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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.

Russia To Be Barred From 2026 Winter Olympics

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Sammi Silber of The Hockey News relays that the International Olympic Committee will officially bar the Russian Federation from participating in the 2026 Winter Olympics. It’ll mark the second consecutive Winter Olympic Games that Russia has been barred from due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Silber included a few quotes from IIHF President Luc Tardif regarding the decision. Tardif said, “The IOC is the organizer – we only deal with the competition (the hockey tournaments) itself. We have been pressuring them to make a decision, one way or another, because we’re getting closer to the Olympics and we need to know. Recently, they asked us to send them a schedule without Russia, so that’s where we are. The official statement is pending but the IOC has told us that they are informing the Russian Olympic Committee that they are not participating in the Olympics.”

It will be interesting to see how concrete the announcement will be and whether the United States and European Union’s ongoing peace efforts will impact Russia’s participation. There has been plenty of conjecture from all parties involved about the peace efforts, and there doesn’t seem to be an agreement on the horizon. Still, that could change before the Olympic torch is lit in Milan.

The news impacts the NHL and its players quite heavily. The 2026 Olympic Games were likely the last time NHL legends such as Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin would have participated as active players.

Each player’s last time participating in the illustrious international competition came more than a decade ago, in their home country. Still, Russia didn’t make it past the quarterfinals of the playoff round, losing to Team Finland. Ovechkin scored one goal and one assists in five games, while Malkin scored one goal and two assists in five games.

There’s a small chance that each player could still participate in the 2030 Winter Olympics after their NHL careers have concluded. Regardless, two of the game’s best players of all-time won’t participate in the next one.

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.

Snapshots: Swayman, Benn, Gelinas, Olympics

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Earlier today, Bruins president Cam Neely implied that the team had made a $64MM offer to restricted free agent goaltender Jeremy Swayman in an effort to get a deal done.  It would appear that this is the first that Swayman’s camp has heard of it.  SPM Sports released the following statement from Swayman’s agent Lewis Gross via various social media platforms:

Normally, I do not release statements or discuss negotiations through the media.  However, in this case, I feel I need to defend my client. At today’s press conference, $64 million was referenced. This was the first time that number was discussed in our negotiations. Prior to the press conference, no offer was made reaching that level.

We are extremely disappointed. This was not fair to Jeremy. We will take a few days to discuss where we go from here.

Earlier today, it was revealed that newly-acquired backup Joonas Korpisalo would be their opening-night starter.  Between that and now Swayman’s camp saying that they’ll take a few days to discuss next steps, it’s fair to say that this contract isn’t getting resolved for a little while longer.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • The Stars won’t discuss a new contract in-season with captain Jamie Benn, relays Lia Assimakopoulos of the Dallas Morning News. Don’t interpret that as a sign that one of the sides doesn’t want to do something as GM Jim Nill indicated he approached Benn to see what he wanted to do while making it clear that he sees a spot for the veteran as long as he’s in charge.  However, Benn decided he wants to wait until after the season for any discussions.  The 35-year-old has spent his entire 15-year career in Dallas, amassing over 900 points including 60 in 82 games last season.
  • Veteran defenseman Eric Gelinas has decided to try to give it another go in North America. The AHL’s Laval Rocket announced (Twitter link) that they have invited the 33-year-old to their training camp.  Gelinas has 189 career NHL appearances under his belt, the last of which came in 2016-17.  He spent the following year in Laval before bouncing around, seeing time in Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, and nine games with AHL Chicago over the last six seasons.
  • The IIHF announced that they hope to add a three-on-three ice hockey tournament to the 2030 Olympics for both men’s and women’s hockey. These events would not replace the existing tournaments but would merely add to the sport’s representation, similar to three-on-three basketball at the recently-ended Summer Games.  A decision on whether those events will be added is expected in March.

Slovakia, Denmark, And Latvia Qualify For 2026 Winter Olympics

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The 12-team tournament in men’s ice hockey for the 2026 Winter Olympics has been set as Team Slovakia, Team Denmark, and Team Latvia all came away with wins earlier today. Slovakia and Latvia will join the United States and Russia in Group C of the round-robin action while Denmark will slot into Group B with Finland, Germany, and Czechia. France could still qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics if the Olympic Committee decides to bar Russia from the tournament since they finished as the next highest seed in the standings. This would allow France to play in back-to-back Winter Olympics as they will be the host country in 2030.

