Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Wild Rumors

Alex Goligoski Considering All Options

at CDT | by 2 Comments

Colorado Avalanche writer Adrian Dater is reporting that the Avalanche and pending unrestricted free agent Jonathan Drouin have yet to begin talks on a potential extension, while Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic is reporting that the two sides are expected to meet later this week. The 29-year-old Drouin played on a prove-it contract this past season for $825K and was terrific for Colorado registering 19 goals and 37 assists in 79 games.

Dater believes that both sides want to sign an extension and it makes sense given the positive results last season. The former third-overall pick struggled through his final four seasons in Montreal and seemed comfortable in Colorado playing alongside Nathan MacKinnon. Money will become a significant factor in the negotiations given the precarious salary cap situation Colorado is currently in, but the belief seems to be that a deal will get done.

In other Central Division notes:

  • Minnesota Wild defenseman Alex Goligoski is reportedly still mulling over the decision about whether he should retire or keep playing (as per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period). The 38-year-old hasn’t made the final decision about what the future may hold as he explores every potential option. The former Stanley Cup Champion has struggled the past two seasons, tallying just two goals and 14 assists in 82 total games. He was a regular healthy scratch this past season but still managed ten assists in 36 games. Goligoski may generate interest as a seventh defenseman on a team that is looking for someone who can fill in on a second powerplay unit and provide a veteran presence.
  • Chicago Sun-Times reporter Jeff Agrest writes that a new sports network will launch this October in Chicago and will be home to the Chicago Blackhawks as well as the White Sox and Bulls. The Chicago Sports Network will replace NBC Sports Chicago where the Blackhawks have played for almost 20 years. The network will reportedly have agreements with over-the-air providers as well as cable and streaming services but has yet to name any potential partners. The joint venture will see the three teams partner with Standard Media in an effort to try and expand their distribution to the Midwest. The deal is pending approval of the leagues.

Central Notes: Rantanen, Capuano, Hakanpaa, O’Connor

at CDT | by 2 Comments

Colorado Avalanche winger Mikko Rantanen will be eligible for a contract extension on July 1st, giving the team more to worry about than just their nine pending free agents. A new deal won’t come cheap either, shares Corey Masisak of The Denver Post, who compared Rantanen’s extension talks to David Pastrnak, who signed an eight-year, $90MM contract with the Boston Bruins in March of 2023. Pastrnak’s deal carries $9MM in signing bonuses and $26MM in total salary in the first two seasons alone – a price that’d be hard to stomach for an Avalanche team set to pay Nathan MacKinnon $16MM and $12.15MM in salary over the next two seasons. They’ll be helped along by Cale Makar’s team-friendly – relative to his talent – cap hit of $9MM, but he’ll offer another headache when he’s eligible for a new deal in 2027.

Rantanen recorded the second 100-point season of his career this year, though he fell one point shy of the career-high 105 points he posted last year. He’s proven to be one of the best wingers in the league and an integral piece of the Avalanche lineup, with Masisak noting Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland’s desire to build around a core of MacKinnon, Rantanen, Makar, and Devon Toews. The Avalanche have three of those pieces locked up through the 2026-27 campaign – though they’ll need to be ready to shell out a pretty penny to do it.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Free agent coach Jack Capuano could be a candidate for the Minnesota Wild’s open assistant coaching position, shares Michael Russo of The Athletic (Twitter link). The Ottawa Senators chose not to re-sign Capuano to his associate coach contract this summer, bringing an end to his five-year career with the team. Russo spoke to Capuano’s long history with new Wild head coach John Hynes. That could be a useful connection as he looks to join the fourth team of his NHL coaching career.
  • Dallas Stars defenseman Jani Hakanpaa won’t be joining the team on their trip to Edmonton for Game 6, shares Owen Newkirk of the Dallas Stars Radio (Twitter link). Hakanpaa is set to miss his 32nd-straight game with a lower-body injury suffered in March. The Stars will be eager for Hakanpaa’s return, should it come this postseason, as they sort through questionable defense depth from Nils Lundkvist, Derrick Pouliot, and Lian Bichsel. Dallas is also facing a potential injury to top defender Chris Tanev, who exited Game 4 after blocking a shot from Evander Kane, but returned for Game 5. Whether he’s playing with good health or playoff resiliency, the Stars now won’t be able to bolster the depth behind Tanev until at least Game 7.
  • Colorado Avalanche forward Logan O’Connor is recovering well after undergoing hip surgery and should be ready for the 2024-25 training camp, shares Misisak (Twitter link). O’Connor missed the final 19 games of the regular season with his lower-body injury – though he’ll reflect on the season as a strong one, having scored at the highest rate of his career with 25 points in 57 games, while averaging a career-high 14:57 in ice time.

