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Wild Sign Nicolas Aubé-Kubel, Matt Kiersted, Cal Petersen

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The Wild announced they’ve signed forward Nicolas Aubé-Kubel and goaltender Calvin Petersen to one-year deals and signed defenseman Matt Kiersted to a two-year deal. The club also confirmed yesterday’s reported signings of defenseman Ben Gleason and forward Tyler Pitlick to two-way deals.

Aubé-Kubel lands a two-way deal ($775K NHL/$500K AHL), as does Kiersted ($775K NHL/$450K AHL); Petersen’s is a one-way structure for the league minimum $775K. Michael Russo of The Athletic was the first to report Petersen’s signing.

Aubé-Kubel, a Stanley Cup champion with the 2022 Avalanche, continues a journeyman career that will now see him play with seven NHL organizations in the last five years. He split last season between the Sabres and Rangers after signing a $1.5MM contract in Buffalo in free agency that yielded disappointing results. The bottom-six grinder saw his lowest NHL workload since before the pandemic, recording two points and 40 hits in 22 games with a minus-five rating.

He could land a roster spot out of camp – he has 304 games of NHL experience, after all – but it’ll be a tight competition for an extra forward spot as names like Pitlick push for an NHL return while top prospect Danila Yurov is ticketed for a place. He could very well end up back on waivers and could play a big role with AHL Iowa if he clears.

Kiersted’s and Petersen’s signings are made more with Iowa in mind and less in terms of their ability to compete for an NHL roster spot. Kiersted, 27, was an undrafted free agent signing by the Panthers out of North Dakota in 2021 and has been with the organization ever since, finally reaching unrestricted free agency this summer.

He’s recorded seven points and a minus-five rating in 39 NHL games for Florida over the years, averaging 12:01 per game. He’s mostly been a depth piece logging minutes for AHL Charlotte, where he posted one goal and 28 assists with a league-leading +34 rating in 64 games. The Minnesota native will look to bring that strong two-way presence to his home state’s farm club, which has struggled to be competitive in recent years.

They’ve also inked Petersen, who’s expected to take over as Iowa’s starter with top prospect Jesper Wallstedt likely taking over for Marc-André Fleury as Filip Gustavsson’s backup this season. The 30-year-old is now freed from the three-year, $15MM deal he signed with the Kings that he never came close to living up to. While it gave him incredible guaranteed compensation for a goaltender who spent most of the deal in the minors, it also limited his maneuverability.

The Iowa native will almost certainly clear waivers in the fall and return home. He logged a 3.14 GAA, .885 SV%, and a 13-15-3 record in 31 appearances for AHL Lehigh Valley last season while with the Flyers organization.

Red Wings Re-Sign Elmer Soderblom To Two-Year Contract

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RFA winger Elmer Soderblom is returning to the Red Wings on a two-year contract, according to a team announcement. The deal is worth $2.25MM for a cap hit of $1.125MM.

Soderblom, who turns 24 on Saturday, appeared in 26 games for the Wings last season after not seeing any NHL action in 2023-24. He scored four goals and 11 points while averaging 13:22 per contest, finishing at a 10.5% clip and recording 43 hits.

The hulking 6’8″ winger, drafted back in 2019 in the sixth round, has been a middle-six fixture in the AHL for the Grand Rapids Griffins for the past three seasons, including a 5-12–17 scoring line in 38 games there this season. The Wings evidently liked what they saw from Soderblom down the stretch in the NHL last year enough to not only give him a one-way contract but a seven-figure commitment annually.

Soderblom will be expected to crack the opening night roster for the second time in his career after making the team unexpectedly in 2022-23. He should factor into a consistent bottom-six role for Detroit next year and is almost a certainty to set a new career high in games played. The Wings have a full 23-player roster but still boast over $14MM in cap space, per PuckPedia.

Oilers Sign Curtis Lazar To One-Year Deal

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The Oilers have signed free agent center Curtis Lazar to a one-year contract, according to a team announcement.

Lazar will earn the league minimum $775K salary on a one-way deal, the team said. That’s a necessity for the cap-strapped Oilers, who only had $950,834 in cap space with one open roster spot before making the move, per PuckPedia. They’re now effectively barred from making any NHL-oriented UFA signings unless they clear a salary, although they can technically exceed the salary cap by 10% over the offseason.

Lazar, 30, joins his seventh team in 12 NHL seasons. He spent the 2024-25 season with the Devils, one of two clubs, along with the Flames, for which he’s logged at least 100 appearances. A knee injury limited the established fourth-liner to 48 appearances, scoring just two goals and three assists for five points while averaging 10:34 per game and going 51.3% on faceoffs. He’s taking a pay cut to return to Edmonton, where he played his junior hockey with the WHL’s Oil Kings, after earning a $1MM salary for the past three seasons.

