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Free Agent Notes: Top-10, Pietrangelo, Crawford

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After the morning news was dominated by the Toronto Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins completing a trade, you might be wondering what is next for clubs looking to improve their lot. While the trade market is apparently open, free agency—set to start in October—is where a number of exceptional names will be available for nothing more than money. Frank Seravalli of TSN breaks down the ten names he believes are at the top of the list, including three different Florida Panther forwards.

Mike Hoffman, Evgeni Dadonov and Erik Haula are all set to hit the open market and it is not clear if the Panthers will try to retain any of them. In fact, it’s not very clear what the Panthers want to do with any members of their team given the uncertainty in the front office. Florida is still on the search for a new general manager, who will have to quickly make some tough decisions (or engage in brief negotiations) with his trio of pending free agent forwards.

  • The very top name on Seravalli’s list however is Alex Pietrangelo, the St. Louis Blues captain and one of the best defensemen in the entire league. Pietrangelo actually spoke with reporters including Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic today and explained how much the Blues franchise means to him after a decade manning the blueline in St. Louis. Pietrangelo has always indicated a desire to remain in St. Louis, but in a flat-cap world it’s not going to be easy for the Blues to pull off. The team currently has nearly $79.5MM in salary committed to next season already including expensive extensions that kick in for Brayden Schenn and Justin Faulk. That doesn’t leave room for Pietrangelo, meaning they’d have to clear the deck if they want to bring the 30-year old back.
  • Speaking of players who want to stay put, Corey Crawford was clear in his intentions when speaking with reporters today. As Mark Lazerus of The Athletic reports, Crawford explained that he’s “definitely leaning towards staying in Chicago” but that he does want to be a starter still. Crawford admitted that a short-term deal might work for both him and the Blackhawks—which makes sense given the salary cap situation and the fact that Crawford will turn 36 in December.

Florida Panthers GM Search Continues

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The Florida Panthers have been one of the most disappointing teams in the NHL the last few seasons. After collecting plenty of high-end talent including Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Aaron Ekblad and even now Sergei Bobrovsky, the team has been trending in the wrong direction. The last time they made the playoffs was in 2016 and they still haven’t won a single series since their 1996 Stanley Cup Final cinderella run.

Recently, they decided to make a move in the front office, relieving Dale Tallon of his duties and beginning a search for a new general manager. Names like Scott Mellanby, Laurence Gilman, and Ron Hextall have all been involved, but a few more candidates have emerged in recent days. On Hockey Night in Canada this weekend, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported that Bill Armstrong, assistant GM of the St. Louis Blues, has been interviewed, along with NHL Network analyst and former NHL goaltender Kevin Weekes. Today, Craig Morgan of AZ Coyotes Insider adds Sean Burke to the list of interviewees.

The search for the right person to lead the Panthers to glory is obviously a thorough one, but the team does not have a ton of time to complete it. The NHL Draft and free agency will begin just a few days after the league awards a Stanley Cup at the beginning of October, meaning whoever takes over the job has less than two months of preparation if hired today.

With the 12th selection this season, the Panthers are a team to watch at the draft if the new GM decides to make a splash. They selected goaltending prospect Spencer Knight with the 13th pick a year ago and already have several other high-end prospects in the system. Evgeni Dadonov, Erik Haula and Mike Hoffman’s expiring contracts will give the newcomer plenty of cap space to work with, though they obviously may want to retain the services of at least one of those forwards.

The biggest question may come on defense, where the Panthers have nearly $25MM already committed to next season but struggled mightily in their own end. Michael Matheson carries a $4.875MM cap hit through the 2025-26 season but was made a healthy scratch again in the qualification round and is obviously a big question mark for next year.

At any rate, the next GM of the Panthers has a lot of work to do this offseason to vault them back to Eastern Conference contenders.

Panthers RFA Aleksi Saarela Signs In Finland

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While he waits for a contract in the NHL to be completed, Florida RFA winger Aleksi Saarela has signed with Luuko of the SM-liiga, the Finnish team announced.  There is no fixed length of the contract; instead, it will be in effect until Saarela re-signs with the Panthers.

