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Capitals Grant Ethan Bear Permission To Speak With Interested Clubs

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The Capitals will not be re-signing pending unrestricted free agent defenseman Ethan Bear and have given him permission to discuss a contract with other clubs before the opening of free agency on July 1, Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK TV reports.

This was the expected outcome for Bear, whom Washington signed to a two-year, $4.13MM contract in December 2023 after offseason shoulder surgery. The signing was a puzzling one at the time. Washington already had six surefire NHL defensemen under contract, and although they dealt with injuries on the blue line throughout that season, the multi-year term raised eyebrows.

By the time Bear signed with the Capitals, he’d established himself as a legitimate everyday NHLer. The 5’11” righty was coming off one of the better seasons of his career with the Canucks, although they opted to non-tender him amid a roster crunch and an unwillingness to pay his $2.2MM qualfying offer. He averaged 18:32 per game while posting 16 points in 61 appearances, also logging a plus-six rating with good possession impacts (51.0 CF%, 51.6 xGF% at even strength).

Bear settled in as Washington’s seventh defenseman after signing, only playing 24 games over three months before entering the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program in March 2024 and missing the remainder of the season. He averaged a career-low 14:54 per game over that stretch, recording four points and a minus-five rating with some of the worst possession numbers of his career.

As a result, Bear was on the outside of the Caps’ regular lineup when he returned to the club for training camp last fall. He cleared waivers at the beginning of the season and headed to AHL Hershey, where he spent the entirety of the season until being recalled as a healthy extra for Washington’s playoff run amid Martin Fehérváry’s injury.

Bear, 28 next week, was expectedly among the AHL’s best defensemen in 2024-25. He was a second-team All-Star after recording 46 points in 62 games. His two-way impact was arguably the best in the minors – his +33 rating was more than twice that of any other skater on Hershey. As such, there’s strong optimism around the league that he can return to being an above-average option as a third-pairing right-shot defender if deployed somewhere with more upward mobility. That place obviously won’t be Washington, where the Caps already have seven defensemen signed to one-way contracts for next season, not including pending RFA Alexander Alexeyev.

The 2015 fifth-round pick even had fine results in top-four deployment earlier in his career. While a rookie with the Oilers in the 2019-20 season, he averaged nearly 22 minutes per game while skating almost exclusively with Darnell Nurse on Edmonton’s second pairing. He had a career-high 21 points – 19 of which came at even strength – and helped the Oilers control 2.5% more shot attempts compared to when he wasn’t on the ice.

Amid a thin free agent market behind the top few players, particularly among right-shot defenseman, Bear aims to make a return to full-time NHL minutes at the right time for his market value. He likely won’t command a multi-year deal, but his past track record and strong AHL showing this past season will likely be enough to secure him a one-way pact and a legitimate shot at everyday minutes out of the gate.

Stars Sign Matt Duchene To Four-Year Extension

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The Stars have signed center Matt Duchene to a four-year extension, per a team announcement. It’s worth $4.5MM per season for a total value of $18MM. His deal carries a no-movement clause through 2026-27 before decreasing to a five-team approved trade list for the 2027-28 and 2028-29 seasons, per PuckPedia. The yearly breakdown is as follows:

2025-26: $3MM base salary, $3MM signing bonus
2026-27: $1.8MM base salary, $3MM signing bonus
2027-28: $3.6MM base salary
2028-29: $3.6MM base salary

Duchene could have tested the market as one of the top unrestricted free agent centers available, but he’ll instead opt to stay in a Dallas market where he’s excelled as a key top-six contributor over the past two years. In doing so, he takes a significant discount on his market value, at least on a per-year basis. A four-year offer at a much higher price may not have been out there for the 34-year-old, but AFP Analytics projected a three-year deal for Duchene to fall in the $7MM range per season if he hit the open market.

