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West Notes: Bjugstad, Bortuzzo, Jeannot, Duchene

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For the next few weeks, there will be plenty of speculation about which teams will add which players. However, most of the noise leading up to July 1st will be about which players’ teams won’t keep, and the Utah Mammoth reportedly has a few. According to Craig Morgan of The Sedona Conference, the Mammoth are likely to let forward Nick Bjugstad and defenseman Robert Bortuzzo pursue other options this summer.

Given the more than $20MM available to the Mammoth this offseason, letting both players walk is more about performance and team-building rather than money. Bjugstad is inarguably the most valuable of the two, coming off an eight-goal, 19-point performance in 66 games for Utah during the 2024-25 campaign, averaging 12:19 of ice time. Still, it’s a far cry from his performance from a year ago, when Bjugstad registered 22 goals and 45 points in 76 games in a second-line role.

Meanwhile, there’s a legitimate chance that Bortuzzo is seriously contemplating retirement after completing the 14th season of his professional career. Limited by injuries this past season, Bortuzzo finished with two assists in 17 games, while mostly playing as the team’s seventh and sometimes eighth defenseman. The Mammoth already has eight defensemen signed through next season, leaving little room for Bortuzzo on the roster.

Other notes from the Western Conference:

  • Along similar lines, Russell Morgan of Hockey Royalty reports that the Los Angeles Kings aren’t expected to offer Tanner Jeannot a contract for the upcoming season. Jeannot has seen his stock drop precipitously in recent years, going from scoring 24 goals and amassing 318 hits with the Nashville Predators in the 2021-22 season, to a 13-point campaign in 67 games for the Kings this past season. He can still be relied upon for physicality, but Jeannot will have a difficult time finding a similar salary on the open market this summer.
  • On the cusp of reaching the open market and objectively becoming one of the top centers available, Matt Duchene instead chose to re-sign with the Dallas Stars on a four-year deal worth $18MM, likely leaving several million dollars on the table. In a new interview with Lia Assimakopoulos of The Dallas Morning News, Duchene indicated how easy a choice it was, saying, “First of all, any guy I’ve talked to wants to come back, so that’s great. I mean, it’s such a desirable place. I think it’s a place that anybody in the league would be lucky to play. And most guys in the league want to play for our team, and that speaks to the culture that the organization has created.“

RFA Notes: Dobson, Knies, Cuylle

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In today’s rendition of 32 Thoughts with Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the podcast host reports that the New York Islanders are quietly testing the market for defenseman Noah Dobson. Friedman believes the Islanders aren’t ready to move him yet, but are simply conducting their due diligence in case he becomes an unrestricted free agent after the 2025-26 season.

Dobson’s projected market value is hard to ascertain. After scoring 10 goals and 70 points in 79 games, averaging 24:31 of ice time per night, and finishing eighth in Norris Trophy voting in the 2023-24 season, Dobson’s play collapsed in 2024-25, largely due to injuries. He’s entering restricted free agency on the heels of a 10-goal, 39-point campaign and is only a year away from unrestricted free agency.

According to Friedman, the Islanders believe that if Dobson can replicate his performance from 2023-24, he’ll command an AAV of more than $10MM per year on his next deal, and that may not be something they’re willing to do. The likelihood of him being traded remains low, but the fact that the Islanders are open to hearing offers is a significant change in their approach from the regular season.

Other notes regarding a few more RFAs:

  • With a boatload of cap space, the Toronto Maple Leafs need not worry about a Matthew Knies offer sheet this summer. Still, they will want to sign the deal soon to understand their financial flexibility during the summer months. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports that there is no consensus on the progress of the negotiations. One side believes a deal is close, while the other side indicates that it is not. Unfortunately, he did not specify which side holds each perspective. Regardless, it appears that the final deal should fall in the three-to-five-year range.
  • Although all eyes are on the status of restricted free agent defenseman K’Andre Miller, the New York Rangers have another quality RFA to worry about. According to a new article by Peter Baugh in The Athletic, the Rangers have initiated talks with Will Cuylle, and both parties are interested in a contract extension. Baugh expects the Rangers and Cuylle to agree on a three-year, $10MM contract (or near it), which would allow them to optimize their salary cap this offseason while also establishing a multi-year commitment.

Calgary Flames Sign Dryden Hunt To Two-Year Deal

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The Calgary Flames are keeping a quality AHL scorer for the next few years. The Flames announced they’ve signed forward Dryden Hunt to a two-year, two-way agreement worth $1.65MM ($825K AAV).

