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Akim Aliu Signs In ECHL (Update: AHL PTO)

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Update (2/12/2017): Everyone’s favorite Nigerian-Ukrainian hockey player is getting closer to a return to the NHL. Columbus Blue Jackets beat writer Aaron Portzline reports that Aliu has signed a professional tryout offer with the Jackets’ AHL affiliate, the defending Calder Cup champion Cleveland Monsters. While an AHL tryout is still very far away from an NHL call-up, it’s certainly a step closer than an ECHL deal. If he performs well in Cleveland and earns a contract, he could be playing with friend, junior teammate, and Columbus captain Nick Foligno by next season. Aliu has 12 points in 13 ECHL games so far this season and, unbelievably, 61 penalty minutes as well.

12/6/2016: One of the more interesting prospects of the last decade is back in North America. Akim Aliu, a second-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks back in 2007, has signed with the Florida Everblades, the ECHL affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes. Aliu returns to the United States after playing with Amur Khabarovsk of the KHL last season.

A native of Okene, Nigeria, Aliu is one of three native Africans to ever play in the NHL, and the only one to line up at forward. Much like fellow countryman Rumun Ndur and the legendary Olaf Kolzig, Aliu left Africa at a young age, spending much of his young life living in Ukraine. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Aliu’s family moved to Canada, where he discovered hockey. Despite having never played the game before, Aliu was such a natural talent that he was drafted into the Ontario Hockey League after just a few years on the ice.

In his first junior season with the Windsor Spitfires, Aliu was involved in a highly publicized incident with teammate Steve Downie, after Aliu refused to take part as the victim of a hazing ritual. This led to Downie attacking Aliu in practice which then led to a fight. Both players were suspended and demanded trades out of Windsor.

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How Will The Expansion Draft Impact Canadian Teams?

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Continuing our look at different expansion draft angles,  CBC’s Amy Cleveland examines how the draft will affect the seven teams in Canada. Laying out the rules for the draft, Cleveland looks further and prognosticates who she sees as “potentially protected” versus those players who would be “intriguing” in being exposed. She further writes that all seven Canadian teams will be able to protect the bulk of their important players. The Flames sit prettiest without any non-movement clauses in contracts while the Leafs and Senators have only one player with an NMC (Nathan Horton, and Dion Phaneuf respectively).

Below are Cleveland’s picks for each team. Going to CBC’s page with the story includes in depth reasoning behind each of Cleveland’s choices.

Calgary Flames
NMC protected players: None.

Potentially protected: 

Intriguing exposed:

Edmonton Oilers
NMC protected players: Milan Lucic (F), Andrej Sekera (D), Cam Talbot (G)

Potentially protected: 

Intriguing exposed:

Montreal Canadiens
NMC protected players: Carey Price (G), Jeff Petry (D)

Potentially protected: 

Intriguing exposed: 

Ottawa Senators
NMC protected players: Dion Phaneuf (D)

Potentially protected: 

Intriguing exposed: 

Toronto Maple Leafs
NMC protected players: Nathan Horton (F)

Potentially protected: 

Vancouver Canucks
NMC protected players: Loui Eriksson (F), Daniel Sedin (F), Henrik Sedin (F)

Potentially protected: 

​Intriguing exposed: 

Winnipeg Jets
NMC protected players: Dustin Byfuglien (D), Toby Enstrom (D)

Potentially protected: 

Intriguing exposed:

 

Full List Of Mandatory-Protection Players In Expansion Draft

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Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston has published the full list of players who, due to no-movement clauses in their current contracts, must be protected in the upcoming expansion draft for the new Vegas Golden Knights. These are players who will count against the protection limits should they choose not to waive their NMC rights prior to the draft.

Each team has the right to protect either:

A) Seven forwards, three defenders, one goaltender

or

B) Eight skaters, one goaltender

These players will count against those numbers, and as Johnston points out, there are some notable inclusions and omissions from this group. Players like Jordan Staal, Rick Nash and Bobby Ryan all had incorrect information spread about their contracts. The former two will now need protection, while the latter will not, due to his deal only having a no-movement to the minors clause.

