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Morning Notes: Lindholm, Blackhawks, Larsen

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The Vancouver Canucks are reportedly willing to offer pending unrestricted free agent center Elias Lindholm a contract extension around seven years and $7MM annually (as per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on 32 Thoughts). The deal if signed would be a replica of the deal Nazem Kadri signed with the Calgary Flames in August of 2022 and would be a substantial drop from his contract expectations last fall when many thought Lindholm could fetch a $9MM AAV.

While the potential offer is $7MM annually, there is no guarantee that Lindholm will sign for that, and Friedman isn’t sure that the Canucks can get a deal done at that number. The Canucks reportedly want Lindholm to return, but with the sheer volume of free agents on their roster it might be difficult to get a deal done with the 29-year-old.

In other morning notes:

  • Elliotte Friedman has heard from sources that the Chicago Blackhawks would like to expedite their rebuild and may target top free agents this summer to speed things along. Friedman mentions Jake Guentzel as a possibility and also drops the name of Martin Necas. The Blackhawks have a good mix of young emerging players and veterans in their lineup but don’t have many high-end veterans on long-term deals outside of Seth Jones. Guentzel would require a huge long-term commitment from Chicago and would mark a major change in mindset from previous summers where they have dealt impact veteran players.
  • Aaron Portzline of The Athletic tweeted that former Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Brad Larsen is expected to resurface soon after taking time away from hockey following his firing in April 2023. Larsen coached the Blue Jackets for two seasons and lost 102 of the 164 games during that time. Prior to being named the head coach, Larsen was an assistant in Columbus for seven years and even beat out several experienced head coaches to get the top job with the Blue Jackets. Portzline doesn’t specify where Larsen is going to go but does add that an announcement is expected in the next few days.

Canucks Announced Young Stars Classic Tournament

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Adam Kimelman of NHL.com is reporting that Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale should be ready for training camp in September after undergoing significant surgery in April. While the exact procedure is unknown, Flyers general manager Daniel Briere had said back on April 18th that Drysdale might need to have a procedure on his lower body.

Drysdale was acquired by the Flyers from the Anaheim Ducks along with a second-round pick in early January in exchange for Cutter Gauthier. He struggled after the trade, posting just two goals and three assists in 24 games, however, he suffered a significant injury in late February that looked to affect his left shoulder and caused him to miss 16 games. Briere did add that the former sixth overall pick would be better able to show his skillset after the most recent surgery and the latest ailment was in no way related to the previous shoulder injury

In other evening notes:

  • The World Junior Summer Showcase has officially been announced by USA Hockey (as per Steven Ellis of DailyFaceoff). The games will be held in Plymouth, Michigan between July 26th and August 3rd and will feature Team USA, Canada, Sweden and Finland. Teams will practice daily during the event and a total of nine international games will be played as part of the showcase. The event is a precursor that will offer players the opportunity to showcase themselves for their national teams prior to the 2025 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship in Ottawa, Ontario. That tournament will be played from December 26th, 2024, through January 5th, 2025.
  • The Vancouver Canucks have formally announced that they will host the Young Stars Classic rookie tournament in Penticton, British Columbia beginning on September 13th. The four-day tournament will feature four teams as the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, and Winnipeg Jets will participate alongside Vancouver in a six-game round-robin format. The tournament began in 2010 and regularly features players who get into NHL games the following season.

Latest On Nikita Zadorov

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Earlier Thursday, it appeared there might be some progress on extension talks between the Canucks and pending UFA defenseman Nikita Zadorov, according to Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre. However, that was quickly refuted by Zadorov’s agent, Dan Milstein, and additionally  by a report from CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal, who said the likelihood of Zadorov remaining in Vancouver was looking “bleak.”

Zadorov, 29, was successful in his short stint with the Canucks. Picked up from the Flames via trade in late November, he finished the year with 14 points, a +6 rating and a whopping 102 PIMs in 54 games in a Vancouver sweater while averaging 17:04 per contest.

