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Blackhawks Forward Luke Philp Undergoes Achilles Surgery

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It hasn’t been a great offseason for players when it comes to Achilles injuries.  Buffalo’s Jack Quinn tore his and will miss a big chunk of next season.  So, too, did Anaheim’s Isac Lundestrom.  Now, another forward has suffered the same injury as Chicago’s AHL team in Rockford announced that Luke Philp underwent Achilles surgery over the weekend and will miss approximately the next six months.

The 27-year-old made his NHL debut last season, getting into three games with the Blackhawks down the stretch where he picked up his first career assist at the top level.  Philp spent most of the season in the minors with the IceHogs and was quite productive, notching 29 goals and 24 assists in 60 games, good for fourth on the team in scoring.

That performance helped Philp land a one-year extension back in March, one that carries a $775K cap hit at the NHL level and a $375K salary in the minors.  However, he won’t get much of an opportunity to play on that new deal since he’ll be out until likely sometime in February.

Philp will start the season on season-opening injured reserve and since he was up with Chicago for six days in 2022-23, the Blackhawks will carry a small cap charge on the books until he’s cleared to return.  The calculation is his number of NHL days divided by the number of days in the upcoming season (192) multiplied by his NHL cap hit ($775K).  In this case, the prorated cap charge will be just over $24K.

New York Rangers Hire Christian Hmura

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According to Mollie Walker of the New York Post, the New York Rangers have added Christian Hmura to their coaching staff, who will now serve as the Skills and Performance Development coach. Walker notes that Hmura will strictly aid in the development of Rangers’ prospects, and work directly under the Director of Player Development, Jed Ortmeyer.

Hmura will replace Mark Ciaccio in his new role, but Ciaccio will stay on with the team as a Prospect Development Skills coach. In recent seasons, as they have aimed to compete for the Stanley Cup, New York has thinned out their prospect pool to a small degree, but Hmura will still get to work with promising talent such as Brennan Othmann, Will Cuylle, and recently drafted, Gabriel Perreault.

At any rate, this is a big step forward personally for Hmura, as he had recently been involved with the Chicago Mission AAA organization since the 2021-22 season. During his time with the organization, the Mission had six players selected in the 2022 and 2023 NHL Draft combined, including Brennan Ali (Detroit), Jack Devine (Florida), Joey Willis (Nashville), Jack Phelan (Detroit), Paul Fischer (St.Louis), as well as Perreault from New York.

It will likely be a difficult transition for Hmura into professional hockey, but the success of the Mission speaks for itself. Along with Shattucks St. Mary’s, Little Caesars, and Compuware, the Chicago Mission program is one of the most well-respected organizations in all of youth hockey, and Hmura’s time with the team only led to continued success. Only time will tell if his coaching tactics translate well to more NHL-ready level prospects.

AHL Notes: Teasdale, Ivan, Reilly, Khodorenko

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A now-former veteran of the AHL’s Laval Rocket, forward Joel Teasdale is in a confirmed minor-league contract with the Iowa Wild. Teasdale had spent the past four seasons on the Rocket, also suiting up for the Montreal Canadiens for a few games last season.

Joining the Canadiens system as an undrafted free agent, Teasdale joined Laval towards the end of the 2019-20 season, but would not play for the club until the following season due to a knee injury. In his rookie campaign in the AHL, Teasdale provided some solid depth scoring, putting up eight goals and 10 assists in 26 games.

Last season, in what has been his best season to date, Teasdale would score 23 goals and 15 assists in 58 games for the Rocket but failed to chip in any in two playoff games. This ranked Teasdale as the fourth-highest scorer in Laval, and he should finish around the same in Iowa next season.

Other notes:

  • The highest-scoring member of the Cape Breton Eagles last year, Ivan Ivan, has agreed to an AHL contract with the Colorado Eagles for the 2023-24 season. Last season for the Eagles, Ivan put up 33 goals and 57 assists in only 64 games, showing some significant offensive prowess from the center position. Already carrying solid depth down the middle of the ice, there is a real chance that Ivan starts the year with the team’s ECHL affiliate, the Utah Grizzles, but if Ivan continues his offensive development, he may turn into a solid prospect for the Colorado Avalanche organization.
  • The Charlotte Checkers have added some roster depth this morning, announcing separate one-year, two-way contracts for defenseman Will Reilly, and forward Patrick Khodorenko. Both players should be considered on the bubble for the upcoming season, either appearing in the AHL for the Checkers or the Florida Everblades of the ECHL. Reilly likely has the best shot to make the team, playing in 30 games for the Tucson Roadrunners last year, scoring five points in total.

