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Morning Notes: Islanders, Marmer, Global Series

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The New York Islanders’ AHL affiliate in Bridgeport has named Matt MacDonald and Pascal Rhéaume as assistant coaches.

Macdonald, 40, spent the last five seasons as an assistant coach with Detroit’s AHL affiliate, Grand Rapids, where the team posted a 144-137-38 record in 319 games. He also spent six seasons with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones, serving as head coach and director of hockey operations from 2014 to 2018, achieving a winning record in each of those four years with a total record of 142-116-16-14 and two Kelly Cup Playoff appearances.

Rhéaume, 50, is a former pro-league forward with 318 NHL games under his belt for several teams. He most recently served as assistant coach for the ECHL’s Trois-Rivières Lions for two seasons. Prior to that, he was the head coach of the Val d’Or Foreurs in the QMJHL from 2018 to 2020 and previously held coaching roles with the Sherbrooke Phoenix and Drummondville Voltigeurs. He was also an assistant coach with the AHL’s Iowa Wild in the 2015-16 season. Rhéaume played nearly two decades in the AHL, tallying 408 points in 589 AHL games. He won the 1995 Calder Cup with AHL Albany and the 2003 Stanley Cup with the New Jersey Devils. Together, they’ll replace the role served by Rick Kowalsky the last two seasons in Bridgeport, who was promoted to head coach this season after the team parted ways with longtime bench boss Brent Thompson.

Elsewhere from around hockey this morning:

  • Boston Bruins player development scout Danielle Marmer has been announced as the general manager of the new Boston franchise in the Professional Women’s Hockey League, set to begin play in January. The 2022-23 season was Marmer’s first in an NHL role, previously serving as the director of hockey operations for Quinnipiac University’s women’s program for three seasons.
  • Some eyebrows were raised when the NHL announced they’d be heading to Melbourne, Australia, for a pair of preseason games to kick off the 2023 Global Series. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen today it’s just the beginning of the league venturing into more “unique” destinations after largely limiting their international contests to hockey-saturated European and Scandinavian markets. “I’m not going to throw any country names out there, but there are other places that we’ve yet to bring teams or our game which we think present unique opportunities, and we’re exploring it,” Daly said. “Over time, you will see us staging regular-season games in other European markets. I think we have to be nimble, we have to adjust strategies to demand and continue to grow the property.” He also hopes the NHL’s venture into Australia later this month proves it as a sustainable market that could host future international contests, and already anticipates two sellouts for the preseason contests between the Arizona Coyotes and Los Angeles Kings.

West Notes: Krug, Smith, Mitchell

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Blues defenseman Torey Krug has already vetoed one trade this summer, a move that would have sent him to Philadelphia.  With a $6.5MM price tag for four more years, his contract won’t be an easy one to trade.  However, Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic believes (subscription link) that there is a pathway to an in-season swap for the 32-year-old.  If Krug can get back to being a quality power play quarterback, that could bolster his market and the potential awkwardness of being with a team that clearly tried to trade him could create a potential opportunity for a move.  Krug had 19 points with the man advantage last season – more than half his point total – but when he was with Boston, he was closer to 30 power play points in his final seasons with the team.  Returning to that type of production would undoubtedly help Krug’s trade value.

More from the Western Conference:

  • Sharks prospect Will Smith isn’t likely to play out his four years of college eligibility as the team will want the fourth-overall pick to turn pro by then. Speaking with Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News, Sportsnet’s Sam Cosentino suggests that the decisions of fellow freshmen Ryan Leonard and Gabriel Perreault – both first-rounders as well – could ultimately influence Smith’s decision.  If those two decide to turn pro after the college season ends, Smith could follow suit.  But if they’re leaning toward staying, Smith could do the same since Boston College could still be a viable threat for an NCAA title with that core up front.
  • After spending three seasons captaining Chicago’s AHL team in Rockford, veteran winger Garrett Mitchell announced his retirement on Twitter. The 31-year-old made a single NHL appearance back in 2017 but made nearly 600 appearances in the AHL including playoffs over parts of 13 seasons which qualified him for veteran status in that league; teams can only dress a handful of those players each game.  Mitchell was limited to just 24 games with the IceHogs last year where he had 46 penalty minutes.

