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Stars Still Carrying Well Over The NHL Maximum Roster Size

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Barring a sudden change of heart, it appears as if Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle’s ironman streak of 866 games will come to an end tomorrow as George Richards of Florida Hockey Now relays (Twitter link) that the veteran was once again not skating with the group that’s expected to play.  He has clearly fallen out of favor but his contract ($6.35MM through 2022-23 with a no-move clause) will make such a move tricky.  Nevertheless, Yandle’s agent Jerry Buckley told Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic (subscription link) that he views this situation as nothing more than public pressure to get him to accept a trade:

This doesn’t have anything to do with performance. Keith is one of the top offensive defensemen in the NHL. He was last year, he has been over the last three years. And this decision was made a week before training camp. So it doesn’t have to do with performance. This is the general manager’s attempt to pressure Keith and make him uncomfortable and to waive this no-trade clause.

While Yandle has certainly been prolific offensively over the last three seasons – only four blueliners have more points than him in that span – it’s his play in his own end that has deteriorated as well in that span.  Panthers GM Bill Zito will have his work cut out for him to try to move Yandle (assuming he’s willing to waive his trade protection).

More from the Central Division:

  • While most teams have gotten down to the NHL-mandated maximum roster size of 23, Dallas remains nowhere near that number. Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News examines the composition of their roster which currently has 36 players with various designations on it.  They sit just $228 under their LTIR-inflated cap ceiling but with the way their roster is constructed, they’ll have plenty of cap flexibility when they eventually get down to the proper roster size.
  • Red Wings winger Bobby Ryan will make his debut with his new team on Saturday, notes MLive’s Ansar Khan. He missed the last few days of training camp and Thursday’s game against Carolina due to an undisclosed injury which he has recovered from.  The 33-year-old signed a one-year, $1MM deal with Detroit after being bought out by Ottawa this offseason and is expected to immediately jump onto the number one power play unit.

Six Dallas Stars Players Test Positive For COVID-19

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January 15: The Stars will begin their season on January 22 against the Nashville Predators. Games scheduled for January 14, 15, 17, and 19 have been rescheduled for later in the season, as the NHL details in today’s release. Several other games have been rescheduled as well, though they’re much further down the road.

The changes mean that Florida and Tampa Bay, the two opponents that were supposed to take on the Stars to start the season, will have substantial breaks. Tampa Bay for instance plays tonight and then will not play again until next Thursday, while the Panthers are still waiting until Sunday to start their year. The Stars will now play a 56-game schedule in just 108 days.

January 8: The Dallas Stars will not start the season on time. The team has released the following statement, explaining the sudden cancelation of practice today:

The National Hockey League announced today that six Dallas Stars players and two staff members have recently confirmed positive tests for the COVID-19 virus. Those individuals are self-isolating and following CDC and league protocols. As a result of the positive tests, and as an appropriate precaution, the team’s training facilities have been closed, effective immediately, and will remain closed for several days while further daily testing and contact tracing is conducted. The league is in the process of reviewing and revising the Stars’ regular season schedule with the expectation that the team will not open its 2020-21 season earlier than Tuesday, January 19.

The Stars organization has, and will continue to follow, all recommended guidelines aimed at protecting the health and safety of its players, staff and community at large as set by the NHL, local, state and national agencies.

The Stars were set to open the season against the Florida Panthers on January 14, a game that will obviously have to be postponed. Games on January 15 and 17 are also in jeopardy as well.  The league did not release the names of the players that have tested positive.

If the other major professional sports are any indication, this is the first of many outbreaks this season. The league and teams will need to be flexible and adapt to changing schedules and protocols on a near-daily basis, leaving roster depth as arguably the most important thing in the NHL this year. It’s hard to imagine that the Stars will have their full contingent of players even by January 19, though no specifics have been released in regards to that.

