Atlantic Notes: Dahlin, Adams, Marner, Vasilevskiy
Sabres star defenseman Rasmus Dahlin won’t be out long after sustaining an undisclosed injury in practice Wednesday. Head coach Lindy Ruff told reporters Thursday that Dahlin’s ailment is “nothing too serious” and will miss the next couple of days of practice, likely ruling him out of the Sabres’ preseason opener against the Penguins on Saturday (via Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News).
Dahlin sustained the injury on a non-contact play early in yesterday’s practice session, and Buffalo staff essentially deemed his absence precautionary. Playing in a preseason opener is always a long shot for veterans anyway, as many teams stick to the eight-veteran minimum early on in the exhibition schedule.
The 24-year-old is entering the first season of the eight-year, $88MM extension he signed last October to remain with the Sabres through most of his prime. The first overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft finished 15th in Norris Trophy voting last season after recording a career-high 20 goals and 235 shots on goal, adding 39 assists for 59 points in 81 games. The Swedish native has averaged over 25 minutes per game in the last two seasons.
More out of the Atlantic Division:
- Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams has faced criticism for not weaponizing all of his cap space as Buffalo attempts to end its 13-year playoff drought in 2024-25. He told Lysowski on Wednesday that there’s been “zero pushback from ownership about what we spend or can’t spend,” saying that he’ll “spend the money that we think we need to spend to win.” The Sabres have $7MM in projected cap space with a full roster, per PuckPedia, giving them space to add effectively any player they want to on trade deadline day if they’re in a position to buy.
- Mitch Marner is open to continuing extension negotiations with the Maple Leafs as the regular season progresses, he told reporters (including Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet). But don’t expect him to be involved in them directly. “I’m going to let my agent and Brad [Treliving] do all the talking and figure stuff out. I’m just going to focus on playing hockey and trying to help this team win games,” the star winger said.
- After missing the first few weeks of last season while recovering from back surgery, Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy is ready to return to his routine heavy workload. The four-time Vezina Trophy finalist told reporters Wednesday that he’d be comfortable playing 70-plus games if head coach Jon Cooper let him (via Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times). He might need to if the Lightning end up in a tight race for a playoff spot – Jonas Johansson will be back as Vasilevskiy’s backup for a second year in a row while boasting a subpar career .888 SV% in 61 games.
Lightning Name Victor Hedman Captain
The Lightning have wasted no time in naming Steven Stamkos‘ successor to the captaincy. Defenseman Victor Hedman will take over as the 11th captain in franchise history, general manager Julien BriseBois announced today.
There was no other logical candidate to assume the role from Stamkos, who left for the Predators in free agency this summer after serving as Tampa Bay’s captain since 2013. Hedman is entering his 16th season with the Bolts and is only 30 games back of Stamkos’ franchise-record 1,082 games played. He’ll assume this record this season, barring a major injury.
“We are thrilled to have Victor leading our team as the 11th captain in franchise history,” BriseBois said. “Victor is a cornerstone player that is extremely well respected by his teammates, coaches and peers across the NHL. Over the past 15 seasons, he has been a world-class representative for our organization both on and off the ice. Victor embodies what it means to be a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning and is more than ready for this exciting opportunity. We are looking forward to watching him flourish in his new role as we continue to work towards our goal of winning the Stanley Cup.”
Hedman, of course, has already helped Tampa achieve that goal. The six-time All-Star won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP during the Lightning’s first of their back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020. The 2018 Norris Trophy winner signed a four-year, $32MM extension this summer to keep him off the open market in 2025.
While no longer a bonafide top-three defenseman in the league, Hedman is still an elite blue liner and did well to prove that his disappointing 2022-23 campaign was a fluke. The 33-year-old rebounded in a big way last season with 63 assists and 76 points in 78 games, the second-best season of his career offensively. He added on a team-high +18 rating and was once again their leader in average ice time at 24:48 per game.
He’s by far the best defenseman in Lightning history, holding franchise records among D-men in goals (156), assists (572), points (728), and rating (+175) – all by a wide margin. The hulking 6’7″, 244-lb Swede was the second overall pick in the 2009 draft, one year after the Lightning selected Stamkos first overall to kickstart their late-2000s rebuild that’s still paying dividends.
