Sunday, July 31, 2016

Barrie Settles With Avs



The last of the arbitration worthy players, defenseman Tyson Barrie, actually made it to the hearing process, but on Sunday afternoon, it was announced that the two sides had come to an agreement, not long before the arbitrator made their ruling.  Barrie was the only player to make it to the process, which may or may not have helped the process, as the two sides came to a 4-year, $22 million deal.

Barrie, 25, is coming off another great season, albeit not his best, but still a pretty good outing in the 2016 season.  In 78 games, he finished with 13 goals and 49 points, ranking 14th among all blueliners in scoring.

His career-high in points came in the 2015 season, where he picked up 53 points for the Avalanche and I think Barrie could lift his game back up to that level for the 2017 season, as I have him currently projected in the 55-point range, which should mean he'll be a top end pick, thanks to the onus on blueliners this pool has had in the last few years.

There was a lot of chatter about Barrie being held out there as trade bait, because of his potential cap hit and the $5.5 million per season does take a significant chunk out of what the Avalanche had to work with, as they now feature a projected 23-man lineup, in colour below, that only has about $630,000 left in cap space.  At this point, it would be somewhat silly for the Avalanche to start dealing a top two defenseman like Barrie, since they have it all fitting into place today, but he would be the easiest to move, given his upside and his age, because a team would certainly welcome a deal like this one under their roof.

Forwards Cap Defense Cap Goalies Cap
Nathan MacKinnon 6.300 Erik Johnson 6.000 Semyon Varlamov 5.900
Matt Duchene 6.000 Tyson Barrie 5.500
Gabriel Landeskog 5.500 Francois Beauchemin 4.500
Jarome Iginla 5.333
Carl Soderberg 4.750
Joe Colborne 2.500
Blake Comeau 2.400
Mikhail Grigorenko 1.300
John Mitchell 1.800 Fedor Tyutin 2.000 Calvin Pickard 1.000
Cody McLeod 1.333 Eric Gelinas 1.575
Rocco Grimaldi 0.925 Nikita Zadorov 0.894
J.T. Compher 0.925 Patrick Wiercioch 0.800
Mikko Rantanen 0.894
Andreas Martinsen 0.640
A.J. Greer 0.742 Chris Bigras 0.874 Spencer Martin 0.925
Julien Nantel 0.680 Duncan Siemens 0.874 Jeremy Smith 0.600
Troy Bourke 0.632 Sergei Boikov 0.682
Reid Petryk 0.623 Mason Geertsen 0.650
Trent Vogelhuber 0.613 Cody Corbett 0.617
Jim O'Brien 0.600 Ryan Stanton 0.600
Mike Sislo 0.600 Mat Clark 0.600
Samuel Henley 0.587 Joe Whitney 0.600
Turner Elson 0.575

Pool worthy, non-pool roster players, assumed roster fill-ins injured/retired cap hits, in the system

Top Prospect Signing (Jul 31)



The Arizona Coyotes locked up their top pick in the 2016 entry draft, the 16th overall pick, defenseman Jakob Chychrun, signing him to his 3-year entry level deal on Saturday.  The deal is thought to be worth the maximum amount in salary, but the bonus structure is still unknown, unlikely that he'll see bonuses like the top five picks in the draft.

There were some scouting reports out there suggesting that he is a long-term NHL'er in the making, but his play in the 2016 season, in exhibition games, tournaments and regular season (Sarnia, OHL), hampered his stock and he fell in the 1st round.  He already has size and is thought to be very responsible already, as an 18-year old.

It would be tough for Chychrun to crack the NHL roster at 18, being on the blueline, but it looks like if there was a kid to do it out of this draft class, it would be him.



Saturday, July 30, 2016

Fringe Signing (Jul 30)

On Friday, the Toronto Maple Leafs came to terms with their last restricted free agent, defenseman Martin Marincin, signing him to a quick, 2-year, $2.5 million deal.  The Leafs acquired the defenseman from the Oilers back in June 2015 and has been sitting on the fringe for the Leafs ever since.

Last season, he did dress in 65 games for the Leafs, scoring 1 goal and 7 points, but should have a better shot at some ice-time, given the state that their blueline is in, heading into the 2017 season.  He has been scouted as having some offensive upside, but Edmonton didn't see it early in his career and the Leafs are waiting for it, but he is only 24 years old, so patience is key.



Friday, July 29, 2016

Wild Re-Sign Dumba



It was a big day for restricted free agent defensemen on Thursday and the last RFA for the Minnesota Wild put pen to paper, as Matt Dumba signed a 2-year, $5.1 million deal to cap it all off.

