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Anze Kopitar Announces Retirement Following 2025-26 Season

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Kings franchise center Anze Kopitar will retire following the 2025-26 campaign, he said in a press conference Thursday. He confirms what he alluded to last month as he enters the final season of the two-year, $14MM extension he signed in 2023.

It’s a trying day for L.A. sports fans, who also saw MLB’s Dodgers announce future Hall of Fame pitcher Clayton Kershaw will retire at the end of the 2025 campaign. “This will be my last year in the NHL,” Kopitar said. “[My family has] been by my side for 20 years. They now deserve a husband and a dad. I want to get this announcement out of the way now, so it’s not a distraction. I don’t want the attention on me. The moves we made made us better. I can’t wait to start.”

Like his baseball counterpart, Kopitar was a first-round pick by his club and spent his entire career in Los Angeles. The 11th overall pick of the 2005 draft from Sweden’s Södertälje SK wasn’t only the first player from Slovenia to be drafted in the first round, he was the first to even make his NHL debut when he arrived in North America one year later. He hit the ground running in 2006-07, breaking camp with the Kings and immediately stepping in as their top-line center with 61 points in 72 games while seeing north of 20 minutes per game as a rookie. That wasn’t enough to make him a Calder Trophy nominee in a stacked class that included Evgeni Malkin, Paul Stastny, and Jordan Staal, though.

That marked the beginning of what will be a 20-year career, one of the most consistent of its kind. Kopitar continued to flirt with the point per game mark in his second year, making the All-Star Game after tallying 77 points in 82 appearances. He spent a few years struggling to carry the burden of a Kings club that was exiting a rebuild, but after he made the playoffs for the first time in 2010, he finished top 15 in Selke Trophy voting for eight consecutive seasons, cementing himself alongside Patrice Bergeron as the best two-way forward of the 2010s.

While the Kings have had some star power in their lengthy franchise history, Wayne Gretzky notwithstanding, it was Kopitar who first managed to bring the Stanley Cup to Hollywood. The Kings advanced to three straight Western Conference Finals from 2012-14 and ended up converting those into championships on the first and last occasion. During that three-year run, Kopitar’s 188 points in 211 regular-season games ranked 12th in the league, and his +60 rating ranked ninth. No one had more playoff points than Kopitar’s 55 in 64 games during that span.

L.A. had rewarded Kopitar nicely coming off his entry-level deal, giving him a seven-year, $47.6MM commitment following his sophomore season. Before that deal was due to expire in the summer of 2016, the Kings extended him on his big payday – an eight-year, $80MM contract that coincided with him assuming the captaincy from Dustin Brown. While the Kings’ team success dipped in the latter half of the 2010s, that contract saw Kopitar have his career year in 2017-18. He posted a 35-57–92 scoring line in 82 games, remarkably his only time over the point-per-game threshold, with a +21 rating to take home his second Selke Trophy and finishing third in MVP voting, his highest-ever finish for the Hart.

Even as Kopitar enters his age-38 season, he remains an effective top-six center. The slow signs of decline are there, though. His 21 goals and 67 points in 81 games last season tied for his lowest output since 2019, and his usage has ’dwindled’ to a few ticks under 19 minutes per game. He’s still one of the league’s best faceoff men, winning 57.2% of his draws last year, and has continued to rattle off four consecutive top-10 Selke finishes. One noticeable dropoff is his willingness to deliver and take contact. While never an overtly physical center, he recorded a career-low 31 hits in 2024-25. The tradeoff is durability – he’s only missed four games in the last eight seasons.

Those hoping for Kopitar to be a part of the Kings’ bench or front office next year will be disappointed. He’s planning on moving his family back to Slovenia after the season ends and isn’t leaving the door open to change his mind on retirement, he told Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period. Nonetheless, he’ll retire sitting right alongside Gretzky, Marcel Dionne, and Luc Robitaille as the most impactful players in franchise history, and he’s the only one to spend his entire career in California. His 1,278 career points rank second in franchise history behind Dionne’s 1,307, so he’ll end up as the franchise’s all-time leading scorer barring a highly disappointing sendoff campaign. With two Cups, two Selkes, and likely over 1,300 career points when all is said and done, he’s a virtual lock to be inducted into the Hall of Fame when he’s eligible in the class of 2029.

