Avalanche Sign Jeremy Hanzel To Entry-Level Contract
The Avalanche inked defense prospect Jeremy Hanzel to a three-year, entry-level contract on Thursday, per a team announcement. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Colorado selected Hanzel, 21, in the sixth round of last year’s draft. The Coquitlam, British Columbia, native is in his fourth and final season of major junior hockey with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, where he’s on pace for career highs with 13 goals and 50 points in 58 games.
A strong outlet passer, Hanzel is a left-shot blue-liner who stands at 6-foot-1 and 196 lbs. Initially eligible for selection in the 2021 NHL Draft, he was passed over twice before heading to the Avs last summer. He was a league-leading +70 on a Thunderbirds team that won the WHL championship last season en route to a Memorial Cup appearance.
Given his age, Hanzel’s ELC is not eligible to slide. The contract will begin next season, when he’ll likely be assigned to the AHL’s Colorado Eagles, and runs through 2026-27. He’ll be a restricted free agent upon expiry.
Canadiens, Ducks Swap Jan Mysak For Jacob Perreault
The Canadiens and Ducks have exchanged forward prospects Jan Mysak and Jacob Perreault, both teams announced. It’s a one-for-one swap of U-22 prospects whose development has stalled with their respective minor-league clubs.
Perreault, 21, is a Montreal native and was a first-round pick of the Ducks in 2020 after scoring 39 goals and 70 points in 59 games with the OHL’s Sarnia Sting. Concerningly, his production has declined after a strong rookie season with AHL San Diego in 2020-21 (17 points in 27 games), and he’s tallied seven goals and 18 points in 31 games this season with a -3 rating. He made his NHL debut in January 2022 but has not seen major league action since.
The son of former Canadien Yanic Perreault and the older brother of Rangers prospect Gabe Perreault, Jacob is a natural right-winger. He still has one season remaining on his entry-level contract with a cap hit of $863.3K, so he won’t be a restricted free agent until the summer of 2025.
Unlike Perreault, Mysak can shift to center. The 21-year-old Czech forward was a second-round pick by Montreal in 2020 and had the rare experience of immediately playing pro hockey. Despite being drafted out of a Canadian junior league, he was permitted to suit up for the AHL’s Laval Rocket in 2020-21 because the OHL had paused game action due to COVID. There, he notched two goals in 22 games before returning to the OHL the following year, where he tallied 34 goals and 64 points in 61 games with the Hamilton Bulldogs en route to a Memorial Cup appearance. He’s on an opposite trajectory to Perreault – slowly heating up in the minors with 20 points in 48 games for AHL Laval this year after recording just nine in 40 games last season.
Mysak is also in the second season of his entry-level deal and will be an RFA in 2025. His cap hit is slightly lower at $828.3K, but as both players are assigned to the minors at the time of the trade, the swap has no salary cap impact for either team.
Blackhawks Trade Anthony Beauvillier To Predators
Forward Anthony Beauvillier is on the move for the second time this season, heading from the Blackhawks to the Predators, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports that Nashville is sending Chicago a 2024 fifth-round pick in return.
The Blackhawks brought in Beauvillier in November, parting with a fifth-round pick of their own to acquire him from the Canucks. The 26-year-old is in the final season of a three-year, $12.45MM contract with a $4.15MM cap hit. There’s been no indication that Chicago is retaining part of Beauvillier’s salary.
Beauvillier’s had a short but difficult tenure in Chicago, missing most of the last two months with a wrist injury. He potted six points in 23 games while averaging 14:22 per game, a slight uptick from the 13:39 per game he saw through the first 22 games of the season with Vancouver.
The one-time 20-goal scorer is now on his fourth team in the past two seasons after heading from the Islanders to the Canucks at last year’s deadline in the Bo Horvat trade. He looked decent in a middle-six role with Vancouver after the trade, posting 20 points in 33 games, but struggled to carry over his momentum and had only two goals and eight points in 22 games to begin this season.
In Nashville, Beauvillier reunites with former Isles head coach Barry Trotz, now the Preds’ GM. He’s a more experienced option for Nashville to insert in their middle six down the stretch and carries much more offensive upside than current third-line left wing Mark Jankowski, whom he could replace in the lineup alongside Luke Evangelista and the newly-extended Thomas Novak for a more formidable depth scoring line.
Chicago’s four months of Beauvillier’s services end up being a wash, parting with the acquisition cost in today’s trade. The Predators had a massive $37.2MM figure in deadline cap space, so taking on the entirety of Beauvillier’s cap hit is no issue, considering he’ll hit the UFA market this summer if not re-signed by Nashville.
Blues Sign Oskar Sundqvist To Two-Year Extension
Per a team release, the Blues have signed pending UFA forward Oskar Sundqvist to a two-year contract extension. The deal is worth $3MM and has a $1.5MM AAV and cap hit.
