As first reported by Max Bultman of The Athletic and later confirmed by TSN’s Chris Johnston, the Detroit Red Wings are finalizing a one-year contract with veteran forward Patrick Kane. A few moments later, Johnston shared that Kane’s next deal will have a $3MM base salary with an additional $2.5MM available in performance bonuses.
More to come…
The Detroit Red Wings are making quick work of getting some of their depth players back for next season. According to a team announcement, the Red Wings have signed forward Jonatan Berggren to a one-year, $1.825MM contract for the 2025-26 NHL season.
Berggren has been an interesting depth scorer for the Red Wings over the last three years. By all available evidence, Detroit is still trying to determine what exactly they have in the young Swede.
He got off to a hot start in his professional career, scoring 21 goals and 64 points in 70 games for the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins in 2021-22. In the early stages of their rebuild, Berggren was recalled to help the fledgling Red Wings in 2022-23. Typically in a third-line role, Berggren had a quality year as a tertiary scorer, putting up 15 goals and 28 points in 67 games. He had some prominent defensive shortcomings, but that’s to be expected of a young winger.
Interestingly enough, Berggren didn’t earn a spot on the roster out of training camp the following September. He put together another quality year with AHL Grand Rapids, scoring 24 goals and 56 points in 53 games. Despite his success in the AHL, Detroit used Berggren only 12 times during the 2023-24 season, and rumors about trade availability began to circulate.
The rumors persisted until last September, when the Red Wings signed Berggren to a one-year contract worth $825K. Nearly replicating his performance from two years ago, Berggren scored 12 goals and 24 points in 75 games, averaging 12:59 of ice time per game. Despite his -13 rating, the Uppsala, Sweden native showed serious improvements in his defense, achieving a 91.1% on-ice save percentage at even strength.
Given the short-term, low-risk contract, Detroit likely wants Berggren to remain in a similar role next year. If he can replicate his defensive output and score 30 or more points next season, he’ll be a valuable bottom-six scorer for the Red Wings.
The Red Wings announced Monday they’ve signed defenseman Albert Johansson to a two-year, $2.25MM contract worth $1.125MM per season. He was set to be an RFA tomorrow. PuckPedia reports he’ll earn $1.1MM base salary in 2025-26 and $1.15MM in 2026-27, giving him a $1.15MM qualifying offer as an RFA upon expiry in 2027.
Detroit was essentially forced into giving Johansson, a 2019 second-round pick, a roster spot this season to avoid the risk of losing him on waivers. This past season was his third in North America, spending all of 2022-23 and 2023-24 on assignment to AHL Grand Rapids. After posting 36 points in 119 games there, the Wings deemed the mobile Swede’s game valuable enough to warrant an NHL audition.
Johansson ended up getting plenty of reps as the Wings rotated him in with struggling veterans like Erik Gustafsson, Justin Holl, and Jeff Petry. The 6’0″ lefty made 61 appearances in his rookie season, scoring three goals and nine points with a -11 rating while averaging 16:22 per game. His possession impacts raise some cause for concern, combined with that rating. Despite seeing semi-advantageous offensive deployment at even strength, Detroit only controlled 48.0% of shot attempts and 45.5% of expected goals with Johansson on the ice.
He’s still only 24 with room to grow, though. Assuming the Wings add at least one name on the blue line, he’ll continue to serve as a No. 6/7 option next season at an affordable price tag. If he can really force his way ahead of Gustafsson and Holl on the depth chart, he might be able to force a waiver placement for one of the vets. Detroit has done so successfully before with Holl, who still carries a $3.4MM cap hit through next season.
It appears to be a fair contract for both the player and the team, at least. Despite the lack of scoring and strong possession metrics, Johansson’s usage alone earned him a bump on his previous league-minimum salary. Still, if he doesn’t take a significant step forward in 2025-26, there’s no legitimate risk on the Red Wings’ side.
The Wild have acquired winger Vladimir Tarasenko from the Red Wings in exchange for future considerations, Detroit announced on X. It does not appear the Red Wings are retaining any of Tarasenko’s $4.75MM cap hit for the final season of his contract.
