Josh Manson Expected To Re-Sign With Avalanche
One of Colorado’s key trade deadline acquisitions is set to stick around. As first reported by Peter Baugh of The Athletic (Twitter link), the Avalanche have agreed to terms on a new contract with defenseman Josh Manson. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that it’s a four-year, $18MM contract which results in a $4.5MM AAV.
The 30-year-old was brought in from Anaheim just before the trade deadline in exchange for defenseman prospect Drew Helleson and a 2023 second-round pick in an effort to shore up the back of their defense corps. Manson was able to do just that, playing a key role in helping Colorado win the Stanley Cup last month and was ranked 16th in our Top 50 UFA list.
Last season, Manson played in 67 games between Anaheim and Colorado, picking up six goals and ten assists. While he had a 37-point season back in 2017-18, the 16 points he had in 2021-22 is closer to the typical production that he puts up which limited the upside of his market. However, he was still able to land a small raise from the $4.1MM he had on his last contract with another four-year commitment.
The Avalanche will have an impressive back end next season with Manson sticking with an impressive young core that features Cale Makar, Samuel Girard, and Bowen Byram that are all 24 or younger and Devon Toews who has emerged as a high-end defender in his own right since joining Colorado. With Erik Johnson still in the fold, that’s one of the stronger and deeper defense corps in the league which should give plenty of support to new starter Alexandar Georgiev.
With this agreement and the one given to Darren Helm earlier today, Colorado now has a little over $9MM in remaining cap space per CapFriendly with Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky both set to hit the open market in less than an hour. Barring a significant trade, it’s unlikely that either of them will re-sign with the bulk of their remaining camp room likely being earmarked for restricted free agent winger Artturi Lehkonen.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Free Agent Focus: Boston Bruins
Free agency is almost upon us. There will be several prominent players set to hit the open market while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well. Next up is a look at the Boston Bruins.
Key Restricted Free Agent
F Jack Studnicka – We’re using the term ‘key’ here loosely but that’s simply because Boston doesn’t have any pending restricted free agents that were full-timers in the NHL last season. Or were even in the NHL for a quarter of the games. The closest is Studnicka who got into 15 games in 2021-22 and 20 the years before but the 2017 second-round pick hasn’t been able to establish himself yet as a full-time NHL regular. Now waiver-eligible, Boston could look to make Studnicka an offer for the league minimum but on a higher AHL salary or even a one-way deal in exchange for keeping the cap hit down. Those deals are quite common for players in his situation and it should play out like that here as well.
Other RFAs: D Jack Ahcan, F Matt Filipe
Key Unrestricted Free Agents
F Patrice Bergeron – The soon-to-be 37-year-old has been a fixture in Boston’s lineup for the last 18 years, spending many of those as an elite two-way center. While he’s getting up there in age, Bergeron was still quite productive last season, finishing third on the team in scoring with 65 points in 73 games while winning the Selke Trophy for the fifth time in his career. If he was to test the market, he’d have no shortage of interest and could command a raise on the $6.875MM he made on his expiring deal. Of course, Bergeron won’t be testing the market and has made that clear already with his options either being re-signing with Boston or retiring; RDS’ Francois Gagnon reports (Twitter link) a deal has been agreed to and will be announced soon. With the Bruins having limited cap space and a desire to bring David Krejci back from the Czech league, Bergeron will need to take less than market value or an incentive-laden deal to work around their cap situation.
F Curtis Lazar – The other player Boston picked up in the Taylor Hall trade, Lazar had one of his best NHL seasons in 2021-22, collecting 16 points while recording a career-high 186 hits. He can kill penalties and has been close to a 50% player at the faceoff dot over the last three seasons. Gritty fourth liners always generate some interest on the open market and the 27-year-old should be no exception as he’ll get a contract that’s above the $800K he made in each of the last two years.
D Josh Brown – After having a limited role in Ottawa, the Bruins picked up the 28-year-old at the trade deadline to give them some extra depth for the playoffs. He rarely played the rest of the way, suiting up in just six games down the stretch and once in the postseason. While that doesn’t help his cause heading into free agency, Brown has shown over his four seasons that he’s a serviceable depth defender that can bring some physicality into the mix. He’ll have a bit of interest as a result.
