- The New York Islanders have re-signed Alan Quine to a two-year deal tweets Arthur Staple. Staple reports that it’s a one-way deal with a $612.5K AAV. Andy Graziano reports that the deal is a total of $1.225MM. Quine played in 10 playoff games with the Islanders, notching five points (1-4).
- The Canucks officially announced the signings of goalie Richard Bachman and forward Michael Zalewski. Zalewski was inked to a one-year, $632.5K deal. Bachman signed a one-year, $575K deal. Jason Brough tweets that Bachman may be the goalie Vancouver leaves exposed in next year’s expansion draft.
- The Lightning signed Cory Conacher to a one-year, $575K deal. Conacher will return to the team he last played for in 2012-13 before bouncing around the league. Conacher was traded to the Senators for Ben Bishop in 2013. At the time, it was considered a win for both teams, but would turn out a heist for the Lightning. Conacher played for Bern in the Swiss National League last season, and had 52 points (20-32) in 48 games.
- The Panthers have re-signed F Logan Shaw to a one year, two-way deal according to General Fanager. Shaw played in 53 games with Florida last season, picking up seven points (5-2). He also played in 19 AHL games, collecting 14 points (11-3). Shaw will earn $660K in the NHL and $70K in the AHL.
- Ducks UFA Charlie Sarault has signed a one year deal with Dornbirner EC of the EIHL, the Austrian team announced on their Facebook page. Sarault had 62 points in 67 games with Utah of the ECHL last season.
- Los Angeles has signed Patrick Bjorkstrand to a one year, entry level contract, reports General Fanager. Bjorkstrand, the older brother of Columbus prospect Oliver Bjorkstrand, spent last season with Zagreb of the KHL, scoring 22 points in 57 games. He will have a cap hit of $667K in terms of base salary and a signing bonus and can earn up to $257K in performance bonuses.
Ben Bishop
Central Notes: Blackhawks, Stars
Enter the Chicago Blackhawks into the number of teams interested in Jimmy Vesey reports Mike Harrington. Harrington cites the Providence Journal story that placed Hawks general manager Stan Bowman at the Foxboro Sports Center watching Vesey compete. Additionally, Harrington uses Chicago’s signing of Artemi Panarin as another clue into the Hawks’ interest in the Hobey Baker Trophy winner.
Chicago reaped the benefits of inking Panarin who complemented Patrick Kane well on a line, notched 77 points (30-44) and won the Calder Trophy as the league’s best rookie. Vesey would be an intriguing signing as the Hawks can promise ice time and instant success since the Blackhawks window to win remains wide open with Jonathan Toews, and Kane still being in the prime of their careers. As it stands, the Blackhawks remain just one of many teams looking into Vesey’s services. Harrington reports that Vesey seems willing to listen to every interested team before he inks a deal, and not just signing with the Sabres because they hold his rights.
Other Central news:
- The Blackhawks have added Derek King as an assistant coach for AHL affiliate Rockford. Tracey Myers tweets that King spent 2009-2015 on the Toronto Marlies coaching staff. The Blackhawks also released a statement announcing King’s hiring with the Icehogs.
- Mike Heika answered a number of questions about the Stars goaltending situation during a chat session. Among the several goaltending questions he received, Heika indicated that while the Stars are apparently content with their situation in net for now, it shouldn’t be ruled out that they could try to upgrade later. Heika says that while rumors cannot be discounted about Ben Bishop or Marc-Andre Fleury, Heika is “guessing” when he thinks the Stars would pass on Fleury due to playoff inconsistencies. He also speculates that a mid-season deal for Bishop would be more likely, especially if the Lightning cannot come to terms with him.
- Heika also writes extensively about who the Stars need to develop between the pipes as the Stars dealt former prospect Jack Campbell after years of trying to make him the organization’s franchise goalie. Heika lists Max Lagace, Philippe Desrosiers, and Landon Bow as the three prospects the Stars must bring along in order to solve their goaltending woes. Both Bow and Desrosiers are both invitees to the Stars development camp and then the prospects tournament in Traverse City. Lagace intrigues because it was him who usurped Campbell, and helped the decision to jettison him to Los Angeles. Heika also lists Lagace as the favorite to be the #1 goalie in the AHL.
The Steven Stamkos Contract And Its Long Term Effects
Had it happened at any point over the last year, Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos re-signing with the Lightning would have been the top story of the day and dominated the conversation. However, on a day where big names were being traded left, right, and center, the Markham-native forgoing unrestricted free agency seemed like a side note.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the structure of Stamkos’ new contract being heavily bonus-laden: Stamkos will make a $1MM salary with the rest in bonuses. Friedman has the salary at five years of $9.5MM, followed by $7.5MM and two years of $6.5MM. That’s a total of $68MM over 8 years, for a cap hit of $8.5MM, which is only $1MM higher than his expiring contract.
