Senators Sign Nikolas Matinpalo To Two-Year Extension
The Senators announced they’ve signed defenseman Nikolas Matinpalo to a two-year extension worth $1.75MM. He was set to be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights this summer. He’ll carry a cap hit of $875K for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons.
It’s an important depth signing for Ottawa. Matinpalo emerged as a regular in the lineup down the stretch, playing in 23 of 25 games coming out of the 4 Nations break. Largely replacing struggling veteran Travis Hamonic‘s minutes, the 26-year-old Matinpalo was used up and down the lineup but mainly in third-pairing duties with Tyler Kleven. He finished the year with four points and a minus-two rating in 41 regular-season games after making just four NHL appearances the year prior, his first in North America after signing with Ottawa as an undrafted free agent the preceding offseason.
While Matinpalo’s regular-season possession impacts were pedestrian and he averaged a paltry 12:37 per game, his performance took off in the playoffs. He played all six games in Ottawa’s first-round loss to the Maple Leafs, and his unit with Kleven was Ottawa’s best defensively out of their three regular pairings at even strength. In fact, they were the Sens’ only pairing to outscore Toronto at even strength (3-2) and controlled 55.3% of expected goals, per MoneyPuck.
Now on his way to represent Finland at the World Championship, the 6’3″, 212-lb righty will be penciled onto Ottawa’s opening night roster in the fall. Whether he’s in the lineup or the press box out of the gate remains to be seen, but he’s done enough to secure an NHL paycheck for the next couple of years. He’ll be a UFA upon expiry in 2027.
Image courtesy of Russell LaBounty-Imagn Images.
Lightning Sign Charle-Edouard D’Astous To Two-Way Deal
The Lightning have signed free agent defenseman Charle-Edouard D’Astous to a one-year, two-way contract for the 2025-26 season, the team announced today. Financial terms were not disclosed.
It’s the first NHL contract for the 27-year-old Canadian. D’Astous has spent the last three seasons overseas in the Finnish Liiga and the Swedish Hockey League, establishing himself as a top two-way threat in the upper echelon of European hockey. The 6’2″, 187-lb lefty spent last season with Brynäs IF, who finished first in the SHL immediately after being promoted from the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan but recently fell to Luleå HF in six games in the playoff final. He led their blue line and finished second on the team in scoring with 39 points (12 G, 27 A) in 49 games and ranked second on the team behind SHL Defenseman of the Year Victor Söderström with a +26 rating.
While D’Astous didn’t get the year-end hardware Söderström did, he achieved some hefty accomplishments during his two-year stint in Finland. The Rimouski, Quebec, native scored 17 goals and 29 assists for 46 points in 54 games with KooKoo in 2023-24, leading the league in goals by defensemen and taking home Finland’s Defenseman of the Year award in the process. He also averaged more minutes per game than any other Liiga skater.
The move to KooKoo in 2022 came after D’Astous failed to make meaningful progress up the North American professional ladder. That’s despite some standout ECHL play, including his 2021-22 campaign with the Utah Grizzlies when he led the league in goals by defensemen (26) and was named the league’s Defenseman of the Year. He also won DOY honors back in juniors with the Rimouski Océanic back in 2018-29, so D’Astous arrives in Tampa with three DOY awards in three different leagues under his belt.
After a long road to get here, D’Astous will now try to crack the Lightning’s opening night roster in the fall as a depth puck-moving option. He’ll compete with names like Maxwell Crozier for depth spots and recall hierarchy. Since this is D’Astous’ first NHL contract, he’ll be waiver exempt throughout the 2025-26 campaign, so he can be assigned to AHL Syracuse without risk of losing him to another NHL club.
The Bolts now have 32 of the maximum 50 standard contracts signed for 2025-26.
Predators Retaining Andrew Brunette
Don’t add the Predators to the list of teams making a coaching change this offseason. General manager Barry Trotz told reporters today, including Alex Daugherty of the Tennessean, that head coach Andrew Brunette will be back behind the bench for a third season in 2025-26.
