Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Newsstand

Hurricanes, Leafs Couldn’t Agree On Swap Of Mikko Rantanen And Mitch Marner

at CDT | by 13 Comments

The fallout from the Trade Deadline is starting to settle, revealing more about the Carolina Hurricanes attempt to flip star winger Mikko Rantanen. The Dallas Stars ultimately won the sweepstakes, landing Rantanen and an eight-year extension in exchange for top young forward Logan Stankoven, two first round picks, and two third round picks. But Carolina had multiple other fish on the line, including getting well down the path to send Rantanen to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The deal ultimately fell apart because Toronto wasn’t willing to send winger Mitch Marner back the other way, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

Like Rantanen before he signed in Dallas, Marner is a pending free agent who’s likely to demand a serious payday when he hits the open market. But Marner wasn’t willing to discuss an extension mid-season, per Chris Johnston of The Athletic. A long-term commitment was a prerequisite for the Hurricanes, leading to Toronto’s big splash falling to land. Johnston adds that the deal officially fell apart when Marner refused to waive his full no-movement clause.

Without Marner involved, Toronto’s final offer is said to have been top prospects Fraser Minten and Easton Cowan, and two first round picks per Nick Kypreos on Sportsnet 590. When that package was turned down, Toronto opted to instead send Minten, a first-round pick, and a fourth-round to the Boston Bruins for top defenseman Brandon Carlo. Carlo is under contract through the 2026-27 season at a manageable $3.625MM cap hit, after Boston retained 15 percent in the trade.

The implications of this deal would have been transformative. Marner has been deeply engrained on Toronto’s top line since making his NHL debut in 2016-17. He scored 61 points in 77 games as a rookie, and two seasons later scratched the century mark with 94 points in 82 games. Injuries and a shortened season held Marner to just 67 points in the next two seasons, but he found new heights when the NHL returned to full after the pandemic. Marner scored 35 goals and 97 points in 2021-22 and topped it with 99 points in 2022-23. Two years later, he’s on pace to confidently clear the 100-point mark this season, with 77 points in 61 games so far.

Marner would have certainly matched with Carolina’s top-end. He plays a high-skill, downhill style that could have fit well between the aggressive forechecking of Seth Jarvis and poised playmaking of Sebastian Aho. Instead, Carolina lands 22-year-old Stankoven to fill that role, after the latter scored 29 points in 59 games with Dallas. Stankoven brings a wave of hard-working grit and future stability to a Hurricanes program that’s earned a confident playoff spot in each of the last six seasons.

Through the thick of what could have been, Marner has doubled down on his commitment to the Leafs with this news. Presented with a chance for a short-term trip to Carolina before entering free agency, Marner has instead decided to hold true to the blue-and-white. He is set to enter unrestricted free agency for the first time in his career this summer, and has emphasized his desire to save contract talks for after the season. With plenty of time before Toronto plays their last games, Leafs fans can stand by this bode of confidence as an indication that Marner could be looking to stick around for even longer.

Dallas Stars Sign Wyatt Johnston To Five-Year Extension

at CDT | by 13 Comments

Saturday: The Stars officially announced the signing.  GM Jim Nill released the following statement:

Wyatt has established himself as one of the best young forwards in the NHL. His skill, maturity, and dedication to the game has already made him a valuable contributor and we believe he will be a huge asset for us moving forward.

Friday: According to TSN’s Darren Dreger, the Dallas Stars have agreed to a five-year, $42MM extension with forward Wyatt Johnston. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period provided Johnston’s extension details:

  • Year 1: $4.4MM base salary, $4MM signing bonus
  • Year 2: $5.4MM base salary, $3MM signing bonus
  • Year 3: $8.4MM base salary
  • Year 4: $8.4MM base salary
  • Year 5: $8.4MM base salary

It’s not the long-term eight-year deal Jeff Marek alluded to a few days ago, but it’s still a solid bit of work from general manager Jim Nill. The likely comparable to Johnston’s negotiations was Detroit Red Wings’ forward Lucas Raymond, who signed an eight-year, $64.6MM extension in mid-September. Johnston got a comparative salary bump with an $8.4MM AAV and can walk right into unrestricted free agency after the 2029-30 NHL season.

There’s no questioning he’s earned that salary. Since debuting with the Stars in 2022-23, Johnston has scored 79 goals and 165 points in 226 games, averaging 17:02 ice time per game. That point production is the highest of the 2021 NHL Draft class by a 29-point margin. Unlike many centers in his age group, Johnston has also demonstrated maturity in the faceoff dot with a career success rate of 48.5%.