Tarasenko had an eight-team approved trade list as part of the two-year, $9.5MM deal he signed with the Wings in free agency last summer. It’s not clear if Minnesota was on it – he may have waived the clause to facilitate a trade after an incredibly trying lone season in Hockeytown. The two-time Stanley Cup champion and All-Star couldn’t hang onto a consistent top-six role with the Wings, and his 11 goals and 33 points in 80 games amounted to the worst scoring pace of his 13-year NHL career.
The Wild are betting on a rebound and will essentially complete this deal in lieu of making a free-agent addition on the wing tomorrow, preferring to land a more conservative short-term commitment from Tarasenko instead of making a long-term splash on the open market.
Tarasenko will return to the league’s Central Division, where he previously spent 11 seasons and won a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues. Tarasenko was perhaps the Blues’ best prospect in the 2010s. He joined the team via a draft-day trade in 2010 that sent high-end selection David Rundblad to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for the 16th-overall pick. St. Louis used that to reel in the top Russian prospect that year, kicking off a decade of close attention surrounding Tarasenko.
The bulky right-winger continued on in Russia’s KHL for three seasons following his draft year. He reached point-per-game scoring in the latter two years, with 70 points in 70 games, before making a move to the NHL partway through the 2012-13 season. Tarasenko’s travel to the United States was closely followed, and fan excitement was vindicated when he scored two goals in his NHL debut. Tarasenko went on to pot 10 points through his first eight NHL games, en route to a season-long total of 19 points in 38 games.
Tarasenko immediately carved out his role in the NHL with that hot start. He’d be promoted to the Blues’ top-six in 2013-14 and began a long streak of routinely rivaling the team’s scoring title. Tarasenko scored at least 30 goals and 60 points in six of his first nine years in the NHL, with his only misses coming on the back of inexperience or long-term injury. His career peaked with 40 goals and 74 points in the 2015-16 season, then again in 2021-22 when he scored 34 goals and 82 points in 75 games.
Tarasenko moved on from the Blues partway through the 2022-23 season. He’s appeared with four different clubs in the three seasons since, and struggled to find the same flashy scoring he boasted in a Blues jersey. Twenty-three goals and 55 points scored in 76 games last season stand as the most Tarasenko has scored away from St. Louis, though he tumbled all the way down to 11 goals and 33 points in 80 games this year.
It is on the heels of that down year — the lowest-scoring season in Tarasenko’s career, excluding injury-riddled years — that the flashy Russian will move to the Minnesota Wild. He shot at an abysmal 8.3 shooting percentage last year, over four percent lower than his career-long average of 12.6 percent. That mark should give Wild fans some hope that Tarasenko can find his way back to the scoresheet with a change of scenery. He’ll slot into a comfortable role on the team’s third line behind Mats Zuccarello and Matt Boldy, though a hot hand could push him back into the Wild’s top six. That upside, and Tarasenko’s career-long average of 30 goals and 65 points a season, will make him an exciting upside bet. And with only future considerations headed the other way, and a manageable $4.75MM cap hit, Minnesota will take on that upside bet with little risk.
As for the Red Wings, they free up that space and now have over $23MM in cap space heading into free agency tomorrow, per PuckPedia. With Patrick Kane as their only pending free agent expected to command a significant payday, they’ll have the flexibility to match the highest offers for their desired targets. They’ll presumably be looking to add at least one high-profile defender to pair with Simon Edvinsson or Moritz Seider. The Wild, meanwhile, still have $13MM to spend this summer.
PHR’s Gabriel Foley contributed significantly to this article.
Photo courtesy of Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports.
The Detroit Red Wings are set to acquire goaltender John Gibson from the Anaheim Ducks, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Friedman later added that the return will be goaltender Petr Mrazek and two draft picks. The deal was first reported by NHL.com’s Kevin Weekes. There will be no salary retention, and the acquired draft picks are not part of the 2025 draft, per Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic.
The Red Wings have confirmed the trade. They will send a 2027 second-round pick and 2026 fourth-round pick to Anaheim alongside Mrazek.
