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New York Times
4 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Blues fan survey: Contracts for Holloway, Broberg? Trade Kyrou? Sign Marner? Offseason priorities?
Now that I've given out report cards for the St. Louis Blues' players, coaches and management, and answered your questions in Part 1 and Part 2 of an early-offseason mailbag, it's your turn to weigh in on the team. Every offseason, The Athletic offers Blues fans an opportunity to take a survey, answering pertinent questions about their overall opinion of the team and what moves it should make in the summer. Advertisement As usual, there are some juicy topics this offseason, including how much the Blues should pay to re-sign Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg and whether they should explore the idea of trading Jordan Kyrou. Of course, there's always a question or two about confidence levels in coaching, management and ownership. Here's your chance to make your voice heard with our 20-question survey. (Note: If you have any problems loading or filling out the survey below, you can access it directly by clicking here. Loading… (Top photo of Robert Thomas, Cam Fowler, Jordan Kyrou and Dylan Holloway: Jeff Le / Imagn Images)
New York Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Rangers mailbag, Part 2: Offer-sheet situations? The next captain? Mike Sullivan's system?
By signing the Edmonton Oilers' Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway to offer sheets in 2024, Doug Armstrong didn't just make the St. Louis Blues a much better team. He also created one of the biggest summer 2025 storylines: whether offer sheets will become a more prevalent tool for general managers. We'll see if there's an uptick in teams poaching other clubs' restricted free agents, but you all certainly had questions about how it might pertain to the Rangers. I dig into that — plus more! — in Part 2 of this early-summer mailbag. Note: Some questions have been lightly edited for clarity and length. Which restricted free agents could the Rangers offer? — Doug V. It's hard to see the Rangers giving other teams' restricted free agents offer sheets, for a couple of reasons. For one, for a team to successfully acquire a player via offer sheet, it often has to pay higher-than-market rates to dissuade the player's original team from matching. Broberg, for example, had played only 81 regular-season games when St. Louis offered him a $4.58 million average annual value deal. Unless the Rangers move multiple roster players, they don't have the cap flexibility to throw the money around required to snag any of the more appealing RFAs. That's in part because New York has to worry about its own restricted free agents, with Will Cuylle and K'Andre Miller due big raises. Advertisement The Rangers also might not have the draft picks necessary to sign a player to an offer sheet. New York doesn't have its own 2026 second-round pick — required to sign an RFA for a $2.34 million-$4.68 million average annual value deal — because of the Patrik Nemeth salary-shedding deal, and it might not have its 2026 first-round pick, either. That first plus a 2026 third would be required to sign an RFA for between $4.68 million and $7.02 million AAV. Because of the J.T. Miller trade, the Rangers have a choice of whether to send the No. 12 pick in this year's NHL Draft (via the Vancouver Canucks) or their 2026 first to the Pittsburgh Penguins to complete the deal. We'll see if offer sheets are more prevalent league-wide this summer. Broberg's and Holloway's success in St. Louis might make general managers more inclined to try it. New York just isn't in a position to be one of the teams to pull it off. Are the Rangers intending to re-sign Cuylle before July 1 to pre-empt any possible offer sheets from other teams? How high or low do you think they'll go beyond the AFP projections? — Torsten S. Handling Cuylle's contract sooner rather than later would probably be a wise play by general manager Chris Drury. As you said, that would give him protection over the offer-sheet possibility. AFP Analytics projects Cuylle to get a three-year, $3.43 million AAV deal. Cuylle does not have arbitration rights, so he does not have much leverage unless another team comes in with an offer sheet. That could allow the Rangers to snag him for a bit less than the AFP Analytics projection, especially if it's a two-year bridge deal. But if Drury wants to get a long-term contract done with Cuylle, he'll have to pony up significantly more than the $3.43 million a year. That might be tricky given New York's tight cap situation. If Drury doesn't get a deal done with Cuylle before free agency, then uses up a good chunk of his cap space on signings and trade acquisitions, he could find himself in a hairy situation. A