Devils Re-Sign Brian Halonen, Samuel Laberge
The Devils re-signed depth winger Brian Halonen to a two-year, two-way deal on Thursday, per a team announcement. His extension will cost $775K against the cap when he’s on the NHL roster. New Jersey also inked forward Samuel Laberge to a one-year, two-way extension worth $775K in the NHL.
Halonen, 25, was set to be a restricted free agent this summer after completing his entry-level contract. His new deal carries no signing bonuses and will pay him $175K at the AHL level in 2024-25 and $275K in 2025-26, a raise over the $80K minors salary he earned on his rookie pact. The extension walks him to unrestricted free agency in 2026.
Laberge, meanwhile, turned 27 last month and would have become a UFA this summer if he didn’t re-sign in Jersey. He’ll net $120K at the AHL level next season with a $135K guarantee, per the team.
In inking both to extensions, general manager Tom Fitzgerald will squeeze some more value out of a pair of undrafted free agent signings. Halonen joined the team back in March 2022 after a standout senior season at Michigan Tech, taking home CCHA First All-Star Team honors while leading the Huskies in scoring with 21 goals and 44 points in 37 games.
The Minnesota native took a while to get going last season while on assignment to AHL Utica, struggling to get on the scoresheet much before a brief demotion to ECHL Adirondack in December. He played just one game with Adirondack, posting an assist, before being recalled back to Utica and finishing the season on a tear. He finished 2022-23 with 17 goals and 30 points in 57 games, ranking eighth on the Comets in scoring.
The gifted sniper was limited to 35 games with Utica this season due to injuries, but he more than earned his extension after potting 20 goals to finish second on the team despite playing in less than half of their 72-game schedule. With injuries plaguing the Devils in the latter half of the season, he received his first two NHL recalls down the stretch, making a lone appearance each time. He was used sparingly, though, averaging 8:17 across the pair of games while managing two shots on goal and two hits.
Laberge had been on minor-league contracts with Utica since the 2021-22 campaign but didn’t land an NHL contract until signing with the Devils a couple of months into this season. The 6’2″, 205-lb forward can play center and both wings and has been a solid bottom-six checking forward for the Comets over the past few seasons, totaling 19 goals and 48 points in 155 games with 199 PIMs and a +10 rating. The former captain of the QMJHL’s Rimouski Océanic is entering his eighth professional season.
Like Halonen, Laberge also made his NHL debut this season with a two-game trial. He recorded three hits in just 6:12 of total ice time across a pair of contests he played in November and December, shortly after landing a contract with New Jersey.
Both are likely destined to start 2024-25 in Utica. Halonen still has one season of professional service or 58 NHL games before he requires waivers, but Laberge will no longer be waiver-exempt and will need to hit the wire during the preseason to head to the minors. With the pair of signings, the Devils are now up to 33 out of the maximum 50 standard player contracts on the books next season.
NHL-Affiliated Prospects Playing In 2024 Memorial Cup
The field for the 2024 Memorial Cup, the top club tournament in junior hockey, is set. The QMJHL’s Drummondville Voltigeurs, the OHL’s London Knights and the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors all swept their respective league championship series within the last two days to advance to the CHL championship tournament, joining the host Saginaw Spirit of the OHL.
This year marks the first Memorial Cup held in the United States since 1998, which was hosted by the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs. The Spirit will attempt to become the first U.S.-based team to win since the Chiefs in 2008, and they have a strong chance. They’re stronger than a typical host team, finishing second in the league in the regular season with a 50-16-2 record and trailing London by just two points. They were eliminated by London in six games in the Western Conference Final.
The Knights lead the way with 10 NHL-affiliated prospects on their roster, including two first-round picks in Flyers defenseman Oliver Bonk and Maple Leafs forward Easton Cowan. The latter was named the OHL playoffs MVP after leading the Knights in scoring with 10 goals, 24 assists and 34 points in just 18 games. He had 15 points in four games in their championship sweep over the Oshawa Generals.
If you’re looking for some non-Stanley Cup Playoff hockey to watch, check to see if your favorite NHL team has prospects suiting up in the tournament, which begins May 24:
Drummondville Voltigeurs (QMJHL champion)
D Mikaël Diotte (Devils, free agent signing)
RW Ethan Gauthier (Lightning, 2023, 37th overall)
RW Alexis Gendron (Flyers, 2022, 220th overall)
D Vsevolod Komarov (Sabres, 2022, 134th overall)
NHL Utah 2022 first-round pick D Maveric Lamoureux is out for the season after undergoing shoulder surgery in March.
