Rangers Recall Connor Mackey, Place Carson Soucy On IR
The New York Rangers have placed defenseman Carson Soucy on injured reserve and recalled Connor Mackey in his place, per the NHL media site and Peter Baugh of The Athletic. Soucy had a scary collision with Pittsburgh Penguins winger Rickard Rakell in New York’s Saturday night win. The hit swept Soucy’s legs from under him as his head fell into the boards. He left the game immediately, ending his night with just over six minutes of ice time.
No details about Soucy’s injury have been revealed, though a move to IR will force him out for at least two weeks with an, assumed, upper-body injury. He played solid, second-pair minutes for the Rangers in two games prior to injury. He recorded one goal and a plus-two in those outings – both stats coming in New York’s Thursday win over the Buffalo Sabres.
Soucy is in the final year of a three-year, $9.75MM contract originally signed with the Vancouver Canucks in 2023. He spent the first two years of the deal primarily with the Canucks, racking up 16 points and a minus-three in 99 games played. Those poor totals led Vancouver to trade Soucy to New York at the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline, in exchange for a 2025 third-round pick used to draft Kieren Dervin from St. Andrew’s College.
Soucy’s absence will leave a notable hole on the Rangers’ blue-line. Mackey will earn the first nod of the season, after playing in only two NHL games, and recording one fight, last season. The rest of his year was spent with the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack, where he racked up 24 points and 102 penalty minutes in 66 games played. Mackey has found his groove as a hard-hitting defenseman. He has racked up 267 penalty minutes in 163 AHL games over his last three seasons in the league. Those years weren’t consecutive, though, as Mackey spent the 2022-23 season in an extra defender role with the Calgary Flames and Arizona Coyotes. He recorded seven points and 48 PIMs in 30 NHL games that year.
New York is likely to elevate Urho Vaakanainen into Soucy’s role on the second-pair. Behind him will be young defender Matthew Robertson, who hasn’t yet made his season debut. This injury could be an opportunity for Robertson to finally cement his role in the NHL, after earning a top-50 selection in the 2019 NHL Draft but not yet playing more than two games in the NHL. He managed 25 points and 55 penalty minutes in 60 AHL games last season. Should either Vaakanainen or Robertson falter, or New York need a spark, Mackey could make a spot start.
A tight salary cap situation puts New York in a spot where they can only afford to recall Mackey, who makes a league-minimum $775K salary, but could not afford to recall top prospect Scott Morrow, who makes a $917K salary.
Panthers Sign Jonah Gadjovich To Two-Year Extension
The Florida Panthers have agreed to a two-year contract extension with left-winger Jonah Gadjovich. The deal will carry a $905K cap hit, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Florida announced the deal on Gadjovich’s 27th birthday
Few Panthers have a role as defined as Gadjovich’s. He is the team’s go-to enforcer, with a tremendous 164 penalty minutes in just 81 games between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. Only two players across the league – Austin Watson and Matt Rempe – averaged more penalty minutes per game played in that span, and Gadjovich still recorded more total PIMs than both. He scored just eight points in the same stretch, and added three points and 33 PIMs in 16 playoff appearances.
Interestingly, Gadjovich has found a way to avoid the penalty booth to start this season – instead boasting one assist and a plus-one in three games. He has not been one for hte positive side of the scoresheet at the NHL level. Through parts of six NHL seasons, Gadjovich has only managed 19 points in 163 career games. He’s racked up the penalties, though, earning 17 PIMs in his NHL debut with the Vancouver Canucks in 2020-21 and since raising that number to 312 PIMs on his career.
While he’s found a clear way to be productive in the NHL, Gadjovich wasn’t always the default hitter in his lineup. He has racked up 46 points and 81 PIMs in 103 AHL games, and stood out as a dangerous scorer in junior hockey, with 89 goals, 155 points, and 175 PIMs in 228 OHL games.
But those days seem to be in the past. Gadjovich has evolved into Florida’s go-to option when they need a big hit, or big fight, to help turn the tides. He fills important fourth-line minutes and will now stick in that spot for two more seasons. That role has already led Gadjovich to two Stanley Cup wins, and should continue to be profitable as the Panthers have yet to lose this season.
