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Pacific Notes: Chernyshov, Pettersson, Holtz, Barr

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Sharks 2024 second-round pick Igor Chernyshov has officially found a place to play this season. As he said was likely the case last week, he’s inked a scholarship and development agreement with the Saginaw Spirit of the Ontario Hockey League, per the club.

The 33rd overall pick in June was originally supposed to remain in his native Russia next season. He had one year left on his contract with Dynamo Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League, but he bought himself out of the deal last week and subsequently signed his entry-level contract with the Sharks.

Chernyshov, 18, will attend training camp for a brief period in San Jose before being returned to Saginaw, likely for the entire 2024-25 campaign. Doing so will slide the beginning of his entry-level contract to 2025-26.

The 6’3″, 203-lb winger had three goals and one assist for four points in 34 KHL games last season. He was much more productive in the junior ranks, posting 28 points (13 G, 15 A) in 22 games with MHK Dynamo Moscow.

More out of the Pacific Division:

  • When Chernyshov’s move to Saginaw was announced this morning, there was a brief thought that Ducks 2024 second-rounder Lucas Pettersson might join him in Michigan. That won’t be the case, however. Sources told Max Miller of The Hockey News and Scott Wheeler of The Athletic that he’ll remain in his native Sweden after being selected by the Spirit in the CHL Import Draft. Pettersson, 18, was selected two picks after Chernyshov in June. He’ll likely get some action in the pros with MoDo Hockey of the Swedish Hockey League, but could still spend a solid chunk of 2024-25 with their junior team. The 5’11” center was one of the Swedish junior circuit’s leading scorers last season, posting 57 points (27 goals, 30 assists) in 44 games for MoDo’s U-20 club.
  • The Golden Knights bought low on 2020 seventh-overall pick Alexander Holtz this summer, only parting ways with depth forward Paul Cotter and a 2025 third-rounder to acquire him and Akira Schmid from the Devils. Speaking to reporters, Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon said Holtz was “a player we had tremendous regard for as an amateur. We’re taking a swing at his upside and what a change can do sometimes for young players” (via James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now). McCrimmon thinks Holtz has “untapped potential that we feel we can unlock here to some degree with the opportunity,” he added. With Jonathan Marchessault and Chandler Stephenson among the key departures from Vegas’ forward group this summer, Holtz will be relied upon as a top-nine scoring option for the Knights in 2024-25 with the potential to challenge for top-six minutes. The 22-year-old had 28 points in 82 games in New Jersey last year.
  • The Ducks have added to their minor-league coaching staff, hiring Dave Barr as an assistant for the AHL’s San Diego Gulls, per a team release. Barr, 63, spent last season as an assistant with the Chicago Wolves during their one year of operating independently of an NHL affiliation. He has 12 years of experience as an assistant at the game’s highest level, spending time on benches for the Avalanche, Wild, Devils, Sabres, Panthers and Sharks from 2008 to 2020. Before joining the Wolves last season, he spent two years as the head coach of the Vienna Capitals in Austria’s ICEHL.

International Notes: Konovalov, Zizka, Kampfer

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Oilers goaltending prospect Ilya Konovalov is on the move in his native Russia. His Kontinental Hockey League player rights were traded from Dynamo Moscow to Admiral Vladivostok today, per a team release.

Konovalov, 26, is coming off a pair of spectacular seasons in the Russian capital. The 2019 third-round pick posted a .921 SV%, 2.05 GAA, three shutouts and 21-12-3 record in 42 games last season.

Konovalov spent the 2021-22 campaign in North America after signing his entry-level contract with the Oilers, but struggled amid high expectations. He only got into 17 games with AHL Bakersfield with an .893 SV%, 2.73 GAA and 5-7-5 record. He didn’t see any NHL ice, and was returned on loan to Dynamo for 2022-23.

The Oilers issued Konovalov a qualifying offer when his ELC expired, but he opted to remain with Dynamo in 2023-24. They still hold his NHL signing rights through July 13 of next year, meaning they could bring him back next offseason without competition. He doesn’t yet have a contract for 2024-25 with Vladivostok, but if he ends up signing a one-year deal, that’ll be something to watch.

In 196 career KHL games, the 2019 KHL Rookie of the Year has a 2.11 GAA, .922 SV%, 20 shutouts, and a 96-66-18 record.

