SB Nation - Mattias Karlsson

The AHL all-rookie team

James Mirtle — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:11:29 -0000

The No. 1 reason I follow what's happening in the AHL is to see how up-and-coming prospects are faring. There's basically a direct link between how well players produce and play in the minors to how they'll do in the NHL.

The AHL announced its all-rookie team today, which is a good place to start if you're looking for NHL players of the future. Mattias Karlsson seems a lock to start in Ottawa next year, for one:

2008-09 AHL All-Rookie Team
Goal: Nathan Lawson, Bridgeport Sound Tigers (30gp, 18-9-2, 2.13gaa, .929sv%)
Defence: Mattias Karlsson, Binghamton Senators (67gp, 8+41=49pts.)
Defence: Yannick Weber, Hamilton Bulldogs (66gp, 14+27=41pts.)
Forward: Justin Abdelkader, Grand Rapids Griffins (71gp, 22+27=49pts.)
Forward: Nathan Gerbe, Portland Pirates (50gp, 26+24=50pts.)
Forward: Tim Kennedy, Portland Pirates (66gp, 16+43=59pts.)

A few of these guys saw time in the NHL this season, but none made a major impact.

Lawson's the oldest of the bunch at 25, and one of the more interesting stories. He played in the AJHL in Alberta two years before going undrafted and heading to Alaska-Anchorage of the NCAA for three more. He played exclusively in the ECHL last year, but has sparkling numbers for the Baby Isles after they ran through a bunch of their minor-league goalies.

Abdelkader and Kennedy, meanwhile, starred together for Michigan State. Abdelkader's one of Detroit's latest recruits, while Kennedy's in the Sabres system after originally being drafted by Washington. The Caps traded him for a sixth-rounder a month after drafting him.

Gerbe's the guy I'm rooting for. Anyone that's 5-foot-5 who makes an impact in pro hockey has my respect.

Senators deadline recap: Not much rebuilding

PeterR — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:22:55 -0000

Going into the deadline, there were no less than four players that Bryan Murray was expected to trade or waive in exchange for prospects and draft picks. One of those five--Martin Gerber--was picked up by the Maple Leafs on waivers, while another--Filip Kuba--was re-signed by the Senators to a three-year, $11.1M contract. Here's the day, in a nutshell:

In: Pascal Leclaire, 2nd round pick (CLB)
Out: Antoine Vermette (CLB), Martin Gerber (TOR)
Re-signed: Filip Kuba (3 yrs, $11.1M)

The biggest deal, however, was a trade with someone who wsan't actively shopped by the Senators, but was still valuable: The Columbus Blue Jackets traded goaltender Pascal Leclaire to Ottawa along with a second-round pick for Antoine Vermette (recap here).

Analysts on TSN suggested that the acquisition of Leclaire was a great move for Bryan Murray, although injuries will likely keep him out for the rest of this season. Although Leclaire comes with a $3.8M cap hit for the next two seasons, it will be a bargain if he regains the form he had in 2007-08. It costs Ottawa Vermette, who has long been an important part of the Senators' offensive depth, but hasn't yet reached the goal-scoring form that has long been expected of him. Impossible to know at the moment, but the Senators also receive a second-round pick from Columbus, which will help re-establish depth in the prospect system.

Toronto hadn't been mentioned as interested in Gerber until yesterday, and even then I had hardly believed it. It will not really do anything for the salary cap, given that Gerber was in the AHL anyway, but it will save owner Eugene Melnyk a few hundred thousand dollars.

The Kuba signing was unexpected. Still, Kuba has been one of very few bright spots on the Senators roster this season, and he made it well-known that he wanted to stay in Ottawa--he even put his money where his mouth was, leaving what could very well be up to $2.4M on a three-year deal in the off-season to stay with the Senators. (His contract reportedly also includes a no-trade clause.) In my opinion, Kuba has had a free pass this season, because most fans and analysts have seen him as a one-year experiment who was far from the Sens' biggest problem. Along with this larger commitment will come more scrutiny.

