Tampa Bay Lightning Acquire Oliver Bjorkstrand, Yanni Gourde
The Tampa Bay Lightning announced a whopping trade a few days before the deadline. The full trade details are as follows:
- Tampa Bay acquires F Yanni Gourde (50% retained by Seattle, 25% retained by Detroit), F Oliver Bjorkstrand, the signing rights to D Kyle Aucoin, and Seattle’s 2025 fifth-round pick
- Seattle acquires F Michael Eyssimont, Tampa Bay’s 2026 first-round pick, Tampa Bay’s 2027 first-round pick, and Toronto’s 2025 second-round pick
- Detroit acquires a conditional 2025 fourth-round pick (the highest selection between Tampa Bay or Edmonton’s 2025 fourth-round pick)
As a final note on the two first-round picks headed to Seattle, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that both are top-10 protected. If either of the picks are in the top-10, they slide back one year, theoretically meaning they could slide back to the 2028 or 2029 NHL Draft. If that happens to either draft selection, the Lightning will send a third-round pick to the Kraken for any year that it happens.
Tampa opened up some roster flexibility today after waiving forwards Cam Atkinson and Logan Brown on Tuesday, but the moves will only open $900K in cap space. We now know that the Lightning brought in the Detroit Red Wings as a third party for the deal, as they’ll help bring Gourde’s cap hit down to $1.29MM after retention.
Given the package returning to Seattle, this deal will inevitably have a downstream effect on the market. Although Bjorkstrand himself isn’t a rental, it’s a massive price to pay for two players projected to play in the Lightning’s middle-six. It’s a heavy price, but Tampa Bay is gambling that Gourde and Bjorkstrand will be more valuable than two draft picks later in the first round.
Still, aside from the price, it’s not easy to hypothesize better additions for the Lightning. Gourde returns to the organization where he won two Stanley Cup rings in 2020 and 2021 after a four-year hiatus in Washington state.
At the time of writing, Tampa Bay is 10th in the NHL with an 81.05% penalty kill and 18th with a team faceoff percentage of 50.32%. Furthermore, aside from the topical statistics, they are 16th in the NHL with a 50.5% CorsiFor% at even strength. Gourde is expected to help in all three areas. 
He’ll carry a 50.8% faceoff rate and a 52.2% CorsiFor% at even strength into his first game back with the Lightning. The move will also allow Tampa Bay to move Nick Paul to the second line and give Gourde third-line minutes next to a combination of different wingers. Given the firepower at the top of Tampa Bay’s forward core, Gourde won’t be counted upon as much for offense, which could even help improve his play on the defensive side of the puck.
The deal’s benefits don’t end there for Tampa. If the Lightning believe Paul is better suited on the third line, Bjorkstrand can immediately step into the second line. Dating back to his tenure with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Bjorkstand can generally be relied upon for 20 goals and 30 to 40 assists a year. Bjorkstrand is only one year removed from the best offensive production of his career, scoring 20 goals and 59 points for the Kraken in 82 contests.
Similarly to Gourde, Bjorkstrand is a solid possession player, evidenced by his career CorsiFor% of 52.0% at even strength. Given that Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli have scored 30 and 20 goals already this season, respectively, Bjorkstrand will be an effective playmaker to put alongside them.
The only roster player headed to Seattle is Eyssimont. He’s spent the last three years as a bottom-six forward for the Lightning and is only one year removed from a career campaign himself. Eyssimont scored 11 goals and 25 points in 81 games for Tampa Bay last season, averaging 11:51 of ice time per game. Unfortunately, he hasn’t lived up to those standards this year, scoring five goals and 10 points in 51 contests, averaging 10:41 of ice time per game.
Meanwhile, the Kraken are on the horizon of complementing an already deep prospect pool. Seattle will have nine picks in the top 64 of the next three NHL Drafts alone. Should the Lightning continue winning, those first-round picks won’t fall till later. Still, it’s always better to have two picks in the first round rather than one.
The impact of this deal on the trade market cannot be overstated. Many have perceived that this year’s deadline has become a seller’s market, and this trade solidifies that notion. Clear-cut buyers such as the Dallas Stars, Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Winnipeg Jets may have more difficulty improving their roster after this trade. Additionally, teams on the playoff bubble may have an easier time buying and selling before Friday’s deadline.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports images.