It’s a similar structure to the contracts of David Clarkson and Ryan O’Reilly, with great benefits to the player in the event of a lockout or buyout: Stamkos will still get the signing bonus money if the NHL goes through another lockout in 2023 at the expiration of the current CBA. As well, should the Lightning ever want to buy him out (don’t laugh, they bough out Vincent Lecavalier), it would cost the team $2.83MM per season. That’s 283% of his actually salary. (Buyout calculation done on General Fanager).
The feel-good aspect of the signing is this: Stamkos took less money to stay than he could have gotten on the open market (not factoring taxes). He wants to retire a member of the Lightning. In the Lightning’s press release, Stamkos was quoted as saying “it’s not often that a player gets the chance to spend his career in one organization and I am hopeful that this agreement sets me on that path”.
However, the part that is going to make Lightning fans nervous is how it will affect the team around Stamkos. The team has $9.3MM in space for next season. However, leading scorer Nikita Kucherov still needs a new contract after being qualified earlier this week, as does two-way winger Alex Killorn. Those two contracts are doable; it’s next summer where it could get ugly. Top defenceman Victor Hedman, both starting goalie Ben Bishop and goalie-of-the-future Andrei Vasilevskiy, and forwards Jonathan Drouin, Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat will all see their contracts expire.
One of the goalies will likely be traded before then, but the rest of the group will cost serious money to keep together. Defenceman Matt Carle has two years left at $5.5MM and figures to be traded or bought out to save space for the upcoming group of free agents. This is also where gritty winger Ryan Callahan’s contract is going to hurt. Callahan will make $5.8MM annually until 2020, but scored just 28 points in 73 games last season and is on the wrong side of 30.
Wily GM Steve Yzerman will have his hands full again this season, after masterfully handling the Drouin and Stamkos sagas last season. It’s going to be a very interesting year for the Lightning and their fans.
Snapshots: Blackhawks, Lightning, Vanek, Higgins
The Blackhawks may no longer be in salary cap hell, but they are certainly thinner up front writes the Chicago Sun-Times Mark Lazerus. With Andrew Shaw being dealt to Montreal, both Bryan Bickell and Teuvo Teravainen off to Carolina, and Andrew Ladd hitting free agency, the Hawks have a number of open spots to shore up. While Chicago can now collectively breathe under the repressive Cap that has had them selling off parts since the summer of 2010, the casualties have come in the way of losing skill players. Lazerus has the Blackhawks possibly bringing back Brian Campbell, who could carry a $2MM/yr cap hit. Meanwhile, the bottom six forwards would look very different than the pedigree most Hawks fans are accustomed to. Lazerus lists Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann as potential candidates to return, while naming P.A. Parenteau or Sam Gagner as possible options to add in free agency.
In other league news:
- The Lightning have tendered qualifying offers to Yanni Gourde, Kristers Gudlevskis, Alex Killorn, Nikita Kucherov, Tye McGinn, Vladislav Namestnikov, and Nikita Nesterov tweets Erik Eriendsson. In the meantime, general manager Steve Yzerman has a number of decisions to make as the free agency window opens on Friday. Steven Stamkos is still the top priority as teams are lining up to make their pitch. But the equally intriguing angle is what to do with goaltender Ben Bishop. Entering the final year of a contract with a $5.95MM cap hit, Bishop was reportedly working on contract specifics after the Flames were given permission to do so. That was scrapped as soon as the Flames acquired Brian Elliott from the Blues.
- Jason Brough reports that both the Canucks and Rangers may have interest in free agent Thomas Vanek. Though Vanek would be a backup plan to the higher tier free agents, namely Milan Lucic and Loui Eriksson, he could be a decent pickup at a reasonable price for both teams seeking scoring help. Vanek had 41 points (18-23) and will see a much lower offer than the three-year/$19.5MM offer he received from Minnesota, who bought him out last week.
- Elliotte Friedman tweets that Canucks winger Chris Higgins was placed on waivers for the purposes of being bought out. According to CapFriendly, the cap hit would be $833,333 through the 2017-18 season. CBS Sports listed Higgins as one of their buyout candidates, and the Vancouver Sun reported the Canucks actively shopping Higgins back in January. Higgins had 4 points (3-1) in 33 games last season.