Capitals Still Trying To Add Top-Six Forward

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The Washington Capitals were one of the quieter teams this offseason after their worst season in over 15 years. They did add Max Pacioretty in free agency, but he’s projected to miss the first couple of months of 2023-24 as he recovers from his second consecutive Achilles tendon injury. Aside from that, their forward group, which boasted just two 20-goal scorers last season, essentially remains unchanged. While injuries took a significant toll on the team’s performance, a number of important scorers, such as Evgeny Kuznetsov, Anthony Mantha and T.J. Oshie, had down seasons.

With captain Alex Ovechkin still in the fold and chasing the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring record, general manager Brian MacLellan has made it clear on numerous occasions that he doesn’t plan to let the team slip out of competitiveness while Ovechkin is still active. Speaking with reporters virtually today, MacLellan said he’s still making calls in pursuit of a top-six forward before training camps open next month. Those calls are likely being made in conjunction with trying to find a home for Kuznetsov, who the Capitals confirmed last month has requested a trade.

Adding Pacioretty on a one-year, $4MM bonus-laden deal should add a fair amount of goals if he stays healthy. After all, Pacioretty was on pace for 40 goals with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2021-22, but various injuries limited him to 39 games played that season. Given his quite extensive recent struggles to stay in the lineup, though, it’s unfair to pin much, if any, responsibility on Pacioretty to help elevate the Capitals back to the postseason. With the aging Nicklas Bäckström’s health in question, too, it quickly becomes clear why MacLellan feels a sense of urgency to add an impact player to the team’s top-six group. Given Bäckström likely shouldn’t be relied upon for second-line minutes at this stage in his career, a Kuznetsov replacement down the middle should be top of mind for MacLellan.

That being said, top-six centers don’t grow on trees. It’ll be quite a challenge for MacLellan to mine one via trade this late in the offseason after most of the dust has settled.

One has to wonder if MacLellan has been in conversation with the Calgary Flames regarding Elias Lindholm if he opts not to sign an extension with his current team. A Kuznetsov/Lindholm swap (including other assets heading to Calgary) with extensions attached to both sides could line up well with both teams’ missions to stay competitive throughout some roster turmoil. The 28-year-old Lindholm has 146 points in 162 games over his last two seasons with the Flames and would be a remarkable defensive upgrade, as well as in the faceoff circle, over Kuznetsov. The latter’s 44% career win percentage in the dot pales in comparison to Lindholm’s 53% win rate.

There’s also the matter of Winnipeg Jets center Mark Scheifele, who finishes out the trio of top-six centers you’ll hear thrown around on the trade market at this stage. The same circumstances would likely need to apply here as a Lindholm trade with extensions in hand for Kuznetsov and Scheifele with their new teams. While Scheifele wouldn’t aid much of Washington’s defensive woes down the middle with Kuznetsov, he would add a much more significant secondary goal-scoring punch to Ovechkin. He’s coming off a career-best 42-goal season and has scored 30 goals on two other occasions. He has a $6.125MM cap hit this season before his contract expires in 2024, but could block a trade to Washington if he so chooses if he includes the Capitals on his ten-team no-trade list.

Any trade speculation involving a top-six forward for the rest of the offseason will include Kuznetsov, Lindholm and Scheifele until proven otherwise. For Washington, needing to make a move like this to stay competitive is some unfortunate timing. They have pieces with intriguing long-term potential, like Connor McMichael, but their solid drafting in recent seasons just hasn’t caught up to them yet. If they want an impact player now to help bridge the gap between Ovechkin and the next Washington core, as well as keep them in the playoff race during the short term, it’ll need to come via trade.

Anaheim Ducks Sign Alex Stalock To One-Year Deal

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The Anaheim Ducks have signed goaltender Alex Stalock to a one-year contract, per a team release. It’s a one-way deal worth $800K, according to The Athletic’s Eric Stephens.

Anaheim is the 36-year-old netminder’s fourth NHL stop (and sixth NHL organization overall) as he enters his potential 12th NHL season. It’s been quite the long road since he was selected in the fourth round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft by the San Jose Sharks, where he eventually grew into a full-time backup by the mid-2010s. Serious health issues have limited Stalock’s playing time over the past handful of seasons, including a scary bout with myocarditis, which caused him to miss the entire 2020-21 campaign.

