Blake Wheeler Reaffirms Retirement
July 19, 2025: Wheeler again ruled out a comeback bid when speaking with Cam Poitras and Jim Toth on 680 CJOB’s Jets at Noon program earlier this week. “I just haven’t felt like a rush to like make a formal announcement or anything,” Wheeler said. “But yeah, after my injury and kinda the way things ended last year, I just didn’t have anything left in the tank for it. So yeah, I was at peace with it almost immediately after last year and yeah, I’m just enjoying being a dad and kinda slowing things down a little bit, and being around my family.”
Dec. 19, 2024: Winger Blake Wheeler has all but officially decided on retirement, as Paul Friesen of The Winnipeg Sun relays. Neither Wheeler nor the NHL Players’ Association has released a statement. Still, the former Jets captain told Dan Leffelaar of the Beyond High Performance podcast earlier this week that “there’s only so much gas in the tank” emotionally for an 82-game regular season.
In July, Wheeler, 38, hit unrestricted free agency after completing a one-year, $1.1MM contract with the Rangers. He joined the Blueshirts for the final season of his NHL career after having the captaincy stripped from him in Winnipeg in 2022 and seeing the final season of his five-year, $41.25MM contract with an $8.25MM cap hit bought out a year later. There wasn’t much buzz around his services on the UFA market aside from a report in August from Shawn Hutcheon of The Fourth Period that the Bruins were considering extending him a professional tryout. One way or another that never came to fruition, and Wheeler didn’t appear with any club during training camp.
A serious leg injury sustained in February ended his final regular season prematurely. However, he did return to the active roster near the end of New York’s second-round playoff win over the Hurricanes. He was a frequent healthy scratch upon returning to the lineup, though, with a lone postseason appearance against the Panthers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final likely standing as his final NHL appearance. In 54 regular-season appearances with the Rangers, he posted nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points with a +2 rating while averaging a career-low 12:43 per game.
Wheeler was a highly touted prospect. In the 2004 draft, the Coyotes selected him fifth overall, immediately after eventual longtime teammate Andrew Ladd was taken off the board by the Hurricanes. However, he opted not to sign in Phoenix. He took the long route through college at the University of Minnesota before becoming a free agent in 2008 and signing with the Bruins.
The right-winger’s debut season was solid, posting 21 goals and 45 points with a +36 rating in 81 games as Boston won 53 games and finished atop the Eastern Conference. He was one of many future under-25 impact players on that Bruins squad, featuring Patrice Bergeron, Milan Lucic, Phil Kessel and David Krejčí in the infancies of their careers. However, after his goal-scoring dropped off slightly in his second and third years in the league, Boston traded him to the Thrashers before the 2011 deadline for Rich Peverley.
Wheeler racked up 17 points in 23 games down the stretch for Atlanta, giving Thrashers fans a bittersweet taste of things to come for his production before the team packed up and moved to Winnipeg in the offseason. Now entirely in the prime of his career at age 25, Wheeler kicked off a dominant nine-year stretch in Winnipeg that saw him record 569 points in 616 games, ranking eighth in the NHL scoring between the 2011-12 and 2018-19 campaigns. His 384 assists during that time were fourth, trailing only Nicklas Bäckström, Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux. He received All-Star consideration eight years in a row and finished as high as eighth in Hart Trophy voting in 2017-18 when he led the league with 68 assists in 81 outings.
After a 20-goal, 91-point showing in 2018-19, 2019-20 spelled out the beginning of Wheeler’s decline. He still managed a respectable 65 points in 71 games that year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. However, that was accompanied by an artificially high 12.2% shooting rate and a significant drop-off in his assist totals. He kept up reasonable offensive production in his final three seasons in Winnipeg, logging 161 points in 187 games. But the Minnesota native became a defensive liability as he aged and became a significant drag on the Jets’ possession quality control at even strength. Combined with just three playoff series wins during his time in Winnipeg, including a run to the 2018 Western Conference Final in which he had 21 points in 17 games, the Jets parted ways with their captain and bought him out.
