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Sabres Sign Justin Danforth, Tyson Kozak

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Forward Justin Danforth is heading to the Sabres on a two-year deal worth $1.8MM per season, Bob McKenzie of TSN reports. They also re-upped RFA forward Tyson Kozak on a three-year deal worth $775,000 per season, carrying a two-way structure in 2025-26 and a one-way structure in 2026-27 and 2027-28.

Danforth’s addition to the Sabres’ lineup addresses a need that the team has been trying to fulfil for several years. Last summer, the team added Beck Malenstyn and Ryan McLeod to their bottom six, and this summer, they have brought in Josh Doan and Danforth.

He’s coming off a fairly successful run with the Columbus Blue Jackets, playing in a similar role. Throughout the last two years, Danforth has scored 19 goals and 47 points in 132 games with a -16 rating, averaging 14:19 of ice time per night. His scoring output should slightly dip with the Sabres, assuming the team plays him in a fourth-line role.

The most important part of Danforth’s game is his physicality. He finished the 2024-25 campaign with 126 hits, which would have ranked fifth on the Sabres and fourth among forwards. In an odd move at the time, Buffalo traded away one of their most physical players, Dylan Cozens, to the Ottawa Senators at last year’s trade deadline.

Meanwhile, Kozak returns to the only organization he’s ever known. The former 193rd overall selection debuted with the Sabres last year, scoring three goals and five points in 21 games. His track record is better known with their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans, where Kozak has scored 18 goals and 36 points in 127 games with a -3 rating.

Like Danforth, Kozak is expected to be a physical presence for the Sabres to plug into their bottom-six. Given that the first year of the deal begins as a two-way contract, it seems the Sabres would like Kozak to have another year of seasoning with Rochester before making the full-time jump to the NHL level.

PHR’s Brennan McClain contributed significantly to this article. 

Sharks Sign John Klingberg, Philipp Kurashev, Adam Gaudette

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The Sharks have signed center Philipp Kurashev to a one-year, $1.2MM contract, per PuckPedia. He was a UFA after being non-tendered by the Blackhawks. They have also signed defenseman John Klingberg to a one-year deal worth $4MM, per Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic. Additionally, the Sharks will bring in center Adam Gaudette on a two-year, $4MM contract per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. All three signings were first reported by Brennan Klak on X.

San Jose has confirmed Klingberg’s deal.

This pair of moves most notably features a pay-raise for Klingberg after he played through last season on a one-year, $1.76MM deal with the Edmonton Oilers. Klingberg didn’t sign that deal until mid-January, limiting him to just 11 games played before the end of the regular season. He recorded four points, eight penalty minutes, and an even plus-minus in those appearances — showing signs of rust after only playing 14 games of the 2023-24 season, but still able to hold up to 17 minutes a night. With his legs under him, Edmonton moved Klingberg into a nightly role during the postseason. He again recorded four points, though this time added a plus-three and one penalty, through 19 appearances.

Klingberg looked capable of the nightly role, even despite a bilateral hip surgery limiting him to just 44 games over the last two seasons combined. He’s scored 13 points in those appearances, though handled a clear-cut top-pair role pre-injury and a third-pair role after returning. A lofty price tag in San Jose could push him up the team’s depth chart on a very shallow right-shot side. He should fill a second-pairing role alongside Henry Thrun, Shakir Mukhamadullin, or Sam Dickinson. All three youngsters have the mobility to help cushion Klingberg as he looks to transition from an injury to a battered role with San Jose.

Boosting the offense will be Kurashev and Gaudette, who each filled minor roles on their NHL squads this season, though through very different paths. Gaudette is coming off of his first full season in the NHL since the 2021-22 campaign, when he played 50 games for the Ottawa Senators. He scored just 12 points that season, prompting an assignment to the minor leagues that took two seasons of strong scoring to work out of. In what was the first full AHL season of his career, Gaudette managed 51 points in 65 games during the 2022-23 campaign, split between the Toronto Marlies and Springfield Thunderbirds. He returned for Springfield last season and exploded for 44 goals and 71 points in 67 games. That was good enough to earn a call-up back to the Senators that he took full advantage of, with 19 goals and 26 points in 81 games.