Friedman was the first to report that Seattle was acquiring two first-round picks in the deal.
TSN’s Pierre LeBrun was the first to report a majority of the trade details.
LeBrun was the first to report salary retention details and Detroit’s involvement.
PHR’s Brennan McClain contributed to this article.
Red Wings To Recall Carter Mazur
The Red Wings are recalling left-wing prospect Carter Mazur from AHL Grand Rapids, per Max Bultman of The Athletic. The 22-year-old will be making his NHL debut if he plays tomorrow against Utah. Detroit opened up a roster spot last night by reassigning veteran forward Sheldon Dries to Grand Rapids, per the league’s transactions log.
Mazur has become one of the more unheralded prospects in the Red Wings’ pipeline. Detroit selected Mazur with the 70th overall pick of the 2021 NHL Draft, just before he began his NCAA career with the University of Denver Pioneers.
He became an effective scorer with the Pios, scoring 36 goals and 75 points in 81 collegiate contests. Additionally, Mazur was rostered on the 2022 National Championship-winning roster, tallying two assists in the championship matchup against Minnesota State.
The Red Wings signed Mazur to his entry-level contract after the 2022-23 NCAA season, and he finished the year with three goals and three assists in six games for Grand Rapids. He continued impressing through his first full season in the AHL, scoring 17 goals and 37 points in 60 games for the Griffins, finishing second on the team in scoring.
Entering the 2024-25 season, there was an outside chance Mazur could crack Detroit’s roster out of training camp. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to break into a saturated Red Wings’ forward core, and he was sent to the Griffins just a few days before the start of the regular season. Injuries have limited Mazur to 20 AHL contests this season, but his scoring efficiency has only improved with seven goals and 15 points.
Given that the Red Wings are fully engaged in the Eastern Conference wild-card race, this shouldn’t be considered an informal tryout with Detroit. The Red Wings hope Mazur’s high motor and offensive talent will translate to the NHL to help them break an eight-year playoff drought.
PHR’s Brennan McClain contributed to this article.
Waivers: 3/5/25
Four players hit the waiver wire on Wednesday ahead of Friday’s trade deadline, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
F Christian Fischer (Red Wings) – Fischer, 27, has slipped down Detroit’s depth chart as the season’s progressed. He’s been a healthy scratch in four of their last eight games. His 11:09 ATOI is his lowest in five years, as are his 0.16 points per game (1-6–7 in 45 GP). On an expiring deal worth $1.125MM, he’ll cost $100K against the cap for Detroit if he clears and is sent to the minors. It’s unclear if it’s purely a performance-based demotion or if they’re waiving him to open up roster flexibility ahead of the deadline – likely a bit of both.
D Jordan Oesterle (Bruins) – Oesterle’s waiver placement comes after the 32-year-old scored his first goal since December 2022 in yesterday’s loss to the Predators. He’d been a healthy scratch in 10 straight games before re-entering the lineup for Ian Mitchell. The veteran depth piece has served as a bottom-pairing/depth option for a good chunk of the season with Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy missing significant time on the Boston blue line. He’s been rostered since late November, so today’s waiver placement is likely an effort to get him assigned to AHL Providence on deadline day to make him eligible for the Calder Cup Playoffs.
F Jesse Puljujärvi (Panthers) – Puljujärvi signed a tryout with Florida’s AHL affiliate in Charlotte last month after having his deal with the Penguins mutually terminated. Today’s waiver placement indicates he’s landed an NHL deal with the Panthers for the rest of the season. If he clears waivers and returns to Charlotte, he’ll now be a recall option down the stretch. It’s a two-way, league-minimum deal for the 2016 No. 4 overall pick, Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic reports. He has three assists in seven games with Charlotte after posting 3-6–9 in 26 showings with Pittsburgh earlier this season.
F Jakub Vrána (Capitals) – Vrána won’t necessarily be reassigned to AHL Hershey if he clears, at least not immediately. They’ll have a 30-day window to send him to the minors waiver-free to aid in salary cap flexibility around deadline moves, AP’s Stephen Whyno reports. Regardless, it’s been a tough year for the 29-year-old. He landed a PTO with Washington in camp and converted that into an NHL contract for his second stint with the Caps, who drafted him 13th overall in 2014. He’s been reasonably productive when dressed, posting 7-4–11 in 26 games despite seeing just 9:50 of ice time per game, but hasn’t found a regular role in Washington’s league-best offense. He’s suited up just three times since New Year’s, sitting almost exclusively as a healthy scratch. He’s on a one-way deal for 2024-25 worth the minimum $775K.
