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Blackhawks Acquire Sam Lafferty From Sabres

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The Blackhawks have acquired forward Sam Lafferty from the Sabres in exchange for their 2026 sixth-round pick, the team announced.

The move begins the 30-year-old’s second tenure in Chicago. The Hawks previously acquired him from the Penguins for Alexander Nylander in January 2022. He spent parts of two seasons with the club before getting dealt to the Maple Leafs in the 2023 Jake McCabe deal. He suited up 97 times in that span, posting 15 goals and 32 points – the most offensive he’s provided for any of his five NHL teams – and averaged nearly 15 minutes per game.

Chicago had Lafferty back in the organization for a few days last year, acquiring him from the Canucks in the trade that brought Ilya Mikheyev to the Hawks. He was a pending UFA, though, and instead decided to test the open market. He promptly signed a two-year, $4MM deal with the Sabres.

After scoring 13 goals and 24 points with Vancouver last year, it seemed like a worthy bet on Buffalo’s part. Instead, Lafferty struggled to be effective even in a fourth-line role. He averaged just 9:53 per game, making 60 appearances and scoring seven points with a -15 rating. Needless to say, both Lafferty and the Sabres likely preferred a move this summer if possible.

Lafferty now gets to return to the environment where he’s had the most success in Chicago, while the Sabres open up a roster spot and $2MM in cap space. He’ll look to compete for a spot in Chicago’s bottom six with young forwards like Oliver Moore and Landon Slaggert.

As for the Sabres, who hope to be more aggressive in free agency than Chicago today, they now have nearly $23MM in space with a roster size of 17, per PuckPedia. In addition to freeing up a space for a young player like Noah Ostlund or Isak Rosen to make the team out of training camp, they open up even more spending flexibility and shed an undesirable salary.

Sabres Re-Sign Ryan Johnson, Jack Rathbone

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July 1: The Sabres confirmed Rathbone’s deal and also announced a three-year, $2.325MM deal for defenseman Ryan Johnson worth $775,000 per season. It’s a two-way contract in 2025-26 and a one-way deal for 2026-27 and 2027-28. The 2019 first-round pick only saw three games of NHL action last season after making 41 appearances in 2023-24, but he did post 13 points and a +13 rating in 66 games with AHL Rochester. Assuming he reaches 80 career NHL games by the time his new deal expires, he’ll be an RFA upon expiry. If not, he’ll be eligible for Group VI UFA status.

June 29: Eligible to test free agency in less than 48 hours as a Group Six unrestricted free agent, defenseman Jack Rathbone has instead decided to re-sign with the Sabres.  PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that Rathbone has signed a two-year deal to remain with Buffalo.  The deal will pay $800K in the NHL, $525K in the minors, and has a guaranteed salary of $550K per season.

The 26-year-old came to the Sabres last summer as a Group Six UFA, inking a one-year, two-way pact that guaranteed him $500K, meaning he gets a small pay bump on this new agreement.  Rathbone didn’t see any action with the Sabres this season but was a regular with AHL Rochester, tallying 23 points in 63 regular season games while adding three assists in eight playoff contests.

Rathbone looked like a legitimate NHL prospect a few years ago.  He held his own in eight games with the Canucks in 2021-22 and notched 40 points in just 39 games with their AHL affiliate in Abbotsford that same season.  However, Rathbone hasn’t been able to come anywhere close to those offensive numbers since then and has now spent time with three different organizations over the last year and a half.

Rathbone shouldn’t be adding to that new team total next season, assuming he once again clears waivers in training camp and starts with Rochester.  Instead, he’ll serve as a valuable experienced player for the Amerks while being a possible recall option should injuries strike during the season in Buffalo.

Canadiens Acquire Zachary Bolduc

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The Canadiens and Blues have swapped young players.  Montreal has acquired winger Zachary Bolduc from St. Louis in exchange for defenseman Logan Mailloux.  Both teams have announced the deal.

Bolduc was a first-round pick of the Blues back in 2021, going 17th overall.  Mailloux, meanwhile, was also a first-round selection in that same draft class, going 14 picks later.