COVID Protocol Related Absences: 01/13/21

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As reported earlier, beginning today, and each day for the remainder of the 2020-21 season, the NHL will be sharing the names of players who are “unavailable” to play or practice due to any number of factors that place them under the league’s COVID-19 Protocol. Here is the list of players for today, Wednesday, January 13:

F Lawson Crouse, Arizona Coyotes
F Karson Kuhlman, Boston Bruins
D Erik Johnson, Colorado Avalanche
F Mikko Koivu, Columbus Blue Jackets
D Christian Djoos, Detroit Red Wings
F Darren Helm, Detroit Red Wings
F Gaetan Haas, Edmonton Oilers
F James Neal, Edmonton Oilers
D Markus Nutivaara, Florida Panthers
D Kurtis MacDermid, Los Angeles Kings
G Cal Petersen, Los Angeles Kings
D Sean Walker, Los Angeles Kings
G Alex Stalock, Minnesota Wild
F Mikael Granlund, Nashville Predators
D Luca Sbisa, Nashville Predators
F Justin Richards, New York Rangers
D Shayne Gostisbehere, Philadelphia Flyers
F Kasperi Kapanen, Pittsburgh Penguins
F Maxim Letunov, San Jose Sharks
D Jordie Benn, Vancouver Canucks
F J.T. Miller, Vancouver Canucks
F Nikolaj Ehlers, Winnipeg Jets

*NOTE: The league declined to list any specific members of the Dallas Stars at this time. The team is currently recovering from an extensive breakout.

NHL Issues Training Camp COVID-19 Testing Results

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With the NHL finally on the precipice of a long-awaited new season, the league has decided to share how their health and safety protocols have done so far in hopes that they can continue to improve as the year moves forward. Through two weeks of training camp for 31 organizations, the league estimates that over 12,000 tests for the COVID-19 virus have been administered. The result: just 27 of more than 1,200 players tested received a positive test, with daily testing ongoing for each club since as early as December 30.

These results – a positive test rate of less than 2.25% –  are obviously great news for the league and all of its stakeholders as the season is about to get underway. Yet, one additional fact makes the results even more impressive. The league notes that 17 of the 27 players to test positive were members of the Dallas Stars. The Stars just returned to practice today after a four-day facility shutdown amid the virus and the league notes that “most of (Dallas’ positive players) are asymptomatic and… recovering without complications.” The Stars already had their opening week schedule adjusted but are on track for their new Opening Night of January 19 in Tampa.

Elsewhere around the league, that leaves just ten positive cases across 30 clubs, 21 of which were not impcted at all – an impressive mark to say the least. Given the struggles that some other major sports leagues had when returning to a non-bubble playing environment, the NHL appears to be on the right track. While the Stars have shown that a team-wide outbreak is possible and there will certainly be increased risks associated with travel, NHL teams, players, and fans all have to feel optimistic about the NHL being able to complete the coming season without major delay.

The league also included in their statement that their policy toward COVID publicity will change moving forward. Although a reason for a player’s absence was not required this summer during the expanded postseason nor during training camp, that anonymity has been removed. The release reads that “Effective with the start on the 2020-21 regular season, the NHL will provide regular updates on the results of tests administered to Players, including the identities of Players.”

