Snapshots: Tocchet, Stolarz, Stars
Rick Tocchet landed with the Flyers for his next head coaching gig as many expected, but they weren’t the only team with interest in hiring him after he departed the Canucks organization. One club linked to him was the Bruins, who have yet to fill their vacancy.
After his brief stint on the free agent market came to a close, it appears that having some long-term front office stability was a priority for Tocchet as he decided which clubs to have mutual interest with, according to RG’s James Murphy. With Boston general manager Don Sweeney entering the final season of his contract and the team in a precarious, retooling position, that was enough for Tocchet to essentially withdraw himself from consideration for the role.
“He was concerned for two reasons – Sweeney’s status and Sweeney’s track record with his head coaches,” a source told Murphy. Boston has fired Bruce Cassidy and Jim Montgomery in the last three years, both of whom have gone on to either win a Stanley Cup or vastly improve their team’s outlook in their new roles in Vegas and St. Louis.
As Murphy points out, if true, Sweeney may have spoken too soon when discussing his confidence in landing his preferred candidate during his end-of-season media availability. “I’ll call you up and let you know if somebody turns it down, the invitation to interview for one of the most historic jobs in the National Hockey League,” Sweeney said at the time.
More from around the NHL:
- After a Game 6 shutout to keep his team alive, Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll is getting the start again in tonight’s Game 7. Even if Anthony Stolarz, who was Toronto’s starter to begin the postseason but hasn’t played since leaving Game 1 with apparent concussion symptoms, was available to play, he’d likely go, but that’s not the case. Stolarz did not practice this morning and will not dress, according to Jonas Siegel of The Athletic. Veteran Matt Murray, who entered Game 5 in relief of Woll for his first playoff action in five years, will again dress as Woll’s backup.
- The Stars’ in-season moves are arguably the biggest reason they’ve advanced to the Western Conference Final in three straight years, Nicholas J. Cotsonika writes for NHL.com. Aside from Mikko Rantanen re-emerging as a superstar after his roller-coaster regular season that saw him arrive in Dallas from Colorado by way of Carolina, their depth has stepped up in considerable fashion with top defenseman Miro Heiskanen and top left-winger Jason Robertson – the latter of whom only has one point in five games – missing the majority of their postseason slate thus far.
Panthers’ Evan Rodrigues Likely To Return For Game 7
Panthers winger Evan Rodrigues will be back in the lineup for tonight’s Game 7 after missing the last two contests with an undisclosed injury, relays Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports. He’ll replace Jesper Boqvist, who had directly filled Rodrigues’ spot on the top line alongside Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart in his absence.
Florida’s offense is back at full strength to counter the Maple Leafs’ top unit of Matthew Knies, Auston Matthews, and Mitch Marner, who are collectively coming off their best performance of the series in Game 6 while facing elimination. Knies was questionable for tonight’s do-or-die contest after getting banged up in the first period, but Toronto head coach Craig Berube confirmed this morning he’ll be in the lineup without any minutes restrictions.
Even before exiting the lineup, Rodrigues’ minutes were limited at times earlier in the series. He played a season-low 8:48 in Game 2 after a hit from behind by Toronto forward Scott Laughton that earned him a controversial embellishment call, and he left the Cats’ Game 4 win in the third period after a hard hit from Leafs defender Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
Rodrigues has two points in four games in the series, both in Florida’s Game 3 overtime win. He combined with linemates Barkov and Reinhart to assist on the Panthers’ first two goals of the game and logged nearly 19 minutes of ice time, his most of any game so far in the playoffs.
The 31-year-old only has three assists in nine postseason outings this year but was an indispensable depth piece in the Panthers’ Cup win last year, scoring 7-8–15 in 24 games – including four goals and seven points in seven Stanley Cup Final games. The versatile top-nine forward hit 30 points for the fourth year in a row in the regular season, mostly playing a supporting role on Florida’s top two lines.
Max Comtois Receiving NHL Interest
A return to the NHL is on the horizon for winger Max Comtois. The 26-year-old has received “several NHL offers,” including from the Red Wings, after spending this season in Russia with Dynamo Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League, according to Daria Tuboltseva of RG.