Kopitar now looks to deliver at least a playoff series win in his final season, something the Kings haven’t accomplished since winning the Cup 11 years ago. He’ll do so as his successor as the club’s leading offensive producer, winger Adrian Kempe, is also a pending unrestricted free agent.

All of us at PHR congratulate Kopitar on a spectacular career.

Image courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images.

Flames Sign Mikael Backlund To Two-Year Extension

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As alluded to a few weeks ago, the Calgary Flames are keeping their captain for the next few years. The Flames announced they’ve signed Mikael Backlund to a two-year, $6.5MM contract through the 2027-28 season.

For the second contract in a row, Backlund has taken a pay cut to remain with the only organization he’s ever known. After earning a $5.35MM salary from 2018 to 2024, Backlund will watch his current $4.5MM salary drop to $3.25MM on his new extension.

Despite the Flames being engaged in a retool, Backlund has shown clarity in his desire to remain in Calgary. The Flames drafted Backlund with the 24th overall pick in the 2007 NHL Draft, and debuted with the team during the 2008-09 campaign.

The native of Västerås, Sweden, is primarily recognized for his defensive skills in southern Alberta, but over the past decade, he has also been a reliable secondary scorer. Since the start of the 2015-16 season, Backlund has scored 164 goals and 435 points in 768 games with a +68 rating, finishing top 10 in Selke Trophy voting three times.

His defensive production is where his value truly lies, with Backlund managing a 49.0% faceoff percentage, 90.7% on-ice save percentage at even strength, and 54.0% CorsiFor% at even strength. This has led to the Flames retaining Backlund as an active second-line center, despite rostering more offensively-minded centers.

It’s hard to determine whether this will be Backlund’s final contract with Calgary. He’ll be preparing for his age-39 season if he plays after the expiration of the extension, and will have played in his 20th professional season. He has expressed interest in playing through the Flames retool, and their competitiveness over the next few years may influence his future decisions.

Photo courtesy of Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports.

Maple Leafs To Hire Mark Giordano

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After going unsigned for 2024-25, veteran defender Mark Giordano appears to be putting a bow on his playing career. Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving said today they’ll announce in the coming days that they’ve hired him in a yet-to-be-disclosed role with their AHL affiliate, according to David Alter of The Hockey News.

That would signal the retirement of one of the game’s premier defensemen of the 2010s. He was intent on playing last season and beyond, his agent said last offseason. The Oilers and Sabres had expressed interest in him into training camp in 2024, as well as potential reunions with the Flames and Leafs, but no contract ever panned out. He’ll now make the jump into the next phase of his hockey career.

Giordano is in the running for one of the most fruitful undrafted free agent signings of all time. He landed his first NHL contract during the 2004-05 lockout, signing with Calgary out of OHL Owen Sound and spending the canceled year in the AHL. He made his NHL debut when the league resumed play for 2005-06. He got his first taste of full-time action the following year, making 48 appearances in a depth role. Without a guarantee of expanded playing time from the Flames entering 2007-08, though, Giordano opted not to re-sign with the club when his entry-level contract expired. He instead spent the year in Russia with Dynamo Moscow while remaining a restricted free agent.

He returned to the Flames for the 2008-09 season, more earnestly kicking off his career as a top-four fixture. He was more of a defensive-oriented piece early on but as he entered his 30s, his offensive production began to soar as well. He hit the 40-point mark for the first time in 2010-11 and, beginning with the prior year, averaged north of 20 minutes per game for Calgary for 12 years in a row.

Widely regarded as a top-20 defenseman in the league for most of his prime, Giordano exploded in the 2018-19 campaign for a career year at age 35. He took home the Norris Trophy and finished ninth in MVP voting on a 50-win Flames squad that year, racking up 74 points and a league-leading +39 rating in 78 appearances.

