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Maple Leafs Sign Steven Lorentz To Three-Year Extension

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The Maple Leafs announced they’ve kept forward Steven Lorentz away from the open market on a three-year, $4.05MM contract. He’ll carry a $1.35MM cap hit through the 2027-28 campaign.

The move represents a nice raise for the 29-year-old who spent this past season on a one-year contract worth the league minimum of $775K.  That came on the heels of an underwhelming year with Florida where Lorentz managed just one goal and two assists in 38 games during the regular season although he did see action in 16 playoff contests that year.

Things went better for Lorentz with his hometown team, however.  He got into 80 games with Toronto and collected eight goals and 11 assists, enough to tie his career high in points with 19 while blowing past his previous benchmark in hits with 199.  He also saw some secondary action on the penalty kill, resulting in his average ice time jumping up past the 10-minute mark per game.  Lorentz was a regular in the lineup for the Maple Leafs in the playoffs, notching a pair of assists and a little over three hits per game.

Clearly earning the trust of head coach Craig Berube, Lorentz has established himself as a trustworthy fourth liner in Toronto’s lineup and has earned himself some desired stability which was enough to keep him away from testing the open market on Tuesday.

PHR’s Brian La Rose also contributed to this article.

Kings Sign Andrei Kuzmenko To One-Year Extension

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The Kings will be keeping their trade deadline acquisition away from the open market.  The team announced they’ve signed winger Andrei Kuzmenko to a one-year extension worth $4.3MM.

The 29-year-old took the NHL by storm in his first season in 2022-23, notching 39 goals and 35 assists in 79 games with Vancouver.  However, there was a bit of a red flag considering that his shooting percentage came in at 27.3%, well above the NHL average and a rate that wasn’t going to be sustainable.  Unable to agree on a long-term commitment, the two sides eventually settled on a two-year, $10MM bridge deal to keep him in the fold with the Canucks.

Unfortunately for Kuzmenko and Vancouver, his second season didn’t go anywhere near as well as the first.  After a quiet first half, he was included as salary ballast in the trade that sent Elias Lindholm to the Canucks.  With a bigger opportunity in Calgary, Kuzmenko made the most of it, putting up 25 points in 29 games down the stretch with the Flames, providing some optimism that he could be a key contributor for them heading into 2024-25.

But things didn’t go that way this past season.  Instead of picking up where he left off, Kuzmenko languished, notching just four goals and 11 assists in 37 games to start the year, resulting in him once again being included as salary ballast in a swap, this time to Philadelphia as part of the move that saw Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee go to Calgary.  Kuzmenko did well in seven games with the Flyers before being flipped again, this time to Los Angeles at the trade deadline in a move aimed at giving the Kings some extra scoring.

Kuzmenko was indeed able to provide that, tallying five goals along with a dozen assists in 22 games down the stretch before averaging a point per game in six playoff outings.  That performance was enough to land him the 19th spot in our Top 50 UFA ranking but instead, he won’t test the open market and will stay in a spot where things went well over the last few months.  Perhaps with a full-season performance like he finished 2024-25 with, Kuzmenko will be in better shape to command a longer-term pact on the open market next summer.

With the signing, the Kings are down to a little under $20MM in cap space, per PuckPedia.  As things stand, GM Ken Holland will be set to try to make a splash either in free agency or the trade market although that number could still come down if he’s able to work out an agreement with pending UFA blueliner Vladislav Gavrikov in the coming hours.

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images.

Detroit Red Wings Sign Jonatan Berggren To One-Year Contract

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The Detroit Red Wings are making quick work of getting some of their depth players back for next season. According to a team announcement, the Red Wings have signed forward Jonatan Berggren to a one-year, $1.825MM contract for the 2025-26 NHL season.

Berggren has been an interesting depth scorer for the Red Wings over the last three years. By all available evidence, Detroit is still trying to determine what exactly they have in the young Swede.

