Archives for August 2023

Washington Capitals Announce Front Office Restructuring

August 28, 2023 at 9:29 am CDT | by Josh Erickson 1 Comment

The Washington Capitals have unveiled a reshuffle in their leadership hierarchy ahead of the 2023-24 season, with general manager Brian MacLellan adding president of hockey operations to his job title. They’ve also promoted Chris Patrick to associate general manager and appointed Dick Patrick as chairman.

MacLellan’s affiliation with the Capitals now enters its 23rd year, having joined the organization in various capacities since his arrival in 2000. He’s been at his current post of GM since 2014, during which time he’s also served as the team’s senior VP of hockey operations. Since taking over as GM, the team has amassed a record of 409-213-77, boasting a .640 winning percentage that ranks third only behind the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning. Washington didn’t have a dedicated president of hockey operations last season, meaning job titles are being shuffled around among the team’s upper management before the upcoming season begins.

His significance to the Capitals cannot be understated, and he’s a lock to receive high honors from the organization whenever he does step away from the game. He built a good portion of the team that won the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in 2018, with eight of the 19 players on the ice during the series-clinching Game 5 of the Final against the Vegas Golden Knights signed, traded for, or drafted under his direction.

Chris Patrick is also a longtime fixture in Washington’s front office, now entering his 16th year with the team. He’d previously served as an assistant general manager to MacLellan with a specialty in player personnel, a promotion that came just two years ago. Now he’s been promoted again, and his new role as an associate will take a considerable load off MacLellan as the latter shoulders more wide-ranging responsibilities in his presidential role. Patrick will now oversee the team’s analytics department, player contract negotiations, hockey operations staff, player personnel, budget, and team scheduling issues, per the team. He’ll be tasked with more impactful decisions as the team enters quite a tricky retooling phase, and it seems apparent Capitals owner Ted Leonsis has identified him as a potential candidate to replace MacLellan as general manager when he eventually steps away.

Dick Patrick bears no relation to Chris, but he is the grandson of NHL forefather Lester Patrick. He’s held an active role in the sport for as long as his grandfather, serving as the Capitals’ president for 40 years – he assumed the role in 1982. The 77-year-old will now take on a bigger-picture role, likely passing on some of his former day-to-day responsibilities to MacLellan. Patrick had also served as the COO for Leonsis’ Monumental Sports and Entertainment, which also owns the NBA’s Washington Wizards and the WNBA’s Washington Mystics. His role will now be solely focused on the Capitals. In Patrick’s 40 seasons as president, the Capitals only missed the playoffs eight times.

Five Key Stories: 8/21/23 – 8/27/23

August 27, 2023 at 9:00 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

The final full week of August is in the books and with training camps now just a few weeks away, there was some important news around the NHL over the past seven days which is recapped in our key stories.

Bridge Deals: A pair of core young players signed short-term contracts, reducing the number of remaining restricted free agents to nine. The Rangers inked Alexis Lafreniere to a two-year, $4.65MM deal which carries a $2.65MM qualifying offer in 2025. The 2020 first-overall pick posted career bests in assists (23) and points (39) last season but three years into his career, it’s fair to say New York was expecting more. This gives both sides more time to see if he can become the top liner they were hoping for. Meanwhile, the Oilers agreed to a two-year, $7.8MM pact with blueliner Evan Bouchard which carries a $4.3MM qualifier in 2025.

Eight For Hagel: In a move that might be fair to call as a surprise, the Lightning signed winger Brandon Hagel to an eight-year, $52MM extension which will begin in the 2024-25 campaign. The AAV of this contract ($6.5MM) is worth more than four times his current $1.5MM AAV. The 25-year-old had a breakout year in 2021-22, prompting the Lightning to trade a pair of first-round picks to acquire him. Last season, he took another big step forward, notching career highs in goals (30), assists (34), points (64), and ATOI (18:39). Tampa Bay is certainly banking that this type of production will be the new norm for Hagel who now will be part of their long-term future.

