Brian La Rose

Kraken Hire Lane Lambert As Head Coach

May 29, 2025 at 7:20 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 13 Comments

After a long search, the Kraken have found their new bench boss. The team announced that Lane Lambert has been hired as the third head coach in franchise history. GM Jason Botterill released the following statement:

After conducting an extensive search, we’re thrilled to announce Lane as our new head coach. We cast a wide net for suitable candidates. What impressed us throughout the interview process was Lane’s strategy and vision for this team. He was an integral part of the Capitals winning the Cup and the Islanders advancing to two straight Eastern Conference finals. We have full confidence in Lane to lead this team behind the bench.

Lambert will be taking over behind the bench from Dan Bylsma who was let go after just one year. He had previously replaced Dave Hakstol who served as the head coach for the franchise’s first three seasons. The hire shouldn’t come as too much surprise as earlier this week, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Lambert had emerged as the frontrunner for the position.

This will be Lambert’s second stint leading a team. The 60-year-old spent 127 games in charge of the Islanders but was let go partway through the 2023-24 season and replaced by Patrick Roy. Over that time, the Isles put up a 61-46-20 record while making the playoffs in 2022-23 where they lost in the first round.

The playoff success Botterill alludes to in his statement came when Lambert wasn’t in the top job. He spent four years with Washington as an assistant including 2018 when the Capitals won the Stanley Cup. Lambert followed Barry Trotz to the Islanders the following year while receiving a promotion to associate coach; their two Eastern Conference Final appearances came while he was in that role. This past season, Lambert was an associate coach with Toronto who now has an opening to fill on their staff.

Lambert will now be tasked with turning around a Kraken team that impressed considerably in its sophomore season when they amassed 100 points in the regular season but has struggled since, putting up 81 and 76 over the last two. One area of focus will undoubtedly be on the back end as they went from allowing the eighth-fewest goals in 2023-24 to 24th in that category this season while their possession game took a big hit as well.

With this hiring, there are now just two head coach vacancies remaining across the NHL: Pittsburgh and Boston. The belief is that the Penguins are looking to finalize a hire before the end of the month while the Bruins have been whittling down their shortlist in recent days as well so it may not be much longer before all 32 spots are spoken for.

Photo courtesy of Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports.

Penguins Receiving Interest In Bryan Rust

May 29, 2025 at 7:17 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 7 Comments

With there being plenty of speculation about the Penguins trying to make their roster younger for the upcoming season, a veteran winger is being eyed by other teams. Josh Yohe of The Athletic reports (subscription link) that teams are calling to gauge the potential availability of veteran winger Bryan Rust.

The 33-year-old is coming of a career year after putting up 31 goals and 34 assists this season despite missing 11 games due to injuries and illness. That came on the heels of him matching his previous career best in points the year before when he only played in 62 games. Suffice it to say, Rust has gone from being more of a role player at the beginning of his career to a trusted top-six option in recent seasons, making it very understandable that he’s attracting interest.

While his recent performance is certainly fueling that, so too is his contract. Rust has three years left on his current contract with a $5.125MM cap hit. In a cap environment that’s going to see the Upper Limit increase considerably over the next several years, inflating salaries along the way, his deal increasingly becomes more of a bargain.

A long-time linemate of Sidney Crosby, it’s likely that GM Kyle Dubas would prefer to keep Rust in the fold. While there’s a stated desire to get younger, there doesn’t seem to be any indication that they’re looking to go into more of a full rebuild, meaning that their top veterans aren’t likely to be made available.

It’s also worth noting that Rust currently has a no-move clause for a few more weeks although that protection lapses on July 1st. Accordingly, if a move were to be made with Dubas receiving an offer that was simply too good to refuse, it might have to wait until the start of the new league year for it to be made official. And if the free agent market proves to be as lucrative as many expect, Rust’s trade value and Dubas’ asking price will only be going up from there.

Robert Hagg Signs In SHL

May 29, 2025 at 6:05 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 1 Comment

May 29: Hagg is indeed heading to Brynas on a one-year deal, per a team announcement.

