The Washington Capitals have inked another contract extension with a player not named Alex Ovechkin.
Wednesday, the Capitals re-signed Conor Sheary to a two-year, $3 million deal worth $1.5M per season.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the deal.
Without the pandemic, Connor McMichael would have likely spent the entire 2020-21 season in the OHL with the London Knights. Instead, the OHL season never began and Connor has played games with both the Washington Capitals and the AHL Hershey Bears.
Teenage hockey players that play junior hockey in Canada are subject to the CHL Transfer Agreement with the NHL. Players drafted by an NHL team usually cannot play for an AHL team until their age 20 season. The prospects must either be on an NHL roster or play with their Canadian junior team. That has put Connor in a weird spot.
The OHL is trying to get permission from the Canadian government to play an abbreviated season. If the league starts up again, Connor would be forced to return to the OHL according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
If it were up to Connor though, he would stay in Hershey.
Tom Wilson was suspended seven games by the NHL after delivering a hit to Brandon Carlo Friday that sent the Boston Bruins defenseman out of the game and to the hospital. The hit went unpenalized by officials on the ice but DoPS stepped in after the hit was heavily criticized by Bruins media and hockey fans on social media.
Alex Ovechkin said that the suspension was a joke. “On the ice, even the ref said like ‘it’s not two minutes. It’s a [clean] hit.'”
Peter Laviolette said that the decision opened up a Pandora’s Box that any hit that is legal but “forceful and impactful to the player that has the puck” could be suspendible. TSN’s Frank Seravalli noted that the suspension was precedent-shattering and is the first time a player has suspended a player for boarding “on a hit that wasn’t from behind.”
It appears the NHL world largely agrees with the Capitals. Tuesday, while talking about the Wilson hit on the 31 Thoughts Podcast, Elliotte Friedman shared what he heard on the inside about Wilson’s hit.
New Pittsburgh Penguins GM Ron Hextall and President of Hockey Operations Brian Burke made their first significant roster move on Wednesday. The executive duo claimed right-handed defenseman Mark Friedman on waivers from the Philadelphia Flyers.
The pickup was massively talked about on Hockey Twitter, but not for the reason you might think.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (no relation) reported the news on the social media site, but he didn’t include Friedman’s first name in the tweet. So it read like this.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Chris Johnston spoke with David Amber to talk about the latest developments between the NHL and the NHLPA on Friday.
While Friedman repeated his earlier report that the players and the league are focusing on a 52-56 game regular season, he did share a a bit of new news. Friedman says the NHL is not expected to have any exhibition games before the start of the new season.
Johnston added that while the players and owners want to play in their home arenas, the league may be forced to begin the season in a bubble or hubs due to the coronavirus pandemic.
By Ian Oland 4 months ago
The NHL and NHLPA have been cranky with each other over the last week and there have been some concerning headlines such as Gary Bettman says NHL not trying to back out of CBA and NHLPA weighing options if NHL cancels season.
But on Friday, there were finally some “positive developments” — Elliotte Friedman’s words, not mine — on next season. According to Friedman, “it sounds like” the NHL’s Escrow Ask of the players is going away and many the details for next season have been settled.
Friedman made his comments to Sportsnet 590 The Fan on Friday morning.
By Ian Oland 4 months ago
According to reports, recently bought-out Henrik Lundqvist is set to sign a one-year deal with the Washington Capitals on Friday, the first day of free agency.
Capitals GM Brian MacLellan was asked about the rumors on Tuesday night after Round One of the NHL Draft concluded.
“We’re looking for a backup veteran goaltender,” MacLellan said on Tuesday. “He’s a really solid candidate for us.”
But it was what MacLellan did after he responded which really communicated everything you needed to know.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman ended a Hockey Central segment with a bit of a bombshell, at least in these parts, about Henrik Lundqvist.
Lundqvist, 38, was recently bought out of the final year of his contract by the New York Rangers earlier this week. It’s unclear what’s next for the future Hall of Fame goaltender, but if Hank chooses to play another year in the NHL, the Capitals could be his landing spot.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman delivered some more bite-sized nuggets of Capitals analysis on his 31 Thoughts podcast along with Jeff Marek.
Friedman elaborated on his report from earlier in the week that the Capitals were trying to “move money” to bring back pending UFA Brenden Dillon.
One player that could possibly be out the door is bottom-six forward Richard Panik, who ended the season on the fourth line after he was expected to be a mainstay on the third.
The Washington Capitals are facing a salary-cap crunch this offseason. The team has six roster spots to fill and only $8.9 million to work with according to Cap Friendly and are already resigned to likely losing Braden Holtby.
One of the Capitals’ top targets this offseason is retaining trade deadline acquisition Brenden Dillon. The defenseman is coming off a five-year, $16.35 million deal ($3.27M AAV) he originally signed with the San Jose Sharks in June 2015.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman is reporting that the Capitals are willing to go to great lengths to keep Dillon on the team.
