CAROLINA HURRICANESdownloads.hurricanes.nhl.com/clips/clips062519.pdf(Exhibit A: Patrice Bergeron,...

CAROLINA HURRICANES

NEWS CLIPPINGS • June 25, 2019

Canes trade de Haan to Blackhawks as part of deal for goalie Forsberg

By Chip Alexander

With apparent problems re-signing goalies Petr Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney to new contracts, the Carolina Hurricanes used a trade Monday to acquire goalie Anton Forsberg from the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Canes sent defenseman Calvin de Haan and forward Aleksi Saarela to the Blackhawks for Forsberg and defenseman Gustav Forsling.

De Haan, 28, signed a four-year free-agent contract with Carolina last July that pays him $4.55 million a season, adding a veteran to the Canes’ blue line. But he needed shoulder surgery after the Stanley Cup playoffs, with an expected recovery time of four to six months.

Both Mrazek and McElhinney will become unrestricted free agents July 1 if not signed. General manager Don Waddell has said his goal was to re-sign both before free agency began but has said in the past week that was becoming more problematic.

The Canes still have goalie Scott Darling under contract -- Darling another former Blackhawks backup goaltender who was traded to Carolina in April 2017 and quickly signed a four-year deal.

Forsberg, 26, stated 30 games for the Blackhawks and had a 10-16-4 record with a 2.97 goals-against average and .908 save percentage. It’s possible the Swede could compete with Alex Nedeljkovic -- the 2018-19 AHL goaltender of the year -- for the Canes’ backup spot next season.

Forsberg was a seventh-round draft pick by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2011 and played 10 NHL games in three seasons before last season. He was traded to the Blackhawks

in June 2017 in the deal in which Columbus sent forward Brandon Saad, Forsberg and a draft pick to Chicago for forward Artemi Panarin, Tyler Motte and a draft pick.

Forsling, 23, was a fifth-round draft choice by the Vancouver Canucks in 2014. Traded to the Blackhawks in January 2015, he has played 122 NHL games in three seasons with Chicago, with eight goals and 19 assists.

De Haan played 74 regular-season games and 12 playoff games for the Canes this season, finishing with one goal and 13 assists in the regular season. More of a stay-at-home D-man, he gave the Canes calm play in the defensive zone and had a plus-1 rating.

But de Haan missed all but 33 games in the 2017-18 season with the New York Islanders because of a left shoulder injury that required surgery. He now has had the right shoulder surgically repaired.

The Canes also had defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk undergo shoulder surgery after a playoff injury, with the same four-to-six month recovery period. Forsling should compete for a spot in the third defensive pairing along with two former first-round draft picks, Haydn Fleury and Jake Bean.

Saarela scored a career-high 30 goals this past season for the Calder Cup champion Charlotte Checkers, the Canes’ American Hockey League affiliate.

The Canes and Blackhawks have been frequent trade partners in recent years. Among the former Blackhawks sent to the Canes by Chicago were Teuvo Teravainen, Bryan Bickell, Joakim Nordstrom and Kris Versteeg. And Darling.

Suzuki among 26 players in Canes’ prospects camp

By Chip Alexander

The Carolina Hurricanes will open their prospects development camp this week with 26 players, including nine from their 2019 NHL Draft class.

Ryan Suzuki, the forward taken 28th in the first round, heads up the recent draftee class. Pyotr Kochetkov, the Russian goalie chosen in the second round on Saturday, will be one of seven goaltenders in camp.

Sessions open to the public at PNC Arena will be the on-ice testing (5 p.m) and team practice (6 p.m.) on Wednesday, and the 5:30 p.m. practice Thursday. The Canes Summerfest prospect game will be Saturday at noon. There is no admission charge.

Nine players are attending this week as camp invitees.

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Will success as coach help Brind’Amour’s Hall case as player?

By Luke DeCock

The chances that Rod Brind’Amour’s name will be called when the Hockey Hall of Fame announces its new inductees Tuesday are, again, curiously small. Among the plugged-in pundits who think they have a line into the selection committee’s secretive ways, Brind’Amour’s name is rarely mentioned.

That is ludicrous. In a year where Vincent Lecavalier is the only first-ballot NHL name worth serious consideration and there’s only one dead solid lock for the Hall – Hailey Wickenheiser, an easy and obvious choice – Brind’Amour is as good a choice as any, the best defensive forward of his generation, an unparallelled leader and a champion, with raw stats that certainly clear the bar.

The rest of the names under popular consideration all have thinner claims. Either their numbers or their accomplishments don’t stack up to Brind’Amour: Daniel Alfredsson, Theo Fleury, Curtis Joseph, Lecavalier, Alexander Mogilny, Jeremy Roenick, Doug Wilson, Sergei Zubov.

Worthy of the Hall of Fame? Many of them, for certain, but not all of them. More worthy than Brind’Amour? Hardly.

This is an old story. Brind’Amour has been passed over six times. Unlike, say, baseball, the entire process is conducted in secret. No nominations or vote totals are announced, so it’s impossible to know if Brind’Amour is getting closer to induction or farther away with each passing year. Larry Walker, at least, knows where he stands among the overlooked in his sport.

The 18 voters – Ron Francis and Pierre McGuire among them – will meet Tuesday and make their decisions. And that’s that. Invitations are extended and blazers are fit, and it happens again in 52 weeks.

In the weird way these things work in hockey, Brind’Amour’s successful debut season as Carolina Hurricanes coach shouldn’t have any bearing on his Hall of Fame candidacy, but it inevitably will, if not now, then down the road. His success behind the bench won’t so much retroactively legitimize his playing career as it will make it easier for committee members to nominate and vote for him. The hockey world can be like fifth grade sometimes; no one ever wants to go first and no one ever wants to be laughed at.

Not that anyone would have snickered before, but after what he did this year, no eyebrows would be raised either.

As for future years, Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon has commissioned his analytics staff to prepare a full statistical assessment of Brind’Amour’s career, essentially an attempt to put Brind’Amour’s past numbers in present-day terms. Basically: If we knew what we knew now, analytically speaking, what would we have thought of Brind’Amour then? (Exhibit A: Patrice Bergeron, acknowledged as a future Hall of Famer in a way Brind’Amour never was during his career.)

That’s a considerable undertaking, but like his coaching, it has the potential to underpin a retroactive reassessment of Brind’Amour’s entire career, to give his resume further foundation for the Hall of Fame voters.

It shouldn’t need it. Brind’Amour’s resume stands on its own, no matter what any ex post facto analysis would indicate, no matter how well he does as a coach. For whatever reason – and, again, would the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2006 have already put the committee over the edge? – Brind’Amour hasn’t been given the same respect by the committee as have his equals, peers and in some cases, inferiors.

Maybe this is the year. More likely, it isn’t. The call may never come. But it should.

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Civian: It’s OK to hate the Calvin de Haan trade even if you understand why the Hurricanes did it

By Sara Civian

Calvin de Haan is a man of few superstitions. He usually has a beard, though.

His superfan of a grandmother nags him to shave it when it looks too bushy on TV.

One time he and his friends decided their tiny hometown of Carp, Ontario, could use a watering hole, so they created Ridge Rock Brewing Company with locally sourced wood and metal. Calvin hired his dad, Bill, who attempted retirement but seems more comfortable as the brewery’s resident Swiss army knife.

When the Hurricanes played the Senators I was lucky enough to snag an invite to Ridge Rock. Calvin, Bill, the one and only Mike Maniscalco and I talked a lot about youth hockey for whatever reason, and how ridiculous the year-round grind is these days.

Calvin got serious for a second, looked his dad in the eye and thanked him for a childhood well spent.

Bill laughed as he wiped an imaginary tear from his eye, then he got real.

“No matter what he did we would’ve supported him,” he told us. “It didn’t matter if he played piano or did ballet, we would’ve supported him.”

As a 6-year-old, Calvin decided that he liked helping the goalie, and he stuck with that philosophy ever since.

He is exactly who you think he is, and that’s why he’s a fan favorite wherever he goes.

He won Caniac hearts when he responded “Why am I tagged in this?” to a random tweet suggesting he should get traded for a weak return.

Maybe he thought the exact same thing when he found out he and Aleksi Saarela been traded to the Blackhawks in exchange for defenseman Gustav Forsling and goaltender Anton Forsberg on Monday night. It happened so fast and objectively does not improve the Hurricanes as it stands, so the perpetually chill defenseman who chose this team in free agency is undoubtedly more frazzled than usual right now.

Of course, a defenseman making $4.5 million a year on a budget team’s third pairing was always a luxury. The Hurricanes have had a well-documented logjam on defense and desire for more offense spanning months. They exasperated the need to pull the trigger on those desires when they acquired a 2020 first round-pick and Patrick Marleau’s $6.25 million cap hit Sunday.

The well-regarded move left the Canes with ~$20 million in cap space, which seems like a lot, but consider the deals they need to get done:

RFA Sebastian Aho: Potentially north of $10 million AAV.

RFA Brock McGinn: You can’t just score a Game 7 double-overtime game-winner against the defending champions and not get some sort of hefty raise and/or a gift card to Bass Pro Shop.

UFA Justin Williams or a replacement (no one could replace him but you get it): ~5 million AAV.

UFA Micheal Ferland or a replacement (aka a replacement): An amount of money that feels like too much but is necessary in this climate.

A goalie ???: That seems expensive.

So, a lot of cap space is a lot of cap space until it’s not.

Then consider the fact that Jake Bean and Haydn Fleury could both play on a third pairing in the NHL right now.

As much as the Canes like de Haan, and as much as de Haan likes the Canes, when you map the cap space out you can at least see where Carolina is coming from.

The return

It’s tough to even evaluate the return because we know it was a scheduled loss. I’m not going to act like it’s good, though.

This is a downgrade by default because de Haan is a second-pairing defenseman who was playing on the third pairing because the Canes’ blue line was so deep. But this isn’t a plug it in, one-for-one (or two-for-two) deal. Forsling will obviously get the chance to earn de Haan’s former spot, but Bean and Fleury will also get the opportunity they’ve deserved.

If the Hurricanes weren’t in their unique defensive logjam this would be an indefensible trade, but they have options.

As for Forsberg, the hope and expectation is that the Hurricanes sign a No. 1 goaltender and he and Alex Nedeljkovic will fight it out for the No. 2 spot.

Bottom line

There will be fathomable anxiety in the air until the Hurricanes actually use the cap space from this trade to their advantage. It’s OK to understand why the Hurricanes did this and still feel uneasy about it. It’s not great to trade a free agent who loved it here before it was cool.

I won’t tell you to trust the process or panic until we see how this all shakes out.

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NHL Trade Grades: What the Calvin de Haan swap means for the Blackhawks and Hurricanes

By Craig Custance

The trade

Chicago Blackhawks receive defenseman Calvin de Haan and forward Aleksi Saarela

Carolina Hurricanes receive goalie Anton Forsberg and defenseman Gustav Forsling

Blackhawks: B

This is a fairly economical way for the Blackhawks to strengthen the bottom half of their defense, especially when you consider what some of the veteran free agent defensemen are going to get when the market opens on July 1. The reality here is that they’re probably not losing anything of note in this trade aside from cap space, which isn’t an insignificant asset.

One source who really likes de Haan suggested that the Hurricanes might not have made the playoffs without him – he was that important to the Carolina defense this past season. But he wasn’t so important that they didn’t feel like they couldn’t trade him for depth players.

“He’s steady. He kills penalties,” said an executive on Monday. “He plays 18 minutes a night and you don’t notice him but in a good way. He’ll play 18 solid minutes and he’s solid defensively. And teammates like him. I thought he was good for Carolina last year.”

The issue for de Haan is that there are still three more years on a contract that pays him $4.55 million per season. That’s a bit steep if he’s in your bottom pair, which is where it was headed in Carolina. His salary is just fine for this coming season but his shoulder injury may keep him out until November, so it’s a potentially shortened season. If injuries slow him down as he gets closer to his 30s, which is a possibility with his history, that contract is one to watch.

Saarela has now been traded twice in his young career, first as part of the Eric Staal trade that sent Staal to the New York Rangers. He has scored 55 goals total in the past two seasons for the Charlotte Checkers (AHL), but there’s doubt that he can translate that success to the NHL.

The Athletic’s prospect analyst Corey Pronman on Saarela: “Saarela had a strong second season in the AHL, as

a top scorer for the top team in the league. Saarela is a talented player with speed and skill, but what makes him deadly is his shot. He’s got a 70 if not an 80 grade wrist shot that he can absolutely rip to the top corner from any spot in the offensive zone. His above-average speed and skill allow him to create space to make the most of that shot. My issues with Saarela are, while he’s skilled, it’s not high-end skill; he’s small and he leans on his shot too much, refusing to play between the dots. He may not have enough dimensions for the NHL but the talent is there and the production, so I think he could make it.”

Hurricanes: C

As with most deals right now, this was driven by money. The Hurricanes have some contracts to sign – most notably for a starting goalie and talented restricted free agent Sebastian Aho. This trade helps the depth in goal, which is necessary because the expectation now is that backup Curtis McElhinney will move on. According to an NHL source, conversations between Petr Mrazek and the Hurricanes are still ongoing.

In 2017, Forsberg was a key piece in the trade that sent Artemi Panarin to the Columbus Blue Jackets (I mean, not as key as Brandon Saad, but Chicago was definitely happy to get him). He hasn’t panned out at the NHL level, where he has a .901 save percentage in 45 games. That said, he’s still just 26 years old and crazier things have happened than a guy figuring it out as a goalie later in his career.

The most likely scenario is that the Hurricanes either sign Mrazek or a free agent to start in goal and Forsberg battles Alex Nedeljkovic for the backup job.

Forsling, like nearly everyone in this deal, was traded previously in his career. He was sent to the Blackhawks from Vancouver in the trade that sent Adam Clendening to the Canucks. Forsling is a downgrade from de Haan in the short term and his best attribute is that he’s significantly cheaper. He’s a third-pair defenseman with a bit of offensive upside if he can get his once-promising career back on track with the Hurricanes.

“He’s got a chance to get better,” said one talent evaluator. “But he’s an NHL defenseman.”

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Roundtable reaction: Blackhawks bolster blue line by trading for Calvin de Haan

By Scott Powers and Mark Lazerus

General manager Stan Bowman’s makeover of the beleaguered Blackhawks defense continued Monday evening, as he acquired defenseman Calvin de Haan from the Carolina Hurricanes barely a week after trading for the Penguins’ Olli Maatta.

The trade: The Blackhawks sent a pair of restricted free agents — defenseman Gustav Forsling and goaltender Anton Forsberg — to Carolina for de Haan and prospect forward Aleksi Saarela, whose brother Antti was just drafted. Forsling and Forsberg are a pair of once-promising prospects who no longer figured into the Blackhawks’ long-term plans. De Haan had shoulder surgery in mid-May, with a four-to-six month recovery expected. So his availability for training camp and the season opener is in doubt. The 28-year-old veteran, a first-round pick in 2009, had one goal and 13 assists in 74 games last season for the Hurricanes.

Calvin de Haan scouting report, from The Athletic’s Sara Civian: De Haan is an extremely serviceable stay-at-home defenseman. He’s the perfect piece-of-the-puzzle guy who isn’t flashy and won’t put up points, but will round out a group in a way that you’ll miss when it’s gone. He can play anywhere in the lineup with basically anyone. Over the course of this season, he caught sticks to both eyes and battled back, then sustained a shoulder injury. He’d been plagued with injuries in the past but had one of the strongest seasons of his career in Carolina all things considered.

He also owns a brewery in Ottawa, which is pretty sweet.

Eastern Conference source on de Haan: “Solid second-pair defensive defenseman. Nothing flashy about him, not an elite athlete, but generally makes the right decision in coverage and with the puck.”

Scout’s take on de Haan: “De Haan is definitely a defensive guy. The Blackhawks have improved their backend. He’s much better than Maatta, too. He’s very solid defensively. They needed to upgrade, and they’ve done that. I like Saarela too. He’s still got a chance. He can shoot the puck. He’s got an NHL shot already. He can score. I like this trade for the Blackhawks.”

Mark Lazerus’ thoughts: The Blackhawks’ blue line is getting better. It’s also getting awfully crowded. As it stands right now, the Blackhawks have nine NHL defensemen: Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Erik Gustafsson, Connor Murphy, Henri Jokiharju, Carl Dahlstrom, Slater Koekkoek, Maatta and de Haan. Yes, Jokiharju could theoretically start in Rockford, but that’d be insanity given he’s still probably one of the four best options listed here. So chances are, Bowman isn’t done. He’s still got cap space to work with, too, despite adding $8.6 million in defensemen in the last 10 days. So perhaps a trade,

rather than free agency, is the best way to boost the forward group now that the blue line has been addressed.

Does he try to move Gustafsson, who helped transform the league’s worst power play into one of the league’s best, and who’s signed for just $1.2 million next season? His value might never be higher, yes, but he’s also your best (only?) power-play quarterback. It seems like dealing him at the trade deadline (with a big raise due next summer) would be a wiser option.

So is it Murphy? He’s on a reasonable contract ($3.85 million through 2021-22, the same year de Haan’s deal expires) and has been one of the Blackhawks’ only reliable defenders over the past two seasons. Trading him while bringing in Maatta or de Haan would be mostly a wash.

Is it Seabrook? No. No, it’s not. Stop asking me that, everyone.

Perhaps de Haan’s surgery and uncertain timetable will allow Bowman to hoard all these defensemen and put off a decision until October or November. But at some point, somebody’s got to go.

Scott Powers’ thoughts: It’s quite clear the Blackhawks were looking to put the “D” back into their defensemen this offseason. Adding Maatta and now de Haan, the Blackhawks have made two serious upgrades from a defensive standpoint. Maatta alone was an OK move, but adding de Haan, the Blackhawks are a different team in my eyes.

As Laz wrote, something else has to happen, but the Blackhawks have taken major steps toward transforming their defense this season.

Both players’ strengths are defending. In de Haan’s case, he’s a true shutdown defenseman. He can stop rushes and get the puck out of his zone quickly. He was second among the Hurricanes’ defensemen with a 55.64 Corsi percentage had a 53.6 expected goals for percentage this past season, according to Natural Stat Trick. Like Maatta, de Haan can play on the penalty kill too. Bowman has certainly gone out and addressed the Blackhawks’ greatest weakness. He still has some money to add a forward, too.

Sara Civian’s thoughts: The Hurricanes are swimming in cap space, sure. But they still have a slew of players to sign (Sebastian Aho, Brock McGinn, Justin Williams or a Williams type, Micheal Ferland or a Ferland type) on top of whomever they might trade for. Jake Bean and Haydn Fleury could be NHL defensemen today. It’s an obvious downgrade as it stands, because I think de Haan is excellent, but he was making $4.5 million on the third pairing when there was already a logjam on defense. It’s a cap dump, and probably necessary, but I wonder if there could’ve been a less jarring way to go about it.

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By the numbers: Evaluating the 2019 free agency class

By Dom Luszczyszyn

“Nothing good happens after 2 a.m.” It’s one of the many lessons offered by the sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” – a rule to live by to avoid bad decisions in your late 20’s and early 30’s. NHL front offices should have its own version to avoid bad decisions on players in their late 20’s and early 30’s: “Nothing good happens after June 30.”

That should be the motto for NHL free agency, but instead, it’s billed as a frenzy where teams sell their fans on the hope of a brighter future, which is rarely the case. There are of course exceptions to the rule, but more often than not, no other day creates more future headaches and costly mistakes than July 1.

It’s a day where players have all the power while on the downswing of their career creating future cap problems for their new home. What you’ve seen lately likely isn’t what you’ll get due to when players hit their peak in hockey, with prime age ending as player freedom increases. Peak season is in the past for the majority of players and it’s why all the leagues worst contracts are signed during this period. The silly season is almost upon us.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. Some contracts work out OK and there’s even potential to steal players that fly under the radar. Here’s what to expect from the top free agents this summer, from the future worst contracts in the league, to the deals that might just be OK, to the few exceptions to the rule that may actually pan out favorably.

Evaluating the UFA Field

Forwards

Artemi Panarin

Projected Contract: $11.2M x 8 years

With Erik Karlsson off of the market, Artemi Panarin is now alone at the top of the class as this year’s most prized offering. No other player available impacts the game more than Panarin who has seen a meteoric rise to superstardom since coming over to the NHL four seasons ago. In that time he has 320 points in 322 games. Only seven other players have scored more points in that time frame. He’s incredible with the puck leading to elite zone exit and entry numbers that make him an excellent play-driver. Panarin is elite, and at 27, is still young-ish for an unrestricted free agent.

Panarin is the type of player where a big money, long-term commitment won’t lead to much regret. It’s very rare that a player of his caliber even makes it to the open market to begin with, a player that legitimately moves the needle and can elevate a team to the next level. He’s worth it.

Still, as with all UFAs, his best days are likely behind him (unless he ages better due to starting his NHL career just four years ago, which is possible), and as long the team signing him understands that there should be no issues. My model expects a three-to-four year window where Panarin provides elite value before a slow decline in his 30’s. Even then, Panarin should still be a top line player for the entirety of his contract.

That’s worth $9.8-million per season over seven years which is $700,000 lower than what Evolving Hockey projects on a seven-year deal (let’s face it, he’s probably not getting eight years since Columbus is the only team that can offer such a deal). With elite talents, there’s more leeway in overpayments and Panarin is no exception as one of the league’s most dominant players. Even if he’s overpaid, he’s still providing immense value, which is not something you can say about other pending free agents.

Matt Duchene


This is a contract that deeply concerns me. On a six-year deal, Evolving Hockey pegs Duchene to be worth $6.8-million per season, while my model thinks he’s worth $6.7 million. Rumors are swirling that Duchene will command significantly more than that on the open market: north of $9-million per season. It’ll be an extremely tough ask for him to live up to that.

Duchene looks like a tweener top six center – one that would be elite on a second line but arguably outmatched on a top line. He projects to be a first line center over the next two seasons, but not an above average one, ranking 28th in the league per his GSVA (and not that much higher than Kevin Hayes either). Forget $9-million per season over seven years – Duchene likely isn’t worth that salary right now. With Duchene being 28 years old, things only get worse from there and over the majority of a lengthy contract would likely only provide second line value. His rumored ask would be an overpayment.

Duchene has always been held in high regard as one of the league’s better players, but his results have lagged behind his reputation. Last year was a high mark for his production, but it came off a bloated 18 percent shooting percentage that Duchene is unlikely to repeat. He’s blazingly fast and a gifted puck-handler, putting up decent point totals as a result, but he struggles to drive play like you’d expect from a top-flight center (especially one who is excellent at entering the zone with control) due to his defensive struggles. Duchene has only had one season in his career where his team has outshot the other with him on the ice.

Part of that is the fact that Duchene has never really had a strong support system. That’s why his “difficulty” rating is so high: it’s hard to do well when you play for a bottom five teams year-after-year and to his credit, he’s always been positive relative to his team, save for his brief stint in Columbus. It’s possible his raw talent will shine much brighter on a competitive team and that gives reason for optimism in signing him. It’s also possible that slotting him as the top option on those teams was part of the problem.

A team offering him $9 million or more likely expects him to be The Guy, but it’s unlikely he can be that. He’s much better suited as a complementary piece, though it looks increasingly unlikely his new deal will be commensurate of that.

Joe Pavelski


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At 35 years old, Pavelski is still a fantastic player that can bring the heat. Last season he scored 38 goals and was still pushing play in the right direction with a plus-2.8 percent expected goals rate relative to his team. He’s a goal-scorer who is one of the best in the league at creating high-quality chances. Last season he was 20th in individual high danger chances per 60.

The decline has already begun for Pavelski and it will likely only get worse from here on out, though my model expects Pavelski to stay steady with where he was at the two seasons prior in 2019-20. After that, the cliff begins and its imperative that the team signing him keeps the term short, though he’s at a high enough point that he should remain an effective player for the length of his contract.

He should still be a top line threat for the next two-to-three years and is worth upwards of $8 million in those seasons. Anything more than two-to-three years at his age is definitely a gamble.

Anders Lee


There were many who wondered whether Anders Lee could maintain his value without John Tavares as his main pivot. He proved any detractors wrong last season scoring 28 goals while being one of the Islanders’ strongest two-way players. It was a step back from the 40 goals he scored a year prior, but the drop-off there was worth it for his defensive improvement. In 2017-18, Lee was a major defensive liability on a team that already struggled mightily in their own end but was much stronger under new coach Barry Trotz. He may have been the Islanders’ most complete skater last season.

His body of work defensively is still collectively below average though. The Isles may have allowed fewer goals against with him on the ice compared to any other skater on the team last year, but the year prior they allowed the most. That variance isn’t all Lee (or Trotz for that matter), it’s mostly goaltending. His expected goals rate is much more indicative of his ability. There, he did improve year-over-year, but it was from a ghastly rate in 2017-18, to a slightly above average one in 2018-19.

Lee can score goals (1.13 5-on-5 goals-per-60 over the last three seasons, 16th in the league) and can drive play (plus-four percent relative expected goals rate) despite being a below average puck-carrier. That’s thanks to strong offensive instinct, which should make him an attractive commodity during free agency if the Islanders can’t manage to re-sign him. At age 29, what I’m most concerned about with any Lee contract is term. Lee projects to provide top-line value for only the next two seasons and top-six talent for three-to-four seasons after that. A top-six forward at the projected price of $6.6 million is fine for five years, but anything more and a team is paying $6.6 million or more in years six and seven for a 35-year-old middle-six caliber forward. That wouldn’t be good.

There’s also the chance that Lee’s contract year performance where he played like a bonafide top liner isn’t representative of his true talent. Before last year he was a tweener in the top six and regressing to that point on top of a decline might make things uglier much faster than projected here.

Mats Zuccarello


For the entirety of Mats Zuccarello’s career, his teams have always been better when he’s on the ice compared to the bench based on his relative shot metrics. Every season. Zuccarello has been a very underrated player through much of his career for that reason, but things likely get less rosy from here for the 32-year-old, especially as his minutes start dropping. His higher than expected projected output from above is based on the 19:51 he averaged last season, a mark he’s unlikely to reach on a contending team.

While his relative metrics have been good, he’s been below 50 percent in expected goals share in three of the last four seasons. Being The Guy on a poor Rangers team certainly didn’t help, but he struggled even as a complementary piece in the playoffs for his new team. The Stars carried just a 45 percent expected goals share with Zuccarello on the ice, one of the worst marks among forwards. His 11 points in 13 games were great, but five of those points were secondary assists. The fact the Stars got out-chanced in his minutes was disappointing for a player that’s rarely been on the wrong side of that ledger.