He got off to a hot start in his professional career, scoring 21 goals and 64 points in 70 games for the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins in 2021-22. In the early stages of their rebuild, Berggren was recalled to help the fledgling Red Wings in 2022-23. Typically in a third-line role, Berggren had a quality year as a tertiary scorer, putting up 15 goals and 28 points in 67 games. He had some prominent defensive shortcomings, but that’s to be expected of a young winger.

Interestingly enough, Berggren didn’t earn a spot on the roster out of training camp the following September. He put together another quality year with AHL Grand Rapids, scoring 24 goals and 56 points in 53 games. Despite his success in the AHL, Detroit used Berggren only 12 times during the 2023-24 season, and rumors about trade availability began to circulate.

The rumors persisted until last September, when the Red Wings signed Berggren to a one-year contract worth $825K. Nearly replicating his performance from two years ago, Berggren scored 12 goals and 24 points in 75 games, averaging 12:59 of ice time per game. Despite his -13 rating, the Uppsala, Sweden native showed serious improvements in his defense, achieving a 91.1% on-ice save percentage at even strength.

Given the short-term, low-risk contract, Detroit likely wants Berggren to remain in a similar role next year. If he can replicate his defensive output and score 30 or more points next season, he’ll be a valuable bottom-six scorer for the Red Wings.

Washington Capitals Acquire, Extend Declan Chisholm

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Jun. 30th: It didn’t take long for the Capitals to extend their newest blueliner. According to PuckPedia, Washington has signed Chisholm to a two-year, $3.2MM contract, with a flat $1.6MM salary each year. He’ll become an unrestricted free agent after the 2026-27 campaign.

Jun. 28th: The Minnesota Wild and Washington Capitals have gotten together on a defenseman trade. According to a team announcement, the Wild have traded Declan Chisholm and the 180th overall pick to the Capitals in exchange for Chase Priskie and the 123rd overall pick.

Thus ends a one-and-a-half-year run in Minnesota for Chisholm. The longtime depth defenseman was claimed off waivers from the Winnipeg Jets partway through he 2023-24 season and turned it into a consistent role with the Wild for some time. In large part due to injuries across Minnesota’s defensive core, Chisholm managed a career-high of 66 games played this past season.

Even further, Chisholm achieved career-highs across the board. He finished the season with two goals and 12 points, averaging nearly 17 minutes of ice time, with a -5 rating and 69 blocked shots. Additionally, his 50.4% CorsiFor% at even strength and 91.5% on-ice save percentage at even strength made him a quality depth piece for the Wild to have on hand.

Unfortunately, he’s unlikely to find a similar role in Washington. The Capitals already have seven defensemen signed through next season, without mentioning they’ll need a new contract for depth defenseman Alexander Alexeyev. If Chisholm isn’t content with moving back to the AHL, he’s an easy non-tender candidate heading into next week.

Meanwhile, Priskie has spent the last two years as a prominent blueliner for the AHL’s Hershey Bears and is expected to hold a similar role with the AHL’s Iowa Wild. He’s scored 20 goals and 69 points in 130 AHL contests over the past two years, with an additional four goals and 19 points in 28 postseason contests.

Michael Russo of The Athletic was the first to report that the Wild were trading Chisholm.

Devils Expected To Qualify Cody Glass

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June 30: New Jersey has changed its mind and will indeed grant Glass his $2.5MM qualifying offer, per PuckPedia.

June 21: Cody Glass proved to be a useful addition for the Devils down the stretch.  However, it appears that won’t be enough to keep him in the fold as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that New Jersey is not expected to tender a qualifying offer at the end of the month which would make him an unrestricted free agent in July.

The 26-year-old was the sixth overall pick back in 2017 but has not yet lived up to his draft billing and has bounced around the league a bit, seeing action with four different teams over his first six NHL seasons.

It looked like Glass was turning a corner with Nashville when he put up 35 points in 72 games in the 2022-23 season, earning himself a two-year, $5MM contract along the way.  But after his production slipped to just 13 points in 41 games the following year, the Preds shipped him with a pair of draft picks to Pittsburgh to open up some cap flexibility after their summer spending spree in free agency.

