- Mike Heika, a Senior Staff Writer for the Dallas Stars, reports that forward Roope Hintz is to be considered day-to-day, with the Stars remaining cautious on his timeline. Dealing with an upper-body injury, Hintz was unable to practice with the team today. The organization has only played two preseason matchups up to this point, one against the Arizona Coyotes, and the other against the Minnesota Wild, with Hintz being scratched for both matchups.
[SOURCE LINK]
Stars Rumors
Dallas Stars Sign Christopher Gibson To A PTO
The Dallas Morning News announced this morning that the Dallas Stars had released their training camp roster and on it is former New York Islanders netminder Christopher Gibson. The 30-year-old Gibson has reportedly signed (Elite Prospects) a PTO to attend Stars training camp and figures to be a long shot to make the big club as Dallas has Jake Oettinger and Scott Wedgewood firmly entrenched between the pipes.
Gibson last saw NHL action with the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2020-21 pandemic-shorted season going 1-1 with an .875 save percentage and a 2.66 goals-against average. The native of Karkkila, Finland has seen limited action over his four-year NHL career dressing in just 16 games with a record of 4-5-3 while sporting a 3.33 goals-against average and a .901 save percentage.
As one might expect, Gibson’s numbers in the AHL are superior to his NHL numbers. Over the course of his ten-year AHL career, Gibson has played 244 games going 124-77-28 while posting 14 shutouts and a .910 save percentage. Although his AHL numbers are better, they haven’t been particularly good the past two seasons and are well off his career average. Last year with the Coachella Valley Firebirds Gibson went 10-5-4 with a 2.99 goals against average and a .894 save percentage.
He might be unlikely to land with the Stars in Dallas, but Gibson will have a good opportunity to audition for AHL work and could land himself a minor-league deal with a good showing. Gibson was a second-round pick 49th overall in the 2011 NHL entry draft and at one point looked like he would be a big part of the Islanders’ future. He has good size, and terrific athleticism, but has never been able to put it all together at the NHL level.
Ankle Injury For Lian Bichsel, Out For Rest Of Rookie Tourney
- Stars blueliner Lian Bichsel tweaked his knee on Thursday against Toronto and is being shut down for their rookie tournament, notes team reporter Mike Heika. The 2022 first-rounder (18th overall) dealt with an ankle injury late last season but this knee issue isn’t related to the ankle one which he has since fully recovered from. Bichsel was a regular in the SHL last season, getting into 42 games with Leksands while logging a little under 12 minutes a night.
Lian Bichsel Skating After Ankle Surgery
- Stars prospect Lian Bichsel underwent ankle surgery back in the spring but he has been cleared to return as the team posted on Twitter that the blueliner skated in Dallas for the first time on Friday. The 19-year-old was the 18th pick last year and spent last season in Leksands’ system, playing in 42 games at the SHL level. There was a report back in August that suggested Bichsel won’t go back there for the upcoming season if he doesn’t land a roster spot with Dallas but instead, he’ll go to Rogle, another SHL squad.
Salary Cap Deep Dive: Dallas Stars
Navigating the salary cap is one of the more important tasks for any GM. Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.
PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2023-24 season. This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.
Dallas Stars
Current Cap Hit: $83,817,829 (over the $83.5MM Upper Limit)
Entry-Level Contracts
D Thomas Harley (one year, $863K)
F Wyatt Johnston (two years, $894K)
D Nils Lundkvist (one year, $925K)
Potential Bonuses
Lundkvist: $850K
Harley: $637.5K
Total: $1.4875MM
Johnston could have gone back to junior last season but it’s safe to say that Dallas made the right call with him as he potted 24 goals in his age-19 campaign. If he can stick in their top six and take a step or two forward offensively, he’s a strong candidate to bypass a bridge deal, especially with a big-ticket one coming off the books at the same time that he needs his second contract.