Record-Setting Deal For Matthews: Auston Matthews made it clear that he wanted to sign a new contract with Toronto and did just that as the two sides worked out a four-year, $53MM extension that begins in 2024-25. The $13.25MM AAV is the highest in NHL history, surpassing Nathan MacKinnon’s $12.6MM mark. Matthews is coming off a quiet year by his standards but still picked up 40 goals and 45 assists in 74 games last season, marking the fifth straight campaign that he has averaged more than a point per game. The 25-year-old has a pair of Rocket Richard trophies as the NHL’s leading goal-getter and is a true franchise center for the Maple Leafs. Notably, the contract is almost completely paid by performance bonuses so if the minimum salary across the NHL by the end of this agreement is higher than $900K, Matthews could wind up with a bit more money and a higher cap hit before all is said and done before getting another shot at a big-ticket contract at 31.

No Extension For Pettersson: While Hagel and Matthews signed early extensions, one player who won’t be doing so is Canucks center Elias Pettersson. Instead, he revealed that he doesn’t want any stress around the idea of in-season negotiations while his agent Pat Brisson stated that the decision to hold off allows both sides to evaluate before restarting discussions next spring. The 24-year-old is coming off a career season that saw him surpass the 100-point mark for the first time, the first time he has ever surpassed the point-per-game mark. At this point, an extension for Pettersson was likely to land somewhere in the $10MM to $10.5MM range; that number would certainly be higher if he can put up another campaign like his 2022-23 performance.

Hanging Them Up: Veteran goaltender Jonathan Bernier has officially called it a career at the age of 35. The 2006 first-round pick (11th overall) wasn’t quite able to become a true franchise netminder but still carved out a quality career for himself, playing in more than 404 games over 14 NHL seasons while posting a 2.78 GAA along with a .912 SV%. Unfortunately, Bernier’s playing days ended back in the 2021-22 campaign as he missed the majority of that season and all of this past one due to a hip injury. Meanwhile, free agent winger Joonas Donskoi also hung up his skates at the age of 31 after missing all of last season with a concussion. He suited up in seven NHL seasons with three different organizations and was a capable secondary scorer, collecting 208 points in 474 career appearances.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Hurricanes Notes: Kochetkov, AHL Loans, Chicago

August 27, 2023 at 7:50 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 3 Comments

With the Hurricanes not having a dedicated AHL affiliate this season, Cory Lavalette suggested in a recent mailbag piece for The Athletic (subscription link) that they might be inclined to carry three goalies on the NHL roster this coming season. While Pyotr Kochetkov is now in the first season of a four-year, $8MM contract, the expectation was that they’d take advantage of his waiver exemption to get him some regular action in the minors. But if they loan the 24-year-old to another team’s affiliate, there’s no guarantee Kochetkov would get any sort of consistent minutes as the other team would likely be more interested in developing their own prospect. Accordingly, Lavalette wonders if Kochetkov’s best path to AHL minutes would be in the form of short-term loans for a game or two to keep him fresh. With both Antti Raanta and Frederik Andersen having injury issues in the past, it’s quite possible that Kochetkov could still see some meaningful games with the Hurricanes this season.

Joonas Donskoi Announces His Retirement

August 27, 2023 at 7:04 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 3 Comments

Concussions have been a challenge throughout Joonas Donskoi’s career to the point where he has decided to call it a career. The 31-year-old announced on his Instagram account that he is retiring, calling it the best decision for his well-being and future.

Donskoi was a fourth-round pick by Florida back in 2010 (99th overall) but ultimately didn’t sign with the Panthers. He wound up being a bit of a late bloomer playing professionally in his native Finland. It wasn’t until the 2013-14 campaign that he made an impact offensively and he followed that up a year later by notching 49 points in 58 regular season games with Karpat, collecting 22 more in 18 playoff contests, before ending with eight points in as many games at the Worlds.

That helped Donskoi earn an entry-level deal from San Jose in 2015 and he landed a regular spot in the lineup that fall. He had a strong rookie season too, picking up 11 goals and 25 assists in 76 games, a point total that wound up being one of his best. Donskoi also added a dozen points in 24 playoff games for the Sharks that season as they made it to the Stanley Cup Final. He spent four seasons with San Jose before signing a four-year, $15.6MM contract with Colorado in 2019.