Sundqvist, 29, returned to the Blues for his second stint with the club last summer on a one-year, league-minimum contract. He’s punched well above his weight class compared to his $775K salary, recording 21 points in 62 games in a shutdown role while averaging 13:29 per game.
A two-time Stanley Cup champion, Sundqvist was a solid middle-six center for the Blues when they lifted the trophy in 2019. 304 of his 417 NHL games have come in a St. Louis sweater, initially coming to the Blues in a 2017 trade from the Penguins.
While he’s provided solid secondary scoring for his bottom-six role, he’s not as effective as a shutdown center as his usage suggests. His 39.7 CF% at even strength is the worst among full-time Blues forwards this season, and he’s never been above 50 in a full season. He has a 40.4 xGF% this year, and while he remains a decent penalty killer, he hasn’t been able to translate that into shot quality suppression at even strength.
Per CapFriendly, the Blues now have $14.6MM in projected cap space next season with a roster size of 18, on pace to relieve themselves of this season’s cap crunch. Sundqvist will be a UFA when his new deal expires in 2026.
Panthers Extend Gustav Forsling, Jonah Gadjovich
The Panthers have signed pending UFA defenseman Gustav Forsling to an eight-year extension, GM Bill Zito announced Thursday (via Steve Goldstein of Bally Sports Florida). Winger Jonah Gadjovich has also signed a two-year extension, Zito said (via Colby Guy of the Associated Press). Forsling’s contract carries a $5.75MM AAV ($46MM total value), per Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. Gadjovich’s extension is a one-way deal with the league minimum $775K salary in both seasons, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports.
Per PuckPedia, Forsling’s deal has a no-move clause beginning next season through 2029-30 and a 16-team no-trade clause from 2030-31 to 2031-32. His contract is also paid out primarily in signing bonuses, earning only $1MM in base salary each season.
It’s a monumental extension for Forsling and the Panthers, who each gain important clarity into their long-term futures. Forsling, now under contract through 2032, was one of four pending UFA blue-liners on the Panthers’ roster. Top-four fixture Brandon Montour and last summer’s one-year pickups Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Niko Mikkola remain unsigned past this season.
Forsling has had quite the rise to fame in Sunrise. The 27-year-old was claimed off waivers from the Hurricanes at the beginning of the 2021 season after spending all of 2019-20 in the minors and quickly grew into a top-four role on a strong Panthers squad that received an unfortunate First Round matchup against the eventual Stanley Cup champion Lightning. Last season, Forsling scored a career-high 13 goals, 41 points, and a 23:26 ATOI while playing in all 82 games.
He elevated his game further in the postseason, recording eight points and a +7 rating while logging a remarkable 26:01 per game in Florida’s run to the Stanley Cup Final. He also carried the torch as the Panthers’ number-one blue-liner to begin 2023-24 with both Montour and Aaron Ekblad out with shoulder injuries, and he’s responded with one of his best two-way campaigns yet with 31 points, a league-leading +43 rating, and a 56.1 xGF%, per Hockey Reference.
A fifth-round pick of the Canucks in 2014, Forsling’s signing rights were traded to the Blackhawks the following year in exchange for minor-league defenseman Adam Clendening. He eventually inked his entry-level contract with Chicago in 2016 and immediately joined the organization, splitting all of his three seasons there between the NHL and AHL as he failed to make much of an impact in a depth role. He was then dealt to Carolina in 2019 before being claimed off waivers by Florida.
The differences in his impact between Chicago and Florida are jaw-dropping. In 122 games with the Blackhawks between 2016 and 2019, Forsling posted 27 points, a -8 rating, and a 44.8 xGF% at even strength while averaging 17:04 per game. In his three-and-a-half years in Florida, he’s recorded 126 points, a +120 rating, and a 55.3 xGF% in 258 games, averaging 21:51 per game.
Florida now has a top-pairing caliber player locked up well below market value, at least for the first few seasons of his deal. Forsling was among the top UFA defensemen available this summer.
Gadjovich is in his first season in South Florida after inking a one-year, $810K deal in free agency shortly after the 2023-24 season began. He’s spent most of the season in the majors after an AHL stint in October and November, posting four points and 90 PIMs in 33 games. A strictly fourth-line enforcer with poor possession impacts and little offensive upside at the NHL level, he’ll complement Florida’s bottom-of-the-lineup skaters in a tough-guy role until reaching UFA status again in 2026.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Maple Leafs Acquire Joel Edmundson From Capitals
The Capitals and Maple Leafs have agreed on a trade to send left-shot defenseman Joel Edmundson from Washington to Toronto, per a team release. Two draft picks – the Islanders’ 2024 third-round pick and the Blackhawks’ 2025 fifth-round pick – are heading back to Washington in the deal. The Capitals are retaining 50% of Edmundson’s already-reduced $1.75MM cap hit, bringing his cap hit down to $875K for the Maple Leafs. In a corresponding transaction to create the cap space needed for the trade, the Maple Leafs moved defenseman Conor Timmins from injured reserve to long-term injured reserve, per CapFriendly.
