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Hurricanes Sign Frederik Andersen To Contract Extension

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3:30 PM: The team confirmed that they’ve signed Andersen to a one-year extension.  The deal carries a $2.75MM guaranteed salary plus $250K for 35 games played, $250K for 40 games played, and $250K if Carolina reaches the Eastern Conference Final with him playing in at least half of the playoff games.  That brings the potential value of the deal to $3.5MM.  GM Eric Tulsky released the following statement:

Frederik has played extremely well for us and ranks in the top 10 all-time for winning percentage by an NHL goalie. We’re excited that he will be staying with the team for next season.

2:03 PM: An already-thin UFA market for goaltenders could be getting weakened even further.  ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reports (Twitter link) that the Hurricanes are closing in on finalizing a one-year extension with pending free agent Frederik Andersen.

Over four seasons with the Hurricanes, the 35-year-old has largely done well when healthy.  However, the challenge has simply been staying healthy.  Andersen has only played in 38 games over the past two seasons due to various injuries plus a blood-clotting condition.  Last year, he put up a stellar 1.82 GAA with a .932 SV% in 16 games while this season, he posted marks of 2.50 and .899, respectively.

Despite the limited action, Andersen was Carolina’s starting goalie for their first-round series against Carolina.  He played quite well in the first four games before suffering an undisclosed injury that caused him to come out early in that fourth game and miss Game 5.  However, team reporter Walt Ruff relayed today that Andersen was a full participant in practice for the second straight day, suggesting he should be good to go for the start of the second round against Washington.

Andersen’s soon-to-expire contract carries a $3.4MM AAV.  Given how much time he has missed the last couple of years, it would be surprising to see this next deal have that much in guaranteed money.  However, since he’s now 35 and apparently signing only a one-year deal, he is eligible to have performance bonuses in that contract.  Speculatively, that would lower the guaranteed cost while having some games played incentives that could push the potential value around what he has made over the last two seasons.

Andersen will once again form a tandem with Pyotr Kochetkov who still has two years left on his contract at a club-friendly $2MM charge.  That duo has been a cost-effective one (again, when healthy) for the last couple of years and that should continue now for at least one more year.

Carolina is shaping up to have plenty of cap space available this summer.  Following the re-signing of Taylor Hall earlier this week, the Hurricanes have around $32MM in room this summer, per PuckPedia.  Notably, they only have a handful of roster spots to use that money on.  While a new deal for Andersen will cut into that a bit, GM Eric Tulsky will certainly have lots of flexibility to try to add to his roster this summer.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

Flames Sign Matt Coronato To Seven-Year Extension

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Set to become a restricted free agent this summer, Flames winger Matt Coronato has instead put pen to paper on his next deal early.  The team announced that they’ve signed Coronato to a seven-year, $45.5MM extension, one that will carry an AAV of $6.5MM per season.  PuckPedia reports the breakdown of the deal is as follows:

2025-26: $5MM salary, $2MM signing bonus
2026-27 through 2030-31: $6.5MM salary
2031-32: $6MM salary

The 22-year-old was a first-round pick by Calgary back in 2021, going 13th overall.  The Flames took a gradual development strategy with Coronato after picking him, as he spent two years at Harvard before turning pro in 2023.  He also didn’t go straight to the NHL as he spent half of his first full professional campaign in the AHL with the Wranglers where he had 42 points in 41 games before making the jump to a full-time NHL spot this season (aside from a two-game AHL stint in late October).

This season, Coronato finished tied with MacKenzie Weegar for third on the Flames in points with behind only Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau.  Meanwhile, his 24 goals put him third on the team in that department as well while he logged 17:35 per night of playing time.  That performance was good enough to secure him a spot on Team USA’s roster for the upcoming Worlds but following the results of an MRI, he opted to withdraw from the team as a preventive measure to recover and train on schedule for next season.

While it’s not common for a team to hand out a long-term deal to a player with only one full NHL season under his belt and a total of just 112 career appearances at the top level, GM Craig Conroy has rightfully determined that Coronato is going to be one of Calgary’s building blocks for the present and future.  With that in mind, it’s not surprising that getting a contract done was at the top of his to-do list this offseason.

It’s worth noting that Coronato had five years of club control remaining so they could have easily worked out a shorter-term agreement and then looked to lock him up on a more expensive pact down the road that would have kept him in the fold longer.  Instead, they’ve opted for the long-term deal now, meaning that Calgary only gets two years of extra control with this agreement while Coronato receives a 10-team no-trade clause in those final two seasons; players aren’t eligible for trade protection in their RFA-eligible years.