team could swoop in and offer Cuylle $4.67 million, just below the threshold that requires a first-round pick, which the Rangers would have a difficult time matching. That's how the situation in Edmonton unfolded when it lost Broberg and Holloway. Advertisement Even if an offer sheet is unlikely — and league history says it is — the smartest play for New York is to get Cuylle signed before opening the possibility. Suppose K'Andre Miller and Cuylle get offer sheets at slightly above-market numbers. What would those numbers look like? What would the return be? Which, if either or both, would you expect the Rangers to match? — Stuart P. I have a hard time seeing both players receiving offer sheets, which as of now come pretty rarely. Clubs typically don't do them unless they think there's a legitimate chance they'll result in getting a player. But let's play along with the question. As I mentioned, Cuylle's projection is a three-year, $3.43 million AAV deal. If a team offered him $4.67 million per year, it would only have to give a second-round pick to the Rangers, not a first. I'd expect the Rangers would find a way to match — they'd be wise to, at least — even if it limited some of their cap flexibility. Now, a team could dramatically overpay for Cuylle, as the Carolina Hurricanes did with Jesperi Kotkaniemi in 2021 when they signed the Montreal Canadiens RFA to a one-year, $6.1 million deal. If a team went that route with Cuylle, New York would have much more to think about. It would get a first- and third-round pick back and would not have to struggle to fit that large of a cap hit onto its books. AFP gives two projections for Miller: a one-year, $4.65 million deal if it's short-term or a six-year, $6.03 million AAV deal if it's long-term. If a team offered above-market value, it would likely fall into the first- and third-round pick range ($4.68 million-$7.02 million). If the Rangers were to consider letting Miller walk should he sign an offer sheet, they'd need to be confident they could get an upgrade at defense with the added cap flexibility, perhaps by using the acquired first-round pick in a trade. That's far from a guarantee. What kind of defensive and offensive systems does Mike Sullivan prefer to run? — Steven B. For this question, I turned to colleague Josh Yohe, who covered Sullivan throughout his entire tenure in Pittsburgh. Advertisement 'His system isn't anything especially unique,' Yohe said. 'He loves to activate defensemen, which was great when (Kris) Letang was good, not so much now that he isn't. The big key to his system is having wingers who can skate. They were at their best when they had people like (Carl) Hagelin, (Bryan) Rust and (Conor) Sheary on three different lines. That forecheck pressure from wingers who can fly is everything to his system.' Yohe added that it's not a passive system and relies on heavy pressure and heavy puck pursuit. Forwards need to be able to rotate back and help defensively. New York was not a strong forechecking team in 2024-25. Whether that was because of coaching or personnel will be worth monitoring this coming season. Who should the Rangers' next captain be? Is that player on the roster? — Gunnar S. Sullivan said in his opening news conference that he was impressed with the leadership on the roster in his initial conversations with players and that he and Drury will discuss whether to fill the captaincy. If New York decides to have a captain, the three most likely candidates seem to be Vincent Trocheck, Adam Fox or T.J. Miller. Trocheck took over some of the leadership duties after Drury traded captain Jacob Trouba midseason. He's also someone Drury signed, which is notable when evaluating who he trusts to make the next captain. Miller could be the choice for similar reasons. He's the biggest player Drury has acquired and fits into the identity of the team he wants to build. Miller had a rift with teammate Elias Pettersson in Vancouver that became public, but when asked directly whether that caused concerns, Drury said he wouldn't have made the trade if he wasn't comfortable. Fox, meanwhile, is under contract long term and is consistently one of the team's top players. He would make sense if the team wants to ensure its next captain will be with it for a long time. Now that the lottery is done, have there been any indications on what Drury might do with the No. 12 pick? People seem to feel like 2026 will be a better draft, but I'm not convinced the Rangers believe they will be picking in the lottery zone again (spots 20-32 in the draft don't tend to drastically change in quality year over year), and telegraphing to the team that they think this is a real possibility feels counterproductive as well. — Reed L. I wanted to ask Drury about this at Sullivan's opening news conference, but the Rangers limited the number of questions before ending the presser, so I didn't get the chance. Advertisement I'd keep the No. 12 pick and trust that the team will be better under Sullivan. Part of my rationale is similar to what you posited, Reed, about the strength of the draft classes. '(The 2026 draft) is a stronger draft at the top,' Scott Wheeler, one of The Athletic's prospect gurus, said. 