Wild Fire Assistant Coach Darby Hendrickson

at CDT | by 9 Comments

The Wild fired assistant coach Darby Hendrickson on Friday after a 14-year run behind the Minnesota bench, general manager Bill Guerin announced.

Hendrickson, 51, had served as an assistant since the 2010-11 season, a few years after retiring from a lengthy playing career that included suiting up for the Wild in their first four years of existence. He’d played or served under all seven head coaches in Minnesota history. However, as Michael Russo and Joe Smith of The Athletic write, he becomes a casualty of head coach John Hynes looking to reshape his staff ahead of his first entire season with the club. As Russo and Smith reported, Guerin also felt it was time for Hendrickson to move.

“I would like to thank Darby for all his hard work and commitment to the Minnesota Wild during his long tenure with our organization,” Guerin said. “He has done a tremendous amount of good things for our team and the State of Hockey as a player and a coach. I wish Darby and his family all the best in the future.”

Hendrickson has no other coaching experience outside of his run with the Wild. He’ll now be considered for the numerous assistant vacancies remaining around the league.

As for the Wild’s vacancy created by Hendrickson’s firing, Russo and Smith believe it could be filled via an internal promotion. They suggest longtime Rangers pivot Derek Stepan will be considered after he spent the season around the organization shadowing coaching and hockey operations staff. However, he didn’t hold an official role with the club. The 33-year-old Stepan retired last summer after a 13-year, 890-game career with the Coyotes, Hurricanes, Rangers and Senators.

Offseason Checklist: Minnesota Wild

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The offseason has arrived for all but a handful of teams who are still taking part in the playoffs.  Accordingly, it’s now time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at Minnesota.

After making the playoffs last season, expectations were relatively high for the Wild this season.  They weren’t quite supposed to be at the top of the division but were squarely expected to be in the mix.  That didn’t happen, resulting in an early-season coaching change.  While they rebounded somewhat under John Hynes, they still came up short of making it back to the postseason.  Now, GM Bill Guerin will be looking to make some tweaks to his roster although the bigger swings may have to come a little farther down the road.  Here’s what should be on his checklist this summer.

Examine Gustavsson Trade Options

What a difference a year can make.  This time last year, Filip Gustavsson was coming off finishing second in the NHL in GAA (2.10) and SV% (.931), albeit in just 39 games.  Still, he did well enough to earn a three-year, $11.25MM contract after filing for salary arbitration and it looked like their goalie situation was relatively settled, at least for the short term.

This season, it was a different story.  The 25-year-old saw his GAA jump by nearly a full goal per game, going to 3.06 while losing 32 points off his save percentage.  He still picked up a few extra starts but simply failed to lock down the number one job as they were hoping for.  That likely played a role in their decision to give Marc-Andre Fleury a one-year, $2.5MM extension last month for his 21st and final NHL campaign.

By all accounts, it appears that they feel Jesper Wallstedt, long viewed as their goalie of the future, is ready for full-time NHL duty.  Clearly, they’re not trading Fleury (who has a no-move clause) after just signing him.  Accordingly, unless they plan to carry three goalies (or shuttle Wallstedt) back and forth between Minnesota and AHL Iowa, it appears that Gustavsson may be the odd man out.

Early indications are that this could be a summer where there is more activity than usual on the trade front when it comes to goaltenders which is good news and bad news for the Wild.  It’s good in that there will be more teams looking for options but with a larger supply of netminders potentially available, they’ll be hard-pressed to command a return of some significance, especially with Gustavsson coming off a down season.  Guerin will need to determine what the best offer will be in the coming weeks and if that’s worth making a move now or potentially carrying three goalies into next season and see what the market looks like as the year goes on.

Work On Faber Extension

Last season, Brock Faber joined Minnesota for the final two games of the regular season and then suited up in all six playoff games in their opening-round loss to Dallas.  He had a limited role in the postseason – perfectly understandable for someone just coming out of college – but showed enough to make it look like he could hold his own over a full NHL season in 2023-24.

