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Kris Russell

Kris Russell, Karl Alzner Among First Players Linked To Vegas Free Agent Window

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After yesterday’s release of the protection lists for each team, a 72-hour window opened for Vegas to make their expansion selections. With it, another window opened in which the team can speak with pending unrestricted free agents and unprotected restricted free agents. If signed before Wednesday’s deadline, Vegas would forfeit the selection from that player’s team.

As expected, the Golden Knights will be well connected to all the free agents and it has started with the mention of a pair of defenders. Pierre LeBrun of TSN reports that the Vegas front office has reached out to the Kris Russell camp, and Darren Dreger of TSN speculates that Karl Alzner will be another target. Though LeBrun is quick to point out that nothing is close with Russell, he is definitely one of the more interesting names given how clearly interested Edmonton has been in re-signing him.

The Oilers didn’t give the Golden Knights many interesting options in the draft, with most expecting a pick of Griffin Reinhart or Jujhar Khaira. Signing Russell, who in different circles has been considered both extremely effective and unbelievably overrated would give them a solid base of experience and leadership on what should be a fairly young team. The Oilers, hoping to re-sign Russell have other big names to get under contract this summer including Leon Draisaitl who will be a restricted free agent this summer.

As for Alzner, the defensive specialist from Washington has been the target of some of the same criticism as a weak possession player whose impact is more in terms of minutes played than effectiveness. Some see him as a rock that you can put on the ice for 20 minutes a night and not worry about, while others think his limited offensive upside has him projected as more of bottom-pairing player going forward. The Capitals, unable to re-sign him even if they wanted to due to cap restraints, would welcome his signing with the Golden Knights in order to protect some of their other young players.

Nate Schmidt, who showed off his elite skating ability and potential as a top-4 puck mover in the playoffs was left unprotected, while top-backup Philipp Grubauer has long been considered a potential Golden Knights’ pick. That’s not to even mention Kevin Shattenkirk, T.J. Oshie and Justin Williams, all of whom are also free agents and could be targeted by Vegas. While Alzner obviously has some ties to GM George McPhee from his days in Washington, it would seem backwards for the team to give up the chance at selecting one of the Capitals’ players just to bring him aboard.

Snapshots: Spooner, Islanders, Berube, Russell

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Bruins forward Ryan Spooner is coming off a bit of a down season but despite that, “the interest is out there” for his services around the league, reports CSN New England’s Joe Haggerty.  Two years ago, he tallied a career high 49 points but that dipped down to 39 this season while his role diminished a bit as the season went on, a trend that continued in the playoffs where he was a healthy scratch at one point.

The 25 year old is set to become a restricted free agent in July and is due a qualifying offer of $1.1MM, one he will undoubtedly receive whether it’s from Boston or another organization.  Haggerty adds that the Bruins gave prospect Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson some indications that he is in their immediate plans for next season and the youngster would likely fit in nicely in Spooner’s spot on the depth chart.  There’s no guarantee Spooner will be dealt between now and the expansion draft but it appears that he’s certainly in play as GM Don Sweeney looks to shake up his roster.

Elsewhere around the league:

  • The Islanders do not plan to ask either winger Andrew Ladd or defenseman Johnny Boychuk to waive their no-move clauses in advance of the Expansion Draft at this time, GM Garth Snow told Newsday’s Arthur Staple. The challenges that they face are well-documented and if either veteran were to consider waiving it, it would free New York up to protect some other core players from the Golden Knights.
  • Although Craig Berube has interviewed for both the head coaching vacancies in Florida and Buffalo, CSN Philly’s Tim Panaccio reports (Twitter link) that will not land either job. Berube was the head coach for AHL Chicago this season but with the Golden Knights taking over as primary affiliate for that team next year in place of St. Louis, they have brought in their own head coach with today’s hiring of Rocky Thompson.  TSN’s Darren Dreger suggests via Twitter that Berube could wind up as an associate coach with the Blues.
  • The Oilers opened up brief contract talks with the agent for defenseman Kris Russell on Tuesday, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports (Twitter link). Both sides have been vocal about their desire for a reunion but Edmonton is expected to deal with a new contract for center Leon Draisaitl and an extension for center Connor McDavid before really getting into more substantive discussions with Russell (or any other free agents).  The 30 year old is coming off a one year, $3.1MM pact that he got just before the start of the season and will likely be looking for more on the open market.

