Morning Notes: Berry, Cehlarik, Wagner
Former University of North Dakota head coach Brad Berry is set to be named head coach of the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms, reports Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald. The Phantoms’ previous head coach, Ryan Ward, is expected to join Harvard University as an assistant coach, creating a vacancy for the junior club. The team is set to fill that vacancy with someone who was recently one of the top coaches in college hockey.
Berry, 61, coached North Dakota from 2015-16 through 2024-25. During that tenure, he was named his conference’s coach of the year four times, the NCAA’s coach of the year once. He won one NCAA national championship, four conference regular season titles, and one conference playoff title. While Berry has no previous coaching experience in junior hockey, he was previously an assistant coach at both the AHL and NHL levels.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- Peter Cehlarik, a former Boston Bruins depth forward, has signed a two-year contract with the Växjö Lakers of the SHL. The 30-year-old got into 40 NHL games from 2016 to 2020, and has since spent the last six years in Europe playing in the KHL, Swiss National League, and SHL. The Olympic Bronze Medalist is coming off of a nearly four-year run with Sweden’s Leksands IF, and scored 24 points in 45 SHL games last season as Leksands suffered relegation to the country’s second-tier league, HockeyAllsvenskan.
- Former Los Angeles Kings forward Austin Wagner has signed a one-year contract with the Frankfurt Lions of Germany’s DEL, according to a team announcement. The 29-year-old has played in 178 career NHL games, but has none since 2022-23. Wagner, who scored a career-high 12 goals for the Kings during the 2018-19 season, has spent the last three seasons playing for three different pro clubs. He spent 2023-24 in the SHL with IK Oskarshamn, where he scored 13 points in 34 games and was the SHL’s most penalized player. He spent 2024-25 back in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves, and he played for the KHL’s Shanghai Dragons in 2025-26. Now, he’ll test his luck playing in Germany’s top pro league for the first time.
Morning Notes: Tracey, Toporowski, Schemitsch
2019 Anaheim Ducks first-round pick Brayden Tracey has signed a contract with Blue Devils Weiden, a club in DEL2, the second tier of professional hockey in Germany. The former WHL rookie of the year has spent each of the last two seasons playing in Europe, though he has bounced between a few leagues and teams.
Tracey, who was once considered a top-10 prospect in the Ducks’ system, played three full seasons of professional hockey in North America before crossing over to Europe. His best AHL campaign came in 2021-22, when he scored 31 points in 55 games and earned his first NHL call-up and first NHL game. Tracey began his European career with Jukurit in Liiga, later transferred to Slovan Bratislava in Slovakia, and spent 2025-26 with Mora IK in HockeyAllsvenskan. Now he’s adding a fourth country, and fourth league, in the third year of his European pro career.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- AHL forward Luke Toporowski has decided to begin his own pro career in the European leagues, as he signed a deal with the DEL’s Augsburg Panthers. The 25-year-old former WHL All-Star has spent the last four years as a full-time AHL player. In his rookie season, 2022-23, he scored 15 goals and 29 points in 47 games. He wasn’t able to build on that, but did manage 13 goals and 28 points in 53 games for the Iowa Wild in 2023-24. This past season, he scored eight goals and 16 points in 38 games split between the Hershey Bears and Colorado Eagles.
- 2015 Florida Panthers third-round pick Thomas Schemitsch has changed DEL teams, signing with the Schwenninger Wild Wings. The 6’3″ blueliner has been a steady top-four defenseman in the DEL, and scored 33 points in 52 games in that role last season for Augsburg. A DEL champion from his 2023-24 season with Berlin, Schemitsch has 64 points in 104 career games in Germany, and 103 points from 318 career AHL games.
Morning Notes: Trocheck, Moyle, Kurtz
Veteran forward Vincent Trocheck was traded from the New York Rangers to the Utah Mammoth earlier this month, but just a short while ago, such a trade would not have been possible. According to various media reports, including from Cole Bagley of KSL Sports, Utah was formerly part of Trocheck’s no-trade list, meaning he had the contractual right to block any deal that would send him there.
