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Tampa Bay Lightning Acquire Fredrik Claesson

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have added some more depth to the blue line, acquiring Fredrik Claesson from the San Jose Sharks. The Lightning will send the rights to goaltending prospect Magnus Chrona back the other way. GM Julien BriseBois released a short statement on the deal:

Bringing in Fredrik allows us to have five left shot defensemen and six right shot defensemen with NHL experience on our reserve list. History has proven that you will need depth on defense if you are going to have an extended playoff run.

Claesson, 28, has played just nine NHL games since the beginning of the 2019-20 season, but likely won’t be asked to play much more than that for the Lightning unless they suffer some catastrophic injuries. The Lightning already added David Savard to solidify their top-four, and now have brought in a little more depth at the position as well.

He carries just a $700K contract and can report directly to the Tampa Bay taxi squad, meaning he does not affect the cap hit at all.

Chrona, 20, just finished his sophomore season at the University of Denver, where he put up a .907 save percentage in 18 appearances. Selected in the fifth round of the 2018 draft, the Swedish netminder would need to be signed to enter the Sharks development system.

Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic was first to report a deal was coming.

Nashville’s Michael McCarron Suspended Two Games For Illegal Check

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The Department of Player Safety announced that Nashville Predators forward Michael McCarron has been suspended two games for an illegal check to the head of Tampa Bay Lightning forward Yanni Gourde. The suspension will cost him $12,068.96.

The incident (video here) happened with just 25 seconds left in the third period of Saturday’s 3-0 loss against Tampa Bay when McCarron nailed Gourde with his shoulder in open ice, sending the forward to his knees. McCarron was given a two-minute penalty and then received a match penalty.

McCarron was playing his first game in almost a month and will not be missed in their lineup. The forward has appeared in just five games for the Predators this year with no points, while averaging under 10 minutes per game.

 

Tampa Bay Lightning Acquire David Savard

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Official now, the Tampa Bay Lightning have nabbed one of the best rentals on the market. The team has acquired David Savard as part of a three-team deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings.

  • To Lightning: David Savard, Brian Lashoff
  • To Blue Jackets: 2021 first-round pick (TBL), 2022 third-round pick (TBL)
  • To Red Wings: 2021 fourth-round pick (TBL)

Columbus and Detroit will both be retaining part of Savard’s $4.25MM cap hit. Columbus retained 50% of the contract in the first deal with Detroit, and then the Red Wings retained an additional 50% of what remained. That leaves the Lightning carrying just 25% of the $4.25MM, or $1.0625MM.

Three picks may seem like a lot to give up for a player on an expiring contract, but it was required in order to facilitate the salary retention. The Lightning now add a top-four defenseman that they can fit into their tight salary cap structure. GM Julien BriseBois is making something of a mockery of the cap system, as the Lightning are nearly $18MM over the cap ceiling thanks to their huge amount of salary on long-term injured reserve. Nikita Kucherov, who makes up $9.5MM of that LTIR salary, is expected back for the playoffs once the cap ceiling is no longer used.

This move, just like the other maneuvering the Lightning have done this season, pushes the limit of the CBA but has actually been done before. Last season the Toronto Maple Leafs were involved in the trade that sent Robin Lehner from the Chicago Blackhawks to the Vegas Golden Knights, retaining salary along the way in exchange for a draft pick. Like Tampa Bay, the Maple Leafs were deep into LTIR, meaning it didn’t really affect their cap situation by taking on some retained salary.

The outside-the-box thinking in Tampa Bay didn’t start with BriseBois. Former GM Steve Yzerman, who is now running the Red Wings, was known for his creative trade work; once again, he’s pulled off a deal to net an asset without giving up much of anything. Detroit gets a fourth-round pick just for a small salary commitment, but getting Lashoff and his $325K minor league guarantee off the books basically evens things out. The 30-year-old defenseman shouldn’t play much of a role for the Crunch and it wouldn’t even be surprising to see him loaned back to the Grand Rapids Griffins where he has played this season.

For Columbus, cashing in on Savard was a necessary move for GM Jarmo Kekalainen after the season did not go his way. The Blue Jackets have struggled for much of the year and it seemed unlikely that the team would re-sign Savard with other negotiations coming up. Landing a first and third for him should be considered a huge win, even if they will likely be extremely late picks thanks to Tampa Bay’s strong performance. Columbus has begun to start restocking the cupboard that was left so bare when they went all-in for the end of the 2019 season, acquiring the likes of Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel.

