Click here to view the transcript from today’s PHR live chat with Josh Erickson.
Penguins Name Dan Muse Head Coach
The Penguins have hired Rangers assistant coach Dan Muse as their next head coach, per a team announcement. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported minutes earlier that the hire was expected to get across the finish line.
Muse is a bit of a surprise hire. He was the most recent name to be reported as a candidate for Pittsburgh’s vacancy, linked just yesterday by Larry Brooks of the New York Post.
Not too long ago, it looked like the finalists for the Pens’ job were Capitals assistant Mitch Love and Kings assistant D.J. Smith. It became apparent that Love was out of the mix and replaced by Muse as a finalist yesterday, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period relays. Love was labeled a name on which Pittsburgh was relatively high from the beginning, but the Penguins will instead opt to poach a different assistant coach in their early 40s from a Metropolitan Division rival in Muse.
This will be Muse’s first chance to be an NHL head coach. He’s spent five years in the league as an assistant, first with the Predators from 2017-18 to 2019-20 before working under Peter Laviolette in Manhattan for the past two seasons. In the interim, he was a head coach for the United States National Team Development Program and coached the Americans to a gold medal at the 2023 U-18 World Junior Championship.
The development of the Penguins’ young players will be crucial over the next few seasons as they look to quickly return to contention as Sidney Crosby’s, Kris Letang’s, and Evgeni Malkin’s careers wind down. That top-down ideology from general manager Kyle Dubas is extremely apparent with the hire of Muse, who’s won multiple accolades at the junior level – including a USHL championship as head coach of the Chicago Steel in 2017 before landing the AC job with Nashville.
Here’s Dubas’ full statement on Muse’s appointment:
During this process, we met with many candidates who we felt would have been a fit as the next head coach of the Penguins, but ultimately, Dan Muse stood out as the best choice. What separated Dan was his ability to develop players, win at all levels where he has been a head coach and his consistent success coaching special teams in the NHL. From his success in developing college and junior players, to his impactful work with veteran players during his time in the NHL, Dan has shown a proven ability to connect with players at all stages of their careers and help them to reach their potential. Additionally, his leadership of special teams units at the NHL level in both Nashville and New York produced elite results consistently. His overall body of work, attention to detail and vision for our group showed us that he is the best coach to take our team forward. We’re excited to welcome Dan, and his family, to the city of Pittsburgh.
As for the Rangers, they’ll need to continue their coaching overhaul under new bench boss Mike Sullivan, whom Muse succeeds in Pittsburgh. They’ll have an entirely new bench staff next season after firing associate coach Phil Housley and losing assistant coach Michael Peca to Jeff Blashill’s staff with the Blackhawks.
Avalanche Sign Brock Nelson To Three-Year Extension
The Avalanche have signed pending UFA center Brock Nelson to a three-year extension, per a team announcement. The deal carries a $7.5MM cap hit for a total value of $22.5MM, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.
In doing so, Colorado takes one of the top pivots off this summer’s open market. They paid a steep price to acquire the longtime Islander from New York at the trade deadline, surrendering their 2026 first-round pick along with center Calum Ritchie, their No. 1 prospect, along with some smaller assets to land him. Losing him for nothing, especially after the Avalanche suffered a first-round playoff loss to the Stars, would have been quite the blow.
Instead, they’ll get parts of four seasons out of the 33-year-old, assuming he plays out the rest of his deal. It’s an eye-popping price tag, especially since he’s coming off somewhat of a down season with 26 goals and 56 points in 80 games split between Denver and Long Island, and a noticeable raise over his previous $6MM cap hit. Nonetheless, he’ll be the solution to fill the second-line center gap for the next few years after searching for a consistent producer following Nazem Kadri’s departure in free agency in 2022.
Nelson’s point production this season didn’t shift considerably from team to team. He posted 43 points in 61 games for the Islanders (0.70 per game) before logging 13 in 19 for Colorado down the stretch (0.68 per game). Nelson added four assists and a plus-two rating in seven playoff games for the Avs, averaging a shade under 17 minutes per game in the postseason.
