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Stars Hire David Pelletier As Assistant Coach

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The Stars have named longtime Oilers skating coach David Pelletier as an assistant on Glen Gulutzan’s staff, per a team announcement Friday.

It’s not the 50-year-old’s first NHL job. He’s worked in the Edmonton area as a skating coach for the last decade, also working as a skills coach for the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings since 2020-21 and as an assistant coach for the University of Alberta program from 2018-20.

Pelletier never played hockey at any level but is a well-known pairs figure skater, winning gold for Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics. The team said Pelletier will not be on the team’s bench during games and will instead serve as an “eye-in-the-sky” assistant.

Dallas’ coaching turnover is now complete. After firing head coach Peter DeBoer and losing assistants Misha Donskov and Steve Spott to other roles, they’ve brought in Gulutzan as head coach and named Pelletier and Neil Graham as new assistants. Alain Nasreddine still remains from last year’s staff and will serve as the bench group with Gulutzan and Graham during games.

Pelletier is also a member of the Canadian Olympic and Sports Hall of Fame and was awarded the Lou Marsh Trophy, given to the most outstanding Canadian athlete, in 2001. He was part of the Oil Kings staff that guided the team to a WHL championship in 2022, a roster that included NHLers Sebastian Cossa, Dylan Guenther, Kaiden Guhle, Jake Neighbours, and Justin Sourdif.

Collin Delia Signs With Sweden’s Brynas IF

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Collin Delia has officially signed with Sweden’s Brynas IF, according to a team press release. It’s a one-year contract for Delia with the reigning SHL regular season champions.

Delia, a California native, heads overseas for the first time in his career. The veteran goaltender was an unrestricted free agent after spending last season with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors while on a two-way contract with the Oilers.

Delia, 31, played his youth hockey in his home state before heading to Texas for junior hockey ahead of a successful three-year run at Merrimack College. The undrafted 6’2″ netminder spent five seasons in the Blackhawks organization from 2017-22 and has spent the subsequent three years on one-year deals with Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Edmonton. The longtime No. 3 option enjoyed his best NHL season in Chicago in 2018-19, posting a .908 SV% and 3.61 GAA in 14 starts and two relief appearances with a 6-4-3 record.

Delia’s last NHL action came in 2022-23 for the Canucks, making a career-high 20 appearances while starter Thatcher Demko battled injuries, but he struggled heavily with a .882 SV% and -11.6 GSAA. He’s spent the last two seasons exclusively in the AHL with the Jets’ and Oilers’ affiliates in Manitoba and Bakersfield as a result. He played 28 games for the Condors last year, registering a .906 SV%, 2.76 GAA, two shutouts, and a 12-11-5 record as the No. 4 on Edmonton’s depth chart behind Stuart Skinner, Calvin Pickard, and Olivier Rodrigue.

Delia now heads to Sweden to serve in tandem with another NHL-experienced netminder in Brynas, Erik Kallgren. The duo will backstop a skater core with over 2,500 combined games of NHL experience, headlined by forwards Johan Larsson, Oskar Lindblom, and reigning SHL MVP Jakob Silfverberg.

Jack Roslovic, Matt Grzelcyk, Victor Olofsson Among Top Remaining UFAs

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Our list of top 50 UFAs saw many of its top names land a “re-signed” designation before the 2025-26 league year even began. Now, 10 days into free agency, 44 of those players have signed new contracts, leaving just six without deals:

20. C Jack Roslovic
22. D Matt Grzelcyk
27. LW Victor Olofsson
42. G Ilya Samsonov
46. LW Jeff Skinner
48. G Alexandar Georgiev

Roslovic still being on the market isn’t particularly surprising. It seems there’s always an odd man out in the top 20 range that lingers well into week two, particularly with the depth of this year’s class being as thin as it is.

His ongoing availability likely isn’t a knock on how teams perceive his value, either. Many clubs have already solidified their middle-six group with UFA pickups like Andrew Mangiapane and Pius Suter, and the ones that haven’t likely have interest in Roslovic as a backup option if they can’t land more of a needle-moving, first-line caliber player in a trade. That’s the case with the Maple Leafs, one of the few teams that have been linked to Roslovic in the last few days.

