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Evander Kane Scheduled For Sports Hernia Surgery

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Sep. 18: Kane will indeed undergo sports hernia surgery, general manager Stan Bowman told reporters today (via the Oilers’ Tony Brar).

Sep. 13: Mark Spector of Sportsnet is reporting that Edmonton Oilers forward Evander Kane will have sports hernia surgery in the next 10 days or so. Kane has been dealing with the issue since last season and played through the pain as much as he could but eventually missed significant time in the Stanley Cup Final when he dressed in just two of the Oilers’ final seven games.

Kane played reasonably well last season, given that he played through pain for most of it. However, his 24 goals and 20 assists in 77 games represented his lowest point-per-game pace in seven years. The 31-year-old added four goals and four assists in 20 playoff games, which was also a drop from his normal production.

While Kane’s offensive numbers were below his career norms, he did play a career-low 16:47 per game during the regular season which marked his lowest total since he averaged 14:00 per game during his rookie season in 2009-10 while he was a member of the Atlanta Thrashers.

Kane’s prognosis won’t be fully known until surgery has been completed. When his recovery period is clear the Oilers should be able to figure out a plan for their salary cap situation going forward. PuckPedia estimates that Edmonton has $946K in cap space for the 2024-25 season (including Kane’s $5.125MM cap hit), however, if Kane is out longer than 24 days and 10 games then Edmonton can place him on LTIR. If that is the approach they take, the Oilers would need to keep his space available for when he is ready to suit up once again which would presumably be at some point during the regular season.

Maple Leafs Notes: Nylander, Rogers, Tavares, Dewar, Minten, Danford

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The grand William Nylander center experiment has new legs under incoming head coach Craig Berube. He told reporters Wednesday that he’ll open camp with Nylander down the middle with Max Domi on his wing (via David Alter of The Hockey News).

The Maple Leafs have utilized Nylander at center on and off throughout his nine-year career, but never for an extended period. Berube hinted that could change, though, allowing Toronto to potentially have one of the deepest top nines down the middle in the league with Auston Matthews and John Tavares anchoring separate lines.

Nylander has frequently alternated between Matthews’ and Tavares’ right wings since the latter arrived in Toronto in 2018, mostly skating with the latter. He’s coming off a career-best 2023-24 campaign that saw him score 40 goals and 98 points, skating in all 82 games for the second regular season in a row. He’s entering the first year of the eight-year, $92MM extension he signed in January.

More news and notes as Toronto begins its training camp:

  • Rogers Communications is now the majority owner of parent corporation Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment after purchasing a 37.5% stake in the company for nearly $3.5B, Scott Soshnick and Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico report. Rogers already owned 37.5% of the company and purchased this stake from fellow Canadian telecom giant Bell, putting a total valuation of MLSE at $9.3B. The corporation owns the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, MLS’ Toronto FC, and the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts in addition to the Maple Leafs. The transaction will close in mid-2025.
  • For the second time in his career, Tavares is beginning a contract year without an extension in hand and risks becoming an unrestricted free agent. “I want to be here. I want to be here long term, hopefully that happens,” he told reporters Wednesday (via Alter). Now in the final year of the seven-year, $77MM mega-deal he signed to come to Toronto as a free agent in 2018, Tavares will be looking at a significant reduction from his $11MM AAV to stay in Toronto. The captain turns 34 on Friday and had 29 goals and 65 points in 80 games last season.
  • General manager Brad Trelivingalso spoke to reporters today, offering injury updates on a variety of Leafs skaters who will be absent from the first day of camp (via Alter). Chief among them is Connor Dewar, who’s still not fully cleared following offseason shoulder surgery. The 25-year-old won’t be ready for the start of camp but should be good to go when the regular season begins next month. Dewar had a goal and four assists in 17 games with Toronto after being acquired from the Wild at last year’s trade deadline. An RFA this summer, he and the Leafs settled on a one-year, $1.18MM deal to avoid arbitration.
  • Roster hopeful Fraser Minten is looking at a weeks-long absence after sustaining a high-ankle sprain during rookie camp, Treliving said. It’s a tough blow for the 20-year-old, who unexpectedly cracked the Leafs’ opening-night roster last year and averaged 11:26 through four appearances before being loaned back to his junior club. Minten, the No. 38 overall pick in 2022, is now old enough for a full-time AHL assignment and will likely be sent to the Toronto Marlies to begin the season after he’s cleared to return.
  • Treliving also confirmed that 2024 first-round pick Ben Danford sustained a concussion during rookie camp but is progressing well. The 18-year-old defender could get a few reps with Toronto in camp later on but will spend 2024-25 on loan to the OHL’s Oshawa Generals after signing his entry-level contract in August.

