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Wild Re-Sign Adam Raska

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Minnesota has taken care of one of its restricted free agents as PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that they’ve re-signed winger Adam Raska to a one-year, two-way contract.  The deal will pay $775K in the NHL and $95K in the minors, meaning he took less than his qualifying offer to secure a $15K boost in guaranteed money.

The 22-year-old was a seventh-round pick by San Jose back in 2020, going 201st overall.  Raska started last season in the Sharks’ system but was traded early in the year to the Wild as part of the return for defenseman Calen Addison.  Raska spent most of the season in the minors, playing in 56 AHL contests where he had seven points and 98 penalty minutes.

He has also seen NHL action in each of his first three professional campaigns, including five games with the Wild last season where he had a dozen hits despite averaging less than seven minutes a night.  Over his three years, Raska has 13 total appearances at the top level but is still looking for his first NHL point.

Raska will be waiver-eligible for the first time next season so Minnesota will have to get him through waivers successfully to return him to AHL Iowa.  Assuming that happens, he’ll play in a depth role for them but could get a look with the big club if they’re looking for some grit on the fourth line.

Utah Signs Barrett Hayton To Two-Year Contract

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As alluded to earlier today, the Utah Hockey Club has signed Barrett Hayton to a two-year contract according to a team announcement. The contract will pay Hayton $2.65MM each year of the deal and will not include performance or signing bonuses.

In the press release the general manager of Utah, Bill Armstrong, said, “We are very pleased to sign Barrett to an extension. Barrett is a reliable two-way center who is strong in the face-off circle and is a great complement down the middle to our high-skilled forwards. We look forward to having him back with our organization“.

The extension for Hayton strikes as a modest commitment from the team as they hope he will be able to reach his draft expectations as the formal fifth overall pick of the 2018 NHL Draft. Hayton has inarguably failed to reach his offensive ceiling compared to his time with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League, but has shown promising talents on the defensive side of the puck.

There was some optimism following the 2022-23 NHL season that Hayton could become more of a legitimate top-six option after scoring 19 goals and 43 points in 82 games but injuries prohibited any meaningful steps forward this past season. In mid-November of the 2023-24 NHL season, Hayton suffered an upper-body injury in a game against the Dallas Stars that was originally only meant to keep him out of the lineup for a maximum of six weeks. Unfortunately, Hayton experienced a setback in his recovery which prolonged his return to nearly three months after the initial injury.

Because of his setback in the recovery process, Hayton was limited to 33 games last season where he mustered three goals and 10 points in total. Hayton still showed promising results on the defensive side of the puck despite the lagging offensive output as he achieved a 49.6% faceoff rate in the dot and a 56.0% CorsiFor% (ranking first on the team for players with 25+ games).

Utah should have sufficient depth to bump Hayton down to a middle-six role to start next season and use him in more favorable matchups. Logan Cooley is poised for more responsibility after a solid 2023-24 season which should take some stress away from Hayton down the middle. If he can stay healthy, Hayton should improve upon his previous output after a lost season.

Central Notes: Hayton, Soderstrom, Kumpulainen, Stars

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After an aggressive start to the offseason the Utah Hockey Club still has some work to do regarding a pair of restricted free agents. Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports reports Utah is closing in on a deal with forward Barrett Hayton and there has been no progress towards a new contract for defenseman Victor Soderstrom.

Hayton looked to be moving into the second-line center position for the 2023-24 NHL season after posting strong numbers in 2022-23. The former fifth-overall pick scored 19 goals and 43 points for the now-defunct Arizona Coyotes in 82 games while achieving a 51.1% success rate in the faceoff dot. Unfortunately, the 2023-24 season was not as kind to Hayton as he wasn’t able to get much consistency while dealing with injuries. In a major step backward in his development, Hayton posted three goals and 10 points in 33 games even while starting his shifts in the offensive zone 56.6% of the time.

Soderstrom spent most of the year with the Coyotes’ AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners. In 62 games at the AHL level, Soderstrom scored nine goals and 32 points which tied him in fourth on the team in scoring and first amongst defensemen. The former 11th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft may be serviceable as an extra defenseman on a revamped Utah blue line for the 2024-25 NHL season but could become a trade candidate towards the end of the offseason. Soderstrom has proven to be a quality offensive defenseman in the minor leagues and may be looking for a legitimate opportunity at the NHL level which has not come yet.

