Maple Leafs Sign Landon Sim To Entry-Level Deal
The Maple Leafs have signed forward Landon Sim to a two-year, entry-level contract that begins next season, per a team announcement. The Nova Scotia native had been with AHL Toronto this season on a minor-league deal.
Sim, 21, was a sixth-round pick by the Blues in 2022, but they opted not to sign him, and he became a free agent two years later. After not being picked up again in the draft and heading back to junior hockey for an overage season with the OHL’s London Knights, he landed a one-year commitment from the Marlies for 2025-26 along with a training camp invite from the Leafs.
The son of former NHL journeyman Jon Sim displayed some offensive upside in juniors – he had a 30-goal season for the Knights en route to their Memorial Cup win in 2025. It’s his physicality and willingness to drop the gloves, despite his 5’11”, 187-lb frame, that have made him an attractive depth candidate in Toronto, though. He only logged three goals in 13 AHL contests this season and added two goals and six points in 18 games for ECHL Cincinnati. Across the two leagues, he racked up 75 penalty minutes in 31 outings.
Sim is a long shot to ever be a regular NHL contributor, but there’s no harm in acquiring his NHL rights with another six years of team control remaining. He won’t be a real candidate for a roster spot in the fall, but could be a call-up option if the Leafs want to dress an enforcer for a game or two. He’ll be a restricted free agent in 2028 and gives Toronto 33 of the maximum 50 standard contracts on the books for next season.
Flyers Recall Oliver Bonk, Four Others
The Flyers will be resting some talent for tonight’s season finale against the Canadiens after locking up a playoff berth with last night’s win. As such, they announced they’ve called up several reinforcements from AHL Lehigh Valley – including 2023 first-round pick Oliver Bonk, who will be making his NHL debut tonight. Joining the hard-nosed defender are forwards Jacob Gaucher and Anthony Richard, defenseman Hunter McDonald and goaltender Aleksei Kolosov.
Philly likely hoped to get Bonk a look earlier in the season. The 22nd overall pick saw some notable offensive regression in his final season of junior hockey last year but otherwise capped up a successful pre-pro career with a second straight showing for Canada at the World Juniors and a Memorial Cup win with the London Knights. However, he sustained an upper-body injury shortly before training camp that ended up keeping him sidelined until Christmas.
He’s spent the months since getting used to the pro speed in the AHL. Early returns suggest Bonk may end up topping out as a higher-end second or third-pairing shutdown threat, not the top-pair complement they hoped he’d be. The 21-year-old righty has managed a 6-13–19 scoring line with a -10 rating through 44 games with Lehigh Valley, which currently sits two points out of the Calder Cup Playoff picture with three games remaining.
Still, he sits as the Flyers’ #3-ranked prospect and the second-highest name that’s currently playing in North America behind only budding star Porter Martone, who has eight points through his first eight games since turning pro out of Michigan State at the end of last month, per Scott Wheeler of Athletic. Still, his assessment is that of a #4-5 man on Philly’s depth chart long-term.
Everyone else joining the team today does so with NHL experience, save for McDonald. Gaucher, an undrafted free agent who’s worked his way up from being an ECHL mainstay just two years ago, is a pending restricted free agent, so tonight’s game could double as a sort of audition for a qualifying offer in June. The 6’3″, 185-lb center has been a 20-goal man in the AHL in back-to-back years now, but doesn’t have a ton of growth left in his game at age 25. Through seven career NHL outings over the last two seasons, he’s gone pointless with a -1 rating while averaging 7:57 of ice time per game.
Richard is also a pending free agent of the unrestricted variety, but it wouldn’t be surprising in the slightest to see the Flyers extend or retain him. The 29-year-old was an efficient call-up option last year, although he’s yet to see NHL time this season. The former Predators fourth-rounder is now with his fourth NHL organization after making one-year stops with the Canadiens and Bruins in 2022-23 and 2023-24, respectively. He’s been good for six goals and 14 points in 39 career NHL games in parts of five seasons. This year, he’s Lehigh Valley’s second-leading scorer with 18 goals and 44 points in 63 games.
McDonald, 23, was rostered for a few games back in January while Rasmus Ristolainen was sidelined but didn’t end up seeing any action. That should change tonight. The 6’4″, 238-lb lefty was a sixth-round pick in 2022 out of the USHL’s Chicago Steel. He proceeded to have a standout freshman season at Northeastern the following year that got him named to Hockey East’s All-Rookie Team while taking home Best Defensive Defenseman honors.