Notably, the contract he signed with the Avalanche is the same one offered to him by the Islanders before they opted to trade him, Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News reports. Amid a retool with new general manager Mathieu Darche at the helm, New York is likely still happy with the move to jumpstart what was one of the worst prospect pools in the league.
Nelson’s contract will be an important comparable as other top pending UFA centers like Sam Bennett and John Tavares continue to pursue extensions with their current clubs. The deal he ended up signing came in a fair amount above the roughly $7MM AAV projected for him on a three-year deal on the open market, according to AFP Analytics.
Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland now has his center group of Nathan MacKinnon, Nelson, Charlie Coyle, and Jack Drury all under contract through next season. Coyle and Drury will become eligible to sign extensions on July 1.
Still, the premium they paid to keep Nelson from testing free agency will cause some cap headaches for MacFarland to deal with this summer. They’re down to just $1.2MM in cap space for 2025-26, according to PuckPedia. While they have a mostly full roster, they still have four open spots between them and a cap-compliant 23-man roster.
Barring a significant cap-clearing trade, their notable pending UFAs, winger Jonathan Drouin and defenseman Ryan Lindgren, are not returning. Even if they only signed players to league-minimum deals, they’d only be able to ice a bare-minimum 20-player roster out of the gate with no flexibility for a recall.
Nelson’s deal runs through the 2027-28 season, after which he’ll be able to test unrestricted free agency if he so chooses at age 36. The 2010 first-round pick could play his 1,000th game late next season if he stays healthy. He’s at 920 entering the offseason.
Image courtesy of Talia Sprague-Imagn Images.
Nikita Kucherov Wins Ted Lindsay Award
Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov has won this year’s Ted Lindsay Award for the league’s most outstanding player as voted on by his peers, the NHL announced Wednesday.
Kucherov wins the 2025 honors six years after his first win, when he led the league in assists (87) and points (128) in the 2018-19 campaign. He also won the Hart Trophy that year, which he’s a finalist for again this year alongside the Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl and the Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck.
This year, Kucherov was the only overlap between Lindsay and Hart finalists – the latter voted on by Professional Hockey Writers Association members. For the player-voted honors, Kucherov beat out Avalanche stars Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar.
It’s not as if Kucherov needed any more hardware to cement his Hall-of-Fame case, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. The Russian superstar turns 32 later this week but is still fully in his prime, now capturing back-to-back league scoring titles in addition to his 2019 Art Ross. He becomes the 12th player in league history to win multiple Ted Lindsay (formerly known as the Lester B. Pearson) Awards, joining Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, and Alex Ovechkin as the only active players to do so.
The award stands as nice recognition to a season full of even more milestones for the two-time Stanley Cup champion. He recorded a league-high 121 points and 84 assists in the regular season, the latter of which made him just the fourth player in league history with three consecutive 80-assist seasons. He also led the league outright in points per game (1.55), primary assists (56), power-play points (46), and power-play assists (38) in 2024-25 while averaging 21:11 per game, the second-highest deployment of his career after last season.
Image courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images.
Devin Shore Signs With HC Sparta Prague
After spending his entire career in North America, pending UFA forward Devin Shore is heading overseas. He signed a one-year deal with HC Sparta Prague of the Czech Extraliga today, the club announced.
Shore, 31 in July, spent this season on a two-way deal with the Wild. He was meant to be a top-six piece for AHL Iowa, but a never-ending list of injuries to Minnesota’s forward group meant he spent most of the season up with the big club.
Outside of throwing the body with 76 hits, he wasn’t particularly effective in fourth-line minutes. Averaging 8:39 of ice time over 55 games, Shore recorded a 1-4–5 scoring line, a minus-eight rating, and some of the worst even-strength possession metrics on the team (40.9 CF%, 38.1 xGF%).
Shore was once an everyday NHL contributor and even had back-to-back 30-point seasons with the Stars in 2016-17 and 2017-18 to kick off his career, but he hasn’t held down a consistent role since. His 55 appearances this season were his most since the 2018-19 campaign, and he hasn’t hit double digits in goals since then, either.