While the end of Wheeler’s career may have been marred by declining all-around play and injuries, the former All-Star was a high-end top-line talent throughout the 2010s. The 6’5 “, 225-lb right-winger puts a bow on his career with 321 goals and 622 assists for 943 points in 1,172 regular-season games. He logged a +67 rating, posted 764 PIMs, and racked up nearly 3,000 career shots on goal, averaging 18:11 per game. He pairs that strong regular-season production with 10 goals and 45 points in 66 career postseason games. Pro Hockey Rumors congratulates Wheeler on a phenomenal career.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Jets Sign Gabriel Vilardi To Six-Year Contract
The Winnipeg Jets have signed forward Gabriel Vilardi to a six-year, $45MM contract extension. The deal was first reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. It will carry an annual cap hit of $7.5MM. As Friedman points out, Vilardi will avoid salary arbitration with the Jets with this contract. He had filed for arbitration earlier in the summer, after entering restricted-free agency with a $3.6MM qualifying offer a the start of the off-season.
PuckPedia reports that the deal carries a $3.5MM salary and a $3.5MM signing bonus for next season with a straight $7.6MM salary in each of the remaining five years. There is no trade protection in the contract.
Winnipeg will check a big box off of their summer list with this move. Vilardi was Winnipeg’s second-highest scoring free agent this year. The other, Nikolaj Ehlers, signed a six-year deal with the Carolina Hurricanes on July 3rd. Winnipeg had more control over RFA Vilardi, who will commit to a long-term deal with the club after spending the last two seasons on a short-term, prove-it contract.
The Jets acquired Vilardi’s negotiating rights alongside Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari, and a 2024 second-round pick in the trade that sent Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Los Angeles Kings in the summer of 2023. It put the Jets in the awkward position of rewarding Vilardi for scoring 23 goals and 41 points in 63 games of Los Angeles’ 2022-23 season, after scoring 37 points in 69 career games in the prior three seasons. Winnipeg landed on a two-year, $6.88MM bridge contract.
With a new deal in place, the Jets honed in on adjusting Vilardi to the top-six, winger role that he began to take on in his latter years with the Kings, after entering the NHL as a center. Vilardi took on the role well, and scored 22 goals and 36 points in his first 47 games with the Jets. Unfortunately, those performances were spread around numerous injuries that forced Vilardi out of much of October, November, and March during the 2023-24 season.
An injury-shortened season to kick off a bridge contract swelled the pressure around Vilardi’s 2024-25 season. He entered the year not only playing for a contract, but looking to vindicate multiple seasons of promising scoring cut short by injuries. Vilardi jumped at the opportunity right out of the gates, scoring eight points in 10 games of October and 14 points in 14 games of November. His scoring carried through the extent of the season, and he finished the year with career-highs across the board – including 27 goals and 61 points in 61 games. He added four more points in nine playoff games.
Vilardi will be rewarded for a hot year with a contract in line with many high-scoring wingers entering their prime. The Utah Mammoth recently signed 23-year-old winger JJ Peterka to a five-year, $38.5MM contract; and the Toronto Maple Leafs signed 22-year-old Matthew Knies to a six-year, $46.5MM deal. Vilardi is older than both Peterka and Knies, but earns a richer annual salary than an older peer like Brock Boeser, who just inked a seven-year, $50.75MM contract in Vancouver.
A new, long-term deal will commit Vilardi to a major role in Winnipeg. Ehlers leaves behind a hardy, second-line role and routine power-play presence. Some of those minutes will be eaten up by summer signing Gustav Nyquist, and potentially prospects like Brad Lambert, but Vilardi could still see a boost from the 18 minutes of ice time he averaged this season. He has totaled 138 points in 181 games over the last three seasons — an 82-game pace of 33 goals and 63 points. With that scoring pace, and good health, on his side; Vilardi could be set to start his new deal with another breakout this season.
Photo courtesy of Terrence Lee-Imagn Images.
Ducks Sign Drew Helleson To Two-Year Deal
The Ducks have signed restricted free agent defenseman Drew Helleson to a two-year contract, the team announced. The deal is worth $2.2MM with a cap hit of $1.1MM, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports.
Helleson had previously elected salary arbitration, but he avoided a hearing with today’s settlement. Anaheim’s other arbitration case this offseason, No.1 goaltender Lukas Dostal, settled yesterday with a five-year, $32.5MM contract as a result.
