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Snapshots: Ekholm, Domi, Rodrigues, Berard

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Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm has resumed skating as he works his way back from an undisclosed injury, relays YEG Sports Talk’s Tom Gazzola (Twitter link).  However, it’s still believed that he’s still weeks away from returning.  Already ruled out for this round, it appears that the 34-year-old might be in tough to suit up in the Western Conference Final if Edmonton were to make it there.  Ekholm is a critical cog on their back end, playing a key shutdown role while also being a solid secondary contributor after notching 33 points in 65 games this season.  However, it looks like he’s still not particularly close to returning.

Elsewhere around the NHL:

  • The Department of Player Safety announced that Maple Leafs winger Max Domi has been fined $5K, the maximum allowable under the CBA, for a boarding incident against Florida on Sunday. The incident occurred in the dying seconds of regulation on a hit on Aleksander Barkov.  Domi received a major penalty on the play but won’t receive any further discipline beyond the fine.
  • It appears a decision on Evan Rodrigues’ availability will come closer to game time on Tuesday. Team reporter Rob Darragh mentions that Panthers head coach Paul Maurice indicated that the winger hasn’t been cleared to play in the fifth game against Toronto but hasn’t been ruled out yet either.  Rodrigues left Sunday’s game early in the third period following a hit from Oliver Ekman-Larsson and did not return.  He has three assists in nine games so far this postseason.
  • Rangers forward Brett Berard has withdrawn from Team USA’s roster at the Worlds, relays Mollie Walker of the New York Post. The injury is believed to be a minor one and he’s expected to have a full offseason of preparation and be ready for the start of training camp in the fall.  The 22-year-old made his NHL debut in late November and got into 35 games with the big club, notching six goals and four assists.  Berard also added 23 points in 30 games with AHL Hartford.

Kraken Expected To Sign Tyson Jugnauth

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It appears that one of Seattle’s prospects has changed his development plan.  After previously committing to Michigan State, Nathaniel Bott of the Lansing State Journal and Daily Faceoff’s Jeff Marek report (Twitter links) that defenseman Tyson Jugnauth won’t return to college and will instead sign with the Kraken.

The 21-year-old actually spent parts of two seasons at the University of Wisconsin but elected to move to the WHL early in the 2023-24 season, joining Portland.  After notching just two assists in 13 games with the Badgers, he was a point-per-game player with the Winterhawks in 41 outings while adding 16 points in 18 postseason contests.

As it turned out, Jugnauth had a new level to get to offensively.  He potted 13 goals and 76 assists in 65 games, finishing 13th in WHL scoring while leading all blueliners.  He found yet another gear in the playoffs, picking up four goals and 29 assists in just 18 games, good for a share of fourth in WHL postseason scoring while once again leading all defenders.

Not surprisingly, that performance earned him WHL Defenseman of the Year honors.  With how things went, it’s not surprising that Jugnauth will now be seeking a new challenge by turning pro rather than returning to college to finish up his eligibility.  Assuming he ultimately puts pen to paper on a contract, he’ll likely begin next season with AHL Coachella Valley.

Offseason Checklist: Anaheim Ducks

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The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that aren’t taking part in the playoffs plus those eliminated in the first round.  Accordingly, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at Anaheim.

After a rocky showing in 2023-24, the Ducks bounced back relatively well this year with a 21-point jump in the standings.  However, that still left them well short of a playoff spot and GM Pat Verbeek acted quickly, firing Greg Cronin and two assistant coaches while Joel Quenneville has taken over behind the bench.  Even with that big item checked off, Anaheim has a lot to accomplish this summer.

Make A Decision On Zegras

This was a topic in last year’s checklist and frankly, not a lot has changed since then.  Coming off an injury-riddled year that saw him struggle when he was healthy, Trevor Zegras was in all sorts of trade speculation last summer.  There were some more intensive talks at the draft but nothing got across the finish line, giving Zegras a chance to make a better second impression on Cronin and his staff.

Unfortunately, this season was largely more of the same.  He missed more than 20 games with a knee injury and potted 12 goals and 20 assists in the 57 games he played, only a small uptick in points-per-game compared to the year before.  For a player with two 60-plus-point seasons under his belt already, it’s fair to say this was another underwhelming year.

