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Jets’ Nikolaj Ehlers Set To Return For Game 6

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Star Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers is set to return for Winnipeg’s potential series-clinching Game 6 in their series against the Blues tonight, the team announced.

Ehlers has been dealing with a foot injury that’s kept him out of the Jets’ first five playoff games and all but two contests since April 3. He’s been skating in a non-contact jersey in practice since Wednesday and shed the designation for the first time this morning, the team’s Mitchell Clinton relayed. Winnipeg has managed a 3-2 series lead without him, but as they travel to St. Louis for Game 6, the home team has won every game in the series thus far.

His return comes as first-line center Mark Scheifele exits the lineup due to an undisclosed injury he sustained in the first period of Game 5. The Jets were quick to rule out their top pivot yesterday, and he didn’t accompany the team on the trip to Missouri.

Ehlers’ return will be imperative as he looks to help Winnipeg’s offense sustain Scheifele’s loss. During the regular season, the pending unrestricted free agent fell just short of setting a career-high in points with 63 (24 goals, 39 assists) in 69 games.

Ehlers will skate in his usual second-line role with captain Adam Lowry elevated from third-line duties to center him and Cole Perfetti. Normal No. 2 center Vladislav Namestnikov moves up to replace Scheifele between Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi.

Lower in the lineup, this morning’s line rushes indicate depth center Dominic Toninato is set to make his first playoff appearance since 2021 between Alex Iafallo and Brandon Tanev. He’s coming in for Jaret Anderson-Dolan, who played the first five games of the series but will now serve as a healthy scratch despite contributing a goal, assist, and 19 hits in his limited minutes.

Aleksander Barkov, Anthony Cirelli, Sam Reinhart Named Selke Trophy Finalists

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Panthers center Aleksander Barkov, Lightning center Anthony Cirelli, and Panthers winger Sam Reinhart have been named Selke Trophy finalists for the 2024-25 season, the NHL announced.

According to the league, the award is given “to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.” It’s voted on at the end of the regular season by media members, like most other major NHL honors, and has been in circulation since the 1977-78 campaign, with former Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron holding the record with six wins.

Despite the verbiage, the Selke is almost never given out to a pure shutdown forward, at least not anymore. More of a “best two-way forward” than “best defensive forward” honor in reality, Barkov headlines the list as he looks to take home the hardware in back-to-back years and for the third time in his career.

Now a four-time finalist, Barkov’s boxcar stats actually point toward a down year for the Stanley Cup champion Finn. His 1.06 points per game and plus-one rating were both post-COVID lows for the 29-year-old, but he still added 54 blocks, 87 hits, and a 56.5% win rate in the faceoff dot. A look at his possession numbers makes it easy to see why he’s continuously regarded as the game’s best two-way center, though. His 60.8% Corsi share at even strength this year was a career-high and led the team.

Stepping into the finalist’s circle for the first time is Barkov’s cross-state counterpart in Cirelli. The 27-year-old finished fourth in Selke voting in 2019-20 and fifth in 2021-22 but never cracked the top three. That changes this year on the heels of a season full of career-highs for Cirelli, who scored 27 goals, 32 assists, 59 points, and logged a +30 rating in 80 appearances. His 18:41 of ice time per game was also a career-high. While he doesn’t receive Barkov’s 5-on-5 deployment, Cirelli is Tampa’s top penalty-killing forward and finished seventh among forwards in plus-minus this season.

Reinhart is the unlikeliest candidate to win, although it’s not really in his control. A winger hasn’t won the award in over 20 years – the Stars’ Jere Lehtinen was the last to do it in 2003. The 29-year-old finished just outside of being a finalist last year during his career-defining 57-goal campaign, and his nomination means the Panthers are the first team with two Selke finalists in a season since the Red Wings’ Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg in 2007-08. He finished 2024-25 with a 39-42–81 scoring line, a plus-six rating, 103 hits, and a 59.2 CF% in 79 games.

Rangers Sign Juuso Pärssinen To Two-Year Extension

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The Rangers have retained pending restricted free agent forward Juuso Pärssinen on a two-year deal for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 campaigns, per a team announcement. It’s worth a total of $2.5MM with a cap hit of $1.25MM, Peter Baugh of The Athletic reports.

Pärssinen, 24, arrived in New York in March when the Blueshirts acquired him from the Avalanche in the Ryan Lindgren trade. It was the young Finn’s second move of the season. He kicked off his third NHL campaign as a member of the Predators, who selected him in the seventh round in 2019, but was sent to Colorado in a minor trade in December after struggling to stay in the lineup.

On the year, the 6’3″, 212-lb pivot posted 6-10–16 with a minus-five rating in 48 appearances across the three clubs. From a points-per-game perspective, that’s a minor improvement on his 2023-24 sophomore slump, in which he was limited to 12 points in 44 games with Nashville. He got his offense going again despite averaging 10:32 per game after averaging north of 14 minutes per night across his first two NHL campaigns.

