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Free Agent Focus: Tampa Bay Lightning

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Free agency is less than a month away and teams are looking ahead to when it opens.  There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well.  We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Lightning.

Key Restricted Free Agents

F Gage Goncalves – Even on a relatively deep Lightning team, Goncalves successfully parlayed an impressive run with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch into a full-time role at the NHL level. From 2022 to 2024, Goncalves scored 26 goals and 112 points in 140 AHL contests, with another four goals and 11 points in 12 postseason contests. This gave Tampa Bay the confidence to allow Goncalves a longer-term opportunity at the NHL level, and his tryout proved successful by all accounts. Goncalves scored eight goals and 20 points in 60 games for the Lightning while averaging 12:48 of ice time per night, and achieved a 92.0% on-ice save percentage at even strength. Given the roster flexibility he affords and arbitration eligibility status, Goncalves should earn a healthy bump on his $775K salary from last year, but it’ll likely be less than double.

Other RFAs: F Jaydon Dureau, F Ryder Korczak, F Waltteri Merela, G Hugo Alnefelt

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

D Nicklaus Perbix – Over the last three years, Perbix has scored 13 goals and 63 points in 220 regular-season contests, with a 51.2% CorsiFor% at even strength, and a 91.0% on-ice save percentage. This is a quality value for a defenseman who has averaged less than 16 minutes of ice time per game and has been playing on a $1.125MM AAV for the last two seasons. Unfortunately, his performance might have made it too expensive for him to continue with Tampa Bay. AFP Analytics projects Perbix to command a two-year, $5.2MM contract this offseason, which would take up almost 75% of the Lightning’s available cap space. Ultimately, the team will likely look for a cheaper right-handed option to fill in the gap or use a combination of Steven Santini and Maxwell Crozier next season.

F Luke Glendening – The University of Michigan alumnus may no longer have the capacity to score 20 points a year, nor is he in danger of receiving fringe votes for the Selke Trophy, but Glendening still holds value in a niche role. He remains one of the most effective faceoff takers in the league, winning 56.5% of his 1,829 draws taken with the Lightning. Given that he started 66.7% of his shifts in the defensive zone with Tampa Bay, Glendening ultimately gave the Lightning a better chance to retain possession and have an effective breakout. Still, even without the same faceoff talent, there may be better options available for Tampa Bay this offseason, at a similar league-minimum salary.

Other UFAs: F Cam Atkinson, F Anthony Angello, F Logan Brown, F Gabriel Fortier, D Derrick Pouliot, D Tobie Paquette-Bisson, G Matt Tomkins

Projected Cap Space

As alluded to earlier when talking about Perbix, the Lightning will again be limited by the salary cap this summer. Although there are no expectations this offseason, it is important to remember that Tampa Bay faced a similar situation last offseason and successfully acquired and signed the market’s top unrestricted free agent, Jake Guentzel. General Manager Julien BriseBois has shown time and time again that the Lightning can never truly be counted out of any available player, and it’ll be another interesting study to see how he weaponizes Tampa Bay’s projected $3.4MM in cap space this summer.

Seattle Kraken Acquire Mason Marchment

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As expected, the Dallas Stars have opened up additional salary cap space leading up to the offseason. According to a team announcement, the team has traded forward Mason Marchment to the Seattle Kraken for a 2026 third-round pick and Dallas’s 2025 fourth-round pick, which was previously sent to the New York Rangers and later acquired by the Kraken.

The trade is a beneficial arrangement for both teams. The Stars free up $4.5MM in cap space, which was given to Matt Duchene earlier today, while the Kraken add more goalscoring and physicality into their forward core.

Unfortunately for Dallas, trading Marchment without retaining salary doesn’t solve all of their financial issues. According to PuckPedia, the Stars have $4.95MM in cap space and either need to re-sign or add four to five more forwards to carry a full roster.

If Dallas can trade defensemen Matt Dumba and Ilya Lyubushkin, without retaining any salary, they’ll have just under $12MM in cap space, which would give them much more flexibility. Still, it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which the Stars’ roster doesn’t come out worse off compared to the one they finished their 2025 Stanley Cup playoff race with.

