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Jake Muzzin Out Minimum Of Three Weeks

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The Toronto Maple Leafs’ season may be over tonight, but even if they manage to avoid elimination, Jake Muzzin won’t be back for a while. Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters today including Kristen Shilton of TSN that Muzzin will miss a minimum of three weeks with a lower-body injury. The team will insert Rasmus Sandin back into the lineup in Muzzin’s place for tonight’s all-important game seven against the Montreal Canadiens.

Not only have the Maple Leafs lost their captain this series when John Tavares went down with a concussion and sprained MCL, but now they have lost the leader of their defensive group as well. Muzzin, 32, is the team’s most consistent defender, logging more than 21 minutes a night during the regular season, most of which came against the opponent’s best. The former Los Angeles King is one of just a handful of players on the Toronto roster with championship pedigree after winning the Stanley Cup in 2014.

The Maple Leafs did receive some inspiration at morning skate when Tavares attended in a full-contact jersey, but the veteran center will not be in the lineup this evening. He is still recovering from the brutal head injury he suffered in game one. Jason Spezza told reporters that Tavares’ presence at practice provided even more motivation, saying that “the best thing we can do as teammates is win a hockey game for him and give him an opportunity to get closer to playing.”

They’ll have to do it without Muzzin, but there will be at least a little more support for the team tonight. The Ontario government reversed course this morning and announced that 550 fully vaccinated healthcare workers will be in attendance at Scotiabank Arena. This will be the first time the Maple Leafs have played to a home crowd in over a year.

Five Key Stories: 5/24/21 – 5/30/21

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While it was a busy week on the ice with the second round mostly being set, it was a bit quieter off of it although there were still some notable reports which help comprise the top stories.

Rask, Bruins Table Extension Talks: While there is certainly an expectation that Boston and goaltender Tuukka Rask will get a new deal done, it won’t be happening during the playoffs as the two sides agreed to put those talks on hold until their postseason run comes to an end.  The 34-year-old has been a regular in Boston’s goalie tandem since 2009, making over 650 career appearances between the regular season and the playoffs.  While Jeremy Swayman looks like he’ll be part of their long-term plans between the pipes, there is definitely a spot to bring Rask back though it will likely need to come at a dip in pay from his $7MM AAV.

Flames Listening To Offers For Monahan: With Calgary missing the playoffs this season and the fact the only playoff round they’ve won over the past six years was the Qualifying Round in the bubble, there is an expectation of change for the Flames.  To that end, a report surfaced that the team is listening to offers for center Sean Monahan.  After an 82-point season in 2018-19, Monahan’s numbers have dropped significantly (and not just because the years were shortened due to the pandemic as his per-game rates were near the lowest of his career) but the 26-year-old would definitely be an intriguing addition as a change of scenery candidate.  Monahan has two years left on his contract and with impact centers to come by, there should be considerable interest despite the recent struggles.

Jones Won’t Sign Extension: While the Blue Jackets got an answer from Seth Jones, it wasn’t the one they were hoping for as the defenseman has declined to engage in extension talks with a preference to test unrestricted free agency next summer.  The 26-year-old has been a fixture on the back end in Columbus for the past six years, logging nearly 25 minutes per game along the way.  As we saw last fall, even in this market, top-pairing defenders are going to command a sizable contract which means Jones will be in line for a sizable raise on his current $5.4MM AAV.  Meanwhile, GM Jarmo Kekalainen may be a bit hesitant to risk losing Jones for nothing a year from now so as a result of this news, his name has already come up in trade speculation.

Breakdown In Talks For Nugent-Hopkins: After a decade with Edmonton following his first-overall selection in 2011, it has been widely suggested that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins would find a way to work out an extension with the Oilers.  However, talks have apparently broken down between the team and the pending unrestricted free agent.  The 28-year-old has been on a relatively team-friendly $6MM contract for the last seven years and even in this cap environment, a small raise doesn’t seem to be too unrealistic, especially since he can play down the middle (although he has been on the left wing more in recent years).  Free agency is still nearly two months away so there is still time to get discussions back on track but all of a sudden, the odds of him hitting the open market are much higher than what they would have been not long ago.

