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West Valley Approves Sale Of ECHL's Utah Grizzlies

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On yesterday’s rendition of the Insider Notebook from Bleacher Report, Frank Seravalli provided an update on the ongoing extension negotiations between the Minnesota Wild and star forward Kirill Kaprizov. Seravalli indicated that he believes the Wild will sign Kaprizov to an eight-year, $120MM contract ($15MM AAV) when everything is said and done.

Kaprizov would narrowly beat out Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers as the sport’s highest-paid players. Still, that’s before Draisaitl’s teammate, Connor McDavid, signs his next contract. Despite carrying the highest AAV in NHL history, the rumored deal for Kaprizov would fall $4MM short of Alex Ovechkin’s 13-year, $124MM contract signed with the Washington Capitals in 2008, which remains the largest contract in NHL history.

The Novokuznetsk, Russia native has all the leverage in his negotiation with Minnesota, scoring 185 goals and 386 points in 319 games since starting his career during the 2020-21 campaign. There’s an open and credible debate whether Kaprizov is worth more than Draisaitl. Still, the Wild’s only pathway to contention is through their star winger.

Other notes from the Western Conference:

  • According to a team announcement, the Dallas Stars have elected Joe Nieuwendyk and Ralph Strangis to their organizational Hall of Fame. Nieuwendyk spent seven years as a Star, scoring 178 goals and 340 points in 442 games, helping the team to their first and only Stanley Cup championship in 1999. Meanwhile, Strangis began his broadcasting career with the Minnesota North Stars and remained with the team when they relocated to Dallas. He retired after the 2014-15 NHL season.
  • As covered by Belle Fraser of The Salt Lake Tribune, the city of West Valley has approved the sale of the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies. Since the town had a minority stake in the team, approval from the City Council was required for the sale. The team is expected to be sold to Pro Hockey Partners LLC and moved to Trenton, NJ, after the 2025-26 ECHL season.

Humphries Will Remain In OHL Next Season

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  • Joining Pridham in a return to Kitchener will be Colorado Avalanche prospect Christian Humphreys, per Brown. Humphreys began the season at the University of Michigan, but opted to move to the OHL after scoring just one assist in the Wolverines’ first 10 games of the season. He went on to score 11 goals and 33 points in 28 games with Kitchener, and added 10 more points in 13 playoff games. Humphreys formally entered the NCAA transfer portal earlier this summer, but will instead opt to stay in juniors in hopes of joining Pridham on Kitchener’s top-line. He was a seventh-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, following two seasons with the U.S. National Team Development Program, where he spent time on the wing of James Hagens and Brodie Ziemer, or centering Teddy Stiga and Max Plante.

Eagles Hire Derek Army As Assistant Coach

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  • The Avalanche’s AHL affiliate announced the hiring of Derek Army as an assistant coach. The 34-year-old spent parts of the last five seasons as head coach of ECHL Wheeling, becoming the winningest coach in franchise history with a 153-137-19 record over that stretch.  Army also spent the past four seasons as their Director of Hockey Operations but will now focus exclusively on coaching with the Eagles.

MacDonald Wins AHL's President’s Award For Player Excellence

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  • On Thursday, the AHL released its end-of-season Excellence Awards. Avalanche defenseman Jacob MacDonald was the winner of the President’s Award for player excellence after setting a league record for most goals by a blueliner with 31, helping earn him the Eddie Shore Award as the league’s outstanding defenseman.  Meanwhile, the newly established Bruce Landon Award for the most outstanding hockey operations executive went to Canadiens assistant GM John Sedgwick, who also serves as the GM of AHL Laval.

Avalanche Sign Josh Manson To Two-Year Extension

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The Avalanche have signed defenseman Josh Manson to a two-year extension, the team announced in a press release. The contract carries a $3.95MM cap hit for a total value of $7.9MM, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports (via X).

The deal goes into effect next season and will keep him in Colorado through the 2027-28 campaign. He was entering 2025-26 on the final year of the four-year, $18MM extension he signed to remain with the Avs following their Stanley Cup win in 2022, so he still counts $4.5MM against their cap for this year before his impact reduces by $550K in 2026-27.

Manson has a lengthy but injury-plagued NHL resume. He began his career with Anaheim in the 2014-15 season and grew into a reliable top-four piece over eight seasons there before Colorado acquired him at the 2022 deadline in advance of their championship win. He’s seen his minutes reduced somewhat in Denver but has still spent much of his time there as the No. 2 righty on their depth chart behind superstar Cale Makar.