May 17: After seeing very limited NHL action this season, pending unrestricted free agent defenseman Robert Hagg is heading home. The blueliner confirmed to Expressen’s Gunnar Nordstrom that he will be playing in the SHL next season; SportBladet’s Hans Abrahamsson adds that Hagg is expected to sign a one-year deal with Brynas.

The 30-year-old signed a one-year deal with the Golden Knights last summer but he once again spent the bulk of the season in the minors with AHL Henderson where he had six goals and 21 assists in 54 games, his best offensive showing at that level. However, his improved play didn’t give Hagg much of an opportunity with Vegas as he suited up just twice with them in late November.

Having cleared waivers for two straight years now while then spending the bulk of those campaigns in the AHL, the writing is clearly on the wall for Hagg. He’s now viewed as more of a depth defender than someone that can be counted on to be a regular contributor in the NHL. Accordingly, at this stage of his career, heading back home makes a lot of sense.

If this winds up being the end of the road for Hagg in North America, he’ll finish up with 345 career NHL appearances over parts of nine seasons across six organizations although more than two-thirds of those outings were with the Flyers. Overall, Hagg has 63 points, 532 blocks, and 1,017 hits at the top level while logging 16:28 per game on average.

Offseason Checklist: Calgary Flames

May 27, 2025 at 9:00 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 9 Comments

The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that aren’t taking part in the playoffs plus those already eliminated through the first couple of rounds. Accordingly, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at Calgary.

Heading into the season, expectations were quite low for the Flames, a team that some felt would be closer to the bottom five in the standings to a playoff spot but instead, they were in a battle for the final spot in the West until the dying days of the regular season. Even so, GM Craig Conroy likely recognizes that his team isn’t a piece or two away from contention. Accordingly, their checklist was designed with the thought that their offseason could be relatively quiet from a transactions perspective as they look to allow their young core continued time to develop before making a move or two to take the next step in a year or so.

Find A Backup Goalie

For the first half of the season, the Flames were effectively platooning their netminders. Daniel Vladar was healthy after returning from hip surgery and while hopes were high for Dustin Wolf, they understandably didn’t want to put too much on him too soon. In the second half, Wolf grabbed the top job and ran with it, playing a crucial role in Calgary’s late-season push for a postseason position.

While they know who their starter will be next season, the backup is in question. Vladar is eligible for unrestricted free agency this summer and is one of the more intriguing options available in a UFA class that isn’t particularly deep at that position. While he has expressed a willingness to return, it would likely be in a more limited role than he had this season which means Calgary’s offer might come in below the $2.2MM he made in each of the last two years. It’s possible that there is a better opportunity for him elsewhere.

Assuming Vladar moves on, the Flames have a couple of options they can go with. The first is turning to the UFA market to fill the spot. A veteran like Jake Allen could make sense as someone who could mentor Wolf while taking on a bigger workload if needed. Ilya Samsonov and Alexandar Georgiev are former starters who could view that post as a chance to try to rebuild some value while Anton Forsberg and Alex Lyon also make some sense as well. Adding one of those over giving up assets to trade for a second-string option would likely be a better move for them.

The other option would be to promote from within. Devin Cooley had a fantastic first half of the season with AHL Calgary and looked to be pushing for a recall but he struggled down the stretch. Signed on a one-way deal for 2025-26, they could give him a shot at earning the job in training camp while back-filling with a veteran third-string option who could hold his own if he needed to be the backup. In that case, adding someone like Kaapo Kahkonen or Ville Husso would be the move they’d likely look to make. No matter what, Conroy will need to sign a goalie over the next six weeks.

Wolf Extension Talks

Meanwhile, there could be a signing to come with their other goalie as well. Wolf is entering the final year of his two-year bridge deal, one that carries a very team-friendly cap hit of $850K. Once July 1st comes around, he’ll be eligible to sign a contract extension.

This case is a particularly interesting one. Wolf has just 71 career NHL appearances under his belt which isn’t much of a sample size. 53 of those came this season and he posted a 2.64 GAA with a .910 SV% while being a finalist for the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him on some Vezina Trophy ballots as well although he didn’t finish in the top three in voting there. At this point, any doubts about Wolf being their goalie of the future (and present) have basically been erased so the Flames will undoubtedly want to get him locked up to a long-term deal.