With the Penguins, Glass produced at a largely similar rate, tallying four goals and 11 assists in 51 games.  But with the Devils looking for some insurance down the middle heading into the playoffs, they moved prospects Chase Stillman and Max Graham along with a 2027 third-round pick for Glass and forward Jonathan Gruden.

The change of scenery seemed to get Glass going offensively as he picked up two goals and five assists in 14 games following the swap while seeing an uptick in playing time to 14:31 per game.  However, he was held off the scoresheet in their first-round playoff exit at the hands of Carolina.

To retain his RFA rights, the Devils would need to tender Glass a $2.5MM qualifying offer that would also carry salary arbitration rights.  While his career numbers of 35 goals and 58 assists in 252 games aren’t lofty by any stretch, there’s a chance that an arbitration would award a higher amount than that.  It appears that’s a risk New Jersey isn’t willing to take at this time.  While the two sides could discuss a cheaper deal than that beforehand (his agent told The Hockey News’ Kristy Flannery earlier this week there had been preliminary talks between the sides), it doesn’t look like that’s in the cards, meaning that Glass appears to be set to hit the open market less than two weeks from now.

Avalanche Re-Sign Trent Miner To Two-Year Deal

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The Avalanche have re-upped depth netminder Trent Miner on a two-year deal, per a team announcement. Although financial details weren’t disclosed in Colorado’s announcement, Miner likely only commanded a league-minimum salary on both years of the deal, given the Avalanche already has their tandem squared away for next season.

The Brandon, Manitoba, native made an unexpected debut in the NHL this past season. Due to injuries and significantly poor play at the beginning of the season, Colorado utilized six different netminders last year. Still, Miner only registered two games, managing a 0-1-0 record with a .879 SV% and 2.62 GAA.

Given their lack of depth and available capital to spend, it would make sense for Miner to start the year as the Avalanche’s third-string option. Ilya Nabokov is a more talented goalie, but Colorado has decided he will spend another year with Metallurg Magnitogorsk in the KHL, making Miner the top available option for the AHL’s Colorado Eagles.

Still, given Miner’s performance with the Eagles last year, Nabokov may not have been given the starting gig to start the campaign. In his first full year as the team’s starting goaltender, Miner managed a 22-10-9 record in 38 games for the AHL Eagles, with a .918 SV%, 2.12 GAA, and three shutouts. He did everything he could to deepen the Eagles’ playoff run, earning a 5-4-0 record in nine postseason contests with a .925 SV% and 2.15 GAA.

In any other year, Miner might not have been given the backup role, but he would at least have had the chance to try out for the position during training camp. Unfortunately for Miner, there’s no legitimate argument to put him over Scott Wedgewood to begin the 2025-26 campaign, leaving him as the next best available option.

Red Wings Re-Sign Albert Johansson To Two-Year Deal

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The Red Wings announced Monday they’ve signed defenseman Albert Johansson to a two-year, $2.25MM contract worth $1.125MM per season. He was set to be an RFA tomorrow. PuckPedia reports he’ll earn $1.1MM base salary in 2025-26 and $1.15MM in 2026-27, giving him a $1.15MM qualifying offer as an RFA upon expiry in 2027.

Detroit was essentially forced into giving Johansson, a 2019 second-round pick, a roster spot this season to avoid the risk of losing him on waivers. This past season was his third in North America, spending all of 2022-23 and 2023-24 on assignment to AHL Grand Rapids. After posting 36 points in 119 games there, the Wings deemed the mobile Swede’s game valuable enough to warrant an NHL audition.

Johansson ended up getting plenty of reps as the Wings rotated him in with struggling veterans like Erik Gustafsson, Justin Holl, and Jeff Petry. The 6’0″ lefty made 61 appearances in his rookie season, scoring three goals and nine points with a -11 rating while averaging 16:22 per game. His possession impacts raise some cause for concern, combined with that rating. Despite seeing semi-advantageous offensive deployment at even strength, Detroit only controlled 48.0% of shot attempts and 45.5% of expected goals with Johansson on the ice.

He’s still only 24 with room to grow, though. Assuming the Wings add at least one name on the blue line, he’ll continue to serve as a No. 6/7 option next season at an affordable price tag. If he can really force his way ahead of Gustafsson and Holl on the depth chart, he might be able to force a waiver placement for one of the vets. Detroit has done so successfully before with Holl, who still carries a $3.4MM cap hit through next season.

