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Archives for May 2022

Anaheim Ducks Assign Olen Zellweger To AHL

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The Anaheim Ducks are giving one of the most underrated defense prospects in the league his first taste of professional hockey, assigning Olen Zellweger to the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. Zellweger’s Everett Silvertips were eliminated yesterday in the first round of the WHL playoffs, losing the series 4-2 to the eighth-seeded Vancouver Giants in what was one of the largest playoff upsets in WHL history.

Selected just last year in the 2021 NHL Draft (34th overall), Zellweger, despite having 13 points in 11 games with Everett and eight points in seven games with Canada at the U18 World Junior Championships, was never regarded as a top defenseman in the class due to his 5’10”, 174 lb frame. He quickly started to prove scouts wrong this season, putting his first-round talent on display with 78 points in 55 games with Everett, shattering the franchise record for points in a season by a defenseman.

Zellweger still has another year of WHL eligibility and will return there next season in all likelihood, but with his team eliminated and under NHL contract, the Ducks are free to re-assign him to San Diego where he’ll likely get into some playoff games for the Gulls.

Zellweger has the highest ceiling of any Ducks defense prospect not named Jamie Drysdale, and this will be a great indication for the Ducks organization as to whether he can transfer his dominant skating and offensive game to the pro level.

 

Kyle Clifford Suspended One Game

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The Department of Player Safety has assessed Toronto Maple Leafs forward Kyle Clifford a one-game suspension for boarding Tampa Bay Lightning forward Ross Colton in the first period of last night’s Game 1 of the First Round series between the two teams.

After Colton made a play for the puck along the boards early in the first period, he cleared the puck down the ice. Clifford, seconds after Colton lost possession of the puck, forcefully skated into him from behind, making contact with Colton’s back with his elbow. Colton’s head hit the boards and he fell to the ice, although he remained in the game. Clifford was assessed a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct on the play.

In rationalizing the suspension, the Department of Player Safety said the following:

It’s important to note that this is not a case where a sudden or unexpected movement by Colton prior to contact changes a legal check into an illegal one. From the moment Colton appraoches the puck battle until the hit is delivered, Clifford sees nothing but his numbers. While we have heard an argument that Clifford does make some attempt to deliver this contact legally, this remains a forceful hit to a defenseless player who is no longer in possession of the puck. What causes this play to rise to the level of supplemental discipline is the angle from which Clifford approaches this hit, which makes Colton particularly defenseless, combined with his force. If Clifford wants to avoid supplemental discipline on this play, he must further adjust his force to deliver legal body contact, avoid the check entirely, or at the very least minimize the force of the hit. Instead, he finishes with force, driving Colton into the glass dangerously.

Clifford has never been suspended over his 751-game NHL career but has been fined three times.

Robin Lehner To Undergo Season-Ending Shoulder Surgery

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May 3: Vegas Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon announced today that Lehner will undergo shoulder surgery tomorrow. There’s no established timeline for his return.

April 25: The original reports from Emily Kaplan of ESPN and Jesse Granger of The Athletic have proven true, finally. The Vegas Golden Knights today announced that Robin Lehner will indeed undergo season-ending shoulder surgery. The team released the following statement:

Robin has done his best to battle through this injury he sustained February 9, and we were hopeful that rest and rehab would allow him to complete the season.

He initially rehabbed and was able to return to play March 1. At times rest and rehab were effective, but ultimately Robin, in consultation with team medical staff, determined that this is the best course of action.

Kaplan tweets that Lehner told the Golden Knights last Thursday that he was going to get surgery, and that the team doctor agreed to that course of action on the weekend. The team had him serve as backup on Sunday because of, according to Kaplan’s sources, cap implications.

Vegas has recalled Jiri Patera from the Henderson Silver Knights.

Lehner, 30, had a 19-12-1 record and posted a .910 save percentage in the 33 games before February 9, when the team states he suffered the injury. In the 11 games since (including that game against the Calgary Flames), he went 4-5-1 with an .898. During that time he suffered another injury, this time believed to be a lower-body issue, which kept him out for an additional few weeks.

It’s been a nightmare season, and one that may end up not resulting in the Golden Knights going to the playoffs at all. The team could still technically qualify, though it will be difficult as the Dallas Stars remain three points ahead of them. Tomorrow night when the two teams go head to head could very well eliminate Vegas for the first time since their inception, and cause a ripple of negative effects on the organization.

Most notable is the first-round draft pick that the team gave up to acquire Jack Eichel earlier in the year. While it is top-10 protected for this year, if it were to transfer to 2023 it does not have any protection. Missing the playoffs again next season still doesn’t seem likely for a team with so much firepower, but as the front office continues to make huge salary cap commitments, there is some uncertainty over how long the Golden Knights can stay competitive.

For Lehner specifically, major surgery will certainly complicate his own future. The 30-year-old goaltender is signed through the 2024-25 season and carries a $5MM cap hit, but the Golden Knights have proven that they hold no loyalty to a player if he isn’t providing them with what they believe is the best on-ice performance. With a no-trade clause that can only block deals to eight teams, there isn’t a lot Lehner could do if the team was looking at another switch in goal.

