Central Notes: Blackhawks Defense, Sturm, No. 4 Pick
The Chicago Blackhawks’ priority in the offseason will be “adding a quality defenseman,” writes Scott Powers of The Athletic. There has been some belief that Chicago might be aggressive in pursuing a young top-six winger who can partner with franchise center Connor Bedard, and that still may be on the table, but Powers writes that the Blackhawks are likely to seek defensive help to stabilize a blueline that featured several young defensemen last season.
According to Powers, the Blackhawks are hoping their young defensemen, such as Artyom Levshunov and Sam Rinzel, are able to take steps forward, but also acknowledge that they “need some support.” Don’t look for the Blackhawks to prioritize right-shot defensemen, though. Powers would “be surprised if” Chicago was looking for a right-shot blueliner to compete with Rinzel and Levshunov, who will be all but assured spots in the opening-night lineup barring some sort of steep unexpected decline in form.
Other notes from the Central Division:
- The Minnesota Wild may be forced to choose between veteran fourth-line centers Nico Sturm and Michael McCarron over the next month, write Joe Smith and Michael Russo of The Athletic. The Wild traded a second-round pick to acquire McCarron, a pending UFA, from the Nashville Predators. McCarron indicated in his end-of-season media availability that he will be seeking to maximize his financial security with his next contract. If the Wild decide to pay the market price for McCarron, they could be forced to move Sturm. The 31-year-old has one more year left on his deal at a $2MM cap hit.
- The Blackhawks “are preparing for the possibility” that the upcoming draft’s top three forward prospects (Gavin McKenna, Ivar Stenberg, Caleb Malhotra) aren’t available at No. 4, writes Powers. Such an outcome would put the Blackhawks in a position where the next few top-ranked players are all likely to be defensemen. Chicago has already invested a recent top pick in a right-shot defenseman (Levshunov, the 2024 No. 2 pick) so according to Powers, they could be hesitant to pick someone such as OHL defenseman Chase Reid. The top left-shot options expected to be on the board are WHL blueliner Carson Carels and Latvian international Alberts Smits.
Avalanche Notes: MacKinnon, Blackwood, Wedgewood
Colorado Avalanche star forward Nathan MacKinnon will dress tonight for game four of the Western Conference Final against the Vegas Golden Knights. MacKinnon suffered a lower-body injury in game three, but that won’t stop him from taking the ice as Colorado looks to stave off elimination and avoid being swept by the Golden Knights. The news means Colorado will have both MacKinnon and star defenseman Cale Makar in their lineup tonight. Makar had missed game one and game two with an upper-body injury.
The importance of MacKinnon’s health to the Avalanche cannot be overstated. The 30-year-old is Colorado’s best player, and is one of the most impactful scorers in the game. MacKinnon won the Rocket Richard Trophy this past season with 53 goals. His total of 127 points in 80 games marked the second-highest point total of MacKinnon’s career. While his production has been down a tick in the playoffs, he is still tied for the third-most points in this year’s playoff scoring with 15 in 12 games. He’ll hope to add to that number tonight and extend the Avalanche’s season.
Other notes from Colorado:
- The Avalanche are making a change in net, and will start MacKenzie Blackwood in goal rather than Scott Wedgewood, according to reports from the team’s optional morning skate. Blackwood hasn’t played against the Golden Knights, but did see some time in net in the second round. Blackwood got his first start of the playoffs in game four of the second round against the Minnesota Wild. He stopped 19 of 21 shots in the Avalanche’s 5-2 win, but lost his job as starter in the following game after surrendering three goals on 13 shots in an eventual Avalanche comeback victory. The 29-year-old, who is signed at a $5.25MM AAV through 2029-30, went 23-10-2 in the regular season with a .904 save percentage.
- The move to start Blackwood means Wedgewood, 33, may have already played in his final game of his 2025-26 season. Wedgewood’s 2025-26 campaign stands as, without question, the strongest of his career. The longtime backup seized the No. 1 role in Colorado, playing in a career-high 45 games. Wedgewood improved on his stellar form from last season, posting a 31-6-6 record and a .921 save percentage. While he was not named as a finalist for the Vezina Trophy, he and Blackwood took home the William M. Jennings Trophy. Wedgewood is under contract for one more year at a $2.5MM cap hit.