Coming out of his entry-level deal, this 2-year deal will be a bridge towards something long-term, as the 22-year old continues to develop at the NHL level, which is certainly a credit to his game, as a lot of young defenders don't get that sort of opportunity.

In the 2016 season, he was able to appear in 81 games, picking up 10 goals and 26 points, both career-highs.  His numbers were good enough to rank him 58th among defensemen, which has him smack dab in the middle of the pool worthy blueliners.

With another year under his belt, it would be fairly safe to assume that Dumba's game should take another step, at the very least, so his projection will suggest another boost in scoring, putting him in the 35-point range for the 2017 season.  A season like that would certainly make for a formidable blueline group for the Wild.

The overall look of the Wild hasn't changed a great deal in this off-season, opting to make a couple additions, while trimming some of the fat.  Their cap situation does seem to hinder what they can and cannot do, as the projected roster (in colour below) is nice and tight to the cap ceiling, just a shade under $200,000 below and there are some roster spots that will be open for training camp, namely the six in blue.

The jury is still out, as to whether or not they have actually improved or not.

Forwards Cap Defense Cap Goalies Cap
Zach Parise 7.538 Ryan Suter 7.538 Devan Dubnyk 4.333
Mikko Koivu 6.750 Jared Spurgeon 5.188
Jason Pominville 5.600 Marco Scandella 4.000
Eric Staal 3.500 Matt Dumba 2.550
Charlie Coyle 3.200
Mikael Granlund 3.000
Nino Niederreiter 2.667
Erik Haula 1.000
Jason Zucker 2.000 Jonas Brodin 4.167 Darcy Kuemper 1.550
Chris Stewart 1.150
Alex Tuch 0.925 Mike Reilly 0.925
Christoph Bertschy 0.776 Christian Folin 0.725
Zac Dalpe 0.600 Nate Prosser 0.625
Joel Eriksson Ek 0.894 Gustav Olofsson 0.795 Adam Vay 0.843
Brady Brassart 0.837 Nick Seeler 0.718 Stephen Michalek 0.688
Mario Lucia 0.793 Dylan Labbe 0.693 Alex Stalock 0.650
Sam Anas 0.793 Zach Palmquist 0.660
Adam Gilmour 0.718 Victor Bartley 0.650
Grayson Downing 0.693 Hunter Warner 0.612
Chase Lang 0.687 Alex Gudbranson 0.610
Kurtis Gabriel 0.667 Guillaume Gelinas 0.597
Pavel Jenys 0.662
Jordan Schroeder 0.650
Zack Mitchell 0.615
Marc Hagel 0.605
Tyler Graovac 0.600
Pat Cannone 0.600

Pool worthy, non-pool roster players, assumed roster fill-ins injured/retired cap hits, in the system

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Top Prospect Signing (Jul 28)



The St. Louis Blues may not have many spots up for grabs at this year's training camp, but that won't stop them from adding to the competition. The Blues signed their 2nd round draft pick from June's draft, forward Jordan Kyrou, to his entry-level deal, which will be of the 3-year variety with the ability to slide for a couple years, if needed.

Kyrou has been listed as a decent offensive talent, with good skating abilities, but will have to grow into being a solid NHL'er.  The 18-year old will probably head back to junior to work on his game, but if he is as offensively gifted as his scouting reports suggest, he could be a pool player in a few years.

Off-season Injury Notes (Jul 28)

The injury confirmation that we were looking for from the Detroit Red Wings came down, not too long after the signings for their 2017 season had completed.  The team's management confirmed that they don't expect either Johan Franzen or Joe Vitale to play this season, as both are dealing with serious concussion issues and they will be headed for the Long Term Injured Reserve, once the season gets started.

Both forwards were injured very early in the 2016 season, suffering concussions and were limited to a combined three games, and both could be in jeopardy of ending their careers.

The Red Wings will get valuable cap space relief, as the two combine for $5.1 million, which will can be aided in the team's ability to hold their 23-man roster under the confines of the cap ceiling.  With these two moved to the injured list, Steve Ott and Andreas Athanasiou come back up to the fill-in spots, giving the team an active 23-man roster and they are only $4.7 million over the cap ceiling without the relief.

There is lots of Summer left, so I would expect the Red Wings to continue fishing out ways to improve their situation, but it certainly won't be easy.

Handing Out Camp Invites (Jul 28)

Last year, we didn't really see key training camp invites until the middle of August and really, we might not see them until then this year, as I wouldn't necessarily consider Maxim Lapierre as a key camp invite, but it's something in these slow news days.  The New York Rangers have offered the 31-year old pest a shot at their camp in September and you could certainly argue that the Rangers have spots available to fill on their roster or at least question marks that they'll need to turn into periods.