Pricing out such a contract this summer could be tricky, however, given the limited track record. The prudent play would generally be a shorter-term contract in these situations but Wolf is only two years away from UFA status and will be arbitration-eligible if unsigned by next summer. Accordingly, the options may just be a medium-term pact that buys out two or three UFA years or a long-term (or max-term) agreement.

For the former, Wolf would likely point to the five-year $25MM contract Seattle gave to Joey Daccord last year as a starting point. Daccord had similar numbers and experience at the time, making that one of the cleaner comparables. While all of those years were UFA years and Wolf has two RFA years remaining, the projected higher salary caps moving forward would largely offset that, allowing Wolf to likely push for more than that.

As for the latter, we’ve seen the market for starters recently push past the $8MM mark with some consistency, including Jeremy Swayman, Linus Ullmark, and Jake Oettinger who all recently joined Ilya Sorokin at $8.25MM per season. Wolf doesn’t have as much success as those four but in talks, both sides will probably be forecasting him having a similar performance next season. That could help him get into that range to the point where an eight-year deal could start with an eight. Conroy will need to decide if he’s comfortable going to that level now or if the team is better off waiting to see how next season goes and adjusting their offers from there.

Center Decisions

As is the case with many teams across the NHL, Conroy has made it known that he’d like to add down the middle. More specifically, he’d prefer to add someone around the same age as his core group which is something that’s especially much easier said than done. Given that the intent is to acquire a player who would be with the team long-term, striking to acquire that piece when it becomes available makes sense even if they’re not likely to be in contention for another couple of years.

Of course, it’s worth noting that Conroy managed to swing a move to add a middleman in that age group when he acquired Morgan Frost from the Flyers this season, taking on the full freight remaining on Joel Farabee’s contract to do so. The thought was that a change of scenery could reinvigorate him after a relatively quiet first half of the season in Philadelphia. However, that didn’t happen as he managed just three goals and nine assists in 32 games despite an increase in playing time after the swap.

Unfortunately for Calgary, they need to make a big decision on Frost’s future in the coming weeks. He’s a restricted free agent with arbitration rights this summer but more importantly, he’s a year away from UFA eligibility. Now, a short-term bridge deal would walk Frost right to the open market. Assuming they’d like to avoid that, they’ll have to find a common ground on at least a medium-term agreement, on that would come in around double his $2.4MM qualifying offer. Is that a price they’re willing to go to for a player who certainly struggled in his first few months with the team. With arbitration eligibility, this one will have to be handed over the next couple of months.

The other center they have to make a decision on is Connor Zary, who split time between playing down the middle and on the wing. Over his first two seasons, he has been a secondary scorer and is coming off a year that saw him put up 13 goals and 14 assists in 54 games. A pending restricted free agent with his entry-level deal coming to an end, Conroy will need to decide if he wants to do a long-term deal with the 23-year-old as he did with Matthew Coronato or if a bridge agreement makes the most sense. They can certainly afford the former given their cap situation (more than $28MM in room, per PuckPedia) but the latter seems more likely on a deal that could land around the $3MM mark per season.

Determine Andersson’s Future

Veteran defenseman Rasmus Andersson has been a fixture on Calgary’s back end for the past seven years (plus brief stints for his first two pro campaigns). Back in 2020, he signed a seven-year contract that carried a $4.55MM AAV, a deal that carried some risk at the time but has turned out to be quite the bargain. The Flames have one year left at that price before the 28-year-old becomes eligible to test the open market next summer.

Given that Calgary is a fair ways away from being a legitimate contender, Conroy fielded lots of calls about Andersson’s availability heading into the trade deadline but he opted to stand pat. Now that he’s entering the final year of his deal, those calls are going to pick back up.

While the Flames certainly wouldn’t want to move him, the question becomes how much they’re willing to pay him. As an all-situations right-shot defender and a rapidly rising salary cap, Andersson is likely poised to push for $8MM or more on his next contract as things stand even though he’s coming off bit of a down year. If they’re willing to go to that number and Andersson’s willing to sign, a long-term extension getting done early in the summer – he can sign as of July 1st – wouldn’t be a surprise at all.