Meanwhile, Kurashev took a hard fall from grace last year after managing a career-season in 2023-24. He recorded 54 points in 75 games in a top-line role with the Chicago Blackhawks that year, but tumbled all the way down to just 14 points, split evenly, in 51 games this season. The steep drop in scoring coincided with concerns about Kurashev’s two-way game, and calls for his assignment to the minor-leagues. The 25-year-old winger has shown flashes of scoring upside throughout his career, with 130 points in 317 games. He’ll look to rediscover his flash of scoring as he joins a similarly skilled-and-speedy Sharks lineup.

Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro-Imagn Images.

Sabres Sign Alex Lyon To Two-Year Deal

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The Sabres announced they’ve signed goaltender Alex Lyon to a two-year contract worth $1.5MM per season.

After backstopping the Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup playoffs during the 2022-23 campaign, Lyon earned himself a two-year, $1.8MM agreement with the Detroit Red Wings the following offseason. Despite being ultimately usurped by Sergei Bobrovsky during the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, Lyon concluded the season with a record of 9-4-2 over 15 games, achieving a .912 SV% and a 2.89 GAA.

At first, his performance resembled that of the 2022-23 season. Unfortunately, the Red Wings didn’t qualify for the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, but it wasn’t Lyon’s fault. The netminder procured a 21-18-5 record in 44 games throughout his first year in Detroit with a .904 SV% and 3.05 GAA.

That quality performance was quickly forgotten this past season. Like many of his peers with the Red Wings, Lyon disappointed during the 2024-25 campaign, earning a 14-9-1 record in 30 games with a .896 SV%, 2.81 GAA, and -2.5 Goals Saved Above Average.

Given the one-way deal for Lyon, the Sabres will either have three netminders on next season’s roster, or the team is again expecting Devon Levi to begin the year with the AHL’s Rochester Americans. Despite showing limited growth at the NHL level, it’s unclear what the Sabres expect from Levi to consider promoting him.

During his last two years with AHL Rochester, Levi achieved a record of 41-19-10, with a .922 SV% and a 2.28 GAA, including seven shutouts. Aside from proving his case for another year in the AHL, Levi will now have to compete with Lyon for the backup role in Buffalo for the next two years.

PHR’s Brennan McClain contributed significantly to this article. 

Kraken Sign Matt Murray

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The Kraken have signed goaltender Matt Murray to a one-year, $1MM contract, per a team announcement.

This move will stand as a vote of confidence in Murray, as he works his way back to a full-time role after undergoing bilateral hip surgery in 2023. Murray missed the entirety of the 2023-24 season and all but two games of the 2024-25 season, as a result of the injury. Murray’s last extended action came in the 2022-23 season, when he appeared in 26 games as Toronto’s backup to Ilya Samsonov. Murray recorded a .903 save percentage and a 14-8-2 record in those appearances.

When thinking of Murray, it’s hard not to think of his incredible run to the Stanley Cup as a rookie in 2016. With only 13 regular-season games under his belt, Murray was able to usurp future Hall-of-Famer Marc-Andre Fleury as the starting netminder for the team’s 2016 postseason. With that confidence to boost him, the rookie Murray managed an incredible .923 save percentage and a 15-6-0 record for the Penguins, helping propel the team to a Stanley Cup win. He earned Pittsburgh’s backup role full-time in the wake of that win, and supported the team with an improved .937 save percentage in 11 games during their 2017 Cup win as well.