While far from being a bang-and-crash forward, Roslovic holds value in his positional versatility and has emerged as one of the more consistent depth scorers in the league. A third-line piece, ideally, he tied his career-high in goals last season with 22 in 81 games with the Hurricanes, adding 17 assists for 39 points. He’s scored between 30 and 45 points in each of the last five seasons.

Roslovic was projected to receive a three-year contract worth $4.09MM per season by AFP Analytics, while we forecasted a more conservative $3.5MM cap hit on a three-year deal. Either way, with most teams having filled out their rosters, only 11 teams have under $3.5MM in cap space and should likely be considered out of the running. Teams in need of added middle-six depth, like the Avalanche, Wild, and Red Wings, might be names to watch in the coming days.

The lack of capped-out teams this deep into July, a direct result of the quickly rising cap, likely means that players who were left without contracts after the first week of free agency may not need to take as steep a discount on their initial market value as they have in years past. That principle should at least apply to players like Roslovic and Grzelcyk, who at least have interest but are likely at the mercy of teams preferring trade options before they circle back with a firm offer. For someone like the offensively gifted but defensively challenged Olofsson, though, he’s likely abandoning hope of cashing in on his resurgent season with the Golden Knights.

Nonetheless, Olofsson is arguably the highest-ceiling name left on the market. He’s a three-time 20-goal scorer with the Sabres, with whom he spent the first six seasons of his career, but became a free agent in 2024 on the heels of a seven-goal, 15-point showing in 51 games.

Vegas took a flyer on him, and he settled quickly for a one-year, $1.075MM deal on July 2 last year. Injuries again limited him to less than 60 games, but he did get a few reps in the Knights’ top six, putting together a 15-14–29 scoring line in 56 outings. That was a 43-point pace – still the second-worst of his career behind his disastrous 2023-24.

He needs sheltered even-strength minutes and power-play deployment to be effective, but he’s a relatively safe bet for 20 goals and 40 points if he stays healthy. Only he and Roslovic can realistically provide that production among the remaining UFAs.

Grzelcyk is the only defenseman left on the board among our top 50, and he actually had the most points among any remaining UFA last season with 40. That was a career-high for the 31-year-old, who departed Boston for Pittsburgh last summer on a one-year deal and saw considerably more power-play deployment than he had in the past.

The Sharks looked like a potential fit for Grzelcyk at the start of free agency, but their slew of other additions has now led to a logjam of blue-liners, so they’re out of the market. Grzelcyk may have to expect a reduction in minutes on the 20 per game he saw last season, and look for another one-year commitment on a team looking for power-play help.

The most likely outcome for the ’tenders, Samsonov and Georgiev, may be contracts in Europe at this point. There’s no team with a glaring hole at the No. 1 or No. 2 positions, and teams looking for an upgrade are likely looking for a more consistent option than the roller-coaster play those two have provided over the last couple of seasons.

Some other names still available include wingers Joel Kiviranta, Luke Kunin, Craig Smith, and Michael Carcone. Nikolai Kovalenko leads the way among intriguing non-tendered forwards, assuming he doesn’t sign in the KHL. The top defenseman outside of Grzelcyk, both in terms of name value and scoring last season, is Ryan Suter.

Image courtesy of Perry Nelson-Imagn Images.

Canucks Sign Aleksei Medvedev To Entry-Level Contract

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The Canucks have signed goaltender Aleksei Medvedev to an entry-level contract, according to a team press release. The three-year deal is slide-eligible for up to two seasons. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Medvedev, still 17 for another two months, foregoes NCAA eligibility and will presumably play out the remainder of his major junior eligibility as a result. The 6’3″, 181-lb netminder went to Vancouver in the middle of the second round (No. 47 overall) in last month’s draft.

The St. Petersburg, Russia native has been in North America since his early teenage years and jumped to premier junior play with the OHL’s London Knights in 2024-25. He did quite well in backup duties for the OHL and Memorial Cup champions, posting a 2.79 GAA, .912 SV%, three shutouts, and a 22-8-2 record in 34 appearances.

Medvedev did not see ice time in the OHL playoffs or the Memorial Cup tournament. However, he was still named to the OHL’s First All-Rookie Team and received the Dinty Moore Trophy for the best GAA from a rookie.