The Flames’ record slipped over the next couple of seasons, though. With Giordano entering the final season of his contract in the 2021 offseason and the Flames wanting to protect younger names like Rasmus Andersson and Noah Hanifin in that year’s expansion draft for the Kraken, the club left their captain exposed. Seattle picked him up, making him their first captain in franchise history, but his tenure in the Pacific Northwest was short-lived. The club was in the basement of the Pacific Division in their first year and, after Giordano scored 23 points in 55 games, traded the pending UFA to the Maple Leafs at the deadline for draft picks.

While the following summer meant the end of the six-year, $40.5MM contract he signed back in 2015, it didn’t mean the end of his time in Toronto. He signed a team-friendly two-year, $1.6MM deal that would see him finish his playing career with the Leafs as a serviceable bottom-pairing support piece. He made 144 regular-season appearances in a Toronto uniform in parts of three seasons, recording a 9-36–45 scoring line and a +49 rating.

Giordano’s 1,093 games in his second NHL stint rank seventh in the league among defensemen since 2008. His 561 points also rank 12th during that time. The Toronto native totaled a 158-419–577 scoring line in 1,148 career regular-season appearances with a +129 rating across 18 campaigns. All of us at PHR wish Giordano the best as he continues his career in the sport off-ice.

Image courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images.

Blackhawks Sign Matt Grzelcyk To PTO

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The leading point scorer among free agent defensemen this summer will have to settle for a camp tryout. Matt Grzelcyk is heading to the Blackhawks on a PTO, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. Chicago later confirmed the signing by listing Grzelcyk on their training camp roster.

While the market for Grzelcyk wasn’t near what he or anyone else expected, it’s still jarring to see a rearguard with the platform season he had not land a guaranteed contract heading into camp. The 31-year-old lefty was also a UFA last summer but landed a one-year, $2.75MM deal with the Penguins on the first day of free agency. That contract led to expanded ice time in Pittsburgh, where he saw some power-play usage and averaged north of 20 minutes per game for the first time in his nine-year career. He played all 82 games – the first time he’s ever done that, too – and ranked third on the team with 39 assists. Only Sidney Crosby (58) and Erik Karlsson (42) had more.

Individual defensive acumen and a lack of physicality remain the 5’10” defender’s limiting factors. Still, he was at least able to prove once again that he can be a productive puck-mover in a top-four role as he was for many years in Boston, serving as a routine Charlie McAvoy partner for a good chunk of his early career. That led AFP Analytics to project a three-year contract for Grzelcyk in the $3.75MM range annually on the open market, while we projected a slightly cheaper deal and ranked him No. 22 among all unrestricted free agents this summer.

Grzelcyk now heads to training camp in Chicago, where the Blackhawks will welcome him as insurance for the league’s most inexperienced defense group. Connor Murphy is the only defender under contract in the Windy City over the age of 25. Alex Vlasic, at 24 years of age and 179 games of NHL experience, is the club’s top lefty by a wide margin.

Most expected the Hawks to completely hand the keys over to their younger blue-liners this season. Their lack of notable moves on offense signaled they weren’t anticipating jumping back into playoff contention just yet as their rebuild enters its later stages. Even then, there simply may be too many question marks behind Vlasic on Chicago’s left side on defense to make general manager Kyle Davidson comfortable entering camp without any other options. The right side is fairly set with Murphy, 2024 No. 2 overall pick Artyom Levshunov, and 2022 first-rounder Sam Rinzel expected to anchor their own pairings. However, behind Vlasic on the left, there’s no clear No. 2 or No. 3.

That’s not to say Chicago doesn’t have options, but they do lack clarity. Wyatt Kaiser, 23, could be the frontrunner for second-pairing minutes but is still a restricted free agent. 2022 No. 7 overall pick Kevin Korchinski played just 16 NHL games last season with two assists. Defensive-minded lefties Nolan Allan and Ethan Del Mastro both held their own in NHL minutes last season but are far from finished products. Grzelcyk offers a safe plug-and-play option as their second lefty behind Vlasic, buying them time to sort out everyone else’s readiness. Leaving him on a tryout gives the Blackhawks an easy out if they do decide to let names like Allan and Korchinski run with regular minutes out of the gate.

Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

Rangers Name J.T. Miller Captain

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After parting ways with their previous captain via trade, the Rangers have found their new one the same way. J.T. Miller will wear the “C” for New York this season after last year’s midseason pickup, Vince Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic relays.

