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Valtteri Filppula Announces Retirement

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16-year NHL veteran Valtteri Filppula has ended his playing career. Helsinki-based Jokerit of Finland’s second-tier league, Mestis, where he spent the 2024-25 campaign, made the announcement today.

Filppula, 41, hasn’t played in the NHL since the 2020-21 campaign but remained steadily active overseas. After a strong three-year run in Switzerland with Genève-Servette HC of the National League, he returned to Jokerit, where he began his professional career, last summer as player and part-owner.

Jokerit, a staple of top-flight Finnish hockey, joined Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League in the mid-2010s but withdrew from the league abruptly in 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They were denied re-entry into the top-level Liiga and thus restarted play in Mestis in 2023-24. Filppula captained the team to a Mestis championship this season and finished second on the team in scoring with 14-27–41 in 39 games, but Jokerit dropped the Liiga relegation series against Pelicans and will thus remain in Mestis for 2025-26.

It was a mostly triumphant end to Filppula’s 22-year professional career. He made his Liiga (then the SM-liiga) debut with Jokerit in 2003-04, one year after the Red Wings selected him in the third round of the 2002 NHL draft. He led the league in rookie scoring that year and then reached the championship series in 2004-05 before heading to Detroit for 2005-06.

Filppula spent most of his first season in North America with AHL Grand Rapids, where he exploded out of the gate for a 20-50–70 scoring line in 74 games and was naturally a participant in the league’s All-Star Game. He earned a full-time role on the powerhouse Red Wings for 2006-07 and never looked back. The 6’0″ center played a key depth role in Detroit’s back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances in 2008 and 2009, winning the only ring of his career in the former year, recording 27 points and a +15 rating in 45 games across the two runs.

The left-shot pivot got more of a run in top-six minutes in the years to come, but his offense was hot and cold from year to year. After scoring 23 goals and a career-high 66 points for Detroit in 81 games in the 2011-12 campaign, he mustered just 17 points in 41 games in the lockout-shortened 2013 season, leading the team to let him walk in unrestricted free agency after the five-year, $15MM deal he signed in the 2008 offseason expired.

Filppula landed another five-year deal on the open market, receiving $25MM from the Lightning to stay in the Atlantic Division. His offensive production came roaring back, lighting the lamp a career-best 25 times in 75 games in 2013-14 while playing just south of 20 minutes per night. In Year 2 in Tampa, he played a crucial top-line role with Alex Killorn and Steven Stamkos as the Bolts marched to the Stanley Cup Final but lost to the Blackhawks. He scored 4-10–14 in 26 games in that playoff run.

His offense soon began to taper off for good. He never eclipsed the 20-goal mark again after that 25-goal season, and his last time hitting 40 points was in the 2016-17 campaign. He remained a capable defensive presence in dwindling minutes, though. After brief stints with the Flyers and Islanders in the late 2010s, Filppula hit the open market in 2019 and reunited with Detroit on a two-year, $6MM deal.

An aging Filppula understandably wasn’t much of an impact player, especially on a 2019-20 Red Wings squad that finished with the worst points percentage of any team in the salary cap era. After recording a 12-24–36 scoring line with a -43 rating in 108 games for the Wings over two seasons, Filppula opted to play out the remainder of his career in Europe.

Filppula was one of Switzerland’s premier talents in his three-year run in the NL, scoring 47-84–131 in 145 games with a +16 rating for Genève-Servette after signing there in 2021. He won a league title with the club in 2023 while leading the postseason in assists and won a Champions Hockey League title as the top club in Europe in 2024. Heading overseas at the time also allowed him to represent Finland in the 2022 Winter Olympics, where he recorded two assists in six games as captain and won a gold medal. He also won a gold medal at the World Championship that year, making him the only Finnish member and most recent entrant of the Triple Gold Club.

Filppula retires after scoring 197 goals, 333 assists, and 530 points in 1,056 career regular-season games. The ever-steady center also won 50.8% of his career faceoffs and ranks 34th in playoff scoring since the 2004-05 lockout with 86 points in 166 career postseason games. All of us at PHR wish Filppula the best in retirement.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports.

Jets’ Gabriel Vilardi Likely To Play Game 5

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Jets top-line forward Gabriel Vilardi is expected to make his 2025 playoffs debut in Game 5 of their first-round series against the Blues, head coach Scott Arniel said today (via John Lu of TSN).

Vilardi won’t have his minutes limited in his return to the lineup, Arniel said. The 25-year-old hasn’t played since sustaining an upper-body injury against the Sabres on March 23, missing over a month.