On multiple occasions, injuries have taken more than half of Manson’s regular-season availability. He only played 27 games in the first year of his extension due to a recurring lower-body injury, and varying issues limited him to 48 appearances last season. He has only played in 61% of the Avs’ regular-season games since his acquisition and has missed roughly one in four games due to injury in his career, a trend positively skewed by four straight seasons with 70-plus appearances early on.

That makes any multi-year extension a risky bet, particularly for a player who will be 34 in October and saw his possession impacts nosedive in 2024-25. The physical stay-at-home defender has largely held up his end of the bargain in helping his team boast the majority of shot attempts while he’s on the ice despite his defensively-minded usage at even strength, but that wasn’t the case last season. Colorado still controlled 51.4% of shot attempts with Manson on the ice, but clicked at 56.2% without him. That difference of -4.8% was the worst in his career outside of his injury-plagued 2020-21 season with the Ducks.

With one year left on his deal, some considered Manson to be trade bait as the Avs looked to create salary cap flexibility. They opted to subtract from their forward group instead, sending Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood to the Blue Jackets and augmenting their defensive depth by picking up veteran Brent Burns in free agency. The extension all but ensures he’ll remain in Colorado for the foreseeable future, perhaps for the remainder of his career, given his recent trajectory.

Image courtesy of Robert Edwards-Imagn Images.

Avalanche Hire Dave Hakstol As Assistant Coach

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The Colorado Avalanche have added some additional experience to their coaching staff. According to a team announcement, the Avalanche have hired Dave Hakstol as an assistant coach for the 2025-26 NHL season.

It’s been almost two years since Hakstol has coached on an NHL bench. He was the first head coach in Seattle Kraken franchise history, leading them to their first postseason in his second year, where they defeated the defending Stanley Cup champion Avalanche in the first round.

Unfortunately, the team failed to live up to renewed expectations the following season, leading the Kraken and Hakstol to go in separate directions. He finished his tenure in Seattle with a 107-112-27 record in 246 games.

Before being hired by the Kraken, Hakstol had a two-year stint as an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Before joining the Original Six franchise, Hakstol had been the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers.

His time in Philadelphia was mostly a mixed bag. He finished with a winning record through the regular season and coached the Flyers to the playoffs in two seasons, but they failed to move beyond the opening round. Ultimately, Hakstol finished with a 134-101-42 record in Philadelphia over 277 games, but was fired partway through the 2018-19 season after a disappointing start to the season.

The former long-time head coach of the University of North Dakota now joins his fourth NHL franchise of his career and his second job as an assistant coach.

Mark Letestu Named Head Coach of AHL’s Colorado Eagles

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Mark Letestu, a veteran of 11 NHL seasons, has been named head coach of the AHL’s Colorado Eagles, per a release from the Colorado Avalanche.

Lestestu, 40, spent the last four seasons as an assistant coach for the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters. In that time, the Monsters recorded a record of 136-117-23-16 and qualified for the playoffs each of the last two seasons. Letestu also coached one season in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) as an assistant during the 2012-13 season.

In the team release, Lestestu noted how grateful and excited he was for the opportunity. He said:

“I am excited and ready for this challenge to lead their AHL franchise. Thank you to the Kroenke family, Joe Sakic, Chris MacFarland and Kevin McDonald for their trust in me, as well as a big thank you to Martin Lind, Ryan Bach and the entire Eagles organization. Most importantly thanks to my family for all of their support throughout my playing career and now my coaching career. I can’t wait to get the season going.”

Letestu, played collegiately at Western Michigan University during the 2006-07 season and ranked 14th in points among all NCAA skaters. This led the forward to sign with the Pittsburgh Penguins as an undrafted free agent in March of 2007. He spent four seasons in the minors before making his NHL debut with the Penguins during the 2009-10 season. He also spent time with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Edmonton Oilers, and Winnipeg Jets. His best season came in 2016–17 with the Oilers, when he recorded a career-high 16 goals and 35 points, and added five goals and 11 points in 13 playoff games. Through 567 career NHL games, Letestu scored 93 goals and 210 points. Always a threat on penalty kills, he added 10 career shorthanded goals.

Afternoon Notes: Byram, Gulyayev, Bump

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The Buffalo Sabres are presently at risk of losing restricted-free agent defenseman Bowen Byram to the heaps of interest from around the league. He has been mentioned as a candidate for an offer sheet or trade, with a heap of Western Conference teams swirling around both options. The Sabres have already expressed their intent to match any offer sheet that comes across their desk, though Sean McIndoe of The Athletic points out an important contingency to that idea in his latest newsletter. Matching an offer sheet would only set Buffalo up to repeat this song-and-dance again next season, when Byram would be just one year removed from unrestricted-free agency. They’d be better off making a decision about him sooner rather than later, unless their intent is to push Byram back onto Rasmus Dahlin’s side.

