NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – July 9, 2024
A look at the most interesting salary arbitration cases, the Capitals make a notable front-office change, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
SPORTSNET: Ryan Dixon looked at some of the more interesting potential salary arbitration cases worth watching. Fourteen players filed for arbitration by the July 5 deadline. There were no club-elected arbitration cases.
Carolina Hurricanes forward Martin Necas (NHL Images).
Topping the list is Carolina Hurricanes forward Martin Necas. The 25-year-old has featured prominently in the rumor mill as reports emerged about his unhappiness skating as a third-line winger. There’s also been a management change as Eric Tulsky took over as general manager from Don Waddell.
Other notable cases that could be worth monitoring include New York Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren, Buffalo Sabres starting goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Tampa Bay Lightning blueliner J.J. Moser, and Columbus Blue Jackets forward Kirill Marchenko.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Moser’s could be interesting because he was recently acquired from the Utah Hockey Club. The Lightning sees him as a replacement for Mikhail Sergachev, who was swapped for Moser, prospect center Conor Geekie, and two draft picks.
The Bolts won’t pay Moser as much as Sergachev ($8.5 million annually) but the 24-year-old Swiss blueliner will seek a significant raise coming off his entry-level contract.
Most of these cases are settled well before their scheduled arbitration hearings between July 20 and Aug. 4. Sometimes, one or two end up going before an arbitrator.
TSN: The Washington Capitals named Chris Patrick as their new general manager while long-time GM Brian MacLellan remains as president of hockey operations. Patrick, 48, has worked in various roles with the Capitals, spending the past three seasons as assistant GM.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The report indicates this follows a recent trend around the league where an established general manager moves upstairs and cedes day-to-day operations. MacLellan will still maintain oversight over any significant roster decisions. He’d served as GM since 2014 and helped them win their first Stanley Cup in 2018.
MacLellan improved the Capitals roster in recent weeks, swapping goalie Darcy Kuemper for center Pierre-Luc Dubois, acquiring defenseman Jakob Chychrun from the Ottawa Senators, winger Andrew Mangiapane from the Calgary Flames, and netminder Logan Thompson from the Vegas Golden Knights. He also signed top-four defenseman Matt Roy.
COLORADO HOCKEY NOW: Avalanche winger Valeri Nichushkin discussed the “Seattle Incident” during the 2023 playoffs with a Russian interviewer. His comments were made before he was placed in stage 3 of the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program on May 14 and suspended for six months.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Nichushkin left the Avalanche during their 2023 first-round series with the Seattle Kraken after a team doctor discovered an intoxicated woman in the winger’s Seattle hotel room, and called an ambulance to take her to a hospital. The club did not acknowledge the police report or indicate if Nichushkin was punished. The league indicated it was satisfied with how the situation was handled.
Nichushkin said he was receiving treatments for a shoulder injury at the time that required injections. He claimed he wasn’t scheduled to play for the remainder of the series against the Kraken, saying he hung out with some friends that night and then flew back to Denver. Nichushkin stated the girl in his hotel room had nothing to do with him. He also said the team told him not to comment about the incident at the time, something he now claims was a mistake.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: It remains to be seen if Nichushkin faces any repercussions for these comments.
TSN: The Utah Hockey Club re-signed forward Barrett Hayton to a two-year contract with an average annual value of $2.65 million.
PHILLY HOCKEY NOW: Former Flyers goaltender Carter Hart could sign with a KHL team. He is among five players charged in the 2018 Hockey Canada sexual assault case and is currently awaiting trial. The Flyers opted not to qualify Hart’s rights on July 1, making him an unrestricted free agent.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Former Calgary Flames winger Dillon Dube is among those five players. He signed a one-year contract with KHL club HC Dinamo Minsk. The report stated it’s unclear if extraneous circumstances allowed Dube to leave Canada before facing trial.
BUFFALO HOCKEY NOW: The Sabres signed 2024 first-round pick Konsta Helenius to a three-year entry-level contract. The 18-year-old center was chosen 14th overall.
KUKLA’S KORNER: The Dallas Stars entered into a seven-year agreement with A Parent Media Co. Inc. (APMC) to stream all their regional games free of charge. Starting this season, the games will be broadcast on the newly formed VICTORY+, a free direct-to-consumer streaming service created for fans by APMC with the Dallas Stars.
THE NEWS & OBSERVER: The Carolina Hurricanes named Doug Warf their new team president. He will oversee the club’s business operations and the operation of PNC Arena. He succeeds Don Waddell, who recently stepped down to join the Columbus Blue Jackets.
“extraneous circumstances” Means “we dont’ know anything” but clearly his charges don’t include a no-travel type ban. Nearly all of the court stuff has been done virtually and only lawyers have show up to in-person things. There are more hearings slated and I think fall is when the trial actually begins. Which, makes it curious that a couple of them are signing over sea deals to play in Europe. I wonder how confident they are after those players in the Q just got smacked pretty hard. I expect social media to fire up nicely around trial time. A lot of the details of that evening are well known to people in hockey circles.
Maybe Putin will press them into military service and ship them out to Ukraine.
its going to be difficult to assess guilt and punishment for all the fan boys who stood around and watched….or the other adjoining room of card players who heard and then left QUICK….but also did nothing. Those will be your witnesses. Stinky stuff.
Plus, you know the lawyers for the accused will be focusing on the poor victim’s “character” and digging up “proof” of past events.
Front-line service in Ukraine wouldn’t be punishment enough.
