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Canucks Hire Brett McLean, Scott Young As Assistant Coaches

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The Vancouver Canucks are nearing the finalization of their coaching staff for the 2025-26 NHL season. The organization announced that it has hired Brett McLean and Scott Young as assistant coaches, and confirmed a report from a few days ago, indicating that Kevin Dean would also be joining the staff.

McLean earns his first stint back in the NHL since his time as an assistant coach with the Minnesota Wild from 2020 to 2023. He’s spent the last two years serving as the head coach for the AHL’s Iowa Wild, managing a 54-74-10-6 record in 144 games.

Young is the only one of the trio who’s not an outside hire. He’s spent the last three years as the organization’s Director of Player Personnel, after joining Rick Tocchet’s staff during the 2022-23 campaign. Before his tenure in Vancouver, Young had served as the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Director of Player Development, joining the team the year after Tocchet had departed in 2017.

Although the Canucks’ on-bench coaching staff is taking shape around Adam Foote, some non-bench coaches aren’t expected to return next season. According to Rob Williams of Daily Hive Vancouver, development coach Sergei Gonchar and video coach Dylan Crawford won’t be a part of Foote’s staff.

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Gonchar join Tocchet’s staff with the Philadelphia Flyers in a similar role. The two have inconsistently coached together since the 2015-16 season in Pittsburgh, with Gonchar joining Tocchet upon his move to Vancouver in 2022-23.

West Notes: Rossi, Hyman, Yegorov

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In another update on the tumultuous relationship between Marco Rossi and the Minnesota Wild, Joe Smith and Michael Russo of The Athletic offered some hypothetical landing spots for the former ninth-overall pick of the 2020 NHL Draft.

The pair of reporters listed the Vancouver Canucks, Philadelphia Flyers, Buffalo Sabres, Carolina Hurricanes, Calgary Flames, Utah Mammoth, and Winnipeg Jets, in that order, as the likeliest landing spots for Rossi if the Wild trade him. Furthermore, Smith and Russo believe the Canucks can offer the most compelling trade package of the listed teams.

They asserted that the 15th overall selection of the 2025 NHL Draft would have to be the headliner of the deal, and they’ve heard reports that Vancouver would be willing to move the pick in the right trade. As a secondary portion, Smith and Russo said one of Victor Mancini, Sawyer Mynio, Nils Höglander, or Arturs Silovs would be enough of a sweetener to get the deal across the finish line.

Other notes from the Western Conference:

  • In a disastrous outcome for player and team, the Edmonton Oilers have already lost Zach Hyman for the Stanley Cup Final due to wrist surgery. According to Jason Gregor of the Daily Faceoff, due to the severity of the injury in which Hyman dislocated and tore several ligaments in his wrist, there’s no guarantee he’ll be ready for training camp in September either. It’s more unfortunate news for Hyman, who was a sparkplug for the Oilers this postseason, scoring five goals and 11 points in 15 games with 111 hits.
  • The Calgary Flames will have to wait a few more years for one of their goaltending prospects to make his way to North America. Earlier today, Ryan Pike of Flames Nation reported that the Flames’ sixth-round pick of the 2023 NHL Draft, Yegor Yegorov, has signed a two-year deal with the KHL’s Spartak Moskva. Still, with Dustin Wolf in the net for the foreseeable future, Calgary isn’t in a rush for another netminder, given they can hold his contractual rights indefinitely as a Russian draftee.

Free Agent Focus: Detroit Red Wings

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Free agency is now under 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 also have key restricted free agents to re-sign. We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Red Wings.

Key Restricted Free Agents

F Jonatan Berggren – After spending much of the 2023-24 season with Detroit’s AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, Berggren earned another full-time opportunity with the Red Wings in 2024-25. His scoring output was depressed compared to his performance in the 2022-23 season, as he scored 12 goals and 24 points in 75 games, averaging 12:59 of ice time per night. Still, Berggren’s biggest improvements came on the defensive side of the puck, where he achieved an on-ice save percentage of 91.1% at even strength, far and away the best output of his young career. He’ll earn a raise on his $825K salary this summer, but it shouldn’t be by much, especially if Detroit has begun considering him a bottom-six defensive forward.

F Elmer Söderblom – The 6’8′ Swede brought a lot of punch to Detroit’s lineup when he was recalled in late January of the 2024-25 campaign. Söderblom finished the year with four goals and 11 points in 26 games, with 43 hits while averaging 13:22 of ice time per night. Similarly to Berggren, Söderblom offered more defensive help to the Red Wings lineup than expected, and that could be where he finds his home on the team longer-term. Expect Detroit to retain Söderblom on a one-year deal with a slight bump on his $878K salary while staying below $1MM.