Evening Notes: Canucks, Stars, Reign

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The Vancouver Canucks entered Monday over the NHL’s salary cap upper limit. Yet, when waivers are completed tomorrow, the team will be in near-perfect shape regardless of the results. Spotted among the many names on waivers today were two veteran forwards from Vancouver: Loui Eriksson and Sven Baertschi. While any Canucks fan would like to see both claimed off waivers, there is almost no chance that either one will be moving elsewhere. Eriksson and his $6MM cap hit have failed to live up to expectations for four years now and no other team is likely to be willing to take a chance on the former All-Star. Baertschi and his own $3.37MM price tag were up for grabs on waivers multiple times last season and no one took a chance, leaving him buried in the AHL for much of the year. However, neither player needs to be claimed for the Canucks to benefit. Once both wingers clear waivers, they can be moved to the AHL or – more likely – the taxi squad. Their cap hits will thus be reduced by $1.075MM apiece for a total savings of $2.15MM. As CapFriendly points out, that is not only enough to get Vancouver back in the black relative to the cap ceiling; it will also leave them enough room to add a player on a minimum $700K salary back to the active roster. This is important, as it will bring the cap payroll as close to the upper limit as possible, allowing the team to take close to full advantage of Micheal Ferland’s Long-Term Injured Reserve placement. The savings of nearly $3.5MM will be used to sign defenseman Travis Hamonic and to replace one or two of the forward slots abandoned by Eriksson and Baertschi. Whether anticipated or not, it’s some impressive salary cap magic by GM Jim Benning and company.

  • The Canucks were also back at practice today after a COVID-19 scare on Sunday. Vancouver canceled all team activities yesterday in response to a possible exposure, but fortunately no players or staff have tested positive, per Sportsnet. The team is back on track and there are no further issues expected from this specific case of potential exposure.
  • Meanwhile, the Dallas Stars are still dealing with their Coronavirus issue. After six players and two staff members tested positive before Friday’s practice, the team shut down their facilities over the weekend and were not able to open back up today.  Their first three games of the season, on the road against the Florida Panthers twice and the first of two against the Tampa Bay Lightning, have already been postponed but the hopes is that their new opener, set for January 19 in Tampa, will go on as scheduled. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly tells Matthew DeFranks of The Dallas News that the league is prepared to do what needs to be done, but that they do feel the Stars are “at the end of that outbreak” and are now focused on how it occured initially. Daly added that medical personnel would decide when it is safe to re-open the facility and that all parties feel the 19th remains a fair goal for Dallas to be both healthy and well-prepared. DeFranks has since reported that Dallas will indeed return to practice on Tuesday, though all further camp sessions will be closed to the media.
  • The Ontario Reign, AHL affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings, have announced the hiring of Craig Johnson as an assistant coach for the club. The Reign already have a new head coach in John Wroblewski and now add another new face in Johnson, who is actually a familiar name to Kings fans who remember him from his seven season playing with the team in the late 90’s and early 00’s.  Johnson’s coaching experience is somewhat limited, serving as a head coach for local youth and high school teams in Southern California. However, he has also served as a development coach for the Kings over the past two seasons and briefly worked for the Reign previously in the ECHL back in 2010-11.

Columbus, Dallas Hold Players Out Of Practice Due To COVID-19 Concerns

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Both the Dallas Stars and Columbus Blue Jackets are facing COVID-19 issues today and have either canceled or held players out of practice. This seems to be the first instance of what could become a regularity this season as the NHL tries to navigate the current public health situation.

Saad Yousuf of The Athletic reported this morning that the Stars have canceled practice and media availability for today, confirming with colleague Sean Shapiro that it is COVID-19 related. Yousuf is reporting that at least one Stars player has tested positive. The team has not released an official statement and all communication is expected to come directly from the league.

In Columbus, the team did issue a press release, though it is not very informative. It reads:

The Columbus Blue Jackets have held a number of players out of today’s scheduled practice out of an abundance of caution and in accordance with NHL Covid-19 protocols.

The team has also completely canceled practice for their second group that was scheduled for this afternoon. Important to note, the Blue Jackets do have Max Domi on the team, who is a Type 1 diabetic and considered opting-out of the summer restart at one point because of the COVID-19 concerns. At this point, it seems unlikely that Columbus will provide any additional information, but Aaron Portzline of The Athletic tweets the long list of players (including Domi) that are missing from practice.

Though it’s hard to think about, situations like this are bound to pop up throughout the year as the league continues to travel and even in some situations host fans. Still, missing any of the already very short training camps will be detrimental as teams try to prepare for the grind of the regular season.

