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Jets’ Mark Scheifele Questionable For Game 7

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May 3: With the series heading back to Winnipeg after a dominant Blues win in Game 6, Scheifele has been upgraded to a game-time decision for Sunday’s Game 7 (via TSN’s John Lu). He skated on his own today, with Arniel saying Scheifele’s feeling much better today after his presumed upper-body injury.

May 1: Jets star center Mark Scheifele has already been ruled out for Winnipeg’s potential series-clinching Game 6 contest against the Blues on Friday, head coach Scott Arniel announced (via Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press).

The 32-year-old pivot is dealing with an undisclosed injury he sustained in the first period of last night’s Game 5 win. There’s been some contention about which hit caused him to eventually leave the game. Blues head coach Jim Montgomery said postgame that Scheifele obviously sustained the injury on a clean but hard hit from St. Louis center Radek Faksa late in the first (video via Sportsnet), but Scheifele also took a high hit from Blues captain Brayden Schenn earlier in the game that resulted in an interference penalty. Scheifele didn’t miss a shift in the first period but didn’t come out for the second and was unavailable for the rest of the night. Schenn isn’t facing a suspension for the hit, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.

Scheifele managed an assist before exiting the contest, bringing up to a 2-4–6 scoring line on the series to rank second on the team in points. He’s struggled to get the puck on net with just six shots on goal, though, a full shot per game less than his regular-season average.

The two-time All-Star Game participant scored a career-high 87 points in 2024-25 and tied for the league lead with 11 game-winning goals, a strong bounceback campaign after a disappointing 2023-24 campaign for him in the goal-scoring department. The first draft pick the Jets made after relocating to Winnipeg from Atlanta also averaged over 20 minutes per game for the ninth year in a row and is in the first season of a seven-year, $59.5MM extension.

Winnipeg has yet to ice a healthy top six in the postseason. Winger Nikolaj Ehlers hasn’t played in over two weeks with a foot injury and has only recently started skating in a non-contact jersey. It’s unclear if he’ll travel to St. Louis for Game 6, but even if he does, he’s highly unlikely to play. Scheifele isn’t traveling, Arniel said. The Jets are up 3-2, so they’ll either return home to their star center triumphant without him or hope he can return for a Game 7 on Sunday.

Hurricanes Sign Frederik Andersen To Contract Extension

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3:30 PM: The team confirmed that they’ve signed Andersen to a one-year extension.  The deal carries a $2.75MM guaranteed salary plus $250K for 35 games played, $250K for 40 games played, and $250K if Carolina reaches the Eastern Conference Final with him playing in at least half of the playoff games.  That brings the potential value of the deal to $3.5MM.  GM Eric Tulsky released the following statement:

Frederik has played extremely well for us and ranks in the top 10 all-time for winning percentage by an NHL goalie. We’re excited that he will be staying with the team for next season.

2:03 PM: An already-thin UFA market for goaltenders could be getting weakened even further.  ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reports (Twitter link) that the Hurricanes are closing in on finalizing a one-year extension with pending free agent Frederik Andersen.

Over four seasons with the Hurricanes, the 35-year-old has largely done well when healthy.  However, the challenge has simply been staying healthy.  Andersen has only played in 38 games over the past two seasons due to various injuries plus a blood-clotting condition.  Last year, he put up a stellar 1.82 GAA with a .932 SV% in 16 games while this season, he posted marks of 2.50 and .899, respectively.

Despite the limited action, Andersen was Carolina’s starting goalie for their first-round series against Carolina.  He played quite well in the first four games before suffering an undisclosed injury that caused him to come out early in that fourth game and miss Game 5.  However, team reporter Walt Ruff relayed today that Andersen was a full participant in practice for the second straight day, suggesting he should be good to go for the start of the second round against Washington.

Andersen’s soon-to-expire contract carries a $3.4MM AAV.  Given how much time he has missed the last couple of years, it would be surprising to see this next deal have that much in guaranteed money.  However, since he’s now 35 and apparently signing only a one-year deal, he is eligible to have performance bonuses in that contract.  Speculatively, that would lower the guaranteed cost while having some games played incentives that could push the potential value around what he has made over the last two seasons.