Nygard Heads Home: The other news out of Edmonton involved another pending UFA winger Joakim Nygard.  Rather than try to catch on as a role player with another NHL team, the 28-year-old opted to go home, signing a six-year deal with Farjestad of the SHL, the longest contract in team history.  Nygard was an intriguing free agent pickup back in 2019 with his speed making him a possible threat on the wing but it didn’t materialize to much in the way of production as he managed just nine points in 42 games.  Nevertheless, a six-year deal to go back home is a nice consolation prize after struggling in the NHL.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Offseason Checklist: San Jose Sharks

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The offseason has arrived with roughly half of the league finished up after missing the playoffs and several more joining them following their first-round eliminations.  It’s time to examine what those teams need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at San Jose.

The Sharks were supposed to be a team that was set to contend.  That was the idea behind the Erik Karlsson trade three years ago and while they did that in 2018-19, they missed the playoffs entirely a year ago and weren’t much better this season.  Their veteran core struggled mightily and while they had a bit of cap space to add some mid-round picks at the deadline, they don’t have a lot of wiggle room to significantly shake up their core.  With that in mind, GM Doug Wilson’s checklist for the summer is somewhat restricted with seven of their eight highest-paid players having some form of trade protection.

Donato Decision

One thing the flattened salary cap did last offseason was increase the number of players that were non-tendered to avoid salary arbitration.  With the Upper Limit staying at $81.5MM, that’s likely to be the case again this summer.  San Jose has one of those players in winger Ryan Donato who is owed a $2.15MM qualifying offer in July.

The Sharks acquired the 25-year-old in October for a third-round pick, a reasonable price to pay for someone that has shown some flashes of being an impact NHL forward, albeit mixed in with some inconsistent play as well.  Unfortunately for Wilson, Donato provided more of the latter than the former, finishing up his year with six goals and 14 assists in 50 games while averaging 12:37 per game.

In a normal year, he’d be likely to get another opportunity given his previous stretches of being a productive top-six piece.  Give him a small raise and go from there.  But in this cap environment, it’s hard to envision Donato getting $2.15MM on the open market.  Bottom-six forwards were largely squeezed out a year ago and with teams as cap-strapped now as they were then, that’s not likely to change.

As a result, if San Jose wants to retain Donato, they need to try to work out a new deal before free agency opens up in late July.  Offer a cut in pay to see if he wants to stick around – that’s perfectly legal despite the qualifier that’s owed – with the understanding that if an agreement can’t be reached, he’ll be non-tendered.  It’s a bit of a heavy-handed approach but don’t be surprised if many other teams take a similar approach with some of their RFAs.

Add A Goalie

It was only a few years ago that Martin Jones looked like their long-term goalie of the future and his $5.75MM AAV through 2023-24 potentially being a bargain.  No one’s saying that now.  The 31-year-old posted a .896 SV% for the third straight season, a rate that is well below average for a backup let alone a starter.  All of a sudden, forget about the old thought of it being a bargain contract.  Now, Wilson may need to give serious consideration to buying him out.  If you’re curious as to what that would cost, the cap hit would range from $1.667MM to $2.917MM over each of the next six seasons.  That’s a steep price to pay but it would give them a bit of space to try to add a better option.

Even if they don’t buy him out, the Sharks need to add another goalie, preferably a starter instead of another reclamation project.  Josef Korenar had some good moments in his first taste of NHL action but he has another year of waiver exemption; he needs to be playing as much as possible in the minors and he’s not ready to push for full-time NHL duty just yet.  As is often the case, there are quite a few goalies available in free agency and the trade market could feature a few more options than usual.  They should be able to nab a reasonably-priced option and with the struggles they’ve had between the pipes lately, the right choice could yield a few more wins in the standings on their own.

