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Archives for September 2021

Metropolitan Notes: Korpisalo, Bayreuther, Kreider, Hallander

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Although Columbus recently inked goaltender Elvis Merzlikins to a five-year extension, fellow netminder Joonas Korpisalo told reporters, including Brian Hedger of The Columbus Dispatch, that he hopes to still be able to remain with the Blue Jackets beyond the expiration of his current contract next summer.  The 27-year-old has spent his entire career with the organization after being drafted in the third round back in 2012 but has largely been in a backup role during that stretch.  With the commitment they’ve made to Merzlikins, Korpisalo, who is hoping to be cleared to return from his lower-body injury soon, will have a hard time landing a lot more than his $2.8MM AAV as the high-end backup market is typically in the mid-to-high $3MM range.

More from the Metropolitan Division:

  • Still with Columbus, while defenseman Gavin Bayreuther’s time with Seattle was limited, it wasn’t due to a lack of interest from the Kraken. The blueliner told Jeff Svoboda of the Blue Jackets’ team site that he did receive a two-way offer from Seattle but knew that he’d be viewed as a player that was likely ticketed for the minors.  Instead, he went to free agency and returned to Columbus where he feels he’ll have a better chance of sticking with the big club.  Bayreuther averaged just over 15 minutes in nine games with Columbus last season.
  • The Rangers are shifting winger Chris Kreider to his off-wing, notes Larry Brooks of the New York Post. The lefty will play on the right side with sophomore Alexis Lafreniere not being comfortable in that spot at this time.  The move should allow Kreider to play a little higher in the lineup with youngsters Kaapo Kakko and Vitali Kravtsov not yet ready for heavier workloads though that could change in-season.
  • Penguins prospect Filip Hallander returned to full practice today after missing the start of training camp due to a lower-body injury, relays Mike DeFabo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The 21-year-old was re-acquired from Toronto back in July for forward Jared McCann and could push for a spot at the end of the roster to start the season.

Canucks Nearing Contract For Quinn Hughes

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Shortly after multiple reports surfaced that Vancouver was making progress on deals for their remaining restricted free agents, the Canucks appear to be closing in on a new contract for defenseman Quinn Hughes.  Sportsnet’s Satiar Shah is among those reporting (Twitter link) that the blueliner is nearing a six-year contract with an AAV of around $7.75MM.  If the agreement winds up being made official at those terms, it will be the richest contract handed out by Canucks GM Jim Benning.

Hughes, the seventh-overall pick in 2018, has quickly emerged as one of the bigger offensive threats from the back end around the NHL.  He has recorded 94 points in 124 games over his two seasons, good for a tie with Colorado’s Cale Makar for fourth among blueliners league-wide.  Makar, by comparison, inked a six-year deal of his own this summer, with an AAV of $9MM.  His play in his own end is still more of a work in progress but at 21, there is still plenty of time for improvement on that front.

The contract would buy out Hughes’ five remaining RFA-eligible seasons plus his first year of UFA eligibility so Vancouver doesn’t gain a lot of team control with this contract but ensures that their biggest offensive threat defensively will be ready to go for the start of the season where he will battle with newcomer Oliver Ekman-Larsson for the top spot on the left side of Vancouver’s defense.  Worth noting is that only the final year of his contract will be eligible for trade protection because it is the only UFA year.

With Vancouver having a little under $14MM in cap room per CapFriendly (before accounting for Micheal Ferland who is likely LTIR-bound again), it will likely push them in the direction of a bridge contract for RFA forward Elias Pettersson.  To that end, Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that a three-year deal worth around $7.7MM could be on the table.  With both players being represented by CAA Sports, the deals have basically been worked on together and it wouldn’t be surprising if an announcement from the team will come when both players have officially agreed to terms.  That won’t happen tonight, reports Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre (Twitter link).

Latest On Vancouver’s Restricted Free Agents

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There are two notable absentees from Vancouver’s training camp in defenseman Quinn Hughes and forward Elias Pettersson who remain unsigned.  However, it appears contract talks between the Canucks and their representatives at CAA are starting to improve as Thomas Drance of The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that some progress was made on both fronts today while Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and The Athletic adds (via Twitter) that Hughes’ deal is closer to be being completed out of the two though they are being done together.  In the latest TSN Insider Trading segment (video link), TSN’s Darren Dreger mentions that the state of discussions could be classified as “grinding” so there is clearly some work still to be done.

While the Canucks would undoubtedly like to get long-term deals done with both players, they may not have the cap space to do so and keep wiggle room for in-season movement – roughly $17MM per CapFriendly if Micheal Ferland returns to LTIR.  Hughes would likely be seeking a deal similar to Cale Makar’s in Colorado ($9MM AAV for six years) while Pettersson’s comparables on a long-term pact could push him over the $9MM mark as well.

