Panthers Recall Mackie Samoskevich, Re-Assign Chris Driedger To AHL
12/6: According to a team announcement, Florida reversed the swap before tomorrow’s contests against the San Jose Sharks. The news also means netminder Sergei Bobrovsky has returned from his personal leave.
12/2: The Panthers have made a pair of roster moves heading into tomorrow’s game against Pittsburgh. The team announced (Twitter link) that goaltender Chris Driedger has been recalled from AHL Charlotte while winger Mackie Samoskevich has been re-assigned to the Checkers.
This is expected to be a short-term move for both players. Veteran goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky did not accompany the team on the road with his wife expecting to give birth to their second child in the near future. Because Florida doesn’t have enough cap space to recall Driedger outright, Samoskevich, their lone waiver-exempt player, is the roster casualty to allow the team to remain cap-compliant.
Driedger rejoined Florida back in the summer, inking a one-year, one-way deal worth $795K to serve as their third-string option behind Bobrovsky and Spencer Knight. The 30-year-old has played in eight games with the Checkers so far this season, putting up a 3.22 GAA with a .885 SV%. Driedger has 67 career NHL appearances under his belt (35 of which came in his first stint with the team), posting a 2.45 GAA with a .917 SV%.
As for Samoskevich, the 22-year-old is doing well in his first full NHL season. He has played in 22 games with the Panthers so far, notching five goals and four assists while averaging 11:35 per game. His nine points put him in the top ten in scoring among all NHL rookies. Charlotte is off until Friday so there’s a good chance Samoskevich won’t even suit up in the minors while on assignment given that he’s likely to be brought back up by the weekend.
Golden Knights Place Daniil Chayka On Unconditional Waivers
Dec. 3: Chayka went unclaimed and is now an unrestricted free agent, Friedman said.
Dec. 2: It appears that the Golden Knights will be parting ways with one of their prospects. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that defenseman Daniil Chayka has been placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of contract termination.
The 22-year-old was a second-round pick by Vegas back in 2021, going 38th overall. He signed his entry-level deal just three months later though he spent his post-draft season with OHL Guelph where he had an impressive 39 points in 53 games.
However, point production has not come as easily for Chayka at the professional level. After putting up eight points in 57 games with AHL Henderson in 2022-23, he followed that up with just seven in 64 appearances in his sophomore year. This season, Chayka has split time between the Silver Knights (five games) and ECHL Tahoe (four games), recording an assist with each franchise.
Assuming he isn’t claimed, Chayka will be walking away from more than half of his entry-level deal as he’s signed through next season. If he’s unclaimed and released, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent and could try to catch on with another NHL franchise or look to return to Russia; he played in CSKA Moscow’s system in 2020-21 when the OHL didn’t play that season.
West Notes: Stone, Skinner, Ingram, Daccord, Yager
The Golden Knights could be getting their top winger back relatively soon. Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal relays (Twitter link) that Mark Stone took part in practice today in a non-contact jersey. The 32-year-old got off to his best offensive start, recording six goals and 15 assists in the first 13 games of the season before suffering a lower-body injury that has kept him out of the lineup for the last three weeks. Stone is only on regular injured reserve, not LTIR so he doesn’t have to miss at least 10 games before being activated; he can be re-added to the roster as soon as he gets the green light from team doctors.
More from the Western Conference:
- The NHL announced that Oilers winger Jeff Skinner has been fined $2K for embellishment. It’s the second time he has been flagged for that this season with the first only drawing a warning. The 32-year-old has struggled in his first year with Edmonton, notching just four goals and four assists in 24 games while averaging just 13:38 per game, a career-low ATOI.
- Utah Hockey Club netminder Connor Ingram is not close to returning to the lineup, head coach Andre Tourigny told reporters including Cole Bagley of KSL Sports (Twitter link). The reigning Masterton Trophy winner had a rocky start to his season, posting a 3.61 GAA with a .871 SV%, a 36-point drop in that category compared to 2023-24. Ingram sustained an upper-body injury last month and was only ruled out for their road trip at that time but clearly, he’ll be out for a while yet.
- While Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord was a speculative candidate to make Canada’s roster for the 4 Nations Cup since he holds Canadian citizenship, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported over the weekend that this is not the case. Daccord does not have a Canadian passport which is one of the eligibility criteria for the tournament. However, it’s expected that he will get one in the near future, making him eligible to be named as a replacement should one of the three netminders named on Wednesday get injured leading up to the event. Regardless of whether he suits up in this event, he remains eligible to play for Canada, the United States, and Switzerland internationally.