London Knights (OHL champion)
C Denver Barkey (Flyers, 2023, 95th overall)
D Oliver Bonk (Flyers, 2023, 22nd overall)
C Easton Cowan (Maple Leafs, 2023, 28th overall)
D Jackson Edward (Bruins, 2022, 200th overall)
D Isaiah George (Islanders, 2022, 98th overall)
RW Kasper Halttunen (Sharks, 2023, 36th overall)
C Jacob Julien (Jets, 2023, 146th overall)
C Kaleb Lawrence (Kings, 2022, 215th overall)
C Max McCue (Blue Jackets, free agent signing)
C Landon Sim (Blues, 2022, 184th overall)
Moose Jaw Warriors (WHL champion)
RW Jagger Firkus (Kraken, 2022, 35th overall)
D Denton Mateychuk (Blue Jackets, 2022, 12th overall)
D Kalem Parker (Wild, 2023, 181st overall)
D Vojtech Port (Ducks, 2023, 161st overall)
LW Martin Rysavy (Blue Jackets, 2021, 197th overall)
C Matthew Savoie (Sabres, 2022, 9th overall)
C Brayden Yager (Penguins, 2023, 14th overall)
Saginaw Spirit (host)
C Owen Beck (Canadiens, 2022, 33rd overall)
LW Josh Bloom (Canucks, acquired from Sabres in 2023 trade for Riley Stillman)
D Rodwin Dionicio (Ducks, 2023, 129th overall)
D Jorian Donovan (Senators, 2022, 136th overall)
C Hunter Haight (Wild, 2022, 47th overall)
C Ethan Hay (Lightning, 2023, 211th overall)
G Nolan Lalonde (Blue Jackets, free agent signing)
C Matyas Sapovaliv (Golden Knights, 2022, 48th overall)
C Joseph Willis (Predators, 2023, 111th overall)
Vladislav Firstov Clears Unconditional Waivers, Released By Wild
Wednesday: Firstov cleared waivers today, per CapFriendly. The Wild wasted little time releasing him as John Shipley of the Pioneer Press notes that the deal has already been terminated.
Tuesday: The Wild have placed forward prospect Vladislav Firstov on unconditional waivers with intent to terminate his contract, the team announced Tuesday. The Athletic’s Michael Russo was the first to report the news.
It’s likely a mutual termination to allow Firstov to return to Russia next season. The 22-year-old spent most of the last two seasons on loan to Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of the Kontinental Hockey League but was briefly brought to North America to close 2023-24 with AHL Iowa.
He had two goals and two assists in his 10-game stint with the club, his first since a lone appearance at the beginning of 2022-23 before heading to the KHL. Firstov had one season remaining on his entry-level contract and would have been a restricted free agent in 2025, but if he clears waivers tomorrow, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent immediately.
All told, the 2019 second-round pick will have played just 19 games in the Wild organization, all coming with Iowa. He totaled two goals and six points in parts of three seasons after turning pro out of UConn in 2022. A move back to Torpedo seems likely for Firstov, who did well with 28 goals, 61 points and 110 PIMs in 114 games over the past two seasons.
With Firstov set to be off the books next season, the Wild are down to 35 out of the maximum 50 standard player contracts signed.
Predators Have Shown Interest In Mitch Marner
The Maple Leafs haven’t yet given any indication of whether they’ll ask winger Mitch Marner to waive his no-move clause after another first-round playoff exit. However, that hasn’t stopped the Predators from indicating they’d be one of the teams calling if he hits the trade market, per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.
It would be quite a swing from Nashville general manager Barry Trotz as he enters his second offseason at the helm. The longtime coach knocked it out of the park in free agency last summer, landing first-line forwards Gustav Nyquist and Ryan O’Reilly for less than $5MM per season on two-year and four-year deals, respectively. Replacing John Hynes with Andrew Brunette behind the bench also worked out quite well – the latter is a Jack Adams Award finalist this year after guiding the Preds to a 99-point season, their most in five years.
Pagnotta recently posited a Marner for Juuse Saros swap with both star players entering the final season of their contracts, but it’s unclear whether Toronto has shown any interest in the 2022 Vezina Trophy finalist. Without any real indication that Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving is even looking to move on from Marner, it’s impossible to tell for certain what he’d desire in return for his star playmaker.
