With preseason hockey set to kick off shortly, activity has started to pick up around the league. Here’s an overview of the top stories of the past week.
Pacioretty Sets Extension Deadline: Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty has been at the forefront of the rumor mill in recent months with his eventual departure seeming like a foregone conclusion at this point. While an extension with Montreal appears to be out of the question, Pacioretty indicated that he won’t negotiate a new deal with any team once the regular season gets underway on October 3rd. It will certainly be worth watching to see if that deadline helps spur trade talks involving the winger.
Latest On Seattle: While representatives from Seattle’s ownership group (which was just bolstered by new minority investors) will be meeting with the NHL in October, their potential expansion franchise won’t be voted on at that time by the Board of Governors. It’s not a given that it will be on the agenda for their December meeting either. Shortly after that came out, it was noted that construction on the prospective arena won’t begin until a franchise is officially granted. While this isn’t likely to ultimately quash things, it could certainly delay when the team enters the league. Instead of 2020-21, the most realistic option now appears to be that they will start in 2021-22 at the earliest.
Jets Lock Up Wheeler: Winnipeg entered the summer with several core players entering the final year of their respective contracts and it was only a matter of time before they started to address that. They got the ball rolling by signing winger Blake Wheeler to a five-year, $41.25MM extension ($8.25MM AAV). That represents a significant raise on his current deal which carries a $5.6MM cap charge. While the deal locks up Wheeler through his age-37 season which is a little risky, the captain has very quietly been one of the more productive players in the league in recent years; only four players have more points than Wheeler does over the past three seasons.
Kelly Retires, Rejoins Senators: Long-time checking center Chris Kelly split last season between the AHL, the NHL, and Canada’s Olympic team, has called it a career at the age of 37. The veteran played in 845 career NHL games over parts of 14 seasons, collecting 291 points along the way. His post-playing days have already started as he has signed on with Ottawa as a player development coach. The bulk of Kelly’s playing career game with the Senators after being drafted by the team back in 1999.
Seguin Extension Talks: After previously declaring his disappointment with the fact he has yet to sign a contract extension, talks have picked up in recent days between center Tyler Seguin and the Stars. GM Jim Nill expressed that he’s hopeful a deal can be reached in time for the start of the season. If they can’t come to terms, Seguin projects to be the top unrestricted free agent forward in July and could follow a process quite similar to the one that John Tavares went through this summer. It will be interesting to see if Jamie Benn’s $9.5MM AAV represents an internal cap on an offer to Seguin or if they’re willing to pass that mark to get the 26-year-old locked up.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Max Pacioretty traded to Vegas for Tomas Tatar, Nick Suzuki, and a 2019 second rounder.
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