Gone to Europe (Aug 24)

NHL free agency has been a long process for unrestricted free agent defenseman Toby Enstrom, so much so, that he's decided to head home to Sweden, signing with MODO on Friday.  Enstrom is coming off a 5-year deal, which paid him $5.75 million per season and he wasn't able to perform at a high level, thanks to numerous injury problems over the last few years.  The last season where Enstrom was worthy of being picked in the pool was back in 2015, when he finished 70th among all defensemen in scoring.  Since then, he's been a fringe player or not at all. 

Gone to Europe (Jul 3)

On Tuesday morning, it was announced that Nail Yakupov will be heading back to Russia to play in the KHL, putting his disappointing NHL career on hold, for now.  The 1st overall pick in the 2012 entry draft has failed to live up to any of those expectations, bouncing around the league a bit over the last few seasons, finally playing with the Avalanche in 2018.  Yakupov was barely a fringe player last year, ranking 317th among all forwards in scoring with 16 points in 58 games.  It seems rather unlikely that we'll see him play in the NHL again, but I guess you never know.

Speaking of fringe players, David Desharnais wasn't too far off the top 200 in pool scoring among all forwards, finishing 227th with 28 points in 71 games, but he'll be heading over across the pond to play with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the KHL.  The 31-year old must not have had many NHL teams knocking on his door during the free agent speaking period or else, he'd probably be still chatting some teams up.  You can strike him from your list for now.

Gone to Europe (Jul 27)

Much ado was made about the Montreal Canadiens' decision to not bring back defenseman Andrei Markov, which was made public on Thursday morning. Markov, a 38-year old unrestricted free agent, has played his entire NHL career with the Habs, playing in 990 games with the club, was hoping to come back on a 2-year deal, but the term and the salary demands were far to steep for the team, who reportedly tried to offer him a 1-year deal with less money, but negotiations failed in the end.

It was revealed in a phone conference later in the day, that Markov has also decided to head back home to Russia to play in the KHL, likely ending his NHL career.

Last season, Markov was a productive member of the Montreal blueline, finishing 41st among all defensemen in scoring with 6 goals and 36 points in 62 games.  He has also had a productive career within the Opiated Sherpa hockey pools, contributing to two money teams, a 2nd place finish in 2013 and a 1st place finish in 2014.

Gone to Europe (Jul 11)

It's been happening less and less as the years have gone by, seeing pool worthy NHL players head back to Europe, but there is one that got the call over the weekend and that was Russian defenseman Nikita Nesterov, signing a deal with CSKA Moscow.

Nesterov played last season between Montreal and Tampa Bay, even made an appearance in the hockey pool in one of the mid-season swaps, but couldn't quite find a new home, as the Canadiens did not qualify him to be a restricted free agent, leaving him to the open market.

There was also one fringe forward, who also made an appearance in the hockey pool last season, Mikhail Grigorenko, as he was also not qualified by his club, the Colorado Avalanche, leaving him to the open market as well.  With no takers immediately at the start of free agency, he also took a deal with CSKA Moscow in the KHL, opting to go home and likely get paid.

One would imagine that this isn't the last time we have seen either of these players in the NHL, as they are both still quite young and some time in the KHL could do them a lot of good in getting more ice-time and honing their skills.

Signed in Europe (Sep 20)

Reports on Monday morning said that Dallas Stars forward Valeri Nichushkin had his KHL rights dealt to CSKA Moscow, with the understanding that the 21-year old is not going to sign with the Stars, as long as their head coach, Lindy Ruff, was still in the job.  On Tuesday morning, the reports came down that the Russian winger did indeed sign a 2-year deal with his new KHL team, ending his current run in the NHL.

The Stars will retain his rights, thanks to qualifying him this Summer, but since Ruff still has two years left on his current deal, it doesn't seem likely that Nichushkin will make his way back any time soon.

Last season, Nichushkin had 29 points in 79 games with the Stars, just ranking him outside of the pool ranks, but still had lots of upside to achieve, making him an interesting pool target, if he was playing.

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.

Datsyuk Takes His Puck and Heads Home

On Saturday, Detroit Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk finally confirmed that he will forego his last year on his current contract, in order to go back to Russia to play at home and be closer to his family.  The move has been hanging above the heads of both the player and the team for quite some time, but now the move is official and the repercussions can now unfold.

