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Central Notes: Boeser, Yamamoto, Grand Casino Arena

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The Winnipeg Jets have reportedly zeroed in on their desired replacement for winger Nikolaj Ehlers, who’s expected to become an unrestricted free agent tomorrow afternoon. According to TSN’s Chris Johnston on his aptly named Chris Johnston Show, the Jets are aggressively pursuing Brock Boeser.

There’s little surprise about the report, given that Boeser is Ehlers’ best comparable entering the free agent frenzy. Over the last three years, Boeser has scored 83 goals and 178 points in 230 games with the Vancouver Canucks, averaging 18:01 of ice time, and 61 of those points coming with a man advantage. During the same time frame, Ehlers scored 61 goals and 162 points in 196 games with Winnipeg, averaging 15:48 minutes per game, including 41 points on the power play.

It’ll be interesting to see how Boeser is deployed should he eventually sign with Winnipeg. The Jets have no reason to move Gabriel Vilardi from the team’s first line, so Boeser may join Cole Perfetti and either Jonathan Toews or Vladislav Namestnikov on the second line. If he’s unable to keep his average ice time consistent, it’ll be challenging to continue the same goal-scoring pace he enjoyed with Vancouver.

Other notes from the Central Division:

  • Earlier today, the Utah Mammoth announced that they had not issued a qualifying offer to winger Kailer Yamamoto. Still, that doesn’t mean they’re uninterested in retaining him, as Craig Morgan of The Sedona Conference reported that the Mammoth and Yamamoto are continuing to work toward a new contract. Despite scoring 20 goals and 56 points in 54 games with their AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners, Yamamoto only appeared in 12 games for Utah this past season, scoring one goal and three points. Having the skill set of a top-six forward, it’s unlikely he’ll find an avenue to that role with the Mammoth moving forward.
  • Although they’ll be playing in the same arena, the Minnesota Wild’s home will operate under a new name. Minnesota Sports & Entertainment announced a 14-year naming rights partnership with Grand Casino Mille Lacs and Grand Casino Hinckley. Starting in the 2025-26 season, the stadium formerly known as the Xcel Energy Center will become the Grand Casino Arena.

Panthers Sign Aaron Ekblad To Max-Term Extension

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6:35 p.m.: Florida has announced Ekblad’s new eight-year contract.

2:15 p.m.: The Panthers and defenseman Aaron Ekblad have made significant progress on a long-term extension to keep him away from the free agent market tomorrow, TSN’s Bob McKenzie reports. It will be an eight-year deal worth around $48.8MM for a cap hit of $6.1MM, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.  PuckPedia reports the deal contains a full no-move clause for the first six years and a 16-team no-trade in the other two and breaks down as follows:

2025-26 to 2027-28: $1MM salary, $6.9MM signing bonus
2028-29: $1MM salary, $5.14MM signing bonus
2029-30 to 2032-33: $1MM salary, $3.74MM signing bonus 

Florida’s commitment to Ekblad, who would have been the top defenseman on the market had he tested free agency, comes after months of hesitancy to dole out a long-term commitment. Now, GM Bill Zito has acquiesced and will give Ekblad the long-term stability he desired with a significant discount on the cap hit he could have landed as a UFA, which McKenzie says could have been as high as $9MM.

The lifelong Panther gets to stay in Florida, who made clear during their run to their second straight Stanley Cup championship that he never wanted to leave. Their 2014 first overall pick set the club’s franchise record for games played and points by a defenseman several years ago, scoring 380 points with a +96 rating in 732 games in a Florida uniform over the past 11 years.

He could very well only end up signing three NHL contracts – his entry-level deal, the eight-year, $60MM extension he signed in 2016, and this one. While no doubt a top-pairing threat now coming in at a significant discount on his previous cap hit of $7.5MM, his injury history was always the holdup in signing him to a long-term deal. The Panthers felt that was a steep enough discount to quell their concerns, while Ekblad was willing to take nearly a 33% cut on his market value to land as much stability as possible.

