Montreal Canadiens Acquire Tanner Pearson
After being hinted at for most of the morning, in order to become salary cap compliant for the upcoming season, the Vancouver Canucks have traded Tanner Pearson and a 2025 third-round draft pick to the Montreal Canadiens for goaltender Casey DeSmith.
After the trade, the Canucks will have freed up $1.45MM in cap space if no salary is retained, making compliance with the salary cap a much more manageable endeavor. Also, by acquiring DeSmith in the deal, as well, Vancouver has a much more capable backup netminder to put behind Thatcher Demko, something the team did not have last season.
From the standpoint of Montreal, they also worked out their own dilemma, no longer having three playable goalies on the roster to start the season. After acquiring DeSmith from the Pittsburgh Penguins in the same deal that would land Erik Karlsson in Pittsburgh, it had been rumored for weeks that the Canadiens would eventually look to move out DeSmith as well.
All-in-all, simply for their involvement in the Karlsson trade, Montreal has acquired Pearson, Gustav Lindstrom, Nathan Legare, a 2025 second-round pick, a 2025 third-round pick, and a conditional 2025-fourth round pick in exchange for Mike Hoffman and Rem Pitlick.
This is a solid trade haul for Kent Hughes and the Canadiens, but after finding a solution to one problem, another has been created entirely. Now with Pearson in the mix, the team already has a projected 12 forwards on the roster according to CapFriendly, with Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, and Sean Monahan, still to return from injury. Even aside from those players, players such as Sean Farrell and Owen Beck also appear close to being NHL-ready.
At any rate, both teams solved issues for the time being with this particular trade and should alleviate some concerns heading into training camp.
Darren Dreger of TSN was the first to report Pearson was heading to Montreal.
Chris Johnston of TSN was the first to report no salary had been retained by the Canucks.
Dreger was the first to announce the trade details.
Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff was the first to report the full trade details.
Minnesota Wild Re-Sign Calen Addison
In a press release, the Minnesota Wild announced that the team has agreed to a one-year, $825K contract with defenseman Calen Addison. Being the last restricted free agent on the roster, the Wild and Addison were able to get a deal done only one day before training camp started.
Coming over to Minnesota in the trade that sent Jason Zucker to the Pittsburgh Penguins back in 2020, it would take Addison two full years migrating back and forth from Minnesota and their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild, before finally receiving the full-time call-up for the 2022-23 NHL season. Missing three weeks of action in October due to a foot injury, Addison still had a solid rookie season, scoring three goals and 26 points in 62 games for the Wild.
For Minnesota specifically, Addison would break the team’s rookie record for points by a defenseman, and also finish second in all-time points by a rookie defenseman, finishing one point back of Filip Kuba‘s 2000-01 rookie season. In the entirety of the NHL last year, Addison would finish first among rookies in powerplay points, and tying for fifth in assists, and third in points for all rookie defensemen, respectively.
Even after his impressive rookie campaign, all signs indicate that Addison will be locked in a battle for a top-four role on the right side of the defensive unit for training camp. Another prospect, Brock Faber, who was acquired by the organization from the Los Angeles Kings in the trade that sent Kevin Fiala to the West Coast, is being given the opportunity to earn that role, after his excellent season at the University of Minnesota last year.
In fact, during the Wild’s opening-round matchup against the Dallas Stars in the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, Faber played in all six games, averaging over 14 minutes a night, while Addison only suited up for three games, playing a touch over 12 minutes a night.
Although Faber is already seen as a more defensively sound player than Addison on the blue line, as Addison would finish last season with a -17 rating to end the season, Addison’s possession metrics, highlighted by his CF% of 60.8%, and his ability to transition out of the zone and move the puck effectively make him just as solid as an option.
All-in-all, although the winner of the competition remains to be seen, it may come down to Minnesota riding the hot hand for much of the season. Addison will likely still receive an abundance of powerplay time throughout the year, while Faber should garner more defensively-minded roles and situations.
Sarah McClellan of Star Tribune Sports was the first to report that Minnesota had signed Addison
Brayden Schenn Named St. Louis Blues Captain
The St. Louis Blues have named center Brayden Schenn the 24th captain in franchise history.
He succeeds center Ryan O’Reilly in the position, months after the Blues traded O’Reilly to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
As one of the Blues’ more senior players, Schenn is a natural choice for the role.
Schenn has served as an alternate captain in St. Louis for the last three seasons, and in that span, he has been a consistent, productive second-line center for the club.