Speaking of which, I wonder what the general feeling is throughout families in Russia who see an endless parade of bodies of their young men coming back home for burial thanks to the dictator’s actions, while the “privileged” among the youth are exempt because they’re hockey players – in Russia and in North America.
Ah, the internet lynch mob.
If those charged are found guilty then they deserve a long jail sentence. The end of their hockey careers would be the cherry on top.
But you guys are talking here about unproven allegations. Trial by media and supposed facts “well known” to people in hockey circles hardly constitute proof, or justice.
So, ironically, correct, you don’t know anything. Unless of course you have been subpoenaed as a witness …
Just us LJ? What about the NHL? Last I heard those charged are persona non grata by the league.
Yes, they have a right to a trial and, if found innocent of the charges, will be reinstated. But let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.
Right now the legal authorities feel they have enough evidence to take several of them to trial. Somehow I doubt they would have taken that route if there was a shred of doubt.
I just feel sorry for the victim who, you can bet, will be painted as a willing slut by the defense lawyers. No one deserves that.
The players must feel they will be allowed to leave the country after the first hearings?
There may be no jail time but once the video of the girl in a towel standing here while a guy is telling her to say she agreed to everything wont go over well in court. it was on reddit
I don’t necessarily see how the presumption of innocence fits with an unpaid suspension either George. But the NHL isn’t on this site claiming inside knowledge, which is what drew my comments.
And in a long career as employer representative and lay counsel I have learned to never make judgements on hearing from one side.
I believe you mentioned that you were with Canadian Border services? I am sure you saw many things change midstream as well in your investigations.
All I am saying is let the testimonies and evidence come out and before findings are made. In a court of law, not on reddit for Pete’s sake.
LJ, I agree with your take that no one should “rush to judge” – and if you re-read my posts above, my view on what should happen to them is based upon their being found guilty of acting without her consent.
I also agree that none of us here know any pertinent details … but what we DO know is that some sort of “gang-bang” took place and, to that end, the victim’s past is going to be scoured to the bone to paint her as totally willing. If the jury doesn’t buy that – based on the evidence presented – and finds them guilty, they sure won’t re-surface in any league of which were aware.
But until then, again as I say elsewhere, they are – in our jurisprudence anyway – innocent until proven guilty. Except in the eyes of the NHL and the teams involved. And that IS, in effect, a rush to judgement.
As for my career, it was with the Enforcement program of the then Immigration Department (investigation, arrest, detention, removal). Since I retired, that aspect of Immigration was transferred to the newly-created Canada Border Services. I was never involved with them.
There is a difference between playing in the NHL and the criminal justice system.
In the criminal justice system we are talking about the government potentially taking away a persons freedom, so the bar is very high. As it should be. We should all be thankful for that. It also has to meet the letter/language of the law and if what they did violated that. With a unanimous decision by a jury of ordinary citizens.
Plenty of people break the law, and do things that 99% of the public will feel is ethically wrong, immoral, and are never charged or convicted because the evidence they can collect doesn’t support a conviction. Happens everyday all over the country. But it doesn’t change the fact that they did it. And yes, some folks are wrongly accused, and yes witnesses can lie. Which is why you almost always need more than one. It’s called corroboration. This case wouldn’t be going forward without it IMO.
The bar to bring charges is lower, but you can’t simply bring them without evidence. The reason the prosecution wins 90% of their cases isn’t because they are better lawyers, it is because they don’t bring cases they don’t think they can win. So they obviously have some.
I would bet $100 the NHL has much of the same evidence, as they did their own investigation. Hence these guys are not playing in the NHL this year.
To be fair, and to LJ’s point, we don’t know who did what, so not every player should be painted with the same brush. But we know some of the players did something you sure as hell wouldn’t want your son to do, and sure as hell wouldn’t want your daughter subjected to. Whether or not they are convicted doesn’t change that, unless it comes out in trial that this was all made up. I will be very, very surprised that is what happens.
Even if they aren’t convicted it doesn’t mean they are innocent of not doing something very wrong. They just didn’t meet the bar of losing their freedom. If they are exonerated, then innocent and wrongly accused.
I assume what happens in this trial will be part of the public record, so we will know soon enough.
If some players don’t ever play in the NHL again because of it, then that is on them and not anybody else. My guess is it will vary by player.
Why bother with a trial at all?
The legal authorities have the evidence without a shred of doubt.
I mean there’s no history of successful defence attorneys or overturned wrongful convictions.
LJ is bang on.
So, why are their NHL teams preventing them from playing anywhere in their system pending the trial? Are they, too, not “jumping to justice?”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/nhl-teams-aren-t-re-signing-players-accused-of-sexual-assault-during-their-canadian-world-junior-days-1.7251852
Wouldn’t be the first time a person was suspended pending investigation by an organization or company to avoid a perception of thumb on the scale nor would it be the first time that person was re-instated with full compensation when found innocent.
So, in the meantime, the NHL has chosen to switch “innocent until proven guilty” to “guilty until proven innocent” — but when anyone else in here leans that way in any shape or form, it’s tantamount to “Trial by media.” O-K
To George’s point the NHL has blacklisted these players, not Reddit. No keyboard warrior is keeping these guys from playing in the NHL.
An indication as to what some could face if found guilty
https://ottawasun.com/sports/hockey/former-quebec-junior-hockey-players-jailed-for-sex-assault-of-teen-at-hotel-in-2021/wcm/6bbec476-792e-467e-8f7d-81feec8e6f46
Just read recently that Quenville can go back to coaching in the NHL! Is this right! Absolutely not,those kids should be punished but like Coach Q will they eventually be allowed to play again,!