The Flyers have loaned their top goaltending prospect to the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms and recalled netminder Anthony Stolarz from his conditioning stint, the club announced Thursday.
Hart posted a .918 save percentage in 12 games for the Flyers, the first dozen appearances of his NHL career, and went 4-1-0 with a .927 save percentage in his last five contests. He was recalled on Dec. 16.
Stolarz had been on a conditioning loan since Jan. 17, when he was activated off injured reserve. He missed 16 games due to an injury suffered against the Vancouver Canucks on Dec. 15.
Washington has asked for "a couple of mid- to high-round" selections in exchange for the young forward, Friedman wrote in Thursday's edition of "31 Thoughts."
Meanwhile, general manager Brian MacLellan told The Washington Post's Isabelle Khurshudyan he wants to do a forward-for-forward swap and that it makes sense to do two separate moves if he's not offered exactly what he wants.
The team has reportedly been listening to offers for Burakovsky, who has been relegated to bottom-six duties and has only 12 points in 44 games this season.
The 23-year-old hasn't been able to match the consistency he displayed in 2015-16 when he potted 17 goals, but he does have a goal and two assists in his last three games.
A first-round pick in 2013, Burakovsky is a pending restricted free agent and carries a $3-million cap hit.
In this episode, John's joined by Brock McGillis, the first pro hockey player to come out as gay, and Rachel Doerrie, a former analyst for the New Jersey Devils, to discuss a variety of topics, namely:
Homophobia in hockey and Brock's coming-out story
Diversity in hockey and Rachel's experience of climbing the ranks
In this episode, John's joined by Brock McGillis, the first pro hockey player to come out as gay, and Rachel Doerrie, a former analyst for the New Jersey Devils, to discuss a variety of topics, namely:
Homophobia in hockey and Brock's coming-out story
Diversity in hockey and Rachel's experience of climbing the ranks
The Anaheim Ducks captain vented Wednesday night after his club managed only 13 shots on goal in a 5-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues, its seventh consecutive defeat on home ice.
"I'm pissed off, and I'm frustrated, and it's really, really frustrating to understand that our group's in a playoff race still after everything, and we can't come out and compete hard around our net, around their net, and (that we) do things like we did (Wednesday night)," Getzlaf told reporters postgame.
The veteran center added that the notion that the team can't consistently compete is unprecedented in his Ducks tenure.
"Never had it in 14 years here," he said. "Never had that feeling that we're not going to compete on a daily basis. We've had three-, four-game stretches where things didn't go our way and maybe we didn't have the group that we wanted, but never for a consistent period like this have I (felt) this."
The Ducks dropped 12 straight games before shutting out the Minnesota Wild last week, and they followed up that victory with a win over the New Jersey Devils, but then they were blanked by the New York Islanders prior to being dismantled by the Blues.
However, as Getzlaf mentioned, Anaheim is still in the playoff hunt, sitting one point behind the Colorado Avalanche for the second Western Conference wild-card spot, albeit with one more game played and four fewer regulation or overtime wins.
A marquee matchup between two of the better teams in the league turned ugly on Wednesday night, with P.K. Subban claiming he was bitten by Pierre-Edouard Bellemare during a skirmish in front of the net.
The Nashville Predators defenseman left the incident telling referees that the Vegas Golden Knights forward had bitten his finger, something he confirmed to reporters after the contest.
"He bit me. My finger was bleeding," Subban said, as per Ryan Quigley of Knights on Ice. "All I tried to do was grab him. I grabbed him by the head to pull him up and he bit me. I don't know how I walk out of there with four minutes in penalties."
Bellemare was not penalized in the incident, with the referees instead opting to send Subban and Ryan Reaves to the box after he came to his teammate's defense. While Subban seems certain there was a bite, Bellemare saw his opponent as the aggressor in the situation.
"I'm in front of the net trying to get the rebound and suddenly I'm in a headlock with an entire glove in my mouth and I'm choking," Bellemare told Vince Sapienza of FOX-5. "He started yelling like, 'I bit him, I bit him.' I don't know what you have in your mouth, but like, if you put all of your hand all the way through and you pull up you are going to feel the teeth."
Bellemare wasn't done there, continuing by questioning Subban's reaction to the whole incident.
"I don't know why he's going absolutely crazy there," he said. "I have half a glove in my throat and playing with the back of it and pulling me up and there was no mouthguard, so it's like, those are my teeth."
The teams won't have to wait too long to renew acquaintances, as the two are scheduled to meet in Vegas once again on Feb. 16.