Johnston has also been an important factor for the Stars come playoff time. He tied for the team lead in scoring during last year’s postseason run, scoring 10 goals and 16 points in 19 contests. His production has been indispensable for the Stars, and it should remain that way, considering he’s 21 years old.

Next summer, questions will likely be raised in Dallas regarding the Stars’ salary cap situation. The team has added $20.4 million to next year’s cap with the recent contract extension for  Mikko Rantanen. While this shouldn’t heavily impact the team in the upcoming season—aside from possibly losing their aging captain, Jamie Benn—the long-term implications for the 2026-27 season could be concerning. Jason Robertson, who will be a restricted free agent after the 2025-26 season, is just three years away from unrestricted free agency and has proven himself worthy of a raise from his current $7.75 million salary. This could pose a challenge for the Stars in fitting his new salary within the cap at that time.

Maple Leafs Acquire Brandon Carlo In Three-Team Trade With Bruins, Penguins

at CDT | by 20 Comments

7:15 PM: The Bruins announced their portion of the trade, confirming that they received Minten, a 2026 first-round pick (top-five protected), and a 2025 fourth-round selection for Carlo.

2:11 PM: The Maple Leafs have acquired defenseman Brandon Carlo from the Bruins, Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic reports. The Leafs are sending center prospect Fraser Minten to the Bruins, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff adds it’s a three-team deal with the Penguins, who are receiving defenseman Conor Timmins and forward Connor Dewar from Toronto. The Leafs are sending a first-round pick to Boston in the deal as well, per Seravalli. Pittsburgh is sending a 2025 fifth-round pick to the Leafs in exchange for Timmins and Dewar, per the Maple Leafs. Additionally, Boston has retained 15 percent of Carlo’s $4.1MM salary, shares Joshua Kloke of The Athletic.

Through the mix of a three-team deal and hurdles over the cap space, Toronto lands an impactful shutdown defenseman in Carlo. He’s six-foot-five, 220 pounds and offers an invaluable right-hand shot. Those traits helped Carlo stamp out a daily lineup role almost immediately upon entering the league in 2016-17. Boston drafted Carlo in the second-round of the 2015 NHL Draft and promoted him to the pros at the end of the following season. He recorded just one assist in his first seven AHL games, but performed well enough at Boston’s following training camp to ditch the minor leagues entirely.

Carlo made the Bruins roster out of camp in the 2016-17 season. The team attempted to ease him into a lineup role, but one assist and a plus-five in 17 minutes of his NHL debut quickly showed Carlo’s impact would translate to the top flight. He was playing upwards of 24 minutes a night in just his third NHL game – and hung on to a top-pair role next to Bruins legend Zdeno Chara for the rest of his rookie season. Carlo managed 16 points, 59 penalty minutes, and a plus-nine while playing in all 82 games of his rookie year.

The top-pair conditioning continued to pay off through the next three seasons. Carlo never posted much scoring – netting his career-high of 19 points in 2019-20 – but he continued to average at least 20 minutes of ice time, on the pack of an imposing defensive presence. His role has dwindled in the years since, but his impact remains impressively consistent. Even through this season, the 28-year-old Carlo has managed nine points, 24 PIMs, and a plus-two in 63 games.

Toronto could confidently turn towards Carlo for top-pair minutes for the remainder of the season. He’ll be a shining replacement for the injured Chris Tanev, who Toronto placed on injured reserve on March 2nd. When Tanev returns, Toronto will boast a pair of high-impact, low-scoring defensive-defenseman on the right side – complimenting the more offensively-geared Morgan Rielly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson on the left.

Carlo is notably signed through the end of the 2026-27 season at a manageable $3.485MM cap hit after Boston’s retention.

While the Leafs sort of their sudden heap of defensive talent, Boston will relish in the addition of a clear top prospect in Fraser Minten. Minten made the Maple Leafs roster out of camp to start the season, and recorded four points – split evenly – across the first 15 games of his NHL career.

Minten was assigned to the AHL to start the season but quickly made Toronto second-guess their decision. He was called up to the NHL in mid-November after posting four points in five games to start the AHL season. Minten continued the hot scoring into his first taste of NHL action, netting four points across his first five NHL games of the season. His scoring dried up after that – with no scoring in his last 10 NHL games – but Minten has stayed productive in the minor leagues, where he has 13 points in 26 games.

