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Buffalo Sabres Not Expected To Re-Sign Zemgus Girgensons, Victor Olofsson

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After failing to make the playoffs for the 13th consecutive season, the Buffalo Sabres are expected to change their secondary scoring options this summer. According to David Pagnotta of TheFourthPeriod, the Sabres are not expected to offer contracts to pending unrestricted free agents Victor Olofsson or Zemgus Girgensons.

The reported news surrounding Olofsson does not come as a surprise, as the forward has seen his ice time steadily cut since the end of the 2019-20 NHL season. A reliable scoring option in years past, Olofsson has reached the 20-goal mark three separate times in six years with the Sabres organization, but has been known for poor defensive play as well as his play away from the puck. Suiting up in 314 games for Buffalo, Olofsson has scored 90 goals and 92 assists, with 33.5% of his production coming on the Sabres powerplay.

Girgensons, on the other hand, has been a consistent defensively minded forward in Buffalo for the last decade. Drafted by the Sabres organization with the 12th overall pick of the 2012 NHL Draft, Girgensons has played in nearly 700 games for Buffalo, scoring 89 goals and 188 points while being a quality penalty killer to boot.

Throughout his tenure with the Sabres, Girgensons has been through several ups and downs, playing under five different head coaches since his rookie season. On the open market, Girgensons will be hard-pressed to earn more than his current $2.5MM AAV but should be able to find a spot on nearly every team’s fourth line.

Letting Girgensons and Olofsson pursue greener pastures this summer, coupled with the Sabres moving on from Casey Mittelstadt and Kyle Okposo at this year’s trade deadline, it is apparent that Buffalo is looking to redesign its forward core. The organization has plenty of prospect talent at the forward position, and should now have the flexibility to fill in the holes in any manner.

West Second Round Notes: Hintz, Tanev, Smith, Toews, Black Aces

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After not issuing an update in yesterday’s media availability, it is now confirmed that the Dallas Stars will be without Roope Hintz for Game 5, according to the team’s radio analyst, Bruce LeVine. Taking Hintz’s spot in the lineup will be veteran forward Radek Faksa, who has scored one goal in four games so far in this year’s playoffs.

Currently dealing with an upper-body injury, Hintz only managed to skate in 6:35 during the Stars’ Game 4 victory on Monday night, leaving the ice early into the second period. In his shift before leaving the game, Hintz was cross-checked on the right side by forward Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche. Seemingly laboring through the rest of the shift, Hintz would end up blocking a shot and then was once again cross-checked by Avalanche defenseman Sean Walker.

Although losing out on Hintz for Game 5 is a significant blow to their lineup, the team will not be without defenseman Chris Tanev or forward Craig Smith, as both were cleared to play this evening per LeVine (X Link). Similarly to Hintz, both Tanev and Smith sustained injuries in Game 4, with Tanev also joining Hintz in the locker room before the conclusion of the contest.

Other second-round notes:

  • On the flip side of the series, the Avalanche are expected to see defenseman Devon Toews return to the lineup tonight, according to Emily Kaplan of ESPN. Toews will return to the active roster after missing Game 4 due to an illness, and will now help Colorado stave off elimination for the first time this postseason. In eight playoff games so far this spring, Toews has once again been heavily utilized by the Avalanche, scoring one goal and five assists while averaging 23:46 of ice time per game.
  • Lastly, the Stars organization has recalled a trio from their AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, after they were eliminated from the 2024 Calder Cup playoffs this past Sunday. Forward Mavrik Bourque, as well as defensemen Alex Petrovic and Lian Bichsel, will be joining Dallas as depth options for the time being. If the team sustains any more injuries in the coming days, Bourque is the most likely to enter the lineup as the 22-year-old is the recent recipient of the John B. Sollenberger Trophy as the AHL’s leading scorer.

Maple Leafs Interested In Extending Tyler Bertuzzi

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From the start of the 2020-21 NHL season, forward Tyler Bertuzzi had been generally inconsistent, due in large part to his inability to stay healthy for an entire season. Over a possible 220 regular season games, Bertuzzi was only able to suit up in 127 games with the Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins.

Because of this, Bertuzzi failed to secure a multi-year contract in last year’s offseason, choosing to sign a one-year, $5.5MM contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Even though he brought the grit that the Maple Leafs were coveting over the offseason, Bertuzzi failed to reach his expectations on the score sheet for quite some time in Toronto, scoring six goals and 21 points through his first 50 games with the organization.

