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Arbitrator Rules In Favor Of Flyers In Ryan Johansen’s Grievance

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An arbitrator has ruled in favor of the Philadelphia Flyers in a grievance filed by veteran centerman Ryan Johansen, over the team’s termination of his contract prior to the 2024-25 season, shares TSN’s Darren Dreger.

The Flyers acquired Johansen alongside a conditional 2025 first-round pick at the 2024 Trade Deadline, in exchange for sending defenseman Sean Walker to the Colorado Avalanche. Philadelphia placed Johansen on waivers immediately after the trade, with the intentions of assigning him to the AHL and potentially flipping him before the deadline. When no trade manifested, Johansen refused to report to the minor leagues, instead claiming that he was limited by a nagging hip injury. The NHL sided with Johansen, and reversed his AHL assignment after a failed physical exam.

Johansen spent the remainder of the 2023-24 season on injured reserve. There was a clear wedge between him and the Flyers’ top brass – one that only rooted deeper as the 2024 summer went on. By August, Philadelphia decided to place Johansen on unconditional waivers for the purposes of contract termination – citing the player’s delay in notifying them of the injury, and failure to pass physicals or report to his assignment.

Johansen passed through waivers and became an unrestricted-free agent. He filed a grievance with the NHLPA soon after, claiming the Flyers had wrongly terminated his contract. Now, a full year later, it seems the NHL will side with Philadelphia in their handling of the situation.

The implications of this decision aren’t immediately clear. Johansen had one year remaining on an eight-year, $64MM contract originally signed with the Nashville Predators in 2017 – though Philadelphia was only due $4MM in cap hit, after Nashville retained half of the contract when they traded Johansen to Colorado. The range of outcomes seems far-reaching – from Philadelphia being due that full $4MM price tag, to a settlement with the player, to no cap implications on the team’s side at all. Details on the exact impact against the Flyers will likely be revealed in the coming days.

The NHL’s last contract termination to reach headlines over a material breach came in 2015, when the Los Angeles Kings terminated forward Mike Richards’ contract with five years remaining. He was still due $22MM on the deal. Richards also filed a grievance with the NHLPA, and would end up settling with the team for an undisclosed amount before becoming a free agent. He signed for one season with the Washington Capitals following the dispute, but would retire from hockey in 2016.

It seems less likely that Johansen will return to the NHL. His play gradually dwindled throughout the 2020s – falling from 63 points in the 2021-22 season to just 23 points in 2023-24. He slowed down in all aspects, likely due to what was proven to be a very real and long-running hip injury. That slow-down pushed Johansen to Colorado’s fourth-line in his final few games with the team. With a decision in place on his grievance with the Flyers, he would realistically have time to sign a short contract, or try-out agreement, before the 2025-26 season. But those chances hinge on the 33-year-old’s recovery, and willingness to return, after a full season away from the league. If he does call his career to a close, the former fourth-overall selection will finish with 578 points in 905 games in the NHL.

Predators’ Spencer Stastney Considered Retirement Before 2024-25 Season

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Nashville Predators defenseman Spencer Stastney joined Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas on the 32 Thoughts podcast to speak out about the challenges he’s faced with continuing his hockey career. Stastney opened up about a long struggle with mental health challenges and defeated feelings towards his hockey career. He shared that those feelings peaked at the end of the 2024 Calder Cup Playoffs, and pushed him as far as job-searching and pulling together the paperwork needed to file for retirement. He was just 24 at the time.

Stastney hit that low point amidst some of the brightest moments of his young career. He moved to professional hockey in 2022, following a productive four years at the University of Notre Dame. Stastney stood out in his rookie AHL season thanks to his shutdown defense, even despite scoring just 19 points in 72 games on the full season. His early showings were enough to earn the first eight NHL games of his career, where Stastney chipped in his first two assists.

A strong start at the AHL level earned Stastney great standing headed into the 2023-24 season. He took full advantage of the opportunity – netting 20 points in 44 AHL games, and four points in 20 NHL games before the end of the regular season. But through it all, he shares that his feelings of anxiety towards the sport were growing. Stastney took part of the 2023-24 season off to attend the NHLPA’s Player Assistance Program. He returned in time for the postseason, and appeared in both the Stanley Cup and Calder Cup Playoffs. But Stastney shares that by the time Milwaukee was defeated, he was happy that the season was over.