Miller, 32, will be the 29th captain in franchise history as he begins his first full season in his second stint with the team. He’ll be just their second captain since 2018. The team went without one for over four years after trading away Ryan McDonagh at the deadline before anointing Jacob Trouba ahead of the 2022-23 season. They’d spent the last nine months with the position vacant after dealing Trouba to the Ducks in December.

“Since his arrival last season, J.T. immediately became a leader for our group and exemplifies how we want to conduct ourselves both on and off the ice,” general manager Chris Drury said. “Congratulations to J.T. and his entire family on an incredibly meaningful achievement and we’re confident he will continue to represent our organization with class, commitment, and integrity.”

Miller, a first-round pick by the Blueshirts back in 2011, looked rejuvenated after they re-acquired him in a blockbuster trade with the Canucks in January. After three straight seasons with Vancouver above a point per game, he dipped back below the mark to start the season amid a leave of absence and a reported feud with fellow star forward Elias Pettersson. But after being put in the middle of a unit with William Cuylle and Mika Zibanejad in Manhattan, Miller finished the year with a 13-22–35 line in 32 appearances while recording 76 hits and winning 57.6% of his faceoffs.

The high-energy pivot will now be entrusted as the emotional focal point of the club as they enter a pivotal campaign. The club has a new head coach in Mike Sullivan and is looking for a more stable long-term outlook following a 12-month window that saw them drop from regular-season champs to missing the playoffs entirely. They’re also facing the potential loss of star winger Artemi Panarin to unrestricted free agency at the end of the year.

He isn’t the team’s only leadership change. The club also said Vincent Trocheck has been added as an alternate captain, replacing Chris Kreider, who was dealt to Anaheim earlier in the offseason. Panarin, Adam Fox, and Mika Zibanejad will continue holding ’A’s alongside him.

Image courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images.

Canadiens Discussing Extension For Kent Hughes, Jeff Gorton

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The Montreal Canadiens are working on contract extensions for general manager Kent Hughes and executive vice president Jeff Gorton, per Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports. Gorton’s contract is set to expire at the end of the season, while Hughes is signed through the 2026-27 season, per reports from Sportsnet.

The duo has led Montreal down the course of a rapid rebuild, from the point of three last-place finishes in the Atlantic Division to a surprise playoff bid at the end of last season. That surge has been entirely driven by the additions Hughes has made to the Canadiens lineup. Emerging star defenseman Lane Hutson and 2022 first-overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky – both brought in by Hughes – ranked third and fourth on the team in scoring last season. Hutson even earned the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie, after becoming just the second rookie defender to ever reach 60 assists. One of the two players to outscore the young stars was top winger Cole Caufield, who Hughes inked to a lucrative eight-year, $62.8MM contract extension in the summer of 2023.

Solidifying the core pieces of a lineup capable of a playoff push would be enough to earn any rookie GM a new deal. But it’s Hughes’ brazen confidence in making moves that’s truly stood apart from the rest. He continued to make notable additions throughout this summer, on the heels of a big year. Hughes acquired top defenseman Noah Dobson from the New York Islanders in June, and acquired former first-round pick Zachary Bolduc from the St. Louis Blues on the heels of a 19-goal season. Both additions could have major ramifications on the Canadiens’ lineup next season. Dobson – who posted 70 points in the 2023-24 season – should find a comfortable role at the top of Montreal’s depth chart; while Bolduc will offer a reliable goal-scoring punch from the third-line.

Hughes’ sheer confidence is most readily apparent in the draft. He’s already landed a draft-day steal for the ages in the young Hutson, who fell to 62nd-overall in 2022 despite being lauded as a first-round talent to many public scouts. Hughes also drafted highly-acclaimed goalie prospect Jacob Fowler, NHL legacy centerman Aatos Koivu, and highly-skilled but undersized dynamo L.J. Mooney in the middle-rounds of the last three drafts. He also landed superstar Russian scorer Ivan Demidov with the fifth-overall pick in 2024. Many fans have already questioned how Demidov slipped to the end of the top-five, and he’ll be a front-runner for the Calder Trophy this season, after posting 49 points in 65 KHL games last summer.