Although Ekblad hasn’t played a full 82-game schedule since 2018-19 and has only hit the 70-game mark once since then, he did have a mostly healthy 2024-25 campaign that was truncated by a late-season suspension for PEDs. He still finished the season with a 3-30–33 scoring line in 56 games, along with a +11 rating. His 23:31 average time on ice was his most in three years, bolstered by an increase in power-play time in the wake of Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Brandon Montour’s departures in free agency last year, which also played a role in his offensive resurgence. His 0.59 points per game in 2024-25 were the fourth-highest mark of his career.

Ekblad was also spectacular in the postseason, posting 13 points and a +10 rating in 19 games. That was his highest point total in any of Florida’s three straight runs to the Stanley Cup Final.

The 29-year-old will now reprise his role alongside Gustav Forsling for the foreseeable future as one of the best two-way pairs in the league. The duo logged 870 minutes together in the regular season and controlled 54.6% of expected goals while doing so, per MoneyPuck. He also forms one of the best one-two punches among right-shot D in the league with in-season acquisition Seth Jones. The trio of Florida’s top three defensemen is now under contract through 2029-30 (when Jones’ deal expires) at a combined cap hit of just $18.85MM – extremely good value that sets the Panthers up to continue having the flexibility to maintain a championship-contending roster.

Florida now has $4.9MM in cap space remaining with five roster spots to fill, per PuckPedia. That rules out an extension for their other highly notable UFA, winger Brad Marchand, at first glance, but they can get creative. They certainly won’t be able to match high-priced multi-year offers without offloading a salary or two, but could offer Marchand, who’s eligible for a bonus-laden one-year deal because of his age, a low base salary with easily achievable performance bonuses. That would allow them to initially be cap compliant with him, but if those bonuses are achieved and exceed the cap, Florida would be hit with a hefty penalty for 2026-27.

Image courtesy of Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images.

Oilers Sign Evan Bouchard To Four-Year Extension

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6:33 p.m.: The Oilers have announced Bouchard’s new extension.

3:32 p.m.: As first reported by Cam Robinson of EliteProspects and later confirmed by TSN’s Chris Johnston, the Edmonton Oilers are putting the finishing touches on an extension for pending restricted free agent defenseman Evan Bouchard. Once completed, the deal is reportedly a four-year, $42MM extension, with a $10.5MM AAV.

The deal will eat up nearly all of Edmonton’s remaining cap space. Still, it was their most important piece of business to complete this summer, and they’ll now have clarity on their salary cap situation heading into the start of free agency.

According to Frank Seravalli, there were conversations regarding an eight-year agreement, but the price was too high for the Oilers to stomach for the time being. It makes sense given that Edmonton was already fairly tight to the upper limit of the salary cap, and this deal will make Bouchard the fourth-highest defenseman in the league (in terms of AAV) behind Erik Karlsson, Drew Doughty, and Rasmus Dahlin.

Aside from the generational talents playing in front of him, Bouchard has been a focal point of the Oilers reaching back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals, largely due to his offensive capabilities. From 2021 to 2023, Bouchard was a quality top-four blue liner for Edmonton, scoring 20 goals and 83 points in 163 games with a +16 rating while averaging 19:09 of ice time per night. He was even better in the postseason, scoring seven goals and 26 points in 28 games while averaging over 20 minutes a game.

His output over the last two years has completely dwarfed those numbers. Since the start of the 2023-24 campaign, Bouchard has scored an exceptional 32 goals and 149 points in 163 regular-season contests, with 61 of those points coming on Edmonton’s powerplay. Furthermore, in the postseason, he continues to improve, scoring 13 goals and 55 points in 47 games with a +20 rating.

Unfortunately, there are warranted concerns over Bouchard’s play in the defensive zone. Throughout his entire career with the Oilers, Bouchard has received extremely favorable deployment, starting 58.6% of his shifts in the offensive zone. Assuming he’s playing with Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl the majority of the time, the expectation is that Edmonton can control the play enough where they won’t have to rely on Bouchard to be in a shutdown role.

For the most part, he’s never needed to play in that role, but his defensive metrics continue to suffer. This past season, his on-ice save percentage at even strength fell to a career-low of 88.8%, marking a continual decline since the 2021-22 season.

