Flames Want To Move Up From Sixth Overall In Draft
A hot market for top-five picks in the 2026 NHL Draft is beginning to form. On the heels of reports that the St. Louis Blues want to crack into the top 10, it appears the Calgary Flames could stand in their way. The Flames are hoping to move up from their current spot of sixth-overall, per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period and Kyle Morton of Daily Faceoff. The San Jose Sharks’ second-overall pick could be Calgary’s target, with TSN’s Darren Dreger sharing that the Sharks could part ways with their pick. Pagnotta also said that the Chicago Blackhawks could shop around the fourth-overall pick.
It has been more than 20 years since the last time a team traded a top-three pick after it was declared. The last instance – Pittsburgh’s move to first-overall in 2003 to select Marc-Andre Fleury – saw the third-overall pick go the other way. Calgary would pull off an unprecedented move if they were able to swing their way into the top-five.
Moving up in the draft could be a strong way for Calgary to spark their rebuild. The draft class is led by premium forward talents Gavin McKenna, Ivar Stenberg, and Caleb Malhotra. Each of the three have the potential to one day lead an NHL lineup, as do top defense prospects Chase Reid and Keaton Verhoeff. Should those five names all slide off the board before Calgary’s pick, the Flames would be left with the tough job of guessing the next-best star. Left-defensemen Carson Carels and Alberts Smits have caught attention all season with their dominant two-way play and play-driving ability respectively; while centermen Viggo Bjorck, Tynan Lawrence, and Oliver Suvanto have each held high-end acclaim through points in the season.
Outside of the top-five, there seems to be no guarantee of who will hit. Calgary would be stuck in a guessing game as they look for the draft selection who could propel their young lineup forward. Acquiring either San Jose or Chicago’s pick would effectively subvert that issue, allowing Calgary the chance to land a player with a strong chance of becoming a difference-maker. Their roster could use impacts at seemingly every position – whether it’s a playmaking winger to support Matthew Coronato, a true top-center, or an all-around defenseman who can take pressure off of the offensive-minded Zayne Parekh.
The uncertainty of a lower, top pick would be less of a concern for the Sharks or Blackhawks, who have each landed multiple top-five picks over the last four seasons. The draft class still boasts upside through the teens and the pair of rebuilders could stock their cupboards by pushing Calgary to add more draft capital and a strong prospect like Andrew Basha, Henry Mews, or even breakout college star Ethan Wyttenbach.
The package needed to trade into the top-five will only richen as more teams eye a potential trade. It seems to be a great year to be an established-rebuilder like San Jose and Chicago, who could field a long list of offers as they consider whether to take another star prospect or prioritize quantity over quality. Meanwhile, Calgary’s focus appears set to shift towards finding the X-factor they need to pull together a lineup that – thanks to the emergence of players like Kevin Bahl, Yan Kuznetsov, and Connor Zary – seems to wield promising depth.
Evening Notes: Frondell, Perfetti, Dorofeyev
The Chicago Blackhawks aren’t concerned about the long-term effects of a scary-looking injury to top prospect Anton Frondell. The top Swedish winger got his hand caught in a bench door during Team Sweden’s Friday matchup against Team Italy at the IIHF Men’s World Championship. He missed Sweden’s Saturday matchup with a subsequent injury that is not believed to be serious, per Scott Powers of The Athletic.
Frondell has kept his hot season rolling at the World Championship with two points in as many games. He has performed at a top level in competition across the world this season – netting 28 points in 43 SHL games, nine points in his first 12 NHL games, and eight points in seven games at the 2026 World Junior Championship. No decision has been made on Frondell’s availability for the remainder of the summer tournament, which could leave a major hole in Sweden’s roster.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- The Winnipeg Jets face an interesting task in re-signing middle-six winger Cole Perfetti this summer. The former 10th-overall pick scored 18 goals and 50 points in the 2024-25 season but fell back to 12 goals and 32 points in 68 games this season. That places him in an interesting spot next to many of his peers from the 2020 and 2021 NHL Draft class, as pointed out by Murat Ates of The Athletic. While Perfetti’s struggles to frequently pop up on the scoresheet could keep him from matching the long-term contracts of players like Matthew Coronato, Matthew Knies, and Alexis Lafreniere – he could find a starting point in negotiations in the six-year, $7.5MM recently signed by Winnipeg’s Gabriel Vilardi. While that deal serves as a ceiling, Ates points out that Winnipeg’s bidding could begin in the realm of $5.5MM. Splitting the gap between the two numbers, and leaning on the term garnered by peers, would put Perfetti’s next deal in the realm of four-to-six years and $6MM-to-$6.5MM in cap hit. That cap hit would dedicate roughly half of Winnipeg’s projected $13.628MM in cap space this summer to their top restricted free-agent – which should leave just enough room to also re-sign Jonathan Toews, Isak Rosen, and Eric Comrie.