Despite his most recent sample looking rocky, Lazar offers good upside for his price tag in a fourth-line role for Edmonton. He’s one year removed from a career-high 18 assists and 25 points in Jersey and has shown the ability to comfortably average 12-13 minutes per game in the past, offering the Oilers stability down the middle as a more appealing fourth-line pivot over depth piece Noah Philp or natural winger Mattias Janmark.

Image courtesy of Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images.

Devils, Sharks Swap Shane Bowers, Thomas Bordeleau

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The Devils have acquired the signing rights to RFA forward Thomas Bordeleau from the Sharks in exchange for Shane Bowers, both clubs announced.

The trade marks a swap of underperforming prospects, although calling Bowers a prospect at this stage of his career is a big stretch. He turns 26 later this month and now joins his fifth NHL organization after being a first-round pick by the Senators in 2017 out of Boston University.

Bowers, a 6’2″ center, has seen NHL action in each of the last three seasons but is still looking for his first NHL point. Twelve of his 13 career appearances have come over the last two seasons with New Jersey, where he averaged 9:03 per game and went 8-for-23 on faceoffs (34.8%) with 12 hits.

The Nova Scotia native hasn’t displayed consistent upside in the minors, either. He had just three goals in 65 games with AHL Utica last season, adding 14 assists for 17 points with a -14 rating. He’s produced just 0.34 points per game over seven AHL seasons during stops in the Devils, Avalanche, and Bruins organizations.

While Bordeleau has a lower draft pedigree and has also failed to capture a full-time NHL role, he’s three years younger than Bowers and has displayed far more offensive competency at the NHL and AHL levels. That makes this a shrewd pickup for the Devils, and it’s fair to wonder if Bordeleau requested a trade out of San Jose amid a logjam of forward prospects in the Bay Area.

Either way, the 5’10” center gets a fresh start in Newark with a chance to make the opening night roster in October. The 23-year-old University of Michigan product posted six goals and 18 points in 44 NHL games with the Sharks in the last four years, and he logged a 14-24–38 scoring line in 59 games with the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda last year. He was an AHL All-Star in 2022-23 and was the Big 10’s Rookie of the Year with Michigan back in 2020-21.

New Jersey will need to get Bordeleau signed to a new contract, but once they do, he’ll look to compete for a roster spot alongside names like rookie Arseni Gritsyuk and depth signing Angus Crookshank. If he doesn’t crack the roster, he’d need to land on waivers to go to Utica.

Penguins Sign Rafael Harvey-Pinard To Two-Way Contract

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The Penguins have signed free agent winger Rafael Harvey-Pinard to a two-way contract, the team confirmed in a press release. They also officially finalized previously reported contracts for Anthony Mantha and Philip Kemp. Harvey-Pinard will earn $775K in the NHL and $450K in the AHL with a $525K guarantee, per PuckPedia.

Harvey-Pinard first popped up on the NHL radar as an overage selection out of QMJHL Rouyn-Noranda, going to the Canadiens in the seventh round of the 2019 draft. He turned pro with the Laval Rocket, Montreal’s AHL affiliate, in 2020-21 before making his NHL debut the following season on a four-game call-up.

After producing well in Laval to begin his pro career, Harvey-Pinard got an extended NHL look later in the 2022-23 campaign after Cole Caufield went down with a shoulder injury. He got reps in top-six duties alongside Nick Suzuki and produced quite well, scoring 14 goals and six assists for 20 points in 34 games.

Injuries have since derailed the 26-year-old’s career, and he never found that spark again. Last season, he wasn’t cleared to play until late November after sustaining a broken leg during the offseason and cleared waivers upon his return. In addition to only getting one NHL appearance in 2024-25, his minor-league production was also dreadful. After consistently producing around a 0.80 points per game clip earlier in his career with Laval, he had just five goals and 14 assists for 19 points in 40 games for them last year.

The 5’9″ winger will now try to jumpstart his production in the Penguins organization. It’s a no-risk signing for Pittsburgh, who might even have a spot on their opening night roster for Harvey-Pinard if he impresses in camp, if they shop forwards like Noel Acciari, Kevin Hayes, and Danton Heinen this summer as speculated. He likely wraps up Pittsburgh’s depth signings with 46 out of a possible 50 contracts now on the books for this season.

Image courtesy of Sergei Belski-Imagn Images.