- Jets prospect Brayden Yager is on the move in the WHL. Lethbridge announced that they’ve acquired the center as part of a five-player, six-pick trade with Moose Jaw. The 19-year-old was drafted 14th overall by Pittsburgh in 2023 and was flipped to Winnipeg in the Rutger McGroarty trade over the offseason. Yager had 30 points in 21 games prior to the swap and projects to be an impact player for Canada at the upcoming World Juniors.
Avalanche Place Ross Colton On LTIR, Recall Four From AHL
The Avalanche made a series of roster moves today as they continue their trend of making close to daily transactions. PuckPedia notes (Twitter link) that forward Ross Colton has been placed on LTIR. With the extra cap space, the team announced (Twitter link) that forwards Chris Wagner, Ivan Ivan, Nikita Prishchepov, and defenseman Keaton Middleton were all recalled from AHL Colorado.
While Colton’s LTIR placement might imply that he’s not close to returning, that isn’t the case. Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now relays (Twitter link) that the 28-year-old will accompany the team on its five-game road trip and that when he does return, he’ll start on the wing even though he’s a natural center. What the placement does is open up one extra roster spot, allowing them to have a bit more depth on their roster heading into the start of that trip.
Colton got off to a particularly strong start for the Avs this season, tallying eight goals and an assist while averaging 18:38 per game, well above his career average of under 13 minutes a night. However, he suffered a foot injury in late October and only resumed skating recently.
The three forwards have been shuffled back and forth on a frequent basis this season in an effort to bank cap space and were papered down to the minors on Sunday. Ivan has been the most successful by far, tallying five goals and three assists while playing in all 25 games. Meanwhile, Wagner has a goal in 14 outings while Prishchepov, a seventh-round pick back in June, has been held off the scoresheet in his first seven career NHL appearances.
As for Middleton, it’s his first NHL recall since 2021 when he got into three games with the Avalanche. Since then, the 26-year-old has played exclusively in the minors with the Eagles. After putting up 15 points and 136 penalty minutes in 71 games last season, Middleton has four assists and 11 penalty minutes in 17 AHL appearances in 2024-25. He’ll be eligible for unrestricted free agency next summer.
Maple Leafs Have Discussed Contract Extension With John Tavares
The Maple Leafs have two prominent pending unrestricted free agent forwards in winger Mitch Marner and center John Tavares. While it appears that there haven’t been many discussions with Marner, Chris Johnston of The Athletic reported in a recent TSN Insider Trading segment that Toronto has engaged in talks with Tavares though obviously, the two sides aren’t in agreement on a new deal just yet.
Tavares signed a seven-year, $77MM contract with his hometown team back in 2018 and while the $11MM price tag was among the league leaders at the time, the 34-year-old has delivered. Tavares has three seasons of at least 76 points over that span and overall, has 440 points in 462 games with the Maple Leafs. That 0.952 points-per-game average is actually slightly better than the 0.928 he put up with the Islanders. His playoff performance hasn’t been as strong, however, as Tavares has collected 24 points in 38 postseason outings with Toronto.
But while Tavares has produced at or near the level of a top-line center for the majority of his time with Toronto, it’s also fair to assume it’s unlikely this will be the case much longer; he’ll be entering his age-35 season in 2025-26. While he could still put up above-average production for a little while longer, he’s certainly not going to be able to command $11MM on the open market at this stage of his career. Accordingly, a drop in pay is a near certainty.
How much of one is the big question. At this point, he’s still producing as a top-six forward at a minimum so it’s not as if Toronto can conceivably ask him to cut that price tag in half (or by even more) even though, as Johnston noted, Tavares has made it clear he doesn’t want to test free agency and wants to remain with the Maple Leafs. His value on the open market might still be in the $7MM to $8MM range if he were to actually make it there.
One way around that might be to utilize deferred compensation. Carolina utilized that with a pair of contracts over the summer while the Maple Leafs also took advantage of it on the recent Jake McCabe extension. Using deferred salary would allow the cap hit to go a bit lower while still giving Tavares’ camp the total compensation it might be seeking. How long he’d have to wait for that deferred salary would ultimately dictate how much cap savings Toronto could receive.
At his age, it’s quite possible that this is the final contract that Tavares receives so there is a bit of incentive to consider deferred salary when he’d be in a lower tax bracket and potentially a jurisdiction with lower tax rates. We’ll see in the coming weeks if that’s enough to bridge the current gap between the two sides to keep Tavares in Toronto a little longer.
