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Ducks May Offer Record-Breaking AAV For Mitch Marner

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Many have speculated that the Ducks will be a major player in the Mitch Marner sweepstakes. The All-Star winger is nearly guaranteed to hit the open market on July 1, and Anaheim has the third-most cap space in the league early in the offseason, according to PuckPedia.

That flexibility, plus a mandate from ownership to contend for a playoff spot next season, means they could offer Marner the most lucrative seven-year offer of any club this summer. James Mirtle of The Athletic reports Monday they’re considering offering him an AAV that would push north of the $14MM mark, making him the league’s highest-paid player starting next season.

Whether Marner is considering teams that aren’t currently established playoff contenders remains to be seen. Still, it’s hard to imagine any team, aside from the Blue Jackets and their $40.4MM in cap space, being willing to enter that range. Even an offer matching, not exceeding, Oilers superstar Leon Draisaitl’s league-high $14MM cap hit comes in well north of his projected market value of just a shade under $13MM, according to AFP Analytics.

There will naturally be sticker shock when it comes to many deals this summer, with an 8.5% increase in the salary cap’s Upper Limit from $88MM to $95.5MM. Draisaitl’s mega-extension, which costs 14.66% of the cap when it starts next season, would be equivalent to a $12.9MM AAV had it gone into effect last year.

Any conversation about Marner pushing into the $14MM tier per season will result in direct comparisons between him and Draisaitl, especially with the latter’s extension being signed under a year ago and kicking in at the same time Marner’s next deal will. That’s where things will get hairy for Anaheim regarding public perception of the contract, even if acquiring a dynamic offensive threat of Marner’s caliber is a crucial long-term step in helping them return to relevance.

Draisaitl is one year Marner’s senior and had a two-year head start on him in beginning his NHL career, but the former wasn’t immediately thrust into top-six minutes like Marner was. Even still, Draisaitl’s career points per game rate of 1.21 dwarfs that of Marner’s 1.13.

The discrepancy between the two increases when putting them on equal footing regarding sample size. Draisaitl’s points-per-game rate increases to 1.32 from the beginning of Marner’s career in 2016-17. Over the past three seasons, Draisaitl has operated at a 120-point pace per 82 games compared to Marner’s 102.

The soon-to-be-former Maple Leafs winger has historically been a far more valuable player defensively than Draisaitl, but that changed this season, at least in terms of public perception. Draisaitl came one place ahead of Marner in Selke Trophy voting after posting career-best possession numbers (58.8 CF%, 61.2 xGF%) at even strength. While playoff production has far less impact on contract value, Draisaitl is in a different tier, with a 1.49 career points per game rate in the postseason compared to Marner’s 0.9.

Combine all that with Draisaitl playing a more traditionally valuable position, and it’s hard to imagine many other teams willing to match a $14MM offer for Marner if the Ducks make it, even if they technically have the resources to do so. Suppose he enters July 1 open-minded about his next destination. That discrepancy between Anaheim’s offer and whatever the second-best one is for him financially could be enough to tip the scales in the Ducks’ favor.

Maple Leafs Hire Derek Lalonde As Assistant Coach

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The Maple Leafs announced today they’ve added former Red Wings bench boss Derek Lalonde to their coaching staff. He replaces associate coach Lane Lambert, who departed last month to accept the Kraken’s head coaching job.

Lalonde, 52, lands his next NHL job less than six months after Detroit fired him over the holiday break. The New York native was midway through his third season as head coach of the Wings, where he posted a 89-86-23 (.508) record but had gotten off to a 14-17-4 start in 2024-25.

Before his time in Detroit, Lalonde worked as an assistant coach under Jon Cooper with the Lightning from 2018-19 to 2021-22, winning a pair of Stanley Cups in the process. He oversaw the team’s defensive units and penalty kill, directly replacing the roles Lambert held in his lone season on Toronto’s staff.

Under Lalonde, the Lightning’s PK clicked at 82.7% during his four-year tenure, third-best in the league over that span. The Leafs will be counting on him to continue the shorthanded improvement Lambert helped usher in, helping boost Toronto’s PK success rate from a 23rd-place 76.9% in 2023-24 to a 17th-place 77.9% in 2024-25.