Islanders Sign Liam Foudy To One-Year Contract Extension
The New York Islanders announced that forward Liam Foudy has been signed to a one-year, two-way contract extension. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Foudy, who is repped by Thane Campbell of Pro Counsel International, was set to become an RFA with arbitration rights this summer. Signing this extension takes Foudy off the board and gives the Islanders some more continuity in terms of the depth in their organization. The one-year term of the deal means Foudy, 26, will become an unrestricted free agent a year from now.
A first-round pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets back in the 2018 draft, Foudy has found a home in the Islanders organization over the last two seasons.
The Ontario native made a name for himself as a member of the London Knights back in his OHL days thanks in large part to his skating. He possesses raw foot speed few players can match. That allowed Foudy to become an effective junior scorer, (68 points in each of his final two OHL campaigns) but he has not yet been able to translate that elite tool into tangible NHL production.
Foudy has played in 105 NHL games but has just seven goals and 22 points. His speed remains a standout trait, but the NHL is home to some of the world’s fastest players. Against AHL competition, that elite pace stands out far more. That’s helped him develop into an effective AHL scorer even as NHL success has eluded him. Foudy registered career-highs playing for the Bridgeport Islanders last season, scoring 26 goals and 47 points in 60 games.
It’s likely that Foudy’s strong 2025-26 season will earn him a raise from his previous contract. Foudy played 2025-26 on a one-year, league-minimum two-way deal. The contract carried a $250K AHL salary and a $300K guarantee. Expect Foudy’s deal, once the financial terms come to light, to contain a heftier AHL salary and guarantee, perhaps even breaking the $400K plateau that is typically reserved for high-end AHL contributors.
Also, it’s worth noting that the Islanders do not appear to be closing the door on Foudy’s NHL future. NHL history is littered with examples of highly-drafted prospects who at first disappointed, but then found their way back into the NHL after extensive development in the AHL. According to Andrew Gross of Newsday, the Islanders believe Foudy has the potential to add his name to that list. Gross reported that Foudy is ” highly thought of in the organization” and has a “legit chance of making team in training camp.”
If Foudy does find a way to carve out an NHL career, it will likely be somewhere in the bottom-six. While he hasn’t been able to find a way to translate his speed into points at the NHL level, he could still leverage the pace of his game to become an effective defensive forward. His skating could be especially useful on the penalty kill. Now armed with a one-year contract extension, Foudy will get the chance to make a push to return to the NHL with the Islanders in the fall.
Penguins Sign Evgeni Malkin To One-Year Extension
The Pittsburgh Penguins have signed future Hall of Fame center Evgeni Malkin to a one-year contract extension, per a team announcement. The deal contains an AAV of $5.5MM.
According to Chris Johnston of The Athletic, Malkin can exceed his $5.5MM guarantee by earning up to $500K in games played bonuses, $1MM if the Penguins reach the playoffs, and $500K for each playoff round the team wins. The contract also contains a full no-move clause. PuckPedia has reported the deal contains a $3MM signing bonus.
Malkin’s extension puts an end to what was months of speculation about his Penguins future.
Just this morning, we covered reports indicating that Malkin’s sights were set on an extension with Pittsburgh, and that he was unlikely to be headed elsewhere. This represented a distinct shift from what had been reported over the last year.
A year ago, Josh Yohe of The Athletic reported that the 2025-26 season would be Malkin’s “last in Pittsburgh.” He cited sources within the organization who indicated that the Penguins were “not expected to offer him another contract with the franchise.”
It seems Malkin’s performance this past year, as well as the Penguins’ surprisingly strong regular season, changed the organization’s thinking.
Malkin, who turns 40 at the end of July, seemed to turn back the clock in 2025-26. He scored 19 goals and 61 points in 56 games, his first season pacing at above a point-per-game rate since 2022-23. The Penguins endured a difficult series against their arch-rival Philadelphia Flyers, losing in six games in the first round, but that doesn’t erase what he was able to accomplish in the regular season.
The key question for Malkin is health. While he was perfectly healthy in 2022-23 and 2023-24, he has missed some time in each of the last two years. In 2024-25, he played in 68 games, and this past year was limited by upper-body injuries as well as a lengthy five-game suspension. Malkin’s on-ice qualities remain exceptional, but there has been concern about his ability to stay on the ice, as well as how his on-ice value will fare if the pace of his game slows further.
Pittsburgh appears determined to turn over their team to a new generation of young forwards, including promising rookie center Ben Kindel. Much of the prior reporting indicating Pittsburgh was hesitant to extend Malkin can likely be explained by the organization’s desire to carve out as much ice time and prime power play opportunities for its young forwards.