Extension Talks For Hertl

If you were curious as to which of their eight highest-paid players doesn’t have any trade protection, it’s Tomas Hertl.   He will be entering the final year of his contract next season so when free agency begins and the calendar flips to the 2021-22 season, the 27-year-old will be eligible to sign a contract extension.

While many of the top players in San Jose underachieved offensively this season, Hertl was one of the exceptions.  He finished second on the team in scoring to Evander Kane and had he been healthy and played in all 56 games, he might have got the top spot.  Nevertheless, his 19 goals and 24 assists in 50 games was good enough for the second-highest point per game average of his career, a pretty good showing.

When Hertl signed a four-year, $22.5MM deal back in the 2018 offseason, it looked like it might be a bit high considering he had only reached the 20-goal mark twice and never had more than 46 points in a season.  Since then, however, he has certainly lived up to the deal, picking up 153 points in 170 games, well above a 46-point pace over a full regular season.

With that in mind, it’s likely that Hertl’s camp will be seeking an increase on his next contract, even with wingers taking a hit in free agency last summer in a marketplace that is likely to be more restrictive than usual for the next few years.  Wilson will have to decide if the time is right to do that or to let the season play out first.  One thing he can dangle now that he can’t next fall?  He can offer to put in trade protection into the final season of his existing contract as he’s now old enough to have that protection in his deal (only UFA-eligible players can have it).  Maybe he won’t be the only highly-paid player without that for much longer.

Redirect Cap Spending To Offense

The Sharks have been in the bottom ten in scoring in each of the last two seasons.  Part of the reason for that is that they’ve dedicated a lot of money away from the forwards.  By the time they round out their roster for next season, it’s going to be close to a 50/50 split in terms of money on forwards versus goalies and defensemen.  It’s hard to improve offensively with that much money tied up in non-forwards.

Granted, Karlsson and Brent Burns are supposed to help carry the load offensively but that simply wasn’t the case this season.  Add a slumping Marc-Edouard Vlasic to the mix and their big three on the back end counts for $26.5MM without much production from that group.  In a perfect world, they could get out of one of those contracts which all run through at least 2024-25 but their high price tags and trade protection make that extremely difficult.

One smaller move they could try to make to add some money to the pot for their forwards is to move out Radim Simek.  His four-year, $9MM contract is hardly excessive in terms of cost but he has had difficulty staying healthy and had a limited role when he did play this season.  Finding a new team for him would give Wilson a little bit more room to try to add up front which, with their veteran defenders slowly down offensively, will be needed if they want to have a chance at working their way back into playoff contention.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.  Cap information courtesy of CapFriendly.

Hurricanes’ Nino Niederreiter Could Miss Entire Tampa Bay Series

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7:30 PM: Forget about just missing the series-opener.  Following the head, head coach Rod Brind’Amour told reporters including Cory Lavalette of the North State Journal that Niederreiter is “very doubtful” to return in this series.

3:46 PM: The Carolina Hurricanes had a surprise lineup change just before Game 1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning Sunday as Nino Niederreiter is expected to sit out.  According to Luke DeCock of the News & Observer, the forward was injured during practice Saturday and was considered questionable for the game. Former Lightning Cedric Paquette is expected to step into the lineup to replace Niederreiter.

The forward was benched for the remaining 9:49 of regulation and overtime Thursday in Game 6 against Nashville along with Jesper Fast and Steven Lorentz, but that was considered bench shortening. Of course, Niederreiter hasn’t made a major impact so far in the playoffs with just one goal and no assists in six games even though he tallied one of his best regular seasons in years with 20 goals and 34 points.

Paquette, who played with the Stanley Cup champion Lightning last season, was traded twice during the regular season before finding himself with Carolina where he has been nursing an injury, but was ready as an extra, if needed. Paquette, however, could have extra incentive to play hard against his former team.