It was that feeling – relief juxtaposed by his teammates’ anguish over an early exit – that pushed Stastney to consider calling his career to an early close. He shared that he didn’t feel his feelings were fair to his teammates, and that he quickly felt that stepping away from the sport to pursue other work would provide the reset he needed. He moved forward with those feelings, even as his agency filed for contract arbitration and successfully earned a two-year contract extension.

But a new deal wasn’t going to be what spurred Stastney back into the sport. Instead, he details extensive consultations with the Nashville Predators’ team therapist as the thing that helped him to realize and address the roots of his feelings. Stastney skipped Nashville’s training camp for the 2024-25 season, and didn’t return to the ice until early December. He quickly returned to a top-pair role in Milwaukke when he came back, and earned an NHL call-up after just 10 games in the minor leagues. Stastney would effectively split the 2024-25 season between the major and minor rosters, netting three points in 23 NHL games and 17 points in 26 AHL games.

Those performances, and a renewed sense to continue moving forward with hockey, is where Stastney sits now. He emphasized that he’s still figuring out his relationship with the sport, but intends to move forward as a continued member of the Predators organization. He’s a true shutdown defender, with a great reach and imposing physical presence, even in a lanky build. The Predators have shown clear trust in Stastney’s ability to handle a depth NHL role – and a full season of determination could be all it takes to earn a full-time spot on the NHL roster.

While Stastney figures out his path forward, the Predators will rest assured that their patrol over player’s mental health continues to effectively serve their organization. The 32 Thoughts Podcast harkened back to former Predators Brian McGrattan and Jordin Tootoo, who both worked with Nashville’s therapy team and the NHLPA Player Assistance Program during their own time in the organization. Both went on to have successful, decade-long careers in pro hockey. Their ability to overcome challenges, and a clear focus on prioritizing player health, is a hardy show of resilience for any players facing similar challenges.

NHL Releases Full Regular Season Schedule

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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

Metropolitan

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Central

Pacific

NHL, NHLPA Ratify Four-Year CBA Extension

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July 8th: According to an announcement from the league, the NHL and NHLPA have officially ratified the four-year CBA extension. The agreed-upon governing document will last from the 2026-27 season to the 2029-30 season.

June 27th: In a pre-draft press conference, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman shared that the league has agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding with the NHLPA that, when ratified, would cement a new, four-year CBA, per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. The new CBA would begin in the 2026-27 season.

June 26th: As expected, all signs indicate the NHL will avoid another lockout. According to multiple reports, the NHL and NHLPA are closing in on a four-year extension for the Collective Bargaining Agreement. In a comprehensive breakdown, which our readers are encouraged to visit, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reported some of the more important items mentioned in the upcoming CBA.

Since the new CBA that was ratified in 1995, each NHL team has played an 82-game season, with 41 games at home and 41 away. That will no longer be the case. Due to player concerns about the extended pre-season schedule, the NHL will implement an 84-game schedule starting with the 2026-27 season, likely featuring 42 home games and 42 away games. The pre-season will be shortened to four games, and Seravalli notes that any player who’s accumulated 100 or more games at the NHL level will only be allowed to participate in two of those contests.

Additionally, this will be the last year that a team can re-sign or extend a player on an eight-year deal. Seravalli reports that players re-signing with their current team will be limited to a maximum of seven years, while contracts signed during unrestricted free agency or through offer sheets will be capped at six years. This could have bigger implications this summer, with more teams potentially scrambling to sign their current players while retaining the ability to add another year.

Meanwhile, to address arguably the most important and, objectively, the most-publicized issue, the NHL will create a ’comprehensive playoff salary cap mechanism’ to close the LTIR loophole. In recent years, some playoff-bound teams have placed injured players on LTIR during the regular season, providing them with additional salary cap space to acquire higher-priced talent at the trade deadline. Most of these cases have been investigated and subsequently cleared by the league. However, the NHL is continuing its investigation into the Edmonton Oilers’ use of LTIR with Evander Kane leading up to the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Lastly, of the large-scale updates, the league confirmed the projected salary cap upper limits for the upcoming three seasons. The cap will rise to $95.5MM in 2025-26, increase by approximately 9% to $104MM in 2026-27, and by another 9% to $113MM in 2027-28.

