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Panthers’ Aaron Ekblad Receives Two Game Suspension

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6:32 p.m.: Ekblad will miss Game 5 and Game 6 of Florida’s series against the Lightning or Game 5 against Tampa and Game 1 against their Round Two opponent. The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced they have suspended Ekblad for two games for elbowing.

10:43 a.m.: Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad is facing another suspension after knocking Lightning winger Brandon Hagel out of last night’s Game 4 with a high hit, Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet was first to report. It’s a phone hearing with the Department of Player Safety, so he’s ineligible to be suspended for longer than five games.

Midway through the second period, Ekblad came down the halfwall to deliver a check to Hagel. Instead of making body-on-body contact, Ekblad raised his forearm to contact Hagel’s head, forcing the latter into concussion protocol. He did not return to the game, nor was Ekblad penalized on the play, in what many chastised as a missed call. Florida scored three goals in the final four minutes of the game to win 4-2 and take a 3-1 series lead, with Ekblad scoring the game-tying goal.

While the hit itself likely warrants a second look for supplemental discipline regardless of the context, the length of Ekblad’s likely pending suspension could be increased if DoPS determines it was a retaliatory hit. Hagel had just returned to the lineup after serving a one-game suspension for interference against Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov.

Ekblad wasn’t the only Panthers defenseman to lay a controversial hit in Game 4. Niko Mikkola was ejected from the game early in the third period and given a major penalty for boarding Lightning forward Zemgus Girgensons. He won’t face a suspension, though. DoPS announced Tuesday he’s been fined $5,000 for the play but won’t have a hearing.

The 29-year-old Ekblad had just returned from a 20-game suspension for violating the league’s performance-enhancing substances rules in Game 3 of the series. His goal was his first point since returning. He posted a minus-three rating across Games 3 and 4 while averaging 21:16 of ice time.

Toronto Maple Leafs Recall Fourteen Black Aces

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Now that the AHL’s Toronto Marlies season has ended at the hands of the Cleveland Monsters, the Toronto Maple Leafs were able to recall several players for their playoff run. As announced by the team, the recalled players are as follows:

F Nicholas Abruzzese
D Matt Benning
G Dennis Hildeby
F Roni Hirvonen
F Reese Johnson
D Mikko Kokkonen
G Matt Murray
F Alexander Nylander
D Topi Niemelä
F Jacob Quillan
D Marshall Rifai
F Alex Steeves
D William Villeneuve
D Cade Webber

There will certainly be a concrete pecking order should the Maple Leafs fall into any injury trouble during their postseason run. Steeves, Nylander, and Abruzzese should get the call for forwards, while Villeneuve and Murray will lead their respective positions.

Steeves recently recorded the first point-per-game season of his career. Leading all Marlies players, Steeves scored 36 goals and 62 points in 59 contests.

Meanwhile, Villeneuve set the scoring pace from the blue line. In an increase of magnitude from his previous two years with the club, Villeneuve recorded four goals and 40 points in 55 games with a +12 rating.

Hopefully, for Toronto’s sake, they won’t need any of the 14 call-ups to play, especially as they look to close out the Ottawa Senators this evening. Still, considering the numerous injuries they dealt with during the regular season, the Maple Leafs could rely on one or a few of these players to make their mark on the 2025 postseason.

How Do Qualifying Offers Work?

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Players eligible for restricted free agency don’t become restricted free agents by default. To make a player a restricted free agent, a team must extend a qualifying offer to him — a player who doesn’t receive one becomes an unrestricted free agent instead.

The qualifying offer, which is essentially just a one-year contract offer, varies in amount depending on a player’s salary in the most recent season of their expiring contract:

  • $775,000 to $999,999: 105% of most recent salary up to $1,000,000.
  • $1MM or more: the lesser of their most recent salary or 120% of cap hit.

In the increasingly rare instance where an RFA signed their most recent contract before July 2020 and earned $1MM or more in the last year of their deal, the qualifying offer is simply equal to their most recent salary.

Let’s take the top RFA on the board, Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard, as an example. While the cap hit of his expiring two-year deal is $3.9MM, he made $4.3MM in actual salary in 2024-25. However, his most recent salary is still less than 120% of his cap hit ($4.68MM), so his qualifying offer will be a one-year deal worth $4.3MM. That stipulation is why players signing an agreement with RFA expiry status will generally negotiate a base salary in the final year of the contract no higher than 120% of the cap hit, to prevent a salary reduction if they accept their qualifying offer. The two highest-salaried pending RFAs this year, defensemen Bowen Byram and K’Andre Miller, both took that route.