Dallas paid a high price to get Lundkvist from the Rangers last season but he wound up only playing a limited role. They’re banking on him taking a step forward but even so, he’s a strong candidate for a short-term second contract, one that could check in around the $1.5MM range. At this point, it doesn’t seem too likely that he’ll hit his four ‘A’ bonuses. The Stars are banking on Harley to make the jump full-time this season after being a regular in the playoffs. With some good numbers in the minors, he could reach one or two of his three ‘A’ bonuses but from a contract standpoint, like Lundkvist, he’s likely heading for a bridge deal as well.
Signed Through 2023-24, Non-Entry-Level
D Gavin Bayreuther ($775K, UFA)
F Ty Dellandrea ($900K, RFA)
F Matt Duchene ($3MM, UFA)
D Jani Hakanpaa ($1.5MM, UFA)
F Joe Pavelski ($3.5MM, UFA)
F Craig Smith ($1MM, UFA)
F Sam Steel ($850K, RFA)
G Scott Wedgewood ($1MM, UFA)
Potential Bonuses
Pavelski: $2MM
Duchene was a late entrant to the market which likely didn’t help his cause but he landed in a good spot here. In a more secondary role, he could thrive and in doing so, give the Stars some surplus value while better positioning himself for a longer-term agreement next summer. Smith struggled last season between Boston and Washington, even clearing waivers at one point in December thanks to his contract. He’s an interesting fit in the sense that he’s not a prototypical bottom-six forward but will be in that role here. A bounce-back showing could give him a small bump next summer but not to the level of the $3.25MM he made before.
Pavelski’s fourth season with the Stars was almost as good as his third, one that saw him set career highs in assists and points. He came up a bit shy of the point total but still finished third in scoring in a year that saw him turn 39. Pavelski almost certainly left money on the table to sign what should be a team-friendly extension back in January as let’s face it, the market for a center producing close to a point per game is much higher than his guaranteed salary. The structure of this agreement is notable as the bonuses are very easy to achieve – $1MM at 10 games played and another $1MM at 20. Doing it that way allows Dallas to squeak him in on the books this year with his base salary but it’s safe to say they’re heading for an overage penalty.
Dallas basically had to push Dellandrea to take a one-year deal to make things work cap-wise. He’ll have arbitration rights next summer though and if he progresses as expected, his AAV should shoot past the $2MM mark. Steel has been non-tendered for two straight years now but gives Dallas some extra depth down the middle. However, it’s clear he’ll need to find another gear offensively if he wants a shot at a seven-figure deal as his market value the last two summers hasn’t been strong.
Hakanpaa is the type of physical depth defender many teams covet and it doesn’t hurt that he’s a right-hand shot. Dallas actually used him on the second pairing with some regularity last season and if he’s in that role again, doubling his current price tag won’t be out of the question, especially after seeing Radko Gudas get three years at $4MM per season earlier this summer. Bayruether returns after spending a few years with Columbus and will push for the seventh spot on the depth chart. This is a spot on their salary hierarchy that will need to stay near the minimum moving forward.
Wedgewood had his best season, albeit in a relatively limited role for a backup by current standards as he made just 21 appearances. His track record isn’t strong (or long) enough to command the type of money that top backups on the open market get but another showing like last year could push him closer to the $2MM mark if he looks for top dollar. Staying in Dallas, however, would likely mean needing to leave some money on the table.
Signed Through 2024-25
F Jamie Benn ($9.5MM, UFA)
F Evgenii Dadonov ($2.25MM, UFA)
F Radek Faksa ($3.25MM, UFA)
D Joel Hanley ($787.5K, UFA)
D Esa Lindell ($5.8MM, UFA)
G Jake Oettinger ($4MM, RFA)
D Ryan Suter ($3.65MM, UFA)
After seeing his production drop sharply over the last three years, Benn had a resurgent campaign, finishing second on the team in scoring. It wouldn’t be fair to expect that to happen again – and the deal is still very much above-market – but it’s not quite the anchor it was long ago. Faksa’s offense just hasn’t come around. He’s a strong defensive center that’s above average at the faceoff dot but someone in that type of role should be making about a million less. Gone are the days of the argument of offensive potential so it’s tough to see him beating this contract in 2025. Dadonov did well after coming over in a late-season trade but his struggles with Montreal hurt his value, allowing the Stars to sneak in with a deal that’s more than reasonable for a middle-six option.