He will likely spend the next two seasons as London’s starter before making the jump to the pros in the Canucks organization in 2027-28, upon which his entry-level contract would go to effect (unless he plays 10 NHL games in 2025-26 or 2026-27, an unlikely outcome). The Canucks now have a league-high eight goalies under contract, although Medvedev won’t count against the 50-contract limit if he’s in the OHL this season.

Avalanche Sign Josh Manson To Two-Year Extension

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The Avalanche have signed defenseman Josh Manson to a two-year extension, the team announced in a press release. The contract carries a $3.95MM cap hit for a total value of $7.9MM, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports (via X).

The deal goes into effect next season and will keep him in Colorado through the 2027-28 campaign. He was entering 2025-26 on the final year of the four-year, $18MM extension he signed to remain with the Avs following their Stanley Cup win in 2022, so he still counts $4.5MM against their cap for this year before his impact reduces by $550K in 2026-27.

Manson has a lengthy but injury-plagued NHL resume. He began his career with Anaheim in the 2014-15 season and grew into a reliable top-four piece over eight seasons there before Colorado acquired him at the 2022 deadline in advance of their championship win. He’s seen his minutes reduced somewhat in Denver but has still spent much of his time there as the No. 2 righty on their depth chart behind superstar Cale Makar.

On multiple occasions, injuries have taken more than half of Manson’s regular-season availability. He only played 27 games in the first year of his extension due to a recurring lower-body injury, and varying issues limited him to 48 appearances last season. He has only played in 61% of the Avs’ regular-season games since his acquisition and has missed roughly one in four games due to injury in his career, a trend positively skewed by four straight seasons with 70-plus appearances early on.

That makes any multi-year extension a risky bet, particularly for a player who will be 34 in October and saw his possession impacts nosedive in 2024-25. The physical stay-at-home defender has largely held up his end of the bargain in helping his team boast the majority of shot attempts while he’s on the ice despite his defensively-minded usage at even strength, but that wasn’t the case last season. Colorado still controlled 51.4% of shot attempts with Manson on the ice, but clicked at 56.2% without him. That difference of -4.8% was the worst in his career outside of his injury-plagued 2020-21 season with the Ducks.

With one year left on his deal, some considered Manson to be trade bait as the Avs looked to create salary cap flexibility. They opted to subtract from their forward group instead, sending Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood to the Blue Jackets and augmenting their defensive depth by picking up veteran Brent Burns in free agency. The extension all but ensures he’ll remain in Colorado for the foreseeable future, perhaps for the remainder of his career, given his recent trajectory.

Image courtesy of Robert Edwards-Imagn Images.

Sharks Sign Jakub Skarek To One-Year Contract

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The Sharks have signed goaltender Jakub Skarek to a one-year contract, the team announced today in a press release. It’s unclear if it’s a one-way or a two-way deal, but it’s a league-minimum contract either way.

Skarek, 25, has been playing professionally for a decade, dating back to his time in the second tier of Czech hockey, years before the Islanders selected him in the third round of the 2018 draft. He has played almost exclusively for the Isles’ AHL affiliate in Bridgeport since his arrival in North America in 2019.

The Czech native didn’t make his NHL debut until injuries forced him into action for a stretch last season, posting a .872 SV% and 3.94 GAA in one start and one relief appearance in February. He’s long struggled to be a needle-mover at the minor league level, posting a 3.34 GAA, .890 SV%, five shutouts, and a 49-84-17 record in 161 career appearances for Bridgeport.

Skarek was a Group VI unrestricted free agent this summer and likely didn’t anticipate having much NHL interest as a result of his poor minor-league track record, so he signed a one-year deal in Finland with HIFK back in May. Instead, he’s back in North America with the Sharks, who needed depth netminders with Alexandar Georgiev and Georgi Romanov reaching free agency and top prospect Yaroslav Askarov expected to take over as their No. 1 this season.

San Jose now has four goaltenders under contract, with Skarek likely being the No. 3 on their depth chart behind Askarov and recent trade pickup Alex Nedeljkovic. He’ll presumably land on waivers in the fall and, if he clears, share the San Jose Barracuda’s crease with undrafted prospect Gabriel Carriere and the AHL-contracted Matt Davis.