Whether Zuccarello can continue to drive play as he ages is an important question now as that’s a large part of his game. My model is optimistic thanks to strong relative numbers and still considers him to be above average in that regard – and that’s in pretty difficult minutes too. A shift to a lesser role could increase his value further. Zuccarello remains one of the game’s strongest playmakers and could eclipse 60 points with good health – he was on pace for 68 last season.

While he should still be able to provide top-six value into his 30’s, there are cracks under the surface that make things a bit risky. That’s par for the course for any deal involving a player over 30 though. Term will mean a lot here. Evolving Hockey projects four years for him and for that length, he could still provide great value, especially if can be a positive influence on chance rates. Anything more would be a sizeable risk though.

Gustav Nyquist


At 30 years old, term is the enemy for any Gustav Nyquist contract. He’s a decent second liner that drives offense coming off one of his career-best seasons, but it’s all downhill from here and managing expectations with him is critical. Nyquist is a solid contributor and underrated for what he brings to the table, but it won’t be long until he’s out of a top-six role entirely. A contract under four years could be palatable, but anything more could be a disaster in waiting depending on his cap hit.

Micheal Ferland


Micheal Ferland is an effective middle-six option, a goal-scorer with size that teams generally covet. He’s particularly great at getting into dangerous areas and creating chances, though not so strong at drawing penalties and staying out of the box.

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Based on the contract projected for him, Ferland looks like he could be relatively affordable for his skill-set and should command more for what he brings to the table. At 27, age isn’t as large of a concern relative to other UFA’s.

But there’s a definite reason for reserved skepticism and that comes with the difficulty of his minutes. Last year in Carolina, Ferland spent 69 percent of his 5-on-5 time next to either Sebastian Aho or Teuvo Teravainen (or both). The year prior, it was 82 percent next to Johnny Gaudreau or Sean Monahan. He compliments and works well with great players, but there’s a chance that his strong results are the product of who he plays with and not actually his own ability. In 1385 minutes with those star players, Ferland’s teams have scored 3.42 goals-per-60. Without them on the ice, that falls to 1.78 goals-per-60 in 438 minutes. Before becoming an option on the Flames top line, Ferland looked mostly replaceable and it shows when he’s apart.

That would give me plenty of pause with Ferland, but if he can be surrounded by talented offensive drivers, he could still provide underrated value in a team’s middle six at the right price. Those expecting and paying for more will be disappointed.

Ryan Dzingel


Ryan Dzingel had a career-high 56 points last season and I would bet a lot on him never approaching that total again. Not on a team that would actually use him properly anyways. Ottawa didn’t have many options, forcing him into a top-six role with power play time. On an average team, Dzingel is probably a third liner with scoring punch that needs sheltering due to his defensive shortcomings. Evolving Hockey projects a four-year deal worth $4.3-million per season, but that feels almost a million too high. By year four, Dzingel will barely be a top-nine option and any deal longer than four years probably shouldn’t even be considered.

Marcus Johansson


After a career year in 2016-17 where Marcus Johansson notched 58 points, the next two seasons haven’t been very strong. Both years have been mired in injury where he hasn’t been able to replicate the same scoring punch he showed with Washington. Scoring on 19 percent of your shots and getting a cushy gig as the net-front presence on the top power play will do a number on expectations, and Johansson hasn’t met them since. It’s probably why he was viewed as expendable following that season.

Johnasson looks to be an average player, perfectly suitable for a team’s middle six. He scores a little more than average, but drives play a little worse. That latter fact is surprising because he’s very strong in transition with excellent entry and exit numbers over the last few seasons. For teams that struggle to push the puck up ice with control, Johansson could definitely be an asset.

I’d be wary with what teams will pay for all that and for how long though, especially after seeing him as part of a Stanley Cup final run with the Bruins on a strong third line. Three years with an average cap hit south of $4.5 million is definitely

manageable, but he’s projected to earn slightly more with an extra season tacked on, a season where he projects to be a low caliber third liner.

Justin Williams


This feels like Patrick Marleau redux (which is funny now given Marleau was off-loaded to this very team), albeit with a much better play-driver actually worth the big money to start. Justin Williams is the heart of the Hurricanes and still has an incredibly strong influence on shot rates at both ends of the ice. In that vein, he was practically made to be a Hurricane and retire in Carolina. After his second straight 50-plus point season in Raleigh, it’s clear he can still pack a punch on the scoresheet.

At 37, the obvious concern is age and based on typical age curves it looks like Williams should still have two very productive years providing top-six value left in the tank and a season after on the edge between second and third line caliber. Based on the way he played the last few seasons, I believe it. The key will be limiting term to one-or-two seasons. Anything more could be a costly mistake as the Leafs learned this weekend.

Richard Panik


Richard Panik gets a bit of a bad rep in hockey circles for his lack of consistency, which is likely part of the reason he was shipped out of Chicago two seasons ago. There are worse options than him in this free agency class though. Panik looks like an average player, who fits fine in a team’s middle six.

What you’ll likely get is around 35-to-45 points with some penalty differential issues, but the reason to be enamored with Panik has more to do with his play-driving ability where he’s very strong offensively and can hold his own defensively. Over the last couple seasons, Panik’s teams carry a 52.6 percent expected goals percentage with him on the ice, but that drops to 49 percent with him off. That difference is 66th best mark in the league among forwards over the time frame. His 1.79 points-per-60 rate at 5-on-5 is also solid – and much of that was on a talent-depleted Arizona team.

He’s not a sexy name, but he can help a team at the right price and term. That’s not Evolving Hockey’s projected $4.9-million per season over four years, but a little less could be workable.

Wayne Simmonds


It feels like Wayne Simmonds’ reputation has faded with his dismal performance in Nashville after being acquired at the trade deadline, but with the reborn infatuation with heavy hockey after a Blues’ Stanley Cup victory, this contract has potential to be ugly. If he gets term it could be toxic.

Simmonds is projected to net $5-million per season for five years according to Evolving Hockey’s work and it’s debatable whether he’s even worth $5-million on a one-year deal. Over five, he’s likely worth just more than half of that and he may not even last that long with the way his career is heading.

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Simmonds is no longer a viable top-six forward option at age 31 and it won’t be long before he isn’t a viable top-nine option either. He can score goals and is a strong net-front presence, but part of both strengths is that he’s given an opportunity to do so on the power play, an opportunity he arguably doesn’t deserve anymore. At 5-on-5, Simmonds’ game has declined immensely over the past few seasons as he struggles to drive play and score at an above average rate. Over the last two season, his expected goals percentage of 47.6 percent was one of the worst rates on Philadelphia and he was just as bad in Nashville. His points-per-60 of 1.19 over the time frame is fourth line caliber.

Simmonds is just not the player he used to be, and unless he takes a massive pay-cut relative to what’s expected, then his next contract will likely be regrettable on day one.

Brett Connolly


Brett Connolly does one thing well and one thing only: score goals. That’s despite not creating the best chances for himself with a below average individual expected goals rate.

In his time in Washington, Connolly scored on 18.9 percent of his shots at 5-on-5 and put in a career year last season with 46 points. That was while playing 13:20 per night, which is actually a sizeable minute increase relative to his previous seasons. Connolly has evolved into a pretty efficient scorer in low minutes over the last few seasons, posting 2.19 points-per-60 during his tenure in Washington – which is first-line caliber. Last year’s stunning 2.66 actually led all Capitals and was good for 17th in the league overall.

His poor defense is likely what’s keeping him from a bigger role, but his offensive upside suggests he’s deserving of more minutes. He could be a savvy pick-up for a team looking for depth scoring in its top nine with potential for more upside. Connolly is a bit of a passenger, but in the right spot and role could provide surprisingly good value. At his projected price, he could be the rare July bargain.

Joonas Donskoi


Joonas Donskoi never gets much love, but he’s been a strong under-the-radar player for the Sharks over the last two seasons, doing well in a bottom-six role. Few players drive play better than Donskoi does who is excellent at creating chances for himself and his teammates, as well as moving the puck up ice. The Sharks had a 58.2 percent expected goals rate with Donskoi on the ice last season as a result, the highest on the team and 4.4 percent better than when he was on the bench. For one of the best teams in the league in that regard, that’s seriously impressive. He’s a positive at both ends of the ice too.

Part of what also makes Donskoi so underrated is his massive ability to draw penalties while not taking many himself. Only 14 other players are projected to do a better job on a per minute basis next season and that could be a valuable asset to a team with strong special teams.

Donskoi may not score much but could be very useful for a team needing middle-six depth that struggles to possess the

puck and create chances. At under $3 million, he would be a steal.

Defensemen

Jake Gardiner


With Karlsson off the market, Jake Gardiner easily becomes the best defenseman available. He was a whipping boy for many Leafs fans throughout his tenure, but an injury that saw him miss the end of the regular season and the Leafs struggles as a result, began to flip the script and enlighten many to his value.

Gardiner is a modern NHL defenseman, one who makes his due by moving the puck up ice and he’s one of the league’s strongest in that regard. He’s also one of the league’s best playmakers on the back end and was a key part of what drove Toronto’s elite offense. Very few defenders drive play at both ends of the ice as well as Gardiner does and his presence could be a huge addition to any team’s top four. Gardiner isn’t a No. 1 defenseman but could be a strong complement for years to come. He should have top pair value for roughly the next five years.

That’s the sweet spot for any Gardiner deal, especially if the cap hit approaches $7 million. Anything more could be dicey as he declines into a second pairing defender. Gardiner is 29 so age is definitely a concern here. With his game centered around skill over brawn, there’s a chance he ages more gracefully, though recent injury trouble could put a dent in that.

Tyler Myers


It seems a lot of hockey men are still enamored by the extremely tall Tyler Myers, despite the fact he’s been aggressively mediocre in Winnipeg with last season being a low point. When Myers was on the ice, the Jets carried a 48.2 percent expected goals rate, a pretty low mark for someone playing on the third pair. Myers can move the puck fine and is OK offensively, but is a turnstile at his own blue line and struggles defensively as a result. Over the last three seasons, he’s allowed the most expected goals against per 60 amongst Jets defenders.

And yet, Myers looks like he’s in line for a deal that will pay upwards of $6-million per season for a long time. With Myers one year away from age 30, it doesn’t feel like a very strong bet as he’ll only get worse as the years wear on – and he’s already not at a high place to start.

At this point, my model figures Myers provides bottom pairing value and it’s only a matter of time before that value disintegrates further. There’s no larger discrepancy this offseason between my model’s projected market value and Evolving Hockey’s projected contract than Myers, who appears to be worth just over half of what he’s expected to get. Of all the contracts signed in July, it’s Myers’ that will arguably be the biggest poison pill right from the get-go. Teams expecting a top-four defenseman will likely be in for a rude awakening sooner rather than later.

Anton Stralman

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At age 33 Anton Stralman isn’t what he used to be: a fancy stats darling that drives play to an elite degree. He’s still above average in that regard but took a major step back last year in an injury-riddled campaign. His 50 percent expected goals rate was the worst on Tampa Bay’s blue line and he was the only Lightning defenseman last season to be out-shot for the season at 5-on-5. It was only the second time since 2007-08 that’s happened to him.

I’d expect a small bounce-back for next season, but would be wary of last year being a sign of things to come going forward. He would need a large bounce-back to be worth the contract projected to him, which would arguably be an over-payment by about $1-million per season.

Goalies

Sergei Bobrovsky

The Evolving Hockey twins don’t have contract projections for goaltenders (which means I don’t either as my “market value” projections are derived from their work), and I don’t have projections past this season (because that would be a hopeless venture) but I figured it would be worth mentioning a few of the big names.

Sergei Bobrovsky had a down season by his standards, but a strong stretch drive gave him his third straight season posting a save percentage above expected. The prior two were to a massive degree as Bobrovsky was arguably the league’s best goalie during the time frame. My model uses the past three years and figures a return to form is in the cards, valuing Bobrovsky at 3.5 wins per 60 starts based on his output above expected, second only to John Gibson.

That makes Bobrovsky one of the league’s most valuable players on paper, but the volatility of goaltending means a smart team shouldn’t pay him as such – or at least give out term for it. One only needs to look at the now onerous Carey Price contract for a perfect example.

Bobrovsky may be worth 3.5 wins on paper, but there’s far less certainty in that figure than for a forward or a defenseman. With skaters, it’s much easier to project. With goalies, all expectations go out the window thanks to the year-to-year

variance of the position. Bobrovsky could be worth 3.5 wins, or 1.5 wins, or 5.5 wins, or anywhere in-between when all is said and done at the end of the season, giving any long-term contract much less cost-certainty. Not to mention he’ll be 31 by the time puck drops in October.

Bobrovsky is one of the best goalies in the league right now. He deserves to be paid like one. I would just be wary of being the team that does it, especially if it’s for a long time.

Robin Lehner

Just as we all expected at the start of the season: Robin Lehner was one of the best goalies in the league. Based on his career playing below expectations, it was a big shock, but of course, dealing with his issues away from the rink likely changed everything for Lehner. That obviously makes projections difficult for a model that’s agnostic to personal lifestyle changes.

Based on the last three seasons, Lehner is projected to be a goalie that meets expectations next season; nothing more, nothing less – aside from the massive variance that comes with goaltending. It’s a massive regression from his stellar 2018-19 campaign which is to be expected given how much he overachieved, but perhaps not a justified one with Lehner’s improved mental health. Time will tell, but it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see Lehner use last season as a stepping stone into solidifying himself as a capable full-time starter.

Petr Mrazek

Back in 2015, it seemed like Petr Mrazek was going to be one of the game’s top starters, posting stellar numbers for Detroit, but his career derailed a bit in the following two seasons. In 2016 and 2017, he was as bad as he was good the two years prior. The Hurricanes took a gamble with his acquisition last summer, but it paid off as he posted a positive season above expected and was the key to their elite stretch drive.

With goalies being so volatile, I’m not sure Mrazek’s decent 40 games last season were enough to cement him as a legitimate starter though. My model still projects him to post a save percentage slightly below expected. Any contract with significant term would be risky.

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Hurricanes trade de Haan, Saarela to Blackhawks

Two days after using their cap space to get a first-round pick from Toronto, the Hurricanes cleared space by trading a defenseman

By Cory Lavalette

RALEIGH — The Hurricanes have swung their second trade in three days.

After using its available cap space to get a first-round pick from Toronto to take on the final year of Patrick Marleau’s contract on Saturday, Carolina traded defenseman Calvin de Haan and forward prospect Aleksi Saarela to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for defenseman Gustav Forsling and goalie Anton Forsberg on Monday.

Two moves, both for salary cap reasons.

The Hurricanes used their wealth of cap space to add more draft firepower, then used their glut of defensemen to clear up space for some pending contracts.

According to CapFriendly.com, Carolina has nearly $25 million in salary cap space after trading de Haan (owed an average of $4.55 million over the next three seasons). Both Forsling and Forsberg are restricted free agents and depth players — either could crack the Hurricanes roster, but this deal was about making room in the checkbook to fill other holes.

Carolina needs to re-sign or replace Justin Williams, and the team will also find a replacement for the departing Micheal Ferland, who fell out of favor with the team and is unlikely to return.

The Hurricanes also need to shore up their goaltending. Alex Nedeljkovic is on the cusp of being an NHL goalie, and Forsberg has enough NHL experience to add some depth. So Carolina will be targeting at least one goalie, if not two, this offseason. The team could save more money by buying out goalie Scott Darling, who has two years and $7.1 million remaining on his contract. Petr Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney remain options but are free to talk to any team.

The biggest ticket item will be RFA Sebastian Aho, who could make $10 million or more annually if Carolina can get its top scorer to agree to an eight-year deal. Brock McGinn — another favorite of ownership and the coaching staff — is also a restricted free agent and due a raise (I expect him to come in around the same as Jordan Martinook’s two-year, $4 million contract extension).

De Haan was a valuable player for Carolina last year, but too pricey to make that much on the third pairing and not worth more than getting a first-round pick — especially with Haydn Fleury ready to take his place in the lineup.

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Gold: Hurricanes offseason diary

By Adam Gold

The Carolina Hurricanes came out of the draft with a dozen prospects and a wealth of future assets. They also have a depth chart full of empty spaces and varying forms of free agents. What's next is not complicated, but it is complex. Sign your best players to contracts that are fair to both parties. Find scoring help for the forward group. And, figure out the goaltending situation.

Monday evening, the Hurricanes engineered a 4-player trade with the Chicago Black Hawks (wait, I thought Ron Francis was no longer the general manager) that sent defenseman Calvin de Haan and forward prospect Alexsi Saarela west in exchange for 23-year old defenseman Gustav Forsling and reserve goaltender Anton Forsberg.

Leaving

The Hurricanes have clearly given up the most talent in this trade. In de Haan, Carolina parts with a solid, stay-at-home defenseman with three years left on a very reasonable contract ($4.55 million AAV) even as de Haan is entering the season following a significant shoulder injury that required surgery and a 4-6 month rehabilitation process.

In Saarela, the prospect Carolina received in the Eric Staal deadline deal with the Rangers a few years back, Chicago receives a forward with a great shot, quick feet, and some offensive upside. He still has growing to do in terms of learning the other side of the game and playing without the puck, but Saarela has potential. Think, Valentin Zykov, only mobile and better.

Arrivals

Gustav Forsling is a 6'0"/185 lb, 23-year old, left shot defenseman with eight goals and 27 points in 122 NHL games

over three seasons. A 5th round pick in the 2014 draft, the Linkoping, Sweden native is coming off a year in which he played 43 games in Chicago, registering three goals and nine points in just over 17 minutes per night. He's a good skater and moves the puck well, though he doesn't always move it to the right team. He's a restricted free agent, so Carolina still needs to figure out a contract for him.

The skinny

A straight salary dump. In a way, this is like a poor man's Patrick Marleau trade. The Hurricanes traded away de Haan, a good player, but one owed $14.2 million at the cost of a prospect who potentially could be a 3rd line offensive contributor. In exchange, the Hurricanes receive a bottom pair defender who is five years younger than de Haan to increase the competition for the last spot or two in the defensive corps. They also get a veteran goaltender to back up whomever ends up the top goalie in Charlotte. Alex Nedeljkovic, if he isn't the back up in Raleigh, or whichever between Jeremy Helvig or Callum Booth is the prospect in the AHL.

Carolina will save more than the Marleau buyout will cost them, so from a financial standpoint, it's hard not to appreciate the deal. And, if the savings makes it more likely that Justin Faulk, Sebastian Aho and (maybe even) Petr Mrazek are brought back with new contracts then we'll look back on the last few days as a positive development. But, those last few things haven't happened yet. And, until they do, Carolina is still backpedaling in one of their most important offseasons in the last ten years.

Polls haven't closed yet on this trade. The next wave of returns will determine whether or not today was a step in the right direction.

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De Haan traded to Blackhawks by Hurricanes

Chicago also receives forward prospect Saarela for defenseman Forsling, goalie Forsberg

Calvin de Haan was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks by the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday along with forward prospect Aleksi Saarela for goalie Anton Forsberg and defenseman Gustav Forsling.

De Haan had a goal and 13 assists in 74 regular-season games this season and one goal in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, helping the Hurricanes reach the Eastern Conference Final. The 28-year-old defenseman signed a four-year contract with Carolina on July 1, 2018, as an unrestricted free agent after playing six seasons with the New York Islanders, who selected him with the No. 12 pick at the 2009 NHL Draft.

In seven NHL seasons with the Hurricanes and Islanders, de Haan has 95 points (13 goals, 82 assists) in 378 games.

Saarela helped Charlotte of the American Hockey League win the Calder Cup this season, setting AHL career highs in goals (30), assists (24) and points (54) in 69 regular-season games.

The 22-year-old had 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) in 17 AHL playoff games and played one postseason game with the Hurricanes.

Saarela was selected by the New York Rangers in the third round (No. 89) of the 2015 NHL Draft. In 147 AHL games with Charlotte, he had 107 points (61 goals, 46 assists). The Blackhawks selected his brother, forward Antti Saarela, in the fourth round (No. 123) of the 2019 NHL Draft.

Forsberg went 15-15-2 with a 2.64 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage in 32 games with Rockford of the AHL this season. The 26-year-old is 11-24-4 with a 3.21 GAA and .901 save percentage in 45 NHL games with the Blackhawks and Columbus Blue Jackets. Forsberg was a seventh-round pick by Columbus (No. 188) in the 2011 NHL Draft.

Forsling had 27 points (eight goals, 19 assists) in 122 NHL games over three seasons with the Blackhawks. The 23-year-old was a fifth-round pick (No. 126) by the Vancouver Canucks at the 2014 NHL Draft.

Marleau believes he can play beyond next season

Forward traded to Hurricanes by Maple Leafs discusses past, future with NHL.com

by Mike Zeisberger

TORONTO -- Patrick Marleau feels he has a lot left in his tank, even though he'll turn 40 on Sept. 15.

The question is: Which NHL jersey will the veteran wing be wearing to prove it?

Marleau was traded with a conditional first-round pick and a seventh-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday for a sixth-round pick in 2020 draft. The Hurricanes could buy out the final year of his contract so he can explore options to play closer to his home in the San Jose area.

"We'll see what happens," Marleau said. "I'll leave that to my representatives and the Hurricanes to discuss.

"I could see myself playing beyond this next year. I still feel really good and I still feel I can contribute. Last year wasn't a very good year by my standards (37 points; 16 goals, 21 assists) so I'm looking forward to proving that wrong. That kind of gets the adrenaline going. You have to prove yourself year after year. I look forward to doing that this year."

Marleau, who has not missed a game in more than 10 seasons (788 straight), had 84 points (43 goals, 41 assists) in

164 regular-season games and seven points (four goals, three assists) in 14 Stanley Cup Playoff games in two seasons with Toronto. He played his first 19 NHL seasons for the San Jose Sharks before signing a three-year contract with the Maple Leafs on July 2, 2017.

In a wide-ranging interview with NHL.com, Marleau candidly touched on a number of issues, including what motivated his family's desire to return to the West Coast; his special relationship with Maple Leafs forwards Auston Matthews and Mitchell Marner; what Toronto needs to do to take the next step; and his gratitude to Maple Leafs Nation and the city of Toronto.

First off, what's fueled your family's decision to return to California?

"Everything is based on that -- family. I wanted to kind of be with them. Our one son, it's based on his schooling and what was best for him. It was at the point where my wife and kids were planning on coming back (to California) already. It kind of ties it all together. Hard to explain it all. Basically, for the kids schooling and stuff we thought we could get the help and support we needed here. With four boys it's a little bit easier here with family around for my wife."

How did Maple Leafs management handle your wish to leave?

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"They've been nothing but professional and great through the whole thing. Very understanding both ways, both from our side and their side. There were a lot of moving parts and pieces, probably more than I'm privy to."

You've said this decision had nothing to do with any dislike of Toronto. In fact, you said your family loved the city.

"My and wife were talking about that today. The things we all were able to do there, the friendships we all made, it made the experience in Toronto amazing. The fact that the kids could skate in the backyard, they could go out and go sledding, they would have never had that chance had we not gone to Toronto. It was special. We wouldn't have traded it for the world."

How much did you embrace finally getting to wear the Maple Leafs jersey after growing up watching them as a little kid in rural Alberta?

"Huge honor. Playing for a franchise that was first class all the way. Having the history that the team has. And the fan base, the Leafs Nation, was unbelievable. It feels like a home game wherever you're playing. I don't think you get that anywhere else and that's something special I'll remember the rest of my life. Going to another team's building and during warmup the building being packed full of fans when you were on the road, that's pretty special."

Having said that, how frustrating was it to be eliminated in the Eastern Conference First Round in seven games by the Boston Bruins in consecutive years? What do the Maple Leafs have to do to get over that hump?

"Definitely was frustrating. Especially this year when we had two chances to clinch the series and move on, and we didn't do it. To fall short especially with the bond we all had with that group of guys, we had such a tight group and we all played for each other. We fell short, but it was still a great experience. And I think it will help light a fire under a lot of guys' butts moving forward and knowing it's not going to be easy. It's going to take that little extra here and there and it's going to take everybody to win those playoff rounds and build off that."

Mitchell Marner and Auston Matthews were more than teammates. You welcomed them into your home as part of your family. How did all that come about?

"I was kind of just drawn towards them when I first got there. They're both great, great people to go along with being great hockey players. I just wanted to be around them. They're coming up in a different era than I did. But the thing they did as kids -- the skills, the skills coaches, the way they're being taught on the way up -- well, I'm still trying to grab a piece here and there and help my game. That's as far as hockey. Away from the rink they're great people. They're fun to be around. The kids loved them. You never know how guys are going to be with kids, but they fit right in. They were part of the family. I think it's something pretty special. It makes it that much harder not to be around them next year, but we have plans to stay in touch and see each other in the summer, things like that. I have a strong feeling that friendship is not going to go away, and we'll keep building it."

We saw the emotional exchanges between you, Mitch and Auston on social media on Saturday. How difficult was it when you talked to them for the first time after the trade?

"It's just tough knowing that how good a time we had together. Going out for dinners. Getting to play on the same team. Getting to see each other every day. When you talk to them, you're not going to have those interactions every day. That's what I'll miss the most."

Do you find it ironic that the trading of your salary gives Toronto more cap space help in its efforts to sign your buddy Marner, who can become a restricted free agent July 1?

"Kind of crazy how things work out. But obviously I think the world of Mitch. He deserves whatever he can get and what he feels is fair and whatever he feels is best for he and his family."

Have you given Marner any advice prior to or during these negotiations?

"We've talked at different times about it. Ultimately, it's going to come down to what he decides and what his agent decides. People close to him will have their input but ultimately it'll be about what he decides for himself and his career."

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Blackhawks acquire de Haan in trade with Hurricanes

CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Blackhawks made another trade for a veteran defenseman on Monday, acquiring Calvin de Haan in a deal with the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Blackhawks also received minor league forward Aleksi Saarela in exchange for defenseman Gustav Forsling and goaltender Anton Forsberg.

Chicago has been looking to upgrade its blue line since it missed the playoffs last season for the second straight year. It acquired Olli Maatta in a trade with Pittsburgh on June 15.

The addition of de Haan and Maatta raises questions about what the Blackhawks might do with the rest of their defensemen. They also have Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Connor Murphy, Erik Gustafsson, Carl Dahlstrom and Slater Koekkoek on their roster, and Henri Jokiharju could take on a prominent role after finishing last season in the minors.

The Hurricanes’ acquisition of Forsberg comes with the two goalies who helped lead them to the Eastern Conference final — veterans Petr Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney — eligible for free agency on July 1.

