has shifted. Pominville explained to NHL.com that he is “fine with the way things ended” last season, if it was indeed the end of his playing career. The 36-year-old returned to the Buffalo Sabres two years ago, re-joining the team with which he spent the first nine years of his now 15-year NHL career, and proved that he could still be a contributor, posting back-to-back 30+ point seasons and taking on an important role in the locker room. Pominville hoped that he could return to Buffalo for another season, but since that seems like a longshot, he’s content to stay in the city and not move his family, even if that means hanging up his skates.

Matt Hunwick Not Expected To Play This Season

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The Buffalo Sabres have a glut of defensemen fighting for just a few spots, but at least one of them won’t be in training camp after all. Sabres GM Jason Botterill announced today that Matt Hunwick is not expected to play this season:

After further medical evaluation this offseason, we unfortunately do not expect that Matt will be physically able to play this upcoming season due to a neck condition.

Hunwick, 34, has one year remaining on his contract and carries a $2.25MM cap hit. He will likely be placed on long-term injured reserve if the team requires some additional cap space. That’s a very real possibility for the Sabres as they currently project just over the cap ceiling, though there are more cuts coming on defense even with Hunwick out of the picture. The team has at least eight other players vying for spots on the NHL blueline including five right-handed options, leading many to believe—especially when combined with Rasmus Ristolainen’s comments earlier this summer—that another trade was coming from Buffalo at some point.

Originally coming to Buffalo in part of the Conor Sheary trade last summer, Hunwick played just 14 games with the club last season and was unlikely to see much action even if healthy this year. Once a reliable option for teams like the Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche, New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs, Hunwick hasn’t been able to stay healthy or effective since signing a three-year $6.75MM contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2017.

While this release doesn’t guarantee that Hunwick’s career is over, it does certainly put his future into question as an NHL player. He will be 35 next summer when he reaches unrestricted free agency and three full years removed from his last season of more than 42 games played.

New York Islanders Agree To Terms With Anthony Beauvillier

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The New York Islanders have come to an agreement with another restricted free agent and will sign Anthony Beauvillier to a two-year contract. PuckPedia reports (via Arthur Staple of The Athletic) that the deal will carry an average annual value of $2.1MM.

Beauvillier was the final RFA on the board for the Islanders, who now have their full roster under contract and ready to start training camp next month. The team is expected to have quite the competition for roster spots after adding a player like Derick Brassard recently, leaving them with too many forwards to ice each night. Beauvillier won’t be one of those fighting for a spot however after suiting up 81 times last season under head coach Barry Trotz and scoring 18 goals. Though he’s not a dominant offensive presence, Beauvillier fit into Trotz’ defensive scheme nicely and provided some secondary scoring without hurting the team in his own end. In fact, the 22-year old forward only took four minor penalties all season and posted strong possession numbers suggesting he could be even more valuable to the team if given a bigger role.

Selected 28th overall in 2015, Beauvillier has had a nice start to his career and should be considered a building block for the Islanders moving forward. The team wants to compete now and have shown that desire recently with the re-signings of Anders Lee, Brock Nelson and Jordan Eberle, but it will be the continued development of players like Beauvillier and Mathew Barzal that will have the biggest impact on whether the team can become an elite contender in the Eastern Conference.

Given how the team has brought back several of their veteran forwards and added a name like Brassard on a one-year deal, it will be up to Beauvillier to continue to force his way into offensive situations this season. He wasn’t always used heavily on the powerplay in 2018-19 and may have to fight Brassard and perhaps even Joshua Ho-Sang for that opportunity if both are on the roster. At the very least he will be a valuable player at even-strength that can move up and down the lineup to complement some of the other top scorers.

The Islanders had more than $7MM in cap space before signing Beauvillier, meaning they have more than enough room to make another addition if necessary. They will also likely be big players at the trade deadline this season as long as things go well in the first half.

Minor Transactions: 08/28/19

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Many prominent free agents, restricted and unrestricted, remain unsigned, but the NHL markets largely remain relatively quiet. However, minor league teams, foreign clubs, and college programs continue to make make moves in preparation for the coming season. Keep up with all of those minor transactions here:

  • Veteran AHL forward Austin Fyten has decided to take his talents to Germany for the 2019-20 season. Fyten split last season between the Providence Bruins and Belleville senators, recording just ten points in 51 games. The 28-year old has played 280 games in the AHL over the years, but has never stuck around long in one place. Suiting up for minor league clubs in Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma, Lehigh Valley, Hershey, South Carolina, Providence and Belleville, he’ll now get to experience a little different atmosphere in Europe.
  • Cody Bass has decided to retire, hanging up his skates after more than a decade in professional hockey. The Ottawa Senators draft pick played 85 total games in the NHL over his career but was a heart-and-soul member of many AHL clubs. Bass spent last season with the Colorado Eagles where he recorded six points in 35 regular season games.

Cam Ward Signs With Hurricanes, Announces Retirement

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Veteran goaltender Cam Ward has signed a one-day contract with the Carolina Hurricanes in order to retire as a member of the team that he played nearly his entire career for. Ward played parts of 13 seasons in Carolina before joining the Chicago Blackhawks for one year in 2018-19. GM Don Waddell explained what Ward means to the franchise:

Cam was a cornerstone for this organization for more than a decade. From his ’Cam’s Champs’ program to his efforts with the Hurricanes Foundation and time spent teaching at our hockey camps, he had a tremendous impact on this community. We’re proud that he has chosen to retire with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Ward, 35, memorably burst onto the NHL scene in 2006 as a young goaltender with tremendous ability. After struggling through his first partial season something clicked for the rookie in the playoffs, and he took over from Martin Gerber and led the Hurricanes to a Stanley Cup. Awarded the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP, Ward would forever be remembered in Carolina regardless of what the rest of his career brought.

He wasn’t done.

Ward would quickly become the team’s full-time starting goaltender and go on a solid run for the next decade, twice earning Vezina Trophy votes as one of the league’s best. He holds the franchise records for games played, wins, winning percentage, shutouts and saves. He left Carolina with a .909 save percentage and 318-244-84 record in the regular season, and a .917 mark in the postseason.

It was obvious there wasn’t a lot left for Ward in Chicago last season, but it is fitting for him to return to Carolina before hanging up his pads for the last time. Good luck in retirement, Cam.

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