Canadiens Fire Goalie Coach Eric Raymond
The Canadiens announced that they’ve relieved goaltending coach Eric Raymond of his duties. They’ve promoted AHL Laval goalie coach Marco Marciano to the big club for the remainder of the season in an interim capacity.
After receiving spectacular goaltending on their way to a surprise playoff berth last year, Montreal’s crease has been in disarray for much of the season. Sam Montembeault rode a breakout season in 2024-25 to a spot on Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off, and deservedly so. He was one of the most-used goalies in the league at 60 starts and two relief appearances, and he backed that up with a 31-24-7 record, .901 SV%, 2.82 GAA, and a spectacular 24.6 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck. He finished eighth in Vezina Trophy voting and looked to be a surefire starting option heading into this year.
Instead, the 29-year-old has played poorly enough to surrender the lion’s share of starts to 24-year-old Jakub Dobes, who’s still been below-average in his own right. Montembeault has a porous .869 SV% in 20 starts while Dobes, who’s ridden some strong goal support to a 16-5-3 record in 24 outings, has a .890 mark with a 2.96 GAA. Together, they’ve combined to allow 9.2 goals above expected, with Montembeault accounting for 7.9 of them, per MoneyPuck.
Regardless of whether Raymond is the one taking the brunt of the blame for that regression, the Habs clearly feel a change is needed. Raymond, a Montreal native, had been with the club since the 2021-22 season and was in his fifth year in the role. It was his first stop as an NHL goalie coach, but he’d spent time in the Rangers organization as their AHL goalie coach and had extensive experience in the role in the QMJHL.
They’ll now turn to Marciano, who got his start in the organization way back in 2013 as the video coach for their AHL affiliate, then the Hamilton Bulldogs. When the team relocated to St. John’s in 2015, he was promoted to assistant goalie coach and again to goalie coach for Laval after another relocation in 2017. This year, he’s overseen an exceptional transition to pro hockey for top prospect Jacob Fowler, who’s posted a .912 SV% and 2.35 GAA in 19 showings with a 12-7-0 record and three shutouts. The 21-year-old also spent some time up with the Habs in December and January and outperformed both Montembeault and Dobes, logging a .902 SV% in 10 outings with 1.8 GSAx.
Mammoth Recall Dmitri Simashev
Before last night’s win over the Panthers, the Mammoth announced they’ve recalled defenseman Dmitriy Simashev from AHL Tucson. He takes the roster spot of center Cameron Hebig, who’s on his way back down to Tucson in the corresponding move.
Simashev, who turns 21 next week, will get his second crack at NHL ice time in his rookie season. The sixth overall pick in the 2023 draft cracked Utah’s opening night roster and spent the first couple of months in a rather expanded role, riding shotgun with countryman Mikhail Sergachev on the Mammoth’s top pairing while Sean Durzi dealt with an upper-body injury.
The experiment didn’t go all too well. Drafted as a smooth-skating shutdown piece, Simashev had one assist and a -9 rating in 24 outings while averaging 15:28 of ice time per game. Despite owning a 6’4″, 200-lb frame, the lefty didn’t leverage it often and only recorded eight hits.
Sergachev ended up faring much better with Durzi than he did in several weeks of play with Simashev. The Sergachev-Durzi pairing has controlled 54.0% of expected goals at 5-on-5, while the Sergachev-Simashev unit posted a 48.3 xGF%, per MoneyPuck.
As such, Simashev was sent down to Tucson in early December. Since going down, he’s been nothing short of dominant. Most expected his lack of offense in Russia’s top league to be a concern, but he’s rattled off a point per game in 20 appearances with a +3 rating. He’s more than earned a second look and will get one now, likely competing with Nick DeSimone and Olli Määttä to take on a third-pairing job with fellow lefty Ian Cole.
As for Hebig, he’d been up as an extra forward for the last week after Utah sent veteran Kevin Rooney down. The 29-year-old didn’t end up playing and is thus still awaiting his NHL debut. The 5’10” pivot has enjoyed a career-best campaign in Tucson, where he ranks second on the team in scoring with 33 points (15 goals, 18 assists) in 35 games.