This move stands as a monumental day for the Ducks franchise. Gibson was a cornerstone piece of their club for much of the 2010’s, and earned the lion’s share of starts from the 2016-17 season through the 2023-24 campaign. He set the record for most games played by a Ducks goaltender early into the latter season, taking it away from Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Gibson also ranks second in all-time wins in Ducks history, with 204 – just two behind Giguere’s record.
Gibson was once among the league’s most consistent, and dominant, goalies. He broke into the league as a red-hot rookie, setting a .920 save percentage through 40 games of his rookie season – enough to rank seventh in both Calder Trophy and Vezina Trophy voting. Gibson also took home the William Jennings Trophy with goalie partner Frederik Andersen that season. He went on to post a save percentage north of .915 in each of his first four full years in the NHL – including a career-high .926 through 60 games of the 2017-18 campaign. He also had a statement performance during Anaheim’s run to the 2017 Western Conference Finals, posting a .918 through 16 games.
Gibson continued to play north of 50 games each season through the 2019-20 campaign. In the first six years of his career, he combined for a .918 save percentage and 139-103-33 record through 287 games. But he couldn’t hold onto his consistency through a new decade, and began to slip nearly right as the 2020s rolled around. Gibson posted a .903 in 35 games of the shortened 2020-21 season, and has since recorded three more seasons with a save percentage below .905.
He seemed fully lost at sea last season, when a .888 save percentage through 46 games ultimately resulted in him losing the Ducks’ starting job to up-and-coming prospect Lukas Dostal. Gibson fell firmly into the backup role, and maintained that standing through this season.
But less responsibility may have been the right call for the now-31-year-old Gibson. He surged back to good effect this season, posting a 11-11-2 record and .911 save percentage through 29 games. He shined as a flashy compliment when Dostal was struggling, and gave Anaheim back the consistency in their net that they’ve long been known for.
It’s with that momentum that Gibson will enter the Red Wings’ system. He’s entering a true crowd, with both Cam Talbot and top prospect Sebastian Cossa signed through next season. The Red Wings also have Alex Lyon and Jack Campbell headed for unrestricted free agency. Gibson will step in as the goaltender with the priciest salary and longest term of the bunch – set to carry a $6.4MM cap hit through the next two seasons, while both Talbot and Cossa will need new deals next year. That fact could earn Gibson a starting role headed into the 2025-26 season, though it seems much more reasonable to bet on him being the consistent veteran manning the backup role while Cossa continues to climb into the NHL.
On the flip side, Anaheim will receive veteran Mrazek to fill their vacant backup role. Mrazek was the Chicago Blackhawks’ starter at the onset of the season – a role he’s filled since 2022. He wasn’t much sharp in Chicago, posting a 38-72-9 record and .899 save percentage through 128 games played. To his credit, though, he faced an absolute barrage of shots – averaging 31 shots against each game. Mrazek was dealt to the Red Wings at the Trade Deadline, and stood up to a reduced role much better – with a 2-2-0 record and .902 save percentage in five games. He’s a veteran of 13 NHL seasons and 428 games. In that span, he’s recorded a 180-176-40 record and .906 save percentage. Mrazek seems well beyond his golden days, but should still offer fine play situated behind starter Dostal.
Photo courtesy of Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports.
The Detroit Red Wings have signed defenseman William Lagesson to a two-year extension, per a team release. Lagesson spent the bulk of his season serving as the Red Wings’ seventh defenseman watching from the press box. He appeared in just 30 games on the full year: seven in the NHL and 23 in the AHL. He scored one assist in the NHL and nine points in the minor leagues.
Lagesson, 29, has fallen into the rut of a journeyman, depth defenseman over the last four seasons. He was originally a fourth-round draft pick to the Edmonton Oilers in 2014, and made his NHL debut with the club in the 2019-20 campaign. He filled a minimal NHL role through the 2021-22 campaign, ultimately totaling six assists, 22 penalty minutes, and a minus-three through his first 57 NHL games. After splitting much of the 2021-22 campaign split between major and minor leagues, the Oilers opted to send Lagesson and two draft picks – including the pick used to select Lane Hutson – to the Montreal Canadiens in a deal for defenseman Brett Kulak at the 2022 Trade Deadline.