Injury Notes: Patrick, Dallas, Colorado, Marchand

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The Philadelphia Flyers had a welcome face join them for the first on-ice session of training camp today. Nolan Patrick, who hasn’t played an NHL game since April of 2019, was present and taking part in practice. In fact, he’s even cleared for contact and says he’s feeling better every day as he recovers from the migraine issues that kept him off the ice for so long.

Patrick, the second overall pick from 2017, is still just 22 and could be a big part of the Flyers lineup this season should his health hold. Without any leverage in negotiations, he accepted a one-year contract at his qualifying offer salary of $874,125. Even if he never becomes the top-line center they hoped for, Philadelphia can still certainly use a bargain in the middle-six.

  • The Dallas Stars were without two postseason standouts as camp opened, announcing that Anton Khudobin is still dealing with some immigration issues and Joe Pavelski is listed as day-to-day pending further examination results on an undisclosed injury. Remember, with such a short training camp this year every day is even more important, meaning there may be some extra rust to shake off for Dallas early on.
  • Speaking of missing important time, five Colorado Avalanche players were deemed “unfit to play” today and head coach Jared Bednar wasn’t sure when they would be back. Gabriel Landeskog, Brandon Saad, Erik Johnson, Philipp Grubauer, and Keaton Middelton (AHL contract) were all held out, though the exact reasoning was not given. The first four are obviously extremely important to the Colorado lineup, so hopefully they can get back on the ice before long.
  • While David Pastrnak wasn’t on the ice and will still miss the first part of the regular season, the Boston Bruins had Brad Marchand out there in his familiar place next to Patrice Bergeron. Marchand is coming back from sports hernia surgery in September and explained today that he had been dealing with the injury for the last two and a half years. The veteran forward also spoke about Kevan Miller’s return to the ice with the Bruins, calling him an “animal” and saying that he hasn’t missed a beat. Miller last played an NHL game in April of 2019 and has had multiple major surgeries in the interim. He signed a new one-year, bonus-laden deal with the Bruins in October.

Stephen Johns Will Not Play This Season

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When the Dallas Stars released their training camp roster this afternoon, a few names were notably marked with asterisks. Ben Bishop and Tyler Seguin were both listed as “Injured Player Not Participating in Training Camp” after offseason surgeries, but with them was also Stephen Johns. Not only will the veteran defenseman miss camp, but according to Saad Yousuf of The Athletic, Johns will not play at all this season.

In one of the most disheartening moments of the playoff bubble, Johns was forced from the Stars’ first game against the Calgary Flames just a few months after making his triumphant return to the lineup. After missing nearly two full years with post-concussion symptoms, Johns had returned in January 2020 and played 17 games down the stretch for the Stars. He even made it through three round-robin games with Dallas in the bubble, but it appears as those may potentially be the final matches of his career. Yousuf writes that it is premature to consider Johns’ career definitely over, but notes that the 28-year-old will be an unrestricted free agent when his contract expires after this season.

His $2.35MM cap hit can be moved to long-term injured reserve when necessary to make some additional room for the Stars, but this is certainly not a celebratory announcement for fans of the defenseman. Johns, selected 60th overall in 2010 by the Chicago Blackhawks, made his NHL debut with the Stars in 2016, and looked oh-so-promising early on. He was big—standing 6’4″ 225-lbs—could skate well and had upside at both ends of the rink. He would go on to score a career-high eight goals in the 2017-18 season before a concussion threw his career off track in March. After working extremely hard on his rehab, he returned last season and looked like a solid NHL contributor once again.

If this is the end of his playing career, it would finish with 167 regular season games played in the NHL. Hopefully, somehow, Johns will be able to get back on the ice. It won’t be this season and it may not be for the Stars.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Salary Cap Deep Dive: Dallas Stars

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Navigating the salary cap is one of the more important tasks for any GM.  Teams that can avert total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful.  Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2020-21 season.  This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL.  All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.