He helped the Blues lift their first-ever Stanley Cup in 2019, and is coming off two of the best seasons in his career. He scored at a 77-point 82-game pace in 2021-22 and scored 65 points in 2022-23.
Alongside Schenn, Robert Thomas, Justin Faulk, and Colton Parayko have been named assistant captains as part of the Blues’ leadership core. Thomas and Parayko wore the “A” last season as well, while Faulk earns a letter in St. Louis for the first time. He has previously served in a leadership role, both as an alternate captain and the captain of the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Blues can expect to have Schenn, 32, as their captain for quite a while despite his age. That’s because Schenn is under contract through the 2027-28 season at a $6.5MM cap hit.
As the Blues transition to a roster more focused on young talent after missing the playoffs last season, the club has confirmed that Schenn will be the team’s official leader for its next competitive phase.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Mike Babcock Resigns As Columbus Blue Jackets Head Coach
3:08 PM: The Blue Jackets have now officially announced Babcock’s resignation. Assistant coach Pascal Vincent has been named the club’s new head coach, and has signed a two-year contract extension.
2:48 PM: According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Mike Babcock is expected to resign his position this afternoon.
Columbus officially named Babcock their head coach on July 1 after his previous contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, who fired him in November of 2019, expired. This week, Babcock was the subject of a joint NHL/NHLPA investigation spurred by allegations that Babcock asked to view phones and/or photographs of several Blue Jackets players, originally reported by former NHL player Paul Bissonnette on a recent episode of the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast.
NHLPA officials met Friday after meeting with several Blue Jackets players and staff and said they “provided the NHL with an update on our ongoing review” in a statement released after the meeting. Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports that the now-concluded NHLPA investigation “left no path for Babcock to continue as coach.” Friedman reported on an earlier edition of Sportsnet’s 32 Thoughts podcast last week that while veterans Boone Jenner and Johnny Gaudreau were comfortable with their exchanges with Babcock regarding the photo-sharing exercise, multiple younger players on the roster did not feel the same way.
The Blue Jackets have yet to release a statement. At the time of writing, it’s unclear what path the Blue Jackets will take to name an interim head coach with training camp starting this week.
By resigning, Babcock walks away from the remainder of a two-year contract that was set to pay him a total of $8MM.
Noah Hanifin Reverses Course, Open To Extension In Calgary
Speaking with reporters, including Sportsnet 960’s Pat Steinberg at the NHL’s media tour in Las Vegas, Calgary Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin said he’s “absolutely” willing to consider an extension with the team.
Hanifin, 26, was unwilling to sign an extension in Calgary at the beginning of the offseason, according to reporting from TSN’s Pierre LeBrun. Along with Mikael Backlund and Elias Lindholm, who have expressed a conditional willingness to extend depending on the team’s performance this season, Hanifin is slated for unrestricted free agency next summer. He’s coming off a 2022-23 season in which he played 81 of 82 games, registered seven goals and 31 assists for 38 points, recorded a 53.0% Corsi for at even strength, and averaged a career-high 22:39 per game. LeBrun said earlier this summer Calgary was likely to trade Hanifin – something that didn’t come to fruition, and he’s now projected to start 2023-24 alongside potential captaincy candidate Rasmus Andersson on the team’s top pairing.
If they do extend him, it certainly won’t be on a discount – as is the likely scenario with Backlund and Lindholm. With extensions unlikely to be reached before the start of the season, Evolving Hockey projects an eight-year, $7.5MM AAV deal for Hanifin to remain in Calgary. Their model also predicts an eight-year extension at $8.4MM per season for Lindholm, but recent reporting from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggests that figure will be closer to $9MM if Lindholm does extend. For Backlund, they predict a four-year deal at around $5.5MM per season. For a team with little to no salary cap flexibility this summer, is extending all three even financially feasible if the players remain open to it?
The short answer is barely. CapFriendly currently projects the Flames with roughly $35.5MM in cap space for the 2024-25 season with a roster size of just 11 players, assuming the Upper Limit rises from $83.5MM to $87.5MM as projected. Taking the figures above means re-signing all three of Backlund, Hanifin and Lindholm would cost around $22MM, bringing that cap space figure to $13.5MM with a roster size of only 14. That would involve filling out the rest of their roster with contracts averaging less than $1.5MM AAV apiece, and it’ll likely take significantly more than that number to retain other pending UFA defenders like Chris Tanev and Nikita Zadorov as well as re-signing pending RFA forward Dillon Dubé.
