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Penguins Notes: Free Agency, Leone, Novak

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The Penguins will enter this summer with around $24.5MM in cap space, per PuckPedia.  At first glance, given their veteran core, it could be inferred that Pittsburgh could be active on the open market to try add a couple of pieces to boost their chances of getting back to the playoffs next season.  However, speaking with reporters Friday including Josh Yohe of The Athletic (subscription link), GM Kyle Dubas indicated that he doesn’t expect to be particularly active in free agency unless they’d be getting one of the younger players who deserves some term on a contract.  Instead, he noted that Pittsburgh is likely to be more active on the trade front and that discussions on that front have picked up recently.  No team has more draft picks over the next three years than the Penguins so it wouldn’t be surprising to see some of them converted into players or prospects who are closer to being NHL-ready in the coming weeks.

More from Pittsburgh:

  • In a recent episode of The Sheet (video link), Daily Faceoff’s Jeff Marek suggested that Mike Leone could be a candidate to join Dan Muse’s coaching staff. Leone spent this season as head coach of the Sabres’ AHL affiliate in Rochester, leading them to the North Division Final.  However, Leone’s professional coaching experience is rather limited with just this season and one year as an ECHL assistant after retiring in 2017.  He has, however, also worked at the NCAA and USHL levels along with USA Hockey at the junior level and would be an intriguing addition as a coach to help in player development.
  • Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review previews the upcoming year for center Thomas Novak. Acquired from Nashville near the trade deadline, this season was a bit underwhelming for the 28-year-old who managed just 22 points in 54 games after passing the 40-point mark the previous two campaigns.  Novak only played twice after being acquired before sustaining an undisclosed injury but it’s fair to say that the Penguins will be counting on him to get back to that 40-point range as a key secondary scorer, an element that was a little hit-or-miss for Pittsburgh this year.

Blue Jackets’ Cayden Lindstrom Commits To Michigan State

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June 5: Lindstrom confirmed to Portzline he’ll play for the Spartans next season (article link). Lindstrom returned to play four games for Medicine Hat in the WHL finals en route to a championship, recording two goals and two assists, but went pointless in three Memorial Cup games for the Tigers.

March 29: Things haven’t gone as planned for Blue Jackets prospect Cayden Lindstrom this season.  Felled by a back injury dating back to before the draft last year, he has yet to suit up in 2024-25 and isn’t expected to.  But instead of remaining with WHL Medicine Hat for 2025-26, it appears he’ll be on the move, as Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that Lindstrom is likely to play at Michigan State next season.

Lindstrom was the fourth overall pick back in June and while many high draft picks sign their entry-level deals in the days and weeks after that, he was a notable exception.  As a result, he remains eligible to play in the NCAA next season.

It’s a decision that might seem a bit surprising at first, but given his injury history, it does make some sense.  Major junior teams play 68 games per season and after missing all of this year, more game volume might seem like the way to go.  Meanwhile, the NCAA regular season is only 34 games long which will allow Lindstrom more time for off-ice workouts and time with the training staff to try to limit or prevent any possible recurrence of this back trouble.

Last season, Lindstrom played well in limited duty, notching 27 goals and 19 assists in just 32 games for the Tigers which helped make him one of the first players off the board despite the injury concerns.  While that’s not necessarily enough to say that he has nothing left to prove at that level, that type of dominance suggests that he might be better suited playing against older competition which he’ll get at MSU should he officially join them.  He can’t do so until at least August 1st.

Portzline notes that several other schools, including Ohio State, also pursued Lindstrom’s services.  Columbus likely would have preferred that he landed there to keep him closer to the team but instead, Lindstrom will join a Spartans program that had eight NHL-drafted prospects on it this season, some of which could soon be making the jump to the pros.

Mark Friedman Signs Two-Year Deal In Sweden

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June 5: Friedman is heading to Sweden but not with either of the two clubs mentioned. He signed a two-year contract with Rögle BK instead, according to a club announcement.