Other updates from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean:

  • One of the longest-tenured players in the professional ranks worldwide has called it a career. Former Kings defenseman Tomas Zizka, who last played in the NHL before the 2004-05 lockout, officially announced his retirement today, per Hokej.cz. Zizka, 44, was a sixth-round pick of the Kings in 1998 and played 25 games with them in the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons, scoring twice and adding six assists for eight points with a -8 rating. He spent the balance of his career in his native Czechia aside from a brief stint in Russia in 2004-05, playing in parts of 22 Czech Extraliga seasons with Brno, Prague and Zlin. He’d spent the last two seasons in the third-tier 2. liga with Hokej Vyskov, where he was named to this year’s All-Star Game while posting 25 points in 44 games.
  • The KHL’s Traktor Chelyabinsk officially announced the signing of free agent defenseman Steven Kampfer today. The club said last month that they’d reached an agreement to bring Kampfer to Russia, but it wasn’t set in stone until now. The 35-year-old is a veteran of 231 NHL games but hasn’t suited up at the game’s highest level since 2020-21. He spent all of last season in the minors, where he captained the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners while under contract with the Coyotes. It’ll be his second KHL season after suiting up for Ak Bars Kazan in 2021-22, when he was one of the league’s best defensemen with 30 points and a +7 rating in 46 games.

Blackhawks Sign First-Rounder Marek Vanacker

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The Blackhawks have signed left wing prospect Marek Vanacker to his three-year, entry-level contract, per a team release. It carries the maximum ELC cap hit of $975K.

Vanacker, 18, was the 27th overall pick in June’s draft. Chicago acquired the selection from the Hurricanes on draft day, sending the No. 34 (Dominik Badinka) and No. 50 (Nikita Artamonov) picks the other way. He spent his draft year with the Brantford Bulldogs of the Ontario Hockey League.

Vanacker broke out as a star in Brantford last season, leading the team in scoring by a wide margin with 36 goals, 46 assists and 82 points in 68 games. The teammate of Blackhawks 2023 third-round pick Nick Lardis had just four goals in 55 games for the Bulldogs the year prior.

The strong-skating playmaker is an unlikely candidate for an NHL roster spot in the fall, though. He’ll attend training camp with the Blackhawks but will be returned to Brantford to play out the 2024-25 season. That will slide the beginning of his entry-level contract to the 2025-26 season, making him an RFA upon expiry in 2028. Vanacker is young enough that he’s eligible for an entry-level slide twice, so if he plays fewer than 10 NHL games in 2025-26, the contract may not begin until 2026-27, thus expiring as late as 2029.

Vanacker was the last of three first-round picks that Chicago made this year, joining second-overall selection Artyom Levshunov and No. 18 pick Sacha Boisvert. The former will be turning pro in the fall, while Boisvert remains unsigned ahead of his freshman season at North Dakota.

Jared McIsaac Signs With Czech Team

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Free agent defenseman Jared McIsaac has signed with Czech club HC Litvinov after spending the last six years in the Red Wings organization, according to an official release. It’s a one-year deal.

McIsaac, a 24-year-old native of Nova Scotia, was a second-round pick of the Wings back in 2018 but never got the chance to make his NHL debut. The high-end passing threat battled injuries for a good chunk of his time with Detroit and spent most of his four professional seasons to date playing for their AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids.

Last season was especially tumultuous for the offensive defender. He was in and out of the lineup with Grand Rapids to begin the season, and by the time February rolled around, he’d appeared in just 15 games with a goal, three assists, and a -3 rating. That led the Wings to execute a rare mid-season loan, sending him off to Switzerland to suit up with HC Ambri-Piotta of the National League.

McIsaac’s tenure in Switzerland was unremarkable. He appeared in just three regular-season games and one playoff game for the club, averaging bottom-pairing minutes and going without a point. When Ambri-Piotta’s season ended in March, McIsaac returned to North America, but not with Grand Rapids. Detroit loaned him out to the Providence Bruins, Boston’s affiliate, to finish the season. There, McIsaac again struggled with just two assists in 10 combined regular-season and playoff games.

