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Archives for June 2024

Connor Bedard Wins 2023-24 Calder Trophy

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After being the first-overall pick last year, Blackhawks center Connor Bedard was considered the preseason prohibitive favorite to win the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year.  He did just that as the league announced that Bedard won the voting.

The 18-year-old led or co-led all NHL rookies and Chicago in goals (22), assists (39), and points (61) despite missing 14 games with a broken jaw.  Bedard was the second-youngest player in NHL history to finish his year as the rookie scoring leader in all three categories, only Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon was younger.  Meanwhile, he is the second-youngest rookie in league history to lead his team in each category, only Sidney Crosby finished his rookie year at a younger age.

Despite Bedard’s success, there was one other viable contender for the award, that being Minnesota’s Brock Faber.  After quickly becoming an all-around number one blueliner for the Wild, he garnered 42 out of 194 first-place votes.  That said, Bedard got the other 152, allowing him to win the voting by more than 300 ranking points.  New Jersey’s Luke Hughes finished third in voting while a total of 17 players appeared on at least one ballot.

Bedard becomes the tenth player in Blackhawks history to win the award.  He’s the first Chicago player to win since 2015-16 when Artemi Panarin took home the trophy.

Nathan MacKinnon Wins 2023-24 Ted Lindsay Award

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While the NHL has already revealed many of its award winners, there are still five awards being handed out today.  The first of those is the Ted Lindsay Award which the league announced was won by Avalanche winger Nathan MacKinnon.  The award is presented annually to “the most outstanding player in the NHL,” as voted by fellow members of the NHLPA.

This was the third time that the 28-year-old was a finalist for the award (2017-18 and 2019-20 were the others) but he is a first-time winner.  MacKinnon blew past his previous career bests this season, scoring 51 goals and 89 assists; his 140 points were second-most in the NHL while setting a franchise record in the process.  Not surprisingly, he led all Avalanche forwards in ice time.

MacKinnon had a 35-game home point streak, the second-longest streak in NHL history behind Wayne Gretzky.  He also led all scorers in even-strength points (92) and shots on goal (405), also new career highs.  He becomes the second player in franchise history to win the award, joining Joe Sakic, who won back in 2000-01.

The other finalists for the award were Toronto’s Auston Matthews (who led the NHL in goals) and Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov (who tied for the league lead in assists while recording the most points).  Edmonton’s Connor McDavid won the award last year but didn’t quite make the top three in player balloting.

Canucks Sign Tyler Myers To Three-Year Extension

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Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin continues his slew of moves over the past 24 hours. He’s gotten another one of his pending UFAs locked in, now signing defenseman Tyler Myers to a three-year extension worth $9MM ($3MM cap hit). The deal breaks down as follows, per TSN’s Darren Dreger:

2024-25: $3.8MM base salary, no-move clause
2025-26: $2.9MM base salary, no-move clause
2026-27: $2.3MM base salary, 12-team no-trade list

It’s the third player slated to hit the open market this summer that Vancouver has retained thus far. They’ve also re-upped center Teddy Blueger (two years, $1.8MM AAV) and Dakota Joshua (four years, $3.25MM AAV) to continue boasting solid scoring depth among their bottom six forwards.

Under this deal, Myers will return for his sixth, seventh and eighth seasons in Vancouver. The 34-year-old Texas native joined the Canucks in free agency five years ago, inking a deal that was criticized at the time for its $6MM cap hit. His extension represents a pay cut of 50 percent, but it’s about what his market value would have likely been if he became a free agent next week.

He’s likely best used as a bottom-pairing anchor at this stage of his career. That’s where first-year head coach Rick Tocchet deployed him this season, yielding arguably the best results Myers has put up in a Canucks jersey. The veteran put up 29 points in 77 games, his highest point total since his final season with the Jets in 2018-19, and posted a career-high +16 rating with slightly improved possession metrics in more defense-oriented usage. Correspondingly, it was the first time in his 15-year career that he’d averaged under 20 minutes per game.

Whether Myers will still be worth his new cap hit in the final year of his deal, during which he’ll be turning 37, is a fair question to ask. But with the salary cap expected to jump significant amounts each season as the league is in a strong post-COVID financial state, it shouldn’t be too much of a drag as Allvin continues to try and build out a Cup-contending roster in British Columbia.

Since being selected 12th overall by the Sabres in 2008, the hulking 6’8″ defender has 93 goals, 278 assists, 371 points and a +9 rating in 995 career games. Assuming there’s no freak offseason or early-campaign injuries, he’ll become the 395th (or 396th, looking at Luke Schenn) skater in NHL history to hit 1,000 games played.

After this deal, the Nucks have just over $12MM in projected cap space for next season, per CapFriendly. They have four roster spots to fill, notably those of pending UFAs Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov.

