Five Key Stories: 4/13/26 – 4/19/26

With the playoffs underway, half of the NHL’s teams have seen their seasons come to an end.  That typically results in a lot of off-ice news and this past week was no exception with several teams making personnel moves that are part of the key stories from the past seven days.

Back To The Devils: The Devils didn’t waste much time finding its next GM as they hired Sunny Mehta away from the Panthers.  He becomes the sixth GM in franchise history and takes over from Tom Fitzgerald.  Mehta sent four years with New Jersey from 2014-15 through 2015-18 as their Director of Analytics.  Two years later, he joined Florida and moved up the ranks, eventually becoming an assistant GM.  Mehta will now get his first chance to be the final shot-caller on a roster and will look to make his mark on a Devils group that underachieved relative to expectations this season.  Beyond Simon Nemec, the bulk of their core is already under contract so most of Mehta’s big work this offseason will come on the trade and free agent front.

Player Extensions: A pair of pending free agents got their next deals done ahead of time.  First, the Stars signed defenseman Nils Lundkvist to a two-year, $3.5MM extension.  The $1.75MM AAV represents a $500K raise on his current deal.  Lundkvist played in 52 games with Dallas during the regular season, picking up 11 points while averaging a career-best 16:29 per game of playing time.  He’ll stay in a third-pairing role moving forward.  Meanwhile, Cole Koepke’s first season in Winnipeg was good enough to earn him two more as the Jets signed him to a two-year, $2.9MM extension, a $450K raise on his current deal.  The 27-year-old matched his career high in points this season with 17 while his 186 hits were a team high.

Quick Calls It Quits: A veteran goaltender has decided to call it a career as Jonathan Quick announced before his final game that he’s retiring.  The 40-year-old spent the last three seasons with the Rangers but the bulk of his 19-year career was spent in Los Angeles.  Quick, a third-round pick by the Kings back in 2005, spent 16 years with the franchise that drafted him, helping lead them to a pair of Stanley Cups while he took home the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2012 as Playoff MVP.  Overall, Quick winds up his career with 410 wins in 809 regular season starts while posting a 2.51 GAA, a .910 SV%, and 65 shutouts.  He added 49 victories in 92 playoff outings – all with the Kings – while putting up even better numbers in the form of a 2.31 GAA and a .921 SV%.

Off-Ice Extensions: It was a good week for some off-ice staff as well.  The Blackhawks signed GM Kyle Davidson to a multi-year extension.  Davidson has been in charge for a little more than four years and has overseen a full-scale rebuild that has seen the team add several promising players with another high draft pick coming in June.  Meanwhile, Blue Jackets head coach Rick Bowness ended the season with some harsh words for his team and a vow to change the culture if he returned.  He’ll get that opportunity now after signing a one-year extension.  The 71-year-old took over three months ago and led the team to a 21-11-5 record.  They went from near the bottom of the conference to a playoff spot for a while but a tough finish saw them narrowly on the outside looking in for the second straight year.

Canucks Make A Change: While one GM vacancy was filled with Mehta joining New Jersey, another was quickly created when the Canucks fired GM Patrik Allvin.  Things were looking up early on his tenure, highlighted by a Pacific Division title back in 2023-24.  However, the last two years have been a lot rockier.  They’ve missed the playoffs each time, decided to move Quinn Hughes after he gave plenty of advance notice that he wouldn’t re-sign, and finished dead last in the league this season.  Now, the team will turn to someone else – either internal candidate Ryan Johnson or an external option – to try to get them going back in the right direction.

Photo courtesy of Danny Wild-Imagn Images.