One potential factor here is the status of defenseman Travis Hamonic who remains unvaccinated with the deadline to opt out of the season coming up on Friday.  If that happens, he would come off the salary cap some of his $3MM AAV could be redirected towards Hughes and Pettersson although some would need to be earmarked to a replacement blueliner as well.

At the very least, it appears as if discussions are heading in the right direction.  And until Hamonic’s situation is finalized on Friday, they may have to wait a little longer until they officially know how much they’ll have available to spend on their young stars.

Maple Leafs Agree To Two-Year Extension With Sheldon Keefe

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Teams generally don’t like when their coaches are in the final year of their contracts and the Maple Leafs were set to be in that situation with Sheldon Keefe.  However, that won’t be the case anymore as Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that Toronto has inked their bench boss to a two-year contract extension that runs through the 2023-24 season.

The 41-year-old was promoted to Toronto’s head coaching role back in 2019 following the firing of Mike Babcock (whose contract runs through 2022-23) but hasn’t yet had a full 82-game season with the Maple Leafs and is in the middle of his first regular training camp with the team.

Toronto has had plenty of regular season success with Keefe at the helm with the team posting a .660 point percentage with young stars like Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner immediately seeing their ice time and production improve.  However, that hasn’t materialized into playoff success as they were upset in the bubble in 2020 by Columbus in the play-in series and last spring by Montreal in the opening round of the postseason.

Accordingly, this short-term pact makes sense from Toronto’s perspective.  With Keefe barely having 100 games under his belt behind the bench plus their early ousters, he wasn’t in a position to command a lucrative long-term deal but their regular season success has shown enough to suggest he’s worth keeping around.  This contract is a commitment from GM Kyle Dubas to stick with the process – one Dubas made this summer by not significantly shaking up the core – but is short enough that it shouldn’t be an impediment if it’s decided that a change has to be made.

Senators Notes: Tkachuk, Pinto, Bishop

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The biggest story for the Ottawa Senators right now is still Brady Tkachuk, who is unsigned and has already missed a good chunk of training camp. There seems to be no end in sight to negotiations that have gone on for some time, despite Senators GM Pierre Dorion repeatedly stating that talks were progressing and positive. Last night, Darren Dreger joined TSN radio to explain the current situation:

It’s still an amicable process I’m told, between Newport, the Tkachuk camp and the Ottawa Senators. But at the end of the day it feels like they’re grinding over the obvious, aren’t they? If Brady is going to accept that long-term, then he’s going to need bonus money, he’s going to need a little [trade] protection, all that. Otherwise, he’s going to look at what brother Matthew has done in Calgary and he’s going to fight for that bridge [contract]. And what’s that bridge number going to look like? It’s going to be too much for Ottawa.

Notably, the Senators do not give out signing bonus money in any of their contracts. The only player who is set to receive any sort of bonus (outside of the small amounts attached to entry-level contracts) is Nikita Zaitsev, who signed his seven-year, $31.5MM deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs before being traded to Ottawa. Andrei Svechnikov, one of Tkachuk’s closest comparables, received just over $4MM in signing bonus money from the Carolina Hurricanes when he signed his eight-year, $62MM contract earlier this summer.

  • While the rest of the Senators’ young forwards prepare without Tkachuk in the mix, there have been more and more opportunities handed out. One player who has run with that chance? Shane Pinto, who is making a case to be the team’s second-line center according to Wayne Scanlan of Sportsnet. The 20-year-old forward was picked with the 32nd overall selection in 2019 and was impressive in his short 12-game stint with the Senators last season, registering one goal and seven points at the end of the year. He has been one of the team’s best players at training camp and is in the mix for a full-time role of some sort this year.
  • One of the players who could have been competing for a center role in the bottom-six appears to be out of the way, as head coach D.J. Smith told TSN radio today that the ankle injury Clark Bishop suffered last night could keep him out a “considerable amount of time.” Smith confirmed that Bishop’s ankle is not broken, but an injury at this point is terrible timing for the 25-year-old. Bishop signed a one-year, two-way deal in May to stay with the Senators and avoid Group VI unrestricted free agency, after playing in 13 games last season.

Los Angeles Kings Sign Martin Chromiak

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The Los Angeles Kings have inked another prospect, signing Martin Chromiak to a three-year entry-level contract. Chromiak was sent back to junior just yesterday but will get a nice going-away present of an NHL contract as he leaves Kings’ training camp. The deal will carry an average annual value of $833,333.

