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Maple Leafs Reportedly Closing In On Jhonas Enroth

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are close to signing goaltender Jhonas Enroth, according to a report from Sweden’s Expressen, an English translation of which can be found at The Leafs Nation. The report describes the talks as “advanced” and that the contract is “all but signed.”

Enroth, 28, began his career with the Buffalo Sabres last season, before being dealt mid-season to the Dallas Stars. He signed with the Los Angeles Kings as an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2015. While in Los Angeles, he put up a .922 save percentage in 16 games. Enroth’s career save percentage sits at .911, and .922 while playing at even strength.

The NHL Can’t Have A Kevin Durant, Not Just Because Of The Cap

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After NBA superstar Kevin Durant joined the record-breaking 73 win Golden State Warriors in free agency this year, a major question around all sports was whether it come happen outside of the NBA. It’s rare to see the best players join an already loaded team, but this is the second time this decade it’s happened in the NHL. So, you may ask, is it possible in hockey?

The NHL salary cap is more restrictive, and teams leave themselves with less room to work. NBA contract are a maximum of four or five years, so you don’t see declining former stars on the seventh or eighth years of their contracts weighing down their team’s cap situation. You’re also far less likely, in the NBA, to see depth players signed to longer term deals for significant money. Because there are certain mild exemptions to the NBA salary cap, like the ability to go over the cap if you pay a player the minimum allowable salary for a veteran, a team can, in theory, start an off-season with very few players on the roster, load up, and fill out the team with any of the many useful free agents willing to play for a chance to win a championship.

That’s not the only problem with the idea, but it relates to the next one. If NHL free agency was more similar to baseball, and players often signed purely for the highest bidder, free agency would be more active in general. Had Steven Stamkos decided he cared most about money, he could have joined the Toronto Maple Leafs or Buffalo Sabres. Because the monetary difference is smaller, and the best teams in hockey vary less year to year than in baseball, hockey players look for situations where they can win. This is similar to how NBA free agency works, but because of a more restrictive cap, it’s not like a player like Stamkos can look around find another legitimate contender willing to pay him more money. While it’ reported the Western Conference champion San Jose Sharks were involved, it would have been hard to offer any more money than the Lightning, and with many of the Sharks best players getting older, it makes more sense for Stamkos to stay where he is. Other regulars in contention, the Los Angeles Kings, Chicago Blackhawks, Anaheim Ducks, St. Louis Blues, and Pittsburgh Penguins, plainly lacked the money to do so.

There’s also the difficulty of making it to free agency to begin with. A player can hit free agency at 25 if he starts in the NHL at 18, 26 for 19 year old debutants, and 27 for all others. Teams carry extraordinary leverage beyond that, and push for longer deals. If you have a player who ends the league at 19, and he plays out his rookie deal, and the team is impressed enough to push for an eight year deal, the player has little leverage to fight for a shorter deal, especially before arbitration, and risks any number of career and production threatening injuries trying to get a deal that makes them a free agent before they turn 30. In a physical sport like hockey, as much as the team wants to avoid a scenario where their star players hit free agency in their mid-twenties, players aren’t going to rush to turn down long term job security for a chance at cashing in, or playing with their friends, in their home towns, or for a contender any time soon.

The final point to remember is that if the NHL had a super-team, nobody would notice. In the NBA game, the starters play a higher percentage of the minutes, and the knowledge that Steph Curry, Kevin Durrant, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green are all on the floor at once is a constant. The Red Wings and Blackhawks both added Marian Hossa to loaded teams, and the Penguins last summer acquired Phil Kessel. But there are just so many minutes that end up geting played by bottom of the roster players, even a team as loaded as Pittsburgh is going to end up having times where the skaters on the ice are five guys you’ve never heard of.

If you’re a team looking to get a big name free agent who can impact your team in a serious way, there’s probably one way, and thats building a contender with low payroll contenders. It helps if, like the Blackhawks a few years ago, you manage to become that contender while your stars are on rookie deals. They managed to bring in Hossa, Brian Campbell, and Cristobal Huet. If you commit your money and term to the very best players, your depth is fairly easy to replace year in and year out, and it provides that flexibility. But until that happens, there’s not a great reason for the biggest names to test the market, or even think about some kind of super-team.