The Slovakian team is headlined by notable NHL talents such as Simon Nemec, Tomas Tatar, and Martin Pospisil. They have a legitimate shot to make it to the playoff round if Russia is barred from the tournament. Team Slovakia will be looking for their second medal in team history after earning the bronze medal in the 2022 Winter Olympics after defeating Team Sweden.

The Danes brought one of the more experienced rosters to the qualifier tournament with Winnipeg Jets’ Nikolaj Ehlers and Carolina Hurricanes’ Frederik Andersen striking as the most noteworthy NHL talents. Denmark does not have a lengthy history in men’s ice hockey in the Olympics as the team debuted two years ago in Beijing. The team surprised many by knocking off Latvia in their opening game of the knockout round before losing to the ’Olympic Athletes from Russia’ in a tightly fought battle.

Latvia has skated in five Olympic tournaments since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 but has failed to make much headway against larger nations. The only notable NHL player on the roster is Uvis Balinskis for the Florida Panthers who recorded one goal and four points in three qualifying events. Latvia is not expected to finish much higher than in previous attempts even though they are in one of the tournament’s weaker divisions.

International Notes: Curran, Kirk, Studenič

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Veteran defenseman Kodie Curran is continuing his lengthy career overseas. Swiss club HC Ambrì-Piotta announced Friday that they’ve signed him through the November international break with an option to extend the deal for the rest of the season.

Curran, 34, was never drafted and wound his way through various leagues, going from the Canadian university system to the AHL and ECHL, also making stops in Denmark and Norway before ending up in a starring role for Rögle BK of the Swedish Hockey League, one of the world’s best circuits. He landed his first NHL deal as a 30-year-old undrafted free agent signed by the Ducks in 2020.

However, that contract with Anaheim didn’t result in an NHL call-up. Curran spent his two-year, $2MM deal buried in the minors, recording 29 points (7 G, 22 A) in 61 games with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls before going pointless in 11 games with the AHL’s Providence Bruins after his NHL rights were dealt to Boston at the 2022 trade deadline.

Curran has spent the last two seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League with Russia’s Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Belarus’ Dinamo Minsk. He hasn’t been able to replicate his past offensive success, posting a more conservative 50 points (14 G, 36 A) in 122 games with a -5 rating. The 6’2″, 201-lb puck mover will look to impress in a depth role with Ambrì-Piotta and earn a spot on the team for the rest of the season. There, he joins former NHLers Tim Heed, Jakob Lilja, Philippe Maillet, and Gilles Senn.

More notes from the international stage:

  • Former Coyotes prospect Liam Kirk already has a home for this season with Germany’s Eisbären Berlin, but he’s still looking to put himself back on the map in hopes of another NHL deal. The 24-year-old’s performance for Great Britain at the ongoing final qualification tournament for the 2026 Winter Olympics could go a long way toward doing that, and he already has a goal in the Brits’ lone outing – unfortunately, it was a 3-1 loss to Denmark yesterday. The 2018 seventh-rounder impressed in World Championship action earlier this year, posting four points in six games, but it wasn’t enough for GB to avoid relegation back to the Division 1A tournament for 2025. Kirk also had three goals and seven assists in three games at last year’s Olympic pre-qualifiers. Kirk, who’s aiming to be the first born-and-trained British NHLer, was strong in Czech league action last season with 30 points in 52 games for HC Litvínov.
  • Ex-depth NHLer Marián Studenič was supposed to help his native Slovakia qualify for one of the three spots remaining for the Olympics, but the country’s federation announced the 25-year-old abruptly left the roster due to a disagreement over his role. The winger was a Group VI UFA this summer and opted to head overseas, signing a two-year deal with Sweden’s Färjestad BK after spending the last six years playing professionally in the Devils, Stars and Kraken organizations. He posted six points in 46 NHL games over the past four seasons and had 44 points in 64 games on assignment to the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds while under contract with Seattle last year.

Metropolitan Notes: Fast, Dube, Keller, Martin

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The Hurricanes still don’t know whether winger Jesper Fast will be available come opening night, says Cory Lavalette of The Athletic. Fast surprisingly missed all of Carolina’s playoff games after a mysterious late-season neck injury left him in a brace that he was still sporting during exit meetings.

Lavalette points out that the 32-year-old is at least out of the brace, which we know thanks to pictures he was spotted during teammate Sebastian Aho’s wedding over the summer. But both the player and team were vague about the nature of his injury at the end of the postseason, and there haven’t been any reports about what specific type of neck injury Fast sustained since.

