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Roster Crunch Coming For Seattle Kraken

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The Vegas Golden Knights expansion draft took place on June 21, 2017. That night, the league announced ten trades that the Golden Knights had made with expansion draft considerations in mind, but they weren’t done there. Over the next two weeks, they completed seven more trades to fix the roster construction. After all, an expansion process usually doesn’t leave you with a perfect mix of players, and free agent frenzy had also provided some opportunities to add to that initial group.

Starting with Trevor van Riemsdyk, the Golden Knights shed the extra defensemen they selected in the expansion draft, collecting a number of draft picks in the process. There was van Riemsdyk, David Schlemko, Marc Methot, and Alexei Emelin to move, since they simply couldn’t keep all the NHL defensemen that were targeted in the draft.

The Seattle Kraken, now nearly a month after their own expansion draft, have made three trades. One of those was to send goaltender Vitek Vanecek back to his original team, while Kurtis MacDermid and Tyler Pitlick were also flipped for fourth-round picks. But the problem that Vegas faced four years ago now faces Seattle as well–there are still just too many defensemen.

Not even counting Dennis Cholowski, who is currently an unsigned restricted free agent the Kraken have ten defensemen under contract for the 2021-22 season. None of them, not even 22-year-old Cale Fleury, are waiver-exempt. That means unless they’re going to carry more defensemen than any other team in the league this season (even playing a couple of them at forward) some will have to be either traded or exposed on waivers before the season begins. Sure, Connor Carrick, the team’s lone defensive free agent signing can likely clear without worry after a disappointing season in New Jersey, but even he has 241 games of NHL experience. None of the other defensemen are risk-free when it comes to waivers, meaning something has to give in the next few months.

The odd balance here is that, even though they’re facing a roster crunch, the actual depth chart isn’t very long. Because the Kraken won’t have a full-time minor league affiliate this season and are just sending a handful of players to the Charlotte Checkers, the list of defensemen actually ends at Carrick–number ten on the chart (until Cholowski is signed). A few training camp injuries and suddenly you’re looking extremely thin on the back end, scrambling for some insurance options just to make an active roster. While that situation might solve the issue of waivers for a while, when those players healed the Kraken would be in trouble once again, having to push players through midseason. Worse, what if they were to lose one or two players on waivers and then suffer a few injuries in the early part of the season?

A potential fix is to sign a few more players like Carrick—with NHL experience but likely to clear waivers at the start of the season—while also trading a few of the current options in the meantime. The problem is that many of the league’s teams have basically locked their rosters and may not be jumping to trade for another defenseman after spending in free agency. Perhaps the plan is to wait for training camp injuries to happen around the league, but it is a tricky situation that Seattle finds themselves in right now, with a risky depth chart that essentially is both too full and too short at the same time.

Latest On Zdeno Chara

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With one more full season, Zdeno Chara would take the lead among all NHL defensemen in career games played. He currently sits in fifth, just 43 games behind the leader Chris Chelios, who played until he was 48. Chara isn’t quite that old at 44, and is coming off a relatively effective season with the Washington Capitals. If he intends on playing again this season as expected, there’s an old rival interested in his services. According to Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic, the St. Louis Blues have expressed interest in Chara, as they did in the 2020 offseason before he signed with the Capitals.

Chara and the Blues know each other very well from their 2019 Stanley Cup Final, which went the full seven games and resulted in St. Louis’ first franchise championship. As usual, the veteran defenseman was dealing with injuries by the time the title series came around—this time playing with a broken jaw—but still managed three points in the seven games. Chara is up to 200 playoff games in his career, but hasn’t been able to hoist the trophy since 2011.

It also wouldn’t be the first defenseman from that 2019 series that the Blues would be targeting; they signed Torey Krug to a seven-year, $45.5MM contract last fall after losing captain Alex Pietrangelo to free agency. But as Rutherford writes, Chara is a long-shot for the Blues, as the veteran defenseman would like to stay as close to his family in Boston as possible with everything else equal.

