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Archives for August 2023

Can The Pittsburgh Penguins Actually Sign Tomas Tatar?

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There aren’t many impact unsigned free agents remaining at this point in the offseason, but one name of note is forward Tomas Tatar. Tatar has been linked to several teams, including the Buffalo Sabres as an inexpensive replacement for the injured Jack Quinn. One team that popped up in the rumor mill last week was the Pittsburgh Penguins. Rob Rossi of The Athletic wrote that the Penguins were keenly interested but it all came down to whether Tatar would get a guaranteed contract offer elsewhere as the Penguins appeared to be offering a PTO for training camp in Pittsburgh with the expectation of a contract after. But can the Penguins realistically fit in another contract for a player coming off a season in which he scored 20 goals and 28 assists in 82 games?

In most off-seasons, the answer to that question would be an emphatic no. But the summer of 2023 has been unlike any other offseason. Players like Blake Wheeler have signed for less than $1MM annually. Matt Duchene took a one-year contract for $3MM despite being a year removed from topping 80 points, and Tatar remains unsigned despite providing consistent secondary scoring.

But all of this doesn’t necessarily mean the answer is a resounding yes, the Penguins would need to do some cap gymnastics to fit Tatar into the sliver of room they have under the salary cap ceiling. Currently, the Penguins have just north of $220K, which is obviously well below the NHL minimum.

Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas has said previously that he would use waivers as a means of becoming cap compliant, and the Penguins have plenty of players who could be placed on waivers to open up room for Tatar. Alexander Nylander and Rem Pitlick are two players that could be exposed and sent to the AHL to open up the room, but would that be enough to sign Tatar? The answer is a giant unknown at this time, but as we inch closer to training camp it becomes more and more possible.

Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now explored another idea in an article as he wondered if a potential Jeff Carter trade would be possible. The 38-year-old London, Ontario native is in the final year of his contract with a cap hit of $3.125MM and is coming off a season in which he scored just 13 goals and 16 assists in 79 games and looked lost at times both offensively and defensively. Kingerski provides options in the article, the most interesting of which would have the Penguins retain 50% of Carter’s contract and staple a second-round pick to him to facilitate a move. While this scenario seems possible, the biggest caveat to a potential deal would be Carter’s full no-movement clause. Given all these moving parts, it seems unlikely any contending team would have room to take on even half of Carter’s cap hit and even less likely that Carter would waive his no-move to make it happen. Kyle Dubas has worked one miracle this summer in moving out Jeff Petry and Mikael Granlund for Erik Karlsson, but can he make another one happen?

Much like the Karlsson situation it feels like the longer this drags out the likelier it becomes the player ends up with the Penguins. But to make it happen Tatar is going to have to take a massive pay cut and perhaps accept just a one-year contract. A far cry from the $3.3MM annually that Daily Faceoff projected he would get on a three-year deal when free agency opened.

Free Agent Profile: Max Comtois

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Two years ago, it seemed unfathomable that Max Comtois would be an unsigned free agent in late August. But it is 2023 and that’s where the former second-round pick finds himself after being non-tendered a qualifying offer by the Anaheim Ducks. Comtois had a terrific pandemic shortened 2020-21 in which he posted 16 goals and 17 assists in 55 games. At the time he appeared to be on the verge of becoming a complete winger who could be counted on to provide solid secondary scoring and strong play in all three zones. The Ducks promptly signed Comtois to a two-year deal that carried an annual cap hit just north of $2MM.

After signing his bridge deal things quickly began to go south for the Longueuil, Quebec native. In 2021-22, the 24-year-old began the season with just a single assist in his first 13 games and then missed 16 games with a hand injury that required him to have surgery. Upon his return, he played better but couldn’t recapture his scoring touch as he put up just six goals and nine assists in his final 39 games.

With the Ducks firmly in a rebuild, Comtois continued to struggle offensively this past season and missed significant time with several upper and lower body ailments. Comtois was out for 14 games due to injuries and when he was in the lineup he produced just nine goals and 10 assists in 64 games.