Oilers Sign Mike Hoffman To PTO

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The Oilers have signed forward Mike Hoffman to a professional tryout, the team said Wednesday.

Hoffman, 34, will look to get his feet back under him in Edmonton after a trying 2023-24 campaign. Entering the final season of a three-year, $13.5MM deal he signed with the Canadiens in 2021, Montreal moved him to the Sharks in August as part of the massive three-team trade that sent Erik Karlsson to the Penguins.

In San Jose, Hoffman had his worst season since establishing himself as a full-time NHLer with the Senators in the 2014-15 campaign. Making 66 appearances, his 10 goals, 13 assists, 23 points, 71 shots on goal, and 13:44 ATOI were all his lowest in a full NHL season.

Hoffman was once a prolific top-six scoring winger, hitting the 20-goal mark in six straight seasons with the Sens and Panthers from 2014-15 to 2019-20. But his production dipped once the pandemic hit, and he hasn’t recorded more than 20 goals or 40 points in a season since.

He does bring 228 goals, 487 points, and 745 games of NHL experience to Oilers camp, though. He may be a higher-upside bottom-six option on the wing than Mattias Janmark or Vasily Podkolzin, but for a team already ripe with veteran scoring wingers, Hoffman will need to prove he’s more than just a redundancy for players like UFA additions Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner in order to earn a contract.

The Oilers have $945K in projected cap space with one open roster spot, per PuckPedia. They also have depth defenseman Travis Dermott in camp on a PTO, so one tryout being successful likely precludes the other one from resulting in a deal.

Cal Foote Signs In Slovakia

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Former NHL defenseman Cal Foote has signed a one-year deal with HK 32 Liptovsky Mikulas in Slovakia, the team announced Wednesday on Instagram. Foote is one of five ex-NHLers facing sexual assault charges in London, Ontario, stemming from an alleged 2018 assault perpetrated by members of the Canadian men’s national junior team.

Among the group, Foote is the third player to sign a contract to play professionally overseas for 2024-25, joining Dillon Dubé and Michael McLeod. Former Flyers netminder Carter Hart remains unsigned, while ex-Senators winger Alex Formenton has retired and is now working in construction, a court filing indicated.

The judge overseeing the case, London Superior Court Justice Bruce Thomas, recently granted an application from the lawyers for the accused to skip the pretrial legal arguments for “compelling economic reasons” (via Kate Dubinski of CBC News). Foote and Hart weren’t signed at the time, but Thomas said his lawyer indicated “indicated that their training must continue at a high level if they are to have some hope of continuing as professional hockey players.”

Foote, 25, spent part of last season in the Devils organization before being charged in January and taking a leave of absence from the team. He struggled in minor-league action, posting nine points and a -14 rating in 24 contests for the AHL’s Utica Comets. The 2017 first-round pick of the Lightning also had an assist and a +3 rating in four NHL contests with New Jersey.

Blackhawks Name Nick Foligno Captain

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Blackhawks forward Nick Foligno will be the team’s next captain, per a team press release. He’s the 35th in franchise history and the first since Jonathan Toews’ tenure in Chicago ended after the 2022-23 season.

Foligno is entering his second season with the Hawks after inking a two-year, $9MM extension last January to keep him off this summer’s free-agent market. The 36-year-old winger also served as captain of the Blue Jackets for the last six of his nine seasons in Columbus from 2015 to 2021. Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson issued the following statement:

In a very short amount of time, Nick has quickly earned the respect of his teammates and our staff. Nick’s commanding presence in the locker room has been instrumental in helping the team find its identity. He has served as a mentor to many of our young players both on and off the ice while also heading up the leadership group comprised of our veteran players, and we are beyond confident that he will flourish in the role of captain as we usher in a new era of Blackhawks hockey.

The Buffalo native was already part of Chicago’s leadership group, serving as an alternate captain last season. Set to be a UFA last offseason after signing a two-year deal with the Bruins in 2021, Boston traded his signing rights to the Blackhawks in the Taylor Hall deal. Chicago promptly signed Foligno to a one-year, $4MM extension, preventing him from joining the 2023 UFA class.

While his frequent first-line duties on a paper-thin Blackhawks forward group last year punched above his weight as he enters the final few years of his NHL career, Foligno is still an extremely serviceable middle-six forward. He made 74 appearances for Chicago last season, his most since 2018-19, and recorded 37 points (17 G, 20 A) with a -29 rating while averaging 17:46 per game. It was his best showing offensively since his days in Columbus, finishing third on the team in scoring and leading them in hits with 192.

Foligno won’t be relied upon for nearly as many minutes this season with UFA signings Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teräväinen in the mix at wing. Hall playing a full-time role after a knee injury limited him to 10 appearances last year likely bumps the new captain down to comfortable third-line duties.