Bolduc is the more experienced player of the two at the NHL level.  After getting into 25 games in 2023-24, the 22-year-old was a regular in the lineup for St. Louis last season, chipping in with some solid secondary scoring.  He notched 19 goals and 17 assists in 72 games along with 108 hits in a little under 13 minutes a night of ice time during the regular season while adding an assist in seven playoff outings in their first-round loss to Winnipeg.

As for Mailloux, he has been productive in the NHL in very limited action.  He got into seven games with the Canadiens last season, notching two goals and two assists.  Meanwhile, the 22-year-old played in 63 games with AHL Laval, tallying 12 goals and 21 assists after putting up 47 points in 72 games in his rookie professional campaign.  Mailloux also had six points in 13 playoff outings with the Rocket in their run to the final four.

Both players have one year left on their respective entry-level contracts.  Mailloux has an AAV of $894K with no performance bonuses in his deal while Bolduc checks in with an AAV of $1.276MM, including $425K in bonuses for the upcoming season.  They’ll be restricted free agents next summer.

This is a move where both teams are using their surplus depth to fill a hole.  With the Canadiens acquiring Noah Dobson last week, Mailloux’s future with the organization came more into question with Montreal also having top prospect David Reinbacher in the mix on the right side of the back end.  Meanwhile, St. Louis has a pair of right-shot veterans on the back end but Justin Faulk only has two years left on his deal, creating an opening for Mailloux to try to play his way into over the next couple of years while also potentially providing them with some extra firepower from the back end.  On the other side, St. Louis uses their forward depth to fill their hole on the back end while Montreal picks up a player who can add some grit and skill to their bottom six, replacing Emil Heineman who went to the Islanders in the Dobson trade.

Boston Bruins Acquire Viktor Arvidsson

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10:51 a.m.: The Oilers have announced the trade.

10:15 a.m.: The Bruins are set to add some extra depth on the wing.  Irfaan Gafaar reports (Twitter link) that Boston will be acquiring Viktor Arvidsson from Edmonton; David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period adds (Twitter link) that the veteran has waived his no-trade clause to facilitate the move.  TSN’s Ryan Rishaug relays (Twitter link) that Edmonton will receive a 2027 fifth-round pick in return.

The 32-year-old was brought in last summer by team president Jeff Jackson who was serving as interim GM at the time in a move to try to shore up their secondary scoring.  Given Arvidsson’s track record, the move made some sense on paper although it helped put the Oilers in the cap bind that ultimately cost them Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg to offer sheets from St. Louis soon after.

While Arvidsson was productive in limited action after returning from injury in 2023-24 with 15 points in 18 games, he wasn’t able to produce at that same level with Edmonton.  He notched 15 goals and 12 assists in 67 regular season games with Edmonton while adding two goals and five helpers in 15 playoff contests while also spending time as a healthy scratch.

With Arvidsson having one year left on his contract with a $4MM cap charge, it was widely expected that the Oilers would be looking to move him to open up some much-needed cap flexibility on their end.  They’ve done just that and the Bruins are taking on the full contract without any salary retention.

Given the low-cost return, this is an interesting move for Boston.  GM Don Sweeney hasn’t hidden his expectation of getting the Bruins back to the playoffs but with a UFA market that’s thinning quite quickly, taking a flyer on a one-year add over a multi-year addition works from a flexibility standpoint.

While Arvidsson is coming off a down year, he has five seasons of at least 20 goals under his belt.  With Boston being a team that was 27th in goals scored last season, adding someone with a decent track record of production certainly makes sense.  And if the Bruins aren’t able to get back into the playoff mix, he’d make sense as a late-season trade candidate for a team looking to add some winger depth, putting Boston in a position to get back what they gave up to get him (or perhaps even more, depending on the state of the market).

From a cap perspective, Edmonton went from having barely $550K in cap space before the swap, per PuckPedia, to $4.55MM at their disposal.  That will give GM Stan Bowman some flexibility to work with on the open market as he looks to add an upgrade or two.  Meanwhile, Boston came into the day with around $12.7MM in room, per PuckPedia, with that amount being cut to $8.7MM with this swap.  Sweeney has a few roster spots that still need to be filled with that money but that’s still ample flexibility to try to do so.