Utah Expected To Sign Miko Matikka To Entry-Level Deal

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The Utah Hockey Club is expected to sign right-wing prospect Miko Matikka to his entry-level contract this offseason, reports Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald.

Matikka, 20, was one of the bevy of reserve list players transferred from the Coyotes to Utah when their hockey operations were officially sold to Smith Entertainment Group earlier this month. He was a third-round pick of the Coyotes (67th overall) in 2022, the draft that landed them Logan Cooley, Conor Geekie and Maveric Lamoureux in the first round.

The big-bodied Finn (6’3″, 201 lbs) had spent his draft year in the Finnish top junior league, recording 19 goals and 33 points in 30 games. That was it for him in his native country, though, as he came over to North America in 2022-23 to play for the USHL’s Madison Capitols and Waterloo Black Hawks after a midseason trade. After one season in U.S. juniors, he made the jump to the collegiate ranks, suiting up as a freshman for the University of Denver. He won a national championship on his first try with the Pios, playing a key depth scoring role with 20 goals and 33 points in 43 games.

It’s a tad surprising to see a day-two pick be one-and-done in college, but the organization and the player likely believe there will be more opportunity for development with Utah’s AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners, next season. As indicated by Schlossman’s report, he projects to suit up there should he turn pro and ink his ELC this summer.

Canucks Sign Dakota Joshua To Four-Year Extension

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2:45 p.m.: The breakdown of Joshua’s contract is as follows, per PuckPedia. It includes a 12-team no-trade clause throughout, the same protection that Blueger received last night.

2024-25: $2.25MM base salary, $2MM signing bonus
2025-26: $2MM base salary, $1.5MM signing bonus
2026-27: $2.625MM base salary
2027-28: $1.625MM base salary, $1MM signing bonus

12:29 p.m.: The Canucks have signed pending UFA winger Dakota Joshua to a four-year, $13MM contract, per a team announcement. The deal is good for a $3.25MM cap hit and keeps him from reaching the open market on Monday.

Joshua, 28, is coming off a breakout 2023-24 season in Vancouver. He was limited to 63 games by an upper-body injury but still managed to record career-highs across the board with 18 goals, 14 assists, 32 points and a +19 rating. His 14:23 average time on ice was also a career-high, indicative of the value he provided while sliding into an everyday role in an NHL top nine for the first time. That point total worked out to 0.51 points per game, a major step up from the 0.29 he scored in his first season with the Canucks last year.

Solid depth scoring aside, Joshua is also an impactful checking presence. His 244 hits led the Canucks by a wide margin this season and finished ninth in the league overall. He has some flexibility at center but has played most of his 184 NHL games on the wing.

A fifth-round pick of the Maple Leafs in 2014, Joshua elected not to sign with Toronto when ending his collegiate tenure at Ohio State five years later. His signing rights were dealt to the Blues, where he landed his first NHL contract immediately after being acquired.

Joshua split his first professional season between St. Louis’ AHL and ECHL affiliates before impressing during training camp entering the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season. He spent a good chunk of the campaign on the taxi squad while also earning his first 12 NHL appearances. He didn’t manage to land a full-time role with the Blues the following year, though, and they let him walk as a Group VI UFA in 2022 after he put up nine points in 42 appearances across two seasons.

Vancouver pounced, and he’s now turned into a bonafide third-line talent for them who provided major surplus value for his $825K cap hit last year. Those days are no more, but it’s hard to argue with a $3.25MM AAV if he can repeat last year’s performance. The extension comes in a bit above the $3.173MM AAV Evolving Hockey had projected for Joshua on a four-year deal on the open market, but players of Joshua’s archetype generally land more than models predict when hitting free agency. The deal is shorter but cheaper annually than the similarly-valued Miles Wood, who landed a six-year, $15MM commitment from the Avalanche as a UFA last summer.

Joshua’s extension is the third notable move that general manager Patrik Allvin has made within the last 24 hours. He’s issued a two-year, $3.6MM extension to Latvian pivot Teddy Blueger, who spent a solid chunk of last season as Joshua’s linemate before Elias Lindholm’s acquisition from the Flames pushed him down the depth chart. He also made a cap-clearing trade with the Blackhawks, sending out all but $712.5K of Ilya Mikheyev’s $4.75MM cap hit along with the signing rights to pending UFA forward Sam Lafferty and a 2027 second-round pick. After the trio of transactions, Allvin has just north of $15MM in projected cap space next season with five open roster spots.

Kings, Sharks Swap Kyle Burroughs, Carl Grundström

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The Kings have acquired right-shot defenseman Kyle Burroughs from the Sharks in exchange for the signing rights to RFA winger Carl Grundström, the team announced Thursday.

