Marc Staal Retires, Joins Rangers As Development Coach
Veteran defenseman Marc Staal has announced his retirement after 17 seasons. He’s immediately beginning his front office career with the Rangers as a player development assistant, the team announced.
For Staal, it’s a return to where his NHL career began nearly two decades ago. The No. 12 pick in the 2005 draft by the Rangers, he was the third Staal brother to reach the NHL, following Eric Staal with the Hurricanes and Jordan Staal with the Penguins.
Staal, now 37, spent two post-draft seasons back in junior hockey with the Ontario Hockey League’s Sudbury Wolves before becoming a full-time fixture on the New York blue line immediately upon turning pro in 2007. He challenged for top-four minutes in his rookie season, posting 10 points and a +2 rating in 80 games while averaging nearly 19 minutes per night en route to finishing 12th in Calder Trophy voting in 2007-08.
By the time his entry-level deal expired, Staal was averaging over 22 minutes per game and had become one of the better stay-at-home defenders in the league on a team consistently in the playoff race. He also contributed a decent amount of offense, posting 27 points in his final ELC year of 2009-10 – all at even strength. That led the Blueshirts to give him a five-year, $19.88MM payday after a somewhat lengthy holdout during the 2010 offseason, putting pen to paper on the deal just around when training camp began in September.
Staal would remain a top-four fixture for the Rangers throughout the 2010s, signing a six-year, $34.2MM extension on top of his previous deal in 2015 to avoid becoming an unrestricted free agent. He helped guide the Rangers to the 2014 Eastern Conference championship, although they lost the Stanley Cup Final in five games to the Kings. His top showing was inarguably the 2010-11 campaign, when he recorded a career-high 22 assists, 29 points, and averaged 25:44 per game en route to receiving Norris Trophy votes for the only time in his career.
The stalwart defender saw his usage drop early on in that six-year extension, though, and he was a bottom-pairing option by the time the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020. With one year left on his deal, the Rangers attached a second-round pick for the Red Wings to take on the final season of his contract. He’d spent two seasons on a rebuilding Detroit club, signing a one-year pact to extend his stay, before landing with the Panthers as a free agent for the 2022-23 campaign.
Staal seemed to get some life back in South Florida, playing alongside brother Eric for the second time (Eric had a brief stint with the Rangers in 2016). He appeared in all 82 games for the third time in his career and posted 15 points with a +10 rating, sliding into top-four spot duty alongside Brandon Montour. He was held without a point in 21 playoff games but averaged nearly 21 minutes per night as Florida charged through to the 2023 Stanley Cup Final, ultimately losing to the Golden Knights.
A reunion wasn’t in the cards, though, leaving Staal to land a one-year, $1.1MM deal in free agency with the Flyers last summer. He was relegated to fringe usage as a No. 7 option, though, making only 35 appearances and averaging 13:49 per game.
For his career, Staal scored 53 goals, 181 assists, and 234 points and posted a +52 rating while averaging 19:56 per game across 1,136 regular season appearances. He also totaled 20 points, a -17 rating and averaged 21:46 per game in 128 playoff games with Florida and New York. He’ll be working with the organization’s defense prospects in his development role, per Larry Brooks of the New York Post.
Larry Brooks of the New York Post was first to report Staal’s retirement and development role with the Rangers.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Torey Krug’s Injury Could Be Career-Threatening
St. Louis Blues defenseman Torey Krug spoke with reporters today for the first time about his injury situation and acknowledged that the issue with his ankle could be career-ending (as per Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic). Krug told reporters today that he first sustained the injury in 2018 while he was a member of the Boston Bruins. Krug broke his left ankle in the second round of the playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning when he awkwardly slammed into the boards and was done for the playoffs.
Krug started the 2018-19 season late (missing 11 games) but managed to dress in 64 games for the Bruins before finishing his time in Boston in 2019-20. He then signed a seven-year contract with St. Louis and played several seasons after the initial injury, but started to have an issue with arthritis from the ankle surgery. He played through the pain, receiving support in the form of treatment, exercise and injections.
It wasn’t until this offseason that Krug started to have major issues during his training. He called Blues general manager Doug Armstrong to report the issue and to formulate a plan with medical personnel. The initial timeline was to rehab his ankle for six to eight weeks and then re-evaluate. Now, with the rehab period over, Krug will go in for a procedure called a subtalar fusion, which could be career-threatening for the 33-year-old as it restricts lateral movement within the foot and ankle, something that is required for an NHL defenseman to move around the ice with ease.
