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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.

West Notes: Desharnais, Rossi, Rehkopf

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The Canucks may slot in UFA signing Vincent Desharnais on their top defense pairing alongside Quinn Hughes in spot duty next season, opines Thomas Drance of The Athletic.

Doing so would allow Filip Hronek, who spent all of last season stapled to Hughes and is fresh off signing an eight-year, $58MM deal, to drive his own pairing against easier competition. That’s something head coach Rick Tocchet said he’d consider doing, telling Drance that Hronek can “tend to defer too much” at times when playing with Hughes and that he’d “like to see him be more forceful with his decisions.”

It would be a big jump for Desharnais, though. The 28-year-old only established himself as a full-time NHLer last year with the Oilers. He was a bottom-pairing presence for Edmonton, averaging 15:44 per game through 78 contests. He did post 11 points and a +3 rating with average possession metrics, but playing alongside Hughes with any consistency would be a tough task for a player who’s seen most of his professional career unfold in the AHL to date. Desharnais inked a two-year, $4MM contract with Vancouver when free agency opened on July 1.

There’s more out of the Western Conference:

  • Austria will be without perhaps its best player in this summer’s qualifying tournament for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Wild forward Marco Rossi is skipping the event to begin training in Minnesota later this month, notes Michael Russo of The Athletic. Rossi, 22, is coming off a career-high 21 goals and 40 points last season while playing in all 82 games and could open the season as the Wild’s first-line center alongside Kirill Kaprizov. The 2020 ninth-overall pick had one assist in three games during the 2022 qualifiers with Austria failing to earn one of the three available spots. This year, they’ll be competing for one of the open spots in a round-robin tournament with Hungary, Kazakhstan and Slovakia.
  • Kraken prospect Carson Rehkopf has been traded in the Ontario Hockey League, heading from the Kitchener Rangers to the Brampton Steelheads, sources tell Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News. Rehkopf, 19, has spent the last three seasons in Kitchener, where the 6’2″ forward led the team in scoring last season with 95 points (52 goals, 43 assists) in 60 games. The 2023 second-round pick will be returned to Brampton out of training camp this fall, but a strong post-draft season puts him in line to compete for a roster spot in Seattle in next year’s training camp.

Morning Notes: Teplý, Swayman, Red Wings, Utah

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Czech Extraliga side HC Oceláři Třinec announced the signing of a trio of players, one of which is former Blackhawks winger prospect Michal Teplý. The 23-year-old was a fourth-round pick of the Hawks in 2019 and signed his entry-level contract the following summer, but became a UFA on July 1 this year after not receiving a qualifying offer.

Teplý was drafted out of his native Czechia but landed his rookie deal with Chicago after coming to North America for his post-draft season, spending 2019-20 in juniors with the Western Hockey League’s Winnipeg Ice, where he finished second in scoring with 63 points in 53 games. Aside from a brief loan back to Czechia during the pandemic, Teplý spent the following four seasons in the pros with AHL Rockford, where he accumulated 34 goals, 57 assists and 91 points with a -29 rating in 206 games. It was solid production but not enough to get the 6’3″, 187-lb winger an NHL call-up.

He heads to a Třinec club that’s one of the most successful in Europe, coming off five consecutive Extraliga championships (not including 2020, when their playoffs were canceled). It’s a three-year deal for Teplý in his home country, Elite Prospects reports. A strong stint with one of the best teams in Europe could land him NHL consideration on the international free-agent market if he wants to make a return to North America when his contract expires in 2027.

More notes from around the hockey world this morning:

  • There are only four notable RFA goalies who remain without a contract for next season, the most consequential of which is newly-undisputed Bruins starter Jeremy Swayman. In a mailbag published early Wednesday, NHL.com’s Dan Rosen posits Swayman could land north of $9MM per season when a deal eventually comes across the finish line. Swayman, 25, notably didn’t elect for salary arbitration this summer despite being eligible to do so. He spent last season on a one-year, $3.475MM pact that was awarded via an arbitrator. He’s coming off a career-best 43 starts and 25 wins in 2023-24, supplementing it with a strong .916 SV% and 2.53 GAA.
  • Red Wings fans are warranted in their concern between the pipes next season, writes Jesse Granger, Sean McIndoe and Scott Wheeler at The Athletic. Detroit’s current goaltending situation checks in as the worst in the league in their ranking of NHL goaltending outlooks, with Granger believing there’s strong regression potential for journeyman Cam Talbot, who’s projected to be their opening night starter after bouncing back with a .913 SV% and 27-20-6 record in 54 appearances for the Kings last season. An injury-plagued Ville Husso, average but inexperienced AHL veteran Alex Lyon and reclamation project Jack Campbell don’t do a ton to inspire confidence, either. But no team has as much dichotomy between the present and future as Wheeler labels Detroit as having the best goalie prospect pool in the league, led by a pair of projected future starters in Trey Augustine and Sebastian Cossa.
  • If the NHL continues to send its players to the Winter Olympics, they’ll have it on home turf in 2034. As expected, the International Olympic Committee officially awarded the Games to Salt Lake City today. While the Utah Hockey Club will play at the existing Delta Center in its first season, shared with the NBA’s Utah Jazz, there is momentum for building a new arena district downtown in advance of the Olympics that would serve as a new home for both the NBA and NHL clubs while likely serving as a host venue for the hockey portion of the Games.