But Malkin showed he still has quite a lot to offer in the NHL, and the Penguins don’t have to pick between keeping Malkin and developing their young players – they can do both. Kindel, for example, could stand to benefit from another season sharing the ice and locker room with Malkin.
Now, he’ll get the chance to do so as the Penguins have elected to keep one of their two legendary centers for an additional season.
Photos courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
Claude Giroux To Continue Playing For 2026-27 Season
Veteran scorer Claude Giroux will not hang up his skates for at least one more season, reports Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic. According to LeBrun, Giroux “needed some time after the season to mull over his future” as he was considering retirement, but now the 38-year-old “has decided he wants to come back and play another season.”
Giroux’s decision means a 1,345-game NHL career that began in 2007-08 will continue for at least one more campaign. Complicating Giroux’s situation is the fact that he is a pending unrestricted free agent. Giroux has been playing for his hometown Ottawa Senators since 2022, arriving there from the Florida Panthers. Giroux was on the Panthers as a rental trade addition. Before that, he was a top scorer and face-of-the-franchise player for the Philadelphia Flyers.
One of the greatest Flyers in the franchise’s modern history, Giroux is no longer the star scorer he once was. At 38 years old, that’s to be expected. But he has shown himself to still be a productive scoring winger for the Senators even as he’s aged. In 2025-26, he scored 14 goals and 49 points. That’s not quite at the level of his debut season in the Canadian capital (35 goals, 79 points in 2022-23) but still more than strong enough to make him worth his cap hit of $2MM. (Base cap hit, he also earned $1MM in performance bonuses)
Looking ahead to next season, it seems overwhelmingly likely that Giroux will remain in Ottawa. Another one-year contract with a relatively low base salary and stocked full of performance bonuses, similar to the contract he played last season on, seems most appropriate.
Playing at least one more year, Giroux will be able to help the Senators try to win their first playoff series since their run to the Eastern Conference Final in 2017. He’ll also be chasing some individual milestones, like 1,400 games played, 400 goals, and 1,200 points.
Morning Notes: Holmstrom, Vitelli, Mosley
New York Islanders forward Simon Holmstrom could be poised to reach even greater heights next season if his usage under new head coach Peter DeBoer was any indication, writes Stefen Rosner of The Elmonters. In the few games DeBoer was able to coach before the end of the Islanders’ season, Holmstrom skated next to top center Bo Horvat, an opportunity he rarely received under former coach Patrick Roy. Horvat, 31, finished the season centering the top line alongside a pair of Swedish wingers: Holmstrom and 2025 first-rounder Victor Eklund.
While the Islanders could seek offseason upgrades along the wing that could box out Holmstrom from retaining such a big role, 2026-27 could nonetheless be a big year for Holmstrom. The 25-year-old, who was a 2019 first-round pick, steadily grew over the course of his time in the Islanders organization, to the point where he has now had back-to-back seasons with around 20 goals and at least 40 points. If Holmstrom can find a way to stick with either of the two Islanders’ top-six centers (Horvat, Mathew Barzal) rather than play where he spent much of last year (alongside third-line center J.G. Pageau) he could most likely make a push into the 50-plus point range. That would be a very positive development for the player, as he will be a pending RFA next season playing out the final year of a $3.625MM AAV deal.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- After four years of professional hockey split between the AHL and ECHL, Reece Vitelli has elected to continue his career overseas. The 24-year-old has signed a contract with Kalmar HC of HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of hockey in Sweden. A former alternate captain for the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders, Vitelli didn’t get the chance to play NCAA hockey the way CHLers can today, and as a result began his pro career in 2022-23. He played in 15 games for the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners, but spent most of the year in the ECHL. He had 37 points in 49 ECHL games, and one point in 15 AHL contests. That would prove to be the trend for Vitelli. Over the last three seasons, Vitelli has been a solid AHL bubble forward, scoring at a decent clip in the ECHL while playing in as many as 15 AHL games per season, but scarce offense at that level. Now, he’ll leave the chance for further AHL call-ups behind as he begins his European pro career.
- Another player who spent last season on the AHL/ECHL bubble has elected to sign in Europe: longtime college hockey scorer Ryland Mosley. The 26-year-old forward spent a half-decade playing college hockey, skating for Michigan Tech from 2020-2024, and then the Wisconsin Badgers in 2024-25. He reached at least 30 points in his final three campaigns in the NCAA, and scored at a point-per-game rate in his lone season at Wisconsin. He signed an ATO and AHL deal with the Cleveland Monsters after his season as a Badger, but scored just one point across 12 total games in Cleveland. He scored seven points in 12 games at the ECHL level and was traded to the Rockford IceHogs in March, where he managed one point in seven games. Mosley has signed a one-year deal with Mora IK in the HockeyAllsvenskan, where he will look to help the club return to the SHL for the first time since 2018-19.