The Lightning will also be without defenseman David Savard who is out with an upper-body injury. He will be replaced in the lineup with Luke Schenn.

North Notes: Canucks, Muzzin, Shore, Canadiens

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The Canucks are a team that’s going to be looking to free up some cap room this summer and their situation for next season just got a bit more challenging.  PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that as a result of Quinn Hughes maxing out on his bonuses and Nils Hoglander hitting a games played-related bonus, Vancouver will be facing a $649K bonus overage penalty heading into next season.  With the team being in LTIR for the entire year, they were unable to bank any cap room throughout the season which means that full amount is added to their 2021-22 payroll.

More from the North Division:

  • The Maple Leafs have not yet ruled out defenseman Jake Muzzin for Monday’s seventh game against Montreal, head coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters including Postmedia’s Terry Koshan. The blueliner left Saturday’s game midway through the second period with a lower-body injury and the team is awaiting results on testing to determine his availability moving forward.  If Muzzin is unable to play, Rasmus Sandin would likely return to the lineup to replace him.
  • The usage of Devin Shore in their final two postseason games suggests that the Oilers will try to retain him this summer, suggests Kurt Leavins of the Edmonton Journal. While Shore has arbitration eligibility, he also cleared waivers twice in the year and managed just nine points in 39 games so it’s unlikely he’d command much more than the $735K qualifying offer that he’s owed to stick around.  Edmonton will need some cheap depth for next season and he could fit in that role for another year.
  • Canadiens winger Artturi Lehkonen took part in an optional skate today but was in a non-contact jersey, relays TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie (Twitter link). As a result, his availability for Monday’s game against Toronto appears to be in jeopardy.  He has been out since suffering an upper-body injury in the third game of the series.  Montreal’s AHL affiliate in Laval also announced (Twitter link) that they’ve re-signed Tobie Paquette-Bisson to a one-year, one-way AHL contract.  The blueliner played in 28 games with the Rocket this season.

Vancouver Canucks Open To Moving Nate Schmidt

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The Vancouver Canucks didn’t have the type of season they were hoping for. The team finished in last place in the North Division, even behind the rebuilding Ottawa Senators — a far cry from their strong playoff performance a season ago. While the team lost several free agents in goaltender Jacob Markstrom, winger Tyler Toffoli and defenseman Chris Tanev, the hope was that others could step up in their place, including Thatcher Demko, Nils Hoglander and trade acquisition Nate Schmidt, who they picked up from Vegas for a 2022 third-round pick.

Of course, things didn’t work out for Schmidt, who just didn’t seem to be a good fit with Vancouver this year. The 29-year-old played in all but two games for the Canucks, but couldn’t get it going offensively with just 15 points in 54 games, quite a difference from the 31 points he posted in 59 games with Vegas in 2019-20. That’s not exactly what Vancouver envisioned when it took on Schmidt’s contract, which suddenly doesn’t look so good on their payroll as Schmidt still has four more years at $5.95MM.

The Province’s Patrick Johnston writes that the Canucks will likely have to do a major shakeup of their blueline this offseason with only a few players considered key pieces to their puzzle. The belief is the team would prefer to move Schmidt and his contract to free up some cap space, although that could prove challenging, according to The Athletic’s Thomas Drance and Harman Dayal  (subscription required). While the contract is somewhat front-loaded, the base salary for this next year is still $6MM and only drops slightly over the next three years.

What that type of cap hit in a flat cap world, only a handful of teams are likely willing to take on four more years of Schmidt and the Canucks could be forced to send a sweetener if they hope to move the blueliner. All three scribes suggest that Schmidt is a likely trade candidate, but also admit that Schmidt may be difficult to unload and therefore might just have to be an expensive second-pair defenseman, who the team hopes can rebound and have a big season.

