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Archives for June 2023

Snapshots: Michkov, Coyotes, Canucks

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Earlier today, we relayed a report from TSN’s Bob McKenzie that prized but risky Russian 2023 NHL Draft prospect Matvei Michkov has multiple interviews scheduled with NHL teams after arriving in Nashville for next week’s big day. In terms of which teams are expected to meet with him, mark the Washington Capitals down as an absolute.

Per The Hockey News’ Sammi Silber, relaying a report from Russian outlet Match.TV, the Capitals are quite high on potentially the best Russian prospect since Alex Ovechkin and are aiming to select him eighth overall – if he falls there. Michkov’s exceptional skill and potential obviously make him an attractive candidate for any team, but it’s still unclear how teams will weigh the political factors at play that could impede his ability to come to play in the NHL. As part of Silber’s report, it’s noted that Michkov was instructed not to meet with NHL representatives while still in Russia, explaining last week’s reported dodging of interviews on his part.

The Capitals seem willing to take the risk, considering their history of success in getting KHL talents to terminate their deals and sign with Washington.

Also in the NHL landscape today:

  • The oft-reported Fiesta Mall site in Mesa, Arizona, is not a leading candidate for the next home of the Arizona Coyotes, PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan says. The team is still exploring various sites for a new arena, with potential other locations in Mesa, Phoenix, Scottsdale, and on Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community land. They’re again aiming to choose a site that caters to their season-ticket holder base, which is predominantly located on the east side of the city, but as Morgan says, are doing everything in their power to avoid another public vote determining the team’s future in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
  • After using a massive buyout on defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, the Canucks are still undecided on how they want to use their newfound cap space, says Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Speaking on CHEK TV’s Donnie and Dhali show, Friedman reports the Canucks were simply seeking flexibility with the buyout and are looking to upgrade every skater position. The team has at least $6.4MM of space to work with this offseason, per CapFriendly, which could end up being as high as the $15MM neighborhood depending on the injury and contract statuses of forward Tanner Pearson and defensemen Ethan Bear and Tucker Poolman.

Boston Bruins Extend Brandon Bussi

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The Boston Bruins have announced that they have re-signed netminder Brandon Bussi to a one-year, two-way contract extension. Per the announcement, the deal has a cap hit of $775,000.

According to CapFriendly, the contract has an AHL salary of $100,000 and contains total guarantees of $140,000.

Bussi is a fast-rising young goalie who was recently named to the AHL’s All-Rookie team after an exceptional first season as the leader of a three-person goalie group with the Providence Bruins.

Now 24, Bussi was originally a signing by the Bruins last March. He inked a one-year entry-level deal at an $825k cap hit, plucked from the college ranks after a strong final season at Western Michigan University.

He started all of Western Michigan’s games in 2021-22 and went 26-12-1 with a .912 save percentage. After leaving college he got an early taste of pro action with AHL Providence near the end of 2021-22 on an ATO, and went 3-2 with a .920 save percentage in five games. He actually began this year at the ECHL level as the Bruins already had Kyle Keyser and veteran Keith Kinkaid entrenched as Providence’s goalie tandem.

But Bussi quickly proved himself to be overqualified for the ECHL, immediately stopping 75 out of 80 shots in his first two starts. He earned a call-up in November and didn’t look back. He went 22-5-4 in the AHL with a .924 save percentage and 2.40 goals-against-average.

While NHL opportunities might be difficult to come by in Boston as the Bruins already have Vezina Trophy frontrunner Linus Ullmark and the talented Jeremy Swayman in their crease. But another brilliant AHL campaign could see Bussi be a player of interest for other clubs and a potential trade asset for the Bruins, or could even force the team to choose between Ullmark and Swayman in order to provide Bussi with the chance to become a part of an NHL tandem.

In any case, he now has his contract for next season and will likely pair with Keyser as Providence’s goalie tandem for next season.

Travis Green Reportedly Joining New Jersey Devils Coaching Staff

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Former Vancouver Canucks head coach Travis Green is reportedly set to join the New Jersey Devils coaching staff under head coach Lindy Ruff, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. He’ll fill the role vacated by Andrew Brunette, who was hired by Barry Trotz and the Nashville Predators to be their next head coach.

Per Friedman, Green chose New Jersey over a few other options, such as joining the coaching staff of either the Calgary Flames or Toronto Maple Leafs. With the Devils, Green will get the opportunity to coach a team bursting at the seams with young talent and high-end players.