No matter how the 2025-26 season goes, it seems hard to deny that Montreal is headed for a bright future. The Canadiens’ roster is expected to enter the season with the youngest average age in the league after having the second-youngest team last year. Despite that, they’ll be popular underdog candidates to break into the postseason once again next summer. A big year out of Hutson, Demidov, and even AHL starter Fowler could go far in showing Hughes what pieces he’ll be working with throughout the next decade. Then, a hardy extension from the Montreal ownership will ensure he stays connected to what he’s built. So long as they stay at the helm, Hughes and Gorton will face the difficult task of extending Hutson, Kirby Dach, and Patrik Laine among others next summer.

Mathew Barzal Ready For Islanders Training Camp

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Star New York Islanders forward Mathew Barzal will be ready for full involvement in the team’s upcoming training camp, per a recent interview with Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News. He will return after missing 52 games of last season with an upper-body injury early in the year, and a season-ending knee-injury in February. Barzal told Rosner that he’s embraced a strong mindset in the wake of the significant injury. He said:

When you have an injury like the one I did, you can go two ways with it mentally. You can kinda sulk in it, let it kinda own you. And it did early on… but then you flip a switch and you put everything into rehab and getting better. Mentally, it’s just a matter of doing whatever it takes to get back to being the player I was

Barzal performed like New York’s top forward through the mix of injuries last year. He began the season with five points in 10 games, while averaging more than 21 minutes a night, before injury forced him to miss all of November and the first half of December. He returned to scoring quickly once he was back to full health, netting 15 points in 20 games between December 15th and February 1st. But an injury sustained on a blocked shot against the Tampa Bay Lightning proved too much to overcome. What was initially prognosed as a six-week injury turned into a minor surgery that required all summer to recover from. His season ended with six goals and 20 points in 30 games, or an 82-game scoring pace of 55 points.

An injury-riddled season was the last thing Barzal needed after reclaiming the Islanders’ scoring title in the 2023-24 season. He scored 23 goals and 80 points in as many games that year, marking the most Barzal had scored since he posted 85 points in his Calder Trophy-winning season in 2017-18. That performance was, itself, a solid comeback season after Barzal missed 24 games of the 2022-23 season with a separate knee injury. He had scored 51 points in 58 games prior to that injury.

Excitement for Barzal’s return will be a feeling shared by team, fans, and player. The 28-year-old told Rosner that he would be open to playing throughout the lineup, and mentioned that he enjoyed playing on the wing of Bo Horvat. Barzal shared roughly 71 percent of his ice time with Horvat between 2023 and 2025. Together, the two were on-ice for a tremendous 121-to-70 goal differential and 115-to-76 expected goal differential, per NaturalStatTrick. Horvat dropped to a negative goal-differential (83-to-109) in his minutes away from Barzal, likely speaking to the Islanders’ odds of reconnecting the duo next season.

Then again, New York wields a much sharper lineup than when Barzal last played. The squad, commanded by rookie general manager Mathieu Darche, has reeled in multiple new faces – including Jonathan Drouin, Maxim Shabanov, and Emil Heineman. All three forwards offer interesting upside, and wing depth, that could better define Barzal’s long-term role at either center or wing. One of the three will likely join him on the team’s top power-play unit as well. Those changes, plus the excitement of 2025 first-overall pick Matthew Schaefer, will bring Barzal to a Islanders lineup with much more upside than the one that he left behind last season.

Flyers Trade Ivan Fedotov To Blue Jackets

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The Blue Jackets announced they’ve acquired goaltender Ivan Fedotov from the Flyers in exchange for their sixth-round pick in the 2026 draft. No salary is retained in the deal, according to The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz.

Columbus will acquire Fedotov after his first NHL season came in well below expectations. The 28-year-old had a long road to NHL minutes – including a years-long contract saga that involved mandatory military service in Russia and IIHF sanctions imposed on him over conflicting contracts with Philadelphia and CSKA Moscow – but finally arrived in North America in April 2024. He made his first three NHL appearances for the Flyers before signing a two-year extension with a $3.275MM cap hit. That theoretically locked in their goaltending tandem with Samuel Ersson also in the picture through at least this upcoming season.