By the time of this deal, though, Utah was no longer a trade destination Trocheck was protected against. In explaining why he was happy to arrive with the Mammoth during his debut media availability with the club, Trocheck pointed to how owners Ryan and Ashley Smith treat players and invest in club infrastructure, as well as optimism that the Mammoth are close to legitimate Stanley Cup contention.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- The AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins signed winger Nolan Moyle to a one-year, two-way AHL contract. The signing marks Moyle’s return to the Griffins organization. He began the 2025-26 season with the club, playing for its ECHL affiliate, the Toledo Walleye. He bounced between Grand Rapids and Toledo until January 2026, when he left to sign in Austria with EC-KAC. The former Michigan Wolverines captain began his pro career in 2023-24 with the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star, and will look to build on his 2025-26 season, which saw him dress for 16 AHL games.
- Defenseman Jayden Kurtz, who was drafted No. 45 overall by the Anaheim Ducks at last month’s 2026 NHL Entry Draft, has confirmed he will spend the 2026-27 season playing in the USHL with the Chicago Steel. The Wisconsin Badgers commit played in 16 games for the Steel last season but spent most of the campaign with Rogers High in his home state of Minnesota. A 6’3″, 194-pound blueliner, Kurtz was ranked in the third or fourth round by most public-facing scouting outlets, while the Ducks were notably higher on his potential. The Athletic’s Corey Pronman wrote Kurtz “has a legit chance to play games” in the NHL thanks to his athletic tools.
David Kampf Signs With Litvinov In Czechia
According to a team press release, David Kampf is headed overseas.
The 31-year-old forward inked a three-year contract with HC Litvinov in the Czech Extraliga. This comes from an earlier report by Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic. Kampf was included in the trade return to Buffalo from the Washington Capitals, which sent Alex Tuch to the U.S. capital. This move was only to balance the number of contracts going each way, and the Sabres previously did not “have any intent to sign [Kampf].” He was set to hit free agency after a difficult 2025-26 season that saw him begin the season in the AHL, join the Canucks as part of a mutual contract termination, and then play in just two games after being traded to Washington, which, in return, the Canucks received a 2026 sixth-round-pick.
“I’ve been thinking about returning to the Czech Republic for a long time; it was nine demanding years overseas. I felt that the time had come to return home and find a team near where I live. Chomutov plays in the first league, so I decided on Litvínov, which I’ve had a relationship with since childhood, when I went to games there,” said Kampf, translated to English from Czech. “In the NHL, it’s been more of a job for me in recent years. I didn’t really enjoy hockey. I’m looking forward to getting more space here, gaining new momentum, and having fun with hockey again.”
Kampf leaves his NHL career, which saw nine seasons between four teams. Before his 2025-26 campaign, which saw 6 points scored in 40 games between the Canucks and Capitals, he spent four seasons each with the Toronto Maple Leafs (2021-2025) and the Chicago Blackhawks (2017-21). He came to Chicago as an undrafted free agent, signing a two-year ELC before inking another two-year deal at $1MM AAV. He then signed in Toronto for two separate two-year deals, first at a $1.5MM AAV, where he peaked in NHL production with 27 points, one tally better than his 11-goal, 26-point campaign in his final year with Chicago. That earned him his second deal with the Leafs at $2.4MM AAV.
The Jirkov native brings over 500 NHL games of experience back home, including 149 points and 7 playoff points in 35 Stanley Cup playoff games.