The Devils took a major step forward this past season, defeating their arch-rival New York Rangers in the first round of the playoffs and cementing themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the Metropolitan Division.

Their future looks bright, and it’s a future Green will now get to be a part of. Joining Ruff’s bench seems a wise choice for a coach likely looking to earn another chance to be an NHL bench boss.

The Devils look like a team that could soon contend for a Stanley Cup, and with one assistant already plucked from Ruff’s staff to be a head coach elsewhere it would be no surprise to see a future where teams come calling with interest in hiring Green.

In Brunette’s vacated role Green will be responsible for running the Devils power play. The Devils ranked 13th in the NHL with a 21.9% power play percentage, and Green will hope to improve that number next season.

There’s surely an opportunity for growth on a power play unit that boasts one of the league’s best offensive defensemen, Dougie Hamilton, alongside star forwards such as Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt. Green also has to be excited at the prospect of having Timo Meier, who the Devils acquired from the San Jose Sharks in a mid-season trade.

Vancouver’s power play ranked fourth in the NHL in 2019-20 under Green, and also managed a top-10 finish in 2017-18. But in both 2018-19 and 2020-21, Vancouver’s man advantage was outside the NHL’s top 20 and as head coach of the Utica Comets Green’s power play was never among the AHL’s best.

The most significant determinant of a power play unit’s success is personnel, of course, but Devils fans must nonetheless be excited by some of the high power play rankings on Green’s resume.

Green, 52, played nearly 1,000 games in his NHL playing career and was a head coach in Vancouver for nearly five seasons. While he dealt with some significant challenges and his tenure ultimately ended in disappointment, he did have his moments behind the bench for the Canucks.

He led them on a surprising playoff run in the Edmonton bubble in 2019-20, with his team nearly knocking off the Vegas Golden Knights to reach the Western Conference Final.

Now he’ll get his second chance to coach in the NHL, and it’s with an entirely new team.

He does have one notable connection to the Devils organization: their current AHL affiliate is the Comets, the team Green coached for four seasons and led to the Calder Cup Final in 2015 back when it was the affiliate of the Canucks. Now, the former Utica bench boss will get to coach a host of former Comets players in New Jersey.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Draft Notes: Canucks Draft Strategy, Canadiens, Sharks

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As we get closer and closer to the 2023 NHL draft, more teams are putting the finishing touches on their draft lists and preparing the strategies they’ll take into next week’s hugely important event. One of the teams with a lot on the line is the Vancouver Canucks, who pick eleventh and are looking to add to their pipeline of young talent. The Athletic’s Thomas Drance wrote today that he’s “heard throughout the draft preparation process that positional need” will “loom large in Vancouver’s consideration” as they finalize their final draft list. (subscription link) The positions of need, according to Drance, are at center and at right-handed defenseman.

Drance also named several prospects he has “been hearing that the organization is high on” entering the draft, and are under consideration for the team’s top pick at #11 overall. Those players are WHL center Nate Danielson, Slovakian pivot Dalibor Dvorsky, Swedish right-shot blueliner Tom Willander, and OHL winger Colby Barlow. Three of those four prospects are centers or right-shot defensemen, so it does seem quite likely that the Canucks will end up spending their top pick on a player of either of those positions, though there is obviously room for a surprise selection just like at any NHL draft.

Some other notes about the draft from across the NHL:

  • One of the top picks under a more significant media microscope leading into the draft is the Montreal Canadiens’ top pick at #5 overall. That’s because this draft is considered to have a clear top tier of four center prospects, meaning if each of the four teams ahead of Montreal chooses to select one of those pivots, the draft could truly open up at the fifth pick. Speaking on the 32 Thoughts podcast, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said “there’s a lot of teams that think if [the Canadiens] don’t get [USNTDP Center Will Smith] they’re taking Reinbacher,” meaning Austrian right-shot blueliner and projected top defensive prospect David Reinbacher. We previously covered reports that the Canadiens were “seriously considering” Reinbacher alongside Smith’s teammate Ryan Leonard, and now a key insider has added to those rumors of Montreal’s interest in Reinbacher.
  • Also on the 32 Thoughts podcast, Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek spoke on the San Jose Sharks (owners of the fourth overall pick) stating “they want defensemen and they want goaltenders.” Marek wondered about the team’s interest level in Reinbacher, and whether that would lead to them trading down at the draft once again after doing so at last year’s event. It has already been reported that the Canadiens are “aggressively” looking to move up in the draft, so perhaps based on this report a potential one-spot pick swap that would secure the Sharks Reinbacher and the Canadiens Smith could be in play. It must be noted, though, that it is incredibly rare for top-five picks to change hands, so the more likely scenario is always that each team simply picks from the pool of players left available to them.

