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Oilers Trialing Trent Frederic In Top-Line Role

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The Oilers’ decision to dole out an eight-year, $30.8MM contract extension to trade deadline acquisition Trent Frederic was one of the more eye-popping bits of news from a busy late-June period. A $3.85MM cap hit with significant trade protection throughout the contract seemed on the steep side for a player who’s averaged 13 goals and 26 points per 82 games throughout his career and didn’t play a huge role in the playoffs for Edmonton last year, averaging 11:24 of ice time per game.

Yet it looks like Frederic, now Edmonton’s fifth-highest-paid forward, will have a prime opportunity to make good on that value, at least to begin the season. He’s been getting consistent reps on the Oilers’ top line in camp alongside Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid – a unit head coach Kris Knoblauch is intent on sticking with as usual first-liner Zach Hyman begins the season on injured reserve, he told Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic.

“I want him playing with those guys for a bit to get some chemistry,” Knoblauch told Nugent-Bowman. “[Frederic] hasn’t had the opportunity to play top six much in his career. We hope that he can complement them.”

The evident hope when signing Frederic to that long-term deal was that his average stat line would be much closer to the success he enjoyed in a middle-six role with the Bruins in 2022-23 and 2023-24, not the injury-plagued season last year that saw him record just eight goals and 15 points in 58 games split between Boston and Edmonton. Over the prior two seasons, Frederic averaged an 18-18–36 scoring line per 82 games while averaging a conservative 12:51 per game. Nearly all of that production came at even strength with far lower-quality linemates than two of the top five players in the world. Scaling up his minutes and upping the quality of his teammates could conceivably make him a passable top-six solution, at least until Hyman can heal up from last season’s wrist injury and make his season debut. That’s expected to be sometime in November.

While the 2016 first-round pick is wholly untested in such an extended role, it’s clear to see the motivation for putting him there. As Nugent-Bowman writes, though, there are still some considerable kinks to work out. They played together in last night’s 4-1 exhibition loss to the Kraken, but “didn’t do much on Wednesday and was even scored against when Frederic couldn’t clear the puck at the defensive blue line.”

But where there’s an opening, there’s a potential to turn it into a long-term fit. The Oilers have the luxury of multiple top-end talents who can play center. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has seen the bulk of the minutes on the wing with McDavid and Hyman in recent years, while Draisaitl centered his own line. If Frederic works out well in a top-line role to begin the season, they can keep him there with McDavid and Hyman when the latter is healthy, allowing Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins to form a more balanced second line or to have RNH center his own unit behind Draisaitl’s.

Training Camp Cuts: 9/25/25

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We’re now in the second week of training camp. Teams are still working their way through their initial cuts, sending amateur tryout invites and fringe prospects back to their junior teams as those regular seasons get underway. However, we could start to see some more targeted trimming today and over the weekend. We’re keeping track of today’s cuts in this piece, which will be updated as more roll in.

Calgary Flames (via team announcement)

F Hunter Laing (to WHL Saskatoon)

Los Angeles Kings (via team announcement)

D Henry Brzustewicz (to OHL London)
D Jared Woolley (to OHL London)

Ottawa Senators (via team announcement)

D Matthew Andonovski (to AHL Belleville)
F Wyatt Bongiovanni (to AHL Belleville, pending waivers)
F Tyler Boucher (to AHL Belleville)
F Xavier Bourgault (to AHL Belleville, pending waivers)
F Jake Chiasson (to AHL Belleville)
D Cameron Crotty (to AHL Belleville, pending waivers)
F Philippe Daoust (released from PTO to AHL Belleville)
D Jorian Donovan (to AHL Belleville)
D Tomas Hamara (to AHL Belleville)
F Landen Hookey (released from PTO to AHL Belleville)
G Jackson Parsons (to AHL Belleville)
F Oskar Pettersson (to AHL Belleville)
F Garrett Pilon (to AHL Belleville, pending waivers)
F Jamieson Rees (released from PTO to AHL Belleville)
G Hunter Shepard (to AHL Belleville, pending waivers)
D Djibril Touré (to AHL Belleville)
F Keean Washkurak (released from PTO to AHL Belleville)