Lindell is another player whose scoring didn’t come around quite as much as Dallas would have hoped for. He’s still capable of logging big minutes and anchoring the penalty kill so they’re still getting a reasonable return but they’re probably expecting a bit more from him and he’ll need to produce more if he wants to land a big pay increase two years from now. They also were probably expecting a bit more from Suter, a player who shouldn’t be logging 20 minutes a night at this stage of his career but was pressed into that spot frequently. It’s hard to see him signing another contract at this point – he’ll be 40 when this deal is up – but if he does, it should be for considerably less. Hanley has been a depth defender for the last few years and will continue to hover around the NHL minimum moving forward unless he can establish himself as a full-time third-pairing player.
Oettinger’s bridge contract already looks like a bargain as he was one of the top goalies in the league last season. The backloaded structure guarantees an increase to $4.8MM for his qualifying offer (which also carries arbitration eligibility) but if he has two more years like this, he’ll be well-positioned to become one of the top-paid netminders in the league.
Signed Through 2025-26
F Mason Marchment ($4.5MM, UFA)
F Jason Robertson ($7.75MM, RFA)
Robertson is on the non-traditional bridge contract, a four-year agreement that bought out only RFA years while still having team control when it expires. At that point, it’s going to take a substantial offer to get him on a long-term agreement. Robertson will be owed a $9.3MM qualifying offer (plus arbitration eligibility) but it will take a million or two more if he continues on his current trajectory. Marchment, a late-bloomer, took a step back last season while dealing with injuries once again. There’s a power forward premium in his deal but they’d still like to see him closer to the 40-point mark to get a good return on this deal and set him up for a similar-sized agreement in 2026.
Summer Synopsis: Dallas Stars
Over the last four seasons, the Dallas Stars have had a tumultuous run in the Western Conference. Now four years ago, the team made a run to the 2020 Stanley Cup Finals, only to miss the playoffs entirely in the shortened 2020-21 season. The year after, the Stars would barely reach the playoffs, clinching the second wild-card spot. Rebounding nicely, Dallas would return to the Western Conference Finals in the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, earning big series wins against the Minnesota Wild and Seattle Kraken, losing to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion, the Vegas Golden Knights.
With limited cap space this summer, the team had little finances to work with to notably improve the club, but many would argue they did the absolute best with what they had available to them. Carrying young stars such as Miro Heiskanen, Jason Robertson, and Roope Hintz on their roster, mixed with veterans such as Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, and Joe Pavelski, the Stars are poised to once again reach solid playoff positioning, and may even be an under-the-radar team to fully contend for the Stanley Cup.
Draft
2-61: D Tristan Bertucci, Flint (OHL)
3-79: F Brad Gardiner, Ottawa (OHL)
4-125: D Aram Minnetian, USNTDP (USHL)
5-157: G Arno Tiefensee, Adler Mannheim (DEL)
6-189: F Angus MacDonell, Mississauga (OHL)
7-221: F Sebastian Bradshaw, Elite Hockey Academy (AYHL)
Thanks to the trade that landed Nils Lundkvist in Texas, the Stars were without their first-round pick for the 2023 NHL Draft. Their first selection in Bertucci falls under the umbrella of ’the rich getting richer’. Last season, although having standout goaltender Jake Oettinger between the pipes, Dallas employed one of the best defensive cores in the league. By almost every metric, the team excelled in keeping the puck out of the net, and with Bertucci being the strong shutdown defender he is, he should see his game translate very well to the Stars’ style of play.
The most under-the-radar selection by the team would be their sixth-round pick in MacDonell. At the OHL trade deadline, MacDonell was acquired by the Mississauga Steelheads from the Sarnia Sting, where he would score 17 goals and 7 assists in 31 games after the move. More importantly; however, is that MacDonell proved to be an exceptional player in clutch situations. In six OHL playoff games for the Steelheads, MacDonell would score three goals and two assists, as well as scoring one goal and four assists in seven games for the Canadian U18 National Team during the 2023 World Junior Championships.