A second-round pick by Dallas in 2012, he’s appeared in parts of the last 10 NHL seasons and has also made stops in Anaheim, Columbus, Edmonton, and Seattle. He heads overseas after recording 52 goals and 144 points in 498 NHL games, a career that’s unlikely to extend at his age.
He’ll head to Czechia to link up with other ex-NHLers like Roman Horák, Michal Kempný, and Mark Pysyk on Sparta’s 2025-26 roster.
Joe Sacco Out Of Running For Bruins’ Head Coaching Job
It isn’t yet clear who the Bruins will name as their next head coach in the coming days. However, it won’t be Joe Sacco, who ended the year as interim head coach after the club fired Jim Montgomery early in the season, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said on the 32 Thoughts podcast earlier this week.
“I believe Joe Sacco was told he will not stay as the head coach of the Boston Bruins,” said Friedman. He’ll likely depart the organization entirely, with the pending hire presumably having a say in their assistants.
General manager Don Sweeney said shortly after the season ended that he’d include Sacco in his list of candidates for the full-time job. It’s not particularly surprising to see him not land the gig, though. Increased goal-scoring is a stated priority for the club for next season, and it’s not something they did well under Sacco. From Nov. 21 onward, Sacco’s first game as interim head coach, Boston’s 2.81 goals per game ranked 24th in the league, and their 26.3 shots per game ranked 29th.
The Bruins also had a worse points percentage under Sacco (25-30-7, .460) than under Montgomery (8-9-3, .475). It’s worth considering Sacco’s tenure overlapped with Boston’s post-trade deadline slide, an understandable one after trading away Brandon Carlo and Brad Marchand for futures.
Nonetheless, it’s likely Sacco will pursue a high-level assistant job elsewhere. That club could be the Maple Leafs, Friedman speculated. They’re on the hunt for a new top assistant/associate coach under Craig Berube after Lane Lambert recently left the post to accept the Kraken’s head coaching job.
The Bruins and Penguins are the only two remaining teams with a head coach vacancy.
Free Agent Focus: Columbus Blue Jackets
Free agency is now under a month away, and teams are looking ahead to when it opens. There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July, while many teams also have key restricted free agents to re-sign. We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Blue Jackets.
Key Restricted Free Agents
F Dmitri Voronkov – A number of players had breakout campaigns for the Jackets in 2024-25. Voronkov wasn’t chief among them, but he was up there. After a strong rookie campaign last year, the 24-year-old received loads of top-line deployment at even strength with Kirill Marchenko on his opposite wing and either Adam Fantilli or Sean Monahan down the middle. His 23 goals and 47 points didn’t explode off the page, but it’s still serviceable top-six output and a steady improvement on 2023-24’s 18-16–34 scoring line in two more appearances. Voronkov averaged 16:47 per game, a figure that shouldn’t see much variation heading into next year. The 6’5″, 227-lb winger also played as you’d expect given his frame – 71 hits and quite good defensive impacts. With some room to grow, Columbus is likely looking at a long-term deal in the $6MM range annually. A bridge deal, if they go that route, should be more attainable in the high $3MMs or low $4MMs in terms of AAV.
D Jordan Harris – Harris was picked up from the Canadiens in last summer’s Patrik Laine trade. He’d become a fine bottom-pairing and even fringe top-four option with Montreal last year, but the 24-year-old spent most of the year as the odd man out on the Columbus blue line, even with Erik Gudbranson missing most of the season. After posting just five points and a minus-one rating in 33 games while averaging a minuscule 11:23 per game, there’s reason to believe the Blue Jackets don’t have an appetite to issue him his $1.4MM qualifying offer. The 2018 third-round pick could be on the open market this summer as a result.