While he has battled injuries and inconsistency over the past few years, it is still surprising to see a young forward with a recent track record of success remain unsigned. It truly speaks to the flat-cap environment that teams find themselves in. Despite the disappointment of possibly being forced to sign a professional tryout, I do think that Comtois will sign an NHL contract for next season. He may just need to prove himself first to do so.

Stats

2022-23: 64 GP, 9-10-19, -20 rating, 76 PIMS, 89 shots, 52.3% faceoffs, 42.2% CF, 13:49 ATOI
Career: 210 GP, 38-48-86, -35 rating, 193 PIMS, 296 shots, 41.7% faceoffs, 45.4% CF, 14:23 ATOI

Potential Suitors

Comtois is unlikely to be picky at this point in the summer, he is just looking to remain in the league and show what he can do. He is from the Quebec area but given that the Montreal Canadiens have been trying to move out forwards, they are unlikely to be interested in Comtois, even if his youth does fit the timeline of their future competitive window.

Let’s start in the East. The Pittsburgh Penguins have been rumored to have interest in Tomas Tatar as they look to add some depth scoring to their bottom six. The Penguins would like to bring Tatar in on a PTO to see if he fits. However, if the former Devils forward can lock on to a team with guaranteed money that could open the door for Pittsburgh to look elsewhere. Possibly to Comtois. It’s no secret that general manager Kyle Dubas loves to have a lot of depth forwards to provide for call-ups and to keep the club’s AHL affiliate competitive. Should he sign with Pittsburgh, Comtois would be in a serious battle for a spot on the Penguins bottom two lines, but he would certainly be in the mix. He could also fill in for Jake Guentzel during his early season absence on the Penguins top line next to Sidney Crosby.

Staying in the East, the Ottawa Senators could really use some help in their bottom six forward group. Outside of Pittsburgh, it’s hard to find a team who leaned more heavily on their top six forwards last year. And given the look of the Senators current bottom six, it could be more of the same this year. The Senators are entering the season with playoff aspirations but are looking at having several rookies on their third and fourth lines which could lead to a lot of growing pains early in the season. Comtois has had his struggles, but if they were to acquire him, they would have another known entity to insert onto their third or fourth line.

Out West, it was rumored earlier in the summer that the Vancouver Canucks had interest in Comtois, but a deal never came to fruition. Vancouver has a bit of a logjam right now, both up against the cap and with the number of bodies they currently have in the forward group who are going to require NHL minutes. However, a forward like Dakota Joshua could become a casualty should Vancouver opt to sign Comtois. The other option for the Canucks would be to try a jettison a higher-priced forward to become cap compliant, and then sign Comtois as their replacement. Comtois could bring a lot to the Canucks as he does play with an edge and can play in all three zones and provide depth scoring. The worst-case scenario for Vancouver would be to bury Comtois and his cap hit in the minors if he didn’t work out with the NHL group.

Projected Contract

Barring a dramatic turn of events, Comtois is likely going to have to take a rather large pay cut for the upcoming season from the $2.5MM he made last year. It is still possible he could hit a seven-figure salary but given how little cap space is available around the NHL he is unlikely to exceed more than $1MM on a one-year deal. There are several talented forwards who remain unsigned which has led to Comtois becoming a bit of an afterthought. But given his youth there will likely be a team out there willing to roll the dice on a player who has shown promise recently. However, I think teams will want to have a look at Comtois before offering a guaranteed contract just to make sure he is a fit in their bottom six, and to allow for maximum flexibility.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

College Defenseman Will Francis Suffers Cancer Relapse

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In sad news, University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs defenseman Will Francis has announced via the teams official Twitter page that he has had a relapse of cancer that he has battled since March 2020. Francis released the statement earlier today that he had a relapse of the Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia that was discovered during a routine post-recovery checkup. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow.

Francis first discovered the cancer back in March 2020 during the height of the pandemic when a series of blood tests revealed that his white blood cell count was almost 20 times higher than normal. This result indicated that Francis had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia which he battled for 848 days until July 2022, at which time he completed chemotherapy.