Given that performance, it wasn’t surprising to see the Red Wings non-tender McIsaac when his contract expired this offseason, making him a UFA. It’s not that he hasn’t shown upside at the professional level. He did have two seasons of 20-plus points with Grand Rapids in 2021-22 and 2022-23 and looked like he may still have some sort of NHL future, but things just didn’t work out for the former QMJHL All-Star and Defensive Rookie of the Year.

“Jared is a defender with great potential for power plays as well,” Litvinov manager Tomas Vrabel said. “We believe that he will be comprehensive, that is, durable in all game situations.” McIsaac joins a Litvinov club that includes former NHLers Kevin Czuczman, David Kase, and Ondrej Kase.

Salary Cap/Transactions FAQs: Performance Bonuses, Kuznetsov, Offseason Cap, More

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The first installment of our Salary Cap/Transactions FAQs covers performance bonuses, buyouts for players involved in retained salary transactions, how teams navigate offseason salary cap rules, and more. If you have a question that isn’t answered here, check our FAQ callout and add yours to the comment section!

Schwa: I would love to learn more about bonuses. I understand rookie and 35+ bonuses. But how about something like Connor Brown last year – injury recovery bonuses? Also how do they affect the cap – if bonuses put you over the cap by end of playoffs, you are penalized the following season? Thanks!

Great opener. Technically, in someone like Brown’s case, they’re not injury recovery bonuses. They’re regular performance bonuses, akin to what you’d find in a 35+ contract. Usually, they’re tied to how many games a player appears in during the season or, in rarer cases, tied to other statistical benchmarks (points, playoff series wins, Cup win, etc.).

The bonuses themselves aren’t what changes, it’s the player’s eligibility that does. Obviously, a “normal” player reaching unrestricted free agency and signing a standard player contract isn’t eligible for them. But players who missed most of the prior season due to injury are eligible for performance bonuses with three key stipulations:

  1. They have more than 400 NHL games of experience before signing the contract AND
  2. They spent a minimum of 100 days on injured reserve the prior season (standard and/or long-term) AND
  3. They’re signing a one-year contract

That is to say – if Brown signed a multi-year deal with the Oilers last summer coming off that injury (ACL tear, I believe?), he wouldn’t have been eligible for any performance bonuses. A deal can’t be structured so that he’d have potential performance bonuses in Year 1 and none in Year 2.

And the second half of your question is correct. If a player earns a performance bonus that’s a higher value than what the team has remaining in cap space at season’s end, it’s a penalty (called a “bonus carryover”) on next season’s cap.

Grocery stick: Hurricanes and Kuznetsov did agree on a mutual termination. What if Carolina had decided to buy him out instead: Would that have any implication on the Capitals? Or would they have continued to pay him the retained money (and using a retention slot on him)?

So, there’s precedent for this – a very recent one, in fact. The Canucks bought out Oliver Ekman-Larsson last summer while he was involved in a retained salary transaction with the Coyotes. Arizona (now Utah) retains the same percentage of the buyout cost that they did on Ekman-Larsson’s initial salary, which does still use up a retention slot.

Buying out the final season of Kuznetsov’s deal would have resulted in a $3.8MM cap charge in 2024-25 and a $2MM cap charge in 2025-26, per PuckPedia’s buyout calculator. Since the Capitals were retaining 50% of Kuznetsov’s salary, they would have split the buyout costs 50/50 with the Hurricanes. Both teams would have had cap charges of $1.9MM in 2024-25 and $1MM in 2025-26.

highflyballintorightfield: How about an explanation of rules for the offseason cap hit limits, that would be sufficient to explain how and why the Capitals can comfortably be well above next season’s cap.

Teams are allowed to exceed the salary cap by 10% during the offseason. This year, with an upper limit of $88MM, that means teams can have cap hits as high as $96.8MM over the summer and still be compliant as long as they get down to $88MM by the time opening night rosters are due.

But you make an astute observation – not only are the Capitals well above next season’s cap, they’re above the 10% threshold as well with a projected cap hit of around $98.25MM, per PuckPedia.

They’ve likely done this by placing Nicklas Backstrom on offseason LTIR, a difficult but necessary move to execute to ensure offseason compliancy. It operates mostly the same as in-season LTIR in that it essentially gives the Capitals an extra $9.2MM in space to work with over the summer. But using offseason LTIR restricts a team’s LTIR pool once the season starts, as it doesn’t allow them to add to it or otherwise optimize it as long as at least one player remains on LTIR. In-season LTIR is much more flexible.