Photo Credit: Alan Poizner-Imagn Images
Minor Signings: 07/05/26
Although the overwhelming majority of the heavy lifting is done for much of the league, teams continue to scour the free agent market to address their depth and improve their AHL affiliates. In addition, there are also players deciding to cross the Atlantic and begin professional careers overseas. Today, several recognizable names have signed, and we will continue to update the list throughout the day. Here are today’s minor signings:
- The AHL’s Providence Bruins announced the signings of two forwards to one-year AHL contracts: Wyatt Bongiovanni, Nolan Renwick. Bongiovanni, 26, is a center with 226 games of AHL experience who developed into a legitimate middle-six pivot over the last two seasons on the Belleville Senators. He enjoyed a career year in 2024-25, scoring 22 goals and 33 points in 54 games. He had 12 goals and 25 points in Belleville this past season before a March trade saw him finish out the year on the Hershey Bears. Renwick, 25, is also a center, one who recently concluded his first full season of pro hockey. He scored five points in 43 games for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and also played 28 games (combined regular season and playoffs) in the ECHL.
- Providence also added two defensemen on one-year AHL deals: Max Wanner and Chris Ortiz. Wanner, 23, is actually a re-signing as he has been part of the Bruins organization for the last year and a half, since arriving from the Edmonton Oilers in the Trent Frederic trade. The 2021 seventh-round pick ranked as high as No. 4 in the Oilers’ prospect pool (back in summer 2024, per Alan Mitchell of The Athletic) but has seen his developmental momentum stall. He scored just three points in 29 games for Providence last season and was reassigned to play in the ECHL for the first time in his career. Ortiz, 25, is a left-shot defenseman who has excelled at the ECHL and more recently shown a capability to play in a depth role in the AHL. He’ll give Providence some high-level depth and likely begin as a top blueliner in the ECHL, where he has a career-high scoring pace of 39 points in 45 games.
- Michael Sgarbossa, a former No. 1 center at the AHL level, originally signed a one-year contract to play for Switzerland’s Rapperswil-Jona Lakers. That contract has now been terminated by mutual agreement, with the team’s official release citing personal reasons and a desire to stay in his native Canada. A two-time AHL All-Star and a Calder Cup champion, Sgarbossa left North America to sign in Switzerland last summer, suspending an AHL career that had lasted over 600 games. Sgarbossa was productive in Switzerland, scoring 31 points in 39 games across two clubs: HC Lugano and SC Bern. Now, it’s unclear where Sgarbossa will continue his pro career, though a return to the AHL could be in the cards.
- Former Anaheim Ducks farmhand Jaxsen Wiebe has signed a deal to join HC Presov of Slovakia’s Extraliga. The 24-year-old forward was an undrafted WHL signing by the Ducks organization who has spent the last three seasons playing in the AHL and ECHL. Wiebe has 38 points in 60 ECHL games across those three campaigns, and six points in 36 AHL games. The signing means Wiebe will exit the North American pro ranks and begin his European professional career.
This page will be updated as more signings are announced throughout the day.
Minor Signings: 07/04/26
Although the overwhelming majority of the heavy lifting is done for much of the league, teams continue to scour the free agent market to address their depth and improve their AHL affiliates. In addition, there are also players deciding to cross the Atlantic and begin professional careers overseas. Today, several recognizable names have signed, and we will continue to update the list throughout the day. Here are today’s minor signings:
- The Syracuse Crunch, AHL affiliates of the Tampa Bay Lightning, have signed forward Elliot Desnoyers to a one-year AHL contract. The 24-year-old winger was a fifth-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers at the 2020 NHL draft, and was once one of the team’s more promising prospects. After captaining the QMJHL’s Halifax Mooseheads and landing on Canada’s World Junior Championships team, Desnoyers turned pro in 2022-23 and had a strong rookie season in the Flyers organization. He scored 23 goals and 44 points in 65 AHL games, earning a call-up to play in four NHL games and ranking as the No. 7 prospect in the Flyers’ system per Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. That has proven to be the high point of Desnoyers’ pro career thus far, and he has still not recaptured that form in the three seasons following 2022-23. After departing the Flyers organization, Desnoyers signed with the Minnesota Wild, but the move cost him his full-time spot in the AHL. He spent most of last season in the ECHL, scoring 31 points in 45 games. He’ll look to re-establish himself in the AHL, and give his career some positive momentum with the Crunch.