It appears to be a fair contract for both the player and the team, at least. Despite the lack of scoring and strong possession metrics, Johansson’s usage alone earned him a bump on his previous league-minimum salary. Still, if he doesn’t take a significant step forward in 2025-26, there’s no legitimate risk on the Red Wings’ side.

Mammoth Sign Montana Onyebuchi To Two-Year Extension

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The Utah Mammoth have signed bruising depth defenseman Montana Onyebuchi to a two-year, two-way contract extension. The deal will carry a league-minimum, $775K salary at the NHL level. Onyebuchi was set to become a restricted free agent on Tuesday.

Onyebuchi has yet to make his NHL debut, but he’s found a niche as the hard-hitting presence backing the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners. He stands at an imposing 6-foot-3, 220 pounds and used that size to rival Curtis Douglas for the Roadrunners’ lead in penalty minutes over the last two seasons. This year, Onyebuchi posted 10 points and 112 penalty minutes through 64 appearances. That mark falls just shy of the mammoth 145 penalty minutes he recorded in 49 games last season, to go along with nine points.

The bruising role has long been a familiar one for Onyebuchi. He played his junior hockey years in the WHL and routinely rivaled one penalty per game on average. That presence peaked in the 2018-19 season — his age-19 season — when Onyebuchi amassed 122 penalty minutes and 20 points through 66 games with the Kamloops Blazers. He’d continue to post high-end PIMs through the next two WHL seasons, doing just enough to catch the eyes of the San Jose Sharks organization ahead of the 2021-22 campaign. San Jose signed Onyebuchi to a minor-league contract and he quickly brought his imposing presence to the pro flight — racking up 137 PIMs in 46 games of his AHL rookie season, a mark that was underlined by his 20 PIMs in eight ECHL games that season as well.

While hard-hits and time in the penalty box are the core of Onyebuchi’s game, his presence in the lineup has still proven invaluable. He recorded an assist and no PIMs in three games of the Calder Cup Playoffs this season. A two-year deal will put Onyebuchi back on the path to carving out an everyday role with the Roadrunners, and will continue to make him an option should be the Mammoth ever need a fighter at the top flight.

Islanders Sign Alexander Romanov To Eight-Year Extension

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The Islanders are signing RFA defenseman Alexander Romanov to an eight-year, $50MM extension, PuckPedia reports. The deal will carry a cap hit of $6.25MM. The team has since confirmed the deal. He receives no-move protection from 2026-27 through 2029-30 and a 16-team no-trade list from 2029-30 through 2032-33 as part of the deal, per PuckPedia.

Romanov, 25, lands his big payday after taking a three-year, $7.5MM bridge deal from the Isles in 2022. That decision worked out well for him, and he’ll now be one of the team’s most well-compensated defenders through the expiry of his deal following the 2032-33 season.

The 6’1″ lefty has panned out nicely since the Islanders paid a steep acquisition price to land him from the Canadiens at the 2022 draft, parting ways with a pick that was flipped to the Blackhawks for Frank Nazar. He’s coming off his best NHL season yet. While injuries limited him to 64 games, he still produced 20 points for a career-best 0.31 per-game rate and averaged a career-high 22:18 per game.

Romanov always projected as a stout defensive presence; whether he would avoid being too much of an offensive liability to deploy in a top-four role was always the question with his ceiling. He’s answered it now, fitting well in transition despite never being a big-time point producer in his own right. His possession metrics haven’t been particularly impactful one way or another, considering his slightly defensively-oriented deployment, but he’s shown legitimate minute-munching ability while also generating over 200 shot attempts in each of the last four years. He’s also one of the league’s most physically involved defenders, recording 100-plus hits and blocks every year since 2021-22.

There will be a bit of sticker shock on that $6.25MM price tag for a defenseman with an offensive skill set as simple as Romanov’s. Considering the recent comparables set by extensions in the $5MM range for Kevin Bahl and Nicolas Hague, though, it comes across as fair value.