Devils To Sign Jake Allen To Five-Year Extension

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Jake Allen won’t be the top goaltender on today’s free agent market after all. He’s signing an extension with the Devils, Kevin Weekes of ESPN reports. It’s a five-year deal worth $9MM, paying him $1.8MM per season, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.

Allen, 35 in August, leaves significant money on the table but gains long-term financial stability on what will presumably be the last contract of his NHL career. He’ll be 39 years old when the deal runs out following the 2029-30 campaign. Still, he likely could have landed a multi-year commitment worth nearly $5MM annually on the open market, per James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now.

It’s evident that term was the priority for Allen as he enters his 13th NHL season. It looked like there may be a resolution this morning when reports indicated the Devils were aggressively trying to keep Allen.

Allen isn’t a starter at this stage of his career – he was never more than a tandem option anyway – but he was the most established of the UFA group of goalies and was coming off a good platform campaign. Acquired from the Canadiens at the 2024 trade deadline, he finished the year with a .900 SV% in 13 games and entered 2024-25 as the backup to Jacob Markstrom, whom New Jersey paid a pretty penny to acquire from the Flames last summer.

While he didn’t receive Markstrom’s workload, he was still the Devils’ best goalie by the numbers. He posted a .906 SV% in 31 games compared to Markstrom’s .900 mark, and analytics paint a picture of an even wider chasm. Allen saved 18.4 goals above expected compared to Markstrom’s more conservative 3.4, per MoneyPuck.

New Jersey now gets to run back one of the league’s better one-two punches in goal at a combined price tag of $5.925MM against the cap, thanks to Calgary retaining salary on Markstrom, who’s a free agent next summer. They have $12.59MM in cap space left to spend with three open roster spots, according to PuckPedia.

Notably, it looks like young No. 3 netminder Nico Daws will hit the waiver wire during training camp. The 24-year-old is entering the final year of his contract at a cap hit of $812,500 but is due $850,000 in actual salary on a one-way deal, which may dissuade a claim.

Image courtesy of Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images.

Snapshots: Granlund, Holmberg, Perfetti, Penguins, Danforth

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While the Stars have been trying to find a way to keep pending UFA center Mikael Granlund in the fold, he will be testing the open market today, mentions Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic (Twitter link).  The 33-year-old had his second straight year of at least 60 points last season, notching 22 goals and 44 assists across 83 games between San Jose and Dallas while adding 10 points in 18 playoff contests.  Granlund is now the best center option in a market that has dwindled sharply in recent weeks, setting him up for a multi-year deal at a price tag above the $5MM he made in each of the last four years.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Despite non-tendering him yesterday, the Maple Leafs have interest in retaining center Pontus Holmberg, reports TSN’s Darren Dreger (Twitter link). He would have been owed a qualifying offer of around $866K but that would have carried arbitration rights, something Toronto didn’t want to risk.  Holmberg had 19 points in 68 games last season and will have interest on the open market while the Maple Leafs will be looking to keep their depth contracts low to increase their flexibility to upgrade other areas of the roster.
  • Now eligible to sign a contract extension, Jets forward Cole Perfetti will have new representation doing so. Murat Ates of The Athletic relays (Twitter link) that the 23-year-old is now being repped by CAA after previously being with KO Sports.  Perfetti is coming off a career year after putting up 18 goals and 32 assists last season.  He has one year remaining on his bridge deal which carries a cap charge of $3.25MM AAV.  Perfetti will be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent next summer.
  • While the Penguins are known to be willing to move out some of their veterans, that doesn’t mean they won’t be quiet in free agency as well. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period notes (Twitter link) that Pittsburgh is expected to pursue some depth veterans in free agency today to fill out their roster.  GM Kyle Dubas is a known proponent of having plenty of depth options to also help fortify their farm team so it wouldn’t be surprising to see them add some veterans even while being open to moving others.
  • The Blue Jackets are still in talks with pending UFA forward Justin Danforth in the hopes of getting something done before the open market opens up, relays Aaron Portzline of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 32-year-old has been a versatile depth player for Columbus for the last four seasons and is coming off a campaign that saw him record 21 points in 61 games while taking 661 faceoffs, winning just under half of them.