Donskoi had two productive seasons with Colorado with campaigns of 16 and 17 goals, his two best years in the NHL on that front. He also was a capable secondary scorer in the playoffs for them, picking up 11 points in 19 contests.

That got him on the radar for Seattle in the Expansion Draft as the Kraken made Donskoi their selection from the Avs. Unfortunately, he struggled in 2021-22, scoring just twice in 75 games although he did pick up 20 assists at least. However, he then missed all of last season with a concussion which ultimately ended his playing days.

In the end, Donskoi wound up with 208 points in 474 games over seven NHL seasons. Considering he had to play his way into an entry-level deal at the age of 23 after going unsigned by the team that drafted him, that’s a pretty solid showing that unfortunately came to an earlier end than he certainly would have preferred.

PHR Originals: 8/21/23 – 8/27/23

August 27, 2023 at 6:48 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 1 Comment

With training camps on the horizon, many teams are enjoying their last few weeks of summer, resulting in a slowdown of activity league-wide. But that hasn’t resulted in things slowing down here as our writers have kept busy with a wide range of original pieces which we’ll run through here.

Our 2009 Redraft series continues. With the sixth pick, our readers assigned Nazem Kadri to the Coyotes over their original selection of Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Now, the Maple Leafs are on the clock with the seventh selection (voting is still open) and with Kadri off the board, they’ll be getting a new player here as well.

Speaking of the Coyotes, they’ve been a busy team this summer with the team opting to add some short-term veterans to their roster. I took a look at their offseason activity as well as Boston’s while Brennan did the same for Buffalo.

Each year, quite a few NHL players opt to try their hand at playing overseas or return there after spending some time at the top level. Josh Eriksson provided an overview of some of the notable former NHLers who will be plying their trade in the SHL in 2023-24.

At the moment, Mark Scheifele doesn’t appear likely to sign an extension in Winnipeg but that doesn’t mean he won’t sign an extension period. At this point, a team interested in acquiring the middleman would likely want an extension as part of the agreement. Ethan ran the numbers to provide an idea of how much of a raise the 30-year-old is about to get.

We saw several players land PTO agreements throughout the week while many other veterans are likely to get one in the coming weeks. Josh Cybulski assessed the markets for non-tendered winger Max Comtois and bought out winger Zack Kassian while Josh Eriksson looked into what teams might have a need for veteran netminder Brian Elliott.

Lastly, with camps coming up next month, there will be some teams with some tough decisions to make with their roster. Ethan examined several of those, previewing the defensive battles that will be ongoing for the Rangers and Canadiens while the Blue Jackets appear to have an intriguing battle on the horizon for the final few forward spots on their roster.

Notable Former NHLers Playing In The SHL Next Year

August 27, 2023 at 6:07 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson Leave a Comment

As overseas campaigns get ready to kick off at the beginning of next month, we’ll highlight some notable former NHLers suiting up for teams in major European leagues over the next few days. First up is the Swedish Hockey League, which sees a new face this year in Örnsköldsvik’s MoDo Hockey, which earned promotion from the second-tier Allsvenskan to play in the top flight for the first time since 2016.

D Christian Folin – Frölunda HC

Suiting up as an alternate captain for Frölunda this season, the 32-year-old Folin has two years remaining on a deal with the club he signed in 2021. A veteran of 244 NHL games, the left-shot defender most recently suited up for 16 games with the Montreal Canadiens in the 2019-20 campaign. His career-best season came with the Los Angeles Kings in 2017-18, the second of three consecutive seasons he managed to avoid AHL assignment. In 65 games, Folin recorded average possession numbers and finished the year with three goals and ten assists for 13 points. He appeared in all four playoff games as his Kings lost to the expansion Vegas Golden Knights in a first-round sweep. Since returning to his home country, the two-way defender has represented Sweden internationally at the World Championship and Winter Olympics, although his offensive game is beginning to decline. He recorded just seven assists in 37 games for Frölunda in 2022-23.

