NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – October 5, 2022
Recaps of Tuesday’s preseason games, reaction to Mathew Barzal’s contract extension with the Islanders, Sidney Crosby relieved over the Penguins retaining Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
PRESEASON RECAPS
NHL.COM: Goaltender Adin Hill made 50 saves to backstop the Vegas Golden Knights to a 4-3 win over the Arizona Coyotes. Hill made 26 saves in the second period.
Anaheim Ducks forward Derek Grant scored and collected three assists to lead his club past the Los Angeles Kings 5-4.
The Ottawa Senators held off the Montreal Canadiens 5-4. Claude Giroux and Alex DeBrincat each had a goal and an assist. Nick Suzuki collected two assists for the Canadiens.
St. Louis Blues winger Pavel Buchnevich had a goal and an assist as his club doubled up the Minnesota Wild 4-2.
Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson had a “Gordie Howe hat trick” (goal, assist, fight) to down the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2. Hurricanes defenseman Dylan Coghlan left the game with a lower-body injury.
An overtime goal by Noah Dobson lifted the New York Islanders to a 4-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. Josh Bailey had a goal and two assists for the Isles.
The San Jose Sharks defeated Eisbaren Berlin 3-1 in the NHL Global Series Challenge in Berlin.
HEADLINES
NYI HOCKEY NOW: The New York Islanders signed Mathew Barzal on Tuesday to an eight-year, $73.2 million contract extension. Cap Friendly indicates the 25-year-old center’s new deal begins in 2023-24 and carries an average annual value of $9.15 million. It also comes with a 22-team no-trade list beginning in 2024-25.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This is a significant raise for Barzal, who is in the final season of a three-year deal with an AAV of $7 million. It ensures he’ll spend his playing prime with the Islanders.
Barzal was thrilled to be staying with the Islanders. “I love it here. I genuinely do,” he said, praising management, his teammates, the club’s new arena and the city as well. “There’s really no other place I’d rather be,” said Barzal.
His new contract raised concern over the effect it’ll have on the Islanders’ salary-cap payroll. Some observers feel they overpaid for his services.
The Islanders will feel the pinch in 2023-24. The salary cap is only rising by $1 million to $83.5 million and they already have $73.4 million invested in 17 players. However, the cap is projected to rise to $87.5 million in 2024-25 and $92 million by 2025-26. The Isles currently have $54.1 invested in 11 players for ’24-’25 and $36.6 million committed to seven players for ’25-’26. Barzal’s contract still takes a big chunk out of their cap payroll but it should be easier to carry it if the cap reaches or exceeds those forecasted levels.
Barzal’s new contract will also have an effect on comparable players such as Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin. He’s slated to become an unrestricted free agent next summer and carries a $6.1 million annual cap hit on his current deal.
ESPN.COM: Sidney Crosby is relieved the Pittsburgh Penguins re-signed long-time teammates and core players Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang during the summer. The Penguins captain admitted he was concerned one or both would test the free-agent market.
STLTODAY.COM: Blues defenseman Scott Perunovich will undergo shoulder surgery and is expected to be sidelined for six months.
THE PROVINCE: The Vancouver Canucks released defenseman Danny DeKeyser from his professional tryout offer and placed goaltender Collin Delia on waivers.
MONTREAL HOCKEY NOW: A strong training camp earned Canadiens prospect Owen Beck a three-year entry-level contract. The 18-year-old center was selected in the second round of the 2022 NHL Draft. He’s expected to be returned to his OHL team for this season.
TORONTO SUN: Long-time Boston Bruins scout Bob Tindall passed away in Toronto at age 86. Glen Murray, Don Sweeney, Andrew Raycroft and Kevyn Adams were among those he scouted who would be drafted by the Bruins.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: My condolences to Tindall’s family, friends and the Bruins organization.
don’t get the hate for Barzal’s deal. He is the most talented forward in their organization. He is a playmaker, it’s not his fault that the team doesn’t have any snipers that can play with him (other than Lee). Palmeiri and Parise are washed up and Wahlstrom and Bellows haven’t proven,yet, that they can be reliable scorers in the league
While I’d agree you have to pay YOUR best players top dollar, 9.1 for a guy that’s averaged 62 points per season is a bit steep.
Over the last 5 years he’s ranked 35th in scoring. Over the last 4 43rd. Over the last 2 years he falls outside the top 50. Yet he’s getting paid like a top 10 player?
The concern to me is the drop off since his rookie year. And continuous slide. If he were climbing and not sliding I’d be okay with an overpay.
