Another day, another set of players on waivers as the regular season approaches. Everyone from yesterday cleared, while today’s group looks like this:
Boston Bruins
Vinni Lettieri
Joona Koppanen
Dan Renouf
Keith Kinkaid
Colorado Avalanche
Edmonton Oilers
Calvin Pickard
Slater Koekkoek
Los Angeles Kings
New York Rangers
Even after nearly 150 players were cut yesterday, many teams will be paring down their training camp rosters further today. We’ll keep track of today’s cuts here.
Anaheim Ducks (via team release)
F Bryce Kindopp (to San Diego, AHL)
F Ben King (to San Diego, AHL)
Arizona Coyotes (via Twitter)
G Ivan Prosvetov (to Tucson, AHL)
Buffalo Sabres (via team release)
F Brandon Biro (to Rochester, AHL)
F Filip Cederqvist (to Rochester, AHL)
F Mason Jobst (released from PTO)
F Aleksandr Kosakov (to Rochester, AHL)
F Tyson Kozak (to Rochester, AHL)
F Jiri Kulich (to Rochester, AHL)
F Michael Mersch (released from PTO)
F Brett Murray (to Rochester, AHL)
F Kohen Olischefski (released from PTO)
F Josh Passolt (released from PTO)
F Isak Rosen (to Rochester, AHL)
F Lukas Rousek (to Rochester, AHL)
F Matt Savoie (to Portland, WHL)
F Brendan Warren (released from PTO)
F Linus Weissbach (to Rochester, AHL)
D Zach Berzolla (released from PTO)
D Mitch Eliot (released from PTO)
D Oskari Laaksonen (to Rochester, AHL)
D Ethan Prow (released from PTO)
D Peter Tischke (released from PTO)
G Michael Houser (released from PTO)
G Beck Warm (released from PTO)
Chicago Blackhawks (via team release)
D Nolan Allen (to Prince Albert, WHL)
D Ethan del Mastro (to Mississauga, OHL)
G Jaxson Stauber (to Rockford, AHL)
D Adam Clendening (released from PTO)
G Dylan Wells (released from PTO)
Dallas Stars (via team release)
F Riley Barber (to Texas, AHL)
D Joseph Cecconi (to Texas, AHL)
F Rhett Gardner (to Texas, AHL)
D Ben Gleason (to Texas, AHL)
F Tanner Kero (to Texas, AHL)
D Jerad Rosburg (to Texas, AHL)
New York Rangers (via team release)
F Will Cuylle (to Hartford, AHL)
D Ty Emberson (to Hartford, AHL)
F Tim Gettinger (to Hartford, AHL)
F Lauri Pajuniemi (to Hartford, AHL)
D Andy Welinski (to Hartford, AHL)
Ottawa Senators (via team release)
F Angus Crookshank (to Belleville, AHL)
F Philippe Daoust (to Belleville, AHL)
F Roby Jarventie (to Belleville, AHL)
F Egor Sokolov (to Belleville, AHL)
F Cole Reinhardt (to Belleville, AHL)
D Maxence Guenette (to Belleville, AHL)
D Kristians Rubins (to Belleville, AHL)
D Lassi Thomson (to Belleville, AHL)
D Jorian Donovan (to Hamilton, OHL)
G Kevin Mandolese (to Belleville, AHL)
F Michael Dal Colle (released from PTO)
St. Louis Blues (via team release)
F Andrei Bakanov (to Springfield, AHL)
F Brayden Guy (to Springfield, AHL)
F Mathias Laferriere (to Springfield, AHL)
D Griffin Luce (to Springfield, AHL)
D Brady Lyle (to Springfield, AHL)
F Hugh McGing (to Springfield, AHL)
F Dylan McLaughlin (to Springfield, AHL)
Tampa Bay Lightning (via team release)
F Jack Finley (to Syracuse, AHL)
F Felix Robert (to Syracusa, AHL)
F Grant Mismash (to Syracuse, AHL)
F Gage Goncalves (to Syracuse, AHL)
F Lucas Edmonds (to Syracuse, AHL)
F Bennett MacArthur (to Syracuse, AHL)
F Jaydon Dureau (to Syracuse, AHL)
F Ilya Usau (to Syracuse, AHL)
