Jake Virtanen has reportedly worn out his welcome in Switzerland.

A week before the Swiss second division playoffs kick off, Virtanen’s team, EHC Visp, has suspended the player and has put him on the trade block, a Swiss outlet reports.

According to Swiss Hockey News, “it was his selfish attitude that irritated his teammates and forced the management to make him available on the market a week before the start of the playoffs.”

Adding to the report, Le Nouvelliste’s Christophe Spahr wrote that it stems from a “heated altercation with Daniel Eigenmann.” Here’s more of Spahr’s report:

The defender (Eigenmann) allegedly criticized him for not putting himself at the service of the team. From there, coach Marco Schüpbach suspended him internally. Jake Virtanen has not played the last two meetings that Visp, moreover, has won.

Despite his 25 points in 21 games, Jake Virtanen had not shown until then an irreproachable commitment on the ice, nor an exceptional motivation for the Swiss League.

The player, who has a contract until the end of next season since he should have formed a promising duo with Gary Nunn, is about to be released by HC Visp. If necessary, the club would still have a few days to find a … fifth foreigner, this winter.

Virtanen had joined the Edmonton Oilers on a professional tryout in training camp and appeared in six preseason games. He scored two assists while firing six shots on net. With no other teams calling, Virtanen joined EHC Visp where in 21 games this season, he scored 14 goals and 25 points.

NHLPA to name new executive director

The NHLPA have their man: sitting U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh.

This, according to Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, who reported Tuesday Walsh will succeed Donald Fehr as the NHLPA’s executive director. He added that Walsh, who was formerly the Mayor of Boston, introduced himself via Zoom to the NHLPA’s 32-member executive board.

Here’s some of what Seravalli wrote:

Walsh emerged as a candidate for the position only within the last three weeks. Sources indicated Russell Reynolds was rebuffed by Walsh over multiple attempts to include him earlier in the process, but Walsh had a change of circumstance once he was not selected as Biden’s next chief of staff, one of the most powerful positions in Washington.

Walsh will become the first Executive Director of the NHLPA without a legal background. The Dorchester, Mass., native dropped out of college and completed his Bachelor of Arts in social science from Boston College in 2009 at the age of 42 by taking night classes. He joined the Laborers’ Union in Boston at age 21, served as the union’s president, was elected the Massachusetts state legislature while also being head of the Boston Building Construction and Trades Council.

…

When reports of Walsh’s candidacy first emerged last week, he was immediately linked to Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, who made multiple donations to Walsh’s political campaigns. The Jacobs Family also organized fundraisers for Walsh’s campaigns through their Delaware North companies where untold monies went into Walsh’s coffers. That information appeared to catch the search firm Russell Reynolds by surprise, sources said, which raised questions about the depth of the firm’s vetting process.

The optics of those donations are less than savory. While many wealthy families routinely support political candidates, Jacobs is the long-standing chairman of the NHL’s Board of Governors and is widely regarded as the most powerful owner in the league – the exact power that Walsh will now be asked to attempt keep in check as head of the union.

Sabres sign Cozens to seven-year deal

The Buffalo Sabres extended Dylan Cozens on Tuesday with a seven-year deal paying him an AAV of $7.1-million.

Drafted by the Sabres in the first round of the 2019 draft, Cozens has appeared in 169 games scoring 34 goals and 43 points. This season he has tallied career highs in goals (17), assists (26) and points (43) in 49 games played.

The signing follows a recent trend by Sabres GM Kevyn Adams, Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis wrote:

We’re starting to see a trend here with the Sabres under GM Kevyn Adams’ leadership. In August, he signed Tage Thompson to a long-term deal worth just over $7 million per season. Adams then signed stay-at-home defender Mattias Samuelsson to a seven-year deal despite having just a handful of games under his belt.

So signing a third player to a long-term deal without a huge, established workload is risky, but one Adams is willing to take. The cost might be high right now, but the payoff could be extraordinarily. He signed his top two centers for around $14 million, which could have been much more had they waited until this summer.

Cozens has been the anchor of the team’s second line, most recently with future stars Jack Quinn and John Jason Peterka. According to Money Puck, that trio has a team-leading expected goal for percentage of 56.1 percent, which is good for ninth out of 26 trios across the league with at least 260 minutes together. Given Cozens is working with two rookies, that’s pretty incredible, and a testament to his value to this young forward group.

According to Natural Stat Trick, Cozens is fourth on the Sabres with a points-per-60 of 2.03 and fifth in shots-per-60 of 8.65 at 5-on-5. He’s near the top in every other category, but also doing a lot of the heavy lifting for his line in the process.

But while Cozens has taken giant strides as a third-year pro, there’s still significant projection here. He’s 21, and it’s hard to say he’s worth the cost right now. Long-term deals to players with a small sample size can be sketchy. But the signs are promising, the Sabres are trending upward, and Adams’ commitment to the team’s future says a lot. There’s a very good chance that had the two sides decided on a bridge deal, Cozens’ value would have skyrocketed shortly after. It’s a nice chunk of change for one of the team’s brightest young stars, and, if it all works out, the Sabres get him until he’s 29.