- Another RFA to watch this summer will be Vegas Golden Knights winger Pavel Dorofeyev, who has exploded onto the scene this season with 37 goals and 64 points in the regular season and 10 goals and 14 points in 14 playoff games. That sudden boom – and Dorofeyev’s seamless fill-in for captain Mark Stone over Vegas’ last five games – could quickly be proving Dorofeyev’s ability as a true, top-six scorer. Teams around the league will pay attention to that as Dorofeyev heads towards restricted-free agency per Shayna Goldman of The Athletic. Vegas is only projected to wield $11MM in cap space this summer, per PuckPedia, with Reilly Smith, Brandon Saad, and Rasmus Andersson all set to hit the open market. The 25-year-old Dorofyev would certainly be top priority among that list but could command the majority of their savings after a breakout year. If Vegas gets cold feet, the young sniper could be a great option for teams looking to add an immediate impact. Goldman projects both Dorofeyev and Andersson could command as much as $9MM in cap hit, which would pull Vegas nearly $7MM over budget with multiple lineup holes still to fill. After the St. Louis Blues’ success with their offer sheet of winger Dylan Holloway, could a team see similar potential in the cap-strapped Golden Knights’ handling of Dorofeyev?
Cale Makar To Determine When To Return To Avalanche Lineup
The Colorado Avalanche are down two games in their Western Conference Finals matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights. A major part of their recent struggles has been the absence of superstar defenseman Cale Makar who is out day-to-day with an upper-body injury sustained in the second round.
Makar continues to skate at the team’s practice facility but there has been no indication of when he may return. Head coach Jared Bednar told reporters following Game 2 that the decision will be left up to when Makar feels back to 100 percent, as captured by Vic Lombardi of Altitude TV. Bednar reiterated that after Saturday’s morning skate per Jesse Montano of Guerilla Sports. The head coach said:
No one can go into Cale’s body and feel what he’s feeling. So when he feels like he can do he can do all the things he needs to… then he’s gonna make the decision to play.
The Avalanche have filled the crater left by Makar’s absence by promoting Sam Malinski to the top-pair – but most of the weight to generate offense has been placed on Devon Toews and Brent Burns. Both defenders have struggled to create the same spark as Makar, leaving Colorado at just three goals scored through the first two games of the series. That is far below their league-leading average of 3.63 goals-per-game throughout the regular season – though the dip is no surprise. Makar finished the regular season ranked third among all defensemen with 79 points in 75 games played. He also led all defenseman in power-play ice time with 307 minutes on the man-advantage.
Colorado has been forced to find a new quarterback for their power-play, and make up for a one-man breakout, at the most critical point in their season. Meanwhile, Makar faces the challenge of working back to enough fitness to fill the 25 minutes a night that he has averaged through nine playoff games. It is an uphill battle that will only become tougher as the Avalanche look to climb out of their recent slump.
Makar seemed to sustain his injury in the series-clinching Game 5 matchup against the Minnesota Wild. He left the game early after falling awkwardly on his right arm but managed to return before the eventual overtime-win. While the Avalanche offense can’t pack the same punch without Makar in the lineup, their chances at a full run to the Stanley Cup would also be fully dampened if he was hurt for a longer stretch. That will be the balance that Makar has in mind as he continues to ease his way back into Colorado’s practices.