Connor Bedard Wins IIHF Male Player Of The Year

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There’s a little over a week left in his amateur career, but Connor Bedard is still taking home awards. The 17-year-old forward is the inaugural recipient of the IIHF Male Player of the Year award.

Bedard has three IIHF gold medals (U18, U20, U20) and, as the release states, had “perhaps the greatest single World Junior Championship tournament” in history, with 23 points—nine more than his closest competitor.

The soon-to-be Chicago Blackhawks forward secured 31.8% of the votes for the award, with Latvian goaltender Arturs Silovs coming in second place at 19.6%. Silovs led Latvia on a historic bronze-medal run at the recent World Championships, posting a .921 save percentage in ten games.

It’s hard to have a more impressive draft year than Bedard. He won or was named:

  • CHL First All-Star Team
  • CHL Player of the Year
  • CHL Top Draft Prospect
  • CHL Top Scorer
  • U20 All-Star Team
  • U20 Best Forward
  • U20 Most Points
  • U20 Most Valuable Player
  • WHL First All-Star Team
  • WHL Most Points
  • WHL Player of the Year

The hype machine continues to be fueled by this latest award, and sets a precedent for future IIHF participants.

Multiple Interviews Scheduled With Matvei Michkov

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There is no mystery around who will go first in this year’s NHL Draft, as Connor Bedard can count the minutes until he’s a member of the Chicago Blackhawks. But the future of another top prospect is much less clear.

Matvei Michkov, who has been expected to go near the top of the 2023 draft for years, now faces an uncertain fate thanks to his KHL contract (which reportedly extends through 2025-26), the Russian political climate, and a scouting process that has so far limited viewings and meetings for NHL clubs.

That shroud seems to be lifting, at least somewhat. Bob McKenzie of TSN reports that several teams have scheduled meetings with Michkov ahead of next week’s draft, and are eager to get to know the young forward. McKenzie points out, “no elite NHL draft prospect has had fewer live viewings/interactions with NHL GMs/executives/head scouts in his draft year than Michkov.”

A brilliant offensive player that has been compared to nearly every high-level Russian forward throughout his development, Michkov showed off his upside after a midseason transfer to HK Sochi in 2022-23. After failing to receive much playing time with his contracted club, SKA St. Petersburg, an agreement was made to let the 18-year-old play for Sochi, where he scored 20 points in 27 games.

Where Michkov lands will be one of the more exciting news items to come out of this year’s draft, especially if he falls further than expected.

Five Key Stories: 6/12/23 – 6/18/23

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The curtain has closed on the 2022-23 season with Vegas taking home its first Stanley Cup, beating Florida in five games.  (The Panthers, as it turns out, had several key injuries to contend with, some of which will carry over into next season.)  Away from the rink, there was plenty of notable news, recapped in our key stories.

Coaching Hires: The final two vacancies behind the bench have been filled.  After going internal for their GM hire, Calgary did the same for the head coaching position, promoting assistant Ryan Huska to the top job, replacing Darryl Sutter.  Huska is no stranger to the organization having been an assistant with them for five years after serving as their AHL head coach for the four previous years.  This will be his first head coaching position in the NHL.  The same can’t be said for the new coach of the Rangers with them hiring veteran Peter Laviolette as their new bench boss, taking over from Gerard Gallant.  The 58-year-old spent the last three seasons with Washington before parting ways back in April.  This will be his 22nd season behind the bench and he will crack the top ten for games coached in NHL history sometime in November.

Max-Term Deal For Bratt: After inking a pair of short-term deals after his entry-level contract expired, the Devils and winger Jesper Bratt put pen to paper on an eight-year, $63MM contract.  The 24-year-old followed up his breakout 73-point campaign in 2021-22 with another 73-point effort this past season including a career-best 32 goals, solidifying himself as a key cog on New Jersey’s top line in the process.  With one key RFA locked up, GM Tom Fitzgerald can turn his focus to his other one, winger Timo Meier.  The team chose to file for club-elected salary arbitration, giving them a chance to submit an offer that’s $1.5MM below what would have been his $10MM qualifier.  That will give both sides about six weeks to try to work out a long-term agreement before the hearings end in early August.