The 2009 No. 3 overall pick is coming off a spectacular 2024-25 campaign. While the Stars scored the third-most goals in the league, their offense was largely generated by committee. Duchene was the only Dallas player who played at least 25 games that hit the point-per-game mark, leading them in scoring with a 30-52–82 line while playing in all 82 games. Averaging over 17 minutes per game, it was the second time Duchene had hit 80 points in his 16-year NHL career and the fourth time he had hit 30 goals.

Duchene initially arrived in Texas on a one-year, $3MM contract for 2023-24 following a surprise buyout by the Predators with three years left on his contract. He posted 25 goals and 65 points in 80 games last year before taking a repeat of that deal to stay with the Stars last summer. It was a significant discount then, and he takes another significant discount now, locking in some highly-desired security through the rest of his mid-30s as well.

The Stars need any help they can get to ice a cap-compliant roster for 2025-26. Duchene’s steep discount certainly helps, but they still find themselves in a position to clear multiple salaries in order to even ice a full roster, let alone re-sign any other pending UFAs. Dallas now has just $455K in cap space with a roster of only 17 players, per PuckPedia. They need to open at least $1.9MM cap space at an absolute minimum via trades to be able to sign three league-minimum players for a bare-bones 20-man roster. In reality, they’ll move at least two of Mason Marchment ($4.5MM), Mathew Dumba ($3.75MM), and Ilya Lyubushkin ($3.25MM) to open up far more than that to give them some in-season flexibility while not taking a catastrophic hit to their forward depth. Jamie Benn, Evgenii Dadonov, and Mikael Granlund remain as pending UFAs up front.

For Duchene, he’ll still be getting compensated more than his contract with Dallas indicates. The expiry of his new deal following the 2028-29 season lines up with when his buyout paychecks from the Predators will end. He’s still set to receive $6.56MM from Nashville in 2025-26 and then $1.56MM annually through 2028-29.

Image courtesy of Jerome Miron-Imagn Images.

Fabian Zetterlund Signs Three-Year Extension With Senators

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8:41 a.m.: The Senators confirmed Zetterlund has signed a three-year extension as reported.

6:48 a.m.: Senators pending RFA winger Fabian Zetterlund has agreed to a three-year extension with the club, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. The deal is worth $12.825MM with a cap hit of $4.275MM. He’ll be a UFA upon expiry in 2028. The contract does not include trade protection, per PuckPedia. They were also the first to report that the two sides were nearing an agreement on Wednesday night. Zetterlund’s extension will be paid out entirely in base salary and will earn him $3.8MM in 2025-26, $4.3MM in 2026-27, and $4.725MM in 2027-28.

Zetterlund, 26 in August, was acquired by the Sens from the Sharks quite literally at the trade deadline for a package that included a second-round pick and center prospect Zack Ostapchuk. It was surprising to see San Jose part ways with him. He had looked promising in a top-six role since being acquired from the Devils in the Timo Meier swap a few years ago, posting a 20-goal, 44-point campaign in 2023-24. He was on track to do so again with a 17-19–36 scoring line in 64 games at the time of the trade, but they either valued the offered return from Ottawa higher than Zetterlund’s on-ice value or believed they wouldn’t be able to come to an agreement as he reached free agency.

The tail end of 2024-25 saw Zetterlund struggle to find consistency in Ottawa. He bounced around the lineup upon arrival, logging significant time in top-six usage with Tim Stützle but also seeing some deployment as low as the fourth line with Adam Gaudette and Matthew Highmore. His offensive production underwhelmed, only managing two goals and five points in 20 games in a Sens jersey, averaging 14:18 per game after seeing nearly 17 minutes per game in San Jose.

The bright side? All five of Zetterlund’s points came in his final 12 games as he was bumped up the lineup, and he had four points in six games to end the regular season. He didn’t manage to log a point in their first-round loss to the Maple Leafs, though. He ended the year with a 19-22–41 scoring line in 84 games, landing a few extra appearances thanks to the trade. It was south of the 20-goal mark he was on pace for with his start to the season in the Bay Area, but he still managed to crack 40 points for the second year in a row.

