After revealing their initial roster yesterday for the upcoming World Championship, Hockey Canada announced (Twitter link) that Blues goaltender Joel Hofer and Wild defenseman Jacob Middleton have been added to the roster. Hofer spent most of the season with AHL Springfield but didn’t look out of place in six games with St. Louis where he posted a .905 SV%. He’s expected to be the backup for the Blues next season and will compete for playing time in this event with Buffalo’s Devon Levi and Montreal’s Samuel Montembeault.
As for Middleton, the 27-year-old played in 79 games for the Wild this season, picking up 15 points and 155 blocks while logging over 19 minutes a night, all career bests. He also picked up a pair of assists and 24 blocked shots in Minnesota’s opening-round exit to Dallas. It will be his first time representing Canada internationally.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- Another celebrity has joined in on the bidding for the Senators as Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that The Weeknd has joined the Kimel bid, one of the seven groups believed to still be in the race for the team. This comes on the heels of Snoop Dogg partnering up with Neko Sparks’ bid in recent days while Ryan Reynolds and the Remington Group are known to be putting together a competitive bid. The rough deadline for final offers is the middle of May.
- When he met with the media earlier this week including Zach Dooley of LA Kings Insider, Kings goaltender Joonas Korpisalo indicated that there hasn’t been much in the way of discussions on a possible contract extension. The 29-year-old was quite impressive for Los Angeles down the stretch, posting a 2.13 GAA with a .921 SV% in 11 games, helping him earn the starting role for the playoffs. Korpisalo is finishing a one-year, $1.3MM deal that was signed on the heels of an injury-riddled season but now, he’ll enter the open market as one of the top netminders available which could more than triple that rate on his next contract.
Someone will get a steal in Korpi.
Hopefully LA steps up. No confidence in Cal Peterson unfortunately. Peterson/Copley isn’t a great 1-2
No one’s going to get a “steal” on Korpisalo. Take a look at how many UFA goaltenders are out there. Someone is going to badly overpay for him, and then we get to see which Joonas Korpisalo shows up to play: the one who had fine 2023 and 2016 seasons, the one who had an average 2020 season, the one who had mediocre 2017-2019 seasons, or the one who played terribly in 2020-2022?
Nobody is going to overpay. That’s why it will be a steal.
He was an all-star in 2020 so tell me how he was average. He played on a bad hip in 2021-22.
Korpi has performed when healthy and given a steady load.
Except, of course, when he hasn’t. A goalie who’s had just two starring seasons out of seven is just not reliable.
And not overpay? Are you kidding? Price. Bobrovsky. Murray. Gibson. Markstrom. Binnington. Grubauer. Quick. Merzlikins. Petersen. Of the top FIFTEEN paid goalies in the league, I count three (Vasilevskiy, Hellebuyck, Shesterkin) who are earning their keep.
You are misreading me. He’s not Price or Bob. He’s Korpi. He will probably find someone to give him $2.5-3M-ish for 3-4 years and they will get a steal.
I am not “misreading” you. I am *disagreeing* with you. (There’s a difference.) I agree that Korpisalo isn’t worth more than 2.5-3. What I don’t agree with is that there’s no chump in the league who’ll give him twice that, especially with a real dearth of starting goaltending available. GMs have been giving speculative money to goalies with shaky resumes for a long time now.
I never said there was a chump that would give him more than that. He will get roughly what I said and you agreed with, and he will give them more value than that. That’s a “steal.” A bargain. Value. That’s all.
You think there IS a chump that will pay him too much and so he won’t be a steal? Is that where you disagree with me?
Copley might not be the flashiest but he won 20+ games in 30 or so starts. That’s pretty fricken amazing. Give the man the credit he deserves.
Well … he was in net for those wins. He didn’t *lose* games for them, but relative to the rest of the league his SV% was only average. Sounds like the team really stood up in front of him.
Kings don’t have cap space to keep Korpi, barring a trade or buyout of Petersen. But that may be difficult. Kings most likely sign another reclamation project and let them all battle it out. Portillo will get a shot!
Sens and Pens can bd on him till he gets $5M x 4. LOL
The Kings need another top 4 defenseman and that will help with their Goalie situation. That being said Peterson and Copley ain’t gonna cut it. Copley can be a solid 2 but a #1 is needed.