The Chicago Blackhawks, with eight players listed, will have little flexibility at the draft, with only four forward spots (or one defenseman) left to use. Many others, according to Johnston, including Toronto’s Nathan Horton, are likely to be made exempt if they are still on LTIR as the draft approaches.

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Jacob Trouba Set To Make 2016-17 Season Debut

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According to head coach Paul Maurice, recently re-signed defenseman Jacob Trouba will make his 2016-17 season debut tonight against Colorado, tweets Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun. The Jets and the RFA blue liner settled on a two-year, bridge pact on Monday that comes with an AAV of $3MM. Trouba had asked for a trade out of Winnipeg last season but has since rescinded that request.

Of course one of the issues Trouba talked about during the stalemate was the fact he wanted to play on his natural, right side but with Dustin Byfuglien and Tyler Myers on the depth chart above him, those opportunities had been few and far between with the Jets. Maurice did not state whether Trouba would see action on the right side or with whom he would play, saying only: “We’re going to send him out there with a right-handed stick.”

The coach also did not indicate who would be coming out of the lineup tonight to make room for Trouba though Wiebe suggested Paul Postma was the likeliest option. Postma has appeared in 12 games so far this season and has two points for the Jets.

Despite inking a new deal to remain in Winnipeg and pulling back his trade request, rumors linger that the team could still move him. Now under contract at what many might feel is a bargain price, teams interested in Trouba might be more inclined to meet the high asking price the Jets have placed on the young blue liner. During the 2011-12 campaign, Kyle Turris, who shares the same agent as Trouba, signed a short-term deal with the Coyotes only to be dealt days later to Ottawa. It’s possible the Jets could look to do the same with Trouba.

 

Jacob Trouba Signs Two-Year Deal With Winnipeg

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The Winnipeg Jets announced that they have re-signed defenseman Jacob Trouba to a two-year deal worth an AAV of $3MM with the Winnipeg Jets. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was first with the report.  The contract will pay him a prorated $2.5MM this season and $3.5MM in 2017-18.  The restricted free agent had been holding out all season hoping for a trade to a different club where he could play a bigger role on his preferred right-side.

Jacob TroubaWhile this does not rule out a trade completely – as we saw with Kyle Turris just a few years ago – the Jets may have convinced Trouba that playing this year is more important than finding the perfect situation. The defenseman would have been ineligible to play had he not signed by December 1st.

The former first-round pick is considered a potential top-pairing defenseman able to play in all situations, and is currently blocked by both Dustin Byfuglien and Tyler Myers on the right-side. Believing he’s deserved of more minutes and a core role, many teams had inquired on him this summer and into the first part of the season.

Again, this doesn’t mean he won’t be dealt this season, in fact he may become even more desirable for teams who were worried about him demanding a long-term deal. Now with the cost certainty for the next two seasons, a club can fit him in under their payroll structure.  Teams like the Maple Leafs or Canucks now who have big contracts expiring over the next couple of seasons may find room and pick up the phone once again.

As Trouba likely realized, holding out is rarely helpful to a player’s case. While his hope was clear from the beginning, a strong front office can hold on and take any leverage you may have away from you. We saw it with Jonathan Drouin last season, who eventually made good with the club and has become a strong part, and the aforementioned Turris who was forced to sign a similar bridge deal before being dealt to the Ottawa Senators.

If Trouba can get back to playing, and prove that he’s the puck-moving shutdown defender that he’s looked like in the past, many teams around the league will be after him. At a $3MM hit this year and next, he’d be a welcome addition to almost any blueline.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Morning Snapshots: Backes, Trouba, Rantanen, Boychuk

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Former Blues captain David Backes inked one of the richest deals of the offseason when he left the mid-west to join the Boston Bruins on a five-year, $30MM deal. While Backes is an excellent two-way player, many criticized the length of the contract given to the 32-year-old C/RW. However, teams today seem to realize that is an inherent risk of free agency and generally hope to see surplus value in the earlier years of the pact.

Backes is only four games into his Bruins career yet the early returns are solid – two goals and three points. But as the Boston Globe’s Fluto Shinzawa writes, the biggest benefit of the Backes addition may be in how it’s allowed bench boss Claude Julien to balance out his lines to better take advantage of the skill-sets of his other forwards.