Other UFAs: F Anton Blidh, G Callum Booth, D Kodie Curran, F Steven Fogarty, F Jesper Froden, G Troy Grosenick, F Cameron Hughes
Projected Cap Space
At the moment, Boston has just over $2.3MM in cap space which certainly doesn’t give them any room to work with while Bergeron and Krejci would need to take contracts that are well below market value. Accordingly, GM Don Sweeney will need to be active on the trade front to create some space if they’re going to be active in adding to their roster this summer.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.
Maple Leafs Sign Dennis Hildeby
Today is the first day that teams can officially sign their 2022 draft picks to entry-level contracts. The first to do an official deal is Toronto as the Maple Leafs announced that they’ve signed goaltender Dennis Hildeby to a three-year deal with an AAV of $843,330.
The 20-year-old was a fourth-round pick (122nd overall) last week in his third year of eligibility. Hildeby is coming off a season where he split time in Sweden’s junior level and in the SHL but it was his performance at the top level that likely got him on Toronto’s radar. He played in seven games with Farjestad, posting a 1.93 GAA along with a .931 SV%.
Hildeby is signed with Farjestad for two more seasons which makes the timing of this deal a little curious as the expectation was that he’d stay in Sweden and play at that level before making the jump to North America. That could still happen with the changes to the Player Transfer Agreement with Sweden making it harder for Swedish-born players to come play in the AHL. If Hildeby remains in Sweden, his contract will not slide as that option is only available to junior-aged players.
Canadiens Re-Sign Three Players
The Canadiens have taken care of three of their pending free agents before the market officially opens up in a few hours, announcing the re-signings of winger Alex Belzile and Joel Teasdale plus center Nate Schnarr to one-year, two-way deals. Financial terms of the contracts were not officially disclosed but TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie reports (Twitter link) that Belzile’s contract will pay $750K in the NHL, $275K in the minors, and has a $350K guarantee. Meanwhile, PuckPedia adds (Twitter links) that Schnarr and Teasdale will receive $750K in the NHL and $82.5K in the minors.
Belzile has seen NHL action in each of the last three years with his debut actually coming in the playoff bubble in 2020. In 2021-22, he got into 11 games with Montreal and was held off the scoresheet while averaging 10:24 per game. The 30-year-old was more productive in the minors, notching 10 goals and 12 assists in 32 games with AHL Laval and chipped in with nine more points in 15 postseason contests. He was slated to become an unrestricted free agent later today.
Teasdale, an undrafted free agent signing back in 2018, has yet to make it to the NHL level and has dealt with multiple knee injuries in recent years. He was limited to just 44 games with Laval last season, collecting 15 goals and 13 assists which was good enough for the team to tender him a qualifying offer earlier this week. Since the 23-year-old missed all of the 2019-20 season due to injury, he still has a year of waiver exemption remaining despite his entry-level contract now being finished.
As for Schnarr, he was acquired from New Jersey back at the trade deadline in exchange for goaltender Andrew Hammond. The 23-year-old combined for 17 goals and 19 assists in 63 AHL games between Utica and Laval and will likely be earmarked to start in the minors again next season.
Snapshots: Zadorov, Rodrigues, Laine, Canucks
On top of Johnny Gaudreau opting to get the open market, defenseman Nikita Zadorov will also be doing so, reports Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic (Twitter link). The 27-year-old had a career-high 22 points last season but also averaged a career-low in ice time at 16:55 per game. A veteran of over NHL games 500 games between the regular season and playoffs, Zadorov is a well-known commodity around the league and will have interest from teams looking to shore up the left side of their back end in free agency.
Elsewhere around the NHL:
- Pending UFA forward Evan Rodrigues has changed representation to Darren Ferris of Quartexx, PuckPedia reports (Twitter link). After bouncing around the previous two seasons, the 28-year-old had a breakout year in 2021-22, collecting 43 points in 82 games with Pittsburgh while spending plenty of time in their top six. After being on one-year deals the past three years, Rodrigues should be able to secure a multi-year commitment this time around.
- While Patrik Laine is a year away from being eligible to test unrestricted free agency, Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen told reporters including Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch that there is mutual interest in getting a long-term extension done with the winger. Laine is coming off his first career point per game season, notching 26 goals and 30 assists in 56 games and received his $7.5MM qualifying offer. He’s eligible to file for arbitration if an agreement can’t be worked out in the coming days.