With the signing, the Flames now have around $67.7MM in commitments for next season, per PuckPedia, leaving Conroy with nearly $28MM in cap room to work with this summer.  Forwards Morgan Frost and Connor Zary along with defenseman Kevin Bahl are their most prominent remaining RFA-eligible players, while winger Anthony Mantha and goalie Daniel Vladar highlight their group of pending unrestricted free agents.

Photo courtesy of Brett Holmes-Imagn Images.

Central Notes: Cooley, Kaprizov, Mayich

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Utah will be eligible to sign center Logan Cooley to a contract extension as of July 1st as he’ll be entering the final year of his entry-level contract at that time.  Belle Fraser of The Salt Lake Tribune posits that the five-year, $42MM contract extension Dallas gave to Wyatt Johnston could be a comparable used in negotiations while the team might point to the eight-year, $57.14MM deal they gave Dylan Guenther as a starting point.  After recording 44 points in his rookie year, Cooley put up 25 goals and 40 assists in 75 games this season in a little under 18 minutes a night of playing time.  It’s likely both sides feel he has another level offensively to get to as well which would be factored into any new deal.  Between his draft status (third overall in 2022), the fact that he plays a premium position, and the big jumps coming to the salary cap, it wouldn’t be shocking to see an extension for Cooley push past the $9MM mark this summer.

Elsewhere in the Central:

  • The Wild will be eligible to sign star winger Kirill Kaprizov to an extension as of July 1st and owner Craig Leipold has previously said they’ll pay whatever is necessary to keep him. But as John Shipley of the Pioneer Press notes, that alone might not be enough.  Kaprizov is in line for what will be a record-setting contract handed out to a winger and he can get that from Minnesota and likely several other teams if he was to get to unrestricted free agency.  Given that the Wild have yet to have much playoff success – they’ve lost in eight straight first rounds in ten years, the first team of the four major North American sports leagues to have that happen to them – it’s possible that Kaprizov might want to see what other opportunities await him and if there’s a better chance to play for a contending squad.  On the other hand, the Wild have much more cap flexibility to play with this summer and will surely be looking to try to make their roster look more like a contender.
  • Blues prospect Matthew Mayich will play at Clarkson University next season, the school announced (Twitter link). The 20-year-old was a sixth-round pick back in 2023, going 170th overall.  Mayich spent his four-year OHL career with Ottawa and saved his best performance for last, tallying 42 points in 66 games this season.  Louis originally was supposed to have his rights only through June 1st but with the change to allow CHL players to have NCAA eligibility, it remains unclear if that will affect signing timelines for players in that situation.

Offseason Checklist: Philadelphia Flyers

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

A year ago, the Flyers nearly pulled off an improbable run before falling off to finish the regular season.  Unfortunately for them, that slide continued for most of the 2024-25 campaign and they finished tied for last in the Eastern Conference.  While GM Daniel Briere likely knew that expectations were a bit inflated based on their finish last year, dropping back this much wasn’t what he had in mind.  As a result, there’s a lot that they need to accomplish in the coming months.

Hire A New Coach

Heading into the final couple of months, the belief seemed to be that John Tortorella would last the season and then he and the team would sit down to discuss his future.  However, following a sequence that saw them drop 11 of 12 games in the final few weeks of the season, Briere decided to make a decision before the year ended, firing Tortorella in late March while elevating Brad Shaw to the interim head coaching role for the final nine games.

Interestingly, the Flyers turned things around following the change, picking up 11 points under Shaw while averaging four goals per game.  While nine games is a very small sample size and it’s hard to put much stock in playing out the stretch, their performance under Shaw should help the 61-year-old gain some legitimate consideration for the full-time nod.  What might hurt him is that his only other head coaching experience came nearly 20 years ago when he was promoted to an interim role midseason with the Islanders.

It will be interesting to see what Briere will choose to do here.  As a team that’s still rebuilding, a coach focused on development would make some sense.  And in that case, keeping Shaw in the role on a short-term deal could make some sense.  That would allow both sides more time to assess if he’s the coach that could run the team for the longer haul or if he’d be the one who gets them through this next phase before looking for more of a win-now coach after.

Having said that, Briere has talked about this team trying to take a step forward in the near future which could have him leaning toward a more experienced option.  There’s no shortage of veteran coaches on the market now if he wants to go that route.  Either way, if they have a preferred option, Briere will need to move quickly as some of these vacancies will likely be filled before too long.

Find A Goalie Upgrade

The Flyers have been trying to find a legitimate starting goalie for the better part of two generations now.  The hope was that Ivan Fedotov could be their goalie of the future; they held onto that hope for a long time while they waited for him to come over from Russia.  However, after posting a save percentage of just .880 this season, there’s a chance they run him through waivers in 2025-26.  He’s not the long-term solution.