Nikita Kucherov will continue serving as an alternate captain as he has since 2022, the team confirmed. Ryan McDonagh will also wear an ‘A’ in his return to Tampa after two years with the Predators. He previously served as an alternate captain with the Bolts from 2019-20 to 2021-22.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Atlantic Notes: Newhook, Dach, Panthers, Khaira
Expect Alex Newhook to start the season on the wing on the Canadiens’ second line centered by Kirby Dach and flanked by Patrik Laine, says Eric Engels of Sportsnet. It may not be a long-term fit, though, as Engels cautions not to be “surprised if there’s a bit of a revolving door next to Dach and Laine as the season rolls along.” Regardless of who plays with them, early signs point to Dach shifting to center after spending a good portion of his first season in Montreal, the 2022-23 campaign, on the wing. The 23-year-old forward missed all but two games last season after tearing his ACL and MCL in his right knee.
There’s more out of the Atlantic:
- The Panthers will dip their toes into the professional tryout market soon, says David Dwork of The Hockey News. They’re on the lookout for a veteran forward, likely to compete to help replace the departures of fourth-liners Nick Cousins, Steven Lorentz, Kyle Okposo, and Kevin Stenlund over the past few months. Notable UFAs left to fill those roles that haven’t landed PTOs elsewhere include Pierre-Édouard Bellemare, Cal Clutterbuck, Matt Martin, and Chris Tierney.
- Jujhar Khaira‘s streak of appearing in an NHL game for the last nine seasons is in jeopardy after settling for an AHL contract today with the Lightning’s affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch. Khaira, 30, was once a regular bottom-six presence for the Blackhawks and Oilers around the turn of the decade but was relegated to an AHL role last season after signing a two-way deal with the Wild, making just one NHL appearance for Minnesota early in the season. In 22 games with the Iowa Wild, his first minor league action since the 2016-17 campaign, he scored five goals and added 13 assists for 18 points. His AHL deal with the Crunch could include a PTO with the Lightning, allowing him to participate in NHL training camp and attempt to earn a two-way contract with Tampa.
Snapshots: Pipeline Rankings, Strome, Gaunce
The big news over the past few days was top goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov heading to the Sharks in a blockbuster trade and immediately signing a two-year, $4MM extension. The move has massively shifted the prospect pool of both teams, but neither find themselves in the basement of Corey Pronman’s ranking of each team’s current crop of under-23 players for The Athletic.
Predictably, his initial installment of the bottom eight is filled with recent championship contenders. The Lightning are beginning to feel the effects of trading away nearly all of their impact futures for win-now pieces in pursuit of their three straight Stanley Cup Final appearances and back-to-back championships earlier this decade, checking in at No. 32. Their biggest fish is a new addition – center Conor Geekie, acquired from the Utah Hockey Club in the Mikhail Sergachev trade at the draft. But he’s the only player in their system that Pronman feels confident will be a top-nine fixture, although he also feels confident in 2023 second-rounder Ethan Gauthier, 2021 seventh-rounder Niko Huuhtanen, and 2022 first-rounder Isaac Howard to at least be everyday NHLers. But after that, especially on defense, it’s slim pickings for Tampa as they’re still trying to extend their championship window in the post-Steven Stamkos era.
Rounding out the bottom are many other teams who have reached the Cup Final in the past few seasons, namely the Avalanche (No. 31), Oilers (No. 30), and the Golden Knights (No. 27). But some other clubs without any conference championships to claim since the pandemic, such as the Bruins (No. 29), Canucks (No. 28), Islanders (No. 25), and Penguins (No. 26), find themselves with some soul-searching to do without a ton of help coming from inside the house.
Other tidbits from around the NHL to start the week:
- Players are slowly beginning to roll into their team’s home cities ahead of training camps next month. Capitals forward Dylan Strome is one of them, taking part in informal skates after an offseason of change in Washington (per Sammi Silber of The Hockey News). The 27-year-old enters camp intending to maintain his role as Washington’s first-line center, a job he’ll likely face a challenge for from trade acquisition Pierre-Luc Dubois. Strome has flourished in a top-six role since arriving with the Caps two years ago, setting career-highs last season with 27 goals and 67 points.