It was a tough break for the veteran netminder, who at the time was coming off a career-best 20 wins, 36 starts, and four shutouts with the Minnesota Wild as he captured the starting role heading into the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. After a long road back to full health, Stalock did post quite solid numbers behind a poor Chicago Blackhawks team last year, recording a team-leading .908 save percentage and 3.10 goals-against average. He also captured both of the team’s lone two shutouts.

Now, he has a chance to get some NHL looks again in Anaheim. He’s been brought in as insurance, either if projected backup Lukas Dostal isn’t ready for full-time NHL action just yet, or to tandem with Dostal if the team trades longtime starter John Gibson. Extending him a one-way deal this late in the offseason makes it clear they don’t envision assigning him to the minors, however.

Penguins Notes: Guentzel, Additional Moves, Cap Flexibility

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It appears the Pittsburgh Penguins won’t be getting any long-term injured reserve relief from Jake Guentzel at the beginning of the season after all. Speaking with reporters today in the wake of yesterday’s Erik Karlsson trade, Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas said Guentzel is only expected to miss around the first five games of the season after undergoing ankle surgery last week, which wouldn’t qualify him to start the year on LTIR. LTIR requires players to miss ten games or 24 days with an injury.

After clearing $3.1MM in cap space via yesterday’s massive trade, Pittsburgh wouldn’t have needed Guentzel’s $6MM cap hit on LTIR to start the season to become cap-compliant anyways. It’s good news for Pittsburgh, who now won’t be without their top-line goal-scoring winger as long as previously thought. As they learned the hard way last season, every game will matter for the Penguins to avoid missing the postseason for a second straight campaign.

More from Dubas on the state of the Penguins today:

  • The Penguins are likely done with any major moves, Dubas confirmed, saying, “I think this will be the group,” with training camp six weeks away. It’s been quite an eventful first offseason in Pittsburgh for Dubas, whose forward corps projects to have at least six new faces on opening night – Reilly Smith, Matthew Nieto, Noel Acciari, Lars Eller, Vinnie Hinostroza, and Rem Pitlick, making it a 50% turnover from last season. With virtually no financial flexibility left to exhaust, this isn’t a surprising comment.
  • Dubas also gave some insight into how he’ll manage the salary cap in-season, saying he won’t be afraid to place players on waivers, something he did with frequency during his time with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He also confirmed Pittsburgh is on track to carry one player short of the maximum 23-man roster and will just have one extra forward and one extra defenseman on the roster for opening night. Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Travis Boyd, Michael Amadio, and Adam Brooks are some notable players Dubas lost on waivers recently with Toronto.

Dallas Stars Hire Misha Donskov As Assistant Coach

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The Dallas Stars announced Monday that they’ve hired 2023 Stanley Cup champion Misha Donskov as an assistant coach, reuniting with head coach Peter DeBoer in the Lone Star State. Donskov was part of DeBoer’s staff when he coached the Vegas Golden Knights from 2020 to 2022.

Donskov, 46, is quite a well-known name in hockey circles, playing a large role in developing expansion markets in Vegas and Columbus. His family-operated business, Donskov Hockey Development, has been one of the largest drivers of youth hockey participation in Columbus, and anyone involved with the Blue Jackets would tell you his influence on the market has been immeasurable.

After also holding a similar youth hockey/education role with the Atlanta Thrashers in the late 2000s, Donskov’s coaching career began in earnest with the OHL’s London Knights as an assistant in 2009-10. He later moved throughout the junior ranks, later serving on the bench of the Ottawa 67’s and Canada’s World Junior teams in the mid-2010s. In 2016, he was brought in as one of the founding members of the Golden Knights’ front office, joining the team as their director of hockey operations. Vegas transitioned him to an assistant coaching role in 2020 during the COVID pause, and he began in his role behind the bench during that year’s postseason in the Edmonton bubble.

Donskov joins another former Vegas assistant, Steve Spott, as an assistant on DeBoer’s staff in Dallas. Alain Nasreddine, former interim head coach of the New Jersey Devils, rounds out DeBoer’s slate of assistants.

Arizona Coyotes Sign Matt Dumba

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Aug 7, 11:02 am: The Coyotes have officially announced the deal, bringing Dumba to the desert on a one-year pact.