If that doesn’t happen, then trade speculation will undoubtedly be cranked up. Calgary still wouldn’t have to deal him right away knowing that if need be, he’d yield a strong return in an in-season swap but that comes with a risk if injuries come into play. Still, Conroy has three options here – extend, trade, or hold, and all have positives and negatives tied to each approach. He’ll have to figure out the best one over the next couple of months.

Photo courtesy of Brett Holmes-Imagn Images.

Central Notes: Marchessault, Ylonen, Hintz, Blackhawks

May 27, 2025 at 8:03 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 2 Comments

Jonathan Marchessault’s first season in Nashville didn’t exactly go as planned. Like many Predators who underachieved, his offensive numbers dipped, with his goal total being cut in half from 42 to 21 while his 56 points were his lowest since the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 campaign. With things not going well this year, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports that the belief is that the 34-year-old is open to moving on. He’d be an intriguing addition for teams looking to add some firepower up front but the fact he has four years left on his contract (even at a reasonable $5.5MM price tag) could scare some suitors off, while Marchessault can also partially control his fate with a 15-team no-trade clause.

Snapshots: Karlsson, Love, Kolosov

May 27, 2025 at 7:05 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 5 Comments

With a free agent market that isn’t particularly deep for right-shot defensemen, league sources tell Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli that there’s an expectation that Penguins blueliner Erik Karlsson could be in play this summer. The soon-to-be-35-year-old has put up 109 points in his two seasons with Pittsburgh, well above average although far below the 101 he tallied in his final year with San Jose. Meanwhile, his defensive game has continued to be inconsistent which could have GM Kyle Dubas looking to move him to shake up his team. Karlsson has two years left on his contract at $10MM per season (with the Sharks contributing $1.5MM more as part of the trade two summers ago) and the Penguins would undoubtedly need to pay that down to find a suitable trade for his services.

Elsewhere around the NHL:

The Kraken appeared to be getting close to hiring Washington assistant coach Mitch Love as their new head coach, according to Daily Faceoff’s Anthony Di Marco. However, those talks apparently stalled at the finish line. He relays that there may be a condition for the new bench boss to retain assistant Jessica Campbell which could be a deterrent to potential candidates who might want to bring in their own preferred group of assistants. Love is a speculative finalist for both the Pittsburgh and Boston openings as well so things falling apart late could also be a sign that a better offer came from one of the other teams.
After not reporting to Philadelphia’s AHL affiliate after the regular season ended, many wondered if goaltender Aleksei Kolosov could be looking to return to the KHL. Sport-Express’ Artur Khairullin recently reported that the 23-year-old is expected to return to Dynamo Minsk next season, even though he’s under contract with the Flyers through next June. Kolosov played in a dozen games with Lehigh Valley early in the year and got into 17 more games with Philadelphia the rest of the way but struggled, posting a 3.59 GAA and a .867 SV% in those outings. With Kolosov on an NHL deal next season, the logistics of Kolosov returning to the KHL will need to be worked out, either by a mutual termination if Philadelphia is willing or his deal could ultimately be tolled at the NHL level.

Lukas Rousek Signs Two-Year Deal With HV71

May 27, 2025 at 10:50 am CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

May 27: HV71 finalized Rousek’s signing today, per a team release. It’s a two-year contract.

May 24: Sabres center Lukas Rousek’s season was extended by at least one more game following AHL Rochester’s victory on Friday in Laval but it appears his time in North America will soon be coming to an end. Expressen’s Johan Svensson reports (subscription link) that Rousek will be joining HV71 of the SHL next season.

The 25-year-old was a sixth-round pick by Buffalo back in 2019, going 160th overall. After spending the following two years in the Czech Extraliga, Rousek came to North America and has spent the last four seasons in Buffalo’s system, primarily at the AHL level.

This season, Rousek played in all 72 games with AHL Rochester, notching seven goals and 35 assists, seeing his per-game numbers dip for the second straight year. He has been more productive in the playoffs though, collecting two goals and six helpers through six games thus far.