Summer Synopsis: Minnesota Wild
With the regular season now upon us, the bulk of the heavy lifting has been done from a roster perspective. Most unrestricted free agents have found new homes, the arbitration period has come and gone, and the trade market has cooled. Accordingly, it’s a good time to take a look at what each team has accomplished this offseason. Next up is a look at Minnesota.
The Wild recovered nicely after missing the playoffs in 2023-24, making it back to the postseason in 2024-25 despite again being ravaged by injuries. The forward progress was met with a quick elimination by the Golden Knights in the first round, but increased cap space and the continued progression of their recent high-end draft picks mean more opportunities for growth in Minnesota in 2025-26.
Draft
2-52: D Theodor Hallquisth, Orebro U20 (Sweden U20)
4-102: F Adam Benak, Youngstown (USHL)
4-121: F Lirim Amidovski, North Bay (OHL)
4-123: F Carter Klippenstein, Brandon (WHL)
5-141: D Justin Kipkie, Victoria (WHL)
Minnesota made the most out of perhaps the lowest draft stock in the league this season. They were missing capital at the top and bottom of the class, but still landed a haul that should offer up unique upside. Second-round defender Hallquisth is an exciting leader of the bunch, offering up a mean and gritty style that makes him a fantastic shutdown option. But it will be hard not to get excited over 5-foot-7 playmaker Benak, who has long stood as the face of Czechia’s international youth teams. Benak is a cool, calm, and collected play-driver who slid in the draft because of his frame, but showed he can play well above it at training camp.
The trio behind Minnesota’s top picks will each offer solid depth. Amidovski was a fundamental piece in North Bay’s offense last season, offering quick reactions and minimal mistakes in all three zones. Klippenstein was a main play-driver for Brandon all year long, though his lanky frame and awkward skating didn’t result in as many goals as one may expect. Perhaps the most interesting of the bunch is defender Kipkie, whom the Arizona Coyotes previously drafted in the fifth round of the 2023 NHL Draft. He didn’t sign with Arizona (or Utah) despite staying on a steady course of improvement with the Victoria Royals. Minnesota could prove a beneficiary of Kipkie’s decision to re-enter the draft. He was a core piece of the Royals’ last season and is set for a top-four role at Arizona State University this season.
Trade Acquisitions
F Vladimir Tarasenko (from Red Wings)
The Wild shifted around draft capital ahead of draft weekend, but otherwise stayed relatively quiet on the trade market. Their only splash was the acquisition of Russian scorer Tarasenko, with nothing more than future considerations headed back to the Detroit Red Wings. It could prove a lucrative swap for Minnesota right out of the gates. Tarasenko – once a routine 30-goal scorer – managed 11 goals and 33 points in 80 games with the Red Wings last season. He’s three seasons removed from his last 30-goal campaign, but has quickly clicked with Minnesota’s other top Russians, like Kirill Kaprizov and Danila Yurov. That bond has earned Tarasenko a top-six role throughout training camp. Whether he offers a surge back to scoring or merely Cup-winning precedent, reeling in a high-usage, veteran winger for no cost will be a nice plus on Minnesota’s summer.
UFA Signings
F Nico Sturm (two-years, $4MM)
G Cal Petersen (one-year, $775K)*
D Matt Kiersted (two-years, $1.6MM)*
F Nicolas Aube-Kubel (one-year, $775K)*
D Ben Gleason (one-year, $800K)*
F Tyler Pitlick (two-years, $1.5MM)*
* denotes two-way contract
Quieter than their presence on the trade market was Minnesota’s presence on the free agent market. Their early-summer transactions did very little to make a significant impact. Their only one-way contract was awarded to former Wild centerman Sturm, who won a Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers after a Trade Deadline move from the San Jose Sharks last season. His season was relatively quiet overall, though, marked by just 14 points in 70 games, including the postseason. It was Sturm’s second Cup win, after also supporting the Colorado Avalanche in their 2022 championship. Sturm has been a career bottom-six center. He has 92 points and 86 penalty minutes in 331 career games – and 36 points and 25 penalty minutes in 111 prior games with the Minnesota Wild.