F Simon Ryfors (to Syracuse, AHL)
F Daniel Walcott (to Syracuse, AHL)
D Jack Thompson (to Syracuse, AHL)
D Declan Carlile (to Syracuse, AHL)
D Trevor Carrick (to Syracuse, AHL)
D Darren Raddysh (to Syracuse, AHL)
D Dmitry Semykin (to Syracuse, AHL)
G Hugo Alnefelt (to Syracuse, AHL)
G Maxime Lagace (to Syracuse, AHL)
Vegas Golden Knights (via team release)
D Layton Ahac (to Henderson, AHL)
F Jakub Brabanec (to Charlottetown, QMJHL)
F Brendan Brisson (to Henderson, AHL)
D Lukas Cormier (to Henderson, AHL)
D Daniil Chayka (to Henderson, AHL)
F Zach Dean (to Gatineau, QMJHL)
F Pavel Dorofeyev (to Henderson, AHL)
F Byron Froese (to Henderson, AHL)*
D Zack Hayes (to Henderson, AHL)
G Michael Hutchinson (to Henderson, AHL)*
F Sakari Manninen (to Henderson, AHL)
F Maxim Marushev (to Henderson, AHL)
F Ivan Morozov (to Henderson, AHL)
D Brayden Pachal (to Henderson, AHL)*
G Jiri Patera (to Henderson, AHL)
F Gage Quinney (to Henderson, AHL)
F Sheldon Rempal (to Henderson, AHL)*
Winnipeg Jets (via team release)
D Tyrel Bauer (to Manitoba, AHL)
F Wyatt Bongiovanni (to Manitoba, AHL)
D Declan Chisholm (to Manitoba, AHL)
F Michael Eyssimont (to Manitoba, AHL)*
D Leon Gawanke (to Manitoba, AHL)*
F Nick Jones (released from PTO)
F Alex Limoges (to Manitoba, AHL)
F Chaz Lucius (to Manitoba, AHL)
D Simon Lundmark (to Manitoba, AHL)
F Jeff Malott (to Manitoba, AHL)*
F Cole Meier (released from PTO)
F Henri Nikkanen (to Manitoba, AHL)
F Evan Polei (released from PTO)
G Oskari Salminen (to Manitoba, AHL)
D Ashton Sautner (to Manitoba, AHL)*
F Daniel Torgersson (to Manitoba, AHL)
*-pending waivers
This post will be updated throughout the day.
October 2nd: Per CapFriendly, all players placed on waivers yesterday, October 1st, have cleared (link).
October 1st: It’s expected to be another busy day on the waiver wire today as teams continue to trim down their rosters. We’ll keep track of the players being placed on waivers here.
Edmonton
Montreal
NY Rangers
St. Louis
D Steven Santini
F Nathan Todd
D/F Luke Witkowski
Tampa Bay
D Sean Day
Vegas
F Byron Froese
G Michael Hutchinson
D Brayden Pachal
F Sheldon Rempal
Winnipeg
F Michael Eyssimont
D Leon Gawanke
F Jeff Malott
D Ashton Sautner
All 22 players that were on waivers yesterday cleared.
After waivers opened yesterday, quite a few players have ended up on the wire today. Teams keep making cuts to their rosters, and any veteran player needs to clear before being assigned to the minor leagues. Here are the names on waivers today.
Dallas Stars
Riley Barber
Ben Gleason
Tanner Kero
Jerad Rosburg
Joseph Cecconi
Rhett Gardner
Detroit Red Wings
Florida Panthers
New York Rangers
Philadelphia Flyers
San Jose Sharks
Tampa Bay Lightning
Daniel Walcott
Darren Raddysh
Maxime Lagace
Trevor Carrick
Washington Capitals
Michael Sgarbossa
Riley Sutter
Mike Vecchione
Hunter Shepard
Waivers will officially open today, meaning teams around the league can start cutting eligible players with the purpose of sending them to minor league clubs. While the full list will come out at 2 pm ET, some have already started announcing their initial placements. You can see all of the day’s cuts here, but we’ll also keep track of just the waiver portion in this post.