The big-bodied Comtois (6’2″, 210 lbs) was a second-round pick of the Ducks in 2017. In a few years’ time, it looked like he was one of the league’s brighter young power forwards. After turning pro in 2018 and splitting his first two seasons between Anaheim and AHL San Diego, he landed a full-time role with the Ducks in the shortened 2021 season and did so with a bang. He managed to lead the league’s worst offensive club in scoring with a 16-17–33 scoring line in 55 games, averaging 15:28 per game while ranking fourth on the team in plus/minus (+3) and hits (93).
Injuries and shooting regression meant the following years haven’t been nearly as successful for Comtois. He hasn’t touched double-digit goals or the 20-point mark in a single season since and wasn’t extended a qualifying offer by the Ducks when he became a free agent in 2023. He didn’t even land an NHL contract that summer, settling for an AHL deal with the Chicago Wolves and only receiving an NHL contract at the 2024 trade deadline from the Hurricanes to make him eligible for recalls down the stretch (he did play one game for Carolina). He did well enough in the minors, finishing third on the Wolves in scoring with 44 points in 65 games (and 109 PIMs).
That wasn’t enough to put him back on NHL teams’ radars, though – aside from a failed PTO with the Golden Knights – and he headed overseas for the first time in his career. It was a prudent move for the Quebec native, who emerged as a star in the Russian capital. Alongside other former NHLers like Nikita Gusev, Cédric Paquette, and Jordan Weal, Comtois posted a 21-29–50 scoring line in 62 regular-season games before leading Dynamo with 13 points in 15 Gagarin Cup Playoff games.
“I’ve always said I want to return to the NHL, and this season I did everything possible to make that happen,” Comtois said (relayed by Tuboltseva). “Hockey had become just a job for me in North America, but here, it became my passion again.”
If he lands with Detroit or any other NHL team, it’ll presumably be on a two-way deal. There will be an opening for him to capture a bottom-six role with the Wings, with veterans Tyler Motte and Craig Smith headed for unrestricted free agency this summer.
Pacific Notes: Golden Knights, Canucks, Sharks
The Golden Knights’ 2025 postseason came to a swift end in the second round at the hands of the Oilers. They were without winger Brandon Saad for most of that series and also had Mark Stone and Brayden McNabb carry injury designations at times, the former missing the series-clinching Game 5.
General manager Kelly McCrimmon told reporters today that none of them will require offseason surgery and there are no injury concerns entering 2025-26 among players signed through next year, per SinBin.vegas. Saad would have been out for the longest period of time had Vegas avoided elimination, while McNabb’s upper-body injury was the most significant of the bunch. Stone and McNabb will be back next year – the latter signed an extension mid-season – but Saad may have played his last game as a Knight after signing a one-year, $1.5MM contract in Vegas in January.
As for McNabb, the 34-year-old will get some needed recovery time after arguably the best season of his 13-year career. The shutdown defender recorded 20 points and played in all 82 games for the third straight season, leading the team and finishing second in the league with a +42 rating. He led Vegas with 167 blocks and led Knights defensemen with 131 hits.
More from the Pacific Division:
- The Canucks have $16.72MM in cap space to burn this summer and no notable free agents to retain outside of forwards Brock Boeser and Pius Suter, both of whom are unrestricted. The former appears set on testing the market despite Vancouver’s desire to talk extension, meaning Vancouver will have a decent amount of flexibility to improve their stagnant offense this offseason. Speaking on Canucks Central today, president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford told Dan Riccio and Satiar Shah that “we’re going to be in the free agent market if we still have cap space at that time – but we may get our work done before then.” Reading between the tea leaves – expect some trade rumors from Vancouver this summer.
- The Sharks have called the SAP Center home since their third year of existence in 1993-94, and that won’t change anytime soon. They’re close to finalizing a 25-year lease extension with the City of San Jose that will keep them at the downtown arena through 2050, per Curtis Pashelka and Devan Patel of The Mercury News. Local government will be putting funds toward renovating the arena, the fifth-oldest in the league, as part of the contract.