That means the trade speculation is likely to pick up once again in the near future.  Zegras now has just one year left on his bridge deal, one that carries a $5.75MM qualifying offer in 2026 when he’ll be a year away from UFA eligibility.  An early extension makes no sense for either side so Verbeek has two choices here, hold again and hope things will improve under Quenneville or pull the trigger on a trade over the coming months.

Of course, with the way the last two years have gone, Zegras isn’t exactly at peak trade value.  Teams will view him as more of a buy-low candidate and will likely structure their offers accordingly.  However, is Anaheim in a spot where a positive-value return that isn’t the best better than running the risk of him having another down year and seeing his value degrade further or even fall into non-tender or club-elected arbitration territory?  That’s what Verbeek will be looking to weigh over the next little while.

Bridge Or Long-Term Deals?

The Ducks have two of their intended future core players up for new deals this summer.  Armed with more than $38MM in cap space per PuckPedia, Verbeek is in a spot where he can choose which direction to take with them rather than having their cap situation dictate those plans.  That cap space largely insulates them from being a target for an offer sheet as well, given their easy ability to match.

The first is center Mason McTavish.  The 22-year-old was the third-overall pick in 2021 with the hopes that he could become their top center of the future.  (Leo Carlsson was picked a year later and now holds that particular distinction.)  Over his first three seasons, his development has largely been gradual but he did set career highs across the board this year and finished second on the team in scoring with 20 goals and 32 assists on a team that had an awful lot of trouble scoring.  Still just 22, McTavish is certainly tracking to be at least a core player even if he doesn’t wind up as the high-end number one center his draft status might have suggested.

Having said that, this could be a bit of a trickier negotiation.  With the year McTavish had, he wouldn’t want to sign a long-term deal on the basis of him being a 50-point player; he’s going to expect that there’s still more improvement on that front and will want to be paid accordingly.  Meanwhile, Verbeek might not want to pay that type of price tag until he sees more from McTavish.  He pushed for the bridge deal for Zegras and that decision looks particularly wise at the moment.  If it is a shorter-term agreement, it should check in around the $4MM mark.

Then there’s goaltender Lukas Dostal.  This was the year when the label of the goalie of the future changed to goalie of the present as he took over as the primary starter.  On the other hand, his overall numbers were still relatively pedestrian (3.10 GAA and a .903 SV%) but he was playing behind a relatively weak defensive group.  He’s two years away from UFA eligibility so it’s hard to see a two-year deal being the solution here even if it might be the safer way to go normally.

Verbeek’s options here are probably opt for a one-year contract if he needs to see more from Dostal or to pay him like a secondary-tier starter even though his career numbers might not warrant it just yet.  In that instance, deals like ones signed by Karel Vejmelka (five years, $4.75MM AAV), Joey Daccord (five years, $5MM AAV), and Mackenzie Blackwood (five years, $5.25MM AAV) look like the range for Dostal’s next price tag.

Find A Trade For Gibson

Another theme from last year’s column, not a lot has changed here either.  For years now, Gibson has been in trade speculation and while there have been times when it looked like one might be possible, it hasn’t happened yet.  But the environment might be more favorable for a move this time around.

For starters, Gibson quietly had a solid season.  His .911 SV% was his highest mark since 2018-19 while his 2.77 GAA was his best since 2017-18, numbers that were better than Dostal.  After putting up numbers that were below the NHL average for several years, this was a big step in the right direction and should help quell some concerns that he isn’t capable of playing at that level anymore.  That should open up a couple more potential trade avenues at least.

The contract is also more manageable.  Yes, his $6.4MM AAV is still on the high side (ranking 11th as things stand for next season) but there are only two years left on the contract.  It should be more palatable for Anaheim to hold back at least some money on that deal.  If they retained even 20% ($1.28MM), his revised cap hit would be $5.12MM which would be 21st league-wide.  That’s more the range he should be in and the Ducks wouldn’t have to eat a lot of dead money to get him there now.

Then there’s the free agent market.  Aside from Jake Allen, it’s a particularly weak class, making Gibson more enticing as a trade candidate.  If you’re looking for a short-term goalie upgrade, it might be more palatable to trade something for Gibson than commit to a likely lesser option on the open market.