Key UFA Signings
D Gavin Bayreuther (one year, $775K)
F Matt Duchene (one year, $3MM)
D Derrick Pouliot (one year, $775K)*
F Craig Smith (one year, $1MM)
F Sam Steel (one year, $850K)
*-denotes two-way contract
Far and away the biggest addition to the Stars roster comes in adding Duchene to a one-year deal this summer. Given that Dallas’ first line is largely set, Duchene should factor in nicely to the team’s second line. Only scoring 56 points as a top forward for the Nashville Predators during the 2022-23 season, Duchene is only one year removed from a 44-goal, 86-point performance. Given the team’s performance in Nashville last season, most of Duchene’s performance stats did drop, but only subtly. Given this, Duchene should rebound nicely, especially with more talent surrounding him in Dallas. 
Steel represents one of the more interesting free-agent additions this offseason. He had the best season of his career last year in Minnesota, scoring 10 goals and 18 assists in 65 games played, but it is difficult to see where exactly he fits in Dallas’ lineup. He did carry solid possession numbers last year for the Wild, but aside from that, does not impress much in the way of defensive metrics, meaning he may not be a solid option for a bottom-six role in the Stars’ roster. He could factor into the mix given an injury to the team’s middle-six, but Steel appears destined for an extra forward spot this upcoming season.
Key RFA Signings
F Nicholas Caamano (one-year, $775K)*
F Riley Damiani (one-year, $775K)*
F Ty Dellandrea (one-year, $900K)
F Scott Reedy (one-year, $775K)*
*-denotes two-way contract
After a couple of seasons spent primarily with Dallas’ AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, Dellandrea burst onto the scene during the 2022-23 NHL season. In 82 games played, the young forward would score nine goals and 19 assists, good for ninth on the team as a 23-year-old. As his time on ice inevitably increases from above 14 minutes a game, Dellandrea will also see his scoring output increase, even though his other talents are the key for the Stars.
His possession numbers have left a lot to be desired, but Dellandrea’s defensive metrics are inspiring in a middle-six role for an NHL player. Last season, his oiSV% reached a total of 90.6%, and he was also able to contribute heavily to the team’s physical outlook, throwing 125 hits over the year. Given their current roster, it is difficult to see Dellandrea earning a top-six role this season, but as he improves, the Stars become a deeper team overall.
Key Departures
F Max Domi (Toronto, one-year, $3MM)
F Rhett Gardner (Philadelphia, two-year, $1.55MM)
D Benjamin Gleason (Edmonton, one-year, $775K)
F Luke Glendening (Tampa Bay, two-year, $1.6MM)
F Joel Kiviranta (Colorado, PTO)
D Ryan Shea (Pittsburgh, one-year, $775K)
F Marian Studenic (Seattle, one-year, $775K)
F Riley Tufte (Colorado, one-year, $775K)
G Dylan Wells (Nashville, PTO)
Unfortunately, the Stars did lose one of their top playoff performers last year in Domi. Although not performing incredibly well after the team acquired him at the trade deadline from the Chicago Blackhawks, Domi did score three goals and 10 assists in 19 playoff games for Dallas, which would land him at fourth best on the team. Thankfully, and especially with the addition of Duchene to the top of their forward group, Domi should be easily replaceable moving forward.
Glendening will be a bit harder to replace, but not for the same reasons. Not known much for his offensive performance, Glendening excels tremendously in the faceoff circle. During his two-year stint in Dallas, Glendening would finish with an absurd 58.9% faceoff win percentage, one of the best in the league. Both Benn and Radek Faksa do well in the dot, but Dallas did not do much to replace Glendening in the dot this summer.
Salary Cap Outlook
Dallas is one of the highest-paying teams in the league, clocking in at 11th overall in spending heading into the 2023-24 NHL season. The team still has four years and $39.4MM left on Seguin’s contract but does not have much to worry about for next year. Most of the team’s young talent is signed into 2025-26 or beyond, meaning as much as they are spending, they won’t need to spend more in the near future.
There are some fringe players, such as Faksa and Ryan Suter who could be considered ’overpaid’, but they will conclude before the Stars need to dole out any long-term contracts to some of their younger stars. For the best interest of the team, it would likely benefit Dallas to shed a bit of space before the trade deadline, therefore easily fitting in whatever needs they deem needed for a 2024 playoff push.