Arizona Coyotes
F Michael Carcone
F Jean-Sebastien Dea
Colorado Avalanche
F Charles Hudon
F Spencer Smallman
D Andreas Englund
D Brad Hunt
D Joshua Jacobs
G Jonas Johansson
Los Angeles Kings
New York Islanders
F Richard Panik
G Kenneth Appleby
New York Rangers
This page will be updated throughout the day
The Rangers have made their first training camp cuts, announcing (Twitter link) that the following players were sent back to their respective junior teams:
Barbashev, Grubbe, and McConnell-Barker are all unsigned prospects and will look to have big seasons at the junior level to help them try to earn an entry-level deal; Grubbe has until June 1st to sign if the Rangers want to retain his rights. Alfano, meanwhile, was in camp on an ATO and has been released. With two of the three CHL leagues already starting their regular seasons, other teams may soon be following suit with some of their junior players.
Navigating the salary cap is one of the more important tasks for any GM. Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.
PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2022-23 season. This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.
Current Cap Hit: $81,491,469 (under the $82.5MM Upper Limit)
D Zachary Jones (one year, $925K)
F Alexis Lafreniere (one year, $925K)
D K’Andre Miller (one year, $925K)
D Braden Schneider (two years, $925K)
Potential Bonuses
Lafreniere: $2.85MM
Miller: $400K
Schneider: $400K
Total: $3.65MM
Lafreniere’s per-game numbers last season were nearly identical to his rookie-season numbers which doesn’t help bolster his case for a bridge-bypassing contract. The top pick in 2020 certainly has shown some upside but for now, a bridge in the $2.5MM range might be the best way to go for both sides. His ‘B’ bonuses are almost certainly unattainable but an improved performance could give him a shot at one or two of the ‘A’ bonuses worth $212.5K apiece.
Miller has averaged more than 20 minutes per game in his first two seasons and is pegged to have a top-four role again in 2022-23. His limited offensive production, however, makes it difficult to project a long-term contract as Miller’s camp would likely prefer a bridge with the hopes that the output will come. A two-year deal around $2.75MM or a three-year contract worth a little over $3MM might be where his next price tag checks in. Schneider and Jones will both be looking to establish themselves as full-time regulars this season. For Jones, that doesn’t leave much time to command a pricey second contract so he, too, will be looking for a bridge. Schneider has a bit more runway but like Miller, he might not produce enough for both sides to find a long-term price tag that they’ll like.
F Sammy Blais ($1.525MM, UFA)
F Ryan Carpenter ($750K, UFA)
F Filip Chytil ($2.3MM, RFA)
F Julien Gauthier ($800K, RFA)
D Libor Hajek ($800K, RFA)
G Jaroslav Halak ($1.5MM, UFA)
F Dryden Hunt ($762.5K, UFA)
F Vitali Kravtsov ($875K, RFA)
F Ryan Reaves ($1.75MM, UFA)
Potential Bonuses
Halak: $50K
Chytil took a bit of a step back last season. He continues to show some signs of being able to crack a top-six spot but the consistency hasn’t been there yet. He’s likely to remain on the third line where he’ll see time both on the wing and down the middle but unless he takes a sizable jump forward offensively (his career-high in points is 23), he might not be able to get much more than his $2.6MM qualifying offer. Kravtsov is one of the bigger wildcards this season in New York. He’s no longer waiver-exempt and he wasn’t exactly lighting it up in the KHL the last couple of years. If he can lock down a regular spot in the lineup, he’ll be well-positioned for at least a small raise but otherwise, he’s likely to wind up around the $1MM mark. Gauthier hasn’t been able to progress beyond being a fringe winger thus far and it’s telling that he took less than his qualifying offer to secure a one-way deal. Until he establishes himself as a regular, he probably won’t pass the $1MM mark.