Andersen will once again form a tandem with Pyotr Kochetkov who still has two years left on his contract at a club-friendly $2MM charge.  That duo has been a cost-effective one (again, when healthy) for the last couple of years and that should continue now for at least one more year.

Carolina is shaping up to have plenty of cap space available this summer.  Following the re-signing of Taylor Hall earlier this week, the Hurricanes have around $32MM in room this summer, per PuckPedia.  Notably, they only have a handful of roster spots to use that money on.  While a new deal for Andersen will cut into that a bit, GM Eric Tulsky will certainly have lots of flexibility to try to add to his roster this summer.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

Flames Sign Matt Coronato To Seven-Year Extension

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Set to become a restricted free agent this summer, Flames winger Matt Coronato has instead put pen to paper on his next deal early.  The team announced that they’ve signed Coronato to a seven-year, $45.5MM extension, one that will carry an AAV of $6.5MM per season.  PuckPedia reports the breakdown of the deal is as follows:

2025-26: $5MM salary, $2MM signing bonus
2026-27 through 2030-31: $6.5MM salary
2031-32: $6MM salary

The 22-year-old was a first-round pick by Calgary back in 2021, going 13th overall.  The Flames took a gradual development strategy with Coronato after picking him, as he spent two years at Harvard before turning pro in 2023.  He also didn’t go straight to the NHL as he spent half of his first full professional campaign in the AHL with the Wranglers where he had 42 points in 41 games before making the jump to a full-time NHL spot this season (aside from a two-game AHL stint in late October).

This season, Coronato finished tied with MacKenzie Weegar for third on the Flames in points with behind only Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau.  Meanwhile, his 24 goals put him third on the team in that department as well while he logged 17:35 per night of playing time.  That performance was good enough to secure him a spot on Team USA’s roster for the upcoming Worlds but following the results of an MRI, he opted to withdraw from the team as a preventive measure to recover and train on schedule for next season.

While it’s not common for a team to hand out a long-term deal to a player with only one full NHL season under his belt and a total of just 112 career appearances at the top level, GM Craig Conroy has rightfully determined that Coronato is going to be one of Calgary’s building blocks for the present and future.  With that in mind, it’s not surprising that getting a contract done was at the top of his to-do list this offseason.

It’s worth noting that Coronato had five years of club control remaining so they could have easily worked out a shorter-term agreement and then looked to lock him up on a more expensive pact down the road that would have kept him in the fold longer.  Instead, they’ve opted for the long-term deal now, meaning that Calgary only gets two years of extra control with this agreement while Coronato receives a 10-team no-trade clause in those final two seasons; players aren’t eligible for trade protection in their RFA-eligible years.

With the signing, the Flames now have around $67.7MM in commitments for next season, per PuckPedia, leaving Conroy with nearly $28MM in cap room to work with this summer.  Forwards Morgan Frost and Connor Zary along with defenseman Kevin Bahl are their most prominent remaining RFA-eligible players, while winger Anthony Mantha and goalie Daniel Vladar highlight their group of pending unrestricted free agents.

Photo courtesy of Brett Holmes-Imagn Images.

Marc-André Fleury Announces Retirement

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The last goaltender selected with the first overall pick has officially hung up his skates. As expected after his farewell tour, the NHL Alumni Association announced that Marc-André Fleury has retired from the NHL after 21 seasons.

Fleury’s career began on October 10, 2003, on a rebuilding Pittsburgh Penguins’ team, losing to the Los Angeles Kings. He wouldn’t have to wait long for his first win, as they defeated the Detroit Red Wings a few days later on October 18th.

It wouldn’t be Fleury’s win against Detroit either. Although they lost in a hotly contested 2008 Stanley Cup Final, the Penguins won a year later. Thanks to a game-saving win against Nicklas Lidstrom in Game 7 of the 2009 Stanley Cup Final, Fleury backstopped Pittsburgh to their first Stanley Cup championship since 1992.

