Quick Strikes: Mikhail Shalagin is joining the Syracuse Crunch

The Bolts

As it was announced on Saturday, the Tampa Bay Lightning seventh round pick in 2019 NHL Draft Mikhail Shalagin will spent next season in North America. No official information yet, but Russian hockey writer Igor Eronko reports that Shalagin joins the Syracuse Crunch.

We’ve translated a short interview with Shalagin. [Raw Charge]

Artem Batrak: What is your impression from the development camp?

Mikhail Shalagin: I liked it a lot. The coaches told me what I need to improve. I’ve never been to North America and it was very interesting for me to come there and see everything with my own eyes.

A.B.: What’s next for you?

M.S.: I’m joining the Lightning conditioning coach in Montreal at the end of July and going to prepare for next season.

The Lightning and the Wheelchairs 4 Kids charity collaborated on a Try Sled Hockey for Free clinic event last month.

The Game

The Stanley Cup winner Jordan Binnington has signed a two-year extension with the St. Louis Blues.

The Blues have also re-signed defenseman Mitch Reinke and acquired forward Dakota Johnson from the Toronto Maple Leafs for future considerations.

The Washington Capitals have agreed to an extension for defenseman Colby Williams.

The Ice Garden take a look at the NWHL preseason schedule.

Great article about how the long interview period affected the free agency this offseason [Associated Press].

Free agency for years was a land rush at noon July 1 and perhaps the frenzied pace of negotiations contributed to some ill-fated contracts and bad fits. With more time, many contracts were agreed to before free agency began, similar to how things work in the NFL and NBA. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said each year the league sends a memo to its clubs reminding them that deals cannot be signed until July 1 but he was not concerned about how the process went this time.

The Vancouver Canucks will have to figure out what to do with Loui Eriksson’s contract [Vancouver Courier].

Instead, Eriksson has been a tremendous disappointment. Instead of 20-goal seasons, he’s given the Canucks 32 goals total across the first three seasons of his contract. He’s been given ample opportunities to find chemistry in a top-six role — he started the season on a line with Elias Pettersson and ended it on a line with Bo Horvat — but it never quite clicked and he was frequently shunted to the fourth line with the likes of Jay Beagle and Tyler Motte.

The Mile High Hockey blog is trying to predict how the Avalanches’s blueline will look like the next season [Mile High Hockey].

It’s not very often that you see an NHL team trade away their best defender but that’s exactly what the Colorado Avalanche did this summer. On July 1st when most teams were focused on signing free agents, Joe Sakic was busy finishing off a blockbuster trade that saw Tyson Barrie traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs. It’s rare when a team trades away a player the calibre of Barrie. What’s even more rare is when they have a prospect as good as Cale Makar to fill the hole. Makar is going to be asked to step into some big shoes and while there are going to be growing pains, he gave enough evidence in last year’s playoffs that he’s ready for the job.

The Toronto Maple Leafs new acquisition Tyson Barrie is already negotiating his new contract [Sportsnet].

The Toronto Maple Leafs’ shiny new toy, Tyson Barrie, is reportedly searching for $8 million annually on his next contract.

That ask is far from outrageous when you consider the 27-year-old ranks sixth among all defencemen in scoring over the past two seasons and, generally, you should begin all negotiations by coming in high.

Colorado was never going to pay that.