Nevertheless, Bertuzzi finally picked up his offensive output towards the end of the regular season, scoring 15 goals and 22 points in his last 30 games. Seemingly enjoying his time in Toronto, it was reported only two weeks ago that Bertuzzi would be open to signing an extension with the Maple Leafs, with David Pagnotta of TheFourthPeriod now reporting that the feeling is mutual between the two parties.

With Toronto once again failing to deliver on lofty postseason expectations, there is wide belief throughout the league that major changes will be coming to the roster this summer. Although rumors have been floating around in years past about breaking up the ’Core Four’, the current speculation appears to have much more veracity than in years past.

Outside of Bertuzzi’s pending unrestricted free agency, the Maple Leafs still need to find a head coach, develop a quality defensive core, and iron out their goaltending situation. Assuming that Bertuzzi is hoping to garner a multi-year contract this summer, he may need to settle for a lower AAV than expected, unless Toronto can free up additional cap space in their expected flurry of moves this offseason.

Predators Have Shown Interest In Mitch Marner

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The Maple Leafs haven’t yet given any indication of whether they’ll ask winger Mitch Marner to waive his no-move clause after another first-round playoff exit. However, that hasn’t stopped the Predators from indicating they’d be one of the teams calling if he hits the trade market, per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.

It would be quite a swing from Nashville general manager Barry Trotz as he enters his second offseason at the helm. The longtime coach knocked it out of the park in free agency last summer, landing first-line forwards Gustav Nyquist and Ryan O’Reilly for less than $5MM per season on two-year and four-year deals, respectively. Replacing John Hynes with Andrew Brunette behind the bench also worked out quite well – the latter is a Jack Adams Award finalist this year after guiding the Preds to a 99-point season, their most in five years.

Pagnotta recently posited a Marner for Juuse Saros swap with both star players entering the final season of their contracts, but it’s unclear whether Toronto has shown any interest in the 2022 Vezina Trophy finalist. Without any real indication that Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving is even looking to move on from Marner, it’s impossible to tell for certain what he’d desire in return for his star playmaker.

The Leafs and Preds have been infrequent trade partners, only swapping minor-league or depth players a handful of times over the past few years. Their last major swap came near the 2015 trade deadline, with Toronto sending Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli to Nashville in exchange for Olli Jokinen, Brendan Leipsic and a 2015 first-round pick. The Leafs ended up trading down from that pick, 24th overall, which the Flyers happily used to select Travis Konecny. Then-co-interim GMs Kyle Dubas and Mark Hunter didn’t select any impact NHLers with the picks they acquired, although they did swap one of the picks acquired from Philly for a second-round choice they used to select serviceable defenseman, Travis Dermott.

Marner’s prospective trade value will be influenced by two factors: how many teams he’s willing to waive his no-move clause for (if at all) and if his camp is given permission to work on an extension with the acquiring club. He carries a $10.9MM cap hit next season as he enters the final year of the six-year, $65.4MM deal he signed weeks before the 2019-20 season got underway. Evolving Hockey projects Marner to land an eight-year extension with an $11.7MM cap hit should he sign soon after becoming eligible on July 1.

Toronto would be losing its most dynamic playmaker and one of its better penalty-killers should they move on from Marner, but they would free up considerable cap space to address their lack of puck-moving defensemen and inconsistency in goal. Any roster player they acquire in exchange for Marner is likely to cost a few million dollars less, allowing them to be more aggressive players on this summer’s free-agent market if they make a decision on trading him before the draft.

The Predators, meanwhile, would gain arguably the best player to suit up for them in franchise history outside of two years’ worth of past-his-prime Paul Kariya and 17 games’ worth of Peter Forsberg. Outside of their top line of O’Reilly, Nyquist and Filip Forsberg, center Thomas Novak was the only other Nashville forward to produce over half a point per game. Their top offensive threats are quickly aging, too, with O’Reilly and Nyquist well into their 30s. In a couple of years, a still sub-30 Marner could lead an incredibly deep core of wingers supplemented by Forsberg and top prospects Joakim Kemell and Matthew Wood.

Wild Announce Multiple Front Office Moves

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The Wild have promoted Mat Sells, Michael Murray and Chris Kelleher to assistant general manager roles, GM Bill Guerin announced Wednesday. The team also promoted Matt Hendricks to GM of their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild.

The moves come after Guerin manned the Wild’s front office without a supplementary staff for most of the 2023-24 season. Director of team operations Andrew Heydt, who’d worked closely with various Wild GMs since assuming the role in 2014, mutually parted ways with the team in December after filing an internal complaint against Guerin alleging verbal abuse, The Athletic’s Michael Russo reported. An investigation concluded Guerin had not committed a firable offense and thus remained with the team, Russo said.