That could end up a lucrative approach for the Sabres. Byram posted 38 points and nearly 23 minutes in average ice time – both career-highs – while playing in Buffalo’s top-four last season. His overall performances left many wanting more, but the then-23-year-old Byram seemed to add a layer of smooth confidence to his overall game. A full year, and 100 games, of familiarity in the Sabres lineup could be enough to set up a breakout campaign next year – though all updates seem to point towards a split being inevitable. Buffalo will need to be careful with their handling of Byram. Their decisions over the next few weeks will be among the biggest headlines through the remaining summer.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Colorado Avalanche Director of Player Development Brian Willsie shared that the club is hoping that defense prospect Mikhail Gulyayev will come over from Russia at the end of the 2025-26 seaosn, per Evan Rawal of the Denver Gazette. Gulyayev played through his second full year in the KHL this season – notching seven goals and 15 points in 67 games played. He added an additional three points in 13 postseason games. The total year falls closely in line with the 15 points that Gulyayev scored in 76 total games last year. He’s among the team’s top prospects, and is their most recent first-round selection still on the roster. Getting that kind of talent overseas and in a Colorado jersey will be important priority as the Avalanche look to stay fresh through the next few years.
  • The Philadelphia Flyers intend to give top prospect Alex Bump every chance to make the team’s roster out of training camp, per Jordan Hall of NBC Sports Philadelphia. Bump was the motor to Western Michigan University’s engine last season, and managed 23 goals and 47 points in 42 games as the Broncos pushed for to their first national championship in school history. Bump was just as impressive last season, when he scored 36 points in 38 games as a freshman. He finished the year with nine total games in the AHL, where he scored five points. He’s a high-energy and physical winger who seems bound for success at the next level.

Avalanche Sign Alex Barré-Boulet

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The Colorado Avalanche have signed forward Alex Barré-Boulet to a one-year, two-way contract per a team release.

Barré-Boulet led the AHL’s Laval Rocket in scoring this season with 22 goals and 63 points in 64 games. He became just the second Laval skater to reach the 40-assist mark in club history, joining defenseman Matt Taormina, who notched 48 assists in the 2017-18 season. Barré-Boulet was one of 12 AHL skaters to reach that mark this year. He also appeared in two NHL games this season.

It was yet another strong season in Barré-Boulet’s long history of minor-league success. He’s a perennial AHL scorer, and even reached a career-high 60 assists and 84 points with Syracuse in the 2022-23 campaign. Through his career, Barré-Boulet has notched 50-or-more points in five of his seven AHL seasons – and totaled 365 points in 358 career games.

Despite that fantastic minor-league scoring, Barré-Boulet hasn’t yet found his stride at the NHL level. He’s appeared in 70 games across five seasons, but only has 12 goals and 18 points to show for it. His 5-foot-10, 180-pound frame is slight for the major league ranks, which has made it difficult to beat NHL opponents with only his sharp skill. He could be an interesting addition to a Colorado Avalanche depth chart with space in the bottom-six and a precedent for making the most of top-end minor-leaguers. At worst, he’ll head for a high-scoring, top-line role with a Colorado Eagles lineup that finished second in the AHL’s Pacific Division last season.

Brent Burns Signs One-Year Deal With Avalanche

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The Colorado Avalanche have signed veteran defenseman Brent Burns to a one-year contract, per a team release. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman is reporting the deal comes with a $1MM base, with games-played bonuses that could secure him another $3MM.

Burns, 40, comes to the Avalanche after registering 29 points in 82 games with the Carolina Hurricanes last season. While his offensive numbers dipped considerably in 2024-25, he still logged a hefty 20:57 of ice time per game on the season. He added five points in 15 playoff contests.

Burns’ 21-year career has been filled with accolades, including six all-star appearances and the 2016-17 Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman. He has produced 910 career points over 1,497 games and has added 80 points in 135 career playoff contests. And despite his age, Burns has skated in 925 consecutive games, the fourth-longest mark in league history.

Burns joins a Colorado blue line that has openings on the second or third pairing, giving him a chance to compete for a regular role. While Cale Makar, Devon Toews, Samuel Girard, and Josh Manson are locked into spots, the depth thins out beyond that, with Sam Malinski the only other defenseman on a one-way contract.

After an illustrious 11-year run with the Sharks, Burns was traded to the Hurricanes in July of 2022, and produced 133 points in 246 games with Carolina. His move to Colorado draws parallels to that of Hall of Fame defenseman Raymond Bourque, who was traded to the Avalanche during the 2000-01 season at the age of 39 and went on to win his long-awaited Stanley Cup.

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