De Haan was selected by the New York Islanders with the 12th overall pick in the 2009 draft. He spent his first six

seasons with the team before joining Carolina last summer, signing a four-year contract worth $18.2 million.

The 28-year-old de Haan had one goal and 13 assists in 74 games last season. He also had a goal in 12 playoff appearances.

Forsberg becomes the second Blackhawks goalie traded to Carolina in three years. The Hurricanes picked up Scott Darling in 2017 and gave him a four-year contract that pays him an average of $4.15 million per season. Darling was injured during the preseason finale last season, placed on waivers and played only eight games in the NHL in 2018-19.

Carolina acquired Saarela from New York in the 2017 deal that sent then-captain Eric Staal to the Rangers. He played only one game with the Hurricanes.

Forsling, a fifth-round pick by Vancouver in 2014, had eight goals and 19 assists in 122 games over three seasons with Chicago. He just turned 23 on June 12.

Forsberg was acquired by the Blackhawks in the 2017 trade that sent Artemi Panarin to Columbus. He spent last season with Rockford in the AHL, going 15-15-2 with a 2.64 goals-against average.

Blackhawks acquire defenseman Calvin de Haan and a prospect for Gustav Forsling and Anton Forsberg

By Jimmy Greenfield

With each passing trade, the Blackhawks seem to be tipping their hand that something larger is in store.

The Hawks acquired defenseman Calvin de Haan and forward prospect Aleksi Saarela from the Hurricanes on Monday for goalie Anton Forsberg and defenseman Gustav Forsling, both of whom were restricted free agents.

The deal comes less than a week after the Hawks sent forward Dominik Kahun to the Penguins for defenseman Olli Maatta.

Forsberg was not expected to return while Forsling was a possibility, though he was expendable given the depth of blueliners the Hawks have in their system and at the NHL level.

De Haan, 28, had shoulder surgery last month and is expected to be out four to six months, which means he might miss the start to the regular season. But with a $4.55 million cap hit, now third among Hawks defensemen behind Brent Seabrook

and Duncan Keith, he’ll be in the lineup the moment he’s healthy.

The Hawks have around $12 million in cap space left after the trade, according to capfriendly.com. That figure is sure to come down when the Hawks re-sign some of their restricted free agents, including Brendan Perlini, David Kampf, Dylan Sikura and John Quenneville.

The trade gives the Hawks seven bona fide NHL defensemen: Seabrook, Keith, de Haan, Erik Gustafsson, Connor Murphy, Maatta and Henri Jokiharju, who finished the year in Rockford but who many believe is ready to break into the NHL for good.

Seabrook and Keith have no-movement clauses and can’t be dealt without their permission. There was a report out of Vancouver that the Hawks discussed sending the third overall pick to the Canucks for the 10th pick in the draft on the condition the Canucks pick up the remainder of Seabrook’s contract. Seabrook grew up in the Vancouver area and still has a home there.

Gustafsson is in the final year of his contract that has a $1.2 million cap hit and is coming off a 60-point season but was a

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defensive liability much of the season. He was benched by Hawks coach Jeremy Colliton in early December before turning his season around shortly afterward.

Despite his breakout season, Gustafsson is not a sure thing to be re-signed. Top defensive prospect Adam Boqvist is perhaps a year away from joining the Hawks and also has elite offensive skills.

Murphy is a solid top-four defenseman with a reasonable $3.85 million cap hit that has three years remaining. But he’s now the Hawks’ fifth-highest paid defenseman and doesn’t have any kind of no-movement clause.

Like Maatta, de Haan is left-handed and strong defensively but doesn’t have a lot of offensive upside. He had one goal and 13 assists in 74 games last season for the Hurricanes and 95 points (13 goals, 82 assists) in 378 career games.

He was the Islanders’ first-round pick (No. 12 overall) in 2009 and was a teammate of Colliton’s with Bridgeport of the American Hockey League when both were in the Islanders’ system.

Saarela was the Rangers’ third-round pick in 2015 before being traded to the Hurricanes in 2016. Saarela has yet to appear in a regular-season game but made his NHL debut April 20 when he appeared in Game 5 of the Hurricanes’ Eastern Conference first-round series against the Capitals. He had 54 points (30 goals, 24 assists) in 69 games last year for the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers.

The Blackhawks drafted Saarela’s brother, Antti, in the fourth round of last week’s draft.

Blackhawks acquire Hurricanes’ Calvin de Haan in 4-player trade

Gustav Forsling and Anton Forsberg head to Carolina in the deal.

By Satchel Price and Ben Pope

The Blackhawks acquired defenseman Calvin de Haan and forward prospect Aleksi Saarela for goaltender Anton Forsberg and defenseman Gustav Forsling in an unexpected Monday night trade.

The move continues an ongoing remodeling of the Hawks’ defensive corps following a rough showing on that front last season. The team also recently traded for the Penguins’ Olli Maatta, sending Dominik Kahun and a fifth-round pick to Pittsburgh.

De Haan, like Maatta, is a defensive-minded blue liner who’s signed relatively affordably ($4.55 million cap hit) for the next three seasons. He joined the Hurricanes last year in free agency after spending the first five seasons of his career with the Islanders.

In his lone season in Carolina, De Haan recorded one goal and 13 assists in 74 games. The 28-year-old posted strong possession metrics, including a 55.5 percent even strength Corsi, for a team that dominated in that area.

He’s exactly the kind of player the Hawks needed: a conservative, reliable rearguard who can provide stability to a unit that previously lacked anyone in that role.

Whether he’s paired with Connor Murphy to form a true shutdown duo, slotted alongside Erik Gustafsson to counterbalance the Swede’s sometimes over-aggressive offensive tendencies, or designated as the responsible mentor for a prospect like Henri Jokiharju or Adam Boqvist, de Haan could be a useful addition in any number of ways.

Saarela, 22, will further boost the Hawks’ forward prospect pipeline, which has gotten a lot wetter in a matter of days.

Saarela played most of the past two seasons for the Hurricanes’ AHL affiliate, recording 30 goals and 24 assists in 69 games last season with the Calder Cup-winning Carolina Checkers. His 17-year-old brother, Antti, was drafted by the Hawks just this Saturday.

The Hawks gave up shockingly little in exchange for de Haan and Saarela, considering both assets heading to Raleigh are restricted free agents who may or may not have been set to receive qualifying offers by the Tuesday deadline.

Forsling, 23, and Forsberg, 26, both showed signs of promise at times with the Blackhawks but never established themselves at the NHL level. Forsling regularly missed time over the last three seasons due to injury or being sent to the AHL. Forsberg struggled with the Hawks in 2017-18 before playing well with Rockford last season, but had little path back to the United Center moving forward with Collin Delia having secured the backup role.

The Hawks now have 17 players under contract at a total cap hit of $69.53 million, per Cap Friendly.

That gives them a still-healthy $11.97 million to fill out the remaining spots on their roster under the salary cap, but general manager Stan Bowman may now be done upgrading the defense. The free agent market is woefully shallow at the position and the GM expressed concern at the draft about using too much of the team’s current cap room with rising stars Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Strome due for big raises next summer.

Even if the defense is set now, though, the Hawks have a real chance at improving now that both Maatta and de Haan are in the fold. A mere one acquisition seemed insufficient, but two equates to potentially one-third of the whole unit — and combined with an offseason of added familairity with coach Jeremy Colliton’s systems, the Hawks can reasonably expect substantial defensive improvement in 2019-20.

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NHL’s Top 15 RFAs of 2019: Latest rumours, reports

By Luke Fox

Blame the centre of the hockey universe.

Over the past seven months, Toronto Maple Leafs restricted free agents William Nylander and Auston Matthews each played a role in rewriting the rules for stars coming out of their entry-level deals.

One pushed his rookie general manager to the final five minutes of the signing deadline and reaped a generous financial reward as a result. The other inked a massive bridge/commitment hybrid deal that will walk him to unrestricted free agency at the age of 26.

The negotiating leverage has nudged toward the young stars ruling a faster, more skilled league. That’s evident by the number of emerging stars who turned down in-season offers, opting instead to put up pinball numbers and cash in on the bets they made on themselves.

Here’s a look at our top 15 RFAs-in-waiting, whose contract negotiations we’re most intrigued to see play out based on their 2018-19 performance.

This summer’s class — loaded with Canadian-team stars — will have an especially significant impact on the salary cap pictures in Toronto, Winnipeg, Tampa and Calgary.

Restricted free agents have the option of discussing offer sheets with opposing clubs as of 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, and we’re eagerly awaiting to see what happens with this star-studded Group 2 class.

1. Brayden Point Age on July 1: 23 Position: Centre / Right wing 2018-19 salary cap hit: $686,667 Arbitration rights: No Bargaining chips: Established as one of the NHL’s premier two-way centremen and earned some Selke votes. Can check top lines. Put up 41 goals and 92 points. NHL-best 20 power-play goals. Ranked top-10 in plus/minus (+27).

The latest: Point’s agent, Gerry Johannson, had a plan to let his client’s fabulous platform year play out before opening serious extension talks. In light of Tampa’s impending cap crunch, The Athletic‘s Joe Smith reports that Point is open to wide range of term, anything from a two-year bridge deal to a five-year Auston Matthews-type deal to an eight-year lockup.

“He loves it in Tampa,” Johannson told Smith.

Lightning GM Julien BriseBois has decisions to make on a number of veterans during his first summer calling the shots but says extending Point is top priority.

To that end, BriseBois has freed up some funds by trading winger J.T. Miller to Vancouver for futures and placing alternate captain Ryan Callahan on long-term injured reserve.

With the salary ceiling officially set at $71.5 million, the Lightning have just $10.6 million to take care of Point and fellow RFAs Adam Erne, Danick Martel and Cedric Paquette while bolstering a blue line that should see UFAs Anton Stralman and Dan Girardi leave.

2. Mitchell Marner Age on July 1: 22 Position: Right wing 2018-19 salary cap hit: $894,167 Arbitration rights: No Bargaining chips: Maple Leafs scoring leader in 2017-18 and 2018-19. Quarterbacks power play. Kills penalties. Established wonderful chemistry with top centre John Tavares and improved as a shutdown winger. Put up career highs in goals (26), assists (68), points (94) while trimming his penalties to a career low (22). Local kid and fan favourite.

The latest: As the Maple Leafs split for the summer, Marner reiterated his desire to remain in blue and white for the foreseeable future and GM Kyle Dubas, facing one heck of a cap dilemma, said his top priority was locking up Marner prior to July 1, when he’ll be eligible to sign an offer sheet.

Speculation has the Marner camp, led by agent Darren Ferris, looking for a contract comparable to Auston Matthews’ five years at an $11.6-million cap hit. The NHL’s highest-paid winger is three-time Cup champ Patrick Kane at $10.5 million.

Dubas, of course, would love to keep Marner to seven digits. Originally vowing to match an offer sheet should these prickly negotiations reach that point, Dubas changed his tone at the draft, saying there’s no guarantee he’d match.

“Without an answer on Mitch, we’re going to be in a stalemate,” Dubas said. “It is a top priority because we’re not going to jump around and chew up our cap space we are going to need for Mitch by or with fringe signings either. It’s important. We just have to get right on it and get it done.”

Dubas helped his own cause over the weekend by trading away Patrick Marleau’s hefty $6.25-million cap hit to Carolina, but the Marner camp appears determined to speak to opposing teams this week.

“My understanding is that a very significant offer was made [by Dubas], a full eight-year term and $10 million a year,” Sportsnet’s Brian Burke said on-air Monday. “Now the issue is they don’t want an eight-year term.”

3. Sebastian Aho Age on July 1: 21 Position: Centre / Left wing 2018-19 salary cap hit: $925,000 Arbitration rights: No Bargaining chips: Best forward the organization has had in years. Franchise centre. Led Hurricanes in goals (30), points (83), power-play points (24), shorthanded points (five),

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game-winning goals (seven). Plus-25. Selected to All-Star Game.

The latest: Under new owner Tom Dundon, the budget-conscious Hurricanes couldn’t reach an agreement with last summer’s key RFAs, Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm, and ended up trading them to Calgary. That won’t be the case, Dundon has assured, with his young franchise centre.

Like Point, Aho is represented by Johannson. Like Point, he upped his value with a stellar performance in 2018-19. Aho’s camp opened long-term extension talks last summer and continued into the fall.

In late October, GM Don Waddell stated “there’s not a crazy difference” in terms of the comparables the sides were using. It is believed Aho’s top ask could be in the range of Jack Eichel’s eight-year, $80-million deal. Regardless, he is all but guaranteed to become his club’s highest-paid player.

Waddell told reporters at the draft that the gap between the player and the team isn’t too big and there is mutual interest in closing a deal.

4. Mikko Rantanen Age on July 1: 22 Position: Right wing 2018-19 salary cap hit: $894,167 Arbitration rights: No Bargaining chips: Led club in playoff scoring (14 points) and is a career point-per-game performer in the post-season (18 in 18). Second only to Nathan MacKinnon in team assists (56) and points (87), despite playing just 74 games. Back-to-back 80-point seasons. Play-maker on the most dangerous line in the West. Invited to first All-Star Game. A big boy (six-foot-four, 215 pounds). Career-high plus-13.

The latest: Prior to opening night, Rantanen smartly chose to let the season play out in full before negotiating. Then he went out and had a career season on one of the best lines in hockey.

Colorado’s highest-paid player, MacKinnon, carries a $6.3-million cap hit. Rantanen has enough leverage to blow his centreman out of the water.

“It’s not something we’re worried about,” GM Joe Sakic said of Rantanen’s next deal. Cap space isn’t an issue in Colorado. “He’s going to be here a long time.”

Despite a lack of resolution on the Rantanen front, Sakic is actively pursuing free agents to support his monster top line and has reportedly already met with Artemi Panarin.

5. Matthew Tkachuk Age on July 1: 21 Position: Left wing 2018-19 salary cap hit: $925,000 Arbitration rights: No Bargaining chips: Sixth-overall pick. Career highs in games (80), goals (34), assists (43), points (77), while posting a career low in PIM per game. Good genes. Likely successor to Mark Giordano as captain. Gets under Drew Doughty’s skin.

The latest: Tkachuk believes Matthews’ five-year monster extension raised the bar, which is a scary thought for the Flames, who must make Tkachuk their highest-paid player.

“It sets that new bar for guys that are in a position to be up for a deal to be a restricted free agent this year,” Tkachuk said on Feb. 6. “It kind of changes every year, it seems like. There’s always that one guy or a couple guys who change the money, whether higher or lower.

“Auston changed it, too, just going with the approach of a five-year deal, too. Maybe people haven’t seen it in a couple years, but it’s not uncommon. Guys used to do that all the time. He definitely set the bar for this year.”

Gulp.

GM Brad Treliving, who has a track record of locking up his RFAs, has maintained confidence that Tkachuk’s negotiations will have a happy ending.

“We’ll get him signed. I don’t know when that’s going to be,” Treliving said on Jan. 15. “But we’ll work away at that quietly and I can tell you we’ll let you know as soon as it’s done, whenever that is.”

Because Tkachuk and fellow RFAs Sam Bennett and David Rittich need significant raises, Treliving has been rumoured to be entertaining trade offers for James Neal, T.J. Brodie and possibly Travis Hamonic.

The crunch is being felt in Calgary.

6. Timo Meier Age on July 1: 22 Position: Left wing / Right wing 2018-19 salary cap hit: $894,167 Arbitration rights: No Bargaining chips: Ninth-overall pick. Posted career bests in goals (30), assists (36), points (66) and plus/minus (+9). Led all Sharks in even-strength points (56). Enjoyed his best and deepest playoff run (15 points in 20 games). San Jose needs to keep forwards under age of 25 happy. Strong like ox. Refs can detect his hand passes.

The latest: All in (again), Doug Wilson made Erik Karlsson priority No. 1 this off-season, re-signing the elite defenceman to a cap-hindering $11.5-million-a-year extension.

While decisions await on UFA Joes Thornton and Pavelski — both of whom would like to return — Meier must be retained, even though he’ll be gunning for as much as $7.25 million per year, his production reflecting nicely if he uses Toronto’s William Nylander as a comparable.

“I stay away from these numbers and all that stuff. I try to keep that all way in the back of my mind,” Meier told the Mercury News in December.

Wilson shipped defenceman Justin Braun to Philadelphia in a salary-dump deal last week, leaving him with only $14.8 million to fill out his roster.

Oh, yeah. Joonas Donskoi (UFA), Gustav Nyquist (UFA) and Kevin Labanc (RFA) are also Sharks still needing jobs in 2019-20.

7. Brock Boeser Age on July 1: 22

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Position: Right wing 2018-19 salary cap hit: $925,000 Arbitration rights: No Bargaining chips: 2018 Calder Trophy runner-up. 2018 All-Star Game MVP. Lethal shot. Great chemistry with franchise centre Elias Pettersson. Class act. Back-to-back 26-goal seasons despite never reaching the 70-game mark. Registered career highs in assists (30) and points (56). That flow.

The latest: While GM Jim Benning is active in both the UFA and trade markets, Boeser’s camp and the Canucks have at least opened extension talks, which is a positive sign. It remains a matter of closing the gap, which Sportsnet’s Irfaan Gaffar reported was still a significant one as of late May.

If Boeser is able to avoid a bridge deal, he should become the highest-paid member of the team.

Gaffar suggests Benning would be more comfortable with a six-year term, which is what he gave Bo Horvat when he came out of his entry-level deal, than an eight-year pact.

“Bo took a huge step in his third year, and I think I can do the same,” Boeser said.

8. Charlie McAvoy Age on July 1: 21 Position: Defence 2018-19 salary cap hit: $916,667 Arbitration rights: No Bargaining chips: A beast who led all Bruins in average ice time, both in the regular season and playoffs. Added years to Zdeno Chara’s NHL career. Led all Boston D-men in even-strength points and game-winning goals. Shutdown guy. 2018 All-Rookie Team. First-round pick. Right shot. A playoff stud who came within one win of getting his name on the Cup.

The latest: The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa reported in February that McAvoy turned down a long-term extension offer, citing the eight-year, $7.5-million AAV contract that Florida Panthers defenceman Aaron Ekblad inked in the summer of 2016.

McAvoy has outpaced Ekblad offensively and has performed better in his own end of late. A $7.5-million cap hit — the ballpark agent Rick Curran is targeting — would make McAvoy the highest-paid player in Boston, ahead of David Krejci at $7.25 million.

The Bruins’ concern here is health: McAvoy has suffered heart and concussion issues and has yet to play more than 63 games in a season.

“The Bruins will try to dig in a little bit. They’ll point to his games and they’ll use [David] Pastrnak, who’s a superstar. It’ll be a tough deal to do, a tough deal to evaluate. It may end up that a solution is four years,” an anonymous agent told Shinzawa.

9. Jacob Trouba Age on July 1: 25 Position: Defence 2018-19 salary cap hit: $5.5 million Arbitration rights: Yes Bargaining chips: Top-10 first-round pick. No one played

more hockey for the Jets this season. Co-led team in shorthanded points. Key penalty killer. Career highs in assists (42) and points (50). A plus defender six years running despite drawing difficult assignments. One year away from unrestricted free agency.

The latest: The relationship between Trouba and Winnipeg was always a tenuous one, so his recent trade to the New York Rangers came as little surprise.

Trouba asked to be traded out of Winnipeg prior to the 2016-17 season. As an RFA last summer, Trouba and Cheveldayoff endured a marathon arbitration, with Trouba seeking upwards of $7 million per season. He’s worth it now.

Trouba was awarded a one-year, $5.5-million deal for 2018-19 and needs another raise.

The Rangers could entertain the possibility of buying out a righty like Kevin Shattenkirk or Brendan Smith to accommodate Trouba, who is thrilled to be in a city where his wife can pursue her dreams as well.

10. Kyle Connor Age on July 1: 22 Position: Left wing 2018-19 salary cap hit: $925,000 Arbitration rights: No Bargaining chips: Back-to-back 30-goal campaigns. First-round pick. Coming hot off career highs in goals (34), assists (32) and points (66). Bright spot (three goals, five points) in Jets’ disappointing first-round exit. Can contribute to both special teams. Better two-way winger than fellow RFA Laine. Wonderful chemistry with Winnipeg’s top players, Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler.

The latest: Now that Trouba and Kevin Hayes have been traded, the Jets only have 13 impending free agents to sort through. Godspeed, Kevin Cheveldayoff. “It’s not an easy time, so to speak, right now, to worry about anyone else but yourself. Everyone is just doing what they need to do within their own organizations,” Cheveldayoff told the Winnipeg Free Press of the draft weekend’s cost-cutting deals. “Everyone has their own pressure points and jobs they need to do.” Connor, a relatively unsung star and the most complete young forward of the bunch, needs to stay put.

11. Patrik Laine Age on July 1: 21 Position: Right wing 2018-19 salary cap hit: $925,000 Arbitration rights: No Bargaining chips: Second-overall pick. Otherworldly shot. World junior champion. 2017 NHL all-star. Three consecutive 30-goal seasons. Showed well in post-season (three goals, five points in six games). Beauty quote.

The latest: “Not worried about that right now,” Laine told reporters, regarding his next contract, at season’s end. “Right now, I want to forget everything that is involved with hockey.”

Laine revealed he suffered a minor groin injury in the playoffs and was dealing with back problems during a season in

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which his year-over-year production dropped from 70 points to 50.

He’s flashy, he’s streaky, and his defensive game is under question, but the man can score in bunches.

A shorter-term deal might serve the player here, because Laine is better than 2018-19 showed.

Laine opted to skip the world championships. He flew back to Finland to golf and spend time with family and friends.

12. Jordan Binnington Age on July 1: 25 Position: Goaltender 2018-19 salary cap hit: $650,000 Arbitration rights: Yes Bargaining chips: Backstopped the Blues to their first-ever Stanley Cup. Broke franchise record for wins by a rookie (24). Sparkling .927 save percentage at both AHL and NHL levels this season. 2019 Calder Trophy runner-up. Finished top-five in Vezina voting and top-10 in Hart voting. Does he look nervous?

The latest: The Blues have been on a quest for bona fide No. 1 goalie for about a decade, and it looks like they drafted one way back in 2011. He just needed time to blossom.

Young, ice-cold Binnington stole the starter’s gig from Jake Allen, and his stability is a significant reason the Blues climbed from basement to the summit in the second half of the season.

GM Doug Armstrong doesn’t have much cap flexibility — Patrick Maroon, Robby Fabbri, Oskar Sundqvist and Joel Edmundson are among those joining Binnington as free agents — but he’ll need to pay Binnington more than the $4.35 million already committed to Allen, right?

“He’s going to earn a big pay raise this summer, and we’re looking forward to paying him,” Armstrong told Hockey Central at Noon. “He’s earned everything, all the credit he’s getting.”

13. Zachary Werenski Age on July 1: 21 Position: Defence 2018-19 salary cap hit: $925,000 Arbitration rights: No Bargaining chips: Eighth-overall pick in 2015. Second only to all-star Seth Jones in Columbus ice time (22:54). Able to shutdown top forwards and contribute 40-plus points a season. Recorded a Gordie Howe hat trick in the second round of the playoffs. Only 21! Best years still ahead.

The latest: For all of the outgoing bodies this summer in Ohio, Werenski will not be one of them. He and Jones are a major reason the 2020 Blue Jackets won’t suffer the drop-off you might think.

“I haven’t thought about it, honestly,” Werenski told reporters, following Columbus’s ouster by the Bruins. “Obviously, that’s something we’re going to have to get done this summer. But I’m not worried about it at all. I guess it’s something I’ll have to start thinking about.”

As Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky and (likely) Matt Duchene all leave for free agency, GM Jarmo Kekalainen

should have no issue finding the funds to give Werenski an appropriate raise.

14. David Rittich Age on July 1: 26 Position: Goalatender 2018-19 salary cap hit: $800,000 Arbitration rights: Yes Bargaining chips: Undrafted, late-blooming gem. Career-high 42 starts, 45 appearances, 27 wins, and .911 save percentage. Fun-loving team guy adored by teammates. Calgary has zero NHL goalies locked up for 2019-20.

The latest: Big Save Dave has a golden opportunity to become the Flames’ undisputed No. 1 goalie next season, considering veteran Mike Smith — who performed well but went 1-4 in the playoffs — is heading toward unrestricted free agency

“Ritter is an unbelievable kid with a bright future,” said coach Bill Peters, following exit meetings. “There are things he can do to allow himself to be able to play more games, too, as far as his ability to look after himself with nutrition, with everything that goes along with that, to make a real solid commitment to being a pro, a big-time NHL pro. And he’s going to do that.

“He has a lot of confidence in himself, and that’s earned. I thought he had a very good year. This is the most he’s played in the NHL was this year, and he’s looking to take that next step too.”

The giant organizational debate here: Can Rittich handle a full NHL workload and return the Flames to the post-season?

“I think he has the ability to do that, yeah,” Peters said. “But until you’ve done it and been there, everyone is going to question it, right?”

15. Kevin Labanc Age on July 1: 23 Position: Right wing 2018-19 salary cap hit: $717,500 Arbitration rights: No Bargaining chips: Breakout 17-goal, 56-point campaign. Great history of staying healthy (knock on wood). Showed well during Sharks’ playoff run, with nine points in 20 games. Sense we haven’t seen the most of his offensive output considering back-to-back 100-plus-point seasons in OHL. Plays on top power-play unit. Incredible Twitter handle (@St8ToTheBanc).

The latest: Because Sharks GM Doug Wilson is facing a serious cap crunch in the wake of the Karlsson signing, and because Timo Meier takes priority among his RFA forwards and UFA Joe Thornton wants to keep playing, Labanc finds himself in an interesting position.

Will there be enough money left over for him?

His points per game have increased steadily every year in the league. He’s flying under the radar and, with more ice time, could break out into a full-fledged star.

A mid-level offer sheet — say, $4.2 million on a deal with term (compensation: a second-round pick) — could put

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Wilson in a bind, although there is zero indication that Labanc is unhappy in San Jose.

You’d have to wonder if the New Jersey Devils, Rangers and Islanders wouldn’t at least inquire about the Staten Island native.

More notable RFAs: Jakub Vrana, Kevin Fiala, Travis Konecny, Andreas Johnsson, Ivan Provorov, Kasperi Kapanen, Pavel Buchnevich, Cody Ceci, Anthony Beauvillier, Brandon Carlo, J.T. Compher, Alexander Kerfoot, Colin White, Sam Bennett, Pavel Zacha, Artturi Lehkonen, Andrew Copp, Danton Heinen, Linus Ullmark, Joel Edmundson, Will Butcher, Colton Sissons, Alex Iafallo, Ryan Donato

Who makes the 2019 Hockey Hall of Fame class?