Philadelphia Flyers (via team announcement)

F Sawyer Boulton (to AHL Lehigh Valley)
F Oscar Eklind (to AHL Lehigh Valley, pending waivers)
F Cooper Marody (to AHL Lehigh Valley)
G Yaniv Perets (to AHL Lehigh Valley)
G Keith Petruzzelli (to AHL Lehigh Valley)
F Massimo Rizzo (to AHL Lehigh Valley)
F Tucker Robertson (to AHL Lehigh Valley)
F Samu Tuomaala (to AHL Lehigh Valley)
F Garrett Wilson (to AHL Lehigh Valley)
F Zayde Wisdom (to AHL Lehigh Valley)

Pittsburgh Penguins (via team announcement)

D Quinn Beauchesne (to OHL Guelph)

Utah Mammoth (via team announcement)

G Connor Ingram (to AHL Tucson, pending waivers)

Avalanche Want To Hold In-Season Extension Talks With Martin Necas

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For some pending UFAs, the beginning of the regular season can be a stop-and-drop regarding extension negotiations. That doesn’t appear to be the case between the Avalanche and Martin Necas.

“Colorado has communicated clearly to the Necas camp that it wants to extend him at some point this season,” Pierre LeBrun writes for The Athletic, but those discussions “haven’t yet gotten into the nitty-gritty of exchanging offers and counteroffers.” The belief is they’re waiting to let Necas extend his sample size in Colorado into this regular season “before taking those discussions to the next level.”

Necas’ extension talks carry a different context than those of his peers for the 2026 UFA class. There’s arguably more pressure on the Avalanche to find a way to retain him than almost any other big-name free agent. He was the only high-end asset acquired when they dealt Mikko Rantanen to the Hurricanes in last January’s blockbuster deal – letting Necas walk will amount to them losing two top-line talents for almost nothing aside from depth center Jack Drury.

These talks also come at a time when Necas’ value is at an all-time high. The 2017 No. 12 overall pick has been prone to some significant season-to-season point swings in recent years, but he popped in a considerable way in 2024-25 by breaking the point-per-game threshold for the first time. He finished the year with a 27-56–83 scoring line in 79 appearances, closing out the year with 28 points in 30 games after arriving in Denver.

With that in mind, along with a quickly rising salary cap, Necas’ extension is projected to net him nearly $10MM per season on a seven-year deal, according to AFP Analytics. He, along with others like Adrian Kempe and Alex Tuch, is waiting for some of the A-list names like Connor McDavid and Kirill Kaprizov to sign deals and set the market for the 2026 class, LeBrun writes. With Kempe and Tuch also angling for eight-figure cap hits, Necas will as well. The Avs then run into the same problem they did with Rantanen – being hesitant to register such a large contract with franchise defenseman Cale Makar set to potentially double his $9MM cap hit when he becomes a free agent in 2027. Of course, that Rantanen deal was made before the league released official salary cap projections that were in significant excess of expectations.

Even for 2026-27 accounting, a $10MM cap hit for Necas could be something of a tight squeeze. Doing so would leave them with roughly $16MM in space to account for eight roster spots, according to PuckPedia. Outside of Necas, though, they don’t have any high-impact expiring names, so filling out those jobs with an average salary of $2MM might not be too much of an obstacle.

Oilers’ Vasily Podkolzin Takes Leave Of Absence

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Oilers winger Vasily Podkolzin will be taking an indefinite leave of absence from the club after his father, Alexander, “suddenly and tragically passed away last night,” the team said in a press release. He’s returned to his native Russia in the interim.

Whenever Podkolzin is ready to return – an understandably wide-ranging timeline – he’ll be walking into a top-nine role in Edmonton. The 24-year-old played in all 82 games for the Oilers last year and saw notable deployment alongside Leon Draisaitl as a checking winger, putting together an 8-16–24 scoring line while averaging 13:13 of ice time per night. He also led Edmonton in hits by a wide margin with 211.