- The Crunch have also signed Zachary Uens, a 2020 fourth-round pick of the Florida Panthers. A 6’2″, 201-pound left-shot defenseman, Uens split last season between the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds and ECHL’s Kansas City Mavericks. He has played in 48 career AHL games compared to nearly 200 in the ECHL. He will provide the Crunch with some organizational depth on their blueline and is most likely to spend the bulk of his time in the ECHL with the Orlando Solar Bears. Uens is a two-time Kelly Cup champion from his days with the Florida Everblades.
- 2017 Detroit Red Wings third-round pick Zachary Gallant has signed an AHL contract with the Utica Comets, the AHL affiliates of the New Jersey Devils. A 6’2″, 195-pound forward with the versatility to play left wing or center, Gallant has spent most of his professional career at the AHL level. After serving as the captain of the OHL’s Peterborough Petes for two seasons, Gallant turned pro in 2020-21 and spent the next two seasons with the San Jose Barracuda, scoring just 18 points in 78 games. He then went to play USports hockey for two years with McGill University, before returning to the pro ranks with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in 2025. Last season, he scored five points in 39 games for the AHL Penguins, while also scoring six points in five ECHL games for the Wheeling Nailers. He is a fourth-line center candidate for Utica.
- The Roadrunners re-signed veteran defenseman Robbie Russo to a one-year AHL contract extension, extending the 33-year-old defenseman’s second tour with the team by an additional campaign. A veteran of 700 AHL games, Russo has not played in the NHL since 2016-17 but remains a valuable, effective AHL blueliner. The two-time AHL All-Star had a down season in 2024-25, scoring just 17 points, the lowest point-per-game production of his entire professional career. But Russo has scored at least 30 points in a season seven times, and that number goes even higher if one considers scoring rate instead of raw totals. Russo is a Calder Cup champion from his days in the Detroit Red Wings organization and will bring some veteran stability to the Roadrunners defense.
- Former Ohio State Buckeyes captain Scooter Brickey has decided to leave the North American pro ranks to sign a one-year KHL contract with Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo. The 27-year-old played five seasons of college hockey from 2019 to 2024, before turning pro and joining the AHL Penguins. Brickey played in a total of 55 games across two full campaigns in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, but failed to claim a regular lineup spot. This past season, he even faced three reassignments to ECHL Wheeling. With his grip on an AHL roster spot slipping, Brickey has decided to exit the Penguins organization and try his luck in Russia.
- Linus Weissbach, a playmaking winger who was once Cole Caufield‘s linemate at the University of Wisconsin, has signed a KHL contract with SKA St. Petersburg. The 28-year-old has spent the last two seasons playing for his hometown SHL club Frölunda HC, and even won the Champions Hockey League with the team last season. The 5’9″ winger was able to translate his stellar NCAA production to the AHL level, scoring 117 points in 191 career games with the Rochester Americans. But he chose to return to Sweden rather than remain in North America. Now, he is on the move once again, headed to the KHL in what is a relatively rare move for a Swedish player.
- Former San Jose Sharks prospect Brandon Coe, who scored 121 points in his final OHL regular season and playoffs just four years ago, has signed a deal with Slovak club HK 32 Liptovsky Mikulas. Coe was once ranked as the No. 5 prospect in the Sharks’ system per Elite Prospects, but was unable to translate his stellar production in junior hockey to the pro game. After three consecutive low-scoring seasons with the AHL’s Barracuda, Coe left the North American pro game to begin his European career. He signed with EHC Red Bull Salzburg in the ICEHL, the top professional league covering Central Europe. While Coe was solid in Salzburg, scoring 26 points in 38 games and four points in four champions hockey league games, the team endured its worst league playoff finish in a half-decade. After four consecutive ICEHL championships, Salzburg failed to win a single game in the playoffs. They were swept in the league quarterfinals by Italian side HC Pustertal. Now, Coe will depart Salzburg and test his luck in Slovakia.