Makar will aim to make his return as the Avalanche head to Vegas for Game 3 on Sunday. If he decides a return would bring more risk than reward, the Avalanche will have to again lean on Malinski as the puck-mover on the top pair. Toews would also continue his role on a power-play that has yet to score this series. The Norris Trophy finalist’s decision, and its fallout, will be pivotal in the Avalanche’s hopes to break back into the win column.
Ian Laperriere A Coaching Candidate For Islanders’ New AHL Affiliate
The New York Islanders will begin yet another head coach search after promoting AHL head coach Rocky Thompson into an NHL assistant coach role. Their best option to helm the newly-named Hamilton Hammers could already be within the organization. Former Lehigh Valley Phantoms head coach Ian Laperriere moved into a pro scout role with the Islanders last season and could be a candidate to earn the AHL head coach gig per NHL.com’s Stefen Rosner in his newsletter.
Laperriere is a veteran of 1,083 NHL games as a player – spanning 16 seasons, including nine with the Los Angeles Kings and four with the Colorado Avalanche. Formerly a seventh-round pick by the St. Louis Blues, he built a career as a bruiser, racking up 1,956 penalty minutes through his NHL career. Laperriere retired with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010 and joined the club as an assistant coach in 2013. He spent eight years on the club’s NHL bench before moving into the AHL head coaching role. Laperriere led the Phantoms to three postseason appearances in four seasons – but wasn’t able to push the club into the second round.
Now, Laperriere could represent a chance for New York to replace one career-enforcer for another as they look to keep their AHL club above water. The Bridgeport Islanders have missed the last four Calder Cup Playoffs – and rotated through three head coaches in that span. The Islanders agreed to move their affiliate from Bridgeport, Connecticut to Hamilton, Ontario to occupy the renovated TD Coliseum, once home to the AHL’s Hamilton Canucks, then the Hamilton Bulldogs, for 22 years.
The Bulldogs were a successful affiliate of the Edmonton Oilers and Montreal Canadiens through 20 seasons in the AHL – though their history also ended with four consecutive, missed postseasons. The first head coach of the newly-minted Hamilton Hammers will be looking to break that four-year spell for both the city, and the Islanders’ AHL affiliate. Leaning on the expertise of a playoff veteran at every level, like Laperriere, could be a strong first step towards that goal.
Blues Trying To Move Up In 2026 NHL Draft
Three picks in the 2026 NHL Draft first round may not be rich enough for the St. Louis Blues. The club is putting concerted effort into trying to move up from their current standing at 11th-overall, TSN’s Darren Dreger shared on Hockey Sense with Andy Strickland. Dreger added that the San Jose Sharks, who currently sit at second-overall, could be willing to move down from their current selection.
The last top-three pick to be traded also belonged to the Sharks, who sent what would become the 2020 third-overall pick to the Ottawa Senators in their September 2018 acquisition of star defenseman Erik Karlsson. Toronto also traded what would become the 2010 second-overall pick to Boston in September 2009, setting up the Bruins’ selection of Tyler Seguin. The last instance of a top-three pick changing hands after it was declared came in 2003 – when the Pittsburgh Penguins moved from the third-overall pick up to first-overall to select Marc-Andre Fleury.
St. Louis could feel driven to pull off a trade of this magnitude by a rare opportunity in front of them. While star scorer Gavin McKenna has dominated attention for first-overall, Swedish phenom Ivar Stenberg – the younger brother of Blues prospect Otto Stenberg – has formed a strong case behind him. The younger Stenberg is currently lighting up the IIHF Men’s World Championships with seven points in six games. He has cemented a top-line role on Team Sweden, capping off a year that saw him earn a similar spot on Frolunda HC, who finished second in the SHL regular season.
Stenberg is a true dynamo, capable of dominating games with his breakaway speed and heads-up playmaking. He can hold the puck for as long as needed to create sneaky and successful scoring chances. He is just as involved away from the puck, staying focused in scoring areas and working to make plays on defense. That full-ice impact made Stenberg hard to ignore since he made his SHL debut last season.