Aleksei Kolosov also had some potential but no desire to bide his time in the minors.  He spent the bulk of the year in Philadelphia, struggled more than Fedotov did, then went back to Russia over returning to AHL Lehigh Valley.  At this point, while he might have some upside, he can’t be counted on as the solution either.

Samuel Ersson has shown some flashes of being a quality goaltender but has also struggled under the weight of being the de facto number one goalie the last two seasons.  It’s possible that he’s part of the longer-term solution as the second option but it would be surprising to see Briere and the Flyers think they have their future starter on their roster today.

With a stated goal to be more competitive next season, this is a position that needs to be upgraded.  Unfortunately for them, that’s something that will be easier said than done this summer.  The UFA market between the pipes doesn’t have a single sure-fire starter available so they can’t go that route.  Meanwhile, legitimate number ones aren’t traded a whole lot although they could make sense as a possible landing spot for John Gibson if this proves to be the summer Anaheim decides to move him.  That said, he’d carry some question marks as well.

At a time when there aren’t as many true legitimate number one goalies out there, finding one becomes that much harder.  But at this point, even an upgrade a tier below that could be enough to give the Flyers a few more wins next season.  Even with all of Ersson, Fedotov, and Kolosov signed, they need to find a way to add one more netminder to the group, one that will see big minutes next season.

Re-Sign Key RFAs

A lot has changed over the last season for Cam York.  This time last year, it looked like he had taken that step forward to cement himself as a core piece on the back end.  However, things didn’t go so well this season, calling that into question.  The 24-year-old is seeing his bridge deal come to an end this summer and while he’s going to land considerably more than $1.6MM either way, Briere is going to need to decide if he’s seen enough to lock York up long-term or push for another short-term contract.

York is three years away from UFA eligibility so they could look for another bridge agreement although they run the risk of him having a breakout and needing a much more expensive contract a couple of years from now.  Or worse, he decides he wants to test the open market and simply opts to take an arbitration award at the end.  On the other hand, if they’re uncertain about his long-term upside, another bridge makes sense.  Meanwhile, if they feel that York for sure is going to be part of the long-term core, then trying to work out a long-term agreement makes some sense although the cost of it will likely seem high relative to his performance this season.

Tyson Foerster is another RFA of note.  He only has two full NHL seasons under his belt but has reached the 20-goal mark each time including a 25-goal showing this year.  If the team feels the 2020 first-rounder has another level to get to, they could look to try to do a long-term agreement, not unlike the pact that former Flyer Joel Farabee received.  Otherwise, a short-term bridge contract will be coming his way, likely somewhere in the $3.5MM range.

Speaking of forwards, Noah Cates also needs a new deal as his bridge agreement will end at the end of June.  Notably, he’s only one year away from UFA eligibility and has arbitration rights this time around.  After a rough first year on his soon-to-expire deal, he bounced back with 37 points this season.  That should be enough to land him a small raise on another short-term contract as it’s unlikely Briere will be comfortable handing out a long-term agreement to someone who has run hot and cold over the last few years.

Flip The Switch

If the plan is to go from asset accumulation to starting to add pieces, the Flyers have a lot of work to do this summer to try to get back into playoff contention.  On top of needing a viable starting goaltender, their back end isn’t the strongest nor is their forward group which finished in the bottom ten in scoring despite the hot finish under Shaw.  It’s the fourth year in a row they’ve landed in the bottom ten in goals scored so this wasn’t a one-off either.

If they’re going to truly get back into the thick of things, they’ll need at least one top-six forward addition coupled with younger players like Matvei Michkov, Foerster, Owen Tippett, and Bobby Brink all taking steps forward offensively to move their attack closer to the middle of the pack.  Defensively, with York struggling a bit last year, Jamie Drysdale being up and down, and Rasmus Ristolainen set to miss the start of next season, there’s a legitimate need for at least one top-four defender if they’re serious about being in the mix in 2025-26.

The good news is that Philadelphia is well-positioned to try to add some core elements.  They have nearly $25MM in cap room per PuckPedia, an amount that can be added to if Ryan Ellis needs to be moved to LTIR.  Yes, new deals for their RFAs will cut into that but there will still be enough left for one or two additions of note.

