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Sabres Sign Ryan McLeod To Four-Year Deal

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The Sabres announced they’ve signed RFA center Ryan McLeod to a four-year, $20MM contract worth $5MM per season. McLeod carries a five-time no-trade list in 2027-28 and 2028-29, per PuckPedia.

After an impressive first year with the Sabres, Buffalo is making sure McLeod is with the team for the foreseeable future. Before joining the Sabres, McLeod set his highest point total during his final season with the Edmonton Oilers. He scored 12 goals and recorded 30 points in 81 games, finishing with a +10 rating while averaging 14:15 of ice time per game.

There was a reasonable expectation that McLeod would score at a similar pace, if not worse, after moving to a non-contending team from the Western Conference champions. It didn’t take long for McLeod to quiet the doubters.

McLeod finished his first season in Buffalo with 20 goals and 53 points in 79 games, managing a +13 rating and being one of the few bright spots on the roster. Despite being on a team with talented scorers, the former bottom-six mainstay for the Oilers tied for fifth on the team in scoring. He was the team’s most successful center in the faceoff, too, securing a 52.3% win rate.

Those faceoff wins came during important parts of the game, too. McLeod began 54.3% of his shifts in the defensive zone, meaning he could be relied upon to negate an opposing team’s scoring chance most of the time. He still has some kinks to work out in his possession and defensive game, but this contract should age well for the Sabres.

It’s also important to note how much speed McLeod brings to Buffalo’s lineup. According to NHL EDGE stats, McLeod finished in the 87th percentile of 22+ mph bursts, 96th percentile in 20-22 mph bursts, and 99th percentile in 18-20 mph bursts. Although Father Time is known for targeting speed first, McLeod will only be 30 years old by the conclusion of this contract, so Buffalo won’t have to worry about any age-related drop-off for some time.

PHR’s Brennan McClain contributed significantly to this article. 

Rangers, Will Cuylle Agree To Two-Year Deal

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The Rangers and winger William Cuylle have agreed to terms on a two-year contract worth $3.9MM per season, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Cuylle’s deal is back-loaded to give him a $4.68MM salary and corresponding qualifying offer upon expiry in 2027, per PuckPedia, where he’ll also have salary arbitration rights

Cuylle was a second-round pick by the Rangers back in 2020, going 60th overall and certainly has outperformed his draft stock.  In 2023-24, he cracked New York’s lineup on a full-time basis and while his playing time was limited, he chipped in with 13 goals and eight assists in 81 games while also recording 248 hits.

There was some optimism that he could find another gear offensively heading into last season and Cuylle did just that.  In 82 games, he potted 20 goals and 25 assists, good for a share of fifth in team scoring.  He also saw his playing time jump up by nearly four minutes a game to a little over 15 minutes a night while also notching 301 hits, tied for the third-most in the NHL behind only Kiefer Sherwood (Vancouver) and Mathieu Olivier (Columbus).

Power forwards are hard to come by and coveted by many teams, making Cuylle a speculative offer sheet target, especially with the uncertainty with K’Andre Miller (who has since been traded to Carolina).  While New York created some cap space earlier this offseason with the trade of Chris Kreider to Anaheim, they went and spent that money to lock up Vladislav Gavrikov on a seven-year, $49MM contract that was one of the biggest of the day.

That meant that a long-term pact for Cuylle was out of the question.  Instead, the two sides have settled on a bridge deal that allows New York to stay cap-compliant while setting him up for a better deal two years from now.  With the Upper Limit set to jump to around $113MM by the time this deal expires, Cuylle will be well-positioned for a big raise, assuming he continues to play at the level he did last season.

With the signing and today’s other movement, the Rangers find themselves with a little over $1.4MM in cap space, per PuckPedia, with a full roster.  That gives GM Chris Drury a little wiggle room should the opportunity arrive to upgrade a depth player over the rest of the summer or, alternatively, keeping that space into next season would buy them some flexibility if injuries arise.

Josh Erickson also contributed to this post.

Kings Sign Cody Ceci, Brian Dumoulin, Anton Forsberg

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3:51 p.m.: The first two seasons of Dumoulin’s contract are paid mostly via signing bonus, per PuckPedia. He also has a 10-team no-trade list throughout the deal.