The New York native signed his entry-level contract, which expires this summer, back in 2024. Over parts of three seasons now in Lehigh Valley, he’s been a pure shutdown threat but a strong one. In 144 career outings, he’s amassed four goals and 27 points with 199 penalty minutes and a +22 rating. He’s much closer to being NHL-ready than his point production indicates and could very easily work his way into the conversation for a roster spot next fall.
Kolosov, after years of drama regarding whether he’d accept a consistent AHL assignment, has now firmly entrenched himself as the Flyers’ #3 netminder. Whether the Flyers will tender him a qualifying offer – or whether Kolosov will sign it – this summer is a different story. His numbers aren’t good. He hasn’t posted a save percentage above .900 at any level since arriving in North America in 2024, with a career .863 mark and a 3.64 GAA in 21 career NHL outings with a 5-11-1 record. As Lehigh Valley’s starter this season, he’s amassed a .898 SV%, 2.88 GAA, two shutouts, and a 15-20-2 record in 37 games.
Hurricanes Recall Joel Nystrom, Ronan Seeley
The Hurricanes announced a pair of roster moves this morning. Defensemen Joel Nystrom and Ronan Seeley have been summoned from AHL Chicago, likely to permit the Canes to rest some more blue-liners for tonight’s regular-season finale against the Islanders. Carolina has made a common practice of resting regulars after locking up the Metropolitan Division and then Eastern Conference regular-season title, sitting a group that included Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis, and Jaccob Slavin last night.
Nystrom, 23, has been quite the quick riser after Carolina selected him with the sixth-last pick of the 2021 draft. The 5’11” righty did get his entry-level contract in 2024 on the heels of a breakout year for Färjestad BK in Sweden but was loaned back to them for 2024-25, not making his AHL debut until late last year. But when injuries decimated Carolina’s blue line to begin the season, Nystrom was one of the first names up. He ended up skating in 37 games for the Canes, logging a goal and eight assists with a +5 rating, while averaging 15:10 per night.
His smooth offensive game fit in well with Carolina’s possession-heavy system. Despite the limited role and minimal North American track record, the Canes saw enough to ink him to a four-year extension in December that pays him $1.225MM per season. It’s clear they expect him to hang around as a #7/8 option next year. His waiver-exempt status meant he got demoted back to Chicago once Carolina got healthy in late January, but he’ll get a spot-duty bump now to get one more game in for the year, barring any playoff action.
The Canes would have preferred a bit more offensive output from Nystrom after returning to the minors. He stands with an identical 1-8–9 scoring line to his NHL stats, but in two fewer games. He does have four points in his last 10 outings for Chicago, though, so he’s on the right track.
As for Seeley, he would be in line for his NHL debut. The 23-year-old lefty was also a seventh-rounder, just a year before Nystrom. Now in his fourth professional season, all in the Canes’ system with either Chicago or ECHL Norfolk, he’s put up a career-best 10 goals in 67 games while adding 12 assists for 22 points. His physical game hasn’t really translated to positive defensive results in the AHL – he’s a career -62 player in 264 games – but he’ll get rewarded here for being an available fixture on the farm since making his pro debut back in 2022.
Blues Reassign Theo Lindstein, Otto Stenberg
The Blues reassigned defenseman Theo Lindstein and forward Otto Stenberg to AHL Springfield on Tuesday, per a team release. Both youngsters had been up for the last several weeks to aid in St. Louis’ playoff push, but after the Ducks and Kings locked up the final Western Conference playoff berths last night, they’ll be returned to Springfield to aid in another push for a berth. With three games remaining in the regular season, Springfield has a two-point lead over Lehigh Valley for the cutoff line in the AHL’s Atlantic Division.
With only two games remaining on the Blues’ regular-season schedule, Lindstein and Stenberg won’t be missing much. The 2023 first-rounders were selected just four spots apart at 29th and 25th overall, respectively, and their paths have largely been congruent. Both Swedes made their initial NHL arrivals this season.
Lindstein didn’t get as long a leash as his more offensively inclined counterpart. While Stenberg saw a few call-ups throughout the year, Lindstein didn’t get his first and only one until shortly after the trade deadline. Since his summons on March 9, though, he’s played in 17 straight for the Blues and hasn’t looked out of place. The left-shot puck-mover recorded a pair of goals and assists for four points along with a +6 rating while averaging 15:46 per game. Riding shotgun with Colton Parayko on the second pairing, there were legitimately strong possession impacts underlying those stats. Lindstein’s 52.5% Corsi share and 54.9% shot share at 5-on-5 are both the best marks of any Blues defenseman this season.