Metropolitan Notes: Shaw, Chatfield, Sandin, Eller
Yesterday, Flyers general manager Daniel Brière confirmed an earlier report that associate coach and briefly interim head coach Brad Shaw won’t be back with the team next season. According to Jonathan Bailey of The Hockey News, Shaw wasn’t enthused about going through the interview process a second time to remain a part of new head coach Rick Tocchet‘s staff after finishing as the runner-up to Tocchet in head coaching interviews over the past few weeks.
“He called me yesterday and said he didn’t feel like he could fully invest himself going through the [interview] process again to see if he was to be part of [Tocchet’s] staff moving forward,” Brière said.
Now with 21 years of experience as an assistant/associate and interim head coach on NHL benches, Shaw is likely going to emerge as a candidate for at least one of the league’s four remaining head coach vacancies in Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Seattle. He reportedly received interest from the Capitals and Ducks in 2023’s hiring cycle.
“We’re really appreciative of what Brad has done,” Brière said. “He’s helped a lot of our young guys on defense, especially, and he was considered.”
We have more from the Metropolitan Division:
- When the Hurricanes won Game 5 of the second round against the Capitals to advance to the Eastern Conference Final, they did so without the services of defenseman Jalen Chatfield. Head coach Rod Brind’Amour is hopeful but uncertain regarding his status for the beginning of the third round, Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer relays.
- On the other side of the Carolina/Washington coin, Caps defenseman Rasmus Sandin is expected to join Sweden’s blue line at the World Championship, according to Hockeynews.se’s Henrik Sjoberg. Sweden’s roster is at the 22-skater maximum, so they’ll presumably be dropping a player (likely one of defenseman Gabriel Carlsson or forward Christoffer Ehn, neither of whom has played in the tournament yet) to make room for him. The Swedes are dominating the tournament on home ice, going undefeated through six group stage games and recording three consecutive shutouts against Latvia, Slovenia, and France. Sandin previously suited up for them at the 2023 Worlds.
- Still in Washington, pending UFA center Lars Eller told Sammi Silber of The Hockey News he has every intention to keep playing next season (article link via DC Backcheck). “I’ll definitely keep playing. My body feels good,” Eller said. The 36-year-old Dane was limited to 22 points in 80 games split between the Penguins and Capitals this year, recording under 0.30 points per game for the second time in the last three years. Whether his future is in Washington, elsewhere in the NHL, or in Europe remains to be seen.
Poll: Who Will Win Maple Leafs/Panthers Game 7?
Any playoff series featuring the defending Stanley Cup champions, especially when matched up against a similarly equipped opponent on paper, is usually bound to be an entertaining one. That’s what we’ve gotten in the second round between the Maple Leafs and Panthers, with a couple of wild momentum shifts resulting in a Game 7 on Sunday night.
The series didn’t start as evenly matched as most would have predicted. Some underwhelming play from Florida netminder Sergei Bobrovsky meant the Leafs, doubling their win total past the first round in the Auston Matthews era, took a 2-0 series lead into Sunrise. But the Panthers, who have controlled the majority of quality chances at 5-on-5 throughout the series, got more support from their All-Star netminder in Games 3 through 5 as they countered with three straight wins of their own to push Toronto to the brink in Game 6. The Leafs, perhaps taking a vital step to erase their underwhelming postseason reputation, put their best performance of the series forward with their backs against the wall with a 2-0 shutout win on the road to send the series home for a do-or-die Game 7.
Bobrovsky and Toronto goaltender Joseph Woll, who entered Game 1 in relief of starter Anthony Stolarz when he exited with apparent concussion symptoms and has started every game since, have had similar showings here in Round 2. The latter’s Game 6 shutout upped his save percentage to .893 with 0.42 goals saved above expected, while Bobrovsky’s posted a .895 SV% and 0.76 GSAx, per Natural Stat Trick.
Regarding the skaters, Florida’s best player hasn’t even played every game in the series. Defenseman Aaron Ekblad has been dominant after missing Game 1 due to suspension, serving as the Cats’ only point-per-game player in the series while averaging 22:34 per game. Depth has been the name of the game for Florida – every player to suit up in at least half of the series has registered a point.