By Greg Wyshynski

The 2019 Hockey Hall of Fame class, which will be revealed Tuesday, is one of those tricky transition-year groups, sandwiched in between the mortal locks of 2018 (Martin Brodeur, Martin St. Louis) and 2020 (Jarome Iginla).

At least that's true of the male players, because there's one icon of women's hockey who is going to the head of the class this year.

Who joins her? Let's break down the field by devising our own set of odds.

Lock: Hayley Wickenheiser, center (first year of eligibility)

The lock of all locks. The Canadian icon has four Olympic gold medals, with 18 goals in 26 games, and seven golds in IIHF world championships action. A star in every sense of the word, to the point where she's synonymous with women's hockey in Canada. In a year when other candidates all have caveats and flaws, Wick is the only eligible player whose immortality can't be debated.

Near lock: Daniel Alfredsson, right wing (third year of eligibility)

The former Senators captain had 444 goals (No. 63 all time) and 1,157 points (No. 54 all time) during his 17-year run with Ottawa (and that other year in Detroit). He won the Calder Trophy, although no other individual hardware, and won Olympic gold and silver for Sweden.

Is he destined for the "great, but not a Hall of Famer" bin? Or will the selection committee succumb to the flood of fans in Ontario who would make the trek to the Hall for induction weekend to celebrate the Senators' franchise standard-bearer and one of the game's greatest ambassadors? We figure he'll be in ... although we felt that way last year, too.

3-1: Rod Brind'Amour, left wing (sixth year), Alexander Mogilny, right wing (10th year); Jeremy Roenick, center (seventh year)

Mogilny had two of the best offensive seasons of the past 25 years, with 76 goals in 1992-93 and 55 goals in 1995-96. While those two seasons are by far his best, he finished with a stellar 1.04 points-per-game average (38th all time, in a career that included playing in the trap era) in 990 career games over 16 seasons. He's also a Triple Gold

Club member, and there are only 28 of them in history. Just as important to anything he did on the ice, he was the first Soviet defection to the NHL, a landmark moment in hockey history. The selection committee has been much more open to Russian candidates in recent years, with three of the past four classes including former Soviet players. Will the trend continue with Mogilny?

The test for Roenick is how much emphasis the committee puts on the "fame" part, because at his peak, very few NHL players could rival his star power. His 513 career goals rank him 40th all time, although it's a number that doesn't guarantee enshrinement; just ask Pat Verbeek (522) and Pierre Turgeon (515) about that. His 0.892 points-per-game average puts him right with Hall of Famer Joe Nieuwendyk. No awards. No Stanley Cups. No gold medals internationally. But few players have had more cultural impact than Roenick in his prime.

Thanks to his stint as Carolina Hurricanes head coach, Brind'Amour's stock has skyrocketed recently. There's a case to be made for the former Hurricanes, Flyers and Blues center as one of the best 200-foot forwards of his era. He had 1,184 points (50th) in 1,482 career games, including 452 goals (58th). He won the Selke Trophy in consecutive years from 2005 to '07 in his mid-30s. He had 18 postseason points in the Hurricanes' 2006 Stanley Cup win. He had longevity, intangibles and a heck of a career. One to watch.

5-1: Defensemen Sergei Gonchar (second year), Kevin Lowe (18th year), Doug Wilson (23rd year), Sergei Zubov(seventh year)

Would the selection committee make it four straight seasons without a defenseman in the class? That's hard to believe, which means one assumes a player from this list gets in.

Gonchar played 1,301 games and amassed 811 points, which is 17th all time for defensemen. He won the Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh in 2009.

Lowe got a full endorsement from former teammate Wayne Gretzky at the 2018 Hall of Fame induction as the player he felt most deserved to be in the Hall who wasn't. He was the backbone of six Stanley Cup championship teams, including five with the dynastic Oilers who have already produced six Hall of Famers.

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Wilson is the latest in a line of NHL greats whose wait time would seem to indicate he's not getting in but whose candidacy continues to be trumpeted by prominent voices. Wilson ranks seventh in NHL history among defensemen with 0.81 points per game (at a minimum of 1,000 games played). He won the Norris Trophy in 1983 and finished in the top four of the voting four times. Is the 23-year wait finally over, or will it never be?

Zubov's points-per-game rate was 0.72, putting him on par with the legendary Nicklas Lidstrom. He also has two Stanley Cup wins. The analytics community loves him as an overlooked immortal from the 1990s. Dallas Stars fans will basically fight you if you don't agree he should be in the Hall.

10-1: Curtis Joseph, goalie (seventh year)

A classic case of stats vs. impact. CuJo is fifth in career wins (454), sixth in games played (943), but he never won a Vezina Trophy (despite being in the top four five times) nor a Stanley Cup. To date, Ed Giacomin is the only Hall of Fame goalie not to have won a Cup. Goalies rarely get into the Hall of Fame -- Martin Brodeur last season was just the seventh since 1990 -- which also isn't working in his favor.

20-1: Theo Fleury, right wing (13th year); Steve Larmer, right wing (21th year), Boris Mikhailov, right wing (35th year); Chris Osgood, goalie (fifth year)

A quartet of worthy candidates, each of whom has a unique angle to his bid for immortality: Fleury's endearing offensive flourish, the Soviet top-line dominance of Mikhailov and the postseason heroics of Osgood. Larmer is the new addition to this tier, as there seems to be a renewed appreciation for his scoring prowess (64th in goals, with 441) and consistency. Plus, he has a Calder and a Stanley Cup. Alas, none of them seems like the total package for the Hall.

25-1: Dan Boyle, defenseman (first year), Patrik Elias, forward (first year), Vincent Lecavalier, center (first year)

The only freshman candidates worthy of consideration, and none of them look like first-ballot guys.

Elias has two Stanley Cups to his credit, and had 1,025 points in 1,240 games from 1995 to 2016 with the New Jersey Devils. That puts him 13th in points in the NHL during that span and 14th in points per game. Internationally, Elias had 33 points in 40 games. He's generally considered one of the NHL's most

underrated talents in recent history, and there's certainly been a reconsideration of his impact after his retirement.

Lecavalier certainly has the most star power of the three. He played 1,212 games, primarily with the Lightning (1998-2013) before finishing up with the Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings. He had 949 points, including 421 goals, putting him 16th in goals-per-game average during his career. He won the goal-scoring title in 2006-07 with 52 tallies, as well as the Stanley Cup in 2004. A star player, and a consistent one, but a first-ballot Hall of Famer he is not.

Of the three, Boyle might have the most compelling case, given his scoring prowess as a defenseman: 605 points in 1,093 games. From 1998 to 2018, only Nicklas Lidstrom, Gonchar and Zdeno Chara had more points than Boyle among defensemen. He has a Stanley Cup and an Olympic gold, but no individual titles. Let's not discount the storybook journey of Boyle to the NHL: an undrafted player ends up playing nearly 1,100 games in the NHL.

30-1: Keith Tkachuk, left wing (sixth year); Pierre Turgeon, center (ninth year)

Oh, they've got numbers: Tkachuk's 538 goals are the 32nd most in NHL history, and there's no Hall of Fame-eligible player with more points than Turgeon (1,327) who isn't already enshrined. The Hall doesn't always shy away from stat compilers -- we see you, Dino Ciccarelli -- but these two haven't had any buzz for their candidacies in quite a while.

40-1: The field

There are goal scorers (Peter Bondra, Pat Verbeek) and all-around performers (Dale Hunter) and a few other newbies who populate the field. Then there's former Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas, who absolutely dominated his position for a span of five years and won two Vezinas and a Conn Smythe before disappearing from the public eye.

There's also Brad Richards, in his first year of eligibility, with two Stanley Cups and a Conn Smythe to his credit. Finally, there's Canadian hockey icon Paul Henderson, still trying to prove that one goal in 1972 could earn one an even higher level of immortality than it already has.

Prediction

Hayley Wickenheiser, Daniel Alfredsson, Sergei Zubov, Alexander Mogilny, Jim Rutherford (builder).

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Trade: Blackhawks continue defense overhaul, get de Haan from Hurricanes

By Adam Gretz

Defense was a huge issue for the Chicago Blackhawks during the 2018-19 season and they are already making some moves this summer to try and address it.

That continued on Monday evening when the team announced it has acquired Calvin de Haan and forward Aleksei Saarela from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for Gustav Forsling and goalie Anton Forsberg.

The Hurricanes signed de Haan to a four-year, $18.2 million contract in free agency a year ago. Known more for his defensive play than anything offensively, he played in 74 games for the Hurricanes this past season, scoring one goal to go with 13 assists. He underwent shoulder surgery after the season and is facing a four-to-six month recovery time, so he may not be ready at the start of the season.

His addition to the Blackhawks’ blue line comes a little more than one week after the team traded forward Dominik Kahun to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Olli Maatta.

de Haan and Maatta join a Blackhawks team that was one of the league’s worst defensive teams at 5-on-5, finishing in the bottom-10 in goals against, shots against, shot attempts against, scoring chances against, and high-danger scoring chances against per 60 minutes, via Natural Stat Trick.

In several of those categories they were among the bottom-three teams in the league. It is obviously an area that needed

to be addressed as longtime staples Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook continue to age and their younger prospects continue to get their feet wet in the NHL.

Maatta and de Haan are not superstars, and neither one is going to provide much in the way of point production, but they can definitely help in their own end of the ice.

As for the Hurricanes side of this, clearing salary cap space appears to be the name of the game (perhaps the sign of another move coming?) as moving de Haan sheds more than $4 million in cap space over each of the next three seasons.

Forsberg and Forsling are both restricted free agents this summer.

Forsling, 23, has spent three years in the NHL with the Blackhawks and recorded 27 points in 122 career games. Given the state of Carolina’s blue line even after trading de Haan he still probably only figures to be, at best, a third-pairing defender.

Forsberg is the player that could get the biggest opportunity. The Hurricanes could buy out the remainder of Scott Darling’s contract at any time, while the duo of Petr Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney from this past season are both eligible for unrestricted free agency this summer.

The 26-year-old Forsberg has appeared in 45 NHL games with the Blackhawks and Columbus Blue Jackets, recording a .901 save percentage.

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De Haan trade creates a tightrope of the Canes’ own making

They have no wiggle room now. The Hurricanes’ path forward is crystal clear, and if they don’t follow it, they’re in deep trouble.

By Brian LeBlanc

I was out watching Toy Story 4 with my family when the news came down the pipe that the Carolina Hurricanes had traded Calvin de Haan. Fortunately, given where I was, no one could question why I was in tears.

I kid. (Mostly.) But if Monday night’s deal stopped you dead in your tracks, trying vainly to figure out what the hell was going on, at least you can take solace in the fact that you’re not alone.

For all the talk about bringing back the band, for all the talk that the Hurricanes are ready to take the next step, this is a bone-chilling shot to the gut. De Haan was signed less than a year ago, on the Fourth of July last year, to a four-year deal worth $18 million. Yes, he’s likely out until November after shoulder surgery. But what does it say about how the Hurricanes value their players that they’re willing to part with de Haan as a sunk cost after just one year?

They presumably knew what they were doing last year signing him to a four-year deal. Spoiler: the plan last July 4 was not “salary dump him for spare parts after one season.” I get that things change, and that Justin Faulk had a better season than almost anyone expected. But whether it’s fair or not, it gives the impression that the Hurricanes will do business ruthlessly. That’s fine on its face, but it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence to anyone in the future considering signing here.

Back to Faulk for a second. All things being equal, this probably means as much if not more for the future career of Jake Bean as it does for Faulk; someone, either Bean or Haydn Fleury, will now be odds-on to earn a roster spot at camp. But the Hurricanes had damn well better sign Faulk, either now or before the trade deadline, because they can’t afford to have his contract status floating out in the ether, Sebastian Aho-style, next offseason. They have no fallback. If Faulk doesn’t sign, they’re going to be down both Faulk and de Haan. That’s a tightrope of their own making, and the Hurricanes have no one to blame but themselves if they fall off.

Also, the Hurricanes simply must meet Aho in the middle somewhere. This is no time for taking a stand for fiscal prudence, at least within reason. The flimsy “we needed cap room” excuse is only valid in any way if they use it, and the vast majority of that room needs to be spent on Aho’s new contract. Pay the man.

Oh, and for all the “well, they needed a goalie so they can buy out Scott Darling” takes? Anton Forsberg ain’t signed either. If the Hurricanes are going to buy out Darling before next Monday, they have to do one of three things: (1) sign Forsberg, (2) sign Alex Nedeljkovic, (3) re-sign Petr Mrazek (which at least sounds somewhat promising) or Curtis McElhinney (less so). Forsberg gives them another option, but it doesn’t solve the problem of needing to get a third goalie under contract not named Darling as of July 1 to join Callum Booth and Jeremy Helvig. (I suppose they could make another trade for a goalie under contract for next season, but why?)

Or do they not buy out Darling? I mean, at this point, nothing can be ruled out. This is where we point out that a report earlier today linked the Hurricanes to, God help us, Mike Smith.

I’ll be the first to say that I will eat every one of these words if Don Waddell and company not only re-sign Aho to a new deal but also bring in a marquee free agent. If this trade ends up being the key that unlocks a Matt Duchene deal, then fine. I just don’t see that happening. The longer I’ve done this, the more firm I’ve become in the belief that when everyone says “something else simply must be happening!” there is, in truth, nothing else happening. It goes all the way back to when the Hurricanes reacquired the late Josef Vasicek at the 2007 trade deadline. Everyone was sure that another shoe was going to drop, and it never did.

Waddell and Tom Dundon deserve a bit of a benefit of the doubt, but you are more than forgiven if you are nonplussed by this trade. When a team with a boatload of cap room suddenly pleads poverty and says they need more, it’s understandable to cast a wary eye. It’s too early to write this off as a complete disaster, but there’s not much of a line to draw there.

In the meantime, I guess we can all hope that Gustav Forsling bounces back.

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Hurricanes trade de Haan to Chicago in four-player deal

Calvin de Haan and Aleksi Saarela will head to the Windy City while Anton Forsberg and Gustav Forsling move to Raleigh.

By Justin Lape

The Carolina Hurricanes have announced they have traded defenseman Calvin de Haan and forward Aleksi Saarela to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for goaltender Anton Forsbergand defenseman Gustav Forlsing.

The move signals added uncertainty in net with recent reports surfacing that the Hurricanes are far apart in deals with unrestricted free agents Petr Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney. Forsberg is a player with just 45 starts under his belt at the NHL level. He’s posted an 11-24-4 record with a 3.21 goals against average and a .901 save percentage. Forsberg is a restricted free agent on July 1st.

The Hurricanes downgrade their defense with the acquisition of Forsling. The 23-year-old defenseman had nine points in 43 games with the Blackhawks last season. Forsling is also a restricted free agent on July 1st.

Saarela finished a strong season with the Checkers as a Calder Cup champion. He finished with 54 points in 69 games and had the tendency to be a streaky scorer. Saarela was acquired in the trade with the New York Rangers for Eric Staal.

De Haan is coming off a strong season with the Hurricanes after signing a four-year deal with the team last free agent period. He provided stable defensive play and was a solid addition to an already impressive defensive core. The veteran defenseman had shoulder surgery in late May and will miss 4-6 months. The move frees up additional cap space for the Hurricanes come July 1st.

Below is the press release from the Hurricanes:

Don Waddell, President and General Manager of the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes, today announced that

the Hurricanes have acquired goaltender Anton Forsberg and defenseman Gustav Forsling from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for defenseman Calvin de Haanand forward Aleksi Saarela.

”We are thrilled to add two young, talented players to our organization,” said Waddell. ”Anton is a big, skilled goaltender and we look forward to him competing for our goaltending job this fall. Gustav has shown a great deal of skill in his young career and we believe he will continue to develop.”

Forsberg, 26, has posted an 11-24-4 record with a 3.21 goals-against average and a .901 save percentage in 45 career NHL games with Chicago and Columbus. The Harnosand, Sweden, native appeared in a career-high 35 games with the Blackhawks during the 2017-18 season, posting a 10-16-4 record with a 2.97 goals-against average and .908 save percentage. Forsberg tallied a 15-15-2 record in 32 games with the Rockford IceHogs (AHL) last season, posting a 2.64 goals-against average and .919 save percentage. The 6’3”, 192-pound goaltender has earned an 88-50-21 record in 158 career AHL games with Rockford, Cleveland, Lake Erie and Springfield. He was selected by Columbus in the seventh round, 188th overall, in the 2011 NHL Draft.

Forsling, 23, recorded nine points (3g, 6a) in 43 games with the Blackhawks last season. The 6’0”, 186-pound defenseman was selected by Vancouver in the fifth round, 126th overall, in the 2014 NHL Draft and has earned 27 points (8g, 19a) in 122 career NHL games with Chicago. Forsling tallied two assists in five games with Rockford (AHL) last season and has recorded 15 points (3g, 12a) in 53 career AHL games with the IceHogs.

De Haan, 28, earned 14 points (1g, 13a) in 74 games with the Hurricanes in 2018-19 in his first season with the team. Saarela, 22, appeared in one game with the Hurricanes, making his NHL debut in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Washington on April 20.

Hurricanes Announce 2019 Prospect Development Camp Roster and Summerfest Schedule

Canes announce full roster and schedule for 2019 prospect development camp and Summerfest.

By Brett Finger

The Carolina Hurricanes announced their 2019 Prospect Development Camp roster and Summerfest schedule on Monday.

26 players will be in attendance for Carolina’s prospect camp, including nine players from the 2019 draft class, eight players from past Hurricanes draft classes, and nine non-roster invites. 2019 first-round pick Ryan Suzuki and second-round picks Pyotr Kochetkov Jamieson Rees will be among those players in attendance.

The entire roster can be found here and is listed below.

Prospect camp practices available to the public will be on Wednesday (On-ice testing starting at 5:00 pm followed by team practice at 6:00 pm) and Thursday (team practice at 5:30 pm) of this week. PNC Arena doors will open 15 minutes before each day’s first session.

The Hurricanes’ annual Summerfest celebration and prospect scrimmage will be held on Saturday. Celebration festivities start at 10 am at PNC Arena and the prospect scrimmage starts at noon. There will be an equipment sale and autograph session wristband distribution prior to the start of the Summerfest celebration.

All information about the event can be found here.

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Should the Hurricanes offer a contract to Corey Perry?

Recently bought out by the only NHL club he’s ever played for, should Perry be of interest to the Canes? We have opinions.

By Andrew Schnittker and Justin Lape

Yesterday, The Hockey News published an article detailing five teams that should have an interest in signing former Anaheim Ducks winger Corey Perry, who was bought out last week after 14 years in Southern California. We linked the story this morning in Storm Advisory, so go check it out if you haven’t yet seen it.

The top team on their list? The Carolina Hurricanes.

The idea of signing Perry drew sharp lines on our staff. On one side, a contingent argues that while Perry is on the back nine of his career, he would fill a hole that no one on the Canes’ current roster can plug. On the other, an equally sizeable group wants nothing to do with a 34-year-old who has a lot of miles on the odometer, lost most of last season to an injury and has seen his production fall off precipitously.

We’ll make the cases below and then you can vote on what you’d do.

The Case to Sign Perry

By Andrew Schnittker

At first glance, the case for the Hurricanes signing Corey Perry is that of a simple “reclamation project”, bringing in a player who has been productive earlier in his career but has fallen on hard times, and hoping he gets back to his previous form.

Perry would certainly come at a relative discount after an injury-plagued season that saw him produce just six goals and 10 points in 31 games, and given that the Ducks owe him $13.25 million over the next four years after buying him out. However, this is not a simple reclamation project; it’s a bit more complex.

At 34, it’s extremely unlikely Perry returns to his 30-40 goal form, as he hasn’t scored more than 19 since the 2015-16 season. That’s not to say he couldn’t be a useful middle-six forward, and there’s plenty of evidence to support that.

In his last two healthy seasons (2017-18 and 2016-17), Perry put up 17 goals and 49 points and 19 goals and 53 points, respectively.

While Perry’s numbers last season in 31 games fall well short of that pace, he was also a victim of some absolutely rotten luck. Perry’s career shooting percentage is 13, and it dropped to 10.2 last year.

He also had a shockingly low PDO, at 93.6. For those unaware, PDO is the sum of a team’s save percentage and shooting percentage at 5 on 5 (and a player’s PDO is his team’s PDO with him on the ice).

A big part of Perry’s poor puck luck probably came from playing on a historically bad offensive team in Anaheim last season. The Ducks finished dead last in the league with 2.39 goals per game, dead last in shots for per game with 27.7 per game and dead last in scoring chances for percentage at 45.2.

Those numbers don’t exactly add up to a favorable situation for a goal-scoring power forward.

A move to the Hurricanes, however, should see plenty of opportunities for Perry’s luck to turn around.

The Canes were 16th in goals for per game at 2.96, first in shots for per game at 34.4 and first in scoring chances for percentage at a whopping 55.1. A shift to Carolina’s puck-possession, scoring chance machine system should be a boon to a player who’s been a strong finisher over his career, similar to what happened when Nino Niederreiter arrived in Raleigh.

There’s no reason to expect a healthy Perry can’t put up 15-20 goals and 35-40 points in a middle-six role for the Canes next season. While his numbers have fallen off a bit in that regard in the past few seasons, Perry has historically been a strong power-play finisher and his net-front presence could be a boon to what was a woefully inept man advantage last year, particularly in the playoffs.

In addition to his finishing ability, Perry definitely brings a physical edge to the lineup. In the likely event Micheal Ferland leaves for a raise elsewhere, Perry could be an ideal replacement.

A veteran with a Stanley Cup ring could also add some valuable leadership to a young room, and, should Justin Williams’ decision drag late into the offseason, provide some leadership insurance if the captain does decide to hang up his skates.

If Carolina is looking for a potential bargain signing to add depth scoring, physicality and leadership, Don Waddell should have Perry’s agent on speed dial when free agency opens next week.

The Case Against Signing Perry

By Justin Lape

It’s baffling to even consider Corey Perry as a potential free agent target for the Carolina Hurricanes. Perry was bought out last Wednesday and will not need to fulfill the remaining two years of his eight year, $69 million contract. With Perry hitting the free agent market, there will be suitors for his services. Let’s be clear: the Hurricanes should not be one of them.

Let’s look at financials. With Perry signing a new deal this free agency period, it’s pretty clear to see he will get less than his previous $8.625 million. However, it’s highly unlikely that Perry will take too significant of a pay cut given his accolades and that he’s in the later stage of his career at 34 years old.

Let’s say Perry signs similar to what Ilya Kovalchuk signed last off-season in his return from the KHL: 2 years, $6.25 million. That’s still an outrageous contract given the statistical comparables at that cap hit and nothing the Hurricanes front office should be considering.

Speaking of statistics, recent trends show a decline in Perry’s output instead of sustaining the status quo of a few years ago. Perry played just 31 games last season and had just 10 points (six goals, four assists). His career high of 98 points was in the 2010-11 season and the closest he’s come since is 82

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points in 2013-14 season. He’s barely a positive possession player with a 51.5 CF% over his career. He’s far removed from the premier player he once was and there’s no indication that his production improves.

Don Waddell and company should stay as far away from Perry as possible. He doesn’t bring “veteran leadership.” He doesn’t

bring the Hart Trophy and Rocket Richard winning skill of yesteryear. Instead, he’d bring frustration with penalty minutes committed, use up valuable ice time for younger players that may be developed next year as well as a large cap hit that could cause headaches over the next couple of years.

Blackhawks Acquire de Haan From Hurricanes

By Brandon Share-Cohen

The Chicago Blackhawks have traded defender Gustav Forsling and goaltender Anton Forsberg in exchange for veteran defender Calvin de Haan and forward Aleksi Saarela. This trade comes just a few days after the 2019 NHL Entry Draft and one week from the start of free agency.

For the Blackhawks, this trade makes a lot of sense. Moving on from a defender who probably ranked eighth or lower on their depth chart as well as the fourth goaltender on their team to acquire a legitimate top-four defensive option is incredible value. This is even more true when considering the fact that de Haan is signed to a very team-friendly $4.55 million cap hit through the 2021-22 season.

In 74 games last season, de Haan scored one goal and 14 points in 74 games. It wasn’t his best season from a points perspective, but de Haan has proven he can produce more than that in the past – though admittedly that isn’t the strength of his game. For de Haan, his value lies on the defensive side of the puck.

The Blackhawks had interest in signing de Haan a season ago before he ultimately joined the Carolina Hurricanes as a free agent. One season later, the Blackhawks got the player they ultimately coveted while also picking up a very talented young forward in Saarela in the process.

While it’s hard to truly know what Saarela will be at the NHL level given the fact that he’s played zero regular season NHL games in his career, the 22-year-old Saarela has already surpassed any expectations that were placed upon him as a third-round pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft.

The New York Rangers selected Saarela 89th overall in 2015 before including him in the deal that saw Eric Staal shipped to New York back in 2016.

A very successful Finnish Elite League career that saw him score 20 goals and 33 point sin 51 games in 2015-16 with Assat Pori followed by 15 goals and 28 points in 49 games with Lukko Rauma the following season would eventually lead to an opportunity in the AHL with the Charlotte Checkers.

During his time in the AHL, Saarela has impressed with 51 goals and 107 points in 147 games, including 30 goals and 54 points in 69 games a season ago. He’d also finish his postseason run with seven goals and 15 points in 17 games.

Hurricanes Clearing Cap Space

The trade for the Hurricanes clears up some cap space on defense with de Haan’s salary now cleared out. It also giving the Hurricanes an option in net with so many question marks surrounding the position heading into free agency.

While the 26-year-old Forsberg hasn’t looked like a legitimate starter in his career, he certainly has the potential to be a backup goalie in the NHL. He’s played in 35 games with the Blackhawks in 2017-18 and compiled a 10-16-4 record with a 2.97 goals-against average and .908 save percentage. Last season in the AHL, Forsberg would go 15-17-1 with the Rockford IceHogs on the back of a 2.64 goals-against average and .919 save percentage.

The Hurricanes also acquired the 23-year-old Forsling who could still grow into a regular in the NHL. This deal clears cap space for the Hurricanes, as mentioned, while still giving them options on the back-end, even if their defensive core is already filled to the brim.

On paper, the Blackhawks are the clear winners of this deal as de Haan is one of the best at what he does and Forsling has yet to prove he can be a reliable top-six option. As Pierre LeBrun mentioned, however, the cap space saved in this deal was the most important factor as they could be looking at other moves.

