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Panthers Sign Daniil Tarasov

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The Panthers have signed recently acquired RFA netminder Daniil Tarasov to a one-year, $1.05MM contract, according to PuckPedia. The deal walks him to unrestricted free agency next summer.

Florida now has their new backup goalie officially in tow after acquiring his rights from the Blue Jackets for the No. 160 overall pick in last week’s draft, which Columbus used on OHL Oshawa center Owen Griffin. They’re taking a flyer on a younger, higher-ceiling option in Tarasov after clearing cap room at the trade deadline by trading top prospect Spencer Knight to the Blackhawks in the Seth Jones trade and replacing him with veteran stopgap Vitek Vanecek down the stretch. The latter won’t be back with the Cats and will hit the open market after making seven regular-season appearances and seeing no postseason action behind star starter Sergei Bobrovsky.

Tarasov looks to get his development back on track with Bobrovsky as his mentor after an inconsistent few seasons as Elvis Merzlikins’ primary backup in Columbus. This past season was particularly difficult for the Russian, who managed a .881 SV% and 3.54 GAA with a 7-10-2 record in 19 starts and one relief appearance. He allowed 4.4 goals above expected, per MoneyPuck. That diminished his trade value, but his resume in Columbus on the whole is more acceptable – a .898 SV%, 3.44 GAA, one shutout, and a 19-34-6 record in 65 career appearances over the past four years.

The signing also means Florida is officially over the cap after also getting new deals registered for Aaron Ekblad, Brad Marchand, and Tomas Nosek in the last 24 hours. PuckPedia has updated its roster projections to reflect a “full” 21-player roster, although they’re $2.175MM in the red and will need to replace a mid-tier salary, potentially forward Evan Rodrigues’ $3MM cap hit, with a league-minimum one in a trade to be cap-compliant to start the year if they have no LTIR-eligible injuries.

Flames Re-Sign Joel Hanley To Two-Year Deal

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The Flames announced they’ve signed defenseman Joel Hanley to a two-year, $3.5MM extension worth $1.75MM per season. He was set to become a UFA at 11:00 a.m. Central. PuckPedia reports he’ll earn $1.25MM in base salary and a $500,00 signing bonus in 2025-26 and a $1.75MM base salary in 2026-27.

Hanley, 34, was a waiver claim back in March 2024 from the Stars. A solid No. 7/8 option for Dallas for six years, they didn’t have room for him on the roster after acquiring Chris Tanev at that year’s trade deadline. Calgary took advantage and added the veteran, who was in the first year of a two-year, $1.575MM contract, for added depth through this past season.

He ended up playing a bigger role than the Flames expected, making a career-high 53 appearances this past season. He also averaged a career-high 18:35 per game when dressed, providing two goals and nine points. Offense has never been the focus of the 5’11” lefty’s game at the pro level, but he had quite good possession impacts across the board with a +12 rating, a 52.2 CF%, and 54.8 xGF% at even strength.

The Ontario native is a great third-pairing option and even a fringe top-four one at that price point, especially for a Calgary squad whose only NHL-caliber lefties in the system without him were Kevin Bahl, Jake Bean, and Ilya Solovyov. Adding or retaining depth was a major priority for them today, and they got some business done early with this deal.

Calgary has a full active roster after signing Hanley, but has a few waiver candidates like Dryden Hunt, Daniil Miromanov, and Solovyov included in that count. They have plenty of cap space left ($18.07MM) to get new deals done for RFAs Morgan Frost and Connor Zary while making external additions today if they can.

Islanders Re-Sign Tony DeAngelo

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The Islanders have reached a one-year agreement to keep defenseman Tony DeAngelo off the market, the team announced. Frank Seravalli reports it’s worth $1.75MM, giving the Isles $12.94MM in cap space with a roster size of 19, per PuckPedia.

It’s an unsurprising resolution to a season that saw DeAngelo regain momentum as a regular in an NHL lineup. The offensively gifted but defensively challenged blue-liner spent 2023-24 on a one-year deal with the Hurricanes following the second buyout of his career, but slipped to a No. 7 role on their depth chart and only managed 11 points in 31 games. He didn’t receive NHL interest on the open market as a result and headed overseas, signing with SKA St. Petersburg in Russia.

The 29-year-old exploded on a team that included notable names like Ivan Demidov and Evgeny Kuznetsov, recording 32 points in 34 games for SKA before terminating his deal mid-season to pursue NHL opportunities. The Islanders, who were in desperate need of defensive depth at the time, particularly on the right side with Noah Dobson and Ryan Pulock out of the lineup, signed him to a one-year, league minimum contract in January.