Salary Cap Deep Dive: Arizona Coyotes

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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 2023-24 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.

Arizona Coyotes

Current Cap Hit: $79,596,310 (under the $83.5MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

F Logan Cooley (three years, $950K)
F Dylan Guenther (two years, $894K)
D J.J. Moser (one year, $887K)
D Victor Soderstrom (one year, $863K)

Potential Bonuses:
Cooley: $3.5MM
Guenther: $850K
Soderstrom: $850K
Total: $5.2MM

Cooley’s contract came as a bit of a surprise this summer since he had originally indicated that he planned to return to the University of Minnesota for his sophomore year.  The 2022 third-overall pick is likely to have a fair-sized role right away and it wouldn’t be shocking to see him on the top line before long.  While it’s way too early to forecast his second deal, the market is pretty well-defined when it comes to signing impact middlemen off their entry-level pacts.  Start with an eight (especially when the cap is higher in three years) and go from there.

Guenther burned the first season of his ELC last season but notably, was sent back to junior before he accrued a season of service time toward UFA eligibility (meaning he still has seven years of club control).  At this point, it seems likely that he’ll be a regular this season but unless he winds up in a prominent role quickly, the safer bet here is that he winds up with a bridge contract.

The same can be said for Soderstrom who is looking to establish himself as a full-time regular.  If that happens, he should be able to command an AAV just past the $1MM mark on a one-way deal.  Otherwise, a one-year contract around his $874K qualifying offer could be coming his way.  As for Moser, he has quickly played his way into a top-four role, pretty impressive for someone who was a late second-round pick two years ago.  He doesn’t really fit the profile of the type of player who makes sense for a long-term agreement at this point but a bridge pact in the $3MM AAV range should be achievable.

Signed Through 2023-24, Non-Entry-Level

D Josh Brown ($1.275MM, UFA)
F Travis Boyd ($1.75MM, UFA)
D Travis Dermott ($800K, UFA)
D Mathew Dumba ($3.9MM, UFA)
D Sean Durzi ($1.7MM, RFA)
F Barrett Hayton ($1.775MM, RFA)
F Bryan Little ($5.292MM, UFA)
F Liam O’Brien ($775K, UFA)
D Troy Stecher ($1.1MM, UFA)
D Juuso Valimaki ($1MM, RFA)
F Jakub Voracek ($8.25MM, UFA)
F Jason Zucker ($5.3MM, UFA)

Let’s get the easy two out of the way first.  Voracek (who was quietly acquired at the trade deadline last season) and Little remain injured and won’t play in 2023-24.  They will be LTIR-eligible if Arizona runs into enough injury trouble this season that requires them to create some extra cap flexibility.

Zucker had a nice bounce-back campaign last season with Pittsburgh.  He was healthy for the most part and the end result was him playing with some consistency and posting the second-best goal total of his career with 27.  That didn’t yield the long-term deal he was hoping for this summer, however.  Assuming he’s able to have a repeat performance in 2023-24, Zucker should be able to push for a similar price tag next summer while getting a shot at a multi-year agreement.

Hayton is one of Arizona’s more interesting expiring contracts.  The 23-year-old didn’t exactly light it up on his entry-level deal, resulting in a two-year bridge pact.  Last season, he worked his way up to the top line and put up by far his best season, notching 19 goals and 43 points.  A repeat performance could push his AAV into the $4MM range.  But with Cooley signing, there’s a good chance that he will cut into Hayton’s minutes which could hamper his production next season somewhat and cut into the price tag of that next contract.  Had Cooley stayed in college and Hayton remained relatively unimpeded on the top line, his projection could have been more favorable than it seems like it will be now.  Either way though, he appears to be part of the future plans for the Coyotes, something that wasn’t guaranteed to be the case a couple of years ago.