Red Wings Sign Ben Chiarot To Three-Year Extension
The Red Wings announced they’ve signed defenseman Ben Chiarot to a three-year extension worth $3.85MM per season. That’s a total value of $11.55MM for Chiarot, who was set to be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Chiarot could have tested the market as one of the top left-shot defensemen available in what looks to be a paper-thin class. It would have been his third trip through unrestricted free agency, previously landing a three-year, $10.5MM commitment from the Canadiens in 2019 and then his current four-year, $19MM contract with Detroit in 2022. He’s one of the last few Thrashers draft picks sticking around the league, selected in the fourth round by Atlanta in 2009 before eventually breaking into the league with the Jets after they relocated to Winnipeg.
While the Thrashers didn’t reap the rewards, it’s safe to say they’ve gotten great value out of a mid-round pick. He’s been a lineup staple for Winnipeg, Montreal, Florida, and Detroit since first emerging as a full-time option in the 2014-15 season, often serving as the complementary defensive-minded piece on a pairing with Dustin Byfuglien.
It wasn’t until signing in Montreal that he began to be viewed as a bona fide top-pair piece, though. He quickly averaged over 23 minutes per night for the Habs as his all-around usage expanded, and he ended up playing a significant role in their underdog run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final. His surface numbers that season were uninspiring – just nine points and a -22 rating in 63 combined regular-season and playoff games – but the fact that he averaged over 25 minutes per game in the postseason and his physical brand of play ended up boosting his stock significantly around the league. He was valued highly enough to net Montreal a first-round pick when they flipped him to the Panthers as a rental at the following season’s trade deadline.
Since signing in Detroit, though, the shine has largely worn off. What were once passable, if not downright promising, under-the-hood numbers have faded. Chiarot has long struggled to produce good two-way results in what’s been a difficult possession environment in Detroit, controlling under 45% of shot attempts at even strength through the first three seasons of the deal. He quickly lost out on a top-pairing job alongside Moritz Seider to Jake Walman and, now, Simon Edvinsson, although he’s temporarily back up in top-pairing deployment with Edvinsson hurt.
Chiarot’s game has recovered to some degree this year. With a +1 rating and 11 points in 54 games, his on-ice results are the best they’ve been since signing with the Wings. That’s with him averaging 21:07 per game, third on the team behind Seider and Edvinsson, and he ranks second on the Wings in both blocks (113) and hits (109).
His possession numbers still leave much to be desired, though, and they can’t be explained by aggressive defensive zone deployment at even strength. In fact, Chiarot’s 51.9 dZS% is the second-most favorable number among Detroit defensemen behind rookie Axel Sandin Pellikka. Those two have formed Detroit’s second pairing for much of the year, controlling 45.9% of expected goals but still managing to outscore opponents 24-22, per MoneyPuck.
All that suggests Chiarot’s brief resurgence could be more mirage than longer-term promise. With that in mind, a three-year commitment seems aggressive to retain the 34-year-old. The dearth of potential UFA replacements, though, didn’t leave the Wings with many other options. Most of their defensemen in the pipeline with legitimate promise have already graduated to NHL roles, and the ones that haven’t wouldn’t be ready to succeed Chiarot in top-four duties next season. Save for a trade pickup, retaining him at a reasonable cap hit – even if the multi-year term will raise some eyebrows – was the easy move to make.
The Wings are still in a great spot, cap-wise, for next season. They have $38.8MM in space with 15 roster spots already accounted for, per PuckPedia. A good chunk of that money will need to be earmarked for Edvinsson, a pending RFA, but that’s still plenty of spending money.
Image courtesy of Brian Bradshaw Sevald-Imagn Images.
Islanders Acquire Ondrej Palat
6:45 PM: As expected, Ondřej Palát has been traded, as the New York Islanders acquire the veteran along with draft picks. Maxim Tsyplakov is headed to New Jersey, while the Islanders also bring in a third-round pick in 2026, as well as a sixth-round pick in 2027, according to TSN’s Pierre Lebrun.