There is still a place for Chara in the league, as a defenseman that is deployed almost solely in the defensive zone and on the penalty kill, but he’s obviously not what he used to be. He agreed to a one-year deal last season that paid him just $795K in base salary with another $730K in potential performance bonuses, but even that may be more than he gets this time around. He averaged just over 18 minutes this season for the Capitals, the first time since 1999 that he was under the 21-minute mark over a full season.

Minor Transactions: 08/18/21

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While we wait for news on some of the big trade targets still on the market, the NHL hot stove has cooled significantly. Still, European and minor leagues continue to fill their rosters and tweak lineups in preparation for a full season. As always, we’ll keep track of the notable minor moves right here.

  • The Rochester Americans have signed Dominic Franco, Mitch Eliot, Nick Boka, and Matthews Cairns to one-year AHL contracts for the upcoming season. If you recognize Cairns name, it might be because he was a third-round pick of the Edmonton Oilers in 2016 whose draft rights expired this month. The 23-year-old defenseman never did develop any offense while in college, scoring just three goals and 12 points in his four seasons.
  • Josh Wilkins, who played most of last season with the Tucson Roadrunners, is heading to Sweden after signing with Vasterviks IK. He did not receive a qualifying offer from the Nashville Predators at the end of the year, making him an unrestricted free agent. In 25 games with Tucson, he scored five points.
  • This season, Keegan Lowe is off to Italy to play for HC Bolzano after a long career in the minor leagues. The son of six-time Stanley Cup champion and Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Kevin Lowe, Keegan managed just four appearances at the NHL level. He played this season with the San Diego Gulls, recording six points in 44 games.
  • The Toronto Marlies have signed former Chicago Steel captain Matteo Pietroniro to a one-year AHL contract. The 22-year-old defenseman spent last season in the ICEHL with HC Bolzano, recording four points in 31 games. Toronto happens to have just hired Ryan Hardy as senior director of minor league operations, who was GM of the Steel in 2018-19 when Pietroniro wore the “C.”

This page will be updated throughout the day

Marc Michaelis Signs AHL Contract

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Last offseason, one of the interesting undrafted college free agents on the market was Marc Michaelis. He was coming off an outstanding career at Minnesota State-Mankato, which ended with him as a top-ten finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. The German-born forward is second on the school’s all-time career scoring list with 162 points in 148 games, including an outstanding 20 goals and 44 points in his 31-game senior season.

When the Canucks signed him, it appeared as though they had a pro-ready bottom-six talent who could help on the penalty kill and add some secondary scoring. After all, Michaelis had set a school record with ten career short-handed goals and had even played well at the 2019 IIHF World Championship for Germany. Instead, the college star failed to score a single point in 15 games with Vancouver, registering only three shots on goal. He averaged nine minutes a night and was never used on the penalty kill.

This offseason Michaelis, now 26, was not issued a qualifying offer when his one-year deal expired. That made him an unrestricted free agent once again, but came with a much more unsuccessful recent history. He’ll get a chance to rebuild his stock in the minor leagues, as the Toronto Marlies have signed Michaelis to a one-year AHL contract.

This isn’t a prospect that the Marlies are signing, but it is still one with an uncertain ceiling. After 15 games playing limited minutes, most often skating with Jayce Hawryluk and Tyler Graovac, it’s still not entirely clear that Michaelis can’t handle the NHL. If he can show an ability to dominate the minor leagues like he did the college ranks, there could very well be another NHL contract in his future.

Mikael Hakkarainen Placed On Unconditional Waivers

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The Vegas Golden Knights have placed Mikael Hakkarainen on unconditional waivers for the purpose of a mutual contract termination, according to CapFriendly. Hakkarainen was the sole return for Marc-Andre Fleury in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks earlier this summer, though even the press release at the time indicated that he would remain with the Rockford IceHogs instead of joining the Henderson Silver Knights. Now he won’t even be under contract with the Golden Knights, becoming an unrestricted free agent when the termination goes through tomorrow.