It is a pretty worst-case scenario for the Red Wings, as he signed a 3-year contract extension in 2013, which would take him through the 2017 season, but it was also considered to be a 35+ contract, which by CBA bylaws, will count against Detroit's salary cap, regardless of whether he plays, terminates or retires.  Therefore, the Red Wings will have to deal the contract, if they want to be players in the free agency market, trying to replace the veteran who is out the door.  After a deal is done, then the contract will be terminated and that team will be stuck with the cap hit for the season.  On the plus side, once the contract is terminated, there are no actual dollars to be paid out on the contract.

Back to the celebration of the player, as the 37-year old played in 14 NHL seasons, all with the Red Wings, playing in 953 games, scoring 314 goals and 918 points.  His career-highs in points came both in the 2008 and 2009 seasons, where he picked up 97 points in both years, scoring a career-high 32 goals in the 2009 season.

In the Opiated Sherpa draft pools, the two-way centre appeared on three money-winning teams, a 1st place finish in 2008, part of a 3rd place finish in 2012 and a 2nd place team in 2013.  It has been a few years since he was on a money-winning team, but he has a legacy in the pool, which will be missed.

Instead of playing in the NHL, he will play his remaining hockey years back home in Russia, as he wished to be playing still, but closer to his family.

Voynov Goes Home

One of the dark clouds that has hung over the Los Angeles Kings, defenseman Slava Voynov and his domestic abuse conviction, has pretty well come to its conclusion on Wednesday evening.

Voynov announced, through his agent, that he will return to Russia with his family, through self-deportation.  Voynov had served his sentence handed down to him this Summer and was going through the immigration processes with the US government, finally coming to this decision.

With this decision done, the Kings, who were looking to terminate his contract before training camp, will not have to do so, rather they will suspend him, without pay, for going home and that will take away his salary cap hit and paycheque.

If Voynov ever expressed interest in returning to the NHL and was approved to return through US Immigration, the Kings would still have his rights, but he would likely have to serve some kind of disciplinary action from the league, before playing.  It seems highly unlikely, but it could happen.

Signed In Europe (June 6)

On Sunday, May 10th, the reports surfaced that Boston Bruins back-up in 2015, Niklas Svedberg, a restricted free agent in July, has indeed bolted to Russia to play in the KHL.  Svedberg was outlined in the Pool Outlook for Boston as a pool-worthy keeper, hence his note here in the blog.  This move to Europe suggests that the door is now wide open for Malcolm Subban to take over the job behind Tuukka Rask and then give him a run for his money, perhaps?

It doesn't seem likely that this will make a huge impact on the hockey pool draft for next season, but I would imagine it will get someone excited for it.  A brand new goalie face will go a long ways, if the pool is deep again next season.

Notable Players Headed Back to Europe

This morning's early news was that Alex Ponikarovsky, an unrestricted free agent, who had played for the Devils last season, has signed with SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL, thus taking him out of the pool of players to be taken in the draft this year.  To be fair, his 9 points in 42 games during the 2013 season was going to be more than enough to do that for the most part, signing in Europe was just the final nail in the coffin for him.

Ponikarovsky has been somewhat of an enigma over his time in the NHL, some times he could put the puck in the net, other times you wonder if he had even left the dressing room and hit the ice.

Nevertheless, this leads me into catching up a bit more on what has transpired over the last couple months, trying to get myself caught up a bit on the blog, more than anything.  I have kept my lists all updated, just haven't done any writing about it.

In keeping up with the transactions, as best I could, I have found 76 new names heading off to Europe in some fashion or another.  The top scorer of the bunch as the failed experiment by the Calgary Flames, Roman Cervenka, who finished the year with 17 points in 39 games.  He has gone back to Europe, where he was a bit more of a big deal, playing on larger ice and against lesser players than what the NHL had in store for him.

Another notable name, with less-than-notable numbers in 2013, would be Sergei Kostitsyn, who is following his brother back home to Europe (Andrei leaving last Summer), after a pretty poor showing in Nashville in 2013.  Sergei played in 46 games for the Predators, but only mustered up 3 goals and 12 assists, which was likely pretty far from what the team had expected of him for the season.  It was his lowest ranking in pool scoring since the 2010 season, just before he really broke out.  I don't think there is too much love lost here.

