Sharks acquire Jack Studnicka from Canucks, Avalanche trade Tomas Tatar to Kraken draft pick, and more

Cicek, the six-foot-three blueliner, earned himself a contract with the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda as an undrafted player before the 2021-22 campaign. After his debut season with the Barracuda, where he posted five goals and 25 points through 53 games, he caught the attention of the Sharks. He signed a two-year entry-level deal in April 2022.

He played 16 games with the Sharks last season, recording four points, but so far, he has spent the entirety of this year’s campaign back down in the AHL with the Barracuda. Cicek will be prominent in the AHL with Abbotsford, as he will add size and depth to their blueline.

With the addition of the 2024 sixth-round selection, the Canucks now hold seven picks in the upcoming draft, their first-round selection, third-round pick, fourth, sixth, and seventh, as well as the New Jersey Devils fourth-round pick, and now San Jose’s sixth-round pick.

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Avalanche trade Tomas Tatar to Kraken for 2024 pick

The Colorado Avalanche have traded veteran forward Tomas Tatar to the Seattle Kraken in exchange for a 2024 fifth-round selection, the teams announced Friday.

The Avalanche previously had signed the 33-year-old to a $1.5 million deal before the start of the season. Still, Tartar struggled to have consistent production, with only a single goal and nine points throughout 27 games while averaging 11:27 of ice time per game, the lowest of his career since his debut season in 2010-11 with the Detroit Red Wings.

However, the Kraken will mark Tatar’s third club of 2023 after starting the year with the New Jersey Devils before moving to the Avalanche in free agency. With the addition of Tatar, the club will add another experienced forward to help with their struggling shooting percentage and hopefully provide him with more ice time.

The five-foot-ten Czechoslovakian forward was originally the 60th overall selection to the Red Wings in 2009. He stuck with the club for seven years, recording 115 goals and 222 points across 407 games, before being traded to the Las Vegas Golden Knights in 2018. Only 20 games and six points later, Tatar was traded to the Montreal Canadiens in September 2018, where he had the two best production years of his career (25 goals and 58 points in 2018-19 and 22 goals and 61 points in 2019-20).

For the Kraken, the club is paying a reasonable price to add the forward to the lineup after losing forward Andre Burakovsky, who is currently listed as week-to-week after returning from an upper-body injury. He subsequently sustained another undisclosed injury on his first game back. Jaden Schwartz has also been moved onto the Kraken’s long-term injured reserve, which initiated the club to call up first-round pick Shane Wright from AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds.

The Avalanche have re-acquire the 2024 pick fifth-round pick as their fifth prospect selection in the upcoming draft after trading their second-round choice to the Canadiens, their third-round selection to the Arizona Coyotes, and their original fifth-round selection to the San Jose Sharks. They now hold picks in the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh rounds.

Bruce Boudreau to serve as head coach for Team Canada at 2023 Spengler Cup

Hockey Canada has announced that former Vancouver Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau will serve as Team Canada’s bench boss for the 2023 Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland, at the end of December.

Boudreau will be joined on the bench by assistant coaches Larry Mitchell, Jim Playfair, and Jeff Tomlinson.

“We are excited to announce Bruce, Larry, Jim, and Jeff as the coaches who will lead Canada’s National Men’s Team as it looks to reclaim the Spengler Cup,” said co-general manager Brad Pascall.

“All four bring many years of experience coaching the the NHL, AHL, and Europe, and we know this diversity will be beneficial to our team.”

Boudreau is currently in his first season as a senior advisor with the Niagara IceDogs of the Ontario Hockey League. Most recently, he coached the Canucks with a record of 50-40-13 from parts of 2021 until January of 2023, when he was released from the club.

However, Boudreau has served as a head coach for 1,087 NHL games split between the Canucks, the Minnesota Wild, Washington Capitals, and the Anaheim Ducks, who he led to the Western Conference Finals in 2015-16, but eventually lost in seven games to eventual Stanley Cup Champions the Chicago Blackhawks.

Boudreau has had a handful of achievements throughout his coaching career, including eight division titles, four with the Capitals and four with the Ducks, a Jack Adams Award with the Capitals, and a Calder Cup with the American Hockey Leagues, Hershey Bears in 2005-06.

The tournament runs over the holiday season in Switzerland from December 26th to the 31st.