Morning Notes: Berry, Cehlarik, Wagner
Former University of North Dakota head coach Brad Berry is set to be named head coach of the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms, reports Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald. The Phantoms’ previous head coach, Ryan Ward, is expected to join Harvard University as an assistant coach, creating a vacancy for the junior club. The team is set to fill that vacancy with someone who was recently one of the top coaches in college hockey.
Berry, 61, coached North Dakota from 2015-16 through 2024-25. During that tenure, he was named his conference’s coach of the year four times, the NCAA’s coach of the year once. He won one NCAA national championship, four conference regular season titles, and one conference playoff title. While Berry has no previous coaching experience in junior hockey, he was previously an assistant coach at both the AHL and NHL levels.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- Peter Cehlarik, a former Boston Bruins depth forward, has signed a two-year contract with the Växjö Lakers of the SHL. The 30-year-old got into 40 NHL games from 2016 to 2020, and has since spent the last six years in Europe playing in the KHL, Swiss National League, and SHL. The Olympic Bronze Medalist is coming off of a nearly four-year run with Sweden’s Leksands IF, and scored 24 points in 45 SHL games last season as Leksands suffered relegation to the country’s second-tier league, HockeyAllsvenskan.
- Former Los Angeles Kings forward Austin Wagner has signed a one-year contract with the Frankfurt Lions of Germany’s DEL, according to a team announcement. The 29-year-old has played in 178 career NHL games, but has none since 2022-23. Wagner, who scored a career-high 12 goals for the Kings during the 2018-19 season, has spent the last three seasons playing for three different pro clubs. He spent 2023-24 in the SHL with IK Oskarshamn, where he scored 13 points in 34 games and was the SHL’s most penalized player. He spent 2024-25 back in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves, and he played for the KHL’s Shanghai Dragons in 2025-26. Now, he’ll test his luck playing in Germany’s top pro league for the first time.
Free Agent Profile: John Klingberg
If Klingberg and his representation were willing to lower their asking price by $1MM, he would still be under contract with the Dallas Stars. Throughout the 2021-22 campaign, before he would ultimately become an unrestricted free agent, the Stars offered Klingberg an eight-year, $56MM extension. Klingberg’s agent at the time, Peter Wallen, stood firm in his preference for an eight-year, $64MM extension. Having the benefit of hindsight, no extension ever materialized with Dallas, and Klingberg ultimately moved on from Wallen after the negotiations.
Since then, Klingberg has been playing out his career on one-year contracts. No longer having the security of what could have been a healthy extension with the Stars, Klingberg’s career was almost finished prematurely. Early into his one-year contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the 2023-24 season, Klingberg suffered a serious hip injury that cost him most of the season, and put his career into question.
Eventually, through hard work and determination, Klingberg made it back to the NHL the following season, signing with the Edmonton Oilers in mid-January of the 2024-25 campaign. He finished on a strong note with the Oilers, especially in the postseason, but didn’t remain with the team.
Last season, Klingberg took advantage of the San Jose Sharks’ desperate need for defensemen, signing a one-year, $4MM pact with a full no-trade clause through the first half of the year, and a 14-team no-trade list through the deadline season. Klingberg has still been negatively impacted by injuries since, but not to the same degree as he was with the Maple Leafs. On a resurgent Sharks team, Klingberg finished second on the team in scoring among defensemen.
There are still reasonable questions as to how Klingberg’s body will hold up through another full season. Realistically, he’ll likely never reach the 70-game threshold again, but he won’t look out of place in a team’s top four when he is healthy. There are concerns for his play on the defensive side of the puck, so any team that signs Klingberg will have to pair him with a defensive-minded partner.
Stats
2025-26: 56 GP, 10 G, 17 A, 27 PTS, -13, 24 PIMS, 79 shots, 20:28 ATOI, 55.0 CF%
Career: 700 GP, 92 G, 351 A, 443 PTS, -53, 287 PIMS, 1,341 shots, 22:25 ATOI, 56.6 CF%
Potential Suitors
Unfortunately for Klingberg, there aren’t many teams with a significant need for a right-handed blueliner a few weeks after the opening of free agency. To this point, if any teams had significant needs, those areas have already been addressed.
As far as the most obvious fit, a return to Orange County makes a lot of sense. The Ducks lost John Carlson, Jacob Trouba, and Radko Gudas in the last few weeks, and are in a position to use some untested options to fill in those gaps. The team signed Nick Jensen on the opening day of free agency, but they could still use a bit more depth on the right side of the blue line.