Key Questions
What To Do With Seguin? : Still averaging around 50 points a season, Seguin no longer is worth the massive contract extension the Stars gave him shortly before the 2018-19 season. He has stayed relatively healthy and is more than capable of scoring 20 goals a season, but Dallas could certainly do better. It will be hard to move Seguin given his $9.85MM AAV, so the team will have to employ him in a way that is most advantageous to their success. Nevertheless, the Stars are moving in a direction, especially given their salary cap situation, where a harder stance on Seguin’s future may need to be taken. 
What Is This Team’s Ceiling?: Managing to make an appearance in two Western Conference Finals and one Stanley Cup Final in the last four years, the Stars have earned a spot as one of the top Stanley Cup contenders heading into the upcoming season. However, are they truly a solid bet to win the Stanley Cup given their current roster makeup? The Colorado Avalanche and Golden Knights are surefire favorites to win the Western Conference next year, and the Eastern Conference posits a world of trouble if the team does indeed make it to the Stanley Cup Final next season. Dallas still appears a player or two away from being a legitimate threat to Lord Stanley’s Cup.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Dallas Stars Sign Jordie Benn To PTO
The Dallas Stars have signed defenseman Jordie Benn to a PTO that will see the 36-year-old join the team at training camp next month. CapFriendly has reported that Benn will be given a chance to earn a contract with the team that he started his NHL career with in 2011-12. The Victoria, British Columbia native is the older brother of Stars captain Jamie Benn who is coming off a bounce back season and has spent his entire 14-year-career with the team.
Jordie is coming off a season in which he struggled to remain in the NHL. Benn signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs in July of 2022 and seemed poised to be their seventh defenseman. However, he struggled with his footspeed and found himself turning the puck over with an alarming frequency. Benn dressed in 12 games for the Leafs and posted just a single goal and one assist. Toronto demoted Benn and he found himself in the AHL for the first time since the 2012-13 season. He fared better with the Toronto Marlies posting two goals and four assists in 23 games but still struggled with his puck handling.
Benn has never been the quickest of skaters, but he isn’t a bad one. However, like most players pushing 40, he has lost a step or two along the way. He doesn’t offer much offensively but he still reads the game well and can contain opponents when the play slows down.
Dallas likely doesn’t have room for Benn to play in the team’s top 6, however, he could crack the Stars lineup as a seventh defenceman. Injuries happen, and as teams have shown over the last few years, it’s never a bad idea to have 8-10 NHL caliber defenceman to rely on in case injuries begin to stack up.
2009 NHL Draft Take Two: Eighth Overall Pick
Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.” Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.
We’re looking back at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now. Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?
The results of our redraft so far are as follows, with their original draft position in parentheses:
1st Overall: Victor Hedman, New York Islanders (2)
2nd Overall: John Tavares, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
3rd Overall: Ryan O’Reilly, Colorado Avalanche (33)
4th Overall: Matt Duchene, Atlanta Thrashers (3)
5th Overall: Chris Kreider, Los Angeles Kings (19)
6th Overall: Nazem Kadri, Phoenix Coyotes (7)
7th Overall: Mattias Ekholm, Toronto Maple Leafs (102)
With Toronto’s initial selection being plucked by the Coyotes one pick prior, PHR voters opted to give the Leafs a defenseman, doling out the biggest riser so far in Ekholm. It was a rather sizable win for the Swedish defender, earning 31% of the PHR reader vote, coming in ahead of second-place Evander Kane, who’s now fallen at least four spots from his original fourth-overall billing. He received 19% of the vote.
Like most defenders, especially those drafted in the later rounds, it took Ekholm a few years to develop into a full-time NHLer. After playing single-digit game totals the previous two seasons, Ekholm played 62 contests for Nashville in 2013-14 as a 23-year-old, losing his rookie status. It was another couple of years until Ekholm transformed into the top-four fixture we know today, however. That came in the 2015-16 campaign when he eclipsed the 20-minutes-per-game average for the first time and notched a career-high eight goals, 27 assists and 35 points while playing in all 82 games.
