Snapshots: Datsyuk, Voit, Simpson
On a press run for his upcoming “Magic Game” in his hometown of Yekaterinburg, Russia, Detroit Red Wings legend Pavel Datsyuk made a surprisingly bold claim about his former team in a recent interview with Sergey Demidov of RG Media. Throughout his playing career, Datsyuk was a prototypical hockey player when it came to conversations with the media, making only plain statements if he chose to speak with them, which makes his recent comments seem somewhat out of character.
In the interview, Datsyuk claimed that Detroit’s rebuild is taking longer than normal, given the unprecedented run of success they had from the mid-1990s to the mid-2010s. Either knowingly or unknowingly took a shot at Detroit’s leadership on the ice, saying, “Perhaps what the team lacks is standout leaders – but that’s true not only for Detroit, it applies to hockey in general. Players are maturing more slowly these days, and some never mature at all, staying teenagers forever.”
The comment raises concerns about how effectively Dylan Larkin, Alex DeBrincat, and Patrick Kane are guiding the Red Wings in the right direction. This uncertainty may also extend to the next generation of Detroit’s stars, including Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider.
Datsyuk certainly has a leg to stand on when it comes to the leadership required for sustained success at the NHL level. His career began during the 2001-02 season on a Red Wings team that boasted 10 future Hall of Famers at the time, and he was a part of the most recent Detroit team to qualify for the postseason during the 2015-16 season.
Other snapshots:
- According to a team announcement, the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies, affiliate of the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, have added to their forward depth with a new signing. The Grizzlies have signed former 2021 fifth-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ty Voit, to a one-year contract for the 2025-26 season. Voit spent last season with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones, scoring eight goals and 37 points in 63 games. He had an impressive final season with the OHL’s Sarnia Sting in 2022-23, scoring 24 goals and 105 points in 67 games with a +16 rating.
- The Boston Bruins’ third-round pick from the 2025 NHL Draft is on the move in the USHL. The USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms announced they have acquired Cooper Simpson from the Tri-City Storm for a collection of players and draft picks earlier today. Simpson scored seven goals and eight points in nine games for the Storm last season and has committed to the University of North Dakota beginning in the 2026-27 NCAA season.
Mikko Kokkonen Signs With Linköping HC
The AHL’s Toronto Marlies are losing a quality defenseman from the past few years. According to a team announcement, the SHL’s Linköping HC has signed Mikko Kokkonen to a one-year contract for the 2025-26 season.
Kokkonen was drafted with the 84th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs from the Finnish Liiga’s Jukurit program. During his draft season, he scored three goals and 19 points in 56 games with a -16 rating. While the scoring may not be impressive at face value, he tied for the team lead among defensemen, which is notable for one of the youngest players on the roster.
His offensive production declined in the subsequent two seasons, recording four goals and 20 points in 89 games, along with a -23 rating from the start of the 2019-20 season to the end of the 2020-21 campaign. Still, the AHL Marlies brought him over for a brief time, and he performed well, scoring one goal and seven points in his first 11 contests.
He returned overseas for the 2021-22 season, scoring one goal and 15 points in 58 games, this time with the Liiga’s Pelicans. The 2022-23 season marked his full-time transition to North American hockey, and the transition was less than pleasant. Finishing the season without a goal, he only managed six assists in 36 contests.
The following two years were much more successful, finishing with eight goals and 33 points in 115 games, and adding another assist in five Calder Cup playoff matches. Linköping will be Kokkonen’s first appearance in the SHL, and he’ll play a part in helping them keep their heads above water for a second straight season. Last season, Linköping finished six points ahead of MoDo Hockey, narrowly avoiding relegation.
Jakub Vrána Signs Two-Year Deal With Linköping HC
Aug. 8: Linköping made Vrána’s signing official today in a team release. It’s a two-year deal for the 29-year-old.
Aug. 2: Vrána’s move to Linköping will become official this week after he failed to land an NHL contract in free agency, reports Expressen’s Johan Svensson.
June 5: A once-efficient top-six scorer for the Washington Capitals and Detroit Red Wings could be headed overseas for his next job. In a report out of Sweden, the SHL’s Linköping HC is attempting to sign Jakub Vrána this offseason.