Lapierre has been nothing more than a fringe player in his NHL career, topping out at 28 points in Montreal in 2009 and split time between Switzerland and Sweden last season, trying to get back on track.  I wouldn't hold high hopes, nor would I have him projected very high... this was just an excuse to hit the publish button.

Coyotes Sign Both Murphy & Stone



The Arizona Coyotes' Summer has had a full plate of action thus far and a couple more key signings on Thursday afternoon nearly rounds out all the list of important things to get done in the off-season.

First, the team announced that they had re-signed 23-year old defender Connor Murphy to a new 6-year, $23.1 million deal, opting to keep him as part of the core for the long term.  Not long after the dust settled on that announcement, they went back to the Twitter account and announced that they avoided arbitration with defenseman Michael Stone, signing a 1-year, $4 million deal, bridging the 26-year old to the unrestricted free agent market, if an extension isn't done in the New Year.

Of the two, Stone had the better season in 2016, finishing with 36 points in 75 games, ranking 36th among all defensemen and certainly situates himself for a good selection in this year's draft.  Murphy, on the other hand, is still coming along, but the new deal suggests that he is up with the club to stay and there will be expectations for bigger and better things, improving upon his 17 points in 78 games last season.

The early projections for the two are roughly in the same neighbourhood as last season, with Stone staying level at about 35 points, while Murphy is up to 20 points, but those can certainly change as we move through training camp.

Only one restricted free agent remains, forward Tobias Rieder, and he is pool worthy, so he'll get a little bit of fanfare on the blog when he re-signs.  Currently, the Coyotes have a 23-man roster, plus two salary cap castoffs, bringing their projected cap hit to $69.2 million, leaving about $3.8 million for Rieder's new deal, which shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Forwards Cap Defense Cap Goalies Cap
Shane Doan 5.000 Oliver Ekman-Larsson 5.500 Mike Smith 5.667
Antoine Vermette 3.750 Alex Goligoski 5.475 Louis Domingue 1.050
Jamie McGinn 3.333 Michael Stone 4.000
Martin Hanzal 3.100 Connor Murphy 3.850
Brad Richardson 2.080 Luke Schenn 1.250
Max Domi 0.894 Kevin Connauton 1.000
Anthony Duclair 0.773
Ryan White 1.000 Zbynek Michalek 3.200
Dylan Strome 0.894
Brendan Perlini 0.863
Christian Dvorak 0.839
Jordan Martinook 0.613
Craig Cunningham 0.600
Chris Mueller 0.600
Pavel Datsyuk 7.500 Chris Pronger 4.921
Nick Merkley 0.894 Anthony DeAngelo 0.863 Adin Hill 0.726
Henrik Samuelsson 0.894 Klas Dahlbeck 0.750 Marek Langhamer 0.648
Tyler Gaudet 0.874 Kyle Wood 0.718 Justin Peters 0.600
Christian Fischer 0.853 Jarred Tinordi 0.700
Ryan MacInnis 0.798 Dysin Mayo 0.653
Laurent Dauphin 0.776 Jamie McBain 0.650
Michael Bunting 0.668 Justin Hache 0.640
Conor Garland 0.663 Dakota Mermis 0.627
Stefan Fournier 0.633
Matia Marcantuoni 0.608
Garret Ross 0.600

Pool worthy, non-pool roster players, assumed roster fill-ins injured/retired cap hits, in the system

Predators Hook Up Jarnkrok



There was one other pool worthy signing on Wednesday, which didn't make the publishing cut-off yesterday, as the Nashville Predators locked up forward Calle Jarnkrok to a 6-year deal, worth $12 million.  The $2 million cap hit certainly has some potential to be a bargain, as his scoring totals continue to trend upward.

The 24-year old Swede was acquired by the Predators in the 2014 season and has since worked his way into a full-time spot with the team, the 2016 season being his second full season with the club.  In 81 games, he scored 16 goals and 30 points, finishing 191st among all forwards in scoring and quietly going about his business.

If last season was any indication, he will get lots of opportunity for offense, as he was lining up with both Ryan Johansen and James Neal for a good portion of the season, after Johansen was brought in from Columbus.  With all three signed up for the coming season, I would imagine that those three would be looked towards as a unit to start the year and that familiarity could breed some more offense.  My early projection for Jarnkrok is in the 50-point range.