Hurricanes Recall Riley Stillman, Assign Yaniv Perets To AHL
The Hurricanes have made a pair of roster moves leading up to Tuesday’s game against Seattle. The team announced that they’ve recalled defenseman Riley Stillman from AHL Chicago while they returned goaltender Yaniv Perets to the Wolves.
Stillman signed a one-year, two-way deal with Carolina early in free agency back in the summer. However, the 26-year-old suffered a lower-body injury in training camp that kept him out of the lineup for the first 14 games of the season. He was waived upon being cleared to return and has gotten into six games with Chicago since then, picking up a pair of assists.
Stillman has 158 career NHL appearances to his name so far between four different organizations. Over that stretch, he has 26 points, 197 blocks, and 318 hits while averaging a little under 16 minutes a night. However, he didn’t see any NHL action last season, instead playing exclusively with AHL Rochester where he had six points and 49 penalty minutes in 47 games before being non-tendered by Buffalo in June.
As for Perets, he served as Carolina’s backup in recent days with Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov both banged up. However, the team is hopeful that Kochetkov can return against the Kraken, allowing him and Spencer Martin to be the tandem. Perets stopped six of seven shots in relief on Saturday for his first NHL appearance of the season. He has a 3.67 GAA and a .825 SV% in three games with the Wolves so far this year.
Canadiens Assign Joshua Roy To Laval
A week after recalling him, Joshua Roy is back in the minors. The Canadiens announced on Monday that the winger has been re-assigned to AHL Laval.
The 21-year-old played in 23 games with Montreal last season, notching nine points in that stretch which had him as a presumptive favorite to land a roster spot coming out of training camp. However, Roy struggled in the preseason, resulting in him being one of the final cuts in October.
Roy got off to a nice start with the Rocket this season, tallying eight goals and eight assists in 17 games to earn a recall to the big club. But the offensive success didn’t follow him to the Canadiens as he was held off the scoresheet in four appearances with Montreal while he was limited to just under 11 minutes of action per game.
With the assignment, the Canadiens now have two open roster spots and are only carrying the minimum number of forwards. However, Roy’s re-assignment could signal that Patrik Laine is ready to return to the lineup. He sustained a knee injury during the preseason and while he was able to avoid surgery, he has missed the better part of two months rehabbing from it and it appears as if he may be in line to make his Montreal debut on Tuesday.
Snapshots: Kucherov, Pageau, Red Wings, Ehlers, Hinds
Prior to their game against Toronto tonight, the Lightning found themselves without their top scorer. Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times relayed (Twitter link) that winger Nikita Kucherov is listed as day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. The 31-year-old led the league in scoring last season, notching 44 goals and 100 assists, both career highs, in 81 games. While Kucherov isn’t producing at quite that level this year, he came into the night tied for fifth in scoring with 12 goals and 22 assists in 34 games, a 127-point pace.
Elsewhere around the NHL:
- The Islanders didn’t have center Jean-Gabriel Pageau in their lineup tonight against Buffalo. Ethan Sears of the New York Post notes (Twitter link) that the veteran is listed as day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. The 32-year-old has five goals and five assists in 23 games so far this season while averaging 17:47 per game, his highest ATOI since the 2019-20 season. A specialist at the faceoff dot, Pageau is winning just over 60% of his draws early on, a mark that would be his best if he can maintain it.
- Red Wings goaltender Alex Lyon won’t accompany the team on their two-game road trip, mentions Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press (Twitter link). He’s dealing with a lower-body injury with no timeline for his return. Lyon has a 2.74 GAA and a .911 SV% in nine appearances so far. Meanwhile, St. James notes that winger Patrick Kane will miss his fourth straight game on Sunday due to an upper-body injury but there is a chance he’ll be available to return on Tuesday in Boston. The veteran is off to a quiet start by his standards, collecting just three goals and seven assists in 20 games.
- Though he left Friday’s game with a lower-body injury, Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers is listed as questionable for Sunday’s contest in Dallas, per team reporter Mitchell Clinton. The 28-year-old is off to a solid start in the final year of his contract, with nine goals and 16 assists in 24 games. With 25 points, Ehlers sits third on Winnipeg in scoring.
- The Ducks announced that they’ve re-assigned defenseman Tyson Hinds back to AHL San Diego. The 21-year-old was brought up twice by Anaheim over the last couple of weeks but didn’t see any game action. Hinds, a third-round pick in 2021, has two goals in 13 games so far this season for the Gulls.