It would’ve been difficult for Vrána to find an NHL contract this summer. Marketed as a goal-scoring forward, Vrána hasn’t scored more than 20 points in a season in five years. The last time came during the 2020-21 season, when Vrána scored 19 goals and 36 points in 50 games split between the Capitals and Red Wings.
Due to injuries, a trip through the NHL and NHLPA Player Assistance Program, and a general lack of opportunity, Vrána’s scoring has completely dissipated since. There have been brief stretches where he’s scored in bunches, but those have been few and far between.
This past season, Vrána earned a second stint in Washington on the heels of a professional tryout agreement in preseason action. He got off to a decent start with the Capitals, scoring six goals and 10 points in 20 games with a +5 rating.
Unfortunately, his role with the Capitals quickly dissipated, and he was exposed on the waiver wire near the trade deadline, being claimed by the Nashville Predators.
A return to Linköping HC would be a homecoming for Vrána. He played for them from 2012 to 2014 before the beginning of his NHL career, scoring 14 goals and 27 points in 73 contests.
What Should The Kraken Do With Philipp Grubauer?
In their inaugural season, the Seattle Kraken believed they had found their franchise goalie for the foreseeable future by signing Philipp Grubauer to a six-year, $35.4MM contract. Grubauer was coming off an impressive season with the Colorado Avalanche, managing a 30-9-1 record in 40 games with a .922 SV%, finishing third place in Vezina Trophy voting.
Unfortunately, the Kraken have not seen a positive return on their significant investment in goaltending. In his first season with the team, Grubauer’s play dropped dramatically, finishing with an 18-31-5 record, a .889 SV%, 3.16 GAA, and -26.4 Goals Saved Above Average (GSAA), the latter being the lowest in the league by a considerable margin.
In large part due to the surprising top-level play from Martin Jones a year later, the Kraken qualified for the postseason in 2022-23. Although Grubauer had another disappointing regular season, he looked inspired throughout the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, especially against his former team. Grubauer finished the postseason with a 7-7-0 record with a .903 SV%, eliminating his former employer and the defending Stanley Cup champions in a hotly contested opening round matchup.
Despite having a resurgence in the 2023 postseason, Grubauer has fallen back to his old ways in the meantime, ultimately ceding the starting netminder position in Seattle to Joey Daccord. Since losing to the Dallas Stars in the second round of that playoff run, Grubauer has earned a 22-33-3 record in 60 starts with a .889 SV%. His play over the last two seasons has brought his overall record with the Kraken to a 57-78-12 record (36.5% winning percentage) in 156 games with a .890 SV%, 3.07 GAA, and -56.2 GSAA.
Quite obviously, that wasn’t what Seattle was expecting when they made such a large investment in Grubauer’s services, and he has little chance of recouping the starting position from Daccord anytime soon. The talent gap was so significant between the two netminders that Grubauer had been mentioned as a likely buyout candidate heading into the current offseason.
Ultimately, the Kraken decided against buying out Grubauer during their initial opportunity at the start of the offseason and reiterated this choice after their conditional buy-out window, following the signing of Kaapo Kakko to a three-year contract in late July. Seattle did sign veteran Matt Murray to a one-year, $1MM contract on the opening day of free agency, though he’s likely penciled in for AHL duty with Grubauer still in the system.
Since it’s well known he’s a sunk cost for the remaining term on his contract, the Kraken are effectively left with two choices. They could buy him out next offseason, which would spread out 66.6% of his remaining one-year and $5.9MM over the 2026-27 and 2027-28 seasons, or seek a trade partner. It’s important to note that Grubauer has a 10-team no-trade list in his contract.
Depending on how desperate each team becomes next season, the Philadelphia Flyers, Edmonton Oilers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Columbus Blue Jackets all make sense to some degree for Grubauer’s services. Even if he has a slight increase in his production, Seattle could be positioned to swap overvalued goaltending deals with the Oilers (Stuart Skinner), Penguins (Tristan Jarry), and Blue Jackets (Elvis Merzlikins).
