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Ryan Callahan

Ryan Callahan Announces Retirement

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After being forced to miss last season due to injury, Ryan Callahan has officially announced his retirement.

In a message on Twitter, the veteran forward thanked everyone that had been a part of his 13-year career, including the New York Rangers for giving him a chance when they selected him 127th overall in 2004. Callahan would eventually become captain of the Rangers, not bad for a hard-working mid-round pick from the OHL.

Next, Callahan thanks the Tampa Bay Lightning, the second chapter in his NHL career where he spent the last five and a half seasons. More than his on-ice success, he thanks the Lightning for helping launch his charitable foundation.

A veteran of 757 regular season NHL games, Callahan twice made it to the Stanley Cup Finals but failed to lift the silver chalice over his head. His career will end with 386 points, but it’s his do-anything-it-takes attitude that teammates and fans will remember long after he’s gone. Joe Smith of The Athletic profiles Callahan for perhaps the final time, explaining how his career winded down in Tampa while getting some insight into where his life will lead him now.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Snapshots: Devils, Senators, Bolduc

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The New Jersey Devils are restructuring their front office ahead of the start of a new season. The Associated Press reports that the team has promoted two top executives to vice president status. Tom Fitzgerald, who has been linked to the Minnesota Wild GM opening in each of the past two years, will add Executive Vice President to his existing Assistant GM title. The former NHLer is entering his fourth season as Assistant GM in New Jersey after six seasons in the same role with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Dan MacKinnon, who had previously served as the team’s Senior Director of Player Personnel, will take on the Senior Vice President role while also being officially named an Assistant GM as well. MacKinnon is another executive poached by GM Ray Shero from the Penguins; he served the team for a decade in player personnel before moving into the same role with the Devils in 2016. Having all worked together in Pittsburgh and now New Jersey for some time, Shero, Fitzgerald, and MacKinnon form a solid trio as the base of the front office operations for the Devils, as reflected by these new titles.

  • With all of the teams currently holding more salary cap space also still needing to sign one or two prominent restricted free agents, the Ottawa Senators are the odds-on favorite to begin the regular season with the most cap flexibility. CapFriendly currently projects the team to have more than $10MM in space, even with a fully healthy, optimal lineup. Many have suggested that the Senators could use this space to add talent, or at least to pick up picks or prospects in a deal for an overpriced veteran, as they did with the injured Ryan Callahan. However, don’t expect any such move until farther along in training camp at the earliest. While Ottawa may have the least amount of dollars committed to their roster, they have the most contracts signed in the league, tied with the Los Angeles Kings with 49 of a maximum 50 slots filled. They can alleviate that contract crunch slightly by sending teenage prospects Jon Gruden or Lassi Thomson back to junior, but will likely wait to do so until they get a better look at the pair in training camp. In the meantime, and even afterward, the Senators are surely going to be a team keeping a close eye on the waiver wire, hoping to add a young, affordable player to the mix. Making a trade for a veteran too soon could interfere with their ability to make claims. If they can make it through to the start of the regular season and still have room to add a player, then they could re-emerge as a candidate to take on a bad contract from a cap-strapped contender.
  • Both the Devils and Senators are among the teams that could be looking down the road a ways and following what Mark Divver calls the biggest recruiting battle in hockey right now. 16-year-old forward Zachary Bolduc is considered one of the top prospects in the 2021 NHL Draft class. The Quebec native is playing prep school hockey in Rhode Island this season, but still deciding what to do next year. Bolduc was the 14th overall pick in the QMJHL Entry Draft by Rimouski Oceanic this year and the club would very much like to sign the local product. However, Bolduc has also been eyeing the college route. Divver reports that he has already visited the University of Massachusetts, Boston University, and the University of Maine and has planned trips to the University of Michigan and the University of North Dakota. Should he opt for the NCAA, Bolduc could play in the USHL next year, having been drafted by the Sioux City Musketeers in the second round of the USHL Draft this year as well. The talented center has plenty of options and NHL teams will surely be interested to see which development route he chooses.