Is this enough to make a trade likely?  Probably not, and it should be noted that there is a 10-team no-trade list to contend with as well.  But there’s a path to a suitable trade this offseason which hasn’t been the case too often.  And if it doesn’t happen, this could very well make another appearance on next spring’s checklist.

Add Some Firepower

Offense has been hard to come by for Anaheim lately.  This season, they were 30th in the league with just 217 goals.  That was actually an improvement on the previous year when they were also 30th but with only 203 tallies.  In 2022-23, they were 31st with 206 goals.  If you want to go back to the last time the Ducks were even in the top 20 league-wide in that department, it was the 2017-18 season.  If we change that to the last time they were in the top half of the league in goals, that came back in 2014-15.

Suffice it to say, this has been a long-standing issue for Anaheim and one that hasn’t really been addressed, even in spite of some decent additions in Frank Vatrano and Ryan Strome in recent years.

If you’re in the glass-half-full category, there’s reason for optimism.  With so many young players in key roles, there’s hope that there will be some internal improvement from all of them which should give them a boost.  Playing for a more proven coach in Quenneville might also give them a bit of a lift.  But expecting that alone to be enough to get them closer to even being league average would likely be foolhardy.

Anaheim has had one of the more restrictive budgets in recent years with the team trying to spend much closer to the floor than the cap.  But last week, team owner Henry Samueli indicated that Verbeek won’t have to penny pinch as much as he did before.  That’s especially noteworthy with their favorable cap situation.

At this point, Verbeek shouldn’t be too picky when it comes to searching for potential offensive upgrades.  But after spending big on Alex Killorn as a culture-building pickup two years ago and striking out on his targets last summer, Anaheim needs to be a lot more successful in its recruitment class this time around and add some much-needed scoring help to this group.

Photo courtesy of Jason Parkhurst-Imagn Images.

Islanders To Interview Jarmo Kekalainen For GM Position

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Several candidates have interviewed or will soon be interviewed for the Islanders vacant general manager position including Ken Holland, Marc Bergevin, Mathieu Darche, and Kate Madigan.  There’s at least one more candidate for the spot as Arthur Staple of The Athletic reports (subscription link) that former Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen is also expected to interview for the job this week.

Kekalainen was one of the NHL’s more longer-tenured GMs until last spring when he was let go after spending parts of a dozen seasons running the Blue Jackets.  Over that time, Columbus made the playoffs only five times and only once did they make it past the first round.  Having said that, a large chunk of the Blue Jackets’ current core was either acquired or drafted by Kekalainen.

The 58-year-old also has spent time working with Ottawa and St. Louis before joining Columbus.  With the Sens, he started out as a European scout before becoming their Director of Player Personnel in 1999.  Three years later, he joined the Blues as their top amateur scout before moving to an assistant GM role three years after that.

As far as candidates go, Kekalainen is certainly one of the most experienced options available.  He also has plenty of familiarity with the division from his time with Columbus and would have seen or scouted most of New York’s current roster.  On the flip side, missing the playoffs in each of the last four years with the Blue Jackets might hurt his candidacy to replace outgoing GM Lou Lamoriello.

Staple also touches on how Lamoriello might be impacting the team’s efforts to replace him.  He relays that owner Scott Malkin is actually hoping to keep the 82-year-old past the end of his contract on June 30th in an advisory role.  While the belief is that Lamoriello would act as an advisor to Malkin and not the new GM, his continued presence could act as a deterrent to potential candidates who might be unnerved at the prospect of shaking up the roster that Lamoriello built while Lamoriello still has some involvement with the team.

To that end, Staple notes that the search is not running as fluidly as it first seemed though it’s unclear how much is tied to Lamoriello’s potential advisory role.  Holland appeared to be their top choice but he’s interviewing for the same role in Los Angeles and may prefer to remain on the West Coast.  Staple suggests the door isn’t entirely closed on Holland getting the job if he doesn’t join the Kings but at the moment, it’s unlikely he’d take the role.

For now, Kekalainen joins Darche and Bergevin as those expected to formally interview for the job in the coming days so if one of those emerge as the successful candidate, the search will be over.  Otherwise, they might have to start widening their search to find their next general manager.