His minor-league stat line isn’t nearly as impressive. The Blues’ development plan for the 6’0″, 197-lb Lindstein likely meant they were going to give him an NHL look at some point this year, no matter what, but he was limited to 16 points and a team-worst -24 rating in 56 games with Springfield before his recall. Given that, they’ll be watching what Lindstein does closely down the stretch. If nothing else, the excellent chemistry he showed with Parayko over the last month should give him the inside track toward a roster spot in training camp, assuming the Blues continue a slower-paced retool and don’t load up on defenders in free agency.
Stenberg will almost certainly be with the Blues next October, though. A cerebral two-way piece not unlike his blue line counterpart, he’s a natural center but has skated mostly on the wing thus far in his NHL minutes. That hasn’t stopped him from producing three goals and seven assists for 10 points through his first 32 games, tacking on a +3 rating and 49 hits while averaging 13:37 of ice time per night.
Stenberg has seen some fringe penalty kill usage, just north of a minute per game, in which he grades out well. The 20-year-old needs to shoot more – he averaged a tick under one shot on goal per game – to boost his point totals. His all-around numbers, though, indicate a player well on track to hit his floor of being a responsible bottom-six piece. The Blues controlled 46.8% of shot attempts with him on the ice at 5-on-5. That’s a respectable figure considering he only started 42% of his shifts in the offensive zone.
Islanders Assign Semyon Varlamov On LTIR Conditioning Stint
The Islanders announced Tuesday that they’ve sent goaltender Semyon Varlamov to AHL Bridgeport on a long-term injury conditioning loan. If he dresses, it will be his first appearance of any kind in well over a year.
Varlamov’s last NHL appearance came on Nov. 29, 2024, in an overtime loss to the Capitals. A few days later, he was listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. That quickly spiraled into full-on knee replacement surgery within a few weeks, preventing him from returning to the crease for game action despite multiple attempts to return to practice that have been stopped and restarted. Even over last offseason, the team was insistent he’d be ready for training camp until he wasn’t. They were largely quiet on Varlamov’s status throughout the season until general manager Mathieu Darche eventually ruled him out for the season after the trade deadline.
With so much missed time and now two knee replacement surgeries in the last two years, most had begun to assume Varlamov’s NHL career was over. That may still be the case for the 2014 Vezina Trophy finalist, but it appears he’ll be getting at least one regular-season start in Bridgeport in order to gauge how he feels heading into the final season of his contract in 2026-27, carrying a $2.75MM cap hit.
There is a universe in which the 37-year-old, if he’s finally cleared the necessary hurdles in his recovery, can return to being Ilya Sorokin‘s backup next season. That duo has defined the Islanders’ crease for the better part of the decade, with Varlamov initially landing on Long Island in free agency back in 2019 and Sorokin arriving from Russia less than two years later. Varlamov had been a legitimately exceptional tandem/backup option for New York up until his 10-game run to begin the 2024-25 campaign, posting a .889 SV% and 2.89 GAA with a 3-4-3 record before going under the knife.
Of Varlamov’s 17 NHL seasons, six have been spent on Long Island. Arguably one of the more successful open-market pickups in franchise history, he never started more than 40 games in a season but has amassed a .916 SV%, 2.57 GAA, 16 shutouts, and a 76-63-21 record in 173 appearances in blue and orange. He was the team’s primary option between the pipes in their back-to-back runs to the Eastern Conference Final in 2021 before Sorokin assumed true #1 duties the following season.
Varlamov was a first-round pick by the Capitals, 23rd overall, way back in 2006. His last minor-league action coincided with his final season in Washington, suiting up a few times for the Hershey Bears in November 2010 on a conditioning stint following a groin injury. That nearly 16-year gap will be up there with the longest in AHL history, but still won’t sniff Claude Lemieux‘s two-plus-decade space between games.
Islanders Recall Victor Eklund, Liam Foudy
April 14: The Islanders announced Tuesday that they’ve recalled both Eklund and forward Liam Foudy from Bridgeport. If Foudy plays, it’ll be his first contest since making his Isles debut back in October 2024. The former Blue Jackets first-rounder is now 26 years old and is amid a career year in Bridgeport, where he’s amassed a 25-21–46 scoring line in 58 games for the playoff-bound Baby Isles.