Snapshots: KHL, Burrows, Oilers, Blues, Moore

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Former Blue Jackets’ forward Alexandre Picard and former Hurricanes’ defenseman Brett Bellemore, have signed today to play for Red Star Kalunin, the new KHL expansion team in China, according to KHL reporter Alvis Kalnins. Picard, 30, was taken eighth overall by the Blue Jackets in the 2004 entry draft, and last played in the NHL in 2010. Bellemore, 28, has played 121 NHL games, all with the Hurricanes, the last of which came in 2015.

Here are some more links from throughout the day.

  • Canucks forward Alex Burrows is hopeful for a bounce back season in 2017, writes Dhiren Mahiben of The Hockey News. Burrows had just nine goals, 22 points last year, in what has to be considered one of the worst states of his career. As a 35 year old on the last year of his contract, he may be staring at the end of his NHL career, but Burrows tells Mahiben that he has been assured by management that there remains a spot for him in the lineup.
  • Also from The Hockey News, Mike Brophy went over some of his scattered off-season thoughts. Among other subjects, Brophy speculates that Connor McDavid may be soon in line for the Oilers’ captaincy, and questions how long teams will continue to take chances on Buffalo Sabres’ forward Evander Kane. There were reports of the Sabres shopping Kane earlier this summer. Kane was recently charged with harassment after allegedly attacking two women in a bar.
  • Greg Wyshynski at Puck Daddy writes today on the St. Louis Blues, and how they intend to move forward with their young core after losing veteran Brian Elliott, David Backes, and Troy Brouwer. As Wyshnyski discussed, the Blues will rely more heavily this year on their under-25 core, including Robby Fabbri, Colton Parayko, Jaden Schwartz, and Vladimir Tarasenko, as well as 26-year old defenseman Alex Pietrangelo.
  • Luke Fox of Sportsnet writes today about the future of former New York Rangers’ center Dominic Moore. Fox writes that the Rangers appear to have moved on, but that Moore, 35, has multiple offers on the table as he considers his future. Moore’s production has declined in recent years, but data suggests he’s been playing some of the tougher minutes in the NHL as of late.

Central Scouting Releases Initial 2017 Draft Rankings

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Central Scouting today released its annual pre-season ranking of North American and European players eligible for the upcoming NHL entry draft. To nobody’s surprise, Brandon Wheat Kings center Nolan Patrick topped the list of North Americans. Patrick, born in September of 1998, put up 102 points in 71 games in the WHL this year, and added 30 more in just 21 playoff games.

The top ranked European-based prospect was Kristian Vesalainen, who turned 17 last month, and last year had two points in 19 games playing for Frolunda in Sweden. Other top prospects include Victoriaville’s Maxime Comtois, Kelowna’s Callan Foote, and Mississauga’s Nicolas Hague.

The list defines “North American” as a player who plays in a North American league, meaning that an American player playing in Europe, like Auston Matthews last year, would be ranked among the European skaters. Similarly, Swede Alex Nylander, who played last year for the OHL’s Mississauga Steelheads, was ranked among the North American skaters.

Unresolved Off-Season Stories

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Most of the focus of the off-season is on the top unrestricted free agents. Most of them are off the board by now, but there are still plenty of pressing plotlines left to be explored. Whether it’s extension talks, possible trades, or area of needs for a particular team, there’s still plenty left to do. Here are some of the biggest issues that are yet to be resolved.