Carlson’s new team, the Tampa Bay Lightning, also makes sense for Klingberg to some degree. Tampa Bay arguably has the best left side of a defensive corps in the league, but they don’t have a ton of strength behind Carlson on the right side. Given how impacted the defensive corps was by injuries last season, the Lightning could use some additional depth on defense to play it safe.
Lastly, returning to the Maple Leafs also seems like a reasonable option. Obviously, there’s no guarantee that Toronto will get a full season from veteran Chris Tanev after his groin injury last season, and Klingberg looks like the best available option if they want to move those minutes elsewhere.
Projected Contract
Heading into the offseason, AFP Analytics projected Klingberg to land a two-year, $10.3MM ($5.15MM AAV) on the free agent market. His $4MM salary in 2025-26 was 4.1% of the cap, and a $5.15MM salary in 2026-27 would have been approximately 5%, decreasing to 4.5% in 2027-28. That doesn’t seem too unreasonable given he had a far healthier season than he has had in recent years, but obviously, that contract didn’t materialize.
Given that he’s still struggling with some injuries, Klingberg is likely due for another one-year deal in the $2.5MM to $3.5MM range, with an added kicker in the form of games played bonuses. At the very least, that should open his options up to competitive teams, as teams like the Ducks and the Lightning could fit that in comfortably.
Photo courtesy of David Gonzales-Imagn Images.
Hurricanes Sign Viktor Neuchev To One-Year Deal
The Hurricanes have re-signed RFA forward Viktor Neuchev, to a one-year, two-way contract, per puckpedia. The deal pays $850K at the NHL level and $90K in the minors. Neuchev is represented by Dan Milstein of Gold Star Sports Management.
The 22-year-old joined the organization in January, arriving from Buffalo in exchange for depth defenseman Gavin Bayreuther. A third-round pick (74th overall) by the Sabres in 2022, Neuchev spent parts of three seasons in Buffalo’s system before the move, posting 66 points (24 goals, 42 assists) in 130 games with AHL Rochester.
The transition to Carolina’s affiliate was a quiet one. Neuchev managed just nine points in 30 games with the Chicago Wolves down the stretch, a modest finish to a season that had shown flashes earlier in Rochester, where he’d put up 16 points in 34 games before the trade. A shoulder surgery that ended his 2024-25 campaign early hasn’t helped his development curve, though he returned healthy this season.
The Chelyabinsk native brings a skilled, puck-driving profile that earned him prospect attention in Buffalo; EliteProspects’ 2022 draft guide pegged him as “a fast handler who likes to demonstrate his talents; a showoff and an entertainer with the puck.” Translating that to the North American pro game remains the work in front of him.
For Carolina, this is a low-risk retention of a former mid-round pick who still has runway at 22. He projects as a Chicago Wolves regular to open 2026-27, with the two-way structure keeping him affordable if he forces his way into the NHL conversation. The onus is on Neuchev to make a deeper offensive push in his first full season in the system.
Rangers Sign Braden Schneider To A One-Year Extension
The Rangers have avoided an arbitration hearing, signing defenseman Braden Schneider to a one-year contract carrying a $5.5MM cap hit, per PuckPedia. The deal consists entirely of salary, with no signing bonus. Schneider’s hearing had been scheduled for July 29.
It’s a significant raise for the 24-year-old, who was coming off a two-year bridge deal worth $2.2MM annually and had been issued a qualifying offer of $2.64MM. Schneider filed for arbitration ahead of the July 5 deadline, one of 15 players league-wide to do so, a move that also removed the possibility of an offer sheet. The new contract leaves him a restricted free agent again next summer.
Schneider handled the heaviest workload of his career in 2025-26. He played all 82 games and averaged 20:27 per night, a career high, while leading the club with 140 blocked shots and ranking third in hits with 163. The Prince Albert native finished with 18 points (two goals, 16 assists). The bulk of that ice time came under difficult circumstances: with Adam Fox sidelined for two extended stretches, Schneider was pushed into 27 games on the top pair, as reported by John Kreiser, and inherited the toughest matchups on the roster, an assignment well above what he had been asked to shoulder to that point. His underlying numbers took a hit accordingly, though the context is hard to separate from the results.
