Pittsburgh Penguins Acquire Erik Karlsson In Three-Team Deal
The Erik Karlsson trade saga is finally over. The Pittsburgh Penguins have acquired the 2023 Norris Trophy winner from the San Jose Sharks, according to Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the Montreal Canadiens are involved in the trade to aid in salary considerations. Pittsburgh later officially announced the massive deal, which includes 12 parts and breaks down as follows:
PIT receives: D Erik Karlsson, F Rem Pitlick, F Dillion Hamaliuk, 2026 third-round pick (SJS)
SJS receives: 2024 first-round pick (PIT, top-ten protected), F Mikael Granlund, D Jan Rutta, F Mike Hoffman
MTL receives: 2025 second-round pick (PIT), D Jeff Petry, G Casey DeSmith, F Nathan Legare
San Jose is retaining $1.5MM of Karlsson’s $11.5MM cap hit through 2026-27. Montreal is retaining no salary on Karlsson in this trade, meaning the Penguins have Karlsson at a massive $10MM cap hit for four more seasons. Pittsburgh also retains $1.5625MM, or 25%, of Petry’s cap hit. Montreal will have him at a cap hit of $4.6875MM through 2025.
Sportsnet’s Eric Engels also believes Montreal is not Petry’s final destination. The Canadiens are likely to flip their former number-one defenseman before next season starts, potentially retaining up to 50 percent on his already reduced cap hit, making him cost just $2.34MM against the cap for his new team.
Pittsburgh has a net cap hit loss of $3.1MM in this trade, per CapFriendly. By doing so, they’ll likely be able to activate Jake Guentzel and his $6MM cap hit from LTIR when he’s ready to return to the ice in November without making any corresponding moves. CapFriendly projected Pittsburgh with $2.75MM in cap space, with Guentzel on LTIR to start the season.
Karlsson, 33, ended an up-and-down five-year stint with the Sharks on a high note. Despite playing on a bottom-five team in the league, Karlsson’s 101 points in 82 games were the most from a defenseman in a single season since Brian Leetch in 1991-92. Once viewed as the best defenseman in the NHL during his time with the Ottawa Senators in the mid-2010s, the Sharks acquired him in a blockbuster deal in 2018 and later extended him on a massive eight-year, $92MM contract, giving him the highest cap hit in the league among defensemen.
However, it was a decision that failed to pan out the way San Jose envisioned, as Karlsson struggled with injuries during most of his time in California. To make matters worse, the team around him also crumbled as the Sharks fell out of yearly playoff contention for the first time this millennium.
Pittsburgh hopes Karlsson’s turnaround last season has given him renewed confidence heading into the latter half of his contract – assuming his recent injury history doesn’t come back to bite him. 2022-23 was the first time Karlsson had played in 70-plus games since 2017-18, his last season with the Senators.
Many will be concerned with Karlsson’s defensive misgivings, but some slightly reduced ice time in Pittsburgh should lessen his negative impact on the team’s goals-against total. Likely to slot in on the team’s second pairing behind Kris Letang, Karlsson should be paired with either Marcus Pettersson or free-agent acquisition Ryan Graves on the left side, both players with strong defensive reputations. Advanced metrics peg Pettersson near the top of the league in terms of his individual even strength defensive impact.
Pitlick could be an under-the-radar add for Pittsburgh in this deal from Montreal. While he’s far from being a long-term fixture, he is on the younger side (in Pittsburgh, at least) at 26 years old and will add some higher-upside depth scoring to a Penguins lineup that needs it, especially with Guentzel on the shelf to start the year. In 2021-22, Pitlick notched 15 goals, 22 assists and 37 points in 66 games split between the Canadiens and Minnesota Wild. He’s struggled to develop an all-around game at the NHL level, though, and he’s more of a finishing and playmaking specialist than anything else. His overall play-driving impacts are poor, and it led to Montreal stashing him in the minors for a fair bit of last season. There, he registered 22 points in 18 games with the AHL’s Laval Rocket.
Hamaliuk, 22, once had a fair bit of upside – after all, San Jose thought he warranted a second-round selection in the 2019 NHL Draft. Injuries and middling performance since turning pro have wiped out nearly all of his stock, though. He played in just six games last season, all in the ECHL with the Wichita Thunder, although he did look good in limited action with seven points. The Penguins will likely watch him closely in the minors with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins next season to see if he can recapture some of his former potential.