For Seattle, one team’s junk becomes another team’s treasure. Marchment has proven a capable 20-goal scorer over the last few years and can generate more than 100 hits in a season. The Kraken struggled in both areas during the 2024-25 season, finishing with five players recording 100 or more hits, and only four players scoring 20 or more goals.

The one interesting part of this trade by the Kraken is ascertaining where Marchment fits into the lineup. A natural winger, Marchment should expect to play in Seattle’s middle-six. Unfortunately, the team is already fairly crowded with wingers, given that Jaden Schwartz, Kaapo Kakko, Jared McCann, Jordan Eberle, André Burakovsky, and Eeli Tolvanen are all expected back next season.

At any rate, the team is excited to have him, as General Manager Jason Botterill said, “I think Mason has a unique combination of size, skill and strength. He works well down in the corners and around the net and that’s an element we want to continue to add to our group here.”

Sabres Listening To Trade Offers On JJ Peterka

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June 19th: Furthering Friedman’s report from Sunday, Frank Seravalli announced on the DFO Rundown podcast that the Chicago Blackhawks, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Vancouver Canucks all have confirmed interest in acquiring Peterka. Additionally, Sammi Silber of the DC Backcheck reported that the Sabres are asking for a right-handed defenseman to replace Bowen Byram on the roster, plus additional NHL-ready assets.

June 15th: The Sabres are listening to trade offers on winger JJ Peterka, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. While they’ve been reluctant to consider moving Peterka as his name popped up in trade speculation over the last few months, “their answer has changed” to teams inquiring about his availability, Friedman said on Sunday’s 32 Thoughts podcast.

“It’s believed he would like to go somewhere else, and I just think that reality is sinking in a bit,” Friedman said. “I think the Sabres realize they have to at least look into it, and I think in the last little bit it’s gone from ’we don’t want to do it and we’re not doing it’ to ’we don’t want to do it but we at least have to look into it.’”

Peterka, a pending restricted free agent, is also viewed as a legitimate offer-sheet target if he becomes an RFA without a new contract on July 1. An offer sheet AAV in the fifth tier of compensation between $7.02MM and $9.36MM, in line with Peterka’s projected cap hit on a long-term extension, per PuckPedia, would net the Sabres a team’s 2026 first, second, and third-round picks. If a trade crosses the finish line, the return would presumably come above that value, considering the Sabres are a virtual lock to recoup those assets in a worst-case scenario.

The Sabres’ top-nine forward group has been in constant flux over the past couple of years. They’ve acquired Ryan McLeod and Joshua Norris down the middle, graduated prospect Zach Benson to NHL duties out of the gate, and shipped out Dylan Cozens, Casey Mittelstadt, and 2022 top-10 pick Matthew Savoie in corresponding deals.

They find themselves in more unfamiliar territory with Peterka. Under general manager Kevyn Adams, the Sabres haven’t let negotiations with an RFA-to-be get to this point. They’ve either parted ways with hopeful core pieces after already signing them to long-term deals that weren’t panning out early on (Cozens) or traded them in-season in the final year of their contract with an advance understanding that they were far apart in talks (Mittelstadt). With Peterka, though, it doesn’t seem to be a case of the Sabres’ willingness to pay or commit to him – it’s the players’ uncertainty about signing long-term with the Sabres preventing a contract from getting done.

Buffalo has $23.2MM in cap space to spend this offseason with seven roster spots to fill, per PuckPedia. They have a pair of truly high-priced RFAs to contend with in Peterka and defenseman Bowen Byram, and it looked early on that they may only be able to sign one of them. They’ve been more active in soliciting/listening to trade interest in Byram but could understandably be more incentivized to keep him if they get the sense the situation with Peterka won’t result in him staying in Buffalo.

A trade is far preferable to an offer sheet in terms of compensation for the Sabres, who need at least a top-nine winger in return for Peterka to help them shoulder his loss and keep their postseason hopes alive in 2025-26, in addition to potential UFA signings, as they aim to end their playoff drought at 14 seasons. Peterka, a 2020 second-round pick, scored a career-high 41 assists and 68 points last season to tie for second on the club in scoring. That’s not easily replaceable production, and they’ll need to perform significant roster surgery to compensate if they do end up moving him.