New York reinforced the group around him this offseason, acquiring Sean Durzi and Marcus Pettersson to solidify their defensive pairings heading into the 2026-27 season. That should return Schneider to a third-pair role with more manageable five-on-five deployment. At 24, he’s still on the early side of the development curve for a defenseman, and this contract gives both sides a season to sort out what comes next.
Free Agent Profile: Anthony Mantha
Most years, the leading scorer to actually make it to the open market in a UFA class is typically highly coveted. Generally, within hours of the market opening up, that player has secured a long-term contract and a nice raise on whatever he was making the season before.
That is not the case this year, however. We’re a week and a half into free agency and this year’s top scorer remains unsigned. That would be winger Anthony Mantha, whose stock has bounced up and down frequently over the past few seasons.
Early in his career, the former Detroit first-round pick looked like a potential power forward in the making. He put up a pair of 48-point seasons within his first three NHL campaigns and it looked like he was well on his way to being an impactful top-six piece for a long time.
However, things went sideways for quite a while after that. Injuries became a near-annual issue while his production went in the wrong direction. It took five years for him to get back to the 40-point mark but he did so in 2023-24, splitting time between Washington and Vegas. The timing seemed fitting, too, as Mantha was slated to hit the open market that summer.
But a long-term contract didn’t materialize. After being scratched in four first-round playoff games, Mantha wound up settling for a one-year, $3.5MM pact with Calgary in 2024 with the hopes that a bigger role with a team starting to rebuild would allow him to rebuild some value. While he started off well with seven points in 13 games, the injury bug bit again as he tore his ACL in November, ending his season prematurely.
That made Mantha eligible for a one-year, bonus-laden contract last summer, a route he wisely took. He signed with Pittsburgh for a $2.5MM guarantee plus $2MM in games played bonuses, which were all met. He had a career year offensively, surpassing 30 goals, 30 assists, and 60 points for the first time. With a market rather bereft of impactful top-six players, this was thought to be the springboard to make him a very highly coveted free agent.
But that hasn’t happened, at least on the surface. There hasn’t been much in the way of speculation involving the 31-year-old. Right now, it looks like his camp is hoping to land him a longer-term pact with a nice raise, one that the type of season he just had would normally yield. For now, at least, it appears teams aren’t willing to bite, knowing his overall inconsistency and injury history.
Stats
2025-26: 81 GP, 33 G, 31 A, 64 PTS, +10, 43 PIMS, 152 shots, 15:11 ATOI, 49.5 CF%
Career: 588 GP, 179 G, 188 A, 367 PTS, -3, 320 PIMS, 1,295 shots, 16:05 ATOI, 52.4 CF%
Potential Suitors
Some of the potential fits for Mantha will be determined by the term of the contract that he ultimately decides to accept. If he continues to push for a longer-term agreement, his options will probably be somewhat limited. However, if he is willing to do another short-term pact (even a one-year agreement with a higher cap hit), more opportunities should present themselves.
In the East, the Flyers have ample cap flexibility now with Leo Carlsson’s offer sheet being matched. Even after they re-sign their current restricted free agents, they have enough to afford Mantha on a short-term or long-term pact although he wouldn’t really solve their need down the middle. The Blue Jackets have lost some firepower this summer and given their challenges at times attracting talent, they may not be as worried about a longer-term agreement. The Red Wings could definitely afford him if they want a reunion with their former draft pick.
Among teams that might become more interested on a short-term pact, Montreal comes to mind. While they need a second-line center, they also need a second-line winger but GM Kent Hughes has noted he doesn’t want to necessarily block some of his prospects long-term. The Canadiens have enough cap space to afford a one-year deal but may not be inclined to go much longer. Depending on what happens with some of their other free agent pursuits, the Sabres could be in that boat as well. Devils GM Sunny Mehta doesn’t seem like the type to commit a long-term contract to Mantha given his history but on a short-term pact, they could be more willing to take a flyer as well.
Out West, the Blackhawks haven’t done much this summer to add firepower. While Connor Bedard needs a pricey contract, they still have the long-term or short-term flexibility to try to bring Mantha in. The Kraken are believed to be looking to get back to the playoffs and were willing to take a big swing to add a top talent. While those fell through, Mantha could be a serviceable, though nowhere near as impactful, option. The Jets still need to sign Cole Perfetti but they need more top-six help as well and, like Columbus, may not be as deterred by a longer-term deal given their challenges in attracting players as well.