With Patrice Bergeron back in the lineup, he joins Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak on the Bruins top line. Backes, meanwhile, is slotted in as the second line RW with rookie Danton Heinen on the left of veteran pivot David Krejci. The left-handed Heinen and right-handed Backes  give Krejci two wings who play on their strong side and allow the gifted center to deliver passes to his linemates’ forehands. As Shinzawa notes, Krejci has had some of his best seasons when he’s “had a right-hand strongman clearing space on his wing.” In past years, Nathan Horton, Jarome Iginla and Blake Wheeler have provided Krejci with just that and now he has Backes.

More from around the NHL:

  • The Jacob Trouba saga in Winnipeg appears no closer to a resolution, as ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun writes. Trouba and his agent, Kurt Overhardt, recently made public the defenseman’s request to be traded citing a desire to play top-four minutes on his natural, right side. With Tyler Myers and Dustin Byfuglien under contract with the Jets for at least the next three years, that opportunity didn’t appear to be in Winnipeg. For their part, the Jets have understandably placed a high price tag on Trouba, rumored to be a left-handed defenseman of comparable age and talent to the former first-round draft choice. According to LeBrun, the club hasn’t received an offer to their liking and are prepared to wait it out until they do. There is a hard deadline of December 1st; if Trouba is not under contract at that point he won’t be eligible to play this season.
  • The Colorado Avalanche appear poised to recall prospect Mikko Rantanen next week from San Antonio of the AHL, writes Mike Chambers of The Denver Post. Rantanen has been with the Rampage since the start of the season in what has effectively been a conditioning assignment as he works his way back from an ankle injury suffered during training camp. The Avalanche used their first-round selection in the 2015 draft to select Rantanen and the Finnish forward debuted in the NHL in 2015-16, appearing in nine games for the Avalanche. Chambers speculates the team will make room on their 23-man roster by placing veteran center John Mitchell on IR or by sending Gabriel Bourque or Ben Smith to San Antonio.
  • Zach Boychuk, who has appeared in 127 NHL games over parts of seven seasons with Carolina, Pittsburgh and Nashville, has inked a pact of HC Sibir of the KHL according to this link, re-tweeted by Cap Friendly (original link in Russian). Boychuk was chosen in the first-round of the 2008 draft by Carolina and has scored 12 goals and 30 points during his NHL career. He has had more success in the minors, once tallying 36 goals and 74 points while playing for Charlotte of the AHL during the 2013-14 campaign.

Quotable Coaches: McLellan, Maurice, Blashill

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Coaching in the preseason is a difficult task. You have to find combinations that may never play again together, and judge your players against a mixed bag of NHL experience. It leads for some interesting answers, when talking to coaches around the league. Here are some reactions from the league’s bench bosses.

Todd McLellan (via NHL.com), on young Drake Cagguila a recent signing out of the University of North Dakota:

He’s played a very admirable game, and been a factor in each of them. He’s allowed us to think about some other things, one being Leon (Draitsaitl) on the wing. It’s certainly not written in stone, we’ve got a lot of preseason left to play and a number of decisions to make moving forward.

He’s a mature player, he’s got a mature body and a pretty good approach to the daily routine. I think he’ll get the rest that he needs. After that, if he just keeps playing the way he is, he has an impact every night; he shoots the puck, he makes plays, he looks comfortable on the powerplay, he’s been able to penalty kill. That’s not a bad menu for a rookie coming into training camp for the first time.

Paul Maurice (via the Jets Twitter), on first-round pick Logan Stanley heading back to junior:

Playing defense as much as anything, who you’re talking to on the line and what you’re partner is telling you has a really big impact. He got to know Tyler Myers, Dustin Byfuglien and all the guys playing on that side of the ice, and he really enjoyed that.

It’s going to take him some years before he’s an NHL defenseman, learning all the small things about how to position your body, how to roll off a hit, how to extend your stick, all those things. Those training camp conversations are really important.