Notably, Toronto didn’t announce Lalonde with the associate coach moniker Lambert held. He’ll serve on more equal footing with returning assistants Marc Savard and Mike Van Ryn than Lambert did as a result.

Avalanche’s Logan O’Connor Out 5-6 Months Following Hip Surgery

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Avalanche winger Logan O’Connor underwent successful hip surgery Friday morning in New York City, the team announced. He’s expected to miss five to six months recovering, meaning he’ll miss training camp and at least the first month of the 2025-26 season.

This is O’Connor’s second hip surgery in 16 months. He had surgery in March 2024 to correct a hip problem that had caused him to miss short stints of action earlier in the season, ending his season.

That procedure didn’t discourage Colorado’s hopes that O’Connor would be a long-term bottom-six piece for the club. They signed him to a six-year, $15MM extension with a modified no-trade clause last September, days after he stepped back on the ice for training camp.

While O’Connor remained a strong defensive presence on the right side of the ice in 2024-25, earning Selke Trophy votes for the first time in his career, his offensive impact took a hit following the first surgery. He posted 10 goals and 21 points in 80 games for 0.26 points per game, his worst output since the 2020-21 campaign.

There’s optimism that could be a fluky dropoff. For one, the hip surgery didn’t affect O’Connor’s calling card – his speed. He recorded a top skating speed of 23.25 mph this past season, according to NHL EDGE, 0.14 mph more than last season’s peak. He did record fewer speed bursts over 20 mph per game in 2024-25 than he did in 2023-24, but was still in the 91st percentile league-wide for the stat among forwards.

Still, two procedures in such a short time frame are concerning for O’Connor’s availability moving forward. That aforementioned extension kicks in for the upcoming season and runs through the 2030-31 campaign. His $2.5MM cap hit is a reasonable chunk of change for a minute-munching defensive specialist, though, so even if he never rebounds toward producing at a 30-40 point pace, the Avs will still get fine value out of O’Connor’s contract as long as he continues to provide high value from his possession impacts and checking game.

Until O’Connor returns to the lineup sometime around Thanksgiving, he’ll miss enough time for the Avalanche to create some early salary cap flexibility by placing him on long-term injured reserve. They’ll still need to be able to create enough space to activate him when he’s ready to return, though. In training camp, his absence will mean more leeway for names like Ivan Ivan, Oskar Olausson, and Nikita Prishchepov to fight for an opening-night job.

Image courtesy of Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images.

Lightning Hire Dan Hinote As Assistant Coach

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The Lightning have hired former NHL forward Dan Hinote as an assistant coach, the team announced today. He fills the vacancy created last month when Jeff Blashill departed head coach Jon Cooper’s staff to accept the Blackhawks’ head coach opening.

Hinote, 48, joins Tampa with a lengthy coaching resume that began as soon as his playing career ended in 2010. After playing his final pro campaign with Sweden’s MODO Hockey, he came back stateside and accepted a role on the Blue Jackets’ bench. He remained in the organization until 2018, although he transitioned away from coaching and into a pro scouting role for the 2014-15 season.

The Florida native returned to coaching after leaving Columbus. He spent two seasons as an associate coach for the United States National Development Team Program before returning to the NHL as an assistant coach with the Predators for the 2020-21 season. He remained in that role up through last year, when he departed to accept the role of associate head coach for the Avalanche’s AHL affiliate.

Assuming Hinote directly replaces Blashill’s responsibilities, he’ll take over the team’s penalty kill and work closely with assistant Rob Zettler on managing the club’s defense. Hinote was a frequent penalty killer himself during his 503-game NHL career, averaging 1:50 per game while shorthanded across six years with the Avalanche and three with the Blues.

He’ll now work to maintain a Lightning PK unit that was excellent under Blashill over the last three seasons. Tampa’s 81.5% success rate shorthanded was sixth in the league from 2022-23 to 2024-25.