The Leafs and Preds have been infrequent trade partners, only swapping minor-league or depth players a handful of times over the past few years. Their last major swap came near the 2015 trade deadline, with Toronto sending Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli to Nashville in exchange for Olli Jokinen, Brendan Leipsic and a 2015 first-round pick. The Leafs ended up trading down from that pick, 24th overall, which the Flyers happily used to select Travis Konecny. Then-co-interim GMs Kyle Dubas and Mark Hunter didn’t select any impact NHLers with the picks they acquired, although they did swap one of the picks acquired from Philly for a second-round choice they used to select serviceable defenseman, Travis Dermott.
Marner’s prospective trade value will be influenced by two factors: how many teams he’s willing to waive his no-move clause for (if at all) and if his camp is given permission to work on an extension with the acquiring club. He carries a $10.9MM cap hit next season as he enters the final year of the six-year, $65.4MM deal he signed weeks before the 2019-20 season got underway. Evolving Hockey projects Marner to land an eight-year extension with an $11.7MM cap hit should he sign soon after becoming eligible on July 1.
Toronto would be losing its most dynamic playmaker and one of its better penalty-killers should they move on from Marner, but they would free up considerable cap space to address their lack of puck-moving defensemen and inconsistency in goal. Any roster player they acquire in exchange for Marner is likely to cost a few million dollars less, allowing them to be more aggressive players on this summer’s free-agent market if they make a decision on trading him before the draft.
The Predators, meanwhile, would gain arguably the best player to suit up for them in franchise history outside of two years’ worth of past-his-prime Paul Kariya and 17 games’ worth of Peter Forsberg. Outside of their top line of O’Reilly, Nyquist and Filip Forsberg, center Thomas Novak was the only other Nashville forward to produce over half a point per game. Their top offensive threats are quickly aging, too, with O’Reilly and Nyquist well into their 30s. In a couple of years, a still sub-30 Marner could lead an incredibly deep core of wingers supplemented by Forsberg and top prospects Joakim Kemell and Matthew Wood.
Wild Announce Multiple Front Office Moves
The Wild have promoted Mat Sells, Michael Murray and Chris Kelleher to assistant general manager roles, GM Bill Guerin announced Wednesday. The team also promoted Matt Hendricks to GM of their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild.
The moves come after Guerin manned the Wild’s front office without a supplementary staff for most of the 2023-24 season. Director of team operations Andrew Heydt, who’d worked closely with various Wild GMs since assuming the role in 2014, mutually parted ways with the team in December after filing an internal complaint against Guerin alleging verbal abuse, The Athletic’s Michael Russo reported. An investigation concluded Guerin had not committed a firable offense and thus remained with the team, Russo said.
Kelleher’s promotion is the most notable. He’s been with the club for nearly two decades and will serve under Guerin as the director of player personnel for Team USA at the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and the 2026 Winter Olympics. The 49-year-old joined the Wild full-time as a pro scout in 2009 and was eventually promoted to their director of professional scouting ahead of the 2019-10 campaign. He was again promoted to director of player personnel two summers ago, making this his third internal promotion in the past six years.
In his AGM role, Kelleher will maintain his scouting and personnel responsibilities. The team said he’ll also support Guerin more closely with trade deadline and free agency prep.
Sells will hold a more technical role, similar to his duties as Minnesota’s director of analytics for the past five seasons. According to the team, he’ll be responsible for “salary cap management, player contract research and negotiations, analytics and hockey strategy and Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) compliance.” Sells, who’s also served as their vice president of hockey strategy for the past three seasons, did not have NHL front-office experience before joining the Wild.
Murray previously served as Iowa’s GM and Minnesota’s director of hockey operations, the former of which is being immediately assumed by Hendricks. Like Sells, the Wild are Murray’s first NHL front-office home. The former Dartmouth College forward joined the Wild as a special assistant to the GM in 2020-21 before being named the GM of Iowa the following season. His AGM responsibilities will revolve around assisting Guerin with day-to-day transactions.
Hendricks steps into his first GM role just five years after wrapping up his 11-year, 607-game NHL career. The former Capitals and Oilers fourth-line fixture also had a brief stop with the Wild in his final season, posting two assists in 22 games there before being traded to the Jets and retiring in the summer of 2019. A Minnesota native, Hendricks returned to his home state in a front-office role immediately after retiring, now logging five years of service as their assistant director of player development under former Wild defenseman Brad Bombardir.
