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Summer Synopsis: Buffalo Sabres

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For the 12th season in a row, the Buffalo Sabres failed to make the playoffs at the end of the regular season. However, for the first time in several years, the end of the regular season did matter quite a lot to the Sabres. Being one of the best scoring teams throughout the year, Buffalo finished one point back of the last wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, raising expectations for the upcoming 2023-24 NHL season. There are still some weak spots in the lineup, but the Sabres made some moves this summer to address other areas of need.

Draft

1-13: F Zach Benson, Winnipeg (WHL)
2-39: F Anton Wahlberg, IF Malmo (SHL)
2-45: D Maxim Strbak, Sioux Falls (USHL)
3-86: D Gavin McCarthy, Muskegon (USHL)
4-109: F Ethan Miedema, Kingston (OHL)
5-141: G Scott Ratzlaff, Seattle (WHL)
6-173: D Sean Keohane, Dexter School (USHS)
7-205: D Norwin Panocha, Eisbaren Berlin (DNL U20)

Benson becomes the prize of the draft for the Sabres, falling to Buffalo at 13th overall after being projected to go in the top 10 throughout much of the year. Now joining former Sabres’ first-round selection, Matthew Savoie, with the Wenatchee Wild of the WHL for the 2023-24 season, Benson capped off his three-year career with the Winnipeg Ice scoring 36 goals and 62 assists in 60 games.

Strbak and McCarthy represent solid young defenders that the team has been craving over the last several years. Both players will join the NCAA for the 2023-24 season, Strbak to Michigan State University, and McCarthy to Boston University. They both carry solid skating ability, with an even better ability to get the puck out of their zone and into transition. Overall, factoring in the team’s need to keep the puck out of their net, McCarthy likely projects as the best long-term solution to that problem.

Key UFA Signings

D Kale Clague (one year, $775K)*
D Connor Clifton (three years, $10MM)
G Devin Cooley (one year, $775K)*
D Erik Johnson (one year, $3.25MM)
F Tyson Jost (one year, $2MM)
F Justin Richards (one year, $775K)*
G Dustin Tokarski (one year, $775K)*

*-denotes two-way contract

Even with an abundance of cap space heading into the offseason, the Sabres stayed relatively quiet on the free-agent market. They were quick to address their lack of defensive prowess on the back end by inking Clifton and Johnson to contracts on day one and even brought back Jost on a one-year deal to fill the gap left by the injury to Jack Quinn.

Although finished the 2022-23 regular season as the third-highest-scoring team in the league, the Sabres finished 26th in goals against, largely due to inefficient defensemen and goaltending. By bringing in Clifton and Johnson, who both play on the right side, Buffalo should dramatically improve the quality of their blue line. Both players finished with a solid oiSV% last season at 93.2% and 91.7%, respectively.

Already carrying solid defensemen such as Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, and Mattias Samuelsson with the ability to play on the left side of the blue line, the additions of Clifton and Johnson immediately make the team more well-rounded. If their offense can at the very least repeat the goal-scoring from a year ago, the Sabres should be in line to dramatically increase their year-on-year goal differential mark.

Key RFA Re-Signings

F Brett Murray (one year, $775K)*
F Lukas Rousek (two years, $1.55MM)*
F Linus Weissbach (one year, $775K)*

*-denotes two-way contract

All three of these players will likely spend the majority of next season rostered with the organization’s AHL team, the Rochester Americans. Of the trio, Rousek was the only one to suit up for the Sabres, scoring one goal and one assist in two games played. At the AHL level, Rousek led the Americans in most scoring categories, scoring 56 points in 70 games.

Murray and Weissbach had solid seasons in Rochester last year in their own right, finishing third and fourth on the team in scoring, respectively. Both players bring a nice scoring touch to the AHL level and do carry the potential of being rostered on the Sabres next year in case of injury or suspension to a regular forward.

Key Departures

G Craig Anderson (retirement)
F Vinnie Hinostroza (Pittsburgh, one year, $775K)
D Ilya Lyubushkin (trade with Anaheim)
G Malcolm Subban (St.Louis, one year, $775K)

For the most part, Buffalo didn’t stand to lose too much entering into this offseason. Their top two unrestricted free agents, Kyle Okposo, and Zemgus Girgensons, both re-upped with the Sabres on separate one-year, $2.5MM contracts, leaving the team with a fairly clean outlook for the remainder of the summer.

The trade that sent Lyubushkin, which was made just under 10 days ago now, was strictly due to a looming roster crunch on the back end for Buffalo. Because the team had brought in Clifton and Johnson and did not lose any defensemen via free agency, the team simply had too many viable options on the blue line, and Lyubushkin became a consequence.

To pick out one, the departure that may hurt the team the most is the retirement of Anderson. Being 41 years old last season, Anderson provided Buffalo with stability between the pipes at the very least, carrying an 11-11-2 record in 24 starts, posting a .908 SV% and a 3.06 GAA. These are not great numbers by any stretch of the imagination but would end up being some of the better goaltending numbers posted for the Sabres last season. However, if Anderson becomes the biggest loss of the offseason for Buffalo, it would be hard to consider this summer anything other than a complete success for the organization.