Lightning To Reassign Cam Atkinson, Logan Brown
March 5: Atkinson and Brown cleared waivers, according to Friedman. Both will be reassigned to Syracuse as the Lightning look to close a trade with the Kraken for forwards Oliver Bjorkstrand and Yanni Gourde.
March 4: The Lightning have placed forwards Cam Atkinson and Logan Brown on waivers for reassignment to AHL Syracuse, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. Brown wasn’t previously under contract with the Bolts, so the move indicates he’s been promoted from his contract with Syracuse and signed to an NHL contract for the rest of the campaign.
It’s certainly eye-popping to see Atkinson, a veteran of over 800 NHL games, on the waiver wire. His performance after signing a one-year, $900K deal with the Bolts early in free agency, though, has left much to be desired. The 35-year-old has 3-5–8 through 36 games and is averaging a career-low 8:49 per night. He’s become an increasingly frequent healthy scratch as a result, sitting out a season-high four straight contests entering tonight’s game against his former team, the Blue Jackets.
Atkinson was still a semi-serviceable top-nine piece for the Flyers last year, posting 13-15–28 through 70 games. It wasn’t nearly enough to justify his $5.875MM cap hit, though, and Philadelphia opted to buy him out with one year remaining on his contract. The downturn in production from the diminutive yet skilled Atkinson came after he missed the entire 2022-23 campaign following neck surgery, one that unfortunately seems to have tanked his effectiveness in his career’s twilight.
Selected in the sixth round of the 2008 draft by the Blue Jackets, Atkinson was a top-six fixture in Columbus for a decade. He posted 402 points in 627 games with the club before they traded him to Philly in the 2021 offseason in a blockbuster one-for-one exchange that sent Jakub Voráček the other way. Injuries have derailed both players’ careers since, with Voráček since retiring due to concussions.
Now in Tampa, Atkinson has been superseded by players like Zemgus Girgensons and Gage Goncalves on their depth chart. He’s been tried at right wing on the second line with Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel – a role that’s Tampa’s top priority this week to fill. Waiving Atkinson gives them additional roster and salary cap flexibility to achieve that goal.
They’ll also add Brown as a recall option down the stretch, assuming he clears waivers. The 26-year-old center will earn a pro-rated salary of $775K in the NHL and $350K in the AHL down the stretch, per PuckPedia.
The No. 11 pick in the 2016 draft, Brown hasn’t skated in an NHL game since making 30 appearances for the Blues in the 2022-23 campaign. He signed a two-way deal with Tampa for 2023-24 but ended up spending the entire season on injured reserve following an undisclosed surgery. He returned to the Bolts on a camp tryout and landed an AHL deal with Syracuse, where the 6’6″ pivot has 7-12–19 through 25 appearances.
Brown won’t count against the Bolts’ active roster since he was waived on the same day he signed a contract.
Panthers Acquire Vítek Vaněček From Sharks
The Panthers have acquired goaltender Vítek Vaněček from the Sharks in exchange for depth forward Patrick Giles, both teams announced. There is no salary retention in the deal, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic confirms. Vaněček was held out of his scheduled start against the Sabres last night for injury prevention in anticipation of a move.
Florida has been searching for a backup netminder to reigning Vezina nominee Sergei Bobrovsky for the past few days after they dealt Spencer Knight to the Blackhawks in last weekend’s Seth Jones trade. They recalled veteran third-stringer Chris Driedger from AHL Charlotte to serve as Bobrovsky’s No. 2 in the interim, but the 30-year-old has just a .878 SV% in 20 minor-league appearances this season and wasn’t viewed as a reliable insurance option for Bobrovsky in case he sustained an injury down the stretch or in the postseason.
Vaněček grades out as a slight upgrade, albeit an expensive one at a $3.4MM cap hit. The 29-year-old is in the final year of his contract, though, so there’s no long-term burden on Florida’s books. They’ll still have $5.3MM in cap space to make other moves before Friday’s deadline after placing star winger Matthew Tkachuk on long-term injured reserve.