Riding shotgun with Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele to form the most-deployed line at 5-on-5 in the league this season, Vilardi enjoyed a career-high 27 goals, 34 assists, and 61 points in 71 games before injury ended his season. The 6’3″, 216-lb forward averaged 18:08 per game, third-most among Winnipeg forwards behind his linemates, and led the team with 12 power-play goals. That’ll make him a huge boost to a Jets power play that’s clicking at just 16.7% against St. Louis thus far, 13th among 16 playoff teams and 12.2 percentage points worse than their league-leading 28.9% conversion rate in the regular season.

Vilardi’s return comes at a crucial point in the series. After scoring seven goals at home to take a 2-0 series lead, Winnipeg managed to put the puck past Jordan Binnington just three times in Games 3 and 4 as St. Louis stormed back to tie the series. It’s now a best-of-three between the Presidents’ Trophy winners and the second wild-card team in the West.

Alex Iafallo, fresh off an extension, has taken Vilardi’s place on the top line to begin the series. He scored in Game 1 but hasn’t registered a point since and was a minus-five across Games 3 and 4. Inexplicably, his line with Connor and Scheifele has been the Jets’ worst at driving play in the postseason. The trio’s 36.7% expected goals share is the only Jets line with at least 10 minutes of ice time to register an xG share under 50, per MoneyPuck. In the regular season, Connor and Scheifele controlled 52.6% of expected goals when paired with Vilardi.

Photo courtesy of Terrence Lee-Imagn Images.

Connor Hellebuyck, Darcy Kuemper, Andrei Vasilevskiy Named Vezina Trophy Finalists

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Connor Hellebuyck of the Jets, Darcy Kuemper of the Kings, and Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Lightning have been selected as the NHL’s Vezina Trophy finalists as the league’s top goaltender for the 2024-25 season, the league announced today (X link).

Hellebuyck backstopped a Jets roster that faced some question marks at the beginning of the season to the franchise’s first Presidents’ Trophy, posting a league-best 47-12-3 record in his 62 starts and one relief appearance. It’s Hellebuyck’s third consecutive Vezina nomination, and it comes in conjunction with his second straight Jennings Trophy for tending the goal of the league’s stingiest defensive team on the whole.

Playoff performance so far notwithstanding, Hellebuyck’s regular-season numbers have him as the clear favorite to win the Vezina for the second year in a row and the third time in his career. That’s certainly a long way off from Jacques Plante’s record of seven, but he could be the first one to join the three-time club since Martin Brodeur won his third of four in 2007.

Hellebuyck led the league in goals against average (2.00), shutouts (eight), and goals saved above expected (39.6, per MoneyPuck). That’s the best figure a goalie has posted in a season since Juuse Saros posted a remarkable 46.7 GSAx in the 2022-23 campaign. Hellebuyck’s .925 SV% also ranks second among goalies who played 25 or more games, just one tick behind the Maple Leafs’ Anthony Stolarz. He’s not a finalist, but he will almost certainly be in the top 10 when the voting results are announced next month.

Vasilevskiy will likely finish as Hellebuyck’s runner-up. The Big Cat had a resurgent 2024-25 campaign after an unusually pedestrian showing in 2023-24, logging a .921 SV%, 2.18 GAA, six shutouts, and a 38-20-5 record in a league-high 63 starts. That .921 mark was Vasilevsky’s highest in four years, and the now five-time finalist also finished second in the league behind Hellebuyck with 29.2 goals saved above expected. That’s also a career-high for the 30-year-old.

Kuemper, 34, also exploded for a bounce-back season. After struggling over the first two seasons of the five-year, $26.25MM pact he signed with the Capitals in free agency following his Stanley Cup win with the Avalanche in 2022, Washington traded him to the Kings in a swap of anchor contracts for Pierre-Luc Dubois. Now a clear win-win deal, Kuemper posted a 31-11-7 record in 50 starts for L.A. and posted a .921 SV%, 2.02 GAA, and five shutouts for his best numbers since his Cup-winning campaign. He’s a Vezina finalist for the first time in his 13-year career after finishing fifth and seventh in voting in 2019 and 2020, respectively, while a member of the Coyotes.

Photo courtesy of James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images.

Penguins, Mike Sullivan Part Ways

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The Penguins are moving on from head coach Mike Sullivan, per a team announcement.

“On behalf of Fenway Sports Group and the Penguins organization, I would like to thank Mike Sullivan for his unwavering commitment and loyalty to the team and City of Pittsburgh over the past decade,” said president of hockey operations and general manager Kyle Dubas. “Mike is known for his preparation, focus, and fierce competitiveness. I was fortunate to have a front-row seat to his dedication to this franchise for the past two seasons. He will forever be an enormous part of Penguins history, not only for the impressive back-to-back Cups, his impact on the core of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Bryan Rust, but more importantly, for his love and loyalty to the organization.”