Trade Notes: Rossi, Marchment, Romanov

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In an article by Michael Russo and Joe Smith from The Athletic, which was later confirmed by Patrick Johnston of The Province, there is a growing consensus that the Vancouver Canucks have made a formal offer to the Minnesota Wild for Marco Rossi. While the complete trade offer remains unclear, the trio of writers believes the Canucks proposed the 15th overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft along with a player.

Johnston elaborated in his article stating that it’s unclear whether the player offered to the Wild was a prospect, or one currently rostered with the Canucks. Still, the news confirms that Vancouver is being aggressive in their pursuit of upgrading their second-line center.

While it’s essentially understood that the Canucks and scoring winger Brock Boeser will be parting ways this summer, Vancouver has over $12MM in salary cap space for the offseason. That means the Canucks could comfortably offer Rossi his desired seven-year, $49MM contract, while leaving room for a few further upgrades.

Other trade notes:

  • After signing center Matt Duchene to a new four-year, $18MM contract earlier today, the Dallas Stars only have a projected $455K in salary cap space entering the offseason. Given this, the Stars are looking to move salary off the roster, and forward Mason Marchment has found his name in the center of the rumor mill. According to David Pagnotta of TheFourthPeriod, Dallas is receiving interest in Marchment’s services, particularly from the Toronto Maple Leafs and Utah Mammoth. Marchment already has some familiarity with the Maple Leafs, appearing in four games for the Original Six franchise during the 2019-20 season.
  • In a new report from Stefen Rosner in Responsible Gambling, he suggests that the New York Islanders are garnering trade interest in defenseman Alexander Romanov from the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers. Rosner provided context for the report by stating that he anticipates the Islanders will begin contract negotiations with Romanov in a few weeks. However, he noted that some teams expect these negotiations to take longer since the Islanders also need to sign Noah Dobson, Simon Holmström, and Maxim Tsyplakov, all while managing a cap space of only $21 million.

Free Agent Focus: St. Louis Blues

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Free agency is less than a month away and teams are looking ahead to when it opens.  There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well.  We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Blues.

Key Restricted Free Agents

G Joel Hofer – If the Blues play out Hofer’s trip through restricted free agency the right way, Hofer will have a two-year deal by the end of the summer. The expiry of a new two-year agreement would line up exactly with the end of Jordan Binnington’s contract, giving Hofer and St. Louis an avenue for him to assume the role of starting netminder should he continue to improve. Hofer is coming off an impressive two-year stint as the Blues’ backup, managing a 31-20-4 record in 61 games with a .909 SV%, 2.65 GAA, 11.0 goals saved above average.

Other RFAs: F Nikita Alexandrov, F Mikhail Abramov, F Tanner Dickinson, D Hunter Skinner, D Anton Malmström, G Vadim Zherenko

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

D Ryan Suter – There’s a decent chance the Blues won’t have a decision to make for Suter this offseason. The 40-year-old veteran recently completed his 20th season at the NHL level, and despite indicating in March that he’d like to continue his playing career through the 2025-26 season, there may not be a robust market for him this offseason. After finishing the 2024-25 campaign with a 43.5% CorsiFor% at even strength, Suter’s best bet will be to wait out the market through the offseason and sign a league minimum deal as a seventh defenseman on a competitive roster should he continue his playing career.

F Radek Faksa – There’s a decent chance the Blues will look to retain Faksa this offseason. He’s a quality fourth-line center, winning 57.0% of faceoffs while starting 73.4% of his shifts in the defensive zone. St. Louis has a few young players looking to crack the roster for the 2025-26 campaign, but none of them are likely to affect Faksa’s role with the team. In early May, a report from Lou Korac of NHL.com suggested that Faksa and the Blues had already begun negotiations on a new deal, but nothing has come of them so far.

Other UFAs: F Mackenzie MacEachern, F Corey Andonovski

Projected Cap Space

Because they are projected to lose a small handful of players this offseason, the Blues won’t have much cap space entering the summer months. The Blues have just over $5 million in cap space, ranking fourth-lowest in the league, according to PuckPedia. Aside from re-signing Hofer, St. Louis already has a full roster for the 2025-26 season, and they could bank on their prospects filling in the remaining gaps. However, the Blues could use the upcoming buyout window to release Nick Leddy from the roster, saving them an additional $2MM, since they won’t be able to buy out the injured Torey Krug.