Other Central notes:

  • The Minnesota Wild have loaned prospect Rasmus Kumpulainen to the Lahden Pelicans of the Finnish Liiga where he is also signing a two-year contract according to the team. Minnesota drafted Kumpulainen with the 53rd overall pick of the 2023 NHL Draft out of the Pelicans’ farm system where he had spent all of his professional career. The young Finnish prospect spent last year with the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey League where he scored 28 goals and 56 points in 58 games and will now return to his hometown team to continue his development.
  • In a ’first-of-its-kind’ move from the Dallas Stars organization; the team announced it had severed its ties with Diamond Sports Group for broadcasting the team’s games on television and will enter a seven-year agreement with A Parent Media Co. Inc. (APMC). In conjunction with the new broadcasting agreement, APMC and the Stars organization have set up a new streaming service named VICTORY+ which will allow in-market fans of the team to stream the games for free. In regards to the new methods of distributing game content, President of the Dallas Stars and CEO Brad Alberts said, “After years of researching the right solution and careful planning with our partners at APMC, we’re proud to announce this pioneering streaming platform that will literally change the game for sports distribution on VICTORY+“.

Avalanche Sign Calum Ritchie To Entry-Level Deal

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The Colorado Avalanche may have found an answer to their lack of depth up front as they’ve announced a three-year, entry-level contract with forward Calum Ritchie. The deal carries a cap hit of $950K and an AAV of $1.19MM including bonuses, per PuckPedia. The organization selected Ritchie as the 27th overall pick of the 2023 NHL Draft with their highest selection since the 2020 NHL Draft.

During his draft year, the assistant captain for the Oshawa Generals of the OHL scored 24 goals and 59 points in 59 games while collecting another two goals and six points in five postseason contests. Ritchie also performed markedly well during the under-18 World Junior Championship on Team Canada as he scored three goals and nine points in seven tournament games en route to a gold medal.

While retaining the ’A’ on his jersey for the 2023-24 OHL campaign, Ritchie took a big step forward offensively. After missing the first 17 games of the season due to a shoulder injury the young forward rebounded with 28 goals and 80 points in 50 games. He was also one of the best players in the postseason for Oshawa as he scored eight goals and 30 points in 21 games but ultimately failed to help his team get past the London Knights in the OHL Finals.

The biggest asset in Ritchie’s game, which may allow him to crack Colorado’s roster out of training camp, is his ability to play off the puck. The Avalanche have several players able to drive singularly drive the play on their roster and Ritchie could act as a solid complimentary piece to those players. He also carries a physical edge to his game which Colorado has been looking for from their forwards for the last several years.

Steven Fogarty Announces Retirement

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Longtime minor league fixture Steven Fogarty has retired, he announced on his personal Instagram account on Monday morning.

Fogarty, 31, played parts of six NHL seasons and totaled nine total seasons after turning pro after a collegiate career at Notre Dame in 2016. The Rangers selected him out of Minnesota’s Edina High in the third round of the 2011 draft, but he played an additional season of junior hockey with the BCHL’s Penticton Vees, plus a full four years with the Irish before turning pro and signing his entry-level deal with New York. Serving as a dependable call-up for four years and playing an important role on the farm with AHL Hartford, wearing the “C” there for his last season in the Rangers organization, he went without a point and posted a -2 rating in 18 appearances before becoming a UFA in 2020.

He landed on a one-year, two-way deal with the Sabres for the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, holding down a similar role to what he’d held in New York. Fogarty was named the captain of AHL Rochester that year but only played in 16 minor league games. He spent other chunks of the season on the taxi squad and briefly on the Sabres’ active roster, where he recorded his first and only three NHL points (one goal, two assists) in nine showings.

Fogarty spent the following three seasons on two-way deals with the Bruins and Wild, adding another four NHL appearances to bring his career total to 31. He’d spent the last two years under contract with Minnesota, where his last NHL action came in a two-game stint in November 2022. Fogarty spent all of 2023-24 on assignment to AHL Iowa, where he served as an alternate captain for the second season in a row and had 37 points (18 goals, 19 assists) in 69 games with a -21 rating.

A UFA for the past week, he now steps away from a lengthy minor-league career that included 106 goals, 162 assists, 268 points, 282 PIMs, and a -80 rating in 464 games in parts of nine AHL seasons, along with his three points in 31 NHL games. PHR congratulates Fogarty on his pro career and wishes him the best in his post-playing endeavors.

Oilers Re-Sign Raphael Lavoie To Two-Way Deal

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12:36 PM: Lavoie will earn a salary of $225K while on assignment to Bakersfield next season, Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal reports. That’s a significant raise from the $70K AHL salary he earned last year after signing his qualifying offer.

10:21 AM: The Oilers announced that RFA center Raphael Lavoie is back with the team next season on a one-year, two-way contract worth $775K. His AHL salary wasn’t disclosed.

Lavoie made his NHL debut last season, appearing in seven games for Edmonton and posting a -2 rating with four shots on goal while averaging 7:17 per game. It was an important step for Lavoie, who’s been in the Oilers’ system since being drafted in the second round in 2019. Some expected him to make the opening night roster last fall to avoid hitting waivers for the first time in his career, but he passed through unclaimed in October en route to spending most of the season on assignment to AHL Bakersfield.