Jets To Explore Trading Nikolaj Ehlers
The Jets could find themselves with a much different-looking top-six forward group next season. They’re likely to make winger Nikolaj Ehlers available for trade in the weeks leading up to the 2024 NHL Draft in Las Vegas, The Athletic’s Murat Ates reports.
Ehlers, 28, has one year left on his contract at a $6MM cap hit. He can block a trade to 10 teams with his modified no-trade clause.
Signed to a seven-year, $42MM extension back in 2017, Ehlers has been a Winnipeg fixture for nearly a decade. The Danish winger has 201 goals and 457 points in 605 games since breaking into the league in 2015-16, good enough for sixth all-time in scoring in Jets/Thrashers franchise history. His career +92 rating is the franchise record.
Ehlers played in all 82 games this season, his first healthy season since the pandemic, but his 0.74 points per game were his lowest since the 2018-19 season. He was pushed down the lineup with offseason trade pickup Gabriel Vilardi making a home for himself on the top line alongside Mark Scheifele, and midseason acquisitions Sean Monahan and Tyler Toffoli reduced the amount of available ice time. As a result, Ehlers averaged under 16 minutes per game for the second straight season.
Despite the slight offensive decline, Ehlers remained a consistently positive possession force. His shot-attempt share at even strength has been above the Jets’ team average in all nine of his NHL seasons, including a 54.4 CF% mark this season (5.2% higher than Winnipeg’s CF% without Ehlers on the ice). He also posted a career-high +11.1 expected rating based on shot quality when he was on the ice.
In a supplementary article today, Ates listed the Hurricanes, Penguins, Red Wings, Sabres, Senators and NHL Utah as speculative trade matches. Working with someone on a sign-and-trade after July 1 would allow them to get a much better return – after all, Ehlers is slated for unrestricted free agency upon his current deal’s expiry in 2025, and there’s no guarantee he’d stay with a new team for more than one season.
One stat that may damage his value is his playoff performance. He’s made 37 postseason appearances across six campaigns but has only managed four goals and 14 points, half of his career regular-season points per game rate. His last playoff goal came in the first round of the 2021 playoffs against the Oilers. He was limited to two assists and a -4 rating in five games against the Avalanche in this year’s first-round elimination.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Kris Letang, John Ludvig, Matt Nieto Undergo Surgeries
Three Penguins have gone under the knife in recent weeks, general manager Kyle Dubas announced Wednesday. Defenseman John Ludvig and winger Matt Nieto could miss the beginning of the 2024-25 season after undergoing successful extensor tendon and MCL surgeries, respectively. Star defenseman Kris Letang also underwent surgery to repair a fractured finger on his left hand on Friday but isn’t expected to miss out on any training camp action with an eight-week recovery timeline.
Ludvig had his left wrist surgery done back on April 24, the team said. His recovery window is four to six months, meaning he may be ready for training camp but could also miss the first few weeks of the regular season. Nieto will miss a more significant portion of next season, undergoing reconstructive MCL surgery on his left knee at the beginning of this month. He has a six-to-seven-month recovery timeline, putting his return to game action well into November or December 2024.
Today’s news offers some clarity into Dubas’ open-ended comments at his end-of-season media availability last month. The GM said Letang was searching for a second opinion on an undisclosed injury that he played through down the stretch, putting some speculative doubt into his availability at the beginning of next season.
A finger fracture falls firmly in the best-case scenario category for the 37-year-old, who should begin training camp ready to go as he enters Year 3 of his six-year, $36.6MM extension. He played in all 82 games last season for the second time in his 13-season NHL career, finishing just behind Erik Karlsson in Penguins defense scoring with 10 goals and 51 points.
Nieto is undergoing his second knee surgery in 2024. In January, he had laparoscopic surgery on his right knee, which was initially expected to sideline him for six to eight weeks but ended up costing him the rest of the season.
Dubas said last month that Nieto was also seeking a second opinion on whether surgery or rehab was required for his MCL injury. He obviously opted to go with the former. He sustained the initial right knee injury in late November, ending his 2023-24 season after just one goal and four points in 22 games. The 31-year-old inked a two-year, $1.8MM deal with Pittsburgh shortly after free agency opened last summer. Upon returning to the lineup next season, he likely won’t factor into anything more than a fourth-line role.