Aug 6, 12:33 pm: PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan later reported the actual cap hit of Dumba’s deal will be $3.9MM.

Aug 6, 12:09 pm: The Arizona Coyotes are closing in on a one-year, $4MM contract with UFA defenseman Matt Dumba, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

Dumba, 29, once looked to be on track to become a bonafide top-pairing defender after notching 50 points in 82 games with the Minnesota Wild at just 23 years old in 2017-18. After tearing his pectoral muscle 32 games into the 2018-19 campaign, though, Dumba’s production and all-around play have dipped significantly. It’s led to Dumba’s name appearing in trade rumors throughout the past few seasons, but the Wild never did move him, opting to let him walk as a free agent instead.

Things came to a head in 2022-23, which was arguably Dumba’s worst season of his NHL career to date. His four goals, 14 points, and -8 rating were all career lows for a full season, despite still receiving significant minutes at 21:17 per game. He posted a sub-zero relative Corsi for at even strength for the second straight campaign, suggesting his effectiveness in possession has waned as well. He’s posted solid results when utilized on the penalty kill, however. His past high-end production does suggest he has the raw skill to have somewhat of a return to form with a fresh start, too.

That’s what the Coyotes are banking on here, as PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan reports they’ve been pursuing Dumba since free agency opened on July 1. With all other options exhausted, Dumba likely agreed to the one-year pact in hopes of rebuilding his value to earn a longer-term commitment next summer.

He also provides a type of player the Coyotes don’t have – a veteran defenseman with experience playing top-four minutes. Arizona has a forward corps that’s bordering on competitiveness now, but their defense is undoubtedly their biggest weakness as they attempt to turn the corner in their years-long rebuild. 23-year-old J.J. Moser, who was drafted 60th overall just two years ago, is the only defender on their team to average over 20 minutes per game last season. Moser could very well end up as Dumba’s defense partner to open the season as the Coyotes’ top pairing.

After terminating Jean-Sebastien Dea’s contract, the Coyotes will again be at 49 out of the maximum 50 contracts after signing Dumba. The 50th spot is reserved for young forward Jan Jenik, who remains a restricted free agent and does not have a contract for next season.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack Sign Matej Pekar

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The AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack, the primary minor-league affiliate of the New York Rangers, are in agreement with former Buffalo Sabres forward prospect Matej Pekar on a one-year contract, according to a team release. While now a member of the Rangers organization, Pekar is still eligible to sign an NHL contract with any team.

Pekar, 23, has played in parts of three AHL seasons for Buffalo’s affiliate, the Rochester Americans, accumulating 86 games of experience. He wasn’t able to crack the code and stand out among a deep Sabres prospect pool, though, and was sent down a level further to the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones last season for a consistent spot in the lineup, where he did well with 24 points in 28 games. Without any NHL looks under his belt since Buffalo drafted him in the fourth round of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, the team opted not to issue him a qualifying offer this summer after his entry-level contract expired, making him an unrestricted free agent.

The Czech forward played junior hockey in North America, heading to the OHL’s Barrie Colts after being drafted and doing quite well there. He averaged well over a point per game in two OHL seasons with Barrie and Sudbury, and his career totals of 99 points in 84 games generated some optimism about his ceiling and potential NHL viability as a bottom-six checking forward. Unfortunately for Pekar, COVID hit just as he was about to begin his pro career, and it may have caused him to lose most of the forward momentum he’d gained in his development. He went on to notch just four goals, 12 assists, 16 points and a -17 rating during his time in Rochester.

Signing with the Wolf Pack gives Pekar a unique opportunity to return to an environment he’s familiar with in ECHL Cincinnati if he can’t crack the AHL roster. The Sabres and Rangers swapped ECHL affiliates this offseason, as Buffalo and Rochester now partner with the Jacksonville Icemen. It’ll be tough for him to show he deserves a roster spot ahead of some of the Rangers’ NHL-contracted crew, though, as CapFriendly currently lists 14 AHL-eligible forwards assigned to the minors in their depth chart projection for New York. 2022 draft selection Bryce McConnell-Barker is listed among the minors crew for the Rangers, but he’s still too young for AHL assignment per the NHL-CHL transfer agreement. It’s likely Pekar will look to light up the ECHL this season in hopes of getting a more extensive AHL look down the stretch. There’s still time for him to turn things around and earn another NHL contract down the line.

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