36-year old German winger, Jochen Hecht, has decided to make his way back home after a lengthy career in the NHL.  Hecht wasn't really that guy that you would go looking for in most hockey pool drafts and he would really only pop his name up if it was a really deep draft.  His 2012 campaign was cut short badly by injury, only having played in 22 games, which likely affected his 2013 season, where he only scored 14 points in 47 games.  It's probably a good time to go finish up the career back home.

The highest ranked restricted free agent, Alex Burmistrov, who is still growing into his legs, has left the Winnipeg Jets for the 2014 season, to see if he can get some more quality ice-time in the KHL and possibly make a grand return to the NHL at a later date.  It sounds like Burmistrov had quite the tumultuous time in Winnipeg in the 2013 season, so that likely plays a big part his decision to leave and maybe he has something to wait out for his return.  Regardless, he wasn't really going to be draft material, unless someone thought he was going to really break out this season (10 points in 44 games in 2013).

Other names on the list heading over to Europe that catch my eye: Wojtek Wolski, Marc-Andre Bergeron, Antti Miettinen, Colby Armstrong, Alex Kovalev, Teemu Hartikainen, Eric Belanger, Anton Babchuk, Marc-Andre Gragnani and Jussi Rynnas.

Am I forgetting anyone?  Oh, yes.

The shock and awe of the "retirement" of Ilya Kovalchuk from the NHL on July 11th. You don't think I really forgot, did you?

With still an incredible sum of money left on the table, over the extended period of time of his contract remaining, it just came out of nowhere to see that Kovalchuk, arguably one of the best goal scorers in the game still, decided to head home to Russia.  He filed his retirement papers to get out of the lengthy contract, which I believe still had 9 years left on it, and about $75 million, to head home and play where he'd feel more comfortable.

It sounded like the lockout did a number on him, as it had to a number of Russian-born players (allegedly), and it was more of a family decision to go back home and play.  This will also likely do him a lot of good, as the Olympics are in Russia this Winter and he will be well-prepared for those games.

Nevertheless, strike Kovalchuk from your lists for the coming year, he won't be coming back any time soon.

Radulov Officially Re-Joins Predators

Well, first of all, pardon my lack of preparation, I don't have an animated GIF for a player returning to North America from Europe to finish his deal, so I'll have to use my Gone to Europe GIF.

With that being said, all of the rumours and small hints that Alexander Radulov was returning to the Nashville Predators have all come to fruition and the 25-year old Russian scoring winger has officially joined the Predators and it looks like he'll be jumping into the line-up rather soon.

Radulov has played the last four seasons in the KHL, winning a couple of league scoring titles in the 2011 and 2012 seasons, which has given him some elevated expectations upon his return to the NHL.

Radulov is eligible to play in the playoffs for the Predators, since he is still under contract with the team, a deal that didn't expire, since he was suspended by the league.  Since there was no new deal signed, he also doesn't have to pass through waivers.  With playing this season, the last year of his entry-level deal will be burned off and he will become a restricted free agent on July 1st.

With all the rumours of his arrival and some confirmation on the weekend about, Radulov was added to the Playoff Pool selection sheet, down in Box 6, which could be a very attractive option for those who think the Predators can make it through the first round or Radulov will have an offensive explosion at the Spring Dance, no matter how long they last in the playoffs.  Choose him at your own risk, but can you really turn him down?

Week Ten Newsletter

It wasn't a exceptionally busy week in the NHL in Week Ten, with only 48 games played between Monday and Sunday, but thanks to the waiver draft in Week Nine, there were some good numbers posted in the week.

At the end of Week Nine, 46 NHL games were played, where the draft registered 686 skater games played and 4,138 minutes of ice-time played between all of the players and in those, 505 points were collected.  After the waiver draft, in 48 NHL games, 753 skater games were played and 4,798 minutes from goalies were collected and 552 points were collected by all 22 teams.

That is a fair increase of games played, averaging 15.7 players games registered per NHL game, compared to 14.9 games the week before.  Between injuries, returns and waiver draft picks, it worked out to be a good increase, where the more points collected equals the most exciting pools.

I thought this was certainly worth noting this week.