With Kuba, the Senators retain a puck-moving defenceman, albeit a middling one. They now have four highly-paid 3-4 defencemen on the payroll, and most would argue no number one defenceman:

Filip Kuba: $3.7M
Chris Phillips: $3.5M
Jason Smith: $2.6M
Anton Volchenkov: $2.5M

That's a log-jam, particularly with Brian Lee, Alex Picard, and Chris Campoli also on contract for next season, and prospects Mattias Karlsson and Erik Karlsson looking to take the next step in their development. Some move will likely have to take place to clear that up.

In terms of 'rebuilding', this may be a disappointing deadline day for the Senators. The expectation was that a few of the players on expiring contracts--including Kuba, Chris Neil, and possibly Mike Comrie, as well as Christoph Schubert--would be swapped for promising prospects and high draft picks, but that didn't happen. Comrie was neither traded nor re-signed (yet), but there is plenty of time for an extension to be worked out with him. The Senators, in fact, only received one draft pick, that one that came with Leclaire.

Overall, in my opinion, it's been a confusing day for Senators fans. We went in expecting--perhaps unfairly--more moves and more pieces coming back, but those simply didn't happen. Still, with some d-corps re-jigging in the off-season, and the acquisition of Leclaire, this day could have put some pieces together towards a quick rebuild for this Senators team.

Poll

How did the Senators do on trade deadline day?

Very well

7 votes

Well, considering the trade climate

24 votes

I'm reserving judgement

22 votes

They're no better off

9 votes

Not very well, but okay

11 votes

Terribly

9 votes

82 votes | Poll has closed

Senators extend Kuba 3 years, $3.7M

PeterR — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:29:43 -0000

Filip Kuba

#17 / Defenseman / Ottawa Senators

Height: 6-5

Weight: 225

Born: Dec 29, 1976

TSN is reporting that the Ottawa Senators have re-signed defenceman Filip Kuba to a 3-year, $3.7M per contract extension. It's a hefty raise from his $3M salary this season, but far below the $4.5M that he was apparently looking for.

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Filip Kuba	54	2	27	29	8	24	2	0	0	0	91	2.2

Kuba has been the Senators' best defenceman this season, but--realistically--that hasn't been too difficult. Still, the Senators have been looking for a puck-moving defenceman, and Kuba has been a half-decent fill-in while Ottawa looked for an elite player.

It is unclear how the Senators' defence corps will move forward at this point. All of Kuba, Chris Phillips, Anton Volchenkov, Jason Smith, Alex Picard, and Chris Campoli have one-way NHL contracts at a sum total of just over $14.2M, and Brian Lee, Mattias Karlsson, and Erik Karlsson may be looking for a spot on the Senators' d-corps. There still may be a trade to clear that log-jam before the NHL trade deadline, but right now there's quite a bit of traffic.

To be honest, this is a surprising move. In anticipation of a reducing salary cap, a three-year deal of this amount to Kuba, combined with the expensive long-term deals Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley, Daniel Alfredsson, Mike Fisher, and now Pascal Leclaire have, the Senators will almost certainly be in cap trouble within the next couple of years. Kuba was also seen as one of the Senators' most valuable assets in building towards the future, and was expected to bring in a first-round pick--and possibly a prospect or another pick on top of that.

As good as Kuba has been this season, he hasn't been a number one defenceman, but now he's being paid like one. And the Senators have little to no cap room to sign a true number one defenceman now. Unless Campoli turns out to be the number-one puck-mover GM Bryan Murray expects him to be, or Kuba can really step up his play, this may not be the right move for the Senators at this point in time.

EDIT: Rumours suggest that Kuba's contract includes a no-trade clause. Although Kuba has been willing to waive similar clauses in the past, it seems that a team with as many long-term contracts as the Senators would like as much trading flexibility as possible moving forward.