On the shorter-term side, the Canucks could make some sense along the lines of Mantha’s strategy when he signed in Calgary. Play a big role, try to show the uptick in points wasn’t a fluke, and hope to be moved to a contender at the trade deadline. The Oilers could make sense with a similar idea, play him with one of their top centers and try to get a short-term boost. But with Connor McDavid needing a new deal soon, Mantha isn’t the type of player they’d probably want to sign long-term, only on a short-term pact.
Projected Contract
Mantha was fourth on our Top 50 UFA list, with our projection being a four-year, $24MM contract. It’s still possible that he holds on long enough to get something in that range but it also could work against him if some of the teams open to signing him longer-term pivot elsewhere. Accordingly, it’s also quite possible that he flips to a one-year (or shorter-term strategy), something that should open up his list of suitors considerably and perhaps still land him in the $5MM to $6MM range. That probably isn’t his preferred option but at this point, it might be his best one.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.
Minor Signings: 07/05/26
Although the overwhelming majority of the heavy lifting is done for much of the league, teams continue to scour the free agent market to address their depth and improve their AHL affiliates. In addition, there are also players deciding to cross the Atlantic and begin professional careers overseas. Today, several recognizable names have signed, and we will continue to update the list throughout the day. Here are today’s minor signings:
- The AHL’s Providence Bruins announced the signings of two forwards to one-year AHL contracts: Wyatt Bongiovanni, Nolan Renwick. Bongiovanni, 26, is a center with 226 games of AHL experience who developed into a legitimate middle-six pivot over the last two seasons on the Belleville Senators. He enjoyed a career year in 2024-25, scoring 22 goals and 33 points in 54 games. He had 12 goals and 25 points in Belleville this past season before a March trade saw him finish out the year on the Hershey Bears. Renwick, 25, is also a center, one who recently concluded his first full season of pro hockey. He scored five points in 43 games for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and also played 28 games (combined regular season and playoffs) in the ECHL.
- Providence also added two defensemen on one-year AHL deals: Max Wanner and Chris Ortiz. Wanner, 23, is actually a re-signing as he has been part of the Bruins organization for the last year and a half, since arriving from the Edmonton Oilers in the Trent Frederic trade. The 2021 seventh-round pick ranked as high as No. 4 in the Oilers’ prospect pool (back in summer 2024, per Alan Mitchell of The Athletic) but has seen his developmental momentum stall. He scored just three points in 29 games for Providence last season and was reassigned to play in the ECHL for the first time in his career. Ortiz, 25, is a left-shot defenseman who has excelled at the ECHL and more recently shown a capability to play in a depth role in the AHL. He’ll give Providence some high-level depth and likely begin as a top blueliner in the ECHL, where he has a career-high scoring pace of 39 points in 45 games.
- Michael Sgarbossa, a former No. 1 center at the AHL level, originally signed a one-year contract to play for Switzerland’s Rapperswil-Jona Lakers. That contract has now been terminated by mutual agreement, with the team’s official release citing personal reasons and a desire to stay in his native Canada. A two-time AHL All-Star and a Calder Cup champion, Sgarbossa left North America to sign in Switzerland last summer, suspending an AHL career that had lasted over 600 games. Sgarbossa was productive in Switzerland, scoring 31 points in 39 games across two clubs: HC Lugano and SC Bern. Now, it’s unclear where Sgarbossa will continue his pro career, though a return to the AHL could be in the cards.
- Former Anaheim Ducks farmhand Jaxsen Wiebe has signed a deal to join HC Presov of Slovakia’s Extraliga. The 24-year-old forward was an undrafted WHL signing by the Ducks organization who has spent the last three seasons playing in the AHL and ECHL. Wiebe has 38 points in 60 ECHL games across those three campaigns, and six points in 36 AHL games. The signing means Wiebe will exit the North American pro ranks and begin his European professional career.
This page will be updated as more signings are announced throughout the day.