For players on expiring entry-level or two-way contracts, their qualifying offer is also a two-way deal. It’s important to note that “salary” as it relates to QOs is tied to a player’s base salary only, not their total guaranteed compensation, which includes salary plus signing bonuses. That’s why you’ll rarely see players opt to receive signing bonuses in the final year of a deal with RFA expiry status – while signing bonuses technically make a buyout less advantageous for the team and benefit the player, they also limit the floor of their earning potential on a qualifying offer.

They’re almost always unavoidable for players on expiring entry-level deals, though. Take Devils star Luke Hughes. He’ll make $2.775MM in total cash this season thanks to signing and performance bonuses, but his qualifying offer is just a two-way deal with a cap hit of $874,125 – 105% of his 2024-25 base salary of $832,500.

So while Noah Dobson has the highest cap hit among pending RFAs at $4MM, Miller, as mentioned earlier, actually has the highest qualifying offer this summer at his 2024-25 base salary of $4.646MM.

Qualifying offers are due by the later of June 25 or the Monday following the draft. Given how the league schedule has trended in recent years, it’s almost always the latter. That holds in 2025, when the qualifying offer deadline is again June 30, one day before free agency opens. They expire by July 15 if not extended in writing by the team; however, it’s not unusual to see players sign identical contracts to their QOs after that date. A team still holds a player’s signing rights even if the qualifying offer expires before an agreement is reached.

A player can also accept his qualifying offer if he chooses to do so. He then plays the following season on a one-year contract worth the amount of the QO, and, depending on their age or accrued NHL seasons, becomes an unrestricted free agent or repeats the process as an RFA. A player can go this route if he feels like the QO is the best offer he’ll receive, or if he’s one year away from being eligible for UFA status and wants to focus on testing that market.

Contract information courtesy of PuckPedia.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

2025 NHL Draft Lottery Odds

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Apr. 29th: The ping pong balls will fall in less than a week. The NHL announced that the draft lottery will be held on Monday, May 5th.

Apr. 22nd: With the regular season in the rearview, the NHL’s draft lottery odds are set. As it has been since 2021, only two draws will be held.

Since 2022, teams who win the lottery can only move up a maximum of 10 spots, and teams can only move up in the draft order twice in five years. Every team is eligible to move up this year. The only two lottery-eligible teams who have moved up in the lottery since 2020 are the Kraken (No. 3 to No. 2 in 2021 to select Matty Beniers) and the Blackhawks (No. 3 to No. 1 in 2023 to choose Connor Bedard).

Odds for the league’s worst teams to retain their positions atop the draft increased as a result of the lottery draw for the third overall pick being eliminated four years ago, so there hasn’t been a ton of movement in the last few years. The last team outside the bottom three to win a lottery draw was the Devils, who moved up from No. 5 to No. 2 overall in 2022 to select Simon Nemec.

Perhaps there will be more meaningful changes to the order in this year’s lottery. The league has not yet set a date for the draw, but it typically takes place in the first half of May.

Via Tankathon.com, the draft lottery odds for 2024 are listed in the chart below. The numbers in the chart indicate percentages, so the Sharks’ pick, for instance, has a 25.5% chance of becoming the No. 1 selection and a 55.7% chance of ending up at No. 3. If a team’s odds are listed as >0, that percentage is below 0.1%. Odds are rounded to the nearest decimal place.

Here’s the full chart (if you’re on our mobile site or app and can’t see the whole thing, try turning your phone sideways):

 

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
SJS 25.5 18.8 57.7 – – – – – – – – – – – – –
CHI 13.5 14.1 30.7 41.7 – – – – – – – – – – – –
NSH 11.5 11.2 7.8 39.7 29.8 – – – – – – – – – – –
PHI 9.5 9.5 0.3 15.4 44.6 20.8 – – – – – – – – – –
BOS 8.5 8.6 0.3 – 24.5 44.0 14.2 – – – – – – – – –
SEA 7.5 7.7 0.2 – – 34.1 41.4 9.1 – – – – – – – –
BUF 6.5 6.7 0.2 – – – 44.4 36.5 5.6 – – – – – – –
ANA 6.0 6.2 0.2 – – – – 54.4 30.0 3.2 – – – – – –
PIT 5.0 5.2 0.2 – – – – – 64.4 23.5 1.7 – – – – –
NYI 3.5 3.7 0.1 – – – – – – 73.3 18.4 0.9 – – – –
NYR* 3.0 3.2 0.1 – – – – – – – 79.9 13.4 0.5 – – –
DET – 5.1 0.1 0.1 – – – – – – – 85.7 8.9 0.2 – –
CBJ – – 4.2 >0 >0 – – – – – – – 90.7 5.1 >0 –
UTA – – – 3.2 >0 >0 – – – – – – – 94.7 2.1 >0
VAN – – – – 1.1 – >0 – – – – – – – 97.9 1.1
CGY* – – – – – 1.1 – – – – – – – – – 98.9