Francis heroically returned last season, dressing in 28 games for the Bulldogs posting a single assist and a -1 rating with 22 PIM. He is a former sixth-round draft pick of the Anaheim Ducks from the 2019 NHL entry draft and was a standout stay-at-home defenseman with the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders of the USHL prior to being drafted.

Although he is once again going through a harrowing experience, Francis appears positive and optimistic about the future. He states in the release that he expects to be back on the Minnesota-Duluth campus this upcoming January and hopes to be on the ice with his teammates at the same time.

Minor Transactions: 08/21/23

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Training camps are now exactly one month away, and NHL news is starting to heat up again with a pair of PTOs signed today. Nonetheless, corresponding moves are set to be made at the minor-league and overseas levels. We’re keeping track of those, as always, on a daily basis.

  • The AHL’s Rockford IceHogs are adding forward Bryce Kindopp on a one-year deal, according to a team release. Kindopp broke into the NHL sphere in March 2020, when the Anaheim Ducks signed him to an entry-level deal after getting passed over in the draft but posting back-to-back point-per-game seasons with the WHL’s Everett Silvertips. He had quite the solid rookie season in the minors, notching 20 points in 39 games with the San Diego Gulls in 2020-21, but he hasn’t since recaptured that form. Last year was incredibly trying for Kindopp, who scored just six goals (and added only three assists) for nine points in 65 games with San Diego, who finished last in the AHL. Kindopp has made one NHL appearance with Anaheim, coming in the 2021-22 season. The Ducks did not issue a qualifying offer to Kindopp when his entry-level deal expired this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent.

  • The WHL’s Vancouver Giants are set to name Manny Viveiros as their new head coach later this week. The report comes from Steve Ewen of The Province who credits multiple sources. The 57-year-old Viveiros was previously the head coach of the Henderson Silver Knights of the AHL up until this past April when he and the club mutually agreed to part ways. Henderson missed the playoffs this past season with a record of 29-38-0-5 sparking Viveiros and the club to move on. Viveiros will be the replacement for former Giants head coach Michael Dyck who took an assistant coach job with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies in July.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Carolina Hurricanes Sign Nathan Beaulieu To PTO

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The Carolina Hurricanes have signed defenseman Nathan Beaulieu to a professional tryout, according to team reporter Walt Ruff. Beaulieu will attend Hurricanes training camp next month with the hopes of earning an NHL contract and suiting up for a 12th straight season.

Beaulieu, 30, landed a one-year, $850K contract with the Anaheim Ducks last season after appearing at their training camp on a PTO. He was used sparingly in a depth role, leading to naturally poor results on one of the worst defensive teams of the salary cap era. Averaging 15:14 per game, the journeyman defender added just four assists in 52 games and posted a -23 rating, the worst of his career. He was also briefly assigned to the minors for the first time in eight years, albeit for four games.

He’ll need to work much harder to land a contract this time around unless he’s willing to take a two-way deal and be likely assigned to the minors – which, unfortunately, won’t be a predictable career move thanks to the Hurricanes’ lack of a dedicated AHL affiliate for next season. At best, Beaulieu would slot ninth on the team’s defense depth chart as things stand. After their acquisitions of Anthony DeAngelo and Dmitry Orlov this offseason, a pair of capable everyday NHL defenders, Jalen Chatfield and Caleb Jones, are currently slated for press box roles. There’s also Dylan Coghlan, who played just 17 games last season but is signed to a one-way contract in 2023-24 and would require waivers to be assigned to the AHL.

It’s been a while since Beaulieu has offered positive value defensively, posting a relative Corsi For in the negatives at even strength in four consecutive seasons. Couple that with the fact that he hasn’t scored a goal in three and a half years (his last one was in February 2020 as a member of the Winnipeg Jets), and it’s apparent why he’s been used solely in a depth role over the past handful of campaigns.