The Czech netminder’s short stint with the Sharks was underwhelming, even behind the league’s most porous defense group. Acquired from the Devils at last year’s deadline, he didn’t suit up for San Jose until the 2024-25 campaign due to injuries. More injuries, namely a cheekbone fracture, limited him to 17 starts and one relief appearance while serving as the primary backup to Mackenzie Blackwood and Alexandar Georgiev, who were traded for each other in December, when healthy. He mustered a 3-10-3 record with a career-worst .882 SV% and 3.88 GAA.
Advanced numbers aren’t kind to Vaněček’s performance this season, either. His -0.56 goals saved above expected per 60 is worse than Georgiev’s -0.34, and he’s allowed a cumulative nine goals above expected on the season, per MoneyPuck. Among 55 goalies with at least 18 games played, Vaněček ranks 48th in total GSAx and 53rd in GSAx/60. His raw GAA is also the worst among the group. He’s also allowing 0.072 rebounds per save, second-worst in the league behind the Devils’ Jake Allen.
The Panthers are banking on a slight return to form behind a defense that allows five fewer shots per game than San Jose’s. Vaněček has been a serviceable tandem option in the past, posting a 33-11-4 record in a career-high 52 appearances with New Jersey in 2022-23 with a .911 SV% and 2.45 GAA. He’ll only be relied upon for a few starts down the stretch to give Bobrovsky some rest as the Cats compete for a third Atlantic Division title in four years. However, if Bobrovsky sustains an injury, he will be Florida’s primary insurance option in the playoffs. He has a highly subpar .834 SV% in 10 playoff appearances with the Capitals and Devils.
As for the Sharks’ new backup, it won’t be top prospect Yaroslav Askarov – at least for now. He’s still dealing with a lower-body injury after being returned to AHL San Jose a few weeks ago and isn’t currently available for a recall. It’ll be 25-year-old Georgi Romanov coming up to serve as the No. 2 in the Bay Area in the interim, Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now reports.
In return for Vaněček, San Jose lands a low-ceiling depth center in Giles. The 25-year-old Maryland native made his NHL debut with the Cats at the beginning of the campaign, going without a point and posting a minus-one rating in nine games. He averaged 7:33 per game, won just 29.8% of his faceoffs, and recorded 16 hits while getting outshot 34-19 at 5v5 in sheltered usage, per Natural Stat Trick. Florida returned Giles to AHL Charlotte after Tomáš Nosek returned from an injury. The 6’5″, 216-lb forward has just 5-2–7 with a plus-three rating in 39 games since. He’ll now report to the Sharks’ AHL affiliate. He’s in the first year of a two-year, two-way deal and will be an RFA with arbitration rights in the summer of 2026.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report the Panthers and Sharks were working on a Vaněček deal. Tim Reynolds of the AP was first to report Florida was sending Giles to San Jose to complete the deal.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Bruins Recall Patrick Brown, Vinni Lettieri, Riley Tufte
The Bruins announced they’ve recalled forwards Patrick Brown, Vinni Lettieri, and Riley Tufte from AHL Providence – the second of whom comes up under emergency conditions. Defenseman Ian Mitchell is also back with the team after a paper transaction meant he wasn’t rostered for yesterday’s loss to the Predators. The club reassigned forwards Georgii Merkulov and Jeffrey Viel to Providence in corresponding moves to keep their active roster at the 23-player maximum.
Only two needed to be sent down because Boston opened an additional roster spot yesterday by trading Trent Frederic to the Oilers. While he comes up under emergency conditions, likely related to captain Brad Marchand‘s upper-body injury, Lettieri still counts against the roster limit. The Bruins only have to worry about their granular maneuvering until Friday’s deadline, after which the cap on roster sizes disappears.
Brown, 32, returns to the roster for the first time since January. The veteran of parts of nine NHL seasons has spent most of the year in Providence, only suiting up twice for Boston over a pair of recalls. He averaged 11:02 of ice time across those contests and posted a minus-one rating while going 2-for-5 on faceoffs and taking three shots on goal. The Michigan native will return to the lineup tomorrow against the Hurricanes as the Bs’ fourth-line center between John Beecher and Mark Kastelic, per Scott McLaughlin of WEEI. He’s served as the P-Bruins’ captain this season and is tied for second on the team in scoring with 16-28–44 through 52 games.