- Defenseman Cameron Gaunce is heading overseas for the first time after a 14-year pro career split between the NHL and the AHL. He signed a one-year contract today with Hungary’s Fehérvár AV19, per a team announcement. The 34-year-old was a second-round pick of the Avalanche all the way back in 2008 and has 37 NHL games under his belt with four different teams, last appearing with the Lightning in 2019-20. The vast majority of his playing time has come in the AHL, where he racked up 51 goals, 255 assists and 306 points in 823 games. The strong two-way left-shot defender spent last season on an AHL contract with the Toronto Marlies after waiting until December to sign, posting eight points in 40 appearances. He now heads to AV19, the lone Hungarian club in Austria’s ICE Hockey League.
East Notes: Slafkovsky, Cernak, Mazur, Savard
For 12 countries on the fringes of the IIHF World Ranking, their performance in a round-robin tournament at the end of this month will decide whether or not they punch a ticket to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. Slovakia is one of these countries, and after releasing their official roster today, it was confirmed that top Canadiens youngster Juraj Slafkovsky and Lightning stalwart defenseman Erik Černák won’t be in tow as they try to lock down a spot. That’s because Montreal and Tampa Bay opted not to release them to the Slovak national team when asked, reports Tomáš Prokop of Dennik Sport. They’ll still have the services of a few NHLers, namely Devils Simon Nemec and Tomáš Tatar, Capitals defenseman Martin Fehérváry, Ducks winger Pavol Regenda, and potentially Flames forward Martin Pospisil.
Other items from around the Eastern Conference this morning:
- Of the Red Wings’ long list of potential impact prospects, look for a dark horse to log significant NHL minutes this season, opines The Athletic’s Max Bultman. That’s 22-year-old left winger Carter Mazur, who Detroit selected in the third round of the 2021 draft. Mazur, who won an NCAA championship as a freshman at the University of Denver in 2022, is entering his second professional season. He had a strong rookie campaign with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins last year, totaling 17 goals and 20 assists for 37 points in 60 games, finishing second on the team in scoring behind Jonatan Berggren. Bultman argues that Mazur has a more straightforward path to a roster spot early on in the season because of his projectability in a bottom-six role,
- When the Maple Leafs gave new head coach Craig Berube some runway to reshape the rest of the coaching staff, he poached Marc Savard from the Flames as an assistant to run the team’s power play with consistency from Toronto’s immense star power in mind. “He’s an offensive guy, right? He scored a lot of points in the league. Great power-play guy when he played,” Berube told reporters (including David Alter of The Hockey News). “Just the familiarity I have with him and his personality works well with those types of players.” Savard served under Berube while the two were with the Blues in the 2019-20 campaign.
Logan Brown To Sign PTO With Lightning
Free-agent center Logan Brown is set to sign a PTO with the Lightning, Andy Strickland of Bally Sports Midwest relays.
The 2016 first-round pick inked a two-way deal with Tampa Bay last summer but sustained a hip injury in training camp that required surgery and cost him the entire 2023-24 season. The 26-year-old was free to sign anywhere after the Lightning opted not to issue him a qualifying offer by the June 30 deadline, but with no interest from other teams for a guaranteed contract, he’ll stick with the Bolts on a tryout.
Brown, selected by the Senators with the No. 11 pick eight years ago, has only appeared in 99 NHL regular season games. He’s totaled seven goals and 19 assists for 26 points while averaging 10:32 per game.
The North Carolina native played parts of four seasons in Ottawa before a trade to St. Louis in 2021. He played a career-high 39 games upon arrival in 2021-22 and looked to be a more impactful contributor in 2022-23, but an upper-body injury limited him to 30 games. The Blues didn’t tender him a qualifying offer the following summer, making him a UFA for the first time.
Brown’s size and strength has always been his most effective asset, checking in at 6’6″ and 227 lbs. He’s produced strong offensive numbers at both the junior and AHL levels, averaging 0.85 points per game across 115 minor-league appearances since turning pro, but he hasn’t been able to convert it into success on the scoresheet at the NHL level.