Yet Fedotov, a former KHL Goalie of the Year who was viewed as potentially one of the next wave of high-end Russian netminders, barely held onto an NHL job. The military service that caused him to miss the 2022-23 season entirely was a significant statistical turning point for the 6’7″, 214-lb goalie. He made 26 relief appearances last year, logging a .880 SV% and 3.15 GAA with a 6-13-4 record. His 33.3% quality start rate was quite subpar, especially considering he posted a save percentage below .850 in 10 of his 24 starts. With an expected GAA of 2.58, Fedotov also received the most manageable defensive workload of the Flyers’ three goalies, according to MoneyPuck.

Columbus was looking for an insurance option if starter Elvis Merzlikins’ struggles continue and youngster Jet Greaves’ first chance at a full-time NHL role doesn’t pan out. Fedotov is far from a sure thing either, but they’re betting on his overseas track record as evidence of a potential bounce-back. He boasts a .921 SV% and 2.22 GAA with 10 shutouts in 133 career KHL games and had a 2021-22 season for the record books. He led CSKA to a Gagarin Cup championship with a staggering .937 SV% and 1.85 GAA in 22 postseason games. He was named the league’s best netminder and a First Team All-Star.

The Jackets, who PuckPedia projects to have over $15.5MM in cap space, will have no problem taking on Fedotov’s full salary for a year before he becomes eligible for unrestricted free agency next summer. If he doesn’t make the team over Greaves and Merzlikins, his cap hit is high enough that he should clear waivers without issue and serve as a third-string option in AHL Cleveland. It’s worth noting that Greaves is no longer waiver-exempt. It’ll be an uphill battle for Fedotov to convince the Jackets to risk losing Greaves on waivers, so if he makes the team, it’ll likely mean a three-goalie rotation in Columbus.

Meanwhile, the Flyers clear up a bit of a logjam. With Fedotov in the picture, they had four goalies in the mix for NHL minutes. Ersson and Aleksei Kolosov were still under contract, and they also inked Daniel Vladar to a two-year, $6.7MM deal in free agency to challenge Ersson for the No. 1 job. In trading Fedotov, they clear out the worst-value contract of the four and, with Kolosov remaining waiver-exempt, could now return to a traditional two-goalie setup with only Ersson and Vladar on the opening night roster.

Despite carrying a cap hit above $3MM, Fedotov will only cost the Blue Jackets $775K in actual dollars. His base salary in 2025-26 was only the league minimum. His other compensation came via a $2.5MM signing bonus, which the Flyers have already paid.

Image courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report that Columbus was acquiring Fedotov. The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz was first to report the return.

Blackhawks Sign Spencer Knight To Three-Year Extension

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When the Blackhawks acquired Spencer Knight from Florida as part of the Seth Jones deal prior to the trade deadline, they picked up who they feel can be their goalie of the future in the swap.  They’ve now made sure he’ll be in the fold for a while longer as the team announced that they’ve inked the netminder to a three-year extension worth $17.5MM, or $5.833MM per season.  GM Kyle Davidson released the following statement:

After joining the team in March, Spencer quickly cemented himself as a crucial piece of our future. A talented, young goaltender, he brings athleticism, sound positioning and a calm demeanor to his game, and we’re excited to watch Spencer continue to flourish in Chicago over the next four seasons.

Knight was a first-round pick by Florida back in 2019, going 13th overall.  He quickly made the jump to the pros in 2020 and was the full-time backup for the Panthers in 2021-22.  Soon after, Florida saw fit to give him a fairly significant bridge deal for a netminder with limited experience, signing him to a three-year, $13.5MM pact, the last season of which comes in 2025-26 with the extension running through 2028-29.

Florida didn’t get a great return on that deal at the beginning.  Knight stepped away from the team in February 2023 to enter the Player Assistance Program to treat his Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.  The following year (the first of the new contract) was spent entirely at the AHL level with the Panthers prioritizing getting Knight as much playing time as possible while Sergei Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz comprised Florida’s tandem.  He played relatively well with AHL Charlotte, posting a 2.41 GAA along with a .905 SV% in 45 games that season.