It’s no surprise to see now-established playoff performer William Nylander atop the Leafs’ scoring chart with six points through six games, but the player he’s tied with is quite eye-raising. Depth veteran Max Pacioretty has turned back the clock after scoring the series-clinching goal against the Senators in the first round, rattling off two goals and four assists with a team-high plus-three rating through Game 6 of the Florida series. Averaging just 12:58 per game against the Panthers, he’s among the most efficient scorers in the league this postseason.
As for Toronto’s first-line triumvirate of Matthews, Matthew Knies, and Mitch Marner, they played their best game in Game 6. Matthews’ game-winner was his first of the series, but Knies is the only one with multiple goals in Round 2. On a highly concerning note for Toronto, he’s questionable for Game 7 after sustaining an apparent shoulder injury early in Game 6 and playing through it, head coach Craig Berube said.
While the Panthers are the road team, betting odds and most prediction sites give them the slight edge. Most betting sites have the implied odds of a Florida win around 55%, while MoneyPuck has it at just 50.2%. Of course, Toronto is 2-1 at home against the Panthers in this series and 4-2 at home so far in the playoffs.
One storyline to watch: after the first three games in the series were decided by one goal, including Florida’s come-from-behind overtime win in Game 3, the last three have been decided by two or more. Will we get more of a nail-biter Sunday night?
Let us know which team you think will win Game 7 and advance to the Eastern Conference Final – potentially the Panthers’ third straight ECF appearance or the Leafs’ first since 2002. Vote in our poll, then head to the comment section below to share your thinking!
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Offseason Checklist: New York Islanders
The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that aren’t taking part in the playoffs plus those eliminated in the first round. Accordingly, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at the Islanders.
Things were optimistic for the Isles heading into 2024-25 after adding Anthony Duclair in free agency to bolster the top line and having a full season of Patrick Roy behind the bench as head coach. Things went awry almost instantly out of the gate, though, and injuries and other factors ended the Isles’ brief postseason streak at two years. After flopping around in mushy middle territory since back-to-back Eastern Conference Final appearances several years ago, a front-office shakeup resulted from this year’s disappointments with general manager Lou Lamoriello‘s contract not being renewed. That’s the leadoff subject in this checklist as the Isles attempt to use this summer to rediscover their identity and direction.
Reshape The Front Office
After seven years and a pair of General Manager of the Year awards, the Lamoriello era is over on the Island. While the 82-year-old leaves New York with some solid building blocks, he’s also saddled them with some ill-advised long-term contracts for depth players that quickly appear headed for buyouts or waivers (Pierre Engvall, Scott Mayfield). They’re now looking for a new face – or two – to fill their GM and president of hockey operations roles.
Per multiple reports, they’ve been connected to various candidates but have lost out on their two preferred ones. Hall-of-Fame executive Ken Holland would have been a similarly-minded hire to Lamoriello’s in 2018, but he spurned the Islanders’ interest to take over the Kings’ GM vacancy. Canadiens executive VP of hockey operations Jeff Gorton declined to speak with the Islanders when they called Montreal about interviewing him.
There are more than enough candidates to choose from in their absence. Regarding NHL GM experience, they interviewed former Blue Jackets executive Jarmo Kekäläinen. They are also said to be interested in L.A. senior adviser Marc Bergevin, who ended up being second fiddle to Holland in the Kings’ search for a new GM. Neither has the track record of managing contenders that Holland has nor the expert drafting record Gorton boasts. Still, they’ve navigated similar situations to what the Isles find themselves in now. Bergevin helped some goalie-reliant Habs teams in the mid-2010s make deep playoff runs and even got them to a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2021. Kekäläinen also built Columbus into a consistent playoff contender in the late 2010s, the only time they’ve qualified for the postseason in consecutive seasons.