For the Sharks, trading Karlsson while only retaining $1.5MM is a solid bit of work for general manager Mike Grier. However, the return is rather underwhelming – a likely mid-first-round pick and a trio of depth NHL assets that won’t amount to much value for a rebuilding team. They’ve essentially taken on two bad contracts and a depth defender to rid themselves of long-term financial pain, as despite his elite skill, Karlsson absolutely did not factor into the franchise’s long-term plans post-rebuild.
The trade does provide a fresh start for Granlund, a former top-six fixture who struggled mightily after heading to the Penguins from the Nashville Predators at last year’s trade deadline (just five points in 21 games). He is just one campaign removed from a 64-point season, however, and although his possession metrics are quite poor, he does still carry a fair amount of raw skill that could see him once again elevate into a top-six role on a weak Sharks team, potentially playing alongside Alexander Barabanov and Logan Couture. With two seasons left at a $5MM cap hit, the Sharks could look to flip him at the 2024 trade deadline if he has a strong season, likely with significant salary retention. However, as CapFriendly notes, San Jose has just one of their three salary retention slots remaining for the next two seasons after also retaining salary on Brent Burns when they traded him to the Carolina Hurricanes last summer. In total, the Sharks are left with $7.745MM in dead cap space this year after the two salary retentions, plus the buyouts of goalie Martin Jones and forward Rudolfs Balcers.
Rutta is under contract at $2.75MM for two more seasons, and he’ll likely give the Sharks a fair amount of value. The two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Tampa Bay Lightning could very well step into a top-four role for the Sharks, who will likely roll three pairings by committee this season in the absence of a clear number-one defender. Rutta recorded nine points in 56 games for the Penguins last season, his only season in the Steel City while averaging 17:07 of ice time per game. Pittsburgh signed the 33-year-old to a three-year, $8.25MM contract in free agency last summer.
Clearing Hoffman’s $4.5MM cap hit for this season off the books is a solid bit of business for the Canadiens, who were rumored to be considering waiving Hoffman ahead of next season and assigning him to the AHL’s Laval Rocket. There’s no guarantee he’ll be able to escape the same fate with San Jose, however. The Sharks will undoubtedly prioritize roster spots for younger wingers like William Eklund, Filip Zadina and Fabian Zetterlund, leaving Hoffman without a clear place among the Sharks’ top 12 forwards. Now 33, Hoffman did manage 14 goals and 34 points in 67 games for Montreal last year, but he ranks among the worst play-driving forwards in the league and is solely a power-play specialist at this stage in his career. Some will remember this is technically Hoffman’s second stint as a member of the Sharks organization – San Jose acquired him from Ottawa for a few hours in 2018 before flipping him to the Florida Panthers.
Now, moving on to Montreal, who became an unexpected major player in this deal. Petry may not remain with his former team, as mentioned earlier, and DeSmith may not either. He’s a puzzling addition for a team that already has Sam Montembeault and Jake Allen manning the crease, although Pittsburgh did need to move out a goalie after signing Alex Nedeljkovic in free agency, giving them three NHL goalies on their roster. However, Montreal now faces the same predicament, and DeSmith is unlikely to supersede Allen or Montembeault on the team’s depth chart. If they don’t flip him to another team looking for a backup netminder, DeSmith could be waived to start the season and end up with Laval. He started a career-high 33 games for Pittsburgh last season, and the 31-year-old recorded a 15-16-4 record, .905 save percentage, and no shutouts.
Legare is a depth addition who will suit up for Laval next season. The 22-year-old third-round pick of the Penguins in 2019 is still finding his footing in the minors. Last season, he posted eight goals, 11 assists and 19 points in 68 games with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Penguins, Sharks Getting Closer To Erik Karlsson Trade
With the window for the Pittsburgh Penguins to clear cap space via a buyout closing today, rumors around the team closing a deal that would bring all-world defenseman Erik Karlsson to Pennsylvania are continuing to heat up. The team is making a “legit attempt” to get a trade done today, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet says. Friedman expects a third team to be involved in the transaction to help facilitate any salary cap issues.