He would add some beef to the Hurricanes blueline at 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, along with a physical edge, although Chatfield carries a similar demeanor with much better defensive results. Ruff also noted a potential reason for bringing Beaulieu in is having enough defensemen healthy for the Hurricanes’ slate of split-squad preseason games on September 29.

Senators Notes: Pinto, Arena, Korpisalo

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There doesn’t appear to have been progress on contract talks between the Ottawa Senators and restricted free agent forward Shane Pinto, says The Athletic’s Ian Mendes. Pinto’s agent, Lewis Gross, declined to comment when Mendes reached out to him for an update last week, and Mendes anticipates “radio silence” in the near future. While the Senators would certainly love to have Pinto under contract when training camps kick off a month from today, they technically have until December 1 to sign Pinto to a deal for him to maintain eligibility to play in the NHL this season.

Drafted 32nd overall in 2019, Pinto’s stock rose sharply this season after he shouldered some top-six minutes at times with Joshua Norris limited to just eight games with a shoulder injury. That being said, his production didn’t jump off the page. He did score 20 goals, finishing sixth on the team, but he added just 15 assists to finish with 35 points in 82 games. He likely won’t command a significant number on a short-term extension, but anything above the league minimum is incredibly tough for the Senators to make work at the moment. After signing Vladimir Tarasenko to a one-year, $5MM pact earlier this month, CapFriendly projects the Senators with just $895K assuming a bare-minimum roster of 11 forwards and seven defensemen.

More on the Sens:

  • Mendes also mentioned another area of interest for Senators fans, the status of a potential new arena, which remains in flux with Michael Andlauer set to take over as the team’s majority owner. Ottawa mayor Mark Sutcliffe had spoken to Mendes earlier in the summer, referencing a Canadian Department of National Defense building downtown as another potential site as compared to the long-rumored LeBreton Flats plot. However, with the government’s lease on the building slated to run through 2035, construction could take quite a while to start before the Sens see their new home. That’s not to say a solution won’t be found sooner, but Mendes believes Andlauer’s initial priorities will lie with the team on the ice, putting discussions on a new, more centrally located home on the back burner for the time being.
  • Free agent addition Joonas Korpisalo spoke to NHL.com’s Mike Zeisberger over the weekend, saying he’s excited to get to work in Ottawa with an old friend in goalie tandem partner Anton Forsberg. The two netminders have won a pro championship together already, winning the 2016 Calder Cup while members of the AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters in the Columbus Blue Jackets organization. Korpisalo arguably had the best season of his career in 2022-23, starting a career-high 37 games while putting up a very respectable .914 save percentage, given he played the majority of the year on a Blue Jackets team with a rather hapless defense thanks to a score of injuries. On a more competitive team in Los Angeles after a late-season trade, Korpisalo excelled with a .921 mark down the stretch. That being said, the five-year, $20MM contract Ottawa signed him to this summer is widely viewed as a serious gamble, and rightly so – Korpisalo has just a .904 career average across more than 200 games of NHL experience and has no experience starting the majority of his team’s games.

2009 NHL Draft Take Two: Sixth Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.”  Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended.  For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now.  Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

The results of our redraft so far are as follows, with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall: Victor Hedman, New York Islanders (2)
2nd Overall: John Tavares, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
3rd Overall: Ryan O’Reilly, Colorado Avalanche (33)
4th Overall: Matt Duchene, Atlanta Thrashers (3)
5th Overall: Chris Kreider, Los Angeles Kings (19)

At fifth overall, PHR voters elected to take one of the draft’s better goal-scoring specialists in Kreider, who received 25% of the total votes. Selected straight out of high school, Kreider was drafted as a center but would end up on the wing for the New York Rangers, who took him in the mid-first round. It took him a few years to make the NHL, but he quickly became a dependable middle-six winger once he did, posting solid two-way numbers and routinely scoring over 20 goals. The last two seasons have done wonders for Kreider’s legacy, though, posting 88 markers over 160 games.

Coming up to the podium at sixth overall is the Phoenix Coyotes. The era of Wayne Gretzky behind the bench is now over after four underwhelming seasons, and the franchise is still looking to return to postseason play for just the third time since the year 2000.

