NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – July 11, 2024
The Blues sign Ryan Suter, Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale resumes skating, former Predators captain Greg Johnson posthumously diagnosed with CTE, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
STLTODAY.COM: The Blues signed defenseman Ryan Suter to a one-year contract. Suter, 39, will earn a base salary of $775K but with bonuses could earn up to $3 million. He spent the past three seasons with the Dallas Stars.
St. Louis Blues sign Ryan Suter (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Suter’s best seasons when he was among the league’s elite defensemen are behind him. He’ll be skating as a third-pairing blueliner in St. Louis.
DAILY FACEOFF: Suter’s signing leaves Tyson Barrie, Tony DeAngelo and Oliver Kylington as the top defensemen remaining in this summer’s unrestricted free-agent market. James van Riemsdyk, Daniel Sprong and Tyler Johnson are the top available forwards.
PHILLY HOCKEY NOW: Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale has resumed skating and claims to be back to 100 percent healthy following sports hernia surgery in April. The 22-year-old indicated he’d been hampered by the core muscle injury since the start of last season.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Drysdale was acquired from the Anaheim Ducks in January. He’ll be expected to play a key role on the Flyers’ blueline in 2024-25. When healthy, he’s projected to be a skillful, big-minute defenseman. Injuries have hampered Drysdale’s performance over the past two seasons.
TSN: Former Nashville Predators captain Greg Johnson was posthumously diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, commonly known as CTE. The news was released by Johnson’s family and the Concussion Legacy Foundation in a joint statement on Wednesday, five years following his death by suicide
Johnson played 785 games with the Predators, Chicago Blackhawks, Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings.
According to public records, 17 of the 18 brains of deceased NHL players were found to have CTE. They include Ralph Backstrom, Henri Richard, Stan Mikita, Bob Probert, Steve Montador and Bob Murdoch. The NHL continues to deny the link between repeated head trauma and long-term neurological disorders, claiming that the evidence is not conclusive.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Don’t expect this news to change the league’s stance. Nevertheless, Johnson won’t be the last NHL player to receive this posthumous diagnosis. At some point, the NHL will face a reckoning on this issue. Meanwhile, they appear content to live in denial.
DAILY FACEOFF: Carl Hagelin is still adjusting to life away from the ice two years after a career-ending eye injury during a practice with the Washington Capitals, requiring 30 stitches to repair the left eyeball after being accidentally struck by a teammate’s stick.
Hagelin now requires sunglasses more often than not to cope with the challenges brought on by the injury. He remains grateful that the eyeball was saved. The former NHL winger works with the Minnesota Wild in player development and scouting.
COLORADO HOCKEY NOW: The Avalanche officially named former players Andrew Cogliano and Pavel Francouz to new positions within the organization. Cogliano was named Special Assistant to the General Manager while Francouz is a Goaltending Scout.
SPORTSNET: Alex Meruelo has reportedly signed all the necessary agreements and paperwork that officially terminates his rights to the Arizona Coyotes franchise.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman last month announced Meruelo would no longer pursue a reactivation of the Coyotes after its hockey operations relocated to Utah. That decision was made after a bid to construct a new arena fell apart.
SPORTSNET: The popular salary-cap site CapFriendly shut down to the public on Wednesday. The Washington Capitals reached an agreement last month to purchase the site, which operated independently until the sale was officially confirmed on July 10.
THE PROVINCE: Patrick Johnston profiled PuckPedia and its creator Hart Levine. The site has been around since 2018 and has seen its traffic increase following the news of Cap Friendly’s sale.
The site does much of the same things as CapFriendly did. They relaunched its roster management tool last week. It also contains some things Cap Friendly lacked, like listing player agents and providing a pick-value calculator.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: CapFriendly was an invaluable tool for tracking team and player salary information. They were also helpful with any salary-cap questions I raised with them. I wish them the best of luck with their future endeavors.
I’ve linked to PuckPedia on my Rumors page for over two years, providing team and player links. They have done an excellent job compiling salary-cap information and fine-tuning their site. I highly recommend it as a reliable source.
The CapFriendly purchase still baffles me. I’ve read that many NHL teams and execs used it. That is crazy. They didn’t have their own cap guys on staff already? Relying on a website build for fans and fantasy sports to run your ACTUAL NHL team is just plain nuts.
Anyone know what the Capitals paid for it? I’d love to know what they are doing with the website/data now that it’s “all theirs”.
Maybe they just wanted to buy it so nobody could see the cap hit that PLD carries for the next decade đ
From what I understand, they hired the expertise of the individuals who designed the many facets of CapFriendly to work for them – likely at a significant raise from what they were earning running the site.