Salary Cap Deep Dive: Seattle Kraken
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 that 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 2024-25 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 Pacific Division, next up is the Kraken.
Seattle Kraken
Current Cap Hit: $90,108,465 (above the $88MM Upper Limit)
Entry-Level Contracts
D Ryker Evans (one year, $898K)
F Tye Kartye (one year, $859K)
F Shane Wright (three years, $887K)
Potential Bonuses
Kartye: $57.5K
Wright: $3.0625MM
Total: $3.12MM
Seattle was slow-playing Wright’s development in his first couple of seasons and even into his first full NHL campaign, his ice time is being managed carefully. Accordingly, he’s not on track to reach any of his bonuses and is probably heading for a bridge contract barring a big offensive breakout over the next year or two. If he stays on the slower development path, that bridge agreement should come in around the $3.5MM range. Kartye had a solid rookie season in the bottom six and is in that same role this year. His bonuses are based on games played so that’s something he should be able to reach if he stays healthy. Given his role and limited offensive numbers, he’s also looking at a short-term second contract, one around the $1.5MM mark.
Evans is in his first full NHL season after impressing in partial duty last season. He has locked down a spot in Seattle’s top four and is tied for the team lead in scoring among blueliners. If that holds up, it wouldn’t be surprising to see GM Ron Francis try to work out a long-term deal, one that would check in a bit below their top veterans who are making a little over $7MM per season. A bridge agreement, meanwhile, would likely fall in the $4MM range. Either way, a big raise is coming his way this summer.
Signed Through 2024-25, Non-Entry-Level
D William Borgen ($2.7MM, UFA)
F Yanni Gourde ($5.167MM, UFA)
D Josh Mahura ($775K, UFA)
F Daniel Sprong ($975K, UFA)
F Brandon Tanev ($3.5MM, UFA)
For most of his contract, Gourde has been well worth the contract, generally producing above a 40-point pace. But he struggled last season and is off to a similar start offensively this year which will hurt his value. Now that he’s being deployed as more of a third-line option, it would be difficult to see him command a similar price tag at 33. But a multi-year deal around $4MM per season should still be within reach.
Tanev’s contract felt like a steep overpayment at the time for someone who had only reached 20 points once at the time it was signed. However, he has produced enough offensively (when healthy) on this deal to at least reasonably justify the cost while providing plenty of physicality and enough defensive acumen to make it a fair deal overall. While most teams want to cut salary from their bottom six, he could be an outlier and land another contract around this price point. Sprong didn’t have much luck on the open market last summer despite his second straight year of over 40 points and things haven’t gone well for him this year. Accordingly, another dip might be coming his way.
Borgen had two straight seasons of at least 20 points coming into this one but his production and playing time have slipped through the first quarter of this year. Heading into the year, a jump to the $3.75MM range seemed possible, especially as a right-hand shot but that might come down more toward the $3.5MM level on a multi-year deal now. Mahura was only able get a minimum contract after being non-tendered by Florida and with the limited role he has had so far, he’s unlikely to command more than that next summer.
Signed Through 2025-26
F Oliver Bjorkstrand ($5.4MM, UFA)
F Jordan Eberle ($4.75MM, UFA)
D Jamie Oleksiak ($4.6MM, UFA)
F Jaden Schwartz ($5.5MM, UFA)
F Eeli Tolvanen ($3.475MM, UFA)
Schwartz was one of Seattle’s first free agent additions, a move that hasn’t panned out as well as they hoped. When healthy, he’s a capable second-line forward but staying healthy has been a serious challenge thus far. He’ll be 34 when his next contract starts and it’d be surprising if he came in at this price tag next time. Something in the $4MM range on a medium-term deal might be more likely. Bjorkstrand was acquired as a cap dump from the Blue Jackets in 2022 and he has given Seattle two straight 20-goal seasons plus a 59-point effort last year. If he can keep near 60 points, he could land another million or so on his next deal. But if he reverts to a point total more in the 40s, Bjorkstrand might have to settle for a bit less than his current salary in 2026.
Eberle signed this deal last season, taking himself off the trade block in the process. He’s still a capable secondary scorer but considering he’ll be 36 on his next deal (subject to 35-plus provisions on a multi-year contract), it wouldn’t be surprising if he went year-to-year from here on out, allowing for the possibility for a lower base salary with reachable performance bonuses to allow the signing team more flexibility. Tolvanen has turned into one of the better waiver claims in recent memory, picking up 41 points last season while being on pace for 20 goals this year. Still, he’s a bit inconsistent which has kept him out of a full-time top-six role. If that continues and he settles in as more of a middle-six option, his open market value will take a hit although he could still get a small increase if he stays in that 40-point range.