If Zetterlund gets more consistent top-six deployment out of the gate in 2025-26, he should be able to return to his San Jose levels of production and be a valuable top-nine winger for the Sens at that price point. The Swedish forward also had good possession impacts this past season, posting positive relative Corsi shares at even strength with both the Sharks and Senators. He also posted a decent 52.4 xGF% in his even-strength minutes with Ottawa, understandably seeing a spike there from his San Jose numbers on a much more competent two-way club. He’ll aim to turn those figures into more noticeable offensive numbers en route to being a key secondary scorer for the Sens.

The contract comes in a bit north of his three-year, $3.92MM AAV projection from AFP Analytics, but still seems like a reasonable bet based on the offense he’s provided on the whole over the past two years. It does reaffirm their cap crunch, though, and likely turns up the urgency on a money-clearing move a bit with top UFA Claude Giroux still without an extension. The Sens have $10.75MM in space with six roster spots still to fill after Zetterlund’s new contract, according to PuckPedia. With Giroux projected to land north of $5MM on his next deal, that means they’d only have around $5.5MM to allocate to five roster spots to round out the club, limiting them to depth adds only in free agency.

Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

NHL Continuing Inquiry Into Oilers’ LTIR Usage

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When teams have big-money players stashed on long-term injured reserve for significant portions of the season, it’s become commonplace for the NHL to direct additional scrutiny toward their medical records to ensure they’re not circumventing the salary cap. It’s become a hot-button issue in recent years with star players missing most or all of the regular season with injuries, only to return at the beginning of the playoffs when the upper limit is no longer in effect.

In every case in recent memory, the league has been satisfied with the documentation they’ve received, and those inquiries have been closed during the postseason. However, that isn’t the case with the Oilers and winger Evander Kane, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff writes. The league’s investigation on that matter is still ongoing, and the potential remains for the Oilers to have a retroactive penalty if they conclude Edmonton violated the CBA.

It’s not clear what aspect of Kane’s LTIR usage the league isn’t satisfied with. He didn’t return immediately as the playoffs started – he was only cleared for Game 2 of the first round against the Kings, not Game 1, and didn’t receive an AHL conditioning stint leading up to his return. Edmonton also didn’t dip into the cap flexibility that Kane’s LTIR placement afforded them until the trade deadline, when team doctors confirmed he wouldn’t be cleared to play before the end of the regular season.

Speculatively, the issue could be the nature and timing of the second surgery Kane underwent. The power winger played through a sports hernia at the tail end of last season and finally ended up undergoing a wide-ranging procedure that repaired multiple hip and abdominal muscles in September 2024. Waiting until training camp to undergo the procedure was already eye-raising, but it only carried a four-month timeline that would have had him back in the lineup before the trade deadline anyway.

Then, Kane underwent an unrelated surgery on his knee in January, pausing his rehab from his earlier surgery and effectively ending his regular season. The team didn’t disclose details on the procedure at a time. Yesterday, Seravalli reported the surgery removed a “congenital tumor-like growth.” With the knee issue being present for his entire life and career, the league could be questioning why the Oilers chose that specific window to have Kane undergo surgery, particularly so late in his recovery from another procedure.

Ducks Re-Sign Nikita Nesterenko To Two-Year Deal

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The Ducks announced yesterday that they’ve extended left winger Nikita Nesterenko on a two-year contract. He was set to become a restricted free agent but will stay with the Ducks, receiving a one-way commitment worth $775K in 2025-26 and $800K in 2026-27 in the process, according to PuckPedia. He’ll carry a cap hit of $787.5K as a result.

Nesterenko, 24 in September, was drafted by the Wild back in 2019. The sixth-rounder had his signing rights sent to Anaheim in the 2023 John Klingberg deadline trade. He signed his entry-level contract days later after completing his junior season at Boston College.

A two-way forward with good skating ability and historically able to shoulder minutes at center, Nesterenko has taken strides over his two full minor-league campaigns. He notched a 16-21–37 scoring line in 70 games for AHL San Diego in his first full professional season in 2023-24, good for 0.53 points per game. He upped his production to 0.68 points per game here in 2024-25, notching a 13-21–34 line in 50 games. He’s got a cumulative plus-seven rating as well while leveraging his 6’2″, 183-lb frame to play a decently physical game.