RFA Re-Signings
F Michael Milne (one-year, $775K)*
F Marco Rossi (three-year, $15MM)
G Chase Wutzke (three-year, $2.9MM)*
Minnesota’s summer was headlined by its contract negotiations with top young center Marco Rossi. After what seemed like an endless stream of rumors – which included trade rumors and speculation around his playoff usage – the two sides compromised on a well-paying, bridge contract. The $5MM yearly price tag could quickly look like a bargain for Rossi, who had a career year with 24 goals and 60 points last season. He has played in every single Wild game dating back to the start of 2023-24, and looked well capable of supporting top-line minutes in the absence of Joel Eriksson Ek last season. Rossi is a young, former top-10 pick who appears on the cusp of a breakout. He’ll have three years to vindicate that standing, and could earn a major payday and lineup role on the other side.
Departures
F Devin Shore (signed with Sparta, Czechia)
F Frederick Gaudreau (traded to Seattle)
F Brendan Gaunce (traded to Columbus)
D Declan Chisholm (traded to Washington)
F Adam Raska (signed with Sparta, Czechia)
D Ryan O’Rourke (signed with Laval, AHL)
F Graeme Clarke (signed with Capitals)
F Luke Toporowski (signed with Hershey, AHL)
D Cameron Crotty (signed with Senators)
D Chase Priskie (signed with Sibir, KHL)
F Gustav Nyquist (signed with Jets)
D Jon Merrill (unsigned)
F Justin Brazeau (signed with Penguins)
G Marc-Andre Fleury (retired)
F Travis Boyd (signed with Maple Leafs)
G Troy Grosenick (unsigned)
F Tyler Madden (unsigned)
There’s no question the Wild lost some depth this summer. Still, despite the quantity, they didn’t lose much quality. Nyquist and Brazeau, who were acquired at the 2024-25 trade deadline, combined for three goals and nine points in 41 games down the stretch, providing little value.
Chisholm, who was traded to the Capitals before the start of free agency, is coming off a two-goal, 12-point campaign and proved to be a solid contributor, albeit in limited action. Despite the solid campaign, Minnesota boasts one of the best defensive cores in the league, supplemented by a full year of David Jiricek and Zeev Buium for the 2025-26 season. Furthermore, the team is expecting Jonas Brodin to return in the relatively near future.
Lastly, the most notable departure this past offseason was Gaudreau. Finishing fifth on the team in scoring with 19 goals and 37 points in 82 games, Gaudreau was a key middle-six center for the Wild last year. Regardless, like their other departures, the Wild have the internal depth to sustain such a loss, and a few up-and-coming prospects that could fill in.
Key Extensions
F Kirill Kaprizov (eight-year, $136MM)
G Filip Gustavsson (five-year, $34MM)
The Wild tidied up two important pieces of business on the eve of the 2025-26 season. They started with a record-breaking extension for superstar winger Kaprizov. The deal will carry a $17MM cap hit each season – an incredible burden, but a seemingly fitting one for a player as do-it-all as Kaprizov is. He’s the true motor of Minnesota’s offense when he’s at full health. He pops up in seemingly every play and creates waves of top-tier scoring chances all on his own. Kaprizov has only crossed the 100-point mark once – but he managed three-straight 40-goal seasons from 2021 to 2024, and was on pace for 50 goals and 112 points before injury cut last season in half. He’ll have one more year to prove he can be a top-tier superstar before he embarks on a long-term contract that seems sure to end with Kaprizov enshrined by the Wild.
Backstopping Kaprizov’s flashy offense for the last three seasons has been steady play from Gustavsson. He has been impressive since arriving in Minnesota, kicking off his tenure with the team with a .931 save percentage in 39 games of the 2022-23 season, good for second-best in the league. That momentum helped him win over the starter’s crease in 2023-24, and after a shaky first year, he made good on the role with a .914 Sv% in 58 games last season. Both his games played and save percentage ranked sixth in the league. Minnesota acknowledges those performances with a nicely-paying extension, though the five-year term brings up tough questions about how the team plans to deploy top goalie prospect Jesper Wallstedt.