- Canucks president Jim Rutherford told CHEK TV’s Rick Dhaliwal (Twitter link) that the team will not be looking to re-sign pending UFA forwards Alex Chiasson, Brad Richardson, and Brandon Sutter right away but could circle back at some point this summer. Chiasson had 13 goals in 67 games last season, a decent return on a league minimum deal while Richardson won over 58% of his faceoffs in 2021-22. Sutter, meanwhile, missed all of last season with long COVID symptoms and there’s no word yet on whether or not he’ll be able to play in 2022-23.
Offseason Checklist: Colorado Avalanche
With the offseason in full swing, it’s time to examine what each squad will need to accomplish over the coming weeks. Last up is a look at the Avalanche.
Generally speaking, a team that wins the Stanley Cup shouldn’t need to make a whole lot of changes. Evidently, that’s not the case in Colorado as they have a new starting goalie (Alexandar Georgiev) and a new GM (Chris MacFarland with Joe Sakic moving up a rung) in just a couple of weeks after beating Tampa Bay. MacFarland will have a few items to check off in the coming days as well.
Replace Defensive Depth
Sakic added defenseman Josh Manson at the deadline as a rental and while he didn’t have the exact same role he had in Anaheim (his minutes were more limited), he was a key role player in the postseason. He’s likely to become an unrestricted free agent and there’s a decent chance he’ll move on. Ryan Murray and Jack Johnson, who signed with Colorado last summer, are also set to become unrestricted free agents tomorrow and certainly aren’t locks to return.
That leaves Colorado with six blueliners that saw regular action last season and one of those (Kurtis MacDermid) is more of a winger than a defenseman at this point. Another, Bowen Byram, has shown plenty of promise but has dealt with multiple concussions in his young career and had to take a step back to recover last season. While the Avs will certainly be hoping that he’ll be able to stay healthy, expecting that to be the case would carry some risks.
With that in mind, MacFarland will need to add (or re-sign) at least one defenseman if not two to stay on the safe side. These players likely won’t command long-term deals (especially since they’ll want to keep some flexibility for the future) and will be earmarked for the third pairing but that extra depth will be necessary to hedge against in-season injuries. Fortunately for Colorado, while there aren’t many impact defenders available on the open market, there are several depth ones that are in the range that they’re going to want to pay.
MacKinnon Extension Talks
It’s quite possible that the biggest item on Colorado’s list this summer is to do something that won’t even affect their team for next season. Nathan MacKinnon will officially enter the final year of his contract on Wednesday, making him eligible to sign a contract extension. Prior to stepping aside as GM, Sakic recently indicated his intention of trying to get a deal done with his captain and there’s little reason to think that will change with MacFarland at the helm.
It sounds crazy to think now but at the time the 26-year-old signed his current seven-year, $44.1MM deal, there was some risk attached to it. While MacKinnon had shown flashes of offensive dominance, he had also failed to reach 25 goals in a single season. They were paying up with the expectation that he’d continue to improve and provide extra value by the end of the contract. It’s safe to say he has done that and more as only two players in the league have more points than MacKinnon over the last five years. (Both of them play in Edmonton if you’re wondering who they are.)
While the salary cap has flattened out in recent years and still has another couple of years on its current trajectory, MacKinnon is in line for a substantial raise on his next contract. Connor McDavid’s deal represented 16.67% of the Upper Limit when it was signed; that rate applied to the current cap would push MacKinnon just past $13.75MM. Granted, McDavid has been the better scorer but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that MacKinnon checks in around 15% of the cap which would put his next contract around the same $12.5MM AAV that McDavid currently has now. It’s a price tag Colorado shouldn’t be balking at paying either as if he was to somehow hit the open market next summer, several teams would be going after him with that type of money.
At this point, there isn’t a lot to gain from waiting while there’s value in having certainty about costs moving forward as Colorado plans other moves. Accordingly, expect a push to get something done on this front quickly.
Re-Sign Lehkonen
While Manson and some of their other late acquisitions were pending unrestricted free agents, that wasn’t the case for winger Artturi Lehkonen. The extra year of team control was enough for Sakic to justify parting with one of their top prospects in Justin Barron to get him from Montreal at the trade deadline. He certainly made an immediate impact with his new team, logging over 16 minutes a game in their middle six down the stretch and then scored two critical goals in the playoffs with the series-winner against Edmonton and the Cup-winner against the Lightning.
Lehkonen has arbitration rights in his final year of RFA eligibility so expect Colorado to take a run at signing him to a long-term deal that buys out his prime UFA years. Such a move would push his AAV past the $4MM mark even though his highest point total during the regular season is 38 which he put up this year. It’s a high price to pay for a winger that isn’t going to consistently light the lamp but his versatility and penalty killing ability made him an integral part of their team in the playoffs and it’s unlikely they will give him a chance to move on anytime soon.