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Hurricanes acquire Anton Forsberg and Gustav Forsling

by Nicholas Niedzielski

The Hurricanes swung a trade Monday night, acquiring Anton Forsberg and Gustav Forsling from Chicago in exchange for Calvin de Haan and Aleksi Saarela. Forsberg, 26, spent last season backstopping the Rockford IceHogs and posted a 15-17-1 record with a 2.64 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage that ranked fourth in the AHL. Over the course of his career the Swede has appeared in 158 AHL games for Springfield, Lake Erie/Cleveland and Rockford, going 88-52-9. Forsberg, who was drafted by Columbus in 2011 and helped lead Lake Erie to a Calder Cup in 2015-16, has also logged 45 NHL games with the Blue Jackets and Blackhawks – including 35 with Chicago in 2017-18. Forsling, 23, spent the majority of his third pro season in North America with the Blackhawks, posting nine points (3g,

6a) over 43 games. The Swedish blue liner has 122 NHL games under his belt with Chicago, recording 27 points (8g, 19a) along the way. Forsling, a fifth-round pick in 2014 by Vancouver, has also appeared in 53 AHL games in Rockford and put up 15 points (3g, 12a) for the IceHogs. Going the other way in the trade are de Haan, who marked 14 points (1g, 13a) in 74 games during his lone season with the Hurricanes, and Saarela, a third-round pick by the Rangers who was acquired in 2016 in exchange for Eric Staal. Saarela departs having racked up 107 points (61g, 46a) in 147 AHL games for the Checkers. The Finnish forward is coming off a 2018-19 campaign that saw him record the franchise’s fourth 30-goal season ever and add 15 points (7g, 8a) in 17 postseason games to help Charlotte capture the Calder Cup. Saarela currently ranks sixth on the franchise’s all-time goals leader list.

TODAY’S LINKS https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/article231918093.html https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/article231903123.html

https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/luke-decock/article231905618.html https://theathletic.com/1045970/2019/06/25/civian-its-ok-to-hate-the-calvin-de-haan-trade-even-if-you-understand-why-the-hurricanes-did-it/

https://theathletic.com/1045701/2019/06/24/nhl-trade-grades-what-the-calvin-de-haan-swap-means-for-the-blackhawks-and-hurricanes/ https://theathletic.com/1045608/2019/06/24/roundtable-reaction-blackhawks-bolster-blue-line-by-trading-for-calvin-de-haan/

https://theathletic.com/1033210/2019/06/24/by-the-numbers-evaluating-the-2019-free-agency-class/ https://nsjonline.com/article/2019/06/hurricanes-trade-de-haan-saarela-to-blackhawks/

https://www.wralsportsfan.com/gold-hurricanes-offseason-diary/18471878/ https://www.nhl.com/news/chicago-blackhawks-acquire-calvin-de-haan-from-carolina-hurricanes/c-308038016

https://www.nhl.com/news/hurricanes-patrick-marleau-out-to-prove-himself/c-308034836 https://www.apnews.com/3ae2f460ac224bb2b4cec62368599557

https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/blackhawks/ct-blackhawks-trade-calvin-de-haan-gustav-forsling-anton-forsberg-20190625-3wzykh3pjbdy7bkpypghwqoymi-story.html

https://chicago.suntimes.com/blackhawks/2019/6/24/18716347/blackhawks-hurricanes-trade-2019-calvin-de-haan-gustav-forsling-anton-forsberg https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/nhl-restricted-free-agents-rfas-contract-rumours-2019-offer-sheet-trade/

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/27043098/who-makes-2019-hockey-hall-fame-class https://nhl.nbcsports.com/2019/06/24/trade-blackhawks-continue-defense-overhaul-get-de-haan-from-hurricanes/

https://www.canescountry.com/2019/6/24/18731138/carolina-hurricanes-trade-calvin-de-haan-justin-faulk-sebastian-aho-don-waddell-chicago-blackhawks

https://www.canescountry.com/2019/6/24/18716351/carolina-hurricanes-chicago-blackhawks-trade-calvin-de-haan-aleksi-saarela-anton-forsberg https://www.canescountry.com/2019/6/24/18715574/carolina-hurricanes-announce-2019-prospect-development-camp-roster-summerfest-schedule-

nhl https://www.canescountry.com/2019/6/24/18715688/carolina-hurricanes-nhl-free-agency-corey-perry-buyout-anaheim-ducks

https://thehockeywriters.com/blackhawks-hurricanes-de-haan-trade/ http://gocheckers.com/articles/features/hurricanes-acquire-anton-forsberg-and-gustav-forsling

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1148465 Carolina Hurricanes

Canes trade de Haan to Blackhawks as part of deal for goalie

Forsberg

BY CHIP ALEXANDER

JUNE 24, 2019 08:36 PM

With apparent problems re-signing goalies Petr Mrazek and Curtis

McElhinney to new contracts, the Carolina Hurricanes used a trade

Monday to acquire goalie Anton Forsberg from the Chicago

Blackhawks.

The Canes sent defenseman Calvin de Haan and forward Aleksi Saarela to the Blackhawks for Forsberg and defenseman Gustav

Forsling.

De Haan, 28, signed a four-year free-agent contract with Carolina

last July that pays him $4.55 million a season, adding a veteran to the Canes’ blue line. But he needed shoulder surgery after the

Stanley Cup playoffs, with an expected recovery time of four to six

months.

Both Mrazek and McElhinney will become unrestricted free agents

July 1 if not signed. General manager Don Waddell has said his goal

was to re-sign both before free agency began but has said in the

past week that was becoming more problematic.

The Canes still have goalie Scott Darling under contract -- Darling

another former Blackhawks backup goaltender who was traded to

Carolina in April 2017 and quickly signed a four-year deal.

Forsberg, 26, stated 30 games for the Blackhawks and had a 10-16-4 record with a 2.97 goals-against average and .908 save

percentage. It’s possible the Swede could compete with Alex

Nedeljkovic -- the 2018-19 AHL goaltender of the year -- for the Canes’ backup spot next season.

Forsberg was a seventh-round draft pick by the Columbus Blue

Jackets in 2011 and played 10 NHL games in three seasons before

last season. He was traded to the Blackhawks in June 2017 in the

deal in which Columbus sent forward Brandon Saad, Forsberg and a

draft pick to Chicago for forward Artemi Panarin, Tyler Motte and a

draft pick.

Forsling, 23, was a fifth-round draft choice by the Vancouver Canucks in 2014. Traded to the Blackhawks in January 2015, he

has played 122 NHL games in three seasons with Chicago, with

eight goals and 19 assists.

De Haan played 74 regular-season games and 12 playoff games for

the Canes this season, finishing with one goal and 13 assists in the

regular season. More of a stay-at-home D-man, he gave the Canes

calm play in the defensive zone and had a plus-1 rating.

But de Haan missed all but 33 games in the 2017-18 season with

the New York Islanders because of a left shoulder injury that

required surgery. He now has had the right shoulder surgically

repaired.

The Canes also had defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk undergo

shoulder surgery after a playoff injury, with the same four-to-six

month recovery period. Forsling should compete for a spot in the third defensive pairing along with two former first-round draft picks,

Haydn Fleury and Jake Bean.

Saarela scored a career-high 30 goals this past season for the

Calder Cup champion Charlotte Checkers, the Canes’ American Hockey League affiliate.

The Canes and Blackhawks have been frequent trade partners in

recent years. Among the former Blackhawks sent to the Canes by

Chicago were Teuvo Teravainen, Bryan Bickell, Joakim Nordstrom

and Kris Versteeg. And Darling.

News Observer LOADED: 06.25.2019


Will success as coach help Brind’Amour’s Hall case as player?

BY LUKE DECOCK

JUNE 24, 2019 03:18 PM

The chances that Rod Brind’Amour’s name will be called when the Hockey Hall of Fame announces its new inductees Tuesday are,

again, curiously small. Among the plugged-in pundits who think they

have a line into the selection committee’s secretive ways, Brind’Amour’s name is rarely mentioned.

That is ludicrous. In a year where Vincent Lecavalier is the only first-

ballot NHL name worth serious consideration and there’s only one

dead solid lock for the Hall – Hailey Wickenheiser, an easy and

obvious choice – Brind’Amour is as good a choice as any, the best

defensive forward of his generation, an unparallelled leader and a

champion, with raw stats that certainly clear the bar.

The rest of the names under popular consideration all have thinner claims. Either their numbers or their accomplishments don’t stack up

to Brind’Amour: Daniel Alfredsson, Theo Fleury, Curtis Joseph,

Lecavalier, Alexander Mogilny, Jeremy Roenick, Doug Wilson, Sergei Zubov.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Worthy of the Hall of Fame? Many of them, for certain, but not all of

them. More worthy than Brind’Amour? Hardly.

This is an old story. Brind’Amour has been passed over six times.

Unlike, say, baseball, the entire process is conducted in secret. No

nominations or vote totals are announced, so it’s impossible to know

if Brind’Amour is getting closer to induction or farther away with each passing year. Larry Walker, at least, knows where he stands among

the overlooked in his sport.

The 18 voters – Ron Francis and Pierre McGuire among them – will

meet Tuesday and make their decisions. And that’s that. Invitations

are extended and blazers are fit, and it happens again in 52 weeks.

In the weird way these things work in hockey, Brind’Amour’s

successful debut season as Carolina Hurricanes coach shouldn’t have any bearing on his Hall of Fame candidacy, but it inevitably will,

if not now, then down the road. His success behind the bench won’t

so much retroactively legitimize his playing career as it will make it

easier for committee members to nominate and vote for him. The hockey world can be like fifth grade sometimes; no one ever wants

to go first and no one ever wants to be laughed at.

Not that anyone would have snickered before, but after what he did

this year, no eyebrows would be raised either.

As for future years, Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon has

commissioned his analytics staff to prepare a full statistical

assessment of Brind’Amour’s career, essentially an attempt to put Brind’Amour’s past numbers in present-day terms. Basically: If we

knew what we knew now, analytically speaking, what would we have

thought of Brind’Amour then? (Exhibit A: Patrice Bergeron,

acknowledged as a future Hall of Famer in a way Brind’Amour never was during his career.)

That’s a considerable undertaking, but like his coaching, it has the

potential to underpin a retroactive reassessment of Brind’Amour’s

entire career, to give his resume further foundation for the Hall of Fame voters.

It shouldn’t need it. Brind’Amour’s resume stands on its own, no

matter what any ex post facto analysis would indicate, no matter how well he does as a coach. For whatever reason – and, again, would

the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2006 have already put the committee

over the edge? – Brind’Amour hasn’t been given the same respect

by the committee as have his equals, peers and in some cases, inferiors.

Maybe this is the year. More likely, it isn’t. The call may never come.

But it should.



Suzuki among 26 players in Canes’ prospects camp

BY CHIP ALEXANDER

JUNE 24, 2019 03:18 PM

The Carolina Hurricanes will open their prospects development

camp this week with 26 players, including nine from their 2019 NHL

Draft class.

Ryan Suzuki, the forward taken 28th in the first round, heads up the

recent draftee class. Pyotr Kochetkov, the Russian goalie chosen in the second round on Saturday, will be one of seven goaltenders in

camp.

Sessions open to the public at PNC Arena will be the on-ice testing

(5 p.m) and team practice (6 p.m.) on Wednesday, and the 5:30 p.m. practice Thursday. The Canes Summerfest prospect game will be

Saturday at noon. There is no admission charge.

Nine players are attending this week as camp invitees.

Saturday, PNC Arena

Schedule

9:15 a.m.: Equipment sale open to general public

10-11 a.m.: Prospects autograph session

11:15 a.m.: State of the Hurricanes discussion

12 pm.: Canes Prospects Game.



NHL Trade Grades: What the Calvin de Haan swap means for the

Blackhawks and Hurricanes

By Craig Custance 7h ago

The trade

Chicago Blackhawks receive defenseman Calvin de Haan and

forward Aleksi Saarela

Carolina Hurricanes receive goalie Anton Forsberg and defenseman Gustav Forsling

Blackhawks: B

This is a fairly economical way for the Blackhawks to strengthen the

bottom half of their defense, especially when you consider what some of the veteran free agent defensemen are going to get when

the market opens on July 1. The reality here is that they’re probably

not losing anything of note in this trade aside from cap space, which

isn’t an insignificant asset.

One source who really likes de Haan suggested that the Hurricanes

might not have made the playoffs without him – he was that

important to the Carolina defense this past season. But he wasn’t so important that they didn’t feel like they couldn’t trade him for depth

players.

“He’s steady. He kills penalties,” said an executive on Monday. “He

plays 18 minutes a night and you don’t notice him but in a good way. He’ll play 18 solid minutes and he’s solid defensively. And

teammates like him. I thought he was good for Carolina last year.”

The issue for de Haan is that there are still three more years on a

contract that pays him $4.55 million per season. That’s a bit steep if

he’s in your bottom pair, which is where it was headed in Carolina.

His salary is just fine for this coming season but his shoulder injury

may keep him out until November, so it’s a potentially shortened

CAROLINA HURRICANES


season. If injuries slow him down as he gets closer to his 30s, which

is a possibility with his history, that contract is one to watch.

Saarela has now been traded twice in his young career, first as part

of the Eric Staal trade that sent Staal to the New York Rangers. He

has scored 55 goals total in the past two seasons for the Charlotte

Checkers (AHL), but there’s doubt that he can translate that success to the NHL.

The Athletic’s prospect analyst Corey Pronman on Saarela: “Saarela

had a strong second season in the AHL, as a top scorer for the top

team in the league. Saarela is a talented player with speed and skill,

but what makes him deadly is his shot. He’s got a 70 if not an 80

grade wrist shot that he can absolutely rip to the top corner from any

spot in the offensive zone. His above-average speed and skill allow him to create space to make the most of that shot. My issues with

Saarela are, while he’s skilled, it’s not high-end skill; he’s small and

he leans on his shot too much, refusing to play between the dots. He

may not have enough dimensions for the NHL but the talent is there and the production, so I think he could make it.”

Hurricanes: C

As with most deals right now, this was driven by money. The

Hurricanes have some contracts to sign – most notably for a starting

goalie and talented restricted free agent Sebastian Aho. This trade

helps the depth in goal, which is necessary because the expectation

now is that backup Curtis McElhinney will move on. According to an NHL source, conversations between Petr Mrazek and the Hurricanes

are still ongoing.

In 2017, Forsberg was a key piece in the trade that sent Artemi

Panarin to the Columbus Blue Jackets (I mean, not as key as Brandon Saad, but Chicago was definitely happy to get him). He

hasn’t panned out at the NHL level, where he has a .901 save

percentage in 45 games. That said, he’s still just 26 years old and

crazier things have happened than a guy figuring it out as a goalie

later in his career.

The most likely scenario is that the Hurricanes either sign Mrazek or

a free agent to start in goal and Forsberg battles Alex Nedeljkovic for the backup job.

Forsling, like nearly everyone in this deal, was traded previously in

his career. He was sent to the Blackhawks from Vancouver in the

trade that sent Adam Clendening to the Canucks. Forsling is a downgrade from de Haan in the short term and his best attribute is

that he’s significantly cheaper. He’s a third-pair defenseman with a

bit of offensive upside if he can get his once-promising career back

on track with the Hurricanes.

“He’s got a chance to get better,” said one talent evaluator. “But he’s

an NHL defenseman.”

The Athletic LOADED: 06.25.2019

1148512 NHL

Bellevue-based Symetra life insurance becomes Seattle NHL team’s first founding partner, sponsor

June 24, 2019 at 7:24 am Updated June 24, 2019 at 2:20 PM

By Geoff Baker

Symetra Life Insurance has been named the first founding partner

and sponsor of Seattle’s incoming National Hockey League franchise and will be featured prominently at the team’s arena and

training facility.

NHL Seattle and the Oak View Group announced Monday the

Bellevue-based company, founded in 1957, will also be the title sponsor of one of the premium clubs inside a rebuilt KeyArena when

it opens again in summer 2021. A naming sponsor has yet to be

announced for the $930 million arena — which NHL Seattle and

OVG for now have dubbed “New Arena at Seattle Center’’ — but the

Symetra brand will be displayed throughout its interior.

In addition, the brand will appear on the ice and dasher boards at

the Northgate Ice Center, the $85 million training facility being built at the site of the Northgate Mall and also expected to open in 2021.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

A news release issued Monday by NHL Seattle, OVG and Symetra

states they will announce later this year a series of community and philanthropic programs.

“Symetra is committed to investing in and improving the community

and they are the perfect fit for what we’ve been working on,’’ OVG

co-founder Tim Leiweke said in the release. “We feel that a partnership between our organizations will provide tremendous value

across the Pacific Northwest.’’

Symetra CEO Margaret Meister said in the same release: “The New Arena at Seattle Center will transform the face of sports and

entertainment in the Pacific Northwest and we’re pleased to be the

first to support these efforts.

“Our partnership with OVG and NHL Seattle will help us reach our customers while giving us a great platform to elevate our brand

awareness.’’

NHL Seattle president and CEO Tod Leiweke said the deal is a

“great start’’ to the new team — which launches in October 2021 — having a core of key partners that support commitment to the

community.

Seattle Times LOADED: 06.25.2019

1148513 NHL

No new GM yet, but a key hockey operations pickup by NHL Seattle

should help make that call

BY GEOFF BAKER

JUNE 25, 2019 01:00 AM, UPDATED 6 MINUTES AGO

Tod Leiweke and Jerry Bruckheimer spent the final morning of the

NHL draft enjoying breakfast with their incoming Seattle franchise's newest hockey operations hire.

While the duo didn't land a general manager after a furious 24 hours

of exploratory private meetings here, new NHL Seattle hockey

analytics specialist Alexandra Mandrycky certainly will help with a search now moving on to the next phase. Described by some NHL

insiders as a "rock star" in her field, Mandrycky spent the past few

seasons with the Minnesota Wild where she had a major hand in

player evaluation and personnel decisions.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


And for Leiweke, the NHL Seattle president and CEO, and

Bruckheimer, the principal team owner, who both came to the draft with the explicit purpose of refining their list of GM candidates,

Mandrycky, 28, will play a key role in determining whether one of

those men gets hired this summer.

"Analytics isn't just a department for us, it's a way of life," Leiweke said as he sat with Mandrycky and Bruckheimer on Saturday

morning at a restaurant in the Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel, where

some of their GM conversations from Friday had taken place. "The

world is changing. It's an informed approach. And Alex (Mandrycky)

will play a part in our GM decision. We're feeling good about fresh

eyes on this."

Mandrycky's official start date is July 1, with the title of Director of Hockey Administration and a say in all major personnel decisions.

For now, the GM vetting is her top priority.

"The fact is she had a fantastic reputation as one of the best in our

industry," Bruckheimer said, pausing between spoonfuls of oatmeal. "So, we're very fortunate that she had some connections to Seattle

and we were able to get her to come work with us."

Mandrycky's husband, Christian, whom she met while earning an

engineering degree at Georgia Tech, is finishing a doctoral degree in

bioengineering at the University of Washington – which caused them

to move to Seattle from her native Atlanta in 2013. The pair had

maintained separate apartments in Seattle and Minnesota since Mandrycky's hiring by the Wild in January 2016.

"I'd spend something like three weeks in Minnesota, then come back

to Seattle for a week and a half," Mandrycky said. "So, a lot of

commuting between both."

She's eager to delve into the GM candidates.

"You can look at their past track record," she said. "So, we'll be

looking at their draft history, their trade history and their contracts.

Specifically, different managers with different organizations have different philosophies on how they evaluate players.

"And ultimately, we want our organization to be successful in

evaluating players. We want to be able to have conversations with the candidates and find out what they feel like they did well. What

they feel like they maybe regret."

Mandrycky has few regrets about her time with the Wild, which broke

her into professional sports. She'd become interested in hockey through her husband, a Buffalo native and avid Sabres fan – one of

their first nights out in Seattle was an Everett Silvertips junior game –

and then delved into the statistical aspects of the sport as a way of

keeping her analytical and programming skills sharp after graduation.

She discovered hockey data sets online and began tinkering with

them. Eventually, she and Andrew Thomas worked together on the

War-on-Ice.com analytical website before the Wild hired both –

Thomas as lead hockey researcher and Mandrycky as hockey

operations analyst.

The Wild opted not to renew Thomas in April and then Mandrycky turned down the team's contract offer in May. Thomas has yet to

announce a new position elsewhere, but it won't be with Seattle –

where Mandrycky relocates permanently this week after helping train

her Wild replacement.

Leiweke and Bruckheimer say they accomplished all they needed to

here on the GM front – so much that they left post-breakfast and a

day early without attending the second stage of the draft Saturday

morning. After arriving Friday morning, they'd held a series of

meetings with hockey officials and potential candidates – all before

an afternoon news session with reporters, which they were a half-hour late to because of traffic after one such meeting.

Later, they hit the floor of Rogers Arena for the opening round of the

NHL draft on Friday night. But more so than observing the player

selections, they spent three hours moving between various team tables and having side discussions, both together and individually,

about their GM post.

"Tod knows a lot of people and I know a lot of people," Bruckheimer

said. "So, we talked to people about who they liked and it was great.

We got a lot of great information."

For Bruckheimer, the ideal candidate "has got a vision, is well-

respected within the industry and has some gravitas."

On the vision part, he wants: "Somebody who's got a vision on how

to build the team. That's what you want to know. How do you build a

team? How do you make it competitive?"

Leiweke now has "a list" of candidates, some of whom they already met with here. They gauged candidates' interest level and queried

them on team-building philosophies to form "a composite sketch" of

whether they'd fit with the "different type of organization" NHL

Seattle hopes to become.

"I wouldn't call it an interview, that's maybe not entirely fair," Leiweke

said. "But we talked to people. We're not going to drop names as we

go along. But we are going to be transparent. I mean, we talked to people in this restaurant."

Now "full on" in their search, they'll try to further narrow the field –

with Mandrycky's help – ahead of formal interviews and a call on

whether to hire somebody. And while Leiweke continues to preach patience, he won't need all summer to decide whether the future GM

is already on the list.

"We're not a group that lets grass grow under our feet," Leiweke

said. "I think the more time you have to get ready for the expansion draft, the better."

News Tribune LOADED: 06.25.2019

1148549 Websites

The Athletic / LeBrun Notebook: Pavelski visiting teams this week,

latest on Marner talks and more

By Pierre LeBrun Jun 24, 2019

Two summers ago, the San Jose Sharks had this dance with two

cornerstone veterans.

One stayed and one left.

Joe Thornton thought long and hard about Toronto’s interest but decided he couldn’t leave the Sharks. Patrick Marleau got the third

year on his contract with the Maple Leafs that the Sharks wouldn’t

offer and was intrigued by the young, talented squad in Toronto. So

he jumped at the chance.

Now it’s Joe Pavelski’s turn to swallow hard and make a big career

decision. The Sharks captain is entering the UFA speaking period for

CAROLINA HURRICANES


the first time in his sparkling career and the phone rang off the hook

for agent Dan Plante on Sunday.

There are visits set up for Pavelski this week with a couple of teams.

“It’s been fascinating and interesting so far,’’ Pavelski, 34, said.

“We’ll go check out a few teams.’’

But certainly, the door remains open for a return to San Jose if both sides can figure out their impasse.

“Yeah we’ll see how that goes,’’ Pavelski said. “Maybe I come back.

I don’t know.’’

In fact, it’s believed Plante and Sharks GM Doug Wilson spoke again on Sunday afternoon, so the dialogue remains open which is at least

good even if it may or may not lead to a resolution.

It’s really all wide-open right now as far as how it plays out between now and next Monday’s opening of free agency.

Nobody involved would comment on which teams have shown the

most interest in Pavelski but other leagues sources suggest he may

visit Dallas and Tampa this week.

The Stars would be a nice fit, a team on the rise that had a strong

season, and has enough cap space for Pavelski with Jason Spezza

gone and pending UFA Mats Zuccarello still unsigned. The

Lightning? I’m not sure how exactly they could fit Pavelski in with their cap situation even with J.T. Miller gone and Ryan Callahan’s

contract more or less no longer a factor; they still have Brayden

Point to sign among other players. But Pavelski is such an attractive

add, I can see why Tampa would want to at least try.

I also think Buffalo is among the teams that called the Pavelski camp

but the Sabres don’t have a site visit scheduled with Pavelski.

It’s believed the crux of the impasse in talks with San Jose revolves around term though neither side is revealing anything on that. But

that’s my sense.

Much like Marleau two years ago, I suspect San Jose doesn’t want

to do more than two years while the Pavelski camp probably wants three years.

And I don’t blame either side for their respective stances.

I mean, Wilson was proven right on Marleau. That third year the winger got in Toronto at $6.25 million cost the Leafs a first-round

pick to dispatch to Carolina this past weekend. Now the Hurricanes

hope to convince Marleau to play for them but if they can’t, they will

most likely buy him out and make him UFA which could pave the

way for a cheaper fit and a return to San Jose.

On the flip side, the ever-productive Pavelski scored 38 goals this

past season and he’s one of the league’s ultimate gamers. He’s

coming off a five-year, $30-million deal which carried at $6-million cap hit. No doubt his camp feels he deserves a raise, even if he

does turn 35 on July 11.

And no question the Sharks are up against it cap-wise after Erik Karlsson’s big extension plus the fact they also have Thornton to re-

sign, RFA star winger Timo Meier, and 56-point man, RFA winger

Kevin Labanc.

It’s going to be a fascinating week to be sure.

Latest on Mitch Marner talks

One way or another we’re heading for a rather dramatic week on the

Mitch Marner front. As I tweeted on Saturday, which caused some

consternation in Leafs Nation, the Marner camp expects to hear from

a few teams come Wednesday when the RFA speaking period

opens. The Maple Leafs know this and are ready for anything. Leafs

GM Kyle Dubas raised eyebrows Thursday in Vancouver when he told reporters he may not necessarily match an offer sheet to

Marner, that maybe he would take the picks. That might have been

designed to startle Marner a bit, make him realize that there’s an

actual chance he won’t be a Maple Leaf if this doesn’t get resolved, or maybe Dubas was simply stating the truth given his cap situation.

But I also think part of why some teams will come calling

Wednesday if Marner still hasn’t re-signed with the Leafs is that they

want to know officially from agent Darren Ferris what it would take to

get in the ball game contract-wise. And here’s where this thing could

go a few different ways: I do think some teams, if they think they can

sign Marner, would prefer trading for his rights rather than going the offer sheet route (as an aside, as of Saturday no team had made the

Leafs a trade offer for Marner). Think of how former Leafs GM Brian

Burke acquired Phil Kessel from Boston. He threatened the Bruins

with an offer sheet before getting him the natural way via trade instead. It could be that the Leafs and another team find more

common ground on a traditional trade for Marner rather than the

offer sheet route.

