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Jets Sign Adam Lowry To Five-Year Contract Extension

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Only a few short months ago, the 2026 UFA class looked like it could be one of the best in NHL history.  But since then, the list has been thinned out quite quickly.  Another player can now be crossed off that list as the team announced that they’ve signed center Adam Lowry to a five-year contract extension.  TSN’s Darren Dreger adds (Twitter link) that the deal will carry a $5MM AAV and be worth $25MM in total.

The two sides were reported to be making progress on an extension earlier this month so it’s not too surprising to see this get across the finish line.

The 32-year-old is in the final season of his five-year, $16.25MM deal signed back in 2021.  He has never been a high-end offensive contributor in his 12-year NHL career (his highest point total is 36) but over the past few years, he has become a reliable two-way player.   The captain has long been a sound defensive player who brought plenty of physicality to the table and that’s a combination that is especially appealing in a team’s bottom six.

Lowry missed the start of the season while recovering from hip surgery but has jumped right back into his usual role since returning.  In seven games, he has a goal and two assists along with 16 hits in 14:22 of playing time.  For his career (spent in its entirety with the Jets who drafted him in the third round back in 2011), Lowry has 122 goals and 154 hits in 782 games.

This deal represents a nice raise from his current $3.25MM AAV while getting a long-term agreement for the second straight contract.  While a $5MM AAV for someone whose production is more in the third-line range, those other elements he brings made it likely that he could have landed a deal at or higher than this price point on the open market.

Meanwhile, the Jets also get some much-needed stability down the middle.  Mark Scheifele is also signed through 2030-31, meaning that Winnipeg has two of their top three centers in place for the long haul.  GM Kevin Cheveldayoff still has some work to do to secure a long-term fit for their second center position (a role filled by Jonathan Toews this year) but that’s a strong foundation down the middle to build off of.

With the signing, the Jets now have around $78.7MM in commitments for the 2026-27 season, per PuckPedia.  That gives them around $25MM in cap room based on the projected $104MM Upper Limit.  Cole Perfetti, a pending restricted free agent with salary arbitration rights, will take up a good chunk of that but the rest of their pending free agents (all unrestricted) are for players more in depth roles.  That could give Cheveldayoff a chance to try to make a splash to add another core piece to his roster, either via trade or free agency this summer.

Murat Ates of The Athletic was the first to report that an extension had been agreed upon.

Photo courtesy of Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images.

Kings Notes: Kempe, Doughty, Copley

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Kings forward Adrian Kempe recently took himself off next summer’s free agent market by signing an eight-year, $85MM contract extension.  Speaking with HockeySverige’s Martin Jansson, he acknowledged he likely left some money on the table considering how quickly the UFA class is drying up.  He also indicated that he lowered his salary request which appears to be what pushed this deal across the finish line.  Kempe is in his tenth NHL season, all spent with Los Angeles.  He’s off to a strong start with 19 points in his first 20 games, a point-per-game pace that would be the second-best of his career.  If that holds over the full season, the beginning of the deal could wind up being team-friendly, though there is some risk in the final few years given that he’ll be in his age-30 season when the contract begins.

More from Los Angeles:

  • While defenseman Drew Doughty’s injury timeline carries a week-to-week designation, it doesn’t appear that he’ll be out too long. GM Ken Holland told reporters including John Hoven of Mayor’s Manor (Twitter link) that the veteran, who has been placed on injured reserve, will miss two to three weeks.  The 35-year-old is dealing with a lower-body injury and had been off to a solid start to his season with eight points in 19 games while logging a team-high 22:33 per night, the only Kings player averaging more than 20 minutes per night.
  • With Doughty on IR, there is a roster spot available but that won’t be the case for long. Holland acknowledged that the Kings will be recalling goaltender Pheonix Copley from AHL Ontario for tomorrow’s game against San Jose.  He isn’t being brought up due to an injury though.  Instead, he’s being promoted to give Darcy Kuemper a full day of rest before he gets the nod on Friday.  Copley has had a tough start to his campaign with the Reign, posting a 3.84 GAA along with a .870 SV% in his first seven appearances.

