With the regular season ending and the playoffs beginning, there was no shortage of storylines across the NHL this past week including Arizona’s relocation being made official. We recap the biggest ones in our key stories.
St. Louis Extended: The Canadiens haven’t had much on-ice success in recent years since their improbable run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2021. However, that didn’t stop the team from exercising a two-year contract option on head coach Martin St. Louis. The Hall of Fame winger has spent parts of three seasons behind the bench in Montreal, originally coming on as an interim coach during the 2021-22 campaign. His teams have played to a 75-100-26 record, good for a points percentage of just .438 with the team in the middle of a full-scale rebuild. However, quite a few key young players have shown improvement under his tutelage including 2022 first overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky who put up 50 points in 82 games this season after notching just 10 in 39 appearances in his rookie year. Montreal will be counting on St. Louis to continue to get those young core players to improve.
Granato Fired: The Sabres’ playoff drought reached 13 years after they failed to make the postseason. That resulted in the team electing to make a coaching change as they fired Don Granato before his extension signed back in 2022 had even started. Granato led Buffalo to a 122-125-27 record over parts of four seasons having taken over during the 2020-21 campaign. Expectations were higher for the Sabres coming into this year after they narrowly missed making the playoffs the year before but instead, several of their key young players took steps back offensively, resulting in a drop-off of 50 goals, a gap that was too much to overcome. Buffalo will now be searching for their eighth head coach since last reaching the postseason.
Sticking Around: It was expected that this season would be Marc-Andre Fleury’s last but that won’t be the case. Instead, 2024-25 will be as the veteran goaltender signed a one-year, $2.5MM contract extension and indicated that he will retire at the end of that season which will be his 21st at the NHL level. The deal does not contain any performance bonuses while Fleury receives a full no-move clause. The 39-year-old struggled this season, posting a 2.98 GAA with a save percentage of just .895, a career-low. With Filip Gustavsson still under contract for two more years and top prospect Jesper Wallstedt looking like he’s ready for a longer look, Minnesota will at least have strong depth at the goaltending position next season.
Not Sticking Around: Veteran center Jeff Carter has elected to not see what type of offers he could have received in free agency, instead announcing his retirement at the end of Pittsburgh’s final game, one he scored in. The 39-year-old struggled this season, notching just 11 goals and four assists in 72 games while seeing his ice time dip to a career-low 12:34 a night. However, that shouldn’t take away from what was a very strong career overall; in 19 seasons, Carter amassed 442 goals and 409 assists while also winning a pair of Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014 with Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Avalanche goaltender Pavel Francouz confirmed he’s also retiring. He missed all of this season and most of last season with groin and knee injuries. When healthy, he was a very effective netminder, posting a .919 SV% in 73 career NHL appearances, all with Colorado.
Johansen Unlikely To Play Next Season: When Philadelphia took back Ryan Johansen as part of the Sean Walker trade last month, it was expected that he wouldn’t play for the Flyers and that they’d try to move him elsewhere. However, it was revealed after the swap that he had a hip injury, one that kept him out for the stretch run and now, all of next season as well; GM Daniel Briere indicated that the veteran isn’t expected to play at all in 2024-25. The 31-year-old struggled with Colorado this season, notching just 13 goals and 10 assists in 63 games, making him a possible buyout candidate this summer. But due to the injury, that won’t be an option as injured players can’t be bought out. Instead, the Flyers will be forced to carry him on the NHL roster next season although he will be eligible for LTIR if Philadelphia needs to use it.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Montreal’s rebuild is stalling out. They aren’t making any measurable progress. St.Louis isn’t a coach, He’s a cheerleader with NO special powers, And Hughes. He hasn’t made any franchise forwarding moves. It’s just cricket’s.
The Wild have zero depth between the pipes. Fleury will be an embarrassment yet again next season. Gustavsson is a backup at best, Wallstedt might be the guy in 2 or 3 years.