His return to NHL ice went as expected. He took over as their top power play quarterback, averaging a career-high 23:21 per game, and produced a 4-15–19 scoring line in 35 games. Only Dobson produced more points per game among Islanders defensemen last year than DeAngelo’s 0.54. He also finished sixth-worst on the team with a -11 rating despite playing less than half the schedule, although the Isles did still manage to create more than they gave up with him on the ice at even strength – a 51.8 CF% and 50.9 xGF% back that up.

With Dobson now traded to the Canadiens, DeAngelo fills a need for the Islanders. He’ll presumably remain on their top power-play unit and adds depth to an organization pretty thin on right-shot defensemen. As things stand, it’ll presumably be one of DeAngelo or the comparable Adam Boqvist in the lineup as a pure offensive option on the right side, along with the more defensively inclined Scott Mayfield and Ryan Pulock.

DeAngelo will give the Islanders a sixth defenseman signed to a one-way deal for 2025-26. Four of them are righties, so there’s still plenty of space for lefty Matthew Schaefer to land a spot in the lineup after going first overall in last week’s draft.

Frank Seravalli was first to report the Islanders and DeAngelo were nearing a contract.

Canucks Sign Thatcher Demko To Three-Year Extension

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July 1: It will be a three-year extension for Demko when announced later today, PuckPedia reports. He will be a UFA upon expiry in 2029 at age 33. The team has now announced the deal, which is worth $25.5MM for a cap hit of $8.5MM. He will earn a $10.5MM salary in 2026-27, a $2MM salary and $6MM signing bonus in 2027-28, and a $1MM salary and $6MM signing bonus in 2028-29, according to PuckPedia. The contract also includes a full no-movement clause.

June 30: The Canucks are nearing an extension to keep goaltender Thatcher Demko in Vancouver past next season, sources inform the now-independent insider Frank Seravalli. He’s expected to sign the deal upon becoming eligible to do so tomorrow. They’re still ironing out the money and structure of the contract, but have agreed on its length, per Darren Dreger of TSN.

Demko’s early extension comes days after Dreger reported there was momentum on a new deal despite free agency still being a year away for the netminder. The presumably multi-year commitment comes after perhaps the two hottest-and-coldest seasons an NHLer can have. The 29-year-old’s 2023-24 campaign was outright dominant, posting a .918 SV%, 2.45 GAA, five shutouts, and a 35-14-2 record in 51 games as he finished as the Vezina Trophy runner-up.

Then, Demko sustained a knee injury in Game 1 of their playoff run that year, later revealed to be a popliteus muscle tear – an exceedingly rare injury for an athlete, which led to considerable uncertainty about his return timeline. He started the season on injured reserve and wasn’t cleared to return until December. When he did come back, he was in and out of the lineup due to unrelated injuries and an illness. That led to his numbers nosediving this season, as he logged a career-low .889 SV% and a 2.90 GAA in 23 appearances. That was still good for 1.4 goals saved above expected, according to MoneyPuck, due to a demanding workload in terms of shot quality.

Long considered the organization’s goalie of the future, he had fully achieved that title and was their undisputed starter until late-offseason free agent signing Kevin Lankinen stepped up in his absence this year. During the campaign in which he posted a .902 SV% in 51 appearances, Vancouver rewarded him with a five-year, $22.5MM extension in February. That indicates they anticipate Lankinen handling more of a workload than a standard No. 2 option would for the foreseeable future. He also has a no-movement clause through 2026-27, so a trade isn’t on the table anytime soon.

That indicates the Canucks anticipate Demko’s injury significantly altering his career trajectory and his ability to handle 50-plus starts per season consistently. Presumably, his pending extension will reflect that. His track record, compared to Lankinen’s more limited deployment in heavy usage, means he should still be penciled in as the No. 1 option on the Canucks’ depth chart entering next season and for the foreseeable future. However, Vancouver could be betting on a more platoon approach to keep Demko healthy.

Demko will still count $5MM against Vancouver’s cap for 2025-26 as he enters the final season of the five-year, $25MM extension he signed in 2021.

Image courtesy of Jerome Miron-Imagn Images.

Panthers Sign Brad Marchand To Six-Year Extension

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July 1: The Panthers have confirmed the six-year deal for Marchand while not disclosing financial terms. The exact cap hit is $5.25MM, per PuckPedia.