May 29: Veteran defenseman Mark Friedman has spent the bulk of his playing time in the minors over the last couple of seasons so it appears that he may be looking to try something different next season.  Mattias Persson of Hockeynews.se reports that the blueliner will be signing in the SHL with Farjestad and Orebro believed to be the two teams vying for his services.

The 29-year-old has seen NHL action in seven straight seasons.  However, he has largely been in a depth or reserve role over that time as he has suited up in just 93 games at the top level with three different teams.  Overall, Friedman has four goals and nine assists in those outings while logging a little over 13 minutes a night.

Friedman started the season with Vancouver but after getting into 23 games with them last season, that number dropped to just five this year.  After clearing waivers, he spent 20 games with AHL Abbotsford before being moved to Nashville for future considerations back in February.  Despite the Predators having injuries on their back end down the stretch, Friedman didn’t see any more NHL action and got into 21 regular season games with Milwaukee.  All told, he had three goals and 16 assists between the two teams before adding three points in ten playoff contests.

A pending unrestricted free agent, Friedman now qualifies for full veteran status in the AHL moving forward; teams can only dress five players with more than 320 professional games played, a mark he eclipsed this season.  Accordingly, that could have limited his market this summer.  Instead, it appears that Friedman has decided to get out ahead of that with a deal in Sweden on the horizon.

Offseason Checklist: Tampa Bay Lightning

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The offseason has arrived for all but two teams now with the playoffs nearing an end.  Accordingly, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at Tampa Bay.

The Lightning have been consistently strong for more than a decade now and this season was no exception with a solid third-place finish in the Eastern Conference.  However, they were ousted in the first round of the playoffs for the third straight year.  GM Julien BriseBois now has some work to do to reshape his roster but with very limited salary cap flexibility, their checklist is focused more on the back half of the roster.

Clear Sheary’s Contract

Finding cap space has long been an issue for the Lightning and today’s six-year, $14MM extension given to Yanni Gourde only further cements that although it also took the biggest to-do item off the original version of this list.  Now, the team has less than $3.5MM in flexibility, per PuckPedia, the lowest amount of cap space of any team in the league.  With multiple roster spots to fill and a likely desire to keep at least a little bit of flexibility for in-season roster movement or injury insurance, they don’t have a lot of wiggle room to work with.

One thing that BriseBois could try to do to create a bit of spending space revolves around Conor Sheary.  Signed to a three-year, $6MM contract two years ago, that deal simply hasn’t worked out as planned.  After scoring just four goals in 57 games in his first season with the Lightning, the 32-year-old cleared waivers and spent all but five games this year with AHL Syracuse.  While he was better than a point per game player there, that’s not a great return on a $2MM AAV overall.

Sheary has one year left on his contract at that price tag and at this point, he feels like a speculative candidate to be sent back to the Crunch if he’s still on the roster come training camp.  Doing that would clear $1.15MM off their books.  When you consider that $775K of that (at a minimum) would need to be spent on a replacement player on the roster, that wouldn’t save them much.  Meanwhile, a buyout would cost $1MM this season and $500K in 2026-27.  Again, by the time you factor in a replacement player, the savings are minimal at best.  Trading with retention doesn’t open up a lot of room either.

However, if they could find a way to clear the contract outright, that would free up much more money, even accounting for a minimum-salaried replacement player.  Doing that would give the Lightning an extra $1.225MM in space.  They’d still have the lowest cap space in the league but at least a little more flexibility.  Of course, that would require parting with an asset on a team that’s not exactly flush with draft picks and prospects to get a team to take on that final year but with them being this limited cap-wise, it’s a move they’d be wise to make.