Foleyd7, they didn’t use cap friendly to run their own teams, they used to see where other teams were at.
They understand exactly where they are at internally.
@ Ray Bark, but buy buying CapFriendly, the Capitals didn’t take all this information away from other teams. The information is still out there and available on other sites already.
The reporting I read is that their interface/software was superior.
Whatever that means.
Goodbye CapFriendly … Hello PuckPedia
Nice article in this morning’s Ottawa Sun detailing the transition … which should be flawless … and the authorities at PuckPedia are, at this writing, still tweaking the features of their site
https://ottawasun.com/sports/hockey/nhl/vancouver-canucks/goodbye-capfriendly-hello-puckpedia-nhl-fan-cap-tracking-carries-on
It’s the same one I cited in The Province, George.
Yeah, sorry Lyle. I realized that a split second after I hit “send”
I figured Ryan Suter would be the first to go from among the remaining UFAs. Good signing by the Blues. He’s durable and reliable and will help their D in many ways. I wish Ottawa had signed him instead of hanging onto Hamonic.
Honestly I almost rather Barrie to Hamonic but who knows what will happen this upcoming season?
An other Old d/man for the Blues…?
They tried to move out some old guys last season with no luck,
Now the Blues 31, 32, 33, & 33, 34, and a 39 year old in the top 7…âď¸
Where is the GM going with this crew of old guys the blues are assembling
Lets be honest, the Blues really dont have any young defensemen ready to take a full time role, besides Kessel.
However the Blues now have 9 defensemen on 1 way deals and another 9 defensemen on 2 way deals that should be in the AHL this season.
Gotta wonder if Army is going to “Pay” someone to take Krug, ala the Kevin Hayes Deal.
Re the Blues
the Blues must be working on a d/man trade
now they have 9 d/men on one way contracts
They need to add fire power up front no more d/men
more than likly missing the playoffs again for the 2025 season
Utha making the playoffs for 2025…â
The blues missing out along with the
L.A. kings missing out…â
They are beginning to look like the Pittsburgh Penguins! They have been trying to get rid of Scandella and Krug the last 2 years ! Why sign Suter?
Youâre being too kind Lyle. The NHL is not in denial about CTE. Theyâre being deliberately dishonest. There will eventually be a reckoning.
Interesting to note that several of the players mentioned were certainly not known as overly physical players.
They were all on the receiving end of the hits, The helmets these guys where now are a joke. Hell they don’t even stay on their heads. The NHL will end up like the NFL having to pay big $$. They should be smarter and get ahead of this instead of continuing to deny. The đ¤Ąs that run this league continue to amaze me.
And to add insult to injury Bettman will no longer be the Commissioner by then, and will have been inducted into the Hall of Fame accompanied by purple prose.
Greg Johnson cte….. meanwhile video clips of Matt Rempe taking on ice fighting lesson from George Laraque spread on the internet.
Yes hockey is a physical sport, is it time to move away from fighting?
A couple years back the sentiment was the Nhl didn’t have to remove fighting because it was slowly disappearing on its own. I don’t know the numbers since that time.
When you see hype video of Matt Kempe taking fighting lesson, doesn’t seem like fighting is going away on its own.
It’s one of the reasons I just do NOT like Rempe. I will always accept that fighting is a part of the game and can and will happen when tempers flare… but this guy sees himself as Rocky on skates and wants the attention that WWE actors get and so far he’s getting it.
The more attention Rempe gets, the more he elevates and escalates his fighter persona… I can easily see him being a guy who does MAJOR damage one day.
Just play hockey guys… physical with some random sparked fights… but let’s not make fighting so glorified that marginal players like Rempe became so famous…
Could not agree more!
Donât players have some sort of clause in their contract that will excuse or prevent fault to the team of any bodily harm that a player might incur due to playing?
What can or needs to be done regarding protecting players so they donât end up with CTE? Whoâs to say the beginnings of damage may already happened to when their brain was still developing since we know theyâve been playing since childhood?
If anything, Iâd like to see the NHL take a more proactive role in this and help solve the issue rather than look to defend themselves from people who want immediate justice or answers/solutions.
Carl Hagelin, wish him the best! Enjoyed watching him over the years!! Could really skate: Washington, Pittsburgh, Rangers. Where else? Good hockey player!………
Cogliano and Francouz involved with the Avalanche, that’s good but the team needs to be tougher mentally, I don’t think they are? And Bednar is a really good coach. The ” Big 3″ need to set the example on that team and be more defensively responsible!!!!
I see where Tampa just gave J. J. Moser – obtained from Arizona/Utah in that Sergachyev trade – a 2-year $6.75 mil deal.