As the playoffs role on, most teams are onto their offseason to-do lists. Not surprisingly, the bulk of the key stories from the past seven days come from the contract front beyond the United States picking up their first World Championship gold medal since 1933.
Extension For Sweeney: After executing Boston’s biggest selloff at the trade deadline in quite a while, Don Sweeney will get a chance to build the Bruins back up after he signed a two-year contract extension. Originally signed through next season, he is now under contract through the 2027-28 campaign. Sweeney has been at the helm in Boston since 2015 and this is only the second time in his tenure that Boston missed the playoffs. The Bruins have more than $26MM in flexibility this summer, per PuckPedia, putting Sweeney in a position where he can be more aggressive than usual in terms of adding to his roster in the coming weeks.
Blue Jackets Open To Moving Top Picks: After narrowly missing the playoffs, it appears that the Blue Jackets are willing to make a splash on the trade front. GM Don Waddell revealed that he is 100% willing to move both of his first-round picks in the right deal. Columbus holds the 14th selection (their own) and the 20th pick (previously acquired from Minnesota). That gives them some ammunition to try to move up closer to the top ten or perhaps to try to acquire a player who fits within the age of their core group that still has some club control remaining. If they don’t find a trade fit, one of the NHL’s deeper prospect pools will get a lot stronger.
Blashill To Blackhawks: One of the head coaching vacancies has been filled with the Blackhawks hiring Tampa Bay assistant Jeff Blashill as their next bench boss. He takes over for Anders Sorensen who finished the season in an interim role although it’s expected he’ll remain on the staff as an assistant moving forward alongside Michael Peca who comes over from the Rangers. This is Blashill’s second stint as an NHL head coach after spending seven seasons in that role with Detroit. The Red Wings were at the end of their long playoff run at the time and Blashill’s teams only made the postseason once while playing to a 204-261-72 record overall. With Chicago looking to take a step or two forward toward becoming more competitive, Blashill should be able to do just that over the next few years.
Sabres Gauging Byram’s Market: Sabres blueliner Bowen Byram has been in trade speculation off and on over his brief tenure with Buffalo and it appears that talk is on again following a report that suggests they’re gauging what his trade value might be. The 23-year-old is coming off a career year offensively that saw him put up 38 points while also playing in all 82 games for the first time. The timing of that was great for him as he’s a restricted free agent this summer with arbitration eligibility, putting him in line for a significant increase on the $3.85MM per year he made on his bridge deal. Accordingly, it appears the Sabres are looking to see if a trade might be a better option over making the third high-paid defender behind Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power.
Islanders Hire Darche: The Islanders have found their replacement for Lou Lamoriello as they have named Mathieu Darche as their next general manager and executive vice president of hockey operations. Darche had been part of Tampa Bay’s front office for the past six years, including spending the last two as an assistant GM. He’ll now be tasked with reshaping a New York group that has been near the middle in recent years, either just making or missing the playoffs. They also spoke to Brendan Shanahan about a role in their front office before Toronto officially announced that they won’t be renewing his contract but with Darche getting the dual title, it doesn’t appear that Shanahan will be joining the Isles.
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