G Daniil Tarasov – Like Harris, Tarasov is a non-tender candidate later this month. The 26-year-old Russian could still have some untapped upside, but a roster crunch in net likely means he won’t discover it in Columbus. He was superseded as a top-two option for the Jackets down the stretch by the younger Jet Greaves, who looks to serve in tandem with Elvis Merzlikins next year. He struggled when given the chance to start in 2024-25, posting a 7-10-2 record, .881 SV%, and 3.54 GAA in 20 appearances. He’s also due a seven-figure qualifying offer ($1.26MM) and has arbitration rights, neither of which work in his favor for being retained as a No. 3 option.
Other RFAs: F Hunter McKown, F Mikael Pyyhtia, D Ole Julian Bjorgvik-Holm, D Cole Clayton, D Daemon Hunt, D Samuel Knazko
Key Unrestricted Free Agents
D Ivan Provorov – Some extensions in the back half of the season vaulted Provorov into being the consensus No. 3 UFA available this summer on the blue line behind Aaron Ekblad and former Blue Jacket Vladislav Gavrikov. The 28-year-old has been a fine fit in Columbus since his acquisition two years ago, though, and there could still be a long-term fit on the left side behind Zach Werenski, even with top prospect Denton Mateychuk emerging as an NHL option. He managed a +11 rating and 33 points in 82 games this year, his first time in the black since 2020-21, but his possession metrics (47.9 CF%, 45.6 xGF% at even strength) are still lacking for someone logging over 23 minutes per game. Regardless, a weak UFA market on defense and his usability in heavy minutes likely mean the Jackets will need to offer a long-term deal in the $7MM range per season to keep him around.
D Dante Fabbro – Provorov isn’t the only core member of the Jackets’ top four at risk of hitting the open market. Claimed off waivers from the Predators early in the season, Fabbro was a revelation and quickly stapled himself alongside Werenski in top-pairing duties. It wouldn’t be particularly surprising to see Columbus pour more resources into re-upping Fabbro, who’s their best right-shot option at present ahead of Gudbranson and Damon Severson, than Provorov. His brief track record in extended usage will likely limit his value to under $5MM annually. After the waiver claim, Fabbro had 26 points and a +23 rating in 62 games for the Jackets while controlling 54.4% of expected goals alongside Werenski, per MoneyPuck.
F Sean Kuraly – The Ohio native came home on a four-year, $10MM contract in free agency in 2021. He responded with a career-high 30 points in 77 games, but the checking center’s offense has steadily dwindled since then. While still an alternate captain, his average ice time of 11:46 in 2024-25 was the lowest of his NHL career in a full season. He still managed 17 points and a respectable minus-four rating in heavy defensive deployment, though, and he finished third on the team with 163 hits. The 32-year-old remains a good fourth-line piece and could find a shorter-term deal to stay in Columbus at a slight discount on his current $2.5MM cap hit.
F Justin Danforth – After spending most of his pro career in the minors or overseas, Danforth made his NHL debut with the Jackets in his age-28 season four years ago. Now 32, the diminutive but physical forward posted a 9-12–21 scoring line in 61 games last year while averaging a career-high 14:23 per game. He’s primarily a winger but can flex in at center. Still, he’s the most expendable among their more pertinent UFAs and could be the one out the door to make roster space for a big splash or an up-and-coming prospect making the jump. He’s likely in the market for a multi-year but sub-$2MM cap hit contract this summer.
Other UFAs: F Christian Fischer, F Trey Fix-Wolansky, F Dylan Gambrell, F Luke Kunin, F Kevin Labanc, F Joseph LaBate, F Owen Sillinger, F James van Riemsdyk, D Jack Johnson, G Zachary Sawchenko
Projected Cap Space
Only the Sharks have more cap space for 2025-26 at present than the Blue Jackets. They’ve got $40.4MM to work with despite already having 18 roster players inked for next year, per PuckPedia. Cap space won’t be an obstacle for re-signing anybody with mutual interest in an extension or making competitive offers for some of the top players available on the open market.
Images courtesy of Jerome Miron-Imagn Images (Voronkov) and Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images (Provorov). Contract info courtesy of PuckPedia.