Plenty of good players out produce Barzal without a Solid 50 goal guy on their line.
I’m OK with with the deal.
If you ask a guy like Barzal to change his game to fit the team D first structure and sacrifice offensive #’s, then he does, you can’t reduce what he gets paid because he did. Nobody would stay on the Island if that was the case.
IMO this contract will age well, assuming he stays healthy.
CO that’s an interesting comment regarding concern of his drop off since his rookie season…what can you account that to, just the player? I’m wondering how many games we are talking about (injuries if any/Covid season) what was the team like during that time and who were his line mates?
His contract is far from bad just like Nylander’s was when it was first signed. Barzal is a player that teams need to win.
Right now Barzal’s cap hit is 31’s highest in the NHL for the 2023/24 season. That is quite far from the top 10.
2017/18, his rookie season, Barzal had Tavaras and Eberle. 2018/19 Tavares leaves the Islanders and is basically left with Eberle. With just Eberle, Barzal’s point totals dip from 85 (1.03 ppg) to the low 60’s (0.77 and .88 ppg) for the 2018/19 and the 2019/20 seasons. In the past two seasons, there really hasn’t been a slide. It looks like it, but the 2020/21 season was a shortened season, and Barzal still had a 0.82 ppg. Last season Barzal missed 9 games and again had a respectable 0.81. IMO this contract will age well for the Islanders once/if they get some actual top-line players to play with Barzal. To do that, Lamoriello must stop trading 1st round picks. The Islanders haven’t picked in the first round for three years now.
Ron, regardless of why, injuries or whatever, it still needs to be taken into consideration.
Kevjam,
31st because they don’t account for 10 players at 9.5. 4 players making 10. 3 at 10.5, 2 at 11.6 etc.
Not to mention the Karlssons, Prices, Bobrovsky, Benn (aka god awful contracts gms would love a mulligan on if they had a chance) .
All that taken into consideration, he slides up near the top 10 salaries in the nhl. (Dollars/cap hit)
As far as production goes, I’ll use Panarin as an example. Not a contract I love, however his production has been top 5 -7 for the last 4 years (actually going up every year) playing primarily with Strome (more of another playmaker than sniper) and lots of other rw’s . Hunt, Goodrow, Kakko, and whoever else they plug on his RW. Yet somehow he hasn’t had that excuse of who his line mates are? He just has kept plugging along.
Again, I like the player. But he definitely got a better pay day than his numbers show. Does it age well? Maybe. But with Lou Magoo at the steering wheel, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Time will tell. Wouldn’t be the 1st time I was wrong.
It’s a bit of a head scratcher that guys like Marner get heavily scrutinized while nearly doubling Barzals numbers? Maybe it’s a cap / Toronto thing?
But all things considered. The Iles are not in a great spot either. And are also the oldest team in the league.
CO,
Panarin isn’t a good example. He signed his $11.5 AAV deal back in 2019 and was UFA. He was also averaging over 80 points a season before then. That is a difference of $2 million.
The Rangers did have a 50 goal guy last season in Zibanejad. Look at the top 5 players on the Rangers and compare them to the top 5 on the Islanders. There is also a reason why the Rangers made it into the playoffs and were a final 4 team.
In Cap Friendly, I filtered all the forwards cap hit for the 2023/24 season. The only contracts that can be argued as being bad are Jamie Benn’s and Tyler Seguin’s. Barzal is ranked 21st. Yes, there are three players who have a cap hit of $10 million, but those are still three players who have a higher cap hit than Barzel, not one. So he isn’t even close to the top 10 forwards.
Zibanejad had 29 goals last year. Not 50.
Kreider had 52. Kreider is Zibanejads lw, not Panarin.
All that being said. Over the last 4 years Panarin ranks 2nd on the NHL in esa’s. 15th in ppa’s. 2nd in gwa’s. 25th in gwg’s. 25th in esg’s (not bad for a playmaker) 4th in esp’s 15th in gwp’s, 4th in gwp’s 3rd in A/60. 5th in p/60.
Their top 6 before the deadline?
Kreider Zibanejad / insert name here.
Panarin Strome / insert name here.
Insert name here =
Hunt 6 goals.
kakko 7 goals
Goodrow 13 goals
Rooney 6 goals.
And fill in other names that all didn’t = 30 goals combined.
Laffrienere didn’t play top 6.
Are you saying those players playing with Panarin are as good or better than NYIs top 6? Definitely not on paper.