D Albert Johansson – Requiring waivers for another demotion to the AHL, the Red Wings chose to keep Johansson on their active roster out of training camp. It took some time for Johansson to play regularly, but after trading Olli Määttä to the then-named Utah Hockey Club, Detroit found more opportunity for ’AlJo’. Unfortunately, he’s put himself in a situation where the Red Wings could conceivably non-tender him this summer. Despite starting a majority of his shifts in the offensive zone, Johansson ranked as one of the worst players on the team in Expected +/- according to Hockey Reference, and on-ice goals % according to MoneyPuck.

Other RFAs: F Cross Hanas, D Antti Tuomisto, D Eemil Viro, G Gage Alexander

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

F Patrick Kane – Despite a visible and significant drop-off in foot speed, Kane continues to produce for Detroit. The 36-year-old three-time Stanley Cup champion and former-MVP ranked fourth on the team in points this season with 21 goals and 59 points in 72 games in a second-line role. General Manager Steve Yzerman has already expressed confidence that Kane will return to the Red Wings for the 2025-26 season, although no contract has been agreed to yet. If Kane decides to remain in Detroit, his upcoming contract should resemble this year’s deal, which includes a base salary of $4MM and the potential to earn an additional $2.5MM in performance bonuses. These bonuses are primarily dependent on the Red Wings qualifying for the postseason.

D Jeff Petry – What a difference a year can make. After finishing the 2023-24 season with three goals and 24 points in 73 games, Petry finished the 2024-25 campaign with one goal and eight points in 44 contests, even while averaging more ice time. Petry finished last place among Detroit blue liners (with 41 or more games played) in CorsiFor%, and second-to-last in Expected +/-. Despite earning a modest $2.34MM salary this past season thanks to the Pittsburgh Penguins and Montreal Canadiens retaining a portion of his salary, it’s unlikely Petry will wear a winged wheel on his jersey next year. He may have to settle for a one-year, league minimum on his new deal or earn his way from a professional tryout agreement.

G Alex Lyon – Petry wasn’t the only pending unrestricted free agent who had a significant drop-off in the 2024-25 season. After managing a 21-18-5 record in 43 starts in the 2023-24 campaign, Lyon posted a 14-9-1 record in 26 starts this past year, with an eight-point drop in his SV% and a 3.6 drop in his Goals Saved Above Average. After adding several netminders last offseason and another at the trade deadline, the Red Wings are in dire need of contracting their goaltending situation, making Lyon an obvious candidate to leave this summer.

Other UFAs: F Craig Smith, F Tyler Motte, D William Lagesson, F Timothy Gettinger, F Joe Snively, D Brogan Rafferty, G Jack Campbell

Projected Cap Space

Thankfully for Detroit, the Red Wings will have a healthy salary cap situation heading into the offseason. PuckPedia lists the Red Wings as having $21.337MM in cap space, while already having 10 forwards, five defensemen, and two netminders signed for next season. Assuming Detroit re-signs Kane on a similar deal, and giving Berggren and Söderblom a generous salary of $1MM, that’ll give the Red Wings more than $15MM to work with. There should be competition for open spots on the roster from Nate Danielson, Jesse Kiiskinen, and Axel Sandin-Pellikka during next year’s training camp, so Detroit has the financial flexibility to be aggressive this summer.

Contract info courtesy of PuckPedia.

Photo courtesy of Brian Bradshaw Sevald-Imagn Images.

Philadelphia Flyers Interested In Nicolas Hague

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In his recent recurring segment on Sportsnet 590 The Fan, Elliotte Friedman has listed one suitor for Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Nicolas Hague should he be made available. Friedman believes that the Philadelphia Flyers have already indicated their interest in Hague to the Golden Knights.

The Flyers’ interest in Hague appears peculiar at first glance. Hague is only a year away from unrestricted free agency and would become the sixth left-handed defenseman on Philadelphia’s active roster.

No report has indicated that Vegas is looking to move Hague, only that there had been some interest in him. One would reasonably assume that any motivation the Golden Knights have for moving Hague would be their tight salary cap situation as they enter the summer months with only $9.6MM in flexibility according to PuckPedia.

Assuming that is Vegas’s motivation, there’s little chance they’d be open to acquiring any left-handed defenseman off the Flyers roster unless it was Emil Andrae, who’s set to make $903K in the 2025-26 season. Still, Philadelphia’s reported interest becomes clearer when looking at Hague’s defensive metrics throughout his time with the Golden Knights.

He’s never been much of a point-producer, scoring 20 goals and 83 points across 364 regular season games in Vegas, but has racked up 489 blocked shots and 572 hits in that span. Additionally, Hague owns a solid 49.7% CorsiFor% throughout his career, and a 90.9% on-ice save percentage at even strength.