I also have to think that the Leafs give it another shot in signing

Marner over the next few days, put something in front of his camp

again that makes them think. I spoke this weekend with one rival

agent who has nothing to do with any of this. He thinks the magic contract figure is six years with a $10-million AAV. It’s a bit more

than the Leafs probably want to go, less than what the Marner camp

probably wants, but still pays him more than the Hart Trophy winner

in Nikita Kucherov ($9.5 million) and also term-wise gets him off the same cycle as Auston Matthews’ five-year deal which is a good thing

for Toronto. The Leafs no doubt would rather go seven or eight

years with Marner, but again, this is about compromise. Will we see

compromise from either side this week?

Blackhawks plans

My sense is the Blackhawks don’t plan on a lot of UFA action early

this week but that could change later in the week. A source suggested the Hawks are more focused on trades early this week.

And I think part of that is that the term it’s going to take to sign most

UFAs on the market isn’t terribly appealing to a Chicago team that

has a good cap situation. A year from now, the Hawks don’t want to be in a position to have to shed assets just to sign their RFAs. So for

now it’s about trades where there are players out there with shorter

terms left on their contracts. But obviously, if that doesn’t work out,

the UFA market will also come into play.

William Karlsson’s new contract

William Karlsson, once he signs his deal, will be a Vegas Golden

Knight for eight years at a $5.9 million AAV per season. It’s a team-friendly deal in terms of the cap hit but where the club grudgingly

had to move was on term where the max was really important to the

26-year-old Karlsson. He absolutely loves it in Las Vegas and

wanted to hammer down his future there. So both sides gave in this deal. I think one of the reasons Karlsson’s camp, led by agent

Micheal Deutsch, couldn’t push too hard on AAV is that the Knights

weren’t bluffing in hinting if both sides couldn’t come to an

agreement they probably would be forced to deal him. Because a

one-year salary arbitration contract, which is what he did last

summer, would walk him to UFA status in a year. No way Vegas was

going to allow that. In the end, the Knights get a player they really

value locked up for a long time and the player gets to play out his career in a place he’s fallen in love with. Hard to argue with any of it.

Schenn hopes work with Oates leads to new deal

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Not every free agent gets to know his fate on July 1. Others wait

longer. That’s probably going to be the case for UFA blueliner Luke Schenn. Let’s see if a team takes a flyer on the 29-year-old, who

bounced around the Anaheim and Vancouver organizations this past

season. He’s not only working his ass off right now to get ready for

next season but he’s also done some work with skills guru Adam Oates.

“When I got traded and started in (AHL) Utica, I decided to give

Adam Oates a call to try and give myself one more chance to work

my way back into the NHL,” Schenn said. “He believed in me and

thought I could work my way back up and be effective in today’s

NHL if I changed some things in my game. One of them was finding

a way to move the puck better, a 5-10 foot pass I needed to improve on and as well as putting myself in better positions around the ice to

close plays out defensively. A lot of people think it’s just how you

skate but he taught me it’s actually how you think the game and

putting yourself in better positions around the ice to have success where skating won’t be an issue. Ultimately he gave me confidence

that I could make these plays.”

Schenn said he’s been on the ice with Oates all summer.

“He was a huge help for me in working back to the NHL and playing

games down the stretch,” Schenn said. “I feel good about the way

things ended in Vancouver but I feel this is just the start of working

with him and feel very motivated to improve and am working to get back to the level where I was projected to be.’’

For a bargain price, this guy seems like a logical gamble. Teams can

never have enough D depth.


1148550 Websites

The Athletic / Duhatschek: Q&A with Todd Warriner on what it takes to go from draft pick to NHL regular

By Eric Duhatschek Jun 24, 2019

For any prospect leaving the NHL Draft this past weekend, the most

dangerous assumption was that this the completion of a journey.

The fact is, this is just the start.

A total of 217 players were chosen over a two-day period in

Vancouver, but even in the deepest, most successful drafts in

history, only a small percentage ever play regularly in the NHL. The

rest could find work on the fringes of the NHL, or in the minors, or possibly even in Europe.

But for the majority, the closest they’ll ever come to realizing their

NHL dream was when they were handed a sweater on the draft floor and then invited to a team’s development camp, some of which are

starting this week.

Once on the scene, they will hear some version of the

aforementioned sober warning – that the real work starts now.

What they’ve done to this point gets a foot in the door. It will be up to

them to subsequently barge through.

Few understand the challenges that lie ahead better than Todd

Warriner.

Those of a certain age will remember that Warriner was chosen

fourth overall by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1992 draft. But then, before he ever played an NHL game, Warriner’s rights were traded

to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the blockbuster Wendel Clark-for-Mats

Sundin deal.

Now 45, Warriner played in a different era – just as the NHL was moving from high-octane offense to the dead-puck decade. That, in

turn, obliged Warriner to reinvent himself as a player on the fly.

A high-scoring junior (224 points in 162 games), he ended up

becoming a reliable two-way forward as a pro.

In all, Warriner played 453 NHL games for six teams and scored the

first-ever goal in the Air Canada Centre. He also played four

seasons in Europe and now works for Rogers Sportsnet as an analyst on their junior hockey telecasts.

But Warriner’s journey wasn’t without its challenges and he shared

some of the insights he gleaned along the way.

I want to know about the challenges of becoming an NHL pro as opposed to just an NHL draft choice and I remember you once telling

me that the difference between junior hockey and the NHL isn’t

much anymore – the same game, but just played at a little different

pace. But that was not the case when you were breaking in, right?

No, when I came up, junior was a wide-open game. Then I got to the

NHL and everybody’s checking and trapping. It was a different game

and it wasn’t my thing. Like so many guys, I had to adapt quickly to a very different, changing game. Plus, I’d come from the (Canadian)

national team, and we’d been to the gold-medal game (at the 1992

Olympics), but now, here I was in Toronto. People were so upset

that Wendel was gone and I was coming the other way. All of a sudden, I realized I had to get my act together.

Nowadays, teams are predisposed to put untried youngsters into

their lineups far more readily than when you broke in. What was that

“apprenticeship” like?

There was a general feeling around the league at the time that

young players had to pay their dues and I was fine with that. I went

to the minors for two years and when I finally got my chance, I felt I was ready. Junior was all about: ‘How fast can I go and how many

can I get? In the NHL, it was ‘no, you gotta check, you gotta stay

above the puck.’ Eventually, those were the things that kept me in

the game, but these were things I never really considered doing at the start of my career.

People sometimes enjoy a discussion of then versus now because

there are always lessons to be learned from the past. When you

were just a kid, coming through the ranks, you hadn’t even seen yourself on video until your bantam season. It’s hard to imagine such

a thing occurring today.

My mom was a figure-skating pro and she ran the figure-skating and

power-skating programs for our town and a couple of other towns

nearby. When I was 10 or 12 years old, she would say to me, ‘you

need to arch your back and get your posture stronger from the

middle.’ So now I’m in bantam and we’re in the Ontario finals and we’re playing a team from Napanee and it was so long ago that they

were wearing Cooperalls. My old coach had the game burned from a

VHS onto to a DVD and said, ‘go watch this, you won’t believe it.’ I

was a major peewee playing bantam and I’m seeing myself and thinking, ‘mom is right – I’m skating too far bent over.’ I corrected

that in the years before I played pro, but just seeing yourself, like

that, on a video, for the first time, I had no idea – of how I skated, or

even of the way I looked in my equipment.

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With kids today, that’s just commonplace. Once you see yourself

enough, you develop an awareness of how you move – and they’re doing it when they’re eight years old. They can see, ‘oh wow, I have

a wide stance. Or my strides aren’t long enough. Or I’m too hunched

over’ – whatever it might be. And they can correct themselves way

earlier. But for me, I first time I saw myself on video, it was like a light-bulb moment.

It was hard, heavy game when you first arrived in the NHL, and

frequently, that disqualified smaller, skilled players from

consideration. When it comes to scouting teenagers in the current

era, is that the single biggest change – a greater appreciation put on

skill, no matter how big a player might be?

Think of how many players you know and covered in the 80s, who were overlooked because they were just under six-foot, or their stick

was too short, or for some other reason that today would be thought

of as ridiculous. The minor leagues in the 80s and 90s were filled

with players who were really good, but they were 5-8, 5-9, 5-10 – or defensemen who were under six feet, who could play now.

Overall, I would say all of today’s kids are better earlier. You can’t

rely on one or two skills. You have to have four or five, just to get to

the point where people are watching you. But I also think it’s easier

to rule out players now. If a kid struggles to skate, he might have

good technique and might be a good athlete and people think they

can alter him, or change him, but if you look at a 19- or 20-year-old and he doesn’t skate pretty well now, it’s tough to think he’s going to

make the transition to the NHL, because it’s that much quicker

again.

You were telling me that in your son’s bantam year, you could see the process of weaning out players starting already – because small

may be OK, but timid isn’t.

On that team, we had all these nice kids, who could skate and were

pretty keen, and then all of a sudden, there’s body checking. So

now, we’re going into bantam and we’re not the biggest team and it

changed the whole dynamic altogether. And it wasn’t even because

a guy was small, it was because he was timid. So, as you move up in the levels, you have to adapt. Some kids fall off. Some kids don’t.

But you really can’t predict that. That’s a hard thing. You see a kid

who’s small and skates well and is competitive, but if he doesn’t like

to go get the puck if there’s a guy there who’s going to hit him, it isn’t going to work. And it’s hard to see that coming.

The things that worked for you in junior in the 1990s didn’t

necessarily translate in the NHL, which obliged you to adapt? How

did you manage to do that?

My usual joke is that you just needed to spend about three hours

around Pat Burns to know exactly what it’s going to take to stay in

the league. It really was that simple for me. I remember going to the minors and I was playing for Tom Watt and I learned a lot from him.

He didn’t love me as a player because I was pretty high risk and kind

of all over the ice a lot of times. Coaches back then wanted structure

– and they wanted to check and they wanted to trap and they wanted you to play more robotically and that was OK. I understand

that now as a coach too. But I wasn’t that type of player. And with

Burnsy, it was always pretty cut-and-dried. My second training camp,

when I got cut in Collingwood, he said, ‘the game doesn’t owe you

anything.’

In my time, you basically had to look at the team you’re with and say:

‘What does it need? How can I help?’ It becomes pretty apparent

quickly to a lot of kids from junior that, ‘wow, this is a good league, with a lot of good players.’ And you have to figure out if you are

going to be one of those good players.

Many of us gain wisdom as we age. To me, the idea of essentially

reinventing yourself as a role player when you’re just out of your teens can’t have been easy and would have required some genuine

self-assessment. Can you isolate the factors that made that

possible?

If I had to look at one thing, I think it was because I wasn’t all that stubborn. I feel like a lot of guys that I played with before who were

really good juniors weren’t as willing to change their games. You

think: ‘I got 100 points three times. I should be on the power play.’ In

the end, because I could skate, I could play it either way. Other guys

weren’t as lucky that way. But I was also willing to learn – and just

wanted to make it badly enough that I was willing to do whatever it

took.

A lot of others were maybe pigheaded that way – and wouldn’t

change and didn’t play as long. The biggest thing with my generation

was ‘are you willing to adapt?’ And then, ‘can you figure out what

that adaption looks like?’ But that’s a hard thing sometimes with kids.


1148551 Websites

The Athletic / By the numbers: Evaluating the 2019 free agency

class

By Dom Luszczyszyn Jun 24, 2019

“Nothing good happens after 2 a.m.” It’s one of the many lessons

offered by the sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” – a rule to live by to avoid bad decisions in your late 20’s and early 30’s. NHL front

offices should have its own version to avoid bad decisions on

players in their late 20’s and early 30’s: “Nothing good happens after

June 30.”

That should be the motto for NHL free agency, but instead, it’s billed

as a frenzy where teams sell their fans on the hope of a brighter

future, which is rarely the case. There are of course exceptions to the rule, but more often than not, no other day creates more future

headaches and costly mistakes than July 1.

It’s a day where players have all the power while on the downswing

of their career creating future cap problems for their new home.

What you’ve seen lately likely isn’t what you’ll get due to when

players hit their peak in hockey, with prime age ending as player

freedom increases. Peak season is in the past for the majority of

players and it’s why all the leagues worst contracts are signed during this period. The silly season is almost upon us.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. Some contracts work out OK

and there’s even potential to steal players that fly under the radar. Here’s what to expect from the top free agents this summer, from the

future worst contracts in the league, to the deals that might just be

OK, to the few exceptions to the rule that may actually pan out

favorably.

Evaluating the UFA Field

Forwards


With Erik Karlsson off of the market, Artemi Panarin is now alone at

the top of the class as this year’s most prized offering. No other

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player available impacts the game more than Panarin who has seen

a meteoric rise to superstardom since coming over to the NHL four seasons ago. In that time he has 320 points in 322 games. Only

seven other players have scored more points in that time frame.

He’s incredible with the puck leading to elite zone exit and entry

numbers that make him an excellent play-driver. Panarin is elite, and at 27, is still young-ish for an unrestricted free agent.

Panarin is the type of player where a big money, long-term

commitment won’t lead to much regret. It’s very rare that a player of

his caliber even makes it to the open market to begin with, a player

that legitimately moves the needle and can elevate a team to the

next level. He’s worth it.

Still, as with all UFAs, his best days are likely behind him (unless he ages better due to starting his NHL career just four years ago, which

is possible), and as long the team signing him understands that

there should be no issues. My model expects a three-to-four year

window where Panarin provides elite value before a slow decline in his 30’s. Even then, Panarin should still be a top line player for the

entirety of his contract.

That’s worth $9.8-million per season over seven years which is

$700,000 lower than what Evolving Hockey projects on a seven-year

deal (let’s face it, he’s probably not getting eight years since

Columbus is the only team that can offer such a deal). With elite

talents, there’s more leeway in overpayments and Panarin is no exception as one of the league’s most dominant players. Even if he’s

overpaid, he’s still providing immense value, which is not something

you can say about other pending free agents.


This is a contract that deeply concerns me. On a six-year deal,

Evolving Hockey pegs Duchene to be worth $6.8-million per season,

while my model thinks he’s worth $6.7 million. Rumors are swirling

that Duchene will command significantly more than that on the open

market: north of $9-million per season. It’ll be an extremely tough

ask for him to live up to that.

Duchene looks like a tweener top six center – one that would be elite on a second line but arguably outmatched on a top line. He projects

to be a first line center over the next two seasons, but not an above

average one, ranking 28th in the league per his GSVA (and not that

much higher than Kevin Hayes either). Forget $9-million per season over seven years – Duchene likely isn’t worth that salary right now.

With Duchene being 28 years old, things only get worse from there

and over the majority of a lengthy contract would likely only provide

second line value. His rumored ask would be an overpayment.

Duchene has always been held in high regard as one of the league’s

better players, but his results have lagged behind his reputation.

Last year was a high mark for his production, but it came off a bloated 18 percent shooting percentage that Duchene is unlikely to

repeat. He’s blazingly fast and a gifted puck-handler, putting up

decent point totals as a result, but he struggles to drive play like

you’d expect from a top-flight center (especially one who is excellent at entering the zone with control) due to his defensive struggles.

Duchene has only had one season in his career where his team has

outshot the other with him on the ice.

Part of that is the fact that Duchene has never really had a strong support system. That’s why his “difficulty” rating is so high: it’s hard

to do well when you play for a bottom five teams year-after-year and

to his credit, he’s always been positive relative to his team, save for

his brief stint in Columbus. It’s possible his raw talent will shine much brighter on a competitive team and that gives reason for optimism in

signing him. It’s also possible that slotting him as the top option on

those teams was part of the problem.

A team offering him $9 million or more likely expects him to be The

Guy, but it’s unlikely he can be that. He’s much better suited as a complementary piece, though it looks increasingly unlikely his new

deal will be commensurate of that.


At 35 years old, Pavelski is still a fantastic player that can bring the heat. Last season he scored 38 goals and was still pushing play in

the right direction with a plus-2.8 percent expected goals rate

relative to his team. He’s a goal-scorer who is one of the best in the

league at creating high-quality chances. Last season he was 20th in

individual high danger chances per 60.

The decline has already begun for Pavelski and it will likely only get

worse from here on out, though my model expects Pavelski to stay steady with where he was at the two seasons prior in 2019-20. After

that, the cliff begins and its imperative that the team signing him

keeps the term short, though he’s at a high enough point that he

should remain an effective player for the length of his contract.

He should still be a top line threat for the next two-to-three years and

is worth upwards of $8 million in those seasons. Anything more than

two-to-three years at his age is definitely a gamble.


There were many who wondered whether Anders Lee could

maintain his value without John Tavares as his main pivot. He

proved any detractors wrong last season scoring 28 goals while being one of the Islanders’ strongest two-way players. It was a step

back from the 40 goals he scored a year prior, but the drop-off there

was worth it for his defensive improvement. In 2017-18, Lee was a

major defensive liability on a team that already struggled mightily in their own end but was much stronger under new coach Barry Trotz.

He may have been the Islanders’ most complete skater last season.

His body of work defensively is still collectively below average

though. The Isles may have allowed fewer goals against with him on the ice compared to any other skater on the team last year, but the

year prior they allowed the most. That variance isn’t all Lee (or Trotz

for that matter), it’s mostly goaltending. His expected goals rate is much more indicative of his ability. There, he did improve year-over-

year, but it was from a ghastly rate in 2017-18, to a slightly above

average one in 2018-19.

Lee can score goals (1.13 5-on-5 goals-per-60 over the last three seasons, 16th in the league) and can drive play (plus-four percent

relative expected goals rate) despite being a below average puck-

carrier. That’s thanks to strong offensive instinct, which should make

him an attractive commodity during free agency if the Islanders can’t manage to re-sign him. At age 29, what I’m most concerned about

with any Lee contract is term. Lee projects to provide top-line value

for only the next two seasons and top-six talent for three-to-four seasons after that. A top-six forward at the projected price of $6.6

million is fine for five years, but anything more and a team is paying

$6.6 million or more in years six and seven for a 35-year-old middle-

six caliber forward. That wouldn’t be good.

There’s also the chance that Lee’s contract year performance where

he played like a bonafide top liner isn’t representative of his true

talent. Before last year he was a tweener in the top six and

regressing to that point on top of a decline might make things uglier much faster than projected here.


For the entirety of Mats Zuccarello’s career, his teams have always

been better when he’s on the ice compared to the bench based on

his relative shot metrics. Every season. Zuccarello has been a very

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underrated player through much of his career for that reason, but

things likely get less rosy from here for the 32-year-old, especially as his minutes start dropping. His higher than expected projected

output from above is based on the 19:51 he averaged last season, a

mark he’s unlikely to reach on a contending team.

While his relative metrics have been good, he’s been below 50 percent in expected goals share in three of the last four seasons.

Being The Guy on a poor Rangers team certainly didn’t help, but he

struggled even as a complementary piece in the playoffs for his new

team. The Stars carried just a 45 percent expected goals share with

Zuccarello on the ice, one of the worst marks among forwards. His

11 points in 13 games were great, but five of those points were

secondary assists. The fact the Stars got out-chanced in his minutes was disappointing for a player that’s rarely been on the wrong side of

that ledger.

Whether Zuccarello can continue to drive play as he ages is an

important question now as that’s a large part of his game. My model is optimistic thanks to strong relative numbers and still considers him

to be above average in that regard – and that’s in pretty difficult

minutes too. A shift to a lesser role could increase his value further.

Zuccarello remains one of the game’s strongest playmakers and

could eclipse 60 points with good health – he was on pace for 68

last season.

While he should still be able to provide top-six value into his 30’s, there are cracks under the surface that make things a bit risky.

That’s par for the course for any deal involving a player over 30

though. Term will mean a lot here. Evolving Hockey projects four

years for him and for that length, he could still provide great value, especially if can be a positive influence on chance rates. Anything

more would be a sizeable risk though.


At 30 years old, term is the enemy for any Gustav Nyquist contract.

He’s a decent second liner that drives offense coming off one of his

career-best seasons, but it’s all downhill from here and managing

expectations with him is critical. Nyquist is a solid contributor and underrated for what he brings to the table, but it won’t be long until

he’s out of a top-six role entirely. A contract under four years could

be palatable, but anything more could be a disaster in waiting

depending on his cap hit.


Micheal Ferland is an effective middle-six option, a goal-scorer with

size that teams generally covet. He’s particularly great at getting into

dangerous areas and creating chances, though not so strong at drawing penalties and staying out of the box.

Based on the contract projected for him, Ferland looks like he could

be relatively affordable for his skill-set and should command more for what he brings to the table. At 27, age isn’t as large of a concern

relative to other UFA’s.

But there’s a definite reason for reserved skepticism and that comes

with the difficulty of his minutes. Last year in Carolina, Ferland spent 69 percent of his 5-on-5 time next to either Sebastian Aho or Teuvo

Teravainen (or both). The year prior, it was 82 percent next to

Johnny Gaudreau or Sean Monahan. He compliments and works

well with great players, but there’s a chance that his strong results are the product of who he plays with and not actually his own ability.

In 1385 minutes with those star players, Ferland’s teams have

scored 3.42 goals-per-60. Without them on the ice, that falls to 1.78

goals-per-60 in 438 minutes. Before becoming an option on the

Flames top line, Ferland looked mostly replaceable and it shows

when he’s apart.

That would give me plenty of pause with Ferland, but if he can be

surrounded by talented offensive drivers, he could still provide underrated value in a team’s middle six at the right price. Those

expecting and paying for more will be disappointed.


Ryan Dzingel had a career-high 56 points last season and I would bet a lot on him never approaching that total again. Not on a team

that would actually use him properly anyways. Ottawa didn’t have

many options, forcing him into a top-six role with power play time.

On an average team, Dzingel is probably a third liner with scoring

punch that needs sheltering due to his defensive shortcomings.

Evolving Hockey projects a four-year deal worth $4.3-million per

season, but that feels almost a million too high. By year four, Dzingel will barely be a top-nine option and any deal longer than four years

probably shouldn’t even be considered.


After a career year in 2016-17 where Marcus Johansson notched 58 points, the next two seasons haven’t been very strong. Both years

have been mired in injury where he hasn’t been able to replicate the

same scoring punch he showed with Washington. Scoring on 19

percent of your shots and getting a cushy gig as the net-front

presence on the top power play will do a number on expectations,

and Johansson hasn’t met them since. It’s probably why he was

viewed as expendable following that season.

Johnasson looks to be an average player, perfectly suitable for a

team’s middle six. He scores a little more than average, but drives

play a little worse. That latter fact is surprising because he’s very

strong in transition with excellent entry and exit numbers over the last few seasons. For teams that struggle to push the puck up ice

with control, Johansson could definitely be an asset.

I’d be wary with what teams will pay for all that and for how long

though, especially after seeing him as part of a Stanley Cup final run with the Bruins on a strong third line. Three years with an average

cap hit south of $4.5 million is definitely manageable, but he’s

projected to earn slightly more with an extra season tacked on, a season where he projects to be a low caliber third liner.


This feels like Patrick Marleau redux (which is funny now given

Marleau was off-loaded to this very team), albeit with a much better play-driver actually worth the big money to start. Justin Williams is

the heart of the Hurricanes and still has an incredibly strong

influence on shot rates at both ends of the ice. In that vein, he was

practically made to be a Hurricane and retire in Carolina. After his second straight 50-plus point season in Raleigh, it’s clear he can still

pack a punch on the scoresheet.

At 37, the obvious concern is age and based on typical age curves it looks like Williams should still have two very productive years

providing top-six value left in the tank and a season after on the

edge between second and third line caliber. Based on the way he

played the last few seasons, I believe it. The key will be limiting term to one-or-two seasons. Anything more could be a costly mistake as

the Leafs learned this weekend.


Richard Panik gets a bit of a bad rep in hockey circles for his lack of consistency, which is likely part of the reason he was shipped out of

Chicago two seasons ago. There are worse options than him in this

free agency class though. Panik looks like an average player, who

fits fine in a team’s middle six.

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What you’ll likely get is around 35-to-45 points with some penalty

differential issues, but the reason to be enamored with Panik has more to do with his play-driving ability where he’s very strong

offensively and can hold his own defensively. Over the last couple

seasons, Panik’s teams carry a 52.6 percent expected goals

percentage with him on the ice, but that drops to 49 percent with him off. That difference is 66th best mark in the league among forwards

over the time frame. His 1.79 points-per-60 rate at 5-on-5 is also

solid – and much of that was on a talent-depleted Arizona team.

He’s not a sexy name, but he can help a team at the right price and

term. That’s not Evolving Hockey’s projected $4.9-million per season

over four years, but a little less could be workable.


It feels like Wayne Simmonds’ reputation has faded with his dismal

performance in Nashville after being acquired at the trade deadline,

but with the reborn infatuation with heavy hockey after a Blues’

Stanley Cup victory, this contract has potential to be ugly. If he gets term it could be toxic.

Simmonds is projected to net $5-million per season for five years

according to Evolving Hockey’s work and it’s debatable whether he’s

even worth $5-million on a one-year deal. Over five, he’s likely worth

just more than half of that and he may not even last that long with

the way his career is heading.

Simmonds is no longer a viable top-six forward option at age 31 and it won’t be long before he isn’t a viable top-nine option either. He can

score goals and is a strong net-front presence, but part of both

strengths is that he’s given an opportunity to do so on the power

play, an opportunity he arguably doesn’t deserve anymore. At 5-on-5, Simmonds’ game has declined immensely over the past few

seasons as he struggles to drive play and score at an above

average rate. Over the last two season, his expected goals

percentage of 47.6 percent was one of the worst rates on

Philadelphia and he was just as bad in Nashville. His points-per-60

of 1.19 over the time frame is fourth line caliber.

Simmonds is just not the player he used to be, and unless he takes a massive pay-cut relative to what’s expected, then his next contract

will likely be regrettable on day one.


Brett Connolly does one thing well and one thing only: score goals. That’s despite not creating the best chances for himself with a below

average individual expected goals rate.

In his time in Washington, Connolly scored on 18.9 percent of his

shots at 5-on-5 and put in a career year last season with 46 points. That was while playing 13:20 per night, which is actually a sizeable

minute increase relative to his previous seasons. Connolly has

evolved into a pretty efficient scorer in low minutes over the last few seasons, posting 2.19 points-per-60 during his tenure in Washington

– which is first-line caliber. Last year’s stunning 2.66 actually led all

Capitals and was good for 17th in the league overall.