There is no salary retention involved, as the Islanders inherit Palát’s full $6MM cap hit, reported by David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.
After long-standing efforts from New Jersey to move on, Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche brings in a familiar face in Palát, having spent several years together in Tampa Bay. The veteran shows a willingness to join the nearby club, being dealt despite a no-movement clause, where he will now try to help New York secure a spot in the postseason this spring.
Meanwhile, the Devils can finally turn the page, coming away with just under $4MM off the books, in what could prove to be a first step in more moves to come. Along with surrendering the draft picks, the team brings in Tsyplakov’s $2.25MM cap hit, which runs through next season. The 27-year-old has just two points in 27 games this season, originally coming over in 2024 after a 31-goal campaign in the KHL.
Tsyplakov, 6’3″, was effective in his first North American season, notching 35 points in 77 games in 2024-25, serving as an energy winger with some skill. The Russian finished the season ranked second on the team in penalty minutes, with 39, but has shown considerable improvement this year in avoiding infractions. However, due to the additions of Maxim Shabanov and Jonathan Drouin, New York had limited opportunites for Tsyplakov to showcase his offensive ability, needing him to be a more physical power forward, a role which proved not to be a fit.
Along with his 155 games of playoff experience, leading the team by a considerable margin, the Islanders are bringing in a winger more capable of bottom six contributions. As is well known to this point, Palát is not the player he once was, with 10 points in 51 games, but the 34-year-old has remained healthy this season and remains a solid utility winger.
Criticizing poorly-aging free agent deals of the past with the benefit of hindsight is a tired point, however, from the beginning, questions were raised on how Palát would age into his five-year deal. At the time, the Stanley Cup winner was expected to help along Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier, but the wear-and-tear of three straight deep postseason runs with the Bolts played a factor into his Devils tenure. Dealing with injuries, the former seventh-round pick has seen his role gradually diminish, and concludes his time in Newark with a season-best of just 31 points. Palát was unable to adequately compliment the likes of Hughes and Hischier, which was a must at such a price point.
Tsyplakov figures to be a useful bottom-sixer for the Devils moving forward, now seeking to turn the page under Head Coach Sheldon Keefe and return to his form from last year.
Darche and the Islanders have been busy over the past few days supplementing their group. Just yesterday, he swung another deal with his other nearby rival, acquiring defenseman Carson Soucy from the Rangers for a 2026 third-round pick. Now with today’s move, the club replinishes their lost selection, also bringing in a motivated veteran.
Palát joins the Islanders at an exciting time, as they’re slated to have a home-and-home with the Rangers tomorrow and Thursday. On the other hand, Tsyplakov could debut for New Jersey as soon as Thursday, as his new club hosts the Predators.
5:30 PM: It appears the Devils are close to finding a trade partner for winger Ondřej Palát. The team is holding him out of tonight’s game against the Jets for “roster-related reasons,” per the team’s Amanda Stein.
The Devils’ efforts to shed Palát and his $6MM cap hit have dated back to last summer. Those only intensified into the season as New Jersey was close to the cap and attempting to make a splash on the trade market – widely assumed to be Quinn Hughes – but ended up not being able to pull the deal off. Not only does finding a willing taker for the declining veteran’s contract prove difficult, but he can block most moves with his 10-team no-trade list and no-movement clause.
Evidently, Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald has now found a team that’s not on Palát’s no-trade list and is willing to take on all or most of his deal, which expires after next season. The 34-year-old inked a five-year, $30MM deal with N.J. in free agency back in 2022 on the heels of three straight Stanley Cup Final appearances with the Lightning. He was also coming off three straight 40-point seasons, but never managed to hit that mark in a Devils sweater.
From the start, his production simply wasn’t there. Injuries took away nearly half of his first season in Newark, and last year, he only averaged 13:45 of ice time per game with 15 goals and 28 points in 77 contests. He averaged 55 points per 82 games during his 10 years in Tampa, but that number is down to 30 in Jersey. This year, he’s mustered 10 points in 51 games for a career-worst pace.