Lagesson entered unrestricted free agency in the following summer, opening the door for him to sign a one-year, league-minimum contract with the Carolina Hurricanes. He spent his full time in the Hurricanes organization with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, where he managed a career-high 32 points and 46 penalty minutes in 65 games. He re-entered free agency in the following summer and landed with the Toronto Maple Leafs, who returned him to a depth NHL role for the start of the 2023-24 season. He was placed on waivers in March of that season, and claimed by the Anaheim Ducks, who continued his NHL deployment. That pattern repeated itself this last season – with a league-minimum contract signed last summer, and a minimal role in Detroit this season.
A two year contract will be Lagesson’s longest since his three-year, entry-level contract signed in 2017. He may not have made too much of an impact through the 2024-25 season, and may still be looking for his first NHL goal after netting 12 points in 107 career games – but Detroit is clearly confident in his ability to continue serving as a depth defender worth keeping around.
A few hours ago, the Detroit Red Wings announced that they’ve re-signed pending restricted free agent defenseman Antti Tuomisto to a one-year contract. Detroit has yet to share Tuomisto’s salary for the 2025-26 season, but it’ll likely be a $775K, league minimum deal.
It wasn’t all that long ago that Tuomisto was regarded as one of the better prospects in the Red Wings’ pipeline. Detroit drafted the Pori, Finland native with the 35th overall selection of the 2019 NHL Draft from Ässät U20 of the U20 SM-liiga. One year after being drafted, Tuomisto scored 15 goals and 49 points in 48 games for the same team with a +18 rating.
The noise he created overseas earned him some recruitment offers from the NCAA, and he eventually committed to the University of Denver for the 2020-21 season. Unfortunately, injuries and limited ice time led to a disappointing college experience. Despite winning the National Championship with the Pioneers in the 2021-22 NCAA season, Tuomisto finished his collegiate career with eight goals and 44 points in 117 games with a +6 rating.
Leaving after his sophomore year, Tuomisto returned home to Finland, this time with the Liiga’s TPS. He rebounded well, scoring five goals and 20 points in 60 games with a -6 rating. Feeling he had turned a corner after spending another year in Finland, the Red Wings signed Tuomisto to a two-year entry-level contract after his season concluded.
His first year with the team’s AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, wasn’t nearly as poor as his time in the NCAA, but Detroit was likely hoping for more. He scored five goals and 17 points in 50 games, and even spent some time with the organization’s ECHL affiliate, the Toledo Walleye. In Tuomisto’s defense, the Griffins were a relatively low-scoring team during the 2023-24 campaign and didn’t generate much offense from the blue line.
Fortunately, he took multiple steps in the right direction this past season. Leading the team’s defense in scoring, Tuomisto finished the 2024-25 campaign with three goals and 27 points in 67 games. Still, if Tuomisto expects to make the jump to the NHL anytime soon, he’ll want to increase his scoring efficiency.
In the NHL, defensemen typically have a shooting percentage ranging from 4% to 7%, though some may fall outside this range. Given that Tuomisto finished the 2024-25 AHL season with a 2.8% shooting percentage, that won’t be enough to cut it at the top level if he continues shooting at such a high volume. The Red Wings are expected to have some turnover on their blue line this summer, but it remains to be seen if Tuomisto will be a part of that transition.
Detroit Red Wings 2023 sixth-round selection goalie Rudy Guimond is no longer committed to Yale University, per Mark Divver of NHL.com.
The Moncton Wildcats, Guimond’s QMJHL team, also announced his return. Moncton won the Q’s championship this season and will now have their star goalie back in the fold. The 20-year-old Guimond started last season in the USHL with the Cedar Rapids Roughriders, but struggled mightily, going 1-5 with an .887 save percentage. He then joined the Moncton Wildcats, where he turned the tide entirely, finishing the regular season with a perfect 16-0 record and a .940 save percentage. Carrying that momentum into the playoffs, he posted an 8-1 record, leading the team to their third championship.