Although the Penguins had successful seasons, it took a few years for them to return to the Stanley Cup Final. When they finally made it back, Fleury had moved into a backup role, while Matt Murray took over as the starting goaltender. Murray helped lead the Penguins to consecutive championships in 2016 and 2017.

This was largely the end of Fleury’s tenure in Pittsburgh. The team left Fleury exposed in that summer’s expansion draft, again in favor of Murray, leaving the upstart Vegas Golden Knights to select him.

Fleury, with an impressive record of 29 wins, 13 losses, and 4 overtime losses, along with a .927 save percentage in 46 games, helped the Golden Knights not only reach the playoffs but also advance to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural year.. Unfortunately, Vegas couldn’t capitalize on their Cinderella run, it was a clear resurgence in Fleury’s career.

He experienced several more successful years with Vegas before being traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in late summer 2021. ’Flower’ only spent one year with the Original Six organization before being traded to the Minnesota Wild at the subsequent trade deadline.

Finally, Fleury’s career ended last night at the hands of the Golden Knights. He finished his career with a 575-339-97 record in 1,051 career games with a .912 SV% and 2.6o GAA. He won the Vezina Trophy along with the William M. Jennings Trophy in 2020-21 and currently sits second all-time in goalie win leaders, besting Patrick Roy by 24 wins and falling short of Martin Brodeur by 116.

John Tortorella Not Expected To Join Rangers

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May 2: Tortorella interviewed the Rangers about an undisclosed role, but it didn’t yield a job offer, Kaplan said Friday.

May 1: While it appears that the Rangers are closing in on naming Mike Sullivan as their next head coach, he might not be the only veteran bench boss the team hires.  ESPN’s Emily Kaplan and Kevin Weekes report (Twitter link) that John Tortorella is a strong candidate to rejoin the organization.

Tortorella, of course, spent parts of six seasons with the Rangers, spanning from the 2008-09 season through the 2012-13 campaign plus a brief four-game stint in 1999-2000.  New York had some success during the regular season over that stretch with the team playing to a .583 points percentage under Tortorella, his best points percentage out of any of the teams he coached.  However, postseason success proved to be more elusive with the team only winning 19 of 44 games, getting to the Eastern Conference Final just once over that stretch.

The 66-year-old is certainly well-traveled as a head coach with stints in Tampa Bay (seven years), Vancouver (one year), Columbus (six years), and most recently Philadelphia (three years) where he was let go with nine games left in the regular season.

With Sullivan presumably coming on board, the head coaching vacancy won’t be going to Tortorella.  It has been a while since he has been an NHL assistant coach; that hasn’t been the case since the 2000-01 campaign where he was an assistant with the Lightning before taking the top job midseason.  He did, however, serve as an assistant with Buffalo (1989-90 through 1994-95), Phoenix (1997-98 and 1998-99), as well as the 99-00 campaign with the Rangers beyond that four-game stint as the interim head coach.  It’s also possible that Tortorella could be coming onboard in more of an advisory capacity but either way, it looks like he won’t be out of a job for long.

Rangers Hire Mike Sullivan As Head Coach

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May 2, 12:49 p.m.: It’s a five-year contract for Sullivan with an undisclosed AAV, per Emily Kaplan of ESPN. While the exact number isn’t known, the deal includes the highest annual salary for a coach in NHL history.

May 2, 8:00 a.m..: As expected, the Rangers will make Sullivan’s hire official on Friday morning, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The team released a formal announcement a few moments after Friedman shared the news.

May 1: The New York Rangers are expected to hire Mike Sullivan as the 38th coach in franchise history, per Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today Sports. Sullivan spent the last 10 seasons as the coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins. He won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017 – his first two seasons as Pittsburgh’s head coach.