Oilers Recall Collin Delia

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With Calvin Pickard remaining unavailable for the Oilers due to an undisclosed injury, they’ve opted to bring up some extra depth.  Per the AHL’s transactions log, they’ve recalled netminder Collin Delia from AHL Bakersfield.

The 30-year-old spent the season with the Condors after signing a one-year, two-way deal last summer, not getting any recalls to Edmonton.  Delia played in 25 games with Bakersfield, putting up a 2.81 GAA and a .905 SV%, a significant improvement on the 3.55 and .872 marks he had with AHL Manitoba last season.

Delia also has 52 career NHL appearances under his belt over parts of five seasons.  The first four of those came with Chicago but his most significant opportunity at the top level came back in 2022-23 with Vancouver when he got into 20 games, posting a 3.28 GAA and a .882 SV%.

Delia is now the fourth goalie up with the Oilers, joining Pickard, Stuart Skinner, and Olivier Rodrigue, who was Delia’s netminding partner with Bakersfield this season.  Delia will likely serve as the emergency third goalie in case of injury until Pickard is cleared to return.

Evgeni Malkin Considering Retirement In 2026

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Penguins great Evgeni Malkin squashed any retirement rumors earlier this season, at least as it relates to this summer. With one year left on his contract, though, the tide is shifting toward Malkin ending his NHL career when he becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2026, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period wrote Monday.

If he does end up retiring, at least from the NHL, it shouldn’t be a drastic surprise. The 38-year-old center remains a surefire Hall-of-Famer whenever he’s up for election, but his point pace has steadily declined over the past four years. This season saw Malkin average just 1.84 shots on goal per game, down 41% from his career average.

Malkin’s 0.82 points per game in 2023-24 and his 0.74 mark in 2024-25 rank as the two lowest figures of his 19-year career. Nonetheless, that’s still a good clip for a player with a rather reasonable $6.1MM cap hit stemming from the four-year, $24.4MM extension he signed in 2022 to secure the end of his career in Pittsburgh after nearly reaching the open market.

As the team around him continues to enter aggressive retool mode, Malkin remained less of a second-line fixture than he has in years past – perhaps intentionally as the team prepares for life without him in the 2C role. He spent significant portions of the season at left wing with Sidney Crosby and finished fifth on the team in scoring with 16-34–50 in 68 games.

A three-time MVP finalist and one-time winner, Malkin remained steadfast earlier this year that he doesn’t plan on finishing his NHL career anywhere other than Pittsburgh. Depending on how strongly he still feels about that statement, the Penguins’ wish to accelerate their roster turnover next summer by not offering him an extension could play a significant factor in his decision to retire.

As for Malkin’s impact on the Penguins franchise and the league in general, it can’t be overstated. His 1,346 points in 1,213 regular-season games rank 31st in NHL history. Another 50-point year in 2025-26 could push him all the way up to 24th. Only Crosby and Mario Lemieux have tallied more points than him in a Penguins uniform. The 6’5″, 210-lb Russian also ranks first in franchise history with 1,202 PIMs.

Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

These Players Could Be Traded Before The Draft

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The playoffs are in full swing, but that won’t stop folks from looking at moves that could be made before the NHL Entry Draft next month. Plenty of names will be available this summer, but this list will look exclusively at the ones with a high probability of being moved before or at the Draft.

Let’s start with Anaheim Ducks goaltender John Gibson, who feels like he has been on the trading block since the beginning of the decade. Gibson had a bounce-back season this year, and the Ducks must be eager to move on while his stock is higher than it has been in recent years. Anaheim should be able to extract some value this year for Gibson, especially with many teams looking for help in net, and a free agent market void of adequate goaltending.

A caveat with Gibson is that his rebound this year happened while he had a significantly reduced workload compared to recent seasons. The 31-year-old made 29 appearances this season, posting an 11-11-2 record with a 2.77 GAA and a .911 SV%. The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania native has two years left on his contract at $6.4MM per season, and with a modified no-trade clause, he still won’t be the easiest player to move. The writing is on the wall, though, for Gibson, who has been relegated to a backup behind youngster Lukáš Dostál. Teams looking for goaltending will try to get out in front of the market, making Gibson appealing since he shouldn’t cost much for assets, given the money he is owed.

