How The Canadiens, Golden Knights, And Panthers Will Use LTIR
At the time of writing, the Canadiens, Golden Knights, and Panthers are the only three teams that have negative projected cap space to open the season, per PuckPedia.
Those clubs also have high-priced LTIR candidates. Montreal’s Carey Price and Vegas’ Alex Pietrangelo are either retired or ruled out for the season and have cap hits higher than the amount their respective clubs are in the hole. Florida is likely to have Matthew Tkachuk miss significant time to start the year as he continues to get back to full health from last season’s adductor injury. While they won’t have a whole year’s worth of LTIR relief for him, they still have a clear pathway to compliance to start the season without making a cap-shedding trade.
But while these teams have a pathway to cap compliance, it’s not as simple as making an LTIR placement and calling it a day. LTIR usage isn’t blanket cap relief based on the cap hit of the injured player – the amount of financial relief a team gets is tied directly to how well a team optimizes its roster before making the placement.
There are two methods of going about this. The first, and more common one, is waiting until the start of the season to place a player on LTIR.
That means a club needs to, even if it’s for a matter of minutes via paper transactions, be cap-compliant without LTIR usage before making the placement and using their newfound flexibility to restore their roster. The difference between the LTIR player’s cap hit and the cap space available when making the placement will be the relief pool amount the team has to work with – hence why teams using LTIR to start the year try to get as close to $0 in cap space as possible to unlock the player’s full cap hit in relief.
The second involves the usage of offseason LTIR. If a team opts to place a player on LTIR before the season starts, the relief amount is equivalent to their cap excess. In that case, it behooves a team to spend more to boost the amount they exceed the cap by as close as the injured player’s cap hit as possible.
That second method is almost certainly what Vegas will use. Their roster is currently set to exceed the cap by $7.64MM, per PuckPedia, roughly $1.16MM shy of Pietrangelo’s $8.8MM cap hit.
With the rest of their offseason business done and one roster spot open, the Knights still haven’t signed restricted free agent winger Alexander Holtz to a new contract for 2025-26. Signing him to a one-year deal worth exactly $1,161,429 would allow them to have a perfect LTIR capture when opening-night rosters are due, allowing them the full $8.8MM relief amount throughout the season. That figure is above Holtz’s market value anyway, so it’s unlikely they’d have any trouble convincing him to ink that contract.
At first glance, Florida’s pathway to making things work is more likely the first option, if for no other reason than the fact they’ll need the flexibility to activate Tkachuk in-season when he’s cleared to play. They’re also much closer to no cap exceedance than $9.5MM, Tkachuk’s cap hit, worth of exceedance.
Wouldn’t the Panthers thus look to clear exactly their projected exceedance of $3.725MM via paper transactions that can be reversed after Tkachuk’s LTIR placement? Not exactly.
Usually, teams in that situation have a few young waiver-exempt players on their roster that they can briefly send down to the AHL to achieve the intended result. The Panthers have no waiver-exempt players on their projected 22-player roster, and the likelihood of a claim for highly-regarded Cup-winning depth talent like Jesper Boqvist, Jonah Gadjovich, or A.J. Greer is almost 100%.
With the Cats prioritizing continuity between last year’s championship team and this one above all else, it stands to reason they might simply take severely reduced LTIR flexibility out of the gate. Making no other moves before LTIRing Tkachuk would leave them with only $3.725MM in flexibility to open the season, compared to their potential $9.5MM if they tried to optimize his relief. Still, as they’d need to activate him later in the year, they wouldn’t take full advantage of that $9.5MM even if they had it.
As for the Canadiens, they’re stuck in the mushy middle. Price’s cap hit is $10.5MM, and their projected exceedance is $5.93MM. That means they’d either need to shed nearly $6MM in cap space or add over $4.5MM worth of cap hits to take advantage of his placement fully.