Ottawa Senators Acquire Ryan Callahan

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The Tampa Bay Lightning won’t be placing Ryan Callahan on long-term injured reserve after all. The Lightning have traded the contract of the injured forward along with a 2020 fifth-round pick to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for Mike Condon and a 2020 sixth-round pick. Callahan was diagnosed with a degenerative back disease and will not play again. He has one year left on his contract that carries a $5.8MM cap hit.

Like many trades involving the Senators recently, this deal is about saving money. While Callahan is owed $4.7MM this season much of that will likely be covered by insurance thanks to the career-ending injury. Condon meanwhile has a $3MM salary this season and the Senators did not plan on using him in the NHL given the re-signing of Anders Nilsson as the backup for Craig Anderson. The team also has several young goaltenders that need playing time in the minor leagues.

That situation also seems to be the case in Tampa Bay however, as the team now has four goaltenders on one-way contracts making at least $1.15MM. Curtis McElhinney is the presumed backup after signing a two-year $2.6MM deal in free agency, but now Condon and Louis Domingue are also in the fold. The Lightning also have Scott Wedgewood and Spencer Martin under contract for the minor leagues. The team will have to sort out who is going where to start the year, meaning more moves may be coming for the Lightning.

None of that however is the real issue being addressed for Tampa Bay. The team still has Brayden Point sitting as a restricted free agent (along with Adam Erne) but had very little cap space to get him signed. Though the team can go over the salary cap ceiling by up to 10% during the offseason, if they wanted to take full advantage of long-term injured reserve for Callahan’s cap hit they would have had to be compliant by the start of the season before designating him for LTIR. This transaction will remove that cap hit entirely giving the Lightning a good deal more flexibility to sign Point.

Tampa Bay now projects to have just under $9MM in cap space to get Point in and will obviously be burying at least two of their goaltenders before the start of the year if they are still with the organization. Fitting Point in even at a salary approaching $10MM wouldn’t be a problem, though it is still unclear how the two sides are going to approach his next contract. With Nikita Kucherov, the Lightning agreed to a three-year bridge deal after his entry-level contract expired which gave them a little more flexibility before locking him up long-term. They could do the same with Point, though the restricted free agent market has changed considerably since Kucherov signed his bridge deal in 2016.

Ryan Callahan Diagnosed With Degenerative Disc Disease

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The Tampa Bay Lightning do not have to trade Ryan Callahan anymore. The team has placed the veteran forward on long-term injured reserve with degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine. He is not expected to play professional hockey again. Tampa Bay GM Julien Brisebois put out a statement through team reporter Caley Chelios:

He’s such a proud competitor, such a fierce competitor. I know he was planning to not only play out this contract, but sign another contract after that. We had multiple conversations in the second half of the season about his future, so that was very sad news for him.

Callahan, 34, was heading into the final year of his current contract that carries a $5.8MM cap hit, but held a no-movement clause and partial no-trade clause. Even with that trade protection he seemed destined to be moved this summer to clear room for the Lightning to sign a group of restricted free agents including Brayden Point. That won’t be happening anymore, as instead the team will use the added flexibility created from placing him on LTIR (far from a perfect solution, as CapFriendly details here). Callahan will still earn the $4.7MM left on his deal, though likely part or all of it will be paid out by insurance.

He won’t retire until his contract is officially over, but this marks the end of an exceptional career for Callahan. Not known as an exceptional talent in junior, Callahan dropped to the fourth round in 2004 where the New York Rangers picked him 127th overall. His hard-nosed style and work ethic was enough to get him selected, and he would eventually grow into a dominant offensive piece for the Guelph Storm. Upon graduating to the AHL, Callahan’s game translated perfectly to the professional scene and he recorded an outstanding rookie season with the Hartford Wolf Pack, scoring 35 goals and 55 points in just 60 games.

Eleven more AHL games the next season and that was it for the scrappy forward, who joined the Rangers and quickly became a huge part of their core. In his first full season in the NHL he recorded 22 goals and was an alternate captain by 2009. Taking home a silver medal in the 2010 Olympics, Callahan would suit up again for Team USA in 2014. As captain of the Rangers he was dealt to the Lightning that year, where he has been ever since.