  • Kevin Shattenkirk: The Blues’ defenseman has been subject to trade rumors all summer, and for much of his career, with various sources linking him to the Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Boston Bruins. Several sources reported that the Oilers could have had him in exchange for Taylor Hall, and balked because he remained unsigned, had no intention of re-signing, and prefers to play on the east coast. Shattenkirk grew up in Westchester, and given their tendency to sign big name free agents, one may wonder if “east coast” mostly means the New York Rangers. This late into the summer, the Blues may have decided to hold onto him, given how close they were to last year’s finals.
  • Rangers’ Cap: The Rangers managed to clear some space trading Derick Brassard to the Ottawa Senators for fellow center Mika Zibanejad. The Rangers have a lot of work to do, after falling off from a hot start, being unceremoniously dumped out of the first round of the playoffs by the eventual champion Pittburgh Penguins, and once again relying heavily on goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who turned 34 in March. The Rangers also had several expensive players disappoint last year, including Marc Staal (signed until 2021), Dan Girardi (2020), and Rick Nash (2018). If they are to make a move for Shattenkirk, or make many improvements at all, they’ll have to clear cap space. Their second buyout window may tempt them into cutting their losses with Girardi, and there’s been trade speculation surround Nash for a while now.
  • Stars’ Goaltending: No playoff team allowed more goals than the Dallas Stars this year, and in the entire league, only the Calgary Flames had a lower team save percentage. Two of the top available goaltenders, former Blue Brian Elliott, now of the Flames, and former Duck Frederik Andersen, now of the Maple Leafs, are off the market. There’s been a lot of talk about Tampa Bay’s Ben Bishop, given his pending free agent status, the Lightning’s cap situation, and the percieved promise of backup Andrei Vasilevskiy, who turns 22 on Monday. Still, a Stanley Cup contender in Tampa Bay may not be keen on moving an established star in Bishop, the runner up for this year’s Vezina trophy, to run with someone unproven. There aren’t a lot of other option out there, though there’s been trade talk surrounding the Penguins’ Marc-Andre Fleury, and they may end up having to wait until mid-season to get a goaltender. Incumbents Antti Niemi and Kari Lehtonen are under contract at $10.4MM combined per year in the mean time.
  • Ducks’ Budget: The Ducks don’t really have a lot of work to do this offseason. They never did, having won their division, and clearly deciding that coaching was the problem, rather than their core of players. Still, they’re a budget team, with just under $65MM in budgetary commitments, though some of that will be eased by the Maple Leafs, having already paid half of the newly acquired Jonathan Bernier’s salary in his July signing bonus. But they still have to sign restricted free agents Rickard Rakell and Hampus Lindholm, and the betting was on the Ducks moving one of their young defensemen this off-season. The Ducks would probably do just about anything possible to keep Lindholm, Sami Vatanen, or Josh Manson, but they’ve displayed a willingness to move Cam Fowler for the right price. It’s difficult to say what exactly they’ll do now, given that the market clearly isn’t paying the Ducks’ asking price for Fowler, but it’s more likely they’ll lower their price for him than let someone like Lindholm go.

Snapshots: Lightning, Subban, Patrick, Coyotes

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The Bleacher Report’s Adrian Dater answered Twitter questions today, and when asked which team won the off-season, he went with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Dater’s reasoning is popular, that GM Steve Yzerman managed to convince his biggest name player, Steven Stamkos, to stay at a price lower than many expected, he was able to re-sign Victor Hedman a year before free agency, and extended Alex Killorn as well, while leaving more than enough cap space to re-sign Nikita Kucherov long-term.

With respect to Dater, and he’s far from alone in saying this, it’s not really as thrilling as the names involved would imply. Yzerman carries a sort of reverence through the hockey world, and will be praised profusely with little effort, despite the fact that his accomplishments this off-season are mostly things contending team GMs do with little problem. Dallas Stars’ forward Jamie Benn also signed a long term contract a year out from free agency, and the Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews have never really come close to the open market. Stamkos getting as far as speaking to other teams is an anomaly itself. After Yzerman’s messy situation with Stamkos’ mentor Martin St. Louis, his re-upping of a coach who Stamkos reportedly dislikes, and who played him out of position, his offer which was well below what others were willing to pay, and the trade demand by the team’s best young player in Jonathan Drouin, it’s fair to wonder if this was really a wooing by Yzerman, or if he Stamkos signed because he looked around at the other options and couldn’t find a fit. Yzerman has done some great work in Tampa, but Stamkos staying rather than taking more money from his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs, or close to home Detroit Red Wings or Buffalo Sabres, is likely the result of the work Yzerman did years ago in making the Lightning a team a player wouldn’t want to leave to begin with. Yzerman’s best move of 2016 may just be not giving into Drouin’s trade demand, understanding the leverage he held, the attractiveness of the Lightning situation, and the fickleness of the typical 21 year old.