West Notes: Eberle, Russell, Seguin

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Although the expectation is that the Oilers will have to move out one of their bigger contracts to accommodate the second contracts for Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid (as of 2018-19), GM Peter Chiarelli told TSN’s Pierre LeBrun that he doesn’t anticipate having to necessarily make that cap-clearing move this offseason:

“The way we are going to have to spend our money in the future will probably mean us moving a player.  When that future is, I don’t know. Basically, we’ve got a year to play with, in my mind.”

Jordan Eberle’s name has come up in frequent trade speculation after a tough postseason performance where he collected just two assists in 13 playoff games although he did reach the 20 goal and 50 point plateaus during the regular season.  He has two years at $6MM remaining on his deal which makes him a candidate to move if they decide to try to clear up space this summer.  As things stand, Edmonton has just shy of $54MM in payroll committed for next season to 18 players per CapFriendly with Draisaitl the only real core player that needs to be re-signed.

Elsewhere out West:

  • Still with the Oilers, Chiarelli told LeBrun that they would like to re-sign pending unrestricted free agent Kris Russell for next season. He noted that the new deal for Draisaitl and McDavid’s extension are the top priorities to deal with and that their contracts may shape what type of contract that they could offer the 30 year old defenseman.  Earlier this month, Russell indicated that he would like to sign a new deal with Edmonton.
  • Stars center Tyler Seguin’s recovery from labrum surgery has gone well so far and he is expected to be ready for training camp, GM Jim Nill told NHL.com’s Mike Morreale. Nill expects the forward – who is now out of his sling – to be able to start offseason training by the end of June.  Seguin played through the injury for a big chunk of the season and went under the knife on April 25th.

Don’t Expect Edmonton To Make Major Move

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Don’t expect the Edmonton Oilers to make any splashy moves this offseason. At least that’s what Edmonton Journals’ David Staples writes about statements that general manager Peter Chiarelli made that the team will stand pat during the offseason, at least when it comes to major deals. And Staples says that Chiarelli is a man of his word, so don’t expect a big deal for a top-four defenseman.

With the loss of Andrej Sekera, who is out till midseason 2017-18, the team would be in need of improved defense. Chiarelli says the team will do everything it can to re-sign Kris Russell in the offseason. However, the possible loss of Russell also makes one wonder if the Oilers might force a trade to upgrade

With the flurry of trades expected before the expansion draft next month, there could be some quality defensemen that might come available as teams realize theyâd be better off trading a player for an asset rather than handing them over to the Las Vegas Golden Knights for nothing. There might be several defensemen who could fill a vital role on the Oilers’ blueline next season. However, the scribe believes that Chiarelli will allow his young nucleus to develop and fill in the holes for a team that made a 16-win improvement from 2015-16. The belief is that he is expecting young defensemen Darnell Nurse and Matt Benning to take the next step until Sekera returns.

  • The Edmonton Oilers have inked Iiro Pakarinen to a one-year contract extension, tweets CapFriendly. Pakarinen, a restricted free agent, agreed to a one-year, one-way contract for $725,000. The 25-year-old winger only played 14 games for Edmonton last year, tallying two goals and two assists. He played in 63 games, scoring five goals in 2015-16.

Takeaways From Peter Chiarelli’s Year-End Press Conference

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The fact that the Oilers will be without top-four defenseman Andrej Sekera for a decent chunk of next season wasn’t the only notable bit of news that  came from GM Peter Chiarelli’s year-end press conference on Tuesday.