This page will be updated as more signings are announced throughout the day.
Ducks’ Pavel Mintyukov Garnering Offer Sheet Interest
Teams around the league are responding to the Philadelphia Flyers’ record-setting offer sheet tendered to Anaheim Ducks center Leo Carlsson. The most immediate impact has been an uptick in interest around another of Anaheim’s restricted free agents. Multiple teams have approached defenseman Pavel Mintyukov about an offer sheet, with at least one expected to formally offer a deal before the end of the day, per PuckPedia. The offer of a potential offer sheet will not guarantee that one is tendered. That will be reliant on Mintyukov’s willingness to move forward with signing the offer sheet.
An interested team could seek out an offer that doesn’t return much compensation to the Ducks. Signing Mintukov to a deal with a $4.776MM cap hit would only return a second-round pick to Anaheim, should they not match the offer, as pointed out by Jeff Marek of Daily Faceoff. Mintyukov is projected to sign to a cap hit in the realm of $3.4MM on a short-term deal per CapWages and AFP Analytics.
A bridge contract seems like the right next step for the 22-year-old defenseman. Mintyukov scored 22 points in 73 games last season, a small return to normalcy after he fell from 28 points as a rookie to just 19 points in his sophomore season. More importantly, Mintyukov racked up 112 shot blocks in 2025-26, a new career-high that spells out the young defender’s willingness to stand in the way of NHL opponents. The 2022 10th-overall pick seems headed for an important lineup role down the road, after breaking into the NHL as a teenager. Any team interested in signing Mintyukov to an offer sheet would do so with his long-term potential in mind, even if the deal only accounts for a few seasons.
A price tag in the realm of $3.5MM to $4MM would remove eight, cap-strapped teams from contention for Mintyukov. Of the teams with available cap space, the left-shot defender could have the best fit with the rebuilding San Jose Sharks, Nashville Predators, or Calgary Flames. All three clubs have been active in free agency – and even taken steps to improve their blue line, though adding an up-and-comer in Mintyukov could be too tempting to ignore.
Regardless of who steps up with an offer, the rumors will place Anaheim in a difficult position. The Ducks would wield just $17.9MM in available cap space, should they decide to match Philadelphia’s offer to Carlsson. That would be the budget left to sign Mintyukov and reigning scoring-leader Cutter Gauthier, who is not eligible for an offer sheet. Anaheim could quickly be priced out of one-or-more of their top draft picks after taking just a little too long to negotiate with their RFAs. Mintyukov will be a name to follow as the off-season continues to unfold.
Buyer Beware When It Comes To Anthony Mantha
Forward Anthony Mantha has all the tools to be an NHL star. He has size, can skate, and has good hands and vision. But for much of his career, he has been maligned for never playing with a ton of heart and for disappearing when games matter most. He did nothing to dispel that notion this past year, as he had an incredible regular season with the Penguins, posting 33 goals and 31 assists in 81 games, but completely disappeared in the playoffs, posting just a single assist in six games and being at fault for the overtime goal that knocked the Penguins out of the playoffs. Now, the 31-year-old is set to enter one of the weakest free agent markets in recent history and could sign one of the riskiest free agent contracts in recent memory. That is, if you are the team signing the checks.
Teams are about to line up in a bidding war for Mantha, as he is one of the top available wingers and is projected by AFP Analytics to receive a four-year deal worth $6.35MM per season. That type of contract likely means teams will focus more on his career-high goal totals this past season than on his overall body of work. That sort of tunnel vision is almost certain to lead to buyer’s remorse when it comes to Mantha, but the question is how soon a team feels the pain of his contract and for how long they will have to deal with it.