While Boyd has played a much bigger role in the last two years than he did beforehand, he has shown himself to be a capable secondary scorer.  In the 2022 summer, he didn’t have enough of a track record to command a big raise.  But if he has another year like these last two, he could push for a price tag north of $3MM on his next deal.   O’Brien, meanwhile, saw regular action for really the first time last year, putting up his best numbers.  But his role in the lineup is typically one that teams will want to spend the minimum or close to it to fill.  Unless he can show a bit more offensively, it’s hard to see his next contract reaching the $1MM mark.

If you were reading the list of expiring deals and thought to yourself that there were a lot of defensemen on there, you weren’t wrong.  Between these contracts and the two entry-level ones, all of Arizona’s defenders are in the final year of their deals.  That’s a situation that doesn’t present itself very often league-wide.

Dumba struggled last season in his final year with Minnesota which undoubtedly hurt his market this summer.  Once the dust settled on the Erik Karlsson trade, he quickly settled for this agreement, one that is for less than he was probably seeking.  However, it gives him a chance to play a much more prominent role, one that could land him a fair bit more (perhaps in the $5MM range many expected this time around) next summer if things go well.  Durzi is in a similar situation as instead of being a player sitting fairly low on the depth chart in Los Angeles, he will have a chance to play more minutes and produce more.  He’s already likely to land a fair bit more than his $2MM qualifier next summer; it’s possible that he could double that if he can push his point output past 40.

Brown and Stecher are in similar spots in their careers.  Both are third-pairing players and the market hasn’t been kind to those players in recent years.  Brown might be hard-pressed to make what he’s getting now unless he can play his way up the depth chart while Stecher’s value is pretty well established considering he signed this deal just under two months ago.  Valimaki opted to sign early last season, foregoing a higher qualifying offer in exchange for some guaranteed money and a longer look.  Considering how he finished last season, he left some money on the table.  If he can even come close to putting up 34 points again while maintaining a similar role on the depth chart, he could push for something in the $3MM range as well.  Now healthy, Dermott will be looking to re-establish himself as an NHL regular but unless he can lock down a full-time spot, his next contract is likely to be below the $1MM mark as well.

Signed Through 2024-25

F Nick Bjugstad ($2.1MM, UFA)
F Michael Carcone ($775K, UFA)
F Alexander Kerfoot ($3.5MM, UFA)
F Jack McBain ($1.6MM, RFA)
G Karel Vejmelka ($2.725MM, UFA)

Kerfoot spent the last four seasons primarily in Toronto’s middle six, spending time both on the wing and at center.  He goes to Arizona on a contract that pays him the same money and will likely result in him playing the same role.  He’ll need to establish himself as more of a full-time top-six forward if he wants to command a sizable raise in 2025.  Bjugstad returned to the desert after being moved as a rental at the trade deadline.  He took a cheap one-year deal last summer to get an opportunity to play a bigger role and made the most of it.  If he can stay on the third line, they’ll get a good return here but if he winds up on the fourth more often than not, he’ll have a hard time beating this next time out.

McBain (who took a dollar less than the AAV listed above) had a good rookie year, providing plenty of physicality with a bit of scoring from the bottom six.  This deal gives both sides more time to evaluate to see if he can be a full-time third-liner which would position him to add a million (more if the offense really picks up) in 2025.  Carcone has been a minor leaguer for most of his career but a strong showing at the Worlds landed him this one-way commitment and what should be a chance to carve out a full-time roster spot which will go a long way toward determining his future.

At the time Vejmelka signed this contract (which was still in his rookie season), his name was in trade speculation.  Since then, not much has really changed.  The 27-year-old has helped keep things respectable at a time when winning was pretty low on the priority list but it remains to be seen if he’s going to be part of Arizona’s long-term plans.  If he puts up numbers like his first two seasons over these next two, his market value isn’t going to be much higher than this.  If he happens to be moved onto a team looking for more short-term success and takes a step forward, however, then he could shoot toward the top tier of the backup market.  Assuming the cap jumps up, that could push him to the $4MM range.