Seattle Kraken Recall Oscar Fisker Molgaard

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The Seattle Kraken have recalled an intriguing forward prospect one game into their four-game road trip. Seattle announced they’ve recalled Oscar Fisker Molgaard from the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds.

Before the recall, the Kraken had 23 players on their active roster, meaning they’d need to remove at least one body somehow. Seattle will likely place netminder Matt Murray on the injured reserve if they haven’t done so already. The Kraken announced that Murray would miss the next six weeks with a lower-body injury.

Although there’s no guarantee of it, it would be Fisker Molgaard’s NHL debut should he find his way into the Kraken’s lineup throughout the callup. Seattle selected the 20-year-old Dane with the 52nd overall pick of the 2023 NHL Draft, and he’s currently enthralled in his first full season on North American soil.

Before joining AHL Coachella Valley, Fisker Molgaard had spent the last two years with the SHL’s HV71. He performed relatively well, given his age, scoring 14 goals and 40 points in 88 games. Internationally, he was one of the brighter spots on Team Denmark, scoring six goals and 23 points in 32 international contests, including seven points in the IIHF World Championships last summer.

Additionally, his transition to the Firebirds’ roster has gone smoothly. Despite being tied as the youngest player on the team, Fisker Molgaard is tied for third on the team in scoring to begin the 2025-26 campaign with three goals and 10 points in 14 games.

Fortunately, there may be some wiggle room for Fisker Molgaard to find his way into the lineup despite the Kraken having 13 healthy forwards. The trio of Jani Nyman, Berkly Catton, and Tye Kartye have all disappointed to varying degrees through the first month and a half of the 2025-26 season. This means that Fisker Molgaard could easily replace any of them in the lineup, especially if Seattle believes one could use a brief mental reset.

Golden Knights Place Jeremy Lauzon On IR, Reassign Tanner Laczynski

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Nov. 19th: It appears that Laczynski’s recall was largely precautionary. According to a team announcement, the Golden Knights have reassigned Laczynski to AHL Henderson.

Nov. 18th: The Vegas Golden Knights have placed defenseman Jeremy Lauzon on injured reserve with an undisclosed injury, per Danny Webster of the Veags Review Journal. Head coach Bruce Cassidy told Webster that the team doesn’t know how long Lauzon will need to sit out. This move will force him out until at least November 22nd, a full week after he left Vegas’ November 15th game early.

It wasn’t entirely clear when Lauzon sustained his injury, though he did manage to briefly return to the ice after leaving the bench. Now, perhaps out of precaution, Vegas will move him to the sideline through their next two games, at least. Lauzon has had a tough time adjusting to a new role with Vegas. He has four points, a plus-three, and 28 penalty minutes in 17 games this season – while receiving third-pair minutes. Lauzon has stepped up as a bruiser for Vegas. He leads the team with three fights on the year, while no other Golden Knight has recorded more than one. He also leads the Golden Knights in hits (57).

Lauzon may be struggling to keep opponents at bay, but his hard-nosed presence is certainly what Vegas signed up for when they acquired him from the Nashville Predators this summer. He moved to Vegas alongside forward Colton Sissons, in the trade that sent Nicolas Hague and a 2027 third-round pick to Nashville. Lauzon was a historic physical presence for the Predators. He set the franchise record for most hits by a defenseman with 250 in the 2022-23 season, then followed it by breaking the record for all Predators with 383 hits in 2023-24.

Ben Hutton has drawn back into the lineup in Lauzon’s absence. Hutton has three assists, a minus-one, and 13 blocked shots in 11 games this season. He has stepped directly onto Lauzon’s third-pair role alongside Kaedan Korczak.

Meanwhile, Vegas will use Lauzon’s vacant roster spot as a chance to recall center Tanner Laczynski from the minor leagues, per SinBin Vegas. Laczynski ranks second on the Henderson Silver Knights in scoring, with 13 points in as many games. He is one of three Silver Knights scoring at a point-per-game pace. It’s no surprise to see him near the top of Henderson’s leaderboard. Laczynski led the club in scoring last season, with 37 points in 41 games. He was awarded eight games with the NHL club throughout the season as a result, but only managed one goal and six penalty minutes, bringing his career statline up to five points in 46 NHL games.