Ahead of Brown in AHL scoring is Lettieri, leading the club with 20-28–48 in 46 appearances. The 30-year-old made eight appearances for Boston in January, scoring twice while averaging 12:05 per game and recording 19 hits. The versatile 5’10” forward has been a decently productive depth piece when called upon for NHL minutes, posting 14-15–29 in 137 career games. He’ll get a shot in the top nine against Carolina on a line with Cole Koepke and youngster Matthew Poitras.
Tufte comes back up after being sent down in favor of Merkulov and Viel last week. The 6’6″ winger has also been reasonably productive for the P-Bruins this year, racking up 18-13–31 in 42 appearances. The 26-year-old former Stars first-rounder has averaged just 8:05 per game in five showings for Boston, though, posting no points and a minus-three rating with six hits. He’ll somewhat surprisingly get a shot in a second-line role with Charlie Coyle and Elias Lindholm, Marchand’s usual spot in the lineup.
Merkulov had been the one receiving Marchand’s minutes over the last few games, but no points and three shots on goal weren’t enough to keep him on the roster. The 5’11” natural center heads back to Providence, where he remains one of the club’s most effective per-game producers with 44 points in 47 outings.
The 6’2″ Viel had suited up in each of Boston’s last three games, averaging 7:29 per contest with a minus-one rating and eight hits. The depth power forward has 8-18–26 in 51 AHL games with a team-high 130 PIMs.
Blue Jackets Unlikely To Extend Ivan Provorov Before Deadline
The Blue Jackets don’t expect to have an extension done for pending UFA defenseman Ivan Provorov – or any pending free agent on the roster, for that matter – before Friday’s trade deadline, general manager Don Waddell told Jeff Svoboda of NHL.com on Wednesday.
That doesn’t mean the 28-year-old will be available for trade, though. “If I rip a guy out of this locker room right now that’s playing a role for us on this hockey club, I think that’s pretty devastating to our team,” Waddell told Svoboda. “I think it’s the wrong message from my end to the fans, the coaches and the players.” It’ll take a gargantuan package for Columbus, now firmly entrenched as a conservative buyer, to consider parting ways with Provorov this week amid a tight wild-card race.
It also doesn’t mean Provorov will hit the open market on July 1. The organization will resume contract talks with him and other pending UFAs like Dante Fabbro and Sean Kuraly when their offseason begins, whenever that is. With $43MM in projected cap space for 2025-26 and only eight open roster spots, per PuckPedia, they shouldn’t have much of an issue matching market-value offers for players they’re interested in retaining.
Provorov surely has to be part of the group that Columbus will aggressively try to keep in the fold past this season, even if efforts to date haven’t gotten across the finish line. The Russian lefty has fit nicely with the Jackets since they acquired him from the Flyers two summers ago, especially this season. He’s not producing at the 40-point heights of his early career, but he has a respectable 7-21–28 scoring line through 61 games and is munching significant minutes, averaging 23:28 per game. He’s obviously not getting premier power-play deployment with Zach Werenski starring in that role, but he logs heavy PK usage for the Jackets.
His possession metrics, however, remain underwhelming as they did in his Philly days. While his plus-seven rating stands to be his best since the 2019-20 campaign, the Jackets have been outchanced 512-434 with Provorov on the ice at 5v5, per Natural Stat Trick. His 46.4 xGF% ranks just 16th on the club as well. He earns some benefit of the doubt for starting in primarily defensive minutes at even strength, but the 2015 first-rounder has never shown the ability to be a truly dominant possession force over his nine-year career.
He’s still averaged top-four and top-pair minutes throughout his career, though, and his utility high up in the lineup will get him paid accordingly. AFP Analytics projects an extension in Columbus to cost $6.4MM per season with a five-year term. Columbus would likely be comfortable offering that deal, but if Provorov feels he could garner significantly more on the open market, it’s understandable why his camp would hold off an agreement until he gets a better sense of comparables.