Signed Through 2025-26

G Connor Ingram ($1.95MM, UFA)
F Matias Maccelli ($3.425MM, RFA)
F Nick Schmaltz ($5.85MM, UFA)
D Shea Weber ($7.857MM, UFA)

Again, let’s get the injured player out of the way first.  Weber hasn’t played since the 2021 Stanley Cup Final when he was with Montreal and he isn’t expected to play again.  He’s LTIR-eligible as well if Arizona needs to open up more cap room.

Schmaltz has averaged just shy of a point per game in each of the last two seasons, albeit years that he missed nearly a quarter of the campaign due to injuries.  He has shifted to playing on the wing much more often, a move that has suited him so far.  The issue for Arizona is the back-loaded nature of the contract.  For a team that is trying to keep salary costs down, Schmaltz being owed $24.45MM in money over these next three seasons stands out considerably.  From a cap perspective, he’s a nice bargain if he continues to produce at this level.  But with the salary situation, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Coyotes at least assess what the trade market might be for the 27-year-old.

Maccelli was a nice surprise for the Coyotes last season.  After having a very limited impact in 22 games in 2021-22, he wound up finishing third on the team in scoring with 49 points, making the All-Rookie Team, and finishing fourth in Calder Trophy voting for Rookie of the Year.  Considering the small sample size of NHL success, Arizona opted for the bridge contract.  If the 22-year-old can build on those numbers, he could add a couple million or more with the benefit of arbitration eligibility at that time.

Ingram’s debut in the desert didn’t go to well as he struggled mightily in his first eight games.  After that, however, he posted a .921 SV% in his final 19 appearances, a number that is well above average.  That has warranted him a longer look and if he’s able to continue playing anywhere close to that level, he’ll be a nice bargain for Arizona.

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Blues Loan Dalibor Dvorsky To Swedish League

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Back in June, the Blues made center Dalibor Dvorsky their top pick, selecting him tenth overall.  However, they’ll have to wait a little while longer for him to make his debut in North America as CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that St. Louis has loaned Dvorsky to IK Oskarshamn of the SHL for the upcoming season.

Dvorsky spent last season in AIK’s system in Sweden, playing at three different levels.  The bulk of his playing time came at the Allsvenskan level, their second-tier pro division.  The 18-year-old held his own against the pros, picking up six goals and eight assists in 38 games.

However, it was his production against his own age group that moved Dvorsky up draft boards.  He averaged more than a point per game on AIK’s Under-20 squad, then picked up seven points in four games in the Under-18 playoffs.  Internationally, Dvorsky played for Slovakia at both the World Juniors and the World Under-18s, finishing sixth in tournament scoring for the latter with 13 points in just seven contests.

Dvorsky has a two-year deal in Sweden so this loan comes as little surprise as it’s unlikely that he would have competed for a roster spot in training camp.  The loan means that he’ll be eligible to have his contract slide next season (as long as he doesn’t play in ten or more NHL contests later on in the year) which means it would still have three seasons remaining on it in 2024-25.

Snapshots: Parayko, Norfolk Admirals, Penguins TV Deal

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When a team in the NHL takes a step back and performs below expectations, typically there will also be a few key players on that team who have taken individual steps back, steps back that help contribute to the larger decline. The St. Louis Blues had a difficult 2022-23 season, one that saw them finish outside the playoffs. That’s been a rarity during the Blues’ current competitive run, one that yielded the franchise’s first-ever Stanley Cup championship in 2019, and one of the bigger reasons for that step back was the decline of key defenseman Colton Parayko.

Parayko, 30, is making $6.5MM AAV through 2029-30 but saw his all-around results decline from 2021-22 to 2022-23. He went from 35 points scored to 27, his ice time went down a tick, and his defensive play was not up to his usually high standards. That led to speculation that the Blues and Parayko could seek out a change of scenery in the offseason, though that didn’t end up coming to pass. Those trade rumors haven’t deterred Parayko, either, who told The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford that he plans on remaining a Blue “for a long time.” (subscription link) As the owner of a full no-trade clause, it’s going to be up to him whether that actually happens, and it appears moving forward both parties view a bounce-back season as the optimal solution to Parayko’s decline rather than a trade.