The 24-year-old quietly emerged as a full-time option on the Ducks’ blue line last season, particularly late in the year. He started the year with AHL San Diego but remained on the roster for the rest of the season after a November recall, making 56 appearances and recording a 4-9–13 scoring line with a +6 rating.
That last stat is noteworthy, considering the Ducks had a -8 goal differential at 5-on-5 and a -44 goal differential overall. That number led all rookie defensemen, but advanced metrics don’t back it up. Helleson’s 43.1% shot attempt share was subpar, even on a weak possession team in Anaheim, and he didn’t see challenging deployment.
Nonetheless, the 2019 second-round pick has now established his floor as a No. 6/7 option in the NHL and will continue to serve in that capacity for the Ducks for the next two seasons. While initially drafted by the Avalanche, Anaheim acquired his signing rights in 2022 as part of the Josh Manson trade. He turned pro months later after finishing his junior year at Boston College.
Helleson always projected as a shutdown defenseman at the NHL level. The results were there for him as he averaged 16:21 per game last year with 73 blocks and 99 hits, but his possession play needs to improve for him to flourish as a quality stay-at-home piece with penalty-killing upside. Perhaps a system change under incoming head coach Joel Quenneville can help accomplish that feat.
The Minnesota native will be 26 years old upon expiry, keeping him under Anaheim’s control as an RFA in 2027. Whatever his next contract is, it will allow him to become an unrestricted free agent.
The Ducks still have $21.4MM in cap space for 2025-26 with a projected roster size of 21, according to PuckPedia. They still have two notable unsigned RFAs, forwards Sam Colangelo and Mason McTavish, neither of whom was eligible for arbitration.
Image courtesy of Perry Nelson-Imagn Images.
Jaroslav Halak Announces Retirement
Veteran goalie Jaroslav Halak is ending his playing career, telling Tomas Prokop of the Slovak website Dennik Sport that he’s officially retired.
Halak, 40, hasn’t played anywhere in the last two seasons aside from a brief tryout with the Hurricanes that didn’t result in game action early in 2023-24. A ninth-round pick in the 2003 draft, his 17-year NHL career included time with the Canadiens, Blues, Capitals, Islanders, Bruins, Canucks, and Rangers, last playing in New York’s final game of the 2022-23 regular season.
Montreal was the team that drafted him 271st overall from the QMJHL’s Lewiston MAINEiacs, and that’s where Halak got his start in the NHL three years later. He emerged as another young complement in the Canadiens’ pool alongside young star Carey Price, even taking over the starter’s role in the 2009-10 season and backstopping the team to a surprise run to the Conference Finals before being traded to St. Louis for Lars Eller the following summer.
Halak never spent more than four years with a club in his prime and was prone to year-to-year inconsistency, but he was an arguable top-10 goalie in the league at his absolute peak with multiple seasons of save percentages above .920. He was always more of a 1A option than a true starter, only playing more than 50 games four times, but he ends his career as a one-time All-Star, two-time Jennings Trophy winner, and he finished top-10 in Vezina Trophy voting twice.
After serving as the 1A option for the Blues from 2010-14 and on Long Island from 2014-18 with a brief post-deadline stop in Washington in between, Halak spent the twilight years of his career as one of the league’s better backup options for Boston (2018-21), Vancouver (2021-22), and the Rangers (2022-23). He’s been an unrestricted free agent since then, with no items of note on his NHL future since being released from his aforementioned PTO with Carolina in November 2023.
In 581 regular-season appearances, the Bratislava native posted a 2.50 GAA and .913 SV% with a 295-189-63 record and 53 shutouts. One of the best undersized netminders (5’11”, 189 lbs) of his generation, he posted an even better .919 SV% and 2.48 GAA in 39 playoff games in six trips to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
All of us at PHR wish Halak the best in retirement.
Image courtesy of Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images.
Maple Leafs Acquire Dakota Joshua From Canucks
The Maple Leafs have acquired forward Dakota Joshua from the Canucks in exchange for their 2028 fourth-round pick, according to a team announcement.
It’s a homecoming of sorts for Joshua, whom Toronto drafted in the fifth round of the 2014 draft. He never signed with the Leafs, though, and had his signing rights traded to the Blues after he wrapped up his collegiate career with Ohio State in 2019.
