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Penguins’ Vasiliy Ponomarev Expected To Sign In KHL

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The Pittsburgh Penguins could soon lose a promising young winger. 23-year-old Vasiliy Ponomarev is expected to sign in the KHL after not being guaranteed NHL playing time next season from Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas, shares Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now. Dubas adds that Ponomarev has switched his Russian representation and is in the midst of working out a KHL deal. The GM also added that Pittsburgh will issue a qualifying offer to the young forward, and thus will retain his rights for the duration of his European stay.

Ponomarev’s KHL rights were traded to Avengard Omsk on Wednesday. He made his pro debut in the Moscow Spartak pipeline in 2021-22, stepping into 14 KHL games and recording two points with the club. He also appeared in 21 games in the VHL – Russia’s second-tier pro league – that season and scored 13 points. It was all a part of Ponomarev’s brief return to Russian hockey after he was drafted out of Canada’s QMJHL in 2020. He returned to America at the tail end of the 2021-22 campaign, and spent his first 29 AHL games supporting the Chicago Wolves in a push to the Calder Cup championship. He scored 16 points in those appearances.

Ponomarev kept the good times rolling in his first full season in the AHL, netting 24 goals and 46 points in 64 games with the Wolves – and adding one goal and one assist in his the first two NHL games with the Carolina Hurricanes. But the Hurricanes ultimately opted against the gritty Russian – and loaned him to the Tuscon Roadrunners, then traded him to the Pittsburgh Penguins, partway through the 2023-24 campaign. Ponomarev has since appeared in 59 games with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, where he’s recorded 16 goals and 42 points. He also appeared in seven games in the NHL lineup this season, but didn’t manage any scoring.

At 23 and with a history of international travel between seasons, news of a return to the KHL won’t entirely rule out Ponomarev’s chances at playing full-time for the Penguins one day. He’s been a productive and physical forward at the AHL levels, but has so far received minimal opportunity to do the same in the NHL. A move back to Russia will mark a chance to play in a league somewhere between North America’s pros – and a chance for Ponomarev to prove he can be a top-end center on a productive pro club.

Kraken Fire Coaches Dave Lowry And Steve Briere

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New Seattle Kraken head coach Lane Lambert is taking time to reevaluate the team’s coaching staff. As such, the Kraken have relieved assistant coach Dave Lowry and goalie coach Steve Briere of their duties with the club. It appears Seattle will retain Jessica Campbell and Bob Woods as assistant coaches, and will move forward looking to fill only two vacancies behind the bench. Both Lowry and Briere joined the Kraken in the 2022-23 season.

Briere moved to Seattle after serving seven seasons as the Toronto Maple Leafs’ goalie coach. He oversaw the most consistent stretch in Toronto’s net in recent memory, presiding over Frederik Andersen in all four of his full seasons as the Leafs’ starter. Andersen fell to injury and only played 24 games in the 2020-21 campaign, opening the door for Jack Campbell to win over the starting role. But after a breakout performance in his spot starts, Campbell quickly began to cede starts to Petr Mrazek, Erik Kallgren, and Joseph Woll in the 2021-22 season. The Maple Leafs let both Campbell and Briere walk to free agency in the following summer.

Briere has since supported Joey Daccord’s takeover of Seattle’s starting role. The Kraken were led by Martin Jones and Philipp Grubauer in Briere’s first season, but Daccord was able to overcome both veterans last year. He cemented his role with multiple strong performances, and finished the year with a stout 19-18-11 record and .916 save percentage. His save percentage slipped to a .906 this year, but he grew his record to 27-23-5, while appearing in seven games. Now, Daccord will look to play his first 60-game season under the guidance of a new coach.

Lowry’s path to Seattle was much less linear. He was once a prominent NHL winger who earned 19 seasons in the league on the back of hefty and physical hockey. En route to a career that spanned 1,084 games, Lowry spent time with the Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues, Florida Panthers, San Jose Sharks, and ultimately ended his career with the Calgary Flames. He stuck around Calgary in the years after retiring, and wound up as the head coach of the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen in the 2008-09 season. In what was his first notable head coaching role, Lowry took a Hitmen roster led by Martin Jones to the WHL Championship, only to lose out to the Kelowna Rockets.

The run to a championship series earned Lowry a reunion with the Flames in the following year. He spent the next three seasons as an assistant coach with the NHL’s Calgary, only to return to the WHL as the head coach of the Victoria Royals in 2012-13. Lowry was again a playoff mainstay in Victoria, though he wasn’t able to push the roster past the second round of the playoffs. He spent five years in Victoria, only to return to the NHL in 2017 for two seasons as an assistant with the Los Angeles Kings. Again finding little success, Lowry returned to the WHL to coach the 2019-20 Brandon Wheat Kings team that ultimately missed the postseason. He’s been back in the NHL ever since that missed performance.