It’s not a true firing – rather, a mutual decision for Sullivan to pursue another opportunity and for Pittsburgh to find a new identity behind the bench in the twilight of their core’s careers. Sullivan had two years left on a three-year extension. It’s unclear whether the Penguins will still pay him the money owed on that deal.

“A thorough search for the next head coach of the Penguins will begin immediately,” the team said. The Pens join the Blackhawks, Bruins, Ducks, Flyers, Kraken, and Rangers as teams with active vacancies at head coach.

It was another underwhelming 2024-25 season for Sullivan and the Penguins, who continued their slide down the standings and missed the playoffs for the third consecutive season. With a 34-36-12 record, Pittsburgh finished under .500 for the first time since going 22-46-14 in Crosby’s rookie season in 2005-06.

Sullivan has been the Pens’ bench boss for essentially the latter half of the Crosby-Malkin-Letang trifecta era. Promoted from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton midway through the 2015-16 season after Pittsburgh fired Mike Johnston, he immediately led the team to back-to-back championships in 2016 and 2017. But after beating the Flyers in the first round in 2018, Sullivan’s Penguins have yet to win a playoff series.

The 57-year-old was the second-longest tenured head coach in the league behind the Lightning’s Jon Cooper. His illustrious Pittsburgh era concludes with a 409-255-89 record (.602) in 753 regular-season games, holding the franchise wins record by a considerable margin over Dan Bylsma (252). Including his two-year tenure behind the Bruins’ bench in 2003-04 and 2005-06, Sullivan’s 479 career wins as head coach rank 32nd in NHL history. Since Sullivan assumed his duties in Pittsburgh on Dec. 12, 2015, the Pens rank eighth in the league in points percentage.

While Pittsburgh has significantly overhauled its depth ranks over the past few seasons, the vast majority of its core remains in place outside of Jake Guentzel, whom they traded to the Hurricanes at last year’s deadline. This is a more unexpected major change – Dubas told Wes Crosby of NHL.com last week he was expecting Sullivan back behind the bench for 2025-26. Perhaps today’s news is more at Sullivan’s request than the team’s.

Sullivan will be a person of interest in every active head coaching search. The Rangers have pursued him aggressively in the past, especially before he signed his extension in 2022. There’s no firm enough reporting yet to call them a frontrunner, but with Peter Laviolette out the door and Chris Drury still in his post as general manager, it’s nearly a given they’ll be among the most well-equipped teams to land his services.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

Ducks Interviewed Joel Quenneville For Head Coach Vacancy

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Longtime NHL head coach Joel Quenneville was interviewed by the Ducks for their vacant head coach position, ESPN’s John Buccigross implied. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff confirmed the report, adding he’s being considered but isn’t necessarily a finalist yet.

Quenneville has not coached since resigning as the Panthers’ bench boss early in the 2021-22 season. He was subsequently suspended from working in the league “as a result of [his] inadequate response upon being informed in 2010 of allegations that Blackhawks’ Player, Kyle Beach, had been assaulted by the Club’s video coach.” Quenneville, along with former Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman and VP of hockey operations Al MacIsaac, had their suspensions lifted by the league last July. Bowman quickly returned to work as GM of the Oilers, but MacIsaac and Quenneville have yet to work another job in the league or for one of its member clubs.

Only one coaching vacancy was open last summer by the time Quenneville was reinstated. That was the Blue Jackets, and they never approached him for an interview. Other teams had interest in his services earlier in the 2024 offseason, but were told by the league he was unavailable for hire.

Quenneville, who coached the Blackhawks to Stanley Cups in 2010, 2013, 2015, and won as an assistant with the Avalanche in 1996, is the first name linked to Anaheim’s coaching vacancy. They fired Greg Cronin earlier this month with one season left on his contract. Cronin recently expressed interest in moving cross-country to fill the Bruins’ vacancy.

Greg Cronin Interested In Bruins Head Coaching Job

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Former Ducks head coach Greg Cronin would enthusiastically pick up the phone if considered for the Bruins’ head coaching opening, he told the Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont.

“Hey, I’m a coach, right?” Cronin told Dupont. “All these openings, I’ll throw my hat in and see what comes back. I mean, heck, I’d be doing handsprings and jumping over rainbows if I got the Bruins’ job. I’m a Boston guy, and for a Boston guy, that’s hitting the lottery times 10!”