Hockey Canada Adds Julien BriseBois, Kyle Dubas For 4 Nations Face-Off, Olympics

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Hockey Canada has added Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois and Penguins GM Kyle Dubas to its management group for both the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and 2026 Winter Olympics, they announced today. BriseBois will serve as an assistant GM, while Dubas will serve as director of player personnel.

For the 4 Nations Face-Off next February, BriseBois and Dubas round out a management group that already includes Bruins GM Don Sweeney and Stars GM Jim Nill, the latter of whom is serving as an associate under Sweeney. The following year, they’ll join Nill and Sweeney for the Olympics, who are serving as assistant GMs under Blues GM Doug Armstrong for the event.

BriseBois, 47, receives his first call to the Canadian national team in any capacity. The longtime Lightning exec has served as Tampa’s GM since 2018, meaning he was at the helm for both of their Stanley Cup wins in 2020 and 2021. Before taking over the top hockey ops position, he’d served as an assistant GM in Tampa while managing their AHL affiliate from 2010 to 2018. His first job in the NHL came with the Canadiens, where he served as their director of hockey operations and later VP of hockey operations from 2003 to 2010 under GM Bob Gainey.

Dubas, 38, is also inexperienced on the international stage, but he does have one tournament under his belt as an assistant GM. He was part of the Canadian front office at the 2024 World Championship, building a squad that reached the bronze medal game but lost to Sweden. It was Canada’s first time without a medal at the Worlds since 2018.

The Ontario native is coming off his first season as GM and president of hockey operations of the Penguins. Before that, he’d served in the Maple Leafs front office since 2014, first as an assistant GM before taking over the top job in 2018.

Canada Names Jon Cooper Head Coach For 4 Nations Face-Off, Winter Olympics

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Hockey Canada has announced two-time Stanley Cup champion coach Jon Cooper as its bench boss for both the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and 2026 Winter Olympics.

Cooper, 56, will enter his 13th season behind the Lightning bench in the fall. The longest-serving head coach in the league will return to the international stage for the first time since 2017 when he coached Canada at the World Championship. He also assisted for Team North America at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

The future Hall-of-Fame coach has been one of many affected by the NHL’s lack of participation in international events for the last decade, leading to a surprising lack of accolades for Canada on the world stage. A British Columbia native, Cooper has also routinely led the Lightning deep into postseason play, including three straight Stanley Cup Final appearances from 2020 to 2022. That’s hampered his availability to serve on the Canadian bench for less star-studded tournaments like the World Championship.

In his lone showing for Canada internationally, Cooper led a Canadian roster led by Nathan MacKinnon, Mitch Marner and Ryan O’Reilly to a silver medal at the Worlds. It was their third straight year making the gold medal game after back-to-back wins in 2015 and 2016, but they lost to a Sweden contingent led by Henrik Lundqvist and William Nylander.

Canada hasn’t filled out the rest of their coaching staff for the upcoming tournaments, although those announcements should come before the end of the year. Their first six players for the inaugural 4 Nations tournament, which takes place in February 2025, will be announced this week. They do have their management group in place, though. Blues GM Doug Armstrong will be their principal hockey ops decision-maker for the upcoming best-on-best events, with the Bruins’ Don Sweeney and the Stars’ Jim Nill serving as his assistants.

Ivan Fedotov Suspended From International Play For 3 Years

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The International Ice Hockey Federation has levied sanctions against Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Ivan Fedotov, KHL club CSKA Moskva, and the Russian Ice Hockey Federation for disregarding Fedotov’s 2022 entry-level contract, shares Jonathan Bailey of Philadelphia Hockey Now. Fedotov signed the deal in May of 2022, attempting to join the Flyers ahead of the 2022-23 season. But he was detained by Russian authorities when trying to leave the country, and forced to serve one calendar year of military service. The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz reported that this service came on an aircraft carrier in the Murmansk region, far from the front lines.

He went on to sign a two-year KHL contract with CSKA this season, warranting the sanctions. The official punishments, per an IIHF statement, are as follows:

  • Ivan Fedotov is suspended from playing in any IIHF competitions, including the Olympic Games, for the next three years.
  • Ivan Fedotov will receive a six-month suspension from playing at the club level, should he leave the Flyers to play for an international club.
  • CSKA will be banned from making international transfers for two years, beginning on August 11, 2024 and ending on August 10, 2026.
  • The Russian Ice Hockey Federation has been assessed a fine of $1MM Swiss Francs.