Burroughs, 28, is coming off a difficult year in which he played a role he was never meant for. After breaking into the league as a fringe bottom-pairing presence with the Canucks in 2021, he landed a three-year, $3.3MM commitment from San Jose on the open market last summer.

After the Sharks traded away reigning Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson to the Penguins later in the summer, it was clear there would be a domino effect on the rest of their defense corps. Many players were projected to be overtaxed while compensating for Karlsson’s loss on a team that was squarely and correctly projected to be a lottery contender. Perhaps no one was overworked more than Burroughs, who was thrust into top-four duties alongside Mario Ferraro.

At first glance, it went about as well as one would expect. Averaging north of 19 minutes per game, Burroughs managed two goals and six assists for eight points in 73 games while posting a -42 rating, worst in the league among defensemen. A more detailed look at his stats does yield some promising signs, though. His pairing with Ferraro controlled 48.1% of expected goals when deployed together, the best among any Sharks pairing with more than 100 minutes played this season. He also met expectations physically, leading the Sharks with 233 hits (fourth in the NHL) and placing second in blocks with 134.

But with younger righties Ty Emberson and Henry Thrun deserving of more minutes next season, alongside an expected UFA addition next week, Burroughs was on the cusp of being the odd man out on the San Jose blue line. While obviously not equipped for top-four minutes long-term, the 2013 seventh-round pick does carry signs that he can be effective in an everyday bottom-pairing role.

In Los Angeles, he’ll fight for a third-pairing role alongside Andreas Englund, who would immediately become one of the most fearsome, hardest-hitting duos in the league. Englund played much less than Burroughs on a nightly basis last season, averaging 13:13 per game, but still managed to finish inside the top 20 in hits league-wide. The Kings do have a pair of up-and-coming righties in Jordan Spence and 2021 eighth-overall pick Brandt Clarke, but both (especially the latter) are candidates to slide into second-pairing duties with Matt Roy likely heading elsewhere in free agency.

While parting with Burroughs, the Sharks pick up some checking forward depth in Grundström. The 26-year-old is now on his third NHL team after being drafted by the Maple Leafs in 2016 but being moved to the Kings before making his NHL debut three years later. They have three days to re-sign him or issue him a qualifying offer to retain his signing rights as an RFA this summer.

Injuries limited Grundström to 50 games last year, in which he scored eight goals and 12 points in fourth-line minutes (10:56 per game). The Swede has had decent possession metrics in SoCal and is also a frequent hitter with a good shot when he gets the chance. He’ll look to carry that solid energy play up north to the Bay, where he joins a bottom-six forward group that’s already seen two new names added this summer in Ty Dellandrea and Barclay Goodrow.

The Sharks can expect a new deal for Grundström to come in at around $1.5MM for a one-year term, Evolving Hockey projects. With over $30MM in projected cap space next season, though, the prospective $400K increase on Burroughs is nearly meaningless.

Burroughs remains under contract for two more seasons in Los Angeles. He can hit the UFA market again in 2026.

Sabres, Sharks Swap 2024 First-Round Picks

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The Sharks have moved up three spots in tomorrow’s first round of the 2024 NHL Draft, acquiring the 11th overall pick from the Sabres, per a team announcement. They’re sending the 14th overall pick back to Buffalo, which they originally acquired from the Penguins in last year’s Erik Karlsson trade, along with the 42nd overall pick, which was previously acquired from the Devils as part of the return for Timo Meier in February 2023.

San Jose general manager Mike Grier now holds a slightly higher pick that should give him a chance to draft a slightly more impactful talent to develop alongside Boston University standout center Macklin Celebrini, who they’ll be taking with the first overall selection in just over 24 hours. It comes at the expense of a decently positioned second-round choice, although they do still have their own second-rounder in addition to the Lightning’s (No. 53). They picked it up via the Red Wings yesterday, along with defenseman Jake Walman.

Sabres GM Kevyn Adams, meanwhile, had the 11th pick on the block as far back as early this month. Most assumed he’d be leveraging it for some win-now help, which today’s move may actually benefit. The difference in value between No. 11 and No. 14 isn’t terribly large in this year’s deep draft class, and he now owns an additional second-round pick to toss into a trade for a top-six forward. Hurricanes pending RFA Martin Nečas and the Jets’ Nikolaj Ehlers remain attractive options available for acquisition.

Buffalo also still has a deep prospect pool of their own, especially at forward. That made the selection expendable in the eyes of many. Just in the past two years, they’ve used first-round picks on left winger Zach Benson (2023, 13th overall), center Jiri Kulich (2022, 28th overall), center Noah Östlund (2022, 16th overall) and center Matthew Savoie (2022, ninth overall).

There is such a thing as too many prospects, especially with all of them on relatively similar timelines. Roster spots won’t exist for all of them, so it was always a sensical choice for the Sabres to leverage this year’s top selection for other assets.