Jeff Blashill (via the Wings Twitter), on Teemu Pulkkinen and what he has to do to be successful in the NHL:

When guys aren’t like Justin Abdelkader who bring other things like physicality, size, or net front presence, ultimately you have to produce points, whether it’s assists or goals. He’s certainly somebody who has shown a prolific ability to score, be it in the minor leagues.

I saw it first hand, he’s somebody with a right-shot. If he can add that element of scoring, that’ll do what I talked about in camp; demand that you stay here.

Central Division Notes: Trouba, Carle, Rozsival, Tuch

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Despite Jacob Trouba’s recently publicized trade request, the Jets should only move him if it’s on their terms because of the bad precedent it would set for future RFAs, opines Ted Wyman of the Winnipeg Sun. As Wyman notes, the Jets are a draft-and-develop organization given their status as a small market team and the difficulties they face in competing for marketable free agents. Acquiescing to Trouba’s request would harm the club’s leverage when it comes to future negotiations with players like Nikolaj Ehlers, Kyle Connor and Patrick Laine when they reach restricted free agency. A small market club needs to be able to retain as much of their best young talent as possible and the Jets must be able to keep the salaries of their RFAs in line while those players are still under team control.

Wyman also believes that since Trouba has yet to live up to his full potential in his first three seasons on the league, he should be willing to accept a fair market contract and to play wherever his coach wants him to play. If he wants to move over to the right side, as he has indicated, he needs to beat out one of the incumbents – Dustin Byfuglien and Tyler Myers.

As Wyman writes further, it’s likely Trouba’s insistence on playing on the right side is in fact a smoke screen and the reality is the young defenseman simply wants out of Winnipeg. Of course Trouba and his agent, Kurt Overhardt, have both insisted his request is based solely on his desire to be a right-side defenseman and has nothing to do with the city or the organization.

More from the NHL’s Central Division:

  • Four seasons ago, Matt Carle’s stock was such that the 27-year-old defender received the second-largest contract inked by any player during the summer of 2011. Last season, he fell out of favor in Tampa Bay and despite the Lightning often suiting up seven blue liners, Carle still couldn’t crack the lineup. It was no surprise, then, that the Lightning opted to buy out the remaining two years of his deal as the team looked to save as much money as possible in order to re-sign several important free agents. Carle would end up signing a one-year deal with Nashville worth just $700K, where the 11-year veteran will be reunited with head coach Peter Laviolette. Under Laviolette, Carle had some of his best yearss, statistically, while a member of the Flyers, tallying at least 35 points in each of his final three seasons with the team. Carle hopes that at age-32 and playing for a coach with whom he is both comfortable and familiar, that he can once again be an important player for a contending team. The Predators do boast one of the league’s most talented blue lines but there is room for a veteran to stabilize the unit, particularly after dealing away team captain Shea Weber this summer.
  • Veteran defenseman Michal Rozsival has carved out a solid 15-year NHL career and realizes his days in the league are numbered. Rozsival has spent the past four seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks and was brought back by the club for what the 38-year-old defender hopes will be his fifth campaign in the windy city. But after the 2015-16 season, Rozsival wasn’t sure he would be back in Chicago and despite signing a one-year, $600K deal, he isn’t even sure what his role with the Hawks will be, as Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune writes. “Right now, I still don’t know what my role is. It might be determined by the way I play. The last four years I’ve played 20 games, I’ve played 30 games and I’ve played 50 games. I’m ready for anything and for any kind of role. Obviously, I would love to be playing. I’m always trying to fight for my ice time.” It’s likely the Blackhawks value his experience and will find a spot for him on the roster, even if it is as the seventh or eighth defenseman.
  • Minnesota entered training camp with a few openings at forward and plenty of candidates to earn those jobs. Unfortunately for the Wild, none of those candidates have impressed head coach Bruce Boudreau to this point in the preseason, according to Michael Russo of the Star Tribune. Veteran role players Zac Dalpe and Ryan Carter have failed to make a mark while youngsters Alex Tuch, Kurtis Gabriel, Joel Eriksson Ek and Tyler Graovac have yet to grab hold of a job. Whether this might prompt GM Chuck Fletcher to explore his alternatives or not is unclear but he may have to if the in-house options continue their collectively mediocre play.