1:38 p.m.: The Kings have signed defenseman Cody Ceci to a four-year contract carrying a $4.5MM cap hit and defenseman Brian Dumoulin to a three-year deal with a $4MM cap hit, the team announced. They’ve also signed goaltender Anton Forsberg to a two-year deal at $2.25MM per season to serve as Darcy Kuemper’s backup, per Frank Seravalli.

Los Angeles will lock in a bottom-pair defense in these moves, bringing in two veteran presences in Ceci and Dumoulin. Both are past their primes but still managed to fill top-end roles split between two teams this season. Ceci averaged over 21 games this season, after beginning the year as the clear top defender on a shallow San Jose Sharks club.

He recorded 15 points, 100 blocked shots, and 52 hits while playing nearly 22 minutes a night for 54 games in San Jose. That hardy performance was enough to convince the Dallas Stars to add him as playoff reassurance at the Trade Deadline, in a deal that sent a 2025 first-round pick to the Sharks in exchange for Ceci and Mikael Granlund. Ceci added nine assists in 31 games with the Stars, and played in 85 total games on the season due to the mid-year trade.

Ceci has played through 12 seasons in the NHL. Much of that has been headlined by questions around his two-way performance, but Ceci has remained a pillar of consistency each season, routinely filling top-end minutes and rivaling 25 points a season. He’s totaled 235 points, a plus-two, and an average of 21 minutes of ice time through 871 career games in the NHL.

Dumoulin’s career hasn’t spanned six different clubs like Ceci’s has, though he will be joining his fifth club in the last three years with this move. He was once the proud pillar of the Pittsburgh Penguins blue-line, routinely averaging top-four minutes and modest scoring while operating alongside or behind Kris Letang. Dumoulin’s responsible style and routine rivaling of 100 hits helped him earn a commanding role on both of Pittsburgh’s Stanley Cup wins. He’s been a bit less exciting in the years since his days in Pittsburgh – most recently recording 22 points, 109 blocked shots, and 74 hits between the Anaheim Ducks and New Jersey Devils this season. He continued to average over 19 minutes of ice time through this season, bringing his career-long average to just over 20 minutes across 706 career games. Dumoulin has chipped in 177 points, a plus-95, and over 1,000 blocked shots in those appearances.

Backing up the pair of heavily-used vets will be career-long backup goaltender Forsberg. He has spent the last three seasons serving as backup for the Ottawa Senators, after a one-season jump to the Senators’ starting role in 2021-22. He managed a .917 save percentage in 46 games during that starting season, and has since routinely rivaled a near-exact .900 save percentage while routinely appearing in 30 games. Those are quaint numbers over a multi-year span, but Forsberg has nonetheless shown he can handle a modest backup role. He’s set a .904 save percentage and 74-81-14 record in 190 career games, dating back to the 2014-15 season. While Los Angeles prepares to lockstep Ceci and Dumoulin, Forsberg will fill the backup role vacated by David Rittich.

PHR’s Gabriel Foley contributed significantly to this article.

Ducks Sign Mikael Granlund To Three-Year Deal

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One of the top remaining free agents is off the board. Center Mikael Granlund has signed a three-year deal with the Ducks, the team announced. The contract carries a $7MM cap hit, Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic reports.

Granlund will earn a nice pay raise over the $5MM cap hit he carried over the last four seasons. His last deal, a four-year contract worth $20MM, was originally signed with the Nashville Predators in July of 2021, though it ultimately carried him across tenures with four different clubs He earned the deal on the heels of scoring 13 goals and 27 points in 51 games of the shortened 2020-21 season, and quickly made it look like a value contract with 11 goals and 64 points in the 2021-22 season. He carved out a clear role platooned between Nashville’s top-line wings and second-line center roles, but was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a second-round pick ahead of the 2023 Trade Deadline. Pittsburgh retained Granlund through the rest of the 2022-23 season, before including him in an August 2022 trade that sent Granlund alongside four other players, a 2024 first-round pick, and a 2025 second-round pick in exchange for Erik Karlsson, two other players, and a 2026 third-round pick.

Granlund instantly took to a lead role on a young Sharks lineup, and maintained his hot scoring through the transition. He recorded 12 goals and 60 points in 69 games with San Jose last season, then returned for 45 points in 52 games at the start of this year. But with such a red-hot veteran scorer in their mix, San Jose opted to trade Granlund and defender Cody Ceci to the Dallas Stars at this year’s Trade Deadline, in a deal that landed them a 2025 first-round pick (Joshua Ravensbergen) and a conditional second-round pick that wasn’t exercised. Granlund continued to produce in Dallas, with 21 points in 31 regular-season games and 10 points in 18 postseason games.