386 points, 428 penalty minutes and 757 games played will be Callahan’s regular season totals, a career defined by the willingness to do anything to win. Unfortunately he never did get to raise the Stanley Cup, despite 121 playoff games to his name.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Ryan Callahan “On The Outside Looking In”

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Even with all the relative bargains they’ve signed over the last few seasons, the Tampa Bay Lightning will be facing a cap crunch again this summer. The team already has more than $74MM committed in 2019-20 contracts according to CapFriendly, and has a huge negotiation coming up with restricted free agent Brayden Point. Knowing that, GM Julien BriseBois will likely have to make some room by trading away at least one of their highly paid forwards, and Ryan Callahan is the obvious choice given his declining production. That’s no secret to the veteran forward, who told Joe Smith of The Athletic (subscription required) as much:

Obviously there’s a salary cap crunch, and it doesn’t take a scientist to figure out right now I’m on the outside looking in. Whatever happens, happens. But I was really happy with how I finished the year.

Callahan, 34, has been limited by injuries over the last three seasons and recorded just 17 points in 52 games this year. The former New York Rangers forward is still an effective defensive player and brings a ton of leadership, but his $5.8MM price tag is just too expensive for the kind of production he brings. Smith and his colleagues from The Athletic examine five teams that could be potential destinations for Callahan this summer, though it is not yet clear who will be on his 15-team trade list of places the team could send him without his consent.

A trade is not the only way the Lightning could get out from under Callahan’s deal, as a buyout would save them more than $3.1MM this season. The downside to a buyout would be the $1.57MM cap hit incurred for the 2020-21 season, but it would also mean the team doesn’t have to give up an asset to ship him somewhere. Theoretically the team could actually pull off a similar transaction as the one that Brooks Orpik went through last summer, when the Washington Capitals sent him to the Colorado Avalanche for a buyout before re-signing him at a lower price.

If it is the end for Callahan in Tampa Bay, his time there will likely still be seen positively despite the lack of production over the last few seasons. He was a big part of the team when they went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2015, and has never been accused of giving anything but his full effort when on the ice.

Atlantic Notes: Rosen, Palat, Borowiecki, Sobotka

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While the Toronto Maple Leafs are still without injured defenseman Jake Gardiner, the team will get some defensive help as head coach Mike Babcock said that the Toronto Marlies’ top defensmean, Calle Rosen, is expected to join the Maple Leafs in New York on Monday and jump into Toronto’s lineup immediately, according to TSN’s Mark Masters.

The 25-year-old Rosen has put up a big season in the AHL as he has seven goals and 46 points in 54 games this season and was signed to a two-year extension in December to keep him with the team at a cheap price with the general belief that Rosen will be a solid, inexpensive option who can provide the team with the depth they need over the next couple of years.

Babcock said that Rosen, who hadn’t been called up yet after suffering a foot injury several weeks ago, will stay in the lineup until Gardiner is ready to return.

  • The Tampa Bay Lightning are expected to get back winger Ondrej Palat on Saturday after he was forced to leave Monday’s game against Boston with an upper-body injury, according to Tampa Bay Times’ Mari Faiello. The forward took a big hit from the Bruins’ Connor Clifton in the first period and did not return. He then missed Tuesday’s practice, but skated on Friday and again this morning and is expected to return to the lineup without having missed a game, taking the place of Ryan Callahan, who will be a healthy scratch.
  • The Ottawa Senators will be without defenseman Mark Borowiecki on Saturday, as he has been ruled out with an upper-body injury, according to NHL.com’s Craig Medaglia. While the 29-year-old is listed as day-to-day, the injury isn’t considered to be too serious and he is expected to return before the season ends. “It shouldn’t keep him out too long,” said the coach this morning. “Unfortunately he will not be able to play for us this evening.” The team also expects that forward Zack Smith is expected to return to the lineup tonight against Toronto.
  • The Buffalo Sabres announced that veteran forward Vladimir Sobotka will be out Saturday with an upper-body injury. The 31-year-old Sobotka hasn’t had the season that many had hoped for when Buffalo picked him up this summer as part of a package for center Ryan O’Reilly. Sobotka, who recorded 11 goals and 31 points last season in St. Louis, has just five goals and 13 points this season in 69 games.

