Archives for August 2025

Salary Cap Deep Dive: Columbus Blue Jackets

August 4, 2025 at 9:00 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 1 Comment

Navigating the salary cap is one of the most important tasks for a front office. Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those who don’t often see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation for the 2025-26 season. This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of PuckPedia. We’re currently covering the Metropolitan Division, next up are the Blue Jackets.

Columbus Blue Jackets

Current Cap Hit: $79,157,499 (below the $95.5MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

F Adam Fantilli (one year, $950K)
D Denton Mateychuk (two years, $886.7K)

Potential Bonuses
Fantilli: $3.2MM
Mateychuk: $750K
Total: $3.95MM

Fantilli was drafted with the hope that he could become a legitimate number one center. He appears to be on his way to getting there after being moved back down the middle full-time last season while building off his rookie season nicely. The $1MM in ‘A’ bonuses could very well be hit if he progresses as expected in 2025-26, putting him in a good spot to bypass a bridge contract if that’s a route GM Don Waddell wants to go. A long-term agreement could run past the $9MM per season mark.

Mateychuk was a midseason recall and quickly earned the confidence of head coach Dean Evason. He was a very productive blueliner in AHL Cleveland before the promotion but hasn’t had a big chance to showcase that part of his game yet. If he gets that chance this year, he could have a chance to earn some of his three ‘A’ bonuses but if he remains in more of a fourth or fifth role, that will be tricky. As things stand, Mateychuk appears likelier to land a bridge agreement on his next contract but if he locks down a more prominent spot on the depth chart by 2027, that could change.

Signed Through 2025-26, Non-Entry-Level

F Zach Aston-Reese ($775K, UFA)
F Yegor Chinakhov ($2.1MM, RFA)
F Charlie Coyle ($5.25MM, UFA)
G Jet Greaves ($8.125K, RFA)
D Erik Gudbranson ($MM, UFA)
F Boone Jenner ($3.75MM, UFA)
F Cole Sillinger ($2.25MM, RFA)

Coyle was acquired from Colorado this offseason to give the Blue Jackets some extra depth down the middle. He’s coming off a quiet year that saw him record just 35 points but he’s only a year removed from a 60-point campaign. Assuming he’s able to get back to at least the 40-point range, Coyle should be able to hit the UFA market next summer with a shot at matching his current price tag on a three or four-year agreement. Jenner has been a very effective two-way center when healthy. However, he has missed significant time in five straight seasons which will affect his next contract. When he’s healthy and in form, he’s a big center who is above average on faceoffs and scores more than 20 goals a season. That player would normally get $6MM or more on the open market. But with the injuries, his market value might dip closer to $5MM or so.

Sillinger just turned 22 and already has four NHL seasons under his belt and has taken some gradual strides offensively but isn’t quite proven as a second-line middleman just yet. Notably, he’ll only be two years away from UFA eligibility next summer while also having arbitration rights. If the sides can’t agree on a long-term pact, a one-year second bridge contract could run the team around $3.5MM while a medium-term agreement might land closer to $5MM per season. On the other hand, if he takes a jump forward and Waddell is ready to lock him up long-term, the price tag could push past the $6MM mark. It’s not often someone this age is in this contractual spot since few 18-year-olds play in the NHL right away and with his development so far, there’s a wide range of outcomes.

Chinakhov has been in the media a lot lately with his trade request being made public in recent weeks. He’s only one year removed from putting up 16 goals in 53 games but injuries and a long stretch as a healthy scratch limited him to just seven in 30 outings last season. If he gets back to his 2023-24 form, he’d be in line for a short-term deal that pushes past $3MM per season but if he’s used as he was down the stretch, he could conceivably enter non-tender territory next summer as well. Aston-Reese was an training camp waiver claim from Vegas last fall and earned this one-year extension soon after. As a fourth liner who typically plays limited minutes, he’s likely to stay at or near the minimum salary moving forward.