The Predators also added unrestricted free agent defenseman Matt Carle on Wednesday, adding a bit more size and a defensive anchor, likely to offset the offensive push that a P.K. Subban or Ryan Ellis could provide when provoked.  With both signings under their roof, the Predators are still sitting with about $5.2 million in cap space, so they are looking very solid for the coming season.

Forwards Cap Defense Cap Goalies Cap
Filip Forsberg 6.000 P.K. Subban 9.000 Pekka Rinne 7.000
James Neal 5.000 Roman Josi 4.000
Craig Smith 4.250 Mattias Ekholm 3.750
Ryan Johansen 4.000 Ryan Ellis 2.500
Mike Ribeiro 3.500
Calle Jarnkrok 2.000
Mike Fisher 4.400 Matthew Carle 0.700
Colin Wilson 3.938 Anthony Bitetto 0.613
Viktor Arvidsson 0.632
Miikka Salomaki 0.613
Austin Watson 0.575
Kevin Fiala 0.863 Yannick Weber 0.575 Marek Mazanec 0.575
Colton Sissons 0.625
Harry Zolnierczyk 0.575
Vladislav Kamenev 0.833 Jack Dougherty 0.687 Juuse Saros 0.693
Pontus Aberg 0.781 Alexandre Carrier 0.668 Jonas Gunnarsson 0.635
Yakov Trenin 0.762 Trevor Murphy 0.640
Justin Kirkland 0.718 Petter Granberg 0.613
Anthony Richard 0.668 Mikko Vainonen 0.610
Felix Girard 0.632 Jaynen Rissling 0.607
Max Gortz 0.617 Jonathan-Ismael Diaby 0.588
Cody Bass 0.613 Matt Irwin 0.575
Trevor Smith 0.613
Adam Payerl 0.575
Michael Liambas 0.575

Pool worthy, non-pool roster players, assumed roster fill-ins injured/retired cap hits, in the system

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Red Wings Settle With Mrazek



The salary cap crunch has become real with the Detroit Red Wings and they now have a number to work towards, as they have re-signed goaltender Petr Mrazek to a 2-year, $8 million deal, putting another $4 million against their cap hit for the coming season and putting them over the ceiling for the time being.

Mrazek was headed for an arbitration hearing of his own, but in his case, the team had filed for the hearing, but that didn't stop the two sides from coming to an agreement early.

The 24-year old Czech keeper moved into the team's number one role in the 2016 season, usurping it from Jimmy Howard, appearing in 54 games, winning 27 of them and finishing with 64 points on the season, good enough for 13th among all goalies in the league.

The Red Wings have certainly made moves to keep their streak of playoff appearances alive, which is good news for the goaltending pair, meaning that they should be able to register their fair share of wins in whatever percentage split of playing they each get.  The split of time last season does seem to be one that would make sense for the upcoming season, but with their cap hit troubles, one would also have to assume that Howard is on the trading block and if he goes, Mrazek would assume more ice-time.

Before the regular season starts, the NHL does allow teams to carry a cap number that is 10% greater than the cap ceiling, meaning that this year, teams can have $7.3 million in extra space for their tagged roster and with this signing, one could assume that the Red Wings are about $3.3 million over, if they carried the 23-man roster below.  We're still waiting on a health update on Johan Franzen in this off-season, as he could play a huge role in cap relief, if he is still reeling from concussion problems and needs to go back on the LTIR.  Otherwise, a trade will likely have to be made to free up even more space.

Forwards Cap Defense Cap Goalies Cap
Henrik Zetterberg 6.083 Mike Green 6.000 Jimmy Howard 5.292
Frans Nielsen 5.250 Danny DeKeyser 5.000 Petr Mrazek 4.000
Gustav Nyquist 4.750 Niklas Kronwall 4.750
Justin Abdelkader 4.250
Tomas Tatar 2.750
Thomas Vanek 2.600
Dylan Larkin 0.925
Johan Franzen 3.955 Jonathan Ericsson 4.250
Darren Helm 3.850 Brendan Smith 2.750
Riley Sheahan 2.075 Alexey Marchenko 1.450
Joe Vitale 1.117
Drew Miller 1.025
Tomas Jurco 0.900
Luke Glendening 0.628
Brian Lashoff 0.650
Evgeny Svechnikov 0.894 Dan Renouf 0.768 Jake Paterson 0.628
Dylan Sadowy 0.881 Filip Hronek 0.726 Jared Coreau 0.613
Anthony Mantha 0.863 Robbie Russo 0.680 Edward Pasquale 0.575
Teemu Pulkkinen 0.813 Vili Saarijarvi 0.662
Steve Ott 0.800 Joe Hicketts 0.610
Axel Holmstrom 0.687 Nick Jensen 0.588
Dominic Turgeon 0.662
Eric Tangradi 0.650
Zach Nastasiuk 0.648
Tyler Bertuzzi 0.645
Martin Frk 0.639
Matt Lorito 0.638
Andreas Athanasiou 0.628
Tomas Nosek 0.613
Ben Street 0.600
Mitchell Callahan 0.600