F Oscar Lindberg – Skellefteå AIK

Lindberg has played overseas for the past four seasons, but only in Russia and Switzerland. 2023-24 will be his first time playing in the Swedish top flight since 2013, and he’s doing so with the only SHL club he’s ever known in Skellefteå. Initially a second-round pick of the Phoenix Coyotes in 2010, Lindberg saw 134 out of his 252 games of NHL action in a New York Rangers uniform after he was sent there in a 2011 swap of prospects. Now 31, Lindberg recorded a career-high 13 goals and 28 points in 68 games during his rookie season with New York in 2015-16, but he never quite displayed the ability to become a long-term top-nine fixture in the NHL. He made later career stops with the Golden Knights and Ottawa Senators before leaving for Switzerland’s EV Zug after the conclusion of the 2018-19 season.

F Magnus Pääjärvi – Timrå IK

The most NHL-seasoned forward on this list, Pääjärvi will play a depth role in helping Timrå avoid relegation to the Allsvenskan for a third straight season after getting promoted in 2021. Pääjärvi also played his last NHL game with Ottawa in 2019, much like Lindberg, although he’d been in the league since the start of the decade. Now 32, Pääjärvi was the tenth overall pick in the 2009 NHL Draft, going off the board to the Edmonton Oilers. It looked like a solid selection at first – he rattled off 34 points in 80 games during his rookie season as a 19-year-old in 2010-11 on a struggling Oilers squad. However, he wouldn’t put up double-digit goal totals again until his final season in the NHL with Ottawa, instead bouncing around the Oilers, Blues and Senators as a depth forward in a fourth-line role over nearly a decade. He did appear in a very respectable 467 NHL contests before heading overseas in 2019 with the KHL’s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, however. He hasn’t been a huge offensive factor since returning to Europe, recording just seven goals and 13 points in 40 games for Timrå last season.

F Tobias Rieder – Växjö Lakers HC

This will be Rieder’s third consecutive year suiting up for Växjö after he departed the NHL for Sweden in 2021. It’s been a fruitful tenure for the German-born forward, as he’s put up double-digit goal totals in both seasons and won an SHL title in 2022-23. Once a promising middle-six talent with the Arizona Coyotes in the mid-2010s, things went off the rails for Rieder after signing as a free agent with the Edmonton Oilers in 2018. Viewed as a surefire bet for at least around 15 goals and 30 points, Rieder instead put up a goose egg in the goal column despite playing in 67 games. Later tenures with the Buffalo Sabres and Calgary Flames went similarly poor, and the 30-year-old will likely play the rest of his career overseas.

D Anton Strålman – HV71

Strålman is returning home to Sweden after spending last season in the Boston Bruins organization. He played just eight games in the NHL, however, instead being relegated to the AHL’s Providence Bruins for most of 2022-23 after earning a contract off a PTO. The 37-year-old is likely done in the NHL after quite a respectable 938-game, 16-season career, but he’ll look to log heavy minutes for HV71 and try and rediscover his offensive touch against some easier competition. It’s a nice bookend for Strålman, who was once one of the better complementary defenders in the game and played against tough competition as a premier two-way defender for the Tampa Bay Lightning in the mid-to-late 2010s.

Honorable Mentions: F Henrik Borgström (HV71), D Brandon Davidson (Rögle), F Christoffer Ehn (Linköping), F Remi Elie (Linköping), G Jhonas Enroth (Örebro), D Oscar Fantenberg (Linköping), F Janne Kuokkanen (Malmö), F Anton Lander (Timrå), F Pär Lindholm (Skellefteå), F Alan Quine (Malmö), D David Rundblad (MoDo), D Joakim Ryan (Malmö), F Mattias Tedenby (HV71)

Bruins Notes: Top Six, Chiasson, Frederic, Assistant Coach Vacancy

August 27, 2023 at 4:19 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 8 Comments

Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery sat down for an interview with Steve Conroy of The Boston Herald that was published early this morning, being quite forthcoming about quite a few subjects of note for Bruins fans. Perhaps most impactful, at least in the short term, was that Montgomery has essentially decided what the team’s first and second forward lines will look like entering the season.