West Notes: Wild Offseason, Perron, Lehner

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The Minnesota Wild seem to be a team on the way up. The team may have lost in Game 7 of the first round of the playoffs to the Vegas Golden Knights, but put together an interesting season in which they should continue to get better.

The Athletic’s Michael Russo (subscription required) writes that the team expects to have a busy offseason, which includes dealing with the challenges of the expansion draft as well as re-signing restricted free agents Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek and Kevin Fiala. While all three should get significant raises, trading one of them is always a possibility. In fact, Russo suggests the team could consider packaging Fiala in a deal to upgrade at the center position in a bold move, even suggesting that the Wild could be serious bidders for Buffalo’s Jack Eichel.

  • In a Q&A with St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong, beat writer Lou Korac writes that the Blues are focused on getting an extension worked out with veteran winger David Perron. The 33-year-old has only gotten better as he’s gotten older. After a 16-goal season with Vegas back in 2017-18, he has been a key contributor for the Blues since signing with them. He scored 23 goals in 2018-19, 25 goals in 2019-20 and posted a 19-goal, 58-point campaign this year in 56 games. “He’s passionate about the game,” said Armstrong. “He works at the game, he’s evolved with the game, his puck-protection skills are top level. His ability to create offense for himself is top level. He goes to the harder areas. He’s here next year and as long as he wants to play, I don’t know why the St. Louis Blues wouldn’t want him.”
  • In a somewhat surprising development, The Athletic’s Jesse Granger reports that Robin Lehner, not Marc-Andre Fleury, is expected to be in net tonight for Game 1 against the Colorado Avalanche. Many expected Fleury to get the nod for an eighth-straight game. The veteran was dominant against the Minnesota Wild with a 1.71 GAA and a .931 save percentage in those seven games. Of course, Lehner is also considered a top goaltender for the Golden Knights. The 29-year-old finished the season with a 2.29 GAA and a .913 save percentage in 19 regular season games. Head coach Peter DeBoer did something similar a year ago, allowing Fleury to start Game 1 against the Dallas Stars in the conference finals. Fleury played well, but Vegas lost, which prompted DeBoer to play Lehner for the rest of the season. Could we see a reverse move made this year?

Columbus Likely To Trade Seth Jones Before Draft

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Late last night, it was reported that Columbus Blue Jackets star defenseman Seth Jones will not sign an extension with Columbus and plans to test the 2022 free-agent market. That’s a huge blow to a team that has lost a large chunk of their core players in the last few years. While general manager Jarmo Kekalainen has said in the past that the team intends to go into the season with Jones whether or not he signs a contract extension, that looks to have already changed.

The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline (subscription required) writes that much has changed around the philosophy now that John Davidson has rejoined the organization as President of Hockey Operations. In fact, while Davidson did not confirm the rumors that Elliotte Friedman passed along Saturday Night on Hockey Night in Canada, he made it clear that if Jones does not sign an extension, they will not hold onto the blueliner like the team did when they held onto Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky when both indicated they intended to test free agency at the end of the year in 2019. Both players instead opted to leave the team at the end of the season.

“The No. 1 thing we’d like to do is keep Seth,” Davidson told The Athletic on Sunday. “He has every right in the world to leave if he wants to not extend the contract, but we’ll do what’s best for our team. We just want players who want to be here. This is a different scenario (than in 2019). We were in a position (then) where we thought we had a chance to make a pretty good run at (the Stanley Cup). Beating Tampa Bay (in the first round) was great. Losing to Boston in six … it was a good series, and they lost in seven in the Final.”

With Columbus in a much different position than when they were a solid playoff contender, the team likely has no choice but to consider getting as much as they can for Jones. Portzline said that sources have told him that the team will likely begin shopping the defenseman immediately with the hope of trading him before the draft this summer.