During a TV appearance on NHL Network earlier this week, Friedman said that “clarity” could come on a Karlsson trade as soon as this weekend. Considering the general reporting on Karlsson has focused significantly on the Penguins over the past few weeks, it’s beginning to seem like an eventuality that a deal will get done, even if the teams involved can’t iron out all the details today. Karlsson acknowledged that the Seattle Kraken and Toronto Maple Leafs were also in trade talks with San Jose last month. At the same time, the Carolina Hurricanes were widely believed to be in discussions to acquire this year’s Norris Trophy winner.
However, there’s still no indication of what the final trade will look like. Undoubtedly, it’ll become quite a complex deal with multiple salary cap-related maneuvers necessary. Even with winger Jake Guentzel projected to start the season on LTIR, CapFriendly projects the Penguins with just over $2.75MM in cap space, making it a tight fit for Pittsburgh even if they buy out Mikael Granlund today or move him to the Sharks in the final trade. San Jose has expressed unwillingness to retain significant salary in the deal, meaning Pittsburgh will likely have to pay an extra draft pick to a third team to retain additional cash, as Friedman alluded to today. The Penguins will also need to find the cap room to activate Guentzel about a month into the season when he’s slated to return.
Acquiring Karlsson would, at the moment, give Pittsburgh one of the most offensively potent right-side defenses in the league with Karlsson, Kris Letang and Jeff Petry. Petry is not expected to be involved in the pending trade, with previous reports indicating the Sharks are on his 15-team no-trade list. It’ll also be one of the most expensive right sides in the league, with Letang and Petry already costing a combined $12.35MM against the cap.
As a reminder, Karlsson is under contract for four more seasons at an $11.5MM cap hit. The Sharks and a third team are expected to retain at least a combined $3.5MM to bring Karlsson’s cap hit in Pittsburgh down to $8MM or less.
Morning Notes: Hlinka Gretzky, Buyout Windows, Barbashev
The Hlinka Gretzky Cup is often a short and sweet tournament, and this year’s was no exception. In this season’s first major showcase for the 2024 NHL Draft Class, Canada’s U18 contingent won their second straight gold medal by defeating Czechia in overtime yesterday thanks to a rather brilliant effort from forward Malcolm Spence of the OHL’s Erie Otters, who’s still just 16 years old and won’t be NHL draft-eligible until 2025.
While Canadian forward and presumptive 2024 first-overall pick Macklin Celebrini wasn’t with the team at this event, perhaps their second-best draft-eligible talent next season was – forward Berkly Catton of the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs. Projected by some to be a top-five selection, he didn’t disappoint, leading the Canadian contingent with ten points in five games at the tournament. Another likely top-ten pick, defenseman Henry Mews, did quite well, leading Canadian defensemen in scoring with seven points. For the silver medal-winning Czechs, 2025-eligible center Adam Benák was undoubtedly the star of the show, recording two goals and eight assists for ten points in all five games. Potential 2024 first-round selection Adam Titlbach, who’s set to join the WHL’s Vancouver Giants this season, led the team in goal-scoring with five goals and three assists for eight points. The United States took home the bronze medal at the tournament led by 2024-eligible forward Trevor Connelly, who notched five goals and five assists for ten points.
Other notes from around the hockey world to kick off this Sunday in August:
- After settling their final arbitration cases with Drew O’Connor and Troy Terry, the second buyout window this offseason for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Anaheim Ducks closes today, respectively. While the Ducks are extremely unlikely to utilize a buyout at this point in the offseason, Pittsburgh will be a team to watch today. As covered at length this week, the team’s salary cap situation is being kept a close eye on by almost everyone as the team closes in on trying to acquire defenseman Erik Karlsson from the San Jose Sharks. Their most likely buyout candidate is 2023 trade deadline acquisition Mikael Granlund, who’s locked in for this season and next at a $5MM cap hit and had just five points in 21 games with Pittsburgh after arriving from the Nashville Predators. Per CapFriendly, a Granlund buyout would provide the Penguins with over $4.1MM in savings this season.
- The QMJHL’s Shawinigan Cataractes acquired New York Rangers forward prospect Maxim Barbashev from the Moncton Wildcats via trade earlier this month, according to the league. The Rangers selected the Moscow-born left wing in the fifth round of the 2022 Draft, and he went on to have a rather strong campaign in 2022-23 with 32 goals, 33 assists and 65 points in 67 games with Moncton. All those numbers were career highs. He joins Los Angeles Kings defense prospect Angus Booth as the second NHL-drafted prospect on the Cataractes in 2023-24.