With that in point, Palát’s contract comes across as squarely a negative-value one that the Devils will be offloading an asset to move, even if they’re retaining a little bit of cash. While his possession impacts were something of a saving grace over the first two years of the deal, those, too, have now declined. New Jersey has controlled under 50% of shot attempts with Palát on the ice at 5-on-5 dating back to last year.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was the first to officially break the deal.
Image Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images
Pro Hockey Rumors’ Bradley Keith also contributed to this article.
Penguins’ Jack St. Ivany Undergoes Hand Surgery, Out Eight Weeks
Penguins defenseman Jack St. Ivany will be out through the trade deadline after undergoing left-hand surgery, the team announced. He’ll be out for up to eight weeks.
It’s the second long-term injury for St. Ivany this season. He started the year on injured reserve with a lower-body issue and remained out until late November, when he started in the AHL on a conditioning stint. He played well enough there to warrant sticking with the team after his stint ended.
His play since returning has been more than enough to keep him in the lineup. He’s had spectacular results on a depth pairing with Ryan Shea, notching seven assists and a +7 rating through 17 games. Both are already career highs for the 26-year-old, who’s in his third NHL season. That duo has controlled 52.6% of expected goals at 5-on-5, per MoneyPuck, outscoring opponents 11-5.
An intriguing puck-mover at the minor-league level, the Penguins have long liked St. Ivany’s ceiling since signing him as a free agent out of Boston College in 2022. They were invested enough to ink him to a three-year, $2.325MM extension in 2024 that will convert from a two-way contract to a one-way after this season. He lit up the AHL for five points and a +3 rating in five games on this year’s conditioning stint, so a return to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton likely isn’t in the cards anytime soon.
As the Pens remain in a thick Eastern Conference playoff race, St. Ivany’s season once again goes on pause after sustaining the unspecified left-hand issue early in Sunday’s win over the Canucks. They’ll now be turning to veteran Connor Clifton, who’s been a healthy scratch for much of the campaign with only 22 appearances in 51 games, to hold down duties as Shea’s right-shot partner at the bottom of the lineup.
Predators Recall Andreas Englund
The Predators announced today that they’ve recalled defender Andreas Englund from AHL Milwaukee. They’ve been carrying an open roster spot for quite some time, so no corresponding transaction is required.
Englund has spent virtually the entire year in the minors after clearing waivers during training camp, aside from a one-day recall earlier this month that saw him serve as a healthy scratch for a Jan. 16 game against the Avalanche. The veteran of 197 NHL games landed in Nashville midway through last season as a waiver claim and played 24 games down the stretch for the Preds, even earning a one-way extension to stick around. The subsequent offseason additions of Nicolas Hague and Nicklaus Perbix, though, left him without an NHL job.
An enforcing shutdown defender who checks in at 6’3″ and 201 lbs, Englund now comes up after Hague landed a week-to-week designation with his lower-body injury. He’ll be serving as the Preds’ press box extra for the foreseeable future. In 34 games with Milwaukee this season, he’s posted six points and a +1 rating with 44 penalty minutes.
Nashville is Englund’s fifth NHL club. The 30-year-old was a second-round pick by the Senators in 2014 and stuck around in a depth role there until becoming an unrestricted free agent for the first time in 2022. He’s since made stops with the Avalanche, Blackhawks, Kings, and now Predators. He’s mostly been an AHL option throughout his professional career but briefly surfaced as a full-time option for L.A. in 2023-24, playing in all 82 regular-season games.
Maple Leafs Place Dakota Mermis On Waivers
Ahead of their game against the Sabres tonight, the Maple Leafs placed defenseman Dakota Mermis on waivers, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Today marked the end of an extended conditioning loan to the AHL for the defender, who was on long-term injured reserve, meaning they had to either activate him or designate him as waivers non-roster.
Mermis came to the Leafs as a free agent signing in 2024. He signed a new two-year deal last summer to extend his stay in the organization. Still, this is the third time they’ve placed him on waivers since landing him. They were unsuccessful the first time, losing him to Utah in December 2024, but they reclaimed him a few weeks later when he ended up back on the wire, and they haven’t lost him since.