For the most part, Murray’s hot hand in Pittsburgh carried over to the regular season. He managed a collective .914 Sv% and a 117-53-19 record in 199 games with the Penguins. He also totaled a .921 save percentage in 51 playoff games — a team record among goalies to appear in multiple postseason runs. But on the back of faltering play in 2019, the Penguins traded Murray to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for forward Jonathan Gruden and the 2020 second-round pick used on goaltender Joel Blomqvist. Murray fell to Ottawa’s backup chair, behind Anton Forsberg, by the 2021-22 season, and fell into his rut of injuries soon after.

Now, Seattle will look to revive Murray’s career in a backup role behind starter Joey Daccord. Murray posted one win, one loss, and one relief loss over the course of three games with Toronto this season. Next season will be his first true test at a comeback, and an early summer deal will provide a full summer of motivated fitness training.

Jets To Sign Cole Koepke, Tanner Pearson

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The Jets are signing UFA winger Cole Koepke, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. It’s a one-year deal worth $1MM, according to TSN’s Darren Dreger. They’ve also signed winger Tanner Pearson to an identical one-by-one contract, per Dreger.

Koepke comes to Manitoba on the heels of his first full year in the NHL. Despite spending the first two years of his career with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Koepke signed on as a depth forward last summer with the Boston Bruins.

Carving out a role on the team’s fourth line, Koepke turned into a consistent player for the Bruins. He scored 10 goals and 17 points in 73 games with a +1 rating, averaging 11:15 of ice time per night with 177 hits.

Unfortunately, his scoring output was largely isolated to the first month of the regular season. In October, Koepke scored three goals and seven points with a +10 rating in the Bruins’ first 11 games while only tallying seven goals and 10 points with a -9 rating over his remaining 62 games. Given this situation, it’s hard to picture Koepke playing anywhere other than the fourth line with the Jets.

Meanwhile, the team added some tertiary scoring to their bottom-six in Pearson. After scoring six goals and 18 points in 68 games in his last year with the Vancouver Canucks and one season with the Montreal Canadiens combined, Pearson had a quality bounceback year with the Vegas Golden Knights during the 2024-25 campaign.

Largely playing in the team’s bottom-six, Pearson scored 12 goals and 27 points in 78 contests with a +4 rating. Winnipeg didn’t have very many problems putting the puck in the net last year, but they’re in a position where they’ll need to replace the production lost by Nikolaj Ehlers by committee.

PHR’s Brennan McClain contributed significantly to this article. 

Stars To Sign Radek Faksa To Three-Year Deal

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The Stars are bringing center Radek Faksa back to Dallas on a three-year contract worth $2MM per season, sources tell Frank Seravalli.

Faksa will return to the Stars, where he’s already spent nine seasons, after only one year away from Texas. He spent that year away serving as the St. Louis Blues’ fourth-line center. He racked up five goals and 15 points in 70 games in that role, while also tallying 115 hits and 50 blocked shots. Faksa filled a toolsy role in St. Louis, often sat behind play and diving into plays in the corners and in front of the nets. But  an ultimately quiet campaign from player and team will inspire a move back to familiar, and more productive, grounds.

Faksa reached 89 goals and 200 points in 638 games with the Stars prior to this season. Like he did in St. Louis, much of his time in Dalals was spent in a bottom-line, utility role. He routinely rivaled 100 hits and 20 points in scoring, though did have a bit more oomph in his early days – netting three consecutive seasons of at least 30 points and 100 hits between 2016 and 2019. But those days were far ago, and Faksa now reasons to step in as Dallas’ burly fourth-line center, capable of filling the roles his teammates won’t. At 32 years old, a three-year contract could reasonably carry him through the remainder of his career, and end with a retirement with the same team that drafted him in the first-round of the 2012 NHL Draft.

PHR’s Gabriel Foley contributed significantly to this article.

Islanders Sign Jonathan Drouin To Two-Year Deal

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The Islanders announced they’ve signed winger Jonathan Drouin to a two-year contract. The deal is worth $4MM per season, Frank Seravalli reports.