The AHL all-stars: Two Girouxes, Rory and a Brodeur

James Mirtle — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:15:07 -0000

The AHL also announced its all-star teams this week, and they give you a decent idea of who some of the top talent is in the NHL's minor league:

Team Canada

Forwards	Defensemen	Goaltenders
Steve Downie, Nor	x-Johnny Boychuk, Pro	Mike Brodeur, Roch
x-Alexandre Giroux, Her	Kyle Cumiskey, LE	Barry Brust, Hou
x-Claude Giroux, Phi	Cody Franson, Milw	x-Brian Elliott, Bing
Mike Iggulden, Bri	Bryan Helmer, Her ("C")
Jason Krog, Man	x-Derek Joslin, Wor
Corey Locke, Hou	Andrew MacDonald, Bri
Brett MacLean, SA	Brett Palin, QC
Mark Mancari, Por	Danny Syvret, Phi
x-Chris Minard, W-B/Scr
Cal O'Reilly, Milw
Teddy Purcell, Man
Martin St. Pierre, Pro
Mike Santorelli, Milw		x-starters

The tough thing about these all-star games is that, not only do you have to hope no one gets injured, but there's also the problem of call ups to consider. Claude Giroux just torched the AHL in his first pro season with 17 goals in 31 games and is now up with the Flyers, perhaps permanently given their injury woes.

At least they don't have to worry about Captain Helmer missing the game. (Great character guy. Was good to see him get some time in the NHL with the Caps as part of his swan song.)

Three Milwaukee players here, all Nashville picks in the midrounds. Franson's a great example of the depth the Predators have on defence now; he's only 21, big and skilled and would be in the NHL with most franchises. (Not bad for a third rounder.)

Purcell looks like a really good NHLer, someone we'll see play a role with the Kings when they're climbing the standings a year or two from now. He probably misses this game, too.

Boychuk leads AHL defencemen in scoring for the Baby Bruins, and I bet the Avs are kicking themselves for dumping him this summer.

And looking at the goalies, I wonder if the Sens will give Elliott a shot in goal if Gerber and Auld continue to struggle. (And in case you're wondering, Mike Brodeur is a distant cousin of Marty. He started the season in the ECHL and has been very good for Rochester in a dozen games so far.)

Team PlanetUSA

Forwards	Defensemen	Goaltenders
Keith Aucoin, Her	Rory Fitzpatrick, Roch ("C")	Jeff Frazee, Low
x-Chris Bourque, Her	Jonas Junland, Peo	Daniel Larsson, GR
x-Nikita Filatov, Syr	Mattias Karlsson, Bing	x-Cory Schneider, Man
x-Nathan Gerbe, Port	x-Jakub Kindl, Gr. Rapids
Martins Karsums, Pro	Ben Lovejoy, W-B/Scr
Tim Kennedy, Port	Bobby Sanguinetti, Hart
Petri Kontiola, Rock	Jaime Sifers, Tor
Drew Miller, Iowa	x-Yannick Weber, Ham
Joe Motzko, Chicago
Michael Ryan, Albany
Ryan Potulny, Spr
Jeff Taffe, W-B/Scr
Ryan Vesce, Wor		x-starters

Vote for Rory paid off! The plucky defenceman gets the captain's 'C' while playing for his hometown Americans despite having a pretty pedestrian season so far.

Aucoin's another veteran worth pointing out: a 5-foot-9 30-year-old playing for one of the best teams in the league, he leads the AHL in scoring by a mile with 48 points in 34 games despite missing some time while playing three games with the Capitals in the NHL.

Filatov's with Columbus at the moment, so his participation's in doubt.

Karsums is a talented young Latvian who I saw at the world juniors quite a bit when they rolled through B.C. two years ago. He's eighth in league scoring and should see time with the big-league Bruins in the near future.

Weber looks like another good one for the Habs, too, who also have P.K. Subban on the way on the blueline.

Kindl... don't tell me you're suprised the Red Wings have another European stud coming on the blueline.

Speaking of Detroit and potential gems, so much for Jimmy Howard as the goalie of the future: Sweden's Danny Larsson has outplayed him by a mile and makes the team here. He was a late third-round pick in 2006.

I know there are some readers who see a lot more AHL hockey than I do; let me know what you think of the teams and some of the players' play to date.