The Ducks will be landing a mobile, athletic forward with strong playmaking upside in Granlund. He likely projects into a second-line role, but could offer the team upwards of 40, 50, or even 60 assist upside with the right linemates. He could be an enticing veteran presence to play off of youngsters like Cutter Gauthier and Leo Carlsson, or offer the visionary passing to set up fellow newcomer Chris Kreider on line two. In either mix, Granlund’s speed and passing ability offer a refreshing boost to Anaheim’s bulky lineup.

Granlund has spent a collective 13 years in the NHL, and amassed 610 points in 902 career games. To boot, he’s also averaged north of 19 minutes in ice time in three of the last four seasons. He’ll be a toolsy addition to a Ducks’ top-end that’s looking to make a postseason run — though a three-year deal will carry him through his age-36 season.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron-Imagn Images.

PHR’s Gabriel Foley contributed significantly to this article.

Islanders Sign Jonathan Drouin To Two-Year Deal

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The Islanders announced they’ve signed winger Jonathan Drouin to a two-year contract. The deal is worth $4MM per season, Frank Seravalli reports.

Similarly to their recruitment of winger Anthony Duclair last offseason, the Islanders have looked to the second-tier options for forwards to fix their offensive woes. In Drouin, they’ll add a silky playmaking winger into their top-six.

The former third-overall pick has played for the Colorado Avalanche for the past two years, though he struggled with injuries last season. Throughout his two-year stint, Drouin scored 30 goals and 93 points in 122 games with a +16 rating, averaging 18:11 of ice time.

Remarkably, even after ten years in the NHL, Drouin’s first season in Colorado was his best individual campaign yet. Besides him achieving a career-high 56 points during the 2023-24 campaign, Drouin averaged a 57.0% CorsiFor% at even strength during his tenure in Denver. It’s hard to imagine that he’s capable of driving his line, but the Islanders can place him next to Bo Horvat or Mathew Barzal and expect quality production.

If they have any hopes of contending during the 2025-26 season, New York desperately needed to add more offense. They faced financial constraints due to the number of restricted free agents they needed to sign. Drouin gives them the best of both worlds, offering quality secondary scoring production while leaving enough room for the Islanders to have enough space to re-up their remaining RFAs.

PHR’s Brennan McClain contributed significantly to this article. 

Mammoth Sign Nate Schmidt, Brandon Tanev To Three-Year Deals

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The Mammoth have signed winger Brandon Tanev to a three-year, $7.5MM contract worth $2.5MM per season, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The team also announced they’ve signed defenseman Nate Schmidt to a three-year contract worth $3.5MM per season.

Just like last offseason, Utah is quickly solidifying its defensive core and strengthening the bottom six of its forward group. Impressively, Schmidt parlayed a one-year league minimum agreement with the Florida Panthers into a three-year contract with the Mammoth.

There’s reason to believe he’s earned that deal. Schmidt scored five goals and 19 points in 80 games for the Panthers last year with a +4 rating, while averaging 16:32 of ice time per game. His possession quality skyrocketed to a 57.4% CorsiFor% at even strength, and he’ll come to Salt Lake City as a Stanley Cup champion.

Unfortunately, Schmidt’s signing could spell the end for Juuso Välimäki’s time in Utah. After scoring four goals and 34 points in 78 games for the Arizona Coyotes in 2022-23, Välimäki’s output dropped to two goals and five points in 43 games with Utah last season. According to PuckPedia, the Mammoth now has nine defensemen signed to one-way contracts for the 2025-26 season. This supports the idea that Välimäki could be buried or traded to another organization.

Meanwhile, the Mammoth have also added Tanev, who was one of the better bottom-six options on the market this summer. He’s been a quality physical winger for the last several years, scoring 33 goals and 73 points in 227 games between the Seattle Kraken and Winnipeg Jets, with 506 hits.

He has an element to his game that the Mammoth desperately need if they hope to make a statement next season. Utah only had five players deliver more than 100 hits last season, and one of them, Nick Bjugstad, already departed the team earlier today. Now, with Tanev in hand, the Mammoth could put together one of the game’s most physical lines by placing Tanev next to center Jack McBain.