Looking At The Buffalo Sabres’ Defense Crunch
Even though the Buffalo Sabres signed some much-needed defensemen as the off-season started, they now face a problem: having too many of them. With the signing of Erik Johnson and Connor Clifton, they now have nine defensemen on their active roster and twenty-four players.
Those two signings make sense, as the team has struggled with their defense depth for some time. However, Don Granato and their coaching staff have a few hard decisions to make as the new season approaches. There are a few reasonable options to send down to the AHL or trade entirely. One of them is an obvious choice, as The Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski commented on earlier in the week.
Jacob Bryson played 59 games last year, most of those paired with Ilya Lyubushkin. He missed six games with injuries and was healthy scratched for 17 throughout the year. His stats don’t make his case any better. In the games he did play, his advanced metrics are not the best. In addition to being scratched a lot, Bryson averaged less than 15 minutes a night – weak minutes, even for a bottom-pairing defender. On a team that needed their defense to step up, Granato didn’t seem too impressed with the 25-year-old, and neither were most Sabres fans.
When compared with his fellow defensemen, it becomes clear that Bryson is the best option to leave out. Mattias Samuelsson will be healthy to start the year, Clifton and Johnson were signed to help in the back end, Power and Dahlin are set to take another step forward, and there isn’t much space to be average among a quickly growing Sabres core.
Another player that the Sabres could consider sending down or trying to trade is Henri Jokiharju, who also didn’t have a great season in 2022-23. His advanced metrics were slightly better than Bryson’s, and Granato played him in the top four with Power for the majority of the season. The pairing didn’t pass with flying colors, though, and it’s likely a driving reason why they signed Clifton. With that said, Jokiharju did play over 20 minutes a night – something Clifton hasn’t done to date with the Bruins, and there’s no guarantee he’ll be able to replicate his strong play from last year with increased responsibility.
The team could also look to waive Riley Stillman, who has one year left at a $1.35MM cap hit and is, from a financial standpoint, the easiest player to cut ties with. His cap hit is just $200K over the buriable threshold, which is what he would cost against the cap if assigned to the minors. The team parted with a quality prospect in Josh Bloom to acquire him from the Vancouver Canucks last season, however, and he did hold his own defensively in Buffalo’s environment. He does carry a rather limited offensive upside, but he may be a more ideal seventh (or eighth) defenseman candidate than others mentioned in this piece.
With last season’s arrival of Owen Power and the signing of Lyubushkin, Bryson needed to impress to keep his job, and he failed to do so. Now, the team has signed substitutes for him, and he has become replaceable. Likely, the stars need to align for him to get a spot on the team when the new season starts.
Flyers Sign Samuel Ersson To Two-Year Extension
6:42 pm: CapFriendly has learned the details of Ersson’s two-year extension. The young netminder will earn $1MM in base salary plus a $300K signing bonus in 2024-25, while he’ll get $1.6MM in base salary with no bonuses in 2025-26.
9:37 am: The Flyers have locked up one of their goalies of the future, announcing that they’ve signed Samuel Ersson to a two-year contract extension that runs through the 2025-26 season. The extension will carry a cap hit of $1.45MM.
The 23-year-old made his NHL debut in 2022-23, getting into a dozen games with Philadelphia where he certainly held his own, posting a 3.07 GAA along with a .899 SV%. He became just the second goalie in franchise history to win his first six decisions. Ersson spent most of the year at the AHL level with Lehigh Valley where he put up a 2.84 GAA and a .900 SV% in 42 appearances, finishing sixth league-wide in minutes played (2,511) and victories (24).
A fifth-round pick of the Flyers back in 2018 (143rd overall), Ersson still has one year remaining on his entry-level contract, a deal that carries an AAV of $925K.
With the Flyers acquiring Cal Petersen and still having Felix Sandstrom in the fold (plus the ongoing Ivan Fedotov saga as the team tries to get the IIHF to recognize his tolled contract), it seemed like Ersson, who is still waiver-exempt, was a strong candidate to go back to the Phantoms next season. That way, he’d have an opportunity to play the bulk of the games once again.