Stars Trade Matt Dumba To Penguins

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The Stars are trading defenseman Matt Dumba and their 2028 second-round pick to the Penguins in exchange for defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Both teams have since announced the trade, which doesn’t include any salary retention.

Completing the deal will make the Stars cap-compliant for the 2025-26 season. Even if Dallas has Kolyachonok on its opening night roster, he costs the league minimum $775K against the cap.

That’s $2.975MM less than Dumba’s $3.75MM cap hit, since Pittsburgh takes on the totality of his salary with no retention on Dallas’ part. That savings puts Dallas, which is currently $1.79MM above the upper limit, back under the cap.

The Stars signed Dumba to a two-year, $7.5MM contract in free agency last summer, viewed as a risky commitment at the time after the 6’1″ righty had just 12 points and a -18 rating in 76 games with the Coyotes and Lightning the year prior. The fears around the contract were quickly realized. Dumba, who turns 31 later this month, had negative possession impacts everywhere he was deployed and was out of the lineup entirely by the time the postseason rolled around.

Dumba played 63 games for the Stars last season, averaging just 15:18 per game with a 1-9–10 scoring line. He logged a minus-five rating in what amounted to his lowest usage since his rookie campaign and was a healthy scratch for all 18 playoff games.

The best years of Dumba’s NHL career came as a top-pairing piece for the Wild, who drafted him No. 7 overall in 2012. He remained there through the beginning of his steep decline in the early 2020s, leaving for Arizona in 2023 in free agency on a one-year contract. After failing to re-establish his value there, he was flipped to the Lightning at the trade deadline for two late-round picks and finished out the year as a bottom-pairing piece in Tampa before signing in Dallas in the offseason.

Dumba’s best season came back in 2017-18 as a 23-year-old, when he finished 19th in the league in scoring among defensemen with 50 points in 82 games and tied for 10th with 14 goals. He also had 12 goals and 22 points in just 32 games the following year before an upper-body injury ended his season. His offensive production never recovered, averaging just 22.4 points per 82 games since returning.

It’s unclear if Dumba will have much of a role in Pittsburgh’s lineup next season. They have three right-shot defenders ahead of him on the depth chart in Connor Clifton, Erik Karlsson, and Kris Letang, although Karlsson is well-known trade bait this summer. If he remains in the picture, though, Dumba could start the season in the press box – or even on waivers and buried in the minors – unless someone shifts to their offside.

Dumba’s price tag is exceedingly steep for the No. 6/7/8 defender he is at this stage of his career, one Dallas simply couldn’t afford to shoulder with their cap crunch after extending Mikko Rantanen and retaining UFAs Jamie Benn and Matt Duchene. They part with a second-round pick to wipe his deal off the books one year early – a steep price considering the market for cap dumps this summer, although they do well in acquiring a serviceable depth piece in Kolyachonok. They’re now without a pick before the third round in 2028.

The Penguins already had a bit of a crunch among depth defensemen after signing Alexander Alexeyev, Caleb Jones, and Parker Wotherspoon in free agency. It isn’t surprising to see them unwilling to take on a defenseman without moving one out.

They picked up Kolyachonok, a 24-year-old 6’2″ lefty with some untapped two-way potential, off waivers from Utah in February last season. He didn’t get into much game action, though, recording two assists and a minus-five rating in 12 appearances while averaging 14:20 per game. There wasn’t going to be much opportunity for him in Pittsburgh with their aforementioned additions and younger, higher-profile names like Owen Pickering pushing for more NHL ice time.

Kolyachonok, a second-rounder in 2019, has 14 points in 74 career NHL games with a minus-seven rating and 72 hits. He’ll presumably compete with veteran Alexander Petrovic to exit training camp as the extra defenseman on the NHL roster.

Sean Shapiro of DLLS Sports was first to report the Stars and Penguins were working on a trade centered around Dumba and Kolyachonok.

Image courtesy of Jerome Miron-Imagn Images.

Dylan Ferguson Signs With HK Nitra

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Depth goaltender Dylan Ferguson will continue his career in Europe. He’s signed with HK Nitra, the Slovak club announced on Facebook. It’s a one-year deal, leaving the door open for a return to North America in 2026-27.