Similarly to their recruitment of winger Anthony Duclair last offseason, the Islanders have looked to the second-tier options for forwards to fix their offensive woes. In Drouin, they’ll add a silky playmaking winger into their top-six.

The former third-overall pick has played for the Colorado Avalanche for the past two years, though he struggled with injuries last season. Throughout his two-year stint, Drouin scored 30 goals and 93 points in 122 games with a +16 rating, averaging 18:11 of ice time.

Remarkably, even after ten years in the NHL, Drouin’s first season in Colorado was his best individual campaign yet. Besides him achieving a career-high 56 points during the 2023-24 campaign, Drouin averaged a 57.0% CorsiFor% at even strength during his tenure in Denver. It’s hard to imagine that he’s capable of driving his line, but the Islanders can place him next to Bo Horvat or Mathew Barzal and expect quality production.

If they have any hopes of contending during the 2025-26 season, New York desperately needed to add more offense. They faced financial constraints due to the number of restricted free agents they needed to sign. Drouin gives them the best of both worlds, offering quality secondary scoring production while leaving enough room for the Islanders to have enough space to re-up their remaining RFAs.

PHR’s Brennan McClain contributed significantly to this article. 

Panthers Sign Jeff Petry

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The Panthers have signed defenseman Jeff Petry to a league-minimum contract for 2025-26 with performance bonuses, according to Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic.

Remarkably, Petry has turned the worst season of his professional career into an agreement with the defending Stanley Cup champions. Although he was limited by injury during the 2024-25 campaign, Petry finished with one goal and eight points in 44 games with a -2 rating, which averages out to an 82-game average of two goals and 15 points.

His value appears even less favorable when examining some of his advanced metrics. Petry finished with a 43.2% CorsiFor% at even strength, which was the lowest of any defenseman on the Red Wings during the 2024-25 campaign. According to MoneyPuck, Petry had the lowest Expected Goals Creation on the Detroit team last season, indicating that the worst performances occurred when he was on the ice.

Nevertheless, he’ll be tasked with far less responsibility in Sunrise. The Panthers are retaining every member of their Stanley Cup-winning team, aside from Jaycob Megna, and Petry will immediately become the team’s seventh option. Petry will become the third right-handed defenseman on the team behind Seth Jones and Aaron Ekblad, and he could fill in on occasion if they want to balance out their handedness.

At any rate, Petry’s numbers should improve in limited ice time, simply by being on a better team. Still, he’s a far cry from the defenseman he used to be during his prime with the Montreal Canadiens.

PHR’s Brennan McClain contributed significantly to this article. 

Predators Sign Nick Perbix To Two-Year Deal

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The Predators are signing right-shot defenseman Nick Perbix to a two-year contract, TSN’s Bob McKenzie reports. He’ll earn $2.75MM per season, according to Anthony Di Marco of Daily Faceoff. The team has since confirmed the deal.

After acquiring Nicolas Hague from the Vegas Golden Knights yesterday, the Predators have now fully revamped their defensive core by adding Perbix. Offering more stability to their defensive core than their other internal candidates, Perbix is coming off a remarkably consistent three-year run with the Lightning.

Since debuting with the Bolts during the 2022-23 season, Perbix has scored 13 goals and 63 points in 220 career contests with a +27 rating, averaging 15:45 of ice time per night. For his metrics, Perbix offered a 51.2% CorsiFor% at even strength, and a 91.0% on-ice save percentage at even strength.

Still, it’s interesting that the Predators have chosen to invest more capital into their defensive core, rather than their offense. The team has a few defensive metrics that could have warranted NHL playing time in the upcoming season, and it’s reasonable to assume that netminder Juuse Saros has a bounce-back campaign. Their offense was the bigger concern last season, averaging 2.59 GF/G, the second-lowest mark in the NHL.