Plenty of players sign crazy contracts on July 1st every year. But Mantha is a unique case, as teams have long known what he is and have twice resisted the urge to pay him big money long term. Couple that with the typical decline that happens to bigger forwards, and it is easy to see that whoever gives Mantha his big-money deal is likely to feel the sting at some point during the deal.
Mantha isn’t the only contract that could age like milk, but he does exemplify GM’s tendency to fall into the trap of recency bias when handing out big money on July 1st. It’s a tale as old as the league. A player gets hot for one season or a short period, and teams line up to pay them big money long term, only to see their investment turn into a pumpkin when midnight hits. Think Ville Leino or Fernando Pisani. Those men got paid big money for short runs, but in Mantha’s case, he’s had a lengthy career as an average scorer, and this season will likely not be the norm, especially given how power forwards age into their 30s.
Prior to this season, Mantha had topped 40 points on three separate occasions and was a three-time 20-goal scorer. However, only one of those high-end seasons had come in the last six years, and Mantha had dressed for three different teams in the previous five years. That kind of instability had become par for the course for Mantha before the Penguins signed him to a low-risk one-year deal last July. Mantha proved to be a good soldier for Pittsburgh during the regular season, but his inability to step up when the games got hard showed in the playoffs, when the Penguins were dropped by the Philadelphia Flyers.
All of that is unlikely to sway NHL general managers from opening their chequebooks and writing Mantha a contract offer they will regret in a few years’ time, if they are still employed by the team that signs him. Mantha will be 32 by the time the season starts, meaning the team that signs him to a projected four-year deal will be paying him into his age-36 season.
At this point, Mantha’s consistency issues have persisted since he was scouted as a junior player in 2013. At the time, the belief was that if he added grit and aggressiveness to his game, he could become a solid top-six NHL forward. While he has done that at times, there are also long lapses when Mantha seems either disengaged or overwhelmed by the moment, leading to him becoming a ghost in those games.
The Flyers series in the first round of this year’s playoffs was a perfect example. PHR wrote in the spring that Mantha’s performance in those six games could have hurt his playoff stock, but we will only know for sure once free agency opens on July 1st. In 20 career NHL playoff games, Mantha has yet to score a goal, though he has seven assists. Some teams might view this as a case of bad luck, with Mantha shooting 0% in the playoffs instead of the 13.8% he shoots in the regular season.
But if that is a metric GMs are using, there is perhaps one more they should consider, namely the 21.7% Mantha shot last season with the Penguins. It’s unlikely he reaches that number again, and even if he does, it will not be sustainable over the full term of a four-year contract.
Lightning Sign John Carlson To Two-Year Deal
The first day of free agency closed with a major signing for the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Bolts signed right-defenseman John Carlson to a two-year, $17MM contract per a team announcement. One of the market’s top players will land with the perennial playoff contender in Tampa Bay’s third signing of the day.
Carlson moved on from 17 seasons with the Washington Capitals ahead of the 2026 Trade Deadline. He was moved to the Anaheim Ducks in a deal that returned a 2026 first-round pick (used on center Oliver Suvanto) and a 2027 second-round pick to Washington. Carlson was highly effective through 16 games with the Ducks – scoring 14 points and averaging more than 24 minutes of ice time – before deciding to test the open market for the first time in his career.
Before the high-scoring defender could hit the open market, the Carolina Hurricanes took a pass at attempting to sign him. Carolina traded a 2026 sixth-round pick (used on center Noah Kosick) to the Ducks in exchange for Carlson’s rights at the 2026 NHL Draft. The move granted the Hurricanes five days to negotiate directly with Carlson before he’d become available to all teams. No deal came to fruition, though, spoiling Carolina’s efforts while Carlson indeed landed a new deal soon after the market opened.