It’s no easy task – the team’s loss of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci has been their biggest story of the offseason, along with other solid complementary scorers such as last year’s trade deadline acquisition, Tyler Bertuzzi. Montgomery believes “everything else is going to be a work in progress” as training camp plays out, but he expects to spread out the team’s two remaining stars, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak, on different lines. He plans on keeping the duo of Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha together, a partnership that helped elevate the 26-year-old Zacha to a career-high 21 goals and 57 points last season. They’ll likely be flanked by veteran free agent signing James van Riemsdyk on the left wing. Marchand, on the other hand, will lead the team’s de facto second line with Charlie Coyle at center and Jake DeBrusk at right wing.

Other thoughts on the Bruins from Montgomery:

Alex Chiasson may be a member of the Bruins on a tryout basis only, but it seems Montgomery has already penciled in the 32-year-old as a net-front presence on the team’s second power-play unit. “I thought Detroit’s power play became extremely tough to check the last two times we played them when he was at the net front,” Montgomery told Conroy. “So there’s a niche that he could possibly grab a hold of for our team.” Chiasson landed an NHL contract with Detroit at last season’s trade deadline after spending the year on an AHL contract with their affiliate in Grand Rapids. He recorded six goals and nine points in 20 games down the stretch of the regular season, with seven of those nine points coming on the power play.
Montgomery also doesn’t anticipate moving forward Trent Frederic to center as some anticipated, instead keeping him on the right wing. He believes Frederic’s two-way game is most effective on the wing, and they’ll need him to contribute as much as he can in a bottom-six secondary role. That means free agent signing Morgan Geekie could be in line to assume the team’s third-line center role behind Zacha and Coyle after averaging just 10:27 per game for the Seattle Kraken last season.
Lastly, Montgomery confirmed the team plans to replace former assistant coach John Gruden before the season starts, although in a different role. Gruden left after just one season with the Bruins to serve as head coach for the AHL’s Toronto Marlies next season. Gruden’s previous responsibilities, managing the defense and the penalty kill, will be delegated to the Bruins’ remaining two assistants, Chris Kelly and Joe Sacco. Montgomery says the team’s hire to replace Gruden will be more development-focused and won’t be on the bench during games.

Minor Transactions: 08/27/23

August 27, 2023 at 2:46 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson Leave a Comment

Things may be awfully slow on the NHL news front today, but there are still a few transactions from other leagues worth mentioning. Here’s a listing of notable minor transactions for August 27, 2023:

Former New York Rangers forward prospect Jake Elmer has found a home for next season, signing a one-year deal in Scotland with the Dundee Stars of the EIHL. Elmer, 24, signed an entry-level deal with New York in 2019 out of the WHL after going undrafted, a contract he spent most of in the ECHL before going unqualified upon expiration in 2022. He spent most of last season in Slovakia with Extraliga club HK Nitra, where he recorded nine goals, seven assists and 16 points in 29 games. It was a tough transition to the North American pro circuit for Elmer, who lit up the WHL in his final season with the Lethbridge Hurricanes, scoring 81 points in 68 games.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

Free Agent Profile: Brian Elliott

August 27, 2023 at 1:01 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson Leave a Comment

It would be fair to say Brian Elliott’s had a rather long and winding NHL career. Now 38 years old, he’s got quite the career resume for someone taken in the ninth round of the NHL Draft in 2003.

The Newmarket, Ontario native put up some okay numbers when he was breaking into the league with the Ottawa Senators in the late 2000s, but it wasn’t until he landed with the St. Louis Blues in free agency in 2011 that he became solidified as a more well-known NHL netminder.

He was coming off a rather conflicting 2010-11 season at the time. Despite starting a career-high 51 games between the Senators and Colorado Avalanche, his numbers were abysmal, especially for someone pegged as a starter – his .893 save percentage was well below the league average at the time, and he conceded more than 30 goals above what an average netminder would’ve allowed throughout the season.