Last season, I did some slight comparisons to where the leaders have been at this time in the season, so I thought I would do a bit of the same here as well.  Wayne H. currently leads the pool with 277 points in a 22-team pool, where last season, Allan S. had 279 points in a 20-team pool and Leon G. had 306 points in a 17-team pool.  The more teams we've seen, the lesser the leader's points, but between the last couple of years, it hasn't been a big difference.

In the sheet pool, Jeff E. has 615 points in the 32-box format, the third (and possibly final year) of this format, where last season saw Mitch F. and Wes M. had 645 points at this time last season and the year before was sort of sketchy and unfortunately, John P., who was the leader at this time in the 2010 season, I don't have his point total, but he was doing quite well, according to the newsletter at the time.

The other news out of the week was the NHL realignment, which is why I had mentioned that this could possibly be the last year of the 32-box format of the sheet pool, since it is broken into two conferences, next season we'll see four conferences and some adjustments may need to be made.  Probably, it will be for the better.

For the most part, it was a fairly even week across the board for players and teams, but we still had a clear winner for Player of the Week honours, which is kind of surprising, given that it was only 8 points that took the mention in the week.  Nevertheless, with a week-high total in the draft of 8 points, Miikka Kiprusoff picks up his first weekly honour in quite a long time.

Yes, the Flames are surging at the moment and helping to backstop the charge is the team's most reliable player, their goalie.  In the week, Kiprusoff went 3-0-0, including a shutout, for his 8 points and helped move the Flames another step closer into sniffing out a playoff position in Week Ten.

On Tuesday night, Kipper barely held on to a 7-6 victory over the Hurricanes to start the week, making 28 saves in the victory, but it kept the team sharp until the final buzzer.  Thursday, Kiprusoff made 16 saves in a 3-2 victory over the Avalanche, notching another close game victory to his belt in the year.  Finally, he made up for a couple of close decisions with an easy 21-save shutout victory over the Oilers on Saturday night, getting the big result for his weekly total.

With the big week under his belt, Kiprusoff moved up to 10th place in pool scoring, now having 14 wins and 2 shutouts to his credit, which is good enough for 32 points, safely in the chase for a mention in the top 10 list that I have decided to publish on a weekly basis this year.

I'm sure a number of teams in the sheet pool were quite happy with this result, as was Brenda F. in the draft, who made him the top pick in the 2nd round of the initial draft.

Well, well, well... it was an awfully tight race up at the top of the weekly scoring standings in the draft, as a couple of teams made a pretty good spring at the top of the table, during the first week with new waiver drafted players on their side.  We had a tie to break for the Mover and Shaker of the week and with 35 points and 14 goals to their name, Niesa S. picks up her first Mover and Shaker of the season and her pool career.

This is her first mention on the Newsletter this season and for the better reason of the two, climbing up two spots in the standings, from 10th to 8th with the big week, now only 1 point out of 7th place and 15 points out of 4th place, the last money position.

Niesa owes her big week to players like Jiri Hudler, who had 6 points in the week, as well as Olli Jokinen and Mikko Koivu, who each had 5 points, while Daniel Sedin should also get a mention, he picked up 4 points in the week.  In just four players, that was a solid 20 points.  New pick-up Jason Garrison was also solid in his first week on the team, he picked up a goal and an assist from the blueline for the Panthers, which was good enough for a mention.

Niesa's team has been fairly good across the board this year, but it hasn't been amazing anywhere.  Above-average forwards, above-average defensemen and slightly below-average goaltending has been the name of the game for her team this year.  Her team has remained fairly healthy, being above-average in skater games played, while suffering slightly in the minutes played department for her goaltending, but it isn't terrible by any stretch.

If Niesa's forwards and defense can keep her team afloat, there's no reason why she can't move up just a little further in the standings, maybe make a push for 3rd or 4th this year.

It's another week in the basement for Darren S., who couldn't really catch a break in Week Ten, especially with his injuries.  Darren had a week-low 16 points in Week Ten, which is the highest total for a Basement Dweller this year, showing how tight the race was in the week, thanks in large part to having only 30 skater games go his way, missing out on games from some of his top players, like Jeff Skinner, Alex Tanguay and Cal Clutterbuck.