Stars Fire Pete DeBoer

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The Stars announced Friday they’ve fired head coach Pete DeBoer. He had one year left on his contract worth roughly $4MM, Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News relayed yesterday. With no other head coaching vacancies after the Bruins filled theirs yesterday, they’ll be paying him to sit unless he lands a job with another club thanks to an in-season coaching change in 2025-26.

“After careful consideration, we believe that a new voice is needed in our locker room to push us closer to our goal of winning the Stanley Cup,” general manager Jim Nill said in a team release. “We’d like to thank Pete for everything that he has helped our organization achieve over the past three seasons and wish him nothing but the best moving forward.”

If DeBoer sits at home for the entirety of next season, it’ll be the first NHL campaign without him leading a team’s bench since he first entered the league as head coach of the Panthers in 2008. He’s been a fixture for nearly two decades, and for good reason. DeBoer-coached teams have made the playoffs nine out of the last 10 seasons, and he’s advanced to the third round in six straight postseason appearances.

Those clubs, including Dallas for the last three years, have lost every one of those six Conference Finals/Semi-Finals, though. That’s the impetus behind today’s coaching change as the Stars look to get over the hump, although they were likely pushed in this direction by the specific circumstances of how their season ended in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final against the Oilers.

DeBoer pulled star goaltender Jake Oettinger from the game after two defensive breakdowns led to a pair of early Edmonton goals, and continued to justify his decision postgame despite his offense going completely dark for most of the series. Dallas scored 11 times in the five-game loss, but six of those goals came in a Game 1 blowout. They averaged just 1.25 goals per game as they lost four straight to end their season.

His decision to remove Oettinger from the game reportedly caused a high degree of frustration within the organization. If the relationship between DeBoer and Oettinger was fractured beyond repair, moving on from the former was the slam-dunk decision. Oettinger, who will presumably finish top-10 in year-end All-Star voting for the third year in a row, signed an eight-year, $66MM extension last October that doesn’t kick in until next season.

Goaltending drama aside, moving on from DeBoer is arguably the most seismic coaching move of the offseason, along with the Penguins’ dismissal of Mike Sullivan. The Stars had a 149-68-29 (.665) record in his three seasons as head coach, the best record in the league since his hiring. While Dallas didn’t convert on any of its WCF appearances, their streak of three straight third-round showings tied the franchise record set from 1998 to 2000.

With his Stars tenure now behind him, DeBoer is up to 17th on the NHL coach all-time wins list with 662. The 56-year-old has an all-time regular-season record of 662-447-152 (.525) across stops in Florida, New Jersey, San Jose, Vegas, and Dallas and has advanced to the third round in eight of his 17 years as an NHL head coach.

It’s unclear what DeBoer’s firing means for the Stars’ assistant coaches, particularly Misha Donskov and Steve Spott. The two have worked closely with DeBoer over the last several years and followed him from Nevada to Texas. He had not previously overlapped with the Stars’ third assistant, Alain Nasreddine.

Image courtesy of Jerome Miron-Imagn Images.

Rangers Hire David Quinn, Joe Sacco As Assistant Coaches

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4:19 p.m.: The Rangers have officially announced their new hires, according to a team statement.

8:38 a.m.: The Rangers are nearing a deal to bring David Quinn back to the organization as an assistant coach under new bench boss Mike Sullivan, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. They’re also expected to add former Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco to Sullivan’s staff after Boston declined to remove his interim tag and hired Marco Sturm today instead. Sullivan’s third and final assistant will be Ty Hennes, who had been on Sullivan’s staff with the Penguins for the last few years, Friedman adds.

Quinn, whose first NHL head coaching job was in New York from 2018 to 2021, spent last year as an assistant under Sullivan in Pittsburgh as well. He also worked with Sullivan as an assistant for the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

It’s exceedingly rare to see a coach return to a team so quickly after he’d been let go, especially in a reduced capacity, but he’ll take the chance to continue working with Sullivan after coming up short in a couple of head coaching searches. The Kraken and Penguins both reportedly interviewed Quinn for their vacancies this offseason.

Quinn will presumably work with a Rangers power play that had its fair share of struggles this year. After clicking at 26.4% in their Presidents’ Trophy-winning 2023-24 season, their man-advantage units converted at just a 17.6% rate this year, fifth-worst in the league.