Gudbranson’s contract came as somewhat of a surprise three years ago given that he was more of a fourth or fifth defenseman at the time. It actually has held up a bit better than expected although last season was largely a write-off due to injuries. In a perfect world, he should be more of a third-pairing player by the time his next contract begins so at least a small dip should be expected. That said, right-shot defenders often get paid more than expected so perhaps he surprises again.

Greaves needs to get into at least seven NHL games this season with at least 30 minutes played per game to actually remain a restricted free agent. If not, he’d become a Group VI UFA. Considering that he projects to be part of the goaltending tandem next season, it’s safe to say that he’ll easily get there, barring injury. He was a big part of their late-season push but still has just 21 NHL games under his belt right now. A solid showing this season could move him closer to the $2MM mark while if he takes over as the starter moving forward, it wouldn’t be shocking to see him more than double that on a deal that buys out a couple of UFA seasons.

Signed Through 2026-27

D Jake Christiansen ($975K, UFA)
F Kent Johnson ($1.8MM, RFA)
F Isac Lundestrom ($1.3MM, UFA)
F Kirill Marchenko ($3.85MM, RFA)
G Elvis Merzlikins ($5.2MM, UFA)
F Dmitri Voronkov ($4.175MM, RFA)

Voronkov received his bridge deal just last month on the heels of a solid second NHL season that saw him record 24 goals and 23 assists. The short-term contract made sense for both sides to better assess if he can become even more impactful offensively before locking in a long-term agreement. Assuming he stays on this trajectory, it wouldn’t be surprising to see his next contract surpass the $6MM threshold. Marchenko appears to be well on his way to an even bigger raise on his next deal. He very quietly put up 31 goals and 74 points last season, legitimate top-line numbers for a middle-six price tag. He has surpassed the 20-goal plateau in each of his three NHL seasons and at the rate salaries are set to increase, he could plausibly double his current price tag two on his next contract.

Johnson received a bridge deal last summer on the heels of a tough season. That contract already looks like a big bargain as he locked down a full-time spot in the top six and had more points than his previous two seasons combined. At this rate, he could get into the $6MM or $7MM range as well with arbitration rights when his deal is up. Lundestrom comes over from Anaheim after the Ducks elected to non-tender him. He has been more of a depth player in recent years, unable to live up to his first-round billing. The fact he can kill penalties gives him some utility but he’ll need to be a lot more impactful if he wants to get past the $2MM threshold on his next deal.

Christiansen was a full-timer on the NHL roster for just the first time last season which didn’t give him much leverage in contract talks. He also averaged just 12:32 per game in 2024-25 which was one of the lower marks for a regular. If he can work his way up to 15 or 16 minutes a night, he could push closer to $1.5MM on his next deal. It also wouldn’t be overly shocking if he was on waivers at some point on this deal if he’s pushed out of a roster spot.

While Merzlikins showed promise early in his career, he simply hasn’t been able to play at the level of an NHL starting goalie with much consistency. Frankly, his performance has been that of a backup at best more often than not. At this point, landing a deal paying half of what he’s getting now could be a challenge barring him turning things around over the next couple of seasons.

Signed Through 2027-28

D Zach Werenski ($9.583MM, UFA)

Werenski’s contract raised some eyebrows at the time it was signed but after they lost Seth Jones to Chicago, they weren’t in a spot where they could risk losing their top defender. After injuries wrecked the first year of the agreement, he has played at a true number one level, an all-situations player who logs heavy minutes and puts up plenty of offense. He led the Blue Jackets in scoring last season, averaging just over a point per game while finishing second in Norris Trophy voting. Given the inflationary trend of the market (particularly on the back end), Werenski appears to be on his way to landing another raise three years from now on another long-term agreement.