After a productive 2018-19 campaign in Carolina, the 23-year-old was traded to Chicago as part of the Calvin de Haan trade.  However, his time there didn’t last long as less than three weeks into the season, he was flipped to Florida for blueliner Ian McCoshen.

Saarela had a decent season with AHL Springfield, picking up a dozen goals with 19 assists in 43 games which was good enough to sit fourth on the Thunderbirds in scoring.  He also got into four games with the Panthers where he acquitted himself relatively well, picking up two goals and two assists in nine contests while logging a little over 12 minutes a game in ice time.  That should have him in the mix for a full-time roster spot for 2020-21, particularly since he will be eligible for waivers next year.

In the meantime, Saarela returns to a Luuko program that he’s familiar with.  He spent most of 2016-17 with them on loan and did well, tallying 15 goals and 13 helpers in 49 games.  He’ll be able to get into game shape in Finland which should help his push for a role with Florida when next season gets underway.

Eetu Luostarinen Loaned To KalPa

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Eetu Luostarinen has had quite the year. After signing his entry-level contract last spring, the young forward made the jump to North American pro hockey, playing for the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL. A month into the season, he earned himself a recall to the NHL where he played in eight games for the Carolina Hurricanes, before returning to anchor a line in the minor leagues.

Even though things were going fairly well in his rookie season, he found himself moving to a new organization in February when the Hurricanes traded him (along with three others) for Vincent Trocheck.

Now, after finishing his season with five scoreless games for the Springfield Thunderbirds, Luostarinen will return to Finland’s Liiga and play for KalPa again. The Florida Panthers have loaned the 21-year-old forward back to his old club team until the end of November when he will presumably return for NHL training camp.

Selected 42nd overall in 2017, the 6’3″ center was excited to get another chance to play in Finland as he continues his development. For prospects still looking to make their mark, getting a chance to start playing overseas before training camp is a bonus. Luostarinen has two years remaining on his entry-level deal.

Panthers Receive Permission To Interview Rangers Assistant GM Chris Drury

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While the Panthers have a couple of months before the offseason opens up, it appears that they are looking to fill their GM vacancy quickly.  Last week, Canadiens assistant GM Scott Mellanby and former Kings executive Mike Futa were linked to Florida and Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported in the latest Saturday Headlines segment (video link) that Rangers assistant GM Chris Drury has received permission to interview for the position.

Drury has been with the Rangers since 2015 when he joined them as their Director of Player Development.  The following year, he was promoted to assistant GM and became GM of AHL Hartford in 2017 as well.  In 2019, he got his first international GM role when he was in charge of Team USA at the World Championships where they lost in the quarterfinals.  Given his experience, his name has come up for several GM vacancies around the league over the years.

Friedman adds that Bruins assistant GM John Ferguson Jr. and Maple Leafs assistant GM Laurence Gilman are also believed to be interview targets although those have not been finalized as of yet.  Ferguson Jr. spent five seasons as Toronto’s GM from 2003-04 through 2007-08 while Gilman hasn’t had the opportunity to be a GM at the NHL level.

Offseason Keys: Florida Panthers

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As teams are eliminated from the Qualifying Round, it means that the offseason has arrived for several more squads.  Having covered the teams that weren’t a part of the NHL’s return, we shift our focus to the ones that have been ousted.  Next up is a look at Florida.

While they missed the playoffs a year ago, expectations were justifiably high for the Panthers coming into the season.  They made a big splash behind the bench with the hiring of Joel Quenneville, added a big-name goalie in Sergei Bobrovsky along with some other capable veterans.  That was supposed to be enough to give them a big boost.  It didn’t happen.  Instead, Bobrovsky struggled and they continued to be on the playoff bubble in the East.  They didn’t fare particularly well in the Qualifying Round against the Islanders which has them looking to shake things up again.  Here’s what they’ll be looking to accomplish.