Kelleher’s promotion is the most notable. He’s been with the club for nearly two decades and will serve under Guerin as the director of player personnel for Team USA at the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and the 2026 Winter Olympics. The 49-year-old joined the Wild full-time as a pro scout in 2009 and was eventually promoted to their director of professional scouting ahead of the 2019-10 campaign. He was again promoted to director of player personnel two summers ago, making this his third internal promotion in the past six years.

In his AGM role, Kelleher will maintain his scouting and personnel responsibilities. The team said he’ll also support Guerin more closely with trade deadline and free agency prep.

Sells will hold a more technical role, similar to his duties as Minnesota’s director of analytics for the past five seasons. According to the team, he’ll be responsible for “salary cap management, player contract research and negotiations, analytics and hockey strategy and Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) compliance.” Sells, who’s also served as their vice president of hockey strategy for the past three seasons, did not have NHL front-office experience before joining the Wild.

Murray previously served as Iowa’s GM and Minnesota’s director of hockey operations, the former of which is being immediately assumed by Hendricks. Like Sells, the Wild are Murray’s first NHL front-office home. The former Dartmouth College forward joined the Wild as a special assistant to the GM in 2020-21 before being named the GM of Iowa the following season. His AGM responsibilities will revolve around assisting Guerin with day-to-day transactions.

Hendricks steps into his first GM role just five years after wrapping up his 11-year, 607-game NHL career. The former Capitals and Oilers fourth-line fixture also had a brief stop with the Wild in his final season, posting two assists in 22 games there before being traded to the Jets and retiring in the summer of 2019. A Minnesota native, Hendricks returned to his home state in a front-office role immediately after retiring, now logging five years of service as their assistant director of player development under former Wild defenseman Brad Bombardir.

Jets To Explore Trading Nikolaj Ehlers

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The Jets could find themselves with a much different-looking top-six forward group next season. They’re likely to make winger Nikolaj Ehlers available for trade in the weeks leading up to the 2024 NHL Draft in Las Vegas, The Athletic’s Murat Ates reports.

Ehlers, 28, has one year left on his contract at a $6MM cap hit. He can block a trade to 10 teams with his modified no-trade clause.

Signed to a seven-year, $42MM extension back in 2017, Ehlers has been a Winnipeg fixture for nearly a decade. The Danish winger has 201 goals and 457 points in 605 games since breaking into the league in 2015-16, good enough for sixth all-time in scoring in Jets/Thrashers franchise history. His career +92 rating is the franchise record.

Ehlers played in all 82 games this season, his first healthy season since the pandemic, but his 0.74 points per game were his lowest since the 2018-19 season. He was pushed down the lineup with offseason trade pickup Gabriel Vilardi making a home for himself on the top line alongside Mark Scheifele, and midseason acquisitions Sean Monahan and Tyler Toffoli reduced the amount of available ice time. As a result, Ehlers averaged under 16 minutes per game for the second straight season.

Despite the slight offensive decline, Ehlers remained a consistently positive possession force. His shot-attempt share at even strength has been above the Jets’ team average in all nine of his NHL seasons, including a 54.4 CF% mark this season (5.2% higher than Winnipeg’s CF% without Ehlers on the ice). He also posted a career-high +11.1 expected rating based on shot quality when he was on the ice.

In a supplementary article today, Ates listed the Hurricanes, Penguins, Red Wings, Sabres, Senators and NHL Utah as speculative trade matches. Working with someone on a sign-and-trade after July 1 would allow them to get a much better return – after all, Ehlers is slated for unrestricted free agency upon his current deal’s expiry in 2025, and there’s no guarantee he’d stay with a new team for more than one season.

One stat that may damage his value is his playoff performance. He’s made 37 postseason appearances across six campaigns but has only managed four goals and 14 points, half of his career regular-season points per game rate. His last playoff goal came in the first round of the 2021 playoffs against the Oilers. He was limited to two assists and a -4 rating in five games against the Avalanche in this year’s first-round elimination.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Kris Letang, John Ludvig, Matt Nieto Undergo Surgeries

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Three Penguins have gone under the knife in recent weeks, general manager Kyle Dubas announced Wednesday. Defenseman John Ludvig and winger Matt Nieto could miss the beginning of the 2024-25 season after undergoing successful extensor tendon and MCL surgeries, respectively. Star defenseman Kris Letang also underwent surgery to repair a fractured finger on his left hand on Friday but isn’t expected to miss out on any training camp action with an eight-week recovery timeline.