More under-the-radar options they’ve interviewed include Lightning assistant GM Mathieu Darche and Devils AGM Kate Madigan. Both would be first-time GMs at the NHL level. It would be a tad surprising to see them go in those directions, considering the NHL experience their first choices for the position had. But the former has been in GM conversations for years and is the most appealing first-time target.
Whatever the choice is, they’ve got to make it before the draft, where they hold the first overall pick for the first time since selecting John Tavares in 2009 after winning the lottery. While 2025 is a weaker draft, the Isles’ next GM is getting a significant jumpstart to a long-lagging prospect pool that also received a lovely parting gift from Lamoriello in the form of Avalanche first-rounder Calum Ritchie in this year’s Brock Nelson deadline deal.
Get Ilya Sorokin More Help
Some eyebrows raised when the Isles signed a then-35-year-old Semyon Varlamov to a four-year, $11MM deal two summers ago to continue as countryman Ilya Sorokin‘s backup. While the veteran has provided the Isles some solid goaltending in his tenure there, concerns about giving him such a lengthy commitment emerged aggressively this season.
Varlamov’s season ended in December after undergoing a knee procedure. While he anticipates being ready for training camp in the fall, he struggled to a .889 SV% and 3-4-3 record in 10 starts before going under the knife. That resulted in Sorokin making 55-plus starts for the third straight year, during which his numbers have steadily declined. It’s clear he needs more rest, and it’s becoming even more clear that Varlamov can no longer help him with that.
Entering this year, Varlamov had logged a SV% above .910 in five consecutive campaigns. With only two years left at a $2.75MM cap hit, he’d draw significant trade interest if the Islanders opted to shop him amid a relatively weak UFA market. That trade could look like a backup-for-backup swap that allows the Isles to get someone more comfortable making 30 starts behind Sorokin, or it could be a cap dump that will enable them to hedge their bets on one of the few UFA options capable of shouldering that workload.
Shoring up their minor-league depth should be a priority, too. AHL Bridgeport has iced some highly underwhelming rosters over the past few years, including between the pipes. A high-end No. 3 option to complement Varlamov and allow Sorokin not to increase his workload if the former gets injured could also be another solution here.
Make Decisions On Defense
The Islanders only have three defensemen signed to one-way deals for next season. One of those is Mayfield, who may not even be in the opening night lineup. That leaves Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock as the only current certainties for 2025-26.
The most pressing decisions are regarding the length of deals to pursue with pending restricted free agents Noah Dobson and Alexander Romanov. The former is still just 25 and erupted for a 70-point campaign last year but took a significant step back in 2024-25. Could that be enough to convince the Isles’ new GM to pursue another bridge agreement and risk losing him in unrestricted free agency in just a few years? It seems likely – his profile likely commands him at least $8.5MM per season on a max-term extension. The Islanders’ appetite to dole that out after a season in which he had 39 points and a -16 rating in 71 games probably isn’t very strong. If they opt to select defenseman Matthew Schaefer first overall, Dobson could become expendable altogether and net them a trade return that allows them to put more work into reshaping their forward group.
They’d be more amenable to a long-term deal at a mid-range cap hit with Romanov, who’s emerged as a solid top-four complementary piece on the Island. Injuries limited him to 64 games this year but he managed 20 points for a career-high 0.31 points per game mark while averaging over 22 minutes per game and leading the club with 165 blocked shots. Now fully proven as a stable partner for Dobson moving forward, he’ll get a definite raise on his current $2.5MM cap hit.
Their other RFAs on the back end are Adam Boqvist and Scott Perunovich, a pair of puck-moving in-season pickups. Qualifying offers for either one are uncertain, but Boqvist is more likely to stick around. The 2018 No. 8 overall pick found more stable footing in New York after they claimed him off waivers from the Panthers, finishing the year with eight points in 17 games in bottom-pairing minutes and fringe power-play usage. He could stick around as a No. 6/7 option to help out the Islanders’ beleaguered goal production. Perunovich, meanwhile, suited up just 11 times after being acquired from the Blues in January. That doesn’t bode well for his chances of sticking around on the NHL roster as the Isles look to reload with more established names.