First Buyout Done: The buyout window opened up on Friday and Vancouver wasted little time making the first move, buying out the final four seasons of Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s contract.  The move frees up more than $7MM in cap room for the Canucks this season but does put more than $20MM in dead cap on their books over the next eight years.  That’s hardly the outcome then-GM Jim Benning was hoping for when he acquired the 31-year-old at the draft two years ago, moving the ninth-overall pick as part of the package.  Meanwhile, as Arizona retained salary in the trade, they too have a dead cap charge over the next eight years totaling $2.8MM.  Notably, one of their three retained salary slots will be encumbered for that entire stretch, running through the 2030-31 campaign.  Ekman-Larsson becomes an unrestricted free agent but will not be able to sign with his new team until July 1st.

Senators Sold: After a very long and drawn-out process, the Senators will have a new owner as it was announced that Michael Andlauer was the successful bidder for the team with an offer of $950MM.  The purchase is subject to the approval of the Board of Governors but that shouldn’t be an issue, especially with Andlauer being familiar to them as an alternate governor with Montreal.  Andlauer will need to sell his minority stake in the Canadiens before the sale can be finalized.  He won’t officially take over the franchise until these things occur so it’s unlikely he’ll be able to have any sort of impact regarding off-ice (or on-ice) personnel for a little while yet.

Speaking of on-ice personnel, the Senators also filed for club-elected arbitration on pending RFA Alex DeBrincat, allowing them to offer as low as 85% of his $9MM qualifying offer.  However, unlike Meier, there’s a belief that DeBrincat would like to be moved and this filing won’t prevent that process from playing out.

Leaving Calgary? Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin is entering the final year of a six-year, $29.7MM contract that has been quite a bargain for Calgary.  However, it appears that he’ll be following in the footsteps of former teammate Matthew Tkachuk as he has reportedly told the team that he does not want to sign a new deal with them.  As a result, it’s expected that he’ll be traded.  The 26-year-old has found his offensive touch the last two years, picking up 86 points in 182 games while logging nearly 22 minutes a night.  He’ll be 27 when his new contract begins which means, wherever he goes, he’ll be in line for a max-term extension that’s worth at least a couple million more than his current $4.95MM AAV.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Snapshots: Panthers, Nichushkin, Canucks

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While teams will be busy on July 1st trying to add free agents, some will also be trying to lock up their own players to early extensions.  In the latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link), Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggests that the Panthers will be one trying to do the latter when it comes to defensemen Brandon Montour and Gustav Forsling, believing they’ll take a run at trying to lock both of them up early.  Montour had a breakout campaign this past season, picking up 73 points in 80 games.  His previous career-best in points came in 2021-22 when he had 37.  As for Forsling, he also set new benchmarks offensively across the board, picking up 41 points in 82 games while logging over 23 minutes a night.  The two players will make just under $6.2MM combined next season; it might cost more than twice that much to keep them around after that.

Elsewhere around the NHL:

  • Colorado winger Valeri Nichushkin will return to the team next season, a team spokesman confirmed to Kyle Frederickson of The Denver Gazette. The 28-year-old left the Avalanche during their first-round series against Colorado for what the team called personal reasons following an incident where a severely intoxicated woman was found in his hotel room.  He did not return during the rest of the series.  Nichushkin is not under police investigation for the incident.  After the season, GM Chris MacFarland indicated that he hoped that Nichushkin would be “a very important part of our team in the future” and with seven years remaining on his contract, they’ll be expecting him to be a core piece moving forward after picking up 99 points in 115 games over the last two seasons.
  • Following their buyout of Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Thomas Drance of The Athletic suggests (subscription link) that the move could impact Vancouver’s upcoming first-round pick. In order for the Canucks to get through the tough years of the buyout (2025-26 and 2026-27), they’re going to need some value contracts on the books.  Vancouver has the 11th-overall pick in the draft later this month and if they’re able to get someone that projects to be NHL-ready within two seasons, that would help ease the burden of the higher buyout cost.  It also might make them disinclined to consider trading down or out for win-now help that won’t be around (or as affordable) two years from now.

Offseason Checklist: Toronto Maple Leafs

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The offseason is now fully underway after Vegas took home the Stanley Cup which means that it’s time to examine what each team will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at Toronto.

