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Snapshots: Norris, Contracts, Maple Leafs

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Pat MaGuire of The Hockey News writes that Ottawa Senators center Josh Norris appears to be healthy and set for NHL training camp in September. The 25-year-old wasn’t in the same position a year ago and spent much of the season chasing things before his season ended this past February. Norris underwent his third shoulder surgery, leaving plenty of question marks about whether or not he will be available for the entirety of this season.

Norris was initially acquired from the San Jose Sharks in the Erik Karlsson trade and blossomed into a 35-goal scorer in 2021-22, he then signed an eight-year $63.6MM contract extension and has only played in 58 games since then over the past two seasons. The Senators will be counting on a healthy Norris this season as his absence has negatively impacted their forward depth the last two years. A healthy Norris allows for Ottawa to deploy Shane Pinto on the third line which creates a better balance throughout their top nine forward group.

In other notes from around the league.

  • Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic released a list of the ten worst contracts in the NHL. Unsurprisingly, Calgary Flames forward Jonathan Huberdeau and his seven years at $10.5MM annually topped the list. Luszczyszyn’s modelling showed that Huberdeau’s projected value was just $4.9MM annually making his contract the worst value in the league. Chandler Stephenson and Tom Wilson rounded out the top three worst contracts. Stephenson’s deal with the Seattle Kraken is just two weeks old and could turn out to be a disaster if the modelling is correct. Wilson on the other hand has seven years left on his deal that will carry him from age 30-37 and the modelling predicts he will be a third-line player by the third year of the deal.
  • Seattle Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour spoke with TSN OverDrive to discuss his recent run through free agency. Montour told Mark Roe and Frank Corrado that he talked with the Toronto Maple Leafs about signing in Toronto. Montour added that he was excited by the possibility and considered signing with the team, but added that he had a ton of options in free agency and was grateful to ultimately sign a seven-year, $49.98MM deal with the Kraken. The Maple Leafs interest in Montour isn’t all that surprising given the focus they put on improving their defense, which they did by signing Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

Morning Notes: O’Brien, Kambeitz, Blues

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The Charlotte Checkers have signed former first-round pick Jay O’Brien to an AHL contract (as per NHL.com’s Mark Divver). O’Brien was selected 19th overall by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2018 NHL entry draft and turned pro last season after three years in the NCAA with Boston University. O’Brien signed last August with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies but didn’t dress in any games due to injury and has yet to play a professional hockey game.

O’Brien has dealt with injuries throughout his career and was let go last summer by the Philadelphia Flyers before eventually catching on with the Marlies. The 24-year-old had a solid NCAA career posting 26 goals and 44 assists in 79 games during his final three seasons but hasn’t been able to translate that success to his professional career.

In other morning notes:

  • The Abbotsford Canucks have signed forward Dino Kambeitz to a one-year contract for the 2024-25 season. The American Hockey League contract will take Kambeitz into his fourth season of professional hockey after he set a career-high last year with nine goals and six assists in 56 games for the Bakersfield Condors. The 24-year-old spent three seasons with the Condors after going undrafted to the NHL and dressed in 172 career AHL regular season games, tallying 22 goals and 22 assists.
  • Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic is reporting that the St. Louis Blues have made a change to their ownership group as David Steward has transferred his stake in the team to local businessman Michael Riney who has spent his entire life in St. Louis. Steward had been with the group since 2012 and his stake in the team was less than five percent. The ownership group remains entirely made up of local owners and will continue to be run by Blues Chairman Tom Stillman.

Max Comtois Signs With KHL’s Dynamo Moscow

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Former Anaheim Ducks forward Max Comtois has reportedly signed with Dynamo Moscow of the KHL (as per Chris Johnston of Sportsnet). The 2017 second-round pick looked at one point like he could be a valuable depth scorer, posting 16 goals and 17 assists in the abbreviated 2020-21 season with Anaheim, However, the next two seasons saw him struggle offensively.

The 25-year-old went unsigned last summer and had to settle for an AHL contract with the Chicago Wolves in the fall before he eventually caught on with the Carolina Hurricanes signing a one-year, two-way deal this past March that was prorated for the remainder of the 2023-24 season. Comtois appeared in one regular season game for Carolina, posting an assist in 13:04 of ice time. He also appeared in the playoffs but played just 6:19 of one game and was a -1.

Comtois never got his feet under him after that successful 2020-21 season and struggled with puck possession and giveaways in the following seasons. His inconstancy became an issue that was hard for teams to ignore as it became evident when he would take bad penalties or turn the puck over. The Longueuil, Quebec native is still relatively young and could return to the NHL if he can find his game overseas. He has always been a talented shooter and has no issues going to the net, both traits that NHL teams covet.