Salary Cap Outlook

Even with large extensions kicking in this season for Tage Thompson and Dylan Cozens, as well as carrying the relatively high-cap hit of $9MM for forward Jeff Skinner, the Sabres have one of the cleanest cap futures of any team in the NHL. They will still need to dole out extensions for Dahlin and potentially Power by the end of next summer, but with just over $8.7MM in cap space to start this season, should be able to fit those in rather easily.

There will come a time when Buffalo will likely be forced to move some names from the roster, as having so much top-end talent either on the team or still coming through the pipeline becomes expensive, but that can has been kicked far down the road for this organization. If the team reaches their potential this season, or even next, they will have plenty of cap space to become one of the juggernauts in the Eastern Conference and even the league as a whole.

Key Questions

What’s Their Answer Between The Pipes?  Having already been addressed in this piece, it is no secret that Buffalo has had a serious problem with goaltending over the last several years. For the most part, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen does not appear as the long-term answer in the net, and the Sabres appear to be putting all their eggs in the basket of Devon Levi. Levi does have serious long-term potential, but there is always a potential he does not live up to the hype. Luckily for Buffalo, with ample amount of cap space, prospect, and draft capital, they could look to poach already established goaltenders such as Ilya Samsonov, Connor Hellebuyck, Carter Hart, or Jeremy Swayman off the market sometime in the near future.

What Will Dahlin’s Extension Look Like? With one year and $6MM remaining on his current contract, Dahlin has set himself up nicely for a max extension with the Sabres by this time next year. Last season, in 78 games played, Dahlin would score 15 goals and 58 assists, finishing eighth place in Norris voting. Dahlin played much more physically last season than in years past and improved drastically on his defensive numbers as well. There is no question that he has earned a massive extension from the Sabres, but what that will look like is another question in its own right. Buffalo has done incredibly solid work in getting their star players signed to below-market deals and could do the same with Dahlin. If the Sabres are able to sign Dahlin for anything less than $10MM a season at this point, it will be a tremendous success for the team’s front office.

How Will The Team Replace Quinn? The most unfortunate news for the offseason is that the team will be without Quinn to start the regular season. Suffering an Achilles tear while training at the end of June, even by conservative estimates he will not start the season until the end of December. In 75 games last season, Quinn would score 14 goals and 23 assists, showing that he is ready for NHL minutes. To start the year, it likely makes the most sense to start John-Jason Peterka in Quinn’s absence, who had a very similar year last season to Quinn. However, although unlikely, if the top six does not reach expectations in Quinn’s absence, the team could look to bring in hometown star, Patrick Kane, to replace the minutes lost.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Examining An Upcoming Montreal Canadiens Roster Crunch

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On paper, the Montreal Canadiens don’t look like the type of team one would typically associate with an excess of NHL-caliber talent. The team is in the midst of a full-scale rebuild, attempting to construct a new core of players around some intriguing young pieces such as captain Nick Suzuki, sniper Cole Caufield, and 2022 first overall pick Juraj Slafkovský, among others.

The priority in Montreal under head coach Martin St. Louis has been player development rather than playoff contention, and that mandate to develop players as a top priority is likely to extend at least another season. But even though Montreal is widely expected to finish well outside the NHL playoff picture, they still have an abundance of capable NHL players to choose from when they construct their opening-night 23-man roster, particularly on defense.

Thanks to the Canadiens’ involvement in the three-team Erik Karlsson blockbuster trade, they dealt away Mike Hoffman and Rem Pitlick.

Those two departures did wonders to alleviate what was shaping up to be a crowded situation for the team at the forward position, one that may have even led to the Canadiens taking the somewhat drastic step of placing Hoffman on season-opening waivers.

Earlier this month, we covered the possibility that Hoffman, a well-traveled veteran scorer, could end up on season-opening waivers. With Hoffman and Pitlick departed, the possibility of the Canadiens exposing a relatively established NHLer on waivers has shifted focus to their defense and goaltending.

As a result of the Karlsson trade, (and subsequent deal that sent Jeff Petry to the Detroit Red Wings) the Canadiens ended up acquiring Gustav Lindström, a soon-to-be 25-year-old blueliner with 128 NHL games under his belt. The acquisition of Lindström gives the Canadiens a group of nine defensemen under strong consideration for the seven or even eight roster spots set to be available for that position.

Two veterans are locks to retain their prominent roles on the team: Mike Matheson scored at an impressive 58-point pace in his first season in Montreal and is likely to be the team’s number-one defenseman this season. David Savard is an experienced defensive defenseman who will be counted on to handle difficult minutes and penalty-killing time. Similar to those two veterans, Kaiden Guhle, should be considered a roster lock after a strong (albeit injury-shortened) rookie year.

Beyond those names, the Canadiens have Lindström, Arber Xhekaj, Jordan Harris, Johnathan Kovacevic, Justin Barron, and Chris Wideman left, a group of six defenseman competing for the likely four NHL jobs that remain.

Accordingly, the threat of waivers looms large over the Canadiens’ roster-building calculus as they seek to decide who to roster out of that set of names. Only Xhekaj, Harris, and Barron are able to be sent down to the AHL’s Laval Rocket without needing to hit the waiver wire. But as things currently stand, the Canadiens’ elevation of player development to their number-one organizational goal makes Xhekaj and Harris two highly likely candidates to make the opening-night roster, nearing “lock” territory.