He cleared waivers successfully to begin this season and was yo-yoed between leagues for the first month before sticking on the Leafs’ roster from the beginning of November onward due to their rash of injuries on defense. That bug ended up biting Mermis in December, sidelining him for over a month with a lower-body injury until he was able to get back to action in the minors a couple of weeks ago.
While Mermis’ conditioning loan began a while back, multiple extensions were granted and he didn’t end up getting into game action until last Sunday, recording a -1 rating and two shots in an overtime loss to Providence. It was just his third AHL appearance of the season, as he’s spent most of his time up with the Leafs or on IR.
With Troy Stecher in the mix now and Henry Thrun seemingly set to stick around as a press-box option with Philippe Myers for the time being, Mermis’ services aren’t needed on the NHL roster. The 32-year-old, who has 466 AHL appearances across 10 seasons in the minors, will now get to add to that tally on a more consistent basis in the coming weeks.
In 11 NHL contests for the Leafs earlier this year, the 6’0″ lefty had one goal, a -3 rating, and a 46.9 CF% at even strength while averaging 13:02 of ice time per game.
Blue Jackets Place Zach Aston-Reese, Brendan Gaunce On Waivers
The Blue Jackets have placed forwards Zach Aston-Reese and Brendan Gaunce on waivers, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. The open roster spots will allow Columbus to activate defenseman Denton Mateychuk from injured reserve before tomorrow’s game, as expected. Forward Miles Wood will also be coming off IR, Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports.
Aston-Reese, 31, is in his ninth NHL season. He’s become a bit of a journeyman as of late after breaking into the league with the Penguins, also making stops in Anaheim, Toronto, and Detroit since 2022. With 102 career points and a +17 rating in 415 games, he was once regarded as one of the league’s top low-usage defensive forwards in Pittsburgh, but has since been mired in year-to-year inconsistency. He spent most of 2023-24 in the minors with the Red Wings before breaking back into a regular role with Columbus last year.
After appearing in 76 games for the Jackets last year and earning a one-year, league minimum extension, playing time has been tougher to come by for Aston-Reese in 2025-26. He’s played in just over half of Columbus’ games this season and has now been a healthy scratch in six of eight. He’s scored a goal and five points in 26 outings, recording a career-low 0.65 shots on goal per game (aside from his three-game sample size in Detroit). He’s still blocking shots and hitting with aplomb, but with ice average ice time now back under 10 minutes per game and his possession impacts dwindling, he hasn’t been much more than a 13th forward – especially with offseason signing Isac Lundeström taking some of Aston-Reese’s penalty-kill minutes.
Unlike Aston-Reese, Gaunce didn’t start the year on the active roster, but has logged roughly the same amount of playing time anyway. He cleared waivers in camp and headed to Cleveland, but has been up with the Jackets since November. In 25 showings, the 31-year-old has been moderately more productive with two goals and six points. He’s been especially valuable on draws, where he’s winning a team-high 56.9% of faceoffs. Nonetheless, with Lundeström back after missing a few weeks, he’s been in the press box for the last two games.
For now, Danton Heinen has earned the honor of serving as the Jackets’ 13th forward while Aston-Reese and Gaunce head back to Cleveland or get claimed by another squad. Since being acquired from the Penguins in the Egor Chinakhov deal last month, he’s put up two points in 11 games with a -1 rating and 21 hits.
Wood, 30, has been out of action since New Year’s Eve because of a leg injury. Between that and some previous ailments, he’s missed 19 of the Jackets’ 51 games but has still churned out an 8-4–12 scoring line in 32 outings. That’s twice as many goals as the speedy winger had last year in a similar number of games for the Avalanche, and with Charlie Coyle now up to 33 points in 51 games on the year, it’s safe to say Columbus is happy with the investment they made when bringing them both in via trade from Colorado.
Penguins’ Bryan Rust Suspended Three Games
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety has imposed a three-game suspension on Penguins winger Bryan Rust for an illegal check to the head against Canucks winger Brock Boeser during the closing seconds of Sunday’s game in Vancouver. While suspended, he continues to count against Pittsburgh’s salary cap and active roster.