Notes:

  • The Rangers’ pick is top 13 protected. It is guaranteed to land inside the top 13. They can decide between surrendering this year’s pick to the Penguins or deferring to an unprotected 2026 first-round selection. New York initially sent their pick to the Canucks in the J.T. Miller trade, but Vancouver immediately flipped the pick to Pittsburgh for Marcus Pettersson.
  • If the Flames retain No. 16 overall, the pick will be sent to the Canadiens. If Calgary wins a lottery draw to move them to No. 6 overall, they keep the pick and send the Panthers’ 2025 first-round pick, which they own, to Montreal.

Rick Tocchet Not Returning As Canucks Head Coach

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3:13 p.m.: Vancouver has formally announced Tocchet’s departure.

2:33 p.m.: The Canucks will not pick up head coach Rick Tocchet’s club option despite failing to come to terms on an extension, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. Vancouver will now begin the search for a new bench boss.

President of hockey operations Jim Rutherford confirmed last week that the Canucks wouldn’t rope Tocchet into his club option regardless of whether they agreed on a new deal, so today’s news isn’t entirely out of the blue. Either the Canucks or Tocchet are expected to release a statement with his reasoning against extending his time in Vancouver later today, Friedman relays.

While Vancouver expressed interest in keeping Tocchet and was willing to pay up to do so, it’s not surprising to see at least one of the two sides decide that a split was the best way forward. The Canucks had an incredibly disappointing 2024-25 campaign, falling to a 38-30-14 record and missing the playoffs after recording a 50-win season and winning the Pacific Division in 2023-24. That campaign earned Tocchet Coach of the Year honors, but that hasn’t meant a ton for a coach’s long-term future with their club as of late.

It’s too early to say who might succeed Tocchet in British Columbia. Internal options could include assistant coach Adam Foote or AHL head coach Manny Malhotra. As for Tocchet, the Flyers have had their eye on his situation ever since firing John Tortorella with weeks left in the campaign. They’ll presumably be aggressive in bringing him back to the city in which he spent 11 of his 18 seasons as a player.

Tocchet ends his stint in Vancouver with a 108-65-27 (.608) record across two and a half seasons. He was initially brought in midway through the 2022-23 campaign after the Canucks fired Bruce Boudreau. In 2024-25, major regression from the since-traded J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson, along with injuries to 2024 Vezina finalist Thatcher Demko and top-pair defenseman Filip Hronek, were simply too much to handle for Tocchet to keep the club afloat.

The Canucks are now the eighth active head coach vacancy, joining the Blackhawks, Bruins, Ducks, Flyers, Kraken, Penguins, and Rangers.

Photo courtesy of Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports.

Utah Signs Jaxson Stauber To Two-Year, Two-Way Extension

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Pending Group VI unrestricted free agent goaltender Jaxson Stauber has inked a two-year, two-way extension to keep him in Utah through the 2026-27 campaign, the team announced (X link). If Stauber is in the NHL, the contract will carry the league minimum cap hit of $775K, Belle Fraser of the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

Since Stauber is a likely candidate to land on waivers to begin next season, his signing doesn’t impact Utah’s salary cap projection for 2025-26 at present. 2024-25 was Stauber’s last year of waiver-exempt status. He becomes the 35th player under contract with the Club for next year.

Stauber, fresh off his 26th birthday, spent the season as Utah’s No. 3 in the net after getting non-tendered by the Blackhawks last summer. He inked a two-way deal with an $80K AHL salary and $100K guarantee in the first week of free agency last summer and, while he didn’t make the opening night roster, spent a solid chunk of the season up with the NHL team as Karel Vejmelka’s backup with Connor Ingram missing significant time due to injury and an active stint in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program.

Across his four starts and two relief appearances with Utah this year, the 6’3″ netminder posted a 2-1-1 record, .892 SV%, and a 3.26 GAA. It was his second season of NHL experience after starting six games for Chicago in 2022-23. He recorded his first NHL shutout in his season debut against the Golden Knights on Nov. 30 with a 29-save performance.