Find A Howard Trade

What a difference a few months can make sometimes.  In the case of prospect Isaac Howard, the difference was quite substantial.  A 2022 first-round pick, he didn’t get off to the best start to his college career but after transferring to Michigan State, things started looking up.  And then he found an entirely new gear offensively this season, notching 26 goals and 26 assists in just 37 games, good for fifth overall in Division I scoring, earning him the Hobey Baker Award along the way.  All season long, the expectation was that he’d wrap up his college career early and sign with the Lightning to play down the stretch and potentially in the playoffs.

However, as his college season came to an end, there was no contract in place for Howard.  Part of that was Tampa Bay’s cap situation as their deadline activity left it to the point where they’d only be able to sign him with a couple of days left in the season.  Before it got to that point, he indicated he’d be returning for his senior year, a move that few saw coming.  By the end of the playoffs, BriseBois all but confirmed that they won’t be able to sign Howard.

As a result, he instantly becomes Tampa Bay’s most prominent trade chip this offseason.  They don’t necessarily have to move him as in theory, he could have a change of heart over the next year although that doesn’t seem likely at this point.  They could also opt not to move him and accept the compensatory pick for not signing him, which would be the 31st pick of the second round in 2027 (63rd overall).  But that doesn’t seem like a fair return for one of the top players in the NCAA, making the possibility of a trade more likely.

Assuming that the acquiring team wants to get him to reverse his commitment to return for his senior year, that means that finding a trade this offseason makes the most sense.  The Lightning could go in any direction with a move – look for a piece that helps them now, a prospect closer to being NHL-ready that has plenty of team control, or even draft picks and unsigned prospects to keep or use as trade chips down the road.  Whichever one they pick, it feels like that move should be coming relatively soon.

Add Defensive Depth

Considering the dearth of right-shot defense options available in free agency this summer, it feels like close to a foregone conclusion that Nick Perbix is going to price himself out of what Tampa Bay can afford to pay him unless he takes less than market value or BriseBois is able to open up some flexibility somewhere.  That means at least one spot on the roster is up for grabs.

Internally, there are a couple of options for the Lightning.  Maxwell Crozier has seen a bit of NHL action the last couple of years and had a strong showing with Syracuse this season and could be in line for a more permanent promotion.  Alternatively, offseason signing Charle-Edouard D’Astous has had two strong years offensively overseas so it wouldn’t be surprising to see the 27-year-old get at least a look in training camp.

But that’s not a lot of depth to work with.  At a minimum, they’ll want to bring in a couple of veterans for the Crunch with some NHL experience in case injuries arise.  As things stand, both Derrick Pouliot and Steven Santini are set to become unrestricted free agents next month so they’ll need to be re-signed or replaced.  But finding a blueliner or two willing to sign for the league minimum with a shot at battling for a seventh spot on the roster would be their best option.

Upgrade Bottom Six Depth

One thing the Lightning have had to do in recent years is sign several veteran forwards on minimum-salary contracts.  It was borne out of necessity with their top-heavy spending and they did the best they could out of the players willing to take early deals at a $775K (or close) price tag.  Zemgus Girgensons, Luke Glendening, and Cam Atkinson are recent examples of those.  It’s likely they’ll try to get pending RFA Gage Goncalves signed in around that range as well.

While those players were all serviceable to varying degrees, there was a reason that Tampa Bay was often a two-line team with a third line that could chip in from time to time; the fourth line was largely there to try to play to a scoreless draw when they were on the ice.  It’s an easier said than done idea but upgrading on that level of talent on the open market would certainly help the cause.  In particular, finding some extra grit in one or two of those signings would probably be worthwhile.

BriseBois has tried to work early in free agency with these types of pickups.  While it would be riskier, waiting until closer to training camp when the asking prices of some unsigned players might come down might be able to net them a better caliber of signing.  It’s picking at the margins here but with most of the heavy lifting done already, working on the margins might be all that’s realistically left for Tampa Bay in the coming weeks.

Photo courtesy of Nick King/Lansing State Journal.