Dr. Rick Lehman, a medical director for the U.S. Center of Sports Medicine put Krug’s odds of playing in the NHL again at about 30%, calling the procedure a Hail Mary. He also added that while a return to the ice is possible, the surgery is very difficult to come back from and the recovery period is unpredictable.
Maple Leafs Sign Steven Lorentz To PTO
Sep. 4: The Maple Leafs have officially invited Lorentz to camp on a PTO, per a team announcement Wednesday.
Sep. 3: Free agent center Steven Lorentz is expected to join the Maple Leafs on a professional tryout, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports.
Lorentz, 28, remains unsigned over two months into free agency after playing a depth role in the Panthers’ Stanley Cup win last June. He suited up in 16 of their 24 playoff games, scoring twice and adding an assist while averaging a meager 7:07 per game.
The Ontario native played a more limited role in the regular season when he was a frequent healthy scratch. The depth pivot saw some spot duty on the penalty kill and had only one goal and two assists in 38 games.
It was Lorentz’s first and only season in Florida. The Panthers acquired him from the Sharks in a trade last summer that sent scoring winger Anthony Duclair to the Bay Area. He’s coming off a two-year, $2.1MM deal he signed with San Jose in 2022 after being acquired from the Hurricanes in the Brent Burns trade, potentially making Toronto his fourth team in the past four years.
The 6’4″, 205-lb forward will look to prove valuable in a depth role for the Leafs during training camp in hopes of a deal, likely a league-minimum one with a one-way structure. He hasn’t been assigned to the minors since before the COVID-19 pandemic, suiting up with Carolina’s AHL affiliate (then in Charlotte) from 2017 to 2020.
The Leafs aren’t teeming with salary cap space, but they have room for a potential league-minimum pickup like Lorentz. They have $1.275MM in projected space with two open roster spots, per PuckPedia.
In 230 NHL games over the past four seasons, Lorentz has 21 goals, 22 assists, 43 points, and a -26 rating, averaging 10:47 per game. He can play both center and left-wing and has posted a respectable 48.7% win rate in the dot through nearly 1,100 faceoffs.
Lorentz will compete with more veteran depth pieces like Alex Steeves and prospects like Easton Cowan and Fraser Minten for a spot on Toronto’s opening night roster.
Dominik Kubalík Signs In Switzerland
Unrestricted free agent winger Dominik Kubalík has agreed to join HC Ambrì-Piotta of the Swiss National League for this season, according to a team announcement. Should he land a deal stateside before Dec. 15, his contract has an NHL opt-out clause.
Kubalík, 29, played for Ambrì-Piotta for two seasons before coming to the NHL. He recorded 89 points in 78 games there across the 2017-18 and 2018-19 campaigns, playing a pivotal role in helping them avoid relegation to the second-tier Swiss League in 2018. The following season, he was named the National League’s MVP and led the circuit in scoring before landing an NHL deal the following summer.
Kubalík heads overseas following an incredibly disappointing 2023-24 season with the Senators. After four consecutive seasons of 30-plus points with the Blackhawks and Red Wings, he produced just 11 goals and four assists for 15 points in 74 games in Ottawa while averaging a career-low 12:07 per game with a -30 rating, tied with Jakob Chychrun for the worst on the team.
The Kings selected Kubalík with the 191st pick in 2013 and sent his rights to the Blackhawks nearly six years later, never signing him to an entry-level contract. He joined Chicago for the 2019-20 season, breaking out for 30 goals and 46 points in 68 games and finishing third in Calder Trophy voting.
After two more years of decent middle-six production in the Windy City, he signed a two-year, $5MM deal in Detroit as a UFA in 2022 after going non-tendered by the Hawks. He posted 20 goals and 45 points in 81 games for the Wings in 2022-23, his best production since his rookie season, but he was traded to the Sens last summer in the Alex DeBrincat deal.
For now, Kubalík hits pause on his NHL career after making 357 appearances with three teams, averaging 21 goals, 19 assists and 40 points per 82 games. He’s also coming off a strong showing at the 2024 World Championship, where he had five goals and three assists in 10 games for Czechia as he won his first gold medal on the international stage.
Leon Draisaitl Signs Eight-Year Extension With Oilers
1:09 p.m.: A whopping $104MM of Draisaitl’s $112MM total compensation will be paid via signing bonuses, PuckPedia reports. His base salary will be $1MM per season. He’ll earn $15.5MM in signing bonuses annually from 2025-26 through 2027-28. That figure drops to $13MM in 2028-29, then $11.5MM in 2029-30, then $11MM annually for the final three years of the deal.