If Brown can successfully shake off the rust in training camp, he’s a strong candidate to earn a two-way deal and look to have success in a depth role in Tampa Bay. He’ll join a group contending for bottom-six spots that includes Mitchell Chaffee, Jesse Ylonen, and 2022 No. 11 pick Conor Geekie, fresh off being acquired from the Utah Hockey Club.
Tampa Bay Lightning Begin Sale Process
Jeff Vinik’s 14-year tenure as majority owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning could soon come to an end as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shares that Tampa Bay has begun a multi-stage process to sell the team. Friedman adds that the sale would turn ownership over to Doug Ostrover, co-CEO of Blue Owl Capital and a minority partner of the ownership group that recently purchased the NFL’s Washington Commanders.
Ostrover will pay a pretty penny for Tampa Bay’s majority reign, with Friedman also sharing that the sale values the Lightning franchise at close to $2B – roughly double the price paid in the NHL’s most recent, record-breaking sale: Michael Andlauer’s $950MM purchasing of the Ottawa Senators.
Meanwhile, Vinik will retain both his operational duties with the team and a large stake of ownership. He originally bought the Lightning for $170MM in 2010, amid a desolate time for Tampa Bay fans despite being six years removed from their first Stanley Cup. Vinik quickly cut through the gloom, bringing in an influx of funding and instilling NHL legend Steve Yzerman as the club’s general manager. It was Yzerman who commanded Tampa’s surge back to the top of the NHL, on the back of head coach hires Guy Boucher and Jon Cooper and draft-day steals like Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, Brayden Point, and Anthony Cirelli. The new construction propelled Tampa Bay to the 2015 Stanley Cup Finals, though they’d need a few more years of seasoning – and the handoff of GM duties from Yzerman to Julien BriseBois – before the Lightning could win Cups in 2020 and 2021.
It’s now a summer of change for the Lightning franchise, who also lost franchise icon Steven Stamkos to free agency this summer. They’ve responded to that move with the additions of Jake Guentzel, Cam Atkinson, and Conor Geekie – though Tampa hasn’t yet named Stamkos’ successor as team captain. Vinik’s maintained presence should keep this sale from influencing the on-ice product too much, though it will be a process worth monitoring as Ostrover looks to continue his investment in American sports.
Poll: Who Will Be The NHL’s Next Captain?
August is finally here, marking the time of year when teams reconvene at their home rink and begin hardy planning for the upcoming season. That step will come with extra work for the six teams around the league who don’t currently have a captain.
Many of these teams, including Seattle, Anaheim, and Utah, have gone years without a captain – instead opting to disseminate responsibilities among multiple assistant captains. All three teams are amidst staunch rebuilds – with Utah even mapping out relocation – and are likely waiting for their top prospects to take a few more steps before earning the role. The trio of Matthew Beniers, Leo Carlsson, and Logan Cooley seem prime for that ascension with their respective teams, though they each have multiple challengers lining up behind them. The Buffalo Sabres are in a similar grouping, as they transition from a veteran-laden lineup to one of the league’s youngest rosters.
The Chicago Blackhawks also fall into the aforementioned discussion – not carrying a captain since legendary centerman Jonathan Toews ended his career in 2022. Toews leaves massive shoes as Chicago’s leader, after co-heading three Stanley Cup wins alongside winger Patrick Kane. Naming a successor will formally carry Chicago into a new era – one without many of the faces that came to define Chicago hockey in the 2010s. Teenage phenom Connor Bedard seems like a great option to lead that transition, after netting 22 goals and 61 points in 68 games last season – the most of any rookie Blackhawk since Artemi Panarin in 2016, and Kane before him. But Bedard is still young and was limited to a partial season last year by a jaw injury. Those factors could hold him back from Chicago’s prestigious ‘C’. If that is the case, it doesn’t seem any of the team’s veteran leaders, including Nick Foligno and Seth Jones, would inspire Chicago to name a captain too early.