Barron isn’t on quite as strong ground, but the 2020 first-rounder showed flashes of strong play as a rookie and could easily force his way into a roster spot with a strong preseason. Set to turn 22 in November, the Canadiens’ preference is undoubtedly for Barron to do exactly that.

Assuming Barron can manage to either put together a strong training camp and preseason, or at the very least do enough to motivate the Canadiens to spend an opening-night roster spot on him rather than start him in Laval, the result would be only one roster spot left for Lindström, Wideman, and Kovacevic.

Wideman’s valued presence in the Canadiens’ locker room kept him on Montreal’s NHL roster for the entirety of 2022-23, but with so many options to choose from the team may not be able to do the same for Wideman this upcoming season.

The likeliest of the three to win the potential last spot available on the team’s blueline is Kovacevic, who the Canadiens claimed off of waivers from the Winnipeg Jets at the start of last season.

Kovacevic acquitted himself well in his rookie season in Montreal and is a big right-shot defenseman on a highly affordable $766k cap hit for the next two seasons. He is therefore highly unlikely to be placed on season-opening waivers, something that would force the Canadiens into making a difficult choice.

Will they want to carry three netminders on their opening-night roster (Sam Montembeault, Jake Allen, Casey DeSmith) or are they okay with waiving one of those names (likely DeSmith) in order to be able to keep an eighth defenseman, saving Lindström or Wideman from waivers?

The current makeup of the Canadiens roster makes it likely that they’ll only be able to keep one of DeSmth, Lindström, or Wideman away from the season-opening waiver wire, barring a trade. That could present an opportunity for another club, as each name could reasonably be under consideration for rival teams to claim.

Lindström is a six-foot-two right-shot defenseman who saw regular penalty-killing time under former Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill in 2021-22. DeSmith, 32, played in 38 games last season, a personal best, and has a strong .912 career save percentage in the NHL. Wideman is probably the least likely candidate to be claimed due to his age (he’ll turn 34 in January) but as mentioned he’s a valued veteran voice in Montreal and did manage to score 27 points in 64 games in 2021-22.

It’s obviously too early to predict what the Canadiens will ultimately do with their roster dilemma, and the preseason and training camp will go a long way in determining their ultimate course of action. Perhaps a netminder on another team suffers an unexpected injury, motivating them to make a trade offer for DeSmith, or maybe the opportunity will arise for the Canadiens to exchange some of their defensive depth for help in other areas.

But as things currently stand, the Canadiens are facing the prospect of placing a few notable players on waivers. That makes their training camp and preseason one to watch for not only Canadiens fans but also fans of rival NHL teams, especially fans whose clubs could potentially need a right-shot blueliner or backup goalie.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Minor Transactions: 08/26/23

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Although the start of the NHL season is still more than a month away, we’re rapidly approaching the beginning of the regular season for many top professional leagues in Europe. Teams have been playing preseason games for quite some time now, and in just a few days some top teams will have their seasons truly begin.

The Champions Hockey League has its first matchday on Thursday, with some notable contests including Liiga runners-up Lahti Pelicans against the Växjö Lakers, the reigning SHL champions. The reigning Swiss champions, Genève-Servette HC, will take on Austria’s HC Innsbruck in a contest set to feature numerous former longtime NHLers, such as Valtteri Filppula, Daniel Winnik, and Sami Vatanen. For many clubs in Europe, this time of the summer remains an opportunity to add players for what they hope will be a strong 2023-24 campaign. As always, we’ll keep track of minor league and overseas league transactions here.

  • A report out of Russia has linked veteran NHL goalie Anton Khudobin to a club in the VHL, Russia’s second-tier professional league. The 37-year-old is reportedly signing with Sokol Krasnoyarsk on a contract that contains a termination clause should Khudobin receive a KHL offer.  Khudobin hasn’t played overseas since the lockout at the start of the 2012-13 season, and would leave behind a North American pro career with quite a few highlights. He’s played in 260 career NHL games, with his career highlight undoubtedly coming in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, when he backstopped the Dallas Stars to the Stanley Cup Final. Khudobin only appeared in one NHL game last season, stopping 22 of 28 shots in a March contest as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks.
  • After signing 654-game NHL veteran Alex Galchenyuk, the KHL’s SKA St. Petersburg have made another move involving a former NHLer. They’ve acquired the KHL playing rights to forward Dominik Kahun, who has 186 NHL games on his resume. Kahun hasn’t played in the NHL since 2020-21 but has had a successful two-year stint with SC Bern in the Swiss National League, scoring 65 points in 65 games. St. Petersburg may not be able to get Kahun onto their roster officially for quite a while, though, as the recent IIHF Men’s World Championship silver medalist signed a three-year extension with Bern last October that will keep him in the de facto Swiss capital until 2027.
  • 20-year-old netminder Tikhon Chayka was not extended a full-time contract from the KHL’s Dynamo Minsk at the conclusion of his try-out deal, the club announced today. This means that Chayka will move on from the team after just a short period with the club. Chayka wrapped up a two-year stint playing major junior hockey for the Prince Albert Raiders in the WHL at the end of last season, accumulating 96 games played with an .899 save percentage. He’ll now look elsewhere for a spot to begin his pro career.

This page may be updated throughout the day. 

2009 NHL Draft Take Two: Seventh Overall Pick

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Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.”  Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended.  For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.

We’re looking back at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now.  Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?

