The playoffs will last a little longer now with Edmonton staying alive on Saturday night. Even so, offseason activity round the league is starting to pick up, including Arizona’s relocation to Utah being made official. Here’s a rundown of the most notable news from the week that was.
Warsofsky Gets Promoted: After a long coaching search, the Sharks decided that the best option to take over behind the bench is someone who was already there. The team announced that they’ve promoted assistant coach Ryan Warsofsky to the top role. Warsofsky was considered for the top job a couple of years ago but was passed over for David Quinn. San Jose struggled as expected over the past two seasons in the midst of a full-scale rebuild and they’ll be hoping to fare better under their rookie head coach. While this is Warsofsky’s first time running an NHL team, he has previous experience running a bench having been a head coach at both the AHL and ECHL levels.
Steen To Become A GM: Long-time NHL forward Alex Steen hasn’t been retired for long but he is about to take on a big front office job. The Blues have announced that Steen will become their new GM starting in the 2026-27 season. Current GM Doug Armstrong, who was under contract for the next two years, inked a three-year extension through 2028-29 as their president of hockey operations, a title he has held since 2013. Steen was a consultant for St. Louis this season and will now have the next two years to get ready to take over the top job. Armstrong, meanwhile, has been the GM for the Blues for the past 14 seasons with St. Louis making ten playoff appearances including their first-ever Stanley Cup in 2019.
Laine In Play: While there will be several big-name wingers available in free agency in a couple of weeks, it appears as if one notable winger is in play on the trade front as the Blue Jackets and Patrik Laine are in agreement that a change of scenery would be beneficial. The 26-year-old was limited to just 18 games this season between injuries and spending time in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program where he has been since January. When he’s at his best, Laine is one of the more dangerous scoring threats in the NHL but he has played in just 129 games over the past three seasons combined. Laine has two years left on his contract with an $8.7MM AAV, a price tag that will be tricky for a lot of teams to fit in, even with the $4.5MM increase in the salary cap.
Kakko Signs Early: After a tough season, Rangers winger Kaapo Kakko was going to have a hard time making a case for a raise. With that in mind, the two sides settled on a one-year, $2.4MM agreement, the exact amount of what his qualifying offer would have been. The 23-year-old notched just 13 goals and six assists in 61 games in 2023-24, his point total dropping by a little more than half from the year before. The early contract gives both sides some certainty moving forward while if there are teams interested in acquiring the 2019 second-overall selection, the fact they know what his next contract will likely help in those trade discussions.
Carolina Defensive Deals: The Hurricanes have several pending unrestricted free agents but they were able to cut down that list by one, reaching a three-year, $9MM extension with defenseman Jalen Chatfield. The 28-year-old has become a full-time option on Carolina’s third pairing over the last couple of years and had a career-best eight goals and 14 assists in 72 games this season. Chatfield had played on a league minimum contract the last two seasons so this is certainly a significant raise for him. With four other rearguards set to hit the open market next month, Chatfield should be in line for a bigger role next season.
Meanwhile, while he’s not eligible to sign an extension until the calendar turns to July, it appears a tentative agreement is in place between Jaccob Slavin and the Hurricanes. Terms of the reported deal have not been disclosed. The 30-year-old has been one of the anchors on Carolina’s back end for the past nine years, logging over 20 minutes a night in all of those while being one of the top defensive defenders. He has one year left on his current contract which carries a $5.3MM price tag and it’s fair to suggest he’ll be getting a considerable increase when he puts pen to paper on this deal next month.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
My key story is how an originally called 5min kneeing penalty on Nurse last night that the entire broadcast crew (including former ref Dave Jackson) said would clearly be upheld got turned into a 2min tripping call and no one in the hockey media has even brought that up?
It looked like 2 mins from my perspective. You need a distinct leg extension to usually warrant a 5. He just held his course, it was unfortunate but not 5 min major.
That was the issue with the hit that everyone said would lead to the call being upheld, that it appeared Nurse targeted Bennett’s knee from a distance. The call can be debated, yet all the analysts just dropped the issue almost as if that was the directive from on high.
Definitely not the first time that the guys doing the call and ex-ref analyst have agreed with a penalty but then it gets reviewed and downgraded… then they all agree with the updated call.
@Gbear — Dave Jackson? The same guy who stupidly said on Marek’s show one day that some rules aren’t really enforceable? He basically said that we ignorant fans shouldn’t expect the adage of “A penalty in the first is a penalty in the second, third, and OT(s)” being taken literally. Jackson is emblematic of the ever-increasing incidents of referee incompetence, in the past few years. I was listening to the Oilers’ radio side, and I don’t recall them calling for it to be reduced, but rather expecting it to be upheld. Maybe Campbell and Walkom told the crew not to try to impersonate NCAA refs by calling an errant sneeze worthy of 5 and a game. And regarding the media, that one has unpredictable boundaries. We’ll have to listen in on some shows Monday to see who has the stones to bring this up for discussion. I would hope you would get the straight scoop on Sirius/XM somewhere during the day tomorrow.
@Mac – Sadly, apart from Boomer Gordon, the rest of the SiriusXM crew are Bettman lapdogs. Really shallow analysis of the games. :/
@Gbear — Well, that’s a bit of a doggie downer. I’d have expected Laughlin & Gordo to reject that crap, but maybe not? Or even Steve Kouleas?
@Mac – I really think Laughlin just likes to hear himself in his headphones. El Gordo is okay at times.
It just seems like most of them get their talking points from on high and skip over anything that makes the league look bad. Dave McCarthy is the absolute worst of them. I often wonder if he even watches the games he comments on.
Sigh. :/