Gabriel Dumont Announces Retirement

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According to a team announcement, longtime captain for the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch, Gabriel Dumont, has announced his retirement from professional hockey. Dumont, 34, recently completed his 15th professional season.

Dumont’s entrance into professional hockey came in the fifth round of the 2009 NHL Draft, when the Montreal Canadiens selected him with the 139th overall pick. He subsequently had a promising year with the QMJHL’s Drummondville Voltigeurs, scoring 51 goals and 93 points in 62 games with an impressive +43 rating.

Unfortunately, that was the last of Dumont’s high-scoring days for quite some time. He spent the next six years buried in the AHL in the Canadiens organization, scoring 92 goals and 203 points in 389 AHL contests, while managing one goal and three points in 18 NHL games.

After the 2015-16 season, Dumont finally reached free agency and chose to sign a one-year agreement with the Tampa Bay Lightning. This was Dumont’s largest opportunity to play at the top level, scoring two goals and four points in 39 games for the Bolts, while averaging 9:40 of ice time per night. After a brief stint with the Ottawa Senators after being claimed off waivers, Dumont later returned to the Lightning organization, again via waivers, a few months later.

Despite posting a solid 15 goals and 43 points in 59 games for the Crunch in his first year as captain during the 2018-19 campaign, Dumont chose to leave the following summer, signing a two-year agreement with the Minnesota Wild. Dumont largely played in the AHL with Minnesota, scoring 20 goals and 46 points in 68 AHL contests, and going scoreless in three NHL appearances over two years.

The beginning of the 2021-22 season signified Dumont’s last move in his professional career and ended his NHL tenure. Syracuse’s former captain returned, again taking on the same leadership role, for the next four years. Unfortunately, Dumont couldn’t lead the Crunch very deep into the Calder Cup playoffs, but did have the best individual season of his career in 2021-22, scoring 30 goals and 62 points in 75 games.

The former fifth-round selection in the 2009 NHL Draft concluded his AHL career with a total of 202 goals and 459 points across 747 games, playing for the Crunch, Iowa Wild, Hamilton Bulldogs, and St. John’s IceCaps. In addition, he recorded four goals and nine points in 90 NHL appearances with the Canadiens, Lightning, Senators, and Wild. PHR congratulates Dumont on a quality professional career and wishes him the best in retirement.

Flyers Expected To Hire Todd Reirden As Assistant Coach

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The Flyers have “made progress” toward hiring former Capitals head coach Todd Reirden to complete Rick Tocchet’s staff of assistants, reports Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff.

Reirden, 54 later this month, is the third and final assistant hire for the Flyers this offseason, concluding what’s been a complete staff turnover aside from goaltending coach Kim Dillabaugh. He’s likely geared as a replacement for former associate coach Brad Shaw, who took over as interim head coach in the final days of the season after John Tortorella’s firing but finished as the runner-up to Tocchet in their head coaching search several weeks ago. He’ll presumably manage the club’s defense group while new assistants Jaroslav Svejkovský and Jay Varady, whose hirings were announced earlier this month, will handle other duties.

Reirden, a former NHL defenseman himself, has spent his entire coaching career in the Metropolitan Division, mostly with the Penguins. He landed his first professional job there as an AHL assistant for the 2008-09 season but was promptly promoted to head coach when the Pens brought Dan Bylsma up from the minors to coach the NHL club en route to the 2009 Stanley Cup. Reirden spent one full season as head coach in WBS before being promoted again to an assistant role on the NHL bench in 2010. He spent four years in the role before being fired alongside Bylsma in the 2014 offseason.

The Illinois native was quickly scooped up by the Capitals to serve as an assistant on Barry Trotz’s staff, and he was named their head coach four years later when Trotz departed the organization following their Stanley Cup victory in 2018. Reirden compiled an 89-46-16 (.642) record in two seasons behind the Washington bench before being fired following the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Reirden then returned to Pittsburgh, where he again served as an associate coach under Mike Sullivan from 2020-21 until the former’s dismissal last year. While both he and Tocchet share a former employer with the Pens, their tenures didn’t overlap there. Nonetheless, he’ll get his next NHL job after not coaching at all during the 2024-25 season.