The fact that he’s no longer waiver-exempt has likely helped his case for staying on NHL rosters, but he had a strong finish to the campaign that likely helped his case for an opening-night job in 2025-26. Considering the Rangers gave him $100K more than the maximum buriable cap hit in the minors, that’s something they’re anticipating. After the move, Pärssinen averaged fewer than 10 minutes per game for New York but scored five points in his final three games of the campaign, adding a plus-one rating with 14 blocks and 17 hits.

Pärssinen does have legitimate offensive upside. In his first NHL showing in 2022-23, he posted a 6-19–25 scoring line in 45 games for the Preds after an early-season call-up from AHL Milwaukee. That’s an 11-goal, 46-point pace over an 82-game campaign. It’s certainly unreasonable to expect him to replicate those numbers if new head coach Mike Sullivan continues deploying him in a fourth-line role, but he can be a useful play-driver deep in the lineup.

By signing now, Pärssinen avoids a bout with RFA status for the second time in as many years. He spent almost the entire offseason unsigned by Nashville in 2024 before coming to terms on a league-minimum deal the week before training camp opened. His deal includes a $1.05MM base salary and a $150K signing bonus in 2025-26 and a base salary of $1.3MM with no bonuses in 2026-27, per PuckPedia. He’ll be one year away from UFA status when his deal expires, and the Rangers will need to tender a $1.3MM qualifying offer to retain his signing rights upon expiry.

The Rangers now have just $8.42MM in cap space for next season with a roster size of 19, per PuckPedia. Without any cap-clearing moves, that will be eaten up quickly by new deals for pending RFAs William Cuylle and K’Andre Miller.

Image courtesy of Brad Penner-Imagn Images.

Pat Ferschweiler Interviews For Flyers Head Coaching Job

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Western Michigan University head coach Pat Ferschweiler was interviewed by the Flyers this week for their head coaching position, ESPN’s Kevin Weekes said.

Ferschweiler, 55, is coming off a national championship and has been mentioned as a potential candidate of interest for Philly multiple times in the past few weeks. It’s the first time he’s gotten NHL head coaching buzz, but it wouldn’t be his first time coaching in the league. The Minnesota native was an assistant coach with the Red Wings under Jeff Blashill from 2015-16 through 2018-19.

The reigning NCAA Coach of the Year never made it to the NHL as a player, but he did have an eight-year professional career as a right winger and defenseman in the minors and briefly in England. He has guided the Broncos to a 104-42-10 record over the last four years, making the NCHC tournament on every occasion, after making the playoffs just once since the conference was founded in 2013.

Other candidates linked to Philly’s opening include former Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet and the recently-reinstated Joel Quenneville. It’s unclear if they’ve interviewed either, although the latter has already talked to the Ducks about their vacancy. They also haven’t ruled out the possibility of removing the interim tag from associate coach Brad Shaw.

Of course, the search comes after the Flyers fired John Tortorella with just weeks left in the regular season.

Blues Sign Will Cranley To Two-Way Extension

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The Blues re-signed goaltender Will Cranley to a two-way contract for 2025-26, per a team announcement. He’ll make the league minimum of $775K if he’s on the NHL roster with an $85K salary in the minors.

Cranley, 23, was recently up with the Blues as their emergency goaltender for the playoffs. However, he was returned to ECHL Florida on Monday with AHL Springfield starter Colten Ellis recalled in his place following the latter’s elimination from the Calder Cup Playoffs.

A sixth-round pick by the Blues in 2020, Cranley was set to be a restricted free agent this summer following the expiry of his entry-level contract. He’s now in his second professional season, spending nearly all of his time in the ECHL. The 6’4″, 185-lb netminder posted a 2.71 GAA, .896 SV%, two shutouts, and an 11-9-3 record in 23 games for the Everblades this season as the backup to the AHL-contracted Cam Johnson.

Cranley enters the offseason with stability for next season, but he’s still fifth out of five signed netminders on the Blues’ depth chart. He’s still young, but he didn’t inspire much confidence in his short recall with Springfield this year, posting a .867 SV% across two appearances. He’s almost certainly destined for ECHL minutes again next season, and without a demonstrable step forward in his performance, a qualifying offer in the summer of 2026 seems unlikely.

Leon Draisaitl, Connor Hellebuyck, Nikita Kucherov Named Hart Trophy Finalists

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Oilers center Leon Draisaitl, Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, and Lightning right-winger Nikita Kucherov have been named the Hart Trophy finalists as the NHL’s most valuable player for the 2024-25 season, the league announced today (via X).