All three teams seem to come out ahead in this deal, not something that can often be said at the NHL trade deadline.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Lightning And Blue Jackets Working On David Savard Trade

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The Lightning have been cap-strapped all season long but have been looking to add to their back end.  It appears they’re making some progress on that front as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that they are discussing a David Savard trade with the Blue Jackets.  TSN’s Frank Seravalli tweets that Savard has been notified of the trade although the exact return is not yet known.

Savard has been a reliable stay-at-home defenseman for the better part of the last decade, averaging more than 20 minutes per game in 597 career NHL contests, all with Columbus.  That had him positioned to be potentially the top blueliner to move between now and the trade deadline despite what has been a particularly quiet season by his standards.  He has just a goal and five assists in 40 games with a team-worst -19 rating and a career-low possession rate with a 43.1% Corsi mark.  However, given how much the Blue Jackets have struggled this season, he’s certainly a prime candidate to rebound and GM Jarmo Kekalainen knows that with the asking price in recent days for the pending unrestricted free agent involving a first-round pick.  Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic notes (via Twitter) that Columbus may indeed get that as part of the return and as we saw last year with the pickups of Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow, Lightning GM Julien BriseBois isn’t against moving first-rounders at this time of year.

With a $4.25MM cap hit, Columbus will almost certainly need to retain a sizable part of Savard’s contract to facilitate a move; they can retain as much as 50%.  Even so, with Tampa Bay having just $370K in LTIR room per CapFriendly, other moves will need to be made to make this happen.  If Jan Rutta is going to be out for the rest of the regular season, he could be shifted there which would add another $1.3MM to their already high LTIR pool which would help but not completely open up the space to do this deal.

If Tampa Bay is able to get this done, Savard would represent a big addition to their back end, a group that is already pretty strong at the top with Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonagh, Mikhail Sergachev, and Erik Cernak.  However, they’ve struggled to put a reliable third pairing together with none of their options playing more than Rutta’s 16:02 per night; Luke Schenn and Callan Foote have both seen somewhat regular minutes but are logging less than 13 minutes a game.  Adding Savard, someone who is capable of handling more than 20 minutes a game, certainly would bolster their depth and allow them to take a bit of pressure off their top-four down the stretch and give them some crucial injury insurance heading into the playoffs.

Trade Deadline Primer: Tampa Bay Lightning

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We are now less than a week away from the NHL Trade Deadline and talks are heating up. Where does each team stand and what moves should they be looking to make?  We continue our look around the league with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning needed to look for a new challenge this season after stomping the competition in the 2020 postseason. They decided that if the league’s teams weren’t good enough to beat them, they would just take on the league itself. This season, the Lightning have stretched the NHL’s hard salary cap to it’s limit. Some might even throw the word “circumvention” out there. Tampa has managed to hold on to it’s extremely talented and fairly compensated roster due almost entirely due to the timely injury of Nikita Kucherov and the acquisitions of other injured players Marian Gaborik and Anders Nilsson. The Bolts have over $17MM in salary on Long-Term Injured Reserve – and they’ve used up all but $370,500 of it. There is zero space for the Lightning to do anything at the trade deadline beyond a minor depth addition, but they will get a major boost in the postseason with the return of Kucherov. Barring another opportunistic injury or a hockey trade that no one sees coming, the Bolts may have to settle for that this season.

Record

26-11-2, .692, 3rd in Central Division

Deadline Status

Stand Pat

Deadline Cap Space

$0MM in full-season space ($371K in LTIR space), 0/3 retention slots used, 45/50 contracts used per CapFriendly

Upcoming Draft Picks

2021: TBL 1st, TBL 3rd, TBL 4th, TBL 5th, TBL 6th, NJD 7th, NSH 7th, TBL 7th
2022: TBL 1st, TBL 3rd, TBL 4th, TBL 5th, TBL 6th, TBL 7th

Trade Chips

There is a difference between what the Lightning could offer and what they will offer, given that they are in no position to make much of a trade. It is unlikely that the team is going to move any of their roster players to open up space, so even though pieces like Tyler Johnson and Alex Killorn may seem expendable, it is hard to imagine the team trading them in-season as opposed to waiting for the off-season.