The older Stenberg also made waves over the season, earning his NHL debut in mid-December and ultimately scoring 10 points in 32 games of what would become his NHL rookie season. That was only seven points fewer than the scoring total he posted in 36 AHL games. He seemed comfortable at the top level and – after easing into the role – embraced a much-needed center position in St. Louis. His arrival could help St. Louis justify selecting yet another winger headed likely headed for a top-six role, after they landed Justin Carbonneau in the 2025 class.
Ivar Stenberg would bring true top-end ability to the Blues lineup. It would be a final piece for St. Louis, who has already seen wingers Dylan Holloway, Jake Neighbours, and Jimmy Snuggerud excel in their top-nine roles. But while they have each excelled in limited top-line minutes, they’ve proven most effective when rotating through the lineup with each other. Stenberg could add another strong impact to that mix until he can graduate into a lineup-leading role.
The cost of pulling off the first top-three trade in more than two decades wouldn’t be cheap. Many expect San Jose to target an addition on defense after adding Michael Misa with the second-overall pick last season. The Sharks would likely find strong defenders still on the board outside of the top-five, just as they would at second-overall, in a draft class filled with high-end, defense prospects. Moving down would offer a chance to add even more to their riches – potentially emerging defense prospect Theo Lindstein or shutdown defenders Colin Ralph or Arseni Koromyslov from St. Louis’ pool. The Sharks could also ask for multiple first-round picks from a Blues club currently wielding picks 11, 15, and the Colorado Avalanche’s undetermined first-rounder. Packaging all three picks could be enough to make a deal – though adding another prospect could prove a worthwhile supplement.
The St. Louis Blues have made multiple bold decisions to revamp the lineup from its 2023-24 state. They surprisingly fired Drew Bannister mid-season and offer-sheeted Edmonton Oilers free-agents Holloway and Philip Broberg. Those additions helped push them to the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but couldn’t return them to the 2026 postseason. That could be cause for one more bold decision before Doug Armstrong leaves the post he has held for longer than a decade. In doing so, St. Louis – a team that began built around a trio of brothers – would be hoping to land their eighth set of siblings in franchise history.
Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron-Imagn Images.
Afternoon Notes: Stone, Devils, Korczak
The hole in the Vegas Golden Knights lineup will remain as they head into Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. Winger Mark Stone will miss his fifth-straight game with a lower-body injury sustained in Game 3 of the second round, per Jesse Granger of The Athletic. He had three goals and seven points in nine playoff games prior to his injury.
Stone continues to fill a top role with the Golden Knights when healthy. He finished the regular season with 28 goals and 73 points in 60 games – a full-season pace of 39 goals and 100 points. Vegas has bumped Pavel Dorofeyev up to the top-line, and added Brandon Saad to the lineup, in Stone’s absence. Dorofeyev has excelled, with six goals and seven points since Stone went down. Saad has two assists, including on the opening goal of the Western Conference Finals. Vegas will continue to bank on their production while Stone targets a Game 3 return.
Other notes around the hockey world:
- The New Jersey Devils have picked up their third-year option with the ECHL’s Adirondack Thunder per a team announcement. New Jersey began their affiliation with the Thunder in the 2017-18 season, two seasons after the club relocated to the city in place of the Stockton Flames. Adirondack has made the postseason in five of their seven seasons in partnership with the Devils, going as far as the Conference Finals twice. They were knocked out of the 2026 Kelly Cup Playoffs in a first round series that went to seven games and featured three overtimes. Their lineup was led by Devils’ defense prospect Jeremy Hanzel and goaltender Jeremy Brodeur, son of Devils legend Martin Brodeur.
- Former New York Rangers prospect Ryder Korczak will continue his career in Slovakia’s top league. He has signed a one-year contract with HC Slovan Bratislava of the Tipsport Liga per a team announcement. Korczak spent last season on a one-year deal with Vlci Zilina. He finished the year with a team-leading 21 goals, and 44 total points, in 52 games played. The 2021 third-round pick was unable to continue his scoring spark into the AHL. He racked up 35 points in 117 games across two seasons with the Hartford Wolf Pack – and 10 games with the Syracuse Crunch. Korczak was a premier junior scorer, racking up 246 points in 248 games across six seasons in the WHL. He seems to have found the same spark overseas and should move into a key role on a Bratislava squad that finished second in Slovakia this season.