Salary Cap Outlook
According to PuckPedia, the Wild open the 2025-26 campaign with approximately $3.545MM in cap space. This provides ample space for them to strengthen their fourth line during the trade deadline season, for a roster that has minimal gaps when healthy. Furthermore, General Manager Bill Guerin has done an excellent job locking in Minnesota’s core, with Tarasenko and Zuccarello being the only two pending unrestricted free agents of significance. Impressively, assuming no new contracts are signed, and the upper ceiling of the salary cap hits $104MM, the Wild will enter next offseason with approximately $17.156 in salary cap space even after factoring in Kaprizov’s mammoth extension.
Key Questions
How Far Will This Team Get In The Postseason? Since the 2012-13 season, Minnesota has only missed the postseason twice. Still, despite being a consistent playoff team, they haven’t reached a Western Conference Final since the 2003 Stanley Cup playoffs and have yet to see a Stanley Cup Final in their 26-year history. Their top player, Kaprizov, typically does his part in the postseason when healthy, though a few bad performances from other key contributors usually prove costly. As mentioned, Guerin has done a stellar job locking in the team’s core. Regardless, that will only mean something if the Wild can be more competitive when the hockey matters most.
Is It Time To Trade For A Top-Line Center? Outside of Kaprizov’s extension, Rossi’s contract situation played a large role in Minnesota’s offseason. He performed well last season, scoring 24 goals and 60 points in 80 games, though his disappearance in the postseason had many clamoring for his ouster. The Wild signed Rossi to a three-year, $15MM contract, walking him into his last year of restricted free agency after the 2027-28 season. If Rossi falters again, the team has an in-house candidate to take over as the center of the first line in Eriksson Ek, although his playstyle is better suited for the second forward unit. Given their projected cap space for next season, the Wild may be better served using Rossi and one of their first-round selections from the three upcoming NHL Drafts to pursue a notable center addition on the trade market to put next to Kaprizov and Matt Boldy.
Photo courtesy of Brett Holmes-Imagn Images.
Golden Knights To Sign Jack Eichel To Eight-Year Extension
The Vegas Golden Knights are expected to sign star center Jack Eichel to an eight-year, $108MM contract extension, per the Vegas Review Journal’s Danny Webster. The move was first reported by TSN’s Darren Dreger. Weber adds that the deal is believed to carry a $13.5MM cap hit.
On a day where the Winnipeg Jets extended star winger Kyle Connor, the Golden Knights have still found a way to steal the show. Eichel’s extension was long anticipated, both for his impact on the Golden Knights’ roster and the intricacies of how Vegas would fit the deal in alongside the $12MM cap hit of Mitch Marner. That question has now been answered, with Vegas locking up the tandem through the next eight seasons for $25.5MM each season.
Landing a max-term extension with Eichel before he has a chance to play alongside 100-point scorer Marner could prove lucrative for the Golden Knights. Eichel had a career-year last season, setting career-highs with 94 points and a plus-32 in 77 games. It was a major leap over the 31 goals and 68 points that Eichel managed in 63 games of the 2023-24 season – and the 66 points he scored in 67 games of the 2022-23 campaign. It seems the top center simply needed to ease into his starring role in Vegas after going through a true saga with the Buffalo Sabres.
Buffalo drafted Eichel second-overall in 2015, properly dubbing him second-fiddle to Connor McDavid‘s historic draft season. Despite that seat, Eichel boasted plenty of reason for excitement in his own right, and seemed to single-handedly will Boston University to a National Championship loss in his draft year. He brought that team-leading drive straight into the NHL, marked by 24 goals and 56 points in 81 games of the 2015-16 season. That remains the most a Sabres rookie has scored since the 1980s. Even better, Eichel matched it in fewer games of his sophomore season, with 24 goals and 57 points in 61 games.
But – that quickly became Eichel’s M.O. He was oft-injured, but proved to be the undeniable star of Buffalo’s lineup when healthy. He reached at least 25 goals in each of his next three seasons in Buffalo, and even showed his strength with 82 points in 77 games of the 2018-19 season, when the Sabres collectively only won 33 games. The tension between a struggling club and their productive star reached a peak as the 2020s rolled around – and a breaking point when the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement on how Eichel should handle an unprecedented shoulder surgery in 2021.