It could be they decide both Boqvist and Perunovich are expendable if they reach an extension with pending UFA Tony DeAngelo. The much-maligned offensive rearguard came over from Russia midseason to fill the void left by injuries to Dobson and Pulock and provided solid offense from the point, finishing the year with 19 points and a -11 rating in 35 games. He certainly won’t see over 23 minutes per game next year, but he got a larger sample than either Boqvist or Perunovich and is more likely than either to start next year as the No. 3 righty behind Dobson and Pulock.
Restart Kyle Palmieri Extension Talks
The Isles didn’t move Palmieri at the trade deadline, mostly because they had an extension mostly in place. With Lamoriello gone and no deal signed, Palmieri’s next deal plunges into uncertainty. The 34-year-old has played 82 games in back-to-back years and finished third on the team in scoring with 24 goals and 48 points this season. Still a very good middle-six scorer, can the incoming GM bring him back at a slight discount compared to his current $5MM cap hit?
Doing so would give them the flexibility to move on from some less desirable contracts, namely Engvall’s and Jean-Gabriel Pageau‘s, as they look to reload their forward group. That forward corps could include a name like James Hagens or Michael Misa on opening night next year, depending on how they use their top pick, making cap flexibility even more attractive to build around one of them while they’re still on their entry-level deals.
Regardless of all that, Palmieri’s the type of player the Isles should look to retain on a short-term deal if they’re serious about quickly reloading for next season. He’s been remarkably consistent over his four full years on the Island – his 24-24–48 scoring line actually matched his 82-game average during his New York tenure. He’s more of a known commodity to them than UFA replacements that would cost the same (or even more) for similar rates of scoring production.
Image courtesy of Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images.
Nicklas Bäckström To Attempt Resuming Playing Career In Sweden
Capitals franchise legend Nicklas Bäckström hasn’t played since October 2023 after undergoing hip resurfacing surgery and was expected to retire when his contract expires this summer. While the center’s NHL days are still set to be over, it doesn’t look like he’s ready to hang up the skates entirely. He’s planning on signing a one-year deal with Brynäs IF of the Swedish Hockey League and slowly get back into game action, per Tomas Ros and Hans Abrahamsson of Aftonbladet.
“The dream comeback,” Ros and Abrahamsson wrote (translated from Swedish by Chris Cerullo of Russian Machine Never Breaks). “What we hear now is that he is signing a one-year contract with Brynäs and is treading very carefully. Maybe only playing half the games until Christmas. Then it will be more and more.”
Brynäs was Bäckström’s youth club and first professional team back when he made his SHL (then called Elitserien) debut in the 2004-05 campaign. He scored 66 points in 110 games for Brynäs before coming to Washington in 2007.
Bäckström’s hip problems limited him to 94 total regular-season appearances over what will stand as his final three NHL seasons. Now 37, Bäckström was long one of the league’s top two-way centers and breached the 70-point mark on eight occasions as Alex Ovechkin‘s primary setup man throughout his career. The fourth overall pick in the 2006 draft, he ranks second from that year’s selections in career points behind Claude Giroux (although he can still be realistically usurped by Brad Marchand). His 762 assists are a Capitals franchise record, and he and Ovechkin are the only two players to record 1,000 points for Washington.
Bäckström hasn’t played for Brynäs since his pre-NHL days. He instead opted to play in Russia with Ovechkin during the 2012-13 lockout.
It would be quite the morale boost for a Brynäs club that’s already authored an impressive story over the last year or so. A top-flight fixture in Swedish hockey since the 1950s, Brynäs was demoted to the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan for the 2023-24 campaign but won promotion back to the SHL in their first year back down. The club returned with a vengeance, finishing first in regular-season play and advancing to the playoff final, losing to Luleå HF. Their roster next year is highlighted by a few former NHLers including Jakob Silfverberg and includes defenseman Christian Djoos, who was briefly teammates with Bäckström in Washington.
Capitals’ Ryan Chesley Signs Entry-Level Deal
May 16, 4:29 p.m.: Chesley’s deal pays him a $775K base salary, a $95K signing bonus, and up to $80K in games-played bonuses next season, per PuckPedia. For 2026-27 and 2027-28, those figures jump to an $855K base and a $95K signing bonus with no GP bonuses.