Flames Sign Kirill Zarubin To Entry-Level Contract
The Calgary Flames have signed goaltender Kirill Zarubin to a three-year, entry-level contract per Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960. The 2024 third-round draft pick spent last season in the MHL, Russia’s junior league. He was named an MHL All-Star and finished the season with 26 wins and a .930 save percentage in 48 games played. Those marks ranked fourth and 13th among 81 goalies with more than 10 games played.
Calgary acquired the draft pick used to select Zarubin in the 2024 trade that sent Noah Hanifin to the Vegas Golden Knights. The Flames used that pick to draft their fourth goaltender, and their third out of Russia, since 2020.
Zarubin brings long legs and a quickness in the crease. Those traits helped him stand out despite filling a split role through parts of the last three seasons with Chicago Blackhawks prospect Ilya Kanarsky. The duo backstopped an AKM Tula squad that made it to – but lost – the MHL semi-finals in all four seasons under their helm.
Zarubin will step onto a crowded Flames depth chart. Eight different goaltenders played games for Calgary’s AHL and ECHL affiliates last season. Zarubin will likely head to the latter to help ease his transition into the pro flight. His addition will provide more stability to Arsenii Sergeev as he moves into a full-time AHL role.
Blackhawks’ Teuvo Teravainen To Miss Remainder Of World Championship
Winger Teuvo Teravainen will miss the remainder of the 2026 IIHF World Championship with an undisclosed injury, Team Finland announced on Saturday. Teravainen recorded two assists in Finland’s win over Team Germany to start the tournament.
This will be an irreplaceable loss for the Finns. Teravainen led the team in scoring at the 2025 World Championships with 11 points – including a tournament-leading 10 assists – in seven games. He failed to keep that hot scoring rolling in the 2026 Winter Olympics, with just one point in six games. Still, Teravainen’s two-way, veteran presence has proved to be a reliable part of Finland’s top-six.
That is the same role he has brought to the Chicago Blackhawks over the last two seasons. He reached 58 points in the 2024-25 season, his first year back on the middling Blackhawks lineup. Those numbers fell to 35 points in 76 games this year, though Teravainen still seemed to stand out on a nightly basis while supporting Blackhawks youngsters Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar.
Teravainen’s summer focus will now turn towards working back to full health before returning to that spot in Chicago’s lineup next season. It will be the final year on his current contract and should go better than last season, thanks to the addition of Anton Frondell and Roman Kantserov.
Bruins Sign Lukas Reichel To One-Year Extension
The Boston Bruins have awarded a young forward with another chance to prove himself. Lukas Reichel has been signed to a one-year, two-way contract extension with a $950K cap hit at the NHL level. The Bruins acquired Reichel at the Trade Deadline in exchange for a sixth-round draft pick.
The acquisition of Reichel marked Boston’s chance to tap into first-round potential that the Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks failed to find. Reichel began his time as a Bruin in the minor-leagues – but he earned a quick call-up after scoring five points in his first three games with Providence. Reichel kept it going with two points in his Boston debut, though his hot hand quickly fizzled out after that – with only one assist over his next eight games in the NHL. He appeared in two more games with Boston, and four more with Providence, before the season came to a close. Reichel also played one game of Boston’s first-round loss against the Buffalo Sabres, and three games of Providence’s division semi-final upset at the hands of the Springfield Thunderbirds. He managed no scoring in the postseason.
Reichel was selected 17th-overall in the 2020 NHL Draft by the Blackhawks. He was coming off his first season in the DEL, Germany’s top league, where he scored 24 points in 42 games. Reichel was also a major piece of Germany’s international rosters, netting five points in seven games at the 2020 World Junior Championship and nine points in 12 additional international friendlies. He repeated those feats in the season after his draft selection – netting 27 points in 38 DEL games and six points in nine games at the 2021 World Championships.
Strong scoring in Germany inspired a quick move to North American pros in 2022-23. Reichel was a near-immediate impact for the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs but failed to find the same spark in the NHL. He finished his rookie season with just one point in 11 NHL games and 57 points in 56 AHL games. Once again, Reichel managed to match those marks as a sophomore, netting 51 points in 55 AHL games and an encouraging 15 points in 23 NHL games.