The legend of the 6’6″, 250-lb defender grew in the postseason, where he was arguably the team’s second-most valuable blue liner behind Norris finalist Quinn Hughes. He exploded for four goals and eight points in only 13 games, supplementing that with a +3 rating and good underlying metrics while averaging over 20 minutes per night.

That certainly boosted his value as he wraps up a two-year, $7.5MM contract he signed with Calgary in 2022. The hulking Russian has now logged at least 20 points in three consecutive seasons, posted a career-high 125 PIMs this season, and posted strong possession quality numbers during his previous two seasons in Calgary.

Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reported last month that Zadorov would likely seek a six-year, $36MM ($6MM AAV) deal should he hit the open market. For a player without a lengthy history of playing top-four minutes, though, that’s a prohibitively expensive price tag.

Evolving Hockey projects Zadorov to receive a three-year deal at a $4MM cap hit, more in line with what shutdown defender Erik Gudbranson received from the Blue Jackets two summers go. In all likelihood, his next deal will likely fall somewhere in the middle of those two figures.

Canucks Promote Yogi Svejkovsky To Assistant Coach

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Jaroslav “Yogi” Svejkovský will join the Canucks’ bench next season as a part of Rick Tocchet’s coaching staff, the team said in a release Wednesday. The former first-round pick of the Capitals fills the role vacated by Mike Yeo, who mutually parted ways with the club last week. The Canucks also said that Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin will take on more responsibility next season from their existing development roles and will have more day-to-day involvement with the NHL and AHL coaching staff.

Svejkovský has been with the Canucks organization for three seasons in skills coaching roles, working with their AHL affiliate in 2021-22 before being promoted to the NHL staff for the past two campaigns. The 17th overall pick in 1996 never managed to stick around as a full-timer in the NHL and had his playing career end at age 24 due to concussions. He finished his major-league career with 23 goals and 42 points in 113 games with Tampa Bay and Washington across four seasons.

He began his coaching career in the Vancouver area with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants as an assistant in the 2006-07 season and has remained there since. Svejkovský served as an assistant and skills coach through 2018, taking a few years to head coach academy teams in British Columbia before joining the Canucks.

Canucks’ Ian Cole Expected To Test Free Agency

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The Canucks are not expected to come to terms on a new contract with defenseman Ian Cole before he reaches unrestricted free agency next month, CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal reports.

Cole, 35, is one of four blue-liners headed toward UFA status that Vancouver had on its NHL roster at the end of the season. With Tyler Myers and Nikita Zadorov positioned as higher-priority targets to re-sign, as well as a big-name pending UFA up front in Elias Lindholm, it’s not terribly surprising to see Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin turn his attention away from Cole over the next few weeks.

That’s not a knock on the season Cole had in British Columbia, though. He may have ended his Canucks tenure with a disappointing stretch of postseason play, but he gave them solid bottom-four minutes throughout the regular season after signing a one-year, $3MM pact in free agency last summer.

A first-round pick of the Blues back in 2007, Cole has settled in as a useful third-pairing or complementary second-pairing shutdown defender for teams as he enters the twilight of his career. He put up two goals and nine assists for 11 points in 78 contests for the Canucks this year, averaging 18:41 per game while doing well to control the majority of quality scoring chances despite playing difficult defensive minutes. Vancouver controlled 53% of expected goals with Cole on the ice at even strength, his third straight season with an xG% above 50.

Now a true journeyman, Cole has suited up for five teams in the past four seasons and could make it a sixth in a few weeks. He’s now eligible for a 35+ contract, allowing a team to sign him for a reduced initial cap hit while awarding him additional compensation via performance bonuses, but they would need to have the cap space to accommodate those bonuses if he hits them to avoid a penalty the following season. Evolving Hockey projects him to land a one-year, $2.5MM commitment on the open market.

Canucks Open Talk With Myers, Hoping To Extend Blueger

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Elliotte Friedman reported on the 32 Thoughts Podcast that the Edmonton Oilers may need to go through the NHL entry draft with an interim general manager if they don’t extend current GM Ken Holland. If Holland does move on, the Oilers wouldn’t have enough time to conduct a search before the draft later this month and might need to lean heavily on their scouting staff to get them through a busy time of year.