The results of our redraft so far are as follows, with their original draft position in parentheses:

1st Overall: Victor Hedman, New York Islanders (2)
2nd Overall: John Tavares, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
3rd Overall: Ryan O’Reilly, Colorado Avalanche (33)
4th Overall: Matt Duchene, Atlanta Thrashers (3)
5th Overall: Chris Kreider, Los Angeles Kings (19)
6th Overall: Nazem Kadri, Phoenix Coyotes (7)

Rather than have history repeat itself by selecting Oliver Ekman-Larsson with the sixth pick, PHR readers instead opted to give the Coyotes a center with nearly 30% of the votes cast coming in for Kadri.

It took some time for Kadri to find his footing in the NHL but a breakout performance in the lockout-shortened 2012-23 campaign saw him secure a full-time role.  That year, he posted a 0.93 points per game average and it looked like Toronto had found a true impact center, a vacancy they had dealt with for several seasons by that time with the likes of Mikhail Grabovski, Tyler Bozak, and Matt Stajan playing big minutes in the previous seasons.

However, it took a while for Kadri to really take off as he wasn’t able to produce like a true top-line middleman with consistency.  In fact, it wasn’t until Auston Matthews arrived in 2016-17 that Kadri was able to reach the 30-goal mark, a milestone he then reached in back-to-back years.  Unfortunately for Toronto, discipline issues became too much of a concern and in the 2019 offseason, he was traded to Colorado with Tyson Barrie and Alexander Kerfoot as part of the package coming the other way.  Barrie lasted one season in Toronto before signing with Edmonton while Kerfoot held a middle-six role for each of the last four years and signed with Arizona last month.

Meanwhile, with the Avs, Kadri started slow, recording just 30 goals in his first two seasons combined, spanning 107 games.  But in 2021-22, he had a career year, exploding for 87 points; his previous career-high was only 61.  He then followed that up with an impressive playoff performance, notching 15 points in 16 games while helping lead Colorado to the Stanley Cup.

That made Kadri one of the more sought-after players last summer and while it took a while for Calgary to create enough cap room to sign him, a seven-year, $49MM deal eventually got done.  Year one didn’t go so well (as was the case for many Flames) as his production dipped to 56 points.  That’s still the third-best single-season mark of his career but they were undoubtedly hoping for a bit more from him as Calgary ultimately missed the playoffs.  With six years left on that contract, he should be a fixture in their lineup for a while.

While Ekman-Larsson was a franchise fixture in the desert for more than a decade, they spent a lot of that time also searching for a center and it certainly is interesting to wonder what might have been had Kadri been the pick for them.

In the meantime, we move on to Toronto with the seventh selection.  Obviously, their original pick (Kadri) is off the board so they’ll be getting someone new here.  Who should they take?  Make your selection using the ballot below.

If you can’t access the poll above, click here to vote.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

NHL Executive Committee Approves Senators Sale To Michael Andlauer

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One more hurdle has been cleared as the sale of the Senators nears a formal conclusion.  Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that Michael Andlauer met with the NHL’s Executive Committee and has been given the green light to finalize his purchase of the team for a reported $950MM.  Andlauer’s bid was the winning one in a long process that concluded back in mid-June.

A source tells Garrioch that the transaction is likely to be completed in the next few days.  From there, it will then go to a vote of the Board of Governors who must have a vote of two-thirds approval to formally ratify the transaction.  At this point, there is little reason to think they won’t give the green light to the transaction.

Andlauer is well-known to the Board as he already is an alternate representative of the Canadiens as he presently owns a 10% share of the team.  Garrioch notes that Andlauer is hoping to complete a sale of that chunk of the team to majority owner Geoff Molson (who sits on the Executive Committee) soon.  However, if an agreement can’t be reached on that front, Andlauer’s portion would then be placed into a trust.

Andlauer won’t be buying the team outright as his bid has several partners.  Those include Anna and Olivia Melnyk (who will retain a 10% stake), local businessman Jeff York (whose portion has more than 20 local investors), the Ottawa real estate-based Malhotra family, Toronto-based investment group Yorkville Asset Management, Paul and Michael Paletta of Burlington-based Alinea Group holdings, and OHL Oshawa owner Rocco Tullio.

Once the sale is made official, the Sens are expected to bring back long-time executive Cyril Leeder who is likely to replace Anthony LeBlanc who resigned as president of business operations last month.  Meanwhile, there have been discussions for franchise icon Daniel Alfredsson to return to the franchise in some capacity.

While it still might be another couple of weeks before everything is made official (in terms of the transaction being completed and then ratified by the Board of Directors), it appears that this long sale process following the death of long-time owner Eugene Melnyk is about to come to a conclusion.

Summer Synopsis: Boston Bruins

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Last season, things couldn’t have gone any better for Boston from October through the beginning of April.  They were the top team in the NHL and not by a small margin.  GM Don Sweeney made multiple moves to add at the trade deadline, cementing themselves as a heavy favorite for the Stanley Cup.  However, they were ousted in the opening round, blowing a 3-1 series lead to Florida.  Their additions last season came at a cost and as a result, their roster looks considerably different now than it did just a few months ago.