After multiple bouts back-and-forth, and a seemingly endless run of trade rumors, Buffalo decided to trade Eichel to Vegas in November, 2021. In return, the Sabres received Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs, the draft pick used on Noah Ostlund (2022: 1-16) and a second-round pick traded to Minnesota. All three players remain with Buffalo.
Meanwhile, Eichel quickly received the surgery he had preferred upon arriving in Vegas. His 2021-22 campaign was limited to 34 games as he recovered from injury, but he was back to health in time for the 2022-23 season. Routine injury still marred his year, but he stayed healthy long enough to lead Vegas on a run to the Stanley Cup in 2023. He led the Golden Knights, and the postseason, in scoring with a dazzling 26 points in 22 games – though the Conn Smythe trophy would go to his goal-scoring teammate Jonathan Marchessault.
Regardless, Eichel’s push towards a Cup win showed the Golden Knights, and the hockey world, that he had the grit to be the star center on an NHL champion. He has reaffirmed that thought with 17 points in 18 playoff games since Vegas lifted the Cup.
With this move, Vegas will place a strong bet on Eichel’s ability to hang onto that role through his 30s. More importantly, they’ll give him a big bode of confidence as he heads into his age-29 season. Eichel has never played alongside a 100-point scorer, nor broken that ceiling himself, but he’ll get his first chance this season. Like Eichel, Marner struggled to crack the century mark for multiple seasons, recording at least 85 points three times between 2021 and 2024. He even reached 99 points in 2022-23. But it wasn’t until last season, when he scored 27 goals and 102 points in 81 games, that Marner was finally able to achieve the feat.
In a rare shift, he has now changed teams following the career-year, and will look to keep the good times rolling on a recent Cup winner. The top of Vegas’ offense is truly a stacked group, featuring Mark Stone, Tomas Hertl, William Karlsson, Pavel Dorofeyev, and Ivan Barbashev to support Eichel and Marner. The heights of the lineup seem hard to place, and should all go well, Vegas has ensured they can keep the band together with a pair of max-term extensions for their two stars.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports.
Leafs Hire Mark Giordano, Three Others To Hockey Operations Roles
The Toronto Maple Leafs have hired four new faces to their hockey operations department. Most notably, retired NHL defenseman Mark Giordano will join the AHL’s Toronto Marlies as a coaching advisor. Additionally, the club has hired longtime NHL skaters Steve Reinprecht and Eric Lacroix as pro scouts, and the Finnish-based Mikael Kotkaniemi as a European amateur scout.
This news officially marks a return to Toronto for Giordano, who hung up his skates as a member of the club after the 2023-24 season. Giordano was long expected to join the Maple Leafs’ staff, with general manager Brad Treliving announcing an undisclosed role for the Hall-of-Fame-hopeful in mid-September. Giordano went on to support the Leafs’ training camp and work directly with players, all the while manning a role that wasn’t yet certain. On the heels of camp, Toronto will make that distinction now, and assign Giordano to continue mentoring their prospects in the minor-leagues.
To say Giordano brings hefty experience with him would be an understatement. He played in 1,148 NHL games between 2005 and 2024 – and even had teams expressing interesting in signing him to a professional try-out at last season’s training camps. Instead, the former Calgary Flames captain opted to take a year away from a formal role in the sport. Now, he’ll return to paid roles, working under the same NHL GM that left him exposed to the Seattle Kraken in the 2021 NHL expansion draft. The Kraken acted quickly to snatch up the veteran defender, and even named him as the first captain in franchise history after he wore the ‘C’ for eight years in Calgary. Giordano wouldn’t even stick in Seattle for a full season, though, getting moved to his hometown of Toronto at the 2022 Trade Deadline in what would be the start of a two-and-a-half year tenure with the Leafs.
Toronto continues the experienced additions with Reinprecht and Lacroix. Reinprecht played through 663 NHL games between 1999 and 2011, and even won the 2001 Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche. He was never drafted, but earned an NHL contract after a breakout senior year at the University of Wisconsin, marked by 66 points in 37 games. That spark was enough to keep Reinprecht at the NHL level through the first 11 years of his career. He was a routine scoring option out of the middle-six, playing through three years in Colorado and four in Phoenix. As his NHL production began to taper, Reinprecht made the decision to move to Germany’s DEL in 2010, and would play through six more seasons with the Nuernberg Ice Tigers before retiring in 2016.