Now, Lowry once again finds himself looking for new work. He’ll seemingly have NHL and WHL roles to choose from moving forward, with little more than personal preference guiding his preference for one league or the other. Lowry has been a prominent NHL name since the 1985 season, and should find ample work wherever he moves to next.

Photo courtesy of Carey Lauder-USA TODAY Sports

Lightning Sign Maxwell Crozier To Three-Year Contract

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed defenseman Maxwell Crozier to a three-year, $2.325MM contract. The deal carries a league-minimum, $775K cap hit. It will be a two-way contract in the first year, then convert to a one-way deal for the final two years. Crozier was set to become a restricted-free agent this summer. With a new deal in place, Tampa Bay now has four remaining players headed for free agency.

Crozier spent the majority of his season with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. His reputation for always being involved grew louder over the course of the year as he earned career-highs across the board. He recorded nine goals, 25 assists, and 34 points in 52 games. He also added 75 penalty minutes and a plus-16. All five marks beat out his rookie totals from last year, when he managed 21 points, 43 penalty minutes, and a plus-one in 49 games.

Tampa Bay recalled Crozier for the first 13 games of his NHL career throughout the 2023-24 regular season. His performances were modest – headlined by two assists, seven penalty minutes, and a minus-two. The Lightning must have seen a pro-ready through that stat line, and turned to Crozier for three games of a fill-in role during the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He earned an additional five NHL appearances this year, but managed no changes to his stat line.

Crozier was originally drafted 120th overall in the 2019 NHL Draft. He spent four seasons at Providence College after his draft selection, and totaled 71 points in 119 collegiate games. He’s also managed 58 points, 124 penalty minutes, and a plus-18 through 110 games in the AHL. Crozier is a tall, rangy defender who engages opponents with his stick or body checks; and makes smart passes once he pokes the puck loose. The Lightning will give him a chance to earn a full-time NHL-role over the next three seasons, on a deal that comes at little-to-no risk.

Devils Notes: Allen, Trades, Hischier

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New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald laid out many of the team’s off-season priorities to NHL.com’s Mike Morreale. He emphasized that re-signing defenseman Luke Hughes was a top priority, but then went on to add that the Devils will also make an effort to bring back backup goaltender Jake Allen. Fitzgerald said that Allen was one of the better goaltenders on the market, and that Allen’s camp has expressed a desire to stay in New Jersey.

Allen, 34, is coming off a two-year, $7.7MM contract signed with New Jersey in 2023. He was certainly a stout backup on that deal, landing a .904 save percentage and 19-22-2 record across 44 games. The bulk of those appearances – 31 to be exact – came behind Jacob Markstrom this season. Allen posted a 13-16-1 record and .908 save percentage on the year, but came up big for the Devils one more than one occasion. He’s a one-time Stanley Cup champion, and could be had for a cheap price on a deal that may carry him to retirement.

Other notes surrounding the Devils:

  • The Devils are entering the summer with just $12MM in available cap space, and could reason to spend nearly two-thirds of that on extending Hughes. That puts the team in a challenging spot when it comes to re-signing someone like Allen or Cody Glass. Fitzgerald shared he’s aware of the bind, and knows that the team will need to use strategic spending and trades to improve up the roster. The Devils don’t wield a first-round pick this year, but do have two second-round picks, and a well-built prospect pool. Trimming from either surplus could go far in landing New Jersey a stout addition, or helping them clear the cap space to make more moves.
  • Fitzgerald closed by shedding light on Devils captain Nico Hischier, who suffered a lower-body injury while at the World Championship. The GM said that Hischier’s removal from the tournament was precautionary, and that Hischier is back to training per usual. That’s great news for the 26-year-old, who posted 69 points in 75 games on the season. He also scored a career-high 35 goals, trumping his previous high of 31 goals from 2022-23. With good health, Hischier will be headed straight back to a starring role next season.

Bettman/Daly Notes: CBA, Olympics, AHL

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NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly held a joint press conference ahead of the first game of the 2025 Stanley Cup Finals. They touched on a variety of league topics, most notably sharing that the league continues to progress well towards a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the NHL Players’ Association. The pair shared that CBA negotiations are in “good shape” per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic adds that they weren’t yet ready to call the deal close to final.