His poor defense is likely what’s keeping him from a bigger role, but his offensive upside suggests he’s deserving of more minutes. He

could be a savvy pick-up for a team looking for depth scoring in its

top nine with potential for more upside. Connolly is a bit of a

passenger, but in the right spot and role could provide surprisingly good value. At his projected price, he could be the rare July bargain.


Joonas Donskoi never gets much love, but he’s been a strong

under-the-radar player for the Sharks over the last two seasons,

doing well in a bottom-six role. Few players drive play better than

Donskoi does who is excellent at creating chances for himself and his teammates, as well as moving the puck up ice. The Sharks had a

58.2 percent expected goals rate with Donskoi on the ice last

season as a result, the highest on the team and 4.4 percent better

than when he was on the bench. For one of the best teams in the league in that regard, that’s seriously impressive. He’s a positive at

both ends of the ice too.

Part of what also makes Donskoi so underrated is his massive ability

to draw penalties while not taking many himself. Only 14 other

players are projected to do a better job on a per minute basis next

season and that could be a valuable asset to a team with strong

special teams.

Donskoi may not score much but could be very useful for a team

needing middle-six depth that struggles to possess the puck and

create chances. At under $3 million, he would be a steal.

Defensemen


With Karlsson off the market, Jake Gardiner easily becomes the best

defenseman available. He was a whipping boy for many Leafs fans

throughout his tenure, but an injury that saw him miss the end of the regular season and the Leafs struggles as a result, began to flip the

script and enlighten many to his value.

Gardiner is a modern NHL defenseman, one who makes his due by moving the puck up ice and he’s one of the league’s strongest in that

regard. He’s also one of the league’s best playmakers on the back

end and was a key part of what drove Toronto’s elite offense. Very

few defenders drive play at both ends of the ice as well as Gardiner does and his presence could be a huge addition to any team’s top

four. Gardiner isn’t a No. 1 defenseman but could be a strong

complement for years to come. He should have top pair value for

roughly the next five years.

That’s the sweet spot for any Gardiner deal, especially if the cap hit

approaches $7 million. Anything more could be dicey as he declines

into a second pairing defender. Gardiner is 29 so age is definitely a concern here. With his game centered around skill over brawn,

there’s a chance he ages more gracefully, though recent injury

trouble could put a dent in that.


It seems a lot of hockey men are still enamored by the extremely tall

Tyler Myers, despite the fact he’s been aggressively mediocre in

Winnipeg with last season being a low point. When Myers was on

the ice, the Jets carried a 48.2 percent expected goals rate, a pretty low mark for someone playing on the third pair. Myers can move the

puck fine and is OK offensively, but is a turnstile at his own blue line

and struggles defensively as a result. Over the last three seasons, he’s allowed the most expected goals against per 60 amongst Jets

defenders.

And yet, Myers looks like he’s in line for a deal that will pay upwards

of $6-million per season for a long time. With Myers one year away from age 30, it doesn’t feel like a very strong bet as he’ll only get

worse as the years wear on – and he’s already not at a high place to

start.

At this point, my model figures Myers provides bottom pairing value and it’s only a matter of time before that value disintegrates further.

There’s no larger discrepancy this offseason between my model’s

projected market value and Evolving Hockey’s projected contract

than Myers, who appears to be worth just over half of what he’s

expected to get. Of all the contracts signed in July, it’s Myers’ that

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will arguably be the biggest poison pill right from the get-go. Teams

expecting a top-four defenseman will likely be in for a rude awakening sooner rather than later.


At age 33 Anton Stralman isn’t what he used to be: a fancy stats

darling that drives play to an elite degree. He’s still above average in that regard but took a major step back last year in an injury-riddled

campaign. His 50 percent expected goals rate was the worst on

Tampa Bay’s blue line and he was the only Lightning defenseman

last season to be out-shot for the season at 5-on-5. It was only the

second time since 2007-08 that’s happened to him.

I’d expect a small bounce-back for next season, but would be wary

of last year being a sign of things to come going forward. He would need a large bounce-back to be worth the contract projected to him,

which would arguably be an over-payment by about $1-million per

season.

Goalies

The Evolving Hockey twins don’t have contract projections for

goaltenders (which means I don’t either as my “market value”

projections are derived from their work), and I don’t have projections

past this season (because that would be a hopeless venture) but I figured it would be worth mentioning a few of the big names.

Sergei Bobrovsky had a down season by his standards, but a strong

stretch drive gave him his third straight season posting a save percentage above expected. The prior two were to a massive degree

as Bobrovsky was arguably the league’s best goalie during the time

frame. My model uses the past three years and figures a return to

form is in the cards, valuing Bobrovsky at 3.5 wins per 60 starts based on his output above expected, second only to John Gibson.

That makes Bobrovsky one of the league’s most valuable players on

paper, but the volatility of goaltending means a smart team shouldn’t

pay him as such – or at least give out term for it. One only needs to look at the now onerous Carey Price contract for a perfect example.

Bobrovsky may be worth 3.5 wins on paper, but there’s far less

certainty in that figure than for a forward or a defenseman. With skaters, it’s much easier to project. With goalies, all expectations go

out the window thanks to the year-to-year variance of the position.

Bobrovsky could be worth 3.5 wins, or 1.5 wins, or 5.5 wins, or

anywhere in-between when all is said and done at the end of the season, giving any long-term contract much less cost-certainty. Not

to mention he’ll be 31 by the time puck drops in October.

Bobrovsky is one of the best goalies in the league right now. He

deserves to be paid like one. I would just be wary of being the team that does it, especially if it’s for a long time.

Just as we all expected at the start of the season: Robin Lehner was

one of the best goalies in the league. Based on his career playing

below expectations, it was a big shock, but of course, dealing with

his issues away from the rink likely changed everything for Lehner.

That obviously makes projections difficult for a model that’s agnostic

to personal lifestyle changes.

Based on the last three seasons, Lehner is projected to be a goalie

that meets expectations next season; nothing more, nothing less –

aside from the massive variance that comes with goaltending. It’s a

massive regression from his stellar 2018-19 campaign which is to be expected given how much he overachieved, but perhaps not a

justified one with Lehner’s improved mental health. Time will tell, but

it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see Lehner use last season as a

stepping stone into solidifying himself as a capable full-time starter.

Back in 2015, it seemed like Petr Mrazek was going to be one of the

game’s top starters, posting stellar numbers for Detroit, but his career derailed a bit in the following two seasons. In 2016 and 2017,

he was as bad as he was good the two years prior. The Hurricanes

took a gamble with his acquisition last summer, but it paid off as he

posted a positive season above expected and was the key to their elite stretch drive.

With goalies being so volatile, I’m not sure Mrazek’s decent 40

games last season were enough to cement him as a legitimate

starter though. My model still projects him to post a save percentage

slightly below expected. Any contract with significant term would be

risky.


1148552 Websites

The Athletic / Down Goes Brown: Rating the biggest stories and moments from draft weekend on the Surprise Scale

By Sean McIndoe Jun 24, 2019

The best kind of NHL Draft is one that surprises us. We spend

weeks and months figuring out exactly what should happen, and

who’s going to wind up where and it’s always more fun to be wrong.

Whether it’s a big trade, an off-the-board pick, or some unexpected

breaking news, the best draft weekend moments are the ones that

leave you wondering what just happened.

How did the 2019 edition do? The short answer: Not bad. For the longer answer, let’s break out the surprise scale and see just how

good a job this year’s draft did of delivering the unexpected.

Gary Bettman gets booed

Fans booing is part of the fun of the first round. There are even parts of the evening that seem specifically designed to encourage it, like

the traditional roll call that seems to be there just so the local fans

can boo the teams they hate the most. (This year’s winners: Toronto and Boston, with honorable mention to Chicago, Edmonton and

Calgary.)

But the main event is always Gary Bettman, who continues to insist

on appearing in front of fans who clearly don’t want to see him. This

year’s reception was especially bad, as we all knew it would be. The

fans gave it to him with both barrels when he first appeared; while

you could hear him on TV, he was completely drowned out in the

arena. The boos continued all Friday night as he did that weird thing where he shows up between every pick to tell us who’s next even

though we can all see the giant logo on the scoreboard.

Surprise scale: 0/100. Only because the scale doesn’t go any lower.

Bettman brings backup

In an admittedly funny bit, Bettman responded to the initial wave of

boos by acting flustered, trying to talk over them and eventually

wandering away from the podium. The crowd loved that, thinking that they’d actually driven him off the stage, only to see him return

with reinforcements: Henrik and Daniel Sedin.

I mean, there’s really no way to sugarcoat this. This was a full-

fledged heel turn by the Sedins, right? They just aligned themselves

with the sworn enemy of their fan base. This is the NHL equivalent of

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Stone Cold shaking hands with Vince McMahon. Sorry, Canucks

fans, the Sedins hate you now. That’s just how this works.

In related news, how great would it have been if Bettman had come

back out with Mark Messier instead?

Surprise scale: 22.33/100

The top two picks

There wasn’t much intrigue around the top two picks, beyond some

mild (and mostly forced) speculation over whether the Devils might

throw a curveball and go with Kaapo Kakko over Jack Hughes. They

didn’t, making the expected pick with Hughes and the Rangers grabbed Kakko. So far, so good.

Surprise scale: 10/100

The rest of the top five

For months, we’d heard that the real action would start with Chicago

at number three. And it did, sort of, with the first genuine suspense

of the draft. The Hawks ended up grabbing Kirby Dach in a minor

surprise with Bowen Byram and Alex Turcotte available. The Avalanche and Kings quickly got us back on track by grabbing them.

Surprise scale: 20/100. Man, so far this thing is barely warmed up.

Come on, somebody go off the board.

The Red Wings go off the board

That’s more like it. The Wings gave us our first true stunner at

number six by taking German defenseman Mortiz Seider, who’d

been rated as a late-first pick on most of the major lists, if that.

Was it a bad pick? We won’t know for a while and Yzerman has

obviously earned some benefit of the doubt over the years. If you

think a guy is the best player on the board, and you can’t find a way

to trade down, then that’s who you take.

But a surprise? I’d say so. And Seider himself seemed to think so

too.

Surprise scale: 95/100. I gave it a few bonus points for the bow tie.

The rest of the first round

As always, there were a handful of picks that had people scratching

their heads and a few others that seemed to represent great value.

The Oilers made some of their fans mad by picking Philip Broberg, but they’d hinted at that for weeks and Oilers fans are always mad

about something, so no surprise points there. The Canucks went

high-risk/high-reward in front of the hometown fans with Vasili

Podkolzin. The Coyotes moved up to No. 11 to grab Victor Soderstrom, a player not many lists had ranked in that tier and the

Panthers grabbed goaltender Spencer Knight at No. 13 even though

we all assume they’re going to throw seven years at Sergei

Bobrovsky next week.

Meanwhile, the Canadiens had sharpshooter Cole Caufield fall into

their lap at No. 15, which isn’t a joke about him being small but

maybe should have been. The Sabres got solid value in Dylan Cozens at the seven spot and our Scott Wheeler loved the Knights’

pick of Peyton Krebs, even though it was a little jarring to see Krebs

rolling around backstage due to an Achilles injury. And projected

mid-first pick Arthur Kaliyev fell all the way to the Kings early in Round 2, part of a solid weekend of work for Los Angeles.

Surprise scale: 50/100. Standard stuff, but lots to talk about.

No player trades in the first round

In the days leading up to the draft, we’d heard that there was plenty

of trade talk. We hear that every year, sure, but the buzz did seem louder than usual this time. But then Friday night came and went and

there was nothing. Bettman only got to do his patented “We have a

trade to announce” move once, and that was just for the Flyers and

Coyotes flipping picks.

Mix in the lack of drama at the top of the draft and only the Red

Wings truly going off the board, and it made for a Friday night that

was kind of, well, dull. The first round accomplished what it needed

to, but if you tuned in looking for fireworks, you came away

disappointed.

The question was whether that was just setting the stage for Day 2

…


Patrick Marleau to the Hurricanes

We’ve long known that the Leafs were trying to move out from under

the last year of Marleau’s deal and that it was looking likely to happen. But the deal with the Hurricanes still raised a few eyebrows.

You figured the Leafs would have to retain a big chunk of a salary,

maybe pay his July 1 signing bonus and throw in a bit of a

sweetener to close the deal. Instead, they shed the entire thing but had to pay a ransom to do it, sending a protected 2020 first rounder

to Carolina.

You can see the logic for both sides. The Hurricanes use cash and cap space to buy a valuable draft pick. The Leafs get out from a

contract that looked bad on the day it was signed and only got worse

over the course of last season. Toronto’s cap crunch has been well

documented and something had to give. That something ended up being a first and that’s a tough price to pay for a team that’s going to

need plenty of young players on entry-level deals for the next few

years. Clearly, the Leafs decided it was better to grit their teeth and

pay full price to unload the whole deal rather than going halfway. What they can do with the cap space now will determine whether

they were right.


The big one: P.K. Subban to the Devils

The Marleau deal was only a few minutes old when it was shoved

out of the spotlight by a far bigger one. And this time, we even got

the dramatic build, with reports that Subban had been traded but we didn’t know where, followed by news about who wasn’t involved, the

revelation that the Devils were the destination and then finally the

details of the deal.

And the details were pretty stunning because the Devils got Subban for next to nothing. A warm body, a passable prospect and two

seconds isn’t much of a price to pay for a Norris winner, even one

coming off of a shaky season. Subban doesn’t come cheap at $9

million a year, but with only three years left on his deal, the Devils

aren’t locked in forever here. For a team with two recent first overall

picks but a lack of in-their-prime star power beyond Taylor Hall, it

was a swing they had to take.

(As an added bonus, for some reason the NHL waited about an hour

to actually announce the trade to an audience that clearly already

knew all about it. I’ve never heard a bigger trade announced to zero

reaction.)

From the Predators’ perspective, this trade is more about cap space

than the return and we can’t really evaluate it until we find out how

much of that space David Poile is going to throw at Matt Duchene or

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whoever else. For now, let’s just say it was a genuine “wow” moment

on a weekend that didn’t have many.


The Canucks did a thing

While everyone was still digesting the Subban news, word circulated

that the Canucks were going to acquire J.T. Miller from Tampa Bay for draft picks. That seemed about right. He’s a decent player, the

Canucks can use some middle-six help up front and the Lightning

needed to shed cap space. The rebuilding Canucks aren’t in a great

position to be trading away picks, but you need players too, so

deploy your assets as best you can.

Then we found out that they gave up a first-round pick.

Granted, it’s a lottery-protected pick. But only kind of, because if the Canucks don’t make the playoffs next year, the pick becomes an

unprotected first in 2021. Will the Canucks be bad by then? They

obviously hope not, and they probably shouldn’t be, given the young

talent already on the roster. But this is the NHL and things happen. Ask the Sabres or Coyotes how long it takes to get back to the

playoffs, even when you’re pretty sure you should be close.

It’s a risk. And it’s a risk that doesn’t seem worth taking to add a

decent player from a team that was under pressure to cut his cap hit. It’s hard not to go the cynic’s route and point out that if the Canucks

miss the playoffs this year, Jim Benning probably isn’t around to

worry about the 2021 first. Or maybe he’s just really confident in his team, or in Miller, or both. But man, it’s a risk.

Or, to put it a little bit more succinctly:

To summarize, Saturday morning saw deals involving P.K. Subban,

J.T. Miller and the unloading of a year of Patrick Marleau’s contract and only Subban didn’t cost a first-round pick. The NHL is strange

sometimes.

Bad trade scale: 85/100

Surprise scale, given who made the deal: 25/100

The league finishing the draft without a salary cap

Uh … guys? The cap thing is kind of important. Maybe next time, we

could try to get it nailed down before the weekend’s festivities are already over.

To be fair, this wasn’t just an NHL issue, as the league made sure to

point out. The NHLPA has a say here too, and they seemed to be

the ones taking the blame for the delay. It takes two to tango and

each year’s cap number is at least somewhat negotiable, so these

things take time.

Still … it’s weird, right? The cap might be complicated, but lots of

things are complicated and you still have to figure them out on time. Having your entire league gathered in one building for two days, with

all sorts of roster decisions hanging in the balance, seems like a

good time to make sure you can give them the single most important piece of information they need.

It wasn’t the end of the world and we knew roughly what the final

number would be. But maybe get started on the whole project a few

days early next year.

Surprise scale: I don’t know, maybe I’ll get around to telling you later

The Predators needing a timeout to make the 179th pick

This was completely unacceptable.

THE PREDATORS JUST TOOK A FIVE MINUTE TIMEOUT TO

FURTHER DEBATE THE…179TH OVERALL PICK IN THE DRAFT. THEY WERE IMMEDIATELY BOOED FOR IT. RIGHTFULLY SO.

&MDASH; АRPON BASU (@ARPONBASU) JUNE 22, 2019

Surprise scale: 85/100. Until I remember that it takes guys in my

fantasy football league 20 minutes to pick a player who was already taken nine rounds ago: Surprise scale: 10/100

Everything else that didn’t happen

No Rasmus Ristolainen trade. Nothing on Jesse Puljujarvi, despite

his trade demand. No deals involving Phil Kessel or Kris Letang. Nothing all that new around those Blue Jackets’ free agents. Tyson

Barrie didn’t end up going to the Canucks or anywhere else. Nothing

on the Mitch Marner front, which is probably news on its own given where that all seems to be headed. Nothing involving Colin Miller or

Nazim Kadri or Shayne Gostisbehere or a Flames’ defenseman or a

Hurricanes’ defenseman. Jason Zucker wasn’t even traded, which

I’m pretty sure is the first weekend in a while where that’s been the case.

That’s all to be expected – every draft has a ton of big names who

are rumored to be on the block and they can’t all move. There’s still

a full week to go before free agency and no doubt plenty of conversations that took place over the weekend could circle back

over the next few days. The offseason is far from over.

Still, it was hard to leave Vancouver without feeling like the draft had been a bit of a letdown, at least in terms of big surprises. It was a

great weekend, the Canucks did a nice job hosting and the city was

wonderful. But we wanted a few blockbusters, and at most we only

got one.

YOU WOULDN’T THINK A DRAFT DURING WHICH PK SUBBAN

WAS TRADED WOULD BE BORING AS HELL, YET HERE WE

ARE.

&MDASH; MARK LAZERUS (@MARKLAZERUS) JUNE 22, 2019

Lack-of-surprise scale: 75/100

Some huge move happening three minutes after this story comes

out and rendering it out-of-date before you read it.

Wait for it …

Surprise scale: 0/100. But try to act surprised.


1148553 Websites

The Athletic / Pronman: Top prospects for the 2020 NHL Draft

By Corey Pronman Jun 24, 2019

Before I sign off for a few weeks, I will leave you with a preview of the 2020 NHL Draft.

After a year where the talent was all out West and in the United

States, next year’s talent is in Eastern Canada and Sweden. The top

tier for me at the moment is five players deep, with projected top pick Alexis Lafreniere being a small step above the field.

Also, I didn’t rank Tim Stützle because I haven’t seen him yet.

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I’m not going to describe this draft as deep or thin, because we are

way too early in the process to get into that. These rankings will change a lot over the next year.

We’ll check back into this draft in more detail in the fall.

1. Alexis Lafreniere, LW, Rimouski-QMJHL

Lafreniere had a fantastic season and was named CHL player of the year. He’s incredibly skilled and smart, showing the ability to make

defenders look foolish and to pick apart defenses with his vision.

He’s not only very skilled, but also very competitive. Lafreniere

attacks the net, has some physicality in his game and gets a lot of

goals in the dirty areas. His speed is only average, but he’s a true

No. 1 overall pick type of prospect and roughly comparable to Jack

Hughes on talent.

2. Alexander Holtz, LW, Djurgarden-J20 SuperElit

Holtz and Lucas Raymond will be mentioned together a lot in the

next 12 months. They both dominated the Swedish juniors and they

were linemates at the international level this past year. I consider it a complete tie between them on talent. Holtz is a highly skilled goal-

scorer with high-end sense, a truly elite shot, and is a bit quicker and

bigger than Raymond.

3. Lucas Raymond, RW, Frolunda-J20 SuperElit

Raymond on the other hand also has fantastic skill and has true elite

hockey sense. He was one of the smartest 16-year-old hockey

players I’ve ever seen. His ability to wait out defenses and find teammates with ridiculous passes was something that stood out

every time I watched him. If you want an elite playmaker, Raymond

is your guy. He scored the golden goal at the U18s as an underage

player.

4. Quinton Byfield, C, Sudbury-OHL

Byfield was the top rookie in the OHL, showing the promise that led

to him being the first pick in his OHL draft. He’s a 6-foot-4 center

who skates well and has a high skill level. He’s a good playmaker, but it wasn’t consistent to me. The pure physical toolkit is elite and

makes him a projected top NHL draft pick. For me there’s a minor

separation between the two Swedes and Byfield, and then a minor

separation after.

5. Yaroslav Askarov, G, SKA-MHL

I know what you’re about to say. I get it, I’m waiting for the comment

section and the text messages. I can feel the snark coming. Yes, I’m putting a goalie this high. I’ve been high on Askarov for a year, and

he’s continued to impress me again and again. I think he’s the

complete package. A 6-foot-3 goalie with high-end athleticism, high-

end hockey sense, and a player who has been great, if not

dominant, wherever he goes. Askarov has a swagger to his game

and has the ability to steal a win for his team.

6. Anton Lundell, C, HIFK-Liiga

Lundell was excellent for a 17-year-old in Liiga, while also playing

well at the World Junior Championship and the U18s. His hockey

sense is one of the best in the draft, and he makes a ton of plays

due to his IQ. Despite scoring a ton at every level, Lundell doesn’t

have a ton of “wow” in his game. He has skill but it’s not elite, and

the speed is just fine. What makes him a top prospect is his intelligence and what he’s shown he can do versus men at such a

young age.

7. Jamie Drysdale, D, Erie-OHL

Drysdale is a player a lot of scouts are very excited about. He’s not

the biggest defenseman, but he’s a very good skater with near elite hockey sense. He can transition pucks at a high level with his feet

and vision. He’s not a perfect comparable to Quinn Hughes, but in

discussing Drysdale with scouts, they made a point how highly

mobile, albeit small, defenders like Drysdale and Hughes are becoming more common at the top of the draft.

8. Jean-Luc Foudy, C, Windsor-OHL

Foudy won me over last season. I think he has the attributes that will

make him a top NHL player. He’s a dynamic skater who consistently

attacked with speed and made skilled plays with pace. And he’s got

a high skill level and great vision to go with his speed, making him a

more skilled version of his brother, Columbus prospect Liam Foudy. I wish Jean-Luc Foudy scored a bit more and he’s not the biggest, but

he’s got the ability to be a high-end driver of offense.

9. Dylan Holloway, LW, Okotoks-AJHL

Holloway had a great season, being named MVP of the AJHL and playing well in international competition for Canada. Holloway is a

great skater who competes hard and has a ton of energy in his

game. He has the skill to go around defenders, but he’s just as

comfortable driving. He’s also a very smart player who makes a ton

of plays. He will play the University of Wisconsin next season and

become a big part of one of the most interesting amateur hockey

teams in the world in the 2019-20 campaign.

10. Marco Rossi, C, Ottawa-OHL

Rossi had a great first OHL season and was a big reason why the

67’s were a top team in the CHL. He’s a small forward, and while he

skates well, he’s not a burner. Everything else about him is great, though. He’s so skilled, he’s very smart, he’s got a bullet shot and he

competes very hard for pucks. I expect him to be one of the top

players in the OHL next season and to be a regular on the highlight

reel.

11. Antonio Stranges, C, London-OHL

Stranges is one of the most entertaining players to watch from the

2002 age group. He’s a highly skilled player with fantastic vision. He is a good and unique skater in how he uses his edges to travel

around the offensive zone. He is not a perfectly well-rounded player,

but I expect Stranges to make many highlight reels next season and

throughout his career. He’s the top American prospect in next year’s draft class.

12. Rodion Amirov, LW, Ufa-MHL

Amirov was one of the best forwards at the U18 worlds and was a

good player at the MHL level. Scouts rave about his skill level and his offensive upside. He has all the offensive tools to score as a pro.

He’s fast, he sees the ice well, he has great hands, he makes plays

with pace and he can score goals. Amirov is not that great off the

puck in terms of his defensive and physical play, but he competes

fine.

13. Theo Rochette, C, Chicoutimi-QMJHL

Rochette is one of the best passers in his age group and is a player you want with the puck on his stick. He can run a power play at a

high level, and create a lot at even strength due to his skill and

vision. He’s a good skater too, but it’s his game with the puck that

gets me excited about his potential, even though he doesn’t have elite speed and is a bit on the smaller side. He had an excellent first

season in the Q, and I expect him to be one of the best players in

that league next season.

14. Cole Perfetti, C, Saginaw-OHL

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Perfetti had an incredible season, as one of the best U17 scorers in

recent OHL memory and a huge part of a top OHL team at such a young age. Perfetti is a very skilled forward and a super smart player

in general who creates a ton of offense and can score goals. The

main concerns in his NHL projection are his smaller frame at 5-foot-

10 and the fact his skating isn’t anything noteworthy.

15. Jaromir Pytlik, C, Sault Ste. Marie-OHL

Pytlik came over from Europe midseason and grew into a big role

with the Greyhounds. I think he has all the tools to be a great pro.

He’s big, he competes, he skates well and he’s got plenty of skill.

Next season he will be a go-to player for offense, and I think he will

put up big numbers. He impressed me everytime I watched him in

junior or in international tournaments.

16. Jeremie Poirier, D, Saint John-QMJHL

Poirier was a tough player to evaluate because he was 16 years old

on a very poor QMJHL team. If you looked closely at him in his Q

games or at the World U17 Challenge, you saw the skill set of a real player. Poirier is very skilled, very intelligent and could be a first

power play defenseman in the NHL. Saint John should be better this

season, and it is very possible Poirier flourishes into a top player in

the Q.

17. Connor McClennon, RW, Winnipeg-WHL

McClennon, like fellow top prospect Peyton Krebs, had his

production suppressed a bit due to his surrounding cast. At the U17 challenge, he shined and showed what he could be with good

linemates. He’s dynamic. He’s very skilled, intelligent, quick and can

score goals. I think he’s going to have a great 17-year-old season in

Winnipeg.

18. Ryan O’Rourke, D, Sault Ste. Marie-OHL

O’Rourke had a fine first OHL season. Even though he saw his ice

time decline in the second half, he was still a top 16-year-old in the

league. He was also excellent at the U17 Challenge, showing he was a top defenseman in his age group. He’s not a player who is

going to wow you, but O’Rourke is very smart, mobile and tough to

play against. The offensive upside is my biggest question heading into the NHL, but he checks off all the other boxes.