Signed Through 2028-29

D Dante Fabbro ($4.125MM, UFA)
F Sean Monahan ($5.5MM, UFA)
F Miles Wood ($2.5MM, UFA)

A few years ago, Calgary paid a first-round pick to clear the final year of Monahan’s contract. But he stayed healthy to earn this contract and while he missed significant time with injury, he still potted 57 points in 54 games, scoring at close to the best rate of his career. It’s likely Fantilli will take his top-line role in the near future but even if he holds down a second-line spot as a 50-point player, this contract should age well. Had he been on the market this summer, he’d have landed a fair bit more than this. Wood had a good first year in Colorado but last season was one to forget between injuries and general struggles. The Avs attached him in the Coyle trade to clear out these final four years which is a clear sign of his current value. However, if he can return to his usual form, the cap charge for a mid-20-point player is reasonable.

Fabbro will go down as one of the top waiver claims in recent memory. Cast aside by Nashville, Columbus claimed him in November and immediately became an impactful player, playing well defensively while logging over 21 minutes a game. There’s some risk with this contract given his play with the Predators but if he can maintain this level, this will become a team-friendly pact pretty quickly.

Signed Through 2029-30 Or Longer

F Mathieu Olivier ($3MM through 2030-31)
D Ivan Provorov ($8.5MM through 2031-32)
D Damon Severson ($6.25MM through 2030-31)

Olivier picked a great time for a career year, scoring more goals last season than the rest of his career combined. While his reputation is that of a fourth-line pugilist, he actually has played higher in the lineup over the last couple of years and as long as he can legitimately hold down a third-line role, this should age relatively well. But if he’s pushed down as other prospects join the lineup, this could become pretty pricey.

This contract for Provorov feels like the Werenski situation repeating itself. They couldn’t afford to lose him for nothing so they paid an above-market price to keep him. It worked out great with Werenski but this could be harder to get positive value on. Provorov is a top-four defender but he hasn’t been able to get his production back to his early Philadelphia days when it looked like he was on his way to being an impactful player on that side of the puck, not a secondary contributor. Had he made it to the open market, he probably would have landed something close to this price tag given the short supply but this looks like a fairly steep overpayment relative to his recent performance.

Something similar could be said for Severson, whose contract seemed high at the time of the sign-and-trade with New Jersey and that remains the case today. He’s a serviceable second-pairing player but was notably scratched down the stretch, hardly an ideal situation for a player signed for six more years. He turns 31 this week and those final couple of years could be an issue. They likely weren’t thinking the first few would be an overpayment as well.

Still To Sign

D Daemon Hunt
F Mikael Pyyhtia

Buyouts

D Adam Boqvist ($533.3K in 2025-26)
F Alexander Wennberg ($891.7K in 2025-26)

Retained Salary Transactions

None

Carryover Bonus Overage Penalty

None

Best Value: (non-entry-level) Marchenko
Worst Value: Provorov

Looking Ahead

Last season, the Blue Jackets narrowly operated above the cap floor following the tragic death of Johnny Gaudreau. While they’re further above the minimum now, they’re still closer to that than the cap ceiling so Waddell will be in position to try to leverage that extra flexibility at some point during the season barring any budgetary restrictions.

But this core group is going to get a lot more expensive in a hurry. New contracts for their younger players over the next two summers could add more than $20MM to the books, outpacing the projected increases to the Upper Limit. Even with that, however, there still should be ample room for Waddell to continue to try to add to the core. While there are some above-market contracts, they shouldn’t prove to be overly problematic anytime soon as Columbus has one of the cleaner sets of books moving forward.

Photos courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

Minor Transactions: 8/4/25

August 4, 2025 at 7:56 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 2 Comments

As we creep a little closer to training camps starting up, there have been a handful of minor moves around the hockey world recently. We’ll run through those here.