Dallas Stars

Current Cap Hit: $81,242,031 (under the $81.5MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

G Jake Oettinger (two years, $925K)
F Joel Kiviranta (one year, $925K)
D Miro Heiskanen (one year, $894K)
D Thomas Harley (three  years, $894K)
F Jason Robertson (two years, $795K)

Potential Bonuses
Heiskanen: $2.5MM
Oettinger: $425K
Harley: $213K
Robertson: $83K

Total: $3.25MM

The Stars are loaded with top prospects coming through the system quickly now, but one name stands out in Heiskanen, who the team will likely want to lock up long-term. The 21-year-old has been an amazing addition to the team’s defense over the past two years and is a major reason for their appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals last season. The blueliner posted a solid 33 and 35 point over the first two seasons, but he took that up a notch in the playoffs, posting six goals and 26 points in 27 playoff games, suggesting he has the potential to become a high-scoring offensive defenseman to go with his shutdown skills.

Kiviranta also made his mark during the playoffs, scoring several key goals during the playoffs, while the team could quickly turn to youngsters Harley, Oettinger and Robertson to step in and contribute this coming season.

One Year Remaining, Non-Entry-Level

F Andrew Cogliano ($3.25MM, UFA)
F Blake Comeau ($2.4MM, UFA)
D Stephen Johns ($2.35MM, UFA)
D Jamie Oleksiak ($2.14MM, UFA)
F Jason Dickinson ($1.5MM, RFA)
F Justin Dowling ($750K, UFA)
D Mark Pysyk ($750K, UFA)
D Taylor Fedun ($738K, UFA)
D Julius Honka ($700K, RFA)

While the team has quite a bit of youth and veteran talent, the team has quite a few contracts coming off the books in one year and players like Cogliano and Comeau will have to prove their value to receive new contracts at potentially smaller contracts. The same goes on defense where a number of veterans come off the books including Johns and Oleksiak, both who give the Stars significant physicality. The team must determine if either can come back, especially Johns who returned from a long-standing concussion last season, but then sat out the playoffs due to concern over the same injury.

Dickinson, who has been a solid contributor in the bottom-six is another player expected to return, while Dallas will take long looks at their significant defensive depth in Pysyk and Fedun. Honka is another interesting situation after he spent last season overseas. The 2014 first rounder has struggled to establish himself in Dallas over the years and now will have to prove himself, likely in the AHL.

Two Years Remaining

F Joe Pavelski ($7MM, UFA)
F Alexander Radulov ($6.25MM, UFA)
D John Klingberg ($4.25MM, UFA)
F Denis Gurianov ($2.55MM, RFA)
D Andrej Sekera ($1.5MM, UFA)

Quite a bit of their money comes off the books in two years as the contracts of Pavelski, Radulov and Klingberg are up. That’s $17.5MM. That likely will end the tenures of Pavelski, who will be 38 years old then, while Radulov will be 36. The hope is that both players will be big contributors over the next two years as Dallas will do everything it can to return to the Stanley Cup Finals once again. While Pavelski struggled during the regular season with just 15 goals, he did step up when it counted, posting 13 goals and 19 points in the playoffs. Radulov also struggled with just 15 goals during the season, but fared much better in the playoffs with eight goals and 18 points in 27 games.

Klingberg is a different story. The team’s top defenseman just a year ago, Klingberg saw his offensive numbers slide during the regular season and in many ways seems to be overshadowed by the Stars’ young blueline. With Heiskanen likely to be granted a big contract soon, the status of Klingberg could be an interesting story, whether the team will overpay to lock him up or let him hit unrestricted free agency.

Gurianov has two years to prove that his numbers from last year are real. After having some issues a year ago in the AHL, Gurianov returned to North America last year and showed off his talent, scoring 20 goals in 64 games. If he can prove that he can be a consistent 20-goal scorer over these next two years, he also should get some of that freed up money.