Find New GM

First things first.  After officially letting Dale Tallon go early this week (via a non-renewal of his contract), the Panthers need to decide who will be making the decisions.  Tallon had been in the role for most of the last decade with Tom Rowe briefly holding the position for less than a year.

Considering that they already made one cost-cutting move before the pandemic hit when they shipped Vincent Trocheck to Carolina, it will be interesting to see if they look for a more under the radar candidate with an eye on trying to save some money, especially in the face of an expected decline in revenues for another couple of years after this.

It will also be worth watching to see if they revert back to the mindset that saw Rowe put in the role back in 2016 when the team looked to go in a more analytically-minded direction.  Tallon has the reputation for being more of an old-school general manager so a shift towards a more analytics-driven approach is something that could certainly be on the table.

The search is still in the early stages as the Panthers look to get permission to speak to candidates.  Montreal assistant GM Scott Mellanby is one of the known scheduled interviews while Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic adds former Kings executive Mike Futa to that list; there will be several others considered as well.  Florida will have some work to do in the coming months but they can’t do much until they determine who Tallon’s replacement will be.

Who Stays, Who Goes?

Taylor Hall, Alex Pietrangelo, and Torey Krug stand at the top of the upcoming UFA class but they’re sandwiched in the top five in scoring by a pair of Florida wingers in Mike Hoffman and Evgenii Dadonov.  At this point, it seems unlikely that the team will be able to afford to re-sign both of them while filling their other areas of need and staying within budget so it seems as if they’ll have to pick which one they want to try to keep.

Hoffman has the longer track record of success at the NHL level.  He led the team in goals this season with 29 and his point per game average was 0.86, a career high that had him playing just above a 70-point pace.  He’s also a significant threat on the man advantage, averaging nearly 12 power play goals per year over the past five seasons.  Even though his all-around game isn’t the strongest, being that type of scoring threat is going to draw a lot of attention on the open market, even with the salary cap challenges that the pandemic has presented.  Hoffman had a cap hit of just under $5.2MM on his soon-ending contract and he should be in line for a raise on that mark this offseason.

As for Dadonov, his point per game rate dipped a bit this season although he was on pace to match the 28 goals he put up in each of his first two years back with the Panthers.  After a stint in the KHL, his second go-round with Florida has been much more productive and since his return, he has been a capable top-six forward at a minimum; his first two years back saw him put up top line numbers.  The lighter track record may lower his market a little bit and while he’s looking at a nice pay bump on his $4MM AAV, he should come in a little bit cheaper than Hoffman.

Both players will be entering their age-31 year and it appears that their best-case scenario is that one will stay and one will go.

Add Defensive Help

Florida has spent a lot of money trying to shore things up defensively in recent years.  Aaron Ekblad is making $7.5MM per year.  They handed Keith Yandle $6.35MM per season and felt that Michael Matheson was a core cog, giving him $4.875MM.  That wasn’t enough so last summer, they added Anton Stralman for $5.5MM per year while inking what appeared to be a significant upgrade between the pipes in Bobrovsky with the second-richest cap hit for a goaltender in NHL history.

Those moves were supposed to propel them out of 28th in the league in goals allowed.  Instead, after the extra money invested in preventing goals, they still wound up in 28th place.

Evidently, spending roughly half of the salary cap on defense and goaltending isn’t enough to move the needle.  They don’t want to invest more between the pipes given how much they’re spending on Bobrovsky so trying to add another blueliner will be what the new GM needs to do.  Mark Pysyk is a pending unrestricted free agent (and at this point, may be a better winger than a defenseman anyway) while Josh Brown is best utilized as a seventh defender so there is a vacancy that can be filled.  They may not be able to throw much more money at that position so whoever gets the GM job will need to spend wisely to help bolster their back end and give Bobrovsky some much-needed help in the process.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Florida Panthers Receive Permission To Speak With Scott Mellanby

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The Florida Panthers recently parted ways with longtime executive Dale Tallon, announcing that they would immediately begin a search for the team’s next general manager. Speculation immediately popped up about Montreal Canadiens AGM Scott Mellanby who captained the Panthers for several seasons. That chatter has been confirmed by Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, who reports that the Panthers received permission from the Canadiens to speak with Mellanby.