It was another successful regular season for the Maple Leafs who finished in the bottom five in goals allowed while locking down the second seed in a tough Atlantic Division.  They even exorcised their first-round playoff demon, knocking out Tampa Bay.  However, that momentum was sapped quickly as Florida quickly dispatched them in the second round.  Now, after a peculiar sequence of events that resulted in Brad Treliving taking over as GM, he’s now tasked with deciding whether to make a significant core shakeup or to keep tinkering with the secondary group.  Early suggestions are that it could be the latter so their checklist is structured accordingly.

Coaching Hires

At this point, it seems like Sheldon Keefe is going to remain behind the bench following a recent report that he and Treliving are actively working on finding a replacement for assistant coach Spencer Carbery who left to take over behind the bench in Washington.  Keefe wouldn’t be involved in those talks if he wasn’t sticking around.  Based on that assumption, the only decision that Treliving needs to make around Keefe is whether he’s going to extend him now or have him enter next season on the final year of his contract.

Could that uncertainty help determine which way they go for Carbery’s replacement?  They’ll be hiring for the top assistant role so will they look to another up-and-comer like Carbery was or a more experienced option that could step in if Treliving decides to make an in-season change?  Either way, whoever they hire will need to have some power play pedigree with Carbery playing an important part in Toronto’s success with the man advantage over the last couple of seasons.

Additionally, Toronto needs to hire a new AHL staff after it was decided following their exit against Rochester in mid-May that head coach Greg Moore plus assistants A.J. MacLean and John Snowden.  This isn’t something that necessarily has to be completed before July 1st but this is an organization that typically is active in minor league free agency.  Having at least a head coach in place by then would help to avoid any uncertainty, especially with how quickly players sign within the first 24-48 hours after the market opens up.

Extension Talks

The Maple Leafs have two members of their ‘Core Four’ that are eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2024.  Accordingly, they’re eligible to sign contract extensions as of July 1st.  Considering both Auston Matthews and William Nylander are set to land sizable raises, getting these done sooner than later would go a long way toward helping Treliving’s roster planning.

Matthews is coming off a quiet year by his standards but he still averaged well over a point per game while picking up 40 goals.  Still not too shabby overall.  Before that, the 25-year-old led the league in goals for two straight seasons, picking up the Hart Trophy for his efforts.  He’s above average at the faceoff dot.  He receives Selke votes annually as the best defensive forward.  Basically, Matthews is a true number one center.  There aren’t many at his level around the league and they get paid.  At this point, the expectation is that he will set the new benchmark as the highest-paid player in the league, surpassing Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon ($12.6MM).  The questions are how much will he pass MacKinnon by and for how long?

Matthews didn’t sign a max-term agreement coming off his entry-level contract and it’s reasonable to think he could try a similar approach here, working out a medium-term agreement that might keep the AAV slightly lower while setting him up for what would likely be another raise down the road where he could once again try to set the new AAV record.

While some have suggested that July 1st represents a key deadline in discussions, that isn’t really the case.  At that point, Matthews picks up a full no-move clause and becomes harder to trade.  But if preliminary talks between his camp and Treliving have gone well and it seems like a matter of when and not if he signs an extension, Matthews having the NMC doesn’t really move the needle much.  It might not get done the first day possible but this should get done this summer.

As for Nylander, the 27-year-old followed up a career-best 80 points in 2021-22 with an even better showing this past season, tallying 40 goals for the first time along with 47 assists, also a new personal best.  He’s in the top 15 for points by a winger over the last three seasons, cementing himself as a true top-line winger in the process.  Others in that top 15 that have signed recently are Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov ($9MM), Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk ($9.5MM), and Columbus’ Johnny Gaudreau ($9.75MM).  It’s safe to suggest that Nylander’s next contract should fall somewhere within that range, especially with the expectation that the cap will rise more next summer.

Can Toronto afford extensions for both players?  That will be hard to do but it would also be very tough to part ways with one of those core pieces and maximize their value in return.  With that in mind, it might be a situation where the Maple Leafs extend both and then try to figure out how to fit them in on the books for 2024-25 and beyond later on.

Add An Impact Defenseman

Despite the fact that Toronto was one of the stingier teams in the league in goals allowed, there’s a well-defined hole on the back end to try to fill.  At the moment, the Maple Leafs have six blueliners under contract already for next season which isn’t bad.  However, three of them have question marks.