The NHL is a year out from needing to finalize a new CBA. Early momentum could point towards minimal changes in the next agreement, though the league did comment on a few potential changes. Daly and Bettman said they weren’t concerned about tax differential influencing player’s signing decisions. Later, NHLPA Assistant Executive Ron Hainsey shared that the league could reform the long-term injured reserve to avoid late-season manipulation. Both topics have grown to a roar over recent years, in light of repeated success for the Vegas Golden Knights and the pair of Florida-based teams.

Other notes from Bettman and Daly’s presser:

  • Daly confirmed that the league isn’t expecting Russia to participate in the 2026 Winter Olympics. The country was previously barred from participation at the 2024 Summer Olympics, though athletes were still able to participate under the category of “individual neutral athletes”. Russia’s Men’s Hockey team took home silver at the 2022 Winter Olympics, and gold in 2018, though the NHL did not send players to either competition. With this news, fans will have to wait even longer to see Russian stars take on Olympic competitors. The last time that superstars like Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin appeared at the Olympics was in 2014. Russia achieved a fifth-place finish that year.
  • Daly also shared that the league is considering opening AHL eligibility to teenagers in the next CBA, per Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News. The Deputy Commissioner added that the NHL is discussing the change with the NHLPA, and has given advance notice to the CHL – though the dialogue is ongoing. Junior hockey is presently under a monumental shift after the NCAA expanded collegiate eligibility to CHL athletes. Early winds from the decision appear to be pushing major juniors to a younger demographic – momentum that would only seem to grow should the NHL and AHL give players even more options after their draft years.

Re-Signing Luke Hughes Top Priority For Devils Off-Season

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New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald sat down with NHL.com’s Mike Morreale to go over the team’s priorities for the off-season. Top of conversation was star defenseman Luke Hughes, who is currently set to become  a restricted free-agent on July 1st. Fitzgerald emphasized that re-signing Hughes before that deadline is a top priority, and that the two parties have already engaged in conversations around a new deal.

The GM pointed out the team’s minimal salary cap space – just over $12MM with nine pending free agents – but he ensured that Hughes would get the priority signing. Fitzgerald told Morreale:

We’re just trying to figure out what’s best for Luke and for us and how do we make our team better with the funds that we have available… Both parties are in agreement… We’re going to get this done.

Fitzgerald’s emphasis sheds some assurance on the biggest storyline shadowing the Devils’ off-season. Hughes took on a major role in the Devils’ blue-line this season, playing opposite of 10-year NHL veteran Brett Pesce and averaging 21 minutes of ice time a game. He handled the role well, recording 37 assists, 44 points, and a minus-nine through 71 games. That mark put him on pace for 42 assists and 50 points across a full 82 games, though injuries at the start of the season forced him out of 10 appearances. Still, Hughes – still just two years into his career – was able to become the first Devils’ defenseman to record consecutive 30-assist seasons since Brian Rafalski between 2005 and 2007.

It was a fantastic follow-up to Hughes’ already-strong rookie performance. He improved across the board, and even grew his plus-minus from a minus-25 to a minus-nine. He still has layers to add to his game and a clear need for more strength in the defensive zone – but all signs point towards the Devils having a star on their hands. His career 0.60 point-per-game scoring pace is the sixth-highest from a U22 defenseman since 2000 – ranked behind Cale Makar (0.88), Lane Hutson (0.81), Quinn Hughes (0.75), Erik Karlsson (0.69), and Dion Phaneuf (0.61).

It seems Fitzgerald is ready to reward Hughes’ promising upside this summer. He is projected to sign a long-term deal with a price tag north of $9MM by CapWages. That mark would eat up two-thirds of New Jersey’s available budget for the summer, and make it harder to re-sign even two of their nine free agents. Notable names like Cody Glass, and Jake Allen are each on expired contracts. Finding the space to bring them back could push New Jersey back to the trade market as the league heats up ahead of July 1st.

Kraken Sign Ben Meyers To One-Year Extension

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The Seattle Kraken have announced a one-year extension for forward Ben Meyers. The contract will be one-way and carry a league-minimum salary of $775K. This deal is identical to Meyers’ last two contracts. He was previously set to expire as a Group-Six unrestricted free agent this season, with arbitration eligibility.