Some other notes from across the NHL:

  • The Carolina Hurricanes have announced a working agreement with the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals that will allow the Hurricanes to assign prospects to the ECHL club. The Admirals are the official affiliates of the Winnipeg Jets, but per this agreement, they’ll share the ability to send prospects to Norfolk alongside Winnipeg. The ECHL is typically not where NHL teams send most of their prospects, but in the case that the Hurricanes find they need to send a prospect to North America’s third-tier league they now have a clear path to do so.
  • The Pittsburgh Penguins announced “SportsNet Pittsburgh” today, finalizing the home of Penguins hockey for all regionally televised games. Per the announcement, the Penguins “entered into an agreement to acquire and re-brand the existing AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh network,” the Penguins’ regional sports network from last season. There has been significant uncertainty in the regional sports broadcasting market in recent months, but with this announcement Penguins fans get some clarity as to what entity will broadcast their team’s games moving forward.

Nashville Predators Sign Dylan Wells To PTO

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According to CapFriendly, the Nashville Predators have signed netminder Dylan Wells to a PTO.

Wells, 25, split last season between the Chicago Blackhawks and Dallas Stars organizations. He played in 17 AHL games for the Blackhawks’ affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs, and posted a .905 save percentage. He was included in the Blackhawks’ trade of Max Domi to Dallas, and ended up playing in three games for the Stars’ AHL affiliate in Cedar Park.

A former Edmonton Oilers prospect, Wells has mostly been an ECHL netminder since ending his major junior career with the OHL’s Peterborough Petes, with 78 career games played in the ECHL compared to 42 in the AHL. Wells got into one NHL game last season, saving 12 of 13 shots in 20 minutes of relief duty during an early November contest against the Winnipeg Jets.

By accepting this PTO with the Predators, Wells will give Nashville an additional netminder for training camp and the preseason. While the team currently has four goalies with clearly defined roles (Juuse Saros as NHL starter, Kevin Lankinen as NHL backup, Yaroslav Askarov as AHL number-one, Troy Grosenick as AHL number-two), the Milwaukee Admirals do not yet have a third goalie on their roster. Additionally, the Predators’ ECHL affiliate, the Atlanta Gladiators, have only one goalie rostered and he has just 10 games of pro experience.

So while Wells doesn’t have a clear path to a prominent role in Nashville, this PTO does give Wells a chance to show he’s worth keeping beyond the preseason in a depth role within the Predators’ organization.

Summer Synopsis: Columbus Blue Jackets

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The Blue Jackets shocked the hockey world last summer. After years where the prevailing narrative surrounding the Blue Jackets was about the multitude of star players who left the team to commit their long-term playing future elsewhere (Sergei Bobrovsky, Artemi Panarin, Seth Jones, et cetera) the team managed to sign the top free agent on the open market. They got superstar Johnny Gaudreau to commit the rest of his prime playing years to Columbus, and on the way seemed to accelerate their path back to contention.

Significant injury issues, regression from some important players (such as Cole Sillinger and Elvis Merzlikins), and a lack of talent down the middle left Columbus as one of the league’s worst teams last season, and according to some has firmly placed GM Jarmo Jarmo Jarmo Kekäläinen on the hot seat. In response to mounting pressure to return to contention, Kekäläinen had an aggressive summer and added a big-name head coach. Will this new-look Blue Jackets team be able to turn the team’s fortunes around as soon as next season?