Minor Signings: 07/04/26
Although the overwhelming majority of the heavy lifting is done for much of the league, teams continue to scour the free agent market to address their depth and improve their AHL affiliates. In addition, there are also players deciding to cross the Atlantic and begin professional careers overseas. Today, several recognizable names have signed, and we will continue to update the list throughout the day. Here are today’s minor signings:
- The Syracuse Crunch, AHL affiliates of the Tampa Bay Lightning, have signed forward Elliot Desnoyers to a one-year AHL contract. The 24-year-old winger was a fifth-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers at the 2020 NHL draft, and was once one of the team’s more promising prospects. After captaining the QMJHL’s Halifax Mooseheads and landing on Canada’s World Junior Championships team, Desnoyers turned pro in 2022-23 and had a strong rookie season in the Flyers organization. He scored 23 goals and 44 points in 65 AHL games, earning a call-up to play in four NHL games and ranking as the No. 7 prospect in the Flyers’ system per Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. That has proven to be the high point of Desnoyers’ pro career thus far, and he has still not recaptured that form in the three seasons following 2022-23. After departing the Flyers organization, Desnoyers signed with the Minnesota Wild, but the move cost him his full-time spot in the AHL. He spent most of last season in the ECHL, scoring 31 points in 45 games. He’ll look to re-establish himself in the AHL, and give his career some positive momentum with the Crunch.
- The Crunch have also signed Zachary Uens, a 2020 fourth-round pick of the Florida Panthers. A 6’2″, 201-pound left-shot defenseman, Uens split last season between the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds and ECHL’s Kansas City Mavericks. He has played in 48 career AHL games compared to nearly 200 in the ECHL. He will provide the Crunch with some organizational depth on their blueline and is most likely to spend the bulk of his time in the ECHL with the Orlando Solar Bears. Uens is a two-time Kelly Cup champion from his days with the Florida Everblades.
- 2017 Detroit Red Wings third-round pick Zachary Gallant has signed an AHL contract with the Utica Comets, the AHL affiliates of the New Jersey Devils. A 6’2″, 195-pound forward with the versatility to play left wing or center, Gallant has spent most of his professional career at the AHL level. After serving as the captain of the OHL’s Peterborough Petes for two seasons, Gallant turned pro in 2020-21 and spent the next two seasons with the San Jose Barracuda, scoring just 18 points in 78 games. He then went to play USports hockey for two years with McGill University, before returning to the pro ranks with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in 2025. Last season, he scored five points in 39 games for the AHL Penguins, while also scoring six points in five ECHL games for the Wheeling Nailers. He is a fourth-line center candidate for Utica.
- The Roadrunners re-signed veteran defenseman Robbie Russo to a one-year AHL contract extension, extending the 33-year-old defenseman’s second tour with the team by an additional campaign. A veteran of 700 AHL games, Russo has not played in the NHL since 2016-17 but remains a valuable, effective AHL blueliner. The two-time AHL All-Star had a down season in 2024-25, scoring just 17 points, the lowest point-per-game production of his entire professional career. But Russo has scored at least 30 points in a season seven times, and that number goes even higher if one considers scoring rate instead of raw totals. Russo is a Calder Cup champion from his days in the Detroit Red Wings organization and will bring some veteran stability to the Roadrunners defense.
- Former Ohio State Buckeyes captain Scooter Brickey has decided to leave the North American pro ranks to sign a one-year KHL contract with Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo. The 27-year-old played five seasons of college hockey from 2019 to 2024, before turning pro and joining the AHL Penguins. Brickey played in a total of 55 games across two full campaigns in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, but failed to claim a regular lineup spot. This past season, he even faced three reassignments to ECHL Wheeling. With his grip on an AHL roster spot slipping, Brickey has decided to exit the Penguins organization and try his luck in Russia.
- Linus Weissbach, a playmaking winger who was once Cole Caufield‘s linemate at the University of Wisconsin, has signed a KHL contract with SKA St. Petersburg. The 28-year-old has spent the last two seasons playing for his hometown SHL club Frölunda HC, and even won the Champions Hockey League with the team last season. The 5’9″ winger was able to translate his stellar NCAA production to the AHL level, scoring 117 points in 191 career games with the Rochester Americans. But he chose to return to Sweden rather than remain in North America. Now, he is on the move once again, headed to the KHL in what is a relatively rare move for a Swedish player.