The move allows presumptive future captain Connor Bedard to take a more leisurely road to the position. The Blackhawks are no stranger to awarding the captaincy to budding stars – Toews wore the ’C’ on his chest from his second NHL season onward – but will take a different approach here. The 2023 first-overall pick will nonetheless remain Chicago’s centerpiece entering his sophomore year after his 22-goal, 61-point rookie season in 68 games, leading the Hawks in scoring and taking home the Calder Trophy.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

West Notes: Perfetti, Tocchet, Weegar, MacDonell

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Several restricted free agents have signed new deals in recent days as they ensured they’d be ready for the start of training camp.  However, that might not be the case for Jets forward Cole Perfetti.  TSN’s Darren Dreger reported on the latest Insider Trading segment that there is still a significant gap to bridge between the two sides in contract discussions.  Perfetti is coming off a season that saw him score 19 goals and 19 assists in 71 games but also saw him spend time as a healthy scratch, including in the playoffs.  This is a fairly obvious case for a bridge contract but even those can sometimes take a little longer to hammer out and this might be one of those cases.

Elsewhere out West:

  • After a surprise showing last season that saw the Canucks sit atop the Pacific Division, some wondered if they’d look to work out an extension with head coach Rick Tocchet. However, GM Patrik Allvin told Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre that with the team holding a club option on his contract for 2025-26, it’s too early to begin those talks just yet, noting they’ll get into those discussions when the time is right for both sides.  Vancouver has a 70-35-13 record under Tocchet so far, good for a .648 points percentage.
  • With the Flames embarking on a rebuild, some veterans have already been moved out while others might want out at some point. Don’t expect that to be the case for defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, however, as the blueliner told reporters including Josh Clipperton of the Canadian Press that he believes in the city and the team and has no desire to leave Calgary.  Weegar was acquired as part of the Matthew Tkachuk trade and quickly signed an eight-year, $50MM contract extension with a franchise that was trying to contend at the time.  Now, it appears he’ll be a key veteran to lean on during their rebuilding process.
  • Stars prospect Angus MacDonell has been drafted for the second time in as many years. After Dallas selected the 19-year-old in the sixth round last year, the NLL’s Buffalo Bandits announced (Twitter link) that they selected MacDonell in the fourth round of their draft on Sunday.  On top of recording 62 points in 61 games last season with OHL Mississauga, he also put up 29 points in 30 games in the Ontario Junior Lacrosse League, helping to earn this most recent selection.  Dallas has until June 1st to sign MacDonell to an entry-level deal and if one doesn’t materialize, he at least might have a fallback plan.

Stars Re-Sign Thomas Harley

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With their salary cap situation making it hard for a long-term deal to be an option, the Stars unsurprisingly have opted for a bridge agreement with defenseman Thomas Harley.  The team announced that they’ve inked the blueliner to a two-year, $8MM contract.  GM Jim Nill released the following statement:

Thomas is one of the league’s top young defensemen. His performance last season was a testament to the way that he has worked on and off the ice to become a better player. We are looking forward to his continued growth and helping anchor our blueline for many years to come.

PuckPedia reports that the deal will pay Harley $3.5MM this season and $4.5MM in 2025-26.  The latter number will represent his qualifying offer and he will also be arbitration-eligible at that time.

Harley’s performance last season was certainly worthy of the praise from his GM.   The 23-year-old only has one full NHL season under his belt – 2023-24 – but it was a very strong one which saw him record 15 goals and 32 assists in 79 games while averaging just over 21 minutes a night.  Harley was quieter offensively in the playoffs (four assists in 19 appearances) but still logged heavy minutes, averaging nearly 24 minutes per contest, second only to Miro Heiskanen.  His goal total put him in a tie for eighth-most among all NHL rearguards.

While the 2019 first-round pick (18th overall) had a more limited track record compared to some more established young blueliners, Harley’s play last season could realistically have put a long-term agreement past $7MM per season on a max-term deal.  But to give him that would have necessitated some cost-cutting now, something that Dallas as a win-now team wouldn’t have been looking to do.

This is the second notable contract of the day for the Stars’ back end with Esa Lindell inking a five-year extension earlier today.  In getting these deals done, Dallas now has their top five defensemen signed through at least the 2025-26 season which will give them a bit of stability on that front.

With the move, the Stars now have their full team signed for the upcoming season.  PuckPedia projects them to only have $694K in cap space but that’s with a full-sized roster.  If Dallas is willing to carry fewer the maximum number of players and opts to continue the daily shuffling of waiver-exempt players (as they did frequently with Logan Stankoven last season, for example), then they should put themselves in a position to comfortably bank some in-season cap room, barring a rash of injuries, of course.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Minor Transactions: 9/17/24

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With training camps starting over the next couple of days, some players are still trying to find a place to play for the upcoming season.  We’ll run down the recent minor moves here.