The player from Cranbrook, British Columbia, joined the Flames organization through a minor league trade during the 2022-23 NHL season. A few months after Hunt was traded from the Colorado Avalanche to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Denis Malgin, Calgary sent depth player Radim Zohorna to Toronto in exchange for Hunt at the trade deadline.

Despite being an efficient scorer at the AHL level, Hunt has typically been deployed as a fourth-line winger at the NHL level. After debuting with the Florida Panthers during the 2017-18 season, Hunt has scored 18 goals and 54 points in 235 games, averaging 11:02 of ice time per game, and carrying a -31 rating.

His exploits in the AHL have been much better, particularly with the Flames’ AHL affiliate, the Calgary Wranglers. Since making his professional debut in the 2016-17 season with the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds, Hunt has scored 104 goals and 245 points in 318 games, with a +37 rating. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been on many successful teams, reaching the playoffs only twice in his seven-year career.

Calgary could have some moving parts toward the bottom of their forward core during the 2025-26 campaign, but it’s unlikely to affect Hunt. The Flames are leaning toward larger opportunities for Adam Klapka and Samuel Honzek, meaning Hunt should spend much of the year at the AHL level.

Boston Bruins Hire Steve Spott As Assistant Coach

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The Boston Bruins have hired their third assistant coach for the 2025-26 NHL season, joining Chris Kelly and Jay Leach. The Bruins announced they’ve hired Steve Spott as their final assistant coach, and he’ll primarily work with the team’s power play.

Despite spending most of his adult life in varying roles for the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers and Kitchener Rangers, Spott didn’t join the professional ranks until the 2013-14 season, when he was named head coach of the Toronto Marlies. Spott coached the Marlies to a 45-25-2-4 record, a North Division title, and a Western Conference Final appearance. That one-year test as the Marlies head coach earned Spott a promotion to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ bench in the 2014-15 season as an assistant coach.

After two years with the Maple Leafs organization, Spott joined Pete DeBoer’s staff with the San Jose Sharks ahead of the 2015-16 season. The two had previously worked together in Kitchener and enjoyed success with the Sharks, reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2016. Unfortunately, the two were fired midway through the 2019-20 season after the Sharks got off to a 15-16-2 start.

It wouldn’t take long for either to find work, as Spott and DeBoer were both hired by the Vegas Golden Knights in their same roles a month later. Their time in Vegas was short-lived, and both were let go after the Golden Knights failed to make the playoffs in the 2021-22 season.

Continuing to work together, DeBoer brought Spott with him to the Dallas Stars for the 2022-23 NHL season. Spott and DeBoer led the Stars to three consecutive Western Conference Finals, but they did not reach the Stanley Cup Final. Dallas finished with a top-10 powerplay in two out of three years with Spott serving as the team’s primary powerplay coach.

Dallas Stars Sign Mavrik Bourque To One-Year Deal

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Shortly after announcing a new one-year deal for defenseman Nils Lundkvist, the Dallas Stars have signed their only remaining restricted free agent. According to a team announcement, the Stars have signed forward Mavrik Bourque to a one-year, $950K contract for the 2025-26 NHL season.

Re-signing Bourque relatively early was a smart play by General Manager Jim Nill. Given their projected salary cap space entering the summer and Bourque’s combination of youth and skill, he was a prime offer sheet candidate this offseason. Now, he’ll remain with the Stars on a sub-$1MM deal.

The only concern with this deal is that Dallas was unable to secure a longer contract for him. According to PuckPedia, the Stars have less than $3MM in financial wiggle room, meaning they were practically forced to give Bourque a short-term deal to keep the salary low.

Despite already having solid players at the NHL level, Bourque forced himself onto the NHL roster this past season. Bourque had a historic season with the AHL’s Texas Stars in 2023-24, scoring 26 goals and accumulating 77 points in 71 games, along with three goals and 11 points in seven playoff contests. He likely had to buy a new shelf for his hardware, earning the AHL’s Les Cunningham Award, John B. Sollenberger Trophy, President’s Award, and First All-Star Team honors.

Due to the depth of the Stars’ roster, Bourque had limited opportunities in 2024-25. Still, he had a quality rookie season, scoring 11 goals and 25 points in 72 games, averaging 12:41 of ice time per game. Despite finishing 11th among forwards with more than 20 GPs in ice time at even strength, Bourque finished third among forwards in CorsiFor% at even strength with a 52.6% rate.

Dallas Stars Sign Nils Lundkvist To One-Year Deal

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A day after re-signing Matt Duchene to a four-year deal and trading Mason Marchment to the Seattle Kraken, the Dallas Stars have gotten another piece of business finished. According to a team announcement, the Stars have signed defenseman Nils Lundkvist to a one-year, $1.25MM contract for the 2025-26 NHL season, matching his projected qualifying offer.