Lacroix was drafted – hearing his name called by Toronto in the seventh-round of the 1990 NHL Draft, back when the draft was 12-rounds long. He joined the AHL’s St. John’s Maple Leafs two years later, and quickly stood out as a productive winger in both scoring and penalty minutes. By the end of his third year in the minors, Lacroix had totaled 81 points and 161 penalty minutes in 161 games. That production didn’t translate directly to the NHL, though, with Lacroix’s career-years coming in 1995-96 and 1996-97. Those seasons were marked by 32 points and 110 penalty minutes in 72 games, and 36 points and 26 penalty minutes in 81 games, respectively. He continued his career as a depth bruiser until the 2000-01 season, when he retired with 137 points and 361 penalty minutes in 472 games.
Kotkaniemi never played at the NHL level – instead riding out a 12-year pro career in Finland, Denmark, and Germany – but he’s certainly gotten an intimate look at the league. His youngest son, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, was drafted third-overall by the Montreal Canadiens in 2018. Since then, Jesperi has played through a lofty 476 games in the NHL, with 194 points and 234 penalty minutes to show for it. Meanwhile, father Mikael has spent the last five years coaching in Finland’s U20 league, or with the country’s U17 and U18 international clubs. Before that, he had spent eight years coaching in Finland’s top two pro leagues. He’s a key member of Scandinavian hockey and should provide Toronto with an in-depth look at the next suite of Finnish and Swedish stars.
Hurricanes Waive, Assign Juha Jaaska
The Carolina Hurricanes placed centerman Juha Jaaska on waivers on Tuesday. He cleared waivers on Wednesday, and will be assigned to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, per NHL.com’s Walt Ruff.
Jaaska spent the majority of the 2024-25 season in the Chicago lineup. It was his first year in North American pros after playing in Finland’s Liiga from 2017 to 2024. Jaaska made quick work of the rookie year, earning an alternate captain role on the Wolves and posting 12 goals and 33 points in 53 games. His scoring ranked fifth on the Wolves and would have rivaled the top-30 in league-wide rookie scoring, though at 26, Jaaska was excluded from rookie counts.
Still, his debut year in Chicago was a promising one. It came as no surprise for those who followed the bulky winger’s career in Finland. He has long been lauded as a leader for his clubs, and wore a letter in all five years he spent with HIFK’s junior program. That includes captaining the U20 team in 2016-17 – his first year of draft eligibility – when he scored 24 points in 25 games in Finland’s top U20 league.
Despite the hot scoring, Jaaska’s struggles to match pace at the top level held back a lot of NHL attention. Those concerns continued through his final two years of draft eligibility, leaving Jaaska to pursue HIFK’s men’s team rather than a move to North America. That proved a fruitful decision, as the Helsinki-native began to claw his way up the lineup between 2018 and 2023. He showed his might at the pro level with 12 goals, 37 points, and a plus-14 in 56 games of the 2022-23 season; then matched that performance with 30 points and a plus-four in 57 games of the 2023-24 season. He wore an ‘A’ in both seasons.
Those performances were enough to earn Jaaska a spot on Finland’s World Championship roster, and a contract with the Carolina Hurricanes. In addition to a prominent role on the Chicago Wolves, Jaaska also made his NHL debut last season, and totaled four assists in 18 games with the Hurricanes. Now, he’ll return to his role of alternate captain for the Wolves, with the goal of improving on a strong push into North America. With the right start to the season, or a few injuries ahead of him on the depth chart, Jaaska could quickly find his way into routine minutes on Carolina’s fourth-line.
Ducks’ Ville Husso Clears Waivers
10/8: Husso has cleared waivers per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. That will open the door for Husso to take on the starting role for the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. He has posted 66 wins and a .909 save percentage in 152 career appearances in the AHL.
10/7: The Anaheim Ducks have placed goaltender Ville Husso on waivers, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The move cuts the Ducks roster to two goalies – Lukas Dostal and Petr Mrazek – with a few days left before opening night. Anaheim signed Husso to a two-year, $4.4MM contract extension in late June. Should he make it to the minor leagues, he would only carry a $1.05MM hit against Anaheim’s cap.