A fifth-round selection in 2020, Chromiak has had an interesting development path over the last few years. During his draft year, he joined the Kingston Frontenacs partway through their season, leaving his club team in Slovakia after registering just six points in 32 games. In the OHL he exploded with 33 points in 28 games, showing that he could dominate similarly-aged opponents. Last season, with the OHL not holding a season, he returned to Slovakia and showed off improved production, racking up 19 points in 32 games. He even played in a pair of AHL contests at the end of the season, though failed to register a point.

Now, with an NHL contract in hand, he’ll return to the junior ranks where he could end up having a monster year. He’s expected to line up beside expected 2022 first-overall pick Shane Wright and if he does, the pair–who were both selected to the OHL’s 2019-20 All-Rookie teams–should be among the most productive lines in the CHL. While that does not guarantee an NHL future, Chromiak is a player to watch even in the Kings’ crowded prospect system.

Columbus Blue Jackets Sign Jean-Francois Berube

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have added some more goaltending depth to the organization, signing Jean-Francois Berube to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal will carry an NHL salary of $750K, an AHL salary of $200K, and a minor league guarantee of $225K according to Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch. Berube had been in training camp with the Blue Jackets on a professional tryout.

Berube, 30, hasn’t seen the NHL since the 2017-18 season, but is a veteran minor league option that will serve as little more than injury insurance in Columbus. In fact, he could very well be nothing more than a practice option if the league goes to taxi squads for goaltenders this season at any point. With only two netminders other than Elvis Merzlikins and Joonas Korpisalo signed to NHL contracts though, the Blue Jackets needed to add at least one more to cover any call-up issues.

There was a time when Berube was one of the best goaltenders in the minor leagues, but even those days are passed now. He posted a .885 save percentage in 19 appearances with the Ontario Reign last season, the third consecutive year he was sub-.900. While he can give the team another option, don’t expect him to receive the majority of the starts so long as prospect Daniil Tarasov stays healthy.

21 Players Placed On Waivers

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Today is the first day of waivers for the upcoming season, meaning any player that needed to clear them in order to be sent to the AHL had to wait until now to be officially reassigned. That also means that the waiver wire will be quite active over the coming weeks as teams move through their final few rounds of cuts and try to sneak players down to their minor league affiliates. Today, 21 players have hit the wire, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet:

None of the players listed today are really surprises, as all of them were expected to be sent to the minor leagues before the season began. In terms of players who pose any risk of claim, Miska perhaps leads the way simply because of his success the last two seasons in the minor leagues. The 26-year-old goaltender had a .924 save percentage in 2019-20 with the Colorado Eagles and appeared in five games for the Avalanche last season.

Of note for those keeping track, waivers are now processed daily at 1 pm CT, two hours later than in previous seasons.

Prospect Notes: Draft Rankings, CHL Rankings, Oilers

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TSN’s Bob McKenzie has come out of his semi-retirement to provide one of the most interesting lists of the year, releasing his preseason rankings for the 2022 NHL Draft. McKenzie polls ten active NHL scouts and Shane Wright, the Kingston Frontenacs superstar center, was a unanimous choice as the top player heading into this season. Not only that, but the scribe suggests that Wright probably would have been the top-ranked player in the 2021 draft had he been eligible.

That’s incredibly impressive, given that Wright isn’t a late-September birthday that just missed the cutoff. He won’t turn 18 until January, but already has teams drooling over his potential as a true first-line center. Granted exceptional status for the OHL, he scored 39 goals and 66 points in his first season of CHL hockey in 2019-20, but missed last season when his league failed to hold a season. Still, Wright dominated at the U18 Worlds with nine goals and 14 points in five games, taking home the gold medal with Canada.

  • The presence of Wright in Kingston makes the Frontenacs a team to feat this season, but that still didn’t put them at the top of the CHL rankings released today. That spot went to the Edmonton Oil Kings, who look like a powerhouse in the WHL with top draft picks Dylan Guenther and Sebastian Cossa leading the way. Jake Neighbours, who is still in camp with the St. Louis Blues, will also likely be returning to Edmonton where he could very well contend for the league scoring title. Neighbours has been the talk of camp in St. Louis, with Blues head coach Craig Berube calling him a “dog on a bone” this week and Andy Strickland of Bally Sports Midwest suggesting that he could even join the NHL team at the end of the 2021-22 season.
  • The Edmonton Oilers sent cut several prominent prospects today, including Raphael Lavoie, who will have to wait for his chance at the NHL level. The 21-year-old forward had an outstanding first season of professional hockey in 2020-21, racking up 45 points in 51 games during a loan to Sweden and then returning with a strong performance for the Bakersfield Condors down the stretch. While there are several more experienced names in Oilers camp vying for the last few spots, it is somewhat surprising that he was already sent to the AHL with five more preseason games to go.

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