The 54-year old executive has been with the Canadiens since 2012, when he left the St. Louis Blues and was hired as a director of player personnel. He was given the AGM title a few years later, and for the last two seasons has also been working with the Laval Rocket.

It is hard to find anyone who has been around more NHL hockey than Mellanby. Starting in 1985-86 with the Philadelphia Flyers, the second-round pick played in 1,431 regular season contests, good for 31st all-time in the NHL. He was never a superstar in the league, but there were decades of good hockey from the winger, who recorded 840 points in those 21 seasons. Florida was his longest stop, suiting up more than 550 times for the Panthers and recording 354 points. He sits fifth on the team’s all-time scoring list, while also coming in third in penalty minutes.

It’s not just his connection to the Panthers organization that would make Mellanby a good fit either. He’s also familiar with head coach Joel Quenneville, who he played under in St. Louis. Even though new general managers often like to go with their own choice behind the bench, whoever takes over in Florida is going to have to work with Quenneville. Not only is he a legendary head coach with an excellent track record, but he was also given a five-year deal in 2019 that will pay him more than $26MM.

The Panthers search will need to be quick if they want someone in place by the offseason. Remember that the draft and free agency will happen almost immediately after the Stanley Cup is awarded in early October, followed by training camps set to begin at some point in November if everything goes to plan.

Poll: Who Do You Want To Win The Draft Lottery?

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Seven teams in the NHL didn’t get a chance to return to play this summer. Their regular seasons were so disastrous that they didn’t qualify for a tournament which saw 24-teams take part. But none of them will be rewarded with the first-overall pick in 2020. Instead, that selection will go to one of the eight teams eliminated over the past week, after the first part of the draft lottery ended with a TBA club taking home the top spot.

The qualification round provided some incredible storylines. It also provided some eye-popping upsets. Both the Chicago Blackhawks and Montreal Canadiens, respective 12-seeds going into the return to play format, defeated Stanley Cup contenders with all-world talents leading the way. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and their teams are out before even seeing the first round but now have a chance to land a consolation prize of sorts.

The Edmonton Oilers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Nashville Predators, New York Rangers, Florida Panthers, Winnipeg Jets, and Minnesota Wild all have a 12.5% chance of being awarded that first-overall pick, and the chance to select two-time CHL Player of the Year Alexis Lafreniere.

That may seem ridiculous, given the regular season performances from those clubs, but remember it required a previous lottery to get to this point. There was only a 24.5% chance of a qualification-round team earning the pick in the first place. That ended up happening, with the Los Angeles Kings also moving up to second place. The Detroit Red Wings, who had the highest chance of winning any of the three lottery spots ended up the big losers of the event, dropping all the way down to fourth despite winning just 17 games this season.

The league will announce the lottery winner this evening, with hockey fans all over the world tuning in to see where Lafreniere will go. The format of the lottery has drawn massive criticism given how things played out, but that won’t stop it from being a must-see event for the entire NHL.

Where do you want to see the phenom go? Which of the eliminated teams deserves the pick? Which would you hate to see win? Cast your vote below and make sure to explain your choice in the comments!

[Mobile users click here to vote]

Florida Panthers Part Ways With GM Dale Tallon

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Aug 10: The Panthers have officially parted ways with Tallon, announcing that a search for their next GM has begun. In a short statement, owner Vinnie Viola explained what Tallon has meant for the club and why they were now moving on:

For the last decade, Dale raised the team’s profile, attracted key players to South Florida and brought character and class to our franchise. When we purchased the Panthers in 2013, we did so with a singular goal–to win a Stanley Cup. We have not seen our efforts come to fruition. We will now begin an organizational search for the next general manager.