Meanwhile, the Flyers have three first-round picks at their disposal next month along with four picks in the second round.  Some of those will undoubtedly be kept to add to their prospect pool but some of those selections could be dangled for win-now help, especially if they can add an experienced younger player who fits in age-wise with their current core.  Adding through free agency but they have some decent trade chips to dangle over the coming weeks to try to flip the switch from being a rebuilding team to one looking to make a push.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

Mattias Ekholm Won’t Play In Second Round

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While the Oilers came back from a two-game deficit to beat Los Angeles in the first round, they won’t be getting any reinforcements on the back end for their next series against Vegas.  Daily Faceoff’s Jason Gregor relays (Twitter link) that blueliner Mattias Ekholm won’t be available to play in the second round.

The 34-year-old returned to the lineup late in the regular season after missing seven games due to an undisclosed injury.  However, he played just three shifts spanning 1:52 in that game before going down with an undisclosed injury that has kept him out of the lineup since then and will evidently hold him out for a couple more weeks at a minimum.

Ekholm’s absence is certainly a significant one.  He had a career year last season in his first full campaign with the team, notching 45 points while logging over 21 minutes a night.  This year, his output dipped a bit to 33 points in 65 games but his 22:12 ATOI was third on the team.

Notably, Ekholm was their anchor on the penalty kill during the regular season and his absence was certainly felt in the playoffs.  The Kings scored on 40% of their power play opportunities during the opening round as Edmonton struggled considerably when shorthanded but they’ll have to make do without their top defender on that unit for a while yet.

In Ekholm’s absence, Brett Kulak has taken on a much bigger role than usual while John Klingberg returned early in the first round and jumped into a top-four spot, a deployment that will likely continue when their series against the Golden Knights opens up next week.

Canadiens Assign Oliver Kapanen And Cayden Primeau To AHL

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Following their elimination at the hands of the Capitals, the Canadiens have sent a pair of players to the minors to keep their seasons going.  The team announced (Twitter link) that they have assigned center Oliver Kapanen and goaltender Cayden Primeau to AHL Laval.

This will actually be Kapanen’s first taste of AHL action.  He started the season with Montreal before being loaned to SHL Timra for more playing time.  After putting up 35 points in 36 games with them, he was recalled to the NHL in April.  All told, the 21-year-old played in 18 regular season contests with the Canadiens, collecting two assists in a little under 11 minutes of playing time.  Kapanen also picked up a helper in three playoff appearances where he logged just under seven minutes a night of action.

As for Primeau, his stint with Montreal was short-lived after being recalled last weekend following the injury to Sam Montembeault.  He struggled mightily in limited action with the Canadiens this season, posting a 4.70 GAA and a .836 SV% in 11 appearances.  However, he was dominant with Laval, winning 21 of 25 games while putting up a 2.00 GAA and a .926 SV%.  A pending restricted free agent owed a $1.068MM qualifying offer next month, Primeau and prospect Jacob Fowler will serve as the Rocket’s netminders for their postseason run.

Notably, netminder Jakub Dobes was not sent down.  Montreal used one of their four post-deadline recalls as a paper transaction to keep the 23-year-old eligible to play with the Rocket down the stretch.  However, it appears that won’t be the case now.  Dobes could be a candidate to play for Czechia at the Worlds or perhaps the team decided that since he has been a full-time NHL goalie since late December, it wouldn’t be right to send him down now.

John Tortorella Not Expected To Join Rangers

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May 2: Tortorella interviewed the Rangers about an undisclosed role, but it didn’t yield a job offer, Kaplan said Friday.

May 1: While it appears that the Rangers are closing in on naming Mike Sullivan as their next head coach, he might not be the only veteran bench boss the team hires.  ESPN’s Emily Kaplan and Kevin Weekes report (Twitter link) that John Tortorella is a strong candidate to rejoin the organization.

Tortorella, of course, spent parts of six seasons with the Rangers, spanning from the 2008-09 season through the 2012-13 campaign plus a brief four-game stint in 1999-2000.  New York had some success during the regular season over that stretch with the team playing to a .583 points percentage under Tortorella, his best points percentage out of any of the teams he coached.  However, postseason success proved to be more elusive with the team only winning 19 of 44 games, getting to the Eastern Conference Final just once over that stretch.

The 66-year-old is certainly well-traveled as a head coach with stints in Tampa Bay (seven years), Vancouver (one year), Columbus (six years), and most recently Philadelphia (three years) where he was let go with nine games left in the regular season.

With Sullivan presumably coming on board, the head coaching vacancy won’t be going to Tortorella.  It has been a while since he has been an NHL assistant coach; that hasn’t been the case since the 2000-01 campaign where he was an assistant with the Lightning before taking the top job midseason.  He did, however, serve as an assistant with Buffalo (1989-90 through 1994-95), Phoenix (1997-98 and 1998-99), as well as the 99-00 campaign with the Rangers beyond that four-game stint as the interim head coach.  It’s also possible that Tortorella could be coming onboard in more of an advisory capacity but either way, it looks like he won’t be out of a job for long.