Draft

3-92: F Christopher Pelosi, Sioux Falls (USHL)
4-124: F Beckett Hendrickson, USA U-18 (NTDP)
6-188: F Ryan Walsh, Cedar Rapids (USHL)
7-214: F Casper Nassen, Vasteras (Sweden U20)
7-220: D Kristian Kostadinski, Frolunda (Sweden U20)

Not surprisingly, with the Bruins being a buyer for several years in a row, they didn’t have a lot to work with here.  Their first-round pick was traded for Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway while their second-round selection belonged to Anaheim as part of the Hampus Lindholm acquisition, their big move the year before.  (And if you’re looking ahead a year, the cupboard is even thinner as Boston has already moved their top three picks plus their seventh-rounder.)

Pelosi and Hendrickson (son of former NHLer Darby Hendrickson) are set to be teammates with Sioux Falls of the USHL this season before beginning their college careers in 2024-25.  Walsh, meanwhile, is joining Cornell in 2023-24 after finishing second in USHL scoring last season.  All of these picks have at least four years before they need to sign so this is a draft class that won’t be making an impact anytime soon.

Trade Acquisitions

D Ian Mitchell (from Chicago)
D Alec Regula (from Chicago)
D Reilly Walsh (from New Jersey)

Mitchell showed some promise offensively at the college level, making him one of Chicago’s better prospects just a few years ago.  However, while he has been productive in the minors (with 42 points in 67 games over three seasons), that hasn’t translated to the NHL where he has just four goals and a dozen assists in 82 games.  The 24-year-old did get into 35 games with the Blackhawks last season but had been passed over by a few players on their depth chart, making him expendable.  Now waiver-eligible for the first time, there’s no guarantee he’ll make it through waivers if Boston tries to send him down to AHL Providence.  Accordingly, he could stick in a depth role in training camp.

Regula and Walsh, meanwhile, will also be battling to try to land a spot toward the back of Boston’s blueline but don’t have as much pedigree or NHL experience as Mitchell.  Pending waivers, both will likely be with Providence this season.  All three players agreed to one-year deals worth the NHL minimum in July.

Key UFA Signings

F Jesper Boqvist (one year, $775K)
F Patrick Brown (two years, $1.6MM)
F Alex Chiasson (PTO)
F John Farinacci (two years, $1.82MM)*
F Morgan Geekie (two years, $4MM)
F Milan Lucic (one year, $1MM plus $500K in bonuses)
D Kevin Shattenkirk (one year, $1.05MM)
F James van Riemsdyk (one year, $1MM)

*-denotes two-way contract

Spreading the wealth was the name of the game for the Bruins who had several spots to fill and not a lot of money to spend.  Their biggest splash up front was Geekie, a player who was somewhat surprisingly non-tendered by Seattle, likely to avoid the risk of an arbitration award higher than they wanted to pay.  The 25-year-old has been a producer in junior and in the minors and while that hasn’t translated to the NHL level just yet, he should have a good opportunity to play a bigger role in Boston which should give him a chance to be more of an impactful player.

The other addition they’re likely counting on for consistent production is van Riemsdyk.  The 34-year-old is coming off a down year in Philadelphia but has either reached the 20-goal mark or had a goal-per-game pace at that level in every other season since his rookie campaign back in 2009-10.  While he has slowed down, this was quite a reasonable pickup as he looks for a bounce-back showing.

Most of their other additions are of the depth variety.  Lucic isn’t close to the player he was in his prime with Boston but should play a regular role on the fourth line.  Brown, Boqvist, and Chiasson (if he earns a deal) are likely to battle for spots on that trio as well or to be the reserve forward.  Farinacci, meanwhile, could also get into the mix after signing earlier this month as part of the August 15 free agent group but may be better off starting his pro career in the minors.

As for Shattenkirk, the 34-year-old has been a contributor offensively for most of his career and should be able to do so here.  He’s a top-four defender who’s being paid like a depth one, making the veteran one of the better bargain additions of the summer.  He played with Lindholm in Anaheim and the two could see time together this season as well.

Key RFA Re-Signings

F Trent Frederic (two years, $4.6MM)
G Jeremy Swayman (one year, $3.475MM)

Frederic has developed slowly but steadily since being a first-round pick (29th overall) back in 2016 and had a breakout performance last season, notching 17 goals and 14 assists in 79 games despite averaging less than 12 minutes a night.  With a long list of departures, Frederic is likely to land a higher spot on the depth chart and could even see time down the middle, his natural position.

Swayman, meanwhile, followed up an All-Rookie performance in 2021-22 with an even better showing last year, albeit in fewer games with Linus Ullmark also having a career year between the pipes.  With just 88 NHL appearances under his belt during the regular season, a long-term deal wasn’t feasible and this one ultimately wound up in the hands of an arbitrator.

Key Departures

F Patrice Bergeron (retirement)
F Tyler Bertuzzi (Toronto, one year, $5.5MM)
D Connor Clifton (Buffalo, three years, $10MM)
F Nick Foligno (trade with Chicago)
F Taylor Hall (trade with Chicago)
F Garnet Hathaway (Philadelphia, two years, $4.75MM)
F David Krejci (retirement)
F Tomas Nosek (New Jersey, one year, $1MM)
D Dmitry Orlov (Carolina, two years, $15.5MM)
D Mike Reilly (buyout, signed with Florida, one year, $1MM)

The departures of Bergeron and Krejci shouldn’t come as much surprise.  Bergeron pondered hanging up his skates the year before while Krejci (whose retirement only covers the NHL, not international play) had already left once before coming back last season.  That said, the expectation of their departures doesn’t make it any easier to stomach for the Bruins.  Bergeron was a premier two-way center and even though his production had dipped a bit, he was still a catalyst for their top line.  Krejci, meanwhile, was the perfect fit as a second option while being someone that could move up when Bergeron was injured.  Boston will try to fill their departures internally for now with Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle but with all due respect to those capable veterans, that’s a considerable step back.