For a team on the rise with playoff aspirations and some holes in their middle-six forward group, the latter outcome is the likelier one. They still only have $4.5MM in flexibility if they decide to go that route, though, pricing them out of a new deal for top centers on the trade market like RFAs Mason McTavish and Marco Rossi without sending a significant salary – potentially Kirby Dach‘s $3.36MM cap hit or Alex Newhook‘s $2.9MM cap hit – back the other way to help make up the difference.
Brady Keeper Announces Retirement
He spent the next few years moving from the Panthers to the Vancouver Canucks, before finally landing in the Montreal Canadiens organization in the 2023-24 season. Outside of an additional game with Florida, he’s only played in the AHL, finishing his career with 10 goals and 31 points in 129 games with a -2 rating and 208 PIMs. Unless he changes his mind on retirement in the next few years, his last professional hockey contest will have come with the AHL’s Laval Rocket in 2024.
Latest On Mason McTavish
The Ducks haven’t been actively shopping the signing rights to restricted free agent Mason McTavish, but that hasn’t stopped teams from expressing trade interest, as the center remains without a contract. Fervent interest will presumably be helped along by his essentially dominating the market for young centers. Wild RFA Marco Rossi‘s talks have all but dried up with little to no interest league-wide in the long-term contract he desires. The Canadiens, Hurricanes, and Red Wings have all shown serious interest – the last club chief among them, James Murphy of RG writes.
Without much talk of an offer sheet, a notion sources told Murphy to dispel with Anaheim having ample space to match, McTavish has little control over his destiny. Speculation has indicated he’s concerned about his long-term role with the Ducks after their offseason shopping spree added needed depth to their forward group, but there’s little to no appetite from the Ducks’ end to facilitate a trade unless he outright refuses to sign a contract.
All the teams interested have a clear need for a second-line center. Unlike in SoCal, where there’s still a small chance for him to compete with Leo Carlsson for long-term 1C duties, there wouldn’t be that upward mobility there for him with Nick Suzuki in Montreal and Sebastian Aho in Carolina not vacating their posts anytime soon. The Wings have the weakest top pivot out of the group in Dylan Larkin, but he still wouldn’t be walking into Day 1 first-line duties there if that’s his goal.
While McTavish may have the standard profile of a high-motor but not hugely offensively untapped 2C, his performance last season shows there could be more to behold. The 22-year-old posted a team-leading 22 goals in 76 games, and his 52 points finished three back of Troy Terry for the team lead. That’s highly impressive production in an offensively stifled system under outgoing head coach Greg Cronin, and with his 12.2% shooting rate remaining projectable, there’s significant 65-to-75-point breakout potential for him this season as the team presumably adopts a more aggressive style under Joel Quenneville.
If Anaheim begins entertaining offers for the 6’1″ pivot’s signing rights, though, they’ll be looking for a blue-chip right-shot defense prospect as the principal point of the return, Murphy reports. That means names like 2023 first-rounders Axel Sandin-Pellikka would need to be in play in Detroit’s case, or that year’s No. 5 pick David Reinbacher in Montreal’s. Draft-capital-wise, it’s logical from the Ducks’ perspective after using the No. 3 overall pick on McTavish in 2021.
Stefan Matteau Announces Retirement, Becomes Coach
Jul. 31st: Matteau will only have to take a different pathway around the bench for the next portion of his career following his playing days on the ice. According to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic, Matteau will become the next assistant coach for AHL Cleveland. He’ll replace former coach Mark Letestu, who became the next head coach of the AHL’s Colorado Eagles this offseason.
May 12th: Longtime minor-leaguer Stefan Matteau has retired, the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters announced Monday.
Matteau, 31, had spent the last two seasons on AHL deals with the Blue Jackets’ affiliate. Injuries limited him to only four goals and 13 points in 30 games during that time, but he did dress as the team’s captain when healthy in 2024-25 and contributed seven points in 15 games.