Carey Price Confirms He Won’t Return To Play
Legendary Montreal Canadiens netminder Carey Price confirmed to reporters today his nagging knee injury will prevent him from returning to NHL play “barring a miracle,” expected news after missing the entire 2022-23 season and all but five games in 2021-22. Price had left the door open to a return at the beginning of last season but mentioned he was still having trouble with day-to-day activities and would have to wait and see how much he improved over the coming months.
Price said today he’s still not where he’d like to be in terms of his quality of life and, therefore, is all but closing the book on his 15-year NHL career. He is one of the best netminders in franchise history for a team stacked with legends such as Ken Dryden, Jacques Plante and Patrick Roy. While never winning a Stanley Cup, he got awfully close in 2021 as he guided the Canadiens on a miracle run to the Stanley Cup Final in what would be his final full season. He does have some significant hardware to his name, however, winning the Vezina and Hart Trophies in the 2014-15 season.
Selected fifth overall in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, Price is the best of a quartet of elite netminders to come out of the class, which included Ben Bishop, Jonathan Quick and Tuukka Rask. While he wouldn’t make his NHL debut for another few years, he made his presence known immediately as a rookie in the 2007-08 season. While starting just 40 games, he still managed to finish fourth in Calder voting and ninth in Vezina voting after posting a 24-12-3 record and a .920 save percentage. He would eclipse the .920 mark five more times over the years, including a four-year stretch from 2013-14 to 2016-17, when he was arguably the most dominant netminder in the league when healthy. Despite all that, he would be woefully overlooked when it came to awards voting, only earning a Vezina Trophy nomination twice.
That aforementioned four-year run was enough to make Price the highest-paid goalie per season in NHL history, inking an eight-year, $10.5MM AAV extension with the Habs on July 2, 2017. That contract, with a full no-movement clause, will remain in effect through the 2025-26 season. Price said today he’s open to the Canadiens trading his contract to alleviate any potential salary cap issues.
His 712 NHL games are the second-most all-time among goalies who spent their entire NHL career with one franchise, trailing only Henrik Lundqvist. At career’s end, he boasts an all-time record of 361-261-79, 49 shutouts, a 2.51 goals-against average, and a .917 save percentage. He holds Canadiens franchise records for both games played and wins.
Unfortunately, nagging hip and knee problems which exacerbated over the course of the 2021 playoffs were simply too much to overcome in order to make a full-time NHL return. Price wasn’t expected to miss any time after the initial surgery, undergone after the Canadiens left him exposed in the 2021 Expansion Draft for the Seattle Kraken. In fact, the Canadiens said themselves he’d be ready for opening night in 2021-22. He entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program at the beginning of 2021-22, however, and sustained a setback while training for his return after exiting the program in January. He got healthy enough to play at the tail end of the season, but the appearances caused further swelling in his knee – making it clear his playing days were potentially coming to an end.
All of us at PHR wish Price the best as he puts his true focus on the post-playing aspect of his career.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Colorado Avalanche Sign Tomáš Tatar
The Colorado Avalanche have taken one of the best remaining free agents off the market. They’ve signed veteran forward Tomáš Tatar to a one-year contract.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that Tatar’s one-year deal is worth $1.5MM. CapFriendly has added that the deal is $1.5MM exclusively in base salary, and does not include any form of trade protection.
Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland issued the following statement regarding Tatar’s signing:
Tomas has been a consistent, productive player throughout his NHL career. He is a veteran winger who brings scoring depth to our middle six and can contribute at both ends of the ice. We are excited to have him under contract for this season.
On one hand, it’s certainly surprising to see a player like Tatar wait so long to receive a contract, and receive a contract at a $1.5MM AAV. Tatar is, after all, one of the NHL’s more consistent regular-season goal scorers.
Tatar has crossed the 20-goal plateau seven times in his career, and at certain times has posted the numbers of a top-line scorer. In 2019-20, Tatar led the Montreal Canadiens in scoring with 61 points in 68 games, a 74-point pace.
He’s been a consistent first or second-line scorer throughout his NHL career, and isn’t even coming off of a poor season, as he scored 20 goals and 48 points in 2022-23.
But as NHL teams place more of a priority on players who can bring them playoff success, the biggest red flag on Tatar’s resume has to have been the single greatest reason he’s languished on the market so long.
At this point in Tatar’s career, there’s no mistaking what he is. He’s a high-quality, consistent scorer in the regular season who is all but certain to almost disappear come playoff time. Tatar has just 13 points in 52 career postseason games. Twice, Tatar’s team has left him a frequent healthy scratch en route to the Stanley Cup Final.