“Whatever happens is going to be what’s the absolute best for the Blue Jackets franchise, period,” Davidson said. “That’s just how it works. Doesn’t matter if it’s Seth Jones or Joe Smith, the player has the right through the (collective bargaining agreement) to do what they feel is necessary for them and their careers. We want players who want to be in Columbus, who want to be Blue Jackets, and we’re going to continue to create that culture.”

Snapshots: NHL Draft Forwards, Rangers Front Office, Johnson

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Just three days after NHL Central Scouting released its top five lists for North American and international players, NHL.com’s Mike Morreale released his list of the top 10 forwards for upcoming NHL draft. With no dominant player at the top of draft lists this year, most draft rankings have differed significantly from list to list, and Morreale’s is no different. After NHL Central Scouting listed Michigan center Matthew Beniers as the No. 6-ranked North American skater, Morreale has him as the top NHL forward in this upcoming draft, moving him ahead of names such as Mason McTavish, Kent Johnson and Dylan Guenther.

McTavish, who has moved up the draft rankings quite a bit since his performance at the recent WJC-18’s, ranking as the second-best forward in the draft. He notched five goals and 11 points in seven games for gold-medal winning Team Canada. Sweden’s William Eklund, Johnson and Guenther round out the top five.

  • It looks as if the New York Rangers front office continues to get smaller and smaller as the New York Post’s Larry Brooks confirms that Nick Bobrov, who has served as the team’s director of European scouting over the last six years has left the organization. Bobrov has had a hand in quite a bit of the Rangers’ drafts over the years, giving the team quite an international flavor in their young prospects. Bobrov joins a list of exiting executives, including the firings of President John Davidson, GM Jeff Gorton and head coach David Quinn as well as the resignation of Brian Leetch of Hockey Ops.
  • The Colorado Avalanche got a welcome sight on the ice when defenseman Erik Johnson stepped onto the ice this morning for an optional morning skate, according to The Athletic’s Peter Baugh. The veteran blueliner has been out since January with an upper-body injury and was ruled out for the season. Head coach Jared Bednar said he doubted that Johnson would return at some point in the playoffs, however. “I don’t know about him being fully cleared or anything like that to actually play,” said Bednar. “He’s just taking it step-by-step. … As he feels better, he’s doing more.”

Latest On Seth Jones

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have been unable to retain their stars in recent years, with names like Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Matt Duchene all leaving in free agency. The next big name on that list is Seth Jones, who will enter the final season of his six-year, $32.4MM contract in 2021-22 with unrestricted free agency right around the corner. Though the Blue Jackets would obviously love to sign the Norris contender to a long-term contract to keep him in Columbus, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported on Hockey Night In Canada that the 26-year-old will not sign an extension with the team at this point.

We can tell you that sometime in the last week or so, Seth Jones informed the Columbus Blue Jackets that he will not be re-signing. I’m saying ’for now’ at this point because I don’t like to deal in absolutes. But it does appear as if he is prepared to test free agency and we’ll see how Columbus decides to handle this over the next little while.

If Jones has told the team he intends to go to the open market, it means the Blue Jackets will be forced to at least test the market to see what kind of return would be available with one year remaining on his deal. The team is coming off a brutal season that saw them fall to the very bottom of the Central Division standings at 18-26-12, parted ways with their head coach, and traded away their captain Nick Foligno.

Moving Jones would be a huge transaction, but it wouldn’t be the first time the star defender was traded. He arrived in Columbus in a blockbuster five years ago, swapped for up-and-coming center Ryan Johansen. Since then he has turned into one of the very best all-around defensemen in the league, able to contribute offensively while also matching the other team’s best on any given night.

Of course, the Blue Jackets could decide to( and have suggested in the past that they will) keep him and use the next 12 months to attempt to change his mind. Jones’ next contract will likely make him one of the highest-paid defenders in the entire league and as long as the Blue Jackets are willing to pay market value, any growth this summer and next season should be seen as positives.

The Jones situation in Columbus will be one of the most interesting to keep an eye on through the summer and up to the 2022 trade deadline.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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