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Kings Sign 13 Players To Camp Tryout Agreements

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The Kings have released their training camp roster, one that features plenty of players on tryout agreements.  A total of 13 unaffiliated players will be taking part in camp with Los Angeles as they fill out an extended roster with the majority of their NHL roster in Australia for a pair of games against Arizona later this week.

Up front, Ryan Francis, Nathan Burke, Isaac Johnson, Sean Tschigerl, Ty Thorpe, Easton Armstrong, and Sam Alfaro will all be taking part.  They’ll be joined by defensemen Max Coyle, Jacob Modry, Chase Pauls, Samuel Mayer, and Hunter Mayo, along with goaltender Jacob Oster.

Francis, Burke, and Johnson all topped last season at the AHL level with Laval, San Jose, and Manitoba, respectively.  As for Tschigerl, Thorpe, and Alfano, they played at the CHL level with Calgary, Vancouver, and Erie.  The first two are eligible to turn pro now while Alfano, being 19 until January, is ineligible to play in the minors this season.  Armstrong, meanwhile, also was in major junior last year but has already committed to play with Fargo of the USHL in 2023-24.

As for the blueliners, Coyle and Modry played collegiately with Bowling Green State and SUNY-Plattsburgh.  Modry is the son of long-time NHL blueliner Jaroslav Modry who spent parts of ten seasons with Los Angeles.  Pauls, Mayer, and Mayo all played in the CHL with Lethbridge, Peterborough, and Red Deer.  Pauls and Mayer are AHL-eligible but Mayo is not.  Oster is also ineligible to play in the minors and is likely ticketed to return to OHL Oshawa.

For the majority of these players, they’ll be looking to land a contract with AHL Ontario, the Kings’ affiliate at that level or at least get an invite to their training camp.  For the junior-only players, they’ll be hoping for an entry-level contract or to at least get on an NHL radar moving forward.  It’s not often that a team brings in this many players on training camp tryouts but odds being odds, at least one or two of them will get an extended look beyond the next few weeks.

Columbus Blue Jackets Issue Multiple Injury Updates

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Ahead of training camps opening, the Columbus Blue Jackets released the injury status of four players:

D Jake Bean – out week-to-week with an abductor strain (groin)
F Kirill Marchenko – out day-to-day with back strain
F Mathieu Olivier – out week-to-week with a leg injury
G Daniil Tarasov – out day-to-day with a knee injury

The news sounds especially disappointing for the young Bean, who was limited to just 14 games last season thanks to a shoulder injury. The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline relays he’s likely to miss the most time out of any player on this list, putting his availability for the beginning of the regular season in doubt.

It hasn’t been a smooth journey for the 2016 13th overall pick, as his development has been interrupted by injuries on multiple occasions. Without a clear path to a full-time roster spot with the team that drafted him in Carolina, the Hurricanes traded him to Columbus at the 2021 draft in a series of deals that saw Seth Jones head from Columbus to the Chicago Blackhawks. Bean seemed to put some things together in his first season with Columbus, notching 25 points in 67 games while earning a top-four role and posting acceptable possession numbers.

When he can make his season debut, he likely won’t get the same opportunity. After acquiring Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson this summer, Columbus’ top four is full, and there’s simply no way Bean will get the nearly 21 minutes per game he got in 2021-22. Missing training camp will only hurt matters, as his competitors for ice time will have more of a chance to show new head coach Pascal Vincent that they’re deserving of NHL ice.

Olivier is the other player whose absence is tabbed as longer-term. Portzline says this was a known factor for Columbus, as Olivier played the tail end of last season with a broken bone in his leg and experienced “complications” during offseason recovery. It’s unclear when exactly we can expect Olivier to return to the team. The 26-year-old enforcer scored a career-high 15 points in 66 games last season, his first in Columbus after beginning his pro career with the Nashville Predators. The spot he vacates in the lineup gives more opportunity for players like the returning Alexandre Texier and youngsters like Cole Sillinger and Dmitri Voronkov to gain spots on the team’s opening-night roster.

Marchenko’s and Tarasov’s absences are shorter-term and not expected to stretch into the regular season. Portzline says that both players would be available if the regular season began tomorrow and also clarified that Tarasov’s knee injury is not connected to the one that limited him to just four NHL contests in 2021-22.

East Notes: Nylander, Pinto, Lafrenière

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are returning to an experiment that’s yielded middling returns at best when tried in the past. Head coach Sheldon Keefe is beginning training camp by utilizing William Nylander at center, putting the Swede back in the position he played when he was drafted in a crucial year for both team and player.