This was the default and expected outcome. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reported back in March that Brunette is under contract with Nashville through 2026-27 plus an additional option year, and that a change likely would have been made midseason if one was happening.
A runner-up for the Jack Adams Award for Coach of the Year in his first two seasons as a head man, the wheels came off for Brunette and the Predators in 2024-25. While the longtime NHL winger guided the Panthers to a Presidents’ Trophy in 2022 as their interim head coach and then helped Nashville to a 47-win season last year, Brunette’s Preds had the third-worst record in the league and the second-worst record in franchise history this year.
The regression was also against the expectations Trotz set for this year with his gargantuan spending spree in free agency last offseason. But the two have a long-standing relationship dating back to Brunette’s playing days under Trotz as a coach in the mid-1990s with the Predators and the AHL’s Portland Pirates, and the latter made a long-term commitment when he brought him in as Nashville’s head coach a year ago.
Trotz’s overall vision for the club hasn’t wavered despite the team’s plunging record, something he made clear today during his media availability. He’ll continue trying to retool the roster via trades to push Nashville back into wild-card contention next season, although expect free agency to be quiet (via the team’s Brooks Bratten). It would make sense that his original pick for coach, when he assumed his GM post, would be given the benefit of the doubt in that case.
Marc-André Fleury Joining Canada For World Championship
While his last NHL game is behind him, future Hall-of-Fame goaltender Marc-André Fleury isn’t hanging up the skates just yet. He told reporters during today’s end-of-season media availability that he’s accepted an invite to join Canada at this year’s World Championship (via Michael Russo of The Athletic).
It’s unclear whether he plans on entering any game action, but there’s a decent chance he could. Canada’s only rostered one of three goalies for the tournament so far. That’s Rangers prospect Dylan Garand, who will likely serve as a No. 3 option behind Fleury and another NHL option. The latter could be the Blues’ Jordan Binnington after St. Louis was eliminated in last night’s Game 7 loss to the Jets, but that’s speculation.
As for the 40-year-old Fleury, it’ll be his first time at the Worlds. Despite his lengthy list of accolades, Fleury’s only gotten the call to play for the senior Canadian national team once. That was the 2010 Winter Olympics, and he didn’t get into game action there as the third-stringer behind Roberto Luongo and Martin Brodeur. His unavailability for the Worlds has usually been due to playoff obligations, but with his Wild being bounced by the Golden Knights in the first round, he’s free to join his countrymen in Denmark and Sweden. He did suit up at the World Juniors in 2003 and 2004, though, posting a .923 SV% in 10 appearances en route to back-to-back silver medals.
He’s still technically a gold-medal winner on that Olympic team, so a gold at the 2025 Worlds could make him the first goaltender to gain entry into the Triple Gold Club. The most recent Canadian to enter the ranks was defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, thanks to his 2019 Stanley Cup win with the Blues.
Fleury, a first-overall pick and a three-time Stanley Cup champion with the Penguins, will also get to bookend his career by being teammates with Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby once again. With Fleury’s lack of international experience, they haven’t been on the same side of a matchup since Vegas selected Fleury from the Pens in the 2017 expansion draft.
Kings, Rob Blake Mutually Part Ways
The Kings are mutually parting ways with general manager Rob Blake, sources tell Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (X link). Los Angeles quickly confirmed the news.
For now, team president Luc Robitaille is staying on. He’ll lead a search for Blake’s successor beginning immediately, the Kings said. They haven’t named an interim GM, but it’s likely Robitaille or director of hockey operations Jake Goldberg will handle day-to-day duties for now. L.A. didn’t have any assistant GMs on Blake’s staff.
Blake’s contract was up after signing a three-year extension in May 2022. That extension came after the Kings ended a three-year playoff drought and pushed the Oilers to seven games in a first-round loss. Fast forward to 2025, and L.A. has now lost four consecutive playoff series – all to Edmonton, all in the first round. This year, they had a 2-0 lead in the series and held home-ice advantage for the first time, but dropped four straight games en route to another early exit.