Veteran goaltender Anton Khudobin has announced his retirement at the age of 39, Shaiba.kz relays. Khudobin spent parts of 14 seasons in the NHL, compiling a 114-92-33 record with a 2.52 GAA and a .916 SV% with six different teams. After spending most of 2022-23 in the minors, he opted to play in Russia but didn’t play much at the VHL or KHL levels. Khudobin didn’t suit up at all last season but has now made his retirement official.
The Hurricanes’ affiliate, the Chicago Wolves, announced (Twitter link) the re-signing of center Nikita Pavlychev and the signing of defenseman Jacob Friend to one-year contracts. Pavlychev had his best AHL performance last season, picking up 25 points in 63 games after primarily playing in the ECHL for the previous four years. As for Friend, he split last season between playing in Austria and Germany but has three years of playing in the minor pros in North America.
After being moved in the KHL just a few days ago, Matvei Guskov has a new team once again as he has signed with HK Sochi. The Wild drafted Guskov in the fifth round back in 2019 but he has struggled since then, especially last season where he had just four goals in 38 games spread between three other KHL teams. Sochi’s rosters usually aren’t as deep so Guskov may have a pathway to a bigger role and more production now with this move. Minnesota continues to hold his NHL signing rights indefinitely.
AHL Rockford, affiliate of the Blackhawks, announced the signing of defenseman Tyson Feist to a one-year deal. The 24-year-old only played in six AHL games last season, spending most of the year with ECHL Orlando where he had 17 points in 57 appearances. However, Feist saw action in 32 AHL contests in 2023-24 and will be looking to see more regular action at that level in 2025-26.

Islanders Sign Matthew Schaefer

August 4, 2025 at 6:21 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 5 Comments

Back in June, the Islanders made Matthew Schaefer the first overall pick in the draft. Now, they have their newest top prospect under contract as the team announced that they’ve signed the defenseman to a three-year, entry-level contract. Financial terms were not disclosed but PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that, as expected, Schaefer has received the maximum allowable. That means he carries a $975K cap charge including signing bonus money plus an additional $3.5MM in potential performance bonuses, $1MM in ’A’ bonuses and $2.5MM in harder to reach ’B’ bonuses.

The 17-year-old (who will turn 18 next month) didn’t enter last season as the presumptive top selection. However, a strong start with OHL Erie vaulted him into the discussion heading to the World Juniors. He only played in two games there for Canada before suffering a broken clavicle that ended his season. Prior to the injury, he had seven goals and 15 assists in just 17 contests for the Otters. That was a five-point improvement on the year before, despite playing in 39 fewer games.

That was enough for new GM Mathieu Darche to make him the new centerpiece of their future back end, especially since they dealt their previous top defender, Noah Dobson, to Montreal on draft day for two more first-round picks along with winger Emil Heineman. New York is all in on Schaefer being the type of all-situations number one defender that is extremely difficult to come by.

That said, while it’s customary for first overall selections to make the jump to the NHL right away, there’s a case to be made that he could benefit from not doing that. With how much time he missed, he could be better off with one more developmental year under his belt before making the jump. However, it’s worth noting that if the Islanders feel the same way, he will have to return to Erie as he is no longer eligible to play NCAA hockey having now signed his entry-level pact.

If he winds up playing fewer than ten NHL games next season, his contract will slide. Alternatively, they could look at the lesser-known threshold of 40 games on the NHL active roster. If Schaefer came in below that and then was sent back, he’d burn the first year of his contract but not accrue a season of service time toward UFA eligibility.

Speculatively, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Schaefer at least break camp with the Islanders with the team assessing how things are going from there. They didn’t bring anyone in to take Dobson’s spot on the back end while Mike Reilly also left via free agency, signing with Carolina. As a result, there’s a definite opening on their back end for Schaefer to fill next season and while he doesn’t have quite the experience that top picks usually have by now, he has the talent to come in and be a difference-maker quite quickly.

Ducks Sign Sam Colangelo, Tim Washe To Two-Year Deals

August 4, 2025 at 5:11 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 1 Comment

Aug. 4: Colangelo has had his deal officially announced by the club.

Aug. 1, 2:30 p.m.: While announcements of the signings briefly appeared on the team’s website, those were issued in error, sources tell Lee. Neither deal has yet gotten across the finish line. When Washe’s deal is signed, it will pay him $775K NHL/$175K AHL this season before converting to a guaranteed $850K salary in 2026-27, per PuckPedia.