On the season, he’ll finish with a .907 save percentage through 44 appearances, his lowest mark since the 2014-15 season when he was still with the Ottawa Senators. The two-time Jennings Trophy winner will also likely face a long rehab, though no timeline on his recovery has been released at this point.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Alexandre Texier To Play In World Championship

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After missing the last chunk of the season, Alexandre Texier is set to return to competition. The Columbus Blue Jackets announced that Texier will compete for France at the upcoming IIHF World Championship, set to start later this month in Finland. Blue Jackets’ general manager Jarmo Kekalainen released the following statement:

Alexandre Texier reached out to let us know that he was ready to get back on the ice and asked our permission to participate in the World Championships. We were very happy to hear that he is doing well physically and mentally and ready to take this next step in his journey. We are excited that he will be representing France at the World Championships and look forward to his return to the Blue Jackets next season.

Texier, 22, last played on January 26 before missing the rest of the season due to a set of unfortunate circumstances. He broke a finger which took him out of the lineup for more than a month before the team announced in March that he was taking a leave of absence. Stating that Texier had “experienced personal losses of people very close to him,” the Blue Jackets granted the leave to return to Europe and be with his family.

Hopefully, a return to the ice at the Worlds means that Texier will also be ready for training camp later this year and can resume his blossoming NHL career. This was the first season of a two-year contract he signed last summer, which carries a cap hit of $1.525MM. In 36 games before he was injured, Texier managed to tally 11 goals and 20 points, flashing that dazzling speed and skill combination that made him such an appealing prospect.

Of course, there was also some rumbling this season about his availability in trade, though that disappeared quickly when he took his leave. It doesn’t make a ton of sense for the Blue Jackets to move a promising young forward, though they certainly do have the replacements in the pipeline. With names like Cole Sillinger, Yegor Chinakhov, and Kent Johnson all in the fold now, there’s lots of young talent up front in Columbus looking to make an impact.

France will kick off their tournament on May 13 against Slovakia.

Yaroslav Askarov Signs AHL Tryout

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The first sight of Yaroslav Askarov playing North American hockey appears to be right on the horizon, as the top prospect has signed a tryout contract with the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL. Askarov is arguably the top goaltending prospect in the world and recently completed his contract in the KHL.

Selected 11th overall in 2020 by the Nashville Predators, the 19-year-old netminder has a mixture of size and incredible athleticism that has routinely received comparisons to other Russian goaltenders like Sergei Bobrovsky and Andrei Vasilevskiy. If he comes even near the height that those two have reached at the NHL level, he’ll have been more than worth his selection near the top of the draft.

The fact that he has signed a contract with Milwaukee is great news for Predators fans, who hope to have Askarov in the organization as soon as possible. He will be eligible to play in the AHL playoffs which start on Friday for the Admirals, though that wouldn’t be the case if he signed his entry-level contract for the rest of 2021-22. He would then be ineligible to be sent to the minors, meaning an ELC starting in 2022-23 will likely follow at some point.

While there is still work to be done on his game–he appeared in just six KHL games this season and has struggled at times in other situations–Askarov’s ceiling is still sky-high, and getting him to North America is a huge step. It seems very likely that he will spend next season in the AHL, starting as many games as possible as Nashville gets to start directly controlling his development.

Those starts could come quickly, as usual Milwaukee netminder Connor Ingram is currently with the Nashville Predators filling in for Juuse Saros in their own playoff series.

Ryan Johnson Leaning Toward College For 2022-23

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The Buffalo Sabres signed Owen Power after his sophomore season with the Michigan Wolverines and put him directly into the lineup. It appears as though they will have to wait another year for another top college defenseman. In his end-of-year availability today, general manager Kevyn Adams told reporters including John Vogl of The Athletic that Ryan Johnson is leaning toward a return to the University of Minnesota for his senior season.

While there was never any chance of the Sabres losing the rights to Power, a senior season for Johnson would certainly complicate his situation. Selected 31st overall in 2019, the 20-year-old defenseman can become an unrestricted free agent in August 2023, just a few months after his college season would come to an end. That at best puts the Sabres in a difficult negotiating position, and could potentially lead to them considering a trade of his rights at some point.

Technically, because he is a first-round pick, the Sabres would receive a compensatory selection in the second round (in the same draft position, meaning 63rd, now that there are 32 teams) if he decided not to sign and became an unrestricted free agent. While just leaning toward a return to college in no way guarantees that, you can see why the player may hesitate at joining the Sabres current depth chart.

With Power, Rasmus Dahlin, Henri Jokiharju, and Mattias Samuelsson (not to mention three first-round picks this year) looking like a locked-in top-four for years to come, there may not be a ton of playing time for some of the other young defensemen in the organization. Adams said during his availability that they will look around for a veteran this offseason to support the group, again taking some NHL playing time away from a potential prospect like Johnson.