Ferguson is only 26 years old but has already built up a well-traveled career, playing for 11 different clubs in the NHL, AHL, ECHL, and KHL since his professional career began in 2018. He spent last season on a two-way contract with the Wild after veteran AHL option Troy Grosenick went down with a season-ending injury before the campaign began, but didn’t see any NHL action. His last NHL appearances – just two of his three career showings – came with the Senators in March 2023.

The 2017 seventh-round pick by the Stars, who was immediately flipped to the Golden Knights for defenseman Marc Methot, has a .929 SV% and 2.81 GAA across the trio of games with a 1-1-0 record. He’s spent most of his time in the AHL, where he’s largely been serviceable but had a difficult 2024-25 season. He managed a 3.81 GAA, .878 SV%, and 3-8-0 record in 12 games for the Iowa Wild.

The British Columbia native now heads overseas for the second time in his career. He spent 2023-24 with Belarus’ Dinamo Minsk, posting a .904 SV% in 23 games. He’ll bring his services to a Nitra team headlined by 44-year-old Branislav Mezei, who’s still going in his home country after being selected No. 10 overall by the Islanders in the 1999 draft.

Tennessee State To Add Division I NCAA Hockey For 2026-27 Season

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The top division of NCAA hockey is gaining a new face for the first time in a few years. After beginning a feasibility study four years ago, Tennessee State University reaffirmed that it’s sponsoring a Division I men’s hockey program, which will begin play in the 2026-27 season. That was the initial plan, although they’re reverting to it now after previously attempting to launch DI play for the 2025-26 campaign.

The school began to ice a club hockey team in 2024-25 and will presumably do so again this year instead of making the jump to the top flight. Unlike recent new DI programs like Augustana and Lindenwood, there is no history of ACHA – a collegiate hockey association roughly equivalent to NCAA DIII play – representation at TSU. In this case, the program is truly being built from scratch in a brief period.

Tennessee State, located in Nashville with a total enrollment of just 8,198, will be the first historically Black college or university (HBCU) to introduce a DI hockey program, either men’s or women’s. In today’s announcement, Assistant Athletic Director Nick Guerriero stated that they’ve received a $ 250,000 grant from the NHL and NHLPA’s Industry Growth Fund, in addition to continued consultancy and support from the Predators and College Hockey, Inc.

While the club’s playing roster for its inaugural season isn’t yet secured, it does have its head coach. They tapped Duanté Abercrombie for the role in April 2024. The 28-year-old Washington, D.C. native previously worked as a development coach with the Maple Leafs during the 2022-23 season and served as an assistant coach for Stevenson University’s Division III program in 2023-24.

Like Lindenwood, TSU is expected to begin its life as an independent program.

Kraken Announce Player Development Staff Changes

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The Kraken have already made a multitude of staff changes this offseason, replacing nearly their entire coaching staff and naming Jason Botterill as the second general manager in franchise history. The moves aren’t stopping there, however.

According to a press release from the team, they’re also refreshing their player development staff. Former NHL defenseman Cory Murphy, who had worked with the team over the past two seasons as a player development consultant, has been promoted to director of the department.

Murphy replaces Jeff Tambellini, who had worked as Seattle’s director of player development since 2022-23. Tambellini was tabbed earlier this week by the Lightning as a new assistant general manager and director of hockey operations.

As the release states, Murphy’s work over the last two years has involved working with the team’s pool of defense prospects, which doesn’t include any blue-chip names but has a few intriguing projects. The club highlighted his impact on the development of 2022 third-rounder Ty Nelson, who had 32 points and a +17 rating in 72 games with AHL Coachella Valley in his first professional season in 2024-25. He’ll now have a broader range and influence throughout Seattle’s development ideology.

Seattle has also created a new title – Head of Player Strategy – and given it to 31-year-old Justin Rai, who has worked with the club as a consultant for the last three years. “My job is to be able to research the league, research our players and figure out the existing trends,” Rai said. “Most specifically, it is my role to be additive to Coach [Lane Lambert]’s staff, making sure players can better execute his structure at a higher level, staying on the same message as the coaching staff … I’m grateful for the opportunity and that the Kraken organization puts its employees in spots to succeed.”

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