At this point, the Kraken must provide additional value in a potential deal for the previously mentioned goaltenders. There is no doubt that Grubauer has negative value for the team, and the Kraken may be better off waiting another year to buy out the remaining year of his contract next summer when it is more financially advantageous.
Stars’ Brandon Gorzynski Commits To Arizona State University
Brandon Gorzynski, the recent draft pick of the Dallas Stars, announced his collegiate commitment on Instagram. Starting in the 2026-27 NCAA season, Gorzynski will continue his development at Arizona State University.
Gorzynski was selected 126th overall by the Stars in the 2025 NHL Draft. Despite being drafted in the fourth round, he was Dallas’ second-highest selection in this summer’s draft, given how much draft capital they’ve traded over the past few years in their competitive window.
The native of Scottsdale, AZ, played for the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen last year and will return to the team for the 2025-26 season. As one of the youngest players on the roster, he finished sixth on the team in scoring with 17 goals and 42 points in 68 games, with a +27 rating. He also produced well in the WHL playoffs, scoring four goals and eight points in 11 postseason contests.
Despite being on a team that has only appeared in the National Tournament once (2019), Gorzynski will join one of the most competitive collegiate conferences in the sport. The Sun Devils have played in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) since the start of last season. It’s home to the two most recent Frozen Four champions, the University of Denver Pioneers and the Western Michigan University Broncos.
In their first season outside of being an independent team, Arizona State finished second in the conference with a 14-9-1-2-5 record in 24 games, finishing 10 points back of the Broncos. In the conference tournament, despite earning an opening game win against the University of Minnesota Duluth, they were dispatched in the next game by the Pioneers.
Snapshots: Davies, Ritchie, Reddekopp
On the second day of free agency, along with signing defenseman Kaedan Korczak to a four-year contract, we had reported that the Vegas Golden Knights had also signed defenseman Jeremy Davies to a two-year deal. As it turns out, the staff at PuckPedia has informed us that Davies’ two-year contract is with the Golden Knights AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights, which is an AHL contract.
It makes sense, given that Davies has not played in an NHL contest since the 2022-23 season. Even though Davies only appeared in one game for the Buffalo Sabres, he spent most of his time with their AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans.
Since his last NHL game, Davies has excelled as a defenseman in the AHL. In his last year with the AHL Americans during the 2023-24 season, he scored 12 goals and 35 points in 66 games. Last season, while playing for the Belleville Senators, the AHL affiliate of the Ottawa Senators, he scored 11 goals and recorded a total of 48 points in 72 games. He finished the season with a +9 rating, which placed him first on the team in scoring among defensemen, with a margin of 25 points ahead of the next player. For context, the Silver Knights were led in defensemen scoring by Calen Addison and Robert Hagg, each of which have moved on this summer.
Other snapshots:
- A few days ago, it was reported that New York Islanders’ prospect Calum Ritchie had every intention of making the Islanders’ opening night roster. In a new report from Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News, we now know that he’ll be given every opportunity to do so. Citing Jeff Marek on his podcast, The Sheet, Rosner shared a quote from New York’s General Manager, Mathieu Darche, saying, If Calum comes to training camp and he outplays everyone, I’ll make room for him on the roster.”
- In a new report out of Toledo, the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye have announced that Chaz Reddekopp will stay with the team as an assistant coach for the 2025-26 season, while also informally confirming his retirement. Reddekopp was selected 187th overall in the 2015 NHL Draft by the Los Angeles Kings, largely appearing in the ECHL throughout his professional playing career. He finished with 10 goals and 52 points in 201 ECHL contests, and one goal and 13 points in 92 AHL appearances.
West Notes: Isogai, Popovic, Nelson
Earlier today, the AHL affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings, the Ontario Reign, announced a two-year AHL contract for an up-and-coming name from Canada’s Western Hockey League. The Reign shared that they’ve signed forward Kenta Isogai. No financial details were released.