Replace Outgoing Free Agent Forwards
While Colorado managed to get one prominent free agent off the table on Monday when they signed winger Valeri Nichushkin to an eight-year deal, they’re still set to lose a pair of key free agent forwards in Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky. Knowing the money that they’re going to be paying MacKinnon in 2023-24, they know they’re not going to be able to keep Kadri which creates a big opening down the middle. While Alex Newhook has shown some promise, he’s not really for full-time duty in the top six yet and while J.T. Compher can hold his own when covering for injuries, he’s not the preferred option to take Kadri’s spot either. Adding a proven veteran center on a short-term contract would be huge for the Avalanche.
Then there’s Burakovsky whose 61-point campaign likely priced himself out of what Colorado can afford with Lehkonen effectively taking his spot and role on the roster. But another winger that can at least slot in on the third line with an ability to move up when needed would certainly help lengthen their attack. The Avs have around $14MM to spend this summer with Lehkonen set to take up a sizable chunk of that. Between a new center to replace Kadri and some defensive depth, there might be enough left for that type of winger to help keep one of the top attacks in the NHL three lines deep.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.
Free Agent Focus: Buffalo Sabres
Free agency is almost upon us as it’s less than a day away. There will be several prominent players set to hit the open market while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well. Next up is a look at the Buffalo Sabres.
Key Restricted Free Agent
F Victor Olofsson: The 26-year-old has had some ups and downs in his career and there was a time last season when it looked like Olofsson could be a non-tender candidate when he was struggling. However, he was much better over the final two months of the season, notching 25 points in 28 games to show that he can still be a part of Buffalo’s plans. Olofsson is in his final year of arbitration eligibility so GM Kevyn Adams will be looking to work on a multi-year agreement which likely would fall in the mid-$4MM range. If they can’t work out something in the next few days at least, expect Olofsson to file for arbitration and that will start the clock on working out a deal to avoid a hearing. A one-year pact through a hearing should check in around the $4MM range if it gets that far.
Other RFAs: G Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, F Brett Murray, F Arttu Ruotsalainen
Key Unrestricted Free Agents
D Will Butcher – Few players have seen their stock plummet as much as Butcher has in recent years. After making the All-Rookie team in 2018, things have gone downhill from there. The 27-year-old has had a very limited role the last couple of seasons between New Jersey and Buffalo but still put up nine points in 37 games in 2021-22. He’s only four years removed from reaching 30 points back in his sophomore year. While his market isn’t going to be the strongest, there will be teams looking to add some low-cost offensive depth on their back end and the potential upside of a rebound will result in some interest on a one-year deal.
D Colin Miller – There are some parallels with Butcher in the sense that he’s a few years removed from his best year but his production has dropped considerably since then. Miller is coming off a tough year on the injury front as well, missing 30 games between injuries and a stint in COVID protocol and with only 14 points in 38 games, his market is going to be similarly limited as well. Again, teams will be looking to shore up their depth and Miller did log nearly 19 minutes a game last season so there will be some interest in a short-term pact, albeit at a much lower price tag than the $3.875MM he made the last four seasons.
D Mark Pysyk – After playing very limited roles in the previous two seasons with Florida and Dallas which included time on the wing, Pysyk returned to Buffalo and reclaimed a spot on their back end, spending most of the year on their third pairing. At this stage of his career, the 30-year-old is likely going to be going year-to-year but as a right-shot defender that can play up front in a pinch, he should have some teams showing interest at a deal a little above the league minimum.
F Cody Eakin – Eakin’s days of being an impact energy player are largely gone but he can still kill penalties and win faceoffs having won a career-high 56% of his draws in 2021-22. As far as fourth-line centers go, those are two elements that teams often look for. It would be surprising to see the 31-year-old come close to the $2.25MM that he made in each of the last two years – the market for role players has dipped since then – but Eakin should have some suitors from teams looking for some cheap depth down the middle.