This is Minten’s first season of professional hockey. He spent the last four seasons with the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers and, briefly, Saskatoon Blades. Minten totaled 188 points in 187 career games in the WHL, including 55 points in 67 games of the 2021-22 campaign. That was enough to earn him a second-round selection in the 2022 NHL Draft – a divisive pick at the time. Minten also earned the honor of captaining Team Canada at the 2024 World Junior Championships, where he scored three points in five games. It was his first time representing Canada internationally.

Minten is still working on figuring out his pro footing but he’ll offer tantalizing upside once he’s level. He’s an impactful two-way centerman who is strong on the faceoff dot and smart with his positioning. Those traits could be tailor-made for a Bruins organization that’s already developed Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle into strong, top-six options.

The deal is rounded out by Toronto sending depth skaters Dewar and Timmins to the Penguins as a cap dump. That addition frees up $2.28MM in cap space for the Leafs, which will effectively be their only cap space for the remainder of the year. Both Dewar and Timmins could find a path to routine minutes for Pittsburgh, where they’ll play under former Leafs GM Kyle Dubas.

Dewar has served as Toronto’s fourth-line center for much of the year but has been fairly low-event. He has just three assists, five penalty minutes, and a minus-three through 31 appearances. That’s a far step down from the 19 points, 28 PIMs, and minus-eight he totaled in 74 games last season, split between time with the Minnesota Wild and Maple Leafs. He’s found a groove as a gritty, hard-nosed bottom-line option – which should fit right in with the makeup of Pittsburgh’s current fourth line. Dewar will challenge Blake Lizotte for routine ice time, but could be pushed to the flanks to challenge Bokondji Imama or Noel Acciari should Pittsburgh prefer to keep Lizotte in.

Timmins has landed in a similar rut. He’s been a bottom-pair option for the Leafs, with eight points, 24 PIMs, and a plus-two in 51 games this season. That is also a downtick in scoring form the 10 points Timmins managed in 25 games last year, and the 14 points he posted in 25 games of 2022-23. Pittsburgh has been searching for more defense depth after trading away Marcus Pettersson. Timmins could find a way into the vacant role, though he’ll first compete with Ryan Graves and newcomer Vladislav Kolyachonok for minutes.

Both Dewar and Timmins are set to enter restricted free agency this summer.

Panthers Acquire Brad Marchand From Bruins

at CDT | by 57 Comments

The Bruins are shipping out captain Brad Marchand to the Panthers, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports the trade is happening, pending league call. Boston is receiving a 2027 second-round pick that will upgrade to a 2028 first-round pick if conditions are met, per John Buccigross of ESPN. The Bruins will retain 50 percent of Marchand’s $6.125MM cap hit, per George Richards of Florida Hockey Now, alleviating any cap concerns Florida would have.

Both sides have made the deal official. The conditional second-round pick will upgrade to a first-round pick if Florida wins two rounds of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs and Marchand appears in at least half of the team’s playoff games.

Marchand is currently injured. He is expected to miss the next “couple of weeks” with an upper-body injury, Panthers general manager Bill Zito told media including David Dwork of The Hockey News. Bruins general manager Don Sweeney told Connor Ryan of the Boston Globe that Marchand should miss three-to-four weeks.

Just days after swapping top young goaltender Spencer Knight for top-four defenseman Seth Jones, the Florida Panthers are taking another swing at landing the blockbuster deal of the Trade Deadline. They’re able to take on Marchand’s reduced $3.0625MM cap hit after placing star winger Matthew Tkachuk on long-term injured reserve. Tkachuk is expected to likely miss the remaining regular season after suffering a lower-body injury at the 4-Nations Face-Off.

Marchand will fill Tkachuks’ role of getting under opponents’ skin perfectly. Tenacious forechecking and high scoring have been the defining attributes of Marchand’s 16-year career with the Bruins. He ranks fourth in Bruins franchise history in goals (422), games played (1,090), and penalty minutes (1,113). Marchand also ranks fifth in all-time points (976). Those are impressive records for a career-long player on an Original Six club, and they shape Marchand’s standing as one of the best Bruins of the 2010s.

Marchand’s legacy in Boston runs deep. The Bruins originally drafted him in the third round of the 2006 NHL Draft and awarded him with his NHL debut four years later. Marchand didn’t break out in 20 regular season games to start his career, but did explode as a high-impact, top-six forward as Boston entered the 2011 postseason. He recorded 11 goals, 19 points, 40 penalty minutes, and a plus-12 in 25 games of Boston’s playoff run, ultimately supporting the team to their first Stanley Cup win since 1972.