The son of former NHLer Stephane Matteau kicked off his professional career with a bang. A versatile 6’2″, 207-lb forward with good skating and a heavy-hitting game, he went 29th overall to the Devils in the 2012 draft. His post-draft season was peculiar – he was recalled midway through the campaign from his junior team, the QMJHL’s Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. He spent two months with the Devils before finishing the campaign in juniors again. That initial stretch of three points in 17 games in New Jersey for Matteau would end up standing as one of his career’s most extended NHL stretches.
The Illinois native never spent a full season on an NHL roster and bounced between the Devils, Canadiens, Golden Knights, Avalanche, and Blue Jackets over his 13-year professional career that included seven partial seasons of NHL action. He last played with Colorado in the 2021-22 campaign and totaled a 6-5–11 scoring line in 92 appearances with a -18 rating, averaging 10:15 per game.
Matteau spent nearly all of his career on this side of the Atlantic aside from the 2022-23 campaign, which he split between Sweden’s Linköping HC and Germany’s ERC Ingolstadt. He posted 21 points in 35 regular-season games between the two overseas clubs, including 20 in just 19 games with Ingolstadt.
As for his AHL career, the power winger wraps it up with 76-93–169 in 411 games across 10 seasons with 477 PIMs. All of us at PHR wish Matteau the best in retirement.
Canadiens, Jayden Struble Avoid Arbitration With Two-Year Deal
11:05 a.m.: According to PuckPedia, Struble will earn a $1.6MM salary in 2025-26, and a $1.225MM salary in 2026-27. He’ll be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights upon expiry.
8:30 a.m.: Despite having an arbitration hearing scheduled for August 3rd, defenseman Jayden Struble will no longer need it. According to a team announcement, the Montreal Canadiens have re-signed Struble to a two-year, $2.825MM contract ($1.4125MM AAV).
The new agreement is a little lower than Struble’s projected value heading into the summer. Before the start of the free agency period, AFP Analytics projected Struble to receive a two-year, $3.57MM contract in his first trip through restricted free agency. Still, it’s a fair price for a bottom-pairing/depth defenseman who can play on both sides of the blue line.
The Cumberland, RI native recently completed his second season with the Canadiens. Montreal originally selected Struble with the 46th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft, and he debuted with the team during the 2023-24 campaign after ending his career with the NCAA’s Northeastern University a year prior.
He’s been serviceable through his first two years, albeit not showing much growth so far. He scored three goals and 10 points in 56 games during his rookie season, averaging 16:07 of ice time per game. He showed some poise on the defensive side of the puck with a 92.1% on-ice save percentage at even strength. Still, his possession game left much to be desired with a 45.7% CorsiFor% at even strength.
Playing in an identical number of games in 2024-25, Struble barely increased his scoring, managing two goals and 13 points while averaging 14:57 of ice time. His possession game improved, averaging a 51.8% CF% at even strength, but his defensive game weakened with an 89.4% on-ice save percentage at even strength.
Although he may have been considered a decent two-way prospect for the Canadiens even a few years ago, too many defensemen have passed him on the organizational depth chart for him to hold the same value. Still, since he can play on both sides of the blue line, Struble has inherent value as a quality injury replacement should Montreal need it.
KHL Notes: Konyushkov, Kisakov, Timashov
Canadiens defense prospect Bogdan Konyushkov has signed a one-year extension with the KHL’s Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod to keep him in Russia through the 2026-27 season, the league announced. Konyushkov, 22, was a fourth-round pick in 2023 and came to Montreal for development camp a few weeks ago, per Marco D’Amico of RG.
The news gives the intriguing right-shot some extended runway in his development, but it doesn’t necessarily affect Montreal’s ability to sign him at some point since they hold his rights indefinitely. Montreal selected the smooth-skating rearguard two years after he was initially eligible to be drafted after he broke out in a full-time KHL role with Torpedo, and he’s since recorded an 11-59–70 scoring line with a -13 rating in 196 games at Russia’s top level.