They selected Swedish defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who had spent the entire 2008-09 campaign playing pro hockey with Leksands IF in the Swedish second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. He posted a massive two-way season there, recording 17 points in 39 games and a +44 rating. Few argued with the pick at the time, and given his peak with the Coyotes, it’s hard to argue they truly made the wrong selection.

He played one more season in Sweden before coming over to the Coyotes in 2010, splitting his rookie year between the NHL and AHL but getting decent NHL action with 48 games, albeit in a bottom-pairing role. He broke into a top-four role during his sophomore season and never looked back, routinely earning Norris Trophy votes and was eventually named the team’s captain in 2018 after the retirement of Shane Doan.

His all-around game began to decline significantly beginning with the 2019-20 season, though, and in the summer of 2021, the Coyotes were able to offload his contract on the Vancouver Canucks in a deal that’s turned out quite well for Arizona, in retrospect. That doesn’t change the fact he provided the Coyotes with solid top-pairing performance for the better part of a decade, however, finishing his stint in the desert with 388 points and averaging 23:26 per game across 769 games.

He didn’t last particularly long in Vancouver, either, and the Canucks executed the largest non-compliance buyout in NHL history this summer to get out of the remaining four years of his massive eight-year, $66MM extension signed with the Coyotes that kicked in just as his decline began in 2019. He’ll suit up for the Florida Panthers next season, looking to prove he can turn things around on a one-year deal.

Ekman-Larsson trails only Hedman and Nick Leddy in total games played for a defenseman from the 2009 class with 902, and he’s third in career points behind Hedman and Tyson Barrie with 439. Despite his solid tenure as a member of the Coyotes, though, should the team have gone in a different direction? Let us know who you think the Coyotes should have selected below:

If you can’t access the poll above, click here to vote.

Trade Market Quiet For Noah Hanifin

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It appears that the holdup for a potential Noah Hanifin trade has been due to an underwhelming trade market. This comes from Sportsnet 960’s Pat Steinberg who also reported a few days ago that the trade market had been soft this summer for one of the Calgary Flames’ other trade chips Mikael Backlund.

Both Backlund and Hanifin will be free agents next summer, and while Backlund expressed an interest in seeing the season play out before signing an extension, Hanifin has said he doesn’t plan to sign a deal to extend his stay in Calgary.

Under normal circumstances, a 26-year-old first-pairing defenseman would be highly coveted, but as Steinberg reports, the Flames just haven’t received any strong offers. The Pittsburgh Penguins reportedly had interest earlier in the summer, but nothing ever materialized on the trade front, and given their pursuit of Erik Karlsson one must wonder if Penguins general manager used Calgary as leverage to get a better deal for Pittsburgh.

Lyle Richardson of The Hockey News wrote today that when the deal for Karlsson happened there was an expectation that there would be movement on the Hanifin front, but it has yet to materialize. He also speculates that perhaps the Flames will keep the rearguard until the March trade deadline when more teams will have accrued cap space due to injuries.

On the ice, Hanifin has been everything Calgary could have hoped for when they acquired him from the Carolina Hurricanes in a 2018 trade. He has averaged over 21 minutes a night during his time in Calgary and has put up 31 goals and 125 assists in 359 games with the Flames. Any potential team that acquires the Boston native would be getting a player capable of playing first-pairing minutes or being an exceptional second-pairing defenseman. Hanifin is an excellent skater and can generally be counted on for 35-40 points per season. He is in the final year of a contract that carries a $4.95MM cap hit and reportedly has an 8-team modified no-trade clause, meaning that Calgary has quite a few options to facilitate a potential move.

At the beginning of the summer, it looked as though the Flames would be busy in the trade market with several players approaching free agency. But, thus far general manager Craig Conroy has been quiet and may just start the season with several prominent free agents. It will make for interesting theatre as Flames fans don’t have to look back far to remember the exodus of top-end talent in the summer of 2022 that saw Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk take their talents south of the border. Calgary can ill afford to lose more high-end players for nothing and will likely be looking to make a flurry of moves in-season unless something materializes in the upcoming weeks.