That postseason performance stapled Marchand to Boston’s top-six, and he didn’t give the team a chance to second-guess. He scored 21 goals and 41 points in 77 games in his first full NHL season. He went on to average 23.2 goals and 45.4 points each season through the first five years of his career. But Marchand had plenty more in store. He broke out with 37 goals and 61 points in the 2015-16 season, the start of seven-year streak of rivaling or breaking the 30-goal mark. Along the way, Marchand posted a career-high 100 points in the 2018-19 season – on the back of a dangerous duo with Boston’s David Pastrnak.

Marchand continues to produce into this season. He has 21 goals and 47 points on the year, good for second on the Bruins in goals and points – and an 82-game pace of 28 goals and 63 points. But his eight-year contract is set to expire at the end of the season, and Boston has opted to net assets for him while they can rather than let him walk in free agency.

The headache of playing against Marchand could only get worse for his opponents around the Atlantic Division. This move sends him to the reigning Stanley Cup champions, where the role of a top-line grinder and scorer is clearly carved out. The Panthers rank second in the Eastern Conference with a 39-21-3 record this season. They also rank eighth in the NHL with a 3.25 goals-per-game average – just over 1.5 goals more than Boston has averaged this season.

Moving to an improved offense, and likely set to fill a role next to superstar Aleksander Barkov, should give Marchand a major scoring boost. He managed 29 goals and 67 points last season, and could quickly rediscover those totals as the Panthers look for a hard-nosed finisher in front of the net.

While the Panthers work to make the most out of Marchand’s first move away from Boston, the Bruins will work to find a reasonable top-line replacement. Boston acquired forward Casey Mittelstadt from the Colorado Avalanche earlier on Deadline day, which could open up a chance for Elias Lindholm or Matthew Poitras to push for the top left-wing role. If not a converted center, Boston will likely need to turn towards spot scorers like Morgan Geekie or Riley Tufte.

The Bruins could also use this as a golden chance to recall top prospect Fabian Lysell. Lysell ranks third among active Providence Bruins in scoring with 30 points in 46 games this season. He received his NHL debut earlier this season, but was reassigned after one outing without any scoring. Many fans have yearned for Lysell’s call-up throughout most of the last two seasons – though it seems Boston is still wanting him to find another gear before they promote him full-time. Lysell scored 50 points in 56 AHL games last year – good for fourth on Providence in scoring.

Marchand took over Boston’s captaincy after star Patrice Bergeron retired in 2023. Dealing him away will be a monumental shift for the Bruins lineup, that will likely take years to fully heal from. The potential for a 2028 first-round pick will support that process, though Boston could still end up a top name in buyer’s markets to come as they look to redefine their future. Meanwhile, Florida will inherent Marchand’s expiring contract. The 36-year-old winger could reasonably sign a short-term deal this summer to round out the end of his career, but that interest could be gauged by how long of a postseason run Florida is able to achieve. The Panthers added two top-of-the-lineup pieces in Marchand and Jones, bolstering a roster that was already ranked near the top of the NHL. They’ll be a formidable foe as the postseason rolls around.

Stars Acquire, Extend Mikko Rantanen On Max-Term Deal

at CDT | by 59 Comments

4:00 p.m.: Official now, Rantanen is a Star. The deal is accurate as reported aside from the 2027 first-round pick being a 2028 selection instead. Both first-rounders are top 10 protected.

12:55 p.m.: The Stars placed defenseman Miro Heiskanen on long-term injured reserve today, per PuckPedia. The move opens up some additional cap flexibility with the Rantanen pickup and still leaves them with roughly $10MM in flexibility to add another asset before the deadline, assuming the move indicates Heiskanen is done for the regular season following knee surgery early last month. Additionally, Seravalli reports Rantanen receives a full no-movement clause in his contract.

11:31 a.m.: The Stars will get an extension done for winger Mikko Rantanen and acquire him in a blockbuster deal with the Hurricanes. Per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, it’ll be an eight-year contract worth $96MM, worth a cap hit of $12MM. Jeff Marek of Daily Faceoff reports Dallas is sending rookie forward Logan Stankoven and a pair of first-rounders to Carolina in return. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff confirms the picks are the Stars’ own 2026 and 2027 selections, leaving Dallas without a first-round pick until 2028. The Hurricanes are also receiving a pair of third-round picks in the deal, per Emily Kaplan of ESPN. Those picks are also Dallas’ 2026 and 2027 selections, per Seravalli.