Mario Ferraro Likely To Test Unrestricted Free Agency
San Jose Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro is likely “going to UFA,” Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported on today’s 32 Thoughts Podcast. Friedman said it “doesn’t sound like” there has been much progress on a contract extension between Ferraro and the Sharks, and as a result it appears likely the veteran defenseman will test the open market on July 1.
This confirms what Sharks GM Mike Grier told the media at the end of the season, saying Ferraro would “probably at least test free agency” before finalizing any potential extension with San Jose. (Quote via Josh Frojelin of San Jose Hockey Now)
While there is enough time between now and the start of free agency for things to change, Friedman’s report indicates that Ferraro’s time as a Shark is soon to come to an end. Ferraro was a second-round pick by the team (No. 49 overall) at the 2017 NHL Draft, plucked from the Des Moines Buccaneers of the USHL. After two solid seasons of college hockey at UMass-Amherst, Ferraro broke into the NHL in 2019-20. He earned an NHL spot out of training camp and hasn’t relinquished it since.
Across seven seasons in the Bay Area, Ferraro played in 490 NHL games, scoring 114 points. While his arrival in San Jose coincided with the team’s decline from consistent playoff contender to basement-dwelling rebuilder, Ferraro has been a steady presence on the Sharks blueline throughout those lean years.
A captain in the NCAA, Ferraro quickly took on more of a leadership role in San Jose. In 2021-22, his age-23 campaign, Ferraro was named an alternate captain and has held onto that status through 2025-26.
Now 27 years old, Ferraro has a chance to earn a life-changing contract this summer.
He’s on the younger side when it comes to unrestricted free agents, meaning interested teams can go into negotiations with Ferraro with less fear of the risks of age-related decline. That factor will help him drum up league-wide interest on the open market.
An additional factor aiding Ferraro’s case in free agency is his experience. While he has not yet played in the playoffs in his career, Ferraro has handled a top-four, if not top-pairing workload for a half-decade. His average time-on-ice per game for his career is 21:14, but that’s weighed down by his rookie season, when he averaged just 15:53 per game. From 2020-21 through this past season, Ferraro has averaged 22:00 time on ice per game.
He has consistently played a heavy workload in San Jose, including in 2023-24, when he was the team’s No. 1 defenseman. He has also been a fixture on the penalty kill, leading the team in time-on-ice per game while short-handed in three of the last four seasons.
While offensive production has never been a major element of Ferraro’s game, his ability to weather significant minutes stands out in what is expected to be a thin free agent class. AFP Analytics projects Ferraro to receive a four-year, $5.1MM AAV deal as a free agent, though that could be a conservative estimate given the way player costs have risen as projected increases in the cap have gotten priced into contracts on a more regular basis.
San Jose has more than enough cap space to afford to match any offer made to Ferraro in free agency. PuckPedia projects the Sharks to have nearly $42MM in cap space this summer. But the Sharks have to plan carefully, as they have extensions for their young stars to consider down the line, and they won’t want to commit too much money too far down the line in order to preserve as much financial flexibility as possible for when Macklin Celebrini and others are eating up significant portions of the cap.
Additionally, taxes are a factor that works against the Sharks whenever they look to bid on free agents. While they have had success in the past on the open market, suggesting they have been able to work around this obstacle, the reality is players take home a greater portion of their salary playing in a low-tax market such as Tampa Bay, or Nashville, than in a market like San Jose.
The tax calculator tool provided by Cardinal Point Athlete Advisors shows that if Ferraro were to receive identical offers at AFP Analytics’ projected salary ($5.13MM) from San Jose and Tampa Bay, respectively, Ferraro would pay an additional $705K per year if he took the Sharks’ offer, compared to Tampa Bay’s. Over the lifetime of a four-year contract, that is nearly $3MM difference between the two offers.
In other words, the Sharks and other markets are at a natural disadvantage when competing for free agents. Of course, the Sharks do have some advantages, such as their climate and up-and-coming roster. It’s difficult to isolate the free agent decision-making process to just one variable. And it has to be said that the true tax situation NHL players navigate is far more complex than a simple side-by-side calculator will be able to reflect.