Holland has not signed an extension in Edmonton despite having the team in the Stanley Cup Finals and would be highly sought after if he hits the open market given his resume with both the Oilers and the Detroit Red Wings. Holland has won three Stanley Cups as a general manager and a fourth as assistant general manager and goaltending coach. All four Stanley Cups victories came with the Red Wings.

In other Pacific Division notes:

  • Edmonton Oilers forward Corey Perry is set to collect an additional $50K in performance bonuses after the Oilers reached the Stanley Cup Finals last night (as per Puck Pedia). Perry’s bonus brings Edmonton’s final penalty for overages this season to $3.55MM which will be added to their cap for next season. The 39-year-old reached another milestone last night becoming the first player in NHL history to reach the Stanley Cup Finals with five different teams, including four times in the last five seasons.
  • David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period writes that the talk of a Tyler Myers extension with the Vancouver Canucks might be a bit premature as the two sides have just started talking about extending their deal. Pagnotta notes that both the Canucks and Myers have an interest in getting an extension done, but the talk surrounding a new contract is “noise” at this point. Myers is coming off his most productive season in Vancouver and reportedly lives in nearby Kelowna during the summer which is certainly part of his desire to stay in British Columbia.
  • Pagnotta adds that the Canucks have interest in bringing back forward Teddy Blueger. The 29-year-old had one of the most productive seasons of his career with Vancouver, posting six goals and 22 assists in 68 games tying his career-high in points with 28. The Riga, Latvia native signed a one-year $1.9MM contract with Vancouver on July 1st, 2023, and provided good value to the Canucks that extended well beyond his offensive contributions. Pagnotta notes that the Canucks plan to circle back to Blueger later in the month, which makes sense given the quality and quantity of pending free agents the team will have to deal with over the next month.

Latest On Martin Necas’ Trade Market

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Martin Nečas’ availability in a potential trade has been one of the dominant early storylines of the 2024 offseason. The Hurricanes have been considering moving his signing rights as contract negotiations with the pending restricted free agent remain in a stalemate, and while there was a sense they may make one last pass at re-signing him with interim GM Eric Tulsky now at the helm temporarily, that seems unlikelier with each passing day.

To that end, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli said on the site’s podcast today that a Nečas trade may come over the wire as soon as this week. Previously, we’ve covered reports that the Canucks, Flames and Canadiens have displayed some level of interest in his services. Recently, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period confirmed that at least 12 teams have Nečas “on their radar” and added the Flyers, Kraken and Predators to the existing list of teams that have dictated their interest to Carolina.

Notably, no single team has been named a frontrunner throughout the reporting process over the last few weeks. It’s also been quiet about what the Hurricanes might be able to get in return for their 2017 12th-overall pick, who has 52 goals and 124 points in 159 games since the 2022-23 season.

Nečas, 25, still has another offseason of RFA status ahead of him, but it’s clear he wants to ink a long-term deal this summer. Contract projection models indicate his value is likely in the $7.5MM area on a max-term deal, a figure the Hurricanes don’t seem willing to oblige with the younger Seth Jarvis surpassing him on the depth chart and also needing a new deal this summer. They have a multitude of UFAs to try to retain this summer as well, including one of the best forwards available in Jake Guentzel, who Pagnotta also reported Monday will likely test the market next month before deciding whether to return to Carolina.

Evening Notes: Myers, Graves, Alfredsson

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Ben Kuzma of The Vancouver Province writes that Vancouver Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers is hoping to re-sign with the Canucks and remain in Vancouver. The 34-year-old had his best season in Vancouver, playing in a reduced role that saw him average less than 20 minutes per game for the first time in his career. The reduced playing time benefitted Myers and he posted five goals and 24 assists in 77 games which were his best numbers since his last year in Winnipeg back in 2018-19.

Kuzma writes that Myers is projected for a $3MM AAV on a three-year deal which would be much more palatable than the $6MM that Myers made this past season. If the Canucks can lock Myers up around that number it will allow them to pivot to their remaining free-agent defenseman Ian Cole, Filip Hronek, and Nikita Zadorov.