On a consistent basis, NHL teams have found Tatar’s playoff struggles so severe that they’re forced to simply sit him in the press box rather than hope that he can suddenly find a scoring touch. With that in mind, it becomes a little less surprising that Tatar has waited so long to receive a deal.
At a $1.5MM cap hit, though, those playoff concerns are far less important. Regardless of how he’ll fare in the postseason, the Avalanche are receiving a consistent 20-goal threat at a cap hit lower than what many teams pay their fourth-line centers.
Tatar stands a really strong chance at providing the Avalanche with a lot of surplus value on his cap hit, and the $1.5MM cap hit minimizes the downside risk of this investment should Tatar once again falter in the playoffs.
So while Tatar certainly has his critics due to his postseason play, his regular-season value is undeniable. At a $1.5MM investment, this is a no-brainer signing for the Avalanche.
They add Tatar to an already impressive mix set of scoring wingers, and should Tatar manage to win the left-wing job on the team’s first line (beating out three of his former teammates in Artturi Lehkonen, Miles Wood, and Jonathan Drouin for the job) he could even have a chance for a career year.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Adam Lowry Named Winnipeg Jets Captain
A second Canadian franchise has named a player captain in just as many days. After the Vancouver Canucks named star defenseman Quinn Hughes as their next captain, the Winnipeg Jets have followed up with their own choice, tapping center Adam Lowry to wear the “C.”
Lowry is the Jets’ third captain since the club relocated to Winnipeg from Atlanta. The previous captains were Andrew Ladd, who officially retired on Sunday, and Blake Wheeler, who was stripped of the captaincy before the 2022-23 season.
Lowry isn’t exactly a surprising choice for the role, as although the Jets have bigger-name star players on their roster, Lowry has long been recognized for exemplary leadership skills.
The 30-year-old veteran forward has been a captain before in his career, leading the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos during the 2012-13 season.
Before this past year, Lowry’s on-ice production may not have been exactly what one would expect for a player set to take on the prominent role of captaining a team in a high-pressure Canadian market. Bottom-six players typically don’t have a ton of staying power on their teams, and change clubs with more frequency than higher-scoring stars.
But this past season was the best of Lowry’s career, one that cemented his place in Winnipeg for years to come. He scored 13 goals and 36 points in the regular season and five points in five playoff games.
Lowry is under contract through the 2025-26 season, and seeing as he’s only played for the Jets so far, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him play his entire NHL career in Winnipeg. It’s also worth noting is also that Lowry is a second-generation NHL captain. Lowry’s father, Dave Lowry, captained the Calgary Flames from 2000 to 2002.
With significant uncertainty facing the Jets due to the looming expiration of contracts for franchise netminder Connor Hellebuyck and Mark Scheifele, this is an extremely important season for the club to make a strong competitive push.
Now, today’s announcement confirms that Lowry’s leadership will take a central role in any competitive push the team makes.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Quinn Hughes Named Canucks Captain
After trading away Bo Horvat to the New York Islanders before the trade deadline last season, the Vancouver Canucks had a decision to make regarding their captain moving forward. Today, that decision has been made, as the team announced defenseman Quinn Hughes would be the 15th captain in franchise history.
In the end, for head coach Rick Tocchet and the rest of his staff, the decision likely came down to Hughes, Elias Pettersson, and J.T. Miller. All three players have leadership capabilities and thorough experience in the league up to this point, and all three players would have been realistic choices to take over the captaincy. Hughes will become the first defenseman for the Canucks to wear the ‘C’ since Doug Lidster during the 1990-91 NHL season.
The seventh overall selection for Vancouver in the 2018 NHL Draft, Hughes would join the Canucks at the end of the 2018-19 season, finishing off his college career at the University of Michigan. A year later, in his first full season, Hughes thoroughly showed what he could do at the NHL level, scoring eight goals and 45 assists in 68 games. In that first full year for Hughes, he would finish second in Calder Memorial Trophy voting and even garnered some Norris Trophy votes at season’s end.
Since then, it has been much of the same for Hughes, racking up a high amount of assists, and generating quite a bit of offense from the blue line for Vancouver. This past season, in what would be his most impressive year up to this point, Hughes would score seven goals and 69 assists in 78 games, becoming a point-per-game player as a defenseman.