Lightning Sign Ryan Fanti

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A strong showing in the minors this season has landed goaltender Ryan Fanti an NHL contract.  PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that the Lightning have signed the netminder to a one-year, two-way deal.  The pact pays $775K at the NHL level and $80K in the minors.

The 25-year-old was originally an Oilers prospect after signing with them as an undrafted college free agent back in 2022.  However, he spent the bulk of his tenure with them at the ECHL level, leading to a non-tender last summer.  He eventually caught on with Tampa Bay on a minor-league deal with AHL Syracuse although he spent most of the season in ECHL Orlando, putting up a 2.71 GAA and a .907 SV% in 37 games.  Fanti impressed in limited action with the Crunch as well, posting a 1.33 GAA and a .950 SV% in six outings with them.

Fanti is now the fifth goaltender the Lightning have under contract next season.  Excluding the NHL tandem, he’ll be battling for playing time with the Crunch with veteran Brandon Halverson along with prospect Harrison Meneghin who just signed his entry-level deal a couple of weeks ago.  Matt Tomkins, who was the backup for the Crunch this season, is a pending unrestricted free agent and may not return.

West Notes: Robertson, Eklund, Ducks, Biro

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As a result of extensions handed out to Wyatt Johnston and Mikko Rantanen, the Stars enter the summer with less than $5MM in cap room, per PuckPedia, with several roster spots to fill.  Obviously, they’ll need to trim some salary somewhere but instead of looking to move some of their pricier role players, Daily Faceoff’s Jeff Marek posits the idea of moving Jason Robertson.  The 25-year-old has one year left on his contract with a $7.75MM cap hit and will be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent next summer in line for a sizable raise.  While losing him would undoubtedly be a big hit to their roster as an 80-point player for three straight years now, it could also allow them to recoup some of the draft capital they moved out when they loaded up at the trade deadline and add some flexibility to round out their group this summer.

Elsewhere out West:

  • In his latest piece for NBC Sports Bay Area, Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now examines what a William Eklund extension could look like. The winger is eligible for a new deal as of July 1st and after a solid 58-point effort this season, the Sharks will likely want to see if an early agreement can be reached.  In terms of recent comparable long-term deals, he suggests Calgary’s Matthew Coronato (seven years, $6.5MM per season) and Utah’s Dylan Guenther (eight years, $7.14MM per year) could stand as a reasonable starting point in discussions.
  • While the Ducks have a pair of restricted free agents that are popular speculative offer sheet candidates in Mason McTavish and Lukas Dostal, Derek Lee of The Hockey News explains why they shouldn’t be worried about it. With more than $38MM in cap space this summer per PuckPedia and increasingly high offer sheet thresholds, the price point where Anaheim might be inclined not to match a hypothetical offer sheet is likely much higher than any other team is willing to pay.
  • Pending Kraken UFA forward Brandon Biro is expected to sign with KHL Vityaz, relays Mikhail Zislis of Sport-Express. The 27-year-old signed with Seattle in free agency last summer after seeing just five NHL games with Buffalo.  However, Biro didn’t see any time at the top level this season, instead collecting just six goals and 28 assists in 54 games with AHL Coachella Valley.

Five Key Stories – 5/26/25 – 6/1/25

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The calendar has flipped to June with just two teams now having a shot at the Stanley Cup.  One of those saw a key player get injured this week which is one of the highlights in our key stories.

Islanders Re-Sign Two: Before the Islanders moved on from Lou Lamoriello as GM, he was working on signing a pair of players to extensions before their contracts were set to expire in July.  Those deals have now been finalized under new GM Mathieu Darche.  The team re-signed winger Kyle Palmieri to a two-year, $9.5MM deal and blueliner Adam Boqvist to a two-year, $1.7MM pact.  Palmieri has stayed healthy the last two seasons, chipping in with 54 goals along the way but still wound up taking a small cut in pay from the $5MM per year he had on his last deal.  As for Boqvist, he fit in well after being claimed off waivers from Florida.  Just 24, he would have been arbitration-eligible as a restricted free agent but a lock to be non-tendered with more than 240 NHL games under his belt so the two sides had to get something done in advance.