Hurricanes Sign Logan Stankoven To Eight-Year Extension

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The Hurricanes weren’t able to get Mikko Rantanen to agree to a long-term contract but they got one done with the player they acquired for him.  The team announced that they’ve signed forward Logan Stankoven to an eight-year, $48MM contract extension.

The 22-year-old was a second-round pick by Dallas back in 2021, going 47th overall.  Quite quickly, it’s fair to say he has outperformed his draft stock.  Stankoven made a mark late in the 2023-24 campaign, notching six goals and eight assists in 24 games with the Stars, earning himself a regular spot in their playoff lineup where he chipped in with eight points in 19 contests.

That was enough to have Stankoven as a regular for Dallas to start last season but the per-game offensive production tapered off a bit.  That said, he still put up a respectable nine goals and 20 assists in 59 games with them before being one of the key parts of the Rantanen trade back at the trade deadline.

Following the swap, Stankoven’s point production continued at a similar clip as he tallied five goals and four assists in 19 games during the regular season with Carolina while continuing to hover just above 15 minutes a night in playing time.  He carried that into the playoffs as well as a secondary offensive contributor, tallying five goals and three helpers in 15 postseason contests.

Stankoven has one year left on his entry-level contract, one that carries a cap charge of just over $814K along with $32.5K in games-played bonuses.  That means the extension will begin in 2026-27.  He had four RFA-eligible years remaining so Carolina will gain four seasons of team control at that time.  Those four UFA years are the only ones in which he’ll be eligible for trade protection.

While Stankoven isn’t the same caliber of player that Rantanen is, the Hurricanes will still get a long-term core piece out of that series of trades.  In the long run, while they took a short-term loss in talent compared to the original trade that saw them acquire Rantanen from Colorado, getting Stankoven locked up long-term and adding a pair of first-round picks was a solid rebound for GM Eric Tulsky.

John Matisz of The Score was the first to report that a long-term deal was close.  Frank Seravalli was first with the terms of the agreement.

Panthers Sign Daniil Tarasov

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The Panthers have signed recently acquired RFA netminder Daniil Tarasov to a one-year, $1.05MM contract, according to PuckPedia. The deal walks him to unrestricted free agency next summer.

Florida now has their new backup goalie officially in tow after acquiring his rights from the Blue Jackets for the No. 160 overall pick in last week’s draft, which Columbus used on OHL Oshawa center Owen Griffin. They’re taking a flyer on a younger, higher-ceiling option in Tarasov after clearing cap room at the trade deadline by trading top prospect Spencer Knight to the Blackhawks in the Seth Jones trade and replacing him with veteran stopgap Vitek Vanecek down the stretch. The latter won’t be back with the Cats and will hit the open market after making seven regular-season appearances and seeing no postseason action behind star starter Sergei Bobrovsky.

Tarasov looks to get his development back on track with Bobrovsky as his mentor after an inconsistent few seasons as Elvis Merzlikins’ primary backup in Columbus. This past season was particularly difficult for the Russian, who managed a .881 SV% and 3.54 GAA with a 7-10-2 record in 19 starts and one relief appearance. He allowed 4.4 goals above expected, per MoneyPuck. That diminished his trade value, but his resume in Columbus on the whole is more acceptable – a .898 SV%, 3.44 GAA, one shutout, and a 19-34-6 record in 65 career appearances over the past four years.

The signing also means Florida is officially over the cap after also getting new deals registered for Aaron Ekblad, Brad Marchand, and Tomas Nosek in the last 24 hours. PuckPedia has updated its roster projections to reflect a “full” 21-player roster, although they’re $2.175MM in the red and will need to replace a mid-tier salary, potentially forward Evan Rodrigues’ $3MM cap hit, with a league-minimum one in a trade to be cap-compliant to start the year if they have no LTIR-eligible injuries.

