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Toronto Maple Leafs Place Five In COVID Protocol

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The Toronto Maple Leafs tweeted today that defensemen T.J. Brodie and Travis Dermott, goalie Jack Campbell, head coach Sheldon Keefe, and assistant coach Spencer Carbery entered the league’s COVID-19 protocol.

The team now has nine players on the list. Captain John Tavares, as well as Alexander Kerfoot, Wayne Simmonds, and Jason Spezza, were added earlier in the week.

After seeing a back-to-back set of games against Vancouver and Seattle postponed this weekend, the team was originally scheduled to return to play on Thursday, December 23 against St. Louis. Understandably, that’s now in jeopardy as their list of COVID cases expands.

Matters are made worse in the organization due to a COVID outbreak on their AHL team. The Toronto Marlies have over 10 cases and are officially considered an outbreak, severely limiting any possible recalls.

If their game against St. Louis is postponed, Toronto will return to action on December 27 against Columbus.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Kuznetsov, Gravel

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The NHL has released their Three Stars for last week, and at the very top is a name familiar to individual awards. Leon Draisaitl has been named the first star of the week after racking up ten points in five games and jumping in front of teammate Connor McDavid in the league scoring race. Draisaitl not only is leading in overall points but is also tied with Alex Ovechkin for the league goal-scoring lead with ten in his first ten games. The 2020 Art Ross and Hart Trophy winner, Draisaitl now has 529 points through the first 488 games of his NHL career.

The other two spots belong to a pair of goaltenders who could potentially be teammates at next year’s Olympics. Jack Campbell and John Gibson receive the second and third honors respectively after near-perfect weeks. The Toronto Maple Leafs netminder went 3-0 with a .968 save percentage, stopping 92 of 95 shots against some tough competition, while Gibson allowed just a single goal on 63 shots, winning both his games last week. While not considered much of a candidate for the U.S. Olympic squad until recently, Campbell’s play so far has put him in that conversation. Across ten games, he leads all American netminders with a .936 save percentage.

  • In 2019, Evgeny Kuznetsov received a four-year suspension from the IIHF after testing positive for cocaine at the World Championships. That would normally have meant he would not be eligible to play for Russia at the upcoming Olympics, but a report from RIA Novosti indicates that there is renewed hope that the suspension will be reduced and Kuznetsov will be able to play. Alexei Zhamnov, head coach of the Russian team, told Sport-Express that either tomorrow or the day after they should know more about Kuznetsov’s situation.
  • Alexis Gravel, who was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2018, is leaving the ECHL to join the University of Quebec-Trois-Rivieres for the rest of this season. The 21-year-old netminder will be remembered fondly by Halifax Mooseheads fans, where he starred in the QMJHL and even took home a Memorial Cup Most Outstanding Goaltender award. Gravel did not sign an entry-level contract with the Blackhawks and is an unrestricted free agent. He posted an .863 save percentage in two appearances with the Allen Americans this season.

Petr Mrazek Placed On Injured Reserve

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The Toronto Maple Leafs hoped to take a cautious approach to the health of their goaltenders this season, signing Petr Mrazek to help insulate Jack Campbell so that neither one was overworked. Instead, it appears as though Campbell will need to carry the load for the next while. Mrazek has been placed on injured reserve retroactive to November 4 and is expected to miss approximately four weeks.

Mrazek, 29, suffered a groin injury in his first appearance of the season, stretching to stop a shot at the end of the second period. He didn’t finish that game, and was out for more than two weeks, forcing the Maple Leafs to go with Michael Hutchinson once again as the backup. Mrazek returned on October 30 and recorded his first win for Toronto, only to reaggravate the injury over the last week. It will now likely be December before he appears in his third game of the season, certainly not the situation the team was hoping for when they signed him to a three-year deal this summer.

In fact, for a team like Toronto that is constantly dancing around the salary cap ceiling, Mrazek’s $3.8MM hit was a substantial investment. While Campbell has performed incredibly well in his time as a Maple Leaf, he too has a long injury history and has never played more than 31 games in a single season. The 29-year-old is already up to ten this year, with many more to come while Mrazek recovers.

Instead of Hutchinson this time, the Maple Leafs recalled prospect, Joseph Woll, to serve as the team’s backup last night. Woll had been dealing with an injury of his own last time they needed a netminder, but it’s unclear if he’ll actually make his NHL debut or just sit on the bench while Campbell plays every game. The Maple Leafs do have a back-to-back situation coming up next week, playing the Calgary Flames on Friday and then traveling to Buffalo for Saturday night.

Atlantic Notes: Campbell, Lightning, Foligno

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There were reports earlier this week that the Maple Leafs had started extension talks with goaltender Jack Campbell.  However, his agent Kurt Overhardt told Postmedia’s Michael Traikos that no such discussions have taken place:

That’s so inaccurate. I can tell you that there’s been no material discussions (with the Leafs). Jack just wants to play hockey. That’s it.