Laczynski will compete with winger Alexander Holtz for ice time on his recall. Both are operating as Vegas’ extra forwards, while rookie Braeden Bowman enjoys a top-line role next to Ivan Barbashev and Jack Eichel.

Islanders Place Alexander Romanov On IR, Recall Marshall Warren

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The New York Islanders announced that they’ve placed defenseman Alexander Romanov on the injured reserve with an upper-body injury. Additionally, Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News reports that the Islanders have recalled Marshall Warren in a corresponding roster move.

Upper-body injuries are becoming a significant theme for Romanov. The 25-year-old blueliner missed 18 games due to upper-body ailments last season, and has already missed five this year for the same reason. It’s the second time that Romanov has been placed on the IR already in the current campaign.

It’s coming on the heels of a healthy long-term commitment made by the Islanders this past summer. In one of his first moves as New York’s General Manager, Mathieu Darche signed Romanov to an eight-year, $50MM contract, keeping him with the Islanders through the 2032-33 NHL season. If these upper-body injuries continue to plague Romanov, he won’t be available enough to warrant that contract.

Additionally, it’s led to some poor play on the ice when healthy. In the 15 games he’s appeared in this season, Romanov has tallied one assist while averaging 19:27 of ice time per night with a -7 rating. Furthermore, his 42.9% CorsiFor% at even strength and 89.2% on-ice save percentage at even strength are each the lowest marks of his career.

Regardless, Romanov’s injury designation affords another opportunity for Warren. The former sixth-round pick of the Minnesota Wild has already skated in two games for the Islanders this season, registering two assists.

It’ll be interesting to see if New York gives Warren a longer stay in the NHL should he continue his upward development. The main reason he’s earned the recall, as opposed to other options, is from his excellent play with the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders this season. The 24-year-old defenseman has scored two goals and nine points in 10 AHL contests to start the 2025-26 season.

Bruins’ Charlie McAvoy Undergoes Facial Surgery, Out Indefinitely

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As expected, the Boston Bruins will be without their top defenseman for some time. Zach Cavanagh of The Sporting Tribune passed along a note from Bruins head coach Marco Sturm, confirming that blue liner Charlie McAvoy underwent facial surgery.

Cavanagh directly quoted Sturm, saying, “Charlie had a facial surgery. Successfully. So he’s doing good. He’s recovering right now at home, and we still don’t know how long he’s gonna be out for.” There’s no point in speculating on how long McAvoy will be out, though broken jaw surgeries typically have a recovery timeline of six to eight weeks. There’s no confirmation that McAvoy broke his jaw.

McAvoy suffered the injury in Boston’s recent game against the Montreal Canadiens on November 15th. Partway through the second period, Canadiens defenseman Noah Dobson accidentally struck McAvoy in the face with a puck off a slapshot. McAvoy has already missed one game for the Bruins, though the team hasn’t placed him on the injured reserve yet.

It’s a difficult pill to swallow for a Bruins team that had gotten off to an unexpectedly good start to the 2025-26 campaign. At the time of writing, Boston has a 12-9-0 record through their first 21 games, sitting in second place in the Atlantic Division and sixth in the Eastern Conference.

Much of that has to do with McAvoy’s strong play. The former 14th overall pick of the 2016 NHL Draft had skated in 19 games for the Bruins before the injury, registering 14 assists while averaging more than one blocked shot and hit per game. He was averaging the most ice time of any Bruin by a margin of nearly two and a half minutes.

Boston has moved rookie Jonathan Aspirot to McAvoy’s spot on the top defensive unit next to Nikita Zadorov for the time being. Depending on how quickly the Bruins learn of McAvoy’s recovery timeline, it’s unlikely they’ll stick with that defensive pairing if they hope to remain competitive.

Additionally, McAvoy’s recovery could have implications for Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics. An eight-week recovery would put McAvoy’s return around mid-January, a few weeks before the start of the tournament. Again, there’s been no confirmation of that timeline, though it could complicate his involvement. The Long Beach, NY native was one of the first six players named to Team USA’s roster already.

Wild Place Ryan Hartman On IR, Recall Hunter Haight

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3:00 p.m.: According to a team announcement, the Wild have recalled forward Hunter Haight from the AHL’s Iowa Wild. As expected, the team has placed Hartman on the injured reserve due to his recent lower-body injury. Haight has gone scoreless through two games with Minnesota already this season, averaging 9:22 of ice time.