A Hall-of-Fame defenseman who spent the majority of his playing career in Los Angeles, Blake took a few years off after retiring in 2010 before resurfacing as an assistant GM with the Kings for the 2013-14 season. He’s remained in L.A.’s front office ever since and was promoted to GM in the 2017 offseason following the end of Dean Lombardi’s 11-year tenure in the role.
Blake compiled a 309-238-71 (.557) regular season record in his eight seasons as the Kings’ top decision-maker, 19th in the league during that stretch. In the postseason, the Kings are just 8-20 for a .286 win percentage. Among teams who have made the playoffs since 2018, only the Ducks (0-4) have won a lesser share of their games.
“On behalf of the entire organization, I would like to thank Rob for his dedication to the LA Kings and the passion he brought to his role,” Robitaille said. “Reaching this understanding wasn’t easy and I appreciate Rob’s partnership in always working toward what is best for the Kings. Rob deserves a great deal of credit and respect for elevating us to where we are today. He has been an important part of the Kings and will always be appreciated for what he has meant to this franchise.”
While there wasn’t much advance reporting that Blake’s job was in peril if the Kings failed to advance past the first round again, the change is far from out of the blue. L.A.’s rebuild is far in the rearview now, and the club has exhausted nearly all of the high-end prospects Blake accumulated during his tenure. After peaking as one of the league’s deepest pools a few years ago, the Kings dropped to No. 26 in Scott Wheeler of The Athletic’s prospect pool rankings earlier this year.
Blake leaves his successor with a favorable salary cap structure. The Kings have over $23MM to spend this summer with just four roster spots to fill, per PuckPedia. Their only notable pending restricted free agent is winger Alex Laferriere. They’ll have plenty of room to accomplish that, work toward extending pending UFA defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, and add some scoring depth via trades or free agent signings.
Image courtesy of Kirby Lee-Imagn Images.
Devils’ Jesper Bratt, Luke Hughes Undergo Shoulder Surgery
Devils winger Jesper Bratt has opted to undergo offseason shoulder surgery and will miss the World Championship, the team announced. Star defenseman Luke Hughes also recently underwent surgery to repair the shoulder injury he sustained in Game 1 of the first round against the Hurricanes. New Jersey expects both to be ready for training camp in the fall.
It’s unknown whether Bratt suffered his injury on a specific play or if he’s got wear-and-tear issues he wanted to correct. He didn’t miss a game all season aside from sitting out New Jersey’s final regular-season contest for rest.
If Bratt was playing hurt for a while, it certainly didn’t show. The 26-year-old led the Devils with a career-high 67 assists and 88 points in the regular season before adding a goal and two assists in five games in New Jersey’s first-round loss.
Entering the third season of his eight-year, $63MM contract, Bratt has topped the 70-point mark in four consecutive seasons and has been remarkably durable. That final regular-season game was the first one Bratt missed since the 2021-22 season. Assuming he hits the ground running as expected in 2025-26, he’s got a chance at becoming the first Devil with three straight 80-point seasons in franchise history.
Hughes’ injury was far more apparent. He re-injured his left shoulder in a collision with Hurricanes center Jesperi Kotkaniemi and didn’t play the final four games of the series. He suffered an injury to the same shoulder last offseason but opted not to have surgery to accelerate his recovery timeline and diminish the amount of time he missed at the beginning of 2024-25. Now, with a full summer ahead of him, he goes for more serious intervention.
In need of a new deal this summer as a pending restricted free agent, Hughes has 93 points and a -34 rating through his first 155 NHL games since being drafted fourth overall in 2021. He’s led Devils defenders in scoring each of the past two years and is likely in line for an extension well north of $8MM per season if New Jersey opts to hammer out a long-term deal.
Image courtesy of John Jones-Imagn Images.