Jonathan Bernier Announces Retirement

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Veteran netminder Jonathan Bernier announced his retirement today via an Instagram post. He had not played since early into the 2021-22 campaign with the New Jersey Devils due to a hip injury, which kept him out for the remainder of that year and the entire 2022-23 season.

Drafted by the Los Angeles Kings with the 11th overall pick in 2006, Bernier never became the elite full-fledged starter they projected, but he did become a dependable backup or even tandem option during his peak seasons. Some of it was pure circumstance, though – he was stuck behind Jonathan Quick on the Kings’ list of goalie prospects and only got his first true shot at shouldering starting responsibility outside of the organization on a weak Toronto Maple Leafs team.

Bernier would go on to play 14 seasons and over 400 NHL games for the Kings, Maple Leafs, Devils, Anaheim Ducks, Colorado Avalanche, and Detroit Red Wings. He finishes with a 165-163-40 record in 363 starts, a .912 save percentage, a 2.78 goals-against average, and 18 shutouts. His peak actually came in his first season as a starter, not earning any Vezina consideration in 2013-14 despite putting up a 26-19-7 record and .922 save percentage in 55 games on a Toronto squad that struggled defensively. His numbers trailed after that, however, and he never got a shot as a full-time starter anywhere else other than his three seasons in Toronto.

Injuries certainly aren’t how anyone wants to end their career, especially when Bernier had signed on for two years in New Jersey to aid in their return to playoff contention. Unfortunately, he played just ten games there before the long-term hip injury eventually ended his time in the NHL.

After his stint in Toronto ended on a steep decline in 2016, Bernier went on to become a high-end backup option over the next five seasons – one spent in Anaheim, one spent in Colorado, and three spent in Detroit before joining the Devils. It was a long professional journey for Bernier, who first tasted NHL action with four starts as a 19-year-old with the Kings in 2007-08.

PHR wishes Bernier the best in retirement and any future endeavors.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Boston Bruins Sign Alex Chiasson To PTO

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The Boston Bruins have signed forward Alex Chiasson to a professional tryout agreement, per a team announcement. Chiasson will attend the Bruins’ training camp in hopes of earning an NHL deal in Boston or elsewhere and extending his career.

The 11-year NHL veteran has become somewhat of a cult legend for converting on PTOs. This is now the fifth one of his career and his third straight one – although last season’s with the Arizona Coyotes did not result in a contract. That led to him sitting out for the beginning of the 2022-23 campaign before signing an AHL pact with the Grand Rapids Griffins. After scoring 20 points in 29 games there, he signed a one-year, $750K deal at the trade deadline with the Detroit Red Wings to aid in their playoff push. Back in the NHL, Chiasson still looked like he deserved a spot in the lineup with six goals and nine points in 20 games.

Before that, Chiasson had a strong 2021-22 season with the Vancouver Canucks, finishing eighth on the team in goals with 13 in 67 games. That season came after a three-year stint with the Edmonton Oilers, during which he scored a career-high 22 goals and 38 points in 73 games during the 2018-19 campaign. Overall, the 32-year-old now has over 650 games of NHL experience across stints with seven teams, including a Stanley Cup win in a depth role with the Washington Capitals in 2018.

Chiasson will look to increase that figure to eight and convert on yet another PTO in Boston. The team could certainly use a cheap goal-scoring option for their bottom six, and while he doesn’t offer much in terms of youth, he does offer significantly more scoring upside than someone like A.J. Greer and could give the team more options to construct their third and fourth lines as well as the second power-play unit.

Interestingly, Bruins independent reporter Joe Haggerty notes this is a sort of full-circle move for the Bruins. They’d aggressively pursued Chiasson when he was a member of the Dallas Stars back in 2013 when he had just seven NHL games under his belt, hoping to get him as part of the massive Tyler Seguin trade that eventually transpired between the two parties.

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