8:27 a.m.: Wild head coach John Hynes told reporters yesterday, including NHL.com’s Jessi Pierce, that center Ryan Hartman is week-to-week due to a lower-body injury. There’s no corresponding transaction yet, but with Hartman and Vladimir Tarasenko both taking up spots on the active roster while injured, the Wild don’t have any healthy extra forwards for tonight’s game against the Hurricanes. Hartman can easily be placed on injured reserve to facilitate a call-up from AHL Iowa if they so choose.

The loss of yet another center option stings for a team already without Marco Rossi and Nico Sturm. Rossi had been playing through a lower-body issue and was shut down late last week with no clear return timeline other than his week-to-week designation. Sturm hasn’t played at all this season due to back problems, but is expected to return to the lineup before the end of the month, Hynes said.

Now in his seventh season in Minnesota, Hartman opened the season as their third-line center between Marcus Foligno and Vinnie Hinostroza. He’s since had some rotating linemates but has largely kept that slot in the lineup aside from a brief first-line promotion to his old job between Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello for the past two games with Rossi out. After taking a significant step back offensively last season, there’s been no rebound early on this year. His four goals and three assists for seven points through 20 games amount to his worst per-game totals since his first season with the Wild in 2019-20.

Depth scoring was already an issue for the Wild. Without Hartman (and Tarasenko for the time being), it’s now a five-alarm fire. Without them, their bottom six is comprised of Foligno, Hinostroza, Ben Jones, Liam Ohgren, Tyler Pitlick, and Yakov Trenin. They’ve combined for just three goals – one from Trenin and two from Hinostroza – all season. Their fourth line of Jones, Ohgren, and Pitlick hasn’t even registered a point through 24 combined appearances.

Even with Sturm’s return on the horizon and Tarasenko’s absence day to day, the Wild’s pursuit of a middle-six forward has to be reaching a fever pitch. While the Wild are generating a respectable 28.6 shots per game, good for 12th in the league, their actual goal output of 2.75 per game is sixth-worst. They’ve begun to clean up their poor defensive start as of late, though, helping them along to a 6-1-1 record in November to help them get back in the playoff picture following a three-win October.

Penguins’ Philip Tomasino Clears Waivers

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Nov. 19: Tomasino went unclaimed on waivers and can now be assigned to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, per Friedman.

Nov. 18: According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Pittsburgh Penguins have placed forward Philip Tomasino on waivers today.

This move could end Tomasino’s tenure in Pittsburgh, just one year removed from when the team traded a 2027 fourth-round pick to the Nashville Predators to acquire him. The Penguins likely viewed Tomasino as a player who could potentially benefit from a change of scenery. The 2019 first-round pick was once viewed as one of the Predators’ top prospects. The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler ranked Tomasino No. 2 in the Predators’ system in 2021, writing at the time that he saw “clear top-six upside” and a player who was a “multi-faceted play-driver” that could still find a way to impact games even without consistent puck touches.

After Tomasino’s rookie season in 2021-22, it looked like Tomasino was still on track to live up to the hype he’d garnered as a prospect. He scored 11 goals and 32 points, providing useful secondary scoring to a Predators team that reached the playoffs. Tomasino would go on to score 38 points across his next 72 NHL games in 2022-23 and 2023-24, but those numbers didn’t tell the whole story.

Tomasino’s propensity for defensive lapses and inability to consistently win puck battles or play through the middle of the ice cost him the trust of Predators head coach Andrew Brunette, who took the team to the playoffs and won 47 games in his first season at the helm in Nashville. Tomasino averaged 15:36 time-on-ice under John Hynes the year prior, but his ice time fell to just 12:34 per game under Brunette.

After Tomasino scored just one point in 11 games to start 2024-25, the Predators traded him to Pittsburgh. Initially, the Penguins’ bet seemed to be paying off, as Tomasino scored three goals and four points in his first five games with the Penguins. The rest of the way, it was a relatively similar story to Tomasino’s time in Nashville. He had decent box score numbers (23 points in 50 games, a 38-point 82-game pace) but a lackluster all-around impact.