A three-time All-Star already in his career, one of Hughes’s best improvements has been his defensive metrics. At the beginning of his career, there were some questions surrounding his defensive proficiency from the blue line, improving his takeaway numbers, and holding strong possession numbers for much of his career.
Now, at almost 24 years old, Hughes will be tasked with being the leader for the Canucks, both on and off the ice. As Vancouver continues to build and restructure their team into a playoff contender, it will be much of Hughes’s responsibility to lead this team into their next era.
U.S. Hockey Hall Of Fame Announces 2023 Class
The United States Hockey Hall of Fame will induct former NHL forwards Dustin Brown and Jamie Langenbrunner, longtime NHL executive Brian Burke, former Olympian and longtime Boston College women’s program head coach Katie King Crowley, and former NHL linesman Brian Murphy as their class of 2023, according to an announcement this morning.
The captain of the Los Angeles Kings from 2008 to 2016, Brown’s power-forward style translated into an 18-season, 1,296-game NHL career spent entirely with the Kings. Leading Los Angeles to Stanley Cup championships in 2012 and 2014, he amassed 325 goals and 387 assists for 712 points in his career, scoring at least 20 goals and 50 points in a single season seven times. Among American NHL players, he sits seventh in the games played category, although he’s likely to be bumped down to eighth by Phil Kessel this season.
Langenbrunner, a two-time Stanley Cup champion and two-time Olympian, played 16 seasons in the NHL. Born in Cloquet, Minnesota, Langenbrunner was well-known for his positional versatility with the Dallas Stars, New Jersey Devils, and St. Louis Blues. Across 1,109 NHL regular-season games, the forward amassed 663 points, including 243 goals and 420 assists. He also became quite a seasoned playoff performer, recording 146 career postseason appearances and 87 points.
Selected 35th overall in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, Langenbrunner debuted with the Stars in 1995 and later captained the Devils from 2007 to January 2011, when he was dealt back to where his career began in Dallas. He transitioned to hockey operations post-retirement and serves as an assistant general manager for the Boston Bruins.
Burke has a Stanley Cup victory and an Olympic silver medal on his managerial resume, which spans nearly 40 years. Raised in Edina, Minnesota, he played college hockey for the Providence Friars and later in the AHL with the Maine Mariners, winning a Calder Cup. He then attended and graduated from Harvard Law School, after which he ventured into NHL player representation.
Burke’s journey led him to the Vancouver Canucks’ front office, where he served as director of hockey operations from 1987 to 1992. He then assumed roles with the Hartford Whalers and the NHL office before returning to Vancouver as their general manager in 1999. Burke’s Stanley Cup win came at the helm of the Anaheim Ducks in 2007. His managerial tenure continued with the Toronto Maple Leafs as GM and the Calgary Flames as their president of hockey operations, followed by a short two-and-a-half-year stint with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Today, Burke serves as the inaugural executive director of the PWHLPA.
King Crowley, a three-time Olympic medalist, achieved rather legendary status during her nine-year tenure with the U.S. Women’s National Team from 1997 to 2006. Notably, she was pivotal in securing the inaugural gold medal in women’s ice hockey at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, amassing eight points in six games. She further contributed to Team USA’s Olympic success with a silver in 2002 and a bronze in 2006, boasting a total of 14 Olympic goals, which remains tied for the U.S. record with new PWHL Minnesota general manager Natalie Darwitz. In the IIHF Women’s World Championships, including a gold in 2005, King Crowley played 223 games, ranking third in all-time points (278).
Following her retirement as a player in 2006, King Crowley transitioned to coaching, joining Boston College’s women’s ice hockey program. She would assume the head coaching role in 2007, guiding the team to numerous accolades, including six NCAA Frozen Fours, 11 NCAA Tournaments, five Hockey East regular-season titles, three Hockey East tournament championships, and six Beanpot crowns. She’s also served as an assistant coach for the U.S. U18 Women’s National Teams, contributing to gold in 2009 and silver in 2010 at the IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship.
Lastly, Murphy, hailing from Dover, New Hampshire, boasts an exceptional NHL officiating career spanning 32 years from 1988 until his recent retirement in 2020. He is among only eight individuals and one of two Americans to officiate over 2,000 NHL regular-season games. Murphy’s on-ice career includes nine Stanley Cup Finals and 304 playoff games, and notable events like the 1999 NHL All-Star Game and the 2010 Winter Classic. He also served as president of the NHL Officials Association from 2008 to 2015. Today, he serves as the supervisor of men’s officials for Hockey East.
This year’s induction ceremony will be held in Boston on December 6.