Let’s just say he did better than that.  A lot better, in fact.  Instead of just holding his own, he became the Wild’s top defenseman pretty quickly.  Not having Jared Spurgeon for most of the year due to injury certainly expedited that ascension but Faber more than earned the extra work as well.  The end result was the 21-year-old leading all Minnesota blueliners with 47 points, 20 more than second-place Jonas Brodin.  He logged nearly 25 minutes a night which not only led all Minnesota players but he had the sixth-highest ATOI in the entire NHL.  He played big minutes on both special teams units as well.  This is not the type of workload you’d expect a rookie who is now barely a year removed from playing college to be carrying.

The fact that he did so while playing on an entry-level deal was huge for the Wild.  It’s great news for next season as well.  But after that, the price tag is going to skyrocket and justifiably so.

The final year of Faber’s contract begins on July 1st, making him eligible to sign an extension at that time.  While there is definitely some risk in handing out what would be one of the richest extensions in franchise history to a player with one full season under his belt, there’s also some risk in not signing him now and then Faber going and having an even better effort in 2024-25 in which case the price would go even higher.

Minnesota’s camp will likely try to use recent deals that Jake Sanderson ($8.05MM) and Owen Power ($8.35MM) signed as comparables but Faber has been more impactful in his early career which means his camp could push for $9MM or more, especially knowing that the deal won’t kick in until 2025-26 when the salary cap could be higher than $90MM.  A new agreement doesn’t necessarily have to get done in the coming months but it stands to reason that this will be one of the higher priorities for Guerin.

Free Up Cap Space

The Wild have been operating well below the salary cap for the past several years thanks to the buyouts of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise back in 2021.  It was an outcome that Guerin knew he was getting into but he wanted to reshape the roster.  While there are still five years left on their respective buyout charges, next season is the last of the whopping charges with each player carrying a dead cap charge of $7.371MM.  (That number drops to $833K starting in 2025-26 which is much more manageable although a good chunk of the savings will be going to Faber.)

Guerin was aggressive with signing some veteran players to early extensions last season which has left Minnesota with minimal space to work with this summer assuming none of them are moved.  Per CapFriendly, they have less than $6MM left in cap room with a handful of roster spots to fill.  While it’s worth noting that of their pending free agents, none project to command a pricey contract, they also won’t have a lot of flexibility to work with to add to their roster.

Accordingly, finding a way to open up a bit more flexibility would certainly help.  If they move Gustavsson and promote Wallstedt, that would free up $2.825MM to work with.  Could they find a home for the final year and $2MM left on Marcus Johansson’s deal?  Even flipping Jonathon Merrill’s $1.2MM elsewhere and carrying a cheaper seventh defender would give them some extra room.  Every little bit is going to make a difference if they want to try to add an impact piece in the coming months.

Add Top-Six Forward

Speaking of impact pieces, they need one up front.  After being in the top five in scoring in 2021-22, the Wild haven’t cracked the top 20 in that department over the last two seasons.  While Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, and Joel Eriksson Ek gave them a solid 105 goals combined, the rest of their forwards tallied just 108 combined.  That means the secondary scoring wasn’t there consistently enough.

Minnesota will be hoping there will be some internal growth to help bridge some of that gap.  Marco Rossi had a solid rookie year and they’ll be counting on more from him.  They’ll hope that Liam Ohgren and Marat Khusnutdinov can become capable producers in their first full seasons in North America and if that happens, their offense could get back toward the middle of the pack.

That said, they could certainly benefit from a more proven addition to the lineup.  At a minimum, that player would serve as a bridge piece for some of the youngsters (a group that also includes Danila Yurov who could debut late in the 2024-25 campaign) to have some time to step up.  If some of those younger pieces are ready sooner than later, then the veteran helps create a third scoring line which could only help things.

The good news is that there are plenty of these types of players available in free agency.  Someone like David Perron would fit if they want just a short-term addition to let the youngsters get a bit more time to develop.  Same with Adam Henrique if they want to add down the middle.  If they want to aim higher, Tyler Toffoli, Teuvo Teravainen, and Vladimir Tarasenko stand out on the wing while someone like Chandler Stephenson would help at center.