Despite finishing 27th in goals against per game, the team’s performance was hindered largely by Saros’s disappointing season. Nashville had the seventh-best penalty kill and finished 16th in shots against. The addition of Perbix and Hague will certainly help the team keep pucks out of their net, but they will still struggle to address the offensive issues that plagued the Predators last season.

PHR’s Brennan McClain contributed significantly to this article. 

Bruins Sign Michael Eyssimont, Sean Kuraly, Matej Blumel, Alex Steeves

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The Bruins have signed forwards Michael Eyssimont and Sean Kuraly to two-year contracts, Anthony Di Marco of Daily Faceoff reports. Eyssimont’s deal carries a $1.45MM cap hit while Kuraly’s carries a $1.85MM cap hit. They’ve also signed forward Matej Blumel to a one-way deal worth $875,000, per TSN’s Darren Dreger. That was first reported by Cam Robinson of Elite Prospects. Boston has additionally signed Alex Steeves to a one-year deal worth $850,000, per Di Marco.

In one fell swoop, the Bruins will shore up depth at forward with these moves. It’s headlined by Kuraly, who served the fourth-line center role in all 82 games of Columbus’ season. He was a bruising role player who handled the heavy defensive workload of Columbus’ bottom-six well. Kuraly recorded the highest faceoff percentage on the team (54.3 percent) and the third-most hits (163). He also chipped in 45 blocked shots, 17 points, and a minus-four across the full year.

Kuraly has been with the Blue Jackets for the last four seasons, but spent five years with the Bruins prior to his move to Ohio. Kuraly has manned a depth center role through all nine years of his NHL career, routinely rivaling a positive faceoff win-rare and 20 points in scoring. His career-year stands as the 2021-22 season – his first in Columbus – when Kuraly racked up a career-high 14 goals, 30 points, and 240 hits in 77 games played. He’ll return to Boston looking to continue offering a physical, impactful presence to the bottom of a lineup.

Boston will receive much of the same impact from winger Eyssimont, who racked up 16 points and 110 hits in 77 games this season, split between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Seattle Kraken. It was a relatively quiet year for Eyssimont, intercut by a Trade Deadline move to the Kraken as part of a three-team trade that sent Oliver Bjorkstrand and Yanni Gourde to Tampa Bay. Eyssimont was much more impactful for the 2023-24 Tampa Bay Lightning. He ranked third on the team in hits (135) that year, to go along with 11 goals and 25 points in 81 games. He’s now through his fourth season in the NHL, and has totaled 56 points, 230 penalty minutes, and 352 hits in 213 career games. That averages out to 22 points and 136 hits per 82 games — a mark that should fit well alongside Kuraly.

With two bruisers added in, Boston will also take a run at the pure upside of Blumel. The 25-year-old winger racked up a staggering 39 goals and 72 points in 67 AHL games this season, just one point back from the league’s scoring title. He further added 16 points in 14 Calder Cup playoff games. It was an electric performance, spurred by Blumel’s high-energy style and ability to beat opponents on the rush. He flashed the same ability in each of the last two seasons. He totaled 31 goals and 62 points in 72 games last year, and 44 points in 58 games the year before. Across that span, Blumel has only received 13 appearances, and scored two goals, at the NHL level. That fact, mixed with his high scoring, could make him a breakout candidate among a Bruins bottom-six in need of a scorer.

If not Blumel, the Bruins could find hardy upside in Steeves, who has also potted impressive minor-league scoring over the last four seasons. Steeves reached a new career-high with 36 goals and 62 points in 59 games this season. That mark emphasized the 27 goals and 57 points he scored in 65 games last year, and 51 points in 65 games he scored in the year before. Steeves has stepped into a handful of games with the Maple Leafs dating back to 2021, though only as injury relief. He’s scored one goal and three points in 14 career performances. While Kuraly and Eyssimont offer a stout pair of heavy-hitting forwards, Steeves will serve as the center compliment to Blumel in Boston’s search for scoring upside.

Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports.

PHR’s Gabriel Foley contributed significantly to this article.

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