Snapshots: Robertson, Dorofeyev, Bastian, Okposo

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A key Stars winger is getting closer to returning to their lineup.  Head coach Peter DeBoer told reporters including Lia Assimakopoulos of the Dallas Morning News that Jason Robertson has been upgraded from being out week-to-week to out day-to-day.  The 25-year-old had his third straight season of at least 80 points this year, hitting the mark exactly but suffered a leg injury in the final game of the regular season.  Robertson has been skating away from the team alongside injured blueliner Nils Lundkvist (who is still a long way from returning from shoulder surgery) and it appears he is progressing well in his recovery.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • The Golden Knights were without winger Pavel Dorofeyev for tonight’s game against Minnesota and he is listed as day-to-day, relays Jesse Granger of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 24-year-old had a breakout year, tallying 35 goals in the regular season but left Tuesday’s game late due to an undisclosed injury.  Victor Olofsson returned to the lineup to take Dorofeyev’s spot on the wing.
  • Speaking with reporters today (video link), Devils winger Nathan Bastian addressed his upcoming free agency. Eligible to test the open market for the first time, the 27-year-old indicated that his preference is to remain with New Jersey.  However, coming off a down year that saw him record just 10 points in 59 games, he might have to take a small dip in pay from his $1.35MM current deal to do so.  The team only has around $12MM in cap room for next season per PuckPedia with defenseman Luke Hughes likely to take a big chunk of that.  Accordingly, the Devils may need to keep their final few roster spots closer to the minimum salary and with Bastian logging under 11 minutes a night for the last two years, he likely falls in that category.
  • The NHLPA announced that they have hired long-time NHL winger Kyle Okposo as a Business Development and Player Engagement Advisor. Okposo played in over 1,000 career NHL games over parts of 17 seasons, recording 242 goals and 372 assists before ending his career after winning the Stanley Cup with Florida.  This won’t be Okposo’s first time working with the NHLPA as he was part of their Executive Board while playing and was also on the Executive Director Search Committee that eventually led to Marty Walsh being hired.

Lightning Assign Two To AHL

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Following their elimination at the hands of the Panthers on Wednesday, the Lightning have extended the seasons for two of their younger players for at least one more day.  The team announced that defenseman Maxwell Crozier and center Conor Geekie have been assigned to AHL Syracuse.

Crozier’s stint with the big club was short-lived as he was only recalled yesterday to serve as extra depth for the final game of the series.  He only played in five regular season games with Tampa Bay this year after suiting up 13 times (plus three playoff contests) last season for them.  The 25-year-old had 34 points in 52 games with the Crunch this season and will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights this summer.

As for Geekie, the 20-year-old was a key part of the return for Mikhail Sergachev in the trade with Utah back at the draft.  The 11th overall pick in 2022, Geekie spent most of the year with Tampa Bay but in a fairly limited role as he logged just over 12 minutes a night of ice time while chipping in with eight goals and six assists.  That earned him a midseason assignment to the Crunch where he was much more impactful offensively, tallying 11 goals and nine helpers in 24 games.  Geekie was brought back up late in the year and got into four postseason contests where he had one assist in nearly identical ice time compared to the regular season.

Both players are in uniform tonight for the Crunch against Rochester.  It’s a must-win game for Syracuse as they’re down two games to none in their best-of-five second-round series.

Capitals Recall Mitchell Gibson, Assign Clay Stevenson To AHL

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With the next few days off, the Capitals have made a couple of moves on the goalie front.  The team announced that they’ve recalled Mitchell Gibson from AHL Hershey while assigning Clay Stevenson to the Bears.

Gibson is in his second full professional season and spent the bulk of the year with ECHL South Carolina.  In 14 games with the Stingrays, he played quite well, putting up a 1.75 GAA and a .933 SV% while winning his only start with Hershey.  However, he has played just three times for the Bears over the last two years which might not help his cause heading into restricted free agency this summer.

As for Stevenson, he made his NHL debut in the final game of the regular season but otherwise has played exclusively with the Bears in each of the last two years.  In 33 games with Hershey this season, he posted a 2.94 GAA along with a .888 SV%, numbers that were considerably worse compared to a year ago when those checked in at 2.06 and .922, respectively.

The move will essentially serve as a swap of third-string goaltenders, allowing Stevenson to potentially see game action with Hershey during their second-round series against Lehigh Valley.  Before their series against Carolina gets underway, there’s a good chance this move will be reversed.

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