Darren had a good week from Bobby Ryan, who had 4 points, and his new addition to the team, Joffrey Lupul, who had 3 points in three games for him.  If it wasn't for Lupul, it could have been much worse for Darren in Week Ten.

Darren now has an 18-point gap to make up to try and put Derek W. in his spot in last place in the pool, hoping that his waiver draft pick-ups will do well to help him out, but it's really hard to believe that, when your skaters are only operating at 0.407 points per game this season.

In the sheet pool, the best seemingly get just that much better, as a couple of clever trades have done wonders for Jeff E., who opened up his lead again in Week Ten, now carrying a 19-point lead into Week Eleven, thanks to a mighty fine week.  Zac H. still holds on to 2nd spot, thanks to a pretty good week, but not a great week, while Kendra M. moved up one spot in the standings to 3rd spot, overtaking Chris G. in the week.  Wes M. holds the last money spot in 5th, not having quite the great week, but good enough to hold on.

Taking top spot in the week, both in points scored and positions moved up in the standings was Clayton C., who's team hit on a number of cylinders in Week Ten, jumped up six spots to 6th place in the standings, thanks to a 78-point week.  Leading the way for Clayton's team was Henrik Sedin (6 points), Jiri Hudler (6), Roberto Luongo (6), Derek Stepan (5), Michael Del Zotto (5), five players with 4 points each and five players with 3 points each.  That's a very solid week from top-to-bottom there.

Leading the pool in goals scored was Scott G.'s first team, which had 27 goals in the week in a 68-point effort, moving up from 20th spot to 17th in the week.

Before Week Ten, we had 13 trades go into the books and for Week Eleven, I currently only have about five trades to go in, at the time of publishing the newsletter.  The weekly high in trades happened before the start of Week Seven, where 30 trades were entered into the pool, followed by Week Five, where 24 trades were entered.  Teams have been faring much better with trades, so be sure to get them in.

NEWS AND NOTES

It appears as though Mike Santorelli was a healthy scratch for the Florida Panthers on Sunday evening, as the team took on the Rangers. Santorelli only has 5 points in 22 games with the club, which is not a very healthy point total this year, which is likely the best reason for having him sit for a game.  After a 6-1 kicking, however, I would imagine that Santorelli would be back in the Panthers' line-up before you can say boo.

Well, it's hard to consider this a real surprise, but Nikita Filatov has had enough of being a healthy scratch or a minor league player with the Senators, after only 10 weeks, and has decided that he'll head back home to Russia, where his talents are more appreciated and he'll continue his professional career there.  The Senators have officially sent him to Europe as a minor-league assignment, which means he still belongs to Ottawa contractually, but there is very little chance that he will be recalled from the KHL to resume his NHL career.

Link to the Injury/News Page

HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA

We're back to the ol' doubleheader schedule on Hockey Night In Canada in Week Eleven, which makes it the first week in a few weeks to only have two games on the docket.  So far, it has been a pretty good year for our ol' Saturday staple in Canada, which is fantastic news.  Since we're going back to the doubleheader part of the schedule, I think I will go back to highlighting the best player in each game, seeing how each team's best players are doing at this point in the season.

In the early game, the Vancouver Canucks continue their Eastern road trip with a visit to the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, where they will take on the less-than-dominating Maple Leafs, who haven't been quite as hot as they were to start the season.  In fact, these two teams are going in opposite directions in the standings, which some may argue, is righting the ship to something we're more inclined to seeing in the year.  Still leading the charge in scoring between these two clubs is Phil Kessel, who has 36 points in 29 games, but even that is getting closed in on by a number of players, as Kessel now ranks 3rd in pool scoring.  He's still having a fantastic year, no matter how you cut it.

In the late game, we head back down to California for a visit, as the Edmonton Oilers go down to San Jose to take on the Sharks.  Neither team have been great in their last 10 heading into Week Eleven, both going 4-5-1, so it will be a race to righting the ship and heading back in the right direction in the Western Conference standings.  This will also be the first meeting of four games this season between the two teams, so there should be some new acquaintances met here, hopefully starting some fireworks for the rest of the year.  Leading the charge between the two sides this year is the rookie, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who has 32 points in 30 games this year, good enough for 9th in pool scoring, having a whale of a freshman year.  He'll be the one to stop for the Sharks.