While it’s come on an accelerated timeline, Tomasino’s time in Pittsburgh appears to have followed a similar track to his time in Nashville. There were those aforementioned early flashes, followed by passable scoring numbers and a sense that he consistently left fans and coaches wanting more.

So far in his second season in Pittsburgh, Tomasino’s time has gone similarly to his later tenure as a Predator. A coaching change happened, and he’s not nearly as trusted by the new head coach, Dan Muse, as he was under former coach Mike Sullivan. Tomasino’s ice time has again declined to just over 12 minutes per night, and he’s found himself a healthy scratch on some nights, just as he was in Nashville.

Over the last few weeks, there was a growing sense in the media that Tomasino’s days on the Penguins’ NHL roster could be numbered. The Athletic’s Josh Yohe reported on Oct. 27 that the Penguins were “not thrilled with Tomasino’s current play,” and that when he was still in Pittsburgh, Sullivan “believed that Tomasino concerned himself too much with his statistics and the scoresheet and not enough with the finer aspects of the game.” Yohe also wrote that Tomasino had been “painfully invisible” in games so far in 2025-26.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Matt Vensel wrote earlier this month about how Muse had implored Tomasino to find a way to consistently “impact the game” and forge his own identity as a player at the NHL level. Vensel wrote at the time that Tomasino “would presumably be on a short list of players they would consider sending down” in the event that the Penguins needed to clear a roster spot if his play did not improve dramatically, and if he remained unable to impact the game in the kind of way Muse wanted him to.

Based on his placement on waivers today, it appears the Penguins may feel Tomasino is not likely to discover that identity or find a way to consistently impact the game in Pittsburgh. It’s important to note, of course, that Tomasino remains just 24 years old, and despite his struggle to establish himself as an NHLer, remains a player with legitimate offensive talents. While things haven’t worked out in Pittsburgh, there are only so many players going around who possess the ability to dazzle with puck skills and offensive ability. While Tomasino has only been able to show off those talents on an inconsistent basis at the NHL level, it’s possible another club could look to claim Tomasino and see if their coaching staff can unlock the potential Tomasino wasn’t able to realize with his prior two teams.

Photos courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Flames Will Loan Zayne Parekh To Team Canada For World Juniors

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Flames defenseman Zayne Parekh will be on Canada’s roster for the World Junior Championship when it’s announced in December, Eric Francis of Sportsnet reports. First, he’ll need to recover from the upper-body injury that’s kept him out since Nov. 7 and has him listed as week-to-week.

Parekh has already been ruled out through the Flames’ ongoing road trip, Francis writes, but the team is targeting an early December return for their 2024 ninth overall pick. They have a four-game homestand to kick off the month and will look to get him into a couple of those games before letting him join the Canadian national junior team, which commences its camp in Niagara Falls on Dec. 12. He’s also eligible for a conditioning stint with AHL Calgary as a result of his missed time, something Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960 reports is under consideration.

The ultimate deadline for Parekh’s inclusion on the Canadian roster is Dec. 20, though, according to Francis. Even if Parekh can’t get on the ice before then, that would at least leave him enough time to get into a couple of exhibition games in Minneapolis and St. Paul, the host cities of this year’s WJC.

The injury has dotted what’s been a trying adjustment to pro hockey for Parekh. As a result of the 19-year-old being ineligible for a full-time assignment to the AHL, he’s been stuck operating as a No. 6/7 piece on the Flames’ NHL roster and hasn’t gotten extended playing time. He was a healthy scratch on multiple occasions before sustaining his injury. He was only averaging 14:46 of ice time per game when in the lineup, limiting him to one assist through 11 appearances.

Calgary’s only other option was to send him back to junior hockey for the remainder of the season. That was never something the Flames were seriously considering, though. Parekh has won back-to-back OHL defense scoring crowns with the Saginaw Spirit, putting up back-to-back 33-goal seasons from the blue line and logging 107 points in just 61 games last season. But depending on the state of their defense after Parekh returns from the World Juniors, letting him finish the season in Saginaw – where he’ll at least get back to playing top-pairing minutes – might be a better outcome for his readiness heading into training camp next fall.

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