He’s a pending restricted free agent, so today’s bump could indicate they intend to issue him a qualifying offer. They didn’t let him get to restricted free agency last summer, signing him to a two-way extension on June 29. He was initially signed in the 2024 offseason after a non-tender by the Predators, who had claimed him off waivers from Columbus the prior season.
April 13: The New York Islanders are expected to recall top prospect and 2025 draft pick Victor Eklund from the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders, per NHL.com’s Stefen Rosner. Eklund, the younger brother of San Jose Sharks forward William Eklund, made his AHL debut on March 27 following the end of Djugården’s season in Sweden’s SHL. He has been red-hot ever since, scoring seven assists and nine points in his first seven AHL games.
On the heels of that strong start, Eklund could make his NHL debut in the Islanders’ season finale on Tuesday. New head coach Peter DeBoer spoke about his hopes of incorporating future impact into the lineup for the Islanders’ final game, after the team was eliminated from playoff contention. Eklund will certainly be a part of that group after being drafted by the Islanders with the 16th overall pick last year.
Eklund has a long history of success at the pro level. He scored 19 goals and 31 points in 42 games in the HockeyAllsvenskan, Sweden’s second-tier pro league, as a rookie in 2024-25. He formed a formidable tandem with Chicago Blackhawks prospect Anton Frondell, enough to earn Djurgården a promotion to the SHL in 2025.
The duo stayed hot – Eklund by scoring 24 points in 43 SHL games – to help Djurgården avoid relegation this season. Now, the aggressive forechecker and strong shooter could test his talents in the Islanders’ lineup. His debut may come at the expense of one of the Islanders’ short-term forwards, like Ondrej Palat or Marc Gatcomb. Eklund enters the NHL already boasting a World Juniors gold medal and HockeyAllsvenskan championship.
Mammoth Reassign Matt Villalta
4/13/26: The Mammoth reassigned Villalta back to Tucson today. He backed up Vanecek yesterday during the Mammoth’s 4-1 loss to the Calgary Flames.
4/12/26: The Utah Mammoth recalled forward Kevin Rooney and goaltender Matt Villalta from the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners before last night’s game against the Calgary Flames. Villalta stepped into Utah’s backup role behind Vitek Vanecek with the usual starter, Karel Vejmelka, out with an undisclosed injury. Vejmelka’s injury isn’t expected to be serious, and his absence could be for a night of rest, per Brogan Houston of Desert News Sports. He saved 26 of 30 shots faced in Saturday night’s loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Both Rooney and Villalta were held off the ice in Sunday night’s game. The duo has each carved out productive roles in the minor leagues. Rooney has scored 24 points, split evenly, in 44 games with Tucson to go with one goal in one game with Utah this season. That is the most scoring he has managed in a single campaign since the 2017-18 season, when he scored 34 points in 71 AHL games. Villalta has split starts with Jaxson Stauber for much of the year. He has 16 wins and a .895 save percentage in 33 games, narrowly more wins and a higher save percentage than Stauber (14 wins, .886 Sv%) despite playing two fewer games.
Rooney and Villalta could be options to stick on the NHL roster with two games left in the Mammoth season. Their presence could allow Utah to rest some routine lineup players before the club takes on the franchise’s first appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Vejmelka will have the starting role locked in when the postseason rolls around, after he notched 37 wins and a .898 Sv% in 62 games this season. Vejmelka has appeared in the most games of any Mammoth – or Arizona Coyotes – goaltender since 2015, when Mike Smith also played 62 games.
Blue Jackets Sign Boston Buckberger
The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed two-time NCAA national champion defenseman Boston Buckberger to a two-year, entry-level contract. The deal will start next season. He attended development camp with the Blue Jackets in 2025.
In the official team announcement, president of hockey operations and GM Don Waddell said of Buckberger:
Boston Buckberger is a smart, skilled defenseman who can play in all situations and has a championship pedigree. He was among the top scoring defensemen in college hockey this year and a big part of Denver’s championship team. We are very excited that he is now part of the Blue Jackets organization.
As Waddell mentioned, Buckberger made a name for himself on a national stage at Denver. He was an instant-impact defenseman for head coach David Carle, scoring 27 points in 44 games. He was able to build on that strong freshman campaign the following year, potting nine goals and 30 points in 41 contests. This season, he scored 10 goals and 28 points in 42 games.