June 30, 6:20 p.m.: Unsurprisingly, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that Marchand’s new contract is heavily frontloaded. He’ll make just $1MM in base salary each year, and the rest will be paid out in signing bonuses. For trade protection, LeBrun indicated that he’ll get a full no-movement clause for the first four years before transitioning to a modified no-trade clause in the final two years.

4:13 p.m.: The Panthers are signing winger Brad Marchand to a six-year extension “just under” $32MM in total, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The cap hit will be roughly $5.3MM.

Shockingly, after reportedly agreeing to a new long-term contract with defenseman Aaron Ekblad earlier today, the Panthers were able to retain all three of their prominent pending unrestricted free agents. For Ekblad and Marchand, Florida re-signed both on extremely team-friendly deals, in terms of their salary.

Still, it’s difficult not to question the terms of Marchand’s new contract. The two-time Stanley Cup champion is entering his age-37 season, meaning he’ll be 43 upon expiration. It’s quite uncommon for a player of Marchand’s age to sign a deal of such length. Kris Letang of the Pittsburgh Penguins could be the only recent comparable, signing a six-year extension beginning in his age-35 season.

In Marchand’s defense, he hasn’t shown signs of slowing down. Since turning 30 years old ahead of the 2019-20 campaign, Marchand has scored 198 goals and 521 points in 498 games with a +104 rating, averaging 19:02 of ice time per game. He’s received multiple votes for the Hart Memorial Trophy and Frank J. Selke Trophy in that time.

His postseason performances have been equally impressive. In that same time frame, Marchand has scored 45 goals and 98 points in 96 postseason contests between the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers with a +23 rating. His playoff excellence came to a head a few weeks ago, finishing second place in Conn Smythe Trophy voting behind teammate Sam Bennett after the Panthers won their second consecutive Stanley Cup Final.

Now, by keeping Marchand for the foreseeable future, the Panthers will not only have a formidable top-six to stagger opposing teams, but will continue to have a third line that few teams will be able to match up against.

It’ll be interesting to see how General Manager Bill Zito fits the rest of Florida’s group with nearly $20MM doled out to Bennett, Ekblad, and Marchand. There will be more clarity on the Panthers’ salary cap picture tomorrow. They’ll need to find space for new deals for forward Mackie Samoskevich and netminder Daniil Tarasov. Still, they can rest easy knowing all the key players from their most recent Stanley Cup championship team are returning next season.

Canucks Sign Conor Garland To Six-Year Extension

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July 1: The Canucks have officially announced Garland’s extension at six years and $36MM.  GM Patrik Allvin had the following statement about the signing:

Conor is a core member of our hockey team and a player who has taken on a bigger role with the club the past couple seasons. His commitment to us by signing this deal shows how confident he is in our organization’s vision and direction. He competes hard every day, drives play on the ice, is relentless on the forecheck and is really tough to play against. Gars is an emerging leader in the group and works extremely hard to keep himself and the players around him accountable.

June 26: Canucks winger Conor Garland isn’t eligible to sign a contract extension until next week when the 2025/26 league year officially begins.  However, it appears he won’t be waiting for long after that to put pen to paper on a new deal.  Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports (Twitter link) that significant progress has been made in discussions between the two sides, while Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and The Athletic adds (Twitter link) that if a deal is finalized, it could be for six years and around $36MM.

The 29-year-old has spent the last four seasons with Vancouver after being acquired from Arizona as part of the Oliver Ekman-Larsson trade back at the draft in 2021.  A few days after the trade, he signed a five-year, $24.75MM deal that will begin its final season in July.

During his time with the Canucks, Garland’s contract has been viewed as fair at times and also above-market to the point where it was believed that there were off-and-on trade discussions when Vancouver was looking to free up salary cap space.  At one point in 2023, Garland changed agents and had permission to speak to other teams about a swap but obviously, nothing came to fruition there.

But even during those times, the team made it known that they valued Garland’s contributions and the suggestion that an extension could be wrapped up quickly suggests that’s still very much the case.

Over his first three years with the Canucks, Garland was certainly consistent.  His worst season offensively was a 17-goal, 46-point effort while his best goal total was (2023-24) and best point total was 52 (2021-22).  This season was more of the same as Garland tallied 19 goals and 31 assists in 81 games while seeing his playing time jump to a career-best 18:39 per game.

With Brock Boeser appearing likely to depart the organization in free agency next week, Vancouver certainly wouldn’t want to lose their next-best right winger the following year.  It appears that won’t be happening and that Garland could officially be signing an extension as soon as next week, ensuring he’ll be staying with the Canucks for the long haul.