Pool worthy, non-pool roster players, assumed roster fill-ins injured/retired cap hits, in the system

Hoffman Avoids, Gets Four More



Mike Hoffman will now have the security of four more seasons with the Ottawa Senators, as they have avoided salary arbitration on Wednesday morning.  The deal has been reported to be worth $20.75 million in total, working out to a very reasonable $5.2 million cap hit per season, which has the possibility of being a bargain, compared to his upside.

In the 2016 season, the 26-year old finished with 29 goals and 59 points in 78 games, ranking 61st overall in pool scoring, up significantly from the 120th overall spot in the 2015 season.  In terms of a hockey pool draft pick, he went from a mid-5th round pick to an early 3rd round pick and he's certainly trending upward.

The Senators were seemingly flipping line combinations in the 2016 season, according to the line combination tool on dobberhockey.com, so the acquisition of Derick Brassard could certainly play a big factor in Hoffman's 2017 season and it has potential for a more consistent performance through the year or one could hope, at least.  With his performances trending upward, I have his current projection in the 65-point range, which could make him worthy of a 2nd round pick, assuming we're still at 27 teams this coming season.

Even with taking on more salary with the Brassard deal, the Senators are not in any cap crunch, tacking on this deal and the potential deal for defenseman Cody Ceci.  The Sens are sitting $8 million below the cap ceiling, so it will be a matter of how close they are comfortable with getting, especially being more of a budget team in recent years.

Forwards Cap Defense Cap Goalies Cap
Bobby Ryan 7.250 Dion Phaneuf 7.000 Craig Anderson 4.200
Mike Hoffman 5.188 Erik Karlsson 6.500
Derick Brassard 5.000
Mark Stone 3.500
Kyle Turris 3.500
Zack Smith 1.888
Jean-Gabriel Pageau 0.900
Clarke MacArthur 4.650 Marc Methot 4.900 Andrew Hammond 1.350
Chris Neil 1.500
Curtis Lazar 0.925
Chris Kelly 0.900
Tom Pyatt 0.800 Mark Borowiecki 1.100
Mike Blunden 0.738 Patrick Sieloff 0.894
Nick Paul 0.670 Thomas Chabot 0.894
Chris Wideman 0.800
Matt Puempel 0.900 Mikael Wikstrand 0.813 Matthew O'Connor 0.925
Casey Bailey 0.874 Michael Kostka 0.800 Chris Driedger 0.755
Buddy Robinson 0.750 Andreas Englund 0.776
Francis Perron 0.703 Fredrik Claesson 0.700
Phil Varone 0.700 Macoy Erkamps 0.655
Ryan Dzingel 0.700 Ben Harpur 0.653
Max McCormick 0.650 Cody Donaghey 0.617
Ryan Rupert 0.632
Vincent Dunn 0.611
Zach Stortini 0.600
Chad Nehring 0.600

Pool worthy, non-pool roster players, assumed roster fill-ins injured/retired cap hits, in the system

Lightning Re-Sign Namestnikov



The Tampa Bay Lightning have secured another key fixture of their franchise, as they had come to terms with Vladislav Namestnikov on Tuesday night, agreeing to a new 2-year, $3.875 million deal.

The 23-year old forward is still being bridged towards a long-term contract, but he is only coming along so quickly in career.  The 2016 season was a good one for him, as he leapt into being pool worthy, scoring 14 goals and 35 points in 80 games for the Lightning, lifting himself up to 173rd among all forwards.

For the better part of last season, the Russian featured with the team's captain, Steven Stamkos, for a good portion of his ice-time, which will certainly help his cause in the scoring department.  If he can get that same sort of pairing in his ice-time in the 2017 season, he could certainly take advantage of a re-signed and rejuvenated player and get a nice bump up in his scoring production.  Currently, I have Namestnikov coming in around the 40-point mark, still trending upwards, but not at an amazing rate.

With this signing in the books, the Lightning can look a lot harder at their last restricted free agent, Nikita Kucherov and determine what they can actually spend on his deal.  If you were to take one of the fill-in roster spots away from the table below, the Bolts would have a shade more than $5 million to spend on Kucherov for this season... but will that be enough?