Joshua worked his way up the St. Louis system over the next few years, playing 42 games under head coach Craig Berube, whom he now reunites with in Toronto. After establishing himself as an NHLer in the 2021-22 campaign, he left for Vancouver in free agency on a two-year, $1.65MM contract.
The 6’3″ forward was a high-end fourth-line piece for the Canucks out of the gate but really flourished in the 2023-24 campaign. After being moved up to a third-line role, he was a spectacular checking winger with a team-leading 245 hits while also contributing 32 points in 63 games, a 42-point pace had he stayed healthy.
Despite there being clear regression indicators – an unsustainably high 21.4% shooting percentage among them – Vancouver committed to Joshua on a four-year, $13MM deal with trade protection to keep him from testing free agency last summer. He has a 12-team no-trade clause, which presumably did not include Toronto.
Joshua’s season last year was a rocky one, but for more than on-ice reasons. He missed the first couple of months after announcing late in the offseason he’d undergone surgery to address testicular cancer, which thankfully hasn’t had further impacts on his health. He also dealt with a leg injury that cost him most of January, only making 57 appearances in all. His scoring cratered, posting a 7-7–14 line, while seeing his ice time drop back under 13 minutes per game as well.
Vancouver has been looking to clear cap space, and Irfaan Gaffar of the Down to Irf podcast reports that moving Joshua has been their desired mode of accomplishing that task for a while. The Canucks were close to the cap but now have $4.045MM in space with two open roster spots after the trade, per PuckPedia.
Joshua isn’t the impact top-six addition Toronto has been on the hunt for after losing Mitch Marner in free agency, but he does add another bottom-six option to complement their other bang-and-crash forwards like Scott Laughton and Steven Lorentz while recouping some of the physical element they lost when they traded declining enforcer Ryan Reaves to the Sharks earlier this month.
The ripple effect on the Leafs’ roster will be interesting to watch. Without any other moves, Joshua’s inclusion essentially boxes unsigned RFA Nicholas Robertson out of a role, potentially finally producing a trade after he requested one last year. They’re also down to under $3MM in cap space and could look to clear a salary in kind, like Calle Jarnkrok‘s $2.1MM cap hit or David Kampf‘s $2.4MM cap hit to open up flexibility as they continue to examine the market for a higher-ceiling scoring winger.
Thomas Drance of The Athletic was first to report Joshua was traded to Toronto.
Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.
Ducks Sign Lukas Dostal To Five-Year Deal
Ducks starting goaltender Lukas Dostal has agreed to a five-year, $32.5MM contract, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports. Dostal himself confirmed on Anaheim’s X account that he’s signed a new deal.
It’s a significant commitment to the Ducks’ new undisputed No. 1, one that will see him count $6.5MM against the cap through the 2029-30 campaign. The 25-year-old was an arbitration-eligible RFA and chose to file for it earlier this month. Instead of going to a hearing, though, he lands a well-compensated deal that eats up the remainder of his RFA years – and then some.
Anaheim now has one of the more expensive goalie rooms in the league this season. They’re one of the few teams expected to carry three netminders, rostering veteran backups Petr Mrazek ($4.25MM) and Ville Husso ($2.2MM) at relatively steep cap hits for their projected workload. Mrazek was acquired when the Ducks sent longtime starter John Gibson to Detroit at the draft, paving the way for Dostal to assume the crease, while Husso finished last year in Anaheim as their third-stringer but landed an unexpectedly large new contract from them a few weeks ago.
The contract comes after Dostal, long touted as one of the league’s brightest young goalies, converted his linear development path into a breakout season in 2024-25. The 2018 third-round pick shouldered the majority of the workload for the first time, making 49 starts and five relief appearances for 54 total showings. He posted a 23-23-7 record, a .903 SV%, and a 3.10 GAA.
Those numbers may look close to average at first, but should be viewed in the context of Anaheim’s porous defense. The young Czech managed to save 14.3 goals above expected, per MoneyPuck, 16th in the league. He finished 12th in year-end All-Star voting among goaltenders as a result.