Cronin was one of the finalists for Boston’s vacancy in the 2022 offseason when he was the head coach of the Avalanche’s AHL affiliate. General manager Don Sweeney ended up passing him over for eventual 2023 Jack Adams winner Jim Montgomery, whom the Bruins ended up firing in November. Boston finished the 2024-25 campaign with interim head coach Joe Sacco, who is still a candidate to take over the full-time role, Sweeney said last week.

After not landing the Bruins’ job, Cronin only needed to wait one more year to land his first NHL coaching gig. The Ducks signed him to a three-year deal in the 2023 offseason to replace Dallas Eakins, but fired him earlier this month with one year left on his contract. Cronin had a 67-82-15 (.424) record behind the Anaheim bench, although the Ducks’ finish this season was their best since the 2018-19 campaign.

While Cronin may have an interest in the vacancy, it is unlikely that Boston’s interest will be mutual. When discussing their next coaching hire, Sweeney emphasized an improved offense as their top priority for the offseason. Nothing Cronin did in Anaheim suggests he’ll fit that mold. During Cronin’s tenure, the Ducks’ 2.56 goals per game ranked 31st out of 33 teams (the Coyotes and Utah were counted separately), while their 27.2 shots per game ranked 28th. Their 14.9% success rate on the power play ranked 32nd.

Outside of Sacco, it remains unclear who Boston plans to interview as a full-time hire.

David Carle Withdraws From Consideration For Blackhawks Head Coaching Position

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The Blackhawks are one of a handful of teams looking to find their next head coach.  Among their perceived top candidates was Denver University bench boss David Carle.  However, they’ll have to turn their sights elsewhere as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that Carle has withdrawn from consideration for the position, adding that Chicago made an aggressive pursuit for his services.

The 35-year-old has been a mainstay at Denver since his playing days unexpectedly came to an end when he was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy just before his draft year.  The school honored his scholarship offer and he worked with the team as a graduate assistant coach for four years before he moved to the USHL, joining Green Bay as an assistant coach.

That only lasted parts of two seasons before Carle rejoined Denver in 2014 where he has been ever since.  He was an assistant with them until the 2018-19 when he took over as their head coach and his stock has been on the rise since then.

During his time with the Pioneers, Carle has three NCHC titles along with a pair of NCAA championships.  Internationally, he led Team USA to gold medals in each of the last two years.  With nothing left to prove at the collegiate level, Carle has been a speculative candidate for pretty much every coaching search thus far.

It’s unclear as to why Carle pulled his name out of the mix with the Blackhawks who would have been an intriguing fit for him as a young team that’s still developing but has plenty of young players including seven who played for him either in college or at the World Juniors, including top youngsters Frank Nazar, Oliver Moore, and Sam Rinzel.

It’s possible that another team has emerged as a front-runner for Carle, resulting in the withdrawal as he focuses on finalizing a contract.  Alternatively, Carle could have withdrawn after not liking Chicago’s offer or wanting to go through what’s likely to be a couple more years of a rebuild.  It’s also possible that Carle decides to stay at Denver which has become a top program and is likely to add more quality prospects for next season.

In the meantime, Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson will have to turn his focus elsewhere in terms of finding his next head coach.  At the moment, there aren’t any candidates who are known to have interviewed with Chicago while interim bench boss Anders Sorensen remains in consideration for the full-time position.

Brandon Hagel Receives One-Game Suspension

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Down 2-0 in their opening-round series to Florida, the Lightning will be without one of their top wingers for Saturday’s game as the league announced late Friday that Brandon Hagel received a one-game suspension for his hit on Aleksander Barkov on Thursday.

The incident occurred just before the midway mark of the third period with Hagel receiving a major penalty for interference on the play but not a game misconduct.  Barkov left the game and did not return; head coach Paul Maurice revealed Friday that the center hasn’t been ruled out or in for tonight’s contest.

In the video explaining the decision, the Department of Player Safety noted that supplemental discipline was warranted because Barkov was never in possession of the puck and therefore was not eligible to be checked.  After the puck was well past the players, Hagel delivered “a high, hard body check that makes some head contact.”

Hagel made the case that he approached the play as if Barkov would eventually play the puck as it came to him, but the ruling stated that “the onus is on Hagel to ensure that the player he is hitting is eligible to be checked” and that he intentionally delivered “an extremely forceful body check to an unsuspecting opponent with sufficient force.”

This is Hagel’s first career suspension in 375 regular-season and 36 playoff games. However, it’s not his first supplemental discipline for a playoff incident against the Panthers as he was fined for boarding Florida’s Eetu Luostarinen back in May 2022.