Rousek didn’t see any NHL action this season but does have 17 games at the top level with the Sabres during his time with them. In those outings, he has a goal and three assists in 10:42 of ice time per game. Between his age and lack of experience in the NHL, Rousek qualifies for Group Six unrestricted free agency this summer.

Instead of looking to try his hand in another organization to see if he could land a little higher on the depth chart to get another NHL chance, Rousek instead will try his hand with HV71 where he should have a chance to play a prominent role and a good showing with them could boost his stock in North America should he decide to give playing there another push.

Five Key Stories: 5/19/25 – 5/25/25

May 25, 2025 at 9:00 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

As the playoffs role on, most teams are onto their offseason to-do lists. Not surprisingly, the bulk of the key stories from the past seven days come from the contract front beyond the United States picking up their first World Championship gold medal since 1933.

Extension For Sweeney: After executing Boston’s biggest selloff at the trade deadline in quite a while, Don Sweeney will get a chance to build the Bruins back up after he signed a two-year contract extension. Originally signed through next season, he is now under contract through the 2027-28 campaign. Sweeney has been at the helm in Boston since 2015 and this is only the second time in his tenure that Boston missed the playoffs. The Bruins have more than $26MM in flexibility this summer, per PuckPedia, putting Sweeney in a position where he can be more aggressive than usual in terms of adding to his roster in the coming weeks.

Blue Jackets Open To Moving Top Picks: After narrowly missing the playoffs, it appears that the Blue Jackets are willing to make a splash on the trade front. GM Don Waddell revealed that he is 100% willing to move both of his first-round picks in the right deal. Columbus holds the 14th selection (their own) and the 20th pick (previously acquired from Minnesota). That gives them some ammunition to try to move up closer to the top ten or perhaps to try to acquire a player who fits within the age of their core group that still has some club control remaining. If they don’t find a trade fit, one of the NHL’s deeper prospect pools will get a lot stronger.

Blashill To Blackhawks: One of the head coaching vacancies has been filled with the Blackhawks hiring Tampa Bay assistant Jeff Blashill as their next bench boss. He takes over for Anders Sorensen who finished the season in an interim role although it’s expected he’ll remain on the staff as an assistant moving forward alongside Michael Peca who comes over from the Rangers. This is Blashill’s second stint as an NHL head coach after spending seven seasons in that role with Detroit. The Red Wings were at the end of their long playoff run at the time and Blashill’s teams only made the postseason once while playing to a 204-261-72 record overall. With Chicago looking to take a step or two forward toward becoming more competitive, Blashill should be able to do just that over the next few years.

Sabres Gauging Byram’s Market: Sabres blueliner Bowen Byram has been in trade speculation off and on over his brief tenure with Buffalo and it appears that talk is on again following a report that suggests they’re gauging what his trade value might be. The 23-year-old is coming off a career year offensively that saw him put up 38 points while also playing in all 82 games for the first time. The timing of that was great for him as he’s a restricted free agent this summer with arbitration eligibility, putting him in line for a significant increase on the $3.85MM per year he made on his bridge deal. Accordingly, it appears the Sabres are looking to see if a trade might be a better option over making the third high-paid defender behind Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power.

Islanders Hire Darche: The Islanders have found their replacement for Lou Lamoriello as they have named Mathieu Darche as their next general manager and executive vice president of hockey operations. Darche had been part of Tampa Bay’s front office for the past six years, including spending the last two as an assistant GM. He’ll now be tasked with reshaping a New York group that has been near the middle in recent years, either just making or missing the playoffs. They also spoke to Brendan Shanahan about a role in their front office before Toronto officially announced that they won’t be renewing his contract but with Darche getting the dual title, it doesn’t appear that Shanahan will be joining the Isles.

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports.

Snapshots: Brown, Hintz, Koppanen

May 25, 2025 at 7:59 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

Oilers winger Connor Brown left today’s victory over Dallas with an upper-body injury. He was injured late in the second period on a hit from Alex Petrovic. Speaking with reporters postgame (video link), head coach Kris Knoblauch indicated that there was no immediate update on Brown’s status. The 31-year-old has been a quality secondary scorer in the playoffs with five goals and three assists in 14 games despite being questionable for a few games with another injury. If Brown isn’t available for Tuesday’s matchup, one of Viktor Arvidsson or Jeff Skinner would likely take his place in the lineup.