He also discussed his summer plans for the team, and no, he doesn’t see another Taylor Hall-for-Adam Larsson type blockbuster. Chiarelli did say that he was open to the idea of trading down in the upcoming Entry Draft; the team has the 22nd overall pick, no second, and two third-round picks in the first 93 picks. Because this draft is seen as weaker than previous years, Chiarelli said acquiring a second-round pick isn’t a necessity but that if a trade came up, he’d consider moving down from #22 to acquire more picks.

Also on the trade front, Chiarelli called the widespread criticism of Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’s playoffs unfair. Trade speculation has run wild around those two, especially Eberle, but Chiarelli pumped the breaks on the suggestion that they need to be dumped at any cost. He praised Eberle’s improvement along the boards, and talked about the lack of confidence that the sniper suffered from. Eberle took 208 shots, which is the most he’s taken so far in his seven-year career, but shot at just a nine per cent rate, considerably down from his previous career-average of 14 per cent. Had he shot at that rate, he’d have scored 29 goals instead of 20. Chiarelli stressed that the team will be “careful about how [they] evaluate him.”

As far as Nugent-Hopkins, the general manager stressed the team-wide need of improving in the face-off circle. Chiarelli said that he gave Nugent-Hopkins “homework” for the summer. While Chiarelli kept a positive tone publicly, with both men on the trading block it would have been a poor decision to criticize them. With questions remaining about what position Leon Draisaitl will ultimately play and the acquisition of David Desharnais not being overly successful, Chiarelli will likely be looking to give Todd McLellan some more options in the face-off circle.

The main priority for Edmonton is signing their two best forwards to new contracts. Draisaitl is an RFA this summer, and Connor McDavid will be eligible to extend his deal on July 1. Chiarelli called McDavid priority one and Draisaitl priority two of this summer. All other free agents, like rugged winger and playoff cult hero Zack Kassian and controversial defenseman Kris Russell will have to wait until Chiarelli knows what sort of numbers he’s dealing with. The two men combined for about $6.4MM in cap space this past season (entry-level contracts plus bonuses), but will account for as much as $20MM by next season.

As far as the potential of a rival team offer sheeting Draisaitl, Chiarelli isn’t worried about that. Last week, I wrote about why offer sheets are so rare, and Chiarelli mentioned one of the stated reasons. The Oilers have the cap space to match any offer sheet to Draisaitl, so the only reason another team would submit an offer is to jack up the price. It’s highly unlikely that a team would go out of their way to try hurt another team’s cap situation because of the negative affect it would have on that GM’s reputation.

Had Sekera not been injured, the Oilers defense might not have had any changes on opening night. Oscar Klefbom is developing into a good top-pairing defenseman, Larsson had a strong first season, Darnell Nurse and Matt Benning have made strides together, and Chiarelli expressed interest in re-signing Russell and Eric Gryba. Chiarelli admitted the team doesn’t have a championship defense (yet). He pointed to Nashville and Anaheim, saying that “it would be nice to have a D at that level.”

Russell is loved by old-school hockey people, and considered highly overrated by people with a mind for advanced stats. While Russell blocks a ton of shots (213 in 68 games), he bleeds possession and hasn’t had a positive CF% Rel. (scoring chances when he’s on the ice compared to off the ice) since 2012 when he was in Columbus. He also scored just one goal this season despite playing the third-most minutes of all skaters. However, the injury to Sekera could motivate the Oilers to sign Russell to help fill the void. As mentioned above, Chiarelli will wait until he knows what McDavid and Draisaitl will cost before making any considerable signing, even if it means waiting until after July 1.

Chiarelli said the team blew his expectations out of the water, finishing with 103 points and getting to Game 7 of the second round. This summer will be about locking up key pieces and letting the young roster develop next season.

Snapshots: Lightning, Talbot, Russell

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The Western Conference Final featuring the Ducks and Predators could yield more interest around the NHL than just which team will be vying for the Stanley Cup, suggests Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times.  Both teams have very strong defensive depth which will be great for the series but will present some challenges when it comes to the looming expansion draft.  Accordingly, Smith expects Lightning GM Steve Yzerman to be keeping close tabs on this matchup with the thought that both teams may have to make one of their defenders available.