May 16, 11:45 a.m.: It took over a month, but Chesley has signed his entry-level contract, the Caps announced. The three-year deal runs through the 2027-28 season and will carry a cap hit of $923.3K. He had a goal and two assists in four games with Hershey on his tryout.
March 31: Capitals defense prospect Ryan Chesley is turning pro. The team announced the 21-year-old has signed a tryout with AHL Hershey for the remainder of the season while they work out the details of his entry-level contract.
Washington selected Chesley early in the second round (No. 37) of the 2022 draft with a pick they acquired in the Vítek Vaněček trade with the Devils. A 6’0″ righty, the two-way defender was coming off a standout season with the U.S. National Development Team Program. He’s suited up at the University of Minnesota for the three seasons since, continuing to play an extremely sound game despite a lack of flashy point totals.
That’s not to say Chesley can’t produce. After being limited to eight points in 39 games last year, he served as one of many team captains for the Golden Gophers in 2024-25 and put up a career-high 8-12–20 scoring line in 40 games. He finished fifth on the team with a +17 rating. Over his trio of collegiate campaigns, he totaled 12-26–38 with 80 PIMs and a +34 rating in 115 appearances.
Scott Wheeler of The Athletic regards Chesley as a relatively safe bottom-pairing fixture long-term, although he likely has some upside in top-four deployment as a complementary defender to a more skilled partner. He’s the No. 8 prospect in Washington’s system and the second-ranked defenseman behind Boston University standout Cole Hutson (No. 3).
The Minnesota native won bronze with the United States at the 2023 World Juniors before winning gold at the 2024 tournament, playing top-pairing minutes while posting 1-3–4 in seven games. His pending ELC will be three years, regardless of whether it starts this season or in 2025-26.
Golden Knights, Jack Eichel Have Had Preliminary Extension Talks
The Golden Knights and star center Jack Eichel had “loose, unofficial discussions at various points this season” in advance of him becoming eligible to sign an extension with Vegas on July 1, per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.
Official talks between Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon and Eichel’s camp should begin in short order after Vegas’ season came to an end this week at the hands of the Oilers in the second round. It wouldn’t be surprising to see a max-term deal for the 28-year-old come across the wire when the new league year begins – Pagnotta went so far as to call an Eichel extension the top priority for Vegas this summer over the futures of any of their pending free agents.
The deal will undoubtedly be the richest in franchise history when signed, topping captain Mark Stone‘s eight-year, $76MM extension doled out in 2019. Eichel will be entering the final season of the eight-year, $80MM deal he signed with the Sabres before his entry-level contract expired – of course, Vegas acquired him midway through that deal in a blockbuster swap in 2021.
The 2015 No. 2 overall pick will enter talks well-equipped, coming off the best season of his career by a significant margin. An all-situations center for Vegas, he recorded new career highs in assists (66), points (94), and rating (+32) while playing the most of any Knights forward and leading the team in scoring. Now over three years removed from artificial disk replacement surgery in his neck – the first NHLer to undergo the procedure – he’s back to being the well-above-a-point-per-game producer he hinted at before the injury in Buffalo.
With the salary cap’s projected aggressive rise over the next few seasons, there’s a case for Eichel to earn a multi-million-dollar raise over his current $10MM cap hit. A potential comparable is Leafs winger William Nylander, who signed an eight-year extension with an $11.5MM cap hit midway through the 2023-24 season. Both players have scored at a 90-point pace over an 82-game schedule over the last three years combined. Nylander signed for just over 13% of the cap – with next year’s $95.5MM figure set in stone, that would translate to a $12.5MM AAV for Eichel on a max-term deal.
Unfortunately for the Knights, they don’t have any big-ticket contracts coming off the books before Eichel’s extension would go into effect in 2026-27. Stone’s ($9.5MM cap hit) and Alex Pietrangelo‘s ($8.8MM cap hit) deals, the next two richest on the team, both expire in the summer of 2027.
Image courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images.