The challenge, of course, is most of the players in this group will take up the majority (if not all of) Minnesota’s current cap space.  That makes it a bit more important to open up some more flexibility on that front before the calendar flips to July and free agency opens up.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Afternoon Notes: Stars, Ovchinikov, ECHL

at CDT | by 1 Comment

Dallas Stars head coach Pete DeBoer has designated both Roope Hintz and Jani Hakanpaa as day-to-day with injuries ahead of the Western Conference Finals, per Lia Assimakopoulous of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). Hintz suffered an upper-body injury during Game 4 of the Second Round, since missing Dallas’ last two games, while Hakanpaa has missed the team’s last 26 games with a lower-body injury.

Dallas managed to pull past the Colorado Avalanche in Hintz’s absence, though there’s no doubt that he’s sorely missed. Hintz has managed six points in 11 postseason appearances while commanding a strong line of Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston. Hintz hit the 30-goal mark for the third consecutive season this year, posting 30 goals and 65 points through 80 games. He’s emerged as a core pillar of the Stars lineup over the last three seasons, and could be a pivotal piece of Dallas’ push to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Hintz’s injury has made space for Radek Faksa, while Hakanpaa has opened a spot for Nils Lundkvist and Alexander Petrovic to compete for a role. Hintz will slot immediately into the lineup when he’s ready to return, while Hakanpaa’s status could be more up in the air after such a long absence.

Other notes from around the NHL:

  • Minnesota Wild prospect Dmitry Ovchinikov has signed a one-year deal with the KHL’s Sibir Novosibirsk, per Kyle Cush,am of The Score (Twitter link). Ovchinikov has spent parts of the last three seasons with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, though each season has been limited – totaling 12 points across 32 career games in the AHL. He’ll now return to the KHL, where he played he’s already appeared in 103 career games and scored 17 points. Ovchinikov was part of a Trade Deadline swap that sent Connor Dewar to the Toronto Maple Leafs, but stayed loaned to the Marlies for the remainder of the season.
  • The ECHL has announced that Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations Joe Ernst will depart from the league at the end of the postseason. The news will end Ernst’s storied career in the ECHL, stretching across 33 of the league’s 36 years of existence. He originally served in 16 seasons as a referee before being promoted to Vice President of Hockey Operations in 2011 and to his current role in 2018. Ernst’s role in the league runs so deep that he is not only in the ECHL Hall of Fame – inducted in 2011 – but also serves on the ECHL Hall of Fame Committee. He is stepping away to take on a senior management role with Zawyer Sports and Entertainment, who own and operate four different ECHL clubs – the Jacksonville Icemen, Savannah Ghost Pirates, upcoming Tahoe Knight Monsters, and Allen Americans.

NHL-Affiliated Prospects Playing In 2024 Memorial Cup

at CDT | by 8 Comments

The field for the 2024 Memorial Cup, the top club tournament in junior hockey, is set. The QMJHL’s Drummondville Voltigeurs, the OHL’s London Knights and the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors all swept their respective league championship series within the last two days to advance to the CHL championship tournament, joining the host Saginaw Spirit of the OHL.

This year marks the first Memorial Cup held in the United States since 1998, which was hosted by the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs. The Spirit will attempt to become the first U.S.-based team to win since the Chiefs in 2008, and they have a strong chance. They’re stronger than a typical host team, finishing second in the league in the regular season with a 50-16-2 record and trailing London by just two points. They were eliminated by London in six games in the Western Conference Final.

The Knights lead the way with 10 NHL-affiliated prospects on their roster, including two first-round picks in Flyers defenseman Oliver Bonk and Maple Leafs forward Easton Cowan. The latter was named the OHL playoffs MVP after leading the Knights in scoring with 10 goals, 24 assists and 34 points in just 18 games. He had 15 points in four games in their championship sweep over the Oshawa Generals.

If you’re looking for some non-Stanley Cup Playoff hockey to watch, check to see if your favorite NHL team has prospects suiting up in the tournament, which begins May 24:

Drummondville Voltigeurs (QMJHL champion)

D Mikaël Diotte (Devils, free agent signing)
RW Ethan Gauthier (Lightning, 2023, 37th overall)
RW Alexis Gendron (Flyers, 2022, 220th overall)
D Vsevolod Komarov (Sabres, 2022, 134th overall)

NHL Utah 2022 first-round pick D Maveric Lamoureux is out for the season after undergoing shoulder surgery in March.