Since then, Ekholm has been a model of consistency, logging heavy minutes while posting consistent point totals and possession metrics. His career-best season came in the 2018-19 campaign, when his 44 points, +27 rating and 23:22 average ice time per game earned him some Norris Trophy consideration, finishing tenth in voting that year. The Predators certainly got their value out of Ekholm, finally moving on from him earlier this year after 12 years and 719 games. He’s now part of perhaps the most skilled core in the league with the Edmonton Oilers, projecting to play a crucial role in helping develop young Evan Bouchard as his defense partner.
Now, we move to the Dallas Stars at eighth overall – a pick on which they’d certainly love a mulligan. They had the only complete whiff of the top ten, selecting speedy winger Scott Glennie from the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings. It looked like a fine pick at the time – he’d just rattled off 70 points in 55 games during his draft year. His development stunted once he turned pro in 2011, however, and he would play just one NHL game for the Stars in the 2011-12 season.
There are a handful of solid options for the Stars to pick from here. Kane is still on the board, as mentioned earlier, as are fifth-overall pick Brayden Schenn and sixth-overall pick Oliver Ekman-Larsson. PHR readers, tell us: Who would you take from the remaining crop at eighth overall? Vote in our poll below:
If you can’t access the poll above, click here to vote.
Multiple Teams Showing Interest In Patrick Kane
While former Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers winger Patrick Kane may be the best UFA left on the market, no one expects him to sign a deal in the coming days. That’s because he’s still recovering from a hip resurfacing procedure he had done in June, which puts him on track to be cleared for game action sometime between October and December.
Speaking on NHL Network earlier this week, The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta gave various updates on the 34-year-old, including three teams that had displayed “significant” interest earlier in the summer: the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars and New York Islanders. Pagnotta also mentioned the Boston Bruins as a potential suitor but to a lesser degree.
Undoubtedly, teams will want to watch him practice before extending him a contract, even if it’s just a one-year pact, as expected. A significant hip procedure for an athlete as late into their career as Kane is no small factor in what his game may look like after he’s recovered. Pagnotta believes there should be clarity on Kane’s health status and a more specific potential return date in “four to five weeks,” which could also be a target date for Kane signing rumors heating up in earnest.
Out of all the suitors Pagnotta mentioned, Colorado has made sense for Kane since the offseason began and still does today. Colorado projects to have four new faces in their middle six next season (Ross Colton, Jonathan Drouin, Ryan Johansen, and Miles Wood), but their scoring depth remains rather thin. Few would argue Kane is anywhere close to his prime at this stage in his career, especially coming off hip surgery, but he could still allow the team to reliably let Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen drive the top two lines separately. Playing alongside MacKinnon could also very well jumpstart Kane’s production to the point where he’s providing rather immense value on what’s sure to be an already affordable contract.
As things stand, Colorado also has the most favorable salary cap situation out of the three major contenders Pagnotta mentioned. They’re projected to have $2.025MM in cap space with captain Gabriel Landeskog on long-term injured reserve, per CapFriendly. Meanwhile, the Stars and Islanders are both between $300K and $500K over the $83.5MM Upper Limit and will need to run a 22-player roster to be compliant, at least to start the season, assuming no further moves are made.
It’s hard to imagine a fit for Kane in Dallas, too. Their top nine is truly stacked, boasting one of the best lines in hockey followed by a combination of players like Jamie Benn, Matt Duchene, Wyatt Johnston, and Tyler Seguin occupying lines 2 and 3. While Kane may be a true upgrade on someone like Evgenii Dadonov, Dallas signed Dadonov to a two-year, $2.25MM AAV extension this offseason. That’s not money usually given to a player slated for a fourth-line role, especially for someone who relies on point production to maintain efficacy.
The Islanders would make much more sense from a roster construction standpoint if they can make the money work. Wingers like Pierre Engvall and Kyle Palmieri are fine middle-six wingers, but they’re not ideal second-line flanks for a team still boasting championship aspirations with Mathew Barzal, Bo Horvat and Ilya Sorokin locked in for the long haul to rather hefty deals.
