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Running through the NHL's free-agent signings from the World Championship

June 8, 2019, 2:31 PM ET [532 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Thanks for all your thoughts and feedback as I prepare to make my mock draft selection.

The first three picks have now been made: in order, Hughes, Kakko, Byram. Pick four won't be unveiled till Tuesday. So, since we have some time, I'll take a break from draft talk and look at some World Championship free-agent signings today.

My curiosity was triggered when I noticed this morning that Team Finland's gold medal-winning defenseman Oliwer Kaski was named to the Liiga All-Star Team for 2018-19. He's 23, he's a right shot, he was part of that lunchbucket Finnish team that completely stymied the Russians with their 1-0 win in the tournament semifinal—and he was 19-32-51 in 59 games in Finland last season, which tied him for sixth overall in league scoring. Pretty sweet numbers for a blueliner.

Turns out, Steve Yzerman thought so, too. The Detroit Red Wings already have Czech defenseman Filip Hronek in their system. Also a righty, drafted 53rd in 2016, the 21-year-old played 46 games with the Wings last season and absolutely crushed it at Worlds, finishing as the tournament's top-scoring blueliner with 3-8-11 in 10 games and being named best defenseman by the tournament directorate as well as earning a berth on the media all-star team. Hronek is fearless when it comes to take shots and creating scoring chances—and is still so young. I expect his star will rise significantly next season.

Taking a peek at the recent NHL signings on CapFriendly, I just discovered that the Wings signed Kaski after the tournament, to a one-year deal with a cap hit of $925,000 and the maximum of $850,000 in potential performance bonuses. Kaski spent the 2015-16 season at Western Michigan University, so perhaps he was inclined to return to the part of North America he was already familiar with. I'll be very interested to see if he can stick with the Wings full time next season.

Several other teams also made European signings after Worlds. The Canucks were not among them—the Philip Holm signing didn't exactly yield big dividends two year agos but I was skeptical on that right from the get-go. Yes, he was part of Sweden's gold medal team, but he was a seventh defenseman who played limited minutes. After he was dealt to Vegas by the Canucks at the 2018 trade deadline, Holm went to the KHL. He had 7-19-26 and was a minus-13 for Nizhny Novgorod.

Quick aside while I'm on the topic of the KHL: if you missed it, we had the usual offseason check-in on Nikita Tryamkin earlier this week. His 2018-19 season with Automobilist was a bit of a dropoff from his first year back in Russia: he went from 9-16-25 with 109 penalty minutes in 51 games in 2017-18 to 3-8-11 with 31 penalty minutes in 41 games last year and while he still averaged more than 20 minutes a game, his average ice time also dropped by about a minute.

With one year left on Tryamkin's KHL contract, Jim Benning is dreaming of bringing the big guy back into the fold for the 2020-21 season.




Back in March, Tryamkin's North American agent suggested that his client would be open to a return to Vancouver.




Now, back to signings from Worlds. Here's a quick rundown of the players who have earned NHL deals so far—starting with a familiar name:

Rodrigo Abols - Latvia - Age: 23 - Centre

Originally drafted in the seventh round by the Canucks, Abols was never offered a contract by Vancouver and has spent the last two years playing in Sweden. He has also been a pillar of the Latvian national team, but played just two games at Worlds this year.

He signed a two-year deal with the Florida Panthers, with a cap hit of $817,500 per season.

Dominik Kubalik - Czech Republic - Age: 23 - Left Wing

Originally drafted in the seventh round by the Los Angeles Kings in 2013, Kubalik was never offered a contract either. He played three years of junior hockey in the OHL before returning to Europe, logging three and a half seasons in the Czech League before moving to Switzerland. Last season, he was the leading scorer in the Swiss League with 25-32-57 in 50 games for Ambri-Piotta, and he followed that up with a great World Championship, finishing eighth in scoring with 6-6-12 in 10 games.

Kubalik has been signed to a one-year deal with the Chicago Blackhawks which carries maximum bonus opportunities, like Kaski, and a European Assignment Clause in case he doesn't make the team.

The Blackhawks struck gold when they signed Artemi Panarin as a 23-year-old free agent just before the 2015 World Championship. I'll be watching to see if lightning strikes again with Kubalik next year.

Lean Bergmann - Germany - Age: 20 - Wing

Bergmann is a big winger who saw limited action for Germany in the tournament, going pointless in five games. But he spent three years in the USHL before returning to Germany last season, he seems to have a strong physical component to his game, and he's only 20, so he could have some upside.

The San Jose Sharks signed Bergmann to a three-year entry-level deal with a cap hit of $837,000, which also carries a European Assignment Clause.

Joel Kiviranta - Finland - Age: 23 - Wing

Another member of Finland's gold-medal team, Kiviranta had three points in nine games while averaging 12:41 of ice time. On the small side at 5'10" and 175 pounds, he has been signed to a two-year, two-way deal with a cap hit of $925,000 by the Dallas Stars.

Veini Vehvilainen - Finland - Age: 22 - Goal

Finland's backup goalie played just one game, but a 3-2 overtime win over the U.S. was enough to earn him a two-year contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Vehvilainen was actually drafted by Columbus in the sixth round by the Blue Jackets last year, so he isn't strictly a find from Worlds. He also had a terrific season last year in the Finnish League with Karpat, going 25-8-5 with a 1.58 GAA and .930 save percentage.

The Blue Jackets also have 25-year-old Latvian sensation Elvis Merzlikins in their pipeline, so they could look very different in net next season if Sergei Bobrovsky moves on as expected this summer.

Quite a few other signings have also been completed over the last two weeks—the big one, of course, is Jeff Skinner re-upping with Buffalo at $9 million a year. Apparently his meeting with Ralph Krueger went well!

Less than two weeks till draft day. The action should heat up significantly from here...
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