Other UFAs: F Drake Caggiula, D Brandon Davidson, G Aaron Dell, F John Hayden, G Michael Houser, F Mark Jankowski, F Ryan MacInnis, D Ethan Prow, D Jimmy Schuldt, G Malcolm Subban (expected to re-sign), G Dustin Tokarski
Projected Cap Space
Cap space won’t be an issue for the Sabres who have over $30MM in cap space right now and that’s even after adding in Ben Bishop’s contract that they took on from Dallas earlier this summer. Olofsson is the only free agent of note to re-sign so Buffalo has the cap space to be aggressive in the market or to take on more contracts to add additional assets. That said, they typically have been a budget team so it remains to be seen how much of that $30MM they’ll be able to use.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.
Predators Agree To Eight-Year Contract With Filip Forsberg
July 11: The Predators have now officially announced the contract, with Poile releasing the following statement:
We are very pleased to announce Filip’s signing today. As one of the best offensive players in our history, we are thrilled to have Filip as a part of our team for the next eight seasons. His talent, competitiveness and leadership are critical to our future as we continue to strive for our goal of winning a Stanley Cup. We believe that Filip, like Pekka Rinne before him and like our captain, Roman Josi, is doing now, will write a legacy with the Predators that fans will remember forever. Additionally, we’d like to wish Filip and his fiancée Erin all the best as they get married later this month. We appreciate having them both in our SMASHVILLE family for the next eight years.
July 9: Filip Forsberg isn’t leaving Nashville anytime soon as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve agreed to an eight-year contract with the winger. While financial terms weren’t officially disclosed, 104.5 The Zone’s Dawn Davenport was the first to report (Twitter link) that the deal is worth around $70MM; Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli confirms (via Twitter) that the deal carries an $8.5MM AAV which is worth a total of $68MM.
TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reported Sunday morning on the financial structure of the Forsberg deal. It is as follows:
- 2022-23: $10MM
- 2023-24: $10MM
- 2024-25: $10MM
- 2025-26: $10MM
- 2026-27: $4.5MM base salary, $3MM signing bonus
- 2027-28: $4MM base salary, $3MM signing bonus
- 2028-29: $4MM base salary, $3MM signing bonus
- 2029-30: $3.5MM base salary, $3MM signing bonus
Interestingly, the deal does, in fact, come with some protection against movement. Per LeBrun, the deal has a full no-movement clause throughout, and a modified no-trade clause for the final two seasons of the contract.
The 27-year-old has spent parts of the last ten seasons with the Predators after they acquired him at the trade deadline from Washington in 2013 in exchange for Martin Erat and Michael Latta in a trade that worked out a whole lot better for Nashville than it did for the Capitals. Since then, Forsberg has become a consistent scorer for the Preds and has been a key cog on their top line for several years.
While Forsberg has been pretty steady in the goal-scoring department having notched at least 20 goals in each of his first six seasons (and produced at a 20-plus-goal pace in 2020-21), he found a new gear this past season, scoring 42 goals while chipping in with 42 assists, both career highs by a considerable margin. That was good enough to finish third on the Predators in points behind Roman Josi and Matt Duchene with their goal output – which ranked 12th in the league – helping to propel them to the postseason with the team only being in the middle of the pack in goals allowed.
The timing for that jump in production couldn’t have been better for Forsberg as it placed him as one of the top free agents of this year’s class, giving him plenty of leverage in contract talks. That has allowed him to earn a $2.5MM raise from his previous contract and plenty of job security since he’ll be signed through the 2029-30 season. It will be interesting to see if he was able to get any form of trade protection in the contract as that’s something that GM David Poile has historically been extremely hesitant to hand out over the years.
Nashville is clearly looking to remain in the playoff picture after adding Ryan McDonagh earlier this offseason and keeping Forsberg in the fold will certainly help their chances of reaching the postseason again. They have a little over $9MM left in cap space per CapFriendly with RFA winger Yakov Trenin the most notable still to be signed so it’s possible that the Predators could look to add another impact player this summer if they intend to spend close to the $82.5MM salary cap.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Maxime Lagace Re-Signs With Tampa Bay
July 11: The Lightning have officially announced the contract, confirming that it is a one-year, two-way deal.
July 10: Goaltender Maxime Lagace has decided not to test free agency next week. Instead, CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that he has agreed to a one-year, two-way deal to remain with the Lightning. The deal pays $750K in the NHL, $250K in the minors, and has a total guarantee of $350K.
The 29-year-old joined Tampa Bay last summer after spending 2020-21 in Pittsburgh’s organization. He spent the bulk of the year as the starter with AHL Syracuse, posting a 2.31 GAA and a .910 SV% in 36 games. Lagace also got into a pair of games with the Lightning, making it the fourth time in the past five years that he has seen NHL action.