Alexander Nikishin’s Camp Unhappy With Delay In Registering Contract

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5:00 PM: Nikishin’s North American-based agent, Ryan Barnes, downplayed Demidov’s comments per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Per Friedman, Barnes shared that Nikishin’s camp continues to work on a deal with the Hurricanes – and chalked Demidov’s comments up to Nikishin’s Russian representation being eager to see him at the top flight. The additional comments may not totally alleviate the tension between Nikishin and a lineup role, but they will ease fans’ worries of a star prospect being traded.

11:30 AM: The relationship between the Hurricanes and star defense prospect Alexander Nikishin is off to a rocky start. While they announced they agreed to terms on an entry-level contract two weeks ago and Nikishin said he was “thrilled” to have the opportunity to join Carolina in the playoffs, general manager Eric Tulsky said Wednesday they’ve yet to register Nikishin’s contract with the league.

There was a fairly simple explanation for that – there’s no rush to insert Nikishin into a lineup that’s dominated through two games against the Devils, and leaving the contract unsigned makes Nikishin eligible to get some AHL postseason action in with their affiliate in Chicago. Nonetheless, the delay in signing has been frustrating to Nikishin and his representation.

“Carolina is behaving incomprehensibly, and not only for us, but for scouts and representatives of other NHL clubs,” agent Alexander Chernykh told Olesya Usova of RB Sport (translated from Russian). “Everyone is shocked and outraged. But, as I was told, this never surprises, because Carolina always behaves like this and with everyone. At the moment, we cannot comment on the situation, because the club’s actions defy common sense. If this continues, Alexander will either go back, or we will ask for a trade.”

That’s certainly a troubling statement regarding the 23-year-old Nikishin, who’s expected to be a key part of Carolina’s defense core next season with Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov slated to become unrestricted free agents. The 6’4″, 216-lb lefty was a third-round pick in 2020 and has been widely regarded as the top defenseman outside of the NHL over the past couple of years. He dominated his native Russia since his breakout 2022-23 campaign, recording 157 points in 193 games with a +70 rating over the last three years for SKA St. Petersburg.

Tulsky said that there wouldn’t be an issue in registering the contract if Nikishin’s services were needed in short order, but waiting to register the deal delays the payout of his $92.5K signing bonus and, obviously, impedes his ability to earn the $1.038MM performance bonus in his deal for winning playoff MVP honors, however unlikely that would have been.

Team USA Announces 2025 World Championship Roster

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Team USA has announced the first 18 players on their World Championship roster. The lineup contains all three goaltenders, six of seven defensemen, and nine of 13 forwards. The roster is led by American stars like Clayton Keller, Tage Thompson, and Brady Skjei. That trio will look to take a mixed group of experience to Team USA’s first gold medal appearance since 1960.

The American roster notably features top young players like Frank Nazar, Mason Lohrei, Cutter Gauthier, Logan Cooley, Jackson LaCombe, and Matty Beniers. Beniers offers the most experience on the Men’s Team, having joined USA at the 2021 World Championship and 2022 Winter Olympics. He scored two points in each tournament. Team USA will also continue their trend of bringing collegiate goaltending by adding Los Angeles Kings prospect Hampton Slukynsky to the roster. Slukynsky led the Fargo Force to a USHL championship last season, then won Western Michigan’s starting role and carried the school to their first NCAA National Championship as a freshman this season.

Team USA will still need to add four forwards and one defenseman. The World Championship will run from May 9th to May 25th in Herning, Denmark – giving the Americans a chance to add some more firepower after playoff exits. Jeff Kealty is serving as USA’s general manager, while San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky heads a coaching staff that also features Pittsburgh Penguins assistant coach Mike Vellucci, Chciago Blackhawks assistant Kevin Dean, and Michigan State University head coach Adam Nightingale.

The current roster is as follows:

F Tage Thompson (Sabres)
F Drew O’Connor (Canucks)
F Frank Nazar (Blackhawks)
F Michael McCarron (Predators)
F Clayton Keller (Hockey Club)
F Cutter Gauther (Ducks)
F Conor Garland (Canucks)
F Logan Cooley (Hockey Club)
F Matty Beniers (Kraken)

D Alex Vlasic (Blackhawks)
D Brady Skjei (Predators)
D Andrew Peeke (Bruins)
D Mason Lohrei (Bruins)
D Jackson LaCombe (Ducks)
D Michael Kesselring (Hockey Club)

G Joey Daccord (Kraken)
G Jeremy Swayman (Bruins)
G Hampton Slukynsky (Kings)

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