Yzerman is on record saying he would like to get more production out of his back end.  Victor Hedman had a career best 72 points this season but the rest of their blueline failed to reach that mark combined.  They were interested in Kevin Shattenkirk prior to the trade deadline and will likely pursue other two-way threats as well this summer.  Considering the depth both Anaheim and Nashville have on their bluelines, the Lightning certainly won’t be the only team watching this series closely and looking to see if they can take advantage prior to the expansion draft in June.

Elsewhere around the league:

  • Oilers goaltender Cam Talbot has declined a request to join Team Canada for the World Championships, notes Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal. He led the league in games played by goalies this season with 73 while adding 13 more during their postseason run.  Canada currently has only registered two netminders for the tournament in Calvin Pickard and Chad Johnson.  Winnipeg prospect Eric Comrie is also with the team but is not officially on the roster as of yet.
  • Still with Edmonton, defenseman Kris Russell told Paul Gazzola of the Oilers’ team website that he’s hoping to re-sign with the team for another year: “They showed faith in me by going out and signing me there so obviously, I’d like to come back but there’s a business side to this and you never know what’s going to happen. They have to make decisions too, the brass here. I’m an Oiler and I’m not going to look past that until I’m told otherwise or come July 1st maybe but I want to be here.” After pricing himself too high at the outset of free agency, the 30 year eventually agreed to a one year, $3.1MM deal in early October and had a quality year for the team, logging over 21 minutes a night during the regular season while leading the league in blocked shots with 213 despite missing 14 games.

Oilers Notes: Free Agents, Draisaitl, Eberle, Pouliot

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The Edmonton Oilers were eliminated by the Anaheim Ducks in Game 7 on Wednesday night; now comes the post-season autopsies and plans for the coming summer.

The face of the franchise and perhaps the league, Connor McDavid is eligible to sign an extension on July 1. Pending-RFA Leon Draisaitl lead the Oilers in playoff scoring after finishing eighth in the NHL during the regular season. Those two players will go from entry-level contracts to somewhere between $16-20MM by next summer.

The upcoming McDavid contract has already been the subject of much digital ink. Now, Draisaitl’s breakout season has lead to questions about what he’s worth. At the beginning of the year, the debate was bridge-deal or long-term. After a 77-point campaign, it’s clear that the Oilers will be looking long-term with their young star. Over at Sportsnet, Jonathan Willis explored previous contracts for comparable stars. Based on contracts signed by players like Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Anze Kopitar, and Johnny Gaudreau, Willis writes that Draisaitl’s new contract ought to be in the $6 to $6.5MM range. However, because of Draisaitl’s 37-game rookie season and the influence of McDavid, Willis notes that both sides have leverage.

Other free agents include Kris Russell, Zack Kassian, and Matt Hendricks. Hendricks will certainly be off the books, clearing close to $2MM. Russell will be interesting, as he’s the only member of the regular top-six who’s not under contract next season. If the Oilers want to improve their blue line, then Russell’s spot is the clear choice to upgrade.

  • On Thursday morning, the Oilers announced that Draisaitl will join Germany at the IIHF World Championships in Paris, France, and Cologne, Germany.  The native of Cologne ought to help Germany’s chances, as the team has just one regulation win in four games so far. It’s been a busy season for Draisaitl, who has played 104 games since mid-August beginning with the Olympic Qualifiers, the World Cup of Hockey, all 82 NHL regular season games, and then 13 NHL playoff games.
  • Eberle’s poor regular season and playoffs may mean he’s on the way out. He didn’t score a single goal during the playoffs, and was even outscored by Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne by a score of three assists to two.  As Sportsnet’s Luke Fox puts it, “You’re selling low on Jordan Eberle, but you’re still selling, right?” Provided the Oilers can find more scoring depth on the right wing, then expect Eberle to be on his way out. Fox suggests Carolina, New Jersey, and Vegas as possible trade partners.
  • Left-winger Benoit Pouliot also struggled mightily this season, with just 14 points in the regular season and none in the playoffs. He also comes at a $4MM price tag, which makes any trade unlikely. He’ll be exposed to Vegas, with perhaps a prospect or pick offered as a sweetner. Failing that, a buyout could be the next option. It was a bad year, but Pouliot has previously scored a solid rate while being an aggressive forechecker and good penalty-killer. His penchant for bad penalties got him in coach Todd McLellan’s doghouse and he couldn’t play his way out.