Canadiens Notes: Hutson, Laine, Free Agents, Dach
Lane Hutson put up historic numbers in his rookie season, and the Canadiens will look to capitalize on that by discussing a long-term extension as he enters the final season of his entry-level contract, general manager Kent Hughes said today (writes Marco D’Amico of RG). He’s not eligible to put pen to paper on a deal until July 1, but doing so immediately would prevent Hutson from a potentially testy ride through restricted free agency in 2026 and allow the Habs to achieve long-term cost certainty before he potentially increases his value in his sophomore campaign.
Hutson’s likely Calder-winning campaign needs no introduction. The 5’9″ defenseman exploded for 66 points in all 82 regular-season games, tying Lightning star Victor Hedman for sixth in the league in scoring among rearguards and leading all rookies in scoring. Not only does that make him the highest-scoring rookie defenseman in Montreal’s 107-year NHL history, but his 60 assists also tied Larry Murphy for most by a first-year blue liner.
Regardless of when they reach an extension, it’s a foregone conclusion they won’t be able to keep him under the internal salary hierarchy they stuck to when negotiating star winger Cole Caufield‘s eight-year extension two summers ago. They’ve yet to sign a deal eclipsing captain Nick Suzuki‘s $7.875MM cap hit since he signed that deal in 2021. Patrik Laine is technically the team’s highest-paid player at an $8.7MM cap hit, but they acquired that contract via trade. After seeing youngsters like Flames winger Matthew Coronato land a long-term deal at $6.5MM annually, Hughes will almost certainly have to go into the $8-9MM range on a new deal for Hutson.
There’s more on the Canadiens:
- While it wasn’t a glowing end to the season for Laine, Hughes credits his impact earlier in the year as instrumental in Montreal’s postseason berth (per D’Amico). The 27-year-old managed 20 goals and 33 points in 52 games after a quicker-than-expected return from a preseason knee injury, but 75% of his goals and 63% of his points came on the power play. His 5-on-5 possession numbers were among the worst on the club with a 43.0 CF% and led to diminished usage in Games 1 and 2 of their first-round series against the Capitals before a broken finger sidelined him for the final three games of their season.
- Hughes hasn’t made a decision either way on whether to pursue contract extensions with the team’s slate of pending unrestricted free agents, notes D’Amico. Luckily for him, he doesn’t have many of those decisions to make. One has already been made for him on defenseman David Savard, who announced his retirement. The comprehensive list of others includes NHL-rostered forwards Joel Armia, Christian Dvorak, and Michael Pezzetta; minor-league centers Alex Barré-Boulet and Brandon Gignac; and depth netminder Connor Hughes.
- The Canadiens “haven’t given up” on 24-year-old center Kirby Dach after a second major procedure on his right knee in as many years, D’Amico writes. Nonetheless, he relays executive vice president Jeff Gorton “didn’t look overly confident” when discussing Dach and notes he’ll need an eye-opening training camp to regain a top-six role. After playing just twice in the 2023-24 campaign, Dach’s performance wasn’t pretty in 2024-25 before the knee injury ended his campaign in February. He scored 22 points with a team-worst -29 rating in 57 games.
NHL Releases Second Round Schedule
This article will be updated as further start times are announced.