As for the UFAs, Reaves is one of the few remaining enforcers in the league. He’ll be 36 when he signs his next deal and this might be the one that starts to drive his salary downward. Blais missed almost all of last season after undergoing ACL surgery and will be looking to restore some value a year out before free agency. If he can establish himself as a power forward that’s capable of playing on the third line, he could push for double his AAV next summer. Hunt established himself a regular last season which will help him a bit but if he stays in a fourth-line role, he won’t be able to command much more than $1MM. Carpenter had to settle for the league minimum this summer in free agency and if he winds up in a depth role again, that’s about where his next deal will be as well.
Hajek was a frequent healthy scratch last season and hasn’t lived up to the billing of being an important part of the Ryan McDonagh trade in 2018. He should be on the fringes again this year. He’s not in danger of being non-tendered but at this point, the raises will be incremental at most moving forward.
Halak comes over after a tough showing in Vancouver last season. He should be able to play a bit more this time around after going long stretches between starts a year ago but he’ll be 38 next summer and will be going year-to-year from here on out with a cap hit around this range.
F Kaapo Kakko ($2.1MM, RFA)
D Ryan Lindgren ($3MM, UFA)
Kakko, one of the top picks from 2019, struggled to stay healthy and couldn’t manage too much production so a bridge deal was the natural move for both sides. Considering he’s still only 21, there’s still room for him to improve and become a full-time top-six player which would give him a shot at a sizable raise in 2024.
Lindgren has stepped up into a top-four role and has become one of New York’s better shutdown defenders over the last couple of seasons. As was the case with some of their entry-level blueliners, limited production will limit his earnings potential but as he’ll be a year away from UFA eligibility in 2024, he’ll hold a lot of leverage and will be owed a $3.6MM qualifying offer. A long-term agreement would be closer to the $5MM range.
G Igor Shesterkin ($5.67MM, UFA)
Shesterkin’s deal was signed when had less than 50 career NHL appearances under his belt so it did carry some risk. However, the reward already looks quite high as the Vezina Trophy winner and first-team All-Star is coming off a dominant season. He’s not in the top ten in the NHL in terms of his cap hit so the Rangers have quite a bargain on their hands. Looking ahead to three years from now, as long as he remains one of the top goalies in the league, he’ll hit the open market at 29 in a position to command close to a max-term deal where he’ll be able to become one of the top-paid netminders in NHL history. Not too shabby for someone who even now has just 100 NHL regular season contests under his belt.
7:30 PM: Both teams have now officially announced the trade.
7:28 PM: Per Matthew DeFranks of The Dallas Morning News, the conditional 2025 fourth-round pick in the deal becomes a 2025 third-round pick if Lundkvist scores 55 or more total points over the next two seasons.
7:10 PM: The Athletic has reported that the Rangers will also receive a conditional 2025 fourth-round pick as part of the deal.
6:46 PM: Just as training camps are set to begin, Nils Lundkvist has found his new team. As first reported by The Athletic’s Shayna Goldman, Lundkvist has been traded to the Dallas Stars.
The Stars are sending the Rangers a top-10 protected 2023 first-round pick in return, per the New York Post’s Larry Brooks. If the pick lands in 2023 and the Stars keep it, the Rangers would receive an unprotected 2024 first-rounder.
Lundkvist, 22, had requested a trade from the Rangers, a trade request that received significant media coverage in recent days. Because the Rangers’ defense features five players (Adam Fox, Jacob Trouba, Ryan Lindgren, K’Andre Miller, and Braden Schneider) who are either currently established long-term pieces or on the path to that status, Lundkvist felt that he would not have any chance to earn a top-four spot with power play time in New York.
It’s that locked-out feeling that inspired this trade request rather than any animosity towards the organization, and now Lundkvist heads to a team that features a defensive group that’s a bit less set in stone. On paper, it looks like this acquisition is part of the Stars’ attempt to make up for the loss of John Klingberg. The team signed defenseman Colin Miller to a two-year, $1.85MM deal this summer, and as of now thanks to that deal he has the inside track on winning Klingberg’s old job on the team’s second pairing next to Esa Lindell.