Forwards Cap Defense Cap Goalies Cap
Steven Stamkos 8.500 Anton Stralman 4.500 Ben Bishop 5.950
Ryan Callahan 5.800 Victor Hedman 4.000 Andrei Vasilevskiy 0.925
Valtteri Filppula 5.000 Andrej Sustr 1.450
Alex Killorn 4.450
Ondrej Palat 3.333
Tyler Johnson 3.333
Vladislav Namestnikov 1.938
Brian Boyle 2.000 Jason Garrison 4.600
Erik Condra 1.250 Braydon Coburn 3.700
J.T. Brown 1.250
Jonathan Drouin 0.894
Cedric Paquette 0.813 Slater Koekkoek 0.894
Tye McGinn 0.575 Matt Taormina 0.575
Cory Conacher 0.575
Matthew Peca 0.925 Dominik Masin 0.808 Adam Wilcox 0.925
Anthony Cirelli 0.925 Dylan Blujus 0.743 Kristers Gudlevskis 0.575
Adam Erne 0.874 Matt Spencer 0.743
Mitchell Stephens 0.839 Ben Thomas 0.690
Brian Hart 0.703 Daniel Walcott 0.650
Jonne Tammela 0.690 Jake Dotchin 0.617
Brayden Point 0.662 Luke Witkowski 0.575
Cameron Darcy 0.642
Henri Ikonen 0.617
Joel Vermin 0.575
Tanner Richard 0.575
Gabriel Dumont 0.575
Pierre Letourneau-Leblond 0.575
Mike Halmo 0.575
Jeremy Morin 0.575
Michael Bournival 0.575
Yanni Gourde 0.575

Pool worthy, non-pool roster players, assumed roster fill-ins injured/retired cap hits, in the system

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Wings Squeeze In DeKeyser



The Detroit Red Wings have avoided one of their arbitration hearings, as Danny DeKeyser and the team agreed upon a long-term contract, which will keep the all-around defender in the Motor City for the next six seasons.

In total, it was a 6-year, $30 million deal for DeKeyser, who has now played in four seasons for Detroit, coming out of the NCAA ranks in the 2013 season and right into the lineup.

In the 2016 season, the 26-year old finished with 8 goals and 20 points in 78 games, setting a new career-high in goals and rounding out quite nicely at both ends of the ice.

DeKeyser has seen a highs of 31 points already in his career and if all were to go well, there is no reason he couldn't get back up into that bracket again in the coming year.  Since my projections are in 5-point segments, I would peg him early in the 30-point range to start.

Now, things are not looking very rosy for the Red Wings and their crease situation, given that they have Petr Mrazek heading to arbitration and their 23-man roster (in colour) below is coming in with $112,000 in cap space.  The Red Wings may get some relief in the LTIR department, depending on Johan Franzen's situation, but right now, where he is isn't certain at all either.

Forwards Cap Defense Cap Goalies Cap
Henrik Zetterberg 6.083 Mike Green 6.000 Jimmy Howard 5.292
Frans Nielsen 5.250 Danny DeKeyser 5.000
Gustav Nyquist 4.750 Niklas Kronwall 4.750
Justin Abdelkader 4.250
Tomas Tatar 2.750
Thomas Vanek 2.600
Dylan Larkin 0.925
Johan Franzen 3.955 Jonathan Ericsson 4.250
Darren Helm 3.850 Brendan Smith 2.750
Riley Sheahan 2.075 Alexey Marchenko 1.450
Joe Vitale 1.117
Drew Miller 1.025
Tomas Jurco 0.900
Luke Glendening 0.628
Brian Lashoff 0.650 Jared Coreau 0.613
Evgeny Svechnikov 0.894 Dan Renouf 0.768 Jake Paterson 0.628
Dylan Sadowy 0.881 Filip Hronek 0.726 Edward Pasquale 0.575
Anthony Mantha 0.863 Robbie Russo 0.680
Teemu Pulkkinen 0.813 Vili Saarijarvi 0.662
Steve Ott 0.800 Joe Hicketts 0.610
Axel Holmstrom 0.687 Nick Jensen 0.588
Dominic Turgeon 0.662
Eric Tangradi 0.650
Zach Nastasiuk 0.648
Tyler Bertuzzi 0.645
Martin Frk 0.639
Matt Lorito 0.638
Andreas Athanasiou 0.628
Tomas Nosek 0.613
Ben Street 0.600
Mitchell Callahan 0.600

Pool worthy, non-pool roster players, assumed roster fill-ins injured/retired cap hits, in the system

Monday, July 25, 2016

Holland Signs Back Up in Toronto



Peter Holland was also supposed to have his arbitration hearing today between himself and the Maple Leafs, but the two sides were able to come together before the nastiness began, agreeing to a bridge deal, 1-year at $1.3 million.