'I think talk of it being a significantly deeper draft overall has gotten carried away.' New York will have a better chance of getting an impact player at No. 12 than in the low-20s in 2026. If the Rangers don't believe they'll be picking near the top in 2026, they ought to use the pick this year and get a player into their prospect pool a year earlier. That strategy comes with risk. If the Rangers bottom out in 2025-26, the pick going to Pittsburgh could end up being pretty high. Who do you think suits up as Fox's primary partner? — Zach V. Let's go through the candidates one by one. • K'Andre Miller: Miller and Fox had elite underlying numbers with each other in 2024-25. The issue New York runs into is that if they're together, the second pair might become a weakness. • Carson Soucy: Fox played with Soucy at points after New York acquired him at the trade deadline. Soucy, though, has been most successful in his career when in a bottom-four role. Counting on him to be a top-pair defenseman feels like a risk. • Braden Schneider: Schneider showed he can play on the left in 2024-25. New York could use him in that role with Fox, but it would lead to playing tougher minutes than he has previously in his career. • Shop elsewhere: The Rangers could look to the free-agent or trade markets, but they'd probably have to trade significant players to have cap space for an upgrade. We'll see how Sullivan handles it. I'd be inclined to give Miller an extended look with Fox, then see if Schneider can play shut-down minutes on the left side with Will Borgen. If he can't or looks like he'd be better used on the right, then Sullivan can tinker with the pairs a bit.
Reuters
03-05-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Blues ride 4-goal second period to Game 6 win over Jets
May 3 - Philip Broberg and Alexey Toropchenko each had a goal and an assist to help the St. Louis Blues stay alive in their Western Conference first-round series with a 5-2 victory over the visiting Winnipeg Jets in Game 6 on Friday night. Game 7 is on Sunday evening in Winnipeg. Nathan Walker, Brayden Schenn and Cam Fowler also scored and Jordan Binnington made 21 saves for the Blues, who scored four straight goals in a 5:23 span of the second period to pull away. Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck, the front-runner for the Vezina Trophy this season, did not finish his third straight game in St. Louis. He stopped just 18 of 23 shots before he was replaced at the start of the third period by Eric Comrie, who stopped all four shots he faced. Cole Perfetti and Nino Niederreiter scored power-play goals for the Jets, who were outscored 17-5 in the three losses in St. Louis in the series. The Blues scored on their first shot of the game, a one-timer by Broberg from the high slot for a 1-0 lead at 6:05 of the first period. After getting outshot 8-2 in the first period, the Jets appeared to score 26 seconds into the second period during a delayed penalty, but the Blues successfully challenged for offsides. St. Louis killed the penalty, but the Jets went back on a power play and Perfetti chipped in a loose puck in the crease 12 seconds into the man-advantage to tie it 1-1 at 5:43. Walker started the scoring barrage off a feed from below the goal line by Broberg to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead at 11:34. Schenn scored 53 seconds later with a wrist shot from just above the right circle to make it 3-1. Fowler notched his 10th point of the series when the defenseman scored on a wrist shot through traffic from above the circles for a 4-1 lead at 13:40. Toropchenko stretched it to 5-1 at 16:57 with a wrist shot from just above the right hash marks. Niederreiter scored a rebound on Winnipeg's fourth power play to cut it to 5-2 at 8:54 of the third period. Blues forward Robert Thomas was called for high sticking with four minutes left and the Jets pulled Comrie for a 6-on-4, but were turned away. Winnipeg played without center Mark Scheifele, who was injured in the first period of Game 5. Scheifele was second on the Jets in goals (37) and points (87) during the regular season.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Blues Defensive Duo Has Played Spotless Against Jets
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Defending in the Stanley Cup playoffs in this Western Conference First Round series for St. Louis Blues defensemen Justin Faulk and Philip Broberg has become an art.