In short, the Caps are sacrificing in-season salary cap flexibility for offseason salary cap flexibility.

Zakis: Read somewhere that signing players early to ELCs helps tamp down the future AAV. How does that work? Also, what’s the difference between ELCs for high school, NCAA, CHL and European players?

It does help decrease the future cap hit/AAV of the deal by a slight amount, but only if the player is subject to an entry-level slide. That’s because signing bonuses don’t slide with the rest of the deal. Let’s look at an example.

When signing 2024 third-overall pick Beckett Sennecke to his entry-level contract last month, the Ducks gave him a $97.5K signing bonus (the maximum allowable) in each season of the deal. Let’s say Sennecke plays fewer than 10 NHL games in 2024-25, sliding the beginning of his ELC to 2025-26. His $97.5K signing bonus for 2024-25 gets paid out anyway, leaving him no signing bonus in 2027-28, which is now the final season of his contract due to the slide. That reduces the AAV of the three-year deal slightly from $975K (including base salary) to $942.5K.

In terms of the difference in how ELCs are structured across players coming from different leagues, there are none. An ELC is an ELC no matter who’s signing it. The key difference lies with who’s still eligible to receive an ELC compared to a standard player contract. If a player is coming out of a North American league, they’re no longer eligible to sign an ELC if their signing age (age on Sep. 15 of the calendar year when the deal is signed) is 25 or older. If they’re above that age threshold, they have to sign a standard player contract.

But for European players, that age limit increases to 28 or older. That’s why Isles international free agent signing Maxim Tsyplakov, whose signing age was 25, was eligible for an ELC this summer. If he was coming from a North American league, he would have needed to sign a standard one-way or two-way deal, removing his $1MM in potential performance bonuses.

Spaced-Cowboy: How often can the NTC be modified or changed in a given year. What is the full process of waiving the NTC. Is it retained after the team acquires them (pre deadline trades that result in a player being traded again; at or before the deadline) Is it always the player or can the organizations stipulate which teams are on the NTC. Does the NHL have specific language for these contracts or is it completely up to the agent/player & organization?

Full NMCs or NTCs can’t be modified, only M-NTCs can (hence the modified qualifier there). Usually, a player’s M-NTC will go into effect on July 1 each year, but sometimes a player/team can agree on a different date. Players and/or their representation need to submit their no-trade list to the team by that date. If they don’t, the M-NTC is voided. That happened with Patrik Berglund back in 2018. He had a 20-team no-trade list, but didn’t submit it to the Blues in time. The Sabres were on his no-trade that, but he was dealt to them anyway in the Ryan O’Reilly blockbuster.

If a player waives an NMC, NTC, or even M-NTC for a trade to go through, or they’re traded before it goes into effect, it remains in effect for its previously dictated duration with the acquiring team. That’s a recent change in the 2020 CBA update – it used to be that if a player was traded before an NMC or NTC went into effect, the clause would be removed unless the acquiring team agreed to keep it.

The only exception to that rule is if a player makes it clear they’re waiving the clause permanently for the trade to go through, which to my knowledge has never happened. Clauses are always waived only for the purposes of a specific transaction, and they then travel with the player after a transaction.

As for the last few parts of that question, it’s up to the player to decide the teams that comprise their M-NTC. Unfortunately, I don’t have a good answer for you on the specific language used to stipulate clauses in contracts.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Sabres Likely To Keep Konsta Helenius In North America This Season

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After going 14th overall in this summer’s draft and subsequently signing his entry-level contract, it appears Sabres prospect Konsta Helenius’ time in his native Finland is over for the foreseeable future. Liiga club Tappara, which owns his rights, said Monday that Helenius is “looking for a place to play in the Sabres organization” this season and is unlikely to return to the club (X link).

Helenius, 18, said shortly before the draft that he wanted to move to the NHL as quickly as possible. After Buffalo signed him to his ELC early last month, Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News reported the Sabres’ preference was to have him spend 2024-25 with AHL Rochester.

There’s a clear desire from both sides to have him suit up in North America immediately, and he’s eligible for full-time AHL assignment at such a young age as a first-round pick coming out of a European league. Because he was a first-rounder, he doesn’t need to be offered back to his Liiga team first before being assigned to the minors.