Sacco heads to MSG after an 11-year run in Boston that began as an assistant in the 2014-15 season. The Massachusetts native survived two head coaching changes before getting a chance himself as the interim for most of this year following Jim Montgomery’s firing in November. He coached the Bruins to a 25-30-7 record, undoubtedly dragged down by a 5-11-2 post-deadline stretch after trading away captain Brad Marchand and top-four defenseman Brandon Carlo.

The 56-year-old’s previous NHL stops include a four-year run as head coach of the Avalanche from 2009-10 to 2012-13 and one year with the Sabres as an assistant in 2013-14. He also coached the United States to a bronze medal at the 2013 World Championship.

Hennes, the tertiary assistant, is by far the least experienced among the group. The 45-year-old has only ever worked in Pittsburgh at the NHL level, only working on the bench since November 2022. Before that, he worked with the Pens for four years as a skating skills coach.

Bruins Name Marco Sturm Head Coach

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The Bruins announced Thursday they’ve appointed AHL Ontario bench boss Marco Sturm as their new head coach.

While it’s Sturm’s first time as an NHL head coach, the former Bruins winger has built up a solid resume over the last decade. He was appointed the head coach of Germany’s men’s national team for the 2015-16 cycle and held that role for three seasons, including a silver medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

That Olympic medal put him on the map for NHL clubs. He joined the Kings organization the following season, remaining there until today’s hiring. He spent four years as an assistant on the NHL bench under John Stevens, Willie Desjardins, and Todd McLellan before heading to Ontario to oversee their top development affiliate in 2022. During his time there, the 46-year-old helped the Reign make the Calder Cup Playoffs in each of his three seasons behind the bench and posted a 119-80-11-6 regular-season record.

Sturm was one of the first names linked to Boston’s vacancy in early May, and it was clear he had emerged as the frontrunner a couple of weeks ago. It likely took longer than the Bruins hoped to make the hiring official – they were the last team standing without a permanent head coach after the Penguins hired Dan Muse yesterday – but in the end, they get their man.

General manager Don Sweeney had the following statement on Sturm, who is the 30th head coach in franchise history:

Throughout this process, our goal was to identify a coach who could uphold our strong defensive foundation while helping us evolve offensively. We were also looking for a communicator and leader – someone who connects with players, develops young talent, and earns the respect of the room. Marco impressed us at every step with his preparation, clarity, and passion. His path – playing for multiple NHL teams, coaching internationally, and leading at both the AHL and NHL levels – has shaped a well-rounded coach who’s earned this opportunity. As a former Bruin, he understands what this team means to the city and our fans. We’re embracing a new direction with Marco behind the bench and are confident his energy, standards, and commitment to a competitive, hard-nosed brand of hockey reflect exactly what Bruins hockey should be.

As Sweeney said, this isn’t Sturm’s first go-around in Beantown. He was part of one of the most notable trades in league history, heading to Boston from San Jose when the Bruins traded Joe Thornton to San Jose midway through his Hart Trophy-winning 2005-06 campaign. Sturm, who had already been in the league for eight years and was already the best German-born player the league had ever seen, was a good top-six piece for Boston over the next five years but had a steep decline at the end of his tenure, fueled by a left knee surgery in 2009 that hampered his production for the rest of his career.

Sturm scored 242 goals and 487 points in 938 NHL games over his 14-year playing career, still placing him second all-time in scoring among German NHLers behind Leon Draisaitl. 106 of those goals and 198 of those points came in Boston over a 302-game span.

He’ll now be tasked with injecting the speedy, two-way style he flashed as a player into the Bruins’ retooling roster. The club has made increased scoring its stated priority for 2025-26 after being limited to 2.71 goals per game this year, sixth-worst in the league. He’ll likely need some help from Sweeney this summer to give him more than two 20-goal scorers from 2024-25 (Morgan Geekie, David Pastrňák) to make it happen.