Like most other major awards, the Hart is voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. It’s one of the longest-running annual honors in the league, first presented in 1924. Each voter submits a five-player ballot with a 10-7-5-3-1 points system. Compared with the Ted Lindsay Award, voted on by the players for best player, Kucherov is the only carryover member in this year’s nominations.

Draisaitl and Kucherov are in the running to win the Hart for the second time in their careers, while Hellebuyck is a first-time finalist after finishing top 10 in voting in 2019-20 and 2023-24. He’s the first goalie to finish as a finalist for the award since the Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin in 2021-22, and he’s aiming to be the first to win it since the Canadiens’ Carey Price in 2014-15.

Draisaitl, 29, has never been nominated for the Hart without winning it. He didn’t receive any votes last year after four straight years in the top 10, but rebounded with a vengeance in 2024-25 with a league-leading 52 goals despite missing 11 games due to injuries. It was the German superstar’s first time leading the league in goals, and his 11 game-winners led the league for the third time.

Hellebuyck wins a nomination in what will likely be an extremely tight vote when results are released following the announcement of the winner. The 31-year-old has continued his dominant run as the league’s best regular-season netminder over the past half-decade, posting a .925 SV% along with a league-leading 2.00 GAA, eight shutouts, 47 wins, and 41.6 goals saved above average – all career-highs, too – in 63 appearances.

As for Kucherov, he secures his second straight Hart nomination, along with the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s leading point-getter, for the second straight season. While his campaign ended in defeat at the hands of the Panthers in last night’s Game 5, he posted 84 assists and 121 points in 78 games in the regular season en route to the 31-year-old’s third career Hart nomination. With a win, the future Hall-of-Famer would join Alex Ovechkin as the only Russian in league history with multiple MVP awards.

Devils Notes: Markström, Pesce, Lazar, Palát

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Despite a five-game loss to the Hurricanes in the first round, Jacob Markström backstopped his Devils with one of the best goaltending performances of the postseason. He posted a .911 SV% and 2.78 GAA behind an injury-plagued New Jersey defense, including a spectacular 49-save performance in Game 5’s double-overtime loss. Through five games, Markström’s 5.7 goals saved above expected lead the playoffs, per MoneyPuck.

On the heels of that strong showing in his first year in New Jersey, Markström enters next season as a pending unrestricted free agent and becomes eligible to sign an extension on July 1. That’s something he has a strong interest in doing. “If [general manager Tom Fitzgerald] is calling, I’m answering,” the netminder told reporters today during end-of-season media availability (per James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now).

Markström is entering the final season of the six-year, $36MM contract he signed with the Flames in free agency in 2020. The Devils are only on the hook for $4.125MM of his $6MM cap hit, though, as Calgary retained 31.25% of his deal when they traded him to New Jersey last offseason. He had a somewhat pedestrian regular season, logging a .900 SV%, 2.50 GAA, and 3.4 GSAx in 49 starts, but the one-time All-Star was still a marked improvement over the goaltending that arguably tanked the Devils’ 2023-24 campaign.

He’ll be 36 next summer, so a long-term deal certainly isn’t in the cards. Injuries remain somewhat of a concern, especially given his age – he’s now missed at least 10 games in back-to-back years. His age also means the Devils can give him performance bonuses on a one-year extension to keep his initial cap hit down. If he wants a multi-year commitment, though, he’s ineligible for performance bonuses.

Here’s more on the Devils:

  • New Jersey lost defensemen Brenden Dillon and Luke Hughes in Game 1 for the rest of the series, and they weren’t the only rearguards hurt in that contest. Brett Pesce told reporters today he sustained a shoulder injury in the opening game of the postseason but played through it, per the club’s Amanda Stein. It’s unclear whether he’ll require offseason surgery. Pesce has a history of shoulder issues, missing the tail end of the 2017-18 season before eventually undergoing surgery on his right shoulder in February 2020. Pesce struggled to the tune of 17 points and a minus-five rating in 72 games for the Devils this year after signing a six-year, $33MM deal in free agency last summer.
  • Center Curtis Lazar’s knee injury never fully healed after making an earlier-than-expected return to the lineup in December, he told Nichols. He underwent surgery on Oct. 27 but was back in the lineup less than two months later, although he did miss a few games later in the season. The pending unrestricted free agent expressed a desire to be back in Newark next year. While he recorded just five points in 48 contests in 2024-25, he’s one year removed from a career-high 25 points and a +10 rating in 71 games. A healthy Lazar can be an effective bottom-six talent, especially if he returns on a deal similar to his current $1MM cap hit.
  • Winger Ondřej Palát will not be representing his native Czechia at this year’s World Championship, per Stein. The 34-year-old managed only 28 points in 75 games this year, a career-low in a full season, and had two assists in five postseason contests. He was an alternate captain for Czechia at the Worlds last year, scoring 3-3–6 in 10 games en route to a gold medal. Being named to Czechia’s roster for the Winter Olympics next year would give him a shot at joining Jaromír Jágr and Jiří Šlégr as Czech members of the Triple Gold Club.