Aug 7: The Florida Panthers were very unlikely to have made the playoffs this season under the standard format and few gave them a chance of an upset over the stout defense of the New York Islanders in the qualifying round. Yet, the organization is still not taking their elimination earlier today lightly. Fox Sports’ Andy Strickland reports that the hammer is set to drop on long-time executive Dale Tallon. The team is expected to move on from their GM shortly.

Tallon, hired as GM in Florida in 2010, had previously served in the same role with the Chicago Blackhawks and had a hand in the team’s Stanley Cup win the season prior to his departure. Tallon served as GM for the Panthers until 2016, when he was elevated to President of Hockey Operations. He then resumed GM duties as well in 2018. Having been around for a decade, Tallon’s influence can be found in every corner of the roster, even in long-time homegrown stars Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau, and Aaron Ekblad, who were all drafted by Tallon.

However, Tallon’s mistakes have also made a lasting impression on the roster. This past off-season in particular, Tallon gambled with the Panthers’ salary cap space, spending big on goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, forward Brett Connolly, and defenseman Anton Stralman. It is hard to argue that any of the three have lived up to expectations in yet another disappointing season for the franchise, which has not won a playoff series since 1996. Yet, they are all multi-year deals and will continue to impact the team for seasons still to come. With little cap space heading into this off-season, top scorers like Mike Hoffman and Evgenii Dadonov could prove difficult to re-sign and the club could take another step backward next season. Other lasting mistakes have included a botched Expansion Draft strategy that saw the team give away Reilly Smith in order to ensure Jonathan Marchessault was selected by the Vegas Golden Knights, only to see both become reliable top-six forwards, not getting enough for forward Vincent Trocheck from the Carolina Hurricanes at the trade deadline this year, and simply flip-flopping on their organizational strategy too frequently.

In finding Tallon’s replacement, the Panthers need to find someone with a long-term outlook on the position and a concrete plan on how they will rebuild the club. Having made just three playoff appearances in the past ten years, Florida fans will likely be happy to miss the postseason for another year or two if it means sustained success down the road. That could start with some lottery luck in the form of the No. 1 overall pick and Alexis Lafreniere. Maximizing their four picks in the first three rounds one way or another will also be imperative for the new GM in his first draft. Finding a way to shed some dead weight salary and to add much-needed depth at all positions will also be key.

Not all of Tallon’s tenure in Florida has been bad – including the aforementioned homegrown standouts and a pair of division titles – but at the end of the day the Panthers have had no postseason success and they have their work cut out for them to change that any time soon. Tallon’s replacement will have plenty of work to do to undo some of the GM’s mistakes and to reverse the curse on the Florida franchise.

Florida Panthers To Loan Aleksi Heponiemi To Sweden’s MODO

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With a number of players choosing to head to Europe to get some playing time before the expected start date of December for the 2020-21 NHL season, the Allvenskan’s MODO announced they have acquired Aleksi Heponiemi on loan from the Florida Panthers for the 2020-21 season. Of course, he is expected to be recalled when NHL training camp begins, likely in November.

Heponiemi is one of the team’s top prospects. The 21-year-old was a second-round pick in the 2017 draft and played one more season with the Swift Current Broncos of the WHL, posting a 118-point season. He then signed a two-year pact with the Liiga’s Karput squad where he scored 16 goals and 46 points in 50 games in 2018-19. He opted out of his contract after that and signed with Florida, playing in the AHL last season where he struggled a bit. He tallied just three goals and 14 points in 49 games, but is still expected to challenge for a role in Florida next season.

The hope is that Heponiemi will get significant playing time with MODO even if it’s in the Allsvenskan as opposed to playing with Liiga. The forward hopes that will give him an advantage when he arrives to camp. The team will have several significant roster moves to make in the offseason. The team is expected to part ways with general manager Dale Tallon and must make decisions on whether it can retain high-priced forwards Evgenii Dadonov and Mike Hoffman. With a possiblility of several openings on the depth chart for next season, a ready-to-go Heponiemi could force his way into the lineup with a good training camp.

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