Hakkarainen, 23, had one year left on his entry-level contract but had struggled to find playing time in the Blackhawks minor league system. This season he split the year between the Indy Fuel of the ECHL and Rockford, playing six games for each. In those contests, the fifth-round pick recorded just a single assist. His time in the AHL could be over, as he failed to score a single point in 14 games for the IceHogs since joining them in 2019.

He will be free to sign anywhere, though it’s unclear where his professional future lies at this point. A return to Finland perhaps, though he hasn’t played there since the 2014-15 campaign. Hakkarainen was the 139th overall pick in 2018, after spending two seasons in the USHL.

With Hakkarainen now set for release, the Golden Knights officially have nothing but cap space to show for the Fleury trade.

Chicago Blackhawks Extend Mackenzie Entwistle

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The Chicago Blackhawks have signed Mackenzie Entwistle to a two-year contract extension through the 2023-24 season. The young forward still has one year left on his entry-level deal, but will earn $800K in each of the following seasons.

Entwistle, 22, made his NHL debut this season, playing in five games for the Blackhawks and recording two points. Acquired in the Marian Hossa deal with the Arizona Coyotes three years ago, he was originally selected 69th overall in 2017. After showing he could be a solid contributor in the minor leagues, the 6’3″ forward was given a chance with the big club and obviously impressed.

The two-year extension is a one-way deal, suggesting that Entwistle’s role with the Blackhawks is likely going to increase in the coming seasons. While it’s a very crowded forward group in Chicago this year, big change could be right around the corner. Remember that both Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews will see their matching eight-year, $84MM contracts expire after the 2022-23 season, and though the Blackhawks will obviously want to keep them around, they’re getting closer to a seismic shift in the core of the team.

The next core, which will likely be anchored by Seth Jones, Alex DeBrincat, and Kirby Dach, still needs some help if it’s to get to a level of real Stanley Cup contention. Depth players like Entwistle can certainly help, especially if he can bring a level of consistent play to the bottom-six on an $800K cap hit.

Several College Prospects Become Free Agents

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The middle of August is usually not a significant one on the prospect front but each year, some college prospects who have exhausted their eligibility become unrestricted free agents starting August 16 if they don’t sign an entry-level contract.  Here is this year’s list plus their original affiliation and where they’ve signed, if applicable:

F Kasper Kotkansalo (DET, 71st in 2017) – signed in Finland
D J.D. Greenway (TOR, 72nd in 2016) – AHL contract with Boston
D Matthew Cairns (EDM, 84th in 2016)
G Keith Petruzzelli (DET, 88th in 2017)
F Todd Burgess (OTT, 103rd in 2016) – AHL contract with Winnipeg
F Bryce Misley (MIN, 116th in 2017) – AHL contract with Minnesota
F Kale Howarth (CBJ, 148th in 2017)
F Aapeli Rasanen (EDM, 153rd in 2016) – signed in Finland
G Kris Oldham (TB, 153rd in 2015)
F Patrick Holway (DET, 170th in 2015)
G Garrett Metcalf (ANA, 179th in 2015)
D Croix Evingson (WPG, 211th in 2017)
D Matthew Hellickson (NJ, 214th in 2017)

If the list seems a little smaller than usual, there’s a reason for that.  With the pandemic adding an extra year of eligibility, some players that would have been on this list have instead opted to go back to college for a fifth season and their rights will be retained longer as a result.  In Petruzzelli’s case, he’s expected to be going back to college as well but was removed from Detroit’s reserve list along with the other players above.

Free Agent Profile: Derick Brassard

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For the third straight year, veteran center Derick Brassard finds himself still looking for a contract well after the free agent market opened up.  Not much has changed for him over that stretch and he remains a depth offensive option for teams to consider in the coming weeks.