New York Times
26-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
How Oilers' playoff run may dictate future of organization's younger players
The Edmonton Oilers are running a veteran crew in the 2025 playoffs, typical for a team designed to go all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. The organization offloaded several players who had been drafted and developed in the system last summer. For fans who believe in building through draft and development, this edition of the Oilers is an outlier compared to previous incarnations of the club. Advertisement Based on management vision and cap constraints, we could see another cull of younger Oilers again this offseason. The playoff roster has changed much in just one year. How much? The reduction (by four players) of former Bakersfield Condors on the playoff roster this season is the biggest change. The four drafted Oilers from a year ago that are no longer on the roster: Philip Broberg, Dylan Holloway, Vincent Desharnais and Ryan McLeod. That's a lot of youth and speed. The offer sheets to Broberg and Holloway from the St. Louis Blues were not anticipated by management, but the trading of McLeod and the choice to walk Desharnais were choices made. Much of the movement since has been trades (Vasily Podkolzin, Ty Emberson, Trent Frederic, Jake Walman) under new general manager Stan Bowman. The team has acquired players via free agency during the regular season, with John Klingberg being the most notable. Players like Kasperi Kapanen (waiver claim) and Max Jones (trade) have yet to play in the postseason, so they're not among the numbers above. The Oilers are in the middle of the first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Kings, but the business of next year's team is in full swing. Bowman's moves over the regular season may give us some insight into his preference in building a roster. His predecessor, Ken Holland, was one of the most devoted GMs in the game's history when it came to building through free agency. Bowman's time with the Chicago Blackhawks included plenty of free-agent activity, but much of it came from signing European and college free agents. Oilers fans have already seen Bowman act in this area over the last few months. Names like David Tomasek, Quinn Hutson, Josh Samanski and Atro Leppänen may not be familiar to Oilers fans now, but all four players are scheduled to be in training camp this fall and will play in the NHL or AHL (or both) in 2025-26. Advertisement Holland signed European free agents (Gaetan Haas, Joakim Nygard) who played for the Oilers during his time with the team, but Bowman's signings (specifically Tomasek and Leppänen) are more promising based on math, scouting reports and wider interest from other NHL teams. It's possible the Oilers land in the 2026 playoffs with just as many free agents as this season. Some of those names could be value contracts from European and college clubs. The previous management has boxed Bowman in with so many no-movement clauses on contracts. There are currently nine contracts for next season that include at least some trade protection for the player. That may mean some unusual moves over the summer. If Bowman decides to upgrade (fans are hopeful goaltending and defence are addressed), there may be more exits from the 'draft and development' group that came through the AHL Bakersfield Condors in previous seasons. Specifically, Evan Bouchard and Stuart Skinner could be used as trade assets in order to acquire an upgrade in goal (Jeremy Swayman of the Boston Bruins, if available) or on defence (Noah Dobson of the New York Islanders, should the management team decide to make changes). Much of what happens this coming summer will be dictated by how well the Oilers do in the postseason. Fan anxiety after the first two games against the Kings was so high that the online comments and texts to radio stations included all manner of doomsday scenarios. Bowman must look past all of the noise and make the best decision for the organization. One reality both fans and management must face: The current heart of this team has been together for several years. It's possible the appearance in 2024's Stanley Cup Final represents the absolute best of what this roster can deliver. If the team has a false spring, it would indicate that change is needed. Advertisement The AHL team has produced quality talent again this season, with several players more than capable of stepping in to a role for the club during this playoff run. Some of that talent can be found in the official roster report for each playoff game. Goaltender Olivier Rodrigue and defenceman Cam Dineen are among the healthy scratches for games against the Kings. Both could be called in to action if the need arises. The most promising Condors this season were: Both men should be in the plans for the 2025-26 Oilers season. In recent years, the Condors' highest production of graduating players took place in the early months after Jay Woodcroft was promoted from Bakersfield to become Edmonton's head coach. Broberg, McLeod, Holloway and Desharnais were among the Condors who found their way under Woodcroft in the AHL and then the NHL. Bouchard and Stuart Skinner were developed in the AHL with Woodcroft as their coach, and arrived in the NHL before he made his way to Edmonton. The Oilers will graduate Beau Akey from junior this fall, but it will be another year before Sam O'Reilly (the only first-round pick among the team's prospects) arrives in the AHL. The 'infinibuild' that began the day Chris Pronger was traded took one decade (and drafting McDavid) to kick in to a higher gear. Making Bakersfield the home of a strong Condors prospect pool that serves as a feeder for the NHL team will take less than 10 years, but there is work to do. Bowman's summer will be guided by the performance of these Oilers on the ice in the days to come. The path for this organization is less clear than it has been in 20 years. Stay tuned. (Photo of Stuart Skinner: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Imagn Images)