Dallas thus holds firm at their initial offer to the superstar winger, who will now be traded twice in under two months. Darren Dreger of TSN reported earlier today the $96MM offer was “well short” of what Rantanen would accept to get a deal to the Stars across the finish line. However, he’ll take the under-market value deal to join the league’s deepest offense in Dallas.

Rantanen notably accepts a lesser extension than what Carolina offered him: an eight-year contract worth at least $100MM in total with a $12.5MM AAV. He’ll likely earn more in take-home pay in a lower-tax state in Texas, but it’s still clear Dallas was a preferable long-term destination for the Finnish star.

The 28-year-old finds his long-term home in the same division as his longtime home in Colorado, where he was coming off back-to-back 100-point seasons before failed extension discussions with the Avs precipitated his move to Carolina in January. Colorado’s best offer on an eight-year deal reportedly fell in the $11MM range, so he’s getting more before-tax dollars by meandering his way toward his former Central Division rival.

Rantanen’s reputation needs no introduction, especially since the scale of a player of his caliber moving mid-season was covered extensively when he was traded to the Canes. The 2015 10th overall pick and 2022 Stanley Cup champion with the Avs has produced well over a point per game over his 10-year career, including a raucous 371 points in 299 games since the beginning of the 2021-22 campaign. On a per-game basis, only Nikita Kucherov, David Pastrňák, and Mitch Marner have scored more over the past decade among right wings.

Despite keeping up his production in Colorado whenever he was briefly separated from franchise center Nathan MacKinnon, he simply didn’t click alongside Sebastian Aho during his short stint in Raleigh. Rantanen managed just 2-4–6 in 13 games for the Canes, shooting at 5% and averaging under 20 minutes per game for the first time since the 2020-21 campaign. His possession impacts were expectedly sterling, posting a 64.1 CF% at even strength, but it just didn’t translate to the point totals he’s used to producing.

Rantanen should immediately slot in as Dallas’ first-line right winger alongside Roope Hintz and Jason Robertson, filling the hole vacated by Joe Pavelski when he retired last offseason. They’ve rotated multiple players in that role throughout the season, including Stankoven, while also elevating Evgenii Dadonov and Wyatt Johnston from their usual third-line homes at times to ride shotgun. That instability will end with the Robertson-Hintz duo receiving their most talented complement yet out of an already fairly strong group over the course of their careers.

Carolina has now remained unable to upgrade their top-six throughout the year, taking a winding road from Martin Nečas to Rantanen to now, presumptively, the 22-year-old Stankoven getting an extended run in first or second-line minutes barring a subsequent trade. They will open up roughly $3.8MM in cap space in the trade, assuming no other roster players are involved.

Stankoven is a significant loss for the Stars in this deal off their active roster. After performing well in a late-season call-up last year, he’s posted 9-20–29 in 59 showings for Dallas in 2024-25 while averaging north of 15 minutes per game. Selected 47th overall in 2021, he’s already outperforming his draft billing. He’s a significant injection to a Hurricanes pool of U-23 players that already ranks among the strongest in the league. Dallas, though, determined him expendable to land a top-line talent with names like Johnston and Mavrik Bourque still in the system as current and likely future top-six threats.

It would make sense for the Canes to flip one of the first-rounders they’ve acquired for a big-fish forward in the next few hours. They already had their entire arsenal of firsts over the next few years, a significant excess for a team in a playoff contention window.

When Rantanen’s extension is registered, the Stars will be down to $13.8MM in cap space for next season with eight open roster spots. That’s not nearly enough cash to re-sign all of their pending free agents, a list that includes Johnston on the restricted front and top-nine forwards Jamie Benn, Matt Duchene, Mikael Granlund, and Dadonov as unrestricted assets. It’s likely only one of that group will be returning next season unless they trade away a salary currently on the books for 2025-26.

Nonetheless, Rantanen’s $12MM AAV currently makes him the fifth-highest-paid player in the league next season behind Leon Draisaitl, Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid, and his former teammate in MacKinnon. He will remain in a Stars uniform through the 2032-33 season and will be 36 years old when his contract expires.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Maple Leafs Acquire Scott Laughton From Flyers

at CDT | by 18 Comments

3:06 p.m.: The Flyers announced they’ve officially sent Laughton to Toronto, confirming the trade as reported below. The picks heading from Philly to the Leafs are a 2025 fourth-rounder and a 2027 sixth-rounder.