In other evening notes:

  • After a poor first season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Ryan Graves became a lightning rod for criticism from fans of the team. Dan Kingerski writes that the Pittsburgh Penguins would be best to avoid buying out the remaining five years of the contract which would lead to an annual cost of $750K for the next ten years. Penguins’ general manager Kyle Dubas has stated in the past that he prefers trades to buyouts and given the season that Graves just had it would be nearly impossible to find a trade partner unless the Penguins agree to take back a bad contract. The Penguins have a need for a top-6 forward as well as some depth scoring on their bottom two lines and have just under $13MM in available cap space. Moving Graves would go a long way to opening up the room to maneuver, but given the circumstances, it seems likely that he will be with the team next season.
  • Ottawa Senators great Daniel Alfredsson is leaning towards returning to his assistant coaching role next season under new head coach Travis Green (as per Bruce Garrioch). The franchise’s all-time leading scorer was brought back to the franchise in a player-development role, but that role was changed when the Senators relieved previous head coach D.J. Smith of his duties. The Senators will have to fill out their coaching staff and have been linked to former NHL head coach Mike Yeo as well as former NHLer and current Manitoba Moose assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner.

Latest On Dakota Joshua

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Canucks forward Dakota Joshua could be one of the more appealing depth scoring options on the free agent market if he doesn’t sign an extension before July 1. While both he and the team have expressed a willingness to get a new deal across the finish line, they’re not close to an agreement with one month until July 1, Rick Dhaliwal said on CHEK’s “Donnie & Dhali” earlier this week.

Negotiations with all of Vancouver’s pending free agents will likely be stuck in the mud until one of them takes a massive leap forward. General manager Patrik Allvin has one of the longest offseason to-do lists in the league. He has plenty of notable players on expiring deals. A lack of cost certainty for any of them makes it difficult to know how far they’re willing to go to retain any individual.

On the open market for the second time in his career, the breakout winger had 32 points in 63 contests for the ’Nucks this season, a 42-point pace had he played in all 82. He backed that up with strong possession numbers while averaging 14:23 per game, the highest usage of his four-year, 184-game career.

A late bloomer, Joshua is unlikely to take much of a further step forward at age 28, but he’s not afraid to lay the body and has fully established himself as a capable, versatile middle-six forward. He averaged 1:50 per game on Vancouver’s penalty kill this year and boasted positive relative possession results (0.5 relative CF%) in the process. Evolving Hockey projects a conservative two-year, $2MM AAV deal on the open market, likely due to his lack of experience, but few would be surprised if he lands nearly twice that figure.

That wide range of possible deals makes it difficult for Allvin to commit, considering he also needs to save funds to re-sign or replace top-six center Elias Lindholm and most of his defense corps, including Ian Cole, Filip Hronek, Tyler Myers and Nikita Zadorov. The Canucks have $23.75MM in projected cap space with up to eight open roster spots, CapFriendly projects.

One team that could come calling if Joshua is available come July 1 is the Maple Leafs. They selected him 128th overall in 2014 but traded his signing rights to the Blues before getting him under contract.

If so, he’d be open to signing this time around, James Mirtle of The Athletic said during a podcast appearance Thursday. He’d be a logical fit to replace Tyler Bertuzzi in their top nine if they can’t manage to extend him before free agency opens.

Optimism That Canucks And Tyler Myers Can Work Out Extension

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Defenseman Tyler Myers is one of Vancouver’s many notable pending unrestricted free agents but that might not be the case for much longer.  In the latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link), Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman noted that there is optimism that the Canucks will be able to work something out with the blueliner.  Myers has spent the last five seasons in Vancouver after inking a $30MM deal with them back in 2019.  He struggled in a prominent role but found some traction in more limited minutes this season, notching 29 points in 77 games along with 136 blocks and 110 hits in just under 19 minutes a night.  It’s safe to say that a new agreement for the 34-year-old won’t reach the $6MM mark but half that on a multi-year deal could be double.

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