Going Under The Knife: While the Oilers are moving on to their second straight Stanley Cup Final, one key winger won’t be as Zach Hyman is out for the final round after undergoing wrist surgery.  After a breakout 54-goal effort last season, he managed just half of that total this year in 73 games but had a solid 11 points in 15 playoff outings as a key secondary scorer.  Meanwhile, the Jets won’t have their captain available to them when the 2025-26 season gets underway in October after Adam Lowry underwent hip surgery which carries a recovery period of five to six months.  Lowry had a career-high 16 goals this season before chipping in with four more in the first two rounds of the playoffs despite the injury.

New Coach In Seattle: After a long coaching search, the Kraken have found their new head coach, naming Lane Lambert to the position.  He will take the place of Dan Bylsma who only lasted one season in the role with a disappointing 76-point effort that saw them finish seventh in the Pacific Division.  This will be Lambert’s second stint running an NHL bench after coaching the Islanders for 127 games before being replaced by Patrick Roy in 2024 but he is highly experienced, working at the top level since 2011 in either an assistant or associate coaching role.  This season, he held the latter title with Toronto.  Lambert is the third coach in Seattle’s young franchise history after Dave Hakstol was in charge for the first three years.

Bridge For Foerster: The Flyers have mostly gone with bridge deals in recent years, the opposite of the general league-wide trend of signing young players to long-term pacts quickly.  They continued their strategy with their latest contract, a two-year, $7.5MM deal given to winger Tyson Foerster.  The 23-year-old has been a regular in Philadelphia for the last two seasons and had a solid sophomore year, scoring 25 goals along with 18 assists in 81 games while logging nearly 17 minutes a night of ice time.  His 43 points were good for a tie for fifth in team scoring.  While it’s clear that Foerster is viewed as a long-term puzzle piece in Philadelphia, he’ll have to wait a couple more years now before having a shot at a long-term contract.

Sabres Hire Kekalainen: It has been well known that the Sabres were looking to add some experience to their front office.  They’ve done just that after announcing the hiring of Jarmo Kekalainen as a senior advisor.  Kekalainen was the GM in Columbus for more than a decade before being let go a little more than 15 months ago.  He also has an extensive scouting background going back to his time with Ottawa and St. Louis.  The 58-year-old has held some sort of title with an NHL team for almost every year since 1995 and certainly will bring a lot of experience to a front office that doesn’t have a lot of it.

Photo courtesy of Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports.

Offseason Checklist: Montreal Canadiens

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The offseason has arrived for all but two teams now with the playoffs nearing an end.  Accordingly, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at Montreal.

After three straight seasons of being near the basement in the standings, the expectation was that the Canadiens would take a step forward in 2024-25.  Instead, they may have taken more of a jump than expected as they ultimately secured the final playoff spot in the East before losing in five to Washington in the first round.  Now, GM Kent Hughes has some work to do this summer to help his young group take another step forward next season or at least to keep them in the middle of the pack once more.

Move Price’s Contract

While it might seem odd to start this piece with a discussion of a player who hasn’t played since 2022, Carey Price has been making an impact on this group since then and his contract hasn’t helped things.  He has been on LTIR for the last three years with a knee injury that he won’t be able to return from.  The Canadiens have had to dip into using LTIR every season since then.

When the team wasn’t too worried about wins and losses as they went through the tougher early stages of their rebuild, this wasn’t too big of a deal.  They had enough flexibility to recall players when needed and although there were bonus overage penalties, it didn’t matter much.  But now they enter next season with the second-highest carryover penalty in the league at over $1.75MM per PuckPedia and it’s a number that could go higher for 2025-26 depending on bonuses reached.