Pittsburgh missed the postseason for the third-straight season this year – but even despite that, news of Sullivan’s mutual departure sent shockwaves around the hockey world. He was the second-longest tenured head coach in the league at the time of his dismissal, behind only Jon Cooper with the Tampa Bay Lightning. In March, Sullivan reaffirmed his desire to stick in Pittsburgh long-term, telling Josh Yohe of The Athletic that he didn’t wish to coach anywhere but Pittsburgh. That sentiment seemed to hold true through the end of the season, with Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas even sharing that Sullivan was expected to return for 2025-26 just one week before he left the team. When all was said and done, the 57-year-old bench boss opted to explore free agency for the first time since 2015.

Should the news hold true, Sullivan will be returning to old roots by rejoining the Rangers organization. He served as an assistant coach to John Tortorella in New York from 2009 to 2013. His presence helped New York push back into the postseason in three straight seasons, after missing the playoffs in 2010. Sullivan parted ways with the Rangers before their run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2014 – instead joining the Vancouver Canucks as an assistant for the 2013-14 campaign, then heading to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for an AHL role in 2015-16.

Sullivan coached in just 24 AHL games before being promoted to the top flight, following the dismissal of Mike Johnston. What Sullivan was able to create in Pittsburgh over the subsequent 10 seasons was nothing short of incredible. Pittsburgh had no shortage of playoff experience when Sullivan took over – having made the postseason for nine-straight seasons. But aside from a Cup final loss in 2008, and a Cup win in 2009, the squad had fallen into a deep rut of dazzling regular season success followed by quick playoff exits. Sullivan was the one to change that, pushing the Penguins to the fourth and fifth Cup wins in franchise history and prolonging their playoff streak to an impressive 16 seasons – before they finally missed out in 2023. With Sullivan’s help, Pittsburgh’s playoff streak lasted longer than the Buffalo Sabres’ ongoing playoff drought – 16 seasons to 14 seasons – and the Rangers are certainly hoping he can continue that success across the Metropolitan Division.

The 2024-25 season was a historic low for the Original Six club. In front of Peter Laviolette, in his second year at the helm, New York posted a bleak 39-36-7 record – their worst win percentage since posting a 32-36-14 record in the 2018-19 season. The season was disappointing in every aspect, undercut by the fact that the Rangers posted a franchise record 114 points (55-23-4 record) last season. Career-long goal-scorer Chris Kreider managed just eight assists and 30 points in 68 games, while Alexis Lafreniere continued to underperform and the defense looked lost at sea. They were just three of the many headlines to pour out of New York over the course of the year – which culminated in New York missing the postseason for the first time since 2021.

But even on the heels of a bad year, the Rangers will offer Sullivan plenty to work with. They have franchise cornerstones locked up for the foreseeable future in former Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox and Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin. Star forwrad Artemi Panarin is also under contract through the 2025-26 season, while Kreider and Mika Zibanejad are signed through at least 2027. That forward group will look to lead an otherwise very young corps, headlined by top pick Lafreniere, emerging pieces like William Cuylle and Adam Edstrom, and top prospects Gabriel Perreault, Brennan Othmann, and Brett Berard. That should be more than enough firepower to make a playoff champion, especially under the guide of a head coach who got the most out of scorers like Rickard Rakell, Michael Bunting, and Philip Tomasino.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Scott Arniel, Spencer Carbery, Martin St. Louis Named Jack Adams Finalists

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The Jets’ Scott Arniel, the Capitals’ Spencer Carbery, and the Canadiens’ Martin St. Louis are this year’s Jack Adams Award finalists as the NHL’s top head coach, the league announced.

All are first-time finalists. Unlike most other awards (like the Selke, whose finalists were announced today), the Adams is voted on by broadcast media members, not print/digital.

In his first season behind the Winnipeg bench after taking over for the retiring Rick Bowness, Arniel guided the Jets to their first Presidents’ Trophy and best regular season in franchise history. Promoted after serving as an assistant under Bowness since 2022-23, the former Jets 1.0 forward logged a 56-22-4 record.

This is Arniel’s second stop as an NHL head coach. He was previously at the helm of the Blue Jackets for a year and a half, posting a 45-60-18 (.439) record in 123 games before being fired at the halfway point of the 2011-12 season. He would be the first bench boss in Jets 2.0 franchise history to win Coach of the Year honors.