Offseason Checklist: Winnipeg Jets

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The offseason has arrived for everyone with the Stanley Cup Final in the rearview.  Accordingly, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at Winnipeg.

Expectations were mixed heading into the season for the Jets, who didn’t do a lot to reshape their roster after a 110-point season in 2023-24 while losing some key free agents as well. They managed to beat that record on the backs of continued dominance from their veterans, progress from young forwards, and an MVP-winning season from goaltender Connor Hellebuyck. Despite the best regular season in franchise history, though, they were dispatched by the Stars in the second round and have now won only two playoff series in the last seven years. General manager Kevin Cheveldayoff now needs to get them over the hump with the high-end core he’s already established.

Re-Sign RFAs

At first glance, the Jets are well-positioned to be major players in free agency this summer with $26.43MM in cap space, per PuckPedia. That’s because multiple key pieces are on expiring contracts, though. Two of them, top-line winger Gabriel Vilardi and top-four defenseman Dylan Samberg, are under team control and need new deals sooner rather than later so the Jets know how much of that cap space they can devote to free-agent pickups.

Vilardi is 25 years old and only has one season of team control remaining. That makes a bridge deal improbable and a long-term contract, even a max-term one, all the more appealing for a player who scored a career-high 27 goals and 61 points in 71 games this season. However, Vilardi’s lengthy injury history likely rules that out. Those 71 games played were also a career-high for the 2017 No. 11 overall pick, coming off his sixth NHL season. He’s missed 20-plus games in a year twice and has only cracked the 60-game mark twice as well. As such, the Jets are likely looking at a four-year commitment for Vilardi around $6.8MM per season, according to AFP Analytics. If he’s amenable to that price, they’d do well to get an agreement around there quickly to remove the threat of arbitration or an offer sheet.

Samberg, 26, is in a better position to command a longer-term deal. He’s just beginning his prime as a high-end second-pairing option with good defensive acumen, posting 20 points and a +34 rating in 60 games last season while averaging north of 21 minutes per game alongside Neal Pionk as Winnipeg’s No. 2 left-shot option behind Josh Morrissey. He’s shown linear development over his first few NHL seasons, and Winnipeg should be comfortable keeping him in his current role for the rest of the decade without much fuss. AFP Analytics projects a five-year deal with a cap hit in the $5.25MM range for him. Those projections still leave Winnipeg somewhere in the $14MM-$15MM range to spend on five roster spots this summer.

Backup Plan For Ehlers

The door isn’t closed on pending UFA winger Nikolaj Ehlers staying in Winnipeg, but it doesn’t look like they’ll be able to entice him with an eighth year on an extension. He’ll test the open market to see what’s out there for him, and the Jets will have to wait in line like everyone else.

That means Winnipeg might have to offer Ehlers a seven-year deal north of $8.5MM, potentially even in the $9MM range, per season to avoid him leaving for an environment with more opportunity for him in a first-line role or somewhere more financially advantageous for the 29-year-old Dane. He’s well-positioned to cash in on the heels of a 63-point season in 69 games, the former standing as one short of a career-high. If the Jets aren’t willing to push into that range to keep his services – a likely bet considering he continues to inexplicably average south of 16 minutes per game – they need to quickly identify targets in free agency who can either replace his output directly or help do so by committee.

Their cap flexibility means they should be able to do that relatively easily, but the Winnipeg market is routinely a hard sell to players who have multiple comparable options on the table. They’ll have to pick and choose their desired players and be quite aggressive with them. They don’t have prospects ready to step directly into Ehlers’ shoes, but perhaps someone like 2022 first-rounder Brad Lambert could at least step into a top-nine role and produce a 30-to-35-point rookie season (third-line fixture Mason Appleton is a pending UFA as well).

They could also opt to be aggressive in pursuit of a second-line center and keep Vladislav Namestnikov and Cole Perfetti, usually Ehlers’ center/winger combo in some capacity last year, as wingmen for a new middleman. There aren’t a ton of options out there, though, particularly after today’s Matt Duchene extension with the Stars. They’ll be trying to land some names in the next tier of UFA forwards like Brock Boeser, Jonathan Drouin, Mikael Granlund, and Pius Suter as a result, without much worry about what forward position they play.