While Buckberger has never been the Pioneers’ top offensive option from the blueline (Zeev Buium held that honor the first two seasons, and Eric Pohlkamp this year) he has nonetheless been able to consistently deliver value in whatever role he played. We named him as a player to watch in this year’s NCAA free agency class earlier this month, noting that “there might not be big upside” in Buckberger “returning for his senior season.”
That’s something Buckberger appears to have agreed with, as he elected to sign his entry-level deal and forgo returning to the Pioneers.
Columbus does have a track record to point to when it comes to developing top NCAA blueliners. They signed then-University of Michigan captain Nick Blankenburg in 2022, and he quickly became an NHLer for the Blue Jackets. He also impressed with the Nashville Predators and was a trade deadline addition of the Colorado Avalanche.
While Buckberger isn’t an exact one-to-one stylistic comparable for Blankenburg (he’s a bit bigger, for example), he’ll nonetheless likely hope to have an early career that resembles how Blankenburg’s has gone.
Kraken’s Jared McCann To Miss Rest Of Season
The Seattle Kraken announced today that forward Jared McCann will miss the final three games in the team’s 2025-26 season due to a lower-body injury.
The 29-year-old has been limited to just 52 games played this season as the result of injury. He dealt with a lower-body injury early in the season, one that landed him on IR. He left a game in December with a lower-body injury, one that put him out of commission on a week-to-week basis. He also missed three games in March as the result of a lower-body injury.
It’s unclear at this time whether those lower-body injuries are connected, and since nothing has been confirmed, all one can do is speculate. But the persistence of McCann’s lower-body injuries this season lends credence to the idea that this may be something he has had to manage over the course of the 2025-26 campaign.
Despite the nagging injury trouble, McCann was his usual self when healthy. He was Seattle’s most productive scorer on a points-per-game basis, scoring 20 goals and 40 points in 52 contests.
That’s a 63-point 82-game scoring pace, a total that would have cleared the team’s current team scoring leader, captain Jordan Eberle, by eight points.
This is the first year in Kraken franchise history that McCann has not finished the season as the team’s leading scorer.
With Seattle eliminated from playoff contention, the move to shut him down for the rest of the season won’t have any major on-ice implications. Missing McCann will make it more difficult for the Kraken to collect points in the final three games of the season, a factor that could improve their draft lottery odds. The team sits at 79 points as of writing, good for 27th in league standings.
The Kraken could conceivably drop as low as 30th in the standings, giving them the third-best odds in the draft lottery, though that would take very favorable out-of-town results. A far more realistic possibility is Seattle drops below the Toronto Maple Leafs (78 points) for the No. 5 slot in the lottery. That would be particularly relevant for the Maple Leafs, as their first-round pick for 2026 is owned by the Boston Bruins unless it falls within the top five selections in the draft.
In any case, that’s unlikely to be McCann’s focus. What’s more important to him is next season for the Kraken, who will be under considerable pressure to return to the postseason after three straight playoff misses. McCann is also entering the final season of his $5MM AAV contract, and could line himself up for a big new contract with another consistent, productive campaign.
Photos courtesy of Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
Lightning To Use EBUG With Jonas Johansson Out
The Tampa Bay Lightning took the ice without backup goaltender Jonas Johansson in Monday night’s game against the Detroit Red Wings. Johansson is out day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. In his place, the Lightning will roster emergency backup goaltender Kyle Konin. This is Konin’s third time serving on an NHL bench as an EBUG. He filled in for the St. Louis Blues in 2021 and for the Philadelphia Flyers in 2024.
Konin has been the Tampa Bay-area EBUG since the 2020-21 season. He even wore a mask honoring Tampa Bay Lightning founder Phil Esposito in his 2024 game with the Flyers per Forbes’ Tom Layberger. Konin last took the ice with Grand Valley State University in Division III ACHA club hockey. He played one season in the NA3HL in 2017-18 and recorded a .897 save percentage in 34 games. Konin also played one game of high school hockey with Kimball Union Academy in 2016-17 with teammate and eventual Boston Bruins defenseman Jordan Harris.
While Konin will get to donn the Lightning jersey for the first time, Tampa Bay will hope he isn’t needed behind star starter Andrei Vasilevskiy. The Lightning have two games left in their season, including Monday’s matchup. Johansson’s short-term designation should have him back in the lineup before the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He has recorded 11 wins and a .884 save percentage in 25 games this season and should stick behind Vasilevskiy through the postseason.