London Knights (OHL champion)

C Denver Barkey (Flyers, 2023, 95th overall)
D Oliver Bonk (Flyers, 2023, 22nd overall)
C Easton Cowan (Maple Leafs, 2023, 28th overall)
D Jackson Edward (Bruins, 2022, 200th overall)
D Isaiah George (Islanders, 2022, 98th overall)
RW Kasper Halttunen (Sharks, 2023, 36th overall)
C Jacob Julien (Jets, 2023, 146th overall)
C Kaleb Lawrence (Kings, 2022, 215th overall)
C Max McCue (Blue Jackets, free agent signing)
C Landon Sim (Blues, 2022, 184th overall)

Moose Jaw Warriors (WHL champion)

RW Jagger Firkus (Kraken, 2022, 35th overall)
D Denton Mateychuk (Blue Jackets, 2022, 12th overall)
D Kalem Parker (Wild, 2023, 181st overall)
D Vojtech Port (Ducks, 2023, 161st overall)
LW Martin Rysavy (Blue Jackets, 2021, 197th overall)
C Matthew Savoie (Sabres, 2022, 9th overall)
C Brayden Yager (Penguins, 2023, 14th overall)

Saginaw Spirit (host)

C Owen Beck (Canadiens, 2022, 33rd overall)
LW Josh Bloom (Canucks, acquired from Sabres in 2023 trade for Riley Stillman)
D Rodwin Dionicio (Ducks, 2023, 129th overall)
D Jorian Donovan (Senators, 2022, 136th overall)
C Hunter Haight (Wild, 2022, 47th overall)
C Ethan Hay (Lightning, 2023, 211th overall)
G Nolan Lalonde (Blue Jackets, free agent signing)
C Matyas Sapovaliv (Golden Knights, 2022, 48th overall)
C Joseph Willis (Predators, 2023, 111th overall)

Vladislav Firstov Clears Unconditional Waivers, Released By Wild

at CDT | by 5 Comments

Wednesday: Firstov cleared waivers today, per CapFriendly.  The Wild wasted little time releasing him as John Shipley of the Pioneer Press notes that the deal has already been terminated.

Tuesday: The Wild have placed forward prospect Vladislav Firstov on unconditional waivers with intent to terminate his contract, the team announced Tuesday. The Athletic’s Michael Russo was the first to report the news.

It’s likely a mutual termination to allow Firstov to return to Russia next season. The 22-year-old spent most of the last two seasons on loan to Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of the Kontinental Hockey League but was briefly brought to North America to close 2023-24 with AHL Iowa.

He had two goals and two assists in his 10-game stint with the club, his first since a lone appearance at the beginning of 2022-23 before heading to the KHL. Firstov had one season remaining on his entry-level contract and would have been a restricted free agent in 2025, but if he clears waivers tomorrow, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent immediately.

All told, the 2019 second-round pick will have played just 19 games in the Wild organization, all coming with Iowa. He totaled two goals and six points in parts of three seasons after turning pro out of UConn in 2022. A move back to Torpedo seems likely for Firstov, who did well with 28 goals, 61 points and 110 PIMs in 114 games over the past two seasons.

With Firstov set to be off the books next season, the Wild are down to 35 out of the maximum 50 standard player contracts signed.

Wild Announce Multiple Front Office Moves

at CDT | by 1 Comment

The Wild have promoted Mat Sells, Michael Murray and Chris Kelleher to assistant general manager roles, GM Bill Guerin announced Wednesday. The team also promoted Matt Hendricks to GM of their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild.

The moves come after Guerin manned the Wild’s front office without a supplementary staff for most of the 2023-24 season. Director of team operations Andrew Heydt, who’d worked closely with various Wild GMs since assuming the role in 2014, mutually parted ways with the team in December after filing an internal complaint against Guerin alleging verbal abuse, The Athletic’s Michael Russo reported. An investigation concluded Guerin had not committed a firable offense and thus remained with the team, Russo said.

Kelleher’s promotion is the most notable. He’s been with the club for nearly two decades and will serve under Guerin as the director of player personnel for Team USA at the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and the 2026 Winter Olympics. The 49-year-old joined the Wild full-time as a pro scout in 2009 and was eventually promoted to their director of professional scouting ahead of the 2019-10 campaign. He was again promoted to director of player personnel two summers ago, making this his third internal promotion in the past six years.

In his AGM role, Kelleher will maintain his scouting and personnel responsibilities. The team said he’ll also support Guerin more closely with trade deadline and free agency prep.