Jets Sign Walker Duehr, Samuel Fagemo, Isaac Poulter To Two-Way Deals

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The Jets announced they’ve signed forwards Walker Duehr, Samuel Fagemo, and goaltender Isaac Poulter to two-way contracts with league-minimum cap hits. They also confirmed previously reported two-way deals for defenseman Kale Clague and winger Phillip Di Giuseppe.

All five players receive $775K cap hits on one-year deals. Clague, Duehr, and Poulter received $475K AHL salaries, Di Giuseppe received a $450K AHL salary, and Fagemo received a $375K AHL salary, per PuckPedia.

The signings of Duehr and Fagemo help Winnipeg replace some of the fringe NHL forward depth they lost when RFA Rasmus Kupari signed overseas. The latter, while being the cheapest, is a high-upside pickup.

Fagemo, 25, was a Group VI UFA after spending all of 2024-25 in the minors with the Kings. He scored 29 goals in 67 games for the Ontario Reign to give him 132 in 268 AHL contests, the most in the league since he turned pro six years ago. For whatever reason, the 2019 second-round pick by L.A. just hasn’t managed to convert that elite minor-league offense into consistent NHL minutes. He only has 21 career games at the top level with Los Angeles and Nashville, posting three goals and an assist while averaging just 9:29 of ice time per game.

He may get an NHL job on a team that appears set to lose a pair of wingers in Nikolaj Ehlers and Mason Appleton to free agency as well, although neither has signed a new deal as of yet. The forwards they’ve added thus far in free agency include Cole Koepke, Tanner Pearson, and Jonathan Toews.

Duehr, 27, split last season between the Flames and Sharks after being claimed off waivers. The South Dakota native has topped out as a fine fourth-line piece, totaling 11 goals and 10 assists for 21 points with a -14 rating in 92 games for Calgary and San Jose over the past three seasons. He’ll look to compete for a depth spot on Winnipeg’s NHL roster after spending more time than he’d like to in the AHL last year, scoring 28 points in 36 minor-league games with the Flames’ and Sharks’ affiliates.

Poulter will presumably be the third-string goalie on Winnipeg’s depth chart behind Connor Hellebuyck and Eric Comrie, replacing Chris Driedger, who signed in Russia. The netminder turns 24 in September and spent his first three professional seasons in the Devils organization, ultimately going non-tendered on Monday to become a UFA. He made 36 appearances for AHL Utica last season, recording a 2.86 GAA, .898 SV%, one shutout, and a 16-13-7 record.

Blues Waive Nick Leddy

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The Blues have placed defenseman Nick Leddy on standard waivers, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

Leddy, 34, cannot be bought out since the first window has closed. Since he’s on standard, not unconditional waivers, this move isn’t made with a contract termination in mind, either. Instead, the Blues are seeing if there are any takers for the final season of his contract, which carries a $4MM cap hit but only $3MM in actual salary, per PuckPedia.

St. Louis had been working in conjunction with Leddy to find a trade partner to give him more ice time this season, but no offers materialized, Frank Seravalli reports. Any of the league’s 31 other teams can now have him for free by submitting a claim in the next 24 hours, including the 16 teams on his no-trade list.

Leddy signed a four-year, $16MM extension with St. Louis in 2022 that had largely provided fair value until last year. The 13-year veteran missed over half the season with a lower-body injury and only had five points and a plus-six rating in 31 games when healthy, averaging 18:40 of ice time per game. He’d averaged at least 20 minutes per game for the previous 10 seasons.

It remains to be seen what happens in the event Leddy clears waivers. If the Blues have made up their minds that he won’t be on their roster next season, he could either accept an AHL assignment and take home his $3MM guaranteed salary for next season or request a mutual termination, forfeiting his money but allowing himself to pursue an NHL opportunity elsewhere in free agency.

One of the league’s consistent top-four fixtures throughout the 2010s and early 2020s, Leddy has 75 goals, 341 assists, and 416 points with a -36 rating in 1,042 career games with the Blues, Blackhawks, Islanders, and Red Wings. Before his injury-plagued 2024-25 campaign, Leddy had posted 59 points and a +21 rating in 180 games with St. Louis, who initially acquired him from Detroit at the 2022 trade deadline.

The Blues have been open to parting ways with veteran defensemen to make way for a youth movement. They opted not to re-sign Ryan Suter and will now look to offload Leddy to both free up cap space for future trade discussions this summer while also giving more opportunity for players like fresh trade pickup Logan Mailloux, Matthew Kessel, and Tyler Tucker to play more consistent NHL roles.

Image courtesy of Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images.

Nikolaj Ehlers Expected To Sign Today

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July 2: Ehlers’ stay on the open market isn’t expected to last more than a few more hours. He’s down to a few teams and will make his decision at some point Wednesday, Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic says.