Another name that will almost certainly be moved this summer is Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson. The three-time Norris Trophy winner has never fit into the Penguins’ lineup, and it simply feels like a matter of time before he finds himself donning a different jersey. Karlsson has made it known publicly that he wants to win a Stanley Cup, and that simply isn’t going to happen in Pittsburgh during Karlsson’s current contract.

The 34-year-old has two years left on his deal with a $10MM cap hit and the Penguins will be hungry to turn the page on the failed experiment and might be hoping to clear some of his money off the books if they intend to use the same strategy they utilized last summer to take on undesirable contracts along with draft capital as a sweetener. Last summer, GM Kyle Dubas swung deals to take on Kevin Hayes and Cody Glass along with draft picks to help build up the Penguins’ futures and will most certainly look to the well once again as they try and fast-track a retool.

Karlsson does precious little to help the Penguins in the long term and would be better served by being flipped for futures, even if the return is minimal. The Penguins could look to retain Karlsson’s cap hit, increasing the number of interested parties who could get a top-four offensive defenseman at a reduced cap hit.

A team that desperately needs a good summer is the Detroit Red Wings, who again missed the playoffs. Detroit will likely look to shed defenseman Justin Holl and the one year remaining on his deal at $3.4MM. The Red Wings will likely need to add a sweetener to get rid of his contract, and who better to offer that deal to than the Penguins above? Pittsburgh GM Dubas is familiar with Holl, and it almost makes too much sense for both teams to work out an agreement for the 33-year-old that gives the Penguins a warm body to replace Karlsson and a future draft pick, while the Red Wings would have some cap relief to improve their team. Holl has been a disaster in Detroit, but the Penguins would be more enamored with the sweetener and could try to flip him at next year’s Trade Deadline if he plays well, not unlike they did with Glass this past season.

Sticking with the Eastern Conference, the Buffalo Sabres desperately need to make something happen this summer. The team hasn’t made the playoffs in almost 15 years and missed by a considerable margin again this year. The Sabres need some degree of success and have a strong trade chip in defenseman Bowen Byram. If Buffalo makes him available, there will be a ton of inquiries, as evidenced by Josh Yohe of The Athletic, who believes that the Penguins have interest in the 23-year-old, given their sizable hole on the left side of the defence core.

The Sabres don’t have a lot of strengths, but their left-side defence is loaded with Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power in tow. They could deal Bowen for a haul to address some of the other needs in their lineup and begin to try and break through in the Eastern Conference and get back into the playoff picture. Buffalo desperately needs help at center, and they also need to slot a top-four right-shooting defenseman into their lineup to allow Connor Clifton to drop to the bottom pairing. Byram would go a long way to accomplishing that and making the Sabres a better team overall.

Sticking with the theme of younger players, much has been written about forward Lukas Reichel of the Chicago Blackhawks and his struggles early in his professional career. Reichel could not seize the Blackhawks’ second-line center role last season and was eventually demoted to Rockford of the AHL. This past year, he managed to nail down a spot on the fourth line, but didn’t exactly turn heads.

Chicago once viewed Reichel as a key piece of their future and probably didn’t envision him playing 12 minutes a night on the fourth line some four years into his NHL career. However, not every player develops at the same pace, and Reichel still has plenty of upside. That being said, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reported back in January that other clubs were calling Chicago about Reichel’s availability and mentioned that other teams might see something that hasn’t been clicking for the 22-year-old former first-round pick.

Many teams would be interested in a younger player with pedigree, such as Reichel, who has not yet figured things out professionally. Reichel has a lot of untapped potential and no doubt plenty of GMs around the league see a player with upside who just hasn’t found his way in the NHL.

Photo by Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

Stefan Matteau Announces Retirement

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Longtime minor-leaguer Stefan Matteau has retired, the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters announced Monday.

Matteau, 31, had spent the last two seasons on AHL deals with the Blue Jackets’ affiliate. Injuries limited him to only four goals and 13 points in 30 games during that time, but he did dress as the team’s captain when healthy in 2024-25 and contributed seven points in 15 games.