Draft

1-3: F Adam Fantilli, Michigan (NCAA)
2-34: F Gavin Brindley, Michigan (NCAA)
3-66: F William Whitelaw, Youngstown (USHL)
4-98: D Andrew Strathmann, Youngstown (USHL)
4-114: F Luca Pinelli, Ottawa (OHL)
5-156: G Melvin Strahl, MoDo Jr. (J20)
7-194: F Oiva Keskinen, Tappara Jr. (SM-Sarja)
7-224: F Tyler Peddle, Drummondville (QMJHL)

While the Blue Jackets were undoubtedly disappointed to have lost in the draft lottery and missed out on a once-in-a-generation player in Connor Bedard, their luck definitely turned around on draft night. The Anaheim Ducks selected Leo Carlsson, a fantastic prospect in his own right, second overall, leaving the Blue Jackets the chance to pick Fantilli, the reigning Hobey Baker award winner.

There were many rumors that the Blue Jackets would have selected USNTDP product Will Smith had Fantilli been selected by Anaheim over Carlsson, meaning they would have been left with a player who’ll only hit the NHL ice next spring at the earliest. (Smith is committed to play college hockey next season at Boston College) Since the Ducks took Carlsson, though, the Blue Jackets were able to land a prospect widely considered to be NHL-ready, and a player many believe to be the clear-cut best player in the class behind Bedard.

Fantilli could very well end up the franchise-defining first-line center the Blue Jackets have been searching for since their very first season in the NHL, and getting that caliber of a player after losing a draft lottery is an amazing stroke of luck. Behind Fantilli, the Blue Jackets invested heavily in prospects playing in America, investing their next three selections in NCAA and USHL players. Brindley was Fantilli’s linemate at Michigan and could very well end up playing that role in the NHL. Whitelaw and Strathmann were teammates for the USHL Champion Youngstown Phantoms, with Whitelaw the team’s leading scorer and Strathmann a minutes-eating blueliner. Both USHL products play with an edge and will develop in college hockey before turning pro.

Trade Acquisitions

D Ivan Provorov (from Philadelphia)
D Damon Severson (from New Jersey)

This is where the Blue Jackets really made their mark on the offseason. The team identified its defense as a core area of need entering into the summer. Their lack of established defensive talent was exposed last season after numerous injuries took out the team’s more experienced players, such as Zach Werenski. In order to make the playoffs, Columbus knew that they would have to give top-four minutes to reliable players rather than resort to unproven names such as Tim Berni, Marcus Bjork, and Gavin Bayreuther, three names who saw time on the Blue Jackets’ defense last season.

In Provorov, Columbus acquired a somewhat enigmatic defenseman whose career features some very high highs and some even lower lows. Provorov was once viewed as an up-and-coming future number-one defenseman for the Flyers, and at times he looked like an elite all-situations minutes-eater.

He earned some stray Norris Trophy votes after his 2019-20 season, when at the age of 23 he played nearly 25 minutes per night and scored 36 points in 69 games.

In Columbus, Provorov won’t need to be that kind of number-one blueliner his team relies on. With Werenski entrenched in that role, the hope in Columbus is that Provorov will be able to thrive on a second pairing.

As for Severson, the Blue Jackets surrendered a mid-round pick to be able to sign Severson to a maximum-term $6.25MM AAV contract. The at-the-time pending UFA committed to Columbus without testing the wider market, and lands as a potential partner for Provorov. Severson has more of an offensive bent to his game and scored 46 points in 2021-22. He took a step back last season as the Devils injected more defensive talent into their lineup, relegating Severson to a smaller role.

In Columbus, he’ll be a go-to offensive creator from the back end, and while many fairly question whether Severson merited such a lengthy commitment (he’ll be under contract with the Blue Jackets through 2030-31, and is already 29 years old) he undoubtedly makes their team better for next season.

Key RFA Signings

F Mathieu Olivier (two-years, $2.2MM)
F Trey Fix-Wolansky (two-years, $1.55MM)
D Jake Christiansen (one year, $775k)

The Blue Jackets didn’t have any major RFA’s to re-sign, just some NHL-relevant players who figure to factor into new head coach Mike Babcock’s roster picture at some point next season. Getting Olivier, 26, locked into a two-year deal gives Columbus a physical presence on its fourth line at a reasonable cost. The Blue Jackets want to be a difficult team to play against, and re-signing Olivier helps them do that.