The 20-year-old native of Nagano, Japan, recently completed his second season in the WHL. Though he started his WHL career with the Wenatchee Wild for the 2023-24 season, he was acquired by the Victoria Royals for the end of the season. He excelled at the WHL level, scoring 63 goals and 166 points in 123 games, achieving a +49 rating, along with 10 goals and 25 points in 16 postseason contests.
Given that he was also named to the WHL’s First All-Star Team last year, it’s a little surprising that Isogai has gone undrafted over the past few years. He’s a little undersized, but not to a serious degree, and should be given every opportunity to succeed in AHL Ontario.
Other notes from the Western Conference:
- According to a team announcement, the Colorado Avalanche have hired Mark Popovic as their new skills coach. It’ll be Popovic’s first formal coaching position at the NHL level, although he’s been working as an informal consultant for the Avalanche for the past few years. He’s better known for his playing career at the AHL level, where he scored 36 goals and 134 points in 359 games from 2002 to 2007. He played under 100 games in the NHL with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the Atlanta Thrashers.
- The ECHL’s Iowa Heartlanders, affiliate of the Minnesota Wild, announced today that they’ve signed forward Jaxon Nelson to an ECHL contract for the 2025-26 season. The former captain of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers had been playing for the AHL’s Providence Bruins the past few years, to disappointing results. Still, Nelson is only two years removed from scoring 19 goals and 31 points in 39 games for Minnesota.
East Notes: Keeper, Kowalsky, Terrance
Despite signing a one-year contract with the Elite Ice Hockey League’s (EIHL) Glasgow Clan in late June, defenseman Brady Keeper won’t be playing out that contract with the team. In an announcement from the team, Keeper has decided to step away from hockey and retire at the age of 29.
A product of the NCAA’s University of Maine, Keeper signed with the Florida Panthers toward the end of the 2018-19 season as a collegiate free agent. He debuted with the Panthers during the 2018-2019 season, skating for 12:40 in a game against the Ottawa Senators on March 28, 2019. He recorded one blocked shot and two hits.
He spent the next few years moving from the Panthers to the Vancouver Canucks, before finally landing in the Montreal Canadiens organization in the 2023-24 season. Outside of an additional game with Florida, he’s only played in the AHL, finishing his career with 10 goals and 31 points in 129 games with a -2 rating and 208 PIMs. Unless he changes his mind on retirement in the next few years, his last professional hockey contest will have come with the AHL’s Laval Rocket in 2024.
Other notes from the Eastern Conference:
- The Maine Mariners of the ECHL, affiliated with the NHL’s Boston Bruins, have added a lot of experience in their new head coach and General Manager. According to a team announcement, the Mariners have hired Rick Kowalsky as their next bench boss and General Manager, who was recently the head coach of the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders. He began his coaching career as an assistant coach for the AHL’s Norfolk Admirals in the 2005-06 season and has won one coach of the year award in the AHL and another in the ECHL.
- Carey Terrance, the main asset acquired by the New York Rangers from the Anaheim Ducks for Chris Kreider, is already making positive impressions in the organization. In a recent interview with Dan Rosen of NHL.com, the Rangers’ player development coach, Jed Ortmeyer, said of Terrance, “He was like, ‘Yes, let me know. I want to be coached. You’re never going to hurt my feelings. I want to know. That was great to hear. He wants to be coached. He wants to get better and he’s hungry. He’s eager to learn and he wants to be great.“
Islanders’ Semyon Varlamov To Resume Skating
After indicating in mid-April that he’s hoping to be ready for training camp, it appears Semyon Varlamov‘s rehab from a knee procedure last December is tracking in the right direction. On the podcast The Sheet, hosted by Daily Faceoff journalist Jeff Marek, New York Islanders General Manager Mathieu Darche mentioned that Varlamov’s recovery is progressing well, and he is expected to resume skating soon.
Despite being the 17th season of his professional career, there’s no questioning that the 2024-25 season was Varlamov’s worst. Not due to his performance, but his knee injury limited him to only 10 games on the season. After the Islanders signed Varlamov to a four-year, $11MM contract in 2023, the idea was that they would have a consistent above-average backup netminder behind Ilya Sorokin for the foreseeable future.