Sells will hold a more technical role, similar to his duties as Minnesota’s director of analytics for the past five seasons. According to the team, he’ll be responsible for “salary cap management, player contract research and negotiations, analytics and hockey strategy and Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) compliance.” Sells, who’s also served as their vice president of hockey strategy for the past three seasons, did not have NHL front-office experience before joining the Wild.

Murray previously served as Iowa’s GM and Minnesota’s director of hockey operations, the former of which is being immediately assumed by Hendricks. Like Sells, the Wild are Murray’s first NHL front-office home. The former Dartmouth College forward joined the Wild as a special assistant to the GM in 2020-21 before being named the GM of Iowa the following season. His AGM responsibilities will revolve around assisting Guerin with day-to-day transactions.

Hendricks steps into his first GM role just five years after wrapping up his 11-year, 607-game NHL career. The former Capitals and Oilers fourth-line fixture also had a brief stop with the Wild in his final season, posting two assists in 22 games there before being traded to the Jets and retiring in the summer of 2019. A Minnesota native, Hendricks returned to his home state in a front-office role immediately after retiring, now logging five years of service as their assistant director of player development under former Wild defenseman Brad Bombardir.

Wild Believed To Be Open To Offers On Rossi

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

  • Despite a strong first full NHL season, Minnesota is believed to be open to offers on center Marco Rossi, reports Anthony DiMarco of The Fourth Period. The 22-year-old potted 21 goals and 19 assists in 82 games while logging a little under 17 minutes, a solid rookie campaign for the ninth overall pick in 2020.  This doesn’t appear to be a case where the Wild are shopping Rossi but rather one where they’re open to the idea of a ‘hockey trade’ where they’re getting a quality piece back.  Notably, Rossi has another year left on his entry-level deal and with one more year of expensive cap charges on the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts (before the charges drop considerably for 2025-26 and beyond), they would likely be looking for a similarly-priced contract if they were to part with him.

NHL Announces 2024 Calder Trophy Finalists

at CDT | by 15 Comments

Blackhawks center Connor Bedard, Wild defenseman Brock Faber and Devils defenseman Luke Hughes have been named finalists for this year’s Calder Trophy, awarded to the league’s top rookie.

Bedard, still just 18, led or tied for the lead in rookie (and Blackhawks) scoring with 22 goals, 39 assists and 61 points despite being limited to 68 games with a broken jaw sustained midseason. He’s the the second-youngest rookie in NHL history to lead their team in all three major offensive categories behind Sidney Crosby, who did so with 39 goals, 63 assists and 102 points in 81 games with the Penguins in 2005-06. Last year’s first-overall pick also led rookies league-wide in shots on goal and takeaways.

While he’s the favorite to win the award, there likely won’t be a very large gap between him and Faber when the voting breakdown among PHWA members is released. The 2020 second-round pick of the Kings had his signing rights dealt to Minnesota in the Kevin Fiala trade a few years back, and he turned pro last spring after three seasons at the University of Minnesota. He immediately jumped into the NHL lineup and stabilized the Wild defense this year with captain Jared Spurgeon missing most of the season with various injuries, posting eight goals and 47 points while playing in all 82 games. Faber averaged 24:58 per game – the most among qualified rookies since the stat has been tracked (1997-98), beating out Atlanta’s Toby Enström by a full 30 seconds.

Those advocating for Faber to take home the award will point to Bedard’s -44 rating, which sat near the bottom of the league. Both players had difficult usage against other teams’ top competition, especially Faber. Yet, compared to their teammates, Bedard was better at controlling possession than Faber, posting a 0.2 relative CF% at even strength compared to Faber’s -3.4 CF% impact. In a team context, though, Faber was much better at dominating possession quality with a 50.6 xGF% compared to Bedard’s 42.3 xGF%, per Hockey Reference.

Hughes’ chance at the award is minimal compared to his peers, but the nomination still puts a bow on a nice rookie season for the younger brother of Jack and Quinn. With Dougie Hamilton missing most of the campaign, New Jersey relied on Hughes as their top puck-moving and power-play option on the blue line. He responded well, tying Faber’s offensive totals with 47 points (nine goals, 38 assists) while also playing in all 82 games, a rarity for a Devils team that struggled to stay healthy this season. He averaged 21:28 per game and controlled possession well at even strength with a 55.0 CF% and a 52.3 xGF%, with his -25 rating largely sunk by the team’s poor goaltending.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

scroll to top