The 29-year-old is in the second and final season of a deal that pays $1.65MM, a bargain considering he has posted a 2.16 GAA with a .923 SV% since coming over in a trade from Los Angeles back in February of last year.  The Kings made that move in part to open up a spot for Calvin Petersen.  Interestingly enough, Petersen’s recent contract – a three-year, $15MM pact – may be an attainable contract for Campbell but with Toronto’s cap situation, it’s unlikely the Maple Leafs will be able to afford to bring him back at a price tag anywhere near that amount.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

  • The Lightning did show interest in bringing back defenseman Luke Schenn this summer, notes Joe Smith of The Athletic (subscription link). However, Schenn opted to go to Vancouver which paved the way for Tampa Bay to add Zach Bogosian on a three-year deal worth less than $1MM per season which should work out even better for them once he’s able to return from his lower-body injury later this month.
  • Bruins winger Nick Foligno returned to practice on Friday, relays Boston Hockey Now’s Joe Haggerty. The veteran has been dealing with an upper-body injury that sidelined him in the second game of the season and while he has been ruled out for tonight’s game against Toronto, he could be an option to return soon after that, perhaps as early as Tuesday versus Ottawa.

Maple Leafs Notes: Campbell, Dermott, Mrazek

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With Morgan Rielly locked up, the most important pending free agent for the Toronto Maple Leafs is Jack Campbell. The 29-year-old is currently in the second season of a two-year deal signed with the Los Angeles Kings in 2019 and carries a $1.65MM cap hit. Given his performance since arriving in Toronto–a .922 save percentage in 36 regular season appearances–he’s likely in line for a substantial raise.

Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet reported yesterday that extension talks have begun between Campbell and the Maple Leafs, hours before he posted his fifth career shutout in a 4-0 dismantling of the Vegas Golden Knights (or at least some of them). Campbell was asked after the game whether this report was accurate, and said he didn’t even know. The netminder did express a desire to stay in Toronto, however, explaining how much he loves playing for the Maple Leafs.

  • On The Jeff Marek Show today, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet suggested that the Maple Leafs have let teams around the league know that one of their defensemen is available and speculated that it could be Travis Dermott. Dermott suffered an injury last night blocking a shot and though it was determined he didn’t break any bones, the young defenseman was missing from practice today. Once again, the Maple Leafs coaching staff has shown that they don’t trust Dermott to play big minutes, as he’s averaged just 14 through the first nine games of the season. The 24-year-old signed a two-year deal in July that carries an average annual value of $1.5MM.
  • Petr Mrazek is still not full healthy according to head coach Sheldon Keefe, but is good enough to serve as a backup for Campbell tomorrow night. The biggest question about Toronto’s goaltending heading into the year was would they be able to stay healthy, and Mrazek gave the team a scare when he failed to even make it through his first start without suffering a groin injury. The team has very little depth behind their oft-injured tandem–Michael Hutchinson is the team’s third option–so keeping both healthy this season is a top priority.

Snapshots: Eichel, Campbell, Sillinger

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The Jack Eichel saga continues, though things are coming to a head according to several NHL insiders. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff tweets that the Vegas Golden Knights are “well down the track” in Eichel talks with the Buffalo Sabres, but notes that there are still plenty of moving parts. Kevin Weekes of ESPN adds that the Calgary Flames are with the Golden Knights as potential destinations still, though he too notes that things remain “fluid and complex.”

It is important to remember that there are many factors involved here, including the Sabres’ own cap situation. Eichel is not on long-term injured reserve for Buffalo, and moving him off the cap would put them well below the lower limit. Any potential deal will likely have multiple players coming back, in addition to whatever draft picks are involved.

  • The Toronto Maple Leafs locked up Morgan Rielly yesterday, signing him before he got anywhere close to unrestricted free agency next summer. Another one of their pending UFAs, Jack Campbell, is playing very well for the club in the early going and setting himself up for a big payday. According to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, there have only been preliminary talks between the Maple Leafs front office and Campbell’s representatives, and that happened before the start of the season. The Maple Leafs of course signed Petr Mrazek to a three-year deal this summer, which carries a $3.8MM cap hit. Mrazek is playing tonight for the club as he returns from injury.
  • Cole Sillinger has been great for the Columbus Blue Jackets in the early going, stepping directly into the NHL after being selected 12th overall in this year’s draft. The question now is whether the Blue Jackets will keep him through the ten-game threshold, which would start the clock on his entry-level contract and burn its first year, or send him back to junior where he could dominate for the Medicine Hat Tigers of the WHL. Notably, as Brian Hedger of The Columbus Dispatch points out though, Sillinger is also actually eligible to play in the AHL this season because he spent last year with the USHL instead of playing in the COVID-shortened WHL campaign. Minor league games do not count toward that ten-game threshold, meaning the young forward could spend the year in professional hockey but not burn the first year of his ELC. With seven games played already, the Blue Jackets will have to make a decision on that front soon. One other thing to note for Sillinger is that sometimes, teams focus more on the 40-game threshold instead of ten. At that point, the season not only would burn the first year of his ELC, but it would also count toward Sillinger’s future UFA status.