Ludvig’s rookie year was also stunted by injuries, namely a concussion sustained in his NHL debut that kept him out for nearly a month. After being claimed off waivers from the Panthers during training camp, the 23-year-old had three goals, five points and a -12 rating in 33 contests in a third-pairing role. He’s under contract next season at a $775K cap hit but will become eligible to sign an extension on July 1.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Kraken Linked To Todd McLellan
Add Todd McLellan‘s name to the list of coaching candidates for the Kraken this summer. He and internal promotion options Dan Bylsma and Jay Leach are the current favorites to be named the franchise’s second head coach, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said on Wednesday’s “32 Thoughts” podcast.
McLellan is on the market after the Kings fired him midseason. He’s also been linked to the Maple Leafs’ coaching vacancy and is considered one of two finalists alongside ex-Blues coach Craig Berube.
Seattle fired Dave Hakstol late last month after he served behind the bench for the team’s first three NHL seasons. The Kraken signed Hakstol to a two-year extension last summer that was set to kick in for 2024-25 after winning their first-ever playoff series, but they fell back out of the postseason picture this year with a 34-35-15 record.
If he lands the role, McLellan will stay in the Pacific Division as he has for his entire head coaching career. Over three stops with the Sharks, Oilers and Kings, McLellan has accumulated a 598-412-134 record in 1,144 regular-season games, good for a .581 points percentage. He’s won just one playoff series since his days in San Jose, though, a first-round victory with Edmonton over the Sharks in 2017.
The Kraken can offer him a squad similar to what he had in Los Angeles. They don’t have the high-ceiling firepower of an Anže Kopitar, Kevin Fiala or Adrian Kempe, but they do have solid scoring depth spread out across all four lines and a largely stout defense group in front of sometimes dominant but inconsistent goaltending from year to year. Seattle hopes the younger Joey Daccord, who took over as their starter this season with a .916 SV% in 50 appearances, can erase that last statement.
McLellan did good work in L.A. to guide them out of a rebuild after coaching a contender in San Jose and failing to get Edmonton to the playoffs consistently in the early days of the Leon Draisaitl/Connor McDavid era. The Kings have finished third in the Pacific in all three seasons since the pandemic, although this year was aided by interim Jim Hiller taking over past the halfway point. He had L.A. off to a torrid start this season, posting a 16-4-3 record through their first 23 games, but a 4-8-6 skid between Christmas and the All-Star break cost him his job.
Leach, whose name has been bandied about for some other vacancies this summer, has been with the Kraken as an assistant since their inception. Bylsma, who won the Stanley Cup as a head coach with the Penguins in 2009, has been the head coach of AHL Coachella Valley since they began play in 2022-23, leading them to a 94-32-18 record in their first two seasons.
Jets Not Expected To Re-Sign Brenden Dillon
The Jets are expected to let defenseman Brenden Dillon reach unrestricted free agency in July, the Winnipeg Sun’s Scott Billeck reports Wednesday.
Dillon didn’t have any extension talks with Winnipeg in-season, per Billeck. He also hasn’t heard from the Jets front office since their season ended over two weeks ago at the hands of the Avalanche in a disappointing first-round loss. He didn’t play in the final two games of the series after sustaining a hand laceration after the end of Game 3.
The 33-year-old left-shot landed with Winnipeg via trade nearly three years ago. He signed a four-year, $15.6MM contract extension with the Capitals before the 2020-21 season after they picked him up from the Sharks at the prior season’s trade deadline, but lasted only one season in Washington before they flipped him to the Jets for a pair of second-round picks.
Dillon has consistently logged top-four minutes in Manitoba, averaging 19:04 per game over 238 appearances since the trade. He missed just eight games in his three-year tenure, mostly due to COVID and a three-game suspension this year.
That consistency and solid defensive work made him a reasonably valuable asset for general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff at his $3.9MM cap hit. Not only did he stay healthy, he was incredibly consistent season-to-season for Winnipeg, recording between 20 and 23 points every season with a combined +38 rating.
Dillon is perhaps coming off his best season in the NHL, posting career-highs in goals (8), plus/minus (+20) and hits (241). His topped-out physicality did result in more trips to the penalty box (92 PIMs, up from the 60-70 range the past few years). He also controlled a decent 47.4% of expected goals when on the ice at even strength, considering he saw the least advantageous usage of his career, starting nearly 60% of his in-zone shifts in the defensive end.