According to PuckPedia, the new deal reduces Dallas’s available cap space to $3.705MM, with six players projected to reach unrestricted free agency, and Mavrik Bourque as the only remaining restricted free agent on the team. A few more transactions are needed to achieve the financial flexibility required, but the Stars continue taking steps in the right direction.

Whether through trade or free agency, the depth leaving Dallas this summer could create a large opportunity for Lundkvist. Outside of defensemen Mathew Dumba and Ilya Lyubushkin (who could be traded in the coming days), Lundkvist is the top right-handed option for the Stars on the blue line.

It’ll be difficult for him to have a worse season than the 2024-25 campaign. Limited by injuries for much of the campaign, Lundkvist finished the 2024-25 season with five assists in 39 games, averaging 15:01 of ice time per night. In Lundkvist’s defense, he performed much better with increased availability from 2022 to 2024, scoring eight goals and 35 points in 119 games, averaging 15:13 of ice time.

Lundkvist’s primary value lies in his defensive play, which explains why he was selected in the first round of the 2018 NHL Draft. Since joining the Stars during the 2022-23 season, Lundkvist has averaged an impressive 52.9% CorsiFor% at even strength and a 92.2% on-ice save percentage at even strength. According to Hockey Reference, he’s never held an Expected +/- of less than zero throughout his tenure in Dallas.

There’s a concrete argument that Lundkvist is the Stars’ top defensive-oriented blue liner behind Esa Lindell. Because of this, there should be little doubt that he’ll find regular playing time in Dallas’s top two defensive pairings during the 2025-26 campaign.

Penguins Announce Multiple Coaching Hires

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have finalized their coaching staff under head coach Dan Muse. Pittsburgh announced that they’ve hired Todd Nelson, Nick Bonino, and Rich Clune as assistant coaches, and Troy Paquette as the team’s assistant video coach. 

In his second stint as an assistant coach at the NHL level, Nelson is arguably the most important of the hires. Serving as the head coach of the AHL’s Hershey Bears for the last three years, Nelson will make the more than 200-mile move to western Pennsylvania. It’s difficult to find many faults during his time with the Bears, amassing an impressive 65.28% win percentage with a 141-53-12-10 record in 216 regular season games. His winning ways continued in the postseason, coaching the Bears to a 31-17-0 record in 48  (64.58%) postseason contests over the last three years, with back-to-back Calder Cup Final championships.

Bonino’s formal hire comes with little surprise. The Penguins announced on their Facebook page a few days ago that Bonino had officially retired from his professional playing career and would be joining the team’s bench for the 2025-26 campaign. Coupled with his time on the ice, the 2025-26 campaign will be his fourth with Pittsburgh.

Like Nelson and Bonino, the Penguins are also bringing in a former NHLer in Clune. The longtime veteran for the AHL’s Toronto Marlies began his coaching career shortly after retiring in 2022-23 as the Marlies’ development coach. He’s coming to Pittsburgh on the heels of his first coaching job in the NHL, serving as an assistant coach for the Anaheim Ducks on Greg Cronin’s bench last season.

Avalanche Sign Jason Polin, Matthew Stienburg To One-Year Deals

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In separate announcements, the Colorado Avalanche shared that they’ve signed forwards Jason Polin and Matthew Stienburg to one-year deals through the 2025-26 season. According to contract data provided by Puck Pedia, Polin will earn an NHL salary of $775K and $130K in the AHL. No contract details for Stienburg have been disclosed, but his salary will likely fall within a similar range.

Polin’s new deal comes with some surprise. The former Hobey Baker Award finalist hasn’t come close to the scoring output that he demonstrated with the NCAA’s Western Michigan University Broncos. Throughout his tenure with Colorado, the Holt, MI native has scored 15 goals and 30 points in 88 AHL contests, and only one goal in nine NHL appearances. Still, given the improbable number of injuries sustained by the Avalanche throughout the 2024-25 season, it makes sense that the team would like to retain most of their depth pieces in the system.

Like Polin, Stienburg signed with the organization out of college, though he had been previously drafted by the Avalanche in 2019, from Cornell University. Unlike Polin, Stienburg didn’t come to the organization with as much hype, given his career high of 13 goals and 29 points in 28 games with Cornell during his junior campaign in 2021-22.

Similarly to many of his peers, Stienburg earned a call-up with Colorado this past season, due to injuries to players on the NHL roster. Going scoreless in eight games, Stienburg’s only notable play was earning a two-game suspension for elbowing Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Erik Černák.

Link to the team’s announcement for Polin.

Link to the team’s announcement for Stienburg.