Aug. 1, 1:45 p.m.: The Ducks have signed forwards Sam Colangelo and Tim Washe to two-year contracts, The Hockey News’ Derek Lee reports. Both were restricted free agents. The contracts carry a two-way structure in 2025-26 before converting to one-way deals for the 2026-27 campaign.

While both were teammates at Western Michigan in the 2023-24 season, Colangelo got a one-year head start on his pro career. The 2020 second-round pick signed his entry-level deal in the spring of 2024 after four years in college, going point-per-game in four showings with AHL San Diego to close out the season, as well as scoring his first NHL goal in a three-game trial.

The 23-year-old hit his stride as he kicked off his first full professional season in 2024-25. He didn’t make the Ducks out of camp but received his first recall from San Diego in November, bouncing up and down between leagues over the next few months before eventually earning a permanent NHL roster spot in late February. Colangelo finished the year with 22 goals and 40 points in 40 AHL games as well as 10 goals and a pair of assists for 12 points in 32 NHL contests, respectable production for his bottom-six deployment at 12:29 per game.

The 6’2″, 205-lb winger now has his sights set on cracking the Ducks’ roster out of camp for the first time. While there’s a path for him to do so, it’s not a given. Anaheim is widely expected to carry three goalies to begin the season, meaning there will presumably be only one extra forward spot to spare. Barring a surprise like veteran enforcer Ross Johnston landing on waivers, there are essentially two roster spots up for grabs. Colangelo will be in the group of players competing for them, as will Washe, veteran NHL/AHL tweener Jansen Harkins, Nikita Nesterenko, and 2024 No. 3 overall pick Beckett Sennecke, among others.

Washe, who turns 24 later this month, was an undrafted free agent pickup by the Ducks just a few months ago. The 6’3″ center had a breakout graduate season for Western Michigan in 2024-25, serving as their captain and posting a 16-22–38 scoring line in 42 games with a +22 rating en route to the program’s first national championship. He was only eligible for a one-year entry-level deal given his age, though, so he became a restricted free agent only a few weeks after signing his first NHL deal.

The Michigan native played two games for the Ducks to close out last season, going 4-for-8 on faceoffs with two shots and four hits while averaging 7:44 per game. His path to an everyday NHL role will presumably be as a fourth-line center, a position Anaheim has seemingly set in stone for next season after acquiring Ryan Poehling from the Flyers in exchange for Trevor Zegras. That makes his chances of cracking the roster slimmer than his former collegiate teammate’s, but there’s still a pathway for him to do so.

Both players will be restricted free agents again when their deals are up in 2027.

Snapshots: Heiskanen, Peddle, Penguins

August 4, 2025 at 4:46 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 3 Comments

The Stars will have a fully healthy and fully confident Miro Heiskanen atop their blue line when training camp begins next month, the defender told NHL Finland’s Varpu Sihvonen.

“My confidence is back where it used to be now that my knee can take all the practice and feels fine,” Heiskanen said. He told Sihvonen that his training schedule this summer has been normal after missing most of the back half of the season with a knee injury, only returning to action in time for the late stages of their second-round series against the Jets. The 26-year-old cornerstone had four points in eight postseason games upon returning, but saw a reduced workload at 21:49 per game.

Heiskanen was amid something of a down year offensively before his injury with 25 points in 50 games, but he’d operated at a 69-point pace over the previous two years with a pair of top-10 Norris Trophy finishes to show for it. With cap constraints thinning out Dallas’ defensive depth behind its big three of Heiskanen, Thomas Harley, and Esa Lindell, they’ll need him back at his peak to have aspirations of a fourth straight Western Conference Final appearance in 2026 – hopefully, this time with a Stanley Cup Final appearance to show for it.