Regarding Boston, Kane may not be the top-six center they so desperately need, but he’d be a gigantic boon to a middle-six wing group that now looks awfully thin outside of Jake DeBrusk. Boston signed another veteran, James van Riemsdyk, to hopefully add a solid net-front punch, but after posting just 29 points in 61 games last season, expectations shouldn’t be high for the 34-year-old to be a high-end point-producing factor on the second or third line.
What may complicate fitting a contract for Kane under the cap is his lack of eligibility for performance bonuses. He’s still a year away from being eligible for a 35+ contract containing performance bonuses, and he didn’t miss significant time in-season with the hip injury. It removes the option for a team to give Kane a lower cap hit and compensate him more in performance bonuses, allowing them to deal with the after-effects in 2024-25 if they can’t fit the bonuses under their year-end cap hit.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
August Free Agency Update: Central Division
As even most mid-tier free agents are now off the market, it’s a good time to look at how each team has fared on the free agent market this offseason. We’re publishing a list of one-way signings (i.e., likelier to start the season on the NHL roster) by team, per division, to keep you updated on NHL player movement since the new league year began on July 1.
Asterisked players denote a restricted free agent. Double-asterisked players denote the contract starts in the 2024-25 season. Next up is the Central Division. You can check out the list of Atlantic Division signings here and the list of Metropolitan Division signings here.
Arizona Coyotes
F Jason Zucker (one year, $5.3MM cap hit)
D Mathew Dumba (one year, $3.9MM cap hit)
F Alexander Kerfoot (two years, $3.5MM cap hit)
*F Matias Maccelli (three years, $3.425MM cap hit)
F Nick Bjugstad (two years, $2.1MM cap hit)
*F Jack McBain (two years, $1.599MM cap hit)
D Troy Stecher (one year, $1.1MM cap hit)
Chicago Blackhawks
*F Philipp Kurashev (two years, $2.25MM cap hit)
F Ryan Donato (two years, $2MM cap hit)
Colorado Avalanche
*F Ross Colton (four years, $4MM cap hit)
*D Bowen Byram (two years, $3.85MM cap hit)
F Miles Wood (six years, $2.5MM cap hit)
F Jonathan Drouin (one year, $825K cap hit)
F Andrew Cogliano (one year, 35+ contract, $825K cap hit)
D Jack Johnson (one year, 35+ contract, $775K cap hit)
*F Ben Meyers (one year, $775K cap hit)
Dallas Stars
F Matt Duchene (one year, $3MM cap hit)
F Craig Smith (one year, $1MM cap hit)
*F Ty Dellandrea (one year, $900K cap hit)
F Sam Steel (one year, $850K cap hit)
D Joel Hanley (two years, $787.5K cap hit)
D Gavin Bayreuther (one year, $775K cap hit)
Minnesota Wild
*G Filip Gustavsson (three years, $3.75MM cap hit)
*F Brandon Duhaime (one year, $1.1MM cap hit)
Nashville Predators
F Ryan O’Reilly (four years, $4.5MM cap hit)
F Gustav Nyquist (two years, $3.185MM cap hit)
D Luke Schenn (three years, $2.75MM cap hit)
*F Cody Glass (two years, $2.5MM cap hit)
*D Alexandre Carrier (one year, $2.5MM cap hit)
F Denis Gurianov (one year, $850K cap hit)
St. Louis Blues
*F Alexey Toropchenko (two years, $1.25MM cap hit)
F Mackenzie MacEachern (two years, $775K cap hit)
F Oskar Sundqvist (one year, $775K cap hit)
Winnipeg Jets
*F Gabriel Vilardi (two years, $3.438MM cap hit)
F Vladislav Namestnikov (two years, $2MM cap hit)
G Laurent Brossoit (one year, $1.75MM cap hit)
*D Dylan Samberg (two years, $1.4MM cap hit)
*F Morgan Barron (two years, $1.35MM cap hit)
*F Rasmus Kupari (two years, $1MM cap hit)
G Collin Delia (one year, $775K cap hit)
F Jeffrey Viel (one year, $775K cap hit)
Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.