Comtois is one of many unrestricted free agents that have yet to sign in the NHL this offseason and it will be interesting to see who follows him across the globe in the next few months.

Evening Notes: DeBrusk, Gordon, Penguins

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Vancouver Canucks forward Jake DeBrusk joined the Cam and Strick Podcast and spoke about his midseason trade request from the Boston Bruins, saying that he’d actually asked for a trade as far back as the summer of 2021 after he’d been a healthy scratch in the playoffs. DeBrusk said that he felt a fresh start would have been good last year but is happy to have one in Vancouver this summer after he signed a seven-year $38.5MM contract with the Canucks on July 1.

DeBrusk added that he had quite a few suitors when the market opened but ultimately signed with Vancouver for a number of reasons, highlighting Vancouver’s recent playoff run as a big influence on his decision. The Edmonton, Alberta native will have a chance to play closer to home with some very talented players and will be looking to bounce back from a down year last season in which he tallied just 19 goals and 21 assists in 80 games with the Bruins.

In other evening notes:

  • The Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL announced that they’ve added former NHL head coach Scott Gordon to their coaching staff as a volunteer assistant coach. Gordon has served as an NHL head coach for both the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Islanders and was an assistant coach the last two seasons for the San Jose Sharks. The 61-year-old Gordon has been coaching for nearly 30 years and has held several AHL head coaching gigs and was an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 2011 to 2014. The Brockton, Massachusetts native won a silver medal at the 2010 Olympics as an assistant coach for the United States serving under Ron Wilson in Vancouver.
  • Josh Yohe of The Athletic believes that the Pittsburgh Penguins will add one or two more players before the start of the regular season and says that they are unlikely to be impact players. The Penguins were busy on the first few days of free agency adding a pile of players onto their depth chart on short-term deals and any other addition figures to be on a one- or two-year deal. The Penguins have a glaring hole in their top six at left wing but will likely use Drew O’Connor in the top spot to see if he can build off his solid finish last season. The Penguins unsuccessfully took a run at Vladimir Tarasenko in free agency which signals they aren’t satisfied with their top-line options at the moment.

Flames To Begin Building New Arena

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The Calgary Flames are expected to reveal plans for, and finally break ground on, a new arena this coming Monday, shares Sportsnet’s Eric Francis (Twitter link). Francis adds that the Flames’ new stomping grounds will include 18,000 seats, a community rink, indoor and outdoor event plazas, and a parking deck. The new arena will cost $926MM and be built two blocks north of the current Saddledome, with the hope of being operational for the 2027-28 season.

Sportsnet adds that $330MM of the funds for this arena will come from the Alberta government, who also plan to demolish the existing Saddledome as a part of their plans.

This news finally puts into motion the Flames’ move out of the Scotiabank Saddledome, where they’ve played since 1983. It stands alongside Madison Square Garden as the two oldest arenas in the league – with the Saddledome not receiving major renovations since 1995.

That’s beginning to change, with the team set to receive a new scoreboard this summer, though the Saddledome is still missing many of the amenities that had the Flames pushing for a new arena in 2017. The team could not reach an agreement with the city at the time, sparking strong comments from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who said in an interview with TSN, “This building was built in the 1980s, they don’t build buildings like this any more… it’s historic in many ways. But these aren’t the facilities that our hockey teams typically have.” Bettman’s comments came amid Detroit’s move to Little Caesars Arena and Seattle’s bid for the top-of-the-line Climate Pledge Arena.

Calgary will now join the list of top-end facilities, though they’ll be leaving a truly incredible arena behind. The Saddledome’s sloped roof and expansive, high-ceiling interior made it quickly iconic. It would enter hockey legend within a decade of being built, after hosting parts of the 1988 Winter Olympics and the 1989 Stanley Cup-winning Calgary Flames. The arena, which also hosts the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers and WHL’s Calgary Hitmen, has stood as a testament to hockey’s history in Calgary – giving any new build a hefty past to live up to.

Rockford IceHogs Sign Austin Strand To AHL Contract

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The Chicago Blackhawks AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs, will have another familiar face on the roster next season as the team announced they have signed defenseman Austin Strand to a one-year contract for the 2024-25 AHL season. Strand is projected to spend the entire season with the IceHogs after the team acquired him via trade from the AHL’s Chicago Wolves last season.