- Former San Jose Sharks prospect Brandon Coe, who scored 121 points in his final OHL regular season and playoffs just four years ago, has signed a deal with Slovak club HK 32 Liptovsky Mikulas. Coe was once ranked as the No. 5 prospect in the Sharks’ system per Elite Prospects, but was unable to translate his stellar production in junior hockey to the pro game. After three consecutive low-scoring seasons with the AHL’s Barracuda, Coe left the North American pro game to begin his European career. He signed with EHC Red Bull Salzburg in the ICEHL, the top professional league covering Central Europe. While Coe was solid in Salzburg, scoring 26 points in 38 games and four points in four champions hockey league games, the team endured its worst league playoff finish in a half-decade. After four consecutive ICEHL championships, Salzburg failed to win a single game in the playoffs. They were swept in the league quarterfinals by Italian side HC Pustertal. Now, Coe will depart Salzburg and test his luck in Slovakia.
This page will be updated as more signings are announced throughout the day.
Minor Signings: 07/03/26
Although the overwhelming majority of the heavy lifting is done for much of the league, teams continue to scour the free agent market to address their depth and improve their AHL affiliates. Today, several recognizable names have signed, and we will continue to update the list throughout the day. Here are today’s minor signings:
- The Syracuse Crunch, AHL affiliates of the Tampa Bay Lightning, have signed veteran defenseman Jarred Tinordi to a one-year AHL contract extension. As is customary with AHL deals, the financial terms were not disclosed and are not expected to be made public. The 34-year-old spent all of last season in Syracuse, posting eight points and 84 penalty minutes in 44 games. The 6’6″, 230-pound rearguard is a veteran of over 200 NHL games but hasn’t appeared at the game’s highest level since getting into 52 contests with the 2023-24 Chicago Blackhawks. He was a key penalty-killer for the Crunch last season and is likely to resume that role in the fall.
- The Rochester Americans (BUF) signed veteran center Matthew Peca to a two-year AHL contract. Peca, 33, spent the last three seasons as captain of the Springfield Thunderbirds before a trade to the Crunch late in 2025-26. An all-situations, do-it-all No. 1 center at the AHL level, Peca is expected to take on a substantial role for the Americans. Rochester is almost certain to lose its top center from last season, Konsta Helenius, to the NHL, so Peca’s signing is an important addition for the club. A former AHL All-Star, Peca scored 47 points in 63 games last season and has 404 points in 544 career AHL contests.
- The Thunderbirds, who made a deep postseason run despite trading Peca away in the middle of last season, have signed veteran AHL star T.J. Tynan to a one-year contract. Tynan, 34, has achieved just about everything a player could hope to accomplish at the AHL level: he’s a two-time league MVP, has led the league in assists three times, been named an All-Star four times, has served as team captain, and even won a Calder Cup title. While the 5’8″, 160-pound forward has been limited to just 31 career NHL games and hasn’t scored his first NHL goal, he has established himself as one of the AHL’s legitimate stars. While his goal-scoring is down into the single digits, he did manage 50 points in 67 games for the Colorado Eagles last season, and will almost certainly feature on the first line for the Thunderbirds in the fall.
- The Providence Bruins have made a signing to bolster their defense, adding blueliner Tobie Bisson on a one-year AHL contract. Although Bisson has yet to make his NHL debut, the 29-year-old has racked up 321 career games played at the AHL level and established himself as a legitimate top-four defenseman in the league. Bisson occupied a top-four role for the Laval Rocket in 2025-26, also serving as a key penalty killer for the club. That’s the kind of role Bruins fans can expect him to take on next season.
- The Utica Comets re-signed captain Ryan Schmelzer to a one-year AHL contract extension, per a team announcement. The 32-year-old pivot has captained the Comets since 2021-22, and has been a staple of the Devils’ minor-league teams since their affiliate was the Binghamton Devils. A native of Western New York, Schmelzer has stayed in the state for the entirety of his hockey career, stretching back to his junior hockey days captaining the Buffalo Jr. Sabres. He captained Canisius college and signed out of the NCAA with the ECHL’s Adirondack Thunder before joining Binghamton the following fall. While Schmelzer’s production has declined from his career-high of 52 points (2023-24 season) he still managed 27 points in 66 games last year. He is still waiting on the chance to make his NHL debut.