July 1: Entering today, the top free agent on the board was now-former Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers. He’s due for a big payday after teams looking to land an impact winger in the form of Mitch Marner, who’s off to Vegas in a sign-and-trade, or Brock Boeser, who’s staying in Vancouver on a seven-year deal, failed.

Many pegged Carolina as the favorite to land Ehlers entering today. They’ll certainly have more competition now with other teams looking to circle back and regroup after their day-one activities, but they still have immense spending flexibility with $19MM in cap space and no other moves to make, even after today’s pickup of K’Andre Miller.

As Ehlers likely takes another day – maybe even longer – to mull offers, the Hurricanes did confirm they’ve been in contact with Ehlers’ camp and are “waiting to see where that goes,” general manager Eric Tulsky told reporters Tuesday evening (including the team’s Walt Ruff). ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reported earlier in the day that the Capitals and Lightning were also in contact with Ehlers’ camp, but nothing will be imminent until tomorrow at the soonest.

Ehlers would really need to prefer going to Tampa or Washington to make that a reality. Neither has the cap space to pay him his market value, surely over $8MM per season at this stage on a seven-year deal, and would need to make corresponding moves to make him fit in. Carolina has both a pressing need for him, a system that plays to his analytically inclined game, and the cap space to address his financial needs out of the gate.

Beyond that, his list of realistic destinations might be limited. There will be other teams like the Maple Leafs who may want to create room and add him as an impact top-line piece in the absence of Marner.

Still, Toronto – or any other Canadian team, for that matter – is likely not on Ehlers’ radar, considering his newfound ability to be picky about where he ends up thanks to how the market broke in his favor. He prefers a warmer and less intense market than Winnipeg, Frank Seravalli said on today’s coverage of free agency from B/R Open Ice.

Penguins Sign Philip Kemp To Two-Way Contract

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Group VI free agent defenseman Philip Kemp has signed a two-way contract with the Penguins, according to the league’s media site (via Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review). PuckPedia reports it’s a two-year commitment with an NHL salary of $775K and a $350K AHL salary in both seasons. He has a $375K guarantee in 2025-26 and a $400K guarantee in 2026-27.

Kemp, a Yale product, was a seventh-round pick by the Oilers in the 2017 draft and has been in the Edmonton organization since then, primarily with AHL Bakersfield. He’s played five seasons for the Condors, the last two as an alternate captain.

The 26-year-old righty only has one NHL game to his name, recording just three shifts for 2:03 of ice time in an overtime win over the Canadiens in January 2024. Checking in at 6’3″ and 202 lbs, he scored seven goals, five assists, and 12 points with 39 PIMs and a plus-five rating in 56 games for Bakersfield last season. He has 18 goals, 40 assists, and 58 points with a +38 rating in 258 career games with Bakersfield.

Kemp likely won’t be in consideration for a roster spot in Pittsburgh, even with their lack of NHL-quality defensemen. He doesn’t offer much future upside and isn’t the type of player they’re targeting for NHL minutes as they continue to retool/rebuild their roster. He will, however, likely have more call-up opportunities in Pittsburgh if injuries strike, given their lack of organizational depth.

Pittsburgh only has five contract slots remaining for 2025-26 after signing Kemp.

Wild Sign Bradley Marek To Entry-Level Contract

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The Wild have signed undrafted free agent Bradley Marek to a one-year, entry-level contract, the team announced today in a press release.

Marek, 24, isn’t new to the organization. He spent last year with their AHL affiliate in Iowa on a minor-league contract. It was his second professional season after spending 2023-24 on an AHL deal with San Jose, also seeing time with the Sharks’ ECHL affiliate in Wichita.

Marek, a 6’3″, 212-lb left-winger, scored eight goals and five assists for 13 points in 50 games with 67 PIMs for Iowa in 2024-25. He also wasn’t a needle-mover offensively at the AHL level with San Jose the year before, but was strong in his time in the ECHL, scoring 13 goals and 31 points in 37 games for the Thunder.

Terms of Marek’s deal weren’t disclosed by the Wild, but he’ll be a restricted free agent next summer when the deal expires. He’s also the 38th contract on Minnesota’s books for 2025-26, giving them 12 open spots.

The Michigan native won’t be in contention for an NHL roster spot but will at least look to take a step forward offensively in 2025-26 and land a richer two-way deal from the Wild next summer. In college, Marek was the CCHA’s Rookie of the Year with Ferris State after scoring 10 goals and 19 points in 36 games for them in 2021-22.

He’s the fourth signing Minnesota has made since free agency opened. They brought back Nico Sturm on a two-year, $4MM contract and also handed out two-way deals to depth skaters Ben Gleason and Tyler Pitlick.

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