Strand turned professional in 2018 after signing his entry-level contract with the Los Angeles Kings after an impressive season with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds. He spent his first full season with the Ontario Reign of the AHL, scoring seven goals and 18 points in 43 games. Strand spent the next three years with the Kings organization and collected three assists in 21 games at the NHL level with 12 goals and 27 points in 92 AHL contests.

Moving further south in California, Strand signed as a free agent with the Anaheim Ducks heading into the 2022-23 season. He participated in five games with the Ducks that season collecting two goals and eight points in 46 games for the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. Anaheim traded Strand to the Buffalo Sabres organization in exchange for Chase Priskie at that year’s deadline, suiting up in nine games for the Rochester Americans down the stretch.

Outside of his offensive production — Strand carries plenty of value to the IceHogs as a veteran presence and stabilizing defenseman. The team’s president of hockey operations, Mark Bernard, said as much, “He brings experience and energy to the rink each day and is someone that can help carry the coaching staff’s message into the locker room. He will be a great asset this year as we will have a lot of young prospects that he can be a mentor to“.

Carolina Hurricanes Sign Jack Drury To Two-Year Contract

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The Carolina Hurricanes and forward Jack Drury have agreed to a two-year, $3.45MM contract. The deal, first announced by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, will pay Drury a salary of $1.775MM in 2024-25, and a salary of $1.675MM in 2025-26 with an AAV of $1.725MM.

In a follow-up report, PuckPedia shares that upon expiration of this contract for Drury, he will be RFA-eligible with arbitration rights and will be one year away from unrestricted free agency. The Hurricanes will only be on the hook for a $1.675MM qualifying offer to Drury due to the lower salary in the second year of the contract.

It is a reasonable price for Carolina and Drury as the latter projects to be a middle-six option with the organization next year. It took a few years for the Harvard University alum to make it to the NHL after being selected with the 42nd overall pick of the 2018 NHL Draft, but Drury has become a solid contributor.

This past season marked his first full NHL campaign with the young center scoring eight goals and 27 points in 74 games. Drury primarily played on a line with Martin Necas during the regular season with Michael Bunting or Stefan Noesen flanking him as the other wing. He deserves a lot of the credit for the possession metrics produced by his line as Drury achieved a 55.3% success rate in the faceoff dot with 63.6% of his starts coming in the offensive zone.

After averaging 11:51 of ice time per night with the Hurricanes over the past three years, the team could get aggressive with his deployment in the 2024-25 season. The team may end up keeping Necas after a summer full of trade rumors, and Drury could continue playing next to him on the team’s second line. Carolina could then use newcomer Jack Roslovic as the second-line left wing while moving Jesperi Kotkaniemi back to center on the team’s fourth line.

Colorado Eagles Hire Dan Hinote As Associate Coach

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After Steve Konowalchuk left this summer to become the next head coach of the Springfield Thunderbirds, the AHL’s Colorado Eagles had a position to fill as associate coach. The team has found their man from the NHL ranks as the team announced they have hired Dan Hinote.

Hinote is a veteran of nine years in the NHL from 1999 to 2009 with six of those years coming with the Colorado Avalanche. The former player was a reliable bottom-six player for the Avalanche and the St. Louis Blues throughout his career and helped Colorado win the Stanley Cup in 2001. Hinote played one year for MODO Hockey in the Elitserien before becoming an assistant coach with the Columbus Blue Jackets for the 2010-11 NHL season.

The Blue Jackets struggled mightily during Hinote’s tenure as an assistant coach as the team finished outside the playoff picture in their last days of residing in the Western Conference. Columbus qualified for the postseason in Hinote’s last year on the bench but was quickly eliminated in the first round by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Hinote was transitioned to a professional scout with the Blue Jackets organization until the 2018-19 season.

Over the next two years, Hinote worked with the US National Team Development Program in Plymouth, MI as an associate coach and also worked with the Team USA U18 in the 2019 World Junior Championship and the Team USA U17 in the 2020 World Junior Championship. After a successful run in the USHL and on the international stage, the Nashville Predators hired Hinote as an assistant coach ahead of the 2020-21 NHL campaign.

Hinote was in charge of a Predators’ penalty kill that had fallen towards the league basement as they finished 29th place in the NHL with a 75.58% success rate. Nashville climbed to 18th in the 2021-22 season, sixth in the 2022-23 season, before falling back to 22nd this past year. Hinote will have much more responsibility as an associate coach with the Eagles and returns to the Avalanche organization after nearly two decades away.

Poll: Which Player Will Be The Next Domino To Fall On The Trade Market?