On the surface, this contract implies otherwise. For the Flyers to commit two years at $1.45MM on a one-way deal to Ersson a year early, it’s reasonable to infer that they expect him to see a reasonable amount of NHL action next season. If not, it probably wouldn’t have cost them this much to sign Ersson a year from now. As a result, he might not just be a goalie of the future for Philadelphia but one of their goalies of the present as well.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Metropolitan Notes: Johnston, Nosek, Penguins
It is unlikely forward Ross Johnston remains on the New York Islanders’ NHL roster for the entire upcoming season, according to Kevin Kurz of The Athletic. Despite acknowledging Johnston’s dedication, demeanor and other positive off-ice intangibles, Kurz argues carrying an enforcer with limited playing time is not practical in today’s league. The expectation is the team will either try to trade Johnston before or during training camp or reassign him to the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders to free up cap space.
The Islanders made Johnston one of the most oft-healthy scratched players in the league in 2022-23, only playing him in 16 out of a possible 88 combined regular-season and playoff games. Johnston did not have any sustained injuries or suspensions on record last season, nor was he ever assigned to the minors for conditioning purposes or otherwise. He posted two assists and 37 penalty minutes in 7:48 of ice time per game, and moving him will be a tough sell with three years remaining at a $1.1MM cap hit. In seven seasons as an Islander, Johnston has suited up in just 134 games despite being given 11 total contract years from the team.
Elsewhere in the Metropolitan Division tonight:
- Czech forward Tomas Nosek expressed his desire to stay with the Boston Bruins after a successful season, but they showed little interest in re-signing him. However, a phone call from Czech legend Patrik Elias convinced him to join the New Jersey Devils on a one-year, one-way deal worth $1MM, notes Ryan Novozinsky of NJ.com. Nosek’s decision was influenced by Elias’ praise for the Devils and their potential to compete for the Stanley Cup, telling Novozinsky the call from Elias “made a positive impact on my decision.” Now with almost 400 NHL games under his belt, Nosek aims to continue his personal six-year playoff streak with the Devils and will likely factor in heavily on their penalty kill while playing a fourth-line center role, as he’s done with success in recent years for the Bruins and Vegas Golden Knights.
- The Pittsburgh Penguins have brought in Cam Charron as a hockey research and development analyst, according to the team’s staff listing on their website. It’s yet another add for the Penguins from general manager Kyle Dubas’ former regime in Toronto, where Charron served as an analyst from 2014 to 2022. Based in Vancouver, Charron took his year off last season to enter the media sphere, serving as a contributor for The Athletic.
Minor Transactions: 08/05/23
While there hasn’t been much activity on the transactions front around the NHL in recent days, there continues to be activity at other levels. Here’s a rundown of some of the recent activity around the hockey world:
- Defenseman Tommy Cross announced his retirement, his AHL team in Springfield announced (Twitter link). The 33-year-old was limited to just 18 games last season due to injury. Cross, a former Boston prospect, hangs up his skates with nearly 600 appearances in the AHL while also getting into a total of four NHL contests, including one playoff game.
- Former NHL center Roman Cervenka has inked a one-year extension with Rapperswil-Jona in Switzerland, per a team release. The 37-year-old had 17 points in 39 games with Calgary a decade ago but opted to return to playing overseas the following season. Cervenka led the NL in scoring in 2022-23, notching 16 goals and 43 assists in just 43 contests.
- Former Coyotes prospect Alexander Ruuttu is on the move as Krefeld in Germany announced that they’ve signed the forward to a one-year contract. Ruuttu was a second-round pick by Arizona back in 2011 (51st overall) but never signed an NHL deal. Instead, he has spent the majority of his career in Finland and had six goals and two assists with Assat in the top division last season.
This post will be updated throughout the day.
Pacific Notes: Karlsson, Kraken, Oilers
Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson has made it known he’d like to move to a team that has an eye on winning now. But with four years left on his contract at a cap hit of $11.5MM, a trade is proving to be difficult to do. In his latest piece for NBC Sports Bay Area, Sheng Peng examines another possibility for both sides, a mutual contract termination. He’d be walking away from the remaining $39MM in salary but coming off a Norris Trophy-winning season, it stands to reason he could get a big chunk of that back over the next several seasons with a team that’s more of his choosing. On the flip side, the Sharks wouldn’t get anything in return but would save a significant amount of cash that they’d otherwise be retaining to help facilitate a move. It’s not the likeliest of options at this point but if a viable trade fails to materialize, perhaps it’s an option that is considered at some point.