Kraken Hire Ryan Jankowski As Assistant General Manager

August 4, 2025 at 2:25 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 1 Comment

The Kraken announced that longtime NHL scout and executive Ryan Jankowski has been hired as an assistant general manager ahead of the 2025-26 season. They didn’t provide much detail on Jankowski’s exact role, but he’ll presumably serve at the top of their scouting hierarchy above director of pro scouting Dave Baseggio and director of amateur scouting Robert Kron.

Now 51, the uncle of Hurricanes forward Mark Jankowski has been in NHL front offices for the better part of the last two decades. The Calgary native doesn’t have a playing background. Nonetheless, today’s news is still something of a homecoming for Jankowski, whose first job in hockey was as a scout in Washington state for the Spokane Chiefs of the WHL. He worked for them from 1997 to 2003 before being picked up as a scout by the Islanders.

Jankowski was promoted to an assistant GM with the Isles two years into his tenure, a role he held until he departed the organization in 2010. He immediately caught on with the Canadiens’ scouting staff, staying there for three years before taking a role with Hockey Canada. He served as the junior program’s head scout from 2013-15 and then as their director of player personnel from 2015-17. During that time, he won a bronze medal with the U-18 group at the World Juniors in 2014 and 2015 and a silver medal with the U-20 team in 2017.

In 2017, he returned to the NHL as the Sabres’ director of amateur scouting. He accepted the same role with the Coyotes in 2020 and followed the rest of the team’s hockey operations staff to Utah last summer, serving as the Mammoth’s director of amateur scouting for their first season. He’ll now depart for another fresh-faced franchise as they undergo a front office restructuring, highlighted by Ron Francis being promoted from GM to president of hockey operations with Jason Botterill, who Jankowski worked with in Buffalo, replacing him.

Jimmy Vesey Signs With NL’s Genève-Servette HC

August 4, 2025 at 1:28 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 3 Comments

Genève-Servette HC of Switzerland’s National League has agreed to a two-year deal with winger Jimmy Vesey, according to a team announcement. Vesey was reportedly considering offers from Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League but will instead move to Western Europe.

It will mark Vesey’s first season overseas following a four-year run with Harvard from 2012-16 and a nine-year NHL career. There presumably wasn’t much interest from NHL clubs this summer in making it a 10-year one. The Boston native had solidified himself as a solid bottom-six piece with PK deployability in recent years but fell out of a regular role in 2024-25, scoring only eight points in 43 games between the Rangers and Avalanche while averaging a career-low 10:39 per game.

Now 32, Vesey was a third-round pick by Nashville in 2012 but opted not to sign with the club. He tested free agency in 2016 following a standout senior season as Harvard’s captain, winning the Hobey Baker Award after scoring 24 goals and 46 points in 33 games. He landed with the Rangers, but his offensive tools never really clicked. He’s only cracked 30 points in a season once, scoring 17 goals and 35 points in 81 games for the Blueshirts in the 2018-19 season.

That ended his first stint in New York. He went on to spend the next three years with the Sabres, Maple Leafs, Canucks, and Devils before returning to Manhattan as a free agent in 2022. He only missed three games over the 2022-23 and 2023-24 campaigns but was a frequent healthy scratch for the Rangers last year, limited to six points in 33 games before being flipped to Colorado near the trade deadline in the Ryan Lindgren deal.

It’s rare that a player making the jump to Europe in his 30s manages to make a successful NHL return. While Vesey still likely has at least a few years of pro hockey left in him, they likely won’t be back in North America. Assuming he has played his final NHL game, he finishes with 101 goals, 93 assists, and 194 points in 626 appearances with a -58 rating. He averaged 13 goals and 25 points per 82 games.

Capitals Hire Derek King As AHL Head Coach

August 4, 2025 at 11:24 am CDT | by Gabriel Foley 6 Comments

The Washington Capitals have appointed Derek King as the Hershey Bears head coach. He will become the 29th head coach in franchise history, taking over the role from Todd Nelson who was promoted to an assistant coach role with the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier this summer. This will mark King’s first head coach role since the 2021-22 season.