Over in Washington, Carbery oversaw one of the league’s biggest point increases from 2023-24 to 2024-25 in his second year behind the Capitals’ bench. He’s now posted a 91-53-20 (.616) record across his two seasons in the role, including an Eastern Conference-leading 51-22-9 record this year for Washington’s first division title in five years. While it’s not considered for this award’s purposes, he also just guided the Caps to their first playoff series win since 2018 with a five-game dispatching of the Canadiens in the first round.

Carbery helped improve Washington’s offense from a 28th-ranked 2.63 goals per game last year to 3.49 in 2024-25, second-best in the NHL. If he wins, the 43-year-old would be the first to take home Coach of the Year honors at every stop of the NHL’s professional development pyramid. While in lower levels of the Caps organization, he won COTY honors with ECHL South Carolina in 2013-14 and with AHL Hershey in 2020-21.

As for St. Louis, the Hall-of-Fame winger could add coaching-related honors to a trophy case that includes a Stanley Cup, two Art Ross Trophies, MVP honors, and three Lady Byng Trophies. Coming off his third full season behind the Montreal bench, the 49-year-old helped guide a young Habs squad out of the dark stages of their rebuild. The team recorded their first 40-win season in six years and ended a three-year postseason drought that was tied for the longest (1999-2001, 1920-1922) in franchise history. A Habs bench boss hasn’t been named COTY since Pat Burns in 1989.

Jets’ Nikolaj Ehlers Set To Return For Game 6

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Star Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers is set to return for Winnipeg’s potential series-clinching Game 6 in their series against the Blues tonight, the team announced.

Ehlers has been dealing with a foot injury that’s kept him out of the Jets’ first five playoff games and all but two contests since April 3. He’s been skating in a non-contact jersey in practice since Wednesday and shed the designation for the first time this morning, the team’s Mitchell Clinton relayed. Winnipeg has managed a 3-2 series lead without him, but as they travel to St. Louis for Game 6, the home team has won every game in the series thus far.

His return comes as first-line center Mark Scheifele exits the lineup due to an undisclosed injury he sustained in the first period of Game 5. The Jets were quick to rule out their top pivot yesterday, and he didn’t accompany the team on the trip to Missouri.

Ehlers’ return will be imperative as he looks to help Winnipeg’s offense sustain Scheifele’s loss. During the regular season, the pending unrestricted free agent fell just short of setting a career-high in points with 63 (24 goals, 39 assists) in 69 games.

Ehlers will skate in his usual second-line role with captain Adam Lowry elevated from third-line duties to center him and Cole Perfetti. Normal No. 2 center Vladislav Namestnikov moves up to replace Scheifele between Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi.

Lower in the lineup, this morning’s line rushes indicate depth center Dominic Toninato is set to make his first playoff appearance since 2021 between Alex Iafallo and Brandon Tanev. He’s coming in for Jaret Anderson-Dolan, who played the first five games of the series but will now serve as a healthy scratch despite contributing a goal, assist, and 19 hits in his limited minutes.

Aleksander Barkov, Anthony Cirelli, Sam Reinhart Named Selke Trophy Finalists

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Panthers center Aleksander Barkov, Lightning center Anthony Cirelli, and Panthers winger Sam Reinhart have been named Selke Trophy finalists for the 2024-25 season, the NHL announced.

According to the league, the award is given “to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.” It’s voted on at the end of the regular season by media members, like most other major NHL honors, and has been in circulation since the 1977-78 campaign, with former Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron holding the record with six wins.

Despite the verbiage, the Selke is almost never given out to a pure shutdown forward, at least not anymore. More of a “best two-way forward” than “best defensive forward” honor in reality, Barkov headlines the list as he looks to take home the hardware in back-to-back years and for the third time in his career.

Now a four-time finalist, Barkov’s boxcar stats actually point toward a down year for the Stanley Cup champion Finn. His 1.06 points per game and plus-one rating were both post-COVID lows for the 29-year-old, but he still added 54 blocks, 87 hits, and a 56.5% win rate in the faceoff dot. A look at his possession numbers makes it easy to see why he’s continuously regarded as the game’s best two-way center, though. His 60.8% Corsi share at even strength this year was a career-high and led the team.