That well-rounded performance has led the Ducks to give Nesterenko multiple NHL call-ups over the past couple of years. After skating in nine games with Anaheim to finish off the 2022-23 season post-ELC, he suited up three times for them last year before making a career-high 20 NHL appearances here in 2024-25. He didn’t look out of place at all as a serviceable fourth-line winger, averaging 10:19 per game while scoring four goals and two assists with a minus-four rating. He averaged a shot on goal per game, finished at a likely unsustainable but still intriguing 20% clip, and posted reasonably decent possession numbers in defensively skewed deployment.

His new deal comes in considerably lower than the $917,831 qualifying offer he was eligible for, but that would have only been for one year with a two-way structure. He swaps out the higher one-year earning ceiling for added financial protection if he’s assigned to the minors.

Nesterenko will undoubtedly be in the conversation for an opening-night job, especially since he becomes waiver-eligible for the first time next season. He’ll be a restricted free agent upon expiry in 2027 and will be owed a qualifying offer of $840K.

Nick Bonino Announces Retirement, Joins Penguins As Assistant Coach

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5PM: As expected, former NHL journeyman center Nick Bonino has coupled his move back to Pittsburgh with a formal retirement announcement. He will end his career with 868 NHL games, 69 AHL games, and 22 IceHL games.

1PM: Former NHL center Nick Bonino spent 2024-25 in Slovenia with HC Olimpija Ljubljana of the ICEHL, and was supposed to spend a second year with the club after re-signing several weeks ago. Instead, he’s decided to end his playing career and will return to the NHL as an assistant coach with the Penguins, the club announced Wednesday on its Facebook page. DK Pittsburgh Sports first relayed word that Bonino could be joining new head coach Dan Muse’s staff yesterday.

Bonino will be the first assistant named to Muse’s staff, which had been wiped clean from last year’s group under Mike Sullivan, except for goalie coach Andy Chiodo. Ty Hennes and David Quinn followed Sullivan to the Rangers to serve on his staff there, while Mike Vellucci left to take an assistant role with the Blackhawks.

The move confirms Bonino’s retirement following a 16-season pro career, 15 of which were spent in the NHL. A sixth-round pick of the Sharks back in 2007, Bonino was a quality top-nine piece until the final few campaigns of his career and ended up suiting up for seven different teams.

One of those clubs was the Penguins. He only spent two years in Pittsburgh, who acquired him from the Canucks in the 2015 offseason. To say they were the most memorable years of his career would be an understatement. He played a key depth role as the Pens marched to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and 2017, including a series-clinching goal in overtime in the second round against the Capitals in 2016.

While he was usually good for around 35 points in the regular season, Bonino posted an 8-17–25 scoring line in 45 playoff games for Pittsburgh – a 46-point pace over an 82-game schedule. He was especially exceptional in their 2016 run, tying for third on the team in playoff scoring with 18 points in 24 games along with a team-high plus-nine rating, centering one of the best third lines in recent memory with Carl Hagelin and Phil Kessel.

Bonino was still an effective two-way center for a while after, and was quite serviceable for the Predators after landing his big four-year, $16.4MM payday from them in free agency following his second Stanley Cup victory. He finished top 15 in Selke Trophy voting twice during his Nashville tenure.

The Connecticut native had a brief second stint with the Penguins in 2023 after they acquired him from the Sharks at the trade deadline, but played just three games before a kidney laceration ended his season. He last played in the NHL with the Rangers in 2023-24 but had his contract mutually terminated midway through the campaign after falling out of the lineup.

Bonino’s NHL career officially draws to a close with a 159-199–358 scoring line in 868 games. He boasts a career +30 rating and averaged north of 15 minutes per game across stints with Anaheim, Nashville, Pittsburgh, San Jose, Vancouver, Minnesota, and New York. He made an estimated $30.69MM in career earnings, per PuckPedia. He also scored 17 points in 22 regular-season games in his brief stint with Ljubljana last year.