That’s where the 23-year-old has spent nearly all of his time since turning pro in 2020. The 6’4″, 216-lb forward has some appealing minor league numbers, and he’s coming off a career-high 28 goals and 50 points in 66 games with Bakersfield last year. He’s got some snarl to his game and likely still has NHL upside – it just hasn’t come fast enough for Edmonton to make him a regular before his waiver exemption expired.

The Quebec native, who plays both center and right wing, faces a crowded Oilers forward group next season with 12 players already signed to one-way deals. That doesn’t include RFA Dylan Holloway, who’s a virtual lock to make the team. But after their free agent spending spree, they sit $350K over the cap, per CapFriendly, and will likely move out a contract to accommodate a new deal for Holloway. That could open up room for Lavoie to make the NHL roster, something the Oilers would likely prefer due to his league minimum cap hit.

Lavoie was eligible for salary arbitration this summer but didn’t elect for it last Friday, signaling an agreement was likely close.

NL’s EV Zug Signs Fredrik Olofsson

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July 8: It took a while, but Olofsson is indeed heading to Zug. It’s a two-year deal, the team announced.

March 21: After two seasons in the NHL and AHL, Avalanche forward Fredrik Olofsson’s time stateside may be coming to an end. The pending UFA has been linked to EV Zug of the Swiss National League on the open market this summer, Johan Svensson of the Swedish publication Expressen reports. Notably, it appears the Swedish forward won’t be returning to SHL club IK Oskarshamn, where he spent two seasons prior to signing as a free agent with the Stars in 2022.

Olofsson, 27, was a fourth-round pick of the Blackhawks in 2014. However, after a post-draft season in major junior play with the USHL’s Chicago Steel and a four-year career with the University of Nebraska-Omaha, he was not signed to an NHL contract and became a free agent when his exclusive signing rights expired in the summer of 2019. He headed back home to Sweden for the first time in his career, having played all of his youth hockey in the United States, and signed a one-year deal with MODO Hockey, then of the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. After impressing with 34 points and a +15 rating in 52 games, he garnered interest from teams in Sweden’s top division and landed with Oskarshamn in 2020.

The 6-foot-2 forward was a natural fit there, recording 42 points in 49 games during the 2021-22 campaign and generating NHL interest as a result. Dallas landed him after his SHL season ended, inking him to a one-year, one-way contract in May 2022. He didn’t crack the team out of camp but ended up getting significant NHL time nonetheless, recording a goal and three assists in 28 games while playing fourth-line minutes. Injuries and suspensions meant Olofsson had a chance to play in a handful of postseason contests, too, playing twice in the Stars’ Western Conference Final loss to the Golden Knights.

Olofsson was looking for more NHL opportunities than that, however. With Dallas unlikely to re-sign him, they traded his signing rights to the Avalanche last June in exchange for future considerations. He immediately inked a one-year (and, surprisingly, two-way) contract with the Avs, who were facing a heavy amount of turnover among their depth forwards.

As a result, Olofsson cracked the squad out of camp during his second NHL try. He spent most of this season centering Colorado’s fourth line but hasn’t been much of a factor, recording nine points, a -5 rating, an abysmal 39.7 FO%, and subpar possession metrics in heavy defensive usage while averaging only 9:45 per game. He hasn’t avoided minor-league assignments, either, as Colorado placed him on waivers and assigned him to AHL Colorado in late February. The team recalled him under emergency conditions shortly after the trade deadline, with injuries sidelining multiple depth forwards such as Zach Parise and Chris Wagner, but he was returned to the minors after a five-day stint with the Avs.

Now back with the Eagles, where he has six points and a +8 rating in eight games, it seems likely Olofsson will head back to Europe for increased ice time and responsibility, even if a deal with Zug falls through. If the report comes to fruition, though, Olofsson would be joining one of the top teams in Switzerland – Zug won back-to-back championships in 2021 and 2022 and has made the NL championship series four times since 2017. The club is currently tied 1-1 in their first-round series against SC Bern as the NL postseason began earlier this week. The team boasts only a handful of players with NHL experience, though – only former Blue Jackets winger Gregory Hofmann, former Devils center Brian O’Neill, and former Canucks winger Marc Michaelis, who all combine to only 61 games.

Sabres Sign First-Rounder Konsta Helenius

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The Sabres have signed 2024 14th overall pick Konsta Helenius to his three-year, entry-level contract, per a team release. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

Helenius, 18, fell a bit below his expected draft slot last month. He was the first Finn off the board and the third right winger after the Ducks took Beckett Sennecke third and the Canadiens took Ivan Demidov fifth, although he can also play center. Most public scouting sites had him as a top-10 prospect in the class, and he checked in at No. 9 in TSN’s Bob McKenzie’s final pre-draft polling of NHL scouts.