Dostal now becomes the 11th highest-paid goalie in the league for 2025-26, roughly in line with those ranks. He lands more annually than recent long-term extensions handed out to starters like Joey Daccord, Adin Hill, and Logan Thompson, but Dostal’s age advantage over them and corresponding room for growth likely drove up his market value – particularly on an Anaheim team that will need strong goaltending to make a playoff push next season with one of the league’s younger defenses.
Dostal will be 30 when the contract expires, making him an unrestricted free agent. Anaheim still has some notable RFAs to re-sign, namely 2021 No. 3 overall pick Mason McTavish.
Image courtesy of Kirby Lee-Imagn Images.
Blackhawks Re-Sign Louis Crevier On Two-Year Contract
The Blackhawks have re-signed defenseman Louis Crevier to a one-way, two-year, $1.8MM contract, the team announced. He’ll carry a cap hit of $900K through the 2026-27 season.
Crevier lands his first one-way contract after seeing NHL action in two straight seasons with Chicago. The retention of Crevier will leave Chicago with only one unsigned restricted free agent skater, fellow defender Wyatt Kaiser. The club now has four defensemen signed to one-way deals for 2025-26 – a low number at first glance, but the rest of the spots will presumably be filled by some combination of Kaiser and their large group of high-end young rearguards on entry-level contracts.
Chicago reached an agreement with Crevier quicker than they did last summer, when it took until July 29 to get the young rearguard signed to a two-way contract. He wasn’t arbitration-eligible at the time, and despite gaining that status for 2025, he chose not to file.
Crevier, 24, again bounced between the Blackhawks and the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs throughout the season but remained on the NHL roster from March 3 to the end of the campaign. He scored three goals – his first in the NHL – with one assist for four points and a minus-six rating in 32 games, eight more appearances than he logged in 2023-24. He saw 17:17 of ice time per game, and the 6’8″, 228-lb righty recorded 49 blocks and 70 hits.
While he won’t command an everyday role over the Blackhawks’ higher-ceiling prospects, the multi-year one-way commitment suggests they envision him remaining on the NHL roster as a No. 7/8 option on the depth chart. His deal will only be worth slightly above the league minimum in 2026-27 as that figure jumps to $850K.
The Quebec native was drafted by the Hawks in the seventh round in 2020 and has also made 118 appearances for Rockford in the last three years, posting a 4-16–20 scoring line and a plus-seven rating.
Blue Jackets’ Yegor Chinakhov Requests Trade
Blue Jackets winger Yegor Chinakhov has requested a trade out of Columbus, his agent, Shumi Babaev, relayed Thursday in an X post. General manager Don Waddell told Aaron Portzline of The Athletic that he’s aware of the request and has already begun trade talks.
“I had some misunderstandings with the coach during the season,” Chinakhov said. “Now I would be glad to have a trade. I would like to move to a different location. Will I return to Russia? As long as I can play in the NHL, I will keep developing here.”
Waddell told Portzline that he’ll only move Chinakhov if he sees fair value in a trade; he won’t dump the young winger for a minimal return just because he wants out. If that offer doesn’t materialize by training camp, Waddell still expects Chinakhov to report to the club but will presumably continue trying to find a new home for him.
It’s not particularly clear what those misunderstandings with head coach Dean Evason were, but his usage down the stretch likely has a lot to do with it. Chinakhov averaged a career-high 15:43 of ice time per game last season but became a frequent healthy scratch at the tail end of the campaign, sitting out 12 of the Jackets’ final 13 games.
That, combined with missing three months due to back problems, limited the 24-year-old to 30 appearances. He scored seven goals and eight assists for 15 points, seeing his points per game output drop from 0.55 in 2023-24 to 0.50 last year.
Injuries have been a consistent factor for Chinakhov since making the jump to North America, stunting the 2020 surprise first-round selection’s development. He’s still put up respectable averages of 16 goals and 33 points per 82 games in his four NHL seasons, including a 44-point pace over the last two years.
He’s certainly an everyday NHL player. Still, with his production pace topping off at that level at this point in his development, combined with his injury history, things don’t bode well for the Jackets to recoup the first-round value they invested in Chinakhov five years ago in a trade.