Kevin Connauton, Joseph Woll Activated From Injured Reserve

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A pair of preseason injuries are no longer limiting two players that are looking to push for more NHL opportunity this season. PuckPedia reports that the Florida Panthers have activated veteran defenseman Kevin Connauton from the Season-Opening Injured Reserve and CapFriendly reports that the Toronto Maple Leafs have done the same with young goaltender Joseph Woll.

Connauton, 33, is just two years removed from being a starter for the Arizona Coyotes and the year before that set a career high with 21 points and 73 games. Yet, the past two years he has been used sparingly, to say the least. Connauton played in only four games with the Colorado Avalanche in 2019-20 and last season suited up for just seven games with the Panthers. Despite his limited NHL time of late, Florida still re-signed the experienced blue liner this summer and at least seem willing to give him a shot at a permanent job by not only activating him to the NHL roster, but making room by demoting priority NCAA free agent addition Matt Kiersted. The Cats are still only carrying seven defensemen with Markus Nutivaara currently on injured reserve, but Connauton may still have to prove he is worthy of a roster spot before Nutivaara returns. With solid depth on the blue line, recently supplemented by the acquisition of Olli Juolevi, Florida needs a reason to keep Connauton on the NHL roster and his seven games last season may not be enough. Getting healthy and back in action as quickly as he did certainly helps his case though.

Woll, 23, may ironically have a better shot at NHL opportunity this season despite having no experience in the league. The 2016 third-round pick, who was a standout at Boston College, has been with the AHL Marlies for the past two seasons and while his numbers aren’t eye-popping, his play continues to draw praise. The Toronto net is far from set and just while Woll was recovering from injury himself, the Leafs lost off-season addition Petr Mrazek to injury. Mrazek signed a three-year deal this summer, but has a history of injury issues. Current starter Jack Campbell and backup Michael Hutchinson are on expiring contracts and will be on the wrong side of 30 as they look for their next deal. Between planning for the future and managing the present, the Maple Leafs have some incentive to give Woll a look – potentially a long look – this season. Now healthy, the young keeper can settle in down in the AHL and hopefully look forward to his NHL debut sooner rather than later.

Atlantic Notes: Campbell, Foligno, Walleye

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Toronto goaltender Jack Campbell is now in the final year of his contract and will be an unrestricted free agent next summer but James Mirtle of The Athletic cautions (subscription link) that an extension at this point is unlikely.  Despite taking over as the starter for the Maple Leafs down the stretch and in the playoffs, the 29-year-old still has less than 100 career NHL appearances under his belt (including the postseason) which makes finding the right price tag a little more difficult than usual.  Instead, the smarter play for both sides may be to wait until closer to midseason to see if he’s able to beat out newcomer Petr Mrazek for the 1A role to get a better sense of whether his strong play late last season is a sign of things to come or not.  Even if he doesn’t accomplish that, he’s still in line for a decent-sized raise on his current $1.65MM AAV.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

  • Still with the Maple Leafs, they showed interest in re-signing winger Nick Foligno this summer but in a much more limited role than he wanted, notes Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch. Toronto viewed Foligno as a veteran mentor with an emphasis on helping off the ice while the Bruins, who ultimately signed the 33-year-old, had a bigger role in mind for him.  Foligno is coming off a quiet year with just 20 points in 49 games but had three straight years of more than 30 points before that and if he lands a top-six role, he could get back to that level of production.
  • The Red Wings are keeping their ECHL affiliate with Toledo as the Walleye recently announced that they’ve extended their affiliation agreement for three more seasons. The two organizations have partnered up for the last 11 years with 19 players moving on from there to play in at least one NHL game.  Ten of those saw action with Detroit at some point over the years including Petr Mrazek, Luke Glendening, and Nick Jensen.