It’s no surprise to see Husso back on the waiver wire. He was waived by the Detroit Red Wings almost exactly one year ago, after starting their season with a 1-5-2 record and .866 save percentage in nine games. He moved to the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins and started to bounce back, marked by an 8-4-0 record and .912 save percentage in 13 games.
That was enough to catch the eye of a Ducks, who had lost goalie prospects Calle Clang and Tomas Suchanek to knee injuries. Anaheim acquired Husso in exchange for future considerations in February, and initially kept him in the minor-leagues. He suited up for nine games with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls, posting seven wins and a team-best .907 save percentage. When Anaheim lost John Gibson to injury in March and April, Husso stood as their go-to call-up, helping him push into four games at the end of Anaheim’s season. Husso was surprisingly sharp in the small sample, posting a .925 save percentage – higher than any of his prior seasons in the NHL.
With stout play at both levels, Anaheim opted to sign Husso to a more manageable cap hit this summer. Speaking about the deal, and about trading Gibson to Detroit, Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek told Derek Lee of The Hockey News that Husso offers a helpful bit of veteran reliability. He said:
If we have any injuries up top, it allows to be able to call that third goaltender up to support (Dostal or Mrazek). It also allows San Diego to have a good goaltender to carry a lot of the load and allow our younger guys to keep maturing
Goalies have been a popular commodity on the waiver wire. Each of Pheonix Copley, Cayden Primeau, and Colten Ellis have already been claimed by new teams. That means there’s no guarantee that Husso will fall through 31 other teams. If he does, he’ll be the clear starter for the San Diego Gulls, operating ahead of Suchanek and Clang.
Mammoth Waive Kevin Rooney, Assign To AHL
10/8: Rooney has cleared waivers and will be assigned to the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners.
10/7: The Utah Mammoth have placed centerman Kevin Rooney on waivers. He signed a one-year, two-way contract with the club this summer. The deal moved Rooney away from three years with the Calgary Flames organization.
Rooney was on the Flames’ roster for the entirety of the 2024-25 season. He filled a true fourth-line role, and posted just 10 points in 70 games on the full year. Despite that, Rooney was routinely rotated onto the team’s penalty-kill, and his 47.2 faceoff percentage ranked third among all Flames centers to take at least 400 draws.
Rooney pulled his way back into an NHL role after spending the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons split between the NHL and AHL lineups. He totaled five points in 50 NHL games and 18 points in 56 AHL games between the two years. Before then, he found routine play in the Metropolitan Division, serving as a depth center for the New Jersey Devils, and then the New York Rangers, between 2016 and 2022. Through his career, Rooney has posted 60 points and 134 penalty minutes in 330 NHL appearances and 93 points and 156 penalty minutes in 242 AHL games.
An assignment to the minor-leagues comes as no surprise after Rooney signed a two-way deal. It would be a surprise to see a team claim the low-event center, only to be forced to hold him on their NHL roster or place him back on waivers. Instead, it seems more likely that Rooney will clear waivers and serve as the Tucson Roadrunners’ reliable veteran, until the Mammoth are in need of a call-up.
Golden Knights Sign Alexander Holtz, Waive Jeremy Davies
10/8: In a corresponding move to Holtz’s signing, Vegas did indeed place defender Davies on waivers. He cleared earlier today, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, officially granting the cap space needed to register Holtz’s contract. Davies will be a top call-up option, while Holtz looks to stay above that standing as the season kicks off.
10/7: The Vegas Golden Knights have signed winger Alexander Holtz to a two-year, $1.675MM contract. The deal will carry an $825K salary in year one, and a $850K salary in year two, per PuckPedia. This move likely indicates that defenseman Jeremy Davies will be placed on waivers and assigned to the minor leagues, opening up $1.15MM in cap space for Vegas to sign Holtz. Davies signed a two-year deal with Vegas just a few days ago.
Holtz sat as an unsigned restricted free agent for the entire summer. He had to wait patiently for a new deal after splitting last season between Vegas’ NHL and AHL rosters. He began the year in the NHL, vying for routine ice time among the Golden Knights’ bottom-six. His season kicked off with a six-game scoring drought that he spurred with a five-game scoring streak, and seven points in nine games, during November. But Holtz’s scoring would prove cold more often than not, and he was assigned to the AHL in February with only 11 points in 49 NHL games.