9:16 a.m.: Superstar Oilers center Leon Draisaitl has signed an eight-year, $112MM extension to keep him in Edmonton through the 2032-33 season, the team announced. He’s now the NHL’s highest-paid player with an average annual value of $14MM, as initially reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Draisaitl has a full no-movement clause for the life of the contract, per Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. He adds the deal carries a front-loaded structure, although the specific salary breakdown has yet to be reported.
The 28-year-old Draisaitl also lands the second-largest contract by total value in NHL history, trailing only Alex Ovechkin‘s 13-year, $124MM deal with the Capitals signed under the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2008.
“This is a historic day for the Edmonton Oilers,” general manager Stan Bowman said in a team press release. “Leon’s commitment to our team, our city and Oilers fans everywhere cannot be overstated. His desire to help bring a Stanley Cup title home to Edmonton is central to everything he does both on and off the ice.”
While it was widely expected Draisaitl would sign a max-term extension to stay in Edmonton, few thought he’d be the first player to land a $14MM AAV. There was no guarantee he’d eclipse Auston Matthews‘ $13.25MM AAV to become the new highest-paid player in the league, let alone shatter it. However, since Bowman took the GM’s office in July, extension discussions have been reportedly smooth, which, in hindsight, should have been a strong indication that the Oilers were willing to shell out record-breaking cash to keep the German star in Edmonton.
Unlike his other generational teammate, Connor McDavid, Draisaitl wasn’t an impact piece immediately upon arriving in the NHL. The 2014 third-overall pick had just two goals and nine points in 37 games during his post-draft year. He developed into a high-end top-six piece over the coming years, routinely hitting over 20 goals and 70 points, but hadn’t quite captured the aura of a superstar.
That all changed in 2018-19. While the Oilers missed the playoffs for the 12th time in 13 years, it was a proper breakout campaign for Draisaitl, who led the team in goals (50) and finished second behind McDavid in points with 105. Since that season, Edmonton has made the playoffs every year, and Draisaitl has recorded or been on pace for over 100 points in an 82-game year. A two-time year-end All-Star, Draisaitl also took home the Art Ross, Hart, and Pearson awards/trophies during the 2019-20 season after leading the league with 67 assists and 110 points in 71 games.
The Cologne-born pivot is also one of the most prolific playoff performers in league history. His 108 points in 74 postseason games work out to 1.46 P/GP, which is fourth all-time among players with at least 50 games of playoff experience. Only Wayne Gretzky (1.84), Mario Lemieux (1.61), and McDavid (1.58) have produced more on a nightly basis when the games matter most. It’s especially impressive when considering Draisaitl has played through injuries for a good chunk of the past three postseasons.
For the rest of the league, they now have certainty that the best available potential 2025 unrestricted free agent won’t hit the open market. There’s a chance he could have landed even more money per season with the salary cap expected to rise to at least $92MM for 2025-26, but the total value likely would have been smaller with a seven-year maximum.
Even after declining to match the rich offer sheets levied by the Blues for Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway last month, Bowman and the Oilers now find themselves in a seriously precarious salary cap situation for 2025-26. They already have a projected cap hit of $77.4MM, per PuckPedia, leaving them $14.6MM to re-sign pending RFA defenseman Evan Bouchard and fill at least three other roster spots (assuming a $92MM upper limit). 38.9% of next season’s spending is already dedicated solely to Draisaitl, McDavid, and Darnell Nurse.
As such, the Oilers’ directive to win a championship in the Draisaitl/McDavid era is clearer than it’s ever been in 2024-25. After falling one game short of their first Stanley Cup in over 30 years a few months ago, they’ll need to retrace their steps and find their way back to the Cup Final.
They’ll be able to score their way there after reloading offensively by adding names like Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner in free agency. However, question marks will remain on defense outside of their star pairing of Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm. There isn’t a ton of stability behind them, and while trade acquisition Ty Emberson should be a cost-effective replacement for Cody Ceci, declining play from Nurse is a significant concern.
Draisaitl will play out 2023-24 under his previous contract, earning $8MM in actual salary in the final season of the eight-year, $68MM deal he signed coming off his entry-level contract in 2017.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Brad Marchand Underwent Multiple Offseason Surgeries, Expected To Be Ready For Season
Bruins captain Brad Marchand underwent a trio of surgeries this summer, he told reporters at an informal skate Tuesday (via Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub). The winger may be slightly limited to start training camp later this month but expects to be ready for opening night, per Scott McLaughlin of WEEI.