19. Justin Barron, D Halifax-QMJHL

Barron has been excellent between Halifax and international play

the past two years. He’s a fantastic skater, especially for 6-foot-2, and it’s his skating that allows him to project into the NHL. I think he

has some offensive upside, but I don’t see high-end skill or vision.

When he’s on and making plays, moving his feet and making stops,

he can impact a shift. But I’ve seen times where his puck decisions aren’t the best.

20. Hendrix Lapierre, C, Chicoutimi-QMJHL

Lapierre was fantastic for a rookie in the CHL, scoring a point per

game and displaying the promise that made him the first overall pick.

He’s got a very high skill level and makes a ton of plays. Along with

Rochette, Lapierre will make Chicoutimi a major point of interest for

next year’s NHL Draft. I’ve never seen high-end speed from Lapierre, but I don’t think he’s slow either.

21. Jacob Perreault, C, Sarnia-OHL

The son of longtime NHL player Yanic Perreault, Jacob scored 30

goals as a rookie in the OHL and dazzled when I saw him in games for Sarnia. He’s a very good puck handler and passer who can be a

multi-dimensional weapon on the power play due to his ability to

thread a seam pass or pick a corner. His skating is average though

and he’s not the biggest guy out there either.

Other Names to Know:

Lukas Cormier, D, Charlottetown-QMJHL

Kaiden Guhle, D, Prince Albert-WHL

Noel Gunler, RW, Lulea-SHL

Jake Sanderson, D, USNTDP-USHL

Braden Schneider, D, Brandon-WHL

Ty Smilanic, C, USNTDP-USHL

Connor Zary, C, Kamloops-WHL


1148554 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / Rumoured Myers price tag overshadows Canucks’

pickup of Miller

Iain MacIntyre June 24, 2019, 7:02 PM

VANCOUVER – J.T. Miller’s timing is perfect. Outrage on the West

Coast that the Vancouver Canucks are courting free-agent defenceman Tyler Myers has completely engulfed criticism of the

acquisition of Miller.

Of course, it’s not Miller’s fault – any more than it will be Myers’ – what a National Hockey League team thinks he is worth.

The Tampa Bay Lightning had Miller and said it wanted first- and

third-round draft picks for him. And the Canucks, rather than

haggling for days or weeks, and possibly seeing the forward get traded elsewhere, agreed at the NHL draft on Saturday to the steep

price.

At least they secured the reliable, two-way player they targeted and

needed for their top six, and in Miller also have a 26-year-old on a reasonable contract who will help the Canucks for the next four

years.

Coincidentally, Miller was literally on his way to Vancouver with the

New York Rangers when he was traded to the Lightning 16 months

ago. He’ll make it here soon, but fortunately was not flying Monday

when the air was clogged with ash from the latest eruption of Mount

Vancouver over evidence of the Canucks’ long-rumoured interest in Myers, the impending Winnipeg Jet free agent who is likely to

command way more than he is worth on July 1. (As most free agents

do).

General manager Jim Benning, coach Travis Green and managing owner Francesco Aquilini led the Canuck delegation in a Sunday

dinner with Myers in Vancouver. The Canucks probably even paid!

As one of the top two defencemen still headed toward unrestricted

free agency, Myers could receive on the open market a seven-year

contract in excess of $50 million, which is, of course, absurd for a

second- or third-pairing blue-liner with range and handy puck skills to

go with his defensive-zone shortcomings.

CAROLINA HURRICANES


Many fans in Canuck Nation suggested online that Benning should

be fired if he signs Myers, who is 29 years old. But the truly angry were on eBay, pooling their resources to purchase a crown of thorns

and an old map to Golgotha.

Aquilini wants to be a populist, a man of the people – the billionaire

from East Vancouver who never lost his roots as a Canucks fan.

But he has stuck by Benning when the angry mob would have fired

him years ago, before the GM drafted Elias Pettersson and Quinn

Hughes and rebuilt the roster. Keenly aware what people say – and

by “people” we mean those not employed in the NHL – Aquilini will

surely have to consider not only what Myers would cost in money but

also criticism.

Angry Canucks Twitter is a minority in the fanbase, but it’s a significant one.

If the Canucks don’t overpay in free agency for a defenceman, they’ll

probably have to overpay for one in trade. But at least that would

give Benning the next four months to make his best deal possible, instead of the next week when managers are hostage to the free

agents they’re courting.

Maybe Myers, who played junior hockey in Kelowna and keeps a

home in the Okanagan, will sign for four years at $6 million per season instead of seven years at $8 million. Whatever his contract,

he’d be a divisive figure in Vancouver.

By contrast, it’s hard to imagine anyone not liking J.T. Miller. It was only the trade price that was controversial.

In his full season with the Lightning, who re-signed him to a five-

year, $26.25-million contract after acquiring him from Rangers, Miller

had 13 goals and 47 points, his poorest season offensively in four years.

Tape II Tape

Ryan Dixon and Rory Boylen go deep on pucks with a mix of facts

and fun, leaning on a varied group of hockey voices to give their take on the country’s most beloved game.

But on the most talented team in hockey, Miller’s role and ice time

also went down. The previous three years, he averaged 22 goals

and 52 points and his shooting percentage was an impressive 16.3

per cent. For context, consider Canuck sniper Brock Boeser’s

shooting percentage through two-plus seasons is 14.3.

Miller can finish. And asked Monday about Benning’s suggestion that he’ll play alongside Boeser and Calder Trophy winner Elias

Pettersson, Miller said he would expect to exceed the “low-20s” in

goals if that is his deployment.

“Every time we played the Canucks … there was so much young talent,” Miller said in a conference call. “It was always fun to play

these guys, and now to be able to be a part of it is going to be really

cool. There is a ton of potential on this team. I’m going to do

whatever I can to help push for the playoffs and hopefully get in

there.”

Pettersson and Boeser scored against Miller’s team when the

Canucks won 4-1 in Tampa last October, one of only seven home games the Lightning lost all season.

“Super-talented young hockey players, guys that I definitely watch

and am in awe over what they can do in the NHL at a young age,”

Miller said. “If I’m given that opportunity, obviously I’ll use my size (6-1, 218 pounds) to get pucks back for them and then try to get to the

net and create as much room as possible. One of the strong suits of

my game is I can play with anybody on any line.”

On the Canucks, Miller will probably play net-front on the power play,

which would free Bo Horvat to play the “bumper” role between Pettersson and Boeser. Hughes should be on the point.

From the Pittsburgh area, Miller said he’s looking forward to living

and playing in Vancouver. He and his wife Natalie have two infant

daughters, born between dad’s two trades.

Miller said it isn’t hard mentally to go from a Presidents’ Trophy-

winning team in Tampa to one in Vancouver that missed the playoffs

the last four years.

“It really is an awesome place to play hockey and to live,” he said.

“And with the young talent this team has, the veteran core, I think we

can do some really good things.”

If they don’t, he’ll hear about it.

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1148555 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / One standout selection from each round of the 2019

NHL Draft

Sam Cosentino June 23, 2019, 12:45 PM

Two days, 31 teams and 217 players later and the 2019 NHL Draft is

done.

Sixty-three players were selected from Canada — the most of any

country — with the US, a close second, claiming 59 players. The

USNTDP set an abundance of records with 17 players taken in total,

eight of whom were selected in round one. We witnessed Dylan Cozens become the first Yukon born player taken in the first round.

All told, 27 players were selected that had previous ties to the NHL,

lead by Hughes, whose brother Quinn spent the last month of the

season with the Vancouver Canucks.

The most heart-warming moment of the day had to be Everett goalie

Dustin Wolf being selected by Calgary with the 214th overall pick. I

can’t imagine having to sit with your family, watching all of the players you’ve played with and against get selected and enjoy the

moment with family and friends, while you sit there wondering what

your future holds.

The Wolf family was forced to wait for more than three hours before hearing Dustin’s name called. The screams, the jubilation, the utter

joy could be heard and felt throughout Rogers Arena.

Here’s my take on my favourite selection from each round.

Raphael Harvey-Pinard │ 7th round, 201st overall │ Montreal

Canadiens

A smallish player who has the heart of a lion, Harvey-Pinard

captained the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies to President and Memorial Cup titles.

Having experienced a pro camp with the Vegas Golden Knights,

Harvey-Pinard will not be fazed by going to camp with Montreal. At

the CHL level, he’s a point producer, and he’s relied upon in crucial situations. Harvey-Pinard is like a second coach with his ability to

think the game. Hockey IQ is off the charts and when matched with

work ethic gives him the chance to make it as a late pick.

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Patrick Moynihan │ 6th round, 158th overall │ New Jersey Devils

The best endorsement of a player is that which comes from teammates.

When asked who is the most underrated player on their team, many

of the USNTDP players replied with Moynihan. With the ability to

play all over the lineup, Moynihan is lauded for the details in his game, for a never-ending motor that allows him to have success.

The production (68 PTS in 92 GP) was still impressive considering

all of the other high-end options on their team. Another guy who will

find a way to make it. Next stop, Providence.

Kirill Slepets │ 5th round, 152nd overall │ Carolina Hurricanes

Having watched Slepets on several occasions this season both in

November at our Canada-Russia series and at the World Juniors, it was easy to see why Carolina took him as a 20-year-old. He

possesses world class speed and an ability to anticipate the play,

that leads to an abundance of scoring chances.

He does, however, lack finish in his game. That may ultimately be his downfall, but the fallback position for Slepets is a penalty-kill

specialist — he has sneaky length and great hand-eye coordination

that make him a threat short-handed.

Jordan Spence │ 4th round, 95th overall │ Los Angeles Kings

A player born in Australia, who moved to Japan and eventually back

to his dad’s home province of Prince Edward Island, Spence had to

live with a friend while waiting for his family to relocate just so that he

could play at a competitive level.

Undrafted in his first year of QMJHL eligibility, the Moncton Wildcats

jumped up and took him in the second round of the 2017 draft.

Before you know it, he’s put up 49 points best amongst QMJHL rookie rearguards en route to the league’s rookie of the year award.

Cole Schwindt │ 3rd round, 81st overall │ Florida Panthers

Big, right-shot centres, are hard to come by, and this player offers

that package. Not to condone fighting, but a tussle with Josh Wainman on February 13th happened to coincide with a 5 game

point streak.

Understanding that he could hold his own, Schwindt started to use his size to his advantage, and ultimately put up 12 points over

Mississauga’s final 9 games of the season.

A good off-season could position him well to take a major step in

point production next season.

Brett Leason │ 2nd round, 56th overall │ Washington Capitals

Steal of the draft potential.

Admittedly I’m biased towards Leason because he’s the player I’d

had the most live viewings of this season. I watched him play in the

regular season, world juniors, playoffs and Memorial Cup resulting in

a varying level of competition and a variety of pressure-packed

situations.

The thing I like most is that he’s had very little hockey-specific

training — indicating that if he puts the work in, he can dramatically

increase his ceiling. On his best nights, he can be effective in a

multitude of ways, from blocking shots, to stripping pucks, disrupting the breakout, distributing or scoring.

Vasily Podkolzin │ 1st round, 10th overall │ Vancouver Canucks

A player I would deem a top-five pick seemingly has great value for

the Canucks at 10.

There are no holes in his game, but Podkolzin plays a North

American style that is heavy on compete. He thinks the game well and can create offence in a variety of ways — whether that’s making

accurate, hard passes, taking it to the net, working out of the cycle or

shooting it, he makes those around him better.

There are some concerns about his skating ability, but something I believe will come in due time as he grows into his solid frame. Yes,

the contract issue is a bit of a concern, but as scouts like to say, "the

best players always want to come over and play in the best league."

It’s not as if he was going to play in the NHL next season anyway.


1148556 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / Five potential offer sheet targets on the secondary

RFA market

Rory Boylen | June 24, 2019, 2:41 PM

Will this really be the year of the offer sheet, or will all that hype

dissipate this week and next as RFAs start to re-sign with their current teams?

With the RFA negotiating period coming up and starting Wednesday,

none of the very biggest names have officially signed yet. Mitch Marner has reportedly been given a big offer from the Toronto Maple

Leafs, but will entertain talks with other teams. Mikko Rantanen, Kyle

Connor, Patrik Laine, Brayden Point, Sebastian Aho, Matthew

Tkachuk — all of them are difference-makers who could pull in massive new contracts. Ryan O’Reilly was the last player to sign an

offer sheet all the way back in 2013, so if any of these big tickets

decide to put pressure on their current teams by going that route, it

could change the game for the rest of this class, or at least next year’s group.

Since the salary cap isn’t rising as high as previously thought,

settling at $81.5 million for 2019-20, teams that already figured to be up against it are feeling even more of a pinch. And while it may not

be tenable for some organizations to get into the big fish RFA game

and give up four-first round picks, they could instead look to get into

the secondary market and put the screws to their opponents by offer sheeting a lesser RFA. The compensation would be far more

digestable and worth it, and the cap cost wouldn’t be as exorbitant.

So who are these players? First, we’ve only focused on teams that

are dealing with their own kind of cap crunch and thus could be legitimate targets. Then, we identified some players other teams

may be interested in acquiring and giving up a couple of picks to do

it. None of these players will break the bank, but given the compensation for the very best RFAs is so staggering, this is the

market a shrewd GM could try and take advantage of.

Ryan Dixon and Rory Boylen go deep on pucks with a mix of facts

and fun, leaning on a varied group of hockey voices to give their

take on the country’s most beloved game.

Timo Meier, San Jose Sharks

If there’s any GM who we’d expect fully capable of steering his way

out of a sticky situation, Doug Wilson is it. But with just $14.8 million in projected cap space and only seven forwards signed, it’ll be an

uphill battle. Captain Joe Pavelski hasn’t signed and is now believed

CAROLINA HURRICANES


to be meeting with other teams. Joe Thornton wants to come back,

though his new cap hit cost shouldn’t be prohibitive. Meantime, San Jose has more committed to its defence than any other NHL team

and still needs to address its goaltending issue.

Meier was the ninth overall pick of the 2015 draft and just had his

breakout season, finishing with 30 goals and 66 points in 78 games. EvolvingWild’s contract predictions has Meier coming in at a $5.7

million cap hit on a six-year deal, but if you believe he’ll at least stick

at that production — and really, there is no reason not to — would a

team swoop in and offer between $6.5-$7 million? That would push

the compensation to a first-, second- and third-round pick and would

be enough to make things uncomfortable for the Sharks.

If I’m the Sharks, I’d be a little worried about an offer sheet to Timo Meier. They’re in a vulnerable position right now with the salary

cap, and Meier is only getting better coming off a 30-goal season.

What if a team offers him six years/$40 mil and Sharks are only at

2/$10?

Kevin Labanc, San Jose Sharks

Along the same lines as Meier, Labanc perhaps doesn’t have the

same offensive ceiling, but he stepped up with a career-best 17-

goal, 56-point season and will turn just 24 years old midway through

next year. He’s more of a playmaker where Meier is the goal scorer.

You probably wouldn’t go as high with Labanc on an offer sheet, but

as the Sharks deal with their bigger fish, giving Labanc $4 million would only demand a second-round pick as compensation — going

to $4.3 million moves it to first- and third-round picks. If we’re looking

for players who rival teams could pick on to squeeze the Sharks,

Labanc is a decent target.

Sam Bennett, Calgary Flames

It’s fair to say the Flames would prefer to keep Bennett, who

although will likely never live up to the expectations of a fourth-

overall pick, has settled in as a pain-in-the-butt third line grinder. Calgary loves those players and Bennett plays a valued role for

them, but he’s not the top priority this summer. The goaltending

needs to be resolved. Matthew Tkachuk’s next AAV needs to be settled. Maybe there’s still a trade to be had for TJ Brodie or Travis

Hamonic.

The Flames have $12.9 million in cap space before figuring all that

out and Tkachuk will eat up most of it. EvolvingWild has projected Bennett at $2.79 million on a three-year deal, which would demand

just a second-round pick of compensation. You’d have to go all the

way up to a $4.2 million AAV before the compensation rises so

there’s plenty of room to settle on a price. How much is a 23-year-old third-line winger worth to a team that needs one? And how much

is he worth to the Flames before they’d let him walk?

Jakub Vrana, Washington Capitals

The 13th overall pick in 2014, Vrana isn’t among the high-end RFAs

this summer, but tops the list of important off-season contracts as far

as the Capitals are concerned. With their ageing core, it’ll be key

over these next few years to have younger talent pushing its way up the depth chart and so far Vrana has been leading that brigade,

finishing with 24 goals and 47 points.

Washington has $9.2 million in cap space with nine forwards signed

and a decision on whether or not to qualify Andre Burakovsky after another disappointing season. If you’re going to offer sheet Vrana

and make things uncomfortable for Washington, you’ll have to find a

team willing to bet on his future production.

EvolvingWild has Vrana at $3.1 million on a two-year bridge —

would someone offer perhaps $5 million or more on a long-term deal

to bump the compensation up to a first and a third? The Capitals

could still prioritize Vrana and likely fit that under their cap for 2019-20, but with Braden Holtby and Nicklas Backstrom both one year

away from free agency, an inflated cost to Vrana this summer means

bigger issues next off-season if the cap remains stagnant.

Andrew Copp, Winnipeg Jets

One of Winnipeg’s most trusted penalty killers, Copp is a strong

defensive player who would be a nice addition to most bottom-six

units in the league. He’s turning 25 years old next month and is

generally a 10-goal, 30ish-point player which doesn’t jump off the

page, but is a pretty good level for a fourth-liner. The beauty about

this potential offer sheet is that you may not have to come in above

market value to get it done. The Jets have $23.8 million in cap space, but far more important decisions to make on players higher

up the depth chart. EvolvingWild has Copp in at a $2.1 million AAV

on a two-year deal, which would both double his prior AAV and

demand only a second-round pick as compensation.


1148557 Websites

Sportsnet.ca / Breaking down how the cap-strapped Oilers should

navigate the off-season

Mark Spector | June 24, 2019, 6:44 PM

Two lessons we learned at the 2019 NHL Draft:

One, perhaps the draft isn’t hockey’s new trade deadline after all.

Draft picks have increased in value, as they accrue the young,

cheap players that every organization needs to survive.

And two, if it cost the Toronto Maple Leafs a first-round draft pick to

move one year of Patrick Marleau, how on earth do you trade a Milan Lucic, a Loui Eriksson, a James Neal or a Nikita Zaitsev?

The cap has taken over the game, and all transactions therein. The

boss wants parity, and Gary Bettman’s cap has produced a system where teams that successfully develop players over time — like

Winnipeg — are literally forced to share them with the weaker

teams, once it becomes contract time for stars like Patrik Laine or

Kyle Connor.

Why does a player of P.K. Subban’s value get moved for two second

rounders and two players who make a combined $2.34-million?

Because if Nashville is going to improve itself up front — not to

mention re-sign Roman Josi after next season — it needed to clear cap space.

New Jersey benefits, and really it’s a shortcut that the Devils have

not earned through organizational competency.

Which brings us the Edmonton Oilers, a team that sits somewhere in

the middle. They’ve got some nice young players coming, a couple

of superstars under long-term deals, but the prospects are too far

away to help next season and they’re almost capped out.

The needs here are clear: A third-line centre, some help on the

wings and a goalie to share the load with Mikko Koskinen. So, how

does GM Ken Holland go about that, with only $8.3-million in cap

space?

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Let’s break it down:

A weekly deep dive into the biggest hockey news in the world with hosts Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek. New episodes every

Thursday.

Buy-outs

The Lucic buy-out would provide Edmonton $2.4-million in cap savings in the 2019-20 season, but after that it is an anchor, with

about $125,000 combined savings in the final seven seasons of the

buy-out.

Andrej Sekera is a different story, however. He has two seasons remaining at $5.5-million, and the cap savings would be $3-million in

each of the next two seasons, according to Capfriendly.com.

With Caleb Jones and Joel Persson both pushing to make the lineup next year, a Sekera buy-out before the first buy-out window ends on

June 30, could be Holland’s best cap relief.

Nazem Kadri

Kadri absolutely fits the bill of the player the Oilers require to play centre behind Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

Does Holland have a defenceman to trade as the starting point to a

trade with Toronto? If you buy out Sekera, it gets harder. If you don’t,

could you move Adam Larsson in a deal for Kadri?

In Edmonton, Larsson is forced to play No. 2 minutes. In Toronto, as

a No. 4, we predict that Leafs fans would fall in love with his game.

Larsson has two years left at $4.16-million while Kadri has three

remaining at $4.5-million. The guts of a deal are there.

Wingers for centres

It’s a forgone conclusion that Leon Draisaitl will go down in Oilers

history as Connor McDavid’s left-winger. Sure, he’ll get some starts at centre. But when the chips are down, or the roster matures into

something far closer to a finished product, Draisaitl and McDavid will

play together on the first line in Edmonton.

So the Oilers need some wingers. A cheap, quick one for the first line, and a couple of guys who can work with Nugent-Hopkins on line

two to produce some complimentary offence.

They’re not even looking at the Mats Zuccarellos or Ryan Dzingels due to their cap situation. They enter the UFA class at about the

Brett Connolly, Jonas Donskoi plateau.

With Jesse Puljujarvi’s agent saying he’ll choose Europe over

another season with the Oilers, and promising farmhands Tyler

Benson and Kailer Yamamoto likely a year away, Edmonton needs

some help for their centremen, and they need it now.

The goalie

Our prediction? Mike Smith, who played for Dave Tippett in both

Dallas and Arizona, takes his pads up Highway 2 and signs with the

Oilers. The only fly in that ointment would be if Smith decides to re-

sign with the Flames, a team he says he enjoyed being with for the past two seasons.

Failing that scenario, how about either of the UFA tandem from

Carolina: Petr Mrazek or Curtis McElhinney?

It’s hard to see a tight-spending outfit like the Hurricanes re-upping both players. We’re betting one is looking for work after July 1.


1148558 Websites

TSN.CA / Miller trade the result of Vancouver’s past draft failures

Travis Yost

The biggest trade of NHL Draft weekend came from the New Jersey

Devils, who acquired defender P.K. Subban from the Nashville

Predators at a rather reasonable cost on Saturday morning.

The second biggest trade of the weekend probably belonged to the Vancouver Canucks, who bet big on Tampa Bay’s J.T. Miller. To

acquire Miller, the Canucks had to package goaltender Marek

Mazanec, a third-round pick in 2019 and a conditional first-round

pick that will come due in either 2020 or 2021.

It’s a big price to pay, but Vancouver is trying to plug holes

throughout the lineup. The pressure continues to mount on that

front, with a budding superstar like Elias Pettersson still on his entry-level contract and a fan base that hasn’t seen playoff hockey since

the 2014-15 season.

How did Vancouver get here? It is a long and winding story that

spans multiple regimes after carrying one of the league’s best teams at the height of the Sedin Twins era.

One of the underlying themes during this futile run has been a

disastrous record when it comes to drafting and developing over the

last decade. It was true during the Mike Gillis era (2008-14) when

the team usually picked in the lower half of the draft, and it has

generally remained true since Jim Benning took over (2014-present).

Failing at the draft and failing to develop talent only served to create an environment where a rebuilding front office feels pressure to

trade draft picks for established players.

To Benning’s credit, the team has landed a few nifty players during

his tenure – the aforementioned Pettersson is at the top of the list – but Brock Boeser (2015 first rounder) and Jared McCann (2014 first

rounder) are also success stories.

The problem during the Benning tenure is that the team has struggled to put other picks around these players. Combine that with

Gillis leaving the cupboards relatively bare, and you have a team

that’s going to struggle to win games in today’s ultra-competitive

NHL.

Consider Vancouver’s draft history from 2007-17, through the

Pettersson draft. Seventy-one players were selected over that

interval, including 19 players taken within the first 60 selections of

their respective draft years. I mention this because it’s not for the lack of opportunity that the Canucks have failed on draft day.

The below table shows, by Wins Over Replacement, the value each

class has created individually regardless of where they have ended up playing, and the corresponding rank of that team’s class against

their peers around the league. (Note: using more rudimentary

measures, like games played or total ice time allocated, show similar

findings.)

In terms of total WAR over 2007-17 by draft team, Vancouver is

comfortably dead last. Some of that is because their more promising

selections have been very recent (which don’t lend themselves as

well to aggregated measures), and some of that is because of some truly poor drafting.

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The total WAR table, which is a mere aggregation blind to unitization

or expected draft value by pick selection, looks as follows:

It jumps off the page how poorly Vancouver compares to a team like

Tampa Bay, which is an outlier on the other side of the spectrum.

Tampa Bay has developed into a juggernaut over the years and a lot

of that can be accredited to how well the team has drafted.

To rattle off some of the names that have driven Tampa Bay’s

success, consider the following: Alex Killorn (2007), Steven Stamkos

(2008), Victor Hedman (2009), Richard Panik (2009), Radko Gudas

(2010), Vladislav Namestnikov (2011), Nikita Kucherov (2011),

Ondrej Palat (2011), Brayden Point (2014), and Anthony Cirelli

(2015).

Here are Vancouver’s corresponding picks, by year, for reference:

Vancouver, to be blunt, was a disaster from 2007-13. It’s hard to

float eight bad years of drafting, but Vancouver had so much talent

at the NHL level that they were able to smooth over some of those

mistakes.

It’s easy to get lost in the laundry list of names Vancouver has

grabbed over the years, so let me make this a little bit easier. Now I

will show the same exact table, but only for players who have been

at least one win better than a replacement-level player over the years. (For reference: Tampa Bay has 15 qualifiers.)

You can nitpick with the selection criteria – players like Cody

Hodgson and Jake Virtanen certainly have been serviceable, and recently drafted players like Olli Juolevi and Kole Lind probably just

need more time – but the story is still the same. The Canucks, at

least until recently, have missed on grabbing impact players with

early picks and struggled even more so to find diamonds in the rough later in the draft. It’s a primary reason why Benning’s

rebuilding efforts have been so challenging.

The pessimist sees a laundry list of names that never materialized.

The optimist sees that Vancouver has hit on a few players more recently, all through their premium picks. That might be what gives

the Canucks hope for their 2018 and 2019 draft classes. First-round

pick Quinn Hughes (2018) isn’t far away. Nor is 2019 first-round pick Vasily Podkolzin or second-round pick Nils Hoglander, for that

matter. Vancouver sorely needs these players to develop and

integrate into the lineup long-term, and perhaps hit on a couple of

their mid or late-round picks with a stroke of luck.

We haven’t seen that for close to a decade in Vancouver. But

nothing lasts forever. Perhaps we will start to see the tides turn.

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