They should still be able to command a decent return, whether that’s a package of mid-value picks and prospects or a player-for-player swap to take a change of scenery candidate back the other way. If the latter ends up being the route Waddell pursues, the Maple Leafs and Blackhawks could be speculative partners with young forwards Nicholas Robertson and Lukas Reichel available.
Image courtesy of Jeff Curry-Imagn Images.
NHL Releases Full Regular Season Schedule
The NHL has officially released its full regular season schedule for the 2025/26 season.
The 1,312-game season starts on Tuesday, October 7, and will end on Thursday, April 16. The season will kick off with the defending champion Florida Panthers taking on the Chicago Blackhawks.
The schedule features the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators participating in the 2025 NHL Global Series in Stockholm, Sweden, on November 14 and 16. It also includes two outdoor games in Florida: the Florida Panthers will host the New York Rangers at loanDepot Park on January 2, and the Tampa Bay Lightning will face the Boston Bruins at Raymond James Stadium on February 1.
The league will also pause from February 5 to 20 for the Winter Olympics in Milan.
Listed below are links to the full 2025/26 season schedules for each NHL team, organized by conference and division.
EASTERN CONFERENCE
Atlantic
- Boston Bruins
- Buffalo Sabres
- Detroit Red Wings
- Florida Panthers
- Montreal Canadiens
- Ottawa Senators
- Tampa Bay Lightning
- Toronto Maple Leafs
Metropolitan
- Carolina Hurricanes
- Columbus Blue Jackets
- New Jersey Devils
- New York Islanders
- New York Rangers
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Pittsburgh Penguins
- Washington Capitals
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Central
- Chicago Blackhawks
- Colorado Avalanche
- Dallas Stars
- Minnesota Wild
- Nashville Predators
- St. Louis Blues
- Utah Mammoth
- Winnipeg Jets
Pacific
Montreal Canadiens Sign Joe Veleno
According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Montreal Canadiens are closing in on a contract for center Joe Veleno. It’ll be a coming-home party for the former first-round pick, who’s from Montreal and spent his junior days with the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs and Drummondville Voltigeurs. The Canadiens confirmed it is a one-year, $900K contract for Veleno.
Veleno has had an unexpected path through the NHL. He was drafted 30th overall by the Detroit Red Wings in the 2018 NHL Draft, using one of the picks acquired from the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for Tomáš Tatar. It was a relatively steep fall in draft stock for Veleno, who had been projected as a top-10 talent on most boards before the 2017-18 season.
Still, his prospect pedigree grew a year after being drafted, putting together an impressive showing with the Voltigeurs, scoring 42 goals and 104 points in 59 games with a +63 rating. He was relatively successful throughout his time for Team Canada during the World Junior Championships, scoring one goal and eight points in 11 tournament contests over two years.
Unfortunately, he began to stagnate upon joining the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins. Veleno remained a quality defensive player, but the scoring capacity he showed at the junior level didn’t follow him into professional hockey.
Throughout his time in Detroit, Veleno was largely utilized in a bottom-six role, averaging 13:05 of ice time over five and a half seasons. He finished his tenure as a Red Wing with 35 goals and 74 points in 288 games with a dreadful -56 rating.
Still, his defensive metrics paint a different picture and prove he has some value on that side of the puck. He averaged a 90.3% on-ice save percentage throughout his time in Detroit, while starting 54.0% of his shifts in the defensive zone. His faceoff percentage (46.6%) is subpar for a defensive-minded center, but Veleno continued to hold his own.
Considering that the Red Wings were a lethargic defensive team throughout Veleno’s tenure, he proved to be one of the few bright spots defensively. His time with Detroit ended last season, when the team traded him to the Chicago Blackhawks at the trade deadline for Petr Mrázek and Craig Smith.
Unsurprisingly, with a need to graduate more prospects to the NHL level, Veleno’s time in Chicago lasted 18 games. He was traded to the Seattle Kraken this offseason for André Burakovsky and was subsequently bought out by the Kraken.
In Montreal, it may be an opportunity for Veleno to become a full-time winger. Having Nick Suzuki, Kirby Dach, Alex Newhook, and Jake Evans on the roster for next season, Veleno doesn’t serve as an objective improvement over any of their available options.
There’s a decent chance Veleno will become a fourth-line left wing in Montreal, while serving as a center option if the team runs into injury trouble.