Edmundson, 30, has slipped to a depth role this season and is a pending UFA. After picking up Ethan Bear on the free-agent market midseason led to a defensive logjam in Washington, Edmundson looked to be on his way out after failing to solidify top-four minutes in his first season with the Caps.
The Maple Leafs have been in the market for blue-line depth for weeks, and they weren’t done after acquiring Ilya Lyubushkin from the Ducks last week for his second stint with the team. For the past few days, they’ve been linked to Edmundson, who can play both left and right defense and stands at a hulking 6-foot-5 and 224 pounds.
Edmundson’s production and possession metrics don’t move the needle much. Still, he does carry a massive advantage in playoff experience over other Leafs blue-liners who have been in their bottom-pairing rotation as of late, like Maxime Lajoie and William Lagesson. He’s sitting on a goal and six points in 44 games this season, and the Manitoba native’s 16:26 average time on ice is the lowest in quite a while. His possession metrics don’t paint him as an extreme liability after a disastrous 2022-23 campaign with the Canadiens, posting a 1.2 relative CF% at even strength and 47.4 xGF% (per Hockey Reference). There were some better shutdown options on the market, though.
Over 521 career games with the Blues, Canadiens, Capitals, and Hurricanes, Edmundson has 29 goals, 81 assists, 110 points, and a +18 rating, averaging 18:30 per game. After winning the Stanley Cup with St. Louis in 2019 and spending the following season in Carolina, he signed a four-year, $14MM contract ($3.5MM cap hit) with Montreal that expires this summer. The Caps acquired him for a third-round and seventh-round pick last offseason, with Montreal retaining 50% of his cap hit. Since Edmundson’s contract had already been involved in a prior retained salary transaction, the Caps and Leafs could not have used a third party to retain additional salary in this trade.
He’s not afraid to use his body, blocking 822 shots and recording 979 hits throughout his nine-year career. However, that hasn’t translated into positive possession quality for Edmundson’s team with him on the ice. He’s recorded an xGF% above 50 twice in his career, not since 2021, when he reached the Stanley Cup Final with Montreal. Last season was an especially difficult campaign for him, recording 23 points in 61 games with a career-worst -29 rating and a 42.9 xGF%.
Edmundson now moves from one team with a defensive logjam to another. Lyubushkin has settled in nicely on a pairing with Morgan Rielly since his acquisition, meaning Edmundson, Timmins, Simon Benoit, Mark Giordano, and Timothy Liljegren will now all compete for the fifth and sixth spots on the Toronto blue line when everyone is healthy.
The Maple Leafs don’t have an open roster spot for Edmundson yet, although CapFriendly reports Lagesson has been removed from the active roster and will likely hit waivers at 1 p.m. CT.
Former NHL and AHL defenseman Jordan Schmaltz was first to report that Edmundson had been traded to Toronto.
Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic was first to report that the Capitals were retaining 50% of his cap hit.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report the return.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Kings Sign Jacob Ingham To One-Year Deal
The Kings have added another goalie under NHL contract, inking depth netminder Jacob Ingham to a one-year, two-way deal with a $775K cap hit. He was promptly loaned to the ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits without being placed on waivers.
Ingham, 23, was a sixth-round pick of the Kings in 2018. He stayed with the Kings’ AHL and ECHL affiliates after turning pro in 2020, but a back injury cost him the entire 2022-23 campaign and caused the Kings not to issue him a qualifying offer when his entry-level contract expired last summer. As such, Ingham became a UFA and could sign a contract with any NHL club.
He remained in the Kings organization nonetheless, inking an AHL contract with their affiliate, the Ontario Reign, to continue developing in the organization. Ingham has responded with his best showing in the pros, posting a 3-2-0 record and .917 SV% in six appearances with the Reign and a career-high .918 SV% and 16-6-1 record in 25 games with ECHL Greenville.
The Kings regain his exclusive NHL rights by signing Ingham to a deal for the remainder of the season. Given his age, he’ll be an RFA this summer if the Kings issue him a qualifying offer, which looks like a likely scenario given his continued development in the minors and their lack of other notable young netminders signed other than former University of Michigan standout Erik Portillo.
Flames’ Martin Pospisil Suspended Three Games
The NHL Department of Player Safety announced Wednesday that Flames winger Martin Pospisil has been suspended for three games for boarding Kraken defenseman Vince Dunn in the third period of Monday’s game. His suspension opens a roster spot for the Flames as they continue to work out a trade to send top-four blue-liner Noah Hanifin to the Golden Knights.