Last season did mark something of a step back for Konyushkov, who recorded a career-low 17 points and a minus-five rating. He was assigned to the VHL’s Torpedo-Gorky NN of Russia’s second-tier pro league for their postseason, leading the playoffs in scoring by a defenseman with 13 points in 17 games as he helped them to a championship. Despite his age, his well-rounded game made him Torpedo’s leader in average ice time last year. He’ll now be eligible to come to the Canadiens on June 1, 2027, unless they negotiate an early release with Torpedo.
More from the KHL:
- Former Sabres prospect Alexander Kisakov has landed a tryout contract with Dynamo Moscow, per a team announcement. Kisakov, 22, was a second-round pick by Buffalo in 2021 but was non-tendered when his entry-level contract expired in June, making him an unrestricted free agent. While the undersized winger displayed a high-ceiling and high-energy offensive game in the Russian junior ranks, he scored just 25 points in 93 games for the AHL’s Rochester Americans over the past three years as he battled injuries.
- Winger Dmytro Timashov has signed a two-year contract with Admiral Vladivostok, Ronnie Rönnkvist of HockeySverige reports. The Ukrainian-born Swedish national recorded nine points in 45 NHL games for the Maple Leafs, Islanders, and Red Wings across the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. He’s been overseas since terminating his contract with New York early in the 2021-22 season. He split last season between the KHL’s HK Sochi and Geneve-Servette HC of Switzerland’s National League, limited to 13 points in 44 games across the two clubs.
Canadiens’ Lane Hutson Faces Another Unprecedented Season
Montreal Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson cemented himself in hockey history with his Calder Trophy-winning rookie season last year. His 60 assists tied Larry Murphy for the most ever recorded by a rookie defender, while his 66 total points ranked fifth in history. Hutson’s company on the leaderboards is full of Hall-of-Fame talent, including Chris Chelios (50 A, 56 TP as a rookie), Nicklas Lidstrom (49 A, 60 TP), and Ray Bourque (48 A, 65 TP). But despite the warm company, Hutson still faces a task unlike any of his highly-touted peers. He has to show he can follow it up.
Many former high-scoring, rookie defenders have earned their keep on both ends of the ice. Hutson breaks that mold. He is the first to ever cross the 60-point – or, even the 50-point – mark while recording a negative plus-minus. The only players to manage similar feats were Phil Housley, Quinn Hughes, and Moritz Seider – who each finished their rookie campaigns short of both the 50-point mark and positive plus-minus. That certainly speaks to the high-event ice time Hutson experienced, but it shouldn’t come as a direct attack on his defensive acumen.
Instead, it’s a testament to Hutson’s deeply unique style. He’s a hyper-mobile defender, who uses crafty stickhandling and skillful skating to sneak into the tightest spaces between opponents. Many defenders have excelled with those talents, but few are rarely look as gifted as Hutson. That degree of finesse helps Hutson make up for an otherwise scrawny frame – though one not lacking any physical gumption – in a way that seems reminiscent of former greats like Housley.
But where Housley went on to net 1,232 career points, the next highest-scoring defenseman under the height of 5’11” was Randy Carlyle, who finished his career with 647 points. That’s an extreme gap, not helped by the fact that Carlyle weighed in at over 200-pounds.
The NHL is not built to support nimble and skillful offensive-defensemen. It’s too heavy and physical of a league. And yet, Hutson showed no signs of struggling as he stomped his way to Montreal’s top defender role last season. He blazed that path with the same agility, instinct, and cool-headedness that’s made him successful as far back as youth hockey.
Then again, NHL game planning is better than ever as teams begin to lean on video tracking and analytics to support their pre-game prep. Many of Hutson’s break-ins came on the outskirts of the offensive zone, and his scoring chances from creative passes after working into space on the boards or behind the net. As teams adjust for that, Hutson will face the imposing question of if he can adjust his game too. Putting on more weight and continuing to improve at getting back on defense could go a long way towards building the full, all-three-zones ability that could push Hutson’s game to a truly special level. But if teams catch on to how to stop him before he has time to take the next step, he could quickly struggle to make the same plays he always has.