The Swede had just six goals and 19 points in 73 games last year, his worst offensive output since his rookie campaign with the Rangers 10 years ago. His 12:36 average time on ice was also the lowest since then. He’s still a valuable penalty killer with great skating speed, though, and has one season left on his contract at a $2.4MM cap hit.

If he’s not cleared to play by October, it’ll be a significant boon to the chances of prospects Jackson Blake, Bradly Nadeau and Felix Unger Sörum cracking the opening night roster in his stead.

Other updates from the Metropolitan Division:

  • Capitals prospects Pierrick Dube and Antoine Keller are both getting the call to the French national team for this month’s 2026 Winter Olympics qualifiers, Sammi Silber of The Hockey News relays. Dube, a 23-year-old forward from Lyon, was an undrafted free agent signing by the Caps last summer and made his NHL debut in his first year under contract, posting a +1 rating in three games in a fourth-line role. He had 28 goals and 48 points in 66 games with their AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears, who won their second straight Calder Cup in 2024. He last represented France at a major international tournament at the 2020 Division 1B World Juniors. The 19-year-old Keller, meanwhile, will likely serve as France’s third-string goalie. The 2023 seventh-round pick will make his professional debut next season with Switzerland’s Lausanne HC after spending last year in junior hockey with the QMJHL’s Acadie-Bathurst Titan. France must win a round-robin tournament with Latvia, Slovenia and Ukraine to gain a spot in the next Olympics.
  • Longtime Islanders enforcer Matt Martin remains an unrestricted free agent but is fully intent on returning to the club, he tells Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News. “I’m focused on playing here, first and foremost,” he said. “We’ll see how things unfold.” A reunion would be a reversal from earlier this month when general manager Lou Lamoriello told Ethan Sears of the New York Post that he was unlikely to re-sign Martin or frequent linemate Cal Clutterbuck. Martin has played 823 of his 955 career NHL games in an Isles uniform, racking up 155 points and 985 PIMs. He was a fifth-round pick of the club back in 2008.

East Notes: Slafkovsky, Cernak, Mazur, Savard

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For 12 countries on the fringes of the IIHF World Ranking, their performance in a round-robin tournament at the end of this month will decide whether or not they punch a ticket to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. Slovakia is one of these countries, and after releasing their official roster today, it was confirmed that top Canadiens youngster Juraj Slafkovsky and Lightning stalwart defenseman Erik Černák won’t be in tow as they try to lock down a spot. That’s because Montreal and Tampa Bay opted not to release them to the Slovak national team when asked, reports Tomáš Prokop of Dennik Sport. They’ll still have the services of a few NHLers, namely Devils Simon Nemec and Tomáš Tatar, Capitals defenseman Martin Fehérváry, Ducks winger Pavol Regenda, and potentially Flames forward Martin Pospisil.

Other items from around the Eastern Conference this morning:

  • Of the Red Wings’ long list of potential impact prospects, look for a dark horse to log significant NHL minutes this season, opines The Athletic’s Max Bultman. That’s 22-year-old left winger Carter Mazur, who Detroit selected in the third round of the 2021 draft. Mazur, who won an NCAA championship as a freshman at the University of Denver in 2022, is entering his second professional season. He had a strong rookie campaign with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins last year, totaling 17 goals and 20 assists for 37 points in 60 games, finishing second on the team in scoring behind Jonatan Berggren. Bultman argues that Mazur has a more straightforward path to a roster spot early on in the season because of his projectability in a bottom-six role,
  • When the Maple Leafs gave new head coach Craig Berube some runway to reshape the rest of the coaching staff, he poached Marc Savard from the Flames as an assistant to run the team’s power play with consistency from Toronto’s immense star power in mind. “He’s an offensive guy, right? He scored a lot of points in the league. Great power-play guy when he played,” Berube told reporters (including David Alter of The Hockey News). “Just the familiarity I have with him and his personality works well with those types of players.” Savard served under Berube while the two were with the Blues in the 2019-20 campaign.

Snapshots: Devils, Regenda, Dobson

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The Devils should be one of the early teams active on the PTO front, argues James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now. The Capitals and Lightning were the first teams to ink tryouts for next month’s training camps when Jakub Vrana and Logan Brown agreed to them yesterday.