Through the string of movement, it will be the Lightning who secure Carlson to a multi-year contract. The move adds a true scoring threat back to Tampa Bay’s blue line, following captain Victor Hedman‘s sharp decline and Darren Raddysh‘s sign-and-trade to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Carlson should assume star minutes on Tampa Bay’s blue-line, likely absorbing Raddysh’s 23 minutes of ice time and top power-play role. In fact, the Lightning almost exclusively deployed Raddysh as their power-play defender. He played in 263 minutes on the man advantage, nearly 200 more than Hedman’s 70 minutes in second place.
That workload could bring a new gear out of the 36-year-old Carlson. He finished the 2025-26 season with 14 goals and 60 points through 71 games – marking the most Carlson has scored since the 2021-22 season, when he potted 17 goals and 71 points in 78 games. He was plenty productive in between the hot years, reaching the 50-point mark in both 2023-24 and 2024-25 – though his 2022-23 season was cut in half after he was hit in the side of the head by a slapshot.
Carlson ceded ground to the younger Jakob Chychrun in Washington. That competition was ultimately enough to drive out the Capitals’ former star. Carlson routinely rivaled 70 points each season through the late-2010s. His play-driving presence was a key factor in Washington’s race to the 2018 Stanley Cup, a playoff run where Carlson contributed 20 points in 24 games. He has made the postseason in seven of eight seasons since and continues to challenge 0.5 points-per-game in postseason hockey.
Tampa Bay will now test if Carlson can keep up his versatile scoring through another change of teams. The Lightning are in desperate need of a top, puck-moving defender who can connect with star forwards Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, and Brandon Hagel. A top-pair role would likely situate Carlson next to Ryan McDonagh or J.J. Moser, leaving space for Hedman to take a step back in responsibility after scoring a career-low 17 points in 33 games this season. Tampa Bay could also hope that the formidable duo of Hedman and Carlson is enough to revitalize their captain on both sides of the puck. Either way, Carlson’s offensive upside should bring a proper shakeup for the Lightning blue line and keep the team situated as contenders through the 2026-27 season.
Mats Zuccarello Headed To Free Agency
Minnesota has a key veteran forward who wants to test the NHL’s free agent waters.
According to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, Mats Zuccarello is going to market.
Zuccarello will turn 39 when he hits his next NHL training camp. Whichever team signs him, they wouldn’t require much term, but should prepare to have a chunk of cap space to fit him in. Last season, he scored 54 points in 59 games, 39 being assists in Minnesota on a $4.215MM cap hit; his 82-game point pace was at 75. The Oslo native added nine points in eight games played during the Wild’s playoff run.
If acquired, he would ideally be a producer but also a leader to the likes of the younger players on a team’s roster, as Kirill Kaprizov‘s linemate, he is credited as a positive influence for the Russian star forward. Wild GM Bill Guerin was open about wanting him back, but the question came down to whether he would take a short-term contract with lesser guaranteed money or a bonus-focused deal.
One of nine Norwegians to skate on NHL ice, Zuccarello has played nine seasons with the New York Rangers and was the first from Norway to skate in the Stanley Cup Final. He signed his entry-level deal there and a few one-year extensions (four to be exact) before signing a four-year contract, making $4.5MM AAV through 2019. He averaged 56 points during a span of five seasons from 2013-14 through 2017-18, with an NHL career best of 26 goals and 61 points in 2015-16. After being dealt to the Dallas Stars in the final year of that contract, he then signed in Minnesota, where he spent the last seven campaigns on two contracts. Before his current deal that is up soon, he earned $6MM AAV from 2019 to 2025.
Throughout his career, Zuccarello demonstrated the same attributes that have made him a coveted winger, and it displays wherever he goes. Part of what made him and Kaprizov so successful in Minnesota was his passing ability that generates offense. Five seasons in the league, he’s finished with above 40 assists; only three have seen above 20 goals scored in his 16 years as an NHLer. His playmaking effectiveness goes down in Wild history as the fastest player to 200 assists, taking 70 games fewer (330) to get that mark than Mikko Koivu (400). In 963 NHL games, he’s amassed 744 points.