More from the Pacific:
- Seattle is one of the teams where the backup goalie is not yet set in stone for next season with veteran Chris Driedger set to battle the recently re-signed Joey Daccord for the spot. Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times suggests that the Kraken would be better off with Daccord in the second-string position from an organizational depth perspective since there’s much less of a risk of Driedger and his $3.5MM AAV being claimed than it is for Daccord and his $1.2MM price tag. Daccord was the better of the two goalies with AHL Coachella Valley last season but Driedger’s NHL career numbers (2.45 GAA, .917 SV% in 65 games) are certainly better than Daccord’s (3.64 GAA, .884 SV% in 19 appearances).
- Even with the salary cap expected to rise faster starting in 2024-25, it will certainly be difficult for the Oilers to keep both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in the fold. Postmedia’s David Staples posits that both middlemen – who could conceivably command the maximum 20% of the cap on their next contracts if they looked to get top dollar – might have to settle for something in the 14% range which, depending on how much the cap moves, could put their contracts both in the $12.5MM territory which is what McDavid is currently making. Can a team with two deals at that price point still have enough depth to seriously contend? That’s a question Edmonton certainly hopes they’ll have a chance to answer. Draisaitl is signed for two more years while McDavid is under contract for three more seasons.
Coyotes Nearing Extension With Andre Tourigny
There has been mutual interest between the Coyotes and head coach Andre Tourigny about a possible contract extension. It appears that the deal is basically in place as PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan reports (video link) that both the term and money of an extension have been agreed upon. At this point, the delay in announcing is tied to Tourigny’s desire to get his assistant coaches new deals as well.
Those assistants would be John Madden and Mario Duhamel along with goalie coach Corey Schwab. Blaine Forsythe is also a part of Tourigny’s staff for the upcoming season but he was hired less than a month ago so his contract has already been taken care of.
The 49-year-old has been the bench boss for Arizona for the past two years and while his 53-90-21 record isn’t particularly exciting on the surface, the Coyotes are certainly in the middle of a rebuild. To their credit, they’ve been a fairly competitive squad most nights in spite of the fact they haven’t iced the more talented team in many of them. Tourigny has received plenty of praise for how his team has performed while establishing a positive team culture which helped entice veterans Nick Bjugstad and Troy Stecher to return after being moved as rental players at the trade deadline.
Tourigny is already under contract for the upcoming season so there is no immediate rush to get something done. However, Morgan suggests that everything should be in place before the Coyotes travel to Australia to take on Los Angeles in a pair of exhibition games later this month.
Best Of The Rest: What’s Left In Unrestricted Free Agency
After the usual flurry of early-July activity, things have settled down on the transaction front as it often does at this time of year. That presents an opportunity to take a closer look at who’s left on the unrestricted free agent market.
There are just six players that remain unsigned from our original Top 50 list back in June. That number dips to five when you consider that David Krejci is one of the six and he’s expected to retire in the near future. However, there have been some newcomers to the open market in the form of non-tenders while several long-time veterans remain unsigned as well.
Below is our Top 20 Best Of The Rest. Rankings are based on our original Top 50 voting results with some non-tendered players who were still with their old teams at the time of our vote back in June being slotted in based on their respective situations.
1) Patrick Kane – Originally ranked second on our Top 50 list, his presence here shouldn’t be considered a surprise. After undergoing hip surgery following the playoffs, he won’t be ready to start the season and his camp has indicated that he’ll wait until he’s ready to return before signing, giving the 34-year-old a chance to assess who the early contenders will be. One team will be getting an intriguing addition to add to their playoff push – likely on a one-year deal – but we’ll be waiting a while to find out who it will be.
2) Mathew Dumba – Our 18th-ranked player before free agency opened up, the 29-year-old hasn’t had much luck on a couple of fronts. The pricey long-term deals have been few and far between this summer and it feels like his situation is on hold until Erik Karlsson’s situation gets resolved. A contender for Karlsson that doesn’t land him could turn around and make a push for Dumba while the blueliner has been linked to Arizona with some speculation about San Jose as a possible one-year pillow deal candidate.