Add Center Depth

Winnipeg’s relative weakness down the middle behind Mark Scheifele will be exacerbated to begin the season. Captain Adam Lowry will spend the first couple of months of the season on the shelf after offseason hip surgery, and frequent fourth-line center option Rasmus Kupari is off to spend the next two seasons in Switzerland.

The prospects of a big move are unlikely unless they’re willing to be aggressive on the trade front for someone like Wild center Marco Rossi, but they haven’t been mentioned in connection with his availability, and it’s exceedingly unlikely Minnesota would consider trading him to a divisional rival anyway. That leaves them with pursuing stopgap solutions like the aforementioned Granlund and Suter, who have top-six mobility, but they need another name or two for added bottom-six depth as well.

One of those could very well be Jonathan Toews. The former Blackhawks captain has spent the last couple of years out of the league as he deals with Chronic Immune Response Syndrome, but has been connected to Winnipeg ever since he publicized his desire for an NHL return last year. The interest is mutual, Cheveldayoff said in January, and it appears the Jets are on the Winnipeg native’s small list of finalists as he nears a decision in the coming days. At worst, he’s a fine fourth-line swap for Kupari.

They’d still like to add another name, presumably a sub-$1.5MM player like Sean Kuraly or Nico Sturm are expected to be, to help shoulder the load in the early going and take pressure off young players to take on center roles out of the gate. Even with a potential high-priced Ehlers contract, all of this should be doable under Winnipeg’s cap structure if they’re responsible with their RFA deals.

Connor Extension Talks

If the Jets aren’t careful, they’ll have back-to-back summers where big-name wingers could depart Winnipeg. Kyle Connor is entering the final year of his seven-year contract, which carries a team-friendly $7.14MM cap hit, and becomes eligible to sign an extension on July 1.

The 2024-25 First Team All-Star at left wing enters his contract year coming off a 41-goal showing, his second time hitting the 40-snipe mark. They have a strong appetite to get something done this summer and avoid the situation they find themselves at present with Ehlers. Considering the more bountiful success Connor has enjoyed in top-line minutes in Winnipeg, it’s likely he’d be more amenable to a long-term commitment.

Finding what the “right” number should be won’t be particularly tricky. He’s a slam-dunk 35-goal man with an extended run of success and even finished top 20 in Hart Trophy voting this season. There’s no question he’ll become Winnipeg’s new highest-paid player on an extension, one that AFP Analytics projects to be eight years at $12MM per season. Amid the rising cap and names like Mitch Marner expected to sniff $14MM on the open market this summer, the Jets shouldn’t have too many qualms about dealing out that big of a raise.

Image courtesy of Connor Hamilton-Imagn Images.

Capitals Grant Ethan Bear Permission To Speak With Interested Clubs

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The Capitals will not be re-signing pending unrestricted free agent defenseman Ethan Bear and have given him permission to discuss a contract with other clubs before the opening of free agency on July 1, Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK TV reports.

This was the expected outcome for Bear, whom Washington signed to a two-year, $4.13MM contract in December 2023 after offseason shoulder surgery. The signing was a puzzling one at the time. Washington already had six surefire NHL defensemen under contract, and although they dealt with injuries on the blue line throughout that season, the multi-year term raised eyebrows.

By the time Bear signed with the Capitals, he’d established himself as a legitimate everyday NHLer. The 5’11” righty was coming off one of the better seasons of his career with the Canucks, although they opted to non-tender him amid a roster crunch and an unwillingness to pay his $2.2MM qualfying offer. He averaged 18:32 per game while posting 16 points in 61 appearances, also logging a plus-six rating with good possession impacts (51.0 CF%, 51.6 xGF% at even strength).

Bear settled in as Washington’s seventh defenseman after signing, only playing 24 games over three months before entering the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program in March 2024 and missing the remainder of the season. He averaged a career-low 14:54 per game over that stretch, recording four points and a minus-five rating with some of the worst possession numbers of his career.

As a result, Bear was on the outside of the Caps’ regular lineup when he returned to the club for training camp last fall. He cleared waivers at the beginning of the season and headed to AHL Hershey, where he spent the entirety of the season until being recalled as a healthy extra for Washington’s playoff run amid Martin Fehérváry’s injury.