King has deep roots in professional hockey. He was once a top prospect of his own, drafted 13th-overall in the 1985 NHL Draft by the New York Islanders after a junior career rife with high scoring and even higher penalty minutes. King turned pro two seasons later, and quickly shed the role of bruiser to step up as a high-end utility man. He scored 12 goals and 36 points in 55 games of his rookie season. He reached the 40-point mark in each of the next three seasons, building up to a true breakout campaign in 1991-92, when King scored a career-high 40 goals and 78 points in 80 games. It was his first time appearing in more than 70 games in a single season.

King surpassed 30 goals in each of the next two seasons, then began a gradual decline in scoring following a move to the Hartford Whalers at the age of 29. He was productive through his final years, including netting 52 points in 81 games of the 1998-99 season – his last full year in the NHL.

With NHL totals dwindling, King was assigned to the minor leagues in the 1999-2000 season, where he quickly returned to the heights of team-leading scoring. His proficiency, and veteran experience, were enough to earn a player-coach title for the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins in the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons.

That role kicked off King’s coaching career, though he wouldn’t take on a full-time coaching role until he joined the Toronto Marlies as an assistant in 2009. He stayed in that role until a promotion to associate coach in 2014. He opted to move to the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack one year later, then returned to the AHL in an assistant role with the Rockford IceHogs in 2016. King was promoted to the role of interim head coach when Jeremy Colliton was promoted to Blackhawks head coach in the 2018-19 season. He then superseded Colliton for the NHL role in 2021, stepping up as Chicago’s interim head coach through 70 games and setting a 27-33-10 record.

The Blackhawks would hire Luke Richardson to fill the head coach role full-time in 2022, but kept King as an assistant coach through last season. He’ll now return to the minors once more to man the bench of a club that’s won the Calder Cup in two of the last three seasons. King previously joined the Marlies to a Calder Cup Finals loss in 2012, but didn’t manage much success in transformative years with Rockford and Chicago. His move to Hershey will bring the club a heap of veteran experience, and could solidify King’s claim for an NHL head coach role should he lead the club to their usual success.

Marlies Sign Alexander Nylander, Luke Grainger, Brandon Baddock

August 4, 2025 at 9:25 am CDT | by Gabriel Foley 4 Comments

The Toronto Marlies have announced that they’ve signed forwards Alexander Nylander, Luke Grainger, and Brandon Baddock each to one-year, AHL contracts. The new deals will mark a return to Toronto for Nylander and Baddock, while Grainger will be making the first move of his career after spending his first pro season in the San Jose Sharks’ system last year.

The trio of signings will be undoubtedly headlined by Nylander – who re-ups with the Marlies after successfully playing through a one-year contract with the club last season. He ranked second on the team in scoring with 23 goals and 44 points across 64 games. That production was enough to earn Nylander five games at the NHL level, though he failed to record any scoring. Nylander was formerly the eighth overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, but he’s spent the better part of the last eight seasons thriving in the minors but struggling to keep his footing in the majors.

Nylander has racked up an impressive 254 points across 394 games at the AHL level. That includes a career-yaer in the 2022-23 season, when he notched 50 points, split evenly, in 55 games with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. But despite rivaling point-per-game scoring in the minors, Nylander’s best NHL season stands as the 2019-20 campaign, when he scored just 26 points in 65 games with the Chicago Blackhawks. That was the only season of his career spent solely in the NHL, and an AHL contract suggests he still has ground to gain before earning a spot on top of Toronto’s call-up list.

Nylander will continue to be supported with the Marlies by bruising forward Baddock, who joined the team via a mid-March trade that sent future considerations back to the Rockford IceHogs. Baddock went on to rack up one point and 11 penalty minutes in seven games with the Marlies, bringing his year-long totals up to eight points and 97 PIMs in 45 games. That performance speaks well to Baddock’s M.O. – he’s a hefty winger who earns his keep with big hits and extended time in the penalty box. His best season came in 2018-19, when he recorded 154 PIMs in 67 games with the Binghamton Devils – over 20 more penalty minutes than his next-highest season.