Meyers found a strong stride in the minor leagues this season. He led the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds in scoring with 51 points in 57 games – a hardy improvement over the 25 points he scored in 32 games last season. Meyers also appeared in eight games with Seattle this year, but didn’t record any scoring. The stint with the Kraken nonetheless continued his search for a hardy NHL role, which has spanned three clubs and four seasons. He signed his first pro deal with the Colorado Avalanche at the end of the 2021-22 campaign, and joined the NHL ranks part-time in the 2022-23 season. But despite strong scoring in the minors – 24 points in 30 games – and 39 games at the NHL level, Meyers was only able to contribute four goals to the Avalanche’s effort.

Colorado continued to supply Meyers opportunity through 2023-24, but he wasn’t able to stick as more than a top-end minor-leaguer. That prompted a move to the Anaheim Ducks partway through the year, where he added two assists in 14 more NHL games. In total, Meyers has appeared in 75 NHL games through his career, but only managed eight points.

The winds could soon be shifting, though – evidenced by his starring role with the Firebirds this season. Seattle seems confident that he’ll be an impact player somewhere throughout the organization, and reward him with a one-way deal as a result. Next season will mark a chance for Meyers to return to the star role in Coachella Valley, and hopefully find his first score as a member of the Kraken.

Snapshots: Larionov, Rotenberg, Vellucci, Bjorklund

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Top Russian club SKA St. Petersburg announced on Monday that they’ve relieved head coach Roman Rotenberg of his duties, and hired Igor Larionov as an immediate replacement. The move concludes Rotenberg’s four-year tenure as SKA’s head coach, which began when he took over for Valeri Bragin partway through the 2021-22 season. It is currently unclear if Rotenberg will continue on in his role as SKA’s Vice Chairman, though it’d be hard to imagine the prolific Russian stepping down after 14 years in the club’s front office.

SKA has seemed to fall short in every single season as of late. They lost in the conference finals each year between 2021 and 2023, then followed it up with earlier exits in the last two years. St. Petersburg also finished seventh in the KHL’s Western Conference this season, despite tremendous performances from star youngsters Ivan Demidov and Alexander Nikishin, midseason acquisition Evgeny Kuznetsov, and top goalie prospect Yegor Zavragin. A seventh-place finish is SKA’s lowest since the 2008-09 season, when they finished eighth.

To curb that poor momentum, SKA will turn to Igor ’The Professor’ Larionov. The legendary Russian player served as SKA’s Director of Hockey Operations in 2008-09, but didn’t kick off his coaching career until he began supporting Russia’s U20 club in 2019-20. He moved to KHL club Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod in 2022-23, and has led the club to quaint finishes and conference quarterfinals exits in each of the last two seasons. Larionov was a true star in the NHL. He won three Stanley Cups across his 14-year career, and served as a gut-punch scorer on the Detroit Red Wings at the turn of the century. His career concluded with 644 points in 921 NHL games, sprinkled across tenures with five different clubs.

Other notes from across the league:

  • The Chicago Blackhawks have rounded out their coaching staff with the hire of Mike Vellucci into an assistant coach role. Vellucci has spent the last five seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and served as an assistant on the gold-medal winning Team USA at this summer’s World Championship. He’s a seasoned-in name in the hockey world, having served as the general manager and head coach of the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers from 2001 to 2014, then pursuing an assistant GM and Director oh Hockey Operations role with the Carolina Hurricanes until 2019. Part of his time with Carolina also saw Vellucci serve two years as head coach of the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers, who he led to a Calder Cup championship in 2019. He also served one year as the GM and head coach of the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Vellucci should be another strong veteran voice to help guide Chicago’s young roster to a new era.
  • The Washington Capitals have signed AHL depth goaltender Garin Bjorklund to a one-year, two-way contract for next season. He will make a league-minimum $775K at the NHL level and $110K at the AHL level. Bjorklund spent the bulk of this season with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, where he posted a .927 save percentage and 21-4-1 record. Those marks stand as the sixth-highest save percentage and wins in the league, despite Bjorklund ranking 35th with 29 total appearances. It was a true breakout year for Bjorklund, capped off by a 2-0-0 record and .942 save percentage in the first two AHL games of his career. A new deal should give the 22-year-old a chance to gain footing in the AHL next season, and potentially eye the starter’s role should he be able to keep up the stonewall performances.

Hurricanes’ Jesper Fast Announces Retirement

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Former Carolina Hurricanes forward Jesper Fast has decided to call it a career. He’s announced his retirement at the age of 33, after 11 seasons and 703 games in the NHL. Fast spent seven seasons with the New York Rangers, and his last four seasons with the Hurricanes.