More snapshots from around the hockey world:

  • NHL.com has some quotes on PK Subban today from around the Predators’ organization. Subban touches on the lack of distraction in Nasvhille, and GM David Poile responds to talk about Subban’s personality saying that while some would prefer a more homogeneous group, the Predators “don’t want that. We can’t win with 20 players that are exactly the same, either skill-wise or personality-wise. I want different types of players, and I want different personalities.”
  • James O’Brien at NBC Pro Hockey Talk profiles the Brandon Wheat Kings’ Nolan Patrick today. Patrick, the son of former NHLer Steve Patrick, and newphew of former NHLer James Patrick, is expected to be taken with the first pick in the 2017 NHL entry draft.
  • Craig Morgan of Arizona Sports quotes on Twitter Coyotes GM Jonathan Chayka suggesting that today’s signing of former Kings’ defenseman Luke Schenn could open up room for the team to offload an extra defenseman.

Speculative Suitors For Kris Russell

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Yesterday we talked about the market for former Stars’ defenseman Kris Russell as reported by Andy Strickland, a Blues reporter for Fox Sports Midwest. On the 23rd day of free agency, Russell remains unsigned. This is surprising to an extent, since most assumed he’d be one of the few to sign a big money contract right away. Still, similar situations have happened before, including with defenseman Cody Franson last summer. Below are some teams that may have some interest in Russell, and who may be able to pay for him, given the right circumstances.

  • Ottawa Senators: The Ottawa Senators currently have just six defensemen under contract for next year, and while that doesn’t count restricted free agent Cody Ceci, it does count Chris Wideman, Mike Kostka, and Mark Borowiecki, who are far from locks for serious NHL ice time. The team also lacks particularly strong defensemen, outside of Erik Karlsson, and while Russell has his detractors in the analytics community, a team that took on Dion Phaneuf without any retained salary seems like a likely one to use their own evaluation methods.
  • Buffalo Sabres: The Sabres, similarly to the Senators, have six defensemen under contract, and one in Rasmus Ristolainen who is currently an unsigned restricted free agent, and one in Justin Falk, who’s yet to play serious minutes in the NHL, at 27 years old. One advantage the Sabres have in this situation is that with Franson, Ristolainen, and Zach Bogosian all being right handed, they can accomodate a left handed shot better than most teams. As mentioned earlier, Franson was an unsigned free agent far later into last summer than anyone anticipated, after talk of an expensive long term asking price, and ended up with the Sabres on a lower money, two year deal.
  • Detroit Red Wings: Detroit has five defensemen under contract, in addition to the unsigned Danny DeKeyser. Once DeKeyser’s re-signed, there isn’t an obvious candidate to sit as the number seven defenseman in case of injuries, and they’re already mildly unbalanced in terms of handedness, carrying four left handers, and two right handers. Still, there’s been talk of the Wings improving their defense for a while now, and should they be able to clear out someone like Jonathan Ericsson or Jimmy Howard, which they’ll likely have to do to re-sign DeKeyser and goalie Petr Mrazek anyway, they could concievably be a fit for Russell, if GM Ken Holland values him more than one of his current defensemen, and should Ericsson be the one moved out, Russell would be a natural replacement.
  • Edmonton Oilers: This is another scenario that really depends on how much the team values its current defenders. Andrew Ference was still injured during the buyout period, and so still on the roster, but between the injuries, his heavy decline, and his expiring contract, it’s hard to see him getting much ice time. The real questions are about what the Oilers want to do with Mark Fayne, who was waived and demoted this past season, and Jordan Oesterle, who has impressed in Bakersfield, and just turned 24, but who has just 23 NHL games to his credit, and is on a two way contract. We know the Oilers want to get better, and physical players are favored by GM Peter Chiarelli, but Ference was also once a physical, undersized, veteran free agent signing.
  • Winnipeg Jets: The Jets have a large defense core as it is, but they also have tops of cap room, and a lot of their defensemen are cheaper veterans like Paul Postma and Brian Strait, who’d be easily stashed in the minors. It’s not a pressing need, but you can see why a team might make a less than necessary upgrade to their defense later in the summer if it’s possible, and the price tag is lower than originally imagined. Still, the Jets have a history of caution in the free agent market.