That was enough to earn him a three-year extension with a $2.95MM cap hit, a deal he signed just yesterday. He otherwise would have been a restricted free agent with arbitration rights next summer after inking a two-year, $2MM deal with the Canucks in April 2024. Edmonton acquired him from Vancouver via trade before he played a game under that contract.

If Podkolzin does not return to the Oilers before the beginning of the regular season, he can be designated as a non-roster player and will not count against their 23-player roster limit. His current $1MM cap hit, however, would still count against their books. If he’s expected to miss at least 10 games and 24 days from the start of the campaign, they can place him on long-term injured reserve for potential salary relief if necessary.

All of us at PHR extend our condolences to the Podkolzin family.

Rangers Considering Noah Laba For Opening-Night Spot

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The Rangers are leaving the door open for center prospect Noah Laba to crack the opening night roster, head coach Mike Sullivan told reporters Wednesday, including Vince Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic.

“It might be too early to have that conversation at this point, but [Laba] certainly has performed extremely well in this early part of camp,” Sullivan said. He added Laba is “one of” the players in the mix to hold down a third-line center job for the Blueshirts, along with leading contender Juuso Pärssinen, whom the club acquired from the Avalanche in last season’s Ryan Lindgren trade.

Laba, 22, certainly has pro-ready size at 6’2″ and 192 lbs. A 2022 fourth-round pick, his offensive ceiling will be the biggest concern about rushing him to major-league minutes. He signed his entry-level contract this year after wrapping up three seasons at Colorado College. While he had a standout sophomore campaign in 2023-24 with a 20-17–37 scoring line in 36 games to lead the team in every offensive category, he cooled off somewhat last year with a 10-16–26 line in 29 appearances. He was still the team’s focal point offensively, but he didn’t receive the laundry list of accolades he got the year prior, including being a Hobey Baker nominee and earning Best Defensive Forward and First All-Star Team honors from the NCHC.

After signing Laba in March – a deal that didn’t begin until this season anyway – he finished out the year with AHL Hartford on a tryout. He didn’t look particularly out of place there, recording a 3-2–5 scoring line in 11 games.

A third-line pivot piece is likely Laba’s long-term ceiling as a moderately productive but primarily defense-conscious center. Getting him a taste of what could be a long-term role for him wouldn’t be without precedent. The Rangers haven’t been afraid to graduate under-the-radar rookies virtually straight from college to the NHL. They did so last year with defenseman Victor Mancini, selected one round after Laba in 2022. He broke camp with the club and bounced between the NHL and AHL before being sent to the Canucks in the J.T. Miller deal. The same fate could befall the waiver-exempt Laba. Mancini made 15 NHL appearances and 23 in the AHL with Hartford before getting sent to the Canucks.

Outside of Pärssinen, Laba, and potentially veteran Jonny Brodzinski, the Rangers aren’t overflowing with depth center options who have the offensive utility to play a top-nine role. Even the leading contender comes with a fair amount of question marks. Pärssinen, 24, impressed with 25 points in 45 games in his first NHL stint with Nashville two years ago but hasn’t flashed that upside since. He had a 6-10–16 scoring line in 48 appearances with three different clubs last year, including a 2-3–5 line in 11 games to end the season in New York while averaging just 9:46 per game. With under $800K in cap space, though, their options to make a free-agent add to lock down the role are somewhat limited.

Felix Sandstrom Signs With Liiga’s Oulun Karpat

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Free agent goaltender Felix Sandström has signed on with Finnish powerhouse Kärpät, according to a team release. It’s a short-term deal with quite a few exceptions – the contract is only valid until Nov. 2 and includes an NHL out-clause, the team said.

Sandström, now 28, was a third-round pick by the Flyers in 2015 and was once a relatively promising prospect in their system. He ended up playing a career-high 20 games for them in the 2022-23 campaign, splitting backup duties with Samuel Ersson, but struggled with a .880 SV% and a 3.72 GAA. He spent most of the following season with AHL Lehigh Valley after clearing waivers and was unplayable in his brief call-up, recording a .823 SV% and -7.7 GSAA in a five-game window in March.