Holland has been a reasonably reliable 3rd line-type player, who has posted seasons in the 25-point range, last season picking up 27 points in 65 games, but has also run into some injury problems from year-to-year as well, including a concussion.

He was certainly one of those players that benefited a lot from the pool membership expansion to 27 teams, since he finished on the cusp of the worthiness list, 213th among all forwards in scoring.  If he can get his health sorted out to a point that he can play 75+ games, he wouldn't need the pool to get any bigger to stay a worthy player, as I think he can get himself up to the scoring range of much better players.

Nevertheless, it is turning out to be a process in need of some patience and projecting him at 35 points is pretty reasonable and could just as easily make him into a bargain pick, if he finds a way to break out with some of the other youth on this Leafs roster.

The Leafs' roster is now rounding out and they are going to be right up against the ceiling to start the season, if not digging into the Long Term Injured Reserve jar, thanks to the Nathan Horton hit.  All the players in colour, making up a 23-man roster (plus one injury, retained cap hits and buyouts), are now coming in with $622,000 left under the ceiling.  The Leafs still have Frank Corrado and Martin Marincin to go through arbitration as restricted free agents and they likely have their eye on another backup goalie.  This could be interesting.

Forwards Cap Defense Cap Goalies Cap
Nazem Kadri 4.500 Morgan Rielly 5.000 Frederik Andersen 5.000
James Van Riemsdyk 4.250 Jake Gardiner 4.050
Tyler Bozak 4.200
Leo Komarov 2.950
Peter Holland 1.300
Joffrey Lupul 5.250 Jared Cowen 3.100 Garret Sparks 0.575
Brooks Laich 4.500 Stephane Robidas 3.000
Milan Michalek 4.000 Roman Polak 2.250
Colin Greening 2.650 Matt Hunwick 1.200
Matt Martin 2.500
Auston Matthews 0.925 Viktor Loov 0.693
William Nylander 0.894
Mitchell Marner 0.894
Kasperi Kapanen 0.863
Nathan Horton 5.300
Zach Hyman 0.900 Travis Dermott 0.894 Kasimir Kaskisuo 0.925
Frederik Gauthier 0.894 Rinat Valiev 0.778 Antoine Bibeau 0.655
Kerby Rychel 0.894 Connor Carrick 0.750
Andreas Johnson 0.751
Nikita Soshnikov 0.737
Connor Brown 0.718
Tobias Lindberg 0.693
Andrew Nielsen 0.670
Dmytro Timashov 0.663
Brendan Leipsic 0.653
Josh Leivo 0.613
Byron Froese 0.575

Pool worthy, non-pool roster players, assumed roster fill-ins injured/retired cap hits, in the system

Schenn & Flyers Avoid Arbitration



It's nothing new to avoid arbitration these days and the Philadelphia Flyers did so with one of their key forwards, Brayden Schenn, as the two sides agreed upon a new 4-year deal on Monday morning.

Schenn and the Flyers were supposed to go into their hearing today, but instead, they came up with a $20.5 million pact, which worked out to be a marketable $5.125 million cap hit per season.

The 24-year old forward saw some significant gains in the 2016 season, finishing with 26 goals and 59 points in 80 games, up from his 47 points in 82 games the season before.  That put him up in 45th spot among all forwards in scoring and there should still be some more room to move there.

The early projections for Schenn, now that he is all signed up and ready to go, are in and around the 65-point range, which could be a bit ambitious, but with some of that new offensive talent at the back, it certainly isn't out of the question.

The bigger questions now for the Flyers are all cap related, now that this deal is done, they are going to have to figure out who stays and who goes.  The 23-man roster that's coloured in below is coming in above the ceiling, just under $1 million.  The Flyers also have one more restricted free agent heading towards arbitration, defenseman Brandon Manning, which could be problematic.  It looks like their Summer is far from being over.