There was definitely some risk in the contract the Kraken gave Oleksiak after selecting him in expansion. He had been a third-pairing player up to that point with the exception of one year, the one that landed him this agreement. But Oleksiak has been able to maintain a top-four slot throughout his time with Seattle while even chipping in with a career year offensively in 2022-23. Of course, his offensive numbers don’t land him this role or this type of money but rather his defensive game (and being one of the tallest players in the league). The market isn’t as strong for the more stay-at-home type of players and Oleksiak will turn 34 early in the 26-27 season but even so, a small boost to the $5MM range on a medium-term pact could still be doable.
Signed Through 2026-27
F Andre Burakovsky ($5.5MM, UFA)
G Philipp Grubauer ($5.9MM, UFA)
D Vince Dunn ($7.35MM, UFA)
F Jared McCann ($5MM, UFA)
Burakovsky was another notable splash in free agency that hasn’t worked out particularly well thus far. Signed off a career year, he hasn’t been able to produce close to those numbers since then, nor has he stayed healthy. Lots can still change in the back half of the deal but he looks like someone heading for a cap hit closer to the $4MM range, if not less next time out. McCann, on the other hand, averaged 30 goals and 62 points over his first three seasons in Seattle, two of which were played on this contract. That’s a solid return for this price point and if those numbers continue, he could land closer to $7MM next time out, especially with the ability to play center.
Dunn is the other player who could challenge McCann as being the best of their original expansion picks. With a bigger role than he had with St. Louis, he has emerged as one of the better offensive blueliners league-wide while playing in all situations. In essence, he has the numbers of arguably a number one defender, if not a top-pairing piece. He’ll be turning 31 early in the 2027-28 season so a max-term contract is a very realistic possibility and if Dunn remains as impactful as he has been, he could add a couple million per season on that next deal.
Grubauer was a free agent acquisition that carried some risk given that he was coming off a breakout year with a career-high in games played of 40. Paying him to be the undisputed starter for that long had the potential to bust. And bust it has. After putting up a .922 SV% in his best year with Colorado, he has yet to reach the .900 mark since then. Along the way, Grubauer has gone from being their number one goalie to a part-time backup and is off to a dreadful start this season. Barring a change in fortunes, Seattle will need to seriously consider buying out the remainder of this deal this summer, even with it carrying close to a $2MM dead cap charge next season, nearly $3.1MM the following year, and close to $1.7MM for two years after that.
Kraken Recall Mitchell Stephens, Activate Vince Dunn Off LTIR
Prior to their game tonight against San Jose, the Kraken announced (Twitter link) that forward Mitchell Stephens was recalled from AHL Coachella Valley. Additionally, defenseman Vince Dunn has been activated off LTIR according to the NHL’s media site.
Stephens is in his first season with Seattle after signing a two-year, two-way deal with them early in free agency back in July. The 27-year-old is a veteran of 95 career NHL appearances between Tampa Bay, Detroit, and Montreal. Stephens got into 23 appearances with the latter last season, notching three points while winning over 55% of his faceoffs in a little over nine minutes a night of playing time.
It’s his first recall of the season and it comes following somewhat of a slow start to his season. Stephens has three goals and an assist in 11 games so far with the Firebirds. By comparison, he had 35 points in 49 games with AHL Laval just last season.
Meanwhile, the return of Dunn is a welcome one for the Kraken. He has been one of the more impactful blueliners league-wide in recent years, especially on the offensive side of things after putting up 110 points in 140 games between 2022-23 and 2023-24 while logging over 23 minutes of ice time each night. Prior to suffering an upper-body injury that kept him out for nearly six weeks, Dunn was off to a good start on that front this season as well, notching three points in his first four outings.
Dunn’s return gives Seattle now three above-average threats from the back end which will help an offense that’s near the middle of the pack in terms of goals scored. Brandon Montour is off to a solid start in his first season with the Kraken while Ryker Evans has helped pick up the offensive slack in Dunn’s absence. Both players enter tonight’s action with 15 points, good for a tie for third in team scoring.
While there has been no announcement from the team, the only way that Seattle could have activated Dunn and recalled Stephens was by transferring winger Jordan Eberle to LTIR. The captain is expected to be out for at least the next three months after undergoing pelvic surgery a little more than a week ago.