Elsewhere around the NHL:

With Roope Hintz being a late scratch against Edmonton, Stars head coach Peter DeBoer was asked after today’s game about his status. He noted (video link) that the center wasn’t particularly close to being able to play and had he been close, he would have played. Hintz took the pregame warmup but left only a few minutes in and DeBoer’s comments appear to call into question Hintz’s potential availability on Tuesday. Hintz has five goals and six assists through 15 playoff games, good for a share of second in team scoring heading into today’s loss.
Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review suggests that pending UFA winger Joona Koppanen would be wise to move on in free agency this summer in a move that could work well for him and the Penguins. The 27-year-old played in 11 games with Pittsburgh this season, scoring once while adding 23 points in 56 AHL contests with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. While Koppanen can kill penalties, Kyle Dubas tends to prefer a lot of depth which could put him further down the depth chart if he were to re-sign compared to some other teams where a path to a recall could be easier to reach.

Offseason Checklist: Vancouver Canucks

May 25, 2025 at 7:02 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 6 Comments

While there were some questions about the Canucks heading into the season despite a solid showing in 2023-24, this past season was a strange one. From struggles to injuries to in-fighting, the team never found its footing, missed the playoffs, and couldn’t come to terms with Rick Tocchet on a contract extension, leading to a coaching change with Adam Foote being promoted into the top job. Even with that item checked off, GM Patrik Allvin has some work to do in the coming months.

Add Impact Center

With the J.T. Miller situation coming to a head midseason, the Canucks were able to get a center back as part of the return in Filip Chytil. But with all due respect to Chytil, the two players are at considerably different levels. One has been a recent top liner, the other more of a middle-six piece with a concerning concussion history. If they were mapping out more of their ideal center situation, Chytil would probably head into next season as a third liner. They have Elias Pettersson locked up long-term (more on him shortly) but there’s still a need for a top-six middleman.

In terms of internal options, Aatu Raty should be a full-time NHL player soon but he’s more of a bottom-six option himself. Dakota Joshua and Teddy Blueger are capable bottom-six pieces but don’t produce enough to be a top-six piece. Pius Suter acquitted himself quite well this season and stepped into a bigger role, scoring 25 goals. However, he’s a pending unrestricted free agent and his market should be much stronger than it was two years ago when the Canucks got him on a low-cost deal that proved to be quite the bargain. Basically, there is no internal option beyond hoping Chytil can stay healthy and find a level he has yet to reach offensively.

Team president Jim Rutherford suggested earlier this month that the team might look to get the bulk of its spending done before free agency opens up. Accordingly, they may be intending on trying to acquire another middleman via a trade, a lofty goal considering few impact centers are typically made available. Unless the Canucks are looking to make another core-shaking swap, they may have some difficulty finding a fit in a trade.

The good news is that, at least for now, the UFA market down the middle is a bit deeper than usual. There are short-term options like John Tavares and Claude Giroux on expiring deals. Matt Duchene, Brock Nelson, Mikael Granlund, and Ryan Donato could plausibly command multi-year agreements though nothing overly long-term. Sam Bennett will land a lucrative long-term deal that probably won’t age the greatest but he’s out there too. It’s never easy to add a key center but the free agent route may make more sense for them to go here.

Examine Pettersson Options

Having just gone over how Vancouver already needs one top-six center, it feels a little counterintuitive to suggest they also need to look into their options with the one top-sixer they have in Pettersson. But after the way his season went, it feels like this is something they have to look into.

The 26-year-old signed an eight-year, $92.8MM contract in early March 2024, the first season of which is now in the books. At the time he signed the deal in 2024, he had 75 points in 62 games, a pace that would have given him a shot at a second straight 100-point season. After that point, he limped to the finish line with just 14 points in his final 20 outings.