Moncton’s general manager and director of hockey operations Taylor MacDougall said, “We are thrilled Rudy has chosen to return to Moncton. He was an integral part of our group’s success last season and now he has the opportunity to establish himself as one of the most impactful goaltenders in the CHL. Rudy has showcased elite composure and consistency. His decision to return to Moncton speaks to his trust in the process and desire to continue to improve under our goaltending coach, Antoine Samuel.”
Guimond’s tenure with the Wildcats wasn’t merely impressive—it was historic. He secured victories in his first 24 starts, setting a new league record, before experiencing his first defeat in Game 4 of the QMJHL Final against Rimouski. The 20-year-old is listed at 6’3, the type of size coveted by NHL teams. He sits as one of the Red Wings’ top goaltending prospects, joining the likes of Sebastian Cossa, Michigan State University’s Trey Augustine, and Michal Postava, who recently signed a two-year, entry-level contract after playing for HC Kometa Brno of Czechia’s highest league.
Nicolas Hague’s trade market continues to percolate. The Canadiens, Penguins, and Red Wings have joined the previously reported Flyers in demonstrating interest in the Golden Knights’ pending RFA defenseman’s services, according to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period today. Pagnotta added that the Golden Knights have informed Hague’s camp their focus is on a trade rather than a new contract, although a move is “not a guarantee.”
Hague is an intriguing option for teams looking to add a lefty who can cycle into top-four minutes amid a rather weak UFA market. He would slot in the third tier of available left-shot rearguards if he were old enough for unrestricted free agency, along with names like Brian Dumoulin, Matt Grzelcyk, Ryan Lindgren, and Nate Schmidt. He is, of course, younger than all of those options and, although he’s 26 years old, may still have a bit of room to grow into a steadier second-pairing piece. He’s projected to receive a two-year deal worth north of $2.6MM per season this summer, according to AFP Analytics. While that’s a tad prohibitive for the Golden Knights, who have bigger moves in mind, it won’t be a salary-cap hurdle for nearly every interested party.
The 6’6″ defender was Vegas’ own second-round pick in their inaugural 2017 draft class. Hague has spent his entire career in Nevada, almost exclusively as the left-shot option on their third pairing. Buried on the depth chart for years behind Brayden McNabb and now Noah Hanifin as well, his ice time took a small hit this year, averaging 17 minutes per game following three years of seeing 18-plus per game.
A steady 10-20 point producer, that’s not why teams are interested. He’s a good fringe second-pairing option with PK deployability, size, physicality, and historically strong possession metrics. ’Historically’ is doing some heavy lifting there, though. His two-way play wasn’t particularly adept in 2024-25, at least at even strength. His -4.9% relative shot-attempt share was a career-low, especially considering he received rather even offensive and defensive zone deployment. His control of possession quality (expected goals) also fell below 50% at even strength for the first time in his six-year career.
There’s enough of a track record there for reasonable optimism surrounding a rebound, though. The Ontario native enters the summer with 83 points and a +20 rating in 364 career regular-season games, and he logged 18:34 per night in Vegas’ run to the 2023 Stanley Cup.
Perhaps no team among those mentioned needs a cost-effective player like Hague more than Detroit. Negative-value signings on defense over the past few years have hampered their ability to exit their rebuild, with aging names like Ben Chiarot and Justin Holl incapable of having success in anything above a third-pairing role. Hague, while untested in 20-plus minute deployment, would be a younger, cheaper, and better-skating option than any of those other supplemental pieces behind young core defenders Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson.
There’s also a clear need for Hague’s services in Pittsburgh. While the Penguins are under far less pressure to contend for a playoff spot in 2025-26 than the Red Wings, they simply need more defenders in the system to avoid overdeploying their younger prospects while also ideally having the flexibility to move on from Erik Karlsson and begin winding down Kris Letang’s workload. The Pens need another pickup on top of just Hague to accomplish that, but he’d go a long way toward helping and would immediately become their top left-shot option ahead of a paper-thin group behind him.
Hague would see a more familiar depth role in Montreal if that’s where he ends up. His acquisition is less about shifting him into top-four deployment – Kaiden Guhle, Lane Hutson, and Mike Matheson are all lefties and have that covered. It would be more about flexing enforcer Arber Xhekaj into a No. 6/7 role while having Hague replace him as the everyday left-shot option on their third pairing.