In addition to his Pittsburgh connection, Bonino is also quite familiar with Muse. The latter was an assistant coach overseeing him with both the Predators and Rangers.

Roman Josi Diagnosed With Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, Expecting To Play Next Season

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6/18: Predators general manager Barry Trotz released a statement acknowledging Josi’s POTS diagnosis. In it, he shared that the star defender has recovered exceptionally well following treatment, and is expected to be fully ready for training camp next season. Josi will be entering the 15th season of his NHL career, and sits 38 games away from his 1,000th appearance.

6/17: Predators captain Roman Josi was diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome while recovering from his season-ending concussion, he told Swiss newspaper Blick.

The condition, widely known as POTS, causes one’s heart rate to spike abnormally when transitioning from sitting or lying down to standing up, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It almost always affects women from ages 15 to 50, but can affect men in rarer cases, particularly if they meet certain risk factors. Among those stressors is a recent head injury, per the Cleveland Clinic, as in Josi’s case.

“Over the last eight weeks, I have undergone intensive therapy, which also included taking beta blockers. I’ve been feeling much better since then,” Josi said. “I’ve regained the belief that I’ll be 100 percent fit again and can fully attack with Nashville and the Swiss national team next winter.”

Josi initially feared he’d exacerbated his initial concussion, which he sustained on a hit from Panthers center Sam Bennett on Feb. 25. He’s only sustained one confirmed concussion before at the NHL level in the 2013-14 season, but the Nashville star was still experiencing headaches well into his recovery from his recent one. Those ended up being due to developing POTS and have since improved, he said.

The 35-year-old can now resume preparation for what will be his 15th NHL season, all with the Predators, in 2025-26. He’s on track to play his 1,000th game in the upcoming season in a career that’s already cemented him as the best skater in Nashville franchise history, ranking first all-time among Preds skaters in games played (962), assists (534), points (724), and average time on ice (24:52).

Last year was an underwhelming one from the captain, though. After breaking the point-per-game mark twice in the prior three seasons, his output decreased to 38 points in 53 games. That 0.72 mark was south of his career average and his worst post-pandemic offensive performance. His -26 rating was also a career low as he got little help from Nashville’s netminders despite keeping up high-end possession play, even logging a career-high 56.2 CF% at even strength.

That latter number should indicate a rebound performance if the club’s offense, which ranked 31st in the league this year, improves around him. Of course, the Preds have little chance of improving on this past season’s 30-44-8 record next year if Josi’s absence stretches into the campaign. Thankfully, it appears that won’t be the case. He has three seasons remaining on his contract at a $9.06MM cap hit.

Oilers, Trent Frederic Focusing On Long-Term Extension

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The Oilers and pending UFA winger Trent Frederic have had preliminary discussions on a max-term eight-year contract extension for the bottom-six forward, Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal said Wednesday. Conversations on an extension began earlier this month but were tabled during the Stanley Cup Final. Those talks will resume this week after last night’s loss, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period writes, adding “there’s a pathway to a deal.”

Even with a likely low price point per season, that level of commitment would be jarring for a player of Frederic’s skill set. We’ve seen longer-term deals being handed out to bottom-six wingers with some scoring upside and a physical edge in recent years. William Carrier, Logan O’Connor, Mathieu Olivier, and Miles Wood have all landed long-term extensions or free agent commitments in the post-COVID era, and Frederic certainly fits that profile.

None of those players received the maximum available term, though, and they were all coming off breakout or otherwise strong platform years. That’s not the case with Frederic. Injuries limited him to 58 regular-season games, including just one with Edmonton after they acquired him from the Bruins in a three-team deal before the trade deadline. When dressed, he logged an 8-7–15 scoring line and a -16 rating, a career-low. While he didn’t see a decline in deployment from his strong 2022-23 and 2023-24 showings in Boston, he produced just 0.26 points per game after averaging 0.40 over the prior three years.