In theory, the move could pay serious dividends if kept long-term. It allows Keefe to roll out Nylander, Auston Matthews and John Tavares on three separate units while letting David Kämpf hone his shutdown specialty in a fourth-line role. If Nylander can adapt to playing down the middle, it would also give more support to a rag-tag group of wingers made up of skilled free-agent signings on one-year deals and youngsters looking to prove they can handle full-time roles. He hasn’t ever stuck as a full-time center, however, and he was famously moved there by former head coach Mike Babcock during the postseason early in his career. It didn’t work out – he scored just three goals through his first three playoff series, but he’s exploded since then and solidified himself as a consistent playoff performer – which is more than other stars on the team can say.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference today:

  • Things are still progressing on the Shane Pinto front for the Ottawa Senators. The RFA remains without a contract as training camp looms in a matter of hours now, but general manager Pierre Dorion tells TSN’s Claire Hanna he’s getting “creative” in freeing up cap space to sign the young center. Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch also chimed in today, reporting the Sens and Pinto aren’t far apart on a new deal but that many moving parts (i.e., creating cap space via trade) still need to get worked out. While it’s anyone’s guess if Pinto will be in attendance for the first day of training camp, it does seem the wheels are in motion to make things work, and it won’t be too much longer before he reports, new contract in hand.
  • New York Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette says he’ll open camp with 2020 first-overall pick Alexis Lafrenière at right wing. Many have speculated a move to his off-wing could be beneficial for the 21-year-old, who’s struggled to find ice time on the left wing behind Chris Kreider and Artemi Panarin. It could work out to be a prudent move for the Rangers’ new bench boss, as getting both Lafrenière and Kaapo Kakko clicking in top-six roles out of the gate alongside the team’s veteran firepower would be incredibly impactful for their long-term futures with the team.

Andrei Svechnikov Expected To Be Ready For Start Of Regular Season

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Carolina Hurricanes winger Andrei Svechnikov is ahead of schedule in his recovery from reconstructive knee surgery performed in March and will likely be cleared to play by the start of the 2023-24 regular season, general manager Don Waddell told The Athletic’s Michael Russo today.

Svechnikov tore an ACL ligament just after the trade deadline had passed, resulting in surgery that kept him out for the remainder of the 2022-23 regular season and playoffs. It was a gigantic blow to the scoring ability of a Hurricanes team that still managed to reach the Eastern Conference Final without him but lost in a sweep to the Florida Panthers. Carolina has now lost three consecutive Conference Final series without winning a game – in fact, the franchise, despite all their recent success, has not won a game in the final two postseason rounds since winning the Stanley Cup in 2006.

Being ready for the start of the regular season was always a possibility but never a certainty. The standard recovery timeline for his procedure is six to nine months, meaning he could have returned as early as training camp but as late as the Christmas break. There’s been a tone of optimism around Svechnikov’s recovery all summer after he started skating in mid-July, but Waddell stopped short of saying he’d be ready to go for the season opener as soon as last month.

A healthy and confident Svechnikov will be a core piece in helping the Hurricanes get over the hump and again compete for a Stanley Cup. After reshaping their blueline to have the most depth in the league, thanks to adds like Dmitry Orlov, Anthony DeAngelo and Caleb Jones, the Hurricanes are in the conversation for President’s Trophy favorites ahead of puck drop on 2023-24.

Svechnikov is entering the third season of an eight-year, $62MM contract signed before the 2021-22 campaign. The 23-year-old is still looking to eclipse the point-per-game mark for the first time but was still on pace for back-to-back 30-goal seasons before the ACL tear ended his campaign prematurely. He totalled 23 goals, 32 points and 55 points in 64 games last year and has accumulated 112 goals in 347 games throughout his NHL career.

He’s currently projected to help anchor the team’s second forward line on the left wing, with Jesperi Kotkaniemi down the middle and Martin Necas on the right flank. That line controlled 56.9% of expected goals at even strength through 231 minutes together last season, per MoneyPuck. Youngster Seth Jarvis and free-agent acquisition Michael Bunting could get primary even-strength ice time with Sebastian Aho as their center to start the season.

Calgary Flames Sign Jonathan Aspirot To PTO

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The Calgary Flames will have career AHLer Jonathan Aspirot in training camp on a professional tryout, according to their training camp roster released Wednesday. If signed to an NHL or AHL deal, it’ll be his second pro organization after spending the last four seasons with the Ottawa Senators’ AHL affiliate in Belleville.

The 24-year-old Aspirot has appeared exclusively for Belleville since turning pro in 2019 and can play both defense and left wing, although he’s listed on Calgary’s roster as a defenseman. He’s amassed 19 goals, 44 assists and 63 points in 161 AHL games, certainly respectable numbers for a physical bottom-of-the-lineup defender. He’s a career +10 player across those four seasons in Belleville, too.