Helenius is in the unique position of already having two full professional seasons under his belt on draft day. Tappara loaned Helenius out to another Liiga club, Jukurit, for most of 2022-23 and all of 2023-24. There, he had 47 points (17 goals, 30 assists) in 84 games, including 14 goals and 22 assists for 36 points in 51 games last season. Each year, he led Liiga under-18 players in scoring.

Even if he’s playing primarily in the AHL this season, Helenius’ entry-level contract could still slide to 2025-26 if he plays fewer than 10 NHL games. After consistently averaging top-six minutes in a top-flight European professional league last season, it’s hard to imagine him having too many adjustment pains, regardless of whether his opening night is spent in Buffalo or Rochester.

Five Key Stories: 7/29/24 – 8/4/24

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With the final arbitration hearings approaching early in the week, we saw a couple of important settlements while a pair of key blueliners inked long-term contract extensions.  Those are among the headlines in our key stories.

Second Bridge For Necas: Unable to find a suitable trade (or at least a team he was willing to sign long-term with), Martin Necas and the Hurricanes ultimately settled on a two-year, $13MM contract to avoid salary arbitration.  The deal does not contain any trade protection (he’s too young to be eligible) and walks him right to UFA eligibility in 2026.  The 25-year-old wasn’t quite able to match his 2022-23 output when he had a career-best 71 points but he still turned in a solid showing last season with 24 goals and 29 assists in 77 games.  It’s believed that Necas is looking to play a more prominent role, we’ll find out next season if Carolina is willing to play him higher up the lineup or if he’ll remain a fixture on the second line.

Lindgren Avoids Arbitration: Rather than get to a hearing, the Rangers and defenseman Ryan Lindgren agreed on a one-year, $4.5MM contract.  The deal represents a fair-sized raise on his previous $3MM AAV and $3.6MM qualifying offer.  Lindgren played in 76 games last season, picking up three goals and 14 assists while surpassing 100 blocks and hits in 19:21 per night.  He will still have one year of arbitration eligibility remaining next summer but this time, he’ll be owed a $4.5MM qualifying offer.

Eight For Faber: Following a stellar rookie year, the Wild wasted little time locking up defenseman Brock Faber, signing him to an eight-year, $68MM contract extension that will run through the 2032-33 season.  The 21-year-old joined Minnesota for a handful of games in 2023 but last season was his first full professional campaign.  Faber quickly became their top blueliner, putting up 47 points while playing in all 82 games, averaging nearly 25 minutes a night in the process which helped earn him a spot on the All-Rookie team and a second-place finish in Calder Trophy voting.  While there is some risk in signing a player with less than 100 games of NHL experience (including playoffs) to that type of contract, Faber’s cost could have gone even higher next summer if he had a similar showing in 2024-25.

Calling It A Career: Veteran forward Eric Staal has decided to retire, signing a one-day contract with the Hurricanes before officially calling it a career.  The 39-year-old last played in the 2022-23 campaign as a regular fourth line center with Florida, capping an impressive 18-year career.  All told, Staal picked up 455 goals and 608 assists in 1,365 games with six different organizations with a dozen of those coming with Carolina where he holds the bulk of the team’s records post-relocation from Hartford.  The Hurricanes will retire Staal’s #12 at some point this coming season.

Canadiens Sign Three Blueliners: The Canadiens were busy dealing with several of their young rearguards.  First, they re-signed their two remaining restricted free agents to bridge contracts.  Arber Xhekaj received a two-year, $2.6MM deal while Justin Barron re-upped for two years and $2.3MM in total.  Both players will be restricted free agents again in 2026, this time with arbitration eligibility.  Then, Montreal inked Kaiden Guhle to a six-year, $33.3MM extension that begins in 2025-26.  The 22-year-old has logged big minutes in his first two seasons, establishing himself as a long-term piece of their blueline puzzle as they look to try to emerge from their rebuild in the coming seasons.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Snapshots: Blackhawks, Pavelski, Skarek, Mersch