If the Flyers are unable to improve their goaltending situation this summer, acquiring a player of Hague’s stature would help alleviate some of those issues. There’s no questioning Philadelphia’s poor goaltending from the 2024-25 season, and they weren’t a stellar possession team either.

Acquiring Hague would give them a responsible defender who has excelled at even strength and on the penalty kill. Still, it’s hard to imagine the Flyers carrying six left-handed defensemen on their roster next year, regardless of Hague’s implied value to the club.

Metro Notes: Hurricanes, Burns, Muse

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All signs indicate that the Carolina Hurricanes will take a page from the Nashville Predators’ book from last offseason. A new report from The Fourth Period suggests that the Hurricanes will be aggressive this offseason and look to weaponize their nearly $30MM in cap space.

Understandably, General Manager Eric Tulsky didn’t address specific targets, but indicated he’ll revamp his team through free agency, saying, “People always like to say, ‘we’re not gonna make a move just for the sake of making a move,’ and of course, we’re not. That goes without saying. But if there’s any chance to get better, we’re gonna take it. We have the full buy-in to spend to the cap, if there are ways to do it to get better. We have so much space and such a strong team, there’s no guarantees we can find ways to spend all that money, but we’re going to spend all summer trying.”

Carolina has already tried to take a swing at this year’s top target, Mitch Marner. Marner did not approve the proposed trade at that time, but the Hurricanes are expected to revisit the idea this offseason and entice Marner with a competitive, yet smaller media market in Raleigh.

Other notes from the Metropolitan Division:

  • According to Greg Wyshynski of ESPN, Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour would like Carolina to use some of their cap space to retain veteran defenseman Brent Burns. Burns has already indicated he’d like to remain with the organization, but it could be a difficult sell for Tulsky’s analytical mind. The 21-year veteran has plenty to offer via experience and leadership, but his on-ice play took a dramatic hit this season, finishing with 14 fewer points than the 2023-24 season, with a 2.6% decrease in his CorsiFor% and a 2.0% decrease in his on-ice save percentage.
  • Larry Brooks of the New York Post reports that New York Rangers assistant coach Dan Muse remains a candidate for the Pittsburgh Penguins head coaching vacancy. Muse has no head coaching experience at the NHL level, but has served as the Rangers assistant coach for two years, and served in the same role with the Nashville Predators from 2017 to 2020. There’s no update on whether Muse will remain with the Rangers should he not be offered the job with Pittsburgh.

Central Notes: Mammoth, Kupari, Desiderio

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Late last week, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period released his list of major talking points heading into the offseason. One of the more interesting reports was that the Utah Mammoth are open to moving the fourth-overall pick of the 2025 NHL Draft.

It’s understandable from the Mammoth’s perspective. They’re a team that is planning on contending for a playoff position in the 2025-26 season, and there won’t be a player available at fourth overall to help them achieve that goal. In his report, Pagnotta shares that they’d be looking for a young, top-six, proven forward.

The idea is similar to the nixed trade that would have sent a package including Martin Nečas to the Columbus Blue Jackets for the fourth overall pick in last summer’s draft. The deal didn’t happen, but the Blue Jackets weren’t as interested in trading the draft pick as the Mammoth appear to be.

Other notes from the Central Division:

  • Earlier today, Winnipeg Jets forward Rasmus Kupari signed a two-year deal with the NL’s HC Lugano. If the Jets issue Kupari a qualifying offer before the June 30th deadline, they’ll retain his signing rights through the 2026-27 season, which Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press expects them to do. Although Kupari’s recent deal had an AAV of $1MM, the Jets will have to issue a $1.1MM qualifying offer to Kupari this summer, given the backloaded nature of his salary.
  • According to Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal, Matthew Desiderio is expected to join the Jets for their development camp. Desiderio has already committed to Brown University for the 2025-26 NCAA season. He’s coming off a solid year with the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints, scoring 14 goals and 38 points in 62 games.

Vancouver Canucks Sign Derek Forbort To One-Year Deal

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The Vancouver Canucks will have some added continuity to their defensive core next season. Vancouver announced they’ve re-signed defenseman Derek Forbort to a one-year, $2MM contract.

Forbort’s new deal won’t have any negative side effects on other defensemen on the roster, but it likely spells the end of Noah Juulsen’s tenure in British Columbia. The Canucks now have seven defenseman signed through the 2025-26 season, including youngsters like Victor Mancini and Elias Pettersson.

He was as advertised for the Canucks this season. Injuries limited Forbort to 54 games played, yet he still scored two goals and 11 points, making for one of the better point-per-game metrics of his 10-year career. Despite the increased offensive (for his standards), Forbort missed the playoffs for the first time in five years.