Unfortunately for him and the Canucks, that proved to be a sign of things to come. This season was nothing short of disastrous. On the ice, Pettersson put up the lowest full-season point total of his career with only 15 goals and 30 assists in 64 games. Effectively, he was giving them second-line numbers while playing top-line minutes and making $11.6MM, making him one of the top-paid pivots in the NHL. And, of course, there was the off-ice issue of his feud with Miller that ultimately led to the veteran being moved away while the distraction seemed to linger all season long, even after the trade.

While Pettersson’s value is far from its peak (given the contract, it might be at its worst), Allvin will still likely look into what options might exist. As players who aren’t UFA-eligible aren’t eligible for trade protection, Pettersson still has another month and a bit without any sort of restrictions until July 1st at which point, a full no-move clause kicks in for the life of the contract. At that point, dealing Pettersson would become harder with his ability to veto deals, something that isn’t the case for the next five weeks and change. Getting them to retain significant salary is unlikely with seven years left on the contract but if there’s a big shakeup option out that would see them get an impact center back as part of the return, it would behoove them to look into it at the very least.

Replace Boeser

The last few months have been a little strange when it comes to winger Brock Boeser. He looked like a strong candidate to be moved before the trade deadline with Vancouver being out of the playoff picture and the two sides not close on an extension but a move never materialized. Allvin then took the rare step of admitting that the offers for the pending UFA were not particularly strong, a decision that some interpreted as trying to push back against a higher asking price from Boeser’s camp.

Then, at the end of the season when pending free agents generally at least say they’d like to return, Boeser stated that it was unlikely that would happen, suggesting he fully intends to hit the open market. While there’s still time for things to change on that front – Allvin suggested as much recently – that doesn’t seem likely to happen. Accordingly, this is an instance where the focus is likelier to shift to replacing the 28-year-old, not re-signing him.

Vancouver enters the offseason with around $16.7MM in cap space, per PuckPedia. With no impactful restricted free agents to deal with and a handful of roster spots to fill (including a spot or two on the back end), they have enough flexibility to make at least one addition of note. However, if their big add is down the middle, they might not be able to aim at a player in Boeser’s tier to replace him, one that’s likely to cost somewhere around the $8MM mark which might take Nikolaj Ehlers off the table.

It wouldn’t be surprising if the Canucks are looking for someone more around the $5MM range, allowing them to spend a bit of money on those final spots on the back end. Options around that price point could include Kyle Palmieri, Jonathan Drouin, Patrick Kane, and former Canuck Andrei Kuzmenko. To be able to afford that top tier on the wing, they’d likely have to commit to re-signing Suter as their other center before getting to July 1st. Otherwise, who they bring in probably won’t be as good as the winger they’ll be losing.

Demko Extension Talks

This was a tough season for goaltender Thatcher Demko. His injury from the playoffs lingered, resulting in him missing the first two months of the season and getting a pretty light workload beyond that point as he made just 23 starts. The 29-year-old also posted a career-low .889 SV% while Kevin Lankinen, brought in early in training camp as insurance, wound up getting a five-year extension in-season, cementing him as part of the plans moving forward.

Demko is entering the final season of his contract next season and considering the year he just had, it would make sense for both sides to see how 2025-26 plays out or at least starts before entertaining the idea of an extension. However, Rutherford made a point of saying back in April (video link) that it’s something they intend to look into:

We would like to extend him. It’s going to be a matter of how much risk is the team willing to take and how much risk is he willing to take as to the term of that contract.

Going into this season, Demko’s contract looked like a team-friendly one. Signed at a $5MM price tag and coming off a year as a Vezina runner-up, it looked like he could be heading toward top-end territory. Based on recent comparables, that would push his AAV past the $8MM mark on a long-term deal. But with the uncertainty around his injury and the year he just had, Demko isn’t in a spot to command that.

While Rutherford expressed optimism that a different approach to training should help keep Demko healthy moving forward, this feels like a case where they’d likely prefer a shorter-term agreement. Speculatively, it wouldn’t be shocking if their target price point was around the current one, keeping their combined goalie spending around the $10MM mark. Unless Demko is worried about his struggles carrying over, it would be surprising to see something get done here but considering it’s a stated goal of the organization to work on this summer, it warrants the final spot on this list.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports.

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