UFA Notes: Allen, Schmidt, Ceci, Perry, Asplund

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The Devils are likely to go “down to the wire” on extension talks with goaltender Jake Allen before the market opens at 11 a.m. CT today, independent insider Frank Seravalli reports.

Allen was a spectacular backup option to Jacob Markström in his first full season in Jersey. There’s no surprise that they’ve expressed strong interest in retaining him, but they’ll likely have to commit significant financial resources to do so. He’s the clear top goalie available amid a weak market and could very well have multiple offers out there for three or more years with an AAV north of $5MM.

Would the Devils be willing to make him their highest-paid goaltender for a season? Markström has some salary retained by the Flames, so he only costs $4.125MM against the cap as he enters the final season of his contract. A multi-year commitment to the 34-year-old Allen might still be a good idea to help guard against a potential Markström departure next summer, especially with no true blue-chip prospects in the system.

Despite a 13-16-1 record, Allen put up better numbers than Markström last year in 20 fewer starts with a .906 SV% and 5.0 GSAA while tying him with four shutouts. He may decide to at least wait to test the market to see if a goalie-needy team like the Sharks, who also need to add nearly $20MM in cap hits next season to reach the floor, gives him an offer he can’t refuse.

Other notes of interest before the market opens:

  • While the Panthers have managed to get extensions done for Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, Brad Marchand, and now depth forward Tomas Nosek in the last few days, the same won’t happen for defenseman Nate Schmidt. He’ll head elsewhere on the open market today after recouping some market value on a one-year deal with Florida following a buyout by the Jets, according to Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. Schmidt, 34 in July, had 19 points in 80 regular-season games but broke out for a 3-9–12 scoring line and a plus-nine rating in all 23 playoff games for the Cats.
  • Another UFA Florida will lose is depth forward Rasmus Asplund. Swiss National League club HC Davos announced they’ve signed him to a two-year contract. Asplund, 27, saw just six games of NHL action with Florida this year and instead spent most of the season with AHL Charlotte, where he had 20 goals and 43 points in 63 games.
  • With the Kings expecting to lose Vladislav Gavrikov in free agency today, they’ve shown interest in inking Cody Ceci on the open market to help recoup some defensive depth, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. A righty compared to Gavrikov’s left-shot, Ceci might be more of a direct replacement for the recently-traded Jordan Spence rather than Gavrikov. The 31-year-old had 24 points and a plus-six rating in 85 games last season between the Sharks and Stars while averaging 21:13 per game, his fourth straight season above the 20-minute mark.
  • The Flyers will make a play for veteran winger Corey Perry today, Friedman says. The 40-year-old may have priced himself out of a new deal with the Oilers following a renaissance postseason performance for Edmonton, ranking second on the team with 10 goals in 22 games.

Panthers Sign Tomas Nosek To One-Year Extension

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The Panthers have reached a one-year extension with center Tomas Nosek to keep him from unrestricted free agency today, according to Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. He’ll earn the league minimum $775,000 salary on a one-way deal.

The cap-strapped Cats will likely sign a few similar deals today as they aim to assemble as complete a roster as possible. Retaining Nosek is a fine first step, bringing them to 18 players on their projected active roster, although the next deal they sign will put them over the cap for now. They have just $500,000 in space following his signing, per PuckPedia, but teams can exceed the cap by up to 10% during the offseason.

Nosek, 32, returns for his second season in Florida after inking a one-year, league-minimum pact in free agency last summer. Calling him a regular may be a stretch – he was often in the lineup for long stretches before sitting for weeks at a time. He appeared in 59 regular-season games, contributing a goal and nine points while averaging 9:49 per game. He was valuable in the faceoff dot (51.8%) and had a plus-four rating, so his non-offensive impacts were strong, but that was his worst production on a per-game basis since emerging as a full-time NHLer with the Golden Knights in 2017-18.

In the playoffs, Nosek was a healthy scratch for their first-round series against the Lightning but played for the remainder of the postseason after making his debut in Game 3 of the second round against the Maple Leafs. He contributed three assists and a plus-four rating in 16 games, seeing more deployment (11:10 per game) than he did in the regular season.

The Panthers have their top nine forward group filled out – even if they trade a forward to clear cap room, their role will likely be replaced by unsigned RFA Mackie Samoskevich. Nosek will be tasked with playing a more consistent role in the lineup next season, but shouldn’t see much increased responsibility when dressed as their fourth-line center.