Holtz found fire in the minor-leagues, netting seven goals and 13 points in 16 games with the Henderson Silver Knights. The second-tier flight shined as a proving ground of the flashy play-driving and quick shooting Holtz has long showed off. It was exactly those attributes that earned him the seventh-overall selection in the 2020 NHL Draft, coming off the heels of a standout rookie year in the SHL.
The New Jersey Devils originally drafted Holtz. He joined the organization’s ranks the next season, and quickly found a rut as a top-end AHL scorer but quiet NHL performer. Through four years split between the Devils’ NHL and AHL rosters, Holtz posted 65 points in 76 AHL games but only 34 points in 110 NHL games. Those totals include Holtz’s 2023-24 campaign, when he spent all 82 games in the Devils lineup and managed only 16 goals and 28 points.
Holtz will likely begin the 2025-26 season back on the cusp between major and minor rosters. Davies’ assignment could help Vegas keep the Swedish sniper as their extra forward for a bit longer, though a return to the AHL could make sense as a way to spur Holtz towards scoring early in the year. Meanwhile, Vegas will be pushed against the salary cap ceiling with this move.
Devils Sign Luke Glendening From PTO
10/7: One month later, the Devils have signed Glendening to a one-year, one-way, league-minimum contract per James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now.
9/5: The New Jersey Devils have signed four veterans to professional try-out contracts. The list includes former Devil forward Kevin Rooney, longtime center Luke Glendening, minor-league goalie Adam Scheel, and Russian goalie Georgi Romanov. All four players will report to New Jersey’s training camp when it begins on September 17th.
Rooney will be the most familiar name to Devils fans. He began his pro career with the organization, signing with the Albany Devils as an undrafted free agent in 2016. Within three seasons, Rooney had worked his way up to a hardy, fourth-line role in the NHL. He quickly became known for making gritty and hard-earned plays, but never scored more than 10 points in a single season with the Devils. He moved to the New York Rangers for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons, and has spent the last three seasons split between the Calgary Flames’ NHL and AHL rosters. Rooney has continued to offer a stout, depth role everywhere he goes – and will now return to New Jersey looking to earn a role at the age of 32. He has totaled 60 points in 330 NHL games.
Glendening will be another familiar name, if only for his longevity in the league. The now-36-year-old centerman also began his career as an undrafted free-agent, signing with the AHL’s Providence Bruins in 2012 after four seasons at the University of Michigan. Glendening returned to Michigan via a move to the Grand Rapids Griffins in his first full season in the AHL, and played a key, middle-six role during the club’s race to the 2013 Calder Cup. He moved to the NHL in the very next season, and has spent the last 12 years filling a confident, bottom-six role for multiple teams. His career spanned seven years with the Detroit Red Wings, before taking two-year pit stops with the Dallas Stars and Tampa Bay Lightning. He’s proven consistent throughout, and boasts 166 points and 308 penalty minutes in 864 career games. With New Jersey already boasting a full lineup, Glendening could be set to compete with Rooney for the role of veteran depth-forward.
While Glendening and Rooney battle it out, so will depth goaltenders Scheel and Romanov. Scheel spent last season split between the AHL’s Colorado Eagles and the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies. He managed stout numbers in the higher league, recording a 10-2-2 record and .904 save percentage with the Eagles. But on a weak Utah lineup, Scheel fell to a 5-12-2 record and .884 save percentage. Also an undrafted free agent, he has totaled a .905 save percentage through 101 games, and five seasons, in the AHL. Romanov hasn’t been in North American pros for as long, but posted an encouraging .904 save percentage in 29 games of the 2023-24 season, and a .905 in 21 games last season. Those numbers were enough to earn him a handful of NHL games during the San Jose Sharks’ recent goalie drought. He recorded an 0-6-0 record and .888 save percentage in 10 games with the Sharks. Whoever wins the goalie battle at training camp will likely take on the role of third-string minor-leaguer behind Nico Daws and Jakub Malek.
Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images.