Snapshots: Karlsson, Haula, Lightning, Stolarz

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While there has been plenty of talk recently about players potentially signing contract extensions, don’t expect that to be the case between the Golden Knights and center William Karlsson.  In an appearance on Fox Sports Las Vegas (audio link), GM George McPhee indicated that there is no push to get a deal done with his top pivot.  He noted that both sides came into the season looking for clarity and that they will re-assess the situation over the summer.  Karlsson signed a one-year, $5.25MM last summer following a breakout year that saw him collect 78 points, well above his previous career best of 25 so there were plenty of questions regarding whether or not he could duplicate that.  The 26-year-old has slowed down a bit with 30 points in 47 games and will once again be a restricted free agent this summer with arbitration rights.

McPhee also commented on center Erik Haula’s status.  He noted that his rehab is going well but there is no timetable for his return and they remain unsure if he’ll be able to return this season.  Haula sustained what McPhee called a rare injury for hockey players (the exact details are unknown but it pertains to his knee) and has been out of the Golden Knights lineup since early November.

More from around the league:

  • The Lightning hope to have forward J.T. Miller back in their lineup sometime during their upcoming three-game road trip, notes Diana C. Nearhos of the Tampa Bay Times. He has missed the last six games due to an upper-body injury.  Meanwhile, winger Ryan Callahan is also expected to return during this trip.  Head coach Jon Cooper indicated that the veteran re-aggravated something in his upper body (he has missed time with back and shoulder issues) which has caused him to miss the last two games.
  • Flyers goaltender Anthony Stolarz took part in a full practice today, reports Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News (Twitter link). He appears to be on track to return following the All-Star break.  Stolarz has struggled this season, posting a 3.90 GAA and a .880 SV% in nine appearances but he will give Philadelphia another option between the pipes.  They could then opt to waive the recently-acquired Mike McKenna or perhaps return Carter Hart to the minors although that scenario seems unlikely at this point given how the youngster has fared so far.  The Flyers carried three goalies earlier in the season and could do that again although they’d need to free up a roster spot first to do so.

East Notes: Matthews, Jaskin, Callahan

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While Maple Leafs team President Brendan Shanahan inferred yesterday that their young stars may need to take a little less money to keep the team together, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic suggested on the latest TSN Insider Trading (video link) that Toronto may have to make an exception when it comes to center Auston Matthews.  He suggests that the salary range for the 21-year-old will likely fall between $12MM and $12.5MM on his next contract and while the high end of that range equals Connor McDavid’s AAV in Edmonton, the continued increase of the Upper Limit means that Matthews could equal (or even beat) McDavid’s cap hit while actually taking a lower percentage of the salary cap.

More from the East:

  • New Capitals winger Dmitrij Jaskin had been looking to get out of St. Louis for a while. Blues GM Doug Armstrong acknowledged to Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Jaskin requested a trade following last season but that there were no takers at the draft and in the early stages of training camp.  That led to him being waived where Washington picked him up and with Tom Wilson out for the first quarter of the season, Jaskin should have a chance to make a mark with his new organization.  He has, however, been a healthy scratch in their first two games so far.
  • Tampa Bay winger Ryan Callahan has been cleared for contact, notes Bryan Burns of the Lightning’s team site (Twitter link). However, the veteran indicated that this does not mean that his timeline to return has been changed.  Callahan underwent shoulder surgery at the end of May that was expected to keep him out five-to-six months.  We’re still several weeks away from the earliest possible return based on that timeline so it appears they’re going to ere on the side of caution before putting him back in the lineup.  Considering he has missed 79 games due to injury over the past two years, that’s probably a good idea.

Ryan Callahan Resumes Skating, On Track For November

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The Tampa Bay Lightning once again found enough cap space this summer to retain some of their most impressive talent, signing restricted free agent J.T. Miller to a five-year contract and getting Nikita Kucherov and Ryan McDonagh under long-term extensions. The team incredibly is still positioned with more than $2.6MM in cap space for 2018-19 with their whole roster signed, and project to have enough to extend Brayden Point next summer. Even with that savvy salary structuring though, the team would have had to move a cap hit out if they were to actually acquire someone like Erik Karlsson, who they had been rumored to be in talks for earlier this summer. That cap hit was likely going to be Ryan Callahan given the uncertainty surrounding his future and hefty $5.8MM AAV.