Blue Jackets Sign Mathieu Olivier To Six-Year Extension
March 5: It took slightly more than 24 hours, but Olivier’s extension in Columbus is done. It’s a six-year, $18MM deal with a $3MM cap hit, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports. It’s a slightly front-loaded contract with a base salary of $4MM in 2025-26 that drops to $2.4MM by the end of the deal in 2030-31, per Renaud Lavoie of TVA. The contract does not include any signing bonuses but has a 10-team no-trade clause, Lavoie adds.
March 3: The Blue Jackets are hoping to have an extension finalized with pending UFA winger Mathieu Olivier “in the next 24 hours or so,” general manager Don Waddell told Aaron Portzline of The Athletic. A team source tells Portzline that Olivier’s deal will be for at least four seasons.
Olivier isn’t the most notable of Columbus’ pending free agents, but he has been the topic of the most discussion in the last few weeks. Darren Dreger of TSN reported back in December that the two sides had opened negotiations, adding last week that talks were heating up.
Now in his third season with the Blue Jackets, the 28-year-old is flourishing. The first player in NHL history from Mississippi has set career-highs with 12 goals, 21 points, 99 PIMs, 76 shots, and 228 hits, all while seeing legitimate top-nine usage for the first time in his career.
Olivier’s professional career began with the Predators’ AHL affiliate in Milwaukee. They signed him to a minor-league deal after he went undrafted over five Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League seasons with the Moncton Wildcats, Shawinigan Cataractes, and Sherbrooke Phoenix. He posted a 4-8–12 stat line with 91 PIMs in 54 games in his rookie year, enough to earn him an entry-level deal with Nashville the following offseason.
The 6’1″, 226-lb righty bounced between Tennessee and Wisconsin over his two-year rookie deal, but he did see a more regular NHL role in 2020-21. He spent a tad bit of time on the taxi squad but made 30 appearances in an enforcer role for the Preds after spending most of 2019-20 back in the minors, entering the 2021 offseason with six points and 74 PIMs in 38 career NHL games.
That was enough to earn him a two-year, one-way deal for the league-minimum $750K annually. Unfortunately, it didn’t signal a full-time job on the NHL roster like a one-way contract would typically yield. He suited up just 10 times for Nashville in 2021-22, instead relegated to Milwaukee for most of the year. Columbus still liked what they saw in his previous NHL minutes, paying a fourth-round pick to Nashville to acquire him before the 2022 draft.
Olivier hasn’t seen the minors since. He was only a healthy scratch twice in his first season with the Jackets, although an illness and a lower-body injury still limited him to 66 contests. He posted 5-10–15 that year – more offense than he provided in the minors the year prior – and finished third on the team with 178 hits. That earned him a two-year, $2.2MM extension, which is now in its final season.
Now on pace for 16 goals and 29 points this year, he’s bound to more than double his previous $1.1MM AAV. One limiting factor will be a recent three-year, $7.5MM extension for Keegan Kolesar in Vegas – a player historically cast in a similar role with a longer track record of offensive success. Seeing his AAV climb much higher than Kolesar’s $2.5MM would be a surprise.
Once Olivier’s extension is finalized, 15 of the Blue Jackets’ 23 players on the active roster will be under contract through next season.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Sharks Not Playing Vítek Vaněček For Trade-Related Reasons
The Sharks won’t be starting goaltender Vítek Vaněček tonight against the Sabres in their penultimate game before the trade deadline, Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now reports. He’ll dress as Alexandar Georgiev‘s backup, but presumably won’t enter the game unless an injury forces Georgiev out. Since he’s dressing, San Jose doesn’t yet need to recall a goalie from AHL San Jose in his place.
It’s worth noting if they trade Vaněček and don’t recoup a goalie in return, they won’t be able to recall top prospect Yaroslav Askarov for the minors, at least not right away. He’s been out of the lineup for the last couple of weeks with a lower-body injury and remains day-to-day.
Where Vaněček could end up amid a general lack of interest in goalies this week remains to be seen. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period speculates the Panthers could be a fit as they look to add a veteran name to back up Sergei Bobrovsky after they traded away young No. 2 option Spencer Knight to the Blackhawks in last weekend’s Seth Jones trade.
If a team can’t accommodate Vaněček’s $3.4MM cap hit, they’ll need to find a third dance partner for a trade. The Sharks are using all three of their salary retention slots on Brent Burns, Tomáš Hertl, and Erik Karlsson and will only have Burns’ opening up this summer.