Rounding out the move is depth forward Grainger, who spent the bulk of last season with the ECHL’s Wichita Thunder. The small-but-mighty forward signed with the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda at the end of the 2023-24 season, and played nine games for the club over the last two seasons. But after notching just one goal in those performances, he was deemed better suited for the third tier of pros. That proved a sensible bet, as Grainger posted 21 points in 36 games of Wichita’s season. A new deal in Toronto should come as a bode of confidence in the 25-year-old forward. He could get a chance to carve out a role in the Marlies’ bottom-six in training camp, but could be headed back to the ECHL if any more conditioning is needed.

Five Key Stories: 7/28/25 – 8/3/25

August 3, 2025 at 9:00 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

The arbitration period has come to an end with the final few players settling before the point of getting to a hearing. Those deals are included in the key stories from the past seven days.

Kings Re-Sign Last RFA: The Kings took care of their final remaining restricted free agent, signing winger Alex Laferriere to a three-year, $12.3MM contract. The 23-year-old has two full NHL seasons under his belt with his 2024-25 campaign being a solid one as he collected 19 goals and 23 assists in 77 games while working his way into being a regular in the top six. He also chipped in with a trio of helpers in their first-round playoff exit at the hands of Edmonton. Laferriere didn’t have salary arbitration eligibility this summer but he will when this deal expires in 2028. At that point, he’ll be a year away from unrestricted free agency.

Not Retiring Yet: While Nicklas Backstrom’s NHL contract quietly came to an end last month, his career isn’t over just yet as he has signed a one-year deal with SHL Brynas. The 37-year-old didn’t play at all last season and was limited to just eight games in 2023-24 after undergoing hip resurfacing surgery, a procedure that ended his NHL career, one that saw him eclipse 1,000 points in a little over 1,100 games with Washington. Backstrom now returns to the program that he grew up in as he looks to extend his playing career a little longer.

Three For Samberg: The first player to get to the point of filing arbitration briefs, Dylan Samberg and the Jets had quite a gap to bridge. However, they were able to reach an agreement, working out a three-year, $17.25MM contract. The deal buys Winnipeg two extra years of team control while those two years will also see Samberg have a six-team no-trade clause. After being more of a depth player for his first few seasons in the NHL, the 26-year-old had a breakout season, logging over 21 minutes a night on the back end while becoming their most trusted shutdown defender. Samberg also had his best offensive season, collecting 20 points in 60 games plus three more in the playoffs when his ice time went past 24 minutes per contest.

Flames Extend A Forward: One player who didn’t need a new contract right away was Flames forward Martin Pospisil, whose bridge deal runs through the upcoming season. However, he has a new pact in place as the two sides agreed on a three-year, $7.5MM extension that runs through the 2028-29 campaign. The 25-year-old is coming off his first full NHL campaign but was quieter than expected offensively, notching just four goals in 81 games although he did add 21 assists. Pospisil was also one of the hit leaders league-wide last season, picking up 301 while spending a bit of time down the middle. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent when this deal expires.

More Arbitration Avoidances: Two more players also got contracts done to avoid an arbitration hearing. Canadiens defenseman Jayden Struble reached a two-year, $2.825MM pact well before hearing submissions were due. He played in 56 games for the second straight season, collecting 13 points and 124 hits in a little under 15 minutes a night of playing time. Meanwhile, Toronto and winger Nicholas Robertson got to the point of exchanging pre-hearing numbers but settled the next day just above the midpoint on a one-year, $1.825MM contract. Robertson had a career-high 15 goals in 69 games last season but also spent time as a healthy scratch, especially during the playoffs when he only made three appearances. Both players will be arbitration-eligible RFAs at the end of their respective deals.

Photo courtesy of James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images.

« Previous Page

Load More Posts

Headlines