11:47 a.m.: The Maple Leafs are nearing a deal to acquire center Scott Laughton from the Flyers, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports. The deal involves a number of pieces as the Maple Leafs will also acquire fourth and sixth-round draft picks from Philadelphia (as per TSN’s Darren Dreger). In exchange for Laughton and the draft picks, the Flyers will acquire a first-round pick and Nikita Grebenkin. The Flyers will also retain 50% of Laughton’s $3MM cap hit (as per TSN’s Chris Johnston) which will use up their final retention slot and carry into next season since Laughton has one more year on his deal that will now count just $1.5MM against Toronto’s salary cap. Laughton is owed just $2.5MM in actual salary for next season.

TSN’s Pierre LeBrun is reporting that the first round pick going to the Flyers is a 2027 selection and it will be top-10 protected. The trade leaves Toronto with just one first round selection in the next three drafts.

Laughton was drafted 20th overall by Philadelphia back in 2012 and since then has amassed 106 goals and 159 assists in 661 career NHL games. The Oakville, ON native has long been a solid two-way center and has had his two best offensive seasons over the past two years, posting 43- and 39-point seasons.

This year, the 30-year-old has tallied 11 goals and 16 assists in 60 games, to go along with a -17 plus/minus and 129 hits. He has been centering the Flyers’ second line this season and averaging 15:06 of ice time per game. With the trade to Toronto, there is a possibility he becomes their third line center, which should suit his game better as he remains a solid faceoff man and penalty killer.

The trade removes Laughton’s name from the trade rumor mill that has hounded him for much of the past few seasons. With the Flyers in a full retool, Laughton became a lucrative trade chip thanks to his solid play and reasonable contract. The move to Toronto should allow him to slot into a role that suits him better, while playing close to home, and away from the noise of the trade chatter.

PHR’s Josh Cybulski contributed to this article.

Bruins, Avalanche Swap Charlie Coyle, Casey Mittelstadt

at CDT | by 19 Comments

The Avalanche are acquiring center Charlie Coyle from the Bruins, Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic reports. Center Casey Mittelstadt is headed from Colorado to Boston in the deal, per Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. The Bruins are also receiving forward prospect Will Zellers and a second-round pick in the deal, according to Anthony Di Marco of Daily Faceoff. LeBrun adds the Avs are receiving a 2026 fifth-rounder along with Coyle, while the second-round pick heading to Boston is in this year’s draft.

The deal swaps middle-six centers heading in completely opposite directions. Coyle, fresh off his 33rd birthday, posted a career-high 60 points in Boston last season but has scored just 15-7–22 in 64 games this year with a career-worst -14 rating. He’s signed through next season at a $5.25MM cap hit, a big risk for the Avs if there’s no salary retention and his play can’t rebound in what’s sure to be a reduced role behind Nathan MacKinnon and yesterday’s pickup Brock Nelson down the middle.

Coyle does bring an upgrade to Colorado’s third line in terms of overall experience and past performance, which is what the Avs are banking on despite his poor showing on a thin Bruins offense this year. He also brings some slight cap savings down the line – he costs $500K less against the cap than Mittelstadt and is signed for one less season. It’s worth noting he’s been quite the playoff performer in his career, posting 25-27–52 in 119 postseason games. He’s yet to miss the playoffs, going in six straight years with Minnesota and then another six with Boston. He’ll extend it to 13 years in a row in Denver.

Boston lands a much younger pivot in Mittelstadt, who hasn’t quite reached Coyle’s 60-point pinnacle but did reach 59 and 57 points the last two seasons. He hasn’t taken nearly as large a step back as Coyle this season, but it’s still been quite the difficult season. Mittelstadt has 11-23–34 through 63 games for the Avs, who acquired him at last year’s deadline in a major swap with the Sabres for Bowen Byram. Only 25 of those points have come at even strength, he’s won just 42.4% of his faceoffs, and his relative possession impacts are the worst they’ve been in five years. He wasn’t the reliable second-line center Colorado hoped they were getting last year, so they opted to acquire the veteran Nelson and Coyle while flipping Mittelstadt less than a year after signing him to a three-year, $17.25MM deal.

The mismatch in futures heading to the Bruins from the Avs is still surprising. Mittelstadt is seven years younger than Coyle and still has 60-point potential, and he’s a skilled sniper with a nearly 12% shooting rate. While a less reliable two-way presence than Coyle, who landed Selke Trophy votes for the first time last season, his age and contract align better with Boston’s now clear plan to retool their roster over the coming years. With Trent Frederic already out the door, Mittelstadt should easily fit into a top-six role for Boston down the stretch, although his poor faceoff showings may necessitate a shift to the wing to get him that ice time.