After the Jets dramatically saved their season in unprecedented fashion against the Blues last night, the second-round field is set. For the third time in the last four years, all four division champions made it through their first series, and only two series had upsets based on seeding. The league has now announced the full second-round schedule, with action kicking off tonight. Games are listed in Central Time, along with US broadcast details:
Monday, May 5
Panthers vs. Maple Leafs, Game 1: 7 p.m. on ESPN
Tuesday, May 6
Hurricanes vs. Capitals, Game 1: 6 p.m. on ESPN
Oilers vs. Golden Knights, Game 1: 8:30 p.m. on ESPN
Wednesday, May 7
Panthers vs. Maple Leafs, Game 2: 6 p.m. on ESPN
Stars vs. Jets, Game 1: 8:30 p.m. on ESPN
Thursday, May 8
Hurricanes vs. Capitals, Game 2: 6 p.m. on ESPN
Oilers vs. Golden Knights, Game 2: 8:30 p.m. on ESPN
Friday, May 9
Maple Leafs vs. Panthers, Game 3: 6 p.m. on TNT, truTV, and Max
Stars vs. Jets, Game 2: 8:30 p.m. on TNT, truTV, and Max
Saturday, May 10
Capitals vs. Hurricanes, Game 3: 5 p.m. on TNT, truTV, and Max
Golden Knights vs. Oilers, Game 3: 8 p.m. on TNT, truTV, and Max
Sunday, May 11
Jets vs. Stars, Game 3: 3:30 p.m. on TBS, truTV, and Max
Maple Leafs vs. Panthers, Game 4: 6:30 p.m. on TBS, truTV, and Max
Monday, May 12
Capitals vs. Hurricanes, Game 4: 6 p.m. on TNT, truTV, and Max
Golden Knights vs. Oilers, Game 4: 8:30 p.m. on TNT, truTV, and Max
Tuesday, May 13
Jets vs. Stars, Game 4: 7 p.m. on ESPN
Wednesday, May 14
Panthers vs. Maple Leafs, Game 5: 6:00 p.m. on ESPN
Oilers vs. Golden Knights, Game 5: 8:30 p.m. on ESPN
Thursday, May 15
Hurricanes vs. Capitals, Game 5: 6 p.m. on TNT, truTV, and Max
Stars vs. Jets, Game 5: 8:30 p.m. on TNT, truTV, and Max
Friday, May 16
*Maple Leafs vs. Panthers, Game 6: TBD on TNT, truTV, and Max
*Golden Knights vs. Oilers, Game 6: TBD on TNT, truTV, and Max
Saturday, May 17
*Capitals vs. Hurricanes, Game 6: TBD
*Jets vs. Stars, Game 6: TBD
Sunday, May 18
*Panthers vs. Maple Leafs, Game 7: TBD on TNT and Max
*Oilers vs. Golden Knights, Game 7: TBD on TNT and Max
Monday, May 19
*Hurricanes vs. Capitals, Game 7: TBD on ESPN
*Stars vs. Jets, Game 7: TBD on ESPN
Jets’ Mark Scheifele Questionable For Game 7
May 3: With the series heading back to Winnipeg after a dominant Blues win in Game 6, Scheifele has been upgraded to a game-time decision for Sunday’s Game 7 (via TSN’s John Lu). He skated on his own today, with Arniel saying Scheifele’s feeling much better today after his presumed upper-body injury.
May 1: Jets star center Mark Scheifele has already been ruled out for Winnipeg’s potential series-clinching Game 6 contest against the Blues on Friday, head coach Scott Arniel announced (via Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press).
The 32-year-old pivot is dealing with an undisclosed injury he sustained in the first period of last night’s Game 5 win. There’s been some contention about which hit caused him to eventually leave the game. Blues head coach Jim Montgomery said postgame that Scheifele obviously sustained the injury on a clean but hard hit from St. Louis center Radek Faksa late in the first (video via Sportsnet), but Scheifele also took a high hit from Blues captain Brayden Schenn earlier in the game that resulted in an interference penalty. Scheifele didn’t miss a shift in the first period but didn’t come out for the second and was unavailable for the rest of the night. Schenn isn’t facing a suspension for the hit, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.
Scheifele managed an assist before exiting the contest, bringing up to a 2-4–6 scoring line on the series to rank second on the team in points. He’s struggled to get the puck on net with just six shots on goal, though, a full shot per game less than his regular-season average.
The two-time All-Star Game participant scored a career-high 87 points in 2024-25 and tied for the league lead with 11 game-winning goals, a strong bounceback campaign after a disappointing 2023-24 campaign for him in the goal-scoring department. The first draft pick the Jets made after relocating to Winnipeg from Atlanta also averaged over 20 minutes per game for the ninth year in a row and is in the first season of a seven-year, $59.5MM extension.