Pospisil was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct on the play. Dunn sustained an apparent head injury and did not return for the game’s final minutes.
The Department of Player Safety said Pospisil’s actions constituted supplemental discipline because “the onus is on Pospisil to avoid this hit entirely, change his angle of approach and deliver this check legally, or, at the very least, minimize the impact of this hit. Instead, with time to make a different decision, Pospisil chooses to drive Dunn forcefully into the boards from behind.”
Pospisil, 24, has not been fined or suspended throughout his 45-game NHL career. Since making his Flames debut in early November, the 2018 fourth-round pick has worked his way into a full-time role, posting six goals, nine assists, and 15 points with a +8 rating. The Zvolen, Slovakia native has demonstrated a willingness to play on the edge and has gotten burned for it, garnering 72 PIMs. It’s otherwise been a promising rookie season for Pospisil, who boasts a 53.5 CF% at even strength and a +0.9 expected rating while logging 12:06 per game.
His suspension means Nazem Kadri is now without both his most common linemates this season, Pospisil and rookie Connor Zary. Zary is on injured reserve and listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury. In their absence, Kadri is expected to center midseason trade pickup Andrei Kuzmenko and 2019 first-round pick Jakob Pelletier.
Latest On Tyler Toffoli
The Devils are one of a handful of teams potentially in both buy and sell modes ahead of Friday’s deadline. A goaltending upgrade remains a short-term and long-term necessity, but as they’re now eight points out of a playoff spot with three wins in their last 10 games, it might behoove GM Tom Fitzgerald to recoup some value on their pending UFAs.
Their leading goal scorer, Tyler Toffoli, is the most prominent name on that list. While the Devils reportedly prefer to continue discussing an extension with their number-two winger, Darren Dreger of TSN reports that Toffoli is still a candidate to be on the move in the next two days and could garner a significant return.
Kings fans may wish for a reunion with the winger, who won a Stanley Cup in Los Angeles as a rookie in 2014, as they deal with injuries to Viktor Arvidsson and Adrian Kempe down the stretch. That could still be in the cards, as GM Rob Blake had reported interest in Toffoli last week.
A Pacific Division rival is creating some competition, though. The Golden Knights, who are still finalizing a massive trade to land top-pairing defender Noah Hanifin and have already added winger Anthony Mantha for added scoring depth this week, have also demonstrated interest in Toffoli, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports.
A Toffoli trade likely isn’t indicative of a step back in the Devils’ rebuild. Nearing completion of a four-year, $17MM deal signed with the Canadiens in 2020 that’s seen him traded twice, Toffoli and the Devils haven’t agreed on the length of a potential extension as of Tuesday. It doesn’t appear there’s been progress in the last 24 hours, making it a prudent move on Fitzgerald’s part to retain assets for Toffoli instead of potentially letting him walk for nothing on July 1. Moving him out at the deadline doesn’t mean New Jersey couldn’t circle back with Toffoli if he heads to market over the summer.
Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic says not to expect a trade tonight, so the Devils will continue gauging the market tomorrow and potentially Friday morning before electing to move him.
Kings Sign Jacob Moverare To Two-Year Extension
The Kings signed defenseman Jacob Moverare to a two-year contract extension Wednesday, per a team release. The deal carries the league minimum salary of $775K in both seasons, making him a UFA upon expiry in 2026.
While the timing of such an extension may seem random, it’s likely a calculated move by the Kings’ front office. The team placed Moverare on waivers earlier Wednesday in an attempt to assign him to the AHL’s Ontario Reign, and attaching an additional two seasons to his term is likely to dissuade teams from placing a claim for short-term help.
Moverare, 25, was selected by Los Angeles in the fourth round of the 2016 draft. Despite signing his entry-level contract just a few days after the draft, it took him a while to join the Kings. He spent two seasons in major junior hockey with the OHL’s Mississauga Steelheads and another two seasons with Frölunda HC in the Swedish Hockey League before making his North American professional debut with the Reign in 2021.
He’s since played in 31 games for the Kings, recording two assists and a +1 rating while averaging 15:50 per outing over the last three years. 10 of those showings have come this season, during which time he’s been held without a point but has decent possession impacts with a +0.9 expected rating and a sparkling 65.3% expected goals share through 75 minutes partnered with Matt Roy, per MoneyPuck.
A decent two-way presence at the minor-league level, Moverare also has 18 points and a +16 rating in 34 games with the Reign this year. He doesn’t grade out as much more than a seventh defender on a contending team. Still, he’s shown the ability this season to be inserted into the lineup without being a liability.
Moverare was to be a Group VI UFA this summer after completing a two-year, $1.525MM extension signed with the Kings in June 2022. While his cap hit increases slightly from $762.5K to $775K, he isn’t getting a pay raise – the second year of his extension was structured as a one-way deal with a $775K salary, the same as what he’ll earn for the next two years.