If Montreal can offload Price’s contract to a team looking to just get over the spending floor as has happened in the past with long-term LTIR players, the Canadiens could go back to banking in-season cap space and eliminate the potential for a carryover penalty.  It would also increase their regular spending room from around $8MM to $18MM, giving Hughes the ability to try to add a piece or two without having to worry about triggering going into LTIR once more.

But this is one of those files that needs to be figured out early and dealt with later.  Price has a $5.5MM signing bonus due that teams are going to want the Canadiens to pay.  But unlike most bonuses which are paid on July 1st, his is owed on September 1st.  After that, he has a $2MM base salary that insurance will cover the bulk of, making a trade much more palatable at that time.

That said, in order to add when most of the free agent signings and trades are made, Montreal would need to know by then if they have a deal in place to help shape their player movement.  Basically, they’ll be looking to reach an agreement on a deal in principle and then shelve it for at least two months.  If a move is agreed on, that would make it one of the first things they do this offseason and likely their last at the same time.

Work On Hutson Extension

Last summer, Montreal worked quickly to get contract extensions done with two of its core players, signing winger Juraj Slafkovsky (eight years, $7.6MM AAV) and defenseman Kaiden Guhle (six years, $5.55MM AAV).  In doing so, they kept their internal cap intact with both players signing for less than team captain Nick Suzuki ($7.875MM AAV).  Accomplishing that with their extension-eligible core piece this summer will be trickier with defenseman Lane Hutson eligible for a new contract as of July 1st.

Hutson’s first full NHL season was certainly a strong one.  He played in all 82 games and recorded six goals and 60 assists while logging a little under 23 minutes a night of ice time.  With 66 points, he finished tied with Winnipeg’s Josh Morrissey for sixth in that category among blueliners league-wide.  In assists, he was tied with Quinn Hughes for second, only behind Cale Makar.  These are some of the top offensive blueliners in the league, players who received pretty substantial second contracts.  Meanwhile, he also led all NHL rookies in points, three ahead of Matvei Michkov and Macklin Celebrini.

There are some recent comparables to work with here.  Brock Faber (eight years, $8.5MM) and Owen Power (seven years, $8.35MM) come to mind while the second contracts to Makar (six years, $9MM) and Hughes (seven years, $7.85MM), while older, are probably worth noting as well.  The cap hit percentage of those deals ranges from 8.9% to 11%.  Knowing that the projected Upper Limit of the Salary Cap for 2026-27 is $104MM, that would approximate Hutson’s price tag between $9.256MM and $11.44MM.

Is that a price Montreal is willing to pay right now?  Would they be better waiting and seeing how things go next season?  It’s worth noting he won’t be eligible for an offer sheet which at least mitigates a bit of the risk of waiting.  Or, is Hughes able to find a lower-cost price tag that both sides are comfortable with now?

Add Second Center

Finding a reliable second-line center has been an issue for Montreal for several years now, dating back to before the current management regime.  And while Hughes has made a few attempts to solve that issue, none have managed to stick just yet.

First, Kirby Dach was brought in from Chicago with the hopes that a change of scenery could help him live up to his high draft billing.  Instead, he has dealt with significant injuries in all three years, missing more games than he has played in.  Alex Newhook was also acquired but he hasn’t been able to lock down a full-time spot down the middle yet and hasn’t produced enough to be a full-timer in the top six.  They also had Sean Monahan for a stretch but used him as a trade chip, acquiring a first-round pick to take him on and then dealt him for a first-round pick the following season.  While that was a tidy piece of business, it means that second pivot is still needed.

Internally, Jake Evans is more of a checker while prospects Oliver Kapanen and Owen Beck aren’t going to be ready to play in a top-six role next season, at least at the NHL level.  And while they have hopes that Dach can bounce back, depending on a healthy and productive season shouldn’t be their preferred option at this point; they’d be wise to try to address this externally.