As a result, Tampa has little space to work with and that means their targets will not be high-priced pieces. The most likely result for the Bolts is that they add a cheap depth piece in exchange for a late pick or low-end prospect. Those are the “chips” that will probably move, if there is any move at all.

In the event that Tampa tries to make a bigger move, using the very limit of their salary cap potential despite the risks, they will still be looking at a picks-and-prospects scenario in this buyer’s market. Without a second-round pick for the next two years, the Lightning’s first-rounders are probably off the table unless they are asking a team to give up one of the top rentals on the market and retain the maximum 50% of his salary in order to make the deal work under the cap. The likelihood of such a deal is low. Expect for them instead to dangle multiple mid-round picks and prospects like Jack Finley or Jack Thompson if they really want to make a splash.

Others to Watch For: F Taylor Raddysh ($833K, RFA), F Boris Katchouk ($833K, RFA), F Alex Barre-Boulet ($759K, RFA), F Sam Walker (Draft Rights), D Eamon Powell (Draft Rights)

Team Needs

1) Defense – If, and it’s a big if, the Lightning are able to find a way to clear enough cap space to add a player of note at the deadline, it has to be on the blue line. The forward corps is deep and talented and will only get better once the postseason arrives and Kucherov can return. The net is well-manned, with Andrei Vasilevskiy enjoying another Vezina-caliber season. Both of those units remain largely unchanged from last season’s title-winning lineup. However, the defense has taken a hit. The top four is still stout, but the bottom pair and depth options range from young and inexperienced to old and ineffective. Tampa could really use a stabilizing force on the back end, especially with Jan Rutta sidelined and Erik Cernak dealing with a nagging injury. Of course, cost will be a factor. Without making a trade to move out salary, the Bolts can only open up another $1.5MM max and still be able to ice a full lineup, demoting the likes of Luke Schenn and Ben Thomas. That leaves the Bolts with a maximum $1.9MM or so to acquire a defenseman, but adding that much salary is a risk should another injury occur. The need is there, but the means to address it are problematic. The team likely thinks small with a value addition.

Tampa Bay Lightning Sign Odeen Tufto

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While the rest of the hockey world focuses on some high-profile college talent signing their entry-level contracts, the Tampa Bay Lightning have announced a more under-the-radar signing. Odeen Tufto has signed a one-year entry-level contract with the Lightning for the 2021-22 season and will report to the Syracuse Crunch on an amateur tryout for the rest of this season.

Tufto, 24, was one of the top undrafted college free agents after an incredible senior season that saw him score 47 points in just 29 games. That mark was good enough to make him a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, but it isn’t all that much different than his other three seasons for Quinnipiac University. The 5’7″ forward put up totals of 41, 42 and 38 points in his first three years, meaning he’ll leave college with 168 points in 139 appearances. His 39 assists led the nation this season and he served as captain for Quinnipiac.

While he doesn’t project the same as someone like Cole Caufield, the only NCAA player to score more points than him this season, Tufto is a sneaky depth pickup for an organization that has never been afraid of adding undersized forward talent. The Lightning have made stars out of players like Tyler Johnson and Yanni Gourde, neither of whom were drafted despite elite offensive numbers in junior. It’s a long shot, but perhaps the Tampa Bay development staff can coax a similar performance out of Tufto, who has scored a boatload of points at every stop so far.

Central Notes: Tortorella, Lehtonen, Barkov, McDonagh

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Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen wasn’t too happy about the two-game sweep the team endured over the weekend to the lowly Detroit Red Wings. In fact, the GM is quite frustrated with the team’s struggles.

“It’s shocking,” Kekalainen said. “Especially to think that we played some of our best hockey just before that (vs. Carolina). To go to Detroit and play like that, get beaten like that twice in a row, is not good.”

However, The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline (subscription required) writes that despite the fact that John Tortorella is in the final year of his contract and is likely moving on at the end of the year, the team doesn’t seem intent on removing their head coach.

“It doesn’t look like a team, that’s the way I would put,” Kekalainen said. “I’m sure (Tortorella) is as frustrated as anybody right now. I’ve said it before: It can’t all fall on one guy. Players should have enough professional pride to always try to be at their best, play for the team, play for the logo and play for the organization. Right now we’re not looking like a team like that.”