He’ll be a long-term anchor for the Islanders’ left side that still includes Adam Pelech and gained Matthew Schaefer with the first overall pick in last week’s draft. The team has $14.7MM in cap space left this summer with Emil Heineman, Simon Holmstrom, and Maxim Tsyplakov among its notable RFAs still to sign.

Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

Canucks Re-Sign Four Players

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The Canucks have re-upped depth center Max Sasson on a one-year, one-way contract worth $775,000, per PuckPedia. The deal was first announced by his agent, Gold Star Hockey’s Dan Milstein. The team also announced they’ve agreed to terms with winger Arshdeep Bains on a two-year deal to keep him off the RFA market. It’s a two-way deal in 2025-26 before changing to a one-way deal in 2026-27, per PuckPedia. Additionally, the Canucks announced a two-way contract for defenseman Guillaume Brisebois for 2025-26. Center Aatu Räty has also signed a two-year, one-way extension worth $775,000 per year, PuckPedia reports.

Of the group, the three forwards have the greatest chance of being on next season’s opening night roster. One-way commitments out of the gate to Räty and Sasson indicate Vancouver anticipates both making the jump to full-time NHL duties to help shoulder the likely loss of pending free agents Brock Boeser and Pius Suter tomorrow.

Räty, 22, is the most important player of the group. The Canucks evidently recognize that as he’s the only player receiving a multi-year one-way commitment from them today. Once a top prospect in the 2021 draft class, he ended up slipping to the Islanders in the second round and was traded to Vancouver in the Bo Horvat deal in 2023 shortly after making his NHL debut.

He didn’t see any NHL ice in 2023-24 but re-emerged as a call-up option this past year. He didn’t look out of place at all as a bottom-six center when given the chance, and that’s the role he’ll look to grab on a more consistent basis starting in the fall. He averaged 10:39 per game for Vancouver in 2024-25 over 33 appearances, scoring seven goals and 11 points with a minus-four rating. He was great on draws, particularly for a young player, winning 57.7% of his faceoffs. He’s a decently physical piece as well, ranking 10th on the team with 80 hits despite his limited workload.

Räty also would have required waivers starting next year, a risk the Canucks certainly aren’t willing to take. He’ll be on the roster come October and could even begin the season with as big of a role as third-line center if Vancouver can’t make any notable free agent additions down the middle in the coming days.

Sasson, 25 in September, won’t be too far behind Räty on the Canucks’ center depth chart. He also saw significant NHL ice last season, except in his case, it was his first NHL call-up. He scored three goals and seven points in 29 games for Vancouver, routinely slotting in down the middle and winning 42.7% of his draws while averaging 10:20 per game.

When on assignment to AHL Abbotsford, Sasson managed 32 points in 41 games – his second straight season with strong minor-league production after signing with Vancouver as a free agent out of Western Michigan in 2023. He’s still waiver-exempt for another year, though. If there’s a roster crunch in camp, he could be the odd man out as a result.

Bains would also require waivers to head back to the AHL, so that’s something to watch. Another undrafted free agent signing, he’s also been an extremely productive AHL piece over the last few years. He scored 43 points in 50 games for Abbotsford this year after nearly reaching a point per game in 2023-24, but the winger has just one goal in 21 NHL appearances over the last two years. Whether his minor-league track record is enough to keep him on the NHL roster remains to be seen, but he could also be a trade candidate if he makes the club and starts slow out of the gate to avoid losing him for nothing on the wire.

Brisebois is the longest-tenured Canuck of the group by a significant margin. A third-round pick back in 2015, he’s settled in as an AHL depth piece and occasional call-up. The 6’2″ lefty played three NHL games this past season in a January call-up, his first action with Vancouver since March 2023. He’ll be 28 next month and has three points and a minus-seven rating in 30 NHL games with the Canucks.

He’s been one of the key defensive minds on Abbotsford’s blue line, helping the minor-league club to its first Calder Cup championship in franchise history a few days ago. He posted five points and a plus-three rating in 48 regular-season games for the AHL Canucks this season.

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