In a scrum in front of the Predators' goal, blue-liner P.K. Subban wrapped his hand around the face of Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and proceeded to react hysterically as if he was bitten by the Vegas forward.
While Subban pleaded his case to the officiating crew, he had to avoid an oncoming Ryan Reaves. He eventually gestured to the Golden Knights' bench that his finger had been chomped on.
Both Subban and Reaves were assessed unsportsmanlike conduct penalties while Subban was given an extra two-minute minor for roughing.
Whoever becomes the next general manager of the Edmonton Oilers will inherit one of the best players on the planet, and, thanks to Peter Chiarelli, not much else.
Chiarelli's tumultuous tenure with the Oilers came to an end Wednesday in what is the latest chapter of a 12-year stretch of franchise futility. And this one is the most disheartening of all. Despite boasting a generational talent in Connor McDavid, Edmonton has been unable to climb out of the NHL gutter thanks to Chiarelli's archaic philosophy and confounding roster moves.
While the rest of the league focused on the draft and set up squads loaded with speed and skill, Chiarelli was fixated on building a "heavy" team, which he attempted to do through free agency and trades. And that misguided approach has left the next GM with an enormous challenge and few tangible assets with which to tackle it.
The lasting damage
Andy Devlin / National Hockey League / Getty
Chiarelli's laundry list of poor decisions is no secret. There's the infamous Taylor Hall-Adam Larsson trade, the haul of picks given up for the slow-footed Griffin Reinhart, and the Jordan Eberle debacle, which resulted in Chiarelli finishing on the losing end of two separate Ryan Strome deals.
Yet, despite these fireable offenses, Chiarelli's biggest mistakes may have been his careless contract signings:
Player
AAV
Length
Year signed
Andrej Sekera
$5.5M
6 years
2015
Milan Lucic
$6M
7 years
2016
Kris Russell
$4M
4 years
2017
Mikko Koskinen
$4.5M
3 years
2019
These four deals will account for roughly one-quarter of the Oilers' salary cap until Russell and Sekera come off the books after the 2020-21 season.
Puljujarvi, the fourth overall pick in 2016, was raw coming out of the draft. He should've spent an entire season, maybe more, in the AHL before he ever saw NHL action. Instead, a year of his entry-level contract was burned as an ineffective 18-year-old player, and he's now up for restricted free agency after this campaign. As a result, his confidence has likely taken a hit from bouncing up and down between the two levels and averaging just 12:30 minutes of ice time per game during his NHL career.
Yamamoto's contractual situation was handled better, but he also should have spent an entire season in the AHL before making the big club. Having a recent first-rounder play fourth-line minutes is bad for everyone involved.
Another rebuild?
Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / Getty
The Oilers have attempted multiple rebuilds over the better part of two decades, so it's likely their fans have had enough of that word. But there's simply no other way around it.
It's now up to Oilers owner Daryl Katz and CEO Bob Nicholson to find Chiarelli's replacement and patiently allow that person to rebuild the team through their vision. The days of patching holes with short-term fixes can be no more in Edmonton. This team won't be fixed overnight.
It's projected to have just $6.5 million in cap space this offseason, which doesn't include restricted free agents Puljujarvi, Jujhar Khaira, Ty Rattie, and Tobias Rieder, according to Cap Friendly. Nor does it include Alex Chiasson or Alex Petrovic, who are unrestricted free agents. In short, the new GM will have very limited cap space to work with during their first offseason.
The same can be said for the summer of 2020. Ryan Spooner ($3.1 million), Zack Kassian ($1.95 million), Kyle Brodziak ($1.15 million), and Brandon Manning ($2.25 million) will come off the books, but RFA Darnell Nurse will be due for what's likely to be a hefty extension.
Barring an unlikely series of trades that somehow shed the bad contracts handed out by Chiarelli, the next GM will have to wait until the summer of 2021 to put their fingerprints on the team.
By that point, they should've stockpiled draft picks along the way. Ideally, some of those picks - as well as some of the prospects Chiarelli left behind - will already be able to make an impact by the 2021-22 season.
The Oilers are looking at a three-year plan before they can truly begin to turn the page on this unfortunate period. Even at that point, Koskinen will still have one year remaining on his deal, and Lucic's buyout-proof contract will have two years remaining, so Edmonton won't fully clear the roadblocks until the 2023 offseason.
In what may be the biggest decision in franchise history since the Wayne Gretzky trade, the Oilers now look to appoint their fifth general manager since 2008, and if they botch this latest rebuild attempt, the next one could be kicked off by the departure of McDavid.