The Minnesota still primarily played with AHL Tucson this season. He backstopped the Roadrunners to a 12-7-2 record in 21 appearances with a .897 SV% and 3.14 GAA. He started two of Tucson’s three games in their first-round loss to Abbotsford, humming with a .935 SV% and 2.61 GAA.

Stauber will be eligible to test standard unrestricted free agency upon expiry.

Lightning’s Brandon Hagel To Miss Game 5

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Lightning top-six winger Brandon Hagel has been ruled out for Wednesday’s Game 5 matchup against the Panthers as he remains in suspected concussion protocol, head coach Jon Cooper said (per the team).

Tampa Bay now faces elimination without its second-leading point getter from the regular season. Even if they manage a win at home to stay alive in the series, there’s no timeline yet for Hagel’s return.

“He’s not playing tomorrow, and you know why,” Cooper said (per the team’s Benjamin Pierce). The reason Cooper’s referring to is a high hit from Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad midway through the second period of last night’s Game 4 loss that earned him a hearing with the Department of Player Safety today. Ekblad will presumably miss Game 5 as well, if not longer, due to his pending suspension.

“There’s that catchy word called adversity, so the script doesn’t always go as planned,” Cooper said (via Pierce). “But I tell the players, let’s be the ones that write our own story.” The Lightning are trying to avoid their third straight first-round exit after making three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals from 2020 to 2022. Last year’s defeat also came at the hands of the eventual champion Panthers in five games.

Hagel, who erupted for a career-high 35 goals and 90 points in the regular season while playing in all 82 games, has only been available for two and a half games of this series. He was suspended for Game 3 after delivering an illegal hit to Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov in Game 2 and was limited to 11 minutes of ice time in Game 4 before the Ekblad hit. He’s been held without a point, only managing three shots on goal and a minus-four rating.

Nick Paul hopped up to Hagel’s spot on Anthony Cirelli’s wing in Game 3 when Hagel was unavailable. It’s unclear if he’ll do so again. Cooper has opted to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen for the majority of the series, with the Hagel and Cirelli duo routinely going without a consistent winger as a result.

Hurricanes’ Frederik Andersen Out For Game 5

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10:33 a.m.: Andersen is confirmed as out tonight but hasn’t been ruled out for the series if New Jersey manages to extend it, head coach Rod Brind’Amour said (via Ruff).

9:49 a.m.: The Hurricanes are unlikely to have starting goaltender Frederik Andersen available for Game 5 of their first-round series against the Devils tonight, per the team’s Walt Ruff. He isn’t practicing today after sustaining an undisclosed injury in Game 4, and Pyotr Kochetkov is in the starter’s crease in his place. The team announced they recalled netminder Spencer Martin from AHL Chicago to serve as Kochetkov’s backup tonight.

Andersen was injured when he collided with Devils forward Timo Meier midway through the second period of Sunday’s Game 4 win to take a 3-1 series lead. Andersen had been spectacular through the first three and a half games of the series, posting a .936 SV% and league-leading 1.59 GAA, including a 34-save performance in Game 3’s double-overtime loss.

Kochetkov, who started the majority of Carolina’s regular-season games with Andersen missing time due to knee surgery, allowed one goal on 15 shots in relief for a .933 SV%. He posted a .897 SV% and 2.60 GAA with a career-high 27 wins in 47 regular-season starts. The 25-year-old has made seven playoff appearances over the last four years, but mostly in relief. Tonight will be his third career playoff start. He’s struggled when called upon in the playoffs thus far in his career, logging a .870 SV% and 3.73 GAA.

Of course, Andersen got them far enough to need just one more win to knock out the Devils and secure a playoff series win for the fifth straight year. Until their current streak, the Hurricanes/Whalers franchise had never recorded a series win in consecutive campaigns.

The team is still waiting to finish Andersen’s evaluation to determine when he’ll be ready to rejoin the lineup. If it’s another long-term injury, he may have played his last game in Carolina. He’s a pending unrestricted free agent after signing a two-year, $6.8MM deal to extend his stay in Raleigh-Durham in 2023.

As for Martin, Carolina’s veteran No. 3 option recorded a 3-4-1 record, .846 SV%, 3.89 GAA, and one shutout in seven starts and two relief appearances earlier this season while Andersen was on the shelf. The brother-in-law of Panthers winger Jonah Gadjovich was quite good in the minors this year, posting a .909 SV% and three shutouts in 31 regular-season contests for the Wolves with a 20-8-2 record.

Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar, Zach Werenski Named Norris Trophy Finalists

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The Canucks’ Quinn Hughes, the Avalanche’s Cale Makar, and the Blue Jackets’ Zach Werenski are the 2024-25 Norris Trophy finalists for the NHL’s top defenseman, per a league announcement.