Flames Re-Sign Joel Hanley To Two-Year Deal

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The Flames announced they’ve signed defenseman Joel Hanley to a two-year, $3.5MM extension worth $1.75MM per season. He was set to become a UFA at 11:00 a.m. Central. PuckPedia reports he’ll earn $1.25MM in base salary and a $500,00 signing bonus in 2025-26 and a $1.75MM base salary in 2026-27.

Hanley, 34, was a waiver claim back in March 2024 from the Stars. A solid No. 7/8 option for Dallas for six years, they didn’t have room for him on the roster after acquiring Chris Tanev at that year’s trade deadline. Calgary took advantage and added the veteran, who was in the first year of a two-year, $1.575MM contract, for added depth through this past season.

He ended up playing a bigger role than the Flames expected, making a career-high 53 appearances this past season. He also averaged a career-high 18:35 per game when dressed, providing two goals and nine points. Offense has never been the focus of the 5’11” lefty’s game at the pro level, but he had quite good possession impacts across the board with a +12 rating, a 52.2 CF%, and 54.8 xGF% at even strength.

The Ontario native is a great third-pairing option and even a fringe top-four one at that price point, especially for a Calgary squad whose only NHL-caliber lefties in the system without him were Kevin Bahl, Jake Bean, and Ilya Solovyov. Adding or retaining depth was a major priority for them today, and they got some business done early with this deal.

Calgary has a full active roster after signing Hanley, but has a few waiver candidates like Dryden Hunt, Daniil Miromanov, and Solovyov included in that count. They have plenty of cap space left ($18.07MM) to get new deals done for RFAs Morgan Frost and Connor Zary while making external additions today if they can.

Islanders Re-Sign Tony DeAngelo

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The Islanders have reached a one-year agreement to keep defenseman Tony DeAngelo off the market, the team announced. Frank Seravalli reports it’s worth $1.75MM, giving the Isles $12.94MM in cap space with a roster size of 19, per PuckPedia.

It’s an unsurprising resolution to a season that saw DeAngelo regain momentum as a regular in an NHL lineup. The offensively gifted but defensively challenged blue-liner spent 2023-24 on a one-year deal with the Hurricanes following the second buyout of his career, but slipped to a No. 7 role on their depth chart and only managed 11 points in 31 games. He didn’t receive NHL interest on the open market as a result and headed overseas, signing with SKA St. Petersburg in Russia.

The 29-year-old exploded on a team that included notable names like Ivan Demidov and Evgeny Kuznetsov, recording 32 points in 34 games for SKA before terminating his deal mid-season to pursue NHL opportunities. The Islanders, who were in desperate need of defensive depth at the time, particularly on the right side with Noah Dobson and Ryan Pulock out of the lineup, signed him to a one-year, league minimum contract in January.

His return to NHL ice went as expected. He took over as their top power play quarterback, averaging a career-high 23:21 per game, and produced a 4-15–19 scoring line in 35 games. Only Dobson produced more points per game among Islanders defensemen last year than DeAngelo’s 0.54. He also finished sixth-worst on the team with a -11 rating despite playing less than half the schedule, although the Isles did still manage to create more than they gave up with him on the ice at even strength – a 51.8 CF% and 50.9 xGF% back that up.

With Dobson now traded to the Canadiens, DeAngelo fills a need for the Islanders. He’ll presumably remain on their top power-play unit and adds depth to an organization pretty thin on right-shot defensemen. As things stand, it’ll presumably be one of DeAngelo or the comparable Adam Boqvist in the lineup as a pure offensive option on the right side, along with the more defensively inclined Scott Mayfield and Ryan Pulock.

DeAngelo will give the Islanders a sixth defenseman signed to a one-way deal for 2025-26. Four of them are righties, so there’s still plenty of space for lefty Matthew Schaefer to land a spot in the lineup after going first overall in last week’s draft.

Frank Seravalli was first to report the Islanders and DeAngelo were nearing a contract.

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