Fix-Wolansky, 24, torched the AHL last season to the tune of 71 points in 61 games. This two-year deal keeps him on the Blue Jackets at a cheap price for the foreseeable future, although since he’s not waivers-exempt there’s always the chance that he doesn’t finish this contract playing in Ohio. As for Christiansen, this will be his first season subject to waivers and his league-minimum price tag makes him an intriguing option to be claimed should he fail to make Columbus’ opening-night roster. The soon-to-be-24-year-old blueliner scored 34 points in 50 AHL games last season.

Key Departures

D Gavin Bayreuther (Dallas, one year, $775k)

The Blue Jackets were in the relatively uncommon position this summer of not really being at risk of losing any major contributors to their NHL roster without explicitly choosing to do so. Their most experienced player to sign elsewhere was Bayreuther, a journeyman defenseman who stepped in after Columbus was hit by significant injuries and ended up playing 51 NHL games.

The 29-year-old signed in Dallas and will likely remain a depth defenseman there. The Blue Jackets could certainly have used Bayreuther’s experience for another season, but the reality is if he ended up having another extended NHL stay in Columbus it would mean the team’s defensive corps is once again in dire shape.

Salary Cap Outlook

The Blue Jackets have some hefty contracts on their books, starting with Gaudreaus and extending to some expensive mid-range deals cap hits belonging to Severson, Provorov, and Erik Gudbranson. They have a bit of wiggle room to make a mid-season addition, and since they’re set to avoid long-term injured reserve will be able to bank cap space during the season for a potential trade deadline spending spree.

The most important aspect of this season from a financial perspective is the team’s performance in net. Columbus has committed $5.4MM AAV for the next few years into Merzlikins. Can he get back to playing like a quality starting netminder and reward the team’s faith in him?

Key Questions

Can Mike Babcock steer this team to the playoffs?: The Blue Jackets are looking to reach the postseason in an extremely competitive Metro division. They’ve enlisted the services of Babcock, a controversial coach who, at the very least, has quite a bit of winning on his resume. He helped turn a lost Toronto Maple Leafs franchise into the regular season juggernaut we see today, and won a Stanley Cup ring running the bench of the Detroit Red Wings. Will he be able to engineer a similar success in Ohio?

Which of the team’s young players will rise, who will fall?: The Blue Jackets have an enviable crop of young talent and a few players who have a chance to become stars in the NHL. Sillinger, the team’s 2021 first-round pick, looked to be on that track before a brutal sophomore campaign. Similarly, many had questions over whether Kent Johnson’s high-octane offensive game would translate from college to the pro ranks without serious adjustment time. Johnson had a promising 40-point rookie campaign, to a strong degree silencing those questions. The Blue Jackets have even more ascending talents set to battle for roles on Babcock’s roster, so a main question regarding their 2023/24 season will be who among that group will rise to the top.

Can Merzlikins bounce back?: As mentioned, the Blue Jackets have committed much of their future to Merzlikins in net. They don’t really have any great method of getting out from under that contract, so their best bet is to support Merzlikins with an improved defense and hope he can return to the form he flashed earlier in his career. Whether he does so will go a long way in determining if this Blue Jackets competitive push ends up successful.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Minor Transactions: 08/31/23

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It’s a big day in the wider world of professional hockey, as some of the top clubs in Europe are set to do battle in the first matchday of the Champions Hockey League. Highlights include Finnish champions Tappara Tampere taking on the Aalborg Pirates (Danish Champions) and the Liiga silver medalists, Lahti Pelicans, against the SHL champion Växjö Lakers HC. Clubs outside the Champions League as well as North American teams are still making moves to add players, so as always we’ll keep track of those transactions here.