Snapshots: Brayden Schenn, O’Byrne, Giroux, Shattenkirk, The Players’ Tribune

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Greg Paone of CSNPhilly writes today that a shorter term deal could be beneficial to both the Philadelphia Flyers and forward Brayden Schenn, as they look to avoid an arbitration battle. Paone argues that Schenn’s first five years as a Flyer have been marked by inconsistency, and the Flyers may not be ready to bet on him just yet. On the other hand, Schenn, coming off the best year of his career, could get a bigger deal later on, by betting on himself and going out and producing the same kind of totals he did this year. It may be worth noting that Brayden Schenn’s career points and goals per game numbers are just shy of those put up by Leafs’ forward Nazem Kadri, taken two pick after him in the 2009 entry draft, and who signed a six-year contract jut after the season, with a $4.5MM average annual value.

More news and links from around the NHL:

  • Former Canadiens, Avalanche, and Maple Leafs’ defenseman Ryan O’Byrne has announced his retirement from professional hockey. O’Byrne, who is perhaps most famous for an odd arrest involving a woman’s purse, last played in the NHL in 2013, during the Maple Leafs’ infamous series with the Boston Bruins. O’Byrne played this past season for HV71 of the Swedish league.
  • Joey Alfieri of NBC Pro Hockey Talk reports good news for Flyers fans. Claude Giroux skated today, a week sooner than he was expected to. Giroux, who had been expected to miss 10-12 weeks following hip surgery, scored 22 goals, 67 points in 78 games of what is actually a bit of a down year, given his normal production. That said, he was likely playing hurt for a portion of that, and was still selected to represent Canada at the World Cup of Hockey.
  • Andy Graziano, an Islanders columnist for SNY in New York, notes NHL.com’s Brian Compton’s assertion that the Rangers aren’t done, and reports that talks for Blues’ defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk are “heating back up.” Shattenkirk has been tied to the Rangers repeatedly this summer, and the recent Derick Brassard trade managed to clear some cap room.
  • Speaking of the Rangers, former Ranger Brian Leetch and current Ranger Dominic Moore took the The Players’ Tribune today. Moore wrote in advance of his annual charity ping pong tournament to benefit research for concussions, brain injuries, and ran cancers, and Leetch discussed the assortment of legends he got to play with in his time in New York.

Maple Leafs Sign Auston Matthews To Entry Level Deal

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The Toronto Maple Leafs announced via their website today that they’ve signed 2016’s first overall draft pick, Auston Matthews.

Matthews, who will be 19 when the season starts, played last year with Zurich of the Swiss league, finishing fourth in goals, with 24, and tenth in points with 46, playing just 36 games in a 50 game schedule. He was selected first overall by the Leafs, and has been involved in an apparently mild contract dispute over performance bonuses that Leafs’ GM Lou Lamoriello has a philosophical opposition to.

The deal will be three years long, as are all entry level deals, and according to Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston, will include the max salary and all performance bonuses. General Fanager reports that this means Matthews will carry a base cap-hit of $925k per season, but with bonuses that can add up to as high as $3.775MM. Should the Maple Leafs spend above the cap due to rookie bonuses, they will be penalized by that amount the following year. The Globe and Mail’s James Mirtle quotes Matthews’ agent Pat Brisson confirming that Matthews will receive the full amount.

Islanders Reportedly Considering Move To Queens

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Bloomberg’s Scott Soshnick reports today that the New York Islanders are discussing a move to Queens, with the help of Major League Baseball’s New York Mets, whose Citi Field home is also in the New York Borough.

The Islanders, who had played on Long Island since their founding in 1972, moved to the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, home of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, to begin last season. The ice conditions and obstructed seating brought complaints from players and fans alike. Soshnick reports that the move would be dependent on a new building being put up across the street from Citi Field, and would come in the event that Barclay’s Center and Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov refused to make upgrades to the building in order to better host hockey games.

The Islanders were sold in 2014, and their new ownership group, led by Value Retail Plc founder Scott Malkin and Jon Ledecky, was confirmed this past July 1st. Soshnick also notes that the Sterling Equities owns a share of the Islanders, and are themselves co-founded by Fred Wilpon, owner of the New York Mets.

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