There are no surprises in this triumvirate. While it’s likely to be a closer race than yesterday’s Vezina Trophy announcement, Makar’s the frontrunner after setting a new career high with 30 goals and 92 points in 80 games. Now a Norris finalist five times in six years to begin his career, the 26-year-old became the first rearguard since Mike Green in 2008-09 to hit the 30-goal mark. He was the first to also eclipse 90 points in the same year since Paul Coffey in 1988-89.

Makar’s defensive impacts also rebounded after a strikingly pedestrian 2023-24 season in his own end. He posted a 56.6 CF% at even strength and a 59.4 xGF%, the latter standing as a career-high over a non-shortened season. He’s finished third in Norris voting the last two years after winning the award in 2022, but he’s almost certainly set to get back into the top two.

If not for an oblique injury taking a bite out of his campaign, Hughes would have more of a chance to win back-to-back Norris Trophies for the first time since Nicklas Lidström’s three-peat from 2006 to 2008. The 5’10” lefty matched the 1.12 points-per-game rate that won him the honors last year and finished the year with 16-60–76 in 68 games, his fourth straight campaign above the 60-assist mark. Hughes’ 25:44 time on ice per game trailed only Werenski among skaters.

As for Werenski, he becomes the first defenseman in Blue Jackets franchise history to earn a Norris nomination. The 27-year-old finished eighth in voting in 2019-20 but hasn’t received any consideration since then. He exploded back onto the scene in 2024-25, driving Columbus’ resurgent seventh-ranked offense with a team-high 82 points in 81 games. His 1.01 points per game were third in the league behind Makar and Hughes, but a higher percentage of his offensive production came at even strength. 35 and 29 of Makar’s and Hughes’ points came with the man advantage, while Werenski had only 25 power-play points and matched Makar’s 54 even-strength points to lead defensemen. Werenski also led defensemen with 298 shots on goal and ranked third in the league overall.

Penguins Re-Sign Filip Hallander To Two-Year Deal

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9:50 a.m.: The Penguins have confirmed Hallander’s two-year contract.

7:56 a.m.: After spurning his qualifying offer in 2023 to return home to Sweden, Filip Hallander has signed a two-year deal with the Penguins beginning next season, according to PuckPedia. It’s a one-way pact for the league minimum of $775K each season for a total value of $1.55MM.

So begins the 24-year-old center’s third stint in the Pittsburgh organization. Selected in the second round (No. 58 overall) of the 2018 draft, Hallander signed his entry-level contract shortly thereafter but spent his two slide years and the first year of the contract on loan to Timrå IK and Luleå HF of the Swedish Hockey League. During that time, he was traded to the Maple Leafs in August 2020 as part of the deal for Kasperi Kapanen. Still, he was reacquired the following summer when Toronto acquired Jared McCann from Pittsburgh, only to lose him to the Kraken in the expansion draft.

After the second trade, Hallander’s overseas loans ended. He played the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons stateside, suiting up mostly for AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton but still seeing a trio of NHL games across the two campaigns. He didn’t record a point or a shot attempt but averaged 8:36 per game, recording three blocks and one hit. He put up a 25-36–61 scoring line in 104 AHL games across two seasons with a plus-four rating, including 33 points in only 43 games in 2022-23.

That was enough for the Penguins to want to keep Hallander, but the feeling wasn’t mutual at the time. Instead of signing a new deal with Pittsburgh upon expiry of his entry-level contract in 2023, he returned to Timrå, where he played his youth hockey, on a five-year commitment with an NHL out-clause. The Penguins still issued him a qualifying offer by the June 30 deadline despite Hallander signing the deal in April, retaining his exclusive NHL signing rights through 2027 as a result.

That decision paid dividends. Hallander was just named the Swedish Forward of the Year after a dominant campaign for Timrå, finishing second in the SHL with 26 goals and 53 points in 51 games. He was one of just two players to exceed the point-per-game mark this season at 1.04, trailing only newly signed Oilers forward David Tomasek’s 1.21.

A one-way deal indicates the Penguins expect Hallander to seriously compete for an opening-night roster spot next fall. If he’s sent to the minors without much assurance of a call-up, though, expect Hallander to pursue a mutual contract termination (of course, if he’s not claimed on waivers and gets an NHL opportunity elsewhere). With only 10 other forwards signed to one-way deals for next year, though, there’s a clear path to a roster spot out of the gate. Hallander, who turns 25 in June, will be an unrestricted free agent when his new deal expires in 2027.

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