Latest On Rasmus Andersson

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Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson is eligible to sign a contract extension as of today but talks between him and the team showed that there is still a considerable bridge to gap.  While GM Craig Conroy has said they’re comfortable with having the blueliner in training camp without a new deal in place, the gap in discussions has certainly fueled trade speculation.

To that end, TSN’s Darren Dreger recently reported on Edmonton Sports Talk (video link) that the Kings were believed to have a trade in place to acquire the 28-year-old but Andersson made it known that he doesn’t want to play for them.  He only has a six-team no-trade list but presumably, Los Angeles would have found out about Andersson’s lack of desire to play there when hypothetically discussing what an extension would look like.

At the moment, it appears that Andersson has his eyes set on one trade destination in particular.  Pierre LeBrun reports in his latest column for The Athletic (subscription link) that the team on the top of Andersson’s wish list is the Golden Knights.  He adds that there have been discussions between the two teams over the past week but Calgary hasn’t been excited about the offers on the table just yet.

There’s a logical fit for Andersson in Vegas, with Alex Pietrangelo’s playing days appearing to be over now.  Pietrangelo’s absence would open up a significant hole on the right side of their back end, one that Andersson would be capable of filling.

The 28-year-old has been an all-situations player for several years in Calgary and has reached at least 30 points in four straight years.  Andersson is coming off a quieter year but he still managed 10 goals and 21 assists in 81 games for Calgary last season while logging 23:59 per night of playing time.  While he wouldn’t be quite as impactful as a healthy Pietrangelo, he would certainly be a quality replacement.

Of course, fitting him onto the books for the upcoming season is a whole other challenge.  Vegas used the LTIR relief from Pietrangelo to acquire Mitch Marner from Toronto.  Even with the LTIR savings, that will put them over the cap by the time they fill the remaining open roster spots, meaning that some salary would need to be cleared to open up room for Andersson and his $4.55MM cap charge for next season.

Meanwhile, should Andersson get moved to his preferred team, it stands to reason that an extension would need to be worked out.  Given the contracts that have been handed out to some blueliners in recent days, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he could come close to doubling his current price tag on a long-term contract.

With Vegas taking on Marner at $12MM per season and Jack Eichel expected to receive an extension at some point as well, that’s a lot of money to be adding to their future books so if the Golden Knights are able to land Andersson, they’re going to have to clear up some significant cap room – both present and future – to do so.

Maple Leafs Sign Matthew Knies To Six-Year Deal

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July 1: The Knies deal was officially registered today after issuing him a qualifying offer yesterday, the club announced. Because of that, he was technically an RFA for a few hours, so the deal doesn’t qualify as a true extension. With Knies’ deal on the books and the Marner sign-and-trade completed, the team enters the free agent signing period with $5.8MM in cap space to spend on one open roster spot. The deal breaks down as follows, per PuckPedia:

2025-26: $3MM salary, $6MM signing bonus
2026-27 – 2027-28: $7MM salary, $2MM SB
2028-29: $6.5MM salary, $500,000 SB
2029-30: $6.25MM salary
2030-31: $6.25MM salary, 10-team no-trade list

June 29: The Toronto Maple Leafs and forward Matthew Knies have agreed to a six-year, $46.5MM extension, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The deal comes with a $7.75MM AAV.

Knies, who is coming off a 29-goal, 58-point campaign, will remain in Toronto long-term after being selected by the Maple Leafs in the second round of the 2021 draft.

Knies was set for restricted free agency, but Toronto wrapped up the winger before he could receive any offers from additional teams. The 22-year-old showcased his abilities last season, sniping nearly 30 goals while forming one of the top lines in the league alongside Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. With Marner likely to leave the Maple Leafs in free agency, the team made sure not to lose Knies or recently extended John Tavares.

The extension comes after Knies discussed his hope to remain in Toronto long term at his end-of-season media availability on May 20th. In part, he stated: “I love to play in this city. I think it’s a blast. I want to be here and I want to play here. That’s all that really matters to me,” he said. “I love this group and everyone in this locker room. I think there’s really a chance to win here, and I think it’s the best chance for me to win.”

The American-born Knies has scored 44 goals and 94 points in 161 games for Toronto. Knies also showcased a strong performance during the playoffs last season, posting five goals and seven points in 13 games.

The extension leaves the Leafs with just north of $13.5MM in cap space, per PuckPedia. Now that Knies is signed, GM Brad Treliving can turn his focus to other pending RFAs, including Nicholas Robertson and Pontus Holmberg, before setting his sights on unrestricted free agency.

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