Hall (and the rights to Foligno) were moved to Chicago in a move that amounted to a straight salary dump that was necessarily to open up enough cap space to fill out their roster.  His $6MM went to several of the players they inked on the first day of free agency.  Hall wasn’t a top-line player for most of his tenure with Boston but was a capable secondary scorer.  The same can be said for Bertuzzi, whose time with the Bruins was much shorter.  A deadline acquisition, the 28-year-old only managed four goals after being acquired but was one of their top playoff performers, collecting five goals and five helpers in their loss to Florida.  Bertuzzi wanted a long-term deal this summer but wasn’t able to land it, resulting in him opting for a one-year deal in Toronto.

Nosek’s departure isn’t as significant as Bergeron and Krejci’s but the 30-year-old was a capable depth center.  He won over 56% of his faceoffs over his two seasons with the Bruins while playing a prominent role on their penalty kill.  Hathaway, meanwhile, didn’t light up the scoresheet after being acquired but gave Boston extra physicality.  His role is likely to be filled by Lucic next season.

On the back end, the departure of Orlov comes as no surprise either as there was no way that Boston could realistically find a way to afford to keep him.  He picked up 17 points in 21 games while logging 22 minutes a night and while they’ll be hoping that Shattenkirk can cover some of the lost production, Orlov’s all-around impact will be harder to replace.  As for Reilly, he was buried in the minors for the bulk of last season.  They could have gone that way again this year but the buyout only costs them $333K this coming season which means they saved enough to fill close to two roster spots by making that move.  In 2024-25, however, the buyout cost increases by $1MM.

Salary Cap Outlook

It wasn’t easy and the exodus of talent certainly was tough to watch from a Boston perspective but the team is now cap-compliant with CapFriendly projecting them having around $429K in cap room as things stand.  That number is bogged down by $4.5MM in bonus overage penalties incurred from the contracts for Bergeron and Krejci last year, meaning that they’re carrying a bigger cap charge when they’re not playing compared to when they were in the lineup last year.  That was a well-known outcome when the Bruins structured those deals they way they did a year ago; it’s not as if that penalty came as a surprise to them.

Key Questions

Can They Upgrade Down The Middle? Sweeney has made it known that they’d like to find a way to upgrade at center.  With who they’ve lost, that goal makes plenty of sense.  However, they’re in a spot where they basically have to match money while they lack the draft pick and prospect capital needed to help put their offers over the top.  That makes a top-six upgrade difficult but if they’re open to making a smaller-scale one to improve their depth, that option might be a bit more palatable (and affordable).

What’s Next For DeBrusk? Winger Jake DeBrusk is now extension-eligible and you can be sure that his camp will be pointing to the eight-year, $52MM extension that Tampa Bay just gave Brandon Hagel as a starting point for discussions.  Is that a price point that Boston is willing to go to in order to keep the 26-year-old?  It’s not as if his tenure with the team has been smooth throughout with a long-lasting trade request only being rescinded a couple of years ago.  And if it’s not a price tag they’re willing to pay, could they justify trying to move him to help match money to get an impact center?  If they want to make a move for a center sooner than later, it would behoove them to have an idea of what DeBrusk is looking for extension-wise soon if they haven’t already started discussions.

What Will The Goalies Do For An Encore? The combination of Ullmark and Swayman was nothing short of dominant last season.  Ullmark led the league in wins, save percentage, and goals-against average, becoming only the third goalie in the last three decades to lead all three categories; the win mark is particularly impressive considering he only played in 49 games.  Swayman, meanwhile, was fourth in the NHL in SV% and GAA.  With a weaker roster now in front of them, how much will their performance be affected?  If the two can play at even a close rate to 2022-23, the Bruins could still be quite dangerous.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Atlantic Notes: Nylander, Watson, Chiasson

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While the Maple Leafs were able to get an extension done with Auston Matthews earlier this week, it doesn’t appear as if much progress has been made on a new deal with pending UFA William Nylander.  Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun relays that the two sides are at least $1MM apart per year on a new agreement.  Toronto is hoping to sign the 27-year-old around the $9MM mark while his camp is seeking something starting with a ten.  Nylander is coming off a career year that saw him put up 87 points in 82 games, his second straight campaign of at least 80 points.  If Nylander doesn’t sign now and goes and has another 80-point showing, he should be well-positioned to have someone meet his asking price on the open market next summer.

More from the Atlantic:

  • Earlier this week, veteran winger Austin Watson agreed to a tryout deal with Tampa Bay but it was a bit surprising that it came to that point. Senators play-by-play voice Dean Brown recently reported (Twitter link) that his former team in Ottawa offered him a one-year contract earlier in free agency but that the 31-year-old was hoping to land a three-year agreement.  Clearly, that didn’t come to fruition and resulted in very limited interest on the open market.  That said, Watson should have a good chance to earn a spot with the Lightning with several key checkers leaving the organization this summer.  However, with their salary cap situation, his deal, should he land one, is almost certain to be at or close to the minimum salary of $775K.
  • Winger Alex Chiasson told Kevin Paul Dupont of The Boston Globe that he received a “fair number” of PTO offers around the NHL this summer. In the end, he chose the Bruins based on his perceiving an opportunity to land a regular roster spot along with a desire to play for a contender.  This will be Chiasson’s fifth training camp on a PTO.  He landed an NHL deal with the first three while the fourth (with Arizona last season) was unsuccessful.