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After a very active free agent period that saw them bring in several veterans in an effort to become more competitive next season, it appears as if the Blackhawks are finished with trying to land at the bottom of the standings.  Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times suggests that they’re taking a risk in doing so since they haven’t landed a second high-end forward prospect to partner up with Connor Bedard down the road.  Chicago has ample defensive depth and some quality goalie prospects but among their forward prospects, there aren’t any who project as high-end top-line talent (someone like Frank Nazar could get there in time but the safer planning would be with him in a second-line role).  Having said that, the Blackhawks will have ample cap space moving forward so if they don’t draft a running mate for Bedard, they could try to land one in free agency down the road.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Former Sharks GM Doug Wilson acknowledged to Sheng Peng of NBC Sports Bay Area that he made a mistake in not retaining Joe Pavelski back in 2019. The veteran forward was coming off a strong year that saw him put up 38 goals but he had dealt with injuries the two years before that while they also committed big money to retain Evander Kane and Erik Karlsson, not leaving enough for them to pay market value for Pavelski’s services.  He went on to play five seasons in Dallas before calling it a career earlier this offseason.
  • Stefan Rosner of The Hockey News assesses the goaltending depth of the Islanders and suggests that Jakub Skarek’s time with the organization could be coming to an end. Marcus Hogberg is expected to serve as the starter with AHL Bridgeport while Henrik Tikkanen greatly outperformed Skarek last season and should serve as Hogberg’s backup.  Skarek has one year left on his deal so it’s possible that New York will look to flip the 24-year-old to a team looking for extra goalie depth.  If that fails, Rosner wonders if the two sides would consider a mutual contract termination which would allow him to try to catch on overseas.
  • Veteran free agent winger Michael Mersch is considering retirement, relays Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News. The 31-year-old had been a staple for Buffalo’s AHL team in Rochester the past four seasons and is coming off a 15-goal, 38-point showing in 66 games in 2023-24.  Mersch has 17 career NHL appearances under his belt, all with Los Angeles back in the 2015-16 campaign.

Free Agent Profile: Kevin Shattenkirk

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The NHL is dab in the middle of the dog days of summer. Free agency has ground to a halt as many names around the NHL get in brief vacations or an early jump on their training. But the open market still offers a long list of long-time NHL veterans, still capable of filling depth roles. The most valuable among them might be right-shot defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, following a stout performance on the Boston Bruins’ third pairing, and second power-play unit, last season.

Shattenkirk, 35, has made no indication that he’s considering retirement – recently training alongside Trevor Zegras and Matt Rempe in preparation for the 2024 Shoulder Check Charity game. There’s no reason for Shattenkirk to slow down either, after seamlessly transitioning from being one of the Anaheim Ducks’ top defenders to a role on Boston’s fringe. He lost nearly four minutes of average ice time in the move, appearing in just 15:47 through 61 games in Boston this year. But his production held strong, with Shattenkirk managing six goals and 24 points, just three shy of his 2022-23 totals. 11 of those points came on Boston’s power-play, where Shattenkirk served as the blue-line’s second-string option behind Charlie McAvoy.

The year in Boston showed that Shattenkirk still has plenty to give, even if his age defaults him to a depth role. But he’s capable of much more, playing upwards of 20 minutes a night as recently as two seasons ago in Anaheim. The 2021 and 2022 Ducks defenses didn’t do much to illicit praise – with the latter lineup setting an NHL record for most shots against per game. But Shattenkirk stood as the rare positive, ranking second on Anaheim’s defense in scoring in all three seasons with the team – and even posting the third-best xGA/60 (expected goals-against per-60) of any Ducks defenders to play a full season, behind Hampus Lindholm and Josh Manson, per Evolving-Hockey. His relative prowess earned Shattenkirk plenty of ice time when the Ducks were in need, and he’d ultimately total 77 points in 212 games while averaging 20:37 in ice time.

Shattenkirk continues to shine as an adaptable, jack-of-all-trades defenseman – attributes built up over his impressive 14-year career in the NHL. He was drafted 14th overall in 2007, getting selected out of the U.S. NTDP by the Colorado Avalanche. He’d turn pro after three years at Boston University, making his NHL debut in 2010 and proceeding to post an impressive 26 points in his first 46 games. But Colorado couldn’t decline a chance to acquire 2006 first-overall selection Erik Johnson as that year’s trade deadline neared, ultimately sending Shattenkirk, Chris Stewart, and a second-round pick for Johnson, Jay McClement, and a first-round pick.