In search of any silver lining, Fedotov can at least be happy with his closing performance in Russia. He recorded 21 wins and a .914 save percentage across 44 games, adding a .916 in five postseason appearances. CSKA terminated his deal following the end of the season, allowing him to move to Philadelphia one year early. Fedotov made that move just before the end of the Flyers season, slotting into the first three NHL games of his career and saving 43 of the 53 shots he faced.

Fedotov stamped his spot in Russian hockey during the 2021-22 season, leading CSKA to the Gagarin Cup and Team Russia to a Silver Medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics. He posted dazzling stats throughout, setting a .919 save percentage in 26 KHL games and a .943 in six Olympic appearances. While a future Russian Olympics roster would likely turn towards NHL stars Andrei Vasilevskiy or Igor Shesterkin, Fedotov would undoubtedly be on the shortlist of final options.

Team USA Fills Out Management Group For 4 Nations, 2026 Olympics

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USA Hockey has announced the remainder of the management group that will complement Wild GM Bill Guerin for next season’s 4 Nations Face-Off and the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. Rangers GM Chris Drury, Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald and Panthers GM Bill Zito have been named assistant GMs to Guerin. Wild director of player personnel Chris Kelleher will occupy the same role for the national team as he does under Guerin in Minnesota.

Guerin was confirmed as the GM of both squads in February. Earlier this season, he was reportedly the subject of an internal investigation “following a human resources complaint by an employee who alleged verbal abuse in the workplace,” per The Athletic’s Michael Russo. The investigation later determined he did not commit a fireable offense.

This is Drury’s fifth time holding a management role with Team USA. All his previous national team managerial experience came at the World Championship, where he served as AGM in 2016 and 2017 and GM in 2019 and 2021. Drury-managed teams have only medalled once, capturing a bronze medal in ’21.

As a player, he was no stranger to helping out the national team. In fact, he was quite well-decorated internationally, representing the USA at three Olympics (2002, 2006, 2010), three World Championships (1997, 1998, 2004), and the 1996 World Juniors. He took home two Olympic silvers and one Worlds bronze in that time and was eventually inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2016, shortly after taking a director of player development role with the Rangers. He was promoted to AGM and later GM and president of hockey operations ahead of the 2021-22 season.

This is Fitzgerald’s first managerial experience with the national team. He’s held front-office roles in the NHL dating back to 2007 and was named GM of the Devils midway through the 2019-20 season. As a player, he suited up for Team USA at the 1987 World Juniors and in the 1989 and 1991 World Championships.

Zito returns to managing Team USA after GMing their World Championship squad in 2018, back when he was an AGM for the Blue Jackets. It’s his first national team nod since being named GM of the Panthers in 2020, since overseeing the most sustained period of success in franchise history.

Like Fitzgerald, the 49-year-old Kelleher has no international managerial experience, although he did have a cup of coffee as a player with Team USA at the 1995 World Juniors. He predates Guerin with the Wild by a decade, first joining Minnesota as a pro scout in 2009. He’s steadily worked his way up the ranks, earning a promotion to director of pro scouting in 2019 before being named their director of player personnel in 2022.

Doug Armstrong Named Canada GM For 2026 Winter Olympics

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Hockey Canada has named St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong as General Manager for the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy. Other announced roles include Ryan Getzlaf as the Player Relations Advisor, Scott Salmond as Senior Vice-President of High Performance and Hockey Operations, Katherine Henderson as President and CEO, and Pat McLaughlin as COO and Executive Vice-President of Strategy.

Armstrong has become a key piece of Canada’s representation overseas. He’s been a part of two other Olympic Games, both in an assistant general manager capacity, and seven different World Championship or World Cup tournaments. Canada has won big under his leadership, with Armstrong boasting two Olympic gold medals and three World Championship gold medals. He’ll now get a chance to field what may be one of the best Canadian teams of all time, with the end of Sidney Crosby’s career, the prime of Connor McDavid’s career, and the start of Connor Bedard’s career all lining up perfectly. The team could also bring star defenseman Cale Makar, if the restrictions placed on members of Canada’s 2018 World Juniors Championship team are lifted before 2026.

One question that Armstrong will face is who the proper goaltender for Team Canada really is. His appointment is great news for Jordan Binnington, who served as a pivotal piece of Armstrong’s sole Stanley Cup win and continues to thrive in St. Louis. But Binnington isn’t the best Canadian goaltender on paper, with Vegas’ Adin Hill also championing his team to a Stanley Cup and consistently fighting for the NHL’s lead in save percentage, when he’s healthy. There’s also 25-year-old Stuart Skinner, who emphatically claimed an NHL starting role last season and has since posted 59 wins and a .911 in 98 games. Skinner hasn’t found his way into any hardware yet, but could offer a stronger impact when the Olympics role around in two years. With Team USA boasting Connor Hellebuyck and Jeremy Swayman, and Russia likely to bring Igor Shesterkin or Ilya Sorokin if they participate, Team Canada will need to make sure they’re as strong in net as they will be everywhere else. Those decisions will now be left up to one of the NHL’s longest-tenured general managers in Doug Armstrong.

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