Seravalli added several other additions to the upcoming CBA. Drafted players’ signing rights will be uniform across the board until they’re 22 years old, the elimination of deferred salary, and the establishment of a permanent emergency backup goaltender who will travel with the teams.

CBA Notes: Minimum Salary, LTIR, Draftees, Salary Retention, Olympics, Neck Guards

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Earlier today, league Commissioner Gary Bettman announced a Memorandum of Understanding between the NHL and NHLPA for a new agreed-upon Collective Bargaining Agreement beginning in the 2026-27 season. New details continue to emerge regarding the new agreement, one of which is regarding minimum salaries.

According to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, the league minimum salary will jump from $775K in 2025-26 to $1MM in 2029-30. Seravalli didn’t know if there would be a mild year-on-year increase for the minimum salary, just where it would end up by the time the next CBA ends.

Although the NHL hasn’t projected an upper limit of the salary cap for the 2029-30 season, it marks an odd relative dip in payment for league-minimum salaries. Assuming the cap continues to rise at its current pace of 9% each season, the upper limit for the 2029-30 season would be approximately $134.8MM. This means that a $775K salary in 2025-26 would account for 0.8% of a team’s cap hit, while a $1MM salary in 2029-30 would drop to 0.7%.

Other notes from the new CBA:

  • One of the biggest points of contention was the playoff implications of LTIR. The CBA includes a new salary cap for the playoffs. However, according to Seravalli, teams will only benefit from cap savings equal to the previous year’s average salary, rather than the full cap hit of the player. The only exception to this rule is if the player does not participate in the entire Stanley Cup playoffs.
  • Seravalli also pointed out the new draftee signing rules in the upcoming CBA. A team will hold the signing rights for four years on any 18-year-old that they draft tonight, and three years for any 19-year-old selected. Additionally, for those playing in the NCAA, their signing rights will only expire 30 days after they’ve confirmed with their drafting team that they’re no longer playing at the collegiate level.
  • According to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, the new CBA will mandate a 75-day window of allowable salary retention. In essence, the new rule effectively eliminated three-team trades at the deadline. If a team wants to orchestrate 75% salary retention on any given player, they’ll need to wait nearly 11 weeks to do so.
  • It’s now confirmed that NHL players will be included in the next two Olympic Games. According to TSN’s Chris Johnston, the new CBA includes language allowing the players to participate in the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps region of France.
  • As a new equipment rule, Seravalli announced that the NHL will make neck guards mandatory for any new player entering the league in the 2026-27 season and beyond. The new equipment rule is no doubt inspired by the late Adam Johnson, who tragically lost his life after getting cut in the neck by a skate in an EIHL game during the 2023-24 season.

Bettman/Daly Notes: CBA, Olympics, AHL

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NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly held a joint press conference ahead of the first game of the 2025 Stanley Cup Finals. They touched on a variety of league topics, most notably sharing that the league continues to progress well towards a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the NHL Players’ Association. The pair shared that CBA negotiations are in “good shape” per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic adds that they weren’t yet ready to call the deal close to final.

The NHL is a year out from needing to finalize a new CBA. Early momentum could point towards minimal changes in the next agreement, though the league did comment on a few potential changes. Daly and Bettman said they weren’t concerned about tax differential influencing player’s signing decisions. Later, NHLPA Assistant Executive Ron Hainsey shared that the league could reform the long-term injured reserve to avoid late-season manipulation. Both topics have grown to a roar over recent years, in light of repeated success for the Vegas Golden Knights and the pair of Florida-based teams.

Other notes from Bettman and Daly’s presser:

  • Daly confirmed that the league isn’t expecting Russia to participate in the 2026 Winter Olympics. The country was previously barred from participation at the 2024 Summer Olympics, though athletes were still able to participate under the category of “individual neutral athletes”. Russia’s Men’s Hockey team took home silver at the 2022 Winter Olympics, and gold in 2018, though the NHL did not send players to either competition. With this news, fans will have to wait even longer to see Russian stars take on Olympic competitors. The last time that superstars like Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin appeared at the Olympics was in 2014. Russia achieved a fifth-place finish that year.
  • Daly also shared that the league is considering opening AHL eligibility to teenagers in the next CBA, per Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News. The Deputy Commissioner added that the NHL is discussing the change with the NHLPA, and has given advance notice to the CHL – though the dialogue is ongoing. Junior hockey is presently under a monumental shift after the NCAA expanded collegiate eligibility to CHL athletes. Early winds from the decision appear to be pushing major juniors to a younger demographic – momentum that would only seem to grow should the NHL and AHL give players even more options after their draft years.