Pacific Notes: Broberg, Burakovsky, Brown

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With Philip Broberg being fourth on the left side of Edmonton’s depth chart and the team clearly being in win-now mode, Allan Mitchell of The Athletic wonders (subscription link) if the blueliner could be best utilized as a trade asset this season.  The 22-year-old spent the bulk of last season with the Oilers, getting into 46 games but was limited to just a goal and seven assists while logging only 12:36 per night.  That ATOI dipped to just 6:53 per contest in the playoffs.  Broberg, a 2019 first-round pick (8th overall), has had some offensive success in the minors (27 points in 38 games with AHL Bakersfield) and should be able to bring back a considerable asset should GM Ken Holland decide to move him in the coming months if he can’t lock down a bigger role in the lineup.

Elsewhere out in the Pacific:

  • Kraken winger Andre Burakovsky has resumed skating as he works his way back from a torn groin muscle he sustained back in February, notes Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times. The hope is that the 28-year-old will be fully recovered for training camp next month.  Burakovsky led Seattle in scoring at the time of his injury with 39 points in 49 games and was expected to be back just after the trade deadline which played a role in the team opting to not make an addition up front.  However, he wound up suffering a setback and underwent surgery which ended his season.
  • The Kings’ AHL affiliate in Ontario recently announced the hiring of Adam Brown as their goaltending development coach. The 31-year-old had worked with Los Angeles in a similar role for the past two seasons while also doing some scouting.  After working with their goalies throughout the organization, Brown will now work in a more traditional coaching role with the Reign and will be tasked with aiding newcomer Erik Portillo whose rights were acquired back in March.

Sharks Loan Filip Bystedt Back To Swedish League

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The Sharks have decided that the time isn’t right for prospect Filip Bystedt to make his North American debut.  Instead, CapFriendly recently reported (Twitter link) that San Jose has loaned the center back to SHL Linköping for the upcoming season.

The 19-year-old was the 27th pick back in 2022 after a strong showing in Sweden’s junior level where he recorded 16 goals and 33 assists in 40 regular season games while adding ten points in eight playoff contests.  He also got into 15 games with Linköping at the top level in his draft year and while he didn’t produce much (one goal and one assist), he showed enough offensive promise at the junior level to warrant a first-round selection.

Last season, Bystedt was a regular at the SHL level, suiting up in 45 of their 52 games.  While he didn’t light it up like he did in junior, he still finished seventh on the team in scoring, tallying seven goals with 13 helpers while logging nearly 13 minutes a night.  Once the regular season ended, Bystedt was then sent down to the junior level where he picked up six points in four games to end his year on a high note.  Meanwhile, he was quite productive at the World Juniors, finishing tied for sixth in tournament scoring with four goals and six assists in seven games although they came up short in the medal round, finishing fourth.  That helped earn him his entry-level deal back in June.

While still junior-eligible, Bystedt was eligible to go to the AHL this coming season since he wasn’t drafted out of the CHL.  However, it appears that San Jose feels he’d be best served with another year in Sweden’s top division over suiting up with AHL Barracuda.  This means that his contract will slide for the 2023-24 campaign and will still have three years remaining on it at this point next summer.

Examining An Upcoming Columbus Blue Jackets Roster Crunch

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After a miserable 2022-23 campaign, the Blue Jackets’ mandate for the 2023 offseason was to pursue significant and meaningful upgrades to their roster that could result in the team having a legitimate chance to reach the postseason next spring.

New head coach Mike Babcock’s contract reportedly only carries a two-year term, suggesting immediate results are expected from his hire. Seeing as marquee 2022 free agent signing Johnny Gaudreau turned 30 earlier this month, it’s easy to see why the team’s general manager, Jarmo Kekäläinen, has so earnestly pursued NHL-ready talent for his club.

The team made some big additions this summer, headlined by two experienced blueliners: Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson. They also have quite a few intriguing young players set to take on potentially significant roles for the franchise, such as 2022 top draft pick David Jiříček, 2021 top pick Kent Johnson (who authored an impressive 40-point rookie season), and Kirill Marchenko, who scored 21 goals as a rookie.

In addition to those names, they could end up getting meaningful contributions from rookie players, such as Hobey Baker winner Adam Fantilli (who could even instantly slot in as a top-six center) and Russian import Dmitri Voronkov, a rangy six-foot-three pivot who scored 26 goals and 43 points across 78 KHL games last season. Babcock will have a diverse group of players to choose from for any role he seeks to fill in his lineup, and with franchise defenseman Zach Werenski back from injury, there’s legitimate hope for a major bounce-back season in Ohio.

The byproduct of the number of new players the Blue Jackets have is that competition for spots in the team’s opening-night lineup will be stiff, and Kekäläinen and Babcock will have some important decisions to make this fall that could massively impact the careers of a few players.