Stolarz moved on to Toronto last season, paving the way for Knight (now waiver-eligible) to return to the Panthers.  He played in 23 games with Florida in 2024-25, putting up a 2.40 GAA and a .907 SV%, both better than the NHL average.  That was good enough to make him the centerpiece of the return for Jones and Chicago gave Knight plenty of playing time down the stretch.  The 24-year-old suited up in 15 contests for the Blackhawks following the swap where he had a 3.18 GAA and a .893 SV% on a group that was prioritizing giving some of their prospects plenty of playing time late in the year.

This deal buys Chicago only one extra year of team control as he still had two RFA-eligible years remaining after this one.  PuckPedia relays (Twitter link) that the contract is front-loaded, paying $7.25MM in 2026-27, $5.75MM in 2027-28, and $4.5MM in 2028-29; he’ll also have a 15-team no-trade clause that year.

Knight will enter the season at the head of a goaltending trio that has quietly become one of the more expensive groups in the league.  Arvid Soderblom begins the first year of his new two-year, $5.5MM pact and will likely be the backup while veteran Laurent Brossoit, who didn’t play last season due to injury, has one year left on his agreement at $3.3MM.

But while this contract cements Knight as the starter for a little while longer, it stops short of handing him the job for the long haul.  That should prove appealing for their prospects as Drew Commesso and Adam Gajan were both second-round picks that Chicago hopes can be part of the future plans as well.  Commesso had a solid year with AHL Rockford in 2024-25 while making his NHL debut while Gajan struggled in his first taste of college action and is probably a couple of years away from turning pro.  If one of them breaks through and seriously pushes for the starting job, Chicago can still pivot and go in that direction while if not, they’ll get the next few years to see if Knight is the right fit for the job for the long haul.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that Chicago was signing Knight to an extension.  Bleacher Report’s Frank Seravalli was the first to report the terms.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

Kings’ Corey Perry Undergoes Knee Surgery

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Saturday: The Kings announced that Perry has undergone successful knee surgery and will be out for six to eight weeks.  That means that he will not be available to start the upcoming season and could ultimately miss more than a month if he winds up missing the longer end of that timeline.

Perry has $1.5MM in performance bonuses in his contract that are tied to games played.  However, he only needs to get 50 regular season games played to max out on those so this injury alone shouldn’t stop him from having a chance at earning the full amount of those bonuses.

Friday: According to the staff at Mayor’s Manor, new forward for the Los Angeles Kings, Corey Perry, was reportedly injured in an on-ice incident today at the Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo. The outlet suggests that Perry was taken off the ice in a wheelchair for further medical evaluation.

There’s little information regarding the injury, and it’s unknown at this point if Perry suffered the injury as a result of contact or not. The only information that Mayor’s Manor could provide was that the injury happened along the boards, not on open ice.

It would obviously be a significant blow to Perry and the Kings after the 41-year-old veteran signed a one-year, $2MM contract with Los Angeles at the beginning of the offseason, if he misses significant time due to the injury. Perry was expected to contribute in a bottom-six role, both for his offensive and leadership abilities.

Outside of his 14-year career with the Anaheim Ducks, which included a Stanley Cup ring in 2007 and a Hart Memorial and Maurice Richard Trophy in 2011, Perry’s career has become a point of fascination over the last few seasons. Perry has reached the Stanley Cup Finals five out of six times since signing with the Dallas Stars before the 2019-20 season, after being bought out by the Ducks, but lost each time.

Still, he’s been able to stay relevant and productive in the twilight years of his career. Split between the Stars, Montreal Canadiens, Tampa Bay Lightning, Chicago Blackhawks, and Edmonton Oilers, Perry has scored 76 goals and 159 points in 404 games while averaging 12:51 of ice time per game. Throughout his past six playoff runs, the veteran winger has recorded 28 goals and 52 points in 119 games, averaging 13:17 per game.

Fortunately, the Kings have compiled enough depth, especially on the wing, to sustain such an injury. While Perry’s potential replacement may not have the same value, players like Akil Thomas, Andre Lee, Jeff Malott, or Taylor Ward could temporarily fulfill the role.

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