Dallas Stars Re-Sign Cameron Hughes To Two-Year Deal

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As announced by their AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, the Dallas Stars have re-signed forward Cameron Hughes to a two-year, two-way contract. Although the team hasn’t confirmed his upcoming salary, the contract is likely to pay Hughes an AAV of $ 775K at the NHL level.

The former sixth-round pick of the Boston Bruins recently completed his first season with the Stars organization. The AHL Stars’ assistant captain finished third in scoring on the team, tallying 23 goals and 57 points in 69 games, with four additional goals and 19 points in 14 postseason contests, this time leading the team.

Still, as previously mentioned, Texas isn’t where Hughes began his professional playing career. As the 165th overall pick of the 2015 NHL Draft, it would take an additional three years for Hughes to debut with the AHL’s Providence Bruins. He was relatively successful with AHL Providence, primarily as a secondary scorer from 2018 to 2021. It wasn’t until the 2021-22 season that Hughes nearly doubled his previous career-high, scoring 14 goals and 45 points in 61 games.

Becoming a free agent after the 2021-22 campaign, Hughes settled on a two-year, $1.53MM agreement with the Seattle Kraken. His departure from the Bruins organization marked the final time he has played at the NHL level, appearing in one game during the 2019-20 season and another in the 2020-21 season.

Hughes’ two-year commitment with the Kraken proved wildly successful at the AHL level, this time with the Coachella Valley Firebirds. Scoring 44 goals and 113 points in 130 regular-season games, with another four goals and 39 points in 44 postseason contests, Hughes helped the Firebirds reach back-to-back Calder Cup Finals.

Free Agent Focus: Tampa Bay Lightning

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Free agency is less than a month away and teams are looking ahead to when it opens.  There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well.  We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Lightning.

Key Restricted Free Agents

F Gage Goncalves – Even on a relatively deep Lightning team, Goncalves successfully parlayed an impressive run with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch into a full-time role at the NHL level. From 2022 to 2024, Goncalves scored 26 goals and 112 points in 140 AHL contests, with another four goals and 11 points in 12 postseason contests. This gave Tampa Bay the confidence to allow Goncalves a longer-term opportunity at the NHL level, and his tryout proved successful by all accounts. Goncalves scored eight goals and 20 points in 60 games for the Lightning while averaging 12:48 of ice time per night, and achieved a 92.0% on-ice save percentage at even strength. Given the roster flexibility he affords and arbitration eligibility status, Goncalves should earn a healthy bump on his $775K salary from last year, but it’ll likely be less than double.

Other RFAs: F Jaydon Dureau, F Ryder Korczak, F Waltteri Merela, G Hugo Alnefelt

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

D Nicklaus Perbix – Over the last three years, Perbix has scored 13 goals and 63 points in 220 regular-season contests, with a 51.2% CorsiFor% at even strength, and a 91.0% on-ice save percentage. This is a quality value for a defenseman who has averaged less than 16 minutes of ice time per game and has been playing on a $1.125MM AAV for the last two seasons. Unfortunately, his performance might have made it too expensive for him to continue with Tampa Bay. AFP Analytics projects Perbix to command a two-year, $5.2MM contract this offseason, which would take up almost 75% of the Lightning’s available cap space. Ultimately, the team will likely look for a cheaper right-handed option to fill in the gap or use a combination of Steven Santini and Maxwell Crozier next season.

F Luke Glendening – The University of Michigan alumnus may no longer have the capacity to score 20 points a year, nor is he in danger of receiving fringe votes for the Selke Trophy, but Glendening still holds value in a niche role. He remains one of the most effective faceoff takers in the league, winning 56.5% of his 1,829 draws taken with the Lightning. Given that he started 66.7% of his shifts in the defensive zone with Tampa Bay, Glendening ultimately gave the Lightning a better chance to retain possession and have an effective breakout. Still, even without the same faceoff talent, there may be better options available for Tampa Bay this offseason, at a similar league-minimum salary.

Other UFAs: F Cam Atkinson, F Anthony Angello, F Logan Brown, F Gabriel Fortier, D Derrick Pouliot, D Tobie Paquette-Bisson, G Matt Tomkins

Projected Cap Space

As alluded to earlier when talking about Perbix, the Lightning will again be limited by the salary cap this summer. Although there are no expectations this offseason, it is important to remember that Tampa Bay faced a similar situation last offseason and successfully acquired and signed the market’s top unrestricted free agent, Jake Guentzel. General Manager Julien BriseBois has shown time and time again that the Lightning can never truly be counted out of any available player, and it’ll be another interesting study to see how he weaponizes Tampa Bay’s projected $3.4MM in cap space this summer.

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