- The Comets also re-signed goaltender Jeremy Brodeur and forward Jack Malone, while adding defenseman Eamon Powell, forward Gabe Klassen, and goaltender Seth Eisele as free agents. Malone, 25, has spent the last two seasons with Utica and has 22 points in 103 career AHL games. Brodeur, 29, is the son of legendary New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur and posted a .908 save percentage in 41 games at the ECHL level last year. Powell, 24, had seven points in 23 games for Charlotte as a rookie AHL defenseman last season, and previously spent five years as a strong NCAA blueliner with Boston College. Klassen, 23, is a two-time WHL All-Star who scored 43 points in 65 ECHL games as a rookie pro in 2024-25. He made it to the AHL on a full-time basis last season and impressed, scoring 17 goals and 36 points in 56 games. Eisele, 27, has a .917 save percentage in 50 games played across his two-year ECHL career.
- The Rocket have announced the signings of four players to AHL contracts. Defenseman Braden Haché, 23, has signed a two-year, one-way deal after registering 11 points and 120 penalty minutes in 72 games for the San Jose Barracuda last season. Goaltenders Hunter Jones and Kevin Mandolese have each signed one-year, one-way contracts. Mandolese, 25, split last season between spot starts for the AHL’s Crunch and Charlotte Checkers, and playing in 12 games for HKm Zvolen in the Slovak league. Jones, also 25, spent most of last season in the ECHL with Trois-Rivières Lions, going 17-10-1 with a .917 save percentage. The team also signed netminder Francesco Lapenna, 23, to a one-year, two-way deal. Lapenna made nearly 150 starts across four different QMJHL clubs in his junior hockey days, and has been one of the best goalies in Canadian USports hockey over the last three years. He dipped his toes in the waters of pro hockey late in 2025-26, posting a 5-0-1 record and .959 save percentage in six games with Trois-Rivières.
- Iowa announced the signings of six players to AHL contracts yesterday. Forwards Bradley Marek, Gerald Mayhew, Nick Rhéaume, and Braidan Simmons-Fischer signed one-year, one-way deals, while defenseman Mike Koster and forward Drew Kuzma signed one-year, two-way contracts. All but Rhéaume and Kuzma played for Iowa at some point last season. The biggest name here is Mayhew, a 33-year-old veteran who first played for Iowa in 2017. Mayhew has a career-high of 61 points in the AHL and led the team in scoring last season with 22 goals and 42 points. He also has 57 career NHL games played and 13 career NHL goals. Marek, 25, has 25 points in 109 games for Iowa across the last two years. Simmons-Fischer, who stands 6’7″, 220 pounds, posted 10 points in 40 ECHL games for the Allen Americans in 2025-26 and got into six games for Iowa. Rhéaume, 24, notched 15 goals, 33 points, and 137 penalty minutes for the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones last season. Koster, a 2019 fifth-round pick, split last year between ECHL Iowa (38 games) and AHL Iowa (13 games), while Kuzma, 23, was a spring ECHL signing out of Lindenwood University and had eight points in 13 games for the Greensboro Gargoyles.
- The Calgary Wranglers signed three players to AHL contracts: Luke Philp, Carter Wilkie, and Ryder Boulton. Philp is the big name of the group as he has some NHL experience. The Canmore, Alberta native played for the Flames’ AHL affiliate (then based out of Stockton, California) from 2019 to 2022, posting 21 goals and 44 points in 66 games during the 2021-22 campaign. Philp has a career-high of 29 goals and 53 points in 60 AHL games from the 2022-23 season. This past season, he scored 35 points in 52 games for Färjestad BK of the SHL. Boulton, 20, is the son of former NHL enforcer Eric Boulton and scored eight points in 48 games for the OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs last season, winning an OHL Title and Memorial Cup. Wilkie, a 26-year-old center, was in the Flames organization last year and split 2025-26 between the AHL and ECHL levels.
- 28-year-old center Garrett Pilon, who has three times crossed the 40-point plateau at the AHL level, signed a deal with Barys Astana in the KHL. The move confirms his exit from North American professional hockey after an eight-year career spent mostly in the AHL. Pilon does have three career NHL games and has scored his first NHL goal. The 28-year-old is a 2016 third-round pick by the Washington Capitals who won a Calder Cup championship with the team in 2024. Pilon earned an AHL salary of $300K last season, playing out the final year of a two-year, two-way contract he signed in the summer after winning that championship.
- Former Detroit Red Wings forward Tomas Jurco has signed with his hometown team, HC Kosice of the Slovak Extraliga, according to a team announcement. A Kosice native, Jurco played for the club in youth hockey but left in 2009 to join the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs. A Calder Cup champion with 221 games of NHL experience, Jurco has spent the last half-decade in the KHL, most recently with Tolyatti Lada. While he has yet to feature in the country’s top domestic league, Jurco has represented Slovakia internationally, and was part of the country’s historic bronze medal win at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
This page will be updated as more signings are announced throughout the day.