Vaněček, 29, is on an expiring deal. San Jose acquired him from the Devils at last year’s deadline in the deal that sent Kaapo Kähkönen eastward, but he didn’t play down the stretch due to various injuries. His Sharks debut had to wait until this season. It’s been a tumultuous one for the Czechia native, who missed a chunk of time with a cheekbone fracture and has been underwhelming when dressed. Even behind a San Jose defense that allows a league-high 32.1 shots per game, his 3.88 GAA and .882 SV% aren’t inspiring. He has a 3-10-3 record in 18 outings and has allowed nine goals above expected, per MoneyPuck.
Teams interested in him are either banking on a return to form in a more insulated environment or desperately need even a marginal upgrade at their backup position. Vaněček was a fine tandem option at his peak, recording a career-high 33 wins in 52 appearances with New Jersey in 2022-23 along with a .911 SV% and 2.45 GAA. His numbers have nosedived since then, though, and the 2014 second-rounder now has a .903 career SV% with a 2.82 GAA across 181 NHL games since making his debut with Washington in the 2020-21 campaign.
If the Sharks trade Vaněček, don’t receive a goalie back, and can’t recall Askarov, 25-year-old Georgi Romanov is their only other minor-league goalie under contract. He allowed one goal on 30 shots faced in two appearances in his NHL debut last year, and the Russian has a .905 SV% and 3.10 GAA in 21 AHL appearances in 2024-25.
Bruins Open To Moving Charlie Coyle, Pavel Zacha
For the first time in recent memory, the Bruins have made the call to sell at the trade deadline in earnest. After trading pending UFA forward Trent Frederic to the Oilers earlier today and following previous reports that defenseman Brandon Carlo and forward Morgan Geekie are available for the right price, they’re now open to hearing offers for centers Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports.
Their availability adds some depth to a relatively thin center market ahead of Friday’s deadline, although neither are rental pickups. Coyle is signed through 2026-27 at a $5.25MM cap hit and carries a full no-movement clause for the duration of his deal, per PuckPedia, so the Bruins’ options for moving him will be extremely limited. Meanwhile, Zacha is under contract through 2027-28 with a $4.75MM cap hit and has a 10-team no-trade list until July 1.
Neither has had a season to write home about, especially Coyle. Fresh off his 33rd birthday, the hometown kid has churned out just 14-7–21 through 62 games after recording a career-high 25 goals and 60 points last season. It’s not for a lack of usage – he’s averaging 17:39 per game, the second-highest mark of his career behind last year. He’s shooting at a strong 15.6% but not generating nearly as many chances. His 1.45 shots on goal per game mark the second-lowest rate of his 13-year run in the NHL, ahead of only his rookie season with the Wild 12 years ago. He’s also tracking to post a career-worst -13 rating.
That doesn’t paint a rosy picture in terms of the likelihood of a trade. He only has a three-team no-trade list if he waives his no-movement clause, but whether or not he’d even waive his NMC to depart his home city is uncertain, even as Boston enters sell-off mode. His $5.25MM cap hit is also immovable given his performance this season without retention, and it’s unlikely Boston would be willing to do so for a contract that runs past this season as they look to reload for 2025-26.
The 27-year-old Zacha is thus a far more intriguing candidate. His offensive totals have dropped too, but not as much. He’s still third on the team in scoring with 12-25–37 in 62 games, all while averaging 19:23 per game and serving as the Bs’ de facto No. 1 center for the second year in a row. He’s averaged 0.69 points per game in a Bruins uniform since they acquired him from the Devils in 2022 and wouldn’t command any retention to move. Limited trade protection also increases his market, and at his cap hit, he’s a better value proposition – especially with two years left on his deal – than most other centers out there.
The 6’3″ Zacha is also a full-time pivot with good faceoff numbers, more than what can be said about names like Ryan Donato or Scott Laughton. After spending most of his career below 50%, he’s won 54.2% of his draws since the beginning of 2023-24.
Moving either would represent a more aggressive retooling than most would have expected out of the Bruins. Still, their names floating into rumors at least signal an openness to moving out some of their lower-ceiling offensive talents in hopes of landing a top-six impact piece (or multiple) this summer.