  • The Panthers have brought in forward Aidan McDonough on a PTO for training camp, relays David Dwork of The Hockey News (Twitter link). The 24-year-old had a strong college career at Northeastern University and went straight to the NHL after that, getting in six games with Vancouver late in the 2022-23 season.  McDonough spent last season with AHL Abbotsford but only managed 11 goals and eight assists in 59 games, resulting in a non-tender back in June.
  • Free agent winger Ivan Lodnia will attend training camp with the Sharks on a PTO, notes Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News (Twitter link). The 25-year-old played for new San Jose head coach David Warsofsky back with AHL Chicago in 2021-22.  After missing all of 2022-23 with an injury, Lodnia spent last season with ECHL South Carolina, recording 25 points in 30 games.
  • The Kraken’s AHL team in Coachella Valley announced the signing of forward Landon McCallum to a one-year deal. The 21-year-old wrapped up his major junior career last season, recording 21 goals and 38 assists in 64 games with OHL Sudbury while adding four points in nine playoff contests.
  • While free agent Simon Johansson was hoping to stay in North America this season, that isn’t going to be the case as Ilves in Finland announced that they’ve signed the defenseman to a two-year deal. The 25-year-old spent the last two seasons in Minnesota’s system, playing with AHL Iowa.  Johansson had a decent showing in 2023-24 with 21 points in 72 games but was non-tendered in June.

Flyers Notes: Johansen, Kolosov, Injuries

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Flyers general manager Daniel Briere met with reporters today (video link) in advance of training camp opening up.  One of the items he spoke about was the Ryan Johansen situation.  Earlier this summer, the team announced they would be terminating his contract, citing a material breach (without providing any further specifics) with Johansen’s camp indicating they would be grieving.  However, there hasn’t been any other news on this front since then.  Briere noted that the ball is in Johansen’s camp at this point and that as far as he’s concerned, the deal has been terminated.  In doing so, Philadelphia has opened up $4MM in cap space but that could be re-added in full or in part should a grievance hearing ultimately reinstate part or all of the contract.

More from Briere’s presser:

  • One of the storylines around the team in recent days is the Alexei Kolosov situation. The netminder doesn’t want to play in the AHL this season while the team has placed a high asking price on him in trade talks.  Briere noted that his understanding is that Kolosov wants a guaranteed NHL position or to be loaned back to the KHL which is a move the team isn’t willing to make.  The 22-year-old posted a 2.39 GAA and a .907 SV% in 47 games with KHL Dinamo Minsk last season, numbers that don’t necessarily scream NHL-ready, especially with returnees Samuel Ersson and Ivan Fedotov in the fold.
  • Injuries were an issue for the Flyers last season with several key regulars missing time. However, Briere said that the team was fully healthy heading into camp (excluding Ryan Ellis who isn’t expected to play again).  That’s particularly notable with center Sean Couturier and defenseman Jamie Drysdale undergoing sports hernia surgeries at the end of the season while blueliner Rasmus Ristolainen had surgery to repair a ruptured triceps tendon in April.

Canucks’ Alexander Edler Announces Retirement

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The Vancouver Canucks have announced that they’ll sign defenseman Alexander Edler to a one-day contract on October 11th, allowing him to retire in the city he spent 15 seasons in. Edler is a veteran of 1,030 NHL games, spending all but 105 of those in a Canucks jersey.

Edler holds a case as the draft day steal of 2004, originally going in the third round but since totaling the seventh-most NHL games of anyone in the class. He earned a top-pair role in Vancouver as a rookie in 2007, immediately flashing reliable two-way play and modest scoring. He’d become known for his consistency, emerging as one of Vancouver’s most utilized defenders through the bulk of the  Sedin era and routinely challenging the 35-point mark. Edler’s career year came in the 2011-12 season, when he tallied 11 goals, 38 assists, and 49 points in 82 games – career-highs in all four stats, and the only time that Edler played in a full season. His 409 points in 925 games with Vancouver both rank as all-time highs among Canucks defenders.

Edler continued playing over 20 minutes a night through his final season in Vancouver in 2021. But the addition of superstar Quinn Hughes challenged Edler’s role, leading him to sign with the Los Angeles Kings, where he’d close his career on a pair of one-year contracts. His scoring took a hit in his final years – falling from a per-game average of 0.44 points in Vancouver (409 points in 925 games) to just 0.29 in Los Angeles (30 points in 105 games). He was one of only a few 2004 draft picks still playing in the NHL last season, joining Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Blake Wheeler, and Alex Goligoski.

The Canucks will honor their longtime top-defender with a pre-game ceremony during their October 11th matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers.

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