Winnipeg has yet to ice a healthy top six in the postseason. Winger Nikolaj Ehlers hasn’t played in over two weeks with a foot injury and has only recently started skating in a non-contact jersey. It’s unclear if he’ll travel to St. Louis for Game 6, but even if he does, he’s highly unlikely to play. Scheifele isn’t traveling, Arniel said. The Jets are up 3-2, so they’ll either return home to their star center triumphant without him or hope he can return for a Game 7 on Sunday.
Senators Notes: Tkachuk, Giroux, Jensen, Pinto, Worlds
While the Senators are disappointed by a first-round loss in the Battle of Ontario, there are plenty of reasons for optimism in the future after ending a seven-year playoff drought. One is the continued top-end play of captain Brady Tkachuk, who was still dealing with the hip injury he sustained during the 4 Nations Face-Off during the postseason, he told Claire Hanna of TSN.
“The hip happened that Sweden game, took some time coming back to try to get it as good as possible,” Tkachuk said. “Now it’s just, take the time to get that all healed up… it could heal up in the next couple of weeks.”
Entering a pivotal 2025-26 campaign for the Sens as they look to establish themselves in the upper echelon of the Atlantic Division, it’s good news that their leading goal-scorer doesn’t expect any lingering effects and should head into training camp at full health. Signed through 2027-28 at an $8.2MM cap hit, he still led the Sens in playoff scoring with a 4-3–7 line and a plus-two rating through six games. While his 0.76 points per game in the regular season were his lowest in four years, he still topped Ottawa’s roster with 29 goals and would have registered his fourth straight 30-goal campaign if not for missing 10 games.
Here’s more on the Senators:
- Veteran pending unrestricted free agent winger Claude Giroux wants to continue his career in his hometown of Ottawa. He hasn’t talked to Sens general manager Steve Staios about a contract extension yet, but still feels that he can be an impact player, he told Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia. He’s been extremely durable since signing a three-year, $19.5MM contract with Ottawa in 2022, only missing one game. His point totals have steadily tailed off, though, and the 37-year-old scored 50 points in 81 games in 2024-25 for the second-lowest per-game output of his career over a full season. AFP Analytics projects a two-year extension for Giroux just north of his current cap hit, but it stands to reason he’ll be happy to re-up for the same number or slightly less. He only made $5.5MM in salary this year, so a marginal decrease wouldn’t even be a pay cut compared to the final season of his expiring contract.
- Defenseman Nick Jensen may need offseason surgery for the undisclosed injury that plagued him down the stretch, he told Garrioch. Ottawa sat Jensen for two of its last four regular-season games, and he missed a couple of multi-game stretches earlier in the campaign. The 34-year-old was still an effective shutdown presence in his first season with the Sens, posting 21 points and a +18 rating in 71 regular-season games. He averaged nearly 21 minutes per game in the playoffs and controlled 57.6% of shot attempts when he was on the ice at 5-on-5 despite not recording a point.
- Young center Shane Pinto is entering the back half of his two-year, $7.5MM contract and is interested in discussing a long-term extension after he becomes eligible to sign one on July 1, he told TSN 1200 Ottawa. After sitting out half of the 2023-24 campaign due to a suspension for violating the league’s sports wagering policy, he posted a career-best 21 goals and 37 points in 70 games in 2024-25 while shouldering top-six minutes.
- Defensemen Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot declined invites from USA Hockey and Hockey Canada, respectively, to join their national teams for the 2025 World Championship in Denmark and Sweden, with the former citing rest as his reasoning (per Hanna and TSN 1200). Germany hasn’t yet approached star center Tim Stützle, he said, but will say yes once they reach out in the coming days (according to Garrioch). Dylan Cozens also said he’d welcome being added to Canada’s roster if asked, per TSN 1200.