That will be the task that faces Hutson next season – and its result could define Montreal’s blue-line for years to come. Hutson is up for a new contract next summer, and could sign an extension at any point now that July 1st has passed. Of the nine other defensemen to score at least 60 points in their rookie year, seven have gone on to play in over 1,000 NHL games. The other two still managed hundreds of games of their own (Reed Larson, 904; Barry Beck, 615). And yet, it’s hard to think any have deviated from the view of average NHL defender quite like Hutson.
He’s among tremendous company, and seems headed for many years of incredible hockey after such a strong start. But it seems that the true, special aspects of Hutson’s career will be defined by how his sophomore season goes. In proving he can continue to perform at all-star levels, Hutson will not only earn what’s sure to be a lofty contract next summer, but could cement his spot in Montreal’s top role for the next seven or eight seasons. He’s now joined by fellow, flashy company in Noah Dobson – and could get the support from more defensively-focused peers like Kaiden Guhle, Alexandre Carrier, and Mike Matheson.
The extent to which that supporting cast can boost Hutson to an encore performance will make his 2025-26 campaign much-watch hockey, even after he’s earned the ‘Rookie of the Year’ title in a special Calder Trophy race.
Nathan Beaulieu Announces Retirement
Former first-round pick Nathan Beaulieu has announced his retirement from professional hockey, according to the NHLPA.
Beaulieu, 32, hangs up his skates after playing 471 NHL games for the Canadiens, Sabres, Jets, and Ducks. The longtime bottom-pairing defenseman last appeared with Anaheim in the 2022-23 season, spending the last two campaigns in Europe but playing sparingly due to injuries.
The Ontario native was the No. 17 overall pick of the 2011 draft by Montreal from the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs after helping guide the team to a Memorial Cup championship and being named to the tournament’s All-Star team. He was a tantalizing junior prospect, never outright dominating offensively but still putting up strong point production with dominant defensive impacts while playing a highly physical brand of hockey.
While his physicality translated to the professional level, the other parts of his game only did so in short bursts. Beaulieu only ever topped 20 points in a season once, making a career-high 74 appearances for Montreal in 2016-17 while receiving significant power-play deployment for the only time in his career. He averaged 19:29 per game for the Habs that year, putting together a 4-24–28 scoring line with 102 blocks.
Aside from that, he was still a serviceable bottom-pairing piece for the Habs for a few years after emerging as a full-time NHLer in 2014-15. He ended up recording 60 points and a +19 rating in 225 games for the team that drafted him before he was traded to the Sabres in the 2017 offseason.
After the trade, Beaulieu was firmly relegated to being a No. 7 option. He never made more than 60 appearances in a season after that relative breakout of a 2016-17 campaign, averaging 15:27 per game for Buffalo, Winnipeg, and Anaheim over his final six NHL seasons.
Beaulieu’s final NHL season saw him thrown to the wolves on a severely understaffed Ducks defense in 2022-23, recording four points and a -23 rating in 52 games with ghastly possession numbers. That tanked his value the following summer and led to his move overseas to Switzerland’s EHC Kloten, where he only had two points in 13 games before a hand injury ended his season.
The veteran lefty signed on with Barys Astana of the KHL for 2024-25, but was released after eight games with financial issues forcing the club to part ways with all of its import players. He quickly landed with HC Nove Zamky of the Slovak Extraliga but did not make an appearance for them due to injury.
Beaulieu finishes his career with 12 goals, 86 assists, 98 points, and a -14 rating in 471 regular-season games while averaging 16:18 per night. He also had five points in 21 playoff games with Montreal and Winnipeg. All of us at PHR wish him the best in retirement.