The first procedure Marchand had done was to repair a torn tendon in his elbow that plagued him for the entirety of the 2023-24 campaign, he said. He also underwent abdominal and groin surgeries to repair injuries he sustained late in the regular season.
Those injuries barely cost Marchand any playing time. For the second time in his career, he played in all 82 regular-season games, but he missed two playoff games with what the team called an upper-body injury. That one was presumably addressed with abdominal surgery.
Marchand slowed offensively in 2023-24, but whether that was because of his injuries or age remains to be seen. The 15-year veteran is entering his age-36 season and posted 67 points (0.82 per game) last year, his lowest per-game rate since 2015-16. He still managed to finish second on the team in scoring behind David Pastrňák and helped lead the Bruins to their first playoff series win since 2021 in his first season as captain following Patrice Bergeron‘s retirement.
He’ll reprise his top-six role this season, but likely not on a line with Pastrňák with free-agent signing Elias Lindholm down the middle. Marchand said he expects to start the year back on the team’s second line, centered by Charlie Coyle (via Conor Ryan of The Boston Globe).
It’s an important campaign for Marchand as he kicks off the final year of the eight-year, $49MM extension he signed back in 2016. General manager Don Sweeney said in May that signing Marchand to an extension was one of his top priorities this summer, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Torey Krug To Undergo Ankle Surgery, Out For Season
Blues defenseman Torey Krug will undergo surgery to address pre-arthritic changes in his left ankle and will miss the entire 2024-25 season, general manager Doug Armstrong announced today. The team’s press release didn’t say when Krug will have the surgery performed.
It’s not an unexpected development. The team said season-ending surgery was a possibility in July when they announced that team doctors had detected pre-arthritic conditions in his ankle.
At the time, the team said Krug would “work to rehabilitate the injury through non-surgical interventions over the course of the next six to eight weeks” before determining whether surgery would be necessary. With those interventions failing, the 33-year-old will sit out the campaign.
Krug’s left ankle injury is a “cumulative result of a bone fracture suffered earlier in his playing career,” the Blues said earlier this summer. They didn’t state specifics, but it’s most likely the left ankle fracture he sustained in the second round of the 2018 playoffs while with the Bruins. It cost him the final game of their series loss against the Lightning, and he also missed the first 11 games of the 2018-19 season while recovering from the fracture.
The defender is now over halfway through the seven-year, $45.5MM contract he signed in St. Louis as an unrestricted free agent in 2020. He has three seasons remaining on the deal, which carries a $6.5MM cap hit.
While not a stark overpayment, especially as the salary cap begins to rise, Krug hasn’t met expectations with the Blues. Injuries are nothing new for the defender, who’s never played a full 82 games in a season, and he’s missed at least five games in all of his four seasons in St. Louis thus far. Last year’s 77 appearances were his most in seven years.
Krug was signed mainly to fill the void left on the St. Louis blue line by former captain Alex Pietrangelo, who left for the Golden Knights in free agency in 2020 just one year after leading the Blues to their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. At no point in his career has Krug been the all-around defender that Pietrangelo was, though, and that’s been reflected in his subpar possession numbers since heading west to Missouri.
In 255 games as a Blue, Krug has 22 goals, 124 assists and 146 points with a -23 rating while averaging 20:54 per game, slightly more usage than he saw during his nine years in Boston. With him on the ice at even strength, the Blues have controlled 49.0% of shot attempts and 47.7% of expected goals, per Hockey Reference.
Krug was only the Blues’ third most-used defenseman last season. His 21:58 average time on ice checked in behind Colton Parayko (23:52) and Nick Leddy (22:22).
Fresh offer-sheet acquisition Philip Broberg will likely get the first chance to replace the majority of Krug’s minutes. The 2019 eighth-overall pick by the Oilers, who the Blues signed to a two-year, $9.16MM contract last month that Edmonton declined to match, had 38 points in 49 games with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors last season.
The skilled puck-mover has only seen limited NHL minutes in Edmonton, and thrusting him into top-four minutes out of the gate is a significant gamble for a Blues team with playoff aspirations. But doing so would make his pricey $4.58MM cap hit much more palatable.
They also have a solid backup option for Broberg in 26-year-old Scott Perunovich, whose development has been delayed by a series of significant injuries. Nonetheless, he’s still got a fair bit of offensive upside and had 17 assists in 54 contests for the Blues last year while averaging just 15:16 per game.