Columbus simply has more players who may legitimately merit NHL roles than they have NHL jobs to offer. As a result, some players could end up in the AHL or exposed to waivers when were they employed by another team they’d be preparing to skate in an NHL opening night.

Up front, there are significant training camp battles likely to occur both at center and along the wings. Gaudreau, Laine, and Johnson are locks for top-six roles and Marchenko isn’t far behind them, but after those names, the competition for roles on the third line, fourth line, or spare forward spots is set to be fierce.

Soon-to-be-24-year-old Alexandre Texier scored 11 goals and 20 points in his most recent 36-game NHL season and is returning to the NHL after a productive season playing with the ZSC Lions in Switzerland. Jack Roslovic has had his fair share of inconsistencies in Columbus, but has nonetheless scored 123 points in 206 total games as a Blue Jacket, a 49-point 82-game pace.

They should each be seen as front-runners for roles along the wings of Babcock’s third line, though they’ll have some stiff competition.

Last season, Trey Fix-Wolansky, at the age of 23, scored 71 points in just 61 games for the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters. He’ll now need to clear waivers in order to be sent to the AHL, and therefore could be an intriguing name to watch for teams looking to profit off of the number of NHL-relevant wingers the Blue Jackets have.

Another player in contention for a roster spot is 22-year-old Yegor Chinakhov, a 2020 first-round pick. He remains waiver-exempt but has only played seven career games in the AHL. At this stage of his career, it would likely be less than ideal for Chinakhov to spend this season (the last before he’s waivers-eligible) in the AHL.

It’s an important year for Chinakhov to deliver on the faith the Blue Jackets showed in him when they picked him 21st overall, and he’ll have his work cut out for him in the preseason as he tries to beat out Roslovic or Texier for a third-line role.

A second Blue Jackets first-rounder, Liam Foudy, finds himself on the team’s roster bubble. Unlike Chinakhov, he has the disadvantage of being waivers-eligible for the first time in his career.

Foudy faces a make-or-break preseason as he looks to secure a fourth-line role competing against more established names such as Eric Robinson and Mathieu Olivier. While it would be a surprise to see the 2018 18th overall pick’s name on season-opening waivers, the possibility can’t be ruled out.

This immense level of competition along the wings extends to the center position, where the Blue Jackets have a wide-open set of options. The team has flirted with the possibility of trying out Laine as a pivot, and it’s that possibility as well as the presence of players such as Fantilli that could force a player like Roslovic, a longtime center, onto the wing. The most intriguing spot to look out for is likely to be the third-line center role, assuming Jenner and one of Laine or Fantilli each take up a top-six job.

2022 first-rounder Cole Sillinger had a brutal sophomore campaign but scored 31 points as a rookie and is still viewed as a crucial part of Columbus’ long-term future. But a variety of factors could lead to him starting the year with AHL Cleveland.

First and foremost, there were many who believed that Sillinger would have been better served last season regaining his confidence in the AHL with the Monsters, where he ended up playing in 11 total games. (compared to 64 in the NHL) That attitude could lead to Columbus opting to start Sillinger off in Cleveland, hoping that he’ll force his way into the NHL roster with some strong play and re-emerge in the NHL with sky-high confidence.

Sillinger is waivers-exempt, so the team could prefer to begin his season in the minors in order to avoid having to place a player such as Fix-Wolansky, Justin Danforth, or a defenseman on waivers.

The addition of Voronkov could also push Sillinger to the AHL, assuming the Russian is able to quickly translate his KHL success to the smaller North American ice surfaces.

A potential battle between Voronkov and Sillinger for an opening-night job down the middle of Babcock’s lineup could be the most intriguing storyline to track during the Blue Jackets’ preseason.

On defense, Columbus faces an arguably even more crowded situation. The top three defensemen are set in stone, with Werenski, Provorov, and Severson guaranteed to play top-four roles. Beyond them, the team has a group of five players competing for what is likely to be just four open NHL jobs: Andrew Peeke, Erik Gudbranson, Jake Bean, Adam Boqvist, and Jiříček.

Jiříček, 19, was exceptional in the AHL last season (he scored 38 points in 55 games, leading all regular under-21 defensemen in scoring on a points-per-game basis) and appears more than ready for an NHL role. But handing Jiříček an NHL job could mean placing one of those names on season-opening waivers, or forcing Kekäläinen to carry eight defensemen on his roster when the team already, as mentioned, has an abundance of capable forwards and a few who would need to be waived if they don’t earn NHL jobs.

While a battle between young centers such as Sillinger and Voronkov could end up a highlight of the preseason, the situation of the Blue Jackets’ defense means the ultimately higher-stakes lineup competition is on Babcock’s blueline, where the threat of waivers potentially looms large for some experienced players.

The NHL preseason isn’t a time generally associated with high-stakes battles. The games don’t count for the standings and the priority for many players is simply preparing themselves for the rigor that comes with the regular season. But for the many players who find themselves on their team’s roster bubble or competing for an open lineup spot, the preseason carries an immense importance for the future of their career.

With a new head coach, many Blue Jackets players will have a blank slate to prove themselves and earn a role this fall. That presents numerous opportunities for not only Blue Jackets players, but also the 31 other teams who could be eyeing up a Columbus skater they hope will end up on the season-opening waiver wire. The training camp battles set to play out at every skater position in Columbus are likely to make the team’s training camp and preseason one of the league’s most interesting this fall.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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