But given all of the things working in Ferraro’s favor, it’s no surprise that he would want to see what kind of offers he’ll receive from around the league before deciding whether to move on from the only NHL franchise he’s ever known.
Photos courtesy of Stan Szeto-Imagn Images
Wild Hoping To Re-Sign Michael McCarron
The Minnesota Wild “badly want to re-sign” mid-season trade addition Michael McCarron, reports Michael Russo of The Athletic. McCarron is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Wild GM Bill Guerin spoke on McCarron’s status in his end-of-season media availability, saying “we have a ton of interest in bringing Mac back. We thought he was a really good fit.”
The interest in finding a way to an extension appears to be mutual. McCarron said in his own end-of-season media availability that he appreciated the faith Guerin and the Wild showed in him when they dealt a second-round pick to the Nashville Predators to add him at the trade deadline. 
But he also added that he is “looking for” security in his next contract, calling himself someone who has yet to take “that next step financially” in his career thus far.
McCarron is lined up to potentially receive a life-changing contract as a free agent this summer. The 31-year-old’s most lucrative contract was one he signed with the Predators in 2024, and that contained a base salary of $900K.
AFP Analytics projects McCarron to receive a two-year, $2MM AAV contract this summer, but that could very well be an extremely conservative projection. Russo and colleague Joe Smith wrote a week ago that McCarron “may be able to get a $4 million or $5 million payday” given the scarcity of centers on the free agent market.
Offers at that kind of value would almost certainly price McCarron out of Minnesota. The cap hit of franchise forward Kirill Kaprizov is set to balloon from $9MM to $17MM this summer, and the Wild have several other pending free agents to re-sign, including Mats Zuccarello, Vladimir Tarasenko, Zach Bogosian, Marcus Johansson, Nick Foligno, and restricted free agent Bobby Brink. They also, of course, want to preserve as much cap space as possible to make further additions via trade or free agency. While the Wild appear eager to retain McCarron, and McCarron seems fully willing to commit to Minnesota, the money simply may not make sense for either side.
As a free agent, McCarron could be a coveted bottom-six center option. The Wade Arnott (Newport Sports Management) client brings coveted size to the position, standing 6’6″, 232 pounds. He showed himself to be capable as an NHL penalty-killer both with the Predators and with the Wild, and has long been an asset at the faceoff dot. McCarron won 52.5% of his draws in 2025-26 and had a 53.7% win rate during his time in Music City.
There are limitations to McCarron’s game, of course, and none is more pronounced than his offense. McCarron quite simply hasn’t been able to produce much offense at the professional level, save for a strong rookie campaign in the AHL and a solid 12-goal, 22-point season with the Predators in 2023-24. But McCarron plays the kind of role where teams aren’t going to be counting on him for offense, so it’s easy to see why he’d attract a lot of interest as a free agent center among teams looking to bolster their bottom-six.
Minnesota is going to be one of those teams, but it’s unclear at this time whether the finances are going to be right for either side.
Photos courtesy of James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images
Cale Makar To Miss Game 2 Of Western Conference Final
5/22/26: Bednar told the media today that Makar will miss game two against the Golden Knights tonight. While Makar’s absence has been designated day-to-day, it’s unclear at what point he’ll ultimately be able to return to the Avalanche lineup. The team struggled without Makar in game one, dropping the contest to Vegas by a 4-2 score.
Bednar said after the game that “some of the areas that [the team] struggled with” are the things Makar is best at. The Avalanche stuck with Ahcan for game one, leaving Blankenburg as a healthy scratch once again. Because of the loss, it will be interesting to see whether Bednar makes a change on his blueline. The Avalanche entered the series as favorites to win the Stanley Cup, but Makar’s injury threatens that status.
5/20/26: The Colorado Avalanche will be without star defenseman Cale Makar for the first game of their Western Conference Final series against the Vegas Golden Knights, head coach Jared Bednar announced today. Bednar classified Makar’s undisclosed injury as day-to-day and said that he does expect Makar to return relatively quickly – but not in time for game one.
Makar’s health is one of the key storylines to track for the upcoming series given Makar’s importance to the Avalanche as well as his status as arguably the game’s top defenseman.
The status of Makar has been the subject of speculation since game one against the Wild, when he left the ice after taking a big hit from Wild forward Marcus Foligno. He was limited to just 17:11 time on ice per game in the team’s 9-6 win. It’s not known whether the injury Makar is currently dealing with is in any way related to what happened in game one of the previous round.
