CANTLON’S CORNER: NHL DRAFT & FREE AGENCY 

1. BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The Stanley Cup finals are completed and attention has shifted to who will be the next superstar and who will be the steal of the draft as teams have come together via video to make their NHL Entry Draft for 2020.

The NHL Draft’s second through seventh rounds will begin at 11:30am on the NHL Network.

By 5pm Wednesday, offer sheets to team’s restricted free agents must be formally submitted,

Come Friday, the 2020-21 season officially begins at Noon when the free agency frenzy officially begins. Expect the rosters of every roster in the NHL and AHL to be very radically different by next Monday.

Any RFA’s who receive qualifying offers will be able to sign those offers when the new league year begins on Friday, October 9.

Offers will expire on Sunday, October 18 at 5:00 PM EST.  If a player does not sign the QO (qualifying offer), the issuing team will maintain the player’s rights simply by making the offer. A restricted free agent can only be signed to a new team by way of an offer sheet.

Any RFA’s who does not receive a qualifying offer becomes an unrestricted free agent and can join the open market on October 9th.

The Hartford Wolf Pack have four “Group 6” free agents.

Nick Ebert already departed Hartford and signed with Orebro HK (Sweden-SHL). Their season has already started.

The Pack’s leading scorer from last season, Vinni Lettieri, and teammate, Danny O’Regan, were having discussions with teams in Switzerland and Germany respectively, but nothing so far has materialized.

Pack center, Boo Nieves,’ future with the organization is unknown. He comes off a season that was cut short by migraine headaches. Before the COVID-19 pandemic would wipe out the season, he was playing his best hockey registering 12 points in last 10 games before the season was lost.

There has been silence about his status and he wasn’t even invited to the Rangers try-out camp before for the qualifying round.

The Wolf Pack have three unrestricted free agents; forward, Matt Beleskey, and goalie, J.F. Berube, will not get another look, but captain Steven Fogarty is also a UFA.

Fogarty is at a crossroads in the organization. He is very well-liked and was a strong captain last year, but hasn’t cracked the bottom six yet. He’ll be the most interesting case to watch come Friday to see if he gets does a better offer with a chance to play elsewhere.

Restricted free agents (RFA) include forward Gabriel Fontaine, who comes off a season where he had season-ending shoulder surgery in December. He will likely get one more chance. Ryan Gropp has yet to blossom.

On the backline, right-handed shooting, Darren Raddysh had a strong season. Then there’s the already-signed, Vincent LoVerde, who together, were the team’s number one defensive pair for about three months last season. Brandon Crawley was recalled from the ECHL Maine Mariners and was invited to the New York Rangers qualifying round training camp is still on the team’s radar.

Forward Dawson Leedahl has fallen into a unique status. He hasn’t played enough NHL games, and was an undrafted free-agent signee. He is now 25 with three years of professional experience all in the AHL and ECHL, so he does not qualify for Group 2 status making him unable to be classified as such so he can’t get an offer sheet and is in the RFA category. This falls under provision 10.2 section C in the CBA Agreement.

EURO UPDATE

Lias Andersson is off to a strong start for HV 71 of the Swedish Hockey League. He has four points in his first four games. Vitali Kravtsov had six goals and 12 points in his first 14 games with Traktor Chelyabinsk in the KHL.

PLAYER MOVEMENT

Tage Thompson (Orange/UCONN) signs a new three-year deal with the Buffalo Sabres for $1.4 million per year. He had season ending shoulder surgery in December after suffering the injury late in a game in Chicago while playing in his first game after his recall from the Rochester Americans. Thompson scored a shootout game-winner against Hartford on October 13 last season over his college Huskies teammate, Adam Huska, in a 3-2 come-from-behind win.

Kristians Rubins, of the Toronto Marlins, become the second AHL’er loaned to a Danish team with Frederikshavn White Hawks (Denmark-DHL).

Marko Dano, of the Cleveland Monsters, had his loan deal publicly announced with HK Dukla Trencin (Slovakia-SLEL), while his teammate, Kole Sherwood, was loaned to Kunlun (China-KHL). Sherwood’s brother, Kiefer, split last year between the San Diego Gulls and the Anaheim Ducks.

Joe Veleno, who split last season between the Grand Rapids Griffins and the Detroit Red WIngs, has been loaned to Malmo IF RedHawks (Sweden-SHL). He has been initially talking to HC Trinec in the Czech Republic, but the team in Sweden was settled on, which is close to the Finnish border.