That all changed once he landed in St. Louis, where he became a solid tandem netminder over the years with Jake Allen. While he never displayed the consistency necessary to be a high-end, full-time starter, he did earn Vezina consideration thanks to a couple of years (including his first in St. Louis) where he boasted above a .930 save percentage.

The days of Elliott being able to take over the crease like that are long gone, however. He hasn’t started more than 30 games since the 2017-18 campaign with the Philadelphia Flyers, and he’s posted a save percentage above .900 just once in the past four years.

His last season didn’t do much to inspire confidence that he could still compete at the highest level. Behind a slightly weakened but still stout Tampa Bay Lightning defense, Elliott put together a substandard season more in line with what we’ve seen from him since the Blues traded him to the Calgary Flames in 2016. In fact, he’s put together just one above-average season since departing the Blues – 2021-22 with Tampa, in which he started just 17 games but posted a respectable .912 save percentage.

There could still be some suitors for Elliott on the market. However, it’ll likely be limited to teams looking for insurance behind an injury-prone or unproven young backup. If he wants to keep lacing up the skates for an opportunity for NHL action, it’ll need to be with the understanding that a demotion to the AHL could be possible.

Stats

2022-23: 22 GP, 12-8-2, 2 SO, 3.40 GAA, .891 SV%
Career: 543 GP, 279-167-54, 45 SO, 2.57 GAA, .909 SV%

Potential Suitors

Elliott was linked to the Toronto Maple Leafs earlier this summer for a third-string role, but Toronto filled that gap on their depth chart earlier this month by signing Martin Jones to a one-year deal. While it won’t be Toronto, Elliott could still find a home for a similar type of role elsewhere.

Obviously, his most desired fit would be on a contending team looking for insurance, similar to how Jonathan Quick ended up in a Vegas Golden Knights jersey after last season’s trade deadline. He didn’t see any playoff action but was around the team and ended the season lifting his third Stanley Cup. Elliott is still looking for his first.

One of the suitors in the Eastern Conference who immediately jumps out is his old team in Tampa Bay, but it’s unlikely for a handful of reasons. First, it seems rather puzzling that Elliott would go un-signed this late in the summer only to return to Tampa, although a PTO with the Lightning could still be an option if he doesn’t have another offer by the time training camps roll around. Tampa also signed Jonas Johansson to a contract earlier this summer – prying him out of a deal in the Swedish Hockey League he’d signed prior, likely with the guarantee of NHL time behind Andrei Vasilevskiy. With the Lightning’s minor league tandem already seemingly set with Matt Tomkins and Hugo Alnefelt, Elliott’s been boxed out of the depth chart there.

The only team with playoff aspirations in the East with a glaring hole on their goalie depth chart is the New York Islanders. Their options are quite slim behind Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov, and 23-year-old Jakub Skarek is currently pegged as their third-string option without much development to showcase after four seasons in the minors. The organization’s had Cory Schneider play a veteran third-string role the past handful of seasons, and if Elliott is okay with a similar arrangement, he could see some limited playing time on the Island should a long-term injury affect either of Sorokin or the aging Varlamov.

His options open up considerably if he wanted to head to the Western Conference, however. The Golden Knights might be looking for a third-string netminder still, depending on how they feel about 24-year-old Jiri Patera being their first available call-up option behind Adin Hill and Logan Thompson. He could also be an option to return to Colorado if they don’t feel Justus Annunen is ready to take on a full-time backup role if called upon. Backup Pavel Francouz has a firm grip on the second NHL job behind Alexandar Georgiev, but he’s missed lengthy periods of time with injury since coming over to North America in 2018.