PHR’s Brennan McClain contributed significantly to this article. 

Blue Jackets Re-Sign Ivan Provorov To Seven-Year Deal

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July 1: Columbus has confirmed Provorov’s extension.

June 30: The Blue Jackets are keeping defenseman Ivan Provorov away from unrestricted free agency, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports. It’s a seven-year deal worth $8.5MM per season for a total value of $59.5MM, per Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic.

In what has immediately set the market for other top-four defenseman in this free agency period, the Blue Jackets have given their minute-eating Russian defenseman a $1.75MM raise. Without knowing the full scope of the trade protection, if there is any, Provorov immediately becomes the team’s second-highest-paid defenseman, and will become an unrestricted free agent for his age-36 season after the 2031-32 campaign.

There are good reasons to believe that this contract will prove beneficial for both the player and the team over time. Although he’s in no danger of receiving a majority of the Norris Trophy votes, Provorov has been a remarkably consistent defenseman upon entering the league, dating back to his time with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Since his debut in the 2016-17 season, Provorov has scored 77 goals and 282 points in 696 career games with a -28 rating while averaging 23:46 of ice time per night. His career output averages out to 9 goals and 33 points with a -3 rating over 82 games. This past season with the Blue Jackets, Provorov scored seven goals and accumulated 33 points, matching his career averages.

He has consistently maintained a similar level in his advanced metrics as well. Throughout his nine-year career, Provorov has managed a 48.7% CorsiFor% at even strength and a 90.2% on-ice save percentage at even strength.

Unfortunately, this contract is bound to have ramifications in one of two ways. If the Blue Jackets are content with having Zach Werenski and Provorov as their top-two options on the left side of their blue line, that will push youngster Denton Mateychuk to a bottom-pairing role. Given his performances from this past season, Mateychuk has already earned an opportunity in Columbus’ top-four.

If they’d like to keep the combination of Werenski and freshly signed Dante Fabbro, while creating a second-pairing of Mateychuk and Provorov, the Blue Jackets will inevitably have to put Damon Severson and Erik Gudbranson, making one of the most expensive third-pairings in the league. Still, there’s time for Columbus to move one or both pricey blueliners. At any rate, by retaining Provorov and Fabbro on multi-year deals, the Blue Jackets have put themselves in a position to thin out their defensive core.

Photo courtesy of Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images.

Kraken Sign Ryan Lindgren To Four-Year Deal

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The Kraken have signed defenseman Ryan Lindgren to a four-year contract worth $4.5MM per season, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

This will mark Lindgren’s second move in just four months. He was previously traded to the Colorado Avalanche at the Trade Deadline alongside Jimmy Vesey, in a deal that landed the New York Rangers forward Juuso Parssinen, defenseman Calvin de Haan, and conditional second and fourth round draft picks. After starting the year with 19 points in 54 games with the Rangers, Lindgren finished the year with three points, a minus-one, and four penalty minutes in 18 games with the Avalanche. He also chipped in three assists and a plus-five to seven postseason games.

It was the postseason appearances that earned Lindgren recognition from around the league. He ranked second on the team in blocked shots (12) and looked like a hardy defensive addition behind Colorado’s all-out offense. That standing wasn’t enough to push the Avalanche beyond the first round, but it seemingly was enough to keep Lindgren top of mind for teams in need of hardy, depth defenders.

Lindgren has been in the league for the last seven seasons, all the while holding down a strong role on the Rangers’ second pairing. He was an active participant in New York’s defensive zone, even racking up as much as 141 blocked shots and 129 hits in a single year during the 2021-22 campaign. He continued to rival the century tally in both stats through the last three seasons, and even managed 128 blocks and 80 hits alongside a career-high 22 points between New York and Colorado this season.

Lindgren will step into Seattle seemingly looking to rival Josh Mahura and Ryker Evans for ice time as the team’s third-pair left-defender. He could also be a candidate to play on his off-hand side opposite of Evans – in an effort to shore up Seattle’s deprived right-side. With a play style that leans heavily against getting involved in the defensive end, Lindgren shouldn’t be much effected by the ask to play on the right-side – though additional moves could make his role for the 2025-26 campaign a bit more defined.