167 AHL’ers have been loaned or signed in Europe.

Ryan Donato, the son of ex-Wolf Pack/Bridgeport Sound Tiger, and current Harvard head coach, Ted Donato, was traded to his third NHL team, the San Jose Sharks. The Minnesota Wild brought back a third round pick in 2021 that was originally the Penguins pick.

Ben Smith (Avon/Westminster Prep) is being loaned by Adler Mannheim (Germany-DEL) to Rogle BK (Sweden-SHL) because of an injury to ex-Pack, Adam Tambellini, who had six points in hist first three games of the SHL season, but will now miss the next seven weeks of play

Joe Widmar (CT Oilers) heads from Nice (France-FREL) and signs with Cracow (Poland-PZIHL).

Drew Elser of (Selects Academy at South Kent Prep/Avon Old Farms) is traded from Penticton (BCHL) to Trail (BCHL). He is a 2021-22 UCONN (HE) commit.

In a stunning move, 15-year-old, Connor Bedard, was granted the rare exceptional player status in Canadian junior hockey with the Regina Pats (WHL) for this season. Bedard is in camp with HV71 J-20 Super Elite League team.  His uncle is Jim Bedard, the former NHL goalie with the Washington Capitals in the mid-1970s and who had a strong European career in Finland.

Nolan Stevens, the son of ex-Hartford Whaler, John Stevens, Jr., who is an Assistant Coach with the Dallas Stars, has re-signed on a one-year, two-way deal with the St. Louis Blues paying $725K for play in the NHL and $85K should he play in the AHL. His brother, John Jr., split last year with Bridgeport and the Utica Comets. The two both played at Northeastern (HE). He would likely have been in Springfield this year, where his father played, when the team was called the Indians and for the Springfield Falcons.

Mike Corbett, the former University Alabama-Huntsville head coach, lands as an assistant coach with the Robert Morris University Colonials (AHA) program.

Kamil Vavra, the Czech Republic-born, and former Danbury Whaler, is starting his fourth season as a playing assistant coach or head coach for the Kuwaiti Falcons (KIHL) of the Kuwaiti Ice Hockey League, a six team short season league in the Arabian peninsula. Kuwait has Iraq to its north, Iran to its northeast and Saudi Arabia that borders the southern portion of the country with Persian Gulf waters to its East. He also is the head coach for the Kuwaiti women’s national team and helps the men’s nation as a player coach. The men and women are classified in IIHF Division 3 status.

WOLF PACK

Ex-Wolf Pack/CT Whale, Andrew Yogan, leaves Alba Valon (Hungary-IceHL) for Dornbirner EC (Austria-IceHL).

HOCKEY NEWS

The NAHL’s Danbury Junior Hat Tricks will kick off its maiden season on Friday and Saturday at the Danbury Ice Arena against the New Jersey Titans.

The National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC), which is an independent United States Premier Hockey League’s Tier-II junior-level, recently started its 2020-21 season that will run through late March 2021. The NCDC again will skate with 13 teams for the season, but they are now aligned in a six-team South and a seven-team North division. The Rochester (NY) Monarchs did not return this season, but the NCDC added the new Boston Advantage franchise. Also, the Boston Bandits were sold and relocated to become the Philadelphia Hockey Club based in Sewell (NJ) located in Southern New Jersey.

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), one of the three Canadian major-junior leagues, will start its 2020-21 season later this week with the same 18 teams. They are now split from four into three divisions. The six-team Maritimes Division stayed the same, but last season’s four-team East, West, and Central divisions have been combined into a six-team East and West division. Teams will play 60 games within their divisions to minimize travel and overnight stays. On Monday, two teams in the league could have their schedules already altered as the Quebec Remparts and the Blainville/Boisbrand Armada had more restrictive COVID-19 restrictions put in place because of a rise in case numbers.

IN MEMORIAM

Former NHL center, Bob Miller, who played with the Boston Bruins, Colorado Rockies, and Los Angeles Kings, and who was a star with the University of New Hampshire in the early to mid-1970s has passed away at the age of 64.

He had some AHL success in Rochester and Springfield plus one season in the old Central Hockey League. At the end of his playing career, he was in Europe with clubs in Finland, and Switzerland. He also coached for two seasons.

He played for three USA World Championship teams and the 1976 US Olympic team in Innsbruck, Austria.