Stepping into the finalist’s circle for the first time is Barkov’s cross-state counterpart in Cirelli. The 27-year-old finished fourth in Selke voting in 2019-20 and fifth in 2021-22 but never cracked the top three. That changes this year on the heels of a season full of career-highs for Cirelli, who scored 27 goals, 32 assists, 59 points, and logged a +30 rating in 80 appearances. His 18:41 of ice time per game was also a career-high. While he doesn’t receive Barkov’s 5-on-5 deployment, Cirelli is Tampa’s top penalty-killing forward and finished seventh among forwards in plus-minus this season.

Reinhart is the unlikeliest candidate to win, although it’s not really in his control. A winger hasn’t won the award in over 20 years – the Stars’ Jere Lehtinen was the last to do it in 2003. The 29-year-old finished just outside of being a finalist last year during his career-defining 57-goal campaign, and his nomination means the Panthers are the first team with two Selke finalists in a season since the Red Wings’ Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg in 2007-08. He finished 2024-25 with a 39-42–81 scoring line, a plus-six rating, 103 hits, and a 59.2 CF% in 79 games.

Rangers Sign Juuso Pärssinen To Two-Year Extension

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The Rangers have retained pending restricted free agent forward Juuso Pärssinen on a two-year deal for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 campaigns, per a team announcement. It’s worth a total of $2.5MM with a cap hit of $1.25MM, Peter Baugh of The Athletic reports.

Pärssinen, 24, arrived in New York in March when the Blueshirts acquired him from the Avalanche in the Ryan Lindgren trade. It was the young Finn’s second move of the season. He kicked off his third NHL campaign as a member of the Predators, who selected him in the seventh round in 2019, but was sent to Colorado in a minor trade in December after struggling to stay in the lineup.

On the year, the 6’3″, 212-lb pivot posted 6-10–16 with a minus-five rating in 48 appearances across the three clubs. From a points-per-game perspective, that’s a minor improvement on his 2023-24 sophomore slump, in which he was limited to 12 points in 44 games with Nashville. He got his offense going again despite averaging 10:32 per game after averaging north of 14 minutes per night across his first two NHL campaigns.

The fact that he’s no longer waiver-exempt has likely helped his case for staying on NHL rosters, but he had a strong finish to the campaign that likely helped his case for an opening-night job in 2025-26. Considering the Rangers gave him $100K more than the maximum buriable cap hit in the minors, that’s something they’re anticipating. After the move, Pärssinen averaged fewer than 10 minutes per game for New York but scored five points in his final three games of the campaign, adding a plus-one rating with 14 blocks and 17 hits.

Pärssinen does have legitimate offensive upside. In his first NHL showing in 2022-23, he posted a 6-19–25 scoring line in 45 games for the Preds after an early-season call-up from AHL Milwaukee. That’s an 11-goal, 46-point pace over an 82-game campaign. It’s certainly unreasonable to expect him to replicate those numbers if new head coach Mike Sullivan continues deploying him in a fourth-line role, but he can be a useful play-driver deep in the lineup.

By signing now, Pärssinen avoids a bout with RFA status for the second time in as many years. He spent almost the entire offseason unsigned by Nashville in 2024 before coming to terms on a league-minimum deal the week before training camp opened. His deal includes a $1.05MM base salary and a $150K signing bonus in 2025-26 and a base salary of $1.3MM with no bonuses in 2026-27, per PuckPedia. He’ll be one year away from UFA status when his deal expires, and the Rangers will need to tender a $1.3MM qualifying offer to retain his signing rights upon expiry.

The Rangers now have just $8.42MM in cap space for next season with a roster size of 19, per PuckPedia. Without any cap-clearing moves, that will be eaten up quickly by new deals for pending RFAs William Cuylle and K’Andre Miller.

Image courtesy of Brad Penner-Imagn Images.

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