Klefbom Out For Oilers

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In a potentially devastating blow to their defense, Edmonton’s Oscar Klefbom will not participate in Game 6 in what is a must-win against Anaheim. He left warmups prior to puck-drop and did not return. Fellow defenseman Andrej Sekera was already ruled out earlier in the day. The defenseman has taken heavy assignments on the top pairing with Adam Larsson. Klefbom’s aggressive defending helps clear the slot and move the puck up ice. The swede’s offensive game had truly blossomed this year – he posted 12 goals and 26 assists during the regular season to lead the team from the blueline. Klefbom has been a workhorse for the young Oilers, and his loss will definitely alter matchups for coach Todd McLellan. For tonight however, McLellan has the benefit of last change at home.

Without Klefbom, Mark Fayne was initially slotted to take third pairing duties. Instead, Griffin Reinhart found his way back to the take the ice, after a late season call up. The once promising prospect has had his fair share of struggles in Alberta. His entry was a surprise to most, but Fayne’s rust likely became a factor. Fayne had not played an NHL contest since December and did not overly impress for the AHL Bakersfield Condors. Reinhart certainly has more upside, but also the potential to commit more egregious defensive errors. Edmonton will need to rely even more heavily upon Larsson, as well as ask Kris Russell and Darnell Nurse to substantially up their minutes and quality of play.

Eric Gryba will replace the injured Sekera and play alongside Reinhart.

Dallas Stars Sign Gavin Bayreuther

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Late last night, the Dallas Stars announced that they had won out in their battle with the Buffalo Sabres for the right to sign Gavin Bayreuther. The St. Lawrence University defenseman was a free agent and was considering the two teams up until yesterday. The two sides have come to an agreement and will release details today.

Bayreuther was considered one of the top free agents available from the college ranks this year, and for good reason. The 22-year old defenseman has put up 29 points in two straight seasons and generally been a dominant presence on the St. Lawrence blue line for all four years. He’ll go down as the second highest scoring defenseman in school history, behind only Daniel Laperriere, a former St. Louis Blues draft pick and NHL player.

The 6’1″, 195-lbs Bayreuther has much of what any NHL team would be looking for in a defensive prospect; great first pass, solid decision making, hard shot from the point. It’s mostly his positioning and one-on-one battles that need work, and will be challenged at the next level. With some solid professional coaching, he could turn into a nice all-around defenseman.

For the Stars, adding another prospect to their defensive pool can’t hurt as they look to rebuild what has been a shattered blue line. The team has watched Alex Goligoski, Jason Demers, Kris Russell, Johnny Oduya, Jordie Benn, Jyrki Jokipakka and Trevor Daley all leave one way or another over the past couple of years, leaving them with a makeshift lineup behind the stalwart John Klingberg. Now with the youth of Bayreuther, Stephen Johns, Esa Lindell, Julius Honka, Patrik Nemeth and Dillon Heatherington they’ll be able to fill that pipeline once again.

While this signing doesn’t fix everything there is wrong with the Stars—as no one signing would—it does take another step in the right direction for a team that was in first place as recently as last year. We’ll now see how active they are heading into the expansion draft, where they will have several key decisions to make.

Snapshots: Jackals, Lightning, Oilers

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The ECHL continues to shrink, as the Elmira Jacksls announced today that they will cease operations at the end of the season. That’s the second team in less than a month to announce they are shutting down, after the Alaska Aces broke the news to their fans a few weeks ago. The Jackals have been around for 17 years, and are currently the affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres. They will play out their remaining 14 games but, as they are at the very bottom of the league standings, will be shutting their doors immediately afterwards.

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