Ludvig had his left wrist surgery done back on April 24, the team said. His recovery window is four to six months, meaning he may be ready for training camp but could also miss the first few weeks of the regular season. Nieto will miss a more significant portion of next season, undergoing reconstructive MCL surgery on his left knee at the beginning of this month. He has a six-to-seven-month recovery timeline, putting his return to game action well into November or December 2024.

Today’s news offers some clarity into Dubas’ open-ended comments at his end-of-season media availability last month. The GM said Letang was searching for a second opinion on an undisclosed injury that he played through down the stretch, putting some speculative doubt into his availability at the beginning of next season.

A finger fracture falls firmly in the best-case scenario category for the 37-year-old, who should begin training camp ready to go as he enters Year 3 of his six-year, $36.6MM extension. He played in all 82 games last season for the second time in his 13-season NHL career, finishing just behind Erik Karlsson in Penguins defense scoring with 10 goals and 51 points.

Nieto is undergoing his second knee surgery in 2024. In January, he had laparoscopic surgery on his right knee, which was initially expected to sideline him for six to eight weeks but ended up costing him the rest of the season.

Dubas said last month that Nieto was also seeking a second opinion on whether surgery or rehab was required for his MCL injury. He obviously opted to go with the former. He sustained the initial right knee injury in late November, ending his 2023-24 season after just one goal and four points in 22 games. The 31-year-old inked a two-year, $1.8MM deal with Pittsburgh shortly after free agency opened last summer. Upon returning to the lineup next season, he likely won’t factor into anything more than a fourth-line role.

Ludvig’s rookie year was also stunted by injuries, namely a concussion sustained in his NHL debut that kept him out for nearly a month. After being claimed off waivers from the Panthers during training camp, the 23-year-old had three goals, five points and a -12 rating in 33 contests in a third-pairing role. He’s under contract next season at a $775K cap hit but will become eligible to sign an extension on July 1.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Kraken Linked To Todd McLellan

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Add Todd McLellan’s name to the list of coaching candidates for the Kraken this summer. He and internal promotion options Dan Bylsma and Jay Leach are the current favorites to be named the franchise’s second head coach, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said on Wednesday’s “32 Thoughts” podcast.

McLellan is on the market after the Kings fired him midseason. He’s also been linked to the Maple Leafs’ coaching vacancy and is considered one of two finalists alongside ex-Blues coach Craig Berube.

Seattle fired Dave Hakstol late last month after he served behind the bench for the team’s first three NHL seasons. The Kraken signed Hakstol to a two-year extension last summer that was set to kick in for 2024-25 after winning their first-ever playoff series, but they fell back out of the postseason picture this year with a 34-35-15 record.

If he lands the role, McLellan will stay in the Pacific Division as he has for his entire head coaching career. Over three stops with the Sharks, Oilers and Kings, McLellan has accumulated a 598-412-134 record in 1,144 regular-season games, good for a .581 points percentage. He’s won just one playoff series since his days in San Jose, though, a first-round victory with Edmonton over the Sharks in 2017.

The Kraken can offer him a squad similar to what he had in Los Angeles. They don’t have the high-ceiling firepower of an Anže Kopitar, Kevin Fiala or Adrian Kempe, but they do have solid scoring depth spread out across all four lines and a largely stout defense group in front of sometimes dominant but inconsistent goaltending from year to year. Seattle hopes the younger Joey Daccord, who took over as their starter this season with a .916 SV% in 50 appearances, can erase that last statement.

McLellan did good work in L.A. to guide them out of a rebuild after coaching a contender in San Jose and failing to get Edmonton to the playoffs consistently in the early days of the Leon Draisaitl/Connor McDavid era. The Kings have finished third in the Pacific in all three seasons since the pandemic, although this year was aided by interim Jim Hiller taking over past the halfway point. He had L.A. off to a torrid start this season, posting a 16-4-3 record through their first 23 games, but a 4-8-6 skid between Christmas and the All-Star break cost him his job.

Leach, whose name has been bandied about for some other vacancies this summer, has been with the Kraken as an assistant since their inception. Bylsma, who won the Stanley Cup as a head coach with the Penguins in 2009, has been the head coach of AHL Coachella Valley since they began play in 2022-23, leading them to a 94-32-18 record in their first two seasons.