  • Sticking with the Blue Jackets, defenseman Mikko Lehtonen will make his Columbus debut, according to Portzline. The blueliner was acquired from Toronto for goalie prospect Veini Vehvilainen on March 12 and has now passed through quarantine. The highly-touted offensive defenseman was a big signing by Toronto during the offseason, but couldn’t work his way into the lineup there, appearing in just nine games with three assists.
  • Florida Panthers head coach Joel Quenneville told reporters that star center Aleksander Barkov should return to the team shortly, according to NHL.com’s Jameson Olive. While Barkov was not on the ice Tuesday, Quenneville said he expects him to return at some point during the team’s four-game homestand. Barkov has missed four straight games with a lower-body injury.
  • Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh was on the ice for practice Tuesday with the team. However, the blueliner, who has missed three straight games due to a lower-body injury, wasn’t a full participant, rotating in at different times during drills, according to The Athletic’s Joe Smith. That would suggest that while McDonagh is close to returning to the lineup, he is likely still a few days away from returning to game action

Anaheim Ducks Acquire Alexander Volkov

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Late last night, the Anaheim Ducks made a move to secure some young talent. The team has acquired Alexander Volkov from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Antoine Morand and a conditional seventh-round selection in 2023. Ducks GM Bob Murray released a short statement on the move:

We are excited to have Alexander join our organization. We believe a fresh start will help him further develop as we look to continue adding youthful talent. 

Volkov, 23, has shown flashes of brilliance in his young career with the Lightning but was stuck behind a deep forward group and playing just a handful of shifts each game. In 19 appearances this season he had registered five points, averaging just under ten minutes a game. Originally selected 48th overall in 2017, the young Russian was a strong offensive force for three seasons with the Syracuse Crunch, but hasn’t yet been able to translate that to the NHL level. In Anaheim he’ll be given a fresh start with a team desperate for young scoring talent.

Importantly, Volkov is a restricted free agent this offseason and will be arbitration-eligible. The Ducks can afford to give him a raise to keep him on North American ice, but the Lightning likely couldn’t commit any more than the league minimum given their cap restraints. For Anaheim he is a worthwhile gamble given how little it cost to acquire him.

Morand, 22, was also a second-round pick in 2017, but hasn’t found any level of offensive success in the AHL so far. In 21 games this season he has just one goal and six points, a far cry from the numbers he put up in the QMJHL. Still, given Morand still has another year on his entry-level deal and will be a restricted free agent after that, perhaps the Lightning believe they can turn a corner in his development. The draft pick that comes along will be a seventh-rounder no matter what but could transfer to 2024 if the 2023 selection is unavailable due to a previous trade.

That’s not much to give up for a talent like Volkov, even if he hasn’t put it all together at this point. Getting NHL games out of Morand is not even close to a guarantee, but after going through protocols the Ducks could put Volkov in the lineup right away.

Nikita Kucherov Resumes Skating

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While he was ruled out for the year before the regular season got underway, Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov has resumed skating and is on pace to return for the start of the playoffs, notes Joe Smith of the Athletic (Twitter link).  The 27-year-old actually did some light work with Tampa Bay in practice although he’s still long way away from being ready to return.

The big question will be when he is indeed ready to play.  The Lightning can’t afford to activate him off LTIR at all this season due to their salary cap situation but if he has started light skating drills already, it may also be difficult to argue that he’ll need two full months to recover and then immediately be ready for game one of the playoffs just days later.  It’s certainly going to be something to keep an eye on although Tampa Bay is certainly thrilled that their top-scoring forward is doing well in his recovery from offseason surgery.

Tampa Bay Lightning Sign Daniel Walcott

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The Tampa Bay Lightning announced an extension for one of their minor league veterans last night, inking Daniel Walcott to a new two-year contract. The two-way deal will cover the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons and keep Walcott from becoming an unrestricted free agent later this summer.

Now 27, Walcott was originally selected in the fifth round of the 2014 draft as a defenseman but has played mostly forward of late during his minor league career. With the Syracuse Crunch since 2015, he now wears an “A” as an alternate captain. He never has played in the NHL and if he does, it will likely come as a fourth-line injury replacement.

Still, the Crunch have always valued the leadership that AHL veterans bring and Walcott has now been rewarded with a nice two-year contract. The financial details of the contract were not included in the press release, but his cap hit will almost assuredly stay buried anyway.

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