As I pointed out Panarin is a top 10 player. So you’re right maybe a bad comparison ( not because of linemates)
A better comparison would be Strome .
Last 3 years
Strome 200 gp. 53 goals 109 assists for 162 points
Barzal 196 gp 51 goals, 113 assists for 164 points.
Strome signed a 5 year 5per deal.
Barzal, 8 for 9.1?
He has obviously dropped in production since losing Eberle as a linemate. The 2 had a chemistry. Lou has done nothing to replace Eberle with a top line winger. Contracts he has given out to bottom 6 guys like Martin, Clutterbuck and Cizikas has hindered his ability to spend in free agency and Lou has been reluctant to trade guys like Bailey and Beauvillier, whose contracts together would add up to someone that would work.
Strome isn’t a good comparison either.
Barzal is NYI’s best player. Strome isn’t even close to NYR’s best player.
As per Money Puck, Barzal centred Lee and Bailey (33 games, 258 minutes) the majority of the time, and is NYI’s 1st line. Where Panarin was on a line with Strome and Hunt the majority of the time (32 games, 289 minutes) and is NYR’s 2nd line.
One thing you aren’t taking into consideration is power play time. The NYR 1st PP unit consists of Kreider – Zibanejad – Panarin.
The NYI 1st PP unit consists of Lee – Barzal – Bailey. Plus NYI plays a more defensive system which will also affect Barzel’s offensive production.
As I point out above, most of Panarins points come at even strength. That 1st pp is pretty lethal, but it’s not his bread and butter.
See what I did there? 😂
Barzal is nowhere to be found on most of the stat lines I provide above. Right now, he’s a solid 2nd line defensively responsible player that averages 62 points.
He should be on the 7.5-8 per. And 8 being pretty generous given that production. Which is mirrored to that of Stromes.
So he’s essentially getting paid 4 million per more than Strome for his defensive awareness?
Side note, Lee and Bailey look like Mcdavid and Draisaitl next to anything Panarin played with on RW the last 4 years. And Strome was a Journeyman that was considered a failed / bust 1st rounder .
My whole thing about this Panarin comparison is that Panarin has the second-highest cap hit in the NHL and Barzal is 31st. No matter how many players ahead of Barzal have bad contracts or have the same cap hit, there are still 30 players ahead of him on that list.
Sorry, next season Panarin will have the third-highest cap hit as MacKinnon will move into top spot.
Barzal signs for 9.1 Pastrnak better sign for 10. I mean come on we’re not talking about Connor or Sidney here! for G’s sake why do these greedy sob’s have to keep upping the price!? Surely you can scrimp by on a 10 mill a year salary, maybe you’ll have to settle for a 7 mill mansion With just an indoor and outdoor pool, minus the endless pool, or instead of that Lamborghini you might have to step down to a Ferrari F60. Suck it in Dave get it done!!! Sweeney still has to make a ton of moves to make! Sick of this nonsense!!!!
Oh, yes. Demand that Pastrnak get $10MM/year, then bemoan the “fact” that players are greedy. Do you even recognize the contradiction? Or are you a hypocrite?
Paul
Bingo Yahtzee. You figured him out pretty quickly. Wonder if he went to his boss and said i can work for less. I will grab a used car vs a new one and rent an Apartment instead of buying a house
Don’t you two old goats ever take a vacation away from one another?
Just read that Pastrnak may become hockey’s highest paid player. Will RWM’s head explode?
From what I have seen from Barzal, he skates around the perimeter all night w/o shooting? Despite having a great shot he tends to hang onto the puck, then eventually he gets knocked off it! Don’t understand his game really. IMHO which is probably not worth much, throw it at the net more, hockey 101. GO AVS!!!!!!
With the exception of Brad, David K, Patrice. The rest are all a bunch of spoiled brats. If Pastrnak asks for more than ten mill maybe it’s time to ship him out.
What’s wrong with maximizing your value? Why is that greedy? And why does it roll so easily off the tongue when talking about other peoples money?
Anyone complaining about maximizing value, please send me your address and phone number. I want to buy your house in this robust market. Even with these horrible interest rates.
If you’re property is valued at 500k, you paid 290k surely you’ll sell to me at 300k to not look greedy?
Sound fair? Call me!
Doesn’t sound fair? Why? Because it’s your money and not somebody else’s?
See how that works?
Thanks for your hypothesis Captain Moynihan. When I complain about the salaries or anything else if you don’t like it don’t read it.
How many bedrooms you got Rick?