Boston picks up a fairly intriguing prospect in the 18-year-old Zellers. Selected in the third round of last year’s draft by the Avs out of prep school Shattuck St. Mary’s, the 5’11” center/winger jumped to the United States Hockey League for major junior play this year and hasn’t disappointed. In 40 games with the Green Bay Gamblers, the speedy forward leads the team in scoring with 37-21–58. He’s the high-energy, high-scoring type of prospect sorely missing from the Bruins’ system, even if he’ll be a long-term project developmentally.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Sabres Agree To Terms On Two-Year Extension With Jason Zucker

at CDT | by 6 Comments

12:47 p.m.: The Sabres have confirmed the two-year extension for Zucker. He’ll make $9.5MM in total, which is good for a $4.75MM AAV in each year of the contract.

9:53 a.m.: Believed to be a strong trade candidate as a pending unrestricted free agent, the Sabres were looking to get Jason Zucker off the market entirely.  They’ve accomplished just that as TSN’s Darren Dreger reports (Twitter link) that the sides are in agreement on a two-year, $9.75MM contract extension.

The 33-year-old had to settle for a one-year contract last season, spending time between Arizona and Nashville, who acquired him in a low-cost trade deadline rental move. However, he was only able to notch 14 goals and 18 assists in 69 games between the two sides which was certainly not a good for his open market value.  Accordingly, Zucker ultimately accepted another one-year pact in July, signing for $5MM.

That has worked out well for both sides.  While Buffalo has struggled and is set to miss the playoffs once again this year, Zucker has bounced back nicely.  Through 54 games this season, he has 18 goals and 26 assists, giving him a realistic shot at a 50-point campaign, a plateau he has only reached once in his career.  With the 44 points he has now, he sits fifth on the Sabres in scoring.

Zucker made it known back in January that he was interested in extending his stay with Buffalo and he was true to his word.  Even with a big jump in the salary cap coming, he winds up taking a small pay cut with the AAV of this new deal checking in at $4.75MM.  If he had a good finish to his season – in Buffalo or elsewhere – it’s possible that he could have landed at least a small raise on the open market while also potentially getting a multi-year deal.  Instead, he opts for some stability with where he’s comfortable.

While the Sabres now won’t be getting anything for what was likely to be one of their better trade chips, there’s certainly value in keeping Zucker around.  All rebuilding teams need quality veterans and Zucker certainly has been one of them and he’ll now fill a spot in their top six for a couple more years.

With the signing, Buffalo now has a little under $24MM in cap room for next season, per PuckPedia with 15 players under contract.  While they have a prominent pending RFA to contend with in Bowen Byram, the Sabres should still have ample cap space to try to add another quality veteran or two to their roster this summer.

Photo courtesy of Imagn Images.

Sabres, Senators Swap Joshua Norris, Dylan Cozens

at CDT | by 33 Comments

The Ottawa Senators have confirmed one of the biggest deals of deadline day. Ottawa is trading Joshua Norris and Jacob Bernard-Docker to the Buffalo Sabres for Dylan Cozens, Dennis Gilbert, and a 2026 second-round pick.

In what has quickly become one of the surprise trades of the deadline, the Sabres are taking a major gamble in Norris. His talent is undeniable, as the former 19th overall pick of the 2017 NHL Draft has scored 90 goals and 156 points in 236 games with the Senators. Unfortunately, his battles with injury have defined much of his career.

Norris last completed a full campaign in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season. The University of Michigan product scored 17 goals and 35 points in 56 games, leading to a fourth-place finish in Calder Trophy voting. He had some maturing to do on the defensive side of the puck, but his 1.28 hits-per-game showed Norris wasn’t afraid to get involved physically.

The 2021-22 campaign became his true breakout season. Norris finished the season with 35 goals and 55 points in 66 games, averaging 18:35 of time on ice. He led the Senators in goal-scoring as a 22-year-old and handled himself well in the faceoff dot with a 51.1% success rate — something quite rare for young centers.

Ottawa was rightfully impressed by Norris’s sophomore season. Upon the expiration of his entry-level contract, the Senators signed Norris to an eight-year, $63.6MM contract, with a 10-team no-trade clause kicking in at the start of the 2026-27 season.