Other names who reportedly made it deep in the process for the Bruins’ gig were assistant Jay Leach and ex-Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft. It’s unclear if Leach will remain on Sturm’s staff as an AC. Former assistant Joe Sacco, who spent most of this year as interim head coach following Boston’s firing of Jim Montgomery in November, is not expected to return to the organization.

Image courtesy of Kevin Hoffman-Imagn Images.

Re-Signing Luke Hughes Top Priority For Devils Off-Season

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New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald sat down with NHL.com’s Mike Morreale to go over the team’s priorities for the off-season. Top of conversation was star defenseman Luke Hughes, who is currently set to become  a restricted free-agent on July 1st. Fitzgerald emphasized that re-signing Hughes before that deadline is a top priority, and that the two parties have already engaged in conversations around a new deal.

The GM pointed out the team’s minimal salary cap space – just over $12MM with nine pending free agents – but he ensured that Hughes would get the priority signing. Fitzgerald told Morreale:

We’re just trying to figure out what’s best for Luke and for us and how do we make our team better with the funds that we have available… Both parties are in agreement… We’re going to get this done.

Fitzgerald’s emphasis sheds some assurance on the biggest storyline shadowing the Devils’ off-season. Hughes took on a major role in the Devils’ blue-line this season, playing opposite of 10-year NHL veteran Brett Pesce and averaging 21 minutes of ice time a game. He handled the role well, recording 37 assists, 44 points, and a minus-nine through 71 games. That mark put him on pace for 42 assists and 50 points across a full 82 games, though injuries at the start of the season forced him out of 10 appearances. Still, Hughes – still just two years into his career – was able to become the first Devils’ defenseman to record consecutive 30-assist seasons since Brian Rafalski between 2005 and 2007.

It was a fantastic follow-up to Hughes’ already-strong rookie performance. He improved across the board, and even grew his plus-minus from a minus-25 to a minus-nine. He still has layers to add to his game and a clear need for more strength in the defensive zone – but all signs point towards the Devils having a star on their hands. His career 0.60 point-per-game scoring pace is the sixth-highest from a U22 defenseman since 2000 – ranked behind Cale Makar (0.88), Lane Hutson (0.81), Quinn Hughes (0.75), Erik Karlsson (0.69), and Dion Phaneuf (0.61).

It seems Fitzgerald is ready to reward Hughes’ promising upside this summer. He is projected to sign a long-term deal with a price tag north of $9MM by CapWages. That mark would eat up two-thirds of New Jersey’s available budget for the summer, and make it harder to re-sign even two of their nine free agents. Notable names like Cody Glass, and Jake Allen are each on expired contracts. Finding the space to bring them back could push New Jersey back to the trade market as the league heats up ahead of July 1st.

Penguins Name Dan Muse Head Coach

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The Penguins have hired Rangers assistant coach Dan Muse as their next head coach, per a team announcement. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported minutes earlier that the hire was expected to get across the finish line.

Muse is a bit of a surprise hire. He was the most recent name to be reported as a candidate for Pittsburgh’s vacancy, linked just yesterday by Larry Brooks of the New York Post.

Not too long ago, it looked like the finalists for the Pens’ job were Capitals assistant Mitch Love and Kings assistant D.J. Smith. It became apparent that Love was out of the mix and replaced by Muse as a finalist yesterday, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period relays. Love was labeled a name on which Pittsburgh was relatively high from the beginning, but the Penguins will instead opt to poach a different assistant coach in their early 40s from a Metropolitan Division rival in Muse.

This will be Muse’s first chance to be an NHL head coach. He’s spent five years in the league as an assistant, first with the Predators from 2017-18 to 2019-20 before working under Peter Laviolette in Manhattan for the past two seasons. In the interim, he was a head coach for the United States National Team Development Program and coached the Americans to a gold medal at the 2023 U-18 World Junior Championship.

The development of the Penguins’ young players will be crucial over the next few seasons as they look to quickly return to contention as Sidney Crosby’s, Kris Letang’s, and Evgeni Malkin’s careers wind down. That top-down ideology from general manager Kyle Dubas is extremely apparent with the hire of Muse, who’s won multiple accolades at the junior level – including a USHL championship as head coach of the Chicago Steel in 2017 before landing the AC job with Nashville.