Bruins Sign Tanner Jeannot, Jordan Harris

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The Bruins have signed winger Tanner Jeannot to a five-year deal worth $3.4MM per season, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Friedman has also announced that the Bruins are nearing a contract with defenseman Jordan Harris, who played his collegiate hockey at Northeastern University. Anthony Di Marco of the Daily Faceoff reports that it’ll be a one-year, $825K agreement for Harris.

In one of the most surprising additions of the day, the Bruins have inked a long-term deal with a power forward who has disappointed greatly over the past three years. Still, there was a time when Jeannot was regarded as one of the better up-and-coming power forwards in the league. During the 2021-22 campaign, Jeannot scored 24 goals and 41 points in 81 games with the Nashville Predators, adding 318 hits.

Despite getting off to a slow start the following season, Jeannot commanded quite a haul at the following deadline. The Predators traded Jeannot to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a package including defenseman Cal Foote and five draft picks. Unfortunately, the trade immediately became a net loss for the Lightning, and Jeannot hasn’t been the same player since his breakout season.

Over the past three years, Jeannot has scored at a dismal pace compared to the 2021-22 campaign, scoring 20 goals and 45 points in 198 games between the Predators, Lightning, and Los Angeles Kings. Still, he’s maintained his physicality by throwing 712 hits in that time frame, but his shooting percentage has cratered to 9.0%.

He’s regarded as a quality defensive forward, but shouldn’t be considered for a higher role than any team’s third line, making this commitment by Boston all the more peculiar. At any rate, they’ve added considerable physicality to their bottom-six to a team whose entire brand is built around physical hockey.

Meanwhile, Harris joins the third organization of his career after not receiving a qualifying offer from the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Haverhill, MA native returns home after spending the last four years with the Montreal Canadiens and Blue Jackets.

Still, he’s coming to Boston on the heels of a down season. In a depth role, Harris scored one goal and five points for Columbus in 33 games last season, averaging 11:23 of ice time per game. There is some reason for optimism, however, as Harris’s most recent season with the Canadiens saw him produce one goal and 14 points in 56 contests, when he averaged more than 17 minutes of ice time.

PHR’s Brennan McClain contributed significantly to this article. 

Rangers To Sign Vladislav Gavrikov To Seven-Year Contract

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As expected, the New York Rangers are finalizing a contract for unrestricted free agent defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun was the first to announce the news. Shortly thereafter, LeBrun shared that it’ll be a seven-year, $49MM agreement for Gavrikov in the Big Apple.

PuckPedia was quick to report the financial breakdown of Gavrikov’s new deal with the Rangers:

  • Year 1: $1MM salary, $8MM signing bonus
  • Year 2: $1MM salary, $8MM signing bonus
  • Year 3: $1MM salary, $6.65MM signing bonus
  • Year 4: $1MM salary, $5.55MM signing bonus
  • Year 5: $1MM salary, $5MM signing bonus
  • Year 6: $3.4MM salary, $2MM signing bonus
  • Year 7: $5.4MM salary

Additionally, PuckPedia shared that Gavrikov will have a full no-movement clause in the first five years of the deal, before transitioning to a 20-team modified no-trade clause in the sixth year, and a 15-team modified no-trade clause in the seventh season.

Due to the contract being paid out mostly in signing bonuses, it explains why Gavrikov signed for nearly $11MM less than comparable defenseman Ivan Provorov. He’ll now move to the third organization of his career and become the top-four shutdown defenseman that the Rangers have coveted for some time. And he’s one of the better shutdown blue liners, at that.

Over the past three years, Gavrikov has scored at a moderate pace, managing 22 goals and 105 points in 311 games between the Blue Jackets and Kings. Averaging over 22 minutes a night over that stretch, Gavrikov also totalled 507 blocked shots and 303 hits.

Although he maintained quality defensive metrics throughout his tenure in Columbus, Gavrikov improved dramatically upon his move to Los Angeles. During his two-and-a-half-year run with the Kings, Gavrikov managed a 53.5% CorsiFor% at even strength and an on-ice save percentage of 91.4% at even strength.

Gavrikov’s signing looks even better for the Rangers, considering they already employ one of the league’s top netminders. Last season, the Rangers produced the sixth-worst shots against total, but were able to finish around the mid-way point of the league in GA/G. Similarly, New York finished with the 11th-best penalty kill, meaning Gavrikov will help the team dramatically at even strength with a man disadvantage.

PHR’s Brennan McClain contributed significantly to this article. 

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