Cap-wise, the Blues will have ample flexibility this season with the option to place Krug on long-term injured reserve at any time. They have over $2MM in projected cap space with an open roster spot though, per PuckPedia, so that won’t be necessary to begin the season. They’ll keep him on standard injured reserve for as long as possible to accumulate cap space throughout the season.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Hurricanes Re-Sign Seth Jarvis To Eight-Year Contract
Earlier this week, a report from The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta indicated that the Hurricanes and RFA winger Seth Jarvis were nearing an agreement on a long-term contract. That is indeed the case as the team announced that the two sides have reached an eight-year, $63.2MM contract. GM Eric Tulsky released the following statement:
Seth is a cornerstone player for our franchise. He took another huge step last season, playing in all situations and displaying the skill and competitive drive that will make him a star in this league in the years to come.
Typically, the AAV of a contract is the total value divided by the number of years which in this case would be $7.9MM. However, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli (who first reported the deal) reports that there is a deferred signing bonus payment due July 1st, 2032, a day after the expiration of the agreement. By doing so, the contract’s AAV will actually check in at $7.5MM. Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic adds (Twitter link) that the deal contains $30MM of signing bonus money, the breakdown of which is not yet known.
The contract will cover the four remaining RFA-eligible seasons plus his first four seasons of UFA eligibility. It’s only those last four years that will be eligible for trade protection.
The 22-year-old was selected 13th overall by the Hurricanes in 2020. Jarvis spent his post-draft campaign in the WHL and then made the jump to the NHL at 19. He put up 17 goals and 23 assists in 68 games in his rookie season and followed that up with 14 goals and 25 helpers in 82 games in his sophomore campaign.
Last season was a breakout performance for Jarvis. He set career-highs with 33 goals and 34 assists in 81 games while averaging 18:45 per night. His 67 points were good for second on the team in scoring behind only Sebastian Aho. Jarvis was also one of Carolina’s top scorers during the postseason as he had five goals and four helpers in 11 contests, putting him third in team scoring. That certainly gave him some extra bargaining power heading into contract negotiations.
Carolina went into these discussions with roughly $6.44MM in cap space, per PuckPedia so this agreement will put them around $1MM over the Upper Limit. However, with Jesper Fast expected to miss the entire season after having neck surgery, the Hurricanes will be able to put him on LTIR, getting them back into cap compliance. They can also opt to carry a roster with fewer than the maximum of 23 players which would allow them to get under the Upper Limit that way and still bank in-season cap room.
Contracts with deferred money are quite rare in the NHL but it’s actually the second time Carolina has used it this offseason. Seravalli notes in his report about Jarvis’ contract that there is some deferred signing bonus money in Jaccob Slavin‘s contract as well, one that moves the AAV from the reported $6.461MM to $6.396MM. These structures have been approved by the NHL so there won’t be any concerns about this contract getting vetoed.
Johnston noted (Twitter link) that multiple teams attempted to use this structure in talks this summer, including Vegas in their attempts to re-sign Jonathan Marchessault. With Carolina now successfully doing this twice, it will be interesting to see if it results in an uptick in these types of agreements moving forward.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Gaudreau Pass Away
Blue Jackets winger Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew Gaudreau, passed away on Thursday, the team has confirmed in a statement. They were struck by an accused drunk driver while biking near their New Jersey home, police confirmed to Jeff Goldman of NJ Advance Media. They were 31 and 29 years old.
“The National Hockey League family is shocked and saddened by the tragic passing of Columbus Blue Jackets forward Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew,” said league commissioner Gary Bettman. “While Johnny’s infectious spirit for the game and show-stopping skills on the ice earned him the nickname ‘Johnny Hockey,’ he was more than just a dazzling hockey player; he was a doting father and beloved husband, son, brother and teammate who endeared himself to every person fortunate enough to have crossed his path. Gaudreau often told the story of how his father taught him to skate as a child in his home state of New Jersey, and he carried that same youthful passion throughout his 11 NHL seasons.”
Both Gaudreaus prefaced their professional careers with stints at Boston College, where Johnny immediately emerged as a star after being selected in the fourth round by the Flames in 2011. After recording a point per game as a freshman, he was the best player in college hockey by his junior year, leading the NCAA in scoring in 2013-14 with an incredible 80 points and 40 games. He won the Hobey Baker Award for the top collegiate player in the country and signed his entry-level contract with Calgary to end the campaign, scoring his first NHL goal in his first NHL game against the Canucks on April 13, 2014.
