Five Key Stories: 5/13/24 – 5/19/24

We’re now down to five teams still playing in the playoffs, a number that will drop to four on Monday.  Meanwhile, it was a busy week off the ice; the biggest news is recapped in our key stories.

Jets To Explore Ehlers Trade: Despite a promising regular season, the Jets were ousted quickly in the playoffs once again last month.  They’ll be making a coaching change for 2024-25 but it appears they’ll also look at shaking up their roster following a report that they’ll look into a possible Nikolaj Ehlers trade this summer.  The 28-year-old has spent his entire nine-year career with Winnipeg and is coming off one of his better offensive seasons, collecting 25 goals and a career-high 36 assists in 82 games.  However, he was quiet once again in the playoffs, notching only a pair of helpers in their five-game loss.  Ehlers has one year left on his contract with an affordable $6MM price tag so if the Jets opt to make a move, they should have considerable interest.  Speaking of veterans not returning, it appears that veteran blueliner Brenden Dillon will not be retained as well.

Islanders Land Tsyplakov: The top international free agent in this year’s class was winger Maxim Tsyplakov, a player who had interest from more than a dozen teams over the last few months.  Capped at signing a one-year, entry-level deal, it came down to who the 25-year-old felt would be the best fit.  That turned out to be the Islanders, who inked Tsyplakov.  He had a breakout showing in the KHL this season, notching 31 goals, fourth-best in the league.  For context, his previous benchmark for points was 25.  Standing 6’3, Tsyplakov can also play center and should push for a full-time roster spot with New York next season.

Nichushkin Re-Enters Player Assistance Program: Avalanche winger Valeri Nichushkin was off to a terrific start to his playoffs with nine goals in eight games but his postseason certainly ended abruptly.  The NHL and NHLPA jointly announced that the 29-year-old has been placed in Stage Three of the Player Assistance Program which carries a minimum of a six-month suspension without pay.  Once he is cleared, he will be eligible to apply for reinstatement.  Nichushkin was away from the team earlier in the season when he was in the second stage of the program; placement in Stage Three means that there was a violation of the treatment plan that was put in place for Nichushkin.  He has six years left on his contract heading into next season at a $6.125MM cap space; he will not count against the salary cap while in the program.

Berube To Toronto: Once the Maple Leafs decided to part ways with Sheldon Keefe, Craig Berube became the speculative favorite to replace him.  That was indeed what happened as the team hired him as the 41st coach in franchise history, signing him to a four-year contract.  This will be Berube’s third time running an NHL bench after spending two years in Philadelphia and parts of the last six with St. Louis before being let go early in the year.  He’ll now be tasked with figuring out how to get a team that has had plenty of regular season success over the proverbial playoff hump as while they’ve made the playoffs eight years in a row, they’ve only won a single series in that span.

Sticking Around: Things weren’t looking good at one point for Rod Brind’Amour to sign an extension in Carolina but the two sides were able to work something out after all as the team has agreed to terms on a multi-year deal (reported to be five seasons) to keep him behind the bench for the long haul.  Brind’Amour has spent the last six years coaching the Hurricanes with the team posting a .664 points percentage under his tutelage.  Carolina has also won a playoff round in each of those years but has played to a 38-36 postseason record.  Despite that, had he been made available, several teams almost certainly would have made a run at trying to sign him.  As part of the agreement, his assistants also received multi-year extensions.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.