Still, if the Canucks could make a move for another right-handed defenseman, Forbort represents a nice defensive option to place next to Tyler Myers in the bottom-pairing. He’s a like-sized blue liner who takes care of the puck in the defensive zone, as evidenced by his 46.4% CorsiFor% at even strength and 90.6% on-ice save percentage at even strength.

Unfortunately, retaining Forbort won’t help what plagued Vancouver this season. The Canucks boasted one of the top penalty kills, and had a respectable goals-against average, but their lethargic offense cost them dearly. Now that the defensive core is settled, the Canucks can spend the rest of the summer re-imagining their forward core.

Lightning Re-Sign Steven Santini To Two-Year Deal

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The Tampa Bay Lightning are keeping around one of their depth defenseman for a few more years. The Lightning announced they’ve re-signed blue liner Steven Santini to a two-year, two-way contract.

Santini recently wrapped up his first season with the Lightning organization. After coasting through the New Jersey Devils and St. Louis Blues’ organization for a few years, largely in the AHL, Santini spent one year with the Los Angeles Kings’ AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, before signing a one-year, $775K contract with Tampa Bay last summer.

Similarly to his previous employers, the Lightning stashed Santini with their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, for much of the year. Despite not being regarded as an offensive weapon from the point, Santini had the third-best scoring season of his AHL career, tallying six goals and 17 points in 58 games with a +10 rating.

Still, Santini received an opportunity to play in the NHL for the first time since the 2022-23 season, and his fifth since the 2020-21 season. Due to an injury to Erik Černák, Santini skated in 11:37 of the Lightning’s win against the Calgary Flames on December 12th, going scoreless.

Even with Nicklaus Perbix likely leaving the organization this summer, it’s highly unlikely that Santini will compete for a spot on the roster out of training camp, even as a seventh defenseman. He should be expected to spend a majority of the year with AHL Syracuse, and be a quick injury replacement should Tampa Bay need it.

Justin Poirier Commits To University Of Maine

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A high-scoring winger is headed to the NCAA’s Hockey East Conference. Earlier today, Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal reported that Carolina Hurricanes prospect Justin Poirier has committed to the University of Maine.

Being selected with the 156th overall pick of the 2024 NHL Draft, Poirier doesn’t carry the same pedigree as other Canadian junior talent moving to the NCAA. Still, if his tenure in the QMJHL is a sign of things to come, the Black Bears shouldn’t have any issue putting the puck in the net this season.

Poirier has been one of the premier goal-scorers since joining the Major Junior ranks in 2022-23 with the Baie-Comeau Drakkar. He’s scored 122 goals and 210 points in 181 games over the last three years, with another 22 goals and 36 points in 26 postseason contests.

Finishing first in goal-scoring in 2023-24 and fourth in 2024-25 shows that Poirier’s goal-scoring prowess isn’t just a flash in the pan. He’ll make a positive offensive weapon for a stagnant men’s ice hockey program.

Maine is no longer the program that made it to back-to-back Frozen Four appearances in the late 2000s. They haven’t been able to keep pace in a difficult Hockey East Division and have only qualified for the National Tournament twice in the last 15 years.

West Notes: DeBoer, Brown, Caggiula

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A coaching controversy is brewing in Dallas. According to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, Dallas Stars players were displeased with Pete DeBoer’s coaching tactics during the Western Conference Final and his postgame remarks after Game 5.

Pagnotta correctly noted that DeBoer’s contract concludes after the 2025-26 NHL season, so it could be some time before they make a move on DeBoer’s future, assuming they turn their players’ feedback into actionable consequences. It seems that much of the frustration is stemming from DeBoer’s treatment of netminder Jake Oettinger, whom he unceremoniously pulled in Game 5 after allowing two goals on two shots.

DeBoer’s comments after the game did nothing to help. Chastising Oettinger to the media after being eliminated from the postseason, DeBoer said, “I didn’t blame it all on Jake, but the reality is if you go back to last year’s playoffs, he’s lost six of seven games to Edmonton. And we give up two goals on two shots in an elimination game. … That’s a pretty big sample size.” Whether DeBoer is correct in his assessment of Oettinger, it was not a professional comment to make publicly, and the Stars players are responding in kind.

Other notes from the Western Conference:

  • The Edmonton Oilers will have one of their depth forwards back for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. Earlier today, Sportsnet’s Mark Spector passed along a note from Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch, indicating Connor Brown will return on Wednesday. Brown missed the last two games of the Western Conference Final (and much of Game 3) after being hit in the head by Stars defenseman Alexander Petrovic.
  • According to a team announcement, now-former Oiler forward Drake Caggiula has signed a one-year contract with the NL’s Lausanne HC. It’ll be the first time that Caggiula has played abroad in a professional setting. He spent much of the 2024-25 season with Edmonton’s AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors, scoring 24 goals and 52 points in 62 games.

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