Negotiation Notes: Larsson, Andersen, Makar, Canucks

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After locking up Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to a long-term deal earlier today, the Edmonton Oilers will next turn their attention to reaching a new deal with defenseman Adam Larsson. According to TSN’s Darren Dreger in the latest edition of “Insider Trading“, that is more of a “when” than an “if” at the is point. Dreger states that the two sides are already close to a new deal and “in the final stretch” of negotiations. He expects that an extension will be reached soon. For Expansion Draft purposes, soon may not be until later next month, but a handshake agreement will do in the meantime. Larsson, 28, is one of the more stable defensemen in the NHL. If the defensive-minded right-shooter hit the open market, he would draw plenty of attention, but like Nugent-Hopkins, Larsson appears willing to settle on a deal to keep him in Edmonton with reigning Hart Trophy winners Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. So really, with RNH signed and Larsson not far behind, the Oilers may actually be focusing on external negotiations already, as Dreger notes they must add a goalie and complementary scoring forwards this summer.

  • It may come as a surprise following a career-worst season, but there is mutual interest in an extension between the Toronto Maple Leafs and goaltender Frederik Andersen. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that agent Claude Lemieux recently met with the Maple Leafs’ brass and both sides expressed interest in a new deal, perhaps to the surprise of both. Andersen is likely not keen to enter the open market after a down year (and really many years of slow decline) when he could instead stay in familiar territory in Toronto. The Leafs also need a netminder this off-season and may be content to stick with Andersen, despite his struggles, given the play of Jack Campbell this season. LeBrun does point out that Toronto has told Andersen’s camp that he would be sharing the net with Campbell, potentially even starting out at less than 50% of starts, but Andersen is reportedly open to that arrangement.
  • Every year there is the threat of offer sheets and every year it never happens, but LeBrun notes that rumblings around the league are that Colorado Avalanche star Cale Makar could be the prime candidate this summer. With the Avalanche needing to extend the First Team All-Star as well as captain Gabriel Landeskog, starting goaltender Philipp Grubauer, and top-six forward Brandon Saad, all while saving room to extend superstar Nathan MacKinnon and replace several impending UFA’s next summer, cap space is tight in Denver. If another team swooped in with an offer that Makar couldn’t refuse, it might just be too much of a handicap for the Avs. Doubtful, but possible. Colorado can eliminate the risk of an offer sheet to their young phenom if they can lock Makar up before the market opens on July 28.
  • The Vancouver Canucks are already hard at work on extension for arguably their two most important players, defenseman Quinn Hughes and center Elias Pettersson. The pair of restricted free agents are centerpiece players for the Canucks and the team will whatever it takes to keep them around as long as possible. Dreger notes that GM Jim Benning and company are meeting again this week with agents from CAA Sports, who represent both young stars. A number of possibilities are on the table for both players, including a three-year bridge deal for Pettersson in the same vein as the recent contracts of Mathew Barzal and Brayden Point. However, it seems like long-term is the ideal goal. Pettersson is reportedly open to a long-term deal like that of Mikko Rantanen, while Hughes has explored contracts with terms between four and six years.

North Notes: Canucks Front Office, Campbell, Nash, Philp

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There could be some changes in Vancouver this offseason in regards to the team’s front office. At least that’s what The Province’s Patrick Johnston states. The scribe writes that several names are surfacing if owner Francesco Aquilini is ready to make changes.

One name that Johnston writes about is Geoff Courtnall, who could serve as a middle man between ownership and the general manager. Despite the lack of NHL experience since retiring in 2000, he has expressed an interest in getting involved with hockey management and is quite familiar with Aquilini.

The scribe adds that there is a legitimate chance that Vancouver may be looking to replace Jim Benning as well. He makes several suggestions of candidates who could replace Benning, including recently fired ex-Rangers GM Jeff Gorton, Toronto assistant GM Laurence Gilman, Colorado’s assistant GM Chris MacFarland and possibly Scott Mellanby.

  • Sticking with the Canucks, The Athletic’s Thomas Drance reports that forward Elias Pettersson will not play Sunday or any of the remaining three games of the season, shutting him down for the season. Pettersson, who has been out since March 2 with an upper-body injury, has 10 goals and 21 points in just 26 games this season.
  • Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said that the team will go with Jack Campbell as their No. 1 goaltender to start the playoffs over veteran Frederik Andersen, according to Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston. Campbell likely deserves the nod after performing well this season, especially recently. Campbell finished the regular season with a 2.15 GAA and a .921 save percentage in 22 appearances. Keefe also said the team intends to put Riley Nash into the lineup immediately now that he’s been activated off LTIR (via Hockey News’ David Alter). Acquired for a seventh-round pick just before the trade deadline, the center has not played a game with Toronto yet. “We’re gonna get him involved right away and just rely upon the fact that he’s very smart player very experienced guy, and in the NHL and the playoffs in particular, trust that he’s going to fit right in.”
  • The Calgary Flames announced that forward Luke Philp was injured in practice Sunday and will miss the team’s final three games of the regular season. Philp had yet to make his NHL debut and was likely to get a chance in one of the team’s next three games, but will now have to wait until next season for another chance. Philp had eight goals and 17 points in 30 AHL games this season.

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