Last season, the 33-year-old caught on with the Coyotes just as training camps were on the horizon, inking a one-year, $1MM contract.  Brassard spent the majority of the campaign in a middle-six role, mostly on the third line but moving up to the second when needed.  It’s basically the role he has held for the past few years and the results were pretty much the same.

Brassard’s per game output dipped a bit compared to his 2019-20 showing but still managed to pick up 20 points, putting him in a tie for the player with the most points still standing on the free agent market (Kyle Palmieri had more but is believed to have an agreement with the Islanders).  He has even chipped in on the power play (seven goals over the last two years) and has won nearly 54% of his faceoffs over that stretch.

So why is he once again looking for a contract?  Brassard’s defensive zone play has never been a strong point and while that was okay earlier in his career when he was putting up 40 or more points, teams aren’t as willing to give him playing time with him producing less.  His own-zone performance isn’t going to suddenly improve so these year-to-year deals are likely what it’s going to continue to be for Brassard.

Stats

2020-21: 53 GP, 8-12-20, -10 rating, 12 PIMS, 67 shots, 50.0 CF%, 14:48 ATOI
Career: 905 GP, 194-309-503, -35 rating, 419 PIMS, 1,781 shots, 50.2 CF%, 16:05 ATOI

Potential Suitors

There are a couple of possible types of suitors for Brassard at this stage.  The first is a team that is looking for a bit more depth down the middle and doesn’t want to pay up for someone like Tyler Bozak.  The other is a team with some young centers that wants either an insurance policy or to bring him in to allow one of those pivots to spend more time in the minors.

In the first group, Seattle is down their top center for the first few months with Yanni Gourde out following shoulder surgery and while they signed Marcus Johansson who can fill in down the middle, Brassard, a natural center, could be a better fit.  Montreal lost Phillip Danault with the only replacement down the middle being Cedric Paquette who spent most of last season as a winger.  With an inexperienced group at center, Brassard could replace someone like Eric Staal who was acquired midseason from Buffalo.  Minnesota still doesn’t have a particularly strong group at center, particularly when it comes to offensive upside and Brassard would give them another option without breaking the bank for the eventual Kirill Kaprizov contract.

The second group features teams that aren’t likely to make the playoffs.  Columbus, where his career started after they made him the sixth-overall pick 15 years ago, is firmly in a rebuild and are banking on some unproven players making the jump.  Brassard would be an insurance policy and with Max Domi out to start the year, he could have a lineup spot at the start.  Anaheim has forced some of their younger players in when they haven’t been ready which hasn’t worked particularly from a development standpoint.  Brassard’s presence could allow someone to spend more time with AHL San Diego.  As for Ottawa, they’re believed to be sniffing around for a veteran forward and with Chris Tierney being in trade speculation dating back to last season and entering the final year of his deal, Brassard would be a low-cost option to carry in case they wind up moving Tierney at some point.

Projected Contract

Brassard has made our Top 50 UFA list in the past but didn’t this time around.  He made $1MM last season and $1.2MM the year before.  Another small dip at this stage is likely and a one-year deal for the veteran should check in somewhere around $900K.  At a price tag that could be buried entirely in the minors, he’ll be a low-risk pickup for whoever winds up signing him in the coming weeks.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Mason Shaw Signs With Minnesota Wild

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The Minnesota Wild have signed minor league forward Mason Shaw to a two-year, two-way contract. The deal will pay him $750K at the NHL level in both years. His AHL salary in 2021-22 will be $100K, while it increases to $125K in 2022-23.

Shaw, 22, was a restricted free agent this offseason but ineligible for salary arbitration. His entry-level contract, originally signed in 2018 after being the 97th overall pick in 2017, came and went without a single NHL game to his name. The former WHL star initially struggled to make the transition to the AHL, but came on this season, posting 22 points in 30 games for the Iowa Wild. Standing 5’9″ it will be hard for him to ever really make it as an impact player in the NHL, but that’s not for lack of effort. The undersized forward is usually the first on the puck in the offensive zone, relentlessly creating turnovers and trying to make a play for his linemates.