Golden Knights Sign Jeremy Lauzon To Six-Year Deal
The Vegas Golden Knights have signed defenseman Jeremy Lauzon to a six-year extension, according to Darren Dreger of TSN. The contract is reported to carry an AAV of $4MM, as reported by Elliotte Friedman with Sportsnet.ca.
Lauzon, 29, was set to hit unrestricted free agency on July 1 after playing out the final year of the four-year, $8MM deal ($2MM AAV) he signed with Nashville in 2022. He was acquired by Vegas alongside Colton Sissons last June 30 in a deal that sent Nicolas Hague and a conditional 2027 third-round pick to the Predators.
A solid third-pairing defensive defenseman over his eight-year NHL career, Lauzon brings a steady physical presence on the back end and ranks among the most prolific hitters of his era, having led the NHL in hits in 2023-24 when he set what was then the single-season record with 383, breaking Matt Martin‘s previous mark of 382 from 2014-15 (the record has since been broken again by Yakov Trenin). In his first season with the Golden Knights, he posted 13 points (one goal, 12 assists) in 68 games. He missed the final six weeks of the postseason after taking a wrist shot from Pavel Dorofeyev to the head in Game 6 of the first round, but returned for Game 1 of the Final against Carolina, where he was paired with Dylan Coghlan. Head coach John Tortorella praised his positional game throughout the run, calling him a defender who “does his job each and every shift.”
A 2015 second-round pick (52nd overall) by Boston, Lauzon spent four seasons in the Bruins organization before Seattle selected him in the 2021 expansion draft. He was later flipped to Nashville in March 2022 for a second-round pick, where he developed into a full-time NHL regular before landing in Vegas last summer. Carrying just a $2MM cap hit on his outgoing deal, he’d developed into exactly the kind of cheap, playoff-tested toughness clubs covet on the third pair, and rather than test that market, Vegas locked him up to keep it in-house.
Evening Notes: Werenski, Nikishin, Bobrovsky
The Zach Werenski trade saga has a frontrunner. On Monday’s “Insider Trading,” Pierre LeBrun reported that the Tampa Bay Lightning are the reigning Norris Trophy winner’s team of choice. Werenski is considered unlikely to sign an extension with Columbus, and the Blue Jackets are listening to offers, with GM Don Waddell seeking immediate roster help rather than a package built on picks and prospects. It’s a notable escalation from where things stood two weeks ago, when no trade request had been communicated.
The complicating factor is the contract. Werenski, 28, is signed through 2027-28 at a cap hit just over $9.5 million and holds a full no-movement clause, meaning he’d have to approve any destination, and he can’t be extended until July 1, 2027. That’s why LeBrun framed a third team as a real possibility, squaring Columbus’s desire for roster help with Tampa’s cap sheet may require one. The Lightning cleared some blue-line room by moving Darren Raddysh in a sign-and-trade, and while Tampa is the preferred fit, Dallas, Toronto, reportedly the only Canadian team Werenski would waive for, and Philadelphia are also pushing. Werenski is coming off a career-best 22 goals and 81 points in 75 games en route to his first Norris.
Additional Notes:
The Rangers are still after Nikishin. On the FAN Hockey Show, Elliotte Friedman reported that New York offered picks including a first-rounder for Carolina defenseman Alexander Nikishin, but the Hurricanes have been firm that the price must include a roster player, not just picks, and the Rangers are trying again, with Nikishin said to be happy at the idea of the move. The 24-year-old pending RFA won the Cup as a rookie this past season (11 goals, 33 points, an All-Rookie nod) and is seeking north of $8 million annually; Carolina grew more willing to move him after acquiring John Carlson‘s signing rights.
Sergei Bobrovsky‘s asking price on a new contract remains high. On Real Kyper & Bourne, Nick Kypreos said Bobrovsky’s ask is in the neighborhood of six years and $40-42 million as he approaches unrestricted free agency. The two-time Vezina winner turns 38 in September and is coming off a career-worst season on a Panthers team that missed the playoffs. After Florida acquired both Akira Schmid and Jacob Markström over the past two days, Bobrovsky will prepare to hit the open market Wednesday and join his fourth franchise as he heads into his 17th season.