Signed with Arizona, one year, $3.9MM
3) Tomas Tatar – The veteran winger originally came in 22nd on our rankings after putting up his seventh career 20-goal season. Now 32, Tatar showed he can still produce at a top-six level with New Jersey last season but from the outside, it seems like his playoff struggles could be scaring teams off. He has just 13 career playoff points in 52 games and was healthy-scratched frequently back in 2021 with Montreal. Having said that, Tatar had to wait a little while for his market to come around two years ago and he did fine for himself with a two-year, $9MM contract. At this point, it would be surprising if Tatar lands that price tag or term on his next agreement but he’d fit on a lot of rosters as a secondary scorer as he has averaged more than half a point per game in four of the last five seasons.
4) Jonathan Toews – After Chicago elected not to bring back their long-time captain, we put him 28th on our listing with his ranking being dropped somewhat due to the uncertainty about his playing future. Nothing is set in stone yet but all indications appear to be that the 35-year-old seems to be leaning toward hanging up his skates. Perhaps his mind changes closer to training camp and if it does, he’ll be likely signing for a limited role with a presumed playoff contender, one that would put his price tag pretty close to the league minimum.
5) Zach Parise – Somewhat quietly, the 39-year-old put up a 21-goal season with the Islanders last season. However, his own uncertainty about his playing future resulted in him slipping to 48th in our initial rankings. Parise has played on one-year deals with the Islanders since being bought out by Minnesota two years ago and on the surface, a reunion with New York on another one-year agreement might be the probable scenario should he decide to play a 19th NHL season although the Isles would need to open up cap and roster space for that to happen.
6) Ethan Bear – The most prominent non-tender to still be on the open market, Bear’s situation is complicated by his injury. Even though he might be slightly ahead of schedule in his recovery from shoulder surgery, the 26-year-old isn’t expected to be back until sometime in December which is hindering his market. Bear had a decent showing last season back in Vancouver but was told that the Canucks would need to clear cap space before entertaining the possibility of a reunion. If a team has an opening on their third pairing and enough cap flexibility to carry him on IR for a couple of months, Bear could be a nice pickup.
7) Phil Kessel – It wasn’t his best hockey by any stretch but the 35-year-old still managed to put up a respectable 36 points while once again playing in all 82 games to extend his record-breaking consecutive games played streak. However, when it mattered the most in the playoffs, Kessel was in the press box for most of the playoffs for the Stanley Cup champs. If Kessel wants to continue to extend that streak, his best bet might be signing with a non-playoff team that wants to give a prospect more time to develop in the minors. But if he wants a shot at a fourth title, he might have to settle for a depth role. Either way, at this point, it seems unlikely that he’ll be able to land the $1.5MM he made last season.
8) Caleb Jones – It was a career year for the 26-year-old last season as Jones set new personal benchmarks in games played (73) and points (16) while logging over 19 minutes a night for the first time since seeing spot duty in his rookie year. However, despite his play, Chicago opted to not tender a $1.35MM qualifying offer that also carried arbitration rights back in June. His performance last season was worthy of that type of money but in this marketplace, that will be harder to come by as will an opportunity to see the number of minutes he had last season.
9) Pius Suter – While Suter’s numbers dipped last season, he still managed to put up 14 goals for the third straight year, his only three at the top level. At 27, he’s one of the younger options left in free agency and can play down the middle which is something that can’t be said for most players on this list. It’s notable that two teams have effectively walked away from Suter already but as far as finding a third-line option that could move up in a pinch when injuries arise, he is one of the better options out there but will be hard-pressed to match the $2.5MM AAV on his last contract.
10) Max Comtois – Back in 2020-21, it looked like Comtois had arrived as a productive power forward after putting up 16 goals and 17 assists in the pandemic-shortened campaign. However, Comtois managed just 15 tallies in the previous two seasons combined, leading to a non-tender that the 24-year-old classified as mutual. One of the youngest unrestricted free agents still out there, Comtois still has two more years of RFA eligibility remaining which means even as a possible short-term signing, he could wind up being a longer-term pickup for someone.
11) Josh Bailey – For the majority of his 15-year NHL career, Bailey has been a capable secondary producer. However, after having one of his best offensive outputs in 2021-22, the 35-year-old struggled last season with his lowest point-per-game average since his rookie year. That resulted in the Islanders paying the Blackhawks a 2026 second-round pick to buy him out. Bailey shouldn’t be viewed as a full-time top-six option at this point of his career but in a depth role, he could still be a capable contributor for some teams.