It’s going to be difficult to find many opportunities in Minnesota this season, given how many depth pieces they have, but perhaps another strong start with Iowa will allow Shaw to climb up the chart a bit. If the NHL club runs into several injuries, he could potentially earn a call-up. It’s the second year of the deal that’s likely Shaw’s best chance at making it though, given how many players in the system are on expiring deals. Victor Rask, Nick Bjugstad, Kyle Rau and Nico Sturm are all pending UFAs, meaning someone will have to fill those spots. A big season in the AHL could put Shaw on the radar, all you can ask for as a minor league player.

Nashville Predators Turning Focus To Mattias Ekholm Extension

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The Nashville Predators locked in Juuse Saros this week to a four-year, $20MM contract, but the work doesn’t end there for GM David Poile. The executive told ESPN radio that the focus will now turn to an extension for Mattias Ekholm.

Now that we’re past the Juuse situation, we’re going to turn our focus now to Ekholm. I actually spoke with his agent yesterday afternoon and we’re going to talk either later this week or next week on that. 

Ekholm, 31, is heading into the final season of his six-year, $22.5MM contract signed in 2015 that turned into one of the best bargains in the NHL. Originally a fourth-round pick in 2009, Ekholm has been a key member of the team’s blueline since 2014 and has averaged at least 22:52 in each of the last five seasons. This year he had 23 points in just 48 games and is part of the reason why someone like Ryan Ellis was deemed expendable this offseason. The Predators moved Ellis to the Philadelphia Flyers in a deal that cleared some cap and added some more young forward talent, but still have Ekholm and captain Roman Josi to anchor the back end.

While Josi is locked in long-term, Ekholm would be one of the top free agents if he hit the open market next summer. An extension would likely have to include a substantial raise on his current $3.75MM cap hit, with a contract like Jake Muzzin’s recent four-year, $22.5MM deal being an easy comparable. The fact that Ekholm will be 32 whenever his next contract begins is a big factor, but he has shown no real signs of slowing down to this point. The Predators have three depth defensemen–Mark Borowiecki, Matthew Benning, and Ben Harpur–all coming off the books after this season, which could free up a little bit of space depending on their replacements. The trio currently combines for $3.8MM.

There’s another big fish in Nashville scheduled for unrestricted free agency after this season though, as Filip Forsberg will be reaching the end of his six-year, $36MM deal. Poile also explained the team’s gameplan on an extension with the 27-year-old forward:

Shortly before training camp we’ll reach out to Filip Forsberg and his camp to sort of get a lay of the land as where Filip’s thoughts are right now. Those are the next two priorities. 

Once again, Forsberg was a driving force behind Nashville’s offense (such as it is), scoring 32 points in 39 games. Incredibly, that was actually the most by any forward on the team despite him missing a good chunk of the season, showing just how important Forsberg is to the team overall. Nashville is basically running it back with almost the same group up front this season after only really bringing back Mikael Granlund in free agency, though several young players should be given a bigger role. Newcomer Cody Glass joins Eeli Tolvanen (who does not yet have a contract as an RFA) and Philip Tomasino as the team’s net wave of forward talent that could really tip the scales toward contending again.

It’s Forsberg though that will need to be the focus in a few weeks, as relying on the development of those young players without a consistent offensive player like him in the mix will be a difficult task. Ryan Johansen and Matt Duchene have both been huge disappointments thus far, Viktor Arvidsson was traded this offseason and even Calle Jarnkrok, who finished second among all Nashville forwards this year, was lost to the Seattle Kraken in the expansion draft. Losing Forsberg in free agency would create a giant hole up front similar to the one Ekholm would leave on the back end, meaning these two negotiations are extremely important if the Predators want to stay competitive in the short-term.

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