At 5’11” and 190 lbs, Helenius has pro-ready size and already has a fair amount of experience against professional competition, spending most of the last two seasons in the top-level Finnish Liiga. Last season with Jukurit, Helenius finished seventh on the team in scoring with 36 points (14 goals, 22 assists) in 51 games, very strong production for a draft-eligible forward. He added six points in six postseason contests to finish the year.

He’s far from being the highest-ceiling talent in the class, but he’s one of the most projectable ones and was likely the best player available with Buffalo’s pick at 14. The Sabres acquired the pick the day before the draft in a swap with the Sharks, who had previously acquired it from the Penguins in last summer’s Erik Karlsson trade.

Signing Helenius to an entry-level contract allows him to potentially suit up for the Sabres’ AHL affiliate in Rochester this season, something The Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski reports is the team’s preference. After leading all U18 Liiga players in points for the second year in a row, he’s likely ready for the jump. Elite Prospects lauds him as “a well-rounded, detailed play-driver who is always a step ahead of the opposition.“

Capitals Promote Chris Patrick To GM, Brian MacLellan Remains President

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The Capitals will have a new general manager next season for the first time in a decade. Chris Patrick is being promoted to the role, as well as senior VP of hockey operations, after serving as an assistant GM for the past three seasons, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. He’s replacing Brian MacLellan, who remains with the organization as their president of hockey operations. The Capitals announced the move shortly thereafter.

The GM/POHO setup is becoming increasingly common as teams look to give external and internal up-and-coming options a chance in the GM role. They’ll operate similarly to Patrik Allvin (GM) and Jim Rutherford (POHO) with the Canucks, the former of which finished as a finalist for this year’s Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award.

This was the logical next step after the Capitals added the POHO tag to MacLellan’s title last August, along with giving Patrick a small promotion from assistant to associate GM. Patrick has been with Washington since the 2009-10 season, first joining as a pro scout. He was named their director of minor league operations in 2015-16 and was promoted further as their director of player personnel for the following season. That’s where he remained until the AGM promotion in 2021.

Patrick, 48, has racked up quite the reputation over the past few seasons, with the AHL’s Hershey Bears falling under his purview as AGM. Under Patrick, the Bears – already the most successful franchise in AHL history – have won back-to-back Calder Cups and had 53 wins last season, one short of the team record.

“We are thrilled to announce Chris’ promotion to general manager,” said Caps owner Ted Leonsis. “Chris is a dedicated and hard-working executive who is fully prepared for this next step in his career. His vision, extensive experience, hockey acumen, and player evaluation make him the perfect leader to drive our team forward. We are confident that he will thrive in this new role.”

MacLellan, meanwhile, graduates to a role with slightly less day-to-day responsibility after spending 10 seasons as Washington’s GM. He built the team’s only Stanley Cup-winning roster in 2018 and has been with the Caps for over two decades, first joining as a scout in 2000-01. The 65-year-old will remain with the only NHL front office he’s ever known.

Penguins’ AHL Affiliate Signs Dan Renouf

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The Penguins are gaining some veteran organizational depth on the back end, with their AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton announcing the signing of defenseman Dan Renouf to a one-year deal today. Renouf can still sign a deal with any NHL club, but he projects to start the season on the farm with Pittsburgh’s prospects.

Renouf didn’t see any NHL action last season and made only one appearance with the Bruins in 2022-23, although he’s also seen NHL ice in the 2016-17, 2020-21 and 2021-22 campaigns with the Avalanche and Red Wings. The two-time Calder Cup champion was a UFA this summer after completing a two-year, two-way deal with Boston that paid him an AHL salary of $400K each season. He has three assists and a -6 rating in his 24 career NHL appearances.

The 30-year-old has been an AHL fixture since signing with Detroit as an undrafted free agent in 2016, skating in over 450 minor league games over nine seasons. He’s served as a physical, defensively sound presence and logged heavy minutes for farm clubs in Charlotte, Colorado, Grand Rapids and Providence, posting 118 career points (19 goals, 99 assists) with 577 PIMs and a +102 rating. The left-shot defender plays bigger than his 6’1″, 198-lb frame suggests.

He addresses a major need for experience on the Baby Pens’ blue line next season, which was only set to boast 27-year-old Ryan Shea and his fewer than 200 games of AHL service as its elder statesmen. He’ll likely serve as a mentor to Pittsburgh’s big-fish blue-line prospect in 20-year-old Owen Pickering – the 6’5″ 2022 first-rounder will play in his first full pro season in 2024-25, likely with WBS.

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