Projected Contract

Given he won’t be landing a full-time backup role anywhere, Elliott is looking, at best, at a one-year, one-way league-minimum deal for $775K with the expectation he could be placed on waivers to start the season, much like Jones in Toronto. If he does feel like he’s got enough in the tank to hold out for some more guaranteed opportunity, he could hunt for a PTO with a team in the coming days to try and compete for a backup role. This late into August, though, his options would be extremely limited as few teams are still looking to fill a bonafide backup spot on their depth chart.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Summer Synopsis: Buffalo Sabres

August 27, 2023 at 11:01 am CDT | by Brennan McClain 9 Comments

For the 12th season in a row, the Buffalo Sabres failed to make the playoffs at the end of the regular season. However, for the first time in several years, the end of the regular season did matter quite a lot to the Sabres. Being one of the best scoring teams throughout the year, Buffalo finished one point back of the last wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, raising expectations for the upcoming 2023-24 NHL season. There are still some weak spots in the lineup, but the Sabres made some moves this summer to address other areas of need.

Draft

1-13: F Zach Benson, Winnipeg (WHL)
2-39: F Anton Wahlberg, IF Malmo (SHL)
2-45: D Maxim Strbak, Sioux Falls (USHL)
3-86: D Gavin McCarthy, Muskegon (USHL)
4-109: F Ethan Miedema, Kingston (OHL)
5-141: G Scott Ratzlaff, Seattle (WHL)
6-173: D Sean Keohane, Dexter School (USHS)
7-205: D Norwin Panocha, Eisbaren Berlin (DNL U20)

Benson becomes the prize of the draft for the Sabres, falling to Buffalo at 13th overall after being projected to go in the top 10 throughout much of the year. Now joining former Sabres’ first-round selection, Matthew Savoie, with the Wenatchee Wild of the WHL for the 2023-24 season, Benson capped off his three-year career with the Winnipeg Ice scoring 36 goals and 62 assists in 60 games.

Strbak and McCarthy represent solid young defenders that the team has been craving over the last several years. Both players will join the NCAA for the 2023-24 season, Strbak to Michigan State University, and McCarthy to Boston University. They both carry solid skating ability, with an even better ability to get the puck out of their zone and into transition. Overall, factoring in the team’s need to keep the puck out of their net, McCarthy likely projects as the best long-term solution to that problem.

Key UFA Signings

D Kale Clague (one year, $775K)*
D Connor Clifton (three years, $10MM)
G Devin Cooley (one year, $775K)*
D Erik Johnson (one year, $3.25MM)
F Tyson Jost (one year, $2MM)
F Justin Richards (one year, $775K)*
G Dustin Tokarski (one year, $775K)*

*-denotes two-way contract

Even with an abundance of cap space heading into the offseason, the Sabres stayed relatively quiet on the free-agent market. They were quick to address their lack of defensive prowess on the back end by inking Clifton and Johnson to contracts on day one and even brought back Jost on a one-year deal to fill the gap left by the injury to Jack Quinn.

Although finished the 2022-23 regular season as the third-highest-scoring team in the league, the Sabres finished 26th in goals against, largely due to inefficient defensemen and goaltending. By bringing in Clifton and Johnson, who both play on the right side, Buffalo should dramatically improve the quality of their blue line. Both players finished with a solid oiSV% last season at 93.2% and 91.7%, respectively.

Already carrying solid defensemen such as Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, and Mattias Samuelsson with the ability to play on the left side of the blue line, the additions of Clifton and Johnson immediately make the team more well-rounded. If their offense can at the very least repeat the goal-scoring from a year ago, the Sabres should be in line to dramatically increase their year-on-year goal differential mark.

Key RFA Re-Signings

F Brett Murray (one year, $775K)*
F Lukas Rousek (two years, $1.55MM)*
F Linus Weissbach (one year, $775K)*

*-denotes two-way contract

All three of these players will likely spend the majority of next season rostered with the organization’s AHL team, the Rochester Americans. Of the trio, Rousek was the only one to suit up for the Sabres, scoring one goal and one assist in two games played. At the AHL level, Rousek led the Americans in most scoring categories, scoring 56 points in 70 games.

Murray and Weissbach had solid seasons in Rochester last year in their own right, finishing third and fourth on the team in scoring, respectively. Both players bring a nice scoring touch to the AHL level and do carry the potential of being rostered on the Sabres next year in case of injury or suspension to a regular forward.