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The NHL calendar has finally entered the ’dog days’ of the summer as activity around the league has cooled off dramatically. Most, if not all, of the needle-moving free agents are off the board and the trade market has not developed as expected up to this point. Nevertheless, there are still some players rumored to be on the block including Nikolaj Ehlers of the Winnipeg Jets, Martin Necas of the Carolina Hurricanes, and Patrik Laine of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

With how things have played out around the league, Ehlers feels like the most high-profile trade candidate to change hands this summer. The smooth-skating Dane is entering the last year of a seven-year, $42MM contract signed with the Jets in 2017 and is not expected to extend his stay in Winnipeg. Ehlers has been a reliable top-six forward for the Jets when healthy and is elite in terms of puck possession as evidenced by his career CorsiFor% of 57.6%. He has been relatively quiet in the postseason throughout his career which could give interested parties some pause. Winnipeg could still extend Ehlers as they took nearly the entire offseason last year to sign Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck to long-term contracts but the trade rumors around Ehlers appear to have more veracity.

Necas entered the summer as one of the top players on the trading block but his market has seemingly cooled over the last few weeks. The Hurricanes reportedly were not interested in signing Necas to a long-term deal but failed to find an offer to their liking during the 2024 NHL Draft. Now that Carolina has lost forwards Jake Guentzel, Teuvo Teravainen, and Stefan Noesen to free agency, the team may be more willing to retain Necas. The skilled forward has prohibited himself from being given an offer sheet this summer as he elected for salary arbitration but the Hurricanes can still trade him during that window if they find a suitable offer.

Shortly before the 2024 NHL Draft, it was reported that Laine and the Columbus Blue Jackets had mutually agreed to find a suitable trade for the player this summer. However, with Laine still in the NHLPA Player Assistance Program, the likelihood of a deal squarely rests on when he exits the program. Now that most teams have done most of their heavy lifting this summer, it will be difficult to find a trade partner to take on Laine’s $8.7MM salary for the next two years. Between 2021-2023, Laine scored 48 goals and 108 points for Columbus in 111 games but only put up nine points in 18 games for the team last year. The former second-overall pick could surely use a fresh start outside the Blue Jackets organization but his trade market may be slow to develop.

There is no guarantee that any of the listed players will be moved this offseason. Ehlers and Necas could both sign extensions with their respective teams and Laine may have a change of heart now that Columbus is making a change at head coach. Nevertheless, with the trade market being the realm from which the next big offseason move will come, which of these players do you think will get the ball rolling?

Which Player Will Be The Next Domino To Fall On The Trade Market?
Patrik Laine 33.07% (416 votes)
Nikolaj Ehlers 32.99% (415 votes)
Martin Necas 22.73% (286 votes)
Other (Comment below) 11.21% (141 votes)
Total Votes: 1,258

Snapshots: Prospect Rankings, Harding, Golden Knights

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Scott Wheeler of The Athletic released the summer edition of his Top 100 drafted NHL prospects rankings. Not surprisingly, Macklin Celebrini tops the list and is one of 22 players from the 2024 NHL entry draft. Philadelphia Flyers 2023 first-round pick Matvei Michkov is the second-ranked prospect just ahead of Montreal Canadiens prospect Ivan Demidov who rounded out the top 3.

Celebrini’s soon-to-be teammate Will Smith ranked eighth on the list and was the second of six San Jose Sharks prospects to make Wheeler’s top 100. The six prospects for San Jose was the most among any team alongside the Columbus Blue Jackets and Montreal Canadiens who also had six ranked prospects. The Sharks, Blue Jackets, and Canadiens are all in the midst of a rebuild and isn’t surprising to see them have the most players on the list.

In other league notes:

  • Scott Powers of The Athletic is reporting that the Chicago Blackhawks could still sign 2021 third-round pick (91st overall) Taige Harding. The unsigned defenseman has had a steady but unspectacular NCAA career at Providence College and is going into his senior year with the Friars. Powers believes that the Blackhawks would be willing to give Harding an entry-level deal and a role in the AHL if Harding is interested. The 21-year-old won’t provide much offence, but at 6’7” tall and 235 pounds he will be a presence in the Blackhawks’ defensive zone when he makes the jump to professional hockey.
  • The Vegas Golden Knights have announced that their new ECHL affiliate will be the Tahoe Knight Monsters. The multi-year affiliation agreement will start this season and will see the Knight Monsters play in Stateline, Nevada out of the Tahoe Blue Event Center. The ECHL approved the expansion franchise a year ago and the team already had six players signed for next season before the affiliation. The Knight Monsters will begin their inaugural season on October 24th against the Jacksonville Icemen.

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