Ed Van Impe Passes Away

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Former NHL defenseman Ed Van Impe, who played in the league from 1966 to 1977, has passed away at age 84, according to a statement from the Flyers.

Undrafted, Van Impe spent six years playing minor professional hockey with the WHL-Sr.’s Calgary Stampeders and the AHL’s Buffalo Bisons before earning his first NHL contract with the Blackhawks (then the Black Hawks) at age 26. The hard-hitting 5’10”, 205-lb lefty impressed as a rookie, finishing second in Calder Trophy voting in the final season of the Original Six era with an 8-11–19 scoring line, a +29 rating, and a team-leading 111 PIMs in 61 games.

Van Impe was drafted by the Flyers in the expansion draft the following offseason, marking the beginning of where he spent the vast majority of his career. The Saskatchewan native appeared in 620 regular-season games for the Flyers over the next nine seasons, posting 19 goals, 107 assists, 126 points, and a +68 rating with 891 PIMs. He was part of the team’s back-to-back Stanley Cup wins in 1974 and 1975, posting seven points and a +18 rating in 34 games across the two championship runs.

A three-time All-Star Game participant, Van Impe spent the final season and a half of his NHL career with the cross-state rival Penguins following a 1976 trade deadline deal. He finished his NHL career with 27 goals, 126 assists, 153 points, and a +99 rating in 703 games. Even today, he’s still fourth on the Flyers’ all-time list of games played among defensemen.

All of us at PHR send our condolences to Van Impe’s friends and family and the Flyers organization.

Hurricanes Sign Taylor Hall To Three-Year Extension

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5:50 p.m.: According to PuckPedia, Hall’s new extension breaks down as follows:

  • Year 1: $3.5MM salary, full no-movement clause
  • Year 2: $3.425MM salary, full no-movement clause
  • Year 3: $2.575MM salary, full no-movement clause*

* If Hall scores less than 35 points in 2026-27, the full no-movement clause in 2027-28 will convert to a 10-team modified no-trade clause. 

9:02 a.m.: Taylor Hall has agreed to a three-year, $9.5MM extension with the Hurricanes, according to a team announcement. The deal carries a cap hit of $3.167MM and will carry the veteran left-winger through the 2027-28 campaign.

“Taylor has proven to be an outstanding fit for our team, and we are thrilled that he is excited to make Raleigh his home for another three seasons,” general manager Eric Tulsky said in a statement. “He’s been a solid veteran presence in the locker room and a difference maker on the ice.”

Hall has fit well in Carolina since the team acquired him from the Blackhawks in January’s blockbuster three-way deal with the Avalanche. While the 2010 first overall pick isn’t the MVP threat he was in his prime, he’s settled in as a capable middle-six scorer in his twilight years. He scored 9-9–18 in 31 regular-season games after arriving in Raleigh-Durham, a 24-goal, 48-point pace over an 82-game schedule.

While a three-year term may carry some risk for a player who’ll be 36 years old upon expiry, it’s a cost-effective commitment that maintains the Hurricanes’ immense salary cap flexibility next season. Hall’s extension still leaves them with $32.06MM in projected cap space for 2025-26 with just five roster spots to fill, per PuckPedia. With no notable restricted free agents to re-sign, this is a highly team-friendly deal to allow Carolina to retain a reliable middle-six scorer and go big-game hunting in earnest over the summer.

It’s no surprise to see Hall prioritize term over money in extension talks. He’s been traded twice in the past three seasons after signing a four-year, $24MM contract with the Bruins in 2021. After potting 61 points in 81 games for Boston in the first year of the deal, his most since his Hart Trophy campaign with the Devils in 2017-18, he managed 36 points in 61 contests in 2022-23 and was traded to Chicago in a cap-clearing move the following summer. Knee surgery then limited Hall to just 10 appearances for the Hawks in 2023-24 before scoring 24 points in 46 games for Chicago this season, before the move to the Hurricanes.

While he takes a 47% pay cut per year, Hall avoids his first trip to unrestricted free agency in five years the morning after Carolina became the first team to advance to the second round with a come-from-behind double overtime win over the Devils in Game 5. The 6’1″, 210-lb forward had a goal and two assists with a minus-one rating in the series while averaging 15:56 per game.

For the organization, retaining their top pending UFA forward well in advance of the market opening is an important development after seeing their scoring depth gutted by free-agent departures last summer. This time around, Tulsky won’t face the same fate while also having nearly unprecedented flexibility among playoff contenders to add to his roster on the open market.

It’s a deal the Canes and Hall have been working on essentially since his acquisition. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet and Andy Strickland of FanDuel Sports Network both said in February that they were discussing an extension.

Image courtesy of David Kirouac-Imagn Images.

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