The Oilers are of the belief that’s enough of a track record to secure a long-term commitment and, likely, a role as a third-line winger for the foreseeable future. He did have back-to-back seasons of 17 and 18 goals and a career-high 40 points with the Bruins not too long ago. Two years of that level of production isn’t a huge track record, but an affordable price point could be an appealing proposition for the Oilers to have him secured in case he reaches that output again.

It would also be a worthy bet on Frederic’s part to land some long-term financial security throughout his prime, something that’s not usually attainable for players routinely averaging between 11 and 13 minutes per game. He saw 11:24 of ice time for the Oilers in the playoffs, recording a 1-3–4 scoring line in 22 games and ranking fourth on the team with 85 hits.

While the Oilers’ stars obviously did the heavy lifting, a few depth forwards had decent possession impacts in the playoffs. Frederic wasn’t one of them. His 45.2% share of shot attempts at even strength was second-worst on the club among players who played all 22 playoff games, ahead of only Adam Henrique’s 44.7%. He also saw no special-teams deployment.

It’s likely they view Frederic as a younger, more stable, and more affordable long-term replacement for higher-priced veterans like Viktor Arvidsson and Evander Kane, both of whom could be moved this summer to free up cap space following injury-plagued regular seasons of their own. Still, it’s fair to question what purpose an eight-year commitment, which would take Frederic through his age-35 season, serves that a five-to-six-year deal doesn’t. The likelihood of Frederic still being in the NHL, and potentially even providing some positive value near the end as the salary cap rises, is exponentially higher with the latter option.

Rangers, Matt Rempe Agree To Two-Year Deal

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10:12 a.m.: Rempe will earn a $775K base salary with a $200K signing bonus in 2025-26 and a $975K salary in 2026-27, according to PuckPedia. His qualifying offer upon expiry will be $1MM as a result.

9:17 a.m.: The Rangers have agreed to terms with pending RFA forward Matt Rempe on a two-year contract, Larry Brooks of the New York Post reports Wednesday. The total value is $1.95MM with a corresponding $975K AAV and cap hit, according to Peter Baugh of The Athletic. The team has since made the contract official.

It’s not surprising to see Rempe land a one-way commitment coming off his entry-level contract, nor is it surprising to see his second NHL deal remain in the six-figure range per season. A sixth-round pick in 2020, he debuted with the Rangers in February 2024 amid internal turnover on the club’s fourth line. Over the last year and change in New York, he’s produced four goals and six assists for 10 points in 59 games.

Rempe never has and never will be counted on for high-end point production. Instead, it’s his 6’9″, 255-lb frame and penchant for physicality that has led the Rangers to give him increasingly consistent deployment in limited minutes. His ceiling moving forward will be determined by how well he can effectively deploy his frame as a brutal forechecker instead of ineffective, penalizable hits. Rempe spent nearly as much time in the penalty box (71 minutes) as he did on the ice (95 minutes) in his initial 17-game trial in the NHL last season. He improved his penalty impacts somewhat here in 2024-25, only logging 67 PIMs in 42 appearances and 357 minutes of total ice time. However, he was still suspended for eight games in December for elbowing Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen. It was the second suspension of his career after receiving a four-game ban in 2023-24.

Still, after bouncing between the Rangers and AHL Hartford for the first few months of the season, Rempe didn’t see another minor-league assignment for the rest of the year after being reinstated from his suspension in January. He’s eligible for waivers for the first time in 2025-26, so expect him to begin the season on the opening night roster and stay there for good unless an unforeseen roster crunch forces the Blueshirts into exposing him to the rest of the league. The Calgary native has 27 points in 114 minor-league games through his first three professional seasons.

Assuming no additional subtractions from their forward group via trade and prospects like Brett Berard, Brennan Othmann, and Gabriel Perreault starting 2025-26 on the opening night roster, New York has 12 forwards on their active roster for next year. That doesn’t include a new deal for pending RFA William Cuylle. The team has nearly $14MM in cap space remaining after the Rempe deal with Cuylle and defenseman K’Andre Miller still among their notable RFAs without new contracts, per PuckPedia.

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