 

Trouba Asks Out Of Winnipeg

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Update (8:05pm): The Jets have indeed released a statement, which Custance shared via Twitter. In it, GM Kevin Cheveldayoff calls Trouba, “an important part of the long-term future of our club.” He continued by saying: “any decisions made regarding Jacob Trouba will be in the best interest interest of the Winnipeg Jets Hockey Club.”

Cheveldayoff also stated they would “continue to work dilligently to resolve this matter.”

It seems clear the Jets would much rather keep the young blue liner and the team holds nearly all of the cards in this situation. The only two options open to Trouba as a free agent are to sit out and not collect a paycheck or to sign in the KHL. Neither scenario is likely to hold much appeal for Trouba. The Jets might be open to moving Trouba but it sounds as if Cheveldayoff is ready to dig his heels in and only execute a deal if it makes sense for Winnipeg.

(7:04pm): Jacob Trouba’s agent, Kurt Overhardt, released a statement this afternoon officially asking the Winnipeg Jets to trade the restricted free agent defenseman. According to Darren Dreger, who just spoke with Trouba, the request has nothing to do with his feelings for the organization or the city of Winnipeg, but rather about opportunity and ice time. The Jets are deep in right-handed defensemen with Dustin Byfuglien, Tyler Myers and Paul Postma all on the roster and capable of playing the right side.

Trouba was quoted by Dreger, again via tweet, saying: “I didn’t want it to get to this point. To not play is not what I want. This has nothing to do with money…it never has.”

Dreger later tweeted that several teams are unsurprisingly already interested in possibly acquiring Trouba. The Jets are expected to release a statement on the situation “shortly.”

Earlier today we updated the Trouba situation with Winnipeg with club executives saying they expected to sit down with the RFA defender and try to hammer out a new deal. Clearly Trouba’s trade request changes that outlook significantly.

It’s not clear what Winnipeg would demand from interested clubs in exchange for Trouba, but the price is likely to be high. Craig Custance of ESPN suggests the team could look for a comparable, young left-side defender in return. If not a fellow blue liner, perhaps the Jets would want to add a young goal-scorer as the team is returning just three wingers who topped 30 points or 15 goals, though that’s just my own speculation.

Trouba is coming off a 21-point campaign and averaged 22:04 of ice time per game for the Jets. Curiously, he ranked third among Winnipeg blue liners in ice time, just :33 less than Myers, which would seem to contradict part of Overhardt’s statement indicating the request was based on Trouba’s desire to be a top-four blue liner.

 

Latest On Jacob Trouba’s RFA Situation

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Quite a bit of digital ink has been spilled this summer over restricted free agent defenseman Jacob Trouba, and his continuing negotiations with the Winnipeg Jets for his next contract. While speculation has been rampant around a possible trade (at one point he was linked to Boston on an offer sheet) or other transaction, the team has continued to try and re-sign him long term.

Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Sun caught up with Jets’ GM Kevin Cheveldayoff today to talk about Trouba, and he said just as much.

For us, Jacob is a big part of our organization. He’s someone we drafted and really believe in, long-term and moving forward.

Wiebe also says that talks are ongoing, and now that Trouba is back from the World Cup the two sides will try even harder to get something done before the beginning of the season. We profiled Trouba’s RFA case back in August, and examined his contemporaries and comparable players.

It’s tough for Winnipeg to work something out long-term when they’re unsure of what Trouba is eventually going to become. While his advanced stats profile out to a top-pairing defenseman, he can battle consistency at times (like many young players) and is clearly third or fourth on the depth chart. With almost $20MM tied up already in Dustin Byfuglien, Toby Enstrom and Tyler Myers through 2018, extending a long-term deal at a high cap hit will be difficult.

For every day a contract isn’t done, Trouba loses time to work with his teammates and build up towards this season. While he’s already expected to be in good shape due to his stint at the World Cup, every minute of a missed training camp can effect how you perform on the ice in the first few months. If the Jets plan on pushing for a playoff spot this season, they need their entire compliment of defensemen playing at the top of their game from night one.

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