Along with an uninspiring .884 SV% in the minors that year, the Flyers had no qualms about letting him become an unrestricted free agent in the 2024 offseason. He landed a two-way commitment from the Sabres on the open market to serve as the No. 4 on their depth chart behind Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, James Reimer, and Devon Levi. He passed through waivers unclaimed at the beginning of the season and never saw a recall. He did see improved AHL numbers in Rochester, though, logging a .899 SV% and 2.86 GAA with a 12-5-2 record in 19 games.

That still didn’t lead to much interest in his services this summer, not even on a PTO for training camp. There may have been AHL-only offers out there but he held out for the hope of a more financially lucrative agreement to return to Europe. So far, not much of anything has panned out and he’ll now take a short-term deal in Finland with the hopes of impressing there and landing a two-way contract with an NHL team in need of goaltending depth.

Sandström last played in Europe in his native Sweden during the 2020-21 season. He had a .921 SV% in five games while on loan to Västerviks IK of Sweden’s second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. He has never played in Finland before.

Kärpät has been the main producer of Finnish NHL players in recent years and has won seven Liiga titles since 2004, but none since 2018. They also finished below .500 last year and failed to make the playoffs for the first time since last being promoted to Finland’s top flight in 2000. They’re now dealing with an injury to starting netminder Niklas Rubin, who was off to a great start with a .934 SV% in four games. In the interim, Sandström will serve in tandem with Kraken prospect Visa Vedenpää, whom they selected in the sixth round in 2023.

Nicolas Hague Out Four To Six Weeks With Upper Body Injury

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Predators offseason acquisition Nicolas Hague won’t be available for around the first month of the regular season after sustaining an upper-body injury in Sunday’s preseason split-squad game against the Panthers. The team issued a four-to-six-week recovery timeline for him today, according to Max Herz of 102.5 The Game.

That creates an opening on the Preds’ top pair to begin an important season for the club, looking to shed off the rust from an incredibly disappointing 2024-25 campaign that saw them finish with the third-worst record in the league. Hague, acquired from the Golden Knights for a package including Colton Sissons and Jeremy Lauzon in June, had taken early reps alongside captain Roman Josi in camp. While both lefties, Josi played a good chunk of last year on his off side on a pairing with Brady Skjei.

When Hague returns the lineup, Nashville is banking on a breakthrough season from the 26-year-old. Acquired as an RFA, the Preds promptly signed him to a four-year extension with a $5.5MM cap hit. The 6’6″, 245-lb rearguard had been an impressively staunch depth presence throughout his first six NHL seasons with Vegas, managing a 20-63–83 scoring line with a +20 rating in 364 career appearances while averaging 110 blocks and 129 hits per 82 games. That output came in almost exclusively bottom-pairing duties behind a combination of Brayden McNabb, Alec Martinez, and Noah Hanifin on the left side of a stacked Vegas defense group, though. He’s averaged 17:33 per game for his career – including some significant penalty killing time. That number is likely to jump to the 20:00 range when his season gets underway.

For a Preds team looking to get off to a strong start, there are suddenly renewed concerns about their defensive depth. Hague being a big piece of the puzzle on the back end was a huge part of general manager Barry Trotz’s offseason strategy, allowing the club to move Skjei down to a more comfortable second-pairing role and spread the wealth in their top four. That’s still an option, but not a particularly appealing one. With Hague gone, that could mean forcing someone like Adam Wilsby into top-pairing minutes for a small stretch if they decide to keep Josi on the right side. Aside from Skjei, there aren’t any NHL-experienced options that have proven capable of shouldering top-pair minutes for any length of time.

Thus, his absence could provide a break for 2023 first-rounder Tanner Molendyk to break camp with the NHL club. The 20-year-old lefty was the 24th overall selection two years ago and will be transitioning to the pros this fall, whether in Nashville or AHL Milwaukee, after five years of major junior play. He split last season between WHL Saskatoon and Medicine Hat, continuing his strong offensive output with 47 points in 49 regular-season games and a 4-16–20 scoring line in 18 playoff contests as he guided the Tigers to a league championship.