Still, there is time to be used even if he does go back. Johnson will have a chance to compete for a national championship once again and improve on the 19 points he scored this season before making the jump to professional hockey.

Carolina Hurricanes Sign Alexander Pashin To Entry-Level Contract

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May 3: The team has officially announced the contract, confirming the terms. General manager Don Waddell released a short statement on his newest prospect:

Alex is a high-end, skilled player and a proven point producer. We feel he’s ready to make the transition to North America and look forward to watching his continued growth next season.

May 2: On the same day their 2022 playoffs began, the Carolina Hurricanes also signed one of their prospects, Alexander Pashin, to a three-year, entry-level contract, according to CapFriendly (link). The contract is set to begin with the 2022-23 season, and carries an average annual value of $827K. Pashin was the Hurricanes’ seventh-round selection, 199th overall, in 2020.

The 19-year-old forward brings with him a balanced scoring approach but is rather undersized, listed at just 5’8″ and 154 pounds. Pashin has played his career to date in Russia, but has only played four career KHL games, one in 2019-20 and three in 2020-21, and none this season.

Despite limited time in the top league, Pashin has plenty of experience in the MHL and VHL in Russia, all in the Ufa organization, putting up 17 goals and 22 assists in 37 MHL games in 2019-20 along with 19 goals and 26 assists in 41 games in the MHL in 2020-21. Moving to the VHL in 2021-22, Pashin again impressed with 17 goals and 13 assists in 34 games. Pashin was part of this year’s World Juniors team for Russia, but played in just one game before the tournament was canceled due to COVID-19. What the next steps are for Pashin as he comes over to North America are unclear, however without much experience in the highest levels, one would expect him to be slated for additional development before he makes an appearance in the NHL.

Anaheim Ducks Hire Rob DiMaio

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The Anaheim Ducks have stolen away an important part of a Western Conference front office, hiring Rob DiMaio as their new assistant general manager. DiMaio will also serve as the general manager of the San Diego Gulls, after spending the last 13 seasons with the St. Louis Blues organization, most recently as director of player personnel.

General manager Pat Verbeek released a statement on his new assistant:

Rob brings a wealth of experience and expertise to our front office. He’s helped build a Stanley Cup-winning club and he will play an integral role for us in all areas of hockey operations moving forward.

Many fans will remember DiMaio from his playing days, which included nearly 900 regular season games. The physical bottom-six winger suited up for the New York Islanders, Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning, Philadelphia Flyers, Dallas Stars, New York Rangers, and Carolina Hurricanes over a 17-year career, racking up 277 points and 840 penalty minutes.

After retirement, he joined Dallas in a scouting role, before accepting a role with the Blues in 2008. Named director of pro scouting in 2012, he was a big part of the success of the Blues in the last decade and will now continue his rise up the management chart with a new opportunity in Anaheim. Considered by many a future NHL general manager, his control of the Gulls will be the perfect stepping stone.

AHL Shuffle: 05/03/22

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The Stanley Cup Playoffs are off to a roaring start, with shutouts, fights, giveaways, and upsets. Things will continue this evening with four more matches, including the Florida Panthers and Washington Capitals, who are getting important players back. While Aaron Ekblad’s return was a bit more unexpected, Alex Ovechkin will also be back in the lineup this evening for the Capitals as they try to topple the best of the East. As teams prepare, there is still some shuffling going on between the NHL and AHL. Like always, we’ll cover it here.

Atlantic Division

Metropolitan Division

Central Division

Pacific Division

  • The Calgary Flames have recalled Adam Werner from the AHL, who will likely serve as their emergency third goaltender. Dustin Wolf, who is likely third on the organizational depth chart, will stay and lead the Stockton Heat in the playoffs. Werner, 25, posted an .886 save percentage in 21 appearances this season and has just two games of NHL experience.

This page is updated throughout the day

Samuel Morin’s Playing Career Ends

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Almost nine years after he was selected 11th overall by the Philadelphia Flyers, Samuel Morin’s playing career has come to an end. General manager Chuck Fletcher confirmed today that Morin will not be able to return from his latest injury, the end of a long string of unfortunate issues that have kept him off the ice.

Morin, 26, ended up playing in just 29 NHL games, recording a single goal. The 6’6″ defenseman (who tried his hand at forward late in his career) suffered multiple major knee injuries that required surgery, including a procedure to remove loose bodies in September. He did not play a single game at any level this season and will be forced to retire as a true “what if” story.

While he never possessed elite offensive upside, the mean, physical nature of Morin’s game had a place in the NHL. He was a strong contributor for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in his first two seasons of professional hockey, earning a single game with the Flyers in 2016-17. Things went steadily downhill from there, however, as his knees were ravaged and his skating severely impacted. He tried to reinvent himself as a Matt Martin-like forward, essentially an enforcer who can add some defensive presence to a line, but was limited to 20 games in 2020-21, his last season.

He was set to become a Group VI unrestricted free agent this summer, and will now have to look for another avenue of employment. Fletcher did suggest that they could find a place for him somewhere in the organization, though it is unclear where exactly that would be.

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