Jets Not Expected To Re-Sign Brenden Dillon

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The Jets are expected to let defenseman Brenden Dillon reach unrestricted free agency in July, the Winnipeg Sun’s Scott Billeck reports Wednesday.

Dillon didn’t have any extension talks with Winnipeg in-season, per Billeck. He also hasn’t heard from the Jets front office since their season ended over two weeks ago at the hands of the Avalanche in a disappointing first-round loss. He didn’t play in the final two games of the series after sustaining a hand laceration after the end of Game 3.

The 33-year-old left-shot landed with Winnipeg via trade nearly three years ago. He signed a four-year, $15.6MM contract extension with the Capitals before the 2020-21 season after they picked him up from the Sharks at the prior season’s trade deadline, but lasted only one season in Washington before they flipped him to the Jets for a pair of second-round picks.

Dillon has consistently logged top-four minutes in Manitoba, averaging 19:04 per game over 238 appearances since the trade. He missed just eight games in his three-year tenure, mostly due to COVID and a three-game suspension this year.

That consistency and solid defensive work made him a reasonably valuable asset for general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff at his $3.9MM cap hit. Not only did he stay healthy, he was incredibly consistent season-to-season for Winnipeg, recording between 20 and 23 points every season with a combined +38 rating.

Dillon is perhaps coming off his best season in the NHL, posting career-highs in goals (8), plus/minus (+20) and hits (241). His topped-out physicality did result in more trips to the penalty box (92 PIMs, up from the 60-70 range the past few years). He also controlled a decent 47.4% of expected goals when on the ice at even strength, considering he saw the least advantageous usage of his career, starting nearly 60% of his in-zone shifts in the defensive end.

Since breaking into the league as an undrafted free-agent pickup by the Stars in 2011-12, he’s made 892 appearances for Dallas, San Jose, Washington and Winnipeg. He’s totaled 37 goals, 159 assists, 196 points and 858 PIMs in parts of 13 seasons.

He likely wouldn’t have cost much to re-sign. His age lowers his value, and while he’s still a solid top-four contributor, he doesn’t stand out among an otherwise deep class of UFA defensemen. Evolving Hockey projects he’ll land a two-year deal with a $2.975MM cap hit on the open market, nearly a $1MM decrease from his current cap hit.

That could indicate Cheveldayoff anticipates needing to shell out to keep Dylan DeMelo around. DeMelo, a right-shot, was half of Winnipeg’s top pairing this season alongside Josh Morrissey and had a career year in 2023-24, posting 31 points and a +46 rating while averaging 21 minutes per game for the first time in his nine NHL seasons. On a mid-term deal, he’d likely receive close to $5MM annually on the open market, which will eat up a solid chunk of their $13.35MM in available cap space next season. With a new deal needed for restricted free agent Cole Perfetti coming off his entry-level contract and extending trade-deadline pickup Sean Monahan likely a priority, there’s some viable reasoning for Winnipeg to let Dillon, its oldest pending UFA defenseman, head to market.

No Extension Talks Between Los Angeles Kings, Matt Roy

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After defeating the New York Rangers in the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals, the Los Angeles Kings have had to re-establish their footing in the Western Conference, setting forth on a multi-year re-tool while still holding on to veterans Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty. However, since the Kings’ Cup victory in 2014, even after the recent retooling of the roster, they have failed to make it beyond the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Already going through a coaching change during the regular season, Los Angeles has some major decisions to make during the upcoming offseason, decisions that will influence the future success of the organization. One of those decisions will come on the blue line, as the Kings debate whether or not to retain the services of Matt Roy.

With their season coming to an end two weeks ago, there have reportedly been no extension talks between Los Angeles and Roy’s camp. However, Dennis Bernstein of TheFourthPeriod reports that the Kings organization is expecting extension talks to progress closer to June, a short time before Roy would have the opportunity to discuss a potential contract with the 31 other teams across the league.

Heading into the offseason, Los Angeles will have approximately $23.25MM of cap space to work with, but will notably need to address the contractual futures of up-and-coming talents Quinton Byfield and Jordan Spence with both become restricted free agents this summer. Beyond those two, the Kings are highly expected to make a splash in the goaltending market, which will take its chunk out of the available cap space.

Earning only $3.15MM a year on his current contract, Roy’s play over the last three years may have priced him out of Los Angeles’ lineup next season. Since the start of the 2021-22 NHL season, Roy has suited up in 230 regular season games for the Kings, scoring 16 goals and 72 points in total while averaging over 130 hits and 150 blocks a year in the process.

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