Still, Bouchard has consistently maintained a positive impact on the game, as he has never experienced a season where the Oilers have failed to outscore their opponents at even strength while he is on the ice. This trend continues despite his defensive weaknesses.

At any rate, it’s important to note that Bouchard has averaged more than 23 minutes of ice time over the past two years for the reigning Western Conference champions. Regardless of his shortcomings in the defensive zone, he’s been the top defenseman on a Stanley Cup-caliber team for some time.

Now, with a brand new four-year contract in place, Edmonton will have additional clarity as extension negotiations begin with McDavid in a few weeks. They’ll likely want to keep McDavid on a longer-term deal than they’ve got with Bouchard, but they know the available capital they’ll have in a few years. Unfortunately for Edmonton and potentially McDavid, Bouchard will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2028-29 NHL season.

Photo courtesy of Perry Nelson-Imagn Images.

Senators Re-Sign Nick Cousins

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The Senators will be keeping Nick Cousins in the fold for one more year.  In a deal first reported by Lalime’s Martian on Twitter and subsequently confirmed by Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch (Twitter link), Ottawa has signed Cousins to a one-year, $825K contract.

The 31-year-old had to wait until close to the start of training camp to get a contract last year, ultimately signing a one-year, $800K agreement with the Sens in late August.  Now, he’ll forego testing the open market and will get a small raise for doing so.

Cousins played in 50 games for Ottawa this past season while also missing more than two months with a serious knee injury that had his availability for the playoffs in question but he was able to return late in the season.  In those outings, Cousins collected six goals and nine assists along with 85 hits in a little under 12 minutes a night of playing time.  In their first-round exit to Toronto, he was held off the scoresheet in five appearances.

A veteran of 642 career NHL outings during the regular season over 11 seasons, Cousins has bounced around, seeing time with seven different organizations.  Instead of testing the market to see if he could get a bit more money, he has decided to stay put in a situation that works for both sides.

With the signing, Ottawa now has a little over $7MM in cap space, per PuckPedia.  However, with both GM Steve Staios and owner Michael Andlauer cautioning that the team doesn’t intend to spend to the Upper Limit and a possible $2.75MM in bonuses on the books for Claude Giroux’s new deal, it’s unclear how much of that cap room is spendable at the moment although, at a minimum, they’ll have to add a depth forward or two to the roster in the coming days and weeks.

Senators Sign Leevi Merilainen To One-Year Extension

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The Senators agreed to a one-year, $1.05MM contract extension with goaltender Leevi Merilainen before today’s qualifying offer deadline, the team said.

Although it doesn’t completely shut the door, the new one-way contract for Merilainen likely spells the end of Anton Forsberg’s tenure with the Senators. Still, given Merilainen’s performance in limited action past season, and with Ottawa technically saving some money on the swap, the move could work out well for the Senators.

Merilainen has had respectable seasons in the Finnish Liiga and AHL, but he truly began knocking on the door this past season. Earning the starting nod for the Senators’ AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators, Merilainen finished the campaign with an 18-12-7 record in 37 games, a .913 SV%, 2.37 GAA, and four shutouts. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to backstop the baby Senators to the 2025 Calder Cup playoffs, but that was largely because Merilainen missed a handful of games when he was rostered in the NHL.

He made sure to make a statement in his NHL games, too. Impressively, Merilainen finished the season with an 8-3-1 record with Ottawa, managing a .925 SV% and 1.99 GAA, along with 7.5 Goals Saved Above Average. There is some room for pause, given that only three of those wins were against postseason-bound teams. Still, Merilainen stopped 24 out of 26 shots for a win against the Dallas Stars on January 12th, and took the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Washington Capitals to overtime after holding them scoreless through three periods.

Ottawa will likely give Merilainen every opportunity to win the backup role in training camp. If the Senators are unable to reach a new agreement with Forsberg, it would be wise for the team to consider acquiring a reliable third-string option later in the offseason. This would provide insurance in case Merilainen struggles at the beginning of the season.

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.

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