The free agent market has several veterans that could fill a short-term stopgap type of role, including Matt Duchene, Mikael Granlund, John Tavares, and Claude Giroux if he doesn’t re-sign with Ottawa.  They’d undoubtedly inquire on Sam Bennett if he makes it to free agency as well.  Failing that, Hughes will have to turn to trying to fill that spot via the trade route once again.

Add Veteran Right-Shot Defenseman

David Savard wasted little time ending any speculation about his future plans when he announced before the playoffs that he’d be retiring.  That opens up one spot on Montreal’s back end to fill.  Notably, his departure means that midseason acquisition Alexandre Carrier is the only right-shot defender on their roster at the moment.  While teams can get away with having two instead of three, only having one is a little more difficult to navigate.

It’s worth noting that Montreal’s top two defensive prospects, David Reinbacher and Logan Mailloux, are both right-shot players.  Mailloux saw a handful of NHL games this season while Reinbacher was injured for most of it but is playing a big role with AHL Laval in the playoffs.  It’s possible that management envisions one of them filling in Savard’s role and leaving it at that.

However, that would mean going with just two defensemen above the age of 25 to start next season.  That’s fine when you’re rebuilding but a lot riskier when you’re trying to push for a playoff spot.  Accordingly, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to find a short-term veteran who could fill a similar role to Savard while also hedging against Mailloux and Reinbacher needing more development time.  Ideally, that player would be a strong penalty killer as Savard logged more than three minutes per game shorthanded this season.

It’s not a great UFA class for right-shot, low-term veterans so this is also something they may want to look at the trade market for if they think one of Mailloux or Reinbacher will be ready soon.  Alternatively, they can go for someone on a two-year or a three-year deal and shuffle things around if and when the youngsters are ready.  Regardless of what route they take, adding at least a short-term stopgap on the right side of the back end is something they should be looking to do.

Photo courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images.

Kraken Sign Kaden Hammell To Entry-Level Contract

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With today being the signing deadline for several prospects across the NHL, the Kraken got in a signing just before the 4 PM CT deadline.  Seattle has signed defenseman Kaden Hammell to a three-year, entry-level contract, relays Curtis Crabtree of Fox 13 Seattle (Twitter link).

The 20-year-old was drafted in the fifth round back in 2023, going 148th overall.  Hammell was not a big point producer throughout the bulk of his WHL career but he saved his best performance for last.  He played in 59 regular season games with Everett this season, notching 10 goals and 28 assists before following that up with 13 points in as many outings in the playoffs which might have been enough to get this contract.

Hammell is eligible to return to junior for an overage season where he’d likely play a top role with the Silvertips.  Alternatively, Seattle could elect to start him in the minors, either with AHL Coachella Valley or ECHL Kansas City, allowing him to get a start on his professional career.  With the Kraken signing Andrei Loshko back in April, they didn’t lose the rights to any prospects at today’s deadline.

Penguins Sign Mikhail Ilyin To Entry-Level Contract

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The Penguins have reached an agreement with one of their prospects, announcing on Saturday that they signed Mikhail Ilyin to a three-year, entry-level contract.  PuckPedia reports that the agreement will carry a cap hit of $851,667.

The 20-year-old winger was a fifth-round pick by Pittsburgh in 2023, being selected 142nd overall.  At the time, he had primarily played at Russia’s MHL level but in 2023-24, that changed as he put up 12 goals and 17 assists in 64 games with KHL Severstal Cherepovets with his only MHL playing time coming in the playoffs.

This year, it was more of the same.  Ilyin played in 65 games with Severstal and while his goal total dipped to seven, he improved in the assist department as he collected 23 of those.  He played just twice in the MHL, notching four helpers.

It would be surprising if Ilyin was in the plans to play regularly in Pittsburgh in 2025-26.  It’s not often that Russian players play regularly in the AHL either at this stage of their career so it wouldn’t be surprising to see Ilyin loaned back to Cherepovets for next season.

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