Monday Quick Hits
* On the first day of Flyers training camp in Philadelphia, I was sitting near the ice with several other hockey writers. As the players skated, I mentioned offhand that the Flyers had signed
Chris VandeVelde to a minor league contract with the Adirondack Phantoms but that arrangement might be temporary with the team maxed out at 50 NHL contracts. The contracts of
Taylor Leier and
Anthony Stolarz had not yet slid for the season to their junior teams. I thought there was at least an outside possibility that VandeVelde could end up on a two-way NHL/AHL contract.
Two colleagues nodded. The third responded, "Who?"
VandeVelde, 26, spent 11 games at the NHL level with Edmonton last season and has played in 28 NHL games overall in parts of the last three seasons. He had once been a well-regarded NHL prospect as a collegiate player at North Dakota. Before that, he was one of the most highly recruited high school players in the United States.
As a senior at Minnesota's Moorhead High School, VandeVelde racked up 67 points (35 goals, 30 assists) in 30 games. He finished the 2004-05 season with the USHL's Lincoln Stars, producing five points in seven games. The Oilers selected VandeVelde in the fourth round of the 2005 NHL Draft.
At the collegiate level with the Fighting Sioux, he was a teammate of Brett Hextall (Ron's son) during VandeVelde's junior and senior seasons. In his senior year, VandeVelde led the team with 41 points in 42 games and ranked among the top 10 scorers in the WCHA. He signed a two-year entry-level contract with the Oilers, kicking in for the 2010-11 season, and finished up the 2009-10 campaign in the American Hockey League on a two-game ATO.
At the pro level, VandeVelde has had to make the same transition that many former collegiate and junior offensive stars do when they find themselves playing with and against the world's top players. He's had to find a niche as a role player.
As a pro, VandeVelde has produced modest offense even at the American Hockey League level but has shown himself to be a responsible defensive player. Primarily playing in the AHL over the last three seasons, VandeVelde has scored one goal and three points in 28 NHL games while receiving limited ice time at the top level. He averaged just 7:02 of ice time (6:02 of even-strength time, 1:00 of penalty killing work) in his 11 games with the Oilers last season.
VandeVelde was a restricted free agent in the summer of 2012. He re-signed with Edmonton to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal paid him $714,000 at the NHL level and $62,500 in the AHL. After the season, VandeVelde became an unrestricted free agent. Somewhat surprisingly given his modest salary and NHL callups in three successive seasons, the Oilers elected not to bring back the player. He ended up signing a minor-league contract with Adirondack at the recommendation of
Ron Hextall.
VandeVelde's one-year contract with the Phantoms for the 2013-14 season was actually signed a couple weeks of the organization's press release to announce it. The deal was not publicly announced until around midday on Sept. 12, when the Phantoms issued a press release that both he and
Doug Clarkson had been signed for this season.
Because the start of camp came ahead of the official signing announcement, VandeVelde's presence at the Flyers training camp came as a surprise to many. He played in the back-to-back home preseason games against the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers last week, and played well enough for
Peter Laviolette to bring him along to Lake Placid.
Now here we are in the home stretch of NHL camp, and VandeVelde is still in the running for an NHL roster spot. His main competition: 24-year-old Austrian rookie import
Michael Raffl and 19-year-old slide-rule eligible center prospect
Scott Laughton. Although VandeVelde is a natural center, he can also play wing if needed.
As of now, with three preseason games remaining, it sounds as if Raffl has the inside track for the open third-line left wing spot. But the competition is still ongoing. Tomorrow night, the Flyers host the New Jersey Devils at the Wells Fargo Center. The two teams will rematch in Newark on Thursday, and the Flyers will close out the preseason with a game in Washington on Friday.
While he certainly shouldn't be counted out, the odds are still against VandeVelde making the Flyers' opening night roster. While the 24-year-old Raffl is still a largely unknown quantity in the North American game and is trying to make a huge jump from Swedish minor leagues direct to the NHL, the Austrian is a natural winger and may have a higher offensive upside. Laughton will either make the opening night roster as the fourth-line center if he beats out veteran
Adam Hall for the starting spot or will return to the OHL's Oshawa Generals.
VandeVelde is currently ineligible to play for the Flyers this season, due to the fact he's on an AHL contract. However, he has played well enough in camp to make a good case for Philadelphia to tear up the minor league deal and sign him to a two-way contract, which would enable the Flyers to call him up as needed during the season. That is allowable, and is also the same contract situation that injury-rehabbing
Eric Wellwood currently faces.
Currently, the Flyers have two open NHL contract slots for the 2012-13 season now that Leier, Stolarz and
Samuel Morin (who was signed to an entry-level contract last week) have been returned to their junior teams.
At the AHL level, VandeVelde's arrival and the return of Phantoms captain
Ben Holmstrom from a knee injury that curtailed his 2012-13 season should give Adirondack a little more two-way depth up front. I'd like to see him assert himself a bit more offensively as well, because I still think he has the capability of producing some more points at that level if he gets the chance. In the NHL, VandeVelde could capably fill in should there be an injury on one of the checking lines.
* In case anyone was wondering whether
Erik Gustafsson was in danger of being waived and not making the Flyers' opening night roster unless a veteran was traded, you can stop wondering. Yesterday, assistant coach
John Paddock told the Philadelphia Inquirer's Sam Carchidi that Gustafsson is "an NHL player and that's where he's going to be" this season.
That is really not a surprise, despite Gustafsson's rough outing in the first period-and-a-half of the preseason opener. He played very well in extensive ice time for the Flyers over the final 10 games of last season and even better at the 2013 IIHF World Championships while leading gold-medal winning Sweden in ice time. Additionally, Gustafsson is no longer waiver exempt.
Some Flyers fans overreacted (imagine that) to a couple miscues Gustafsson made in the preseason opener in London. But it was ridiculous for anyone to actually think the team's plans for him would change based on a few rough shifts in an exhibition opener.
The real question for Gustafsson at this point is whether he will be in the Flyers' starting six or scratched as the seventh defenseman on opening night. As of now, the team is still carrying 10 defensemen on the preseason roster -- including veterans
Nicklas Grossmann,
Andrej Meszaros and
Bruno Gervais, 38-year-old tryout player
Hal Gill and rookie
Oliver Lauridsen.
As of now, Grossmann and Meszaros would probably be higher on the depth chart than Gustafsson. With
Kimmo Timonen,
Braydon Coburn,
Luke Schenn and
Mark Streit locks for the top four spots, Gustafsson would be squeezed out of the starting lineup if the Flyers keep both Grossmann and Meszaros and find another means of getting under the salary cap.
I still think one of the veterans will be traded this week, and it will more likely be Meszaros as long as other NHL teams are satisfied that he is now reasonably healthy. I could see Gustafsson starting the season as the puck-moving half of a third-pairing tandem with Grossmann. However, with Gill still around and Lauridsen waiting in the wings, perhaps it will be Grossmann to go.
As I wrote the other day, I would not be in favor of that move from a hockey standpoint but there would be cap management logic to it. I also can't help but wonder if part of the reason why Lauridsen is still with the big club at this point is that the organization wants to get a sense if he'd be able to step into the NHL lineup in Grossmann's current role sooner rather than later. Personally, I don't think the big Dane is ready for a regular NHL role, nor do I think Gill at this late stage of his career should be more than the seventh defenseman if he beats out Gervais.
*
Samuel Morin was minus-one with no points, three shots on goal and a pair of minor penalties (interference and cross-checking) in Rimouski's 6-2 loss to Quebec last night in QMJHL action.
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