The loss of Makar – even for just a single game – is very significant for the Avalanche. As mentioned, he is arguably the top blueliner in the world. The 27-year-old is a two-time Norris Trophy winner, and has routinely elevated his game in the playoffs. His heroics in the 2022 postseason, when he scored 29 points in 20 games, resulted in a Stanley Cup championship for his team and a Conn Smythe Trophy win recognizing his individual efforts.
Colorado now sits as the favorites to win another Stanley Cup, but Makar hasn’t been leading the charge in quite the same way. The Avalanche’s power play has struggled all year, and that can partially explain why Makar’s production is down somewhat from prior campaigns. After two consecutive years reaching the 90-point plateau, Makar scored 79 points in 75 games this past season. That’s still exceptional production, of course, but a little shy of the normal standard he’s set. So far in these playoffs, Makar has five points in nine games.
His slight decline in numbers should not diminish the significance of his injury. The Avalanche have lost one of their very best players for the start of this series, and even though they are favored against the Golden Knights, they would surely prefer to navigate game one with one of their best players roaming the blueline.
Bob Hartley Announces Retirement
Bob Hartley, a longtime head coach in the NHL who won a Stanley Cup championship and a Jack Adams Award, announced his retirement from coaching today. Hartley coached Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL to a Gagarin Cup title earlier this week.
The announcement concludes a coaching career that began all the way back in the late 1980s. Hartley got his start in junior hockey, coaching the CJHL’s Hawkesbury Hawks. He coached the team to back-to-back titles in 1990 and 1991, achievements that landed him a role coaching in the QMJHL for the Laval Titan. In two seasons in Laval, Hartley went 81-52-7, winning a league championship in his second season in his role.
After winning a title with Laval, Hartley continued to climb the coaching ladder, taking an assistant coaching job in the AHL with the Cornwall Aces, on the staff of future Jack Adams winner Jacques Martin. Martin left for an NHL role with the Quebec Nordiques after just a year, leaving Hartley as head coach of the Aces.
He won division titles in each of his two years as head coach in Cornwall. The Aces were at the time the affiliate of the Nordiques, who in 1995 relocated to Colorado. The Avalanche let Cornwall go dormant, and switched their hockey operations personnel, including players and coaches, to the Hershey Bears. Hartley won a Calder Cup title in his first season as head coach of the Bears, in 1996-97.
Hartley’s Calder Cup win put him on the path to becoming a future NHL head coach, and he didn’t have to wait too long to get his chance. In 1998, Avalanche head coach Marc Crawford resigned after his team fell in the first round of the playoffs, just two seasons removed from leading the Avalanche to a Stanley Cup. The Avalanche elevated Hartley to the position of head coach, and was an instant success. In his first two campaigns on the job, Hartley defeated Scotty Bowman’s Detroit Red Wings in back-to-back playoffs, but fell to the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference Final in both years.
In his third season, Hartley’s Avalanche won 52 games and won the Stanley Cup, delivering a long-awaited championship to legendary defenseman Ray Bourque. The following year, in 2002, Hartley’s Avalanche fell to the Red Wings in the Western Conference Final. Hartley was fired after 31 games in 2002-03, but didn’t wait long for another job. He was hired by the Atlanta Thrashers that same season. While he had inherited a team capable of contending for Stanley Cups in Colorado, Hartley was dealt the opposite hand in Atlanta, joining a franchise that averaged under 20 wins in its first three seasons.
Hartley was able to make his mark in Atlanta. He guided the franchise through serious off-ice adversity, and under his leadership, the Thrashers entered their strongest period in franchise history. Hartley’s 2006-07 team was the only Thrashers team to reach the playoffs, winning a Southeast Division title with a 43-28-11 record. The following year, he was fired by Atlanta after an 0-6-0 start to their 2007-08 season.
Hartley spent 2011-12 in Switzerland coaching the ZSC Lions, and he had a successful tenure there, winning a National League title. That helped pave the way for what would be Hartley’s final head coaching role in the NHL – a job with the Calgary Flames. Hartley missed the playoffs in three of his four seasons in Calgary, but his 2014-15 campaign stands out as he went 45-30-7 and won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year. A year later, he was let go by the Flames. From 2016-17 through 2020-21, Hartley was head coach of Latvia’s national team.
In 2018-19, Hartley became a head coach in the KHL for the first time, and in his time coaching both Avangard Omsk and Lokomotiv, he has been to three Gagarin Cup finals and won the trophy twice. We at PHR would like to extend our best wishes to Hartley in his retirement and congratulate him on an exceptional coaching career.
Photos courtesy of Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports