Lightning Not Concerned About Andrei Vasilevskiy’s Availability For Regular Season
There’s been something of a hullabaloo in Tampa Bay regarding the status – or lack of – surrounding star goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. He’s not practicing today, marking a week since he was last on the ice with the club and four days since head coach Jon Cooper said he was being held out for “player management.”
Yesterday, Cooper told Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times that “there’s every expectation Vasilevskiy will have enough time and game action to be ready for the regular-season opener Oct. 9 against Ottawa,” although he’s not expected to practice with the team again until Monday. The team has still been silent on what kind of injury he’s dealing with, or if he’s even dealing with an injury-related issue at all.
Vasilevskiy has rarely missed significant time in his 11-year career. The 31-year-old only has three absences of 10 or more games on record: 12 games due to blood clots while he was breaking into the league back in 2015-16, 14 games due to a foot fracture early in the 2018-19 season, and the first 20 games of the 2023-24 season after it became apparent during training camp he needed back surgery.
Nonetheless, Cooper’s comments earlier this week indicated the Lightning are at least beginning to develop concern about Vasilevskiy shouldering his usual workload in 2025-26. He’s started 60-plus games in three of the last four years – an extreme rarity in today’s NHL. Since Vasilevskiy took over as Tampa’s starter in the 2016-17 season, only Connor Hellebuyck (532) has more starts than Vasilevskiy’s 496.
Performance isn’t a huge concern. Vasilevskiy is coming off one of the more quietly dominant seasons of his career – and an important one for his legacy after his numbers dipped following his return from surgery in 2023-24. He rightfully finished second in Vezina Trophy voting after racking up a .921 SV% and 2.18 GAA, both his best marks in four years, in 63 starts – one short of his career-high.
Depth is, though. If the Bolts are intent on bringing Vasilevskiy back to the 55-start range, that would mean close to 30 appearances for seldom-used backup Jonas Johansson. The 30-year-old Swede has been one of the more consistently below-average names in the league since first breaking onto an NHL roster with the Sabres in 2019-20, logging a career .890 SV% and 3.30 GAA. That works out to 31.6 goals allowed above average over the course of his 70-start, 80-game career. When required to step in for Vasilevskiy during his back surgery recovery two years ago, he managed a 12-7-5 record in his 26 appearances but only had a .890 SV% and 3.37 GAA, working out to -8.9 goals saved above expected, according to MoneyPuck.
Bruins Hire Zdeno Chara As Hockey Operations Advisor
The Bruins are bringing longtime captain Zdeno Chara back to the organization in a formal capacity, today announcing they’ve named him a hockey operations advisor and mentor. His main roles “will include building relationships and strengthening communication between players and coaches, attending practices and home games, and providing off-ice development support to defensemen,” the team said. “He will also serve as a resource for the team’s development staff and make periodic visits to connect with prospects at the AHL level.”
He’s a notable past-to-present bridge as the Boston organization continues to embark on a retool, particularly as first-time head coach Marco Sturm takes the reins. Chara hasn’t played for the club since 2020, departing in free agency to spend his final two NHL seasons with the Capitals and Islanders, but he served as the club’s captain and leader on the blue line for all of his 1,023 games after landing there in free agency in 2006.
Being a hockey ops advisor, Chara will report to general manager Don Sweeney. He’ll essentially serve a tier below assistant GMs Evan Gold and Jamie Langenbrunner, although if he’s open to it, a promotion to be on par with them shouldn’t be too far off.
He’s the second longtime Bruins defenseman to transition into a front office role with the club this month. They also recently promoted Adam McQuaid, who played with Chara for most of the 2010s, to their director of player development.
Chara’s 1,023 games as a Bruin rank third in franchise history among rearguards, trailing Sweeney’s 1,052 and Ray Bourque‘s 1,518. His 1,680 total games played, including stops in New York, Ottawa, and Washington, make him the league’s all-time games played leader among defenders. He was a first-ballot Hall of Famer in this year’s class, but the Bruins haven’t yet retired his No. 33 jersey.
Flyers Place Oscar Eklind On Waivers
Waiver activity has been light today as teams are still carrying fairly large camp rosters into the second week of on-ice activities. Only three teams made placements today – one of them being the Flyers, who announced that winger Oscar Eklind has hit the wire as part of a larger round of cuts.
Eklind, 27, arrived in Philly as an undrafted free agent signing out of his native Sweden last summer. The 6’4″, 220-lb winger landed a one-year entry-level deal on the heels of a career-best campaign in the SHL with Luleå HF, putting together a 17-11–28 scoring line in 48 games.
That’s a relatively modest offensive line for an overseas addition in his mid-20s, but his potential upside largely stemmed from his size and hard-nosed play. Understandably, he didn’t have the most productive year in the minors last season upon arriving in North America. Eklind suited up 64 times for AHL Lehigh Valley, limited to five goals and 17 assists for 22 points.
The Flyers liked what they saw, though. Not only was it enough for them to bring him back, it was enough for them to give him an extension before reaching RFA status – a one-way deal at that – to pay him an $800K salary in 2025-26 even if he ended up back in the minors. That was presumably more than he would have made returning to Sweden, so he’ll be set for another year as a farmhand in Lehigh Valley in the likely event he clears waivers tomorrow. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Senators Place Xavier Bourgault, Four Others On Waivers
Today is the first day of standard waivers for the 2025-26 campaign, meaning teams can now begin the process of cutting non-waiver-exempt players from their training camp rosters. The Senators are the first to do so, announcing they’re placing five players on the wire, including 2021 first-rounder Xavier Bourgault. Forwards Wyatt Bongiovanni and Garrett Pilon, defenseman Cameron Crotty, and goaltender Hunter Shepard are the other names that teams can submit claims for 24 hours after waivers officially open at 1:00 pm Central. They’ll all be assigned to AHL Belleville if they clear.
The moves were part of a wide-spanning roster cut the Sens made today ahead of their two neutral-site exhibition games in Quebec City. Those early cuts have the Sens’ camp roster down to just 31 players, by far the lowest roster count in the league, with well over a week until opening night rosters are due.
Bourgault hitting the wire is notable but not particularly surprising. It’s his first year without a waiver exemption, but the 22-year-old forward hasn’t demonstrated much development at all since turning pro three years ago. In fact, Bourgault’s AHL point pace has largely regressed over time, and as a result, he’s yet to make his NHL debut, never mind securing a call-up.
The Oilers made him the 22nd overall pick of the 2021 draft after the 5’11” Quebecer had 40 points in just 29 games for QMJHL Shawinigan in his COVID-shortened draft year. He remained highly productive the following year with 75 points in 43 appearances, winning a QMJHL title in the process, before turning pro “early” in 2022-23 thanks to his October birthdate. His transition to pro hockey was measured, although he still managed a respectable 13-21–34 scoring line in 62 appearances with AHL Bakersfield. His production cratered the following year, though, limited to 20 points in 55 games and losing consistency in the lineup. That led the Oilers to cut bait with him last offseason, trading him to the Sens for winger Roby Jarventie.
Bourgault similarly failed to impress with Belleville last season. He finished eighth on the team in scoring with a 12-14–26 line in 61 appearances. While it was enough to earn him a qualifying offer and a subsequent two-way deal in July after his entry-level contract ran out, it was never going to be enough to put him in serious contention for an NHL roster spot, barring a hugely impressive training camp performance. As a result, he’s at risk of being lost for nothing on the wire if a team decides to take a swing on his draft pedigree.
As for the other names, Bongiovanni is standard waiver wire fodder for this time of year. The 26-year-old pivot is a respectable AHL scorer, notching a career-best 22 goals and 33 points in 54 showings with the B-Sens last year, but doesn’t have any NHL experience to his name. He’ll likely only see his first NHL recall this season if injuries take out an overwhelming amount of Ottawa’s forward core.
Pilon, 27, fills a similar niche with more pro experience. The 6’0″ pivot is entering his third season in the Sens organization and served as Belleville’s captain last year, posting 48 points in 68 games. A 2016 third-round pick by the Capitals, he scored one goal in three NHL games across the 2020-21 and 2021-22 campaigns with them but hasn’t appeared at the top level since. He’ll clear the wire with no issue and resume his role as the on-ice leader of Ottawa’s top development affiliate.
Crotty and Shepard are both new faces to the organization, signing two-way deals this summer to serve as experienced call-up options. They might draw some consideration as a result, but by waiving them this early in camp, the Sens have a better chance of passing them through before preseason injuries truly begin to pile up. Crotty made one appearance each for the Coyotes and Wild in each of the past two campaigns, but nearly all of the 26-year-old’s pro experience has come in the minors. The 6’3″ shutdown righty served as the captain for Minnesota’s AHL club last year and had 10 assists with a -7 rating in 64 appearances.
Shepard will serve as the Sens’ No. 4 goalie on the depth chart behind Linus Ullmark, Leevi Merilainen, and Mads Søgaard. That’s a step down from his last few seasons in Washington, where he was the AHL starter and No. 3 option organizationally. But after being named the AHL’s top goaltender in the 2023-24 campaign, his numbers took a nosedive last year with a .891 SV%, 2.80 GAA, and a 23-11-4 record in 39 appearances for the Hershey Bears. Goalie-needy teams will likely look elsewhere for depth as a result.
Jamie Benn Sustained Collapsed Lung, Will Miss Start Of Season
Stars captain Jamie Benn will undergo surgery to repair a collapsed lung and will miss the start of the regular season, the club announced today. He’ll be reevaluated in four weeks, putting him out through at least Oct. 23. That’s a six-to-seven-game absence at a minimum and will presumably be longer than that while he gets back up to game speed.
Benn sustained the injury late in the third period of the club’s exhibition game against the Wild on Tuesday, the team said. It’s quite the tone shift from yesterday, when head coach Glen Gulutzan told reporters that Benn was being held out of practice with a “little upper-body thing” and that his absence was mainly precautionary, per Robert Tiffin of Stars Thoughts. His last shift of Tuesday’s game ended with 2:04 remaining in regulation. He didn’t take any contact on that shift. Still, general manager Jim Nill confirmed a hit caused the lung collapse and that he spent Tuesday night in a hospital for observation and has remained there until today’s procedure, per the team’s Brien Rea.
While Benn had the opportunity to test unrestricted free agency this summer after spending the first 16 years of his career in Dallas, he opted to stay with the club that he’s captained to three consecutive Western Conference Final appearances. He inked a one-year, $1MM extension in the last week of June that carries up to an additional $3MM in performance bonuses depending on his regular-season appearances total and playoff success. That came on the heels of an underwhelming postseason showing from the 36-year-old, who only managed a goal and two assists with a -11 rating in 18 games and had his ice time slashed to just over 13 minutes per game.
That came on the heels of a still-productive regular season from the vet, although his point pace declined for a second straight year. His 16 goals in 80 games tied for seventh on the team, while his 49 points ranked sixth. That worked out to 0.61 points per game, down from 0.95 in 2022-23 and 0.73 in 2023-24.
While aging, he’s still an undeniable top-nine threat that contributes to the nucleus of one of the league’s deepest offensive attacks. It was looking like he’d slot in on the left side of a veteran-laden third line with Matt Duchene and Tyler Seguin based on early camp line combos, but there will now be open competition for that job over the next week-plus before opening-night rosters are due. Last year’s AHL standout, 24-year-old undrafted free agent Justin Hryckowian, could be the frontrunner after notching 60 points in 67 minor-league games in his first full professional season. He also managed an assist during a five-game NHL call-up. 2024 first-rounder Emil Hemming could be in line for a long look as well, in addition to elevating fourth-line names like Oskar Back, Nathan Bastian, or Colin Blackwell.
If Benn stays close to his initial timeline, he won’t miss enough time to be eligible for long-term injured reserve. That’s crucial information for a Stars club with just over $400K in cap space, leaving them without space to make any corresponding recall if Benn lands on standard IR. They’d be limited to starting the year with two extra skaters instead of three, leaving restricted maneuverability if other short-term injuries pile up.
Oilers Trialing Trent Frederic In Top-Line Role
The Oilers’ decision to dole out an eight-year, $30.8MM contract extension to trade deadline acquisition Trent Frederic was one of the more eye-popping bits of news from a busy late-June period. A $3.85MM cap hit with significant trade protection throughout the contract seemed on the steep side for a player who’s averaged 13 goals and 26 points per 82 games throughout his career and didn’t play a huge role in the playoffs for Edmonton last year, averaging 11:24 of ice time per game.
Yet it looks like Frederic, now Edmonton’s fifth-highest-paid forward, will have a prime opportunity to make good on that value, at least to begin the season. He’s been getting consistent reps on the Oilers’ top line in camp alongside Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid – a unit head coach Kris Knoblauch is intent on sticking with as usual first-liner Zach Hyman begins the season on injured reserve, he told Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic.
“I want him playing with those guys for a bit to get some chemistry,” Knoblauch told Nugent-Bowman. “[Frederic] hasn’t had the opportunity to play top six much in his career. We hope that he can complement them.”
The evident hope when signing Frederic to that long-term deal was that his average stat line would be much closer to the success he enjoyed in a middle-six role with the Bruins in 2022-23 and 2023-24, not the injury-plagued season last year that saw him record just eight goals and 15 points in 58 games split between Boston and Edmonton. Over the prior two seasons, Frederic averaged an 18-18–36 scoring line per 82 games while averaging a conservative 12:51 per game. Nearly all of that production came at even strength with far lower-quality linemates than two of the top five players in the world. Scaling up his minutes and upping the quality of his teammates could conceivably make him a passable top-six solution, at least until Hyman can heal up from last season’s wrist injury and make his season debut. That’s expected to be sometime in November.
While the 2016 first-round pick is wholly untested in such an extended role, it’s clear to see the motivation for putting him there. As Nugent-Bowman writes, though, there are still some considerable kinks to work out. They played together in last night’s 4-1 exhibition loss to the Kraken, but “didn’t do much on Wednesday and was even scored against when Frederic couldn’t clear the puck at the defensive blue line.”
But where there’s an opening, there’s a potential to turn it into a long-term fit. The Oilers have the luxury of multiple top-end talents who can play center. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has seen the bulk of the minutes on the wing with McDavid and Hyman in recent years, while Draisaitl centered his own line. If Frederic works out well in a top-line role to begin the season, they can keep him there with McDavid and Hyman when the latter is healthy, allowing Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins to form a more balanced second line or to have RNH center his own unit behind Draisaitl’s.
Training Camp Cuts: 9/25/25
We’re now in the second week of training camp. Teams are still working their way through their initial cuts, sending amateur tryout invites and fringe prospects back to their junior teams as those regular seasons get underway. However, we could start to see some more targeted trimming today and over the weekend. We’re keeping track of today’s cuts in this piece, which will be updated as more roll in.
Calgary Flames (via team announcement)
F Hunter Laing (to WHL Saskatoon)
Los Angeles Kings (via team announcement)
D Henry Brzustewicz (to OHL London)
D Jared Woolley (to OHL London)
Ottawa Senators (via team announcement)
D Matthew Andonovski (to AHL Belleville)
F Wyatt Bongiovanni (to AHL Belleville, pending waivers)
F Tyler Boucher (to AHL Belleville)
F Xavier Bourgault (to AHL Belleville, pending waivers)
F Jake Chiasson (to AHL Belleville)
D Cameron Crotty (to AHL Belleville, pending waivers)
F Philippe Daoust (released from PTO to AHL Belleville)
D Jorian Donovan (to AHL Belleville)
D Tomas Hamara (to AHL Belleville)
F Landen Hookey (released from PTO to AHL Belleville)
G Jackson Parsons (to AHL Belleville)
F Oskar Pettersson (to AHL Belleville)
F Garrett Pilon (to AHL Belleville, pending waivers)
F Jamieson Rees (released from PTO to AHL Belleville)
G Hunter Shepard (to AHL Belleville, pending waivers)
D Djibril Touré (to AHL Belleville)
F Keean Washkurak (released from PTO to AHL Belleville)
Philadelphia Flyers (via team announcement)
F Sawyer Boulton (to AHL Lehigh Valley)
F Oscar Eklind (to AHL Lehigh Valley, pending waivers)
F Cooper Marody (to AHL Lehigh Valley)
G Yaniv Perets (to AHL Lehigh Valley)
G Keith Petruzzelli (to AHL Lehigh Valley)
F Massimo Rizzo (to AHL Lehigh Valley)
F Tucker Robertson (to AHL Lehigh Valley)
F Samu Tuomaala (to AHL Lehigh Valley)
F Garrett Wilson (to AHL Lehigh Valley)
F Zayde Wisdom (to AHL Lehigh Valley)
Pittsburgh Penguins (via team announcement)
D Quinn Beauchesne (to OHL Guelph)
Utah Mammoth (via team announcement)
G Connor Ingram (to AHL Tucson, pending waivers)
Avalanche Want To Hold In-Season Extension Talks With Martin Necas
For some pending UFAs, the beginning of the regular season can be a stop-and-drop regarding extension negotiations. That doesn’t appear to be the case between the Avalanche and Martin Necas.
“Colorado has communicated clearly to the Necas camp that it wants to extend him at some point this season,” Pierre LeBrun writes for The Athletic, but those discussions “haven’t yet gotten into the nitty-gritty of exchanging offers and counteroffers.” The belief is they’re waiting to let Necas extend his sample size in Colorado into this regular season “before taking those discussions to the next level.”
Necas’ extension talks carry a different context than those of his peers for the 2026 UFA class. There’s arguably more pressure on the Avalanche to find a way to retain him than almost any other big-name free agent. He was the only high-end asset acquired when they dealt Mikko Rantanen to the Hurricanes in last January’s blockbuster deal – letting Necas walk will amount to them losing two top-line talents for almost nothing aside from depth center Jack Drury.
These talks also come at a time when Necas’ value is at an all-time high. The 2017 No. 12 overall pick has been prone to some significant season-to-season point swings in recent years, but he popped in a considerable way in 2024-25 by breaking the point-per-game threshold for the first time. He finished the year with a 27-56–83 scoring line in 79 appearances, closing out the year with 28 points in 30 games after arriving in Denver.
With that in mind, along with a quickly rising salary cap, Necas’ extension is projected to net him nearly $10MM per season on a seven-year deal, according to AFP Analytics. He, along with others like Adrian Kempe and Alex Tuch, is waiting for some of the A-list names like Connor McDavid and Kirill Kaprizov to sign deals and set the market for the 2026 class, LeBrun writes. With Kempe and Tuch also angling for eight-figure cap hits, Necas will as well. The Avs then run into the same problem they did with Rantanen – being hesitant to register such a large contract with franchise defenseman Cale Makar set to potentially double his $9MM cap hit when he becomes a free agent in 2027. Of course, that Rantanen deal was made before the league released official salary cap projections that were in significant excess of expectations.
Even for 2026-27 accounting, a $10MM cap hit for Necas could be something of a tight squeeze. Doing so would leave them with roughly $16MM in space to account for eight roster spots, according to PuckPedia. Outside of Necas, though, they don’t have any high-impact expiring names, so filling out those jobs with an average salary of $2MM might not be too much of an obstacle.
Oilers’ Vasily Podkolzin Takes Leave Of Absence
Oilers winger Vasily Podkolzin will be taking an indefinite leave of absence from the club after his father, Alexander, “suddenly and tragically passed away last night,” the team said in a press release. He’s returned to his native Russia in the interim.
Whenever Podkolzin is ready to return – an understandably wide-ranging timeline – he’ll be walking into a top-nine role in Edmonton. The 24-year-old played in all 82 games for the Oilers last year and saw notable deployment alongside Leon Draisaitl as a checking winger, putting together an 8-16–24 scoring line while averaging 13:13 of ice time per night. He also led Edmonton in hits by a wide margin with 211.
That was enough to earn him a three-year extension with a $2.95MM cap hit, a deal he signed just yesterday. He otherwise would have been a restricted free agent with arbitration rights next summer after inking a two-year, $2MM deal with the Canucks in April 2024. Edmonton acquired him from Vancouver via trade before he played a game under that contract.
If Podkolzin does not return to the Oilers before the beginning of the regular season, he can be designated as a non-roster player and will not count against their 23-player roster limit. His current $1MM cap hit, however, would still count against their books. If he’s expected to miss at least 10 games and 24 days from the start of the campaign, they can place him on long-term injured reserve for potential salary relief if necessary.
All of us at PHR extend our condolences to the Podkolzin family.
Rangers Considering Noah Laba For Opening-Night Spot
The Rangers are leaving the door open for center prospect Noah Laba to crack the opening night roster, head coach Mike Sullivan told reporters Wednesday, including Vince Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic.
“It might be too early to have that conversation at this point, but [Laba] certainly has performed extremely well in this early part of camp,” Sullivan said. He added Laba is “one of” the players in the mix to hold down a third-line center job for the Blueshirts, along with leading contender Juuso Pärssinen, whom the club acquired from the Avalanche in last season’s Ryan Lindgren trade.
Laba, 22, certainly has pro-ready size at 6’2″ and 192 lbs. A 2022 fourth-round pick, his offensive ceiling will be the biggest concern about rushing him to major-league minutes. He signed his entry-level contract this year after wrapping up three seasons at Colorado College. While he had a standout sophomore campaign in 2023-24 with a 20-17–37 scoring line in 36 games to lead the team in every offensive category, he cooled off somewhat last year with a 10-16–26 line in 29 appearances. He was still the team’s focal point offensively, but he didn’t receive the laundry list of accolades he got the year prior, including being a Hobey Baker nominee and earning Best Defensive Forward and First All-Star Team honors from the NCHC.
After signing Laba in March – a deal that didn’t begin until this season anyway – he finished out the year with AHL Hartford on a tryout. He didn’t look particularly out of place there, recording a 3-2–5 scoring line in 11 games.
A third-line pivot piece is likely Laba’s long-term ceiling as a moderately productive but primarily defense-conscious center. Getting him a taste of what could be a long-term role for him wouldn’t be without precedent. The Rangers haven’t been afraid to graduate under-the-radar rookies virtually straight from college to the NHL. They did so last year with defenseman Victor Mancini, selected one round after Laba in 2022. He broke camp with the club and bounced between the NHL and AHL before being sent to the Canucks in the J.T. Miller deal. The same fate could befall the waiver-exempt Laba. Mancini made 15 NHL appearances and 23 in the AHL with Hartford before getting sent to the Canucks.
Outside of Pärssinen, Laba, and potentially veteran Jonny Brodzinski, the Rangers aren’t overflowing with depth center options who have the offensive utility to play a top-nine role. Even the leading contender comes with a fair amount of question marks. Pärssinen, 24, impressed with 25 points in 45 games in his first NHL stint with Nashville two years ago but hasn’t flashed that upside since. He had a 6-10–16 scoring line in 48 appearances with three different clubs last year, including a 2-3–5 line in 11 games to end the season in New York while averaging just 9:46 per game. With under $800K in cap space, though, their options to make a free-agent add to lock down the role are somewhat limited.