Cal Clutterbuck, Nick Cousins and Calen Addison were among the players that Nichols identified as speculative targets for the Devils, who could still stand to ink a couple of fringe NHLers to round out their depth chart at all positions. After their offseason spending spree on defense, though, landing some depth help on the wings would likely be a more attractive proposition to general manager Tom Fitzgerald, making Addison a bit of a long shot.

To that end, Cousins stands out as the most intriguing option of the three and the one with the clearest path to a contract should he end up inking a PTO in New Jersey. The 31-year-old is coming off a Stanley Cup win with the Panthers but remains unsigned, recently changing his representation. A versatile bottom-six energy player who can play all three forward positions, Cousins had seven goals and 15 points in 69 games with Florida last year and recorded a career-high 130 hits. He was a relative non-factor in the postseason, though, averaging fewer than nine minutes per contest and only contributing one assist in 12 games.

Other tidbits from around the league:

  • Ducks depth winger Pavol Regenda will represent his native Slovakia in this month’s qualifying tournament for the 2026 Winter Olympics, relays Derek Lee of The Hockey News. An RFA this summer, Anaheim brought back Regenda for his third season with the organization on a two-way deal last month. The 6’3″, 219-lb forward has appeared in 19 NHL games over the past two seasons, recording a goal and two assists. He’s been an impact player for the Ducks’ AHL affiliate, the San Diego Gulls, where he projects to start this season after posting 19 goals and 34 points in 54 games last year. Regenda has firmly cemented himself as a fixture on the Slovakian national team, appearing for them at the last three World Championships. He was also on their roster for the 2022 Olympics, where he helped them to a bronze medal with a goal and three assists in seven games.
  • The bevy of hefty extensions doled out to defensemen this offseason doesn’t bode well for the Islanders being able to squeeze a bargain out of Noah Dobson before he reaches restricted free agency next summer, Matthew Page and Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News write. Dobson, 24, exploded for 60 assists and 70 points in 79 games last year, finishing eighth in Norris Trophy voting. With less offensively-inclined comparables like Brock Faber landing eight-year deals in the $8MM AAV range, the Isles may need to shell out north of $9MM per season to keep Dobson on a long-term deal.

West Notes: Broberg, Pospisil, Abbotsford

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There is no clear outline of how the Edmonton Oilers will approach the offer sheets signed by forward Dylan Holloway and defenseman Philip Broberg earlier this week. Still, some pundits in the media are already theorizing about their futures in St. Louis. Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal reported earlier today that if Broberg were to become a player for the Blues organization eventually, he would supplant Scott Perunovich on the second pairing and play next to Justin Faulk.

The main problem with this hypothesis is that Perunovich has arguably been the better defender over the last two years and has grown as a prospect through the Blues farm system. Perunovich has accrued 23 assists in his first 73 games in the NHL while Broberg has only potted 13 points in total through his first 81 games. Perunovich also appears to be the better defensive player at face value and in the advanced statistics with his 91.2% on-ice save percentage compared to Broberg’s 87.3%. In Broberg’s defense, he has been rarely utilized thus far by Edmonton as he’s only managed to average 12:42 of ice time per game with Perunovich receiving nearly three minutes more on average.

Head coach Drew Bannister should have plenty of flexibility on the blue line even if the Oilers decide to match Broberg’s contract. St. Louis already has nine defensemen signed to one-way contracts for the 2024-25 NHL season; with five being left-handed shots. Broberg would give the Blues a total of 10 one-way contracts on the back end with six left-handed shooting defensemen.

Other West notes:

  • Calgary Flames forward Martin Pospisil is looking to continue his impressive run with Team Slovakia — this time in the 2026 Winter Olympics (Article Link). Later this month, Slovakia will host a three-game round-robin tournament against Austria, Hungary, and Kazakhstan with the winner receiving an automatic bid for the Olympic Games in Milan. The Slovakian Olympic team will likely rely heavily on Pospisil as he is coming off an impressive international tournament earlier this summer. In the 2024 World Championships, Pospisil scored three goals and seven points in seven games and helped Slovakia reach the playoff round for the first time since 2022.
  • The Abbotsford Canucks, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks, made several staff hires today according to a team announcement. The team brought in Harry Mahesh as an assistant coach, Andrew Shaw as a video coach, and Ross MacEluch as an assistant athletic therapist. Mahesh is the most significant hire of the group as he previously served as a development coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs last year.

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