Lagace will be expected to reprise his role as the starter with the Crunch with Andrei Vasilevskiy and Brian Elliott holding down the top two spots with the big club. With the team parting ways with Amir Miftakhov earlier this summer, Lagace only has Hugo Alnefelt to split time with in the minors as things stand; Alexei Melnichuk is a restricted free agent that Tampa Bay will need to decide by 4 PM CT tomorrow whether or not to qualify him.
Five Key Stories: 7/4/22 – 7/10/22
While the big roster shuffle will come next week as free agency opens up, it was still a very busy week around the NHL with the draft and some big trades among the key stories.
Draft Day Splashes: The Canadiens were hosting the draft, the first held in-person since 2019. GM Kent Hughes make a pair of notable decisions on the opening day of the festivities. First, he opted to take winger Juraj Slafkovsky with the first-overall pick, staying away from Shane Wright, long viewed as the consensus top pick who instead went fourth to Seattle.
Before Wright’s pick was announced, however, Montreal swung a pair of trades to find a new center. First, they traded defenseman Alexander Romanov along with a fourth-round pick to the Islanders for the 13th selection and then flipped that with a third-rounder to acquire Kirby Dach. Dach, the number three pick in 2019, has struggled so far in his career which led to Chicago dealing him away and taking Frank Nazar with the first-rounder but Montreal believes the 21-year-old still has top-six upside. Romanov, meanwhile, is a nice addition to New York’s back end and will certainly give them a boost in terms of physicality. Both Dach and Romanov are restricted free agents this summer.
Day Two Also Busy: Sometimes, the second day of the draft can come and go without much fanfare. This wasn’t one of them as Detroit swung a move to get a head start on their free agent shopping, acquiring the rights to Ville Husso from St. Louis for a third-round pick and then quickly signed him to a three-year, $14.25MM extension. It’s a nice raise for the 27-year-old who was on a league minimum contract the last two seasons but a well-earned one as he impressed in 40 games this past season. The Flyers then added to their back end, picking up Anthony DeAngelo from Carolina for a trio of draft picks, quickly agreeing to a two-year, $10MM contract after. The 26-year-old impressed in his only season with the Hurricanes, notching 51 points in 64 games, effectively pricing himself too high for what they can afford with several other notable free agents. Meanwhile, the Oilers could soon be adding some cap space as reports surfaced that veteran defenseman Duncan Keith is expected to retire this week after a 17-year career that featured two Norris Trophies and three Stanley Cups. The move will give Edmonton more than $5.5MM in cap space for next season while removing that amount from Chicago’s cap due to salary cap recapture penalties.
DeBrincat To Ottawa: Prior to the start of the draft, the Senators made a big splash on the trade front, acquiring winger Alex DeBrincat from Chicago in exchange for the seventh and 39th picks. The 24-year-old is coming off his second career 41-goal season and has one year left on his deal with a $6.4MM AAV. However, it’s worth noting that he’ll be owed a $9MM qualifying offer in 2023; GM Pierre Dorion indicated an intention to try to work on a long-term extension with DeBrincat in the coming weeks and it wouldn’t be surprising to see them try to push for a number that comes in a little below that amount. Meanwhile, Chicago used the picks on defenseman Kevin Korchinski and center Paul Ludwinski as they continue to sell off pieces as they embark on a full-scale rebuild.
Sharks Hire Grier: It took until just before the draft but the Sharks found their next general manager, appointing long-time NHL winger Mike Grier to the position. That makes him the first Black general manager in NHL history but not the first GM in his family as his brother Chris is currently the GM of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins. Grier spent three of his 14 NHL seasons in San Jose and will now be tasked with trying to shed some onerous contracts and bring in some extra young depth to the organization. His first move was to trade down from the 11th selection, swapping with Arizona for picks 27, 34, and 45.
Forsberg Sticks Around: While it took a lot longer than many expected, the Predators and winger Filip Forsberg were eventually able to work out a new eight-year, $68MM contract that carries a full no-move clause for the first six seasons. The 27-year-old has spent his entire ten-year NHL career with Nashville and has been a fixture on their front line for many of those. Forsberg is coming off a season that saw him hit new benchmarks in goals (42) and assists (42) despite missing 13 games which gave him plenty of leverage heading into discussions. He used it well as he gets a $2.5MM increase compared to the AAV of his previous deal and the maximum term of an agreement, ensuring he’ll remain the Predators for a long time to come.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.