12) Derick Brassard – Last season ended on a sour note for the 35-year-old as he fractured his fibula in early April. Still, Brassard had a pretty successful season in a depth role, notching 13 goals in 62 games, giving the Sens a bit of scoring in their bottom six. He went into Ottawa’s camp on a PTO last fall and earned a contract from there. Given the injury, there’s a good chance that Brassard will have to go that route again but it wouldn’t be wise to bet against him earning himself another opportunity.
13) Paul Stastny – After putting up a 21-goal season in 2021-22, it was surprising to see Stastny not have the best of markets last summer where he settled for a one-year, $1.5MM deal. Now, in this market, it’d be surprising to see him get that much now. Last season, the 37-year-old was used in a much more limited role, averaging just 11:52, a career low. However, Stastny still is well above average at the faceoff dot and isn’t too far removed from being a top-six player. There should be a role for him on several playoff-bound teams.
14) Eric Staal – That Staal is on this list at all is impressive. He didn’t play at all in 2021-22 and didn’t start last season with an NHL contract; Florida converted his PTO into a full deal early in the season. From there, the 38-year-old went and put up 29 points in 72 games while adapting better than many expected to in seeing plenty of action on the penalty kill. His lack of speed doesn’t help but Staal showed that he can still be a capable contributor in spite of that. If he wants to play a 19th NHL season, he should at least have some tryout offers on the table.
15) Martin Jones – Last season was an interesting one for Jones. He had his lowest GAA (2.99) and most games played (48) since 2018-19. On the other hand, the 33-year-old had the lowest SV% of his career (.886) by ten points and in the playoffs, he was back to being the second-string option. Jones hasn’t had a save percentage above .900 in the last five seasons, a track record that likely hasn’t helped his cause. But if a team is looking to bring in some injury insurance or wants to keep a youngster developing in the minors, Jones could get some calls closer to training camp.
16) Jaroslav Halak – Another veteran netminder that’s still on the market, Halak is more of a true backup at this stage of his career; the 25 games he played last season was his highest workload over the past three years. Now 38, he isn’t the type of backup that can log starters minutes if injuries arise but he was basically a league-average second-stringer last season which, statistically speaking, elevates him above the other netminders that are still unsigned. There aren’t many spots available right now around the league but Halak should be a candidate to fill at least some of the ones out there and there are a couple of teams at least that represent a plausible fit for his services if a team wants to keep a younger netminder in the AHL.
17) Danton Heinen – The winger hasn’t been able to replicate his 47-point rookie campaign in 2017-18 and has bounced around a bit in recent years, seeing action with three organizations over the past four campaigns. The 28-year-old had an 18-goal showing with Pittsburgh in 2021-22 but last season saw him struggle to stay in the lineup at times and when he was in the lineup, he often was on the fourth line, a role that doesn’t fit for him. Heinen could provide some depth scoring in the right situation where he isn’t miscast in more of an energy or checking role although there might not be too many of those openings at the moment.
18) Nick Ritchie – Power forwards often get plenty of opportunities and Ritchie is one of those players. Still just 27, he’s coming off his third straight season of double-digit goals while he averaged just shy of three hits per game in the regular season. Is he the top-six cornerstone Anaheim hoped he would be when they drafted him tenth overall in 2014? No, but in a bottom-six role where he’s asked to play with some energy and chip in with some production here and there, someone is bound to pick Ritchie up in the coming weeks.
19) Adam Erne – Erne is another player along the lines of Ritchie, a power forward that can contribute a bit of offense from lower in the lineup. He cleared waivers in Detroit last season due to his contract but still chipped in 18 points in 61 games. After playing on a $2.1MM AAV the last two years, the 28-year-old is likely heading for one closer to half that price tag but teams looking to add some grit to their fourth line might look in Erne’s direction.
20) Zach Aston-Reese – We finish with another player in that physical fourth-liner profile. The 28-year-old had a career-high ten goals for Toronto last season and averaged 2.7 hits per game over the last two seasons combined. He needed a PTO before landing a contract last season so it wouldn’t be surprising to see him go that route again. But it would be surprising if he’s not with a team for training camp six weeks from now.
For the most part, the players still out there aren’t game-breakers by any stretch. However, there are certainly some serviceable veterans that remain on the open market that can provide some important depth for teams. As we reach the part of free agency that technically yields some good bargain signings, there are going to be some valuable depth additions in the coming weeks.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.