An undrafted free agent, Aspirot initially signed an AHL deal with Belleville for the 2019-20 and earned a three-year, entry-level contract with Ottawa the following summer. He never received a call-up to the Sens’ roster, however, aside from a few days on the team’s taxi squad during the 2020-21 season. As such, the team did not issue him a qualifying offer in June, and he became an unrestricted free agent.

It may be tough for him to earn a contract with the Flames, however. They already have seven defensemen under contract expected to be assigned to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers. However, the Wranglers do have just one defenseman under AHL contract – 24-year-old Jarrod Gourley, who spent most of last season in the ECHL. Aspirot would provide the Wranglers with more quality depth should the Flames need to recall multiple of their mainstay defenders to the NHL roster due to injuries and provide more competition for the Flames’ young prospects.

Aspirot will be the only Flames player attending camp on a tryout who did not have a previous tie to the organization.

Injury Notes: Norris, Ekholm, Poolman

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The Ottawa Senators’ playoff hopes were dashed last season in large part due to the absence of second-line center Josh Norris from the lineup. A shoulder injury sustained during training camp limited him to just eight games, but the team hoped he’d be fully ready to go this season after shutting him down for the 2022-23 campaign in January. That may not be the case, as general manager Pierre Dorion said today Norris will wear a non-contact jersey to begin training camp after tweaking something partially related to his shoulder during a captains’ skate last week.

“Josh doesn’t want to wear [the non-contact jersey], but he’ll wear one for a short period of time,” Dorion said. “If the regular season was starting, he’d be playing, just being extra cautious with ongoing rehab.” The 24-year-old centerman is entering the second season of an eight-year, $63.6MM extension signed in July 2022. In 2021-22, his last mostly healthy season, he notched 35 goals and 55 points in 66 contests.

Some other unfortunate injury news as some teams return to the ice for main camps today:

  • Edmonton Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm is dealing with a minor hip flexor injury and won’t be a full participant when the team’s training camp begins tomorrow, general manager Ken Holland informed reporters, including TSN’s Ryan Rishaug. It’s unclear whether this is an injury that was sustained last season and hasn’t fully healed or whether it’s something Ekholm sustained during the offseason. He didn’t miss any games after coming over from the Nashville Predators prior to last season’s trade deadline. The 33-year-old Swede, who has three seasons remaining on a deal carrying a $6.25MM cap hit, notched five goals and 21 points in 33 regular-season and playoff games in an Oilers jersey to close out the previous campaign. He is once again expected to play a pivotal top-four role and remains a valuable second-pair partner to growing power-play dynamo Evan Bouchard.
  • The Vancouver Canucks confirmed the expected news that defenseman Tucker Poolman will begin the season on long-term injured reserve and won’t attend their training camp. Poolman has suffered from migraines stemming from concussions for multiple seasons and last suited up for the Canucks at the beginning of 2022-23. He’s played in just 43 games for the Canucks since signing a four-year, $10MM contract with them in free agency in 2021.

Montreal Canadiens’ Christian Dvorak Will Miss First Month Of Season

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Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes confirmed to reporters, including TVA’s Renaud Lavoie, today that center Christian Dvorak will not make his season debut until at least November. At a minimum, he will miss the first nine games of 2023-24 after undergoing knee surgery in mid-March.

Hughes said last week that Dvorak, 27, was not yet cleared to play and needed to have an additional consultation with his surgeon. He declined to give a timeline at that moment, but the team now has additional clarity on the status of his recovery. He is behind schedule, as the team initially expected Dvorak to be ready for the start of 2023-24 when he went under the knife over six months ago.

The Palos, Illinois, native has two seasons under his belt as a Hab after coming over from the Arizona Coyotes via trade during the 2021 offseason. Since then, he’s occupied the team’s second-line center role behind Nick Suzuki when healthy – a key caveat given he’s only played in 120 out of 164 possible games in Montreal. Even when in the lineup last season, he struggled heavily, posting ten goals and 18 assists for 28 points in 64 games. That works out to 0.44 points per game, his lowest scoring rate in a full season since putting up 0.42 points per game in his rookie campaign, 2016-17.

All that means Dvorak is slated for a diminished role this season when he does reach full health. Unless the team moves him to the wing, he could very well end up as Montreal’s fourth-line center or even occasionally sitting in the press box. Behind Suzuki, Kirby Dach and Sean Monahan are currently projected to center the second and third lines. They both produced at a higher rate and averaged more ice time than Dvorak in 2022-23. Dvorak has played some left-wing at the NHL level in the past, though, and he could still find himself in a top-nine role if names like Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Juraj Slafkovsky haven’t done enough to demonstrate they belong on the team’s top three lines through the first month of the season.