It seemed the skillful scorer had finally found his footing in the Blackhawks organization. Chicago tested that by deploying him full-time in the NHL during the 2024-25 season. But Reichel failed to command his own line and wound up on Chicago’s third-line, with only 22 points in 70 games on the year. Rather than stick with those struggles, the Blackhawks capitalized on Reichel’s strong start – four points in five games – to last season. He was traded to the Canucks in exchange for a 2027 fourth-round pick and went on to score just one point in 14 games with Vancouver before being traded again.
Reichel is a skilled winger who showed he can still produce with three points in five games at the 2026 Winter Olympics. He represents a difficult lineup challenge for Boston. If the Bruins can find the right mix of defense and play-driving support, they could tap into major scoring upside. Reichel has yet to find that performance in the NHL but would be an X-factor in the middle-six if he can discover it on his new, one-year deal.
Flyers’ Nikita Grebenkin Could Miss Start Of 2026-27 Season
Philadelphia Flyers general manager Daniel Briere issued updates on the team’s long list of injuries after their run to the second-round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Briere announced 10 injuries. They include:
F Alex Bump (MCL sprain)
F Noah Cates (fractured foot)
F Christian Dvorak (fractured rib, separated shoulder)
F Nikita Grebenkin (upper-body injury)
F Garnet Hathaway (fractured fibula)
F Travis Konecny (fractured rib, fractured nose)
F Owen Tippett (internal bleeding, core muscle injury)
F Trevor Zegras (elbow ligament sprain)
D Emil Andrae (fractured wrist)
D Cameron York (fractured rib)
Among the injuries, Briere specified that Andrae will need surgery, while Cates will not need surgery, to address their fractures. It was not clear if Dvorak, Hathaway, Konecny, or York will also undergo the knife. Briere added that every player is expected to make a full recovery before the start of the 2026-27 season, except for Grebenkin, who could miss time in the 2026-27 season per NHL.com’s Bill Meltzer.
Grebenkin hasn’t played since March 21, missing the last 23 games of Philadelphia’s season. Briere did not specify Grebenkin’s injury, though he did say that the team initially thought the winger would only miss a short term. Instead, Philadelphia is looking at different options to help Grebenkin work back to full health.
The young winger broke into a full-time roster role, on the back of high-energy and gritty hockey, this season. He totaled up 14 points and 86 hits in 55 games as an NHL rookie. His hits-per-game average ranked fifth on the team among Flyers with at least 20 games played. That physical presence, paired with Grebenkin’s energetic skating, was overwhelming paired next to center Hathaway – though Philadelphia also rolled him out as the forechecker next to scorers Konecny and Dvorak.
Grebenkin’s absence would leave a hole in Philadelphia’s bottom-six to start next season. It would also limit the 23 year old’s chance to build on a quick break into an NHL lineup. But Philadelphia’s laundry list of injuries could affect the entire lineup. Konecny led the team in both goals (27) and points (68) through 77 games this season. Zegras ranked right behind him with 26 goals and 67 points, while Dvorak and Tippett were part of a three-way tie for third with 51 points.
On defense, York stepped up as a core part of Philadelphia’s top-four this season. He finished the year with 26 points and a plus-five, while averaging more than 22 minutes a night. Andrae served on the other side of the lineup – netting 13 points in 61 games from a bottom-pair role. York’s presence brought some cohesion to the Flyers’ blue-line behind Travis Sanheim as the team’s top defender, while Andrae was a frequently-tapped depth defender. Both players should return to those roles next season, though Andrae will face the added challenge of recovering from surgery.
The Flyers will enter the summer with the bruises of a long season. This was the Flyers’ first playoff run since 2020, when they lost in the second-round to the New York Islanders. Philadelphia has only made five postseason appearances over the last 13 years – but seem well-set to kick that cold spell after instilling promising, young prospects into every level of the lineup. Bump and rookie Porter Martone will offer big upside next season, while the likes of Grebenkin will look to dig their fit deeper into grinder roles.