  • Former Cornell University defenseman Cody Haiskanen had an exceptional rookie season in pro hockey, leading the ECHL in plus-minus with a +53 rating, the second-highest single-season rating in ECHL history. The rangy six-foot-four blueliner scored five goals and 29 points in 61 games, and played 19 playoff games en route to the Kelly Cup Finals. Today, he signed a one-year contract extension with the Idaho Steelheads to remain with the club for this upcoming season.
  • 21-year-old winger Pavel Tyutnev signed a contract with Admiral Vladivostok of the KHL today, committing his services to the club for the next two seasons. The Russian winger was ranked 49th among European skaters by NHL Central Scouting in 2020, but ended up going undrafted. He scored 17 points in 23 games at the junior level for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl last season and got into 5 games with the senior club, scoring his first KHL goal in the process. Now with this two year deal Tyutnev heads to Vladivostok with the hope of making a push for a full-time KHL job.
  • Matt Tugnutt, the son of former NHL netminder Ron Tugnutt, is returning to North America after playing last season overseas in France’s Ligue Magnus. Tugnutt, 27, spent last year with Chamonix, scoring 13 goals and 29 points in 37 games. He’s signing with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, re-joining the league he played 2021-22 in. He has 25 career ECHL points in 53 career games, and has played in South Carolina before as he’s skated four games for the Greenville Swamp Rabbits.
  • Former Los Angeles Kings winger Nikolay Prokhorkin has signed a one-year contract with the KHL’s Sibir Novosibirsk. Prokhorkin, 29, has 43 NHL games on his resume and has, as a 2012 fourth-round pick, attempted to break into the North American game on two occasions. Both occasions ended with his departure to the KHL, the league he’s settled into as a capable scorer. Prokhorkin’s best season came in 2018-19, when he scored 41 points in 41 games for SKA St. Petersburg. Prokhorkin is a KHL All-Star, Gagarin Cup Champion, and Olympic gold medalist, but only managed to play in three KHL games last season. Novosibirsk is where he’ll look to construct a bounce-back season on this one-year deal.
  • Former Anaheim Ducks prospect Jack Badini, the 91st overall pick at the 2017 NHL draft, has signed with Stjernen Hockey, a club in the top division of Norwegian hockey. The 25-year-old American forward spent most of last season with the ECHL’s Newfoundland Growlers, scoring 16 points in 31 regular-season games. He earned nine games at the AHL level with the Toronto Marlies and has 78 career games at the AHL level, where he’s scored eight points. Badini was a solid prospect in his days in the USHL and at Harvard, but he hasn’t been able to put together a strong resume in the North American pro game, prompting this signing overseas.

This page may be updated throughout the day.

Seattle Kraken Sign Devin Shore

at CDT | by 6 Comments

The Seattle Kraken announced they’ve signed forward Devin Shore to a one-year, two-way contract today. The deal will carry the league minimum cap hit of $775K. PuckPedia reports his minor-league salary is $250K.

Shore will now look to crack a deep Kraken forward group that has remained largely unchanged since the end of last season. It’s a group that boasted multiple 20-goal scorers up and down the lineup and earned them their first playoff series victory in franchise history.

Shore’s played in nine NHL seasons dating back to a three-game stint with the Dallas Stars in 2015-16. He would then play in all 82 games for the Stars the following two seasons before making short stops with the Anaheim Ducks and Columbus Blue Jackets prior to COVID-19 pausing league operations in 2020. He would then sign as a free agent with the Edmonton Oilers shortly before the 2020-21 campaign began, where he spent the last three seasons.

He opened his full-time NHL career with back-to-back 30-point seasons in 2017 and 2018 but has since slipped out of an everyday role in the lineup. He’s gone on to post 50 goals and 135 points in 422 career games, but he scored just once and added eight assists for nine points in 47 games with the Oilers last season. As a result, he was assigned to the minors for a five-game stint with AHL Bakersfield for the first time in seven years.

A winger who can chip in at the bottom of the lineup, Shore will be hard-pressed to make the Kraken out of camp. The edge on any spots will likely go to 2022 fourth-overall pick Shane Wright and veteran utility forward Pierre-Édouard Bellemare, whom the team signed to a one-year, one-way deal earlier this summer. If he’s placed on waivers and clears, he’ll likely suit up for the majority of 2023-24 with the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds.

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