Forwards Cap Defense Cap Goalies Cap
Claude Giroux 8.275 Mark Streit 5.250 Steve Mason 4.100
Jakub Voracek 8.250 Shayne Gostisbehere 0.925 Michal Neuvirth 1.625
Brayden Schenn 5.125
Sean Couturier 4.450
Wayne Simmonds 3.975
Michael Raffl 2.350
Dale Weise 2.350
Matt Read 3.625 Andrew MacDonald 5.000
Boyd Gordon 0.950 Michael Del Zotto 3.875
Scott Laughton 0.863 Radko Gudas 3.350
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare 0.713 Nick Schultz 2.250
Chris VandeVelde 0.713
Colin McDonald 0.633 Ivan Provorov 0.894
Chris Conner 0.575
Nick Cousins 0.937 Robert Hagg 0.925 Alex Lyon 0.925
Roman Lyubimov 0.925 Samuel Morin 0.894 Anthony Stolarz 0.753
Travis Konecny 0.894 Travis Sanheim 0.863
Pascal Laberge 0.843 Reece Willcox 0.680
Taylor Leier 0.780 Jesper Pettersson 0.645
Cole Bardreau 0.680 Mark Alt 0.625
Danick Martel 0.680 TJ Brennan 0.625
Tyrell Goulbourne 0.677 Philippe Myers 0.623
Radel Fazleev 0.675 Will O'Neill 0.613
Nicolas Aube-Kubel 0.673
Jordan Weal 0.650
Petr Straka 0.650
Andy Miele 0.600
Greg Carey 0.575

Pool worthy, non-pool roster players, assumed roster fill-ins injured/retired cap hits, in the system

Signed in Europe (Jul 25)



On Monday morning, it was announced that unrestricted free agent forward Kris Versteeg has signed in Switzerland, becoming the second pool worthy player from the 2016 season to do so in this off-season, the first being goaltender Jonas Hiller.

There was no word as to whether or not Versteeg had an NHL out clause in his new deal, as he might receive and offer closer to training camp and you could almost assume that he does.  Nevertheless, the 30-year old forward should have signed a pretty good deal with SC Bern and that a good season over there should likely get him some more job offers from North America.

Last season with the Hurricanes and Kings, Versteeg finished with 15 goals and 38 points in 77 games, good enough for 149th among all forwards, but who is to say what his contract demands were like, especially for this cap-riddled league.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Arizona Lures the Elder Schenn



One of the pool worthy unrestricted free agents came off the list on Saturday, with the Arizona Coyotes announcing that they came to terms with defenseman Luke Schenn.  The two sides agreed upon a 2-year, $2.5 million deal and that should work out to be quite the cost efficient deal for the club and player.

Schenn, 26, has been rounding himself out to be a fairly stable blueliner in the NHL and with that, his numbers have slowly crept up into the pool conversation, as the number of teams has also increased over the years, we're taking on new depth.

In the 2016 season with Los Angeles, Schenn picked up 4 goals and 16 points in 72 games, coming in at 107th among blueliners, just sneaking in to the rankings of the top 108.

He's certainly not going to blow the doors off a game and go on a rampant scoring streak, but he will be chipping in here and there and if the team's speed and youth can offer up anything, it will be a good compliment to his play at the back end.  I would say that his projection will stay in the neighbourhood of 15 points, which will be good, if the pool stays at around 27 or 28 teams.

We all know that the Coyotes are a budget team, taking on cap hits and salaries to help their own causes down the line.  Even with the 35+ contracts of Chris Pronger and Pavel Datsyuk on their books, they still have $10.3 million left in cap space, thanks to good deals like Schenn's.

Forwards Cap Defense Cap Goalies Cap
Shane Doan 5.000 Oliver Ekman-Larsson 5.500 Mike Smith 5.667
Antoine Vermette 3.750 Alex Goligoski 5.475 Louis Domingue 1.050
Jamie McGinn 3.333 Luke Schenn 1.250
Martin Hanzal 3.100 Kevin Connauton 1.000
Brad Richardson 2.080
Max Domi 0.894
Anthony Duclair 0.773
Ryan White 1.000 Zbynek Michalek 3.200
Klas Dahlbeck 0.750
Dylan Strome 0.894 Jamie McBain 0.650
Brendan Perlini 0.863
Christian Dvorak 0.839
Jordan Martinook 0.613
Craig Cunningham 0.600
Chris Mueller 0.600
Pavel Datsyuk 7.500 Chris Pronger 4.921
Nick Merkley 0.894 Anthony DeAngelo 0.863 Adin Hill 0.726
Henrik Samuelsson 0.894 Kyle Wood 0.718 Marek Langhamer 0.648
Tyler Gaudet 0.874 Jarred Tinordi 0.700 Justin Peters 0.600
Christian Fischer 0.853 Dysin Mayo 0.653
Ryan MacInnis 0.798 Justin Hache 0.640
Laurent Dauphin 0.776 Dakota Mermis 0.627
Michael Bunting 0.668
Conor Garland 0.663
Stefan Fournier 0.633
Matia Marcantuoni 0.608
Garret Ross 0.600

Pool worthy, non-pool roster players, assumed roster fill-ins injured/retired cap hits, in the system