Five Key Stories: 6/27/22 – 7/3/22

With Colorado beating Tampa Bay to win the Stanley Cup, the offseason is officially underway.  Unsurprisingly, there was plenty of news over the past seven days which is recapped in our top stories.

Boston Gets Their Guy: While it took a lot longer than anyone really expected, the Bruins agreed on a multi-year contract extension with GM Don Sweeney.  Soon after, Sweeney found his next head coach as Boston hired Jim Montgomery as their new bench boss.  It will be Montgomery’s second time running an NHL bench as he was in charge for parts of two years in Dallas before being let go due to “unprofessional conduct” which Montgomery himself revealed was a battle with alcohol abuse.  The Bruins will be dealing with several key injuries to start next season including Charlie McAvoy and Brad Marchand so Montgomery will have his work cut out for him early on until those players return.  Dallas did well with Montgomery at the helm with a .579 points percentage but expectations will be high after they let Bruce Cassidy (who had a .672 points percentage with the Bruins) go earlier this offseason.

Tampa Makes Early Moves: Just days after falling to the Avalanche, the Lightning were back in the news.  First, they found a way to keep Nick Paul around, handing the forward a seven-year contract that carries an AAV of $3.15MM with some trade protection.  The 27-year-old fit in quite well after being acquired at the trade deadline from Ottawa, spending time on the second and third lines both down the stretch and in the playoffs.  Knowing they needed to fit in that contract and their desire to keep winger Ondrej Palat, GM Julien BriseBois then convinced defenseman Ryan McDonagh to waive his no-trade clause and moved him to Nashville for blueliner Philippe Myers and AHL forward Grant Mismash.  The move frees up $4.2MM in cap space as it stands but if Tampa Bay was to have a change of heart and buy out Myers, that could jump to $7.3MM as buying out the 25-year-old would actually give the Lightning a cap credit for next season.  Nashville gets a solid veteran blueliner in McDonagh to bolster their top four and take on the remaining four years of his deal at a $6.75MM cap hit.

Fiala To Los Angeles: Minnesota’s salary cap situation is well-known.  The increased dead cap charge stemming from the buyouts on Ryan Suter and Zach Parise was going to force their hand with Kevin Fiala.  While they wanted to keep him, everyone knew they couldn’t afford to.  That situation worked out well for the Kings as they acquired the 25-year-old in exchange for their first-round pick in next week’s draft (19th overall) along with the rights to prospect defenseman Brock Faber.  Los Angeles wasted little time signing Fiala to a seven-year, $55.125MM extension that carries some form of trade protection in each year that he’s eligible for it.  Fiala is coming off a career year that saw him pick up 85 points in 82 games and he immediately bolsters a Kings attack that was 20th in goals scored this past season.  Minnesota, meanwhile, gets some quality future assets and the cap flexibility that should allow them to fill out the rest of their roster this summer.

Boeser Signs: Saturday was a quiet deadline for Vancouver to reach a new contract with pending RFA forward Brock Boeser as it was the first deadline for club-elected arbitration, one that would have allowed the Canucks to offer 85% of his $7.5MM qualifying offer.  But that would have been a contentious process, one that both sides wanted to avoid.  They were able to do just that as they agreed on a three-year, $19.95MM contract.  The deal provides a small increase on his previous $5.85MM AAV, gives Vancouver a lower price tag than what his qualifier would have been, plus an extra two years of team control as Boeser had just one RFA year remaining.  It’s a tidy piece of business for both sides with the Canucks needing all the cap space they can get to keep as much of their core intact as they can.

Coaching Carousel: For a while, it looked like the NHL’s annual coaching carousel was set to come to an end.  Chicago officially hired Luke Richardson on a four-year contract while Detroit wasted little time following the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Final to make Derek Lalonde their new bench boss in another first-time hire.  At that point, there was just one opening left but before it could be filled, another one opened up as the Sharks surprisingly parted ways with Bob Boughner to allow their eventual new GM to pick their next head coach.  Not long after that, the other vacancy was filled as Winnipeg named former Dallas head coach Rick Bowness as their new head coach, giving him a two-year deal.  San Jose’s vacancy is now the only one around the league.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.