Gaudreau was an immediate standout, locking down a top-six role and posting 64 points in 80 games during his rookie season to help the Flames to their first playoff berth in six years. He led the team with nine points in 11 postseason games as they upset the rival Canucks in the first round and stole a game from the heavily-favored Ducks in Round 2.
Over the next decade, Gaudreau would cement himself as the cornerstone of the Flames’ offense. He was their representative at the NHL All-Star Game for five years to begin his career and quickly made a name for himself as one of the league’s most agile wingers.
His first true breakout came in 2018-19 when he torched the league for 36 goals and 99 points en route to Calgary’s first division title since 2006. He averaged over 20 minutes per game and finished fourth in Hart Trophy voting.
Gaudreau continued to serve as Calgary’s top offensive option up until 2021-22. Entering the final season of a six-year, $40.5MM contract, Gaudreau, along with linemates Elias Lindholm and Matthew Tkachuk, put up one of the most dominant seasons from a single forward unit we’ve seen in quite some time. He recorded career-highs with 40 goals, 75 assists and 115 points and also led the league with a remarkable +68 rating. His expert playmaking also helped Lindholm and Tkachuk to breakout campaigns, and for a time, they were the most suffocating two-way line in the league at 5v5.
An unrestricted free agent for the first time the following summer, Gaudreau opted to head east to return closer to his New Jersey home. The top UFA on the market that summer, he landed a seven-year, $68.25MM deal with Columbus. Both he and the team hoped he would be the veteran offensive presence necessary to help guide the team out of a rebuild. Gaudreau led the Blue Jackets in scoring each of the past two seasons, posting 33 goals, 101 assists and 134 points in 161 games.
Matthew never made his way to the NHL, but he did have a strong career in the minor leagues. After playing spot duty as a freshman at Boston College in Johnny’s junior season, he later emerged as an important player for the program in his own right, tying for the team lead in scoring during his senior season with 35 points in 40 games.
The younger Gaudreau began his pro career in the Islanders organization in 2017, signing a two-way AHL contract with their affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. He had five points in 17 games over his first two years there, spending most of his time down in the ECHL with the Worcester Railers. It was there he was able to shine offensively, posting 24 goals and 36 assists for 60 points in 88 games.
In 2019-20, Gaudreau opted to join Johnny in the Calgary hockey pyramid, inking a deal with the Flames’ AHL affiliate, the Stockton Heat. He made four appearances for them and had a breakout year on loan to the ECHL’s Reading Royals, where he erupted for 29 assists in 40 points in 38 games.
Gaudreau headed overseas when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, posting six points in 12 games for Sweden’s Tyringe SoSS. He returned to the Railers for 2021-22, making a lone appearance before announcing his retirement.
All of us at PHR send our deepest condolences to the Gaudreau family, their friends, their fans, and the many organizations where the brothers took their talents.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Jesper Fast To Miss 2024-25 Season After Neck Surgery
The Carolina Hurricanes have announced that forward Jesper Fast will miss the entirety of the 2024-25 season after undergoing neck surgery. Fast suffered the injury in Carolina’s final game of the regular season, and missed out on the entirety of the postseason as a result. The injury capped off his season at 19 points in 73 games – the lowest that Fast has scored in a full season since his rookie year in 2014-15.
Fast will now miss a full year after a career of consistency. He’s never missed more than 16 games in a season since becoming a full-time pro, playing in 634 of a possible 712 games since the 2015-16 season. His career kicked off with the New York Rangers, who selected him in the sixth round of the 2010 NHL Draft. Fast moved to the AHL full-time three seasons later, quickly working his way into the NHL with reliable two-way play on the wings. That style hasn’t elicited much scoring, with Fast boasting a career-high of just 33 points, but it’s been enough to earn him a concrete NHL role, and even Selke Trophy votes in the 2015-16 and 2021-22 campaigns.
Fast brought those talents to Carolina with a free-agent contract in 2021 – moving on from a seven-year tenure with the New York Rangers. He’s since become a glue piece in Carolina’s bottom six, serving as an energy piece around budding roster pieces like Jack Drury and Jesperi Kotkaniemi. That would have been the role awaiting him again next season, but Carolina will now have to pivot – and maybe even turn toward top prospects to pick up the slack. The Hurricanes have Bradly Nadeau, Jackson Blake, and Gleb Trikozov all signed to entry-level contracts. Each of the quartet holds a claim to the NHL lineup, but will have to fend off the pressure of veteran fourth-liners Eric Robinson and Tyson Jost and other quick-rising prospects like Felix Unger Sorum and Justin Robidas.