In his defense, that’s largely what he’s been doing with the Islanders. Since ceding the starting job to Sorokin during the 2021-22 season, Varlamov managed a 35-34-8 record in 78 starts with a .914 SV%, 2.74 GAA, and 21.8 Goals Saved Above Average from the 2021-22 season to the 2023-24 campaign. Given that New York has struggled to score throughout this time, their strong play in the crease has been a primary reason the Islanders have qualified for the postseason in two out of the past four years.
Throughout his limited action last season, Varlamov finished with a 3-4-3 record in 10 games with a .889 SV% and 2.89 GAA. It was the lowest save percentage he’s achieved since the 2016-17 season with the Colorado Avalanche, though it was far too small a sample size to make any strong projections about his value moving forward.
Still, their offseason moves indicate that New York’s new front office isn’t wholly confident in Varlamov’s abilities, at least for the upcoming season. The Islanders signed David Rittich, the former backup goaltender for the Los Angeles Kings, to a one-year, $1MM contract on the opening day of free agency this summer.
Although he had a forgettable season last year with the Kings, his two-year stint in California was largely positive, finishing with a 29-20-5 record in 58 games with a .902 SV% and 2.55 GAA. Despite the down season in 2024-25, Rittich has only had one brief stint in the AHL since the 2017-18 season, so it stands to reason he wouldn’t put himself in a position for a demotion entering his age-33 season.
In summary, the Islanders are in a strong position regarding their goaltending, primarily due to having one of the best netminders in the game. There are other teams with much bigger issues in the crease than deciding between Varlamov and Rittich as their backup.
Blackhawks Leaving Roster Spots Open For Prospects
With a wealth of financial capital last offseason, the Chicago Blackhawks were one of the busier teams on the free agent market, signing Tyler Bertuzzi, Teuvo Teravainen, Laurent Brossoit, Alec Martinez, and Pat Maroon, among others, to supplement their young core. The Blackhawks showed slight improvement, increasing from 52 points in the 2023-24 season to 61 points in the 2024-25 campaign.
In late May, Chicago named Jeff Blashill as the new head coach and took an entirely different approach this offseason to supplement their roster. At the time of writing, the Blackhawks have only added André Burakovsky through a trade with the Seattle Kraken and signed Sam Lafferty on the free agent market. The lack of movement was a little surprising, given that Chicago had more than $20MM in available cap space heading into the summer months.
Ultimately, this was by design. In a recent interview with Tracey Myers of NHL.com, Blackhawks General Manager Kyle Davidson acknowledged that the team would not make many moves this offseason to keep roster spots open for some of their younger talent to graduate. When asked about his lack of offseason moves, Davidson said, “Trading for Burakovsky, I think Lafferty was more so a reaction to the market where we can get someone we know, a little shorter term, a little more flexibility there. And then we didn’t want to put any players in front of some of the young guys that we do think are ready.”
Even though he only added a few NHL-caliber players, Davidson still doesn’t believe there are enough spots available for every young player they’d like to see at the NHL level. The fourth-year General Manager said, “Now we have enough young players that there aren’t enough spots for all of them to play, so there will be battles there and they’ll keep each other accountable, keep each other honest on earning spots here in the NHL. But we do feel that a couple of them are ready to really take a role and run with it and be a positive impact on the team.”
The Blackhawks possess an impressive amount of young talent. Outside of Connor Bedard, Frank Nazar, and Kevin Korchinski, who are already shoo-ins for next year’s roster, Chicago has the opportunity to recall Sam Rinzel, Artyom Levshunov, Oliver Moore, Nick Lardis, Ethan Del Mastro, and Colton Dach, to name a few, to the NHL roster on a full-time basis.
Still, as Davidson noted in the interview, those available roster spots will not be handed to any prospect simply for their accomplishments at the amateur and semi-professional levels. Players will have to compete for their spots on the roster, which could make the Blackhawks more challenging to play against, as nearly every player would be vying for a position.
There’s no expectation that Chicago will compete for a playoff spot this upcoming season, especially in a top-heavy Central Division. Considering that many prospects are close to being recalled, the Blackhawks have opted to delay their roster changes until the regular season rather than making adjustments during the summer months.