Rangers Hire Grant Potulny As AHL Head Coach

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The Rangers have named Grant Potulny as the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, a team release states. Until recently, he’d held the same role with Northern Michigan University.

Potulny, 44, never played in the NHL but was a fifth-round pick of the Senators in 2000 and had a brief AHL career in the aughts. After retiring in 2009, he became an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota, which he captained to a national championship in 2003. He remained there through 2017 before taking the head job at Northern Michigan, where he’s been since.

In his first season behind the NMU bench, Potulny coached the Wildcats to a 25-win season, their most since 2001-02. He was recognized as the WCHA’s Coach of the Year for his efforts, but he hasn’t received any other honors in the six years since. Potulny has still had a decent recent run of success with the historically overlooked school, advancing to the CCHA tournament final in 2021 and 2023.

Potulny also has some experience with the United States U-20 national team, serving as an assistant at the World Juniors on four occasions. He was part of gold medal-winning squads in 2013 and 2017.

He takes over as Hartford’s full-time coach after Kris Knoblauch left the organization to accept the head coach position with the Oilers in November, eventually leading them to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final. Longtime NHL and AHL assistant Steve Smith took over as interim the rest of the way, but the Rangers didn’t say today whether he’d be returning to the Wolf Pack bench.

Latest On Jacob Trouba

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Rangers captain Jacob Trouba has been the subject of trade speculation ever since their season ended in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final. It seems internal discussions around trading him have gained a fair amount of credibility, as Arthur Staple of The Athletic reports that the team has asked Trouba’s representation for the 15 teams on his no-trade list, which kicks in on July 1 after having a full no-move clause for the past four seasons.

Staple and The Athletic’s Peter Baugh wrote Tuesday that “there’s no indication as of yet that the Rangers are entertaining a Trouba move,” so his report today is the first credible sign that general manager Chris Drury is considering it. No specific teams have yet been linked to the Blueshirts in Trouba trade talks.

Moving out Trouba, who has two seasons remaining at an $8MM cap hit, would open up a significant amount of cap space for Drury to make a big splash in this summer’s free-agent market. New York has been linked to Jake Guentzel, the top left winger available, in recent days after previously pursuing him at this season’s trade deadline.

Coming off arguably his worst season as a Ranger, Trouba likely won’t have much trade value, especially if the Rangers aren’t retaining any salary. The 30-year-old had three goals, 19 assists and 22 points with a -4 rating in 69 games, missing a significant chunk of games near the end of the regular season with an ankle injury.

In the playoffs, he saw his ice time dip to 20:59 per game from 21:15 in the regular season and had a decent offensive showing with a goal and six assists in 16 appearances. His usual pairing with K’Andre Miller struggled to control play at even strength in the postseason, posting an xGF% of 41.5 in 92 minutes together, per MoneyPuck. However, he fared much better in third-pairing usage alongside pending UFA Erik Gustafsson.

He may be their captain, but $8MM is a large chunk of change for someone past his 30th birthday set to potentially begin next season back in a bottom-pairing role with youngster Braden Schneider challenging for his spot in the top four. He’s become expendable, especially considering Schneider needs a new deal as an RFA this summer. Adding depth scoring will also be a priority for Drury, as is freeing up future cap space for an Igor Shesterkin extension. The perennial Vezina candidate will be in line for a mega-deal next summer as he enters his final season under contract at a $5.67MM cap hit.

Senators Sign Matthew Highmore To One-Year Extension

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June 27: The Sens confirmed the details of Highmore’s extension in a media release Thursday.

June 26: According to PuckPedia, the Ottawa Senators have re-signed forward Matthew Highmore to a one-year extension. The deal will pay Highmore an AAV of $775K at the NHL level and $400K at the AHL level. It will be Highmore’s eighth year at the professional level and his second straight season with the Senators organization.

Despite a flurry of injuries to their forward core throughout the regular season, Ottawa only recalled Highmore to play seven games for the team this past season. Highmore tallied two assists while averaging less than eight minutes of ice time per night during those seven contests. For the most part, as he’s largely done for much of his career, Highmore suited up for the Senators’ AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators.

Suiting up in 43 games for the AHL Senators, Highmore scored nine goals and 31 points over 43 games which was good for sixth on the team in scoring. On this new contract, it is more than likely that Highmore will start the year in the AHL but serve as a potential depth option if the forward group succumbs to injury.

Throughout this career, in addition to the Senators, Highmore has suited up for the Chicago Blackhawks, Vancouver Canucks, and St. Louis Blues, totaling 12 goals and 29 points over 146 games. Garnering much more experience at the AHL level, Highmore has scored 59 goals and 156 points in 208 games over five seasons.

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