Three Years Remaining

G Ben Bishop ($4.92MM, UFA)
G Anton Khudobin ($3.33MM, UFA)
F Roope Hintz ($3.15MM, RFA)

The team hope that Oettinger will have established himself as the goalie of the future in three years. That’s how long the team has to find someone as it seems unlikely that Dallas will keep Bishop and Khudobin since both will be 37 years old when their contracts expire. Both have been critical to the success of the team last year and Khudobin was rewarded with a three-year deal this offseason, especially considering that Bishop is expected to miss significant time this season due to injury.

Hintz, on the other hand, had a breakout season in his second year. The 24-year-old scored 19 goals and 33 points and looks like a future star for Dallas in the coming seasons, which suggests that his $3.15MM deal over the next three years could look like a significant bargain.Read more

What Your Team Is Thankful For: Dallas Stars

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We’ve now made it past Thanksgiving and the holiday season is right around the corner. Like the last few years, PHR will take a look at what teams are thankful for but this year comes with a bit of a change. Normally teams would have an idea of where their season was heading, coming up on the one-quarter mark with mountains of statistics to analyze. Instead, in this unprecedented year, the season hasn’t even begun. We’ll still take a look at what each group is excited about and what they could hope for once the calendar turns to 2021.

What are the Stars most thankful for?

Last season’s Western Conference title.

Yes, ultimately losing in the Stanley Cup Final typically isn’t something to be thankful about but it has changed the perspective of their program in its entirety.  This was a team that had been viewed by many as potentially vulnerable, offensively deficient heading into the bubble with a veteran core that didn’t exactly have a good regular season.  Were they on the way down?

Clearly, the answer was no.  Instead, those players produced at better rates than they did during the regular season when a lot of times, the opposite occurred.  Anton Khudobin stepped up in Ben Bishop’s absence, showing that they have one of the top tandems in the league (another thing they’re certainly thankful for).  Now weeks away from the anticipated start of training camp, the Stars are viewed as a team that’s capable of winning now.  Not many were saying that during the pandemic-induced layoff; their run to the Final shows that this core still has something left in the tank.

Who are the Stars most thankful for?

Naturally, after speaking positively about their veteran core, let’s now go in the exact opposite direction and look at their youngest player in Miro Heiskanen.  There are young defensemen that teams hope can one day ascend to that number one role.  The 21-year-old is two years into his career and is already at that level.  He’s coming off of a stellar postseason where he led the team in scoring and the sky is seemingly the limit.

Dallas is also certainly thankful that he’s still on his entry-level contract that restricts him to a base salary of $925K (including his signing bonus).  It’s rare to have a number one blueliner making less than a million dollars in base pay and it’s the type of high-value contract that has allowed them to keep the core of the team intact for another run in the postseason.  That will soon change as that deal is up at the end of the season but for now, their best defenseman just happens to be their lowest-paid regular.

What would the Stars be even more thankful for?

Further delaying the start to next season.  That may sound crazy but they are down their starting goaltender in Bishop and their top center in Tyler Seguin with both players expected to be out into March at a minimum.  The fewer games they play without those two, the better off they should be in the standings, especially with Khudobin having relatively limited experience as an every-game starter.

What should be on the Stars’ holiday wish list?

More scoring depth.

One way of looking at things is that they scored enough to make their way through the Western Conference in the playoffs.  The glass half-empty viewpoint mentions that they were 28th in the league in offense last season with their goaltending allowing the second-fewest goals that helped keep them in the top half of the conference.  It’s true that they’ve been able to keep their core intact but at the same time, they didn’t really add to it.  There’s room for optimism for some of their younger players to take steps forward and grab a bigger share of the offensive pie but they’d undoubtedly love to add another veteran with a track record of consistent production.

They’ll have LTIR space to play with early on due to the injuries of Bishop and Seguin while Stephen Johns’ availability is uncertain but their cap room when everyone is healthy is minimal so GM Jim Nill will have his work cut out for him to try to add to their attack.  It’d go a long way if he could find a way to do so.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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