Red Wings Sign Jesse Kiiskinen To Entry-Level Contract
The Red Wings announced they’ve signed winger Jesse Kiiskinen to a three-year, entry-level contract beginning next season. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Kiiskinen, a 2023 third-round pick by the Predators whom Detroit acquired in a prospect swap last summer, lands his rookie deal after a massive breakout season in his native Finland, as PHR’s Gabriel Foley outlined last month. The 19-year-old sniper potted a 14-30–44 scoring line in 46 games for HPK of the top-flight Liiga, leading the club in points. He scored the most points in the league among junior-aged players and also racked up six goals and an assist for Finland in seven World Juniors games, helping them to a silver medal while being named a top-three player on the team.
That massive breakout surely has Detroit thrilled about their return when they dealt similarly-touted defense prospect Andrew Gibson to Nashville. While loaning Kiiskinen back to HPK for next season is always an option even after signing him, that level of production stands to reason he’s more than ready to make the jump to AHL Grand Rapids in the fall and even be under outside consideration for an NHL recall late in the year.
Kiiskinen turns 20 in August, so he’s too old to be eligible for an entry-level slide. His contract will go into effect next season, regardless of how many NHL games he plays, and will hit RFA status in the summer of 2028.
Oilers Sign Roby Jarventie To Two-Way Extension
When Oilers pending RFA winger Roby Jarventie signed a three-year deal in his native Finland early last month, that indicated he wouldn’t be back with the club for a while. Instead, it appears that his overseas contract is being torn up as he’s landed a two-way commitment from Edmonton for 2025-26, PuckPedia reports. The contract carries the league-minimum NHL salary of $775K with a $125K minors salary and a $200K guarantee.
Jarventie’s 2024-25 sample size was limited to just two games, both with AHL Bakersfield back in October, after sustaining an offseason knee injury. It was the 22-year-old’s first season in the Edmonton system after the Oilers acquired him from the Senators in exchange for 2021 first-round pick Xavier Bourgault last summer.
His NHL resume is, unsurprisingly, limited. He has one assist and a minus-five rating in seven career outings, all with Ottawa in a November 2023 call-up. He averaged just 7:31 per game, though, never getting the opportunity to showcase what he can do offensively higher up in the lineup.
Up until this season, though, Jarventie’s minor-league development in Ottawa’s system with AHL Belleville was promising. In his three seasons spent fully in North America, Jarventie increased his points per game production from 0.47 in 2021-22 to 0.75 in 2022-23 and again to 0.91 in 2023-24. The 2020 second-rounder also had two assists in his two outings with Bakersfield this year and almost certainly would have gotten a call-up to the Oilers had his health held up.
Jarventie was presumably unsure whether he’d receive a contract offer from Edmonton after his injury-plagued season, leading to his decision to land a secure role back home. Instead, he’ll look to hit the reset button this summer and compete for a roster spot in training camp in the fall.
Kings Re-Sign Martin Chromiak To Two-Way Deal
The Kings are keeping winger Martin Chromiak off this summer’s restricted free agent market. They announced they’ve re-signed the 22-year-old to a one-year, two-way deal for 2025-26 that carries the league minimum $775K cap hit. He’ll earn $100K in the minors, according to PuckPedia.
Chromiak was a fifth-round pick of the Kings in the 2020 draft. In the years since, the 6’0″ Slovak winger hasn’t taken many forward steps in his development. After his entry-level deal took effect with the 2022-23 season, he’s played exclusively for AHL Ontario. His point per game totals each season carry little variation: 0.51 in his 2022-23 showing, 0.46 in 2023-24, and 0.57 here in 2024-25.
While a well-rounded offensive talent who still carries some upside, it’s fair to question at this point whether he’ll have the minor-league breakout season necessary to warrant a call-up. Without some more demonstrable improvement in 2025-26, he’s at risk of being a non-tender when this new two-way deal is up and taking an early trip to the UFA market.
Chromiak has represented Slovakia at two of the last three World Championships, recording two goals in 14 games. He has a career 48-51–99 scoring line in 196 AHL games, including 18 goals and 39 points in 69 outings this year. The Kings control his signing rights through the 2029-30 season.