But now Miller has Lundkvist to compete with for that role, and since the Stars surrendered a quality asset to acquire Lundkvist, Miller’s early grip on that second-pairing job might not be as strong as it once looked to be.
Additionally, the team signed defenseman Will Butcher to a contract earlier this summer, and it seemed at the time that Butcher would be Miller’s primary competition for that role as the team’s go-to offensive blueliner. With this trade, Butcher’s status in the team’s blueline mix is more uncertain.
One other lineup factor at play here is the presence of Miro Heiskanen. Heiskanen’s mastery of the defensive side of the game could make him the preferred partner for Lundkvist, whose game has a more offensive bent. Additionally, a Lundkvist-Heiskanen pairing would allow Heiskanen to move to the left side, which he could prefer.
This is not a cheap addition for the Stars, but it’s a clear indication that the team has faith that Lundkvist will be every bit of the dynamic offensive force at the NHL level that he looked to be in the SHL. With Klingberg gone, the Stars need to find a way to replace the offense he brought to their blueline, and Lundkvist currently represents their highest-upside chance at doing so.
For the Rangers, this is a great return for a prospect who had already requested a trade and was unlikely to be in the team’s long-term plans. While the Rangers’ salary cap issues might have made Lundkvist (and his affordable cap hit) especially useful in the next few years, the Rangers do have other young defensemen like Zac Jones who can fill a similar role. Getting a coveted 2023 first-rounder (even if it’s top-ten protected) or an unprotected 2024 first-rounder in return for Lundkvist is about as strong of a return as the Rangers could reasonably expect to receive.
While the cost looks steep for the Stars now, the Stars won’t mind having paid that price if Lundkvist has a breakout year this season. It’s become increasingly common for fans to assign instant winners and losers to every transaction, and this trade will be no different. With that said, though, it’s important to keep in mind this is the type of trade where it will be difficult to truly judge Dallas’ side of the deal until we see how Lundkvist fares in victory green.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
It appears the New York Rangers, who had been rumored to be looking to add some defensive depth, have found their man, signing defenseman Matt Bartkowski to a PTO for the upcoming preseason, according to CapFriendly. The addition is a smart, cost-effective way for the team to add a veteran into the mix in the preseason, insure themselves in case of any injuries to those above him on the depth chart, and give an added level of competition to the third-pair, left-defense battle that appears to be between Libor Hajek and youngster Zachary Jones. The Rangers have not yet confirmed the transaction.
Bartkowski comes to the Rangers as an experienced journeyman, dressing for four NHL teams and three AHL teams over his 12-year professional career. A seventh-round pick of the Boston Bruins in 2008, the defenseman got his start with the Lincoln Stars of the USHL, where he spent two years prior to joining The Ohio State University for a pair of seasons. Bartkowski turned pro at the start of the 2010-11 season, primarily suiting up for the AHL’s Providence Bruins, but did see a handful of games in the NHL with Boston. His main NHL action came between 2013 and 2016, where he suited up for 191 games between Boston and the Vancouver Canucks.
The veteran received a PTO offer last offseason as well, joining the Pittsburgh Penguins for camp. While it didn’t result in an NHL offer, he was able to play a key role over a full season on the backend for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Penguins. Now 34, the defenseman is likely to use this opportunity to prove he still belongs in the NHL and push for time on the Rangers’ third-pairing, which appears to be welcoming competition.
Right now, the Rangers project to already have seven defenseman under contract and bound for the NHL roster, however two of those players, Jones and Braden Schneider, are relatively young and inexperienced. Presumably the team would like to roll with those two, but with the possibility of having them paired together and for the sake of testing their competitiveness with several veterans in camp, players like Bartkowski, Hajek, and Andy Welinski, who the club signed back in July, could prove valuable in the roles they serve.