Arbitration Schedule For Remaining Cases Finalized
The arbitration hearing dates for the few remaining unsettled cases have been finalized, PuckPedia reports:
F Kaapo Kakko, Kraken: July 25
G Arvid Soderblom, Blackhawks: July 28
F Maxim Tsyplakov, Islanders: July 29
D Dylan Samberg, Jets: July 30
D Conor Timmins, Sabres: Aug. 2
F Nicholas Robertson, Maple Leafs: Aug. 3
D Jayden Struble, Canadiens: Aug. 3
There are only seven out of this year’s initial 11 player-elected arbitration cases still without a resolution as the hearings approach. Winnipeg had three of the players on that list and has settled with two of them, reaching a two-year, $3.7MM settlement with Morgan Barron and a substantial six-year, $45MM deal for Gabriel Vilardi.
The Ducks also had two arbitration cases on that list, but settled with both of them in the past few days. Depth defenseman Drew Helleson got a two-year, $2.2MM contract, while emerging star goaltender Lukas Dostal signed a five-year, $32.5MM deal.
There were two team-elected arbitration cases this year, the Sabres’ Bowen Byram and the Mammoth’s Jack McBain, but both have been settled.
As for the seven players above, they can continue talks with their clubs on a new deal until the hearing begins. After that, they’re bound to the arbitrator’s decision.
Players who reach an arbitration hearing are only eligible to sign a one or two-year contract. Since the player filed for arbitration in all seven cases above, the team gets to choose the contract length after receiving the arbitrator’s decision on the AAV. However, only Robertson, Soderblom, and Struble would be eligible for two-year contracts. Everyone else is one year away from being eligible for unrestricted free agency status, so they can’t receive a multi-year arbitration award.
If the arbitration award exceeds $4.85MM in any case, the team can decline it and allow the player to become an unrestricted free agent.
Jaroslav Halak Announces Retirement
Veteran goalie Jaroslav Halak is ending his playing career, telling Tomas Prokop of the Slovak website Dennik Sport that he’s officially retired.
Halak, 40, hasn’t played anywhere in the last two seasons aside from a brief tryout with the Hurricanes that didn’t result in game action early in 2023-24. A ninth-round pick in the 2003 draft, his 17-year NHL career included time with the Canadiens, Blues, Capitals, Islanders, Bruins, Canucks, and Rangers, last playing in New York’s final game of the 2022-23 regular season.
Montreal was the team that drafted him 271st overall from the QMJHL’s Lewiston MAINEiacs, and that’s where Halak got his start in the NHL three years later. He emerged as another young complement in the Canadiens’ pool alongside young star Carey Price, even taking over the starter’s role in the 2009-10 season and backstopping the team to a surprise run to the Conference Finals before being traded to St. Louis for Lars Eller the following summer.
Halak never spent more than four years with a club in his prime and was prone to year-to-year inconsistency, but he was an arguable top-10 goalie in the league at his absolute peak with multiple seasons of save percentages above .920. He was always more of a 1A option than a true starter, only playing more than 50 games four times, but he ends his career as a one-time All-Star, two-time Jennings Trophy winner, and he finished top-10 in Vezina Trophy voting twice.
After serving as the 1A option for the Blues from 2010-14 and on Long Island from 2014-18 with a brief post-deadline stop in Washington in between, Halak spent the twilight years of his career as one of the league’s better backup options for Boston (2018-21), Vancouver (2021-22), and the Rangers (2022-23). He’s been an unrestricted free agent since then, with no items of note on his NHL future since being released from his aforementioned PTO with Carolina in November 2023.
In 581 regular-season appearances, the Bratislava native posted a 2.50 GAA and .913 SV% with a 295-189-63 record and 53 shutouts. One of the best undersized netminders (5’11”, 189 lbs) of his generation, he posted an even better .919 SV% and 2.48 GAA in 39 playoff games in six trips to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
All of us at PHR wish Halak the best in retirement.
Image courtesy of Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images.