Fast faced an uphill battle to the pros from the start. He was originally drafted in the sixth-round of the 2010 NHL Draft, after making his professional debut in Sweden’s SHL. He continued on for three seasons in Sweden’s top league, before making the jump to North America at the end of the 2012-13 campaign. He spent the bulk of the 2013-14 season in the minors, but also earned the first 11 games of his NHL career on the back of 34 points in 48 games as an AHL rookie. Fast didn’t score in any of those NHL appearances, but did enough to flip the balance in his sophomore season – with 11 appearances in the AHL to 58 games in the NHL. He scored six goals and 14 points in those appearances, then added six points in 19 games of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Fast locked in his spot in New York’s bottom-six after providing strong, two-way support during their theatric 2015 run. He scored just 30 points in 79 games during his first full NHL season in 2015-16, but provided heaps of impact on both ends of the ice. That pattern came to define Fast over the next few years – consistently rivaling 30 points and making tough plays across the ice. He was a player that fans wanted to root for more than they wanted to root against, even if his scoring or lineup role never jumped off the page.

But Fast’s career was marred by injuries in nearly every year. He played in fewer than 70 games in six of his 11 NHL seasons, largely thanks to his gritty and aggressive role. The poor injury luck came to a peak in the 2023-24 season, when Fast suffered a broken neck in the final game of Carolina’s season. That injury held him out of the entirety of the 2024-25 campaign, and will now lead him into retirement. It’s an unfortunate cap to a tenacious career that continued on into Fast’s 30s. He was a playoff hero in Carolina’s 2023 postseason, netting nine points and two overtime game-winners in 15 games.

Even with an early end to his career, it’s hard to imagine Fast staying away from the hockey world for too long – whether he returns in a Swedish coaching role or supporting NHL development.

Lightning Sign Yanni Gourde To Six-Year Contract

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The Tampa Bay Lightning have committed to their core, signing center Yanni Gourde to a lofty six-year, $13.98MM contract extension. The deal will carry Gourde through his age-39 season and carries an annual average value (AAV) of $2.33MM.

Gourde will take a substantial pay cut for the benefit of term on his new deal. He concluded a six-year, $31MM contract – with an annual salary of $5.17MM – this season. The deal was originally signed with the Lightning in 2019, though he was claimed by the Seattle Kraken in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft. He wound up spending four years of his last deal in Seattle, before a trade at the 2025 Trade Deadline returned him to Tampa Bay alongside winger Oliver Bjorkstrand.

Now, Gourde will lock up his foreseeable future in Tampa Bay. He’s already won two Stanley Cups with the club; serving as a pivotal piece of the club’s back-to-back wins in 2020 and 2021. Gourde defined his dominant two-way style in playoff games with Tampa Bay, and added to it 14 points in 25 games of the 2020 run and seven points in 23 games of the 2021 run. All the while, he served a key role as the defensive backing to high-offense centers like Brayden Point and Steven Stamkos.

It’s that two-way, middle-six role that Gourde will continue in moving forward. He scored a modest seven goals and 31 points in 57 games this season, including 14 points in 21 games after returning to Tampa Bay. That scoring total put Gourde on pace for 45 points across the full season; a mark that would fall closely in-line with his typical scoring pace. He has routinely rivaled 40 points in his healthy seasons, and even managed back-to-back 48-point seasons with Seattle in 2021-22 and 2022-23.

Gourde’s career continues to stand as a testament to what a relentless mindset can earn. He was left undrafted through the 2010, 2011, and 2012 classes – and made his pro debut in 2012 on a minor-league contract. He earned a demotion to the ECHL for parts of the 2012-13 and 2013-14 season, but found unique ways to play through contact and make his 5-foot-9, 175-pound frame stick out. Gourde earned his way back into the AHL where he continued through the 2016-17 season.

Then, he broke out in a dazzling way. Even through Cup wins and a defined lineup role, Gourde’s first full season in the NHL in 2017-18 continues to stand as his career-year. He managed career-highs across the board, netting 25 goals, 39 assists, and 64 points while appearing in all 82 games of Tampa Bay’s season. The marks landed Gourde fourth on the team in total scoring at the end of the regular season, behind three players likely headed for the Hall of Fame in Nikita Kucherov, Stamkos, and Point.

Gourde caught lightning with his smooth-faced season in Tampa Bay – and has since found a way to turn it into 602 games and a decade-long career in the NHL. This new deal will carry him through the bulk of the next decade, and surely the entirety of his remaining career. No matter how Tampa Bay ebbs and flows over the next six years, Gourde’s growth from ECHL scorer to NHL lock will undoubtedly go down as a tremendous triumph against all odds.

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