Since Molendyk is two years post-draft, burning a year of his entry-level contract isn’t a concern – it’ll go into effect this season regardless of how much NHL action he sees. Unfortunately, the Preds haven’t gotten a look at him in preseason yet. He’s been dealing with a minor lower-body injury since the beginning of camp, although he did skate today for the first time, per Herz. He’ll have all the more motivation now to kick things into high gear with a clear path to his NHL debut on the line.

Drake Batherson Questionable For Start Of Season

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The Senators could be without top-nine winger Drake Batherson for their regular-season opener against the Lightning on Oct. 9 and potentially even longer. He’s out “at least” two weeks with a pulled muscle in his upper body, head coach Travis Green told reporters, including Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia.

Batherson sustained the injury in yesterday’s practice and left the session early, according to TSN’s Claire Hanna. There’s no video of the incident. At the very least, Batherson’s exhibition schedule comes to an end after one appearance. He suited up in the club’s first preseason game of the year against the Maple Leafs, recording two assists in a 4-3 loss while logging 18:01 of ice time last Sunday.

A short-term absence isn’t the end of the world, but it is a tough kickoff for the ever-consistent Batherson. He set a career-high mark in assists (42) and points (68) last year, his third straight campaign above the 60-point mark. He also hasn’t missed a game since an ankle injury swallowed up a good portion of his 2021-22 season, which was otherwise his most successful offensive campaign with a 0.96 points-per-game rate (44 in 46 GP).

An IR stint could be a possibility if his recovery pace makes the Sens believe he’s set to miss at least the first seven days of the regular season. That would allow them to kick the can down the road on their decision to waive fringe forwards like Arthur Kaliyev, Olle Lycksell, and Zack MacEwen, opening up an extra roster spot for one of them to stay (or even slot in the lineup in Batherson’s place) in the meantime.

Kaliyev, signed to a league-minimum deal in free agency after being non-tendered by the Rangers, could be an intriguing beneficiary. The skilled but inconsistent 24-year-old is two years removed from a 13-15–28 scoring line in 56 appearances for the Kings. He’s bounced between units in camp so far, but has gotten some reps higher up in the lineup and has remained with the obvious NHL-laden training group as camp progresses. However, he was relegated to 13th forward duties at practice today while Michael Amadio got a crack at Batherson’s projected top-nine role alongside Ridly Greig and Shane Pinto, according to Garrioch.

Islanders Notes: Lee, Tsyplakov, Varlamov

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Islanders captain Anders Lee will miss one to two weeks with an upper-body injury, the team announced. That puts the latter end of his return timeline one day ahead of the team’s regular season opener against the Penguins on Oct. 9. It doesn’t look like that will be much of a concern, though. While he could be done for the preseason, the team told the beat (including Stefen Rosner of NHL.com) that the issued timeline is precautionary and that his injury is “very minor.” Lee will skate on his own tomorrow, head coach Patrick Roy said (via Andrew Gross of Newsday).

His regular-season availability isn’t a legitimate concern at this stage as a result. Starting on a strong note is a must-have to set up an encore performance to last year’s resurgent campaign from Lee, who posted a 29-25–54 scoring line in 82 games to total the second-best offensive numbers of his career. He must do so in a contract year, although the lack of extension talks thus far isn’t of much concern to either side.

The Isles also said that winger Maxim Tsyplakov is banged up and has been given a day-to-day designation, although he did skate this morning. After averaging nearly 15 minutes per game in his rookie season last year, the 27-year-old looks ticketed for a fourth-line role to start the year after the free-agent additions of Jonathan Drouin and Maxim Shabanov this summer pushed him down the depth chart. He’s factored in on a line with Casey Cizikas and Emil Heineman so far in camp after recording a 10-25–35 scoring line in 77 appearances last year.

It’s also looking more and more as though free-agent pickup David Rittich will remain safe from waivers and start the season as Ilya Sorokin’s backup between the pipes. Semyon Varlamov’s return from a knee surgery that’s kept him out for over nine months is still quite far off, Roy reaffirmed today (via Gross). He continues to skate on his own as he has for a few weeks now, but is not expected to join full team skates anytime soon.

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