The 33-year old Callahan returned from two hip surgeries to play in 67 games for the Lightning in 2017-18, recording 18 points and bringing his trademark work ethic and leadership. Unfortunately last season brought another injury, this time to his shoulder which would require surgery once again. The forward went under the knife on May 31st, and was given a five month timetable. He’s doing just fine on that schedule, as Bryan Burns of NHL.com reports that Callahan was back on the ice today with teammates doing some skating drills and stickhandling.

While Callahan admits he still likely won’t be back in game action until November, the simple fact that everything is on track is a big deal for the Lightning—though it could be perceived in different ways. Callahan’s full no-trade clause changed to just a 15-team no-trade list this summer, giving Tampa Bay the opportunity to move his cap hit if they feel it necessary. It’s possible that there would have been more teams willing to take the remaining two years on if Callahan was scheduled to hit long-term injured reserve, though his actual salary is still a hefty $4.7MM in each year with no signing bonuses that the Lightning could pay out.

Now they will hope that he returns at full strength in November and shows that he can still at least be a useful player, and perhaps they’ll be able to find a buyer at some point. All this is predicated of course on the idea that the Lightning will be looking to add more salary through trade at some point, which isn’t guaranteed given their already deep lineup. Perhaps they’ll just hold on to Callahan for his leadership and hope he can take a step back in the right direction offensively, given that he isn’t coming off hip surgery this time around.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Atlantic Notes: Larkin, Lightning, Moore

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The Detroit Red Wings have two options in regards to signing restricted free agent Dylan Larkin this summer. The team could go short-term or long-term. With a solid, but hardly spectacular season, the Red Wings might want to wait and see how the 21-year-old develops over the next year or two and hand out short contracts to see if he’s worth the money. That makes sense considering the team is capped out with so many long-term deals having been handed out to veterans over the past few years.

However, NBC Sports’ James O’Brien writes that the team needs to look at the long-term option instead and lock up Larkin as quick as possible as he compares Larkin’s situation to that of Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers, who signed an eight-year, $68MM deal a year ago, which is starting to look like a bargain after the many signings since then.

Larkin, who has shown that he’s one of the few answers in Detroit still hasn’t broken out with the Red Wings. While his rookie campaign showed plenty of promise with 23 goals, he’s failed to duplicate that number since. However, while he did just tally 16 goals a season ago, his 47 assists was a career-high along with his 63 points, suggesting he might be due for a breakout season. Signing Larkin to a long-term deal now while his value isn’t through the roof might be better than waiting another two years when they will be forced to shell out top dollar in the future with the cap constantly increasing.

  • While it’s already been reported that the eight-year, $76MM extension that Nikita Kucherov signed will not take the Tampa Bay Lightning out of a potential Erik Karlsson trade, the team will have to make some moves if it does pull the trigger on a trade as the team has less than $3MM in cap space for this coming year. Brandon Schlager of the Sporting News writes that the most obvious candidates that would have to be moved would be forwards Ryan Callahan ($5.8MM AAV for two more years), Tyler Johnson ($5MM for six more years), Alex Killorn ($4.45MM for five more years) and defenseman Braydon Coburn ($3.7MM for one year).
  • Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe attempts to break down what the Boston Bruins defense will look like next season as well as what the team should expect out of their top free agent target, John Moore. The scribe writes that general manager Don Sweeney hasn’t struck gold yet with his long-term free agent deals, pointing to the contracts handed out to Matt Beleskey and David Backes. Beleskey was an outright failure, while Backes has been average, at best. Moore is just 27 years old and will be playing already for his fifth team, which isn’t a good sign. What the team’s plans are for his usage is also unknown as if the team intends to put him on the team’s second-line defensive pairings, then the team would force either Torey Krug or Brandon Carlo to the third-line pairing, which doesn’t make sense either unless the team intends to move Krug. However, there is still no proof that Moore is good enough to be a top-four player.

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