Daly: NHL, NHLPA Have Made “Good Progress” On CBA Talks

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The 2025-26 NHL season is the last one under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, which has been in place since the 2012 lockout and was extended/modified in 2020. The relationship between the league and the NHLPA has been on solid footing since the latter appointed former U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh as its executive director, and reporting throughout the past few months indicated negotiations on a new CBA were expected to go smoothly, avoiding the fourth work stoppage of commissioner Gary Bettman’s tenure.

CBA talks started at the beginning of April and are “well underway,” NHL deputy commissioner told Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic in a recent phone interview (article link). Daly added waiting until the expiry of the current agreement in September 2026 to announce a new CBA is “well beyond the window that I’m thinking… I would like to think that we’ll have a successful conclusion at some point in the not-too-distant future.”

Unsurprisingly, Daly wasn’t eager to divulge too many details about what the agreement will actually look like. However, he did highlight some areas in which to expect significant changes from current operations when pressed by LeBrun.

The storyline dominating this round of CBA talks was always going to be the future of rules regarding long-term injured reserve usage, particularly teams being able to add notable injured players to the postseason roster after they spent the entire regular season giving their club cap relief while on LTIR. Daly confirmed that it’s been a central point of discussions with the NHLPA and that “we’ve made progress toward getting to a good resolution on that issue.” What that resolution looks like – either a playoff salary cap or postseason roster eligibility restrictions based on regular-season LTIR stints – is unclear.

On the topic of expansion, Daly clarified the league’s position that they’re not close to adding a club and don’t plan on opening a formal expansion process. While the league isn’t soliciting bids, the current approach is “much more of a one-on-one conversation and relationship we have with various potential owners,” Daly said. He also called the watering down of talent by adding too many clubs “not even a minor concern” in the league’s eyes, given the game’s skyrocketing registration numbers in the United States and in Europe.

And while the league hasn’t officially put pen to paper on the agreement to send its players to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, that’s purely been due to timeline and procedural issues. Daly reiterated “definitively” that NHL players will participate in the event for the first time in 12 years, and the plan to run World Cups of Hockey every two years between Winter Olympics remains in place.

Snapshots: Robertson, Dorofeyev, Bastian, Okposo

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A key Stars winger is getting closer to returning to their lineup.  Head coach Peter DeBoer told reporters including Lia Assimakopoulos of the Dallas Morning News that Jason Robertson has been upgraded from being out week-to-week to out day-to-day.  The 25-year-old had his third straight season of at least 80 points this year, hitting the mark exactly but suffered a leg injury in the final game of the regular season.  Robertson has been skating away from the team alongside injured blueliner Nils Lundkvist (who is still a long way from returning from shoulder surgery) and it appears he is progressing well in his recovery.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • The Golden Knights were without winger Pavel Dorofeyev for tonight’s game against Minnesota and he is listed as day-to-day, relays Jesse Granger of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 24-year-old had a breakout year, tallying 35 goals in the regular season but left Tuesday’s game late due to an undisclosed injury.  Victor Olofsson returned to the lineup to take Dorofeyev’s spot on the wing.
  • Speaking with reporters today (video link), Devils winger Nathan Bastian addressed his upcoming free agency. Eligible to test the open market for the first time, the 27-year-old indicated that his preference is to remain with New Jersey.  However, coming off a down year that saw him record just 10 points in 59 games, he might have to take a small dip in pay from his $1.35MM current deal to do so.  The team only has around $12MM in cap room for next season per PuckPedia with defenseman Luke Hughes likely to take a big chunk of that.  Accordingly, the Devils may need to keep their final few roster spots closer to the minimum salary and with Bastian logging under 11 minutes a night for the last two years, he likely falls in that category.
  • The NHLPA announced that they have hired long-time NHL winger Kyle Okposo as a Business Development and Player Engagement Advisor. Okposo played in over 1,000 career NHL games over parts of 17 seasons, recording 242 goals and 372 assists before ending his career after winning the Stanley Cup with Florida.  This won’t be Okposo’s first time working with the NHLPA as he was part of their Executive Board while playing and was also on the Executive Director Search Committee that eventually led to Marty Walsh being hired.

Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar Named Ted Lindsay Award Finalists

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Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov and Avalanche superstars Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar have been named the Ted Lindsay Award finalists for the 2024-25 season, the NHLPA announced today. The Lindsay Award is given to the league’s most outstanding player as voted on by his peers.

Now in his 11th NHL season, Kucherov became the 10th player in league history with three or more scoring titles. He’s the first player with back-to-back Art Ross Trophies not named Connor McDavid since Jaromír Jágr won four straight from 1998 to 2001. He finished the campaign with 37 goals, 84 assists, and 121 points in 78 games, not quite sniffing last year’s career-highs across the board but still leading the league in assists and points.

If Kucherov wins, it’ll be his second Lindsay after winning it alongside his first Art Ross-winning season in 2018-19. He’s also just the fourth player in league history to record three consecutive 80-assist seasons, joining Paul Coffey, Wayne Gretzky, and Bobby Orr.

It’s rare to see two players from the same club nominated for the same award, but the wording of “most outstanding” as compared to “most valuable” in the Lindsay fine print opens up the opportunity for this award compared to the media-voted Hart Trophy for league MVP. MacKinnon could be the first back-to-back winner of the Lindsay since McDavid in 2016-17 and 2017-18. He tied Kucherov’s league-leading 84 assists this year and added 32 goals in 79 games in what was a down season for him in the shooting department. MacKinnon’s sky-high 22:47 average time on ice per game led all forwards this year, and he led the league in shots on goal (320) for the fourth time in his 12-year career. MacKinnon totaled 116 points for his third straight season above the century mark.

As for Makar, he was announced as a Norris Trophy finalist just yesterday for the fifth time in his six-year NHL resume. He registered a career-high 30 goals and 92 points in 80 games to lead NHL defensemen, now poised to take home the Defenseman of the Year award for the second time while potentially adding a Lindsay to his trophy case. He faces some extremely long odds, though. A defenseman has only won the Lindsay once since it was introduced as the Lester B. Pearson Award in the 1970-71 campaign – Orr took it home in 1974-75. Carey Price (2014-15) is the only non-forward to win it in the last 28 years.

NHL Announces 2028 World Cup Of Hockey

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With the start of the 4 Nations Face-Off just hours away, it seems the NHL is already establishing plans to deepen its international footprint. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA Executive Director Marty Walsh have plans to announce the 2028 World Cup of Hockey tournament that’d split games between North America and Europe, per Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic. The World Cup will be a mid-season tournament scheduled over the usual All-Star Break, like the 4 Nations Face-Off. LeBrun adds that this news sets up international, best-on-best hockey every two years until 2036 – with hope for a timeline that includes the Winter Olympics in 2026, 2030, and 2034 and the World Cup in 2028, 2032, and 2036.

Perhaps more exciting is the return to the name ’World Cup,’ suggesting that more countries will be involved than the four represented at the 4 Nations tournament. This would inevitably require the involvement of professional leagues around the world, as neither Czechia nor Slovakia have enough NHL players to staff an NHL-exclusive roster.

The naming of a worldwide tournament will also lead to the eventual question of Russia’s involvement. The country has been expelled from international play since the 2021 World Championship, where they fell to Team Canada in the quarterfinals. The IIHF recently reviewed Russia and Belarus’ eligibility for international competition but chose to maintain the expulsion through the 2025-26 season due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Hall-of-Famer Pavel Bure was chosen to represent Russia in recent conversations with the IIHF and, citing concerns over player safety, shared that Russia would be willing to finance additional security if it meant allowing “fans across the planet to watch one of the world’s best teams in action again.”

The IIHF’s decision will only apply to events they sanction – that decision only applies to IIHF-sanctioned events, and both the NHL and International Olympic Committee will still need to make their own decisions on whether Russia should play in their events. The NHL moving towards potentially biannual meetings between national clubs sets up an inevitable, and potentially precarious decision on Russia’s eligibility.

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