Here’s Dubas’ full statement on Muse’s appointment:

During this process, we met with many candidates who we felt would have been a fit as the next head coach of the Penguins, but ultimately, Dan Muse stood out as the best choice. What separated Dan was his ability to develop players, win at all levels where he has been a head coach and his consistent success coaching special teams in the NHL. From his success in developing college and junior players, to his impactful work with veteran players during his time in the NHL, Dan has shown a proven ability to connect with players at all stages of their careers and help them to reach their potential. Additionally, his leadership of special teams units at the NHL level in both Nashville and New York produced elite results consistently. His overall body of work, attention to detail and vision for our group showed us that he is the best coach to take our team forward. We’re excited to welcome Dan, and his family, to the city of Pittsburgh.

As for the Rangers, they’ll need to continue their coaching overhaul under new bench boss Mike Sullivan, whom Muse succeeds in Pittsburgh. They’ll have an entirely new bench staff next season after firing associate coach Phil Housley and losing assistant coach Michael Peca to Jeff Blashill’s staff with the Blackhawks.

Avalanche Sign Brock Nelson To Three-Year Extension

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The Avalanche have signed pending UFA center Brock Nelson to a three-year extension, per a team announcement. The deal carries a $7.5MM cap hit for a total value of $22.5MM, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.

In doing so, Colorado takes one of the top pivots off this summer’s open market. They paid a steep price to acquire the longtime Islander from New York at the trade deadline, surrendering their 2026 first-round pick along with center Calum Ritchie, their No. 1 prospect, along with some smaller assets to land him. Losing him for nothing, especially after the Avalanche suffered a first-round playoff loss to the Stars, would have been quite the blow.

Instead, they’ll get parts of four seasons out of the 33-year-old, assuming he plays out the rest of his deal. It’s an eye-popping price tag, especially since he’s coming off somewhat of a down season with 26 goals and 56 points in 80 games split between Denver and Long Island, and a noticeable raise over his previous $6MM cap hit. Nonetheless, he’ll be the solution to fill the second-line center gap for the next few years after searching for a consistent producer following Nazem Kadri’s departure in free agency in 2022.

Nelson’s point production this season didn’t shift considerably from team to team. He posted 43 points in 61 games for the Islanders (0.70 per game) before logging 13 in 19 for Colorado down the stretch (0.68 per game). Nelson added four assists and a plus-two rating in seven playoff games for the Avs, averaging a shade under 17 minutes per game in the postseason.

Notably, the contract he signed with the Avalanche is the same one offered to him by the Islanders before they opted to trade him, Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News reports. Amid a retool with new general manager Mathieu Darche at the helm, New York is likely still happy with the move to jumpstart what was one of the worst prospect pools in the league.

Nelson’s contract will be an important comparable as other top pending UFA centers like Sam Bennett and John Tavares continue to pursue extensions with their current clubs. The deal he ended up signing came in a fair amount above the roughly $7MM AAV projected for him on a three-year deal on the open market, according to AFP Analytics.

Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland now has his center group of Nathan MacKinnon, Nelson, Charlie Coyle, and Jack Drury all under contract through next season. Coyle and Drury will become eligible to sign extensions on July 1.

Still, the premium they paid to keep Nelson from testing free agency will cause some cap headaches for MacFarland to deal with this summer. They’re down to just $1.2MM in cap space for 2025-26, according to PuckPedia. While they have a mostly full roster, they still have four open spots between them and a cap-compliant 23-man roster.

Barring a significant cap-clearing trade, their notable pending UFAs, winger Jonathan Drouin and defenseman Ryan Lindgren, are not returning. Even if they only signed players to league-minimum deals, they’d only be able to ice a bare-minimum 20-player roster out of the gate with no flexibility for a recall.

Nelson’s deal runs through the 2027-28 season, after which he’ll be able to test unrestricted free agency if he so chooses at age 36. The 2010 first-round pick could play his 1,000th game late next season if he stays healthy. He’s at 920 entering the offseason.

Image courtesy of Talia Sprague-Imagn Images.

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