Key Departures

G Craig Anderson (retirement)
F Vinnie Hinostroza (Pittsburgh, one year, $775K)
D Ilya Lyubushkin (trade with Anaheim)
G Malcolm Subban (St.Louis, one year, $775K)

For the most part, Buffalo didn’t stand to lose too much entering into this offseason. Their top two unrestricted free agents, Kyle Okposo, and Zemgus Girgensons, both re-upped with the Sabres on separate one-year, $2.5MM contracts, leaving the team with a fairly clean outlook for the remainder of the summer.

The trade that sent Lyubushkin, which was made just under 10 days ago now, was strictly due to a looming roster crunch on the back end for Buffalo. Because the team had brought in Clifton and Johnson and did not lose any defensemen via free agency, the team simply had too many viable options on the blue line, and Lyubushkin became a consequence.

To pick out one, the departure that may hurt the team the most is the retirement of Anderson. Being 41 years old last season, Anderson provided Buffalo with stability between the pipes at the very least, carrying an 11-11-2 record in 24 starts, posting a .908 SV% and a 3.06 GAA. These are not great numbers by any stretch of the imagination but would end up being some of the better goaltending numbers posted for the Sabres last season. However, if Anderson becomes the biggest loss of the offseason for Buffalo, it would be hard to consider this summer anything other than a complete success for the organization.

Salary Cap Outlook

Even with large extensions kicking in this season for Tage Thompson and Dylan Cozens, as well as carrying the relatively high-cap hit of $9MM for forward Jeff Skinner, the Sabres have one of the cleanest cap futures of any team in the NHL. They will still need to dole out extensions for Dahlin and potentially Power by the end of next summer, but with just over $8.7MM in cap space to start this season, should be able to fit those in rather easily.

There will come a time when Buffalo will likely be forced to move some names from the roster, as having so much top-end talent either on the team or still coming through the pipeline becomes expensive, but that can has been kicked far down the road for this organization. If the team reaches their potential this season, or even next, they will have plenty of cap space to become one of the juggernauts in the Eastern Conference and even the league as a whole.

Key Questions

What’s Their Answer Between The Pipes? Having already been addressed in this piece, it is no secret that Buffalo has had a serious problem with goaltending over the last several years. For the most part, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen does not appear as the long-term answer in the net, and the Sabres appear to be putting all their eggs in the basket of Devon Levi. Levi does have serious long-term potential, but there is always a potential he does not live up to the hype. Luckily for Buffalo, with ample amount of cap space, prospect, and draft capital, they could look to poach already established goaltenders such as Ilya Samsonov, Connor Hellebuyck, Carter Hart, or Jeremy Swayman off the market sometime in the near future.

What Will Dahlin’s Extension Look Like? With one year and $6MM remaining on his current contract, Dahlin has set himself up nicely for a max extension with the Sabres by this time next year. Last season, in 78 games played, Dahlin would score 15 goals and 58 assists, finishing eighth place in Norris voting. Dahlin played much more physically last season than in years past and improved drastically on his defensive numbers as well. There is no question that he has earned a massive extension from the Sabres, but what that will look like is another question in its own right. Buffalo has done incredibly solid work in getting their star players signed to below-market deals and could do the same with Dahlin. If the Sabres are able to sign Dahlin for anything less than $10MM a season at this point, it will be a tremendous success for the team’s front office.

How Will The Team Replace Quinn? The most unfortunate news for the offseason is that the team will be without Quinn to start the regular season. Suffering an Achilles tear while training at the end of June, even by conservative estimates he will not start the season until the end of December. In 75 games last season, Quinn would score 14 goals and 23 assists, showing that he is ready for NHL minutes. To start the year, it likely makes the most sense to start John-Jason Peterka in Quinn’s absence, who had a very similar year last season to Quinn. However, although unlikely, if the top six does not reach expectations in Quinn’s absence, the team could look to bring in hometown star, Patrick Kane, to replace the minutes lost.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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