Since breaking into the league as an undrafted free-agent pickup by the Stars in 2011-12, he’s made 892 appearances for Dallas, San Jose, Washington and Winnipeg. He’s totaled 37 goals, 159 assists, 196 points and 858 PIMs in parts of 13 seasons.
He likely wouldn’t have cost much to re-sign. His age lowers his value, and while he’s still a solid top-four contributor, he doesn’t stand out among an otherwise deep class of UFA defensemen. Evolving Hockey projects he’ll land a two-year deal with a $2.975MM cap hit on the open market, nearly a $1MM decrease from his current cap hit.
That could indicate Cheveldayoff anticipates needing to shell out to keep Dylan DeMelo around. DeMelo, a right-shot, was half of Winnipeg’s top pairing this season alongside Josh Morrissey and had a career year in 2023-24, posting 31 points and a +46 rating while averaging 21 minutes per game for the first time in his nine NHL seasons. On a mid-term deal, he’d likely receive close to $5MM annually on the open market, which will eat up a solid chunk of their $13.35MM in available cap space next season. With a new deal needed for restricted free agent Cole Perfetti coming off his entry-level contract and extending trade-deadline pickup Sean Monahan likely a priority, there’s some viable reasoning for Winnipeg to let Dillon, its oldest pending UFA defenseman, head to market.
Ducks Make Multiple Front Office Moves
The Ducks will have a new face at the helm of their AHL affiliate in San Diego next season. Rick Paterson is being promoted to the role of AHL general manager after serving as Anaheim’s director of professional scouting on and off since 2005. Assistant general manager Rob DiMaio, who’d also managed San Diego since joining the club in 2022, won’t be back with the team next season for personal reasons.
While Paterson will replace DiMaio’s duties in San Diego, he isn’t taking over his AGM title under Ducks GM Pat Verbeek. That role is going to Mike Stapleton, who’s been with the Ducks as a scout since 2014 and served as their director of player personnel the last two seasons.
Part of their responsibilities in their new roles will be helping Verbeek and head coach Greg Cronin replace some vacancies on his bench. The Ducks also announced Tuesday that they’re not renewing the contracts of assistant coaches Newell Brown and Craig Johnson.
The promotion continues Paterson’s lengthy run of front office work. The 66-year-old played over 400 games for the Blackhawks in the 1980s, but his first off-ice work came with the Penguins immediately after retiring in 1988. He was an assistant coach during their back-to-back Stanley Cup wins in 1991 and 1992 before being reassigned to their minor league affiliate, the IHL’s Cleveland Lumberjacks, in 1993. Paterson served as their head coach for four seasons before heading to the Lightning.
As he’s been in Anaheim, Paterson was a jack of all trades for the Bolts from 1997 to 2005. He began as an assistant coach, briefly serving as interim head coach in 1998, before transitioning to a scouting role in 1999. He got his third Stanley Cup ring in Tampa in 2004 as their director of professional scouting and landed his fourth and most recent with the Ducks in 2007.
Stapleton is much newer to the front office game, landing his first off-ice role in junior hockey as an assistant coach of the NAHL’s Traverse City North Stars in 2005. His 697-game NHL career ended after the 2000-01 season, but he played a few seasons in Europe before hanging up the skates in 2004. He bounced around other coaching roles in the OHL and AHL before landing with the Ducks as a pro scout.
DiMaio exits as AGM after only two seasons in SoCal, a role he got after 14 seasons with the Blues as a scout and, later, their director of player personnel.
Brown, 62, ends his third stint with the Ducks after three seasons. He was an assistant coach under Randy Carlyle when Anaheim won their Stanley Cup in ’07, part of his second tenure with the club that spanned from 2005-06 to 2009-10. His first chance in Anaheim was a two-year run as an assistant in 1998-99 and 1999-00, his second NHL job after serving on the Blackhawks’ bench for two seasons prior. He’s also spent time with the Blue Jackets, Canucks and Coyotes, all in assistant coaching roles. If he doesn’t land a role on an NHL bench next season, it’ll be his first year out of the league since 1995-96.
Johnson joined the Ducks a year after Brown, only serving as an assistant the last two seasons. He’d been an assistant coach with the AHL’s Ontario Reign, the primary affiliate of the Kings, for two seasons before heading down the freeway to Anaheim. Brent Thompson, who only joined the Ducks last summer, is the only returning assistant next season.