Rust was in the defensive zone while the Penguins were fending off a late challenge from the Canucks to tie the game. While Boeser was attempting to join a net-front battle, Rust dove down from the slot and attempted a hard hit, missing Boeser’s core entirely and striking his head with his right shoulder. Rust was given a two-minute minor on the play for a check to the head. As the game was over, there wasn’t any consequence.
In their explanation video today, DoPS deemed the head contact avoidable. “Rust takes a poor angle of approach, choosing an angle that causes him to cut across the front of Boeser’s body, missing his core,” the video states. “Rust then raises his arm and leans into contact, causing direct contact with Boeser’s head with requisite force for supplemental discipline.” It’s the first interaction Rust has had with DoPS over his 12-year career, though, making the penalty seem steep at first glance, although the fact that Boeser sustained a head injury on the play factored into the length.
Rust isn’t on pace to match the career-high 31 goals he tallied last season, but he’s still a crucial part of the Pens’ top six. The 33-year-old owns an 18-21–39 scoring line in 47 appearances while averaging a career-high 20:07 of ice time per game. For a streaking Pens team with a six-point cushion on a playoff spot, that’s a significant loss – especially with their offense clicking so well at 4.67 goals per game over their last six.
Avalanche Sign Sam Malinski To Four-Year Extension
The Avalanche announced they’ve signed defenseman Sam Malinski to a four-year contract extension. It carries an average annual value of $4.75MM for a total commitment of $19MM, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports. He was set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Malinski’s deal is paid almost entirely in base salary aside from a $1MM signing bonus in 2029-30, the last year of the deal, per PuckPedia. His salary breaks down as $5.5MM in 2026-27, $4.5MM in 2027-28 and 2028-29, and $3.5MM in 2028-29. He has a full no-trade clause from 2026-28 before downgrading to a 10-team no-trade list in 2028-29 and a six-team no-trade list in 2029-30.
It’s a big deal amid a big breakout for Malinski, who, at age 27, is in just his third professional season. Colorado signed the 5’11” righty as an undrafted free agent out of Cornell in 2023. He spent his first year in the organization bouncing between the NHL and AHL before obtaining a more stable role as a bottom-pairing threat last season.
This year, he’s still operating as the Avs’ third-pair righty behind Cale Makar and Brent Burns (Josh Manson has shifted to his offside on the second pairing), but his results have been those of a top-four piece. With 24 points in 50 games, he’s tied for 38th in the league in scoring among defenders, and his +26 rating is tied for sixth in the NHL. No one in the league has done more with less – among D-men at or above Malinski’s production, they’ve all averaged at least 19 minutes per game, while Malinski skates just 16:43 per contest.
Colorado’s multiple layers of starpower are impossible to ignore, but it’s the immense success of players near the bottom of the lineup like Malinski this season that have the Avs cruising toward their fourth Presidents’ Trophy in franchise history. Most frequently paired with Samuel Girard, they beat out both Makar’s and Burns’ pairings in expected goals against per 60 minutes at 2.24, per MoneyPuck. They’ve controlled 56.6% of them overall and have outscored 18-10 at 5-on-5.
It’s hard to overstate the uniqueness of Malinski’s path to this point. Initially draft-eligible way back in 2016, he spent the following season with his high school team in Minnesota. Only in his DY+2 did he jump to junior hockey, spending most of the next two seasons in the Tier II North American Hockey League with Bismarck before enrolling at Cornell as a 21-year-old freshman. Players with such a delayed development curve are usually long shots to even get an NHL call-up, let alone become a stable contributor on a Stanley Cup favorite.
Now, he cashes in throughout his prime while the Avs retain a potential succession policy to the 40-year-old Burns, who’s been spectacular after inking a one-year deal last summer. With Makar and Girard set to become UFAs in 2027 and Manson in 2028, Malinski is now the team’s second-longest signed defender behind Devon Toews, whose deal expires in 2031.
Image courtesy of Jerome Miron-Imagn Images.