That trade sparked Shattenkirk’s illustrious career in St. Louis, where he played second fiddle to eventual team captain Alex Pietrangelo for seven years. It wasn’t an easy role to settle into, even despite Shattenkirk’s hot start in the NHL, as opponents quickly learn to shut down his flashy puck skills. Rather than trying to will his way to another skill level, Shattenkirk opted to build up his game off the puck, adding considerable size, grit, and defensive zone impact under the guidance of long-time Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock.

It’s those gritty intangibles that are now keeping Shattenkirk relevant, giving him the ability to play both sides of the red lines diligently while the quick-thinking offense that earned him draft acclaim keeps him on the power-play. His cap hit has matched his dwindling scoring, with Shattenkirk’s deal in Boston totaling just $1MM. That will likely hold him to a sub-$1MM price tag on his next deal, though that could prove lucrative value for any team needing to round out their defense corps. Even at 35, Shattenkirk is still bringing diligent two-way play, special teams upside, and predictable scoring – all certainly worth buying for cheap on the open market. If NHL teams agree, Shattenkirk will enter the 2024-25 season chasing career milestones – currently sat 16 points away from 500 and 48 games away from 1,000.

Opportunity Knocks For Ducks’ Lukáš Dostál

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John Gibson has become synonymous with Anaheim Ducks goaltending. He’s worked his way into all-time status since taking over the team’s starting role in 2016, with 193 wins, 477 games, and a .910 save percentage through his career – all ranked second on Anaheim’s all-time leaderboards behind Jean-Sebastien Giguere. But for the first time in his career, Gibson is at risk of being dethroned. Star prospect Lukáš Dostál has ascended to Anaheim’s top levels, last season becoming the first Duck besides Gibson to play in 40 or more games since 2016. Dostál stood strong in his chances, while Gibson continued to struggle, opening the door to a full-blown takeover next season.

Dostál has been working towards a coup since well before he moved to California in 2021. The 2018 third-round selection previously had a standout career in Finland’s Liiga – posting 41 wins and a .929 save percentage through 64 career games. That dominance followed him to the AHL, and Dostál quickly planted his stake as a top prospect with 15 wins and a .916 save percentage in his first 24 games with the San Diego Gulls. He’d maintain that save percentage through 40 more AHL games in 2021-22, playing well enough to earn his first NHL call-up. He played in just four games but showed an ability to stand up to the bombardment Anaheim routinely received. That fortitude earned Dostál 19 more NHL games last season and, with continued strong performances, the full-time backup role this year.

Dostál’s slow and steady climb to the top flight lined up with the worst years of Gibson’s career. He allowed a career-high 172 goals-against in 2021-22 – sat behind a Ducks defense that faced an average of 33.2 shots-against per game. It was clear that Gibson couldn’t stand up to the shelling – setting him up horribly for what was about to come, as the 2022-23 Ducks faced a staggering 39.1 shots-against per game: a record in the modern NHL. Gibson, understandably, performed horribly – becoming the first goalie since 2009 to allow 200 goals in one season and posting the first sub-.900 save percentage of his career.

Gibson entered 2023-24 on the heels of that historically-bad Ducks season – matched against Dostál, who was coming off a string of five strong seasons across the hockey world. And while Gibson entered the year as Anaheim’s de facto starter, he failed to maintain the wedge, stacking up 15 losses and a .904 in his first 24 games of the season. Those meager performances, and battles with injury, earned Dostál the lion’s share of ice time in the year’s second-half. His stat line of 15 losses and a .906 in 29 games didn’t jump off the page, though it stood tall compared to the abysmal 12 losses and .870 save percentage that Gibson managed in his final 22 games of the year.

Regardless of the starter, Anaheim’s 2023-24 campaign was underwhelming – with just 27 wins on the year. But it was Dostál who stood up to the test of a full season, while Gibson’s save percentage continued its gradual decline. To add insult to injury, Dostál has spent his summer leading Team Czechia to a World Championship Gold medal – posting a .939 in eight tournament games – while Gibson has once again failed to garner interest on the trade market. It seems Anaheim’s faith sits with the former, though Gibson’s lofty $6.4MM cap hit will command at least a chance at respectable ice time. It might prove his last chance at hanging onto the role he’s carried for the last eight years, though continued struggles could quickly cut things short, especially if Dostál enters the year with the dominance he showed at the World Championship.

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