Unfortunately, it’s been mostly downhill for Norris since signing that contract. Due to multiple shoulder injuries, Norris has been limited to 49.3% of Ottawa’s regular-season contests since putting pen to paper on his current deal.

Still, he’s only missed eight games for the Senators this season. He’s scored 20 goals and 13 assists in 53 games, averaging 18:20 of ice time with a 53.8% faceoff rate. Norris has improved his physicality too, registering 133 hits on the year, leading all Senators’ forwards by a significant margin. His possession quality has taken a step back with a 48.8% CorsiFor% at even strength, but much of that can be explained through his 60.0% defensive zone start percentage.

Should he remain healthy, Norris gives Buffalo a grittier option at the second-line center position without sacrificing too much on offense. The Sabres already ranked 11th in the league with a 3.18 GF/G, so moving Cozens for Norris is an acknowledgment from the team about their discrepancies.

Cozens was in a similar situation to Norris, but it wasn’t because of any injury concerns. The Whitehorse, Yukon native broke out in a big way during the 2022-23 season, scoring 31 goals and 68 points in 81 games. Believing that he had become a long-term center option in the team’s top-six, Buffalo extended Cozens to a seven-year, $49.7MM contract later that season.

He hasn’t been worth that salary since. In 140 games with the Sabres since signing the contract, Cozens has registered 29 goals and 78 points, averaging 17:13 of ice time in a second-line role. His 47.7% success rate in the faceoff dot is nothing to scoff at, and his 51.1% CorsiFor% is on par with Buffalo’s team average of 51.2% this season.

Unfortunately, outside of JJ Peterka, Cozens has arguably become the least responsible forward on the Sabres’ roster on the defensive side of the puck. His 86.6% on-ice save percentage at even strength is the second-worst on the team, just like his -13 rating.

Still, he’s a physical player like Norris and has similar point production despite the down year. Cozens has been far more available than Norris in the last several years, making this a safer trade for Ottawa. Isolating the deal to Norris and Cozens, the Senators will save $850K between the two centers.

Meanwhile, the swap of Bernard-Docker and Gilbert will only affect the team’s depth options on defense. Despite being a first-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, Bernard-Docker has yet to fully break out at the NHL level. He’ll finish his tenure in Ottawa with five goals and 20 points in 129 contests, averaging 15:06 of ice time and carrying a -4 rating.

Gilbert has consistently provided mild value throughout his career as a depth defenseman for the Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche, Calgary Flames, and Buffalo Sabres. In 107 career games, he’s scored three goals and recorded 19 points, averaging 12:10 of ice time per game with a -18 rating.

ESPN’s Kevin Weekes was the first to report Norris and Bernard-Docker were being traded to Buffalo. 

TSN’s Pierre LeBrun was the first to report that Cozens was headed to Ottawa. 

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the full details of the trade. 

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports images. 

Devils Sign Johnathan Kovacevic To Five-Year Extension

at CDT | by 1 Comment

The Devils are closing in on an extension with pending UFA defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports. The team later announced it’s a five-year deal worth $20MM, paying him an average of $4MM per season. The year-by-year salary breakdown is available in the team release. Per PuckPedia, the deal carries a no-trade clause through 2026-27 and a 10-team no-trade from 2027-28 until its expiry in 2029-30.

New Jersey acquired the 27-year-old from the Canadiens last summer in exchange for a 2026 fourth-round pick. It was a prudent move from the Devils, who’ve gotten solid defensive play out of the righty in career-high minutes. Averaging 19:43 per game, he’s posted 1-13–14 with a +11 rating in 63 games.

The hulking 6’5″, 223-lb defender doesn’t play an uber-physical game, but still ranks fifth on the Devils with 81 blocks and seventh with 83 hits. Since breaking into the league with the Jets in 2022, his value has come from strong possession play in defensive-oriented minutes. His pairing with the now-injured Jonas Siegenthaler has been one of the best shutdown units in the league this season, allowing only 1.82 expected goals against per 60 minutes. According to MoneyPuck, that’s ninth-best in the league among pairings with at least 150 minutes together.

The Devils now have their top three right-shot defensemen under contract next season. It calls into question the future of 2022 No. 2 overall pick Simon Nemec, a 21-year-old righty who’s failed to impress in his NHL minutes this season. After posting 3-13–19 with a minus-seven rating in 60 games last year, he’s recorded just one assist in 15 showings in 2024-25 while averaging 15:29 per game. Reports as recent as last week still indicated New Jersey was unwilling to leverage him in a trade, however.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

scroll to top