A silver lining here for Montreal is some potential increased salary cap flexibility. If they deem Dvorak is set to miss a little bit at the beginning of November as well, that would translate to him being out of the lineup for at least ten games and 24 days. That makes him eligible for long-term injured reserve at the beginning of the season, and combined with de facto retired netminder Carey Price’s $10.5MM cap hit, Dvorak’s $4.45MM cap hit could add more options for Hughes to manage Montreal’s books out of the gate for the most efficient use of LTIR relief.

Lightning Haven’t Spoken To Stamkos About Contract Extension

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Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos had a frank interview with reporters that appeared on Sportsnet today. In the interview, Stamkos tells reporters that he and the team have yet to start discussions on an extension to his expiring contract. The interview created a buzz and even led Lightning General Manager Julien BriseBois to respond with an interview of his own.

The 33-year-old Stamkos is set to begin his 16th season with the club and is coming off back-to-back productive seasons after he was slowed by injuries for a few years. Stamkos posted 34 goals and 50 assists last season in 81 games and was even better the year before posting 42 goals and 64 assists in 81 games.

It’s no surprise that Stamkos is looking for long-term security after taking a big discount on his last contract to remain in Tampa Bay. Back in June 2016 Stamkos signed an eight-year $68MM extension to remain in Tampa Bay and opted to forego unrestricted free agency. The contract turned out to be a win-win as Stamkos was able to raise the Stanley Cup twice with the Lightning and the team was able to keep their captain at a bargain.

Also of little surprise are Stamkos’ feelings about the situation, Tampa Bay typically engages the players they want to extend well before the completion of their existing deals. This has been modus operandi in the past, and it begs the question as to whether or not they want to extend Stamkos at all.

From Tampa’s perspective, BriseBois was frank with Tampa Bay beat reporter Chris Krenn saying that he wanted to see the season play out before making a decision on Stamkos’ future. He also added that after the season he would work with Stamkos and his agent to hammer out a deal that works for all parties involved.

It should be an interesting season in Tampa Bay as the Lightning are coming off a season in which they took a big step back and were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Lightning looked tired at times after three straight runs to the Stanley Cup final, but should be rested this season after a long summer.

Arizona Coyotes Extend Jan Jenik

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The Arizona Coyotes announced today that they signed forward Jan Jenik to a one-year contract for the upcoming season. This marks a drastic turn from what seemed likely a month ago. At the time it was reported that Jenik was seeking a trade after not accepting his qualifying offer, but for now, it appears that his trade request is on hold, although nothing has been reported.

The native of Nymburk, Czech Republic was drafted by the Coyotes in the third round of the 2018 NHL entry draft and has yet to make much of a mark on the NHL. In 17 career games with the Coyotes the 23-year-old has posted just four goals and a single assist while posting a -3. While those numbers don’t jump off the page, context is important as he has a very small sample size and has started almost 61% of his shifts in the defensive zone.

As you would expect, Jenik has had far more success in the AHL as last year he registered seven goals and 16 assists in 30 games with the Tucson Roadrunners.  Over the course of his AHL career, Jenik has posted 30 goals and 54 assists in 110 games all with the Roadrunners.

No financial details of the contract have been released and the deal appears to be of the two-way variety. This contract probably wasn’t Jenik’s first choice, but he has stated previously that his dream is to play in the NHL, and this will allow him to become a restricted free agent once again next summer.

Paul Byron Announces Retirement

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The Montreal Canadiens have announced that former forward Paul Byron is retiring from playing hockey. Byron won’t be out of work long though as the club has also named him a Player Development Consultant with the team. The Ottawa, Ontario native spent seven years with the Canadiens after starting his career with the Buffalo Sabres and having a four-year run with the Calgary Flames.

Byron’s best season came in 2016-17 as a member of the Canadiens when he posted 22 goals and 21 assists in 81 games. He followed that up with a pair of strong seasons before injuries began to derail his career in 2019-20. Byron played for a number of years with a severe hip injury even taking cortisone injections at times to try and get through the pain of the ailment.

Byron eventually had surgery on his left hip and missed half of the 2021-22 season. He returned to play his 500th career NHL game and even scored a goal during the milestone event. Last season the Canadiens placed Byron on LTIR, and he did not return, missing the final season of his four-year contract.

It’s an unfortunate end for Byron, but it is a positive to see him still involved with hockey and the Canadiens. One can only hope that Byron’s injury is able to heal over time as his body will no longer take the physical toll that comes with being an NHL player. He will finish his NHL career with 98 career goals to go along with 110 assists in 521 career games.

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