And while Chicago’s next captain will lead the team through new scenery, it’s the Tampa Bay vacancy that headlines the off-season. The Lightning now sit without a captain for the first time since 2002, after franchise icon Steven Stamkos chose to sign with the Nashville Predators in his first trip to unrestricted free agency. Stamkos wore the ‘C’ for the last 10 years and established himself as a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer in that span, leading Tampa Bay to two Stanley Cups and setting the franchise’s all-time records in both goals and points scored. Like in Chicago, the Lightning will be entering a new era with their next captain – though they’re much more prepared for the vacancy than their counterparts. While forwards Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point could both serve as strong replacements, it’s defenseman Victor Hedman that offers the same rugged veteran leadership brought by Stamkos. Hedman recently signed a four-year extension in Tampa, taking him through his age-37 season and, potentially, the end of his career. He’s already appeared in 1,052 games with Tampa Bay – the most of any Lightning other than Stamkos – and holds the franchise records in all three scoring stats, among defenders. Transitioning from Stamkos to Hedman should prove more of a light handoff than a total change in power, which could be enough to sway a Lightning franchise that hasn’t gone longer than one year without a captain since naming Paul Ysebaert as their inaugural ‘C’.
Mapping out when captain announcements will come is often a fool’s bet, but the candidates to earn the NHL’s next ‘C’ seem to be becoming clearer. Who will it be? Will Tampa jump to another veteran, will Chicago move into their next step, or will an oft-captain-less team commit to their young guard? Let us know by voting in the poll below and discussing in the comments.
Who Will Be The NHL's Next Captain?
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Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay 68% (625)
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Connor Bedard, Chicago 20% (186)
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Matthew Beniers, Seattle 5% (45)
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Leo Carlsson, Anaheim 3% (32)
Total votes: 918
If the embedded poll isn’t showing up, use this link to vote!
Syracuse Crunch Make Two Staff Hires
- The AHL affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Syracuse Crunch made a couple of hires today as the team announced it would bring in Alex Maring as the head athletic trainer and Tyler Bacarro as a physical therapist. Maring moves on from the New York Islanders as he served in the same role with the team’s AHL affiliate, the Worcester Railers for the last two years. It will be Bacarro’s first shot in hockey as he previously served as a physical therapy fellow with the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee. Maring is preceded by Brad Chavis, who served as the Crunch’s head athletic trainer for the last 12 years.
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2024 Salary Arbitration Tracker
It has been a quieter year on the salary arbitration front across the NHL. After 23 players filed last summer, just 14 did this time around. As expected, most have settled so far with a few hearings still pending. Here’s a rundown of who has settled and who still needs to sign.
Updated 7/30/24, 1:07 p.m.
Contracts Settled
D Jake Christiansen (Blue Jackets) – one year, $775K (two-way agreement)
F Connor Dewar (Maple Leafs) – one year, $1.18MM
F Jack Drury (Hurricanes) – two years, $3.45MM
D Ty Emberson (Sharks) – one year, $950K
G Jet Greaves (Blue Jackets) – two years, $1.625MM (two-way in 2024-25, one-way in 2025-26)
F Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (Sabres) – five years, $23.75MM
F Beck Malenstyn (Sabres) – two years, $2.7MM
D J.J. Moser (Lightning) – two years, $6.75MM
F Joe Veleno (Red Wings) – two years, $4.55MM
F Oliver Wahlstrom (Islanders) – one year, $1MM
F Kirill Marchenko (Blue Jackets) – three years, $11.55MM
F Martin Necas (Hurricanes) – two years, $13MM
D Ryan Lindgren (Rangers) – one year, $4.5MM
Contracts Awarded
D Spencer Stastney (Predators) – two years, $1.675MM (two-way in 2024-25, one-way in 2025-26)
Scheduled Hearings
none
A reminder of some of the arbitration rules for the upcoming potential hearings:
- A player and team can settle on a deal at any point before the hearing starts.
- Once the hearing has taken place, the arbitration decision must be issued by email within 48 hours.
- Arbitration awards can only be one or two years in length. (Players who are in their final year of restricted free agency are only entitled to a one-year agreement from an arbitrator.)
- The team decides on the awarded term as these were all player-elected filings.
- The team can walk away from the arbitration decision if a contract with an average annual value of more than $4.74MM is awarded.
Worth noting is that teams who have someone file for arbitration will receive a second buyout window three days after their final contract is settled or awarded. The window lasts for 48 hours and the only eligible players to be bought out in this timeframe are those who have an AAV of $4MM or more and were on that team’s reserve list at the trade deadline back in March.