Bear, 28 next week, was expectedly among the AHL’s best defensemen in 2024-25. He was a second-team All-Star after recording 46 points in 62 games. His two-way impact was arguably the best in the minors – his +33 rating was more than twice that of any other skater on Hershey. As such, there’s strong optimism around the league that he can return to being an above-average option as a third-pairing right-shot defender if deployed somewhere with more upward mobility. That place obviously won’t be Washington, where the Caps already have seven defensemen signed to one-way contracts for next season, not including pending RFA Alexander Alexeyev.

The 2015 fifth-round pick even had fine results in top-four deployment earlier in his career. While a rookie with the Oilers in the 2019-20 season, he averaged nearly 22 minutes per game while skating almost exclusively with Darnell Nurse on Edmonton’s second pairing. He had a career-high 21 points – 19 of which came at even strength – and helped the Oilers control 2.5% more shot attempts compared to when he wasn’t on the ice.

Amid a thin free agent market behind the top few players, particularly among right-shot defenseman, Bear aims to make a return to full-time NHL minutes at the right time for his market value. He likely won’t command a multi-year deal, but his past track record and strong AHL showing this past season will likely be enough to secure him a one-way pact and a legitimate shot at everyday minutes out of the gate.

Stars Sign Matt Duchene To Four-Year Extension

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The Stars have signed center Matt Duchene to a four-year extension, per a team announcement. It’s worth $4.5MM per season for a total value of $18MM. His deal carries a no-movement clause through 2026-27 before decreasing to a five-team approved trade list for the 2027-28 and 2028-29 seasons, per PuckPedia. The yearly breakdown is as follows:

2025-26: $3MM base salary, $3MM signing bonus
2026-27: $1.8MM base salary, $3MM signing bonus
2027-28: $3.6MM base salary
2028-29: $3.6MM base salary

Duchene could have tested the market as one of the top unrestricted free agent centers available, but he’ll instead opt to stay in a Dallas market where he’s excelled as a key top-six contributor over the past two years. In doing so, he takes a significant discount on his market value, at least on a per-year basis. A four-year offer at a much higher price may not have been out there for the 34-year-old, but AFP Analytics projected a three-year deal for Duchene to fall in the $7MM range per season if he hit the open market.

The 2009 No. 3 overall pick is coming off a spectacular 2024-25 campaign. While the Stars scored the third-most goals in the league, their offense was largely generated by committee. Duchene was the only Dallas player who played at least 25 games that hit the point-per-game mark, leading them in scoring with a 30-52–82 line while playing in all 82 games. Averaging over 17 minutes per game, it was the second time Duchene had hit 80 points in his 16-year NHL career and the fourth time he had hit 30 goals.

Duchene initially arrived in Texas on a one-year, $3MM contract for 2023-24 following a surprise buyout by the Predators with three years left on his contract. He posted 25 goals and 65 points in 80 games last year before taking a repeat of that deal to stay with the Stars last summer. It was a significant discount then, and he takes another significant discount now, locking in some highly-desired security through the rest of his mid-30s as well.

The Stars need any help they can get to ice a cap-compliant roster for 2025-26. Duchene’s steep discount certainly helps, but they still find themselves in a position to clear multiple salaries in order to even ice a full roster, let alone re-sign any other pending UFAs. Dallas now has just $455K in cap space with a roster of only 17 players, per PuckPedia. They need to open at least $1.9MM cap space at an absolute minimum via trades to be able to sign three league-minimum players for a bare-bones 20-man roster. In reality, they’ll move at least two of Mason Marchment ($4.5MM), Mathew Dumba ($3.75MM), and Ilya Lyubushkin ($3.25MM) to open up far more than that to give them some in-season flexibility while not taking a catastrophic hit to their forward depth. Jamie Benn, Evgenii Dadonov, and Mikael Granlund remain as pending UFAs up front.

For Duchene, he’ll still be getting compensated more than his contract with Dallas indicates. The expiry of his new deal following the 2028-29 season lines up with when his buyout paychecks from the Predators will end. He’s still set to receive $6.56MM from Nashville in 2025-26 and then $1.56MM annually through 2028-29.

Image courtesy of Jerome Miron-Imagn Images.

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