The son of former NHLer Stephane Matteau kicked off his professional career with a bang. A versatile 6’2″, 207-lb forward with good skating and a heavy-hitting game, he went 29th overall to the Devils in the 2012 draft. His post-draft season was peculiar – he was recalled midway through the campaign from his junior team, the QMJHL’s Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. He spent two months with the Devils before finishing the campaign in juniors again. That initial stretch of three points in 17 games in New Jersey for Matteau would end up standing as one of his career’s most extended NHL stretches.

The Illinois native never spent a full season on an NHL roster and bounced between the Devils, Canadiens, Golden Knights, Avalanche, and Blue Jackets over his 13-year professional career that included seven partial seasons of NHL action. He last played with Colorado in the 2021-22 campaign and totaled a 6-5–11 scoring line in 92 appearances with a -18 rating, averaging 10:15 per game.

Matteau spent nearly all of his career on this side of the Atlantic aside from the 2022-23 campaign, which he split between Sweden’s Linköping HC and Germany’s ERC Ingolstadt. He posted 21 points in 35 regular-season games between the two overseas clubs, including 20 in just 19 games with Ingolstadt.

As for his AHL career, the power winger wraps it up with 76-93–169 in 411 games across 10 seasons with 477 PIMs. All of us at PHR wish Matteau the best in retirement.

D.J. Smith Interviewing For Multiple Head Coach Vacancies

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The Kings have given associate coach D.J. Smith permission to pursue head coaching opportunities across the league this offseason, Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period reports. He’s already received multiple interviews.

Smith has been with L.A. for just over 15 months. The Kings hired him in February 2024 after the Senators fired him as their head coach two months prior. He was brought in less than a week after L.A. canned former head coach Todd McLellan and elevated current bench boss Jim Hiller to the interim HC role.

For teams looking for an experienced head coaching hire, Smith fits the bill. He’s one of the younger options available at age 47, but he spent over four full seasons in control of the Ottawa bench and, before that, spent four years with the Maple Leafs as an assistant. In 317 games coaching the rebuilding Sens, Smith compiled a 131-154-32 (.464) record. He’s still looking for his first playoff berth.

But by the end of his tenure in Ottawa, Smith had coached the Sens into being an above-average defensive squad. Goaltending and poor finishing luck were the Sens’ downfalls in 2022-23, his last full season behind the bench, but they were a playoff-caliber team by most other metrics. Ottawa ranked eighth in power play percentage and 14th in penalty kill percentage while posting good 5-on-5 scoring chance suppression numbers.

Briefly a depth defenseman in the NHL with the Leafs and Avalanche, Smith also spent three years as a head coach in the junior ranks with the OHL’s Oshawa Generals, winning Coach of the Year and a league championship in that span.

Nicolas Mattinen Signs In Germany

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Defenseman Nicolas Mattinen is heading back to Europe after one year in the Maple Leafs organization. Adler Mannheim of Germany’s DEL announced today they’ve signed him to a one-year deal for 2025-26.

Mattinen, an Ontario native, was a sixth-round pick by the Leafs in 2016. The 6’5″, 216-lb righty didn’t land a deal with Toronto when his time in juniors ended. Instead, he took the college route and spent three years at the University of Ottawa.

After COVID limited Mattinen to 42 college games over three seasons, he landed a tryout with the Canadiens’ AHL affiliate to end the 2021-22 season. That didn’t result in a firm NHL or AHL contract offer, so he opted to head overseas instead.

It was an excellent decision for Mattinen, who spent two years tearing up Austria and Germany with Villacher SV and the Straubing Tigers. After posting 42 points in 46 games with Villacher in the ICEHL and being named a league All-Star in 2022-23, he signed on with Straubing in the more competitive DEL for 2023-24 and posted a 16-30–46 scoring line in 52 games with a +14 rating en route to being named the top German league’s Defenseman and Player of the Year.

Eight years after drafting him and six years after losing his exclusive signing rights, the Leafs were finally ready to offer the 27-year-old a contract. They signed him to a two-way deal last April to cover the 2024-25 campaign. He didn’t get an NHL call-up, though, and he was limited to just four assists in 22 games with AHL Toronto. With virtually no meaningful playing time, it was a presumably easy decision for Mattinen to pursue a return to a league where he’s had considerable success.

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