Mark Giordano was solid for most of the season but started to wear down toward the end and into the playoffs.  He’ll be 40 on opening night and is likely best utilized on the third pairing next season.  Timothy Liljegren hasn’t spent a lot of time in the top four, nor has Conor Timmins who has all of 66 games under his belt, most of which came with limited ice time.  It’s believed they’d like to bring Luke Schenn back but even he’s more of a role piece, not an impact one.

Morgan Rielly, T.J. Brodie, and Jake McCabe are a decent core group in their top four but there is a definite need to add someone that can play 20 minutes a game and kill penalties.  Basically, fill the role that Jake Muzzin was supposed to but with there being questions about his playing future, they can’t rely on hoping that he’s able to come back in prime form (if he’s able to come back at all).  In a perfect world, that player would be a right-shot blueliner but those are always in short supply and high demand.  Either way, a stable second-pairing defender would go a long way toward helping keep this team battling for the top of the division.

Goaltending Decisions

Last summer, former GM Kyle Dubas opted to make a pair of moves to overhaul Toronto’s goaltending.  One worked well, the other not so much.  Treliving now faces decisions on what to do with both of those netminders.

First, the good.  Ilya Samsonov was somewhat surprisingly non-tendered by Washington as they chose to go a different direction with Darcy Kuemper coming over in free agency.  Samsonov wound up on a one-year, $1.8MM deal and became one of the better bargains in goal around the league.  His market value now with a strong season under his belt starts to creep up into the $4.5MM to $5MM range.  Giving him that price tag on a multi-year deal would shore up the goaltending position for a few seasons but it would also cut into Treliving’s spending options for this summer.

Then there’s Matt Murray.  He had some good moments and some bad ones but most of all, he had plenty of times when he was injured.  By the time he was cleared to return for the playoffs, he was relegated to third-string duty behind Joseph Woll.  He has one year left on his contract with Toronto’s portion being $4.6785MM.  Having him and Samsonov (likely at a similar price tag) on the books is an option they probably can’t afford, especially with a now waiver-eligible Woll waiting in the wings on a contract that’s below the league minimum for the next two years.

Murray’s contract is one that won’t be easy to offload; it would require an incentive and the Maple Leafs don’t exactly have a surplus of draft picks and prospects at their disposal to help make that happen.  Alternatively, they can choose to buy out the final year of Murray’s deal.  Doing that would save $4MM on the books for next season.  However, it would also add $2MM in dead cap space for 2024-25 at a time when they’ll need every penny to afford the new deals for Matthews and Nylander.  The other option would be to bury him in the minors, a move that would save $1.15MM in space for next season with no cap charges for 2024-25.

With Samsonov, the choice is fairly simple – how long of a contract do they want to do?  For Murray, it’s a much different case, deciding which of three bad options is the least painful route to take.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Latest On The New Jersey Devils

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When the New Jersey Devils inked Jesper Bratt to an eight-year, $7.875MM cap-hit deal earlier this week, it may have come in a few dollars less than some expected, given his point production. Similar to Cole Caufield’s long-term deal in Montreal, some attributed this to New Jersey’s desire to keep a strict salary hierarchy – at least among forwards – under star center Jack Hughes, who’s locked in at $8MM per season.

However, general manager Tom Fitzgerald refuted that notion today in an appearance on The Jeff Marek Show, prioritizing the importance of general market comparables over an internal hierarchy. As New Jersey Hockey Now’s James Nichols says, that likely generates a clearer range for what we could expect the cap hit to be on a pending extension for winger Timo Meier. The Swiss-born forward notched 40 goals for the first time in his career in 2022-23 in 78 games.

Given Meier’s experience (and, therefore, consistency) advantage over his teammate Bratt, $7.875MM per season is likely the floor for any Meier extension, as Nichols says. Previous reports suggested Meier was looking for north of $9MM per season when still a member of the San Jose Sharks, but Nichols surmises that may be the max on his negotiation given the comparable to Minnesota Wild star Kirill Kaprizov, who signed a five-year deal for $9MM per season in 2021.

Anything north of $9MM, which now seems unlikely for Meier, would make him the highest-paid player on the team ahead of defenseman Dougie Hamilton. Meier, while he obviously comes with an esteemed scoring pedigree, didn’t mesh as well as some hoped in New Jersey with 14 points in 21 games down the regular-season stretch.

A $9MM cap hit would also leave New Jersey with about $17.4MM in cap space to fill eight roster spots – seven among forwards and one on defense, potentially replacing (or re-signing) pending UFA Ryan Graves.

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